FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116  
117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   >>   >|  
ck's advice where to find it. The Pumpkinhead considered the matter gravely. "That is going to be a difficult task," said he, "and if I were you I'd take any ordinary well and enclose it, so as to make it dark." "I fear that wouldn't do," replied the Scarecrow. "The well must be naturally dark, and the water must never have seen the light of day, for otherwise the magic charm might not work at all." "How much of the water do you need?" asked Jack. "A gill." "How much is a gill?" "Why--a gill is a gill, of course," answered the Scarecrow, who did not wish to display his ignorance. "I know!" cried Scraps. "Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch--" "No, no; that's wrong," interrupted the Scarecrow. "There are two kinds of gills, I think; one is a girl, and the other is--" "A gillyflower," said Jack. "No; a measure." "How big a measure?" "Well, I'll ask Dorothy." So next morning they asked Dorothy, and she said: "I don't just know how much a gill is, but I've brought along a gold flask that holds a pint. That's more than a gill, I'm sure, and the Crooked Magician may measure it to suit himself. But the thing that's bothering us most, Jack, is to find the well." Jack gazed around the landscape, for he was standing in the doorway of his house. "This is a flat country, so you won't find any dark wells here," said he. "You must go into the mountains, where rocks and caverns are." "And where is that?" asked Ojo. "In the Quadling Country, which lies south of here," replied the Scarecrow. "I've known all along that we must go to the mountains." "So have I," said Dorothy. "But--goodness me!--the Quadling Country is full of dangers," declared Jack. "I've never been there myself, but--" "I have," said the Scarecrow. "I've faced the dreadful Hammerheads, which have no arms and butt you like a goat; and I've faced the Fighting Trees, which bend down their branches to pound and whip you, and had many other adventures there." "It's a wild country," remarked Dorothy, soberly, "and if we go there we're sure to have troubles of our own. But I guess we'll have to go, if we want that gill of water from the dark well." So they said good-bye to the Pumpkinhead and resumed their travels, heading now directly toward the South Country, where mountains and rocks and caverns and forests of great trees abounded. This part of the Land of Oz, while it belonged to Ozma and owed her allegiance, was
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116  
117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Scarecrow

 

Dorothy

 
mountains
 
measure
 

Country

 

Quadling

 

country

 

Pumpkinhead

 

replied

 

caverns


dreadful
 

dangers

 

declared

 

doorway

 
Hammerheads
 
goodness
 

directly

 

forests

 

heading

 

resumed


travels

 

allegiance

 

belonged

 

abounded

 

branches

 

Fighting

 

troubles

 

soberly

 

adventures

 

remarked


answered

 
Scraps
 

ignorance

 

display

 

difficult

 

gravely

 

matter

 

advice

 

considered

 

wouldn


naturally

 

ordinary

 

enclose

 

Crooked

 

Magician

 

landscape

 

bothering

 
brought
 

interrupted

 

gillyflower