Sir Hokus And The Giants
“Oh!” sighed Sir Hokus of Pokes and Oz, stretching his armored legs to
the fire. “How I yearn to slay a giant! How it would refresh me! Hast
any real giants in Oz, Dorothy?”
“Don’t you remember the candy giant?” laughed the little girl, looking
up from the handkerchief she was making for Ozma.
“Not to my taste,” said the Knight, “though his vest buttons were vastly
nourishing.”
“Well, there’s Mr. Yoop—he’s a real blood-and-bone giant. There are
plenty of giants, I guess, if we knew just where to find them!” said the
little girl, biting off her thread.
“Find ’em—bind ’em,
Get behind ’em!
Hokus Pokus
He don’t mind ’em!”
screamed the Patch Work Girl, bounding out of her chair. “But why can’t
you stay peaceably at home, old Iron Sides, and be jolly like the rest
of us?”
“You don’t understand, Scraps,” put in Dorothy gravely. “Sir Hokus is a
Knight and it is a true Knight’s duty to slay giants and dragons and go
on quests!”
“_That_ it is, my Lady Patches!” boomed Sir Hokus, puffing out his
chest. “I’ve rusted here in idleness long enough. To-morrow, with Ozma’s
permission, I shall start on a giant quest.”
“I’d go with you, only I’ve promised to help Ozma count the royal
emeralds,” said the Scarecrow, who had ridden over from his Corn-Ear
residence to spend a week with his old friends in the Emerald City.
“Giants, Sir, are bluff and rude
And might mistake a man for food!
Hokus Pokus, be discreet,
Or you will soon be giant meat!”
chuckled the Patch Work Girl, crooking her finger under the Knight’s
nose.
“Nonsense!” blustered Sir Hokus, waving Scraps aside. Rising from his
green arm chair, he strode up and down the room, his armor clanking at
every step. Straightway the company began to tell about wild giants they
had read of or known. Trot and Betsy Bobbin held hands as they sat
together on the sofa, and Toto, Dorothy’s small dog, crept closer to his
little mistress, the bristles on his back rising higher as each story
was finished. “Giant stories are all very well, but why tell ’em at
night?” shivered Toto, peering nervously at the long shadows in the
corners of the room.
It was the evening after Ruggedo’s strange discovery of the mixed magic
and in the royal palace Ozma and most of the Courtiers had retired. But
a few of Princess Dorothy’s special friends had gathered in the cozy
sitting-room of her apartment to talk about old times. They were very
unusual and interesting friends, not at all the sort one would expect to
find in a royal palace, even in Fairyland. Dorothy, herself, before she
had become a Princess of Oz, had been a little girl from Kansas but,
after several visits to this delightful country, she had preferred to
make Oz her home.
Trot and Betsy Bobbin also had come from the United States by way of
shipwrecks, so to speak, and had been invited to remain by Ozma, the
little fairy Princess who ruled Oz, and now each of these girls had a
cozy little apartment in the royal palace. Toto had come with Dorothy,
but the rest of the company were of more or less magic extraction.
The Scarecrow, a stuffed straw person, with a marvelous set of mixed
brains given to him by the Wizard of Oz, was Dorothy’s favorite. In fact
she had discovered him herself upon a Munchkin farm, lifted him down
from his bean pole and brought him to the Emerald City. Tik Tok was a
wonderful man made entirely of copper, who could talk, think and act as
well as the next fellow when properly wound. You would have been amazed
to hear the giant story he was ticking off at this very minute. As for
Scraps, she had been made by a magician’s wife out of old pieces of
patch-work and magically brought to life. Her bright patches, yarn hair
and silver suspender button eyes gave Scraps so comical an expression
that just to look at her tickled one’s funny bone. Her head was full of
nonsense rhymes and she was so amusing and cheerful that Ozma insisted
upon her living with the rest of the celebrities in the Emerald City.
[Illustration: Just to Look at Scraps Tickled One’s Funny Bone]
Sir Hokus of Pokes was a comparative new-comer in the capital city of
Oz. Yet the Knight was so old that it would give me lumbago just to try
to count up his birthdays. He dated back to King Arthur, in fact, and
had been wished into the Land of Oz centuries before by an enemy
sorcerer. Dorothy had found and rescued him, with the Cowardly Lion’s
help, from Pokes, the dullest Kingdom in Oz. As there were no other
Knights in the Emerald City, Sir Hokus was much stared at and admired.
Even the Soldier with the Green Whiskers, the one and only soldier and
entire army of Oz—yes, even the soldier with the Green Whiskers saluted
Sir Hokus when he passed. Ozma, herself, felt more secure since the
Knight had come to live in the palace. He was well versed in adventure
and always courageous and courteous, withal.
But, while I’ve been telling you all this, Tik Tok had finished his
story of a three-legged giant who lived in Ev.
“And where is Ev?” puffed Sir Hokus, planting himself before Tik Tok.
“Ev,” began Tik Tok in his precise fashion, “is to the north-west of
here on the oth-er side of the im—” There was a whirr and a click and
the copper man stood motionless and soundless, his round eyes fixed
solemnly on the Knight.
“Pass-able des-ert,” finished the Scarecrow, jumping up and kindly
winding all of Tik Tok’s keys as if nothing had happened.
“Pass-able des-ert,” continued the Copper Man.
“That’s where the old Gnome King used to live,” piped Betsy Bobbin,
bouncing up and down upon the sofa, “under the mountains of Ev, and he
threw us down a tube and tried to melt you in a crucible, didn’t he, Tik
Tok?”
“He was a ve-ry bad per-son,” said the Copper Man.
“Ruggedo was a wicked King,
’Tho’ now he’s good as pie,
But none the less, I must confess,
He has a wicked eye!”
burst out Scraps, who was tired of sitting still listening to giant
stories.
But Sir Hokus could not be got off the subject of giants. “To Ev!”
thundered the Knight, raising his sword. “To-morrow I’m off to Ev to
conquer this terrible monster. Large as a mountain, you say, Tik Tok?
Well, what care I for mountains? I, Sir Hokus of Pokes, will slay him!”
“Hurrah for the giant killer!” giggled Scraps, turning a somersault and
nearly falling in the fire.
“Let’s go to bed!” said Dorothy uneasily. She had for the last few
minutes been hearing strange rumbles. Of course it could not be giants;
still the conversation, she concluded, had better be finished by
sunlight.
But it never was, for at that moment there was a deafening crash. The
lights went out; the whole castle shivered; furniture fell every which
way. Down clattered Sir Hokus, falling with a terrible clangor on top of
the Copper Man. Down rolled the little girls and the Scarecrow and
Scraps. Down tumbled everybody.
“Cyclone!” gasped Dorothy, who had experienced several in Kansas.
“Giants!” stuttered Betsy Bobbin, clutching Trot.
The Wizard of Oz tried to reassure the agitated company. He told them
there was no cause for alarm, and that they would soon find out what was
the trouble. The soothing words of the Wizard were scarcely heard.
[Illustration: The Smiling Little Wizard of Oz]
What the others said was lost in the noise that followed.
Thumps—bangs—crashes—screams came from every room in the rocking palace.
“We’re flying! The whole castle’s flying up in the air!” screamed
Dorothy. Then she subsided, as an emerald clock and three pictures came
thumping down on her head.
What had happened? No one could say. Dorothy, Betsy Bobbin and Trot had
fainted dead away. The Scarecrow and Sir Hokus were tangled up on the
floor, clasped in each other’s arms.
The confusion was terrific. Only the Wizard was still calm and smiling.
[Illustration: (unlabelled)]