ized."

This threat filled them with dismay. The good-natured Giantess was more
terrible than they had imagined. She could smile and wear pretty clothes
and at the same time be even more cruel than her wicked husband had
been.

Both the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman tried to think of some way to
escape from the castle before morning, but she seemed to read their
thoughts and shook her head.

"Don't worry your poor brains," said she. "You can't escape me, however
hard you try. But why should you wish to escape? I shall give you new
forms that are much better than the ones you now have. Be contented with
your fate, for discontent leads to unhappiness, and unhappiness, in any
form, is the greatest evil that can befall you."

"What forms do you intend to give us?" asked Woot earnestly.

"I haven't decided, as yet. I'll dream over it tonight, so in the
morning I shall have made up my mind how to transform you. Perhaps
you'd prefer to choose your own transformations?"

"No," said Woot, "I prefer to remain as I am."

"That's funny," she retorted. "You are little, and you're weak; as you
are, you're not much account, anyhow. The best thing about you is that
you're alive, for I shall be able to make of you some sort of live
creature which will be a great improvement on your present form."

[Illustration]

She took another biscuit from a plate and dipped it in a pot of honey
and calmly began eating it.

The Scarecrow watched her thoughtfully.

"There are no fields of grain in your Valley," said he; "where, then,
did you get the flour to make your biscuits?"

"Mercy me! do you think I'd bother to make biscuits out of flour?" she
replied. "That is altogether too tedious a process for a Yookoohoo. I
set some traps this afternoon and caught a lot of field-mice, but as I
do not like to eat mice, I transformed them into hot biscuits for my
supper. The honey in this pot was once a wasp's nest, but since being
transformed it has become sweet and delicious. All I need do, when I
wish to eat, is to take something I don't care to keep, and transform it
into any sort of food I like, and eat it. Are you hungry?"

"I don't eat, thank you," said the Scarecrow.

"Nor do I," said the Tin Woodman.

"I have still a little natural food in my knapsack," said Woot the
Wanderer, "and I'd rather eat that than any wasp's nest."

"Every one to his taste," said the Giantess carelessly, and having now
finished her supper she rose to her