L. Frank Baum_Oz 12 (5 page)

"Well," said the Giantess, "what excuse have you to offer?"

"We didn't know anyone lived here, Madam," explained the Scarecrow;
"so, being travelers and strangers in these parts, and wishing to find
a place for our boy friend to sleep, we ventured to enter your castle."

"You knew it was private property, I suppose?" said she, buttering
another biscuit.

"We saw the words, 'Yoop Castle,' over the door, but we knew that Mr.
Yoop is a prisoner in a cage in a far-off part of the land of Oz, so we
decided there was no one now at home and that we might use the castle
for the night."

"I see," remarked the Giantess, nodding her head and smiling again in
that curious way—a way that made Woot shudder. "You didn't know that
Mr. Yoop was married, or that after he was cruelly captured his wife
still lived in his castle and ran it to suit herself."

"Who captured Mr. Yoop?" asked Woot, looking gravely at the big woman.

"Wicked enemies. People who selfishly objected to Yoop's taking their
cows and sheep for his food. I must admit, however, that Yoop had a bad
temper, and had the habit of knocking over a few houses, now and then,
when he was angry. So one day the little folks came in a great crowd
and captured Mr. Yoop, and carried him away to a cage somewhere in the
mountains. I don't know where it is, and I don't care, for my husband
treated me badly at times, forgetting the respect a giant owes to a
giantess. Often he kicked me on my shins, when I wouldn't wait on him.
So I'm glad he is gone."

"It's a wonder the people didn't capture you, too," remarked Woot.

"Well, I was too clever for them," said she, giving a sudden laugh that
caused such a breeze that the wobbly Scarecrow was almost blown off his
feet and had to grab his friend Nick Chopper to steady himself. "I saw
the people coining," continued Mrs. Yoop, "and knowing they meant
mischief I transformed myself into a mouse and hid in a cupboard. After
they had gone away, carrying my shin-kicking husband with them, I
transformed myself back to my former shape again, and here I've lived
in peace and comfort ever since."

"Are you a Witch, then?" inquired Woot.

"Well, not exactly a Witch," she replied, "but I'm an Artist in
Transformations. In other words, I'm more of a Yookoohoo than a Witch,
and of course you know that the Yookoohoos are the cleverest
magic-workers in the world."

The travelers were silent for a time, uneasily considering this
statement and the effect it might have on their future. No doubt the
Giantess had wilfully made them her prisoners; yet she spoke so
cheerfully, in her big voice, that until now they had not been alarmed
in the least.

By and by the Scarecrow, whose mixed brains had been working steadily,
asked the woman:

"Are we to consider you our friend, Mrs. Yoop, or do you intend to be
our enemy?"

"I never have friends," she said in a matter-of-fact tone, "because
friends get too familiar and always forget to mind their own business.
But I am not your enemy; not yet, anyhow. Indeed, I'm glad you've come,
for my life here is rather lonely. I've had no one to talk to since I
transformed Polychrome, the Daughter of the Rainbow, into a
canary-bird."

"How did you manage to do that?" asked the Tin Woodman, in amazement.
"Polychrome is a powerful fairy!"

"She was," said the Giantess; "but now she's a canary-bird. One day
after a rain, Polychrome danced off the Rainbow and fell asleep on a
little mound in this valley, not far from my castle. The sun came out
and drove the Rainbow away, and before Poly wakened, I stole out and
transformed her into a canary-bird in a gold cage studded with
diamonds. The cage was so she couldn't fly away. I expected she'd sing
and talk and we'd have good times together; but she has proved no
company for me at all. Ever since the moment of her transformation, she
has refused to speak a single word."

"Where is she now?" inquired Woot, who had heard tales of lovely
Polychrome and was much interested in her.

"The cage is hanging up in my bedroom," said the Giantess, eating
another biscuit. The travelers were now more uneasy and suspicious of
the Giantess than before. If Polychrome, the Rainbow's Daughter, who
was a real fairy, had been transformed and enslaved by this huge woman,
who claimed to be a Yookoohoo, what was liable to happen to them? Said
the Scarecrow, twisting his stuffed head around in Mrs. Yoop's
direction:

"Do you know, Ma'am, who we are?"

"Of course," said she; "a straw man, a tin man and a boy."

"We are very important people," declared the Tin Woodman.

"All the better," she replied. "I shall enjoy your society the more on
that account. For I mean to keep you here as long as I live, to amuse
me when I get lonely. And," she added slowly, "in this Valley no one
ever dies."

They didn't like this speech at all, so the Scarecrow frowned in a way
that made Mrs. Yoop smile, while the Tin Woodman looked so fierce that
Mrs. Yoop laughed. The Scarecrow suspected she was going to laugh, so
he slipped behind his friends to escape the wind from her breath. From
this safe position he said warningly:

"We have powerful friends who will soon come to rescue us."

"Let them come," she returned, with an accent of scorn. "When they get
here they will find neither a boy, nor a tin man, nor a scarecrow, for
tomorrow morning I intend to transform you all into other shapes, so
that you cannot be recognized."

This threat filled them with dismay. The good-natured Giantess was more
terrible than they had imagined. She could smile and wear pretty
clothes and at the same time be even more cruel than her wicked husband
had been.

Both the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman tried to think of some way to
escape from the castle before morning, but she seemed to read their
thoughts and shook her head.

"Don't worry your poor brains," said she. "You can't escape me, however
hard you try. But why should you wish to escape? I shall give you new
forms that are much better than the ones you now have. Be contented
with your fate, for discontent leads to unhappiness, and unhappiness,
in any form, is the greatest evil that can befall you."

"What forms do you intend to give us?" asked Woot earnestly.

"I haven't decided, as yet. I'll dream over it tonight, so in the
morning I shall have made up my mind how to transform you. Perhaps
you'd prefer to choose your own transformations?"

"No," said Woot, "I prefer to remain as I am."

"That's funny," she retorted. "You are little, and you're weak; as you
are, you're not much account, anyhow. The best thing about you is that
you're alive, for I shall be able to make of you some sort of live
creature which will be a great improvement on your present form."

She took another biscuit from a plate and dipped it in a pot of honey
and calmly began eating it.

The Scarecrow watched her thoughtfully.

"There are no fields of grain in your Valley," said he; "where, then,
did you get the flour to make your biscuits?"

"Mercy me! do you think I'd bother to make biscuits out of flour?" she
replied. "That is altogether too tedious a process for a Yookoohoo. I
set some traps this afternoon and caught a lot of field-mice, but as I
do not like to eat mice, I transformed them into hot biscuits for my
supper. The honey in this pot was once a wasp's nest, but since being
transformed it has become sweet and delicious. All I need do, when I
wish to eat, is to take something I don't care to keep, and transform
it into any sort of food I like, and eat it. Are you hungry?"

"I don't eat, thank you," said the Scarecrow.

"Nor do I," said the Tin Woodman.

"I have still a little natural food in my knapsack," said Woot the
Wanderer, "and I'd rather eat that than any wasp's nest."

"Every one to his taste," said the Giantess carelessly, and having now
finished her supper she rose to her feet, clapped her hands together,
and the supper table at once disappeared.

Woot had seen very little of magic during his wanderings, while the
Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman had seen a great deal of many sorts in
their lives, yet all three were greatly impressed by Mrs. Yoop's
powers. She did not affect any mysterious airs or indulge in chants or
mystic rites, as most witches do, nor was the Giantess old and ugly or
disagreeable in face or manner. Nevertheless, she frightened her
prisoners more than any witch could have done.

"Please be seated," she said to them, as she sat herself down in a
great arm-chair and spread her beautiful embroidered skirts for them to
admire. But all the chairs in the room were so high that our friends
could not climb to the seats of them. Mrs. Yoop observed this and waved
her hand, when instantly a golden ladder appeared leaning against a
chair opposite her own.

"Climb up," said she, and they obeyed, the Tin Man and the boy
assisting the more clumsy Scarecrow. When they were all seated in a row
on the cushion of the chair, the Giantess continued: "Now tell me how
you happened to travel in this direction, and where you came from and
what your errand is."

So the Tin Woodman told her all about Nimmie Amee, and how he had
decided to find her and marry her, although he had no Loving Heart. The
story seemed to amuse the big woman, who then began to ask the
Scarecrow questions and for the first time in her life heard of Ozma of
Oz, and of Dorothy and Jack Pumpkinhead and Dr. Pipt and Tik-tok and
many other Oz people who are well known in the Emerald City. Also Woot
had to tell his story, which was very simple and did not take long. The
Giantess laughed heartily when the boy related their adventure at
Loonville, but said she knew nothing of the Loons because she never
left her Valley.

"There are wicked people who would like to capture me, as they did my
giant husband, Mr. Yoop," said she; "so I stay at home and mind my own
business."

"If Ozma knew that you dared to work magic without her consent, she
would punish you severely," declared the Scarecrow, "for this castle is
in the Land of Oz, and no persons in the Land of Oz are permitted to
work magic except Glinda the Good and the little Wizard who lives with
Ozma in the Emerald City."

"That for your Ozma!" exclaimed the Giantess, snapping her fingers in
derision. "What do I care for a girl whom I have never seen and who has
never seen me?"

"But Ozma is a fairy," said the Tin Woodman, "and therefore she is very
powerful. Also, we are under Ozma's protection, and to injure us in any
way would make her extremely angry."

"What I do here, in my own private castle in this secluded
Valley—where no one comes but fools like you—can never be known to
your fairy Ozma," returned the Giantess. "Do not seek to frighten me
from my purpose, and do not allow yourselves to be frightened, for it
is best to meet bravely what cannot be avoided. I am now going to bed,
and in the morning I will give you all new forms, such as will be more
interesting to me than the ones you now wear. Good night, and pleasant
dreams."

Saying this, Mrs. Yoop rose from her chair and walked through a doorway
into another room. So heavy was the tread of the Giantess that even the
walls of the big stone castle trembled as she stepped. She closed the
door of her bedroom behind her, and then suddenly the light went out
and the three prisoners found themselves in total darkness.

The Tin Woodman and the Scarecrow didn't mind the dark at all, but Woot
the Wanderer felt worried to be left in this strange place in this
strange manner, without being able to see any danger that might
threaten.

"The big woman might have given me a bed, anyhow," he said to his
companions, and scarcely had he spoken when he felt something press
against his legs, which were then dangling from the seat of the chair.
Leaning down, he put out his hand and found that a bedstead had
appeared, with mattress, sheets and covers, all complete. He lost no
time in slipping down upon the bed and was soon fast asleep.

During the night the Scarecrow and the Emperor talked in low tones
together, and they got out of the chair and moved all about the room,
feeling for some hidden spring that might open a door or window and
permit them to escape.

Morning found them still unsuccessful in the quest and as soon as it
was daylight Woot's bed suddenly disappeared, and he dropped to the
floor with a thump that quickly wakened him. And after a time the
Giantess came from her bedroom, wearing another dress that was quite as
elaborate as the one in which she had been attired the evening before,
and also wearing the pretty lace apron. Having seated herself in a
chair, she said:

"I'm hungry; so I'll have breakfast at once."

She clapped her hands together and instantly the table appeared before
her, spread with snowy linen and laden with golden dishes. But there
was no food upon the table, nor anything else except a pitcher of
water, a bundle of weeds and a handful of pebbles. But the Giantess
poured some water into her coffee-pot, patted it once or twice with her
hand, and then poured out a cupful of steaming hot coffee.

"Would you like some?" she asked Woot.

He was suspicious of magic coffee, but it smelled so good that he could
not resist it; so he answered: "If you please, Madam."

The Giantess poured out another cup and set it on the floor for Woot.
It was as big as a tub, and the golden spoon in the saucer beside the
cup was so heavy the boy could scarcely lift it. But Woot managed to
get a sip of the coffee and found it delicious.

Mrs. Yoop next transformed the weeds into a dish of oatmeal, which she
ate with good appetite.

"Now, then," said she, picking up the pebbles. "I'm wondering whether I
shall have fish-balls or lamb-chops to complete my meal. Which would
you prefer, Woot the Wanderer?"