The Oz Series
Chapter 31
Part of the The Marvelous Land of Oz: Tip's Rebellion and the Return of Ozma arc.
What happens
The Scarecrow, King of the Emerald City, is described as dressed in faded blue clothes with a small straw-stuffed sack for a head bearing a rudely painted face, his straw-stuffed body bumpy and uneven, wisps of straw protruding, and a heavy jeweled golden crown weighing his brow into thoughtful wrinkles; the crown alone betokens majesty while otherwise he is a simple, flimsy scarecrow. Jack Pumpkinhead, in purple trousers, pink waistcoat, and red shirt over Tip's wooden joints with a perpetually grinning carved face, appears equally wonderful to the Scarecrow, who at first thinks Jack is mocking him but, being reputed the wisest personage in Oz, recognizes the smile is carved and immovable.
The Scarecrow asks where Jack came from and how he is alive. Jack claims not to understand the language, saying he is a foreigner from the Country of the Gillikins who speaks the language of the Pumpkinheads, while the Scarecrow speaks the Munchkin language of the Emerald City. Believing they cannot understand one another, the Scarecrow orders the Soldier with the Green Whiskers to find an interpreter who knows both the Gillikin language and the language of the Emerald City. To signal Jack to sit, the Scarecrow pushes him into an armchair, and remarks on the difference between them that the Scarecrow will bend but not break while Jack will break but not bend.
The Soldier returns with Jellia Jamb, a sweet green-eyed maiden in an elaborate green costume trimmed with pea-pods, lettuce, clover leaves, and emeralds, who was born in the North Country and understands the Gillikin language. Appointed interpreter, Jellia mischievously mistranslates, telling the Scarecrow that Jack said his Majesty's brains seem to have come loose, then that Jack asked whether the Scarecrow was aware one eye is painted larger than the other, provoking the Scarecrow's uneasiness and threats of jail. When the Scarecrow wonders how he understands the supposedly foreign speech himself, Jellia laughingly reveals that only one language is spoken in all the Land of Oz, so he could have been his own interpreter.
Jack admits his error in assuming different countries meant different languages, and the Scarecrow warns him never to think unless he can think wisely. Discovering they are both artificial beings who did not ask to be created, the Scarecrow proposes friendship, which Jack accepts "with all my heart," prompting the Scarecrow to caution Jack against exercising imagination he has no brains to justify. His Majesty dismisses Jellia Jamb and the Soldier with the Green Whiskers, then leads his new friend into the courtyard to play a game of quoits.
Who is in play
- Tip
- Jack Pumpkinhead
- Scarecrow
- City of Emeralds
- Jellia Jamb
- Land of Oz
- Munchkins
- the soldier with the green whiskers
- Country of the Gillikins
- Gillikins