, and make
her guesses and abide by the result.

"It can't hurt very much," she thought, "for I haven't heard any of them
scream or cry out--not even the poor officers. Dear me! I wonder if
Uncle Henry or Aunt Em will ever know I have become an orn'ment in the
Nome King's palace, and must stand forever and ever in one place and
look pretty--'cept when I'm moved to be dusted. It isn't the way I
thought I'd turn out, at all; but I s'pose it can't be helped."

She walked through all the rooms once more, and examined with care all
the objects they contained; but there were so many, they bewildered her,
and she decided, after all, as Ozma had done, that it could be only
guess work at the best, and that the chances were much against her
guessing aright.

Timidly she touched an alabaster bowl and said: "Ev."

"That's one failure, anyhow," she thought. "But how am I to know which
thing is enchanted, and which is not?"

Next she touched the image of a purple kitten that stood on the corner
of a mantel, and as she pronounced the word "Ev" the kitten disappeared,
and a pretty, fair-haired boy stood beside her. At the same time a bell
rang somewhere in the distance, and as Dorothy started back, partly in
surprise and partly in joy, the little one exclaimed:

"Where am I? And who are you? And what has happened to me?"

"Well, I declare!" said Dorothy. "I've really done it."

"Done what?" asked the boy.

[Illustration]

"Saved myself from being an ornament," replied the girl, with a laugh,
"and saved you from being forever a purple kitten."

"A purple kitten?" he repeated. "There _is_ no such thing."

"I know," she answered. "But there was, a minute ago. Don't you remember
standing on a corner of the mantel?"

"Of course not. I am a Prince of Ev, and my name is Evring," the little
one announced, proudly. "But my father, the King, sold my mother and all
her children to the cruel ruler of the Nomes, and after that I remember
nothing at all."

"A purple kitten can't be 'spected to remember, Evring," said Dorothy.
"But now you are yourself again, and I'm going to try to save some of
your brothers and sisters, and perhaps your mother, as well. So come
with me."

She seized the child's hand and eagerly hurried here and there, trying
to decide which object to choose next. The third guess was another
failure, and so was the fourth and the fifth.

Little Evring could not imagine what she was doing, but he trotted along
be