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CHAPTER 9 - THE HIGH COCO-LORUM OF THI

And now the Patchwork Girl came dancing out of the wall again.

Come on!" she called. "It isn't there. There isn't any wall at all."

What? No wall?" exclaimed the Wizard.

Nothing like it," said Scraps. "It's a make-believe. You see it, but it isn't.

Come on into the city; we've been wasting our time."

With this, she danced into the wall again and once more disappeared. Button-

Bright, who was rather venture-some, dashed away after her and also became

invisible to them. The others followed more cautiously, stretching out their

hands to feel the wall and finding, to their astonishment, that they could feel

nothing because nothing opposed them. They walked on a few steps and

found themselves in the streets of a very beautiful city. Behind them they

again saw the wall, grim and forbidding as ever, but now they knew it was

merely an illusion prepared to keep strangers from entering the city.

But the wall was soon forgotten, for in front of them were a number of quaint

people who stared at them in amazement as if wondering where they had

come from. Our friends forgot their good manners for a time and returned the

stares with interest, for so remarkable a people had never before been

discovered in all the remarkable Land of Oz.

Their heads were shaped like diamonds, and their bodies like hearts. All the

hair they had was a little bunch at the tip top of their diamond-shaped heads,

and their eyes were very large and round, and their noses and mouths very

small. Their clothing was tight fitting and of brilliant colors, being

handsomely embroidered in quaint designs with gold or silver threads; but on

their feet they wore sandals with no stockings whatever. The expression of

their faces was pleasant enough, although they now showed surprise at the

appearance of strangers so unlike themselves, and our friends thought they

seemed quite harmless.

I beg your pardon," said the Wizard, speaking for his party, "for intruding

upon you uninvited, but we are traveling on important business and find it

necessary to visit your city. Will you kindly tell us by what name your city is

called?"

The Lost Princess of Oz