The Merry-Go-Round Mountains
CHAPTER 7
The Rolling Prairie was not difficult to travel over, although it wasall up-hill and down-hill, so for a while they made good progress. Noteven a shepherd was to be met with now and the farther they advanced themore dreary the landscape became. At noon they stopped for a "picnicluncheon," as Betsy called it, and then they again resumed theirjourney. All the animals were swift and tireless and even the CowardlyLion and the Mule found they could keep up with the pace of the Woozyand the Sawhorse.
It was the middle of the afternoon when first they came in sight of acluster of low mountains. These were cone-shaped, rising from broadbases to sharp peaks at the tops. From a distance the mountains appearedindistinct and seemed rather small--more like hills than mountains--butas the travelers drew nearer they noted a most unusual circumstance: thehills were all whirling around, some in one direction and some theopposite way.
"I guess those are the Merry-Go-Round Mountains, all right," saidDorothy.
"They must be," said the Wizard.
"They go 'round, sure enough," added Trot, "but they don't seem verymerry."
There were several rows of these mountains, extending both to the rightand to the left, for miles and miles. How many rows there might be, nonecould tell, but between the first row of peaks could be seen otherpeaks, all steadily whirling around one way or another. Continuing toride nearer, our friends watched these hills attentively, until at last,coming close up, they discovered there was a deep but narrow gulf aroundthe edge of each mountain, and that the mountains were set so closetogether that the outer gulf was continuous and barred farther advance.
At the edge of the gulf they all dismounted and peered over into itsdepths. There was no telling where the bottom was, if indeed there wasany bottom at all. From where they stood it seemed as if the mountainshad been set in one great hole in the ground, just close enough togetherso they would not touch, and that each mountain was supported by a rockycolumn beneath its base which extended far down into the black pitbelow. From the land side it seemed impossible to get across the gulfor, succeeding in that, to gain a foothold on any of the whirlingmountains.
"This ditch is too wide to jump across," remarked Button-Bright.
"P'raps the Lion could do it," suggested Dorothy.
"What, jump from here to that whirling hill?" cried the Lionindignantly. "I should say not! Even if I landed there, and could holdon, what good would it do? There's another spinning mountain beyond it,and perhaps still another beyond that. I don't believe any livingcreature could jump from one mountain to another, when both are whirlinglike tops and in different directions."
"I propose we turn back," said the Wooden Sawhorse, with a yawn of hischopped-out mouth, as he stared with his knot eyes at the Merry-Go-RoundMountains.
"I agree with you," said the Woozy, wagging his square head.
"We should have taken the shepherd's advice," added Hank the Mule.
The others of the party, however they might be puzzled by the seriousproblem that confronted them, would not allow themselves to despair.
"If we once get over these mountains," said Button-Bright, "we couldprobably get along all right."
"True enough," agreed Dorothy. "So we must find some way, of course, toget past these whirligig hills. But how?"
"I wish the Ork was with us," sighed Trot.
"But the Ork isn't here," said the Wizard, "and we must depend uponourselves to conquer this difficulty. Unfortunately, all my magic hasbeen stolen; otherwise I am sure I could easily get over the mountains."
"Unfortunately," observed the Woozy, "none of us has wings. And we're ina magic country without any magic."
"What is that around your waist, Dorothy?" asked the Wizard.
"That? Oh, that's just the Magic Belt I once captured from the NomeKing," she replied.
"A Magic Belt! Why, that's fine. I'm sure a Magic Belt would take youover these hills."
"It might, if I knew how to work it," said the little girl. "Ozma knowsa lot of its magic, but I've never found out about it. All I know isthat while I am wearing it nothing can hurt me."
"Try wishing yourself across, and see if it will obey you," suggestedthe Wizard.
"But what good would that do?" asked Dorothy. "If I got across itwouldn't help the rest of you, and I couldn't go alone among all thosegiants and dragons, while you stayed here."
"True enough," agreed the Wizard, sadly; and then, after looking aroundthe group, he inquired: "What is that on your finger, Trot?"
"A ring. The Mermaids gave it to me," she explained, "and if ever I'm introuble when I'm on the water I can call the Mermaids and they'll comeand help me. But the Mermaids can't help me on the land, you know,'cause they swim, and--and--they haven't any legs."
"True enough," repeated the Wizard, more sadly.
There was a big, broad-spreading tree near the edge of the gulf and asthe sun was hot above them they all gathered under the shade of the treeto study the problem of what to do next.
"If we had a long rope," said Betsy, "we could fasten it to this treeand let the other end of it down into the gulf and all slide down it."
"Well, what then?" asked the Wizard.
"Then, if we could manage to throw the rope up the other side,"explained the girl, "we could all climb it and be on the other side ofthe gulf."
"There are too many 'if's' in that suggestion," remarked the littleWizard. "And you must remember that the other side is nothing butspinning mountains, so we couldn't possibly fasten a rope to them--evenif we had one."
"That rope idea isn't half bad, though," said the Patchwork Girl, whohad been dancing dangerously near to the edge of the gulf.
"What do you mean?" asked Dorothy.
The Patchwork Girl suddenly stood still and cast her button eyes aroundthe group.
"Ha, I have it!" she exclaimed. "Unharness the Sawhorse, somebody; myfingers are too clumsy."
"Shall we?" asked Button-Bright doubtfully, turning to the others.
"Well, Scraps has a lot of brains, even if she is stuffed with cotton,"asserted the Wizard. "If her brains can help us out of this trouble weought to use them."
So he began unharnessing the Sawhorse, and Button-Bright and Dorothyhelped him. When they had removed the harness the Patchwork Girl toldthem to take it all apart and buckle the straps together, end to end.And, after they had done this, they found they had one very long strapthat was stronger than any rope.
"It would reach across the gulf, easily," said the Lion, who with theother animals had sat on his haunches and watched this proceeding. "ButI don't see how it could be fastened to one of those dizzy mountains."
Scraps had no such notion as that in her baggy head. She told them tofasten one end of the strap to a stout limb of the tree, pointing to onewhich extended quite to the edge of the gulf. Button-Bright did that,climbing the tree and then crawling out upon the limb until he wasnearly over the gulf. There he managed to fasten the strap, whichreached to the ground below, and then he slid down it and was caughtby the Wizard, who feared he might fall into the chasm.
Scraps was delighted. She seized the lower end of the strap and tellingthem all to get out of her way she went back as far as the strap wouldreach and then made a sudden run toward the gulf. Over the edge sheswung, clinging to the strap until it had gone as far as its lengthpermitted, when she let go and sailed gracefully through the air untilshe alighted upon the mountain just in front of them.
Almost instantly, as the great cone continued to whirl, she was sentflying against the next mountain in the rear, and that one had onlyturned halfway around when Scraps was sent flying to the next mountainbehind it. Then her patchwork form disappeared from view entirely andthe amazed watchers under the tree wondered what had become of her.
"She's gone, and she can't get back," said the Woozy.
"My, how she bounded from one mountain to another!" exclaimed the Lion.
"That was because they whirl so fast," th
e Wizard explained. "Scraps hadnothing to hold on to and so of course she was tossed from one hill toanother. I'm afraid we shall never see the poor Patchwork Girl again."
"_I_ shall see her," declared the Woozy. "Scraps is an old friend ofmine and, if there are really Thistle-Eaters and Giants on the otherside of those tops, she will need someone to protect her. So, here Igo!"
He seized the dangling strap firmly in his square mouth and in the sameway that Scraps had done swung himself over the gulf. He let go thestrap at the right moment and fell upon the first whirling mountain.Then he bounded to the next one back of it--not on his feet but "allmixed up," as Trot said--and then he shot across to another mountain,disappearing from view just as the Patchwork Girl had done.
"It seems to work, all right," remarked Button-Bright. "I guess I'll tryit."
"Wait a minute," urged the Wizard. "Before any more of us make thisdesperate leap into the beyond, we must decide whether all will go, orif some of us will remain behind."
"Do you s'pose it hurt them much, to bump against those mountains?"asked Trot.
"I don't s'pose anything could hurt Scraps or the Woozy," said Dorothy,"and nothing can hurt _me_, because I wear the Magic Belt. So, as I'manxious to find Ozma, I mean to swing myself across, too."
"I'll take my chances," decided Button-Bright.
"I'm sure it will hurt dreadfully, and I'm afraid to do it," said theLion, who was already trembling; "but I shall do it if Dorothy does."
"Well, that will leave Betsy and the Mule and Trot," said the Wizard;"for of course, I shall go, that I may look after Dorothy. Do you twogirls think you can find your way back home again?" he asked, addressingTrot and Betsy.
"I'm not afraid; not much, that is," said Trot. "It looks risky, I know,but I'm sure I can stand it if the others can."
"If it wasn't for leaving Hank," began Betsy, in a hesitating voice; butthe Mule interrupted her by saying:
"Go ahead, if you want to, and I'll come after you. A mule is as braveas a lion, any day."
"Braver," said the Lion, "for I'm a coward, friend Hank, and you arenot. But of course the Sawhorse----"
"Oh, nothing ever hurts _me_," asserted the Sawhorse calmly. "There'snever been any question about _my_ going. I can't take the Red Wagon,though."
"No, we must leave the wagon," said the Wizard; "and also we must leaveour food and blankets, I fear. But if we can defy these Merry-Go-RoundMountains to stop us we won't mind the sacrifice of some of ourcomforts."
"No one knows where we're going to land!" remarked the Lion, in a voicethat sounded as if he were going to cry.
"We may not land at all," replied Hank; "but the best way to find outwhat will happen to us is to swing across, as Scraps and the Woozy havedone."
"I think I shall go last," said the Wizard; "so who wants to go first?"
"I'll go," decided Dorothy.
"No, it's my turn first," said Button-Bright. "Watch me!"
Even as he spoke the boy seized the strap and after making a run swunghimself across the gulf. Away he went, bumping from hill to hill untilhe disappeared. They listened intently, but the boy uttered no cry untilhe had been gone some moments, when they heart a faint "Hullo-a!" as ifcalled from a great distance.
The sound gave them courage, however, and Dorothy picked up Toto andheld him fast under one arm while with the other hand she seized thestrap and bravely followed after Button-Bright.
When she struck the first whirling mountain she fell upon it quitesoftly, but before she had time to think she flew through the air andlit with a jar on the side of the next mountain. Again she flew, andalighted; and again, and still again, until after five successive bumpsshe fell sprawling upon a green meadow and was so dazed and bewilderedby her bumpy journey across the Merry-Go-Round Mountains that she layquite still for a time, to collect her thoughts. Toto had escaped fromher arms just as she fell, and he now sat beside her panting withexcitement.
Then Dorothy realized that someone was helping her to her feet, and herewas Button-Bright on one side of her and Scraps on the other, bothseeming to be unhurt. The next object her eyes fell upon was the Woozy,squatting upon his square back end and looking at her reflectively,while Toto barked joyously to find his mistress unhurt after herwhirlwind trip.
"Good!" said the Woozy; "here's another and a dog, both safe and sound.But, my word, Dorothy, you flew some! If you could have seen yourself,you'd have been absolutely astonished."
"They say 'Time flies,'" laughed Button-Bright; "but Time never made aquicker journey than that."
Just then, as Dorothy turned around to look at the whirling mountains,she was in time to see tiny Trot come flying from the nearest hill tofall upon the soft grass not a yard away from where she stood. Trot wasso dizzy she couldn't stand, at first, but she wasn't at all hurt andpresently Betsy came flying to them and would have bumped into theothers had they not retreated in time to avoid her.
Then, in quick succession, came the Lion, Hank and the Sawhorse,bounding from mountain to mountain to fall safely upon the greensward.Only the Wizard was now left behind and they waited so long for him thatDorothy began to be worried. But suddenly he came flying from thenearest mountain and tumbled heels over head beside them. Then they sawthat he had wound two of their blankets around his body, to keep thebumps from hurting him, and had fastened the blankets with some of thespare straps from the harness of the Sawhorse.
The Lost Princess of Oz Page 8
