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"Ah!" murmured the Scarecrow, looking up, "My family tree!"
"Beside the bean pole lay a crumpled parchment." The Grand Chew Chew
felt in the sleeve of his kimono and brought out a bit of crumpled silver
paper, and adjusting his horn spectacles, read slowly.
"Into the first being who touches this magic pole--on the other side of the
world--the spirit of Emperor Chang Wang Woe will enter. And fifty years
from this day, he will return--to save his people."
The Grand Chew Chew took off his specs and folded up the paper. "The day
has come! You have come down the bean pole, and are undoubtedly that
being who has gone from Emperor to crocus to Scarecrowcus. I have ruled
the Islands these fifty years; have seen to the education of your sons and
grandsons. And now, gracious and exalted Master, as I am an old man I ask
you to relieve me from the cares of state."
"Sons! Grandsons!" choked the Scarecrow, beginning to feel very much
alarmed indeed. "How old am I?"
"Your Highness," said the Grand Chew Chew with a deep salaam, "is as old
as I. In other words, you are in the ripe and glorious eighty-fifth year of your
Majesty's illustrious and useful age."
"
Eighty five!" gasped the Scarecrow, staring in dismay at the gray, wrinkled
face of the old Silverman. "Now see here, Chew Chew, are you sure of that?"
"
Quite sure, Immortal and Honored Master!"
The Scarecrow could not help but be convinced of the truth of the Grand
Chew Chew's story. The pole in the Munchkin farmer's cornfield was none
other than the magic beanstalk, and he, thrust on the pole by the farmer to
scare away the crows, had received the spirit of the Emperor Chang Wang
Woe. "Which accounts for my cleverness," he thought gloomily. Now, surely
he should have been pleased, for he had come in search of a family, but the
acquisition of an empire, sons and grandsons, and old age, all in a trice,
fairly took his breath away.
"
Does the prophecy say anything about restoring my imperial person?" he
asked anxiously, for the thought of looking like Chew Chew was not a
cheerful one.
"
Alas, no!" sighed the Grand Chew Chew sorrowfully. "But we have very
clever wizards on the Island, and I shall set them at work on the problem at
once."
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