L. Frank Baum_Oz 12 (8 page)

"How about a plump owl?" asked the beast. "Not a tin one, you know, but
a real meat owl."

"Neither beast nor bird shall you have," said Polychrome in a positive
voice.

"Give me a fish, then; there's a river a little way off," proposed the
Jaguar.

"No living thing shall be sacrificed to feed you," returned the Canary.

"Then what in the world do you expect me to eat?" said the Jaguar in a
scornful tone.

"How would mush-and-milk do?" asked the Canary.

The Jaguar snarled in derision and lashed his tail against the ground
angrily.

"Give him some scrambled eggs on toast, Poly," suggested the Bear
Scarecrow. "He ought to like that."

"I will," responded the Canary, and fluttering her wings she made a
flight of three circles around the stump. Then she flew up to a tree
and the Bear and the Owl and the Jaguar saw that upon the stump had
appeared a great green leaf upon which was a large portion of scrambled
eggs on toast, smoking hot.

"There!" said the Bear; "eat your breakfast, friend Jaguar, and be
content."

The Jaguar crept closer to the stump and sniffed the fragrance of the
scrambled eggs. They smelled so good that he tasted them, and they
tasted so good that he ate the strange meal in a hurry, proving he had
been really hungry.

"I prefer rabbits," he muttered, licking his chops, "but I must admit
the magic breakfast has filled my stomach full, and brought me comfort.
So I'm much obliged for the kindness, little Fairy, and I'll now leave
you in peace."

Saying this, he plunged into the thick underbrush and soon disappeared,
although they could hear his great body crashing through the bushes
until he was far distant.

"That was a good way to get rid of the savage beast, Poly," said the
Tin Woodman to the Canary; "but I'm surprised that you didn't give our
friend Woot a magic breakfast, when you knew he was hungry."

"The reason for that," answered Polychrome, "was that my mind was so
intent on other things that I quite forgot my power to produce food by
magic. But where is the monkey boy?"

"Gone!" said the Scarecrow Bear, solemnly. "The earth has swallowed him
up."

The Green Monkey sank gently into the earth for a little way and then
tumbled swiftly through space, landing on a rocky floor with a thump
that astonished him. Then he sat up, found that no bones were broken,
and gazed around him.

He seemed to be in a big underground cave, which was dimly lighted by
dozens of big round discs that looked like moons. They were not moons,
however, as Woot discovered when he had examined the place more
carefully. They were eyes. The eyes were in the heads of enormous
beasts whose bodies trailed far behind them. Each beast was bigger than
an elephant, and three times as long, and there were a dozen or more of
the creatures scattered here and there about the cavern. On their
bodies were big scales, as round as pie-plates, which were beautifully
tinted in shades of green, purple and orange. On the ends of their long
tails were clusters of jewels. Around the great, moon-like eyes were
circles of diamonds which sparkled in the subdued light that glowed
from the eyes.

Woot saw that the creatures had wide mouths and rows of terrible teeth
and, from tales he had heard of such beings, he knew he had fallen into
a cavern inhabited by the great Dragons that had been driven from the
surface of the earth and were only allowed to come out once in a
hundred years to search for food. Of course he had never seen Dragons
before, yet there was no mistaking them, for they were unlike any other
living creatures.

Woot sat upon the floor where he had fallen, staring around, and the
owners of the big eyes returned his look, silently and motionless.
Finally one of the Dragons which was farthest away from him asked, in a
deep, grave voice:

"What was that?"

And the greatest Dragon of all, who was just in front of the Green
Monkey, answered in a still deeper voice:

"It is some foolish animal from Outside."

"Is it good to eat?" inquired a smaller Dragon beside the great one.
"I'm hungry."

"Hungry!" exclaimed all the Dragons, in a reproachful chorus; and then
the great one said chidingly: "Tut-tut, my son! You've no reason to be
hungry at this time."

"Why not?" asked the little Dragon. "I haven't eaten anything in eleven
years."

"Eleven years is nothing," remarked another Dragon, sleepily opening
and closing his eyes; "I haven't feasted for eighty-seven years, and I
dare not get hungry for a dozen or so years to come. Children who eat
between meals should be broken of the habit."

"All I had, eleven years ago, was a rhinoceros, and that's not a full
meal at all," grumbled the young one. "And, before that, I had waited
sixty-two years to be fed; so it's no wonder I'm hungry."

"How old are you now?" asked Woot, forgetting his own dangerous
position in his interest in the conversation.

"Why, I'm—I'm—How old am I, Father?" asked the little Dragon.

"Goodness gracious! what a child to ask questions. Do you want to keep
me thinking all the time? Don't you know that thinking is very bad for
Dragons?" returned the big one, impatiently.

"How old am I, Father?" persisted the small Dragon.

"About six hundred and thirty, I believe. Ask your mother."

"No; don't!" said an old Dragon in the background; "haven't I enough
worries, what with being wakened in the middle of a nap, without being
obliged to keep track of my children's ages?"

"You've been fast asleep for over sixty years, Mother," said the child
Dragon. "How long a nap do you wish?"

"I should have slept forty years longer. And this strange little green
beast should be punished for falling into our cavern and disturbing us."

"I didn't know you were here, and I didn't know I was going to fall
in," explained Woot.

"Nevertheless, here you are," said the great Dragon, "and you have
carelessly wakened our entire tribe; so it stands to reason you must be
punished."

"In what way?" inquired the Green Monkey, trembling a little.

"Give me time and I'll think of a way. You're in no hurry, are you?"
asked the great Dragon.

"No, indeed," cried Woot. "Take your time. I'd much rather you'd all go
to sleep again, and punish me when you wake up in a hundred years or
so."

"Let me eat him!" pleaded the littlest Dragon.

"He is too small," said the father. "To eat this one Green Monkey would
only serve to make you hungry for more, and there are no more."

"Quit this chatter and let me get to sleep," protested another Dragon,
yawning in a fearful manner, for when he opened his mouth a sheet of
flame leaped forth from it and made Woot jump back to get out of its
way.

In his jump he bumped against the nose of a Dragon behind him, which
opened its mouth to growl and shot another sheet of flame at him. The
flame was bright, but not very hot, yet Woot screamed with terror and
sprang forward with a great bound. This time he landed on the paw of
the great Chief Dragon, who angrily raised his other front paw and
struck the Green Monkey a fierce blow. Woot went sailing through the
air and fell sprawling upon the rocky floor far beyond the place where
the Dragon Tribe was grouped.

All the great beasts were now thoroughly wakened and aroused, and they
blamed the monkey for disturbing their quiet. The littlest Dragon
darted after Woot and the others turned their unwieldy bodies in his
direction and followed, flashing from their eyes and mouths flames
which lighted up the entire cavern. Woot almost gave himself up for
lost, at that moment, but he scrambled to his feet and dashed away to
the farthest end of the cave, the Dragons following more leisurely
because they were too clumsy to move fast. Perhaps they thought there
was no need of haste, as the monkey could not escape from the cave.
But, away up at the end of the place, the cavern floor was heaped with
tumbled rocks, so Woot, with an agility born of fear, climbed from rock
to rock until he found himself crouched against the cavern roof. There
he waited, for he could go no farther, while on over the tumbled rocks
slowly crept the Dragons—the littlest one coming first because he was
hungry as well as angry.

The beasts had almost reached him when Woot, remembering his lace
apron—now sadly torn and soiled—recovered his wits and shouted:
"Open!" At the cry a hole appeared in the roof of the cavern, just over
his head, and through it the sunlight streamed full upon the Green
Monkey.

The Dragons paused, astonished at the magic and blinking at the
sunlight, and this gave Woot time to climb through the opening. As soon
as he reached the surface of the earth the hole closed again, and the
boy monkey realized, with a thrill of joy, that he had seen the last of
the dangerous Dragon family.

He sat upon the ground, still panting hard from his exertions, when the
bushes before him parted and his former enemy, the Jaguar, appeared.

"Don't run," said the woodland beast, as Woot sprang up; "you are
perfectly safe, so far as I am concerned, for since you so mysteriously
disappeared I have had my breakfast. I am now on my way home to sleep
the rest of the day."

"Oh, indeed!" returned the Green Monkey, in a tone both sorry and
startled. "Which of my friends did you manage to eat?"

"None of them," returned the Jaguar, with a sly grin "I had a dish of
magic scrambled eggs—on toast—and it wasn't a bad feast, at all.
There isn't room in me for even you, and I don't regret it because I
judge, from your green color, that you are not ripe, and would make an
indifferent meal. We jaguars have to be careful of our digestions.
Farewell, Friend Monkey. Follow the path I made through the bushes and
you will find your friends."

With this the Jaguar marched on his way and Woot took his advice and
followed the trail he had made until he came to the place where the
little Brown Bear, and the Tin Owl, and the Canary were conferring
together and wondering what had become of their comrade, the Green
Monkey.

"Our best plan," said the Scarecrow Bear, when the Green Monkey had
related the story of his adventure with the Dragons, "is to get out of
this Gillikin Country as soon as we can and try to find our way to the
castle of Glinda, the Good Sorceress. There are too many dangers
lurking here to suit me, and Glinda may be able to restore us to our
proper forms."

"If we turn south now," the Tin Owl replied, "we might go straight into
the Emerald City. That's a place I wish to avoid, for I'd hate to have
my friends see me in this sad plight," and he blinked his eyes and
fluttered his tin wings mournfully.

"But I am certain we have passed beyond Emerald City," the Canary
assured him, sailing lightly around their heads. "So, should we turn
south from here, we would pass into the Munchkin Country, and
continuing south we would reach the Quadling Country where Glinda's
castle is located."

"Well, since you're sure of that, let's start right away," proposed the
Bear. "It's a long journey, at the best, and I'm getting tired of
walking on four legs."

"I thought you never tired, being stuffed with straw," said Woot.

"I mean that it annoys me, to be obliged to go on all fours, when two
legs are my proper walking equipment," replied the Scarecrow. "I
consider it beneath my dignity. In other words, my remarkable brains
can tire, through humiliation, although my body cannot tire."

"That is one of the penalties of having brains," remarked the Tin Owl
with a sigh. "I have had no brains since I was a man of meat, and so I
never worry. Nevertheless, I prefer my former manly form to this owl's
shape and would be glad to break Mrs. Yoop's enchantment as soon as
possible. I am so noisy, just now, that I disturb myself," and he
fluttered his wings with a clatter that echoed throughout the forest.

So, being all of one mind, they turned southward, traveling steadily on
until the woods were left behind and the landscape turned from purple
tints to blue tints, which assured them they had entered the Country of
the Munchkins.

"Now I feel myself more safe," said the Scarecrow Bear. "I know this
country pretty well, having been made here by a Munchkin farmer and
having wandered over these lovely blue lands many times. Seems to me,
indeed, that I even remember that group of three tall trees ahead of
us; and, if I do, we are not far from the home of my friend Jinjur."

"Who is Jinjur?" asked Woot, the Green Monkey.

"Haven't you heard of Jinjur?" exclaimed the Scarecrow, in surprise.

"No," said Woot. "Is Jinjur a man, a woman, a beast or a bird?"

"Jinjur is a girl," explained the Scarecrow Bear. "She's a fine girl,
too, although a bit restless and liable to get excited. Once, a long
time ago, she raised an army of girls and called herself 'General
Jinjur.' With her army she captured the Emerald City, and drove me out
of it, because I insisted that an army in Oz was highly improper. But
Ozma punished the rash girl, and afterward Jinjur and I became fast
friends. Now Jinjur lives peacefully on a farm, near here, and raises
fields of cream-puffs, chocolate-caramels and macaroons. They say she's
a pretty good farmer, and in addition to that she's an artist, and
paints pictures so perfect that one can scarcely tell them from nature.
She often repaints my face for me, when it gets worn or mussy, and the
lovely expression I wore when the Giantess transformed me was painted
by Jinjur only a month or so ago."

"It was certainly a pleasant expression," agreed Woot.

"Jinjur can paint anything," continued the Scarecrow Bear, with
enthusiasm, as they walked along together. "Once, when I came to her
house, my straw was old and crumpled, so that my body sagged
dreadfully. I needed new straw to replace the old, but Jinjur had no
straw on all her ranch and I was really unable to travel farther until
I had been restuffed. When I explained this to Jinjur, the girl at once
painted a straw-stack which was so natural that I went to it and
secured enough straw to fill all my body. It was a good quality of
straw, too, and lasted me a long time."