Chương Chương 14 · Dorothy Tries to be Brave

. Dorothy Tries to be Brave

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.