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to Kansas, if you wish, but if my beloved country must be destroyed and

my people enslaved I will remain and share their fate."

Quite right," asserted the Scarecrow, sighing. "I will remain with you."

And so will I," declared the Tin Woodman and the Shaggy Man and Jack

Pumpkinhead, in turn. Tiktok, the machine man, also said he intended

to stand by Ozma. "For," said he, "I should be of no use at all in Kan-

sas."

For my part," announced Dorothy, gravely, "if the Ruler of Oz must not

desert her people, a Princess of Oz has no right to run away, either. I'm

willing to become a slave with the rest of you; so all we can do with the

Magic Belt is to use it to send Uncle Henry and Aunt Em back to

Kansas."

I've been a slave all my life," Aunt Em replied, with considerable

cheerfulness, "and so has Henry. I guess we won't go back to Kansas,

anyway. I'd rather take my chances with the rest of you."

Ozma smiled upon them all gratefully.

There is no need to despair just yet," she said. "I'll get up early to-

morrow morning and be at the Forbidden Fountain when the fierce

warriors break through the crust of the earth. I will speak to them

pleasantly and perhaps they won't be so very bad, after all."

Why do they call it the Forbidden Fountain?" asked Dorothy,

thoughtfully.

Don't you know, dear?" returned Ozma, surprised.

No," said Dorothy. "Of course I've seen the fountain in the palace

grounds, ever since I first came to Oz; and I've read the sign which says:

'All Persons are Forbidden to Drink at this Fountain.' But I never knew

WHY they were forbidden. The water seems clear and sparkling and it

bubbles up in a golden basin all the time."

That water," declared Ozma, gravely, "is the most dangerous thing in all

the Land of Oz. It is the Water of Oblivion."

What does that mean?" asked Dorothy.

The Emerald City of Oz