oad that ran through the
Munchkin Country. For he had determined to return to the Munchkin
farm where Dorothy had first discovered him and try to find some
traces of his family.

Now being stuffed with straw had many advantages, for requiring
neither food nor sleep the Scarecrow could travel night and day
without interruption. The stars winked out one by one, and by the
time the cocks of the Munchkin farmers began to crow, he had come to
the banks of a broad blue river!

The Scarecrow took off his hat and scratched his head thoughtfully.
Crossing rivers is no easy matter in Oz, for there isn't a ferry in
the Kingdom, and unless one is a good swimmer or equipped with some
of the Wizard's magic it is mighty troublesome. Water does not agree
with the Scarecrow at all, and as for swimming, he can no more swim
than a bag of meal.

But he was too wise a person to give up merely because a thing
appeared to be impossible. It was for just such emergencies that his
excellent brains had been given to him.

"If Nick Chopper were here, he would build a raft in no time,"
murmured the Scarecrow, "but as he is not, I must think of another
way!"

Turning his back on the river, which distracted his mind, he began to
think with all his might. Before he could collect his thoughts, there
was a tremendous crash, and next minute he was lying face down in the
mud. Several little crashes followed, and a shower of water. Then a
wet voice called out with a cheerful chuckle:

"Come on out, my dear Rattles. Not a bad place at all, and here's
breakfast already waiting!"

"Breakfast!" The Scarecrow turned over cautiously. A huge and curious
creature was slashing through the grass toward him. A smaller and
still more curious one followed. Both were extremely damp and had
evidently just come out of the river.

"Good morning!" quavered the Scarecrow, sitting up with a jerk and at
the same time reaching for a stick that lay just behind him.

"I won't eat it if it talks--so there!" The smaller creature stopped
and stared fixedly at the Scarecrow.

The Scarecrow, hearing this, tried to think of something else to say,
but the appearance of the two was so amazing that, as he told Dorothy
afterwards, he was struck dumb. The larger was at least two hundred
feet long and made entirely of blocks of wood. On each block was a
letter of the alphabet. The head was a huge square block with a
serpent's face and long, curling, tape-measure tongue. The lit