The Magic of Oz Read online

  The Isle of the Magic Flower

  CHAPTER 9

  The Glass Cat was a good guide and led Trot and Cap'n Bill by straightand easy paths through all the settled part of the Munchkin Country, andthen into the north section where there were few houses, and finallythrough a wild country where there were no houses or paths at all. Butthe walking was not difficult and at last they came to the edge of aforest and stopped there to make camp and sleep until morning.

  From branches of trees Cap'n Bill made a tiny house that was just bigenough for the little girl to crawl into and lie down. But first theyate some of the food Trot had carried in the basket.

  "Don't you want some, too?" she asked the Glass Cat.

  "No," answered the creature.

  "I suppose you'll hunt around an' catch a mouse," remarked Cap'n Bill.

  "Me? Catch a mouse! Why should I do that?" inquired the Glass Cat.

  "Why, then you could eat it," said the sailor-man.

  "I beg to inform you," returned the crystal tabby, "that I do not eatmice. Being transparent, so anyone can see through me, I'd look nice,wouldn't I, with a common mouse inside me? But the fact is that Ihaven't any stomach or other machinery that would permit me to eatthings. The careless magician who made me didn't think I'd need to eat,I suppose."

  "Don't you ever get hungry or thirsty?" asked Trot.

  "Never. I don't complain, you know, at the way I'm made, for I've neveryet seen any living thing as beautiful as I am. I have the handsomestbrains in the world. They're pink, and you can see 'em work."

 

  "I wonder," said Trot thoughtfully, as she ate her bread and jam, "if_my_ brains whirl around in the same way yours do."

  "No; not the same way, surely," returned the Glass Cat; "for, in thatcase, they'd be as good as _my_ brains, except that they're hidden undera thick, boney skull."

  "Brains," remarked Cap'n Bill, "is of all kinds and work different ways.But I've noticed that them as thinks that their brains is best is oftenmistook."

  Trot was a little disturbed by sounds from the forest, that night, formany beasts seemed prowling among the trees, but she was confident Cap'nBill would protect her from harm. And in fact, no beast ventured fromthe forest to attack them.

  At daybreak they were up again, and after a simple breakfast Cap'n Billsaid to the Glass Cat:

  "Up anchor, Mate, and let's forge ahead. I don't suppose we're far fromthat Magic Flower, are we?"

  "Not far," answered the transparent one, as it led the way into theforest, "but it may take you some time to get to it."

  Before long they reached the bank of a river. It was not very wide, atthis place, but as they followed the banks in a northerly direction itgradually broadened.

  Suddenly the blue-green leaves of the trees changed to a purple hue, andTrot noticed this and said:

  "I wonder what made the colors change like that?"

  "It's because we have left the Munchkin Country and entered the GillikinCountry," explained the Glass Cat. "Also it's a sign our journey isnearly ended."

  The river made a sudden turn, and after the travelers had passed aroundthe bend, they saw that the stream had now become as broad as a smalllake, and in the center of the Lake they beheld a little island, notmore than fifty feet in extent, either way. Something glittered in themiddle of this tiny island, and the Glass Cat paused on the bank andsaid:

  "There is the gold flower-pot containing the Magic Flower, which is verycurious and beautiful. If you can get to the island, your task isended--except to carry the thing home with you."

  Cap'n Bill looked at the broad expanse of water and began to whistle alow, quavering tune. Trot knew that the whistle meant that Cap'n Billwas thinking, and the old sailor didn't look at the island as much as helooked at the trees upon the bank where they stood. Presently he tookfrom the big pocket of his coat an axe-blade, wound in an old cloth tokeep the sharp edge from cutting his clothing. Then, with a large pocketknife, he cut a small limb from a tree and whittled it into a handle forhis axe.

  "Sit down, Trot," he advised the girl, as he worked. "I've got quite ajob ahead of me now, for I've got to build us a raft."

  "What do we need a raft for, Cap'n?"

  "Why, to take us to the island. We can't walk under water, in the riverbed, as the Glass Cat did, so we must float atop the water."

  "Can you make a raft, Cap'n Bill?"

  "O' course, Trot, if you give me time."

  The little girl sat down on a log and gazed at the Island of the MagicFlower. Nothing else seemed to grow on the tiny isle. There was no tree,no shrub, no grass, even, as far as she could make out from thatdistance. But the gold pot glittered in the rays of the sun, and Trotcould catch glimpses of glowing colors above it, as the Magic Flowerchanged from one sort to another.

  "When I was here before," remarked the Glass Cat, lazily reclining atthe girl's feet, "I saw two Kalidahs on this very bank, where they hadcome to drink."

  "What are Kalidahs?" asked the girl.

  "The most powerful and ferocious beasts in all Oz. This forest is theirespecial home, and so there are few other beasts to be found exceptmonkeys. The monkeys are spry enough to keep out of the way of thefierce Kalidahs, which attack all other animals and often fight amongthemselves."

 

  "Did they try to fight you when you saw 'em?" asked Trot, getting verymuch excited.

  "Yes. They sprang upon me in an instant; but I lay flat on the ground,so I wouldn't get my legs broken by the great weight of the beasts, andwhen they tried to bite me I laughed at them and jeered them until theywere frantic with rage, for they nearly broke their teeth on my hardglass. So, after a time, they discovered they could not hurt me, andwent away. It was great fun."

  "I hope they don't come here again to drink,--not while we're here,anyhow," returned the girl, "for I'm not made of glass, nor is Cap'nBill, and if those bad beasts bit us, we'd get hurt."

  Cap'n Bill was cutting from the trees some long stakes, making themsharp at one end and leaving a crotch at the other end. These were tobind the logs of his raft together. He had fashioned several and wasjust finishing another when the Glass Cat cried: "Look out! There's aKalidah coming toward us."

  Trot jumped up, greatly frightened, and looked at the terrible animal asif fascinated by its fierce eyes, for the Kalidah was looking at her,too, and its look wasn't at all friendly. But Cap'n Bill called to her:"Wade into the river, Trot, up to your knees--an' stay there!" and sheobeyed him at once. The sailor-man hobbled forward, the stake in onehand and his axe in the other, and got between the girl and the beast,which sprang upon him with a growl of defiance.

 

  Cap'n Bill moved pretty slowly, sometimes, but now he was quick as couldbe. As the Kalidah sprang toward him he stuck out his wooden leg and thepoint of it struck the beast between its eyes and sent it rolling uponthe ground. Before it could get upon its feet again the sailor pushedthe sharp stake right through its body and then with the flat side ofthe axe he hammered the stake as far into the ground as it would go. Bythis means he captured the great beast and made it harmless, for try asit would, it could not get away from the stake that held it.

  Cap'n Bill knew he could not kill the Kalidah, for no living thing in Ozcan be killed, so he stood back and watched the beast wriggle and growland paw the earth with its sharp claws, and then, satisfied it could notescape, he told Trot to come out of the water again and dry her wetshoes and stockings in the sun.

  "Are you sure he can't get away?" she asked.

  "I'd bet a cookie on it," said Cap'n Bill, so Trot came ashore and tookoff her shoes and stockings and laid them on the log to dry, while thesailor-man resumed his work on the raft.

  The Kalidah, realizing after many struggles that it could not escape,now became quiet, but it said in a harsh, snarling voice:

  "I suppose you think you're clever, to pin me
to the ground in thismanner. But when my friends, the other Kalidahs, come here, they'll tearyou to pieces for treating me this way."

  "P'raps," remarked Cap'n Bill, coolly, as he chopped at the logs, "an'p'raps not. When are your folks comin' here?"

  "I don't know," admitted the Kalidah. "But when they _do_ come, youcan't escape them."

  "If they hold off long enough, I'll have my raft ready," said Cap'nBill.

  "What are you going to do with a raft?" inquired the beast.

  "We're goin' over to that island, to get the Magic Flower."

  The huge beast looked at him in surprise a moment, and then it began tolaugh. The laugh was a good deal like a roar, and it had a cruel andderisive sound, but it was a laugh nevertheless.

  "Good!" said the Kalidah. "Good! Very good! I'm glad you're going to getthe Magic Flower. But what will you do with it?"

  "We're going to take it to Ozma, as a present on her birthday."

  The Kalidah laughed again; then it became sober. "If you get to the landon your raft before my people can catch you," it said, "you will be safefrom us. We can swim like ducks, so the girl couldn't have escaped me bygetting into the water; but Kalidahs don't go to that island overthere."

  "Why not?" asked Trot.

  The beast was silent.

  "Tell us the reason," urged Cap'n Bill.

  "Well, it's the Isle of the Magic Flower," answered the Kalidah, "and wedon't care much for magic. If you hadn't had a magic leg, instead of ameat one, you couldn't have knocked me over so easily and stuck thiswooden pin through me."

  "I've been to the Magic Isle," said the Glass Cat, "and I've watched theMagic Flower bloom, and I'm sure it's too pretty to be left in thatlonely place where only beasts prowl around it and no one else sees it.So we're going to take it away to the Emerald City."

  "I don't care," the beast replied in a surly tone. "We Kalidahs would bejust as contented if there wasn't a flower in our forest. What good arethe things anyhow?"

  "Don't you like pretty things?" asked Trot.

  "No."

  "You ought to admire my pink brains, anyhow," declared the Glass Cat."They're beautiful and you can see 'em work."

 

  The beast only growled in reply, and Cap'n Bill, having now cut all hislogs to a proper size, began to roll them to the water's edge and fastenthem together.