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Henry van Dyke - "The Mansion"

Bret Harte - "In a Hollow of the Hills"

Benedict de Spinoza - "The Ethics [Part 5]"

DeTroyes - "Four Arthurian Romances, by Chretien DeTroyes"

The Emerald City of Oz

L >> L. Frank Baum >> The Emerald City of Oz




The Sawhorse stopped short at this pitiful sight, and Dorothy cried
out, with ready sympathy:

"What's the matter, Kangaroo?"

"Boo-hoo! Boo-hoo!" wailed the Kangaroo; "I've lost my mi--mi--mi--Oh,
boo-hoo! Boo-hoo!"--

"Poor thing," said the Wizard, "she's lost her mister. It's probably
her husband, and he's dead."

"No, no, no!" sobbed the kangaroo. "It--it isn't that. I've lost my
mi--mi--Oh, boo, boo-hoo!"

"I know," said the Shaggy Man; "she's lost her mirror."

"No; it's my mi--mi--mi--Boo-hoo! My mi--Oh, Boo-hoo!" and the
kangaroo cried harder than ever.

"It must be her mince-pie," suggested Aunt Em.

"Or her milk-toast," proposed Uncle Henry.

"I've lost my mi--mi--mittens!" said the kangaroo, getting it out at last.

"Oh!" cried the Yellow Hen, with a cackle of relief. "Why didn't you
say so before?"

"Boo-hoo! I--I--couldn't," answered the kangaroo.

"But, see here," said Dorothy, "you don't need mittens in this
warm weather."

"Yes, indeed I do," replied the animal, stopping her sobs and removing
her paws from her face to look at the little girl reproachfully. "My
hands will get all sunburned and tanned without my mittens, and I've
worn them so long that I'll probably catch cold without them."

"Nonsense!" said Dorothy. "I never heard of any kangaroo
wearing mittens."

"Didn't you?" asked the animal, as if surprised.

"Never!" repeated the girl. "And you'll probably make yourself sick
if you don't stop crying. Where do you live?"

"About two miles beyond Fuddlecumjig," was the answer. "Grandmother
Gnit made me the mittens, and she's one of the Fuddles."

"Well, you'd better go home now, and perhaps the old lady will make
you another pair," suggested Dorothy. "We're on our way to
Fuddlecumjig, and you may hop along beside us."

So they rode on, and the kangaroo hopped beside the red wagon and
seemed quickly to have forgotten her loss. By and by the Wizard said
to the animal:

"Are the Fuddles nice people?"

"Oh, very nice," answered the kangaroo; "that is, when they're
properly put together. But they get dreadfully scattered and mixed
up, at times, and then you can't do anything with them."

"What do you mean by their getting scattered?" inquired Dorothy.

"Why, they're made in a good many small pieces," explained the
kangaroo; "and whenever any stranger comes near them they have a
habit of falling apart and scattering themselves around. That's when
they get so dreadfully mixed, and it's a hard puzzle to put them
together again."

"Who usually puts them together?" asked Omby Amby.

"Any one who is able to match the pieces. I sometimes put Grandmother
Gnit together myself, because I know her so well I can tell every
piece that belongs to her. Then, when she's all matched, she knits
for me, and that's how she made my mittens. But it took a good many
days hard knitting, and I had to put Grandmother together a good many
times, because every time I came near, she'd scatter herself."

"I should think she would get used to your coming, and not be afraid,"
said Dorothy.

"It isn't that," replied the kangaroo. "They're not a bit afraid,
when they're put together, and usually they're very jolly and pleasant.
It's just a habit they have, to scatter themselves, and if they didn't
do it they wouldn't be Fuddles."

The travelers thought upon this quite seriously for a time, while the
Sawhorse continued to carry them rapidly forward. Then Aunt Em remarked:

"I don't see much use our visitin' these Fuddles. If we find
them scattered, all we can do is to sweep 'em up, and then go
about our business."

"Oh, I b'lieve we'd better go on," replied Dorothy. "I'm getting
hungry, and we must try to get some luncheon at Fuddlecumjig. Perhaps
the food won't be scattered as badly as the people."

"You'll find plenty to eat there," declared the kangaroo, hopping
along in big bounds because the Sawhorse was going so fast; "and they
have a fine cook, too, if you can manage to put him together. There's
the town now--just ahead of us!"

They looked ahead and saw a group of very pretty houses standing in a
green field a little apart from the main road.

"Some Munchkins came here a few days ago and matched a lot of people
together," said the kangaroo. "I think they are together yet, and if
you go softly, without making any noise, perhaps they won't scatter."

"Let's try it," suggested the Wizard.

So they stopped the Sawhorse and got out of the wagon, and, after
bidding good bye to the kangaroo, who hopped away home, they entered
the field and very cautiously approached the group of houses.

So silently did they move that soon they saw through the windows of
the houses, people moving around, while others were passing to and fro
in the yards between the buildings. They seemed much like other
people from a distance, and apparently they did not notice the little
party so quietly approaching.

They had almost reached the nearest house when Toto saw a large beetle
crossing the path and barked loudly at it. Instantly a wild clatter
was heard from the houses and yards. Dorothy thought it sounded like
a sudden hailstorm, and the visitors, knowing that caution was no
longer necessary, hurried forward to see what had happened.

After the clatter an intense stillness reigned in the town. The
strangers entered the first house they came to, which was also the
largest, and found the floor strewn with pieces of the people who
lived there. They looked much like fragments of wood neatly painted,
and were of all sorts of curious and fantastic shapes, no two pieces
being in any way alike.

They picked up some of these pieces and looked at them carefully. On
one which Dorothy held was an eye, which looked at her pleasantly but
with an interested expression, as if it wondered what she was going to
do with it. Quite near by she discovered and picked up a nose, and by
matching the two pieces together found that they were part of a face.

"If I could find the mouth," she said, "this Fuddle might be able to
talk, and tell us what to do next."

"Then let us find it," replied the Wizard, and so all got down on
their hands and knees and began examining the scattered pieces.

"I've found it!" cried the Shaggy Man, and ran to Dorothy with a
queer-shaped piece that had a mouth on it. But when they tried to fit
it to the eye and nose they found the parts wouldn't match together.

"That mouth belongs to some other person," said Dorothy. "You see we
need a curve here and a point there, to make it fit the face."

"Well, it must be here some place," declared the Wizard; "so if we
search long enough we shall find it."

Dorothy fitted an ear on next, and the ear had a little patch of red
hair above it. So while the others were searching for the mouth she
hunted for pieces with red hair, and found several of them which, when
matched to the other pieces, formed the top of a man's head. She had
also found the other eye and the ear by the time Omby Amby in a far
corner discovered the mouth. When the face was thus completed, all
the parts joined together with a nicety that was astonishing.

"Why, it's like a picture puzzle!" exclaimed the little girl.
"Let's find the rest of him, and get him all together."

"What's the rest of him like?" asked the Wizard. "Here are some
pieces of blue legs and green arms, but I don't know whether they are
his or not."

"Look for a white shirt and a white apron," said the head which had
been put together, speaking in a rather faint voice. "I'm the cook."

"Oh, thank you," said Dorothy. "It's lucky we started you first, for
I'm hungry, and you can be cooking something for us to eat while we
match the other folks together."

It was not so very difficult, now that they had a hint as to how the
man was dressed, to find the other pieces belonging to him, and as all
of them now worked on the cook, trying piece after piece to see if it
would fit, they finally had the cook set up complete.

When he was finished he made them a low bow and said:

"I will go at once to the kitchen to prepare your dinner. You will
find it something of a job to get all the Fuddles together, so I
advise you to begin on the Lord High Chigglewitz, whose first name is
Larry. He's a bald-headed fat man and is dressed in a blue coat with
brass buttons, a pink vest and drab breeches. A piece of his left
knee is missing, having been lost years ago when he scattered himself
too carelessly. That makes him limp a little, but he gets along very
well with half a knee. As he is the chief personage in this town of
Fuddlecumjig, he will be able to welcome you and assist you with the
others. So it will be best to work on him while I'm getting your dinner."

"We will," said the Wizard; "and thank you very much, Cook,
for the suggestion."

Aunt Em was the first to discover a piece of the Lord High Chigglewitz.

"It seems to me like a fool business, this matching folks together,"
she remarked; "but as we haven't anything to do till dinner's ready,
we may as well get rid of some of this rubbish. Here, Henry, get busy
and look for Larry's bald head. I've got his pink vest, all right."

They worked with eager interest, and Billina proved a great help to
them. The Yellow Hen had sharp eyes and could put her head close to
the various pieces that lay scattered around. She would examine the
Lord High Chigglewitz and see which piece of him was next needed, and
then hunt around until she found it. So before an hour had passed
old Larry was standing complete before them.

"I congratulate you, my friends," he said, speaking in a cheerful
voice. "You are certainly the cleverest people who ever visited us.
I was never matched together so quickly in my life. I'm considered a
great puzzle, usually."

"Well," said Dorothy, "there used to be a picture puzzle craze in
Kansas, and so I've had some 'sperience matching puzzles. But the
pictures were flat, while you are round, and that makes you harder to
figure out."

"Thank you, my dear," replied old Larry, greatly pleased. "I feel
highly complimented. Were I not a really good puzzle, there would be
no object in my scattering myself."

"Why do you do it?" asked Aunt Em, severely. "Why don't you behave
yourself, and stay put together?"

The Lord High Chigglewitz seemed annoyed by this speech; but he
replied, politely:

"Madam, you have perhaps noticed that every person has some
peculiarity. Mine is to scatter myself. What your own peculiarity is
I will not venture to say; but I shall never find fault with you,
whatever you do."

"Now you've got your diploma, Em," said Uncle Henry, with a laugh,
"and I'm glad of it. This is a queer country, and we may as well
take people as we find them."

"If we did, we'd leave these folks scattered," she returned, and this
retort made everybody laugh good-naturedly.

Just then Omby Amby found a hand with a knitting needle in it, and
they decided to put Grandmother Gnit together. She proved an easier
puzzle than old Larry, and when she was completed they found her a
pleasant old lady who welcomed them cordially. Dorothy told her how
the kangaroo had lost her mittens, and Grandmother Gnit promised to
set to work at once and make the poor animal another pair.

Then the cook came to call them to dinner, and they found an inviting
meal prepared for them. The Lord High Chigglewitz sat at the head of
the table and Grandmother Gnit at the foot, and the guests had a merry
time and thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

After dinner they went out into the yard and matched several other
people together, and this work was so interesting that they might have
spent the entire day at Fuddlecumjig had not the Wizard suggested that
they resume their journey.

"But I don't like to leave all these poor people scattered," said
Dorothy, undecided what to do.

"Oh, don't mind us, my dear," returned old Larry. "Every day or so
some of the Gillikins, or Munchkins, or Winkies come here to amuse
themselves by matching us together, so there will be no harm in leaving
these pieces where they are for a time. But I hope you will visit us
again, and if you do you will always be welcome, I assure you."

"Don't you ever match each other?" she inquired.

"Never; for we are no puzzles to ourselves, and so there wouldn't be
any fun in it."

They now said goodbye to the queer Fuddles and got into their wagon to
continue their journey.

"Those are certainly strange people," remarked Aunt Em, thoughtfully,
as they drove away from Fuddlecumjig, "but I really can't see what use
they are, at all."

"Why, they amused us all for several hours," replied the Wizard.
"That is being of use to us, I'm sure."

"I think they're more fun than playing solitaire or mumbletypeg,"
declared Uncle Henry, soberly. "For my part, I'm glad we visited
the Fuddles."



13. How the General Talked to the King


When General Guph returned to the cavern of the Nome King his
Majesty asked:

"Well, what luck? Will the Whimsies join us?"

"They will," answered the General. "They will fight for us with all
their strength and cunning."

"Good!" exclaimed the King. "What reward did you promise them?"

"Your Majesty is to use the Magic Belt to give each Whimsie a large,
fine head, in place of the small one he is now obliged to wear."

"I agree to that," said the King. "This is good news, Guph, and it
makes me feel more certain of the conquest of Oz."

"But I have other news for you," announced the General.

"Good or bad?"

"Good, your Majesty."

"Then I will hear it," said the King, with interest.

"The Growleywogs will join us."

"No!" cried the astonished King.

"Yes, indeed," said the General. "I have their promise."

"But what reward do they demand?" inquired the King, suspiciously,
for he knew how greedy the Growleywogs were.

"They are to take a few of the Oz people for their slaves," replied
Guph. He did not think it necessary to tell Roquat that the
Growleywogs demanded twenty thousand slaves. It would be time enough
for that when Oz was conquered.

"A very reasonable request, I'm sure," remarked the King. "I must
congratulate you, Guph, upon the wonderful success of your journey."

"But that is not all," said the General, proudly.

The King seemed astonished. "Speak out, sir!" he commanded.

"I have seen the First and Foremost Phanfasm of the Mountain of
Phantastico, and he will bring his people to assist us."

"What!" cried the King. "The Phanfasms! You don't mean it, Guph!"

"It is true," declared the General, proudly.

The King became thoughtful, and his brows wrinkled.

"I'm afraid, Guph," he said rather anxiously, "that the First and
Foremost may prove as dangerous to us as to the Oz people. If he and
his terrible band come down from the mountain they may take the
notion to conquer the Nomes!"

"Pah! That is a foolish idea," retorted Guph, irritably, but he knew
in his heart that the King was right. "The First and Foremost is a
particular friend of mine, and will do us no harm. Why, when I was
there, he even invited me into his house."

The General neglected to tell the King how he had been jerked into the
hut of the First and Foremost by means of the brass hoop. So Roquat
the Red looked at his General admiringly and said:

"You are a wonderful Nome, Guph. I'm sorry I did not make you my
General before. But what reward did the First and Foremost demand?"

"Nothing at all," answered Guph. "Even the Magic Belt itself could
not add to his powers of sorcery. All the Phanfasms wish is to
destroy the Oz people, who are good and happy. This pleasure will
amply repay them for assisting us."

"When will they come?" asked Roquat, half fearfully.

"When the tunnel is completed," said the General.

"We are nearly halfway under the desert now," announced the King; "and
that is fast work, because the tunnel has to be drilled through solid
rock. But after we have passed the desert it will not take us long
to extend the tunnel to the walls of the Emerald City."

"Well, whenever you are ready, we shall be joined by the Whimsies, the
Growleywogs and the Phanfasms," said Guph; "so the conquest of Oz is
assured without a doubt."

Again, the King seemed thoughtful.

"I'm almost sorry we did not undertake the conquest alone," said he.
"All of these allies are dangerous people, and they may demand more
than you have promised them. It might have been better to have
conquered Oz without any outside assistance."

"We could not do it," said the General, positively.

"Why not, Guph?"

"You know very well. You have had one experience with the Oz people,
and they defeated you."

"That was because they rolled eggs at us," replied the King, with a
shudder. "My Nomes cannot stand eggs, any more than I can myself.
They are poison to all who live underground."

"That is true enough," agreed Guph.

"But we might have taken the Oz people by surprise, and conquered them
before they had a chance to get any eggs. Our former defeat was due
to the fact that the girl Dorothy had a Yellow Hen with her. I do not
know what ever became of that hen, but I believe there are no hens at
all in the Land of Oz, and so there could be no eggs there."

"On the contrary," said Guph, "there are now hundreds of chickens in
Oz, and they lay heaps of those dangerous eggs. I met a goshawk on my
way home, and the bird informed me that he had lately been to Oz to
capture and devour some of the young chickens. But they are protected
by magic, so the hawk did not get a single one of them."

"That is a very bad report," said the King, nervously. "Very bad,
indeed. My Nomes are willing to fight, but they simply can't face
hen's eggs--and I don't blame them."

"They won't need to face them," replied Guph. "I'm afraid of eggs
myself, and don't propose to take any chances of being poisoned by
them. My plan is to send the Whimsies through the tunnel first, and
then the Growleywogs and the Phanfasms. By the time we Nomes get
there the eggs will all be used up, and we may then pursue and
capture the inhabitants at our leisure."

"Perhaps you are right," returned the King, with a dismal sigh. "But I
want it distinctly understood that I claim Ozma and Dorothy as my own
prisoners. They are rather nice girls, and I do not intend to let any
of those dreadful creatures hurt them, or make them their slaves. When
I have captured them I will bring them here and transform them into
china ornaments to stand on my mantle. They will look very pretty--Dorothy
on one end of the mantle and Ozma on the other--and I shall take great
care to see they are not broken when the maids dust them."

"Very well, your Majesty. Do what you will with the girls for all I
care. Now that our plans are arranged, and we have the three most
powerful bands of evil spirits in the world to assist us, let us make
haste to get the tunnel finished as soon as possible."

"It will be ready in three days," promised the King, and hurried away
to inspect the work and see that the Nomes kept busy.



14. How the Wizard Practiced Sorcery


"Where next?" asked the Wizard when they had left the town of
Fuddlecumjig and the Sawhorse had started back along the road.

"Why, Ozma laid out this trip," replied Dorothy, "and she 'vised us to
see the Rigmaroles next, and then visit the Tin Woodman."

"That sounds good," said the Wizard. "But what road do we take to get
to the Rigmaroles?"

"I don't know, 'zactly," returned the little girl; "but it must be
somewhere just southwest from here."

"Then why need we go way back to the crossroads?" asked the Shaggy
Man. "We might save a lot of time by branching off here."

"There isn't any path," asserted Uncle Henry.

"Then we'd better go back to the signposts, and make sure of our way,"
decided Dorothy.

But after they had gone a short distance farther the Sawhorse, who
had overheard their conversation, stopped and said:

"Here is a path."

Sure enough, a dim path seemed to branch off from the road they were
on, and it led across pretty green meadows and past leafy groves,
straight toward the southwest.

"That looks like a good path," said Omby Amby. "Why not try it?"

"All right," answered Dorothy. "I'm anxious to see what the Rigmaroles
are like, and this path ought to take us there the quickest way."

No one made any objection to this plan, so the Sawhorse turned into
the path, which proved to be nearly as good as the one they had taken
to get to the Fuddles. As first they passed a few retired farm
houses, but soon these scattered dwellings were left behind and only
the meadows and the trees were before them. But they rode along in
cheerful contentment, and Aunt Em got into an argument with Billina
about the proper way to raise chickens.

"I do not care to contradict you," said the Yellow Hen, with dignity,
"but I have an idea I know more about chickens than human beings do."

"Pshaw!" replied Aunt Em. "I've raised chickens for nearly forty
years, Billina, and I know you've got to starve 'em to make 'em lay
lots of eggs, and stuff 'em if you want good broilers."

"Broilers!" exclaimed Billina, in horror. "Broil my chickens!"

"Why, that's what they're for, ain't it?" asked Aunt Em, astonished.

"No, Aunt, not in Oz," said Dorothy. "People do not eat chickens
here. You see, Billina was the first hen that was ever seen in this
country, and I brought her here myself. Everybody liked her an'
respected her, so the Oz people wouldn't any more eat her chickens
than they would eat Billina."

"Well, I declare," gasped Aunt Em. "How about the eggs?"

"Oh, if we have more eggs than we want to hatch, we allow people to
eat them," said Billina. "Indeed, I am very glad the Oz folks like
our eggs, for otherwise they would spoil."

"This certainly is a queer country," sighed Aunt Em.

"Excuse me," called the Sawhorse, "the path has ended and I'd like
to know which way to go."

They looked around and sure enough there was no path to be seen.

"Well," said Dorothy, "we're going southwest, and it seems just as
easy to follow that direction without a path as with one."

"Certainly," answered the Sawhorse. "It is not hard to draw the wagon
over the meadow. I only want to know where to go."

"There's a forest over there across the prairie," said the Wizard,
"and it lies in the direction we are going. Make straight for the
forest, Sawhorse, and you're bound to go right."

So the wooden animal trotted on again and the meadow grass was so
soft under the wheels that it made easy riding. But Dorothy was a
little uneasy at losing the path, because now there was nothing to
guide them.

No houses were to be seen at all, so they could not ask their way of
any farmer; and although the Land of Oz was always beautiful, wherever
one might go, this part of the country was strange to all the party.

"Perhaps we're lost," suggested Aunt Em, after they had proceeded quite
a way in silence.

"Never mind," said the Shaggy Man; "I've been lost many a time--and
so has Dorothy--and we've always been found again."

"But we may get hungry," remarked Omby Amby. "That is the worst of
getting lost in a place where there are no houses near."

"We had a good dinner at the Fuddle town," said Uncle Henry, "and that
will keep us from starving to death for a long time."

"No one ever starved to death in Oz," declared Dorothy, positively;
"but people may get pretty hungry sometimes."

The Wizard said nothing, and he did not seem especially anxious. The
Sawhorse was trotting along briskly, yet the forest seemed farther
away than they had thought when they first saw it. So it was nearly
sundown when they finally came to the trees; but now they found
themselves in a most beautiful spot, the wide-spreading trees being
covered with flowering vines and having soft mosses underneath them.
"This will be a good place to camp," said the Wizard, as the Sawhorse
stopped for further instructions.

"Camp!" they all echoed.

"Certainly," asserted the Wizard. "It will be dark before very long
and we cannot travel through this forest at night. So let us make a
camp here, and have some supper, and sleep until daylight comes again."

They all looked at the little man in astonishment, and Aunt Em said,
with a sniff:

"A pretty camp we'll have, I must say! I suppose you intend us to
sleep under the wagon."

"And chew grass for our supper," added the Shaggy Man, laughing.

But Dorothy seemed to have no doubts and was quite cheerful

"It's lucky we have the wonderful Wizard with us," she said;
"because he can do 'most anything he wants to."

"Oh, yes; I forgot we had a Wizard," said Uncle Henry, looking at the
little man curiously.

"I didn't," chirped Billina, contentedly.

The Wizard smiled and climbed out of the wagon, and all the others
followed him.

"In order to camp," said he, "the first thing we need is tents.
Will some one please lend me a handkerchief?"

The Shaggy Man offered him one, and Aunt Em another. He took them
both and laid them carefully upon the grass near to the edge of the
forest. Then he laid his own handkerchief down, too, and standing a
little back from them he waved his left hand toward the handkerchiefs
and said:

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