ice.

"Now that I am put out, let us by all means go in," said the
Scarecrow gloomily, and the two slipped off without anyone noticing
their departure.

"I'm afraid I'll have to have some new stuffing tomorrow," observed
the Scarecrow, sinking dejectedly on his throne. "Tappy, my dear boy,
after this never leave me alone, do you hear?" Happy Toko made no
reply. He had fallen asleep beside the Imperial Throne.

The Scarecrow might have called his court, but he was in no mood for
more of the Silver Islanders' idea of a good time. He longed for the
dear friends of his loved Land of Oz.

One by one the lights winked out in the gardens, and the noisy
company dispersed, and soon no one in the palace was awake but the
Scarecrow. His straw was wet and soggy, and even his excellent brains
felt damp and dull.

"If it weren't for Tappy Oko, how lonely I should be." He stared
through the long, dim, empty hall with its shimmering silver screens
and vases. "I wonder what little Dorothy is doing," sighed the
Scarecrow wistfully.

CHAPTER 10

PRINCESS OZMA AND BETSY BOBBIN TALK IT OVER

"Dorothy must be having a lovely time at the Scarecrow's," remarked
Betsy Bobbin to Ozma one afternoon as they sat reading in the Royal
Gardens several days after Dorothy's departure from the Emerald City
of Oz.

"One always has a jolly time at the Scarecrow's," laughed the little
Queen of Oz. "I must look in my Magic Picture and see what they are
doing. Too bad she missed the A-B-Sea Serpent and Rattlesnakes.
Weren't they the funniest creatures?"

Both the little girls (for Ozma is really just a little girl) went
off into a gale of laughter. The two queer creatures had followed the
Scarecrow's advice and had spent their vacation in the Emerald City,
and partly because they were so dazzled by their surroundings and
partly because they have no sort of memories whatever, they never
mentioned the Scarecrow himself or said anything about his plan to
hunt his family tree. They talked incessantly of the Mer City and
told innumerable A-B-Sea stories to Scraps and the Tin Woodman and
the children of the Emerald City. When they were ready to go, the
A-B-Sea Serpent snapped off its X block for Ozma. X, he said, meant
almost everything, and pretty well expressed his gratitude to the
lovely little ruler of Oz. Ozma in turn gave each of the visitors an
emerald collar, and that very morning they had started back to the
Munchkin River, and all the c