lionel jumped off the white horse's back in the very middle of the pebbly waste, and he hurriedly unclasped the book of beasts and laid it open on the pebbles. then he clattered among the pebbles in his haste to get back on to his white horse, and had just jumped on when up came the dragon. he was flying very feebly, and looking around everywhere for a tree, for it was just on the stroke of twelve, the sun was shining like a gold guinea in the blue sky, and there was not a tree for a hundred miles.