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diff --git a/old/rd2oz10.txt b/old/rd2oz10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e786218 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/rd2oz10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5405 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Road to Oz, by L. Frank Baum +#6 in our L. Frank Baum series +#5 in the Oz series + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. We need your donations. + + +The Road to Oz + +by L. 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If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Association / Illinois + Benedictine College" within the 60 days following each + date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) + your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, +scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty +free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution +you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg +Association / Illinois Benedictine College". + +*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +The Road to Oz + +In which is related how Dorothy Gale of Kansas, +The Shaggy Man, Button Bright, and Polychrome +the Rainbow's Daughter met on an +Enchanted Road and followed +it all the way to the +Marvelous Land +of Oz. + +by L. Frank Baum +"Royal Historian of Oz" + + + +Contents + +--To My Readers-- +1. The Way to Butterfield +2. Dorothy Meets Button-Bright +3. A Queer Village +4. King Dox +5. The Rainbow's Daughter +6. The City of Beasts +7. The Shaggy Man's Transformation +8. The Musicker +9. Facing the Scoodlers +10. Escaping the Soup-Kettle +11. Johnny Dooit Does It +12. The Deadly Desert Crossed +13. The Truth Pond +14. Tik-Tok and Billina +15. The Emperor's Tin Castle +16. Visiting the Pumpkin-Field +17. The Royal Chariot Arrives +18. The Emerald City +19. The Shaggy Man's Welcome +20. Princess Ozma of Oz +21. Dorothy Receives the Guests +22. Important Arrivals +23. The Grand Banquet +24. The Birthday Celebration + + + + +To My Readers + + +Well, my dears, here is what you have asked for: another "Oz Book" +about Dorothy's strange adventures. Toto is in this story, because +you wanted him to be there, and many other characters which you will +recognize are in the story, too. Indeed, the wishes of my little +correspondents have been considered as carefully as possible, and if +the story is not exactly as you would have written it yourselves, you +must remember that a story has to be a story before it can be written +down, and the writer cannot change it much without spoiling it. + +In the preface to "Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz" I said I would like +to write some stories that were not "Oz" stories, because I thought I +had written about Oz long enough; but since that volume was published +I have been fairly deluged with letters from children imploring me to +"write more about Dorothy," and "more about Oz," and since I write +only to please the children I shall try to respect their wishes. + +There are some new characters in this book that ought to win your +live. I'm very fond of the shaggy man myself, and I think you will +like him, too. As for Polychrome--the Rainbow's Daughter--and stupid +little Button-Bright, they seem to have brought a new element of fun +into these Oz stories, and I am glad I discovered them. Yet I am +anxious to have you write and tell me how you like them. + +Since this book was written I have received some very remarkable News +from The Land of Oz, which has greatly astonished me. I believe it +will astonish you, too, my dears, when you hear it. But it is such a +long and exciting story that it must be saved for another book--and +perhaps that book will be the last story that will ever be told about +the Land of Oz. + +L. FRANK BAUM + +Coronado, 1909. + + + +1. The Way to Butterfield + + +"Please, miss," said the shaggy man, "can you tell me the road +to Butterfield?" + +Dorothy looked him over. Yes, he was shaggy, all right, but there was +a twinkle in his eye that seemed pleasant. + +"Oh yes," she replied; "I can tell you. But it isn't this road at all." + +"No?" + +"You cross the ten-acre lot, follow the lane to the highway, go north +to the five branches, and take--let me see--" + +"To be sure, miss; see as far as Butterfield, if you like," said the +shaggy man. + +"You take the branch next the willow stump, I b'lieve; or else the +branch by the gopher holes; or else--" + +"Won't any of 'em do, miss?" + +"'Course not, Shaggy Man. You must take the right road to get +to Butterfield." + +"And is that the one by the gopher stump, or--" + +"Dear me!" cried Dorothy. "I shall have to show you the way, you're +so stupid. Wait a minute till I run in the house and get my sunbonnet." + +The shaggy man waited. He had an oat-straw in his mouth, which he +chewed slowly as if it tasted good; but it didn't. There was an +apple-tree beside the house, and some apples had fallen to the ground. +The shaggy man thought they would taste better than the oat-straw, so +he walked over to get some. A little black dog with bright brown eyes +dashed out of the farm-house and ran madly toward the shaggy man, who +had already picked up three apples and put them in one of the big +wide pockets of his shaggy coat. The little dog barked and made a +dive for the shaggy man's leg; but he grabbed the dog by the neck and +put it in his big pocket along with the apples. He took more apples, +afterward, for many were on the ground; and each one that he tossed +into his pocket hit the little dog somewhere upon the head or back, +and made him growl. The little dog's name was Toto, and he was sorry +he had been put in the shaggy man's pocket. + +Pretty soon Dorothy came out of the house with her sunbonnet, and she +called out: + +"Come on, Shaggy Man, if you want me to show you the road to +Butterfield." She climbed the fence into the ten-acre lot and he +followed her, walking slowly and stumbling over the little hillocks in +the pasture as if he was thinking of something else and did not notice +them. + +"My, but you're clumsy!" said the little girl. "Are your feet tired?" + +"No, miss; it's my whiskers; they tire very easily in this warm +weather," said he. "I wish it would snow, don't you?" + +"'Course not, Shaggy Man," replied Dorothy, giving him a severe look. +"If it snowed in August it would spoil the corn and the oats and the +wheat; and then Uncle Henry wouldn't have any crops; and that would +make him poor; and--" + +"Never mind," said the shaggy man. "It won't snow, I guess. Is this +the lane?" + +"Yes," replied Dorothy, climbing another fence; "I'll go as far as +the highway with you." + +"Thankee, miss; you're very kind for your size, I'm sure," +said he gratefully. + +"It isn't everyone who knows the road to Butterfield," Dorothy +remarked as she tripped along the lane; "but I've driven there many a +time with Uncle Henry, and so I b'lieve I could find it blindfolded." + +"Don't do that, miss," said the shaggy man earnestly; "you might make +a mistake." + +"I won't," she answered, laughing. "Here's the highway. Now it's the +second--no, the third turn to the left--or else it's the fourth. +Let's see. The first one is by the elm tree, and the second is by the +gopher holes; and then--" + +"Then what?" he inquired, putting his hands in his coat pockets. +Toto grabbed a finger and bit it; the shaggy man took his hand out of +that pocket quickly, and said "Oh!" + +Dorothy did not notice. She was shading her eyes from the sun with +her arm, looking anxiously down the road. + +"Come on," she commanded. "It's only a little way farther, so I may +as well show you." + +After a while, they came to the place where five roads branched in +different directions; Dorothy pointed to one, and said: + +"That's it, Shaggy Man." + +"I'm much obliged, miss," he said, and started along another road. + +"Not that one!" she cried; "you're going wrong." + +He stopped. + +"I thought you said that other was the road to Butterfield," said he, +running his fingers through his shaggy whiskers in a puzzled way. + +"So it is." + +"But I don't want to go to Butterfield, miss." + +"You don't?" + +"Of course not. I wanted you to show me the road, so I shouldn't go +there by mistake." + +"Oh! Where DO you want to go, then?" + +"I'm not particular, miss." + +This answer astonished the little girl; and it made her provoked, too, +to think she had taken all this trouble for nothing. + +"There are a good many roads here," observed the shaggy man, turning +slowly around, like a human windmill. "Seems to me a person could go +'most anywhere, from this place." + +Dorothy turned around too, and gazed in surprise. There WERE a +good many roads; more than she had ever seen before. She tried to +count them, knowing there ought to be five, but when she had counted +seventeen she grew bewildered and stopped, for the roads were as many +as the spokes of a wheel and ran in every direction from the place +where they stood; so if she kept on counting she was likely to count +some of the roads twice. + +"Dear me!" she exclaimed. "There used to be only five roads, highway +and all. And now--why, where's the highway, Shaggy Man?" + +"Can't say, miss," he responded, sitting down upon the ground as if +tired with standing. "Wasn't it here a minute ago?" + +"I thought so," she answered, greatly perplexed. "And I saw the +gopher holes, too, and the dead stump; but they're not here now. +These roads are all strange--and what a lot of them there are! +Where do you suppose they all go to?" + +"Roads," observed the shaggy man, "don't go anywhere. They stay in +one place, so folks can walk on them." + +He put his hand in his side-pocket and drew out an apple--quick, +before Toto could bite him again. The little dog got his head out +this time and said "Bow-wow!" so loudly that it made Dorothy jump. + +"O, Toto!" she cried; "where did you come from?" + +"I brought him along," said the shaggy man. + +"What for?" she asked. + +"To guard these apples in my pocket, miss, so no one would steal them." + +With one hand the shaggy man held the apple, which he began eating, +while with the other hand he pulled Toto out of his pocket and dropped +him to the ground. Of course Toto made for Dorothy at once, barking +joyfully at his release from the dark pocket. When the child had +patted his head lovingly, he sat down before her, his red tongue +hanging out one side of his mouth, and looked up into her face with +his bright brown eyes, as if asking her what they should do next. + +Dorothy didn't know. She looked around her anxiously for some +familiar landmark; but everything was strange. Between the branches +of the many roads were green meadows and a few shrubs and trees, but +she couldn't see anywhere the farm-house from which she had just come, +or anything she had ever seen before--except the shaggy man and Toto. +Besides this, she had turned around and around so many times trying to +find out where she was, that now she couldn't even tell which +direction the farm-house ought to be in; and this began to worry her +and make her feel anxious. + +"I'm 'fraid, Shaggy Man," she said, with a sigh, "that we're lost!" + +"That's nothing to be afraid of," he replied, throwing away the core +of his apple and beginning to eat another one. "Each of these roads +must lead somewhere, or it wouldn't be here. So what does it matter?" + +"I want to go home again," she said. + +"Well, why don't you?" said he. + +"I don't know which road to take." + +"That is too bad," he said, shaking his shaggy head gravely. "I wish +I could help you; but I can't. I'm a stranger in these parts." + +"Seems as if I were, too," she said, sitting down beside him. "It's +funny. A few minutes ago I was home, and I just came to show you the +way to Butterfield--" + +"So I shouldn't make a mistake and go there--" + +"And now I'm lost myself and don't know how to get home!" + +"Have an apple," suggested the shaggy man, handing her one with pretty +red cheeks. + +"I'm not hungry," said Dorothy, pushing it away. + +"But you may be, to-morrow; then you'll be sorry you didn't eat the +apple," said he. + +"If I am, I'll eat the apple then," promised Dorothy. + +"Perhaps there won't be any apple then," he returned, beginning to eat +the red-cheeked one himself. "Dogs sometimes can find their way home +better than people," he went on; "perhaps your dog can lead you back +to the farm." + +"Will you, Toto?" asked Dorothy. + +Toto wagged his tail vigorously. + +"All right," said the girl; "let's go home." + +Toto looked around a minute and dashed up one of the roads. + +"Good-bye, Shaggy Man," called Dorothy, and ran after Toto. The +little dog pranced briskly along for some distance; when he turned +around and looked at his mistress questioningly. + +"Oh, don't 'spect ME to tell you anything; I don't know the way," she +said. "You'll have to find it yourself." + +But Toto couldn't. He wagged his tail, and sneezed, and shook his +ears, and trotted back where they had left the shaggy man. From here +he started along another road; then came back and tried another; but +each time he found the way strange and decided it would not take them +to the farm-house. Finally, when Dorothy had begun to tire with +chasing after him, Toto sat down panting beside the shaggy man and +gave up. + +Dorothy sat down, too, very thoughtful. The little girl had +encountered some queer adventures since she came to live at the farm; +but this was the queerest of them all. To get lost in fifteen minutes, +so near to her home and in the unromantic State of Kansas, was an +experience that fairly bewildered her. + +"Will your folks worry?" asked the shaggy man, his eyes twinkling in +a pleasant way. + +"I s'pose so," answered Dorothy with a sigh. "Uncle Henry says +there's ALWAYS something happening to me; but I've always come +home safe at the last. So perhaps he'll take comfort and think I'll +come home safe this time." + +"I'm sure you will," said the shaggy man, smilingly nodding at her. +"Good little girls never come to any harm, you know. For my part, I'm +good, too; so nothing ever hurts me." + +Dorothy looked at him curiously. His clothes were shaggy, his boots +were shaggy and full of holes, and his hair and whiskers were shaggy. +But his smile was sweet and his eyes were kind. + +"Why didn't you want to go to Butterfield?" she asked. + +"Because a man lives there who owes me fifteen cents, and if I went to +Butterfield and he saw me he'd want to pay me the money. I don't want +money, my dear." + +"Why not?" she inquired. + +"Money," declared the shaggy man, "makes people proud and haughty. I +don't want to be proud and haughty. All I want is to have people love +me; and as long as I own the Love Magnet, everyone I meet is sure to +love me dearly." + +"The Love Magnet! Why, what's that?" + +"I'll show you, if you won't tell any one," he answered, in a low, +mysterious voice. + +"There isn't any one to tell, 'cept Toto," said the girl. + +The shaggy man searched in one pocket, carefully; and in another +pocket; and in a third. At last he drew out a small parcel wrapped in +crumpled paper and tied with a cotton string. He unwound the string, +opened the parcel, and took out a bit of metal shaped like a +horseshoe. It was dull and brown, and not very pretty. + +"This, my dear," said he, impressively, "is the wonderful Love Magnet. +It was given me by an Eskimo in the Sandwich Islands--where there are +no sandwiches at all--and as long as I carry it every living thing I +meet will love me dearly." + +"Why didn't the Eskimo keep it?" she asked, looking at the Magnet +with interest. + +"He got tired of being loved and longed for some one to hate him. +So he gave me the Magnet and the very next day a grizzly bear ate him." + +"Wasn't he sorry then?" she inquired. + +"He didn't say," replied the shaggy man, wrapping and tying the Love +Magnet with great care and putting it away in another pocket. "But +the bear didn't seem sorry a bit," he added. + +"Did you know the bear?" asked Dorothy. + +"Yes; we used to play ball together in the Caviar Islands. The bear +loved me because I had the Love Magnet. I couldn't blame him for +eating the Eskimo, because it was his nature to do so." + +"Once," said Dorothy, "I knew a Hungry Tiger who longed to eat fat +babies, because it was his nature to; but he never ate any because he +had a Conscience." + +"This bear," replied the shaggy man, with a sigh, "had no Conscience, +you see." + +The shaggy man sat silent for several minutes, apparently considering +the cases of the bear and the tiger, while Toto watched him with an +air of great interest. The little dog was doubtless thinking of his +ride in the shaggy man's pocket and planning to keep out of reach in +the future. + +At last the shaggy man turned and inquired, "What's your name, +little girl?" + +"My name's Dorothy," said she, jumping up again, "but what are we +going to do? We can't stay here forever, you know." + +"Let's take the seventh road," he suggested. "Seven is a lucky number +for little girls named Dorothy." + +"The seventh from where?" + +"From where you begin to count." + +So she counted seven roads, and the seventh looked just like all the +others; but the shaggy man got up from the ground where he had been +sitting and started down this road as if sure it was the best way to +go; and Dorothy and Toto followed him. + + + +2. Dorothy Meets Button-Bright + + +The seventh road was a good road, and curved this way and that-- +winding through green meadows and fields covered with daisies and +buttercups and past groups of shady trees. There were no houses +of any sort to be seen, and for some distance they met with no living +creature at all. + +Dorothy began to fear they were getting a good way from the +farm-house, since here everything was strange to her; but it would do +no good at all to go back where the other roads all met, because the +next one they chose might lead her just as far from home. + +She kept on beside the shaggy man, who whistled cheerful tunes to +beguile the journey, until by and by they followed a turn in the road +and saw before them a big chestnut tree making a shady spot over the +highway. In the shade sat a little boy dressed in sailor clothes, who +was digging a hole in the earth with a bit of wood. He must have been +digging some time, because the hole was already big enough to drop a +football into. + +Dorothy and Toto and the shaggy man came to a halt before the little +boy, who kept on digging in a sober and persistent fashion. + +"Who are you?" asked the girl. + +He looked up at her calmly. His face was round and chubby and his +eyes were big, blue and earnest. + +"I'm Button-Bright," said he. + +"But what's your real name?" she inquired. + +"Button-Bright." + +"That isn't a really-truly name!" she exclaimed. + +"Isn't it?" he asked, still digging. + +"'Course not. It's just a--a thing to call you by. You must have a name." + +"Must I?" + +"To be sure. What does your mama call you?" + +He paused in his digging and tried to think. + +"Papa always said I was bright as a button; so mama always called me +Button-Bright," he said. + +"What is your papa's name?" + +"Just Papa." + +"What else?" + +"Don't know." + +"Never mind," said the shaggy man, smiling. "We'll call the boy +Button-Bright, as his mama does. That name is as good as any, +and better than some." + +Dorothy watched the boy dig. + +"Where do you live?" she asked. + +"Don't know," was the reply. + +"How did you come here?" + +"Don't know," he said again. + +"Don't you know where you came from?" + +"No," said he. + +"Why, he must be lost," she said to the shaggy man. She turned +to the boy once more. + +"What are you going to do?" she inquired. + +"Dig," said he. + +"But you can't dig forever; and what are you going to do then?" +she persisted. + +"Don't know," said the boy. + +"But you MUST know SOMETHING," declared Dorothy, getting provoked. + +"Must I?" he asked, looking up in surprise. + +"Of course you must." + +"What must I know?" + +"What's going to become of you, for one thing," she answered. + +"Do YOU know what's going to become of me?" he asked. + +"Not--not 'zactly," she admitted. + +"Do you know what's going to become of YOU?" he continued, earnestly. + +"I can't say I do," replied Dorothy, remembering her present difficulties. + +The shaggy man laughed. + +"No one knows everything, Dorothy," he said. + +"But Button-Bright doesn't seem to know ANYthing," she declared. "Do +you, Button-Bright?" + +He shook his head, which had pretty curls all over it, and replied +with perfect calmness: + +"Don't know." + +Never before had Dorothy met with anyone who could give her so little +information. The boy was evidently lost, and his people would be sure +to worry about him. He seemed two or three years younger than Dorothy, +and was prettily dressed, as if someone loved him dearly and took much +pains to make him look well. How, then, did he come to be in this +lonely road? she wondered. + +Near Button-Bright, on the ground, lay a sailor hat with a gilt anchor +on the band. His sailor trousers were long and wide at the bottom, +and the broad collar of his blouse had gold anchors sewed on its +corners. The boy was still digging at his hole. + +"Have you ever been to sea?" asked Dorothy. + +"To see what?" answered Button-Bright. + +"I mean, have you ever been where there's water?" + +"Yes," said Button-Bright; "there's a well in our back yard." + +"You don't understand," cried Dorothy. "I mean, have you ever been on +a big ship floating on a big ocean?" + +"Don't know," said he. + +"Then why do you wear sailor clothes?" + +"Don't know," he answered, again. + +Dorothy was in despair. + +"You're just AWFUL stupid, Button-Bright," she said. + +"Am I?" he asked. + +"Yes, you are." + +"Why?" looking up at her with big eyes. + +She was going to say: "Don't know," but stopped herself in time. + +"That's for you to answer," she replied. + +"It's no use asking Button-Bright questions," said the shaggy man, who +had been eating another apple; "but someone ought to take care of the +poor little chap, don't you think? So he'd better come along with us." + +Toto had been looking with great curiosity in the hole which the boy +was digging, and growing more and more excited every minute, perhaps +thinking that Button-Bright was after some wild animal. The little +dog began barking loudly and jumped into the hole himself, where he +began to dig with his tiny paws, making the earth fly in all directions. +It spattered over the boy. Dorothy seized him and raised him to +his feet, brushing his clothes with her hand. + +"Stop that, Toto!" she called. "There aren't any mice or woodchucks +in that hole, so don't be foolish." + +Toto stopped, sniffed at the hole suspiciously, and jumped out of it, +wagging his tail as if he had done something important. + +"Well," said the shaggy man, "let's start on, or we won't get anywhere +before night comes." + +"Where do you expect to get to?" asked Dorothy. + +"I'm like Button-Bright. I don't know," answered the shaggy man, with +a laugh. "But I've learned from long experience that every road leads +somewhere, or there wouldn't be any road; so it's likely that if we +travel long enough, my dear, we will come to some place or another in +the end. What place it will be we can't even guess at this moment, +but we're sure to find out when we get there." + +"Why, yes," said Dorothy; "that seems reas'n'ble, Shaggy Man." + + + +3. A Queer Village + + +Button-Bright took the shaggy man's hand willingly; for the shaggy man +had the Love Magnet, you know, which was the reason Button-Bright had +loved him at once. They started on, with Dorothy on one side, and Toto +on the other, the little party trudging along more cheerfully than you +might have supposed. The girl was getting used to queer adventures, +which interested her very much. Wherever Dorothy went Toto was sure +to go, like Mary's little lamb. Button-Bright didn't seem a bit +afraid or worried because he was lost, and the shaggy man had no home, +perhaps, and was as happy in one place as in another. + +Before long they saw ahead of them a fine big arch spanning the +road, and when they came nearer they found that the arch was +beautifully carved and decorated with rich colors. A row of peacocks +with spread tails ran along the top of it, and all the feathers were +gorgeously painted. In the center was a large fox's head, and the fox +wore a shrewd and knowing expression and had large spectacles over its +eyes and a small golden crown with shiny points on top of its head. + +While the travelers were looking with curiosity at this beautiful +arch there suddenly marched out of it a company of soldiers--only the +soldiers were all foxes dressed in uniforms. They wore green jackets +and yellow pantaloons, and their little round caps and their high +boots were a bright red color. Also, there was a big red bow tied +about the middle of each long, bushy tail. Each soldier was armed +with a wooden sword having an edge of sharp teeth set in a row, and +the sight of these teeth at first caused Dorothy to shudder. + +A captain marched in front of the company of fox-soldiers, his uniform +embroidered with gold braid to make it handsomer than the others. + +Almost before our friends realized it the soldiers had surrounded +them on all sides, and the captain was calling out in a harsh voice: + +"Surrender! You are our prisoners." + +"What's a pris'ner?" asked Button-Bright. + +"A prisoner is a captive," replied the fox-captain, strutting up and +down with much dignity. + +"What's a captive?" asked Button-Bright. + +"You're one," said the captain. + +That made the shaggy man laugh + +"Good afternoon, captain," he said, bowing politely to all the foxes +and very low to their commander. "I trust you are in good health, and +that your families are all well?" + +The fox-captain looked at the shaggy man, and his sharp features grew +pleasant and smiling. + +"We're pretty well, thank you, Shaggy Man," said he; and Dorothy knew +that the Love Magnet was working and that all the foxes now loved the +shaggy man because of it. But Toto didn't know this, for he began +barking angrily and tried to bite the captain's hairy leg where it +showed between his red boots and his yellow pantaloons. + +"Stop, Toto!" cried the little girl, seizing the dog in her arms. +"These are our friends." + +"Why, so we are!" remarked the captain in tones of astonishment. +"I thought at first we were enemies, but it seems you are friends +instead. You must come with me to see King Dox." + +"Who's he?" asked Button-Bright, with earnest eyes. + +"King Dox of Foxville; the great and wise sovereign who rules over +our community." + +"What's sov'rin, and what's c'u'nity?" inquired Button-Bright. + +"Don't ask so many questions, little boy." + +"Why?" + +"Ah, why indeed?" exclaimed the captain, looking at Button-Bright +admiringly. "If you don't ask questions you will learn nothing. +True enough. I was wrong. You're a very clever little boy, come to +think of it--very clever indeed. But now, friends, please come with +me, for it is my duty to escort you at once to the royal palace." + +The soldiers marched back through the arch again, and with them +marched the shaggy man, Dorothy, Toto, and Button-Bright. Once +through the opening they found a fine, big city spread out before +them, all the houses of carved marble in beautiful colors. The +decorations were mostly birds and other fowl, such as peacocks, +pheasants, turkeys, prairie-chickens, ducks, and geese. Over each +doorway was carved a head representing the fox who lived in that +house, this effect being quite pretty and unusual. + +As our friends marched along, some of the foxes came out on the +porches and balconies to get a view of the strangers. These foxes +were all handsomely dressed, the girl-foxes and women-foxes wearing +gowns of feathers woven together effectively and colored in bright +hues which Dorothy thought were quite artistic and decidedly attractive. + +Button-Bright stared until his eyes were big and round, and he would +have stumbled and fallen more than once had not the shaggy man grasped +his hand tightly. They were all interested, and Toto was so excited +he wanted to bark every minute and to chase and fight every fox he +caught sight of; but Dorothy held his little wiggling body fast in her +arms and commanded him to be good and behave himself. So he finally +quieted down, like a wise doggy, deciding there were too many foxes in +Foxville to fight at one time. + +By-and-by they came to a big square, and in the center of the square +stood the royal palace. Dorothy knew it at once because it had over +its great door the carved head of a fox just like the one she had seen +on the arch, and this fox was the only one who wore a golden crown. + +There were many fox-soldiers guarding the door, but they bowed to the +captain and admitted him without question. The captain led them +through many rooms, where richly dressed foxes were sitting on +beautiful chairs or sipping tea, which was being passed around by +fox-servants in white aprons. They came to a big doorway covered with +heavy curtains of cloth of gold. + +Beside this doorway stood a huge drum. The fox-captain went to this +drum and knocked his knees against it-- first one knee and then the +other--so that the drum said: "Boom-boom." + +"You must all do exactly what I do," ordered the captain; so the +shaggy man pounded the drum with his knees, and so did Dorothy and so +did Button-Bright. The boy wanted to keep on pounding it with his +little fat knees, because he liked the sound of it; but the captain +stopped him. Toto couldn't pound the drum with his knees and he +didn't know enough to wag his tail against it, so Dorothy pounded the +drum for him and that made him bark, and when the little dog barked +the fox-captain scowled. + +The golden curtains drew back far enough to make an opening, through +which marched the captain with the others. + +The broad, long room they entered was decorated in gold with +stained-glass windows of splendid colors. In the corner of the room +upon a richly carved golden throne, sat the fox-king, surrounded by a +group of other foxes, all of whom wore great spectacles over their +eyes, making them look solemn and important. + +Dorothy knew the King at once, because she had seen his head carved on +the arch and over the doorway of the palace. Having met with several +other kings in her travels, she knew what to do, and at once made a +low bow before the throne. The shaggy man bowed, too, and +Button-Bright bobbed his head and said "Hello." + +"Most wise and noble Potentate of Foxville," said the captain, +addressing the King in a pompous voice, "I humbly beg to report that I +found these strangers on the road leading to your Foxy Majesty's +dominions, and have therefore brought them before you, as is my duty." + +"So--so," said the King, looking at them keenly. "What brought you +here, strangers?" + +"Our legs, may it please your Royal Hairiness," replied the shaggy man. + +"What is your business here?" was the next question. + +"To get away as soon as possible," said the shaggy man. + +The King didn't know about the Magnet, of course; but it made him love +the shaggy man at once. + +"Do just as you please about going away," he said; "but I'd like to +show you the sights of my city and to entertain your party while you +are here. We feel highly honored to have little Dorothy with us, I +assure you, and we appreciate her kindness in making us a visit. For +whatever country Dorothy visits is sure to become famous." + +This speech greatly surprised the little girl, who asked: + +"How did your Majesty know my name?" + +"Why, everybody knows you, my dear," said the Fox-King. "Don't you +realize that? You are quite an important personage since Princess +Ozma of Oz made you her friend." + +"Do you know Ozma?" she asked, wondering. + +"I regret to say that I do not," he answered, sadly; "but I hope to +meet her soon. You know the Princess Ozma is to celebrate her +birthday on the twenty-first of this month." + +"Is she?" said Dorothy. "I didn't know that." + +"Yes; it is to be the most brilliant royal ceremony ever held in any +city in Fairyland, and I hope you will try to get me an invitation." + +Dorothy thought a moment. + +"I'm sure Ozma would invite you if I asked her," she said; "but how +could you get to the Land of Oz and the Emerald City? It's a good way +from Kansas." + +"Kansas!" he exclaimed, surprised. + +"Why, yes; we are in Kansas now, aren't we?" she returned. + +"What a queer notion!" cried the Fox-King, beginning to laugh. +"Whatever made you think this is Kansas?" + +"I left Uncle Henry's farm only about two hours ago; that's the +reason," she said, rather perplexed. + +"But, tell me, my dear, did you ever see so wonderful a city as +Foxville in Kansas?" he questioned. + +"No, your Majesty." + +"And haven't you traveled from Oz to Kansas in less than half a jiffy, +by means of the Silver Shoes and the Magic Belt?" + +"Yes, your Majesty," she acknowledged. + +"Then why do you wonder that an hour or two could bring you to +Foxville, which is nearer to Oz than it is to Kansas?" + +"Dear me!" exclaimed Dorothy; "is this another fairy adventure?" + +"It seems to be," said the Fox-King, smiling. + +Dorothy turned to the shaggy man, and her face was grave and reproachful. + +"Are you a magician? or a fairy in disguise?" she asked. "Did you +enchant me when you asked the way to Butterfield?" + +The shaggy man shook his head. + +"Who ever heard of a shaggy fairy?" he replied. "No, Dorothy, my +dear; I'm not to blame for this journey in any way, I assure you. +There's been something strange about me ever since I owned the Love +Magnet; but I don't know what it is any more than you do. I didn't +try to get you away from home, at all. If you want to find your way +back to the farm I'll go with you willingly, and do my best to help you." + +"Never mind," said the little girl, thoughtfully. "There isn't so +much to see in Kansas as there is here, and I guess Aunt Em won't be +VERY much worried; that is, if I don't stay away too long." + +"That's right," declared the Fox-King, nodding approval. "Be +contented with your lot, whatever it happens to be, if you are wise. +Which reminds me that you have a new companion on this adventure--he +looks very clever and bright." + +"He is," said Dorothy; and the shaggy man added: + +"That's his name, your Royal Foxiness--Button-Bright." + + + +4. King Dox + + +It was amusing to note the expression on the face of King Dox as he +looked the boy over, from his sailor hat to his stubby shoes, and it +was equally diverting to watch Button-Bright stare at the King in +return. No fox ever beheld a fresher, fairer child's face, and no +child had ever before heard a fox talk, or met with one who dressed so +handsomely and ruled so big a city. I am sorry to say that no one had +ever told the little boy much about fairies of any kind; this being +the case, it is easy to understand how much this strange experience +startled and astonished him. + +"How do you like us?" asked the King. + +"Don't know," said Button-Bright. + +"Of course you don't. It's too short an acquaintance," returned his +Majesty. "What do you suppose my name is?" + +"Don't know," said Button-Bright. + +"How should you? Well, I'll tell you. My private name is Dox, but a +King can't be called by his private name; he has to take one that is +official. Therefore my official name is King Renard the Fourth. +Ren-ard with the accent on the 'Ren'." + +"What's 'ren'?" asked Button-Bright. + +"How clever!" exclaimed the King, turning a pleased face toward his +counselors. "This boy is indeed remarkably bright. 'What's 'ren'?' +he asks; and of course 'ren' is nothing at all, all by itself. Yes, +he's very bright indeed." + +"That question is what your Majesty might call foxy," said one of the +counselors, an old grey fox. + +"So it is," declared the King. Turning again to Button-Bright, he asked: + +"Having told you my name, what would you call me?" + +"King Dox," said the boy. + +"Why?" + +"'Cause 'ren''s nothing at all," was the reply. + +"Good! Very good indeed! You certainly have a brilliant mind. Do +you know why two and two make four?" + +"No," said Button-Bright. + +"Clever! clever indeed! Of course you don't know. Nobody knows why; +we only know it's so, and can't tell why it's so. Button-Bright, +those curls and blue eyes do not go well with so much wisdom. They +make you look too youthful, and hide your real cleverness. Therefore, +I will do you a great favor. I will confer upon you the head of a fox, +so that you may hereafter look as bright as you really are." + +As he spoke the King waved his paw toward the boy, and at once the +pretty curls and fresh round face and big blue eyes were gone, +while in their place a fox's head appeared upon Button-Bright's +shoulders--a hairy head with a sharp nose, pointed ears, and keen +little eyes. + +"Oh, don't do that!" cried Dorothy, shrinking back from her +transformed companion with a shocked and dismayed face. + +"Too late, my dear; it's done. But you also shall have a fox's head +if you can prove you're as clever as Button-Bright." + +"I don't want it; it's dreadful!" she exclaimed; and, hearing this +verdict, Button-Bright began to boo-hoo just as if he were still a +little boy. + +"How can you call that lovely head dreadful?" asked the King. "It's +a much prettier face than he had before, to my notion, and my wife +says I'm a good judge of beauty. Don't cry, little fox-boy. Laugh +and be proud, because you are so highly favored. How do you like the +new head, Button-Bright?" + +"D-d-don't n-n-n-know!" sobbed the child. + +"Please, PLEASE change him back again, your Majesty!" begged Dorothy. + +King Renard IV shook his head. + +"I can't do that," he said; "I haven't the power, even if I wanted +to. No, Button-Bright must wear his fox head, and he'll be sure to +love it dearly as soon as he gets used to it." + +Both the shaggy man and Dorothy looked grave and anxious, for they +were sorrowful that such a misfortune had overtaken their little +companion. Toto barked at the fox-boy once or twice, not realizing it +was his former friend who now wore the animal head; but Dorothy cuffed +the dog and made him stop. As for the foxes, they all seemed to think +Button-Bright's new head very becoming and that their King had +conferred a great honor on this little stranger. It was funny to see +the boy reach up to feel of his sharp nose and wide mouth, and wail +afresh with grief. He wagged his ears in a comical manner and tears +were in his little black eyes. But Dorothy couldn't laugh at her +friend just yet, because she felt so sorry. + +Just then three little fox-princesses, daughters of the King, entered +the room, and when they saw Button-Bright one exclaimed: "How lovely +he is!" and the next one cried in delight: "How sweet he is!" and +the third princess clapped her hands with pleasure and said, "How +beautiful he is!" + +Button-Bright stopped crying and asked timidly: + +"Am I?" + +"In all the world there is not another face so pretty," declared the +biggest fox-princess. + +"You must live with us always, and be our brother," said the next. + +"We shall all love you dearly," the third said. + +This praise did much to comfort the boy, and he looked around and +tried to smile. It was a pitiful attempt, because the fox face was +new and stiff, and Dorothy thought his expression more stupid than +before the transformation. + +"I think we ought to be going now," said the shaggy man, uneasily, +for he didn't know what the King might take into his head to do next. + +"Don't leave us yet, I beg of you," pleaded King Renard. "I intend to +have several days of feasting and merry-making in honor of your visit." + +"Have it after we're gone, for we can't wait," said Dorothy, decidedly. +But seeing this displeased the King, she added: "If I'm going to get +Ozma to invite you to her party I'll have to find her as soon as +poss'ble, you know." + +In spite of all the beauty of Foxville and the gorgeous dresses of its +inhabitants, both the girl and the shaggy man felt they were not quite +safe there, and would be glad to see the last of it. + +"But it is now evening," the King reminded them, "and you must stay +with us until morning, anyhow. Therefore, I invite you to be my +guests at dinner, and to attend the theater afterward and sit in the +royal box. To-morrow morning, if you really insist upon it, you may +resume your journey." + +They consented to this, and some of the fox-servants led them to a +suite of lovely rooms in the big palace. + +Button-Bright was afraid to be left alone, so Dorothy took him into +her own room. While a maid-fox dressed the little girl's hair--which +was a bit tangled--and put some bright, fresh ribbons in it, another +maid-fox combed the hair on poor Button-Bright's face and head and +brushed it carefully, tying a pink bow to each of his pointed ears. +The maids wanted to dress the children in fine costumes of woven feathers, +such as all the foxes wore; but neither of them consented to that. + +"A sailor suit and a fox head do not go well together," said one of +the maids, "for no fox was ever a sailor that I can remember." + +"I'm not a fox!" cried Button-Bright. + +"Alas, no," agreed the maid. "But you've got a lovely fox head on +your skinny shoulders, and that's ALMOST as good as being a fox." + +The boy, reminded of his misfortune, began to cry again. Dorothy +petted and comforted him and promised to find some way to restore +him his own head. + +"If we can manage to get to Ozma," she said, "the Princess will change +you back to yourself in half a second; so you just wear that fox head +as comf't'bly as you can, dear, and don't worry about it at all. It +isn't nearly as pretty as your own head, no matter what the foxes say; +but you can get along with it for a little while longer, can't you?" + +"Don't know," said Button-Bright, doubtfully; but he didn't cry any +more after that. + +Dorothy let the maids pin ribbons to her shoulders, after which they +were ready for the King's dinner. When they met the shaggy man in the +splendid drawing room of the palace they found him just the same as +before. He had refused to give up his shaggy clothes for new ones, +because if he did that he would no longer be the shaggy man, he said, +and he might have to get acquainted with himself all over again. + +He told Dorothy he had brushed his shaggy hair and whiskers; but she +thought he must have brushed them the wrong way, for they were quite +as shaggy as before. + +As for the company of foxes assembled to dine with the strangers, they +were most beautifully costumed, and their rich dresses made Dorothy's +simple gown and Button-Bright's sailor suit and the shaggy man's +shaggy clothes look commonplace. But they treated their guests with +great respect and the King's dinner was a very good dinner indeed. +Foxes, as you know, are fond of chicken and other fowl; so they served +chicken soup and roasted turkey and stewed duck and fried grouse and +broiled quail and goose pie, and as the cooking was excellent the +King's guests enjoyed the meal and ate heartily of the various dishes. + +The party went to the theater, where they saw a play acted by foxes +dressed in costumes of brilliantly colored feathers. The play was +about a fox-girl who was stolen by some wicked wolves and carried to +their cave; and just as they were about to kill her and eat her a +company of fox-soldiers marched up, saved the girl, and put all the +wicked wolves to death. + +"How do you like it?" the King asked Dorothy. + +"Pretty well," she answered. "It reminds me of one of Mr. +Aesop's fables." + +"Don't mention Aesop to me, I beg of you!" exclaimed King Dox. +"I hate that man's name. He wrote a good deal about foxes, but always +made them out cruel and wicked, whereas we are gentle and kind, as you +may see." + +"But his fables showed you to be wise and clever, and more shrewd than +other animals," said the shaggy man, thoughtfully. + +"So we are. There is no question about our knowing more than men do," +replied the King, proudly. "But we employ our wisdom to do good, +instead of harm; so that horrid Aesop did not know what he was +talking about." + +They did not like to contradict him, because they felt he ought to +know the nature of foxes better than men did; so they sat still and +watched the play, and Button-Bright became so interested that for the +time he forgot he wore a fox head. + +Afterward they went back to the palace and slept in soft beds stuffed +with feathers; for the foxes raised many fowl for food, and used their +feathers for clothing and to sleep upon. + +Dorothy wondered why the animals living in Foxville did not wear just +their own hairy skins as wild foxes do; when she mentioned it to King +Dox he said they clothed themselves because they were civilized. + +"But you were born without clothes," she observed, "and you don't seem +to me to need them." + +"So were human beings born without clothes," he replied; "and until +they became civilized they wore only their natural skins. But to +become civilized means to dress as elaborately and prettily as +possible, and to make a show of your clothes so your neighbors will +envy you, and for that reason both civilized foxes and civilized +humans spend most of their time dressing themselves." + +"I don't," declared the shaggy man. + +"That is true," said the King, looking at him carefully; "but perhaps +you are not civilized." + +After a sound sleep and a good night's rest they had their breakfast +with the King and then bade his Majesty good-bye. + +"You've been kind to us--'cept poor Button-Bright," said Dorothy, +"and we've had a nice time in Foxville." + +"Then," said King Dox, "perhaps you'll be good enough to get me an +invitation to Princess Ozma's birthday celebration." + +"I'll try," she promised; "if I see her in time." + +"It's on the twenty-first, remember," he continued; "and if you'll +just see that I'm invited I'll find a way to cross the Dreadful +Desert into the marvelous Land of Oz. I've always wanted to visit the +Emerald City, so I'm sure it was fortunate you arrived here just when +you did, you being Princess Ozma's friend and able to assist me in +getting the invitation." + +"If I see Ozma I'll ask her to invite you," she replied. + +The Fox-King had a delightful luncheon put up for them, which the +shaggy man shoved in his pocket, and the fox-captain escorted them to +an arch at the side of the village opposite the one by which they had +entered. Here they found more soldiers guarding the road. + +"Are you afraid of enemies?" asked Dorothy. + +"No; because we are watchful and able to protect ourselves," answered +the captain. "But this road leads to another village peopled by big, +stupid beasts who might cause us trouble if they thought we were +afraid of them." + +"What beasts are they?" asked the shaggy man. + +The captain hesitated to answer. Finally, he said: + +"You will learn all about them when you arrive at their city. But do +not be afraid of them. Button-Bright is so wonderfully clever and has +now such an intelligent face that I'm sure he will manage to find a +way to protect you." + +This made Dorothy and the shaggy man rather uneasy, for they had not +so much confidence in the fox-boy's wisdom as the captain seemed to +have. But as their escort would say no more about the beasts, they +bade him good-bye and proceeded on their journey. + + + +5. The Rainbow's Daughter + + +Toto, now allowed to run about as he pleased, was glad to be free +again and able to bark at the birds and chase the butterflies. +The country around them was charming, yet in the pretty fields of +wild-flowers and groves of leafy trees were no houses whatever, or sign +of any inhabitants. Birds flew through the air and cunning white +rabbits darted amongst the tall grasses and green bushes; Dorothy +noticed even the ants toiling busily along the roadway, bearing +gigantic loads of clover seed; but of people there were none at all. + +They walked briskly on for an hour or two, for even little Button-Bright +was a good walker and did not tire easily. At length as they turned +a curve in the road they beheld just before them a curious sight. + +A little girl, radiant and beautiful, shapely as a fairy and +exquisitely dressed, was dancing gracefully in the middle of the +lonely road, whirling slowly this way and that, her dainty feet +twinkling in sprightly fashion. She was clad in flowing, fluffy robes +of soft material that reminded Dorothy of woven cobwebs, only it was +colored in soft tintings of violet, rose, topaz, olive, azure, and +white, mingled together most harmoniously in stripes which melted one +into the other with soft blendings. Her hair was like spun gold and +flowed around her in a cloud, no strand being fastened or confined by +either pin or ornament or ribbon. + +Filled with wonder and admiration our friends approached and +stood watching this fascinating dance. The girl was no taller than +Dorothy, although more slender; nor did she seem any older than our +little heroine. + +Suddenly she paused and abandoned the dance, as if for the first time +observing the presence of strangers. As she faced them, shy as a +frightened fawn, poised upon one foot as if to fly the next instant, +Dorothy was astonished to see tears flowing from her violet eyes and +trickling down her lovely rose-hued cheeks. That the dainty maiden +should dance and weep at the same time was indeed surprising; so +Dorothy asked in a soft, sympathetic voice: + +"Are you unhappy, little girl?" + +"Very!" was the reply; "I am lost." + +"Why, so are we," said Dorothy, smiling; "but we don't cry about it." + +"Don't you? Why not?" + +"'Cause I've been lost before, and always got found again," +answered Dorothy simply. + +"But I've never been lost before," murmured the dainty maiden, +"and I'm worried and afraid." + +"You were dancing," remarked Dorothy, in a puzzled tone of voice. + +"Oh, that was just to keep warm," explained the maiden, quickly. +"It was not because I felt happy or gay, I assure you." + +Dorothy looked at her closely. Her gauzy flowing robes might not be +very warm, yet the weather wasn't at all chilly, but rather mild and +balmy, like a spring day. + +"Who are you, dear?" she asked, gently. + +"I'm Polychrome," was the reply. + +"Polly whom?" + +"Polychrome. I'm the Daughter of the Rainbow." + +"Oh!" said Dorothy with a gasp; "I didn't know the Rainbow had +children. But I MIGHT have known it, before you spoke. You +couldn't really be anything else." + +"Why not?" inquired Polychrome, as if surprised. + +"Because you're so lovely and sweet." + +The little maiden smiled through her tears, came up to Dorothy, and +placed her slender fingers in the Kansas girl's chubby hand. + +"You'll be my friend--won't you?" she said, pleadingly. + +"Of course." + +"And what is your name?" + +"I'm Dorothy; and this is my friend Shaggy Man, who owns the Love +Magnet; and this is Button-Bright--only you don't see him as he really +is because the Fox-King carelessly changed his head into a fox head. +But the real Button-Bright is good to look at, and I hope to get him +changed back to himself, some time." + +The Rainbow's Daughter nodded cheerfully, no longer afraid of +her new companions. + +"But who is this?" she asked, pointing to Toto, who was sitting +before her wagging his tail in the most friendly manner and +admiring the pretty maid with his bright eyes. "Is this, also, +some enchanted person?" + +"Oh no, Polly--I may call you Polly, mayn't I? Your whole name's +awful hard to say." + +"Call me Polly if you wish, Dorothy." + +"Well, Polly, Toto's just a dog; but he has more sense than +Button-Bright, to tell the truth; and I'm very fond of him." + +"So am I," said Polychrome, bending gracefully to pat Toto's head. + +"But how did the Rainbow's Daughter ever get on this lonely road, +and become lost?" asked the shaggy man, who had listened wonderingly +to all this. + +"Why, my father stretched his rainbow over here this morning, so that +one end of it touched this road," was the reply; "and I was dancing +upon the pretty rays, as I love to do, and never noticed I was getting +too far over the bend in the circle. Suddenly I began to slide, and +I went faster and faster until at last I bumped on the ground, at the +very end. Just then father lifted the rainbow again, without noticing +me at all, and though I tried to seize the end of it and hold fast, +it melted away entirely and I was left alone and helpless on the cold, +hard earth!" + +"It doesn't seem cold to me, Polly," said Dorothy; "but perhaps you're +not warmly dressed." + +"I'm so used to living nearer the sun," replied the Rainbow's Daughter, +"that at first I feared I would freeze down here. But my dance has +warmed me some, and now I wonder how I am ever to get home again." + +"Won't your father miss you, and look for you, and let down another +rainbow for you?" + +"Perhaps so, but he's busy just now because it rains in so many parts +of the world at this season, and he has to set his rainbow in a lot of +different places. What would you advise me to do, Dorothy?" + +"Come with us," was the answer. "I'm going to try to find my way to +the Emerald City, which is in the fairy Land of Oz. The Emerald City +is ruled by a friend of mine, the Princess Ozma, and if we can manage +to get there I'm sure she will know a way to send you home to your +father again." + +"Do you really think so?" asked Polychrome, anxiously. + +"I'm pretty sure." + +"Then I'll go with you," said the little maid; "for travel will help +keep me warm, and father can find me in one part of the world as well +as another--if he gets time to look for me." + +"Come along, then," said the shaggy man, cheerfully; and they started +on once more. Polly walked beside Dorothy a while, holding her new +friend's hand as if she feared to let it go; but her nature seemed as +light and buoyant as her fleecy robes, for suddenly she darted ahead +and whirled round in a giddy dance. Then she tripped back to them +with sparkling eyes and smiling cheeks, having regained her usual +happy mood and forgotten all her worry about being lost. + +They found her a charming companion, and her dancing and laughter-- +for she laughed at times like the tinkling of a silver bell--did much +to enliven their journey and keep them contented. + + + +6. The City Of Beasts + + +When noon came they opened the Fox-King's basket of luncheon, and +found a nice roasted turkey with cranberry sauce and some slices of +bread and butter. As they sat on the grass by the roadside the +shaggy man cut up the turkey with his pocket-knife and passed slices +of it around. + +"Haven't you any dewdrops, or mist-cakes, or cloudbuns?" asked +Polychrome, longingly. + +"'Course not," replied Dorothy. "We eat solid things, down here on +the earth. But there's a bottle of cold tea. Try some, won't you?" + +The Rainbow's Daughter watched Button-Bright devour one leg of the turkey. + +"Is it good?" she asked. + +He nodded. + +"Do you think I could eat it?" + +"Not this," said Button-Bright. + +"But I mean another piece?" + +"Don't know," he replied. + +"Well, I'm going to try, for I'm very hungry," she decided, and took a +thin slice of the white breast of turkey which the shaggy man cut for +her, as well as a bit of bread and butter. When she tasted it +Polychrome thought the turkey was good--better even than +mist-cakes; but a little satisfied her hunger and she finished with a +tiny sip of cold tea. + +"That's about as much as a fly would eat," said Dorothy, who was +making a good meal herself. "But I know some people in Oz who eat +nothing at all." + +"Who are they?" inquired the shaggy man. + +"One is a scarecrow who's stuffed with straw, and the other a woodman +made out of tin. They haven't any appetites inside of 'em, you see; +so they never eat anything at all." + +"Are they alive?" asked Button-Bright. + +"Oh yes," replied Dorothy; "and they're very clever and very nice, +too. If we get to Oz I'll introduce them to you." + +"Do you really expect to get to Oz?" inquired the shaggy man, taking +a drink of cold tea. + +"I don't know just what to 'spect," answered the child, seriously; "but +I've noticed if I happen to get lost I'm almost sure to come to the +Land of Oz in the end, somehow 'r other; so I may get there this time. +But I can't promise, you know; all I can do is wait and see." + +"Will the Scarecrow scare me?" asked Button-Bright. + +"No; 'cause you're not a crow," she returned. "He has the loveliest +smile you ever saw--only it's painted on and he can't help it." + +Luncheon being over they started again upon their journey, the shaggy +man, Dorothy and Button-Bright walking soberly along, side by side, and +the Rainbow's Daughter dancing merrily before them. + +Sometimes she darted along the road so swiftly that she was nearly out +of sight, then she came tripping back to greet them with her silvery +laughter. But once she came back more sedately, to say: + +"There's a city a little way off." + +"I 'spected that," returned Dorothy; "for the fox-people warned us +there was one on this road. It's filled with stupid beasts of some +sort, but we musn't be afraid of 'em 'cause they won't hurt us." + +"All right," said Button-Bright; but Polychrome didn't know whether it +was all right or not. + +"It's a big city," she said, "and the road runs straight through it." + +"Never mind," said the shaggy man; "as long as I carry the Love +Magnet every living thing will love me, and you may be sure I shan't +allow any of my friends to be harmed in any way." + +This comforted them somewhat, and they moved on again. Pretty soon +they came to a signpost that read: + + +"HAF A MYLE TO DUNKITON." + + +"Oh," said the shaggy man, "if they're donkeys, we've nothing to fear +at all." + +"They may kick," said Dorothy, doubtfully. + +"Then we will cut some switches, and make them behave," he replied. +At the first tree he cut himself a long, slender switch from one of +the branches, and shorter switches for the others. + +"Don't be afraid to order the beasts around," he said; "they're used +to it." + +Before long the road brought them to the gates of the city. There was +a high wall all around, which had been whitewashed, and the gate just +before our travelers was a mere opening in the wall, with no bars +across it. No towers or steeples or domes showed above the enclosure, +nor was any living thing to be seen as our friends drew near. + +Suddenly, as they were about to boldly enter through the opening, +there arose a harsh clamor of sound that swelled and echoed on every +side, until they were nearly deafened by the racket and had to put +their fingers to their ears to keep the noise out. + +It was like the firing of many cannon, only there were no cannon-balls +or other missiles to be seen; it was like the rolling of mighty +thunder, only not a cloud was in the sky; it was like the roar of +countless breakers on a rugged seashore, only there was no sea or +other water anywhere about. + +They hesitated to advance; but, as the noise did no harm, they entered +through the whitewashed wall and quickly discovered the cause of the +turmoil. Inside were suspended many sheets of tin or thin iron, and +against these metal sheets a row of donkeys were pounding their heels +with vicious kicks. + +The shaggy man ran up to the nearest donkey and gave the beast a sharp +blow with his switch. + +"Stop that noise!" he shouted; and the donkey stopped kicking the +metal sheet and turned its head to look with surprise at the shaggy +man. He switched the next donkey, and made him stop, and then the +next, so that gradually the rattling of heels ceased and the awful +noise subsided. The donkeys stood in a group and eyed the strangers +with fear and trembling. + +"What do you mean by making such a racket?" asked the shaggy man, sternly. + +"We were scaring away the foxes," said one of the donkeys, meekly. +"Usually they run fast enough when they hear the noise, which makes +them afraid." + +"There are no foxes here," said the shaggy man. + +"I beg to differ with you. There's one, anyhow," replied the donkey, +sitting upright on its haunches and waving a hoof toward +Button-Bright. "We saw him coming and thought the whole army of foxes +was marching to attack us." + +"Button-Bright isn't a fox," explained the shaggy man. "He's only +wearing a fox head for a time, until he can get his own head back." + +"Oh, I see," remarked the donkey, waving its left ear reflectively. +"I'm sorry we made such a mistake, and had all our work and worry +for nothing." + +The other donkeys by this time were sitting up and examining the +strangers with big, glassy eyes. They made a queer picture, indeed; +for they wore wide, white collars around their necks and the collars +had many scallops and points. The gentlemen-donkeys wore high +pointed caps set between their great ears, and the lady-donkeys wore +sunbonnets with holes cut in the top for the ears to stick through. +But they had no other clothing except their hairy skins, although many +wore gold and silver bangles on their front wrists and bands of +different metals on their rear ankles. When they were kicking they +had braced themselves with their front legs, but now they all stood or +sat upright on their hind legs and used the front ones as arms. +Having no fingers or hands the beasts were rather clumsy, as you may +guess; but Dorothy was surprised to observe how many things they could +do with their stiff, heavy hoofs. + +Some of the donkeys were white, some were brown, or gray, or black, +or spotted; but their hair was sleek and smooth and their broad collars +and caps gave them a neat, if whimsical, appearance. + +"This is a nice way to welcome visitors, I must say!" remarked the +shaggy man, in a reproachful tone. + +"Oh, we did not mean to be impolite," replied a grey donkey which had +not spoken before. "But you were not expected, nor did you send in +your visiting cards, as it is proper to do." + +"There is some truth in that," admitted the shaggy man; "but, now +you are informed that we are important and distinguished travelers, +I trust you will accord us proper consideration." + +These big words delighted the donkeys, and made them bow to the shaggy +man with great respect. Said the grey one: + +"You shall be taken before his great and glorious Majesty King +Kik-a-bray, who will greet you as becomes your exalted stations." + +"That's right," answered Dorothy. "Take us to some one who +knows something." + +"Oh, we all know something, my child, or we shouldn't be donkeys," +asserted the grey one, with dignity. "The word 'donkey' means +'clever,' you know." + +"I didn't know it," she replied. "I thought it meant 'stupid'." + +"Not at all, my child. If you will look in the Encyclopedia +Donkaniara you will find I'm correct. But come; I will myself lead +you before our splendid, exalted, and most intellectual ruler." + +All donkeys love big words, so it is no wonder the grey one used so +many of them. + + + +7. The Shaggy Man's Transformation + + +They found the houses of the town all low and square and built of +bricks, neatly whitewashed inside and out. The houses were not set in +rows, forming regular streets, but placed here and there in a haphazard +manner which made it puzzling for a stranger to find his way. + +"Stupid people must have streets and numbered houses in their cities, +to guide them where to go," observed the grey donkey, as he walked +before the visitors on his hind legs, in an awkward but comical manner; +"but clever donkeys know their way about without such absurd marks. +Moreover, a mixed city is much prettier than one with straight streets." + +Dorothy did not agree with this, but she said nothing to contradict it. +Presently she saw a sign on a house that read: "Madam de Fayke, Hoofist," +and she asked their conductor: + +"What's a 'hoofist,' please?" + +"One who reads your fortune in your hoofs," replied the grey donkey. + +"Oh, I see," said the little girl. "You are quite civilized here." + +"Dunkiton," he replied, "is the center of the world's +highest civilization." + +They came to a house where two youthful donkeys were whitewashing the +wall, and Dorothy stopped a moment to watch them. They dipped the +ends of their tails, which were much like paint-brushes, into a pail of +whitewash, backed up against the house, and wagged their tails right +and left until the whitewash was rubbed on the wall, after which they +dipped these funny brushes in the pail again and repeated the performance. + +"That must be fun," said Button-Bright. + +"No, it's work," replied the old donkey; "but we make our youngsters +do all the whitewashing, to keep them out of mischief." + +"Don't they go to school?" asked Dorothy. + +"All donkeys are born wise," was the reply, "so the only school we +need is the school of experience. Books are only for those who know +nothing, and so are obliged to learn things from other people." + +"In other words, the more stupid one is, the more he thinks he knows," +observed the shaggy man. The grey donkey paid no attention to this +speech because he had just stopped before a house which had painted +over the doorway a pair of hoofs, with a donkey tail between them and +a rude crown and sceptre above. + +"I'll see if his magnificent Majesty King Kik-a-bray is at home," said +he. He lifted his head and called "Whee-haw! whee-haw! whee-haw!" +three times, in a shocking voice, turning about and kicking with his +heels against the panel of the door. For a time there was no reply; +then the door opened far enough to permit a donkey's head to stick out +and look at them. + +It was a white head, with big, awful ears and round, solemn eyes. + +"Have the foxes gone?" it asked, in a trembling voice. + +"They haven't been here, most stupendous Majesty," replied the grey +one. "The new arrivals prove to be travelers of distinction." + +"Oh," said the King, in a relieved tone of voice. "Let them come in." + +He opened the door wide, and the party marched into a big room, which, +Dorothy thought, looked quite unlike a king's palace. There were mats +of woven grasses on the floor and the place was clean and neat; but +his Majesty had no other furniture at all--perhaps because he didn't +need it. He squatted down in the center of the room and a little +brown donkey ran and brought a big gold crown which it placed on the +monarch's head, and a golden staff with a jeweled ball at the end of +it, which the King held between his front hoofs as he sat upright. + +"Now then," said his Majesty, waving his long ears gently to and fro, +"tell me why you are here, and what you expect me to do for you." He +eyed Button-Bright rather sharply, as if afraid of the little boy's +queer head, though it was the shaggy man who undertook to reply. + +"Most noble and supreme ruler of Dunkiton," he said, trying not to +laugh in the solemn King's face, "we are strangers traveling through +your dominions and have entered your magnificent city because the road +led through it, and there was no way to go around. All we desire is +to pay our respects to your Majesty--the cleverest king in all the +world, I'm sure--and then to continue on our way." + +This polite speech pleased the King very much; indeed, it pleased him +so much that it proved an unlucky speech for the shaggy man. Perhaps +the Love Magnet helped to win his Majesty's affections as well as the +flattery, but however this may be, the white donkey looked kindly upon +the speaker and said: + +"Only a donkey should be able to use such fine, big words, and you are +too wise and admirable in all ways to be a mere man. Also, I feel +that I love you as well as I do my own favored people, so I will +bestow upon you the greatest gift within my power--a donkey's head." + +As he spoke he waved his jeweled staff. Although the shaggy man +cried out and tried to leap backward and escape, it proved of no use. +Suddenly his own head was gone and a donkey head appeared in its +place--a brown, shaggy head so absurd and droll that Dorothy and Polly +both broke into merry laughter, and even Button-Bright's fox face wore +a smile. + +"Dear me! dear me!" cried the shaggy man, feeling of his shaggy new +head and his long ears. "What a misfortune--what a great misfortune! +Give me back my own head, you stupid king--if you love me at all!" + +"Don't you like it?" asked the King, surprised. + +"Hee-haw! I hate it! Take it away, quick!" said the shaggy man. + +"But I can't do that," was the reply. "My magic works only one way. +I can DO things, but I can't UNdo them. You'll have to find the +Truth Pond, and bathe in its water, in order to get back your own +head. But I advise you not to do that. This head is much more +beautiful than the old one." + +"That's a matter of taste," said Dorothy. + +"Where is the Truth Pond?" asked the shaggy man, earnestly. + +"Somewhere in the Land of Oz; but just the exact location of it I +can not tell," was the answer. + +"Don't worry, Shaggy Man," said Dorothy, smiling because her friend +wagged his new ears so comically. "If the Truth Pond is in Oz, we'll +be sure to find it when we get there." + +"Oh! Are you going to the Land of Oz?" asked King Kik-a-bray. + +"I don't know," she replied, "but we've been told we are nearer the +Land of Oz than to Kansas, and if that's so, the quickest way for me +to get home is to find Ozma." + +"Haw-haw! Do you know the mighty Princess Ozma?" asked the King, his +tone both surprised and eager. + +"'Course I do; she's my friend," said Dorothy. + +"Then perhaps you'll do me a favor," continued the white donkey, +much excited. + +"What is it?" she asked. + +"Perhaps you can get me an invitation to Princess Ozma's birthday +celebration, which will be the grandest royal function ever held in +Fairyland. I'd love to go." + +"Hee-haw! You deserve punishment, rather than reward, for giving +me this dreadful head," said the shaggy man, sorrowfully. + +"I wish you wouldn't say 'hee-haw' so much," Polychrome begged him; +"it makes cold chills run down my back." + +"But I can't help it, my dear; my donkey head wants to bray +continually," he replied. "Doesn't your fox head want to yelp every +minute?" he asked Button-Bright. + +"Don't know," said the boy, still staring at the shaggy man's ears. +These seemed to interest him greatly, and the sight also made him +forget his own fox head, which was a comfort. + +"What do you think, Polly? Shall I promise the donkey king an +invitation to Ozma's party?" asked Dorothy of the Rainbow's Daughter, +who was flitting about the room like a sunbeam because she could never +keep still. + +"Do as you please, dear," answered Polychrome. "He might help to +amuse the guests of the Princess." + +"Then, if you will give us some supper and a place to sleep to-night, +and let us get started on our journey early to-morrow morning," said +Dorothy to the King, "I'll ask Ozma to invite you--if I happen to get +to Oz." + +"Good! Hee-haw! Excellent!" cried Kik-a-bray, much pleased. "You +shall all have fine suppers and good beds. What food would you +prefer, a bran mash or ripe oats in the shell?" + +"Neither one," replied Dorothy, promptly. + +"Perhaps plain hay, or some sweet juicy grass would suit you better," +suggested Kik-a-bray, musingly. + +"Is that all you have to eat?" asked the girl. + +"What more do you desire?" + +"Well, you see we're not donkeys," she explained, "and so we're used +to other food. The foxes gave us a nice supper in Foxville." + +"We'd like some dewdrops and mist-cakes," said Polychrome. + +"I'd prefer apples and a ham sandwich," declared the shaggy man, "for +although I've a donkey head, I still have my own particular stomach." + +"I want pie," said Button-Bright. + +"I think some beefsteak and chocolate layer-cake would taste best," +said Dorothy. + +"Hee-haw! I declare!" exclaimed the King. "It seems each one of you +wants a different food. How queer all living creatures are, +except donkeys!" + +"And donkeys like you are queerest of all," laughed Polychrome. + +"Well," decided the King, "I suppose my Magic Staff will produce the +things you crave; if you are lacking in good taste it is not my fault." + +With this, he waved his staff with the jeweled ball, and before them +instantly appeared a tea-table, set with linen and pretty dishes, and +on the table were the very things each had wished for. Dorothy's +beefsteak was smoking hot, and the shaggy man's apples were plump and +rosy-cheeked. The King had not thought to provide chairs, so they all +stood in their places around the table and ate with good appetite, +being hungry. The Rainbow's Daughter found three tiny dewdrops on a +crystal plate, and Button-Bright had a big slice of apple pie, which +he devoured eagerly. + +Afterward the King called the brown donkey, which was his favorite +servant, and bade it lead his guests to the vacant house where they +were to pass the night. It had only one room and no furniture except +beds of clean straw and a few mats of woven grasses; but our travelers +were contented with these simple things because they realized it was +the best the Donkey-King had to offer them. As soon as it was dark +they lay down on the mats and slept comfortably until morning. + +At daybreak there was a dreadful noise throughout the city. Every +donkey in the place brayed. When he heard this the shaggy man woke +up and called out "Hee-haw!" as loud as he could. + +"Stop that!" said Button-Bright, in a cross voice. Both Dorothy and +Polly looked at the shaggy man reproachfully. + +"I couldn't help it, my dears," he said, as if ashamed of his bray; +"but I'll try not to do it again." + +Of coursed they forgave him, for as he still had the Love Magnet in +his pocket they were all obliged to love him as much as ever. + +They did not see the King again, but Kik-a-bray remembered them; +for a table appeared again in their room with the same food upon it +as on the night before. + +"Don't want pie for breakfus'," said Button-Bright. + +"I'll give you some of my beefsteak," proposed Dorothy; "there's +plenty for us all." + +That suited the boy better, but the shaggy man said he was content +with his apples and sandwiches, although he ended the meal by eating +Button-Bright's pie. Polly liked her dewdrops and mist-cakes better +than any other food, so they all enjoyed an excellent breakfast. Toto +had the scraps left from the beefsteak, and he stood up nicely on his +hind legs while Dorothy fed them to him. + +Breakfast ended, they passed through the village to the side opposite +that by which they had entered, the brown servant-donkey guiding them +through the maze of scattered houses. There was the road again, +leading far away into the unknown country beyond. + +"King Kik-a-bray says you must not forget his invitation," said the +brown donkey, as they passed through the opening in the wall. + +"I shan't," promised Dorothy. + +Perhaps no one ever beheld a more strangely assorted group than the +one which now walked along the road, through pretty green fields and +past groves of feathery pepper-trees and fragrant mimosa. Polychrome, +her beautiful gauzy robes floating around her like a rainbow cloud, +went first, dancing back and forth and darting now here to pluck a +wild-flower or there to watch a beetle crawl across the path. Toto ran +after her at times, barking joyously the while, only to become sober +again and trot along at Dorothy's heels. The little Kansas girl +walked holding Button-Bright's hand clasped in her own, and the wee +boy with his fox head covered by the sailor hat presented an odd +appeaance. Strangest of all, perhaps, was the shaggy man, with his +shaggy donkey head, who shuffled along in the rear with his hands +thrust deep in his big pockets. + +None of the party was really unhappy. All were straying in an unknown +land and had suffered more or less annoyance and discomfort; but they +realized they were having a fairy adventure in a fairy country, +and were much interested in finding out what would happen next. + + + +8. The Musicker + + +About the middle of the forenoon they began to go up a long hill. +By-and-by this hill suddenly dropped down into a pretty valley, +where the travelers saw, to their surprise, a small house standing +by the road-side. + +It was the first house they had seen, and they hastened into the +valley to discover who lived there. No one was in sight as they +approached, but when they began to get nearer the house they heard +queer sounds coming from it. They could not make these out at first, +but as they became louder our friends thought they heard a sort of +music like that made by a wheezy hand-organ; the music fell upon +their ears in this way: + + +Tiddle-widdle-iddle oom pom-pom! + Oom, pom-pom! oom, pom-pom! +Tiddle-tiddle-tiddle oom pom-pom! + Oom, pom-pom--pah! + + +"What is it, a band or a mouth-organ?" asked Dorothy. + +"Don't know," said Button-Bright. + +"Sounds to me like a played-out phonograph," said the shaggy man, +lifting his enormous ears to listen. + +"Oh, there just COULDN'T be a funnygraf in Fairyland!" cried Dorothy. + +"It's rather pretty, isn't it?" asked Polychrome, trying to dance to +the strains. + + +Tiddle-widdle-iddle, oom pom-pom, + Oom pom-pom; oom pom-pom! + + +came the music to their ears, more distinctly as they drew nearer the +house. Presently, they saw a little fat man sitting on a bench before +the door. He wore a red, braided jacket that reached to his waist, a +blue waistcoat, and white trousers with gold stripes down the sides. +On his bald head was perched a little, round, red cap held in place by +a rubber elastic underneath his chin. His face was round, his eyes a +faded blue, and he wore white cotton gloves. The man leaned on a +stout gold-headed cane, bending forward on his seat to watch his +visitors approach. + +Singularly enough, the musical sounds they had heard seemed to come +from the inside of the fat man himself; for he was playing no +instrument nor was any to be seen near him. + +They came up and stood in a row, staring at him, and he stared back +while the queer sounds came from him as before: + + +Tiddle-iddle-iddle, oom pom-pom, + Oom, pom-pom; oom pom-pom! +Tiddle-widdle-iddle, oom pom-pom, + Oom, pom-pom--pah! + + +Why, he's a reg'lar musicker!" said Button-Bright. + +"What's a musicker?" asked Dorothy. + +"Him!" said the boy. + +Hearing this, the fat man sat up a little stiffer than before, as if +he had received a compliment, and still came the sounds: + + +Tiddle-widdle-iddle, oom pom-pom, + Oom pom-pom, oom-- + + +"Stop it!" cried the shaggy man, earnestly. "Stop that dreadful noise." + +The fat man looked at him sadly and began his reply. When he spoke +the music changed and the words seemed to accompany the notes. He +said--or rather sang: + + +It isn't a noise that you hear, +But Music, harmonic and clear. + My breath makes me play + Like an organ, all day-- +That bass note is in my left ear. + + +"How funny!" exclaimed Dorothy; "he says his breath makes the music." + +"That's all nonsense," declared the shaggy man; but now the music +began again, and they all listened carefully. + + +My lungs are full of reeds like those +In organs, therefore I suppose, +If I breathe in or out my nose, + The reeds are bound to play. + +So as I breathe to live, you know, +I squeeze out music as I go; +I'm very sorry this is so-- + Forgive my piping, pray! + + +"Poor man," said Polychrome; "he can't help it. What a great +misfortune it is!" + +"Yes," replied the shaggy man; "we are only obliged to hear this music +a short time, until we leave him and go away; but the poor fellow +must listen to himself as long as he lives, and that is enough to +drive him crazy. Don't you think so?" + +"Don't know," said Button-Bright. Toto said, "Bow-wow!" and the +others laughed. + +"Perhaps that's why he lives all alone," suggested Dorothy. + +"Yes; if he had neighbors, they might do him an injury," responded +the shaggy man. + +All this while the little fat musicker was breathing the notes: + + +Tiddle-tiddle-iddle, oom, pom-pom, + + +and they had to speak loud in order to hear themselves. +The shaggy man said: + +"Who are you, sir?" + +The reply came in the shape of this sing-song: + + +I'm Allegro da Capo, a very famous man; +Just find another, high or low, to match me if you can. + Some people try, but can't, to play + And have to practice every day; +But I've been musical always, since first my life began. + + +"Why, I b'lieve he's proud of it," exclaimed Dorothy; "and seems to me +I've heard worse music than he makes." + +"Where?" asked Button-Bright. + +"I've forgotten, just now. But Mr. Da Capo is certainly a strange +person--isn't he?--and p'r'aps he's the only one of his kind in all +the world." + +This praise seemed to please the little fat musicker, for he swelled +out his chest, looked important and sang as follows: + + +I wear no band around me, + And yet I am a band! +I do not strain to make my strains + But, on the other hand, +My toot is always destitute + Of flats or other errors; +To see sharp and be natural are + For me but minor terrors. + + +"I don't quite understand that," said Polychrome, with a puzzled +look; "but perhaps it's because I'm accustomed only to the music +of the spheres." + +"What's that?" asked Button-Bright. + +"Oh, Polly means the atmosphere and hemisphere, I s'pose," +explained Dorothy. + +"Oh," said Button-Bright. + +"Bow-wow!" said Toto. + +But the musicker was still breathing his constant + + +Oom, pom-pom; Oom pom-pom-- + + +and it seemed to jar on the shaggy man's nerves. + +"Stop it, can't you?" he cried angrily; "or breathe in a whisper; +or put a clothes-pin on your nose. Do something, anyhow!" + +But the fat one, with a sad look, sang this answer: + + +Music hath charms, and it may +Soothe even the savage, they say; + So if savage you feel + Just list to my reel, +For sooth to say that's the real way. + + +The shaggy man had to laugh at this, and when he laughed he stretched +his donkey mouth wide open. Said Dorothy: + +"I don't know how good his poetry is, but it seems to fit the notes, +so that's all that can be 'xpected." + +"I like it," said Button-Bright, who was staring hard at the musicker, +his little legs spread wide apart. To the surprise of his companions, +the boy asked this long question: + +"If I swallowed a mouth-organ, what would I be?" + +"An organette," said the shaggy man. "But come, my dears; I think +the best thing we can do is to continue on our journey before +Button-Bright swallows anything. We must try to find that Land of Oz, +you know." + +Hearing this speech the musicker sang, quickly: + + +If you go to the Land of Oz +Please take me along, because + On Ozma's birthday + I'm anxious to play +The loveliest song ever was. + + +"No thank you," said Dorothy; "we prefer to travel alone. But if I +see Ozma I'll tell her you want to come to her birthday party." + +"Let's be going," urged the shaggy man, anxiously. + +Polly was already dancing along the road, far in advance, and the +others turned to follow her. Toto did not like the fat musicker and +made a grab for his chubby leg. Dorothy quickly caught up the +growling little dog and hurried after her companions, who were walking +faster than usual in order to get out of hearing. They had to climb a +hill, and until they got to the top they could not escape the +musicker's monotonous piping: + + +Oom, pom-pom; oom, pom-pom; +Tiddle-iddle-widdle, oom, pom-pom; +Oom, pom-pom--pah! + + +As they passed the brow of the hill, however, and descended on +the other side, the sounds gradually died away, whereat they all +felt much relieved. + +"I'm glad I don't have to live with the organ-man; aren't you, Polly?" +said Dorothy. + +"Yes indeed," answered the Rainbow's Daughter. + +"He's nice," declared Button-Bright, soberly. + +"I hope your Princess Ozma won't invite him to her birthday +celebration," remarked the shaggy man; "for the fellow's music would +drive her guests all crazy. You've given me an idea, Button-Bright; +I believe the musicker must have swallowed an accordeon in his youth." + +"What's 'cordeon?" asked the boy. + +"It's a kind of pleating," explained Dorothy, putting down the dog. + +"Bow-wow!" said Toto, and ran away at a mad gallop to chase a bumble-bee. + + + +9. Facing the Scoodlers + + +The country wasn't so pretty now. Before the travelers appeared a +rocky plain covered with hills on which grew nothing green. They were +nearing some low mountains, too, and the road, which before had been +smooth and pleasant to walk upon, grew rough and uneven. + +Button-Bright's little feet stumbled more than once, and Polychrome +ceased her dancing because the walking was now so difficult that she +had no trouble to keep warm. + +It had become afternoon, yet there wasn't a thing for their luncheon +except two apples which the shaggy man had taken from the breakfast +table. He divided these into four pieces and gave a portion to each +of his companions. Dorothy and Button-Bright were glad to get theirs; +but Polly was satisfied with a small bite, and Toto did not like apples. + +"Do you know," asked the Rainbow's Daughter, "if this is the right +road to the Emerald City?" + +"No, I don't," replied Dorothy, "but it's the only road in this part +of the country, so we may as well go to the end of it." + +"It looks now as if it might end pretty soon," remarked the shaggy man; +"and what shall we do if it does?" + +"Don't know," said Button-Bright. + +"If I had my Magic Belt," replied Dorothy, thoughtfully, "it could do +us a lot of good just now." + +"What is your Magic Belt?" asked Polychrome. + +"It's a thing I captured from the Nome King one day, and it can do +'most any wonderful thing. But I left it with Ozma, you know; 'cause +magic won't work in Kansas, but only in fairy countries." + +"Is this a fairy country?" asked Button-Bright. + +"I should think you'd know," said the little girl, gravely. +"If it wasn't a fairy country you couldn't have a fox head +and the shaggy man couldn't have a donkey head, and the Rainbow's +Daughter would be invis'ble." + +"What's that?" asked the boy. + +"You don't seem to know anything, Button-Bright. Invis'ble is a thing +you can't see." + +"Then Toto's invis'ble," declared the boy, and Dorothy found he was +right. Toto had disappeared from view, but they could hear him +barking furiously among the heaps of grey rock ahead of them. + +They moved forward a little faster to see what the dog was barking at, +and found perched upon a point of rock by the roadside a curious +creature. It had the form of a man, middle-sized and rather slender +and graceful; but as it sat silent and motionless upon the peak they +could see that its face was black as ink, and it wore a black cloth +costume made like a union suit and fitting tight to its skin. Its +hands were black, too, and its toes curled down, like a bird's. The +creature was black all over except its hair, which was fine, and +yellow, banged in front across the black forehead and cut close at the +sides. The eyes, which were fixed steadily upon the barking dog, were +small and sparkling and looked like the eyes of a weasel. + +"What in the world do you s'pose that is?" asked Dorothy in +a hushed voice, as the little group of travelers stood watching +the strange creature. + +"Don't know," said Button-Bright. + +The thing gave a jump and turned half around, sitting in the same +place but with the other side of its body facing them. Instead of +being black, it was now pure white, with a face like that of a clown +in a circus and hair of a brilliant purple. The creature could bend +either way, and its white toes now curled the same way the black ones +on the other side had done. + +"It has a face both front and back," whispered Dorothy, wonderingly; +"only there's no back at all, but two fronts." + +Having made the turn, the being sat motionless as before, while Toto +barked louder at the white man than he had done at the black one. + +"Once," said the shaggy man, "I had a jumping jack like that, +with two faces." + +"Was it alive?" asked Button-Bright. + +"No," replied the shaggy man; "it worked on strings and was made of wood." + +"Wonder if this works with strings," said Dorothy; but Polychrome +cried "Look!" for another creature just like the first had suddenly +appeared sitting on another rock, its black side toward them. The two +twisted their heads around and showed a black face on the white side +of one and a white face on the black side of the other. + +"How curious," said Polychrome; "and how loose their heads seem to be! +Are they friendly to us, do you think?" + +"Can't tell, Polly," replied Dorothy. "Let's ask 'em." + +The creatures flopped first one way and then the other, showing black +or white by turns; and now another joined them, appearing on another +rock. Our friends had come to a little hollow in the hills, and the +place where they now stood was surrounded by jagged peaks of rock, +except where the road ran through. + +"Now there are four of them," said the shaggy man. + +"Five," declared Polychrome. + +"Six," said Dorothy. + +"Lots of 'em!" cried Button-Bright; and so there were--quite a row of +the two-sided black and white creatures sitting on the rocks all around. + +Toto stopped barking and ran between Dorothy's feet, where he crouched +down as if afraid. The creatures did not look pleasant or friendly, +to be sure, and the shaggy man's donkey face became solemn, indeed. + +"Ask 'em who they are, and what they want," whispered Dorothy; +so the shaggy man called out in a loud voice: + +"Who are you?" + +"Scoodlers!" they yelled in chorus, their voices sharp and shrill. + +"What do you want?" called the shaggy man. + +"You!" they yelled, pointing their thin fingers at the group; +and they all flopped around, so they were white, and then all +flopped back again, so they were black. + +"But what do you want us for?" asked the shaggy man, uneasily. + +"Soup!" they all shouted, as if with one voice. + +"Goodness me!" said Dorothy, trembling a little; "the Scoodlers must +be reg'lar cannibals." + +"Don't want to be soup," protested Button-Bright, beginning to cry. + +"Hush, dear," said the little girl, trying to comfort him; "we don't +any of us want to be soup. But don't worry; the shaggy man will take +care of us." + +"Will he?" asked Polychrome, who did not like the Scoodlers at all, +and kept close to Dorothy. + +"I'll try," promised the shaggy man; but he looked worried. + +Happening just then to feel the Love Magnet in his pocket, +he said to the creatures, with more confidence: + +"Don't you love me?" + +"Yes!" they shouted, all together. + +"Then you mustn't harm me, or my friends," said the shaggy man, firmly. + +"We love you in soup!" they yelled, and in a flash turned their white +sides to the front. + +"How dreadful!" said Dorothy. "This is a time, Shaggy Man, when you +get loved too much." + +"Don't want to be soup!" wailed Button-Bright again; and Toto began +to whine dismally, as if he didn't want to be soup, either. + +"The only thing to do," said the shaggy man to his friends, in a low +tone, "is to get out of this pocket in the rocks as soon as we can, and +leave the Scoodlers behind us. Follow me, my dears, and don't pay any +attention to what they do or say." + +With this, he began to march along the road to the opening in the +rocks ahead, and the others kept close behind him. But the Scoodlers +closed up in front, as if to bar their way, and so the shaggy man +stooped down and picked up a loose stone, which he threw at the +creatures to scare them from the path. + +At this the Scoodlers raised a howl. Two of them picked their heads +from their shoulders and hurled them at the shaggy man with such force +that he fell over in a heap, greatly astonished. The two now ran +forward with swift leaps, caught up their heads, and put them on +again, after which they sprang back to their positions on the rocks. + + + +10. Escaping the Soup-Kettle + + +The shaggy man got up and felt of himself to see if he was hurt; but +he was not. One of the heads had struck his breast and the other his +left shoulder; yet though they had knocked him down, the heads were +not hard enough to bruise him. + +"Come on," he said firmly; "we've got to get out of here some way," +and forward he started again. + +The Scoodlers began yelling and throwing their heads in great numbers +at our frightened friends. The shaggy man was knocked over again, and +so was Button-Bright, who kicked his heels against the ground and +howled as loud as he could, although he was not hurt a bit. One head +struck Toto, who first yelped and then grabbed the head by an ear and +started running away with it. + +The Scoodlers who had thrown their heads began to scramble down and +run to pick them up, with wonderful quickness; but the one whose head +Toto had stolen found it hard to get it back again. The head couldn't +see the body with either pair of its eyes, because the dog was in the +way, so the headless Scoodler stumbled around over the rocks and +tripped on them more than once in its effort to regain its top. Toto +was trying to get outside the rocks and roll the head down the hill; +but some of the other Scoodlers came to the rescue of their +unfortunate comrade and pelted the dog with their own heads until he +was obliged to drop his burden and hurry back to Dorothy. + +The little girl and the Rainbow's Daughter had both escaped the shower +of heads, but they saw now that it would be useless to try to run away +from the dreadful Scoodlers. + +"We may as well submit," declared the shaggy man, in a rueful voice, +as he got upon his feet again. He turned toward their foes and asked: + +"What do you want us to do?" + +"Come!" they cried, in a triumphant chorus, and at once sprang from +the rocks and surrounded their captives on all sides. One funny thing +about the Scoodlers was they could walk in either direction, coming or +going, without turning around; because they had two faces and, as +Dorothy said, "two front sides," and their feet were shaped like the +letter T upside down. They moved with great rapidity and there was +something about their glittering eyes and contrasting colors and +removable heads that inspired the poor prisoners with horror, and made +them long to escape. + +But the creatures led their captives away from the rocks and the road, +down the hill by a side path until they came before a low mountain of +rock that looked like a huge bowl turned upside down. At the edge of +this mountain was a deep gulf--so deep that when you looked into it +there was nothing but blackness below. Across the gulf was a narrow +bridge of rock, and at the other end of the bridge was an arched +opening that led into the mountain. + +Over this bridge the Scoodlers led their prisoners, through the +opening into the mountain, which they found to be an immense hollow +dome lighted by several holes in the roof. All around the circular +space were built rock houses, set close together, each with a door in +the front wall. None of these houses was more than six feet wide, but +the Scoodlers were thin people sidewise and did not need much room. +So vast was the dome that there was a large space in the middle of the +cave, in front of all these houses, where the creatures might congregate +as in a great hall. + +It made Dorothy shudder to see a huge iron kettle suspended by a stout +chain in the middle of the place, and underneath the kettle a great +heap of kindling wood and shavings, ready to light. + +"What's that?" asked the shaggy man, drawing back as they approached +this place, so that they were forced to push him forward. + +"The Soup Kettle!" yelled the Scoodlers, and then they shouted in the +next breath: + +"We're hungry!" + +Button-Bright, holding Dorothy's hand in one chubby fist and Polly's +hand in the other, was so affected by this shout that he began to cry +again, repeating the protest: + +"Don't want to be soup, I don't!" + +"Never mind," said the shaggy man, consolingly; "I ought to make enough +soup to feed them all, I'm so big; so I'll ask them to put me in the +kettle first." + +"All right," said Button-Bright, more cheerfully. + +But the Scoodlers were not ready to make soup yet. They led the +captives into a house at the farthest side of the cave--a house +somewhat wider than the others. + +"Who lives here?" asked the Rainbow's Daughter. The Scoodlers +nearest her replied: + +"The Queen." + +It made Dorothy hopeful to learn that a woman ruled over these fierce +creatures, but a moment later they were ushered by two or three of the +escort into a gloomy, bare room--and her hope died away. + +For the Queen of the Scoodlers proved to be much more dreadful in +appearance than any of her people. One side of her was fiery red, +with jet-black hair and green eyes and the other side of her was +bright yellow, with crimson hair and black eyes. She wore a short +skirt of red and yellow and her hair, instead of being banged, was a +tangle of short curls upon which rested a circular crown of +silver--much dented and twisted because the Queen had thrown her head +at so many things so many times. Her form was lean and bony and both +her faces were deeply wrinkled. + +"What have we here?" asked the Queen sharply, as our friends were made +to stand before her. + +"Soup!" cried the guard of Scoodlers, speaking together. + +"We're not!" said Dorothy, indignantly; "we're nothing of the sort." + +"Ah, but you will be soon," retorted the Queen, a grim smile making +her look more dreadful than before. + +"Pardon me, most beautiful vision," said the shaggy man, bowing before +the queen politely. "I must request your Serene Highness to let us go +our way without being made into soup. For I own the Love Magnet, and +whoever meets me must love me and all my friends." + +"True," replied the Queen. "We love you very much; so much that we +intend to eat your broth with real pleasure. But tell me, do you +think I am so beautiful?" + +"You won't be at all beautiful if you eat me," he said, shaking his +head sadly. "Handsome is as handsome does, you know." + +The Queen turned to Button-Bright. + +"Do YOU think I'm beautiful?" she asked. + +"No," said the boy; "you're ugly." + +"I think you're a fright," said Dorothy. + +"If you could see yourself you'd be terribly scared," added Polly. + +The Queen scowled at them and flopped from her red side to her +yellow side. + +"Take them away," she commanded the guard, "and at six o'clock run +them through the meat chopper and start the soup kettle boiling. +And put plenty of salt in the broth this time, or I'll punish +the cooks severely." + +"Any onions, your Majesty?" asked one of the guard. + +"Plenty of onions and garlic and a dash of red pepper. Now, go!" + +The Scoodlers led the captives away and shut them up in one of the +houses, leaving only a single Scoodler to keep guard. + +The place was a sort of store-house; containing bags of potatoes and +baskets of carrots, onions and turnips. + +"These," said their guard, pointing to the vegetables, "we use to +flavor our soups with." + +The prisoners were rather disheartened by this time, for they saw no +way to escape and did not know how soon it would be six o'clock and +time for the meatchopper to begin work. But the shaggy man was brave +and did not intend to submit to such a horrid fate without a struggle. + +"I'm going to fight for our lives," he whispered to the children, "for +if I fail we will be no worse off than before, and to sit here +quietly until we are made into soup would be foolish and cowardly." + +The Scoodler on guard stood near the doorway, turning first his white +side toward them and then his black side, as if he wanted to show to +all of his greedy four eyes the sight of so many fat prisoners. The +captives sat in a sorrowful group at the other end of the room--except +Polychrome, who danced back and forth in the little place to keep +herself warm, for she felt the chill of the cave. Whenever she +approached the shaggy man he would whisper something in her ear, and +Polly would nod her pretty head as if she understood. + +The shaggy man told Dorothy and Button-Bright to stand before him +while he emptied the potatoes out of one of the sacks. When this had +been secretly done, little Polychrome, dancing near to the guard, +suddenly reached out her hand and slapped his face, the next instant +whirling away from him quickly to rejoin her friends. + +The angry Scoodler at once picked off his head and hurled it at the +Rainbow's Daughter; but the shaggy man was expecting that, and caught +the head very neatly, putting it in the sack, which he tied at the +mouth. The body of the guard, not having the eyes of its head to +guide it, ran here and there in an aimless manner, and the shaggy man +easily dodged it and opened the door. Fortunately, there was no one +in the big cave at that moment, so he told Dorothy and Polly to run as +fast as they could for the entrance, and out across the narrow bridge. + +"I'll carry Button-Bright," he said, for he knew the little boy's legs +were too short to run fast. + +Dorothy picked up Toto and then seized Polly's hand and ran swiftly +toward the entrance to the cave. The shaggy man perched Button-Bright +on his shoulders and ran after them. They moved so quickly and their +escape was so wholly unexpected that they had almost reached the +bridge when one of the Scoodlers looked out of his house and saw them. + +The creature raised a shrill cry that brought all of its fellows +bounding out of the numerous doors, and at once they started in chase. +Dorothy and Polly had reached the bridge and crossed it when the +Scoodlers began throwing their heads. One of the queer missiles +struck the shaggy man on his back and nearly knocked him over; but he +was at the mouth of the cave now, so he set down Button-Bright and +told the boy to run across the bridge to Dorothy. + +Then the shaggy man turned around and faced his enemies, standing just +outside the opening, and as fast as they threw their heads at him he +caught them and tossed them into the black gulf below. The headless +bodies of the foremost Scoodlers kept the others from running close +up, but they also threw their heads in an effort to stop the escaping +prisoners. The shaggy man caught them all and sent them whirling down +into the black gulf. Among them he noticed the crimson and yellow head +of the Queen, and this he tossed after the others with right good will. + +Presently every Scoodler of the lot had thrown its head, and every +head was down in the deep gulf, and now the helpless bodies of the +creatures were mixed together in the cave and wriggling around in a +vain attempt to discover what had become of their heads. The shaggy +man laughed and walked across the bridge to rejoin his companions. + +"It's lucky I learned to play base-ball when I was young," he remarked, +"for I caught all those heads easily and never missed one. But come +along, little ones; the Scoodlers will never bother us or anyone else +any more." + +Button-Bright was still frightened and kept insisting, "I don't want +to be soup!" for the victory had been gained so suddenly that the boy +could not realize they were free and safe. But the shaggy man assured +him that all danger of their being made into soup was now past, as the +Scoodlers would be unable to eat soup for some time to come. + +So now, anxious to get away from the horrid gloomy cave as soon as +possible, they hastened up the hillside and regained the road just +beyond the place where they had first met the Scoodlers; and you may be +sure they were glad to find their feet on the old familiar path again. + + + +11. Johnny Dooit Does It + + +"It's getting awful rough walking," said Dorothy, as they trudged +along. Button-Bright gave a deep sigh and said he was hungry. +Indeed, all were hungry, and thirsty, too; for they had eaten nothing +but the apples since breakfast; so their steps lagged and they grew +silent and weary. At last they slowly passed over the crest of a +barren hill and saw before them a line of green trees with a strip of +grass at their feet. An agreeable fragrance was wafted toward them. + +Our travelers, hot and tired, ran forward on beholding this refreshing +sight and were not long in coming to the trees. Here they found a +spring of pure bubbling water, around which the grass was full of wild +strawberry plants, their pretty red berries ripe and ready to eat. +Some of the trees bore yellow oranges and some russet pears, so the +hungry adventurers suddenly found themselves provided with plenty to +eat and to drink. They lost no time in picking the biggest +strawberries and ripest oranges and soon had feasted to their hearts' +content. Walking beyond the line of trees they saw before them a +fearful, dismal desert, everywhere gray sand. At the edge of this +awful waste was a large, white sign with black letters neatly painted +upon it and the letters made these words: + + +ALL PERSONS ARE WARNED NOT TO VENTURE UPON THIS DESERT + +For the Deadly Sands will Turn Any Living Flesh +to Dust in an instant. Beyond This Barrier is the + +LAND OF OZ + +But no one can Reach that Beautiful Country +because of these Destroying Sands + + +"Oh," said Dorothy, when the shaggy man had read the sign aloud; +"I've seen this desert before, and it's true no one can live who +tries to walk upon the sands." + +"Then we musn't try it," answered the shaggy man thoughtfully. +"But as we can't go ahead and there's no use going back, +what shall we do next?" + +"Don't know," said Button-Bright. + +"I'm sure I don't know, either," added Dorothy, despondently. + +"I wish father would come for me," sighed the pretty Rainbow's +Daughter, "I would take you all to live upon the rainbow, where you +could dance along its rays from morning till night, without a care or +worry of any sort. But I suppose father's too busy just now to search +the world for me." + +"Don't want to dance," said Button-Bright, sitting down wearily upon +the soft grass. + +"It's very good of you, Polly," said Dorothy; "but there are other +things that would suit me better than dancing on rainbows. I'm 'fraid +they'd be kind of soft an' squashy under foot, anyhow, although +they're so pretty to look at." + +This didn't help to solve the problem, and they all fell silent and +looked at one another questioningly. + +"Really, I don't know what to do," muttered the shaggy man, gazing +hard at Toto; and the little dog wagged his tail and said "Bow-wow!" +just as if he could not tell, either, what to do. Button-Bright got a +stick and began to dig in the earth, and the others watched him for a +while in deep thought. Finally, the shaggy man said: + +"It's nearly evening, now; so we may as well sleep in this pretty +place and get rested; perhaps by morning we can decide what is best +to be done." + +There was little chance to make beds for the children, but the leaves +of the trees grew thickly and would serve to keep off the night dews, +so the shaggy man piled soft grasses in the thickest shade and when +it was dark they lay down and slept peacefully until morning. + +Long after the others were asleep, however, the shaggy man sat in the +starlight by the spring, gazing thoughtfully into its bubbling waters. +Suddenly he smiled and nodded to himself as if he had found a good +thought, after which he, too, laid himself down under a tree and was +soon lost in slumber. + +In the bright morning sunshine, as they ate of the strawberries and +sweet juicy pears, Dorothy said: + +"Polly, can you do any magic?" + +"No dear," answered Polychrome, shaking her dainty head. + +"You ought to know SOME magic, being the Rainbow's Daughter," +continued Dorothy, earnestly. + +"But we who live on the rainbow among the fleecy clouds have no use +for magic," replied Polychrome. + +"What I'd like," said Dorothy, "is to find some way to cross the +desert to the Land of Oz and its Emerald City. I've crossed it +already, you know, more than once. First a cyclone carried my house +over, and some Silver Shoes brought me back again--in half a second. +Then Ozma took me over on her Magic Carpet, and the Nome King's Magic +Belt took me home that time. You see it was magic that did it every +time 'cept the first, and we can't 'spect a cyclone to happen along +and take us to the Emerald City now." + +"No indeed," returned Polly, with a shudder, "I hate cyclones, anyway." + +"That's why I wanted to find out if you could do any magic," said the +little Kansas girl. "I'm sure I can't; and I'm sure Button-Bright +can't; and the only magic the shaggy man has is the Love Magnet, which +won't help us much." + +"Don't be too sure of that, my dear," spoke the shaggy man, a smile +on his donkey face. "I may not be able to do magic myself, but I +can call to us a powerful friend who loves me because I own the Love +Magnet, and this friend surely will be able to help us." + +"Who is your friend?" asked Dorothy. + +"Johnny Dooit." + +"What can Johnny do?" + +"Anything," answered the shaggy man, with confidence. + +"Ask him to come," she exclaimed, eagerly. + +The shaggy man took the Love Magnet from his pocket and unwrapped the +paper that surrounded it. Holding the charm in the palm of his hand +he looked at it steadily and said these words: + + +"Dear Johnny Dooit, come to me. +I need you bad as bad can be." + + +"Well, here I am," said a cheery little voice; "but you shouldn't say +you need me bad, 'cause I'm always, ALWAYS, good." + +At this they quickly whirled around to find a funny little man sitting +on a big copper chest, puffing smoke from a long pipe. His hair was +grey, his whiskers were grey; and these whiskers were so long that he +had wound the ends of them around his waist and tied them in a hard +knot underneath the leather apron that reached from his chin nearly to +his feet, and which was soiled and scratched as if it had been used a +long time. His nose was broad, and stuck up a little; but his eyes +were twinkling and merry. The little man's hands and arms were as +hard and tough as the leather in his apron, and Dorothy thought Johnny +Dooit looked as if he had done a lot of hard work in his lifetime. + +"Good morning, Johnny," said the shaggy man. "Thank you for coming to +me so quickly." + +"I never waste time," said the newcomer, promptly. "But what's +happened to you? Where did you get that donkey head? Really, +I wouldn't have known you at all, Shaggy Man, if I hadn't looked +at your feet." + +The shaggy man introduced Johnny Dooit to Dorothy and Toto and +Button-Bright and the Rainbow's Daughter, and told him the story of +their adventures, adding that they were anxious now to reach the +Emerald City in the Land of Oz, where Dorothy had friends who would +take care of them and send them safe home again. + +"But," said he, "we find that we can't cross this desert, which turns +all living flesh that touches it into dust; so I have asked you to +come and help us." + +Johnny Dooit puffed his pipe and looked carefully at the dreadful +desert in front of them--stretching so far away they could not see +its end. + +"You must ride," he said, briskly. + +"What in?" asked the shaggy man. + +"In a sand-boat, which has runners like a sled and sails like a ship. +The wind will blow you swiftly across the desert and the sand cannot +touch your flesh to turn it into dust." + +"Good!" cried Dorothy, clapping her hands delightedly. "That was the +way the Magic Carpet took us across. We didn't have to touch the +horrid sand at all." + +"But where is the sand-boat?" asked the shaggy man, looking all +around him. + +"I'll make you one," said Johnny Dooit. + +As he spoke, he knocked the ashes from his pipe and put it in his +pocket. Then he unlocked the copper chest and lifted the lid, and +Dorothy saw it was full of shining tools of all sorts and shapes. + +Johnny Dooit moved quickly now--so quickly that they were astonished +at the work he was able to accomplish. He had in his chest a tool for +everything he wanted to do, and these must have been magic tools +because they did their work so fast and so well. + +The man hummed a little song as he worked, and Dorothy tried to listen +to it. She thought the words were something like these: + + +The only way to do a thing +Is do it when you can, +And do it cheerfully, and sing +And work and think and plan. +The only real unhappy one +Is he who dares to shirk; +The only really happy one +Is he who cares to work. + + +Whatever Johnny Dooit was singing he was certainly doing things, and +they all stood by and watched him in amazement. + +He seized an axe and in a couple of chops felled a tree. Next he took +a saw and in a few minutes sawed the tree-trunk into broad, long +boards. He then nailed the boards together into the shape of a boat, +about twelve feet long and four feet wide. He cut from another tree a +long, slender pole which, when trimmed of its branches and fastened +upright in the center of the boat, served as a mast. From the chest +he drew a coil of rope and a big bundle of canvas, and with +these--still humming his song--he rigged up a sail, arranging it so +it could be raised or lowered upon the mast. + +Dorothy fairly gasped with wonder to see the thing grow so speedily +before her eyes, and both Button-Bright and Polly looked on with the +same absorbed interest. + +"It ought to be painted," said Johnny Dooit, tossing his tools back +into the chest, "for that would make it look prettier. But 'though I +can paint it for you in three seconds it would take an hour to dry, +and that's a waste of time." + +"We don't care how it looks," said the shaggy man, "if only it will +take us across the desert." + +"It will do that," declared Johnny Dooit. "All you need worry about +is tipping over. Did you ever sail a ship?" + +"I've seen one sailed," said the shaggy man. + +"Good. Sail this boat the way you've seen a ship sailed, and you'll +be across the sands before you know it." + +With this he slammed down the lid of the chest, and the noise made +them all wink. While they were winking the workman disappeared, +tools and all. + + + +12. The Deadly Desert Crossed + + +"Oh, that's too bad!" cried Dorothy; "I wanted to thank Johnny Dooit +for all his kindness to us." + +"He hasn't time to listen to thanks," replied the shaggy man; "but I'm +sure he knows we are grateful. I suppose he is already at work in +some other part of the world." + +They now looked more carefully at the sand-boat, and saw that the +bottom was modeled with two sharp runners which would glide through +the sand. The front of the sand-boat was pointed like the bow of a +ship, and there was a rudder at the stern to steer by. + +It had been built just at the edge of the desert, so that all its +length lay upon the gray sand except the after part, which still +rested on the strip of grass. + +"Get in, my dears," said the shaggy man; "I'm sure I can manage this +boat as well as any sailor. All you need do is sit still in your places." + +Dorothy got in, Toto in her arms, and sat on the bottom of the boat +just in front of the mast. Button-Bright sat in front of Dorothy, +while Polly leaned over the bow. The shaggy man knelt behind the +mast. When all were ready he raised the sail half-way. The wind +caught it. At once the sand-boat started forward--slowly at first, +then with added speed. The shaggy man pulled the sail way up, and +they flew so fast over the Deadly Desert that every one held fast to +the sides of the boat and scarcely dared to breathe. + +The sand lay in billows, and was in places very uneven, so that the +boat rocked dangerously from side to side; but it never quite tipped +over, and the speed was so great that the shaggy man himself became +frightened and began to wonder how he could make the ship go slower. + +"It we're spilled in this sand, in the middle of the desert," Dorothy +thought to herself, "we'll be nothing but dust in a few minutes, and +that will be the end of us." + +But they were not spilled, and by-and-by Polychrome, who was clinging +to the bow and looking straight ahead, saw a dark line before them and +wondered what it was. It grew plainer every second, until she +discovered it to be a row of jagged rocks at the end of the desert, +while high above these rocks she could see a tableland of green grass +and beautiful trees. + +"Look out!" she screamed to the shaggy man. "Go slowly, or we shall +smash into the rocks." + +He heard her, and tried to pull down the sail; but the wind would +not let go of the broad canvas and the ropes had become tangled. + +Nearer and nearer they drew to the great rocks, and the shaggy man +was in despair because he could do nothing to stop the wild rush +of the sand-boat. + +They reached the edge of the desert and bumped squarely into the +rocks. There was a crash as Dorothy, Button-Bright, Toto and Polly +flew up in the air in a curve like a skyrocket's, one after another +landing high upon the grass, where they rolled and tumbled for a time +before they could stop themselves. + +The shaggy man flew after them, head first, and lighted in a heap +beside Toto, who, being much excited at the time, seized one of the +donkey ears between his teeth and shook and worried it as hard as he +could, growling angrily. The shaggy man made the little dog let go, +and sat up to look around him. + +Dorothy was feeling one of her front teeth, which was loosened by +knocking against her knee as she fell. Polly was looking sorrowfully +at a rent in her pretty gauze gown, and Button-Bright's fox head had +stuck fast in a gopher hole and he was wiggling his little fat legs +frantically in an effort to get free. + +Otherwise they were unhurt by the adventure; so the shaggy man stood +up and pulled Button-Bright out of the hole and went to the edge of +the desert to look at the sand-boat. It was a mere mass of splinters +now, crushed out of shape against the rocks. The wind had torn away +the sail and carried it to the top of a tall tree, where the fragments +of it fluttered like a white flag. + +"Well," he said, cheerfully, "we're here; but where the here is +I don't know." + +"It must be some part of the Land of Oz," observed Dorothy, coming to +his side. + +"Must it?" + +"'Course it must. We're across the desert, aren't we? And somewhere +in the middle of Oz is the Emerald City." + +"To be sure," said the shaggy man, nodding. "Let's go there." + +"But I don't see any people about, to show us the way," she continued. + +"Let's hunt for them," he suggested. "There must be people somewhere; +but perhaps they did not expect us, and so are not at hand to give us +a welcome." + + + +13. The Truth Pond + + +They now made a more careful examination of the country around them. +All was fresh and beautiful after the sultriness of the desert, and +the sunshine and sweet, crisp air were delightful to the wanderers. +Little mounds of yellowish green were away at the right, while on the +left waved a group of tall leafy trees bearing yellow blossoms that +looked like tassels and pompoms. Among the grasses carpeting the +ground were pretty buttercups and cowslips and marigolds. After +looking at these a moment Dorothy said reflectively: + +"We must be in the Country of the Winkies, for the color of that +country is yellow, and you will notice that 'most everything here is +yellow that has any color at all." + +"But I thought this was the Land of Oz," replied the shaggy man, +as if greatly disappointed. + +"So it is," she declared; "but there are four parts to the Land of Oz. +The North Country is purple, and it's the Country of the Gillikins. +The East Country is blue, and that's the Country of the Munchkins. +Down at the South is the red Country of the Quadlings, and here, in +the West, the yellow Country of the Winkies. This is the part that is +ruled by the Tin Woodman, you know." + +"Who's he?" asked Button-Bright. + +"Why, he's the tin man I told you about. His name is Nick Chopper, +and he has a lovely heart given him by the wonderful Wizard." + +"Where does HE live?" asked the boy. + +"The Wizard? Oh, he lives in the Emerald City, which is just in the +middle of Oz, where the corners of the four countries meet." + +"Oh," said Button-Bright, puzzled by this explanation. + +"We must be some distance from the Emerald City," remarked the shaggy man. + +"That's true," she replied; "so we'd better start on and see if we can +find any of the Winkies. They're nice people," she continued, as the +little party began walking toward the group of trees, "and I came here +once with my friends the Scarecrow, and the Tin Woodman, and the +Cowardly Lion, to fight a wicked witch who had made all the Winkies +her slaves." + +"Did you conquer her?" asked Polly. + +"Why, I melted her with a bucket of water, and that was the end of +her," replied Dorothy. "After that the people were free, you know, +and they made Nick Chopper--that's the Tin Woodman--their Emp'ror." + +"What's that?" asked Button-Bright. + +"Emp'ror? Oh, it's something like an alderman, I guess." + +"Oh," said the boy. + +"But I thought Princess Ozma ruled Oz," said the shaggy man. + +"So she does; she rules the Emerald City and all the four countries +of Oz; but each country has another little ruler, not so big as Ozma. +It's like the officers of an army, you see; the little rulers are all +captains, and Ozma's the general." + +By this time they had reached the trees, which stood in a perfect +circle and just far enough apart so that their thick branches +touched--or "shook hands," as Button-Bright remarked. Under the shade +of the trees they found, in the center of the circle, a crystal pool, +its water as still as glass. It must have been deep, too, for when +Polychrome bent over it she gave a little sigh of pleasure. + +"Why, it's a mirror!" she cried; for she could see all her pretty +face and fluffy, rainbow-tinted gown reflected in the pool, +as natural as life. + +Dorothy bent over, too, and began to arrange her hair, blown by the +desert wind into straggling tangles. Button-Bright leaned over the +edge next, and then began to cry, for the sight of his fox head +frightened the poor little fellow. + +"I guess I won't look," remarked the shaggy man, sadly, for he didn't +like his donkey head, either. While Polly and Dorothy tried to +comfort Button-Bright, the shaggy man sat down near the edge of the +pool, where his image could not be reflected, and stared at the water +thoughtfully. As he did this he noticed a silver plate fastened to a +rock just under the surface of the water, and on the silver plate was +engraved these words: + + +THE TRUTH POND + + +"Ah!" cried the shaggy man, springing to his feet with eager joy; +"we've found it at last." + +"Found what?" asked Dorothy, running to him. + +"The Truth Pond. Now, at last, I may get rid of this frightful head; +for we were told, you remember, that only the Truth Pond could restore +to me my proper face." + +"Me, too!" shouted Button-Bright, trotting up to them. + +"Of course," said Dorothy. "It will cure you both of your bad heads, +I guess. Isn't it lucky we found it?" + +"It is, indeed," replied the shaggy man. "I hated dreadfully to go to +Princess Ozma looking like this; and she's to have a birthday +celebration, too." + +Just then a splash startled them, for Button-Bright, in his anxiety +to see the pool that would "cure" him, had stepped too near the edge +and tumbled heels over head into the water. Down he went, out of +sight entirely, so that only his sailor hat floated on the top of +the Truth Pond. + +He soon bobbed up, and the shaggy man seized him by his sailor +collar and dragged him to the shore, dripping and gasping for breath. +They all looked upon the boy wonderingly, for the fox head with its +sharp nose and pointed ears was gone, and in its place appeared the +chubby round face and blue eyes and pretty curls that had belonged to +Button-Bright before King Dox of Foxville transformed him. + +"Oh, what a darling!" cried Polly, and would have hugged the little +one had he not been so wet. + +Their joyful exclamations made the child rub the water out of his eyes +and look at his friends questioningly. + +"You're all right now, dear," said Dorothy. "Come and look at yourself." +She led him to the pool, and although there were still a few ripples +on the surface of the water he could see his reflection plainly. + +"It's me!" he said, in a pleased yet awed whisper. + +"'Course it is," replied the girl, "and we're all as glad as +you are, Button-Bright." + +"Well," announced the shaggy man, "it's my turn next." He took off +his shaggy coat and laid it on the grass and dived head first into the +Truth Pond. + +When he came up the donkey head had disappeared, and the shaggy man's +own shaggy head was in its place, with the water dripping in little +streams from his shaggy whiskers. He scrambled ashore and shook +himself to get off some of the wet, and then leaned over the pool to +look admiringly at his reflected face. + +"I may not be strictly beautiful, even now," he said to his +companions, who watched him with smiling faces; "but I'm so much +handsomer than any donkey that I feel as proud as I can be." + +"You're all right, Shaggy Man," declared Dorothy. "And Button-Bright +is all right, too. So let's thank the Truth Pond for being so nice, +and start on our journey to the Emerald City." + +"I hate to leave it," murmured the shaggy man, with a sigh. "A truth +pond wouldn't be a bad thing to carry around with us." But he put on +his coat and started with the others in search of some one to direct +them on their way. + + + +14. Tik-Tok and Billina + + +They had not walked far across the flower-strewn meadows when they came +upon a fine road leading toward the northwest and winding gracefully +among the pretty yellow hills. + +"That way," said Dorothy, "must be the direction of the Emerald City. +We'd better follow the road until we meet some one or come to a house." + +The sun soon dried Button-Bright's sailor suit and the shaggy man's +shaggy clothes, and so pleased were they at regaining their own heads +that they did not mind at all the brief discomfort of getting wet. + +"It's good to be able to whistle again," remarked the shaggy man, "for +those donkey lips were so thick I could not whistle a note with them." +He warbled a tune as merrily as any bird. + +"You'll look more natural at the birthday celebration, too," said +Dorothy, happy in seeing her friends so happy. + +Polychrome was dancing ahead in her usual sprightly manner, whirling +gaily along the smooth, level road, until she passed from sight around +the curve of one of the mounds. Suddenly they heard her exclaim "Oh!" +and she appeared again, running toward them at full speed. + +"What's the matter, Polly?" asked Dorothy, perplexed. + +There was no need for the Rainbow's Daughter to answer, for turning +the bend in the road there came advancing slowly toward them a funny +round man made of burnished copper, gleaming brightly in the sun. +Perched on the copper man's shoulder sat a yellow hen, with fluffy +feathers and a pearl necklace around her throat. + +"Oh, Tik-tok!" cried Dorothy, running forward. When she came to him, +the copper man lifted the little girl in his copper arms and kissed +her cheek with his copper lips. + +"Oh, Billina!" cried Dorothy, in a glad voice, and the yellow hen flew +to her arms, to be hugged and petted by turns. + +The others were curiously crowding around the group, and the girl said +to them: + +"It's Tik-tok and Billina; and oh! I'm so glad to see them again." + +"Wel-come to Oz," said the copper man in a monotonous voice. + +Dorothy sat right down in the road, the yellow hen in her arms, and +began to stroke Billina's back. Said the hen: + +"Dorothy, dear, I've got some wonderful news to tell you." + +"Tell it quick, Billina!" said the girl. + +Just then Toto, who had been growling to himself in a cross way, gave +a sharp bark and flew at the yellow hen, who ruffled her feathers and +let out such an angry screech that Dorothy was startled. + +"Stop, Toto! Stop that this minute!" she commanded. "Can't you see +that Billina is my friend?" In spite of this warning had she not +grabbed Toto quickly by the neck the little dog would have done the +yellow hen a mischief, and even now he struggled madly to escape +Dorothy's grasp. She slapped his ears once or twice and told him to +behave, and the yellow hen flew to Tik-tok's shoulder again, where she +was safe. + +"What a brute!" croaked Billina, glaring down at the little dog. + +"Toto isn't a brute," replied Dorothy, "but at home Uncle Henry has to +whip him sometimes for chasing the chickens. Now look here, Toto," +she added, holding up her finger and speaking sternly to him, "you've +got to understand that Billina is one of my dearest friends, and musn't +be hurt--now or ever." + +Toto wagged his tail as if he understood. + +"The miserable thing can't talk," said Billina, with a sneer. + +"Yes, he can," replied Dorothy; "he talks with his tail, and I know +everything he says. If you could wag your tail, Billina, you wouldn't +need words to talk with." + +"Nonsense!" said Billina. + +"It isn't nonsense at all. Just now Toto says he's sorry, and that +he'll try to love you for my sake. Don't you, Toto?" + +"Bow-wow!" said Toto, wagging his tail again. + +"But I've such wonderful news for you, Dorothy," cried the +yellow hen; "I've--" + +"Wait a minute, dear," interrupted the little girl; "I've got to +introduce you all, first. That's manners, Billina. This," turning to +her traveling companions, "is Mr. Tik-tok, who works by machinery +'cause his thoughts wind up, and his talk winds up, and his action +winds up--like a clock." + +"Do they all wind up together?" asked the shaggy man. + +"No; each one separate. But he works just lovely, and Tik-tok was a +good friend to me once, and saved my life--and Billina's life, too." + +"Is he alive?" asked Button-Bright, looking hard at the copper man. + +"Oh, no, but his machinery makes him just as good as alive." She +turned to the copper man and said politely: "Mr. Tik-tok, these are +my new friends: the shaggy man, and Polly the Rainbow's Daughter, and +Button-Bright, and Toto. Only Toto isn't a new friend, 'cause he's +been to Oz before." + +The copper man bowed low, removing his copper hat as he did so. + +"I'm ve-ry pleased to meet Dor-o-thy's fr-r-r-r---" Here he +stopped short. + +"Oh, I guess his speech needs winding!" said the little girl, running +behind the copper man to get the key off a hook at his back. She +wound him up at a place under his right arm and he went on to say: + +"Par-don me for run-ning down. I was a-bout to say I am pleased to +meet Dor-o-thy's friends, who must be my friends." The words were +somewhat jerky, but plain to understand. + +"And this is Billina," continued Dorothy, introducing the yellow hen, +and they all bowed to her in turn. + +"I've such wonderful news," said the hen, turning her head so that one +bright eye looked full at Dorothy. + +"What is it, dear?" asked the girl. + +"I've hatched out ten of the loveliest chicks you ever saw." + +"Oh, how nice! And where are they, Billina?" + +"I left them at home. But they're beauties, I assure you, and all +wonderfully clever. I've named them Dorothy." + +"Which one?" asked the girl. + +"All of them," replied Billina. + +"That's funny. Why did you name them all with the same name?" + +"It was so hard to tell them apart," explained the hen. "Now, when +I call 'Dorothy,' they all come running to me in a bunch; it's much +easier, after all, than having a separate name for each." + +"I'm just dying to see 'em, Billina," said Dorothy, eagerly. "But tell +me, my friends, how did you happen to be here, in the Country of the +Winkies, the first of all to meet us?" + +"I'll tell you," answered Tik-tok, in his monotonous voice, all the +sounds of his words being on one level--"Prin-cess Oz-ma saw you in +her mag-ic pic-ture, and knew you were com-ing here; so she sent +Bil-lin-a and me to wel-come you as she could not come her-self; so +that--fiz-i-dig-le cum-so-lut-ing hy-ber-gob-ble in-tu-zib-ick--" + +"Good gracious! Whatever's the matter now?" cried Dorothy, as the +copper man continued to babble these unmeaning words, which no one +could understand at all because they had no sense. + +"Don't know," said Button-Bright, who was half scared. Polly whirled +away to a distance and turned to look at the copper man in a fright. + +"His thoughts have run down, this time," remarked Billina composedly, +as she sat on Tik-tok's shoulder and pruned her sleek feathers. "When +he can't think, he can't talk properly, any more than you can. You'll +have to wind up his thoughts, Dorothy, or else I'll have to finish his +story myself." + +Dorothy ran around and got the key again and wound up Tik-tok under +his left arm, after which he could speak plainly again. + +"Par-don me," he said, "but when my thoughts run down, my speech has +no mean-ing, for words are formed on-ly by thought. I was a-bout to +say that Oz-ma sent us to wel-come you and in-vite you to come +straight to the Em-er-ald Ci-ty. She was too bus-y to come her-self, +for she is pre-par-ing for her birth-day cel-e-bra-tion, which is to +be a grand af-fair." + +"I've heard of it," said Dorothy, "and I'm glad we've come in time to +attend. Is it far from here to the Emerald City?" + +"Not ve-ry far," answered Tik-tok, "and we have plen-ty of time. +To-night we will stop at the pal-ace of the Tin Wood-man, and +to-mor-row night we will ar-rive at the Em-er-ald Ci-ty." + +"Goody!" cried Dorothy. "I'd like to see dear Nick Chopper again. +How's his heart?" + +"It's fine," said Billina; "the Tin Woodman says it gets softer and +kindlier every day. He's waiting at his castle to welcome you, +Dorothy; but he couldn't come with us because he's getting polished as +bright as possible for Ozma's party." + +"Well then," said Dorothy, "let's start on, and we can talk more as we go." + +They proceeded on their journey in a friendly group, for Polychrome +had discovered that the copper man was harmless and was no longer +afraid of him. Button-Bright was also reassured, and took quite a +fancy to Tik-tok. He wanted the clockwork man to open himself, so that +he might see the wheels go round; but that was a thing Tik-tok could +not do. Button-Bright then wanted to wind up the copper man, and +Dorothy promised he should do so as soon as any part of the machinery +ran down. This pleased Button-Bright, who held fast to one of +Tik-tok's copper hands as he trudged along the road, while Dorothy +walked on the other side of her old friend and Billina perched by +turns upon his shoulder or his copper hat. Polly once more joyously +danced ahead and Toto ran after her, barking with glee. The shaggy +man was left to walk behind; but he didn't seem to mind that a bit,and +whistled merrily or looked curiously upon the pretty scenes they passed. + +At last they came to a hilltop from which the tin castle of Nick +Chopper could plainly be seen, its towers glistening magnificently +under the rays of the declining sun. + +"How pretty!" exclaimed Dorothy. "I've never seen the Emp'ror's new +house before." + +"He built it because the old castle was damp, and likely to rust his +tin body," said Billina. "All those towers and steeples and domes and +gables took a lot of tin, as you can see." + +"Is it a toy?" asked Button-Bright softly. + +"No, dear," answered Dorothy; "it's better than that. It's the fairy +dwelling of a fairy prince." + + + +15. The Emperor's Tin Castle + + +The grounds around Nick Chopper's new house were laid out in pretty +flower-beds, with fountains of crystal water and statues of tin +representing the Emperor's personal friends. Dorothy was astonished +and delighted to find a tin statue of herself standing on a tin +pedestal at a bend in the avenue leading up to the entrance. It was +life-size and showed her in her sunbonnet with her basket on her arm, +just as she had first appeared in the Land of Oz. + +"Oh, Toto--you're there too!" she exclaimed; and sure enough there +was the tin figure of Toto lying at the tin Dorothy's feet. + +Also, Dorothy saw figures of the Scarecrow, and the Wizard, and Ozma, +and of many others, including Tik-tok. They reached the grand tin +entrance to the tin castle, and the Tin Woodman himself came running +out of the door to embrace little Dorothy and give her a glad welcome. +He welcomed her friends as well, and the Rainbow's Daughter he +declared to be the loveliest vision his tin eyes had ever beheld. He +patted Button-Bright's curly head tenderly, for he was fond of +children, and turned to the shaggy man and shook both his hands at the +same time. + +Nick Chopper, the Emperor of the Winkies, who was also known +throughout the Land of Oz as the Tin Woodman, was certainly a +remarkable person. He was neatly made, all of tin, nicely soldered at +the joints, and his various limbs were cleverly hinged to his body so +that he could use them nearly as well as if they had been common +flesh. Once, he told the shaggy man, he had been made all of flesh +and bones, as other people are, and then he chopped wood in the +forests to earn his living. But the axe slipped so often and cut off +parts of him--which he had replaced with tin--that finally there was +no flesh left, nothing but tin; so he became a real tin woodman. The +wonderful Wizard of Oz had given him an excellent heart to replace his +old one, and he didn't at all mind being tin. Every one loved him, he +loved every one; and he was therefore as happy as the day was long. + +The Emperor was proud of his new tin castle, and showed his visitors +through all the rooms. Every bit of the furniture was made of +brightly polished tin--the tables, chairs, beds, and all--even the +floors and walls were of tin. + +"I suppose," said he, "that there are no cleverer tinsmiths in all the +world than the Winkies. It would be hard to match this castle in +Kansas; wouldn't it, little Dorothy?" + +"Very hard," replied the child, gravely. + +"It must have cost a lot of money," remarked the shaggy man. + +"Money! Money in Oz!" cried the Tin Woodman. "What a queer idea! +Did you suppose we are so vulgar as to use money here?" + +"Why not?" asked the shaggy man. + +"If we used money to buy things with, instead of love and kindness and +the desire to please one another, then we should be no better than the +rest of the world," declared the Tin Woodman. "Fortunately money is +not known in the Land of Oz at all. We have no rich, and no poor; for +what one wishes the others all try to give him, in order to make him +happy, and no one in all Oz cares to have more than he can use." + +"Good!" cried the shaggy man, greatly pleased to hear this. "I also +despise money--a man in Butterfield owes me fifteen cents, and I will +not take it from him. The Land of Oz is surely the most favored land +in all the world, and its people the happiest. I should like to live +here always." + +The Tin Woodman listened with respectful attention. Already he loved +the shaggy man, although he did not yet know of the Love Magnet. +So he said: + +"If you can prove to the Princess Ozma that you are honest and true +and worthy of our friendship, you may indeed live here all your days, +and be as happy as we are." + +"I'll try to prove that," said the shaggy man, earnestly. + +"And now," continued the Emperor, "you must all go to your rooms and +prepare for dinner, which will presently be served in the grand tin +dining-hall. I am sorry, Shaggy Man, that I can not offer you a +change of clothing; but I dress only in tin, myself, and I suppose +that would not suit you." + +"I care little about dress," said the shaggy man, indifferently. + +"So I should imagine," replied the Emperor, with true politeness. + +They were shown to their rooms and permitted to make such toilets as +they could, and soon they assembled again in the grand tin dining-hall, +even Toto being present. For the Emperor was fond of Dorothy's +little dog, and the girl explained to her friends that in Oz all +animals were treated with as much consideration as the people--"if +they behave themselves," she added. + +Toto behaved himself, and sat in a tin high-chair beside Dorothy and +ate his dinner from a tin platter. + +Indeed, they all ate from tin dishes, but these were of pretty shapes +and brightly polished; Dorothy thought they were just as good as silver. + +Button-Bright looked curiously at the man who had "no appetite inside +him," for the Tin Woodman, although he had prepared so fine a feast +for his guests, ate not a mouthful himself, sitting patiently in his +place to see that all built so they could eat were well and +plentifully served. + +What pleased Button-Bright most about the dinner was the tin orchestra +that played sweet music while the company ate. The players were not +tin, being just ordinary Winkies; but the instruments they played upon +were all tin--tin trumpets, tin fiddles, tin drums and cymbals and +flutes and horns and all. They played so nicely the "Shining Emperor +Waltz," composed expressly in honor of the Tin Woodman by Mr. H. M. +Wogglebug, T.E., that Polly could not resist dancing to it. After she +had tasted a few dewdrops, freshly gathered for her, she danced +gracefully to the music while the others finished their repast; and +when she whirled until her fleecy draperies of rainbow hues enveloped +her like a cloud, the Tin Woodman was so delighted that he clapped his +tin hands until the noise of them drowned the sound of the cymbals. + +Altogether it was a merry meal, although Polychrome ate little and the +host nothing at all. + +"I'm sorry the Rainbow's Daughter missed her mist-cakes," said the Tin +Woodman to Dorothy; "but by a mistake Miss Polly's mist-cakes were mislaid +and not missed until now. I'll try to have some for her breakfast." + +They spent the evening telling stories, and the next morning left the +splendid tin castle and set out upon the road to the Emerald City. +The Tin Woodman went with them, of course, having by this time been so +brightly polished that he sparkled like silver. His axe, which he +always carried with him, had a steel blade that was tin plated and a +handle covered with tin plate beautifully engraved and set with diamonds. + +The Winkies assembled before the castle gates and cheered their +Emperor as he marched away, and it was easy to see that they all +loved him dearly. + + + +16. Visiting the Pumpkin-Field + + +Dorothy let Button-Bright wind up the clock-work in the copper man this +morning--his thinking machine first, then his speech, and finally his +action; so he would doubtless run perfectly until they had reached the +Emerald City. The copper man and the tin man were good friends, and +not so much alike as you might think. For one was alive and the other +moved by means of machinery; one was tall and angular and the other +short and round. You could love the Tin Woodman because he had a fine +nature, kindly and simple; but the machine man you could only admire +without loving, since to love such a thing as he was as impossible as +to love a sewing-machine or an automobile. Yet Tik-tok was popular +with the people of Oz because he was so trustworthy, reliable and +true; he was sure to do exactly what he was wound up to do, at all +times and in all circumstances. Perhaps it is better to be a machine +that does its duty than a flesh-and-blood person who will not, for a +dead truth is better than a live falsehood. + +About noon the travelers reached a large field of pumpkins--a +vegetable quite appropriate to the yellow country of the Winkies--and +some of the pumpkins which grew there were of remarkable size. Just +before they entered upon this field they saw three little mounds that +looked like graves, with a pretty headstone to each one of them. + +"What is this?" asked Dorothy, in wonder. + +"It's Jack Pumpkinhead's private graveyard," replied the Tin Woodman. + +"But I thought nobody ever died in Oz," she said. + +"Nor do they; although if one is bad, he may be condemned and killed +by the good citizens," he answered. + +Dorothy ran over to the little graves and read the words engraved upon +the tombstones. The first one said: + + +Here Lies the Mortal Part of + JACK PUMPKINHEAD +Which Spoiled April 9th. + + +She then went to the next stone, which read: + + +Here Lies the Mortal Part of + JACK PUMPKINHEAD +Which Spoiled October 2nd. + + +On the third stone were carved these words: + + +Here Lies the Mortal Part of + JACK PUMPKINHEAD +Which Spoiled January 24th. + + +"Poor Jack!" sighed Dorothy. "I'm sorry he had to die in three +parts, for I hoped to see him again." + +"So you shall," declared the Tin Woodman, "since he is still alive. +Come with me to his house, for Jack is now a farmer and lives in this +very pumpkin field." + +They walked over to a monstrous big, hollow pumpkin which had a door +and windows cut through the rind. There was a stovepipe running through +the stem, and six steps had been built leading up to the front door. + +They walked up to this door and looked in. Seated on a bench +was a man clothed in a spotted shirt, a red vest, and faded blue +trousers, whose body was merely sticks of wood, jointed clumsily +together. On his neck was set a round, yellow pumpkin, with a face +carved on it such as a boy often carves on a jack-lantern. + +This queer man was engaged in snapping slippery pumpkin-seeds with his +wooden fingers, trying to hit a target on the other side of the room +with them. He did not know he had visitors until Dorothy exclaimed: + +"Why, it's Jack Pumpkinhead himself!" + +He turned and saw them, and at once came forward to greet the little +Kansas girl and Nick Chopper, and to be introduced to their new friends. + +Button-Bright was at first rather shy with the quaint Pumpkinhead, but +Jack's face was so jolly and smiling--being carved that way--that the +boy soon grew to like him. + +"I thought a while ago that you were buried in three parts," said +Dorothy, "but now I see you're just the same as ever." + +"Not quite the same, my dear, for my mouth is a little more one-sided +than it used to be; but pretty nearly the same. I've a new head, and +this is the fourth one I've owned since Ozma first made me and brought +me to life by sprinkling me with the Magic Powder." + +"What became of the other heads, Jack?" + +"They spoiled and I buried them, for they were not even fit for pies. +Each time Ozma has carved me a new head just like the old one, and as +my body is by far the largest part of me, I am still Jack Pumpkinhead, +no matter how often I change my upper end. Once we had a dreadful +time to find another pumpkin, as they were out of season, and so I was +obliged to wear my old head a little longer than was strictly healthy. +But after this sad experience I resolved to raise pumpkins myself, so +as never to be caught again without one handy; and now I have this +fine field that you see before you. Some grow pretty big--too big to +be used for heads--so I dug out this one and use it for a house." + +"Isn't it damp?" asked Dorothy. + +"Not very. There isn't much left but the shell, you see, and it will +last a long time yet." + +"I think you are brighter than you used to be, Jack," said the Tin +Woodman. "Your last head was a stupid one." + +"The seeds in this one are better," was the reply. + +"Are you going to Ozma's party?" asked Dorothy. + +"Yes," said he, "I wouldn't miss it for anything. Ozma's my parent, +you know, because she built my body and carved my pumpkin head. I'll +follow you to the Emerald City to-morrow, where we shall meet again. +I can't go to-day, because I have to plant fresh pumpkin-seeds and water +the young vines. But give my love to Ozma, and tell her I'll be there +in time for the jubilation." + +"We will," she promised; and then they all left him and resumed +their journey. + + + +17. The Royal Chariot Arrives + + +The neat yellow houses of the Winkies were now to be seen standing +here and there along the roadway, giving the country a more cheerful +and civilized look. They were farm-houses, though, and set far apart; +for in the Land of Oz there were no towns or villages except the +magnificent Emerald City in its center. + +Hedges of evergreen or of yellow roses bordered the broad highway and +the farms showed the care of their industrious inhabitants. The +nearer the travelers came to the great city the more prosperous the +country became, and they crossed many bridges over the sparkling +streams and rivulets that watered the lands. + +As they walked leisurely along the shaggy man said to the Tin Woodman: + +"What sort of a Magic Powder was it that made your friend the +Pumpkinhead live?" + +"It was called the Powder of Life," was the answer; "and it was +invented by a crooked Sorcerer who lived in the mountains of the North +Country. A Witch named Mombi got some of this powder from the crooked +Sorcerer and took it home with her. Ozma lived with the Witch then, +for it was before she became our Princess, while Mombi had transformed +her into the shape of a boy. Well, while Mombi was gone to the +crooked Sorcerer's, the boy made this pumpkin-headed man to amuse +himself, and also with the hope of frightening the Witch with it when +she returned. But Mombi was not scared, and she sprinkled the +Pumpkinhead with her Magic Powder of Life, to see if the Powder would +work. Ozma was watching, and saw the Pumpkinhead come to life; so that +night she took the pepper-box containing the Powder and ran away with +it and with Jack, in search of adventures. + +"Next day they found a wooden Saw-Horse standing by the roadside, and +sprinkled it with the Powder. It came to life at once, and Jack +Pumpkinhead rode the Saw-Horse to the Emerald City." + +"What became of the Saw-Horse, afterward?" asked the shaggy man, much +interested in this story. + +"Oh, it's alive yet, and you will probably meet it presently in the +Emerald City. Afterward, Ozma used the last of the Powder to bring +the Flying Gump to life; but as soon as it had carried her away from +her enemies the Gump was taken apart, so it doesn't exist any more." + +"It's too bad the Powder of Life was all used up," remarked the shaggy +man; "it would be a handy thing to have around." + +"I am not so sure of that, sir," answered the Tin Woodman. "A while +ago the crooked Sorcerer who invented the Magic Powder fell down a +precipice and was killed. All his possessions went to a relative--an +old woman named Dyna, who lives in the Emerald City. She went to the +mountains where the Sorcerer had lived and brought away everything she +thought of value. Among them was a small bottle of the Powder of +Life; but of course Dyna didn't know it was a Magic Powder, at all. It +happened she had once had a big blue bear for a pet; but the bear +choked to death on a fishbone one day, and she loved it so dearly +that Dyna made a rug of its skin, leaving the head and four paws on +the hide. She kept the rug on the floor of her front parlor." + +"I've seen rugs like that," said the shaggy man, nodding, "but never +one made from a blue bear." + +"Well," continued the Tin Woodman, "the old woman had an idea that the +Powder in the bottle must be moth-powder, because it smelled something +like moth-powder; so one day she sprinkled it on her bear rug to keep +the moths out of it. She said, looking lovingly at the skin: 'I wish +my dear bear were alive again!' To her horror, the bear rug at once +came to life, having been sprinkled with the Magic Powder; and now this +live bear rug is a great trial to her, and makes her a lot of trouble." + +"Why?" asked the shaggy man. + +"Well, it stands up on its four feet and walks all around, and gets in +the way; and that spoils it for a rug. It can't speak, although it is +alive; for, while its head might say words, it has no breath in a solid +body to push the words out of its mouth. It's a very slimpsy affair +altogether, that bear rug, and the old woman is sorry it came to life. +Every day she has to scold it, and make it lie down flat on the parlor +floor to be walked upon; but sometimes when she goes to market the +rug will hump up its back skin, and stand on its four feet, and trot +along after her." + +"I should think Dyna would like that," said Dorothy. + +"Well, she doesn't; because every one knows it isn't a real bear, but +just a hollow skin, and so of no actual use in the world except for a +rug," answered the Tin Woodman. "Therefore I believe it is a good +thing that all the Magic Powder of Life is now used up, as it can not +cause any more trouble." + +"Perhaps you're right," said the shaggy man, thoughtfully. + +At noon they stopped at a farmhouse, where it delighted the farmer and +his wife to be able to give them a good luncheon. The farm people +knew Dorothy, having seen her when she was in the country before, and +they treated the little girl with as much respect as they did the +Emperor, because she was a friend of the powerful Princess Ozma. + +They had not proceeded far after leaving this farm-house before coming +to a high bridge over a broad river. This river, the Tin Woodman +informed them, was the boundary between the Country of the Winkies and +the territory of the Emerald City. The city itself was still a long +way off, but all around it was a green meadow as pretty as a well-kept +lawn, and in this were neither houses nor farms to spoil the beauty of +the scene. + +From the top of the high bridge they could see far away the +magnificent spires and splendid domes of the superb city, sparkling +like brilliant jewels as they towered above the emerald walls. The +shaggy man drew a deep breath of awe and amazement, for never had he +dreamed that such a grand and beautiful place could exist--even in the +fairyland of Oz. + +Polly was so pleased that her violet eyes sparkled like amethysts, and +she danced away from her companions across the bridge and into a group +of feathery trees lining both the roadsides. These trees she stopped +to look at with pleasure and surprise, for their leaves were shaped +like ostrich plumes, their feather edges beautifully curled; and all +the plumes were tinted in the same dainty rainbow hues that appeared +in Polychrome's own pretty gauze gown. + +"Father ought to see these trees," she murmured; "they are almost as +lovely as his own rainbows." + +Then she gave a start of terror, for beneath the trees came stalking +two great beasts, either one big enough to crush the little Daughter +of the Rainbow with one blow of his paws, or to eat her up with one +snap of his enormous jaws. One was a tawny lion, as tall as a horse, +nearly; the other a striped tiger almost the same size. + +Polly was too frightened to scream or to stir; she stood still with a +wildly beating heart until Dorothy rushed past her and with a glad cry +threw her arms around the huge lion's neck, hugging and kissing the +beast with evident joy. + +"Oh, I'm SO glad to see you again!" cried the little Kansas girl. +"And the Hungry Tiger, too! How fine you're both looking. Are you +well and happy?" + +"We certainly are, Dorothy," answered the Lion, in a deep voice that +sounded pleasant and kind; "and we are greatly pleased that you have +come to Ozma's party. It's going to be a grand affair, I promise you." + +"There will be lots of fat babies at the celebration, I hear," +remarked the Hungry Tiger, yawning so that his mouth opened dreadfully +wide and showed all his big, sharp teeth; "but of course I can't eat +any of 'em." + +"Is your Conscience still in good order?" asked Dorothy, anxiously. + +"Yes; it rules me like a tyrant," answered the Tiger, sorrowfully. "I +can imagine nothing more unpleasant than to own a Conscience," and he +winked slyly at his friend the Lion. + +"You're fooling me!" said Dorothy, with a laugh. "I don't b'lieve +you'd eat a baby if you lost your Conscience. Come here, Polly," she +called, "and be introduced to my friends." + +Polly advanced rather shyly. + +"You have some queer friends, Dorothy," she said. + +"The queerness doesn't matter so long as they're friends," was the +answer. "This is the Cowardly Lion, who isn't a coward at all, but +just thinks he is. The Wizard gave him some courage once, and he has +part of it left." + +The Lion bowed with great dignity to Polly. + +"You are very lovely, my dear," said he. "I hope we shall be friends +when we are better acquainted." + +"And this is the Hungry Tiger," continued Dorothy. "He says he longs +to eat fat babies; but the truth is he is never hungry at all, 'cause +he gets plenty to eat; and I don't s'pose he'd hurt anybody even if he +WAS hungry." + +"Hush, Dorothy," whispered the Tiger; "you'll ruin my reputation if +you are not more discreet. It isn't what we are, but what folks think +we are, that counts in this world. And come to think of it Miss +Polly would make a fine variegated breakfast, I'm sure." + + + +18. The Emerald City + + +The others now came up, and the Tin Woodman greeted the Lion and the +Tiger cordially. Button-Bright yelled with fear when Dorothy first +took his hand and led him toward the great beasts; but the girl +insisted they were kind and good, and so the boy mustered up courage +enough to pat their heads; after they had spoken to him gently and he +had looked into their intelligent eyes his fear vanished entirely +and he was so delighted with the animals that he wanted to keep close +to them and stroke their soft fur every minute. + +As for the shaggy man, he might have been afraid if he had met the +beasts alone, or in any other country, but so many were the marvels in; +the Land of Oz that he was no longer easily surprised, and Dorothy's +friendship for the Lion and Tiger was enough to assure him they were +safe companions. Toto barked at the Cowardly Lion in joyous greeting, +for he knew the beast of old and loved him, and it was funny to see +how gently the Lion raised his huge paw to pat Toto's head. The +little dog smelled of the Tiger's nose, and the Tiger politely shook +paws with him; so they were quite likely to become firm friends. + +Tik-tok and Billina knew the beasts well, so merely bade them good day +and asked after their healths and inquired about the Princess Ozma. + +Now it was seen that the Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger were +drawing behind them a splendid golden chariot, to which they were +harnessed by golden cords. The body of the chariot was decorated on +the outside with designs in clusters of sparkling emeralds, while +inside it was lined with a green and gold satin, and the cushions of +the seats were of green plush embroidered in gold with a crown, +underneath which was a monogram. + +"Why, it's Ozma's own royal chariot!" exclaimed Dorothy. + +"Yes," said the Cowardly Lion; "Ozma sent us to meet you here, for +she feared you would be weary with your long walk and she wished you +to enter the City in a style becoming your exalted rank." + +"What!" cried Polly, looking at Dorothy curiously. "Do you belong to +the nobility?" + +"Just in Oz I do," said the child, "'cause Ozma made me a Princess, +you know. But when I'm home in Kansas I'm only a country girl, and +have to help with the churning and wipe the dishes while Aunt Em +washes 'em. Do you have to help wash dishes on the rainbow, Polly?" + +"No, dear," answered Polychrome, smiling. + +"Well, I don't have to work any in Oz, either," said Dorothy. "It's +kind of fun to be a Princess once in a while; don't you think so?" + +"Dorothy and Polychrome and Button-Bright are all to ride in the +chariot," said the Lion. "So get in, my dears, and be careful not to +mar the gold or put your dusty feet on the embroidery." + +Button-Bright was delighted to ride behind such a superb team, and he +told Dorothy it made him feel like an actor in a circus. As the +strides of the animals brought them nearer to the Emerald City +every one bowed respectfully to the children, as well as to the Tin +Woodman, Tik-tok, and the shaggy man, who were following behind. + +The Yellow Hen had perched upon the back of the chariot, where she +could tell Dorothy more about her wonderful chickens as they rode. +And so the grand chariot came finally to the high wall surrounding the +City, and paused before the magnificent jewel-studded gates. + +These were opened by a cheerful-looking little man who wore green +spectacles over his eyes. Dorothy introduced him to her friends as +the Guardian of the Gates, and they noticed a big bunch of keys +suspended on the golden chain that hung around his neck. The chariot +passed through the outer gates into a fine arched chamber built in +the thick wall, and through the inner gates into the streets of the +Emerald City. + +Polychrome exclaimed in rapture at the wondrous beauty that met her +eyes on every side as they rode through this stately and imposing +City, the equal of which has never been discovered, even in Fairyland. +Button-Bright could only say "My!" so amazing was the sight; but his +eyes were wide open and he tried to look in every direction at the +same time, so as not to miss anything. + +The shaggy man was fairly astounded at what he saw, for the graceful +and handsome buildings were covered with plates of gold and set with +emeralds so splendid and valuable that in any other part of the world +any one of them would have been worth a fortune to its owner. The +sidewalks were superb marble slabs polished as smooth as glass, and +the curbs that separated the walks from the broad street were also set +thick with clustered emeralds. There were many people on these +walks--men, women and children--all dressed in handsome garments of +silk or satin or velvet, with beautiful jewels. Better even than +this: all seemed happy and contented, for their faces were smiling and +free from care, and music and laughter might be heard on every side. + +"Don't they work at all?" asked the shaggy man. + +"To be sure they work," replied the Tin Woodman; "this fair city +could not be built or cared for without labor, nor could the fruit and +vegetables and other food be provided for the inhabitants to eat. But +no one works more than half his time, and the people of Oz enjoy their +labors as much as they do their play." + +"It's wonderful!" declared the shaggy man. "I do hope Ozma will let +me live here." + +The chariot, winding through many charming streets, paused before a +building so vast and noble and elegant that even Button-Bright guessed +at once that it was the Royal Palace. Its gardens and ample grounds +were surrounded by a separate wall, not so high or thick as the wall +around the City, but more daintily designed and built all of green +marble. The gates flew open as the chariot appeared before them, and +the Cowardly Lion and Hungry Tiger trotted up a jeweled driveway to +the front door of the palace and stopped short. + +"Here we are!" said Dorothy, gaily, and helped Button-Bright from the +chariot. Polychrome leaped out lightly after them, and they were +greeted by a crowd of gorgeously dressed servants who bowed low as the +visitors mounted the marble steps. At their head was a pretty little +maid with dark hair and eyes, dressed all in green embroidered with +silver. Dorothy ran up to her with evident pleasure, and exclaimed: + +"O, Jellia Jamb! I'm so glad to see you again. Where's Ozma?" + +"In her room, your Highness," replied the little maid demurely, for +this was Ozma's favorite attendant. "She wishes you to come to her as +soon as you have rested and changed your dress, Princess Dorothy. And +you and your friends are to dine with her this evening." + +"When is her birthday, Jellia?" asked the girl. + +"Day after to-morrow, your Highness." + +"And where's the Scarecrow?" + +"He's gone into the Munchkin country to get some fresh straw to stuff +himself with, in honor of Ozma's celebration," replied the maid. "He +returns to the Emerald City to-morrow, he said." + +By this time, Tok-tok, the Tin Woodman, and the shaggy man had arrived +and the chariot had gone around to the back of the palace, Billina +going with the Lion and Tiger to see her chickens after her absence +from them. But Toto stayed close beside Dorothy. + +"Come in, please," said Jellia Jamb; "it shall be our pleasant duty +to escort all of you to the rooms prepared for your use." + +The shaggy man hesitated. Dorothy had never known him to be ashamed +of his shaggy looks before, but now that he was surrounded by so much +magnificence and splendor the shaggy man felt sadly out of place. + +Dorothy assured him that all her friends were welcome at Ozma's +palace, so he carefully dusted his shaggy shoes with his shaggy +handkerchief and entered the grand hall after the others. + +Tik-tok lived at the Royal Palace and the Tin Woodman always had the +same room whenever he visited Ozma, so these two went at once to +remove the dust of the journey from their shining bodies. Dorothy +also had a pretty suite of rooms which she always occupied when in the +Emerald City; but several servants walked ahead politely to show the +way, although she was quite sure she could find the rooms herself. +She took Button-Bright with her, because he seemed too small to be +left alone in such a big palace; but Jellia Jamb herself ushered the +beautiful Daughter of the Rainbow to her apartments, because it was +easy to see that Polychrome was used to splendid palaces and was +therefore entitled to especial attention. + + + +19. The Shaggy Man's Welcome + + +The shaggy man stood in the great hall, his shaggy hat in his hands, +wondering what would become of him. He had never been a guest in a +fine palace before; perhaps he had never been a guest anywhere. In +the big, cold, outside world people did not invite shaggy men to their +homes, and this shaggy man of ours had slept more in hay-lofts and +stables than in comfortable rooms. When the others left the great +hall he eyed the splendidly dressed servants of the Princess Ozma as +if he expected to be ordered out; but one of them bowed before him as +respectfully as if he had been a prince, and said: + +"Permit me, sir, to conduct you to your apartments." + +The shaggy man drew a long breath and took courage. + +"Very well," he answered. "I'm ready." + +Through the big hall they went, up the grand staircase carpeted thick +with velvet, and so along a wide corridor to a carved doorway. Here +the servant paused, and opening the door said with polite deference: + +"Be good enough to enter, sir, and make yourself at home in the rooms +our Royal Ozma has ordered prepared for you. Whatever you see is for +you to use and enjoy, as if your own. The Princess dines at seven, and +I shall be here in time to lead you to the drawing-room, where you +will be privileged to meet the lovely Ruler of Oz. Is there any +command, in the meantime, with which you desire to honor me?" + +"No," said the shaggy man; "but I'm much obliged." + +He entered the room and shut the door, and for a time stood in +bewilderment, admiring the grandeur before him. + +He had been given one of the handsomest apartments in the most +magnificent palace in the world, and you can not wonder that his good +fortune astonished and awed him until he grew used to his surroundings. + +The furniture was upholstered in cloth of gold, with the royal crown +embroidered upon it in scarlet. The rug upon the marble floor was so +thick and soft that he could not hear the sound of his own footsteps, +and upon the walls were splendid tapestries woven with scenes from the +Land of Oz. Books and ornaments were scattered about in profusion, +and the shaggy man thought he had never seen so many pretty things in +one place before. In one corner played a tinkling fountain of +perfumed water, and in another was a table bearing a golden tray +loaded with freshly gathered fruit, including several of the +red-cheeked apples that the shaggy man loved. + +At the farther end of this charming room was an open doorway, and he +crossed over to find himself in a bedroom containing more comforts +than the shaggy man had ever before imagined. The bedstead was of +gold and set with many brilliant diamonds, and the coverlet had +designs of pearls and rubies sewed upon it. At one side of the +bedroom was a dainty dressing-room with closets containing a large +assortment of fresh clothing; and beyond this was the bath--a large +room having a marble pool big enough to swim in, with white marble +steps leading down to the water. Around the edge of the pool were +set rows of fine emeralds as large as door-knobs, while the water of +the bath was clear as crystal. + +For a time the shaggy man gazed upon all this luxury with silent +amazement. Then he decided, being wise in his way, to take advantage +of his good fortune. He removed his shaggy boots and his shaggy +clothing, and bathed in the pool with rare enjoyment. After he had +dried himself with the soft towels he went into the dressing-room and +took fresh linen from the drawers and put it on, finding that +everything fitted him exactly. He examined the contents of the +closets and selected an elegant suit of clothing. Strangely enough, +everything about it was shaggy, although so new and beautiful, and he +sighed with contentment to realize that he could now be finely dressed +and still be the shaggy man. His coat was of rose-colored velvet, +trimmed with shags and bobtails, with buttons of blood-red rubies and +golden shags around the edges. His vest was a shaggy satin of a +delicate cream color, and his knee-breeches of rose velvet trimmed +like the coat. Shaggy creamy stockings of silk, and shaggy slippers of +rose leather with ruby buckles, completed his costume, and when he was +thus attired the shaggy man looked at himself in a long mirror with +great admiration. On a table he found a mother-of-pearl chest +decorated with delicate silver vines and flowers of clustered rubies, +and on the cover was a silver plate engraved with these words: + + +THE SHAGGY MAN: +HIS BOX OF ORNAMENTS + + +The chest was not locked, so he opened it and was almost dazzled by +the brilliance of the rich jewels it contained. After admiring the +pretty things, he took out a fine golden watch with a big chain, +several handsome finger-rings, and an ornament of rubies to pin upon +the breast of his shaggy shirt-bosom. Having carefully brushed his +hair and whiskers all the wrong way to make them look as shaggy as +possible, the shaggy man breathed a deep sigh of joy and decided he +was ready to meet the Royal Princess as soon as she sent for him. +While he waited he returned to the beautiful sitting room and ate +several of the red-cheeked apples to pass away the time. + +Meanwhile, Dorothy had dressed herself in a pretty gown of soft grey +embroidered with silver, and put a blue-and-gold suit of satin upon +little Button-Bright, who looked as sweet as a cherub in it. Followed +by the boy and Toto--the dog with a new green ribbon around his +neck--she hastened down to the splendid drawing-room of the palace, +where, seated upon an exquisite throne of carved malachite and nestled +amongst its green satin cushions was the lovely Princess Ozma, +waiting eagerly to welcome her friend. + + + +20. Princess Ozma Of Oz + + +The royal historians of Oz, who are fine writers and know any number +of big words, have often tried to describe the rare beauty of Ozma and +failed because the words were not good enough. So of course I cannot +hope to tell you how great was the charm of this little Princess, or +how her loveliness put to shame all the sparkling jewels and +magnificent luxury that surrounded her in this her royal palace. +Whatever else was beautiful or dainty or delightful of itself faded to +dullness when contrasted with Ozma's bewitching face, and it has often +been said by those who know that no other ruler in all the world can +ever hope to equal the gracious charm of her manner. + +Everything about Ozma attracted one, and she inspired love and the +sweetest affection rather than awe or ordinary admiration. Dorothy +threw her arms around her little friend and hugged and kissed her +rapturously, and Toto barked joyfully and Button-Bright smiled a happy +smile and consented to sit on the soft cushions close beside the Princess. + +"Why didn't you send me word you were going to have a birthday party?" +asked the little Kansas girl, when the first greetings were over. + +"Didn't I?" asked Ozma, her pretty eyes dancing with merriment. + +"Did you?" replied Dorothy, trying to think. + +"Who do you imagine, dear, mixed up those roads, so as to start you +wandering in the direction of Oz?" inquired the Princess. + +"Oh! I never 'spected YOU of that," cried Dorothy. + +"I've watched you in my Magic Picture all the way here," declared +Ozma, "and twice I thought I should have to use the Magic Belt to save +you and transport you to the Emerald City. Once was when the Scoodlers +caught you, and again when you reached the Deadly Desert. But the shaggy +man was able to help you out both times, so I did not interfere." + +"Do you know who Button-Bright is?" asked Dorothy. + +"No; I never saw him until you found him in the road, and then only +in my Magic Picture." + +"And did you send Polly to us?" + +"No, dear; the Rainbow's Daughter slid from her father's pretty arch +just in time to meet you." + +"Well," said Dorothy, "I've promised King Dox of Foxville and King +Kik-a-bray of Dunkiton that I'd ask you to invite them to your party." + +"I have already done that," returned Ozma, "because I thought it would +please you to favor them." + +"Did you 'vite the Musicker?" asked Button-Bright. + +"No; because he would be too noisy, and might interfere with the comfort +of others. When music is not very good, and is indulged in all the time, +it is better that the performer should be alone," said the Princess. + +"I like the Musicker's music," declared the boy, gravely. + +"But I don't," said Dorothy. + +"Well, there will be plenty of music at my celebration," promised +Ozma; "so I've an idea Button-Bright won't miss the Musicker at all." + +Just then Polychrome danced in, and Ozma rose to greet the Rainbow's +Daughter in her sweetest and most cordial manner. + +Dorothy thought she had never seen two prettier creatures together +than these lovely maidens; but Polly knew at once her own dainty +beauty could not match that of Ozma, yet was not a bit jealous because +this was so. + +The Wizard of Oz was announced, and a dried-up, little, old man, clothed +all in black, entered the drawing-room. His face was cheery and his +eyes twinkling with humor, so Polly and Button-Bright were not at all +afraid of the wonderful personage whose fame as a humbug magician had +spread throughout the world. After greeting Dorothy with much +affection, he stood modestly behind Ozma's throne and listened to the +lively prattle of the young people. + +Now the shaggy man appeared, and so startling was his appearance, all +clad in shaggy new rainment, that Dorothy cried "Oh!" and clasped her +hands impulsively as she examined her friend with pleased eyes. + +"He's still shaggy, all right," remarked Button-Bright; and Ozma +nodded brightly because she had meant the shaggy man to remain shaggy +when she provided his new clothes for him. + +Dorothy led him toward the throne, as he was shy in such fine company, +and presented him gracefully to the Princess, saying: + +"This, your Highness, is my friend, the shaggy man, who owns +the Love Magnet." + +"You are welcome to Oz," said the girl Ruler, in gracious accents. +"But tell me, sir, where did you get the Love Magnet which you say +you own?" + +The shaggy man grew red and looked downcast, as he answered +in a low voice: + +"I stole it, your Majesty." + +"Oh, Shaggy Man!" cried Dorothy. "How dreadful! And you told me the +Eskimo gave you the Love Magnet." + +He shuffled first on one foot and then on the other, much embarrassed. + +"I told you a falsehood, Dorothy," he said; "but now, having bathed in +the Truth Pond, I must tell nothing but the truth." + +"Why did you steal it?" asked Ozma, gently. + +"Because no one loved me, or cared for me," said the shaggy man, "and I +wanted to be loved a great deal. It was owned by a girl in +Butterfield who was loved too much, so that the young men quarreled +over her, which made her unhappy. After I had stolen the Magnet from +her, only one young man continued to love the girl, and she married +him and regained her happiness." + +"Are you sorry you stole it?" asked the Princess. + +"No, your Highness; I'm glad," he answered; "for it has pleased me to +be loved, and if Dorothy had not cared for me I could not have +accompanied her to this beautiful Land of Oz, or met its kind-hearted +Ruler. Now that I'm here, I hope to remain, and to become one of your +Majesty's most faithful subjects." + +"But in Oz we are loved for ourselves alone, and for our kindness to +one another, and for our good deeds," she said. + +"I'll give up the Love Magnet," said the shaggy man, eagerly; "Dorothy +shall have it." + +"But every one loves Dorothy already," declared the Wizard. + +"Then Button-Bright shall have it." + +"Don't want it," said the boy, promptly. + +"Then I'll give it to the Wizard, for I'm sure the lovely Princess +Ozma does not need it." + +"All my people love the Wizard, too," announced the Princess, +laughing; "so we will hang the Love Magnet over the gates of the +Emerald City, that whoever shall enter or leave the gates may be +loved and loving." + +"That is a good idea," said the shaggy man; "I agree to it most willingly." + +Those assembled now went in to dinner, which you can imagine was a +grand affair; and afterward Ozma asked the Wizard to give them an +exhibition of his magic. + +The Wizard took eight tiny white piglets from an inside pocket and set +them on the table. One was dressed like a clown, and performed funny +antics, and the others leaped over the spoons and dishes and ran +around the table like race-horses, and turned hand-springs and were so +sprightly and amusing that they kept the company in one roar of merry +laughter. The Wizard had trained these pets to do many curious +things, and they were so little and so cunning and soft that +Polychrome loved to pick them up as they passed near her place and +fondle them as if they were kittens. + +It was late when the entertainment ended, and they separated to go to +their rooms. + +"To-morrow," said Ozma, "my invited guests will arrive, and you will +find among them some interesting and curious people, I promise you. +The next day will be my birthday, and the festivities will be held on +the broad green just outside the gates of the City, where all my +people can assemble without being crowded." + +"I hope the Scarecrow won't be late," said Dorothy, anxiously. + +"Oh, he is sure to return to-morrow," answered Ozma. "He wanted new +straw to stuff himself with, so he went to the Munchkin Country, where +straw is plentiful." + +With this the Princess bade her guests good night and went to her own room. + + + +21. Dorothy Receives the Guests + + +Next morning Dorothy's breakfast was served in her own pretty sitting +room, and she sent to invite Polly and the shaggy man to join her and +Button-Bright at the meal. They came gladly, and Toto also had +breakfast with them, so that the little party that had traveled +together to Oz was once more reunited. + +No sooner had they finished eating than they heard the distant blast +of many trumpets, and the sound of a brass band playing martial music; +so they all went out upon the balcony. This was at the front of the +palace and overlooked the streets of the City, being higher than the +wall that shut in the palace grounds. They saw approaching down the +street a band of musicians, playing as hard and loud as they could, +while the people of the Emerald City crowded the sidewalks and cheered +so lustily that they almost drowned the noise of the drums and horns. + +Dorothy looked to see what they were cheering at, and discovered that +behind the band was the famous Scarecrow, riding proudly upon the back +of a wooden Saw-Horse which pranced along the street almost as +gracefully as if it had been made of flesh. Its hoofs, or rather the +ends of its wooden legs, were shod with plates of solid gold, and the +saddle strapped to the wooden body was richly embroidered and +glistened with jewels. + +As he reached the palace the Scarecrow looked up and saw Dorothy, and +at once waved his peaked hat at her in greeting. He rode up to the +front door and dismounted, and the band stopped playing and went away +and the crowds of people returned to their dwellings. + +By the time Dorothy and her friends had re-entered her room, the +Scarecrow was there, and he gave the girl a hearty embrace and shook +the hands of the others with his own squashy hands, which were white +gloves filled with straw. + +The shaggy man, Button-Bright, and Polychrome stared hard at this +celebrated person, who was acknowledged to be the most popular and +most beloved man in all the Land of Oz. + +"Why, your face has been newly painted!" exclaimed Dorothy, when the +first greetings were over. + +"I had it touched up a bit by the Munchkin farmer who first made me," +answered the Scarecrow, pleasantly. "My complexion had become a bit +grey and faded, you know, and the paint had peeled off one end of my +mouth, so I couldn't talk quite straight. Now I feel like myself +again, and I may say without immodesty that my body is stuffed with +the loveliest oat-straw in all Oz." He pushed against his chest. +"Hear me crunkle?" he asked. + +"Yes," said Dorothy; "you sound fine." + +Button-Bright was wonderfully attracted by the strawman, and so was +Polly. The shaggy man treated him with great respect, because he was +so queerly made. + +Jellia Jamb now came to say that Ozma wanted Princess Dorothy to +receive the invited guests in the Throne-Room, as they arrived. The +Ruler was herself busy ordering the preparations for the morrow's +festivities, so she wished her friend to act in her place. + +Dorothy willingly agreed, being the only other Princess in the Emerald +City; so she went to the great Throne-Room and sat in Ozma's seat, +placing Polly on one side of her and Button-Bright on the other. The +Scarecrow stood at the left of the throne and the Tin Woodman at the +right, while the Wonderful Wizard and the shaggy man stood behind. + +The Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger came in, with bright new bows of +ribbon on their collars and tails. After greeting Dorothy +affectionately the huge beasts lay down at the foot of the throne. + +While they waited, the Scarecrow, who was near the little boy, asked: + +"Why are you called Button-Bright?" + +"Don't know," was the answer. + +"Oh yes, you do, dear," said Dorothy. "Tell the Scarecrow how you +got your name." + +"Papa always said I was bright as a button, so mama always called me +Button-Bright," announced the boy. + +"Where is your mama?" asked the Scarecrow. + +"Don't know," said Button-Bright. + +"Where is your home?" asked the Scarecrow. + +"Don't know," said Button-Bright. + +"Don't you want to find your mama again?" asked the Scarecrow. + +"Don't know," said Button-Bright, calmly. + +The Scarecrow looked thoughtful. + +"Your papa may have been right," he observed; "but there are many +kinds of buttons, you see. There are silver and gold buttons, which +are highly polished and glitter brightly. There are pearl and rubber +buttons, and other kinds, with surfaces more or less bright. But there +is still another sort of button which is covered with dull cloth, and +that must be the sort your papa meant when he said you were bright as +a button. Don't you think so?" + +"Don't know," said Button-Bright. + +Jack Pumpkinhead arrived, wearing a pair of new, white kid gloves; and +he brought a birthday present for Ozma consisting of a necklace of +pumpkin-seeds. In each seed was set a sparkling carolite, which is +considered the rarest and most beautiful gem that exists. The +necklace was in a plush case and Jellia Jamb put it on a table with +the Princess Ozma's other presents. + +Next came a tall, beautiful woman clothed in a splendid trailing gown, +trimmed with exquisite lace as fine as cobweb. This was the important +Sorceress known as Glinda the Good, who had been of great assistance +to both Ozma and Dorothy. There was no humbug about her magic, you +may be sure, and Glinda was as kind as she was powerful. She greeted +Dorothy most lovingly, and kissed Button-Bright and Polly, and smiled +upon the shaggy man, after which Jellia Jamb led the Sorceress to one +of the most magnificent rooms of the royal palace and appointed fifty +servants to wait upon her. + +The next arrival was Mr. H. M. Woggle-Bug, T.E.; the "H. M." meaning +Highly Magnified and the "T.E." meaning Thoroughly Educated. The +Woggle-Bug was head professor at the Royal College of Oz, and he had +composed a fine Ode in honor of Ozma's birthday. This he wanted to +read to them; but the Scarecrow wouldn't let him. + +Soon they heard a clucking sound and a chorus of "cheep! cheep!" and +a servant threw open the door to allow Billina and her ten fluffy +chicks to enter the Throne-Room. As the Yellow Hen marched proudly at +the head of her family, Dorothy cried, "Oh, you lovely things!" and +ran down from her seat to pet the little yellow downy balls. Billina +wore a pearl necklace, and around the neck of each chicken was a tiny +gold chain holding a locket with the letter "D" engraved upon the outside. + +"Open the lockets, Dorothy," said Billina. The girl obeyed and found +a picture of herself in each locket. "They were named after you, my +dear," continued the Yellow Hen, "so I wanted all my chickens to wear +your picture. Cluck--cluck! come here, Dorothy--this minute!" she +cried, for the chickens were scattered and wandering all around the +big room. + +They obeyed the call at once, and came running as fast as they could, +fluttering their fluffy wings in a laughable way. + +It was lucky that Billina gathered the little ones under her soft +breast just then, for Tik-tok came in and tramped up to the throne on +his flat copper feet. + +"I am all wound up and work-ing fine-ly," said the clock-work +man to Dorothy. + +"I can hear him tick," declared Button-Bright. + +"You are quite the polished gentleman," said the Tin Woodman. "Stand +up here beside the shaggy man, Tik-tok, and help receive the company." + +Dorothy placed soft cushions in a corner for Billina and her chicks, +and had just returned to the Throne and seated herself when the +playing of the royal band outside the palace announced the approach of +distinguished guests. + +And my, how they did stare when the High Chamberlain threw open the +doors and the visitors entered the Throne-Room! + +First walked a gingerbread man neatly formed and baked to a lovely +brown tint. He wore a silk hat and carried a candy cane prettily +striped with red and yellow. His shirt-front and cuffs were white +frosting, and the buttons on his coat were licorice drops. + +Behind the gingerbread man came a child with flaxen hair and merry +blue eyes, dressed in white pajamas, with sandals on the soles of its +pretty bare feet. The child looked around smiling and thrust its +hands into the pockets of the pajamas. Close after it came a big +rubber bear, walking erect on its hind feet. The bear had twinkling +black eyes, and its body looked as if it had been pumped full of air. + +Following these curious visitors were two tall, thin men and two +short, fat men, all four dressed in gorgeous uniforms. + +Ozma's High Chamberlain now hurried forward to announce the names of +the new arrivals, calling out in a loud voice: + +"His Gracious and Most Edible Majesty, King Dough the First, Ruler of +the Two Kingdoms of Hiland and Loland. Also the Head Boolywag of his +Majesty, known as Chick the Cherub, and their faithful friend Para +Bruin, the rubber bear." + +These great personages bowed low as their names were called, and +Dorothy hastened to introduce them to the assembled company. They +were the first foreign arrivals, and the friends of Princess Ozma were +polite to them and tried to make them feel that they were welcome. + +Chick the Cherub shook hands with every one, including Billina, and +was so joyous and frank and full of good spirits that John Dough's +Head Booleywag at once became a prime favorite. + +"Is it a boy or a girl?" whispered Dorothy. + +"Don't know," said Button-Bright. + +"Goodness me! what a queer lot of people you are," exclaimed the +rubber bear, looking at the assembled company. + +"So're you," said Button-Bright, gravely. "Is King Dough good to eat?" + +"He's too good to eat," laughed Chick the Cherub. + +"I hope none of you are fond of gingerbread," said the King, +rather anxiously. + +"We should never think of eating our visitors, if we were," declared +the Scarecrow; "so please do not worry, for you will be perfectly safe +while you remain in Oz." + +"Why do they call you Chick?" the Yellow Hen asked the child. + +"Because I'm an Incubator Baby, and never had any parents," replied the +Head Booleywag. + +"My chicks have a parent, and I'm it," said Billina. + +"I'm glad of that," answered the Cherub, "because they'll have more +fun worrying you than if they were brought up in an Incubator. The +Incubator never worries, you know." + +King John Dough had brought for Ozma's birthday present a lovely +gingerbread crown, with rows of small pearls around it and a fine big +pearl in each of its five points. After this had been received by +Dorothy with proper thanks and placed on the table with the other +presents, the visitors from Hiland and Loland were escorted to their +rooms by the High Chamberlain. + +They had no sooner departed than the band before the palace began to +play again, announcing more arrivals, and as these were doubtless from +foreign parts the High Chamberlain hurried back to receive them in +his most official manner. + + + +22. Important Arrivals + + +First entered a band of Ryls from the Happy Valley, all merry little +sprites like fairy elves. A dozen crooked Knooks followed from the +great Forest of Burzee. They had long whiskers and pointed caps and +curling toes, yet were no taller than Button-Bright's shoulder. With +this group came a man so easy to recognize and so important and dearly +beloved throughout the known world, that all present rose to their feet +and bowed their heads in respectful homage, even before the High +Chamberlain knelt to announce his name. + +"The most Mighty and Loyal Friend of Children, His Supreme +Highness--Santa Claus!" said the Chamberlain, in an awed voice. + +"Well, well, well! Glad to see you--glad to meet you all!" cried +Santa Claus, briskly, as he trotted up the long room. + +He was round as an apple, with a fresh rosy face, laughing eyes, and +a bushy beard as white as snow. A red cloak trimmed with beautiful +ermine hung from his shoulders and upon his back was a basket filled +with pretty presents for the Princess Ozma. + +"Hello, Dorothy; still having adventures?" he asked in his jolly way, +as he took the girl's hand in both his own. + +"How did you know my name, Santa?" she replied, feeling more shy in +the presence of this immortal saint than she ever had before in her +young life. + +"Why, don't I see you every Christmas Eve, when you're asleep?" +he rejoined, pinching her blushing cheek. + +"Oh, do you?" + +"And here's Button-Bright, I declare!" cried Santa Claus, holding up +the boy to kiss him. "What a long way from home you are; dear me!" + +"Do you know Button-Bright, too?" questioned Dorothy, eagerly. + +"Indeed I do. I've visited his home several Christmas Eves." + +"And do you know his father?" asked the girl. + +"Certainly, my dear. Who else do you suppose brings him his Christmas +neckties and stockings?" with a sly wink at the Wizard. + +"Then where does he live? We're just crazy to know, 'cause +Button-Bright's lost," she said. + +Santa laughed and laid his finger aside of his nose as if thinking +what to reply. He leaned over and whispered something in the Wizard's +ear, at which the Wizard smiled and nodded as if he understood. + +Now Santa Claus spied Polychrome, and trotted over to where she stood. + +"Seems to me the Rainbow's Daughter is farther from home than any of you," +he observed, looking at the pretty maiden admiringly. "I'll have +to tell your father where you are, Polly, and send him to get you." + +"Please do, dear Santa Claus," implored the little maid, beseechingly. + +"But just now we must all have a jolly good time at Ozma's party," +said the old gentleman, turning to put his presents on the table with +the others already there. "It isn't often I find time to leave my +castle, as you know; but Ozma invited me and I just couldn't help +coming to celebrate the happy occasion." + +"I'm so glad!" exclaimed Dorothy. + +"These are my Ryls," pointing to the little sprites squatting around +him. "Their business is to paint the colors of the flowers when they +bud and bloom; but I brought the merry fellows along to see Oz, and +they've left their paint-pots behind them. Also I brought these +crooked Knooks, whom I love. My dears, the Knooks are much nicer than +they look, for their duty is to water and care for the young trees of +the forest, and they do their work faithfully and well. It's hard +work, though, and it makes my Knooks crooked and gnarled, like the +trees themselves; but their hearts are big and kind, as are the +hearts of all who do good in our beautiful world." + +"I've read of the Ryls and Knooks," said Dorothy, looking upon these +little workers with interest. + +Santa Claus turned to talk with the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman, and +he also said a kind word to the shaggy man, and afterward went away to +ride the Saw-Horse around the Emerald City. "For," said he, "I must +see all the grand sights while I am here and have the chance, and Ozma +has promised to let me ride the Saw-Horse because I'm getting fat and +short of breath." + +"Where are your reindeer?" asked Polychrome. + +"I left them at home, for it is too warm for them in this sunny country," +he answered. "They're used to winter weather when they travel." + +In a flash he was gone, and the Ryls and Knooks with him; but they +could all hear the golden hoofs of the Saw-Horse ringing on the marble +pavement outside, as he pranced away with his noble rider. + +Presently the band played again, and the High Chamberlain announced: + +"Her Gracious Majesty, the Queen of Merryland." + +They looked earnestly to discover whom this queen might be, and saw +advancing up the room an exquisite wax doll dressed in dainty fluffs +and ruffles and spangled gown. She was almost as big as +Button-Bright, and her cheeks and mouth and eyebrow were prettily +painted in delicate colors. Her blue eyes stared a bit, being of +glass, yet the expression upon her Majesty's face was quite pleasant +and decidedly winning. With the Queen of Merryland were four wooden +soldiers, two stalking ahead of her with much dignity and two +following behind, like a royal bodyguard. The soldiers were painted in +bright colors and carried wooden guns, and after them came a fat +little man who attracted attention at once, although he seemed modest +and retiring. For he was made of candy, and carried a tin sugar-sifter +filled with powdered sugar, with which he dusted himself frequently so +that he wouldn't stick to things if he touched them. The High +Chamberlain had called him "The Candy Man of Merryland," and Dorothy +saw that one of his thumbs looked as if it had been bitten off by +some one who was fond of candy and couldn't resist the temptation. + +The wax doll Queen spoke prettily to Dorothy and the others, and sent +her loving greetings to Ozma before she retired to the rooms prepared +for her. She had brought a birthday present wrapped in tissue paper +and tied with pink and blue ribbons, and one of the wooden soldiers +placed it on the table with the other gifts. But the Candy Man did +not go to his room, because he said he preferred to stay and talk with +the Scarecrow and Tik-tok and the Wizard and Tin Woodman, whom he +declared the queerest people he had ever met. Button-Bright was glad +the Candy Man stayed in the Throne Room, because the boy thought this +guest smelled deliciously of wintergreen and maple sugar. + +The Braided Man now entered the room, having been fortunate enough to +receive an invitation to the Princess Ozma's party. He was from a +cave halfway between the Invisible Valley and the Country of the +Gargoyles, and his hair and whiskers were so long that he was obliged +to plait them into many braids that hung to his feet, and every braid +was tied with a bow of colored ribbon. + +"I've brought Princess Ozma a box of flutters for her birthday," said +the Braided Man, earnestly; "and I hope she will like them, for they +are the finest quality I have ever made." + +"I'm sure she will be greatly pleased," said Dorothy, who remembered +the Braided Man well; and the Wizard introduced the guest to the rest +of the company and made him sit down in a chair and keep quiet, for, if +allowed, he would talk continually about his flutters. + +The band then played a welcome to another set of guests, and into the +Throne-Room swept the handsome and stately Queen of Ev. Beside her +was young King Evardo, and following them came the entire royal family +of five Princesses and four Princes of Ev. The Kingdom of Ev lay just +across the Deadly Desert to the North of Oz, and once Ozma and her +people had rescued the Queen of Ev and her ten children from the Nome +King, who had enslaved them. Dorothy had been present on this +adventure, so she greeted the royal family cordially; and all the +visitors were delighted to meet the little Kansas girl again. They +knew Tik-tok and Billina, too, and the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman, +as well as the Lion and Tiger; so there was a joyful reunion, as you +may imagine, and it was fully an hour before the Queen and her train +retired to their rooms. Perhaps they would not have gone then had not +the band begun to play to announce new arrivals; but before they left +the great Throne-Room King Evardo added to Ozma's birthday presents a +diadem of diamonds set in radium. + +The next comer proved to be King Renard of Foxville; or King Dox, as +he preferred to be called. He was magnificently dressed in a new +feather costume and wore white kid mittens over his paws and a flower +in his button-hole and had his hair parted in the middle. + +King Dox thanked Dorothy fervently for getting him the invitation to +come to Oz, which he all his life longed to visit. He strutted around +rather absurdly as he was introduced to all the famous people +assembled in the Throne-Room, and when he learned that Dorothy was a +Princess of Oz the Fox King insisted on kneeling at her feet and +afterward retired backward--a dangerous thing to do, as he might have +stubbed his paw and tumbled over. + +No sooner was he gone than the blasts of bugles and clatter of drums and +cymbals announced important visitors, and the High Chamberlain assumed +his most dignified tone as he threw open the door and said proudly: + +"Her Sublime and Resplendent Majesty, Queen Zixi of Ix! His +Serene and Tremendous Majesty, King Bud of Noland. Her Royal +Highness, the Princess Fluff." + +That three such high and mighty royal personages should arrive at once +was enough to make Dorothy and her companions grow solemn and assume +their best company manners; but when the exquisite beauty of Queen +Zixi met their eyes they thought they had never beheld anything so +charming. Dorothy decided that Zixi must be about sixteen years old, +but the Wizard whispered to her that this wonderful queen had lived +thousands of years, but knew the secret of remaining always fresh +and beautiful. + +King Bud of Noland and his dainty fair-haired sister, the Princess +Fluff, were friends of Zixi, as their kingdoms were adjoining, so they +had traveled together from their far-off domains to do honor to Ozma +of Oz on the occasion of her birthday. They brought many splendid +gifts; so the table was now fairly loaded down with presents. + +Dorothy and Polly loved the Princess Fluff the moment they saw her, +and little King Bud was so frank and boyish that Button-Bright +accepted him as a chum at once and did not want him to go away. But +it was after noon now, and the royal guests must prepare their toilets +for the grand banquet at which they were to assemble that evening to +meet the reigning Princess of this Fairyland; so Queen Zixi was shown +to her room by a troop of maidens led by Jellia Jamb, and Bud and +Fluff presently withdrew to their own apartments. + +"My! what a big party Ozma is going to have," exclaimed Dorothy. +"I guess the palace will be chock full, Button-Bright; don't you +think so?" + +"Don't know," said the boy. + +"But we must go to our rooms, pretty soon, to dress for the banquet," +continued the girl. + +"I don't have to dress," said the Candy Man from Merryland. "All I +need do is to dust myself with fresh sugar." + +"Tik-tok always wears the same suits of clothes," said the Tin +Woodman; "and so does our friend the Scarecrow." + +"My feathers are good enough for any occasion," cried Billina, +from her corner. + +"Then I shall leave you four to welcome any new guests that come," +said Dorothy; "for Button-Bright and I must look our very best at +Ozma's banquet." + +"Who is still to come?" asked the Scarecrow. + +"Well, there's King Kik-a-bray of Dunkiton, and Johnny Dooit, and the +Good Witch of the North. But Johnny Dooit may not get here until +late, he's so very busy." + +"We will receive them and give them a proper welcome," promised the +Scarecrow. "So run along, little Dorothy, and get yourself dressed." + + + +23. The Grand Banquet + + +I wish I could tell you how fine the company was that assembled that +evening at Ozma's royal banquet. A long table was spread in the +center of the great dining-hall of the palace and the splendor of the +decorations and the blaze of lights and jewels was acknowledged to be +the most magnificent sight that any of the guests had ever seen. + +The jolliest person present, as well as the most important, was of +course old Santa Claus; so he was given the seat of honor at one end +of the table while at the other end sat Princess Ozma, the hostess. + +John Dough, Queen Zixi, King Bud, the Queen of Ev and her son Evardo, +and the Queen of Merryland had golden thrones to sit in, while the +others were supplied with beautiful chairs. + +At the upper end of the banquet room was a separate table provided for +the animals. Toto sat at one end of this table with a bib tied around +his neck and a silver platter to eat from. At the other end was +placed a small stand, with a low rail around the edge of it, for Billina +and her chicks. The rail kept the ten little Dorothys from falling +off the stand, while the Yellow Hen could easily reach over and take +her food from her tray upon the table. At other places sat the Hungry +Tiger, the Cowardly Lion, the Saw-Horse, the Rubber Bear, the Fox King +and the Donkey King; they made quite a company of animals. + +At the lower end of the great room was another table, at which sat the +Ryls and Knooks who had come with Santa Claus, the wooden soldiers who +had come with the Queen of Merryland, and the Hilanders and Lolanders +who had come with John Dough. Here were also seated the officers of +the royal palace and of Ozma's army. + +The splendid costumes of those at the three tables made a gorgeous and +glittering display that no one present was ever likely to forget; +perhaps there has never been in any part of the world at any time +another assemblage of such wonderful people as that which gathered +this evening to honor the birthday of the Ruler of Oz. + +When all members of ethe company were in their places an orchestra of +five hundred pieces, in a balcony overlooking the banquet room, began to +play sweet and delightful music. Then a door draped with royal green +opened, and in came the fair and girlish Princess Ozma, who now +greeted her guests in person for the first time. + +As she stood by her throne at the head of the banquet table every eye +was turned eagerly upon the lovely Princess, who was as dignified as +she was bewitching, and who smiled upon all her old and new friends in +a way that touched their hearts and brought an answering smile to +every face. + +Each guest had been served with a crystal goblet filled with lacasa, +which is a sort of nectar famous in Oz and nicer to drink than +soda-water or lemonade. Santa now made a pretty speech in verse, +congratulating Ozma on having a birthday, and asking every one present +to drink to the health and happiness of their dearly beloved hostess. +This was done with great enthusiasm by those who were made so they +could drink at all, and those who could not drink politely touched the +rims of their goblets to their lips. All seated themselves at the +tables and the servants of the Princess began serving the feast. + +I am quite sure that only in Fairyland could such a delicious repast +be prepared. The dishes were of precious metals set with brilliant +jewels and the good things to eat which were placed upon them were +countless in number and of exquisite flavor. Several present, such as +the Candy Man, the Rubber Bear, Tik-tok, and the Scarecrow, were not +made so they could eat, and the Queen of Merryland contented herself +with a small dish of sawdust; but these enjoyed the pomp and glitter +of the gorgeous scene as much as did those who feasted. + +The Woggle-Bug read his "Ode to Ozma," which was written in very good +rhythm and was well received by the company. The Wizard added to the +entertainment by making a big pie appear before Dorothy, and when the +little girl cut the pie the nine tiny piglets leaped out of it and +danced around the table, while the orchestra played a merry tune. This +amused the company very much, but they were even more pleased when +Polychrome, whose hunger had been easily satisfied, rose from the +table and performed her graceful and bewildering Rainbow Dance for +them. When it was ended, the people clapped their hands and the +animals clapped their paws, while Billina cackled and the Donkey King +brayed approval. + +Johnny Dooit was present, and of course he proved he could do wonders +in the way of eating, as well as in everything else that he undertook +to do; the Tin Woodman sang a love song, every one joining in the +chorus; and the wooden soldiers from Merryland gave an exhibition of a +lightning drill with their wooden muskets; the Ryls and Knooks danced +the Fairy Circle; and the Rubber Bear bounced himself all around the +room. There was laughter and merriment on every side, and everybody +was having a royal good time. Button-Bright was so excited and +interested that he paid little attention to his fine dinner and a +great deal of attention to his queer companions; and perhaps he was +wise to do this, because he could eat at any other time. + +The feasting and merrymaking continued until late in the evening, +when they separated to meet again the next morning and take part +in the birthday celebration, to which this royal banquet was merely +the introduction. + + +24. The Birthday Celebration + + +A clear, perfect day, with a gentle breeze and a sunny sky, greeted +Princess Ozma as she wakened next morning, the anniversary of her +birth. While it was yet early all the city was astir and crowds of +people came from all parts of the Land of Oz to witness the +festivities in honor of their girl Ruler's birthday. + +The noted visitors from foreign countries, who had all been +transported to the Emerald City by means of the Magic Belt, were as +much a show to the Ozites as were their own familiar celebrities, and +the streets leading from the royal palace to the jeweled gates were +thronged with men, women, and children to see the procession as it +passed out to the green fields where the ceremonies were to take place. + +And what a great procession it was! + +First came a thousand young girls--the prettiest in the land--dressed +in white muslin, with green sashes and hair ribbons, bearing green +baskets of red roses. As they walked they scattered these flowers +upon the marble pavements, so that the way was carpeted thick with +roses for the procession to walk upon. + +Then came the Rulers of the four Kingdoms of Oz: the Emperor of the +Winkies, the Monarch of the Munchkins, the King of the Quadlings and +the Sovereign of the Gillikins, each wearing a long chain of emeralds +around his neck to show that he was a vassal of the Ruler of the +Emerald City. + +Next marched the Emerald City Cornet Band, clothed in green-and-gold +uniforms and playing the "Ozma Two-Step." The Royal Army of Oz +followed, consisting of twenty-seven officers, from the Captain-General +down to the Lieutenants. There were no privates in Ozma's Army because +soldiers were not needed to fight battles, but only to look important, +and an officer always looks more imposing than a private. + +While the people cheered and waved their hats and handkerchiefs, there +came walking the Royal Princess Ozma, looking so pretty and sweet that +it is no wonder her people love her so dearly. She had decided she +would not ride in her chariot that day, as she preferred to walk in +the procession with her favored subjects and her guests. Just in +front of her trotted the living Blue Bear Rug owned by old Dyna, which +wobbled clumsily on its four feet because there was nothing but the +skin to support them, with a stuffed head at one end and a stubby tail +at the other. But whenever Ozma paused in her walk the Bear Rug +would flop down flat upon the ground for the princess to stand upon +until she resumed her progress. + +Following the Princess stalked her two enormous beasts, the Cowardly +Lion and the Hungry Tiger, and even if the Army had not been there +these two would have been powerful enough to guard their mistress +from any harm. + +Next marched the invited guests, who were loudly cheered by the people +of Oz along the road, and were therefore obliged to bow to right and +left almost every step of the way. First was Santa Claus, who, because +he was fat and not used to walking, rode the wonderful Saw-Horse. The +merry old gentleman had a basket of small toys with him, and he tossed +the toys one by one to the children as he passed by. His Ryls and +Knooks marched close behind him. + +Queen Zixi of Ix came after; then John Dough and the Cherub, with the +rubber bear named Para Bruin strutting between them on its hind legs; +then the Queen of Merryland, escorted by her wooden soldiers; then +King Bud of Noland and his sister, the Princess Fluff; then the Queen +of Ev and her ten royal children; then the Braided Man and the Candy +Man, side by side; then King Dox of Foxville and King Kik-a-bray of +Dunkiton, who by this time had become good friends; and finally Johnny +Dooit, in his leather apron, smoking his long pipe. + +These wonderful personages were not more heartily cheered by the +people than were those who followed after them in the procession. +Dorothy was a general favorite, and she walked arm in arm with the +Scarecrow, who was beloved by all. Then came Polychrome and +Button-Bright, and the people loved the Rainbow's pretty Daughter and +the beautiful blue-eyed boy as soon as they saw them. The shaggy man +in his shaggy new suit attracted much attention because he was such a +novelty. With regular steps tramped the machine-man Tik-tok, and +there was more cheering when the Wizard of Oz followed in the +procession. The Woggle-Bug and Jack Pumpkinhead were next, and behind +them Glinda the Sorceress and the Good Witch of the North. Finally +came Billina, with her brood of chickens to whom she clucked anxiously +to keep them together and to hasten them along so they would not delay +the procession. + +Another band followed, this time the Tin Band of the Emperor of the +Winkies, playing a beautiful march called, "There's No Plate Like Tin." +Then came the servants of the Royal Palace, in a long line, and behind +them all the people joined the procession and marched away through the +emerald gates and out upon the broad green. + +Here had been erected a splendid pavilion, with a grandstand big enough +to seat all the royal party and those who had taken part in the +procession. Over the pavilion, which was of green silk and cloth of +gold, countless banners waved in the breeze. Just in front of this, +and connected with it by a runway had been built a broad platform, so +that all the spectators could see plainly the entertainment provided +for them. + +The Wizard now became Master of Ceremonies, as Ozma had placed the +conduct of the performance in his hands. After the people had all +congregated about the platform and the royal party and the visitors +were seated in the grandstand, the Wizard skillfully performed some +feats of juggling glass balls and lighted candles. He tossed a dozen +or so of them high in the air and caught them one by one as they came +down, without missing any. + +Then he introduced the Scarecrow, who did a sword-swallowing act that +aroused much interest. After this the Tin Woodman gave an exhibition +of Swinging the Axe, which he made to whirl around him so rapidly that +the eye could scarcely follow the motion of the gleaming blade. +Glinda the Sorceress then stepped upon the platform, and by her magic +made a big tree grow in the middle of the space, made blossoms appear +upon the tree, and made the blossoms become delicious fruit called +tamornas, and so great was the quantity of fruit produced that when +the servants climbed the tree and tossed it down to the crowd, there +was enough to satisfy every person present. + +Para Bruin, the rubber bear, climbed to a limb of the big tree, rolled +himself into a ball, and dropped to the platform, whence he bounded up +again to the limb. He repeated this bouncing act several times, to +the great delight of all the children present. After he had finished, +and bowed, and returned to his seat, Glinda waved her wand and the +tree disappeared; but its fruit still remained to be eaten. + +The Good Witch of the North amused the people by transforming ten +stones into ten birds, the ten birds into ten lambs, and the ten lambs +into ten little girls, who gave a pretty dance and were then +transformed into ten stones again, just as they were in the beginning. + +Johnny Dooit next came on the platform with his tool-chest, and in a +few minutes built a great flying machine; then put his chest in the +machine and the whole thing flew away together--Johnny and all--after +he had bid good-bye to those present and thanked the Princess +for her hospitality. + +The Wizard then announced the last act of all, which was considered +really wonderful. He had invented a machine to blow huge soap-bubbles, +as big as balloons, and this machine was hidden under the platform so +that only the rim of the big clay pipe to produce the bubbles showed +above the flooring. The tank of soapsuds, and the air-pumps to inflate +the bubbles, were out of sight beneath, so that when the bubbles began +to grow upon the floor of the platform it really seemed like magic to the +people of Oz, who knew nothing about even the common soap-bubbles that +our children blow with a penny clay pipe and a basin of soap-and-water. + +The Wizard had invented another thing. Usually, soap-bubbles are +frail and burst easily, lasting only a few moments as they float in +the air; but the Wizard added a sort of glue to his soapsuds, which +made his bubbles tough; and, as the glue dried rapidly when exposed to +the air, the Wizard's bubbles were strong enough to float for hours +without breaking. + +He began by blowing--by means of his machinery and air-pumps--several +large bubbles which he allowed to float upward into the sky, where the +sunshine fell upon them and gave them iridescent hues that were most +beautiful. This aroused much wonder and delight because it was a new +amusement to every one present--except perhaps Dorothy and Button-Bright, +and even they had never seen such big, strong bubbles before. + +The Wizard then blew a bunch of small bubbles and afterward blew a big +bubble around them so they were left in the center of it; then he +allowed the whole mass of pretty globes to float into the air and +disappear in the far distant sky. + +"That is really fine!" declared Santa Claus, who loved toys and +pretty things. "I think, Mr. Wizard, I shall have you blow a bubble +around me; then I can float away home and see the country spread out +beneath me as I travel. There isn't a spot on earth that I haven't +visited, but I usually go in the night-time, riding behind my swift +reindeer. Here is a good chance to observe the country by daylight, +while I am riding slowly and at my ease." + +"Do you think you will be able to guide the bubble?" asked the Wizard. + +"Oh yes; I know enough magic to do that," replied Santa Claus. +"You blow the bubble, with me inside of it, and I'll be sure to +get home in safety." + +"Please send me home in a bubble, too!" begged the Queen of Merryland. + +"Very well, madam; you shall try the journey first," politely +answered old Santa. + +The pretty wax doll bade good-bye to the Princess Ozma and the others +and stood on the platform while the Wizard blew a big soap-bubble +around her. When completed, he allowed the bubble to float slowly +upward, and there could be seen the little Queen of Merryland standing +in the middle of it and blowing kisses from her fingers to those below. +The bubble took a southerly direction, quickly floating out of sight. + +"That's a very nice way to travel," said Princess Fluff. "I'd like to +go home in a bubble, too." + +So the Wizard blew a big bubble around Princess Fluff, and another +around King Bud, her brother, and a third one around Queen Zixi; and +soon these three bubbles had mounted into the sky and were floating +off in a group in the direction of the kingdom of Noland. + +The success of these ventures induced the other guests from foreign +lands to undertake bubble journeys, also; so the Wizard put them one +by one inside his bubbles, and Santa Claus directed the way they +should go, because he knew exactly where everybody lived. + +Finally, Button-Bright said: + +"I want to go home, too." + +"Why, so you shall!" cried Santa; "for I'm sure your father and +mother will be glad to see you again. Mr. Wizard, please blow a big, +fine bubble for Button-Bright to ride in, and I'll agree to send him +home to his family as safe as safe can be." + +"I'm sorry," said Dorothy with a sigh, for she was fond of her little +comrade; "but p'raps it's best for Button-Bright to get home; 'cause +his folks must be worrying just dreadful." + +She kissed the boy, and Ozma kissed him, too, and all the others waved +their hands and said good-bye and wished him a pleasant journey. + +"Are you glad to leave us, dear?" asked Dorothy, a little wistfully. + +"Don't know," said Button-Bright. + +He sat down cross-legged on the platform, with his sailor hat tipped +back on his head, and the Wizard blew a beautiful bubble all around him. + +A minute later it had mounted into the sky, sailing toward the west, +and the last they saw of Button-Bright he was still sitting in the +middle of the shining globe and waving his sailor hat at those below. + +"Will you ride in a bubble, or shall I send you and Toto home by means +of the Magic Belt?" the Princess asked Dorothy. + +"Guess I'll use the Belt," replied the little girl. "I'm sort of +'fraid of those bubbles." + +"Bow-wow!" said Toto, approvingly. He loved to bark at the bubbles as +they sailed away, but he didn't care to ride in one. + +Santa Claus decided to go next. He thanked Ozma for her hospitality +and wished her many happy returns of the day. Then the Wizard blew a +bubble around his chubby little body and smaller bubbles around each +of his Ryls and Knooks. + +As the kind and generous friend of children mounted into the air the +people all cheered at the top of their voices, for they loved Santa +Claus dearly; and the little man heard them through the walls of his +bubble and waved his hands in return as he smiled down upon them. The +band played bravely while every one watched the bubble until it was +completely out of sight. + +"How 'bout you, Polly?" Dorothy asked her friend. "Are you 'fraid of +bubbles, too?" + +"No," answered Polychrome, smiling; "but Santa Claus promised to speak +to my father as he passed through the sky. So perhaps I shall get +home an easier way." + +Indeed, the little maid had scarcely made this speech when a sudden +radiance filled the air, and while the people looked on in wonder the +end of a gorgeous rainbow slowly settled down upon the platform. + +With a glad cry, the Rainbow's Daughter sprang from her seat and +danced along the curve of the bow, mounting gradually upward, while +the folds of her gauzy gown whirled and floated around her like a +cloud and blended with the colors of the rainbow itself. + +"Good-bye Ozma! Good-bye Dorothy!" cried a voice they knew belonged to +Polychrome; but now the little maiden's form had melted wholly into +the rainbow, and their eyes could no longer see her. + +Suddenly, the end of the rainbow lifted and its colors slowly faded +like mist before a breeze. Dorothy sighed deeply and turned to Ozma. + +"I'm sorry to lose Polly," she said; "but I guess she's better off +with her father; 'cause even the Land of Oz couldn't be like home to a +cloud fairy." + +"No indeed," replied the Princess; "but it has been delightful for us +to know Polychrome for a little while, and--who knows?--perhaps we +may meet the Rainbow's Daughter again, some day." + +The entertainment being now ended, all left the pavilion and formed +their gay procession back to the Emerald City again. Of Dorothy's +recent traveling companions only Toto and the shaggy man remained, +and Ozma had decided to allow the latter to live in Oz for a time, at +least. If he proved honest and true she promised to let him live +there always, and the shaggy man was anxious to earn this reward. + +They had a nice quiet dinner together and passed a pleasant evening +with the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, Tik-tok, and the Yellow Hen +for company. + +When Dorothy bade them good-night, she kissed them all good-bye at the +same time. For Ozma had agreed that while Dorothy slept she and Toto +should be transported by means of the Magic Belt to her own little bed +in the Kansas farm-house and the little girl laughed as she thought +how astonished Uncle Henry and Aunt Em would be when she came down to +breakfast with them next morning. + +Quite content to have had so pleasant an adventure, and a little tired +by all the day's busy scenes, Dorothy clasped Toto in her arms and lay +down upon the pretty white bed in her room in Ozma's royal palace. + +Presently she was sound asleep. + + + + + +This is the end of the Project Gutenberg Edition of The Road to Oz + |