Tell Me a Story (21 traditional stories from the British Isles dramatised by J.D.Graham), страница 6

Now, as I said, the little weaver had no intention of going to fight the dragon.  He had a plan. He said:  “I’ve got one of the King’s horses.   I’ve got some money.   Now I’m going to ride home.   But the horse had other ideas.   It went in the wrong direction.   The little weaver said to the horse:  “Not this way.   Stop!”  But the King’s horse had been trained to go towards the place where the dragon lived, and it went in that direction.   Then the little weaver saw a crowd of people running towards him, shouting.   “The dragon!   The dragon!”   They were all running away. but the horse with the little weaver on its back, kept on going.   Soon the little weaver heard the dragon roaring.   And then he saw the dragon.   He tried to stop the horse but the horse wouldn’t stop.   So the little weaver jumped off the horse and climbed up a tree.   He was very frightened.

The dragon ate the horse and then he came and stood under the tree and said:  “I want to eat you.Come down and let me eat you.”   But the little weaver would not get down from the tree.   The dragon decided to wait so he curled up under the tree and went to sleep.   When the little weaver was sure the dragon was asleep he started to climb down the tree but on the way down one of the branches broke!   The little weaver fell on top of the dragon but luckily he fell with one leg on each side of the dragon’s neck.   The dragon woke up and tried to shake the little weaver off his back.   “Get off!” he cried.  But the little weaver said “I’m not going to get off.   I’m going to hang on “

The dragon rose into the air and flew as fast as he could, trying to shake the little weaver off his back.   The dragon flew very fast - straight towards the palace.   He was so angry that he didn’t see it.   He flew straight into the palace and fell down dead.   And that was the end of the dragon.

The little weaver got off the dragon and the King, who had been watching from a palace window, came out to meet him.   “Here is the dragon” said the little weaver.   “Yes I can see that” said the King   “You are the first man I ever heard of who rode a dragon.   I am going to call you Lord Mountdragon.   And that was not all.   The King was so pleased and so very impressed that he said:  “You can marry the princess.   I’ll give you my daughter in marriage.”   The Queen was pleased too.   And the king called the princess and asked her.   “Would you like to marry Lord Mountdragon?”   And what did the princess think about that?   Well, the princess was delighted too.   “Oh yes, yes of course” she said.

And so the little weaver married the King’s daughter.   And they all lived  happily ever after - Didn’t they?

5.  THE STORY OF THE FARMER’S CLEVER SON

This story is about a boy called Robin.   Robin lived on a farm with his father and mother and brother.   Robin’s father was a farmer.   He didn’t own his own farm - he rented it.   And every month he had to pay rent to the man who owned the farm.   This man’s name was Mr. Smith.   Mr. Smith received the rent on the first day of every month.   But one day the cow died.   The family were short of money and Robin’s father couldn’t pay the rent to Mr. Smith.   “I think I’ll go round to the farm and find out what’s going on,” he said.

When he got to the farm, the first person he met was Robin.   He asked where his father was and Robin explained that the cow had died.   And then he said “He’s out, making a bad matter worse.”   But when Robin tried to explain, Mr. Smith was too impatient to listen.   Then Mr. Smith decided to find out where the rest of the family was.   When he asked about Robin’s mother, he replied “She’s baking a loaf of bread that was eaten last week.”   But once again Mr. Smith was too impatient to listen to Robin’s explanation.   Then he asked about Robin’s brother.   “He’s out hunting, and everything he kills he leaves behind and everything he doesn’t kill he brings home alive.”