it must have been the warmth which had waked the
Cockatrice, so he made fires all down the side of the cave; wherever the
great flank of the Cockatrice seemed to show, there he lighted a fire to
put heat into the slumbering body of the beast.

"Warm up, old fellow," he cried; "thaw out, I tell you! I want you to
talk to me."

Presently the mouth of the Cockatrice unsealed itself, and began to
babble of green fields. "Hay--I want hay!" said the Cockatrice; "or
grass. Does the world contain any grass?"

Beppo went out, and presently returned with an armful. Very slowly the
Cockatrice began munching the fresh fodder, and Beppo, intent on feeding
him back to life, ran to and fro between the hillside and the cavern
till he was exhausted and could go no more. He sat down and watched the
Cockatrice finish his meal.

Presently, when the monster found that his fodder was at an end, he
puckered a great lid, and far up aloft in the wall of the cave flashed
out a green eye.

If all the emeralds in the world were gathered together, they might
shine like that; if all the glow-worms came up out of the fields and put
their tails together, they might make as great an orb of fire. All the
cave looked as green as grass when the eye of the Cockatrice lighted on
it; and Beppo, seeing so mighty an optic turning its rays on him, felt
all at once shrivelled and small, and very weak at the knees.

"Oh, Cockatrice," he said, in a monstrous sad voice, "I hope I haven't
hurt you!"

"On the contrary," said the Cockatrice, "you have done me much good.
What are you going to do with me now?"

"I do with you?" cried Beppo, astonished at so wild a possibility
offering to come true. "I would like to get you out, of course--but can
I?"

"I would like that dearly also!" said the Cockatrice.

"But how can I?" inquired Beppo.

"Keep me warm and feed me," re-turned the monster. "Presently I shall be
able to find out where my tail is. When I can move that I shall be able
to get out."

Beppo undertook whatever the Cockatrice told him--it was so grand to
have a Cockatrice of his own. But it was a hard life, stoking up fires
day and night, and bringing the Cockatrice the fodder necessary to
replenish his drowsy being. When Beppo was quite tired out he would
come and lay his head against the monster's snout; and the Cockatrice
would open a benevolent eye and look at him affectionately.

"Dear Cockatrice," said the boy one day, "tell me about your