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"Wait! Wait a minute," panted the dummy, clutching his crown. "I'm used to being flung about,
to dying and all that Sort of thing, but this wishing business makes me breathless. Wait!"
Dorothy had already made her wish and, closing her eyes, sat perfectly still. After a moment
she opened them but nothing at all had happened. She and Humpy still sitting on the pile of leaves and the
white card had vanished. Blinking rapidly, Dorothy felt in her pocket. "No wonder it didn't work,"
muttered Dorothy. "The wishing sand's all gone. I must have used the last grain when I wished we were
back. Oh dear, we'll have to walk!"
"Where?" Holding his crown with both hands, the dummy sat up and looked anxiously at the
little girl.
"To the Emerald City, where I live, in a splendid palace with Ozma, the Queen," explained
Dorothy patiently.
"Well, I wouldn't mind living in a palace at all. I'm dressed for the part. Let's go on," said the
dummy cheerfully. After a few bends backwards and a few bends forwards, he rose and started
unsteadily down the road. "You can be the star in this picture," he added generously, "and I'll be your
double and fall for you any time you say.
"All right!" agreed Dorothy, taking him cozily by the arm. Having had great experience with
stuffed persons, and having brought Humpy to life, she felt more or less responsible for him.
As they walked along together, she told him a little about herself and as much about the
wonderful Land of Oz as she thought a man with hair brains could understand. So many marvelous things
had happened to Humpy in the movies that he evinced no surprise at Dorothy's stories.
As the dummy and Dorothy hurried on, a great screaming and scolding made them stop short.
A scraggy-looking woods cut off the road ahead and, advancing backward upon them, there came two
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crooked and curious woodsmen bearing a flag. As the flag fluttered and rippled in the wind, Dorothy
tried to make out the strange words embroidered in white upon its purple background.
"Eht Kcab Sdoow!" said the flag mysteriously. "Og yawa! Og yawa!" shouted the woodsmen
rudely. "Teg tuo! Teg tuo! Teg tuo!"
"Is this Oz talk," gasped Humpy, falling back in dismay, "or Arabic? I was in an Arabian
picture once and it sounded something like this. Tuo teg, yourselves," he shouted defiantly, as the
woodsmen drew nearer, "and none of your back talk either!"
"Back talk!" cried Dorothy, clutching him suddenly by the sleeve. "Oh, that's just what they are
talking, Humpy. They're talking 'back talk.' Wait a minute!" Closing her eyes, Dorothy began writing
imaginary letters in the air and, as the two woodsmen reached them, she burst out triumphantly, "It says
'The Back Woods' on that flag. Oh dear, I wished we were back and now we are!"
"You think awful fast," blinked the dummy admiringly. "The mere look of that language makes
me dizzy. So they're talking back talk are they? Well, what do they say? Are they going to hit us?"
"They're telling us to go away, muttered Dorothy, putting her fingers in her ears, for the two
leaders had been joined by a hundred more and all were screaming at the top or rather, I should say, the
bottom of their voices. They kept their backs to the travellers and shouted the dreadful back talk over
their shoulders. They all carried gleaming axes and, when Dorothy made an attempt to advance, they
brandished them threateningly.
"If I could only talk back," wailed the little girl, "I'd tell them I am a Princess. Then maybe
they'd let me through."
"Couldn't you write it?" suggested Humpy, looking at the angry horde with growing alarm.
"Why, how did you think of that?" Dorothy stared at him in honest amazement. Then, feeling in
her pocket, she brought out a stub of pencil and a crumpled piece of paper. The woodsmen watched her
curiously over their shoulders as she slowly wrote her message.
"I ma Ssecnirp Yhtorod, dneirf fo Amzo fo Zo. Yam ew ssap hguorht ruoy sdoow?" printed [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]