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CHAPTER 3 - DOWN THE MAGIC BEAN POLE

Hugging the bean pole for dear life, the Scarecrow slid rapidly downward,

Everything was dark, but at times a confused roaring sounded in his ears.

Father, I hear something falling past!" shouted a gruff voice all at once.

Then reach out and pull it in," growled a still deeper voice. There was a

flash of light, a door opened suddenly, and a giant hand snatched the air

just above the Scarecrow's head.

"It's a good thing I haven't a heart to fail me," murmured the Scarecrow,

glancing up fearfully and clinging more tightly to the pole. "Though I fall, I

shall not falter. But where under the earth am I falling to?" At that minute, a

door opened far below, and someone called up:

Who are you? Have out your toll and be ready to salute the Royal Ruler of

the Middlings!"

The Scarecrow had learned in the course of his many and strange

adventures that it was best to accede to every request that was reasonable

or possible. Realizing that unless he answered at once he would fall past his

strange questioners, he shouted amiably:

"I am the Scarecrow of Oz, sliding down my family tree!" The words echoed

oddly in the narrow passageway, and by the time he reached the word "tree"

the Scarecrow could make out two large brown men leaning from a door

somewhere below. Next minute he came to a sharp stop. A board had shot

out and closed off the passageway. So sudden was the stop that the

Scarecrow was tossed violently upward. While he endeavored to regain his

balance, the two Middlings eyed him curiously.

"So this is the kind of thing they grow on top," said one, holding a lantern

close to the Scarecrow's head.

Toll, Toll!" droned the other, holding out a horribly twisted hand.

One moment, your Royal Middleness!" cried the Scarecrow, backing as far

away from the lantern as he could, for with a straw stuffing one cannot be

too careful of fire. He felt in his pocket for an emerald he had picked up in

the Emerald City a few days before and handed it gingerly to the Muddy

monarch.

The Royal Book of Oz