s.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

A TERRIBLE ACCIDENT

CHAP. 5

[Illustration]

"It will take a few minutes for this powder to do its work," remarked
the Magician, sprinkling the body up and down with much care.

But suddenly the Patchwork Girl threw up one arm, which knocked the
bottle of powder from the crooked man's hand and sent it flying across
the room. Unc Nunkie and Margolotte were so startled that they both
leaped backward and bumped together, and Unc's head joggled the shelf
above them and upset the bottle containing the Liquid of Petrifaction.

The Magician uttered such a wild cry that Ojo jumped away and the
Patchwork Girl sprang after him and clasped her stuffed arms around him
in terror. The Glass Cat snarled and hid under the table, and so it was
that when the powerful Liquid of Petrifaction was spilled it fell only
upon the wife of the Magician and the uncle of Ojo. With these two the
charm worked promptly. They stood motionless and stiff as marble
statues, in exactly the positions they were in when the Liquid struck
them.

Ojo pushed the Patchwork Girl away and ran to Unc Nunkie, filled with a
terrible fear for the only friend and protector he had ever known. When
he grasped Unc's hand it was cold and hard. Even the long gray beard was
solid marble. The Crooked Magician was dancing around the room in a
frenzy of despair, calling upon his wife to forgive him, to speak to
him, to come to life again!

The Patchwork Girl, quickly recovering from her fright, now came nearer
and looked from one to another of the people with deep interest. Then
she looked at herself and laughed. Noticing the mirror, she stood before
it and examined her extraordinary features with amazement--her button
eyes, pearl bead teeth and puffy nose. Then, addressing her reflection
in the glass, she exclaimed:

"Whee, but there's a gaudy dame!
Makes a paint-box blush with shame.
Razzle-dazzle, fizzle-fazzle!
Howdy-do, Miss What's-your-name?"

She bowed, and the reflection bowed. Then she laughed again, long and
merrily, and the Glass Cat crept out from under the table and said:

"I don't blame you for laughing at yourself. Aren't you horrid?"

"Horrid?" she replied. "Why, I'm thoroughly delightful. I'm an Original,
if you please, and therefore incomparable. Of all the comic, absurd,
rare and amusing creatures the world contains, I must be the supreme
freak. Who but poor Margolotte could