"Kushner,.Donn.-.A.Book.DragonUC" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dragon Stories)

approvingly. "There must have been good rain puddles in
the plowed land afterwards: excellent places for breeding fat
grubs."

"Yes!" the butterfly piped up enthusiastically,' 'I've seen
it that way after the wild pigs have been fighting, if it rains the
next day. Then we can watch our own reflections in the water,
so close that they are larger than the clouds themselves."

17

Nonesuch didn't care at all for the comparison with wild
pigs. He also recalled that it had not rained for two weeks.
Х 'How do you know about rain puddles?'' he asked peevishly.
"You couldn't have been alive to see it."

The butterfly was not abashed. "I've learned it from the
other butterflies," she replied, as if this should have been
obvious.' 'We tell each other everything that happens. So it's
as if none of us dies at all." She darted over the dragon's back
and added politely, "I'll tell them about you. Years from now
the butterflies will remember that once a small dragon came to
their pool."

Х 'Well, I should think so!'' Nonesuch exclaimed.' "They'll
be very impressed that you saw one so close; that you weren't
afraid. Why, when we fly over a city the people scatter in fear.
They run to hide in their churches and ring bells.'' Nonesuch
glanced at the water. "They look no bigger than water bugs
then."

"Oh my!" the butterfly whistled. "I'm afraid I don't see
the point of flying so high. I keep to ground level, and the
children run out to catch me. Some think I'm a sunbeam, as if
the first butterfly of all had returned. I avoid them, unless their
hands seem gentle; then, I might perch on their wrists a
moment."

The toad caught another water bug. Nonesuch said to
him, ' 'I suppose children run out to see you pass too!"

The toad was too busy swallowing to answer right away.
Then he said, very humbly, "Oh no, at best they laugh at me,
which I don't mind. But they can be cruel too. I've seen a
dozen of my brothers dangling by the feet from a twig, jerking
like puppets. It's best to keep completely out of sight, in the
cool grass of the fields."

He sighed. "But even then, there are scythes, and plows,
and plowmen's clogs to grind us into the earth. And besides