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So he began unharnessing the Sawhorse, and Button-Bright and Dorothy
helped him. When they had removed the harness, the Patchwork Girl told
them to take it all apart and buckle the straps together, end to end. And after
they had done this, they found they had one very long strap that was stronger
than any rope. "It would reach across the gulf easily," said the Lion, who with
the other animals had sat on his haunches and watched this proceeding.
"
But I don't see how it could be fastened to one of those dizzy mountains."
Scraps had no such notion as that in her baggy head. She told them to fasten
one end of the strap to a stout limb of the tree, pointing to one which extended
quite to the edge of the gulf. Button-Bright did that, climbing the tree and
then crawling out upon the limb until he was nearly over the gulf. There he
managed to fasten the strap, which reached to the ground below, and then he
slid down it and was caught by the Wizard, who feared he might fall into the
chasm. Scraps was delighted. She seized the lower end of the strap, and
telling them all to get out of her way, she went back as far as the strap would
reach and then made a sudden run toward the gulf. Over the edge she
swung, clinging to the strap until it had gone as far as its length permitted,
when she let go and sailed gracefully through the air until she alighted upon
the mountain just in front of them.
Almost instantly, as the great cone continued to whirl, she was sent flying
against the next mountain in the rear, and that one had only turned halfway
around when Scraps was sent flying to the next mountain behind it. Then her
patchwork form disappeared from view entirely, and the amazed watchers
under the tree wondered what had become of her. "She's gone, and she can't
get back," said the Woozy.
"
My, how she bounded from one mountain to another!" exclaimed the Lion.
"
That was because they whirl so fast," the Wizard explained. "Scraps had
nothing to hold on to, and so of course she was tossed from one hill to
another. I'm afraid we shall never see the poor Patchwork Girl again."
"
I shall see her," declared the Woozy. "Scraps is an old friend of mine, and if
there are really Thistle-Eaters and Giants on the other side of those tops, she
will need someone to protect her. So here I go!" He seized the dangling strap
firmly in his square mouth, and in the same way that Scraps had done swung
himself over the gulf. He let go the strap at the right moment and fell upon
the first whirling mountain. Then he bounded to the next one back of it--not
on his feet, but "all mixed up," as Trot said--and then he shot across to
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