But one of them suddenly reached out a hand and
caught the dress of the Princess, jerking it so sharply that she nearly
fell down, and a moment later another Imp pushed the little Wizard so
hard that he bumped against Ozma and both unexpectedly sat down upon the
ground.

At this the Imps laughed boisterously and began running around in a
circle and kicking dust upon the Royal Princess, who cried in a sharp
voice: "Wizard, do your duty!"

The Wizard promptly obeyed. Without rising from the ground he opened his
bag, got the tools he required and muttered a magic spell.

Instantly the three Imps became three bushes--of a thorny stubby
kind--with their roots in the ground. As the bushes were at first
motionless, perhaps through surprise at their sudden transformation, the
Wizard and the Princess found time to rise from the ground and brush the
dust off their pretty clothes. Then Ozma turned to the bushes and said:

"The unhappy lot you now endure, my poor Imps, is due entirely to your
naughty actions. You can no longer annoy harmless travelers and you
must remain ugly bushes, covered with sharp thorns, until you repent of
your bad ways and promise to be good Imps."

"They can't help being good now, your Highness," said the Wizard, who
was much pleased with his work, "and the safest plan will be to allow
them always to remain bushes."

But something must have been wrong with the Wizard's magic, or the
creatures had magic of their own, for no sooner were the words spoken
than the bushes began to move. At first they only waved their branches
at the girl and little man, but pretty soon they began to slide over the
ground, their roots dragging through the earth, and one pushed itself
against the Wizard and pricked him so sharply with its thorns that he
cried out: "Ouch!" and started to run away.

[Illustration]

Ozma followed, for the other bushes were trying to stick their thorns
into her legs and one actually got so near her that it tore a great rent
in her beautiful dress. The girl Princess could run, however, and she
followed the fleeing Wizard until he tumbled head first over a log and
rolled upon the ground. Then she sprang behind a tree and shouted:
"Quick! Transform them into something else."

The Wizard heard, but he was much confused by his fall. Grabbing from
his bag the first magical tool he could find he transformed the bushes
into three white pigs. That astonished the Imps. In the shape of
pigs--fat, ro