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diff --git a/old/ozmoz10h.htm b/old/ozmoz10h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d9a2434 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/ozmoz10h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4416 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta name="generator" content= +"HTML Tidy for Mac OS X (vers 1st December 2004), see www.w3.org" /> +<meta http-equiv="content-type" content= +"text/html; charset=us-ascii" /> +<title>Ozma of Oz, by L. Frank Baum.</title> + +<style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[*/ + <!-- + body {font-family:Georgia,serif;margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%;} + p {text-align: justify;} + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center;font-variant:small-caps;} + pre {font-family:Courier,monospaced;font-size: 0.8em;} + hr {width: 50%;} + hr.full {width: 100%;} + hr.short {width:25%;} + h2 {padding-top:1.5em;} + ol {margin-left:10%;font-variant:small-caps;} + .returnTOC {text-align:right;font-size:.7em;} + .cen {text-align:center;} + .rgt {text-align:right;} + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem p {margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem p.i2 {margin-left: 1em;} + a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none} + a:hover {color:red} + --> +/*]]>*/ +</style> +</head> +<body> +<pre> +**The Project Gutenberg Etext of Ozma of Oz, by L. Frank Baum** +#6 in our L. Frank Baum series +#5 in the Oz series + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. We need your donations. + + +Ozma of Oz + +by L. Frank Baum + +April, 1996 [Etext #486] + + +**The Project Gutenberg Etext of Ozma of Oz, by L. Frank Baum** +*****This file should be named ozmoz10.txt or ozmoz10.zip****** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, ozmoz11.txt. +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, ozmoz10a.txt. + + +This etext was created by John N White, and was proofed by +Dennis Amundson, Fargo, North Dakota. Etext was scanned in +from an unabridged edition of the text. + + +</pre> +<h1>Ozma of Oz</h1> +<h3>A Record of Her Adventures with Dorothy Gale of<br /> +Kansas, the Yellow Hen, the Scarecrow, the Tin<br /> +Woodman, Tiktok, the Cowardly Lion and<br /> +the Hungry Tiger; Besides Other Good<br /> +People too Numerous to Mention<br /> +Faithfully Recorded Herein</h3> +<h2>by L. Frank Baum</h2> +<h4>The Author of The Wizard of Oz, The Land of Oz, etc.</h4> +<hr /> +<h2><a id="Contents" name="Contents"></a>Contents</h2> +<ol start="0"> +<li style="list-style-type: none;"><a href= +"#AuthorNote">—Author’s Note—</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_1">The Girl in the Chicken Coop</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_2">The Yellow Hen</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_3">Letters in the Sand</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_4">Tiktok, the Machine Man</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_5">Dorothy Opens the Dinner Pail</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_6">The Heads of Langwidere</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_7">Ozma of Oz to the Rescue</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_8">The Hungry Tiger</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_9">The Royal Family of Ev</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_10">The Giant with the Hammer</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_11">The Nome King</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_12">The Eleven Guesses</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_13">The Nome King Laughs</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_14">Dorothy Tries to be Brave</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_15">Billina Frightens the Nome King</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_16">Purple, Green and Gold</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_17">The Scarecrow Wins the Fight</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_18">The Fate of the Tin Woodman</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_19">The King of Ev</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_20">The Emerald City</a></li> +<li><a href="#Ch_21">Dorothy’s Magic Belt</a></li> +</ol> +<hr /> +<h2><a id="AuthorNote" name="AuthorNote"></a>Author’s +Note</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>My friends the children are responsible for this new “Oz +Book,” as they were for the last one, which was called The +Land of Oz. Their sweet little letters plead to know “more +about Dorothy”; and they ask: “What became of the +Cowardly Lion?” and “What did Ozma do +afterward?”—meaning, of course, after she became the +Ruler of Oz. And some of them suggest plots to me, saying: +“Please have Dorothy go to the Land of Oz again”; or, +“Why don’t you make Ozma and Dorothy meet, and have a +good time together?” Indeed, could I do all that my little +friends ask, I would be obliged to write dozens of books to satisfy +their demands. And I wish I could, for I enjoy writing these +stories just as much as the children say they enjoy reading +them.</p> +<p>Well, here is “more about Dorothy,” and about our +old friends the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman, and about the +Cowardly Lion, and Ozma, and all the rest of them; and here, +likewise, is a good deal about some new folks that are queer and +unusual. One little friend, who read this story before it was +printed, said to me: “Billina is REAL OZZY, Mr. Baum, and so +are Tiktok and the Hungry Tiger.”</p> +<p>If this judgment is unbiased and correct, and the little folks +find this new story “real Ozzy,” I shall be very glad +indeed that I wrote it. But perhaps I shall get some more of those +very welcome letters from my readers, telling me just how they like +“Ozma of Oz.” I hope so, anyway.</p> +<p class="rgt">L. FRANK BAUM.<br /> +MACATAWA, 1907.</p> +<hr /> +<h2><a id="Ch_1" name="Ch_1"></a>1. The Girl in the Chicken +Coop</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>The wind blew hard and joggled the water of the ocean, sending +ripples across its surface. Then the wind pushed the edges of the +ripples until they became waves, and shoved the waves around until +they became billows. The billows rolled dreadfully high: higher +even than the tops of houses. Some of them, indeed, rolled as high +as the tops of tall trees, and seemed like mountains; and the gulfs +between the great billows were like deep valleys.</p> +<p>All this mad dashing and splashing of the waters of the big +ocean, which the mischievous wind caused without any good reason +whatever, resulted in a terrible storm, and a storm on the ocean is +liable to cut many queer pranks and do a lot of damage.</p> +<p>At the time the wind began to blow, a ship was sailing far out +upon the waters. When the waves began to tumble and toss and to +grow bigger and bigger the ship rolled up and down, and tipped +sidewise—first one way and then the other—and was +jostled around so roughly that even the sailor-men had to hold fast +to the ropes and railings to keep themselves from being swept away +by the wind or pitched headlong into the sea.</p> +<p>And the clouds were so thick in the sky that the sunlight +couldn’t get through them; so that the day grew dark as +night, which added to the terrors of the storm.</p> +<p>The Captain of the ship was not afraid, because he had seen +storms before, and had sailed his ship through them in safety; but +he knew that his passengers would be in danger if they tried to +stay on deck, so he put them all into the cabin and told them to +stay there until after the storm was over, and to keep brave hearts +and not be scared, and all would be well with them.</p> +<p>Now, among these passengers was a little Kansas girl named +Dorothy Gale, who was going with her Uncle Henry to Australia, to +visit some relatives they had never before seen. Uncle Henry, you +must know, was not very well, because he had been working so hard +on his Kansas farm that his health had given way and left him weak +and nervous. So he left Aunt Em at home to watch after the hired +men and to take care of the farm, while he traveled far away to +Australia to visit his cousins and have a good rest.</p> +<p>Dorothy was eager to go with him on this journey, and Uncle +Henry thought she would be good company and help cheer him up; so +he decided to take her along. The little girl was quite an +experienced traveller, for she had once been carried by a cyclone +as far away from home as the marvelous Land of Oz, and she had met +with a good many adventures in that strange country before she +managed to get back to Kansas again. So she wasn’t easily +frightened, whatever happened, and when the wind began to howl and +whistle, and the waves began to tumble and toss, our little girl +didn’t mind the uproar the least bit.</p> +<p>“Of course we’ll have to stay in the cabin,” +she said to Uncle Henry and the other passengers, “and keep +as quiet as possible until the storm is over. For the Captain says +if we go on deck we may be blown overboard.”</p> +<p>No one wanted to risk such an accident as that, you may be sure; +so all the passengers stayed huddled up in the dark cabin, +listening to the shrieking of the storm and the creaking of the +masts and rigging and trying to keep from bumping into one another +when the ship tipped sidewise.</p> +<p>Dorothy had almost fallen asleep when she was aroused with a +start to find that Uncle Henry was missing. She couldn’t +imagine where he had gone, and as he was not very strong she began +to worry about him, and to fear he might have been careless enough +to go on deck. In that case he would be in great danger unless he +instantly came down again.</p> +<p>The fact was that Uncle Henry had gone to lie down in his little +sleeping-berth, but Dorothy did not know that. She only remembered +that Aunt Em had cautioned her to take good care of her uncle, so +at once she decided to go on deck and find him, in spite of the +fact that the tempest was now worse than ever, and the ship was +plunging in a really dreadful manner. Indeed, the little girl found +it was as much as she could do to mount the stairs to the deck, and +as soon as she got there the wind struck her so fiercely that it +almost tore away the skirts of her dress. Yet Dorothy felt a sort +of joyous excitement in defying the storm, and while she held fast +to the railing she peered around through the gloom and thought she +saw the dim form of a man clinging to a mast not far away from her. +This might be her uncle, so she called as loudly as she could:</p> +<p>“Uncle Henry! Uncle Henry!”</p> +<p>But the wind screeched and howled so madly that she scarce heard +her own voice, and the man certainly failed to hear her, for he did +not move.</p> +<p>Dorothy decided she must go to him; so she made a dash forward, +during a lull in the storm, to where a big square chicken-coop had +been lashed to the deck with ropes. She reached this place in +safety, but no sooner had she seized fast hold of the slats of the +big box in which the chickens were kept than the wind, as if +enraged because the little girl dared to resist its power, suddenly +redoubled its fury. With a scream like that of an angry giant it +tore away the ropes that held the coop and lifted it high into the +air, with Dorothy still clinging to the slats. Around and over it +whirled, this way and that, and a few moments later the +chicken-coop dropped far away into the sea, where the big waves +caught it and slid it up-hill to a foaming crest and then down-hill +into a deep valley, as if it were nothing more than a plaything to +keep them amused.</p> +<p>Dorothy had a good ducking, you may be sure, but she +didn’t lose her presence of mind even for a second. She kept +tight hold of the stout slats and as soon as she could get the +water out of her eyes she saw that the wind had ripped the cover +from the coop, and the poor chickens were fluttering away in every +direction, being blown by the wind until they looked like feather +dusters without handles. The bottom of the coop was made of thick +boards, so Dorothy found she was clinging to a sort of raft, with +sides of slats, which readily bore up her weight. After coughing +the water out of her throat and getting her breath again, she +managed to climb over the slats and stand upon the firm wooden +bottom of the coop, which supported her easily enough.</p> +<p>“Why, I’ve got a ship of my own!” she thought, +more amused than frightened at her sudden change of condition; and +then, as the coop climbed up to the top of a big wave, she looked +eagerly around for the ship from which she had been blown.</p> +<p>It was far, far away, by this time. Perhaps no one on board had +yet missed her, or knew of her strange adventure. Down into a +valley between the waves the coop swept her, and when she climbed +another crest the ship looked like a toy boat, it was such a long +way off. Soon it had entirely disappeared in the gloom, and then +Dorothy gave a sigh of regret at parting with Uncle Henry and began +to wonder what was going to happen to her next.</p> +<p>Just now she was tossing on the bosom of a big ocean, with +nothing to keep her afloat but a miserable wooden hen-coop that had +a plank bottom and slatted sides, through which the water +constantly splashed and wetted her through to the skin! And there +was nothing to eat when she became hungry—as she was sure to +do before long—and no fresh water to drink and no dry clothes +to put on.</p> +<p>“Well, I declare!” she exclaimed, with a laugh. +“You’re in a pretty fix, Dorothy Gale, I can tell you! +and I haven’t the least idea how you’re going to get +out of it!”</p> +<p>As if to add to her troubles the night was now creeping on, and +the gray clouds overhead changed to inky blackness. But the wind, +as if satisfied at last with its mischievous pranks, stopped +blowing this ocean and hurried away to another part of the world to +blow something else; so that the waves, not being joggled any more, +began to quiet down and behave themselves.</p> +<p>It was lucky for Dorothy, I think, that the storm subsided; +otherwise, brave though she was, I fear she might have perished. +Many children, in her place, would have wept and given way to +despair; but because Dorothy had encountered so many adventures and +come safely through them it did not occur to her at this time to be +especially afraid. She was wet and uncomfortable, it is true; but, +after sighing that one sigh I told you of, she managed to recall +some of her customary cheerfulness and decided to patiently await +whatever her fate might be.</p> +<p>By and by the black clouds rolled away and showed a blue sky +overhead, with a silver moon shining sweetly in the middle of it +and little stars winking merrily at Dorothy when she looked their +way. The coop did not toss around any more, but rode the waves more +gently—almost like a cradle rocking—so that the floor +upon which Dorothy stood was no longer swept by water coming +through the slats. Seeing this, and being quite exhausted by the +excitement of the past few hours, the little girl decided that +sleep would be the best thing to restore her strength and the +easiest way in which she could pass the time. The floor was damp +and she was herself wringing wet, but fortunately this was a warm +climate and she did not feel at all cold.</p> +<p>So she sat down in a corner of the coop, leaned her back against +the slats, nodded at the friendly stars before she closed her eyes, +and was asleep in half a minute.</p> +<h2><a id="Ch_2" name="Ch_2"></a>2. The Yellow Hen</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>A strange noise awoke Dorothy, who opened her eyes to find that +day had dawned and the sun was shining brightly in a clear sky. She +had been dreaming that she was back in Kansas again, and playing in +the old barn-yard with the calves and pigs and chickens all around +her; and at first, as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, she +really imagined she was there.</p> +<p>“Kut-kut-kut, ka-daw-kut! Kut-kut-kut, +ka-daw-kut!”</p> +<p>Ah; here again was the strange noise that had awakened her. +Surely it was a hen cackling! But her wide-open eyes first saw, +through the slats of the coop, the blue waves of the ocean, now +calm and placid, and her thoughts flew back to the past night, so +full of danger and discomfort. Also she began to remember that she +was a waif of the storm, adrift upon a treacherous and unknown +sea.</p> +<p>“Kut-kut-kut, ka-daw-w-w—kut!”</p> +<p>“What’s that?” cried Dorothy, starting to her +feet.</p> +<p>“Why, I’ve just laid an egg, that’s +all,” replied a small, but sharp and distinct voice, and +looking around her the little girl discovered a yellow hen +squatting in the opposite corner of the coop.</p> +<p>“Dear me!” she exclaimed, in surprise; “have +YOU been here all night, too?”</p> +<p>“Of course,” answered the hen, fluttering her wings +and yawning. “When the coop blew away from the ship I clung +fast to this corner, with claws and beak, for I knew if I fell into +the water I’d surely be drowned. Indeed, I nearly drowned, as +it was, with all that water washing over me. I never was so wet +before in my life!”</p> +<p>“Yes,” agreed Dorothy, “it was pretty wet, for +a time, I know. But do you feel comfor’ble now?”</p> +<p>“Not very. The sun has helped to dry my feathers, as it +has your dress, and I feel better since I laid my morning egg. But +what’s to become of us, I should like to know, afloat on this +big pond?”</p> +<p>“I’d like to know that, too,” said Dorothy. +“But, tell me; how does it happen that you are able to talk? +I thought hens could only cluck and cackle.”</p> +<p>“Why, as for that,” answered the yellow hen +thoughtfully, “I’ve clucked and cackled all my life, +and never spoken a word before this morning, that I can remember. +But when you asked a question, a minute ago, it seemed the most +natural thing in the world to answer you. So I spoke, and I seem to +keep on speaking, just as you and other human beings do. Strange, +isn’t it?”</p> +<p>“Very,” replied Dorothy. “If we were in the +Land of Oz, I wouldn’t think it so queer, because many of the +animals can talk in that fairy country. But out here in the ocean +must be a good long way from Oz.”</p> +<p>“How is my grammar?” asked the yellow hen, +anxiously. “Do I speak quite properly, in your +judgment?”</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Dorothy, “you do very well, for a +beginner.”</p> +<p>“I’m glad to know that,” continued the yellow +hen, in a confidential tone; “because, if one is going to +talk, it’s best to talk correctly. The red rooster has often +said that my cluck and my cackle were quite perfect; and now +it’s a comfort to know I am talking properly.”</p> +<p>“I’m beginning to get hungry,” remarked +Dorothy. “It’s breakfast time; but there’s no +breakfast.”</p> +<p>“You may have my egg,” said the yellow hen. “I +don’t care for it, you know.”</p> +<p>“Don’t you want to hatch it?” asked the little +girl, in surprise.</p> +<p>“No, indeed; I never care to hatch eggs unless I’ve +a nice snug nest, in some quiet place, with a baker’s dozen +of eggs under me. That’s thirteen, you know, and it’s a +lucky number for hens. So you may as well eat this egg.”</p> +<p>“Oh, I couldn’t POSS’BLY eat it, unless it was +cooked,” exclaimed Dorothy. “But I’m much obliged +for your kindness, just the same.”</p> +<p>“Don’t mention it, my dear,” answered the hen, +calmly, and began preening her feathers.</p> +<p>For a moment Dorothy stood looking out over the wide sea. She +was still thinking of the egg, though; so presently she asked:</p> +<p>“Why do you lay eggs, when you don’t expect to hatch +them?”</p> +<p>“It’s a habit I have,” replied the yellow hen. +“It has always been my pride to lay a fresh egg every +morning, except when I’m moulting. I never feel like having +my morning cackle till the egg is properly laid, and without the +chance to cackle I would not be happy.”</p> +<p>“It’s strange,” said the girl, reflectively; +“but as I’m not a hen I can’t be ’spected +to understand that.”</p> +<p>“Certainly not, my dear.”</p> +<p>Then Dorothy fell silent again. The yellow hen was some company, +and a bit of comfort, too; but it was dreadfully lonely out on the +big ocean, nevertheless.</p> +<p>After a time the hen flew up and perched upon the topmost slat +of the coop, which was a little above Dorothy’s head when she +was sitting upon the bottom, as she had been doing for some moments +past.</p> +<p>“Why, we are not far from land!” exclaimed the +hen.</p> +<p>“Where? Where is it?” cried Dorothy, jumping up in +great excitement.</p> +<p>“Over there a little way,” answered the hen, nodding +her head in a certain direction. “We seem to be drifting +toward it, so that before noon we ought to find ourselves upon dry +land again.”</p> +<p>“I shall like that!” said Dorothy, with a little +sigh, for her feet and legs were still wetted now and then by the +sea-water that came through the open slats.</p> +<p>“So shall I,” answered her companion. “There +is nothing in the world so miserable as a wet hen.”</p> +<p>The land, which they seemed to be rapidly approaching, since it +grew more distinct every minute, was quite beautiful as viewed by +the little girl in the floating hen-coop. Next to the water was a +broad beach of white sand and gravel, and farther back were several +rocky hills, while beyond these appeared a strip of green trees +that marked the edge of a forest. But there were no houses to be +seen, nor any sign of people who might inhabit this unknown +land.</p> +<p>“I hope we shall find something to eat,” said +Dorothy, looking eagerly at the pretty beach toward which they +drifted. “It’s long past breakfast time, +now.”</p> +<p>“I’m a trifle hungry, myself,” declared the +yellow hen.</p> +<p>“Why don’t you eat the egg?” asked the child. +“You don’t need to have your food cooked, as I +do.”</p> +<p>“Do you take me for a cannibal?” cried the hen, +indignantly. “I do not know what I have said or done that +leads you to insult me!”</p> +<p>“I beg your pardon, I’m sure +Mrs.—Mrs.—by the way, may I inquire your name, +ma’am?” asked the little girl.</p> +<p>“My name is Bill,” said the yellow hen, somewhat +gruffly.</p> +<p>“Bill! Why, that’s a boy’s name.”</p> +<p>“What difference does that make?”</p> +<p>“You’re a lady hen, aren’t you?”</p> +<p>“Of course. But when I was first hatched out no one could +tell whether I was going to be a hen or a rooster; so the little +boy at the farm where I was born called me Bill, and made a pet of +me because I was the only yellow chicken in the whole brood. When I +grew up, and he found that I didn’t crow and fight, as all +the roosters do, he did not think to change my name, and every +creature in the barn-yard, as well as the people in the house, knew +me as ‘Bill.’ So Bill I’ve always been called, +and Bill is my name.”</p> +<p>“But it’s all wrong, you know,” declared +Dorothy, earnestly; “and, if you don’t mind, I shall +call you ‘Billina.’ Putting the ‘eena’ on +the end makes it a girl’s name, you see.”</p> +<p>“Oh, I don’t mind it in the least,” returned +the yellow hen. “It doesn’t matter at all what you call +me, so long as I know the name means ME.”</p> +<p>“Very well, Billina. MY name is Dorothy Gale—just +Dorothy to my friends and Miss Gale to strangers. You may call me +Dorothy, if you like. We’re getting very near the shore. Do +you suppose it is too deep for me to wade the rest of the +way?”</p> +<p>“Wait a few minutes longer. The sunshine is warm and +pleasant, and we are in no hurry.”</p> +<p>“But my feet are all wet and soggy,” said the girl. +“My dress is dry enough, but I won’t feel real +comfor’ble till I get my feet dried.”</p> +<p>She waited, however, as the hen advised, and before long the big +wooden coop grated gently on the sandy beach and the dangerous +voyage was over.</p> +<p>It did not take the castaways long to reach the shore, you may +be sure. The yellow hen flew to the sands at once, but Dorothy had +to climb over the high slats. Still, for a country girl, that was +not much of a feat, and as soon as she was safe ashore Dorothy drew +off her wet shoes and stockings and spread them upon the sun-warmed +beach to dry.</p> +<p>Then she sat down and watched Billina, who was pick-pecking away +with her sharp bill in the sand and gravel, which she scratched up +and turned over with her strong claws.</p> +<p>“What are you doing?” asked Dorothy.</p> +<p>“Getting my breakfast, of course,” murmured the hen, +busily pecking away.</p> +<p>“What do you find?” inquired the girl, +curiously.</p> +<p>“Oh, some fat red ants, and some sand-bugs, and once in a +while a tiny crab. They are very sweet and nice, I assure +you.”</p> +<p>“How dreadful!” exclaimed Dorothy, in a shocked +voice.</p> +<p>“What is dreadful?” asked the hen, lifting her head +to gaze with one bright eye at her companion.</p> +<p>“Why, eating live things, and horrid bugs, and crawly +ants. You ought to be ’SHAMED of yourself!”</p> +<p>“Goodness me!” returned the hen, in a puzzled tone; +“how queer you are, Dorothy! Live things are much fresher and +more wholesome than dead ones, and you humans eat all sorts of dead +creatures.”</p> +<p>“We don’t!” said Dorothy.</p> +<p>“You do, indeed,” answered Billina. “You eat +lambs and sheep and cows and pigs and even chickens.”</p> +<p>“But we cook ’em,” said Dorothy, +triumphantly.</p> +<p>“What difference does that make?”</p> +<p>“A good deal,” said the girl, in a graver tone. +“I can’t just ’splain the diff’rence, but +it’s there. And, anyhow, we never eat such dreadful things as +BUGS.”</p> +<p>“But you eat the chickens that eat the bugs,” +retorted the yellow hen, with an odd cackle. “So you are just +as bad as we chickens are.”</p> +<p>This made Dorothy thoughtful. What Billina said was true enough, +and it almost took away her appetite for breakfast. As for the +yellow hen, she continued to peck away at the sand busily, and +seemed quite contented with her bill-of-fare.</p> +<p>Finally, down near the water’s edge, Billina stuck her +bill deep into the sand, and then drew back and shivered.</p> +<p>“Ow!” she cried. “I struck metal, that time, +and it nearly broke my beak.”</p> +<p>“It prob’bly was a rock,” said Dorothy, +carelessly.</p> +<p>“Nonsense. I know a rock from metal, I guess,” said +the hen. “There’s a different feel to it.”</p> +<p>“But there couldn’t be any metal on this wild, +deserted seashore,” persisted the girl. “Where’s +the place? I’ll dig it up, and prove to you I’m +right,”</p> +<p>Billina showed her the place where she had “stubbed her +bill,” as she expressed it, and Dorothy dug away the sand +until she felt something hard. Then, thrusting in her hand, she +pulled the thing out, and discovered it to be a large sized golden +key—rather old, but still bright and of perfect shape.</p> +<p>“What did I tell you?” cried the hen, with a cackle +of triumph. “Can I tell metal when I bump into it, or is the +thing a rock?”</p> +<p>“It’s metal, sure enough,” answered the child, +gazing thoughtfully at the curious thing she had found. “I +think it is pure gold, and it must have lain hidden in the sand for +a long time. How do you suppose it came there, Billina? And what do +you suppose this mysterious key unlocks?”</p> +<p>“I can’t say,” replied the hen. “You +ought to know more about locks and keys than I do.”</p> +<p>Dorothy glanced around. There was no sign of any house in that +part of the country, and she reasoned that every key must fit a +lock and every lock must have a purpose. Perhaps the key had been +lost by somebody who lived far away, but had wandered on this very +shore.</p> +<p>Musing on these things the girl put the key in the pocket of her +dress and then slowly drew on her shoes and stockings, which the +sun had fully dried.</p> +<p>“I b’lieve, Billina,” she said, +“I’ll have a look ’round, and see if I can find +some breakfast.”</p> +<h2><a id="Ch_3" name="Ch_3"></a>3. Letters in the Sand</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>Walking a little way back from the water’s edge, toward +the grove of trees, Dorothy came to a flat stretch of white sand +that seemed to have queer signs marked upon its surface, just as +one would write upon sand with a stick.</p> +<p>“What does it say?” she asked the yellow hen, who +trotted along beside her in a rather dignified fashion.</p> +<p>“How should I know?” returned the hen. “I +cannot read.”</p> +<p>“Oh! Can’t you?”</p> +<p>“Certainly not; I’ve never been to school, you +know.”</p> +<p>“Well, I have,” admitted Dorothy; “but the +letters are big and far apart, and it’s hard to spell out the +words.”</p> +<p>But she looked at each letter carefully, and finally discovered +that these words were written in the sand:</p> +<p class="cen">“BEWARE THE WHEELERS!”</p> +<p>“That’s rather strange,” declared the hen, +when Dorothy had read aloud the words. “What do you suppose +the Wheelers are?”</p> +<p>“Folks that wheel, I guess. They must have wheelbarrows, +or baby-cabs or hand-carts,” said Dorothy.</p> +<p>“Perhaps they’re automobiles,” suggested the +yellow hen. “There is no need to beware of baby-cabs and +wheelbarrows; but automobiles are dangerous things. Several of my +friends have been run over by them.”</p> +<p>“It can’t be auto’biles,” replied the +girl, “for this is a new, wild country, without even +trolley-cars or tel’phones. The people here haven’t +been discovered yet, I’m sure; that is, if there ARE any +people. So I don’t b’lieve there CAN be any +auto’biles, Billina.”</p> +<p>“Perhaps not,” admitted the yellow hen. “Where +are you going now?”</p> +<p>“Over to those trees, to see if I can find some fruit or +nuts,” answered Dorothy.</p> +<p>She tramped across the sand, skirting the foot of one of the +little rocky hills that stood near, and soon reached the edge of +the forest.</p> +<p>At first she was greatly disappointed, because the nearer trees +were all punita, or cotton-wood or eucalyptus, and bore no fruit or +nuts at all. But, bye and bye, when she was almost in despair, the +little girl came upon two trees that promised to furnish her with +plenty of food.</p> +<p>One was quite full of square paper boxes, which grew in clusters +on all the limbs, and upon the biggest and ripest boxes the word +“Lunch” could be read, in neat raised letters. This +tree seemed to bear all the year around, for there were lunch-box +blossoms on some of the branches, and on others tiny little +lunch-boxes that were as yet quite green, and evidently not fit to +eat until they had grown bigger.</p> +<p>The leaves of this tree were all paper napkins, and it presented +a very pleasing appearance to the hungry little girl.</p> +<p>But the tree next to the lunch-box tree was even more wonderful, +for it bore quantities of tin dinner-pails, which were so full and +heavy that the stout branches bent underneath their weight. Some +were small and dark-brown in color; those larger were of a dull tin +color; but the really ripe ones were pails of bright tin that shone +and glistened beautifully in the rays of sunshine that touched +them.</p> +<p>Dorothy was delighted, and even the yellow hen acknowledged that +she was surprised.</p> +<p>The little girl stood on tip-toe and picked one of the nicest +and biggest lunch-boxes, and then she sat down upon the ground and +eagerly opened it. Inside she found, nicely wrapped in white +papers, a ham sandwich, a piece of sponge-cake, a pickle, a slice +of new cheese and an apple. Each thing had a separate stem, and so +had to be picked off the side of the box; but Dorothy found them +all to be delicious, and she ate every bit of luncheon in the box +before she had finished.</p> +<p>“A lunch isn’t zactly breakfast,” she said to +Billina, who sat beside her curiously watching. “But when one +is hungry one can eat even supper in the morning, and not +complain.”</p> +<p>“I hope your lunch-box was perfectly ripe,” observed +the yellow hen, in a anxious tone. “So much sickness is +caused by eating green things.”</p> +<p>“Oh, I’m sure it was ripe,” declared Dorothy, +“all, that is, ’cept the pickle, and a pickle just HAS +to be green, Billina. But everything tasted perfectly splendid, and +I’d rather have it than a church picnic. And now I think +I’ll pick a dinner-pail, to have when I get hungry again, and +then we’ll start out and ’splore the country, and see +where we are.”</p> +<p>“Haven’t you any idea what country this is?” +inquired Billina.</p> +<p>“None at all. But listen: I’m quite sure it’s +a fairy country, or such things as lunch-boxes and dinner-pails +wouldn’t be growing upon trees. Besides, Billina, being a +hen, you wouldn’t be able to talk in any civ’lized +country, like Kansas, where no fairies live at all.”</p> +<p>“Perhaps we’re in the Land of Oz,” said the +hen, thoughtfully.</p> +<p>“No, that can’t be,” answered the little girl; +because I’ve been to the Land of Oz, and it’s all +surrounded by a horrid desert that no one can cross.”</p> +<p>“Then how did you get away from there again?” asked +Billina.</p> +<p>“I had a pair of silver shoes, that carried me through the +air; but I lost them,” said Dorothy.</p> +<p>“Ah, indeed,” remarked the yellow hen, in a tone of +unbelief.</p> +<p>“Anyhow,” resumed the girl, “there is no +seashore near the Land of Oz, so this must surely be some other +fairy country.”</p> +<p>While she was speaking she selected a bright and pretty +dinner-pail that seemed to have a stout handle, and picked it from +its branch. Then, accompanied by the yellow hen, she walked out of +the shadow of the trees toward the sea-shore.</p> +<p>They were part way across the sands when Billina suddenly cried, +in a voice of terror:</p> +<p>“What’s that?”</p> +<p>Dorothy turned quickly around, and saw coming out of a path that +led from between the trees the most peculiar person her eyes had +ever beheld.</p> +<p>It had the form of a man, except that it walked, or rather +rolled, upon all fours, and its legs were the same length as its +arms, giving them the appearance of the four legs of a beast. Yet +it was no beast that Dorothy had discovered, for the person was +clothed most gorgeously in embroidered garments of many colors, and +wore a straw hat perched jauntily upon the side of its head. But it +differed from human beings in this respect, that instead of hands +and feet there grew at the end of its arms and legs round wheels, +and by means of these wheels it rolled very swiftly over the level +ground. Afterward Dorothy found that these odd wheels were of the +same hard substance that our finger-nails and toe-nails are +composed of, and she also learned that creatures of this strange +race were born in this queer fashion. But when our little girl +first caught sight of the first individual of a race that was +destined to cause her a lot of trouble, she had an idea that the +brilliantly-clothed personage was on roller-skates, which were +attached to his hands as well as to his feet.</p> +<p>“Run!” screamed the yellow hen, fluttering away in +great fright. “It’s a Wheeler!”</p> +<p>“A Wheeler?” exclaimed Dorothy. “What can that +be?”</p> +<p>“Don’t you remember the warning in the sand: +‘Beware the Wheelers’? Run, I tell +you—run!”</p> +<p>So Dorothy ran, and the Wheeler gave a sharp, wild cry and came +after her in full chase.</p> +<p>Looking over her shoulder as she ran, the girl now saw a great +procession of Wheelers emerging from the forest—dozens and +dozens of them—all clad in splendid, tight-fitting garments +and all rolling swiftly toward her and uttering their wild, strange +cries.</p> +<p>“They’re sure to catch us!” panted the girl, +who was still carrying the heavy dinner-pail she had picked. +“I can’t run much farther, Billina.”</p> +<p>“Climb up this hill,—quick!” said the hen; and +Dorothy found she was very near to the heap of loose and jagged +rocks they had passed on their way to the forest. The yellow hen +was even now fluttering among the rocks, and Dorothy followed as +best she could, half climbing and half tumbling up the rough and +rugged steep.</p> +<p>She was none too soon, for the foremost Wheeler reached the hill +a moment after her; but while the girl scrambled up the rocks the +creature stopped short with howls of rage and disappointment.</p> +<p>Dorothy now heard the yellow hen laughing, in her cackling, +henny way.</p> +<p>“Don’t hurry, my dear,” cried Billina. +“They can’t follow us among these rocks, so we’re +safe enough now.”</p> +<p>Dorothy stopped at once and sat down upon a broad boulder, for +she was all out of breath.</p> +<p>The rest of the Wheelers had now reached the foot of the hill, +but it was evident that their wheels would not roll upon the rough +and jagged rocks, and therefore they were helpless to follow +Dorothy and the hen to where they had taken refuge. But they +circled all around the little hill, so the child and Billina were +fast prisoners and could not come down without being captured.</p> +<p>Then the creatures shook their front wheels at Dorothy in a +threatening manner, and it seemed they were able to speak as well +as to make their dreadful outcries, for several of them +shouted:</p> +<p>“We’ll get you in time, never fear! And when we do +get you, we’ll tear you into little bits!”</p> +<p>“Why are you so cruel to me?” asked Dorothy. +“I’m a stranger in your country, and have done you no +harm.”</p> +<p>“No harm!” cried one who seemed to be their leader. +“Did you not pick our lunch-boxes and dinner-pails? Have you +not a stolen dinner-pail still in your hand?”</p> +<p>“I only picked one of each,” she answered. “I +was hungry, and I didn’t know the trees were +yours.”</p> +<p>“That is no excuse,” retorted the leader, who was +clothed in a most gorgeous suit. “It is the law here that +whoever picks a dinner-pail without our permission must die +immediately.”</p> +<p>“Don’t you believe him,” said Billina. +“I’m sure the trees do not belong to these awful +creatures. They are fit for any mischief, and it’s my opinion +they would try to kill us just the same if you hadn’t picked +a dinner-pail.”</p> +<p>“I think so, too,” agreed Dorothy. “But what +shall we do now?”</p> +<p>“Stay where we are,” advised the yellow hen. +“We are safe from the Wheelers until we starve to death, +anyhow; and before that time comes a good many things can +happen.”</p> +<h2><a id="Ch_4" name="Ch_4"></a>4. Tiktok the Machine Man</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>After an hour or so most of the band of Wheelers rolled back +into the forest, leaving only three of their number to guard the +hill. These curled themselves up like big dogs and pretended to go +to sleep on the sands; but neither Dorothy nor Billina were fooled +by this trick, so they remained in security among the rocks and +paid no attention to their cunning enemies.</p> +<p>Finally the hen, fluttering over the mound, exclaimed: +“Why, here’s a path!”</p> +<p>So Dorothy at once clambered to where Billina sat, and there, +sure enough, was a smooth path cut between the rocks. It seemed to +wind around the mound from top to bottom, like a cork-screw, +twisting here and there between the rough boulders but always +remaining level and easy to walk upon.</p> +<p>Indeed, Dorothy wondered at first why the Wheelers did not roll +up this path; but when she followed it to the foot of the mound she +found that several big pieces of rock had been placed directly +across the end of the way, thus preventing any one outside from +seeing it and also preventing the Wheelers from using it to climb +up the mound.</p> +<p>Then Dorothy walked back up the path, and followed it until she +came to the very top of the hill, where a solitary round rock stood +that was bigger than any of the others surrounding it. The path +came to an end just beside this great rock, and for a moment it +puzzled the girl to know why the path had been made at all. But the +hen, who had been gravely following her around and was now perched +upon a point of rock behind Dorothy, suddenly remarked:</p> +<p>“It looks something like a door, doesn’t +it?”</p> +<p>“What looks like a door?” enquired the child.</p> +<p>“Why, that crack in the rock, just facing you,” +replied Billina, whose little round eyes were very sharp and seemed +to see everything. “It runs up one side and down the other, +and across the top and the bottom.”</p> +<p>“What does?”</p> +<p>“Why, the crack. So I think it must be a door of rock, +although I do not see any hinges.”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes,” said Dorothy, now observing for the first +time the crack in the rock. “And isn’t this a key-hole, +Billina?” pointing to a round, deep hole at one side of the +door.</p> +<p>“Of course. If we only had the key, now, we could unlock +it and see what is there,” replied the yellow hen. “May +be it’s a treasure chamber full of diamonds and rubies, or +heaps of shining gold, or—”</p> +<p>“That reminds me,” said Dorothy, “of the +golden key I picked up on the shore. Do you think that it would fit +this key-hole, Billina?”</p> +<p>“Try it and see,” suggested the hen.</p> +<p>So Dorothy searched in the pocket of her dress and found the +golden key. And when she had put it into the hole of the rock, and +turned it, a sudden sharp snap was heard; then, with a solemn creak +that made the shivers run down the child’s back, the face of +the rock fell outward, like a door on hinges, and revealed a small +dark chamber just inside.</p> +<p>“Good gracious!” cried Dorothy, shrinking back as +far as the narrow path would let her.</p> +<p>For, standing within the narrow chamber of rock, was the form of +a man—or, at least, it seemed like a man, in the dim light. +He was only about as tall as Dorothy herself, and his body was +round as a ball and made out of burnished copper. Also his head and +limbs were copper, and these were jointed or hinged to his body in +a peculiar way, with metal caps over the joints, like the armor +worn by knights in days of old. He stood perfectly still, and where +the light struck upon his form it glittered as if made of pure +gold.</p> +<p>“Don’t be frightened,” called Billina, from +her perch. “It isn’t alive.”</p> +<p>“I see it isn’t,” replied the girl, drawing a +long breath.</p> +<p>“It is only made out of copper, like the old kettle in the +barn-yard at home,” continued the hen, turning her head first +to one side and then to the other, so that both her little round +eyes could examine the object.</p> +<p>“Once,” said Dorothy, “I knew a man made out +of tin, who was a woodman named Nick Chopper. But he was as alive +as we are, ’cause he was born a real man, and got his tin +body a little at a time—first a leg and then a finger and +then an ear—for the reason that he had so many accidents with +his axe, and cut himself up in a very careless manner.”</p> +<p>“Oh,” said the hen, with a sniff, as if she did not +believe the story.</p> +<p>“But this copper man,” continued Dorothy, looking at +it with big eyes, “is not alive at all, and I wonder what it +was made for, and why it was locked up in this queer +place.”</p> +<p>“That is a mystery,” remarked the hen, twisting her +head to arrange her wing-feathers with her bill.</p> +<p>Dorothy stepped inside the little room to get a back view of the +copper man, and in this way discovered a printed card that hung +between his shoulders, it being suspended from a small copper peg +at the back of his neck. She unfastened this card and returned to +the path, where the light was better, and sat herself down upon a +slab of rock to read the printing.</p> +<p>“What does it say?” asked the hen, curiously.</p> +<p>Dorothy read the card aloud, spelling out the big words with +some difficulty; and this is what she read:</p> +<p class="cen" style="border:thin black solid;">SMITH & +TINKER’S<br /> +Patent Double-Action, Extra-Responsive,<br /> +Thought-Creating, Perfect-Talking<br /> +MECHANICAL MAN<br /> +Fitted with our Special Clock-Work Attachment.<br /> +Thinks, Speaks, Acts, and Does Everything but Live.<br /> +Manufactured only at our Works at Evna, Land of Ev.<br /> +All infringements will be promptly Prosecuted according to Law</p> +<p>“How queer!” said the yellow hen. “Do you +think that is all true, my dear?”</p> +<p>“I don’t know,” answered Dorothy, who had more +to read. “Listen to this, Billina:”</p> +<p class="cen" style="border:thin black solid;">DIRECTIONS FOR +USING:<br /> +For THINKING:—Wind the Clock-work Man under his left +arm,<br /> +(marked No. 1.)<br /> +For SPEAKING:—Wind the Clock-work Man under his right +arm,<br /> +(marked No. 2.)<br /> +For WALKING and ACTION:—Wind Clock-work in the middle of his +back,<br /> +(marked No. 3.)<br /> +N. B.—This Mechanism is guaranteed to work perfectly for a +thousand years.</p> +<p>“Well, I declare!” gasped the yellow hen, in +amazement; “if the copper man can do half of these things he +is a very wonderful machine. But I suppose it is all humbug, like +so many other patented articles.”</p> +<p>“We might wind him up,” suggested Dorothy, +“and see what he’ll do.”</p> +<p>“Where is the key to the clock-work?” asked +Billina.</p> +<p>“Hanging on the peg where I found the card.”</p> +<p>“Then,” said the hen, “let us try him, and +find out if he will go. He is warranted for a thousand years, it +seems; but we do not know how long he has been standing inside this +rock.”</p> +<p>Dorothy had already taken the clock key from the peg.</p> +<p>“Which shall I wind up first?” she asked, looking +again at the directions on the card.</p> +<p>“Number One, I should think,” returned Billina. +“That makes him think, doesn’t it?”</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Dorothy, and wound up Number One, under +the left arm.</p> +<p>“He doesn’t seem any different,” remarked the +hen, critically.</p> +<p>“Why, of course not; he is only thinking, now,” said +Dorothy.</p> +<p>“I wonder what he is thinking about.”</p> +<p>“I’ll wind up his talk, and then perhaps he can tell +us,” said the girl.</p> +<p>So she wound up Number Two, and immediately the clock-work man +said, without moving any part of his body except his lips:</p> +<p>“Good morn-ing, lit-tle girl. Good morn-ing, Mrs. +Hen.”</p> +<p>The words sounded a little hoarse and creaky, and they were +uttered all in the same tone, without any change of expression +whatever; but both Dorothy and Billina understood them +perfectly.</p> +<p>“Good morning, sir,” they answered, politely.</p> +<p>“Thank you for res-cu-ing me,” continued the +machine, in the same monotonous voice, which seemed to be worked by +a bellows inside of him, like the little toy lambs and cats the +children squeeze so that they will make a noise.</p> +<p>“Don’t mention it,” answered Dorothy. And +then, being very curious, she asked: “How did you come to be +locked up in this place?”</p> +<p>“It is a long sto-ry,” replied the copper man; +“but I will tell it to you brief-ly. I was pur-chased from +Smith & Tin-ker, my man-u-fac-tur-ers, by a cru-el King of Ev, +named Ev-ol-do, who used to beat all his serv-ants un-til they +died. How-ev-er, he was not a-ble to kill me, be-cause I was not +a-live, and one must first live in or-der to die. So that all his +beat-ing did me no harm, and mere-ly kept my cop-per bod-y well +pol-ished.</p> +<p>“This cru-el king had a love-ly wife and ten beau-ti-ful +chil-dren—five boys and five girls—but in a fit of +an-ger he sold them all to the Nome King, who by means of his +mag-ic arts changed them all in-to oth-er forms and put them in his +un-der-ground pal-ace to or-na-ment the rooms.</p> +<p>“Af-ter-ward the King of Ev re-gret-ted his wick-ed +ac-tion, and tried to get his wife and chil-dren a-way from the +Nome King, but with-out a-vail. So, in de-spair, he locked me up in +this rock, threw the key in-to the o-cean, and then jumped in +af-ter it and was drowned.”</p> +<p>“How very dreadful!” exclaimed Dorothy.</p> +<p>“It is, in-deed,” said the machine. “When I +found my-self im-pris-oned I shout-ed for help un-til my voice ran +down; and then I walked back and forth in this lit-tle room un-til +my ac-tion ran down; and then I stood still and thought un-til my +thoughts ran down. Af-ter that I re-mem-ber noth-ing un-til you +wound me up a-gain.”</p> +<p>“It’s a very wonderful story,” said Dorothy, +“and proves that the Land of Ev is really a fairy land, as I +thought it was.”</p> +<p>“Of course it is,” answered the copper man. “I +do not sup-pose such a per-fect ma-chine as I am could be made in +an-y place but a fair-y land.”</p> +<p>“I’ve never seen one in Kansas,” said +Dorothy.</p> +<p>“But where did you get the key to un-lock this +door?” asked the clock-work voice.</p> +<p>“I found it on the shore, where it was prob’ly +washed up by the waves,” she answered. “And now, sir, +if you don’t mind, I’ll wind up your action.”</p> +<p>“That will please me ve-ry much,” said the +machine.</p> +<p>So she wound up Number Three, and at once the copper man in a +somewhat stiff and jerky fashion walked out of the rocky cavern, +took off his copper hat and bowed politely, and then kneeled before +Dorothy. Said he:</p> +<p>“From this time forth I am your o-be-di-ent ser-vant. +What-ev-er you com-mand, that I will do will-ing-ly—if you +keep me wound up.”</p> +<p>“What is your name?” she asked.</p> +<p>“Tik-tok,” he replied. “My for-mer mas-ter +gave me that name be-cause my clock-work al-ways ticks when it is +wound up.”</p> +<p>“I can hear it now,” said the yellow hen.</p> +<p>“So can I,” said Dorothy. And then she added, with +some anxiety: “You don’t strike, do you?”</p> +<p>“No,” answered Tiktok; “and there is no a-larm +con-nec-ted with my ma-chin-er-y. I can tell the time, though, by +speak-ing, and as I nev-er sleep I can wak-en you at an-y hour you +wish to get up in the morn-ing.”</p> +<p>“That’s nice,” said the little girl; +“only I never wish to get up in the morning.”</p> +<p>“You can sleep until I lay my egg,” said the yellow +hen. “Then, when I cackle, Tiktok will know it is time to +waken you.”</p> +<p>“Do you lay your egg very early?” asked Dorothy.</p> +<p>“About eight o’clock,” said Billina. +“And everybody ought to be up by that time, I’m +sure.”</p> +<h2><a id="Ch_5" name="Ch_5"></a>5. Dorothy Opens the Dinner +Pail</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>“Now Tiktok,” said Dorothy, “the first thing +to be done is to find a way for us to escape from these rocks. The +Wheelers are down below, you know, and threaten to kill +us.”</p> +<p>“There is no rea-son to be a-fraid of the +Wheel-ers,” said Tiktok, the words coming more slowly than +before.</p> +<p>“Why not?” she asked.</p> +<p>“Be-cause they are ag-g-g—gr-gr-r-r-“</p> +<p>He gave a sort of gurgle and stopped short, waving his hands +frantically until suddenly he became motionless, with one arm in +the air and the other held stiffly before him with all the copper +fingers of the hand spread out like a fan.</p> +<p>“Dear me!” said Dorothy, in a frightened tone. +“What can the matter be?”</p> +<p>“He’s run down, I suppose,” said the hen, +calmly. “You couldn’t have wound him up very +tight.”</p> +<p>“I didn’t know how much to wind him,” replied +the girl; “but I’ll try to do better next +time.”</p> +<p>She ran around the copper man to take the key from the peg at +the back of his neck, but it was not there.</p> +<p>“It’s gone!” cried Dorothy, in dismay.</p> +<p>“What’s gone?” asked Billina.</p> +<p>“The key.”</p> +<p>“It probably fell off when he made that low bow to +you,” returned the hen. “Look around, and see if you +cannot find it again.”</p> +<p>Dorothy looked, and the hen helped her, and by and by the girl +discovered the clock-key, which had fallen into a crack of the +rock.</p> +<p>At once she wound up Tiktok’s voice, taking care to give +the key as many turns as it would go around. She found this quite a +task, as you may imagine if you have ever tried to wind a clock, +but the machine man’s first words were to assure Dorothy that +he would now run for at least twenty-four hours.</p> +<p>“You did not wind me much, at first,” he calmly +said, “and I told you that long sto-ry a-bout King Ev-ol-do; +so it is no won-der that I ran down.”</p> +<p>She next rewound the action clock-work, and then Billina advised +her to carry the key to Tiktok in her pocket, so it would not get +lost again.</p> +<p>“And now,” said Dorothy, when all this was +accomplished, “tell me what you were going to say about the +Wheelers.”</p> +<p>“Why, they are noth-ing to be fright-en’d at,” +said the machine. “They try to make folks be-lieve that they +are ver-y ter-ri-ble, but as a mat-ter of fact the Wheel-ers are +harm-less e-nough to an-y one that dares to fight them. They might +try to hurt a lit-tle girl like you, per-haps, be-cause they are +ver-y mis-chiev-ous. But if I had a club they would run a-way as +soon as they saw me.”</p> +<p>“Haven’t you a club?” asked Dorothy.</p> +<p>“No,” said Tiktok.</p> +<p>“And you won’t find such a thing among these rocks, +either,” declared the yellow hen.</p> +<p>“Then what shall we do?” asked the girl.</p> +<p>“Wind up my think-works tight-ly, and I will try to think +of some oth-er plan,” said Tiktok.</p> +<p>So Dorothy rewound his thought machinery, and while he was +thinking she decided to eat her dinner. Billina was already pecking +away at the cracks in the rocks, to find something to eat, so +Dorothy sat down and opened her tin dinner-pail.</p> +<p>In the cover she found a small tank that was full of very nice +lemonade. It was covered by a cup, which might also, when removed, +be used to drink the lemonade from. Within the pail were three +slices of turkey, two slices of cold tongue, some lobster salad, +four slices of bread and butter, a small custard pie, an orange and +nine large strawberries, and some nuts and raisins. Singularly +enough, the nuts in this dinner-pail grew already cracked, so that +Dorothy had no trouble in picking out their meats to eat.</p> +<p>She spread the feast upon the rock beside her and began her +dinner, first offering some of it to Tiktok, who declined because, +as he said, he was merely a machine. Afterward she offered to share +with Billina, but the hen murmured something about “dead +things” and said she preferred her bugs and ants.</p> +<p>“Do the lunch-box trees and the dinner-pail trees belong +to the Wheelers?” the child asked Tiktok, while engaged in +eating her meal.</p> +<p>“Of course not,” he answered. “They be-long to +the roy-al fam-il-y of Ev, on-ly of course there is no roy-al +fam-il-y just now be-cause King Ev-ol-do jumped in-to the sea and +his wife and ten chil-dren have been trans-formed by the Nome King. +So there is no one to rule the Land of Ev, that I can think of. +Per-haps it is for this rea-son that the Wheel-ers claim the trees +for their own, and pick the lunch-eons and din-ners to eat +them-selves. But they be-long to the King, and you will find the +roy-al “E” stamped up-on the bot-tom of ev-er-y din-ner +pail.”</p> +<p>Dorothy turned the pail over, and at once discovered the royal +mark upon it, as Tiktok had said.</p> +<p>“Are the Wheelers the only folks living in the Land of +Ev?” enquired the girl.</p> +<p>“No; they on-ly in-hab-it a small por-tion of it just back +of the woods,” replied the machine. “But they have +al-ways been mis-chiev-ous and im-per-ti-nent, and my old mas-ter, +King Ev-ol-do, used to car-ry a whip with him, when he walked out, +to keep the crea-tures in or-der. When I was first made the +Wheel-ers tried to run o-ver me, and butt me with their heads; but +they soon found I was built of too sol-id a ma-ter-i-al for them to +in-jure.”</p> +<p>“You seem very durable,” said Dorothy. “Who +made you?”</p> +<p>“The firm of Smith & Tin-ker, in the town of Evna, +where the roy-al pal-ace stands,” answered Tiktok.</p> +<p>“Did they make many of you?” asked the child.</p> +<p>“No; I am the on-ly au-to-mat-ic me-chan-i-cal man they +ev-er com-plet-ed,” he replied. “They were ver-y +won-der-ful in-ven-tors, were my mak-ers, and quite ar-tis-tic in +all they did.”</p> +<p>“I am sure of that,” said Dorothy. “Do they +live in the town of Evna now?”</p> +<p>“They are both gone,” replied the machine. +“Mr. Smith was an art-ist, as well as an in-vent-or, and he +paint-ed a pic-ture of a riv-er which was so nat-ur-al that, as he +was reach-ing a-cross it to paint some flow-ers on the op-po-site +bank, he fell in-to the wa-ter and was drowned.”</p> +<p>“Oh, I’m sorry for that!” exclaimed the little +girl.</p> +<p>“Mis-ter Tin-ker,” continued Tiktok, “made a +lad-der so tall that he could rest the end of it a-gainst the moon, +while he stood on the high-est rung and picked the lit-tle stars to +set in the points of the king’s crown. But when he got to the +moon Mis-ter Tin-ker found it such a love-ly place that he +de-cid-ed to live there, so he pulled up the lad-der af-ter him and +we have nev-er seen him since.”</p> +<p>“He must have been a great loss to this country,” +said Dorothy, who was by this time eating her custard pie.</p> +<p>“He was,” acknowledged Tiktok. “Also he is a +great loss to me. For if I should get out of or-der I do not know +of an-y one a-ble to re-pair me, be-cause I am so com-pli-cat-ed. +You have no i-de-a how full of ma-chin-er-y I am.”</p> +<p>“I can imagine it,” said Dorothy, readily.</p> +<p>“And now,” continued the machine, “I must stop +talk-ing and be-gin think-ing a-gain of a way to es-cape from this +rock.” So he turned half way around, in order to think +without being disturbed.</p> +<p>“The best thinker I ever knew,” said Dorothy to the +yellow hen, “was a scarecrow.”</p> +<p>“Nonsense!” snapped Billina.</p> +<p>“It is true,” declared Dorothy. “I met him in +the Land of Oz, and he traveled with me to the city of the great +Wizard of Oz, so as to get some brains, for his head was only +stuffed with straw. But it seemed to me that he thought just as +well before he got his brains as he did afterward.”</p> +<p>“Do you expect me to believe all that rubbish about the +Land of Oz?” enquired Billina, who seemed a little +cross—perhaps because bugs were scarce.</p> +<p>“What rubbish?” asked the child, who was now +finishing her nuts and raisins.</p> +<p>“Why, your impossible stories about animals that can talk, +and a tin woodman who is alive, and a scarecrow who can +think.”</p> +<p>“They are all there,” said Dorothy, “for I +have seen them.”</p> +<p>“I don’t believe it!” cried the hen, with a +toss of her head.</p> +<p>“That’s ’cause you’re so +ign’rant,” replied the girl, who was a little offended +at her friend Billina’s speech.</p> +<p>“In the Land of Oz,” remarked Tiktok, turning toward +them, “an-y-thing is pos-si-ble. For it is a won-der-ful +fair-y coun-try.”</p> +<p>“There, Billina! what did I say?” cried Dorothy. And +then she turned to the machine and asked in an eager tone: +“Do you know the Land of Oz, Tiktok?”</p> +<p>“No; but I have heard a-bout it,” said the cop-per +man. “For it is on-ly sep-a-ra-ted from this Land of Ev by a +broad des-ert.”</p> +<p>Dorothy clapped her hands together delightedly.</p> +<p>“I’m glad of that!” she exclaimed. “It +makes me quite happy to be so near my old friends. The scarecrow I +told you of, Billina, is the King of the Land of Oz.”</p> +<p>“Par-don me. He is not the king now,” said +Tiktok.</p> +<p>“He was when I left there,” declared Dorothy.</p> +<p>“I know,” said Tiktok, “but there was a +rev-o-lu-tion in the Land of Oz, and the Scare-crow was de-posed by +a sol-dier wo-man named Gen-er-al Jin-jur. And then Jin-jur was +de-posed by a lit-tle girl named Oz-ma, who was the right-ful heir +to the throne and now rules the land un-der the ti-tle of Oz-ma of +Oz.”</p> +<p>“That is news to me,” said Dorothy, thoughtfully. +“But I s’pose lots of things have happened since I left +the Land of Oz. I wonder what has become of the Scarecrow, and of +the Tin Woodman, and the Cowardly Lion. And I wonder who this girl +Ozma is, for I never heard of her before.”</p> +<p>But Tiktok did not reply to this. He had turned around again to +resume his thinking.</p> +<p>Dorothy packed the rest of the food back into the pail, so as +not to be wasteful of good things, and the yellow hen forgot her +dignity far enough to pick up all of the scattered crumbs, which +she ate rather greedily, although she had so lately pretended to +despise the things that Dorothy preferred as food.</p> +<p>By this time Tiktok approached them with his stiff bow.</p> +<p>“Be kind e-nough to fol-low me,” he said, “and +I will lead you a-way from here to the town of Ev-na, where you +will be more com-for-ta-ble, and al-so I will pro-tect you from the +Wheel-ers.”</p> +<p>“All right,” answered Dorothy, promptly. +“I’m ready!”</p> +<h2><a id="Ch_6" name="Ch_6"></a>6. The Heads of Langwidere</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>They walked slowly down the path between the rocks, Tiktok going +first, Dorothy following him, and the yellow hen trotting along +last of all.</p> +<p>At the foot of the path the copper man leaned down and tossed +aside with ease the rocks that encumbered the way. Then he turned +to Dorothy and said:</p> +<p>“Let me car-ry your din-ner-pail.”</p> +<p>She placed it in his right hand at once, and the copper fingers +closed firmly over the stout handle.</p> +<p>Then the little procession marched out upon the level sands.</p> +<p>As soon as the three Wheelers who were guarding the mound saw +them, they began to shout their wild cries and rolled swiftly +toward the little group, as if to capture them or bar their way. +But when the foremost had approached near enough, Tiktok swung the +tin dinner-pail and struck the Wheeler a sharp blow over its head +with the queer weapon. Perhaps it did not hurt very much, but it +made a great noise, and the Wheeler uttered a howl and tumbled over +upon its side. The next minute it scrambled to its wheels and +rolled away as fast as it could go, screeching with fear at the +same time.</p> +<p>“I told you they were harm-less,” began Tiktok; but +before he could say more another Wheeler was upon them. Crack! went +the dinner-pail against its head, knocking its straw hat a dozen +feet away; and that was enough for this Wheeler, also. It rolled +away after the first one, and the third did not wait to be pounded +with the pail, but joined its fellows as quickly as its wheels +would whirl.</p> +<p>The yellow hen gave a cackle of delight, and flying to a perch +upon Tiktok’s shoulder, she said:</p> +<p>“Bravely done, my copper friend! and wisely thought of, +too. Now we are free from those ugly creatures.”</p> +<p>But just then a large band of Wheelers rolled from the forest, +and relying upon their numbers to conquer, they advanced fiercely +upon Tiktok. Dorothy grabbed Billina in her arms and held her +tight, and the machine embraced the form of the little girl with +his left arm, the better to protect her. Then the Wheelers were +upon them.</p> +<p>Rattlety, bang! bang! went the dinner-pail in every direction, +and it made so much clatter bumping against the heads of the +Wheelers that they were much more frightened than hurt and fled in +a great panic. All, that is, except their leader. This Wheeler had +stumbled against another and fallen flat upon his back, and before +he could get his wheels under him to rise again, Tiktok had +fastened his copper fingers into the neck of the gorgeous jacket of +his foe and held him fast.</p> +<p>“Tell your peo-ple to go a-way,” commanded the +machine.</p> +<p>The leader of the Wheelers hesitated to give this order, so +Tiktok shook him as a terrier dog does a rat, until the +Wheeler’s teeth rattled together with a noise like hailstones +on a window pane. Then, as soon as the creature could get its +breath, it shouted to the others to roll away, which they +immediately did.</p> +<p>“Now,” said Tiktok, “you shall come with us +and tell me what I want to know.”</p> +<p>“You’ll be sorry for treating me in this way,” +whined the Wheeler. “I’m a terribly fierce +person.”</p> +<p>“As for that,” answered Tiktok, “I am only a +ma-chine, and can-not feel sor-row or joy, no mat-ter what +hap-pens. But you are wrong to think your-self ter-ri-ble or +fierce.”</p> +<p>“Why so?” asked the Wheeler.</p> +<p>“Be-cause no one else thinks as you do. Your wheels make +you help-less to in-jure an-y one. For you have no fists and can +not scratch or e-ven pull hair. Nor have you an-y feet to kick +with. All you can do is to yell and shout, and that does not hurt +an-y one at all.”</p> +<p>The Wheeler burst into a flood of tears, to Dorothy’s +great surprise.</p> +<p>“Now I and my people are ruined forever!” he sobbed; +“for you have discovered our secret. Being so helpless, our +only hope is to make people afraid of us, by pretending we are very +fierce and terrible, and writing in the sand warnings to Beware the +Wheelers. Until now we have frightened everyone, but since you have +discovered our weakness our enemies will fall upon us and make us +very miserable and unhappy.”</p> +<p>“Oh, no,” exclaimed Dorothy, who was sorry to see +this beautifully dressed Wheeler so miserable; “Tiktok will +keep your secret, and so will Billina and I. Only, you must promise +not to try to frighten children any more, if they come near to +you.”</p> +<p>“I won’t—indeed I won’t!” promised +the Wheeler, ceasing to cry and becoming more cheerful. +“I’m not really bad, you know; but we have to pretend +to be terrible in order to prevent others from attacking +us.”</p> +<p>“That is not ex-act-ly true,” said Tiktok, starting +to walk toward the path through the forest, and still holding fast +to his prisoner, who rolled slowly along beside him. “You and +your peo-ple are full of mis-chief, and like to both-er those who +fear you. And you are of-ten im-pu-dent and dis-a-gree-a-ble, too. +But if you will try to cure those faults I will not tell any-one +how help-less you are.”</p> +<p>“I’ll try, of course,” replied the Wheeler, +eagerly. “And thank you, Mr. Tiktok, for your +kindness.”</p> +<p>“I am on-ly a ma-chine,” said Tiktok. “I can +not be kind an-y more than I can be sor-ry or glad. I can on-ly do +what I am wound up to do.”</p> +<p>“Are you wound up to keep my secret?” asked the +Wheeler, anxiously.</p> +<p>“Yes; if you be-have your-self. But tell me: who rules the +Land of Ev now?” asked the machine.</p> +<p>“There is no ruler,” was the answer, “because +every member of the royal family is imprisoned by the Nome King. +But the Princess Langwidere, who is a niece of our late King +Evoldo, lives in a part of the royal palace and takes as much money +out of the royal treasury as she can spend. The Princess Langwidere +is not exactly a ruler, you see, because she doesn’t rule; +but she is the nearest approach to a ruler we have at +present.”</p> +<p>“I do not re-mem-ber her,” said Tiktok. “What +does she look like?”</p> +<p>“That I cannot say,” replied the Wheeler, +“although I have seen her twenty times. For the Princess +Langwidere is a different person every time I see her, and the only +way her subjects can recognize her at all is by means of a +beautiful ruby key which she always wears on a chain attached to +her left wrist. When we see the key we know we are beholding the +Princess.”</p> +<p>“That is strange,” said Dorothy, in astonishment. +“Do you mean to say that so many different princesses are one +and the same person?”</p> +<p>“Not exactly,” answered the Wheeler. “There +is, of course, but one princess; but she appears to us in many +forms, which are all more or less beautiful.”</p> +<p>“She must be a witch,” exclaimed the girl.</p> +<p>“I do not think so,” declared the Wheeler. +“But there is some mystery connected with her, nevertheless. +She is a very vain creature, and lives mostly in a room surrounded +by mirrors, so that she can admire herself whichever way she +looks.”</p> +<p>No one answered this speech, because they had just passed out of +the forest and their attention was fixed upon the scene before +them—a beautiful vale in which were many fruit trees and +green fields, with pretty farm-houses scattered here and there and +broad, smooth roads that led in every direction.</p> +<p>In the center of this lovely vale, about a mile from where our +friends were standing, rose the tall spires of the royal palace, +which glittered brightly against their background of blue sky. The +palace was surrounded by charming grounds, full of flowers and +shrubbery. Several tinkling fountains could be seen, and there were +pleasant walks bordered by rows of white marble statuary.</p> +<p>All these details Dorothy was, of course, unable to notice or +admire until they had advanced along the road to a position quite +near to the palace, and she was still looking at the pretty sights +when her little party entered the grounds and approached the big +front door of the king’s own apartments. To their +disappointment they found the door tightly closed. A sign was +tacked to the panel which read as follows:</p> +<p class="cen" style= +"border:thin black solid;width:60%;margin:auto;">OWNER +ABSENT.<br /> +<br /> +Please Knock at the Third<br /> +Door in the Left Wing.</p> +<p>“Now,” said Tiktok to the captive Wheeler, +“you must show us the way to the Left Wing.”</p> +<p>“Very well,” agreed the prisoner, “it is +around here at the right.”</p> +<p>“How can the left wing be at the right?” demanded +Dorothy, who feared the Wheeler was fooling them.</p> +<p>“Because there used to be three wings, and two were torn +down, so the one on the right is the only one left. It is a trick +of the Princess Langwidere to prevent visitors from annoying +her.”</p> +<p>Then the captive led them around to the wing, after which the +machine man, having no further use for the Wheeler, permitted him +to depart and rejoin his fellows. He immediately rolled away at a +great pace and was soon lost to sight.</p> +<p>Tiktok now counted the doors in the wing and knocked loudly upon +the third one.</p> +<p>It was opened by a little maid in a cap trimmed with gay +ribbons, who bowed respectfully and asked:</p> +<p>“What do you wish, good people?”</p> +<p>“Are you the Princess Langwidere?” asked +Dorothy.</p> +<p>“No, miss; I am her servant,” replied the maid.</p> +<p>“May I see the Princess, please?”</p> +<p>“I will tell her you are here, miss, and ask her to grant +you an audience,” said the maid. “Step in, please, and +take a seat in the drawing-room.”</p> +<p>So Dorothy walked in, followed closely by the machine. But as +the yellow hen tried to enter after them, the little maid cried +“Shoo!” and flapped her apron in Billina’s +face.</p> +<p>“Shoo, yourself!” retorted the hen, drawing back in +anger and ruffling up her feathers. “Haven’t you any +better manners than that?”</p> +<p>“Oh, do you talk?” enquired the maid, evidently +surprised.</p> +<p>“Can’t you hear me?” snapped Billina. +“Drop that apron, and get out of the doorway, so that I may +enter with my friends!”</p> +<p>“The Princess won’t like it,” said the maid, +hesitating.</p> +<p>“I don’t care whether she likes it or not,” +replied Billina, and fluttering her wings with a loud noise she +flew straight at the maid’s face. The little servant at once +ducked her head, and the hen reached Dorothy’s side in +safety.</p> +<p>“Very well,” sighed the maid; “if you are all +ruined because of this obstinate hen, don’t blame me for it. +It isn’t safe to annoy the Princess Langwidere.”</p> +<p>“Tell her we are waiting, if you please,” Dorothy +requested, with dignity. “Billina is my friend, and must go +wherever I go.”</p> +<p>Without more words the maid led them to a richly furnished +drawing-room, lighted with subdued rainbow tints that came in +through beautiful stained-glass windows.</p> +<p>“Remain here,” she said. “What names shall I +give the Princess?”</p> +<p>“I am Dorothy Gale, of Kansas,” replied the child; +“and this gentleman is a machine named Tiktok, and the yellow +hen is my friend Billina.”</p> +<p>The little servant bowed and withdrew, going through several +passages and mounting two marble stairways before she came to the +apartments occupied by her mistress.</p> +<p>Princess Langwidere’s sitting-room was paneled with great +mirrors, which reached from the ceiling to the floor; also the +ceiling was composed of mirrors, and the floor was of polished +silver that reflected every object upon it. So when Langwidere sat +in her easy chair and played soft melodies upon her mandolin, her +form was mirrored hundreds of times, in walls and ceiling and +floor, and whichever way the lady turned her head she could see and +admire her own features. This she loved to do, and just as the maid +entered she was saying to herself:</p> +<p>“This head with the auburn hair and hazel eyes is quite +attractive. I must wear it more often than I have done of late, +although it may not be the best of my collection.”</p> +<p>“You have company, Your Highness,” announced the +maid, bowing low.</p> +<p>“Who is it?” asked Langwidere, yawning.</p> +<p>“Dorothy Gale of Kansas, Mr. Tiktok and Billina,” +answered the maid.</p> +<p>“What a queer lot of names!” murmured the Princess, +beginning to be a little interested. “What are they like? Is +Dorothy Gale of Kansas pretty?”</p> +<p>“She might be called so,” the maid replied.</p> +<p>“And is Mr. Tiktok attractive?” continued the +Princess.</p> +<p>“That I cannot say, Your Highness. But he seems very +bright. Will Your Gracious Highness see them?”</p> +<p>“Oh, I may as well, Nanda. But I am tired admiring this +head, and if my visitor has any claim to beauty I must take care +that she does not surpass me. So I will go to my cabinet and change +to No. 17, which I think is my best appearance. Don’t +you?”</p> +<p>“Your No. 17 is exceedingly beautiful,” answered +Nanda, with another bow.</p> +<p>Again the Princess yawned. Then she said:</p> +<p>“Help me to rise.”</p> +<p>So the maid assisted her to gain her feet, although Langwidere +was the stronger of the two; and then the Princess slowly walked +across the silver floor to her cabinet, leaning heavily at every +step upon Nanda’s arm.</p> +<p>Now I must explain to you that the Princess Langwidere had +thirty heads—as many as there are days in the month. But of +course she could only wear one of them at a time, because she had +but one neck. These heads were kept in what she called her +“cabinet,” which was a beautiful dressing-room that lay +just between Langwidere’s sleeping-chamber and the mirrored +sitting-room. Each head was in a separate cupboard lined with +velvet. The cupboards ran all around the sides of the +dressing-room, and had elaborately carved doors with gold numbers +on the outside and jeweled-framed mirrors on the inside of +them.</p> +<p>When the Princess got out of her crystal bed in the morning she +went to her cabinet, opened one of the velvet-lined cupboards, and +took the head it contained from its golden shelf. Then, by the aid +of the mirror inside the open door, she put on the head—as +neat and straight as could be—and afterward called her maids +to robe her for the day. She always wore a simple white costume, +that suited all the heads. For, being able to change her face +whenever she liked, the Princess had no interest in wearing a +variety of gowns, as have other ladies who are compelled to wear +the same face constantly.</p> +<p>Of course the thirty heads were in great variety, no two formed +alike but all being of exceeding loveliness. There were heads with +golden hair, brown hair, rich auburn hair and black hair; but none +with gray hair. The heads had eyes of blue, of gray, of hazel, of +brown and of black; but there were no red eyes among them, and all +were bright and handsome. The noses were Grecian, Roman, retrousse +and Oriental, representing all types of beauty; and the mouths were +of assorted sizes and shapes, displaying pearly teeth when the +heads smiled. As for dimples, they appeared in cheeks and chins, +wherever they might be most charming, and one or two heads had +freckles upon the faces to contrast the better with the brilliancy +of their complexions.</p> +<p>One key unlocked all the velvet cupboards containing these +treasures—a curious key carved from a single blood-red +ruby—and this was fastened to a strong but slender chain +which the Princess wore around her left wrist.</p> +<p>When Nanda had supported Langwidere to a position in front of +cupboard No. 17, the Princess unlocked the door with her ruby key +and after handing head No. 9, which she had been wearing, to the +maid, she took No. 17 from its shelf and fitted it to her neck. It +had black hair and dark eyes and a lovely pearl-and-white +complexion, and when Langwidere wore it she knew she was remarkably +beautiful in appearance.</p> +<p>There was only one trouble with No. 17; the temper that went +with it (and which was hidden somewhere under the glossy black +hair) was fiery, harsh and haughty in the extreme, and it often led +the Princess to do unpleasant things which she regretted when she +came to wear her other heads.</p> +<p>But she did not remember this today, and went to meet her guests +in the drawing-room with a feeling of certainty that she would +surprise them with her beauty.</p> +<p>However, she was greatly disappointed to find that her visitors +were merely a small girl in a gingham dress, a copper man that +would only go when wound up, and a yellow hen that was sitting +contentedly in Langwidere’s best work-basket, where there was +a china egg used for darning stockings. (It may surprise you to +learn that a princess ever does such a common thing as darn +stockings. But, if you will stop to think, you will realize that a +princess is sure to wear holes in her stockings, the same as other +people; only it isn’t considered quite polite to mention the +matter.)</p> +<p>“Oh!” said Langwidere, slightly lifting the nose of +No. 17. “I thought some one of importance had +called.”</p> +<p>“Then you were right,” declared Dorothy. +“I’m a good deal of ‘portance myself, and when +Billina lays an egg she has the proudest cackle you ever heard. As +for Tiktok, he’s the—”</p> +<p>“Stop—Stop!” commanded the Princess, with an +angry flash of her splendid eyes. “How dare you annoy me with +your senseless chatter?”</p> +<p>“Why, you horrid thing!” said Dorothy, who was not +accustomed to being treated so rudely.</p> +<p>The Princess looked at her more closely.</p> +<p>“Tell me,” she resumed, “are you of royal +blood?”</p> +<p>“Better than that, ma’am,” said Dorothy. +“I came from Kansas.”</p> +<p>“Huh!” cried the Princess, scornfully. “You +are a foolish child, and I cannot allow you to annoy me. Run away, +you little goose, and bother some one else.”</p> +<p>Dorothy was so indignant that for a moment she could find no +words to reply. But she rose from her chair, and was about to leave +the room when the Princess, who had been scanning the girl’s +face, stopped her by saying, more gently:</p> +<p>“Come nearer to me.”</p> +<p>Dorothy obeyed, without a thought of fear, and stood before the +Princess while Langwidere examined her face with careful +attention.</p> +<p>“You are rather attractive,” said the lady, +presently. “Not at all beautiful, you understand, but you +have a certain style of prettiness that is different from that of +any of my thirty heads. So I believe I’ll take your head and +give you No. 26 for it.”</p> +<p>“Well, I b’lieve you won’t!” exclaimed +Dorothy.</p> +<p>“It will do you no good to refuse,” continued the +Princess; “for I need your head for my collection, and in the +Land of Ev my will is law. I never have cared much for No. 26, and +you will find that it is very little worn. Besides, it will do you +just as well as the one you’re wearing, for all practical +purposes.”</p> +<p>“I don’t know anything about your No. 26, and I +don’t want to,” said Dorothy, firmly. “I’m +not used to taking cast-off things, so I’ll just keep my own +head.”</p> +<p>“You refuse?” cried the Princess, with a frown.</p> +<p>“Of course I do,” was the reply.</p> +<p>“Then,” said Langwidere, “I shall lock you up +in a tower until you decide to obey me. Nanda,” turning to +her maid, “call my army.”</p> +<p>Nanda rang a silver bell, and at once a big fat colonel in a +bright red uniform entered the room, followed by ten lean soldiers, +who all looked sad and discouraged and saluted the princess in a +very melancholy fashion.</p> +<p>“Carry that girl to the North Tower and lock her +up!” cried the Princess, pointing to Dorothy.</p> +<p>“To hear is to obey,” answered the big red colonel, +and caught the child by her arm. But at that moment Tiktok raised +his dinner-pail and pounded it so forcibly against the +colonel’s head that the big officer sat down upon the floor +with a sudden bump, looking both dazed and very much +astonished.</p> +<p>“Help!” he shouted, and the ten lean soldiers sprang +to assist their leader.</p> +<p>There was great excitement for the next few moments, and Tiktok +had knocked down seven of the army, who were sprawling in every +direction upon the carpet, when suddenly the machine paused, with +the dinner-pail raised for another blow, and remained perfectly +motionless.</p> +<p>“My ac-tion has run down,” he called to Dorothy. +“Wind me up, quick.”</p> +<p>She tried to obey, but the big colonel had by this time managed +to get upon his feet again, so he grabbed fast hold of the girl and +she was helpless to escape.</p> +<p>“This is too bad,” said the machine. “I ought +to have run six hours lon-ger, at least, but I sup-pose my long +walk and my fight with the Wheel-ers made me run down fast-er than +us-u-al.”</p> +<p>“Well, it can’t be helped,” said Dorothy, with +a sigh.</p> +<p>“Will you exchange heads with me?” demanded the +Princess.</p> +<p>“No, indeed!” cried Dorothy.</p> +<p>“Then lock her up,” said Langwidere to her soldiers, +and they led Dorothy to a high tower at the north of the palace and +locked her securely within.</p> +<p>The soldiers afterward tried to lift Tiktok, but they found the +machine so solid and heavy that they could not stir it. So they +left him standing in the center of the drawing-room.</p> +<p>“People will think I have a new statue,” said +Langwidere, “so it won’t matter in the least, and Nanda +can keep him well polished.”</p> +<p>“What shall we do with the hen?” asked the colonel, +who had just discovered Billina in the work-basket.</p> +<p>“Put her in the chicken-house,” answered the +Princess. “Someday I’ll have her fried for +breakfast.”</p> +<p>“She looks rather tough, Your Highness,” said Nanda, +doubtfully.</p> +<p>“That is a base slander!” cried Billina, struggling +frantically in the colonel’s arms. “But the breed of +chickens I come from is said to be poison to all +princesses.”</p> +<p>“Then,” remarked Langwidere, “I will not fry +the hen, but keep her to lay eggs; and if she doesn’t do her +duty I’ll have her drowned in the horse trough.”</p> +<h2><a id="Ch_7" name="Ch_7"></a>7. Ozma of Oz to the Rescue</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>Nanda brought Dorothy bread and water for her supper, and she +slept upon a hard stone couch with a single pillow and a silken +coverlet.</p> +<p>In the morning she leaned out of the window of her prison in the +tower to see if there was any way to escape. The room was not so +very high up, when compared with our modern buildings, but it was +far enough above the trees and farm houses to give her a good view +of the surrounding country.</p> +<p>To the east she saw the forest, with the sands beyond it and the +ocean beyond that. There was even a dark speck upon the shore that +she thought might be the chicken-coop in which she had arrived at +this singular country.</p> +<p>Then she looked to the north, and saw a deep but narrow valley +lying between two rocky mountains, and a third mountain that shut +off the valley at the further end.</p> +<p>Westward the fertile Land of Ev suddenly ended a little way from +the palace, and the girl could see miles and miles of sandy desert +that stretched further than her eyes could reach. It was this +desert, she thought, with much interest, that alone separated her +from the wonderful Land of Oz, and she remembered sorrowfully that +she had been told no one had ever been able to cross this dangerous +waste but herself. Once a cyclone had carried her across it, and a +magical pair of silver shoes had carried her back again. But now +she had neither a cyclone nor silver shoes to assist her, and her +condition was sad indeed. For she had become the prisoner of a +disagreeable princess who insisted that she must exchange her head +for another one that she was not used to, and which might not fit +her at all.</p> +<p>Really, there seemed no hope of help for her from her old +friends in the Land of Oz. Thoughtfully she gazed from her narrow +window. On all the desert not a living thing was stirring.</p> +<p>Wait, though! Something surely WAS stirring on the +desert—something her eyes had not observed at first. Now it +seemed like a cloud; now it seemed like a spot of silver; now it +seemed to be a mass of rainbow colors that moved swiftly toward +her.</p> +<p>What COULD it be, she wondered?</p> +<p>Then, gradually, but in a brief space of time nevertheless, the +vision drew near enough to Dorothy to make out what it was.</p> +<p>A broad green carpet was unrolling itself upon the desert, while +advancing across the carpet was a wonderful procession that made +the girl open her eyes in amazement as she gazed.</p> +<p>First came a magnificent golden chariot, drawn by a great Lion +and an immense Tiger, who stood shoulder to shoulder and trotted +along as gracefully as a well-matched team of thoroughbred horses. +And standing upright within the chariot was a beautiful girl +clothed in flowing robes of silver gauze and wearing a jeweled +diadem upon her dainty head. She held in one hand the satin ribbons +that guided her astonishing team, and in the other an ivory wand +that separated at the top into two prongs, the prongs being tipped +by the letters “O” and “Z”, made of +glistening diamonds set closely together.</p> +<p>The girl seemed neither older nor larger than Dorothy herself, +and at once the prisoner in the tower guessed that the lovely +driver of the chariot must be that Ozma of Oz of whom she had so +lately heard from Tiktok.</p> +<p>Following close behind the chariot Dorothy saw her old friend +the Scarecrow, riding calmly astride a wooden Saw-Horse, which +pranced and trotted as naturally as any meat horse could have +done.</p> +<p>And then came Nick Chopper, the Tin Woodman, with his +funnel-shaped cap tipped carelessly over his left ear, his gleaming +axe over his right shoulder, and his whole body sparkling as +brightly as it had ever done in the old days when first she knew +him.</p> +<p>The Tin Woodman was on foot, marching at the head of a company +of twenty-seven soldiers, of whom some were lean and some fat, some +short and some tall; but all the twenty-seven were dressed in +handsome uniforms of various designs and colors, no two being alike +in any respect.</p> +<p>Behind the soldiers the green carpet rolled itself up again, so +that there was always just enough of it for the procession to walk +upon, in order that their feet might not come in contact with the +deadly, life-destroying sands of the desert.</p> +<p>Dorothy knew at once it was a magic carpet she beheld, and her +heart beat high with hope and joy as she realized she was soon to +be rescued and allowed to greet her dearly beloved friends of +Oz—the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion.</p> +<p>Indeed, the girl felt herself as good as rescued as soon as she +recognized those in the procession, for she well knew the courage +and loyalty of her old comrades, and also believed that any others +who came from their marvelous country would prove to be pleasant +and reliable acquaintances.</p> +<p>As soon as the last bit of desert was passed and all the +procession, from the beautiful and dainty Ozma to the last soldier, +had reached the grassy meadows of the Land of Ev, the magic carpet +rolled itself together and entirely disappeared.</p> +<p>Then the chariot driver turned her Lion and Tiger into a broad +roadway leading up to the palace, and the others followed, while +Dorothy still gazed from her tower window in eager excitement.</p> +<p>They came quite close to the front door of the palace and then +halted, the Scarecrow dismounting from his Saw-Horse to approach +the sign fastened to the door, that he might read what it said.</p> +<p>Dorothy, just above him, could keep silent no longer.</p> +<p>“Here I am!” she shouted, as loudly as she could. +“Here’s Dorothy!”</p> +<p>“Dorothy who?” asked the Scarecrow, tipping his head +to look upward until he nearly lost his balance and tumbled over +backward.</p> +<p>“Dorothy Gale, of course. Your friend from Kansas,” +she answered.</p> +<p>“Why, hello, Dorothy!” said the Scarecrow. +“What in the world are you doing up there?”</p> +<p>“Nothing,” she called down, “because +there’s nothing to do. Save me, my friend—save +me!”</p> +<p>“You seem to be quite safe now,” replied the +Scarecrow.</p> +<p>“But I’m a prisoner. I’m locked in, so that I +can’t get out,” she pleaded.</p> +<p>“That’s all right,” said the Scarecrow. +“You might be worse off, little Dorothy. Just consider the +matter. You can’t get drowned, or be run over by a Wheeler, +or fall out of an apple-tree. Some folks would think they were +lucky to be up there.”</p> +<p>“Well, I don’t,” declared the girl, “and +I want to get down immed’i’tly and see you and the Tin +Woodman and the Cowardly Lion.”</p> +<p>“Very well,” said the Scarecrow, nodding. “It +shall be just as you say, little friend. Who locked you +up?”</p> +<p>“The princess Langwidere, who is a horrid creature,” +she answered.</p> +<p>At this Ozma, who had been listening carefully to the +conversation, called to Dorothy from her chariot, asking:</p> +<p>“Why did the Princess lock you up, my dear?”</p> +<p>“Because,” exclaimed Dorothy, “I +wouldn’t let her have my head for her collection, and take an +old, cast-off head in exchange for it.”</p> +<p>“I do not blame you,” exclaimed Ozma, promptly. +“I will see the Princess at once, and oblige her to liberate +you.”</p> +<p>“Oh, thank you very, very much!” cried Dorothy, who +as soon as she heard the sweet voice of the girlish Ruler of Oz +knew that she would soon learn to love her dearly.</p> +<p>Ozma now drove her chariot around to the third door of the wing, +upon which the Tin Woodman boldly proceeded to knock.</p> +<p>As soon as the maid opened the door Ozma, bearing in her hand +her ivory wand, stepped into the hall and made her way at once to +the drawing-room, followed by all her company, except the Lion and +the Tiger. And the twenty-seven soldiers made such a noise and a +clatter that the little maid Nanda ran away screaming to her +mistress, whereupon the Princess Langwidere, roused to great anger +by this rude invasion of her palace, came running into the +drawing-room without any assistance whatever.</p> +<p>There she stood before the slight and delicate form of the +little girl from Oz and cried out;—</p> +<p>“How dare you enter my palace unbidden? Leave this room at +once, or I will bind you and all your people in chains, and throw +you into my darkest dungeons!”</p> +<p>“What a dangerous lady!” murmured the Scarecrow, in +a soft voice.</p> +<p>“She seems a little nervous,” replied the Tin +Woodman.</p> +<p>But Ozma only smiled at the angry Princess.</p> +<p>“Sit down, please,” she said, quietly. “I have +traveled a long way to see you, and you must listen to what I have +to say.”</p> +<p>“Must!” screamed the Princess, her black eyes +flashing with fury—for she still wore her No. 17 head. +“Must, to ME!”</p> +<p>“To be sure,” said Ozma. “I am Ruler of the +Land of Oz, and I am powerful enough to destroy all your kingdom, +if I so wish. Yet I did not come here to do harm, but rather to +free the royal family of Ev from the thrall of the Nome King, the +news having reached me that he is holding the Queen and her +children prisoners.”</p> +<p>Hearing these words, Langwidere suddenly became quiet.</p> +<p>“I wish you could, indeed, free my aunt and her ten royal +children,” said she, eagerly. “For if they were +restored to their proper forms and station they could rule the +Kingdom of Ev themselves, and that would save me a lot of worry and +trouble. At present there are at least ten minutes every day that I +must devote to affairs of state, and I would like to be able to +spend my whole time in admiring my beautiful heads.”</p> +<p>“Then we will presently discuss this matter,” said +Ozma, “and try to find a way to liberate your aunt and +cousins. But first you must liberate another prisoner—the +little girl you have locked up in your tower.”</p> +<p>“Of course,” said Langwidere, readily. “I had +forgotten all about her. That was yesterday, you know, and a +Princess cannot be expected to remember today what she did +yesterday. Come with me, and I will release the prisoner at +once.”</p> +<p>So Ozma followed her, and they passed up the stairs that led to +the room in the tower.</p> +<p>While they were gone Ozma’s followers remained in the +drawing-room, and the Scarecrow was leaning against a form that he +had mistaken for a copper statue when a harsh, metallic voice said +suddenly in his ear:</p> +<p>“Get off my foot, please. You are scratch-ing my +pol-ish.”</p> +<p>“Oh, excuse me!” he replied, hastily drawing back. +“Are you alive?”</p> +<p>“No,” said Tiktok, “I am on-ly a ma-chine. But +I can think and speak and act, when I am pro-per-ly wound up. Just +now my ac-tion is run down, and Dor-o-thy has the key to +it.”</p> +<p>“That’s all right,” replied the Scarecrow. +“Dorothy will soon be free, and then she’ll attend to +your works. But it must be a great misfortune not to be alive. +I’m sorry for you.”</p> +<p>“Why?” asked Tiktok.</p> +<p>“Because you have no brains, as I have,” said the +Scarecrow.</p> +<p>“Oh, yes, I have,” returned Tiktok. “I am +fit-ted with Smith & Tin-ker’s Im-proved Com-bi-na-tion +Steel Brains. They are what make me think. What sort of brains are +you fit-ted with?”</p> +<p>“I don’t know,” admitted the Scarecrow. +“They were given to me by the great Wizard of Oz, and I +didn’t get a chance to examine them before he put them in. +But they work splendidly and my conscience is very active. Have you +a conscience?”</p> +<p>“No,” said Tiktok.</p> +<p>“And no heart, I suppose?” added the Tin Woodman, +who had been listening with interest to this conversation.</p> +<p>“No,” said Tiktok.</p> +<p>“Then,” continued the Tin Woodman, “I regret +to say that you are greatly inferior to my friend the Scarecrow, +and to myself. For we are both alive, and he has brains which do +not need to be wound up, while I have an excellent heart that is +continually beating in my bosom.”</p> +<p>“I con-grat-u-late you,” replied Tiktok. “I +can-not help be-ing your in-fer-i-or for I am a mere ma-chine. When +I am wound up I do my du-ty by go-ing just as my ma-chin-er-y is +made to go. You have no i-de-a how full of ma-chin-er-y I +am.”</p> +<p>“I can guess,” said the Scarecrow, looking at the +machine man curiously. “Some day I’d like to take you +apart and see just how you are made.”</p> +<p>“Do not do that, I beg of you,” said Tiktok; +“for you could not put me to-geth-er a-gain, and my +use-ful-ness would be de-stroyed.”</p> +<p>“Oh! are you useful?” asked the Scarecrow, +surprised.</p> +<p>“Ve-ry,” said Tiktok.</p> +<p>“In that case,” the Scarecrow kindly promised, +“I won’t fool with your interior at all. For I am a +poor mechanic, and might mix you up.”</p> +<p>“Thank you,” said Tiktok.</p> +<p>Just then Ozma re-entered the room, leading Dorothy by the hand +and followed closely by the Princess Langwidere.</p> +<h2><a id="Ch_8" name="Ch_8"></a>8. The Hungry Tiger</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>The first thing Dorothy did was to rush into the embrace of the +Scarecrow, whose painted face beamed with delight as he pressed her +form to his straw-padded bosom. Then the Tin Woodman embraced +her—very gently, for he knew his tin arms might hurt her if +he squeezed too roughly.</p> +<p>These greetings having been exchanged, Dorothy took the key to +Tiktok from her pocket and wound up the machine man’s action, +so that he could bow properly when introduced to the rest of the +company. While doing this she told them how useful Tiktok had been +to her, and both the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman shook hands with +the machine once more and thanked him for protecting their +friend.</p> +<p>Then Dorothy asked: “Where is Billina?”</p> +<p>“I don’t know,” said the Scarecrow. “Who +is Billina?”</p> +<p>“She’s a yellow hen who is another friend of +mine,” answered the girl, anxiously. “I wonder what has +become of her?”</p> +<p>“She is in the chicken house, in the back yard,” +said the Princess. “My drawing-room is no place for +hens.”</p> +<p>Without waiting to hear more Dorothy ran to get Billina, and +just outside the door she came upon the Cowardly Lion, still +hitched to the chariot beside the great Tiger. The Cowardly Lion +had a big bow of blue ribbon fastened to the long hair between his +ears, and the Tiger wore a bow of red ribbon on his tail, just in +front of the bushy end.</p> +<p>In an instant Dorothy was hugging the huge Lion joyfully.</p> +<p>“I’m SO glad to see you again!” she cried.</p> +<p>“I am also glad to see you, Dorothy,” said the Lion. +“We’ve had some fine adventures together, haven’t +we?”</p> +<p>“Yes, indeed,” she replied. “How are +you?”</p> +<p>“As cowardly as ever,” the beast answered in a meek +voice. “Every little thing scares me and makes my heart beat +fast. But let me introduce to you a new friend of mine, the Hungry +Tiger.”</p> +<p>“Oh! Are you hungry?” she asked, turning to the +other beast, who was just then yawning so widely that he displayed +two rows of terrible teeth and a mouth big enough to startle +anyone.</p> +<p>“Dreadfully hungry,” answered the Tiger, snapping +his jaws together with a fierce click.</p> +<p>“Then why don’t you eat something?” she +asked.</p> +<p>“It’s no use,” said the Tiger sadly. +“I’ve tried that, but I always get hungry +again.”</p> +<p>“Why, it is the same with me,” said Dorothy. +“Yet I keep on eating.”</p> +<p>“But you eat harmless things, so it doesn’t +matter,” replied the Tiger. “For my part, I’m a +savage beast, and have an appetite for all sorts of poor little +living creatures, from a chipmunk to fat babies.”</p> +<p>“How dreadful!” said Dorothy.</p> +<p>“Isn’t it, though?” returned the Hungry Tiger, +licking his lips with his long red tongue. “Fat babies! +Don’t they sound delicious? But I’ve never eaten any, +because my conscience tells me it is wrong. If I had no conscience +I would probably eat the babies and then get hungry again, which +would mean that I had sacrificed the poor babies for nothing. No; +hungry I was born, and hungry I shall die. But I’ll not have +any cruel deeds on my conscience to be sorry for.”</p> +<p>“I think you are a very good tiger,” said Dorothy, +patting the huge head of the beast.</p> +<p>“In that you are mistaken,” was the reply. “I +am a good beast, perhaps, but a disgracefully bad tiger. For it is +the nature of tigers to be cruel and ferocious, and in refusing to +eat harmless living creatures I am acting as no good tiger has ever +before acted. That is why I left the forest and joined my friend +the Cowardly Lion.”</p> +<p>“But the Lion is not really cowardly,” said Dorothy. +“I have seen him act as bravely as can be.”</p> +<p>“All a mistake, my dear,” protested the Lion +gravely. “To others I may have seemed brave, at times, but I +have never been in any danger that I was not afraid.”</p> +<p>“Nor I,” said Dorothy, truthfully. “But I must +go and set free Billina, and then I will see you again.”</p> +<p>She ran around to the back yard of the palace and soon found the +chicken house, being guided to it by a loud cackling and crowing +and a distracting hubbub of sounds such as chickens make when they +are excited.</p> +<p>Something seemed to be wrong in the chicken house, and when +Dorothy looked through the slats in the door she saw a group of +hens and roosters huddled in one corner and watching what appeared +to be a whirling ball of feathers. It bounded here and there about +the chicken house, and at first Dorothy could not tell what it was, +while the screeching of the chickens nearly deafened her.</p> +<p>But suddenly the bunch of feathers stopped whirling, and then, +to her amazement, the girl saw Billina crouching upon the prostrate +form of a speckled rooster. For an instant they both remained +motionless, and then the yellow hen shook her wings to settle the +feathers and walked toward the door with a strut of proud defiance +and a cluck of victory, while the speckled rooster limped away to +the group of other chickens, trailing his crumpled plumage in the +dust as he went.</p> +<p>“Why, Billina!” cried Dorothy, in a shocked voice; +“have you been fighting?”</p> +<p>“I really think I have,” retorted Billina. “Do +you think I’d let that speckled villain of a rooster lord it +over ME, and claim to run this chicken house, as long as I’m +able to peck and scratch? Not if my name is Bill!”</p> +<p>“It isn’t Bill, it’s Billina; and you’re +talking slang, which is very undig’n’fied,” said +Dorothy, reprovingly. “Come here, Billina, and I’ll let +you out; for Ozma of Oz is here, and has set us free.”</p> +<p>So the yellow hen came to the door, which Dorothy unlatched for +her to pass through, and the other chickens silently watched them +from their corner without offering to approach nearer.</p> +<p>The girl lifted her friend in her arms and exclaimed:</p> +<p>“Oh, Billina! how dreadful you look. You’ve lost a +lot of feathers, and one of your eyes is nearly pecked out, and +your comb is bleeding!”</p> +<p>“That’s nothing,” said Billina. “Just +look at the speckled rooster! Didn’t I do him up +brown?”</p> +<p>Dorothy shook her head.</p> +<p>“I don’t ’prove of this, at all,” she +said, carrying Billina away toward the palace. “It +isn’t a good thing for you to ’sociate with those +common chickens. They would soon spoil your good manners, and you +wouldn’t be respec’able any more.”</p> +<p>“I didn’t ask to associate with them,” replied +Billina. “It is that cross old Princess who is to blame. But +I was raised in the United States, and I won’t allow any +one-horse chicken of the Land of Ev to run over me and put on airs, +as long as I can lift a claw in self-defense.”</p> +<p>“Very well, Billina,” said Dorothy. “We +won’t talk about it any more.”</p> +<p>Soon they came to the Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger to whom +the girl introduced the Yellow Hen.</p> +<p>“Glad to meet any friend of Dorothy’s,” said +the Lion, politely. “To judge by your present appearance, you +are not a coward, as I am.”</p> +<p>“Your present appearance makes my mouth water,” said +the Tiger, looking at Billina greedily. “My, my! how good you +would taste if I could only crunch you between my jaws. But +don’t worry. You would only appease my appetite for a moment; +so it isn’t worth while to eat you.”</p> +<p>“Thank you,” said the hen, nestling closer in +Dorothy’s arms.</p> +<p>“Besides, it wouldn’t be right,” continued the +Tiger, looking steadily at Billina and clicking his jaws +together.</p> +<p>“Of course not,” cried Dorothy, hastily. +“Billina is my friend, and you mustn’t ever eat her +under any circ’mstances.”</p> +<p>“I’ll try to remember that,” said the Tiger; +“but I’m a little absent-minded, at times.”</p> +<p>Then Dorothy carried her pet into the drawing-room of the +palace, where Tiktok, being invited to do so by Ozma, had seated +himself between the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman. Opposite to them +sat Ozma herself and the Princess Langwidere, and beside them there +was a vacant chair for Dorothy.</p> +<p>Around this important group was ranged the Army of Oz, and as +Dorothy looked at the handsome uniforms of the Twenty-Seven she +said:</p> +<p>“Why, they seem to be all officers.”</p> +<p>“They are, all except one,” answered the Tin +Woodman. “I have in my Army eight Generals, six Colonels, +seven Majors and five Captains, besides one private for them to +command. I’d like to promote the private, for I believe no +private should ever be in public life; and I’ve also noticed +that officers usually fight better and are more reliable than +common soldiers. Besides, the officers are more important looking, +and lend dignity to our army.”</p> +<p>“No doubt you are right,” said Dorothy, seating +herself beside Ozma.</p> +<p>“And now,” announced the girlish Ruler of Oz, +“we will hold a solemn conference to decide the best manner +of liberating the royal family of this fair Land of Ev from their +long imprisonment.”</p> +<h2><a id="Ch_9" name="Ch_9"></a>9. The Royal Family of Ev</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>The Tin Woodman was the first to address the meeting.</p> +<p>“To begin with,” said he, “word came to our +noble and illustrious Ruler, Ozma of Oz, that the wife and ten +children—five boys and five girls—of the former King of +Ev, by name Evoldo, have been enslaved by the Nome King and are +held prisoners in his underground palace. Also that there was no +one in Ev powerful enough to release them. Naturally our Ozma +wished to undertake the adventure of liberating the poor prisoners; +but for a long time she could find no way to cross the great desert +between the two countries. Finally she went to a friendly sorceress +of our land named Glinda the Good, who heard the story and at once +presented Ozma a magic carpet, which would continually unroll +beneath our feet and so make a comfortable path for us to cross the +desert. As soon as she had received the carpet our gracious Ruler +ordered me to assemble our army, which I did. You behold in these +bold warriors the pick of all the finest soldiers of Oz; and, if we +are obliged to fight the Nome King, every officer as well as the +private, will battle fiercely unto death.”</p> +<p>Then Tiktok spoke.</p> +<p>“Why should you fight the Nome King?” he asked. +“He has done no wrong.”</p> +<p>“No wrong!” cried Dorothy. “Isn’t it +wrong to imprison a queen mother and her ten children?”</p> +<p>“They were sold to the Nome King by King Ev-ol-do,” +replied Tiktok. “It was the King of Ev who did wrong, and +when he re-al-ized what he had done he jumped in-to the sea and +drowned him-self.”</p> +<p>“This is news to me,” said Ozma, thoughtfully. +“I had supposed the Nome King was all to blame in the matter. +But, in any case, he must be made to liberate the +prisoners.”</p> +<p>“My uncle Evoldo was a very wicked man,” declared +the Princess Langwidere. “If he had drowned himself before he +sold his family, no one would have cared. But he sold them to the +powerful Nome King in exchange for a long life, and afterward +destroyed the life by jumping into the sea.”</p> +<p>“Then,” said Ozma, “he did not get the long +life, and the Nome King must give up the prisoners. Where are they +confined?”</p> +<p>“No one knows, exactly,” replied the Princess. +“For the king, whose name is Roquat of the Rocks, owns a +splendid palace underneath the great mountain which is at the north +end of this kingdom, and he has transformed the queen and her +children into ornaments and bric-a-brac with which to decorate his +rooms.”</p> +<p>“I’d like to know,” said Dorothy, “who +this Nome King is?”</p> +<p>“I will tell you,” replied Ozma. “He is said +to be the Ruler of the Underground World, and commands the rocks +and all that the rocks contain. Under his rule are many thousands +of the Nomes, who are queerly shaped but powerful sprites that +labor at the furnaces and forges of their king, making gold and +silver and other metals which they conceal in the crevices of the +rocks, so that those living upon the earth’s surface can only +find them with great difficulty. Also they make diamonds and rubies +and emeralds, which they hide in the ground; so that the kingdom of +the Nomes is wonderfully rich, and all we have of precious stones +and silver and gold is what we take from the earth and rocks where +the Nome King has hidden them.”</p> +<p>“I understand,” said Dorothy, nodding her little +head wisely.</p> +<p>“For the reason that we often steal his treasures,” +continued Ozma, “the Ruler of the Underground World is not +fond of those who live upon the earth’s surface, and never +appears among us. If we wish to see King Roquat of the Rocks, we +must visit his own country, where he is all powerful, and therefore +it will be a dangerous undertaking.”</p> +<p>“But, for the sake of the poor prisoners,” said +Dorothy, “we ought to do it.”</p> +<p>“We shall do it,” replied the Scarecrow, +“although it requires a lot of courage for me to go near to +the furnaces of the Nome King. For I am only stuffed with straw, +and a single spark of fire might destroy me entirely.”</p> +<p>“The furnaces may also melt my tin,” said the Tin +Woodman; “but I am going.”</p> +<p>“I can’t bear heat,” remarked the Princess +Langwidere, yawning lazily, “so I shall stay at home. But I +wish you may have success in your undertaking, for I am heartily +tired of ruling this stupid kingdom, and I need more leisure in +which to admire my beautiful heads.”</p> +<p>“We do not need you,” said Ozma. “For, if with +the aid of my brave followers I cannot accomplish my purpose, then +it would be useless for you to undertake the journey.”</p> +<p>“Quite true,” sighed the Princess. “So, if +you’ll excuse me, I will now retire to my cabinet. I’ve +worn this head quite awhile, and I want to change it for +another.”</p> +<p>When she had left them (and you may be sure no one was sorry to +see her go) Ozma said to Tiktok:</p> +<p>“Will you join our party?”</p> +<p>“I am the slave of the girl Dor-oth-y, who rescued me from +pris-on,” replied the machine. “Where she goes I will +go.”</p> +<p>“Oh, I am going with my friends, of course,” said +Dorothy, quickly. “I wouldn’t miss the fun for +anything. Will you go, too, Billina?”</p> +<p>“To be sure,” said Billina in a careless tone. She +was smoothing down the feathers of her back and not paying much +attention.</p> +<p>“Heat is just in her line,” remarked the Scarecrow. +“If she is nicely roasted, she will be better than +ever.”</p> +<p>“Then” said Ozma, “we will arrange to start +for the Kingdom of the Nomes at daybreak tomorrow. And, in the +meantime, we will rest and prepare ourselves for the +journey.”</p> +<p>Although Princess Langwidere did not again appear to her guests, +the palace servants waited upon the strangers from Oz and did +everything in their power to make the party comfortable. There were +many vacant rooms at their disposal, and the brave Army of +twenty-seven was easily provided for and liberally feasted.</p> +<p>The Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger were unharnessed from the +chariot and allowed to roam at will throughout the palace, where +they nearly frightened the servants into fits, although they did no +harm at all. At one time Dorothy found the little maid Nanda +crouching in terror in a corner, with the Hungry Tiger standing +before her.</p> +<p>“You certainly look delicious,” the beast was +saying. “Will you kindly give me permission to eat +you?”</p> +<p>“No, no, no!” cried the maid in reply.</p> +<p>“Then,” said the Tiger, yawning frightfully, +“please to get me about thirty pounds of tenderloin steak, +cooked rare, with a peck of boiled potatoes on the side, and five +gallons of ice-cream for dessert.”</p> +<p>“I—I’ll do the best I can!” said Nanda, +and she ran away as fast as she could go.</p> +<p>“Are you so very hungry?” asked Dorothy, in +wonder.</p> +<p>“You can hardly imagine the size of my appetite,” +replied the Tiger, sadly. “It seems to fill my whole body, +from the end of my throat to the tip of my tail. I am very sure the +appetite doesn’t fit me, and is too large for the size of my +body. Some day, when I meet a dentist with a pair of forceps, +I’m going to have it pulled.”</p> +<p>“What, your tooth?” asked Dorothy.</p> +<p>“No, my appetite,” said the Hungry Tiger.</p> +<p>The little girl spent most of the afternoon talking with the +Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman, who related to her all that had +taken place in the Land of Oz since Dorothy had left it. She was +much interested in the story of Ozma, who had been, when a baby, +stolen by a wicked old witch and transformed into a boy. She did +not know that she had ever been a girl until she was restored to +her natural form by a kind sorceress. Then it was found that she +was the only child of the former Ruler of Oz, and was entitled to +rule in his place. Ozma had many adventures, however, before she +regained her father’s throne, and in these she was +accompanied by a pumpkin-headed man, a highly magnified and +thoroughly educated Woggle-Bug, and a wonderful sawhorse that had +been brought to life by means of a magic powder. The Scarecrow and +the Tin Woodman had also assisted her; but the Cowardly Lion, who +ruled the great forest as the King of Beasts, knew nothing of Ozma +until after she became the reigning princess of Oz. Then he +journeyed to the Emerald City to see her, and on hearing she was +about to visit the Land of Ev to set free the royal family of that +country, the Cowardly Lion begged to go with her, and brought along +his friend, the Hungry Tiger, as well.</p> +<p>Having heard this story, Dorothy related to them her own +adventures, and then went out with her friends to find the +Sawhorse, which Ozma had caused to be shod with plates of gold, so +that its legs would not wear out.</p> +<p>They came upon the Sawhorse standing motionless beside the +garden gate, but when Dorothy was introduced to him he bowed +politely and blinked his eyes, which were knots of wood, and wagged +his tail, which was only the branch of a tree.</p> +<p>“What a remarkable thing, to be alive!” exclaimed +Dorothy.</p> +<p>“I quiet agree with you,” replied the Sawhorse, in a +rough but not unpleasant voice. “A creature like me has no +business to live, as we all know. But it was the magic powder that +did it, so I cannot justly be blamed.”</p> +<p>“Of course not,” said Dorothy. “And you seem +to be of some use, ‘cause I noticed the Scarecrow riding upon +your back.”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes; I’m of use,” returned the Sawhorse; +“and I never tire, never have to be fed, or cared for in any +way.”</p> +<p>“Are you intel’gent?” asked the girl.</p> +<p>“Not very,” said the creature. “It would be +foolish to waste intelligence on a common Sawhorse, when so many +professors need it. But I know enough to obey my masters, and to +gid-dup, or whoa, when I’m told to. So I’m pretty well +satisfied.”</p> +<p>That night Dorothy slept in a pleasant little bed-chamber next +to that occupied by Ozma of Oz, and Billina perched upon the foot +of the bed and tucked her head under her wing and slept as soundly +in that position as did Dorothy upon her soft cushions.</p> +<p>But before daybreak every one was awake and stirring, and soon +the adventurers were eating a hasty breakfast in the great +dining-room of the palace. Ozma sat at the head of a long table, on +a raised platform, with Dorothy on her right hand and the Scarecrow +on her left. The Scarecrow did not eat, of course; but Ozma placed +him near her so that she might ask his advice about the journey +while she ate.</p> +<p>Lower down the table were the twenty-seven warriors of Oz, and +at the end of the room the Lion and the Tiger were eating out of a +kettle that had been placed upon the floor, while Billina fluttered +around to pick up any scraps that might be scattered.</p> +<p>It did not take long to finish the meal, and then the Lion and +the Tiger were harnessed to the chariot and the party was ready to +start for the Nome King’s Palace.</p> +<p>First rode Ozma, with Dorothy beside her in the golden chariot +and holding Billina fast in her arms. Then came the Scarecrow on +the Sawhorse, with the Tin Woodman and Tiktok marching side by side +just behind him. After these tramped the Army, looking brave and +handsome in their splendid uniforms. The generals commanded the +colonels and the colonels commanded the majors and the majors +commanded the captains and the captains commanded the private, who +marched with an air of proud importance because it required so many +officers to give him his orders.</p> +<p>And so the magnificent procession left the palace and started +along the road just as day was breaking, and by the time the sun +came out they had made good progress toward the valley that led to +the Nome King’s domain.</p> +<h2><a id="Ch_10" name="Ch_10"></a>10. The Giant with the +Hammer</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>The road led for a time through a pretty farm country, and then +past a picnic grove that was very inviting. But the procession +continued to steadily advance until Billina cried in an abrupt and +commanding manner:</p> +<p>“Wait—wait!”</p> +<p>Ozma stopped her chariot so suddenly that the Scarecrow’s +Sawhorse nearly ran into it, and the ranks of the army tumbled over +one another before they could come to a halt. Immediately the +yellow hen struggled from Dorothy’s arms and flew into a +clump of bushes by the roadside.</p> +<p>“What’s the matter?” called the Tin Woodman, +anxiously.</p> +<p>“Why, Billina wants to lay her egg, that’s +all,” said Dorothy.</p> +<p>“Lay her egg!” repeated the Tin Woodman, in +astonishment.</p> +<p>“Yes; she lays one every morning, about this time; and +it’s quite fresh,” said the girl.</p> +<p>“But does your foolish old hen suppose that this entire +cavalcade, which is bound on an important adventure, is going to +stand still while she lays her egg?” enquired the Tin +Woodman, earnestly.</p> +<p>“What else can we do?” asked the girl. +“It’s a habit of Billina’s and she can’t +break herself of it.”</p> +<p>“Then she must hurry up,” said the Tin Woodman, +impatiently.</p> +<p>“No, no!” exclaimed the Scarecrow. “If she +hurries she may lay scrambled eggs.”</p> +<p>“That’s nonsense,” said Dorothy. “But +Billina won’t be long, I’m sure.”</p> +<p>So they stood and waited, although all were restless and anxious +to proceed. And by and by the yellow hen came from the bushes +saying:</p> +<p>“Kut-kut, kut, ka-daw-kutt! Kut, kut, +kut—ka-daw-kut!”</p> +<p>“What is she doing—singing her lay?” asked the +Scarecrow.</p> +<p>“For-ward—march!” shouted the Tin Woodman, +waving his axe, and the procession started just as Dorothy had once +more grabbed Billina in her arms.</p> +<p>“Isn’t anyone going to get my egg?” cried the +hen, in great excitement.</p> +<p>“I’ll get it,” said the Scarecrow; and at his +command the Sawhorse pranced into the bushes. The straw man soon +found the egg, which he placed in his jacket pocket. The cavalcade, +having moved rapidly on, was even then far in advance; but it did +not take the Sawhorse long to catch up with it, and presently the +Scarecrow was riding in his accustomed place behind Ozma’s +chariot.</p> +<p>“What shall I do with the egg?” he asked +Dorothy.</p> +<p>“I do not know,” the girl answered. “Perhaps +the Hungry Tiger would like it.”</p> +<p>“It would not be enough to fill one of my back +teeth,” remarked the Tiger. “A bushel of them, hard +boiled, might take a little of the edge off my appetite; but one +egg isn’t good for anything at all, that I know +of.”</p> +<p>“No; it wouldn’t even make a sponge cake,” +said the Scarecrow, thoughtfully. “The Tin Woodman might +carry it with his axe and hatch it; but after all I may as well +keep it myself for a souvenir.” So he left it in his +pocket.</p> +<p>They had now reached that part of the valley that lay between +the two high mountains which Dorothy had seen from her tower +window. At the far end was the third great mountain, which blocked +the valley and was the northern edge of the Land of Ev. It was +underneath this mountain that the Nome King’s palace was said +to be; but it would be some time before they reached that +place.</p> +<p>The path was becoming rocky and difficult for the wheels of the +chariot to pass over, and presently a deep gulf appeared at their +feet which was too wide for them to leap. So Ozma took a small +square of green cloth from her pocket and threw it upon the ground. +At once it became the magic carpet, and unrolled itself far enough +for all the cavalcade to walk upon. The chariot now advanced, and +the green carpet unrolled before it, crossing the gulf on a level +with its banks, so that all passed over in safety.</p> +<p>“That’s easy enough,” said the Scarecrow. +“I wonder what will happen next.”</p> +<p>He was not long in making the discovery, for the sides of the +mountain came closer together until finally there was but a narrow +path between them, along which Ozma and her party were forced to +pass in single file.</p> +<p>They now heard a low and deep +“thump!—thump!—thump!” which echoed +throughout the valley and seemed to grow louder as they advanced. +Then, turning a corner of rock, they saw before them a huge form, +which towered above the path for more than a hundred feet. The form +was that of a gigantic man built out of plates of cast iron, and it +stood with one foot on either side of the narrow road and swung +over its right shoulder an immense iron mallet, with which it +constantly pounded the earth. These resounding blows explained the +thumping sounds they had heard, for the mallet was much bigger than +a barrel, and where it struck the path between the rocky sides of +the mountain it filled all the space through which our travelers +would be obliged to pass.</p> +<p>Of course they at once halted, a safe distance away from the +terrible iron mallet. The magic carpet would do them no good in +this case, for it was only meant to protect them from any dangers +upon the ground beneath their feet, and not from dangers that +appeared in the air above them.</p> +<p>“Wow!” said the Cowardly Lion, with a shudder. +“It makes me dreadfully nervous to see that big hammer +pounding so near my head. One blow would crush me into a +door-mat.”</p> +<p>“The ir-on gi-ant is a fine fel-low,” said Tiktok, +“and works as stead-i-ly as a clock. He was made for the Nome +King by Smith & Tin-ker, who made me, and his du-ty is to keep +folks from find-ing the un-der-ground pal-ace. Is he not a great +work of art?”</p> +<p>“Can he think, and speak, as you do?” asked Ozma, +regarding the giant with wondering eyes.</p> +<p>“No,” replied the machine; “he is on-ly made +to pound the road, and has no think-ing or speak-ing at-tach-ment. +But he pounds ve-ry well, I think.”</p> +<p>“Too well,” observed the Scarecrow. “He is +keeping us from going farther. Is there no way to stop his +machinery?”</p> +<p>“On-ly the Nome King, who has the key, can do that,” +answered Tiktok.</p> +<p>“Then,” said Dorothy, anxiously, “what shall +we do?”</p> +<p>“Excuse me for a few minutes,” said the Scarecrow, +“and I will think it over.”</p> +<p>He retired, then, to a position in the rear, where he turned his +painted face to the rocks and began to think.</p> +<p>Meantime the giant continued to raise his iron mallet high in +the air and to strike the path terrific blows that echoed through +the mountains like the roar of a cannon. Each time the mallet +lifted, however, there was a moment when the path beneath the +monster was free, and perhaps the Scarecrow had noticed this, for +when he came back to the others he said:</p> +<p>“The matter is a very simple one, after all. We have but +to run under the hammer, one at a time, when it is lifted, and pass +to the other side before it falls again.”</p> +<p>“It will require quick work, if we escape the blow,” +said the Tin Woodman, with a shake of his head. “But it +really seems the only thing to be done. Who will make the first +attempt?”</p> +<p>They looked at one another hesitatingly for a moment. Then the +Cowardly Lion, who was trembling like a leaf in the wind, said to +them:</p> +<p>“I suppose the head of the procession must go +first—and that’s me. But I’m terribly afraid of +the big hammer!”</p> +<p>“What will become of me?” asked Ozma. “You +might rush under the hammer yourself, but the chariot would surely +be crushed.”</p> +<p>“We must leave the chariot,” said the Scarecrow. +“But you two girls can ride upon the backs of the Lion and +the Tiger.”</p> +<p>So this was decided upon, and Ozma, as soon as the Lion was +unfastened from the chariot, at once mounted the beast’s back +and said she was ready.</p> +<p>“Cling fast to his mane,” advised Dorothy. “I +used to ride him myself, and that’s the way I held +on.”</p> +<p>So Ozma clung fast to the mane, and the lion crouched in the +path and eyed the swinging mallet carefully until he knew just the +instant it would begin to rise in the air.</p> +<p>Then, before anyone thought he was ready, he made a sudden leap +straight between the iron giant’s legs, and before the mallet +struck the ground again the Lion and Ozma were safe on the other +side.</p> +<p>The Tiger went next. Dorothy sat upon his back and locked her +arms around his striped neck, for he had no mane to cling to. He +made the leap straight and true as an arrow from a bow, and ere +Dorothy realized it she was out of danger and standing by +Ozma’s side.</p> +<p>Now came the Scarecrow on the Sawhorse, and while they made the +dash in safety they were within a hair’s breadth of being +caught by the descending hammer.</p> +<p>Tiktok walked up to the very edge of the spot the hammer struck, +and as it was raised for the next blow he calmly stepped forward +and escaped its descent. That was an idea for the Tin Woodman to +follow, and he also crossed in safety while the great hammer was in +the air. But when it came to the twenty-six officers and the +private, their knees were so weak that they could not walk a +step.</p> +<p>“In battle we are wonderfully courageous,” said one +of the generals, “and our foes find us very terrible to face. +But war is one thing and this is another. When it comes to being +pounded upon the head by an iron hammer, and smashed into pancakes, +we naturally object.”</p> +<p>“Make a run for it,” urged the Scarecrow.</p> +<p>“Our knees shake so that we cannot run,” answered a +captain. “If we should try it we would all certainly be +pounded to a jelly.”</p> +<p>“Well, well,” sighed the Cowardly Lion, “I +see, friend Tiger, that we must place ourselves in great danger to +rescue this bold army. Come with me, and we will do the best we +can.”</p> +<p>So, Ozma and Dorothy having already dismounted from their backs, +the Lion and the Tiger leaped back again under the awful hammer and +returned with two generals clinging to their necks. They repeated +this daring passage twelve times, when all the officers had been +carried beneath the giant’s legs and landed safely on the +further side. By that time the beasts were very tired, and panted +so hard that their tongues hung out of their great mouths.</p> +<p>“But what is to become of the private?” asked +Ozma.</p> +<p>“Oh, leave him there to guard the chariot,” said the +Lion. “I’m tired out, and won’t pass under that +mallet again.”</p> +<p>The officers at once protested that they must have the private +with them, else there would be no one for them to command. But +neither the Lion or the Tiger would go after him, and so the +Scarecrow sent the Sawhorse.</p> +<p>Either the wooden horse was careless, or it failed to properly +time the descent of the hammer, for the mighty weapon caught it +squarely upon its head, and thumped it against the ground so +powerfully that the private flew off its back high into the air, +and landed upon one of the giant’s cast-iron arms. Here he +clung desperately while the arm rose and fell with each one of the +rapid strokes.</p> +<p>The Scarecrow dashed in to rescue his Sawhorse, and had his left +foot smashed by the hammer before he could pull the creature out of +danger. They then found that the Sawhorse had been badly dazed by +the blow; for while the hard wooden knot of which his head was +formed could not be crushed by the hammer, both his ears were +broken off and he would be unable to hear a sound until some new +ones were made for him. Also his left knee was cracked, and had to +be bound up with a string.</p> +<p>Billina having fluttered under the hammer, it now remained only +to rescue the private who was riding upon the iron giant’s +arm, high in the air.</p> +<p>The Scarecrow lay flat upon the ground and called to the man to +jump down upon his body, which was soft because it was stuffed with +straw. This the private managed to do, waiting until a time when he +was nearest the ground and then letting himself drop upon the +Scarecrow. He accomplished the feat without breaking any bones, and +the Scarecrow declared he was not injured in the least.</p> +<p>Therefore, the Tin Woodman having by this time fitted new ears +to the Sawhorse, the entire party proceeded upon its way, leaving +the giant to pound the path behind them.</p> +<h2><a id="Ch_11" name="Ch_11"></a>11. The Nome King</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>By and by, when they drew near to the mountain that blocked +their path and which was the furthermost edge of the Kingdom of Ev, +the way grew dark and gloomy for the reason that the high peaks on +either side shut out the sunshine. And it was very silent, too, as +there were no birds to sing or squirrels to chatter, the trees +being left far behind them and only the bare rocks remaining.</p> +<p>Ozma and Dorothy were a little awed by the silence, and all the +others were quiet and grave except the Sawhorse, which, as it +trotted along with the Scarecrow upon his back, hummed a queer +song, of which this was the chorus:</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>“Would a wooden horse in a woodland go?</p> +<p class="i2">Aye, aye! I sigh, he would, although</p> +<p>Had he not had a wooden head</p> +<p class="i2">He’d mount the mountain top instead.”</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>But no one paid any attention to this because they were now +close to the Nome King’s dominions, and his splendid +underground palace could not be very far away.</p> +<p>Suddenly they heard a shout of jeering laughter, and stopped +short. They would have to stop in a minute, anyway, for the huge +mountain barred their further progress and the path ran close up to +a wall of rock and ended.</p> +<p>“Who was that laughing?” asked Ozma.</p> +<p>There was no reply, but in the gloom they could see strange +forms flit across the face of the rock. Whatever the creations +might be they seemed very like the rock itself, for they were the +color of rocks and their shapes were as rough and rugged as if they +had been broken away from the side of the mountain. They kept close +to the steep cliff facing our friends, and glided up and down, and +this way and that, with a lack of regularity that was quite +confusing. And they seemed not to need places to rest their feet, +but clung to the surface of the rock as a fly does to a +window-pane, and were never still for a moment.</p> +<p>“Do not mind them,” said Tiktok, as Dorothy shrank +back. “They are on-ly the Nomes.”</p> +<p>“And what are Nomes?” asked the girl, half +frightened.</p> +<p>“They are rock fair-ies, and serve the Nome King,” +replied the machine. “But they will do us no harm. You must +call for the King, be-cause with-out him you can ne-ver find the +en-trance to the pal-ace.”</p> +<p>“YOU call,” said Dorothy to Ozma.</p> +<p>Just then the Nomes laughed again, and the sound was so weird +and disheartening that the twenty-six officers commanded the +private to “right-about-face!” and they all started to +run as fast as they could.</p> +<p>The Tin Woodman at once pursued his army and cried +“halt!” and when they had stopped their flight he +asked: “Where are you going?”</p> +<p>“I—I find I’ve forgotten the brush for my +whiskers,” said a general, trembling with fear. “S-s-so +we are g-going back after it!”</p> +<p>“That is impossible,” replied the Tin Woodman. +“For the giant with the hammer would kill you all if you +tried to pass him.”</p> +<p>“Oh! I’d forgotten the giant,” said the +general, turning pale.</p> +<p>“You seem to forget a good many things,” remarked +the Tin Woodman. “I hope you won’t forget that you are +brave men.”</p> +<p>“Never!” cried the general, slapping his +gold-embroidered chest.</p> +<p>“Never!” cried all the other officers, indignantly +slapping their chests.</p> +<p>“For my part,” said the private, meekly, “I +must obey my officers; so when I am told to run, I run; and when I +am told to fight, I fight.”</p> +<p>“That is right,” agreed the Tin Woodman. “And +now you must all come back to Ozma, and obey HER orders. And if you +try to run away again I will have her reduce all the twenty-six +officers to privates, and make the private your general.”</p> +<p>This terrible threat so frightened them that they at once +returned to where Ozma was standing beside the Cowardly Lion.</p> +<p>Then Ozma cried out in a loud voice:</p> +<p>“I demand that the Nome King appear to us!”</p> +<p>There was no reply, except that the shifting Nomes upon the +mountain laughed in derision.</p> +<p>“You must not command the Nome King,” said Tiktok, +“for you do not rule him, as you do your own +peo-ple.”</p> +<p>So Ozma called again, saying:</p> +<p>“I request the Nome King to appear to us.”</p> +<p>Only the mocking laughter replied to her, and the shadowy Nomes +continued to flit here and there upon the rocky cliff.</p> +<p>“Try en-treat-y,” said Tiktok to Ozma. “If he +will not come at your re-quest, then the Nome King may list-en to +your plead-ing.”</p> +<p>Ozma looked around her proudly.</p> +<p>“Do you wish your ruler to plead with this wicked Nome +King?” she asked. “Shall Ozma of Oz humble herself to a +creature who lives in an underground kingdom?”</p> +<p>“No!” they all shouted, with big voices; and the +Scarecrow added:</p> +<p>“If he will not come, we will dig him out of his hole, +like a fox, and conquer his stubbornness. But our sweet little +ruler must always maintain her dignity, just as I maintain +mine.”</p> +<p>“I’m not afraid to plead with him,” said +Dorothy. “I’m only a little girl from Kansas, and +we’ve got more dignity at home than we know what to do with. +I’LL call the Nome King.”</p> +<p>“Do,” said the Hungry Tiger; “and if he makes +hash of you I’ll willingly eat you for breakfast tomorrow +morning.”</p> +<p>So Dorothy stepped forward and said:</p> +<p>“PLEASE Mr. Nome King, come here and see us.”</p> +<p>The Nomes started to laugh again; but a low growl came from the +mountain, and in a flash they had all vanished from sight and were +silent.</p> +<p>Then a door in the rock opened, and a voice cried:</p> +<p>“Enter!”</p> +<p>“Isn’t it a trick?” asked the Tin Woodman.</p> +<p>“Never mind,” replied Ozma. “We came here to +rescue the poor Queen of Ev and her ten children, and we must run +some risks to do so.”</p> +<p>“The Nome King is hon-est and good na-tured,” said +Tiktok. “You can trust him to do what is right.”</p> +<p>So Ozma led the way, hand in hand with Dorothy, and they passed +through the arched doorway of rock and entered a long passage which +was lighted by jewels set in the walls and having lamps behind +them. There was no one to escort them, or to show them the way, but +all the party pressed through the passage until they came to a +round, domed cavern that was grandly furnished.</p> +<p>In the center of this room was a throne carved out of a solid +boulder of rock, rude and rugged in shape but glittering with great +rubies and diamonds and emeralds on every part of its surface. And +upon the throne sat the Nome King.</p> +<p>This important monarch of the Underground World was a little fat +man clothed in gray-brown garments that were the exact color of the +rock throne in which he was seated. His bushy hair and flowing +beard were also colored like the rocks, and so was his face. He +wore no crown of any sort, and his only ornament was a broad, +jewel-studded belt that encircled his fat little body. As for his +features, they seemed kindly and good humored, and his eyes were +turned merrily upon his visitors as Ozma and Dorothy stood before +him with their followers ranged in close order behind them.</p> +<p>“Why, he looks just like Santa Claus—only he +isn’t the same color!” whispered Dorothy to her friend; +but the Nome King heard the speech, and it made him laugh +aloud.</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>“‘He had a red face and a round little belly</p> +<p class="i2">That shook when he laughed like a bowl full of +jelly!’”</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>quoth the monarch, in a pleasant voice; and they could all see +that he really did shake like jelly when he laughed.</p> +<p>Both Ozma and Dorothy were much relieved to find the Nome King +so jolly, and a minute later he waved his right hand and the girls +each found a cushioned stool at her side.</p> +<p>“Sit down, my dears,” said the King, “and tell +me why you have come all this way to see me, and what I can do to +make you happy.”</p> +<p>While they seated themselves the Nome King picked up a pipe, and +taking a glowing red coal out of his pocket he placed it in the +bowl of the pipe and began puffing out clouds of smoke that curled +in rings above his head. Dorothy thought this made the little +monarch look more like Santa Claus than ever; but Ozma now began +speaking, and every one listened intently to her words.</p> +<p>“Your Majesty,” said she, “I am the ruler of +the Land of Oz, and I have come here to ask you to release the good +Queen of Ev and her ten children, whom you have enchanted and hold +as your prisoners.”</p> +<p>“Oh, no; you are mistaken about that,” replied the +King. “They are not my prisoners, but my slaves, whom I +purchased from the King of Ev.”</p> +<p>“But that was wrong,” said Ozma.</p> +<p>“According to the laws of Ev, the king can do no +wrong,” answered the monarch, eying a ring of smoke he had +just blown from his mouth; “so that he had a perfect right to +sell his family to me in exchange for a long life.”</p> +<p>“You cheated him, though,” declared Dorothy; +“for the King of Ev did not have a long life. He jumped into +the sea and was drowned.”</p> +<p>“That was not my fault,” said the Nome King, +crossing his legs and smiling contentedly. “I gave him the +long life, all right; but he destroyed it.”</p> +<p>“Then how could it be a long life?” asked +Dorothy.</p> +<p>“Easily enough,” was the reply. “Now suppose, +my dear, that I gave you a pretty doll in exchange for a lock of +your hair, and that after you had received the doll you smashed it +into pieces and destroyed it. Could you say that I had not given +you a pretty doll?”</p> +<p>“No,” answered Dorothy.</p> +<p>“And could you, in fairness, ask me to return to you the +lock of hair, just because you had smashed the doll?”</p> +<p>“No,” said Dorothy, again.</p> +<p>“Of course not,” the Nome King returned. “Nor +will I give up the Queen and her children because the King of Ev +destroyed his long life by jumping into the sea. They belong to me +and I shall keep them.”</p> +<p>“But you are treating them cruelly,” said Ozma, who +was much distressed by the King’s refusal.</p> +<p>“In what way?” he asked.</p> +<p>“By making them your slaves,” said she.</p> +<p>“Cruelty,” remarked the monarch, puffing out +wreathes of smoke and watching them float into the air, “is a +thing I can’t abide. So, as slaves must work hard, and the +Queen of Ev and her children were delicate and tender, I +transformed them all into articles of ornament and bric-a-brac and +scattered them around the various rooms of my palace. Instead of +being obliged to labor, they merely decorate my apartments, and I +really think I have treated them with great kindness.”</p> +<p>“But what a dreadful fate is theirs!” exclaimed +Ozma, earnestly. “And the Kingdom of Ev is in great need of +its royal family to govern it. If you will liberate them, and +restore them to their proper forms, I will give you ten ornaments +to replace each one you lose.”</p> +<p>The Nome King looked grave.</p> +<p>“Suppose I refuse?” he asked.</p> +<p>“Then,” said Ozma, firmly, “I am here with my +friends and my army to conquer your kingdom and oblige you to obey +my wishes.”</p> +<p>The Nome King laughed until he choked; and he choked until he +coughed; and he coughed until his face turned from grayish-brown to +bright red. And then he wiped his eyes with a rock-colored +handkerchief and grew grave again.</p> +<p>“You are as brave as you are pretty, my dear,” he +said to Ozma. “But you have little idea of the extent of the +task you have undertaken. Come with me for a moment.”</p> +<p>He arose and took Ozma’s hand, leading her to a little +door at one side of the room. This he opened and they stepped out +upon a balcony, from whence they obtained a wonderful view of the +Underground World.</p> +<p>A vast cave extended for miles and miles under the mountain, and +in every direction were furnaces and forges glowing brightly and +Nomes hammering upon precious metals or polishing gleaming jewels. +All around the walls of the cave were thousands of doors of silver +and gold, built into the solid rock, and these extended in rows far +away into the distance, as far as Ozma’s eyes could follow +them.</p> +<p>While the little maid from Oz gazed wonderingly upon this scene +the Nome King uttered a shrill whistle, and at once all the silver +and gold doors flew open and solid ranks of Nome soldiers marched +out from every one. So great were their numbers that they quickly +filled the immense underground cavern and forced the busy workmen +to abandon their tasks.</p> +<p>Although this tremendous army consisted of rock-colored Nomes, +all squat and fat, they were clothed in glittering armor of +polished steel, inlaid with beautiful gems. Upon his brow each wore +a brilliant electric light, and they bore sharp spears and swords +and battle-axes of solid bronze. It was evident they were perfectly +trained, for they stood in straight rows, rank after rank, with +their weapons held erect and true, as if awaiting but the word of +command to level them upon their foes.</p> +<p>“This,” said the Nome King, “is but a small +part of my army. No ruler upon Earth has ever dared to fight me, +and no ruler ever will, for I am too powerful to oppose.”</p> +<p>He whistled again, and at once the martial array filed through +the silver and gold doorways and disappeared, after which the +workmen again resumed their labors at the furnaces.</p> +<p>Then, sad and discouraged, Ozma of Oz turned to her friends, and +the Nome King calmly reseated himself on his rock throne.</p> +<p>“It would be foolish for us to fight,” the girl said +to the Tin Woodman. “For our brave Twenty-Seven would be +quickly destroyed. I’m sure I do not know how to act in this +emergency.”</p> +<p>“Ask the King where his kitchen is,” suggested the +Tiger. “I’m hungry as a bear.”</p> +<p>“I might pounce upon the King and tear him in +pieces,” remarked the Cowardly Lion.</p> +<p>“Try it,” said the monarch, lighting his pipe with +another hot coal which he took from his pocket.</p> +<p>The Lion crouched low and tried to spring upon the Nome King; +but he hopped only a little way into the air and came down again in +the same place, not being able to approach the throne by even an +inch.</p> +<p>“It seems to me,” said the Scarecrow, thoughtfully, +“that our best plan is to wheedle his Majesty into giving up +his slaves, since he is too great a magician to oppose.”</p> +<p>“This is the most sensible thing any of you have +suggested,” declared the Nome King. “It is folly to +threaten me, but I’m so kind-hearted that I cannot stand +coaxing or wheedling. If you really wish to accomplish anything by +your journey, my dear Ozma, you must coax me.”</p> +<p>“Very well,” said Ozma, more cheerfully. “Let +us be friends, and talk this over in a friendly manner.”</p> +<p>“To be sure,” agreed the King, his eyes twinkling +merrily.</p> +<p>“I am very anxious,” she continued, “to +liberate the Queen of Ev and her children who are now ornaments and +bric-a-brac in your Majesty’s palace, and to restore them to +their people. Tell me, sir, how this may be +accomplished.”</p> +<p>The king remained thoughtful for a moment, after which he +asked:</p> +<p>“Are you willing to take a few chances and risks yourself, +in order to set free the people of Ev?”</p> +<p>“Yes, indeed!” answered Ozma, eagerly.</p> +<p>“Then,” said the Nome King, “I will make you +this offer: You shall go alone and unattended into my palace and +examine carefully all that the rooms contain. Then you shall have +permission to touch eleven different objects, pronouncing at the +time the word ‘Ev,’ and if any one of them, or more +than one, proves to be the transformation of the Queen of Ev or any +of her ten children, then they will instantly be restored to their +true forms and may leave my palace and my kingdom in your company, +without any objection whatever. It is possible for you, in this +way, to free the entire eleven; but if you do not guess all the +objects correctly, and some of the slaves remain transformed, then +each one of your friends and followers may, in turn, enter the +palace and have the same privileges I grant you.”</p> +<p>“Oh, thank you! thank you for this kind offer!” said +Ozma, eagerly.</p> +<p>“I make but one condition,” added the Nome King, his +eyes twinkling.</p> +<p>“What is it?” she enquired.</p> +<p>“If none of the eleven objects you touch proves to be the +transformation of any of the royal family of Ev, then, instead of +freeing them, you will yourself become enchanted, and transformed +into an article of bric-a-brac or an ornament. This is only fair +and just, and is the risk you declared you were willing to +take.”</p> +<h2><a id="Ch_12" name="Ch_12"></a>12. The Eleven Guesses</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>Hearing this condition imposed by the Nome King, Ozma became +silent and thoughtful, and all her friends looked at her +uneasily.</p> +<p>“Don’t you do it!” exclaimed Dorothy. +“If you guess wrong, you will be enslaved +yourself.”</p> +<p>“But I shall have eleven guesses,” answered Ozma. +“Surely I ought to guess one object in eleven correctly; and, +if I do, I shall rescue one of the royal family and be safe myself. +Then the rest of you may attempt it, and soon we shall free all +those who are enslaved.”</p> +<p>“What if we fail?” enquired the Scarecrow. +“I’d look nice as a piece of bric-a-brac, +wouldn’t I?”</p> +<p>“We must not fail!” cried Ozma, courageously. +“Having come all this distance to free these poor people, it +would be weak and cowardly in us to abandon the adventure. +Therefore I will accept the Nome King’s offer, and go at once +into the royal palace.”</p> +<p>“Come along, then, my dear,” said the King, climbing +down from his throne with some difficulty, because he was so fat; +“I’ll show you the way.”</p> +<p>He approached a wall of the cave and waved his hand. Instantly +an opening appeared, through which Ozma, after a smiling farewell +to her friends, boldly passed.</p> +<p>She found herself in a splendid hall that was more beautiful and +grand than anything she had ever beheld. The ceilings were composed +of great arches that rose far above her head, and all the walls and +floors were of polished marble exquisitely tinted in many colors. +Thick velvet carpets were on the floor and heavy silken draperies +covered the arches leading to the various rooms of the palace. The +furniture was made of rare old woods richly carved and covered with +delicate satins, and the entire palace was lighted by a mysterious +rosy glow that seemed to come from no particular place but flooded +each apartment with its soft and pleasing radiance.</p> +<p>Ozma passed from one room to another, greatly delighted by all +she saw. The lovely palace had no other occupant, for the Nome King +had left her at the entrance, which closed behind her, and in all +the magnificent rooms there appeared to be no other person.</p> +<p>Upon the mantels, and on many shelves and brackets and tables, +were clustered ornaments of every description, seemingly made out +of all sorts of metals, glass, china, stones and marbles. There +were vases, and figures of men and animals, and graven platters and +bowls, and mosaics of precious gems, and many other things. +Pictures, too, were on the walls, and the underground palace was +quite a museum of rare and curious and costly objects.</p> +<p>After her first hasty examination of the rooms Ozma began to +wonder which of all the numerous ornaments they contained were the +transformations of the royal family of Ev. There was nothing to +guide her, for everything seemed without a spark of life. So she +must guess blindly; and for the first time the girl came to realize +how dangerous was her task, and how likely she was to lose her own +freedom in striving to free others from the bondage of the Nome +King. No wonder the cunning monarch laughed good naturedly with his +visitors, when he knew how easily they might be entrapped.</p> +<p>But Ozma, having undertaken the venture, would not abandon it. +She looked at a silver candelabra that had ten branches, and +thought: “This may be the Queen of Ev and her ten +children.” So she touched it and uttered aloud the word +“Ev,” as the Nome King had instructed her to do when +she guessed. But the candelabra remained as it was before.</p> +<p>Then she wandered into another room and touched a china lamb, +thinking it might be one of the children she sought. But again she +was unsuccessful. Three guesses; four guesses; five, six, seven, +eight, nine and ten she made, and still not one of them was +right!</p> +<p>The girl shivered a little and grew pale even under the rosy +light; for now but one guess remained, and her own fate depended +upon the result.</p> +<p>She resolved not to be hasty, and strolled through all the rooms +once more, gazing earnestly upon the various ornaments and trying +to decide which she would touch. Finally, in despair, she decided +to leave it entirely to chance. She faced the doorway of a room, +shut her eyes tightly, and then, thrusting aside the heavy +draperies, she advanced blindly with her right arm outstretched +before her.</p> +<p>Slowly, softly she crept forward until her hand came in contact +with an object upon a small round table. She did not know what it +was, but in a low voice she pronounced the word +“Ev.”</p> +<p>The rooms were quite empty of life after that. The Nome King had +gained a new ornament. For upon the edge of the table rested a +pretty grasshopper, that seemed to have been formed from a single +emerald. It was all that remained of Ozma of Oz.</p> +<p>In the throne room just beyond the palace the Nome King suddenly +looked up and smiled.</p> +<p>“Next!” he said, in his pleasant voice.</p> +<p>Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Woodman, who had been +sitting in anxious silence, each gave a start of dismay and stared +into one another’s eyes.</p> +<p>“Has she failed?” asked Tiktok.</p> +<p>“So it seems,” answered the little monarch, +cheerfully. “But that is no reason one of you should not +succeed. The next may have twelve guesses, instead of eleven, for +there are now twelve persons transformed into ornaments. Well, +well! Which of you goes next?”</p> +<p>“I’ll go,” said Dorothy.</p> +<p>“Not so,” replied the Tin Woodman. “As +commander of Ozma’s army, it is my privilege to follow her +and attempt her rescue.”</p> +<p>“Away you go, then,” said the Scarecrow. “But +be careful, old friend.”</p> +<p>“I will,” promised the Tin Woodman; and then he +followed the Nome King to the entrance to the palace and the rock +closed behind him.</p> +<h2><a id="Ch_13" name="Ch_13"></a>13. The Nome King Laughs</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>In a moment the King returned to his throne and relighted his +pipe, and the rest of the little band of adventurers settled +themselves for another long wait. They were greatly disheartened by +the failure of their girl Ruler, and the knowledge that she was now +an ornament in the Nome King’s palace—a dreadful, +creepy place in spite of all its magnificence. Without their little +leader they did not know what to do next, and each one, down to the +trembling private of the army, began to fear he would soon be more +ornamental than useful.</p> +<p>Suddenly the Nome King began laughing.</p> +<p>“Ha, ha, ha! He, he, he! Ho, ho, ho!”</p> +<p>“What’s happened?” asked the Scarecrow.</p> +<p>“Why, your friend, the Tin Woodman, has become the +funniest thing you can imagine,” replied the King, wiping the +tears of merriment from his eyes. “No one would ever believe +he could make such an amusing ornament. Next!”</p> +<p>They gazed at each other with sinking hearts. One of the +generals began to weep dolefully.</p> +<p>“What are you crying for?” asked the Scarecrow, +indignant at such a display of weakness.</p> +<p>“He owed me six weeks back pay,” said the general, +“and I hate to lose him.”</p> +<p>“Then you shall go and find him,” declared the +Scarecrow.</p> +<p>“Me!” cried the general, greatly alarmed.</p> +<p>“Certainly. It is your duty to follow your commander. +March!”</p> +<p>“I won’t,” said the general. “I’d +like to, of course; but I just simply WON’T.”</p> +<p>The Scarecrow looked enquiringly at the Nome King.</p> +<p>“Never mind,” said the jolly monarch. “If he +doesn’t care to enter the palace and make his guesses +I’ll throw him into one of my fiery furnaces.”</p> +<p>“I’ll go!—of course I’m going,” +yelled the general, as quick as scat. “Where is the +entrance—where is it? Let me go at once!”</p> +<p>So the Nome King escorted him into the palace, and again +returned to await the result. What the general did, no one can +tell; but it was not long before the King called for the next +victim, and a colonel was forced to try his fortune.</p> +<p>Thus, one after another, all of the twenty-six officers filed +into the palace and made their guesses— and became +ornaments.</p> +<p>Meantime the King ordered refreshments to be served to those +waiting, and at his command a rudely shaped Nome entered, bearing a +tray. This Nome was not unlike the others that Dorothy had seen, +but he wore a heavy gold chain around his neck to show that he was +the Chief Steward of the Nome King, and he assumed an air of much +importance, and even told his majesty not to eat too much cake late +at night, or he would be ill.</p> +<p>Dorothy, however, was hungry, and she was not afraid of being +ill; so she ate several cakes and found them good, and also she +drank a cup of excellent coffee made of a richly flavored clay, +browned in the furnaces and then ground fine, and found it most +refreshing and not at all muddy.</p> +<p>Of all the party which had started upon this adventure, the +little Kansas girl was now left alone with the Scarecrow, Tiktok, +and the private for counsellors and companions. Of course the +Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger were still there, but they, +having also eaten some of the cakes, had gone to sleep at one side +of the cave, while upon the other side stood the Sawhorse, +motionless and silent, as became a mere thing of wood. Billina had +quietly walked around and picked up the crumbs of cake which had +been scattered, and now, as it was long after bed-time, she tried +to find some dark place in which to go to sleep.</p> +<p>Presently the hen espied a hollow underneath the King’s +rocky throne, and crept into it unnoticed. She could still hear the +chattering of those around her, but it was almost dark underneath +the throne, so that soon she had fallen fast asleep.</p> +<p>“Next!” called the King, and the private, whose turn +it was to enter the fatal palace, shook hands with Dorothy and the +Scarecrow and bade them a sorrowful good-bye, and passed through +the rocky portal.</p> +<p>They waited a long time, for the private was in no hurry to +become an ornament and made his guesses very slowly. The Nome King, +who seemed to know, by some magical power, all that took place in +his beautiful rooms of his palace, grew impatient finally and +declared he would sit up no longer.</p> +<p>“I love ornaments,” said he, “but I can wait +until tomorrow to get more of them; so, as soon as that stupid +private is transformed, we will all go to bed and leave the job to +be finished in the morning.”</p> +<p>“Is it so very late?” asked Dorothy.</p> +<p>“Why, it is after midnight,” said the King, +“and that strikes me as being late enough. There is neither +night nor day in my kingdom, because it is under the earth’s +surface, where the sun does not shine. But we have to sleep, just +the same as the up-stairs people do, and for my part I’m +going to bed in a few minutes.”</p> +<p>Indeed, it was not long after this that the private made his +last guess. Of course he guessed wrongly, and of course he at once +became an ornament. So the King was greatly pleased, and clapped +his hands to summon his Chief Steward.</p> +<p>“Show these guests to some of the sleeping +apartments,” he commanded, “and be quick about it, too, +for I’m dreadfully sleepy myself.”</p> +<p>“You’ve no business to sit up so late,” +replied the Steward, gruffly. “You’ll be as cross as a +griffin tomorrow morning.”</p> +<p>His Majesty made no answer to this remark, and the Chief Steward +led Dorothy through another doorway into a long hall, from which +several plain but comfortable sleeping rooms opened. The little +girl was given the first room, and the Scarecrow and Tiktok the +next—although they never slept—and the Lion and the +Tiger the third. The Sawhorse hobbled after the Steward into a +fourth room, to stand stiffly in the center of it until morning. +Each night was rather a bore to the Scarecrow, Tiktok and the +Sawhorse; but they had learned from experience to pass the time +patiently and quietly, since all their friends who were made of +flesh had to sleep and did not like to be disturbed.</p> +<p>When the Chief Steward had left them alone the Scarecrow +remarked, sadly:</p> +<p>“I am in great sorrow over the loss of my old comrade, the +Tin Woodman. We have had many dangerous adventures together, and +escaped them all, and now it grieves me to know he has become an +ornament, and is lost to me forever.”</p> +<p>“He was al-ways an or-na-ment to so-ci-e-ty,” said +Tiktok.</p> +<p>“True; but now the Nome King laughs at him, and calls him +the funniest ornament in all the palace. It will hurt my poor +friend’s pride to be laughed at,” continued the +Scarecrow, sadly.</p> +<p>“We will make rath-er ab-surd or-na-ments, our-selves, +to-mor-row,” observed the machine, in his monotonous +voice.</p> +<p>Just then Dorothy ran into their room, in a state of great +anxiety, crying:</p> +<p>“Where’s Billina? Have you seen Billina? Is she +here?”</p> +<p>“No,” answered the Scarecrow.</p> +<p>“Then what has become of her?” asked the girl.</p> +<p>“Why, I thought she was with you,” said the +Scarecrow. “Yet I do not remember seeing the yellow hen since +she picked up the crumbs of cake.”</p> +<p>“We must have left her in the room where the King’s +throne is,” decided Dorothy, and at once she turned and ran +down the hall to the door through which they had entered. But it +was fast closed and locked on the other side, and the heavy slab of +rock proved to be so thick that no sound could pass through it. So +Dorothy was forced to return to her chamber.</p> +<p>The Cowardly Lion stuck his head into her room to try to console +the girl for the loss of her feathered friend.</p> +<p>“The yellow hen is well able to take care of +herself,” said he; “so don’t worry about her, but +try to get all the sleep you can. It has been a long and weary day, +and you need rest.”</p> +<p>“I’ll prob’ly get lots of rest tomorrow, when +I become an orn’ment,” said Dorothy, sleepily. But she +lay down upon her couch, nevertheless, and in spite of all her +worries was soon in the land of dreams.</p> +<h2><a id="Ch_14" name="Ch_14"></a>14. Dorothy Tries to be +Brave</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>Meantime the Chief Steward had returned to the throne room, +where he said to the King:</p> +<p>“You are a fool to waste so much time upon these +people.”</p> +<p>“What!” cried his Majesty, in so enraged a voice +that it awoke Billina, who was asleep under his throne. “How +dare you call me a fool?”</p> +<p>“Because I like to speak the truth,” said the +Steward. “Why didn’t you enchant them all at once, +instead of allowing them to go one by one into the palace and guess +which ornaments are the Queen of Ev and her children?”</p> +<p>“Why, you stupid rascal, it is more fun this way,” +returned the King, “and it serves to keep me amused for a +long time.”</p> +<p>“But suppose some of them happen to guess aright,” +persisted the Steward; “then you would lose your old +ornaments and these new ones, too.”</p> +<p>“There is no chance of their guessing aright,” +replied the monarch, with a laugh. “How could they know that +the Queen of Ev and her family are all ornaments of a royal purple +color?”</p> +<p>“But there are no other purple ornaments in the +palace,” said the Steward.</p> +<p>“There are many other colors, however, and the purple ones +are scattered throughout the rooms, and are of many different +shapes and sizes. Take my word for it, Steward, they will never +think of choosing the purple ornaments.”</p> +<p>Billina, squatting under the throne, had listened carefully to +all this talk, and now chuckled softly to herself as she heard the +King disclose his secret.</p> +<p>“Still, you are acting foolishly by running the +chance,” continued the Steward, roughly; “and it is +still more foolish of you to transform all those people from Oz +into green ornaments.”</p> +<p>“I did that because they came from the Emerald +City,” replied the King; “and I had no green ornaments +in my collection until now. I think they will look quite pretty, +mixed with the others. Don’t you?”</p> +<p>The Steward gave an angry grunt.</p> +<p>“Have your own way, since you are the King,” he +growled. “But if you come to grief through your carelessness, +remember that I told you so. If I wore the magic belt which enables +you to work all your transformations, and gives you so much other +power, I am sure I would make a much wiser and better King than you +are.”</p> +<p>“Oh, cease your tiresome chatter!” commanded the +King, getting angry again. “Because you are my Chief Steward +you have an idea you can scold me as much as you please. But the +very next time you become impudent, I will send you to work in the +furnaces, and get another Nome to fill your place. Now follow me to +my chamber, for I am going to bed. And see that I am wakened early +tomorrow morning. I want to enjoy the fun of transforming the rest +of these people into ornaments.”</p> +<p>“What color will you make the Kansas girl?” asked +the Steward.</p> +<p>“Gray, I think,” said his Majesty.</p> +<p>“And the Scarecrow and the machine man?”</p> +<p>“Oh, they shall be of solid gold, because they are so ugly +in real life.”</p> +<p>Then the voices died away, and Billina knew that the King and +his Steward had left the room. She fixed up some of her tail +feathers that were not straight, and then tucked her head under her +wing again and went to sleep.</p> +<p>In the morning Dorothy and the Lion and Tiger were given their +breakfast in their rooms, and afterward joined the King in his +throne room. The Tiger complained bitterly that he was half +starved, and begged to go into the palace and become an ornament, +so that he would no longer suffer the pangs of hunger.</p> +<p>“Haven’t you had your breakfast?” asked the +Nome King.</p> +<p>“Oh, I had just a bite,” replied the beast. +“But what good is a bite, to a hungry tiger?”</p> +<p>“He ate seventeen bowls of porridge, a platter full of +fried sausages, eleven loaves of bread and twenty-one mince +pies,” said the Steward.</p> +<p>“What more do you want?” demanded the King.</p> +<p>“A fat baby. I want a fat baby,” said the Hungry +Tiger. “A nice, plump, juicy, tender, fat baby. But, of +course, if I had one, my conscience would not allow me to eat it. +So I’ll have to be an ornament and forget my +hunger.”</p> +<p>“Impossible!” exclaimed the King. “I’ll +have no clumsy beasts enter my palace, to overturn and break all my +pretty nick-nacks. When the rest of your friends are transformed +you can return to the upper world, and go about your +business.”</p> +<p>“As for that, we have no business, when our friends are +gone,” said the Lion. “So we do not care much what +becomes of us.”</p> +<p>Dorothy begged to be allowed to go first into the palace, but +Tiktok firmly maintained that the slave should face danger before +the mistress. The Scarecrow agreed with him in that, so the Nome +King opened the door for the machine man, who tramped into the +palace to meet his fate. Then his Majesty returned to his throne +and puffed his pipe so contentedly that a small cloud of smoke +formed above his head.</p> +<p>Bye and bye he said:</p> +<p>“I’m sorry there are so few of you left. Very soon, +now, my fun will be over, and then for amusement I shall have +nothing to do but admire my new ornaments.”</p> +<p>“It seems to me,” said Dorothy, “that you are +not so honest as you pretend to be.”</p> +<p>“How’s that?” asked the King.</p> +<p>“Why, you made us think it would be easy to guess what +ornaments the people of Ev were changed into.”</p> +<p>“It IS easy,” declared the monarch, “if one is +a good guesser. But it appears that the members of your party are +all poor guessers.”</p> +<p>“What is Tiktok doing now?” asked the girl, +uneasily.</p> +<p>“Nothing,” replied the King, with a frown. “He +is standing perfectly still, in the middle of a room.”</p> +<p>“Oh, I expect he’s run down,” said Dorothy. +“I forgot to wind him up this morning. How many guesses has +he made?”</p> +<p>“All that he is allowed except one,” answered the +King. “Suppose you go in and wind him up, and then you can +stay there and make your own guesses.”</p> +<p>“All right,” said Dorothy.</p> +<p>“It is my turn next,” declared the Scarecrow.</p> +<p>“Why, you don’t want to go away and leave me all +alone, do you?” asked the girl. “Besides, if I go now I +can wind up Tiktok, so that he can make his last guess.”</p> +<p>“Very well, then,” said the Scarecrow, with a sigh. +“Run along, little Dorothy, and may good luck go with +you!”</p> +<p>So Dorothy, trying to be brave in spite of her fears, passed +through the doorway into the gorgeous rooms of the palace. The +stillness of the place awed her, at first, and the child drew short +breaths, and pressed her hand to her heart, and looked all around +with wondering eyes.</p> +<p>Yes, it was a beautiful place; but enchantments lurked in every +nook and corner, and she had not yet grown accustomed to the +wizardries of these fairy countries, so different from the quiet +and sensible common-places of her own native land.</p> +<p>Slowly she passed through several rooms until she came upon +Tiktok, standing motionless. It really seemed, then, that she had +found a friend in this mysterious palace, so she hastened to wind +up the machine man’s action and speech and thoughts.</p> +<p>“Thank you, Dor-oth-y,” were his first words. +“I have now one more guess to make.”</p> +<p>“Oh, be very careful, Tiktok; won’t you?” +cried the girl.</p> +<p>“Yes. But the Nome King has us in his power, and he has +set a trap for us. I fear we are all lost.” he answered.</p> +<p>“I fear so, too,” said Dorothy, sadly.</p> +<p>“If Smith & Tin-ker had giv-en me a guess-ing +clock-work at-tach-ment,” continued Tiktok, “I might +have de-fied the Nome King. But my thoughts are plain and sim-ple, +and are not of much use in this case.”</p> +<p>“Do the best you can,” said Dorothy, encouragingly, +“and if you fail I will watch and see what shape you are +changed into.”</p> +<p>So Tiktok touched a yellow glass vase that had daisies painted +on one side, and he spoke at the same time the word +“Ev.”</p> +<p>In a flash the machine man had disappeared, and although the +girl looked quickly in every direction, she could not tell which of +the many ornaments the room contained had a moment before been her +faithful friend and servant.</p> +<p>So all she could do was to accept the hopeless task set her, and +make her guesses and abide by the result.</p> +<p>“It can’t hurt very much,” she thought, +“for I haven’t heard any of them scream or cry +out—not even the poor officers. Dear me! I wonder if Uncle +Henry or Aunt Em will ever know I have become an orn’ment in +the Nome King’s palace, and must stand forever and ever in +one place and look pretty—‘cept when I’m moved to +be dusted. It isn’t the way I thought I’d turn out, at +all; but I s’pose it can’t be helped.”</p> +<p>She walked through all the rooms once more, and examined with +care all the objects they contained; but there were so many, they +bewildered her, and she decided, after all, as Ozma had done, that +it could be only guess work at the best, and that the chances were +much against her guessing aright.</p> +<p>Timidly she touched an alabaster bowl and said: +“Ev.”</p> +<p>“That’s one failure, anyhow,” she thought. +“But how am I to know which thing is enchanted, and which is +not?”</p> +<p>Next she touched the image of a purple kitten that stood on the +corner of a mantel, and as she pronounced the word “Ev” +the kitten disappeared, and a pretty, fair-haired boy stood beside +her. At the same time a bell rang somewhere in the distance, and as +Dorothy started back, partly in surprise and partly in joy, the +little one exclaimed:</p> +<p>“Where am I? And who are you? And what has happened to +me?”</p> +<p>“Well, I declare!” said Dorothy. “I’ve +really done it.”</p> +<p>“Done what?” asked the boy.</p> +<p>“Saved myself from being an ornament,” replied the +girl, with a laugh, “and saved you from being forever a +purple kitten.”</p> +<p>“A purple kitten?” he repeated. “There IS no +such thing.”</p> +<p>“I know,” she answered. “But there was, a +minute ago. Don’t you remember standing on a corner of the +mantel?”</p> +<p>“Of course not. I am a Prince of Ev, and my name is +Evring,” the little one announced, proudly. “But my +father, the King, sold my mother and all her children to the cruel +ruler of the Nomes, and after that I remember nothing at +all.”</p> +<p>“A purple kitten can’t be ’spected to +remember, Evring,” said Dorothy. “But now you are +yourself again, and I’m going to try to save some of your +brothers and sisters, and perhaps your mother, as well. So come +with me.”</p> +<p>She seized the child’s hand and eagerly hurried here and +there, trying to decide which object to choose next. The third +guess was another failure, and so was the fourth and the fifth.</p> +<p>Little Evring could not imagine what she was doing, but he +trotted along beside her very willingly, for he liked the new +companion he had found.</p> +<p>Dorothy’s further quest proved unsuccessful; but after her +first disappointment was over, the little girl was filled with joy +and thankfulness to think that after all she had been able to save +one member of the royal family of Ev, and could restore the little +Prince to his sorrowing country. Now she might return to the +terrible Nome King in safety, carrying with her the prize she had +won in the person of the fair-haired boy.</p> +<p>So she retraced her steps until she found the entrance to the +palace, and as she approached, the massive doors of rock opened of +their own accord, allowing both Dorothy and Evring to pass the +portals and enter the throne room.</p> +<h2><a id="Ch_15" name="Ch_15"></a>15. Billina Frightens the Nome +King</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>Now when Dorothy had entered the palace to make her guesses and +the Scarecrow was left with the Nome King, the two sat in moody +silence for several minutes. Then the monarch exclaimed, in a tone +of satisfaction:</p> +<p>“Very good!”</p> +<p>“Who is very good?” asked the Scarecrow.</p> +<p>“The machine man. He won’t need to be wound up any +more, for he has now become a very neat ornament. Very neat, +indeed.”</p> +<p>“How about Dorothy?” the Scarecrow enquired.</p> +<p>“Oh, she will begin to guess, pretty soon,” said the +King, cheerfully. “And then she will join my collection, and +it will be your turn.”</p> +<p>The good Scarecrow was much distressed by the thought that his +little friend was about to suffer the fate of Ozma and the rest of +their party; but while he sat in gloomy reverie a shrill voice +suddenly cried:</p> +<p>“Kut, kut, kut—ka-daw-kutt! Kut, kut, +kut—ka-daw-kutt!”</p> +<p>The Nome King nearly jumped off his seat, he was so +startled.</p> +<p>“Good gracious! What’s that?” he yelled.</p> +<p>“Why, it’s Billina,” said the Scarecrow.</p> +<p>“What do you mean by making a noise like that?” +shouted the King, angrily, as the yellow hen came from under the +throne and strutted proudly about the room.</p> +<p>“I’ve got a right to cackle, I guess,” replied +Billina. “I’ve just laid my egg.”</p> +<p>“What! Laid an egg! In my throne room! How dare you do +such a thing?” asked the King, in a voice of fury.</p> +<p>“I lay eggs wherever I happen to be,” said the hen, +ruffling her feathers and then shaking them into place.</p> +<p>“But—thunder-ation! Don’t you know that eggs +are poison?” roared the King, while his rock-colored eyes +stuck out in great terror.</p> +<p>“Poison! well, I declare,” said Billina, +indignantly. “I’ll have you know all my eggs are +warranted strictly fresh and up to date. Poison, indeed!”</p> +<p>“You don’t understand,” retorted the little +monarch, nervously. “Eggs belong only to the outside +world—to the world on the earth’s surface, where you +came from. Here, in my underground kingdom, they are rank poison, +as I said, and we Nomes can’t bear them around.”</p> +<p>“Well, you’ll have to bear this one around,” +declared Billina; “for I’ve laid it.”</p> +<p>“Where?” asked the King.</p> +<p>“Under your throne,” said the hen.</p> +<p>The King jumped three feet into the air, so anxious was he to +get away from the throne.</p> +<p>“Take it away! Take it away at once!” he +shouted.</p> +<p>“I can’t,” said Billina. “I +haven’t any hands.”</p> +<p>“I’ll take the egg,” said the Scarecrow. +“I’m making a collection of Billina’s eggs. +There’s one in my pocket now, that she laid +yesterday.”</p> +<p>Hearing this, the monarch hastened to put a good distance +between himself and the Scarecrow, who was about to reach under the +throne for the egg when the hen suddenly cried:</p> +<p>“Stop!”</p> +<p>“What’s wrong?” asked the Scarecrow.</p> +<p>“Don’t take the egg unless the King will allow me to +enter the palace and guess as the others have done,” said +Billina.</p> +<p>“Pshaw!” returned the King. “You’re only +a hen. How could you guess my enchantments?”</p> +<p>“I can try, I suppose,” said Billina. “And, if +I fail, you will have another ornament.”</p> +<p>“A pretty ornament you’d make, wouldn’t +you?” growled the King. “But you shall have your way. +It will properly punish you for daring to lay an egg in my +presence. After the Scarecrow is enchanted you shall follow him +into the palace. But how will you touch the objects?”</p> +<p>“With my claws,” said the hen; “and I can +speak the word ‘Ev’ as plainly as anyone. Also I must +have the right to guess the enchantments of my friends, and to +release them if I succeed.”</p> +<p>“Very well,” said the King. “You have my +promise.”</p> +<p>“Then,” said Billina to the Scarecrow, “you +may get the egg.”</p> +<p>He knelt down and reached underneath the throne and found the +egg, which he placed in another pocket of his jacket, fearing that +if both eggs were in one pocket they would knock together and get +broken.</p> +<p>Just then a bell above the throne rang briskly, and the King +gave another nervous jump.</p> +<p>“Well, well!” said he, with a rueful face; +“the girl has actually done it.”</p> +<p>“Done what?” asked the Scarecrow.</p> +<p>“She has made one guess that is right, and broken one of +my neatest enchantments. By ricketty, it’s too bad! I never +thought she would do it.”</p> +<p>“Do I understand that she will now return to us in +safety?” enquired the Scarecrow, joyfully wrinkling his +painted face into a broad smile.</p> +<p>“Of course,” said the King, fretfully pacing up and +down the room. “I always keep my promises, no matter how +foolish they are. But I shall make an ornament of the yellow hen to +replace the one I have just lost.”</p> +<p>“Perhaps you will, and perhaps you won’t,” +murmured Billina, calmly. “I may surprise you by guessing +right.”</p> +<p>“Guessing right?” snapped the King. “How could +you guess right, where your betters have failed, you stupid +fowl?”</p> +<p>Billina did not care to answer this question, and a moment later +the doors flew open and Dorothy entered, leading the little Prince +Evring by the hand.</p> +<p>The Scarecrow welcomed the girl with a close embrace, and he +would have embraced Evring, too, in his delight. But the little +Prince was shy, and shrank away from the painted Scarecrow because +he did not yet know his many excellent qualities.</p> +<p>But there was little time for the friends to talk, because the +Scarecrow must now enter the palace. Dorothy’s success had +greatly encouraged him, and they both hoped he would manage to make +at least one correct guess.</p> +<p>However, he proved as unfortunate as the others except Dorothy, +and although he took a good deal of time to select his objects, not +one did the poor Scarecrow guess aright.</p> +<p>So he became a solid gold card-receiver, and the beautiful but +terrible palace awaited its next visitor.</p> +<p>“It’s all over,” remarked the King, with a +sigh of satisfaction; “and it has been a very amusing +performance, except for the one good guess the Kansas girl made. I +am richer by a great many pretty ornaments.”</p> +<p>“It is my turn, now,” said Billina, briskly.</p> +<p>“Oh, I’d forgotten you,” said the King. +“But you needn’t go if you don’t wish to. I will +be generous, and let you off.”</p> +<p>“No you won’t,” replied the hen. “I +insist upon having my guesses, as you promised.”</p> +<p>“Then go ahead, you absurd feathered fool!” grumbled +the King, and he caused the opening that led to the palace to +appear once more.</p> +<p>“Don’t go, Billina,” said Dorothy, earnestly. +“It isn’t easy to guess those orn’ments, and only +luck saved me from being one myself. Stay with me and we’ll +go back to the Land of Ev together. I’m sure this little +Prince will give us a home.”</p> +<p>“Indeed I will,” said Evring, with much dignity.</p> +<p>“Don’t worry, my dear,” cried Billina, with a +cluck that was meant for a laugh. “I may not be human, but +I’m no fool, if I AM a chicken.”</p> +<p>“Oh, Billina!” said Dorothy, “you +haven’t been a chicken in a long time. Not since +you—you’ve been—grown up.”</p> +<p>“Perhaps that’s true,” answered Billina, +thoughtfully. “But if a Kansas farmer sold me to some one, +what would he call me?—a hen or a chicken!”</p> +<p>“You are not a Kansas farmer, Billina,” replied the +girl, “and you said—”</p> +<p>“Never mind that, Dorothy. I’m going. I won’t +say good-bye, because I’m coming back. Keep up your courage, +for I’ll see you a little later.”</p> +<p>Then Billina gave several loud “cluck-clucks” that +seemed to make the fat little King MORE nervous than ever, and +marched through the entrance into the enchanted palace.</p> +<p>“I hope I’ve seen the last of THAT bird,” +declared the monarch, seating himself again in his throne and +mopping the perspiration from his forehead with his rock-colored +handkerchief. “Hens are bothersome enough at their best, but +when they can talk they’re simply dreadful.”</p> +<p>“Billina’s my friend,” said Dorothy quietly. +“She may not always be ‘zactly polite; but she MEANS +well, I’m sure.”</p> +<h2><a id="Ch_16" name="Ch_16"></a>16. Purple, Green, and Gold</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>The yellow hen, stepping high and with an air of vast +importance, walked slowly over the rich velvet carpets of the +splendid palace, examining everything she met with her sharp little +eyes.</p> +<p>Billina had a right to feel important; for she alone shared the +Nome King’s secret and knew how to tell the objects that were +transformations from those that had never been alive. She was very +sure that her guesses would be correct, but before she began to +make them she was curious to behold all the magnificence of this +underground palace, which was perhaps one of the most splendid and +beautiful places in any fairyland.</p> +<p>As she went through the rooms she counted the purple ornaments; +and although some were small and hidden in queer places, Billina +spied them all, and found the entire ten scattered about the +various rooms. The green ornaments she did not bother to count, for +she thought she could find them all when the time came.</p> +<p>Finally, having made a survey of the entire palace and enjoyed +its splendor, the yellow hen returned to one of the rooms where she +had noticed a large purple footstool. She placed a claw upon this +and said “Ev,” and at once the footstool vanished and a +lovely lady, tall and slender and most beautifully robed, stood +before her.</p> +<p>The lady’s eyes were round with astonishment for a moment, +for she could not remember her transformation, nor imagine what had +restored her to life.</p> +<p>“Good morning, ma’am,” said Billina, in her +sharp voice. “You’re looking quite well, considering +your age.”</p> +<p>“Who speaks?” demanded the Queen of Ev, drawing +herself up proudly.</p> +<p>“Why, my name’s Bill, by rights,” answered the +hen, who was now perched upon the back of a chair; “although +Dorothy has put scollops on it and made it Billina. But the name +doesn’t matter. I’ve saved you from the Nome King, and +you are a slave no longer.”</p> +<p>“Then I thank you for the gracious favor,” said the +Queen, with a graceful courtesy. “But, my children—tell +me, I beg of you—where are my children?” and she +clasped her hands in anxious entreaty.</p> +<p>“Don’t worry,” advised Billina, pecking at a +tiny bug that was crawling over the chair back. “Just at +present they are out of mischief and perfectly safe, for they +can’t even wiggle.”</p> +<p>“What mean you, O kindly stranger?” asked the Queen, +striving to repress her anxiety.</p> +<p>“They’re enchanted,” said Billina, “just +as you have been—all, that is, except the little fellow +Dorothy picked out. And the chances are that they have been good +boys and girls for some time, because they couldn’t help +it.”</p> +<p>“Oh, my poor darlings!” cried the Queen, with a sob +of anguish.</p> +<p>“Not at all,” returned the hen. “Don’t +let their condition make you unhappy, ma’am, because +I’ll soon have them crowding ’round to bother and worry +you as naturally as ever. Come with me, if you please, and +I’ll show you how pretty they look.”</p> +<p>She flew down from her perch and walked into the next room, the +Queen following. As she passed a low table a small green +grasshopper caught her eye, and instantly Billina pounced upon it +and snapped it up in her sharp bill. For grasshoppers are a +favorite food with hens, and they usually must be caught quickly, +before they can hop away. It might easily have been the end of Ozma +of Oz, had she been a real grasshopper instead of an emerald one. +But Billina found the grasshopper hard and lifeless, and suspecting +it was not good to eat she quickly dropped it instead of letting it +slide down her throat.</p> +<p>“I might have known better,” she muttered to +herself, “for where there is no grass there can be no live +grasshoppers. This is probably one of the King’s +transformations.”</p> +<p>A moment later she approached one of the purple ornaments, and +while the Queen watched her curiously the hen broke the Nome +King’s enchantment and a sweet-faced girl, whose golden hair +fell in a cloud over her shoulders, stood beside them.</p> +<p>“Evanna!” cried the Queen, “my own +Evanna!” and she clasped the girl to her bosom and covered +her face with kisses.</p> +<p>“That’s all right,” said Billina, contentedly. +“Am I a good guesser, Mr. Nome King? Well, I +guess!”</p> +<p>Then she disenchanted another girl, whom the Queen addressed as +Evrose, and afterwards a boy named Evardo, who was older than his +brother Evring. Indeed, the yellow hen kept the good Queen +exclaiming and embracing for some time, until five Princesses and +four Princes, all looking very much alike except for the difference +in size, stood in a row beside their happy mother.</p> +<p>The Princesses were named, Evanna, Evrose, Evella, Evirene and +Evedna, while the Princes were Evrob, Evington, Evardo and +Evroland. Of these Evardo was the eldest and would inherit his +father’s throne and be crowned King of Ev when he returned to +his own country. He was a grave and quiet youth, and would +doubtless rule his people wisely and with justice.</p> +<p>Billina, having restored all of the royal family of Ev to their +proper forms, now began to select the green ornaments which were +the transformations of the people of Oz. She had little trouble in +finding these, and before long all the twenty-six officers, as well +as the private, were gathered around the yellow hen, joyfully +congratulating her upon their release. The thirty-seven people who +were now alive in the rooms of the palace knew very well that they +owed their freedom to the cleverness of the yellow hen, and they +were earnest in thanking her for saving them from the magic of the +Nome King.</p> +<p>“Now,” said Billina, “I must find Ozma. She is +sure to be here, somewhere, and of course she is green, being from +Oz. So look around, you stupid soldiers, and help me in my +search.”</p> +<p>For a while, however, they could discover nothing more that was +green. But the Queen, who had kissed all her nine children once +more and could now find time to take an interest in what was going +on, said to the hen:</p> +<p>“Mayhap, my gentle friend, it is the grasshopper whom you +seek.”</p> +<p>“Of course it’s the grasshopper!” exclaimed +Billina. “I declare, I’m nearly as stupid as these +brave soldiers. Wait here for me, and I’ll go back and get +it.”</p> +<p>So she went into the room where she had seen the grasshopper, +and presently Ozma of Oz, as lovely and dainty as ever, entered and +approached the Queen of Ev, greeting her as one high born princess +greets another.</p> +<p>“But where are my friends, the Scarecrow and the Tin +Woodman?” asked the girl Ruler, when these courtesies had +been exchanged.</p> +<p>“I’ll hunt them up,” replied Billina. +“The Scarecrow is solid gold, and so is Tiktok; but I +don’t exactly know what the Tin Woodman is, because the Nome +King said he had been transformed into something funny.”</p> +<p>Ozma eagerly assisted the hen in her quest, and soon the +Scarecrow and the machine man, being ornaments of shining gold, +were discovered and restored to their accustomed forms. But, search +as they might, in no place could they find a funny ornament that +might be the transformation of the Tin Woodman.</p> +<p>“Only one thing can be done,” said Ozma, at last, +“and that is to return to the Nome King and oblige him to +tell us what has become of our friend.”</p> +<p>“Perhaps he won’t,” suggested Billina.</p> +<p>“He must,” returned Ozma, firmly. “The King +has not treated us honestly, for under the mask of fairness and +good nature he entrapped us all, and we would have been forever +enchanted had not our wise and clever friend, the yellow hen, found +a way to save us.”</p> +<p>“The King is a villain,” declared the Scarecrow.</p> +<p>“His laugh is worse than another man’s frown,” +said the private, with a shudder.</p> +<p>“I thought he was hon-est, but I was mis-tak-en,” +remarked Tiktok. “My thoughts are us-u-al-ly cor-rect, but it +is Smith & Tin-ker’s fault if they some-times go wrong or +do not work prop-er-ly.”</p> +<p>“Smith & Tinker made a very good job of you,” +said Ozma, kindly. “I do not think they should be blamed if +you are not quite perfect.”</p> +<p>“Thank you,” replied Tiktok.</p> +<p>“Then,” said Billina, in her brisk little voice, +“let us all go back to the Nome King, and see what he has to +say for himself.”</p> +<p>So they started for the entrance, Ozma going first, with the +Queen and her train of little Princes and Princesses following. +Then came Tiktok, and the Scarecrow with Billina perched upon his +straw-stuffed shoulder. The twenty-seven officers and the private +brought up the rear.</p> +<p>As they reached the hall the doors flew open before them; but +then they all stopped and stared into the domed cavern with faces +of astonishment and dismay. For the room was filled with the +mail-clad warriors of the Nome King, rank after rank standing in +orderly array. The electric lights upon their brows gleamed +brightly, their battle-axes were poised as if to strike down their +foes; yet they remained motionless as statues, awaiting the word of +command.</p> +<p>And in the center of this terrible army sat the little King upon +his throne of rock. But he neither smiled nor laughed. Instead, his +face was distorted with rage, and most dreadful to behold.</p> +<h2><a id="Ch_17" name="Ch_17"></a>17. The Scarecrow Wins the +Fight</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>After Billina had entered the palace Dorothy and Evring sat down +to await the success or failure of her mission, and the Nome King +occupied his throne and smoked his long pipe for a while in a +cheerful and contented mood.</p> +<p>Then the bell above the throne, which sounded whenever an +enchantment was broken, began to ring, and the King gave a start of +annoyance and exclaimed, “Rocketty-ricketts!”</p> +<p>When the bell rang a second time the King shouted angrily, +“Smudge and blazes!” and at a third ring he screamed in +a fury, “Hippikaloric!” which must be a dreadful word +because we don’t know what it means.</p> +<p>After that the bell went on ringing time after time; but the +King was now so violently enraged that he could not utter a word, +but hopped out of his throne and all around the room in a mad +frenzy, so that he reminded Dorothy of a jumping-jack.</p> +<p>The girl was, for her part, filled with joy at every peal of the +bell, for it announced the fact that Billina had transformed one +more ornament into a living person. Dorothy was also amazed at +Billina’s success, for she could not imagine how the yellow +hen was able to guess correctly from all the bewildering number of +articles clustered in the rooms of the palace. But after she had +counted ten, and the bell continued to ring, she knew that not only +the royal family of Ev, but Ozma and her followers also, were being +restored to their natural forms, and she was so delighted that the +antics of the angry King only made her laugh merrily.</p> +<p>Perhaps the little monarch could not be more furious than he was +before, but the girl’s laughter nearly drove him frantic, and +he roared at her like a savage beast. Then, as he found that all +his enchantments were likely to be dispelled and his victims every +one set free, he suddenly ran to the little door that opened upon +the balcony and gave the shrill whistle that summoned his +warriors.</p> +<p>At once the army filed out of the gold and silver doors in great +numbers, and marched up a winding stairs and into the throne room, +led by a stern featured Nome who was their captain. When they had +nearly filled the throne room they formed ranks in the big +underground cavern below, and then stood still until they were told +what to do next.</p> +<p>Dorothy had pressed back to one side of the cavern when the +warriors entered, and now she stood holding little Prince +Evring’s hand while the great Lion crouched upon one side and +the enormous Tiger crouched on the other side.</p> +<p>“Seize that girl!” shouted the King to his captain, +and a group of warriors sprang forward to obey. But both the Lion +and Tiger snarled so fiercely and bared their strong, sharp teeth +so threateningly, that the men drew back in alarm.</p> +<p>“Don’t mind them!” cried the Nome King; +“they cannot leap beyond the places where they now +stand.”</p> +<p>“But they can bite those who attempt to touch the +girl,” said the captain.</p> +<p>“I’ll fix that,” answered the King. +“I’ll enchant them again, so that they can’t open +their jaws.”</p> +<p>He stepped out of the throne to do this, but just then the +Sawhorse ran up behind him and gave the fat monarch a powerful kick +with both his wooden hind legs.</p> +<p>“Ow! Murder! Treason!” yelled the King, who had been +hurled against several of his warriors and was considerably +bruised. “Who did that?”</p> +<p>“I did,” growled the Sawhorse, viciously. “You +let Dorothy alone, or I’ll kick you again.”</p> +<p>“We’ll see about that,” replied the King, and +at once he waved his hand toward the Sawhorse and muttered a +magical word. “Aha!” he continued; “NOW let us +see you move, you wooden mule!”</p> +<p>But in spite of the magic the Sawhorse moved; and he moved so +quickly toward the King, that the fat little man could not get out +of his way. Thump—BANG! came the wooden heels, right against +his round body, and the King flew into the air and fell upon the +head of his captain, who let him drop flat upon the ground.</p> +<p>“Well, well!” said the King, sitting up and looking +surprised. “Why didn’t my magic belt work, I +wonder?”</p> +<p>“The creature is made of wood,” replied the captain. +“Your magic will not work on wood, you know.”</p> +<p>“Ah, I’d forgotten that,” said the King, +getting up and limping to his throne. “Very well, let the +girl alone. She can’t escape us, anyway.”</p> +<p>The warriors, who had been rather confused by these incidents, +now formed their ranks again, and the Sawhorse pranced across the +room to Dorothy and took a position beside the Hungry Tiger.</p> +<p>At that moment the doors that led to the palace flew open and +the people of Ev and the people of Oz were disclosed to view. They +paused, astonished, at sight of the warriors and the angry Nome +King, seated in their midst.</p> +<p>“Surrender!” cried the King, in a loud voice. +“You are my prisoners.”</p> +<p>“Go ’long!” answered Billina, from the +Scarecrow’s shoulder. “You promised me that if I +guessed correctly my friends and I might depart in safety. And you +always keep your promises.”</p> +<p>“I said you might leave the palace in safety,” +retorted the King; “and so you may, but you cannot leave my +dominions. You are my prisoners, and I will hurl you all into my +underground dungeons, where the volcanic fires glow and the molten +lava flows in every direction, and the air is hotter than blue +blazes.”</p> +<p>“That will be the end of me, all right,” said the +Scarecrow, sorrowfully. “One small blaze, blue or green, is +enough to reduce me to an ash-heap.”</p> +<p>“Do you surrender?” demanded the King.</p> +<p>Billina whispered something in the Scarecrow’s ear that +made him smile and put his hands in his jacket pockets.</p> +<p>“No!” returned Ozma, boldly answering the King. Then +she said to her army:</p> +<p>“Forward, my brave soldiers, and fight for your Ruler and +yourselves, unto death!”</p> +<p>“Pardon me, Most Royal Ozma,” replied one of her +generals; “but I find that I and my brother officers all +suffer from heart disease, and the slightest excitement might kill +us. If we fight we may get excited. Would it not be well for us to +avoid this grave danger?”</p> +<p>“Soldiers should not have heart disease,” said +Ozma.</p> +<p>“Private soldiers are not, I believe, afflicted that +way,” declared another general, twirling his moustache +thoughtfully. “If your Royal Highness desires, we will order +our private to attack yonder warriors.”</p> +<p>“Do so,” replied Ozma.</p> +<p>“For-ward—march!” cried all the generals, with +one voice. “For-ward—march!” yelled the colonels. +“For-ward—march!” shouted the majors. +“For-ward—march!” commanded the captains.</p> +<p>And at that the private leveled his spear and dashed furiously +upon the foe.</p> +<p>The captain of the Nomes was so surprised by this sudden +onslaught that he forgot to command his warriors to fight, so that +the ten men in the first row, who stood in front of the +private’s spear, fell over like so many toy soldiers. The +spear could not go through their steel armor, however, so the +warriors scrambled to their feet again, and by that time the +private had knocked over another row of them.</p> +<p>Then the captain brought down his battle-axe with such a strong +blow that the private’s spear was shattered and knocked from +his grasp, and he was helpless to fight any longer.</p> +<p>The Nome King had left his throne and pressed through his +warriors to the front ranks, so he could see what was going on; but +as he faced Ozma and her friends the Scarecrow, as if aroused to +action by the valor of the private, drew one of Billina’s +eggs from his right jacket pocket and hurled it straight at the +little monarch’s head.</p> +<p>It struck him squarely in his left eye, where the egg smashed +and scattered, as eggs will, and covered his face and hair and +beard with its sticky contents.</p> +<p>“Help, help!” screamed the King, clawing with his +fingers at the egg, in a struggle to remove it.</p> +<p>“An egg! an egg! Run for your lives!” shouted the +captain of the Nomes, in a voice of horror.</p> +<p>And how they DID run! The warriors fairly tumbled over one +another in their efforts to escape the fatal poison of that awful +egg, and those who could not rush down the winding stair fell off +the balcony into the great cavern beneath, knocking over those who +stood below them.</p> +<p>Even while the King was still yelling for help his throne room +became emptied of every one of his warriors, and before the monarch +had managed to clear the egg away from his left eye the Scarecrow +threw the second egg against his right eye, where it smashed and +blinded him entirely. The King was unable to flee because he could +not see which way to run; so he stood still and howled and shouted +and screamed in abject fear.</p> +<p>While this was going on, Billina flew over to Dorothy, and +perching herself upon the Lion’s back the hen whispered +eagerly to the girl:</p> +<p>“Get his belt! Get the Nome King’s jeweled belt! It +unbuckles in the back. Quick, Dorothy—quick!”</p> +<h2><a id="Ch_18" name="Ch_18"></a>18. The Fate of the Tin +Woodman</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>Dorothy obeyed. She ran at once behind the Nome King, who was +still trying to free his eyes from the egg, and in a twinkling she +had unbuckled his splendid jeweled belt and carried it away with +her to her place beside the Tiger and Lion, where, because she did +not know what else to do with it, she fastened it around her own +slim waist.</p> +<p>Just then the Chief Steward rushed in with a sponge and a bowl +of water, and began mopping away the broken eggs from his +master’s face. In a few minutes, and while all the party +stood looking on, the King regained the use of his eyes, and the +first thing he did was to glare wickedly upon the Scarecrow and +exclaim:</p> +<p>“I’ll make you suffer for this, you hay-stuffed +dummy! Don’t you know eggs are poison to Nomes?”</p> +<p>“Really,” said the Scarecrow, “they +DON’T seem to agree with you, although I wonder +why.”</p> +<p>“They were strictly fresh and above suspicion,” said +Billina. “You ought to be glad to get them.”</p> +<p>“I’ll transform you all into scorpions!” cried +the King, angrily, and began waving his arms and muttering magic +words.</p> +<p>But none of the people became scorpions, so the King stopped and +looked at them in surprise.</p> +<p>“What’s wrong?” he asked.</p> +<p>“Why, you are not wearing your magic belt,” replied +the Chief Steward, after looking the King over carefully. +“Where is it? What have you done with it?”</p> +<p>The Nome King clapped his hand to his waist, and his rock +colored face turned white as chalk.</p> +<p>“It’s gone,” he cried, helplessly. +“It’s gone, and I am ruined!”</p> +<p>Dorothy now stepped forward and said:</p> +<p>“Royal Ozma, and you, Queen of Ev, I welcome you and your +people back to the land of the living. Billina has saved you from +your troubles, and now we will leave this drea’ful place, and +return to Ev as soon as poss’ble.”</p> +<p>While the child spoke they could all see that she wore the magic +belt, and a great cheer went up from all her friends, which was led +by the voices of the Scarecrow and the private. But the Nome King +did not join them. He crept back onto his throne like a whipped +dog, and lay there bitterly bemoaning his defeat.</p> +<p>“But we have not yet found my faithful follower, the Tin +Woodman,” said Ozma to Dorothy, “and without him I do +not wish to go away.”</p> +<p>“Nor I,” replied Dorothy, quickly. +“Wasn’t he in the palace?”</p> +<p>“He must be there,” said Billina; “but I had +no clue to guide me in guessing the Tin Woodman, so I must have +missed him.”</p> +<p>“We will go back into the rooms,” said Dorothy. +“This magic belt, I am sure, will help us to find our dear +old friend.”</p> +<p>So she re-entered the palace, the doors of which still stood +open, and everyone followed her except the Nome King, the Queen of +Ev and Prince Evring. The mother had taken the little Prince in her +lap and was fondling and kissing him lovingly, for he was her +youngest born.</p> +<p>But the others went with Dorothy, and when she came to the +middle of the first room the girl waved her hand, as she had seen +the King do, and commanded the Tin Woodman, whatever form he might +then have, to resume his proper shape. No result followed this +attempt, so Dorothy went into another room and repeated it, and so +through all the rooms of the palace. Yet the Tin Woodman did not +appear to them, nor could they imagine which among the thousands of +ornaments was their transformed friend.</p> +<p>Sadly they returned to the throne room, where the King, seeing +that they had met with failure, jeered at Dorothy, saying:</p> +<p>“You do not know how to use my belt, so it is of no use to +you. Give it back to me and I will let you go free—you and +all the people who came with you. As for the royal family of Ev, +they are my slaves, and shall remain here.”</p> +<p>“I shall keep the belt,” said Dorothy.</p> +<p>“But how can you escape, without my consent?” asked +the King.</p> +<p>“Easily enough,” answered the girl. “All we +need to do is to walk out the way that we came in.”</p> +<p>“Oh, that’s all, is it?” sneered the King. +“Well, where is the passage through which you entered this +room?”</p> +<p>They all looked around, but could not discover the place, for it +had long since been closed. Dorothy, however, would not be +dismayed. She waved her hand toward the seemingly solid wall of the +cavern and said:</p> +<p>“I command the passage to open!”</p> +<p>Instantly the order was obeyed; the opening appeared and the +passage lay plainly before them.</p> +<p>The King was amazed, and all the others overjoyed.</p> +<p>“Why, then, if the belt obeys you, were we unable to +discover the Tin Woodman?” asked Ozma.</p> +<p>“I can’t imagine,” said Dorothy.</p> +<p>“See here, girl,” proposed the King, eagerly; +“give me the belt, and I will tell you what shape the Tin +Woodman was changed into, and then you can easily find +him.”</p> +<p>Dorothy hesitated, but Billina cried out:</p> +<p>“Don’t you do it! If the Nome King gets the belt +again he will make every one of us prisoners, for we will be in his +power. Only by keeping the belt, Dorothy, will you ever be able to +leave this place in safety.”</p> +<p>“I think that is true,” said the Scarecrow. +“But I have another idea, due to my excellent brains. Let +Dorothy transform the King into a goose-egg unless he agrees to go +into the palace and bring out to us the ornament which is our +friend Nick Chopper, the Tin Woodman.”</p> +<p>“A goose-egg!” echoed the horrified King. “How +dreadful!”</p> +<p>“Well, a goose-egg you will be unless you go and fetch us +the ornament we want,” declared Billina, with a joyful +chuckle.</p> +<p>“You can see for yourself that Dorothy is able to use the +magic belt all right,” added the Scarecrow.</p> +<p>The Nome King thought it over and finally consented, for he did +not want to be a goose-egg. So he went into the palace to get the +ornament which was the transformation of the Tin Woodman, and they +all awaited his return with considerable impatience, for they were +anxious to leave this underground cavern and see the sunshine once +more. But when the Nome King came back he brought nothing with him +except a puzzled and anxious expression upon his face.</p> +<p>“He’s gone!” he said. “The Tin Woodman +is nowhere in the palace.”</p> +<p>“Are you sure?” asked Ozma, sternly.</p> +<p>“I’m very sure,” answered the King, trembling, +“for I know just what I transformed him into, and exactly +where he stood. But he is not there, and please don’t change +me into a goose-egg, because I’ve done the best I +could.”</p> +<p>They were all silent for a time, and then Dorothy said:</p> +<p>“There is no use punishing the Nome King any more, and +I’m ’fraid we’ll have to go away without our +friend.”</p> +<p>“If he is not here, we cannot rescue him,” agreed +the Scarecrow, sadly. “Poor Nick! I wonder what has become of +him.”</p> +<p>“And he owed me six weeks back pay!” said one of the +generals, wiping the tears from his eyes with his gold-laced coat +sleeve.</p> +<p>Very sorrowfully they determined to return to the upper world +without their former companion, and so Ozma gave the order to begin +the march through the passage.</p> +<p>The army went first, and then the royal family of Ev, and +afterward came Dorothy, Ozma, Billina, the Scarecrow and +Tiktok.</p> +<p>They left the Nome King scowling at them from his throne, and +had no thought of danger until Ozma chanced to look back and saw a +large number of the warriors following them in full chase, with +their swords and spears and axes raised to strike down the +fugitives as soon as they drew near enough.</p> +<p>Evidently the Nome King had made this last attempt to prevent +their escaping him; but it did him no good, for when Dorothy saw +the danger they were in she stopped and waved her hand and +whispered a command to the magic belt.</p> +<p>Instantly the foremost warriors became eggs, which rolled upon +the floor of the cavern in such numbers that those behind could not +advance without stepping upon them. But, when they saw the eggs, +all desire to advance departed from the warriors, and they turned +and fled madly into the cavern, and refused to go back again.</p> +<p>Our friends had no further trouble in reaching the end of the +passage, and soon were standing in the outer air upon the gloomy +path between the two high mountains. But the way to Ev lay plainly +before them, and they fervently hoped that they had seen the last +of the Nome King and of his dreadful palace.</p> +<p>The cavalcade was led by Ozma, mounted on the Cowardly Lion, and +the Queen of Ev, who rode upon the back of the Tiger. The children +of the Queen walked behind her, hand in hand. Dorothy rode the +Sawhorse, while the Scarecrow walked and commanded the army in the +absence of the Tin Woodman.</p> +<p>Presently the way began to lighten and more of the sunshine to +come in between the two mountains. And before long they heard the +“thump! thump! thump!” of the giant’s hammer upon +the road.</p> +<p>“How may we pass the monstrous man of iron?” asked +the Queen, anxious for the safety of her children. But Dorothy +solved the problem by a word to the magic belt.</p> +<p>The giant paused, with his hammer held motionless in the air, +thus allowing the entire party to pass between his cast-iron legs +in safety.</p> +<h2><a id="Ch_19" name="Ch_19"></a>19. The King of Ev</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>If there were any shifting, rock-colored Nomes on the mountain +side now, they were silent and respectful, for our adventurers were +not annoyed, as before, by their impudent laughter. Really the +Nomes had nothing to laugh at, since the defeat of their King.</p> +<p>On the other side they found Ozma’s golden chariot, +standing as they had left it. Soon the Lion and the Tiger were +harnessed to the beautiful chariot, in which was enough room for +Ozma and the Queen and six of the royal children.</p> +<p>Little Evring preferred to ride with Dorothy upon the Sawhorse, +which had a long back. The Prince had recovered from his shyness +and had become very fond of the girl who had rescued him, so they +were fast friends and chatted pleasantly together as they rode +along. Billina was also perched upon the head of the wooden steed, +which seemed not to mind the added weight in the least, and the boy +was full of wonder that a hen could talk, and say such sensible +things.</p> +<p>When they came to the gulf, Ozma’s magic carpet carried +them all over in safety; and now they began to pass the trees, in +which birds were singing; and the breeze that was wafted to them +from the farms of Ev was spicy with flowers and new-mown hay; and +the sunshine fell full upon them, to warm them and drive away from +their bodies the chill and dampness of the underground kingdom of +the Nomes.</p> +<p>“I would be quite content,” said the Scarecrow to +Tiktok, “were only the Tin Woodman with us. But it breaks my +heart to leave him behind.”</p> +<p>“He was a fine fel-low,” replied Tiktok, +“al-though his ma-ter-i-al was not ve-ry +du-ra-ble.”</p> +<p>“Oh, tin is an excellent material,” the Scarecrow +hastened to say; “and if anything ever happened to poor Nick +Chopper he was always easily soldered. Besides, he did not have to +be wound up, and was not liable to get out of order.”</p> +<p>“I some-times wish,” said Tiktok, “that I was +stuffed with straw, as you are. It is hard to be made of +cop-per.”</p> +<p>“I have no reason to complain of my lot,” replied +the Scarecrow. “A little fresh straw, now and then, makes me +as good as new. But I can never be the polished gentleman that my +poor departed friend, the Tin Woodman, was.”</p> +<p>You may be sure the royal children of Ev and their Queen mother +were delighted at seeing again their beloved country; and when the +towers of the palace of Ev came into view they could not forbear +cheering at the sight. Little Evring, riding in front of Dorothy, +was so overjoyed that he took a curious tin whistle from his pocket +and blew a shrill blast that made the Sawhorse leap and prance in +sudden alarm.</p> +<p>“What is that?” asked Billina, who had been obliged +to flutter her wings in order to keep her seat upon the head of the +frightened Sawhorse.</p> +<p>“That’s my whistle,” said Prince Evring, +holding it out upon his hand.</p> +<p>It was in the shape of a little fat pig, made of tin and painted +green. The whistle was in the tail of the pig.</p> +<p>“Where did you get it?” asked the yellow hen, +closely examining the toy with her bright eyes.</p> +<p>“Why, I picked it up in the Nome King’s palace, +while Dorothy was making her guesses, and I put it in my +pocket,” answered the little Prince.</p> +<p>Billina laughed; or at least she made the peculiar cackle that +served her for a laugh.</p> +<p>“No wonder I couldn’t find the Tin Woodman,” +she said; “and no wonder the magic belt didn’t make him +appear, or the King couldn’t find him, either!”</p> +<p>“What do you mean?” questioned Dorothy.</p> +<p>“Why, the Prince had him in his pocket,” cried +Billina, cackling again.</p> +<p>“I did not!” protested little Evring. “I only +took the whistle.”</p> +<p>“Well, then, watch me,” returned the hen, and +reaching out a claw she touched the whistle and said +“Ev.”</p> +<p>Swish!</p> +<p>“Good afternoon,” said the Tin Woodman, taking off +his funnel cap and bowing to Dorothy and the Prince. “I think +I must have been asleep for the first time since I was made of tin, +for I do not remember our leaving the Nome King.”</p> +<p>“You have been enchanted,” answered the girl, +throwing an arm around her old friend and hugging him tight in her +joy. “But it’s all right, now.”</p> +<p>“I want my whistle!” said the little Prince, +beginning to cry.</p> +<p>“Hush!” cautioned Billina. “The whistle is +lost, but you may have another when you get home.”</p> +<p>The Scarecrow had fairly thrown himself upon the bosom of his +old comrade, so surprised and delighted was he to see him again, +and Tiktok squeezed the Tin Woodman’s hand so earnestly that +he dented some of his fingers. Then they had to make way for Ozma +to welcome the tin man, and the army caught sight of him and set up +a cheer, and everybody was delighted and happy.</p> +<p>For the Tin Woodman was a great favorite with all who knew him, +and his sudden recovery after they had thought he was lost to them +forever was indeed a pleasant surprise.</p> +<p>Before long the cavalcade arrived at the royal palace, where a +great crowd of people had gathered to welcome their Queen and her +ten children. There was much shouting and cheering, and the people +threw flowers in their path, and every face wore a happy smile.</p> +<p>They found the Princess Langwidere in her mirrored chamber, +where she was admiring one of her handsomest heads—one with +rich chestnut hair, dreamy walnut eyes and a shapely hickorynut +nose. She was very glad to be relieved of her duties to the people +of Ev, and the Queen graciously permitted her to retain her rooms +and her cabinet of heads as long as she lived.</p> +<p>Then the Queen took her eldest son out upon a balcony that +overlooked the crowd of subjects gathered below, and said to +them:</p> +<p>“Here is your future ruler, King Evardo Fifteenth. He is +fifteen years of age, has fifteen silver buckles on his jacket and +is the fifteenth Evardo to rule the land of Ev.”</p> +<p>The people shouted their approval fifteen times, and even the +Wheelers, some of whom were present, loudly promised to obey the +new King.</p> +<p>So the Queen placed a big crown of gold, set with rubies, upon +Evardo’s head, and threw an ermine robe over his shoulders, +and proclaimed him King; and he bowed gratefully to all his +subjects and then went away to see if he could find any cake in the +royal pantry.</p> +<p>Ozma of Oz and her people, as well as Dorothy, Tiktok and +Billina, were splendidly entertained by the Queen mother, who owed +all her happiness to their kind offices; and that evening the +yellow hen was publicly presented with a beautiful necklace of +pearls and sapphires, as a token of esteem from the new King.</p> +<h2><a id="Ch_20" name="Ch_20"></a>20. The Emerald City</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>Dorothy decided to accept Ozma’s invitation to return with +her to the Land of Oz. There was no greater chance of her getting +home from Ev than from Oz, and the little girl was anxious to see +once more the country where she had encountered such wonderful +adventures. By this time Uncle Henry would have reached Australia +in his ship, and had probably given her up for lost; so he +couldn’t worry any more than he did if she stayed away from +him a while longer. So she would go to Oz.</p> +<p>They bade good-bye to the people of Ev, and the King promised +Ozma that he would ever be grateful to her and render the Land of +Oz any service that might lie within his power.</p> +<p>And then they approached the edge of the dangerous desert, and +Ozma threw down the magic carpet, which at once unrolled far enough +for all of them to walk upon it without being crowded.</p> +<p>Tiktok, claiming to be Dorothy’s faithful follower because +he belonged to her, had been permitted to join the party, and +before they started the girl wound up his machinery as far as +possible, and the copper man stepped off as briskly as any one of +them.</p> +<p>Ozma also invited Billina to visit the Land of Oz, and the +yellow hen was glad enough to go where new sights and scenes +awaited her.</p> +<p>They began the trip across the desert early in the morning, and +as they stopped only long enough for Billina to lay her daily egg, +before sunset they espied the green slopes and wooded hills of the +beautiful Land of Oz. They entered it in the Munchkin territory, +and the King of the Munchkins met them at the border and welcomed +Ozma with great respect, being very pleased by her safe return. For +Ozma of Oz ruled the King of the Munchkins, the King of the +Winkies, the King of the Quadlings and the King of the Gillikins +just as those kings ruled their own people; and this supreme ruler +of the Land of Oz lived in a great town of her own, called the +Emerald City, which was in the exact center of the four kingdoms of +the Land of Oz.</p> +<p>The Munchkin king entertained them at his palace that night, and +in the morning they set out for the Emerald City, travelling over a +road of yellow brick that led straight to the jewel-studded gates. +Everywhere the people turned out to greet their beloved Ozma, and +to hail joyfully the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly +Lion, who were popular favorites. Dorothy, too, remembered some of +the people, who had befriended her on the occasion of her first +visit to Oz, and they were well pleased to see the little Kansas +girl again, and showered her with compliments and good wishes.</p> +<p>At one place, where they stopped to refresh themselves, Ozma +accepted a bowl of milk from the hands of a pretty dairy-maid. Then +she looked at the girl more closely, and exclaimed:</p> +<p>“Why, it’s Jinjur—isn’t it!”</p> +<p>“Yes, your Highness,” was the reply, as Jinjur +dropped a low curtsy. And Dorothy looked wonderingly at this lively +appearing person, who had once assembled an army of women and +driven the Scarecrow from the throne of the Emerald City, and even +fought a battle with the powerful army of Glinda the Sorceress.</p> +<p>“I’ve married a man who owns nine cows,” said +Jinjur to Ozma, “and now I am happy and contented and willing +to lead a quiet life and mind my own business.”</p> +<p>“Where is your husband?” asked Ozma.</p> +<p>“He is in the house, nursing a black eye,” replied +Jinjur, calmly. “The foolish man would insist upon milking +the red cow when I wanted him to milk the white one; but he will +know better next time, I am sure.”</p> +<p>Then the party moved on again, and after crossing a broad river +on a ferry and passing many fine farm houses that were dome shaped +and painted a pretty green color, they came in sight of a large +building that was covered with flags and bunting.</p> +<p>“I don’t remember that building,” said +Dorothy. “What is it?”</p> +<p>“That is the College of Art and Athletic +Perfection,” replied Ozma. “I had it built quite +recently, and the Woggle-Bug is its president. It keeps him busy, +and the young men who attend the college are no worse off than they +were before. You see, in this country are a number of youths who do +not like to work, and the college is an excellent place for +them.”</p> +<p>And now they came in sight of the Emerald City, and the people +flocked out to greet their lovely ruler. There were several bands +and many officers and officials of the realm, and a crowd of +citizens in their holiday attire.</p> +<p>Thus the beautiful Ozma was escorted by a brilliant procession +to her royal city, and so great was the cheering that she was +obliged to constantly bow to the right and left to acknowledge the +greetings of her subjects.</p> +<p>That evening there was a grand reception in the royal palace, +attended by the most important persons of Oz, and Jack Pumpkinhead, +who was a little overripe but still active, read an address +congratulating Ozma of Oz upon the success of her generous mission +to rescue the royal family of a neighboring kingdom.</p> +<p>Then magnificent gold medals set with precious stones were +presented to each of the twenty-six officers; and the Tin Woodman +was given a new axe studded with diamonds; and the Scarecrow +received a silver jar of complexion powder. Dorothy was presented +with a pretty coronet and made a Princess of Oz, and Tiktok +received two bracelets set with eight rows of very clear and +sparkling emeralds.</p> +<p>Afterward they sat down to a splendid feast, and Ozma put +Dorothy at her right and Billina at her left, where the hen sat +upon a golden roost and ate from a jeweled platter. Then were +placed the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and Tiktok, with baskets of +lovely flowers before them, because they did not require food. The +twenty-six officers were at the lower end of the table, and the +Lion and the Tiger also had seats, and were served on golden +platters, that held a half a bushel at one time.</p> +<p>The wealthiest and most important citizens of the Emerald City +were proud to wait upon these famous adventurers, and they were +assisted by a sprightly little maid named Jellia Jamb, whom the +Scarecrow pinched upon her rosy cheeks and seemed to know very +well.</p> +<p>During the feast Ozma grew thoughtful, and suddenly she +asked:</p> +<p>“Where is the private?”</p> +<p>“Oh, he is sweeping out the barracks,” replied one +of the generals, who was busy eating a leg of a turkey. “But +I have ordered him a dish of bread and molasses to eat when his +work is done.”</p> +<p>“Let him be sent for,” said the girl ruler.</p> +<p>While they waited for this command to be obeyed, she +enquired:</p> +<p>“Have we any other privates in the armies?”</p> +<p>“Oh, yes,” replied the Tin Woodman, “I believe +there are three, altogether.”</p> +<p>The private now entered, saluting his officers and the royal +Ozma very respectfully.</p> +<p>“What is your name, my man?” asked the girl.</p> +<p>“Omby Amby,” answered the private.</p> +<p>“Then, Omby Amby,” said she, “I promote you to +be Captain General of all the armies of my kingdom, and especially +to be Commander of my Body Guard at the royal palace.”</p> +<p>“It is very expensive to hold so many offices,” said +the private, hesitating. “I have no money with which to buy +uniforms.”</p> +<p>“You shall be supplied from the royal treasury,” +said Ozma.</p> +<p>Then the private was given a seat at the table, where the other +officers welcomed him cordially, and the feasting and merriment +were resumed.</p> +<p>Suddenly Jellia Jamb exclaimed:</p> +<p>“There is nothing more to eat! The Hungry Tiger has +consumed everything!”</p> +<p>“But that is not the worst of it,” declared the +Tiger, mournfully. “Somewhere or somehow, I’ve actually +lost my appetite!”</p> +<h2><a id="Ch_21" name="Ch_21"></a>21. Dorothy’s Magic +Belt</h2> +<p class="returnTOC"><a href="#Contents">Return to Table of +Contents</a></p> +<p>Dorothy passed several very happy weeks in the Land of Oz as the +guest of the royal Ozma, who delighted to please and interest the +little Kansas girl. Many new acquaintances were formed and many old +ones renewed, and wherever she went Dorothy found herself among +friends.</p> +<p>One day, however, as she sat in Ozma’s private room, she +noticed hanging upon the wall a picture which constantly changed in +appearance, at one time showing a meadow and at another time a +forest, a lake or a village.</p> +<p>“How curious!” she exclaimed, after watching the +shifting scenes for a few moments.</p> +<p>“Yes,” said Ozma, “that is really a wonderful +invention in magic. If I wish to see any part of the world or any +person living, I need only express the wish and it is shown in the +picture.”</p> +<p>“May I use it?” asked Dorothy, eagerly.</p> +<p>“Of course, my dear.”</p> +<p>“Then I’d like to see the old Kansas farm, and Aunt +Em,” said the girl.</p> +<p>Instantly the well remembered farmhouse appeared in the picture, +and Aunt Em could be seen quite plainly. She was engaged in washing +dishes by the kitchen window and seemed quite well and contented. +The hired men and the teams were in the harvest fields behind the +house, and the corn and wheat seemed to the child to be in prime +condition. On the side porch Dorothy’s pet dog, Toto, was +lying fast asleep in the sun, and to her surprise old Speckles was +running around with a brood of twelve new chickens trailing after +her.</p> +<p>“Everything seems all right at home,” said Dorothy, +with a sigh of relief. “Now I wonder what Uncle Henry is +doing.”</p> +<p>The scene in the picture at once shifted to Australia, where, in +a pleasant room in Sydney, Uncle Henry was seated in an easy chair, +solemnly smoking his briar pipe. He looked sad and lonely, and his +hair was now quite white and his hands and face thin and +wasted.</p> +<p>“Oh!” cried Dorothy, in an anxious voice, +“I’m sure Uncle Henry isn’t getting any better, +and it’s because he is worried about me. Ozma, dear, I must +go to him at once!”</p> +<p>“How can you?” asked Ozma.</p> +<p>“I don’t know,” replied Dorothy; “but +let us go to Glinda the Good. I’m sure she will help me, and +advise me how to get to Uncle Henry.”</p> +<p>Ozma readily agreed to this plan and caused the Sawhorse to be +harnessed to a pretty green and pink phaeton, and the two girls +rode away to visit the famous sorceress.</p> +<p>Glinda received them graciously, and listened to Dorothy’s +story with attention.</p> +<p>“I have the magic belt, you know,” said the little +girl. “If I buckled it around my waist and commanded it to +take me to Uncle Henry, wouldn’t it do it?”</p> +<p>“I think so,” replied Glinda, with a smile.</p> +<p>“And then,” continued Dorothy, “if I ever +wanted to come back here again, the belt would bring me.”</p> +<p>“In that you are wrong,” said the sorceress. +“The belt has magical powers only while it is in some fairy +country, such as the Land of Oz, or the Land of Ev. Indeed, my +little friend, were you to wear it and wish yourself in Australia, +with your uncle, the wish would doubtless be fulfilled, because it +was made in fairyland. But you would not find the magic belt around +you when you arrived at your destination.”</p> +<p>“What would become of it?” asked the girl.</p> +<p>“It would be lost, as were your silver shoes when you +visited Oz before, and no one would ever see it again. It seems too +bad to destroy the use of the magic belt in that way, doesn’t +it?”</p> +<p>“Then,” said Dorothy, after a moment’s +thought, “I will give the magic belt to Ozma, for she can use +it in her own country. And she can wish me transported to Uncle +Henry without losing the belt.”</p> +<p>“That is a wise plan,” replied Glinda.</p> +<p>So they rode back to the Emerald City, and on the way it was +arranged that every Saturday morning Ozma would look at Dorothy in +her magic picture, wherever the little girl might chance to be. +And, if she saw Dorothy make a certain signal, then Ozma would know +that the little Kansas girl wanted to revisit the Land of Oz, and +by means of the Nome King’s magic belt would wish that she +might instantly return.</p> +<p>This having been agreed upon, Dorothy bade good-bye to all her +friends. Tiktok wanted to go to Australia; too, but Dorothy knew +that the machine man would never do for a servant in a civilized +country, and the chances were that his machinery wouldn’t +work at all. So she left him in Ozma’s care.</p> +<p>Billina, on the contrary, preferred the Land of Oz to any other +country, and refused to accompany Dorothy.</p> +<p>“The bugs and ants that I find here are the finest +flavored in the world,” declared the yellow hen, “and +there are plenty of them. So here I shall end my days; and I must +say, Dorothy, my dear, that you are very foolish to go back into +that stupid, humdrum world again.”</p> +<p>“Uncle Henry needs me,” said Dorothy, simply; and +every one except Billina thought it was right that she should +go.</p> +<p>All Dorothy’s friends of the Land of Oz—both old and +new—gathered in a group in front of the palace to bid her a +sorrowful good-bye and to wish her long life and happiness. After +much hand shaking, Dorothy kissed Ozma once more, and then handed +her the Nome King’s magic belt, saying:</p> +<p>“Now, dear Princess, when I wave my handkerchief, please +wish me with Uncle Henry. I’m aw’fly sorry to leave +you—and the Scarecrow—and the Tin Woodman—and the +Cowardly Lion—and Tiktok—and—and +everybody—but I do want my Uncle Henry! So good-bye, all of +you.”</p> +<p>Then the little girl stood on one of the big emeralds which +decorated the courtyard, and after looking once again at each of +her friends, waved her handkerchief.</p> +<p>“No,” said Dorothy, “I wasn’t drowned at +all. And I’ve come to nurse you and take care of you, Uncle +Henry, and you must promise to get well as soon as +poss’ble.”</p> +<p>Uncle Henry smiled and cuddled his little niece close in his +lap.</p> +<p>“I’m better already, my darling,” said he.</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<pre> +This is the end of the Project Gutenberg Edition of Ozma of Oz +</pre> +</body> +</html> |