"THE TIN WOODMAN OF OZ\n\n\nby\n\nL. Frank Baum\n\n\n\n  A Faithful Story of the Astonishing Adventure\n     Undertaken by the Tin Woodman, assisted\n       by Woot the Wanderer, the Scarecrow\n           of Oz, and Polychrome, the\n               Rainbow's Daughter\n\n                      by\n                 L. FRANK BAUM\n            \"Royal historian of Oz\"\n\n                  This Book\n                is dedicated\n                to the son of\n                    my son\n               Frank Alden Baum\n\n\n\n\nTO MY READERS\n\nI know that some of you have been waiting for this story of the Tin\nWoodman, because many of  my correspondents have asked me, time and\nagain what ever became of the \"pretty Munchkin girl\" whom Nick Chopper\nwas engaged to marry before the Wicked Witch enchanted his axe and he\ntraded his flesh for tin. I, too, have wondered what became of her, but\nuntil Woot the Wanderer interested himself in the matter the Tin\nWoodman knew no more than we did. However, he found her, after many\nthrilling adventures, as you will discover when you have read this\nstory.\n\nI am delighted at the continued interest of both young and old in the\nOz stories. A learned college professor recently wrote me to ask: \"For\nreaders of what age are your books intended?\" It puzzled me to answer\nthat properly, until I had looked over some of the letters I have\nreceived. One says: \"I'm a little boy 5 years old, and I Just love your\nOz stories. My sister, who is writing this for me, reads me the Oz\nbooks, but I wish I could read them myself.\" Another letter says: \"I'm\na great girl 13 years old, so you'll be surprised when I tell you I am\nnot too old yet for the Oz stories.\"  Here's another letter: \"Since I\nwas a young girl I've never missed getting a Baum book for Christmas.\nI'm married, now, but am as eager to get and read the Oz stories as\never.\" And still another writes: \"My good wife and I, both more than 70\nyears of age, believe that we find more real enjoyment in your Oz books\nthan in any other books we read.\" Considering these statements, I wrote\nthe college professor that my books are intended for all those whose\nhearts are young, no matter what their ages may be.\n\nI think I am justified in promising that there will be some astonishing\nrevelations about The Magic of Oz in my book for 1919. Always your\nloving and grateful friend,\n\nL. FRANK BAUM.\n  Royal Historian of Oz.\n\n\"OZCOT\"\n  at HOLLYWOOD\n    in CALIFORNIA\n      1918.\n\nChapter One\n\nWoot the Wanderer\n\n\nThe Tin Woodman sat on his glittering tin throne in the handsome tin\nhall of his splendid tin castle in the Winkie Country of the Land of\nOz. Beside him, in a chair of woven straw, sat his best friend, the\nScarecrow of Oz. At times they spoke to one another of curious things\nthey had seen and strange adventures they had known since first they\ntwo had met and become comrades. But at times they were silent, for\nthese things had been talked over many times between them, and they\nfound themselves contented in merely being together, speaking now and\nthen a brief sentence to prove they were wide awake and attentive. But\nthen, these two quaint persons never slept. Why should they sleep, when\nthey never tired?\n\nAnd now, as the brilliant sun sank low over the Winkie Country of Oz,\ntinting the glistening tin towers and tin minarets of the tin castle\nwith glorious sunset hues, there approached along a winding pathway\nWoot the Wanderer, who met at the castle entrance a Winkie servant.\n\nThe servants of the Tin Woodman all wore tin helmets and tin\nbreastplates and uniforms covered with tiny tin discs sewed closely\ntogether on silver cloth, so that their bodies sparkled as beautifully\nas did the tin castle--and almost as beautifully as did the Tin Woodman\nhimself.\n\nWoot the Wanderer looked at the man servant--all bright and\nglittering--and at the magnificent castle--all bright and\nglittering--and as he looked his eyes grew big with wonder. For Woot\nwas not very big and not very old and, wanderer though he was, this\nproved the most gorgeous sight that had ever met his boyish gaze.\n\n\"Who lives here?\" he asked.\n\n\"The Emperor of the Winkies, who is the famous Tin Woodman of Oz,\"\nreplied the servant, who had been trained to treat all strangers with\ncourtesy.\n\n\"A Tin Woodman?  How queer!\" exclaimed the little wanderer.\n\n\"Well, perhaps our Emperor is queer,\" admitted the servant; \"but he is\na kind master and as honest and true as good tin can make him; so we,\nwho gladly serve him, are apt to forget that he is not like other\npeople.\"\n\n\"May I see him?\" asked Woot the Wanderer, after a moment's thought.\n\n\"If it please you to wait a moment, I will go and ask him,\" said the\nservant, and then he went into the hall where the Tin Woodman sat with\nhis friend the Scarecrow. Both were glad to learn that a stranger had\narrived at the castle, for this would give them something new to talk\nabout, so the servant was asked to admit the boy at once.\n\nBy the time Woot the Wanderer had passed through the grand\ncorridors--all lined with ornamental tin--and under stately tin\narchways and through the many tin rooms all set with beautiful tin\nfurniture, his eyes had grown bigger than ever and his whole little\nbody thrilled with amazement. But, astonished though he was, he was\nable to make a polite bow before the throne and to say in a respectful\nvoice: \"I salute your Illustrious Majesty and offer you my humble\nservices.\"\n\n\"Very good!\" answered the Tin Woodman in his accustomed cheerful\nmanner. \"Tell me who you are, and whence you come.\"\n\n\"I am known as Woot the Wanderer,\" answered the boy, \"and I have come,\nthrough many travels and by roundabout ways, from my former home in a\nfar corner of the Gillikin Country of Oz.\"\n\n\"To wander from one's home,\" remarked the Scarecrow, \"is to encounter\ndangers and hardships, especially if one is made of meat and bone. Had\nyou no friends in that corner of the Gillikin Country? Was it not\nhomelike and comfortable?\"\n\nTo hear a man stuffed with straw speak, and speak so well, quite\nstartled Woot, and perhaps he stared a bit rudely at the Scarecrow. But\nafter a moment he replied:\n\n\"I had home and friends, your Honorable Strawness, but they were so\nquiet and happy and comfortable that I found them dismally stupid.\nNothing in that corner of Oz interested me, but I believed that in\nother parts of the country I would find strange people and see new\nsights, and so I set out upon my wandering journey. I have been a\nwanderer for nearly a full year, and now my wanderings have brought me\nto this splendid castle.\"\n\n\"I suppose,\" said the Tin Woodman, \"that in this year you have seen so\nmuch that you have become very wise.\"\n\n\"No,\" replied Woot, thoughtfully, \"I am not at all wise, I beg to\nassure your Majesty. The more I wander the less I find that I know, for\nin the Land of Oz much wisdom and many things may be learned.\"\n\n\"To learn is simple. Don't you ask questions?\" inquired the Scarecrow.\n\n\"Yes; I ask as many questions as I dare; but some people refuse to\nanswer questions.\"\n\n\"That is not kind of them,\" declared the Tin Woodman. \"If one does not\nask for information he seldom receives it; so I, for my part, make it a\nrule to answer any civil question that is asked me.\"\n\n\"So do I,\" added the Scarecrow, nodding.\n\n\"I am glad to hear this,\" said the Wanderer, \"for it makes me bold to\nask for something to eat.\"\n\n\"Bless the boy!\" cried the Emperor of the Winkies; \"how careless of me\nnot to remember that wanderers are usually hungry. I will have food\nbrought you at once.\"\n\nSaying this he blew upon a tin whistle that was suspended from his tin\nneck, and at the summons a servant appeared and bowed low. The Tin\nWoodman ordered food for the stranger, and in a few minutes the servant\nbrought in a tin tray heaped with a choice array of good things to eat,\nall neatly displayed on tin dishes that were polished till they shone\nlike mirrors. The tray was set upon a tin table drawn before the\nthrone, and the servant placed a tin chair before the table for the boy\nto seat himself.\n\n\"Eat, friend Wanderer,\" said the Emperor cordially, \"and I trust the\nfeast will be to your liking. I, myself, do not eat, being made in such\nmanner that I require no food to keep me alive. Neither does my friend\nthe Scarecrow. But all my Winkie people eat, being formed of flesh, as\nyou are, and so my tin cupboard is never bare, and strangers are always\nwelcome to whatever it contains.\"\n\nThe boy ate in silence for a time, being really hungry, but after his\nappetite was somewhat satisfied, he said:\n\n\"How happened your Majesty to be made of tin, and still be alive?\"\n\n\"That,\" replied the tin man, \"is a long story.\"\n\n\"The longer the better,\" said the boy. \"Won't you please tell me the\nstory?\"\n\n\"If you desire it,\" promised the Tin Woodman, leaning back in his tin\nthrone and crossing his tin legs. \"I haven't related my history in a\nlong while, because everyone here knows it nearly as well as I do. But\nyou, being a stranger, are no doubt curious to learn how I became so\nbeautiful and prosperous, so I will recite for your benefit my strange\nadventures.\"\n\n\"Thank you,\" said Woot the Wanderer, still eating.\n\n\"I was not always made of tin,\" began the Emperor, \"for in the\nbeginning I was a man of flesh and bone and blood and lived in the\nMunchkin Country of Oz. There I was, by trade, a woodchopper, and\ncontributed my share to the comfort of the Oz people by chopping up the\ntrees of the forest to make firewood, with which the women would cook\ntheir meals while the children warmed themselves about the fires. For\nmy home I had a little hut by the edge of the forest, and my life was\none of much content until I fell in love with a beautiful Munchkin girl\nwho lived not far away.\"\n\n\"What was the Munchkin girl's name?\" asked Woot.\n\n\"Nimmie Amee. This girl, so fair that the sunsets blushed when their\nrays fell upon her, lived with a powerful witch who wore silver shoes\nand who had made the poor child her slave. Nimmie Amee was obliged to\nwork from morning till night for the old Witch of the East, scrubbing\nand sweeping her hut and cooking her meals and washing her dishes. She\nhad to cut firewood, too, until I found her one day in the forest and\nfell in love with her. After that, I always brought plenty of firewood\nto Nimmie Amee and we became very friendly. Finally I asked her to\nmarry me, and she agreed to do so, but the Witch happened to overhear\nour conversation and it made her very angry, for she did not wish her\nslave to be taken away from her. The Witch commanded me never to come\nnear Nimmie Amee again, but I told her I was my own master and would do\nas I pleased, not realizing that this was a careless way to speak to a\nWitch.\n\n\"The next day, as I was cutting wood in the forest, the cruel Witch\nenchanted my axe, so that it slipped and cut off my right leg.\"\n\n\"How dreadful!\" cried Woot the Wanderer.\n\n\"Yes, it was a seeming misfortune,\" agreed the Tin Man, \"for a\none-legged woodchopper is of little use in his trade. But I would not\nallow the Witch to conquer me so easily. I knew a very skillful\nmechanic at the other side of the forest, who was my friend, so I\nhopped on one leg to him and asked him to help me. He soon made me a\nnew leg out of tin and fastened it cleverly to my meat body. It had\njoints at the knee and at the ankle and was almost as comfortable as\nthe leg I had lost.\"\n\n\"Your friend must have been a wonderful workman!\" exclaimed Woot.\n\n\"He was, indeed,\" admitted the Emperor. \"He was a tinsmith by trade and\ncould make anything out of tin. When I returned to Nimmie Amee, the\ngirl was delighted and threw her arms around my neck and kissed me,\ndeclaring she was proud of me. The Witch saw the kiss and was more\nangry than before. When I went to work in the forest, next day, my axe,\nbeing still enchanted, slipped and cut off my other leg. Again I\nhopped--on my tin leg--to my friend the tinsmith, who kindly made me\nanother tin leg and fastened it to my body. So I returned joyfully to\nNimmie Amee, who was much pleased with my glittering legs and promised\nthat when we were wed she would always keep them oiled and polished.\nBut the Witch was more furious than ever, and as soon as I raised my\naxe to chop, it twisted around and cut off one of my arms. The tinsmith\nmade me a tin arm and I was not much worried, because Nimmie Amee\ndeclared she still loved me.\"\n\n\n\n\nChapter Two\n\nThe Heart of the Tin Woodman\n\n\nThe Emperor of the Winkies paused in his story to reach for an oil-can,\nwith which he carefully oiled the joints in his tin throat, for his\nvoice had begun to squeak a little. Woot the Wanderer, having satisfied\nhis hunger, watched this oiling process with much curiosity, but begged\nthe Tin Man to go on with his tale.\n\n\"The Witch with the Silver Shoes hated me for having defied her,\"\nresumed the Emperor, his voice now sounding clear as a bell, \"and she\ninsisted that Nimmie Amee should never marry me.  Therefore she made\nthe enchanted axe cut off my other arm, and the tinsmith also replaced\nthat member with tin, including these finely-jointed hands that you see\nme using. But, alas! after that, the axe, still enchanted by the cruel\nWitch, cut my body in two, so that I fell to the ground. Then the\nWitch, who was watching from a near-by bush, rushed up and seized the\naxe and chopped my body into several small pieces, after which,\nthinking that at last she had destroyed me, she ran away laughing in\nwicked glee.\n\n\"But Nimmie Amee found me. She picked up my arms and legs and head, and\nmade a bundle of them and carried them to the tinsmith, who set to work\nand made me a fine body of pure tin. When he had joined the arms and\nlegs to the body, and set my head in the tin collar, I was a much\nbetter man than ever, for my body could not ache or pain me, and I was\nso beautiful and bright that I had no need of clothing. Clothing is\nalways a nuisance, because it soils and tears and has to be replaced;\nbut my tin body only needs to be oiled and polished.\n\n\"Nimmie Amee still declared she would marry me, as she still loved me\nin spite of the Witch's evil deeds. The girl declared I would make the\nbrightest husband in all the world, which was quite true. However, the\nWicked Witch was not yet defeated. When I returned to my work the axe\nslipped and cut off my head, which was the only meat part of me then\nremaining. Moreover, the old woman grabbed up my severed head and\ncarried it away with her and hid it. But Nimmie Amee came into the\nforest and found me wandering around helplessly, because I could not\nsee where to go, and she led me to my friend the tinsmith. The faithful\nfellow at once set to work to make me a tin head, and he had just\ncompleted it when Nimmie Amee came running up with my old head, which\nshe had stolen from the Witch. But, on reflection, I considered the tin\nhead far superior to the meat one--I am wearing it yet, so you can see\nits beauty and grace of outline--and the girl agreed with me that a man\nall made of tin was far more perfect than one formed of different\nmaterials. The tinsmith was as proud of his workmanship as I was, and\nfor three whole days, all admired me and praised my beauty. Being now\ncompletely formed of tin, I had no more fear of the Wicked Witch, for\nshe was powerless to injure me. Nimmie Amee said we must be married at\nonce, for then she could come to my cottage and live with me and keep\nme bright and sparkling.\n\n\"'I am sure, my dear Nick,' said the brave and beautiful girl--my name\nwas then Nick Chopper, you should be told--'that you will make the best\nhusband any girl could have. I shall not be obliged to cook for you,\nfor now you do not eat; I shall not have to make your bed, for tin does\nnot tire or require sleep; when we go to a dance, you will not get\nweary before the music stops and say you want to go home. All day long,\nwhile you are chopping wood in the forest, I shall be able to amuse\nmyself in my own way--a privilege few wives enjoy. There is no temper\nin your new head, so you will not get angry with me. Finally, I shall\ntake pride in being the wife of the only live Tin Woodman in all the\nworld!' Which shows that Nimmie Amee was as wise as she was brave and\nbeautiful.\"\n\n\"I think she was a very nice girl,\" said Woot the Wanderer. \"But, tell\nme, please, why were you not killed when you were chopped to pieces?\"\n\n\"In the Land of Oz,\" replied the Emperor, \"no one can ever be killed. A\nman with a wooden leg or a tin leg is still the same man; and, as I\nlost parts of my meat body by degrees, I always remained the same\nperson as in the beginning, even though in the end I was all tin and no\nmeat.\"\n\n\"I see,\" said the boy, thoughtfully. \"And did you marry Nimmie Amee?\"\n\n\"No,\" answered the Tin Woodman, \"I did not. She said she still loved\nme, but I found that I no longer loved her. My tin body contained no\nheart, and without a heart no one can love. So the Wicked Witch\nconquered in the end, and when I left the Munchkin Country of Oz, the\npoor girl was still the slave of the Witch and had to do her bidding\nday and night.\"\n\n\"Where did you go?\" asked Woot.\n\n\"Well, I first started out to find a heart, so I could love Nimmie Amee\nagain; but hearts are more scarce than one would think. One day, in a\nbig forest that was strange to me, my joints suddenly became rusted,\nbecause I had forgotten to oil them. There I stood, unable to move hand\nor foot. And there I continued to stand--while days came and\nwent--until Dorothy and the Scarecrow came along and rescued me. They\noiled my joints and set me free, and I've taken good care never to rust\nagain.\"\n\n\"Who was this Dorothy?\" questioned the Wanderer.\n\n\"A little girl who happened to be in a house when it was carried by a\ncyclone all the way from Kansas to the Land of Oz. When the house fell,\nin the Munchkin Country, it fortunately landed on the Wicked Witch and\nsmashed her flat. It was a big house, and I think the Witch is under it\nyet.\"\n\n\"No,\" said the Scarecrow, correcting him, \"Dorothy says the Witch\nturned to dust, and the wind scattered the dust in every direction.\"\n\n\"Well,\" continued the Tin Woodman, \"after meeting the Scarecrow and\nDorothy, I went with them to the Emerald City, where the Wizard of Oz\ngave me a heart. But the Wizard's stock of hearts was low, and he gave\nme a Kind Heart instead of a Loving Heart, so that I could not love\nNimmie Amee any more than I did when I was heartless.\"\n\n\"Couldn't the Wizard give you a heart that was both Kind and Loving?\"\nasked the boy.\n\n\"No; that was what I asked for, but he said he was so short on hearts,\njust then, that there was but one in stock, and I could take that or\nnone at all. So I accepted it, and I must say that for its kind it is a\nvery good heart indeed.\"\n\n\"It seems to me,\" said Woot, musingly, \"that the Wizard fooled you. It\ncan't be a very Kind Heart, you know.\"\n\n\"Why not?\" demanded the Emperor.\n\n\"Because it was unkind of you to desert the girl who loved you, and who\nhad been faithful and true to you when you were in trouble. Had the\nheart the Wizard gave you been a Kind Heart, you would have gone back\nhome and made the beautiful Munchkin girl your wife, and then brought\nher here to be an Empress and live in your splendid tin castle.\"\n\nThe Tin Woodman was so surprised at this frank speech that for a time\nhe did nothing but stare hard at the boy Wanderer. But the Scarecrow\nwagged his stuffed head and said in a positive tone:\n\n\"This boy is right. I've often wondered, myself, why you didn't go back\nand find that poor Munchkin girl.\"\n\nThen the Tin Woodman stared hard at his friend the Scarecrow. But\nfinally he said in a serious tone of voice:\n\n\"I must admit that never before have I thought of such a thing as\nfinding Nimmie Amee and making her Empress of the Winkies. But it is\nsurely not too late, even now, to do this, for the girl must still be\nliving in the Munchkin Country. And, since this strange Wanderer has\nreminded me of Nimmie Amee, I believe it is my duty to set out and find\nher. Surely it is not the girl's fault that I no longer love her, and\nso, if I can make her happy, it is proper that I should do so, and in\nthis way reward her for her faithfulness.\"\n\n\"Quite right, my friend!\" agreed the Scarecrow.\n\n\"Will you accompany me on this errand?\" asked the Tin Emperor.\n\n\"Of course,\" said the Scarecrow.\n\n\"And will you take me along?\" pleaded Woot the Wanderer in an eager\nvoice.\n\n\"To be sure,\" said the Tin Woodman, \"if you care to join our party. It\nwas you who first told me it was my duty to find and marry Nimmie Amee,\nand I'd like you to know that Nick Chopper, the Tin Emperor of the\nWinkies, is a man who never shirks his duty, once it is pointed out to\nhim.\"\n\n\"It ought to be a pleasure, as well as a duty, if the girl is so\nbeautiful,\" said Woot, well pleased with the idea of the adventure.\n\n\"Beautiful things may be admired, if not loved,\" asserted the Tin Man.\n\"Flowers are beautiful, for instance, but we are not inclined to marry\nthem. Duty, on the contrary, is a bugle call to action, whether you are\ninclined to act, or not. In this case, I obey the bugle call of duty.\"\n\n\"When shall we start?\" inquired the Scarecrow, who was always glad to\nembark upon a new adventure. \"I don't hear any bugle, but when do we\ngo?\"\n\n\"As soon as we can get ready,\" answered the Emperor. \"I'll call my\nservants at once and order them to make preparations for our journey.\"\n\n\n\n\nChapter Three\n\nRoundabout\n\n\nWoot the Wanderer slept that night in the tin castle of the Emperor of\nthe Winkies and found his tin bed quite comfortable. Early the next\nmorning he rose and took a walk through the gardens, where there were\ntin fountains and beds of curious tin flowers, and where tin birds\nperched upon the branches of tin trees and sang songs that sounded like\nthe notes of tin whistles. All these wonders had been made by the\nclever Winkie tinsmiths, who wound the birds up every morning so that\nthey would move about and sing.\n\nAfter breakfast the boy went into the throne room, where the Emperor\nwas having his tin joints carefully oiled by a servant, while other\nservants were stuffing sweet, fresh straw into the body of the\nScarecrow.\n\nWoot watched this operation with much interest, for the Scarecrow's\nbody was only a suit of clothes filled with straw. The coat was\nbuttoned tight to keep the packed straw from falling out and a rope was\ntied around the waist to hold it in shape and prevent the straw from\nsagging down. The Scarecrow's head was a gunnysack filled with bran, on\nwhich the eyes, nose and mouth had been painted. His hands were white\ncotton gloves stuffed with fine straw. Woot noticed that even when\ncarefully stuffed and patted into shape, the straw man was awkward in\nhis movements and decidedly wobbly on his feet, so the boy wondered if\nthe Scarecrow would be able to travel with them all the way to the\nforests of the Munchkin Country of Oz.\n\nThe preparations made for this important journey were very simple. A\nknapsack was filled with food and given Woot the Wanderer to carry upon\nhis back, for the food was for his use alone. The Tin Woodman\nshouldered an axe which was sharp and brightly polished, and the\nScarecrow put the Emperor's oil-can in his pocket, that he might oil\nhis friend's joints should they need it.\n\n\"Who will govern the Winkie Country during your absence?\" asked the boy.\n\n\"Why, the Country will run itself,\" answered the Emperor. \"As a matter\nof fact, my people do not need an Emperor, for Ozma of Oz watches over\nthe welfare of all her subjects, including the Winkies. Like a good\nmany kings and emperors, I have a grand title, but very little real\npower, which allows me time to amuse myself in my own way. The people\nof Oz have but one law to obey, which is: 'Behave Yourself,' so it is\neasy for them to abide by this Law, and you'll notice they behave very\nwell. But it is time for us to be off, and I am eager to start because\nI suppose that that poor Munchkin girl is anxiously awaiting my coming.\"\n\n\"She's waited a long time already, seems to me,\" remarked the\nScarecrow, as they left the grounds of the castle and followed a path\nthat led eastward.\n\n\"True,\" replied the Tin Woodman; \"but I've noticed that the last end of\na wait, however long it has been, is the hardest to endure; so I must\ntry to make Nimmie Amee happy as soon as possible.\"\n\n\"Ah; that proves you have a Kind heart,\" remarked the Scarecrow,\napprovingly.\n\n\"It's too bad he hasn't a Loving Heart,\" said Woot. \"This Tin Man is\ngoing to marry a nice girl through kindness, and not because he loves\nher, and somehow that doesn't seem quite right.\"\n\n\"Even so, I am not sure it isn't best for the girl,\" said the\nScarecrow, who seemed very intelligent for a straw man, \"for a loving\nhusband is not always kind, while a kind husband is sure to make any\ngirl content.\"\n\n\"Nimmie Amee will become an Empress!\" announced the Tin Woodman,\nproudly. \"I shall have a tin gown made for her, with tin ruffles and\ntucks on it, and she shall have tin slippers, and tin earrings and\nbracelets, and wear a tin crown on her head. I am sure that will\ndelight Nimmie Amee, for all girls are fond of finery.\"\n\n\"Are we going to the Munchkin Country by way of the Emerald City?\"\ninquired the Scarecrow, who looked upon the Tin Woodman as the leader\nof the party.\n\n\"I think not,\" was the reply. \"We are engaged upon a rather delicate\nadventure, for we are seeking a girl who fears her former lover has\nforgotten her. It will be rather hard for me, you must admit, when I\nconfess to Nimmie Amee that I have come to marry her because it is my\nduty to do so, and therefore the fewer witnesses there are to our\nmeeting the better for both of us. After I have found Nimmie Amee and\nshe has managed to control her joy at our reunion, I shall take her to\nthe Emerald City and introduce her to Ozma and Dorothy, and to Betsy\nBobbin and Tiny Trot, and all our other friends; but, if I remember\nrightly, poor Nimmie Amee has a sharp tongue when angry, and she may be\na trifle angry with me, at first, because I have been so long in coming\nto her.\"\n\n\"I can understand that,\" said Woot gravely. \"But how can we get to that\npart of the Munchkin Country where you once lived without passing\nthrough the Emerald City?\"\n\n\"Why, that is easy,\" the Tin Man assured him.\n\n\"I have a map of Oz in my pocket,\" persisted the boy, \"and it shows\nthat the Winkie Country, where we now are, is at the west of Oz, and\nthe Munchkin Country at the east, while directly between them lies the\nEmerald City.\"\n\n\"True enough; but we shall go toward the north, first of all, into the\nGillikin Country, and so pass around the Emerald City,\" explained the\nTin Woodman.\n\n\"That may prove a dangerous journey,\" replied the boy. \"I used to live\nin one of the top corners of the Gillikin Country, near to Oogaboo, and\nI have been told that in this northland country are many people whom it\nis not pleasant to meet. I was very careful to avoid them during my\njourney south.\"\n\n\"A Wanderer should have no fear,\" observed the Scarecrow, who was\nwobbling along in a funny, haphazard manner, but keeping pace with his\nfriends.\n\n\"Fear does not make one a coward,\" returned Woot, growing a little red\nin the face, \"but I believe it is more easy to avoid danger than to\novercome it. The safest way is the best way, even for one who is brave\nand determined.\"\n\n\"Do not worry, for we shall not go far to the north,\" said the Emperor.\n\"My one idea is to avoid the Emerald City without going out of our way\nmore than is necessary. Once around the Emerald City we will turn south\ninto the Munchkin Country, where the Scarecrow and I are well\nacquainted and have many friends.\"\n\n\"I have traveled some in the Gillikin Country,\" remarked the Scarecrow,\n\"and while I must say I have met some strange people there at times, I\nhave never yet been harmed by them.\"\n\n\"Well, it's all the same to me,\" said Woot, with assumed carelessness.\n\"Dangers, when they cannot be avoided, are often quite interesting, and\nI am willing to go wherever you two venture to go.\"\n\nSo they left the path they had been following and began to travel\ntoward the northeast, and all that day they were in the pleasant Winkie\nCountry, and all the people they met saluted the Emperor with great\nrespect and wished him good luck on his journey. At night they stopped\nat a house where they were well entertained and where Woot was given a\ncomfortable bed to sleep in.\n\n\"Were the Scarecrow and I alone,\" said the Tin Woodman, \"we would\ntravel by night as well as by day; but with a meat person in our party,\nwe must halt at night to permit him to rest.\"\n\n\"Meat tires, after a day's travel,\" added the Scarecrow, \"while straw\nand tin never tire at all. Which proves,\" said he, \"that we are\nsomewhat superior to people made in the common way.\"\n\nWoot could not deny that he was tired, and he slept soundly until\nmorning, when he was given a good breakfast, smoking hot.\n\n\"You two miss a great deal by not eating,\" he said to his companions.\n\n\"It is true,\" responded the Scarecrow. \"We miss suffering from hunger,\nwhen food cannot be had, and we miss a stomachache, now and then.\"\n\nAs he said this, the Scarecrow glanced at the Tin Woodman, who nodded\nhis assent.\n\nAll that second day they traveled steadily, entertaining one another\nthe while with stories of adventures they had formerly met and\nlistening to the Scarecrow recite poetry. He had learned a great many\npoems from Professor Wogglebug and loved to repeat them whenever\nanybody would listen to him. Of course Woot and the Tin Woodman now\nlistened, because they could not do otherwise--unless they rudely ran\naway from their stuffed comrade. One of the Scarecrow's recitations was\nlike this:\n\n    \"What sound is so sweet\n    As the straw from the wheat\n  When it crunkles so tender and low?\n    It is yellow and bright,\n    So it gives me delight\n  To crunkle wherever I go.\n\n    \"Sweet, fresh, golden Straw!\n    There is surely no flaw\n  In a stuffing so clean and compact.\n    It creaks when I walk,\n    And it thrills when I talk,\n  And its fragrance is fine, for a fact.\n    \"To cut me don't hurt,\n\n    For I've no blood to squirt,\n  And I therefore can suffer no pain;\n    The straw that I use\n    Doesn't lump up or bruise,\n  Though it's pounded again and again!\n\n    \"I know it is said\n    That my beautiful head\n  Has brains of mixed wheat-straw and bran,\n    But my thoughts are so good\n    I'd not change, if I could,\n  For the brains of a common meat man.\n\n    \"Content with my lot,\n    I'm glad that I'm not\n  Like others I meet day by day;\n    If my insides get musty,\n    Or mussed-up, or dusty,\n  I get newly stuffed right away.\"\n\n\n\n\nChapter Four\n\nThe Loons of Loonville\n\n\nToward evening, the travelers found there was no longer a path to guide\nthem, and the purple hues of the grass and trees warned them that they\nwere now in the Country of the Gillikins, where strange peoples dwelt\nin places that were quite unknown to the other inhabitants of Oz. The\nfields were wild and uncultivated and there were no houses of any sort\nto be seen. But our friends kept on walking even after the sun went\ndown, hoping to find a good place for Woot the Wanderer to sleep; but\nwhen it grew quite dark and the boy was weary with his long walk, they\nhalted right in the middle of a field and allowed Woot to get his\nsupper from the food he carried in his knapsack. Then the Scarecrow\nlaid himself down, so that Woot could use his stuffed body as a pillow,\nand the Tin Woodman stood up beside them all night, so the dampness of\nthe ground might not rust his joints or dull his brilliant polish.\nWhenever the dew settled on his body he carefully wiped it off with a\ncloth, and so in the morning the Emperor shone as brightly as ever in\nthe rays of the rising sun.\n\nThey wakened the boy at daybreak, the Scarecrow saying to him:\n\n\"We have discovered something queer, and therefore we must counsel\ntogether what to do about it.\"\n\n\"What have you discovered?\" asked Woot, rubbing the sleep from his eyes\nwith his knuckles and giving three wide yawns to prove he was fully\nawake.\n\n\"A Sign,\" said the Tin Woodman. \"A Sign, and another path.\"\n\n\"What does the Sign say?\" inquired the boy.\n\n\"It says that 'All Strangers are Warned not to Follow this Path to\nLoonville,'\" answered the Scarecrow, who could read very well when his\neyes had been freshly painted.\n\n\"In that case,\" said the boy, opening his knapsack to get some\nbreakfast, \"let us travel in some other direction.\"\n\nBut this did not seem to please either of his companions.\n\n\"I'd like to see what Loonville looks like,\" remarked the Tin Woodman.\n\n\"When one travels, it is foolish to miss any interesting sight,\" added\nthe Scarecrow.\n\n\"But a warning means danger,\" protested Woot the Wanderer, \"and I\nbelieve it sensible to keep out of danger whenever we can.\"\n\nThey made no reply to this speech for a while. Then said the Scarecrow:\n\n\"I have escaped so many dangers, during my lifetime, that I am not much\nafraid of anything that can happen.\"\n\n\"Nor am I!\" exclaimed the Tin Woodman, swinging his glittering axe\naround his tin head, in a series of circles. \"Few things can injure\ntin, and my axe is a powerful weapon to use against a foe. But our boy\nfriend,\" he continued, looking solemnly at Woot, \"might perhaps be\ninjured if the people of Loonville are really dangerous; so I propose\nhe waits here while you and I, Friend Scarecrow, visit the forbidden\nCity of Loonville.\"\n\n\"Don't worry about me,\" advised Woot, calmly. \"Wherever you wish to go,\nI will go, and share your dangers. During my wanderings I have found it\nmore wise to keep out of danger than to venture in, but at that time I\nwas alone, and now I have two powerful friends to protect me.\"\n\nSo, when he had finished his breakfast, they all set out along the path\nthat led to Loonville.\n\n\"It is a place I have never heard of before,\" remarked the Scarecrow,\nas they approached a dense forest. \"The inhabitants may be people, of\nsome sort, or they may be animals, but whatever they prove to be, we\nwill have an interesting story to relate to Dorothy and Ozma on our\nreturn.\"\n\nThe path led into the forest, but the big trees grew so closely\ntogether and the vines and underbrush were so thick and matted that\nthey had to clear a path at each step in order to proceed. In one or\ntwo places the Tin Man, who went first to clear the way, cut the\nbranches with a blow of his axe. Woot followed next, and last of the\nthree came the Scarecrow, who could not have kept the path at all had\nnot his comrades broken the way for his straw-stuffed body.\n\nPresently the Tin Woodman pushed his way through some heavy underbrush,\nand almost tumbled headlong into a vast cleared space in the forest.\nThe clearing was circular, big and roomy, yet the top branches of the\ntall trees reached over and formed a complete dome or roof for it.\nStrangely enough, it was not dark in this immense natural chamber in\nthe woodland, for the place glowed with a soft, white light that seemed\nto come from some unseen source.\n\nIn the chamber were grouped dozens of queer creatures, and these so\nastonished the Tin Man that Woot had to push his metal body aside, that\nhe might see, too. And the Scarecrow pushed Woot aside, so that the\nthree travelers stood in a row, staring with all their eyes.\n\nThe creatures they beheld were round and ball-like; round in body,\nround in legs and arms, round in hands and feet and round of head.  The\nonly exception to the roundness was a slight hollow on the top of each\nhead, making it saucer-shaped instead of dome-shaped. They wore no\nclothes on their puffy bodies, nor had they any hair. Their skins were\nall of a light gray color, and their eyes were mere purple spots. Their\nnoses were as puffy as the rest of them.\n\n\"Are they rubber, do you think?\" asked the Scarecrow, who noticed that\nthe creatures bounded, as they moved, and seemed almost as light as air.\n\n\"It is difficult to tell what they are,\" answered Woot, \"they seem to\nbe covered with warts.\"\n\nThe Loons--for so these folks were called--had been doing many things,\nsome playing together, some working at tasks and some gathered in\ngroups to talk; but at the sound of strange voices, which echoed rather\nloudly through the clearing, all turned in the direction of the\nintruders.  Then, in a body, they all rushed forward, running and\nbounding with tremendous speed.\n\nThe Tin Woodman was so surprised by this sudden dash that he had no\ntime to raise his axe before the Loons were on them. The creatures\nswung their puffy hands, which looked like boxing-gloves, and pounded\nthe three travelers as hard as they could, on all sides. The blows were\nquite soft and did not hurt our friends at all, but the onslaught quite\nbewildered them, so that in a brief period all three were knocked over\nand fell flat upon the ground. Once down, many of the Loons held them,\nto prevent their getting up again, while others wound long tendrils of\nvines about them, binding their arms and legs to their bodies and so\nrendering them helpless.\n\n\"Aha!\" cried the biggest Loon of all; \"we've got 'em safe; so let's\ncarry 'em to King Bal and have 'em tried, and condemned and\nperforated!\" They had to drag their captives to the center of the domed\nchamber, for their weight, as compared with that of the Loons,\nprevented their being carried. Even the Scarecrow was much heavier than\nthe puffy Loons. But finally the party halted before a raised platform,\non which stood a sort of throne, consisting of a big, wide chair with a\nstring tied to one arm of it. This string led upward to the roof of the\ndome.\n\nArranged before the platform, the prisoners were allowed to sit up,\nfacing the empty throne.\n\n\"Good!\" said the big Loon who had commanded the party. \"Now to get King\nBal to judge these terrible creatures we have so bravely captured.\"\n\nAs he spoke he took hold of the string and began to pull as hard as he\ncould. One or two of the others helped him and pretty soon, as they\ndrew in the cord, the leaves above them parted and a Loon appeared at\nthe other end of the string. It didn't take long to draw him down to\nthe throne, where he seated himself and was tied in, so he wouldn't\nfloat upward again.\n\n\"Hello,\" said the King, blinking his purple eyes at his followers;\n\"what's up now!\"\n\n\"Strangers, your Majesty--strangers and captives,\" replied the big\nLoon, pompously.\n\n\"Dear me!  I see 'em. I see 'em very plainly,\" exclaimed the King, his\npurple eyes bulging out as he looked at the three prisoners. \"What\ncurious animals! Are they dangerous, do you think, my good Panta?\"\n\n\"I'm 'fraid so, your Majesty. Of course, they may not be dangerous, but\nwe mustn't take chances. Enough accidents happen to us poor Loons as it\nis, and my advice is to condemn and perforate 'em as quickly as\npossible.\"\n\n\"Keep your advice to yourself,\" said the monarch, in a peeved tone.\n\"Who's King here, anyhow? You or Me?\"\n\n\"We made you our King because you have less common sense than the rest\nof us,\" answered Panta Loon, indignantly. \"I could have been King\nmyself, had I wanted to, but I didn't care for the hard work and\nresponsibility.\"\n\nAs he said this, the big Loon strutted back and forth in the space\nbetween the throne of King Bal and the prisoners, and the other Loons\nseemed much impressed by his defiance. But suddenly there came a sharp\nreport and Panta Loon instantly disappeared, to the great astonishment\nof the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and Woot the Wanderer, who saw on the\nspot where the big fellow had stood a little heap of flabby, wrinkled\nskin that looked like a collapsed rubber balloon.\n\n\"There!\" exclaimed the King; \"I expected that would happen. The\nconceited rascal wanted to puff himself up until he was bigger than the\nrest of you, and this is the result of his folly. Get the pump working,\nsome of you, and blow him up again.\"\n\n\"We will have to mend the puncture first, your Majesty,\" suggested one\nof the Loons, and the prisoners noticed that none of them seemed\nsurprised or shocked at the sad accident to Panta.\n\n\"All right,\" grumbled the King. \"Fetch Til to mend him.\"\n\nOne or two ran away and presently returned, followed by a lady Loon\nwearing huge, puffed-up rubber skirts. Also she had a purple feather\nfastened to a wart on the top of her head, and around her waist was a\nsash of fibre-like vines, dried and tough, that looked like strings.\n\n\"Get to work, Til,\" commanded King Bal. \"Panta has just exploded.\"\n\nThe lady Loon picked up the bunch of skin and examined it carefully\nuntil she discovered a hole in one foot. Then she pulled a strand of\nstring from her sash, and drawing the edges of the hole together, she\ntied them fast with the string, thus making one of those curious warts\nwhich the strangers had noticed on so many Loons. Having done this, Til\nLoon tossed the bit of skin to the other Loons and was about to go away\nwhen she noticed the prisoners and stopped to inspect them.\n\n\"Dear me!\" said Til; \"what dreadful creatures. Where did they come\nfrom?\"\n\n\"We captured them,\" replied one of the Loons.\n\n\"And what are we going to do with them?\" inquired the girl Loon.\n\n\"Perhaps we'll condemn 'em and puncture 'em,\" answered the King.\n\n\"Well,\" said she, still eyeing the  \"I'm not sure they'll puncture.\nLet's try it, and see.\"\n\nOne of the Loons ran to the forest's edge and quickly returned with a\nlong, sharp thorn. He glanced at the King, who nodded his head in\nassent, and then he rushed forward and stuck the thorn into the leg of\nthe Scarecrow. The Scarecrow merely smiled and said nothing, for the\nthorn didn't hurt him at all.\n\nThen the Loon tried to prick the Tin Woodman's leg, but the tin only\nblunted the point of the thorn.\n\n\"Just as I thought,\" said Til, blinking her purple eyes and shaking her\npuffy head; but just then the Loon stuck the thorn into the leg of Woot\nthe Wanderer, and while it had been blunted somewhat, it was still\nsharp enough to hurt.\n\n\"Ouch!\" yelled Woot, and kicked out his leg with so much energy that\nthe frail bonds that tied him burst apart. His foot caught the\nLoon--who was leaning over him--full on his puffy stomach, and sent him\nshooting up into the air. When he was high over their heads he exploded\nwith a loud \"pop\" and his skin fell to the ground.\n\n\"I really believe,\" said the King, rolling his spotlike eyes in a\nfrightened way, \"that Panta was right in claiming these prisoners are\ndangerous. Is the pump ready?\"\n\nSome of the Loons had wheeled a big machine in front of the throne and\nnow took Panta's skin and began to pump air into it. Slowly it swelled\nout until the King cried \"Stop!\"\n\n\"No, no!\" yelled Panta, \"I'm not big enough yet.\"\n\n\"You're as big as you're going to be,\" declared the King. \"Before you\nexploded you were bigger than the rest of us, and that caused you to\nbe proud and overbearing. Now you're a little smaller than the rest,\nand you will last longer and be more humble.\"\n\n\"Pump me up--pump me up!\" wailed Panta \"If you don't you'll break my\nheart.\"\n\n\"If we do we'll break your skin,\" replied the King.\n\nSo the Loons stopped pumping air into Panta, and pushed him away from\nthe pump. He was certainly more humble than before his accident, for he\ncrept into the background and said nothing more.\n\n\"Now pump up the other one,\" ordered the King. Til had already mended\nhim, and the Loons set to work to pump him full of air.\n\nDuring these last few moments none had paid much attention to the\nprisoners, so Woot, finding his legs free, crept over to the Tin\nWoodman and rubbed the bonds that were still around his arms and body\nagainst the sharp edge of the axe, which quickly cut them.\n\nThe boy was now free, and the thorn which the Loon had stuck into his\nleg was lying unnoticed on the ground, where the creature had dropped\nit when he exploded. Woot leaned forward and picked up the thorn, and\nwhile the Loons were busy watching the pump, the boy sprang to his feet\nand suddenly rushed upon the group.\n\n\"Pop\"--\"pop\"--\"pop!\" went three of the Loons, when the Wanderer pricked\nthem with his thorn, and at the sounds the others looked around and saw\ntheir danger. With yells of fear they bounded away in all directions,\nscattering about the clearing, with Woot the Wanderer in full chase.\nWhile they could run much faster than the boy, they often stumbled and\nfell, or got in one another's way, so he managed to catch several and\nprick them with his thorn.\n\nIt astonished him to see how easily the Loons exploded. When the air\nwas let out of them they were quite helpless. Til Loon was one of those\nwho ran against his thorn and many others suffered the same fate. The\ncreatures could not escape from the enclosure, but in their fright many\nbounded upward and caught branches of the trees, and then climbed out\nof reach of the dreaded thorn.\n\nWoot was getting pretty tired chasing them, so he stopped and came\nover, panting, to where his friends were sitting, still bound.\n\n\"Very well done, my Wanderer,\" said the Tin Woodman. \"It is evident\nthat we need fear these puffed-up creatures no longer, so be kind\nenough to unfasten our bonds and we will proceed upon our journey.\"\n\nWoot untied the bonds of the Scarecrow and helped him to his feet. Then\nhe freed the Tin Woodman, who got up without help. Looking around them,\nthey saw that the only Loon now remaining within reach was Bal Loon,\nthe King, who had remained seated in his throne, watching the\npunishment of his people with a bewildered look in his purple eyes.\n\n\"Shall I puncture the King?\" the boy asked his companions.\n\nKing Bal must have overheard the question, for he fumbled with the cord\nthat fastened him to the throne and managed to release it. Then he\nfloated upward until he reached the leafy dome, and parting the\nbranches he disappeared from sight. But the string that was tied to his\nbody was still connected with the arm of the throne, and they knew they\ncould pull his Majesty down again, if they wanted to.\n\n\"Let him alone,\" suggested the Scarecrow. \"He seems a good enough king\nfor his peculiar people, and after we are gone, the Loons will have\nsomething of a job to pump up all those whom Woot has punctured.\"\n\n\"Every one of them ought to be exploded,\" declared Woot, who was angry\nbecause his leg still hurt him.\n\n\"No,\" said the Tin Woodman, \"that would not be just fair. They were\nquite right to capture us, because we had no business to intrude here,\nhaving been warned to keep away from Loonville. This is their country,\nnot ours, and since the poor things can't get out of the clearing, they\ncan harm no one save those who venture here out of curiosity, as we\ndid.\"\n\n\"Well said, my friend,\" agreed tile Scarecrow. \"We really had no right\nto disturb their peace and comfort; so let us go away.\"\n\nThey easily found the place where they had forced their way into the\nenclosure, so the Tin Woodman pushed aside the underbrush and started\nfirst along the path. The Scarecrow followed next and last came Woot,\nwho looked back and saw that the Loons were still clinging to their\nperches on the trees and watching their former captives with frightened\neyes.\n\n\"I guess they're glad to see the last of us,\" remarked the boy, and\nlaughing at the happy ending of the adventure, he followed his comrades\nalong the path.\n\n\n\n\nChapter Five\n\nMrs. Yoop, the Giantess\n\n\nWhen they had reached the end of the path, where they had first seen\nthe warning sign, they set off across the country in an easterly\ndirection. Before long they reached Rolling Lands, which were a\nsuccession of hills and valleys where constant climbs and descents were\nrequired, and their journey now became tedious, because on climbing\neach hill, they found before them nothing in the valley below it except\ngrass, or weeds or stones.\n\nUp and down they went for hours, with nothing to relieve the monotony\nof the landscape, until finally, when they had topped a higher hill\nthan usual, they discovered a cup-shaped valley before them in the\ncenter of which stood an enormous castle, built of purple stone.  The\ncastle was high and broad and long, but had no turrets and towers. So\nfar as they could see, there was but one small window and one big door\non each side of the great building.\n\n\"This is strange!\" mused the Scarecrow. \"I'd no idea such a big castle\nexisted in this Gillikin Country. I wonder who lives here?\"\n\n\"It seems to me, from this distance,\" remarked the Tin Woodman, \"that\nit's the biggest castle I ever saw. It is really too big for any use,\nand no one could open or shut those big doors without a stepladder.\"\n\n\"Perhaps, if we go nearer, we shall find out whether anybody lives\nthere or not,\" suggested Woot. \"Looks to me as if nobody lived there.\"\n\nOn they went, and when they reached the center of the valley, where the\ngreat stone castle stood, it was beginning to grow dark. So they\nhesitated as to what to do.\n\n\"If friendly people happen to live here,\" said Woot. \"I shall be glad\nof a bed; but should enemies occupy the place, I prefer to sleep upon\nthe ground.\"\n\n\"And if no one at all lives here,\" added the Scarecrow, \"we can enter,\nand take possession, and make ourselves at home.\"\n\nWhile speaking he went nearer to one of the great doors, which was\nthree times as high and broad as any he had ever seen in a house\nbefore, and then he discovered, engraved in big letters upon a stone\nover the doorway, the words:\n\n    \"YOOP CASTLE\"\n\n\"Oho!\" he exclaimed; \"I know the place now. This was probably the home\nof Mr. Yoop, a terrible giant whom I have seen confined in a cage, a\nlong way from here. Therefore this castle is likely to be empty and we\nmay use it in any way we please.\"\n\n\"Yes, yes,\" said the Tin Emperor, nodding; \"I also remember Mr. Yoop.\nBut how are we to get into his deserted castle? The latch of the door\nis so far above our heads that none of us can reach it.\"\n\nThey considered this problem for a while, and then Woot said to the Tin\nMan:\n\n\"If I stand upon your shoulders, I think I can unlatch the door.\"\n\n\"Climb up, then,\" was the reply, and when the boy was perched upon the\ntin shoulders of Nick Chopper, he was just able to reach the latch and\nraise it.\n\nAt once the door swung open, its great hinges making a groaning sound\nas if in protest, so Woot leaped down and followed his companions into\na big, bare hallway. Scarcely were the three inside, however, when they\nheard the door slam shut behind them, and this astonished them because\nno one had touched it. It had closed of its own accord, as if by magic.\nMoreover, the latch was on the outside, and the thought occurred to\neach one of them that they were now prisoners in this unknown castle.\n\n\"However,\" mumbled the Scarecrow, \"we are not to blame for what cannot\nbe helped; so let us push bravely ahead and see what may be seen.\"\n\nIt was quite dark in the hallway, now that the outside door was shut,\nso as they stumbled along a stone passage they kept close together, not\nknowing what danger was likely to befall them.\n\nSuddenly a soft glow enveloped them. It grew brighter, until they could\nsee their surroundings distinctly. They had reached the end of the\npassage and before them was another huge door. This noiselessly swung\nopen before them, without the help of anyone, and through the doorway\nthey observed a big chamber, the walls of which were lined with plates\nof pure gold, highly polished.\n\nThis room was also lighted, although they could discover no lamps, and\nin the center of it was a great table at which sat an immense woman.\nShe was clad in silver robes embroidered with gay floral designs, and\nwore over this splendid raiment a short apron of elaborate lace-work.\nSuch an apron was no protection, and was not in keeping with the\nhandsome gown, but the huge woman wore it, nevertheless. The table at\nwhich she sat was spread with a white cloth and had golden dishes upon\nit, so the travelers saw that they had surprised the Giantess while she\nwas eating her supper.\n\nShe had her back toward them and did not even turn around, but taking a\nbiscuit from a dish she began to butter it and said in a voice that was\nbig and deep but not especially unpleasant:\n\n\"Why don't you come in and allow the door to shut? You're causing a\ndraught, and I shall catch cold and sneeze. When I sneeze, I get cross,\nand when I get cross I'm liable to do something wicked. Come in, you\nfoolish strangers; come in!\"\n\nBeing thus urged, they entered the room and approached the table, until\nthey stood where they faced the great Giantess. She continued eating,\nbut smiled in a curious way as she looked at them. Woot noticed that\nthe door had closed silently after they had entered, and that didn't\nplease him at all.\n\n\"Well,\" said the Giantess, \"what excuse have you to offer?\"\n\n\"We didn't know anyone lived here, Madam,\" explained the Scarecrow;\n\"so, being travelers and strangers in these parts, and wishing to find\na place for our boy friend to sleep, we ventured to enter your castle.\"\n\n\"You knew it was private property, I suppose?\" said she, buttering\nanother biscuit.\n\n\"We saw the words, 'Yoop Castle,' over the door, but we knew that Mr.\nYoop is a prisoner in a cage in a far-off part of the land of Oz, so we\ndecided there was no one now at home and that we might use the castle\nfor the night.\"\n\n\"I see,\" remarked the Giantess, nodding her head and smiling again in\nthat curious way--a way that made Woot shudder. \"You didn't know that\nMr. Yoop was married, or that after he was cruelly captured his wife\nstill lived in his castle and ran it to suit herself.\"\n\n\"Who captured Mr. Yoop?\" asked Woot, looking gravely at the big woman.\n\n\"Wicked enemies. People who selfishly objected to Yoop's taking their\ncows and sheep for his food. I must admit, however, that Yoop had a bad\ntemper, and had the habit of knocking over a few houses, now and then,\nwhen he was angry. So one day the little folks came in a great crowd\nand captured Mr. Yoop, and carried him away to a cage somewhere in the\nmountains. I don't know where it is, and I don't care, for my husband\ntreated me badly at times, forgetting the respect a giant owes to a\ngiantess. Often he kicked me on my shins, when I wouldn't wait on him.\nSo I'm glad he is gone.\"\n\n\"It's a wonder the people didn't capture you, too,\" remarked Woot.\n\n\"Well, I was too clever for them,\" said she, giving a sudden laugh that\ncaused such a breeze that the wobbly Scarecrow was almost blown off his\nfeet and had to grab his friend Nick Chopper to steady himself. \"I saw\nthe people coming,\" continued Mrs. Yoop, \"and knowing they meant\nmischief I transformed myself into a mouse and hid in a cupboard. After\nthey had gone away, carrying my shin-kicking husband with them, I\ntransformed myself back to my former shape again, and here I've lived\nin peace and comfort ever since.\"\n\n\"Are you a Witch, then?\" inquired Woot.\n\n\"Well, not exactly a Witch,\" she replied, \"but I'm an Artist in\nTransformations. In other words, I'm more of a Yookoohoo than a Witch,\nand of course you know that the Yookoohoos are the cleverest\nmagic-workers in the world.\"\n\nThe travelers were silent for a time, uneasily considering this\nstatement and the effect it might have on their future. No doubt the\nGiantess had wilfully made them her prisoners; yet she spoke so\ncheerfully, in her big voice, that until now they had not been alarmed\nin the least.\n\nBy and by the Scarecrow, whose mixed brains had been working steadily,\nasked the woman:\n\n\"Are we to consider you our friend, Mrs. Yoop, or do you intend to be\nour enemy?\"\n\n\"I never have friends,\" she said in a matter-of-fact tone, \"because\nfriends get too familiar and always forget to mind their own business.\nBut I am not your enemy; not yet, anyhow. Indeed, I'm glad you've come,\nfor my life here is rather lonely. I've had no one to talk to since I\ntransformed Polychrome, the Daughter of the Rainbow, into a\ncanary-bird.\"\n\n\"How did you manage to do that?\" asked the Tin Woodman, in amazement.\n\"Polychrome is a powerful fairy!\"\n\n\"She was,\" said the Giantess; \"but now she's a canary-bird. One day\nafter a rain, Polychrome danced off the Rainbow and fell asleep on a\nlittle mound in this valley, not far from my castle. The sun came out\nand drove the Rainbow away, and before Poly wakened, I stole out and\ntransformed her into a canary-bird in a gold cage studded with\ndiamonds. The cage was so she couldn't fly away. I expected she'd sing\nand talk and we'd have good times together; but she has proved no\ncompany for me at all. Ever since the moment of her transformation, she\nhas refused to speak a single word.\"\n\n\"Where is she now?\" inquired Woot, who had heard tales of lovely\nPolychrome and was much interested in her.\n\n\"The cage is hanging up in my bedroom,\" said the Giantess, eating\nanother biscuit. The travelers were now  more uneasy and suspicious of\nthe Giantess than before. If Polychrome, the Rainbow's Daughter, who\nwas a real fairy, had been transformed and enslaved by this huge woman,\nwho claimed to be a Yookoohoo, what was liable to happen to them? Said\nthe Scarecrow, twisting his stuffed head around in Mrs. Yoop's\ndirection:\n\n\"Do you know, Ma'am, who we are?\"\n\n\"Of course,\" said she; \"a straw man, a tin man and a boy.\"\n\n\"We are very important people,\" declared the Tin Woodman.\n\n\"All the better,\" she replied. \"I shall enjoy your society the more on\nthat account. For I mean to keep you here as long as I live, to amuse\nme when I get lonely. And,\" she added slowly, \"in this Valley no one\never dies.\"\n\nThey didn't like this speech at all, so the Scarecrow frowned in a way\nthat made Mrs. Yoop smile, while the Tin Woodman looked so fierce that\nMrs. Yoop laughed. The Scarecrow suspected she was going to laugh, so\nhe slipped behind his friends to escape the wind from her breath.  From\nthis safe position he said warningly:\n\n\"We have powerful friends who will soon come to rescue us.\"\n\n\"Let them come,\" she returned, with an accent of scorn. \"When they get\nhere they will find neither a boy, nor a tin man, nor a scarecrow, for\ntomorrow morning I intend to transform you all into other shapes, so\nthat you cannot be recognized.\"\n\nThis threat filled them with dismay. The good-natured Giantess was more\nterrible than they had imagined. She could smile and wear pretty\nclothes and at the same time be even more cruel than her wicked husband\nhad been.\n\nBoth the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman tried to think of some way to\nescape from the castle before morning, but she seemed to read their\nthoughts and shook her head.\n\n\"Don't worry your poor brains,\" said she. \"You can't escape me, however\nhard you try. But why should you wish to escape? I shall give you new\nforms that are much better than the ones you now have. Be contented\nwith your fate, for discontent leads to unhappiness, and unhappiness,\nin any form, is the greatest evil that can befall you.\"\n\n\"What forms do you intend to give us?\" asked Woot earnestly.\n\n\"I haven't decided, as yet. I'll dream over it tonight, so in the\nmorning I shall have made up my mind how to transform you. Perhaps\nyou'd prefer to choose your own transformations?\"\n\n\"No,\" said Woot, \"I prefer to remain as I am.\"\n\n\"That's funny,\" she retorted. \"You are little, and you're weak; as you\nare, you're not much account, anyhow. The best thing about you is that\nyou're alive, for I shall be able to make of you some sort of live\ncreature which will be a great improvement on your present form.\"\n\nShe took another biscuit from a plate and dipped it in a pot of honey\nand calmly began eating it.\n\nThe Scarecrow watched her thoughtfully.\n\n\"There are no fields of grain in your Valley,\" said he; \"where, then,\ndid you get the flour to make your biscuits?\"\n\n\"Mercy me! do you think I'd bother to make biscuits out of flour?\" she\nreplied. \"That is altogether too tedious a process for a Yookoohoo. I\nset some traps this afternoon and caught a lot of field-mice, but as I\ndo not like to eat mice, I transformed them into hot biscuits for my\nsupper. The honey in this pot was once a wasp's nest, but since being\ntransformed it has become sweet and delicious. All I need do, when I\nwish to eat, is to take something I don't care to keep, and transform\nit into any sort of food I like, and eat it. Are you hungry?\"\n\n\"I don't eat, thank you,\" said the Scarecrow.\n\n\"Nor do I,\" said the Tin Woodman.\n\n\"I have still a little natural food in my knapsack,\" said Woot the\nWanderer, \"and I'd rather eat that than any wasp's nest.\"\n\n\"Every one to his taste,\" said the Giantess carelessly, and having now\nfinished her supper she rose to her feet, clapped her hands together,\nand the supper table at once disappeared.\n\n\n\n\nChapter Six\n\nThe Magic of a Yookoohoo\n\n\nWoot had seen very little of magic during his wanderings, while the\nScarecrow and the Tin Woodman had seen a great deal of many sorts in\ntheir lives, yet all three were greatly impressed by Mrs. Yoop's\npowers. She did not affect any mysterious airs or indulge in chants or\nmystic rites, as most witches do, nor was the Giantess old and ugly or\ndisagreeable in face or manner. Nevertheless, she frightened her\nprisoners more than any witch could have done.\n\n\"Please be seated,\" she said to them, as she sat herself down in a\ngreat arm-chair and spread her beautiful embroidered skirts for them to\nadmire. But all the chairs in the room were so high that our friends\ncould not climb to the seats of them. Mrs. Yoop observed this and waved\nher hand, when instantly a golden ladder appeared leaning against a\nchair opposite her own.\n\n\"Climb up,\" said she, and they obeyed, the Tin Man and the boy\nassisting the more clumsy Scarecrow. When they were all seated in a row\non the cushion of the chair, the Giantess continued: \"Now tell me how\nyou happened to travel in this direction, and where you came from and\nwhat your errand is.\"\n\nSo the Tin Woodman told her all about Nimmie Amee, and how he had\ndecided to find her and marry her, although he had no Loving Heart. The\nstory seemed to amuse the big woman, who then began to ask the\nScarecrow questions and for the first time in her life heard of Ozma of\nOz, and of Dorothy and Jack Pumpkinhead and Dr. Pipt and Tik-tok and\nmany other Oz people who are well known in the Emerald City. Also Woot\nhad to tell his story, which was very simple and did not take long. The\nGiantess laughed heartily when the boy related their adventure at\nLoonville, but said she knew nothing of the Loons because she never\nleft her Valley.\n\n\"There are wicked people who would like to capture me, as they did my\ngiant husband, Mr. Yoop,\" said she; \"so I stay at home and mind my own\nbusiness.\"\n\n\"If Ozma knew that you dared to work magic without her consent, she\nwould punish you severely,\" declared the Scarecrow, \"for this castle is\nin the Land of Oz, and no persons in the Land of Oz are permitted to\nwork magic except Glinda the Good and the little Wizard who lives with\nOzma in the Emerald City.\"\n\n\"That for your Ozma!\" exclaimed the Giantess, snapping her fingers in\nderision. \"What do I care for a girl whom I have never seen and who has\nnever seen me?\"\n\n\"But Ozma is a fairy,\" said the Tin Woodman, \"and therefore she is very\npowerful. Also, we are under Ozma's protection, and to injure us in any\nway would make her extremely angry.\"\n\n\"What I do here, in my own private castle in this secluded\nValley--where no one comes but fools like you--can never be known to\nyour fairy Ozma,\" returned the Giantess. \"Do not seek to frighten me\nfrom my purpose, and do not allow yourselves to be frightened, for it\nis best to meet bravely what cannot be avoided. I am now going to bed,\nand in the morning I will give you all new forms, such as will be more\ninteresting to me than the ones you now wear. Good night, and pleasant\ndreams.\"\n\nSaying this, Mrs. Yoop rose from her chair and walked through a doorway\ninto another room. So heavy was the tread of the Giantess that even the\nwalls of the big stone castle trembled as she stepped. She closed the\ndoor of her bedroom behind her, and then suddenly the light went out\nand the three prisoners found themselves in total darkness.\n\nThe Tin Woodman and the Scarecrow didn't mind the dark at all, but Woot\nthe Wanderer felt worried to be left in this strange place in this\nstrange manner, without being able to see any danger that might\nthreaten.\n\n\"The big woman might have given me a bed, anyhow,\" he said to his\ncompanions, and scarcely had he spoken when he felt something press\nagainst his legs, which were then dangling from the seat of the chair.\nLeaning down, he put out his hand and found that a bedstead had\nappeared, with mattress, sheets and covers, all complete. He lost no\ntime in slipping down upon the bed and was soon fast asleep.\n\nDuring the night the Scarecrow and the Emperor talked in low tones\ntogether, and they got out of the chair and moved all about the room,\nfeeling for some hidden spring that might open a door or window and\npermit them to escape.\n\nMorning found them still unsuccessful in the quest and as soon as it\nwas daylight Woot's bed suddenly disappeared, and he dropped to the\nfloor with a thump that quickly wakened him. And after a time the\nGiantess came from her bedroom, wearing another dress that was quite as\nelaborate as the one in which she had been attired the evening before,\nand also wearing the pretty lace apron. Having seated herself in a\nchair, she said:\n\n\"I'm hungry; so I'll have breakfast at once.\"\n\nShe clapped her hands together and instantly the table appeared before\nher, spread with snowy linen and laden with golden dishes. But there\nwas no food upon the table, nor anything else except a pitcher of\nwater, a bundle of weeds and a handful of pebbles. But the Giantess\npoured some water into her coffee-pot, patted it once or twice with her\nhand, and then poured out a cupful of steaming hot coffee.\n\n\"Would you like some?\" she asked Woot.\n\nHe was suspicious of magic coffee, but it smelled so good that he could\nnot resist it; so he answered: \"If you please, Madam.\"\n\nThe Giantess poured out another cup and set it on the floor for Woot.\nIt was as big as a tub, and the golden spoon in the saucer beside the\ncup was so heavy the boy could scarcely lift it. But Woot managed to\nget a sip of the coffee and found it delicious.\n\nMrs. Yoop next transformed the weeds into a dish of oatmeal, which she\nate with good appetite.\n\n\"Now, then,\" said she, picking up the pebbles. \"I'm wondering whether I\nshall have fish-balls or lamb-chops to complete my meal. Which would\nyou prefer, Woot the Wanderer?\"\n\n\"If you please, I'll eat the food in my knapsack,\" answered the boy.\n\"Your magic food might taste good, but I'm afraid of it.\"\n\nThe woman laughed at his fears and transformed the pebbles into\nfish-balls.\n\n\"I suppose you think that after you had eaten this food it would turn\nto stones again and make you sick,\" she remarked; \"but that would be\nimpossible. Nothing I transform ever gets back to its former shape\nagain, so these fish-balls can never more be pebbles. That is why I\nhave to be careful of my transformations,\" she added, busily eating\nwhile she talked, \"for while I can change forms at will I can never\nchange them back again--which proves that even the powers of a clever\nYookoohoo are limited. When I have transformed you three people, you\nmust always wear the shapes that I have given you.\"\n\n\"Then please don't transform us,\" begged Woot, \"for we are quite\nsatisfied to remain as we are.\"\n\n\"I am not expecting to satisfy you, but intend to please myself,\" she\ndeclared, \"and my pleasure is to give you new shapes. For, if by chance\nyour friends came in search of you, not one of them would be able to\nrecognize you.\"\n\nHer tone was so positive that they knew it would be useless to protest.\nThe woman was not unpleasant to look at; her face was not cruel; her\nvoice was big but gracious in tone; but her words showed that she\npossessed a merciless heart and no pleadings would alter her wicked\npurpose.\n\nMrs. Yoop took ample time to finish her breakfast and the prisoners had\nno desire to hurry her, but finally the meal was concluded and she\nfolded her napkin and made the table disappear by clapping her hands\ntogether. Then she turned to her captives and said:\n\n\"The next thing on the programme is to change your forms.\"\n\n\"Have you decided what forms to give us?\" asked the Scarecrow, uneasily.\n\n\"Yes; I dreamed it all out while I was asleep. This Tin Man seems a\nvery solemn person \"--indeed, the Tin Woodman was looking solemn, just\nthen, for he was greatly disturbed--\"so I shall change him into an Owl.\"\n\nAll she did was to point one finger at him as she spoke, but\nimmediately the form of the Tin Woodman began to change and in a few\nseconds Nick Chopper, the Emperor of the Winkies, had been transformed\ninto an Owl, with eyes as big as saucers and a hooked beak and strong\nclaws.  But he was still tin. He was a Tin Owl, with tin legs and beak\nand eyes and feathers. When he flew to the back of a chair and perched\nupon it, his tin feathers rattled against one another with a tinny\nclatter. The Giantess seemed  much amused by the Tin Owl's appearance,\nfor her laugh was big and jolly.\n\n\"You're not liable to get lost,\" said she, \"for your wings and feathers\nwill make a racket wherever you go. And, on my word, a Tin Owl is so\nrare and pretty that it is an improvement on the ordinary bird. I did\nnot intend to make you tin, but I forgot to wish you to be meat.\nHowever, tin you were, and tin you are, and as it's too late to change\nyou, that settles it.\"\n\nUntil now the Scarecrow had rather doubted the possibility of Mrs.\nYoop's being able to transform him, or his friend the Tin Woodman, for\nthey were not made as ordinary people are. He had worried more over\nwhat might happen to Woot than to himself, but now he began to worry\nabout himself.\n\n\"Madam,\" he said hastily, \"I consider this action very impolite. It may\neven be called rude, considering we are your guests.\"\n\n\"You are not guests, for I did not invite you here,\" she replied.\n\n\"Perhaps not; but we craved hospitality. We threw ourselves upon your\nmercy, so to speak, and we now find you have no mercy. Therefore, if\nyou will excuse the expression, I must say it is downright wicked to\ntake our proper forms away from us and give us others that we do not\ncare for.\"\n\n\"Are you trying to make me angry?\" she asked, frowning.\n\n\"By no means,\" said the Scarecrow; \"I'm just trying to make you act\nmore ladylike.\"\n\n\"Oh, indeed! In my opinion, Mr. Scarecrow, you are now acting like a\nbear--so a Bear you shall be!\"\n\nAgain the dreadful finger pointed, this time in the Scarecrow's\ndirection, and at once his form began to change. In a few seconds he\nhad become a small Brown Bear, but he was stuffed with straw as he had\nbeen before, and when the little Brown Bear shuffled across the floor\nhe was just as wobbly as the Scarecrow had been and moved just as\nawkwardly.\n\nWoot was amazed, but he was also thoroughly frightened.\n\n\"Did it hurt?\" he asked the little Brown Bear.\n\n\"No, of course not,\" growled the Scarecrow in the Bear's form; \"but I\ndon't like walking on four legs; it's undignified.\"\n\n\"Consider my humiliation!\" chirped the Tin Owl, trying to settle its\ntin feathers smoothly with its tin beak. \"And I can't see very well,\neither. The light seems to hurt my eyes.\"\n\n\"That's because you are an Owl,\" said Woot. \"I think you will see\nbetter in the dark.\"\n\n\"Well,\" remarked the Giantess, \"I'm very well pleased with these new\nforms, for my part, and I'm sure you will like them better when you get\nused to them. So now,\" she added, turning to the boy, \"it is your turn.\"\n\n\"Don't you think you'd better leave me as I am?\" asked Woot in a\ntrembling voice.\n\n\"No,\" she replied, \"I'm going to make a Monkey of you. I love\nmonkeys--they're so cute!--and I think a Green Monkey will be lots of\nfun and amuse me when I am sad.\"\n\nWoot shivered, for again the terrible magic finger pointed, and pointed\ndirectly his way. He felt himself changing; not so very much, however,\nand it didn't hurt him a bit. He looked down at his limbs and body and\nfound that his clothes were gone and his skin covered with a fine,\nsilk-like green fur. His hands and feet were now those of a monkey. He\nrealized he really was a monkey, and his first feeling was one of\nanger. He began to chatter as monkeys do. He bounded to the seat of a\ngiant chair, and then to its back and with a wild leap sprang upon the\nlaughing Giantess. His idea was to seize her hair and pull it out by\nthe roots, and so have revenge for her wicked transformations. But she\nraised her hand and said:\n\n\"Gently, my dear Monkey--gently!  You're not angry; you're happy as can\nbe!\"\n\nWoot stopped short. No; he wasn't a bit angry now; he felt as\ngood-humored and gay as ever he did when a boy. Instead of pulling Mrs.\nYoop's hair, he perched on her shoulder and smoothed her soft cheek\nwith his hairy paw. In return, she smiled at the funny green animal and\npatted his head.\n\n\"Very good,\" said the Giantess. \"Let us all become friends and be happy\ntogether. How is my Tin Owl feeling?\"\n\n\"Quite comfortable,\" said the Owl. \"I don't like it, to be sure, but\nI'm not going to allow my new form to make me unhappy. But, tell me,\nplease: what is a Tin Owl good for?\"\n\n\"You are only good to make me laugh,\" replied the Giantess.\n\n\"Will a stuffed Bear also make you laugh?\" inquired the Scarecrow,\nsitting back on his haunches to look up at her.\n\n\"Of course,\" declared the Giantess; \"and I have added a little magic to\nyour transformations to make you all contented with wearing your new\nforms. I'm sorry I didn't think to do that when I transformed\nPolychrome into a Canary-Bird. But perhaps, when she sees how cheerful\nyou are, she will cease to be silent and sullen and take to singing. I\nwill go get the bird and let you see her.\"\n\nWith this, Mrs. Yoop went into the next room and soon returned bearing\na golden cage in which sat upon a swinging perch a lovely yellow\nCanary. \"Polychrome,\" said the Giantess, \"permit me to introduce to you\na Green Monkey, which used to be a boy called Woot the Wanderer, and a\nTin Owl, which used to be a Tin Woodman named Nick Chopper, and a\nstraw-stuffed little Brown Bear which used to be a live Scarecrow.\"\n\n\"We already know one another,\" declared the Scarecrow. \"The bird is\nPolychrome, the Rainbow's Daughter, and she and I used to be good\nfriends.\"\n\n\"Are you really my old friend, the Scarecrow?\" asked; the bird, in a\nsweet, low voice.\n\n\"There!\" cried Mrs. Yoop; \"that's the first time she has spoken since\nshe was transformed.\"\n\n\"I am really your old friend,\" answered the Scarecrow; \"but you must\npardon me for appearing just now in this brutal form.\"\n\n\"I am a bird, as you are, dear Poly,\" said the Tin Woodman; \"but, alas!\na Tin Owl is not as beautiful as a Canary-Bird.\"\n\n\"How dreadful it all is!\" sighed the Canary. \"Couldn't you manage to\nescape from this terrible Yookoohoo?\"\n\n\"No,\" answered the Scarecrow, \"we tried to escape, but failed. She\nfirst made us her prisoners and then transformed us. But how did she\nmanage to get you, Polychrome?\"\n\n\"I was asleep, and she took unfair advantage of me,\" answered the bird\nsadly. \"Had I been awake, I could easily have protected myself.\"\n\n\"Tell me,\" said the Green Monkey earnestly, as he came close to the\ncage, \"what must we do, Daughter of the Rainbow, to escape from these\ntransformations? Can't you help us, being a Fairy?\"\n\n\"At present I am powerless to help even myself,\" replied the Canary.\n\n\"That's the exact truth!\" exclaimed the Giantess, who seemed pleased to\nhear the bird talk, even though it complained; \"you are all helpless\nand in my power, so you may as well make up your minds to accept your\nfate and be content. Remember that you are transformed for good, since\nno magic on earth can break your enchantments. I am now going out for\nmy morning walk, for each day after breakfast I walk sixteen times\naround my castle for exercise. Amuse yourselves while I am gone, and\nwhen I return I hope to find you all reconciled and happy.\"\n\nSo the Giantess walked to the door by which our friends had entered the\ngreat hall and spoke one word: \"Open!\" Then the door swung open and\nafter Mrs. Yoop had passed out it closed again with a snap as its\npowerful bolts shot into place. The Green Monkey had rushed toward the\nopening, hoping to escape, but he was too late and only got a bump on\nhis nose as the door slammed shut.\n\n\n\n\nChapter Seven\n\nThe Lace Apron\n\n\n\"Now,\" said the Canary, in a tone more brisk than before, \"we may talk\ntogether more freely, as Mrs. Yoop cannot hear us. Perhaps we can\nfigure out a way to escape.\"\n\n\"Open!\" said Woot the Monkey, still facing the door; but his command\nhad no effect and he slowly rejoined the others.\n\n\"You cannot open any door or window in this enchanted castle unless you\nare wearing the Magic Apron,\" said the Canary.\n\n\"What Magic Apron do you mean?\" asked the Tin Owl, in a curious voice.\n\n\"The lace one, which the Giantess always wears. I have been her\nprisoner, in this cage, for several weeks, and she hangs my cage in her\nbedroom every night, so that she can keep her eye on me,\" explained\nPolychrome the Canary. \"Therefore I have discovered that it is the\nMagic Apron that opens the doors and windows, and nothing else can move\nthem. When she goes to bed, Mrs. Yoop hangs her apron on the bedpost,\nand one morning she forgot to put it on when she commanded the door to\nopen, and the door would not move. So then she put on the lace apron\nand the door obeyed her. That was how I learned the magic power of the\napron.\"\n\n\"I see--I see!\" said the little Brown Bear, wagging his stuffed head.\n\"Then, if we could get the apron from Mrs. Yoop, we could open the\ndoors and escape from our prison.\"\n\n\"That is true, and it is the plan I was about to suggest,\" replied\nPolychrome  the  Canary-Bird. \"However, I don't believe the Owl could\nsteal the apron, or even the Bear, but perhaps the Monkey could hide in\nher room at night and get the apron while she is asleep.\"\n\n\"I'll try it!\" cried Woot the Monkey. \"I'll try it this very night, if\nI can manage to steal into her bedroom.\"\n\n\"You mustn't think about it, though,\" warned the bird, \"for she can\nread your thoughts whenever she cares to do so. And do not forget,\nbefore you escape, to take me with you. Once I am out of the power of\nthe Giantess, I may discover a way to save us all.\"\n\n\"We won't forget our fairy friend,\" promised the boy; \"but perhaps you\ncan tell me how to get into the bedroom.\"\n\n\"No,\" declared Polychrome, \"I cannot advise you as to that. You must\nwatch for a chance, and slip in when Mrs. Yoop isn't looking.\"\n\nThey talked it over for a while longer and then Mrs. Yoop returned.\nWhen she entered, the door opened suddenly, at her command, and closed\nas soon as her huge form had passed through the doorway. During that\nday she entered her bedroom several times, on one errand or another,\nbut always she commanded the door to close behind her and her prisoners\nfound not the slightest chance to leave the big hall in which they were\nconfined.\n\nThe Green Monkey thought it would be wise to make a friend of the big\nwoman, so as to gain her confidence, so he sat on the back of her chair\nand chattered to her while she mended her stockings and sewed silver\nbuttons on some golden shoes that were as big as row-boats. This\npleased the Giantess and she would pause at times to pat the Monkey's\nhead. The little Brown Bear curled up in a corner and lay still all\nday. The Owl and the Canary found they could converse together in the\nbird language, which neither the Giantess nor the Bear nor the Monkey\ncould understand; so at times they twittered away to each other and\npassed the long, dreary day quite cheerfully.\n\nAfter dinner Mrs. Yoop took a big fiddle from a big cupboard and played\nsuch loud and dreadful music that her prisoners were all thankful when\nat last she stopped and said she was going to bed.\n\nAfter cautioning the Monkey and Bear and Owl to behave themselves\nduring the night, she picked up the cage containing the Canary and,\ngoing to the door of her bedroom, commanded it to open. Just then,\nhowever, she remembered she had left her fiddle lying upon a table, so\nshe went back for it and put it away in the cupboard, and while her\nback was turned the Green Monkey slipped through the open door into her\nbedroom and hid underneath the bed. The Giantess, being sleepy, did not\nnotice this, and entering her room she made the door close behind her\nand then hung the bird-cage on a peg by the window. Then she began to\nundress, first taking off the lace apron and laying it over the\nbedpost, where it was within easy reach of her hand.\n\nAs soon as Mrs. Yoop was in bed the lights all went out, and Woot the\nMonkey crouched under the bed and waited patiently until he heard the\nGiantess snoring. Then he crept out and in the dark felt around until\nhe got hold of the apron, which he at once tied around his own waist.\n\nNext, Woot tried to find the Canary, and there was just enough\nmoonlight showing through the window to enable him to see where the\ncage hung; but it was out of his reach. At first he was tempted to\nleave Polychrome and escape with his other friends, but remembering his\npromise to the Rainbow's Daughter Woot tried to think how to save her.\n\nA chair stood near the window, and this--showing dimly in the\nmoonlight--gave him an idea. By pushing against it with all his might,\nhe found he could move the giant chair a few inches at a time. So he\npushed and pushed until the chair was beneath the bird-cage, and then\nhe sprang noiselessly upon the seat--for his monkey form enabled him to\njump higher than he could do as a boy--and from there to the back of\nthe chair, and so managed to reach the cage and take it off the peg.\nThen down he sprang to the floor and made his way to the door. \"Open!\"\nhe commanded, and at once the door obeyed and swung open, But his voice\nwakened Mrs. Yoop, who gave a wild cry and sprang out of bed with one\nbound. The Green Monkey dashed through the doorway, carrying the cage\nwith him, and before the Giantess could reach the door it slammed shut\nand imprisoned her in her own bed-chamber!\n\nThe noise she made, pounding upon the door, and her yells of anger and\ndreadful threats of vengeance, filled all our friends with terror, and\nWoot the Monkey was so excited that in the dark he could not find the\nouter door of the hall. But the Tin Owl could see very nicely in the\ndark, so he guided his friends to the right place and when all were\ngrouped before the door Woot commanded it to open. The Magic Apron\nproved as powerful as when it had been worn by the Giantess, so a\nmoment later they had rushed through the passage and were standing in\nthe fresh night air outside the castle, free to go wherever they willed.\n\n\n\n\nChapter Eight\n\nThe Menace of the Forest\n\n\n\"Quick!\" cried Polychrome the Canary; \"we must hurry, or Mrs. Yoop may\nfind some way to recapture us, even now. Let us get out of her Valley\nas soon as possible.\"\n\nSo they set off toward the east, moving as swiftly as they could, and\nfor a long time they could hear the yells and struggles of the\nimprisoned Giantess. The Green Monkey could run over the ground very\nswiftly, and he carried with him the bird-cage containing Polychrome\nthe Rain-bow's Daughter. Also the Tin Owl could skip and fly along at a\ngood rate of speed, his feathers rattling against one another with a\ntinkling sound as he moved. But the little Brown Bear, being stuffed\nwith straw, was a clumsy traveler and the others had to wait for him to\nfollow.\n\nHowever, they were not very long in reaching the ridge that led out of\nMrs. Yoop's Valley, and when they had passed this ridge and descended\ninto the next valley they stopped to rest, for the Green Monkey was\ntired.\n\n\"I believe we are safe, now,\" said Polychrome, when her cage was set\ndown and the others had all gathered around it, \"for Mrs. Yoop dares\nnot go outside of her own Valley, for fear of being captured by her\nenemies. So we may take our time to consider what to do next.\"\n\n\"I'm afraid poor Mrs. Yoop will starve to death, if no one lets her out\nof her bedroom,\" said Woot, who had a heart as kind as that of the Tin\nWoodman. \"We've taken her Magic Apron away, and now the doors will\nnever open.\"\n\n\"Don't worry about that,\" advised Polychrome. \"Mrs. Yoop has plenty of\nmagic left to console her.\"\n\n\"Are you sure of that?\" asked the Green Monkey.\n\n\"Yes, for I've been watching her for weeks,\" said the Canary. \"She has\nsix magic hairpins, which she wears in her hair, and a magic ring which\nshe wears on her thumb and which is invisible to all eyes except those\nof a fairy, and magic bracelets on both her ankles. So I am positive\nthat she will manage to find a way out of her prison.\"\n\n\"She might transform the door into an archway,\" suggested the little\nBrown Bear.\n\n\"That would be easy for her,\" said the Tin Owl; \"but I'm glad she was\ntoo angry to think of that before we got out of her Valley.\"\n\n\"Well, we have escaped the big woman, to be sure,\" remarked the Green\nMonkey, \"but we still wear the awful forms the cruel yookoohoo gave us.\nHow are we going to get rid of these shapes, and become ourselves\nagain?\"\n\nNone could answer that question. They sat around the cage, brooding\nover the problem, until the Monkey fell asleep. Seeing this, the Canary\ntucked her head under her wing and also slept, and the Tin Owl and the\nBrown Bear did not disturb them until morning came and it was broad\ndaylight.\n\n\"I'm hungry,\" said Woot, when he wakened, for his knapsack of food had\nbeen left behind at the castle.\n\n\"Then let us travel on until we can find something for you to eat,\"\nreturned the Scarecrow Bear.\n\n\"There is no use in your lugging my cage any farther,\" declared the\nCanary. \"Let me out, and throw the cage away. Then I can fly with you\nand find my own breakfast of seeds. Also I can search for water, and\ntell you where to find it.\"\n\nSo the Green Monkey unfastened the door of the golden cage and the\nCanary hopped out. At first she flew high in the air and made great\ncircles overhead, but after a time she returned and perched beside them.\n\n\"At the east in the direction we were following,\" announced the Canary,\n\"there is a fine forest, with a brook running through it. In the forest\nthere may be fruits or nuts growing, or berry bushes at its edge, so\nlet us go that way.\"\n\nThey agreed to this and promptly set off, this time moving more\ndeliberately. The Tin Owl, which had guided their way during the night,\nnow found the sunshine very trying to his big eyes, so he shut them\ntight and perched upon the back of the little Brown Bear, which carried\nthe Owl's weight with ease. The Canary sometimes perched upon the Green\nMonkey's shoulder and sometimes fluttered on ahead of the party, and in\nthis manner they traveled in good spirits across that valley and into\nthe next one to the east of it.\n\nThis they found to be an immense hollow, shaped like a saucer, and on\nits farther edge appeared the forest which Polychrome had seen from the\nsky.\n\n\"Come to think of it,\" said the Tin Owl, waking up and blinking\ncomically at his friends, \"there's no object, now, in our traveling to\nthe Munchkin Country. My idea in going there was to marry Nimmie Amee,\nbut however much the Munchkin girl may have loved a Tin Woodman, I\ncannot reasonably expect her to marry a Tin Owl.\"\n\n\"There is some truth in that, my friend,\" remarked the Brown Bear. \"And\nto think that I, who was considered the handsomest Scarecrow in the\nworld, am now condemned to be a scrubby, no-account beast, whose only\nredeeming feature is that he is stuffed with straw!\"\n\n\"Consider my case, please,\" said Woot. \"The cruel Giantess has made a\nMonkey of a Boy, and that is the most dreadful deed of all!\"\n\n\"Your color is rather pretty,\" said the Brown Bear, eyeing Woot\ncritically. \"I have never seen a pea-green monkey before, and it\nstrikes me you are quite gorgeous.\"\n\n\"It isn't so bad to be a bird,\" asserted the Canary, fluttering from\none to another with a free and graceful motion, \"but I long to enjoy my\nown shape again.\"\n\n\"As Polychrome, you were the loveliest maiden I have ever seen--except,\nof course, Ozma,\" said the Tin Owl; \"so the Giantess did well to\ntransform you into the loveliest of all birds, if you were to be\ntransformed at all. But tell me, since you are a fairy, and have a\nfairy wisdom: do you think we shall be able to break these\nenchantments?\"\n\n\"Queer things happen in the Land of Oz,\" replied the Canary, again\nperching on the Green Monkey's shoulder and turning one bright eye\nthoughtfully toward her questioner. \"Mrs. Yoop has declared that none\nof her transformations can ever be changed, even by herself, but I\nbelieve that if we could get to Glinda the Good Sorceress, she might\nfind a way to restore us to our natural shapes. Glinda, as you know, is\nthe most powerful Sorceress in the world, and there are few things she\ncannot do if she tries.\"\n\n\"In that case,\" said the Little Brown Bear, \"let us return southward\nand try to get to Glinda's castle. It lies in the Quadling Country, you\nknow, so it is a good way from here.\"\n\n\"First, however, let us visit the forest and search for something to\neat,\" pleaded Woot. So they continued on to the edge of the forest,\nwhich consisted of many tall and beautiful trees. They discovered no\nfruit trees, at first, so the Green Monkey pushed on into the forest\ndepths and the others followed close behind him.\n\nThey were traveling quietly along, under the shade of the trees, when\nsuddenly an enormous jaguar leaped upon them from a limb and with one\nblow of his paw sent the little Brown Bear tumbling over and over until\nhe was stopped by a tree-trunk. Instantly they all took alarm. The Tin\nOwl shrieked: \"Hoot--hoot!\" and flew straight up to the branch of a\ntall tree, although he could scarcely see where he was going. The\nCanary swiftly darted to a place beside the Owl, and the Green Monkey\nsprang up, caught a limb, and soon scrambled to a high perch of safety.\n\nThe Jaguar crouched low and with hungry eyes regarded the little Brown\nBear, which slowly got upon its feet and asked reproachfully:\n\n\"For goodness' sake, Beast, what were you trying to do?\"\n\n\"Trying to get my breakfast,\" answered the Jaguar with a snarl, \"and I\nbelieve I've succeeded. You ought to make a delicious meal--unless you\nhappen to be old and tough.\"\n\n\"I'm worse than that, considered as a breakfast,\" said the Bear, \"for\nI'm only a skin stuffed with straw, and therefore not fit to eat.\"\n\n\"Indeed!\" cried the Jaguar, in a disappointed voice; \"then you must be\na magic Bear, or enchanted, and I must seek my breakfast from among\nyour companions.\"\n\nWith this he raised his lean head to look up at the Tin Owl and the\nCanary and the Monkey, and he lashed his tail upon the ground and\ngrowled as fiercely as any jaguar could.\n\n\"My friends are enchanted, also,\" said the little Brown Bear.\n\n\"All of them?\" asked the Jaguar.\n\n\"Yes. The Owl is tin, so you couldn't possibly eat him. The Canary is a\nfairy--Polychrome, the Daughter of the Rainbow--and you never could\ncatch her because she can easily fly out of your reach.\"\n\n\"There still remains the Green Monkey,\" remarked the Jaguar hungrily.\n\"He is neither made of tin nor stuffed with straw, nor can he fly. I'm\npretty good at climbing trees, myself, so I think I'll capture the\nMonkey and eat him for my breakfast.\"\n\nWoot the Monkey, hearing this speech from his perch on the tree, became\nmuch frightened, for he knew the nature of jaguars and realized they\ncould climb trees and leap from limb to limb with the agility of cats.\nSo he at once began to scamper through the forest as fast as he could\ngo, catching at a branch with his long monkey arms and swinging his\ngreen body through space to grasp another branch in a neighboring tree,\nand so on, while the Jaguar followed him from below, his eyes fixed\nsteadfastly on his prey. But presently Woot got his feet tangled in the\nLace Apron, which he was still wearing, and that tripped him in his\nflight and made him fall to the ground, where the Jaguar placed one\nhuge paw upon him and said grimly:\n\n\"I've got you, now!\"\n\nThe fact that the Apron had tripped him made Woot remember its magic\npowers, and in his terror he cried out: \"Open!\" without stopping to\nconsider how this command might save him. But, at the word, the earth\nopened at the exact spot where he lay under the Jaguar's paw, and his\nbody sank downward, the earth closing over it again. The last thing\nWoot the Monkey saw, as he glanced upward, was the Jaguar peering into\nthe hole in astonishment.\n\n\"He's gone!\" cried the beast, with a long-drawn sigh of disappointment;\n\"he's gone, and now I shall have no breakfast.\"\n\nThe clatter of the Tin Owl's wings sounded above him, and the little\nBrown Bear came trotting up and asked:\n\n\"Where is the monkey? Have you eaten him so quickly?\"\n\n\"No, indeed,\" answered the Jaguar. \"He disappeared into the earth\nbefore I could take one bite of him!\"\n\nAnd now the Canary perched upon a stump, a little way from the forest\nbeast, and said:\n\n\"I am glad our friend has escaped you; but, as it is natural for a\nhungry beast to wish his breakfast, I will try to give you one.\"\n\n\"Thank you,\" replied the Jaguar. \"You're rather small for a full meal,\nbut it's kind of you to sacrifice yourself to my appetite.\"\n\n\"Oh, I don't intend to be eaten, I assure you,\" said the Canary, \"but\nas I am a fairy I know something of magic, and though I am now\ntransformed into a bird's shape, I am sure I can conjure up a breakfast\nthat will satisfy you.\"\n\n\"If you can work magic, why don't you break the enchantment you are\nunder and return to your proper form?\" inquired the beast doubtingly.\n\n\"I haven't the power to do that,\" answered the Canary, \"for Mrs. Yoop,\nthe Giantess who transformed me, used a peculiar form of yookoohoo\nmagic that is unknown to me. However, she could not deprive me of my\nown fairy knowledge, so I will try to get you a breakfast.\"\n\n\"Do you think a magic breakfast would taste good, or relieve the pangs\nof hunger I now suffer?\" asked the Jaguar.\n\n\"I am sure it would. What would you like to eat?\"\n\n\"Give me a couple of fat rabbits,\" said the beast.\n\n\"Rabbits! No, indeed. I'd not allow you to eat the dear little things,\"\ndeclared Polychrome the Canary.\n\n\"Well, three or four squirrels, then,\" pleaded the Jaguar.\n\n\"Do you think me so cruel?\" demanded the Canary, indignantly. \"The\nsquirrels are my especial friends.\"\n\n\"How about a plump owl?\" asked the beast. \"Not a tin one, you know, but\na real meat owl.\"\n\n\"Neither beast nor bird shall you have,\" said Polychrome in a positive\nvoice.\n\n\"Give me a fish, then; there's a river a little way off,\" proposed the\nJaguar.\n\n\"No living thing shall be sacrificed to feed you,\" returned the Canary.\n\n\"Then what in the world do you expect me to eat?\" said the Jaguar in a\nscornful tone.\n\n\"How  would  mush-and-milk  do?\"  asked  the Canary.\n\nThe Jaguar snarled in derision and lashed his tail against the ground\nangrily.\n\n\"Give him some scrambled eggs on toast, Poly,\" suggested the Bear\nScarecrow. \"He ought to like that.\"\n\n\"I will,\" responded the Canary, and fluttering her wings she made a\nflight of three circles around the stump. Then she flew up to a tree\nand the Bear and the Owl and the Jaguar saw that upon the stump had\nappeared a great green leaf upon which was a large portion of scrambled\neggs on toast, smoking hot.\n\n\"There!\" said the Bear; \"eat your breakfast, friend Jaguar, and be\ncontent.\"\n\nThe Jaguar crept closer to the stump and sniffed the fragrance of the\nscrambled eggs. They smelled so good that he tasted them, and they\ntasted so good that he ate the strange meal in a hurry, proving he had\nbeen really hungry.\n\n\"I prefer rabbits,\" he muttered, licking his chops, \"but I must admit\nthe magic breakfast has filled my stomach full, and brought me comfort.\nSo I'm much obliged for the kindness, little Fairy, and I'll now leave\nyou in peace.\"\n\nSaying this, he plunged into the thick underbrush and soon disappeared,\nalthough they could hear his great body crashing through the bushes\nuntil he was far distant.\n\n\"That was a good way to get rid of the savage beast, Poly,\" said the\nTin Woodman to the Canary; \"but I'm surprised that you didn't give our\nfriend Woot a magic breakfast, when you knew he was hungry.\"\n\n\"The reason for that,\" answered Polychrome, \"was that my mind was so\nintent on other things that I quite forgot my power to produce food by\nmagic. But where is the monkey boy?\"\n\n\"Gone!\" said the Scarecrow Bear, solemnly. \"The earth has swallowed him\nup.\"\n\n\n\n\nChapter Nine\n\nThe Quarrelsome Dragons\n\n\nThe Green Monkey sank gently into the earth for a little way and then\ntumbled swiftly through space, landing on a rocky floor with a thump\nthat astonished him. Then he sat up, found that no bones were broken,\nand gazed around him.\n\nHe seemed to be in a big underground cave, which was dimly lighted by\ndozens of big round discs that looked like moons. They were not moons,\nhowever, as Woot discovered when he had examined the place more\ncarefully. They were eyes. The eyes were in the heads of enormous\nbeasts whose bodies trailed far behind them. Each beast was bigger than\nan elephant, and three times as long, and there were a dozen or more of\nthe creatures scattered here and there about the cavern. On their\nbodies were big scales, as round as pie-plates, which were beautifully\ntinted in shades of green, purple and orange. On the ends of their long\ntails were clusters of jewels. Around the great, moon-like eyes were\ncircles of diamonds which sparkled in the subdued light that glowed\nfrom the eyes.\n\nWoot saw that the creatures had wide mouths and rows of terrible teeth\nand, from tales he had heard of such beings, he knew he had fallen into\na cavern inhabited by the great Dragons that had been driven from the\nsurface of the earth and were only allowed to come out once in a\nhundred years to search for food. Of course he had never seen Dragons\nbefore, yet there was no mistaking them, for they were unlike any other\nliving creatures.\n\nWoot sat upon the floor where he had fallen, staring around, and the\nowners of the big eyes returned his look, silently and motionless.\nFinally one of the Dragons which was farthest away from him asked, in a\ndeep, grave voice:\n\n\"What was that?\"\n\nAnd the greatest Dragon of all, who was just in front of the Green\nMonkey, answered in a still deeper voice:\n\n\"It is some foolish animal from Outside.\"\n\n\"Is it good to eat?\" inquired a smaller Dragon beside the great one.\n\"I'm hungry.\"\n\n\"Hungry!\" exclaimed all the Dragons, in a reproachful chorus; and then\nthe great one said chidingly: \"Tut-tut, my son! You've no reason to be\nhungry at this time.\"\n\n\"Why not?\" asked the little Dragon. \"I haven't eaten anything in eleven\nyears.\"\n\n\"Eleven years is nothing,\" remarked another Dragon, sleepily opening\nand closing his eyes; \"I haven't feasted for eighty-seven years, and I\ndare not get hungry for a dozen or so years to come. Children who eat\nbetween meals should be broken of the habit.\"\n\n\"All I had, eleven years ago, was a rhinoceros, and that's not a full\nmeal at all,\" grumbled the young one. \"And, before that, I had waited\nsixty-two years to be fed; so it's no wonder I'm hungry.\"\n\n\"How old are you now?\" asked Woot, forgetting his own dangerous\nposition in his interest in the conversation.\n\n\"Why, I'm--I'm--How old am I, Father?\" asked the little Dragon.\n\n\"Goodness gracious! what a child to ask questions. Do you want to keep\nme thinking all the time? Don't you know that thinking is very bad for\nDragons?\" returned the big one, impatiently.\n\n\"How old am I, Father?\" persisted the small Dragon.\n\n\"About six hundred and thirty, I believe. Ask your mother.\"\n\n\"No; don't!\" said an old Dragon in the background; \"haven't I enough\nworries, what with being wakened in the middle of a nap, without being\nobliged to keep track of my children's ages?\"\n\n\"You've been fast asleep for over sixty years, Mother,\" said the child\nDragon. \"How long a nap do you wish?\"\n\n\"I should have slept forty years longer. And this strange little green\nbeast should be punished for falling into our cavern and disturbing us.\"\n\n\"I didn't know you were here, and I didn't know I was going to fall\nin,\" explained Woot.\n\n\"Nevertheless, here you are,\" said the great Dragon, \"and you have\ncarelessly wakened our entire tribe; so it stands to reason you must be\npunished.\"\n\n\"In what way?\" inquired the Green Monkey, trembling a little.\n\n\"Give me time and I'll think of a way. You're in no hurry, are you?\"\nasked the great Dragon.\n\n\"No, indeed,\" cried Woot. \"Take your time. I'd much rather you'd all go\nto sleep again, and punish me when you wake up in a hundred years or\nso.\"\n\n\"Let me eat him!\" pleaded the littlest Dragon.\n\n\"He is too small,\" said the father. \"To eat this one Green Monkey would\nonly serve to make you hungry for more, and there are no more.\"\n\n\"Quit this chatter and let me get to sleep,\" protested another Dragon,\nyawning in a fearful manner, for when he opened his mouth a sheet of\nflame leaped forth from it and made Woot jump back to get out of its\nway.\n\nIn his jump he bumped against the nose of a Dragon behind him, which\nopened its mouth to growl and shot another sheet of flame at him. The\nflame was bright, but not very hot, yet Woot screamed with terror and\nsprang forward with a great bound. This time he landed on the paw of\nthe great Chief Dragon, who angrily raised his other front paw and\nstruck the Green Monkey a fierce blow. Woot went sailing through the\nair and fell sprawling upon the rocky floor far beyond the place where\nthe Dragon Tribe was grouped.\n\nAll the great beasts were now thoroughly wakened and aroused, and they\nblamed the monkey for disturbing their quiet. The littlest Dragon\ndarted after Woot and the others turned their unwieldy bodies in his\ndirection and followed, flashing from their eyes and mouths flames\nwhich lighted up the entire cavern. Woot almost gave himself up for\nlost, at that moment, but he scrambled to his feet and dashed away to\nthe farthest end of the cave, the Dragons following more leisurely\nbecause they were too clumsy to move fast. Perhaps they thought there\nwas no need of haste, as the monkey could not escape from the cave.\nBut, away up at the end of the place, the cavern floor was heaped with\ntumbled rocks, so Woot, with an agility born of fear, climbed from rock\nto rock until he found himself crouched against the cavern roof. There\nhe waited, for he could go no farther, while on over the tumbled rocks\nslowly crept the Dragons--the littlest one coming first because he was\nhungry as well as angry.\n\nThe beasts had almost reached him when Woot, remembering his lace\napron--now sadly torn and soiled--recovered his wits and shouted:\n\"Open!\" At the cry a hole appeared in the roof of the cavern, just over\nhis head, and through it the sunlight streamed full upon the Green\nMonkey.\n\nThe Dragons paused, astonished at the magic and blinking at the\nsunlight, and this gave Woot time to climb through the opening. As soon\nas he reached the surface of the earth the hole closed again, and the\nboy monkey realized, with a thrill of joy, that he had seen the last of\nthe dangerous Dragon family.\n\nHe sat upon the ground, still panting hard from his exertions, when the\nbushes before him parted and his former enemy, the Jaguar, appeared.\n\n\"Don't run,\" said the woodland beast, as Woot sprang up; \"you are\nperfectly safe, so far as I am concerned, for since you so mysteriously\ndisappeared I have had my breakfast. I am now on my way home to sleep\nthe rest of the day.\"\n\n\"Oh, indeed!\" returned the Green Monkey, in a tone both sorry and\nstartled. \"Which of my friends did you manage to eat?\"\n\n\"None of them,\" returned the Jaguar, with a sly grin \"I had a dish of\nmagic scrambled eggs--on toast--and it wasn't a bad feast, at all.\nThere isn't room in me for even you, and I don't regret it because I\njudge, from your green color, that you are not ripe, and would make an\nindifferent meal. We jaguars have to be careful of our digestions.\nFarewell, Friend Monkey. Follow the path I made through the bushes and\nyou will find your friends.\"\n\nWith this the Jaguar marched on his way and Woot took his advice and\nfollowed the trail he had made until he came to the place where the\nlittle Brown Bear, and the Tin Owl, and the Canary were conferring\ntogether and wondering what had become of their comrade, the Green\nMonkey.\n\n\n\n\nChapter Ten\n\nTommy Kwikstep\n\n\n\"Our best plan,\" said the Scarecrow Bear, when the Green Monkey had\nrelated the story of his adventure with the Dragons, \"is to get out of\nthis Gillikin Country as soon as we can and try to find our way to the\ncastle of Glinda, the Good Sorceress. There are too many dangers\nlurking here to suit me, and Glinda may be able to restore us to our\nproper forms.\"\n\n\"If we turn south now,\" the Tin Owl replied, \"we might go straight into\nthe Emerald City. That's a place I wish to avoid, for I'd hate to have\nmy friends see me in this sad plight,\" and he blinked his eyes and\nfluttered his tin wings mournfully.\n\n\"But I am certain we have passed beyond Emerald City,\" the Canary\nassured him, sailing lightly around their heads. \"So, should we turn\nsouth from here, we would pass into the Munchkin Country, and\ncontinuing south we would reach the Quadling Country where Glinda's\ncastle is located.\"\n\n\"Well, since you're sure of that, let's start right away,\" proposed the\nBear. \"It's a long journey, at the best, and I'm getting tired of\nwalking on four legs.\"\n\n\"I thought you never tired, being stuffed with straw,\" said Woot.\n\n\"I mean that it annoys me, to be obliged to go on all fours, when two\nlegs are my proper walking equipment,\" replied the Scarecrow. \"I\nconsider it beneath my dignity. In other words, my remarkable brains\ncan tire, through humiliation, although my body cannot tire.\"\n\n\"That is one of the penalties of having brains,\" remarked the Tin Owl\nwith a sigh. \"I have had no brains since I was a man of meat, and so I\nnever worry. Nevertheless, I prefer my former manly form to this owl's\nshape and would be glad to break Mrs. Yoop's enchantment as soon as\npossible. I am so noisy, just now, that I disturb myself,\" and he\nfluttered his wings with a clatter that echoed throughout the forest.\n\nSo, being all of one mind, they turned southward, traveling steadily on\nuntil the woods were left behind and the landscape turned from purple\ntints to blue tints, which assured them they had entered the Country of\nthe Munchkins.\n\n\"Now I feel myself more safe,\" said the Scarecrow Bear. \"I know this\ncountry pretty well, having been made here by a Munchkin farmer and\nhaving wandered over these lovely blue lands many times. Seems to me,\nindeed, that I even remember that group of three tall trees ahead of\nus; and, if I do, we are not far from the home of my friend Jinjur.\"\n\n\"Who is Jinjur?\" asked Woot, the Green Monkey.\n\n\"Haven't you heard of Jinjur?\" exclaimed the Scarecrow, in surprise.\n\n\"No,\" said Woot. \"Is Jinjur a man, a woman, a beast or a bird?\"\n\n\"Jinjur is a girl,\" explained the Scarecrow Bear. \"She's a fine girl,\ntoo, although a bit restless and liable to get excited. Once, a long\ntime ago, she raised an army of girls and called herself 'General\nJinjur.' With her army she captured the Emerald City, and drove me out\nof it, because I insisted that an army in Oz was highly improper. But\nOzma punished the rash girl, and afterward Jinjur and I became fast\nfriends. Now Jinjur lives peacefully on a farm, near here, and raises\nfields of cream-puffs, chocolate-caramels and macaroons. They say she's\na pretty good farmer, and in addition to that she's an artist, and\npaints pictures so perfect that one can scarcely tell them from nature.\nShe often repaints my face for me, when it gets worn or mussy, and the\nlovely expression I wore when the Giantess transformed me was painted\nby Jinjur only a month or so ago.\"\n\n\"It was certainly a pleasant expression,\" agreed Woot.\n\n\"Jinjur can paint anything,\" continued the Scarecrow Bear, with\nenthusiasm, as they walked along together. \"Once, when I came to her\nhouse, my straw was old and crumpled, so that my body sagged\ndreadfully. I needed new straw to replace the old, but Jinjur had no\nstraw on all her ranch and I was really unable to travel farther until\nI had been restuffed. When I explained this to Jinjur, the girl at once\npainted a straw-stack which was so natural that I went to it and\nsecured enough straw to fill all my body. It was a good quality of\nstraw, too, and lasted me a long time.\"\n\nThis seemed very wonderful to Woot, who knew that such a thing could\nnever happen in any place but a fairy country like Oz.\n\nThe Munchkin Country was much nicer than the Gillikin Country, and all\nthe fields were separated by blue fences, with grassy lanes and paths\nof blue ground, and the land seemed well cultivated. They were on a\nlittle hill looking down upon this favored country, but had not quite\nreached the settled parts, when on turning a bend in the path they were\nhalted by a form that barred their way.\n\nA more curious creature they had seldom seen, even in the Land of Oz,\nwhere curious creatures abound. It had the head of a young\nman--evidently a Munchkin--with a pleasant face and hair neatly combed.\nBut the body was very long, for it had twenty legs--ten legs on each\nside--and this caused the body to stretch out and lie in a horizontal\nposition, so that all the legs could touch the ground and stand firm.\nFrom the shoulders extended two small arms; at least, they seemed small\nbeside so many legs.\n\nThis odd creature was dressed in the regulation clothing of the\nMunchkin people, a dark blue coat neatly fitting the long body and each\npair of legs having a pair of sky-blue trousers, with blue-tinted\nstockings and blue leather shoes turned up at the pointed toes.\n\n\"I wonder who you are?\" said Polychrome the Canary, fluttering above\nthe strange creature, who had probably been asleep on the path.\n\n\"I sometimes wonder, myself, who I am,\" replied the many-legged young\nman; \"but, in reality, I am Tommy Kwikstep, and I live in a hollow tree\nthat fell to the ground with age. I have polished the inside of it, and\nmade a door at each end, and that's a very comfortable residence for me\nbecause it just fits my shape.\"\n\n\"How did you happen to have such a shape?\" asked the Scarecrow Bear,\nsitting on his haunches and regarding Tommy Kwikstep with a serious\nlook. \"Is the shape natural?\"\n\n\"No; it was wished on me,\" replied Tommy, with a sigh. \"I used to be\nvery active and loved to run errands for anyone who needed my services.\nThat was how I got my name of Tommy Kwikstep. I could run an errand\nmore quickly than any other boy, and so I was very proud of myself. One\nday, however, I met an old lady who was a fairy, or a witch, or\nsomething of the sort, and she said if I would run an errand for\nher--to carry some magic medicine to another old woman--she would grant\nme just one Wish, whatever the Wish happened to be. Of course I\nconsented and, taking the medicine, I hurried away. It was a long\ndistance, mostly up hill, and my legs began to grow weary. Without\nthinking what I was doing I said aloud: 'Dear me; I wish I had twenty\nlegs!' and in an instant I became the unusual creature you see beside\nyou. Twenty legs! Twenty on one man! You may count them, if you doubt\nmy word.\"\n\n\"You've got 'em, all right,\" said Woot the Monkey, who had already\ncounted them.\n\n\"After I had delivered the magic medicine to the old woman, I returned\nand tried to find the witch, or fairy, or whatever she was, who had\ngiven me the unlucky wish, so she could take it away again. I've been\nsearching for her ever since, but never can I find her,\" continued poor\nTommy Kwikstep, sadly.\n\n\"I suppose,\" said the Tin Owl, blinking at him, \"you can travel very\nfast, with those twenty legs.\"\n\n\"At first I was able to,\" was the reply; \"but I traveled so much,\nsearching for the fairy, or witch, or whatever she was, that I soon got\ncorns on my toes. Now, a corn on one toe is not so bad, but when you\nhave a hundred toes--as I have--and get corns on most of them, it is\nfar from pleasant. Instead of running, I now painfully crawl, and\nalthough I try not to be discouraged I do hope I shall find that witch\nor fairy, or whatever she was, before long.\"\n\n\"I hope so, too,\" said the Scarecrow. \"But, after all, you have the\npleasure of knowing you are unusual, and therefore remarkable among the\npeople of Oz. To be just like other persons is small credit to one,\nwhile to be unlike others is a mark of distinction.\"\n\n\"That sounds very pretty,\" returned Tommy Kwikstep, \"but if you had to\nput on ten pair of trousers every morning, and tie up twenty shoes, you\nwould prefer not to be so distinguished.\"\n\n\"Was the witch, or fairy, or whatever she was, an old person, with\nwrinkled skin and half her teeth gone?\" inquired the Tin Owl.\n\n\"No,\" said Tommy Kwikstep.\n\n\"Then she wasn't Old Mombi,\" remarked the transformed Emperor.\n\n\"I'm not interested in who it wasn't, so much as I am in who it was,\"\nsaid the twenty-legged young man. \"And, whatever or whomsoever she was,\nshe has managed to keep out of my way.\"\n\n\"If you found her, do you suppose she'd change you back into a\ntwo-legged boy?\" asked Woot.\n\n\"Perhaps so, if I could run another errand for her and so earn another\nwish.\"\n\n\"Would you really like to be as you were before?\" asked Polychrome the\nCanary, perching upon the Green Monkey's shoulder to observe Tommy\nKwikstep more attentively.\n\n\"I would, indeed,\" was the earnest reply.\n\n\"Then I will see what I can do for you,\" promised the Rainbow's\nDaughter, and flying to the ground she took a small twig in her bill\nand with it made several mystic figures on each side of Tommy Kwikstep.\n\n\"Are you a witch, or fairy, or something of the sort?\" he asked as he\nwatched her wonderingly.\n\nThe Canary made no answer, for she was busy, but the Scarecrow Bear\nreplied: \"Yes; she's something of the sort, and a bird of a magician.\"\n\nThe twenty-legged boy's transformation happened so queerly that they\nwere all surprised at its method. First, Tommy Kwikstep's last two legs\ndisappeared; then the next two, and the next, and as each pair of legs\nvanished his body shortened. All this while Polychrome was running\naround him and chirping mystical words, and when all the young man's\nlegs had disappeared but two he noticed that the Canary was still busy\nand cried out in alarm:\n\n\"Stop--stop! Leave me two of my legs, or I shall be worse off than\nbefore.\"\n\n\"I know,\" said the Canary. \"I'm only removing with my magic the corns\nfrom your last ten toes.\"\n\n\"Thank you for being so thoughtful,\" he said gratefully, and now they\nnoticed that Tommy Kwikstep was quite a nice looking young fellow.\n\n\"What will you do now?\" asked Woot the Monkey.\n\n\"First,\" he answered, \"I must deliver a note which I've carried in my\npocket ever since the witch, or fairy, or whatever she was, granted my\nfoolish wish. And I am resolved never to speak again without taking\ntime to think carefully on what I am going to say, for I realize that\nspeech without thought is dangerous. And after I've delivered the note,\nI shall run errands again for anyone who needs my services.\"\n\nSo he thanked Polychrome again and started away in a different\ndirection from their own, and that was the last they saw of Tommy\nKwikstep.\n\n\n\n\nChapter Eleven\n\nJinjur's Ranch\n\n\nAs they followed a path down the blue-grass hillside, the first house\nthat met the view of the travelers was joyously recognized by the\nScarecrow Bear as the one inhabited by his friend Jinjur, so they\nincreased their speed and hurried toward it.\n\nOn reaching the place, how ever, they found the house deserted. The\nfront door stood open, but no one was inside. In the garden surrounding\nthe house were neat rows of bushes bearing cream-puffs and macaroons,\nsome of which were still green, but others ripe and ready to eat.\nFarther back were fields of caramels, and all the land seemed well\ncultivated and carefully tended. They looked through the fields for the\ngirl farmer, but she was nowhere to be seen.\n\n\"Well,\" finally remarked the little Brown Bear, \"let us go into the\nhouse and make ourselves at home. That will be sure to please my friend\nJinjur, who happens to be away from home just now. When she returns,\nshe will be greatly surprised.\"\n\n\"Would she care if I ate some of those ripe cream-puffs?\" asked the\nGreen Monkey.\n\n\"No, indeed; Jinjur is very generous. Help yourself to all you want,\"\nsaid the Scarecrow Bear.\n\nSo Woot gathered a lot of the cream-puffs that were golden yellow and\nfilled with a sweet, creamy substance, and ate until his hunger was\nsatisfied. Then he entered the house with his friends and sat in a\nrocking-chair--just as he was accustomed to do when a boy. The Canary\nperched herself upon the mantel and daintily plumed her feathers; the\nTin Owl sat on the back of another chair; the Scarecrow squatted on his\nhairy haunches in the middle of the room.\n\n\"I believe I remember the girl Jinjur,\" remarked the Canary, in her\nsweet voice. \"She cannot help us very much, except to direct us on our\nway to Glinda's castle, for she does not understand magic. But she's a\ngood girl, honest and sensible, and I'll be glad to see her.\"\n\n\"All our troubles,\" said the Owl with a deep sigh, \"arose from my\nfoolish resolve to seek Nimmie Amee and make her Empress of the\nWinkies, and while I wish to reproach no one, I must say that it was\nWoot the Wanderer who put the notion into my head.\"\n\n\"Well, for my part, I am glad he did,\" responded the Canary. \"Your\njourney resulted in saving me from the Giantess, and had you not\ntraveled to the Yoop Valley, I would still be Mrs. Yoop's prisoner. It\nis much nicer to be free, even though I still bear the enchanted form\nof a Canary-Bird.\"\n\n\"Do you think we shall ever be able to get our proper forms back\nagain?\" asked the Green Monkey earnestly.\n\nPolychrome did not make reply at once to this important question, but\nafter a period of thoughtfulness she said:\n\n\"I have been taught to believe that there is an antidote for every\nmagic charm, yet Mrs. Yoop insists that no power can alter her\ntransformations. I realize that my own fairy magic cannot do it,\nalthough I have thought that we Sky Fairies have more power than is\naccorded to Earth Fairies. The yookoohoo magic is admitted to be very\nstrange in its workings and different from the magic usually practiced,\nbut perhaps Glinda or Ozma may understand it better than I. In them\nlies our only hope. Unless they can help us, we must remain forever as\nwe are.\"\n\n\"A Canary-Bird on a Rainbow wouldn't be so bad,\" asserted the Tin Owl,\nwinking and blinking with his round tin eyes, \"so if you can manage to\nfind your Rainbow again you need have little to worry about.\"\n\n\"That's nonsense, Friend Chopper,\" exclaimed Woot. \"I know just how\nPolychrome feels. A beautiful girl is much superior to a little yellow\nbird, and a boy--such as I was--far better than a Green Monkey. Neither\nof us can be happy again unless we recover our rightful forms.\"\n\n\"I feel the same way,\" announced the stuffed Bear. \"What do you suppose\nmy friend the Patchwork Girl would think of me, if she saw me wearing\nthis beastly shape?\"\n\n\"She'd laugh till she cried,\" admitted the Tin Owl. \"For my part, I'll\nhave to give up the notion of marrying Nimmie Amee, but I'll try not to\nlet that make me unhappy. If it's my duty, I'd like to do my duty, but\nif magic prevents my getting married I'll flutter along all by myself\nand be just as contented.\"\n\nTheir serious misfortunes made them all silent for a time, and as their\nthoughts were busy in dwelling upon the evils with which fate had\nburdened them, none noticed that Jinjur had suddenly appeared in the\ndoorway and was looking at them in astonishment. The next moment her\nastonishment changed to anger, for there, in her best rocking-chair,\nsat a Green Monkey. A great shiny Owl perched upon another chair and a\nBrown Bear squatted upon her parlor rug. Jinjur did not notice the\nCanary, but she caught up a broomstick and dashed into the room,\nshouting as she came:\n\n\"Get out of here, you wild creatures!  How dare you enter my house?\"\n\nWith a blow of her broom she knocked the Brown Bear over, and the Tin\nOwl tried to fly out of her reach and made a great clatter with his tin\nwings. The Green Monkey was so startled by the sudden attack that he\nsprang into the fireplace--where there was fortunately no fire--and\ntried to escape by climbing up the chimney. But he found the opening\ntoo small, and so was forced to drop down again. Then he crouched\ntrembling in the fireplace, his pretty green hair all blackened with\nsoot and covered with ashes. From this position Woot watched to see\nwhat would happen next.\n\n\"Stop, Jinjur--stop!\" cried the Brown Bear, when the broom again\nthreatened him. \"Don't you know me? I'm your old friend the Scarecrow?\"\n\n\"You're trying to deceive me, you naughty beast! I can see plainly that\nyou are a bear, and a mighty poor specimen of a bear, too,\" retorted\nthe girl.\n\n\"That's because I'm not properly stuffed,\" he assured her. \"When Mrs.\nYoop transformed me, she didn't realize I should have more stuffing.\"\n\n\"Who is Mrs. Yoop?\" inquired Jinjur, pausing with the broom still\nupraised.\n\n\"A Giantess in the Gillikin Country.\"\n\n\"Oh; I begin to understand. And Mrs. Yoop transformed you? You are\nreally the famous Scarecrow of Oz.\"\n\n\"I was, Jinjur. Just now I'm as you see me--a miserable little Brown\nBear with a poor quality of stuffing. That Tin Owl is none other than\nour dear Tin Woodman--Nick Chopper, the Emperor of the Winkies--while\nthis Green Monkey is a nice little boy we recently became acquainted\nwith, Woot the Wanderer.\"\n\n\"And I,\" said the Canary, flying close to Jinjur, \"am Polychrome, the\nDaughter of the Rainbow, in the form of a bird.\"\n\n\"Goodness me!\" cried Jinjur, amazed; \"that Giantess must be a powerful\nSorceress, and as wicked as she is powerful.\"\n\n\"She's a yookoohoo,\" said Polychrome. \"Fortunately, we managed to\nescape from her castle, and we are now on our way to Glinda the Good to\nsee if she possesses the power to restore us to our former shapes.\"\n\n\"Then I must beg your pardons; all of you must forgive me,\" said\nJinjur, putting away the broom. \"I took you to be a lot of wild,\nunmannerly animals, as was quite natural. You are very welcome to my\nhome and I'm sorry I haven't the power to help you out of your\ntroubles. Please use my house and all that I have, as if it were your\nown.\"\n\nAt this declaration of peace, the Bear got upon his feet and the Owl\nresumed his perch upon the chair and the Monkey crept out of the\nfireplace. Jinjur looked at Woot critically, and scowled.\n\n\"For a Green Monkey,\" said she, \"you're the blackest creature I ever\nsaw. And you'll get my nice clean room all dirty with soot and ashes.\nWhatever possessed you to jump up the chimney?\"\n\n\"I--I was scared,\" explained Woot, somewhat ashamed.\n\n\"Well, you need renovating, and that's what will happen to you, right\naway. Come with me!\" she commanded.\n\n\"What are you going to do?\" asked Woot.\n\n\"Give you a good scrubbing,\" said Jinjur.\n\nNow, neither boys nor monkeys relish being scrubbed, so Woot shrank\naway from the energetic girl, trembling fearfully. But Jinjur grabbed\nhim by his paw and dragged him out to the back yard, where, in spite of\nhis whines and struggles, she plunged him into a tub of cold water and\nbegan to scrub him with a stiff brush and a cake of yellow soap.\n\nThis was the hardest trial that Woot had endured since he became a\nmonkey, but no protest had any influence with Jinjur, who lathered and\nscrubbed him in a business-like manner and afterward dried him with a\ncoarse towel.\n\nThe Bear and the Owl gravely watched this operation and nodded approval\nwhen Woot's silky green fur shone clear and bright in the afternoon\nsun. The Canary seemed much amused and laughed a silvery ripple of\nlaughter as she said:\n\n\"Very well done, my good Jinjur; I admire your energy and judgment. But\nI had no idea a monkey could look so comical as this monkey did while\nhe was being bathed.\"\n\n\"I'm not a monkey!\" declared Woot, resentfully; \"I'm just a boy in a\nmonkey's shape, that's all.\"\n\n\"If you can explain to me the difference,\" said Jinjur, \"I'll agree not\nto wash you again--that is, unless you foolishly get into the\nfireplace. All persons are usually judged by the shapes in which they\nappear to the eyes of others. Look at me, Woot; what am I?\"\n\nWoot looked at her.\n\n\"You're as pretty a girl as I've ever seen,\" he replied.\n\nJinjur frowned. That is, she tried hard to frown.\n\n\"Come out into the garden with me,\" she said, \"and I'll give you some\nof the most delicious caramels you ever ate. They're a new variety,\nthat no one can grow but me, and they have a heliotrope flavor.\"\n\n\n\n\nChapter Twelve\n\nOzma and Dorothy\n\n\nIn her magnificent palace in the Emerald City, the beautiful girl Ruler\nof all the wonderful Land of Oz sat in her dainty boudoir with her\nfriend Princess Dorothy beside her. Ozma was studying a roll of\nmanuscript which she had taken from the Royal Library, while Dorothy\nworked at her embroidery and at times stooped to pat a shaggy little\nblack dog that lay at her feet. The little dog's name was Toto, and he\nwas Dorothy's faithful companion.\n\nTo judge Ozma of Oz by the standards of our world, you would think her\nvery young--perhaps fourteen or fifteen years of age--yet for years she\nhad ruled the Land of Oz and had never seemed a bit older. Dorothy\nappeared much younger than Ozma. She had been a little girl when first\nshe came to the Land of Oz, and she was a little girl still, and would\nnever seem to be a day older while she lived in this wonderful\nfairyland.\n\nOz was not always a fairyland, I am told. Once it was much like other\nlands, except it was shut in by a dreadful desert of sandy wastes that\nlay all around it, thus preventing its people from all contact with the\nrest of the world. Seeing this isolation, the fairy band of Queen\nLurline, passing over Oz while on a journey, enchanted the country and\nso made it a Fairyland. And Queen Lurline left one of her fairies to\nrule this enchanted Land of Oz, and then passed on and forgot all about\nit.\n\nFrom that moment no one in Oz ever died. Those who were old remained\nold; those who were young and strong did not change as years passed\nthem by; the children remained children always, and played and romped\nto their hearts' content, while all the babies lived in their cradles\nand were tenderly cared for and never grew up. So people in Oz stopped\ncounting how old they were in years, for years made no difference in\ntheir appearance and could not alter their station. They did not get\nsick, so there were no doctors among them. Accidents might happen to\nsome, on rare occasions, it is true, and while no one could die\nnaturally, as other people do, it was possible that one might be\ntotally destroyed. Such incidents, however, were very unusual, and so\nseldom was there anything to worry over that the Oz people were as\nhappy and contented as can be.\n\nAnother strange thing about this fairy Land of Oz was that whoever\nmanaged to enter it from the outside world came under the magic spell\nof the place and did not change in appearance as long as they lived\nthere. So Dorothy, who now lived with Ozma, seemed just the same sweet\nlittle girl she had been when first she came to this delightful\nfairyland.\n\nPerhaps all parts of Oz might not be called truly delightful, but it\nwas surely delightful in the neighborhood of the Emerald City, where\nOzma reigned. Her loving influence was felt for many miles around, but\nthere were places in the mountains of the Gillikin Country, and the\nforests of the Quadling Country, and perhaps in far-away parts of the\nMunchkin and Winkie Countries, where the inhabitants were somewhat rude\nand uncivilized and had not yet come under the spell of Ozma's wise and\nkindly rule. Also, when Oz first became a fairyland, it harbored\nseveral witches and magicians and sorcerers and necromancers, who were\nscattered in various parts, but most of these had been deprived of\ntheir magic powers, and Ozma had issued a royal edict forbidding anyone\nin her dominions to work magic except Glinda the Good and the Wizard of\nOz. Ozma herself, being a real fairy, knew a lot of magic, but she only\nused it to benefit her subjects.\n\nThis little explanation will help you to understand better the story\nyou are reaching, but most of it is already known to those who are\nfamiliar with the Oz people whose adventures they have followed in\nother Oz books.\n\nOzma and Dorothy were fast friends and were much together. Everyone in\nOz loved Dorothy almost as well as they did their lovely Ruler, for the\nlittle Kansas girl's good fortune had not spoiled her or rendered her\nat all vain. She was just the same brave and true and adventurous child\nas before she lived in a royal palace and became the chum of the fairy\nOzma.\n\nIn the room in which the two sat--which was one of Ozma's private suite\nof apartments--hung the famous Magic Picture. This was the source of\nconstant interest to little Dorothy. One had but to stand before it and\nwish to see what any person was doing, and at once a scene would flash\nupon the magic canvas which showed exactly where that person was, and\nlike our own moving pictures would reproduce the actions of that person\nas long as you cared to watch them. So today, when Dorothy tired of her\nembroidery, she drew the curtains from before the Magic Picture and\nwished to see what her friend Button Bright was doing. Button Bright,\nshe saw, was playing ball with Ojo, the Munchkin boy, so Dorothy next\nwished to see what her Aunt Em was doing. The picture showed Aunt Em\nquietly engaged in darning socks for Uncle Henry, so Dorothy wished to\nsee what her old friend the Tin Woodman was doing.\n\nThe Tin Woodman was then just leaving his tin castle in the company of\nthe Scarecrow and Woot the Wanderer. Dorothy had never seen this boy\nbefore, so she wondered who he was. Also she was curious to know where\nthe three were going, for she noticed Woot's knapsack and guessed they\nhad started on a long journey. She asked Ozma about it, but Ozma did\nnot know.\n\nThat afternoon Dorothy again saw the travelers in the Magic Picture,\nbut they were merely tramping through the country and Dorothy was not\nmuch interested in them. A couple of days later, however, the girl,\nbeing again with Ozma, wished to see her friends, the Scarecrow and the\nTin Woodman in the Magic Picture, and on this occasion found them in\nthe great castle of Mrs. Yoop, the Giantess, who was at the time about\nto transform them. Both Dorothy and Ozma now became greatly interested\nand watched the transformations with indignation and horror.\n\n\"What a wicked Giantess!\" exclaimed Dorothy.\n\n\"Yes,\" answered Ozma, \"she must be punished for this cruelty to our\nfriends, and to the poor boy who is with them.\"\n\nAfter this they followed the adventure of the little Brown Bear and the\nTin Owl and the Green Monkey with breathless interest, and were\ndelighted when they escaped from Mrs. Yoop. They did not know, then,\nwho the Canary was, but realized it must be the transformation of some\nperson of consequence, whom the Giantess had also enchanted.\n\nWhen, finally, the day came when the adventurers headed south into the\nMunchkin Country, Dorothy asked anxiously:\n\n\"Can't something be done for them, Ozma? Can't you change 'em back into\ntheir own shapes? They've suffered enough from these dreadful\ntransformations, seems to me.\"\n\n\"I've been studying ways to help them, ever since they were\ntransformed,\" replied Ozma. \"Mrs. Yoop is now the only yookoohoo in my\ndominions, and the yookoohoo magic is very peculiar and hard for others\nto understand, yet I am resolved to make the attempt to break these\nenchantments. I may not succeed, but I shall do the best I can. From\nthe directions our friends are taking, I believe they are going to pass\nby Jinjur's Ranch, so if we start now we may meet them there. Would you\nlike to go with me, Dorothy?\"\n\n\"Of course,\" answered the little girl; \"I wouldn't miss it for\nanything.\"\n\n\"Then order the Red Wagon,\" said Ozma of Oz, \"and we will start at\nonce.\"\n\nDorothy ran to do as she was bid, while Ozma went to her Magic Room to\nmake ready the things she believed she would need. In half an hour the\nRed Wagon stood before the grand entrance of the palace, and before it\nwas hitched the Wooden Sawhorse, which was Ozma's favorite steed.\n\nThis Sawhorse, while made of wood, was very much alive and could travel\nswiftly and without tiring. To keep the ends of his wooden legs from\nwearing down short, Ozma had shod the Sawhorse with plates of pure\ngold. His harness was studded with brilliant emeralds and other jewels\nand so, while he himself was not at all handsome, his outfit made a\nsplendid appearance.\n\nSince the Sawhorse could understand her spoken words, Ozma used no\nreins to guide him. She merely told him where to go. When she came from\nthe palace with Dorothy, they both climbed into the Red Wagon and then\nthe little dog, Toto, ran up and asked:\n\n\"Are you going to leave me behind, Dorothy?\" Dorothy looked at Ozma,\nwho smiled in return and said:\n\n\"Toto may go with us, if you wish him to.\"\n\nSo Dorothy lifted the little dog into the wagon, for, while he could\nrun fast, he could not keep up with the speed of the wonderful Sawhorse.\n\n\nAway they went, over hills and through meadows, covering the ground\nwith astonishing speed. It is not surprising, therefore, that the Red\nWagon arrived before Jinjur's house just as that energetic young lady\nhad finished scrubbing the Green Monkey and was about to lead him to\nthe caramel patch.\n\n\n\n\nChapter Thirteen\n\nThe Restoration\n\n\nThe Tin Owl gave a hoot of delight when he saw the Red Wagon draw up\nbefore Jinjur's house, and the Brown Bear grunted and growled with glee\nand trotted toward Ozma as fast as he could wobble. As for the Canary,\nit flew swiftly to Dorothy's shoulder and perched there, saying in her\near:\n\n\"Thank goodness you have come to our rescue!\"\n\n\"But who are you?\" asked Dorothy\n\n\"Don't you know?\" returned the Canary.\n\n\"No; for the first time we noticed you in the Magic Picture, you were\njust a bird, as you are now. But we've guessed that the giant woman had\ntransformed you, as she did the others.\"\n\n\"Yes; I'm Polychrome, the Rainbow's Daughter,\" announced the Canary.\n\n\"Goodness me!\" cried Dorothy. \"How dreadful.\"\n\n\"Well, I make a rather pretty bird, I think,\" returned Polychrome, \"but\nof course I'm anxious to resume my own shape and get back upon my\nrainbow.\"\n\n\"Ozma will help you, I'm sure,\" said Dorothy. \"How does it feel,\nScarecrow, to be a Bear?\" she asked, addressing her old friend.\n\n\"I don't like it,\" declared the Scarecrow Bear. \"This brutal form is\nquite beneath the dignity of a wholesome straw man.\"\n\n\"And think of me,\" said the Owl, perching upon the dashboard of the Red\nWagon with much noisy clattering of his tin feathers. \"Don't I look\nhorrid, Dorothy, with eyes several sizes too big for my body, and so\nweak that I ought to wear spectacles?\"\n\n\"Well,\" said Dorothy critically, as she looked him over, \"you're\nnothing to brag of, I must confess. But Ozma will soon fix you up\nagain.\"\n\nThe Green Monkey had hung back, bashful at meeting two lovely girls\nwhile in the form of a beast; but Jinjur now took his hand and led him\nforward while she introduced him to Ozma, and Woot managed to make a\nlow bow, not really ungraceful, before her girlish Majesty, the Ruler\nof Oz.\n\n\"You have all been forced to endure a sad experience,\" said Ozma, \"and\nso I am anxious to do all in my power to break Mrs. Yoop's\nenchantments. But first tell me how you happened to stray into that\nlonely Valley where Yoop Castle stands.\"\n\nBetween them they related the object of their journey, the Scarecrow\nBear telling of the Tin Woodman's resolve to find Nimmie Amee and marry\nher, as a just reward for her loyalty to him. Woot told of their\nadventures with the Loons of Loonville, and the Tin Owl described the\nmanner in which they had been captured and transformed by the Giantess.\nThen Polychrome related her story, and when all had been told, and\nDorothy had several times reproved Toto for growling at the Tin Owl,\nOzma remained thoughtful for a while, pondering upon what she had\nheard. Finally she looked up, and with one of her delightful smiles,\nsaid to the anxious group:\n\n\"I am not sure my magic will be able to restore every one of you,\nbecause your transformations are of such a strange and unusual\ncharacter. Indeed, Mrs. Yoop was quite justified in believing no power\ncould alter her enchantments. However, I am sure I can restore the\nScarecrow to his original shape. He was stuffed with straw from the\nbeginning, and even the yookoohoo magic could not alter that. The\nGiantess was merely able to make a bear's shape of a man's shape, but\nthe bear is stuffed with straw, just as the man was. So I feel\nconfident I can make a man of the bear again.\"\n\n\"Hurrah!\" cried the Brown Bear, and tried clumsily to dance a jig of\ndelight.\n\n\"As for the Tin Woodman, his case is much the same,\" resumed Ozma,\nstill smiling. \"The power of the Giantess could not make him anything\nbut a tin creature, whatever shape she transformed him into, so it will\nnot be impossible to restore him to his manly form. Anyhow, I shall\ntest my magic at once, and see if it will do what I have promised.\"\n\nShe drew from her bosom a small silver Wand and, making passes with the\nWand over the head of the Bear, she succeeded in the brief space of a\nmoment in breaking his enchantment. The original Scarecrow of Oz again\nstood before them, well stuffed with straw and with his features nicely\npainted upon the bag which formed his head.\n\nThe Scarecrow was greatly delighted, as you may suppose, and he\nstrutted proudly around while the powerful fairy, Ozma of Oz, broke the\nenchantment that had transformed the Tin Woodman and made a Tin Owl\ninto a Tin Man again.\n\n\"Now, then,\" chirped the Canary, eagerly; \"I'm next, Ozma!\"\n\n\"But your case is different,\" replied Ozma, no longer smiling but\nwearing a grave expression on her sweet face. \"I shall have to\nexperiment on you, Polychrome, and I may fail in all my attempts.\"\n\nShe then tried two or three different methods of magic, hoping one of\nthem would succeed in breaking Polychrome's enchantment, but still the\nRainbow's Daughter remained a Canary-Bird. Finally, however, she\nexperimented in another way. She transformed the Canary into a Dove,\nand then transformed the Dove into a Speckled Hen, and then changed the\nSpeckled Hen into a rabbit, and then the rabbit into a Fawn. And at the\nlast, after mixing several powders and sprinkling them upon the Fawn,\nthe yookoohoo enchantment was suddenly broken and before them stood one\nof the daintiest and loveliest creatures in any fairyland in the world.\nPolychrome was as sweet and merry in disposition as she was beautiful,\nand when she danced and capered around in delight, her beautiful hair\nfloated around her like a golden mist and her many-hued raiment, as\nsoft as cobwebs, reminded one of drifting clouds in a summer sky.\n\nWoot was so awed by the entrancing sight of this exquisite Sky Fairy\nthat he quite forgot his own sad plight until be noticed Ozma gazing\nupon him with an intent expression that denoted sympathy and sorrow.\nDorothy whispered in her friend's ear, but the Ruler of Oz shook her\nhead sadly.\n\nJinjur, noticing this and understanding Ozma's looks, took the paw of\nthe Green Monkey in her own hand and patted it softly.\n\n\"Never mind,\" she said to him. \"You are a very beautiful color, and a\nmonkey can climb better than a boy and do a lot of other things no boy\ncan ever do.\"\n\n\"What's the matter?\" asked Woot, a sinking feeling at his heart. \"Is\nOzma's magic all used up?\"\n\nOzma herself answered him.\n\n\"Your form of enchantment, my poor boy,\" she said pityingly, \"is\ndifferent from that of the others. Indeed, it is a form that is\nimpossible to alter by any magic known to fairies or yookoohoos. The\nwicked Giantess was well aware, when she gave you the form of a Green\nMonkey, that the Green Monkey must exist in the Land of Oz for all\nfuture time.\"\n\nWoot drew a long sigh.\n\n\"Well, that's pretty hard luck,\" he said bravely, \"but if it can't be\nhelped I must endure it; that's all. I don't like being a monkey, but\nwhat's the use of kicking against my fate?\"\n\nThey were all very sorry for him, and Dorothy anxiously asked Ozma:\n\n\"Couldn't Glinda save him?\"\n\n\"No,\" was the reply. \"Glinda's power in transformations is no greater\nthan my own. Before I left my palace I went to my Magic Room and\nstudied Woot's case very carefully. I found that no power can do away\nwith the Green Monkey. He might transfer, or exchange his form with\nsome other person, it is true; but the Green Monkey we cannot get rid\nof by any magic arts known to science.\"\n\n\"But--see here,\" said the Scarecrow, who had listened intently to this\nexplanation, \"why not put the monkey's form on some one else?\"\n\n\"Who would agree to make the change?\" asked Ozma. \"If by force we\ncaused anyone else to become a Green Monkey, we would be as cruel and\nwicked as Mrs. Yoop. And what good would an exchange do?\" she\ncontinued. \"Suppose, for instance, we worked the enchantment, and made\nToto into a Green Monkey. At the same moment Woot would become a little\ndog.\"\n\n\"Leave me out of your magic, please,\" said Toto, with a reproachful\ngrowl. \"I wouldn't become a Green Monkey for anything.\"\n\n\"And I wouldn't become a dog,\" said Woot. \"A green monkey is much\nbetter than a dog, it seems to me.\"\n\n\"That is only a matter of opinion,\" answered Toto.\n\n\"Now, here's another idea,\" said the Scarecrow. \"My brains are working\nfinely today, you must admit. Why not transform Toto into Woot the\nWanderer, and then have them exchange forms? The dog would become a\ngreen monkey and the monkey would have his own natural shape again.\"\n\n\"To be sure!\" cried Jinjur. \"That's a fine idea.\"\n\n\"Leave me out of it,\" said Toto. \"I won't do it.\"\n\n\"Wouldn't you be willing to become a green monkey--see what a pretty\ncolor it is--so that this poor boy could be restored to his own shape?\"\nasked Jinjur, pleadingly.\n\n\"No,\" said Toto.\n\n\"I don't like that plan the least bit,\" declared Dorothy, \"for then I\nwouldn't have any little dog.\"\n\n\"But you'd have a green monkey in his place,\" persisted Jinjur, who\nliked Woot and wanted to help him.\n\n\"I don't want a green monkey,\" said Dorothy positively.\n\n\"Don't speak of this again, I beg of you,\" said Woot. \"This is my own\nmisfortune and I would rather suffer it alone than deprive Princess\nDorothy of her dog, or deprive the dog of his proper shape. And perhaps\neven her Majesty, Ozma of Oz, might not be able to transform anyone\nelse into the shape of Woot the Wanderer.\"\n\n\"Yes; I believe I might do that,\" Ozma returned; \"but Woot is quite\nright; we are not justified in inflicting upon anyone--man or dog--the\nform of a green monkey. Also it is certain that in order to relieve the\nboy of the form he now wears, we must give it to someone else, who\nwould be forced to wear it always.\"\n\n\"I wonder,\" said Dorothy, thoughtfully, \"if we couldn't find someone in\nthe Land of Oz who would be willing to become a green monkey? Seems to\nme a monkey is active and spry, and he can climb trees and do a lot of\nclever things, and green isn't a bad color for a monkey--it makes him\nunusual.\"\n\n\"I wouldn't ask anyone to take this dreadful form,\" said Woot; \"it\nwouldn't be right, you know. I've been a monkey for some time, now, and\nI don't like it. It makes me ashamed to be a beast of this sort when by\nright of birth I'm a boy; so I'm sure it would be wicked to ask anyone\nelse to take my place.\"\n\nThey were all silent, for they knew he spoke the truth. Dorothy was\nalmost ready to cry with pity and Ozma's sweet face was sad and\ndisturbed. The Scarecrow rubbed and patted his stuffed head to try to\nmake it think better, while the Tin Woodman went into the house and\nbegan to oil his tin joints so that the sorrow of his friends might not\ncause him to weep. Weeping is liable to rust tin, and the Emperor\nprided himself upon his highly polished body--now doubly dear to him\nbecause for a time he had been deprived of it.\n\nPolychrome had danced down the garden paths and back again a dozen\ntimes, for she was seldom still a moment, yet she had heard Ozma's\nspeech and understood very well Woot's unfortunate position. But the\nRainbow's Daughter, even while dancing, could think and reason very\nclearly, and suddenly she solved the problem in the nicest possible\nway. Coming close to Ozma, she said:\n\n\"Your Majesty, all this trouble was caused by the wickedness of Mrs.\nYoop, the Giantess. Yet even now that cruel woman is living in her\nsecluded castle, enjoying the thought that she has put this terrible\nenchantment on Woot the Wanderer. Even now she is laughing at our\ndespair because we can find no way to get rid of the green monkey. Very\nwell, we do not wish to get rid of it. Let the woman who created the\nform wear it herself, as a just punishment for her wickedness. I am\nsure your fairy power can give to Mrs. Yoop the form of Woot the\nWanderer--even at this distance from her--and then it will be possible\nto exchange the two forms. Mrs. Yoop will become the Green Monkey, and\nWoot will recover his own form again.\"\n\nOzma's face brightened as she listened to this clever proposal.\n\n\"Thank you, Polychrome,\" said she. \"The task you propose is not so easy\nas you suppose, but I will make the attempt, and perhaps I may succeed.\"\n\n\n\n\nChapter Fourteen\n\nThe Green Monkey\n\n\nThey now entered the house, and as an interested group, watched Jinjur,\nat Ozma's command, build a fire and put a kettle of water over to boil.\nThe Ruler of Oz stood before the fire silent and grave, while the\nothers, realizing that an important ceremony of magic was about to be\nperformed, stood quietly in the background so as not to interrupt\nOzma's proceedings. Only Polychrome kept going in and coming out,\nhumming softly to herself as she danced, for the Rainbow's Daughter\ncould not keep still for long, and the four walls of a room always made\nher nervous and ill at ease. She moved so noiselessly, however, that\nher movements were like the shifting of sunbeams and did not annoy\nanyone.\n\nWhen the water in the kettle bubbled, Ozma drew from her bosom two tiny\npackets containing powders. These powders she threw into the kettle and\nafter briskly stirring the contents with a branch from a macaroon bush,\nOzma poured the mystic broth upon a broad platter which Jinjur had\nplaced upon the table. As the broth cooled it became as silver,\nreflecting all objects from its smooth surface like a mirror.\n\nWhile her companions gathered around the table, eagerly attentive--and\nDorothy even held little Toto in her arms that he might see--Ozma waved\nher wand over the mirror-like surface. At once it reflected the\ninterior of Yoop Castle, and in the big hall sat Mrs. Yoop, in her best\nembroidered silken robes, engaged in weaving a new lace apron to\nreplace the one she had lost.\n\nThe Giantess seemed rather uneasy, as if she had a faint idea that\nsomeone was spying upon her, for she kept looking behind her and this\nway and that, as though expecting danger from an unknown source.\nPerhaps some yookoohoo instinct warned her. Woot saw that she had\nescaped from her room by some of the magical means at her disposal,\nafter her prisoners had escaped her. She was now occupying the big hall\nof her castle as she used to do. Also Woot thought, from the cruel\nexpression on the face of the Giantess, that she was planning revenge\non them, as soon as her new magic apron was finished.\n\nBut Ozma was now making passes over the platter with her silver Wand,\nand presently the form of the Giantess began to shrink in size and to\nchange its shape. And now, in her place sat the form of Woot the\nWanderer, and as if suddenly realizing her transformation Mrs. Yoop\nthrew down her work and rushed to a looking-glass that stood against\nthe wall of her room. When she saw the boy's form reflected as her own,\nshe grew violently angry and dashed her head against the mirror,\nsmashing it to atoms.\n\nJust then Ozma was busy with her magic Wand, making strange figures,\nand she had also placed her left hand firmly upon the shoulder of the\nGreen Monkey. So now, as all eyes were turned upon the platter, the\nform of Mrs. Yoop gradually changed again. She was slowly transformed\ninto the Green Monkey, and at the same time Woot slowly regained his\nnatural form.\n\nIt was quite a surprise to them all when they raised their eyes from\nthe platter and saw Woot the Wanderer standing beside Ozma. And, when\nthey glanced at the platter again, it reflected nothing more than the\nwalls of the room in Jinjur's house in which they stood. The magic\nceremonial was ended, and Ozma of Oz had triumphed over the wicked\nGiantess.\n\n\"What will become of her, I wonder?\" said Dorothy, as she drew a long\nbreath.\n\n\"She will always remain a Green Monkey,\" replied Ozma, \"and in that\nform she will be unable to perform any magical arts whatsoever. She\nneed not be unhappy, however, and as she lives all alone in her castle\nshe probably won't mind the transformation very much after she gets\nused to it.\"\n\n\"Anyhow, it serves her right,\" declared Dorothy, and all agreed with\nher.\n\n\"But,\" said the kind hearted Tin Woodman, \"I'm afraid the Green Monkey\nwill starve, for Mrs. Yoop used to get her food by magic, and now that\nthe magic is taken away from her, what can she eat?\"\n\n\"Why, she'll eat what other monkeys do,\" returned the Scarecrow. \"Even\nin the form of a Green Monkey, she's a very clever person, and I'm sure\nher wits will show her how to get plenty to eat.\"\n\n\"Don't worry about her,\" advised Dorothy. \"She didn't worry about you,\nand her condition is no worse than the condition she imposed on poor\nWoot. She can't starve to death in the Land of Oz, that's certain, and\nif she gets hungry at times it's no more than the wicked thing\ndeserves. Let's forget Mrs. Yoop; for, in spite of her being a\nyookoohoo, our fairy friends have broken all of her transformations.\"\n\n\n\n\nChapter Fifteen\n\nThe Man of Tin\n\n\nOzma and Dorothy were quite pleased with Woot the Wanderer, whom they\nfound modest and intelligent and very well mannered. The boy was truly\ngrateful for his release from the cruel enchantment, and he promised to\nlove, revere and defend the girl Ruler of Oz forever afterward, as a\nfaithful subject.\n\n\"You may visit me at my palace, if you wish,\" said Ozma, \"where I will\nbe glad to introduce you to two other nice boys, Ojo the Munchkin and\nButton-Bright.\"\n\n\"Thank your Majesty,\" replied Woot, and then he turned to the Tin\nWoodman and inquired: \"What are your further plans, Mr. Emperor? Will\nyou still seek Nimmie Amee and marry her, or will you abandon the quest\nand return to the Emerald City and your own castle?\"\n\nThe Tin Woodman, now as highly polished and well-oiled as ever,\nreflected a while on this question and then answered:\n\n\"Well, I see no reason why I should not find Nimmie Amee. We are now in\nthe Munchkin Country, where we are perfectly safe, and if it was right\nfor me, before our enchantment, to marry Nimmie Amee and make her\nEmpress of the Winkies, it must be right now, when the enchantment has\nbeen broken and I am once more myself. Am I correct, friend Scarecrow?\"\n\n\"You are, indeed,\" answered the Scarecrow. \"No one can oppose such\nlogic.\"\n\n\"But I'm afraid you don't love Nimmie Amee,\" suggested Dorothy.\n\n\"That is just because I can't love anyone,\" replied the Tin Woodman.\n\"But, if I cannot love my wife, I can at least be kind to her, and all\nhusbands are not able to do that.\"\n\n\"Do you s'pose Nimmie Amee still loves you, after all these years?\"\nasked Dorothy.\n\n\"I'm quite sure of it, and that is why I am going to her to make her\nhappy. Woot the Wanderer thinks I ought to reward her for being\nfaithful to me after my meat body was chopped to pieces and I became\ntin. What do you think, Ozma?\"\n\nOzma smiled as she said:\n\n\"I do not know your Nimmie Amee, and so I cannot tell what she most\nneeds to make her happy. But there is no harm in your going to her and\nasking her if she still wishes to marry you. If she does, we will give\nyou a grand wedding at the Emerald City and, afterward, as Empress of\nthe Winkies, Nimmie Amee would become one of the most important ladies\nin all Oz.\"\n\nSo it was decided that the Tin Woodman would continue his journey, and\nthat the Scarecrow and Woot the Wanderer should accompany him, as\nbefore. Polychrome also decided to join their party, somewhat to the\nsurprise of all.\n\n\"I hate to be cooped up in a palace,\" she said to Ozma, \"and of course\nthe first time I meet my Rainbow I shall return to my own dear home in\nthe skies, where my fairy sisters are even now awaiting me and my\nfather is cross because I get lost so often. But I can find my Rainbow\njust as quickly while traveling in the Munchkin Country as I could if\nliving in the Emerald City--or any other place in Oz--so I shall go\nwith the Tin Woodman and help him woo Nimmie Amee.\"\n\nDorothy wanted to go, too, but as the Tin Woodman did not invite her to\njoin his party, she felt she might be intruding if she asked to be\ntaken. She hinted, but she found he didn't take the hint. It is quite a\ndelicate matter for one to ask a girl to marry him, however much she\nloves him, and perhaps the Tin Woodman did not desire to have too many\nlooking on when he found his old sweetheart, Nimmie Amee. So Dorothy\ncontented herself with the thought that she would help Ozma prepare a\nsplendid wedding feast, to be followed by a round of parties and\nfestivities when the Emperor of the Winkies reached the Emerald City\nwith his bride.\n\nOzma offered to take them all in the Red Wagon to a place as near to\nthe great Munchkin forest as a wagon could get. The Red Wagon was big\nenough to seat them all, and so, bidding good-bye to Jinjur, who gave\nWoot a basket of ripe cream-puffs and caramels to take with him, Ozma\ncommanded the Wooden Sawhorse to start, and the strange creature moved\nswiftly over the lanes and presently came to the Road of Yellow Bricks.\nThis road led straight to a dense forest, where the path was too narrow\nfor the Red Wagon to proceed farther, so here the party separated.\n\nOzma and Dorothy and Toto returned to the Emerald City, after wishing\ntheir friends a safe and successful journey, while the Tin Woodman, the\nScarecrow, Woot the Wanderer and Polychrome, the Rainbow's Daughter,\nprepared to push their way through the thick forest. However, these\nforest paths were well known to the Tin Man and the Scarecrow, who felt\nquite at home among the trees.\n\n\"I was born in this grand forest,\" said Nick Chopper, the tin Emperor,\nspeaking proudly, \"and it was here that the Witch enchanted my axe and\nI lost different parts of my meat body until I became all tin. Here,\nalso--for it is a big forest--Nimmie Amee lived with the Wicked Witch,\nand at the other edge of the trees stands the cottage of my friend\nKu-Klip, the famous tinsmith who made my present beautiful form.\"\n\n\"He must be a clever workman,\" declared Woot, admiringly.\n\n\"He is simply wonderful,\" declared the Tin Woodman.\n\n\"I shall be glad to make his acquaintance,\" said Woot.\n\n\"If you wish to meet with real cleverness,\" remarked the Scarecrow,\n\"you should visit the Munchkin farmer who first made me. I won't say\nthat my friend the Emperor isn't all right for a tin man, but any judge\nof beauty can understand that a Scarecrow is far more artistic and\nrefined.\"\n\n\"You are too soft and flimsy,\" said the Tin Woodman.\n\n\"You are too hard and stiff,\" said the Scarecrow, and this was as near\nto quarreling as the two friends ever came. Polychrome laughed at them\nboth, as well she might, and Woot hastened to change the subject.\n\nAt night they all camped underneath the trees. The boy ate cream-puffs\nfor supper and offered Polychrome some, but she preferred other food\nand at daybreak sipped the dew that was clustered thick on the forest\nflowers. Then they tramped onward again, and presently the Scarecrow\npaused and said:\n\n\"It was on this very spot that Dorothy and I first met the Tin Woodman,\nwho was rusted so badly that none of his joints would move. But after\nwe had oiled him up, he was as good as new and accompanied us to the\nEmerald City.\"\n\n\"Ah, that was a sad experience,\" asserted the Tin Woodman soberly. \"I\nwas caught in a rainstorm while chopping down a tree for exercise, and\nbefore I realized it, I was firmly rusted in every joint. There I\nstood, axe in hand, but unable to move, for days and weeks and months!\nIndeed, I have never known exactly how long the time was; but finally\nalong came Dorothy and I was saved. See! This is the very tree I was\nchopping at the time I rusted.\"\n\n\"You cannot be far from your old home, in that case,\" said Woot.\n\n\"No; my little cabin stands not a great way off, but there is no\noccasion for us to visit it. Our errand is with Nimmie Amee, and her\nhouse is somewhat farther away, to the left of us.\"\n\n\"Didn't you say she lives with a Wicked Witch, who makes her a slave?\"\nasked the boy.\n\n\"She did, but she doesn't,\" was the reply. \"I am told the Witch was\ndestroyed when Dorothy's house fell on her, so now Nimmie Amee must\nlive all alone. I haven't seen her, of course, since the Witch was\ncrushed, for at that time I was standing rusted in the forest and had\nbeen there a long time, but the poor girl must have felt very happy to\nbe free from her cruel mistress.\"\n\n\"Well,\" said the Scarecrow, \"let's travel on and find Nimmie Amee. Lead\non, your Majesty, since you know the way, and we will follow.\"\n\nSo the Tin Woodman took a path that led through the thickest part of\nthe forest, and they followed it for some time. The light was dim here,\nbecause vines and bushes and leafy foliage were all about them, and\noften the Tin Man had to push aside the branches that obstructed their\nway, or cut them off with his axe. After they had proceeded some\ndistance, the Emperor suddenly stopped short and exclaimed: \"Good\ngracious!\"\n\nThe Scarecrow, who was next, first bumped into his friend and then\npeered around his tin body, and said in a tone of wonder:\n\n\"Well, I declare!\"\n\nWoot the Wanderer pushed forward to see what was the matter, and cried\nout in astonishment: \"For goodness' sake!\"\n\nThen the three stood motionless, staring hard, until Polychrome's merry\nlaughter rang out behind them and aroused them from their stupor.\n\nIn the path before them stood a tin man who was the exact duplicate of\nthe Tin Woodman. He was of the same size, he was jointed in the same\nmanner, and he was made of shining tin from top to toe. But he stood\nimmovable, with his tin jaws half parted and his tin eyes turned\nupward. In one of his hands was held a long, gleaming sword. Yes, there\nwas the difference, the only thing that distinguished him from the\nEmperor of the Winkies. This tin man bore a sword, while the Tin\nWoodman bore an axe.\n\n\"It's a dream; it must be a dream!\" gasped Woot.\n\n\"That's it, of course,\" said the Scarecrow; \"there couldn't be two Tin\nWoodmen.\"\n\n\"No,\" agreed Polychrome, dancing nearer to the stranger, \"this one is a\nTin Soldier. Don't you see his sword?\"\n\nThe Tin Woodman cautiously put out one tin hand and felt of his\ndouble's arm. Then he said in a voice that trembled with emotion:\n\n\"Who are you, friend?\"\n\nThere was no reply\n\n\"Can't you see he's rusted, just as you were once?\" asked Polychrome,\nlaughing again. \"Here, Nick Chopper, lend me your oil-can a minute!\"\n\nThe Tin Woodman silently handed her his oil-can, without which he never\ntraveled, and Polychrome first oiled the stranger's tin jaws and then\nworked them gently to and fro until the Tin Soldier said:\n\n\"That's enough. Thank you. I can now talk. But please oil my other\njoints.\"\n\nWoot seized the oil-can and did this, but all the others helped wiggle\nthe soldier's joints as soon as they were oiled, until they moved\nfreely.\n\nThe Tin Soldier seemed highly pleased at his release. He strutted up\nand down the path, saying in a high, thin voice:\n\n  \"The Soldier is a splendid man\n    When marching on parade,\n  And when he meets the enemy\n    He never is afraid.\n\n  He rights the wrongs of nations,\n    His country's flag defends,\n  The foe he'll fight with great delight,\n    But seldom fights his friends.\"\n\n\n\n\nChapter Sixteen\n\nCaptain Fyter\n\n\n\"Are you really a soldier?\" asked Woot, when they had all watched this\nstrange tin person parade up and down the path and proudly flourish his\nsword.\n\n\"I was a soldier,\" was the reply, \"but I've been a prisoner to Mr. Rust\nso long that I don't know exactly what I am.\"\n\n\"But--dear me!\" cried the Tin Woodman, sadly perplexed; \"how came you\nto be made of tin?\"\n\n\"That,\" answered the Soldier, \"is a sad, sad story I was in love with a\nbeautiful Munchkin girl, who lived with a Wicked Witch. The Witch did\nnot wish me to marry the girl, so she enchanted my sword, which began\nhacking me to pieces. When I lost my legs I went to the tinsmith,\nKu-Klip, and he made me some tin legs. When I lost my arms, Ku-Klip\nmade me tin arms, and when I lost my head he made me this fine one out\nof tin. It was the same way with my body, and finally I was all tin.\nBut I was not unhappy, for Ku-Klip made a good job of me, having had\nexperience in making another tin man before me.\"\n\n\"Yes,\" observed the Tin Woodman, \"it was Ku-Klip who made me. But, tell\nme, what was the name of the Munchkin girl you were in love with?\"\n\n\"She is called Nimmie Amee,\" said the Tin Soldier.\n\nHearing this, they were all so astonished that they were silent for a\ntime, regarding the stranger with wondering looks. Finally the Tin\nWoodman ventured to ask:\n\n\"And did Nimmie Amee return your love?\"\n\n\"Not at first,\" admitted the Soldier. \"When first I marched into the\nforest and met her, she was weeping over the loss of her former\nsweetheart, a woodman whose name was Nick Chopper.\"\n\n\"That is me,\" said the Tin Woodman.\n\n\"She told me he was nicer than a soldier, because he was all made of\ntin and shone beautifully in the sun. She said a tin man appealed to\nher artistic instincts more than an ordinary meat man, as I was then.\nBut I did not despair, because her tin sweetheart had disappeared, and\ncould not be found. And finally Nimmie Amee permitted me to call upon\nher and we became friends. It was then that the Wicked Witch discovered\nme and became furiously angry when I said I wanted to marry the girl.\nShe enchanted my sword, as I said, and then my troubles began. When I\ngot my tin legs, Nimmie Amee began to take an interest in me; when I\ngot my tin arms, she began to like me better than ever, and when I was\nall made of tin, she said I looked like her dear Nick Chopper and she\nwould be willing to marry me.\n\n\"The day of our wedding was set, and it turned out to be a rainy day.\nNevertheless I started out to get Nimmie Amee, because the Witch had\nbeen absent for some time, and we meant to elope before she got back.\nAs I traveled the forest paths the rain wetted my joints, but I paid no\nattention to this because my thoughts were all on my wedding with\nbeautiful Nimmie Amee and I could think of nothing else until suddenly\nmy legs stopped moving. Then my arms rusted at the joints and I became\nfrightened and cried for help, for now I was unable to oil myself. No\none heard my calls and before long my jaws rusted, and I was unable to\nutter another sound. So I stood helpless in this spot, hoping some\nwanderer would come my way and save me. But this forest path is seldom\nused, and I have been standing here so long that I have lost all track\nof time. In my mind I composed poetry and sang songs, but not a sound\nhave I been able to utter. But this desperate condition has now been\nrelieved by your coming my way and I must thank you for my rescue.\"\n\n\"This is wonderful!\" said the Scarecrow, heaving a stuffy, long sigh.\n\"I think Ku-Klip was wrong to make two tin men, just alike, and the\nstrangest thing of all is that both you tin men fell in love with the\nsame girl.\"\n\n\"As for that,\" returned the Soldier, seriously, \"I must admit I lost my\nability to love when I lost my meat heart. Ku-Klip gave me a tin heart,\nto be sure, but it doesn't love anything, as far as I can discover, and\nmerely rattles against my tin ribs, which makes me wish I had no heart\nat all.\"\n\n\"Yet, in spite of this condition, you were going to marry Nimmie Amee?\"\n\n\"Well, you see I had promised to marry her, and I am an honest man and\nalways try to keep my promises. I didn't like to disappoint the poor\ngirl, who had been disappointed by one tin man already.\"\n\n\"That was not my fault,\" declared the Emperor of the Winkies, and then\nhe related how he, also, had rusted in the forest and after a long time\nhad been rescued by Dorothy and the Scarecrow and had traveled with\nthem to the Emerald City in search of a heart that could love.\n\n\"If you have found such a heart, sir,\" said the Soldier, \"I will gladly\nallow you to marry Nimmie Amee in my place.\"\n\n\"If she loves you best, sir,\" answered the Woodman, \"I shall not\ninterfere with your wedding her. For, to be quite frank with you, I\ncannot yet love Nimmie Amee as I did before I became tin.\"\n\n\"Still, one of you ought to marry the poor girl,\" remarked Woot; \"and,\nif she likes tin men, there is not much choice between you. Why don't\nyou draw lots for her?\"\n\n\"That wouldn't be right,\" said the Scarecrow.\n\n\"The girl should be permitted to choose her own husband,\" asserted\nPolychrome. \"You should both go to her and allow her to take her\nchoice. Then she will surely be happy.\"\n\n\"That, to me, seems a very fair arrangement,\" said the Tin Soldier.\n\n\"I agree to it,\" said the Tin Woodman, shaking the hand of his twin to\nshow the matter was settled. \"May I ask your name, sir?\" he continued.\n\n\"Before I was so cut up,\" replied the other, \"I was known as Captain\nFyter, but afterward I was merely called 'The Tin Soldier.'\"\n\n\"Well, Captain, if you are agreeable, let us now go to Nimmie Amee's\nhouse and let her choose between us.\"\n\n\"Very well; and if we meet the Witch, we will both fight her--you with\nyour axe and I with my sword.\"\n\n\"The Witch is destroyed,\" announced the Scarecrow, and as they walked\naway he told the Tin Soldier of much that had happened in the Land of\nOz since he had stood rusted in the forest.\n\n\"I must have stood there longer than I had imagined,\" he said\nthoughtfully.\n\n\n\n\nChapter Seventeen\n\nThe Workshop of Ku-Klip\n\n\nIt was not more than a two hours' journey to the house where Nimmie\nAmee had lived, but when our travelers arrived there they found the\nplace deserted. The door was partly off its hinges, the roof had fallen\nin at the rear and the interior of the cottage was thick with dust. Not\nonly was the place vacant, but it was evident that no one had lived\nthere for a long time.\n\n\"I suppose,\" said the Scarecrow, as they all stood looking wonderingly\nat the ruined house, \"that after the Wicked Witch was destroyed, Nimmie\nAmee became lonely and went somewhere else to live.\"\n\n\"One could scarcely expect a young girl to live all alone in a forest,\"\nadded Woot. \"She would want company, of course, and so I believe she\nhas gone where other people live.\"\n\n\"And perhaps she is still crying her poor little heart out because no\ntin man comes to marry her,\" suggested Polychrome.\n\n\"Well, in that case, it is the clear duty of you two tin persons to\nseek Nimmie Amee until you find her,\" declared the Scarecrow.\n\n\"I do not know where to look for the girl,\" said the Tin Soldier, \"for\nI am almost a stranger to this part of the country.\"\n\n\"I was born here,\" said the Tin Woodman, \"but the forest has few\ninhabitants except the wild beasts. I cannot think of anyone living\nnear here with whom Nimmie Amee might care to live.\"\n\n\"Why not go to Ku-Klip and ask him what has become of the girl?\"\nproposed Polychrome.\n\nThat struck them all as being a good suggestion, so once more they\nstarted to tramp through the forest, taking the direct path to\nKu-Klip's house, for both the tin twins knew the way, having followed\nit many times.\n\nKu-Klip lived at the far edge of the great forest, his house facing the\nbroad plains of the Munchkin Country that lay to the eastward. But,\nwhen they came to this residence by the forest's edge, the tinsmith was\nnot at home.\n\nIt was a pretty place, all painted dark blue with trimmings of lighter\nblue. There was a neat blue fence around the yard and several blue\nbenches had been placed underneath the shady blue trees which marked\nthe line between forest and plain. There was a blue lawn before the\nhouse, which was a good sized building. Ku-Klip lived in the front part\nof the house and had his work-shop in the back part, where he had also\nbuilt a lean-to addition, in order to give him more room.\n\nAlthough they found the tinsmith absent on their arrival, there was\nsmoke coming out of his chimney, which proved that he would soon return.\n\n\"And perhaps Nimmie Amee will be with him,\" said the Scarecrow in a\ncheerful voice.\n\nWhile they waited, the Tin Woodman went to the door of the workshop\nand, finding it unlocked, entered and looked curiously around the room\nwhere he had been made.\n\n\"It seems almost like home to me,\" hie told his friends, who had\nfollowed him in. \"The first time I came here I had lost a leg, so I had\nto carry it in my hand while I hopped on the other leg all the way from\nthe place in the forest where the enchanted axe cut me. I remember that\nold Ku-Klip carefully put my meat leg into a barrel--I think that is\nthe same barrel, still standing in the corner yonder--and then at once\nhe began to make a tin leg for me. He worked fast and with skill, and I\nwas much interested in the job.\"\n\n\"My experience was much the same,\" said the Tin Soldier. \"I used to\nbring all the parts of me, which the enchanted sword had cut away, here\nto the tinsmith, and Ku-Klip would put them into the barrel.\"\n\n\"I wonder,\" said Woot, \"if those cast-off parts of you two unfortunates\nare still in that barrel in the corner?\"\n\n\"I suppose so.\" replied the Tin Woodman. \"In the Land of Oz no part of\na living creature can ever be destroyed.\"\n\n\"If that is true, how was that Wicked Witch destroyed?\" inquired Woot.\n\n\"Why, she was very old and was all dried up and withered before Oz\nbecame a fairyland,\" explained the Scarecrow. \"Only her magic arts had\nkept her alive so long, and when Dorothy's house fell upon her she just\nturned to dust, and was blown away and scattered by the wind. I do not\nthink, however, that the parts cut away from these two young men could\never be entirely destroyed and, if they are still in those barrels,\nthey are likely to be just the same as when the enchanted axe or sword\nsevered them.\"\n\n\"It doesn't matter, however,\" said the Tin Woodman; \"our tin bodies are\nmore brilliant and durable, and quite satisfy us.\"\n\n\"Yes, the tin bodies are best,\" agreed the Tin Soldier. \"Nothing can\nhurt them.\"\n\n\"Unless they get dented or rusted,\" said Woot, but both the tin men\nfrowned on him.\n\nScraps of tin, of all shapes and sizes, lay scattered around the\nworkshop. Also there were hammers and anvils and soldering irons and a\ncharcoal furnace and many other tools such as a tinsmith works with.\nAgainst two of the side walls had been built stout work-benches and in\nthe center of the room was a long table. At the end of the shop, which\nadjoined the dwelling, were several cupboards.\n\nAfter examining the interior of the workshop until his curiosity was\nsatisfied, Woot said:\n\n\"I think I will go outside until Ku-Klip comes. It does not seem quite\nproper for us to take possession of his house while he is absent.\"\n\n\"That is true,\" agreed the Scarecrow, and they were all about to leave\nthe room when the Tin Woodman said: \"Wait a minute,\" and they halted in\nobedience to the command.\n\n\n\n\nChapter Eighteen\n\nThe Tin Woodman Talks to Himself\n\n\nThe Tin Woodman had just noticed the cupboards and was curious to know\nwhat they contained, so he went to one of them and opened the door.\nThere were shelves inside, and upon one of the shelves which was about\non a level with his tin chin the Emperor discovered a Head--it looked\nlike a doll's head, only it was larger, and he soon saw it was the Head\nof some person. It was facing the Tin Woodman and as the cupboard door\nswung back, the eyes of the Head slowly opened and looked at him. The\nTin Woodman was not at all surprised, for in the Land of Oz one runs\ninto magic at every turn.\n\n\"Dear me!\" said the Tin Woodman, staring hard. \"It seems as if I had\nmet you, somewhere, before. Good morning, sir!\"\n\n\"You have the advantage of me,\" replied the Head. \"I never saw you\nbefore in my life.\"\n\n\"Still, your face is very familiar,\" persisted the Tin Woodman. \"Pardon\nme, but may I ask if you--eh--eh--if you ever had a Body?\"\n\n\"Yes, at one time,\" answered the Head, \"but that is so long ago I can't\nremember it. Did you think,\" with a pleasant smile, \"that I was born\njust as I am? That a Head would be created without a Body?\"\n\n\"No, of course not,\" said the other. \"But how came you to lose your\nbody?\"\n\n\"Well, I can't recollect the details; you'll have to ask Ku-Klip about\nit,\" returned the Head. \"For, curious as it may seem to you, my memory\nis not good since my separation from the rest of me. I still possess my\nbrains and my intellect is as good as ever, but my memory of some of\nthe events I formerly experienced is quite hazy.\"\n\n\"How long have you been in this cupboard?\" asked the Emperor.\n\n\"I don't know.\"\n\n\"Haven't you a name?\"\n\n\"Oh, yes,\" said the Head; \"I used to be called Nick Chopper, when I was\na woodman and cut down trees for a living.\"\n\n\"Good gracious!\" cried the Tin Woodman in astonishment. \"If you are\nNick Chopper's Head, then you are Me--or I'm You--or--or--What relation\nare we, anyhow?\"\n\n\"Don't ask me,\" replied the Head. \"For my part, I'm not anxious to\nclaim relationship with any common, manufactured article, like you. You\nmay be all right in your class, but your class isn't my class. You're\ntin.\"\n\nThe poor Emperor felt so bewildered that for a time he could only stare\nat his old Head in silence. Then he said:\n\n\"I must admit that I wasn't at all bad looking before I became tin.\nYou're almost handsome--for meat. If your hair was combed, you'd be\nquite attractive.\"\n\n\"How do you expect me to comb my hair without help?\" demanded the Head,\nindignantly. \"I used to keep it smooth and neat, when I had arms, but\nafter I was removed from the rest of me, my hair got mussed, and old\nKu-Klip never has combed it for me.\"\n\n\"I'll speak to him about it,\" said the Tin Woodman. \"Do you remember\nloving a pretty Munchkin girl named Nimmie Amee?\"\n\n\"No,\" answered the Head. \"That is a foolish question. The heart in my\nbody--when I had a body--might have loved someone, for all I know, but\na head isn't made to love; it's made to think.\"\n\n\"Oh; do you think, then?\"\n\n\"I used to think.\"\n\n\"You must have been shut up in this cupboard for years and years. What\nhave you thought about, in all that time?\"\n\n\"Nothing. That's another foolish question. A little reflection will\nconvince you that I have had nothing to think about, except the boards\non the inside of the cupboard door, and it didn't take me long to think\nof everything about those boards that could be thought of. Then, of\ncourse, I quit thinking.\"\n\n\"And are you happy?\"\n\n\"Happy? What's that?\"\n\n\"Don't you know what happiness is?\" inquired the Tin Woodman.\n\n\"I haven't the faintest idea whether it's round or square, or black or\nwhite, or what it is. And, if you will pardon my lack of interest in\nit, I will say that I don't care.\"\n\nThe Tin Woodman was much puzzled by these answers. His traveling\ncompanions had grouped themselves at his back, and had fixed their eyes\non the Head and listened to the conversation with much interest, but\nuntil now, they had not interrupted because they thought the Tin\nWoodman had the best right to talk to his own head and renew\nacquaintance with it.\n\nBut now the Tin Soldier remarked:\n\n\"I wonder if my old head happens to be in any of these cupboards,\" and\nhe proceeded to open all the cupboard doors. But no other head was to\nbe found on any of the shelves.\n\n\"Oh, well; never mind,\" said Woot the Wanderer; \"I can't imagine what\nanyone wants of a cast-off head, anyhow.\"\n\n\"I can understand the Soldier's interest,\" asserted Polychrome, dancing\naround the grimy workshop until her draperies formed a cloud around her\ndainty form. \"For sentimental reasons a man might like to see his old\nhead once more, just as one likes to revisit an old home.\"\n\n\"And then to kiss it good-bye,\" added the Scarecrow.\n\n\"I hope that tin thing won't try to kiss me good-bye!\" exclaimed the\nTin Woodman's former head. \"And I don't see what right you folks have\nto disturb my peace and comfort, either.\"\n\n\"You belong to me,\" the Tin Woodman declared.\n\n\"I do not!\"\n\n\"You and I are one.\"\n\n\"We've been parted,\" asserted the Head. \"It would be unnatural for me\nto have any interest in a man made of tin. Please close the door and\nleave me alone.\"\n\n\"I did not think that my old Head could be so disagreeable,\" said the\nEmperor. \"I--I'm quite ashamed of myself; meaning you.\"\n\n\"You ought to be glad that I've enough sense to know what my rights\nare,\" retorted the Head. \"In this cupboard I am leading a simple life,\npeaceful and dignified, and when a mob of people in whom I am not\ninterested disturb me, they are the disagreeable ones; not I.\"\n\nWith a sigh the Tin Woodman closed and latched the cupboard door and\nturned away.\n\n\"Well,\" said the Tin Soldier, \"if my old head would have treated me as\ncoldly and in so unfriendly a manner as your old head has treated you,\nfriend Chopper, I'm glad I could not find it.\"\n\n\"Yes; I'm rather surprised at my head, myself,\" replied the Tin\nWoodman, thoughtfully. \"I thought I had a more pleasant disposition\nwhen I was made of meat.\"\n\nBut just then old Ku-Klip the Tinsmith arrived, and he seemed surprised\nto find so many visitors. Ku-Klip was a stout man and a short man. He\nhad his sleeves rolled above his elbows, showing muscular arms, and he\nwore a leathern apron that covered all the front of him, and was so\nlong that Woot was surprised he didn't step on it and trip whenever he\nwalked. And Ku-Klip had a gray beard that was almost as long as his\napron, and his head was bald on top and his ears stuck out from his\nhead like two fans. Over his eyes, which were bright and twinkling, he\nwore big spectacles. It was easy to see that the tinsmith was a kind\nhearted man, as well as a merry and agreeable one. \"Oh-ho!\" he cried in\na joyous bass voice; \"here are both my tin men come to visit me, and\nthey and their friends are welcome indeed. I'm very proud of you two\ncharacters, I assure you, for you are so perfect that you are proof\nthat I'm a good workman. Sit down. Sit down, all of you--if you can\nfind anything to sit on--and tell me why you are here.\"\n\nSo they found seats and told him all of their adventures that they\nthought he would like to know. Ku-Klip was glad to learn that Nick\nChopper, the Tin Woodman, was now Emperor of the Winkies and a friend\nof Ozma of Oz, and the tinsmith was also interested in the Scarecrow\nand Polychrome.\n\nHe turned the straw man around, examining him curiously, and patted him\non all sides, and then said:\n\n\"You are certainly wonderful, but I think you would be more durable and\nsteady on your legs if you were made of tin. Would you like me to--\"\n\n\"No, indeed!\" interrupted the Scarecrow hastily; \"I like myself better\nas I am.\"\n\nBut to Polychrome the tinsmith said:\n\n\"Nothing could improve you, my dear, for you are the most beautiful\nmaiden I have ever seen. It is pure happiness just to look at you.\"\n\n\"That is praise, indeed, from so skillful a workman,\" returned the\nRainbow's Daughter, laughing and dancing in and out the room.\n\n\"Then it must be this boy you wish me to help,\" said Ku-Klip, looking\nat Woot.\n\n\"No,\" said Woot, \"we are not here to seek your skill, but have merely\ncome to you for information.\"\n\nThen, between them, they related their search for Nimmie Amee, whom the\nTin Woodman explained he had resolved to marry, yet who had promised to\nbecome the bride of the Tin Soldier before he unfortunately became\nrusted. And when the story was told, they asked Ku-Klip if he knew what\nhad become of Nimmie Amee.\n\n\"Not exactly,\" replied the old man, \"but I know that she wept bitterly\nwhen the Tin Soldier did not come to marry her, as he had promised to\ndo. The old Witch was so provoked at the girl's tears that she beat\nNimmie Amee with her crooked stick and then hobbled away to gather some\nmagic herbs, with which she intended to transform the girl into an old\nhag, so that no one would again love her or care to marry her. It was\nwhile she was away on this errand that Dorothy's house fell on the\nWicked Witch, and she turned to dust and blew away. When I heard this\ngood news, I sent Nimmie Amee to find the Silver Shoes which the Witch\nhad worn, but Dorothy had taken them with her to the Emerald City.\"\n\n\"Yes, we know all about those Silver Shoes,\" said the Scarecrow.\n\n\"Well,\" continued Ku-Klip, \"after that, Nimmie Amee decided to go away\nfrom the forest and live with some people she was acquainted with who\nhad a house on Mount Munch. I have never seen the girl since.\"\n\n\"Do you know the name of the people on Mount Munch, with whom she went\nto live?\" asked the Tin Woodman.\n\n\"No, Nimmie Amee did not mention her friend's name, and I did not ask\nher. She took with her all that she could carry of the goods that were\nin the Witch's house, and she told me I could have the rest. But when I\nwent there I found nothing worth taking except some magic powders that\nI did not know how to use, and a bottle of Magic Glue.\"\n\n\"What is Magic Glue?\" asked Woot.\n\n\"It is a magic preparation with which to mend people when they cut\nthemselves. One time, long ago, I cut off one of my fingers by\naccident, and I carried it to the Witch, who took down her bottle and\nglued it on again for me. See!\" showing them his finger, \"it is as good\nas ever it was. No one else that I ever heard of had this Magic Glue,\nand of course when Nick Chopper cut himself to pieces with his\nenchanted axe and Captain Fyter cut himself to pieces with his\nenchanted sword, the Witch would not mend them, or allow me to glue\nthem together, because she had herself wickedly enchanted the axe and\nsword. Nothing remained but for me to make them new parts out of tin;\nbut, as you see, tin answered the purpose very well, and I am sure\ntheir tin bodies are a great improvement on their meat bodies.\"\n\n\"Very true,\" said the Tin Soldier.\n\n\"I quite agree with you,\" said the Tin Woodman. \"I happened to find my\nold head in your cupboard, a while ago, and certainly it is not as\ndesirable a head as the tin one I now wear.\"\n\n\"By the way,\" said the Tin Soldier, \"what ever became of my old head,\nKu-Klip?\"\n\n\"And of the different parts of our bodies?\" added the Tin Woodman.\n\n\"Let me think a minute,\" replied Ku-Klip. \"If I remember right, you two\nboys used to bring me most of your parts, when they were cut off, and I\nsaved them in that barrel in the corner. You must not have brought me\nall the parts, for when I made Chopfyt I had hard work finding enough\npieces to complete the job. I finally had to finish him with one arm.\"\n\n\"Who is Chopfyt?\" inquired Woot.\n\n\"Oh, haven't I told you about Chopfyt?\" exclaimed Ku-Klip. \"Of course\nnot! And he's quite a curiosity, too. You'll be interested in hearing\nabout Chopfyt. This is how he happened:\n\n\"One day, after the Witch had been destroyed and Nimmie Amee had gone\nto live with her friends on Mount Munch, I was looking around the shop\nfor something and came upon the bottle of Magic Glue which I had\nbrought from the old Witch's house. It occurred to me to piece together\nthe odds and ends of you two people, which of course were just as good\nas ever, and see if I couldn't make a man out of them. If I succeeded,\nI would have an assistant to help me with my work, and I thought it\nwould be a clever idea to put to some practical use the scraps of Nick\nChopper and Captain Fyter. There were two perfectly good heads in my\ncupboard, and a lot of feet and legs and parts of bodies in the barrel,\nso I set to work to see what I could do.\n\n\"First, I pieced together a body, gluing it with the Witch's Magic\nGlue, which worked perfectly. That was the hardest part of my job,\nhowever, because the bodies didn't match up well and some parts were\nmissing. But by using a piece of Captain Fyter here and a piece of Nick\nChopper there, I finally got together a very decent body, with heart\nand all the trimmings complete.\"\n\n\"Whose heart did you use in making the body?\" asked the Tin Woodman\nanxiously.\n\n\"I can't tell, for the parts had no tags on them and one heart looks\nmuch like another. After the body was completed, I glued two fine legs\nand feet onto it. One leg was Nick Chopper's and one was Captain\nFyter's and, finding one leg longer than the other, I trimmed it down\nto make them match. I was much disappointed to find that I had but one\narm. There was an extra leg in the barrel, but I could find only one\narm. Having glued this onto the body, I was ready for the head, and I\nhad some difficulty in making up my mind which head to use. Finally I\nshut my eyes and reached out my hand toward the cupboard shelf, and the\nfirst head I touched I glued upon my new man.\"\n\n\"It was mine!\" declared the Tin Soldier, gloomily.\n\n\"No, it was mine,\" asserted Ku-Klip, \"for I had given you another in\nexchange for it--the beautiful tin head you now wear. When the glue had\ndried, my man was quite an interesting fellow. I named him Chopfyt,\nusing a part of Nick Chopper's name and a part of Captain Fyter's name,\nbecause he was a mixture of both your cast-off parts. Chopfyt was\ninteresting, as I said, but he did not prove a very agreeable\ncompanion. He complained bitterly because I had given him but one\narm--as if it were my fault!--and he grumbled because the suit of blue\nMunchkin clothes, which I got for him from a neighbor, did not fit him\nperfectly.\"\n\n\"Ah, that was because he was wearing my old head,\" remarked the Tin\nSoldier. \"I remember that head used to be very particular about its\nclothes.\"\n\n\"As an assistant,\" the old tinsmith continued, \"Chopfyt was not a\nsuccess. He was awkward with tools and was always hungry. He demanded\nsomething to eat six or eight times a day, so I wondered if I had\nfitted his insides properly. Indeed, Chopfyt ate so much that little\nfood was left for myself; so, when he proposed, one day, to go out into\nthe world and seek adventures, I was delighted to be rid of him. I even\nmade him a tin arm to take the place of the missing one, and that\npleased him very much, so that we parted good friends.\"\n\n\"What became of Chopfyt after that?\" the Scarecrow inquired.\n\n\"I never heard. He started off toward the east, into the plains of the\nMunchkin Country, and that was the last I ever saw of him.\"\n\n\"It seems to me,\" said the Tin Woodman reflectively, \"that you did\nwrong in making a man out of our cast-off parts. It is evident that\nChopfyt could, with justice, claim relationship with both of us.\"\n\n\"Don't worry about that,\" advised Ku-Klip cheerfully; \"it is not likely\nthat you will ever meet the fellow. And, if you should meet him, he\ndoesn't know who he is made of, for I never told him the secret of his\nmanufacture. Indeed, you are the only ones who know of it, and you may\nkeep the secret to yourselves, if you wish to.\"\n\n\"Never mind Chopfyt,\" said the Scarecrow. \"Our business now is to find\npoor Nimmie Amee and let her choose her tin husband. To do that, it\nseems, from the information Ku-Klip has given us, we must travel to\nMount Munch.\"\n\n\"If that's the programme, let us start at once,\" suggested Woot.\n\nSo they all went outside, where they found Polychrome dancing about\namong the trees and talking with the birds and laughing as merrily as\nif she had not lost her Rainbow and so been separated from all her\nfairy sisters.\n\nThey told her they were going to Mount Munch, and she replied:\n\n\"Very well; I am as likely to find my Rainbow there as here, and any\nother place is as likely as there. It all depends on the weather. Do\nyou think it looks like rain?\"\n\nThey shook their heads, and Polychrome laughed again and danced on\nafter them when they resumed their journey.\n\n\n\n\nChapter Nineteen\n\nThe Invisible Country\n\n\nThey were proceeding so easily and comfortably on their way to Mount\nMunch that Woot said in a serious tone of voice:\n\n\"I'm afraid something is going to happen.\"\n\n\"Why?\" asked Polychrome, dancing around the group of travelers.\n\n\"Because,\" said the boy, thoughtfully, \"I've noticed that when we have\nthe least reason for getting into trouble, something is sure to go\nwrong. Just now the weather is delightful; the grass is beautifully\nblue and quite soft to our feet; the mountain we are seeking shows\nclearly in the distance and there is no reason anything should happen\nto delay us in getting there. Our troubles all seem to be over,\nand--well, that's why I'm afraid,\" he added, with a sigh.\n\n\"Dear me!\" remarked the Scarecrow, \"what unhappy thoughts you have, to\nbe sure. This is proof that born brains cannot equal manufactured\nbrains, for my brains dwell only on facts and never borrow trouble.\nWhen there is occasion for my brains to think, they think, but I would\nbe ashamed of my brains if they kept shooting out thoughts that were\nmerely fears and imaginings, such as do no good, but are likely to do\nharm.\"\n\n\"For my part,\" said the Tin Woodman, \"I do not think at all, but allow\nmy velvet heart to guide me at all times.\"\n\n\"The tinsmith filled my hollow head with scraps and clippings of tin,\"\nsaid the Soldier, \"and he told me they would do nicely for brains, but\nwhen I begin to think, the tin scraps rattle around and get so mixed\nthat I'm soon bewildered. So I try not to think. My tin heart is almost\nas useless to me, for it is hard and cold, so I'm sure the red velvet\nheart of my friend Nick Chopper is a better guide.\"\n\n\"Thoughtless people are not unusual,\" observed the Scarecrow, \"but I\nconsider them more fortunate than those who have useless or wicked\nthoughts and do not try to curb them. Your oil can, friend Woodman, is\nfilled with oil, but you only apply the oil to your joints, drop by\ndrop, as you need it, and do not keep spilling it where it will do no\ngood. Thoughts should be restrained in the same way as your oil, and\nonly applied when necessary, and for a good purpose. If used carefully,\nthoughts are good things to have.\"\n\nPolychrome laughed at him, for the Rainbow's Daughter knew more about\nthoughts than the Scarecrow did. But the others were solemn, feeling\nthey had been rebuked, and tramped on in silence.\n\nSuddenly Woot, who was in the lead, looked around and found that all\nhis comrades had mysteriously disappeared. But where could they have\ngone to? The broad plain was all about him and there were neither trees\nnor bushes that could hide even a rabbit, nor any hole for one to fall\ninto. Yet there he stood, alone.\n\nSurprise had caused him to halt, and with a thoughtful and puzzled\nexpression on his face he looked down at his feet. It startled him anew\nto discover that he had no feet. He reached out his hands, but he could\nnot see them. He could feel his hands and arms and body; he stamped his\nfeet on the grass and knew they were there, but in some strange way\nthey had become invisible.\n\nWhile Woot stood, wondering, a crash of metal sounded in his ears and\nhe heard two heavy bodies tumble to the earth just beside him.\n\n\"Good gracious!\" exclaimed the voice of the Tin Woodman.\n\n\"Mercy me!\" cried the voice of the Tin Soldier.\n\n\"Why didn't you look where you were going?\" asked the Tin Woodman\nreproachfully.\n\n\"I did, but I couldn't see you,\" said the Tin Soldier. \"Something has\nhappened to my tin eyes. I can't see you, even now, nor can I see\nanyone else!\"\n\n\"It's the same way with me,\" admitted the Tin Woodman.\n\nWoot couldn't see either of them, although he heard them plainly, and\njust then something smashed against him unexpectedly and knocked him\nover; but it was only the straw-stuffed body of the Scarecrow that fell\nupon him and while he could not see the Scarecrow he managed to push\nhim off and rose to his feet just as Polychrome whirled against him and\nmade him tumble again.\n\nSitting upon the ground, the boy asked:\n\n\"Can you see us, Poly?\"\n\n\"No, indeed,\" answered the Rainbow's Daughter; \"we've all become\ninvisible.\"\n\n\"How did it happen, do you suppose?\" inquired the Scarecrow, lying\nwhere he had fallen.\n\n\"We have met with no enemy,\" answered Poly-chrome, \"so it must be that\nthis part of the country has the magic quality of making people\ninvisible--even fairies falling under the charm. We can see the grass,\nand the flowers, and the stretch of plain before us, and we can still\nsee Mount Munch in the distance; but we cannot see ourselves or one\nanother.\"\n\n\"Well, what are we to do about it?\" demanded Woot.\n\n\"I think this magic affects only a small part of the plain,\" replied\nPolychrome; \"perhaps there is only a streak of the country where an\nenchantment makes people become invisible. So, if we get together and\nhold hands, we can travel toward Mount Munch until the enchanted streak\nis passed.\"\n\n\"All right,\" said Woot, jumping up, \"give me your hand, Polychrome.\nWhere are you?\"\n\n\"Here,\" she answered. \"Whistle, Woot, and keep whistling until I come\nto you.\"\n\nSo Woot whistled, and presently Polychrome found him and grasped his\nhand.\n\n\"Someone must help me up,\" said the Scarecrow, lying near them; so they\nfound the straw man and sat him upon his feet, after which he held fast\nto Polychrome's other hand.\n\nNick Chopper and the Tin Soldier had managed to scramble up without\nassistance, but it was awkward for them and the Tin Woodman said:\n\n\"I don't seem to stand straight, somehow. But my joints all work, so I\nguess I can walk.\"\n\nGuided by his voice, they reached his side, where Woot grasped his tin\nfingers so they might keep together.\n\nThe Tin Soldier was standing near by and the Scarecrow soon touched him\nand took hold of his arm.\n\n\"I hope you're not wobbly,\" said the straw man, \"for if two of us walk\nunsteadily we will be sure to fall.\"\n\n\"I'm not wobbly,\" the Tin Soldier assured him, \"but I'm certain that\none of my legs is shorter than the other. I can't see it, to tell\nwhat's gone wrong, but I'll limp on with the rest of you until we are\nout of this enchanted territory.\"\n\nThey now formed a line, holding hands, and turning their faces toward\nMount Munch resumed their journey. They had not gone far, however, when\na terrible growl saluted their ears. The sound seemed to come from a\nplace just in front of them, so they halted abruptly and remained\nsilent, listening with all their ears.\n\n\"I smell straw!\" cried a hoarse, harsh voice, with more growls and\nsnarls. \"I smell straw, and I'm a Hip-po-gy-raf who loves straw and\neats all he can find. I want to eat this straw! Where is it? Where is\nit?\"\n\nThe Scarecrow, hearing this, trembled but kept silent. All the others\nwere silent, too, hoping that the invisible beast would be unable to\nfind them. But the creature sniffed the odor of the straw and drew\nnearer and nearer to them until he reached the Tin Woodman, on one end\nof the line. It was a big beast and it smelled of the Tin Woodman and\ngrated two rows of enormous teeth against the Emperor's tin body.\n\n\"Bah! that's not straw,\" said the harsh voice, and the beast advanced\nalong the line to Woot.\n\n\"Meat! Pooh, you're no good! I can't eat meat,\" grumbled the beast, and\npassed on to Polychrome.\n\n\"Sweetmeats and perfume--cobwebs and dew! Nothing to eat in a fairy\nlike you,\" said the creature.\n\nNow, the Scarecrow was next to Polychrome in the line, and he realized\nif the beast devoured his straw he would be helpless for a long time,\nbecause the last farmhouse was far behind them and only grass covered\nthe vast expanse of plain. So in his fright he let go of Polychrome's\nhand and put the hand of the Tin Soldier in that of the Rainbow's\nDaughter. Then he slipped back of the line and went to the other end,\nwhere he silently seized the Tin Woodman's hand.\n\nMeantime, the beast had smelled the Tin Soldier and found he was the\nlast of the line.\n\n\"That's funny!\" growled the Hip-po-gy-raf; \"I can smell straw, but I\ncan't find it. Well, it's here, somewhere, and I must hunt around until\nI do find it, for I'm hungry.\"\n\nHis voice was now at the left of them, so they started on, hoping to\navoid him, and traveled as fast as they could in the direction of Mount\nMunch.\n\n\"I don't like this invisible country,\" said Woot with a shudder. \"We\ncan't tell how many dreadful, invisible beasts are roaming around us,\nor what danger we'll come to next.\"\n\n\"Quit thinking about danger, please,\" said the Scarecrow, warningly.\n\n\"Why?\" asked the boy.\n\n\"If you think of some dreadful thing, it's liable to happen, but if you\ndon't think of it, and no one else thinks of it, it just can't happen.\nDo you see?\"\n\n\"No,\" answered Woot. \"I won't be able to see much of anything until we\nescape from this enchantment.\"\n\nBut they got out of the invisible strip of country as suddenly as they\nhad entered it, and the instant they got out they stopped short, for\njust before them was a deep ditch, running at right angles as far as\ntheir eyes could see and stopping all further progress toward Mount\nMunch.\n\n\"It's not so very wide,\" said Woot, \"but I'm sure none of us can jump\nacross it.\"\n\nPolychrome began to laugh, and the Scarecrow said: \"What's the matter?\"\n\n\"Look at the tin men!\" she said, with another burst of merry laughter.\n\nWoot and the Scarecrow looked, and the tin men looked at themselves.\n\n\"It was the collision,\" said the Tin Woodman regretfully. \"I knew\nsomething was wrong with me, and now I can see that my side is dented\nin so that I lean over toward the left. It was the Soldier's fault; he\nshouldn't have been so careless.\"\n\n\"It is your fault that my right leg is bent, making it shorter than the\nother, so that I limp badly,\" retorted the Soldier. \"You shouldn't have\nstood where I was walking.\"\n\n\"You shouldn't have walked where I was standing,\" replied the Tin\nWoodman.\n\nIt was almost a quarrel, so Polychrome said soothingly:\n\n\"Never mind, friends; as soon as we have time I am sure we can\nstraighten the Soldier's leg and get the dent out of the Woodman's\nbody. The Scarecrow needs patting into shape, too, for he had a bad\ntumble, but our first task is to get over this ditch.\"\n\n\"Yes, the ditch is the most important thing, just now,\" added Woot.\n\nThey were standing in a row, looking hard at the unexpected barrier,\nwhen a fierce growl from behind them made them all turn quickly. Out of\nthe invisible country marched a huge beast with a thick, leathery skin\nand a surprisingly long neck. The head on the top of this neck was\nbroad and flat and the eyes and mouth were very big and the nose and\nears very small. When the head was drawn down toward the beast's\nshoulders, the neck was all wrinkles, but the head could shoot up very\nhigh indeed, if the creature wished it to.\n\n\"Dear me!\" exclaimed the Scarecrow, \"this must be the Hip-po-gy-raf.\"\n\n\"Quite right,\" said the beast; \"and you're the straw which I'm to eat\nfor my dinner. Oh, how I love straw! I hope you don't resent my\naffectionate appetite?\"\n\nWith its four great legs it advanced straight toward the Scarecrow, but\nthe Tin Woodman and the Tin Soldier both sprang in front of their\nfriend and flourished their weapons.\n\n\"Keep off!\" said the Tin Woodman, warningly, \"or I'll chop you with my\naxe.\"\n\n\"Keep off!\" said the Tin Soldier, \"or I'll cut you with my sword.\"\n\n\"Would you really do that?\" asked the Hip-po-gy-raf, in a disappointed\nvoice.\n\n\"We would,\" they both replied, and the Tin Woodman added: \"The\nScarecrow is our friend, and he would be useless without his straw\nstuffing. So, as we are comrades, faithful and true, we will defend our\nfriend's stuffing against all enemies.\"\n\nThe Hip-po-gy-raf sat down and looked at them sorrowfully.\n\n\"When one has made up his mind to have a meal of delicious straw, and\nthen finds he can't have it, it is certainly hard luck,\" he said. \"And\nwhat good is the straw man to you, or to himself, when the ditch keeps\nyou from going any further?\"\n\n\"Well, we can go back again,\" suggested Woot.\n\n\"True,\" said the Hip-po; \"and if you do, you'll be as disappointed as I\nam. That's some comfort, anyhow.\"\n\nThe travelers looked at the beast, and then they looked across the\nditch at the level plain beyond. On the other side the grass had grown\ntall, and the sun had dried it, so there was a fine crop of hay that\nonly needed to be cut and stacked.\n\n\"Why don't you cross over and eat hay?\" the boy asked the beast.\n\n\"I'm not fond of hay,\" replied the Hip-po-gy-raf; \"straw is much more\ndelicious, to my notion, and it's more scarce in this neighborhood,\ntoo. Also I must confess that I can't get across the ditch, for my body\nis too heavy and clumsy for me to jump the distance. I can stretch my\nneck across, though, and you will notice that I've nibbled the hay on\nthe farther edge--not because I liked it, but because one must eat, and\nif one can't get the sort of food he desires, he must take what is\noffered or go hungry.\"\n\n\"Ah, I see you are a philosopher,\" remarked the Scarecrow.\n\n\"No, I'm just a Hip-po-gy-raf,\" was the reply.\n\nPolychrome was not afraid of the big beast. She danced close to him and\nsaid:\n\n\"If you can stretch your neck across the ditch, why not help us over?\nWe can sit on your big head, one at a time, and then you can lift us\nacross.\"\n\n\"Yes; I can, it is true,\" answered the Hip-po; \"but I refuse to do it.\nUnless--\" he added, and stopped short.\n\n\"Unless what?\" asked Polychrome.\n\n\"Unless you first allow me to eat the straw with which the Scarecrow is\nstuffed.\"\n\n\"No,\" said the Rainbow's Daughter, \"that is too high a price to pay.\nOur friend's straw is nice and fresh, for he was restuffed only a\nlittle while ago.\"\n\n\"I know,\" agreed the Hip-po-gy-raf. \"That's why I want it. If it was\nold, musty straw, I wouldn't care for it.\"\n\n\"Please lift us across,\" pleaded Polychrome.\n\n\"No,\" replied the beast; \"since you refuse my generous offer, I can be\nas stubborn as you are.\"\n\nAfter that they were all silent for a time, but then the Scarecrow said\nbravely:\n\n\"Friends, let us agree to the beast's terms. Give him my straw, and\ncarry the rest of me with you across the ditch. Once on the other side,\nthe Tin Soldier can cut some of the hay with his sharp sword, and you\ncan stuff me with that material until we reach a place where there is\nstraw. It is true I have been stuffed with straw all my life and it\nwill be somewhat humiliating to be filled with common hay, but I am\nwilling to sacrifice my pride in a good cause. Moreover, to abandon our\nerrand and so deprive the great Emperor of the Winkies--or this noble\nSoldier--of his bride, would be equally humiliating, if not more so.\"\n\n\"You're a very honest and clever man!\" exclaimed the Hip-po-gy-raf,\nadmiringly. \"When I have eaten your head, perhaps I also will become\nclever.\"\n\n\"You're not to eat my head, you know,\" returned the Scarecrow hastily.\n\"My head isn't stuffed with straw and I cannot part with it. When one\nloses his head he loses his brains.\"\n\n\"Very well, then; you may keep your head,\" said the beast.\n\nThe Scarecrow's companions thanked him warmly for his loyal sacrifice\nto their mutual good, and then he laid down and permitted them to pull\nthe straw from his body. As fast as they did this, the Hip-po-gy-raf\nate up the straw, and when all was consumed Polychrome made a neat\nbundle of the clothes and boots and gloves and hat and said she would\ncarry them, while Woot tucked the Scarecrow's head under his arm and\npromised to guard its safety.\n\n\"Now, then,\" said the Tin Woodman, \"keep your promise, Beast, and lift\nus over the ditch.\"\n\n\"M-m-m-mum, but that was a fine dinner!\" said the Hip-po, smacking his\nthick lips in satisfaction, \"and I'm as good as my word. Sit on my\nhead, one at a time, and I'll land you safely on the other side.\"\n\nHe approached close to the edge of the ditch and squatted down.\nPolychrome climbed over his big body and sat herself lightly upon the\nflat head, holding the bundle of the Scarecrow's raiment in her hand.\nSlowly the elastic neck stretched out until it reached the far side of\nthe ditch, when the beast lowered his head and permitted the beautiful\nfairy to leap to the ground.\n\nWoot made the queer journey next, and then the Tin Soldier and the Tin\nWoodman went over, and all were well pleased to have overcome this\nserious barrier to their progress.\n\n\"Now, Soldier, cut the hay,\" said the Scarecrow's head, which was still\nheld by Woot the Wanderer.\n\n\"I'd like to, but I can't stoop over, with my bent leg, without\nfalling,\" replied Captain Fyter.\n\n\"What can we do about that leg, anyhow?\" asked Woot, appealing to\nPolychrome.\n\nShe danced around in a circle several times without replying, and the\nboy feared she had not heard him; but the Rainbow's Daughter was merely\nthinking upon the problem, and presently she paused beside the Tin\nSoldier and said:\n\n\"I've been taught a little fairy magic, but I've never before been\nasked to mend tin legs with it, so I'm not sure I can help you. It all\ndepends on the good will of my unseen fairy guardians, so I'll try, and\nif I fail, you will be no worse off than you are now.\"\n\nShe danced around the circle again, and then laid both hands upon the\ntwisted tin leg and sang in her sweet voice:\n\n  \"Fairy Powers, come to my aid!\n  This bent leg of tin is made;\n  Make it straight and strong and true,\n  And I'll render thanks to you.\"\n\n\n\"Ah!\" murmured Captain Fyter in a glad voice, as she withdrew her hands\nand danced away, and they saw he was standing straight as ever, because\nhis leg was as shapely and strong as it had been before his accident.\n\nThe Tin Woodman had watched Polychrome with much interest, and he now\nsaid:\n\n\"Please take the dent out of my side, Poly, for I am more crippled than\nwas the Soldier.\"\n\nSo the Rainbow's Daughter touched his side lightly and sang:\n\n  \"Here's a dent by accident;\n  Such a thing was never meant.\n  Fairy Powers, so wondrous great,\n  Make our dear Tin Woodman straight!\"\n\n\n\"Good!\" cried the Emperor, again standing erect and strutting around to\nshow his fine figure. \"Your fairy magic may not be able to accomplish\nall things, sweet Polychrome, but it works splendidly on tin. Thank you\nvery much.\"\n\n\"The hay--the hay!\" pleaded the Scarecrow's head.\n\n\"Oh, yes; the hay,\" said Woot. \"What are you waiting for, Captain\nFyter?\"\n\nAt once the Tin Soldier set to work cutting hay with his sword and in a\nfew minutes there was quite enough with which to stuff the Scarecrow's\nbody. Woot and Polychrome did this and it was no easy task because the\nhay packed together more than straw and as they had little experience\nin such work their job, when completed, left the Scarecrow's arms and\nlegs rather bunchy. Also there was a hump on his back which made Woot\nlaugh and say it reminded him of a camel, but it was the best they\ncould do and when the head was fastened on to the body they asked the\nScarecrow how he felt.\n\n\"A little heavy, and not quite natural,\" he cheerfully replied; \"but\nI'll get along somehow until we reach a straw-stack. Don't laugh at me,\nplease, because I'm a little ashamed of myself and I don't want to\nregret a good action.\"\n\nThey started at once in the direction of Mount Munch, and as the\nScarecrow proved very clumsy in his movements, Woot took one of his\narms and the Tin Woodman the other and so helped their friend to walk\nin a straight line.\n\nAnd the Rainbow's Daughter, as before, danced ahead of them and behind\nthem and all around them, and they never minded her odd ways, because\nto them she was like a ray of sunshine.\n\n\n\n\nChapter Twenty\n\nOver Night\n\n\nThe Land of the Munchkins is full of surprises, as our travelers had\nalready learned, and although Mount Munch was constantly growing larger\nas they advanced toward it, they knew it was still a long way off and\nwere not certain, by any means, that they had escaped all danger or\nencountered their last adventure.\n\nThe plain was broad, and as far as the eye could see, there seemed to\nbe a level stretch of country between them and the mountain, but toward\nevening they came upon a hollow, in which stood a tiny blue Munchkin\ndwelling with a garden around it and fields of grain filling in all the\nrest of the hollow.\n\nThey did not discover this place until they came close to the edge of\nit, and they were astonished at the sight that greeted them because\nthey had imagined that this part of the plain had no inhabitants.\n\n\"It's a very small house,\" Woot declared. \"I wonder who lives there?\"\n\n\"The way to find out is to knock on the door and ask,\" replied the Tin\nWoodman. \"Perhaps it is the home of Nimmie Amee.\"\n\n\"Is she a dwarf?\" asked the boy.\n\n\"No, indeed; Nimmie Amee is a full sized woman.\"\n\n\"Then I'm sure she couldn't live in that little house,\" said Woot.\n\n\"Let's go down,\" suggested the Scarecrow. \"I'm almost sure I can see a\nstraw-stack in the back yard.\"\n\nThey descended the hollow, which was rather steep at the sides, and\nsoon came to the house, which was indeed rather small. Woot knocked\nupon a door that was not much higher than his waist, but got no reply.\nHe knocked again, but not a sound was heard.\n\n\"Smoke is coming out of the chimney,\" announced Polychrome, who was\ndancing lightly through the garden, where cabbages and beets and\nturnips and the like were growing finely.\n\n\"Then someone surely lives here,\" said Woot, and knocked again.\n\nNow a window at the side of the house opened and a queer head appeared.\nIt was white and hairy and had a long snout and little round eyes. The\nears were hidden by a blue sunbonnet tied under the chin.\n\n\"Oh; it's a pig!\" exclaimed Woot.\n\n\"Pardon me; I am Mrs. Squealina Swyne, wife of Professor Grunter Swyne,\nand this is our home,\" said the one in the window. \"What do you want?\"\n\n\"What sort of a Professor is your husband?\" inquired the Tin Woodman\ncuriously.\n\n\"He is Professor of Cabbage Culture and Corn Perfection. He is very\nfamous in his own family, and would be the wonder of the world if he\nwent abroad,\" said Mrs. Swyne in a voice that was half proud and half\nirritable. \"I must also inform you intruders that the Professor is a\ndangerous individual, for he files his teeth every morning until they\nare sharp as needles. If you are butchers, you'd better run away and\navoid trouble.\"\n\n\"We are not butchers,\" the Tin Woodman assured her.\n\n\"Then what are you doing with that axe?  And why has the other tin man\na sword?\"\n\n\"They are the only weapons we have to defend our friends from their\nenemies,\" explained the Emperor of the Winkies, and Woot added:\n\n\"Do not be afraid of us, Mrs. Swyne, for we are harmless travelers. The\ntin men and the Scarecrow never eat anything and Polychrome feasts only\non dewdrops. As for me, I'm rather hungry, but there is plenty of food\nin your garden to satisfy me.\"\n\nProfessor Swyne now joined his wife at the window, looking rather\nscared in spite of the boy's assuring speech. He wore a blue Munchkin\nhat, with pointed crown and broad brim, and big spectacles covered his\neyes. He peeked around from behind his wife and after looking hard at\nthe strangers, he said:\n\n\"My wisdom assures me that you are merely travelers, as you say, and\nnot butchers. Butchers have reason to be afraid of me, but you are\nsafe. We cannot invite you in, for you are too big for our house, but\nthe boy who eats is welcome to all the carrots and turnips he wants.\nMake yourselves at home in the garden and stay all night, if you like;\nbut in the morning you must go away, for we are quiet people and do not\ncare for company.\"\n\n\"May I have some of your straw?\" asked the Scarecrow.\n\n\"Help yourself,\" replied Professor Swyne.\n\n\"For pigs, they're quite respectable,\" remarked Woot, as they all went\ntoward the straw-stack.\n\n\"I'm glad they didn't invite us in,\" said Captain Fyter. \"I hope I'm\nnot too particular about my associates, but I draw the line at pigs.\"\n\nThe Scarecrow was glad to be rid of his hay, for during the long walk\nit had sagged down and made him fat and squatty and more bumpy than at\nfirst.\n\n\"I'm not specially proud,\" he said, \"but I love a manly figure, such as\nonly straw stuffing can create. I've not felt like myself since that\nhungry Hip-po ate my last straw.\"\n\nPolychrome and Woot set to work removing the hay and then they selected\nthe finest straw, crisp and golden, and with it stuffed the Scarecrow\nanew. He certainly looked better after the operation, and he was so\npleased at being reformed that he tried to dance a little jig, and\nalmost succeeded.\n\n\"I shall sleep under the straw-stack tonight,\" Woot decided, after he\nhad eaten some of the vegetables from the garden, and in fact he slept\nvery well, with the two tin men and the Scarecrow sitting silently\nbeside him and Polychrome away somewhere in the moonlight dancing her\nfairy dances.\n\nAt daybreak the Tin Woodman and the Tin Soldier took occasion to polish\ntheir bodies and oil their joints, for both were exceedingly careful of\ntheir personal appearance. They had forgotten the quarrel due to their\naccidental bumping of one another in the invisible country, and being\nnow good friends the Tin Woodman polished the Tin Soldier's back for\nhim and then the Tin Soldier polished the Tin Woodman's back.\n\nFor breakfast the Wanderer ate crisp lettuce and radishes, and the\nRainbow's Daughter, who had now returned to her friends, sipped the\ndewdrops that had formed on the petals of the wild-flowers.\n\nAs they passed the little house to renew their journey, Woot called out:\n\n\"Good-bye, Mr. and Mrs. Swyne!\"\n\nThe window opened and the two pigs looked out.\n\n\"A pleasant journey,\" said the Professor.\n\n\"Have you any children?\" asked the Scarecrow, who was a great friend of\nchildren.\n\n\"We have nine,\" answered the Professor; \"but they do not live with us,\nfor when they were tiny piglets the Wizard of Oz came here and offered\nto care for them and to educate them. So we let him have our nine tiny\npiglets, for he's a good Wizard and can be relied upon to keep his\npromises.\"\n\n\"I know the Nine Tiny Piglets,\" said the Tin Woodman.\n\n\"So do I,\" said the Scarecrow. \"They still live in the Emerald City,\nand the Wizard takes good care of them and teaches them to do all sorts\nof tricks.\"\n\n\"Did they ever grow up?\" inquired Mrs. Squealina Swyne, in an anxious\nvoice.\n\n\"No,\" answered the Scarecrow; \"like all other children in the Land of\nOz, they will always remain children, and in the case of the tiny\npiglets that is a good thing, because they would not be nearly so cute\nand cunning if they were bigger.\"\n\n\"But are they happy?\" asked Mrs. Swyne.\n\n\"Everyone in the Emerald City is happy,\" said the Tin Woodman. \"They\ncan't help it.\"\n\nThen the travelers said good-bye, and climbed the side of the basin\nthat was toward Mount Munch.\n\n\n\n\nChapter Twenty-One\n\nPolychrome's Magic\n\n\nOn this morning, which ought to be the last of this important journey,\nour friends started away as bright and cheery as could be, and Woot\nwhistled a merry tune so that Polychrome could dance to the music.\n\nOn reaching the top of the hill, the plain spread out before them in\nall its beauty of blue grasses and wildflowers, and Mount Munch seemed\nmuch nearer than it had the previous evening. They trudged on at a\nbrisk pace, and by noon the mountain was so close that they could\nadmire its appearance. Its slopes were partly clothed with pretty\nevergreens, and its foot-hills were tufted with a slender waving\nbluegrass that had a tassel on the end of every blade. And, for the\nfirst time, they perceived, near the foot of the mountain, a charming\nhouse, not of great size but neatly painted and with many flowers\nsurrounding it and vines climbing over the doors and windows.\n\nIt was toward this solitary house that our travelers now directed their\nsteps, thinking to inquire of the people who lived there where Nimmie\nAmee might be found.\n\nThere were no paths, but the way was quite open and clear, and they\nwere drawing near to the dwelling when Woot the Wanderer, who was then\nin the lead of the little party, halted with such an abrupt jerk that\nhe stumbled over backward and lay flat on his back in the meadow. The\nScarecrow stopped to look at the boy.\n\n\"Why did you do that?\" he asked in surprise.\n\nWoot sat up and gazed around him in amazement.\n\n\"I--I don't know!\" he replied.\n\nThe two tin men, arm in arm, started to pass them when both halted and\ntumbled, with a great clatter, into a heap beside Woot. Polychrome,\nlaughing at the absurd sight, came dancing up and she, also, came to a\nsudden stop, but managed to save herself from falling.\n\nEveryone of them was much astonished, and the Scarecrow said with a\npuzzled look:\n\n\"I don't see anything.\"\n\n\"Nor I,\" said Woot; \"but something hit me, just the same.\"\n\n\"Some invisible person struck me a heavy blow,\" declared the Tin\nWoodman, struggling to separate himself from the Tin Soldier, whose\nlegs and arms were mixed with his own.\n\n\"I'm not sure it was a person,\" said Polychrome, looking more grave\nthan usual. \"It seems to me that I merely ran into some hard substance\nwhich barred my way. In order to make sure of this, let me try another\nplace.\"\n\nShe ran back a way and then with much caution advanced in a different\nplace, but when she reached a position on a line with the others she\nhalted, her arms outstretched before her.\n\n\"I can feel something hard--something smooth as glass,\" she said, \"but\nI'm sure it is not glass.\"\n\n\"Let me try,\" suggested Woot, getting up; but when he tried to go\nforward, he discovered the same barrier that Polychrome had encountered.\n\n\"No,\" he said, \"it isn't glass. But what is it?\"\n\n\"Air,\" replied a small voice beside him. \"Solid air; that's all.\"\n\nThey all looked downward and found a sky-blue rabbit had stuck his head\nout of a burrow in the ground. The rabbit's eyes were a deeper blue\nthan his fur, and the pretty creature seemed friendly and unafraid.\n\n\"Air!\" exclaimed Woot, staring in astonishment into the rabbit's blue\neyes; \"whoever heard of air so solid that one cannot push it aside?\"\n\n\"You can't push this air aside,\" declared the rabbit, \"for it was made\nhard by powerful sorcery, and it forms a wall that is intended to keep\npeople from getting to that house yonder.\"\n\n\"Oh; it's a wall, is it?\" said the Tin Woodman.\n\n\"Yes, it is really a wall,\" answered the rabbit, \"and it is fully six\nfeet thick.\"\n\n\"How high is it?\" inquired Captain Fyter, the Tin Soldier.\n\n\"Oh, ever so high; perhaps a mile,\" said the rabbit.\n\n\"Couldn't we go around it?\" asked Woot.\n\n\"Of course, for the wall is a circle,\" explained the rabbit. \"In the\ncenter of the circle stands the house, so you may walk around the Wall\nof Solid Air, but you can't get to the house.\"\n\n\"Who put the air wall around the house?\" was the Scarecrow's question.\n\n\"Nimmie Amee did that.\"\n\n\"Nimmie Amee!\" they all exclaimed in surprise.\n\n\"Yes,\" answered the rabbit. \"She used to live with an old Witch, who\nwas suddenly destroyed, and when Nimmie Amee ran away from the Witch's\nhouse, she took with her just one magic formula--pure sorcery it\nwas--which enabled her to build this air wall around her house--the\nhouse yonder. It was quite a clever idea, I think, for it doesn't mar\nthe beauty of the landscape, solid air being invisible, and yet it\nkeeps all strangers away from the house.\"\n\n\"Does Nimmie Amee live there now?\" asked the Tin Woodman anxiously.\n\n\"Yes, indeed,\" said the rabbit.\n\n\"And does she weep and wail from morning till night?\" continued the\nEmperor.\n\n\"No; she seems quite happy,\" asserted the rabbit.\n\nThe Tin Woodman seemed quite disappointed to hear this report of his\nold sweetheart, but the Scarecrow reassured his friend, saying:\n\n\"Never mind, your Majesty; however happy Nimmie Amee is now, I'm sure\nshe will be much happier as Empress of the Winkies.\"\n\n\"Perhaps,\" said Captain Fyter, somewhat stiffly, \"she will be still\nmore happy to become the bride of a Tin Soldier.\"\n\n\"She shall choose between us, as we have agreed,\" the Tin Woodman\npromised; \"but how shall we get to the poor girl?\"\n\nPolychrome, although dancing lightly back and forth, had listened to\nevery word of the conversation. Now she came forward and sat herself\ndown just in front of the Blue Rabbit, her many-hued draperies giving\nher the appearance of some beautiful flower. The rabbit didn't back\naway an inch. Instead, he gazed at the Rainbow's Daughter admiringly.\n\n\"Does your burrow go underneath this Wall of Air?\" asked Polychrome.\n\n\"To be sure,\" answered the Blue Rabbit; \"I dug it that way so I could\nroam in these broad fields, by going out one way, or eat the cabbages\nin Nimmie Amee's garden by leaving my burrow at the other end. I don't\nthink Nimmie Amee ought to mind the little I take from her garden, or\nthe hole I've made under her magic wall. A rabbit may go and come as he\npleases, but no one who is bigger than I am could get through my\nburrow.\"\n\n\"Will you allow us to pass through it, if we are able to?\" inquired\nPolychrome.\n\n\"Yes, indeed,\" answered the Blue Rabbit. \"I'm no especial friend of\nNimmie Amee, for once she threw stones at me, just because I was\nnibbling some lettuce, and only yesterday she yelled 'Shoo!' at me,\nwhich made me nervous. You're welcome to use my burrow in any way you\nchoose.\"\n\n\"But this is all nonsense!\" declared Woot the Wanderer. \"We are every\none too big to crawl through a rabbit's burrow.\"\n\n\"We are too big now,\" agreed the Scarecrow, \"but you must remember that\nPolychrome is a fairy, and fairies have many magic powers.\"\n\nWoot's face brightened as he turned to the lovely Daughter of the\nRainbow.\n\n\"Could you make us all as small as that rabbit?\" he asked eagerly.\n\n\"I can try,\" answered Polychrome, with a smile. And presently she did\nit--so easily that Woot was not the only one astonished. As the now\ntiny people grouped themselves before the rabbit's burrow the hole\nappeared to them like the entrance to a tunnel, which indeed it was.\n\n\"I'll go first,\" said wee Polychrome, who had made herself grow as\nsmall as the others, and into the tunnel she danced without hesitation.\nA tiny Scarecrow went next and then the two funny little tin men.\n\n\"Walk in; it's your turn,\" said the Blue Rabbit to Woot the Wanderer.\n\"I'm coming after, to see how you get along. This will be a regular\nsurprise party to Nimmie Amee.\"\n\nSo Woot entered the hole and felt his way along its smooth sides in the\ndark until he finally saw the glimmer of daylight ahead and knew the\njourney was almost over. Had he remained his natural size, the distance\ncould have been covered in a few steps, but to a thumb-high Woot it was\nquite a promenade. When he emerged from the burrow he found himself but\na short distance from the house, in the center of the vegetable garden,\nwhere the leaves of rhubarb waving above his head seemed like trees.\nOutside the hole, and waiting for him, he found all his friends.\n\n\"So far, so good!\" remarked the Scarecrow cheerfully.\n\n\"Yes; so far, but no farther,\" returned the Tin Woodman in a plaintive\nand disturbed tone of voice. \"I am now close to Nimmie Amee, whom I\nhave come ever so far to seek, but I cannot ask the girl to marry such\na little man as I am now.\"\n\n\"I'm no bigger than a toy soldier!\" said Captain Fyter, sorrowfully.\n\"Unless Polychrome can make us big again, there is little use in our\nvisiting Nimmie Amee at all, for I'm sure she wouldn't care for a\nhusband she might carelessly step on and ruin.\"\n\nPolychrome laughed merrily.\n\n\"If I make you big, you can't get out of here again,\" said she, \"and if\nyou remain little Nimmie Amee will laugh at you. So make your choice.\"\n\n\"I think we'd better go back,\" said Woot seriously\n\n\"No,\" said the Tin Woodman, stoutly, \"I have decided that it's my duty\nto make Nimmie Amee happy, in case she wishes to marry me.\"\n\n\"So have I,\" announced Captain Fyter. \"A good soldier never shrinks\nfrom doing his duty.\"\n\n\"As for that,\" said the Scarecrow, \"tin doesn't shrink any to speak of,\nunder any circumstances. But Woot and I intend to stick to our\ncomrades, whatever they decide to do, so we will ask Polychrome to make\nus as big as we were before.\"\n\nPolychrome agreed to this request and in half a minute all of them,\nincluding herself, had been enlarged again to their natural sizes. They\nthen thanked the Blue Rabbit for his kind assistance, and at once\napproached the house of Nimme Amee.\n\n\n\n\nChapter Twenty-Two\n\nNimmie Amee\n\n\nWe may be sure that at this moment our friends were all anxious to see\nthe end of the adventure that had caused them so many trials and\ntroubles. Perhaps the Tin Woodman's heart did not beat any faster,\nbecause it was made of red velvet and stuffed with sawdust, and the Tin\nSoldier's heart was made of tin and reposed in his tin bosom without a\nhint of emotion. However, there is little doubt that they both knew\nthat a critical moment in their lives had arrived, and that Nimmie\nAmee's decision was destined to influence the future of one or the\nother.\n\nAs they assumed their natural sizes and the rhubarb leaves that had\nbefore towered above their heads now barely covered their feet, they\nlooked around the garden and found that no person was visible save\nthemselves. No sound of activity came from the house, either, but they\nwalked to the front door, which had a little porch built before it, and\nthere the two tinmen stood side by side while both knocked upon the\ndoor with their tin knuckles.\n\nAs no one seemed eager to answer the summons they knocked again; and\nthen again. Finally they heard a stir from within and someone coughed.\n\n\"Who's there?\" called a girl's voice.\n\n\"It's I!\" cried the tin twins, together.\n\n\"How did you get there?\" asked the voice.\n\nThey hesitated how to reply, so Woot answered for them:\n\n\"By means of magic.\"\n\n\"Oh,\" said the unseen girl. \"Are you friends, or foes?\"\n\n\"Friends!\" they all exclaimed.\n\nThen they heard footsteps approach the door, which slowly opened and\nrevealed a very pretty Munchkin girl standing in the doorway.\n\n\"Nimmie Amee!\" cried the tin twins.\n\n\"That's my name,\" replied the girl, looking at them in cold surprise.\n\"But who can you be?\"\n\n\"Don't you know me, Nimmie?\" said the Tin Woodman. \"I'm your old\nsweetheart, Nick Chopper!\"\n\n\"Don't you know me, my dear?\" said the Tin Soldier. \"I'm your old\nsweetheart, Captain Fyter!\"\n\nNimmie Amee smiled at them both. Then she looked beyond them at the\nrest of the party and smiled again. However, she seemed more amused\nthan pleased.\n\n\"Come in,\" she said, leading the way inside. \"Even sweethearts are\nforgotten after a time, but you and your friends are welcome.\"\n\nThe room they now entered was cosy and comfortable, being neatly\nfurnished and well swept and dusted. But they found someone there\nbesides Nimmie Amee. A man dressed in the attractive Munchkin costume\nwas lazily reclining in an easy chair, and he sat up and turned his\neves on the visitors with a cold and indifferent stare that was almost\ninsolent. He did not even rise from his seat to greet the strangers,\nbut after glaring at them he looked away with a scowl, as if they were\nof too little importance to interest him.\n\nThe tin men returned this man's stare with interest, but they did not\nlook away from him because neither of them seemed able to take his eyes\noff this Munchkin, who was remarkable in having one tin arm quite like\ntheir own tin arms.\n\n\"Seems to me,\" said Captain Fyter, in a voice that sounded harsh and\nindignant, \"that you, sir, are a vile impostor!\"\n\n\"Gently--gently!\" cautioned the Scarecrow; \"don't be rude to strangers,\nCaptain.\"\n\n\"Rude?\" shouted the Tin Soldier, now very much provoked; \"why, he's a\nscoundrel--a thief! The villain is wearing my own head!\"\n\n\"Yes,\" added the Tin Woodman, \"and he's wearing my right arm! I can\nrecognize it by the two warts on the little finger.\"\n\n\"Good gracious!\" exclaimed Woot. \"Then this must be the man whom old\nKu-Klip patched together and named Chopfyt.\"\n\nThe man now turned toward them, still scowling.\n\n\"Yes, that is my name,\" he said in a voice like a growl, \"and it is\nabsurd for you tin creatures, or for anyone else, to claim my head, or\narm, or any part of me, for they are my personal property.\"\n\n\"You? You're a Nobody!\" shouted Captain Fyter.\n\n\"You're just a mix-up,\" declared the Emperor.\n\n\"Now, now, gentlemen,\" interrupted Nimmie Amee, \"I must ask you to be\nmore respectful to poor Chopfyt. For, being my guests, it is not polite\nfor you to insult my husband.\"\n\n\"Your husband!\" the tin twins exclaimed in dismay.\n\n\"Yes,\" said she. \"I married Chopfyt a long time ago, because my other\ntwo sweethearts had deserted me.\"\n\nThis reproof embarrassed both Nick Chopper and Captain Fyter. They\nlooked down, shamefaced, for a moment, and then the Tin Woodman\nexplained in an earnest voice:\n\n\"I rusted.\"\n\n\"So did I,\" said the Tin Soldier.\n\n\"I could not know that, of course,\" asserted Nimmie Amee. \"All I knew\nwas that neither of you came to marry me, as you had promised to do.\nBut men are not scarce in the Land of Oz. After I came here to live, I\nmet Mr. Chopfyt, and he was the  more interesting because he reminded\nme strongly of both of you, as you were before you became tin. He even\nhad a tin arm, and that reminded me of you the more.\n\n\"No wonder!\" remarked the Scarecrow.\n\n\"But, listen, Nimmie Amee!\" said the astonished Woot; \"he really is\nboth of them, for he is made of their cast-off parts.\"\n\n\"Oh, you're quite wrong,\" declared Polychrome, laughing, for she was\ngreatly enjoying the confusion of the others. \"The tin men are still\nthemselves, as they will tell you, and so Chopfyt must be someone else.\"\n\nThey looked at her bewildered, for the facts in the case were too\npuzzling to be grasped at once.\n\n\"It is all the fault of old Ku-Klip,\" muttered the Tin Woodman. \"He had\nno right to use our castoff parts to make another man with.\"\n\n\"It seems he did it, however,\" said Nimmie Amee calmly, \"and I married\nhim because he resembled you both. I won't say he is a husband to be\nproud of, because he has a mixed nature and isn't always an agreeable\ncompanion. There are times when I have to chide him gently, both with\nmy tongue and with my broomstick. But he is my husband, and I must make\nthe best of him.\"\n\n\"If you don't like him,\" suggested the Tin Woodman, \"Captain Fyter and\nI can chop him up with our axe and sword, and each take such parts of\nthe fellow as belong to him. Then we are willing for you to select one\nof us as your husband.\"\n\n\"That is a good idea,\" approved Captain Fyter, drawing his sword.\n\n\"No,\" said Nimmie Amee; \"I think I'll keep the husband I now have. He\nis now trained to draw the water and carry in the wood and hoe the\ncabbages and weed the flower-beds and dust the furniture and perform\nmany tasks of a like character. A new husband would have to be\nscolded--and gently chided--until he learns my ways. So I think it will\nbe better to keep my Chopfyt, and I see no reason why you should object\nto him. You two gentlemen threw him away when you became tin, because\nyou had no further use for him, so you cannot justly claim him now. I\nadvise you to go back to your own homes and forget me, as I have\nforgotten you.\"\n\n\"Good advice!\" laughed Polychrome, dancing.\n\n\"Are you happy?\" asked the Tin Soldier.\n\n\"Of course I am,\" said Nimmie Amee; \"I'm the mistress of all I\nsurvey--the queen of my little domain.\"\n\n\"Wouldn't you like to be the Empress of the Winkies?\" asked the Tin\nWoodman.\n\n\"Mercy, no,\" she answered. \"That would be a lot of bother. I don't care\nfor society, or pomp, or posing. All I ask is to be left alone and not\nto be annoyed by visitors.\"\n\nThe Scarecrow nudged Woot the Wanderer.\n\n\"That sounds to me like a hint,\" he said.\n\n\"Looks as if we'd had our journey for nothing,\" remarked Woot, who was\na little ashamed and disappointed because he had proposed the journey.\n\n\"I am glad, however,\" said the Tin Woodman, \"that I have found Nimmie\nAmee, and discovered that she is already married and happy. It will\nrelieve me of any further anxiety concerning her.\"\n\n\"For my part,\" said the Tin Soldier, \"I am not sorry to be free. The\nonly thing that really annoys me is finding my head upon Chopfyt's\nbody.\"\n\n\"As for that, I'm pretty sure it is my body, or a part of it, anyway,\"\nremarked the Emperor of the Winkies. \"But never mind, friend Soldier;\nlet us be willing to donate our cast-off members to insure the\nhappiness of Nimmie Amee, and be thankful it is not our fate to hoe\ncabbages and draw water--and be chided--in the place of this creature\nChopfyt.\"\n\n\"Yes,\" agreed the Soldier, \"we have much to be thankful for.\"\n\nPolychrome, who had wandered outside, now poked her pretty head through\nan open window and exclaimed in a pleased voice:\n\n\"It's getting cloudy. Perhaps it is going to rain!\"\n\n\n\n\nChapter Twenty-Three\n\nThrough the Tunnel\n\n\nIt didn't rain just then, although the clouds in the sky grew thicker\nand more threatening. Polychrome hoped for a thunder-storm, followed by\nher Rainbow, but the two tin men did not relish the idea of getting\nwet. They even preferred to remain in Nimmie Amee's house, although\nthey felt they were not welcome there, rather than go out and face the\ncoming storm. But the Scarecrow, who was a very thoughtful person, said\nto his friends:\n\n\"If we remain here until after the storm, and Polychrome goes away on\nher Rainbow, then we will be prisoners inside the Wall of Solid Air; so\nit seems best to start upon our return journey at once. If I get wet,\nmy straw stuffing will be ruined, and if you two tin gentlemen get wet,\nyou may perhaps rust again, and become useless. But even that is better\nthan to stay here. Once we are free of the barrier, we have Woot the\nWanderer to help us, and he can oil your joints and restuff my body, if\nit becomes necessary, for the boy is made of meat, which neither rusts\nnor gets soggy or moldy.\"\n\n\"Come along, then!\" cried Polychrome from the window, and the others,\nrealizing the wisdom of the Scarecrow's speech, took leave of Nimmie\nAmee, who was glad to be rid of them, and said good-bye to her husband,\nwho merely scowled and made no answer, and then they hurried from the\nhouse.\n\n\"Your old parts are not very polite, I must say,\" remarked the\nScarecrow, when they were in the garden.\n\n\"No,\" said Woot, \"Chopfyt is a regular grouch. He might have wished us\na pleasant journey, at the very least.\"\n\n\"I beg you not to hold us responsible for that creature's actions,\"\npleaded the Tin Woodman. \"We are through with Chopfyt and shall have\nnothing further to do with him.\"\n\nPolychrome danced ahead of the party and led them straight to the\nburrow of the Blue Rabbit, which they might have had some difficulty in\nfinding without her. There she lost no time in making them all small\nagain. The Blue Rabbit was busy nibbling cabbage leaves in Nimmie\nAmee's garden, so they did not ask his permission but at once entered\nthe burrow.\n\nEven now the raindrops were beginning to fall, but it was quite dry\ninside the tunnel and by the time they had reached the other end,\noutside the circular Wall of Solid Air, the storm was at its height and\nthe rain was coming down in torrents.\n\n\"Let us wait here,\" proposed Polychrome, peering out of the hole and\nthen quickly retreating. \"The Rainbow won't appear until after the\nstorm and I can make you big again in a jiffy, before I join my sisters\non our bow.\"\n\n\"That's a good plan,\" said the Scarecrow approvingly. \"It will save me\nfrom getting soaked and soggy.\"\n\n\"It will save me from rusting,\" said the Tin Soldier.\n\n\"It will enable me to remain highly polished,\" said the Tin Woodman.\n\n\"Oh, as for that, I myself prefer not to get my pretty clothes wet,\"\nlaughed the Rainbow's daughter.\n\n\"But while we wait I will bid you all adieu. I must also thank you for\nsaving me from that dreadful Giantess, Mrs. Yoop. You have been good\nand patient comrades and I have enjoyed our adventures together, but I\nam never so happy as when on my dear Rainbow.\"\n\n\"Will your father scold you for getting left on the earth?\" asked Woot.\n\n\"I suppose so,\" said Polychrome gaily; \"I'm always getting scolded for\nmy mad pranks, as they are called. My sisters are so sweet and lovely\nand proper that they never dance off our Rainbow, and so they never\nhave any adventures. Adventures to me are good fun, only I never like\nto stay too long on earth, because I really don't belong here. I shall\ntell my Father the Rainbow that I'll try not to be so careless again,\nand he will forgive me because in our sky mansions there is always joy\nand happiness.\"\n\nThey were indeed sorry to part with their dainty and beautiful\ncompanion and assured her of their devotion if they ever chanced to\nmeet again. She shook hands with the Scarecrow and the Tin Men and\nkissed Woot the Wanderer lightly upon his forehead.\n\nAnd then the rain suddenly ceased, and as the tiny people left the\nburrow of the Blue Rabbit, a glorious big Rainbow appeared in the sky\nand the end of its arch slowly descended and touched the ground just\nwhere they stood.\n\nWoot was so busy watching a score of lovely maidens--sisters of\nPolychrome--who were leaning over the edge of the bow, and another\nscore who danced gaily amid the radiance of the splendid hues, that he\ndid not notice he was growing big again. But now Polychrome joined her\nsisters on the Rainbow and the huge arch lifted and slowly melted away\nas the sun burst from the clouds and sent its own white beams dancing\nover the meadows.\n\n\"Why, she's gone!\" exclaimed the boy, and turned to see his companions\nstill waving their hands in token of adieu to the vanished Polychrome.\n\n\n\n\nChapter Twenty-Four\n\nThe Curtain Falls\n\n\nWell, the rest of the story is quickly told, for the return Journey of\nour adventurers was without any important incident. The Scarecrow was\nso afraid of meeting the Hip-po-gy-raf, and having his straw eaten\nagain, that he urged his comrades to select another route to the\nEmerald City, and they willingly consented, so that the Invisible\nCountry was wholly avoided.\n\nOf course, when they reached the Emerald City their first duty was to\nvisit Ozma's palace, where they were royally entertained. The Tin\nSoldier and Woot the Wanderer were welcomed as warmly as any strangers\nmight be who had been the traveling companions of Ozma's dear old\nfriends, the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman.\n\nAt the banquet table that evening they related the manner in which they\nhad discovered Nimmie Amee, and told how they had found her happily\nmarried to Chopfyt, whose relationship to Nick Chopper and Captain\nFyter was so bewildering that they asked Ozma's advice what to do about\nit.\n\n\"You need not consider Chopfyt at all,\" replied the beautiful girl\nRuler of Oz. \"If Nimmie Amee is content with that misfit man for a\nhusband, we have not even just cause to blame Ku-Klip for gluing him\ntogether.\"\n\n\"I think it was a very good idea,\" added little Dorothy, \"for if\nKu-Klip hadn't used up your castoff parts, they would have been wasted.\nIt's wicked to be wasteful, isn't it?\"\n\n\"Well, anyhow,\" said Woot the Wanderer, \"Chopfyt, being kept a prisoner\nby his wife, is too far away from anyone to bother either of you tin\nmen in any way. If you hadn't gone where he is and discovered him, you\nwould never have worried about him.\"\n\n\"What do you care, anyhow,\" Betsy Bobbin asked the Tin Woodman, \"so\nlong as Nimmie Amee is satisfied?\"\n\n\"And just to think,\" remarked Tiny Trot, \"that any girl would rather\nlive with a mixture like Chopfyt, on far-away Mount Munch, than to be\nthe Empress of the Winkies!\"\n\n\"It is her own choice,\" said the Tin Woodman contentedly; \"and, after\nall, I'm not sure the Winkies would care to have an Empress.\"\n\nIt puzzled Ozma, for a time, to decide what to do with the Tin Soldier.\nIf he went with the Tin Woodman to the Emperor's castle, she felt that\nthe two tin men might not be able to live together in harmony, and\nmoreover the Emperor would not be so distinguished if he had a double\nconstantly beside him. So she asked Captain Fyter if he was willing to\nserve her as a soldier, and he promptly declared that nothing would\nplease him more. After he had been in her service for some time, Ozma\nsent him into the Gillikin Country, with instructions to keep order\namong the wild people who inhabit some parts of that unknown country of\nOz.\n\nAs for Woot, being a Wanderer by profession, he was allowed to wander\nwherever he desired, and Ozma promised to keep watch over his future\njourneys and to protect the boy as well as she was able, in case he\never got into more trouble.\n\nAll this having been happily arranged, the Tin Woodman returned to his\ntin castle, and his chosen comrade, the Scarecrow, accompanied him on\nthe way. The two friends were sure to pass many pleasant hours together\nin talking over their recent adventures, for as they neither ate nor\nslept they found their greatest amusement in conversation."