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"If it please you to wait a moment, I will go and ask him," said the servant,

and then he went into the hall where the Tin Woodman sat with his friend

the Scarecrow. Both were glad to learn that a stranger had arrived at the

castle, for this would give them something new to talk about, so the servant

was asked to admit the boy at once.

By the time Woot the Wanderer had passed through the grand corridors--all

lined with ornamental tin--and under stately tin archways and through the

many tin rooms all set with beautiful tin furniture, his eyes had grown

bigger than ever and his whole little body thrilled with amazement. But,

astonished though he was, he was able to make a polite bow before the

throne and to say in a respectful voice: "I salute your Illustrious Majesty and

offer you my humble services."

"Very good!" answered the Tin Woodman in his accustomed cheerful

manner. "Tell me who you are, and whence you come."

"I am known as Woot the Wanderer," answered the boy, "and I have come,

through many travels and by roundabout ways, from my former home in a

far corner of the Gillikin Country of Oz."

To wander from one's home," remarked the Scarecrow, "is to encounter

dangers and hardships, especially if one is made of meat and bone. Had you

no friends in that corner of the Gillikin Country? Was it not homelike and

comfortable?"

To hear a man stuffed with straw speak, and speak so well, quite startled

Woot, and perhaps he stared a bit rudely at the Scarecrow. But after a

moment he replied:

"I had home and friends, your Honorable Strawness, but they were so quiet

and happy and comfortable that I found them dismally stupid. Nothing in

that corner of Oz interested me, but I believed that in other parts of the

country I would find strange people and see new sights, and so I set out

upon my wandering journey. I have been a wanderer for nearly a full year,

and now my wanderings have brought me to this splendid castle."

"I suppose," said the Tin Woodman, "that in this year you have seen so

much that you have become very wise."

"No," replied Woot, thoughtfully, "I am not at all wise, I beg to assure your

Majesty. The more I wander the less I find that I know, for in the Land of Oz

much wisdom and many things may be learned."

The Tin Woodman of Oz