e asked, looking again at the
directions on the card.
"Number One, I should think," returned Billina. "That makes him think,
doesn't it?"
"Yes," said Dorothy, and wound up Number One, under the left arm.
"He doesn't seem any different," remarked the hen, critically.
"Why, of course not; he is only thinking, now," said Dorothy.
"I wonder what he is thinking about."
"I'll wind up his talk, and then perhaps he can tell us," said the girl.
So she wound up Number Two, and immediately the clock-work man said,
without moving any part of his body except his lips:
"Good morn-ing, lit-tle girl. Good morn-ing, Mrs. Hen."
The words sounded a little hoarse and creaky, and they were uttered all
in the same tone, without any change of expression whatever; but both
Dorothy and Billina understood them perfectly.
"Good morning, sir," they answered, politely.
"Thank you for res-cu-ing me," continued the machine, in the same
monotonous voice, which seemed to be worked by a bellows inside of him,
like the little toy lambs and cats the children squeeze so that they
will make a noise.
"Don't mention it," answered Dorothy. And then, being very curious,
she asked: "How did you come to be locked up in this place?"
"It is a long sto-ry," replied the copper man; "but I will tell it to
you brief-ly. I was pur-chased from Smith & Tin-ker, my
man-u-fac-tur-ers, by a cru-el King of Ev, named Ev-ol-do, who used to
beat all his serv-ants un-til they died. How-ev-er, he was not a-ble
to kill me, be-cause I was not a-live, and one must first live in
or-der to die. So that all his beat-ing did me no harm, and mere-ly
kept my cop-per bod-y well pol-ished.
"This cru-el king had a love-ly wife and ten beau-ti-ful
chil-dren--five boys and five girls--but in a fit of an-ger he sold
them all to the Nome King, who by means of his mag-ic arts changed them
all in-to oth-er forms and put them in his un-der-ground pal-ace to
or-na-ment the rooms.
"Af-ter-ward the King of Ev re-gret-ted his wick-ed ac-tion, and tried
to get his wife and chil-dren a-way from the Nome King, but with-out
a-vail. So, in de-spair, he locked me up in this rock, threw the key
in-to the o-cean, and then jumped in af-ter it and was drowned."
"How very dreadful!" exclaimed Dorothy.
"It is, in-deed," said the machine. "When I found my-self im-pris-oned
I shout-ed for help un-til my voice ran down; and then I walked back
and forth in this lit-tle room
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