"I'll have you
know all my eggs are warranted strictly fresh and up to date. Poison,
indeed!"

"You don't understand," retorted the little monarch, nervously. "Eggs
belong only to the outside world--to the world on the earth's surface,
where you came from. Here, in my underground kingdom, they are rank
poison, as I said, and we Nomes can't bear them around."

"Well, you'll have to bear this one around," declared Billina; "for I've
laid it."

"Where?" asked the King.

"Under your throne," said the hen.

The King jumped three feet into the air, so anxious was he to get away
from the throne.

"Take it away! Take it away at once!" he shouted.

"I can't," said Billina. "I havn't any hands."

"I'll take the egg," said the Scarecrow. "I'm making a collection of
Billina's eggs. There's one in my pocket now, that she laid yesterday."

Hearing this, the monarch hastened to put a good distance between
himself and the Scarecrow, who was about to reach under the throne for
the egg when the hen suddenly cried:

"Stop!"

"What's wrong?" asked the Scarecrow.

"Don't take the egg unless the King will allow me to enter the palace
and guess as the others have done," said Billina.

"Pshaw!" returned the King. "You're only a hen. How could you guess my
enchantments?"

"I can try, I suppose," said Billina. "And, if I fail, you will have
another ornament."

"A pretty ornament you'd make, wouldn't you?" growled the King. "But you
shall have your way. It will properly punish you for daring to lay an
egg in my presence. After the Scarecrow is enchanted you shall follow
him into the palace. But how will you touch the objects?"

"With my claws," said the hen; "and I can speak the word 'Ev' as plainly
as anyone. Also I must have the right to guess the enchantments of my
friends, and to release them if I succeed."

"Very well," said the King. "You have my promise."

"Then," said Billina to the Scarecrow, "you may get the egg."

[Illustration: "DON'T YOU KNOW THAT EGGS ARE POISON?"]

He knelt down and reached underneath the throne and found the egg,
which he placed in another pocket of his jacket, fearing that if both
eggs were in one pocket they would knock together and get broken.

Just then a bell above the throne rang briskly, and the King gave
another nervous jump.

"Well, well!" said he, with a rueful face; "the girl has actually done
it."

"Done what?" asked the Scarecrow.

"She has made one guess that is right