over their country. The Winged Monkeys had helped her do this. The
second time was when she had fought against the Great Oz himself,
and driven him out of the land of the West. The Winged Monkeys had
also helped her in doing this. Only once more could she use this
Golden Cap, for which reason she did not like to do so until all
her other powers were exhausted. But now that her fierce wolves and
her wild crows and her stinging bees were gone, and her slaves had
been scared away by the Cowardly Lion, she saw there was only one
way left to destroy Dorothy and her friends.
So the Wicked Witch took the Golden Cap from her cupboard and
placed it upon her head. Then she stood upon her left foot and said
slowly:
"Ep-pe, pep-pe, kak-ke!"
Next she stood upon her right foot and said:
"Hil-lo, hol-lo, hel-lo!"
After this she stood upon both feet and cried in a loud
voice:
"Ziz-zy, zuz-zy, zik!"
Now the charm began to work. The sky was darkened, and a low
rumbling sound was heard in the air. There was a rushing of many
wings, a great chattering and laughing, and the sun came out of the
dark sky to show the Wicked Witch surrounded by a crowd of monkeys,
each with a pair of immense and powerful wings on his
shoulders.
One, much bigger than the others, seemed to be their leader. He
flew close to the Witch and said, "You have called us for the third
and last time. What do you command?"
"Go to the strangers who are within my land and destroy them all
except the Lion," said the Wicked Witch. "Bring that beast to me,
for I have a mind to harness him like a horse, and make him
work."
"Your commands shall be obeyed," said the leader. Then, with a
great deal of chattering and noise, the Winged Monkeys flew away to
the place where Dorothy and her friends were walking.
Some of the Monkeys seized the Tin Woodman and carried him
through the air until they were over a country thickly covered with
sharp rocks. Here they dropped the poor Woodman, who fell a great
distance to the rocks, where he lay so battered and dented that hedistance to the rocks, where he lay so battered and dented that he
could neither move nor groan.
Others of the Monkeys caught the Scarecrow, and with their long
fingers pulled all of the straw out of his clothes and head. They
made his hat and boots and clothes into a small bundle and threw it
into the top branches of a tall tree.
The remaining Monkeys threw pieces of stout rope around the Lion
and wound many coils about his body and head and legs, until he was
unable to bite or scratch or struggle in any way. Then they lifted
him up and flew away with him to the Witch's castle, where he was
placed in a small yard with a high iron fence around it, so that he
could not escape.
But Dorothy they did not harm at all. She stood, with Toto in
her arms, watching the sad fate of her comrades and thinking it
would soon be her turn. The leader of the Winged Monkeys flew up to
her, his long, hairy arms stretched out and his ugly face grinning
terribly; but he saw the mark of the Good Witch's kiss upon her
forehead and stopped short, motioning the others not to touch
her.
"We dare not harm this little girl," he said to them, "for she
is protected by the Power of Good, and that is greater than the
Power of Evil. All we can do is to carry her to the castle of the
Wicked Witch and leave her there."
So, carefully and gently, they lifted Dorothy in their arms and
carried her swiftly through the air until they came to the castle,
where they set her down upon the front doorstep. Then the leader
said to the Witch:
"We have obeyed you as far as we were able. The Tin Woodman and
the Scarecrow are destroyed, and the Lion is tied up in your yard.
The little girl we dare not harm, nor the dog she carries in her
arms. Your power over our band is now ended, and you will never see
us again."
Then all the Winged Monkeys, with much laughing and chattering
and noise, flew into the air and were soon out of sight.
The Wicked Witch was both surprised and worried when she saw the
mark on Dorothy's forehead, for she knew well that neither themark on Dorothy's forehead, for she knew well that neither the
Winged Monkeys nor she, herself, dare hurt the girl in any way. She
looked down at Dorothy's feet, and seeing the Silver Shoes, began
to tremble with fear, for she knew what a powerful charm belonged
to them. At first the Witch was tempted to run away from Dorothy;
but she happened to look into the child's eyes and saw how simple
the soul behind them was, and that the little girl did not know of
the wonderful power the Silver Shoes gave her. So the Wicked Witch
laughed to herself, and thought, "I can still make her my slave,
for she does not know how to use her power." Then she said to
Dorothy, harshly and severely:
"Come with me; and see that you mind everything I tell you, for
if you do not I will make an end of you, as I did of the Tin
Woodman and the Scarecrow."
Dorothy followed her through many of the beautiful rooms in her
castle until they came to the kitchen, where the Witch bade her
clean the pots and kettles and sweep the floor and keep the fire
fed with wood.
Dorothy went to work meekly, with her mind made up to work as
hard as she could; for she was glad the Wicked Witch had decided
not to kill her.
With Dorothy hard at work, the Witch thought she would go into
the courtyard and harness the Cowardly Lion like a horse; it would
amuse her, she was sure, to make him draw her chariot whenever she
wished to go to drive. But as she opened the gate the Lion gave a
loud roar and bounded at her so fiercely that the Witch was afraid,
and ran out and shut the gate again.
"If I cannot harness you," said the Witch to the Lion, speaking
through the bars of the gate, "I can starve you. You shall have
nothing to eat until you do as I wish."
So after that she took no food to the imprisoned Lion; but every
day she came to the gate at noon and asked, "Are you ready to be
harnessed like a horse?"
And the Lion would answer, "No. If you come in this yard, I will
bite you."
The reason the Lion did not have to do as the Witch wished was