Page:The Royal Book of Oz.djvu/310

 The Royal Book of Oz The Scarecrow put both hands to his head and stared around wildly. Then, with a triumphant wave of his hat, declared himself ready to act “The parasol!” cried the late Emperor of Silver Island. “Quick, Dorothy, put up the parasol!” Snatching the parasol, which lay at the foot of the bean pole, Dorothy snapped it open and the Scarecrow just had time to make a flying leap and seize the handle, before it soared upward, and in a trice they, too, had disappeared. “Doubty! Doubty!” wailed the Comfortable C;1] nil;0] el, crowding up to his humpebacked friend, “We’re having a pack of trouble. My knees are all a tremble!” “Now don’t you worry,” advised the Cowardly Lion, sitting down resignedly. “I’m frightened myself, but that’s because rm so cowardly. Queer things happen in Oz, but they usually turn out all right. Why, Hokus is just growing up with the country that’s all just growing up with the country.” “Doubt that,” sniffed the Doubtful Dromedary faintly. “He was grown up in the beginning.” “But think of the Scarecrow’s brains you leave things to the Scarecrow,” said the Cowardly Lion. 286 Go gle