DOROTHY FINDS THE SCARECROW!
The next thing Dorothy knew, she was sitting on the hard floor of a
great, dark hall. One lantern burned feebly, and in the dim, silvery
light she could just make out the Comfortable Camel scrambling
awkwardly to his feet.
"I smell straw," sniffed the Camel softly.
"I doubt very much whether I am going to like this place." The voice
of the Doubtful Dromedary came hesitatingly through the gloom.
"By sword and scepter!" gasped the Knight, "Are you there, Sir
Cowardly?"
"Thank goodness, they are!" said Dorothy. Wishing other people about
is a risky and responsible business. "They're all here, but I wonder
where here is." She jumped up, but at a shuffle of feet drew back.
"Pigs! Weasels!" shrilled an angry voice, and a fat little man hurled
himself at Sir Hokus, who happened to have fallen in the lead.
"Uds trudgeons and bludgeons and maugre thy head!" roared the Knight,
shaking him off like a fly.
"Tappy, Tappy, my dear boy. Caution! What's all this?" At the sound
of that dear, familiar voice Dorothy's heart gave a skip of joy, and
without stopping to explain she rushed forward.
"Dorothy!" cried the Scarecrow, stepping on his kimona and falling
off his silvery throne. "Lights, Tappy! More lights, at once!" But
Tappy was too busy backing away from Sir Hokus of Pokes.
"Approach, vassal!" thundered the Knight, who under-stood not a word
of Tappy's speech. "Approach! I think I've been insulted!" He drew
his sword and glared angrily through the darkness, and Tappy, having
backed as far as possible, fell heels over pigtail into the silver
fountain. At the loud splash, Dorothy hastened to the rescue.
"They're friends, and we've found the Scarecrow, we've found the
Scarecrow!" She seized Sir Hokus and shook him till his armor
rattled.
"Tappy! Tappy!" called the Scarecrow. "Where in the world did he
pagota?" That's exactly what he said, but to Dorothy it sounded like
no language at all.
"Why," she cried in dismay, "it's the Scarecrow, but I can't
understand a word he's saying!"
"I think he must be talking Turkey," droned the Comfortable Camel,
"or donkey! I knew a donkey once, a very uncomfortable party, I--"
"I doubt it's donkey," put in the Dromedary importantly, but no one
paid any attention to the two beasts. For Happy Toko had at last
dragged himself out of the fountain and set fifteen lanterns glowing.
"Oh!" gasped Dorothy as the magnificent silver throne room was
flooded with light, "Where are we?"
The Scarecrow had picked himself up, and with outstretched arms came
running toward her talking a perfect Niagara of Silver Islandish.
"Have you forgotten your Ozish so soon?" rumbled the Cowardly Lion
reproachfully as Dorothy flung her arms around the Scarecrow. The
Scarecrow, seeing the Cowardly Lion for the first time, fairly fell
upon his neck. Then he brushed his clumsy hand across his forehead.
"Wasn't I talking Ozish?" he asked in a puzzled voice.
"Oh, now you are!" exclaimed Dorothy. And sure enough, the Scarecrow
was talking plain Ozish again. (Which I don't mind telling you is
also plain English.)
The Knight had been watching this little reunion with hardly
repressed emotion. Advancing hastily, he dropped on one knee.
"My good sword and lance are ever at thy service, my Lord Scarecrow!"
he exclaimed feelingly.
"Who is this impulsive person?" gulped the Scarecrow, staring in
undisguised astonishment at the kneeling figure of the Sir Hokus of
Pokes.
"He's my Knight Errant, and he's taken such good care of me,"
explained Dorothy eagerly.
"Splendid fellow," hissed the Cowardly Lion in the Scarecrow's other
painted ear, "if he does talk odds and ends."
"Any friend of little Dorothy's is my friend," said the Scarecrow,
shaking hands with Sir Hokus warmly. "But what I want to know is how
you all got here."
"First tell us where we are," begged the little girl, for the
Scarecrow's silver hat and queue filled her with alarm.
"You are on the Silver Island," said the Scarecrow slowly. "And I am
the Emperor--or his good-for-nothing spirit--and tomorrow," the
Scarecrow glared around wildly, "tomorrow I'll be eighty-five going
on eighty-six." His voice broke and ended in a barely controlled sob.
"Doubt that," drawled the Doubtful Dromedary sleepily.
"Eighty-five years old!" gasped Dorothy. "Why, no one in Oz grows any
older!"
"We are no longer in Oz." The Scarecrow shook his head sadly. Then,
fixing the group with a puzzled stare, he exclaimed, "But how did you
get here?"
"On a _wish_," said the Knight in a hollow voice.
"Yes," said Dorothy, "we've been hunting you all over Oz, and at last
we came to Wish Way, and I said 'I wish we were all with the
Scarecrow,' just like that--and next minute--"
"We fell and fell--and fell--and fell," wheezed the Comfortable
Camel.
"And fell--and fell--and fell--and fell," droned the Dromedary,
"And--"
"Here you are," finished the Scarecrow hastily, for the Dromedary
showed signs of going on forever.
"Now tell us every single thing that has happened to you," demanded
Dorothy eagerly.
Happy Toko had recognized Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion from the
Scarecrow's description, and he now approached with an arm full of
cushions. These he set in a circle on the floor, with one for the
Scarecrow in the center, and with a warning finger on his lips placed
himself behind his Master.
"Tappy is right!" exclaimed the Scarecrow. "We must be as quiet as
possible, for a great danger hangs over me."
Without more ado, he told them of his amazing fall down the
beanstalk; of his adventures on Silver Island; of his sons and
grandsons and the Gheewizard's elixir which would turn him from a
lively Scarecrow into an old, old Emperor. All that I have told you,
he told Dorothy, up to the very point where his eldest son had bound
him to the bean pole and tied up poor, faithful Happy Toko. Happy, it
seems, had at last managed to free himself, and they were about to
make their escape when Dorothy and her party had fallen into the
throne room. The Comfortable Camel and Doubtful Dromedary lis-tened
politely at first, but worn out by their exciting adventures, fell
asleep in the middle of the story.
Nothing could have exceeded Dorothy's dismay to learn that the jolly
Scarecrow of Oz, whom she had discovered herself, was in reality
Chang Wang Woe, Emperor of Silver Island.
"Oh, this spoils everything!" wailed the little girl. (The thought of
Oz without the Scarecrow was unthinkable.) "It spoils everything! We
were going to adopt you and be your truly family. Weren't we?"
The Cowardly Lion nodded. "I was going to be your cousin," he mumbled
in a choked voice, "but now that you have a family of your own--" The
lion miserably slunk down beside Dorothy.
Sir Hokus looked fierce and rattled his sword, but he could think of
nothing that would help them out of their trouble.
"To-morrow there won't be any Scarecrow in Oz!" wailed Dorothy. "Oh,
dear! Oh, dear!" And the little girl began to cry as if her heart
would break.
"Stop! Stop!" begged the Scarecrow, while Sir Hokus awkwardly patted
Dorothy on the back. "I'd rather have you for my family any day. I
don't care a Kinkajou for being Emperor, and as for my sons, they are
unnatural villains who make my life miserable by telling me how old I
am!"
"Just like a poem I once read," said Dorothy, brightening up:
"You are old, Father William," the young man said,
"And your hair has become very white,
And yet you incessantly stand on your head!
Do you think, at your age, it is right?"
"That's it, that's it exactly!" exclaimed the Scarecrow as Dorothy
finished repeating the verse. "'You are old, Father Scarecrow!'
That's all I hear. I did stand on my head, too. And Dorothy, I can't
seem to get used to being a grandparent," added the Scarecrow in a
melancholy voice. "It's turning my straws gray." He plucked several
from his chest and held them out to her. "Why, those little villains
don't even believe in Oz! 'It's not on the map, old
Grandpapapapapah!'" he mumbled, imitating the tones of his little
grandsons so cleverly that Dorothy laughed in spite of herself.
"This is what becomes of pride!" The Scarecrow extended his hands
expressively. "Most people who hunt up their family trees are in for
a fall, and I've had mine."
"But who do you want to be?" asked the Knight gravely. "A Scarecrow
in Oz--or the--er--Emperor that you were?"
"I don't care who I were!" In his excitement, the Scarecrow lost his
grammar completely. "I want to be who I am. I want to be myself."
"But which one?" asked the Cowardly Lion, who was still a bit
confused.
"Why, my best self, of course," said the Scarecrow with a bright
smile. The sight of his old friends had quite restored his
cheerfulness. "I've been here long enough to know that I am a better
Scarecrow than an Emperor."
"Why, how simple it is!" sighed Dorothy contentedly. "Professor
Wogglebug was all wrong. It's not what you were, but what you are--
it's being yourself that counts."
"By my Halidom, the little maid is right!" said Sir Hokus, slapping
his knee in delight. "Let your Gheewizard but try his
transformations! Out on him! But what says yon honest henchman?"
Happy Toko, although he understood no word of the conversation, had
been watching the discussion with great interest. He had been trying
to attract the Scarecrow's attention for some time, but the Knight
was the only one who had noticed him.
"What is it, Tappy?" asked the Scarecrow, dropping easily back into
Silver Islandish.
"Honored Master, the dawn approaches and with it the Royal Princes
and the Grand Gheewizard--and your bride!" Happy paused
significantly. The Scarecrow shuddered.
"Let's go back to Oz!" said the Cowardly Lion uneasily.
The Scarecrow was feeling in the pocket of his old Munchkin suit
which he always wore under his robes of state. "Here!" said he,
giving a little pill to Happy Toko. "It's one of Professor
Wogglebug's language pills," he exclaimed to Dorothy, "and will
enable him to speak and understand Ozish." Happy swallowed the pill
gravely.
"Greetings, honorable Ozites!" he said politely as soon as the pill
was down. Dorothy clapped her hands in delight, for it was so
comfortable to have him speak their own language.
"I could never have stood it here without Tappy Oko!" The Scarecrow
looked fondly at his Imperial Punster.
"Queer name he has," rumbled the Cowardly Lion, looking at Happy Toko
as if he had thoughts of eating him.
"Methinks he should be knighted," rumbled Sir Hokus, beaming on the
little Silverman. "Rise, Sir Pudding!"
"The sun will do that in a minute or more, and then, then we shall
all be thrown into prison!" wailed Happy Toko dismally.
"We were going to escape in a small boat," explained the Scarecrow,
"but--" It was not necessary for him to finish. A boat large enough
to hold Dorothy, the Cowardly Lion, the Scarecrow, Happy Toko, the
camel and the dromedary could not very well be launched in secret.
"Oh, dear!" sighed Dorothy, "If I'd only wished you and all of us
back in the Emerald City!"
"You wished very well, Lady Dot," said the Knight. "When I think of
what I was going to wish for--"
"What were you going to wish, Hokus?" asked the Cowardly Lion
curiously.
"For a dragon!" faltered the Knight, looking terribly ashamed.
"A dragon!" gasped Dorothy. "Why, what good would that have done us?"
"Wait!" interrupted the Scarecrow. "I have thought of something! Why
not climb my family tree? It is a long, long way, but at the top lies
Oz!"
"Grammercy, a pretty plan!" exclaimed Sir Hokus, peering up at the
bean pole.
"Wouldn't that be social climbing?" chuckled Happy Toko, recovering
his spirits with a bound. The Cowardly Lion said nothing, but heaved
a mighty sigh which no one heard, for they were all running toward
the bean pole. It was a good family tree to climb, sure enough, for
there were handy little notches in the stalk.
"You go first!" Sir Hokus helped Dorothy up. When she had gone a few
steps, the Scarecrow, holding his robes carefully, followed, then
honest Happy Toko.
"I'll go last," said Sir Hokus bravely, and had just set his foot on
the first notch when a hoarse scream rang through the hall.