章节正文
"They're only girls!" laughed Scraps.
"Girls are the fiercest soldiers of all," declared
the Frogman. "They are more brave than men and they
have better nerves. That is probably why the magician
uses them for soldiers and has sent them to oppose us."
No one argued this statement, for all were staring
hard at the line of soldiers, which now, having taken a
defiant position, remained motionless.
"Here is a trick of magic to me," admitted the
Wizard, after a time. "I do not believe the army is
real, but the spears may be sharp enough to prick us,
nevertheless, so we must be cautious. Let us take time
to consider how to meet this difficulty."
While they were thinking it over Scraps danced closer
to the line of girl soldiers. Her button eyes sometimes
saw more than did the natural eyes of her comrades and
so, after staring hard at the magician's army, she
boldlyadvanced and danced right through the
threatening line! On the other side she waved her
stuffed arms and called out:
"Come on, folks. The spears can't hurt you.
"Ah!" said the Wizard, gaily, "an optical illusion,
as I thought. Let us all follow the Patchwork Girl."
The three little girls were somewhat nervous in
attempting to brave the spears and battle-axes, but
after the others had safely passed the line they
ventured to follow. And, when all had passed through
the ranks of the girl army, the army itself magically
disappeared from view.
All this time our friends had been getting farther up
the hill and nearer to the wicker castle. Now,
continuing their advance, they expected something else
to oppose their way, but to their astonishment nothing
happened and presently they arrived at the wicker
gates, which stood wide open, and boldly entered the
domain of Ugu the Shoemaker.
Chapter Twenty-Two
In the Wicker Castle
No sooner were the Wizard of Oz and his followers well
within the castle entrance when the big gates swung to
with a clang and heavy bars dropped across them. They
looked at one another uneasily, but no one cared to
speak of the incident. If they were indeed prisoners in
the wicker castle it was evident they must find a way
to escape, but their first duty was to attend to the
errand on which they had come and seek the Royal Ozma,
whom they believed to be a prisoner of the magician,
and rescue her.
They found they had entered a square courtyard, from
which an entrance led into the main building of the
castle. No person had appeared to greet them, so far,
although a gaudy peacock, perched upon the wall,
cackled with laughter and said in its sharp, shrill
voice: "Poor fools! Poor fools!"
"I hope the peacock is mistaken," remarked the
Frogman, but no one else paid any attention to the
bird. They were a little awed by the stillness and
loneliness of the place.
As they entered the doors of the castle, which stood
invitingly open, these also closed behind them and huge
bolts shot into place. The animals had all accompanied
the party into the castle, because they felt it would
be dangerous for them to separate. They were forced to
follow a zigzag passage, turning this way and that,
until finally they entered a great central hall,
circular in form and with a high dome from which was
suspended an enormous chandelier.
The Wizard went first, and Dorothy, Betsy and Trot
followed him, Toto keeping at the heels of his little
mistress. Then came the Lion, the Woozy and the
Sawhorse; then Cayke the Cookie Cook and Button-Bright;
then the Lavender Bear carrying the Pink Bear, and
finally the Frogman and the Patchwork Girl, with Hank
the Mule tagging behind. So it was the Wizard who
caught the first glimpse of the big domed hall, but the
others quickly followed and gathered in a wondering
group just within the entrance.
Upon a raised platform at one side was a heavy table
on which lay Glinda's Great Book of Records; but the
platform was firmly fastened to the floor and the table
was fastened to the platform and the Book was chained
fast to the table -- just as it had been when it was
kept in Glinda's palace. On the wall over the table
hung Ozma's Magic Picture. On a row of shelves at the
opposite side of the hall stood all the chemicals and
essences of magic and all the magical instruments that
had been stolen from Glinda and Ozma and the Wizard,
with glass doors covering the shelves so that no one
could get at them.
And in a far corner sat Ugu the Shoemaker, his feet
lazily extended, his skinny hands clasped behind his
head. He was leaning back at his ease and calmly
smoking a long pipe. Around the magician was a sort of
cage, seemingly made of golden bars set wide apart, and
at his feet -- also within the cage -- reposed the
long-sought diamond-studded dishpan of Cayke the Cookie
Cook.
Princess Ozma of Oz was nowhere to be seen.
"Well, well," said Ugu, when the invaders had stood
in silence for a moment, staring about them, "this
visit is an expected pleasure, I assure you. I knew you
were coming and I know why you are here. You are not
welcome, for I cannot use any of you to my advantage,
but as you have insisted on coming I hope you will make
the afternoon call as brief as possible. It won't take
long to transact your business with me. You will ask me
for Ozma, and my reply will be that you may find her --
if you can."
"Sir," answered the Wizard, in a tone of rebuke, "you
are a very wicked and cruel person. I suppose you
imagine, because you have stolen this poor woman's
dishpan and all the best magic in Oz, that you are more
powerful than we are and will be able to triumph over
us."
"Yes," said Ugu the Shoemaker, slowly filling his
pipe with fresh tobacco from a silver bowl that stood
beside him, "that is exactly what I imagine. It will do
you no good to demand from me the girl who was formerly
the Ruler of Oz, because I will not tell you where I
have hidden her and you can't guess in a thousand
years. Neither will I restore to you any of the magic I
have captured. I am not so foolish. But bear this in
mind: I mean to be the Ruler of Oz myself, hereafter,
so I advise you to be careful how you address your
future Monarch."
"Ozma is still Ruler of Oz, wherever you may have
hidden her," declared the Wizard. "And bear this in
mind, miserable Shoemaker: We intend to find her and to
rescue her, in time, but our first duty and pleasure
will be to conquer you and then punish you for your
misdeeds."
"Very well; go ahead and conquer," said Ugu. "I'd
really like to see how you can do it."
Now, although the little Wizard had spoken so boldly,
he had at the moment no idea how they might conquer the
magician. He had that morning given the Frogman, at his
request, a dose of zosozo from his bottle, and the
Frogman had promised to fight a good fight if it was
necessary; but the Wizard knew that strength alone
could not avail against magical arts. The toy Bear King
seemed to have some pretty good magic, however, and the
Wizard depended to an extent on that. But something
ought to be done right away, and the Wizard didn't know
what it was.
While he considered this perplexing question and the
others stood looking at him as their leader, a queer
thing happened. The floor of the great circular hall,
on which they were standing, suddenly began to tip.
Instead of being flat and level it became a slant, and
the slant grew steeper and steeper until none of the
party could manage to stand upon it. Presently they all
slid down to the wall, which was now under them, and
then it became evident that the whole vast room was
slowly turning upside down! Only Ugu the Shoemaker,
kept in place by the bars of his golden cage, remained
in his former position, and the wickedmagician seemed
to enjoy the surprise of his victims immensely.
First, they all slid down to the wall back of them,
but as the room continued to turn over they next slid
down the wall and found themselves at the bottom of the
great dome, bumping against the big chandelier which,
like everything else, was now upside-down.
The turning movement now stopped and the room became
stationary. Looking far up, they saw Ugu suspended in
his cage at the very top, which had once been the floor
"Ah," said he, grinning down at them, "the way to
conquer is to act, and he who acts promptly is sure to
win. This makes a very good prison, from which I am
sure you cannot escape. Please amuse yourselves in any
way you like, but I must beg you to excuse me, as I
have business in another part of my castle."
Saying this, he opened a trap door in the floor of
his cage (which was now over his head) and climbed
through it and disappeared from their view. The diamond
dishpan still remained in the cage, but the bars kept
it from falling down on their heads.
"Well, I declare!" said the Patchwork Girl, seizing
one of the bars of the chandelier and swinging from it,
"we must peg one for the Shoemaker, for he has trapped
us very cleverly."
"Get off my foot, please," said the Lion to the
Sawhorse.
"And oblige me, Mr. Mule," remarked the Woozy, "by
taking your tail out of my left eye.
"It's rather crowded down here," explained Dorothy,
"because the dome is rounding and we have all slid into
the middle of it. But let us keep as quiet as possible
until we can think what's best to be done."
"Dear, dear!" wailed Cayke; "I wish I had my darling
dishpan," and she held her arms longingly toward it.
"I wish I had the magic on those shelves up there,"
sighed the Wizard.
"Don't you s'pose we could get to it?" asked Trot
anxiously.
"We'd have to fly," laughed the Patchwork Girl.
But the Wizard took the suggestionseriously, and so
did the Frogman. They talked it over and soon planned
an attempt to reach the shelves where the magical
instruments were. First the Frogman lay against the
rounding dome and braced his foot on the stem of the
chandelier; then the Wizard climbed over him and lay on
"Girls are the fiercest soldiers of all," declared
the Frogman. "They are more brave than men and they
have better nerves. That is probably why the magician
uses them for soldiers and has sent them to oppose us."
No one argued this statement, for all were staring
hard at the line of soldiers, which now, having taken a
defiant position, remained motionless.
"Here is a trick of magic to me," admitted the
Wizard, after a time. "I do not believe the army is
real, but the spears may be sharp enough to prick us,
nevertheless, so we must be cautious. Let us take time
to consider how to meet this difficulty."
While they were thinking it over Scraps danced closer
to the line of girl soldiers. Her button eyes sometimes
saw more than did the natural eyes of her comrades and
so, after staring hard at the magician's army, she
boldlyadvanced and danced right through the
threatening line! On the other side she waved her
stuffed arms and called out:
"Come on, folks. The spears can't hurt you.
"Ah!" said the Wizard, gaily, "an optical illusion,
as I thought. Let us all follow the Patchwork Girl."
The three little girls were somewhat nervous in
attempting to brave the spears and battle-axes, but
after the others had safely passed the line they
ventured to follow. And, when all had passed through
the ranks of the girl army, the army itself magically
disappeared from view.
All this time our friends had been getting farther up
the hill and nearer to the wicker castle. Now,
continuing their advance, they expected something else
to oppose their way, but to their astonishment nothing
happened and presently they arrived at the wicker
gates, which stood wide open, and boldly entered the
domain of Ugu the Shoemaker.
Chapter Twenty-Two
In the Wicker Castle
No sooner were the Wizard of Oz and his followers well
within the castle entrance when the big gates swung to
with a clang and heavy bars dropped across them. They
looked at one another uneasily, but no one cared to
speak of the incident. If they were indeed prisoners in
the wicker castle it was evident they must find a way
to escape, but their first duty was to attend to the
errand on which they had come and seek the Royal Ozma,
whom they believed to be a prisoner of the magician,
and rescue her.
They found they had entered a square courtyard, from
which an entrance led into the main building of the
castle. No person had appeared to greet them, so far,
although a gaudy peacock, perched upon the wall,
cackled with laughter and said in its sharp, shrill
voice: "Poor fools! Poor fools!"
"I hope the peacock is mistaken," remarked the
Frogman, but no one else paid any attention to the
bird. They were a little awed by the stillness and
loneliness of the place.
As they entered the doors of the castle, which stood
invitingly open, these also closed behind them and huge
bolts shot into place. The animals had all accompanied
the party into the castle, because they felt it would
be dangerous for them to separate. They were forced to
follow a zigzag passage, turning this way and that,
until finally they entered a great central hall,
circular in form and with a high dome from which was
suspended an enormous chandelier.
The Wizard went first, and Dorothy, Betsy and Trot
followed him, Toto keeping at the heels of his little
mistress. Then came the Lion, the Woozy and the
Sawhorse; then Cayke the Cookie Cook and Button-Bright;
then the Lavender Bear carrying the Pink Bear, and
finally the Frogman and the Patchwork Girl, with Hank
the Mule tagging behind. So it was the Wizard who
caught the first glimpse of the big domed hall, but the
others quickly followed and gathered in a wondering
group just within the entrance.
Upon a raised platform at one side was a heavy table
on which lay Glinda's Great Book of Records; but the
platform was firmly fastened to the floor and the table
was fastened to the platform and the Book was chained
fast to the table -- just as it had been when it was
kept in Glinda's palace. On the wall over the table
hung Ozma's Magic Picture. On a row of shelves at the
opposite side of the hall stood all the chemicals and
essences of magic and all the magical instruments that
had been stolen from Glinda and Ozma and the Wizard,
with glass doors covering the shelves so that no one
could get at them.
And in a far corner sat Ugu the Shoemaker, his feet
lazily extended, his skinny hands clasped behind his
head. He was leaning back at his ease and calmly
smoking a long pipe. Around the magician was a sort of
cage, seemingly made of golden bars set wide apart, and
at his feet -- also within the cage -- reposed the
long-sought diamond-studded dishpan of Cayke the Cookie
Cook.
Princess Ozma of Oz was nowhere to be seen.
"Well, well," said Ugu, when the invaders had stood
in silence for a moment, staring about them, "this
visit is an expected pleasure, I assure you. I knew you
were coming and I know why you are here. You are not
welcome, for I cannot use any of you to my advantage,
but as you have insisted on coming I hope you will make
the afternoon call as brief as possible. It won't take
long to transact your business with me. You will ask me
for Ozma, and my reply will be that you may find her --
if you can."
"Sir," answered the Wizard, in a tone of rebuke, "you
are a very wicked and cruel person. I suppose you
imagine, because you have stolen this poor woman's
dishpan and all the best magic in Oz, that you are more
powerful than we are and will be able to triumph over
us."
"Yes," said Ugu the Shoemaker, slowly filling his
pipe with fresh tobacco from a silver bowl that stood
beside him, "that is exactly what I imagine. It will do
you no good to demand from me the girl who was formerly
the Ruler of Oz, because I will not tell you where I
have hidden her and you can't guess in a thousand
years. Neither will I restore to you any of the magic I
have captured. I am not so foolish. But bear this in
mind: I mean to be the Ruler of Oz myself, hereafter,
so I advise you to be careful how you address your
future Monarch."
"Ozma is still Ruler of Oz, wherever you may have
hidden her," declared the Wizard. "And bear this in
mind, miserable Shoemaker: We intend to find her and to
rescue her, in time, but our first duty and pleasure
will be to conquer you and then punish you for your
misdeeds."
"Very well; go ahead and conquer," said Ugu. "I'd
really like to see how you can do it."
Now, although the little Wizard had spoken so boldly,
he had at the moment no idea how they might conquer the
magician. He had that morning given the Frogman, at his
request, a dose of zosozo from his bottle, and the
Frogman had promised to fight a good fight if it was
necessary; but the Wizard knew that strength alone
could not avail against magical arts. The toy Bear King
seemed to have some pretty good magic, however, and the
Wizard depended to an extent on that. But something
ought to be done right away, and the Wizard didn't know
what it was.
While he considered this perplexing question and the
others stood looking at him as their leader, a queer
thing happened. The floor of the great circular hall,
on which they were standing, suddenly began to tip.
Instead of being flat and level it became a slant, and
the slant grew steeper and steeper until none of the
party could manage to stand upon it. Presently they all
slid down to the wall, which was now under them, and
then it became evident that the whole vast room was
slowly turning upside down! Only Ugu the Shoemaker,
kept in place by the bars of his golden cage, remained
in his former position, and the wickedmagician seemed
to enjoy the surprise of his victims immensely.
First, they all slid down to the wall back of them,
but as the room continued to turn over they next slid
down the wall and found themselves at the bottom of the
great dome, bumping against the big chandelier which,
like everything else, was now upside-down.
The turning movement now stopped and the room became
stationary. Looking far up, they saw Ugu suspended in
his cage at the very top, which had once been the floor
"Ah," said he, grinning down at them, "the way to
conquer is to act, and he who acts promptly is sure to
win. This makes a very good prison, from which I am
sure you cannot escape. Please amuse yourselves in any
way you like, but I must beg you to excuse me, as I
have business in another part of my castle."
Saying this, he opened a trap door in the floor of
his cage (which was now over his head) and climbed
through it and disappeared from their view. The diamond
dishpan still remained in the cage, but the bars kept
it from falling down on their heads.
"Well, I declare!" said the Patchwork Girl, seizing
one of the bars of the chandelier and swinging from it,
"we must peg one for the Shoemaker, for he has trapped
us very cleverly."
"Get off my foot, please," said the Lion to the
Sawhorse.
"And oblige me, Mr. Mule," remarked the Woozy, "by
taking your tail out of my left eye.
"It's rather crowded down here," explained Dorothy,
"because the dome is rounding and we have all slid into
the middle of it. But let us keep as quiet as possible
until we can think what's best to be done."
"Dear, dear!" wailed Cayke; "I wish I had my darling
dishpan," and she held her arms longingly toward it.
"I wish I had the magic on those shelves up there,"
sighed the Wizard.
"Don't you s'pose we could get to it?" asked Trot
anxiously.
"We'd have to fly," laughed the Patchwork Girl.
But the Wizard took the suggestionseriously, and so
did the Frogman. They talked it over and soon planned
an attempt to reach the shelves where the magical
instruments were. First the Frogman lay against the
rounding dome and braced his foot on the stem of the
chandelier; then the Wizard climbed over him and lay on
- button [´bʌtn]
n.钮扣 vt.扣上(扣子) (初中英语单词) - advanced [əd´vɑ:nst] a.先进的；高级的 (初中英语单词)
- nervous [´nə:vəs] a.神经的；神经过敏的 (初中英语单词)
- safely [´seifli] ad.安全地；平安地 (初中英语单词)
- astonishment [ə´stɔniʃmənt] n.吃惊；惊异 (初中英语单词)
- presently [´prezəntli] ad.不久；目前 (初中英语单词)
- incident [´insidənt] n.小事件；事变 (初中英语单词)
- evident [´evidənt] a.明显的，明白的 (初中英语单词)
- rescue [´reskju:] vt.&n.救援；挽救 (初中英语单词)
- laughter [´lɑ:ftə] n.笑，笑声 (初中英语单词)
- enormous [i´nɔ:məs] a.巨大地，很，极 (初中英语单词)
- glimpse [glimps] n.&v.瞥见 (初中英语单词)
- platform [´plætfɔ:m] n.(平)台；讲台；站台 (初中英语单词)
- firmly [´fə:mli] ad.坚固地，稳定地 (初中英语单词)
- stolen [´stəulən] steal 的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
- wicked [´wikid] a.邪恶的；不道德的 (初中英语单词)
- triumph [´traiəmf] n.胜利 vi.得胜，战胜 (初中英语单词)
- tobacco [tə´bækəu] n.烟草(叶)；卷烟 (初中英语单词)
- hidden [´hid(ə)n] hide 的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
- restore [ri´stɔ:] vt.(使)恢复；修复 (初中英语单词)
- advise [əd´vaiz] vt.忠告；建议；通知 (初中英语单词)
- wherever [weər´evə] conj.无论在哪里 (初中英语单词)
- miserable [´mizərəbəl] a.悲惨的；可怜的 (初中英语单词)
- conquer [´kɔŋkə] v.征服；克服；抑制 (初中英语单词)
- punish [´pʌniʃ] vt.(惩)罚；痛击；折磨 (初中英语单词)
- spoken [´spəukən] speak的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
- extent [ik´stent] n.长度；程度；范围 (初中英语单词)
- circular [´sə:kjulə] a.圆形的 n.通知 (初中英语单词)
- standing [´stændiŋ] n.持续 a.直立的 (初中英语单词)
- movement [´mu:vmənt] n.活动；运动；动作 (初中英语单词)
- promptly [´prɔmptli] ad.敏捷地；即时地 (初中英语单词)
- oblige [ə´blaidʒ] vt.责成；迫使；使感激 (初中英语单词)
- suggestion [sə´dʒestʃən] n.建议，提议；暗示 (初中英语单词)
- seriously [´siəriəsli] ad.严肃；严重，重大 (初中英语单词)
- boldly [´bəuldli] ad.大胆地；醒目地 (高中英语单词)
- courtyard [´kɔ:tjɑ:d] n.院子，庭院 (高中英语单词)
- peacock [´pi:kɔk] n.(雄)孔雀 vi.炫耀 (高中英语单词)
- stillness [´stilnis] n.不动；无声，寂静 (高中英语单词)
- lavender [´lævində] n.熏衣草；淡紫色 (高中英语单词)
- shelves [ʃelvz] shelf的复数 (高中英语单词)
- shoemaker [´ʃu:,meikə] n.鞋匠 (高中英语单词)
- magician [mə´dʒiʃən] n.魔法师；妖道；术士 (高中英语单词)
- nowhere [´nəuweə] n.无处；不知道 (高中英语单词)
- rebuke [ri´bju:k] vt.&n.指责；训斥 (高中英语单词)
- crowded [´kraudid] a.充(拥)满了的 (高中英语单词)
- cautious [´kɔ:ʃəs] a.小心的；谨慎的 (英语四级单词)
- wizard [´wizəd] n.术士；男巫 (英语四级单词)
- zigzag [´zigzæg] n.锯齿形 a.工字形(的) (英语四级单词)
- cookie [´kuki] n.家常小甜饼 (英语四级单词)
- seemingly [´si:miŋli] ad.表面上；似乎 (英语四级单词)
- upside [´ʌpsaid] n.上边，上段，上部 (英语四级单词)
- uneasily [ʌn´i:zili] ad.不安地；局促地 (英语六级单词)
- magical [´mædʒikəl] a.有魔术的，神奇的 (英语六级单词)
- extended [iks´tendid] a.伸长的；广大的 (英语六级单词)
- transact [træn´zækt] v.处理；做交易；谈判 (英语六级单词)
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章节正文
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