no sooner had the three tables made their appearance than bells
began ringing furiously all up and down the street, and dinner tables
and chairs came running from every direction. All the inhabitants of
Fix City looked alike. They had large, round heads, broad placid
faces, double chins, and no waists whatever. Their feet were flat and
about three times as long as the longest you have ever seen. The
women wore plain Mother Hubbard dresses and straw sailor hats, and
the men gingham suits.

While the three friends were observing all this, the tables had been
taking their places. One stopped before each Fix, and the chairs,
after much bumping and quarreling, placed themselves properly. At a
signal from the Fix in the center, the whole company sat down without
so much as moving their feet. Dorothy, Sir Hokus and the Cowardly
Lion had been too interested to speak, but at this minute a whole
flock of the mischievous lanterns clustered over their heads, and at
the sudden blare of light the whole street stopped eating and stared.

"Oh!" cried the Fix nearest them, pointing with his fork, "Look at
the runabouts!"

"This way, please! This way, please! Don't bark your shins. Don't
take any more steps than you can help!" boomed an important voice
from the middle of the street. So down the center marched the three,
feeling--as the Cowardly Lion put it--exactly like a circus.

"Stop! Names, please!" The Fix next to the center put up his knife
commandingly. Sir Hokus stepped forward with a bow:

"Princess Dorothy of Oz, the Cowardly Lion of Oz."

"And Sir Hokus of Pokes," roared the Lion as the Knight modestly
stepped back without announcing himself.

"Sir Pokus of Hoax, Howardly Kion of Boz, and Little Girl Beginning
with D," bellowed the Fix, "meet His Royal Highness, King Fix It, and
the noble Fixitives."

"Little Girl Beginning with D! That's too long," complained the King,
who, with the exception of his crown, looked like all the rest of
them, "I'll leave out the middle. What do you want, Little With D?"

"My name is Dorothy, and if your Highness could give us some dinner
and tell us something about the Scarecrow and--"

"One thing at a time, please," said the King reprovingly. "What does
Poker want, and Boz? Have they anything to spend?"

"Only the night, an' it please your Gracious Highness," said Sir
Hokus with his best bow.

"It doesn't please me especially," said the King, taking a sip of
water. "And there! Yo