The Emerald City of Oz by Lyman Frank Baum (best free e book reader .TXT) 📖

to the doors and windows of their houses to look at them curiously. These dolls were nearly all the same height, but were cut into various shapes, some being fat and some lean. The girl dolls wore many beautiful costumes of tissue paper, making them quite fluffy; but their heads and hands were no thicker than the paper of which they were made.

Some of the paper people were on the street, walking along or congregated in groups and talking together; but as soon as they saw the strangers they all fluttered into the houses as fast as they could go, so as to be out of danger.

“Excuse me if I go edgewise,” remarked the Captain as they came to a slight hill. “I can get along faster that way and not flutter so much.”

“That’s all right,” said Dorothy. “We don’t mind how you go, I’m sure.”

At one side of the street was a paper pump, and a paper boy was pumping paper water into a paper pail. The Yellow Hen happened to brush against this boy with her wing, and he flew into the air and fell into a paper tree, where he stuck until the Wizard gently pulled him out. At the same time, the pail went into the air, spilling the paper water, while the paper pump bent nearly double.

“Goodness me!” said the Hen. “If I should flop my wings I believe I’d knock over the whole village!”

“Then don’t flop them—please don’t!” entreated the Captain. “Miss Cuttenclip would be very much distressed if her village was spoiled.”

“Oh, I’ll be careful,” promised Billina.

“Are not all these paper girls and women named Miss Cuttenclips?” inquired Omby Amby.

“No indeed,” answered the Captain, who was walking better since he began to move edgewise. “There is but one Miss Cuttenclip, who is our Queen, because she made us all. These girls are Cuttenclips, to be sure, but their names are Emily and Polly and Sue and Betty and such things. Only the Queen is called Miss Cuttenclip.”

“I must say that this place beats anything I ever heard of,” observed Aunt Em. “I used to play with paper dolls myself, an’ cut ‘em out; but I never thought I’d ever see such things alive.”

“I don’t see as it’s any more curious than hearing hens talk,” returned Uncle Henry.

“You’re likely to see many queer things in the Land of Oz, sir,” said the Wizard. “But a fairy country is extremely interesting when you get used to being surprised.”

“Here we are!” called the Captain, stopping before a cottage.

This house was made of wood, and was remarkably pretty in design. In the Emerald City it would have been considered a tiny dwelling, indeed; but in the midst of this paper village it seemed immense. Real flowers were in the garden and real trees grew beside it. Upon the front door was a sign reading:

 

MISS CUTTENCLIP.

 

Just as they reached the porch the front door opened and a little girl stood before them. She appeared to be about the same age as Dorothy, and smiling upon her visitors she said, sweetly:

“You are welcome.”

All the party seemed relieved to find that here was a real girl, of flesh and blood. She was very dainty and pretty as she stood there welcoming them. Her hair was a golden blonde and her eyes turquoise blue. She had rosy cheeks and lovely white teeth. Over her simple white lawn dress she wore an apron with pink and white checks, and in one hand she held a pair of scissors.

“May we see Miss Cuttenclip, please?” asked Dorothy.

“I am Miss Cuttenclip,” was the reply. “Won’t you come in?”

She held the door open while they all entered a pretty sitting-room that was littered with all sorts of paper—some stiff, some thin, and some tissue. The sheets and scraps were of all colors. Upon a table were paints and brushes, while several pair of scissors, of different sizes, were lying about.

“Sit down, please,” said Miss Cuttenclip, clearing the paper scraps off some of the chairs. “It is so long since I have had any visitors that I am not properly prepared to receive them. But I’m sure you will pardon my untidy room, for this is my workshop.”

“Do you make all the paper dolls?” inquired Dorothy.

“Yes; I cut them out with my scissors, and paint the faces and some of the costumes. It is very pleasant work, and I am happy making my paper village grow.”

“But how do the paper dolls happen to be alive?” asked Aunt Em.

“The first dolls I made were not alive,” said Miss Cuttenclip. “I used to live near the castle of a great Sorceress named Glinda the Good, and she saw my dolls and said they were very pretty. I told her I thought I would like them better if they were alive, and the next day the Sorceress brought me a lot of magic paper. ‘This is live paper,’ she said, ‘and all the dolls you cut out of it will be alive, and able to think and to talk. When you have used it all up, come to me and I will give you more.’

“Of course I was delighted with this present,” continued Miss Cuttenclip, “and at once set to work and made several paper dolls, which, as soon as they were cut out, began to walk around and talk to me. But they were so thin that I found that any breeze would blow them over and scatter them dreadfully; so Glinda found this lonely place for me, where few people ever come. She built the wall to keep any wind from blowing away my people, and told me I could build a paper village here and be its Queen. That is why I came here and settled down to work and started the village you now see. It was many years ago that I built the first houses, and I’ve kept pretty busy and made my village grow finely; and I need not tell you that I am very happy in my work.”

“Many years ago!” exclaimed Aunt Em. “Why, how old are you, child?”

“I never keep track of the years,” said Miss Cuttenclip, laughing. “You see, I don’t grow up at all, but stay just the same as I was when first I came here. Perhaps I’m older even than you are, madam; but I couldn’t say for sure.”

They looked at the lovely little girl wonderingly, and the Wizard asked:

“What happens to your paper village when it rains?”

“It does not rain here,” replied Miss Cuttenclip. “Glinda keeps all the rain storms away; so I never worry about my dolls getting wet. But now, if you will come with me, it will give me pleasure to show you over my paper kingdom. Of course you must go slowly and carefully, and avoid making any breeze.”

They left the cottage and followed their guide through the various streets of the village. It was indeed an amazing place, when one considered that it was all made with scissors, and the visitors were not only greatly interested but full of admiration for the skill of little Miss Cuttenclip.

In one place a large group of especially nice paper dolls assembled to greet their Queen, whom it was easy to see they loved early. These dolls marched and danced before the visitors, and then they all waved their paper handkerchiefs and sang in a sweet chorus a song called “The Flag of Our Native Land.”

At the conclusion of the song they ran up a handsome paper flag on a tall flagpole, and all of the people of the village gathered around to cheer as loudly as they could—although, of course, their voices were not especially strong.

Miss Cuttenclip was about to make her subjects a speech in reply to this patriotic song, when the Shaggy Man happened to sneeze.

He was a very loud and powerful sneezer at any time, and he had tried so hard to hold in this sneeze that when it suddenly exploded the result was terrible.

The paper dolls were mowed down by dozens, and flew and fluttered in wild confusion in every direction, tumbling this way and that and getting more or less wrinkled and bent.

A wail of terror and grief came from the scattered throng, and Miss Cuttenclip exclaimed:

“Dear me! dear me!” and hurried at once to the rescue of her overturned people.

“Oh, Shaggy Man! How could you?” asked Dorothy, reproachfully.

“I couldn’t help it—really I couldn’t,” protested the Shaggy Man, looking quite ashamed. “And I had no idea it took so little to upset these paper dolls.”

“So little!” said Dorothy. “Why, it was ‘most as bad as a Kansas cyclone.” And then she helped Miss Cuttenclip rescue the paper folk and stand them on their feet again. Two of the cardboard houses had also tumbled over, and the little Queen said she would have to repair them and paste them together before they could be lived in again.

And now, fearing they might do more damage to the flimsy paper people, they decided to go away. But first they thanked Miss Cuttenclip very warmly for her courtesy and kindness to them.

“Any friend of Princess Ozma is always welcome here—unless he sneezes,” said the Queen with a rather severe look at the Shaggy Man, who hung his head. “I like to have visitors admire my wonderful village, and I hope you will call again.”

Miss Cuttenclip herself led them to the door in the wall, and as they passed along the street the paper dolls peeped at them half fearfully from the doors and windows. Perhaps they will never forget the Shaggy Man’s awful sneeze, and I am sure they were all glad to see the meat people go away.

 

11. How the General Met the First and Foremost

 

On leaving the Growleywogs General Guph had to recross the Ripple Lands, and he did not find it a pleasant thing to do. Perhaps having his whiskers pulled out one by one and being used as a pin-cushion for the innocent amusement of a good natured jailer had not improved the quality of Guph’s temper, for the old Nome raved and raged at the recollection of the wrongs he had suffered, and vowed to take vengeance upon the Growleywogs after he had used them for his purposes and Oz had been conquered. He went on in this furious way until he was half across the Ripple Land. Then he became seasick, and the rest of the way this naughty Nome was almost as miserable as he deserved to be.

But when he reached the plains again and the ground was firm under his feet he began to feel better, and instead of going back home he turned directly west. A squirrel, perched in a tree, saw him take this road and called to him warningly: “Look out!” But he paid no attention. An eagle paused in its flight through the air to look at him wonderingly and say: “Look out!” But on he went.

No one can say that Guph was not brave, for he had determined to visit those dangerous creatures the Phanfasms, who resided upon the very top of the dread Mountain of Phantastico. The Phanfasms were Erbs, and so dreaded by mortals and immortals alike that no one had been near their mountain home for several thousand years. Yet General Guph hoped to induce them to join in his proposed warfare against the good and happy Oz people.

Guph knew very well that the Phanfasms would be almost as dangerous to the Nomes as they would to the Ozites, but he thought himself so clever that he believed he could manage these strange creatures and make them obey him. And there was no