Part 28 (2/2)
”Why, they're the best friends I have!” a.s.serted the little girl, ”and you're sure to like them, Aunt Em, 'cause EVER'body likes them.”
By this time twilight was approaching, so they ate the fine supper which the Wizard magically produced from the kettle and then went to bed in the cozy tents.
They were all up bright and early next morning, but Dorothy didn't venture to wander from the camp again for fear of more accidents.
”Do you know where there's a road?” she asked the little man.
”No, my dear,” replied the Wizard; ”but I'll find one.”
After breakfast he waved his hand toward the tents and they became handkerchiefs again, which were at once returned to the pockets of their owners. Then they all climbed into the red wagon and the Sawhorse inquired:
”Which way?”
”Never mind which way,” replied the Wizard. ”Just go as you please and you're sure to be right. I've enchanted the wheels of the wagon, and they will roll in the right direction, never fear.”
As the Sawhorse started away through the trees Dorothy said:
”If we had one of those new-fas.h.i.+oned airs.h.i.+ps we could float away over the top of the forest, and look down and find just the places we want.”
”Airs.h.i.+p? Pah!” retorted the little man, scornfully. ”I hate those things, Dorothy, although they are nothing new to either you or me. I was a balloonist for many years, and once my balloon carried me to the Land of Oz, and once to the Vegetable Kingdom. And once Ozma had a Gump that flew all over this kingdom and had sense enough to go where it was told to--which airs.h.i.+ps won't do. The house which the cyclone brought to Oz all the way from Kansas, with you and Toto in it--was a real airs.h.i.+p at the time; so you see we've got plenty of experience flying with the birds.”
”Airs.h.i.+ps are not so bad, after all,” declared Dorothy. ”Some day they'll fly all over the world, and perhaps bring people even to the Land of Oz.”
”I must speak to Ozma about that,” said the Wizard, with a slight frown. ”It wouldn't do at all, you know, for the Emerald City to become a way-station on an airs.h.i.+p line.”
”No,” said Dorothy, ”I don't s'pose it would. But what can we do to prevent it?”
”I'm working out a magic recipe to fuddle men's brains, so they'll never make an airs.h.i.+p that will go where they want it to go,” the Wizard confided to her. ”That won't keep the things from flying, now and then, but it'll keep them from flying to the Land of Oz.”
Just then the Sawhorse drew the wagon out of the forest and a beautiful landscape lay spread before the travelers' eyes. Moreover, right before them was a good road that wound away through the hills and valleys.
”Now,” said the Wizard, with evident delight, ”we are on the right track again, and there is nothing more to worry about.”
”It's a foolish thing to take chances in a strange country,” observed the s.h.a.ggy Man. ”Had we kept to the roads we never would have been lost. Roads always lead to some place, else they wouldn't be roads.”
”This road,” added the Wizard, ”leads to Rigmarole Town. I'm sure of that because I enchanted the wagon wheels.”
Sure enough, after riding along the road for an hour or two they entered a pretty valley where a village was nestled among the hills.
The houses were Munchkin shaped, for they were all domes, with windows wider than they were high, and pretty balconies over the front doors.
Aunt Em was greatly relieved to find this town ”neither paper nor patch-work,” and the only surprising thing about it was that it was so far distant from all other towns.
As the Sawhorse drew the wagon into the main street the travelers noticed that the place was filled with people, standing in groups and seeming to be engaged in earnest conversation. So occupied with themselves were the inhabitants that they scarcely noticed the strangers at all. So the Wizard stopped a boy and asked:
”Is this Rigmarole Town?”
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