ed all her presents and
thanked those who had lovingly donated them.

23. The Fountain of Oblivion

The morning after the birthday fete, as the Wizard and Dorothy were
walking in the grounds of the palace, Ozma came out and joined them,
saying:

"I want to hear more of your adventures in the Forest of Gugu, and how
you were able to get those dear little monkeys to use in Dorothy's
Surprise Cake."

So they sat down on a marble bench near to the Fountain of the Water of
Oblivion, and between them Dorothy and the Wizard related their
adventures.

"I was dreadfully fussy while I was a woolly lamb," said Dorothy, "for
it didn't feel good, a bit. And I wasn't quite sure, you know, that
I'd ever get to be a girl again."

"You might have been a woolly lamb yet, if I hadn't happened to have
discovered that Magic Transformation Word," declared the Wizard.

"But what became of the walnut and the hickory-nut into which you
transformed those dreadful beast magicians?" inquired Ozma.

"Why, I'd almost forgotten them," was the reply; "but I believe they
are still here in my pocket."

Then he searched in his pockets and brought out the two nuts and showed
them to her.

Ozma regarded them thoughtfully.

"It isn't right to leave any living creatures in such helpless forms,"
said she. "I think, Wizard, you ought to transform them into their
natural shapes again."

"But I don't know what their natural shapes are," he objected, "for of
course the forms of mixed animals which they had assumed were not
natural to them. And you must not forget, Ozma, that their natures
were cruel and mischievous, so if I bring them back to life they might
cause us a great deal of trouble."

"Nevertheless," said the Ruler of Oz, "we must free them from their
present enchantments. When you restore them to their natural forms we
will discover who they really are, and surely we need not fear any two
people, even though they prove to be magicians and our enemies."

"I am not so sure of that," protested the Wizard, with a shake of his
bald head. "The one bit of magic I robbed them of--which was the Word
of Transformation--is so simple, yet so powerful, that neither Glinda
nor I can equal it. It isn't all in the word, you know, it's the way
the word is pronounced. So if the two strange magicians have other
magic of the same sort, they might prove very dangerous to us, if we
liberated them."

"I've an idea!" exclaimed Dorothy. "I'