The soldier with the green whiskers
led them through the streets
of the Emerald City until they
reached the room where the Guardian
of the Gates lived. This officer
unlocked their spectacles to
put them back in his great box,
and then he politely opened the
gate for our friends.
"Which road leads to the Wicked
Witch of the West?" asked Dorothy.
"There is no road," answered
the Guardian of the Gates. "No
one ever wishes to go that way."
"How, then, are we to find
her?" inquired the girl.
"That will be easy," replied
the man, "for when she knows
you are in the country of the
Winkies she will find you, and
make you all her slaves."
"Perhaps not," said the Scarecrow, "for
we mean to destroy her."
"Oh, that is different," said
the Guardian of the Gates. "No
one has ever destroyed her before,
so I naturally thought she would
make slaves of you, as she has
of the rest. But take care; for
she is wicked and fierce, and
may not allow you to destroy
her. Keep to the West, where
the sun sets, and you cannot
fail to find her."
They thanked him and bade him
good-bye, and turned toward the
West, walking over fields of
soft grass dotted here and there
with daisies and buttercups.
Dorothy still wore the pretty
silk dress she had put on in
the palace, but now, to her surprise,
she found it was no longer green,
but pure white. The ribbon around
Toto's neck had also lost its
green color and was as white
as Dorothy's dress.
The Emerald City was soon left
far behind. As they advanced
the ground became rougher and
hillier, for there were no farms
nor houses in this country of
the West, and the ground was
untilled.
In the afternoon the sun shone
hot in their faces, for there
were no trees to offer them shade;
so that before night Dorothy
and Toto and the Lion were tired,
and lay down upon the grass and
fell asleep, with the Woodman
and the Scarecrow keeping watch.
Now the Wicked Witch of the
West had but one eye, yet that
was as powerful as a telescope,
and could see everywhere. So,
as she sat in the door of her
castle, she happened to look
around and saw Dorothy lying
asleep, with her friends all
about her. They were a long distance
off, but the Wicked Witch was
angry to find them in her country;
so she blew upon a silver whistle
that hung around her neck.
At once there came running
to her from all directions a
pack of great wolves. They had
long legs and fierce eyes and
sharp teeth.
"Go to those people," said
the Witch, "and tear them to
pieces."
"Are you not going to make
them your slaves?" asked the
leader of the wolves.
"No," she answered, "one
is of tin, and one of straw;
one
is a girl and another a Lion.
None of them is fit to work,
so you may tear them into small
pieces."
"Very well," said
the wolf, and he dashed away
at full speed,
followed by the others.
It was lucky the Scarecrow
and the Woodman were wide awake
and heard the wolves coming.
"This is my fight," said the
Woodman, "so get behind me and
I will meet them as they come."
He seized his axe, which he
had made very sharp, and as the
leader of the wolves came on
the Tin Woodman swung his arm
and chopped the wolf's head from
its body, so that it immediately
died. As soon as he could raise
his axe another wolf came up,
and he also fell under the sharp
edge of the Tin Woodman's weapon.
There were forty wolves, and
forty times a wolf was killed,
so that at last they all lay
dead in a heap before the Woodman.
Then he put
down his axe and sat beside
the Scarecrow, who
said, "It was a good fight, friend."
They waited until Dorothy awoke
the next morning. The little
girl was quite frightened when
she saw the great pile of shaggy
wolves, but the Tin Woodman told
her all. She thanked him for
saving them and sat down to breakfast,
after which they started again
upon their journey.
Now this same morning the Wicked
Witch came to the door of her
castle and looked out with her
one eye that could see far off.
She saw all her wolves lying
dead, and the strangers still
traveling through her country.
This made her angrier than before,
and she blew her silver whistle
twice.
Straightway a great flock of
wild crows came flying toward
her, enough to darken the sky.
And the Wicked
Witch said to the King Crow, "Fly
at once to the strangers; peck
out their
eyes and tear them to pieces."
The wild crows flew in one
great flock toward Dorothy and
her companions. When the little
girl saw them coming she was
afraid.
But the Scarecrow
said, "This
is my battle, so lie down beside
me and you will not be harmed."
So they all lay upon the ground
except the Scarecrow, and he
stood up and stretched out his
arms. And when the crows saw
him they were frightened, as
these birds always are by scarecrows,
and did not dare to come any
nearer. But the King Crow said:
"It is only
a stuffed man. I will peck
his eyes out."
The King Crow flew at the Scarecrow,
who caught it by the head and
twisted its neck until it died.
And then another crow flew at
him, and the Scarecrow twisted
its neck also. There were forty
crows, and forty times the Scarecrow
twisted a neck, until at last
all were lying dead beside him.
Then he called to his companions
to rise, and again they went
upon their journey.
When the Wicked Witch looked
out again and saw all her crows
lying in a heap, she got into
a terrible rage, and blew three
times upon her silver whistle.
Forthwith there was heard a
great buzzing in the air, and
a swarm of black bees came flying
toward her.
"Go to the strangers and sting
them to death!" commanded the
Witch, and the bees turned and
flew rapidly until they came
to where Dorothy and her friends
were walking. But the Woodman
had seen them coming, and the
Scarecrow had decided what to
do.
"Take out my straw and scatter
it over the little girl and the
dog and the Lion," he said to
the Woodman, "and the bees cannot
sting them." This the Woodman
did, and as Dorothy lay close
beside the Lion and held Toto
in her arms, the straw covered
them entirely.
The bees came and found no
one but the Woodman to sting,
so they flew at him and broke
off all their stings against
the tin, without hurting the
Woodman at all. And as bees cannot
live when their stings are broken
that was the end of the black
bees, and they lay scattered
thick about the Woodman, like
little heaps of fine coal.
Then Dorothy and the Lion got
up, and the girl helped the Tin
Woodman put the straw back into
the Scarecrow again, until he
was as good as ever. So they
started upon their journey once
more.
The Wicked Witch was so angry
when she saw her black bees in
little heaps like fine coal that
she stamped her foot and tore
her hair and gnashed her teeth.
And then she called a dozen of
her slaves, who were the Winkies,
and gave them sharp spears, telling
them to go to the strangers and
destroy them.
The Winkies were not a brave
people, but they had to do as
they were told. So they marched
away until they came near to
Dorothy. Then the Lion gave a
great roar and sprang towards
them, and the poor Winkies were
so frightened that they ran back
as fast as they could.
When they returned to the castle
the Wicked Witch beat them well
with a strap, and sent them back
to their work, after which she
sat down to think what she should
do next. She could not understand
how all her plans to destroy
these strangers had failed; but
she was a powerful Witch, as
well as a wicked one, and she
soon made up her mind how to
act.
There was, in her cupboard,
a Golden Cap, with a circle of
diamonds and rubies running round
it. This Golden Cap had a charm.
Whoever owned it could call three
times upon the Winged Monkeys,
who would obey any order they
were given. But no person could
command these strange creatures
more than three times. Twice
already the Wicked Witch had
used the charm of the Cap. Once
was when she had made the Winkies
her slaves, and set herself to
rule over their country. The
Winged Monkeys had helped her
do this. The second time was
when she had fought against the
Great Oz himself, and driven
him out of the land of the West.
The Winged Monkeys had also helped
her in doing this. Only once
more could she use this Golden
Cap, for which reason she did
not like to do so until all her
other powers were exhausted.
But now that her fierce wolves
and her wild crows and her stinging
bees were gone, and her slaves
had been scared away by the Cowardly
Lion, she saw there was only
one way left to destroy Dorothy
and her friends.
So the Wicked Witch took the
Golden Cap from her cupboard
and placed it upon her head.
Then she stood upon her left
foot and said slowly:
"Ep-pe, pep-pe,
kak-ke!"
Next she stood upon her right
foot and said:
"Hil-lo, hol-lo,
hel-lo!"
After this she stood upon both
feet and cried in a loud voice:
"Ziz-zy, zuz-zy,
zik!"
Now the charm began to work.
The sky was darkened, and a low
rumbling sound was heard in the
air. There was a rushing of many
wings, a great chattering and
laughing, and the sun came out
of the dark sky to show the Wicked
Witch surrounded by a crowd of
monkeys, each with a pair of
immense and powerful wings on
his shoulders.
One, much bigger
than the others, seemed to
be their leader. He
flew close to the Witch and said, "You
have called us for the third
and last time. What do you command?"
"Go to the strangers who are
within my land and destroy them
all except the Lion," said the
Wicked Witch. "Bring that beast
to me, for I have a mind to harness
him like a horse, and make him
work."
"Your commands shall be obeyed," said
the leader. Then, with a great
deal of chattering and noise,
the Winged Monkeys flew away
to the place where Dorothy and
her friends were walking.
Some of the Monkeys seized
the Tin Woodman and carried him
through the air until they were
over a country thickly covered
with sharp rocks. Here they dropped
the poor Woodman, who fell a
great distance to the rocks,
where he lay so battered and
dented that he could neither
move nor groan.
Others of the Monkeys caught
the Scarecrow, and with their
long fingers pulled all of the
straw out of his clothes and
head. They made his hat and boots
and clothes into a small bundle
and threw it into the top branches
of a tall tree.
The remaining Monkeys threw
pieces of stout rope around the
Lion and wound many coils about
his body and head and legs, until
he was unable to bite or scratch
or struggle in any way. Then
they lifted him up and flew away
with him to the Witch's castle,
where he was placed in a small
yard with a high iron fence around
it, so that he could not escape.
But Dorothy they did not harm
at all. She stood, with Toto
in her arms, watching the sad
fate of her comrades and thinking
it would soon be her turn. The
leader of the Winged Monkeys
flew up to her, his long, hairy
arms stretched out and his ugly
face grinning terribly; but he
saw the mark of the Good Witch's
kiss upon her forehead and stopped
short, motioning the others not
to touch her.
"We dare not harm this little
girl," he said to them, "for
she is protected by the Power
of Good, and that is greater
than the Power of Evil. All we
can do is to carry her to the
castle of the Wicked Witch and
leave her there."
So, carefully and gently, they
lifted Dorothy in their arms
and carried her swiftly through
the air until they came to the
castle, where they set her down
upon the front doorstep. Then
the leader said to the Witch:
"We have obeyed
you as far as we were able.
The Tin Woodman
and the Scarecrow are destroyed,
and the Lion is tied up in your
yard. The little girl we dare
not harm, nor the dog she carries
in her arms. Your power over
our band is now ended, and you
will never see us again."
Then all the Winged Monkeys,
with much laughing and chattering
and noise, flew into the air
and were soon out of sight.
The Wicked
Witch was both surprised and
worried when she saw the
mark on Dorothy's forehead, for
she knew well that neither the
Winged Monkeys nor she, herself,
dare hurt the girl in any way.
She looked down at Dorothy's
feet, and seeing the Silver Shoes,
began to tremble with fear, for
she knew what a powerful charm
belonged to them. At first the
Witch was tempted to run away
from Dorothy; but she happened
to look into the child's eyes
and saw how simple the soul behind
them was, and that the little
girl did not know of the wonderful
power the Silver Shoes gave her.
So the Wicked Witch laughed to
herself, and thought, "I can
still make her my slave, for
she does not know how to use
her power." Then she said to
Dorothy, harshly and severely:
"Come with
me; and see that you mind everything
I tell you,
for if you do not I will make
an end of you, as I did of the
Tin Woodman and the Scarecrow."
Dorothy followed her through
many of the beautiful rooms in
her castle until they came to
the kitchen, where the Witch
bade her clean the pots and kettles
and sweep the floor and keep
the fire fed with wood.
Dorothy went to work meekly,
with her mind made up to work
as hard as she could; for she
was glad the Wicked Witch had
decided not to kill her.
With Dorothy hard at work,
the Witch thought she would go
into the courtyard and harness
the Cowardly Lion like a horse;
it would amuse her, she was sure,
to make him draw her chariot
whenever she wished to go to
drive. But as she opened the
gate the Lion gave a loud roar
and bounded at her so fiercely
that the Witch was afraid, and
ran out and shut the gate again.
"If I cannot harness you," said
the Witch to the Lion, speaking
through the bars of the gate, "I
can starve you. You shall have
nothing to eat until you do as
I wish."
So after that
she took no food to the imprisoned
Lion; but every
day she came to the gate at noon
and asked, "Are you ready to
be harnessed like a horse?"
And the Lion
would answer, "No.
If you come in this yard, I will
bite you."
The reason the Lion did not
have to do as the Witch wished
was that every night, while the
woman was asleep, Dorothy carried
him food from the cupboard. After
he had eaten he would lie down
on his bed of straw, and Dorothy
would lie beside him and put
her head on his soft, shaggy
mane, while they talked of their
troubles and tried to plan some
way to escape. But they could
find no way to get out of the
castle, for it was constantly
guarded by the yellow Winkies,
who were the slaves of the Wicked
Witch and too afraid of her not
to do as she told them.
The girl had to work hard during
the day, and often the Witch
threatened to beat her with the
same old umbrella she always
carried in her hand. But, in
truth, she did not dare to strike
Dorothy, because of the mark
upon her forehead. The child
did not know this, and was full
of fear for herself and Toto.
Once the Witch struck Toto a
blow with her umbrella and the
brave little dog flew at her
and bit her leg in return. The
Witch did not bleed where she
was bitten, for she was so wicked
that the blood in her had dried
up many years before.
Dorothy's life became very
sad as she grew to understand
that it would be harder than
ever to get back to Kansas and
Aunt Em again. Sometimes she
would cry bitterly for hours,
with Toto sitting at her feet
and looking into her face, whining
dismally to show how sorry he
was for his little mistress.
Toto did not really care whether
he was in Kansas or the Land
of Oz so long as Dorothy was
with him; but he knew the little
girl was unhappy, and that made
him unhappy too.
Now the Wicked Witch had a
great longing to have for her
own the Silver Shoes which the
girl always wore. Her bees and
her crows and her wolves were
lying in heaps and drying up,
and she had used up all the power
of the Golden Cap; but if she
could only get hold of the Silver
Shoes, they would give her more
power than all the other things
she had lost. She watched Dorothy
carefully, to see if she ever
took off her shoes, thinking
she might steal them. But the
child was so proud of her pretty
shoes that she never took them
off except at night and when
she took her bath. The Witch
was too much afraid of the dark
to dare go in Dorothy's room
at night to take the shoes, and
her dread of water was greater
than her fear of the dark, so
she never came near when Dorothy
was bathing. Indeed, the old
Witch never touched water, nor
ever let water touch her in any
way.
But the wicked creature was
very cunning, and she finally
thought of a trick that would
give her what she wanted. She
placed a bar of iron in the middle
of the kitchen floor, and then
by her magic arts made the iron
invisible to human eyes. So that
when Dorothy walked across the
floor she stumbled over the bar,
not being able to see it, and
fell at full length. She was
not much hurt, but in her fall
one of the Silver Shoes came
off; and before she could reach
it, the Witch had snatched it
away and put it on her own skinny
foot.
The wicked woman was greatly
pleased with the success of her
trick, for as long as she had
one of the shoes she owned half
the power of their charm, and
Dorothy could not use it against
her, even had she known how to
do so.
The little
girl, seeing she had lost one
of her pretty shoes,
grew angry, and said to the Witch, "Give
me back my shoe!"
"I will not," retorted the
Witch, "for it is now my shoe,
and not yours."
"You are a wicked creature!" cried
Dorothy. "You have no right to
take my shoe from me."
"I shall keep it, just the
same," said the Witch, laughing
at her, "and someday I shall
get the other one from you, too."
This made Dorothy so very angry
that she picked up the bucket
of water that stood near and
dashed it over the Witch, wetting
her from head to foot.
Instantly the wicked woman
gave a loud cry of fear, and
then, as Dorothy looked at her
in wonder, the Witch began to
shrink and fall away.
"See what you have done!" she
screamed. "In a minute I shall
melt away."
"I'm very sorry, indeed," said
Dorothy, who was truly frightened
to see the Witch actually melting
away like brown sugar before
her very eyes.
"Didn't you know water would
be the end of me?" asked the
Witch, in a wailing, despairing
voice.
"Of course not," answered Dorothy. "How
should I?"
"Well, in a
few minutes I shall be all
melted, and you will have
the castle to yourself. I have
been wicked in my day, but I
never thought a little girl like
you would ever be able to melt
me and end my wicked deeds. Look
out--here I go!"
With these words the Witch
fell down in a brown, melted,
shapeless mass and began to spread
over the clean boards of the
kitchen floor. Seeing that she
had really melted away to nothing,
Dorothy drew another bucket of
water and threw it over the mess.
She then swept it all out the
door. After picking out the silver
shoe, which was all that was
left of the old woman, she cleaned
and dried it with a cloth, and
put it on her foot again. Then,
being at last free to do as she
chose, she ran out to the courtyard
to tell the Lion that the Wicked
Witch of the West had come to
an end, and that they were no
longer prisoners in a strange
land.
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