fore we got out of her Valley."

"Well, we have escaped the big woman, to be sure," remarked the Green
Monkey, "but we still wear the awful forms the cruel yookoohoo gave us.
How are we going to get rid of these shapes, and become ourselves
again?"

None could answer that question. They sat around the cage, brooding over
the problem, until the Monkey fell asleep. Seeing this, the Canary
tucked her head under her wing and also slept, and the Tin Owl and the
Brown Bear did not disturb them until morning came and it was broad
daylight.

"I'm hungry," said Woot, when he wakened, for his knapsack of food had
been left behind at the castle.

"Then let us travel on until we can find something for you to eat,"
returned the Scarecrow Bear.

"There is no use in your lugging my cage any farther," declared the
Canary. "Let me out, and throw the cage away. Then I can fly with you
and find my own breakfast of seeds. Also I can search for water, and
tell you where to find it."

So the Green Monkey unfastened the door of the golden cage and the
Canary hopped out. At first she flew high in the air and made great
circles overhead, but after a time she returned and perched beside them.

"At the east, in the direction we were following," announced the Canary,
"there is a fine forest, with a brook running through it. In the forest
there may be fruits or nuts growing, or berry bushes at its edge, so let
us go that way."

[Illustration]

They agreed to this and promptly set off, this time moving more
deliberately. The Tin Owl, which had guided their way during the night,
now found the sunshine very trying to his big eyes, so he shut them
tight and perched upon the back of the little Brown Bear, which carried
the Owl's weight with ease. The Canary sometimes perched upon the Green
Monkey's shoulder and sometimes fluttered on ahead of the party, and in
this manner they traveled in good spirits across that valley and into
the next one to the east of it.

This they found to be an immense hollow, shaped like a saucer, and on
its farther edge appeared the forest which Polychrome had seen from the
sky.

"Come to think of it," said the Tin Owl, waking up and blinking
comically at his friends, "there's no object, now, in our traveling to
the Munchkin Country. My idea in going there was to marry Nimmie Amee,
but however much the Munchkin girl may have loved a Tin Woodman, I
cannot reasonably expect her to marry a Tin Owl."

"There is so