| 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 |
| 1 | 33 | 66 | 99 | 132 |
|
www.freeclassicebooks.com
CHAPTER 8 - THE SCARECROW STUDIES THE SILVER ISLAND
Two days had passed since the Scarecrow had fallen into his Kingdom. He
was not finding his royal duties as pleasant as he had anticipated. The
country was beautiful enough, but being Emperor of the Silver Islands was
not the simple affair that ruling Oz had been. The pigtail on the back of his
hat was terribly distracting, and he was always tripping over his kimono, to
which he could not seem to accustom himself. His subjects were extremely
quarrelsome, always pulling one another's queues or stealing fruit,
umbrellas, and silver polish. His ministers, the Grand Chew Chew, the Chief
Chow Chow, and General Mugwump, were no better, and keeping peace in
the palace took all the Scarecrow's cleverness.
In the daytime he tried culprits in the royal court, interviewed his seventeen
secretaries, rode out in the royal palanquin, and made speeches to visiting
princes. At night he sat in the great silver salon and by the light of the
lanterns studied the Book of Ceremonies. His etiquette, the Grand Chew
Chew informed him, was shocking. He was always doing something wrong,
dodging the Imperial Umbrella, speaking kindly to a palace servant, or
walking unattended in the gardens.
The royal palace itself was richly furnished, and the Scarecrow had more
than five hundred robes of state. The gardens, with their sparkling
waterfalls, glowing orange trees, silver temples, towers and bridges, were too
lovely for words. Poppies, roses, lotus and other lilies perfumed the air, and
at night a thousand silver lanterns turned them to a veritable fairyland.
The grass and trees were green as in other lands, but the sky as always full
of tiny silver clouds, the waters surrounding the island were of a lovely
liquid silver, and as all the houses and towers were of this gleaming metal,
the effect was bewildering and beautiful.
But the Silver Islanders themselves were too stupid to appreciate this
beauty. "And what use is it all when I have no one to enjoy it with me,"
sighed the Scarecrow. "And no time to play!"
In Oz no one thought it queer if Ozma, the little Queen, jumped rope with
Dorothy or Betsy Bobbin, or had a quiet game of croquet with the palace
cook. But here, alas, everything was different. If the Scarecrow so much as
ventured a game of ball with the gardener's boy, the whole court was thrown
into an uproar. At first, the Scarecrow tried to please everybody, but finding
that nothing pleased the people in the palace, he decided to please himself.
4
7
Page
Quick Jump
|