"Did you groan?" asked Dorothy.
"Yes," answered the tin man, "I did. I've been groaning for more
than a year, and no one has ever heard me before or come to help
me."
"What can I do for you?" she inquired softly, for she was moved
by the sad voice in which the man spoke.
"Get an oil-can and oil my joints," he answered. "They are
rusted so badly that I cannot move them at all; if I am well oiled
I shall soon be all right again. You will find an oil-can on a
shelf in my cottage."
Dorothy at once ran back to the cottage and found the oil-can,
and then she returned and asked anxiously, "Where are your
joints?"
"Oil my neck, first," replied the Tin Woodman. So she oiled it,
and as it was quite badly rusted the Scarecrow took hold of the tin
head and moved it gently from side to side until it worked freely,
and then the man could turn it himself.
"Now oil the joints in my arms," he said. And Dorothy oiled them
and the Scarecrow bent them carefully until they were quite free
from rust and as good as new.
The Tin Woodman gave a sigh of satisfaction and lowered his axe,
which he leaned against the tree.
"This is a great comfort," he said. "I have been holding that
axe in the air ever since I rusted, and I'm glad to be able to put
it down at last. Now, if you will oil the joints of my legs, I
shall be all right once more."
So they oiled his legs until he could move them freely; and he
thanked them again and again for his release, for he seemed a very
polite creature, and very grateful.
"I might have stood there always if you had not come along," he
said; "so you have certainly saved my life. How did you happen to
be here?"
"We are on our way to the Emerald City to see the Great Oz," she
answered, "and we stopped at your cottage to pass the night."
"Why do you wish to see Oz?" he asked.
"I want him to send me back to Kansas, and the Scarecrow wants
him to put a few brains into his head," she replied.
The Tin Woodman appeared to think deeply for a moment. Then he
said:
"Do you suppose Oz could give me a heart?"said:
"Do you suppose Oz could give me a heart?"
"Why, I guess so," Dorothy answered. "It would be as easy as to
give the Scarecrow brains."
"True," the Tin Woodman returned. "So, if you will allow me to
join your party, I will also go to the Emerald City and ask Oz to
help me."
"Come along," said the Scarecrow heartily, and Dorothy added
that she would be pleased to have his company. So the Tin Woodman
shouldered his axe and they all passed through the forest until
they came to the road that was paved with yellow brick.
The Tin Woodman had asked Dorothy to put the oil-can in her
basket. "For," he said, "if I should get caught in the rain, and
rust again, I would need the oil-can badly."
It was a bit of good luck to have their new comrade join the
party, for soon after they had begun their journey again they came
to a place where the trees and branches grew so thick over the road
that the travelers could not pass. But the Tin Woodman set to work
with his axe and chopped so well that soon he cleared a passage for
the entire party.
Dorothy was thinking so earnestly as they walked along that she
did not notice when the Scarecrow stumbled into a hole and rolled
over to the side of the road. Indeed he was obliged to call to her
to help him up again.
"Why didn't you walk around the hole?" asked the Tin
Woodman.
"I don't know enough," replied the Scarecrow cheerfully. "My
head is stuffed with straw, you know, and that is why I am going to
Oz to ask him for some brains."
"Oh, I see," said the Tin Woodman. "But, after all, brains are
not the best things in the world."
"Have you any?" inquired the Scarecrow.
"No, my head is quite empty," answered the Woodman. "But once I
had brains, and a heart also; so, having tried them both, I should
much rather have a heart."
"And why is that?" asked the Scarecrow.
"I will tell you my story, and then you will know."
So, while they were walking through the forest, the Tin Woodman
told the following story:
"I was born the son of a woodman who chopped down trees in thetold the following story:
"I was born the son of a woodman who chopped down trees in the
forest and sold the wood for a living. When I grew up, I too became
a woodchopper, and after my father died I took care of my old
mother as long as she lived. Then I made up my mind that instead of
living alone I would marry, so that I might not become lonely.
"There was one of the Munchkin girls who was so beautiful that I
soon grew to love her with all my heart. She, on her part, promised
to marry me as soon as I could earn enough money to build a better
house for her; so I set to work harder than ever. But the girl
lived with an old woman who did not want her to marry anyone, for
she was so lazy she wished the girl to remain with her and do the
cooking and the housework. So the old woman went to the Wicked
Witch of the East, and promised her two sheep and a cow if she
would prevent the marriage. Thereupon the Wicked Witch enchanted my
axe, and when I was chopping away at my best one day, for I was
anxious to get the new house and my wife as soon as possible, the
axe slipped all at once and cut off my left leg.
"This at first seemed a great misfortune, for I knew a
one-legged man could not do very well as a wood-chopper. So I went
to a tinsmith and had him make me a new leg out of tin. The leg
worked very well, once I was used to it. But my action angered the
Wicked Witch of the East, for she had promised the old woman I
should not marry the pretty Munchkin girl. When I began chopping
again, my axe slipped and cut off my right leg. Again I went to the
tinsmith, and again he made me a leg out of tin. After this the
enchanted axe cut off my arms, one after the other; but, nothing
daunted, I had them replaced with tin ones. The Wicked Witch then
made the axe slip and cut off my head, and at first I thought that
was the end of me. But the tinsmith happened to come along, and he
made me a new head out of tin.
"I thought I had beaten the Wicked Witch then, and I worked