The Oz Series
Chapter 88
Part of the Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz: The Underground World arc.
What happens
At three o'clock the Throne Room is crowded for the trial. Ozma, in splendid robes of state with jeweled sceptre and coronet, sits on the emerald throne, backed by her twenty-eight army officers and royal household officials, with the mixed jury of animals, animated dummies, and people seated at her right; Eureka sits in a large cage before the throne, gazing through the bars with seeming unconcern. At Ozma's signal the Woggle-Bug rises and addresses the jury pompously, accusing the small cat of first murdering and then eating (or eating and then murdering) Ozma's fat piglet. The Scarecrow repeatedly interrupts and mocks the Woggle-Bug's claim to see the crime 'in my mind's eye,' arguing the mind is blind, and Ozma rules that if the Woggle-Bug has a mind's eye it is invisible before requesting no more interruptions.
The Woggle-Bug describes the criminal creeping into Ozma's room, hiding until the door was closed, and pouncing upon and eating the helpless piglet, concluding that since the interview no piglet can be found; he asserts the crime deserves the death penalty inflicted nine times, drawing applause. Ozma asks the prisoner to plead. Eureka replies that proof is the court's task, that she would willingly die nine times if proven guilty, but that a mind's eye is no proof because the Woggle-Bug has no mind to see with.
The Tin Woodman rises to defend Eureka, praising her supposed gentleness and innocence while the kitten pointedly closes her eyes, snarls and shows her teeth, and bares her claws to scratch the cage bars, undercutting his description. Eureka tells him to say something sensible, admitting she had sense enough to know eating the piglet would raise a row but not claiming she is too innocent to have eaten it if she could escape detection. The Tin Woodman, unable to eat himself, quotes a poem about eating savory meat and asks the jury to acquit her, but no one applauds and few are convinced. The jury confers and appoints the Hungry Tiger spokesman, who declares that kittens have no consciences and eat what pleases them, finds Eureka guilty of eating Ozma's piglet, and recommends death, drawing great applause while Dorothy sobs.
As Ozma is about to order Eureka's head chopped off with the Tin Woodman's axe, the Tin Woodman rises again, produces the tiny white piglet from beneath his funnel hat, and claims the kitten could not have eaten the piglet because it is present. Ozma joyfully asks for her pet, and the people cheer that the prisoner escaped death and is proven innocent. Ozma orders Eureka freed from the cage, but the kitten refuses freedom unless the Wizard can perform his trick with eight piglets, arguing that if he can only produce seven, this is not the lost piglet. Eureka further reveals that the Princess's piglet wore an emerald collar, which this one lacks, exposing that the Wizard had nine piglets.
Eureka then confesses the truth in a mocking tone: she had crept into the dressing-room while Ozma dressed, hid under a chair, and after Ozma left and closed the door, jumped up and told the piglet it would be inside her in half a second; but the terrified piglet trembled, fell off the table into a big floor vase with a small neck and bowl-shaped top, wriggled through the neck, and fell to the deep bottom, where she supposes it still is. Astonished, Ozma sends an officer to fetch the vase, looks down its narrow neck, and finds the lost piglet exactly as Eureka described.
Since the creature cannot be removed without breaking the vase, the Tin Woodman smashes it with his axe and frees the little prisoner. The crowd cheers, and Dorothy hugs Eureka, delighted at her innocence; when asked why she did not tell them at first, Eureka replies it would have spoiled the fun. Ozma returns to the Wizard the substitute piglet Nick Chopper had used, carries her own piglet into her apartments, and the citizens of the Emerald City disperse, content with the day's amusement.
Who is in play
- Dorothy
- Ozma
- Tin Woodman
- Scarecrow
- Woggle-Bug
- City of Emeralds
- Oz
- Eureka
- Palace of Oz
- immense Tiger
- the nine tiny piglets
- the twenty-seven soldiers