a tower. Then he saw it all: the golden dragons
were being beaten--his little golden dragons. The men of the bear were
coming under the window; what ever he threw from that height would
fall with terrific force: fire-irons, coal, his clock, whatever he
had--he would fight for his little golden dragons yet. A flame broke
out from one of the towers and licked the feet of a reclining archer;
he did not stir. And now the alien standard was out of sight directly
underneath. Mr. Sladden broke the panes of the wonderful window and
wrenched away with a poker the lead that held them. Just as the glass
broke he saw a banner covered with golden dragons fluttering still,
and then as he drew back to hurl the poker there came to him the scent
of mysterious spices, and there was nothing there, not even the
daylight, for behind the fragments of the wonderful window was nothing
but that small cupboard in which he kept his tea-things.

And though Mr. Sladden is older now and knows more of the world, and
even has a Business of his own, he has never been able to buy such
another window, and has not ever since, either from books or men,
heard any rumour at all of Golden Dragon City.

EPILOGUE

Here the fourteenth Episode of the Book of Wonder endeth and here the
relating of the Chronicles of Little Adventures at the Edge of the
World. I take farewell of my readers. But it may be we shall even meet
again, for it is still to be told how the gnomes robbed the fairies,
and of the vengeance that the fairies took, and how even the gods
themselves were troubled thereby in their sleep; and how the King of
Ool insulted the troubadours, thinking himself safe among his scores
of archers and hundreds of halberdiers, and how the troubadours stole
to his towers by night, and under his battlements by the light of the
moon made that king ridiculous for ever in song. But for this I must
first return to the Edge of the World. Behold, the caravans start.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Book of Wonder, by
Edward J. M. D. Plunkett, Lord Dunsany

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BOOK OF WONDER ***

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