us."
"True," answered Oz. "But there is another way to make it float,
which is to fill it with hot air. Hot air isn't as good as gas, for
if the air should get cold the balloon would come down in the
desert, and we should be lost."
"We!" exclaimed the girl. "Are you going with me?"
"Yes, of course," replied Oz. "I am tired of being such a
humbug. If I should go out of this Palace my people would soon
discover I am not a Wizard, and then they would be vexed with me
for having deceived them. So I have to stay shut up in these rooms
all day, and it gets tiresome. I'd much rather go back to Kansas
with you and be in a circus again."
"I shall be glad to have your company," said Dorothy.
"Thank you," he answered. "Now, if you will help me sew the silk
together, we will begin to work on our balloon."
So Dorothy took a needle and thread, and as fast as Oz cut the
strips of silk into proper shape the girl sewed them neatly
together. First there was a strip of light green silk, then a strip
of dark green and then a strip of emerald green; for Oz had a fancy
to make the balloon in different shades of the color about them. It
took three days to sew all the strips together, but when it was
finished they had a big bag of green silk more than twenty feet
long.
Then Oz painted it on the inside with a coat of thin glue, to
make it airtight, after which he announced that the balloon was
ready.
"But we must have a basket to ride in," he said. So he sent the
soldier with the green whiskers for a big clothes basket, which he
fastened with many ropes to the bottom of the balloon.
When it was all ready, Oz sent word to his people that he was
going to make a visit to a great brother Wizard who lived in the
clouds. The news spread rapidly throughout the city and everyone
came to see the wonderful sight.
Oz ordered the balloon carried out in front of the Palace, and
the people gazed upon it with much curiosity. The Tin Woodman had
chopped a big pile of wood, and now he made a fire of it, and Ozchopped a big pile of wood, and now he made a fire of it, and Oz
held the bottom of the balloon over the fire so that the hot air
that arose from it would be caught in the silken bag. Gradually the
balloon swelled out and rose into the air, until finally the basket
just touched the ground.
Then Oz got into the basket and said to all the people in a loud
voice:
"I am now going away to make a visit. While I am gone the
Scarecrow will rule over you. I command you to obey him as you
would me."
The balloon was by this time tugging hard at the rope that held
it to the ground, for the air within it was hot, and this made it
so much lighter in weight than the air without that it pulled hard
to rise into the sky.
"Come, Dorothy!" cried the Wizard. "Hurry up, or the balloon
will fly away."
"I can't find Toto anywhere," replied Dorothy, who did not wish
to leave her little dog behind. Toto had run into the crowd to bark
at a kitten, and Dorothy at last found him. She picked him up and
ran towards the balloon.
She was within a few steps of it, and Oz was holding out his
hands to help her into the basket, when, crack! went the ropes, and
the balloon rose into the air without her.
"Come back!" she screamed. "I want to go, too!"
"I can't come back, my dear," called Oz from the basket.
"Good-bye!"
"Good-bye!" shouted everyone, and all eyes were turned upward to
where the Wizard was riding in the basket, rising every moment
farther and farther into the sky.
And that was the last any of them ever saw of Oz, the Wonderful
Wizard, though he may have reached Omaha safely, and be there now,
for all we know. But the people remembered him lovingly, and said
to one another:
"Oz was always our friend. When he was here he built for us this
beautiful Emerald City, and now he is gone he has left the Wise
Scarecrow to rule over us."
Still, for many days they grieved over the loss of the Wonderful
Wizard, and would not be comforted.Dorothy wept bitterly at the passing of her hope to get home to
Kansas again; but when she thought it all over she was glad she had
not gone up in a balloon. And she also felt sorry at losing Oz, and
so did her companions.
The Tin Woodman came to her and said:
"Truly I should be ungrateful if I failed to mourn for the man
who gave me my lovely heart. I should like to cry a little because
Oz is gone, if you will kindly wipe away my tears, so that I shall
not rust."
"With pleasure," she answered, and brought a towel at once. Then
the Tin Woodman wept for several minutes, and she watched the tears
carefully and wiped them away with the towel. When he had finished,
he thanked her kindly and oiled himself thoroughly with his jeweled
oil-can, to guard against mishap.
The Scarecrow was now the ruler of the Emerald City, and
although he was not a Wizard the people were proud of him. "For,"
they said, "there is not another city in all the world that is
ruled by a stuffed man." And, so far as they knew, they were quite
right.
The morning after the balloon had gone up with Oz, the four
travelers met in the Throne Room and talked matters over. The
Scarecrow sat in the big throne and the others stood respectfully
before him.
"We are not so unlucky," said the new ruler, "for this Palace
and the Emerald City belong to us, and we can do just as we please.
When I remember that a short time ago I was up on a pole in a
farmer's cornfield, and that now I am the ruler of this beautiful
City, I am quite satisfied with my lot."
"I also," said the Tin Woodman, "am well-pleased with my new
heart; and, really, that was the only thing I wished in all the
world."
"For my part, I am content in knowing I am as brave as any beast
that ever lived, if not braver," said the Lion modestly.
"If Dorothy would only be contented to live in the Emerald
City," continued the Scarecrow, "we might all be happy
together."
"But I don't want to live here," cried Dorothy. "I want to go to
Kansas, and live with Aunt Em and Uncle Henry."