_How_ THEY ENCOUNTERED THE FLUTTERBUDGETS
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
They were soon among the pretty hills and valleys again, and theSawhorse sped up hill and down at a fast and easy pace, the roads beinghard and smooth. Mile after mile was speedily covered, and before theride had grown at all tiresome they sighted another village. The placeseemed even larger than Rigmarole Town, but was not so attractive inappearance.
"This must be Flutterbudget Center," declared the Wizard. "You see, it'sno trouble at all to find places if you keep to the right road."
"What are the Flutterbudgets like?" inquired Dorothy.
"I do not know, my dear. But Ozma has given them a town all their own,and I've heard that whenever one of the people becomes a Flutterbudgethe is sent to this place to live."
"That is true," Omby Amby added; "Flutterbudget Center and RigmaroleTown are called 'the Defensive Settlements of Oz.'"
The village they now approached was not built in a valley, but on top ofa hill, and the road they followed wound around the hill like acorkscrew, ascending the hill easily until it came to the town.
"Look out!" screamed a voice. "Look out, or you'll run over my child!"
They gazed around and saw a woman standing upon the sidewalk nervouslywringing her hands as she gazed at them appealingly.
"Where is your child?" asked the Sawhorse.
"In the house," said the woman, bursting into tears; "but if it shouldhappen to be in the road, and you ran over it, those great wheels wouldcrush my darling to jelly. Oh, dear! oh dear! Think of my darling childbeing crushed to jelly by those great wheels!"
"Gid-dap!" said the Wizard, sharply, and the Sawhorse started on.
They had not gone far before a man ran out of a house shouting wildly:"Help! Help!"
The Sawhorse stopped short and the Wizard and Uncle Henry and the ShaggyMan and Omby Amby jumped out of the wagon and ran to the poor man'sassistance. Dorothy followed them as quickly as she could.
"What's the matter?" asked the Wizard.
"Help! help!" screamed the man; "my wife has cut her finger off andshe's bleeding to death!"
Then he turned and rushed back to the house, and all the party went withhim. They found a woman in the front dooryard moaning and groaning as ifin great pain.
"Be brave, madam!" said the Wizard, consolingly. "You won't die justbecause you have cut off a finger, you may be sure."
"But I haven't cut off a finger!" she sobbed.
"BUT I HAVEN'T CUT OFF A FINGER," SHE SOBBED.]
"Then what _has_ happened?" asked Dorothy.
"I--I pricked my finger with a needle while I was sewing, and--and theblood came!" she replied. "And now I'll have blood-poisoning, and thedoctors will cut off my finger, and that will give me a fever and Ishall die!"
"Pshaw!" said Dorothy; "I've pricked my finger many a time, and nothinghappened."
"Really?" asked the woman, brightening and wiping her eyes upon herapron.
"Why, it's nothing at all," declared the girl. "You're more scared thanhurt."
"Ah, that's because she's a Flutterbudget," said the Wizard, noddingwisely. "I think I know now what these people are like."
"So do I," announced Dorothy.
"Oh, boo-hoo-hoo!" sobbed the woman, giving way to a fresh burst ofgrief.
"What's wrong now?" asked the Shaggy Man.
"Oh, suppose I had pricked my foot!" she wailed. "Then the doctors wouldhave cut my foot off, and I'd be lamed for life!"
"Surely, ma'am," replied the Wizard, "and if you'd pricked your nosethey might cut your head off. But you see you didn't."
"But I might have!" she exclaimed, and began to cry again. So they lefther and drove away in their wagon. And her husband came out and begancalling "Help!" as he had before; but no one seemed to pay any attentionto him.
As the travelers turned into another street they found a man walkingexcitedly up and down the pavement. He appeared to be in a very nervouscondition and the Wizard stopped him to ask:
"Is anything wrong, sir?"
"Everything is wrong," answered the man, dismally. "I can't sleep."
"Why not?" inquired Omby Amby.
"If I go to sleep I'll have to shut my eyes," he explained; "and if Ishut my eyes they may grow together, and then I'd be blind for life!"
"Did you ever hear of any one's eyes growing together?" asked Dorothy.
"No," said the man, "I never did. But it would be a dreadful thing,wouldn't it? And the thought of it makes me so nervous I'm afraid to goto sleep."
"There's no help for this case," declared the Wizard; and they went on.
At the next street corner a woman rushed up to them crying:
"Save my baby! Oh, good, kind people, save my baby!"
"Is it in danger?" asked Dorothy, noticing that the child was clasped inher arms and seemed sleeping peacefully.
"Yes, indeed," said the woman, nervously. "If I should go into the houseand throw my child out of the window, it would roll way down to thebottom of the hill; and then if there were a lot of tigers and bearsdown there, they would tear my darling babe to pieces and eat it up!"
"Are there any tigers and bears in this neighborhood?" the Wizard asked.
"I've never heard of any," admitted the woman; "but if there were--"
"Have you any idea of throwing your baby out of the window?" questionedthe little man.
"None at all," she said; "but if--"
"All your troubles are due to those 'ifs'," declared the Wizard. "If youwere not a Flutterbudget you wouldn't worry."
"There's another 'if'," replied the woman. "Are you a Flutterbudget,too?"
"I will be, if I stay here long," exclaimed the Wizard, nervously.
"Another 'if'!" cried the woman.
But the Wizard did not stop to argue with her. He made the Sawhorsecanter all the way down the hill, and only breathed easily when theywere miles away from the village.
After they had ridden in silence for a while Dorothy turned to thelittle man and asked:
"Do 'ifs' really make Flutterbudgets?"
"I think the 'ifs' help," he answered seriously. "Foolish fears, andworries over nothing, with a mixture of nerves and ifs, will soon make aFlutterbudget of any one."
Then there was another long silence, for all the travelers were thinkingover this statement, and nearly all decided it must be true.
The country they were now passing through was everywhere tinted purple,the prevailing color of the Gillikin Country; but as the Sawhorseascended a hill they found that upon the other side everything was of arich yellow hue.
"Aha!" cried the Captain General; "here is the Country of the Winkies.We are just crossing the boundary line."
"Then we may be able to lunch with the Tin Woodman," announced theWizard, joyfully.
"Must we lunch on tin?" asked Aunt Em.
"Oh, no;" replied Dorothy. "Nick Chopper knows how to feed meat people,and he will give us plenty of good things to eat, never fear. I've beento his castle before."
"Is Nick Chopper the Tin Woodman's name?" asked Uncle Henry.
"Yes; that's one of his names," answered the little girl; "and anotherof his names is 'Emp'ror of the Winkies.' He's the King of this country,you know, but Ozma rules over all the countries of Oz."
"Does the Tin Woodman keep any Flutterbudgets or Rigmaroles at hiscastle?" inquired Aunt Em, uneasily.
"No, indeed," said Dorothy, positively. "He lives in a new tin castle,all full of lovely things."
"I should think it would rust," said Uncle Henry.
"He has thousands of Winkies to keep it polished for him," explained theWizard. "His people love to do anything in their power for their belovedEmperor, so there isn't a particle of rust on all the big castle."
"I suppose they polish their Emperor, too," said Aunt Em.
"Why, some time ago he had himself nickel-plated," the Wizard answered;"so he only needs rubbing up once in a while. He's the brightest man inall the world, is dear Nick
Chopper; and the kindest-hearted."
"I helped find him," said Dorothy, reflectively. "Once the Scarecrow andI found the Tin Woodman in the woods, and he was just rusted still, thattime, an' no mistake. But we oiled his joints, an' got 'em good andslippery, and after that he went with us to visit the Wizard at theEm'rald City."
"Was that the time the Wizard scared you?" asked Aunt Em.
"He didn't treat us well, at first," acknowledged Dorothy; "for he madeus go away and destroy the Wicked Witch. But after we found out he wasonly a humbug wizard we were not afraid of him."
The Wizard sighed and looked a little ashamed.
"When we try to deceive people we always make mistakes," he said. "ButI'm getting to be a real wizard now, and Glinda the Good's magic, that Iam trying to practice, can never harm any one."
"You were always a good man," declared Dorothy, "even when you were abad wizard."
"He's a good wizard now," asserted Aunt Em, looking at the little manadmiringly. "The way he made those tents grow out of handkerchiefs wasjust wonderful! And didn't he enchant the wagon wheels so they'd findthe road?"
"All the people of Oz," said the Captain General, "are very proud oftheir Wizard. He once made some soap-bubbles that astonished the world."
The Wizard blushed at this praise, yet it pleased him. He no longerlooked sad, but seemed to have recovered his usual good humor.
The country through which they now rode was thickly dotted withfarmhouses, and yellow grain waved in all the fields. Many of theWinkies could be seen working on their farms and the wild and unsettledparts of Oz were by this time left far behind.
These Winkies appeared to be happy, light-hearted folk, and all removedtheir caps and bowed low when the red wagon with its load of travelerspassed by.
It was not long before they saw something glittering in the sunshine farahead.
"See!" cried Dorothy; "that's the Tin Castle, Aunt Em!"
And the Sawhorse, knowing his passengers were eager to arrive, brokeinto a swift trot that soon brought them to their destination.
The Emerald City of Oz Page 24