upon the Tin Woodman as the leader of the party.
'I think not,' was the reply. 'We are engaged upon a rather delicate adventure, for we are seeking a girl who fears her former lover has forgotten her. It will be rather hard for me, you must admit, when I confess to Nimmie Amee that I have come to marry her because it is my duty to do so, and therefore the fewer witnesses there are to our meeting the better for both of us. After I have found Nimmie Amee and she has managed to control her joy at our reunion, I shall take her to the Emerald City and introduce her to Ozma and Dorothy, and to Betsy Bobbin and Tiny Trot, and all our other friends; but, if I remember rightly, poor Nimmie Amee has a sharp tongue when angry, and she may be a trifle angry with me, at first, because I have been so long in coming to her.'
'I can understand that,' said Woot gravely. 'But how can we get to that part of the Munchkin Country where you once lived without passing through the Emerald City?'
'Why, that is easy,' the Tin Man assured him.
'I have a map of Oz in my pocket,' persisted the boy, 'and it shows that the Winkie Country, where we now are, is at the west of Oz, and the Munchkin Country at the east, while directly between them lies the Emerald City.'
'True enough; but we shall go toward the north, first of all, into the Gillikin Country, and so pass around the Emerald City,' explained the Tin Woodman.
'That may prove a dangerous journey,' replied the boy. 'I used to live in one of the top corners of the Gillikin Country, near to Oogaboo, and I have been told that in this northland country are many people whom it is not pleasant to meet. I was very careful to avoid them during my journey south.'
'A Wanderer should have no fear,' observed the Scarecrow, who was wobbling along in a funny, haphazard manner, but keeping pace with his friends.
'Fear does not make one a coward,' returned Woot, growing a little red in the face, 'but I believe it is more easy to avoid danger than to overcome it. The safest way is the best way, even for one who is brave and determined.'
'Do not worry, for we shall not go far to the north,' said the Emperor. 'My one idea is to avoid the Emerald City without going out of our way more than is necessary. Once around the Emerald City we will turn south into the Munchkin Country, where the Scarecrow and I are well acquainted and have many friends.'
'I have traveled some in the Gillikin Country,' remarked the Scarecrow, 'and while I must say I have met some strange people there at times, I have never yet been harmed by them.'
'Well, it's all the same to me,' said Woot, with assumed carelessness. 'Dangers, when they cannot be avoided, are often quite interesting, and I am willing to go wherever you two venture to go.'
So they left the path they had been following and began to travel toward the northeast, and all that day they were in the pleasant Winkie Country, and all the people they met saluted the Emperor with great respect and wished him good luck on his journey. At night they stopped at a house where they were well entertained and where Woot was given a comfortable bed to sleep in.
'Were the Scarecrow and I alone,' said the Tin Woodman, 'we would travel by night as well as by day; but with a meat person in our party, we must halt at night to permit him to rest.'
'Meat tires, after a day's travel,' added the Scarecrow, 'while straw and tin never tire at all. Which proves,' said he, 'that we are somewhat superior to people made in the common way.'
Woot could not deny that he was tired, and he slept soundly until morning, when he was given a good breakfast, smoking hot.
'You two miss a great deal by not eating,' he said to his companions.
'It is true,' responded the Scarecrow. 'We miss suffering from hunger, when food cannot be had, and we miss a stomachache, now and then.'
As he said this, the Scarecrow glanced at the Tin Woodman, who nodded his assent.
All that second day they traveled steadily, entertaining one another the while with stories of adventures they had formerly met and listening to the Scarecrow recite poetry. He had learned a great many poems from Professor Wogglebug and loved to repeat them whenever anybody would listen to him. Of course Woot and the Tin Woodman now listened, because they could not do otherwise – unless they rudely ran away from their stuffed comrade. One of the Scarecrow's recitations was like this:
'What sound is so sweet
As the straw from the wheat
When it crunkles so tender and low?
It is yellow and bright,
So it gives me delight
To crunkle wherever I go.
'Sweet, fresh, golden Straw!
There is surely no flaw
In a stuffing so clean and compact.
It creaks when I walk,
And it thrills when I talk,
And its fragrance is fine, for a fact.
'To cut me don't hurt,
For I've no blood to squirt,
And I therefore can suffer no pain;
The straw that I use
Doesn't lump up or bruise,
Though it's pounded again and again!
'I know it is said
That my beautiful head
Has brains of mixed wheat-straw and bran,
But my thoughts are so good
I'd not change, if I could,
For the brains of a common meat man.
'Content with my lot,
I'm glad that I'm not
Like others I meet day by day;
If my insides get musty,
Or mussed-up, or dusty,
I get newly stuffed right away.'
Chapter Four
The Loons of Loonville
Toward evening, the travelers found there was no longer a path to guide them, and the purple hues of the grass and trees warned them that they were now in the Country of the Gillikins, where strange peoples dwelt in places that were quite unknown to the other inhabitants of Oz. The fields were wild and uncultivated and there were no houses of any sort to be seen. But our friends kept on walking even after the sun went down, hoping to find a good place for Woot the Wanderer to sleep; but when it grew quite dark and the boy was weary with his long walk, they halted right in the middle of a field and allowed Woot to get his supper from the food he carried in his knapsack. Then the Scarecrow laid himself down, so that Woot could use his stuffed body as a pillow, and the Tin Woodman stood up beside them all night, so the dampness of the ground might not rust his joints or dull his brilliant polish. Whenever the dew settled on his body he carefully wiped it off with a cloth, and so in the morning the Emperor shone as brightly as ever in the rays of the rising sun.
They wakened the boy at daybreak, the Scarecrow saying to him:
'We have discovered something queer, and therefore we must counsel together what to do about it.'
'What have you discovered?' asked Woot, rubbing the sleep from his eyes with his knuckles and giving
