“Now,” said the Wizard,
“we must start for home. But how are we
going to carry that big gold flower-pot? Cap’n
Bill can’t lug it all the way, that’s
certain.”
“No,” acknowledged the
sailor-man; “it’s pretty heavy. I
could carry it for a little while, but I’d have
to stop to rest every few minutes.”
“Couldn’t we put it on
your back?” Dorothy asked the Cowardly Lion,
with a good-natured yawn.
“I don’t object to carrying
it, if you can fasten it on,” answered the Lion.
“If it falls off,” said
Trot, “it might get smashed an’ be ruined.”
“I’ll fix it,” promised
Cap’n Bill. “I’ll make a flat
board out of one of these tree trunks, an’ tie
the board on the lion’s back, an’ set the
flower-pot on the board.” He set to work
at once to do this, but as he only had his big knife
for a tool his progress was slow.
So the Wizard took from his black
bag a tiny saw that shone like silver and said to
it:
“Saw, Little Saw, come show your
power;
Make us a board for the Magic Flower.”
And at once the Little Saw began to
move and it sawed the log so fast that those who watched
it work were astonished. It seemed to understand,
too, just what the board was to be used for, for when
it was completed it was flat on top and hollowed beneath
in such a manner that it exactly fitted the Lion’s
back.
“That beats whittlin’!”
exclaimed Cap’n Bill, admiringly. “You
don’t happen to have two o’ them
saws; do you, Wizard?”
“No,” replied the Wizard,
wiping the Magic Saw carefully with his silk handkerchief
and putting it back in the black bag. “It’s
the only saw of its kind in the world; and if there
were more like it, it wouldn’t be so wonderful.”
They now tied the board on the Lion’s
back, flat side up, and Cap’n Bill carefully
placed the Magic Flower on the board.
“For fear o’ accidents,”
he said, “I’ll walk beside the Lion and
hold onto the flower-pot.”
Trot and Dorothy could both ride on
the back of the Hungry Tiger, and between them they
carried the cage of monkeys. But this arrangement
left the Wizard, as well as the sailor, to make the
journey on foot, and so the procession moved slowly
and the Glass Cat grumbled because it would take so
long to get to the Emerald City.
The Cat was sour-tempered and grumpy,
at first, but before they had journeyed far, the crystal
creature had discovered a fine amusement. The
long tails of the monkeys were constantly sticking
through the bars of their cage, and when they did,
the Glass Cat would slyly seize the tails in her paws
and pull them. That made the monkeys scream,
and their screams pleased the Glass Cat immensely.
Trot and Dorothy tried to stop this naughty amusement,
but when they were not looking the Cat would pull
the tails again, and the creature was so sly and quick
that the monkeys could seldom escape. They scolded
the Cat angrily and shook the bars of their cage,
but they could not get out and the Cat only laughed
at them.
After the party had left the forest
and were on the plains of the Munchkin Country, it
grew dark, and they were obliged to make camp for
the night, choosing a pretty place beside a brook.
By means of his magic the Wizard created three tents,
pitched in a row on the grass and nicely fitted with
all that was needful for the comfort of his comrades.
The middle tent was for Dorothy and Trot, and had
in it two cosy white beds and two chairs. Another
tent, also with beds and chairs, was for the Wizard
and Cap’n Bill, while the third tent was for
the Hungry Tiger, the Cowardly Lion, the cage of Monkeys
and the Glass Cat. Outside the tents the Wizard
made a fire and placed over it a magic kettle from
which he presently drew all sorts of nice things for
their supper, smoking hot.
After they had eaten and talked together
for a while under the twinkling stars, they all went
to bed and the people were soon asleep. The Lion
and the Tiger had almost fallen asleep, too, when they
were roused by the screams of the monkeys, for the
Glass Cat was pulling their tails again. Annoyed
by the uproar, the Hungry Tiger cried: “Stop
that racket!” and getting sight of the Glass
Cat, he raised his big paw and struck at the creature.
The cat was quick enough to dodge the blow, but the
claws of the Hungry Tiger scraped the monkey’s
cage and bent two of the bars.
Then the Tiger lay down again to sleep,
but the monkeys soon discovered that the bending of
the bars would allow them to squeeze through.
They did not leave the cage, however, but after whispering
together they let their tails stick out and all remained
quiet. Presently the Glass Cat stole near the
cage again and gave a yank to one of the tails.
Instantly the monkeys leaped through the bars, one
after another, and although they were so small the
entire dozen of them surrounded the Glass Cat and
clung to her claws and tail and ears and made her a
prisoner. Then they forced her out of the tent
and down to the banks of the stream. The monkeys
had noticed that these banks were covered with thick,
slimy mud of a dark blue color, and when they had taken
the Cat to the stream, they smeared this mud all over
the glass body of the cat, filling the creature’s
ears and eyes with it, so that she could neither see
nor hear. She was no longer transparent and so
thick was the mud upon her that no one could see her
pink brains or her ruby heart.
In this condition they led the pussy
back to the tent and then got inside their cage again.
By morning the mud had dried hard
on the Glass Cat and it was a dull blue color throughout.
Dorothy and Trot were horrified, but the Wizard shook
his head and said it served the Glass Cat right for
teasing the monkeys.
Cap’n Bill, with his strong
hands, soon bent the golden wires of the monkeys’
cage into the proper position and then he asked the
Wizard if he should wash the Glass Cat in the water
of the brook.
“Not just yet,” answered
the Wizard. “The Cat deserves to be punished,
so I think I’ll leave that blue mud which
is as bad as paint upon her body until
she gets to the Emerald City. The silly creature
is so vain that she will be greatly shamed when the
Oz people see her in this condition, and perhaps she’ll
take the lesson to heart and leave the monkeys alone
hereafter.”
However, the Glass Cat could not see
or hear, and to avoid carrying her on the journey
the Wizard picked the mud out of her eyes and ears
and Dorothy dampened her handkerchief and washed both
the eyes and ears clean.
As soon as she could speak the Glass
Cat asked indignantly: “Aren’t you
going to punish those monkeys for playing such a trick
on me?”
“No,” answered the Wizard.
“You played a trick on them by pulling their
tails, so this is only tit-for-tat, and I’m glad
the monkeys had their revenge.”
He wouldn’t allow the Glass
Cat to go near the water, to wash herself, but made
her follow them when they resumed their journey toward
the Emerald City.
“This is only part of your punishment,”
said the Wizard, severely. “Ozma will laugh
at you, when we get to her palace, and so will the
Scarecrow, and the Tin Woodman, and Tik-Tok, and the
Shaggy Man, and Button-Bright, and the Patchwork Girl,
and ”
“And the Pink Kitten,” added Dorothy.
That suggestion hurt the Glass Cat
more than anything else. The Pink Kitten always
quarreled with the Glass Cat and insisted that flesh
was superior to glass, while the Glass Cat would jeer
at the Pink Kitten, because it had no pink brains.
But the pink brains were all daubed with blue mud,
just now, and if the Pink Kitten should see the Glass
Cat in such a condition, it would be dreadfully humiliating.
For several hours the Glass Cat walked
along very meekly, but toward noon it seized an opportunity
when no one was looking and darted away through the
long grass. It remembered that there was a tiny
lake of pure water near by, and to this lake the Cat
sped as fast as it could go.
The others never missed her until
they stopped for lunch, and then it was too late to
hunt for her.
“I s’pect she’s
gone somewhere to clean herself,” said Dorothy.
“Never mind,” replied
the Wizard. “Perhaps this glass creature
has been punished enough, and we must not forget she
saved both Trot and Cap’n Bill.”
“After first leading ’em
onto an enchanted island,” added Dorothy.
“But I think, as you do, that the Glass Cat is
punished enough, and p’raps she won’t
try to pull the monkeys’ tails again.”
The Glass Cat did not rejoin the party
of travelers. She was still resentful, and they
moved too slowly to suit her, besides. When they
arrived at the Royal Palace, one of the first things
they saw was the Glass Cat curled up on a bench as
bright and clean and transparent as ever. But
she pretended not to notice them, and they passed her
by without remark.