  | The Book of Dragons | frontispiece | | The Book of Beasts | page 1 | | "The dragon flew away across the garden." | page 9 | | "The Manticora took refuge in the General Post Office." | page 14 | | Uncle James, or The Purple Stranger | page 19 | | "By-and-by he began to wander." | page 30 | | "The dragon ran after her." | page 36 | | The Deliverers of Their Country | page 39 | | "The largest elephant in the zoo was carried off." | page 44 | | "He rose into the air, rattling like a third-class carriage." | page 51 | | The Ice Dragon, or Do as You Are Told | page 57 | | "Sure enough, it was a dragon." | page 69 | | "The dwarfs seized the children." | page 73 | | The Island of the Nine Whirlpools | page 79 | | "The lone tower on the Island of the Nine Whirlpools." | page 89 | | "Little children play around him and over him." | page 97 | | The Dragon Tamers | page 99 | | "The dragon's purring pleased the baby." | page 107 | | "He brought something in his mouth—it was a bag of gold." | page 117 | | The Fiery Dragon, or The Heart of Stone and the Heart of Gold | page 119 | | "The junior secretary cried out, 'Look at the bottle!'" | page 130 | | "They saw a cloud of steam." | page 136 | | Kind Little Edmund, or The Caves and the Cockatrice | page 139 | | "Creeping across the plain." | page 148 | | "That smells good, eh?" | page 153 |
To Rosamund,
chief among those for whom these tales are told,
The Book of Dragons is dedicated
in the confident hope
that she, one of these days, will dedicate a book
of her very own making
to the one who now bids
eight dreadful dragons
crouch in all humbleness
at those little brown feet.
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