True," replied the Queen. "We love you very much; so much that we
intend to eat your broth with real pleasure. But tell me, do you think I
am so beautiful?"

"You won't be at all beautiful if you eat me," he said, shaking his head
sadly. "Handsome is as handsome does, you know."

The Queen turned to Button-Bright.

"Do _you_ think I'm beautiful?" she asked.

"No," said the boy; "you're ugly."

"_I_ think you're a fright," said Dorothy.

"If you could see yourself you'd be terribly scared," added Polly.

The Queen scowled at them and flopped from her red side to her yellow
side.

"Take them away," she commanded the guard, "and at six o'clock run them
through the meat chopper and start the soup kettle boiling. And put
plenty of salt in the broth this time, or I'll punish the cooks
severely."

"Any onions, your Majesty?" asked one of the guard.

"Plenty of onions and garlic and a dash of red pepper. Now, go!"

The Scoodlers led the captives away and shut them up in one of the
houses, leaving only a single Scoodler to keep guard.

The place was a sort of store-house; containing bags of potatoes and
baskets of carrots, onions, and turnips.

"These," said their guard, pointing to the vegetables, "we use to flavor
our soups with."

The prisoners were rather disheartened by this time, for they saw no way
to escape and did not know how soon it would be six o'clock and time for
the meat-chopper to begin work. But the shaggy man was brave and did not
intend to submit to such a horrid fate without a struggle.

"I'm going to fight for our lives," he whispered to the children, "for
if I fail we will be no worse off than before, and to sit here quietly
until we are made into soup would be foolish and cowardly."

[Illustration]

The Scoodler on guard stood near the doorway, turning first his white
side toward them and then his black side, as if he wanted to show to all
of his greedy four eyes the sight of so many fat prisoners. The captives
sat in a sorrowful group at the other end of the room--except
Polychrome, who danced back and forth in the little place to keep
herself warm, for she felt the chill of the cave. Whenever she
approached the shaggy man he would whisper something in her ear, and
Polly would nod her pretty head as if she understood.

The shaggy man told Dorothy and Button-Bright to stand before him while
he emptied the potatoes out of one of the sacks. When this had been
secretly done little Polyc