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"She's in Pokes, and that's the same thing," said the Cowardly Lion without

opening his eyes.

We're lost," began the little girl, "but--"

There was something so quaint and gentle about the Knight, that she soon

found herself talking to him like an old friend. She told him all of their

adventures since leaving the Emerald City and even told about the

disappearance of the Scarecrow.

"Passing strange, yet how refreshing," murmured Sir Hokus. "And if I seem a

little behind times, you must not blame me. For centuries, I have dozed in

this gray castle, and it cometh over me that things have greatly changed.

This beast now, he talks quite manfully, and this Kingdom that you

mention, this Oz? Never heard of it!"

"Never heard of Oz?" gasped the little girl. "Why, you're a subject of Oz, and

Pokes is in Oz, though I don't know just where."

Here Dorothy gave him a short history of the Fairy country, and of the many

adventures she had had since she had come there. Sir Hokus listened with

growing melancholy.

To think," he sighed mournfully, "that I was prisoner here while all that was

happening!"

Are you a prisoner?" asked Dorothy in surprise. "I thought you were King of

the Pokes!"

"Uds daggers!" thundered Sir Hokus so suddenly that Dorothy jumped. "I

am a knight!"

Seeing her startled expression, he controlled himself. "I was a knight," he

continued brokenly. "Long centuries ago, mounted on my goodly steed, I

fared from my father's castle to offer my sword to a mighty king. His name?"

Sir Hokus tapped his forehead uncertainly. "Go to, I have forgot."

"Could it have been King Arthur?" exclaimed Dorothy, wide-eyed with

interest. "Why, just think of your being still alive!"

That's just the point," choked the Knight. "I've been alive--still, so still that

I've forgotten everything. Why, I can't even remember how I used to talk," he

confessed miserably.

But how did you get here?" rumbled the Cowardly Lion, who did not like

being left out of the conversation.

The Royal Book of Oz