t chicks you ever saw."

"Oh, how nice! And where are they, Billina?"

"I left them at home. But they're beauties, I assure you, and all
wonderfully clever. I've named them Dorothy."

"Which one?" asked the girl.

"All of them," replied Billina.

"That's funny. Why did you name them all with the same name?"

"It was so hard to tell them apart," explained the hen. "Now, when I
call 'Dorothy,' they all come running to me in a bunch; it's much
easier, after all, than having a separate name for each."

"I'm just dying to see 'em, Billina," said Dorothy, eagerly. "But tell
me, my friends, how did you happen to be here, in the Country of the
Winkies, the first of all to meet us?"

"I'll tell you," answered Tik-tok, in his monotonous voice, all the
sounds of his words being on one level--"Prin-cess Oz-ma saw you in her
mag-ic pic-ture, and knew you were com-ing here; so she sent Bil-lin-a
and me to wel-come you as she could not come her-self; so
that--fiz-i-dig-le cum-so-lut-ing hy-ber-gob-ble in-tu-zib-ick--"

"Good gracious! Whatever's the matter now?" cried Dorothy, as the
copper man continued to babble these unmeaning words, which no one
could understand at all because they had no sense.

"Don't know," said Button-Bright, who was half scared. Polly whirled
away to a distance and turned to look at the copper man in a fright.

"His thoughts have run down, this time," remarked Billina composedly,
as she sat on Tik-tok's shoulder and pruned her sleek feathers. "When
he can't think, he can't talk properly, any more than you can. You'll
have to wind up his thoughts, Dorothy, or else I'll have to finish his
story myself."

Dorothy ran around and got the key again and wound up Tik-tok under his
left arm, after which he could speak plainly again.

"Par-don me," he said, "but when my thoughts run down, my speech has no
mean-ing, for words are formed on-ly by thought. I was a-bout to say
that Oz-ma sent us to wel-come you and in-vite you to come straight to
the Em-er-ald Ci-ty. She was too bus-y to come her-self, for she is
pre-par-ing for her birth-day cel-e-bra-tion, which is to be a grand
af-fair."

"I've heard of it," said Dorothy, "and I'm glad we've come in time to
attend. Is it far from here to the Emerald City?"

"Not ve-ry far," answered Tik-tok, "and we have plen-ty of time.
To-night we will stop at the pal-ace of the Tin Wood-man, and
to-mor-row night we will ar-rive at the Em-er-ald Ci-ty."