red the way. Then he turned to Dorothy
and said:

"Let me car-ry your din-ner-pail."

She placed it in his right hand at once, and the copper fingers closed
firmly over the stout handle.

Then the little procession marched out upon the level sands.

As soon as the three Wheelers who were guarding the mound saw them,
they began to shout their wild cries and rolled swiftly toward the
little group, as if to capture them or bar their way. But when the
foremost had approached near enough, Tiktok swung the tin dinner-pail
and struck the Wheeler a sharp blow over its head with the queer
weapon. Perhaps it did not hurt very much, but it made a great noise,
and the Wheeler uttered a howl and tumbled over upon its side. The
next minute it scrambled to its wheels and rolled away as fast as it
could go, screeching with fear at the same time.

"I told you they were harm-less," began Tiktok; but before he could say
more another Wheeler was upon them. Crack! went the dinner-pail
against its head, knocking its straw hat a dozen feet away; and that
was enough for this Wheeler, also. It rolled away after the first one,
and the third did not wait to be pounded with the pail, but joined its
fellows as quickly as its wheels would whirl.

The yellow hen gave a cackle of delight, and flying to a perch upon
Tiktok's shoulder, she said:

"Bravely done, my copper friend! and wisely thought of, too. Now we
are free from those ugly creatures."

But just then a large band of Wheelers rolled from the forest, and
relying upon their numbers to conquer, they advanced fiercely upon
Tiktok. Dorothy grabbed Billina in her arms and held her tight, and
the machine embraced the form of the little girl with his left arm, the
better to protect her. Then the Wheelers were upon them.

Rattlety, bang! bang! went the dinner-pail in every direction, and it
made so much clatter bumping against the heads of the Wheelers that
they were much more frightened than hurt and fled in a great panic.
All, that is, except their leader. This Wheeler had stumbled against
another and fallen flat upon his back, and before he could get his
wheels under him to rise again, Tiktok had fastened his copper fingers
into the neck of the gorgeous jacket of his foe and held him fast.

"Tell your peo-ple to go a-way," commanded the machine.

The leader of the Wheelers hesitated to give this order, so Tiktok
shook him as a terrier dog does a rat, until the Wheeler's tee