"Let's cut the speeches and build the fire, kiddos,"
suggested Percy, "or we'll all be frozen stiff and it will be too late."
So Dorothy took the Scarecrow's stuffing out as fast as she could, with her trembling fingers which were blue with cold, and made a neat pile near the entrance of the Deep Freezer igloo. Then she carefully made a bundle of his head and clothes and handed them to Jam to carry.
"Now for a match," she said, shivering so that she could hardly utter those few words.
"I think that I have some in my knapsack," said Jam, "if you can find them."
So Dorothy rummaged through the knapsack until she found a box of safety matches and drew one out of the box. She was shaking so by this time that she could not strike it, so the Tin Woodman took it from her chilled fingers and, after some effort, managed to strike it. The match flared up bright and hot in the cold room. Just then, however, a gust of wind swirled through the room, blowing out the flame, and they could hear the laugh of the North Wind.
"Try again," cried Dorothy. "Come, we'll all stand around the pile of straw and shelter it from the breeze."
So the Cowardly Lion, the Hungry Tiger, Jam, Dorothy, and Percy crowded close around the Tin Woodman and the straw which was part of their friend the Scarecrow, and again the Emperor of the Winkies struck a match and dropped it upon the pile of straw.
A tiny flame appeared and began licking at the straw heap. With an angry wail, the North Wind swished into the group and blew at the fire, but he only made it burn more brightly.
A faint cheer went up from the party as they saw the bonfire gaining headway, and soon the warmth from it melted the snow blocks that made the igloo entrance way. With a furious dripping and running of water, a hole appeared in the side of the igloo.
"Quick, through the wall and away," cried the Tin Woodman, hurrying Dorothy and Jam through the opening and following with their animal friends close behind. Before the inhabitants of Icetown knew what had occurred, the party had raced through the town sliding along the ice, and had escaped up the hill into the great outside world once more.
"Whew!" Sighed the Tin Woodman with relief when they were out of sight of Icetown.
"What a relief," breathed Dorothy gladly. "I'm not really warmed up yet, but I know that I'm not going to be frozen into a Snowman, at any rate."
"You certainly have unfriendly people living here,"
commented Jam.
"Oh, Oz isn't all like this," said Dorothy to the little boy. "I love living here, even though I have met some queer people on my journeys through the country.
Some of these remote places don't even know that they are a part of the Land of Oz and are ruled by Ozma."
"We'd better look for a straw stack," the Cowardly Lion reminded them, "and restuff the Scarecrow."
"Indeed we must," Dorothy agreed. "What would we ever do without him?"
At this time, they were still journeying through the forest, but they hoped to find in some clearing a farmhouse stood where they might obtain some stuffing for their padded friend. After walking along the wooded path for about an hour they saw that the trees were thinning out and that the bright sunlight from overhead was streaming down through the spaces between the trees, casting a golden glow over the entire landscape. The flowers that peeped through the grass were a delicate yellow hue, so they knew that they were still in the land of the Winkies; but from the distance they had traveled, they knew that soon they must come to the Gilliken boundary.
Before long they heard the murmuring of a river in the distance.
"I wonder if that's the river we tried to swim across kiddo?" Percy asked Jam.
"It may be," the boy replied. "It's hard to tell how far we've come, for the Kites carried us very swiftly on our journey to the castle of the Tin Woodman."
"Probably it is the boundary between this country and our purple neighbors to the north," the Tin Woodman said, "and I hope that when we reach the banks of the river we can find some farmer who will give us straw with which to stuff the Scarecrow."
The forest became more and more open, and soon the trees gave way to fertile fields that lay along the river bank. After a short walk, the group came to a neat little yellow farmhouse where the Tin Woodman asked for straw. When the farmer and his wife realized that the strange tin creature at their door was their own beloved emperor, they insisted that the entire party enter their humble abode and have lunch which they all ate with relish. Since the Emperor required no food, he carried the head and clothing of the Scarecrow to the straw stack behind the domed house and restuffed his friend while the rest of the party ate their hearty meal. Soon the Scarecrow was as good as new.
"I feel better than I have for weeks," he declared.
"I've been needing new straw for some time now. It makes me feel like a new man."
Dorothy, Jam, and the rest were delighted to see their friend in his old shape again, and the Winkie farmer and his wife were fascinated by the story of how the noble creature had saved his friends' lives by sacrificing his straw to make the bonfire that freed them from the cruel snowmen.
"To think that such a place exists near our home!"
Exclaimed the farmer.
"We never enter the forest, "his wife continued" for fear of wild beasts. Now I am sure that we will stay well away from it."
Chapter 18
A Raft of Trouble
AFTER a brief rest in the comfortable house of the Winkies, the Tin Woodman reminded his companions that they must be on their journey, for they had some distance to go before they could reach the castle of Terp, the Terrible, and free his slaves from bondage. So they all bade farewell to the kind little man and his wife and set out once again toward the river. It was a lovely day, with the soft breezes gently swaying the sunflowers and other yellow blossoms to and fro. Wild canaries flitted about on their tiny wings, filling the air with their happy songs.
"It's very pleasant here," said Jam. "Who would think that such dreadful people as the Books of Bookville and the chilly Snowmen could live in such a lovely land?"
"There are indeed strange inhabitants of this country," agreed the tin man, "but the good are in much greater numbers than the bad."
"Once there were wicked witches living here,"
Dorothy told the little boy, "but they have all been destroyed."
"Dorothy herself rid the Land of Oz of the two wickedest ones," the Scarecrow told Jam. "One of them was killed when her house fell on the witch."
"Her house!" Exclaimed Jam.
"Oh, didn't you know about that?" Asked Dorothy.
"The first time I came to the land of Oz, my house was blown here by a cyclone."
"Then," continued the Tin Woodman, "she destroyed the Wicked Witch of the West by melting her with a bucket of water."
"The Winkies then asked the Tin Woodman to be their Emperor," said the straw man.
"And don't forget that you, yourself, were the ruler of the Land of Oz for a while," the Cowardly Lion reminded him.
"Oh, yes," said the Scarecrow, "I served a short term between the reigns of the Wizard of Oz and our present ruler, Ozma. But I didn't really like being king because the crown was so heavy that it gave me a headache."
Jam marveled at the account of all these strange adventures, which could happen only in a fairyland such as this. By the time they had finished their brief history, the party had come to the banks of the wide river which was the boundary between the Gilliken and the Winkie sections.
"Here we are again, kiddo," said the white rat, his whiskers twitching. "How do we get across this time?"
"This shouldn't be too hard," answered the Tin Woodman. "With my trusty axe I can make us a raft that will float us across the river quite easily. I have done it many times before."
With these words, he turned to a small wooded area nearby to chop down some trees for the raft. As he hacked away at the trunks, he thought he heard low moaning noises, but as he could see no one in the forest he thought t
hat his imagination was playing him tricks or that the sound he heard was the wind sighing through the branches. Although Nick Chopper was a champion wood cutter, it was some time before the logs were ready to be fastened into a raft for the thing had to be large enough to accommodate the two large beasts as well as the rest of them. The Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger did not like to get wet any more than most lions and tigers do. They helped the Tin Woodman roll the logs to the river's edge where he fastened them together with wooden pegs which he fashioned from small pieces of wood.
Every time he drove a peg into a log, he thought that he heard a moan, and finally even Dorothy noticed the sound.
"I thought that I heard a groan," she commented.
"I've been hearing that sound for some time now,"
the Tin Woodman told her, "But I thought that perhaps my imagination was playing tricks. If you hear it too, however, there must be something or someone who is groaning."
"But who could it be?" Asked Jam looking all around for some stranger in their midst and finding no one.
The mystery remained unsolved, and as the raft was now ready for travel, they all slid it into the water and climbed aboard. The Tin Woodman had cut two long poles which he and the Scarecrow used to guide the craft, and they soon had propelled it out into the current of the river. Suddenly, without a warning, the pole that the Scarecrow held flipped high into the air and sailed toward the bank from which they had come.
Our stuffed friend was almost flung into the swirling water with the force of the leap the pole made, but he had enough presence of mind to let go of the pole when he felt it begin its wild leap and managed to keep his balance with some difficulty.
"Why did you throw the pole away, kiddo?" Asked Percy.
"I didn't throw it," protested the Scarecrow. "It jumped right out of my hands."
"Jumped," exclaimed Dorothy. "How could a pole do that?"
"I don't know how," replied the straw man. "All I know is that it did. It acted like it was alive."
Just at this moment, the other pole, held by the Tin Woodman, followed its companion, sailing through the air with ease. Being prepared by what had happened to his friend, the tin man was in no danger of being flung into the water, which would indeed have been disastrous to him, for it would have rusted him all over.
"Mine jumped out of my hands, too," he cried. "It felt just like it was alive."
"What are we going to do now?" Asked Jam. "Without poles we won't be able to steer the raft at all, and we will drift downstream in the wrong direction."
"Perhaps we'll drift near the shore and be able to get to the bank," said Dorothy.
"And perhaps we won't, too," Percy added pessimistically.
"We aren't drifting any place right now," the Scarecrow suddenly observed. "The river is flowing past us, but we are standing still."
"So we are," the Tin Woodman agreed. "What is keeping us here?"
At these words, the raft began spinning around like a top, so violently that Dorothy sat down with a jolt, and Jam just caught himself before he was thrown off the raft into the river. Then the raft began rocking to and fro quite violently. The entire crew were in danger of being tossed into the water.
They all lay down on the raft and clung to it as best they could, for none of them wished to be plunged into the cold stream.
"What got into this raft?" Gasped Dorothy, clinging to the logs for dear life.
"I wish I knew," answered the Tin Woodman. "The thing seems alive."
"Maybe that's the answer," said the Scarecrow.
"You and Dorothy both mentioned hearing moaning sounds when you were building the thing. It may have been the logs you heard."
"I've never heard of magic wood before," the Tin Woodman asserted, "but that doesn't mean that there couldn't be such stuff."
"If this raft is alive, what will it do to us?" Asked Dorothy.
"It seems to be trying to toss us into the river right now," Jam said, trying to get a better grip on the raft.
"Don't you have any brilliant ideas for saving us?"
Percy asked the Scarecrow. "If you don't think of something, we'll all be drowned."
"If we would only drift a little closer to the shore."
The Scarecrow began. But no sooner had he uttered the words than the raft swung itself out into the middle of the river once more.
"It seems to be able to hear what we are saying,"
commented Dorothy, who was wishing that they had never come to the river.
This gave the Scarecrow an idea. He cleared his throat and said in a loud voice, "This is a most delightful trip. I hope I never reach the shore."
"What!" Exploded the Hungry Tiger, who was watching the water that swished past him with fearful eyes.
"Are you crazy?" Ejaculated Percy, scowling at the Scarecrow.
Even the Tin Woodman feared that some water had splashed on his friend's head and given him water on the brain. The Scarecrow, however, motioned to them to be silent and then continued: "I could lie on this raft forever. I hope it doesn't get near the shore, for then this delightful cruise might end."
At these words, the raft gave a sudden lurch that almost dislodged its passengers and started toward the opposite shore. Then Dorothy realized what the Scarecrow was doing. Obviously the raft would take them in the direction in which it thought they did not wish to go, so she added her voice to that of the Scarecrow.
"Oh," she cried, "how terrible! I think we are drifting toward the Gilliken shore."
At this, the rest of the group saw that the way to progress in the direction they wished to go was to complain bitterly that they were going that way.
"Why can't we go back to the Winkie side of the river?" Cried the Hungry Tiger.
"I wish this raft would not ever get across the stream," echoed Jam.
"Gee, kiddos," said Percy in mock regret, "we are getting nearer and nearer to those purple flowers on the bank. Too bad!"
"I had hoped that we would never cross this river,"
growled the Hungry Tiger.
"And I don't want to leave my own land, where I love to rule," said Nick Chopper.
By the time they had finished these words, the raft was nearly to the Gilliken side of the river, and with one final lurch up on its side, it tossed the group from its surface to the grassy banks among the lavender flowers that waved in the breeze.
"Well," gasped Dorothy, "what a ride that was!"
"I hope I never see a raft again," growled the Cowardly Lion.
"Did I get any water on me?" Asked the Tin Woodman anxiously, pulling out his oil can and carefully oiling all his joints.
"I seem in good shape," the Scarecrow decided.
"Rolling on the grass just rolled out my lumps."
"At least none of us was hurt," Jam decided, "and we did get across the river, finally."
"Those must have been live trees that you used in the raft," said the Hungry Tiger. "I guess they resented being chopped down."
"Wonder what's happened to our live raft?" Percy inquired.
All eyes turned toward the river, and in the distance they could see the raft skipping merrily down the river, glad to be rid of its unwelcome passengers. Soon it was lost to sight, and that was the last our friends saw of the raft that refused to carry a crew.
"And good riddance," exclaimed Percy.
"I think we should go on, "said the Tin Woodman" for we lost some time making the raft and persuading it to bring us over the river. Can we make the castle of Terp, the Terrible, by evening? "He asked Jam.
"I doubt it," said the boy, "for we still have to pass through this forest and cross the plain of the Equinots."
"Whadda y 'say we stop and visit with Pinny and Gig," suggested Percy.
"Who are they?" Asked Dorothy.
"They are two little guinea pigs who made the kite trip with Percy and me," Jam told her, explaining that the two little creatures had decided to remain with the Gilliken family rather than continue the jo
urney with the rat and the boy.
"The farmer has some children that wanted Pinny and Gig for pets," Jam continued, "so I left them behind. We probably could spend the night with the farmer, again. He and his wife were very kind to us and invited us to visit them if we passed this way again."
So it was decided to travel on to the home of the Gilliken farmer; and then in the morning, to make the last lap of their journey to the Hidden Valley and the jam factory of Terp, the Terrible.
The forest path began to look familiar to Jam and Percy who had traveled along it only a few days before on their trip to see the Emperor of the Winkies who now accompanied them.
"We ought to see the cottage before long now, kiddos," Percy told them.
"Yes," Jam said, "it isn't too far from here. I'll be glad to see the Gilliken and his wife."
"She's some cook, kiddo."
Jam agreed and decided that he was getting hungry for another good home-cooked meal. The flowers along the path were all purple and lavender now, and the purple finches in the trees sang their lilting melodies to cheer the travelers on their way.
Percy was the first to spy the clearing where the Gillikens lived in their neat little dome-shaped home and he called gaily "Hi there, kiddos, we're back again."
On hearing this sound, the farmer, who was working in his field, looked up; when he saw Jam and Percy and their friends, he hurried to greet them. A closer look showed him the Hungry Tiger and the Cowardly Lion who frightened him, but Jam hastened to him and assured him that the great beasts were friendly and would do him no harm. Jam then presented his friends, and the farmer was overwhelmed by such famous personages as Princess Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Woodman.
"I have persuaded the Tin Woodman to return with me and free the Gilliken slaves from Terp, the Terrible," Jam explained. And to the Tin Woodman he said, "This Gilliken farmer and his good wife were the couple who told me that you were the Tin Woodman, Emperor of the Winkies."
The Hidden Valley of Oz Page 10
