n; but he looked worried.

Happening just then to feel the Love Magnet in his pocket, he said to
the creatures, with more confidence:

"Don't you love me?"

"Yes!" they shouted, all together.

"Then you mustn't harm me, or my friends," said the shaggy man, firmly.

"We love you in soup!" they yelled, and in a flash turned their white
sides to the front.

"How dreadful!" said Dorothy. "This is a time, Shaggy Man, when you get
loved too much."

"Don't want to be soup!" wailed Button-Bright again; and Toto began to
whine dismally, as if he didn't want to be soup, either.

"The only thing to do," said the shaggy man to his friends, in a low
tone, "is to get out of this pocket in the rocks as soon as we can, and
leave the Scoodlers behind us. Follow me, my dears, and don't pay any
attention to what they do or say."

With this he began to march along the road to the opening in the rocks
ahead, and the others kept close behind him. But the Scoodlers closed up
in front, as if to bar their way, and so the shaggy man stooped down and
picked up a loose stone, which he threw at the creatures to scare them
from the path.

At this the Scoodlers raised a howl. Two of them picked their heads from
their shoulders and hurled them at the shaggy man with such force that
he fell over in a heap, greatly astonished. The two now ran forward with
swift leaps, caught up their heads, and put them on again, after which
they sprang back to their positions on the rocks.

[Illustration]

Escaping the Soup-kettle

[Illustration]

The shaggy man got up and felt of himself to see if he was hurt; but he
was not. One of the heads had struck his breast and the other his left
shoulder; yet though they had knocked him down the heads were not hard
enough to bruise him.

"Come on," he said, firmly; "we've got to get out of here some way," and
forward he started again.

The Scoodlers began yelling and throwing their heads in great numbers at
our frightened friends. The shaggy man was knocked over again, and so
was Button-Bright, who kicked his heels against the ground and howled as
loud as he could, although he was not hurt a bit. One head struck Toto,
who first yelped and then grabbed the head by an ear and started running
away with it.

The Scoodlers who had thrown their heads began to scramble down and run
to pick them up, with wonderful quickness; but the one whose head Toto
had stolen found it hard to get it back again. The h