Meantime the Chief Steward had
returned to the throne room,
where he
said to the King:
"You are a
fool to waste so much time
upon these people."
"What!" cried his Majesty,
in so enraged a voice that it
awoke Billina, who was asleep
under his throne. "How dare you
call me a fool?"
"Because I like to speak the
truth," said the Steward. "Why
didn't you enchant them all at
once, instead of allowing them
to go one by one into the palace
and guess which ornaments are
the Queen of Ev and her children?"
"Why, you stupid rascal, it
is more fun this way," returned
the King, "and it serves to keep
me amused for a long time."
"But suppose some of them happen
to guess aright," persisted the
Steward; "then you would lose
your old ornaments and these
new ones, too."
"There is no chance of their
guessing aright," replied the
monarch, with a laugh. "How could
they know that the Queen of Ev
and her family are all ornaments
of a royal purple color?"
"But there are no other purple
ornaments in the palace," said
the Steward.
"There are
many other colors, however,
and the purple ones
are scattered throughout the
rooms, and are of many different
shapes and sizes. Take my word
for it, Steward, they will never
think of choosing the purple
ornaments."
Billina, squatting under the
throne, had listened carefully
to all this talk, and now chuckled
softly to herself as she heard
the King disclose his secret.
"Still, you are acting foolishly
by running the chance," continued
the Steward, roughly; "and it
is still more foolish of you
to transform all those people
from Oz into green ornaments."
"I did that because they came
from the Emerald City," replied
the King; "and I had no green
ornaments in my collection until
now. I think they will look quite
pretty, mixed with the others.
Don't you?"
The Steward gave an angry grunt.
"Have your own way, since you
are the King," he growled. "But
if you come to grief through
your carelessness, remember that
I told you so. If I wore the
magic belt which enables you
to work all your transformations,
and gives you so much other power,
I am sure I would make a much
wiser and better King than you
are."
"Oh, cease your tiresome chatter!" commanded
the King, getting angry again. "Because
you are my Chief Steward you
have an idea you can scold me
as much as you please. But the
very next time you become impudent,
I will send you to work in the
furnaces, and get another Nome
to fill your place. Now follow
me to my chamber, for I am going
to bed. And see that I am wakened
early tomorrow morning. I want
to enjoy the fun of transforming
the rest of these people into
ornaments."
"What color will you make the
Kansas girl?" asked the Steward.
"Gray, I think," said
his Majesty.
"And the Scarecrow
and the machine man?"
"Oh, they shall
be of solid gold, because they
are so ugly
in real life."
Then the voices died away,
and Billina knew that the King
and his Steward had left the
room. She fixed up some of her
tail feathers that were not straight,
and then tucked her head under
her wing again and went to sleep.
In the morning Dorothy and
the Lion and Tiger were given
their breakfast in their rooms,
and afterward joined the King
in his throne room. The Tiger
complained bitterly that he was
half starved, and begged to go
into the palace and become an
ornament, so that he would no
longer suffer the pangs of hunger.
"Haven't you had your breakfast?" asked
the Nome King.
"Oh, I had just a bite," replied
the beast. "But what good is
a bite, to a hungry tiger?"
"He ate seventeen bowls of
porridge, a platter full of fried
sausages, eleven loaves of bread
and twenty-one mince pies," said
the Steward.
"What more do you want?" demanded
the King.
"A fat baby. I want a fat baby," said
the Hungry Tiger. "A nice, plump,
juicy, tender, fat baby. But,
of course, if I had one, my conscience
would not allow me to eat it.
So I'll have to be an ornament
and forget my hunger."
"Impossible!" exclaimed the
King. "I'll have no clumsy beasts
enter my palace, to overturn
and break all my pretty nick-nacks.
When the rest of your friends
are transformed you can return
to the upper world, and go about
your business."
"As for that, we have no business,
when our friends are gone," said
the Lion. "So we do not care
much what becomes of us."
Dorothy begged to be allowed
to go first into the palace,
but Tiktok firmly maintained
that the slave should face danger
before the mistress. The Scarecrow
agreed with him in that, so the
Nome King opened the door for
the machine man, who tramped
into the palace to meet his fate.
Then his Majesty returned to
his throne and puffed his pipe
so contentedly that a small cloud
of smoke formed above his head.
Bye and bye he said:
"I'm sorry
there are so few of you left.
Very soon, now,
my fun will be over, and then
for amusement I shall have nothing
to do but admire my new ornaments."
"It seems to me," said Dorothy, "that
you are not so honest as you
pretend to be."
"How's that?" asked
the King.
"Why, you made
us think it would be easy to
guess what ornaments
the people of Ev were changed
into."
"It IS easy," declared the
monarch, "if one is a good guesser.
But it appears that the members
of your party are all poor guessers."
"What is Tiktok doing now?" asked
the girl, uneasily.
"Nothing," replied the King,
with a frown. "He is standing
perfectly still, in the middle
of a room."
"Oh, I expect he's run down," said
Dorothy. "I forgot to wind him
up this morning. How many guesses
has he made?"
"All that he is allowed except
one," answered the King. "Suppose
you go in and wind him up, and
then you can stay there and make
your own guesses."
"All right," said
Dorothy.
"It is my turn next," declared
the Scarecrow.
"Why, you don't want to go
away and leave me all alone,
do you?" asked the girl. "Besides,
if I go now I can wind up Tiktok,
so that he can make his last
guess."
"Very well, then," said the
Scarecrow, with a sigh. "Run
along, little Dorothy, and may
good luck go with you!"
So Dorothy, trying to be brave
in spite of her fears, passed
through the doorway into the
gorgeous rooms of the palace.
The stillness of the place awed
her, at first, and the child
drew short breaths, and pressed
her hand to her heart, and looked
all around with wondering eyes.
Yes, it was a beautiful place;
but enchantments lurked in every
nook and corner, and she had
not yet grown accustomed to the
wizardries of these fairy countries,
so different from the quiet and
sensible common-places of her
own native land.
Slowly she passed through several
rooms until she came upon Tiktok,
standing motionless. It really
seemed, then, that she had found
a friend in this mysterious palace,
so she hastened to wind up the
machine man's action and speech
and thoughts.
"Thank you, Dor-oth-y," were
his first words. "I have now
one more guess to make."
"Oh, be very careful, Tiktok;
won't you?" cried the girl.
"Yes. But the Nome King has
us in his power, and he has set
a trap for us. I fear we are
all lost." he answered.
"I fear so, too," said
Dorothy, sadly.
"If Smith & Tin-ker had giv-en
me a guess-ing clock-work at-tach-ment," continued
Tiktok, "I might have de-fied
the Nome King. But my thoughts
are plain and sim-ple, and are
not of much use in this case."
"Do the best you can," said
Dorothy, encouragingly, "and
if you fail I will watch and
see what shape you are changed
into."
So Tiktok touched
a yellow glass vase that had
daisies painted
on one side, and he spoke at
the same time the word "Ev."
In a flash the machine man
had disappeared, and although
the girl looked quickly in every
direction, she could not tell
which of the many ornaments the
room contained had a moment before
been her faithful friend and
servant.
So all she could do was to
accept the hopeless task set
her, and make her guesses and
abide by the result.
"It can't hurt very much," she
thought, "for I haven't heard
any of them scream or cry out--not
even the poor officers. Dear
me! I wonder if Uncle Henry or
Aunt Em will ever know I have
become an orn'ment in the Nome
King's palace, and must stand
forever and ever in one place
and look pretty--'cept when I'm
moved to be dusted. It isn't
the way I thought I'd turn out,
at all; but I s'pose it can't
be helped."
She walked through all the
rooms once more, and examined
with care all the objects they
contained; but there were so
many, they bewildered her, and
she decided, after all, as Ozma
had done, that it could be only
guess work at the best, and that
the chances were much against
her guessing aright.
Timidly she
touched an alabaster bowl and
said: "Ev."
"That's one failure, anyhow," she
thought. "But how am I to know
which thing is enchanted, and
which is not?"
Next she touched
the image of a purple kitten
that stood
on the corner of a mantel, and
as she pronounced the word "Ev" the
kitten disappeared, and a pretty,
fair-haired boy stood beside
her. At the same time a bell
rang somewhere in the distance,
and as Dorothy started back,
partly in surprise and partly
in joy, the little one exclaimed:
"Where am I?
And who are you? And what has
happened to me?"
"Well, I declare!" said Dorothy. "I've
really done it."
"Done what?" asked
the boy.
"Saved myself from being an
ornament," replied the girl,
with a laugh, "and saved you
from being forever a purple kitten."
"A purple kitten?" he repeated. "There
IS no such thing."
"I know," she answered. "But
there was, a minute ago. Don't
you remember standing on a corner
of the mantel?"
"Of course not. I am a Prince
of Ev, and my name is Evring," the
little one announced, proudly. "But
my father, the King, sold my
mother and all her children to
the cruel ruler of the Nomes,
and after that I remember nothing
at all."
"A purple kitten can't be 'spected
to remember, Evring," said Dorothy. "But
now you are yourself again, and
I'm going to try to save some
of your brothers and sisters,
and perhaps your mother, as well.
So come with me."
She seized the child's hand
and eagerly hurried here and
there, trying to decide which
object to choose next. The third
guess was another failure, and
so was the fourth and the fifth.
Little Evring could not imagine
what she was doing, but he trotted
along beside her very willingly,
for he liked the new companion
he had found.
Dorothy's further quest proved
unsuccessful; but after her first
disappointment was over, the
little girl was filled with joy
and thankfulness to think that
after all she had been able to
save one member of the royal
family of Ev, and could restore
the little Prince to his sorrowing
country. Now she might return
to the terrible Nome King in
safety, carrying with her the
prize she had won in the person
of the fair-haired boy.
So she retraced her steps until
she found the entrance to the
palace, and as she approached,
the massive doors of rock opened
of their own accord, allowing
both Dorothy and Evring to pass
the portals and enter the throne
room.
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