mary ann looked around the big pillar and called to the dragon: "bo! you can't catch me," and began to run as fast as ever she could, and the dragon ran after her. when the princess had run a half mile she stopped, dodged around a tree, and ran back to the pillar and around it, and the dragon after her. you see, he was so long he could not turn as quickly as she could. around and around the pillar ran the princess. the first time she ran around a long way from the pillar, and then nearer and nearer with the dragon after her all the time; and he was so busy trying to catch her that he never noticed that tom had tied the very end of his long, tight, whipcordy tail to the rock, so that the more the dragon ran around, the more times he twisted his tail around the pillar.