us to victory."

"That may not be a wise speech, but it sounds good," said Dorothy
approvingly. "Ugu the Shoemaker is not only a common man, but he's a
wicked man and a cruel man and deserves to be conquered. We mustn't
have any mercy on him till Ozma is set free. So let's go to his castle
as the Frogman says and see what the place looks like."

No one offered any objection to this plan, and so it was adopted. They
broke camp and were about to start on the journey to Ugu's castle when
they discovered that Button-Bright was lost again. The girls and the
Wizard shouted his name, and the Lion roared and the Donkey brayed and
the Frogman croaked and the Big Lavender Bear growled (to the envy of
Toto, who couldn't growl but barked his loudest), yet none of them
could make Button-Bright hear. So after vainly searching for the boy a
full hour, they formed a procession and proceeded in the direction of
the wicker castle of Ugu the Shoemaker.

"Button-Bright's always getting lost," said Dorothy. "And if he wasn't
always getting found again, I'd prob'ly worry. He may have gone ahead
of us, and he may have gone back, but wherever he is, we'll find him
sometime and somewhere, I'm almost sure."

CHAPTER 19

UGU THE SHOEMAKER

A curious thing about Ugu the Shoemaker was that he didn't suspect in
the least that he was wicked. He wanted to be powerful and great, and
he hoped to make himself master of all the Land of Oz that he might
compel everyone in that fairy country to obey him, His ambition blinded
him to the rights of others, and he imagined anyone else would act just
as he did if anyone else happened to be as clever as himself.

When he inhabited his little shoemaking shop in the City of Herku, he
had been discontented, for a shoemaker is not looked upon with high
respect, and Ugu knew that his ancestors had been famous magicians for
many centuries past and therefore his family was above the ordinary.
Even his father practiced magic when Ugu was a boy, but his father had
wandered away from Herku and had never come back again. So when Ugu
grew up, he was forced to make shoes for a living, knowing nothing of
the magic of his forefathers. But one day, in searching through the
attic of his house, he discovered all the books of magical recipes and
many magical instruments which had formerly been in use in his family.
From that day, he stopped making shoes and began to study magic.
Finally, he aspired to beco