scape the wind from her breath. From
this safe position he said warningly:

"We have powerful friends who will soon come to rescue us."

"Let them come," she returned, with an accent of scorn. "When they get
here they will find neither a boy, nor a tin man, nor a scarecrow, for
tomorrow morning I intend to transform you all into other shapes, so
that you cannot be recognized."

This threat filled them with dismay. The good-natured Giantess was more
terrible than they had imagined. She could smile and wear pretty
clothes and at the same time be even more cruel than her wicked husband
had been.

Both the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman tried to think of some way to
escape from the castle before morning, but she seemed to read their
thoughts and shook her head.

"Don't worry your poor brains," said she. "You can't escape me, however
hard you try. But why should you wish to escape? I shall give you new
forms that are much better than the ones you now have. Be contented
with your fate, for discontent leads to unhappiness, and unhappiness,
in any form, is the greatest evil that can befall you."

"What forms do you intend to give us?" asked Woot earnestly.

"I haven't decided, as yet. I'll dream over it tonight, so in the
morning I shall have made up my mind how to transform you. Perhaps
you'd prefer to choose your own transformations?"

"No," said Woot, "I prefer to remain as I am."

"That's funny," she retorted. "You are little, and you're weak; as you
are, you're not much account, anyhow. The best thing about you is that
you're alive, for I shall be able to make of you some sort of live
creature which will be a great improvement on your present form."

She took another biscuit from a plate and dipped it in a pot of honey
and calmly began eating it.

The Scarecrow watched her thoughtfully.

"There are no fields of grain in your Valley," said he; "where, then,
did you get the flour to make your biscuits?"

"Mercy me! do you think I'd bother to make biscuits out of flour?" she
replied. "That is altogether too tedious a process for a Yookoohoo. I
set some traps this afternoon and caught a lot of field-mice, but as I
do not like to eat mice, I transformed them into hot biscuits for my
supper. The honey in this pot was once a wasp's nest, but since being
transformed it has become sweet and delicious. All I need do, when I
wish to eat, is to take something I don't care to keep, and transform
it into any sort of food