Chapter Twenty-One
Polychrome's Magic
On this morning, which ought to be the last of this important journey,our friends started away as bright and cheery as could be, and Wootwhistled a merry tune so that Polychrome could dance to the music.
On reaching the top of the hill, the plain spread out before them inall its beauty of blue grasses and wildflowers, and Mount Munch seemedmuch nearer than it had the previous evening. They trudged on at abrisk pace, and by noon the mountain was so close that they couldadmire its appearance. Its slopes were partly clothed with prettyevergreens, and its foot-hills were tufted with a slender wavingbluegrass that had a tassel on the end of every blade. And, for thefirst time, they perceived, near the foot of the mountain, a charminghouse, not of great size but neatly painted and with many flowerssurrounding it and vines climbing over the doors and windows.
It was toward this solitary house that our travelers now directed theirsteps, thinking to inquire of the people who lived there where NimmieAmee might be found.
There were no paths, but the way was quite open and clear, and theywere drawing near to the dwelling when Woot the Wanderer, who was thenin the lead of the little party, halted with such an abrupt jerk thathe stumbled over backward and lay flat on his back in the meadow. TheScarecrow stopped to look at the boy.
"Why did you do that?" he asked in surprise.
Woot sat up and gazed around him in amazement.
"I--I don't know!" he replied.
The two tin men, arm in arm, started to pass them when both halted andtumbled, with a great clatter, into a heap beside Woot. Polychrome,laughing at the absurd sight, came dancing up and she, also, came to asudden stop, but managed to save herself from falling.
Everyone of them was much astonished, and the Scarecrow said with apuzzled look:
"I don't see anything."
"Nor I," said Woot; "but something hit me, just the same."
"Some invisible person struck me a heavy blow," declared the TinWoodman, struggling to separate himself from the Tin Soldier, whoselegs and arms were mixed with his own.
"I'm not sure it was a person," said Polychrome, looking more gravethan usual. "It seems to me that I merely ran into some hard substancewhich barred my way. In order to make sure of this, let me try anotherplace."
She ran back a way and then with much caution advanced in a differentplace, but when she reached a position on a line with the others shehalted, her arms outstretched before her.
"I can feel something hard--something smooth as glass," she said, "butI'm sure it is not glass."
"Let me try," suggested Woot, getting up; but when he tried to goforward, he discovered the same barrier that Polychrome had encountered.
"No," he said, "it isn't glass. But what is it?"
"Air," replied a small voice beside him. "Solid air; that's all."
They all looked downward and found a sky-blue rabbit had stuck his headout of a burrow in the ground. The rabbit's eyes were a deeper bluethan his fur, and the pretty creature seemed friendly and unafraid.
"Air!" exclaimed Woot, staring in astonishment into the rabbit's blueeyes; "whoever heard of air so solid that one cannot push it aside?"
"You can't push this air aside," declared the rabbit, "for it was madehard by powerful sorcery, and it forms a wall that is intended to keeppeople from getting to that house yonder."
"Oh; it's a wall, is it?" said the Tin Woodman.
"Yes, it is really a wall," answered the rabbit, "and it is fully sixfeet thick."
"How high is it?" inquired Captain Fyter, the Tin Soldier.
"Oh, ever so high; perhaps a mile," said the rabbit.
"Couldn't we go around it?" asked Woot.
"Of course, for the wall is a circle," explained the rabbit. "In thecenter of the circle stands the house, so you may walk around the Wallof Solid Air, but you can't get to the house."
"Who put the air wall around the house?" was the Scarecrow's question.
"Nimmie Amee did that."
"Nimmie Amee!" they all exclaimed in surprise.
"Yes," answered the rabbit. "She used to live with an old Witch, whowas suddenly destroyed, and when Nimmie Amee ran away from the Witch'shouse, she took with her just one magic formula--pure sorcery itwas--which enabled her to build this air wall around her house--thehouse yonder. It was quite a clever idea, I think, for it doesn't marthe beauty of the landscape, solid air being invisible, and yet itkeeps all strangers away from the house."
"Does Nimmie Amee live there now?" asked the Tin Woodman anxiously.
"Yes, indeed," said the rabbit.
"And does she weep and wail from morning till night?" continued theEmperor.
"No; she seems quite happy," asserted the rabbit.
The Tin Woodman seemed quite disappointed to hear this report of hisold sweetheart, but the Scarecrow reassured his friend, saying:
"Never mind, your Majesty; however happy Nimmie Amee is now, I'm sureshe will be much happier as Empress of the Winkies."
"Perhaps," said Captain Fyter, somewhat stiffly, "she will be stillmore happy to become the bride of a Tin Soldier."
"She shall choose between us, as we have agreed," the Tin Woodmanpromised; "but how shall we get to the poor girl?"
Polychrome, although dancing lightly back and forth, had listened toevery word of the conversation. Now she came forward and sat herselfdown just in front of the Blue Rabbit, her many-hued draperies givingher the appearance of some beautiful flower. The rabbit didn't backaway an inch. Instead, he gazed at the Rainbow's Daughter admiringly.
"Does your burrow go underneath this Wall of Air?" asked Polychrome.
"To be sure," answered the Blue Rabbit; "I dug it that way so I couldroam in these broad fields, by going out one way, or eat the cabbagesin Nimmie Amee's garden by leaving my burrow at the other end. I don'tthink Nimmie Amee ought to mind the little I take from her garden, orthe hole I've made under her magic wall. A rabbit may go and come as hepleases, but no one who is bigger than I am could get through myburrow."
"Will you allow us to pass through it, if we are able to?" inquiredPolychrome.
"Yes, indeed," answered the Blue Rabbit. "I'm no especial friend ofNimmie Amee, for once she threw stones at me, just because I wasnibbling some lettuce, and only yesterday she yelled 'Shoo!' at me,which made me nervous. You're welcome to use my burrow in any way youchoose."
"But this is all nonsense!" declared Woot the Wanderer. "We are everyone too big to crawl through a rabbit's burrow."
"We are too big now," agreed the Scarecrow, "but you must remember thatPolychrome is a fairy, and fairies have many magic powers."
Woot's face brightened as he turned to the lovely Daughter of theRainbow.
"Could you make us all as small as that rabbit?" he asked eagerly.
"I can try," answered Polychrome, with a smile. And presently she didit--so easily that Woot was not the only one astonished. As the nowtiny people grouped themselves before the rabbit's burrow the holeappeared to them like the entrance to a tunnel, which indeed it was.
"I'll go first," said wee Polychrome, who had made herself grow assmall as the others, and into the tunnel she danced without hesitation.A tiny Scarecrow went next and then the two funny little tin men.
"Walk in; it's your turn," said the Blue Rabbit to Woot the Wanderer."I'm coming after, to see how you get along. This will be a regularsurprise party to Nimmie Amee."
So Woot entered the hole and felt his way along its smooth sides in thedark until he finally saw the glimmer of daylight ahead and knew thejourney was almost over. Had he remained his natural size, the distancecould have been covered in a few steps, but to a thumb-high Woot it wasquite a promenade. When he emerged from the burrow he found himself buta short distance from the house, in the center of the vegetable garden,where the leaves of rhubarb waving above his head seemed like trees.Outside the hole, and waiting for him, he found all his friends.
"So far, so good!" remarked the Scarecrow ch
eerfully.
"Yes; so far, but no farther," returned the Tin Woodman in a plaintiveand disturbed tone of voice. "I am now close to Nimmie Amee, whom Ihave come ever so far to seek, but I cannot ask the girl to marry sucha little man as I am now."
"I'm no bigger than a toy soldier!" said Captain Fyter, sorrowfully."Unless Polychrome can make us big again, there is little use in ourvisiting Nimmie Amee at all, for I'm sure she wouldn't care for ahusband she might carelessly step on and ruin."
Polychrome laughed merrily.
"If I make you big, you can't get out of here again," said she, "and ifyou remain little Nimmie Amee will laugh at you. So make your choice."
"I think we'd better go back," said Woot seriously
"No," said the Tin Woodman, stoutly, "I have decided that it's my dutyto make Nimmie Amee happy, in case she wishes to marry me."
"So have I," announced Captain Fyter. "A good soldier never shrinksfrom doing his duty."
"As for that," said the Scarecrow, "tin doesn't shrink any to speak of,under any circumstances. But Woot and I intend to stick to ourcomrades, whatever they decide to do, so we will ask Polychrome to makeus as big as we were before."
Polychrome agreed to this request and in half a minute all of them,including herself, had been enlarged again to their natural sizes. Theythen thanked the Blue Rabbit for his kind assistance, and at onceapproached the house of Nimme Amee.
The Tin Woodman of Oz Page 21