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**The Project Gutenberg Etext of Ozma of Oz, by L. Frank Baum**
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#5 in the Oz series
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Ozma of Oz
by L. Frank Baum
April, 1996 [Etext #486]
**The Project Gutenberg Etext of Ozma of Oz, by L. Frank Baum**
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</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
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