seeming to be engaged in earnest conversation. So occupied with
themselves were the inhabitants that they scarcely noticed the
strangers at all. So the Wizard stopped a boy and asked:

"Is this Rigmarole Town?"

"Sir," replied the boy, "if you have traveled very much you will have
noticed that every town differs from every other town in one way or
another and so by observing the methods of the people and the way they
live as well as the style of their dwelling places it ought not to be a
difficult thing to make up your mind without the trouble of asking
questions whether the town bears the appearance of the one you intended
to visit or whether perhaps having taken a different road from the one
you should have taken you have made an error in your way and arrived at
some point where--"

"Land sakes!" cried Aunt Em, impatiently; "what's all this rigmarole
about?"

"That's it!" said the Wizard, laughing merrily. "It's a rigmarole
because the boy is a Rigmarole and we've come to Rigmarole Town."

"Do they all talk like that?" asked Dorothy, wonderingly.

"He might have said 'yes' or 'no' and settled the question," observed
Uncle Henry.

"Not here," said Omby Amby. "I don't believe the Rigmaroles know what
'yes' or 'no' means."

While the boy had been talking several other people had approached the
wagon and listened intently to his speech. Then they began talking to
one another in long, deliberate speeches, where many words were used
but little was said. But when the strangers criticized them so frankly
one of the women, who had no one else to talk to, began an address to
them, saying:

"It is the easiest thing in the world for a person to say 'yes' or 'no'
when a question that is asked for the purpose of gaining information or
satisfying the curiosity of the one who has given expression to the
inquiry has attracted the attention of an individual who may be
competent either from personal experience or the experience of others
to answer it with more or less correctness or at least an attempt to
satisfy the desire for information on the part of the one who has made
the inquiry by--"

"Dear me!" exclaimed Dorothy, interrupting the speech. "I've lost all
track of what you are saying."

"Don't let her begin over again, for goodness sake!" cried Aunt Em.

But the woman did not begin again. She did not even stop talking, but
went right on as she had begun, the words flowing from her mouth in a
stream.

"