The Oz Series
Chapter 26
Part of the The Marvelous Land of Oz: Tip's Rebellion and the Return of Ozma arc.
What happens
After considering carefully, Tip decides the best place to locate Jack is at the bend in the road a little way from the house. Finding the figure heavy and awkward, he stands Jack on his feet and induces him to walk by bending the joints of one leg then the other while pushing from behind, accomplishing this with a few tumbles and harder work than he ever did in the fields. During the journey Jack's left arm falls off, so Tip retrieves it and whittles a stouter pin for the shoulder-joint, making the arm stronger than before; he also notices Jack's pumpkin head has twisted around to face his back and easily corrects it. Set up facing the turn in the path where Mombi is to appear, the man looks natural enough to pass as a Gillikin farmer yet unnatural enough to startle anyone who comes upon him unawares. As it is too early to expect Mombi's return, Tip goes down into the valley below the farm-house to gather nuts.
Mombi returns earlier than usual, having met a crooked wizard living in a lonely mountain cave with whom she traded several important magic secrets, securing three new recipes, four magical powders, and a selection of herbs of wonderful power. Hobbling home to test her new sorceries, she turns the bend, catches a glimpse of the man, and merely nods and says "Good evening, sir." When the figure does not move or reply, she glances into his face and discovers the elaborately carved pumpkin head, recognizing Tip's trick and vowing to beat him black-and-blue. She raises her stick to smash the pumpkin head but pauses, seeing a chance to try her new powder and test whether the crooked wizard traded honestly. She sets down her basket and searches for one of the precious powders.
While Mombi is occupied, Tip strolls back with his pockets full of nuts and finds the old woman standing beside his man, unfrightened. Disappointed at first, he becomes curious about what she intends and hides behind a hedge to watch unseen. Mombi draws from her basket an old pepper-box labeled "Powder of Life" in the wizard's lead-pencil writing, and joyfully notes the stingy wizard gave enough for two or three doses. Tip is surprised to overhear this as Mombi sprinkles the powder over Jack's pumpkin head as one would pepper a baked potato, the powder sifting down over the red shirt, pink waistcoat, purple trousers, and worn shoes.
Mombi then performs the charm: lifting her left hand with little finger pointed upward she says "Weaugh," lifting her right hand with thumb upward she says "Teaugh," and lifting both hands with all fingers and thumbs spread she cries "Peaugh." Jack Pumpkinhead steps back and reproachfully protests the yelling, asking if she thinks he is deaf. Mombi dances frantically with delight, screaming that he lives, throwing her stick in the air and catching it, hugging herself, and repeating rapturously "He lives!" Tip watches with amazement, first frightened and wanting to run but with trembling legs, then struck by how funny it is that Jack has come to life, and begins to laugh; his merry peals reach Mombi's ears.
Mombi hobbles to the hedge, seizes Tip's collar, and drags him back, calling him a naughty, sneaking, wicked boy and threatening to teach him not to spy on her secrets. Tip protests he was laughing at old Pumpkinhead, and Jack, in a grave voice while his face keeps its jolly smile, hopes Tip is not reflecting on his personal appearance, making Tip laugh again. Mombi, curious about the man her magic brought to life, asks what he knows; Jack replies it is hard to tell since he feels he knows a tremendous lot but is not yet aware how much there is in the world, and will need time to discover whether he is very wise or very foolish. When Tip asks what she will do with Jack now he is alive, Mombi says she must think it over and orders them home as it grows dark, telling Tip to help the Pumpkinhead walk; Jack insists he can walk himself since he has jointed legs and feet, which Tip proudly confirms he made himself.
At the farm yard, Mombi leads the pumpkin man to the cow stable and shuts him in an empty stall, fastening the door securely, saying she must attend to Tip first, which makes the boy uneasy given her bad and revengeful heart. Inside the round, dome-shaped house, Mombi has Tip light a candle and build a fire in the hearth while she eats her supper, refusing to share her bread and cheese; Tip eats nuts from his pocket instead. Mombi hangs a small black kettle over the fire, measures equal parts of milk and vinegar, adds herbs and powders while reading a recipe from a yellow paper. When Tip asks what it is for, she answers it is for him, and reveals that if properly made it will transform him into a marble statue. Tip protests, groaning that a statue would be of no use for work, but Mombi says she will make the Pumpkinhead work for her and plans to plant Tip in the middle of a flower garden next Spring as an ornament, calling him a bother for years. She lifts the kettle from the fire near midnight, announces Tip cannot drink it until it is cold, and that at daybreak she will complete his transformation into a marble statue, thereby acknowledging she practices witchcraft despite the law. Carrying the steaming kettle into her room, she locks the door, and Tip, disobeying her command to go to bed, sits glaring at the embers of the dying fire.