for, being stuffed with straw, it was quite light.
"Thank you very much," said the Scarecrow, when he had been set
down on the ground. "I feel like a new man."
Dorothy was puzzled at this, for it sounded queer to hear a
stuffed man speak, and to see him bow and walk along beside
her.
"Who are you?" asked the Scarecrow when he had stretched himself
and yawned. "And where are you going?"
"My name is Dorothy," said the girl, "and I am going to the
Emerald City, to ask the Great Oz to send me back to Kansas."
"Where is the Emerald City?" he inquired. "And who is Oz?"
"Why, don't you know?" she returned, in surprise.
"No, indeed. I don't know anything. You see, I am stuffed, so I
have no brains at all," he answered sadly.
"Oh," said Dorothy, "I'm awfully sorry for you."
"Do you think," he asked, "if I go to the Emerald City with you,
that Oz would give me some brains?"
"I cannot tell," she returned, "but you may come with me, if you
like. If Oz will not give you any brains you will be no worse off
than you are now."
"That is true," said the Scarecrow. "You see," he continued
confidentially, "I don't mind my legs and arms and body being
stuffed, because I cannot get hurt. If anyone treads on my toes or
sticks a pin into me, it doesn't matter, for I can't feel it. But I
do not want people to call me a fool, and if my head stays stuffed
with straw instead of with brains, as yours is, how am I ever to
know anything?"
"I understand how you feel," said the little girl, who was truly
sorry for him. "If you will come with me I'll ask Oz to do all he
can for you."
"Thank you," he answered gratefully.
They walked back to the road. Dorothy helped him over the fence,
and they started along the path of yellow brick for the Emerald
City.
Toto did not like this addition to the party at first. He
smelled around the stuffed man as if he suspected there might be a
nest of rats in the straw, and he often growled in an unfriendly
way at the Scarecrow.
"Don't mind Toto," said Dorothy to her new friend. "He never
bites."way at the Scarecrow.
"Don't mind Toto," said Dorothy to her new friend. "He never
bites."
"Oh, I'm not afraid," replied the Scarecrow. "He can't hurt the
straw. Do let me carry that basket for you. I shall not mind it,
for I can't get tired. I'll tell you a secret," he continued, as he
walked along. "There is only one thing in the world I am afraid
of."
"What is that?" asked Dorothy; "the Munchkin farmer who made
you?"
"No," answered the Scarecrow; "it's a lighted match."After a few hours the road began to be rough, and the walking
grew so difficult that the Scarecrow often stumbled over the yellow
bricks, which were here very uneven. Sometimes, indeed, they were
broken or missing altogether, leaving holes that Toto jumped across
and Dorothy walked around. As for the Scarecrow, having no brains,
he walked straight ahead, and so stepped into the holes and fell at
full length on the hard bricks. It never hurt him, however, and
Dorothy would pick him up and set him upon his feet again, while he
joined her in laughing merrily at his own mishap.
The farms were not nearly so well cared for here as they were
farther back. There were fewer houses and fewer fruit trees, and
the farther they went the more dismal and lonesome the country
became.
At noon they sat down by the roadside, near a little brook, and
Dorothy opened her basket and got out some bread. She offered a
piece to the Scarecrow, but he refused.
"I am never hungry," he said, "and it is a lucky thing I am not,
for my mouth is only painted, and if I should cut a hole in it so I
could eat, the straw I am stuffed with would come out, and that
would spoil the shape of my head."
Dorothy saw at once that this was true, so she only nodded and
went on eating her bread.
"Tell me something about yourself and the country you came
from," said the Scarecrow, when she had finished her dinner. So she
told him all about Kansas, and how gray everything was there, and
how the cyclone had carried her to this queer Land of Oz.
The Scarecrow listened carefully, and said, "I cannot understand
why you should wish to leave this beautiful country and go back to
the dry, gray place you call Kansas."
"That is because you have no brains" answered the girl. "No
matter how dreary and gray our homes are, we people of flesh and
blood would rather live there than in any other country, be it ever
so beautiful. There is no place like home."
The Scarecrow sighed.
"Of course I cannot understand it," he said. "If your heads wereThe Scarecrow sighed.
"Of course I cannot understand it," he said. "If your heads were
stuffed with straw, like mine, you would probably all live in the
beautiful places, and then Kansas would have no people at all. It
is fortunate for Kansas that you have brains."
"Won't you tell me a story, while we are resting?" asked the
child.
The Scarecrow looked at her reproachfully, and answered:
"My life has been so short that I really know nothing whatever.
I was only made day before yesterday. What happened in the world
before that time is all unknown to me. Luckily, when the farmer
made my head, one of the first things he did was to paint my ears,
so that I heard what was going on. There was another Munchkin with
him, and the first thing I heard was the farmer saying, `How do you
like those ears?'
"`They aren't straight,'" answered the other.
"`Never mind,'" said the farmer. "`They are ears just the
same,'" which was true enough.
"`Now I'll make the eyes,'" said the farmer. So he painted my
right eye, and as soon as it was finished I found myself looking at
him and at everything around me with a great deal of curiosity, for
this was my first glimpse of the world.
"`That's a rather pretty eye,'" remarked the Munchkin who was
watching the farmer. "`Blue paint is just the color for eyes.'
"`I think I'll make the other a little bigger,'" said the
farmer. And when the second eye was done I could see much better
than before. Then he made my nose and my mouth. But I did not
speak, because at that time I didn't know what a mouth was for. I
had the fun of watching them make my body and my arms and legs; and
when they fastened on my head, at last, I felt very proud, for I
thought I was just as good a man as anyone.
"`This fellow will scare the crows fast enough,' said the
farmer. `He looks just like a man.'
"`Why, he is a man,' said the other, and I quite agreed with
him. The farmer carried me under his arm to the cornfield, and set
me up on a tall stick, where you found me. He and his friend soon