"That was more than enough for Garm. He gave a yelp of fright and bolted home. "

" He arrived four days after the dragon's departure, coming over the bridge on his white horse, with many knights and trumpeters, and a large baggage-train. "

"It was lying in a cupboard on a shelf hardly long enough for it "

"The farmer and his mare put as good a face on it as they could; "

" There was the dragon, lying half across a broken hedge with his horrible head in the middle of the road "

" The dragon began to run. So did the mare. The dragon galloped over a field puffing and blowing. So did the mare. "

"And so it was that the dragon, charging down the line, suddenly saw straight in front of him his old enemy with Tailbiter in his hand. It was the last thing he expected. "

" Anyway, out came Chrysophylax again in mighty quick time, with twenty pounds (troy) of gold and silver, and a chest of rings and necklaces and other pretty stuff. "

" But there was Farmer Giles on the bridge, sitting on the grey mare with Tailbiter in his hand. "

" But in the days of which this tale speaks Worminghall it was, and a Royal Seat, and the dragon-standard flew above the trees; "