The Oz Series
Chapter 100
Part of the The Road to Oz: The Shaggy Man's Journey to Ozma's Birthday arc.
What happens
As the travelers trudge along rough terrain, all are hungry and thirsty, having eaten only apples since breakfast, so their steps lag. Crossing a barren hill, they see a line of green trees with grass and a fragrant scent. They hurry forward to find a spring of pure bubbling water surrounded by wild strawberry plants with ripe red berries, plus trees bearing yellow oranges and russet pears. The hungry adventurers feast on the biggest strawberries and ripest oranges until content. Walking beyond the trees, they confront a vast gray-sand desert bearing a large white sign warning that the Deadly Sands turn any living flesh to dust in an instant, that beyond the barrier lies the Land of Oz, but that no one can reach it because of the Destroying Sands. Dorothy confirms she has seen this desert before and that no one can survive walking on the sands.
Unable to go forward or back, the group is stumped. Polychrome wishes her father would come to take them to live on the rainbow, but supposes he is too busy searching the world for her. Dorothy declines the offer of dancing on rainbows as too soft underfoot, and the party falls silent. The shaggy man decides they should sleep in the pleasant place and decide by morning. He piles soft grasses in the thickest shade beneath the leafy trees, and the children sleep peacefully. Long after the others sleep, the shaggy man sits by the spring in the starlight, then suddenly smiles and nods as if struck by a good thought before lying down to sleep himself.
In the morning, eating strawberries and pears, Dorothy asks Polychrome whether she can do magic; Polychrome answers that those who live on the rainbow among the fleecy clouds have no use for magic. Dorothy recounts that she has crossed the desert to the Emerald City several times—first by a cyclone carrying her house, returned by the Silver Shoes; then taken over by Ozma on her Magic Carpet; and brought home by the Nome King's Magic Belt—all by magic except the first. The shaggy man reveals he can summon a powerful friend, Johnny Dooit, who loves him because of the Love Magnet and can do anything.
The shaggy man unwraps the Love Magnet, holds it in his palm, and recites a rhyme calling Johnny Dooit. A cheery little man appears, sitting on a big copper chest and puffing a long pipe. Johnny Dooit has grey hair and grey whiskers long enough to be wound around his waist and knotted under a well-worn leather apron; his hands and arms are as hard and tough as the leather. He recognizes the shaggy man only by his feet due to the donkey head. After being introduced to Dorothy, Toto, Button-Bright, and Polychrome and hearing the tale of their need to reach the Emerald City, Johnny Dooit examines the desert and declares they must ride in a sand-boat with sled-like runners and ship-like sails, which the wind will drive swiftly across without the sand touching their flesh.
Johnny Dooit unlocks his copper chest, which is full of shining magic tools that work fast and well. Humming a song about doing a thing cheerfully and the happiness of one who cares to work, he fells a tree with an axe, saws the trunk into boards, nails them into a boat about twelve feet long and four feet wide, trims a slender pole into a central mast, and rigs a canvas sail from rope and canvas in his chest. Dorothy, Button-Bright, and Polly watch in amazement. Johnny Dooit says he could paint the boat in three seconds but the drying would waste an hour, and instructs the shaggy man to sail it as he has seen a ship sailed, warning only against tipping over. He then slams the chest lid shut with a loud noise, and while the travelers wink at the sound, the workman and his tools vanish.
Who is in play
- Dorothy
- Ozma
- Polychrome
- the Shaggy Man
- Button-Bright
- Johnny Dooit
- the Love Magnet
- Kansas
- Land of Oz
- magic carpet
- road_to_oz_traveling_party
- sand-boat
- Silver Shoes
- Toto
- jewel-studded belt
- the Nome King