r.

"Be-cause no one else thinks as you do. Your wheels make you help-less
to in-jure an-y one. For you have no fists and can not scratch or e-ven
pull hair. Nor have you an-y feet to kick with. All you can do is to
yell and shout, and that does not hurt an-y one at all."

The Wheeler burst into a flood of tears, to Dorothy's great surprise.

"Now I and my people are ruined forever!" he sobbed; "for you have
discovered our secret. Being so helpless, our only hope is to make
people afraid of us, by pretending we are very fierce and terrible, and
writing in the sand warnings to Beware the Wheelers. Until now we have
frightened everyone, but since you have discovered our weakness our
enemies will fall upon us and make us very miserable and unhappy."

"Oh, no," exclaimed Dorothy, who was sorry to see this beautifully
dressed Wheeler so miserable; "Tiktok will keep your secret, and so will
Billina and I. Only, you must promise not to try to frighten children
any more, if they come near to you."

"I won't--indeed I won't!" promised the Wheeler, ceasing to cry and
becoming more cheerful. "I'm not really bad, you know; but we have to
pretend to be terrible in order to prevent others from attacking us."

[Illustration: ON THE WAY TO THE ROYAL PALACE OF EV]

"That is not ex-act-ly true," said Tiktok, starting to walk toward the
path through the forest, and still holding fast to his prisoner, who
rolled slowly along beside him. "You and your peo-ple are full of
mis-chief, and like to both-er those who fear you. And you are of-ten
im-pu-dent and dis-a-gree-a-ble, too. But if you will try to cure those
faults I will not tell any-one how help-less you are."

"I'll try, of course," replied the Wheeler, eagerly. "And thank you, Mr.
Tiktok, for your kindness."

"I am on-ly a ma-chine," said Tiktok. "I can not be kind an-y more than
I can be sor-ry or glad. I can on-ly do what I am wound up to do."

"Are you wound up to keep my secret?" asked the Wheeler, anxiously.

"Yes; if you be-have your-self. But tell me: who rules the Land of Ev
now?" asked the machine.

"There is no ruler," was the answer, "because every member of the royal
family is imprisoned by the Nome King. But the Princess Langwidere, who
is a niece of our late King Evoldo, lives in a part of the royal palace
and takes as much money out of the royal treasury as she can spend. The
Princess Langwidere is not exactly a ruler, you see, because she doesn't
rule; but