SINGING THEIR WAY OUT OF POKES
Taking a deep breath, Sir Hokus, the Cowardly Lion and Dorothy burst
out of the hall singing at the top of their voices.
"Three blind mice--!" sang Dorothy.
"Across the plain!" shouted Sir Hokus.
"I am the Cowardly Lion of Oz!" roared the lion.
The Pokes were so taken aback at the horrid sounds that they ran
scurrying right and left. In another minute the three were out of the
castle and singing their way through the gloomy garden. Dorothy stuck
to the Three Blind Mice. Sir Hokus sang verse after verse of an old
English ballad, and the Cowardly Lion roared and gurgled a song of
his own making, which, considering it was a first attempt, was not so
bad:
I am the Cowardly Lion of Oz!
Be good! Begone! Beware! Becoz
When I am scared full fierce I be;
Br--rah--grr--ruff, look out for me!
The Pokes stumbled this way and that, and all went well until they
rushed into a company of Pokes who were playing croquet. The slowness
with which they raised their mallets fascinated Dorothy, and she
stopped to watch them in spite of herself.
"Don't stop! Sing!" growled the Cowardly Lion in the middle of a
line. To make up for lost time, Dorothy closed her eyes and sang
harder than ever, but alas! next instant she fell over a wicket,
which so deprived her of breath that she could barely scramble up,
let alone sing. As soon as she stopped singing, the Pokes paused in
their flight, and as soon as they paused Dorothy began to gape.
Singing for dear life, Sir Hokus jerked Dorothy by the arm, and the
Cowardly Lion roared so loud that the Pokes covered their ears and
began backing away.
"There was a Knight! Come on, come on!" sang Sir Hokus, and Dorothy
came, and in a few minutes was able to take up the "Three Blind Mice"
again. But running and singing at the same time is not an easy task.
And running through Pokes is like trying to run through water. (You
know how hard that is?)
"Three Blind Mice--uh--hah--Three Blind--Mice--uh-hah--I can't sing
another note! Thu--ree--!" gasped poor Dorothy, stumbling along,
while the Cowardly Lion was puffing like an engine. The Pokes in the
garden had recovered from their first alarm and were following at a
safe distance. The gates of the city were only a short distance off,
but it seemed to Dorothy that she could not go another step.
A large group of Pokes had gathered at the gates, and unless they
could sing their way through, they would fall asleep and be carried
ignominiously back to the castle.
"Now!" wheezed Sir Hokus, "Remember, it is for the Scarecrow!" All of
them swallowed, took a deep breath, and put their last remaining
strength into their voices. But a wily Poke who had stuffed some
cotton in his ears now approached pushing a little cart.
"Take--!" he drawled, and before Dorothy realized what she was doing,
she had accepted a cone from the Poke.
"Hah, hoh, hum! Why, it's hokey pokey!" spluttered Dorothy, and with
a deep sigh of delight she took a large bite of the pink ice cream.
How cool it felt on her dry throat! She opened her mouth for a second
taste, yawned terrifically, and fell with a thud to the stone
pavement.
"Dorothy!" wailed Sir Hokus, stopping short in his song and bending
over the little girl. The poor Cowardly Lion gave a gulp of despair
and began running around the two, roaring and singing in a choked
voice. The Pokes nodded to each other in a pleased fashion, and the
Chief Poker started cautiously toward them with a long, thick rope.
The Cowardly Lion redoubled his efforts. Then, seeing Sir Hokus about
to fall, he jumped on the Knight with all his strength. Down crashed
Sir Hokus, his armor clanging against the stones that paved the
gateway.
"Sing!" roared the Cowardly Lion, glaring at him fiercely. The fall
wakened the poor Knight, but he had not the strength to rise. Sitting
on the hard stones and looking reproachfully at the Cowardly Lion, he
began his ballad in a half-hearted fashion. The Cowardly Lion's heart
was like to burst between lack of breath and fear, but making one
last tremendous effort and still roaring his song, he bounded at the
Chief Poker, seized the rope, and was back before the stupid creature
had time to yawn.
"Tie it around your waist; take Dorothy in your arms!" gasped the
Cowardly Lion out of the corner of his mouth. Sir Hokus, though
completely dazed, had just enough presence of mind to obey, and the
next minute the Cowardly Lion, growling between his teeth like a good
fellow, was dashing through the group of Pokes, the other end of the
rope in his mouth.
Bumpety bump--bump--bump! Bangety-bang-bang! went Sir Hokus over the
cobbles, holding his helmet with one hand and Dorothy fast in the
other arm. The Pokes fell this way and that, and such was the
determination of the Cowardly Lion that he never stopped till he was
out of the gate and halfway up the rough road they had so recently
traveled. Then with a mighty sigh, he dropped the rope, rolled over
and over down the hill, and lay panting with exhaustion at the
bottom.
The bumping over the cobbles had wakened Sir Hokus thoroughly.
Indeed, the poor Knight was black and blue, and his armor dented and
scraped frightfully in important places.
Dorothy, considerably shaken, opened her eyes and began feebly
singing "Three Blind Mice."
"No need," puffed Sir Hokus, lifting her off his lap and rising
stiffly.
"Yon noble beast has rescued us."
"Won't the Pokes come up here?" asked Dorothy, staring around a bit
dizzily.
"They cannot live out of the kingdom," said the Knight, and Dorothy
drew a big sigh of relief. Sir Hokus, however, was looking very
grave.
"I have failed on my first adventure. Had it not been for the
Cowardly Lion, we would now be prisoners in Pokes," he murmured
sadly. Then he unfastened the plume from his helmet. "It beseemeth me
not to wear it," sighed the Knight mournfully, and though Dorothy
tried her best to comfort him, he refused to put it back. Finally,
she fastened the plume to her dress, and they went down to the
Cowardly Lion.
There was a little spring nearby, and after they had poured six
helmets of water over his head, the lion opened his eyes. "Been in a
good many fights," gasped the lion, "but I never fought one like
this. Singing, bah!"
"Noble Sir, how can I ever repay you?" faltered the Knight. "Alas,
that I have failed in the hour of trial!"
"Why, it wasn't a question of courage at all," rumbled the Cowardly
Lion, greatly embarrassed. "I had the loudest voice and the most
breath, that's all! You got the rough end of it." Sir Hokus looked
ruefully at his armor. The back was entirely squashed.
"Never mind!" said the Knight bravely. "It is the front one presents
to the foe."
"Now you're talking like a real Knight," said Dorothy. "A while ago
you said, 'Yon' and 'beseemeth,' and first thing you know the talk
will all come back to you." Sir Hokus' honest face shone with
pleasure.
"Odds bludgeons and truncheons! The little maid is right!" he
exclaimed, striking an attitude. "And once it does, the rest will be
easy."
"Don't say rest to me," begged the Cowardly Lion, getting slowly to
his feet. "Hah, hoh, hum! Just to think of it makes me yawn. Now
don't you think we had better start off?"
"If you're rested," began Dorothy. The Cowardly Lion put his paw over
his ear and looked so comical that both Dorothy and Sir Hokus laughed
heartily.
"If you're ready," amended Dorothy, and the three adventurers started
up the steep road. "The first thing to do," said the little girl, "is
to get back to the Emerald City as quickly as we can."
At this very minute Glinda, the Good Sorceress of Oz, in her palace
in the Quadling Country, was puzzling over an entry in the Magic
Record Book. This book tells everything that is happening in the
world and out, and while it does not give details, it is a very
useful possession.
"The Emperor of the Silver Islands," read Glinda, "has returned to
his people."
"Now who is the Emperor of the Silver Islands?" she asked herself.
She puzzled about it for a long while, and then, deciding that it had
nothing to do with the Fairy Kingdom of Oz, she closed the book and
went for a walk in the palace garden.
Dorothy and Sir Hokus and the Cowardly Lion had meanwhile reached the
first sign in the dim forest, the sign directing travelers to Pokes.
Two roads branched out through the forest, and after much debating
they took the wider.
"Do you 'spose this leads to the Emerald City?" asked Cowardly Lion
dubiously.
"Time will tell, time will tell," said Sir Hokus cheerfully.
"Yes," murmured the Cowardly Lion, "time will tell. But what?"