'My wisdom assures me that you are merely travelers, as you say, and not butchers. Butchers have reason to be afraid of me, but you are safe. We cannot invite you in, for you are too big for our house, but the boy who eats is welcome to all the carrots and turnips he wants. Make yourselves at home in the garden and stay all night, if you like; but in the morning you must go away, for we are quiet people and do not care for company.'
'May I have some of your straw?' asked the Scarecrow.
'Help yourself,' replied Professor Swyne.
'For pigs, they're quite respectable,' remarked Woot, as they all went toward the straw-stack.
'I'm glad they didn't invite us in,' said Captain Fyter. 'I hope I'm not too particular about my associates, but I draw the line at pigs.'
The Scarecrow was glad to be rid of his hay, for during the long walk it had sagged down and made him fat and squatty and more bumpy than at first.
'I'm not specially proud,' he said, 'but I love a manly figure, such as only straw stuffing can create. I've not felt like myself since that hungry Hip-po ate my last straw.'
Polychrome and Woot set to work removing the hay and then they selected the finest straw, crisp and golden, and with it stuffed the Scarecrow anew. He certainly looked better after the operation, and he was so pleased at being reformed that he tried to dance a little jig, and almost succeeded.
'I shall sleep under the straw-stack tonight,' Woot decided, after he had eaten some of the vegetables from the garden, and in fact he slept very well, with the two tin men and the Scarecrow sitting silently beside him and Polychrome away somewhere in the moonlight dancing her fairy dances.
At daybreak the Tin Woodman and the Tin Soldier took occasion to polish their bodies and oil their joints, for both were exceedingly careful of their personal appearance. They had forgotten the quarrel due to their accidental bumping of one another in the invisible country, and being now good friends the Tin Woodman polished the Tin Soldier's back for him and then the Tin Soldier polished the Tin Woodman's back.
For breakfast the Wanderer ate crisp lettuce and radishes, and the Rainbow's Daughter, who had now returned to her friends, sipped the dewdrops that had formed on the petals of the wild-flowers.
As they passed the little house to renew their journey, Woot called out:
'Good-bye, Mr. and Mrs. Swyne!'
The window opened and the two pigs looked out.
'A pleasant journey,' said the Professor.
'Have you any children?' asked the Scarecrow, who was a great friend of children.
'We have nine,' answered the Professor; 'but they do not live with us, for when they were tiny piglets the Wizard of Oz came here and offered to care for them and to educate them. So we let him have our nine tiny piglets, for he's a good Wizard and can be relied upon to keep his promises.'
'I know the Nine Tiny Piglets,' said the Tin Woodman.
'So do I,' said the Scarecrow. 'They still live in the Emerald City, and the Wizard takes good care of them and teaches them to do all sorts of tricks.'
'Did they ever grow up?' inquired Mrs. Squealina Swyne, in an anxious voice.
'No,' answered the Scarecrow; 'like all other children in the Land of Oz, they will always remain children, and in the case of the tiny piglets that is a good thing, because they would not be nearly so cute and cunning if they were bigger.'
'But are they happy?' asked Mrs. Swyne.
'Everyone in the Emerald City is happy,' said the Tin Woodman. 'They can't help it.'
Then the travelers said good-bye, and climbed the side of the basin that was toward Mount Munch.
Chapter Twenty-One
Polychrome's Magic
On this morning, which ought to be the last of this important journey, our friends started away as bright and cheery as could be, and Woot whistled a merry tune so that Polychrome could dance to the music.
On reaching the top of the hill, the plain spread out before them in all its beauty of blue grasses and wildflowers, and Mount Munch seemed much nearer than it had the previous evening. They trudged on at a brisk pace, and by noon the mountain was so close that they could admire its appearance. Its slopes were partly clothed with pretty evergreens, and its foot-hills were tufted with a slender waving bluegrass that had a tassel on the end of every blade. And, for the first time, they perceived, near the foot of the mountain, a charming house, not of great size but neatly painted and with many flowers surrounding it and vines climbing over the doors and windows.
It was toward this solitary house that our travelers now directed their steps, thinking to inquire of the people who lived there where Nimmie Amee might be found.
There were no paths, but the way was quite open and clear, and they were drawing near to the dwelling when Woot the Wanderer, who was then in the lead of the little party, halted with such an abrupt jerk that he stumbled over backward and lay flat on his back in the meadow. The Scarecrow stopped to look at the boy.
'Why did you do that?' he asked in surprise.
Woot sat up and gazed around him in amazement.
'I — I don't know!' he replied.
The two tin men, arm in arm, started to pass them when both halted and tumbled, with a great clatter, into a heap beside Woot. Polychrome, laughing at the absurd sight, came dancing up and she, also, came to a sudden stop, but managed to save herself from falling.
Everyone of them was much astonished, and the Scarecrow said with a puzzled look:
'I don't see anything.'
'Nor I,' said Woot; 'but something hit me, just the same.'
'Some invisible person struck me a heavy blow,' declared the Tin Woodman, struggling to separate himself from the Tin Soldier, whose legs and arms were mixed with his own.
'I'm not sure it was a person,' said Polychrome, looking more grave than usual. 'It seems to me that I merely ran into some hard substance which barred my way. In order to make sure of this, let me try another place.'
She ran back a way and then with much caution advanced in a different place, but when she reached a position on a line with the others she halted, her arms outstretched before her.
'I can feel something hard — something smooth as glass,' she said, 'but I'm sure it is not glass.'
'Let me try,' suggested Woot, getting up; but when he tried to go forward, he discovered the same barrier that Polychrome had encountered.
'No,' he said, 'it isn't glass. But what is it?'
'Air,' replied a small voice beside him. 'Solid air; that's all.'
They all looked downward and found a sky-blue rabbit had stuck his head out of a burrow in the ground. The rabbit's eyes were a deeper blue than his fur, and the pretty creature seemed friendly and unafraid.
'Air!' exclaimed Woot, staring in astonishment into the rabbit's blue eyes; 'whoever heard of air so solid that one cannot push it aside?'
'You can't push this air aside,' declared the rabbit, 'for it was made hard by powerful sorcery, and it forms a wall that is intended to keep people from getting to that house yonder.'
'Oh; it's a wall, is it?' said the Tin Woodman.
'Yes, it is really a wall,' answered the rabbit, 'and it is fully six feet thick.'
'How high is it?' inquired Captain Fyter, the Tin Soldier.
'Oh, ever so high; perhaps a mile,' said the rabbit.
'Couldn't we go around it?' asked Woot.
'Of course, for the wall is a circle,' explained the rabbit. 'In the center of the circle stands the house, so you may walk around the Wall of Solid Air, but you can't get to the house.'
'Who put the air wall around the house?' was the Scarecrow's question.
'Nimmie Amee did that.'
'Nimmie Amee!' they all exclaimed in surprise.
