Out of Keretaria!
Nox was asleep on a heap of white flower petals in the corner of his
stall, asleep and dreaming of the Silver Mountain of Oz, when a sharp
tap on the shoulder rudely awakened him.
"Come!" whispered an urgent voice. "Time to start! Come, I've managed
everything." Lurching to his feet and still in a daze, the Royal Ox
looked askance and with no great favor at the Goat Girl.
"Why, it's not even light!" he moaned feebly.
"Of course not," admitted Handy Mandy guardedly, "but I poked my nose
out the door a moment ago and saw all the guards were a bit drowsyish,
so I tapped them on the head with this." Handy Mandy raised her iron
hand and with a little grimace beckoned for Nox to hurry. "Come along
now, and we can be out of here before they know what's what or who."
So Nox, with a regretful look round his comfortable stall and a sigh
for his morning bath and breakfast, moved quietly after her. While the
Royal Creature had spent most of his time during the past two years
thinking of ways to rescue his young Master, now that he was actually
starting out he was filled with doubt and dismay. How could they ever
find this Silver Mountain and overcome the enemies that most certainly
would beset them?
The sight of the twenty guards lying in a stiff row somewhat reassured
the downhearted beast and in the dim light of early morning he looked
thoughtfully up at the sturdy mountain lass stepping so resolutely
beside him. In each hand Handy carried a different weapon, and resting
on her broad shoulders was a rake, an axe, one guard's gun, another
guard's sword, a spade and a long handled broom. Noting his astonished
glance, the Goat Girl grinned and with her one free hand touched her
fingers to her lips. So, silently and without exchanging a word, the
two crossed the stable yard, the Royal Park, hurried through a little
wood, and came out on a dusty blue Highway.
"NOW!" said Handy, looking up and down the road to make sure no one was
coming, "now we can talk and decide which direction to take."
"How can we do that," objected Nox, panting a little from the
unaccustomed exertion before breakfast, "when neither of us knows
where this Silver Mountain is?"
"Well, we have tongues, haven't we? And can ask, can't we?" Handy Mandy
rattled her weapons impatiently. "But before we worry about the Silver
Mountain we must get out of Keretaria. Which is the quickest way to the
border?"
"Oh, North," answered Nox promptly. "Keretaria is in the upper part of
the Munchkin Country of Oz and once we cross the Northern branch of the
Munchkin River, we'll be entirely out of the country."
"Fine! Then we'll go North. And what lies beyond the Munchkin River?"
inquired the Goat Girl, shifting the axe to her left shoulder.
"I've never crossed myself," admitted Nox, moving along in his slow and
dignified manner, "but I have heard there are many mountains and if we
go far enough the Purple Land of the Gillikins."
"Sounds interesting," decided Handy Mandy, "and who knows, among all
those mountains we may find the one we are looking for! By the way, am
I to call you Boz, Nox or Goldie Horns? But I believe I'll call you
Nox, for somehow I like Nox the Ox best."
"Anything you say," yawned her companion, switching his tail
negligently, "but I shall always call YOU, Handy Mandy. It suits you,
m'lass, and you need no longer consider yourself a slave."
"Ho, ho, I never did," roared the Goat Girl, glancing cheerfully
down at her lordly companion. "That was just a joke, wasn't it? You
know, everything in this Land of Oz is extremely funny and peculiar.
Two-armed natives, animals talking, Kings disappearing and mysterious
messages and prophecies."
"People always think a new country strange!" observed the Ox
philosophically. "To us it seems quite right and natural. But I daresay
if I were to find myself on Mt. Mern I'd consider everything there
very odd and upsetting; rocks flying through the air, for instance,
and landing one soft and light as a daisy in a strange King's garden."
"But all of our rocks don't fly, in fact I never knew one to do such a
thing before. And no wonder I landed as soft as a daisy--there was a
blue daisy under me or I'd have been splintered to smithereens!"
"Daisy?" Nox licked his lips hungrily. "You never said anything about a
daisy."
"Oh, I never tell all I know," confided Handy, "especially to
Hi-qui-cockadoodlums like the King and his Counselors. But there was
a daisy--growing on the rock and I picked it. As I started to fall I
began pulling off the petals, and when I landed I came down on a high,
huge pile of them, a heap as high as a haystack," continued Handy Mandy
dreamily. "So I slid off the stack and turned to look at the castle,
and when I looked again, the petals were gone, but there was the daisy
itself growing up as pert as you please in this strange garden. So what
did I do but pick it again and here it is!" Triumphantly Handy pulled
the blue flower from her pocket.
"My, what a dear little daisy!" murmured the Ox. "How delicious it
would taste."
"No! NO!" cried Handy, as Nox rolled his long tongue out toward the
flower. "It's too pretty to eat."
"Nothing's too pretty to eat," replied the Ox plaintively. "Funny it
hasn't wilted, though."
"Well, I believe it's magic," stated the Goat Girl, with a positive
little shake of her head. As she returned the daisy to her pocket,
Handy felt the hard metal object that had hit her in the forehead when
she and Nox ploughed through the King's garden.
"Look! What do you suppose this is?" she queried, tapping the Ox
sharply on the shoulder, for he was walking sleepily along with his
eyes closed. "This is what we dug up when we rushed through the garden,
you know."
"How should I know?" grunted the Ox indifferently, opening one eye.
"Just a silver hammer, isn't it? Maybe we can trade it for a good
breakfast when we cross the river."
"My--y--how you talk!" scolded Handy. "We're not going to trade it at
all. See, there's an initial on it. A big W. Now what would W stand
for?"
"Who, what, which, where, oh why worry?" mumbled the Ox, plodding
resignedly along beside her.
"Well, anyway, it will make a splendid potato masher," concluded the
Goat Girl, returning the hammer to her pocket.
"Yes, if we had any potatoes." The Ox sighed heavily as he spoke,
looking off into the distance with such a mournful eye Handy Mandy
laughed a little all to herself.
"Oh cheer up," sniffed the Goat Girl, "you're not starved yet. And
hurry up, too, the sun's going higher every moment and we'd better pass
those farms before the people waken."
It was against Nox's nature to hurry, but realizing the wisdom of the
Goat Girl's advice, he broke into an awkward gallop. In spite of his
great weight, the Royal creature was light as a daisy on his feet, and
except for the faint rattle of Handy's weapons they made little noise
as they ran past the dome-shaped blue houses and barns of the Munchkin
farmers.
"Couldn't we stop for a few greens?" puffed Nox, looking longingly over
the fence at a field of cabbages.
"Not here, dear--ear!" Red faced and breathless, the Goat Girl ran on.
"Wait till we cross this river--iver."
"But I'm not used to this--sort--of--thing," complained Nox peevishly.
"Running races before breakfast on an empty stomach. No bath--no
brush--no rub down!"
"Well, here's your brush," gasped Handy, picking her way through a
dense thicket as the highway ended in a small wood, "and yonder's your
bath, Mister. My--y, what a blue river!"
"Everything's blue in the Munchkin Country of Oz," Nox told her
sulkily, as sharp briers and thorns reached out to scratch his satiny
hide.
"Even the Royal Ox of Keretaria," hinted Handy with a sly wink. "Oh the
river's blue and the houses are blue and even the wind blew--Hoo Hoo!
Come on."
"Don't try to be funny," with heaving sides, the Ox stopped on the edge
of the gleaming blue stream. "Don't try to be funny, I beg."
"Oh, I don't have to try, I am!" laughed Handy, flinging the axe, the
rake, the spade, the sword, the gun and the broomstick across the river.
"Wait!" snorted the Ox, as Handy, having got rid of her load, raised
all of her hands above her head and prepared to dive in. "Wait, can you
swim?"
"I don't know, but I'll soon find out," cried Handy, and before Nox
could prevent it, the Goat Girl leapt off the bank and disappeared
beneath the blue waters of the Munchkin River. For once, Nox forgot his
dignity and Royal station and plunged frantically after his reckless
companion. Swimming around with his head under water, he finally
located Handy Mandy and gripping her yellow plaits firmly in his teeth,
dragged her to the opposite bank. The Goat Girl was so full of water,
she had little to say and lay soggily on the grass while Nox looked
down at her with mingled admiration and concern.
"Never do such a thing again," he wheezed severely as Handy finally sat
up and began wringing the water from her voluminous skirts. "Swimming
is an art and must be learned and practiced. But for oat's sake, why
didn't you flap all those arms when you hit the water?" he finished
irritably.
"Oh, is that what you're supposed to do? This way?" Before Nox could
step a step, the Goat Girl had jumped into the river again. This time
instead of going down she splashed and whirled her seven arms so fast
and furiously she just managed to keep her head above water. But Nox,
now thoroughly annoyed and without giving her a chance to get far from
shore, waded in and determinedly dragged her back to dry land.
"What in skyblue onions are you trying to do?" he sputtered angrily,
"Drown yourself?"
"No, I'm trying to swim," coughed the Goat Girl, struggling to get
away from the angry Ox. "Do you suppose I'm going to let this Munchkin
River get the best of me?"
"Yes, and while you are swimming or rather practicing your swimming
some of these Keretarians will come and capture us," gurgled Nox. "Are
we escaping or are we swimming--quick now, make up your mind."
Nox's earnest words brought Handy quickly to her senses and as the
Royal Ox let go her skirts, she snatched up her weapons and without
waiting to wring out her clothes started briskly across the meadows.
"Never mind, you'll be a fine swimmer some day," said Nox, trotting
more amiably beside her. The cool river water had refreshed the Royal
creature and Handy Mandy's determination and courage made him a little
ashamed of his own complaints. "Takes a little practice, that's all."
"Practice!" repeated Handy, dripping water from every plait and pore.
"Well just wait till we come to the next river, I'll show you! But
LOOK, here are more blue houses, so we must still be in the Munchkin
Country."
"Yes, but we're out of Keretaria," Nox reminded her cheerfully. "What's
that signpost say, my girl?"
Hurrying forward, Handy squinted up at the rough board nailed to a blue
spruce and then began to clench and unclench her one free fist.
"TURN HERE!"
directed the sign. "Turn here and go straight back where you came from."
"Well, I'll be buttered!" cried the Goat Girl, throwing down every one
of her weapons. "I'll be churned and buttered."
"But what had we butter do?" muttered the Royal Ox, so taken aback by
the saucy message that even his tongue was twisted.
"Why, we'll go straight on, of course," declared Handy Mandy, tossing
her yellow plaits defiantly. "Who are whoever they are to tell us our
business?" And recovering her weapons one by one, the Goat Girl tramped
down the crooked lane directly ahead of them, the Royal Ox with lifted
nose and horns, stepping warily behind her.