il or anywhere else,"
exclaimed the beast.

"I know; but I want them very much."

"They are my sole ornaments, my prettiest feature," said the Woozy,
uneasily. "If I give up those three hairs I--I'm just a blockhead."

"Yet I must have them," insisted the boy, firmly, and he then told the
Woozy all about the accident to Unc Nunkie and Margolotte, and how the
three hairs were to be a part of the magic charm that would restore
them to life. The beast listened with attention and when Ojo had
finished the recital it said, with a sigh:

"I always keep my word, for I pride myself on being square. So you may
have the three hairs, and welcome. I think, under such circumstances,
it would be selfish in me to refuse you."

"Thank you! Thank you very much," cried the boy, joyfully. "May I pull
out the hairs now?"

"Any time you like," answered the Woozy.

So Ojo went up to the queer creature and taking hold of one of the
hairs began to pull. He pulled harder. He pulled with all his might;
but the hair remained fast.

"What's the trouble?" asked the Woozy, which Ojo had dragged here and
there all around the clearing in his endeavor to pull out the hair.

"It won't come," said the boy, panting.

"I was afraid of that," declared the beast. "You'll have to pull
harder."

"I'll help you," exclaimed Scraps, coming to the boy's side. "You pull
the hair, and I'll pull you, and together we ought to get it out
easily."

"Wait a jiffy," called the Woozy, and then it went to a tree and hugged
it with its front paws, so that its body couldn't be dragged around by
the pull. "All ready, now. Go ahead!"

Ojo grasped the hair with both hands and pulled with all his strength,
while Scraps seized the boy around his waist and added her strength to
his. But the hair wouldn't budge. Instead, it slipped out of Ojo's
hands and he and Scraps both rolled upon the ground in a heap and never
stopped until they bumped against the rocky cave.

"Give it up," advised the Glass Cat, as the boy arose and assisted the
Patchwork Girl to her feet. "A dozen strong men couldn't pull out those
hairs. I believe they're clinched on the under side of the Woozy's
thick skin."

"Then what shall I do?" asked the boy, despairingly. "If on our return
I fail to take these three hairs to the Crooked Magician, the other
things I have come to seek will be of no use at all, and we cannot
restore Unc Nunkie and Margolotte to life."

"They're goners, I guess," sai