Chapter Twenty-Two
Nimmie Amee
We may be sure that at this moment our friends were all anxious to seethe end of the adventure that had caused them so many trials andtroubles. Perhaps the Tin Woodman's heart did not beat any faster,because it was made of red velvet and stuffed with sawdust, and the TinSoldier's heart was made of tin and reposed in his tin bosom without ahint of emotion. However, there is little doubt that they both knewthat a critical moment in their lives had arrived, and that NimmieAmee's decision was destined to influence the future of one or theother.
As they assumed their natural sizes and the rhubarb leaves that hadbefore towered above their heads now barely covered their feet, theylooked around the garden and found that no person was visible savethemselves. No sound of activity came from the house, either, but theywalked to the front door, which had a little porch built before it, andthere the two tinmen stood side by side while both knocked upon thedoor with their tin knuckles.
As no one seemed eager to answer the summons they knocked again; andthen again. Finally they heard a stir from within and someone coughed.
"Who's there?" called a girl's voice.
"It's I!" cried the tin twins, together.
"How did you get there?" asked the voice.
They hesitated how to reply, so Woot answered for them:
"By means of magic."
"Oh," said the unseen girl. "Are you friends, or foes?"
"Friends!" they all exclaimed.
Then they heard footsteps approach the door, which slowly opened andrevealed a very pretty Munchkin girl standing in the doorway.
"Nimmie Amee!" cried the tin twins.
"That's my name," replied the girl, looking at them in cold surprise."But who can you be?"
"Don't you know me, Nimmie?" said the Tin Woodman. "I'm your oldsweetheart, Nick Chopper!"
"Don't you know me, my dear?" said the Tin Soldier. "I'm your oldsweetheart, Captain Fyter!"
Nimmie Amee smiled at them both. Then she looked beyond them at therest of the party and smiled again. However, she seemed more amusedthan pleased.
"Come in," she said, leading the way inside. "Even sweethearts areforgotten after a time, but you and your friends are welcome."
The room they now entered was cosy and comfortable, being neatlyfurnished and well swept and dusted. But they found someone therebesides Nimmie Amee. A man dressed in the attractive Munchkin costumewas lazily reclining in an easy chair, and he sat up and turned hiseves on the visitors with a cold and indifferent stare that was almostinsolent. He did not even rise from his seat to greet the strangers,but after glaring at them he looked away with a scowl, as if they wereof too little importance to interest him.
The tin men returned this man's stare with interest, but they did notlook away from him because neither of them seemed able to take his eyesoff this Munchkin, who was remarkable in having one tin arm quite liketheir own tin arms.
"Seems to me," said Captain Fyter, in a voice that sounded harsh andindignant, "that you, sir, are a vile impostor!"
"Gently--gently!" cautioned the Scarecrow; "don't be rude to strangers,Captain."
"Rude?" shouted the Tin Soldier, now very much provoked; "why, he's ascoundrel--a thief! The villain is wearing my own head!"
"Yes," added the Tin Woodman, "and he's wearing my right arm! I canrecognize it by the two warts on the little finger."
"Good gracious!" exclaimed Woot. "Then this must be the man whom oldKu-Klip patched together and named Chopfyt."
The man now turned toward them, still scowling.
"Yes, that is my name," he said in a voice like a growl, "and it isabsurd for you tin creatures, or for anyone else, to claim my head, orarm, or any part of me, for they are my personal property."
"You? You're a Nobody!" shouted Captain Fyter.
"You're just a mix-up," declared the Emperor.
"Now, now, gentlemen," interrupted Nimmie Amee, "I must ask you to bemore respectful to poor Chopfyt. For, being my guests, it is not politefor you to insult my husband."
"Your husband!" the tin twins exclaimed in dismay.
"Yes," said she. "I married Chopfyt a long time ago, because my othertwo sweethearts had deserted me."
This reproof embarrassed both Nick Chopper and Captain Fyter. Theylooked down, shamefaced, for a moment, and then the Tin Woodmanexplained in an earnest voice:
"I rusted."
"So did I," said the Tin Soldier.
"I could not know that, of course," asserted Nimmie Amee. "All I knewwas that neither of you came to marry me, as you had promised to do.But men are not scarce in the Land of Oz. After I came here to live, Imet Mr. Chopfyt, and he was the more interesting because he remindedme strongly of both of you, as you were before you became tin. He evenhad a tin arm, and that reminded me of you the more.
"No wonder!" remarked the Scarecrow.
"But, listen, Nimmie Amee!" said the astonished Woot; "he really isboth of them, for he is made of their cast-off parts."
"Oh, you're quite wrong," declared Polychrome, laughing, for she wasgreatly enjoying the confusion of the others. "The tin men are stillthemselves, as they will tell you, and so Chopfyt must be someone else."
They looked at her bewildered, for the facts in the case were toopuzzling to be grasped at once.
"It is all the fault of old Ku-Klip," muttered the Tin Woodman. "He hadno right to use our castoff parts to make another man with."
"It seems he did it, however," said Nimmie Amee calmly, "and I marriedhim because he resembled you both. I won't say he is a husband to beproud of, because he has a mixed nature and isn't always an agreeablecompanion. There are times when I have to chide him gently, both withmy tongue and with my broomstick. But he is my husband, and I must makethe best of him."
"If you don't like him," suggested the Tin Woodman, "Captain Fyter andI can chop him up with our axe and sword, and each take such parts ofthe fellow as belong to him. Then we are willing for you to select oneof us as your husband."
"That is a good idea," approved Captain Fyter, drawing his sword.
"No," said Nimmie Amee; "I think I'll keep the husband I now have. Heis now trained to draw the water and carry in the wood and hoe thecabbages and weed the flower-beds and dust the furniture and performmany tasks of a like character. A new husband would have to bescolded--and gently chided--until he learns my ways. So I think it willbe better to keep my Chopfyt, and I see no reason why you should objectto him. You two gentlemen threw him away when you became tin, becauseyou had no further use for him, so you cannot justly claim him now. Iadvise you to go back to your own homes and forget me, as I haveforgotten you."
"Good advice!" laughed Polychrome, dancing.
"Are you happy?" asked the Tin Soldier.
"Of course I am," said Nimmie Amee; "I'm the mistress of all Isurvey--the queen of my little domain."
"Wouldn't you like to be the Empress of the Winkies?" asked the TinWoodman.
"Mercy, no," she answered. "That would be a lot of bother. I don't carefor society, or pomp, or posing. All I ask is to be left alone and notto be annoyed by visitors."
The Scarecrow nudged Woot the Wanderer.
"That sounds to me like a hint," he said.
"Looks as if we'd had our journey for nothing," remarked Woot, who wasa little ashamed and disappointed because he had proposed the journey.
"I am glad, however," said the Tin Woodman, "that I have found NimmieAmee, and discovered that she is already married and happy. It willrelieve me of any further anxiety concerning her."
"For my part," said the Tin Soldier, "I am not sorry to be free. Theonly thing that really annoys me is finding my head upon Chopfyt'sbody."
"As for that, I'm pretty sure it is my body, or a part of it, anyway,"remarked the Emperor of the Winkies. "But never mind, friend Soldier;let us be willing to donate our cast-off members to insure thehappiness of Nimmie Amee, and be thankful it is not our fate to hoecabbages and draw water--and be chided--in the plac
e of this creatureChopfyt."
"Yes," agreed the Soldier, "we have much to be thankful for."
Polychrome, who had wandered outside, now poked her pretty head throughan open window and exclaimed in a pleased voice:
"It's getting cloudy. Perhaps it is going to rain!"
The Tin Woodman of Oz Page 22