The Magic of Oz

by L. Frank Baum

  The Wizard Learns the Magic Word

  CHAPTER 14

  Now, the Goose was the transformation of old Ruggedo, who was at onetime King of the Nomes, and he was even more angry at Kiki Aru than werethe others whose shapes had been changed. The Nome detested anything inthe way of a bird, because birds lay eggs and eggs are feared by all theNomes more than anything else in the world. A goose is a foolish bird,too, and Ruggedo was dreadfully ashamed of the shape he was forced towear. And it would make him shudder to reflect that the Goose might layan egg!

  So the Nome was afraid of himself and afraid of everything around him.If an egg touched him he could then be destroyed, and almost any animalhe met in the forest might easily conquer him. And that would be the endof old Ruggedo the Nome.

  Aside from these fears, however, he was filled with anger against Kiki,whom he had meant to trap by cleverly stealing from him the Magic Word.The boy must have been crazy to spoil everything the way he did, butRuggedo knew that the arrival of the Wizard had scared Kiki, and he wasnot sorry the boy had transformed the Wizard and Dorothy and made themhelpless. It was his own transformation that annoyed him and made himindignant, so he ran about the forest hunting for Kiki, so that he mightget a better shape and coax the boy to follow his plans to conquer theLand of Oz.

  Kiki Aru hadn't gone very far away, for he had surprised himself as wellas the others by the quick transformations and was puzzled as to what todo next. Ruggedo the Nome was overbearing and tricky, and Kiki knew hewas not to be depended on; but the Nome could plan and plot, which theHyup boy was not wise enough to do, and so, when he looked down throughthe branches of a tree and saw a Goose waddling along below and heard itcry out, "Kiki Aru! Quack--quack! Kiki Aru!" the boy answered in a lowvoice, "Here I am," and swung himself down to the lowest limb of thetree.

  The Goose looked up and saw him.

  "You've bungled things in a dreadful way!" exclaimed the Goose. "Why didyou do it?"

  "Because I wanted to," answered Kiki. "You acted as if I was your slave,and I wanted to show these forest people that I am more powerful thanyou."

  The Goose hissed softly, but Kiki did not hear that.

  Old Ruggedo quickly recovered his wits and muttered to himself: "Thisboy is the goose, although it is I who wear the goose's shape. I will begentle with him now, and fierce with him when I have him in my power."Then he said aloud to Kiki:

  "Well, hereafter I will be content to acknowledge you the master. Youbungled things, as I said, but we can still conquer Oz."

  "How?" asked the boy.

  "First give me back the shape of the Li-Mon-Eag, and then we can talktogether more conveniently," suggested the Nome.

  "Wait a moment, then," said Kiki, and climbed higher up the tree. Therehe whispered the Magic Word and the Goose became a Li-Mon-Eag, as he hadbeen before.

  "Good!" said the Nome, well pleased, as Kiki joined him by dropping downfrom the tree. "Now let us find a quiet place where we can talk withoutbeing overheard by the beasts."

  So the two started away and crossed the forest until they came to aplace where the trees were not so tall nor so close together, and amongthese scattered trees was another clearing, not so large as the firstone, where the meeting of the beasts had been held. Standing on the edgeof this clearing and looking across it, they saw the trees on thefarther side full of monkeys, who were chattering together at a greatrate of the sights they had witnessed at the meeting.

  The old Nome whispered to Kiki not to enter the clearing or allow themonkeys to see them.

  "Why not?" asked the boy, drawing back.

  "Because those monkeys are to be our army--the army which will conquerOz," said the Nome. "Sit down here with me, Kiki, and keep quiet, and Iwill explain to you my plan."

  Now, neither Kiki Aru nor Ruggedo had noticed that a sly Fox hadfollowed them all the way from the tree where the Goose had beentransformed to the Li-Mon-Eag. Indeed, this Fox, who was none other thanthe Wizard of Oz, had witnessed the transformation of the Goose and nowdecided he would keep watch of the conspirators and see what they woulddo next.

  A Fox can move through a forest very softly, without making any noise,and so the Wizard's enemies did not suspect his presence. But when theysat down by the edge of the clearing, to talk, with their backs towardhim, the Wizard did not know whether to risk being seen, by creepingcloser to hear what they said, or whether it would be better for him tohide himself until they moved on again.

  While he considered this question he discovered near him a great treewhich had a hollow trunk, and there was a round hole in this tree, aboutthree feet above the ground. The Wizard Fox decided it would be saferfor him to hide inside the hollow tree, so he sprang into the hole andcrouched down in the hollow, so that his eyes just came to the edge ofthe hole by which he had entered, and from here he watched the forms ofthe two Li-Mon-Eags.

  "This is my plan," said the Nome to Kiki, speaking so low that theWizard could only hear the rumble of his voice. "Since you can transformanything into any form you wish, we will transform these monkeys into anarmy, and with that army we will conquer the Oz people."

  "The monkeys won't make much of an army," objected Kiki.

  "We need a great army, but not a numerous one," responded the Nome. "Youwill transform each monkey into a giant man, dressed in a fine uniformand armed with a sharp sword. There are fifty monkeys over there andfifty giants would make as big an army as we need."

  "What will they do with the swords?" asked Kiki. "Nothing can kill theOz people."

  "True," said Ruggedo. "The Oz people cannot be killed, but they can becut into small pieces, and while every piece will still be alive, we canscatter the pieces around so that they will be quite helpless.Therefore, the Oz people will be afraid of the swords of our army, andwe will conquer them with ease."

  "That seems like a good idea," replied the boy, approvingly. "And insuch a case, we need not bother with the other beasts of the forest."

  "No; you have frightened the beasts, and they would no longer consent toassist us in conquering Oz. But those monkeys are foolish creatures, andonce they are transformed to Giants, they will do just as we say andobey our commands. Can you transform them all at once?"

  "No, I must take one at a time," said Kiki. "But the fiftytransformations can be made in an hour or so. Stay here, Ruggedo, and Iwill change the first monkey--that one at the left, on the end of thelimb--into a Giant with a sword."

  "Where are you going?" asked the Nome.

  "I must not speak the Magic Word in the presence of another person,"declared Kiki, who was determined not to allow his treacherous companionto learn his secret, "so I will go where you cannot hear me."

  Ruggedo the Nome was disappointed, but he hoped still to catch the boyunawares and surprise the Magic Word. So he merely nodded his lion head,and Kiki got up and went back into the forest a short distance. Here hespied a hollow tree, and by chance it was the same hollow tree in whichthe Wizard of Oz, now in the form of a Fox, had hidden himself.

  As Kiki ran up to the tree the Fox ducked its head, so that it was outof sight in the dark hollow beneath the hole, and then Kiki put his faceinto the hole and whispered: "I want that monkey on the branch at theleft to become a Giant man fifty feet tall, dressed in a uniform andwith a sharp sword--Pyrzqxgl!"

  Then he ran back to Ruggedo, but the Wizard Fox had heard quite plainlyevery word that he had said.

  The monkey was instantly transformed into the Giant, and the Giant wasso big that as he stood on the ground his head was higher than the treesof the forest. The monkeys raised a great chatter but did not seem tounderstand that the Giant was one of themselves.

  "Good!" cried the Nome. "Hurry, Kiki, and transform the others."

  So Kiki rushed back to the tree and putting his face to the hollow,whispered:

  "I want the next monkey to be just like the first--Pyrzqxgl!"

  Again the Wizard Fox heard the Magic Word, and just how it w
aspronounced. But he sat still in the hollow and waited to hear it again,so it would be impressed on his mind and he would not forget it.

  Kiki kept running to the edge of the forest and back to the hollow treeagain until he had whispered the Magic Word six times and six monkeyshad been changed to six great giants. Then the Wizard decided he wouldmake an experiment and use the Magic Word himself. So, while Kiki wasrunning back to the Nome, the Fox stuck his head out of the hollow andsaid softly: "I want that creature who is running to become ahickory-nut--Pyrzqxgl!"

 

  Instantly the Li-Mon-Eag form of Kiki Aru the Hyup disappeared and asmall hickory-nut rolled upon the ground a moment and then lay still.

  The Wizard was delighted, and leaped from the hollow just as Ruggedolooked around to see what had become of Kiki. The Nome saw the Fox butno Kiki, so he hastily rose to his feet. The Wizard did not know howpowerful the queer beast might be, so he resolved to take no chances.

  "I want this creature to become a walnut--Pyrzqxgl!" he said aloud. Buthe did not pronounce the Magic Word in quite the right way, andRuggedo's form did not change. But the Nome knew at once that"Pyrzqxgl!" was the Magic Word, so he rushed at the Fox and cried:

  "I want you to become a Goose--Pyrzqxgl!"

  But the Nome did not pronounce the word aright, either, having neverheard it spoken but once before, and then with a wrong accent. So theFox was not transformed, but it had to run away to escape being caughtby the angry Nome.

  Ruggedo now began pronouncing the Magic Word in every way he could thinkof, hoping to hit the right one, and the Fox, hiding in a bush, wassomewhat troubled by the fear that he might succeed. However, theWizard, who was used to magic arts, remained calm and soon rememberedexactly how Kiki Aru had pronounced the word. So he repeated thesentence he had before uttered and Ruggedo the Nome became an ordinarywalnut.

  The Wizard now crept out from the bush and said: "I want my own formagain--Pyrzqxgl!"

 

  Instantly he was the Wizard of Oz, and after picking up the hickory-nutand the walnut, and carefully placing them in his pocket, he ran back tothe big clearing.

  Dorothy the Lamb uttered a bleat of delight when she saw her old friendrestored to his natural shape. The others were all there, not havingfound the Goose. The fat Gillikin woman, the Munchkin boy, the Rabbitand the Glass Cat crowded around the Wizard and asked what had happened.

  Before he explained anything of his adventure, he transformed themall--except, of course, the Glass Cat--into their natural shapes, andwhen their joy permitted them to quiet somewhat, he told how he had bychance surprised the Magician's secret and been able to change the twoLi-Mon-Eags into shapes that could not speak, and therefore would beunable to help themselves. And the little Wizard showed his astonishedfriends the hickory-nut and the walnut to prove that he had spoken thetruth.

  "But--see here!"--exclaimed Dorothy, "What has become of those GiantSoldiers who used to be monkeys?"

  "I forgot all about them!" admitted the Wizard; "but I suppose they arestill standing there in the forest."