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It was evident the woman did not like to talk about King Krewl and so, having

finished their meal, they said good-bye and continued along the pathway.

Don't you think we'd better keep away from that King's castle, Cap'n?" asked

Trot.

Well," said he, "King Krewl would find out, sooner or later, that we are in his

country, so we may as well face the music now. Perhaps he isn't quite so bad

as that woman thinks he is. Kings aren't always popular with their people, you

know, even if they do the best they know how."

Ozma is pop'lar," said Button-Bright.

Ozma is diff'rent from any other Ruler, from all I've heard," remarked Trot

musingly, as she walked beside the boy. "And, after all, we are really in the

Land of Oz, where Ozma rules ev'ry King and ev'rybody else. I never heard of

anybody getting hurt in her dominions, did you, Button-Bright?"

Not when she knows about it," he replied. "But those birds landed us in just

the wrong place, seems to me. They might have carried us right on, over that

row of mountains, to the Em'rald City."

True enough," said Cap'n Bill; "but they didn't, an' so we must make the best

of Jinxland. Let's try not to be afraid."

Oh, I'm not very scared," said Button-Bright, pausing to look at a pink rabbit

that popped its head out of a hole in the field near by.

Nor am I," added Trot. "Really, Cap'n, I'm so glad to be anywhere at all in the

wonderful fairyland of Oz that I think I'm the luckiest girl in all the world.

Dorothy lives in the Em'rald City, you know, and so does the Scarecrow and

the Tin Woodman and Tik-Tok and the Shaggy Man--and all the rest of 'em

that we've heard so much about--not to mention Ozma, who must be the

sweetest and loveliest girl in all the world!"

Take your time, Trot," advised Button-Bright. "You don't have to say it all in

one breath, you know. And you haven't mentioned half of the curious people

in the Em'rald City."

That 'ere Em'rald City," said Cap'n Bill impressively, "happens to be on the

other side o' those mountains, that we're told no one is able to cross. I don't

want to discourage of you, Trot, but we're a'most as much separated from

your Ozma an' Dorothy as we were when we lived in Californy."

The Scarecrow of Oz