Part 10 (1/2)
”It's a great invention, I'm sure,” said Dorothy, looking admiringly at the Wizard, who blushed modestly at this praise.
”We live in an age of progress,” announced Professor Wogglebug, pompously. ”It is easier to swallow knowledge than to acquire it laboriously from books. Is it not so, my friends?”
”Some folks can swallow anything,” said Aunt Em, ”but to me this seems too much like taking medicine.”
”Young men in college always have to take their medicine, one way or another,” observed the Wizard, with a smile; ”and, as our Professor says, these School Pills have proved to be a great success. One day while I was making them I happened to drop one of them, and one of Billina's chickens gobbled it up. A few minutes afterward this chick got upon a roost and recited 'The Boy Stood on the Burning Deck'
without making a single mistake. Then it recited 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' and afterwards 'Excelsior.' You see, the chicken had eaten an Elocution Pill.”
They now bade good-bye to the Professor, and thanking him for his kind reception mounted again into the red wagon and continued their journey.
10. How the Cuttenclips Lived
The travelers had taken no provisions with them because they knew that they would be welcomed wherever they might go in the Land of Oz, and that the people would feed and lodge them with genuine hospitality. So about noon they stopped at a farm-house and were given a delicious luncheon of bread and milk, fruits and wheat cakes with maple syrup.
After resting a while and strolling through the orchards with their host--a round, jolly farmer--they got into the wagon and again started the Sawhorse along the pretty, winding road.
There were signposts at all the corners, and finally they came to one which read:
TAKE THIS ROAD TO THE CUTTENCLIPS
There was also a hand pointing in the right direction, so they turned the Sawhorse that way and found it a very good road, but seemingly little traveled.
”I've never seen the Cuttenclips before,” remarked Dorothy.
”Nor I,” said the Captain General.
”Nor I,” said the Wizard.
”Nor I,” said Billina.
”I've hardly been out of the Emerald City since I arrived in this country,” added the s.h.a.ggy Man.
”Why, none of us has been there, then,” exclaimed the little girl. ”I wonder what the Cuttenclips are like.”
”We shall soon find out,” said the Wizard, with a sly laugh. ”I've heard they are rather flimsy things.”
The farm-houses became fewer as they proceeded, and the path was at times so faint that the Sawhorse had hard work to keep in the road.
The wagon began to jounce, too; so they were obliged to go slowly.
After a somewhat wearisome journey they came in sight of a high wall, painted blue with pink ornaments. This wall was circular, and seemed to enclose a large s.p.a.ce. It was so high that only the tops of the trees could be seen above it.
The path led up to a small door in the wall, which was closed and latched. Upon the door was a sign in gold letters reading as follows:
VISITORS are requested to MOVE SLOWLY and CAREFULLY, and to avoid COUGHING or making any BREEZE or DRAUGHT.
”That's strange,” said the s.h.a.ggy Man, reading the sign aloud. ”Who ARE the Cuttenclips, anyhow?”
”Why, they're paper dolls,” answered Dorothy. ”Didn't you know that?”