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Poo Poo and the Dragons
by C.S. Forester
Once there was a boy called Poo-Poo. His other names were Harold Heavyside Brown, and it might be just as well to remember them. On Saturday morning Poo-Poo (what were his other names?) was wondering what to do, because all his friends were doing something else. First he tried to play inside the house, but his mother (her name was Mrs. Brown) turned him out because she wanted to do the cleaning. Then he went to play at the back of the house, but his father (and his name was Mr. Brown and he was a very clever man) sent him away because, as he said, he did not feel like answering questions that morning, and then Poo-Poo (what were his other names?) found himself in the front of the house and wondering harder than ever what he should do. Just in front of him there was a fuchsia bush growning under the window, and Harold helped the fuchsia bush a lot by popping all its buds open for it. When he had finished that he went on wondering what he could do, and so he wandered up inside one of the fuchsia flowers.
He walked a long way along the dark passage until he came out on to a vacant piece of land which had a dragon on it. He was a nice dragon, quite a fair size as dragons go, something between a duck and a motor bus, and he was running about in the long grass and swishing his tail and he looked rather like a dachshund who has been taking lessons from a polliwog, and he was not quite as brilliant as dragons sometimes are because he was only black and blue and purple and white and green and red and yellow and orange and violet and magenta with spots of other colors here and there.
The dragon was very pleased to see Poo-Poo (what were his other names?), and he came galloping up to him through the long grass and he skipped about and he swished his long tail and he shot out his long tongue, which would have looked like an eel if it had not looked like a slice of bacon, and he licked Poo-Poo's hand and then he galloped away and he came back and licked Poo-Poo's legs so that they tickled and he ran round in circles and he was a very friendly dragon indeed. So Poo-Poo patted him behind the ears and tried to stroke his back and found it was too spiky and he went on across the field with the dragon galloping round him. And at the far side of the field there was a little wooden building with a sign over it and on the sign were the words: Maxwell Murray McIntosh, Chimney Pots Constructed. And inside the building there was a man sitting in a chair making belts out of umbrella handles.
Now Poo-Poo (don't forget what his other name was) was a very polite boy, so he went up to the man and said: "Excuse me."
And the man said, "Yes, I excuse you."
And Poo-Poo said, "Excuse me, Mr. Mclntosh, but is this your dragon?"
And Mr. Mclntosh said, "Now do I look like a man who has a dragon?"
And Poo-Poo said, "I've never seen anyone who did have a dragon."
"That's a very extraordinary thing," said Mr. Mclntosh. "You can't have traveled very far."
"I think I'm going to, one of these days," said Poo-Poo.
"Well, I shan't stop you," said Mr. McIntosh. (Can you remember what Mr. McIntosh's first names were?)
"I should like to know the way home if you please," said Poo-Poo (remember he was always a very polite boy).
"Some think it's one way and some think it's the other," said Mr. McIntosh. "But the one thing to be sure of is that whichever way you go you'll think the other way was the right way. But go whichever way you like and you'll find that you'll come to another place."
"Thank you," said Poo-Poo, still being very polite and rubbing his leg where the dragon had licked it impatiently. "I'll try to remember that. Good morning." And Poo-Poo went on across the field with the dragon skipping and galumphing, clippety-clop, round and round him.
And they came to a tremendous big ladder, and Poo-Poo started to climb it, and he had only got a little way up when the dragon came up the ladder with a tremendous rush after him and climbed straight onto Poo-Poo's shoulder, and then went on up the ladder in front of him. Have you ever seen a dragon running up a ladder? It is one of the most surprising things you could see anywhere. He went up jumping, with all four feet at once, about six rungs at a time; and at every jump he made the ladder spring in and out and all the spines on his back went "rattle-rattle", and on the end of his tail there was a spike like a big arrowhead which shook in Poo-Poo's face every time the dragon made a jump, so that Poo-Poo had to hold on very tight to the ladder and shout up to the dragon,
"Take your silly old tail out of my face and don't jump so much!"
Poo-Poo only had to say it once, and then the dragon coiled up his tail in a neat roll and walked up the ladder the way respectable dragons walk up a ladder, with Poo-Poo climbing up behind him and needing to puff a little bit as the ladder went on and on and on.
When they got to the top there was the end of a big iron pipe sticking out of the ground with a waterfall running into it. And the dragon drew his head in and made his neck very short and held his legs up close to his body and put his tail down underneath him and all the way along to the front so that he could hold the spike in his mouth, and when he had made himself look as much like a length of pole as any dragon can look, he tucked the front end of himself into the pipe and the water pushed him on and Poo-Poo came on after him. So they went swish down the length of the pipe with the water foaming all around them and it was a very exciting experience until they came out splash into the lake at the end. The dragon twirled his tail round and round so that it made the finest propeller you ever saw, and he went across that lake like lightning so that Poo-Poo had to swim very hard to keep up with him.
And at the other side the dragon scrambled out and shook himself and swung his tail about so that he made Poo-Poo quite wet with all the water he shook off himself. And they went along the street a little way and up another path, and before Poo-Poo could think where he was they were at the back door of his house and he was wondering what his mother would say about the dragon.
But you will have to wait until tomorrow before you hear what Poo-Poo's mother did say.
