"No," answered the Tin Woodman, "I did not. She said she still loved me,
but I found that I no longer loved her. My tin body contained no heart,
and without a heart no one can love. So the Wicked Witch conquered in
the end, and when I left the Munchkin Country of Oz, the poor girl was
still the slave of the Witch and had to do her bidding day and night."

"Where did you go?" asked Woot.

"Well, I first started out to find a heart, so I could love Nimmie Amee
again; but hearts are more scarce than one would think. One day, in a
big forest that was strange to me, my joints suddenly became rusted,
because I had forgotten to oil them. There I stood, unable to move hand
or foot. And there I continued to stand--while days came and went--until
Dorothy and the Scarecrow came along and rescued me. They oiled my
joints and set me free, and I've taken good care never to rust again."

"Who was this Dorothy?" questioned the Wanderer.

"A little girl who happened to be in a house when it was carried by a
cyclone all the way from Kansas to the Land of Oz. When the house fell,
in the Munchkin Country, it fortunately landed on the Wicked Witch and
smashed her flat. It was a big house, and I think the Witch is under it
yet."

"No," said the Scarecrow, correcting him, "Dorothy says the Witch turned
to dust, and the wind scattered the dust in every direction."

"Well," continued the Tin Woodman, "after meeting the Scarecrow and
Dorothy, I went with them to the Emerald City, where the Wizard of Oz
gave me a heart. But the Wizard's stock of hearts was low, and he gave
me a Kind Heart instead of a Loving Heart, so that I could not love
Nimmie Amee any more than I did when I was heartless."

"Couldn't the Wizard give you a heart that was both Kind and Loving?"
asked the boy.

"No; that was what I asked for, but he said he was so short on hearts,
just then, that there was but one in stock, and I could take that or
none at all. So I accepted it, and I must say that for its kind it is a
very good heart indeed."

"It seems to me," said Woot, musingly, "that the Wizard fooled you. It
can't be a very Kind Heart, you know."

"Why not?" demanded the Emperor.

"Because it was unkind of you to desert the girl who loved you, and who
had been faithful and true to you when you were in trouble. Had the
heart the Wizard gave you been a Kind Heart, you would have gone back
home and made the beautiful Munchkin girl your wife, and then brought