ched these hills attentively, until at
last, coming close up, they discovered there was a deep but narrow gulf
around the edge of each mountain, and that the mountains were set so
close together that the outer gulf was continuous and barred farther
advance. At the edge of the gulf they all dismounted and peered over
into its depths. There was no telling where the bottom was, if indeed
there was any bottom at all. From where they stood it seemed as if the
mountains had been set in one great hole in the ground, just close
enough together so they would not touch, and that each mountain was
supported by a rocky column beneath its base which extended far down in
the black pit below. From the land side it seemed impossible to get
across the gulf or, succeeding in that, to gain a foothold on any of
the whirling mountains.

"This ditch is too wide to jump across," remarked Button-Bright.

"P'raps the Lion could do it," suggested Dorothy.

"What, jump from here to that whirling hill?" cried the Lion
indignantly. "I should say not! Even if I landed there and could hold
on, what good would it do? There's another spinning mountain beyond
it, and perhaps still another beyond that. I don't believe any living
creature could jump from one mountain to another when both are whirling
like tops and in different directions."

"I propose we turn back," said the Wooden Sawhorse with a yawn of his
chopped-out mouth as he stared with his knot eyes at the Merry-Go-Round
Mountains.

"I agree with you," said the Woozy, wagging his square head.

"We should have taken the shepherd's advice," added Hank the Mule.

The others of the party, however they might be puzzled by the serious
problem that confronted them, would not allow themselves to despair.
"If we once get over these mountains," said Button-Bright, "we could
probably get along all right."

"True enough," agreed Dorothy. "So we must find some way, of course,
to get past these whirligig hills. But how?"

"I wish the Ork was with us," sighed Trot.

"But the Ork isn't here," said the Wizard, "and we must depend upon
ourselves to conquer this difficulty. Unfortunately, all my magic has
been stolen, otherwise I am sure I could easily get over the mountains."

"Unfortunately," observed the Woozy, "none of us has wings. And we're
in a magic country without any magic."

"What is that around your waist, Dorothy?" asked the Wizard.

"That? Oh, that's just the Magic Belt I o