--- title: Opening, part 9 — The Book of Dragons · full text with trees · page 2 description: Opening, part 9, «The Book of Dragons» by E. Nesbit: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: Just then came a new, strange, jerky fluttering of wings far softer than the grouse's, and George and Jane cried out together: "Oh, _do_ mind your wings in the f --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/page/2/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [The Book of Dragons](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/) / Opening, part 9 # Opening, part 9 · page 2 [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/) **2** - [101](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/101/) — "You will find it when you get home." - [102](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/102/) — "And won't you have something for yourself?" asked the Queen. " - [103](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/103/) — Any little thing you fancy--would you like a country, or a sack of jewels?" - [104](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/104/) — "Nothing, thank you," said the witch. " - [105](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/105/) — I could make more diamonds in a day than I should wear in a year." - [106](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/106/) — "Well, but do let me do some little thing for you," the Queen went on. " - [107](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/107/) — Aren't you tired of being a witch? - [108](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/108/) — Wouldn't you like to be a Duchess or a Princess, or something like that?" - [109](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/109/) — "There is one thing I should rather like," said the witch, "but it's hard to get in my trade." - [110](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/110/) — "Oh, tell me what," said the Queen. - [111](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/111/) — "I should like some one to love me," said the witch. - [112](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/112/) — Then the Queen threw her arms around the witch's neck and kissed her half a hundred times. " - [113](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/113/) — Why," she said, "I love you better than my life! - [114](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/114/) — You've given me the baby--and the baby shall love you too." - [115](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/115/) — "Perhaps it will," said the witch, "and when the sorrow comes, send for me. - [116](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/116/) — Each of your fifty kisses will be a spell to bring me to you. - [117](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/117/) — Now, drink up your medicine, there's a dear, and run along home." - [118](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/118/) — So the Queen drank the stuff in the pot, which was quite cool by this time, and she went out under the fringe of snakes, and they all behaved like good Sunday-school children. - [119](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/119/) — Some of them even tried to drop a curtsy to her as she went by, though that is not easy when you are hanging wrong way up by your tail. - [120](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/120/) — But the snakes knew the Queen was friends with their mistress; so, of course, they had to do their best to be civil. - [121](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/121/) — When the Queen got home, sure enough there was the baby lying in the cradle with the Royal arms blazoned on it, crying as naturally as possible. - [122](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/122/) — It had pink ribbons to tie up its sleeves, so the Queen saw at once it was a girl. - [123](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/123/) — When the King knew this he tore his black hair with fury. - [124](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/124/) — "Oh, you silly, silly Queen!" he said. " - [125](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/125/) — Why didn't I marry a clever lady? - [126](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/126/) — Did you think I went to all the trouble and expense of sending you to a witch to get a girl? - [127](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/127/) — You knew well enough it was a boy I wanted--a boy, an heir, a Prince--to learn all my magic and my enchantments, and to rule the kingdom after me. - [128](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/128/) — I'll bet a crown--my crown," he said, "you never even thought to tell the witch what kind you wanted! - [129](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/129/) — Did you now?" - [130](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/130/) — And the Queen hung her head and had to confess that she had only asked for a child. - [131](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/131/) — "Very well, madam," said the King, "very well--have your own way. - [132](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/132/) — And make the most of your daughter, while she is a child." - [133](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/133/) — The Queen did. - [134](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/134/) — All the years of her life had never held half so much happiness as now lived in each of the moments when she held her little baby in her arms. - [135](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/135/) — And the years went on, and the King grew more and more clever at magic, and more and more disagreeable at home, and the Princess grew more beautiful and more dear every day she lived. - [136](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/136/) — The Queen and the Princess were feeding the goldfish in the courtyard fountains with crumbs of the Princess's eighteenth birthday cake, when the King came into the courtyard, looking as black as thunder, with his black raven hopping after him. - [137](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/137/) — He shook his fist at his family, as indeed he generally did whenever he met them, for he was not a King with pretty home manners. - [138](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/138/) — The raven sat down on the edge of the marble basin and tried to peck the goldfish. - [139](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/139/) — It was all he could do to show that he was in the same temper as his master. - [140](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/140/) — "A girl indeed!" said the King angrily. " - [141](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/141/) — I wonder you can dare to look me in the face, when you remember how your silliness has spoiled everything." - [142](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/142/) — "You oughtn't to speak to my mother like that," said the Princess. - [143](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/143/) — She was eighteen, and it came to her suddenly and all in a moment that she was a grown-up, so she spoke out. [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/9/) **2** - ← previous: [Opening, part 8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/8/) - next →: [Opening, part 10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/10/) - ↑ back to [The Book of Dragons](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg23661/)