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CHAPTER 7 - THE MERRY-GO-ROUND MOUNTAINS
The Rolling Prairie was not difficult to travel over, although it was all uphill
and downhill, so for a while they made good progress. Not even a shepherd
was to be met with now, and the farther they advanced the more dreary the
landscape became. At noon they stopped for a "picnic luncheon," as Betsy
called it, and then they again resumed their journey. All the animals were
swift and tireless, and even the Cowardly Lion and the Mule found they could
keep up with the pace of the Woozy and the Sawhorse.
It was the middle of the afternoon when first they came in sight of a cluster of
low mountains. These were cone-shaped, rising from broad bases to sharp
peaks at the tops. From a distance the mountains appeared indistinct and
seemed rather small--more like hills than mountains--but as the travelers
drew nearer, they noted a most unusual circumstance: the hills were all
whirling around, some in one direction and some the opposite way.
"
"
"
I guess these are the Merry-Go-Round Mountains, all right," said Dorothy.
They must be," said the Wizard.
They go 'round, sure enough," agreed Trot, "but they don't seem very merry."
There were several rows of these mountains, extending both to the right and
to the left for miles and miles. How many rows there might be none could tell,
but between the first row of peaks could be seen other peaks, all steadily
whirling around one way or another. Continuing to ride nearer, our friends
watched these hills attentively, until at last, coming close up, they discovered
there was a deep but narrow gulf around the edge of each mountain, and that
the mountains were set so close together that the outer gulf was continuous
and barred farther advance. At the edge of the gulf they all dismounted and
peered over into its depths. There was no telling where the bottom was, if
indeed there was any bottom at all. From where they stood it seemed as if the
mountains had been set in one great hole in the ground, just close enough
together so they would not touch, and that each mountain was supported by a
rocky column beneath its base which extended far down in the black pit
below. From the land side it seemed impossible to get across the gulf or,
succeeding in that, to gain a foothold on any of the whirling mountains.
"
"
This ditch is too wide to jump across," remarked Button-Bright.
P'raps the Lion could do it," suggested Dorothy.
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