ion and
puts it on the top of the first._) Lumpetty, lumpetty, lumpetty.

_I._ And this?

_She_ (_opening her eyes very wide_). Red plums. (_Fetches another
cushion._) Limpetty, limpetty, limpetty.

_I._ What's that?

_She._ Lovely honey.

_I_ (_affecting to simulate the natural gratification of a poor old
man suddenly smothered in vegetables, fruit and liquid preserve_). How
perfectly delicious!

_She._ And you want to go to sleep again. [_I go._

_She_ (_pulling my ear again_). And you sawed a dragon coming up the
drive, and the sofa was the dragon.

_I._ Alack, alack! I see a dragon coming up the drive. What shall I
do? I must telephone to the police.

_She_ (_quickly_). Did the police have a tuncheon?

_I._ Yes, he did.

_She._ Shall I be the police?

_I_ (_cautiously, because a "tuncheon" necessitates making a long
paper roll out of "The Times"_). I am afraid the telephone had broken
down, so the police didn't hear. How I wish the Fairy Bluebell was
about!

_She._ And so the Fairy Bluebell came and cut off the dragon's head
and gave it to you.

[_Fetches a fourth large cushion and adds it to the pile._

_I._ But why should I have the dragon's head?

_She_ (_enigmatically_). You had to have it.

[_The poor old man resigns himself to his increasingly glutinous
fate._

_She_ (_fetching a waste-paper basket and returning to the sofa_).
Limpetty, limpetty, limpetty.

_I_ (_faint but inquisitive_). Whatever are you doing now, Priscilla?

_She._ Poisoning the dragon's body.

_I._ Poisoning it?

_She._ Yes, wiv a can.

_I._ How?

_She._ Down its neck.

_I_ (_feeling that the immediate peril from the dragon's assault is
now practically over and wishing to return the fairy's kindness_).
Shall we pretend that the sofa is where the Fairy Bluebell lived, and
I built her a little home with flowers, and these cushions were the
flowers, and (_rather basely_) she went to sleep in it?

_She_ (_with sparkling eyes_). Yes, yes.

[_I remove the potatoes, the plums, the honey and the head of the
dragon and manufacture a grotto in which the Fairy Bluebell reclines
with closed eyes. It appears to be a suitable moment for returning to
my book._

_She._ And suddenly the Fairy Bluebell woke up, and what do you think
she wanted?

_I_ (_disillusioned_). I can't think.

_She._ She wanted to be readen to.

_I_ (_resignedly_). And what did I do?

_She._ You said, "I'll read abou