being late enough. There is neither night nor day in my kingdom, because
it is under the earth's surface, where the sun does not shine. But we
have to sleep, just the same as the up-stairs people do, and for my part
I'm going to bed in a few minutes."
Indeed, it was not long after this that the private made his last guess.
Of course he guessed wrongly, and of course he at once became an
ornament. So the King was greatly pleased, and clapped his hands to
summon his Chief Steward.
"Show these guests to some of the sleeping apartments," he commanded,
"and be quick about it, too, for I'm dreadfully sleepy myself."
"You've no business to sit up so late," replied the Steward, gruffly.
"You'll be as cross as a griffin tomorrow morning."
[Illustration: SOON SHE HAD FALLEN FAST ASLEEP]
His Majesty made no answer to this remark, and the Chief Steward led
Dorothy through another doorway into a long hall, from which several
plain but comfortable sleeping rooms opened. The little girl was given
the first room, and the Scarecrow and Tiktok the next--although they
never slept--and the Lion and the Tiger the third. The Sawhorse hobbled
after the Steward into a fourth room, to stand stiffly in the center of
it until morning. Each night was rather a bore to the Scarecrow, Tiktok
and the Sawhorse; but they had learned from experience to pass the time
patiently and quietly, since all their friends who were made of flesh
had to sleep and did not like to be disturbed.
When the Chief Steward had left them alone the Scarecrow remarked,
sadly:
"I am in great sorrow over the loss of my old comrade, the Tin Woodman.
We have had many dangerous adventures together, and escaped them all,
and now it grieves me to know he has become an ornament, and is lost to
me forever."
"He was al-ways an or-na-ment to so-ci-e-ty," said Tiktok.
"True; but now the Nome King laughs at him, and calls him the funniest
ornament in all the palace. It will hurt my poor friend's pride to be
laughed at," continued the Scarecrow, sadly.
"We will make rath-er ab-surd or-na-ments, our-selves, to-mor-row,"
observed the machine, in his monotonous voice.
Just then Dorothy ran into their room, in a state of great anxiety,
crying:
"Where's Billina? Have you seen Billina? Is she here?"
"No," answered the Scarecrow.
"Then what has become of her?" asked the girl.
"Why, I thought she was with you," said the Scarecrow. "Yet I do not
remember seeing the yellow hen since she picked up the crumbs of cake."
"We must have left her in the room where the King's throne is," decided
Dorothy, and at once she turned and ran down the hall to the door
through which they had entered. But it was fast closed and locked on the
other side, and the heavy slab of rock proved to be so thick that no
sound could pass through it. So Dorothy was forced to return to her
chamber.
The Cowardly Lion stuck his head into her room to try to console the
girl for the loss of her feathered friend.
"The yellow hen is well able to take care of herself," said he; "so
don't worry about her, but try to get all the sleep you can. It has
been a long and weary day, and you need rest."
"I'll prob'ly get lots of rest tomorrow, when I become an orn'ment,"
said Dorothy, sleepily. But she lay down upon her couch, nevertheless,
and in spite of all her worries was soon in the land of dreams.
[Illustration]
Dorothy Tries to be Brave
[Illustration]
Meantime the Chief Steward had returned to the throne room, where he
said to the King:
"You are a fool to waste so much time upon these people."
"What!" cried his Majesty, in so enraged a voice that it awoke Billina,
who was asleep under his throne. "How dare you call me a fool?"
"Because I like to speak the truth," said the Steward. "Why didn't you
enchant them all at once, instead of allowing them to go one by one into
the palace and guess which ornaments are the Queen of Ev and her
children?"
"Why, you stupid rascal, it is more fun this way," returned the King,
"and it serves to keep me amused for a long time."
"But suppose some of them happen to guess aright," persisted the
Steward; "then you would lose your old ornaments and these new ones,
too."
"There is no chance of their guessing aright," replied the monarch, with
a laugh. "How could they know that the Queen of Ev and her family are
all ornaments of a royal purple color?"
"But there are no other purple ornaments in the palace," said the
Steward.
"There are many other colors, however, and the purple ones are scattered
throughout the rooms, and are of many different shapes and sizes. Take
my word for it, Steward, they will never think of choosing the purple
ornaments."
Billina, squatting under the throne, had listened carefully to all this
talk, and now chuckled softly to herself as she heard the King disclose
his secret.
"Still, you are acting foolishly by running the chance," continued the
Steward, roughly; "and it is still more foolish of you to transform all
those people from Oz into green ornaments."
[Illustration: "HOW DARE YOU CALL ME A FOOL?"]
"I did that because they came from the Emerald City," replied the
King; "and I had no green ornaments in my collection until now. I think
they will look quite pretty, mixed with the others. Don't you?"
The Steward gave an angry grunt.
"Have your own way, since you are the King," he growled. "But if you
come to grief through your carelessness, remember that I told you so. If
I wore the magic belt which enables you to work all your
transformations, and gives you so much other power, I am sure I would
make a much wiser and better King than you are."
"Oh, cease your tiresome chatter!" commanded the King, getting angry
again. "Because you are my Chief Steward you have an idea you can scold
me as much as you please. But the very next time you become impudent, I
will send you to work in the furnaces, and get another Nome to fill your
place. Now follow me to my chamber, for I am going to bed. And see that
I am wakened early tomorrow morning. I want to enjoy the fun of
transforming the rest of these people into ornaments."
"What color will you make the Kansas girl?" asked the Steward.
"Gray, I think," said his Majesty.
"And the Scarecrow and the machine man?"
"Oh, they shall be of solid gold, because they are so ugly in real
life."
Then the voices died away, and Billina knew that the King and his
Steward had left the room. She fixed up some of her tail feathers that
were not straight, and then tucked her head under her wing again and
went to sleep.
In the morning Dorothy and the Lion and Tiger were given their breakfast
in their rooms, and afterward joined the King in his throne room. The
Tiger complained bitterly that he was half starved, and begged to go
into the palace and become an ornament, so that he would no longer
suffer the pangs of hunger.
"Haven't you had your breakfast?" asked the Nome King.
"Oh, I had just a bite," replied the beast. "But what good is a bite, to
a hungry tiger?"
"He ate seventeen bowls of porridge, a platter full of fried sausages,
eleven loaves of bread and twenty-one mince pies," said the Steward.
"What more do you want?" demanded the King.
"A fat baby. I want a fat baby," said the Hungry Tiger. "A nice, plump,
juicy, tender, fat baby. But, of course, if I had one, my conscience
would not allow me to eat it. So I'll have to be an ornament and forget
my hunger."
"Impossible!" exclaimed the King. "I'll have no clumsy beasts enter my
palace, to overturn and break all my pretty nick-nacks. When the rest of
your friends are transformed you can return to the upper world, and go
about your business."
"As for that we have no business, when our friends are gone," said the
Lion. "So we do not care much what becomes of us."
Dorothy begged to be allowed to go first into the palace, but Tiktok
firmly maintained that the slave should face danger before the mistress.
The Scarecrow agreed with him in that, so the Nome King opened the door
for the machine man, who tramped into the palace to meet his fate. Then
his Majesty returned to his throne and puffed his pipe so contentedly
that a small cloud of smoke formed above his head.
Bye and bye he said:
"I'm sorry there are so few of you left. Very soon, now, my fun will be
over, and then for amusement I shall have nothing to do but admire my
new ornaments."
"It seems to me," said Dorothy, "that you are not so honest as you
pretend to be."
[Illustration: THE NOME KING PUFFED HIS PIPE]
"How's that?" asked the King.
"Why, you made us think it would be easy to guess what ornaments the
people of Ev were changed into."
"It _is_ easy," declared the monarch, "if one is a good guesser. But it
appears that the members of your party are all poor guessers."
"What is Tiktok doing now?" asked the girl, uneasily.
"Nothing," replied the King, with a frown. "He is standing perfectly
still, in the middle of a room."
"Oh, I expect he's run down," said Dorothy. "I forgot to wind him up
this morning. How many guesses has he made?"
"All that he is allowed except one," answered the King. "Suppose you go
in and wind him up, and then you can stay there and make your own
guesses."
"All right," said Dorothy.
"It is my turn next," declared the Scarecrow.
"Why, you don't want to go away and leave me all alone, do you?" asked
the girl. "Besides, if I go now I can wind up Tiktok, so that he can
make his last guess."
"Very well, then," said the Scarecrow, with a sigh. "Run along, little
Dorothy, and may good luck go with you!"
So Dorothy, trying to be brave in spite of her fears, passed through the
doorway into the gorgeous rooms of the palace. The stillness of the
place awed her, at first, and the child drew short breaths, and pressed
her hand to her heart, and looked all around with wondering eyes.
Yes, it was a beautiful place; but enchantments lurked in every nook and
corner, and she had not yet grown accustomed to the wizardries of these
fairy countries, so different from the quiet and sensible common-places
of her own native land.
Slowly she passed through several rooms until she came upon Tiktok,
standing motionless. It really seemed, then, that she had found a friend
in this mysterious palace, so she hastened to wind up the machine man's
action and speech and thoughts.
"Thank you, Dor-oth-y," were his first words. "I have now one more guess
to make."
"Oh, be very careful, Tiktok; won't you?" cried the girl.
"Yes. But the Nome King has us in his power, and he has set a trap for
us. I fear we are all lost," he answered.
"I fear so, too," said Dorothy, sadly.
"If Smith & Tin-ker had giv-en me a guess-ing clock-work at-tach-ment,"
continued Tiktok, "I might have de-fied the Nome King. But my thoughts
are plain and sim-ple, and are not of much use in this case."
"Do the best you can," said Dorothy, encouragingly, "and if you fail I
will watch and see what shape you are changed into."
So Tiktok touched a yellow glass vase that had daisies painted on one
side, and he spoke at the same time the word "Ev."
In a flash the machine man had disappeared, and although the girl looked
quickly in every direction, she could not tell which of the many
ornaments the room contained had a moment before been her faithful
friend and servant.
So all she could do was to accept the hopeless task set her, and make
her guesses and abide by the result.
"It can't hurt very much," she thought, "for I haven't heard any of them
scream or cry out--not even the poor officers. Dear me! I wonder if
Uncle Henry or Aunt Em will ever know I have become an orn'ment in the
Nome King's palace, and must stand forever and ever in one place and
look pretty--'cept when I'm moved to be dusted. It isn't the way I
thought I'd turn out, at all; but I s'pose it can't be helped."
She walked through all the rooms once more, and examined with care all
the objects they contained; but there were so many, they bewildered her,
and she decided, after all, as Ozma had done, that it could be only
guess work at the best, and that the chances were much against her
guessing aright.
Timidly she touched an alabaster bowl and said: "Ev."
"That's one failure, anyhow," she thought. "But how am I to know which
thing is enchanted, and which is not?"
Next she touched the image of a purple kitten that stood on the corner
of a mantel, and as she pronounced the word "Ev" the kitten disappeared,
and a pretty, fair-haired boy stood beside her. At the same time a bell
rang somewhere in the distance, and as Dorothy started back, partly in
surprise and partly in joy, the little one exclaimed:
"Where am I? And who are you? And what has happened to me?"
"Well, I declare!" said Dorothy. "I've really done it."
"Done what?" asked the boy.
[Illustration]
"Saved myself from being an ornament," replied the girl, with a laugh,
"and saved you from being forever a purple kitten."
"A purple kitten?" he repeated. "There _is_ no such thing."
"I know," she answered. "But there was, a minute ago. Don't you remember
standing on a corner of the mantel?"
"Of course not. I am a Prince of Ev, and my name is Evring," the little
one announced, proudly. "But my father, the King, sold my mother and all
her children to the cruel ruler of the Nomes, and after that I remember
nothing at all."
"A purple kitten can't be 'spected to remember, Evring," said Dorothy.
"But now you are yourself again, and I'm going to try to save some of
your brothers and sisters, and perhaps your mother, as well. So come
with me."
She seized the child's hand and eagerly hurried here and there, trying
to decide which object to choose next. The third guess was another
failure, and so was the fourth and the fifth.
Little Evring could not imagine what she was doing, but he trotted along
beside her very willingly, for he liked the new companion he had found.
Dorothy's further quest proved unsuccessful; but after her first
disappointment was over, the little girl was filled with joy and
thankfulness to think that after all she had been able to save one
member of the royal family of Ev, and could restore the little Prince to
his sorrowing country. Now she might return to the terrible Nome King in
safety, carrying with her the prize she had won in the person of the
fair-haired boy.
So she retraced her steps until she found the entrance to the palace,
and as she approached, the massive doors of rock opened of their own
accord, allowing both Dorothy and Evring to pass the portals and enter
the throne room.
[Illustration]
Billina Frightens the Nome King
[Illustration]
Now when Dorothy had entered the palace to make her guesses and the
Scarecrow was left with the Nome King, the two sat in moody silence for
several minutes. Then the monarch exclaimed, in a tone of satisfaction:
"Very good!"
"Who is very good?" asked the Scarecrow.
"The machine man. He won't need to be wound up any more, for he has now
become a very neat ornament. Very neat, indeed."
"How about Dorothy?" the Scarecrow enquired.
"Oh, she will begin to guess, pretty soon," said the King, cheerfully.
"And then she will join my collection, and it will be your turn."
The good Scarecrow was much distressed by the thought that his little
friend was about to suffer the fate of Ozma and the rest of their party;
but while he sat in gloomy reverie a shrill voice suddenly cried:
"Kut, kut, kut--ka-daw-kutt! Kut, kut, kut--ka-daw-kutt!"
The Nome King nearly jumped off his seat, he was so startled.
"Good gracious! What's that?" he yelled.
"Why, it's Billina," said the Scarecrow.
"What do you mean by making a noise like that?" shouted the King,
angrily, as the yellow hen came from under the throne and strutted
proudly about the room.
"I've got a right to cackle, I guess," replied Billina. "I've just laid
my egg."
"What! Laid an egg! In my throne room! How dare you do such a thing?"
asked the King, in a voice of fury.
"I lay eggs wherever I happen to be," said the hen, ruffling her
feathers and then shaking them into place.
"But--thunder-ation! Don't you know that eggs are poison?" roared the
King, while his rock-colored eyes stuck out in great terror.
"Poison! well, I declare," said Billina, indignantly. "I'll have you
know all my eggs are warranted strictly fresh and up to date. Poison,
indeed!"
"You don't understand," retorted the little monarch, nervously. "Eggs
belong only to the outside world--to the world on the earth's surface,
where you came from. Here, in my underground kingdom, they are rank
poison, as I said, and we Nomes can't bear them around."
"Well, you'll have to bear this one around," declared Billina; "for I've
laid it."
"Where?" asked the King.
"Under your throne," said the hen.
The King jumped three feet into the air, so anxious was he to get away
from the throne.
"Take it away! Take it away at once!" he shouted.
"I can't," said Billina. "I havn't any hands."
"I'll take the egg," said the Scarecrow. "I'm making a collection of
Billina's eggs. There's one in my pocket now, that she laid yesterday."
Hearing this, the monarch hastened to put a good distance between
himself and the Scarecrow, who was about to reach under the throne for
the egg when the hen suddenly cried:
"Stop!"
"What's wrong?" asked the Scarecrow.
"Don't take the egg unless the King will allow me to enter the palace
and guess as the others have done," said Billina.
"Pshaw!" returned the King. "You're only a hen. How could you guess my
enchantments?"
"I can try, I suppose," said Billina. "And, if I fail, you will have
another ornament."
"A pretty ornament you'd make, wouldn't you?" growled the King. "But you
shall have your way. It will properly punish you for daring to lay an
egg in my presence. After the Scarecrow is enchanted you shall follow
him into the palace. But how will you touch the objects?"
"With my claws," said the hen; "and I can speak the word 'Ev' as plainly
as anyone. Also I must have the right to guess the enchantments of my
friends, and to release them if I succeed."
"Very well," said the King. "You have my promise."
"Then," said Billina to the Scarecrow, "you may get the egg."
[Illustration: "DON'T YOU KNOW THAT EGGS ARE POISON?"]
He knelt down and reached underneath the throne and found the egg,
which he placed in another pocket of his jacket, fearing that if both
eggs were in one pocket they would knock together and get broken.
Just then a bell above the throne rang briskly, and the King gave
another nervous jump.
"Well, well!" said he, with a rueful face; "the girl has actually done
it."
"Done what?" asked the Scarecrow.
"She has made one guess that is right, and broken one of my neatest
enchantments. By ricketty, it's too bad! I never thought she would do
it."
"Do I understand that she will now return to us in safety?" enquired the
Scarecrow, joyfully wrinkling his painted face into a broad smile.
"Of course," said the King, fretfully pacing up and down the room. "I
always keep my promises, no matter how foolish they are. But I shall
make an ornament of the yellow hen to replace the one I have just lost."
"Perhaps you will, and perhaps you won't," murmured Billina, calmly. "I
may surprise you by guessing right."
"Guessing right?" snapped the King. "How should you guess right, where
your betters have failed, you stupid fowl?"
Billina did not care to answer this question, and a moment later the
doors flew open and Dorothy entered, leading the little Prince Evring by
the hand.
[Illustration]
The Scarecrow welcomed the girl with a close embrace, and he would have
embraced Evring, too, in his delight. But the little Prince was shy, and
shrank away from the painted Scarecrow because he did not yet know his
many excellent qualities.
[Illustration: "BY RICKETTY, IT'S TOO BAD!"]
But there was little time for the friends to talk, because the Scarecrow
must now enter the palace. Dorothy's success had greatly encouraged
him, and they both hoped he would manage to make at least one correct
guess.
However, he proved as unfortunate as the others except Dorothy, and
although he took a good deal of time to select his objects, not one did
the poor Scarecrow guess aright.
So he became a solid gold card-receiver, and the beautiful but terrible
palace awaited its next visitor.
"It's all over," remarked the King, with a sigh of satisfaction; "and it
has been a very amusing performance, except for the one good guess the
Kansas girl made. I am richer by a great many pretty ornaments.
"It is my turn, now," said Billina, briskly.
"Oh, I'd forgotten you," said the King. "But you needn't go if you don't
wish to. I will be generous, and let you off."
"No you won't," replied the hen. "I insist upon having my guesses, as
you promised."
"Then go ahead, you absurd feathered fool!" grumbled the King, and he
caused the opening that led to the palace to appear once more.
"Don't go, Billina," said Dorothy, earnestly. "It isn't easy to guess
those orn'ments, and only luck saved me from being one myself. Stay with
me, and we'll go back to the Land of Ev together. I'm sure this little
Prince will give us a home."
"Indeed I will," said Evring, with much dignity.
"Don't worry, my dear," cried Billina, with a cluck that was meant for a
laugh. "I may not be human, but I'm no fool, if I _am_ a chicken."
"Oh, Billina!" said Dorothy, "you haven't been a chicken in a long time.
Not since you--you've been--grown up."
"Perhaps that's true," answered Billina, thoughtfully. "But if a Kansas
farmer sold me to some one, what would he call me?--a hen or a chicken!"
"You are not a Kansas farmer, Billina," replied the girl, "and you
said--"
"Never mind that, Dorothy. I'm going. I won't say good-bye, because I'm
coming back. Keep up your courage, for I'll see you a little later."
Then Billina gave several loud "cluck-clucks" that seemed to make the
fat little King _more_ nervous than ever, and marched through the
entrance into the enchanted palace.
"I hope I've seen the last of _that_ bird," declared the monarch,
seating himself again in his throne and mopping the perspiration from
his forehead with his rock-colored handkerchief. "Hens are bothersome
enough at their best, but when they can talk they're simply dreadful."
"Billina's my friend," said Dorothy quietly. "She may not always be
'zactly polite; but she _means_ well, I'm sure."
[Illustration]
Purple, Green and Gold
[Illustration]
The yellow hen, stepping high and with an air of vast importance, walked
slowly over the rich velvet carpets of the splendid palace, examining
everything she met with her sharp little eyes.
Billina had a right to feel important; for she alone shared the Nome
King's secret and knew how to tell the objects that were transformations
from those that had never been alive. She was very sure that her guesses
would be correct, but before she began to make them she was curious to
behold all the magnificence of this underground palace, which was
perhaps one of the most splendid and beautiful places in any fairyland.
As she went through the rooms she counted the purple ornaments; and
although some were small and hidden in queer places, Billina spied them
all, and found the entire ten scattered about the various rooms. The
green ornaments she did not bother to count, for she thought she could
find them all when the time came.
Finally, having made a survey of the entire palace and enjoyed its
splendor, the yellow hen returned to one of the rooms where she had
noticed a large purple footstool. She placed a claw upon this and said
"Ev," and at once the footstool vanished and a lovely lady, tall and
slender and most beautifully robed, stood before her.
The lady's eyes were round with astonishment for a moment, for she could
not remember her transformation, nor imagine what had restored her to
life.
"Good morning, ma'am," said Billina, in her sharp voice. "You're looking
quite well, considering your age."
"Who speaks?" demanded the Queen of Ev, drawing herself up proudly.
"Why, my name's Bill, by rights," answered the hen, who was now perched
upon the back of a chair; "although Dorothy has put scollops on it and
made it Billina. But the name doesn't matter. I've saved you from the
Nome King, and you are a slave no longer."
"Then I thank you for the gracious favor," said the Queen, with a
graceful courtesy. "But, my children--tell me, I beg of you--where are
my children?" and she clasped her hands in anxious entreaty.
"Don't worry," advised Billina, pecking at a tiny bug that was crawling
over the chair back. "Just at present they are out of mischief and
perfectly safe, for they can't even wiggle."
"What mean you, O kindly stranger?" asked the Queen, striving to repress
her anxiety.