Hello,
It's Mandy here.
Thanks so much for joining me for tonight's reading.
I'm going to be reading you a short story from the 19th century writer and poet Edith Nesbitt who wrote The Railway Children and who published around 40 books for children in her lifetime.
Nesbitt's story is called Kind Little Edmund or The Caves and the Cockatrice.
Edmund was a boy.
The people who didn't like him said he was the most tiresome boy that ever lived but his grandmother and his other friends said that he had an inquiring mind and his granny often added that he was the best of boys but she was very kind.
Edmund loved to find out about things.
Perhaps you will think that in that case he was constant in his attendance at school since there if anywhere we may learn whatever there is to be learned.
But Edmund didn't want to learn things,
He wanted to find things out which is quite different.
His inquiring mind led him to take clocks to pieces to see what made them go,
To take locks off doors to see what made them stick.
It was Edmund who cut open the India rubber ball to see what made it bounce and he never did see any more than you did when you tried the same experiment.
Edmund lived with his grandmother.
She loved him very much in spite of his inquiring mind and hardly scolded him at all when he frizzled up her tortoiseshell comb in his anxiety to find out whether it was made of real tortoiseshell or of something that would burn.
Edmund went to school,
Of course,
Now and then and sometimes he couldn't prevent himself from learning something but he never did it on purpose.
It is such a waste of time,
He said.
They only know what everybody knows.
I want to find out new things that nobody has thought of but me.
I don't think you're likely to find out anything that none of the wise men in the whole world have thought of all these thousands of years,
Said Granny.
But Edmund didn't agree with her.
He played truant whenever he could for he was a kind-hearted boy and couldn't bear to think of a master's time and labour being thrown away on a boy like himself who didn't wish to learn only to find out when there were so many worthy lads thirsting for instruction in geography and history and reading and ciphering and Mr Smiles's self-help.
Other boys played truant too,
Of course,
And these went nutting or blackberrying or wild plum gathering.
But Edmund never went on the side of the town where the green woods and hedges grew.
He always went up the mountain where the great rocks were and the tall dark pine trees and where other people were afraid to go because of the strange noises that came out of the caves.
Edmund wasn't afraid of these noises even though they were very strange and terrible but he wanted to find out what made them.
One day he did.
He had invented all by himself a very ingenious and new kind of lantern made with a turnip and a tumbler and when he took the candle out of Granny's bedroom candlestick to put in it,
It gave quite a splendid light.
He had to go to school the next day and he was caned for being absent without leave,
Although he very straightforwardly explained that he'd been too busy making the lantern to have time to come to school.
But the day after he got up very early and he took the lunch Granny had ready for him to take to school,
Two boiled eggs and an apple turnover,
And he took his lantern and went off straight as a dart to the mountains to explore the caves.
The caves were very dark but his lantern lighted them up beautifully and they were most interesting caves with stalactites and stalagmites and fossils and all the things you read about in the instructive books for the young.
But Edmund didn't care for any of these things just then.
He wanted to find out what made the noises that people were afraid of and there was nothing actually in the caves to tell him.
Presently he sat down in the biggest cave and listened very carefully and it seemed to him that he could distinguish three different sorts of noises.
There was a heavy rumbling sound like a very large old gentleman asleep after dinner and there was a smaller sort of rumble going on at the same time and there was a sort of crowing,
Clucking sound such as a chicken might make if it happened to be as big as a haystack.
It seems to me,
Said Edmund to himself,
That the clucking is nearer than the others.
So he started up again and explored the caves once more.
He found out nothing but about halfway up the wall of the cave he saw a hole.
So he climbed up to it and crept in and it was the entrance to a rocky passage and now the clucking sounded more plainly than before and he could hardly hear the rumbling at all.
I am going to find out something at last,
Said Edmund and on he went.
The passage wound and twisted and twisted and turned and turned and wound but Edmund kept on.
My lantern's burning better and better,
Said he presently.
But the next minute he saw that all the light didn't come from his lantern.
It was a pale yellow light and it shone down the passage far ahead of him through what looked like the chink in a door.
I expect it's the fire in the middle of the earth,
Said Edmund,
Who had not been able to help learning about that at school.
But quite suddenly the fire ahead gave a pale flicker and went down and the clucking ceased.
The next moment Edmund turned a corner and found himself in front of a rocky door.
The door was ajar.
He went in and there was a round cave like the dome of St Paul's.
In the middle of the cave was a hole like a very big hand-washing basin and in the middle of the basin Edmund saw a large pale person sitting.
This person had a man's face and a griffin's body with big feathery wings and a snake's tail and coxcomb and neck feathers.
Whatever are you?
Asked Edmund.
I'm a poor starving cockatrice,
Answered the pale person in a very faint voice and I shall die.
Oh I know I shall.
My fire's gone out.
I can't think how it happened.
I must have been asleep.
I have to stir it seven times round with my tail once in a hundred years to keep it alight and my watch must have been wrong and now I shall die.
I think I've said before what a kind-hearted boy Edmund was.
Cheer up said he.
I'll light your fire for you and off he went and in a few minutes he came back with a great armful of sticks from the pine trees outside and with these and a lesson book or two that he'd forgotten to lose before and which quite by an oversight was safe in his pocket,
He lit a fire all around the cockatrice.
The wood blazed up and presently something in the basin caught fire and Edmund saw that it was a sort of liquid that burned like the brandy in the snap dragon and now the cockatrice stirred it with his tail and flapped his wings in it so that some of it splashed out on Edmund's hand and burnt it rather badly but the cockatrice grew red and strong and happy and its comb grew scarlet and its feathers glossy and it lifted itself up and crowed cockatrice a doodle do very loudly and clearly.
Edmund's kindly nature was charmed to see the cockatrice so much improved in health and he said don't mention it delighted I'm sure when the cockatrice began to thank him but what can I do for you said the creature tell me stories said Edmund what about said the cockatrice about true things that they don't know at school said Edmund so the cockatrice began and he told him about mines and treasures and geological formations and about gnomes and fairies and dragons he told him about glaciers and the stone age and the beginning of the world and about the unicorn and the phoenix and about magic black and white and Edmund ate his eggs and his turnover and listened and when he got hungry again he said goodbye and went home but he came again the next day for more stories and the next day and the next for a long time he told the boys at school about the cockatrice and his wonderful true tales and the boys liked the stories but when he told the master he was caned for untruthfulness but it is true said Edmund just look where the fire burnt my hand I see you've been playing with fire into mischief as usual said the master and he caned Edmund harder than ever the master was ignorant and unbelieving but I'm told that some school masters are not like that now one day Edmund made a new lantern out of something chemical that he borrowed from the school laboratory and with it he went exploring again to see if he could find the things that made the other sorts of noises and in quite another part of the mountain he found a dark passage all lined with brass so that it was like the inside of a huge telescope and at the very end of it he found a bright green door there was a brass plate on the door that said mrs d knock and ring and a white label that said call me at three Edmund had a watch it had been given to him on his birthday two days before and he'd not yet had time to take it to pieces and see what made it go so it was still going he looked at it now it said a quarter to three Edmund sat down on the brass doorstep and waited till three o'clock then he knocked and rang and there was a rattling and puffing inside the great door flew open and Edmund had only just time to hide behind it when out came an immense yellow dragon who wriggled off down the brass cave like a long rattling worm or perhaps more like a monstrous centipede Edmund crept slowly out and saw the dragon stretching herself on the rocks in the sun and he crept past the great creature and tore down the hill into the town he burst into school crying out there's a great dragon coming somebody ought to do something or we shall all be destroyed he was caned for untruthfulness without any delay his master was never one for postponing a duty but it's true said Edmund you just see if it isn't he pointed out of the window and everyone could see a vast yellow cloud rising up into the air above the mountain it's only a thunder shower said the master and caned Edmund more than ever this master was not like some masters I know he was very obstinate and wouldn't believe his own eyes if they told him anything different from what he'd been saying before his eyes spoke so while the master was writing lying is very wrong and liars must be caned it is all for their own good on the blackboard for Edmund to copy out 700 times Edmund sneaked out of school and ran for his life across the town he wanted to warn his granny but she wasn't at home so then he made off through the back door of the town and raced up the hill to tell the cockatrice and ask for his help it never occurred to him that the cockatrice might not believe him you see he'd heard so many wonderful tales from him and had believed them all and when you believe all a person's stories they ought to believe yours it's only fair at the mouth of the cockatrice's cave Edmund stopped very much out of breath to look back at the town as he ran he'd felt his little legs tremble and shake while the shadows of the great yellow cloud fell upon him now he stood once more between warm earth and blue sky and looked down on the green plain dotted with fruit trees and red roofed farms and plots of gold corn in the middle of that plain the grey town lay with its strong walls with the holes pierced for the archers and its square towers with holes for dropping melted lead on the heads of strangers its bridges and its steeples the quiet river edged with willow and alder and the pleasant green garden place in the middle of the town where people sat on holidays to smoke their pipes and listen to the band Edmund saw it all and he saw two creeping across the plain marking her way by a black line as everything withered at her touch the great yellow dragon and he saw she was many times bigger than the whole town oh my poor dear granny said Edmund for he had a feeling heart as I may have told you before the yellow dragon crept nearer and nearer licking her greedy lips with her long red tongue and Edmund knew that in the school his master was still teaching earnestly and still not believing Edmund's tale the least little bit he'll jolly well have to believe it soon said Edmund to himself and although he was a very tender-hearted boy I'm afraid he was not as sorry as he ought to have been to think of the way in which his master was going to learn how to believe what Edmund said then the dragon opened her jaws wider and wider and wider Edmund shut his eyes for though his master was in the town the amiable Edmund shrank from beholding the actual sight when he opened his eyes again there was no town only a bare place where it had stood and the dragon licking her lips and curling herself up to go to sleep just as the cat does when she's quite finished with a mouse Edmund gasped once or twice and then ran into the cave to tell the cockatrice well said the cockatrice thoughtfully when the tale had been told what then I don't think you quite understand said Edmund the dragon has swallowed up the town does that matter said the cockatrice but I live there said Edmund never mind said the cockatrice turning over in the pool of fire to warm its other side which was chilly because Edmund had as usual forgotten to close the cave door you can live here with me I'm afraid I haven't made my meaning clear said Edmund patiently you see my granny is in the town and I can't bear to lose my granny like this I don't know what a granny may be said the cockatrice who seemed to be growing weary of the subject but if it's a possession to which you attach any importance of course it is says Edmund losing patience at last oh do help me what can I do if I were you said his friend stretching itself out in the pool of flame so that the waves covered him up to his chin I should find the drakeling and bring it here but why said Edmund he had gotten into the habit of asking why at school and the master had always found it trying as for the cockatrice he was not going to stand that sort of thing for a moment oh don't talk to me he said splashing angrily in the flames I give you advice take it or leave it or leave it I shan't bother about you anymore if you bring the drakeling here to me I'll tell you what to do next if not not and the cockatrice drew the fire up close around his shoulders tucked himself up in it and went to sleep now this was exactly the right way to manage Edmund only no one had ever thought of trying to do it before he stood for a moment looking at the cockatrice the cockatrice looked at Edmund out of the corner of his eye and began to snore very loudly and Edmund understood once and for all that the cockatrice wasn't going to put up with any nonsense he respected the cockatrice very much from that moment and set off at once to do exactly as he was told for perhaps the first time in his life though he had played truant so often he knew one or two things that perhaps you don't know though you have always been so good and gone to school regularly for instance he knew that a drakeling is a dragon's baby and he felt sure that what he had to do was to find the third of the three noises that people used to hear coming from the mountains of course the clucking had been the cockatrice and the big noise like a large gentleman asleep after dinner had been the big dragon so the smaller rumbling must have been the drakeling he plunged boldly into the caves and searched and wandered and wandered and searched and at last he came to a third door in the mountain and on it was written the baby is asleep just before the door stood 50 pairs of copper shoes and no one could have looked at them for a moment without seeing what sort of feet they were made for for each shoe had five holes in it for the drakeling's five claws and there were 50 pairs because the drakeling took after his mother and had a hundred feet no more and no less he was the kind called draco centipedes in the learned books edmund was a good deal frightened but he remembered the grim expression of the cockatrice's eye and the fixed determination of his snore still rang in his ears in spite of the snoring of the drakeling which was in itself considerable he screwed up his courage flung the door open and called out hello you drakeling get out of bed this minute the drakeling stopped snoring and said sleepily it ain't time yet your mother says you are too anyhow and look sharp about it what's more said edmund gaining courage from the fact that the drakeling had not yet eaten him the drakeling sighed and edmund could hear it getting out of bed the next moment it began to come out of its room and to put on its shoes it was not nearly so big as its mother only about the size of a baptist chapel hurry up said edmund as it fumbled clumsily with the 17th shoe mother said i was never to go out without my shoes said the drakeling so edmund had to help it to put them on it took some time and was not a comfortable occupation at last the drakeling said it was ready and edmund who had forgotten to be frightened said come on then and they went back and they went back to the cockatrice the cave was rather narrow for the drakeling but it made itself thin as you may see a fat worm do when it wants to get through a narrow crack in a piece of hard earth here it is said edmund and the cockatrice woke up at once and asked the drakeling very politely to sit down and wait your mother will be here presently said the cockatrice stirring up its fire the drakeling sat down and waited but it watched the fire with hungry eyes i beg your pardon it said at last but i am always accustomed to having a little basin of fire as soon as i get up and i feel rather faint may i it reached out a claw toward the cockatrice's basin certainly not said the cockatrice sharply where were you brought up did they never teach you that we must not ask for all we see eh i beg your pardon said the drakeling humbly but i am really very hungry the cockatrice beckoned edmund to the side of the basin and whispered in his ear so long and so earnestly that one side of the dear boy's hair was quite burnt off and he never once interrupted the cockatrice to ask why but when the whispering was over edmund whose heart as i may have mentioned was very tender said to the drakeling if you were really hungry poor thing i can show you where there is plenty of fire and off he went through the caves and the drakeling followed when edmund came to the proper place he stopped there was a round iron thing in the floor like the ones the men shoot the coals down into your cellar only much larger edmund heaved it up by a hook that stuck out at one side and a rush of hot air came up that nearly choked him but the drakeling came close and looked down with one eye and sniffed and said that smells good yes said edmund well that's the fire in the middle of the earth there's plenty of it all done to a turn you'd better go down and begin your breakfast haven't you so the drakeling wriggled through the hole and began to crawl faster and faster down the slanting shaft that leads to the fire in the middle of the earth and edmund doing exactly as he'd been told for a wonder caught the end of the drakeling's tail and ran the iron hook through it so that the drakeling was held fast and it couldn't turn round and wriggle up again because as everyone knows the way to the fires below is very easy to go down but quite impossible to come back on there was something about it in latin beginning facilis descensus so there was the drakeling fast by the silly tail of it and there was edmund very busy and important and very pleased with himself hurrying back to the cockatrice now said he well now said the cockatrice go to the mouth of the cave and laugh at the dragon so that she hears you edmund very nearly said why but he stopped in time and instead said she won't hear me oh very well said the cockatrice no doubt you know best and he began to tuck himself up again in the fire so edmund did as he was bid and when he began to laugh his laughter echoed in the mouth of the cave till it sounded like the laughter of a whole castle full of giants and the dragon lying asleep in the sun woke up and said very crossly what are you laughing at at you said edmund and went on laughing the dragon bore it as long as she could but like everyone else she couldn't stand being made fun of so presently she dragged herself up the mountain very slowly because she just had a rather heavy meal and stood outside and said what are you laughing at in a voice that made edmund feel as if he should never laugh again then the good cockatrice called out at you you've eaten your own drakeling swallowed it with the town your own little drakeling he he he ha ha ha and edmund too found the courage to cry ha ha which sounded like tremendous laughter in the echo of the cave dear me said the dragon i thought the town stuck in my throat rather i must take it out and look through it more carefully and with that she coughed and there was the town on the hillside edmund had run back to the cockatrice and it had told him what to do so before the dragon had time to look through the town again for her drakeling the voice of the drakeling itself was heard howling from inside the mountain because edmund was pinching its tail as hard as he could in the round iron door like the one where the men pull the coals out of the sacks into the cellar and the dragon heard the voice and said why whatever's the matter with baby he's not here and made herself thin and crept into the mountain to find her drakeling the cockatrice kept on laughing as loud as it could and edmund kept on pinching and presently the great dragon very long and narrow she'd made herself found her head where the round hole was with the iron lid her tail was a mile or two off outside the mountain when edmund heard her coming he gave one last nip to the drakeling's tail and then heaved up the lid and stood behind it so that the dragon couldn't see him then he loosed the drakeling's tail from the hook and the dragon peeped down the hole just in time to see her drakeling's tail disappear down the smooth slanting shaft with one last squeak whatever may have been the poor dragon's other faults she was an excellent mother she plunged head first into the hole and slid down the shaft after her baby edmund watched her head go and then the rest of her she was so long now that she'd stretched herself thin that it took all night it was like watching a goods train go by in germany when the last joint of her tail had gone edmund slammed down the iron door he was a kind-hearted boy and he was glad to think that dragon and drakeling would now have plenty to eat of their favorite food he thanked the cockatrice for his kindness and got home just in time to have breakfast and get to school by nine of course he couldn't have done this if the town had been in its old place by the river in the middle of the plain but it had taken root on the hillside just where the dragon left it well said the master where were you yesterday edmund explained and the master at once caned him for not speaking the truth but it is true said edmund why the whole town was swallowed by the dragon nonsense said the master there was a thunderstorm and an earthquake that's all and he caned edmund more than ever but said edmund who always would argue even in the least favorable circumstances how do you account for the town being on the hillside now instead of by the river as it used to be it was always on the hillside said the master and all the class said the same for they had more sense than to argue with the person who carried a cane but look at the maps said edmund who wasn't going to be beaten in argument whatever he might be in the flesh the master pointed to the map on the wall and there was the town on the hillside and nobody but edmund could see that of course the shock of being swallowed by the dragon had upset all the maps and put them wrong and then the master caned edmund again explaining that this time it was not for untruthfulness but for his vexatious argumentative habits this will show you what a prejudiced and ignorant man edmund's master was how different from the revered head of the nice school where your good parents are kind enough to send you the next day edmund thought he would prove his tale by showing people the cockatrice and he actually persuaded some people to go into the cave with him but the cockatrice had bolted himself in and wouldn't open the door so edmund got nothing except a scolding for taking people on a wild goose chase a wild goose said they is nothing like a cockatrice and poor edmund could not say a word though he knew how wrong they all were the only person who believed him was his granny but then she was very kind and had always said he was the best of boys but one good thing came of this long story edmund has never been quite the same boy since he doesn't argue quite so much and he agreed to be apprenticed to a locksmith so that he might one day be able to pick the lock of the cockatrice's front door and learn some more of the things that other people don't know
