AN ODD BEDTIME STORY

As most of you know, we've got some extra space in our living room because our beloved piano has gone bye bye to be used often by another family. We are so glad to see it go, as it has never been used in all the years we've owned it and it really should be.

The area in our living room where the piano sat for 7 years was vacant only a week or two because we have a wonderful bookshelf that has been stored downstairs all this time. I knew we really needed to get it AND all the books upstairs but there was no space...Until Now! YAY



Brian took it apart and reassembled it. I and the boys took all the books out of it, dusted them off and brought them upstairs to be used...Finally. I've been all excited and stoked about having the books upstairs. We finally get to read the hardback treasures we bought from our library in Kentucky. We had a huge wall that was all bookshelf in our Kentucky home and were completely happy to take all the books the local library so graciously sold us for 5 cents a piece. We had hundreds of them. I'm not exaggerating! We did not move them all up to Michigan with us but I chose the children's books and a few interesting ones for Brian and I to cherish.

Now that they are all up here I've been reading to the twins at bed-time. I picked a cute looking one off the shelf two nights ago. It is The Dragon by Archibald Marshall. I thought the picture looked cute and that there would be some knights in shining armor and princesses being rescued. "How fun," I thought.

Have you ever heard the phrase, "Don't judge a book by its cover?"

Yes? Well, maybe I should have looked at the picture more seriously.

This is one of those times. I kid you not, the sentences I'm about to type are the beginning 4 pages of the book. Here we go...(Imagine me, sitting on the twins' bed, reading with inflection and excitement and then...my voice trails off into a very low, reading to myself, tone as I think...hmmm this isn't quite right.)

Page 1.
Once a long time ago there was a very horrible dragon that settled itself in a swamp near a city and began to eat up the people who lived near it. So, of course, they didn't go on living there but came into the city where there was less chance of the dragon getting at them.
Page 2.
Well nothing happened for about a week because the dragon was sleepy after its last meal and was drinking water out of the swamp, as it didn't believe in drinking with its meals. But when it began to feel hungry again it came waddling up to the city to see what had become of all the people. Everybody saw it come and they had time to shut all the gates,
Page 3
but that didn't make any difference because the dragon just blew fire at them out of its nose until they were burnt down. And it was no use their shooting arrows at it because its skin was so hard and...
Page 4
thick that they didn't even stick in it and none of them got through. So all they had time to do was to take a murderer out of prison and tie him to a post just inside the gate and then run away again. So the dragon ate the murderer and waddled back to its swamp.

hmmm... ummm... Satire?

The story goes on to explain that the king is really ticked off because they don't have enough murderers to keep feeding the dragon and that it is a really bad time to have a dragon because he really wanted to start a war! Eventually the dragon does indeed kill all the princes in the kingdom and surrounding area. The princess waited for one she liked. She found a Page that she liked so after the dragon killed the Page's boss, (a prince) while they all watched, the princess gave the Page a pill to make him invisible (that she got from her witch governess) so he could stab the dragon in the eye and kill him. She got to marry the Page. Awww...How sweet.

rofl !

Don't get me wrong, I read the story to them, but judging by the looks on their faces they were more interested in why I was laughing so hard. The older kids got a much bigger kick out of the story, so I'll just keep reading it to my 7, 11 and 15 year old boys. They appreciate it much more. ROFL!!