Toto Loses Something
CHAPTER 10
For a while the travelers were constantly losing their direction, forbeyond the thistle fields they again found themselves upon theturning-lands, which swung them around in such a freakish manner thatfirst they were headed one way and then another. But by keeping the Cityof Thi constantly behind them the adventurers finally passed thetreacherous turning-lands and came upon a stony country where no grassgrew at all. There were plenty of bushes, however, and although it wasnow almost dark the girls discovered some delicious yellow berriesgrowing upon the bushes, one taste of which set them all to picking asmany as they could find. The berries relieved their pangs of hunger, fora time, and as it now became too dark to see anything they camped wherethey were.
The three girls lay down upon one of the blankets--all in a row--andthen the Wizard covered them with the other blanket and tucked them in.Button-Bright crawled under the shelter of some bushes and was asleep inhalf a minute. The Wizard sat down with his back to a big stone andlooked at the stars in the sky and thought gravely upon the dangerousadventure they had undertaken, wondering if they would ever be able tofind their beloved Ozma again. The animals lay in a group by themselves,a little distance from the others.
"I've lost my growl!" said Toto, who had been very silent and sober allthat day. "What do you suppose has become of it?"
"If you had asked me to keep track of your growl, I might be able totell you," remarked the Lion sleepily. "But, frankly, Toto, I supposedyou were taking care of it yourself."
"It's an awful thing to lose one's growl," said Toto, wagging his taildisconsolately. "What if you lost your roar, Lion? Wouldn't you feelterrible?"
"My roar," replied the Lion, "is the fiercest thing about me. I dependon it to frighten my enemies so badly that they won't dare to fight me."
"Once," said the Mule, "I lost my bray, so that I couldn't call to Betsyto let her know I was hungry. That was before I could talk, you know,for I had not yet come into the Land of Oz, and I found it was certainlyvery uncomfortable not to be able to make a noise."
"You make enough noise now," declared Toto. "But none of you hasanswered my question: Where is my growl?"
"You may search _me_" said the Woozy. "I don't care for such thingsmyself."
"You snore terribly," asserted Toto.
"It may be," said the Woozy. "What one does when asleep one is notaccountable for. I wish you would wake me up, some time when I'msnoring, and let me hear the sound. Then I can judge whether it isterrible or delightful."
"It isn't pleasant, I assure you," said the Lion, yawning.
"To me it seems wholly unnecessary," declared Hank the Mule.
"You ought to break yourself of the habit," said the Sawhorse. "Younever hear me snore, because I never sleep. I don't even whinny, asthose puffy meat horses do. I wish that whoever stole Toto's growl hadtaken the Mule's bray and the Lion's roar and the Woozy's snore at thesame time."
"Do you think, then, that my growl was stolen?"
"You have never lost it before, have you?" inquired the Sawhorse.
"Only once, when I had a sore throat from barking too long at the moon."
"Is your throat sore now?" asked the Woozy.
"No," replied the dog.
"I can't understand," said Hank, "why dogs bark at the moon. They can'tscare the moon, and the moon doesn't pay any attention to the bark. Sowhy do dogs do it?"
"Were you ever a dog?" asked Toto.
"No, indeed," replied Hank. "I am thankful to say I was created amule--the most beautiful of all beasts--and have always remained one."
The Woozy sat upon his square haunches to examine Hank with care.
"Beauty," said he, "must be a matter of taste. I don't say your judgmentis bad, friend Hank, or that you are so vulgar as to be conceited. Butif you admire big waggly ears, and a tail like a paint-brush, and hoofsbig enough for an elephant, and a long neck and a body so skinny thatone can count the ribs with one eye shut--if that's your idea of beauty,Hank--then either you or I must be much mistaken."
"You're full of edges," sneered the Mule. "If I were square, as you are,I suppose you'd think me lovely."
"Outwardly, dear Hank, I would," replied the Woozy. "But to be reallylovely one must be beautiful without and within."
The Mule couldn't deny this statement, so he gave a disgusted grunt androlled over so that his back was toward the Woozy. But the Lion,regarding the two calmly with his great yellow eyes, said to the dog:
"My dear Toto, our friends have taught us a lesson in humility. If theWoozy and the Mule are indeed beautiful creatures, as they seem tothink, you and I must be decidedly ugly."
"Not to ourselves," protested Toto, who was a shrewd little dog. "Youand I, Lion, are fine specimens of our own races. I am a fine dog andyou are a fine lion. Only in point of comparison, one with another, canwe be properly judged, so I will leave it to the poor old Sawhorse todecide which is the most beautiful animal among us all. The Sawhorse iswood, so he won't be prejudiced and will speak the truth."
"I surely will," responded the Sawhorse, wagging his ears, which werechips set in his wooden head. "Are you all agreed to accept myjudgment?"
"We are!" they declared, each one hopeful.
"Then," said the Sawhorse, "I must point out to you the fact that youare all meat creatures, who tire unless they sleep, and starve unlessthey eat, and suffer from thirst unless they drink. Such animals must bevery imperfect, and imperfect creatures cannot be beautiful. Now, _I_ ammade of wood."
"You surely have a wooden head," said the Mule.
"Yes, and a wooden body and wooden legs--which are as swift as the windand as tireless. I've heard Dorothy say that 'handsome is as handsomedoes,' and I surely perform my duties in a handsome manner. Therefore,if you wish my honest judgment, I will confess that among us all I amthe most beautiful."
The Mule snorted and the Woozy laughed; Toto had lost his growl andcould only look scornfully at the Sawhorse, who stood in his placeunmoved. But the Lion stretched himself and yawned, saying quietly:
"Were we all like the Sawhorse we would all be Sawhorses, which would betoo many of the kind; were we all like Hank, we would be a herd ofmules; if like Toto, we would be a pack of dogs; should we all becomethe shape of the Woozy, he would no longer be remarkable for his unusualappearance. Finally, were you all like me, I would consider you socommon that I would not care to associate with you. To be individual, myfriends, to be different from others, is the only way to becomedistinguished from the common herd. Let us be glad, therefore, that wediffer from one another in form and in disposition. Variety is the spiceof life and we are various enough to enjoy one another's society; so letus be content."
"There is some truth in that speech," remarked Toto reflectively. "Buthow about my lost growl?"
"The growl is of importance only to you," responded the Lion, "so it isyour business to worry over the loss, not ours. If you love us, do notinflict your burdens on us; be unhappy all by yourself."
"If the same person stole my growl who stole Ozma," said the little dog,"I hope we shall find him very soon and punish him as he deserves. Hemust be the most cruel person in all the world, for to prevent a dogfrom growling when it is his nature to growl is just as wicked, in myopinion, as stealing all the magic in Oz."
The Lost Princess of Oz Page 11