
"Aren't there dragons in the jungle?"Ĭharles Wallace finished his glass of milk. Jenkins believes in the law of the jungle." She spoke through a mouthful. Jenkins would care what happened to Charles Wallace, or that he would be willing to interfere in what he called "the normal procedures of democracy." "Mr. Jenkins was the principal of the village school, and Meg had had her own troubles with him. That he had seen something, something unusual, she was positive.Ĭharles Wallace silently watched her finish making the sandwich, carefully aligning the slices of bread and cutting it in precise sections. What he had actually seen she could not begin to guess. This was a cover for some rapid thinking, although she couldn't count on Charles Wallace not picking up her thoughts, as he had picked up her doubts about the dragons. Meg returned to the refrigerator to get lettuce. I haven't told anybody but you." Suddenly sounding forlorn, younger than his six years, he said, "I wish the high-school bus got home earlier. Unlike the dragons, these visits were real.Ĭharles Wallace picked up Meg's doubting. Like the dragons in the garden, their father's visits to the White House were something best not talked about at school. "He got a call from L.A., and he's gone to Washington for a couple of days." She said to tell you she wouldn't be long." This stuff keeps going right through the bread. "I wish Mother'd get the spreadable kind of cream cheese.

Whenever Meg was deeply worried she got angry. If you've been talking about dragons in the garden or wherever they are, I suppose that explains it." "I happen to care that you've been in school for two months now and not a single week has gone by that you haven't been roughed up. "Okay, did the big boys jump you in the schoolyard this time, or when you got off the bus?" She looked at him, scowling with an anxiety she did not like to admit to herself, at the fresh rips in the knees of his blue jeans, the streaks of dirt grained deep in his shirt, a darkening bruise on the cheekbone under his left eye. I think I'll have liverwurst and cream cheese." She took her sandwich materials and a bottle of milk and set them out on the kitchen table. I was looking for something new and different and exciting." "I suppose I'll have lettuce and tomato as usual. Meg, not replying-it did not do to answer Charles Wallace too quickly when he said something odd-returned to the refrigerator. "There are dragons in the twins' vegetable garden. Meg Murry took her head out of the refrigerator where she had been foraging for an after-school snack, and looked at her six-year-old brother.


There are dragons in the twins' vegetable garden."
