The Oz Series
Chapter 74
Part of the Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz: The Underground World arc.
What happens
As the cold vegetable Prince turns away to leave the enclosure, the sad children prepare to follow, but the Wizard touches Dorothy's shoulder and whispers for them to wait. He proposes they pick the Royal Princess, whom he is sure is ripe, reasoning that once she comes to life she will be the Ruler and may treat them better than the heartless Prince intends. Dorothy eagerly agrees, and together they lean over the great bush, each seizing one of the Princess's hands. At Dorothy's cry of 'Pull!' the royal lady leans toward them, the stems snap from her feet, and the light creature is gently lifted to the ground. The Princess passes her hands over her eyes, tucks in a stray lock of hair, makes a gracious bow, and thanks them in a sweet, even-toned voice, while the Wizard kneels and kisses her hand.
The Prince's voice calls them to hasten, and he returns with his people; seeing the Princess is picked, he stops and trembles. The Royal Lady tells him with dignity that he has wronged her greatly, having left her standing silent on her bush though she had been ready for picking all the past week, because he was selfish and desired to continue his unlawful rule. The Prince claims he did not know she was ripe. The Princess commands him to give her the Star of Royalty, and he slowly takes the shining star from his own brow and places it on hers. All the people bow low to her, and the Prince turns and walks away alone, his subsequent fate unknown to the friends.
The Mangaboos form a procession to escort their new ruler to her palace for the proper ceremonies; the people walk on the ground while the Princess walks in the air just above their heads to show she is a superior, more exalted being. No one attends to the strangers, so Dorothy, Zeb, and the Wizard let the train pass and wander into the vegetable gardens, walking in the air across the brooks. Dorothy wonders why they can walk so easily in the air, and the Wizard suggests it is because they are close to the center of the earth where gravitational attraction is very slight, adding that many queer things happen in fairy countries. Dorothy confirms this is a fairy country, since only such a place could have vegetable people and talking animals like Eureka and Jim.
In the gardens they eat heartily of strawberries, melons, and other delicious fruits, though Eureka constantly demands milk or meat and abuses the Wizard for being unable to conjure milk. Sitting on the grass, Eureka declares she does not believe the Wizard is a Wizard at all, and the little man admits he is not truly a Wizard but only a humbug, which Dorothy confirms from long acquaintance. When Zeb asks how a humbug performed the trick with the nine tiny piglets, the Wizard reveals it was only a sleight-of-hand trick necessary to deceive the Sorcerer, Prince, and stupid people; the real piglets are in his inside pocket, but the pulling apart and pushing together was a trick.
The Wizard produces the tiny piglets from his pocket and sets them on the grass to nibble; when Dorothy pets one it squeals that she is squeezing it, astonishing the Wizard that they can talk. Eureka pleads to eat one because she is starving, but Dorothy reproaches her, and the Wizard sternly forbids it, since the piglets are his only proof he is a wizard. He explains the piglets came from the Island of Teenty-Weent where everything is small, brought by a sailor to Los Angeles and traded for nine circus tickets. To feed the starving kitten, the Wizard reasons that fishes, being cold and moist and not truly animals, may exist in the brooks; he bends a pin for a hook, uses string for a line and a bright red blossom for bait, and quickly catches a fat, round fish with jewel-like glistening scales. Eureka pounces and devours the fish, bones and all, and washes her face, defending her greed as hunger.
The frightened little piglets huddle together calling cats dreadful and expressing gladness they are not fishes, and Dorothy soothingly promises not to let the kitten hurt them. Remembering crackers left in her suitcase from the train luncheon, she fetches them; Eureka refuses such food but the piglets eat them delightedly. The Wizard suggests returning to the city if Jim has had enough pink grass, and the cab-horse, having eaten much while he had the chance against long intervals between meals, is ready to go. The Wizard pockets the sleeping piglets, and the three ride back in the buggy. The Wizard decides they will take possession of the House of the Sorcerer, since the Prince publicly said he would keep the Wizard there until a new Sorcerer is picked, and the new Princess will assume they belong there. Reaching the square, Jim draws the buggy into the domed hall. Noticing doorway-like openings near the top of the dome without stairs, the Wizard reminds them stairs are unnecessary and walks up through the air with the children following, finding halls with small rooms furnished with glass benches, tables, and chairs but no beds. Concluding the people never sleep since there is no night in the country of unchanging colored suns, the tired Wizard lies down on a hard glass bench to nap, Dorothy chooses a little room at the hall's end, and Zeb unharnesses Jim, who rolls over and sleeps with Eureka nestled beside him before the boy returns to an upper room and falls asleep on a glass bench.
Who is in play
- Dorothy
- the glass city
- the man with the star
- underground_traveling_party
- Zeb
- Jim
- Land of the Mangaboos
- Mangaboos
- Oz
- the Royal Princess
- Eureka
- the House of the Sorcerer
- the buggy
- the nine tiny piglets
- the public gardens
- the Royal Bush of the Mangaboos