"Now Tiktok," said Dorothy, "the
first thing to be done is to
find a way for us to escape from
these rocks. The Wheelers are
down below, you know, and threaten
to kill us."
"There is no rea-son to be
a-fraid of the Wheel-ers," said
Tiktok, the words coming more
slowly than before.
"Why not?" she
asked.
"Be-cause they
are ag-g-g--gr-gr-r-r-"
He gave a sort of gurgle and
stopped short, waving his hands
frantically until suddenly he
became motionless, with one arm
in the air and the other held
stiffly before him with all the
copper fingers of the hand spread
out like a fan.
"Dear me!" said Dorothy, in
a frightened tone. "What can
the matter be?"
"He's run down, I suppose," said
the hen, calmly. "You couldn't
have wound him up very tight."
"I didn't know how much to
wind him," replied the girl; "but
I'll try to do better next time."
She ran around the copper man
to take the key from the peg
at the back of his neck, but
it was not there.
"It's gone!" cried
Dorothy, in dismay.
"What's gone?" asked
Billina.
"The key."
"It probably fell off when
he made that low bow to you," returned
the hen. "Look around, and see
if you cannot find it again."
Dorothy looked, and the hen
helped her, and by and by the
girl discovered the clock-key,
which had fallen into a crack
of the rock.
At once she wound up Tiktok's
voice, taking care to give the
key as many turns as it would
go around. She found this quite
a task, as you may imagine if
you have ever tried to wind a
clock, but the machine man's
first words were to assure Dorothy
that he would now run for at
least twenty-four hours.
"You did not wind me much,
at first," he calmly said, "and
I told you that long sto-ry a-bout
King Ev-ol-do; so it is no won-der
that I ran down."
She next rewound the action
clock-work, and then Billina
advised her to carry the key
to Tiktok in her pocket, so it
would not get lost again.
"And now," said Dorothy, when
all this was accomplished, "tell
me what you were going to say
about the Wheelers."
"Why, they are noth-ing to
be fright-en'd at," said the
machine. "They try to make folks
be-lieve that they are ver-y
ter-ri-ble, but as a mat-ter
of fact the Wheel-ers are harm-less
e-nough to an-y one that dares
to fight them. They might try
to hurt a lit-tle girl like you,
per-haps, be-cause they are ver-y
mis-chiev-ous. But if I had a
club they would run a-way as
soon as they saw me."
"Haven't you a club?" asked
Dorothy.
"No," said
Tiktok.
"And you won't find such a
thing among these rocks, either," declared
the yellow hen.
"Then what shall we do?" asked
the girl.
"Wind up my think-works tight-ly,
and I will try to think of some
oth-er plan," said Tiktok.
So Dorothy rewound his thought
machinery, and while he was thinking
she decided to eat her dinner.
Billina was already pecking away
at the cracks in the rocks, to
find something to eat, so Dorothy
sat down and opened her tin dinner-pail.
In the cover she found a small
tank that was full of very nice
lemonade. It was covered by a
cup, which might also, when removed,
be used to drink the lemonade
from. Within the pail were three
slices of turkey, two slices
of cold tongue, some lobster
salad, four slices of bread and
butter, a small custard pie,
an orange and nine large strawberries,
and some nuts and raisins. Singularly
enough, the nuts in this dinner-pail
grew already cracked, so that
Dorothy had no trouble in picking
out their meats to eat.
She spread
the feast upon the rock beside
her and began her
dinner, first offering some of
it to Tiktok, who declined because,
as he said, he was merely a machine.
Afterward she offered to share
with Billina, but the hen murmured
something about "dead things" and
said she preferred her bugs and
ants.
"Do the lunch-box trees and
the dinner-pail trees belong
to the Wheelers?" the child asked
Tiktok, while engaged in eating
her meal.
"Of course not," he answered. "They
be-long to the roy-al fam-il-y
of Ev, on-ly of course there
is no roy-al fam-il-y just now
be-cause King Ev-ol-do jumped
in-to the sea and his wife and
ten chil-dren have been trans-formed
by the Nome King. So there is
no one to rule the Land of Ev,
that I can think of. Per-haps
it is for this rea-son that the
Wheel-ers claim the trees for
their own, and pick the lunch-eons
and din-ners to eat them-selves.
But they be-long to the King,
and you will find the roy-al "E" stamped
up-on the bot-tom of ev-er-y
din-ner pail."
Dorothy turned the pail over,
and at once discovered the royal
mark upon it, as Tiktok had said.
"Are the Wheelers the only
folks living in the Land of Ev?" enquired
the girl.
"No; they on-ly in-hab-it a
small por-tion of it just back
of the woods," replied the machine. "But
they have al-ways been mis-chiev-ous
and im-per-ti-nent, and my old
mas-ter, King Ev-ol-do, used
to car-ry a whip with him, when
he walked out, to keep the crea-tures
in or-der. When I was first made
the Wheel-ers tried to run o-ver
me, and butt me with their heads;
but they soon found I was built
of too sol-id a ma-ter-i-al for
them to in-jure."
"You seem very durable," said
Dorothy. "Who made you?"
"The firm of Smith & Tin-ker,
in the town of Evna, where the
roy-al pal-ace stands," answered
Tiktok.
"Did they make many of you?" asked
the child.
"No; I am the on-ly au-to-mat-ic
me-chan-i-cal man they ev-er
com-plet-ed," he replied. "They
were ver-y won-der-ful in-ven-tors,
were my mak-ers, and quite ar-tis-tic
in all they did."
"I am sure of that," said Dorothy. "Do
they live in the town of Evna
now?"
"They are both gone," replied
the machine. "Mr. Smith was an
art-ist, as well as an in-vent-or,
and he paint-ed a pic-ture of
a riv-er which was so nat-ur-al
that, as he was reach-ing a-cross
it to paint some flow-ers on
the op-po-site bank, he fell
in-to the wa-ter and was drowned."
"Oh, I'm sorry for that!" exclaimed
the little girl.
"Mis-ter Tin-ker," continued
Tiktok, "made a lad-der so tall
that he could rest the end of
it a-gainst the moon, while he
stood on the high-est rung and
picked the lit-tle stars to set
in the points of the king's crown.
But when he got to the moon Mis-ter
Tin-ker found it such a love-ly
place that he de-cid-ed to live
there, so he pulled up the lad-der
af-ter him and we have nev-er
seen him since."
"He must have been a great
loss to this country," said Dorothy,
who was by this time eating her
custard pie.
"He was," acknowledged Tiktok. "Also
he is a great loss to me. For
if I should get out of or-der
I do not know of an-y one a-ble
to re-pair me, be-cause I am
so com-pli-cat-ed. You have no
i-de-a how full of ma-chin-er-y
I am."
"I can imagine it," said
Dorothy, readily.
"And now," continued the machine, "I
must stop talk-ing and be-gin
think-ing a-gain of a way to
es-cape from this rock." So he
turned half way around, in order
to think without being disturbed.
"The best thinker I ever knew," said
Dorothy to the yellow hen, "was
a scarecrow."
"Nonsense!" snapped
Billina.
"It is true," declared Dorothy. "I
met him in the Land of Oz, and
he traveled with me to the city
of the great Wizard of Oz, so
as to get some brains, for his
head was only stuffed with straw.
But it seemed to me that he thought
just as well before he got his
brains as he did afterward."
"Do you expect me to believe
all that rubbish about the Land
of Oz?" enquired Billina, who
seemed a little cross--perhaps
because bugs were scarce.
"What rubbish?" asked
the child, who was now finishing
her nuts
and raisins.
"Why, your
impossible stories about animals
that can talk,
and a tin woodman who is alive,
and a scarecrow who can think."
"They are all there," said
Dorothy, "for I have seen them."
"I don't believe it!" cried
the hen, with a toss of her head.
"That's 'cause you're so ign'rant," replied
the girl, who was a little offended
at her friend Billina's speech.
"In the Land of Oz," remarked
Tiktok, turning toward them, "an-y-thing
is pos-si-ble. For it is a won-der-ful
fair-y coun-try."
"There, Billina! what did I
say?" cried Dorothy. And then
she turned to the machine and
asked in an eager tone: "Do you
know the Land of Oz, Tiktok?"
"No; but I have heard a-bout
it," said the cop-per man. "For
it is on-ly sep-a-ra-ted from
this Land of Ev by a broad des-ert."
Dorothy clapped her hands together
delightedly.
"I'm glad of that!" she exclaimed. "It
makes me quite happy to be so
near my old friends. The scarecrow
I told you of, Billina, is the
King of the Land of Oz."
"Par-don me. He is not the
king now," said Tiktok.
"He was when I left there," declared
Dorothy.
"I know," said Tiktok, "but
there was a rev-o-lu-tion in
the Land of Oz, and the Scare-crow
was de-posed by a sol-dier wo-man
named Gen-er-al Jin-jur. And
then Jin-jur was de-posed by
a lit-tle girl named Oz-ma, who
was the right-ful heir to the
throne and now rules the land
un-der the ti-tle of Oz-ma of
Oz."
"That is news to me," said
Dorothy, thoughtfully. "But I
s'pose lots of things have happened
since I left the Land of Oz.
I wonder what has become of the
Scarecrow, and of the Tin Woodman,
and the Cowardly Lion. And I
wonder who this girl Ozma is,
for I never heard of her before."
But Tiktok did not reply to
this. He had turned around again
to resume his thinking.
Dorothy packed the rest of
the food back into the pail,
so as not to be wasteful of good
things, and the yellow hen forgot
her dignity far enough to pick
up all of the scattered crumbs,
which she ate rather greedily,
although she had so lately pretended
to despise the things that Dorothy
preferred as food.
By this time Tiktok approached
them with his stiff bow.
"Be kind e-nough to fol-low
me," he said, "and I will lead
you a-way from here to the town
of Ev-na, where you will be more
com-for-ta-ble, and al-so I will
pro-tect you from the Wheel-ers."
"All right," answered Dorothy,
promptly. "I'm ready!"
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