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"Oh no, just odds and ends of things," answered Tora, reaching up to touch them
affectionately.
"Well, did they tell you about me?" inquired Humpy, straightening his crown importantly.
"No," smiled the old man. "That's just what we're waiting to hear, though I declare I have seen
you somewhere before. Have you ever seen me?"
Humpy shook his head very positively and Dorothy, settling back against a tree, proceeded
with her story. Introducing herself modestly and beginning with Wish Way, she related every single thing
that had happened since her fall into California.
Snip was especially interested in Dorothy's sudden change in size. "Is that what tore your
dress?" he asked curiously.
The little girl nodded and Tora, ruffling up his silver locks and looking first at Dorothy and then
at Humpy, murmured over and' over: "Well, I can hardly believe my ears, I can hardly believe my ears!"
Dorothy could not help thinking that the tailor's ears were hard for anyone to believe, but
feeling it would be rude to say so, went hurriedly on with her adventures, telling of her meeting with the
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Scooters and with the Elegant Elephant, whom she described at some length.
"And now," concluded the little girl, finishing off the last of the toast, "we're going straight to the
Emerald City. Where are you going?"
"Why we're going to the Emerald City too!" burst out Snip, "and maybe Dorothy can help us
find Pajuka and warn Ozma!"
"Warn Ozma?" cried Dorothy, jumping up in a hurry. "Why, what is the matter?"
"Better tell her," advised the tailor gravely, while Humpy edged close to the little button boy
and looked earnestly up into his face.
"We'll," began Snip, feeling a bit shy in the presence of a person as important as Princess
Dorothy of Oz, "Mombi is trying to find the lost King of Oz and turn Ozma to a piano. Pajuka, he's a
goose, I mean a Prime Minister, and he's trying to find the find the King too, and if we don't get to the
Emerald City first that old witch will steal all the magic and capture everybody."
"Why this is a regular thriller," puffed the dummy, pushing back his crown. "Witches, geese,
lost kings and everything. Oh, I'm enjoying this picture immensely. Couldn't I fall for this lost king,
Dorothy?"
"I thought you were the King, yourself, at first," explained Snip, "but of course, if Dorothy
found you in America, you couldn't possibly be the King of Oz. Besides, I don't believe Mombi would
turn the King to a dummy, do you?"
"Oh, anything can happen in the pictures," said Humpy carelessly.
No one had time to tell Humpy he was not in a picture, for Dorothy, shuddering at the mere
mention of old Mombi, insisted on Snip telling all over again just how he had discovered the witch's
wicked plans. This Snip did, from the strange conversation between Pajuka and Mombi in the castle
kitchen of Kimbaloo to his encounter with the Blanks and his escape with the tired tailor of Oz. When he
came to the part in the story where Mombi had flung him down the well, Humpy fell over backwards and
Dorothy gasped with indignation.
"Oh, we'll have to hurry, we'll have to hurry!" exclaimed the little girl, clasping her hands
anxiously, "for if Mombi reaches the Emerald City first something dreadful will happen. I'm glad the King
of Oz is alive, but I'm not going to have Ozma turned to a piano. Oh dear! Oh dear! Why doesn't
Kabumpo hurry back?"
"Hadn't we better start anyway?" asked Snip, who was growing more and more worried
about Pajuka. He felt sure Mombi meant to get rid of the goose as soon as she found the King. "Let's go
without the elephant," he proposed eagerly.
"No, we'd better wait," advised Dorothy, "for Kabumpo can travel a hundred times faster than
we can, and a hundred times faster than Mombi can.
"While we are waiting," suggested Tora, who had been carefully threading his needle, "I'll
mend your frock, my dear. Have you any more buttons, Snip?" [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]