The settled parts of the Winkie Country are full of happy and contented
people who are ruled by a tin Emperor named Nick Chopper, who in turn is
a subject of the beautiful girl Ruler, Ozma of Oz. But not all of the
Winkie Country is fully settled. At the east, which part lies nearest
the Emerald City, there are beautiful farmhouses and roads, but as you
travel west you first come to a branch of the Winkie River, beyond
which there is a rough country where few people live, and some of these
are quite unknown to the rest of the world. After passing through this
rude section of territory, which no one ever visits, you would come to
still another branch of the Winkie River, after crossing which you would
find another well-settled part of the Winkie Country, extending westward
quite to the Deadly Desert that surrounds all the Land of Oz and
separates that favored fairyland from the more common outside world. The
Winkies who live in this west section have many tin mines, from which
metal they make a great deal of rich jewelry and other articles, all of
which are highly esteemed in the Land of Oz because tin is so bright and
pretty, and there is not so much of it as there is of gold and silver.
Not all the Winkies are miners, however, for some till the fields and
grow grains for food, and it was at one of these far west Winkie farms
that the Frogman and Cayke the Cookie Cook first arrived after they had
descended from the mountain of the Yips.
"Goodness me!" cried Nellary, the Winkie wife, when she saw the strange
couple approaching her house. "I have seen many queer creatures in the
Land of Oz, but none more queer than this giant frog, who dresses like
a man and walks on his hind legs. Come here, Wiljon," she called to her
husband, who was eating his breakfast, "and take a look at this
astonishing freak."
Wiljon the Winkie came to the door and looked out. He was still standing
in the doorway when the Frogman approached and said with a haughty
croak:
"Tell me, my good man, have you seen a diamond-studded gold dishpan?"
"No; nor have I seen a copper-plated lobster," replied Wiljon, in an
equally haughty tone.
The Frogman stared at him and said:
"Do not be insolent, fellow!"
"No," added Cayke the Cookie Cook, hastily, "you must be very polite to
the great Frogman, for he is the wisest creature in all the world."
"Who says that?" inquired Wiljon.
"He says so himself," replied Cayke, and the Frogman nodded and strutted
up and down, twirling his gold-headed cane very gracefully.
"Does the Scarecrow admit that this overgrown frog is the wisest
creature in the world?" asked Wiljon.
"I do not know who the Scarecrow is," answered Cayke the Cookie Cook.
"Well, he lives at the Emerald City, and he is supposed to have the
finest brains in all Oz. The Wizard gave them to him, you know."
"Mine grew in my head," said the Frogman pompously, "so I think they
must be better than any wizard brains. I am so wise that sometimes my
wisdom makes my head ache. I know so much that often I have to forget
part of it, since no one creature, however great, is able to contain so
much knowledge."
"It must be dreadful to be stuffed full of wisdom," remarked Wiljon
reflectively, and eyeing the Frogman with a doubtful look. "It is my
good fortune to know very little."
"I hope, however, you know where my jeweled dishpan is," said the Cookie
Cook anxiously.
"I do not know even that," returned the Winkie. "We have trouble enough
in keeping track of our own dishpans, without meddling with the dishpans
of strangers."
Finding him so ignorant, the Frogman proposed that they walk on and seek
Cayke's dishpan elsewhere. Wiljon the Winkie did not seem greatly
impressed by the great Frogman, which seemed to that personage as
strange as it was disappointing; but others in this unknown land might
prove more respectful.
[Illustration]
"I'd like to meet that Wizard of Oz," remarked Cayke, as they walked
along a path. "If he could give a Scarecrow brains he might be able to
find my dishpan."
"Poof!" grunted the Frogman scornfully; "I am greater than any wizard.
Depend on _me_. If your dishpan is anywhere in the world I am sure to
find it."
"If you do not, my heart will be broken," declared the Cookie Cook in a
sorrowful voice.
For a while the Frogman walked on in silence. Then he asked:
"Why do you attach so much importance to a dishpan?"
"It is the greatest treasure I possess," replied the woman. "It belonged
to my mother and to all my grandmothers, since the beginning of time. It
is, I believe, the very oldest thing in all the Yip Country--or was
while it was there--and," she added, dropping her voice to an awed
whisper, "it has magic powers!"
"In what way?" inquired the Frogman, seeming to be surprised at this
statement.
"Whoever has owned that dishpan has been a good cook, for one thing. No
one else is able to make such good cookies as I have cooked, as you and
all the Yips know. Yet, the very morning after my dishpan was stolen, I
tried to make a batch of cookies and they burned up in the oven! I made
another batch that proved too tough to eat, and I was so ashamed of them
that I buried them in the ground. Even the third batch of cookies, which
I brought with me in my basket, were pretty poor stuff and no better
than any woman could make who does not own my diamond-studded gold
dishpan. In fact, my good Frogman, Cayke the Cookie Cook will never be
able to cook good cookies again until her magic dishpan is restored to
her."
"In that case," said the Frogman with a sigh, "I suppose we must manage
to find it."
[Illustration]
Ozma's Friends Are Perplexed
[Illustration]