Xil To Children.

 

dragon, twisting its forked tail into a line with
his royal highness’s eye.

“Do take that thing away,” said the*prince,
‘‘and let a man have his nap peacefully.’

‘Kiss me!” cried the dragon, which had
already devoured many gallant knights for
declining to kiss it.

“Give you a kiss,” murmured the prince;
“oh, certainly, if that’s all! Anything for a
quiet life.”

So saying, he kissed the dragon, which
instantly became a most beautiful princess ;
for she had lain enchanted as a dragon, by a
wicked magician, till somebody should be bold
enough to kiss her.

‘My love! my hero! my lord! how long
I have waited for thee ; and now I am eternally
thine own!”

So murmured, in the most affectionate
accents, the Lady Dragonissa, as she was now
called.