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23. How They Encountered the Flutterbudgets
They were soon among the pretty hills and valleys again, and the
Sawhorse sped up hill and down at a fast and easy pace, the roads being
hard and smooth. Mile after mile was speedily covered, and before the
ride had grown at all tiresome they sighted another village. The place
seemed even larger than Rigmarole Town, but was not so attractive in
appearance.
"
This must be Flutterbudget Center," declared the Wizard. "You see, it's
no trouble at all to find places if you keep to the right road."
"
"
What are the Flutterbudgets like?" inquired Dorothy.
I do not know, my dear. But Ozma has given them a town all their own,
and I've heard that whenever one of the people becomes a Flutterbudget
he is sent to this place to live."
"
That is true," Omby Amby added; "Flutterbudget Center and Rigmarole
Town are called 'the Defensive Settlements of Oz.'"
The village they now approached was not built in a valley, but on top of a
hill, and the road they followed wound around the hill, like a corkscrew,
ascending the hill easily until it came to the town.
"
Look out!" screamed a voice. "Look out, or you'll run over my child!"
They gazed around and saw a woman standing upon the sidewalk
nervously wringing her hands as she gazed at them appealingly.
"
"
Where is your child?" asked the Sawhorse.
In the house," said the woman, bursting into tears; "but if it should
happen to be in the road, and you ran over it, those great wheels would
crush my darling to jelly. Oh dear! oh dear! Think of my darling child
being crushed into jelly by those great wheels!"
"
Gid-dap!" said the Wizard sharply, and the Sawhorse started on.
They had not gone far before a man ran out of a house shouting wildly,
"Help! Help!"
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