The Seer of Some Summit
Since coming to Oz, Dorothy had traveled in many strange ways, but to
find herself shooting through the midnight sky in Bitty Bit's tower was
surely the oddest of all. Both she and Pigasus stared from the window
in wide-eyed wonder as the tower uncoiled and started shrinking rapidly
backward.
"We may as well go home at once," observed Bitty Bit, rubbing his
little hands briskly together. "You are much more interesting than sea
serpents and I can easily look for sea serpents some other night. Now
don't be alarmed when we bump."
"Bump?" repeated Dorothy rather nervously.
"Of course," the sage told her calmly. "As I go forward, the tower
stretches out in any direction I wish to go; when I return, it shrinks,
contracts, and retires within itself like a telescope, and by the time
we reach the castle it is no larger than an ordinary tower. Mm--better
hold on to something, we're almost there!" Running around the circular
room a few feet from the wall was a gold railing. Pigasus had just
time to hook his wing around this railing and Dorothy to seize it with
one hand, when Bitty Bit's tower with a resounding crash snapped back,
but up to a vertical position, so that what had been the floor of the
little room became the east wall and the window a skylight. Dorothy and
Pigasus, describing a complete circle on the bar, landed in a more or
less upside down position on what had been the back wall. "That's why
I have it cushioned," explained the seer, who also had executed a neat
somersault. Hopping up, as if landing on his head was a perfectly usual
and ordinary occurrence, Bitty Bit opened a trap door in the floor and
motioned for Dorothy and Pigasus to follow him down a long winding
stair.
"These magic contraptions will be the death of me," wheezed Pigasus,
picking himself up with a groan. The cushioned floor had made his fall
painless, but he was considerably jolted and upset from the shock, or
rather the series of shocks that had so far punctuated their evening.
"But if he's a seer," whispered Dorothy, recovering her basket and
trotting eagerly after Bitty Bit, "he ought to be able to help us a--"
"Bitty Bit," sniffed the pink pig. "Well, if he'll just help me to
a bed, I'll be satisfied!" and grunting and grumbling, he clumped
sleepily down the stairs behind Dorothy. The room into which the stone
stairway led them was evidently the cozy and comfortable study of
the comical little seer. Its walls were of oak, lined from floor to
ceiling with books, and all its furnishings were tan or brown. Dorothy
considered this extremely suitable as Bitty Bit himself looked like a
very wise and merry Brownie. On his little round head was a round cap
with a yellow quill and he wore a brown wrinkled robe rather like a
monk's, tied tightly round the waist with a yellow cord. His bright,
black, sharp little eyes danced with good humor and interest in his
sun-tanned, honest little face. While Pigasus stood sleepily and
somewhat disapprovingly on the hearth rug, Dorothy sank into a snug
brown arm chair and looked expectantly up at their singular host.
"No, no, not a word," begged Bitty Bit, raising his hand pleadingly.
"Remember, I am the Seer of Some Summit, a seer who can see and
foresee; a seer who can tell and foretell. Just by closing my eyes I
can tell who you are, whence you came, and whither you are going."
"Fancy that, now," observed Pigasus in a mocking voice.
"You," retorted Bitty Bit, pointing a skinny brown finger at the pig,
"you are a creation of my friend, the Red Jinn, whose taste for low
verse I always knew would lead him into some mischief."
"Low verses?" retorted Pigasus indignantly, while even Dorothy looked a
little shocked.
"Yes, low verses," insisted Bitty Bit solemnly. "You are so constructed
that he who rides must rhyme and break into foolish jingles. Is this
not so?"
"They may be jingles, but they are NOT low verse," protested Pigasus,
flapping his ears angrily.
"Well, then, let us call them simple verses," amended Bitty Bit with a
generous wave of the hand, "at least they are verses that anyone can
understand, which, of course, makes them of no value whatever. People
never appreciate what they can understand."
"Dorothy does," declared Pigasus, now mad enough to fly right out the
window.
"Dorothy? Ah, yes, I was coming to her." Swinging around, Bitty Bit,
his eyes still tightly shut, wagged his finger at the astonished little
girl. "You are the mortal girl who came to Oz by cyclone. You live in
the Emerald City of Oz and are--"
"Oh, tell us something we don't already know," interrupted Pigasus with
a bored yawn. "Where is Ozma of Oz now--how could a scalawag Emperor
steal her throne?"
"Wait! Wait! Give me time! Not a word more--not a word!" panted Bitty
Bit, advancing with short dancing steps toward Dorothy. "I--I see a
necklace," he muttered mysteriously. "One--two--three necklaces! I
see a white horse and a fat, red-faced fellow wearing a small emerald
crown. Great sea bass and sassafrass! Oz has been conquered--its
inhabitants enchanted--its rulers banished, and the King of Skampavia
sits on the throne."
"So that's where he comes from!" breathed Dorothy, forgetting Bitty
Bit's request for silence. "Oh, quick, tell us more--tell us more, and
help us to restore Ozma and the other lost sovereigns to power!"
"I am only a seer," answered the sage, opening his eyes wide and
suddenly. "I can see and foresee, tell and foretell, but I cannot
change that which has happened or is about to happen."
"But where is Ozma?" demanded Pigasus, edging closer. "If you are a
seer and can see 'er, at least you can tell us where she is." In this
way Pigasus hoped to check up the information given them by Potaroo,
the Gnome King's Wizard.
So again Bitty Bit closed his eyes and pressing his fingers to his
forehead spoke: "Ozma, my old friend Jinnicky, the Wizard of Oz, a
soldier with green whiskers, a purple horse, two Queens, two Kings, a
Prince, the Tin Woodman, and Glinda the Good Sorceress are lying at the
bottom of Lightning Lake, which is on the top of Thunder Mountain,"
Bitty Bit told them solemnly.
"Lightning Lake?" cried Dorothy, seizing the little seer frantically by
the shoulders. "Why, then, they must be drowned, burned and destroyed
altogether!"
"No, no--they are quite calm and as usual," Bitty Bit assured her
hastily, "in fact, they are, I should say, in a trance of some kind."
"But what'll we do, how'll we disenchant them or find Thunder
Mountain?" Loosing her hold on Bitty Bit, Dorothy spun round three
times and then started firmly for the door.
"My shooting tower will take you to Thunder Mountain or any other
place you decide you must go," promised Bitty Bit, hurrying anxiously
after the little girl, "but not tonight, Dorothy--not tonight. We
are all tired and I must have time to think. The conquering of Oz is
a great shock to me. I would like time to look into the matter more
fully and consider all of these strange events in their proper order.
This problem shall be my pillow. I'll sleep on it, my dear, and in the
morning will doubtless have something helpful to suggest."
"Well, then, where're the beds?" yawned Pigasus, who heartily approved
of Bitty Bit's suggestion. "Or are we to sleep on our problems, too?"
At this, Bitty Bit, who seemed to find Pigasus terribly amusing,
laughed right out loud, then taking Dorothy's arm he led the way to
a snug little bedroom all done in yellow. Pigasus had a gentlemanly
apartment in tan next door and both were so weary they spent little
time examining their new quarters, but instead went directly to bed and
to sleep.
When Dorothy wakened next morning she looked out the window and saw
Pigasus flying in slow circles round the tidy castle. Bitty Bit's brown
stone palace, though small and unpretentious, perched, right on top of
Some Summit, and the view was so fine and the mountain air so fresh and
invigorating, Dorothy, in spite of all her anxiety and worry, began to
feel happy and reckless and ready for anything. With cheerful little
glances round her cozy yellow room, she dressed, brushed her hair till
it shone, then skipped merrily down the brown marble steps and out
into the garden. The garden, really a series of sloping terraces, was
bright with hardy mountain posies, with spicy sage bushes and gnarled
old trees which clung like acrobats to the steep rocks and dangerous
crevices. Pigasus, catching a glimpse of Dorothy seated on a smooth
rock near a little waterfall, came swooping down to wish her a merry
morning.
"Not a bad little palace," remarked the pig considerately. "Not a bad
little palace at all, though so far as I can see there's not a man
servant nor a woman servant or even a ladybug about. I imagine this
fellow is a hermit and from the looks of him probably lives on tobacco
and snuff. What do you suppose are the chances for breakfast?"
"I don't know," said Dorothy, refusing to allow such a small matter as
breakfast to dash her spirits. "Have you seen Bitty Bit this morning?"
"Yes," sniffed Pigasus, beginning to poke his nose hungrily round the
roots of a dwarf oak, "before I flew out my window, I saw him going
into his brown study. Seer goes into brown study. How's that for the
first announcement of the day?"
"You're awful," laughed Dorothy, giving Pigasus a little push.
"No, just awfully hungry," grinned Pigasus. "Now I've been thinking--"
"NO?" Stepping out from behind a sizable bush, Bitty Bit regarded the
pig with an air of assumed amazement. "He says he's been thinking," he
repeated, turning solemnly to Dorothy. "Must be the air up here."
"That's about all I've had," retorted Pigasus, savagely crunching an
acorn between his teeth, "that and a nibble from one of your sage
bushes."
"Sage bush, eh?" chuckled Bitty Bit, winking at Dorothy. "That's
good, and we'll make a sage of you yet, a sausage!" he whispered in
an undertone that Pigasus heard quite distinctly. "And speaking of
sausage, how about breakfast?"
Though Bitty Bit's remark about the sausage still rankled, Pigasus
was too hungry to let it keep him from following the seer into a
small walled garden that opened out from the larger dining hall of
his castle. Here, on a small table covered with a gay yellow cloth,
was assembled the most appetizing breakfast Dorothy ever had tasted.
Ripe melon and apricots, cereal and eggs, tiny meat pies, pancakes
and honey, hot rolls and steaming brown cocoa. There was a huge bowl
of mush and cream for Pigasus and another of buttermilk, and under the
soothing influence of his favorite foods, Pigasus completely forgot
his annoyance and they were soon chattering away like old friends at
a Sunday School Picnic. Bitty Bit's chef, whom the pig had overlooked
in his grand tour of the palace, served them with skill and speed.
No wonder Pigasus had not seen him, for he was even smaller than his
wrinkled little Master and almost completely enveloped in a great brown
linen apron and tall brown cap. Dorothy could not possibly eat all the
dainties pressed upon her by the kind little seer and his chef, but she
nibbled at each course, and when Bitty Bit saw that neither she nor
Pigasus could down another bite, he swallowed the rest of his cocoa and
bounced briskly to his feet.
"Now," he cried, tossing away his gay napkin with a flourish. "Now for
the Emerald City and Oz!"
"But I thought we were going to Thunder Mountain," exclaimed Dorothy,
pushing back her chair so hurriedly she bumped her head on the wall.
"That," exclaimed Bitty Bit, looking over his shoulder, for he was
already half way through the door, "that will not be necessary. All we
need to save the celebrities of Oz is the long lost wishing emeralds of
Lorna the Wood Nymph."
"Lorna?" coughed Pigasus, rolling out of his seat and falling a bit
sideways. "For pretty sake, who's she?"
"Oh, come along!" urged Dorothy, and without wasting another second she
pelted into the brown palace after Bitty Bit.
With a groan Pigasus followed, and groaned again when he realized
he would have to climb three flights of marble steps and a flight of
stone to reach the famous shooting tower. Then, suddenly and joyfully
remembering his wings, he spread them wide.
"Wings, hold me up," mumbled the pink pig stuffily, "we're carrying
entirely too mush mush!" Rising rather uncertainly, he breathlessly
flapped his way up to the tower room where Dorothy and Bitty Bit
impatiently awaited him.