't care much for magic. If you hadn't had a magic leg, instead
of a meat one, you couldn't have knocked me over so easily and stuck
this wooden pin through me."

"I've been to the Magic Isle," said the Glass Cat, "and I've watched
the Magic Flower bloom, and I'm sure it's too pretty to be left in that
lonely place where only beasts prowl around it and no else sees it. So
we're going to take it away to the Emerald City."

"I don't care," the beast replied in a surly tone. "We Kalidahs would
be just as contented if there wasn't a flower in our forest. What good
are the things anyhow?"

"Don't you like pretty things?" asked Trot.

"No."

"You ought to admire my pink brains, anyhow," declared the Glass Cat.
"They're beautiful and you can see 'em work."

The beast only growled in reply, and Cap'n Bill, having now cut all his
logs to a proper size, began to roll them to the water's edge and
fasten them together.

10. Stuck Fast

The day was nearly gone when, at last, the raft was ready.

"It ain't so very big," said the old sailor, "but I don't weigh much,
an' you, Trot, don't weigh half as much as I do, an' the glass pussy
don't count."

"But it's safe, isn't it?" inquired the girl.

"Yes; it's good enough to carry us to the island an' back again, an'
that's about all we can expect of it."

Saying this, Cap'n Bill pushed the raft into the water, and when it was
afloat, stepped upon it and held out his hand to Trot, who quickly
followed him. The Glass Cat boarded the raft last of all.

The sailor had cut a long pole, and had also whittled a flat paddle,
and with these he easily propelled the raft across the river. As they
approached the island, the Wonderful Flower became more plainly
visible, and they quickly decided that the Glass Cat had not praised it
too highly. The colors of the flowers that bloomed in quick succession
were strikingly bright and beautiful, and the shapes of the blossoms
were varied and curious. Indeed, they did not resemble ordinary
flowers at all.

So intently did Trot and Cap'n Bill gaze upon the Golden Flower-pot
that held the Magic Flower that they scarcely noticed the island itself
until the raft beached upon its sands. But then the girl exclaimed:
"How funny it is, Cap'n Bill, that nothing else grows here excep' the
Magic Flower."

Then the sailor glanced at the island and saw that it was all bare
ground, without a weed, a stone or a blade of grass. Trot, eag