As Gawaine record of killings became longer, the Headmaster found it impossible to keep him completely in hand. He fell into the habit of stealing out at night and engaging in long drinking bouts at the village tavern.
It was after such a debauch that he rose a little before dawn one fine August morning and started out after his fiftieth dragon. His head was heavy and his mind sluggish. He was heavy in other respects as well, for he had adopted the somewhat vulgar practice of wearing medals, ribbons and all, when he went out dragon hunting. The decorations began on his chest and ran all the way down to his stomach. They must have weighed at least eight pounds.
Gawaine found a dragon in the same meadow where he had killed the first one. It was a fair-sized dragon, but evidently an old one. Much to the boy's disgust, the monster wouldn't charge and Gawaine had to walk toward him. He whistled as he went. The dragon looked at him hopelessly. Of course he had heard of Gawaine. Gawaine raised the battle-axe and suddenly lowered it again. He had grown very pale and he trembled. The dragon suspected a trick. "What's the matter?" it asked, with false care.
"I've forgotten the magic word," stammered Gawaine.
"What a pity," said the dragon. "So that was the secret."
With the last word of the joke the dragon drew back his head and struck.
In that second there flashed into the mind of Gawaine the magic word “Rumplesnitz”, buttherewas notimeto say it. Therewastime onlyto strike and, without a word, Gawaine met the dragon. He put all his back and shoulders into it. The impact was terrific and the head of the dragon flew away with almost a hundred yards.
Gawaine did not remain frightened very long after the death of the dragon. Hewondered. Hewasenormouslypuzzled. Hecutoftheearsofthe monster almost in a trance. Again and again he thought to himself, "I didn't say ‘Rumplesnitz’!” Hewas sure ofthatand yettherewas no question that he had killed the dragon. All the way back to the knight school he kept thinking about what had happened. He went to the Headmaster immediately and after closing the doortold him what had happened. "I didn't say ‘Rumplesnitz’,” he explained.
The Headmaster laughed. "I'm glad you've found out," he said. "It makes you ever so much more of hero. Don't you see that? Now you know that it was you who killed all these dragons and notthatfoolish Iittleword ‘Rumplesnitz’.”
Gawaine frowned. "Then it wasn't a magic word after all?" he asked.
"Of course not," said the Headmaster, "you ought to be too old for such foolishness. There isn't such a thing as a magic word."
The next day was clear, but Gawaine did not get up at dawn. Indeed it was almost noon when the headmaster found him covering in bed, with the clothes pulled over his head. The principal called the assistant Professor of Pleasaunce, and together they dragged the boy toward the forest.
"He'll be all right as soon as he gets a couple more dragons," explained the headmaster.
The Assistant Professor of Pleasaunce agreed, "ltwould be a shame to stop such a fine run," he said. "Why, counting that one yesterday, he's killed fifty dragons."
They pushed the boy into a thicket above which hung a cloud of steam.
It was quite a small dragon. But Gawaine did not come back that night or the next...
It was quite a small dragon. But Gawaine did not come back that night or the next. In fact, he never came back. Some weeks afterward brave spirits from the school explored the place, but they could find nothing to remind them of Gawaine except the metal part of his medals. Not even the ribbons.
The Headmaster and the Assistant Professor of Pleasaunce agreed that it would be just as well not to tell the school how Gawaine had achieved his record and still less how he came to die. They held that it might have a bad effect on school spirit. Accordingly, Gawaine has lived in the memory of the school as its greatest hero. No visitor can leave the building today without seeing a great shield which hangs on the wall of the dining hall. Fifty pairs of dragons' ears are mounted upon the shield and underneath in gilt letters is "Gawaine leCoeur-Hardy”, followed bythe simple inscription, "He killed fifty dragons." The record has never been equalled.
Нужно ответить на вопросы
1.Review what sort of characters were Gawaine, the Headmster and the Assistant Professor.
2.Rewiew the "rules of the game",i.e the kind of world the aurhor created in this story.
3.Think of what might happen next with these characters and in this word.