L. Frank Baum_Oz 12 (7 page)

As soon as Mrs. Yoop was in bed the lights all went out, and Woot the
Monkey crouched under the bed and waited patiently until he heard the
Giantess snoring. Then he crept out and in the dark felt around until
he got hold of the apron, which he at once tied around his own waist.

Next, Woot tried to find the Canary, and there was just enough
moonlight showing through the window to enable him to see where the
cage hung; but it was out of his reach. At first he was tempted to
leave Polychrome and escape with his other friends, but remembering his
promise to the Rainbow's Daughter Woot tried to think how to save her.

A chair stood near the window, and this—showing dimly in the
moonlight—gave him an idea. By pushing against it with all his might,
he found he could move the giant chair a few inches at a time. So he
pushed and pushed until the chair was beneath the bird-cage, and then
he sprang noiselessly upon the seat—for his monkey form enabled him to
jump higher than he could do as a boy—and from there to the back of
the chair, and so managed to reach the cage and take it off the peg.
Then down he sprang to the floor and made his way to the door. "Open!"
he commanded, and at once the door obeyed and swung open, But his voice
wakened Mrs. Yoop, who gave a wild cry and sprang out of bed with one
bound. The Green Monkey dashed through the doorway, carrying the cage
with him, and before the Giantess could reach the door it slammed shut
and imprisoned her in her own bed-chamber!

The noise she made, pounding upon the door, and her yells of anger and
dreadful threats of vengeance, filled all our friends with terror, and
Woot the Monkey was so excited that in the dark he could not find the
outer door of the hall. But the Tin Owl could see very nicely in the
dark, so he guided his friends to the right place and when all were
grouped before the door Woot commanded it to open. The Magic Apron
proved as powerful as when it had been worn by the Giantess, so a
moment later they had rushed through the passage and were standing in
the fresh night air outside the castle, free to go wherever they willed.

"Quick!" cried Polychrome the Canary; "we must hurry, or Mrs. Yoop may
find some way to recapture us, even now. Let us get out of her Valley
as soon as possible."

So they set off toward the east, moving as swiftly as they could, and
for a long time they could hear the yells and struggles of the
imprisoned Giantess. The Green Monkey could run over the ground very
swiftly, and he carried with him the bird-cage containing Polychrome
the Rain-bow's Daughter. Also the Tin Owl could skip and fly along at a
good rate of speed, his feathers rattling against one another with a
tinkling sound as he moved. But the little Brown Bear, being stuffed
with straw, was a clumsy traveler and the others had to wait for him to
follow.

However, they were not very long in reaching the ridge that led out of
Mrs. Yoop's Valley, and when they had passed this ridge and descended
into the next valley they stopped to rest, for the Green Monkey was
tired.

"I believe we are safe, now," said Polychrome, when her cage was set
down and the others had all gathered around it, "for Mrs. Yoop dares
not go outside of her own Valley, for fear of being captured by her
enemies. So we may take our time to consider what to do next."

"I'm afraid poor Mrs. Yoop will starve to death, if no one lets her out
of her bedroom," said Woot, who had a heart as kind as that of the Tin
Woodman. "We've taken her Magic Apron away, and now the doors will
never open."

"Don't worry about that," advised Polychrome. "Mrs. Yoop has plenty of
magic left to console her."

"Are you sure of that?" asked the Green Monkey.

"Yes, for I've been watching her for weeks," said the Canary. "She has
six magic hairpins, which she wears in her hair, and a magic ring which
she wears on her thumb and which is invisible to all eyes except those
of a fairy, and magic bracelets on both her ankles. So I am positive
that she will manage to find a way out of her prison."

"She might transform the door into an archway," suggested the little
Brown Bear.

"That would be easy for her," said the Tin Owl; "but I'm glad she was
too angry to think of that before we got out of her Valley."

"Well, we have escaped the big woman, to be sure," remarked the Green
Monkey, "but we still wear the awful forms the cruel yookoohoo gave us.
How are we going to get rid of these shapes, and become ourselves
again?"

None could answer that question. They sat around the cage, brooding
over the problem, until the Monkey fell asleep. Seeing this, the Canary
tucked her head under her wing and also slept, and the Tin Owl and the
Brown Bear did not disturb them until morning came and it was broad
daylight.

"I'm hungry," said Woot, when he wakened, for his knapsack of food had
been left behind at the castle.

"Then let us travel on until we can find something for you to eat,"
returned the Scarecrow Bear.

"There is no use in your lugging my cage any farther," declared the
Canary. "Let me out, and throw the cage away. Then I can fly with you
and find my own breakfast of seeds. Also I can search for water, and
tell you where to find it."

So the Green Monkey unfastened the door of the golden cage and the
Canary hopped out. At first she flew high in the air and made great
circles overhead, but after a time she returned and perched beside them.

"At the east in the direction we were following," announced the Canary,
"there is a fine forest, with a brook running through it. In the forest
there may be fruits or nuts growing, or berry bushes at its edge, so
let us go that way."

They agreed to this and promptly set off, this time moving more
deliberately. The Tin Owl, which had guided their way during the night,
now found the sunshine very trying to his big eyes, so he shut them
tight and perched upon the back of the little Brown Bear, which carried
the Owl's weight with ease. The Canary sometimes perched upon the Green
Monkey's shoulder and sometimes fluttered on ahead of the party, and in
this manner they traveled in good spirits across that valley and into
the next one to the east of it.

This they found to be an immense hollow, shaped like a saucer, and on
its farther edge appeared the forest which Polychrome had seen from the
sky.

"Come to think of it," said the Tin Owl, waking up and blinking
comically at his friends, "there's no object, now, in our traveling to
the Munchkin Country. My idea in going there was to marry Nimmie Amee,
but however much the Munchkin girl may have loved a Tin Woodman, I
cannot reasonably expect her to marry a Tin Owl."

"There is some truth in that, my friend," remarked the Brown Bear. "And
to think that I, who was considered the handsomest Scarecrow in the
world, am now condemned to be a scrubby, no-account beast, whose only
redeeming feature is that he is stuffed with straw!"

"Consider my case, please," said Woot. "The cruel Giantess has made a
Monkey of a Boy, and that is the most dreadful deed of all!"

"Your color is rather pretty," said the Brown Bear, eyeing Woot
critically. "I have never seen a pea-green monkey before, and it
strikes me you are quite gorgeous."

"It isn't so bad to be a bird," asserted the Canary, fluttering from
one to another with a free and graceful motion, "but I long to enjoy my
own shape a gam."

"As Polychrome, you were the loveliest maiden I have ever seen—except,
of course, Ozma," said the Tin Owl; "so the Giantess did well to
transform you into the loveliest of all birds, if you were to be
transformed at all. But tell me, since you are a fairy, and have a
fairy wisdom: do you think we shall be able to break these
enchantments?"

"Queer things happen in the Land of Oz," replied the Canary, again
perching on the Green Monkey's shoulder and turning one bright eye
thoughtfully toward her questioner. "Mrs. Yoop has declared that none
of her transformations can ever be changed, even by herself, but I
believe that if we could get to Glinda the Good Sorceress, she might
find a way to restore us to our natural shapes. Glinda, as you know, is
the most powerful Sorceress in the world, and there are few things she
cannot do if she tries."

"In that case," said the Little Brown Bear, "let us return southward
and try to get to Glinda's castle. It lies in the Quadling Country, you
know, so it is a good way from here."

"First, however, let us visit the forest and search for something to
eat," pleaded Woot. So they continued on to the edge of the forest,
which consisted of many tall and beautiful trees. They discovered no
fruit trees, at first, so the Green Monkey pushed on into the forest
depths and the others followed close behind him.

They were traveling quietly along, under the shade of the trees, when
suddenly an enormous jaguar leaped upon them from a limb and with one
blow of his paw sent the little Brown Bear tumbling over and over until
he was stopped by a tree-trunk. Instantly they all took alarm. The Tin
Owl shrieked: "Hoot—hoot!" and flew straight up to the branch of a
tall tree, although he could scarcely see where he was going. The
Canary swiftly darted to a place beside the Owl, and the Green Monkey
sprang up, caught a limb, and soon scrambled to a high perch of safety.

The Jaguar crouched low and with hungry eyes regarded the little Brown
Bear, which slowly got upon its feet and asked reproachfully:

"For goodness' sake, Beast, what were you trying to do?"

"Trying to get my breakfast," answered the Jaguar with a snarl, "and I
believe I've succeeded. You ought to make a delicious meal—unless you
happen to be old and tough."

"I'm worse than that, considered as a breakfast," said the Bear, "for
I'm only a skin stuffed with straw, and therefore not fit to eat."

"Indeed!" cried the Jaguar, in a disappointed voice; "then you must be
a magic Bear, or enchanted, and I must seek my breakfast from among
your companions."

With this he raised his lean head to look up at the Tin Owl and the
Canary and the Monkey, and he lashed his tail upon the ground and
growled as fiercely as any jaguar could.

"My friends are enchanted, also," said the little Brown Bear.

"All of them?" asked the Jaguar.

"Yes. The Owl is tin, so you couldn't possibly eat him. The Canary is a
fairy—Polychrome, the Daughter of the Rainbow—and you never could
catch her because she can easily fly out of your reach."

"There still remains the Green Monkey," remarked the Jaguar hungrily.
"He is neither made of tin nor stuffed with straw, nor can he fly. I'm
pretty good at climbing trees, myself, so I think I'll capture the
Monkey and eat him for my breakfast."

Woot the Monkey, hearing this speech from his perch on the tree, became
much frightened, for he knew the nature of jaguars and realized they
could climb trees and leap from limb to limb with the agility of cats.
So he at once began to scamper through the forest as fast as he could
go, catching at a branch with his long monkey arms and swinging his
green body through space to grasp another branch in a neighboring tree,
and so on, while the Jaguar followed him from below, his eyes fixed
steadfastly on his prey. But presently Woot got his feet tangled in the
Lace Apron, which he was still wearing, and that tripped him in his
flight and made him fall to the ground, where the Jaguar placed one
huge paw upon him and said grimly:

"I've got you, now!"

The fact that the Apron had tripped him made Woot remember its magic
powers, and in his terror he cried out: "Open!" without stopping to
consider how this command might save him. But, at the word, the earth
opened at the exact spot where he lay under the Jaguar's paw, and his
body sank downward, the earth closing over it again. The last thing
Woot the Monkey saw, as he glanced upward, was the Jaguar peering into
the hole in astonishment.

"He's gone!" cried the beast, with a long-drawn sigh of disappointment;
"he's gone, and now I shall have no breakfast."

The clatter of the Tin Owl's wings sounded above him, and the little
Brown Bear came trotting up and asked:

"Where is the monkey? Have you eaten him so quickly?"

"No, indeed," answered the Jaguar. "He disappeared into the earth
before I could take one bite of him!"

And now the Canary perched upon a stump, a little way from the forest
beast, and said:

"I am glad our friend has escaped you; but, as it is natural for a
hungry beast to wish his breakfast, I will try to give you one."

"Thank you," replied the Jaguar. "You're rather small for a full meal,
but it's kind of you to sacrifice yourself to my appetite."

"Oh, I don't intend to be eaten, I assure you," said the Canary, "but
as I am a fairy I know something of magic, and though I am now
transformed into a bird's shape, I am sure I can conjure up a breakfast
that will satisfy you."

"If you can work magic, why don't you break the enchantment you are
under and return to your proper form?" inquired the beast doubtingly.

"I haven't the power to do that," answered the Canary, "for Mrs. Yoop,
the Giantess who transformed me, used a peculiar form of yookoohoo
magic that is unknown to me. However, she could not deprive me of my
own fairy knowledge, so I will try to get you a breakfast."

"Do you think a magic breakfast would taste good, or relieve the pangs
of hunger I now suffer?" asked the Jaguar.

"I am sure it would. What would you like to eat?"

"Give me a couple of fat rabbits," said the beast.

"Rabbits! No, indeed. I'd not allow you to eat the dear little things,"
declared Polychrome the Canary.

"Well, three or four squirrels, then," pleaded the Jaguar.

"Do you think me so cruel?" demanded the Canary, indignantly. "The
squirrels are my especial friends."