Part 40 (2/2)

”And they are equally good students,” proclaimed the Woggle-Bug. ”I should like to become your tutor, when you are transformed into a girl again.”

”But--see here!” said Jack Pumpkinhead, with a gasp: ”if you become a girl, you can't be my dear father any more!”

”No,” answered Tip, laughing in spite of his anxiety. ”and I shall not be sorry to escape the relations.h.i.+p.” Then he added, hesitatingly, as he turned to

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Glinda: ”I might try it for awhile,-just to see how it seems, you know. But if I don't like being a girl you must promise to change me into a boy again.”

”Really,” said the Sorceress, ”that is beyond my magic. I never deal in transformations, for they are not honest, and no respectable sorceress likes to make things appear to be what they are not. Only unscrupulous witches use the art, and therefore I must ask Mombi to effect your release from her charm, and restore you to your proper form. It will be the last opportunity she will have to practice magic.”

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Now that the truth about Princes Ozma had been discovered, Mombi did not care what became of Tip; but she feared Glinda's anger, and the boy generously promised to provide for Mombi in her old age if he became the ruler of the Emerald City. So the Witch consented to effect the transformation, and preparations for the event were at once made.

Glinda ordered her own royal couch to be placed in the center of the tent.

It was piled high with cus.h.i.+ons covered with rose-colored silk, and from a golden railing above hung many folds of pink gossamer, completely concealing the interior of the couch.

The first act of the Witch was to make the boy drink a potion which quickly sent him into a deep and dreamless sleep. Then the Tin Woodman and the Woggle-Bug bore him gently to the couch, placed him upon the soft cus.h.i.+ons, and drew the gossamer hangings to shut him from all earthly view.

The Witch squatted upon the ground and kindled a tiny fire of dried herbs, which she drew from her bosom. When the blaze shot up and burned clearly old Mombi scattered a handful of magical powder over the fire, which straightway gave off a rich violet vapor, filling all the tent with its fragrance and forcing the Saw-Horse to sneeze--although he had been warned to keep quiet.

274 Full page line-art drawing.

MOMBI AT HER MAGICAL INCANTATIONS.

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Then, while the others watched her curiously, the hag chanted a rhythmical verse in words which no one understood, and bent her lean body seven times back and forth over the fire. And now the incantation seemed complete, for the Witch stood upright and cried the one word ”Yeowa!” in a loud voice.

The vapor floated away; the atmosphere became, clear again; a whiff of fresh air filled the tent, and the pink curtains of the couch trembled slightly, as if stirred from within.

Glinda walked to the canopy and parted the silken hangings. Then she bent over the cus.h.i.+ons, reached out her hand, and from the couch arose the form of a young girl, fresh and beautiful as a May morning. Her eyes sparkled as two diamonds, and her lips were tinted like a tourmaline. All adown her back floated tresses of ruddy gold, with a slender jeweled circlet confining them at the brow. Her robes of silken gauze floated around her like a cloud, and dainty satin slippers shod her feet.

At this exquisite vision Tip's old comrades stared in wonder for the s.p.a.ce of a full minute, and then every head bent low in honest admiration of the lovely Princess Ozma. The girl herself cast one look into Glinda's bright face, which glowed with pleasure and satisfaction, and then turned upon the

276 others. Speaking the words with sweet diffidence, she said:

”I hope none of you will care less for me than you did before. I'm just the same Tip, you know; only--only--”

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