The Emperor of Oz
The same morning Dorothy wakened in the rustic summer house of the
Winkie farmer, Skamperoo opened his eyes upon the unaccustomed
grandeur of Ozma's Royal Palace. The banquet had lasted till long
after three o'clock, then still chuckling and yawning, he had waved
goodnight to his hilarious and amiable subjects and led Chalk off to
bed. Twenty footmen with twenty lighted tapers preceded him to Ozma's
own apartment, but dismissing this as too plain and simple, he had
taken the immense green guest suite across the hall. Chalk would have
much preferred a stall in the Royal Stable with the other four-footed
members of the castle party, but Skamperoo would not hear of such a
separation. He wanted his white wishing horse close at hand, not only
because through him and the magic emeralds he could satisfy every
wish, but because for the first time in his long, lazy, selfish life
he had found someone he liked better than himself. In Skamperoo's
eyes Chalk was absolutely perfect, and as his own wish had brought
the golden-maned charger into being, he felt proud and important as a
parent with his first child.
After a few regretful sniffs out of the window, a few short turns up
and down their immense and elegant sleeping apartment, Chalk leaped
lightly on one of the large green beds and settled himself gracefully
for the night. Covering Chalk tenderly with a green satin quilt,
Skamperoo hastily disrobed, and clutching his precious necklaces,
climbed wearily into the other bed. There, without even stopping to
wish himself goodnight, he fell into a deep and tranquil slumber.
Indeed both, in spite of the strangeness of their surroundings, slept
soundly till morning.
About eight o'clock, Chalk, lifting his head from the embroidered
pillow, looked indulgently across at the new Emperor of Oz. Sitting
up in bed, Skamperoo was busily counting the gems in his three magic
chains.
"Ho, throw those silly beads away!" advised the white horse, jumping
out of bed with a gay toss of his golden mane. "You have nothing else
to wish for, Kingaling, nothing more at all! M--mmm, this green carpet
looks good enough to eat, but I've a fancy to nibble the clover in Your
Majesty's garden while it is still fresh with dew."
"Say it again," begged Skamperoo, closing his eyes and clasping himself
blissfully around the middle.
"Your Majesty's garden! Your Majesty's Palace, Your Majesty's Kingdom
of Oz!" whinnied the white horse, rising on his hind legs and
pirouetting round with mischievous little prances. "But come, Emp! What
are your wishes for today? I think we will have to use the necklaces
after all. You must certainly have some new clothes. It would never
do to appear this morning in the suit you wore last night. You had
better have some sleeping garments, too. I've a notion that Emperors
do not sleep in their raw hides like horses." Skamperoo, giggling
self-consciously, dragged the satin sheets up to his chin, for to tell
the truth, he had arrived in the Emerald City with only one suit to his
back, and an extremely shabby one at that.
"Maybe I'd better change my face, too," he murmured, "to go with all
this, you know." Dreamily Skamperoo waved his hands about, and then,
leaning forward, slipped the chains over Chalk's ear.
"What's the matter with the face you have?" demanded Chalk, gazing
fondly at the red, rotund countenance of his Master. "I like you just
as you are, and if you change I wouldn't even know you, but I'll
tell you what you _can_ wish after you've ordered yourself some new
clothes--wish yourself a seasoned rider and then we can go far and
wide, Kingaling, far and wide at a furious gallop and none shall say us
nay--hey, hey!"
"And none shall say us nay," trilled Skamperoo, rolling out of bed,
covers and all. To wish himself fifty jewel-encrusted robes with boots,
crowns, and all the undergarments to go with them, fifty splendid
sleeping robes, and fifty suits of riding clothes took but a moment. He
and Chalk could hear them landing with little thuds on the hangers in
the many closets as Skamperoo finished speaking. Then, being naturally
lazy, the new Emperor wished that he had already had his bath and
was dressed in his green riding clothes. So, immediately he was, and
winking at his clever assistant adviser, he next wished himself the
best rider in Oz. Then, taking back his necklaces, he buttoned them
carefully in a little pocket over his heart and went over to the mirror
to have a look at himself.
"How about this governing stuff?" puffed the self-made Emperor, turning
this way and that to get a good view of his new clothes.
"Oh, I shouldn't bother about governing," answered Chalk carelessly.
"A well-governed country like this should be able to run itself for
a few weeks. By that time we'll be ready for more serious matters,
but right now I'm all for enjoying myself. A splendid idea, that, of
putting all the rulers and the Wizard and his magic out of the way. The
rest of your court and subjects are exceedingly sensible and jolly, and
if we are pleasant and sensible too, everything will be 'What ho and
so cozy!' So let's go below and start our first day of emperoaring!"
Impatiently Chalk pranced away toward the door.
"You're sure I look all right?" asked Skamperoo with another anxious
squint at his reflection. "Seems to me I'm a bit too fat."
"Oh, don't worry about that," said Chalk, rolling his eyes wickedly.
"Come along, come along, and I'll soon shake some of that fat off you.
Up with you, Kingaling, and let's to our oats!" To his delight and
pleasure, Skamperoo had not the slightest trouble mounting, and once in
the saddle he felt perfectly at home, even when Chalk bounded through
the door, took the long circular steps between a canter and a gallop,
and ran madly three times round the Royal gardens.
On fine days Ozma always had breakfast in her private garden, and it
being an especially fine day, the palace servants without thought or
question had placed the royal table under the trees. It was still
fairly early and none of the guests or members of the household were
down, but this did not spoil Skamperoo's excellent appetite at all.
Ordering Chalk a breakfast of oats, bran and quartered apples, he
seated himself gaily at the head of the table. The green riding hat,
set well over one ear, became him vastly well and Chalk, regarding him
proudly from the foot of the table, thought him every inch an Emperor,
even if round the waist there were a good many too many inches.
"I wish Pinny Penny could see you now," sighed the horse, sinking
contentedly back on his haunches, "and how I should have enjoyed seeing
Matiah's face when he finally discovered you and the necklaces were
gone. By the way, perhaps we should do something about Matiah?"
"Pinny Penny will attend to him," said Skamperoo, popping a huge cherry
into his mouth and nodding his head reassuringly. "I'll wager Pinny
Penny sent the fellow packing the moment he found himself King. Wonder
how Pinny is making out, anyway?"
"But suppose Matiah should follow us here?" went on Chalk. Having been
in existence only two days, he knew little of Oz or geozophy.
"He can't come here," Skamperoo told him triumphantly. "There's a
deadly desert between Skampavia and Oz that no one in my father's
lifetime or in mine has ever crossed, that is with the exception of
ourselves, and we were wished across, which doesn't count." Then as
four footmen with heaping trays appeared, he winked at Chalk and the
white horse lapsed into a thoughtful silence.
And Skamperoo had been perfectly correct in his conjectures about Pinny
Penny. When, with a resounding clunk, the King's gold crown had fallen
upon the astonished Prime Minister, his head had gone entirely through
so he was forced to wear it much as a dog wears a collar. But even so,
he was not slow to realize the significance of this odd happening or
the power it brought with it. Gripping the scepter which had forced
itself into his hand, he rushed into the throne room to find out what
strange whim of his Master had made him acting King of the Realm. A
glance around the throne room was enough to show him that Skamperoo
was not there, and when he saw Matiah sitting so unconcernedly in the
book alcove, a sudden rage and conviction seized him. Whatever had
happened, Matiah was to blame.
"Leave this palace at once!" shouted Pinny Penny, stamping first
one foot and then the other. "At once, do you hear, or I'll call
out the guard!" Matiah, still deep in the History of Oz, looked up
in astonishment, and when he saw the little Prime Minister wearing
Skamperoo's crown round his neck and brandishing his scepter, he gave a
perfect bellow of anger and dismay.
"Where's the King?" he roared, looking wildly around the throne room,
"and why are you wearing his crown? Where's Skamperoo--where're the
necklaces?"
"Ask yourself!" raged Pinny Penny, shaking the scepter threateningly.
"Everything was quiet and peaceful till you and your necklaces arrived
at this palace; there's some magic trickery about them and about you.
Don't think I was fooled by that horse story, a horse does not appear
out of the air. Well, now the King's gone--the horse is gone and unless
you are gone in ten seconds I'll have you thrown out of the window.
Ten seconds--do you hear? This crown and scepter came to me through no
wish or choice of my own, but since they did come to me I AM THE KING!
And I intend to rule this country. My first official act will be to rid
myself of your filthy presence. Now, then, start walking, merchant, and
don't stop till you reach the border. Twenty guards will follow to see
you safely out of the country."
"You wait till Skamperoo hears about this!" blustered Matiah, backing
away in alarm from the determined little Prime Minister. "I'm more
important to him than anyone else."
"Then why aren't you with him?" inquired Pinny Penny shrewdly. "No,
wherever he's gone he has gone without you. I am the King and I do not
need you, so be off!" Clapping his hands, Pinny gave a sharp command
to the guards, who came hurrying in answer to his summons. Retiring
rapidly to escape the tips of their sharp spikes, Matiah sullenly began
his long march. It was nightfall by the time the little company reached
the edge of Skampavia. Here, in a wilderness of rock and rubble, the
guardsmen left him with food enough for a couple of days and stern
warnings never to return to Skampavia. Far to the west the miserable
merchant could see the comforting lights of Merryland, but he had no
desire to go there or east to the Kingdom of Ix. Instead, he stared
hopelessly across the wilderness to where the heaving sands of the
Deadly Desert gleamed like molten silver in the moonlight.
"How had that rascally monarch ever escaped without his seeing him?
How could he ever safely cross the Deadly Desert and hope to reach Oz?
How had Skamperoo, who seemed so dumb and foolish, ever discovered the
secret of using the magic emeralds when he himself had failed to do so?
How? How? How?" Crouched on a flat rock, munching one of the sandwiches
left by the guards, Matiah scowled evilly across the grim desert, his
thoughts as treacherous and shifting as its deadly sands.