now asked her guests to seat themselves and a long talk
followed, in which the Wizard of Oz shared.

"We are quite certain," said Aurah, "that if we could get inside the
Dome we could discover Coo-ee-oh's secrets, for in all her work, after
we became fishes, she used the formulas and incantations and arts that
she stole from us. She may have added to these things, but they were
the foundation of all her work."

"What means do you suggest for our getting into the Dome?" inquired
Glinda.

The three Adepts hesitated to reply, for they had not yet considered
what could be done to reach the inside of the Great Dome. While they
were in deep thought, and Glinda and the Wizard were quietly awaiting
their suggestions, into the tent rushed Trot and Betsy, dragging
between them the Patchwork Girl.

"Oh, Glinda," cried Trot, "Scraps has thought of a way to rescue Ozma
and Dorothy and all of the Skeezers."

The three Adepts could not avoid laughing merrily, for not only were
they amused by the queer form of the Patchwork Girl, but Trot's
enthusiastic speech struck them as really funny. If the Great Sorceress
and the famous Wizard and the three talented Adepts at Magic were
unable as yet to solve the important problem of the sunken isle, there
was little chance for a patched girl stuffed with cotton to succeed.

But Glinda, smiling indulgently at the earnest faces turned toward her,
patted the children's heads and said:

"Scraps is very clever. Tell us what she has thought of, my dear."

"Well," said Trot, "Scraps says that if you could dry up all the water
in the lake the island would be on dry land, an' everyone could come
and go whenever they liked."

Glinda smiled again, but the Wizard said to the girls:

"If we should dry up the lake, what would become of all the beautiful
fishes that now live in the water?"

"Dear me! That's so," admitted Betsy, crestfallen; "we never thought of
that, did we Trot?"

"Couldn't you transform 'em into polliwogs?" asked Scraps, turning a
somersault and then standing on one leg. "You could give them a little,
teeny pond to swim in, and they'd be just as happy as they are as
fishes."

"No indeed!" replied the Wizard, severely. "It is wicked to transform
any living creatures without their consent, and the lake is the home of
the fishes and belongs to them."

"All right," said Scraps, making a face at him; "I don't care."

"It's too bad," sighed Trot, "for I thought we'd struck a spl