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005 - My Father Meets some Tigers · My Fathers Dragon

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  Speaker 1: Chapter five of My Father's Dragon. This LibriVox recording is
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  Speaker 1: in the public domain. Recording by Gregory Holdsworth. My Father's
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  Speaker 1: Dragon by Route Styles Gannett, Chapter five. My father meets
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  Speaker 1: some tigers. The river was very wide and muddy, and
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  Speaker 1: the jungle was very gloomy and dense. The trees grew
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  Speaker 1: close to each other, and what room there was between
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  Speaker 1: them was taken up by great high ferns with sticky leaves.
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  Speaker 1: My father hated to leave the beach, but he decided
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  Speaker 1: to start along the river, where at least the jungle
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  Speaker 1: wasn't quite so thick. He ate three tangerines, making sure
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  Speaker 1: to keep all the peels this time, and put on
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  Speaker 1: his rubber boots. My father tried to follow the river bank,
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  Speaker 1: but it was very swampy, and as he went farther
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  Speaker 1: the swamp became deeper. When it was almost as deep
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  Speaker 1: as his boot tops, he got stuck in the oozy,
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  Speaker 1: mucky mud. My father tugged and tugged, and nearly pulled
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  Speaker 1: his boots right off, but at last he managed to
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  Speaker 1: weigh a drier place. Here, the jungle was so thick
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  Speaker 1: that he could hardly see where the river was. He
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  Speaker 1: unpacked his compass and figured out the direction he should
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  Speaker 1: walk in order to stay near the river. But he
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  Speaker 1: didn't know that the river made a very sharp curve
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  Speaker 1: away from him, just a little way beyond. So as
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  Speaker 1: he walked straight ahead, he was getting farther and farther
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  Speaker 1: away from the river. It was very hard to walk
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  Speaker 1: in the jungle. The sticky leaves of the ferns caught
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  Speaker 1: my father's hair, and he kept tripping over roots and
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  Speaker 1: rotten logs. Sometimes the trees were clumped so close together
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  Speaker 1: that he couldn't squeeze between them and had to walk
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  Speaker 1: a long way around. He began to hear whispery noises,
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  Speaker 1: but he couldn't see any animals anywhere. Deeper into the
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  Speaker 1: jungle he went the surer he was that something was
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  Speaker 1: following him, And then he thought he heard a whispery
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  Speaker 1: noises on both sides of him, as well as behind.
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  Speaker 1: He tried to run, but he tripped over more roots,
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  Speaker 1: and the noises only came nearer. Once or twice he
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  Speaker 1: thought he heard something laughing at him. At last, he
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  Speaker 1: came out into a clearing and ran right into the
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  Speaker 1: middle of it so that he could see anything that
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  Speaker 1: might try to attack him. He was surprised when he
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  Speaker 1: looked and saw fourteen green eyes coming out of the
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  Speaker 1: jungle all around the clearing, and when the green eyes
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  Speaker 1: turned into seven tigers. The tigers walked around him in
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  Speaker 1: a big, sou circle, looking hungrier all the time. Then
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  Speaker 1: they sat down and began to talk. I suppose you
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  Speaker 1: thought we didn't know you were trespassing in our jungle.
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  Speaker 1: Then the next tiger spoke, Oh, I suppose you're going
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  Speaker 1: to say you didn't know it was our jungle. Did
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  Speaker 1: you know that not one explorer has ever left this
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  Speaker 1: island alive? Said the third tiger. My father thought of
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  Speaker 1: the cat and knew this wasn't true, but of course
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  Speaker 1: he had too much sense to say so. One doesn't
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  Speaker 1: contradict a hungry tiger. The tigers went on talking in turn.
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  Speaker 1: You're our first little boy. You know, I'm curious to
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  Speaker 1: know if you're especially tender. Maybe you think we have
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  Speaker 1: regular meal times, but we don't. We just eat whenever
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  Speaker 1: we're feeling hungry, said the fifth tiger. And we're very
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  Speaker 1: hungry right now. In fact, I can hardly wait, said
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  Speaker 1: the sixth I can't wait, said the seventh tiger, and
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  Speaker 1: then all the tigers set together in a loud roar.
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  Speaker 1: Let's begin right now, and they move closer. My father
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  Speaker 1: looked at those seven hungry tigers. Then he had an idea.
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  Speaker 1: He quickly opened his knapsack and took out the chewing gum.
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  Speaker 1: The cat had told him that tigers were especially fond
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  Speaker 1: of chewing gum, which was very scarce on the island.
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  Speaker 1: So I threw them each a piece. But they only
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  Speaker 1: growled as fond as we are chewing gum. We sure
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  Speaker 1: we'd light you even better, And they moved so close
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  Speaker 1: that he could feel them breathing on his face. But
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  Speaker 1: this is very special chewing gum, said my father. If
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  Speaker 1: you keep on chewing it long enough, it will turn green,
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  Speaker 1: and then if you plant it, it will grow more
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  Speaker 1: chewing gum. And the sooner you start chewing, the sooner
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  Speaker 1: you'll have more. The tiger said, why you don't say,
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  Speaker 1: isn't that fine? As each one wanted to be the
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  Speaker 1: first to plant the chewing gum, they all unwrapped their
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  Speaker 1: pieces and began chewing as hard as they could. Every
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  Speaker 1: once in a while, one tiger would look into another's
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  Speaker 1: mouth and say, Nope, it's not done yet. Until finally
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  Speaker 1: they were all so busy looking into each other's mouths
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  Speaker 1: to make sure that no one was getting ahead, that
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  Speaker 1: they forgot all about my father. End of Chapter five