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CHAPTER 21 - MAGIC AGAINST MAGIC
The Wizard's advice was good, so again they started in the direction of the low
mountain on the crest of which the wicker castle had been built. They had
been gradually advancing uphill, so now the elevation seemed to them more
like a round knoll than a mountaintop. However, the sides of the knoll were
sloping and covered with green grass, so there was a stiff climb before them
yet.
Undaunted, they plodded on and had almost reached the knoll when they
suddenly observed that it was surrounded by a circle of flame. At first, the
flames barely rose above the ground, but presently they grew higher and
higher until a circle of flaming tongues of fire taller than any of their heads
quite surrounded the hill on which the wicker castle stood. When they
approached the flames, the heat was so intense that it drove them back again.
"
This will never do for me!" exclaimed the Patchwork Girl. "I catch fire very
easily."
"
"
It won't do for me either," grumbled the Sawhorse, prancing to the rear.
I also strongly object to fire," said the Bear King, following the Sawhorse to a
safe distance and hugging the little Pink Bear with his paws.
"
I suppose the foolish Shoemaker imagines these blazes will stop us,"
remarked the Wizard with a smile of scorn for Ugu. "But I am able to inform
you that this is merely a simple magic trick which the robber stole from
Glinda the Good, and by good fortune I know how to destroy these flames as
well as how to produce them. Will some one of you kindly give me a match?"
You may be sure the girls carried no matches, nor did the Frogman or any of
the animals. But Button-Bright, after searching carefully through his
pockets, which contained all sorts of useful and useless things, finally
produced a match and handed it to the Wizard, who tied it to the end of a
branch which he tore from a small tree growing near them. Then the little
Wizard carefully lighted the match, and running forward thrust it into the
nearest flame. Instantly, the circle of fire began to die away, and soon
vanished completely leaving the way clear for them to proceed.
"
That was funny!" laughed Button-Bright.
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