L. Frank Baum - Oz 17

by The Cowardly Lion Of Oz

  Notta was so cheerful and jolly and made so much fun out of everything that the Cowardly Lion felt repaid for any trouble he was taking and Bob Up had not been so happy since they had fallen into this bewildering country. Toward noon, as the sun grew rather hot, the Cowardly Lion turned into a small inviting wood which he felt was a short cut to the yellow brick road. But on the very first tree, a large sign made them pause. The sign said, “Twenty trees to U.”

  “I never heard of any country called U” mumbled the Cowardly Lion, blinking up at the sign in

  surprise.

  “There was one just like this on the road we came down yesterday,” said Notta. “Bob and I wondered what it stood for.”

  “Well, I don’t know,” mused the lion. “That’s the queer thing about Oz. Even old residents like myself are often amazed to find new countries and peoples where we never expected to find them.

  According to the maps there are only scattered farms between here and the Emerald City. But so long as we have to go through this wood, we might as well see what U stands for.”

  Bob was the first to discover that every now and then the trees were numbered and, following them in the order of their numbers, took them deeper and deeper into the forest. When they reached the tree numbered nineteen, they were alarmed to note that all the other numbers that had guided them had disappeared. The wood had meanwhile grown so dense that they could hardly push on and, when Notta suggested that they go back, they found they had lost the way entirely. The Cowardly Lion was full of stickers and thorns and, while Bob picked them out of his woolly mane, the clown climbed the nineteenth tree to make a little survey of the country.

  With a shout he came scrambling down. “There’s a clearing just beyond, and I think I made out twenty on the tree in the center,” puffed Notta. “Come on!” The clown was growing more interested in this strange country every minute. He could hardly wait to see what was going to happen next.

  “Let me go first. My hide doesn’t tear as easily as yours,” said the Cowardly Lion, and he began pushing through the heavy thicket in the direction pointed out by Notta. Holding up their arms to protect their faces, the others followed and in almost no time had come out on a small clearing. As they looked the clown clutched Bob, while the Cowardly Lion blinked with astonishment. The twentieth tree was knitting furiously, holding in its long fingers nearly a hundred gleaming needles, and bending its witchy head every once in a while to examine the great, cloudy net that flowed all around it. For some moments they watched in puzzled silence. Then Bob screamed, the Cowardly Lion roared and Notta gasped with alarm. For the net suddenly swooped down and scooped them up like a school of fish. The tree gave a disagreeable little laugh, quickly knitted the top of the net together and, lifting all its branches at once, tossed the luckless travelers high over its head.

  Miraculously, as it struck the air, the big porous bag filled out like a balloon and went sailing upward at a terrible rate-the Cowardly Lion, Bob Up and Notta rolling over and over in the bottom and bumping and banging together in a most painful and unpleasant fashion.

  CHAPTER 10 On the Isle of Un

  If You could just stop trembling,” puffed the clown, trying to keep out of the Cowardly Lion’s way, “I think it would help.”

  “But how can I stop trembling when I am so frightened,” complained the lion, clutching the swaying net with all four paws.

  “I’m frightened too!” wailed Bob, who was rolling and bouncing first against one, then against

  the other.

  “It seems to me you’re shaking about a lot yourself,” said the Cowardly Lion reproachfully, as Notta dove suddenly into his ribs. “What are you trying to do?”

  “My disguise!” panted the clown, clutching at his chest. “If I could only put on my disguise.”

  “Aho!” mumbled the Cowardly Lion, and stopped trembling long enough to grin. But just then

  the balloon calmed down, and changing its course sailed gently and levelly through the sky, so that the three huddled together in the bottom were fairly comfortable.

  “I guess U stands for Up. You surely bobbed up this time, didn’t you?” Notta winked merrily at the little orphan, and then peered curiously through the holes in the net. “This reminds me of a balloon trip I once made for the circus. Wonder where we’ll land?”

  “Are we to land at all?” sighed the Cowardly Lion unhappily. Two of his legs had slipped through holes in the net and he was feeling uneasy and uncomfortable. “Climb on me, Bob, my boy. It will be a little softer. When you’ve been in Oz as long as I have, you’ll take nothing for granted.” He looked mournfully at the clown who was that moment below him.

  “Then I’ll just take it Oz is,” laughed Notta. “Why, here’s land now! And we’re slowing down.” So they were, down down down, until they were over a rocky island. When the net was almost resting on a little green hill, it turned completely and suddenly upside down, and shook them out with such violence that they rolled all the way to the bottom. The Cowardly Lion jumped up first and hurriedly placed himself in front of Bob. Though he was trembling even more than usual, he knew that he was a better fighter than these helpless mortals. And that there would be fighting he felt reasonably sure, for a great crowd was coming noisily toward them.

  Notta nervously jerked Bob to his feet and stood beside the Cowardly Lion. There was no time for disguising. “We’ll just start with rule two,” panted the clown, running his finger hurriedly ‘round his collar. “Let’s be ex-tre-eemly polite. That’s the way to meet strangers.”

  “All right,” agreed the Cowardly Lion in a rather choked voice, “you meet ‘em with politeness, and if that fails, I’ll meet ‘em with something else.” He gnashed his teeth to keep them from chattering. As the first of the company reached the foot of the hill Bob gave a little scream, but Notta calmly stepped forward.

  “Ladies and gentlemen!” began the clown in his best circus manner, “Let me introduce you to the most famous lion in the world, the Cowardly Lion of Oz, as brave as he is cowardly; allow me to present Bob Up, the brightest little boy in the United States, and myself, a harmless clown whose tricks have astonished the crowned heads of two continents. Ladies and gentlemen, let-”

  “Two creatures and a beast,” called the leader of the company, interrupting Notta in the middle of a sentence. “Two creatures and a beast,” repeated the others, staring dully at the newcomers. The Cowardly Lion growled threateningly at this and Notta began running over all the jokes that he knew. As for Bob, he was too amazed to do anything but stare, for these were certainly the most curious beings he had ever seen in his life.

  To begin with, they had feathers instead of hair. These feathers were small and fine and grew smoothly back from their foreheads, becoming longer at the back and curling softly behind the ears. Their eyes were perfectly round and their noses almost like bird beaks. Otherwise they were the same as regular folks, except in their manner of walking, for their feet turned in so much that they had to hop, putting one foot down and then hopping over it. Before Notta could start a joke, the leader of these singular creatures motioned to two behind him. They immediately stepped forward, unfurling as they did so a large banner.

  “Unwelcome to Un,” said the banner in crooked yellow letters.

  “No use being polite then,” rumbled the Cowardly Lion and, taking matters into his own paws,

  he gave such a thundering roar that the very ground trembled.

  “Ginger poppa!” gasped the clown, almost as frightened as the Featherheads. The effect on the crowd was simply breath-taking. Beginning at the back of their necks, their feathers slowly rose straight on end until each head looked like a huge and quivering feather duster. The Cowardly Lion tried to roar again, but the best that he could manage was a chuckle. Notta took one look, then fell up against a tree and laughed until the tears rolled down his cheeks. Even Bob giggled. “Try ‘em again,” wheezed the Cowardly Lion. “I think they’ll listen to you now.” Wiping his eyes on
his sleeve, Notta stepped forward and addressed the leader.

  “Could you tell us a little about this interesting country of yours, and the quickest way out of it?” he inquired politely. Slowly the feathers on the heads of the. crowd began to settle.

  “‘Taint a country, it’s a skyle,” answered the Featherhead, blinking rapidly.

  “A skyle?” repeated the clown, glancing doubtfully at the Cowardly Lion, who appeared to be as puzzled as he was. “What is a skyle?” asked Notta curiously.

  “This is,” snapped the leader disagreeably. “You’re as ignorant as a fish, aren’t you?” Then as the Cowardly Lion gave a threatening growl he continued grudgingly, “A skyle is an isle in the sky, and anyone who has studied skyography ought to know that. I suppose you don’t even know what an isle is?” He looked contemptuously at the three strangers.

  “I do. An isle is a small body of land entirely surrounded by water,” cried Bob, delighted to find that geography was of some use after all.

  “Well,” said the Featherhead uneasily, “then I guess you’ll understand when I tell you that a skyle is a small body of land entirely surrounded by air.”

  “Air!” spluttered Notta. “I say, how does one get off a skyle?”

  “You’ll soon find that out!” muttered the Featherhead, and all the others began nodding and clucking for all the world like a company of hens.

  “What do you call yourselves?” asked the Cowardly Lion. Now that he knew how to frighten them, he no longer felt afraid.

  “We’re Uns, we are, and nobody but Uns are allowed on this skyle. We’ll have to take you along to the palace and his royal Skyness will decide what’s to be done with you.”

  “Another king,” groaned the clown.

  “Isn’t it time to run?” asked Bob, tugging at Notta’s pantaloon, for the Uns were drawing closer this time, paying no attention to the roars of the Cowardly Lion.

  “No use running, Bob. We might fall off. Perhaps this King is a better fellow than his subjects.

  “Take us to your King!” cried the clown, settling his cap determinedly. Hopping and muttering, the Uns formed two crooked lines, and with the three travelers in the center marched away to the palace. There were many tall trees on the skyle of Un and, more remarkable still, every tree had a rough boxlike structure built in its branches, like enormous bird houses. They were reached by rough ladders and the

  Uns seemed to be as much at home on the branches as on the ground.

  Some of the women standing on lower branches were hanging clothes on upper ones as calmly as ordinary folk string the washing up in the yard. But, as Notta whispered to Bob, what could one expect of Featherheads?

  The skyle itself was rocky and barren and there seemed to be no farms, buildings nor industries of any kind. “What do you do here for a living?” asked Notta, turning to the Un beside him.

  “Fish, mostly,” said the Un.

  “What for?” asked the Cowardly Lion, treading on Notta’s heels in his eagerness to hear. “Birds,” sniffed the Un, looking over his shoulder scornfully. “What did you think we’d fish

  for?”

  “Oh, but you couldn’t fish for birds,” objected Bob Up, stopping short, while Notta burst into a loud roar of laughter. The Un glared at all three.

  “The air’s full of ‘em,” he announced sharply, and then, as the clown continued to laugh immoderately, his feathers began to ruffle with rage.

  “You’re idiots!” he screamed, thrusting his sharp beak almost in Notta’s face. “Idiots!” echoed all the other Uns immediately. Several trod on the clown’s toes and, seeing that Bob was rather pale, Notta hastily changed the subject. Not long after that they came to the palace. To Bob it looked like a huge barn stuck between four trees. It was about ten feet from the ground and from the top of each tree fluttered a bright yellow flag bearing the word, UN.

  The Cowardly Lion trembled a good deal as they went up the rickety green ladder, but with a little help from Notta he managed it, and next instant they were in the presence of the King. “Two creatures and a beast, your Skyness!” announced the leader of the delegation. Then stepping close to Notta he shouted at the top of his voice, “His Majesty, I-wish-I-was, King of Un!” Notta’s cap fell off and he clapped his hand to his ear. The Cowardly Lion made a little spring at the Un and had the pleasure of seeing the King’s feathers rise erect upon his head and wave to and fro.

  “Approach, creatures and beast,” commanded I-wish-I-was in a slightly shaky voice. He was sitting on a high wooden perch, swinging his feet. Grouped about him were a number of Uns in bright green uniforms that exactly matched their feather hair. Notta made a deep bow and Bob and the Cowardly Lion moved forward together.

  “How did you come to come here?” asked I-wish-I-was, adjusting a pair of spectacles on his terrible beak.

  “We didn’t come to come at all,” said Notta hastily. “We were standing under a tree, watching it knit-a very strange sight, your Skyness will agree.”

  “Why shouldn’t it knit?” snapped the King impatiently. “There’s no law against it, is there? In fact, if it were not for that tree, we’d be in a pretty state for fishing nets.”

  “Well, we were caught in the tree’s net, the net flew up and here we are,” finished Notta, determined not to quarrel if he could help it.

  “A mighty poor catch, I call you,” muttered the King complainingly. He turned to his guard to see whether they agreed with him and they all nodded so hard it made Bob dizzy.

  “Are you willing to become Uns?” he asked gloomily.

  “I’ll not grow feathers for anybody,” growled the Cowardly Lion, shaking his paw at I-wish-I-was.

  “Wait till you’ve tried,” answered the King loftily. “But what I mean is this: Each of you must do something unish, for we are all Uns here. I’m unfair any Un will tell you that. Bill, there,” he pointed proudly at the commander of the Guard, “Bill, he’s ungrateful.” Then he waved to the Un beside him. “And Tom’s unkind. See what I mean? We’re all Uns together.” The King rubbed his clawlike hands gleefully.

  “But I never heard of such a place!” gasped Notta.

  “Of course not! Un’s positively unheard of,” confided the King, smoothing back his feathers complacently. Bob’s eyes grew rounder and rounder, Notta swallowed, and the Cowardly Lion tilted one ear forward to be sure he was hearing aright.

  “Why, you’re Uns already,” said I-wish-I-was, with a mean little chuckle.

  “You,” he pointed his long thin finger at Notta, “are unnatural. You,” he pointed to the Cowardly Lion, “are unpleasant. And you,” he wiggled his finger teasingly at Bob, “you’re uninteresting!”

  “Thanks!” said the clown, taking off his cap. “And besides that,” cried I-wish-I-was, his voice rising to a shrill squeak, “you’re all uninvited.”

  “And bound to be unlucky,” gurgled Bill of the Guard.

  “And terribly unhappy,” squealed another, dancing up and down.

  “And terrifically uncomfortable,” added a third. Hereupon the Uns began hopping frantically about, each shouting something unish, till Bob covered his ears and the Cowardly Lion began to lash his tail with fury.

  “Stop! Stop!” shouted the clown, stamping his foot. “I believe this is the unpleasantest island I’ve ever been on.” Loud cheers from the Uns interrupted him here. “And if you will tell us the way off we’ll go at once.

  I-wish-I-was raised his claw for silence, pulled a pad from his pocket, a long feather quill from his head and, dipping it in ink, wrote something in a great hurry. This he handed to the Commander of the Guard and Notta looking over his shoulder read, “Push them off at the first opportunity.” The Guard, not knowing that the clown had read the message, bowed and began whispering to his comrades, while Notta scratched his ear and wondered what he should do.

  “Could your Skyness give us a bite to eat?” he asked presently. That, he reflected, would give him time to think.

  “Certainly not,” a
nswered the King, snapping his birdlike eyes. “If you’re hungry, go fish, the

  same as the rest of us do. Bill, give them some rods.” He winked wickedly at the green guardsman. Notta saw him make a little push in the air. Bill with a chuckle winked back; then brought three rods and reels and handed them to the clown.

  “Oh!” cried Bob Up, “I’d love to go fishing.”

  “Where do you fish around here?” asked Notta, wrinkling up his forehead.

  “Just go to the edge of the skyle and drop your line over,” said the King, and nudged the Un nearest him. At this all the Uns began nudging and winking first one eye and then the other. “Come on,” whispered Notta and, tucking the rods under his arm, ran toward the door. The Cowardly Lion, in his haste to follow, fell all the way down the ladder, but at a quick word from Notta jumped up, and as Bob joined them they all started on a run for a little clump of trees. “I tell you,” puffed the clown, pausing at length to mop his brow, “they are bad Uns, sure enough. They mean to push us off the skyle. That’s why they sent us fishing.”

  “Just let ‘em try it!” roared the Cowardly Lion, shaking his mane. He had skinned his knees in his fall down the ladder and was feeling quite ready for a battle.

  “But shall we go fishing or not?” asked the clown uncertainly. Bob Up said nothing, but he looked wistfully at the fishing rods. Bob had never been fishing in his life, and even the thought of being pushed off the skyle did not seem as dreadful as being deprived of this pleasure. Notta saw the look.