The Oz Series
Chapter 16
Part of the Dorothy's Journey to the Wizard and Back to Kansas arc.
What happens
The next morning the Scarecrow goes to the Throne Room to receive his brains, telling his friends he will return as good as other men, and Dorothy assures him she has always liked him as he was. Oz, sitting in deep thought by the window, tells the Scarecrow he must take his head off to place the brains properly, and the Scarecrow welcomes this so long as the new head is better. Oz unfastens the head, empties the straw, and in the back room mixes a measure of bran with many pins and needles, fills the top of the Scarecrow's head with the mixture, and stuffs the rest with straw. He refastens the head and tells the Scarecrow he is now a great man with "bran-new brains." The Scarecrow, pleased and proud, thanks Oz and returns to his friends with his head bulged at the top; when the Tin Woodman notices the needles and pins sticking out, the Lion remarks it is proof the Scarecrow is sharp.
The Tin Woodman then goes to the Throne Room for his heart. Oz cuts a small square hole in the left side of the Woodman's tin breast with tinsmith's shears, takes from a chest of drawers a pretty heart made of silk and stuffed with sawdust, assures the Woodman it is a kind heart, places it in his breast, and solders the tin square back in place, apologizing for the patch. The grateful Woodman returns to his friends. Next the Lion goes for his courage; Oz pours the contents of a square green bottle into a green-gold carved dish and tells the Lion that although courage is always inside one, this liquid becomes courage once swallowed. The Lion drinks the dish empty and declares himself full of courage, returning joyfully to his friends. Left alone, Oz smiles at his success in giving the Scarecrow, Woodman, and Lion exactly what they thought they wanted, reflecting that they made him a humbug by believing he could do the impossible, and worrying that carrying Dorothy back to Kansas will take more than imagination, which he does not know how to accomplish.