The Oz Series
Chapter 20
Part of the Dorothy's Journey to the Wizard and Back to Kansas arc.
What happens
While the Tin Woodman makes a ladder from wood found in the forest, Dorothy sleeps from the long walk, the Lion curls up to sleep, and Toto lies beside him. The Scarecrow watches and puzzles over the wall's purpose and material, and the Woodman advises him to rest his brains until they climb over. Once the clumsy but strong ladder is finished, the Scarecrow wakes the others, and they climb up in turn, each crying "Oh, my!" at the top; the awkward Scarecrow needs Dorothy's help to keep from falling. Sitting in a row atop the wall, they look down on a strange country with a floor as smooth, shining, and white as the bottom of a big platter, scattered with small houses made entirely of china painted in bright colors, the biggest reaching only as high as Dorothy's waist, along with little china barns, fences, cows, sheep, horses, pigs, and chickens.
The strangest inhabitants are the china people, all made of china down to their clothes and no taller than Dorothy's knee: milkmaids and shepherdesses with brightly colored bodices and golden-spotted gowns, princesses in gorgeous silver, gold, and purple frocks, striped shepherds with golden shoe buckles, jeweled-crowned princes in ermine robes and satin doublets, and clowns in ruffled gowns with red-spotted cheeks and tall pointed caps. A little purple china dog with an extra-large head barks at the travelers in a tiny voice and runs away. Unable to pull up the heavy ladder, the party gets down by having the Scarecrow fall off the wall so the others can jump onto his soft body without hurting their feet on the hard floor; they then repat his flattened straw body into shape.
Dorothy decides they must cross the china country due South. The first thing they encounter is a china milkmaid milking a china cow, but the cow kicks over the stool, pail, and milkmaid at their approach, breaking the cow's leg off, shattering the pail, and nicking the milkmaid's left elbow. The angry milkmaid scolds them for frightening her cow and leads the three-legged animal away to the mender's shop, casting reproachful glances. The kind-hearted Woodman warns they must be careful not to permanently hurt the brittle little people.
A little farther on Dorothy meets a beautifully dressed young Princess who runs away, crying not to be chased because she may fall and break herself. The Princess explains that although the china people can be mended, one is never so pretty afterward, and points out Mr. Joker, one of their clowns, who from constantly standing on his head has broken and been mended in a hundred places, covered with cracks. Mr. Joker recites a saucy verse mocking Dorothy's stiffness, stands on his head, and the Princess dismisses him as cracked in his head and foolish.
Dorothy tells the Princess she is so beautiful that she would love to carry her back to Kansas to stand on Aunt Em's mantel. The Princess refuses, explaining that in their own country the china people live contentedly and can talk and move as they please, but whenever any of them are taken away their joints stiffen and they can only stand straight and look pretty, so their lives are much pleasanter at home. Dorothy, not wishing to make her unhappy, says good-bye.
The travelers walk carefully through the china country, the little animals and people scampering out of their way for fear of being broken, and after an hour reach another china wall, lower than the first. By standing on the Lion's back they scramble to the top, but as the Lion gathers his legs and jumps onto the wall, his tail upsets and smashes a china church to pieces. Dorothy reflects they were lucky to have done no more harm than breaking a cow's leg and a church, given how brittle the people are, and the Scarecrow expresses thankfulness that he is made of straw and cannot be easily damaged, concluding there are worse things than being a Scarecrow.
Who is in play
- Dorothy
- Cowardly Lion
- Tin Woodman
- Scarecrow
- Dorothy's Traveling Party
- Aunt Em
- Kansas
- the country of the china people
- Toto
- the china people
- the china Princess
- Mr. Joker
- the white china wall
- a china milkmaid