The Road to Oz Page 12

  Johnny Dooit Does It

  "It's getting awful rough walking," said Dorothy, as they trudged along.Button-Bright gave a deep sigh and said he was hungry. Indeed, all werehungry, and thirsty, too; for they had eaten nothing but the applessince breakfast; so their steps lagged and they grew silent and weary.At last they slowly passed over the crest of a barren hill and sawbefore them a line of green trees with a strip of grass at their feet.An agreeable fragrance was wafted toward them.

  Our travelers, hot and tired, ran forward on beholding this refreshingsight and were not long in coming to the trees. Here they found a springof pure bubbling water, around which the grass was full of wildstrawberry plants, their pretty red berries ripe and ready to eat. Someof the trees bore yellow oranges and some russet pears, so the hungryadventurers suddenly found themselves provided with plenty to eat and todrink.

  They lost no time in picking the biggest strawberries and ripest orangesand soon had feasted to their hearts' content. Walking beyond the lineof trees they saw before them a fearful, dismal desert, everywhere greysand. At the edge of this awful waste was a large white sign with blackletters neatly painted upon it; and the letters made these words:

  ALL PERSONS ARE WARNED NOT TO VENTURE UPON THIS DESERT

  For the Deadly Sands will Turn Any Living Flesh to Dust in an Instant. Beyond This Barrier is the

  LAND OF OZ

  But no one can Reach that Beautiful Country because of these Destroying Sands

  "Oh," said Dorothy, when the shaggy man had read this sign aloud; "I'veseen this desert before, and it's true no one can live who tries to walkupon the sands."

  "Then we mustn't try it," answered the shaggy man, thoughtfully. "But aswe can't go ahead and there's no use going back, what shall we donext?"

  "Don't know," said Button-Bright.

  "I'm sure I don't know, either," added Dorothy, despondently.

  "I wish father would come for me," sighed the pretty Rainbow's Daughter,"I would take you all to live upon the rainbow, where you could dancealong its rays from morning till night, without a care or worry of anysort. But I suppose father's too busy just now to search the world forme."

  "Don't want to dance," said Button-Bright, sitting down wearily upon thesoft grass.

  "It's very good of you, Polly," said Dorothy; "but there are otherthings that would suit me better than dancing on rainbows. I'm 'fraidthey'd be kind of soft an' squnshy under foot, anyhow, although they'reso pretty to look at."

  This didn't help to solve the problem, and they all fell silent andlooked at one another questioningly.

  "Really, I don't know what to do," muttered the shaggy man, gazing hardat Toto; and the little dog wagged his tail and said "Bow-wow!" just asif he could not tell, either, what to do. Button-Bright got a stick andbegan to dig in the earth, and the others watched him for a while indeep thought. Finally the shaggy man said:

  "It's nearly evening, now; so we may well sleep in this pretty place andget rested; perhaps by morning we can decide what is best to be done."

  There was little chance to make beds for the children, but the leaves ofthe trees grew thickly and would serve to keep off the night dews, sothe shaggy man piled soft grasses in the thickest shade and when it wasdark they lay down and slept peacefully until morning.

  Long after the others were asleep, however, the shaggy man sat in thestarlight by the spring, gazing thoughtfully into its bubbling waters.Suddenly he smiled and nodded to himself as if he had found a goodthought, after which he, too, laid himself down under a tree and wassoon lost in slumber.

  In the bright morning sunshine, as they ate of the strawberries andsweet juicy pears, Dorothy said:

  "Polly, can you do any magic?"

  "No, dear," answered Polychrome, shaking her dainty head.

  "You ought to know _some_ magic, being the Rainbow's Daughter,"continued Dorothy, earnestly.

  "But we who live on the rainbow among the fleecy clouds have no use formagic," replied Polychrome.

  "What I'd like," said Dorothy, "is to find some way to cross the desertto the Land of Oz and its Emerald City. I've crossed it already, youknow, more than once. First a cyclone carried my house over, and someSilver Shoes brought me back again--in half a second. Then Ozma took meover on her Magic Carpet, and the Nome King's Magic Belt took me homethat time. You see it was magic that did it every time 'cept the first,and we can't 'spect a cyclone to happen along and take us to the EmeraldCity now."

  "No, indeed," returned Polly, with a shudder; "I hate cyclones, anyway."

  "That's why I wanted to find out if you could do any magic," said thelittle Kansas girl. "I'm sure I can't; and I'm sure Button-Bright can't;and the only magic the shaggy man has is the Love Magnet, which won'thelp us much."

  "Don't be too sure of that, my dear," spoke the shaggy man, a smile onhis donkey face. "I may not be able to do magic myself, but I can callto us a powerful friend who loves me because I own the Love Magnet, andthis friend surely will be able to help us."

  "Who is your friend?" asked Dorothy.

  "Johnny Dooit."

  "What can Johnny do?"

  "Anything," answered the shaggy man, with confidence.

  "Ask him to come," she exclaimed, eagerly.

  The shaggy man took the Love Magnet from his pocket and unwrapped thepaper that surrounded it. Holding the charm in the palm of his hand helooked at it steadily and said these words:

  _"Dear Johnny Dooit, come to me._ _I need you bad as bad can be."_

  "Well, here I am," said a cheery little voice; "but you shouldn't sayyou need me bad, 'cause I'm always, _always_ good."

  At this they quickly whirled around to find a funny little man sittingon a big copper chest, puffing smoke from a long pipe. His hair wasgrey, his whiskers were grey; and these whiskers were so long that hehad wound the ends of them around his waist and tied them in a hard knotunderneath the leather apron that reached from his chin nearly to hisfeet, and which was soiled and scratched as if it had been used a longtime. His nose was broad, and stuck up a little; but his eyes weretwinkling and merry. The little man's hands and arms were as hard andtough as the leather in his apron, and Dorothy thought Johnny Dooitlooked as if he had done a lot of hard work in his lifetime.

  "Good morning, Johnny," said the shaggy man. "Thank you for coming to meso quickly."

  "I never waste time," said the newcomer, promptly. "But what's happenedto you? Where did you get that donkey head? Really, I wouldn't haveknown you at all, Shaggy Man, if I hadn't looked at your feet."

  The shaggy man introduced Johnny Dooit to Dorothy and Toto andButton-Bright and the Rainbow's Daughter, and told him the story oftheir adventures, adding that they were anxious now to reach the EmeraldCity in the Land of Oz, where Dorothy had friends who would take care ofthem and send them safe home again.

  "But," said he, "we find that we can't cross this desert, which turnsall living flesh that touches it into dust; so I have asked you to comeand help us."

  Johnny Dooit puffed his pipe and looked carefully at the dreadful desertin front of them--stretching so far away they could not see its end.

  "You must ride," he said, briskly.

  "What in?" asked the shaggy man.

  "In a sand-boat, which has runners like a sled and sails like a ship.The wind will blow you swiftly across the desert and the sand cannottouch your flesh to turn it into dust."

  "Good!" cried Dorothy, clapping her hands delightedly. "That was the waythe Magic Carpet took us across. We didn't have to touch the horrid sandat all."

  "But where is the sand-boat?" asked the shaggy man, looking all aroundhim.

  "I'll make you one," said Johnny Dooit.

  As he spoke he knocked the ashes from his pipe and put it in his pocket.Then he unlocked the copper chest and lifted the lid, and Dorothy sawit was full of shining tools of all sorts and shapes.

  Johnny Dooit moved quickly now--so quickly that they were astonished atthe work he was able
to accomplish. He had in his chest a tool foreverything he wanted to do, and these must have been magic tools becausethey did their work so fast and so well.

  The man hummed a little song as he worked, and Dorothy tried to listento it. She thought the words were something like these:

  _The only way to do a thing Is do it when you can, And do it cheerfully, and sing And work and think and plan. The only real unhappy one Is he who dares to shirk; The only really happy one Is he who cares to work._

  Whatever Johnny Dooit was singing he was certainly doing things, andthey all stood by and watched him in amazement.

  He seized an axe and in a couple of chops felled a tree. Next he took asaw and in a few minutes sawed the tree-trunk into broad long boards. Hethen nailed the boards together into the shape of a boat, about twelvefeet long and four feet wide. He cut from another tree a long, slenderpole which, when trimmed of its branches and fastened upright in thecenter of the boat, served as a mast. From the chest he drew a coil ofrope and a big bundle of canvas, and with these--still humming hissong--he rigged up a sail, arranging it so it could be raised or loweredupon the mast.

  Dorothy fairly gasped with wonder to see the thing grow so speedilybefore her eyes, and both Button-Bright and Polly looked on with thesame absorbed interest.

  "It ought to be painted," said Johnny Dooit, tossing his tools back intothe chest, "for that would make it look prettier. But 'though I canpaint it for you in three seconds it would take an hour to dry, andthat's a waste of time."

  "We don't care how it looks," said the shaggy man, "if only it will takeus across the desert."

  "It will do that," declared Johnny Dooit. "All you need worry about istipping over. Did you ever sail a ship?"

  "I've seen one sailed," said the shaggy man.

  "Good. Sail this boat the way you've seen a ship sailed, and you'll beacross the sands before you know it."

  With this he slammed down the lid of the chest, and the noise made themall wink. While they were winking the workman disappeared, tools andall.