"'To My Readers\n\nSome of my youthful readers are developing wonderful imaginations. This\npleases me. Imagination has brought mankind through the Dark Ages to\nits present state of civilization. Imagination led Columbus to discover\nAmerica. Imagination led Franklin to discover electricity. Imagination\nhas given us the steam engine, the telephone, the talking-machine and\nthe automobile, for these things had to be dreamed of before they\nbecame realities. So I believe that dreams--day dreams, you know, with\nyour eyes wide open and your brain-machinery whizzing--are likely to\nlead to the betterment of the world. The imaginative child will become\nthe imaginative man or woman most apt to create, to invent, and\ntherefore to foster civilization. A prominent educator tells me that\nfairy tales are of untold value in developing imagination in the young.\nI believe it.\n\nAmong the letters I receive from children are many containing\nsuggestions of \"what to write about in the next Oz Book.\" Some of the\nideas advanced are mighty interesting, while others are too extravagant\nto be seriously considered--even in a fairy tale. Yet I like them all,\nand I must admit that the main idea in \"The Lost Princess of Oz\" was\nsuggested to me by a sweet little girl of eleven who called to see me\nand to talk about the Land of Oz. Said she: \"I s\'pose if Ozma ever got\nlost, or stolen, ev\'rybody in Oz would be dreadful sorry.\"\n\nThat was all, but quite enough foundation to build this present story\non. If you happen to like the story, give credit to my little friend\'s\nclever hint.\n\nL. Frank Baum\n Royal Historian of Oz\n\n\n\n\nLIST OF CHAPTERS\n\n 1 A Terrible Loss\n 2 The Troubles of Glinda the Good\n 3 The Robbery of Cayke the Cookie Cook\n 4 Among the Winkies\n 5 Ozma\'s Friends Are Perplexed\n 6 The Search Party\n 7 The Merry-Go-Round Mountains\n 8 The Mysterious City\n 9 The High Coco-Lorum of Thi\n 10 Toto Loses Something\n 11 Button-Bright Loses Himself\n 12 The Czarover of Herku\n 13 The Truth Pond\n 14 The Unhappy Ferryman\n 15 The Big Lavender Bear\n 16 The Little Pink Bear\n 17 The Meeting\n 18 The Conference\n 19 Ugu the Shoemaker\n 20 More Surprises\n 21 Magic Against Magic\n 22 In the Wicker Castle\n 23 The Defiance of Ugu the Shoemaker\n 24 The Little Pink Bear Speaks Truly\n 25 Ozma of Oz\n 26 Dorothy Forgives\n\n\n\n\nTHE LOST PRINCESS\n\nBY L. FRANK BAUM\n\n\n\nCHAPTER 1\n\nA TERRIBLE LOSS\n\n\nThere could be no doubt of the fact: Princess Ozma, the lovely girl\nruler of the Fairyland of Oz, was lost. She had completely\ndisappeared. Not one of her subjects--not even her closest\nfriends--knew what had become of her. It was Dorothy who first\ndiscovered it. Dorothy was a little Kansas girl who had come to the\nLand of Oz to live and had been given a delightful suite of rooms in\nOzma\'s royal palace just because Ozma loved Dorothy and wanted her to\nlive as near her as possible so the two girls might be much together.\n\nDorothy was not the only girl from the outside world who had been\nwelcomed to Oz and lived in the royal palace. There was another named\nBetsy Bobbin, whose adventures had led her to seek refuge with Ozma,\nand still another named Trot, who had been invited, together with her\nfaithful companion Cap\'n Bill, to make her home in this wonderful\nfairyland. The three girls all had rooms in the palace and were great\nchums; but Dorothy was the dearest friend of their gracious Ruler and\nonly she at any hour dared to seek Ozma in her royal apartments. For\nDorothy had lived in Oz much longer than the other girls and had been\nmade a Princess of the realm.\n\nBetsy was a year older than Dorothy and Trot was a year younger, yet\nthe three were near enough of an age to become great playmates and to\nhave nice times together. It was while the three were talking together\none morning in Dorothy\'s room that Betsy proposed they make a journey\ninto the Munchkin Country, which was one of the four great countries of\nthe Land of Oz ruled by Ozma. \"I\'ve never been there yet,\" said Betsy\nBobbin, \"but the Scarecrow once told me it is the prettiest country in\nall Oz.\"\n\n\"I\'d like to go, too,\" added Trot.\n\n\n\"All right,\" said Dorothy. \"I\'ll go and ask Ozma. Perhaps she will\nlet us take the Sawhorse and the Red Wagon, which would be much nicer\nfor us than having to walk all the way. This Land of Oz is a pretty\nbig place when you get to all the edges of it.\"\n\nSo she jumped up and went along the halls of the splendid palace until\nshe came to the royal suite, which filled all the front of the second\nfloor. In a little waiting room sat Ozma\'s maid, Jellia Jamb, who was\nbusily sewing. \"Is Ozma up yet?\" inquired Dorothy.\n\n\"I don\'t know, my dear,\" replied Jellia. \"I haven\'t heard a word from\nher this morning. She hasn\'t even called for her bath or her\nbreakfast, and it is far past her usual time for them.\"\n\n\"That\'s strange!\" exclaimed the little girl.\n\n\"Yes,\" agreed the maid, \"but of course no harm could have happened to\nher. No one can die or be killed in the Land of Oz, and Ozma is\nherself a powerful fairy, and she has no enemies so far as we know.\nTherefore I am not at all worried about her, though I must admit her\nsilence is unusual.\"\n\n\"Perhaps,\" said Dorothy thoughtfully, \"she has overslept. Or she may\nbe reading or working out some new sort of magic to do good to her\npeople.\"\n\n\"Any of these things may be true,\" replied Jellia Jamb, \"so I haven\'t\ndared disturb our royal mistress. You, however, are a privileged\ncharacter, Princess, and I am sure that Ozma wouldn\'t mind at all if\nyou went in to see her.\"\n\n\"Of course not,\" said Dorothy, and opening the door of the outer\nchamber, she went in. All was still here. She walked into another\nroom, which was Ozma\'s boudoir, and then, pushing back a heavy drapery\nrichly broidered with threads of pure gold, the girl entered the\nsleeping-room of the fairy Ruler of Oz. The bed of ivory and gold was\nvacant; the room was vacant; not a trace of Ozma was to be found.\n\nVery much surprised, yet still with no fear that anything had happened\nto her friend, Dorothy returned through the boudoir to the other rooms\nof the suite. She went into the music room, the library, the\nlaboratory, the bath, the wardrobe, and even into the great throne\nroom, which adjoined the royal suite, but in none of these places could\nshe find Ozma.\n\nSo she returned to the anteroom where she had left the maid, Jellia\nJamb, and said:\n\n\"She isn\'t in her rooms now, so she must have gone out.\"\n\n\"I don\'t understand how she could do that without my seeing her,\"\nreplied Jellia, \"unless she made herself invisible.\"\n\n\"She isn\'t there, anyhow,\" declared Dorothy.\n\n\"Then let us go find her,\" suggested the maid, who appeared to be a\nlittle uneasy. So they went into the corridors, and there Dorothy\nalmost stumbled over a queer girl who was dancing lightly along the\npassage.\n\n\"Stop a minute, Scraps!\" she called, \"Have you seen Ozma this morning?\"\n\n\"Not I!\" replied the queer girl, dancing nearer. \"I lost both my eyes\nin a tussle with the Woozy last night, for the creature scraped \'em\nboth off my face with his square paws. So I put the eyes in my pocket,\nand this morning Button-Bright led me to Aunt Em, who sewed \'em on\nagain. So I\'ve seen nothing at all today, except during the last five\nminutes. So of course I haven\'t seen Ozma.\"\n\n\"Very well, Scraps,\" said Dorothy, looking curiously at the eyes, which\nwere merely two round, black buttons sewed upon the girl\'s face.\n\nThere were other things about Scraps that would have seemed curious to\none seeing her for the first time. She was commonly called \"the\nPatchwork Girl\" because her body and limbs were made from a gay-colored\npatchwork quilt which had been cut into shape and stuffed with cotton.\nHer head was a round ball stuffed in the same manner and fastened to\nher shoulders. For hair, she had a mass of brown yarn, and to make a\nnose for her a part of the cloth had been pulled out into the shape of\na knob and tied with a string to hold it in place. Her mouth had been\ncarefully made by cutting a slit in the proper place and lining it with\nred silk, adding two rows of pearls for teeth and a bit of red flannel\nfor a tongue.\n\nIn spite of this queer make-up, the Patchwork Girl was magically alive\nand had proved herself not the least jolly and agreeable of the many\nquaint characters who inhabit the astonishing Fairyland of Oz. Indeed,\nScraps was a general favorite, although she was rather flighty and\nerratic and did and said many things that surprised her friends. She\nwas seldom still, but loved to dance, to turn handsprings and\nsomersaults, to climb trees and to indulge in many other active sports.\n\n\"I\'m going to search for Ozma,\" remarked Dorothy, \"for she isn\'t in her\nrooms, and I want to ask her a question.\"\n\n\"I\'ll go with you,\" said Scraps, \"for my eyes are brighter than yours,\nand they can see farther.\"\n\n\"I\'m not sure of that,\" returned Dorothy. \"But come along, if you\nlike.\"\n\nTogether they searched all through the great palace and even to the\nfarthest limits of the palace grounds, which were quite extensive, but\nnowhere could they find a trace of Ozma. When Dorothy returned to\nwhere Betsy and Trot awaited her, the little girl\'s face was rather\nsolemn and troubled, for never before had Ozma gone away without\ntelling her friends where she was going, or without an escort that\nbefitted her royal state. She was gone, however, and none had seen her\ngo. Dorothy had met and questioned the Scarecrow, Tik-Tok, the Shaggy\nMan, Button-Bright, Cap\'n Bill, and even the wise and powerful Wizard\nof Oz, but not one of them had seen Ozma since she parted with her\nfriends the evening before and had gone to her own rooms.\n\n\"She didn\'t say anything las\' night about going anywhere,\" observed\nlittle Trot.\n\n\"No, and that\'s the strange part of it,\" replied Dorothy. \"Usually\nOzma lets us know of everything she does.\"\n\n\"Why not look in the Magic Picture?\" suggested Betsy Bobbin. \"That\nwill tell us where she is in just one second.\"\n\n\"Of course!\" cried Dorothy. \"Why didn\'t I think of that before?\" And\nat once the three girls hurried away to Ozma\'s boudoir, where the Magic\nPicture always hung. This wonderful Magic Picture was one of the royal\nOzma\'s greatest treasures. There was a large gold frame in the center\nof which was a bluish-gray canvas on which various scenes constantly\nappeared and disappeared. If one who stood before it wished to see\nwhat any person anywhere in the world was doing, it was only necessary\nto make the wish and the scene in the Magic Picture would shift to the\nscene where that person was and show exactly what he or she was then\nengaged in doing. So the girls knew it would be easy for them to wish\nto see Ozma, and from the picture they could quickly learn where she\nwas.\n\nDorothy advanced to the place where the picture was usually protected\nby thick satin curtains and pulled the draperies aside. Then she\nstared in amazement, while her two friends uttered exclamations of\ndisappointment.\n\nThe Magic Picture was gone. Only a blank space on the wall behind the\ncurtains showed where it had formerly hung.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER 2\n\nTHE TROUBLES OF GLINDA THE GOOD\n\n\nThat same morning there was great excitement in the castle of the\npowerful Sorceress of Oz, Glinda the Good. This castle, situated in\nthe Quadling Country, far south of the Emerald City where Ozma ruled,\nwas a splendid structure of exquisite marbles and silver grilles. Here\nthe Sorceress lived, surrounded by a bevy of the most beautiful maidens\nof Oz, gathered from all the four countries of that fairyland as well\nas from the magnificent Emerald City itself, which stood in the place\nwhere the four countries cornered. It was considered a great honor to\nbe allowed to serve the good Sorceress, whose arts of magic were used\nonly to benefit the Oz people. Glinda was Ozma\'s most valued servant,\nfor her knowledge of sorcery was wonderful, and she could accomplish\nalmost anything that her mistress, the lovely girl Ruler of Oz, wished\nher to.\n\nOf all the magical things which surrounded Glinda in her castle, there\nwas none more marvelous than her Great Book of Records. On the pages\nof this Record Book were constantly being inscribed, day by day and\nhour by hour, all the important events that happened anywhere in the\nknown world, and they were inscribed in the book at exactly the moment\nthe events happened. Every adventure in the Land of Oz and in the big\noutside world, and even in places that you and I have never heard of,\nwere recorded accurately in the Great Book, which never made a mistake\nand stated only the exact truth. For that reason, nothing could be\nconcealed from Glinda the Good, who had only to look at the pages of\nthe Great Book of Records to know everything that had taken place. That\nwas one reason she was such a great Sorceress, for the records made her\nwiser than any other living person.\n\nThis wonderful book was placed upon a big gold table that stood in the\nmiddle of Glinda\'s drawing room. The legs of the table, which were\nincrusted with precious gems, were firmly fastened to the tiled floor,\nand the book itself was chained to the table and locked with six stout\ngolden padlocks, the keys to which Glinda carried on a chain that was\nsecured around her own neck. The pages of the Great Book were larger\nin size than those of an American newspaper, and although they were\nexceedingly thin, there were so many of them that they made an\nenormous, bulky volume. With its gold cover and gold clasps, the book\nwas so heavy that three men could scarcely have lifted it. Yet this\nmorning when Glinda entered her drawing room after breakfast, the good\nSorceress was amazed to discover that her Great Book of Records had\nmysteriously disappeared.\n\nAdvancing to the table, she found the chains had been cut with some\nsharp instrument, and this must have been done while all in the castle\nslept. Glinda was shocked and grieved. Who could have done this\nwicked, bold thing? And who could wish to deprive her of her Great\nBook of Records?\n\nThe Sorceress was thoughtful for a time, considering the consequences\nof her loss. Then she went to her Room of Magic to prepare a charm\nthat would tell her who had stolen the Record Book. But when she\nunlocked her cupboard and threw open the doors, all of her magical\ninstruments and rare chemical compounds had been removed from the\nshelves. The Sorceress has now both angry and alarmed. She sat down\nin a chair and tried to think how this extraordinary robbery could have\ntaken place. It was evident that the thief was some person of very\ngreat power, or the theft could not have been accomplished without her\nknowledge. But who, in all the Land of Oz, was powerful and skillful\nenough to do this awful thing? And who, having the power, could also\nhave an object in defying the wisest and most talented Sorceress the\nworld has ever known?\n\nGlinda thought over the perplexing matter for a full hour, at the end\nof which time she was still puzzled how to explain it. But although\nher instruments and chemicals were gone, her KNOWLEDGE of magic had not\nbeen stolen, by any means, since no thief, however skillful, can rob\none of knowledge, and that is why knowledge is the best and safest\ntreasure to acquire. Glinda believed that when she had time to gather\nmore magical herbs and elixirs and to manufacture more magical\ninstruments, she would be able to discover who the robber was and what\nhad become of her precious Book of Records.\n\n\"Whoever has done this,\" she said to her maidens, \"is a very foolish\nperson, for in time he is sure to be found out and will then be\nseverely punished.\"\n\nShe now made a list of the things she needed and dispatched messengers\nto every part of Oz with instructions to obtain them and bring them to\nher as soon as possible. And one of her messengers met the little\nWizard of Oz, who was seated on the back of the famous live Sawhorse\nand was clinging to its neck with both his arms, for the Sawhorse was\nspeeding to Glinda\'s castle with the velocity of the wind, bearing the\nnews that Royal Ozma, Ruler of all the great Land of Oz, had suddenly\ndisappeared and no one in the Emerald City knew what had become of her.\n\n\"Also,\" said the Wizard as he stood before the astonished Sorceress,\n\"Ozma\'s Magic Picture is gone, so we cannot consult it to discover\nwhere she is. So I came to you for assistance as soon as we realized\nour loss. Let us look in the Great Book of Records.\"\n\n\"Alas,\" returned the Sorceress sorrowfully, \"we cannot do that, for the\nGreat Book of Records has also disappeared!\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER 3\n\nTHE ROBBERY OF CAYKE THE COOKIE COOK\n\n\nOne more important theft was reported in the Land of Oz that eventful\nmorning, but it took place so far from either the Emerald City or the\ncastle of Glinda the Good that none of those persons we have mentioned\nlearned of the robbery until long afterward.\n\nIn the far southwestern corner of the Winkie Country is a broad\ntableland that can be reached only by climbing a steep hill, whichever\nside one approaches it. On the hillside surrounding this tableland are\nno paths at all, but there are quantities of bramble bushes with sharp\nprickers on them, which prevent any of the Oz people who live down\nbelow from climbing up to see what is on top. But on top live the\nYips, and although the space they occupy is not great in extent, the\nwee country is all their own. The Yips had never--up to the time this\nstory begins--left their broad tableland to go down into the Land of\nOz, nor had the Oz people ever climbed up to the country of the Yips.\n\nLiving all alone as they did, the Yips had queer ways and notions of\ntheir own and did not resemble any other people of the Land of Oz.\nTheir houses were scattered all over the flat surface; not like a city,\ngrouped together, but set wherever their owners\' fancy dictated, with\nfields here, trees there, and odd little paths connecting the houses\none with another. It was here, on the morning when Ozma so strangely\ndisappeared from the Emerald City, that Cayke the Cookie Cook\ndiscovered that her diamond-studded gold dishpan had been stolen, and\nshe raised such a hue and cry over her loss and wailed and shrieked so\nloudly that many of the Yips gathered around her house to inquire what\nwas the matter.\n\nIt was a serious thing in any part of the Land of Oz to accuse one of\nstealing, so when the Yips heard Cayke the Cookie Cook declare that her\njeweled dishpan had been stolen, they were both humiliated and\ndisturbed and forced Cayke to go with them to the Frogman to see what\ncould be done about it. I do not suppose you have ever before heard of\nthe Frogman, for like all other dwellers on that tableland, he had\nnever been away from it, nor had anyone come up there to see him. The\nFrogman was in truth descended from the common frogs of Oz, and when he\nwas first born he lived in a pool in the Winkie Country and was much\nlike any other frog. Being of an adventurous nature, however, he soon\nhopped out of his pool and began to travel, when a big bird came along\nand seized him in its beak and started to fly away with him to its\nnest. When high in the air, the frog wriggled so frantically that he\ngot loose and fell down, down, down into a small hidden pool on the\ntableland of the Yips. Now that pool, it seems, was unknown to the\nYips because it was surrounded by thick bushes and was not near to any\ndwelling, and it proved to be an enchanted pool, for the frog grew very\nfast and very big, feeding on the magic skosh which is found nowhere\nelse on earth except in that one pool. And the skosh not only made the\nfrog very big so that when he stood on his hind legs he was as tall as\nany Yip in the country, but it made him unusually intelligent, so that\nhe soon knew more than the Yips did and was able to reason and to argue\nvery well indeed.\n\nNo one could expect a frog with these talents to remain in a hidden\npool, so he finally got out of it and mingled with the people of the\ntableland, who were amazed at his appearance and greatly impressed by\nhis learning. They had never seen a frog before, and the frog had\nnever seen a Yip before, but as there were plenty of Yips and only one\nfrog, the frog became the most important. He did not hop any more, but\nstood upright on his hind legs and dressed himself in fine clothes and\nsat in chairs and did all the things that people do, so he soon came to\nbe called the Frogman, and that is the only name he has ever had.\nAfter some years had passed, the people came to regard the Frogman as\ntheir adviser in all matters that puzzled them. They brought all their\ndifficulties to him, and when he did not know anything, he pretended to\nknow it, which seemed to answer just as well. Indeed, the Yips thought\nthe Frogman was much wiser than he really was, and he allowed them to\nthink so, being very proud of his position of authority.\n\nThere was another pool on the tableland which was not enchanted but\ncontained good, clear water and was located close to the dwellings.\nHere the people built the Frogman a house of his own, close to the edge\nof the pool so that he could take a bath or a swim whenever he wished.\nHe usually swam in the pool in the early morning before anyone else was\nup, and during the day he dressed himself in his beautiful clothes and\nsat in his house and received the visits of all the Yips who came to\nhim to ask his advice. The Frogman\'s usual costume consisted of\nknee-breeches made of yellow satin plush, with trimmings of gold braid\nand jeweled knee-buckles; a white satin vest with silver buttons in\nwhich were set solitaire rubies; a swallow-tailed coat of bright\nyellow; green stockings and red leather shoes turned up at the toes and\nhaving diamond buckles. He wore, when he walked out, a purple silk hat\nand carried a gold-headed cane. Over his eyes he wore great spectacles\nwith gold rims, not because his eyes were bad, but because the\nspectacles made him look wise, and so distinguished and gorgeous was\nhis appearance that all the Yips were very proud of him.\n\nThere was no King or Queen in the Yip Country, so the simple\ninhabitants naturally came to look upon the Frogman as their leader as\nwell as their counselor in all times of emergency. In his heart the\nbig frog knew he was no wiser than the Yips, but for a frog to know as\nmuch as a person was quite remarkable, and the Frogman was shrewd\nenough to make the people believe he was far more wise than he really\nwas. They never suspected he was a humbug, but listened to his words\nwith great respect and did just what he advised them to do.\n\nNow when Cayke the Cookie Cook raised such an outcry over the theft of\nher diamond-studded dishpan, the first thought of the people was to\ntake her to the Frogman and inform him of the loss, thinking that of\ncourse he would tell her where to find it. He listened to the story\nwith his big eyes wide open behind his spectacles, and said in his\ndeep, croaking voice, \"If the dishpan is stolen, somebody must have\ntaken it.\"\n\n\"But who?\" asked Cayke anxiously. \"Who is the thief?\"\n\n\"The one who took the dishpan, of course,\" replied the Frogman, and\nhearing this all the Yips nodded their heads gravely and said to one\nanother, \"It is absolutely true!\"\n\n\"But I want my dishpan!\" cried Cayke.\n\n\"No one can blame you for that wish,\" remarked the Frogman.\n\n\"Then tell me where I may find it,\" she urged.\n\nThe look the Frogman gave her was a very wise look, and he rose from\nhis chair and strutted up and down the room with his hands under his\ncoattails in a very pompous and imposing manner. This was the first\ntime so difficult a matter had been brought to him, and he wanted time\nto think. It would never do to let them suspect his ignorance, and so\nhe thought very, very hard how best to answer the woman without\nbetraying himself. \"I beg to inform you,\" said he, \"that nothing in\nthe Yip Country has ever been stolen before.\"\n\n\"We know that already,\" answered Cayke the Cookie Cook impatiently.\n\n\"Therefore,\" continued the Frogman, \"this theft becomes a very\nimportant matter.\"\n\n\"Well, where is my dishpan?\" demanded the woman.\n\n\"It is lost, but it must be found. Unfortunately, we have no policemen\nor detectives to unravel the mystery, so we must employ other means to\nregain the lost article. Cayke must first write a Proclamation and\ntack it to the door of her house, and the Proclamation must read that\nwhoever stole the jeweled dishpan must return it at once.\"\n\n\"But suppose no one returns it,\" suggested Cayke.\n\n\"Then,\" said the Frogman, \"that very fact will be proof that no one has\nstolen it.\"\n\nCayke was not satisfied, but the other Yips seemed to approve the plan\nhighly. They all advised her to do as the Frogman had told her to, so\nshe posted the sign on her door and waited patiently for someone to\nreturn the dishpan--which no one ever did. Again she went, accompanied\nby a group of her neighbors, to the Frogman, who by this time had given\nthe matter considerable thought. Said he to Cayke, \"I am now convinced\nthat no Yip has taken your dishpan, and since it is gone from the Yip\nCountry, I suspect that some stranger came from the world down below us\nin the darkness of night when all of us were asleep and took away your\ntreasure. There can be no other explanation of its disappearance. So\nif you wish to recover that golden, diamond-studded dishpan, you must\ngo into the lower world after it.\"\n\nThis was indeed a startling proposition. Cayke and her friends went to\nthe edge of the flat tableland and looked down the steep hillside to\nthe plains below. It was so far to the bottom of the hill that nothing\nthere could be seen very distinctly, and it seemed to the Yips very\nventuresome, if not dangerous, to go so far from home into an unknown\nland. However, Cayke wanted her dishpan very badly, so she turned to\nher friends and asked, \"Who will go with me?\"\n\nNo one answered the question, but after a period of silence one of the\nYips said, \"We know what is here on the top of this flat hill, and it\nseems to us a very pleasant place, but what is down below we do not\nknow. The chances are it is not so pleasant, so we had best stay where\nwe are.\"\n\n\"It may be a far better country than this is,\" suggested the Cookie\nCook.\n\n\"Maybe, maybe,\" responded another Yip, \"but why take chances?\nContentment with one\'s lot is true wisdom. Perhaps in some other\ncountry there are better cookies than you cook, but as we have always\neaten your cookies and liked them--except when they are burned on the\nbottom--we do not long for any better ones.\"\n\nCayke might have agreed to this argument had she not been so anxious to\nfind her precious dishpan, but now she exclaimed impatiently, \"You are\ncowards, all of you! If none of you are willing to explore with me the\ngreat world beyond this small hill, I will surely go alone.\"\n\n\"That is a wise resolve,\" declared the Yips, much relieved. \"It is\nyour dishpan that is lost, not ours. And if you are willing to risk\nyour life and liberty to regain it, no one can deny you the privilege.\"\n\nWhile they were thus conversing, the Frogman joined them and looked\ndown at the plain with his big eyes and seemed unusually thoughtful. In\nfact, the Frogman was thinking that he\'d like to see more of the world.\nHere in the Yip Country he had become the most important creature of\nthem all, and his importance was getting to be a little tame. It would\nbe nice to have other people defer to him and ask his advice, and there\nseemed no reason so far as he could see why his fame should not spread\nthroughout all Oz. He knew nothing of the rest of the world, but it\nwas reasonable to believe that there were more people beyond the\nmountain where he now lived than there were Yips, and if he went among\nthem he could surprise them with his display of wisdom and make them\nbow down to him as the Yips did. In other words, the Frogman was\nambitious to become still greater than he was, which was impossible if\nhe always remained upon this mountain. He wanted others to see his\ngorgeous clothes and listen to his solemn sayings, and here was an\nexcuse for him to get away from the Yip Country. So he said to Cayke\nthe Cookie Cook, \"I will go with you, my good woman,\" which greatly\npleased Cayke because she felt the Frogman could be of much assistance\nto her in her search.\n\nBut now, since the mighty Frogman had decided to undertake the journey,\nseveral of the Yips who were young and daring at once made up their\nminds to go along, so the next morning after breakfast the Frogman and\nCayke the Cookie Cook and nine of the Yips started to slide down the\nside of the mountain. The bramble bushes and cactus plants were very\nprickly and uncomfortable to the touch, so the Frogman quickly\ncommanded the Yips to go first and break a path, so that when he\nfollowed them he would not tear his splendid clothes. Cayke, too, was\nwearing her best dress and was likewise afraid of the thorns and\nprickers, so she kept behind the Frogman.\n\nThey made rather slow progress and night overtook them before they were\nhalfway down the mountainside, so they found a cave in which they\nsought shelter until morning. Cayke had brought along a basket full of\nher famous cookies, so they all had plenty to eat. On the second day\nthe Yips began to wish they had not embarked on this adventure. They\ngrumbled a good deal at having to cut away the thorns to make the path\nfor the Frogman and the Cookie Cook, for their own clothing suffered\nmany tears, while Cayke and the Frogman traveled safely and in comfort.\n\n\"If it is true that anyone came to our country to steal your diamond\ndishpan,\" said one of the Yips to Cayke, \"it must have been a bird, for\nno person in the form of a man, woman or child could have climbed\nthrough these bushes and back again.\"\n\n\"And, allowing he could have done so,\" said another Yip, \"the\ndiamond-studded gold dishpan would not have repaid him for his troubles\nand his tribulations.\"\n\n\"For my part,\" remarked a third Yip, \"I would rather go back home and\ndig and polish some more diamonds and mine some more gold and make you\nanother dishpan than be scratched from head to heel by these dreadful\nbushes. Even now, if my mother saw me, she would not know I am her\nson.\"\n\nCayke paid no heed to these mutterings, nor did the Frogman. Although\ntheir journey was slow, it was being made easy for them by the Yips, so\nthey had nothing to complain of and no desire to turn back. Quite near\nto the bottom of the great hill they came upon a great gulf, the sides\nof which were as smooth as glass. The gulf extended a long\ndistance--as far as they could see in either direction--and although it\nwas not very wide, it was far too wide for the Yips to leap across it.\nAnd should they fall into it, it was likely they might never get out\nagain. \"Here our journey ends,\" said the Yips. \"We must go back again.\"\n\nCayke the Cookie Cook began to weep.\n\n\"I shall never find my pretty dishpan again, and my heart will be\nbroken!\" she sobbed.\n\nThe Frogman went to the edge of the gulf and with his eye carefully\nmeasured the distance to the other side. \"Being a frog,\" said he, \"I\ncan leap, as all frogs do, and being so big and strong, I am sure I can\nleap across this gulf with ease. But the rest of you, not being frogs,\nmust return the way you came.\"\n\n\"We will do that with pleasure,\" cried the Yips, and at once they\nturned and began to climb up the steep mountain, feeling they had had\nquite enough of this unsatisfactory adventure. Cayke the Cookie Cook\ndid not go with them, however. She sat on a rock and wept and wailed\nand was very miserable.\n\n\"Well,\" said the Frogman to her, \"I will now bid you goodbye. If I\nfind your diamond-decorated gold dishpan, I will promise to see that it\nis safely returned to you.\"\n\n\"But I prefer to find it myself!\" she said. \"See here, Frogman, why\ncan\'t you carry me across the gulf when you leap it? You are big and\nstrong, while I am small and thin.\"\n\nThe Frogman gravely thought over this suggestion. It was a fact that\nCayke the Cookie Cook was not a heavy person. Perhaps he could leap\nthe gulf with her on his back. \"If you are willing to risk a fall,\"\nsaid he, \"I will make the attempt.\"\n\nAt once she sprang up and grabbed him around his neck with both her\narms. That is, she grabbed him where his neck ought to be, for the\nFrogman had no neck at all. Then he squatted down, as frogs do when\nthey leap, and with his powerful rear legs he made a tremendous jump.\nOver the gulf they sailed, with the Cookie Cook on his back, and he had\nleaped so hard--to make sure of not falling in--that he sailed over a\nlot of bramble bushes that grew on the other side and landed in a clear\nspace which was so far beyond the gulf that when they looked back they\ncould not see it at all.\n\nCayke now got off the Frogman\'s back and he stood erect again and\ncarefully brushed the dust from his velvet coat and rearranged his\nwhite satin necktie.\n\n\"I had no idea I could leap so far,\" he said wonderingly. \"Leaping is\none more accomplishment I can now add to the long list of deeds I am\nable to perform.\"\n\n\"You are certainly fine at leap-frog,\" said the Cookie Cook admiringly,\n\"but, as you say, you are wonderful in many ways. If we meet with any\npeople down here, I am sure they will consider you the greatest and\ngrandest of all living creatures.\"\n\n\"Yes,\" he replied, \"I shall probably astonish strangers, because they\nhave never before had the pleasure of seeing me. Also, they will\nmarvel at my great learning. Every time I open my mouth, Cayke, I am\nliable to say something important.\"\n\n\"That is true,\" she agreed, \"and it is fortunate your mouth is so very\nwide and opens so far, for otherwise all the wisdom might not be able\nto get out of it.\"\n\n\"Perhaps nature made it wide for that very reason,\" said the Frogman.\n\"But come, let us now go on, for it is getting late and we must find\nsome sort of shelter before night overtakes us.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER 4\n\nAMONG THE WINKIES\n\n\nThe settled parts of the Winkie Country are full of happy and contented\npeople who are ruled by a tin Emperor named Nick Chopper, who in turn\nis a subject of the beautiful girl Ruler, Ozma of Oz. But not all of\nthe Winkie Country is fully settled. At the east, which part lies\nnearest the Emerald City, there are beautiful farmhouses and roads, but\nas you travel west, you first come to a branch of the Winkie River,\nbeyond which there is a rough country where few people live, and some\nof these are quite unknown to the rest of the world. After passing\nthrough this rude section of territory, which no one ever visits, you\nwould come to still another branch of the Winkie River, after crossing\nwhich you would find another well-settled part of the Winkie Country\nextending westward quite to the Deadly Desert that surrounds all the\nLand of Oz and separates that favored fairyland from the more common\noutside world. The Winkies who live in this west section have many tin\nmines, from which metal they make a great deal of rich jewelry and\nother articles, all of which are highly esteemed in the Land of Oz\nbecause tin is so bright and pretty and there is not so much of it as\nthere is of gold and silver.\n\nNot all the Winkies are miners, however, for some till the fields and\ngrow grains for food, and it was at one of these far-west Winkie farms\nthat the Frogman and Cayke the Cookie Cook first arrived after they had\ndescended from the mountain of the Yips. \"Goodness me!\" cried Nellary\nthe Winkie wife when she saw the strange couple approaching her house.\n\"I have seen many queer creatures in the Land of Oz, but none more\nqueer than this giant frog who dresses like a man and walks on his hind\nlegs. Come here, Wiljon,\" she called to her husband, who was eating\nhis breakfast, \"and take a look at this astonishing freak.\"\n\nWiljon the Winkie came to the door and looked out. He was still\nstanding in the doorway when the Frogman approached and said with a\nhaughty croak, \"Tell me, my good man, have you seen a diamond-studded\ngold dishpan?\"\n\n\"No, nor have I seen a copper-plated lobster,\" replied Wiljon in an\nequally haughty tone.\n\nThe Frogman stared at him and said, \"Do not be insolent, fellow!\"\n\n\"No,\" added Cayke the Cookie Cook hastily, \"you must be very polite to\nthe great Frogman, for he is the wisest creature in all the world.\"\n\n\"Who says that?\" inquired Wiljon.\n\n\"He says so himself,\" replied Cayke, and the Frogman nodded and\nstrutted up and down, twirling his gold-headed cane very gracefully.\n\n\"Does the Scarecrow admit that this overgrown frog is the wisest\ncreature in the world?\" asked Wiljon.\n\n\"I do not know who the Scarecrow is,\" answered Cayke the Cookie Cook.\n\n\"Well, he lives at the Emerald City, and he is supposed to have the\nfinest brains in all Oz. The Wizard gave them to him, you know.\"\n\n\"Mine grew in my head,\" said the Frogman pompously, \"so I think they\nmust be better than any wizard brains. I am so wise that sometimes my\nwisdom makes my head ache. I know so much that often I have to forget\npart of it, since no one creature, however great, is able to contain so\nmuch knowledge.\"\n\n\"It must be dreadful to be stuffed full of wisdom,\" remarked Wiljon\nreflectively and eyeing the Frogman with a doubtful look. \"It is my\ngood fortune to know very little.\"\n\n\"I hope, however, you know where my jeweled dishpan is,\" said the\nCookie Cook anxiously.\n\n\"I do not know even that,\" returned the Winkie. \"We have trouble\nenough in keeping track of our own dishpans without meddling with the\ndishpans of strangers.\"\n\nFinding him so ignorant, the Frogman proposed that they walk on and\nseek Cayke\'s dishpan elsewhere. Wiljon the Winkie did not seem greatly\nimpressed by the great Frogman, which seemed to that personage as\nstrange as it was disappointing. But others in this unknown land might\nprove more respectful.\n\n\"I\'d like to meet that Wizard of Oz,\" remarked Cayke as they walked\nalong a path. \"If he could give a Scarecrow brains, he might be able\nto find my dishpan.\"\n\n\"Poof!\" grunted the Frogman scornfully. \"I am greater than any wizard.\nDepend on ME. If your dishpan is anywhere in the world, I am sure to\nfind it.\"\n\n\"If you do not, my heart will be broken,\" declared the Cookie Cook in a\nsorrowful voice.\n\nFor a while the Frogman walked on in silence. Then he asked, \"Why do\nyou attach so much importance to a dishpan?\"\n\n\"It is the greatest treasure I possess,\" replied the woman. \"It\nbelonged to my mother and to all my grandmothers since the beginning of\ntime. It is, I believe, the very oldest thing in all the Yip\nCountry--or was while it was there--and,\" she added, dropping her voice\nto an awed whisper, \"it has magic powers!\"\n\n\"In what way?\" inquired the Frogman, seeming to be surprised at this\nstatement.\n\n\"Whoever has owned that dishpan has been a good cook, for one thing. No\none else is able to make such good cookies as I have cooked, as you and\nall the Yips know. Yet the very morning after my dishpan was stolen, I\ntried to make a batch of cookies and they burned up in the oven! I\nmade another batch that proved too tough to eat, and I was so ashamed\nof them that I buried them in the ground. Even the third batch of\ncookies, which I brought with me in my basket, were pretty poor stuff\nand no better than any woman could make who does not own my\ndiamond-studded gold dishpan. In fact, my good Frogman, Cayke the\nCookie Cook will never be able to cook good cookies again until her\nmagic dishpan is restored to her.\"\n\n\"In that case,\" said the Frogman with a sigh, \"I suppose we must manage\nto find it.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER 5\n\nOZMA\'S FRIENDS ARE PERPLEXED\n\n\n\"Really,\" said Dorothy, looking solemn, \"this is very s\'prising. We\ncan\'t even find a shadow of Ozma anywhere in the Em\'rald City, and\nwherever she\'s gone, she\'s taken her Magic Picture with her.\" She was\nstanding in the courtyard of the palace with Betsy and Trot, while\nScraps, the Patchwork Girl, danced around the group, her hair flying in\nthe wind.\n\n\"P\'raps,\" said Scraps, still dancing, \"someone has stolen Ozma.\"\n\n\"Oh, they\'d never dare do that!\" exclaimed tiny Trot.\n\n\"And stolen the Magic Picture, too, so the thing can\'t tell where she\nis,\" added the Patchwork Girl.\n\n\"That\'s nonsense,\" said Dorothy. \"Why, ev\'ryone loves Ozma. There\nisn\'t a person in the Land of Oz who would steal a single thing she\nowns.\"\n\n\"Huh!\" replied the Patchwork Girl. \"You don\'t know ev\'ry person in the\nLand of Oz.\"\n\n\"Why don\'t I?\"\n\n\"It\'s a big country,\" said Scraps. \"There are cracks and corners in it\nthat even Ozma doesn\'t know of.\"\n\n\"The Patchwork Girl\'s just daffy,\" declared Betsy.\n\n\"No, she\'s right about that,\" replied Dorothy thoughtfully. \"There are\nlots of queer people in this fairyland who never come near Ozma or the\nEm\'rald City. I\'ve seen some of \'em myself, girls. But I haven\'t seen\nall, of course, and there MIGHT be some wicked persons left in Oz yet,\nthough I think the wicked witches have all been destroyed.\"\n\nJust then the Wooden Sawhorse dashed into the courtyard with the Wizard\nof Oz on his back. \"Have you found Ozma?\" cried the Wizard when the\nSawhorse stopped beside them.\n\n\"Not yet,\" said Dorothy. \"Doesn\'t Glinda the Good know where she is?\"\n\n\"No. Glinda\'s Book of Records and all her magic instruments are gone.\nSomeone must have stolen them.\"\n\n\"Goodness me!\" exclaimed Dorothy in alarm. \"This is the biggest steal\nI ever heard of. Who do you think did it, Wizard?\"\n\n\"I\'ve no idea,\" he answered. \"But I have come to get my own bag of\nmagic tools and carry them to Glinda. She is so much more powerful\nthan I that she may be able to discover the truth by means of my magic\nquicker and better than I could myself.\"\n\n\"Hurry, then,\" said Dorothy, \"for we\'ve all gotten terr\'bly worried.\"\n\nThe Wizard rushed away to his rooms but presently came back with a\nlong, sad face. \"It\'s gone!\" he said.\n\n\"What\'s gone?\" asked Scraps.\n\n\"My black bag of magic tools. Someone must have stolen it!\"\n\nThey looked at one another in amazement.\n\n\"This thing is getting desperate,\" continued the Wizard. \"All the magic\nthat belongs to Ozma or to Glinda or to me has been stolen.\"\n\n\"Do you suppose Ozma could have taken them, herself, for some purpose?\"\nasked Betsy.\n\n\"No indeed,\" declared the Wizard. \"I suspect some enemy has stolen\nOzma and for fear we would follow and recapture her has taken all our\nmagic away from us.\"\n\n\"How dreadful!\" cried Dorothy. \"The idea of anyone wanting to injure\nour dear Ozma! Can\'t we do ANYthing to find her, Wizard?\"\n\n\"I\'ll ask Glinda. I must go straight back to her and tell her that my\nmagic tools have also disappeared. The good Sorceress will be greatly\nshocked, I know.\"\n\nWith this, he jumped upon the back of the Sawhorse again, and the\nquaint steed, which never tired, dashed away at full speed. The three\ngirls were very much disturbed in mind. Even the Patchwork Girl seemed\nto realize that a great calamity had overtaken them all. Ozma was a\nfairy of considerable power, and all the creatures in Oz as well as the\nthree mortal girls from the outside world looked upon her as their\nprotector and friend. The idea of their beautiful girl Ruler\'s being\noverpowered by an enemy and dragged from her splendid palace a captive\nwas too astonishing for them to comprehend at first. Yet what other\nexplanation of the mystery could there be?\n\n\"Ozma wouldn\'t go away willingly, without letting us know about it,\"\nasserted Dorothy, \"and she wouldn\'t steal Glinda\'s Great Book of\nRecords or the Wizard\'s magic, \'cause she could get them any time just\nby asking for \'em. I\'m sure some wicked person has done all this.\"\n\n\"Someone in the Land of Oz?\" asked Trot.\n\n\"Of course. No one could get across the Deadly Desert, you know, and\nno one but an Oz person could know about the Magic Picture and the Book\nof Records and the Wizard\'s magic or where they were kept, and so be\nable to steal the whole outfit before we could stop \'em. It MUST be\nsomeone who lives in the Land of Oz.\"\n\n\"But who--who--who?\" asked Scraps. \"That\'s the question. Who?\"\n\n\"If we knew,\" replied Dorothy severely, \"we wouldn\'t be standing here\ndoing nothing.\"\n\nJust then two boys entered the courtyard and approached the group of\ngirls. One boy was dressed in the fantastic Munchkin costume--a blue\njacket and knickerbockers, blue leather shoes and a blue hat with a\nhigh peak and tiny silver bells dangling from its rim--and this was Ojo\nthe Lucky, who had once come from the Munchkin Country of Oz and now\nlived in the Emerald City. The other boy was an American from\nPhiladelphia and had lately found his way to Oz in the company of Trot\nand Cap\'n Bill. His name was Button-Bright; that is, everyone called\nhim by that name and knew no other. Button-Bright was not quite as big\nas the Munchkin boy, but he wore the same kind of clothes, only they\nwere of different colors. As the two came up to the girls, arm in arm,\nButton-Bright remarked, \"Hello, Dorothy. They say Ozma is lost.\"\n\n\"WHO says so?\" she asked.\n\n\"Ev\'rybody\'s talking about it in the City,\" he replied.\n\n\"I wonder how the people found it out,\" Dorothy asked.\n\n\"I know,\" said Ojo. \"Jellia Jamb told them. She has been asking\neverywhere if anyone has seen Ozma.\"\n\n\"That\'s too bad,\" observed Dorothy, frowning.\n\n\"Why?\" asked Button-Bright.\n\n\"There wasn\'t any use making all our people unhappy till we were dead\ncertain that Ozma can\'t be found.\"\n\n\"Pshaw,\" said Button-Bright, \"it\'s nothing to get lost. I\'ve been lost\nlots of times.\"\n\n\"That\'s true,\" admitted Trot, who knew that the boy had a habit of\ngetting lost and then finding himself again, \"but it\'s diff\'rent with\nOzma. She\'s the Ruler of all this big fairyland, and we\'re \'fraid that\nthe reason she\'s lost is because somebody has stolen her away.\"\n\n\"Only wicked people steal,\" said Ojo. \"Do you know of any wicked\npeople in Oz, Dorothy?\"\n\n\"No,\" she replied.\n\n\"They\'re here, though,\" cried Scraps, dancing up to them and then\ncircling around the group. \"Ozma\'s stolen; someone in Oz stole her;\nonly wicked people steal; so someone in Oz is wicked!\"\n\nThere was no denying the truth of this statement. The faces of all of\nthem were now solemn and sorrowful. \"One thing is sure,\" said\nButton-Bright after a time, \"if Ozma has been stolen, someone ought to\nfind her and punish the thief.\"\n\n\"There may be a lot of thieves,\" suggested Trot gravely, \"and in this\nfairy country they don\'t seem to have any soldiers or policemen.\"\n\n\"There is one soldier,\" claimed Dorothy.\n\n\"He has green whiskers and a gun and is a Major-General, but no one is\nafraid of either his gun or his whiskers, \'cause he\'s so tender-hearted\nthat he wouldn\'t hurt a fly.\"\n\n\n\"Well, a soldier is a soldier,\" said Betsy, \"and perhaps he\'d hurt a\nwicked thief if he wouldn\'t hurt a fly. Where is he?\"\n\n\"He went fishing about two months ago and hasn\'t come back yet,\"\nexplained Button-Bright.\n\n\"Then I can\'t see that he will be of much use to us in this trouble,\"\nsighed little Trot. \"But p\'raps Ozma, who is a fairy, can get away\nfrom the thieves without any help from anyone.\"\n\n\"She MIGHT be able to,\" answered Dorothy reflectively, \"but if she had\nthe power to do that, it isn\'t likely she\'d have let herself be stolen.\nSo the thieves must have been even more powerful in magic than our\nOzma.\"\n\nThere was no denying this argument, and although they talked the matter\nover all the rest of that day, they were unable to decide how Ozma had\nbeen stolen against her will or who had committed the dreadful deed.\nToward evening the Wizard came back, riding slowly upon the Sawhorse\nbecause he felt discouraged and perplexed. Glinda came later in her\naerial chariot drawn by twenty milk-white swans, and she also seemed\nworried and unhappy. More of Ozma\'s friends joined them, and that\nevening they all had a big talk together. \"I think,\" said Dorothy, \"we\nought to start out right away in search of our dear Ozma. It seems\ncruel for us to live comf\'tably in her palace while she is a pris\'ner\nin the power of some wicked enemy.\"\n\n\"Yes,\" agreed Glinda the Sorceress, \"someone ought to search for her. I\ncannot go myself, because I must work hard in order to create some new\ninstruments of sorcery by means of which I may rescue our fair Ruler.\nBut if you can find her in the meantime and let me know who has stolen\nher, it will enable me to rescue her much more quickly.\"\n\n\"Then we\'ll start tomorrow morning,\" decided Dorothy. \"Betsy and Trot\nand I won\'t waste another minute.\"\n\n\"I\'m not sure you girls will make good detectives,\" remarked the\nWizard, \"but I\'ll go with you to protect you from harm and to give you\nmy advice. All my wizardry, alas, is stolen, so I am now really no\nmore a wizard than any of you, but I will try to protect you from any\nenemies you may meet.\"\n\n\"What harm could happen to us in Oz?\" inquired Trot.\n\n\"What harm happened to Ozma?\" returned the Wizard.\n\n\"If there is an Evil Power abroad in our fairyland, which is able to\nsteal not only Ozma and her Magic Picture, but Glinda\'s Book of Records\nand all her magic, and my black bag containing all my tricks of\nwizardry, then that Evil Power may yet cause us considerable injury.\nOzma is a fairy, and so is Glinda, so no power can kill or destroy\nthem, but you girls are all mortals and so are Button-Bright and I, so\nwe must watch out for ourselves.\"\n\n\"Nothing can kill me,\" said Ojo the Munchkin boy.\n\n\"That is true,\" replied the Sorceress, \"and I think it may be well to\ndivide the searchers into several parties, that they may cover all the\nland of Oz more quickly. So I will send Ojo and Unc Nunkie and Dr.\nPipt into the Munchkin Country, which they are well acquainted with;\nand I will send the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman into the Quadling\nCountry, for they are fearless and brave and never tire; and to the\nGillikin Country, where many dangers lurk, I will send the Shaggy Man\nand his brother, with Tik-Tok and Jack Pumpkinhead. Dorothy may make\nup her own party and travel into the Winkie Country. All of you must\ninquire everywhere for Ozma and try to discover where she is hidden.\"\n\nThey thought this a very wise plan and adopted it without question. In\nOzma\'s absence, Glinda the Good was the most important person in Oz,\nand all were glad to serve under her direction.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER 6\n\nTHE SEARCH PARTY\n\n\nNext morning as soon as the sun was up, Glinda flew back to her castle,\nstopping on the way to instruct the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman, who\nwere at that time staying at the college of Professor H. M. Wogglebug,\nT.E., and taking a course of his Patent Educational Pills.\n\nOn hearing of Ozma\'s loss, they started at once for the Quadling\nCountry to search for her. As soon as Glinda had left the Emerald\nCity, Tik-Tok and the Shaggy Man and Jack Pumpkinhead, who had been\npresent at the conference, began their journey into the Gillikin\nCountry, and an hour later Ojo and Unc Nunkie joined Dr. Pipt and\ntogether they traveled toward the Munchkin Country. When all these\nsearchers were gone, Dorothy and the Wizard completed their own\npreparations.\n\nThe Wizard hitched the Sawhorse to the Red Wagon, which would seat four\nvery comfortably. He wanted Dorothy, Betsy, Trot and the Patchwork\nGirl to ride in the wagon, but Scraps came up to them mounted upon the\nWoozy, and the Woozy said he would like to join the party. Now this\nWoozy was a most peculiar animal, having a square head, square body,\nsquare legs and square tail. His skin was very tough and hard,\nresembling leather, and while his movements were somewhat clumsy, the\nbeast could travel with remarkable swiftness. His square eyes were mild\nand gentle in expression, and he was not especially foolish. The Woozy\nand the Patchwork Girl were great friends, and so the Wizard agreed to\nlet the Woozy go with them.\n\nAnother great beast now appeared and asked to go along. This was none\nother than the famous Cowardly Lion, one of the most interesting\ncreatures in all Oz. No lion that roamed the jungles or plains could\ncompare in size or intelligence with this Cowardly Lion, who--like all\nanimals living in Oz--could talk and who talked with more shrewdness\nand wisdom than many of the people did. He said he was cowardly\nbecause he always trembled when he faced danger, but he had faced\ndanger many times and never refused to fight when it was necessary.\nThis Lion was a great favorite with Ozma and always guarded her throne\non state occasions. He was also an old companion and friend of the\nPrincess Dorothy, so the girl was delighted to have him join the party.\n\n\"I\'m so nervous over our dear Ozma,\" said the Cowardly Lion in his\ndeep, rumbling voice, \"that it would make me unhappy to remain behind\nwhile you are trying to find her. But do not get into any danger, I\nbeg of you, for danger frightens me terribly.\"\n\n\"We\'ll not get into danger if we can poss\'bly help it,\" promised\nDorothy, \"but we shall do anything to find Ozma, danger or no danger.\"\n\nThe addition of the Woozy and the Cowardly Lion to the party gave Betsy\nBobbin an idea, and she ran to the marble stables at the rear of the\npalace and brought out her mule, Hank by name. Perhaps no mule you\never saw was so lean and bony and altogether plain looking as this\nHank, but Betsy loved him dearly because he was faithful and steady and\nnot nearly so stupid as most mules are considered to be. Betsy had a\nsaddle for Hank, and he declared she would ride on his back, an\narrangement approved by the Wizard because it left only four of the\nparty to ride on the seats of the Red Wagon--Dorothy and Button-Bright\nand Trot and himself.\n\nAn old sailor man who had one wooden leg came to see them off and\nsuggested that they put a supply of food and blankets in the Red Wagon\ninasmuch as they were uncertain how long they would be gone. This\nsailor man was called Cap\'n Bill. He was a former friend and comrade\nof Trot and had encountered many adventures in company with the little\ngirl. I think he was sorry he could not go with her on this trip, but\nGlinda the Sorceress had asked Cap\'n Bill to remain in the Emerald City\nand take charge of the royal palace while everyone else was away, and\nthe one-legged sailor had agreed to do so.\n\nThey loaded the back end of the Red Wagon with everything they thought\nthey might need, and then they formed a procession and marched from the\npalace through the Emerald City to the great gates of the wall that\nsurrounded this beautiful capital of the Land of Oz. Crowds of\ncitizens lined the streets to see them pass and to cheer them and wish\nthem success, for all were grieved over Ozma\'s loss and anxious that\nshe be found again. First came the Cowardly Lion, then the Patchwork\nGirl riding upon the Woozy, then Betsy Bobbin on her mule Hank, and\nfinally the Sawhorse drawing the Red Wagon, in which were seated the\nWizard and Dorothy and Button-Bright and Trot. No one was obliged to\ndrive the Sawhorse, so there were no reins to his harness; one had only\nto tell him which way to go, fast or slow, and he understood perfectly.\n\nIt was about this time that a shaggy little black dog who had been\nlying asleep in Dorothy\'s room in the palace woke up and discovered he\nwas lonesome. Everything seemed very still throughout the great\nbuilding, and Toto--that was the little dog\'s name--missed the\ncustomary chatter of the three girls. He never paid much attention to\nwhat was going on around him, and although he could speak, he seldom\nsaid anything, so the little dog did not know about Ozma\'s loss or that\neveryone had gone in search of her. But he liked to be with people,\nand especially with his own mistress, Dorothy, and having yawned and\nstretched himself and found the door of the room ajar, he trotted out\ninto the corridor and went down the stately marble stairs to the hall\nof the palace, where he met Jellia Jamb.\n\n\"Where\'s Dorothy?\" asked Toto.\n\n\"She\'s gone to the Winkie Country,\" answered the maid.\n\n\"When?\"\n\n\"A little while ago,\" replied Jellia.\n\nToto turned and trotted out into the palace garden and down the long\ndriveway until he came to the streets of the Emerald City. Here he\npaused to listen, and hearing sounds of cheering, he ran swiftly along\nuntil he came in sight of the Red Wagon and the Woozy and the Lion and\nthe Mule and all the others. Being a wise little dog, he decided not\nto show himself to Dorothy just then, lest he be sent back home, but he\nnever lost sight of the party of travelers, all of whom were so eager\nto get ahead that they never thought to look behind them. When they\ncame to the gates in the city wall, the Guardian of the Gates came out\nto throw wide the golden portals and let them pass through.\n\n\"Did any strange person come in or out of the city on the night before\nlast when Ozma was stolen?\" asked Dorothy.\n\n\"No indeed, Princess,\" answered the Guardian of the Gates.\n\n\"Of course not,\" said the Wizard. \"Anyone clever enough to steal all\nthe things we have lost would not mind the barrier of a wall like this\nin the least. I think the thief must have flown through the air, for\notherwise he could not have stolen from Ozma\'s royal palace and\nGlinda\'s faraway castle in the same night. Moreover, as there are no\nairships in Oz and no way for airships from the outside world to get\ninto this country, I believe the thief must have flown from place to\nplace by means of magic arts which neither Glinda nor I understand.\"\n\nOn they went, and before the gates closed behind them, Toto managed to\ndodge through them. The country surrounding the Emerald City was\nthickly settled, and for a while our friends rode over nicely paved\nroads which wound through a fertile country dotted with beautiful\nhouses, all built in the quaint Oz fashion. In the course of a few\nhours, however, they had left the tilled fields and entered the Country\nof the Winkies, which occupies a quarter of all the territory in the\nLand of Oz but is not so well known as many other parts of Ozma\'s\nfairyland. Long before night the travelers had crossed the Winkie\nRiver near to the Scarecrow\'s Tower (which was now vacant) and had\nentered the Rolling Prairie where few people live. They asked everyone\nthey met for news of Ozma, but none in this district had seen her or\neven knew that she had been stolen. And by nightfall they had passed\nall the farmhouses and were obliged to stop and ask for shelter at the\nhut of a lonely shepherd. When they halted, Toto was not far behind.\nThe little dog halted, too, and stealing softly around the party, he\nhid himself behind the hut.\n\nThe shepherd was a kindly old man and treated the travelers with much\ncourtesy. He slept out of doors that night, giving up his hut to the\nthree girls, who made their beds on the floor with the blankets they\nhad brought in the Red Wagon. The Wizard and Button-Bright also slept\nout of doors, and so did the Cowardly Lion and Hank the Mule. But\nScraps and the Sawhorse did not sleep at all, and the Woozy could stay\nawake for a month at a time if he wished to, so these three sat in a\nlittle group by themselves and talked together all through the night.\n\nIn the darkness, the Cowardly Lion felt a shaggy little form nestling\nbeside his own, and he said sleepily, \"Where did you come from, Toto?\"\n\n\"From home,\" said the dog. \"If you roll over, roll the other way so you\nwon\'t smash me.\"\n\n\"Does Dorothy know you are here?\" asked the Lion.\n\n\"I believe not,\" admitted Toto, and he added a little anxiously, \"Do\nyou think, friend Lion, we are now far enough from the Emerald City for\nme to risk showing myself, or will Dorothy send me back because I\nwasn\'t invited?\"\n\n\"Only Dorothy can answer that question,\" said the Lion. \"For my part,\nToto, I consider this affair none of my business, so you must act as\nyou think best.\" Then the huge beast went to sleep again, and Toto\nsnuggled closer to the warm, hairy body and also slept. He was a wise\nlittle dog in his way, and didn\'t intend to worry when there was\nsomething much better to do.\n\nIn the morning the Wizard built a fire, over which the girls cooked a\nvery good breakfast. Suddenly Dorothy discovered Toto sitting quietly\nbefore the fire, and the little girl exclaimed, \"Goodness me, Toto!\nWhere did YOU come from?\"\n\n\"From the place you cruelly left me,\" replied the dog in a reproachful\ntone.\n\n\"I forgot all about you,\" admitted Dorothy, \"and if I hadn\'t, I\'d\nprob\'ly left you with Jellia Jamb, seeing this isn\'t a pleasure trip\nbut stric\'ly business. But now that you\'re here, Toto, I s\'pose you\'ll\nhave to stay with us, unless you\'d rather go back again. We may get\nourselves into trouble before we\'re done, Toto.\"\n\n\"Never mind that,\" said Toto, wagging his tail. \"I\'m hungry, Dorothy.\"\n\n\"Breakfas\'ll soon be ready, and then you shall have your share,\"\npromised his little mistress, who was really glad to have her dog with\nher. She and Toto had traveled together before, and she knew he was a\ngood and faithful comrade.\n\nWhen the food was cooked and served, the girls invited the old shepherd\nto join them in the morning meal. He willingly consented, and while\nthey ate he said to them, \"You are now about to pass through a very\ndangerous country, unless you turn to the north or to the south to\nescape its perils.\"\n\n\"In that case,\" said the Cowardly Lion, \"let us turn, by all means, for\nI dread to face dangers of any sort.\"\n\n\"What\'s the matter with the country ahead of us?\" inquired Dorothy.\n\n\"Beyond this Rolling Prairie,\" explained the shepherd, \"are the\nMerry-Go-Round Mountains, set close together and surrounded by deep\ngulfs so that no one is able to get past them. Beyond the\nMerry-Go-Round Mountains it is said the Thistle-Eaters and the Herkus\nlive.\"\n\n\"What are they like?\" demanded Dorothy.\n\n\"No one knows, for no one has ever passed the Merry-Go-Round\nMountains,\" was the reply, \"but it is said that the Thistle-Eaters\nhitch dragons to their chariots and that the Herkus are waited upon by\ngiants whom they have conquered and made their slaves.\"\n\n\"Who says all that?\" asked Betsy.\n\n\"It is common report,\" declared the shepherd. \"Everyone believes it.\"\n\n\"I don\'t see how they know,\" remarked little Trot, \"if no one has been\nthere.\"\n\n\"Perhaps the birds who fly over that country brought the news,\"\nsuggested Betsy.\n\n\"If you escaped those dangers,\" continued the shepherd, \"you might\nencounter others still more serious before you came to the next branch\nof the Winkie River. It is true that beyond that river there lies a\nfine country inhabited by good people, and if you reached there, you\nwould have no further trouble. It is between here and the west branch\nof the Winkie River that all dangers lie, for that is the unknown\nterritory that is inhabited by terrible, lawless people.\"\n\n\"It may be, and it may not be,\" said the Wizard. \"We shall know when\nwe get there.\"\n\n\"Well,\" persisted the shepherd, \"in a fairy country such as ours, every\nundiscovered place is likely to harbor wicked creatures. If they were\nnot wicked, they would discover themselves and by coming among us\nsubmit to Ozma\'s rule and be good and considerate, as are all the Oz\npeople whom we know.\"\n\n\"That argument,\" stated the little Wizard, \"convinces me that it is our\nduty to go straight to those unknown places, however dangerous they may\nbe, for it is surely some cruel and wicked person who has stolen our\nOzma, and we know it would be folly to search among good people for the\nculprit. Ozma may not be hidden in the secret places of the Winkie\nCountry, it is true, but it is our duty to travel to every spot,\nhowever dangerous, where our beloved Ruler is likely to be imprisoned.\"\n\n\"You\'re right about that,\" said Button-Bright approvingly. \"Dangers\ndon\'t hurt us. Only things that happen ever hurt anyone, and a danger\nis a thing that might happen and might not happen, and sometimes don\'t\namount to shucks. I vote we go ahead and take our chances.\"\n\nThey were all of the same opinion, so they packed up and said goodbye\nto the friendly shepherd and proceeded on their way.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER 7\n\nTHE MERRY-GO-ROUND MOUNTAINS\n\n\nThe Rolling Prairie was not difficult to travel over, although it was\nall uphill and downhill, so for a while they made good progress. Not\neven a shepherd was to be met with now, and the farther they advanced\nthe more dreary the landscape became. At noon they stopped for a\n\"picnic luncheon,\" as Betsy called it, and then they again resumed\ntheir journey. All the animals were swift and tireless, and even the\nCowardly Lion and the Mule found they could keep up with the pace of\nthe Woozy and the Sawhorse.\n\nIt was the middle of the afternoon when first they came in sight of a\ncluster of low mountains. These were cone-shaped, rising from broad\nbases to sharp peaks at the tops. From a distance the mountains\nappeared indistinct and seemed rather small--more like hills than\nmountains--but as the travelers drew nearer, they noted a most unusual\ncircumstance: the hills were all whirling around, some in one direction\nand some the opposite way.\n\n\"I guess these are the Merry-Go-Round Mountains, all right,\" said\nDorothy.\n\n\"They must be,\" said the Wizard.\n\n\"They go \'round, sure enough,\" agreed Trot, \"but they don\'t seem very\nmerry.\"\n\nThere were several rows of these mountains, extending both to the right\nand to the left for miles and miles. How many rows there might be none\ncould tell, but between the first row of peaks could be seen other\npeaks, all steadily whirling around one way or another. Continuing to\nride nearer, our friends watched these hills attentively, until at\nlast, coming close up, they discovered there was a deep but narrow gulf\naround the edge of each mountain, and that the mountains were set so\nclose together that the outer gulf was continuous and barred farther\nadvance. At the edge of the gulf they all dismounted and peered over\ninto its depths. There was no telling where the bottom was, if indeed\nthere was any bottom at all. From where they stood it seemed as if the\nmountains had been set in one great hole in the ground, just close\nenough together so they would not touch, and that each mountain was\nsupported by a rocky column beneath its base which extended far down in\nthe black pit below. From the land side it seemed impossible to get\nacross the gulf or, succeeding in that, to gain a foothold on any of\nthe whirling mountains.\n\n\"This ditch is too wide to jump across,\" remarked Button-Bright.\n\n\"P\'raps the Lion could do it,\" suggested Dorothy.\n\n\"What, jump from here to that whirling hill?\" cried the Lion\nindignantly. \"I should say not! Even if I landed there and could hold\non, what good would it do? There\'s another spinning mountain beyond\nit, and perhaps still another beyond that. I don\'t believe any living\ncreature could jump from one mountain to another when both are whirling\nlike tops and in different directions.\"\n\n\"I propose we turn back,\" said the Wooden Sawhorse with a yawn of his\nchopped-out mouth as he stared with his knot eyes at the Merry-Go-Round\nMountains.\n\n\"I agree with you,\" said the Woozy, wagging his square head.\n\n\"We should have taken the shepherd\'s advice,\" added Hank the Mule.\n\nThe others of the party, however they might be puzzled by the serious\nproblem that confronted them, would not allow themselves to despair.\n\"If we once get over these mountains,\" said Button-Bright, \"we could\nprobably get along all right.\"\n\n\"True enough,\" agreed Dorothy. \"So we must find some way, of course,\nto get past these whirligig hills. But how?\"\n\n\"I wish the Ork was with us,\" sighed Trot.\n\n\"But the Ork isn\'t here,\" said the Wizard, \"and we must depend upon\nourselves to conquer this difficulty. Unfortunately, all my magic has\nbeen stolen, otherwise I am sure I could easily get over the mountains.\"\n\n\"Unfortunately,\" observed the Woozy, \"none of us has wings. And we\'re\nin a magic country without any magic.\"\n\n\"What is that around your waist, Dorothy?\" asked the Wizard.\n\n\"That? Oh, that\'s just the Magic Belt I once captured from the Nome\nKing,\" she replied.\n\n\"A Magic Belt! Why, that\'s fine. I\'m sure a Magic Belt would take\nyou over these hills.\"\n\n\"It might if I knew how to work it,\" said the little girl. \"Ozma knows\na lot of its magic, but I\'ve never found out about it. All I know is\nthat while I am wearing it, nothing can hurt me.\"\n\n\"Try wishing yourself across and see if it will obey you,\" suggested\nthe Wizard.\n\n\"But what good would that do?\" asked Dorothy. \"If I got across, it\nwouldn\'t help the rest of you, and I couldn\'t go alone among all those\ngiants and dragons while you stayed here.\"\n\n\"True enough,\" agreed the Wizard sadly. And then, after looking around\nthe group, he inquired, \"What is that on your finger, Trot?\"\n\n\"A ring. The Mermaids gave it to me,\" she explained, \"and if ever I\'m\nin trouble when I\'m on the water, I can call the Mermaids and they\'ll\ncome and help me. But the Mermaids can\'t help me on the land, you\nknow, \'cause they swim, and--and--they haven\'t any legs.\"\n\n\"True enough,\" repeated the Wizard, more sadly.\n\nThere was a big, broad, spreading tree near the edge of the gulf, and\nas the sun was hot above them, they all gathered under the shade of the\ntree to study the problem of what to do next. \"If we had a long rope,\"\nsaid Betsy, \"we could fasten it to this tree and let the other end of\nit down into the gulf and all slide down it.\"\n\n\"Well, what then?\" asked the Wizard.\n\n\"Then, if we could manage to throw the rope up the other side,\"\nexplained the girl, \"we could all climb it and be on the other side of\nthe gulf.\"\n\n\"There are too many \'if\'s\' in that suggestion,\" remarked the little\nWizard. \"And you must remember that the other side is nothing but\nspinning mountains, so we couldn\'t possibly fasten a rope to them, even\nif we had one.\"\n\n\"That rope idea isn\'t half bad, though,\" said the Patchwork Girl, who\nhad been dancing dangerously near to the edge of the gulf.\n\n\"What do you mean?\" asked Dorothy.\n\nThe Patchwork Girl suddenly stood still and cast her button eyes around\nthe group. \"Ha, I have it!\" she exclaimed. \"Unharness the Sawhorse,\nsomebody. My fingers are too clumsy.\"\n\n\"Shall we?\" asked Button-Bright doubtfully, turning to the others.\n\n\"Well, Scraps has a lot of brains, even if she IS stuffed with cotton,\"\nasserted the Wizard. \"If her brains can help us out of this trouble,\nwe ought to use them.\"\n\nSo he began unharnessing the Sawhorse, and Button-Bright and Dorothy\nhelped him. When they had removed the harness, the Patchwork Girl told\nthem to take it all apart and buckle the straps together, end to end.\nAnd after they had done this, they found they had one very long strap\nthat was stronger than any rope. \"It would reach across the gulf\neasily,\" said the Lion, who with the other animals had sat on his\nhaunches and watched this proceeding. \"But I don\'t see how it could be\nfastened to one of those dizzy mountains.\"\n\nScraps had no such notion as that in her baggy head. She told them to\nfasten one end of the strap to a stout limb of the tree, pointing to\none which extended quite to the edge of the gulf. Button-Bright did\nthat, climbing the tree and then crawling out upon the limb until he\nwas nearly over the gulf. There he managed to fasten the strap, which\nreached to the ground below, and then he slid down it and was caught by\nthe Wizard, who feared he might fall into the chasm. Scraps was\ndelighted. She seized the lower end of the strap, and telling them all\nto get out of her way, she went back as far as the strap would reach\nand then made a sudden run toward the gulf. Over the edge she swung,\nclinging to the strap until it had gone as far as its length permitted,\nwhen she let go and sailed gracefully through the air until she\nalighted upon the mountain just in front of them.\n\nAlmost instantly, as the great cone continued to whirl, she was sent\nflying against the next mountain in the rear, and that one had only\nturned halfway around when Scraps was sent flying to the next mountain\nbehind it. Then her patchwork form disappeared from view entirely, and\nthe amazed watchers under the tree wondered what had become of her.\n\"She\'s gone, and she can\'t get back,\" said the Woozy.\n\n\"My, how she bounded from one mountain to another!\" exclaimed the Lion.\n\n\"That was because they whirl so fast,\" the Wizard explained. \"Scraps\nhad nothing to hold on to, and so of course she was tossed from one\nhill to another. I\'m afraid we shall never see the poor Patchwork Girl\nagain.\"\n\n\"I shall see her,\" declared the Woozy. \"Scraps is an old friend of\nmine, and if there are really Thistle-Eaters and Giants on the other\nside of those tops, she will need someone to protect her. So here I\ngo!\" He seized the dangling strap firmly in his square mouth, and in\nthe same way that Scraps had done swung himself over the gulf. He let\ngo the strap at the right moment and fell upon the first whirling\nmountain. Then he bounded to the next one back of it--not on his feet,\nbut \"all mixed up,\" as Trot said--and then he shot across to another\nmountain, disappearing from view just as the Patchwork Girl had done.\n\n\"It seems to work, all right,\" remarked Button-Bright. \"I guess I\'ll\ntry it.\"\n\n\"Wait a minute,\" urged the Wizard. \"Before any more of us make this\ndesperate leap into the beyond, we must decide whether all will go or\nif some of us will remain behind.\"\n\n\"Do you s\'pose it hurt them much to bump against those mountains?\"\nasked Trot.\n\n\"I don\'t s\'pose anything could hurt Scraps or the Woozy,\" said Dorothy,\n\"and nothing can hurt ME, because I wear the Magic Belt. So as I\'m\nanxious to find Ozma, I mean to swing myself across too.\"\n\n\"I\'ll take my chances,\" decided Button-Bright.\n\n\"I\'m sure it will hurt dreadfully, and I\'m afraid to do it,\" said the\nLion, who was already trembling, \"but I shall do it if Dorothy does.\"\n\n\"Well, that will leave Betsy and the Mule and Trot,\" said the Wizard,\n\"for of course I shall go that I may look after Dorothy. Do you two\ngirls think you can find your way back home again?\" he asked,\naddressing Trot and Betsy.\n\n\"I\'m not afraid. Not much, that is,\" said Trot. \"It looks risky, I\nknow, but I\'m sure I can stand it if the others can.\"\n\n\"If it wasn\'t for leaving Hank,\" began Betsy in a hesitating voice.\n\nBut the Mule interrupted her by saying, \"Go ahead if you want to, and\nI\'ll come after you. A mule is as brave as a lion any day.\"\n\n\"Braver,\" said the Lion, \"for I\'m a coward, friend Hank, and you are\nnot. But of course the Sawhorse--\"\n\n\"Oh, nothing ever hurts ME,\" asserted the Sawhorse calmly. \"There\'s\nnever been any question about my going. I can\'t take the Red Wagon,\nthough.\"\n\n\"No, we must leave the wagon,\" said the wizard, \"and also we must leave\nour food and blankets, I fear. But if we can defy these Merry-Go-Round\nMountains to stop us, we won\'t mind the sacrifice of some of our\ncomforts.\"\n\n\"No one knows where we\'re going to land!\" remarked the Lion in a voice\nthat sounded as if he were going to cry.\n\n\"We may not land at all,\" replied Hank, \"but the best way to find out\nwhat will happen to us is to swing across as Scraps and the Woozy have\ndone.\"\n\n\"I think I shall go last,\" said the Wizard, \"so who wants to go first?\"\n\n\"I\'ll go,\" decided Dorothy.\n\n\"No, it\'s my turn first,\" said Button-Bright. \"Watch me!\"\n\nEven as he spoke, the boy seized the strap, and after making a run\nswung himself across the gulf. Away he went, bumping from hill to hill\nuntil he disappeared. They listened intently, but the boy uttered no\ncry until he had been gone some moments, when they heard a faint\n\"Hullo-a!\" as if called from a great distance. The sound gave them\ncourage, however, and Dorothy picked up Toto and held him fast under\none arm while with the other hand she seized the strap and bravely\nfollowed after Button-Bright.\n\nWhen she struck the first whirling mountain, she fell upon it quite\nsoftly, but before she had time to think, she flew through the air and\nlit with a jar on the side of the next mountain. Again she flew and\nalighted, and again and still again, until after five successive bumps\nshe fell sprawling upon a green meadow and was so dazed and bewildered\nby her bumpy journey across the Merry-Go-Round Mountains that she lay\nquite still for a time to collect her thoughts. Toto had escaped from\nher arms just as she fell, and he now sat beside her panting with\nexcitement. Then Dorothy realized that someone was helping her to her\nfeet, and here was Button-Bright on one side of her and Scraps on the\nother, both seeming to be unhurt. The next object her eyes fell upon\nwas the Woozy, squatting upon his square back end and looking at her\nreflectively, while Toto barked joyously to find his mistress unhurt\nafter her whirlwind trip.\n\n\"Good!\" said the Woozy. \"Here\'s another and a dog, both safe and\nsound. But my word, Dorothy, you flew some! If you could have seen\nyourself, you\'d have been absolutely astonished.\"\n\n\"They say \'Time flies,\'\" laughed Button-Bright, \"but Time never made a\nquicker journey than that.\"\n\nJust then, as Dorothy turned around to look at the whirling mountains,\nshe was in time to see tiny Trot come flying from the nearest hill to\nfall upon the soft grass not a yard away from where she stood. Trot\nwas so dizzy she couldn\'t stand at first, but she wasn\'t at all hurt,\nand presently Betsy came flying to them and would have bumped into the\nothers had they not retreated in time to avoid her. Then, in quick\nsuccession, came the Lion, Hank and the Sawhorse, bounding from\nmountain to mountain to fall safely upon the greensward. Only the\nWizard was now left behind, and they waited so long for him that\nDorothy began to be worried.\n\nBut suddenly he came flying from the nearest mountain and tumbled heels\nover head beside them. Then they saw that he had wound two of their\nblankets around his body to keep the bumps from hurting him and had\nfastened the blankets with some of the spare straps from the harness of\nthe Sawhorse.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER 8\n\nTHE MYSTERIOUS CITY\n\n\nThere they sat upon the grass, their heads still swimming from their\ndizzy flights, and looked at one another in silent bewilderment. But\npresently, when assured that no one was injured, they grew more calm\nand collected, and the Lion said with a sigh of relief, \"Who would have\nthought those Merry-Go-Round Mountains were made of rubber?\"\n\n\"Are they really rubber?\" asked Trot.\n\n\"They must be,\" replied the Lion, \"for otherwise we would not have\nbounded so swiftly from one to another without getting hurt.\"\n\n\"That is all guesswork,\" declared the Wizard, unwinding the blankets\nfrom his body, \"for none of us stayed long enough on the mountains to\ndiscover what they are made of. But where are we?\"\n\n\"That\'s guesswork,\" said Scraps. \"The shepherd said the Thistle-Eaters\nlive this side of the mountains and are waited on by giants.\"\n\n\"Oh no,\" said Dorothy, \"it\'s the Herkus who have giant slaves, and the\nThistle-Eaters hitch dragons to their chariots.\"\n\n\"How could they do that?\" asked the Woozy. \"Dragons have long tails,\nwhich would get in the way of the chariot wheels.\"\n\n\"And if the Herkus have conquered the giants,\" said Trot, \"they must be\nat least twice the size of giants. P\'raps the Herkus are the biggest\npeople in all the world!\"\n\n\"Perhaps they are,\" assented the Wizard in a thoughtful tone of voice.\n\"And perhaps the shepherd didn\'t know what he was talking about. Let\nus travel on toward the west and discover for ourselves what the people\nof this country are like.\"\n\nIt seemed a pleasant enough country, and it was quite still and\npeaceful when they turned their eyes away from the silently whirling\nmountains. There were trees here and there and green bushes, while\nthroughout the thick grass were scattered brilliantly colored flowers.\nAbout a mile away was a low hill that hid from them all the country\nbeyond it, so they realized they could not tell much about the country\nuntil they had crossed the hill. The Red Wagon having been left\nbehind, it was now necessary to make other arrangements for traveling.\nThe Lion told Dorothy she could ride upon his back as she had often\ndone before, and the Woozy said he could easily carry both Trot and the\nPatchwork Girl. Betsy still had her mule, Hank, and Button-Bright and\nthe Wizard could sit together upon the long, thin back of the Sawhorse,\nbut they took care to soften their seat with a pad of blankets before\nthey started. Thus mounted, the adventurers started for the hill,\nwhich was reached after a brief journey.\n\nAs they mounted the crest and gazed beyond the hill, they discovered\nnot far away a walled city, from the towers and spires of which gay\nbanners were flying. It was not a very big city, indeed, but its walls\nwere very high and thick, and it appeared that the people who lived\nthere must have feared attack by a powerful enemy, else they would not\nhave surrounded their dwellings with so strong a barrier. There was no\npath leading from the mountains to the city, and this proved that the\npeople seldom or never visited the whirling hills, but our friends\nfound the grass soft and agreeable to travel over, and with the city\nbefore them they could not well lose their way. When they drew nearer\nto the walls, the breeze carried to their ears the sound of music--dim\nat first, but growing louder as they advanced.\n\n\"That doesn\'t seem like a very terr\'ble place,\" remarked Dorothy.\n\n\"Well, it LOOKS all right,\" replied Trot from her seat on the Woozy,\n\"but looks can\'t always be trusted.\"\n\n\"MY looks can,\" said Scraps. \"I LOOK patchwork, and I AM patchwork,\nand no one but a blind owl could ever doubt that I\'m the Patchwork\nGirl.\" Saying which, she turned a somersault off the Woozy and,\nalighting on her feet, began wildly dancing about.\n\n\"Are owls ever blind?\" asked Trot.\n\n\"Always, in the daytime,\" said Button-Bright. \"But Scraps can see\nwith her button eyes both day and night. Isn\'t it queer?\"\n\n\"It\'s queer that buttons can see at all,\" answered Trot. \"But good\ngracious! What\'s become of the city?\"\n\n\"I was going to ask that myself,\" said Dorothy. \"It\'s gone!\"\n\n\"It\'s gone!\"\n\nThe animals came to a sudden halt, for the city had really disappeared,\nwalls and all, and before them lay the clear, unbroken sweep of the\ncountry. \"Dear me!\" exclaimed the Wizard. \"This is rather\ndisagreeable. It is annoying to travel almost to a place and then find\nit is not there.\"\n\n\"Where can it be, then?\" asked Dorothy. \"It cert\'nly was there a\nminute ago.\"\n\n\"I can hear the music yet,\" declared Button-Bright, and when they all\nlistened, the strains of music could plainly be heard.\n\n\"Oh! There\'s the city over at the left,\" called Scraps, and turning\ntheir eyes, they saw the walls and towers and fluttering banners far to\nthe left of them.\n\n\"We must have lost our way,\" suggested Dorothy.\n\n\"Nonsense,\" said the Lion.\n\n\"I, and all the other animals, have been tramping straight toward the\ncity ever since we first saw it.\"\n\n\"Then how does it happen--\"\n\n\"Never mind,\" interrupted the Wizard, \"we are no farther from it than\nwe were before. It is in a different direction, that\'s all, so let us\nhurry and get there before it again escapes us.\"\n\nSo on they went directly toward the city, which seemed only a couple of\nmiles distant. But when they had traveled less than a mile, it\nsuddenly disappeared again. Once more they paused, somewhat\ndiscouraged, but in a moment the button eyes of Scraps again discovered\nthe city, only this time it was just behind them in the direction from\nwhich they had come. \"Goodness gracious!\" cried Dorothy. \"There\'s\nsurely something wrong with that city. Do you s\'pose it\'s on wheels,\nWizard?\"\n\n\"It may not be a city at all,\" he replied, looking toward it with a\nspeculative glance.\n\n\"What COULD it be, then?\"\n\n\"Just an illusion.\"\n\n\"What\'s that?\" asked Trot.\n\n\"Something you think you see and don\'t see.\"\n\n\"I can\'t believe that,\" said Button-Bright. \"If we only saw it, we\nmight be mistaken, but if we can see it and hear it, too, it must be\nthere.\"\n\n\"Where?\" asked the Patchwork Girl.\n\n\"Somewhere near us,\" he insisted.\n\n\"We will have to go back, I suppose,\" said the Woozy with a sigh.\n\nSo back they turned and headed for the walled city until it disappeared\nagain, only to reappear at the right of them. They were constantly\ngetting nearer to it, however, so they kept their faces turned toward\nit as it flitted here and there to all points of the compass.\nPresently the Lion, who was leading the procession, halted abruptly and\ncried out, \"Ouch!\"\n\n\"What\'s the matter?\" asked Dorothy.\n\n\"Ouch--Ouch!\" repeated the Lion, and leaped backward so suddenly that\nDorothy nearly tumbled from his back. At the same time Hank the Mule\nyelled \"Ouch!\"\n\n\"Ouch! Ouch!\" repeated the Lion and leaped backward so suddenly that\nDorothy nearly tumbled from his back. At the same time, Hank the Mule\nyelled \"Ouch!\" almost as loudly as the Lion had done, and he also\npranced backward a few paces.\n\n\"It\'s the thistles,\" said Betsy. \"They prick their legs.\"\n\nHearing this, all looked down, and sure enough the ground was thick\nwith thistles, which covered the plain from the point where they stood\nway up to the walls of the mysterious city. No pathways through them\ncould be seen at all; here the soft grass ended and the growth of\nthistles began. \"They\'re the prickliest thistles I ever felt,\"\ngrumbled the Lion. \"My legs smart yet from their stings, though I\njumped out of them as quickly as I could.\"\n\n\"Here is a new difficulty,\" remarked the Wizard in a grieved tone. \"The\ncity has stopped hopping around, it is true, but how are we to get to\nit over this mass of prickers?\"\n\n\"They can\'t hurt ME,\" said the thick-skinned Woozy, advancing\nfearlessly and trampling among the thistles.\n\n\"Nor me,\" said the Wooden Sawhorse.\n\n\"But the Lion and the Mule cannot stand the prickers,\" asserted\nDorothy, \"and we can\'t leave them behind.\"\n\n\"Must we all go back?\" asked Trot.\n\n\"Course not!\" replied Button-Bright scornfully. \"Always when there\'s\ntrouble, there\'s a way out of it if you can find it.\"\n\n\"I wish the Scarecrow was here,\" said Scraps, standing on her head on\nthe Woozy\'s square back. \"His splendid brains would soon show us how\nto conquer this field of thistles.\"\n\n\"What\'s the matter with YOUR brains?\" asked the boy.\n\n\"Nothing,\" she said, making a flip-flop into the thistles and dancing\namong them without feeling their sharp points. \"I could tell you in\nhalf a minute how to get over the thistles if I wanted to.\"\n\n\"Tell us, Scraps!\" begged Dorothy.\n\n\"I don\'t want to wear my brains out with overwork,\" replied the\nPatchwork Girl.\n\n\"Don\'t you love Ozma? And don\'t you want to find her?\" asked Betsy\nreproachfully.\n\n\"Yes indeed,\" said Scraps, walking on her hands as an acrobat does at\nthe circus.\n\n\"Well, we can\'t find Ozma unless we get past these thistles,\" declared\nDorothy.\n\nScraps danced around them two or three times without reply. Then she\nsaid, \"Don\'t look at me, you stupid folks. Look at those blankets.\"\n\nThe Wizard\'s face brightened at once.\n\n\"Why didn\'t we think of those blankets before?\"\n\n\"Because you haven\'t magic brains,\" laughed Scraps. \"Such brains as\nyou have are of the common sort that grow in your heads, like weeds in\na garden. I\'m sorry for you people who have to be born in order to be\nalive.\"\n\nBut the Wizard was not listening to her. He quickly removed the\nblankets from the back of the Sawhorse and spread one of them upon the\nthistles, just next the grass. The thick cloth rendered the prickers\nharmless, so the Wizard walked over this first blanket and spread the\nsecond one farther on, in the direction of the phantom city. \"These\nblankets,\" said he, \"are for the Lion and the Mule to walk upon. The\nSawhorse and the Woozy can walk on the thistles.\"\n\nSo the Lion and the Mule walked over the first blanket and stood upon\nthe second one until the Wizard had picked up the one they had passed\nover and spread it in front of them, when they advanced to that one and\nwaited while the one behind them was again spread in front. \"This is\nslow work,\" said the Wizard, \"but it will get us to the city after a\nwhile.\"\n\n\"The city is a good half mile away yet,\" announced Button-Bright.\n\n\"And this is awful hard work for the Wizard,\" added Trot.\n\n\"Why couldn\'t the Lion ride on the Woozy\'s back?\" asked Dorothy. \"It\'s\na big, flat back, and the Woozy\'s mighty strong. Perhaps the Lion\nwouldn\'t fall off.\"\n\n\"You may try it if you like,\" said the Woozy to the Lion. \"I can take\nyou to the city in a jiffy and then come back for Hank.\"\n\n\"I\'m--I\'m afraid,\" said the Cowardly Lion. He was twice as big as the\nWoozy.\n\n\"Try it,\" pleaded Dorothy.\n\n\"And take a tumble among the thistles?\" asked the Lion reproachfully.\n\nBut when the Woozy came close to him, the big beast suddenly bounded\nupon its back and managed to balance himself there, although forced to\nhold his four legs so close together that he was in danger of toppling\nover. The great weight of the monster Lion did not seem to affect the\nWoozy, who called to his rider, \"Hold on tight!\" and ran swiftly over\nthe thistles toward the city.\n\nThe others stood on the blanket and watched the strange sight\nanxiously. Of course, the Lion couldn\'t \"hold on tight\" because there\nwas nothing to hold to, and he swayed from side to side as if likely to\nfall off any moment. Still, he managed to stick to the Woozy\'s back\nuntil they were close to the walls of the city, when he leaped to the\nground. Next moment the Woozy came dashing back at full speed.\n\n\"There\'s a little strip of ground next the wall where there are no\nthistles,\" he told them when he had reached the adventurers once more.\n\"Now then, friend Hank, see if you can ride as well as the Lion did.\"\n\n\"Take the others first,\" proposed the Mule. So the Sawhorse and the\nWoozy made a couple of trips over the thistles to the city walls and\ncarried all the people in safety, Dorothy holding little Toto in her\narms. The travelers then sat in a group on a little hillock just\noutside the wall and looked at the great blocks of gray stone and\nwaited for the Woozy to bring Hank to them. The Mule was very awkward,\nand his legs trembled so badly that more than once they thought he\nwould tumble off, but finally he reached them in safety, and the entire\nparty was now reunited. More than that, they had reached the city that\nhad eluded them for so long and in so strange a manner.\n\n\"The gates must be around the other side,\" said the Wizard. \"Let us\nfollow the curve of the wall until we reach an opening in it.\"\n\n\"Which way?\" asked Dorothy.\n\n\"We must guess that,\" he replied. \"Suppose we go to the left. One\ndirection is as good as another.\" They formed in marching order and\nwent around the city wall to the left. It wasn\'t a big city, as I have\nsaid, but to go way around it outside the high wall was quite a walk,\nas they became aware. But around it our adventurers went without\nfinding any sign of a gateway or other opening. When they had returned\nto the little mound from which they had started, they dismounted from\nthe animals and again seated themselves on the grassy mound.\n\n\"It\'s mighty queer, isn\'t it?\" asked Button-Bright.\n\n\"There must be SOME way for the people to get out and in,\" declared\nDorothy. \"Do you s\'pose they have flying machines, Wizard?\"\n\n\"No,\" he replied, \"for in that case they would be flying all over the\nLand of Oz, and we know they have not done that. Flying machines are\nunknown here. I think it more likely that the people use ladders to\nget over the walls.\"\n\n\"It would be an awful climb over that high stone wall,\" said Betsy.\n\n\"Stone, is it?\" Scraps, who was again dancing wildly around, for she\nnever tired and could never keep still for long.\n\n\"Course it\'s stone,\" answered Betsy scornfully. \"Can\'t you see?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" said Scraps, going closer. \"I can SEE the wall, but I can\'t\nFEEL it.\" And then, with her arms outstretched, she did a very queer\nthing. She walked right into the wall and disappeared.\n\n\"For goodness sake!\" Dorothy, amazed, as indeed they all were.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER 9\n\nTHE HIGH COCO-LORUM OF THI\n\n\nAnd now the Patchwork Girl came dancing out of the wall again.\n\n\"Come on!\" she called. \"It isn\'t there. There isn\'t any wall at all.\"\n\n\"What? No wall?\" exclaimed the Wizard.\n\n\"Nothing like it,\" said Scraps. \"It\'s a make-believe. You see it, but\nit isn\'t. Come on into the city; we\'ve been wasting our time.\"\n\nWith this, she danced into the wall again and once more disappeared.\nButton-Bright, who was rather venture-some, dashed away after her and\nalso became invisible to them. The others followed more cautiously,\nstretching out their hands to feel the wall and finding, to their\nastonishment, that they could feel nothing because nothing opposed\nthem. They walked on a few steps and found themselves in the streets\nof a very beautiful city. Behind them they again saw the wall, grim\nand forbidding as ever, but now they knew it was merely an illusion\nprepared to keep strangers from entering the city.\n\nBut the wall was soon forgotten, for in front of them were a number of\nquaint people who stared at them in amazement as if wondering where\nthey had come from. Our friends forgot their good manners for a time\nand returned the stares with interest, for so remarkable a people had\nnever before been discovered in all the remarkable Land of Oz.\n\nTheir heads were shaped like diamonds, and their bodies like hearts.\nAll the hair they had was a little bunch at the tip top of their\ndiamond-shaped heads, and their eyes were very large and round, and\ntheir noses and mouths very small. Their clothing was tight fitting\nand of brilliant colors, being handsomely embroidered in quaint designs\nwith gold or silver threads; but on their feet they wore sandals with\nno stockings whatever. The expression of their faces was pleasant\nenough, although they now showed surprise at the appearance of\nstrangers so unlike themselves, and our friends thought they seemed\nquite harmless.\n\n\"I beg your pardon,\" said the Wizard, speaking for his party, \"for\nintruding upon you uninvited, but we are traveling on important\nbusiness and find it necessary to visit your city. Will you kindly\ntell us by what name your city is called?\"\n\nThey looked at one another uncertainly, each expecting some other to\nanswer. Finally, a short one whose heart-shaped body was very broad\nreplied, \"We have no occasion to call our city anything. It is where\nwe live, that is all.\"\n\n\"But by what name do others call your city?\" asked the Wizard.\n\n\"We know of no others except yourselves,\" said the man. And then he\ninquired, \"Were you born with those queer forms you have, or has some\ncruel magician transformed you to them from your natural shapes?\"\n\n\"These are our natural shapes,\" declared the Wizard, \"and we consider\nthem very good shapes, too.\"\n\nThe group of inhabitants was constantly being enlarged by others who\njoined it. All were evidently startled and uneasy at the arrival of\nstrangers.\n\n\"Have you a King?\" asked Dorothy, who knew it was better to speak with\nsomeone in authority.\n\nBut the man shook his diamond-like head. \"What is a King?\" he asked.\n\n\"Isn\'t there anyone who rules over you?\" inquired the Wizard.\n\n\"No,\" was the reply, \"each of us rules himself, or at least tries to do\nso. It is not an easy thing to do, as you probably know.\"\n\nThe Wizard reflected.\n\n\"If you have disputes among you,\" said he after a little thought, \"who\nsettles them?\"\n\n\"The High Coco-Lorum,\" they answered in a chorus.\n\n\"And who is he?\"\n\n\"The judge who enforces the laws,\" said the man who had first spoken.\n\n\"Then he is the principal person here?\" continued the Wizard.\n\n\"Well, I would not say that,\" returned the man in a puzzled way. \"The\nHigh Coco-Lorum is a public servant. However, he represents the laws,\nwhich we must all obey.\"\n\n\"I think,\" said the Wizard, \"we ought to see your High Coco-Lorum and\ntalk with him. Our mission here requires us to consult one high in\nauthority, and the High Coco-Lorum ought to be high, whatever else he\nis.\"\n\nThe inhabitants seemed to consider this proposition reasonable, for\nthey nodded their diamond-shaped heads in approval. So the broad one\nwho had been their spokesman said, \"Follow me,\" and turning led the way\nalong one of the streets. The entire party followed him, the natives\nfalling in behind. The dwellings they passed were quite nicely planned\nand seemed comfortable and convenient. After leading them a few\nblocks, their conductor stopped before a house which was neither better\nnor worse than the others. The doorway was shaped to admit the\nstrangely formed bodies of these people, being narrow at the top, broad\nin the middle and tapering at the bottom. The windows were made in\nmuch the same way, giving the house a most peculiar appearance. When\ntheir guide opened the gate, a music box concealed in the gatepost\nbegan to play, and the sound attracted the attention of the High\nCoco-Lorum, who appeared at an open window and inquired, \"What has\nhappened now?\"\n\nBut in the same moment his eyes fell upon the strangers and he hastened\nto open the door and admit them--all but the animals, which were left\noutside with the throng of natives that had now gathered. For a small\ncity there seemed to be a large number of inhabitants, but they did not\ntry to enter the house and contented themselves with staring curiously\nat the strange animals. Toto followed Dorothy.\n\nOur friends entered a large room at the front of the house, where the\nHigh Coco-Lorum asked them to be seated. \"I hope your mission here is\na peaceful one,\" he said, looking a little worried, \"for the Thists are\nnot very good fighters and object to being conquered.\"\n\n\"Are your people called Thists?\" asked Dorothy.\n\n\"Yes. I thought you knew that. And we call our city Thi.\"\n\n\"Oh!\"\n\n\"We are Thists because we eat thistles, you know,\" continued the High\nCoco-Lorum.\n\n\"Do you really eat those prickly things?\" inquired Button-Bright\nwonderingly.\n\n\"Why not?\" replied the other. \"The sharp points of the thistles cannot\nhurt us, because all our insides are gold-lined.\"\n\n\"Gold-lined!\"\n\n\"To be sure. Our throats and stomachs are lined with solid gold, and\nwe find the thistles nourishing and good to eat. As a matter of fact,\nthere is nothing else in our country that is fit for food. All around\nthe City of Thi grow countless thistles, and all we need do is to go\nand gather them. If we wanted anything else to eat, we would have to\nplant it, and grow it, and harvest it, and that would be a lot of\ntrouble and make us work, which is an occupation we detest.\"\n\n\"But tell me, please,\" said the Wizard, \"how does it happen that your\ncity jumps around so, from one part of the country to another?\"\n\n\"The city doesn\'t jump. It doesn\'t move at all,\" declared the High\nCoco-Lorum. \"However, I will admit that the land that surrounds it has\na trick of turning this way or that, and so if one is standing upon the\nplain and facing north, he is likely to find himself suddenly facing\nwest or east or south. But once you reach the thistle fields, you are\non solid ground.\"\n\n\"Ah, I begin to understand,\" said the Wizard, nodding his head. \"But I\nhave another question to ask: How does it happen that the Thists have\nno King to rule over them?\"\n\n\"Hush!\" whispered the High Coco-Lorum, looking uneasily around to make\nsure they were not overheard. \"In reality, I am the King, but the\npeople don\'t know it. They think they rule themselves, but the fact is\nI have everything my own way. No one else knows anything about our\nlaws, and so I make the laws to suit myself. If any oppose me or\nquestion my acts, I tell them it\'s the law and that settles it. If I\ncalled myself King, however, and wore a crown and lived in royal style,\nthe people would not like me and might do me harm. As the High\nCoco-Lorum of Thi, I am considered a very agreeable person.\"\n\n\"It seems a very clever arrangement,\" said the Wizard. \"And now, as\nyou are the principal person in Thi, I beg you to tell us if the Royal\nOzma is a captive in your city.\"\n\n\"No,\" answered the diamond-headed man. \"We have no captives. No\nstrangers but yourselves are here, and we have never before heard of\nthe Royal Ozma.\"\n\n\"She rules over all of Oz,\" said Dorothy, \"and so she rules your city\nand you, because you are in the Winkie Country, which is a part of the\nLand of Oz.\"\n\n\"It may be,\" returned the High Coco-Lorum, \"for we do not study\ngeography and have never inquired whether we live in the Land of Oz or\nnot. And any Ruler who rules us from a distance and unknown to us is\nwelcome to the job. But what has happened to your Royal Ozma?\"\n\n\"Someone has stolen her,\" said the Wizard. \"Do you happen to have any\ntalented magician among your people, one who is especially clever, you\nknow?\"\n\n\"No, none especially clever. We do some magic, of course, but it is\nall of the ordinary kind. I do not think any of us has yet aspired to\nstealing Rulers, either by magic or otherwise.\"\n\n\"Then we\'ve come a long way for nothing!\" exclaimed Trot regretfully.\n\n\"But we are going farther than this,\" asserted the Patchwork Girl,\nbending her stuffed body backward until her yarn hair touched the floor\nand then walking around on her hands with her feet in the air.\n\nThe High Coco-Lorum watched Scraps admiringly.\n\n\"You may go farther on, of course,\" said he, \"but I advise you not to.\nThe Herkus live back of us, beyond the thistles and the twisting lands,\nand they are not very nice people to meet, I assure you.\"\n\n\"Are they giants?\" asked Betsy.\n\n\"They are worse than that,\" was the reply. \"They have giants for their\nslaves and they are so much stronger than giants that the poor slaves\ndare not rebel for fear of being torn to pieces.\"\n\n\"How do you know?\" asked Scraps.\n\n\"Everyone says so,\" answered the High Coco-Lorum.\n\n\"Have you seen the Herkus yourself?\" inquired Dorothy.\n\n\"No, but what everyone says must be true, otherwise what would be the\nuse of their saying it?\"\n\n\"We were told before we got here that you people hitch dragons to your\nchariots,\" said the little girl.\n\n\"So we do,\" declared the High Coco-Lorum. \"And that reminds me that I\nought to entertain you as strangers and my guests by taking you for a\nride around our splendid City of Thi.\" He touched a button, and a band\nbegan to play. At least, they heard the music of a band, but couldn\'t\ntell where it came from. \"That tune is the order to my charioteer to\nbring around my dragon-chariot,\" said the High Coco-Lorum. \"Every time\nI give an order, it is in music, which is a much more pleasant way to\naddress servants than in cold, stern words.\"\n\n\"Does this dragon of yours bite?\" asked Button-Bright.\n\n\"Mercy no! Do you think I\'d risk the safety of my innocent people by\nusing a biting dragon to draw my chariot? I\'m proud to say that my\ndragon is harmless, unless his steering gear breaks, and he was\nmanufactured at the famous dragon factory in this City of Thi. Here he\ncomes, and you may examine him for yourselves.\"\n\nThey heard a low rumble and a shrill squeaking sound, and going out to\nthe front of the house, they saw coming around the corner a car drawn\nby a gorgeous jeweled dragon, which moved its head to right and left\nand flashed its eyes like headlights of an automobile and uttered a\ngrowling noise as it slowly moved toward them. When it stopped before\nthe High Coco-Lorum\'s house, Toto barked sharply at the sprawling\nbeast, but even tiny Trot could see that the dragon was not alive. Its\nscales were of gold, and each one was set with sparkling jewels, while\nit walked in such a stiff, regular manner that it could be nothing else\nthan a machine. The chariot that trailed behind it was likewise of\ngold and jewels, and when they entered it, they found there were no\nseats. Everyone was supposed to stand up while riding. The charioteer\nwas a little, diamond-headed fellow who straddled the neck of the\ndragon and moved the levers that made it go.\n\n\"This,\" said the High Coco-Lorum pompously, \"is a wonderful invention.\nWe are all very proud of our auto-dragons, many of which are in use by\nour wealthy inhabitants. Start the thing going, charioteer!\"\n\nThe charioteer did not move.\n\n\"You forgot to order him in music,\" suggested Dorothy.\n\n\"Ah, so I did.\"\n\nHe touched a button and a music box in the dragon\'s head began to play\na tune. At once the little charioteer pulled over a lever, and the\ndragon began to move, very slowly and groaning dismally as it drew the\nclumsy chariot after it. Toto trotted between the wheels. The\nSawhorse, the Mule, the Lion and the Woozy followed after and had no\ntrouble in keeping up with the machine. Indeed, they had to go slow to\nkeep from running into it. When the wheels turned, another music box\nconcealed somewhere under the chariot played a lively march tune which\nwas in striking contrast with the dragging movement of the strange\nvehicle, and Button-Bright decided that the music he had heard when\nthey first sighted this city was nothing else than a chariot plodding\nits weary way through the streets.\n\nAll the travelers from the Emerald City thought this ride the most\nuninteresting and dreary they had ever experienced, but the High\nCoco-Lorum seemed to think it was grand. He pointed out the different\nbuildings and parks and fountains in much the same way that the\nconductor does on an American \"sightseeing wagon\" does, and being\nguests they were obliged to submit to the ordeal. But they became a\nlittle worried when their host told them he had ordered a banquet\nprepared for them in the City Hall.\n\n\"What are we going to eat?\" asked Button-Bright suspiciously.\n\n\"Thistles,\" was the reply. \"Fine, fresh thistles, gathered this very\nday.\"\n\nScraps laughed, for she never ate anything, but Dorothy said in a\nprotesting voice, \"OUR insides are not lined with gold, you know.\"\n\n\"How sad!\" exclaimed the High Coco-Lorum, and then he added as an\nafterthought, \"but we can have the thistles boiled, if you prefer.\"\n\n\"I\'m \'fraid they wouldn\'t taste good even then,\" said little Trot.\n\"Haven\'t you anything else to eat?\"\n\nThe High Coco-Lorum shook his diamond-shaped head.\n\n\"Nothing that I know of,\" said he. \"But why should we have anything\nelse when we have so many thistles? However, if you can\'t eat what we\neat, don\'t eat anything. We shall not be offended, and the banquet\nwill be just as merry and delightful.\"\n\nKnowing his companions were all hungry, the Wizard said, \"I trust you\nwill excuse us from the banquet, sir, which will be merry enough\nwithout us, although it is given in our honor. For, as Ozma is not in\nyour city, we must leave here at once and seek her elsewhere.\"\n\n\"Sure we must!\" Dorothy, and she whispered to Betsy and Trot, \"I\'d\nrather starve somewhere else than in this city, and who knows, we may\nrun across somebody who eats reg\'lar food and will give us some.\"\n\nSo when the ride was finished, in spite of the protests of the High\nCoco-Lorum, they insisted on continuing their journey. \"It will soon\nbe dark,\" he objected.\n\n\"We don\'t mind the darkness,\" replied the Wizard.\n\n\"Some wandering Herku may get you.\"\n\n\"Do you think the Herkus would hurt us?\" asked Dorothy.\n\n\"I cannot say, not having had the honor of their acquaintance. But\nthey are said to be so strong that if they had any other place to stand\nupon they could lift the world.\"\n\n\"All of them together?\" asked Button-Bright wonderingly.\n\n\"Any one of them could do it,\" said the High Coco-Lorum.\n\n\"Have you heard of any magicians being among them?\" asked the Wizard,\nknowing that only a magician could have stolen Ozma in the way she had\nbeen stolen.\n\n\"I am told it is quite a magical country,\" declared the High\nCoco-Lorum, \"and magic is usually performed by magicians. But I have\nnever heard that they have any invention or sorcery to equal our\nwonderful auto-dragons.\"\n\nThey thanked him for his courtesy, and mounting their own animals rode\nto the farther side of the city and right through the Wall of Illusion\nout into the open country. \"I\'m glad we got away so easily,\" said\nBetsy. \"I didn\'t like those queer-shaped people.\"\n\n\"Nor did I,\" agreed Dorothy. \"It seems dreadful to be lined with sheets\nof pure gold and have nothing to eat but thistles.\"\n\n\"They seemed happy and contented, though,\" remarked the Wizard, \"and\nthose who are contented have nothing to regret and nothing more to wish\nfor.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER 10\n\nTOTO LOSES SOMETHING\n\n\nFor a while the travelers were constantly losing their direction, for\nbeyond the thistle fields they again found themselves upon the\nturning-lands, which swung them around one way and then another. But\nby keeping the City of Thi constantly behind them, the adventurers\nfinally passed the treacherous turning-lands and came upon a stony\ncountry where no grass grew at all. There were plenty of bushes,\nhowever, and although it was now almost dark, the girls discovered some\ndelicious yellow berries growing upon the bushes, one taste of which\nset them all to picking as many as they could find. The berries\nrelieved their pangs of hunger for a time, and as it now became too\ndark to see anything, they camped where they were.\n\nThe three girls lay down upon one of the blankets--all in a row--and\nthe Wizard covered them with the other blanket and tucked them in.\nButton-Bright crawled under the shelter of some bushes and was asleep\nin half a minute. The Wizard sat down with his back to a big stone and\nlooked at the stars in the sky and thought gravely upon the dangerous\nadventure they had undertaken, wondering if they would ever be able to\nfind their beloved Ozma again. The animals lay in a group by\nthemselves, a little distance from the others.\n\n\"I\'ve lost my growl!\" said Toto, who had been very silent and sober all\nthat day. \"What do you suppose has become of it?\"\n\n\"If you had asked me to keep track of your growl, I might be able to\ntell you,\" remarked the Lion sleepily. \"But frankly, Toto, I supposed\nyou were taking care of it yourself.\"\n\n\"It\'s an awful thing to lose one\'s growl,\" said Toto, wagging his tail\ndisconsolately. \"What if you lost your roar, Lion? Wouldn\'t you feel\nterrible?\"\n\n\"My roar,\" replied the Lion, \"is the fiercest thing about me. I depend\non it to frighten my enemies so badly that they won\'t dare to fight me.\"\n\n\"Once,\" said the Mule, \"I lost my bray so that I couldn\'t call to Betsy\nto let her know I was hungry. That was before I could talk, you know,\nfor I had not yet come into the Land of Oz, and I found it was\ncertainly very uncomfortable not to be able to make a noise.\"\n\n\"You make enough noise now,\" declared Toto. \"But none of you have\nanswered my question: Where is my growl?\"\n\n\"You may search ME,\" said the Woozy. \"I don\'t care for such things,\nmyself.\"\n\n\"You snore terribly,\" asserted Toto.\n\n\"It may be,\" said the Woozy. \"What one does when asleep one is not\naccountable for. I wish you would wake me up sometime when I\'m snoring\nand let me hear the sound. Then I can judge whether it is terrible or\ndelightful.\"\n\n\"It isn\'t pleasant, I assure you,\" said the Lion, yawning.\n\n\"To me it seems wholly unnecessary,\" declared Hank the Mule.\n\n\"You ought to break yourself of the habit,\" said the Sawhorse. \"You\nnever hear me snore, because I never sleep. I don\'t even whinny as\nthose puffy meat horses do. I wish that whoever stole Toto\'s growl had\ntaken the Mule\'s bray and the Lion\'s roar and the Woozy\'s snore at the\nsame time.\"\n\n\"Do you think, then, that my growl was stolen?\"\n\n\"You have never lost it before, have you?\" inquired inquired the\nSawhorse.\n\n\"Only once, when I had a sore throat from barking too long at the moon.\"\n\n\"Is your throat sore now?\" asked the Woozy.\n\n\"No,\" replied the dog.\n\n\"I can\'t understand,\" said Hank, \"why dogs bark at the moon. They\ncan\'t scare the moon, and the moon doesn\'t pay any attention to the\nbark. So why do dogs do it?\"\n\n\"Were you ever a dog?\" asked Toto.\n\n\"No indeed,\" replied Hank. \"I am thankful to say I was created a\nmule--the most beautiful of all beasts--and have always remained one.\"\n\nThe Woozy sat upon his square haunches to examine Hank with care.\n\"Beauty,\" he said, \"must be a matter of taste. I don\'t say your\njudgment is bad, friend Hank, or that you are so vulgar as to be\nconceited. But if you admire big, waggy ears and a tail like a\npaintbrush and hoofs big enough for an elephant and a long neck and a\nbody so skinny that one can count the ribs with one eye shut--if that\'s\nyour idea of beauty, Hank, then either you or I must be much mistaken.\"\n\n\"You\'re full of edges,\" sneered the Mule. \"If I were square as you are,\nI suppose you\'d think me lovely.\"\n\n\"Outwardly, dear Hank, I would,\" replied the Woozy. \"But to be really\nlovely, one must be beautiful without and within.\"\n\nThe Mule couldn\'t deny this statement, so he gave a disgusted grunt and\nrolled over so that his back was toward the Woozy. But the Lion,\nregarding the two calmly with his great, yellow eyes, said to the dog,\n\"My dear Toto, our friends have taught us a lesson in humility. If the\nWoozy and the Mule are indeed beautiful creatures as they seem to\nthink, you and I must be decidedly ugly.\"\n\n\"Not to ourselves,\" protested Toto, who was a shrewd little dog. \"You\nand I, Lion, are fine specimens of our own races. I am a fine dog, and\nyou are a fine lion. Only in point of comparison, one with another,\ncan we be properly judged, so I will leave it to the poor old Sawhorse\nto decide which is the most beautiful animal among us all. The Sawhorse\nis wood, so he won\'t be prejudiced and will speak the truth.\"\n\n\"I surely will,\" responded the Sawhorse, wagging his ears, which were\nchips set in his wooden head. \"Are you all agreed to accept my\njudgment?\"\n\n\"We are!\" they declared, each one hopeful.\n\n\"Then,\" said the Sawhorse, \"I must point out to you the fact that you\nare all meat creatures, who tire unless they sleep and starve unless\nthey eat and suffer from thirst unless they drink. Such animals must\nbe very imperfect, and imperfect creatures cannot be beautiful. Now, I\nam made of wood.\"\n\n\"You surely have a wooden head,\" said the Mule.\n\n\"Yes, and a wooden body and wooden legs, which are as swift as the wind\nand as tireless. I\'ve heard Dorothy say that \'handsome is as handsome\ndoes,\' and I surely perform my duties in a handsome manner. Therefore,\nif you wish my honest judgment, I will confess that among us all I am\nthe most beautiful.\"\n\nThe Mule snorted, and the Woozy laughed; Toto had lost his growl and\ncould only look scornfully at the Sawhorse, who stood in his place\nunmoved. But the Lion stretched himself and yawned, saying quietly,\n\"Were we all like the Sawhorse, we would all be Sawhorses, which would\nbe too many of the kind. Were we all like Hank, we would be a herd of\nmules; if like Toto, we would be a pack of dogs; should we all become\nthe shape of the Woozy, he would no longer be remarkable for his\nunusual appearance. Finally, were you all like me, I would consider\nyou so common that I would not care to associate with you. To be\nindividual, my friends, to be different from others, is the only way to\nbecome distinguished from the common herd. Let us be glad, therefore,\nthat we differ from one another in form and in disposition. Variety is\nthe spice of life, and we are various enough to enjoy one another\'s\nsociety; so let us be content.\"\n\n\"There is some truth in that speech,\" remarked Toto reflectively. \"But\nhow about my lost growl?\"\n\n\"The growl is of importance only to you,\" responded the Lion, \"so it is\nyour business to worry over the loss, not ours. If you love us, do not\nafflict your burdens on us; be unhappy all by yourself.\"\n\n\"If the same person stole my growl who stole Ozma,\" said the little\ndog, \"I hope we shall find him very soon and punish him as he deserves.\nHe must be the most cruel person in all the world, for to prevent a dog\nfrom growling when it is his nature to growl is just as wicked, in my\nopinion, as stealing all the magic in Oz.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER 11\n\nBUTTON-BRIGHT LOSES HIMSELF\n\n\nThe Patchwork Girl, who never slept and who could see very well in the\ndark, had wandered among the rocks and bushes all night long, with the\nresult that she was able to tell some good news the next morning. \"Over\nthe crest of the hill before us,\" she said, \"is a big grove of trees of\nmany kinds on which all sorts of fruits grow. If you will go there,\nyou will find a nice breakfast awaiting you.\" This made them eager to\nstart, so as soon as the blankets were folded and strapped to the back\nof the Sawhorse, they all took their places on the animals and set out\nfor the big grove Scraps had told them of.\n\nAs soon as they got over the brow of the hill, they discovered it to be\na really immense orchard, extending for miles to the right and left of\nthem. As their way led straight through the trees, they hurried\nforward as fast as possible. The first trees they came to bore\nquinces, which they did not like. Then there were rows of citron trees\nand then crab apples and afterward limes and lemons. But beyond these\nthey found a grove of big, golden oranges, juicy and sweet, and the\nfruit hung low on the branches so they could pluck it easily.\n\nThey helped themselves freely and all ate oranges as they continued on\ntheir way. Then, a little farther along, they came to some trees\nbearing fine, red apples, which they also feasted on, and the Wizard\nstopped here long enough to tie a lot of the apples in one end of a\nblanket.\n\n\"We do not know what will happen to us after we leave this delightful\norchard,\" he said, \"so I think it wise to carry a supply of apples with\nus. We can\'t starve as long as we have apples, you know.\"\n\nScraps wasn\'t riding the Woozy just now. She loved to climb the trees\nand swing herself by the branches from one tree to another. Some of\nthe choicest fruit was gathered by the Patchwork Girl from the very\nhighest limbs and tossed down to the others. Suddenly, Trot asked,\n\"Where\'s Button-Bright?\" and when the others looked for him, they found\nthe boy had disappeared.\n\n\"Dear me!\" cried Dorothy. \"I guess he\'s lost again, and that will mean\nour waiting here until we can find him.\"\n\n\"It\'s a good place to wait,\" suggested Betsy, who had found a plum tree\nand was eating some of its fruit.\n\n\"How can you wait here and find Button-Bright at one and the same\ntime?\" inquired the Patchwork Girl, hanging by her toes on a limb just\nover the heads of the three mortal girls.\n\n\"Perhaps he\'ll come back here,\" answered Dorothy.\n\n\"If he tries that, he\'ll prob\'ly lose his way,\" said Trot. \"I\'ve known\nhim to do that lots of times. It\'s losing his way that gets him lost.\"\n\n\"Very true,\" said the Wizard. \"So all the rest of you must stay here\nwhile I go look for the boy.\"\n\n\"Won\'t YOU get lost, too?\" asked Betsy.\n\n\"I hope not, my dear.\"\n\n\"Let ME go,\" said Scraps, dropping lightly to the ground. \"I can\'t get\nlost, and I\'m more likely to find Button-Bright than any of you.\"\nWithout waiting for permission, she darted away through the trees and\nsoon disappeared from their view.\n\n\"Dorothy,\" said Toto, squatting beside his little mistress, \"I\'ve lost\nmy growl.\"\n\n\"How did that happen?\" she asked.\n\n\"I don\'t know,\" replied Toto. \"Yesterday morning the Woozy nearly\nstepped on me, and I tried to growl at him and found I couldn\'t growl a\nbit.\"\n\n\"Can you bark?\" inquired Dorothy.\n\n\"Oh, yes indeed.\"\n\n\"Then never mind the growl,\" said she.\n\n\"But what will I do when I get home to the Glass Cat and the Pink\nKitten?\" asked the little dog in an anxious tone.\n\n\"They won\'t mind if you can\'t growl at them, I\'m sure,\" said Dorothy.\n\"I\'m sorry for you, of course, Toto, for it\'s just those things we\ncan\'t do that we want to do most of all; but before we get back, you\nmay find your growl again.\"\n\n\"Do you think the person who stole Ozma stole my growl?\"\n\nDorothy smiled.\n\n\"Perhaps, Toto.\"\n\n\"Then he\'s a scoundrel!\" cried the little dog.\n\n\"Anyone who would steal Ozma is as bad as bad can be,\" agreed Dorothy,\n\"and when we remember that our dear friend, the lovely Ruler of Oz, is\nlost, we ought not to worry over just a growl.\"\n\nToto was not entirely satisfied with this remark, for the more he\nthought upon his lost growl, the more important his misfortune became.\nWhen no one was looking, he went away among the trees and tried his\nbest to growl--even a little bit--but could not manage to do so. All\nhe could do was bark, and a bark cannot take the place of a growl, so\nhe sadly returned to the others.\n\nNow Button-Bright had no idea that he was lost at first. He had merely\nwandered from tree to tree seeking the finest fruit until he discovered\nhe was alone in the great orchard. But that didn\'t worry him just\nthen, and seeing some apricot trees farther on, he went to them. Then\nhe discovered some cherry trees; just beyond these were some\ntangerines. \"We\'ve found \'most ev\'ry kind of fruit but peaches,\" he\nsaid to himself, \"so I guess there are peaches here, too, if I can find\nthe trees.\"\n\nHe searched here and there, paying no attention to his way, until he\nfound that the trees surrounding him bore only nuts. He put some\nwalnuts in his pockets and kept on searching, and at last--right among\nthe nut trees--he came upon one solitary peach tree. It was a\ngraceful, beautiful tree, but although it was thickly leaved, it bore\nno fruit except one large, splendid peach, rosy-cheeked and fuzzy and\njust right to eat.\n\nIn his heart he doubted this statement, for this was a solitary peach\ntree, while all the other fruits grew upon many trees set close to one\nanother; but that one luscious bite made him unable to resist eating\nthe rest of it, and soon the peach was all gone except the pit.\nButton-Bright was about to throw this peach pit away when he noticed\nthat it was of pure gold. Of course, this surprised him, but so many\nthings in the Land of Oz were surprising that he did not give much\nthought to the golden peach pit. He put it in his pocket, however, to\nshow to the girls, and five minutes afterward had forgotten all about\nit.\n\nFor now he realized that he was far separated from his companions, and\nknowing that this would worry them and delay their journey, he began to\nshout as loud as he could. His voice did not penetrate very far among\nall those trees, and after shouting a dozen times and getting no\nanswer, he sat down on the ground and said, \"Well, I\'m lost again. It\'s\ntoo bad, but I don\'t see how it can be helped.\"\n\nAs he leaned his back against a tree, he looked up and saw a Bluefinch\nfly down from the sky and alight upon a branch just before him. The\nbird looked and looked at him. First it looked with one bright eye and\nthen turned its head and looked at him with the other eye. Then,\nfluttering its wings a little, it said, \"Oho! So you\'ve eaten the\nenchanted peach, have you?\"\n\n\"Was it enchanted?\" asked Button-Bright.\n\n\"Of course,\" replied the Bluefinch. \"Ugu the Shoemaker did that.\"\n\n\"But why? And how was it enchanted? And what will happen to one who\neats it?\" questioned the boy.\n\n\"Ask Ugu the Shoemaker. He knows,\" said the bird, preening its\nfeathers with its bill.\n\n\"And who is Ugu the Shoemaker?\"\n\n\"The one who enchanted the peach and placed it here--in the exact\ncenter of the Great Orchard--so no one would ever find it. We birds\ndidn\'t dare to eat it; we are too wise for that. But you are\nButton-Bright from the Emerald City, and you, YOU, YOU ate the\nenchanted peach! You must explain to Ugu the Shoemaker why you did\nthat.\"\n\nAnd then, before the boy could ask any more questions, the bird flew\naway and left him alone.\n\nButton-Bright was not much worried to find that the peach he had eaten\nwas enchanted. It certainly had tasted very good, and his stomach\ndidn\'t ache a bit. So again he began to reflect upon the best way to\nrejoin his friends. \"Whichever direction I follow is likely to be the\nwrong one,\" he said to himself, \"so I\'d better stay just where I am and\nlet THEM find ME--if they can.\"\n\nA White Rabbit came hopping through the orchard and paused a little way\noff to look at him. \"Don\'t be afraid,\" said Button-Bright. \"I won\'t\nhurt you.\"\n\n\"Oh, I\'m not afraid for myself,\" returned the White Rabbit. \"It\'s you\nI\'m worried about.\"\n\n\"Yes, I\'m lost,\" said the boy.\n\n\"I fear you are, indeed,\" answered the Rabbit. \"Why on earth did you\neat the enchanted peach?\"\n\nThe boy looked at the excited little animal thoughtfully. \"There were\ntwo reasons,\" he explained. \"One reason was that I like peaches, and\nthe other reason was that I didn\'t know it was enchanted.\"\n\n\"That won\'t save you from Ugu the Shoemaker,\" declared the White\nRabbit, and it scurried away before the boy could ask any more\nquestions.\n\n\"Rabbits and birds,\" he thought, \"are timid creatures and seem afraid\nof this shoemaker, whoever he may be. If there was another peach half\nas good as that other, I\'d eat it in spite of a dozen enchantments or a\nhundred shoemakers!\"\n\nJust then, Scraps came dancing along and saw him sitting at the foot of\nthe tree. \"Oh, here you are!\" she said. \"Up to your old tricks, eh?\nDon\'t you know it\'s impolite to get lost and keep everybody waiting for\nyou? Come along, and I\'ll lead you back to Dorothy and the others.\"\n\nButton-Bright rose slowly to accompany her.\n\n\"That wasn\'t much of a loss,\" he said cheerfully. \"I haven\'t been gone\nhalf a day, so there\'s no harm done.\"\n\nDorothy, however, when the boy rejoined the party, gave him a good\nscolding. \"When we\'re doing such an important thing as searching for\nOzma,\" said she, \"it\'s naughty for you to wander away and keep us from\ngetting on. S\'pose she\'s a pris\'ner in a dungeon cell! Do you want to\nkeep our dear Ozma there any longer than we can help?\"\n\n\"If she\'s in a dungeon cell, how are you going to get her out?\"\ninquired the boy.\n\n\"Never you mind. We\'ll leave that to the Wizard. He\'s sure to find a\nway.\"\n\nThe Wizard said nothing, for he realized that without his magic tools\nhe could do no more than any other person. But there was no use\nreminding his companions of that fact; it might discourage them. \"The\nimportant thing just now,\" he remarked, \"is to find Ozma, and as our\nparty is again happily reunited, I propose we move on.\"\n\nAs they came to the edge of the Great Orchard, the sun was setting and\nthey knew it would soon be dark. So it was decided to camp under the\ntrees, as another broad plain was before them. The Wizard spread the\nblankets on a bed of soft leaves, and presently all of them except\nScraps and the Sawhorse were fast asleep. Toto snuggled close to his\nfriend the Lion, and the Woozy snored so loudly that the Patchwork Girl\ncovered his square head with her apron to deaden the sound.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER 12\n\nTHE CZAROVER OF HERKU\n\n\nTrot wakened just as the sun rose, and slipping out of the blankets,\nwent to the edge of the Great Orchard and looked across the plain.\nSomething glittered in the far distance. \"That looks like another\ncity,\" she said half aloud.\n\n\"And another city it is,\" declared Scraps, who had crept to Trot\'s side\nunheard, for her stuffed feet made no sound. \"The Sawhorse and I made\na journey in the dark while you were all asleep, and we found over\nthere a bigger city than Thi. There\'s a wall around it, too, but it\nhas gates and plenty of pathways.\"\n\n\"Did you get in?\" asked Trot.\n\n\"No, for the gates were locked and the wall was a real wall. So we\ncame back here again. It isn\'t far to the city. We can reach it in\ntwo hours after you\'ve had your breakfasts.\"\n\nTrot went back, and finding the other girls now awake, told them what\nScraps had said. So they hurriedly ate some fruit--there were plenty\nof plums and fijoas in this part of the orchard--and then they mounted\nthe animals and set out upon the journey to the strange city. Hank the\nMule had breakfasted on grass, and the Lion had stolen away and found a\nbreakfast to his liking; he never told what it was, but Dorothy hoped\nthe little rabbits and the field mice had kept out of his way. She\nwarned Toto not to chase birds and gave the dog some apple, with which\nhe was quite content. The Woozy was as fond of fruit as of any other\nfood except honey, and the Sawhorse never ate at all.\n\nExcept for their worry over Ozma, they were all in good spirits as they\nproceeded swiftly over the plain. Toto still worried over his lost\ngrowl, but like a wise little dog kept his worry to himself. Before\nlong, the city grew nearer and they could examine it with interest.\n\nIn outward appearance the place was more imposing than Thi, and it was\na square city, with a square, four-sided wall around it, and on each\nside was a square gate of burnished copper. Everything about the city\nlooked solid and substantial; there were no banners flying, and the\ntowers that rose above the city wall seemed bare of any ornament\nwhatever.\n\nA path led from the fruit orchard directly to one of the city gates,\nshowing that the inhabitants preferred fruit to thistles. Our friends\nfollowed this path to the gate, which they found fast shut. But the\nWizard advanced and pounded upon it with his fist, saying in a loud\nvoice, \"Open!\"\n\nAt once there rose above the great wall a row of immense heads, all of\nwhich looked down at them as if to see who was intruding. The size of\nthese heads was astonishing, and our friends at once realized that they\nbelonged to giants who were standing within the city. All had thick,\nbushy hair and whiskers, on some the hair being white and on others\nblack or red or yellow, while the hair of a few was just turning gray,\nshowing that the giants were of all ages. However fierce the heads\nmight seem, the eyes were mild in expression, as if the creatures had\nbeen long subdued, and their faces expressed patience rather than\nferocity.\n\n\"What\'s wanted?\" asked one old giant in a low, grumbling voice.\n\n\"We are strangers, and we wish to enter the city,\" replied the Wizard.\n\n\"Do you come in war or peace?\" asked another.\n\n\"In peace, of course,\" retorted the Wizard, and he added impatiently,\n\"Do we look like an army of conquest?\"\n\n\"No,\" said the first giant who had spoken, \"you look like innocent\ntramps; but you never can tell by appearances. Wait here until we\nreport to our masters. No one can enter here without the permission of\nVig, the Czarover.\"\n\n\"Who\'s that?\" inquired Dorothy.\n\nBut the heads had all bobbed down and disappeared behind the walls, so\nthere was no answer. They waited a long time before the gate rolled\nback with a rumbling sound, and a loud voice cried, \"Enter!\" But they\nlost no time in taking advantage of the invitation.\n\nOn either side of the broad street that led into the city from the gate\nstood a row of huge giants, twenty of them on a side and all standing\nso close together that their elbows touched. They wore uniforms of\nblue and yellow and were armed with clubs as big around as treetrunks.\nEach giant had around his neck a broad band of gold, riveted on, to\nshow he was a slave.\n\nAs our friends entered riding upon the Lion, the Woozy, the Sawhorse\nand the Mule, the giants half turned and walked in two files on either\nside of them, as if escorting them on their way. It looked to Dorothy\nas if all her party had been made prisoners, for even mounted on their\nanimals their heads scarcely reached to the knees of the marching\ngiants. The girls and Button-Bright were anxious to know what sort of\na city they had entered, and what the people were like who had made\nthese powerful creatures their slaves. Through the legs of the giants\nas they walked, Dorothy could see rows of houses on each side of the\nstreet and throngs of people standing on the sidewalks, but the people\nwere of ordinary size and the only remarkable thing about them was the\nfact that they were dreadfully lean and thin. Between their skin and\ntheir bones there seemed to be little or no flesh, and they were mostly\nstoop-shouldered and weary looking, even to the little children.\n\nMore and more, Dorothy wondered how and why the great giants had ever\nsubmitted to become slaves of such skinny, languid masters, but there\nwas no chance to question anyone until they arrived at a big palace\nlocated in the heart of the city. Here the giants formed lines to the\nentrance and stood still while our friends rode into the courtyard of\nthe palace. Then the gates closed behind them, and before them was a\nskinny little man who bowed low and said in a sad voice, \"If you will\nbe so obliging as to dismount, it will give me pleasure to lead you\ninto the presence of the World\'s Most Mighty Ruler, Vig the Czarover.\"\n\n\"I don\'t believe it!\" said Dorothy indignantly.\n\n\"What don\'t you believe?\" asked the man.\n\n\"I don\'t believe your Czarover can hold a candle to our Ozma.\"\n\n\"He wouldn\'t hold a candle under any circumstances, or to any living\nperson,\" replied the man very seriously, \"for he has slaves to do such\nthings and the Mighty Vig is too dignified to do anything that others\ncan do for him. He even obliges a slave to sneeze for him, if ever he\ncatches cold. However, if you dare to face our powerful ruler, follow\nme.\"\n\n\"We dare anything,\" said the Wizard, \"so go ahead.\"\n\nThrough several marble corridors having lofty ceilings they passed,\nfinding each corridor and doorway guarded by servants. But these\nservants of the palace were of the people and not giants, and they were\nso thin that they almost resembled skeletons. Finally, they entered a\ngreat circular room with a high, domed ceiling, where the Czarover sat\non a throne cut from a solid block of white marble and decorated with\npurple silk hangings and gold tassels.\n\nThe ruler of these people was combing his eyebrows when our friends\nentered the throne room and stood before him, but he put the comb in\nhis pocket and examined the strangers with evident curiosity. Then he\nsaid, \"Dear me, what a surprise! You have really shocked me. For no\noutsider has ever before come to our City of Herku, and I cannot\nimagine why you have ventured to do so.\"\n\n\"We are looking for Ozma, the Supreme Ruler of the Land of Oz,\" replied\nthe Wizard.\n\n\"Do you see her anywhere around here?\" asked the Czarover.\n\n\"Not yet, Your Majesty, but perhaps you may tell us where she is.\"\n\n\"No, I have my hands full keeping track of my own people. I find them\nhard to manage because they are so tremendously strong.\"\n\n\"They don\'t look very strong,\" said Dorothy. \"It seems as if a good\nwind would blow \'em way out of the city if it wasn\'t for the wall.\"\n\n\"Just so, just so,\" admitted the Czarover. \"They really look that way,\ndon\'t they? But you must never trust to appearances, which have a way\nof fooling one. Perhaps you noticed that I prevented you from meeting\nany of my people. I protected you with my giants while you were on the\nway from the gates to my palace so that not a Herku got near you.\"\n\n\"Are your people so dangerous, then?\" asked the Wizard.\n\n\"To strangers, yes. But only because they are so friendly. For if\nthey shake hands with you, they are likely to break your arms or crush\nyour fingers to a jelly.\"\n\n\"Why?\" asked Button-Bright.\n\n\"Because we are the strongest people in all the world.\"\n\n\"Pshaw!\" exclaimed the boy. \"That\'s bragging. You prob\'ly don\'t know\nhow strong other people are. Why, once I knew a man in Philadelphi\'\nwho could bend iron bars with just his hands!\"\n\n\"But mercy me, it\'s no trick to bend iron bars,\" said His Majesty.\n\"Tell me, could this man crush a block of stone with his bare hands?\"\n\n\"No one could do that,\" declared the boy.\n\n\"If I had a block of stone, I\'d show you,\" said the Czarover, looking\naround the room. \"Ah, here is my throne. The back is too high,\nanyhow, so I\'ll just break off a piece of that.\" He rose to his feet\nand tottered in an uncertain way around the throne. Then he took hold\nof the back and broke off a piece of marble over a foot thick. \"This,\"\nsaid he, coming back to his seat, \"is very solid marble and much harder\nthan ordinary stone. Yet I can crumble it easily with my fingers, a\nproof that I am very strong.\"\n\nEven as he spoke, he began breaking off chunks of marble and crumbling\nthem as one would a bit of earth. The Wizard was so astonished that he\ntook a piece in his own hands and tested it, finding it very hard\nindeed.\n\nJust then one of the giant servants entered and exclaimed, \"Oh, Your\nMajesty, the cook has burned the soup! What shall we do?\"\n\n\"How dare you interrupt me?\" asked the Czarover, and grasping the\nimmense giant by one of his legs, he raised him in the air and threw\nhim headfirst out of an open window. \"Now, tell me,\" he said, turning\nto Button-Bright, \"could your man in Philadelphia crumble marble in his\nfingers?\"\n\n\"I guess not,\" said Button-Bright, much impressed by the skinny\nmonarch\'s strength.\n\n\"What makes you so strong?\" inquired Dorothy.\n\n\"It\'s the zosozo,\" he explained, \"which is an invention of my own. I\nand all my people eat zosozo, and it gives us tremendous strength.\nWould you like to eat some?\"\n\n\"No thank you,\" replied the girl. \"I--I don\'t want to get so thin.\"\n\n\"Well, of course one can\'t have strength and flesh at the same time,\"\nsaid the Czarover. \"Zosozo is pure energy, and it\'s the only compound\nof its sort in existence. I never allow our giants to have it, you\nknow, or they would soon become our masters, since they are bigger that\nwe; so I keep all the stuff locked up in my private laboratory. Once a\nyear I feed a teaspoonful of it to each of my people--men, women and\nchildren--so every one of them is nearly as strong as I am. Wouldn\'t\nYOU like a dose, sir?\" he asked, turning to the Wizard.\n\n\"Well,\" said the Wizard, \"if you would give me a little zosozo in a\nbottle, I\'d like to take it with me on my travels. It might come in\nhandy on occasion.\"\n\n\"To be sure. I\'ll give you enough for six doses,\" promised the\nCzarover.\n\n\"But don\'t take more than a teaspoonful at a time. Once Ugu the\nShoemaker took two teaspoonsful, and it made him so strong that when he\nleaned against the city wall, he pushed it over, and we had to build it\nup again.\"\n\n\"Who is Ugu the Shoemaker?\"\n\nButton-Bright curiously, for he now remembered that the bird and the\nrabbit had claimed Ugu the Shoemaker had enchanted the peach he had\neaten.\n\n\"Why, Ugu is a great magician who used to live here. But he\'s gone\naway now,\" replied the Czarover.\n\n\"Where has he gone?\" asked the Wizard quickly.\n\n\"I am told he lives in a wickerwork castle in the mountains to the west\nof here. You see, Ugu became such a powerful magician that he didn\'t\ncare to live in our city any longer for fear we would discover some of\nhis secrets. So he went to the mountains and built him a splendid\nwicker castle which is so strong that even I and my people could not\nbatter it down, and there he lives all by himself.\"\n\n\"This is good news,\" declared the Wizard, \"for I think this is just the\nmagician we are searching for. But why is he called Ugu the Shoemaker?\"\n\n\"Once he was a very common citizen here and made shoes for a living,\"\nreplied the monarch of Herku. \"But he was descended from the greatest\nwizard and sorcerer who ever lived in this or in any other country, and\none day Ugu the Shoemaker discovered all the magical books and recipes\nof his famous great-grandfather, which had been hidden away in the\nattic of his house. So he began to study the papers and books and to\npractice magic, and in time he became so skillful that, as I said, he\nscorned our city and built a solitary castle for himself.\"\n\n\"Do you think,\" asked Dorothy anxiously, \"that Ugu the Shoemaker would\nbe wicked enough to steal our Ozma of Oz?\"\n\n\"And the Magic Picture?\" asked Trot.\n\n\"And the Great Book of Records of Glinda the Good?\" asked Betsy.\n\n\"And my own magic tools?\" asked the Wizard.\n\n\"Well,\" replied the Czarover, \"I won\'t say that Ugu is wicked, exactly,\nbut he is very ambitious to become the most powerful magician in the\nworld, and so I suppose he would not be too proud to steal any magic\nthings that belonged to anybody else--if he could manage to do so.\"\n\n\"But how about Ozma? Why would he wish to steal HER?\" questioned\nDorothy.\n\n\"Don\'t ask me, my dear. Ugu doesn\'t tell me why he does things, I\nassure you.\"\n\n\"Then we must go and ask him ourselves,\" declared the little girl.\n\n\"I wouldn\'t do that if I were you,\" advised the Czarover, looking first\nat the three girls and then at the boy and the little Wizard and\nfinally at the stuffed Patchwork Girl. \"If Ugu has really stolen your\nOzma, he will probably keep her a prisoner, in spite of all your\nthreats or entreaties. And with all his magical knowledge he would be\na dangerous person to attack. Therefore, if you are wise, you will go\nhome again and find a new Ruler for the Emerald City and the Land of\nOz. But perhaps it isn\'t Ugu the Shoemaker who has stolen your Ozma.\"\n\n\"The only way to settle that question,\" replied the Wizard, \"is to go\nto Ugu\'s castle and see if Ozma is there. If she is, we will report\nthe matter to the great Sorceress Glinda the Good, and I\'m pretty sure\nshe will find a way to rescue our darling ruler from the Shoemaker.\"\n\n\"Well, do as you please,\" said the Czarover, \"but if you are all\ntransformed into hummingbirds or caterpillars, don\'t blame me for not\nwarning you.\"\n\nThey stayed the rest of that day in the City of Herku and were fed at\nthe royal table of the Czarover and given sleeping rooms in his palace.\nThe strong monarch treated them very nicely and gave the Wizard a\nlittle golden vial of zosozo to use if ever he or any of his party\nwished to acquire great strength.\n\nEven at the last, the Czarover tried to persuade them not to go near\nUgu the Shoemaker, but they were resolved on the venture, and the next\nmorning bade the friendly monarch a cordial goodbye and, mounting upon\ntheir animals, left the Herkus and the City of Herku and headed for the\nmountains that lay to the west.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER 13\n\nTHE TRUTH POND\n\n\nIt seems a long time since we have heard anything of the Frogman and\nCayke the Cookie Cook, who had left the Yip Country in search of the\ndiamond-studded dishpan which had been mysteriously stolen the same\nnight that Ozma had disappeared from the Emerald City. But you must\nremember that while the Frogman and the Cookie Cook were preparing to\ndescend from their mountaintop, and even while on their way to the\nfarmhouse of Wiljon the Winkie, Dorothy and the Wizard and their\nfriends were encountering the adventures we have just related.\n\nSo it was that on the very morning when the travelers from the Emerald\nCity bade farewell to the Czarover of the City of Herku, Cayke and the\nFrogman awoke in a grove in which they had passed the night sleeping on\nbeds of leaves. There were plenty of farmhouses in the neighborhood,\nbut no one seemed to welcome the puffy, haughty Frogman or the little\ndried-up Cookie Cook, and so they slept comfortably enough underneath\nthe trees of the grove. The Frogman wakened first on this morning, and\nafter going to the tree where Cayke slept and finding her still wrapped\nin slumber, he decided to take a little walk and seek some breakfast.\nComing to the edge of the grove, he observed half a mile away a pretty\nyellow house that was surrounded by a yellow picket fence, so he walked\ntoward this house and on entering the yard found a Winkie woman picking\nup sticks with which to build a fire to cook her morning meal.\n\n\"For goodness sake!\" she exclaimed on seeing the Frogman. \"What are\nyou doing out of your frog-pond?\"\n\n\"I am traveling in search of a jeweled gold dishpan, my good woman,\" he\nreplied with an air of great dignity.\n\n\"You won\'t find it here, then,\" said she. \"Our dishpans are tin, and\nthey\'re good enough for anybody. So go back to your pond and leave me\nalone.\" She spoke rather crossly and with a lack of respect that\ngreatly annoyed the Frogman.\n\n\"Allow me to tell you, madam,\" said he, \"that although I am a frog, I\nam the Greatest and Wisest Frog in all the world. I may add that I\npossess much more wisdom than any Winkie--man or woman--in this land.\nWherever I go, people fall on their knees before me and render homage\nto the Great Frogman! No one else knows so much as I; no one else is\nso grand, so magnificent!\"\n\n\"If you know so much,\" she retorted, \"why don\'t you know where your\ndishpan is instead of chasing around the country after it?\"\n\n\"Presently,\" he answered, \"I am going where it is, but just now I am\ntraveling and have had no breakfast. Therefore I honor you by asking\nyou for something to eat.\"\n\n\"Oho! The Great Frogman is hungry as any tramp, is he? Then pick up\nthese sticks and help me to build the fire,\" said the woman\ncontemptuously.\n\n\"Me! The Great Frogman pick up sticks?\" he exclaimed in horror. \"In\nthe Yip Country where I am more honored and powerful than any King\ncould be, people weep with joy when I ask them to feed me.\"\n\n\"Then that\'s the place to go for your breakfast,\" declared the woman.\n\n\"I fear you do not realize my importance,\" urged the Frogman.\n\"Exceeding wisdom renders me superior to menial duties.\"\n\n\"It\'s a great wonder to me,\" remarked the woman, carrying her sticks to\nthe house, \"that your wisdom doesn\'t inform you that you\'ll get no\nbreakfast here.\" And she went in and slammed the door behind her.\n\nThe Frogman felt he had been insulted, so he gave a loud croak of\nindignation and turned away. After going a short distance, he came\nupon a faint path which led across a meadow in the direction of a grove\nof pretty trees, and thinking this circle of evergreens must surround a\nhouse where perhaps he would be kindly received, he decided to follow\nthe path. And by and by he came to the trees, which were set close\ntogether, and pushing aside some branches he found no house inside the\ncircle, but instead a very beautiful pond of clear water.\n\nNow the Frogman, although he was so big and well educated and now aped\nthe ways and customs of human beings, was still a frog. As he gazed at\nthis solitary, deserted pond, his love for water returned to him with\nirresistible force. \"If I cannot get a breakfast, I may at least have\na fine swim,\" said he, and pushing his way between the trees, he\nreached the bank. There he took off his fine clothing, laying his\nshiny purple hat and his gold-headed cane beside it. A moment later,\nhe sprang with one leap into the water and dived to the very bottom of\nthe pond.\n\nThe water was deliciously cool and grateful to his thick, rough skin,\nand the Frogman swam around the pond several times before he stopped to\nrest. Then he floated upon the surface and examined the pond. The\nbottom and sides were all lined with glossy tiles of a light pink\ncolor; just one place in the bottom where the water bubbled up from a\nhidden spring had been left free. On the banks, the green grass grew\nto the edge of the pink tiling. And now, as the Frogman examined the\nplace, he found that on one side of the pool, just above the water\nline, had been set a golden plate on which some words were deeply\nengraved. He swam toward this plate, and on reaching it read the\nfollowing inscription:\n\n _This is_\n THE TRUTH POND\n _Whoever bathes in this\n water must always\n afterward tell_\n THE TRUTH.\n\n\nThis statement startled the Frogman. It even worried him, so that he\nleaped upon the bank and hurriedly began to dress himself. \"A great\nmisfortune has befallen me,\" he told himself, \"for hereafter I cannot\ntell people I am wise, since it is not the truth. The truth is that my\nboasted wisdom is all a sham, assumed by me to deceive people and make\nthem defer to me. In truth, no living creature can know much more than\nhis fellows, for one may know one thing, and another know another\nthing, so that wisdom is evenly scattered throughout the world.\nBut--ah me!--what a terrible fate will now be mine. Even Cayke the\nCookie Cook will soon discover that my knowledge is no greater than her\nown, for having bathed in the enchanted water of the Truth Pond, I can\nno longer deceive her or tell a lie.\"\n\nMore humbled than he had been for many years, the Frogman went back to\nthe grove where he had left Cayke and found the woman now awake and\nwashing her face in a tiny brook. \"Where has Your Honor been?\" she\nasked.\n\n\"To a farmhouse to ask for something to eat,\" said he, \"but the woman\nrefused me.\"\n\n\"How dreadful!\" she exclaimed. \"But never mind, there are other houses\nwhere the people will be glad to feed the Wisest Creature in all the\nWorld.\"\n\n\"Do you mean yourself?\" he asked.\n\n\"No, I mean you.\"\n\nThe Frogman felt strongly impelled to tell the truth, but struggled\nhard against it. His reason told him there was no use in letting Cayke\nknow he was not wise, for then she would lose much respect for him, but\neach time he opened his mouth to speak, he realized he was about to\ntell the truth and shut it again as quickly as possible. He tried to\ntalk about something else, but the words necessary to undeceive the\nwoman would force themselves to his lips in spite of all his struggles.\nFinally, knowing that he must either remain dumb or let the truth\nprevail, he gave a low groan of despair and said, \"Cayke, I am NOT the\nWisest Creature in all the World; I am not wise at all.\"\n\n\"Oh, you must be!\" she protested. \"You told me so yourself, only last\nevening.\"\n\n\"Then last evening I failed to tell you the truth,\" he admitted,\nlooking very shamefaced for a frog. \"I am sorry I told you this lie,\nmy good Cayke, but if you must know the truth, the whole truth and\nnothing but the truth, I am not really as wise as you are.\"\n\nThe Cookie Cook was greatly shocked to hear this, for it shattered one\nof her most pleasing illusions. She looked at the gorgeously dressed\nFrogman in amazement. \"What has caused you to change your mind so\nsuddenly?\" she inquired.\n\n\"I have bathed in the Truth Pond,\" he said, \"and whoever bathes in that\nwater is ever afterward obliged to tell the truth.\"\n\n\"You were foolish to do that,\" declared the woman.\n\n\"It is often very embarrassing to tell the truth. I\'m glad I didn\'t\nbathe in that dreadful water!\"\n\nThe Frogman looked at his companion thoughtfully. \"Cayke,\" said he, \"I\nwant you to go to the Truth Pond and take a bath in its water. For if\nwe are to travel together and encounter unknown adventures, it would\nnot be fair that I alone must always tell you the truth, while you\ncould tell me whatever you pleased. If we both dip in the enchanted\nwater, there will be no chance in the future of our deceiving one\nanother.\"\n\n\"No,\" she asserted, shaking her head positively, \"I won\'t do it, Your\nHonor. For if I told you the truth, I\'m sure you wouldn\'t like me. No\nTruth Pond for me. I\'ll be just as I am, an honest woman who can say\nwhat she wants to without hurting anyone\'s feelings.\"\n\nWith this decision the Frogman was forced to be content, although he\nwas sorry the Cookie Cook would not listen to his advice.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER 14\n\nTHE UNHAPPY FERRYMAN\n\n\nLeaving the grove where they had slept, the Frogman and the Cookie Cook\nturned to the east to seek another house, and after a short walk came\nto one where the people received them very politely. The children\nstared rather hard at the big, pompous Frogman, but the woman of the\nhouse, when Cayke asked for something to eat, at once brought them food\nand said they were welcome to it. \"Few people in need of help pass\nthis way,\" she remarked, \"for the Winkies are all prosperous and love\nto stay in their own homes. But perhaps you are not a Winkie,\" she\nadded.\n\n\"No,\" said Cayke, \"I am a Yip, and my home is on a high mountain at the\nsoutheast of your country.\"\n\n\"And the Frogman, is he also a Yip?\"\n\n\"I do not know what he is, other than a very remarkable and highly\neducated creature,\" replied the Cookie Cook. \"But he has lived many\nyears among the Yips, who have found him so wise and intelligent that\nthey always go to him for advice.\"\n\n\"May I ask why you have left your home and where you are going?\" said\nthe Winkie woman.\n\nThen Cayke told her of the diamond-studded gold dishpan and how it had\nbeen mysteriously stolen from her house, after which she had discovered\nthat she could no longer cook good cookies. So she had resolved to\nsearch until she found her dishpan again, because a Cookie cook who\ncannot cook good cookies is not of much use. The Frogman, who had\nwanted to see more of the world, had accompanied her to assist in the\nsearch. When the woman had listened to this story, she asked, \"Then\nyou have no idea as yet who has stolen your dishpan?\"\n\n\"I only know it must have been some mischievous fairy, or a magician,\nor some such powerful person, because none other could have climbed the\nsteep mountain to the Yip Country. And who else could have carried\naway my beautiful magic dishpan without being seen?\"\n\nThe woman thought about this during the time that Cayke and the Frogman\nate their breakfast. When they had finished, she said, \"Where are you\ngoing next?\"\n\n\"We have not decided,\" answered the Cookie cook.\n\n\"Our plan,\" explained the Frogman in his important way, \"is to travel\nfrom place to place until we learn where the thief is located and then\nto force him to return the dishpan to its proper owner.\"\n\n\"The plan is all right,\" agreed the woman, \"but it may take you a long\ntime before you succeed, your method being sort of haphazard and\nindefinite. However, I advise you to travel toward the east.\"\n\n\"Why?\" asked the Frogman.\n\n\"Because if you went west, you would soon come to the desert, and also\nbecause in this part of the Winkie Country no one steals, so your time\nhere would be wasted. But toward the east, beyond the river, live many\nstrange people whose honesty I would not vouch for. Moreover, if you\njourney far enough east and cross the river for a second time, you will\ncome to the Emerald City, where there is much magic and sorcery. The\nEmerald City is ruled by a dear little girl called Ozma, who also rules\nthe Emperor of the Winkies and all the Land of Oz. So, as Ozma is a\nfairy, she may be able to tell you just who has taken your precious\ndishpan. Provided, of course, you do not find it before you reach her.\"\n\n\"This seems to be to be excellent advice,\" said the Frogman, and Cayke\nagreed with him.\n\n\"The most sensible thing for you to do,\" continued the woman, \"would be\nto return to your home and use another dishpan, learn to cook cookies\nas other people cook cookies, without the aid of magic. But if you\ncannot be happy without the magic dishpan you have lost, you are likely\nto learn more about it in the Emerald City than at any other place in\nOz.\"\n\nThey thanked the good woman, and on leaving her house faced the east\nand continued in that direction all the way. Toward evening they came\nto the west branch of the Winkie River and there, on the riverbank,\nfound a ferryman who lived all alone in a little yellow house. This\nferryman was a Winkie with a very small head and a very large body. He\nwas sitting in his doorway as the travelers approached him and did not\neven turn his head to look at them.\n\n\"Good evening,\" said the Frogman.\n\nThe ferryman made no reply.\n\n\"We would like some supper and the privilege of sleeping in your house\nuntil morning,\" continued the Frogman. \"At daybreak, we would like\nsome breakfast, and then we would like to have you row us across the\nriver.\"\n\nThe ferryman neither moved nor spoke. He sat in his doorway and looked\nstraight ahead. \"I think he must be deaf and dumb,\" Cayke whispered to\nher companion. Then she stood directly in front of the ferryman, and\nputting her mouth close to his ear, she yelled as loudly as she could,\n\"Good evening!\"\n\nThe ferryman scowled.\n\n\"Why do you yell at me, woman?\" he asked.\n\n\"Can you hear what I say?\" asked in her ordinary tone of voice.\n\n\"Of course,\" replied the man.\n\n\"Then why didn\'t you answer the Frogman?\"\n\n\"Because,\" said the ferryman, \"I don\'t understand the frog language.\"\n\n\"He speaks the same words that I do and in the same way,\" declared\nCayke.\n\n\"Perhaps,\" replied the ferryman, \"but to me his voice sounded like a\nfrog\'s croak. I know that in the Land of Oz animals can speak our\nlanguage, and so can the birds and bugs and fishes; but in MY ears,\nthey sound merely like growls and chirps and croaks.\"\n\n\"Why is that?\" asked the Cookie Cook in surprise.\n\n\"Once, many years ago, I cut the tail off a fox which had taunted me,\nand I stole some birds\' eggs from a nest to make an omelet with, and\nalso I pulled a fish from the river and left it lying on the bank to\ngasp for lack of water until it died. I don\'t know why I did those\nwicked things, but I did them. So the Emperor of the Winkies--who is\nthe Tin Woodman and has a very tender tin heart--punished me by denying\nme any communication with beasts, birds or fishes. I cannot understand\nthem when they speak to me, although I know that other people can do\nso, nor can the creatures understand a word I say to them. Every time\nI meet one of them, I am reminded of my former cruelty, and it makes me\nvery unhappy.\"\n\n\"Really,\" said Cayke, \"I\'m sorry for you, although the Tin Woodman is\nnot to blame for punishing you.\"\n\n\"What is he mumbling about?\" asked the Frogman.\n\n\"He is talking to me, but you don\'t understand him,\" she replied. And\nthen she told him of the ferryman\'s punishment and afterward explained\nto the ferryman that they wanted to stay all night with him and be fed.\n\nHe gave them some fruit and bread, which was the only sort of food he\nhad, and he allowed Cayke to sleep in a room of his cottage. But the\nFrogman he refused to admit to his house, saying that the frog\'s\npresence made him miserable and unhappy. At no time would he look\ndirectly at the Frogman, or even toward him, fearing he would shed\ntears if he did so; so the big frog slept on the riverbank where he\ncould hear little frogs croaking in the river all the night through.\nBut that did not keep him awake; it merely soothed him to slumber, for\nhe realized how much superior he was to them.\n\nJust as the sun was rising on a new day, the ferryman rowed the two\ntravelers across the river--keeping his back to the Frogman all the\nway--and then Cayke thanked him and bade him goodbye and the ferryman\nrowed home again.\n\nOn this side of the river, there were no paths at all, so it was\nevident they had reached a part of the country little frequented by\ntravelers. There was a marsh at the south of them, sandhills at the\nnorth, and a growth of scrubby underbrush leading toward a forest at\nthe east. So the east was really the least difficult way to go, and\nthat direction was the one they had determined to follow.\n\nNow the Frogman, although he wore green patent-leather shoes with ruby\nbuttons, had very large and flat feet, and when he tramped through the\nscrub, his weight crushed down the underbrush and made a path for Cayke\nto follow him. Therefore they soon reached the forest, where the tall\ntrees were set far apart but were so leafy that they shaded all the\nspaces between them with their branches. \"There are no bushes here,\"\nsaid Cayke, much pleased, \"so we can now travel faster and with more\ncomfort.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER 15\n\nTHE BIG LAVENDER BEAR\n\n\nIt was a pleasant place to wander, and the two travelers were\nproceeding at a brisk pace when suddenly a voice shouted, \"Halt!\"\n\nThey looked around in surprise, seeing at first no one at all. Then\nfrom behind a tree there stepped a brown, fuzzy bear whose head came\nabout as high as Cayke\'s waist--and Cayke was a small woman. The bear\nwas chubby as well as fuzzy; his body was even puffy, while his legs\nand arms seemed jointed at the knees and elbows and fastened to his\nbody by pins or rivets. His ears were round in shape and stuck out in\na comical way, while his round, black eyes were bright and sparkling as\nbeads. Over his shoulder the little brown bear bore a gun with a tin\nbarrel. The barrel had a cork in the end of it, and a string was\nattached to the cork and to the handle of the gun. Both the Frogman\nand Cayke gazed hard at this curious bear, standing silent for some\ntime. But finally the Frogman recovered from his surprise and\nremarked, \"It seems to me that you are stuffed with sawdust and ought\nnot to be alive.\"\n\n\"That\'s all you know about it,\" answered the little Brown Bear in a\nsqueaky voice. \"I am stuffed with a very good quality of curled hair,\nand my skin is the best plush that was ever made. As for my being\nalive, that is my own affair and cannot concern you at all, except that\nit gives me the privilege to say you are my prisoners.\"\n\n\"Prisoners! Why do you speak such nonsense?\" the Frogman angrily. \"Do\nyou think we are afraid of a toy bear with a toy gun?\"\n\n\"You ought to be,\" was the confident reply, \"for I am merely the sentry\nguarding the way to Bear Center, which is a city containing hundreds of\nmy race, who are ruled by a very powerful sorcerer known as the\nLavender Bear. He ought to be a purple color, you know, seeing he is a\nKing, but he\'s only light lavender, which is, of course, second cousin\nto royal purple. So unless you come with me peaceably as my prisoners,\nI shall fire my gun and bring a hundred bears of all sizes and colors\nto capture you.\"\n\n\"Why do you wish to capture us?\" inquired the Frogman, who had listened\nto his speech with much astonishment.\n\n\"I don\'t wish to, as a matter of fact,\" replied the little Brown Bear,\n\"but it is my duty to, because you are now trespassing on the domain of\nHis Majesty, the King of Bear Center. Also, I will admit that things\nare rather quiet in our city just now, and the excitement of your\ncapture, followed by your trial and execution, should afford us much\nentertainment.\"\n\n\"We defy you!\" said the Frogman.\n\n\"Oh no, don\'t do that,\" pleaded Cayke, speaking to her companion. \"He\nsays his King is a sorcerer, so perhaps it is he or one of his bears\nwho ventured to steal my jeweled dishpan. Let us go to the City of the\nBears and discover if my dishpan is there.\"\n\n\"I must now register one more charge against you,\" remarked the little\nBrown Bear with evident satisfaction. \"You have just accused us of\nstealing, and that is such a dreadful thing to say that I am quite sure\nour noble King will command you to be executed.\"\n\n\"But how could you execute us?\" inquired the Cookie Cook.\n\n\"I\'ve no idea. But our King is a wonderful inventor, and there is no\ndoubt he can find a proper way to destroy you. So tell me, are you\ngoing to struggle, or will you go peaceably to meet your doom?\"\n\nIt was all so ridiculous that Cayke laughed aloud, and even the\nFrogman\'s wide mouth curled in a smile. Neither was a bit afraid to go\nto the Bear City, and it seemed to both that there was a possibility\nthey might discover the missing dishpan. So the Frogman said, \"Lead\nthe way, little Bear, and we will follow without a struggle.\"\n\n\"That\'s very sensible of you, very sensible indeed,\" declared the Brown\nBear. \"So for-ward, MARCH!\" And with the command he turned around and\nbegan to waddle along a path that led between the trees.\n\nCayke and the Frogman, as they followed their conductor, could scarce\nforbear laughing at his stiff, awkward manner of walking, and although\nhe moved his stuffy legs fast, his steps were so short that they had to\ngo slowly in order not to run into him. But after a time they reached a\nlarge, circular space in the center of the forest, which was clear of\nany stumps or underbrush. The ground was covered by a soft, gray moss,\npleasant to tread upon. All the trees surrounding this space seemed to\nbe hollow and had round holes in their trunks, set a little way above\nthe ground, but otherwise there was nothing unusual about the place and\nnothing, in the opinion of the prisoners, to indicate a settlement.\nBut the little Brown Bear said in a proud and impressive voice\n(although it still squeaked), \"This is the wonderful city known to fame\nas Bear Center!\"\n\n\"But there are no houses, there are no bears living here at all!\"\nexclaimed Cayke.\n\n\"Oh indeed!\" retorted their captor, and raising his gun he pulled the\ntrigger. The cork flew out of the tin barrel with a loud \"pop!\" and at\nonce from every hole in every tree within view of the clearing appeared\nthe head of a bear. They were of many colors and of many sizes, but\nall were made in the same manner as the bear who had met and captured\nthem.\n\nAt first a chorus of growls arose, and then a sharp voice cried, \"What\nhas happened, Corporal Waddle?\"\n\n\"Captives, Your Majesty!\" answered the Brown Bear. \"Intruders upon our\ndomain and slanderers of our good name.\"\n\n\"Ah, that\'s important,\" answered the voice.\n\nThen from out the hollow trees tumbled a whole regiment of stuffed\nbears, some carrying tin swords, some popguns and others long spears\nwith gay ribbons tied to the handles. There were hundreds of them,\naltogether, and they quietly formed a circle around the Frogman and the\nCookie Cook, but kept at a distance and left a large space for the\nprisoners to stand in. Presently, this circle parted, and into the\ncenter of it stalked a huge toy bear of a lovely lavender color. He\nwalked upon his hind legs, as did all the others, and on his head he\nwore a tin crown set with diamonds and amethysts, while in one paw he\ncarried a short wand of some glittering metal that resembled silver but\nwasn\'t.\n\n\"His Majesty the King!\" Corporal Waddle, and all the bears bowed low.\nSome bowed so low that they lost their balance and toppled over, but\nthey soon scrambled up again, and the Lavender King squatted on his\nhaunches before the prisoners and gazed at them steadily with his\nbright, pink eyes.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER 16\n\nTHE LITTLE PINK BEAR\n\n\n\"One Person and one Freak,\" said the big Lavender Bear when he had\ncarefully examined the strangers.\n\n\"I am sorry to hear you call poor Cayke the Cookie Cook a Freak,\"\nremonstrated the Frogman.\n\n\"She is the Person,\" asserted the King. \"Unless I am mistaken, it is\nyou who are the Freak.\"\n\nThe Frogman was silent, for he could not truthfully deny it.\n\n\"Why have you dared intrude in my forest?\" demanded the Bear King.\n\n\"We didn\'t know it was your forest,\" said Cayke, \"and we are on our way\nto the far east, where the Emerald City is.\"\n\n\"Ah, it\'s a long way from here to the Emerald City,\" remarked the King.\n\"It is so far away, indeed, that no bear among us has even been there.\nBut what errand requires you to travel such a distance?\"\n\n\"Someone has stolen my diamond-studded gold dishpan,\" explained Cayke,\n\"and as I cannot be happy without it, I have decided to search the\nworld over until I find it again. The Frogman, who is very learned and\nwonderfully wise, has come with me to give me his assistance. Isn\'t it\nkind of him?\"\n\nThe King looked at the Frogman.\n\n\"What makes you so wonderfully wise?\" he asked.\n\n\"I\'m not,\" was the candid reply. \"The Cookie Cook and some others in\nthe Yip Country think because I am a big frog and talk and act like a\nman that I must be very wise. I have learned more than a frog usually\nknows, it is true, but I am not yet so wise as I hope to become at some\nfuture time.\"\n\nThe King nodded, and when he did so, something squeaked in his chest.\n\n\"Did Your Majesty speak?\" asked Cayke.\n\n\"Not just then,\" answered the Lavender Bear, seeming to be somewhat\nembarrassed. \"I am so built, you must know, that when anything pushes\nagainst my chest, as my chin accidentally did just then, I make that\nsilly noise. In this city it isn\'t considered good manners to notice.\nBut I like your Frogman. He is honest and truthful, which is more than\ncan be said of many others. As for your late lamented dishpan, I\'ll\nshow it to you.\"\n\nWith this he waved three times the metal wand which he held in his paw,\nand instantly there appeared upon the ground midway between the King\nand Cayke a big, round pan made of beaten gold. Around the top edge\nwas a row of small diamonds; around the center of the pan was another\nrow of larger diamonds; and at the bottom was a row of exceedingly\nlarge and brilliant diamonds. In fact, they all sparkled\nmagnificently, and the pan was so big and broad that it took a lot of\ndiamonds to go around it three times.\n\nCayke stared so hard that her eyes seemed about to pop out of her head.\n\"O-o-o-h!\" she exclaimed, drawing a deep breath of delight.\n\n\"Is this your dishpan?\" inquired the King.\n\n\"It is, it is!\" cried the Cookie Cook, and rushing forward, she fell on\nher knees and threw her arms around the precious pan. But her arms\ncame together without meeting any resistance at all. Cayke tried to\nseize the edge, but found nothing to grasp. The pan was surely there,\nshe thought, for she could see it plainly; but it was not solid; she\ncould not feel it at all. With a moan of astonishment and despair, she\nraised her head to look at the Bear King, who was watching her actions\ncuriously. Then she turned to the pan again, only to find it had\ncompletely disappeared.\n\n\"Poor creature!\" murmured the King pityingly. \"You must have thought,\nfor the moment, that you had actually recovered your dishpan. But what\nyou saw was merely the image of it, conjured up by means of my magic.\nIt is a pretty dishpan, indeed, though rather big and awkward to\nhandle. I hope you will some day find it.\"\n\nCayke was grievously disappointed. She began to cry, wiping her eyes\non her apron. The King turned to the throng of toy bears surrounding\nhim and asked, \"Has any of you ever seen this golden dishpan before?\"\n\n\"No,\" they answered in a chorus.\n\nThe King seemed to reflect. Presently he inquired, \"Where is the\nLittle Pink Bear?\"\n\n\"At home, Your Majesty,\" was the reply.\n\n\"Fetch him here,\" commanded the King.\n\nSeveral of the bears waddled over to one of the trees and pulled from\nits hollow a tiny pink bear, smaller than any of the others. A big,\nwhite bear carried the pink one in his arms and set it down beside the\nKing, arranging the joints of its legs so that it would stand upright.\n\nThis Pink Bear seemed lifeless until the King turned a crank which\nprotruded from its side, when the little creature turned its head\nstiffly from side to side and said in a small, shrill voice, \"Hurrah\nfor the King of Bear Center!\"\n\n\"Very good,\" said the big Lavender Bear. \"He seems to be working very\nwell today. Tell me, my Pink Pinkerton, what has become of this lady\'s\njeweled dishpan?\"\n\n\"U-u-u,\" said the Pink Bear, and then stopped short.\n\nThe King turned the crank again.\n\n\"U-g-u the Shoemaker has it,\" said the Pink Bear.\n\n\"Who is Ugu the Shoemaker?\" demanded the King, again turning the crank.\n\n\"A magician who lives on a mountain in a wickerwork castle,\" was the\nreply.\n\n\"Where is the mountain?\" was the next question.\n\n\"Nineteen miles and three furlongs from Bear Center to the northeast.\"\n\n\"And is the dishpan still at the castle of Ugu the Shoemaker?\" asked\nthe King.\n\n\"It is.\"\n\nThe King turned to Cayke.\n\n\"You may rely on this information,\" said he. \"The Pink Bear can tell\nus anything we wish to know, and his words are always words of truth.\"\n\n\"Is he alive?\" asked the Frogman, much interested in the Pink Bear.\n\n\"Something animates him when you turn his crank,\" replied the King. \"I\ndo not know if it is life or what it is or how it happens that the\nLittle Pink Bear can answer correctly every question put to him. We\ndiscovered his talent a long time ago, and whenever we wish to know\nanything--which is not very often--we ask the Pink Bear. There is no\ndoubt whatever, madam, that Ugu the Magician has your dishpan, and if\nyou dare to go to him, you may be able to recover it. But of that I am\nnot certain.\"\n\n\"Can\'t the Pink Bear tell?\" asked Cayke anxiously.\n\n\"No, for that is in the future. He can tell anything that HAS\nhappened, but nothing that is going to happen. Don\'t ask me why, for I\ndon\'t know.\"\n\n\"Well,\" said the Cookie Cook after a little thought, \"I mean to go to\nthis magician, anyhow, and tell him I want my dishpan. I wish I knew\nwhat Ugu the Shoemaker is like.\"\n\n\"Then I\'ll show him to you,\" promised the King. \"But do not be\nfrightened. It won\'t be Ugu, remember, but only his image.\" With\nthis, he waved his metal wand, and in the circle suddenly appeared a\nthin little man, very old and skinny, who was seated on a wicker stool\nbefore a wicker table. On the table lay a Great Book with gold clasps.\nThe Book was open, and the man was reading in it. He wore great\nspectacles which were fastened before his eyes by means of a ribbon\nthat passed around his head and was tied in a bow at the neck. His hair\nwas very thin and white; his skin, which clung fast to his bones, was\nbrown and seared with furrows; he had a big, fat nose and little eyes\nset close together.\n\nOn no account was Ugu the Shoemaker a pleasant person to gaze at. As\nhis image appeared before them, all were silent and intent until\nCorporal Waddle, the Brown Bear, became nervous and pulled the trigger\nof his gun. Instantly, the cork flew out of the tin barrel with a loud\n\"pop!\" that made them all jump. And at this sound, the image of the\nmagician vanished.\n\n\"So THAT\'S the thief, is it?\" said Cayke in an angry voice. \"I should\nthink he\'d be ashamed of himself for stealing a poor woman\'s diamond\ndishpan! But I mean to face him in his wicker castle and force him to\nreturn my property.\"\n\n\"To me,\" said the Bear King reflectively, \"he looked like a dangerous\nperson. I hope he won\'t be so unkind as to argue the matter with you.\"\n\nThe Frogman was much disturbed by the vision of Ugu the Shoemaker, and\nCayke\'s determination to go to the magician filled her companion with\nmisgivings. But he would not break his pledged word to assist the\nCookie Cook, and after breathing a deep sigh of resignation, he asked\nthe King, \"Will Your Majesty lend us this Pink Bear who answers\nquestions that we may take him with us on our journey? He would be\nvery useful to us, and we will promise to bring him safely back to you.\"\n\nThe King did not reply at once. He seemed to be thinking.\n\n\"PLEASE let us take the Pink Bear,\" begged Cayke. \"I\'m sure he would\nbe a great help to us.\"\n\n\"The Pink Bear,\" said the King, \"is the best bit of magic I possess,\nand there is not another like him in the world. I do not care to let\nhim out of my sight, nor do I wish to disappoint you; so I believe I\nwill make the journey in your company and carry my Pink Bear with me.\nHe can walk when you wind the other side of him, but so slowly and\nawkwardly that he would delay you. But if I go along, I can carry him\nin my arms, so I will join your party. Whenever you are ready to\nstart, let me know.\"\n\n\"But Your Majesty!\" exclaimed Corporal Waddle in protest, \"I hope you\ndo not intend to let these prisoners escape without punishment.\"\n\n\"Of what crime do you accuse them?\" inquired the King.\n\n\"Why, they trespassed on your domain, for one thing,\" said the Brown\nBear.\n\n\"We didn\'t know it was private property, Your Majesty,\" said the Cookie\nCook. \"And they asked if any of us had stolen the dishpan!\" continued\nCorporal Waddle indignantly. \"That is the same thing as calling us\nthieves and robbers and bandits and brigands, is it not?\"\n\n\"Every person has the right to ask questions,\" said the Frogman.\n\n\"But the Corporal is quite correct,\" declared the Lavender Bear. \"I\ncondemn you both to death, the execution to take place ten years from\nthis hour.\"\n\n\"But we belong in the Land of Oz, where no one ever dies,\" Cayke\nreminded him.\n\n\"Very true,\" said the King. \"I condemn you to death merely as a matter\nof form. It sounds quite terrible, and in ten years we shall have\nforgotten all about it. Are you ready to start for the wicker castle\nof Ugu the Shoemaker?\"\n\n\"Quite ready, Your Majesty.\"\n\n\"But who will rule in your place while you are gone?\" asked a big\nYellow Bear.\n\n\"I myself will rule while I am gone,\" was the reply.\n\n\"A King isn\'t required to stay at home forever, and if he takes a\nnotion to travel, whose business is it but his own? All I ask is that\nyou bears behave yourselves while I am away. If any of you is naughty,\nI\'ll send him to some girl or boy in America to play with.\"\n\nThis dreadful threat made all the toy bears look solemn. They assured\nthe King in a chorus of growls that they would be good. Then the big\nLavender Bear picked up the little Pink Bear, and after tucking it\ncarefully under one arm, he said, \"Goodbye till I come back!\" and\nwaddled along the path that led through the forest. The Frogman and\nCayke the Cookie Cook also said goodbye to the bears and then followed\nafter the King, much to the regret of the little Brown Bear, who pulled\nthe trigger of his gun and popped the cork as a parting salute.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER 17\n\nTHE MEETING\n\n\nWhile the Frogman and his party were advancing from the west, Dorothy\nand her party were advancing from the east, and so it happened that on\nthe following night they all camped at a little hill that was only a\nfew miles from the wicker castle of Ugu the Shoemaker. But the two\nparties did not see one another that night, for one camped on one side\nof the hill while the other camped on the opposite side. But the next\nmorning, the Frogman thought he would climb the hill and see what was\non top of it, and at the same time Scraps, the Patchwork Girl, also\ndecided to climb the hill to find if the wicker castle was visible from\nits top. So she stuck her head over an edge just as the Frogman\'s head\nappeared over another edge, and both, being surprised, kept still while\nthey took a good look at one another.\n\nScraps recovered from her astonishment first, and bounding upward, she\nturned a somersault and landed sitting down and facing the big Frogman,\nwho slowly advanced and sat opposite her. \"Well met, Stranger!\" cried\nthe Patchwork Girl with a whoop of laughter. \"You are quite the\nfunniest individual I have seen in all my travels.\"\n\n\"Do you suppose I can be any funnier than you?\" asked the Frogman,\ngazing at her in wonder.\n\n\"I\'m not funny to myself, you know,\" returned Scraps. \"I wish I were.\nAnd perhaps you are so used to your own absurd shape that you do not\nlaugh whenever you see your reflection in a pool or in a mirror.\"\n\n\"No,\" said the Frogman gravely, \"I do not. I used to be proud of my\ngreat size and vain of my culture and education, but since I bathed in\nthe Truth Pond, I sometimes think it is not right that I should be\ndifferent from all other frogs.\"\n\n\"Right or wrong,\" said the Patchwork Girl, \"to be different is to be\ndistinguished. Now in my case, I\'m just like all other Patchwork Girls\nbecause I\'m the only one there is. But tell me, where did you come\nfrom?\"\n\n\"The Yip Country,\" said he.\n\n\"Is that in the Land of Oz?\"\n\n\"Of course,\" replied the Frogman.\n\n\"And do you know that your Ruler, Ozma of Oz, has been stolen?\"\n\n\"I was not aware that I had a Ruler, so of course I couldn\'t know that\nshe was stolen.\"\n\n\"Well, you have. All the people of Oz,\" explained Scraps, \"are ruled by\nOzma, whether they know it or not. And she has been stolen. Aren\'t you\nangry? Aren\'t you indignant? Your Ruler, whom you didn\'t know you\nhad, has positively been stolen!\"\n\n\"That is queer,\" remarked the Frogman thoughtfully. \"Stealing is a\nthing practically unknown in Oz, yet this Ozma has been taken, and a\nfriend of mine has also had her dishpan stolen. With her I have\ntraveled all the way from the Yip Country in order to recover it.\"\n\n\"I don\'t see any connection between a Royal Ruler of Oz and a dishpan!\"\ndeclared Scraps.\n\n\"They\'ve both been stolen, haven\'t they?\"\n\n\"True. But why can\'t your friend wash her dishes in another dishpan?\"\nasked Scraps.\n\n\"Why can\'t you use another Royal Ruler? I suppose you prefer the one\nwho is lost, and my friend wants her own dishpan, which is made of gold\nand studded with diamonds and has magic powers.\"\n\n\"Magic, eh?\" exclaimed Scraps. \"THERE is a link that connects the two\nsteals, anyhow, for it seems that all the magic in the Land of Oz was\nstolen at the same time, whether it was in the Emerald City of in\nGlinda\'s castle or in the Yip Country. Seems mighty strange and\nmysterious, doesn\'t it?\"\n\n\"It used to seem that way to me,\" admitted the Frogman, \"but we have\nnow discovered who took our dishpan. It was Ugu the Shoemaker.\"\n\n\"Ugu? Good gracious! That\'s the same magician we think has stolen\nOzma. We are now on our way to the castle of this Shoemaker.\"\n\n\"So are we,\" said the Frogman.\n\n\"Then follow me, quick! And let me introduce you to Dorothy and the\nother girls and to the Wizard of Oz and all the rest of us.\"\n\nShe sprang up and seized his coatsleeve, dragging him off the hilltop\nand down the other side from that whence he had come. And at the foot\nof the hill, the Frogman was astonished to find the three girls and the\nWizard and Button-Bright, who were surrounded by a wooden Sawhorse, a\nlean Mule, a square Woozy, and a Cowardly Lion. A little black dog ran\nup and smelled at the Frogman, but couldn\'t growl at him.\n\n\"I\'ve discovered another party that has been robbed,\" shouted Scraps as\nshe joined them. \"This is their leader, and they\'re all going to Ugu\'s\ncastle to fight the wicked Shoemaker!\"\n\nThey regarded the Frogman with much curiosity and interest, and finding\nall eyes fixed upon him, the newcomer arranged his necktie and smoothed\nhis beautiful vest and swung his gold-headed cane like a regular dandy.\nThe big spectacles over his eyes quite altered his froglike countenance\nand gave him a learned and impressive look. Used as she was to seeing\nstrange creatures in the Land of Oz, Dorothy was amazed at discovering\nthe Frogman. So were all her companions. Toto wanted to growl at him,\nbut couldn\'t, and he didn\'t dare bark. The Sawhorse snorted rather\ncontemptuously, but the Lion whispered to the wooden steed, \"Bear with\nthis strange creature, my friend, and remember he is no more\nextraordinary than you are. Indeed, it is more natural for a frog to\nbe big than for a Sawhorse to be alive.\"\n\nOn being questioned, the Frogman told them the whole story of the loss\nof Cayke\'s highly prized dishpan and their adventures in search of it.\nWhen he came to tell of the Lavender Bear King and of the Little Pink\nBear who could tell anything you wanted to know, his hearers became\neager to see such interesting animals.\n\n\"It will be best,\" said the Wizard, \"to unite our two parties and share\nour fortunes together, for we are all bound on the same errand, and as\none band we may more easily defy this shoemaker magician than if\nseparate. Let us be allies.\"\n\n\"I will ask my friends about that,\" replied the Frogman, and he climbed\nover the hill to find Cayke and the toy bears. The Patchwork Girl\naccompanied him, and when they came upon the Cookie Cook and the\nLavender Bear and the Pink Bear, it was hard to tell which of the lot\nwas the most surprised.\n\n\"Mercy me!\" cried Cayke, addressing the Patchwork Girl. \"However did\nyou come alive?\"\n\nScraps stared at the bears.\n\n\"Mercy me!\" she echoed, \"You are stuffed, as I am, with cotton, and you\nappear to be living. That makes me feel ashamed, for I have prided\nmyself on being the only live cotton-stuffed person in Oz.\"\n\n\"Perhaps you are,\" returned the Lavender Bear, \"for I am stuffed with\nextra-quality curled hair, and so is the Little Pink Bear.\"\n\n\"You have relieved my mind of a great anxiety,\" declared the Patchwork\nGirl, now speaking more cheerfully. \"The Scarecrow is stuffed with\nstraw and you with hair, so I am still the Original and Only\nCotton-Stuffed!\"\n\n\"I hope I am too polite to criticize cotton as compared with curled\nhair,\" said the King, \"especially as you seem satisfied with it.\"\n\nThen the Frogman told of his interview with the party from the Emerald\nCity and added that the Wizard of Oz had invited the bears and Cayke\nand himself to travel in company with them to the castle of Ugu the\nShoemaker. Cayke was much pleased, but the Bear King looked solemn. He\nset the Little Pink Bear on his lap and turned the crank in its side\nand asked, \"Is it safe for us to associate with those people from the\nEmerald City?\"\n\nAnd the Pink Bear at once replied,\n\n \"Safe for you and safe for me;\n Perhaps no others safe will be.\"\n\n\n\"That \'perhaps\' need not worry us,\" said the King, \"so let us join the\nothers and offer them our protection.\"\n\nEven the Lavender Bear was astonished, however, when on climbing over\nthe hill he found on the other side the group of queer animals and the\npeople from the Emerald City. The bears and Cayke were received very\ncordially, although Button-Bright was cross when they wouldn\'t let him\nplay with the Little Pink Bear. The three girls greatly admired the\ntoy bears, and especially the pink one, which they longed to hold.\n\n\"You see,\" explained the Lavender King in denying them this privilege,\n\"he\'s a very valuable bear, because his magic is a correct guide on all\noccasions, and especially if one is in difficulties. It was the Pink\nBear who told us that Ugu the Shoemaker had stolen the Cookie Cook\'s\ndishpan.\"\n\n\"And the King\'s magic is just as wonderful,\" added Cayke, \"because it\nshowed us the Magician himself.\"\n\n\"What did he look like?\" inquired Dorothy.\n\n\"He was dreadful!\"\n\n\"He was sitting at a table and examining an immense Book which had\nthree golden clasps,\" remarked the King.\n\n\"Why, that must have been Glinda\'s Great Book of Records!\" exclaimed\nDorothy. \"If it is, it proves that Ugu the Shoemaker stole Ozma, and\nwith her all the magic in the Emerald City.\"\n\n\"And my dishpan,\" said Cayke.\n\nAnd the Wizard added, \"It also proves that he is following our\nadventures in the Book of Records, and therefore knows that we are\nseeking him and that we are determined to find him and reach Ozma at\nall hazards.\"\n\n\"If we can,\" added the Woozy, but everybody frowned at him.\n\nThe Wizard\'s statement was so true that the faces around him were very\nserious until the Patchwork Girl broke into a peal of laughter.\n\n\"Wouldn\'t it be a rich joke if he made prisoners of us, too?\" she said.\n\n\"No one but a crazy Patchwork Girl would consider that a joke,\"\ngrumbled Button-Bright.\n\nAnd then the Lavender Bear King asked, \"Would you like to see this\nmagical shoemaker?\"\n\n\"Wouldn\'t he know it?\" Dorothy inquired.\n\n\"No, I think not.\"\n\nThen the King waved his metal wand and before them appeared a room in\nthe wicker castle of Ugu. On the wall of the room hung Ozma\'s Magic\nPicture, and seated before it was the Magician. They could see the\nPicture as well as he could, because it faced them, and in the Picture\nwas the hillside where they were now sitting, all their forms being\nreproduced in miniature. And curiously enough, within the scene of the\nPicture was the scene they were now beholding, so they knew that the\nMagician was at this moment watching them in the Picture, and also that\nhe saw himself and the room he was in become visible to the people on\nthe hillside. Therefore he knew very well that they were watching him\nwhile he was watching them.\n\nIn proof of this, Ugu sprang from his seat and turned a scowling face\nin their direction; but now he could not see the travelers who were\nseeking him, although they could still see him. His actions were so\ndistinct, indeed, that it seemed he was actually before them. \"It is\nonly a ghost,\" said the Bear King. \"It isn\'t real at all except that\nit shows us Ugu just as he looks and tells us truly just what he is\ndoing.\"\n\n\"I don\'t see anything of my lost growl, though,\" said Toto as if to\nhimself.\n\nThen the vision faded away, and they could see nothing but the grass\nand trees and bushes around them.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER 18\n\nTHE CONFERENCE\n\n\n\"Now then,\" said the Wizard, \"let us talk this matter over and decide\nwhat to do when we get to Ugu\'s wicker castle. There can be no doubt\nthat the Shoemaker is a powerful Magician, and his powers have been\nincreased a hundredfold since he secured the Great Book of Records, the\nMagic Picture, all of Glinda\'s recipes for sorcery, and my own black\nbag, which was full of tools of wizardry. The man who could rob us of\nthose things and the man with all their powers at his command is one\nwho may prove somewhat difficult to conquer, therefore we should plan\nour actions well before we venture too near to his castle.\"\n\n\"I didn\'t see Ozma in the Magic Picture,\" said Trot. \"What do you\nsuppose Ugu has done with her?\"\n\n\"Couldn\'t the Little Pink Bear tell us what he did with Ozma?\" asked\nButton-Bright.\n\n\"To be sure,\" replied the Lavender King. \"I\'ll ask him.\" So he turned\nthe crank in the Little Pink Bear\'s side and inquired, \"Did Ugu the\nShoemaker steal Ozma of Oz?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" answered the Little Pink Bear.\n\n\"Then what did he do with her?\" asked the King.\n\n\"Shut her up in a dark place,\" answered the Little Pink Bear.\n\n\"Oh, that must be a dungeon cell!\" cried Dorothy, horrified. \"How\ndreadful!\"\n\n\"Well, we must get her out of it,\" said the Wizard. \"That is what we\ncame for, and of course we must rescue Ozma. But how?\"\n\nEach one looked at some other one for an answer, and all shook their\nheads in a grave and dismal manner. All but Scraps, who danced around\nthem gleefully. \"You\'re afraid,\" said the Patchwork Girl, \"because so\nmany things can hurt your meat bodies. Why don\'t you give it up and go\nhome? How can you fight a great magician when you have nothing to\nfight with?\"\n\nDorothy looked at her reflectively.\n\n\"Scraps,\" said she, \"you know that Ugu couldn\'t hurt you a bit,\nwhatever he did, nor could he hurt ME, \'cause I wear the Gnome King\'s\nMagic Belt. S\'pose just we two go on together and leave the others\nhere to wait for us.\"\n\n\"No, no!\" said the Wizard positively. \"That won\'t do at all. Ozma is\nmore powerful than either of you, yet she could not defeat the wicked\nUgu, who has shut her up in a dungeon. We must go to the Shoemaker in\none mighty band, for only in union is there strength.\"\n\n\"That is excellent advice,\" said the Lavender Bear approvingly.\n\n\"But what can we do when we get to Ugu?\" inquired the Cookie Cook\nanxiously.\n\n\"Do not expect a prompt answer to that important question,\" replied the\nWizard, \"for we must first plan our line of conduct. Ugu knows, of\ncourse, that we are after him, for he has seen our approach in the\nMagic Picture, and he has read of all we have done up to the present\nmoment in the Great Book of Records. Therefore we cannot expect to\ntake him by surprise.\"\n\n\"Don\'t you suppose Ugu would listen to reason?\" asked Betsy. \"If we\nexplained to him how wicked he has been, don\'t you think he\'d let poor\nOzma go?\"\n\n\"And give me back my dishpan?\" added the Cookie Cook eagerly.\n\n\"Yes, yes, won\'t he say he\'s sorry and get on his knees and beg our\npardon?\" cried Scraps, turning a flip-flop to show her scorn of the\nsuggestion. \"When Ugu the Shoemaker does that, please knock at the\nfront door and let me know.\"\n\nThe Wizard sighed and rubbed his bald head with a puzzled air. \"I\'m\nquite sure Ugu will not be polite to us,\" said he, \"so we must conquer\nthis cruel magician by force, much as we dislike to be rude to anyone.\nBut none of you has yet suggested a way to do that. Couldn\'t the\nLittle Pink Bear tell us how?\" he asked, turning to the Bear King.\n\n\"No, for that is something that is GOING to happen,\" replied the\nLavender Bear. \"He can only tell us what already HAS happened.\"\n\nAgain, they were grave and thoughtful. But after a time, Betsy said in\na hesitating voice, \"Hank is a great fighter. Perhaps HE could conquer\nthe magician.\"\n\nThe Mule turned his head to look reproachfully at his old friend, the\nyoung girl. \"Who can fight against magic?\" he asked.\n\n\"The Cowardly Lion could,\" said Dorothy.\n\nThe Lion, who was lying with his front legs spread out, his chin on his\npaws, raised his shaggy head. \"I can fight when I\'m not afraid,\" said\nhe calmly, \"but the mere mention of a fight sets me to trembling.\"\n\n\"Ugu\'s magic couldn\'t hurt the Sawhorse,\" suggested tiny Trot.\n\n\"And the Sawhorse couldn\'t hurt the Magician,\" declared that wooden\nanimal.\n\n\"For my part,\" said Toto, \"I am helpless, having lost my growl.\"\n\n\"Then,\" said Cayke the Cookie Cook, \"we must depend upon the Frogman.\nHis marvelous wisdom will surely inform him how to conquer the wicked\nMagician and restore to me my dishpan.\"\n\nAll eyes were now turned questioningly upon the Frogman. Finding\nhimself the center of observation, he swung his gold-headed cane,\nadjusted his big spectacles, and after swelling out his chest, sighed\nand said in a modest tone of voice:\n\n\"Respect for truth obliges me to confess that Cayke is mistaken in\nregard to my superior wisdom. I am not very wise. Neither have I had\nany practical experience in conquering magicians. But let us consider\nthis case. What is Ugu, and what is a magician? Ugu is a renegade\nshoemaker, and a magician is an ordinary man who, having learned how to\ndo magical tricks, considers himself above his fellows. In this case,\nthe Shoemaker has been naughty enough to steal a lot of magical tools\nand things that did not belong to him, and he is more wicked to steal\nthan to be a magician. Yet with all the arts at his command, Ugu is\nstill a man, and surely there are ways in which a man may be conquered.\nHow, do you say, how? Allow me to state that I don\'t know. In my\njudgment, we cannot decide how best to act until we get to Ugu\'s castle.\nSo let us go to it and take a look at it. After that, we may discover\nan idea that will guide us to victory.\"\n\n\"That may not be a wise speech, but it sounds good,\" said Dorothy\napprovingly. \"Ugu the Shoemaker is not only a common man, but he\'s a\nwicked man and a cruel man and deserves to be conquered. We mustn\'t\nhave any mercy on him till Ozma is set free. So let\'s go to his castle\nas the Frogman says and see what the place looks like.\"\n\nNo one offered any objection to this plan, and so it was adopted. They\nbroke camp and were about to start on the journey to Ugu\'s castle when\nthey discovered that Button-Bright was lost again. The girls and the\nWizard shouted his name, and the Lion roared and the Donkey brayed and\nthe Frogman croaked and the Big Lavender Bear growled (to the envy of\nToto, who couldn\'t growl but barked his loudest), yet none of them\ncould make Button-Bright hear. So after vainly searching for the boy a\nfull hour, they formed a procession and proceeded in the direction of\nthe wicker castle of Ugu the Shoemaker.\n\n\"Button-Bright\'s always getting lost,\" said Dorothy. \"And if he wasn\'t\nalways getting found again, I\'d prob\'ly worry. He may have gone ahead\nof us, and he may have gone back, but wherever he is, we\'ll find him\nsometime and somewhere, I\'m almost sure.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER 19\n\nUGU THE SHOEMAKER\n\n\nA curious thing about Ugu the Shoemaker was that he didn\'t suspect in\nthe least that he was wicked. He wanted to be powerful and great, and\nhe hoped to make himself master of all the Land of Oz that he might\ncompel everyone in that fairy country to obey him, His ambition blinded\nhim to the rights of others, and he imagined anyone else would act just\nas he did if anyone else happened to be as clever as himself.\n\nWhen he inhabited his little shoemaking shop in the City of Herku, he\nhad been discontented, for a shoemaker is not looked upon with high\nrespect, and Ugu knew that his ancestors had been famous magicians for\nmany centuries past and therefore his family was above the ordinary.\nEven his father practiced magic when Ugu was a boy, but his father had\nwandered away from Herku and had never come back again. So when Ugu\ngrew up, he was forced to make shoes for a living, knowing nothing of\nthe magic of his forefathers. But one day, in searching through the\nattic of his house, he discovered all the books of magical recipes and\nmany magical instruments which had formerly been in use in his family.\nFrom that day, he stopped making shoes and began to study magic.\nFinally, he aspired to become the greatest magician in Oz, and for days\nand weeks and months he thought on a plan to render all the other\nsorcerers and wizards, as well as those with fairy powers, helpless to\noppose him.\n\nFrom the books of his ancestors, he learned the following facts:\n\n(1) That Ozma of Oz was the fairy ruler of the Emerald City and the\nLand of Oz and that she could not be destroyed by any magic ever\ndevised. Also, by means of her Magic Picture she would be able to\ndiscover anyone who approached her royal palace with the idea of\nconquering it.\n\n(2) That Glinda the Good was the most powerful Sorceress in Oz, among\nher other magical possessions being the Great Book of Records, which\ntold her all that happened anywhere in the world. This Book of Records\nwas very dangerous to Ugu\'s plans, and Glinda was in the service of\nOzma and would use her arts of sorcery to protect the girl Ruler.\n\n(3) That the Wizard of Oz, who lived in Ozma\'s palace, had been taught\nmuch powerful magic by Glinda and had a bag of magic tools with which\nhe might be able to conquer the Shoemaker.\n\n(4) That there existed in Oz--in the Yip Country--a jeweled dishpan\nmade of gold, which dishpan would grow large enough for a man to sit\ninside it. Then, when he grasped both the golden handles, the dishpan\nwould transport him in an instant to any place he wished to go within\nthe borders of the Land of Oz.\n\nNo one now living except Ugu knew of the powers of the Magic Dishpan,\nso after long study, the shoemaker decided that if he could manage to\nsecure the dishpan, he could by its means rob Ozma and Glinda and the\nWizard of Oz of all their magic, thus becoming himself the most\npowerful person in all the land. His first act was to go away from the\nCity of Herku and build for himself the Wicker Castle in the hills.\nHere he carried his books and instruments of magic, and here for a full\nyear he diligently practiced all the magical arts learned from his\nancestors. At the end of that time, he could do a good many wonderful\nthings.\n\nThen, when all his preparations were made, he set out for the Yip\nCountry, and climbing the steep mountain at night he entered the house\nof Cayke the Cookie Cook and stole her diamond-studded gold dishpan\nwhile all the Yips were asleep, Taking his prize outside, he set the\npan upon the ground and uttered the required magic word. Instantly,\nthe dishpan grew as large as a big washtub, and Ugu seated himself in\nit and grasped the two handles. Then he wished himself in the great\ndrawing room of Glinda the Good.\n\nHe was there in a flash. First he took the Great Book of Records and\nput it in the dishpan. Then he went to Glinda\'s laboratory and took\nall her rare chemical compounds and her instruments of sorcery, placing\nthese also in the dishpan, which he caused to grow large enough to hold\nthem. Next he seated himself amongst the treasures he had stolen and\nwished himself in the room in Ozma\'s palace which the Wizard occupied\nand where he kept his bag of magic tools. This bag Ugu added to his\nplunder and then wished himself in the apartments of Ozma.\n\nHere he first took the Magic Picture from the wall and then seized all\nthe other magical things which Ozma possessed. Having placed these in\nthe dishpan, he was about to climb in himself when he looked up and saw\nOzma standing beside him. Her fairy instinct had warned her that\ndanger was threatening her, so the beautiful girl Ruler rose from her\ncouch and leaving her bedchamber at once confronted the thief.\n\nUgu had to think quickly, for he realized that if he permitted Ozma to\nrouse the inmates of her palace, all his plans and his present\nsuccesses were likely to come to naught. So he threw a scarf over the\ngirl\'s head so she could not scream, and pushed her into the dishpan\nand tied her fast so she could not move. Then he climbed in beside her\nand wished himself in his own wicker castle. The Magic Dishpan was\nthere in an instant, with all its contents, and Ugu rubbed his hands\ntogether in triumphant joy as he realized that he now possessed all the\nimportant magic in the Land of Oz and could force all the inhabitants\nof that fairyland to do as he willed.\n\nSo quickly had his journey been accomplished that before daylight the\nrobber magician had locked Ozma in a room, making her a prisoner, and\nhad unpacked and arranged all his stolen goods. The next day he placed\nthe Book of Records on his table and hung the Magic Picture on his wall\nand put away in his cupboards and drawers all the elixirs and magic\ncompounds he had stolen. The magical instruments he polished and\narranged, and this was fascinating work and made him very happy.\n\nBy turns the imprisoned Ruler wept and scolded the Shoemaker, haughtily\nthreatening him with dire punishment for the wicked deeds he had done.\nUgu became somewhat afraid of his fairy prisoner, in spite of the fact\nthat he believed he had robbed her of all her powers; so he performed\nan enchantment that quickly disposed of her and placed her out of his\nsight and hearing. After that, being occupied with other things, he\nsoon forgot her.\n\nBut now, when he looked into the Magic Picture and read the Great Book\nof Records, the Shoemaker learned that his wickedness was not to go\nunchallenged. Two important expeditions had set out to find him and\nforce him to give up his stolen property. One was the party headed by\nthe Wizard and Dorothy, while the other consisted of Cayke and the\nFrogman. Others were also searching, but not in the right places.\nThese two groups, however, were headed straight for the wicker castle,\nand so Ugu began to plan how best to meet them and to defeat their\nefforts to conquer him.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER 20\n\nMORE SURPRISES\n\n\nAll that first day after the union of the two parties, our friends\nmarched steadily toward the wicker castle of Ugu the Shoemaker. When\nnight came, they camped in a little grove and passed a pleasant evening\ntogether, although some of them were worried because Button-Bright was\nstill lost.\n\n\"Perhaps,\" said Toto as the animals lay grouped together for the night,\n\"this Shoemaker who stole my growl and who stole Ozma has also stolen\nButton-Bright.\"\n\n\"How do you know that the Shoemaker stole your growl?\" demanded the\nWoozy.\n\n\"He has stolen about everything else of value in Oz, hasn\'t he?\"\nreplied the dog.\n\n\"He has stolen everything he wants, perhaps,\" agreed the Lion, \"but\nwhat could anyone want with your growl?\"\n\n\"Well,\" said the dog, wagging his tail slowly, \"my recollection is that\nit was a wonderful growl, soft and low and--and--\"\n\n\"And ragged at the edges,\" said the Sawhorse.\n\n\"So,\" continued Toto, \"if that magician hadn\'t any growl of his own, he\nmight have wanted mine and stolen it.\"\n\n\"And if he has, he will soon wish he hadn\'t,\" remarked the Mule. \"Also,\nif he has stolen Button-Bright, he will be sorry.\"\n\n\"Don\'t you like Button-Bright, then?\" asked the Lion in surprise.\n\n\"It isn\'t a question of liking him,\" replied the Mule. \"It\'s a\nquestion of watching him and looking after him. Any boy who causes his\nfriends so much worry isn\'t worth having around. I never get lost.\"\n\n\"If you did,\" said Toto, \"no one would worry a bit. I think\nButton-Bright is a very lucky boy because he always gets found.\"\n\n\"See here,\" said the Lion, \"this chatter is keeping us all awake, and\ntomorrow is likely to be a busy day. Go to sleep and forget your\nquarrels.\"\n\n\"Friend Lion,\" retorted the dog, \"if I hadn\'t lost my growl, you would\nhear it now. I have as much right to talk as you have to sleep.\"\n\nThe Lion sighed.\n\n\"If only you had lost your voice when you lost your growl,\" said he,\n\"you would be a more agreeable companion.\"\n\nBut they quieted down after that, and soon the entire camp was wrapped\nin slumber. Next morning they made an early start, but had hardly\nproceeded on their way an hour when, on climbing a slight elevation,\nthey beheld in the distance a low mountain on top of which stood Ugu\'s\nwicker castle. It was a good-sized building and rather pretty because\nthe sides, roofs and domes were all of wicker, closely woven as it is\nin fine baskets.\n\n\"I wonder if it is strong?\" said Dorothy musingly as she eyed the queer\ncastle.\n\n\"I suppose it is, since a magician built it,\" answered the Wizard.\n\"With magic to protect it, even a paper castle might be as strong as if\nmade of stone. This Ugu must be a man of ideas, because he does things\nin a different way from other people.\"\n\n\"Yes. No one else would steal our dear Ozma,\" sighed tiny Trot.\n\n\"I wonder if Ozma is there?\" said Betsy, indicating the castle with a\nnod of her head.\n\n\"Where else could she be?\" asked Scraps.\n\n\"Suppose we ask the Pink Bear,\" suggested Dorothy.\n\nThat seemed a good idea, so they halted the procession, and the Bear\nKing held the little Pink Bear on his lap and turned the crank in its\nside and asked, \"Where is Ozma of Oz?\"\n\nAnd the little Pink Bear answered, \"She is in a hole in the ground a\nhalf mile away at your left.\"\n\n\"Good gracious!\" cried Dorothy.\n\n\"Then she is not in Ugu\'s castle at all.\"\n\n\"It is lucky we asked that question,\" said the Wizard, \"for if we can\nfind Ozma and rescue her, there will be no need for us to fight that\nwicked and dangerous magician.\"\n\n\"Indeed!\" said Cayke. \"Then what about my dishpan?\"\n\nThe Wizard looked puzzled at her tone of remonstrance, so she added,\n\"Didn\'t you people from the Emerald City promise that we would all\nstick together, and that you would help me to get my dishpan if I would\nhelp you to get your Ozma? And didn\'t I bring to you the little Pink\nBear, which has told you where Ozma is hidden?\"\n\n\"She\'s right,\" said Dorothy to the Wizard.\n\n\"We must do as we agreed.\"\n\n\"Well, first of all, let us go and rescue Ozma,\" proposed the Wizard.\n\"Then our beloved Ruler may be able to advise us how to conquer Ugu the\nShoemaker.\" So they turned to the left and marched for half a mile\nuntil they came to a small but deep hole in the ground. At once, all\nrushed to the brim to peer into the hole, but instead of finding there\nPrincess Ozma of Oz, all that they saw was Button-Bright, who was lying\nasleep on the bottom.\n\nTheir cries soon wakened the boy, who sat up and rubbed his eyes. When\nhe recognized his friends, he smiled sweetly, saying, \"Found again!\"\n\n\"Where is Ozma?\" inquired Dorothy anxiously.\n\n\"I don\'t know,\" answered Button-Bright from the depths of the hole. \"I\ngot lost yesterday, as you may remember, and in the night while I was\nwandering around in the moonlight trying to find my way back to you, I\nsuddenly fell into this hole.\"\n\n\"And wasn\'t Ozma in it then?\"\n\n\"There was no one in it but me, and I was sorry it wasn\'t entirely\nempty. The sides are so steep I can\'t climb out, so there was nothing\nto be done but sleep until someone found me. Thank you for coming. If\nyou\'ll please let down a rope, I\'ll empty this hole in a hurry.\"\n\n\"How strange!\" said Dorothy, greatly disappointed.\n\n\"It\'s evident the Pink Bear didn\'t tell the truth.\"\n\n\"He never makes a mistake,\" declared the Lavender Bear King in a tone\nthat showed his feelings were hurt. And then he turned the crank of\nthe little Pink Bear again and asked, \"Is this the hole that Ozma of Oz\nis in?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" answered the Pink Bear.\n\n\"That settles it,\" said the King positively. \"Your Ozma is in this\nhole in the ground.\"\n\n\"Don\'t be silly,\" returned Dorothy impatiently. \"Even your beady eyes\ncan see there is no one in the hole but Button-Bright.\"\n\n\"Perhaps Button-Bright is Ozma,\" suggested the King.\n\n\"And perhaps he isn\'t! Ozma is a girl, and Button-Bright is a boy.\"\n\n\"Your Pink Bear must be out of order,\" said the Wizard, \"for, this time\nat least, his machinery has caused him to make an untrue statement.\"\n\nThe Bear King was so angry at this remark that he turned away, holding\nthe Pink Bear in his paws, and refused to discuss the matter in any\nfurther way.\n\n\"At any rate,\" said the Frogman, \"the Pink Bear has led us to your boy\nfriend and so enabled you to rescue him.\"\n\nScraps was leaning so far over the hole trying to find Ozma in it that\nsuddenly she lost her balance and pitched in head foremost. She fell\nupon Button-Bright and tumbled him over, but he was not hurt by her\nsoft, stuffed body and only laughed at the mishap. The Wizard buckled\nsome straps together and let one end of them down into the hole, and\nsoon both Scraps and the boy had climbed up and were standing safely\nbeside the others. They looked once more for Ozma, but the hole was\nnow absolutely vacant. It was a round hole, so from the top they could\nplainly see every part of it. Before they left the place, Dorothy went\nto the Bear King and said, \"I\'m sorry we couldn\'t believe what the\nlittle Pink Bear said, \'cause we don\'t want to make you feel bad by\ndoubting him. There must be a mistake, somewhere, and we prob\'ly don\'t\nunderstand just what the little Pink Bear said. Will you let me ask\nhim one more question?\"\n\nThe Lavender Bear King was a good-natured bear, considering how he was\nmade and stuffed and jointed, so he accepted Dorothy\'s apology and\nturned the crank and allowed the little girl to question his wee Pink\nBear.\n\n\"Is Ozma REALLY in this hole?\" asked Dorothy.\n\n\"No,\" said the little Pink Bear.\n\nThis surprised everybody. Even the Bear King was now puzzled by the\ncontradictory statements of his oracle.\n\n\"Where IS she?\" asked the King.\n\n\"Here, among you,\" answered the little Pink Bear.\n\n\"Well,\" said Dorothy, \"this beats me entirely! I guess the little Pink\nBear has gone crazy.\"\n\n\"Perhaps,\" called Scraps, who was rapidly turning \"cartwheels\" all\naround the perplexed group, \"Ozma is invisible.\"\n\n\"Of course!\" cried Betsy. \"That would account for it.\"\n\n\"Well, I\'ve noticed that people can speak, even when they\'ve been made\ninvisible,\" said the Wizard. And then he looked all around him and\nsaid in a solemn voice, \"Ozma, are you here?\"\n\nThere was no reply. Dorothy asked the question, too, and so did\nButton-Bright and Trot and Betsy, but none received any reply at all.\n\n\"It\'s strange, it\'s terrible strange!\" muttered Cayke the Cookie Cook.\n\"I was sure that the little Pink Bear always tells the truth.\"\n\n\"I still believe in his honesty,\" said the Frogman, and this tribute so\npleased the Bear King that he gave these last speakers grateful looks,\nbut still gazed sourly on the others.\n\n\"Come to think of it,\" remarked the Wizard, \"Ozma couldn\'t be\ninvisible, for she is a fairy, and fairies cannot be made invisible\nagainst their will. Of course, she could be imprisoned by the magician\nor enchanted or transformed, in spite of her fairy powers, but Ugu\ncould not render her invisible by any magic at his command.\"\n\n\"I wonder if she\'s been transformed into Button-Bright?\" said Dorothy\nnervously. Then she looked steadily at the boy and asked, \"Are you\nOzma? Tell me truly!\"\n\nButton-Bright laughed.\n\n\"You\'re getting rattled, Dorothy,\" he replied. \"Nothing ever enchants\nME. If I were Ozma, do you think I\'d have tumbled into that hole?\"\n\n\"Anyhow,\" said the Wizard, \"Ozma would never try to deceive her friends\nor prevent them from recognizing her in whatever form she happened to\nbe. The puzzle is still a puzzle, so let us go on to the wicker castle\nand question the magician himself. Since it was he who stole our Ozma,\nUgu is the one who must tell us where to find her.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER 21\n\nMAGIC AGAINST MAGIC\n\n\nThe Wizard\'s advice was good, so again they started in the direction of\nthe low mountain on the crest of which the wicker castle had been\nbuilt. They had been gradually advancing uphill, so now the elevation\nseemed to them more like a round knoll than a mountaintop. However,\nthe sides of the knoll were sloping and covered with green grass, so\nthere was a stiff climb before them yet.\n\nUndaunted, they plodded on and had almost reached the knoll when they\nsuddenly observed that it was surrounded by a circle of flame. At\nfirst, the flames barely rose above the ground, but presently they grew\nhigher and higher until a circle of flaming tongues of fire taller than\nany of their heads quite surrounded the hill on which the wicker castle\nstood. When they approached the flames, the heat was so intense that\nit drove them back again.\n\n\"This will never do for me!\" exclaimed the Patchwork Girl. \"I catch\nfire very easily.\"\n\n\"It won\'t do for me either,\" grumbled the Sawhorse, prancing to the\nrear.\n\n\"I also strongly object to fire,\" said the Bear King, following the\nSawhorse to a safe distance and hugging the little Pink Bear with his\npaws.\n\n\"I suppose the foolish Shoemaker imagines these blazes will stop us,\"\nremarked the Wizard with a smile of scorn for Ugu. \"But I am able to\ninform you that this is merely a simple magic trick which the robber\nstole from Glinda the Good, and by good fortune I know how to destroy\nthese flames as well as how to produce them. Will some one of you\nkindly give me a match?\"\n\nYou may be sure the girls carried no matches, nor did the Frogman or\nany of the animals. But Button-Bright, after searching carefully\nthrough his pockets, which contained all sorts of useful and useless\nthings, finally produced a match and handed it to the Wizard, who tied\nit to the end of a branch which he tore from a small tree growing near\nthem. Then the little Wizard carefully lighted the match, and running\nforward thrust it into the nearest flame. Instantly, the circle of\nfire began to die away, and soon vanished completely leaving the way\nclear for them to proceed.\n\n\"That was funny!\" laughed Button-Bright.\n\n\"Yes,\" agreed the Wizard, \"it seems odd that a little match could\ndestroy such a great circle of fire, but when Glinda invented this\ntrick, she believed no one would ever think of a match being a remedy\nfor fire. I suppose even Ugu doesn\'t know how we managed to quench the\nflames of his barrier, for only Glinda and I know the secret. Glinda\'s\nBook of Magic which Ugu stole told how to make the flames, but not how\nto put them out.\"\n\nThey now formed in marching order and proceeded to advance up the slope\nof the hill, but had not gone far when before them rose a wall of\nsteel, the surface of which was thickly covered with sharp, gleaming\npoints resembling daggers. The wall completely surrounded the wicker\ncastle, and its sharp points prevented anyone from climbing it. Even\nthe Patchwork Girl might be ripped to pieces if she dared attempt it.\n\"Ah!\" exclaimed the Wizard cheerfully, \"Ugu is now using one of my own\ntricks against me. But this is more serious than the Barrier of Fire,\nbecause the only way to destroy the wall is to get on the other side of\nit.\"\n\n\"How can that be done?\" asked Dorothy.\n\nThe Wizard looked thoughtfully around his little party, and his face\ngrew troubled. \"It\'s a pretty high wall,\" he sadly remarked. \"I\'m\npretty sure the Cowardly Lion could not leap over it.\"\n\n\"I\'m sure of that, too!\" said the Lion with a shudder of fear. \"If I\nfoolishly tried such a leap, I would be caught on those dreadful\nspikes.\"\n\n\"I think I could do it, sir,\" said the Frogman with a bow to the\nWizard. \"It is an uphill jump as well as being a high jump, but I\'m\nconsidered something of a jumper by my friends in the Yip Country, and\nI believe a good, strong leap will carry me to the other side.\"\n\n\"I\'m sure it would,\" agreed the Cookie Cook.\n\n\"Leaping, you know, is a froglike accomplishment,\" continued the\nFrogman modestly, \"but please tell me what I am to do when I reach the\nother side of the wall.\"\n\n\"You\'re a brave creature,\" said the Wizard admiringly. \"Has anyone a\npin?\"\n\nBetsy had one, which she gave him. \"All you need do,\" said the Wizard\nto the Frogman, giving him the pin, \"is to stick this into the other\nside of the wall.\"\n\n\"But the wall is of steel!\" exclaimed the big frog.\n\n\"I know. At least, it SEEMS to be steel, but do as I tell you. Stick\nthe pin into the wall, and it will disappear.\"\n\nThe Frogman took off his handsome coat and carefully folded it and laid\nit on the grass. Then he removed his hat and laid it together with his\ngold-headed cane beside the coat. He then went back a way and made\nthree powerful leaps in rapid succession. The first two leaps took him\nto the wall, and the third leap carried him well over it, to the\namazement of all. For a short time, he disappeared from their view,\nbut when he had obeyed the Wizard\'s injunction and had thrust the pin\ninto the wall, the huge barrier vanished and showed them the form of\nthe Frogman, who now went to where his coat lay and put it on again.\n\n\"We thank you very much,\" said the delighted Wizard.\n\n\"That was the most wonderful leap I ever saw, and it has saved us from\ndefeat by our enemy. Let us now hurry on to the castle before Ugu the\nShoemaker thinks up some other means to stop us.\"\n\n\"We must have surprised him so far,\" declared Dorothy.\n\n\"Yes indeed. The fellow knows a lot of magic--all of our tricks and\nsome of his own,\" replied the Wizard. \"So if he is half as clever as\nhe ought to be, we shall have trouble with him yet.\"\n\nHe had scarcely spoken these words when out from the gates of the\nwicker castle marched a regiment of soldiers, clad in gay uniforms and\nall bearing long, pointed spears and sharp battle axes. These soldiers\nwere girls, and the uniforms were short skirts of yellow and black\nsatin, golden shoes, bands of gold across their foreheads and necklaces\nof glittering jewels. Their jackets were scarlet, braided with silver\ncords. There were hundreds of these girl-soldiers, and they were more\nterrible than beautiful, being strong and fierce in appearance. They\nformed a circle all around the castle and faced outward, their spears\npointed toward the invaders, and their battle axes held over their\nshoulders, ready to strike. Of course, our friends halted at once, for\nthey had not expected this dreadful array of soldiery. The Wizard\nseemed puzzled, and his companions exchanged discouraged looks.\n\n\"I\'d no idea Ugu had such an army as that,\" said Dorothy. \"The castle\ndoesn\'t look big enough to hold them all.\"\n\n\"It isn\'t,\" declared the Wizard.\n\n\"But they all marched out of it.\"\n\n\"They seemed to, but I don\'t believe it is a real army at all. If Ugu\nthe Shoemaker had so many people living with him, I\'m sure the Czarover\nof Herku would have mentioned the fact to us.\"\n\n\"They\'re only girls!\" laughed Scraps.\n\n\"Girls are the fiercest soldiers of all,\" declared the Frogman. \"They\nare more brave than men, and they have better nerves. That is probably\nwhy the magician uses them for soldiers and has sent them to oppose us.\"\n\nNo one argued this statement, for all were staring hard at the line of\nsoldiers, which now, having taken a defiant position, remained\nmotionless.\n\n\"Here is a trick of magic new to me,\" admitted the Wizard after a time.\n\"I do not believe the army is real, but the spears may be sharp enough\nto prick us, nevertheless, so we must be cautious. Let us take time to\nconsider how to meet this difficulty.\"\n\nWhile they were thinking it over, Scraps danced closer to the line of\ngirl soldiers. Her button eyes sometimes saw more than did the natural\neyes of her comrades, and so after staring hard at the magician\'s army,\nshe boldly advanced and danced right through the threatening line! On\nthe other side, she waved her stuffed arms and called out, \"Come on,\nfolks. The spears can\'t hurt you.\" said the Wizard gaily. \"An optical\nillusion, as I thought. Let us all follow the Patchwork Girl.\" The\nthree little girls were somewhat nervous in attempting to brave the\nspears and battle axes, but after the others had safely passed the\nline, they ventured to follow. And when all had passed through the\nranks of the girl army, the army itself magically disappeared from view.\n\nAll this time our friends had been getting farther up the hill and\nnearer to the wicker castle. Now, continuing their advance, they\nexpected something else to oppose their way, but to their astonishment\nnothing happened, and presently they arrived at the wicker gates, which\nstood wide open, and boldly entered the domain of Ugu the Shoemaker.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER 22\n\nIN THE WICKER CASTLE\n\n\nNo sooner were the Wizard of Oz and his followers well within the\ncastle entrance when the big gates swung to with a clang and heavy bars\ndropped across them. They looked at one another uneasily, but no one\ncared to speak of the incident. If they were indeed prisoners in the\nwicker castle, it was evident they must find a way to escape, but their\nfirst duty was to attend to the errand on which they had come and seek\nthe Royal Ozma, whom they believed to be a prisoner of the magician,\nand rescue her.\n\nThey found they had entered a square courtyard, from which an entrance\nled into the main building of the castle. No person had appeared to\ngreet them so far, although a gaudy peacock perched upon the wall\ncackled with laughter and said in its sharp, shrill voice, \"Poor fools!\nPoor fools!\"\n\n\"I hope the peacock is mistaken,\" remarked the Frogman, but no one else\npaid any attention to the bird. They were a little awed by the\nstillness and loneliness of the place. As they entered the doors of\nthe castle, which stood invitingly open, these also closed behind them\nand huge bolts shot into place. The animals had all accompanied the\nparty into the castle because they felt it would be dangerous for them\nto separate. They were forced to follow a zigzag passage, turning this\nway and that, until finally they entered a great central hall, circular\nin form and with a high dome from which was suspended an enormous\nchandelier.\n\nThe Wizard went first, and Dorothy, Betsy and Trot followed him, Toto\nkeeping at the heels of his little mistress. Then came the Lion, the\nWoozy and the Sawhorse, then Cayke the Cookie Cook and Button-Bright,\nthen the Lavender Bear carrying the Pink Bear, and finally the Frogman\nand the Patchwork Girl, with Hank the Mule tagging behind. So it was\nthe Wizard who caught the first glimpse of the big, domed hall, but the\nothers quickly followed and gathered in a wondering group just within\nthe entrance.\n\nUpon a raised platform at one side was a heavy table on which lay\nGlinda\'s Great Book of Records, but the platform was firmly fastened to\nthe floor and the table was fastened to the platform and the Book was\nchained fast to the table, just as it had been when it was kept in\nGlinda\'s palace. On the wall over the table hung Ozma\'s Magic Picture.\nOn a row of shelves at the opposite side of the hall stood all the\nchemicals and essences of magic and all the magical instruments that\nhad been stolen from Glinda and Ozma and the Wizard, with glass doors\ncovering the shelves so that no one could get at them.\n\nAnd in a far corner sat Ugu the Shoemaker, his feet lazily extended,\nhis skinny hands clasped behind his head. He was leaning back at his\nease and calmly smoking a long pipe. Around the magician was a sort of\ncage, seemingly made of golden bars set wide apart, and at his feet,\nalso within the cage, reposed the long-sought diamond-studded dishpan\nof Cayke the Cookie Cook. Princess Ozma of Oz was nowhere to be seen.\n\n\"Well, well,\" said Ugu when the invaders had stood in silence for a\nmoment, staring about them. \"This visit is an unexpected pleasure, I\nassure you. I knew you were coming, and I know why you are here. You\nare not welcome, for I cannot use any of you to my advantage, but as\nyou have insisted on coming, I hope you will make the afternoon call as\nbrief as possible. It won\'t take long to transact your business with\nme. You will ask me for Ozma, and my reply will be that you may find\nher--if you can.\"\n\n\"Sir,\" answered the Wizard in a tone of rebuke, \"you are a very wicked\nand cruel person. I suppose you imagine, because you have stolen this\npoor woman\'s dishpan and all the best magic in Oz, that you are more\npowerful than we are and will be able to triumph over us.\"\n\n\"Yes,\" said Ugu the Shoemaker, slowly filling his pipe with fresh\ntobacco from a silver bowl that stood beside him, \"that is exactly what\nI imagine. It will do you no good to demand from me the girl who was\nformerly the Ruler of Oz, because I will not tell you where I have\nhidden her, and you can\'t guess in a thousand years. Neither will I\nrestore to you any of the magic I have captured. I am not so foolish.\nBut bear this in mind: I mean to be the Ruler of Oz myself, hereafter,\nso I advise you to be careful how you address your future Monarch.\"\n\n\"Ozma is still Ruler of Oz, wherever you may have hidden her,\" declared\nthe Wizard. \"And bear this in mind, miserable Shoemaker: we intend to\nfind her and to rescue her in time, but our first duty and pleasure\nwill be to conquer you and then punish you for your misdeeds.\"\n\n\"Very well, go ahead and conquer,\" said Ugu. \"I\'d really like to see\nhow you can do it.\"\n\nNow although the little Wizard had spoken so boldly, he had at the\nmoment no idea how they might conquer the magician. He had that\nmorning given the Frogman, at his request, a dose of zosozo from his\nbottle, and the Frogman had promised to fight a good fight if it was\nnecessary, but the Wizard knew that strength alone could not avail\nagainst magical arts. The toy Bear King seemed to have some pretty\ngood magic, however, and the Wizard depended to an extent on that. But\nsomething ought to be done right away, and the Wizard didn\'t know what\nit was.\n\nWhile he considered this perplexing question and the others stood\nlooking at him as their leader, a queer thing happened. The floor of\nthe great circular hall on which they were standing suddenly began to\ntip. Instead of being flat and level, it became a slant, and the slant\ngrew steeper and steeper until none of the party could manage to stand\nupon it. Presently they all slid down to the wall, which was now under\nthem, and then it became evident that the whole vast room was slowly\nturning upside down! Only Ugu the Shoemaker, kept in place by the bars\nof his golden cage, remained in his former position, and the wicked\nmagician seemed to enjoy the surprise of his victims immensely.\n\nFirst they all slid down to the wall back of them, but as the room\ncontinued to turn over, they next slid down the wall and found\nthemselves at the bottom of the great dome, bumping against the big\nchandelier which, like everything else, was now upside down. The\nturning movement now stopped, and the room became stationary. Looking\nfar up, they saw Ugu suspended in his cage at the very top, which had\nonce been the floor.\n\n\"Ah,\" said he, grinning down at them, \"the way to conquer is to act,\nand he who acts promptly is sure to win. This makes a very good\nprison, from which I am sure you cannot escape. Please amuse\nyourselves in any way you like, but I must beg you to excuse me, as I\nhave business in another part of my castle.\"\n\nSaying this, he opened a trap door in the floor of his cage (which was\nnow over his head) and climbed through it and disappeared from their\nview. The diamond dishpan still remained in the cage, but the bars\nkept it from falling down on their heads.\n\n\"Well, I declare,\" said the Patchwork Girl, seizing one of the bars of\nthe chandelier and swinging from it, \"we must peg one for the\nShoemaker, for he has trapped us very cleverly.\"\n\n\"Get off my foot, please,\" said the Lion to the Sawhorse.\n\n\"And oblige me, Mr. Mule,\" remarked the Woozy, \"by taking your tail\nout of my left eye.\"\n\n\"It\'s rather crowded down here,\" explained Dorothy, \"because the dome\nis rounding and we have all slid into the middle of it. But let us\nkeep as quiet as possible until we can think what\'s best to be done.\"\n\n\"Dear, dear!\" wailed Cayke, \"I wish I had my darling dishpan,\" and she\nheld her arms longingly toward it.\n\n\"I wish I had the magic on those shelves up there,\" sighed the Wizard.\n\n\"Don\'t you s\'pose we could get to it?\" asked Trot anxiously.\n\n\"We\'d have to fly,\" laughed the Patchwork Girl.\n\nBut the Wizard took the suggestion seriously, and so did the Frogman.\nThey talked it over and soon planned an attempt to reach the shelves\nwhere the magical instruments were. First the Frogman lay against the\nrounding dome and braced his foot on the stem of the chandelier; then\nthe Wizard climbed over him and lay on the dome with his feet on the\nFrogman\'s shoulders; the Cookie Cook came next; then Button-Bright\nclimbed to the woman\'s shoulders; then Dorothy climbed up and Betsy and\nTrot, and finally the Patchwork Girl, and all their lengths made a long\nline that reached far up the dome, but not far enough for Scraps to\ntouch the shelves.\n\n\"Wait a minute. Perhaps I can reach the magic,\" called the Bear King,\nand began scrambling up the bodies of the others. But when he came to\nthe Cookie Cook, his soft paws tickled her side so that she squirmed\nand upset the whole line. Down they came, tumbling in a heap against\nthe animals, and although no one was much hurt, it was a bad mix-up,\nand the Frogman, who was at the bottom, almost lost his temper before\nhe could get on his feet again.\n\nCayke positively refused to try what she called \"the pyramid act\"\nagain, and as the Wizard was now convinced they could not reach the\nmagic tools in that manner, the attempt was abandoned. \"But SOMETHING\nmust be done,\" said the Wizard, and then he turned to the Lavender Bear\nand asked, \"Cannot Your Majesty\'s magic help us to escape from here?\"\n\n\"My magic powers are limited,\" was the reply. \"When I was stuffed, the\nfairies stood by and slyly dropped some magic into my stuffing.\nTherefore I can do any of the magic that\'s inside me, but nothing else.\nYou, however, are a wizard, and a wizard should be able to do anything.\"\n\n\"Your Majesty forgets that my tools of magic have been stolen,\" said\nthe Wizard sadly, \"and a wizard without tools is as helpless as a\ncarpenter without a hammer or saw.\"\n\n\"Don\'t give up,\" pleaded Button-Bright, \"\'cause if we can\'t get out of\nthis queer prison, we\'ll all starve to death.\"\n\n\"Not I!\" laughed the Patchwork Girl, now standing on top of the\nchandelier at the place that was meant to be the bottom of it.\n\n\"Don\'t talk of such dreadful things,\" said Trot, shuddering. \"We came\nhere to capture the Shoemaker, didn\'t we?\"\n\n\"Yes, and to save Ozma,\" said Betsy.\n\n\"And here we are, captured ourselves, and my darling dishpan up there\nin plain sight!\" wailed the Cookie Cook, wiping her eyes on the tail of\nthe Frogman\'s coat.\n\n\"Hush!\" called the Lion with a low, deep growl. \"Give the Wizard time\nto think.\"\n\n\"He has plenty of time,\" said Scraps. \"What he needs is the Scarecrow\'s\nbrains.\"\n\nAfter all, it was little Dorothy who came to their rescue, and her\nability to save them was almost as much a surprise to the girl as it\nwas to her friends. Dorothy had been secretly testing the powers of\nher Magic Belt, which she had once captured from the Nome King, and\nexperimenting with it in various ways ever since she had started on\nthis eventful journey. At different times she had stolen away from the\nothers of her party and in solitude had tried to find out what the\nMagic Belt could do and what it could not do. There were a lot of\nthings it could not do, she discovered, but she learned some things\nabout the Belt which even her girl friends did not suspect she knew.\n\nFor one thing, she had remembered that when the Nome King owned it, the\nMagic Belt used to perform transformations, and by thinking hard she\nhad finally recalled the way in which such transformations had been\naccomplished. Better than this, however, was the discovery that the\nMagic Belt would grant its wearer one wish a day. All she need do was\nclose her right eye and wiggle her left toe and then draw a long breath\nand make her wish. Yesterday she had wished in secret for a box of\ncaramels, and instantly found the box beside her. Today she had saved\nher daily wish in case she might need it in an emergency, and the time\nhad now come when she must use the wish to enable her to escape with\nher friends from the prison in which Ugu had caught them.\n\nSo without telling anyone what she intended to do--for she had only\nused the wish once and could not be certain how powerful the Magic Belt\nmight be--Dorothy closed her right eye and wiggled her left big toe and\ndrew a long breath and wished with all her might. The next moment the\nroom began to revolve again, as slowly as before, and by degrees they\nall slid to the side wall and down the wall to the floor--all but\nScraps, who was so astonished that she still clung to the chandelier.\nWhen the big hall was in its proper position again and the others stood\nfirmly upon the floor of it, they looked far up the dome and saw the\nPatchwork girl swinging from the chandelier.\n\n\"Good gracious!\" cried Dorothy. \"How ever will you get down?\"\n\n\"Won\'t the room keep turning?\" asked Scraps.\n\n\"I hope not. I believe it has stopped for good,\" said Princess Dorothy.\n\n\"Then stand from under, so you won\'t get hurt!\" shouted the Patchwork\nGirl, and as soon as they had obeyed this request, she let go the\nchandelier and came tumbling down heels over head and twisting and\nturning in a very exciting manner. Plump! She fell on the tiled\nfloor, and they ran to her and rolled her and patted her into shape\nagain.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER 23\n\nTHE DEFIANCE OF UGU THE SHOEMAKER\n\n\nThe delay caused by Scraps had prevented anyone from running to the\nshelves to secure the magic instruments so badly needed. Even Cayke\nneglected to get her diamond-studded dishpan because she was watching\nthe Patchwork Girl. And now the magician had opened his trap door and\nappeared in his golden cage again, frowning angrily because his\nprisoners had been able to turn their upside-down prison right side up.\n\"Which of you has dared defy my magic?\" he shouted in a terrible voice.\n\n\"It was I,\" answered Dorothy calmly.\n\n\"Then I shall destroy you, for you are only an Earth girl and no\nfairy,\" he said, and began to mumble some magic words.\n\nDorothy now realized that Ugu must be treated as an enemy, so she\nadvanced toward the corner in which he sat, saying as she went, \"I am\nnot afraid of you, Mr. Shoemaker, and I think you\'ll be sorry, pretty\nsoon, that you\'re such a bad man. You can\'t destroy me, and I won\'t\ndestroy you, but I\'m going to punish you for your wickedness.\"\n\nUgu laughed, a laugh that was not nice to hear, and then he waved his\nhand. Dorothy was halfway across the room when suddenly a wall of\nglass rose before her and stopped her progress. Through the glass she\ncould see the magician sneering at her because she was a weak little\ngirl, and this provoked her. Although the glass wall obliged her to\nhalt, she instantly pressed both hands to her Magic Belt and cried in a\nloud voice, \"Ugu the Shoemaker, by the magic virtues of the Magic Belt,\nI command you to become a dove!\"\n\nThe magician instantly realized he was being enchanted, for he could\nfeel his form changing. He struggled desperately against the\nenchantment, mumbling magic words and making magic passes with his\nhands. And in one way he succeeded in defeating Dorothy\'s purpose, for\nwhile his form soon changed to that of a gray dove, the dove was of an\nenormous size, bigger even than Ugu had been as a man, and this feat he\nhad been able to accomplish before his powers of magic wholly deserted\nhim.\n\nAnd the dove was not gentle, as doves usually are, for Ugu was terribly\nenraged at the little girl\'s success. His books had told him nothing\nof the Nome King\'s Magic Belt, the Country of the Nomes being outside\nthe Land of Oz. He knew, however, that he was likely to be conquered\nunless he made a fierce fight, so he spread his wings and rose in the\nair and flew directly toward Dorothy. The Wall of Glass had\ndisappeared the instant Ugu became transformed.\n\nDorothy had meant to command the Belt to transform the magician into a\nDove of Peace, but in her excitement she forgot to say more than\n\"dove,\" and now Ugu was not a Dove of Peace by any means, but rather a\nspiteful Dove of War. His size made his sharp beak and claws very\ndangerous, but Dorothy was not afraid when he came darting toward her\nwith his talons outstretched and his sword-like beak open. She knew\nthe Magic Belt would protect its wearer from harm.\n\nBut the Frogman did not know that fact and became alarmed at the little\ngirl\'s seeming danger. So he gave a sudden leap and leaped full upon\nthe back of the great dove. Then began a desperate struggle. The dove\nwas as strong as Ugu had been, and in size it was considerably bigger\nthan the Frogman. But the Frogman had eaten the zosozo, and it had\nmade him fully as strong as Ugu the Dove. At the first leap he bore\nthe dove to the floor, but the giant bird got free and began to bite\nand claw the Frogman, beating him down with its great wings whenever he\nattempted to rise. The thick, tough skin of the big frog was not\neasily damaged, but Dorothy feared for her champion, and by again using\nthe transformation power of the Magic Belt, she made the dove grow\nsmall until it was no larger than a canary bird. Ugu had not lost his\nknowledge of magic when he lost his shape as a man, and he now realized\nit was hopeless to oppose the power of the Magic Belt and knew that his\nonly hope of escape lay in instant action. So he quickly flew into the\ngolden jeweled dishpan he had stolen from Cayke the Cookie Cook, and as\nbirds can talk as well as beasts or men in the Fairyland of Oz, he\nmuttered the magic word that was required and wished himself in the\nCountry of the Quadlings, which was as far away from the wicker castle\nas he believed he could get.\n\nOur friends did not know, of course, what Ugu was about to do. They\nsaw the dishpan tremble an instant and then disappear, the dove\ndisappearing with it, and although they waited expectantly for some\nminutes for the magician\'s return, Ugu did not come back again. \"Seems\nto me,\" said the Wizard in a cheerful voice, \"that we have conquered\nthe wicked magician more quickly than we expected to.\"\n\n\"Don\'t say \'we.\' Dorothy did it!\" cried the Patchwork Girl, turning\nthree somersaults in succession and then walking around on her hands.\n\"Hurrah for Dorothy!\"\n\n\"I thought you said you did not know how to use the magic of the Nome\nKing\'s Belt,\" said the Wizard to Dorothy.\n\n\"I didn\'t know at that time,\" she replied, \"but afterward I remembered\nhow the Nome King once used the Magic Belt to enchant people and\ntransform \'em into ornaments and all sorts of things, so I tried some\nenchantments in secret, and after a while I transformed the Sawhorse\ninto a potato masher and back again, and the Cowardly Lion into a\npussycat and back again, and then I knew the thing would work all\nright.\"\n\n\"When did you perform those enchantments?\" asked the Wizard, much\nsurprised.\n\n\"One night when all the rest of you were asleep but Scraps, and she had\ngone chasing moonbeams.\"\n\n\"Well,\" remarked the Wizard, \"your discovery has certainly saved us a\nlot of trouble, and we must all thank the Frogman, too, for making such\na good fight. The dove\'s shape had Ugu\'s evil disposition inside it,\nand that made the monster bird dangerous.\"\n\nThe Frogman was looking sad because the bird\'s talons had torn his\npretty clothes, but he bowed with much dignity at this well-deserved\npraise. Cayke, however, had squatted on the floor and was sobbing\nbitterly. \"My precious dishpan is gone!\" she wailed. \"Gone, just as I\nhad found it again!\"\n\n\"Never mind,\" said Trot, trying to comfort her, \"it\'s sure to be\nSOMEWHERE, so we\'ll cert\'nly run across it some day.\"\n\n\"Yes indeed,\" added Betsy, \"now that we have Ozma\'s Magic Picture, we\ncan tell just where the Dove went with your dishpan. They all\napproached the Magic Picture, and Dorothy wished it to show the\nenchanted form of Ugu the Shoemaker, wherever it might be. At once\nthere appeared in the frame of the Picture a scene in the far Quadling\nCountry, where the Dove was perched disconsolately on the limb of a\ntree and the jeweled dishpan lay on the ground just underneath the limb.\n\n\"But where is the place? How far or how near?\" asked Cayke anxiously.\n\n\"The Book of Records will tell us that,\" answered the Wizard. So they\nlooked in the Great Book and read the following:\n\n\"Ugu the Magician, being transformed into a dove by Princess Dorothy of\nOz, has used the magic of the golden dishpan to carry him instantly to\nthe northeast corner of the Quadling Country.\"\n\n\"Don\'t worry, Cayke, for the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman are in that\npart of the country looking for Ozma, and they\'ll surely find your\ndishpan.\"\n\n\"Good gracious!\" exclaimed Button-Bright. \"We\'ve forgot all about\nOzma. Let\'s find out where the magician hid her.\"\n\nBack to the Magic Picture they trooped, but when they wished to see\nOzma wherever she might be hidden, only a round black spot appeared in\nthe center of the canvas. \"I don\'t see how THAT can be Ozma!\" said\nDorothy, much puzzled.\n\n\"It seems to be the best the Magic Picture can do, however,\" said the\nWizard, no less surprised. \"If it\'s an enchantment, looks as if the\nmagician had transformed Ozma into a chunk of pitch.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER 24\n\nTHE LITTLE PINK BEAR SPEAKS TRULY\n\n\nFor several minutes they all stood staring at the black spot on the\ncanvas of the Magic Picture, wondering what it could mean. \"P\'r\'aps\nwe\'d better ask the little Pink Bear about Ozma,\" suggested Trot.\n\n\"Pshaw!\" said Button-Bright. \"HE don\'t know anything.\"\n\n\"He never makes a mistake,\" declared the King.\n\n\"He did once, surely,\" said Betsy. \"But perhaps he wouldn\'t make a\nmistake again.\"\n\n\"He won\'t have the chance,\" grumbled the Bear King.\n\n\"We might hear what he has to say,\" said Dorothy. \"It won\'t do any\nharm to ask the Pink Bear where Ozma is.\"\n\n\"I will not have him questioned,\" declared the King in a surly voice.\n\"I do not intend to allow my little Pink Bear to be again insulted by\nyour foolish doubts. He never makes a mistake.\"\n\n\"Didn\'t he say Ozma was in that hole in the ground?\" asked Betsy.\n\n\"He did, and I am certain she was there,\" replied the Lavender Bear.\n\nScraps laughed jeeringly, and the others saw there was no use arguing\nwith the stubborn Bear King, who seemed to have absolute faith in his\nPink Bear. The Wizard, who knew that magical things can usually be\ndepended upon and that the little Pink Bear was able to answer\nquestions by some remarkable power of magic, thought it wise to\napologize to the Lavender Bear for the unbelief of his friends, at the\nsame time urging the King to consent to question the Pink Bear once\nmore. Cayke and the Frogman also pleaded with the big Bear, who\nfinally agreed, although rather ungraciously, to put the little Bear\'s\nwisdom to the test once more. So he sat the little one on his knee and\nturned the crank, and the Wizard himself asked the questions in a very\nrespectful tone of voice. \"Where is Ozma?\" was his first query.\n\n\"Here in this room,\" answered the little Pink Bear.\n\nThey all looked around the room, but of course did not see her. \"In\nwhat part of the room is she?\" was the Wizard\'s next question.\n\n\"In Button-Bright\'s pocket,\" said the little Pink Bear.\n\nThis reply amazed them all, you may be sure, and although the three\ngirls smiled and Scraps yelled \"Hoo-ray!\" in derision, the Wizard\nturned to consider the matter with grave thoughtfulness. \"In which one\nof Button-Bright\'s pockets is Ozma?\" he presently inquired.\n\n\"In the left-hand jacket pocket,\" said the little Pink Bear.\n\n\"The pink one has gone crazy!\" exclaimed Button-Bright, staring hard at\nthe little bear on the big bear\'s knee.\n\n\"I am not so sure of that,\" declared the Wizard. \"If Ozma proves to be\nreally in your pocket, then the little Pink Bear spoke truly when he\nsaid Ozma was in that hole in the ground. For at that time you were\nalso in the hole, and after we had pulled you out of it, the little\nPink Bear said Ozma was not in the hole.\"\n\n\"He never makes a mistake,\" asserted the Bear King stoutly.\n\n\"Empty that pocket, Button-Bright, and let\'s see what\'s in it,\"\nrequested Dorothy.\n\nSo Button-Bright laid the contents of his left jacket pocket on the\ntable. These proved to be a peg top, a bunch of string, a small rubber\nball and a golden peach pit. \"What\'s this?\" asked the Wizard, picking\nup the peach pit and examining it closely.\n\n\"Oh,\" said the boy, \"I saved that to show to the girls, and then forgot\nall about it. It came out of a lonesome peach that I found in the\norchard back yonder, and which I ate while I was lost. It looks like\ngold, and I never saw a peach pit like it before.\"\n\n\"Nor I,\" said the Wizard, \"and that makes it seem suspicious.\"\n\nAll heads were bent over the golden peach pit. The Wizard turned it\nover several times and then took out his pocket knife and pried the pit\nopen. As the two halves fell apart, a pink, cloud-like haze came\npouring from the golden peach pit, almost filling the big room, and\nfrom the haze a form took shape and settled beside them. Then, as the\nhaze faded away, a sweet voice said, \"Thank you, my friends!\" and there\nbefore them stood their lovely girl Ruler, Ozma of Oz.\n\nWith a cry of delight, Dorothy rushed forward and embraced her. Scraps\nturned gleeful flipflops all around the room. Button-Bright gave a low\nwhistle of astonishment. The Frogman took off his tall hat and bowed\nlow before the beautiful girl who had been freed from her enchantment\nin so startling a manner. For a time, no sound was heard beyond the\nlow murmur of delight that came from the amazed group, but presently\nthe growl of the big Lavender Bear grew louder, and he said in a tone\nof triumph, \"He never makes a mistake!\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER 25\n\nOZMA OF OZ\n\n\n\"It\'s funny,\" said Toto, standing before his friend the Lion and\nwagging his tail, \"but I\'ve found my growl at last! I am positive now\nthat it was the cruel magician who stole it.\"\n\n\"Let\'s hear your growl,\" requested the Lion.\n\n\"G-r-r-r-r-r!\" said Toto.\n\n\"That is fine,\" declared the big beast. \"It isn\'t as loud or as deep\nas the growl of the big Lavender Bear, but it is a very respectable\ngrowl for a small dog. Where did you find it, Toto?\"\n\n\"I was smelling in the corner yonder,\" said Toto, \"when suddenly a\nmouse ran out--and I growled.\"\n\nThe others were all busy congratulating Ozma, who was very happy at\nbeing released from the confinement of the golden peach pit, where the\nmagician had placed her with the notion that she never could be found\nor liberated.\n\n\"And only to think,\" cried Dorothy, \"that Button-Bright has been\ncarrying you in his pocket all this time, and we never knew it!\"\n\n\"The little Pink Bear told you,\" said the Bear King, \"but you wouldn\'t\nbelieve him.\"\n\n\"Never mind, my dears,\" said Ozma graciously, \"all is well that ends\nwell, and you couldn\'t be expected to know I was inside the peach pit.\nIndeed, I feared I would remain a captive much longer than I did, for\nUgu is a bold and clever magician, and he had hidden me very securely.\"\n\n\"You were in a fine peach,\" said Button-Bright, \"the best I ever ate.\"\n\n\"The magician was foolish to make the peach so tempting,\" remarked the\nWizard, \"but Ozma would lend beauty to any transformation.\"\n\n\"How did you manage to conquer Ugu the Shoemaker?\" inquired the girl\nRuler of Oz.\n\nDorothy started to tell the story, and Trot helped her, and\nButton-Bright wanted to relate it in his own way, and the Wizard tried\nto make it clear to Ozma, and Betsy had to remind them of important\nthings they left out, and all together there was such a chatter that it\nwas a wonder that Ozma understood any of it. But she listened\npatiently, with a smile on her lovely face at their eagerness, and\npresently had gleaned all the details of their adventures.\n\nOzma thanked the Frogman very earnestly for his assistance, and she\nadvised Cayke the Cookie Cook to dry her weeping eyes, for she promised\nto take her to the Emerald City and see that her cherished dishpan was\nrestored to her. Then the beautiful Ruler took a chain of emeralds\nfrom around her own neck and placed it around the neck of the little\nPink Bear.\n\n\"Your wise answers to the questions of my friends,\" said she, \"helped\nthem to rescue me. Therefore I am deeply grateful to you and to your\nnoble King.\"\n\nThe bead eyes of the little Pink Bear stared unresponsive to this\npraise until the Big Lavender Bear turned the crank in its side, when\nit said in its squeaky voice, \"I thank Your Majesty.\"\n\n\"For my part,\" returned the Bear King, \"I realize that you were well\nworth saving, Miss Ozma, and so I am much pleased that we could be of\nservice to you. By means of my Magic Wand I have been creating exact\nimages of your Emerald City and your Royal Palace, and I must confess\nthat they are more attractive than any places I have ever seen--not\nexcepting Bear Center.\"\n\n\"I would like to entertain you in my palace,\" returned Ozma sweetly,\n\"and you are welcome to return with me and to make me a long visit, if\nyour bear subjects can spare you from your own kingdom.\"\n\n\"As for that,\" answered the King, \"my kingdom causes me little worry,\nand I often find it somewhat tame and uninteresting. Therefore I am\nglad to accept your kind invitation. Corporal Waddle may be trusted to\ncare for my bears in my absence.\"\n\n\"And you\'ll bring the little Pink Bear?\" asked Dorothy eagerly.\n\n\"Of course, my dear. I would not willingly part with him.\"\n\nThey remained in the wicker castle for three days, carefully packing\nall the magical things that had been stolen by Ugu and also taking\nwhatever in the way of magic the shoemaker had inherited from his\nancestors. \"For,\" said Ozma, \"I have forbidden any of my subjects\nexcept Glinda the Good and the Wizard of Oz to practice magical arts,\nbecause they cannot be trusted to do good and not harm. Therefore Ugu\nmust never again be permitted to work magic of any sort.\"\n\n\"Well,\" remarked Dorothy cheerfully, \"a dove can\'t do much in the way\nof magic, anyhow, and I\'m going to keep Ugu in the form of a dove until\nhe reforms and becomes a good and honest shoemaker.\"\n\nWhen everything was packed and loaded on the backs of the animals, they\nset out for the river, taking a more direct route than that by which\nCayke and the Frogman had come. In this way they avoided the Cities of\nThi and Herku and Bear Center and after a pleasant journey reached the\nWinkie River and found a jolly ferryman who had a fine, big boat and\nwas willing to carry the entire party by water to a place quite near to\nthe Emerald City.\n\nThe river had many windings and many branches, and the journey did not\nend in a day, but finally the boat floated into a pretty lake which was\nbut a short distance from Ozma\'s home. Here the jolly ferryman was\nrewarded for his labors, and then the entire party set out in a grand\nprocession to march to the Emerald City. News that the Royal Ozma had\nbeen found spread quickly throughout the neighborhood, and both sides\nof the road soon became lined with loyal subjects of the beautiful and\nbeloved Ruler. Therefore Ozma\'s ears heard little but cheers, and her\neyes beheld little else than waving handkerchiefs and banners during\nall the triumphal march from the lake to the city\'s gates.\n\nAnd there she met a still greater concourse, for all the inhabitants of\nthe Emerald City turned out to welcome her return, and all the houses\nwere decorated with flags and bunting, and never before were the people\nso joyous and happy as at this moment when they welcomed home their\ngirl Ruler. For she had been lost and was now found again, and surely\nthat was cause for rejoicing. Glinda was at the royal palace to meet\nthe returning party, and the good Sorceress was indeed glad to have her\nGreat Book of Records returned to her, as well as all the precious\ncollection of magic instruments and elixirs and chemicals that had been\nstolen from her castle. Cap\'n Bill and the Wizard at once hung the\nMagic Picture upon the wall of Ozma\'s boudoir, and the Wizard was so\nlight-hearted that he did several tricks with the tools in his black\nbag to amuse his companions and prove that once again he was a powerful\nwizard.\n\nFor a whole week there was feasting and merriment and all sorts of\njoyous festivities at the palace in honor of Ozma\'s safe return. The\nLavender Bear and the little Pink Bear received much attention and were\nhonored by all, much to the Bear King\'s satisfaction. The Frogman\nspeedily became a favorite at the Emerald City, and the Shaggy Man and\nTik-Tok and Jack Pumpkinhead, who had now returned from their search,\nwere very polite to the big frog and made him feel quite at home. Even\nthe Cookie Cook, because she was quite a stranger and Ozma\'s guest, was\nshown as much deference as if she had been a queen.\n\n\"All the same, Your Majesty,\" said Cayke to Ozma, day after day with\ntiresome repetition, \"I hope you will soon find my jeweled dishpan, for\nnever can I be quite happy without it.\"\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER 26\n\nDOROTHY FORGIVES\n\n\nThe gray dove which had once been Ugu the Shoemaker sat on its tree in\nthe far Quadling Country and moped, chirping dismally and brooding over\nits misfortunes. After a time, the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman came\nalong and sat beneath the tree, paying no heed to the mutterings of the\ngray dove. The Tin Woodman took a small oilcan from his tin pocket and\ncarefully oiled his tin joints with it.\n\nWhile he was thus engaged, the Scarecrow remarked, \"I feel much better,\ndear comrade, since we found that heap of nice, clean straw and you\nstuffed me anew with it.\"\n\n\"And I feel much better now that my joints are oiled,\" returned the Tin\nWoodman with a sigh of pleasure. \"You and I, friend Scarecrow, are\nmuch more easily cared for than those clumsy meat people, who spend\nhalf their time dressing in fine clothes and who must live in splendid\ndwellings in order to be contented and happy. You and I do not eat,\nand so we are spared the dreadful bother of getting three meals a day.\nNor do we waste half our lives in sleep, a condition that causes the\nmeat people to lose all consciousness and become as thoughtless and\nhelpless as logs of wood.\"\n\n\"You speak truly,\" responded the Scarecrow, tucking some wisps of straw\ninto his breast with his padded fingers. \"I often feel sorry for the\nmeat people, many of whom are my friends. Even the beasts are happier\nthan they, for they require less to make them content. And the birds\nare the luckiest creatures of all, for they can fly swiftly where they\nwill and find a home at any place they care to perch. Their food\nconsists of seeds and grains they gather from the fields, and their\ndrink is a sip of water from some running brook. If I could not be a\nScarecrow or a Tin Woodman, my next choice would be to live as a bird\ndoes.\"\n\nThe gray dove had listened carefully to this speech and seemed to find\ncomfort in it, for it hushed its moaning. And just then the Tin\nWoodman discovered Cayke\'s dishpan, which was on the ground quite near\nto him. \"Here is a rather pretty utensil,\" he said, taking it in his\ntin hand to examine it, \"but I would not care to own it. Whoever\nfashioned it of gold and covered it with diamonds did not add to its\nusefulness, nor do I consider it as beautiful as the bright dishpans of\ntin one usually sees. No yellow color is ever so handsome as the\nsilver sheen of tin,\" and he turned to look at his tin legs and body\nwith approval.\n\n\"I cannot quite agree with you there,\" replied the Scarecrow. \"My\nstraw stuffing has a light yellow color, and it is not only pretty to\nlook at, but it crunkles most delightfully when I move.\"\n\n\"Let us admit that all colors are good in their proper places,\" said\nthe Tin Woodman, who was too kind-hearted to quarrel, \"but you must\nagree with me that a dishpan that is yellow is unnatural. What shall\nwe do with this one, which we have just found?\"\n\n\"Let us carry it back to the Emerald City,\" suggested the Scarecrow.\n\"Some of our friends might like to have it for a foot-bath, and in\nusing it that way, its golden color and sparkling ornaments would not\ninjure its usefulness.\"\n\nSo they went away and took the jeweled dishpan with them. And after\nwandering through the country for a day or so longer, they learned the\nnews that Ozma had been found. Therefore they straightway returned to\nthe Emerald City and presented the dishpan to Princess Ozma as a token\nof their joy that she had been restored to them. Ozma promptly gave\nthe diamond-studded gold dishpan to Cayke the Cookie Cook, who was\ndelighted at regaining her lost treasure that she danced up and down in\nglee and then threw her skinny arms around Ozma\'s neck and kissed her\ngratefully. Cayke\'s mission was now successfully accomplished, but she\nwas having such a good time at the Emerald City that she seemed in no\nhurry to go back to the Country of the Yips.\n\nIt was several weeks after the dishpan had been restored to the Cookie\nCook when one day, as Dorothy was seated in the royal gardens with Trot\nand Betsy beside her, a gray dove came flying down and alighted at the\ngirl\'s feet.\n\n\"I am Ugu the Shoemaker,\" said the dove in a soft, mourning voice, \"and\nI have come to ask you to forgive me for the great wrong I did in\nstealing Ozma and the magic that belonged to her and to others.\"\n\n\"Are you sorry, then?\" asked Dorothy, looking hard at the bird.\n\n\"I am VERY sorry,\" declared Ugu. \"I\'ve been thinking over my misdeeds\nfor a long time, for doves have little else to do but think, and I\'m\nsurprised that I was such a wicked man and had so little regard for the\nrights of others. I am now convinced that even had I succeeded in\nmaking myself ruler of all Oz, I should not have been happy, for many\ndays of quiet thought have shown me that only those things one acquires\nhonestly are able to render one content.\"\n\n\"I guess that\'s so,\" said Trot.\n\n\"Anyhow,\" said Betsy, \"the bad man seems truly sorry, and if he has now\nbecome a good and honest man, we ought to forgive him.\"\n\n\"I fear I cannot become a good MAN again,\" said Ugu, \"for the\ntransformation I am under will always keep me in the form of a dove.\nBut with the kind forgiveness of my former enemies, I hope to become a\nvery good dove and highly respected.\"\n\n\"Wait here till I run for my Magic Belt,\" said Dorothy, \"and I\'ll\ntransform you back to your reg\'lar shape in a jiffy.\"\n\n\"No, don\'t do that!\" pleaded the dove, fluttering its wings in an\nexcited way. \"I only want your forgiveness. I don\'t want to be a man\nagain. As Ugu the Shoemaker I was skinny and old and unlovely. As a\ndove I am quite pretty to look at. As a man I was ambitious and cruel,\nwhile as a dove I can be content with my lot and happy in my simple\nlife. I have learned to love the free and independent life of a bird,\nand I\'d rather not change back.\"\n\n\"Just as you like, Ugu,\" said Dorothy, resuming her seat. \"Perhaps you\nare right, for you\'re certainly a better dove than you were a man, and\nif you should ever backslide an\' feel wicked again, you couldn\'t do\nmuch harm as a gray dove.\"\n\n\"Then you forgive me for all the trouble I caused you?\" he asked\nearnestly.\n\n\"Of course. Anyone who\'s sorry just has to be forgiven.\"\n\n\"Thank you,\" said the gray dove, and flew away again.'"