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CHAPTER 4 - AMONG THE WINKIES
The settled parts of the Winkie Country are full of happy and contented people
who are ruled by a tin Emperor named Nick Chopper, who in turn is a subject
of the beautiful girl Ruler, Ozma of Oz. But not all of the Winkie Country is
fully settled. At the east, which part lies nearest the Emerald City, there are
beautiful farmhouses and roads, but as you travel west, you first come to a
branch of the Winkie River, beyond which there is a rough country where few
people live, and some of these are quite unknown to the rest of the world.
After passing through this rude section of territory, which no one ever visits,
you would come to still another branch of the Winkie River, after crossing
which you would find another well-settled part of the Winkie Country
extending westward quite to the Deadly Desert that surrounds all the Land of
Oz and separates that favored fairyland from the more common outside world.
The Winkies who live in this west section have many tin mines, from which
metal they make a great deal of rich jewelry and other articles, all of which are
highly esteemed in the Land of Oz because tin is so bright and pretty and
there is not so much of it as there is of gold and silver.
Not all the Winkies are miners, however, for some till the fields and grow
grains for food, and it was at one of these far-west Winkie farms that the
Frogman and Cayke the Cookie Cook first arrived after they had descended
from the mountain of the Yips. "Goodness me!" cried Nellary the Winkie wife
when she saw the strange couple approaching her house. "I have seen many
queer creatures in the Land of Oz, but none more queer than this giant frog
who dresses like a man and walks on his hind legs. Come here, Wiljon," she
called to her husband, who was eating his breakfast, "and take a look at this
astonishing freak."
Wiljon the Winkie came to the door and looked out. He was still standing in
the doorway when the Frogman approached and said with a haughty croak,
"
Tell me, my good man, have you seen a diamond-studded gold dishpan?"
"
No, nor have I seen a copper-plated lobster," replied Wiljon in an equally
haughty tone.
The Frogman stared at him and said, "Do not be insolent, fellow!"
"
No," added Cayke the Cookie Cook hastily, "you must be very polite to the
great Frogman, for he is the wisest creature in all the world."
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