"It's getting awful rough
walking," said Dorothy, as
they trudged along. Button-Bright
gave a deep sigh and said he
was hungry. Indeed, all were
hungry, and thirsty, too; for
they had eaten nothing but
the apples since breakfast;
so their steps lagged and they
grew silent and weary. At last
they slowly passed over the
crest of a barren hill and
saw before them a line of green
trees with a strip of grass
at their feet. An agreeable
fragrance was wafted toward
them.
Our travelers, hot and tired,
ran forward on beholding this
refreshing sight and were not
long in coming to the trees.
Here they found a spring of
pure bubbling water, around
which the grass was full of
wild strawberry plants, their
pretty red berries ripe and
ready to eat. Some of the trees
bore yellow oranges and some
russet pears, so the hungry
adventurers suddenly found
themselves provided with plenty
to eat and to drink. They lost
no time in picking the biggest
strawberries and ripest oranges
and soon had feasted to their
hearts' content. Walking beyond
the line of trees they saw
before them a fearful, dismal
desert, everywhere gray sand.
At the edge of this awful waste
was a large, white sign with
black letters neatly painted
upon it and the letters made
these words:
ALL PERSONS ARE WARNED NOT
TO VENTURE UPON THIS DESERT
For the Deadly Sands will
Turn Any Living Flesh to Dust
in an instant. Beyond This
Barrier is the
LAND OF OZ
But no one can Reach that
Beautiful Country because of
these Destroying Sands
"Oh," said Dorothy, when
the shaggy man had read the
sign aloud; "I've seen this
desert before, and it's true
no one can live who tries to
walk upon the sands."
"Then we musn't try it," answered
the shaggy man thoughtfully. "But
as we can't go ahead and there's
no use going back, what shall
we do next?"
"Don't know," said
Button-Bright.
"I'm sure I don't know, either," added
Dorothy, despondently.
"I wish father would come
for me," sighed the pretty
Rainbow's Daughter, "I would
take you all to live upon the
rainbow, where you could dance
along its rays from morning
till night, without a care
or worry of any sort. But I
suppose father's too busy just
now to search the world for
me."
"Don't want to dance," said
Button-Bright, sitting down
wearily upon the soft grass.
"It's very good of you, Polly," said
Dorothy; "but there are other
things that would suit me better
than dancing on rainbows. I'm
'fraid they'd be kind of soft
an' squashy under foot, anyhow,
although they're so pretty
to look at."
This didn't help to solve
the problem, and they all fell
silent and looked at one another
questioningly.
"Really, I don't know what
to do," muttered the shaggy
man, gazing hard at Toto; and
the little dog wagged his tail
and said "Bow-wow!" just as
if he could not tell, either,
what to do. Button-Bright got
a stick and began to dig in
the earth, and the others watched
him for a while in deep thought.
Finally, the shaggy man said:
"It's nearly
evening, now; so we may as
well sleep in
this pretty place and get rested;
perhaps by morning we can decide
what is best to be done."
There was little chance to
make beds for the children,
but the leaves of the trees
grew thickly and would serve
to keep off the night dews,
so the shaggy man piled soft
grasses in the thickest shade
and when it was dark they lay
down and slept peacefully until
morning.
Long after the others were
asleep, however, the shaggy
man sat in the starlight by
the spring, gazing thoughtfully
into its bubbling waters. Suddenly
he smiled and nodded to himself
as if he had found a good thought,
after which he, too, laid himself
down under a tree and was soon
lost in slumber.
In the bright morning sunshine,
as they ate of the strawberries
and sweet juicy pears, Dorothy
said:
"Polly, can
you do any magic?"
"No dear," answered
Polychrome, shaking her dainty
head.
"You ought to know SOME magic,
being the Rainbow's Daughter," continued
Dorothy, earnestly.
"But we who live on the rainbow
among the fleecy clouds have
no use for magic," replied
Polychrome.
"What I'd like," said Dorothy, "is
to find some way to cross the
desert to the Land of Oz and
its Emerald City. I've crossed
it already, you know, more
than once. First a cyclone
carried my house over, and
some Silver Shoes brought me
back again--in half a second.
Then Ozma took me over on her
Magic Carpet, and the Nome
King's Magic Belt took me home
that time. You see it was magic
that did it every time 'cept
the first, and we can't 'spect
a cyclone to happen along and
take us to the Emerald City
now."
"No indeed," returned Polly,
with a shudder, "I hate cyclones,
anyway."
"That's why I wanted to find
out if you could do any magic," said
the little Kansas girl. "I'm
sure I can't; and I'm sure
Button-Bright can't; and the
only magic the shaggy man has
is the Love Magnet, which won't
help us much."
"Don't be too sure of that,
my dear," spoke the shaggy
man, a smile on his donkey
face. "I may not be able to
do magic myself, but I can
call to us a powerful friend
who loves me because I own
the Love Magnet, and this friend
surely will be able to help
us."
"Who is your friend?" asked
Dorothy.
"Johnny Dooit."
"What can
Johnny do?"
"Anything," answered
the shaggy man, with confidence.
"Ask him to come," she
exclaimed, eagerly.
The shaggy man took the Love
Magnet from his pocket and
unwrapped the paper that surrounded
it. Holding the charm in the
palm of his hand he looked
at it steadily and said these
words:
"Dear Johnny
Dooit, come to me. I need
you bad as bad
can be."
"Well, here I am," said a
cheery little voice; "but you
shouldn't say you need me bad,
'cause I'm always, ALWAYS,
good."
At this they quickly whirled
around to find a funny little
man sitting on a big copper
chest, puffing smoke from a
long pipe. His hair was grey,
his whiskers were grey; and
these whiskers were so long
that he had wound the ends
of them around his waist and
tied them in a hard knot underneath
the leather apron that reached
from his chin nearly to his
feet, and which was soiled
and scratched as if it had
been used a long time. His
nose was broad, and stuck up
a little; but his eyes were
twinkling and merry. The little
man's hands and arms were as
hard and tough as the leather
in his apron, and Dorothy thought
Johnny Dooit looked as if he
had done a lot of hard work
in his lifetime.
"Good morning, Johnny," said
the shaggy man. "Thank you
for coming to me so quickly."
"I never waste time," said
the newcomer, promptly. "But
what's happened to you? Where
did you get that donkey head?
Really, I wouldn't have known
you at all, Shaggy Man, if
I hadn't looked at your feet."
The shaggy man introduced
Johnny Dooit to Dorothy and
Toto and Button-Bright and
the Rainbow's Daughter, and
told him the story of their
adventures, adding that they
were anxious now to reach the
Emerald City in the Land of
Oz, where Dorothy had friends
who would take care of them
and send them safe home again.
"But," said he, "we
find that we can't cross
this desert,
which turns all living flesh
that touches it into dust;
so I have asked you to come
and help us."
Johnny Dooit puffed his pipe
and looked carefully at the
dreadful desert in front of
them--stretching so far away
they could not see its end.
"You must ride," he
said, briskly.
"What in?" asked
the shaggy man.
"In a sand-boat,
which has runners like a
sled and sails
like a ship. The wind will
blow you swiftly across the
desert and the sand cannot
touch your flesh to turn it
into dust."
"Good!" cried Dorothy, clapping
her hands delightedly. "That
was the way the Magic Carpet
took us across. We didn't have
to touch the horrid sand at
all."
"But where is the sand-boat?" asked
the shaggy man, looking all
around him.
"I'll make you one," said
Johnny Dooit.
As he spoke, he knocked the
ashes from his pipe and put
it in his pocket. Then he unlocked
the copper chest and lifted
the lid, and Dorothy saw it
was full of shining tools of
all sorts and shapes.
Johnny Dooit moved quickly
now--so quickly that they were
astonished at the work he was
able to accomplish. He had
in his chest a tool for everything
he wanted to do, and these
must have been magic tools
because they did their work
so fast and so well.
The man hummed a little song
as he worked, and Dorothy tried
to listen to it. She thought
the words were something like
these:
The only way to do a thing
Is do it when you can, And
do it cheerfully, and sing
And work and think and plan.
The only real unhappy one Is
he who dares to shirk; The
only really happy one Is he
who cares to work.
Whatever Johnny Dooit was
singing he was certainly doing
things, and they all stood
by and watched him in amazement.
He seized an axe and in a
couple of chops felled a tree.
Next he took a saw and in a
few minutes sawed the tree-trunk
into broad, long boards. He
then nailed the boards together
into the shape of a boat, about
twelve feet long and four feet
wide. He cut from another tree
a long, slender pole which,
when trimmed of its branches
and fastened upright in the
center of the boat, served
as a mast. From the chest he
drew a coil of rope and a big
bundle of canvas, and with
these--still humming his song--he
rigged up a sail, arranging
it so it could be raised or
lowered upon the mast.
Dorothy fairly gasped with
wonder to see the thing grow
so speedily before her eyes,
and both Button-Bright and
Polly looked on with the same
absorbed interest.
"It ought to be painted," said
Johnny Dooit, tossing his tools
back into the chest, "for that
would make it look prettier.
But 'though I can paint it
for you in three seconds it
would take an hour to dry,
and that's a waste of time."
"We don't care how it looks," said
the shaggy man, "if only it
will take us across the desert."
"It will do that," declared
Johnny Dooit. "All you need
worry about is tipping over.
Did you ever sail a ship?"
"I've seen one sailed," said
the shaggy man.
"Good. Sail
this boat the way you've
seen a ship sailed,
and you'll be across the sands
before you know it."
With this he slammed down
the lid of the chest, and the
noise made them all wink. While
they were winking the workman
disappeared, tools and all.
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