Indeed, it is more natural for a frog to be big than for a Sawhorse to be alive."On being questioned, the Frogman told them the whole story of the loss of Cayke's highly prized dishpan and their adventures in search of it. When he came to tell of the Lavender Bear King and of the Little Pink Bear who could tell anything you wanted to know, his hearers became eager to see such interesting animals.
"It will be best," said the Wizard, "to unite our two parties and share our fortunes together, for we are all bound on the same errand and as one band we may more easily defy this shoemaker magician than if separate.
Let us be allies."
"I will ask my friends about that," replied the Frogman, and climbed over the hill to find Cayke and the toy bears. The Patchwork Girl accompanied him and when they came upon the Cookie Cook and the Lavender Bear and the Pink Bear it was hard to tell which of the lot was the most surprised.
"Mercy me!" cried Cayke, addressing the Patchwork Girl. "However did you come alive?"Scraps stared at the bears.
"Mercy me!" she echoed; "you are stuffed, as I am, with cotton, and yet you appear to be living. That makes me feel ashamed, for I have prided myself on being the only live cotton-stuffed person in Oz.""Perhaps you are," returned the Lavender Bear, "for Iam stuffed with extra-quality curled hair, and so is the Little Pink Bear.""You have relieved my mind of a great anxiety,"declared the Patchwork Girl, now speaking more cheerfully. "The Scarecrow is stuffed with straw, and you with hair, so I am still the Original and Only Cotton-Stuffed!""I hope I am too polite to criticize cotton, as compared with curled hair," said the King, "especially as you seem satisfied with it."Then the Frogman told of his interview with the party from the Emerald City and added that the Wizard of Oz had invited the bears and Cayke and himself to travel in company with them to the castle of Ugu the Shoemaker. Cayke was much pleased, but the Bear King looked solemn. He set the Little Pink Bear on his lap and turned the crank in its side and asked:
"Is it safe for us to associate with those people from the Emerald City?"And the Pink Bear at once replied: "Safe for you and safe for me; Perhaps no others safe will be.""That 'perhaps' need not worry us," said the King;"so let us join the others and offer them our protection."Even the Lavender Bear was astonished, however, when on climbing over the hill he found on the other side the group of queer animals and the people from the Emerald City. The bears and Cayke were received very cordially, although Button-Bright was cross when they wouldn't let him play with the Little Pink Bear. The three girls greatly admired the toy bears, and especially the pink one, which they longed to hold.
"You see," explained the Lavender King, in denying them this privilege, "he's a very valuable bear, because his magic is a correct guide on all occasions, and especially if one is in difficulties. It was the Pink Bear who told us that Ugu the Shoemaker had stolen the Cookie Cook's dishpan.""And the King's magic is just as wonderful," added Cayke, "because it showed us the Magician himself.""What did he look like?" inquired Dorothy.
"He was dreadful!"
"He was sitting at a table and examining an immense Book which had three golden clasps," remarked the King.
"Why, that must have been Glinda's Great Book of Records!" exclaimed Dorothy. "If it is, it proves that Ugu the Shoemaker stole Ozma, and with her all the magic in the Emerald City.""And my dishpan," said Cayke.
And the Wizard added:
"It also proves that he is following our adventures in the Book of Records, and therefore knows that we are seeking him and that we are determined to find him and rescue Ozma at all hazards.""If we can," added the Woozy, but everybody frowned at him.
The Wizard's statement was so true that the faces around him were very serious until the Patchwork Girl broke into a peal of laughter.
"Wouldn't it be a rich joke if he made prisoners of us, too?" she said.
"No one but a crazy Patchwork Girl would consider that a joke," grumbled Button-Bright.
And then the Lavender Bear King asked:
"Would you like to see this magical shoemaker?""Wouldn't he know it?" Dorothy inquired.
"No, I think not."
Then the King waved his metal wand and before them appeared a room in the wicker castle of Ugu. On the wall of the room hung Ozma's Magic Picture, and seated before it was the Magician. They could see the Picture as well as he could, because it faced them, and in the Picture was the hillside where they were now sitting, all their forms being reproduced in miniature. And, curiously enough, within the scene of the Picture was the scene they were now beholding, so they knew that the Magician was at this moment watching them in the Picture, and also that he saw himself and the room he was in become visible to the people on the hillside.
Therefore he knew very well that they were watching him while he was watching them.
In proof of this, Ugu sprang from his seat and turned a scowling face in their direction; but now he could not see the travelers who were seeking him, although they could still see him. His actions were so distinct, indeed, that it seemed he was actually before them.
"It is only a ghost," said the Bear King. "It isn't real at all, except that it shows us Ugu just as he looks and tells us truly just what he is doing.""I don't see anything of my lost growl, though," said Toto, as if to himself.
Then the vision faded away and they could see nothing but the grass and trees and bushes around them.
