many other good things to eat. The little girl's eyes opened wide at
this display of magic, and Cap'n Bill was not sure that the things were
actually there and fit to eat until he had taken them in his hand and
tasted them. But the Scarecrow said with a laugh:

"Someone is looking after your welfare, that is certain, and from the
looks of this table I suspect my friend the Wizard has taken us in his
charge. I've known him to do things like this before, and if we are in
the Wizard's care you need not worry about your future."

"Who's worrying?" inquired Button-Bright, already at the table and
busily eating.

The Scarecrow looked around the place while the others were feasting,
and finding many things unfamiliar to him he shook his head and
remarked:

"I must have taken the wrong path, back in that last valley, for on my
way to Jinxland I remember that I passed around the foot of this river,
where there was a great waterfall."

"Did the river make a bend, after the waterfall?" asked Cap'n Bill.

"No, the river disappeared. Only a pool of whirling water showed what
had become of the river; but I suppose it is under ground, somewhere,
and will come to the surface again in another part of the country."

"Well," suggested Trot, as she finished her luncheon, "as there is no
way to cross this river, I s'pose we'll have to find that waterfall,
and go around it."

"Exactly," replied the Scarecrow; so they soon renewed their journey,
following the river for a long time until the roar of the waterfall
sounded in their ears. By and by they came to the waterfall itself, a
sheet of silver dropping far, far down into a tiny lake which seemed to
have no outlet. From the top of the fall, where they stood, the banks
gradually sloped away, so that the descent by land was quite easy,
while the river could do nothing but glide over an edge of rock and
tumble straight down to the depths below.

"You see," said the Scarecrow, leaning over the brink, "this is called
by our Oz people the Great Waterfall, because it is certainly the
highest one in all the land; but I think--Help!"

He had lost his balance and pitched headforemost into the river. They
saw a flash of straw and blue clothes, and the painted face looking
upward in surprise. The next moment the Scarecrow was swept over the
waterfall and plunged into the basin below.

The accident had happened so suddenly that for a moment they were all
too horrified to speak or move.