My Father's Dragon

faup - Ruth Stiles Gannett

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of My Father's Dragon, by Ruth Stiles Gannett
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Title: My Father's Dragon
Author: Ruth Stiles Gannett
Illustrator: Ruth Chrisman Gannett
Release Date: September 18, 2009 [EBook #30017]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY FATHER'S DRAGON ***
Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Transcriber's Note:
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this
publication was renewed.

MY FATHER'S DRAGON

STORY BYRUTH STILES GANNETT
ILLUSTRATIONS BYRUTH CHRISMAN GANNETT

RANDOM HOUSE . NEW YORK

COPYRIGHT 1948 BY RANDOM HOUSE, INC.
For MyFATHERCONTENTS
1. My Father Meets the Cat 9
2. My Father Runs Away 15
3. My Father Finds the Island 22
4. My Father Finds the River 31
5. My Father Meets Some Tigers 39
6. My Father Meets A Rhinoceros 48
7. My Father Meets A Lion 56
8. My Father Meets A Gorilla 63
9. My Father Makes A Bridge 73
10. My Father Finds the Dragon 79Chapter OneMY FATHER MEETS THE CAT
One cold rainy day when my father was a little boy, he met an old alley cat on his street. The cat was very drippy and
uncomfortable so my father said, ...

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Publié par	faup
Publié le	08 décembre 2010
Nombre de lectures	38
Langue	English

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Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.netTranscriber's Note:tEhxet eUn.sSiv. ec orepsyreiagrhct ho dni dt hniso tp uunblcicoavteior na nwya se vriedneenwcee dt.hat MY FATHER'S DRAGON STORY BYRUTH STILES GANNETTILLUSTRATIONS BYRUTH CHRISMAN GANNETT

RANDOM HOUSE . NEW YORK COPYRIGHT 1948 BY RANDOM HOUSE, INC.For MyFATHERCONTENTS1. My Father Meets the Cat92. My Father Runs Away153. My Father Finds the Island224. My Father Finds the River315. My Father Meets Some Tigers396. My Father Meets A Rhinoceros487. My Father Meets A Lion568. My Father Meets A Gorilla639. My Father Makes A Bridge7310. My Father Finds the Dragon79Chapter OneMY FATHER MEETS THE CAT

Omnete acno lodl dr aailnley yd caayt wohn ehni s msyt rfeaetth. eTr hwea cs aat lwittalse vbeoryy, hedrippy and uncomfortable so my father said, "Wouldn'tyou like to come home with me?"This surprised the cat—she had never before met"aI'ndy obne ev ewrhyo mcuarceh d oablbigoeutd oifl dI caloleulyd csaitt sb—y bau tw sarhem said,furnace, and perhaps have a saucer of milk.""We have a very nice furnace to sit by," said myfather, "and I'm sure my mother has an extra saucerof milk."My father and the cat became good friends but myfather's mother was very upset about the cat. Shehated cats, particularly ugly old alley cats. "ElmerElevator," she said to my father, "if you think I'm goingto give that cat a saucer of milk, you're very wrong.Once you start feeding stray alley cats you might aswell expect to feed every stray in town, and I am notgoing to do it!"This made my father very sad, and he apologized tothe cat because his mother had been so rude. He toldthe cat to stay anyway, and that somehow he wouldbring her a saucer of milk each day. My father fed thecat for three weeks, but one day his mother found thecat's saucer in the cellar and she was extremelyangry. She whipped my father and threw the cat outthe door, but later on my father sneaked out andfound the cat. Together they went for a walk in thepark and tried to think of nice things to talk about. Myfather said, "When I grow up I'm going to have an

airplane. Wouldn't it be wonderful to fly just anywhereyou might think of!""Would you like to fly very, very much?" asked the cat."I certainly would. I'd do anything if I could fly.""Well," said the cat, "If you'd really like to fly thatmuch, I think I know of a sort of a way you might getto fly while you're still a little boy.""You mean you know where I could get an airplane?""Well, not exactly an airplane, but something evenbetter. As you can see, I'm an old cat now, but in myyounger days I was quite a traveler. My traveling daysare over but last spring I took just one more trip andsailed to the Island of Tangerina, stopping at the portof Cranberry. Well, it just so happened that I missedthe boat, and while waiting for the next I thought I'dlook around a bit. I was particularly interested in aplace called Wild Island, which we had passed on ourway to Tangerina. Wild Island and Tangerina arejoined together by a long string of rocks, but peoplenever go to Wild Island because it's mostly jungle andinhabited by very wild animals. So, I decided to goacross the rocks and explore it for myself. It certainlyis an interesting place, but I saw something there thatmade me want to weep."Chapter TwoMY FATHER RUNS AWAY

"Wild Island is practically cut in two by a very wide andmuddy river," continued the cat. "This river beginsnear one end of the island and flows into the ocean atthe other. Now the animals there are very lazy, andthey used to hate having to go all the way around thebeginning of this river to get to the other side of theisland. It made visiting inconvenient and mail deliveriesslow, particularly during the Christmas rush.Crocodiles could have carried passengers and mailacross the river, but crocodiles are very moody, andnot the least bit dependable, and are always lookingfor something to eat. They don't care if the animalshave to walk around the river, so that's just what theanimals did for many years.""But what does all this have to do with airplanes?"asked my father, who thought the cat was taking anawfully long time to explain."Be patient, Elmer," said the cat, and she went on withthe story. "One day about four months before I arrivedon Wild Island a baby dragon fell from a low-flyingcloud onto the bank of the river. He was too young tofly very well, and besides, he had bruised one wingquite badly, so he couldn't get back to his cloud. Theanimals found him soon afterwards and everybodysaid, 'Why, this is just exactly what we've needed allthese years!' They tied a big rope around his neck andwaited for the wing to get well. This was going to endall their crossing-the-river troubles.""I've never seen a dragon," said my father. "Did yousee him? How big is he?"

"Oh, yes, indeed I saw the dragon. In fact, we becamegreat friends," said the cat. "I used to hide in thebushes and talk to him when nobody was around. He'snot a very big dragon, about the size of a large blackbear, although I imagine he's grown quite a bit since Ileft. He's got a long tail and yellow and blue stripes.His horn and eyes and the bottoms of his feet arebright red, and he has gold-colored wings.""aOnihm, ahlos wd ow ownitdh ehrfiuml! "w shaeind hmisy fwaitnhg egr.o t" Wwhelalt? "did the"They started training him to carry passengers, andeven though he is just a baby dragon, they work himall day and all night too sometimes. They make himcarry loads that are much too heavy, and if hecomplains, they twist his wings and beat him. He'salways tied to a stake on a rope just long enough to goacross the river. His only friends are the crocodiles,who say 'Hello' to him once a week if they don't forget.Really, he's the most miserable animal I've ever comeacross. When I left I promised I'd try to help himsomeday, although I couldn't see how. The ropearound his neck is about the biggest, toughest ropeyou can imagine, with so many knots it would takedays to untie them all."Anyway, when you were talking about airplanes, yougave me a good idea. Now, I'm quite sure that if youwere able to rescue the dragon, which wouldn't be theleast bit easy, he'd let you ride him most anywhere,provided you were nice to him, of course. How abouttrying it?"

"atO hhi,s I 'dm loothvee rt foo,"r sbaeiidn gm ryu fdaet htoe rt, hae ncda th te hwata sh es od iadnn'gtryfeel the least bit sad about running away from homefor a while.That very afternoon my father and the cat went downto the docks to see about ships going to the Island ofTangerina. They found out that a ship would be sailingthe next week, so right away they started planning forthe rescue of the dragon. The cat was a great help insuggesting things for my father to take with him, andshe told him everything she knew about Wild Island.Of course, she was too old to go along.Everything had to be kept very secret, so when theyfound or bought anything to take on the trip they hid itbehind a rock in the park. The night before my fathersailed he borrowed his father's knapsack and he andthe cat packed everything very carefully. He tookchewing gum, two dozen pink lollipops, a package ofrubber bands, black rubber boots, a compass, a toothbrush and a tube of tooth paste, six magnifyingglasses, a very sharp jackknife, a comb and ahairbrush, seven hair ribbons of different colors, anempty grain bag with a label saying "Cranberry," someclean clothes, and enough food to last my father whilehe was on the ship. He couldn't live on mice, so hetook twenty-five peanut butter and jelly sandwichesand six apples, because that's all the apples he couldfind in the pantry.When everything was packed my father and the catwent down to the docks to the ship. A night watchmanwas on duty, so while the cat made loud queer noises

to distract his attention, my father ran over theagnadn gh-ipdl aanmk oonngt os tohme es bhiapg. s Hoef wwehnet atd.o Twhne i nsthoi pt hsea ilheodldearly the next morning.Chapter ThreeMY FATHER FINDS THE ISLANDMy father hid in the hold for six days and nights. Twicehe was nearly caught when the ship stopped to takeon more cargo. But at last he heard a sailor say thatthe next port would be Cranberry and that they'd beunloading the wheat there. My father knew that thesailors would send him home if they caught him, so helooked in his knapsack and took out a rubber bandand the empty grain bag with the label saying"Cranberry." At the last moment my father got insidethe bag, knapsack and all, folded the top of the baginside, and put the rubber band around the top. Hedidn't look just exactly like the other bags but it wasthe best he could do.Soon the sailors came to unload. They lowered a bignet into the hold and began moving the bags of wheat.Suddenly one sailor yelled, "Great Scott! This is thequeerest bag of wheat I've ever seen! It's all lumpy-like, but the label says it's to go to Cranberry."Twhheo owtahse ri ns tahileo rbs alog,o kofe dc oaut rtshee, tbraiegd t oeov,e na nhda rmdye rf tatoher,lboaogk alinked ah eb jaugs to fh awphpeeant.e dT htoe ng eatn ohtohlde r osf amiloyr ffaetlht etrh'es

elbow. "I know what this is," he said. "This is a bag ofdried corn on the cob," and he dumped my father intothe big net along with the bags of wheat.This all happened in the late afternoon, so late that themerchant in Cranberry who had ordered the wheatdidn't count his bags until the next morning. (He was avery punctual man, and never late for dinner.) Thesailors told the captain, and the captain wrote down ona piece of paper, that they had delivered one hundredand sixty bags of wheat and one bag of dried corn onthe cob. They left the piece of paper for the merchantand sailed away that evening.My father heard later that the merchant spent thewhole next day counting and recounting the bags andfeeling each one trying to find the bag of dried corn onthe cob. He never found it because as soon as it wasdark my father climbed out of the bag, folded it up andput it back in his knapsack. He walked along the shoreto a nice sandy place and lay down to sleep.My father was very hungry when he woke up the nextmorning. Just as he was looking to see if he hadanything left to eat, something hit him on the head. Itwas a tangerine. He had been sleeping right under atree full of big, fat tangerines. And then heremembered that this was the Island of Tangerina.Tangerine trees grew wild everywhere. My fatherpicked as many as he had room for, which was thirty-one, and started off to find Wild Island.lHoeo kiwnagl kfeodr tahned rowcalkkse tdh aatn jdo inwealdk tehd e atlowno gi stlhaen dssh.o rHee,