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@@ -0,0 +1,5798 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Tin Woodman of Oz, by L. Frank Baum + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Tin Woodman of Oz + +Author: L. Frank Baum + +Posting Date: March 23, 2009 [EBook #960] +Release Date: June, 1997 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TIN WOODMAN OF OZ *** + + + + +Produced by Anthony Matonac + + + + + + + + + +THE TIN WOODMAN OF OZ + + +by + +L. Frank Baum + + + + A Faithful Story of the Astonishing Adventure + Undertaken by the Tin Woodman, assisted + by Woot the Wanderer, the Scarecrow + of Oz, and Polychrome, the + Rainbow's Daughter + + by + L. FRANK BAUM + "Royal historian of Oz" + + This Book + is dedicated + to the son of + my son + Frank Alden Baum + + + + +TO MY READERS + +I know that some of you have been waiting for this story of the Tin +Woodman, because many of my correspondents have asked me, time and +again what ever became of the "pretty Munchkin girl" whom Nick Chopper +was engaged to marry before the Wicked Witch enchanted his axe and he +traded his flesh for tin. I, too, have wondered what became of her, but +until Woot the Wanderer interested himself in the matter the Tin +Woodman knew no more than we did. However, he found her, after many +thrilling adventures, as you will discover when you have read this +story. + +I am delighted at the continued interest of both young and old in the +Oz stories. A learned college professor recently wrote me to ask: "For +readers of what age are your books intended?" It puzzled me to answer +that properly, until I had looked over some of the letters I have +received. One says: "I'm a little boy 5 years old, and I Just love your +Oz stories. My sister, who is writing this for me, reads me the Oz +books, but I wish I could read them myself." Another letter says: "I'm +a great girl 13 years old, so you'll be surprised when I tell you I am +not too old yet for the Oz stories." Here's another letter: "Since I +was a young girl I've never missed getting a Baum book for Christmas. +I'm married, now, but am as eager to get and read the Oz stories as +ever." And still another writes: "My good wife and I, both more than 70 +years of age, believe that we find more real enjoyment in your Oz books +than in any other books we read." Considering these statements, I wrote +the college professor that my books are intended for all those whose +hearts are young, no matter what their ages may be. + +I think I am justified in promising that there will be some astonishing +revelations about The Magic of Oz in my book for 1919. Always your +loving and grateful friend, + +L. FRANK BAUM. + Royal Historian of Oz. + +"OZCOT" + at HOLLYWOOD + in CALIFORNIA + 1918. + + + + +LIST OF CHAPTERS + + 1 Woot the Wanderer + 2 The Heart of the Tin Woodman + 3 Roundabout + 4 The Loons of Loonville + 5 Mrs. Yoop, the Giantess + 6 The Magic of a Yookoohoo + 7 The Lace Apron + 8 The Menace of the Forest + 9 The Quarrelsome Dragons + 10 Tommy Kwikstep + 11 Jinjur's Ranch + 12 Ozma and Dorothy + 13 The Restoration + 14 The Green Monkey + 15 The Man of Tin + 16 Captain Fyter + 17 The Workshop of Ku-Klip + 18 The Tin Woodman Talks to Himself + 19 The Invisible Country + 20 Over Night + 21 Polychrome's Magic + 22 Nimmie Amee + 23 Through the Tunnel + 24 The Curtain Falls + + + + +Chapter One + +Woot the Wanderer + + +The Tin Woodman sat on his glittering tin throne in the handsome tin +hall of his splendid tin castle in the Winkie Country of the Land of +Oz. Beside him, in a chair of woven straw, sat his best friend, the +Scarecrow of Oz. At times they spoke to one another of curious things +they had seen and strange adventures they had known since first they +two had met and become comrades. But at times they were silent, for +these things had been talked over many times between them, and they +found themselves contented in merely being together, speaking now and +then a brief sentence to prove they were wide awake and attentive. But +then, these two quaint persons never slept. Why should they sleep, when +they never tired? + +And now, as the brilliant sun sank low over the Winkie Country of Oz, +tinting the glistening tin towers and tin minarets of the tin castle +with glorious sunset hues, there approached along a winding pathway +Woot the Wanderer, who met at the castle entrance a Winkie servant. + +The servants of the Tin Woodman all wore tin helmets and tin +breastplates and uniforms covered with tiny tin discs sewed closely +together on silver cloth, so that their bodies sparkled as beautifully +as did the tin castle--and almost as beautifully as did the Tin Woodman +himself. + +Woot the Wanderer looked at the man servant--all bright and +glittering--and at the magnificent castle--all bright and +glittering--and as he looked his eyes grew big with wonder. For Woot +was not very big and not very old and, wanderer though he was, this +proved the most gorgeous sight that had ever met his boyish gaze. + +"Who lives here?" he asked. + +"The Emperor of the Winkies, who is the famous Tin Woodman of Oz," +replied the servant, who had been trained to treat all strangers with +courtesy. + +"A Tin Woodman? How queer!" exclaimed the little wanderer. + +"Well, perhaps our Emperor is queer," admitted the servant; "but he is +a kind master and as honest and true as good tin can make him; so we, +who gladly serve him, are apt to forget that he is not like other +people." + +"May I see him?" asked Woot the Wanderer, after a moment's thought. + +"If it please you to wait a moment, I will go and ask him," said the +servant, and then he went into the hall where the Tin Woodman sat with +his friend the Scarecrow. Both were glad to learn that a stranger had +arrived at the castle, for this would give them something new to talk +about, so the servant was asked to admit the boy at once. + +By the time Woot the Wanderer had passed through the grand +corridors--all lined with ornamental tin--and under stately tin +archways and through the many tin rooms all set with beautiful tin +furniture, his eyes had grown bigger than ever and his whole little +body thrilled with amazement. But, astonished though he was, he was +able to make a polite bow before the throne and to say in a respectful +voice: "I salute your Illustrious Majesty and offer you my humble +services." + +"Very good!" answered the Tin Woodman in his accustomed cheerful +manner. "Tell me who you are, and whence you come." + +"I am known as Woot the Wanderer," answered the boy, "and I have come, +through many travels and by roundabout ways, from my former home in a +far corner of the Gillikin Country of Oz." + +"To wander from one's home," remarked the Scarecrow, "is to encounter +dangers and hardships, especially if one is made of meat and bone. Had +you no friends in that corner of the Gillikin Country? Was it not +homelike and comfortable?" + +To hear a man stuffed with straw speak, and speak so well, quite +startled Woot, and perhaps he stared a bit rudely at the Scarecrow. But +after a moment he replied: + +"I had home and friends, your Honorable Strawness, but they were so +quiet and happy and comfortable that I found them dismally stupid. +Nothing in that corner of Oz interested me, but I believed that in +other parts of the country I would find strange people and see new +sights, and so I set out upon my wandering journey. I have been a +wanderer for nearly a full year, and now my wanderings have brought me +to this splendid castle." + +"I suppose," said the Tin Woodman, "that in this year you have seen so +much that you have become very wise." + +"No," replied Woot, thoughtfully, "I am not at all wise, I beg to +assure your Majesty. The more I wander the less I find that I know, for +in the Land of Oz much wisdom and many things may be learned." + +"To learn is simple. Don't you ask questions?" inquired the Scarecrow. + +"Yes; I ask as many questions as I dare; but some people refuse to +answer questions." + +"That is not kind of them," declared the Tin Woodman. "If one does not +ask for information he seldom receives it; so I, for my part, make it a +rule to answer any civil question that is asked me." + +"So do I," added the Scarecrow, nodding. + +"I am glad to hear this," said the Wanderer, "for it makes me bold to +ask for something to eat." + +"Bless the boy!" cried the Emperor of the Winkies; "how careless of me +not to remember that wanderers are usually hungry. I will have food +brought you at once." + +Saying this he blew upon a tin whistle that was suspended from his tin +neck, and at the summons a servant appeared and bowed low. The Tin +Woodman ordered food for the stranger, and in a few minutes the servant +brought in a tin tray heaped with a choice array of good things to eat, +all neatly displayed on tin dishes that were polished till they shone +like mirrors. The tray was set upon a tin table drawn before the +throne, and the servant placed a tin chair before the table for the boy +to seat himself. + +"Eat, friend Wanderer," said the Emperor cordially, "and I trust the +feast will be to your liking. I, myself, do not eat, being made in such +manner that I require no food to keep me alive. Neither does my friend +the Scarecrow. But all my Winkie people eat, being formed of flesh, as +you are, and so my tin cupboard is never bare, and strangers are always +welcome to whatever it contains." + +The boy ate in silence for a time, being really hungry, but after his +appetite was somewhat satisfied, he said: + +"How happened your Majesty to be made of tin, and still be alive?" + +"That," replied the tin man, "is a long story." + +"The longer the better," said the boy. "Won't you please tell me the +story?" + +"If you desire it," promised the Tin Woodman, leaning back in his tin +throne and crossing his tin legs. "I haven't related my history in a +long while, because everyone here knows it nearly as well as I do. But +you, being a stranger, are no doubt curious to learn how I became so +beautiful and prosperous, so I will recite for your benefit my strange +adventures." + +"Thank you," said Woot the Wanderer, still eating. + +"I was not always made of tin," began the Emperor, "for in the +beginning I was a man of flesh and bone and blood and lived in the +Munchkin Country of Oz. There I was, by trade, a woodchopper, and +contributed my share to the comfort of the Oz people by chopping up the +trees of the forest to make firewood, with which the women would cook +their meals while the children warmed themselves about the fires. For +my home I had a little hut by the edge of the forest, and my life was +one of much content until I fell in love with a beautiful Munchkin girl +who lived not far away." + +"What was the Munchkin girl's name?" asked Woot. + +"Nimmie Amee. This girl, so fair that the sunsets blushed when their +rays fell upon her, lived with a powerful witch who wore silver shoes +and who had made the poor child her slave. Nimmie Amee was obliged to +work from morning till night for the old Witch of the East, scrubbing +and sweeping her hut and cooking her meals and washing her dishes. She +had to cut firewood, too, until I found her one day in the forest and +fell in love with her. After that, I always brought plenty of firewood +to Nimmie Amee and we became very friendly. Finally I asked her to +marry me, and she agreed to do so, but the Witch happened to overhear +our conversation and it made her very angry, for she did not wish her +slave to be taken away from her. The Witch commanded me never to come +near Nimmie Amee again, but I told her I was my own master and would do +as I pleased, not realizing that this was a careless way to speak to a +Witch. + +"The next day, as I was cutting wood in the forest, the cruel Witch +enchanted my axe, so that it slipped and cut off my right leg." + +"How dreadful!" cried Woot the Wanderer. + +"Yes, it was a seeming misfortune," agreed the Tin Man, "for a +one-legged woodchopper is of little use in his trade. But I would not +allow the Witch to conquer me so easily. I knew a very skillful +mechanic at the other side of the forest, who was my friend, so I +hopped on one leg to him and asked him to help me. He soon made me a +new leg out of tin and fastened it cleverly to my meat body. It had +joints at the knee and at the ankle and was almost as comfortable as +the leg I had lost." + +"Your friend must have been a wonderful workman!" exclaimed Woot. + +"He was, indeed," admitted the Emperor. "He was a tinsmith by trade and +could make anything out of tin. When I returned to Nimmie Amee, the +girl was delighted and threw her arms around my neck and kissed me, +declaring she was proud of me. The Witch saw the kiss and was more +angry than before. When I went to work in the forest, next day, my axe, +being still enchanted, slipped and cut off my other leg. Again I +hopped--on my tin leg--to my friend the tinsmith, who kindly made me +another tin leg and fastened it to my body. So I returned joyfully to +Nimmie Amee, who was much pleased with my glittering legs and promised +that when we were wed she would always keep them oiled and polished. +But the Witch was more furious than ever, and as soon as I raised my +axe to chop, it twisted around and cut off one of my arms. The tinsmith +made me a tin arm and I was not much worried, because Nimmie Amee +declared she still loved me." + + + + +Chapter Two + +The Heart of the Tin Woodman + + +The Emperor of the Winkies paused in his story to reach for an oil-can, +with which he carefully oiled the joints in his tin throat, for his +voice had begun to squeak a little. Woot the Wanderer, having satisfied +his hunger, watched this oiling process with much curiosity, but begged +the Tin Man to go on with his tale. + +"The Witch with the Silver Shoes hated me for having defied her," +resumed the Emperor, his voice now sounding clear as a bell, "and she +insisted that Nimmie Amee should never marry me. Therefore she made +the enchanted axe cut off my other arm, and the tinsmith also replaced +that member with tin, including these finely-jointed hands that you see +me using. But, alas! after that, the axe, still enchanted by the cruel +Witch, cut my body in two, so that I fell to the ground. Then the +Witch, who was watching from a near-by bush, rushed up and seized the +axe and chopped my body into several small pieces, after which, +thinking that at last she had destroyed me, she ran away laughing in +wicked glee. + +"But Nimmie Amee found me. She picked up my arms and legs and head, and +made a bundle of them and carried them to the tinsmith, who set to work +and made me a fine body of pure tin. When he had joined the arms and +legs to the body, and set my head in the tin collar, I was a much +better man than ever, for my body could not ache or pain me, and I was +so beautiful and bright that I had no need of clothing. Clothing is +always a nuisance, because it soils and tears and has to be replaced; +but my tin body only needs to be oiled and polished. + +"Nimmie Amee still declared she would marry me, as she still loved me +in spite of the Witch's evil deeds. The girl declared I would make the +brightest husband in all the world, which was quite true. However, the +Wicked Witch was not yet defeated. When I returned to my work the axe +slipped and cut off my head, which was the only meat part of me then +remaining. Moreover, the old woman grabbed up my severed head and +carried it away with her and hid it. But Nimmie Amee came into the +forest and found me wandering around helplessly, because I could not +see where to go, and she led me to my friend the tinsmith. The faithful +fellow at once set to work to make me a tin head, and he had just +completed it when Nimmie Amee came running up with my old head, which +she had stolen from the Witch. But, on reflection, I considered the tin +head far superior to the meat one--I am wearing it yet, so you can see +its beauty and grace of outline--and the girl agreed with me that a man +all made of tin was far more perfect than one formed of different +materials. The tinsmith was as proud of his workmanship as I was, and +for three whole days, all admired me and praised my beauty. Being now +completely formed of tin, I had no more fear of the Wicked Witch, for +she was powerless to injure me. Nimmie Amee said we must be married at +once, for then she could come to my cottage and live with me and keep +me bright and sparkling. + +"'I am sure, my dear Nick,' said the brave and beautiful girl--my name +was then Nick Chopper, you should be told--'that you will make the best +husband any girl could have. I shall not be obliged to cook for you, +for now you do not eat; I shall not have to make your bed, for tin does +not tire or require sleep; when we go to a dance, you will not get +weary before the music stops and say you want to go home. All day long, +while you are chopping wood in the forest, I shall be able to amuse +myself in my own way--a privilege few wives enjoy. There is no temper +in your new head, so you will not get angry with me. Finally, I shall +take pride in being the wife of the only live Tin Woodman in all the +world!' Which shows that Nimmie Amee was as wise as she was brave and +beautiful." + +"I think she was a very nice girl," said Woot the Wanderer. "But, tell +me, please, why were you not killed when you were chopped to pieces?" + +"In the Land of Oz," replied the Emperor, "no one can ever be killed. A +man with a wooden leg or a tin leg is still the same man; and, as I +lost parts of my meat body by degrees, I always remained the same +person as in the beginning, even though in the end I was all tin and no +meat." + +"I see," said the boy, thoughtfully. "And did you marry Nimmie Amee?" + +"No," answered the Tin Woodman, "I did not. She said she still loved +me, but I found that I no longer loved her. My tin body contained no +heart, and without a heart no one can love. So the Wicked Witch +conquered in the end, and when I left the Munchkin Country of Oz, the +poor girl was still the slave of the Witch and had to do her bidding +day and night." + +"Where did you go?" asked Woot. + +"Well, I first started out to find a heart, so I could love Nimmie Amee +again; but hearts are more scarce than one would think. One day, in a +big forest that was strange to me, my joints suddenly became rusted, +because I had forgotten to oil them. There I stood, unable to move hand +or foot. And there I continued to stand--while days came and +went--until Dorothy and the Scarecrow came along and rescued me. They +oiled my joints and set me free, and I've taken good care never to rust +again." + +"Who was this Dorothy?" questioned the Wanderer. + +"A little girl who happened to be in a house when it was carried by a +cyclone all the way from Kansas to the Land of Oz. When the house fell, +in the Munchkin Country, it fortunately landed on the Wicked Witch and +smashed her flat. It was a big house, and I think the Witch is under it +yet." + +"No," said the Scarecrow, correcting him, "Dorothy says the Witch +turned to dust, and the wind scattered the dust in every direction." + +"Well," continued the Tin Woodman, "after meeting the Scarecrow and +Dorothy, I went with them to the Emerald City, where the Wizard of Oz +gave me a heart. But the Wizard's stock of hearts was low, and he gave +me a Kind Heart instead of a Loving Heart, so that I could not love +Nimmie Amee any more than I did when I was heartless." + +"Couldn't the Wizard give you a heart that was both Kind and Loving?" +asked the boy. + +"No; that was what I asked for, but he said he was so short on hearts, +just then, that there was but one in stock, and I could take that or +none at all. So I accepted it, and I must say that for its kind it is a +very good heart indeed." + +"It seems to me," said Woot, musingly, "that the Wizard fooled you. It +can't be a very Kind Heart, you know." + +"Why not?" demanded the Emperor. + +"Because it was unkind of you to desert the girl who loved you, and who +had been faithful and true to you when you were in trouble. Had the +heart the Wizard gave you been a Kind Heart, you would have gone back +home and made the beautiful Munchkin girl your wife, and then brought +her here to be an Empress and live in your splendid tin castle." + +The Tin Woodman was so surprised at this frank speech that for a time +he did nothing but stare hard at the boy Wanderer. But the Scarecrow +wagged his stuffed head and said in a positive tone: + +"This boy is right. I've often wondered, myself, why you didn't go back +and find that poor Munchkin girl." + +Then the Tin Woodman stared hard at his friend the Scarecrow. But +finally he said in a serious tone of voice: + +"I must admit that never before have I thought of such a thing as +finding Nimmie Amee and making her Empress of the Winkies. But it is +surely not too late, even now, to do this, for the girl must still be +living in the Munchkin Country. And, since this strange Wanderer has +reminded me of Nimmie Amee, I believe it is my duty to set out and find +her. Surely it is not the girl's fault that I no longer love her, and +so, if I can make her happy, it is proper that I should do so, and in +this way reward her for her faithfulness." + +"Quite right, my friend!" agreed the Scarecrow. + +"Will you accompany me on this errand?" asked the Tin Emperor. + +"Of course," said the Scarecrow. + +"And will you take me along?" pleaded Woot the Wanderer in an eager +voice. + +"To be sure," said the Tin Woodman, "if you care to join our party. It +was you who first told me it was my duty to find and marry Nimmie Amee, +and I'd like you to know that Nick Chopper, the Tin Emperor of the +Winkies, is a man who never shirks his duty, once it is pointed out to +him." + +"It ought to be a pleasure, as well as a duty, if the girl is so +beautiful," said Woot, well pleased with the idea of the adventure. + +"Beautiful things may be admired, if not loved," asserted the Tin Man. +"Flowers are beautiful, for instance, but we are not inclined to marry +them. Duty, on the contrary, is a bugle call to action, whether you are +inclined to act, or not. In this case, I obey the bugle call of duty." + +"When shall we start?" inquired the Scarecrow, who was always glad to +embark upon a new adventure. "I don't hear any bugle, but when do we +go?" + +"As soon as we can get ready," answered the Emperor. "I'll call my +servants at once and order them to make preparations for our journey." + + + + +Chapter Three + +Roundabout + + +Woot the Wanderer slept that night in the tin castle of the Emperor of +the Winkies and found his tin bed quite comfortable. Early the next +morning he rose and took a walk through the gardens, where there were +tin fountains and beds of curious tin flowers, and where tin birds +perched upon the branches of tin trees and sang songs that sounded like +the notes of tin whistles. All these wonders had been made by the +clever Winkie tinsmiths, who wound the birds up every morning so that +they would move about and sing. + +After breakfast the boy went into the throne room, where the Emperor +was having his tin joints carefully oiled by a servant, while other +servants were stuffing sweet, fresh straw into the body of the +Scarecrow. + +Woot watched this operation with much interest, for the Scarecrow's +body was only a suit of clothes filled with straw. The coat was +buttoned tight to keep the packed straw from falling out and a rope was +tied around the waist to hold it in shape and prevent the straw from +sagging down. The Scarecrow's head was a gunnysack filled with bran, on +which the eyes, nose and mouth had been painted. His hands were white +cotton gloves stuffed with fine straw. Woot noticed that even when +carefully stuffed and patted into shape, the straw man was awkward in +his movements and decidedly wobbly on his feet, so the boy wondered if +the Scarecrow would be able to travel with them all the way to the +forests of the Munchkin Country of Oz. + +The preparations made for this important journey were very simple. A +knapsack was filled with food and given Woot the Wanderer to carry upon +his back, for the food was for his use alone. The Tin Woodman +shouldered an axe which was sharp and brightly polished, and the +Scarecrow put the Emperor's oil-can in his pocket, that he might oil +his friend's joints should they need it. + +"Who will govern the Winkie Country during your absence?" asked the boy. + +"Why, the Country will run itself," answered the Emperor. "As a matter +of fact, my people do not need an Emperor, for Ozma of Oz watches over +the welfare of all her subjects, including the Winkies. Like a good +many kings and emperors, I have a grand title, but very little real +power, which allows me time to amuse myself in my own way. The people +of Oz have but one law to obey, which is: 'Behave Yourself,' so it is +easy for them to abide by this Law, and you'll notice they behave very +well. But it is time for us to be off, and I am eager to start because +I suppose that that poor Munchkin girl is anxiously awaiting my coming." + +"She's waited a long time already, seems to me," remarked the +Scarecrow, as they left the grounds of the castle and followed a path +that led eastward. + +"True," replied the Tin Woodman; "but I've noticed that the last end of +a wait, however long it has been, is the hardest to endure; so I must +try to make Nimmie Amee happy as soon as possible." + +"Ah; that proves you have a Kind heart," remarked the Scarecrow, +approvingly. + +"It's too bad he hasn't a Loving Heart," said Woot. "This Tin Man is +going to marry a nice girl through kindness, and not because he loves +her, and somehow that doesn't seem quite right." + +"Even so, I am not sure it isn't best for the girl," said the +Scarecrow, who seemed very intelligent for a straw man, "for a loving +husband is not always kind, while a kind husband is sure to make any +girl content." + +"Nimmie Amee will become an Empress!" announced the Tin Woodman, +proudly. "I shall have a tin gown made for her, with tin ruffles and +tucks on it, and she shall have tin slippers, and tin earrings and +bracelets, and wear a tin crown on her head. I am sure that will +delight Nimmie Amee, for all girls are fond of finery." + +"Are we going to the Munchkin Country by way of the Emerald City?" +inquired the Scarecrow, who looked upon the Tin Woodman as the leader +of the party. + +"I think not," was the reply. "We are engaged upon a rather delicate +adventure, for we are seeking a girl who fears her former lover has +forgotten her. It will be rather hard for me, you must admit, when I +confess to Nimmie Amee that I have come to marry her because it is my +duty to do so, and therefore the fewer witnesses there are to our +meeting the better for both of us. After I have found Nimmie Amee and +she has managed to control her joy at our reunion, I shall take her to +the Emerald City and introduce her to Ozma and Dorothy, and to Betsy +Bobbin and Tiny Trot, and all our other friends; but, if I remember +rightly, poor Nimmie Amee has a sharp tongue when angry, and she may be +a trifle angry with me, at first, because I have been so long in coming +to her." + +"I can understand that," said Woot gravely. "But how can we get to that +part of the Munchkin Country where you once lived without passing +through the Emerald City?" + +"Why, that is easy," the Tin Man assured him. + +"I have a map of Oz in my pocket," persisted the boy, "and it shows +that the Winkie Country, where we now are, is at the west of Oz, and +the Munchkin Country at the east, while directly between them lies the +Emerald City." + +"True enough; but we shall go toward the north, first of all, into the +Gillikin Country, and so pass around the Emerald City," explained the +Tin Woodman. + +"That may prove a dangerous journey," replied the boy. "I used to live +in one of the top corners of the Gillikin Country, near to Oogaboo, and +I have been told that in this northland country are many people whom it +is not pleasant to meet. I was very careful to avoid them during my +journey south." + +"A Wanderer should have no fear," observed the Scarecrow, who was +wobbling along in a funny, haphazard manner, but keeping pace with his +friends. + +"Fear does not make one a coward," returned Woot, growing a little red +in the face, "but I believe it is more easy to avoid danger than to +overcome it. The safest way is the best way, even for one who is brave +and determined." + +"Do not worry, for we shall not go far to the north," said the Emperor. +"My one idea is to avoid the Emerald City without going out of our way +more than is necessary. Once around the Emerald City we will turn south +into the Munchkin Country, where the Scarecrow and I are well +acquainted and have many friends." + +"I have traveled some in the Gillikin Country," remarked the Scarecrow, +"and while I must say I have met some strange people there at times, I +have never yet been harmed by them." + +"Well, it's all the same to me," said Woot, with assumed carelessness. +"Dangers, when they cannot be avoided, are often quite interesting, and +I am willing to go wherever you two venture to go." + +So they left the path they had been following and began to travel +toward the northeast, and all that day they were in the pleasant Winkie +Country, and all the people they met saluted the Emperor with great +respect and wished him good luck on his journey. At night they stopped +at a house where they were well entertained and where Woot was given a +comfortable bed to sleep in. + +"Were the Scarecrow and I alone," said the Tin Woodman, "we would +travel by night as well as by day; but with a meat person in our party, +we must halt at night to permit him to rest." + +"Meat tires, after a day's travel," added the Scarecrow, "while straw +and tin never tire at all. Which proves," said he, "that we are +somewhat superior to people made in the common way." + +Woot could not deny that he was tired, and he slept soundly until +morning, when he was given a good breakfast, smoking hot. + +"You two miss a great deal by not eating," he said to his companions. + +"It is true," responded the Scarecrow. "We miss suffering from hunger, +when food cannot be had, and we miss a stomachache, now and then." + +As he said this, the Scarecrow glanced at the Tin Woodman, who nodded +his assent. + +All that second day they traveled steadily, entertaining one another +the while with stories of adventures they had formerly met and +listening to the Scarecrow recite poetry. He had learned a great many +poems from Professor Wogglebug and loved to repeat them whenever +anybody would listen to him. Of course Woot and the Tin Woodman now +listened, because they could not do otherwise--unless they rudely ran +away from their stuffed comrade. One of the Scarecrow's recitations was +like this: + + "What sound is so sweet + As the straw from the wheat + When it crunkles so tender and low? + It is yellow and bright, + So it gives me delight + To crunkle wherever I go. + + "Sweet, fresh, golden Straw! + There is surely no flaw + In a stuffing so clean and compact. + It creaks when I walk, + And it thrills when I talk, + And its fragrance is fine, for a fact. + "To cut me don't hurt, + + For I've no blood to squirt, + And I therefore can suffer no pain; + The straw that I use + Doesn't lump up or bruise, + Though it's pounded again and again! + + "I know it is said + That my beautiful head + Has brains of mixed wheat-straw and bran, + But my thoughts are so good + I'd not change, if I could, + For the brains of a common meat man. + + "Content with my lot, + I'm glad that I'm not + Like others I meet day by day; + If my insides get musty, + Or mussed-up, or dusty, + I get newly stuffed right away." + + + + +Chapter Four + +The Loons of Loonville + + +Toward evening, the travelers found there was no longer a path to guide +them, and the purple hues of the grass and trees warned them that they +were now in the Country of the Gillikins, where strange peoples dwelt +in places that were quite unknown to the other inhabitants of Oz. The +fields were wild and uncultivated and there were no houses of any sort +to be seen. But our friends kept on walking even after the sun went +down, hoping to find a good place for Woot the Wanderer to sleep; but +when it grew quite dark and the boy was weary with his long walk, they +halted right in the middle of a field and allowed Woot to get his +supper from the food he carried in his knapsack. Then the Scarecrow +laid himself down, so that Woot could use his stuffed body as a pillow, +and the Tin Woodman stood up beside them all night, so the dampness of +the ground might not rust his joints or dull his brilliant polish. +Whenever the dew settled on his body he carefully wiped it off with a +cloth, and so in the morning the Emperor shone as brightly as ever in +the rays of the rising sun. + +They wakened the boy at daybreak, the Scarecrow saying to him: + +"We have discovered something queer, and therefore we must counsel +together what to do about it." + +"What have you discovered?" asked Woot, rubbing the sleep from his eyes +with his knuckles and giving three wide yawns to prove he was fully +awake. + +"A Sign," said the Tin Woodman. "A Sign, and another path." + +"What does the Sign say?" inquired the boy. + +"It says that 'All Strangers are Warned not to Follow this Path to +Loonville,'" answered the Scarecrow, who could read very well when his +eyes had been freshly painted. + +"In that case," said the boy, opening his knapsack to get some +breakfast, "let us travel in some other direction." + +But this did not seem to please either of his companions. + +"I'd like to see what Loonville looks like," remarked the Tin Woodman. + +"When one travels, it is foolish to miss any interesting sight," added +the Scarecrow. + +"But a warning means danger," protested Woot the Wanderer, "and I +believe it sensible to keep out of danger whenever we can." + +They made no reply to this speech for a while. Then said the Scarecrow: + +"I have escaped so many dangers, during my lifetime, that I am not much +afraid of anything that can happen." + +"Nor am I!" exclaimed the Tin Woodman, swinging his glittering axe +around his tin head, in a series of circles. "Few things can injure +tin, and my axe is a powerful weapon to use against a foe. But our boy +friend," he continued, looking solemnly at Woot, "might perhaps be +injured if the people of Loonville are really dangerous; so I propose +he waits here while you and I, Friend Scarecrow, visit the forbidden +City of Loonville." + +"Don't worry about me," advised Woot, calmly. "Wherever you wish to go, +I will go, and share your dangers. During my wanderings I have found it +more wise to keep out of danger than to venture in, but at that time I +was alone, and now I have two powerful friends to protect me." + +So, when he had finished his breakfast, they all set out along the path +that led to Loonville. + +"It is a place I have never heard of before," remarked the Scarecrow, +as they approached a dense forest. "The inhabitants may be people, of +some sort, or they may be animals, but whatever they prove to be, we +will have an interesting story to relate to Dorothy and Ozma on our +return." + +The path led into the forest, but the big trees grew so closely +together and the vines and underbrush were so thick and matted that +they had to clear a path at each step in order to proceed. In one or +two places the Tin Man, who went first to clear the way, cut the +branches with a blow of his axe. Woot followed next, and last of the +three came the Scarecrow, who could not have kept the path at all had +not his comrades broken the way for his straw-stuffed body. + +Presently the Tin Woodman pushed his way through some heavy underbrush, +and almost tumbled headlong into a vast cleared space in the forest. +The clearing was circular, big and roomy, yet the top branches of the +tall trees reached over and formed a complete dome or roof for it. +Strangely enough, it was not dark in this immense natural chamber in +the woodland, for the place glowed with a soft, white light that seemed +to come from some unseen source. + +In the chamber were grouped dozens of queer creatures, and these so +astonished the Tin Man that Woot had to push his metal body aside, that +he might see, too. And the Scarecrow pushed Woot aside, so that the +three travelers stood in a row, staring with all their eyes. + +The creatures they beheld were round and ball-like; round in body, +round in legs and arms, round in hands and feet and round of head. The +only exception to the roundness was a slight hollow on the top of each +head, making it saucer-shaped instead of dome-shaped. They wore no +clothes on their puffy bodies, nor had they any hair. Their skins were +all of a light gray color, and their eyes were mere purple spots. Their +noses were as puffy as the rest of them. + +"Are they rubber, do you think?" asked the Scarecrow, who noticed that +the creatures bounded, as they moved, and seemed almost as light as air. + +"It is difficult to tell what they are," answered Woot, "they seem to +be covered with warts." + +The Loons--for so these folks were called--had been doing many things, +some playing together, some working at tasks and some gathered in +groups to talk; but at the sound of strange voices, which echoed rather +loudly through the clearing, all turned in the direction of the +intruders. Then, in a body, they all rushed forward, running and +bounding with tremendous speed. + +The Tin Woodman was so surprised by this sudden dash that he had no +time to raise his axe before the Loons were on them. The creatures +swung their puffy hands, which looked like boxing-gloves, and pounded +the three travelers as hard as they could, on all sides. The blows were +quite soft and did not hurt our friends at all, but the onslaught quite +bewildered them, so that in a brief period all three were knocked over +and fell flat upon the ground. Once down, many of the Loons held them, +to prevent their getting up again, while others wound long tendrils of +vines about them, binding their arms and legs to their bodies and so +rendering them helpless. + +"Aha!" cried the biggest Loon of all; "we've got 'em safe; so let's +carry 'em to King Bal and have 'em tried, and condemned and +perforated!" They had to drag their captives to the center of the domed +chamber, for their weight, as compared with that of the Loons, +prevented their being carried. Even the Scarecrow was much heavier than +the puffy Loons. But finally the party halted before a raised platform, +on which stood a sort of throne, consisting of a big, wide chair with a +string tied to one arm of it. This string led upward to the roof of the +dome. + +Arranged before the platform, the prisoners were allowed to sit up, +facing the empty throne. + +"Good!" said the big Loon who had commanded the party. "Now to get King +Bal to judge these terrible creatures we have so bravely captured." + +As he spoke he took hold of the string and began to pull as hard as he +could. One or two of the others helped him and pretty soon, as they +drew in the cord, the leaves above them parted and a Loon appeared at +the other end of the string. It didn't take long to draw him down to +the throne, where he seated himself and was tied in, so he wouldn't +float upward again. + +"Hello," said the King, blinking his purple eyes at his followers; +"what's up now!" + +"Strangers, your Majesty--strangers and captives," replied the big +Loon, pompously. + +"Dear me! I see 'em. I see 'em very plainly," exclaimed the King, his +purple eyes bulging out as he looked at the three prisoners. "What +curious animals! Are they dangerous, do you think, my good Panta?" + +"I'm 'fraid so, your Majesty. Of course, they may not be dangerous, but +we mustn't take chances. Enough accidents happen to us poor Loons as it +is, and my advice is to condemn and perforate 'em as quickly as +possible." + +"Keep your advice to yourself," said the monarch, in a peeved tone. +"Who's King here, anyhow? You or Me?" + +"We made you our King because you have less common sense than the rest +of us," answered Panta Loon, indignantly. "I could have been King +myself, had I wanted to, but I didn't care for the hard work and +responsibility." + +As he said this, the big Loon strutted back and forth in the space +between the throne of King Bal and the prisoners, and the other Loons +seemed much impressed by his defiance. But suddenly there came a sharp +report and Panta Loon instantly disappeared, to the great astonishment +of the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and Woot the Wanderer, who saw on the +spot where the big fellow had stood a little heap of flabby, wrinkled +skin that looked like a collapsed rubber balloon. + +"There!" exclaimed the King; "I expected that would happen. The +conceited rascal wanted to puff himself up until he was bigger than the +rest of you, and this is the result of his folly. Get the pump working, +some of you, and blow him up again." + +"We will have to mend the puncture first, your Majesty," suggested one +of the Loons, and the prisoners noticed that none of them seemed +surprised or shocked at the sad accident to Panta. + +"All right," grumbled the King. "Fetch Til to mend him." + +One or two ran away and presently returned, followed by a lady Loon +wearing huge, puffed-up rubber skirts. Also she had a purple feather +fastened to a wart on the top of her head, and around her waist was a +sash of fibre-like vines, dried and tough, that looked like strings. + +"Get to work, Til," commanded King Bal. "Panta has just exploded." + +The lady Loon picked up the bunch of skin and examined it carefully +until she discovered a hole in one foot. Then she pulled a strand of +string from her sash, and drawing the edges of the hole together, she +tied them fast with the string, thus making one of those curious warts +which the strangers had noticed on so many Loons. Having done this, Til +Loon tossed the bit of skin to the other Loons and was about to go away +when she noticed the prisoners and stopped to inspect them. + +"Dear me!" said Til; "what dreadful creatures. Where did they come +from?" + +"We captured them," replied one of the Loons. + +"And what are we going to do with them?" inquired the girl Loon. + +"Perhaps we'll condemn 'em and puncture 'em," answered the King. + +"Well," said she, still eyeing the "I'm not sure they'll puncture. +Let's try it, and see." + +One of the Loons ran to the forest's edge and quickly returned with a +long, sharp thorn. He glanced at the King, who nodded his head in +assent, and then he rushed forward and stuck the thorn into the leg of +the Scarecrow. The Scarecrow merely smiled and said nothing, for the +thorn didn't hurt him at all. + +Then the Loon tried to prick the Tin Woodman's leg, but the tin only +blunted the point of the thorn. + +"Just as I thought," said Til, blinking her purple eyes and shaking her +puffy head; but just then the Loon stuck the thorn into the leg of Woot +the Wanderer, and while it had been blunted somewhat, it was still +sharp enough to hurt. + +"Ouch!" yelled Woot, and kicked out his leg with so much energy that +the frail bonds that tied him burst apart. His foot caught the +Loon--who was leaning over him--full on his puffy stomach, and sent him +shooting up into the air. When he was high over their heads he exploded +with a loud "pop" and his skin fell to the ground. + +"I really believe," said the King, rolling his spotlike eyes in a +frightened way, "that Panta was right in claiming these prisoners are +dangerous. Is the pump ready?" + +Some of the Loons had wheeled a big machine in front of the throne and +now took Panta's skin and began to pump air into it. Slowly it swelled +out until the King cried "Stop!" + +"No, no!" yelled Panta, "I'm not big enough yet." + +"You're as big as you're going to be," declared the King. "Before you +exploded you were bigger than the rest of us, and that caused you to +be proud and overbearing. Now you're a little smaller than the rest, +and you will last longer and be more humble." + +"Pump me up--pump me up!" wailed Panta "If you don't you'll break my +heart." + +"If we do we'll break your skin," replied the King. + +So the Loons stopped pumping air into Panta, and pushed him away from +the pump. He was certainly more humble than before his accident, for he +crept into the background and said nothing more. + +"Now pump up the other one," ordered the King. Til had already mended +him, and the Loons set to work to pump him full of air. + +During these last few moments none had paid much attention to the +prisoners, so Woot, finding his legs free, crept over to the Tin +Woodman and rubbed the bonds that were still around his arms and body +against the sharp edge of the axe, which quickly cut them. + +The boy was now free, and the thorn which the Loon had stuck into his +leg was lying unnoticed on the ground, where the creature had dropped +it when he exploded. Woot leaned forward and picked up the thorn, and +while the Loons were busy watching the pump, the boy sprang to his feet +and suddenly rushed upon the group. + +"Pop"--"pop"--"pop!" went three of the Loons, when the Wanderer pricked +them with his thorn, and at the sounds the others looked around and saw +their danger. With yells of fear they bounded away in all directions, +scattering about the clearing, with Woot the Wanderer in full chase. +While they could run much faster than the boy, they often stumbled and +fell, or got in one another's way, so he managed to catch several and +prick them with his thorn. + +It astonished him to see how easily the Loons exploded. When the air +was let out of them they were quite helpless. Til Loon was one of those +who ran against his thorn and many others suffered the same fate. The +creatures could not escape from the enclosure, but in their fright many +bounded upward and caught branches of the trees, and then climbed out +of reach of the dreaded thorn. + +Woot was getting pretty tired chasing them, so he stopped and came +over, panting, to where his friends were sitting, still bound. + +"Very well done, my Wanderer," said the Tin Woodman. "It is evident +that we need fear these puffed-up creatures no longer, so be kind +enough to unfasten our bonds and we will proceed upon our journey." + +Woot untied the bonds of the Scarecrow and helped him to his feet. Then +he freed the Tin Woodman, who got up without help. Looking around them, +they saw that the only Loon now remaining within reach was Bal Loon, +the King, who had remained seated in his throne, watching the +punishment of his people with a bewildered look in his purple eyes. + +"Shall I puncture the King?" the boy asked his companions. + +King Bal must have overheard the question, for he fumbled with the cord +that fastened him to the throne and managed to release it. Then he +floated upward until he reached the leafy dome, and parting the +branches he disappeared from sight. But the string that was tied to his +body was still connected with the arm of the throne, and they knew they +could pull his Majesty down again, if they wanted to. + +"Let him alone," suggested the Scarecrow. "He seems a good enough king +for his peculiar people, and after we are gone, the Loons will have +something of a job to pump up all those whom Woot has punctured." + +"Every one of them ought to be exploded," declared Woot, who was angry +because his leg still hurt him. + +"No," said the Tin Woodman, "that would not be just fair. They were +quite right to capture us, because we had no business to intrude here, +having been warned to keep away from Loonville. This is their country, +not ours, and since the poor things can't get out of the clearing, they +can harm no one save those who venture here out of curiosity, as we +did." + +"Well said, my friend," agreed tile Scarecrow. "We really had no right +to disturb their peace and comfort; so let us go away." + +They easily found the place where they had forced their way into the +enclosure, so the Tin Woodman pushed aside the underbrush and started +first along the path. The Scarecrow followed next and last came Woot, +who looked back and saw that the Loons were still clinging to their +perches on the trees and watching their former captives with frightened +eyes. + +"I guess they're glad to see the last of us," remarked the boy, and +laughing at the happy ending of the adventure, he followed his comrades +along the path. + + + + +Chapter Five + +Mrs. Yoop, the Giantess + + +When they had reached the end of the path, where they had first seen +the warning sign, they set off across the country in an easterly +direction. Before long they reached Rolling Lands, which were a +succession of hills and valleys where constant climbs and descents were +required, and their journey now became tedious, because on climbing +each hill, they found before them nothing in the valley below it except +grass, or weeds or stones. + +Up and down they went for hours, with nothing to relieve the monotony +of the landscape, until finally, when they had topped a higher hill +than usual, they discovered a cup-shaped valley before them in the +center of which stood an enormous castle, built of purple stone. The +castle was high and broad and long, but had no turrets and towers. So +far as they could see, there was but one small window and one big door +on each side of the great building. + +"This is strange!" mused the Scarecrow. "I'd no idea such a big castle +existed in this Gillikin Country. I wonder who lives here?" + +"It seems to me, from this distance," remarked the Tin Woodman, "that +it's the biggest castle I ever saw. It is really too big for any use, +and no one could open or shut those big doors without a stepladder." + +"Perhaps, if we go nearer, we shall find out whether anybody lives +there or not," suggested Woot. "Looks to me as if nobody lived there." + +On they went, and when they reached the center of the valley, where the +great stone castle stood, it was beginning to grow dark. So they +hesitated as to what to do. + +"If friendly people happen to live here," said Woot. "I shall be glad +of a bed; but should enemies occupy the place, I prefer to sleep upon +the ground." + +"And if no one at all lives here," added the Scarecrow, "we can enter, +and take possession, and make ourselves at home." + +While speaking he went nearer to one of the great doors, which was +three times as high and broad as any he had ever seen in a house +before, and then he discovered, engraved in big letters upon a stone +over the doorway, the words: + + "YOOP CASTLE" + +"Oho!" he exclaimed; "I know the place now. This was probably the home +of Mr. Yoop, a terrible giant whom I have seen confined in a cage, a +long way from here. Therefore this castle is likely to be empty and we +may use it in any way we please." + +"Yes, yes," said the Tin Emperor, nodding; "I also remember Mr. Yoop. +But how are we to get into his deserted castle? The latch of the door +is so far above our heads that none of us can reach it." + +They considered this problem for a while, and then Woot said to the Tin +Man: + +"If I stand upon your shoulders, I think I can unlatch the door." + +"Climb up, then," was the reply, and when the boy was perched upon the +tin shoulders of Nick Chopper, he was just able to reach the latch and +raise it. + +At once the door swung open, its great hinges making a groaning sound +as if in protest, so Woot leaped down and followed his companions into +a big, bare hallway. Scarcely were the three inside, however, when they +heard the door slam shut behind them, and this astonished them because +no one had touched it. It had closed of its own accord, as if by magic. +Moreover, the latch was on the outside, and the thought occurred to +each one of them that they were now prisoners in this unknown castle. + +"However," mumbled the Scarecrow, "we are not to blame for what cannot +be helped; so let us push bravely ahead and see what may be seen." + +It was quite dark in the hallway, now that the outside door was shut, +so as they stumbled along a stone passage they kept close together, not +knowing what danger was likely to befall them. + +Suddenly a soft glow enveloped them. It grew brighter, until they could +see their surroundings distinctly. They had reached the end of the +passage and before them was another huge door. This noiselessly swung +open before them, without the help of anyone, and through the doorway +they observed a big chamber, the walls of which were lined with plates +of pure gold, highly polished. + +This room was also lighted, although they could discover no lamps, and +in the center of it was a great table at which sat an immense woman. +She was clad in silver robes embroidered with gay floral designs, and +wore over this splendid raiment a short apron of elaborate lace-work. +Such an apron was no protection, and was not in keeping with the +handsome gown, but the huge woman wore it, nevertheless. The table at +which she sat was spread with a white cloth and had golden dishes upon +it, so the travelers saw that they had surprised the Giantess while she +was eating her supper. + +She had her back toward them and did not even turn around, but taking a +biscuit from a dish she began to butter it and said in a voice that was +big and deep but not especially unpleasant: + +"Why don't you come in and allow the door to shut? You're causing a +draught, and I shall catch cold and sneeze. When I sneeze, I get cross, +and when I get cross I'm liable to do something wicked. Come in, you +foolish strangers; come in!" + +Being thus urged, they entered the room and approached the table, until +they stood where they faced the great Giantess. She continued eating, +but smiled in a curious way as she looked at them. Woot noticed that +the door had closed silently after they had entered, and that didn't +please him at all. + +"Well," said the Giantess, "what excuse have you to offer?" + +"We didn't know anyone lived here, Madam," explained the Scarecrow; +"so, being travelers and strangers in these parts, and wishing to find +a place for our boy friend to sleep, we ventured to enter your castle." + +"You knew it was private property, I suppose?" said she, buttering +another biscuit. + +"We saw the words, 'Yoop Castle,' over the door, but we knew that Mr. +Yoop is a prisoner in a cage in a far-off part of the land of Oz, so we +decided there was no one now at home and that we might use the castle +for the night." + +"I see," remarked the Giantess, nodding her head and smiling again in +that curious way--a way that made Woot shudder. "You didn't know that +Mr. Yoop was married, or that after he was cruelly captured his wife +still lived in his castle and ran it to suit herself." + +"Who captured Mr. Yoop?" asked Woot, looking gravely at the big woman. + +"Wicked enemies. People who selfishly objected to Yoop's taking their +cows and sheep for his food. I must admit, however, that Yoop had a bad +temper, and had the habit of knocking over a few houses, now and then, +when he was angry. So one day the little folks came in a great crowd +and captured Mr. Yoop, and carried him away to a cage somewhere in the +mountains. I don't know where it is, and I don't care, for my husband +treated me badly at times, forgetting the respect a giant owes to a +giantess. Often he kicked me on my shins, when I wouldn't wait on him. +So I'm glad he is gone." + +"It's a wonder the people didn't capture you, too," remarked Woot. + +"Well, I was too clever for them," said she, giving a sudden laugh that +caused such a breeze that the wobbly Scarecrow was almost blown off his +feet and had to grab his friend Nick Chopper to steady himself. "I saw +the people coming," continued Mrs. Yoop, "and knowing they meant +mischief I transformed myself into a mouse and hid in a cupboard. After +they had gone away, carrying my shin-kicking husband with them, I +transformed myself back to my former shape again, and here I've lived +in peace and comfort ever since." + +"Are you a Witch, then?" inquired Woot. + +"Well, not exactly a Witch," she replied, "but I'm an Artist in +Transformations. In other words, I'm more of a Yookoohoo than a Witch, +and of course you know that the Yookoohoos are the cleverest +magic-workers in the world." + +The travelers were silent for a time, uneasily considering this +statement and the effect it might have on their future. No doubt the +Giantess had wilfully made them her prisoners; yet she spoke so +cheerfully, in her big voice, that until now they had not been alarmed +in the least. + +By and by the Scarecrow, whose mixed brains had been working steadily, +asked the woman: + +"Are we to consider you our friend, Mrs. Yoop, or do you intend to be +our enemy?" + +"I never have friends," she said in a matter-of-fact tone, "because +friends get too familiar and always forget to mind their own business. +But I am not your enemy; not yet, anyhow. Indeed, I'm glad you've come, +for my life here is rather lonely. I've had no one to talk to since I +transformed Polychrome, the Daughter of the Rainbow, into a +canary-bird." + +"How did you manage to do that?" asked the Tin Woodman, in amazement. +"Polychrome is a powerful fairy!" + +"She was," said the Giantess; "but now she's a canary-bird. One day +after a rain, Polychrome danced off the Rainbow and fell asleep on a +little mound in this valley, not far from my castle. The sun came out +and drove the Rainbow away, and before Poly wakened, I stole out and +transformed her into a canary-bird in a gold cage studded with +diamonds. The cage was so she couldn't fly away. I expected she'd sing +and talk and we'd have good times together; but she has proved no +company for me at all. Ever since the moment of her transformation, she +has refused to speak a single word." + +"Where is she now?" inquired Woot, who had heard tales of lovely +Polychrome and was much interested in her. + +"The cage is hanging up in my bedroom," said the Giantess, eating +another biscuit. The travelers were now more uneasy and suspicious of +the Giantess than before. If Polychrome, the Rainbow's Daughter, who +was a real fairy, had been transformed and enslaved by this huge woman, +who claimed to be a Yookoohoo, what was liable to happen to them? Said +the Scarecrow, twisting his stuffed head around in Mrs. Yoop's +direction: + +"Do you know, Ma'am, who we are?" + +"Of course," said she; "a straw man, a tin man and a boy." + +"We are very important people," declared the Tin Woodman. + +"All the better," she replied. "I shall enjoy your society the more on +that account. For I mean to keep you here as long as I live, to amuse +me when I get lonely. And," she added slowly, "in this Valley no one +ever dies." + +They didn't like this speech at all, so the Scarecrow frowned in a way +that made Mrs. Yoop smile, while the Tin Woodman looked so fierce that +Mrs. Yoop laughed. The Scarecrow suspected she was going to laugh, so +he slipped behind his friends to escape the wind from her breath. From +this safe position he said warningly: + +"We have powerful friends who will soon come to rescue us." + +"Let them come," she returned, with an accent of scorn. "When they get +here they will find neither a boy, nor a tin man, nor a scarecrow, for +tomorrow morning I intend to transform you all into other shapes, so +that you cannot be recognized." + +This threat filled them with dismay. The good-natured Giantess was more +terrible than they had imagined. She could smile and wear pretty +clothes and at the same time be even more cruel than her wicked husband +had been. + +Both the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman tried to think of some way to +escape from the castle before morning, but she seemed to read their +thoughts and shook her head. + +"Don't worry your poor brains," said she. "You can't escape me, however +hard you try. But why should you wish to escape? I shall give you new +forms that are much better than the ones you now have. Be contented +with your fate, for discontent leads to unhappiness, and unhappiness, +in any form, is the greatest evil that can befall you." + +"What forms do you intend to give us?" asked Woot earnestly. + +"I haven't decided, as yet. I'll dream over it tonight, so in the +morning I shall have made up my mind how to transform you. Perhaps +you'd prefer to choose your own transformations?" + +"No," said Woot, "I prefer to remain as I am." + +"That's funny," she retorted. "You are little, and you're weak; as you +are, you're not much account, anyhow. The best thing about you is that +you're alive, for I shall be able to make of you some sort of live +creature which will be a great improvement on your present form." + +She took another biscuit from a plate and dipped it in a pot of honey +and calmly began eating it. + +The Scarecrow watched her thoughtfully. + +"There are no fields of grain in your Valley," said he; "where, then, +did you get the flour to make your biscuits?" + +"Mercy me! do you think I'd bother to make biscuits out of flour?" she +replied. "That is altogether too tedious a process for a Yookoohoo. I +set some traps this afternoon and caught a lot of field-mice, but as I +do not like to eat mice, I transformed them into hot biscuits for my +supper. The honey in this pot was once a wasp's nest, but since being +transformed it has become sweet and delicious. All I need do, when I +wish to eat, is to take something I don't care to keep, and transform +it into any sort of food I like, and eat it. Are you hungry?" + +"I don't eat, thank you," said the Scarecrow. + +"Nor do I," said the Tin Woodman. + +"I have still a little natural food in my knapsack," said Woot the +Wanderer, "and I'd rather eat that than any wasp's nest." + +"Every one to his taste," said the Giantess carelessly, and having now +finished her supper she rose to her feet, clapped her hands together, +and the supper table at once disappeared. + + + + +Chapter Six + +The Magic of a Yookoohoo + + +Woot had seen very little of magic during his wanderings, while the +Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman had seen a great deal of many sorts in +their lives, yet all three were greatly impressed by Mrs. Yoop's +powers. She did not affect any mysterious airs or indulge in chants or +mystic rites, as most witches do, nor was the Giantess old and ugly or +disagreeable in face or manner. Nevertheless, she frightened her +prisoners more than any witch could have done. + +"Please be seated," she said to them, as she sat herself down in a +great arm-chair and spread her beautiful embroidered skirts for them to +admire. But all the chairs in the room were so high that our friends +could not climb to the seats of them. Mrs. Yoop observed this and waved +her hand, when instantly a golden ladder appeared leaning against a +chair opposite her own. + +"Climb up," said she, and they obeyed, the Tin Man and the boy +assisting the more clumsy Scarecrow. When they were all seated in a row +on the cushion of the chair, the Giantess continued: "Now tell me how +you happened to travel in this direction, and where you came from and +what your errand is." + +So the Tin Woodman told her all about Nimmie Amee, and how he had +decided to find her and marry her, although he had no Loving Heart. The +story seemed to amuse the big woman, who then began to ask the +Scarecrow questions and for the first time in her life heard of Ozma of +Oz, and of Dorothy and Jack Pumpkinhead and Dr. Pipt and Tik-tok and +many other Oz people who are well known in the Emerald City. Also Woot +had to tell his story, which was very simple and did not take long. The +Giantess laughed heartily when the boy related their adventure at +Loonville, but said she knew nothing of the Loons because she never +left her Valley. + +"There are wicked people who would like to capture me, as they did my +giant husband, Mr. Yoop," said she; "so I stay at home and mind my own +business." + +"If Ozma knew that you dared to work magic without her consent, she +would punish you severely," declared the Scarecrow, "for this castle is +in the Land of Oz, and no persons in the Land of Oz are permitted to +work magic except Glinda the Good and the little Wizard who lives with +Ozma in the Emerald City." + +"That for your Ozma!" exclaimed the Giantess, snapping her fingers in +derision. "What do I care for a girl whom I have never seen and who has +never seen me?" + +"But Ozma is a fairy," said the Tin Woodman, "and therefore she is very +powerful. Also, we are under Ozma's protection, and to injure us in any +way would make her extremely angry." + +"What I do here, in my own private castle in this secluded +Valley--where no one comes but fools like you--can never be known to +your fairy Ozma," returned the Giantess. "Do not seek to frighten me +from my purpose, and do not allow yourselves to be frightened, for it +is best to meet bravely what cannot be avoided. I am now going to bed, +and in the morning I will give you all new forms, such as will be more +interesting to me than the ones you now wear. Good night, and pleasant +dreams." + +Saying this, Mrs. Yoop rose from her chair and walked through a doorway +into another room. So heavy was the tread of the Giantess that even the +walls of the big stone castle trembled as she stepped. She closed the +door of her bedroom behind her, and then suddenly the light went out +and the three prisoners found themselves in total darkness. + +The Tin Woodman and the Scarecrow didn't mind the dark at all, but Woot +the Wanderer felt worried to be left in this strange place in this +strange manner, without being able to see any danger that might +threaten. + +"The big woman might have given me a bed, anyhow," he said to his +companions, and scarcely had he spoken when he felt something press +against his legs, which were then dangling from the seat of the chair. +Leaning down, he put out his hand and found that a bedstead had +appeared, with mattress, sheets and covers, all complete. He lost no +time in slipping down upon the bed and was soon fast asleep. + +During the night the Scarecrow and the Emperor talked in low tones +together, and they got out of the chair and moved all about the room, +feeling for some hidden spring that might open a door or window and +permit them to escape. + +Morning found them still unsuccessful in the quest and as soon as it +was daylight Woot's bed suddenly disappeared, and he dropped to the +floor with a thump that quickly wakened him. And after a time the +Giantess came from her bedroom, wearing another dress that was quite as +elaborate as the one in which she had been attired the evening before, +and also wearing the pretty lace apron. Having seated herself in a +chair, she said: + +"I'm hungry; so I'll have breakfast at once." + +She clapped her hands together and instantly the table appeared before +her, spread with snowy linen and laden with golden dishes. But there +was no food upon the table, nor anything else except a pitcher of +water, a bundle of weeds and a handful of pebbles. But the Giantess +poured some water into her coffee-pot, patted it once or twice with her +hand, and then poured out a cupful of steaming hot coffee. + +"Would you like some?" she asked Woot. + +He was suspicious of magic coffee, but it smelled so good that he could +not resist it; so he answered: "If you please, Madam." + +The Giantess poured out another cup and set it on the floor for Woot. +It was as big as a tub, and the golden spoon in the saucer beside the +cup was so heavy the boy could scarcely lift it. But Woot managed to +get a sip of the coffee and found it delicious. + +Mrs. Yoop next transformed the weeds into a dish of oatmeal, which she +ate with good appetite. + +"Now, then," said she, picking up the pebbles. "I'm wondering whether I +shall have fish-balls or lamb-chops to complete my meal. Which would +you prefer, Woot the Wanderer?" + +"If you please, I'll eat the food in my knapsack," answered the boy. +"Your magic food might taste good, but I'm afraid of it." + +The woman laughed at his fears and transformed the pebbles into +fish-balls. + +"I suppose you think that after you had eaten this food it would turn +to stones again and make you sick," she remarked; "but that would be +impossible. Nothing I transform ever gets back to its former shape +again, so these fish-balls can never more be pebbles. That is why I +have to be careful of my transformations," she added, busily eating +while she talked, "for while I can change forms at will I can never +change them back again--which proves that even the powers of a clever +Yookoohoo are limited. When I have transformed you three people, you +must always wear the shapes that I have given you." + +"Then please don't transform us," begged Woot, "for we are quite +satisfied to remain as we are." + +"I am not expecting to satisfy you, but intend to please myself," she +declared, "and my pleasure is to give you new shapes. For, if by chance +your friends came in search of you, not one of them would be able to +recognize you." + +Her tone was so positive that they knew it would be useless to protest. +The woman was not unpleasant to look at; her face was not cruel; her +voice was big but gracious in tone; but her words showed that she +possessed a merciless heart and no pleadings would alter her wicked +purpose. + +Mrs. Yoop took ample time to finish her breakfast and the prisoners had +no desire to hurry her, but finally the meal was concluded and she +folded her napkin and made the table disappear by clapping her hands +together. Then she turned to her captives and said: + +"The next thing on the programme is to change your forms." + +"Have you decided what forms to give us?" asked the Scarecrow, uneasily. + +"Yes; I dreamed it all out while I was asleep. This Tin Man seems a +very solemn person "--indeed, the Tin Woodman was looking solemn, just +then, for he was greatly disturbed--"so I shall change him into an Owl." + +All she did was to point one finger at him as she spoke, but +immediately the form of the Tin Woodman began to change and in a few +seconds Nick Chopper, the Emperor of the Winkies, had been transformed +into an Owl, with eyes as big as saucers and a hooked beak and strong +claws. But he was still tin. He was a Tin Owl, with tin legs and beak +and eyes and feathers. When he flew to the back of a chair and perched +upon it, his tin feathers rattled against one another with a tinny +clatter. The Giantess seemed much amused by the Tin Owl's appearance, +for her laugh was big and jolly. + +"You're not liable to get lost," said she, "for your wings and feathers +will make a racket wherever you go. And, on my word, a Tin Owl is so +rare and pretty that it is an improvement on the ordinary bird. I did +not intend to make you tin, but I forgot to wish you to be meat. +However, tin you were, and tin you are, and as it's too late to change +you, that settles it." + +Until now the Scarecrow had rather doubted the possibility of Mrs. +Yoop's being able to transform him, or his friend the Tin Woodman, for +they were not made as ordinary people are. He had worried more over +what might happen to Woot than to himself, but now he began to worry +about himself. + +"Madam," he said hastily, "I consider this action very impolite. It may +even be called rude, considering we are your guests." + +"You are not guests, for I did not invite you here," she replied. + +"Perhaps not; but we craved hospitality. We threw ourselves upon your +mercy, so to speak, and we now find you have no mercy. Therefore, if +you will excuse the expression, I must say it is downright wicked to +take our proper forms away from us and give us others that we do not +care for." + +"Are you trying to make me angry?" she asked, frowning. + +"By no means," said the Scarecrow; "I'm just trying to make you act +more ladylike." + +"Oh, indeed! In my opinion, Mr. Scarecrow, you are now acting like a +bear--so a Bear you shall be!" + +Again the dreadful finger pointed, this time in the Scarecrow's +direction, and at once his form began to change. In a few seconds he +had become a small Brown Bear, but he was stuffed with straw as he had +been before, and when the little Brown Bear shuffled across the floor +he was just as wobbly as the Scarecrow had been and moved just as +awkwardly. + +Woot was amazed, but he was also thoroughly frightened. + +"Did it hurt?" he asked the little Brown Bear. + +"No, of course not," growled the Scarecrow in the Bear's form; "but I +don't like walking on four legs; it's undignified." + +"Consider my humiliation!" chirped the Tin Owl, trying to settle its +tin feathers smoothly with its tin beak. "And I can't see very well, +either. The light seems to hurt my eyes." + +"That's because you are an Owl," said Woot. "I think you will see +better in the dark." + +"Well," remarked the Giantess, "I'm very well pleased with these new +forms, for my part, and I'm sure you will like them better when you get +used to them. So now," she added, turning to the boy, "it is your turn." + +"Don't you think you'd better leave me as I am?" asked Woot in a +trembling voice. + +"No," she replied, "I'm going to make a Monkey of you. I love +monkeys--they're so cute!--and I think a Green Monkey will be lots of +fun and amuse me when I am sad." + +Woot shivered, for again the terrible magic finger pointed, and pointed +directly his way. He felt himself changing; not so very much, however, +and it didn't hurt him a bit. He looked down at his limbs and body and +found that his clothes were gone and his skin covered with a fine, +silk-like green fur. His hands and feet were now those of a monkey. He +realized he really was a monkey, and his first feeling was one of +anger. He began to chatter as monkeys do. He bounded to the seat of a +giant chair, and then to its back and with a wild leap sprang upon the +laughing Giantess. His idea was to seize her hair and pull it out by +the roots, and so have revenge for her wicked transformations. But she +raised her hand and said: + +"Gently, my dear Monkey--gently! You're not angry; you're happy as can +be!" + +Woot stopped short. No; he wasn't a bit angry now; he felt as +good-humored and gay as ever he did when a boy. Instead of pulling Mrs. +Yoop's hair, he perched on her shoulder and smoothed her soft cheek +with his hairy paw. In return, she smiled at the funny green animal and +patted his head. + +"Very good," said the Giantess. "Let us all become friends and be happy +together. How is my Tin Owl feeling?" + +"Quite comfortable," said the Owl. "I don't like it, to be sure, but +I'm not going to allow my new form to make me unhappy. But, tell me, +please: what is a Tin Owl good for?" + +"You are only good to make me laugh," replied the Giantess. + +"Will a stuffed Bear also make you laugh?" inquired the Scarecrow, +sitting back on his haunches to look up at her. + +"Of course," declared the Giantess; "and I have added a little magic to +your transformations to make you all contented with wearing your new +forms. I'm sorry I didn't think to do that when I transformed +Polychrome into a Canary-Bird. But perhaps, when she sees how cheerful +you are, she will cease to be silent and sullen and take to singing. I +will go get the bird and let you see her." + +With this, Mrs. Yoop went into the next room and soon returned bearing +a golden cage in which sat upon a swinging perch a lovely yellow +Canary. "Polychrome," said the Giantess, "permit me to introduce to you +a Green Monkey, which used to be a boy called Woot the Wanderer, and a +Tin Owl, which used to be a Tin Woodman named Nick Chopper, and a +straw-stuffed little Brown Bear which used to be a live Scarecrow." + +"We already know one another," declared the Scarecrow. "The bird is +Polychrome, the Rainbow's Daughter, and she and I used to be good +friends." + +"Are you really my old friend, the Scarecrow?" asked; the bird, in a +sweet, low voice. + +"There!" cried Mrs. Yoop; "that's the first time she has spoken since +she was transformed." + +"I am really your old friend," answered the Scarecrow; "but you must +pardon me for appearing just now in this brutal form." + +"I am a bird, as you are, dear Poly," said the Tin Woodman; "but, alas! +a Tin Owl is not as beautiful as a Canary-Bird." + +"How dreadful it all is!" sighed the Canary. "Couldn't you manage to +escape from this terrible Yookoohoo?" + +"No," answered the Scarecrow, "we tried to escape, but failed. She +first made us her prisoners and then transformed us. But how did she +manage to get you, Polychrome?" + +"I was asleep, and she took unfair advantage of me," answered the bird +sadly. "Had I been awake, I could easily have protected myself." + +"Tell me," said the Green Monkey earnestly, as he came close to the +cage, "what must we do, Daughter of the Rainbow, to escape from these +transformations? Can't you help us, being a Fairy?" + +"At present I am powerless to help even myself," replied the Canary. + +"That's the exact truth!" exclaimed the Giantess, who seemed pleased to +hear the bird talk, even though it complained; "you are all helpless +and in my power, so you may as well make up your minds to accept your +fate and be content. Remember that you are transformed for good, since +no magic on earth can break your enchantments. I am now going out for +my morning walk, for each day after breakfast I walk sixteen times +around my castle for exercise. Amuse yourselves while I am gone, and +when I return I hope to find you all reconciled and happy." + +So the Giantess walked to the door by which our friends had entered the +great hall and spoke one word: "Open!" Then the door swung open and +after Mrs. Yoop had passed out it closed again with a snap as its +powerful bolts shot into place. The Green Monkey had rushed toward the +opening, hoping to escape, but he was too late and only got a bump on +his nose as the door slammed shut. + + + + +Chapter Seven + +The Lace Apron + + +"Now," said the Canary, in a tone more brisk than before, "we may talk +together more freely, as Mrs. Yoop cannot hear us. Perhaps we can +figure out a way to escape." + +"Open!" said Woot the Monkey, still facing the door; but his command +had no effect and he slowly rejoined the others. + +"You cannot open any door or window in this enchanted castle unless you +are wearing the Magic Apron," said the Canary. + +"What Magic Apron do you mean?" asked the Tin Owl, in a curious voice. + +"The lace one, which the Giantess always wears. I have been her +prisoner, in this cage, for several weeks, and she hangs my cage in her +bedroom every night, so that she can keep her eye on me," explained +Polychrome the Canary. "Therefore I have discovered that it is the +Magic Apron that opens the doors and windows, and nothing else can move +them. When she goes to bed, Mrs. Yoop hangs her apron on the bedpost, +and one morning she forgot to put it on when she commanded the door to +open, and the door would not move. So then she put on the lace apron +and the door obeyed her. That was how I learned the magic power of the +apron." + +"I see--I see!" said the little Brown Bear, wagging his stuffed head. +"Then, if we could get the apron from Mrs. Yoop, we could open the +doors and escape from our prison." + +"That is true, and it is the plan I was about to suggest," replied +Polychrome the Canary-Bird. "However, I don't believe the Owl could +steal the apron, or even the Bear, but perhaps the Monkey could hide in +her room at night and get the apron while she is asleep." + +"I'll try it!" cried Woot the Monkey. "I'll try it this very night, if +I can manage to steal into her bedroom." + +"You mustn't think about it, though," warned the bird, "for she can +read your thoughts whenever she cares to do so. And do not forget, +before you escape, to take me with you. Once I am out of the power of +the Giantess, I may discover a way to save us all." + +"We won't forget our fairy friend," promised the boy; "but perhaps you +can tell me how to get into the bedroom." + +"No," declared Polychrome, "I cannot advise you as to that. You must +watch for a chance, and slip in when Mrs. Yoop isn't looking." + +They talked it over for a while longer and then Mrs. Yoop returned. +When she entered, the door opened suddenly, at her command, and closed +as soon as her huge form had passed through the doorway. During that +day she entered her bedroom several times, on one errand or another, +but always she commanded the door to close behind her and her prisoners +found not the slightest chance to leave the big hall in which they were +confined. + +The Green Monkey thought it would be wise to make a friend of the big +woman, so as to gain her confidence, so he sat on the back of her chair +and chattered to her while she mended her stockings and sewed silver +buttons on some golden shoes that were as big as row-boats. This +pleased the Giantess and she would pause at times to pat the Monkey's +head. The little Brown Bear curled up in a corner and lay still all +day. The Owl and the Canary found they could converse together in the +bird language, which neither the Giantess nor the Bear nor the Monkey +could understand; so at times they twittered away to each other and +passed the long, dreary day quite cheerfully. + +After dinner Mrs. Yoop took a big fiddle from a big cupboard and played +such loud and dreadful music that her prisoners were all thankful when +at last she stopped and said she was going to bed. + +After cautioning the Monkey and Bear and Owl to behave themselves +during the night, she picked up the cage containing the Canary and, +going to the door of her bedroom, commanded it to open. Just then, +however, she remembered she had left her fiddle lying upon a table, so +she went back for it and put it away in the cupboard, and while her +back was turned the Green Monkey slipped through the open door into her +bedroom and hid underneath the bed. The Giantess, being sleepy, did not +notice this, and entering her room she made the door close behind her +and then hung the bird-cage on a peg by the window. Then she began to +undress, first taking off the lace apron and laying it over the +bedpost, where it was within easy reach of her hand. + +As soon as Mrs. Yoop was in bed the lights all went out, and Woot the +Monkey crouched under the bed and waited patiently until he heard the +Giantess snoring. Then he crept out and in the dark felt around until +he got hold of the apron, which he at once tied around his own waist. + +Next, Woot tried to find the Canary, and there was just enough +moonlight showing through the window to enable him to see where the +cage hung; but it was out of his reach. At first he was tempted to +leave Polychrome and escape with his other friends, but remembering his +promise to the Rainbow's Daughter Woot tried to think how to save her. + +A chair stood near the window, and this--showing dimly in the +moonlight--gave him an idea. By pushing against it with all his might, +he found he could move the giant chair a few inches at a time. So he +pushed and pushed until the chair was beneath the bird-cage, and then +he sprang noiselessly upon the seat--for his monkey form enabled him to +jump higher than he could do as a boy--and from there to the back of +the chair, and so managed to reach the cage and take it off the peg. +Then down he sprang to the floor and made his way to the door. "Open!" +he commanded, and at once the door obeyed and swung open, But his voice +wakened Mrs. Yoop, who gave a wild cry and sprang out of bed with one +bound. The Green Monkey dashed through the doorway, carrying the cage +with him, and before the Giantess could reach the door it slammed shut +and imprisoned her in her own bed-chamber! + +The noise she made, pounding upon the door, and her yells of anger and +dreadful threats of vengeance, filled all our friends with terror, and +Woot the Monkey was so excited that in the dark he could not find the +outer door of the hall. But the Tin Owl could see very nicely in the +dark, so he guided his friends to the right place and when all were +grouped before the door Woot commanded it to open. The Magic Apron +proved as powerful as when it had been worn by the Giantess, so a +moment later they had rushed through the passage and were standing in +the fresh night air outside the castle, free to go wherever they willed. + + + + +Chapter Eight + +The Menace of the Forest + + +"Quick!" cried Polychrome the Canary; "we must hurry, or Mrs. Yoop may +find some way to recapture us, even now. Let us get out of her Valley +as soon as possible." + +So they set off toward the east, moving as swiftly as they could, and +for a long time they could hear the yells and struggles of the +imprisoned Giantess. The Green Monkey could run over the ground very +swiftly, and he carried with him the bird-cage containing Polychrome +the Rain-bow's Daughter. Also the Tin Owl could skip and fly along at a +good rate of speed, his feathers rattling against one another with a +tinkling sound as he moved. But the little Brown Bear, being stuffed +with straw, was a clumsy traveler and the others had to wait for him to +follow. + +However, they were not very long in reaching the ridge that led out of +Mrs. Yoop's Valley, and when they had passed this ridge and descended +into the next valley they stopped to rest, for the Green Monkey was +tired. + +"I believe we are safe, now," said Polychrome, when her cage was set +down and the others had all gathered around it, "for Mrs. Yoop dares +not go outside of her own Valley, for fear of being captured by her +enemies. So we may take our time to consider what to do next." + +"I'm afraid poor Mrs. Yoop will starve to death, if no one lets her out +of her bedroom," said Woot, who had a heart as kind as that of the Tin +Woodman. "We've taken her Magic Apron away, and now the doors will +never open." + +"Don't worry about that," advised Polychrome. "Mrs. Yoop has plenty of +magic left to console her." + +"Are you sure of that?" asked the Green Monkey. + +"Yes, for I've been watching her for weeks," said the Canary. "She has +six magic hairpins, which she wears in her hair, and a magic ring which +she wears on her thumb and which is invisible to all eyes except those +of a fairy, and magic bracelets on both her ankles. So I am positive +that she will manage to find a way out of her prison." + +"She might transform the door into an archway," suggested the little +Brown Bear. + +"That would be easy for her," said the Tin Owl; "but I'm glad she was +too angry to think of that before we got out of her Valley." + +"Well, we have escaped the big woman, to be sure," remarked the Green +Monkey, "but we still wear the awful forms the cruel yookoohoo gave us. +How are we going to get rid of these shapes, and become ourselves +again?" + +None could answer that question. They sat around the cage, brooding +over the problem, until the Monkey fell asleep. Seeing this, the Canary +tucked her head under her wing and also slept, and the Tin Owl and the +Brown Bear did not disturb them until morning came and it was broad +daylight. + +"I'm hungry," said Woot, when he wakened, for his knapsack of food had +been left behind at the castle. + +"Then let us travel on until we can find something for you to eat," +returned the Scarecrow Bear. + +"There is no use in your lugging my cage any farther," declared the +Canary. "Let me out, and throw the cage away. Then I can fly with you +and find my own breakfast of seeds. Also I can search for water, and +tell you where to find it." + +So the Green Monkey unfastened the door of the golden cage and the +Canary hopped out. At first she flew high in the air and made great +circles overhead, but after a time she returned and perched beside them. + +"At the east in the direction we were following," announced the Canary, +"there is a fine forest, with a brook running through it. In the forest +there may be fruits or nuts growing, or berry bushes at its edge, so +let us go that way." + +They agreed to this and promptly set off, this time moving more +deliberately. The Tin Owl, which had guided their way during the night, +now found the sunshine very trying to his big eyes, so he shut them +tight and perched upon the back of the little Brown Bear, which carried +the Owl's weight with ease. The Canary sometimes perched upon the Green +Monkey's shoulder and sometimes fluttered on ahead of the party, and in +this manner they traveled in good spirits across that valley and into +the next one to the east of it. + +This they found to be an immense hollow, shaped like a saucer, and on +its farther edge appeared the forest which Polychrome had seen from the +sky. + +"Come to think of it," said the Tin Owl, waking up and blinking +comically at his friends, "there's no object, now, in our traveling to +the Munchkin Country. My idea in going there was to marry Nimmie Amee, +but however much the Munchkin girl may have loved a Tin Woodman, I +cannot reasonably expect her to marry a Tin Owl." + +"There is some truth in that, my friend," remarked the Brown Bear. "And +to think that I, who was considered the handsomest Scarecrow in the +world, am now condemned to be a scrubby, no-account beast, whose only +redeeming feature is that he is stuffed with straw!" + +"Consider my case, please," said Woot. "The cruel Giantess has made a +Monkey of a Boy, and that is the most dreadful deed of all!" + +"Your color is rather pretty," said the Brown Bear, eyeing Woot +critically. "I have never seen a pea-green monkey before, and it +strikes me you are quite gorgeous." + +"It isn't so bad to be a bird," asserted the Canary, fluttering from +one to another with a free and graceful motion, "but I long to enjoy my +own shape again." + +"As Polychrome, you were the loveliest maiden I have ever seen--except, +of course, Ozma," said the Tin Owl; "so the Giantess did well to +transform you into the loveliest of all birds, if you were to be +transformed at all. But tell me, since you are a fairy, and have a +fairy wisdom: do you think we shall be able to break these +enchantments?" + +"Queer things happen in the Land of Oz," replied the Canary, again +perching on the Green Monkey's shoulder and turning one bright eye +thoughtfully toward her questioner. "Mrs. Yoop has declared that none +of her transformations can ever be changed, even by herself, but I +believe that if we could get to Glinda the Good Sorceress, she might +find a way to restore us to our natural shapes. Glinda, as you know, is +the most powerful Sorceress in the world, and there are few things she +cannot do if she tries." + +"In that case," said the Little Brown Bear, "let us return southward +and try to get to Glinda's castle. It lies in the Quadling Country, you +know, so it is a good way from here." + +"First, however, let us visit the forest and search for something to +eat," pleaded Woot. So they continued on to the edge of the forest, +which consisted of many tall and beautiful trees. They discovered no +fruit trees, at first, so the Green Monkey pushed on into the forest +depths and the others followed close behind him. + +They were traveling quietly along, under the shade of the trees, when +suddenly an enormous jaguar leaped upon them from a limb and with one +blow of his paw sent the little Brown Bear tumbling over and over until +he was stopped by a tree-trunk. Instantly they all took alarm. The Tin +Owl shrieked: "Hoot--hoot!" and flew straight up to the branch of a +tall tree, although he could scarcely see where he was going. The +Canary swiftly darted to a place beside the Owl, and the Green Monkey +sprang up, caught a limb, and soon scrambled to a high perch of safety. + +The Jaguar crouched low and with hungry eyes regarded the little Brown +Bear, which slowly got upon its feet and asked reproachfully: + +"For goodness' sake, Beast, what were you trying to do?" + +"Trying to get my breakfast," answered the Jaguar with a snarl, "and I +believe I've succeeded. You ought to make a delicious meal--unless you +happen to be old and tough." + +"I'm worse than that, considered as a breakfast," said the Bear, "for +I'm only a skin stuffed with straw, and therefore not fit to eat." + +"Indeed!" cried the Jaguar, in a disappointed voice; "then you must be +a magic Bear, or enchanted, and I must seek my breakfast from among +your companions." + +With this he raised his lean head to look up at the Tin Owl and the +Canary and the Monkey, and he lashed his tail upon the ground and +growled as fiercely as any jaguar could. + +"My friends are enchanted, also," said the little Brown Bear. + +"All of them?" asked the Jaguar. + +"Yes. The Owl is tin, so you couldn't possibly eat him. The Canary is a +fairy--Polychrome, the Daughter of the Rainbow--and you never could +catch her because she can easily fly out of your reach." + +"There still remains the Green Monkey," remarked the Jaguar hungrily. +"He is neither made of tin nor stuffed with straw, nor can he fly. I'm +pretty good at climbing trees, myself, so I think I'll capture the +Monkey and eat him for my breakfast." + +Woot the Monkey, hearing this speech from his perch on the tree, became +much frightened, for he knew the nature of jaguars and realized they +could climb trees and leap from limb to limb with the agility of cats. +So he at once began to scamper through the forest as fast as he could +go, catching at a branch with his long monkey arms and swinging his +green body through space to grasp another branch in a neighboring tree, +and so on, while the Jaguar followed him from below, his eyes fixed +steadfastly on his prey. But presently Woot got his feet tangled in the +Lace Apron, which he was still wearing, and that tripped him in his +flight and made him fall to the ground, where the Jaguar placed one +huge paw upon him and said grimly: + +"I've got you, now!" + +The fact that the Apron had tripped him made Woot remember its magic +powers, and in his terror he cried out: "Open!" without stopping to +consider how this command might save him. But, at the word, the earth +opened at the exact spot where he lay under the Jaguar's paw, and his +body sank downward, the earth closing over it again. The last thing +Woot the Monkey saw, as he glanced upward, was the Jaguar peering into +the hole in astonishment. + +"He's gone!" cried the beast, with a long-drawn sigh of disappointment; +"he's gone, and now I shall have no breakfast." + +The clatter of the Tin Owl's wings sounded above him, and the little +Brown Bear came trotting up and asked: + +"Where is the monkey? Have you eaten him so quickly?" + +"No, indeed," answered the Jaguar. "He disappeared into the earth +before I could take one bite of him!" + +And now the Canary perched upon a stump, a little way from the forest +beast, and said: + +"I am glad our friend has escaped you; but, as it is natural for a +hungry beast to wish his breakfast, I will try to give you one." + +"Thank you," replied the Jaguar. "You're rather small for a full meal, +but it's kind of you to sacrifice yourself to my appetite." + +"Oh, I don't intend to be eaten, I assure you," said the Canary, "but +as I am a fairy I know something of magic, and though I am now +transformed into a bird's shape, I am sure I can conjure up a breakfast +that will satisfy you." + +"If you can work magic, why don't you break the enchantment you are +under and return to your proper form?" inquired the beast doubtingly. + +"I haven't the power to do that," answered the Canary, "for Mrs. Yoop, +the Giantess who transformed me, used a peculiar form of yookoohoo +magic that is unknown to me. However, she could not deprive me of my +own fairy knowledge, so I will try to get you a breakfast." + +"Do you think a magic breakfast would taste good, or relieve the pangs +of hunger I now suffer?" asked the Jaguar. + +"I am sure it would. What would you like to eat?" + +"Give me a couple of fat rabbits," said the beast. + +"Rabbits! No, indeed. I'd not allow you to eat the dear little things," +declared Polychrome the Canary. + +"Well, three or four squirrels, then," pleaded the Jaguar. + +"Do you think me so cruel?" demanded the Canary, indignantly. "The +squirrels are my especial friends." + +"How about a plump owl?" asked the beast. "Not a tin one, you know, but +a real meat owl." + +"Neither beast nor bird shall you have," said Polychrome in a positive +voice. + +"Give me a fish, then; there's a river a little way off," proposed the +Jaguar. + +"No living thing shall be sacrificed to feed you," returned the Canary. + +"Then what in the world do you expect me to eat?" said the Jaguar in a +scornful tone. + +"How would mush-and-milk do?" asked the Canary. + +The Jaguar snarled in derision and lashed his tail against the ground +angrily. + +"Give him some scrambled eggs on toast, Poly," suggested the Bear +Scarecrow. "He ought to like that." + +"I will," responded the Canary, and fluttering her wings she made a +flight of three circles around the stump. Then she flew up to a tree +and the Bear and the Owl and the Jaguar saw that upon the stump had +appeared a great green leaf upon which was a large portion of scrambled +eggs on toast, smoking hot. + +"There!" said the Bear; "eat your breakfast, friend Jaguar, and be +content." + +The Jaguar crept closer to the stump and sniffed the fragrance of the +scrambled eggs. They smelled so good that he tasted them, and they +tasted so good that he ate the strange meal in a hurry, proving he had +been really hungry. + +"I prefer rabbits," he muttered, licking his chops, "but I must admit +the magic breakfast has filled my stomach full, and brought me comfort. +So I'm much obliged for the kindness, little Fairy, and I'll now leave +you in peace." + +Saying this, he plunged into the thick underbrush and soon disappeared, +although they could hear his great body crashing through the bushes +until he was far distant. + +"That was a good way to get rid of the savage beast, Poly," said the +Tin Woodman to the Canary; "but I'm surprised that you didn't give our +friend Woot a magic breakfast, when you knew he was hungry." + +"The reason for that," answered Polychrome, "was that my mind was so +intent on other things that I quite forgot my power to produce food by +magic. But where is the monkey boy?" + +"Gone!" said the Scarecrow Bear, solemnly. "The earth has swallowed him +up." + + + + +Chapter Nine + +The Quarrelsome Dragons + + +The Green Monkey sank gently into the earth for a little way and then +tumbled swiftly through space, landing on a rocky floor with a thump +that astonished him. Then he sat up, found that no bones were broken, +and gazed around him. + +He seemed to be in a big underground cave, which was dimly lighted by +dozens of big round discs that looked like moons. They were not moons, +however, as Woot discovered when he had examined the place more +carefully. They were eyes. The eyes were in the heads of enormous +beasts whose bodies trailed far behind them. Each beast was bigger than +an elephant, and three times as long, and there were a dozen or more of +the creatures scattered here and there about the cavern. On their +bodies were big scales, as round as pie-plates, which were beautifully +tinted in shades of green, purple and orange. On the ends of their long +tails were clusters of jewels. Around the great, moon-like eyes were +circles of diamonds which sparkled in the subdued light that glowed +from the eyes. + +Woot saw that the creatures had wide mouths and rows of terrible teeth +and, from tales he had heard of such beings, he knew he had fallen into +a cavern inhabited by the great Dragons that had been driven from the +surface of the earth and were only allowed to come out once in a +hundred years to search for food. Of course he had never seen Dragons +before, yet there was no mistaking them, for they were unlike any other +living creatures. + +Woot sat upon the floor where he had fallen, staring around, and the +owners of the big eyes returned his look, silently and motionless. +Finally one of the Dragons which was farthest away from him asked, in a +deep, grave voice: + +"What was that?" + +And the greatest Dragon of all, who was just in front of the Green +Monkey, answered in a still deeper voice: + +"It is some foolish animal from Outside." + +"Is it good to eat?" inquired a smaller Dragon beside the great one. +"I'm hungry." + +"Hungry!" exclaimed all the Dragons, in a reproachful chorus; and then +the great one said chidingly: "Tut-tut, my son! You've no reason to be +hungry at this time." + +"Why not?" asked the little Dragon. "I haven't eaten anything in eleven +years." + +"Eleven years is nothing," remarked another Dragon, sleepily opening +and closing his eyes; "I haven't feasted for eighty-seven years, and I +dare not get hungry for a dozen or so years to come. Children who eat +between meals should be broken of the habit." + +"All I had, eleven years ago, was a rhinoceros, and that's not a full +meal at all," grumbled the young one. "And, before that, I had waited +sixty-two years to be fed; so it's no wonder I'm hungry." + +"How old are you now?" asked Woot, forgetting his own dangerous +position in his interest in the conversation. + +"Why, I'm--I'm--How old am I, Father?" asked the little Dragon. + +"Goodness gracious! what a child to ask questions. Do you want to keep +me thinking all the time? Don't you know that thinking is very bad for +Dragons?" returned the big one, impatiently. + +"How old am I, Father?" persisted the small Dragon. + +"About six hundred and thirty, I believe. Ask your mother." + +"No; don't!" said an old Dragon in the background; "haven't I enough +worries, what with being wakened in the middle of a nap, without being +obliged to keep track of my children's ages?" + +"You've been fast asleep for over sixty years, Mother," said the child +Dragon. "How long a nap do you wish?" + +"I should have slept forty years longer. And this strange little green +beast should be punished for falling into our cavern and disturbing us." + +"I didn't know you were here, and I didn't know I was going to fall +in," explained Woot. + +"Nevertheless, here you are," said the great Dragon, "and you have +carelessly wakened our entire tribe; so it stands to reason you must be +punished." + +"In what way?" inquired the Green Monkey, trembling a little. + +"Give me time and I'll think of a way. You're in no hurry, are you?" +asked the great Dragon. + +"No, indeed," cried Woot. "Take your time. I'd much rather you'd all go +to sleep again, and punish me when you wake up in a hundred years or +so." + +"Let me eat him!" pleaded the littlest Dragon. + +"He is too small," said the father. "To eat this one Green Monkey would +only serve to make you hungry for more, and there are no more." + +"Quit this chatter and let me get to sleep," protested another Dragon, +yawning in a fearful manner, for when he opened his mouth a sheet of +flame leaped forth from it and made Woot jump back to get out of its +way. + +In his jump he bumped against the nose of a Dragon behind him, which +opened its mouth to growl and shot another sheet of flame at him. The +flame was bright, but not very hot, yet Woot screamed with terror and +sprang forward with a great bound. This time he landed on the paw of +the great Chief Dragon, who angrily raised his other front paw and +struck the Green Monkey a fierce blow. Woot went sailing through the +air and fell sprawling upon the rocky floor far beyond the place where +the Dragon Tribe was grouped. + +All the great beasts were now thoroughly wakened and aroused, and they +blamed the monkey for disturbing their quiet. The littlest Dragon +darted after Woot and the others turned their unwieldy bodies in his +direction and followed, flashing from their eyes and mouths flames +which lighted up the entire cavern. Woot almost gave himself up for +lost, at that moment, but he scrambled to his feet and dashed away to +the farthest end of the cave, the Dragons following more leisurely +because they were too clumsy to move fast. Perhaps they thought there +was no need of haste, as the monkey could not escape from the cave. +But, away up at the end of the place, the cavern floor was heaped with +tumbled rocks, so Woot, with an agility born of fear, climbed from rock +to rock until he found himself crouched against the cavern roof. There +he waited, for he could go no farther, while on over the tumbled rocks +slowly crept the Dragons--the littlest one coming first because he was +hungry as well as angry. + +The beasts had almost reached him when Woot, remembering his lace +apron--now sadly torn and soiled--recovered his wits and shouted: +"Open!" At the cry a hole appeared in the roof of the cavern, just over +his head, and through it the sunlight streamed full upon the Green +Monkey. + +The Dragons paused, astonished at the magic and blinking at the +sunlight, and this gave Woot time to climb through the opening. As soon +as he reached the surface of the earth the hole closed again, and the +boy monkey realized, with a thrill of joy, that he had seen the last of +the dangerous Dragon family. + +He sat upon the ground, still panting hard from his exertions, when the +bushes before him parted and his former enemy, the Jaguar, appeared. + +"Don't run," said the woodland beast, as Woot sprang up; "you are +perfectly safe, so far as I am concerned, for since you so mysteriously +disappeared I have had my breakfast. I am now on my way home to sleep +the rest of the day." + +"Oh, indeed!" returned the Green Monkey, in a tone both sorry and +startled. "Which of my friends did you manage to eat?" + +"None of them," returned the Jaguar, with a sly grin "I had a dish of +magic scrambled eggs--on toast--and it wasn't a bad feast, at all. +There isn't room in me for even you, and I don't regret it because I +judge, from your green color, that you are not ripe, and would make an +indifferent meal. We jaguars have to be careful of our digestions. +Farewell, Friend Monkey. Follow the path I made through the bushes and +you will find your friends." + +With this the Jaguar marched on his way and Woot took his advice and +followed the trail he had made until he came to the place where the +little Brown Bear, and the Tin Owl, and the Canary were conferring +together and wondering what had become of their comrade, the Green +Monkey. + + + + +Chapter Ten + +Tommy Kwikstep + + +"Our best plan," said the Scarecrow Bear, when the Green Monkey had +related the story of his adventure with the Dragons, "is to get out of +this Gillikin Country as soon as we can and try to find our way to the +castle of Glinda, the Good Sorceress. There are too many dangers +lurking here to suit me, and Glinda may be able to restore us to our +proper forms." + +"If we turn south now," the Tin Owl replied, "we might go straight into +the Emerald City. That's a place I wish to avoid, for I'd hate to have +my friends see me in this sad plight," and he blinked his eyes and +fluttered his tin wings mournfully. + +"But I am certain we have passed beyond Emerald City," the Canary +assured him, sailing lightly around their heads. "So, should we turn +south from here, we would pass into the Munchkin Country, and +continuing south we would reach the Quadling Country where Glinda's +castle is located." + +"Well, since you're sure of that, let's start right away," proposed the +Bear. "It's a long journey, at the best, and I'm getting tired of +walking on four legs." + +"I thought you never tired, being stuffed with straw," said Woot. + +"I mean that it annoys me, to be obliged to go on all fours, when two +legs are my proper walking equipment," replied the Scarecrow. "I +consider it beneath my dignity. In other words, my remarkable brains +can tire, through humiliation, although my body cannot tire." + +"That is one of the penalties of having brains," remarked the Tin Owl +with a sigh. "I have had no brains since I was a man of meat, and so I +never worry. Nevertheless, I prefer my former manly form to this owl's +shape and would be glad to break Mrs. Yoop's enchantment as soon as +possible. I am so noisy, just now, that I disturb myself," and he +fluttered his wings with a clatter that echoed throughout the forest. + +So, being all of one mind, they turned southward, traveling steadily on +until the woods were left behind and the landscape turned from purple +tints to blue tints, which assured them they had entered the Country of +the Munchkins. + +"Now I feel myself more safe," said the Scarecrow Bear. "I know this +country pretty well, having been made here by a Munchkin farmer and +having wandered over these lovely blue lands many times. Seems to me, +indeed, that I even remember that group of three tall trees ahead of +us; and, if I do, we are not far from the home of my friend Jinjur." + +"Who is Jinjur?" asked Woot, the Green Monkey. + +"Haven't you heard of Jinjur?" exclaimed the Scarecrow, in surprise. + +"No," said Woot. "Is Jinjur a man, a woman, a beast or a bird?" + +"Jinjur is a girl," explained the Scarecrow Bear. "She's a fine girl, +too, although a bit restless and liable to get excited. Once, a long +time ago, she raised an army of girls and called herself 'General +Jinjur.' With her army she captured the Emerald City, and drove me out +of it, because I insisted that an army in Oz was highly improper. But +Ozma punished the rash girl, and afterward Jinjur and I became fast +friends. Now Jinjur lives peacefully on a farm, near here, and raises +fields of cream-puffs, chocolate-caramels and macaroons. They say she's +a pretty good farmer, and in addition to that she's an artist, and +paints pictures so perfect that one can scarcely tell them from nature. +She often repaints my face for me, when it gets worn or mussy, and the +lovely expression I wore when the Giantess transformed me was painted +by Jinjur only a month or so ago." + +"It was certainly a pleasant expression," agreed Woot. + +"Jinjur can paint anything," continued the Scarecrow Bear, with +enthusiasm, as they walked along together. "Once, when I came to her +house, my straw was old and crumpled, so that my body sagged +dreadfully. I needed new straw to replace the old, but Jinjur had no +straw on all her ranch and I was really unable to travel farther until +I had been restuffed. When I explained this to Jinjur, the girl at once +painted a straw-stack which was so natural that I went to it and +secured enough straw to fill all my body. It was a good quality of +straw, too, and lasted me a long time." + +This seemed very wonderful to Woot, who knew that such a thing could +never happen in any place but a fairy country like Oz. + +The Munchkin Country was much nicer than the Gillikin Country, and all +the fields were separated by blue fences, with grassy lanes and paths +of blue ground, and the land seemed well cultivated. They were on a +little hill looking down upon this favored country, but had not quite +reached the settled parts, when on turning a bend in the path they were +halted by a form that barred their way. + +A more curious creature they had seldom seen, even in the Land of Oz, +where curious creatures abound. It had the head of a young +man--evidently a Munchkin--with a pleasant face and hair neatly combed. +But the body was very long, for it had twenty legs--ten legs on each +side--and this caused the body to stretch out and lie in a horizontal +position, so that all the legs could touch the ground and stand firm. +From the shoulders extended two small arms; at least, they seemed small +beside so many legs. + +This odd creature was dressed in the regulation clothing of the +Munchkin people, a dark blue coat neatly fitting the long body and each +pair of legs having a pair of sky-blue trousers, with blue-tinted +stockings and blue leather shoes turned up at the pointed toes. + +"I wonder who you are?" said Polychrome the Canary, fluttering above +the strange creature, who had probably been asleep on the path. + +"I sometimes wonder, myself, who I am," replied the many-legged young +man; "but, in reality, I am Tommy Kwikstep, and I live in a hollow tree +that fell to the ground with age. I have polished the inside of it, and +made a door at each end, and that's a very comfortable residence for me +because it just fits my shape." + +"How did you happen to have such a shape?" asked the Scarecrow Bear, +sitting on his haunches and regarding Tommy Kwikstep with a serious +look. "Is the shape natural?" + +"No; it was wished on me," replied Tommy, with a sigh. "I used to be +very active and loved to run errands for anyone who needed my services. +That was how I got my name of Tommy Kwikstep. I could run an errand +more quickly than any other boy, and so I was very proud of myself. One +day, however, I met an old lady who was a fairy, or a witch, or +something of the sort, and she said if I would run an errand for +her--to carry some magic medicine to another old woman--she would grant +me just one Wish, whatever the Wish happened to be. Of course I +consented and, taking the medicine, I hurried away. It was a long +distance, mostly up hill, and my legs began to grow weary. Without +thinking what I was doing I said aloud: 'Dear me; I wish I had twenty +legs!' and in an instant I became the unusual creature you see beside +you. Twenty legs! Twenty on one man! You may count them, if you doubt +my word." + +"You've got 'em, all right," said Woot the Monkey, who had already +counted them. + +"After I had delivered the magic medicine to the old woman, I returned +and tried to find the witch, or fairy, or whatever she was, who had +given me the unlucky wish, so she could take it away again. I've been +searching for her ever since, but never can I find her," continued poor +Tommy Kwikstep, sadly. + +"I suppose," said the Tin Owl, blinking at him, "you can travel very +fast, with those twenty legs." + +"At first I was able to," was the reply; "but I traveled so much, +searching for the fairy, or witch, or whatever she was, that I soon got +corns on my toes. Now, a corn on one toe is not so bad, but when you +have a hundred toes--as I have--and get corns on most of them, it is +far from pleasant. Instead of running, I now painfully crawl, and +although I try not to be discouraged I do hope I shall find that witch +or fairy, or whatever she was, before long." + +"I hope so, too," said the Scarecrow. "But, after all, you have the +pleasure of knowing you are unusual, and therefore remarkable among the +people of Oz. To be just like other persons is small credit to one, +while to be unlike others is a mark of distinction." + +"That sounds very pretty," returned Tommy Kwikstep, "but if you had to +put on ten pair of trousers every morning, and tie up twenty shoes, you +would prefer not to be so distinguished." + +"Was the witch, or fairy, or whatever she was, an old person, with +wrinkled skin and half her teeth gone?" inquired the Tin Owl. + +"No," said Tommy Kwikstep. + +"Then she wasn't Old Mombi," remarked the transformed Emperor. + +"I'm not interested in who it wasn't, so much as I am in who it was," +said the twenty-legged young man. "And, whatever or whomsoever she was, +she has managed to keep out of my way." + +"If you found her, do you suppose she'd change you back into a +two-legged boy?" asked Woot. + +"Perhaps so, if I could run another errand for her and so earn another +wish." + +"Would you really like to be as you were before?" asked Polychrome the +Canary, perching upon the Green Monkey's shoulder to observe Tommy +Kwikstep more attentively. + +"I would, indeed," was the earnest reply. + +"Then I will see what I can do for you," promised the Rainbow's +Daughter, and flying to the ground she took a small twig in her bill +and with it made several mystic figures on each side of Tommy Kwikstep. + +"Are you a witch, or fairy, or something of the sort?" he asked as he +watched her wonderingly. + +The Canary made no answer, for she was busy, but the Scarecrow Bear +replied: "Yes; she's something of the sort, and a bird of a magician." + +The twenty-legged boy's transformation happened so queerly that they +were all surprised at its method. First, Tommy Kwikstep's last two legs +disappeared; then the next two, and the next, and as each pair of legs +vanished his body shortened. All this while Polychrome was running +around him and chirping mystical words, and when all the young man's +legs had disappeared but two he noticed that the Canary was still busy +and cried out in alarm: + +"Stop--stop! Leave me two of my legs, or I shall be worse off than +before." + +"I know," said the Canary. "I'm only removing with my magic the corns +from your last ten toes." + +"Thank you for being so thoughtful," he said gratefully, and now they +noticed that Tommy Kwikstep was quite a nice looking young fellow. + +"What will you do now?" asked Woot the Monkey. + +"First," he answered, "I must deliver a note which I've carried in my +pocket ever since the witch, or fairy, or whatever she was, granted my +foolish wish. And I am resolved never to speak again without taking +time to think carefully on what I am going to say, for I realize that +speech without thought is dangerous. And after I've delivered the note, +I shall run errands again for anyone who needs my services." + +So he thanked Polychrome again and started away in a different +direction from their own, and that was the last they saw of Tommy +Kwikstep. + + + + +Chapter Eleven + +Jinjur's Ranch + + +As they followed a path down the blue-grass hillside, the first house +that met the view of the travelers was joyously recognized by the +Scarecrow Bear as the one inhabited by his friend Jinjur, so they +increased their speed and hurried toward it. + +On reaching the place, how ever, they found the house deserted. The +front door stood open, but no one was inside. In the garden surrounding +the house were neat rows of bushes bearing cream-puffs and macaroons, +some of which were still green, but others ripe and ready to eat. +Farther back were fields of caramels, and all the land seemed well +cultivated and carefully tended. They looked through the fields for the +girl farmer, but she was nowhere to be seen. + +"Well," finally remarked the little Brown Bear, "let us go into the +house and make ourselves at home. That will be sure to please my friend +Jinjur, who happens to be away from home just now. When she returns, +she will be greatly surprised." + +"Would she care if I ate some of those ripe cream-puffs?" asked the +Green Monkey. + +"No, indeed; Jinjur is very generous. Help yourself to all you want," +said the Scarecrow Bear. + +So Woot gathered a lot of the cream-puffs that were golden yellow and +filled with a sweet, creamy substance, and ate until his hunger was +satisfied. Then he entered the house with his friends and sat in a +rocking-chair--just as he was accustomed to do when a boy. The Canary +perched herself upon the mantel and daintily plumed her feathers; the +Tin Owl sat on the back of another chair; the Scarecrow squatted on his +hairy haunches in the middle of the room. + +"I believe I remember the girl Jinjur," remarked the Canary, in her +sweet voice. "She cannot help us very much, except to direct us on our +way to Glinda's castle, for she does not understand magic. But she's a +good girl, honest and sensible, and I'll be glad to see her." + +"All our troubles," said the Owl with a deep sigh, "arose from my +foolish resolve to seek Nimmie Amee and make her Empress of the +Winkies, and while I wish to reproach no one, I must say that it was +Woot the Wanderer who put the notion into my head." + +"Well, for my part, I am glad he did," responded the Canary. "Your +journey resulted in saving me from the Giantess, and had you not +traveled to the Yoop Valley, I would still be Mrs. Yoop's prisoner. It +is much nicer to be free, even though I still bear the enchanted form +of a Canary-Bird." + +"Do you think we shall ever be able to get our proper forms back +again?" asked the Green Monkey earnestly. + +Polychrome did not make reply at once to this important question, but +after a period of thoughtfulness she said: + +"I have been taught to believe that there is an antidote for every +magic charm, yet Mrs. Yoop insists that no power can alter her +transformations. I realize that my own fairy magic cannot do it, +although I have thought that we Sky Fairies have more power than is +accorded to Earth Fairies. The yookoohoo magic is admitted to be very +strange in its workings and different from the magic usually practiced, +but perhaps Glinda or Ozma may understand it better than I. In them +lies our only hope. Unless they can help us, we must remain forever as +we are." + +"A Canary-Bird on a Rainbow wouldn't be so bad," asserted the Tin Owl, +winking and blinking with his round tin eyes, "so if you can manage to +find your Rainbow again you need have little to worry about." + +"That's nonsense, Friend Chopper," exclaimed Woot. "I know just how +Polychrome feels. A beautiful girl is much superior to a little yellow +bird, and a boy--such as I was--far better than a Green Monkey. Neither +of us can be happy again unless we recover our rightful forms." + +"I feel the same way," announced the stuffed Bear. "What do you suppose +my friend the Patchwork Girl would think of me, if she saw me wearing +this beastly shape?" + +"She'd laugh till she cried," admitted the Tin Owl. "For my part, I'll +have to give up the notion of marrying Nimmie Amee, but I'll try not to +let that make me unhappy. If it's my duty, I'd like to do my duty, but +if magic prevents my getting married I'll flutter along all by myself +and be just as contented." + +Their serious misfortunes made them all silent for a time, and as their +thoughts were busy in dwelling upon the evils with which fate had +burdened them, none noticed that Jinjur had suddenly appeared in the +doorway and was looking at them in astonishment. The next moment her +astonishment changed to anger, for there, in her best rocking-chair, +sat a Green Monkey. A great shiny Owl perched upon another chair and a +Brown Bear squatted upon her parlor rug. Jinjur did not notice the +Canary, but she caught up a broomstick and dashed into the room, +shouting as she came: + +"Get out of here, you wild creatures! How dare you enter my house?" + +With a blow of her broom she knocked the Brown Bear over, and the Tin +Owl tried to fly out of her reach and made a great clatter with his tin +wings. The Green Monkey was so startled by the sudden attack that he +sprang into the fireplace--where there was fortunately no fire--and +tried to escape by climbing up the chimney. But he found the opening +too small, and so was forced to drop down again. Then he crouched +trembling in the fireplace, his pretty green hair all blackened with +soot and covered with ashes. From this position Woot watched to see +what would happen next. + +"Stop, Jinjur--stop!" cried the Brown Bear, when the broom again +threatened him. "Don't you know me? I'm your old friend the Scarecrow?" + +"You're trying to deceive me, you naughty beast! I can see plainly that +you are a bear, and a mighty poor specimen of a bear, too," retorted +the girl. + +"That's because I'm not properly stuffed," he assured her. "When Mrs. +Yoop transformed me, she didn't realize I should have more stuffing." + +"Who is Mrs. Yoop?" inquired Jinjur, pausing with the broom still +upraised. + +"A Giantess in the Gillikin Country." + +"Oh; I begin to understand. And Mrs. Yoop transformed you? You are +really the famous Scarecrow of Oz." + +"I was, Jinjur. Just now I'm as you see me--a miserable little Brown +Bear with a poor quality of stuffing. That Tin Owl is none other than +our dear Tin Woodman--Nick Chopper, the Emperor of the Winkies--while +this Green Monkey is a nice little boy we recently became acquainted +with, Woot the Wanderer." + +"And I," said the Canary, flying close to Jinjur, "am Polychrome, the +Daughter of the Rainbow, in the form of a bird." + +"Goodness me!" cried Jinjur, amazed; "that Giantess must be a powerful +Sorceress, and as wicked as she is powerful." + +"She's a yookoohoo," said Polychrome. "Fortunately, we managed to +escape from her castle, and we are now on our way to Glinda the Good to +see if she possesses the power to restore us to our former shapes." + +"Then I must beg your pardons; all of you must forgive me," said +Jinjur, putting away the broom. "I took you to be a lot of wild, +unmannerly animals, as was quite natural. You are very welcome to my +home and I'm sorry I haven't the power to help you out of your +troubles. Please use my house and all that I have, as if it were your +own." + +At this declaration of peace, the Bear got upon his feet and the Owl +resumed his perch upon the chair and the Monkey crept out of the +fireplace. Jinjur looked at Woot critically, and scowled. + +"For a Green Monkey," said she, "you're the blackest creature I ever +saw. And you'll get my nice clean room all dirty with soot and ashes. +Whatever possessed you to jump up the chimney?" + +"I--I was scared," explained Woot, somewhat ashamed. + +"Well, you need renovating, and that's what will happen to you, right +away. Come with me!" she commanded. + +"What are you going to do?" asked Woot. + +"Give you a good scrubbing," said Jinjur. + +Now, neither boys nor monkeys relish being scrubbed, so Woot shrank +away from the energetic girl, trembling fearfully. But Jinjur grabbed +him by his paw and dragged him out to the back yard, where, in spite of +his whines and struggles, she plunged him into a tub of cold water and +began to scrub him with a stiff brush and a cake of yellow soap. + +This was the hardest trial that Woot had endured since he became a +monkey, but no protest had any influence with Jinjur, who lathered and +scrubbed him in a business-like manner and afterward dried him with a +coarse towel. + +The Bear and the Owl gravely watched this operation and nodded approval +when Woot's silky green fur shone clear and bright in the afternoon +sun. The Canary seemed much amused and laughed a silvery ripple of +laughter as she said: + +"Very well done, my good Jinjur; I admire your energy and judgment. But +I had no idea a monkey could look so comical as this monkey did while +he was being bathed." + +"I'm not a monkey!" declared Woot, resentfully; "I'm just a boy in a +monkey's shape, that's all." + +"If you can explain to me the difference," said Jinjur, "I'll agree not +to wash you again--that is, unless you foolishly get into the +fireplace. All persons are usually judged by the shapes in which they +appear to the eyes of others. Look at me, Woot; what am I?" + +Woot looked at her. + +"You're as pretty a girl as I've ever seen," he replied. + +Jinjur frowned. That is, she tried hard to frown. + +"Come out into the garden with me," she said, "and I'll give you some +of the most delicious caramels you ever ate. They're a new variety, +that no one can grow but me, and they have a heliotrope flavor." + + + + +Chapter Twelve + +Ozma and Dorothy + + +In her magnificent palace in the Emerald City, the beautiful girl Ruler +of all the wonderful Land of Oz sat in her dainty boudoir with her +friend Princess Dorothy beside her. Ozma was studying a roll of +manuscript which she had taken from the Royal Library, while Dorothy +worked at her embroidery and at times stooped to pat a shaggy little +black dog that lay at her feet. The little dog's name was Toto, and he +was Dorothy's faithful companion. + +To judge Ozma of Oz by the standards of our world, you would think her +very young--perhaps fourteen or fifteen years of age--yet for years she +had ruled the Land of Oz and had never seemed a bit older. Dorothy +appeared much younger than Ozma. She had been a little girl when first +she came to the Land of Oz, and she was a little girl still, and would +never seem to be a day older while she lived in this wonderful +fairyland. + +Oz was not always a fairyland, I am told. Once it was much like other +lands, except it was shut in by a dreadful desert of sandy wastes that +lay all around it, thus preventing its people from all contact with the +rest of the world. Seeing this isolation, the fairy band of Queen +Lurline, passing over Oz while on a journey, enchanted the country and +so made it a Fairyland. And Queen Lurline left one of her fairies to +rule this enchanted Land of Oz, and then passed on and forgot all about +it. + +From that moment no one in Oz ever died. Those who were old remained +old; those who were young and strong did not change as years passed +them by; the children remained children always, and played and romped +to their hearts' content, while all the babies lived in their cradles +and were tenderly cared for and never grew up. So people in Oz stopped +counting how old they were in years, for years made no difference in +their appearance and could not alter their station. They did not get +sick, so there were no doctors among them. Accidents might happen to +some, on rare occasions, it is true, and while no one could die +naturally, as other people do, it was possible that one might be +totally destroyed. Such incidents, however, were very unusual, and so +seldom was there anything to worry over that the Oz people were as +happy and contented as can be. + +Another strange thing about this fairy Land of Oz was that whoever +managed to enter it from the outside world came under the magic spell +of the place and did not change in appearance as long as they lived +there. So Dorothy, who now lived with Ozma, seemed just the same sweet +little girl she had been when first she came to this delightful +fairyland. + +Perhaps all parts of Oz might not be called truly delightful, but it +was surely delightful in the neighborhood of the Emerald City, where +Ozma reigned. Her loving influence was felt for many miles around, but +there were places in the mountains of the Gillikin Country, and the +forests of the Quadling Country, and perhaps in far-away parts of the +Munchkin and Winkie Countries, where the inhabitants were somewhat rude +and uncivilized and had not yet come under the spell of Ozma's wise and +kindly rule. Also, when Oz first became a fairyland, it harbored +several witches and magicians and sorcerers and necromancers, who were +scattered in various parts, but most of these had been deprived of +their magic powers, and Ozma had issued a royal edict forbidding anyone +in her dominions to work magic except Glinda the Good and the Wizard of +Oz. Ozma herself, being a real fairy, knew a lot of magic, but she only +used it to benefit her subjects. + +This little explanation will help you to understand better the story +you are reaching, but most of it is already known to those who are +familiar with the Oz people whose adventures they have followed in +other Oz books. + +Ozma and Dorothy were fast friends and were much together. Everyone in +Oz loved Dorothy almost as well as they did their lovely Ruler, for the +little Kansas girl's good fortune had not spoiled her or rendered her +at all vain. She was just the same brave and true and adventurous child +as before she lived in a royal palace and became the chum of the fairy +Ozma. + +In the room in which the two sat--which was one of Ozma's private suite +of apartments--hung the famous Magic Picture. This was the source of +constant interest to little Dorothy. One had but to stand before it and +wish to see what any person was doing, and at once a scene would flash +upon the magic canvas which showed exactly where that person was, and +like our own moving pictures would reproduce the actions of that person +as long as you cared to watch them. So today, when Dorothy tired of her +embroidery, she drew the curtains from before the Magic Picture and +wished to see what her friend Button Bright was doing. Button Bright, +she saw, was playing ball with Ojo, the Munchkin boy, so Dorothy next +wished to see what her Aunt Em was doing. The picture showed Aunt Em +quietly engaged in darning socks for Uncle Henry, so Dorothy wished to +see what her old friend the Tin Woodman was doing. + +The Tin Woodman was then just leaving his tin castle in the company of +the Scarecrow and Woot the Wanderer. Dorothy had never seen this boy +before, so she wondered who he was. Also she was curious to know where +the three were going, for she noticed Woot's knapsack and guessed they +had started on a long journey. She asked Ozma about it, but Ozma did +not know. + +That afternoon Dorothy again saw the travelers in the Magic Picture, +but they were merely tramping through the country and Dorothy was not +much interested in them. A couple of days later, however, the girl, +being again with Ozma, wished to see her friends, the Scarecrow and the +Tin Woodman in the Magic Picture, and on this occasion found them in +the great castle of Mrs. Yoop, the Giantess, who was at the time about +to transform them. Both Dorothy and Ozma now became greatly interested +and watched the transformations with indignation and horror. + +"What a wicked Giantess!" exclaimed Dorothy. + +"Yes," answered Ozma, "she must be punished for this cruelty to our +friends, and to the poor boy who is with them." + +After this they followed the adventure of the little Brown Bear and the +Tin Owl and the Green Monkey with breathless interest, and were +delighted when they escaped from Mrs. Yoop. They did not know, then, +who the Canary was, but realized it must be the transformation of some +person of consequence, whom the Giantess had also enchanted. + +When, finally, the day came when the adventurers headed south into the +Munchkin Country, Dorothy asked anxiously: + +"Can't something be done for them, Ozma? Can't you change 'em back into +their own shapes? They've suffered enough from these dreadful +transformations, seems to me." + +"I've been studying ways to help them, ever since they were +transformed," replied Ozma. "Mrs. Yoop is now the only yookoohoo in my +dominions, and the yookoohoo magic is very peculiar and hard for others +to understand, yet I am resolved to make the attempt to break these +enchantments. I may not succeed, but I shall do the best I can. From +the directions our friends are taking, I believe they are going to pass +by Jinjur's Ranch, so if we start now we may meet them there. Would you +like to go with me, Dorothy?" + +"Of course," answered the little girl; "I wouldn't miss it for +anything." + +"Then order the Red Wagon," said Ozma of Oz, "and we will start at +once." + +Dorothy ran to do as she was bid, while Ozma went to her Magic Room to +make ready the things she believed she would need. In half an hour the +Red Wagon stood before the grand entrance of the palace, and before it +was hitched the Wooden Sawhorse, which was Ozma's favorite steed. + +This Sawhorse, while made of wood, was very much alive and could travel +swiftly and without tiring. To keep the ends of his wooden legs from +wearing down short, Ozma had shod the Sawhorse with plates of pure +gold. His harness was studded with brilliant emeralds and other jewels +and so, while he himself was not at all handsome, his outfit made a +splendid appearance. + +Since the Sawhorse could understand her spoken words, Ozma used no +reins to guide him. She merely told him where to go. When she came from +the palace with Dorothy, they both climbed into the Red Wagon and then +the little dog, Toto, ran up and asked: + +"Are you going to leave me behind, Dorothy?" Dorothy looked at Ozma, +who smiled in return and said: + +"Toto may go with us, if you wish him to." + +So Dorothy lifted the little dog into the wagon, for, while he could +run fast, he could not keep up with the speed of the wonderful Sawhorse. + + +Away they went, over hills and through meadows, covering the ground +with astonishing speed. It is not surprising, therefore, that the Red +Wagon arrived before Jinjur's house just as that energetic young lady +had finished scrubbing the Green Monkey and was about to lead him to +the caramel patch. + + + + +Chapter Thirteen + +The Restoration + + +The Tin Owl gave a hoot of delight when he saw the Red Wagon draw up +before Jinjur's house, and the Brown Bear grunted and growled with glee +and trotted toward Ozma as fast as he could wobble. As for the Canary, +it flew swiftly to Dorothy's shoulder and perched there, saying in her +ear: + +"Thank goodness you have come to our rescue!" + +"But who are you?" asked Dorothy + +"Don't you know?" returned the Canary. + +"No; for the first time we noticed you in the Magic Picture, you were +just a bird, as you are now. But we've guessed that the giant woman had +transformed you, as she did the others." + +"Yes; I'm Polychrome, the Rainbow's Daughter," announced the Canary. + +"Goodness me!" cried Dorothy. "How dreadful." + +"Well, I make a rather pretty bird, I think," returned Polychrome, "but +of course I'm anxious to resume my own shape and get back upon my +rainbow." + +"Ozma will help you, I'm sure," said Dorothy. "How does it feel, +Scarecrow, to be a Bear?" she asked, addressing her old friend. + +"I don't like it," declared the Scarecrow Bear. "This brutal form is +quite beneath the dignity of a wholesome straw man." + +"And think of me," said the Owl, perching upon the dashboard of the Red +Wagon with much noisy clattering of his tin feathers. "Don't I look +horrid, Dorothy, with eyes several sizes too big for my body, and so +weak that I ought to wear spectacles?" + +"Well," said Dorothy critically, as she looked him over, "you're +nothing to brag of, I must confess. But Ozma will soon fix you up +again." + +The Green Monkey had hung back, bashful at meeting two lovely girls +while in the form of a beast; but Jinjur now took his hand and led him +forward while she introduced him to Ozma, and Woot managed to make a +low bow, not really ungraceful, before her girlish Majesty, the Ruler +of Oz. + +"You have all been forced to endure a sad experience," said Ozma, "and +so I am anxious to do all in my power to break Mrs. Yoop's +enchantments. But first tell me how you happened to stray into that +lonely Valley where Yoop Castle stands." + +Between them they related the object of their journey, the Scarecrow +Bear telling of the Tin Woodman's resolve to find Nimmie Amee and marry +her, as a just reward for her loyalty to him. Woot told of their +adventures with the Loons of Loonville, and the Tin Owl described the +manner in which they had been captured and transformed by the Giantess. +Then Polychrome related her story, and when all had been told, and +Dorothy had several times reproved Toto for growling at the Tin Owl, +Ozma remained thoughtful for a while, pondering upon what she had +heard. Finally she looked up, and with one of her delightful smiles, +said to the anxious group: + +"I am not sure my magic will be able to restore every one of you, +because your transformations are of such a strange and unusual +character. Indeed, Mrs. Yoop was quite justified in believing no power +could alter her enchantments. However, I am sure I can restore the +Scarecrow to his original shape. He was stuffed with straw from the +beginning, and even the yookoohoo magic could not alter that. The +Giantess was merely able to make a bear's shape of a man's shape, but +the bear is stuffed with straw, just as the man was. So I feel +confident I can make a man of the bear again." + +"Hurrah!" cried the Brown Bear, and tried clumsily to dance a jig of +delight. + +"As for the Tin Woodman, his case is much the same," resumed Ozma, +still smiling. "The power of the Giantess could not make him anything +but a tin creature, whatever shape she transformed him into, so it will +not be impossible to restore him to his manly form. Anyhow, I shall +test my magic at once, and see if it will do what I have promised." + +She drew from her bosom a small silver Wand and, making passes with the +Wand over the head of the Bear, she succeeded in the brief space of a +moment in breaking his enchantment. The original Scarecrow of Oz again +stood before them, well stuffed with straw and with his features nicely +painted upon the bag which formed his head. + +The Scarecrow was greatly delighted, as you may suppose, and he +strutted proudly around while the powerful fairy, Ozma of Oz, broke the +enchantment that had transformed the Tin Woodman and made a Tin Owl +into a Tin Man again. + +"Now, then," chirped the Canary, eagerly; "I'm next, Ozma!" + +"But your case is different," replied Ozma, no longer smiling but +wearing a grave expression on her sweet face. "I shall have to +experiment on you, Polychrome, and I may fail in all my attempts." + +She then tried two or three different methods of magic, hoping one of +them would succeed in breaking Polychrome's enchantment, but still the +Rainbow's Daughter remained a Canary-Bird. Finally, however, she +experimented in another way. She transformed the Canary into a Dove, +and then transformed the Dove into a Speckled Hen, and then changed the +Speckled Hen into a rabbit, and then the rabbit into a Fawn. And at the +last, after mixing several powders and sprinkling them upon the Fawn, +the yookoohoo enchantment was suddenly broken and before them stood one +of the daintiest and loveliest creatures in any fairyland in the world. +Polychrome was as sweet and merry in disposition as she was beautiful, +and when she danced and capered around in delight, her beautiful hair +floated around her like a golden mist and her many-hued raiment, as +soft as cobwebs, reminded one of drifting clouds in a summer sky. + +Woot was so awed by the entrancing sight of this exquisite Sky Fairy +that he quite forgot his own sad plight until be noticed Ozma gazing +upon him with an intent expression that denoted sympathy and sorrow. +Dorothy whispered in her friend's ear, but the Ruler of Oz shook her +head sadly. + +Jinjur, noticing this and understanding Ozma's looks, took the paw of +the Green Monkey in her own hand and patted it softly. + +"Never mind," she said to him. "You are a very beautiful color, and a +monkey can climb better than a boy and do a lot of other things no boy +can ever do." + +"What's the matter?" asked Woot, a sinking feeling at his heart. "Is +Ozma's magic all used up?" + +Ozma herself answered him. + +"Your form of enchantment, my poor boy," she said pityingly, "is +different from that of the others. Indeed, it is a form that is +impossible to alter by any magic known to fairies or yookoohoos. The +wicked Giantess was well aware, when she gave you the form of a Green +Monkey, that the Green Monkey must exist in the Land of Oz for all +future time." + +Woot drew a long sigh. + +"Well, that's pretty hard luck," he said bravely, "but if it can't be +helped I must endure it; that's all. I don't like being a monkey, but +what's the use of kicking against my fate?" + +They were all very sorry for him, and Dorothy anxiously asked Ozma: + +"Couldn't Glinda save him?" + +"No," was the reply. "Glinda's power in transformations is no greater +than my own. Before I left my palace I went to my Magic Room and +studied Woot's case very carefully. I found that no power can do away +with the Green Monkey. He might transfer, or exchange his form with +some other person, it is true; but the Green Monkey we cannot get rid +of by any magic arts known to science." + +"But--see here," said the Scarecrow, who had listened intently to this +explanation, "why not put the monkey's form on some one else?" + +"Who would agree to make the change?" asked Ozma. "If by force we +caused anyone else to become a Green Monkey, we would be as cruel and +wicked as Mrs. Yoop. And what good would an exchange do?" she +continued. "Suppose, for instance, we worked the enchantment, and made +Toto into a Green Monkey. At the same moment Woot would become a little +dog." + +"Leave me out of your magic, please," said Toto, with a reproachful +growl. "I wouldn't become a Green Monkey for anything." + +"And I wouldn't become a dog," said Woot. "A green monkey is much +better than a dog, it seems to me." + +"That is only a matter of opinion," answered Toto. + +"Now, here's another idea," said the Scarecrow. "My brains are working +finely today, you must admit. Why not transform Toto into Woot the +Wanderer, and then have them exchange forms? The dog would become a +green monkey and the monkey would have his own natural shape again." + +"To be sure!" cried Jinjur. "That's a fine idea." + +"Leave me out of it," said Toto. "I won't do it." + +"Wouldn't you be willing to become a green monkey--see what a pretty +color it is--so that this poor boy could be restored to his own shape?" +asked Jinjur, pleadingly. + +"No," said Toto. + +"I don't like that plan the least bit," declared Dorothy, "for then I +wouldn't have any little dog." + +"But you'd have a green monkey in his place," persisted Jinjur, who +liked Woot and wanted to help him. + +"I don't want a green monkey," said Dorothy positively. + +"Don't speak of this again, I beg of you," said Woot. "This is my own +misfortune and I would rather suffer it alone than deprive Princess +Dorothy of her dog, or deprive the dog of his proper shape. And perhaps +even her Majesty, Ozma of Oz, might not be able to transform anyone +else into the shape of Woot the Wanderer." + +"Yes; I believe I might do that," Ozma returned; "but Woot is quite +right; we are not justified in inflicting upon anyone--man or dog--the +form of a green monkey. Also it is certain that in order to relieve the +boy of the form he now wears, we must give it to someone else, who +would be forced to wear it always." + +"I wonder," said Dorothy, thoughtfully, "if we couldn't find someone in +the Land of Oz who would be willing to become a green monkey? Seems to +me a monkey is active and spry, and he can climb trees and do a lot of +clever things, and green isn't a bad color for a monkey--it makes him +unusual." + +"I wouldn't ask anyone to take this dreadful form," said Woot; "it +wouldn't be right, you know. I've been a monkey for some time, now, and +I don't like it. It makes me ashamed to be a beast of this sort when by +right of birth I'm a boy; so I'm sure it would be wicked to ask anyone +else to take my place." + +They were all silent, for they knew he spoke the truth. Dorothy was +almost ready to cry with pity and Ozma's sweet face was sad and +disturbed. The Scarecrow rubbed and patted his stuffed head to try to +make it think better, while the Tin Woodman went into the house and +began to oil his tin joints so that the sorrow of his friends might not +cause him to weep. Weeping is liable to rust tin, and the Emperor +prided himself upon his highly polished body--now doubly dear to him +because for a time he had been deprived of it. + +Polychrome had danced down the garden paths and back again a dozen +times, for she was seldom still a moment, yet she had heard Ozma's +speech and understood very well Woot's unfortunate position. But the +Rainbow's Daughter, even while dancing, could think and reason very +clearly, and suddenly she solved the problem in the nicest possible +way. Coming close to Ozma, she said: + +"Your Majesty, all this trouble was caused by the wickedness of Mrs. +Yoop, the Giantess. Yet even now that cruel woman is living in her +secluded castle, enjoying the thought that she has put this terrible +enchantment on Woot the Wanderer. Even now she is laughing at our +despair because we can find no way to get rid of the green monkey. Very +well, we do not wish to get rid of it. Let the woman who created the +form wear it herself, as a just punishment for her wickedness. I am +sure your fairy power can give to Mrs. Yoop the form of Woot the +Wanderer--even at this distance from her--and then it will be possible +to exchange the two forms. Mrs. Yoop will become the Green Monkey, and +Woot will recover his own form again." + +Ozma's face brightened as she listened to this clever proposal. + +"Thank you, Polychrome," said she. "The task you propose is not so easy +as you suppose, but I will make the attempt, and perhaps I may succeed." + + + + +Chapter Fourteen + +The Green Monkey + + +They now entered the house, and as an interested group, watched Jinjur, +at Ozma's command, build a fire and put a kettle of water over to boil. +The Ruler of Oz stood before the fire silent and grave, while the +others, realizing that an important ceremony of magic was about to be +performed, stood quietly in the background so as not to interrupt +Ozma's proceedings. Only Polychrome kept going in and coming out, +humming softly to herself as she danced, for the Rainbow's Daughter +could not keep still for long, and the four walls of a room always made +her nervous and ill at ease. She moved so noiselessly, however, that +her movements were like the shifting of sunbeams and did not annoy +anyone. + +When the water in the kettle bubbled, Ozma drew from her bosom two tiny +packets containing powders. These powders she threw into the kettle and +after briskly stirring the contents with a branch from a macaroon bush, +Ozma poured the mystic broth upon a broad platter which Jinjur had +placed upon the table. As the broth cooled it became as silver, +reflecting all objects from its smooth surface like a mirror. + +While her companions gathered around the table, eagerly attentive--and +Dorothy even held little Toto in her arms that he might see--Ozma waved +her wand over the mirror-like surface. At once it reflected the +interior of Yoop Castle, and in the big hall sat Mrs. Yoop, in her best +embroidered silken robes, engaged in weaving a new lace apron to +replace the one she had lost. + +The Giantess seemed rather uneasy, as if she had a faint idea that +someone was spying upon her, for she kept looking behind her and this +way and that, as though expecting danger from an unknown source. +Perhaps some yookoohoo instinct warned her. Woot saw that she had +escaped from her room by some of the magical means at her disposal, +after her prisoners had escaped her. She was now occupying the big hall +of her castle as she used to do. Also Woot thought, from the cruel +expression on the face of the Giantess, that she was planning revenge +on them, as soon as her new magic apron was finished. + +But Ozma was now making passes over the platter with her silver Wand, +and presently the form of the Giantess began to shrink in size and to +change its shape. And now, in her place sat the form of Woot the +Wanderer, and as if suddenly realizing her transformation Mrs. Yoop +threw down her work and rushed to a looking-glass that stood against +the wall of her room. When she saw the boy's form reflected as her own, +she grew violently angry and dashed her head against the mirror, +smashing it to atoms. + +Just then Ozma was busy with her magic Wand, making strange figures, +and she had also placed her left hand firmly upon the shoulder of the +Green Monkey. So now, as all eyes were turned upon the platter, the +form of Mrs. Yoop gradually changed again. She was slowly transformed +into the Green Monkey, and at the same time Woot slowly regained his +natural form. + +It was quite a surprise to them all when they raised their eyes from +the platter and saw Woot the Wanderer standing beside Ozma. And, when +they glanced at the platter again, it reflected nothing more than the +walls of the room in Jinjur's house in which they stood. The magic +ceremonial was ended, and Ozma of Oz had triumphed over the wicked +Giantess. + +"What will become of her, I wonder?" said Dorothy, as she drew a long +breath. + +"She will always remain a Green Monkey," replied Ozma, "and in that +form she will be unable to perform any magical arts whatsoever. She +need not be unhappy, however, and as she lives all alone in her castle +she probably won't mind the transformation very much after she gets +used to it." + +"Anyhow, it serves her right," declared Dorothy, and all agreed with +her. + +"But," said the kind hearted Tin Woodman, "I'm afraid the Green Monkey +will starve, for Mrs. Yoop used to get her food by magic, and now that +the magic is taken away from her, what can she eat?" + +"Why, she'll eat what other monkeys do," returned the Scarecrow. "Even +in the form of a Green Monkey, she's a very clever person, and I'm sure +her wits will show her how to get plenty to eat." + +"Don't worry about her," advised Dorothy. "She didn't worry about you, +and her condition is no worse than the condition she imposed on poor +Woot. She can't starve to death in the Land of Oz, that's certain, and +if she gets hungry at times it's no more than the wicked thing +deserves. Let's forget Mrs. Yoop; for, in spite of her being a +yookoohoo, our fairy friends have broken all of her transformations." + + + + +Chapter Fifteen + +The Man of Tin + + +Ozma and Dorothy were quite pleased with Woot the Wanderer, whom they +found modest and intelligent and very well mannered. The boy was truly +grateful for his release from the cruel enchantment, and he promised to +love, revere and defend the girl Ruler of Oz forever afterward, as a +faithful subject. + +"You may visit me at my palace, if you wish," said Ozma, "where I will +be glad to introduce you to two other nice boys, Ojo the Munchkin and +Button-Bright." + +"Thank your Majesty," replied Woot, and then he turned to the Tin +Woodman and inquired: "What are your further plans, Mr. Emperor? Will +you still seek Nimmie Amee and marry her, or will you abandon the quest +and return to the Emerald City and your own castle?" + +The Tin Woodman, now as highly polished and well-oiled as ever, +reflected a while on this question and then answered: + +"Well, I see no reason why I should not find Nimmie Amee. We are now in +the Munchkin Country, where we are perfectly safe, and if it was right +for me, before our enchantment, to marry Nimmie Amee and make her +Empress of the Winkies, it must be right now, when the enchantment has +been broken and I am once more myself. Am I correct, friend Scarecrow?" + +"You are, indeed," answered the Scarecrow. "No one can oppose such +logic." + +"But I'm afraid you don't love Nimmie Amee," suggested Dorothy. + +"That is just because I can't love anyone," replied the Tin Woodman. +"But, if I cannot love my wife, I can at least be kind to her, and all +husbands are not able to do that." + +"Do you s'pose Nimmie Amee still loves you, after all these years?" +asked Dorothy. + +"I'm quite sure of it, and that is why I am going to her to make her +happy. Woot the Wanderer thinks I ought to reward her for being +faithful to me after my meat body was chopped to pieces and I became +tin. What do you think, Ozma?" + +Ozma smiled as she said: + +"I do not know your Nimmie Amee, and so I cannot tell what she most +needs to make her happy. But there is no harm in your going to her and +asking her if she still wishes to marry you. If she does, we will give +you a grand wedding at the Emerald City and, afterward, as Empress of +the Winkies, Nimmie Amee would become one of the most important ladies +in all Oz." + +So it was decided that the Tin Woodman would continue his journey, and +that the Scarecrow and Woot the Wanderer should accompany him, as +before. Polychrome also decided to join their party, somewhat to the +surprise of all. + +"I hate to be cooped up in a palace," she said to Ozma, "and of course +the first time I meet my Rainbow I shall return to my own dear home in +the skies, where my fairy sisters are even now awaiting me and my +father is cross because I get lost so often. But I can find my Rainbow +just as quickly while traveling in the Munchkin Country as I could if +living in the Emerald City--or any other place in Oz--so I shall go +with the Tin Woodman and help him woo Nimmie Amee." + +Dorothy wanted to go, too, but as the Tin Woodman did not invite her to +join his party, she felt she might be intruding if she asked to be +taken. She hinted, but she found he didn't take the hint. It is quite a +delicate matter for one to ask a girl to marry him, however much she +loves him, and perhaps the Tin Woodman did not desire to have too many +looking on when he found his old sweetheart, Nimmie Amee. So Dorothy +contented herself with the thought that she would help Ozma prepare a +splendid wedding feast, to be followed by a round of parties and +festivities when the Emperor of the Winkies reached the Emerald City +with his bride. + +Ozma offered to take them all in the Red Wagon to a place as near to +the great Munchkin forest as a wagon could get. The Red Wagon was big +enough to seat them all, and so, bidding good-bye to Jinjur, who gave +Woot a basket of ripe cream-puffs and caramels to take with him, Ozma +commanded the Wooden Sawhorse to start, and the strange creature moved +swiftly over the lanes and presently came to the Road of Yellow Bricks. +This road led straight to a dense forest, where the path was too narrow +for the Red Wagon to proceed farther, so here the party separated. + +Ozma and Dorothy and Toto returned to the Emerald City, after wishing +their friends a safe and successful journey, while the Tin Woodman, the +Scarecrow, Woot the Wanderer and Polychrome, the Rainbow's Daughter, +prepared to push their way through the thick forest. However, these +forest paths were well known to the Tin Man and the Scarecrow, who felt +quite at home among the trees. + +"I was born in this grand forest," said Nick Chopper, the tin Emperor, +speaking proudly, "and it was here that the Witch enchanted my axe and +I lost different parts of my meat body until I became all tin. Here, +also--for it is a big forest--Nimmie Amee lived with the Wicked Witch, +and at the other edge of the trees stands the cottage of my friend +Ku-Klip, the famous tinsmith who made my present beautiful form." + +"He must be a clever workman," declared Woot, admiringly. + +"He is simply wonderful," declared the Tin Woodman. + +"I shall be glad to make his acquaintance," said Woot. + +"If you wish to meet with real cleverness," remarked the Scarecrow, +"you should visit the Munchkin farmer who first made me. I won't say +that my friend the Emperor isn't all right for a tin man, but any judge +of beauty can understand that a Scarecrow is far more artistic and +refined." + +"You are too soft and flimsy," said the Tin Woodman. + +"You are too hard and stiff," said the Scarecrow, and this was as near +to quarreling as the two friends ever came. Polychrome laughed at them +both, as well she might, and Woot hastened to change the subject. + +At night they all camped underneath the trees. The boy ate cream-puffs +for supper and offered Polychrome some, but she preferred other food +and at daybreak sipped the dew that was clustered thick on the forest +flowers. Then they tramped onward again, and presently the Scarecrow +paused and said: + +"It was on this very spot that Dorothy and I first met the Tin Woodman, +who was rusted so badly that none of his joints would move. But after +we had oiled him up, he was as good as new and accompanied us to the +Emerald City." + +"Ah, that was a sad experience," asserted the Tin Woodman soberly. "I +was caught in a rainstorm while chopping down a tree for exercise, and +before I realized it, I was firmly rusted in every joint. There I +stood, axe in hand, but unable to move, for days and weeks and months! +Indeed, I have never known exactly how long the time was; but finally +along came Dorothy and I was saved. See! This is the very tree I was +chopping at the time I rusted." + +"You cannot be far from your old home, in that case," said Woot. + +"No; my little cabin stands not a great way off, but there is no +occasion for us to visit it. Our errand is with Nimmie Amee, and her +house is somewhat farther away, to the left of us." + +"Didn't you say she lives with a Wicked Witch, who makes her a slave?" +asked the boy. + +"She did, but she doesn't," was the reply. "I am told the Witch was +destroyed when Dorothy's house fell on her, so now Nimmie Amee must +live all alone. I haven't seen her, of course, since the Witch was +crushed, for at that time I was standing rusted in the forest and had +been there a long time, but the poor girl must have felt very happy to +be free from her cruel mistress." + +"Well," said the Scarecrow, "let's travel on and find Nimmie Amee. Lead +on, your Majesty, since you know the way, and we will follow." + +So the Tin Woodman took a path that led through the thickest part of +the forest, and they followed it for some time. The light was dim here, +because vines and bushes and leafy foliage were all about them, and +often the Tin Man had to push aside the branches that obstructed their +way, or cut them off with his axe. After they had proceeded some +distance, the Emperor suddenly stopped short and exclaimed: "Good +gracious!" + +The Scarecrow, who was next, first bumped into his friend and then +peered around his tin body, and said in a tone of wonder: + +"Well, I declare!" + +Woot the Wanderer pushed forward to see what was the matter, and cried +out in astonishment: "For goodness' sake!" + +Then the three stood motionless, staring hard, until Polychrome's merry +laughter rang out behind them and aroused them from their stupor. + +In the path before them stood a tin man who was the exact duplicate of +the Tin Woodman. He was of the same size, he was jointed in the same +manner, and he was made of shining tin from top to toe. But he stood +immovable, with his tin jaws half parted and his tin eyes turned +upward. In one of his hands was held a long, gleaming sword. Yes, there +was the difference, the only thing that distinguished him from the +Emperor of the Winkies. This tin man bore a sword, while the Tin +Woodman bore an axe. + +"It's a dream; it must be a dream!" gasped Woot. + +"That's it, of course," said the Scarecrow; "there couldn't be two Tin +Woodmen." + +"No," agreed Polychrome, dancing nearer to the stranger, "this one is a +Tin Soldier. Don't you see his sword?" + +The Tin Woodman cautiously put out one tin hand and felt of his +double's arm. Then he said in a voice that trembled with emotion: + +"Who are you, friend?" + +There was no reply + +"Can't you see he's rusted, just as you were once?" asked Polychrome, +laughing again. "Here, Nick Chopper, lend me your oil-can a minute!" + +The Tin Woodman silently handed her his oil-can, without which he never +traveled, and Polychrome first oiled the stranger's tin jaws and then +worked them gently to and fro until the Tin Soldier said: + +"That's enough. Thank you. I can now talk. But please oil my other +joints." + +Woot seized the oil-can and did this, but all the others helped wiggle +the soldier's joints as soon as they were oiled, until they moved +freely. + +The Tin Soldier seemed highly pleased at his release. He strutted up +and down the path, saying in a high, thin voice: + + "The Soldier is a splendid man + When marching on parade, + And when he meets the enemy + He never is afraid. + + He rights the wrongs of nations, + His country's flag defends, + The foe he'll fight with great delight, + But seldom fights his friends." + + + + +Chapter Sixteen + +Captain Fyter + + +"Are you really a soldier?" asked Woot, when they had all watched this +strange tin person parade up and down the path and proudly flourish his +sword. + +"I was a soldier," was the reply, "but I've been a prisoner to Mr. Rust +so long that I don't know exactly what I am." + +"But--dear me!" cried the Tin Woodman, sadly perplexed; "how came you +to be made of tin?" + +"That," answered the Soldier, "is a sad, sad story I was in love with a +beautiful Munchkin girl, who lived with a Wicked Witch. The Witch did +not wish me to marry the girl, so she enchanted my sword, which began +hacking me to pieces. When I lost my legs I went to the tinsmith, +Ku-Klip, and he made me some tin legs. When I lost my arms, Ku-Klip +made me tin arms, and when I lost my head he made me this fine one out +of tin. It was the same way with my body, and finally I was all tin. +But I was not unhappy, for Ku-Klip made a good job of me, having had +experience in making another tin man before me." + +"Yes," observed the Tin Woodman, "it was Ku-Klip who made me. But, tell +me, what was the name of the Munchkin girl you were in love with?" + +"She is called Nimmie Amee," said the Tin Soldier. + +Hearing this, they were all so astonished that they were silent for a +time, regarding the stranger with wondering looks. Finally the Tin +Woodman ventured to ask: + +"And did Nimmie Amee return your love?" + +"Not at first," admitted the Soldier. "When first I marched into the +forest and met her, she was weeping over the loss of her former +sweetheart, a woodman whose name was Nick Chopper." + +"That is me," said the Tin Woodman. + +"She told me he was nicer than a soldier, because he was all made of +tin and shone beautifully in the sun. She said a tin man appealed to +her artistic instincts more than an ordinary meat man, as I was then. +But I did not despair, because her tin sweetheart had disappeared, and +could not be found. And finally Nimmie Amee permitted me to call upon +her and we became friends. It was then that the Wicked Witch discovered +me and became furiously angry when I said I wanted to marry the girl. +She enchanted my sword, as I said, and then my troubles began. When I +got my tin legs, Nimmie Amee began to take an interest in me; when I +got my tin arms, she began to like me better than ever, and when I was +all made of tin, she said I looked like her dear Nick Chopper and she +would be willing to marry me. + +"The day of our wedding was set, and it turned out to be a rainy day. +Nevertheless I started out to get Nimmie Amee, because the Witch had +been absent for some time, and we meant to elope before she got back. +As I traveled the forest paths the rain wetted my joints, but I paid no +attention to this because my thoughts were all on my wedding with +beautiful Nimmie Amee and I could think of nothing else until suddenly +my legs stopped moving. Then my arms rusted at the joints and I became +frightened and cried for help, for now I was unable to oil myself. No +one heard my calls and before long my jaws rusted, and I was unable to +utter another sound. So I stood helpless in this spot, hoping some +wanderer would come my way and save me. But this forest path is seldom +used, and I have been standing here so long that I have lost all track +of time. In my mind I composed poetry and sang songs, but not a sound +have I been able to utter. But this desperate condition has now been +relieved by your coming my way and I must thank you for my rescue." + +"This is wonderful!" said the Scarecrow, heaving a stuffy, long sigh. +"I think Ku-Klip was wrong to make two tin men, just alike, and the +strangest thing of all is that both you tin men fell in love with the +same girl." + +"As for that," returned the Soldier, seriously, "I must admit I lost my +ability to love when I lost my meat heart. Ku-Klip gave me a tin heart, +to be sure, but it doesn't love anything, as far as I can discover, and +merely rattles against my tin ribs, which makes me wish I had no heart +at all." + +"Yet, in spite of this condition, you were going to marry Nimmie Amee?" + +"Well, you see I had promised to marry her, and I am an honest man and +always try to keep my promises. I didn't like to disappoint the poor +girl, who had been disappointed by one tin man already." + +"That was not my fault," declared the Emperor of the Winkies, and then +he related how he, also, had rusted in the forest and after a long time +had been rescued by Dorothy and the Scarecrow and had traveled with +them to the Emerald City in search of a heart that could love. + +"If you have found such a heart, sir," said the Soldier, "I will gladly +allow you to marry Nimmie Amee in my place." + +"If she loves you best, sir," answered the Woodman, "I shall not +interfere with your wedding her. For, to be quite frank with you, I +cannot yet love Nimmie Amee as I did before I became tin." + +"Still, one of you ought to marry the poor girl," remarked Woot; "and, +if she likes tin men, there is not much choice between you. Why don't +you draw lots for her?" + +"That wouldn't be right," said the Scarecrow. + +"The girl should be permitted to choose her own husband," asserted +Polychrome. "You should both go to her and allow her to take her +choice. Then she will surely be happy." + +"That, to me, seems a very fair arrangement," said the Tin Soldier. + +"I agree to it," said the Tin Woodman, shaking the hand of his twin to +show the matter was settled. "May I ask your name, sir?" he continued. + +"Before I was so cut up," replied the other, "I was known as Captain +Fyter, but afterward I was merely called 'The Tin Soldier.'" + +"Well, Captain, if you are agreeable, let us now go to Nimmie Amee's +house and let her choose between us." + +"Very well; and if we meet the Witch, we will both fight her--you with +your axe and I with my sword." + +"The Witch is destroyed," announced the Scarecrow, and as they walked +away he told the Tin Soldier of much that had happened in the Land of +Oz since he had stood rusted in the forest. + +"I must have stood there longer than I had imagined," he said +thoughtfully. + + + + +Chapter Seventeen + +The Workshop of Ku-Klip + + +It was not more than a two hours' journey to the house where Nimmie +Amee had lived, but when our travelers arrived there they found the +place deserted. The door was partly off its hinges, the roof had fallen +in at the rear and the interior of the cottage was thick with dust. Not +only was the place vacant, but it was evident that no one had lived +there for a long time. + +"I suppose," said the Scarecrow, as they all stood looking wonderingly +at the ruined house, "that after the Wicked Witch was destroyed, Nimmie +Amee became lonely and went somewhere else to live." + +"One could scarcely expect a young girl to live all alone in a forest," +added Woot. "She would want company, of course, and so I believe she +has gone where other people live." + +"And perhaps she is still crying her poor little heart out because no +tin man comes to marry her," suggested Polychrome. + +"Well, in that case, it is the clear duty of you two tin persons to +seek Nimmie Amee until you find her," declared the Scarecrow. + +"I do not know where to look for the girl," said the Tin Soldier, "for +I am almost a stranger to this part of the country." + +"I was born here," said the Tin Woodman, "but the forest has few +inhabitants except the wild beasts. I cannot think of anyone living +near here with whom Nimmie Amee might care to live." + +"Why not go to Ku-Klip and ask him what has become of the girl?" +proposed Polychrome. + +That struck them all as being a good suggestion, so once more they +started to tramp through the forest, taking the direct path to +Ku-Klip's house, for both the tin twins knew the way, having followed +it many times. + +Ku-Klip lived at the far edge of the great forest, his house facing the +broad plains of the Munchkin Country that lay to the eastward. But, +when they came to this residence by the forest's edge, the tinsmith was +not at home. + +It was a pretty place, all painted dark blue with trimmings of lighter +blue. There was a neat blue fence around the yard and several blue +benches had been placed underneath the shady blue trees which marked +the line between forest and plain. There was a blue lawn before the +house, which was a good sized building. Ku-Klip lived in the front part +of the house and had his work-shop in the back part, where he had also +built a lean-to addition, in order to give him more room. + +Although they found the tinsmith absent on their arrival, there was +smoke coming out of his chimney, which proved that he would soon return. + +"And perhaps Nimmie Amee will be with him," said the Scarecrow in a +cheerful voice. + +While they waited, the Tin Woodman went to the door of the workshop +and, finding it unlocked, entered and looked curiously around the room +where he had been made. + +"It seems almost like home to me," hie told his friends, who had +followed him in. "The first time I came here I had lost a leg, so I had +to carry it in my hand while I hopped on the other leg all the way from +the place in the forest where the enchanted axe cut me. I remember that +old Ku-Klip carefully put my meat leg into a barrel--I think that is +the same barrel, still standing in the corner yonder--and then at once +he began to make a tin leg for me. He worked fast and with skill, and I +was much interested in the job." + +"My experience was much the same," said the Tin Soldier. "I used to +bring all the parts of me, which the enchanted sword had cut away, here +to the tinsmith, and Ku-Klip would put them into the barrel." + +"I wonder," said Woot, "if those cast-off parts of you two unfortunates +are still in that barrel in the corner?" + +"I suppose so." replied the Tin Woodman. "In the Land of Oz no part of +a living creature can ever be destroyed." + +"If that is true, how was that Wicked Witch destroyed?" inquired Woot. + +"Why, she was very old and was all dried up and withered before Oz +became a fairyland," explained the Scarecrow. "Only her magic arts had +kept her alive so long, and when Dorothy's house fell upon her she just +turned to dust, and was blown away and scattered by the wind. I do not +think, however, that the parts cut away from these two young men could +ever be entirely destroyed and, if they are still in those barrels, +they are likely to be just the same as when the enchanted axe or sword +severed them." + +"It doesn't matter, however," said the Tin Woodman; "our tin bodies are +more brilliant and durable, and quite satisfy us." + +"Yes, the tin bodies are best," agreed the Tin Soldier. "Nothing can +hurt them." + +"Unless they get dented or rusted," said Woot, but both the tin men +frowned on him. + +Scraps of tin, of all shapes and sizes, lay scattered around the +workshop. Also there were hammers and anvils and soldering irons and a +charcoal furnace and many other tools such as a tinsmith works with. +Against two of the side walls had been built stout work-benches and in +the center of the room was a long table. At the end of the shop, which +adjoined the dwelling, were several cupboards. + +After examining the interior of the workshop until his curiosity was +satisfied, Woot said: + +"I think I will go outside until Ku-Klip comes. It does not seem quite +proper for us to take possession of his house while he is absent." + +"That is true," agreed the Scarecrow, and they were all about to leave +the room when the Tin Woodman said: "Wait a minute," and they halted in +obedience to the command. + + + + +Chapter Eighteen + +The Tin Woodman Talks to Himself + + +The Tin Woodman had just noticed the cupboards and was curious to know +what they contained, so he went to one of them and opened the door. +There were shelves inside, and upon one of the shelves which was about +on a level with his tin chin the Emperor discovered a Head--it looked +like a doll's head, only it was larger, and he soon saw it was the Head +of some person. It was facing the Tin Woodman and as the cupboard door +swung back, the eyes of the Head slowly opened and looked at him. The +Tin Woodman was not at all surprised, for in the Land of Oz one runs +into magic at every turn. + +"Dear me!" said the Tin Woodman, staring hard. "It seems as if I had +met you, somewhere, before. Good morning, sir!" + +"You have the advantage of me," replied the Head. "I never saw you +before in my life." + +"Still, your face is very familiar," persisted the Tin Woodman. "Pardon +me, but may I ask if you--eh--eh--if you ever had a Body?" + +"Yes, at one time," answered the Head, "but that is so long ago I can't +remember it. Did you think," with a pleasant smile, "that I was born +just as I am? That a Head would be created without a Body?" + +"No, of course not," said the other. "But how came you to lose your +body?" + +"Well, I can't recollect the details; you'll have to ask Ku-Klip about +it," returned the Head. "For, curious as it may seem to you, my memory +is not good since my separation from the rest of me. I still possess my +brains and my intellect is as good as ever, but my memory of some of +the events I formerly experienced is quite hazy." + +"How long have you been in this cupboard?" asked the Emperor. + +"I don't know." + +"Haven't you a name?" + +"Oh, yes," said the Head; "I used to be called Nick Chopper, when I was +a woodman and cut down trees for a living." + +"Good gracious!" cried the Tin Woodman in astonishment. "If you are +Nick Chopper's Head, then you are Me--or I'm You--or--or--What relation +are we, anyhow?" + +"Don't ask me," replied the Head. "For my part, I'm not anxious to +claim relationship with any common, manufactured article, like you. You +may be all right in your class, but your class isn't my class. You're +tin." + +The poor Emperor felt so bewildered that for a time he could only stare +at his old Head in silence. Then he said: + +"I must admit that I wasn't at all bad looking before I became tin. +You're almost handsome--for meat. If your hair was combed, you'd be +quite attractive." + +"How do you expect me to comb my hair without help?" demanded the Head, +indignantly. "I used to keep it smooth and neat, when I had arms, but +after I was removed from the rest of me, my hair got mussed, and old +Ku-Klip never has combed it for me." + +"I'll speak to him about it," said the Tin Woodman. "Do you remember +loving a pretty Munchkin girl named Nimmie Amee?" + +"No," answered the Head. "That is a foolish question. The heart in my +body--when I had a body--might have loved someone, for all I know, but +a head isn't made to love; it's made to think." + +"Oh; do you think, then?" + +"I used to think." + +"You must have been shut up in this cupboard for years and years. What +have you thought about, in all that time?" + +"Nothing. That's another foolish question. A little reflection will +convince you that I have had nothing to think about, except the boards +on the inside of the cupboard door, and it didn't take me long to think +of everything about those boards that could be thought of. Then, of +course, I quit thinking." + +"And are you happy?" + +"Happy? What's that?" + +"Don't you know what happiness is?" inquired the Tin Woodman. + +"I haven't the faintest idea whether it's round or square, or black or +white, or what it is. And, if you will pardon my lack of interest in +it, I will say that I don't care." + +The Tin Woodman was much puzzled by these answers. His traveling +companions had grouped themselves at his back, and had fixed their eyes +on the Head and listened to the conversation with much interest, but +until now, they had not interrupted because they thought the Tin +Woodman had the best right to talk to his own head and renew +acquaintance with it. + +But now the Tin Soldier remarked: + +"I wonder if my old head happens to be in any of these cupboards," and +he proceeded to open all the cupboard doors. But no other head was to +be found on any of the shelves. + +"Oh, well; never mind," said Woot the Wanderer; "I can't imagine what +anyone wants of a cast-off head, anyhow." + +"I can understand the Soldier's interest," asserted Polychrome, dancing +around the grimy workshop until her draperies formed a cloud around her +dainty form. "For sentimental reasons a man might like to see his old +head once more, just as one likes to revisit an old home." + +"And then to kiss it good-bye," added the Scarecrow. + +"I hope that tin thing won't try to kiss me good-bye!" exclaimed the +Tin Woodman's former head. "And I don't see what right you folks have +to disturb my peace and comfort, either." + +"You belong to me," the Tin Woodman declared. + +"I do not!" + +"You and I are one." + +"We've been parted," asserted the Head. "It would be unnatural for me +to have any interest in a man made of tin. Please close the door and +leave me alone." + +"I did not think that my old Head could be so disagreeable," said the +Emperor. "I--I'm quite ashamed of myself; meaning you." + +"You ought to be glad that I've enough sense to know what my rights +are," retorted the Head. "In this cupboard I am leading a simple life, +peaceful and dignified, and when a mob of people in whom I am not +interested disturb me, they are the disagreeable ones; not I." + +With a sigh the Tin Woodman closed and latched the cupboard door and +turned away. + +"Well," said the Tin Soldier, "if my old head would have treated me as +coldly and in so unfriendly a manner as your old head has treated you, +friend Chopper, I'm glad I could not find it." + +"Yes; I'm rather surprised at my head, myself," replied the Tin +Woodman, thoughtfully. "I thought I had a more pleasant disposition +when I was made of meat." + +But just then old Ku-Klip the Tinsmith arrived, and he seemed surprised +to find so many visitors. Ku-Klip was a stout man and a short man. He +had his sleeves rolled above his elbows, showing muscular arms, and he +wore a leathern apron that covered all the front of him, and was so +long that Woot was surprised he didn't step on it and trip whenever he +walked. And Ku-Klip had a gray beard that was almost as long as his +apron, and his head was bald on top and his ears stuck out from his +head like two fans. Over his eyes, which were bright and twinkling, he +wore big spectacles. It was easy to see that the tinsmith was a kind +hearted man, as well as a merry and agreeable one. "Oh-ho!" he cried in +a joyous bass voice; "here are both my tin men come to visit me, and +they and their friends are welcome indeed. I'm very proud of you two +characters, I assure you, for you are so perfect that you are proof +that I'm a good workman. Sit down. Sit down, all of you--if you can +find anything to sit on--and tell me why you are here." + +So they found seats and told him all of their adventures that they +thought he would like to know. Ku-Klip was glad to learn that Nick +Chopper, the Tin Woodman, was now Emperor of the Winkies and a friend +of Ozma of Oz, and the tinsmith was also interested in the Scarecrow +and Polychrome. + +He turned the straw man around, examining him curiously, and patted him +on all sides, and then said: + +"You are certainly wonderful, but I think you would be more durable and +steady on your legs if you were made of tin. Would you like me to--" + +"No, indeed!" interrupted the Scarecrow hastily; "I like myself better +as I am." + +But to Polychrome the tinsmith said: + +"Nothing could improve you, my dear, for you are the most beautiful +maiden I have ever seen. It is pure happiness just to look at you." + +"That is praise, indeed, from so skillful a workman," returned the +Rainbow's Daughter, laughing and dancing in and out the room. + +"Then it must be this boy you wish me to help," said Ku-Klip, looking +at Woot. + +"No," said Woot, "we are not here to seek your skill, but have merely +come to you for information." + +Then, between them, they related their search for Nimmie Amee, whom the +Tin Woodman explained he had resolved to marry, yet who had promised to +become the bride of the Tin Soldier before he unfortunately became +rusted. And when the story was told, they asked Ku-Klip if he knew what +had become of Nimmie Amee. + +"Not exactly," replied the old man, "but I know that she wept bitterly +when the Tin Soldier did not come to marry her, as he had promised to +do. The old Witch was so provoked at the girl's tears that she beat +Nimmie Amee with her crooked stick and then hobbled away to gather some +magic herbs, with which she intended to transform the girl into an old +hag, so that no one would again love her or care to marry her. It was +while she was away on this errand that Dorothy's house fell on the +Wicked Witch, and she turned to dust and blew away. When I heard this +good news, I sent Nimmie Amee to find the Silver Shoes which the Witch +had worn, but Dorothy had taken them with her to the Emerald City." + +"Yes, we know all about those Silver Shoes," said the Scarecrow. + +"Well," continued Ku-Klip, "after that, Nimmie Amee decided to go away +from the forest and live with some people she was acquainted with who +had a house on Mount Munch. I have never seen the girl since." + +"Do you know the name of the people on Mount Munch, with whom she went +to live?" asked the Tin Woodman. + +"No, Nimmie Amee did not mention her friend's name, and I did not ask +her. She took with her all that she could carry of the goods that were +in the Witch's house, and she told me I could have the rest. But when I +went there I found nothing worth taking except some magic powders that +I did not know how to use, and a bottle of Magic Glue." + +"What is Magic Glue?" asked Woot. + +"It is a magic preparation with which to mend people when they cut +themselves. One time, long ago, I cut off one of my fingers by +accident, and I carried it to the Witch, who took down her bottle and +glued it on again for me. See!" showing them his finger, "it is as good +as ever it was. No one else that I ever heard of had this Magic Glue, +and of course when Nick Chopper cut himself to pieces with his +enchanted axe and Captain Fyter cut himself to pieces with his +enchanted sword, the Witch would not mend them, or allow me to glue +them together, because she had herself wickedly enchanted the axe and +sword. Nothing remained but for me to make them new parts out of tin; +but, as you see, tin answered the purpose very well, and I am sure +their tin bodies are a great improvement on their meat bodies." + +"Very true," said the Tin Soldier. + +"I quite agree with you," said the Tin Woodman. "I happened to find my +old head in your cupboard, a while ago, and certainly it is not as +desirable a head as the tin one I now wear." + +"By the way," said the Tin Soldier, "what ever became of my old head, +Ku-Klip?" + +"And of the different parts of our bodies?" added the Tin Woodman. + +"Let me think a minute," replied Ku-Klip. "If I remember right, you two +boys used to bring me most of your parts, when they were cut off, and I +saved them in that barrel in the corner. You must not have brought me +all the parts, for when I made Chopfyt I had hard work finding enough +pieces to complete the job. I finally had to finish him with one arm." + +"Who is Chopfyt?" inquired Woot. + +"Oh, haven't I told you about Chopfyt?" exclaimed Ku-Klip. "Of course +not! And he's quite a curiosity, too. You'll be interested in hearing +about Chopfyt. This is how he happened: + +"One day, after the Witch had been destroyed and Nimmie Amee had gone +to live with her friends on Mount Munch, I was looking around the shop +for something and came upon the bottle of Magic Glue which I had +brought from the old Witch's house. It occurred to me to piece together +the odds and ends of you two people, which of course were just as good +as ever, and see if I couldn't make a man out of them. If I succeeded, +I would have an assistant to help me with my work, and I thought it +would be a clever idea to put to some practical use the scraps of Nick +Chopper and Captain Fyter. There were two perfectly good heads in my +cupboard, and a lot of feet and legs and parts of bodies in the barrel, +so I set to work to see what I could do. + +"First, I pieced together a body, gluing it with the Witch's Magic +Glue, which worked perfectly. That was the hardest part of my job, +however, because the bodies didn't match up well and some parts were +missing. But by using a piece of Captain Fyter here and a piece of Nick +Chopper there, I finally got together a very decent body, with heart +and all the trimmings complete." + +"Whose heart did you use in making the body?" asked the Tin Woodman +anxiously. + +"I can't tell, for the parts had no tags on them and one heart looks +much like another. After the body was completed, I glued two fine legs +and feet onto it. One leg was Nick Chopper's and one was Captain +Fyter's and, finding one leg longer than the other, I trimmed it down +to make them match. I was much disappointed to find that I had but one +arm. There was an extra leg in the barrel, but I could find only one +arm. Having glued this onto the body, I was ready for the head, and I +had some difficulty in making up my mind which head to use. Finally I +shut my eyes and reached out my hand toward the cupboard shelf, and the +first head I touched I glued upon my new man." + +"It was mine!" declared the Tin Soldier, gloomily. + +"No, it was mine," asserted Ku-Klip, "for I had given you another in +exchange for it--the beautiful tin head you now wear. When the glue had +dried, my man was quite an interesting fellow. I named him Chopfyt, +using a part of Nick Chopper's name and a part of Captain Fyter's name, +because he was a mixture of both your cast-off parts. Chopfyt was +interesting, as I said, but he did not prove a very agreeable +companion. He complained bitterly because I had given him but one +arm--as if it were my fault!--and he grumbled because the suit of blue +Munchkin clothes, which I got for him from a neighbor, did not fit him +perfectly." + +"Ah, that was because he was wearing my old head," remarked the Tin +Soldier. "I remember that head used to be very particular about its +clothes." + +"As an assistant," the old tinsmith continued, "Chopfyt was not a +success. He was awkward with tools and was always hungry. He demanded +something to eat six or eight times a day, so I wondered if I had +fitted his insides properly. Indeed, Chopfyt ate so much that little +food was left for myself; so, when he proposed, one day, to go out into +the world and seek adventures, I was delighted to be rid of him. I even +made him a tin arm to take the place of the missing one, and that +pleased him very much, so that we parted good friends." + +"What became of Chopfyt after that?" the Scarecrow inquired. + +"I never heard. He started off toward the east, into the plains of the +Munchkin Country, and that was the last I ever saw of him." + +"It seems to me," said the Tin Woodman reflectively, "that you did +wrong in making a man out of our cast-off parts. It is evident that +Chopfyt could, with justice, claim relationship with both of us." + +"Don't worry about that," advised Ku-Klip cheerfully; "it is not likely +that you will ever meet the fellow. And, if you should meet him, he +doesn't know who he is made of, for I never told him the secret of his +manufacture. Indeed, you are the only ones who know of it, and you may +keep the secret to yourselves, if you wish to." + +"Never mind Chopfyt," said the Scarecrow. "Our business now is to find +poor Nimmie Amee and let her choose her tin husband. To do that, it +seems, from the information Ku-Klip has given us, we must travel to +Mount Munch." + +"If that's the programme, let us start at once," suggested Woot. + +So they all went outside, where they found Polychrome dancing about +among the trees and talking with the birds and laughing as merrily as +if she had not lost her Rainbow and so been separated from all her +fairy sisters. + +They told her they were going to Mount Munch, and she replied: + +"Very well; I am as likely to find my Rainbow there as here, and any +other place is as likely as there. It all depends on the weather. Do +you think it looks like rain?" + +They shook their heads, and Polychrome laughed again and danced on +after them when they resumed their journey. + + + + +Chapter Nineteen + +The Invisible Country + + +They were proceeding so easily and comfortably on their way to Mount +Munch that Woot said in a serious tone of voice: + +"I'm afraid something is going to happen." + +"Why?" asked Polychrome, dancing around the group of travelers. + +"Because," said the boy, thoughtfully, "I've noticed that when we have +the least reason for getting into trouble, something is sure to go +wrong. Just now the weather is delightful; the grass is beautifully +blue and quite soft to our feet; the mountain we are seeking shows +clearly in the distance and there is no reason anything should happen +to delay us in getting there. Our troubles all seem to be over, +and--well, that's why I'm afraid," he added, with a sigh. + +"Dear me!" remarked the Scarecrow, "what unhappy thoughts you have, to +be sure. This is proof that born brains cannot equal manufactured +brains, for my brains dwell only on facts and never borrow trouble. +When there is occasion for my brains to think, they think, but I would +be ashamed of my brains if they kept shooting out thoughts that were +merely fears and imaginings, such as do no good, but are likely to do +harm." + +"For my part," said the Tin Woodman, "I do not think at all, but allow +my velvet heart to guide me at all times." + +"The tinsmith filled my hollow head with scraps and clippings of tin," +said the Soldier, "and he told me they would do nicely for brains, but +when I begin to think, the tin scraps rattle around and get so mixed +that I'm soon bewildered. So I try not to think. My tin heart is almost +as useless to me, for it is hard and cold, so I'm sure the red velvet +heart of my friend Nick Chopper is a better guide." + +"Thoughtless people are not unusual," observed the Scarecrow, "but I +consider them more fortunate than those who have useless or wicked +thoughts and do not try to curb them. Your oil can, friend Woodman, is +filled with oil, but you only apply the oil to your joints, drop by +drop, as you need it, and do not keep spilling it where it will do no +good. Thoughts should be restrained in the same way as your oil, and +only applied when necessary, and for a good purpose. If used carefully, +thoughts are good things to have." + +Polychrome laughed at him, for the Rainbow's Daughter knew more about +thoughts than the Scarecrow did. But the others were solemn, feeling +they had been rebuked, and tramped on in silence. + +Suddenly Woot, who was in the lead, looked around and found that all +his comrades had mysteriously disappeared. But where could they have +gone to? The broad plain was all about him and there were neither trees +nor bushes that could hide even a rabbit, nor any hole for one to fall +into. Yet there he stood, alone. + +Surprise had caused him to halt, and with a thoughtful and puzzled +expression on his face he looked down at his feet. It startled him anew +to discover that he had no feet. He reached out his hands, but he could +not see them. He could feel his hands and arms and body; he stamped his +feet on the grass and knew they were there, but in some strange way +they had become invisible. + +While Woot stood, wondering, a crash of metal sounded in his ears and +he heard two heavy bodies tumble to the earth just beside him. + +"Good gracious!" exclaimed the voice of the Tin Woodman. + +"Mercy me!" cried the voice of the Tin Soldier. + +"Why didn't you look where you were going?" asked the Tin Woodman +reproachfully. + +"I did, but I couldn't see you," said the Tin Soldier. "Something has +happened to my tin eyes. I can't see you, even now, nor can I see +anyone else!" + +"It's the same way with me," admitted the Tin Woodman. + +Woot couldn't see either of them, although he heard them plainly, and +just then something smashed against him unexpectedly and knocked him +over; but it was only the straw-stuffed body of the Scarecrow that fell +upon him and while he could not see the Scarecrow he managed to push +him off and rose to his feet just as Polychrome whirled against him and +made him tumble again. + +Sitting upon the ground, the boy asked: + +"Can you see us, Poly?" + +"No, indeed," answered the Rainbow's Daughter; "we've all become +invisible." + +"How did it happen, do you suppose?" inquired the Scarecrow, lying +where he had fallen. + +"We have met with no enemy," answered Poly-chrome, "so it must be that +this part of the country has the magic quality of making people +invisible--even fairies falling under the charm. We can see the grass, +and the flowers, and the stretch of plain before us, and we can still +see Mount Munch in the distance; but we cannot see ourselves or one +another." + +"Well, what are we to do about it?" demanded Woot. + +"I think this magic affects only a small part of the plain," replied +Polychrome; "perhaps there is only a streak of the country where an +enchantment makes people become invisible. So, if we get together and +hold hands, we can travel toward Mount Munch until the enchanted streak +is passed." + +"All right," said Woot, jumping up, "give me your hand, Polychrome. +Where are you?" + +"Here," she answered. "Whistle, Woot, and keep whistling until I come +to you." + +So Woot whistled, and presently Polychrome found him and grasped his +hand. + +"Someone must help me up," said the Scarecrow, lying near them; so they +found the straw man and sat him upon his feet, after which he held fast +to Polychrome's other hand. + +Nick Chopper and the Tin Soldier had managed to scramble up without +assistance, but it was awkward for them and the Tin Woodman said: + +"I don't seem to stand straight, somehow. But my joints all work, so I +guess I can walk." + +Guided by his voice, they reached his side, where Woot grasped his tin +fingers so they might keep together. + +The Tin Soldier was standing near by and the Scarecrow soon touched him +and took hold of his arm. + +"I hope you're not wobbly," said the straw man, "for if two of us walk +unsteadily we will be sure to fall." + +"I'm not wobbly," the Tin Soldier assured him, "but I'm certain that +one of my legs is shorter than the other. I can't see it, to tell +what's gone wrong, but I'll limp on with the rest of you until we are +out of this enchanted territory." + +They now formed a line, holding hands, and turning their faces toward +Mount Munch resumed their journey. They had not gone far, however, when +a terrible growl saluted their ears. The sound seemed to come from a +place just in front of them, so they halted abruptly and remained +silent, listening with all their ears. + +"I smell straw!" cried a hoarse, harsh voice, with more growls and +snarls. "I smell straw, and I'm a Hip-po-gy-raf who loves straw and +eats all he can find. I want to eat this straw! Where is it? Where is +it?" + +The Scarecrow, hearing this, trembled but kept silent. All the others +were silent, too, hoping that the invisible beast would be unable to +find them. But the creature sniffed the odor of the straw and drew +nearer and nearer to them until he reached the Tin Woodman, on one end +of the line. It was a big beast and it smelled of the Tin Woodman and +grated two rows of enormous teeth against the Emperor's tin body. + +"Bah! that's not straw," said the harsh voice, and the beast advanced +along the line to Woot. + +"Meat! Pooh, you're no good! I can't eat meat," grumbled the beast, and +passed on to Polychrome. + +"Sweetmeats and perfume--cobwebs and dew! Nothing to eat in a fairy +like you," said the creature. + +Now, the Scarecrow was next to Polychrome in the line, and he realized +if the beast devoured his straw he would be helpless for a long time, +because the last farmhouse was far behind them and only grass covered +the vast expanse of plain. So in his fright he let go of Polychrome's +hand and put the hand of the Tin Soldier in that of the Rainbow's +Daughter. Then he slipped back of the line and went to the other end, +where he silently seized the Tin Woodman's hand. + +Meantime, the beast had smelled the Tin Soldier and found he was the +last of the line. + +"That's funny!" growled the Hip-po-gy-raf; "I can smell straw, but I +can't find it. Well, it's here, somewhere, and I must hunt around until +I do find it, for I'm hungry." + +His voice was now at the left of them, so they started on, hoping to +avoid him, and traveled as fast as they could in the direction of Mount +Munch. + +"I don't like this invisible country," said Woot with a shudder. "We +can't tell how many dreadful, invisible beasts are roaming around us, +or what danger we'll come to next." + +"Quit thinking about danger, please," said the Scarecrow, warningly. + +"Why?" asked the boy. + +"If you think of some dreadful thing, it's liable to happen, but if you +don't think of it, and no one else thinks of it, it just can't happen. +Do you see?" + +"No," answered Woot. "I won't be able to see much of anything until we +escape from this enchantment." + +But they got out of the invisible strip of country as suddenly as they +had entered it, and the instant they got out they stopped short, for +just before them was a deep ditch, running at right angles as far as +their eyes could see and stopping all further progress toward Mount +Munch. + +"It's not so very wide," said Woot, "but I'm sure none of us can jump +across it." + +Polychrome began to laugh, and the Scarecrow said: "What's the matter?" + +"Look at the tin men!" she said, with another burst of merry laughter. + +Woot and the Scarecrow looked, and the tin men looked at themselves. + +"It was the collision," said the Tin Woodman regretfully. "I knew +something was wrong with me, and now I can see that my side is dented +in so that I lean over toward the left. It was the Soldier's fault; he +shouldn't have been so careless." + +"It is your fault that my right leg is bent, making it shorter than the +other, so that I limp badly," retorted the Soldier. "You shouldn't have +stood where I was walking." + +"You shouldn't have walked where I was standing," replied the Tin +Woodman. + +It was almost a quarrel, so Polychrome said soothingly: + +"Never mind, friends; as soon as we have time I am sure we can +straighten the Soldier's leg and get the dent out of the Woodman's +body. The Scarecrow needs patting into shape, too, for he had a bad +tumble, but our first task is to get over this ditch." + +"Yes, the ditch is the most important thing, just now," added Woot. + +They were standing in a row, looking hard at the unexpected barrier, +when a fierce growl from behind them made them all turn quickly. Out of +the invisible country marched a huge beast with a thick, leathery skin +and a surprisingly long neck. The head on the top of this neck was +broad and flat and the eyes and mouth were very big and the nose and +ears very small. When the head was drawn down toward the beast's +shoulders, the neck was all wrinkles, but the head could shoot up very +high indeed, if the creature wished it to. + +"Dear me!" exclaimed the Scarecrow, "this must be the Hip-po-gy-raf." + +"Quite right," said the beast; "and you're the straw which I'm to eat +for my dinner. Oh, how I love straw! I hope you don't resent my +affectionate appetite?" + +With its four great legs it advanced straight toward the Scarecrow, but +the Tin Woodman and the Tin Soldier both sprang in front of their +friend and flourished their weapons. + +"Keep off!" said the Tin Woodman, warningly, "or I'll chop you with my +axe." + +"Keep off!" said the Tin Soldier, "or I'll cut you with my sword." + +"Would you really do that?" asked the Hip-po-gy-raf, in a disappointed +voice. + +"We would," they both replied, and the Tin Woodman added: "The +Scarecrow is our friend, and he would be useless without his straw +stuffing. So, as we are comrades, faithful and true, we will defend our +friend's stuffing against all enemies." + +The Hip-po-gy-raf sat down and looked at them sorrowfully. + +"When one has made up his mind to have a meal of delicious straw, and +then finds he can't have it, it is certainly hard luck," he said. "And +what good is the straw man to you, or to himself, when the ditch keeps +you from going any further?" + +"Well, we can go back again," suggested Woot. + +"True," said the Hip-po; "and if you do, you'll be as disappointed as I +am. That's some comfort, anyhow." + +The travelers looked at the beast, and then they looked across the +ditch at the level plain beyond. On the other side the grass had grown +tall, and the sun had dried it, so there was a fine crop of hay that +only needed to be cut and stacked. + +"Why don't you cross over and eat hay?" the boy asked the beast. + +"I'm not fond of hay," replied the Hip-po-gy-raf; "straw is much more +delicious, to my notion, and it's more scarce in this neighborhood, +too. Also I must confess that I can't get across the ditch, for my body +is too heavy and clumsy for me to jump the distance. I can stretch my +neck across, though, and you will notice that I've nibbled the hay on +the farther edge--not because I liked it, but because one must eat, and +if one can't get the sort of food he desires, he must take what is +offered or go hungry." + +"Ah, I see you are a philosopher," remarked the Scarecrow. + +"No, I'm just a Hip-po-gy-raf," was the reply. + +Polychrome was not afraid of the big beast. She danced close to him and +said: + +"If you can stretch your neck across the ditch, why not help us over? +We can sit on your big head, one at a time, and then you can lift us +across." + +"Yes; I can, it is true," answered the Hip-po; "but I refuse to do it. +Unless--" he added, and stopped short. + +"Unless what?" asked Polychrome. + +"Unless you first allow me to eat the straw with which the Scarecrow is +stuffed." + +"No," said the Rainbow's Daughter, "that is too high a price to pay. +Our friend's straw is nice and fresh, for he was restuffed only a +little while ago." + +"I know," agreed the Hip-po-gy-raf. "That's why I want it. If it was +old, musty straw, I wouldn't care for it." + +"Please lift us across," pleaded Polychrome. + +"No," replied the beast; "since you refuse my generous offer, I can be +as stubborn as you are." + +After that they were all silent for a time, but then the Scarecrow said +bravely: + +"Friends, let us agree to the beast's terms. Give him my straw, and +carry the rest of me with you across the ditch. Once on the other side, +the Tin Soldier can cut some of the hay with his sharp sword, and you +can stuff me with that material until we reach a place where there is +straw. It is true I have been stuffed with straw all my life and it +will be somewhat humiliating to be filled with common hay, but I am +willing to sacrifice my pride in a good cause. Moreover, to abandon our +errand and so deprive the great Emperor of the Winkies--or this noble +Soldier--of his bride, would be equally humiliating, if not more so." + +"You're a very honest and clever man!" exclaimed the Hip-po-gy-raf, +admiringly. "When I have eaten your head, perhaps I also will become +clever." + +"You're not to eat my head, you know," returned the Scarecrow hastily. +"My head isn't stuffed with straw and I cannot part with it. When one +loses his head he loses his brains." + +"Very well, then; you may keep your head," said the beast. + +The Scarecrow's companions thanked him warmly for his loyal sacrifice +to their mutual good, and then he laid down and permitted them to pull +the straw from his body. As fast as they did this, the Hip-po-gy-raf +ate up the straw, and when all was consumed Polychrome made a neat +bundle of the clothes and boots and gloves and hat and said she would +carry them, while Woot tucked the Scarecrow's head under his arm and +promised to guard its safety. + +"Now, then," said the Tin Woodman, "keep your promise, Beast, and lift +us over the ditch." + +"M-m-m-mum, but that was a fine dinner!" said the Hip-po, smacking his +thick lips in satisfaction, "and I'm as good as my word. Sit on my +head, one at a time, and I'll land you safely on the other side." + +He approached close to the edge of the ditch and squatted down. +Polychrome climbed over his big body and sat herself lightly upon the +flat head, holding the bundle of the Scarecrow's raiment in her hand. +Slowly the elastic neck stretched out until it reached the far side of +the ditch, when the beast lowered his head and permitted the beautiful +fairy to leap to the ground. + +Woot made the queer journey next, and then the Tin Soldier and the Tin +Woodman went over, and all were well pleased to have overcome this +serious barrier to their progress. + +"Now, Soldier, cut the hay," said the Scarecrow's head, which was still +held by Woot the Wanderer. + +"I'd like to, but I can't stoop over, with my bent leg, without +falling," replied Captain Fyter. + +"What can we do about that leg, anyhow?" asked Woot, appealing to +Polychrome. + +She danced around in a circle several times without replying, and the +boy feared she had not heard him; but the Rainbow's Daughter was merely +thinking upon the problem, and presently she paused beside the Tin +Soldier and said: + +"I've been taught a little fairy magic, but I've never before been +asked to mend tin legs with it, so I'm not sure I can help you. It all +depends on the good will of my unseen fairy guardians, so I'll try, and +if I fail, you will be no worse off than you are now." + +She danced around the circle again, and then laid both hands upon the +twisted tin leg and sang in her sweet voice: + + "Fairy Powers, come to my aid! + This bent leg of tin is made; + Make it straight and strong and true, + And I'll render thanks to you." + + +"Ah!" murmured Captain Fyter in a glad voice, as she withdrew her hands +and danced away, and they saw he was standing straight as ever, because +his leg was as shapely and strong as it had been before his accident. + +The Tin Woodman had watched Polychrome with much interest, and he now +said: + +"Please take the dent out of my side, Poly, for I am more crippled than +was the Soldier." + +So the Rainbow's Daughter touched his side lightly and sang: + + "Here's a dent by accident; + Such a thing was never meant. + Fairy Powers, so wondrous great, + Make our dear Tin Woodman straight!" + + +"Good!" cried the Emperor, again standing erect and strutting around to +show his fine figure. "Your fairy magic may not be able to accomplish +all things, sweet Polychrome, but it works splendidly on tin. Thank you +very much." + +"The hay--the hay!" pleaded the Scarecrow's head. + +"Oh, yes; the hay," said Woot. "What are you waiting for, Captain +Fyter?" + +At once the Tin Soldier set to work cutting hay with his sword and in a +few minutes there was quite enough with which to stuff the Scarecrow's +body. Woot and Polychrome did this and it was no easy task because the +hay packed together more than straw and as they had little experience +in such work their job, when completed, left the Scarecrow's arms and +legs rather bunchy. Also there was a hump on his back which made Woot +laugh and say it reminded him of a camel, but it was the best they +could do and when the head was fastened on to the body they asked the +Scarecrow how he felt. + +"A little heavy, and not quite natural," he cheerfully replied; "but +I'll get along somehow until we reach a straw-stack. Don't laugh at me, +please, because I'm a little ashamed of myself and I don't want to +regret a good action." + +They started at once in the direction of Mount Munch, and as the +Scarecrow proved very clumsy in his movements, Woot took one of his +arms and the Tin Woodman the other and so helped their friend to walk +in a straight line. + +And the Rainbow's Daughter, as before, danced ahead of them and behind +them and all around them, and they never minded her odd ways, because +to them she was like a ray of sunshine. + + + + +Chapter Twenty + +Over Night + + +The Land of the Munchkins is full of surprises, as our travelers had +already learned, and although Mount Munch was constantly growing larger +as they advanced toward it, they knew it was still a long way off and +were not certain, by any means, that they had escaped all danger or +encountered their last adventure. + +The plain was broad, and as far as the eye could see, there seemed to +be a level stretch of country between them and the mountain, but toward +evening they came upon a hollow, in which stood a tiny blue Munchkin +dwelling with a garden around it and fields of grain filling in all the +rest of the hollow. + +They did not discover this place until they came close to the edge of +it, and they were astonished at the sight that greeted them because +they had imagined that this part of the plain had no inhabitants. + +"It's a very small house," Woot declared. "I wonder who lives there?" + +"The way to find out is to knock on the door and ask," replied the Tin +Woodman. "Perhaps it is the home of Nimmie Amee." + +"Is she a dwarf?" asked the boy. + +"No, indeed; Nimmie Amee is a full sized woman." + +"Then I'm sure she couldn't live in that little house," said Woot. + +"Let's go down," suggested the Scarecrow. "I'm almost sure I can see a +straw-stack in the back yard." + +They descended the hollow, which was rather steep at the sides, and +soon came to the house, which was indeed rather small. Woot knocked +upon a door that was not much higher than his waist, but got no reply. +He knocked again, but not a sound was heard. + +"Smoke is coming out of the chimney," announced Polychrome, who was +dancing lightly through the garden, where cabbages and beets and +turnips and the like were growing finely. + +"Then someone surely lives here," said Woot, and knocked again. + +Now a window at the side of the house opened and a queer head appeared. +It was white and hairy and had a long snout and little round eyes. The +ears were hidden by a blue sunbonnet tied under the chin. + +"Oh; it's a pig!" exclaimed Woot. + +"Pardon me; I am Mrs. Squealina Swyne, wife of Professor Grunter Swyne, +and this is our home," said the one in the window. "What do you want?" + +"What sort of a Professor is your husband?" inquired the Tin Woodman +curiously. + +"He is Professor of Cabbage Culture and Corn Perfection. He is very +famous in his own family, and would be the wonder of the world if he +went abroad," said Mrs. Swyne in a voice that was half proud and half +irritable. "I must also inform you intruders that the Professor is a +dangerous individual, for he files his teeth every morning until they +are sharp as needles. If you are butchers, you'd better run away and +avoid trouble." + +"We are not butchers," the Tin Woodman assured her. + +"Then what are you doing with that axe? And why has the other tin man +a sword?" + +"They are the only weapons we have to defend our friends from their +enemies," explained the Emperor of the Winkies, and Woot added: + +"Do not be afraid of us, Mrs. Swyne, for we are harmless travelers. The +tin men and the Scarecrow never eat anything and Polychrome feasts only +on dewdrops. As for me, I'm rather hungry, but there is plenty of food +in your garden to satisfy me." + +Professor Swyne now joined his wife at the window, looking rather +scared in spite of the boy's assuring speech. He wore a blue Munchkin +hat, with pointed crown and broad brim, and big spectacles covered his +eyes. He peeked around from behind his wife and after looking hard at +the strangers, he said: + +"My wisdom assures me that you are merely travelers, as you say, and +not butchers. Butchers have reason to be afraid of me, but you are +safe. We cannot invite you in, for you are too big for our house, but +the boy who eats is welcome to all the carrots and turnips he wants. +Make yourselves at home in the garden and stay all night, if you like; +but in the morning you must go away, for we are quiet people and do not +care for company." + +"May I have some of your straw?" asked the Scarecrow. + +"Help yourself," replied Professor Swyne. + +"For pigs, they're quite respectable," remarked Woot, as they all went +toward the straw-stack. + +"I'm glad they didn't invite us in," said Captain Fyter. "I hope I'm +not too particular about my associates, but I draw the line at pigs." + +The Scarecrow was glad to be rid of his hay, for during the long walk +it had sagged down and made him fat and squatty and more bumpy than at +first. + +"I'm not specially proud," he said, "but I love a manly figure, such as +only straw stuffing can create. I've not felt like myself since that +hungry Hip-po ate my last straw." + +Polychrome and Woot set to work removing the hay and then they selected +the finest straw, crisp and golden, and with it stuffed the Scarecrow +anew. He certainly looked better after the operation, and he was so +pleased at being reformed that he tried to dance a little jig, and +almost succeeded. + +"I shall sleep under the straw-stack tonight," Woot decided, after he +had eaten some of the vegetables from the garden, and in fact he slept +very well, with the two tin men and the Scarecrow sitting silently +beside him and Polychrome away somewhere in the moonlight dancing her +fairy dances. + +At daybreak the Tin Woodman and the Tin Soldier took occasion to polish +their bodies and oil their joints, for both were exceedingly careful of +their personal appearance. They had forgotten the quarrel due to their +accidental bumping of one another in the invisible country, and being +now good friends the Tin Woodman polished the Tin Soldier's back for +him and then the Tin Soldier polished the Tin Woodman's back. + +For breakfast the Wanderer ate crisp lettuce and radishes, and the +Rainbow's Daughter, who had now returned to her friends, sipped the +dewdrops that had formed on the petals of the wild-flowers. + +As they passed the little house to renew their journey, Woot called out: + +"Good-bye, Mr. and Mrs. Swyne!" + +The window opened and the two pigs looked out. + +"A pleasant journey," said the Professor. + +"Have you any children?" asked the Scarecrow, who was a great friend of +children. + +"We have nine," answered the Professor; "but they do not live with us, +for when they were tiny piglets the Wizard of Oz came here and offered +to care for them and to educate them. So we let him have our nine tiny +piglets, for he's a good Wizard and can be relied upon to keep his +promises." + +"I know the Nine Tiny Piglets," said the Tin Woodman. + +"So do I," said the Scarecrow. "They still live in the Emerald City, +and the Wizard takes good care of them and teaches them to do all sorts +of tricks." + +"Did they ever grow up?" inquired Mrs. Squealina Swyne, in an anxious +voice. + +"No," answered the Scarecrow; "like all other children in the Land of +Oz, they will always remain children, and in the case of the tiny +piglets that is a good thing, because they would not be nearly so cute +and cunning if they were bigger." + +"But are they happy?" asked Mrs. Swyne. + +"Everyone in the Emerald City is happy," said the Tin Woodman. "They +can't help it." + +Then the travelers said good-bye, and climbed the side of the basin +that was toward Mount Munch. + + + + +Chapter Twenty-One + +Polychrome's Magic + + +On this morning, which ought to be the last of this important journey, +our friends started away as bright and cheery as could be, and Woot +whistled a merry tune so that Polychrome could dance to the music. + +On reaching the top of the hill, the plain spread out before them in +all its beauty of blue grasses and wildflowers, and Mount Munch seemed +much nearer than it had the previous evening. They trudged on at a +brisk pace, and by noon the mountain was so close that they could +admire its appearance. Its slopes were partly clothed with pretty +evergreens, and its foot-hills were tufted with a slender waving +bluegrass that had a tassel on the end of every blade. And, for the +first time, they perceived, near the foot of the mountain, a charming +house, not of great size but neatly painted and with many flowers +surrounding it and vines climbing over the doors and windows. + +It was toward this solitary house that our travelers now directed their +steps, thinking to inquire of the people who lived there where Nimmie +Amee might be found. + +There were no paths, but the way was quite open and clear, and they +were drawing near to the dwelling when Woot the Wanderer, who was then +in the lead of the little party, halted with such an abrupt jerk that +he stumbled over backward and lay flat on his back in the meadow. The +Scarecrow stopped to look at the boy. + +"Why did you do that?" he asked in surprise. + +Woot sat up and gazed around him in amazement. + +"I--I don't know!" he replied. + +The two tin men, arm in arm, started to pass them when both halted and +tumbled, with a great clatter, into a heap beside Woot. Polychrome, +laughing at the absurd sight, came dancing up and she, also, came to a +sudden stop, but managed to save herself from falling. + +Everyone of them was much astonished, and the Scarecrow said with a +puzzled look: + +"I don't see anything." + +"Nor I," said Woot; "but something hit me, just the same." + +"Some invisible person struck me a heavy blow," declared the Tin +Woodman, struggling to separate himself from the Tin Soldier, whose +legs and arms were mixed with his own. + +"I'm not sure it was a person," said Polychrome, looking more grave +than usual. "It seems to me that I merely ran into some hard substance +which barred my way. In order to make sure of this, let me try another +place." + +She ran back a way and then with much caution advanced in a different +place, but when she reached a position on a line with the others she +halted, her arms outstretched before her. + +"I can feel something hard--something smooth as glass," she said, "but +I'm sure it is not glass." + +"Let me try," suggested Woot, getting up; but when he tried to go +forward, he discovered the same barrier that Polychrome had encountered. + +"No," he said, "it isn't glass. But what is it?" + +"Air," replied a small voice beside him. "Solid air; that's all." + +They all looked downward and found a sky-blue rabbit had stuck his head +out of a burrow in the ground. The rabbit's eyes were a deeper blue +than his fur, and the pretty creature seemed friendly and unafraid. + +"Air!" exclaimed Woot, staring in astonishment into the rabbit's blue +eyes; "whoever heard of air so solid that one cannot push it aside?" + +"You can't push this air aside," declared the rabbit, "for it was made +hard by powerful sorcery, and it forms a wall that is intended to keep +people from getting to that house yonder." + +"Oh; it's a wall, is it?" said the Tin Woodman. + +"Yes, it is really a wall," answered the rabbit, "and it is fully six +feet thick." + +"How high is it?" inquired Captain Fyter, the Tin Soldier. + +"Oh, ever so high; perhaps a mile," said the rabbit. + +"Couldn't we go around it?" asked Woot. + +"Of course, for the wall is a circle," explained the rabbit. "In the +center of the circle stands the house, so you may walk around the Wall +of Solid Air, but you can't get to the house." + +"Who put the air wall around the house?" was the Scarecrow's question. + +"Nimmie Amee did that." + +"Nimmie Amee!" they all exclaimed in surprise. + +"Yes," answered the rabbit. "She used to live with an old Witch, who +was suddenly destroyed, and when Nimmie Amee ran away from the Witch's +house, she took with her just one magic formula--pure sorcery it +was--which enabled her to build this air wall around her house--the +house yonder. It was quite a clever idea, I think, for it doesn't mar +the beauty of the landscape, solid air being invisible, and yet it +keeps all strangers away from the house." + +"Does Nimmie Amee live there now?" asked the Tin Woodman anxiously. + +"Yes, indeed," said the rabbit. + +"And does she weep and wail from morning till night?" continued the +Emperor. + +"No; she seems quite happy," asserted the rabbit. + +The Tin Woodman seemed quite disappointed to hear this report of his +old sweetheart, but the Scarecrow reassured his friend, saying: + +"Never mind, your Majesty; however happy Nimmie Amee is now, I'm sure +she will be much happier as Empress of the Winkies." + +"Perhaps," said Captain Fyter, somewhat stiffly, "she will be still +more happy to become the bride of a Tin Soldier." + +"She shall choose between us, as we have agreed," the Tin Woodman +promised; "but how shall we get to the poor girl?" + +Polychrome, although dancing lightly back and forth, had listened to +every word of the conversation. Now she came forward and sat herself +down just in front of the Blue Rabbit, her many-hued draperies giving +her the appearance of some beautiful flower. The rabbit didn't back +away an inch. Instead, he gazed at the Rainbow's Daughter admiringly. + +"Does your burrow go underneath this Wall of Air?" asked Polychrome. + +"To be sure," answered the Blue Rabbit; "I dug it that way so I could +roam in these broad fields, by going out one way, or eat the cabbages +in Nimmie Amee's garden by leaving my burrow at the other end. I don't +think Nimmie Amee ought to mind the little I take from her garden, or +the hole I've made under her magic wall. A rabbit may go and come as he +pleases, but no one who is bigger than I am could get through my +burrow." + +"Will you allow us to pass through it, if we are able to?" inquired +Polychrome. + +"Yes, indeed," answered the Blue Rabbit. "I'm no especial friend of +Nimmie Amee, for once she threw stones at me, just because I was +nibbling some lettuce, and only yesterday she yelled 'Shoo!' at me, +which made me nervous. You're welcome to use my burrow in any way you +choose." + +"But this is all nonsense!" declared Woot the Wanderer. "We are every +one too big to crawl through a rabbit's burrow." + +"We are too big now," agreed the Scarecrow, "but you must remember that +Polychrome is a fairy, and fairies have many magic powers." + +Woot's face brightened as he turned to the lovely Daughter of the +Rainbow. + +"Could you make us all as small as that rabbit?" he asked eagerly. + +"I can try," answered Polychrome, with a smile. And presently she did +it--so easily that Woot was not the only one astonished. As the now +tiny people grouped themselves before the rabbit's burrow the hole +appeared to them like the entrance to a tunnel, which indeed it was. + +"I'll go first," said wee Polychrome, who had made herself grow as +small as the others, and into the tunnel she danced without hesitation. +A tiny Scarecrow went next and then the two funny little tin men. + +"Walk in; it's your turn," said the Blue Rabbit to Woot the Wanderer. +"I'm coming after, to see how you get along. This will be a regular +surprise party to Nimmie Amee." + +So Woot entered the hole and felt his way along its smooth sides in the +dark until he finally saw the glimmer of daylight ahead and knew the +journey was almost over. Had he remained his natural size, the distance +could have been covered in a few steps, but to a thumb-high Woot it was +quite a promenade. When he emerged from the burrow he found himself but +a short distance from the house, in the center of the vegetable garden, +where the leaves of rhubarb waving above his head seemed like trees. +Outside the hole, and waiting for him, he found all his friends. + +"So far, so good!" remarked the Scarecrow cheerfully. + +"Yes; so far, but no farther," returned the Tin Woodman in a plaintive +and disturbed tone of voice. "I am now close to Nimmie Amee, whom I +have come ever so far to seek, but I cannot ask the girl to marry such +a little man as I am now." + +"I'm no bigger than a toy soldier!" said Captain Fyter, sorrowfully. +"Unless Polychrome can make us big again, there is little use in our +visiting Nimmie Amee at all, for I'm sure she wouldn't care for a +husband she might carelessly step on and ruin." + +Polychrome laughed merrily. + +"If I make you big, you can't get out of here again," said she, "and if +you remain little Nimmie Amee will laugh at you. So make your choice." + +"I think we'd better go back," said Woot seriously + +"No," said the Tin Woodman, stoutly, "I have decided that it's my duty +to make Nimmie Amee happy, in case she wishes to marry me." + +"So have I," announced Captain Fyter. "A good soldier never shrinks +from doing his duty." + +"As for that," said the Scarecrow, "tin doesn't shrink any to speak of, +under any circumstances. But Woot and I intend to stick to our +comrades, whatever they decide to do, so we will ask Polychrome to make +us as big as we were before." + +Polychrome agreed to this request and in half a minute all of them, +including herself, had been enlarged again to their natural sizes. They +then thanked the Blue Rabbit for his kind assistance, and at once +approached the house of Nimme Amee. + + + + +Chapter Twenty-Two + +Nimmie Amee + + +We may be sure that at this moment our friends were all anxious to see +the end of the adventure that had caused them so many trials and +troubles. Perhaps the Tin Woodman's heart did not beat any faster, +because it was made of red velvet and stuffed with sawdust, and the Tin +Soldier's heart was made of tin and reposed in his tin bosom without a +hint of emotion. However, there is little doubt that they both knew +that a critical moment in their lives had arrived, and that Nimmie +Amee's decision was destined to influence the future of one or the +other. + +As they assumed their natural sizes and the rhubarb leaves that had +before towered above their heads now barely covered their feet, they +looked around the garden and found that no person was visible save +themselves. No sound of activity came from the house, either, but they +walked to the front door, which had a little porch built before it, and +there the two tinmen stood side by side while both knocked upon the +door with their tin knuckles. + +As no one seemed eager to answer the summons they knocked again; and +then again. Finally they heard a stir from within and someone coughed. + +"Who's there?" called a girl's voice. + +"It's I!" cried the tin twins, together. + +"How did you get there?" asked the voice. + +They hesitated how to reply, so Woot answered for them: + +"By means of magic." + +"Oh," said the unseen girl. "Are you friends, or foes?" + +"Friends!" they all exclaimed. + +Then they heard footsteps approach the door, which slowly opened and +revealed a very pretty Munchkin girl standing in the doorway. + +"Nimmie Amee!" cried the tin twins. + +"That's my name," replied the girl, looking at them in cold surprise. +"But who can you be?" + +"Don't you know me, Nimmie?" said the Tin Woodman. "I'm your old +sweetheart, Nick Chopper!" + +"Don't you know me, my dear?" said the Tin Soldier. "I'm your old +sweetheart, Captain Fyter!" + +Nimmie Amee smiled at them both. Then she looked beyond them at the +rest of the party and smiled again. However, she seemed more amused +than pleased. + +"Come in," she said, leading the way inside. "Even sweethearts are +forgotten after a time, but you and your friends are welcome." + +The room they now entered was cosy and comfortable, being neatly +furnished and well swept and dusted. But they found someone there +besides Nimmie Amee. A man dressed in the attractive Munchkin costume +was lazily reclining in an easy chair, and he sat up and turned his +eves on the visitors with a cold and indifferent stare that was almost +insolent. He did not even rise from his seat to greet the strangers, +but after glaring at them he looked away with a scowl, as if they were +of too little importance to interest him. + +The tin men returned this man's stare with interest, but they did not +look away from him because neither of them seemed able to take his eyes +off this Munchkin, who was remarkable in having one tin arm quite like +their own tin arms. + +"Seems to me," said Captain Fyter, in a voice that sounded harsh and +indignant, "that you, sir, are a vile impostor!" + +"Gently--gently!" cautioned the Scarecrow; "don't be rude to strangers, +Captain." + +"Rude?" shouted the Tin Soldier, now very much provoked; "why, he's a +scoundrel--a thief! The villain is wearing my own head!" + +"Yes," added the Tin Woodman, "and he's wearing my right arm! I can +recognize it by the two warts on the little finger." + +"Good gracious!" exclaimed Woot. "Then this must be the man whom old +Ku-Klip patched together and named Chopfyt." + +The man now turned toward them, still scowling. + +"Yes, that is my name," he said in a voice like a growl, "and it is +absurd for you tin creatures, or for anyone else, to claim my head, or +arm, or any part of me, for they are my personal property." + +"You? You're a Nobody!" shouted Captain Fyter. + +"You're just a mix-up," declared the Emperor. + +"Now, now, gentlemen," interrupted Nimmie Amee, "I must ask you to be +more respectful to poor Chopfyt. For, being my guests, it is not polite +for you to insult my husband." + +"Your husband!" the tin twins exclaimed in dismay. + +"Yes," said she. "I married Chopfyt a long time ago, because my other +two sweethearts had deserted me." + +This reproof embarrassed both Nick Chopper and Captain Fyter. They +looked down, shamefaced, for a moment, and then the Tin Woodman +explained in an earnest voice: + +"I rusted." + +"So did I," said the Tin Soldier. + +"I could not know that, of course," asserted Nimmie Amee. "All I knew +was that neither of you came to marry me, as you had promised to do. +But men are not scarce in the Land of Oz. After I came here to live, I +met Mr. Chopfyt, and he was the more interesting because he reminded +me strongly of both of you, as you were before you became tin. He even +had a tin arm, and that reminded me of you the more. + +"No wonder!" remarked the Scarecrow. + +"But, listen, Nimmie Amee!" said the astonished Woot; "he really is +both of them, for he is made of their cast-off parts." + +"Oh, you're quite wrong," declared Polychrome, laughing, for she was +greatly enjoying the confusion of the others. "The tin men are still +themselves, as they will tell you, and so Chopfyt must be someone else." + +They looked at her bewildered, for the facts in the case were too +puzzling to be grasped at once. + +"It is all the fault of old Ku-Klip," muttered the Tin Woodman. "He had +no right to use our castoff parts to make another man with." + +"It seems he did it, however," said Nimmie Amee calmly, "and I married +him because he resembled you both. I won't say he is a husband to be +proud of, because he has a mixed nature and isn't always an agreeable +companion. There are times when I have to chide him gently, both with +my tongue and with my broomstick. But he is my husband, and I must make +the best of him." + +"If you don't like him," suggested the Tin Woodman, "Captain Fyter and +I can chop him up with our axe and sword, and each take such parts of +the fellow as belong to him. Then we are willing for you to select one +of us as your husband." + +"That is a good idea," approved Captain Fyter, drawing his sword. + +"No," said Nimmie Amee; "I think I'll keep the husband I now have. He +is now trained to draw the water and carry in the wood and hoe the +cabbages and weed the flower-beds and dust the furniture and perform +many tasks of a like character. A new husband would have to be +scolded--and gently chided--until he learns my ways. So I think it will +be better to keep my Chopfyt, and I see no reason why you should object +to him. You two gentlemen threw him away when you became tin, because +you had no further use for him, so you cannot justly claim him now. I +advise you to go back to your own homes and forget me, as I have +forgotten you." + +"Good advice!" laughed Polychrome, dancing. + +"Are you happy?" asked the Tin Soldier. + +"Of course I am," said Nimmie Amee; "I'm the mistress of all I +survey--the queen of my little domain." + +"Wouldn't you like to be the Empress of the Winkies?" asked the Tin +Woodman. + +"Mercy, no," she answered. "That would be a lot of bother. I don't care +for society, or pomp, or posing. All I ask is to be left alone and not +to be annoyed by visitors." + +The Scarecrow nudged Woot the Wanderer. + +"That sounds to me like a hint," he said. + +"Looks as if we'd had our journey for nothing," remarked Woot, who was +a little ashamed and disappointed because he had proposed the journey. + +"I am glad, however," said the Tin Woodman, "that I have found Nimmie +Amee, and discovered that she is already married and happy. It will +relieve me of any further anxiety concerning her." + +"For my part," said the Tin Soldier, "I am not sorry to be free. The +only thing that really annoys me is finding my head upon Chopfyt's +body." + +"As for that, I'm pretty sure it is my body, or a part of it, anyway," +remarked the Emperor of the Winkies. "But never mind, friend Soldier; +let us be willing to donate our cast-off members to insure the +happiness of Nimmie Amee, and be thankful it is not our fate to hoe +cabbages and draw water--and be chided--in the place of this creature +Chopfyt." + +"Yes," agreed the Soldier, "we have much to be thankful for." + +Polychrome, who had wandered outside, now poked her pretty head through +an open window and exclaimed in a pleased voice: + +"It's getting cloudy. Perhaps it is going to rain!" + + + + +Chapter Twenty-Three + +Through the Tunnel + + +It didn't rain just then, although the clouds in the sky grew thicker +and more threatening. Polychrome hoped for a thunder-storm, followed by +her Rainbow, but the two tin men did not relish the idea of getting +wet. They even preferred to remain in Nimmie Amee's house, although +they felt they were not welcome there, rather than go out and face the +coming storm. But the Scarecrow, who was a very thoughtful person, said +to his friends: + +"If we remain here until after the storm, and Polychrome goes away on +her Rainbow, then we will be prisoners inside the Wall of Solid Air; so +it seems best to start upon our return journey at once. If I get wet, +my straw stuffing will be ruined, and if you two tin gentlemen get wet, +you may perhaps rust again, and become useless. But even that is better +than to stay here. Once we are free of the barrier, we have Woot the +Wanderer to help us, and he can oil your joints and restuff my body, if +it becomes necessary, for the boy is made of meat, which neither rusts +nor gets soggy or moldy." + +"Come along, then!" cried Polychrome from the window, and the others, +realizing the wisdom of the Scarecrow's speech, took leave of Nimmie +Amee, who was glad to be rid of them, and said good-bye to her husband, +who merely scowled and made no answer, and then they hurried from the +house. + +"Your old parts are not very polite, I must say," remarked the +Scarecrow, when they were in the garden. + +"No," said Woot, "Chopfyt is a regular grouch. He might have wished us +a pleasant journey, at the very least." + +"I beg you not to hold us responsible for that creature's actions," +pleaded the Tin Woodman. "We are through with Chopfyt and shall have +nothing further to do with him." + +Polychrome danced ahead of the party and led them straight to the +burrow of the Blue Rabbit, which they might have had some difficulty in +finding without her. There she lost no time in making them all small +again. The Blue Rabbit was busy nibbling cabbage leaves in Nimmie +Amee's garden, so they did not ask his permission but at once entered +the burrow. + +Even now the raindrops were beginning to fall, but it was quite dry +inside the tunnel and by the time they had reached the other end, +outside the circular Wall of Solid Air, the storm was at its height and +the rain was coming down in torrents. + +"Let us wait here," proposed Polychrome, peering out of the hole and +then quickly retreating. "The Rainbow won't appear until after the +storm and I can make you big again in a jiffy, before I join my sisters +on our bow." + +"That's a good plan," said the Scarecrow approvingly. "It will save me +from getting soaked and soggy." + +"It will save me from rusting," said the Tin Soldier. + +"It will enable me to remain highly polished," said the Tin Woodman. + +"Oh, as for that, I myself prefer not to get my pretty clothes wet," +laughed the Rainbow's daughter. + +"But while we wait I will bid you all adieu. I must also thank you for +saving me from that dreadful Giantess, Mrs. Yoop. You have been good +and patient comrades and I have enjoyed our adventures together, but I +am never so happy as when on my dear Rainbow." + +"Will your father scold you for getting left on the earth?" asked Woot. + +"I suppose so," said Polychrome gaily; "I'm always getting scolded for +my mad pranks, as they are called. My sisters are so sweet and lovely +and proper that they never dance off our Rainbow, and so they never +have any adventures. Adventures to me are good fun, only I never like +to stay too long on earth, because I really don't belong here. I shall +tell my Father the Rainbow that I'll try not to be so careless again, +and he will forgive me because in our sky mansions there is always joy +and happiness." + +They were indeed sorry to part with their dainty and beautiful +companion and assured her of their devotion if they ever chanced to +meet again. She shook hands with the Scarecrow and the Tin Men and +kissed Woot the Wanderer lightly upon his forehead. + +And then the rain suddenly ceased, and as the tiny people left the +burrow of the Blue Rabbit, a glorious big Rainbow appeared in the sky +and the end of its arch slowly descended and touched the ground just +where they stood. + +Woot was so busy watching a score of lovely maidens--sisters of +Polychrome--who were leaning over the edge of the bow, and another +score who danced gaily amid the radiance of the splendid hues, that he +did not notice he was growing big again. But now Polychrome joined her +sisters on the Rainbow and the huge arch lifted and slowly melted away +as the sun burst from the clouds and sent its own white beams dancing +over the meadows. + +"Why, she's gone!" exclaimed the boy, and turned to see his companions +still waving their hands in token of adieu to the vanished Polychrome. + + + + +Chapter Twenty-Four + +The Curtain Falls + + +Well, the rest of the story is quickly told, for the return Journey of +our adventurers was without any important incident. The Scarecrow was +so afraid of meeting the Hip-po-gy-raf, and having his straw eaten +again, that he urged his comrades to select another route to the +Emerald City, and they willingly consented, so that the Invisible +Country was wholly avoided. + +Of course, when they reached the Emerald City their first duty was to +visit Ozma's palace, where they were royally entertained. The Tin +Soldier and Woot the Wanderer were welcomed as warmly as any strangers +might be who had been the traveling companions of Ozma's dear old +friends, the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman. + +At the banquet table that evening they related the manner in which they +had discovered Nimmie Amee, and told how they had found her happily +married to Chopfyt, whose relationship to Nick Chopper and Captain +Fyter was so bewildering that they asked Ozma's advice what to do about +it. + +"You need not consider Chopfyt at all," replied the beautiful girl +Ruler of Oz. "If Nimmie Amee is content with that misfit man for a +husband, we have not even just cause to blame Ku-Klip for gluing him +together." + +"I think it was a very good idea," added little Dorothy, "for if +Ku-Klip hadn't used up your castoff parts, they would have been wasted. +It's wicked to be wasteful, isn't it?" + +"Well, anyhow," said Woot the Wanderer, "Chopfyt, being kept a prisoner +by his wife, is too far away from anyone to bother either of you tin +men in any way. If you hadn't gone where he is and discovered him, you +would never have worried about him." + +"What do you care, anyhow," Betsy Bobbin asked the Tin Woodman, "so +long as Nimmie Amee is satisfied?" + +"And just to think," remarked Tiny Trot, "that any girl would rather +live with a mixture like Chopfyt, on far-away Mount Munch, than to be +the Empress of the Winkies!" + +"It is her own choice," said the Tin Woodman contentedly; "and, after +all, I'm not sure the Winkies would care to have an Empress." + +It puzzled Ozma, for a time, to decide what to do with the Tin Soldier. +If he went with the Tin Woodman to the Emperor's castle, she felt that +the two tin men might not be able to live together in harmony, and +moreover the Emperor would not be so distinguished if he had a double +constantly beside him. So she asked Captain Fyter if he was willing to +serve her as a soldier, and he promptly declared that nothing would +please him more. After he had been in her service for some time, Ozma +sent him into the Gillikin Country, with instructions to keep order +among the wild people who inhabit some parts of that unknown country of +Oz. + +As for Woot, being a Wanderer by profession, he was allowed to wander +wherever he desired, and Ozma promised to keep watch over his future +journeys and to protect the boy as well as she was able, in case he +ever got into more trouble. + +All this having been happily arranged, the Tin Woodman returned to his +tin castle, and his chosen comrade, the Scarecrow, accompanied him on +the way. The two friends were sure to pass many pleasant hours together +in talking over their recent adventures, for as they neither ate nor +slept they found their greatest amusement in conversation. + + + + + +THE FAMOUS OZ BOOKS + +By L. Frank Baum: + + The Wizard of Oz + The Land of Oz + Ozma of Oz + Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz + The Road to Oz + The Emerald City of Oz + The Patchwork Girl of Oz + Tik-Tok of Oz + The Scarecrow of Oz + Rinkitink in Oz + The Lost Princess of Oz + The Tin Woodman of Oz + The Magic Of Oz + Glinda of Oz + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Tin Woodman of Oz, by L. Frank Baum + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TIN WOODMAN OF OZ *** + +***** This file should be named 960.txt or 960.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/9/6/960/ + +Produced by Anthony Matonac + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. 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