As Algy and his strange little friend were exploring the banks of the burn together, the little green dragon suddenly bounded towards a rock and lunged at a wee green plant that was trailing from a deep crevice.
Fascinated, Algy perched on a soft, dry heather bush beside his friend and watched while the dragon started to eat the bright green leaves of the plant with an enthusiastic glow.
“I didn’t know you ate plants,” exclaimed Algy. “I would have found you something special if I had known.”
The little green dragon interrupted its munching for a moment and looked round at Algy.
“It’s not easy being green,” it breathed softly, unwittingly quoting a much more famous character
“Of course this is not spinach, but…”
Eat a tomato and you’ll turn red (I don’t think that’s really so); Eat a carrot and you’ll turn orange (Still and all, you never know); Eat some spinach and you’ll turn green (I’m not saying that it’s true But that’s what I heard, and so I thought I’d pass it on to you).
Algy pondered for a moment, ruffling his rather dishevelled feathers. “Then perhaps I should eat something fluffy,” he mused… “Do you think chocolate brownies would do?”
[The little green dragon is quoting the poem Vegetables by the 20th century American author Shel Silverstein.]
