very earnestly for his assistance, and she
advised Cayke the Cookie Cook to dry her weeping eyes, for she promised
to take her to the Emerald City and see that her cherished dishpan was
restored to her. Then the beautiful Ruler took a chain of emeralds
from around her own neck and placed it around the neck of the little
Pink Bear.

"Your wise answers to the questions of my friends," said she, "helped
them to rescue me. Therefore I am deeply grateful to you and to your
noble King."

The bead eyes of the little Pink Bear stared unresponsive to this
praise until the Big Lavender Bear turned the crank in its side, when
it said in its squeaky voice, "I thank Your Majesty."

"For my part," returned the Bear King, "I realize that you were well
worth saving, Miss Ozma, and so I am much pleased that we could be of
service to you. By means of my Magic Wand I have been creating exact
images of your Emerald City and your Royal Palace, and I must confess
that they are more attractive than any places I have ever seen--not
excepting Bear Center."

"I would like to entertain you in my palace," returned Ozma sweetly,
"and you are welcome to return with me and to make me a long visit, if
your bear subjects can spare you from your own kingdom."

"As for that," answered the King, "my kingdom causes me little worry,
and I often find it somewhat tame and uninteresting. Therefore I am
glad to accept your kind invitation. Corporal Waddle may be trusted to
care for my bears in my absence."

"And you'll bring the little Pink Bear?" asked Dorothy eagerly.

"Of course, my dear. I would not willingly part with him."

They remained in the wicker castle for three days, carefully packing
all the magical things that had been stolen by Ugu and also taking
whatever in the way of magic the shoemaker had inherited from his
ancestors. "For," said Ozma, "I have forbidden any of my subjects
except Glinda the Good and the Wizard of Oz to practice magical arts,
because they cannot be trusted to do good and not harm. Therefore Ugu
must never again be permitted to work magic of any sort."

"Well," remarked Dorothy cheerfully, "a dove can't do much in the way
of magic, anyhow, and I'm going to keep Ugu in the form of a dove until
he reforms and becomes a good and honest shoemaker."

When everything was packed and loaded on the backs of the animals, they
set out for the river, taking a more direct route than that by which
Cayke and the Frogman