essentially equal. On the other hand, even if they were born equal, the
Sniffer citizens have a real physical reason for their disagreement with
the Stinkfoots. If you will forgive my saying so, I cannot believe that
either group is necessarily better or more important than the other.
It's just that they are physically unable to co-exist."

"As much as it pains me to say it," replied the Sniffer citizen, "I have
to agree. After all, the Stinkfoot people used to get along fine with my
people, so long as we kept our distance from one another. Now that the
Stinkfoots are infringing on our territory, we are forced to take action
against them despite our former friendship. But there simply is no
alternative. They are taking away our homeland, and pushing us away.
There is no other option but to push them back."

"It is a real problem when one specie overcrowds its territory," added
Hootsey. "It must pave away all other life forms to further supply its
own needs."

"But no one has the right to crowd out what Nature has already
established," said Elephant. "Just imagine the chaos it would create if,
say, the human race were to become so plentiful that it was leveling
rain forests and wiping out all other forms of life to make room for
itself."

"That would be terrible," agreed Hootsey. "And it is exactly what the
Stinkfoots are doing. Once they have pushed the Sniffers into either
isolation or extinction, they may continue to outgrow the territory they
occupy and move into other regions where they will do even more damage."

"They have to be stopped at any cost," said the Sniffer man.

"No," said Ozma. "Not at any cost. Even though they are doing bad, they
are still counted among my subjects. They are not enemies to Oz, and I
will not have them entirely devastated. Our plan has to be fair to both
sides, not just one. As we have said, neither side is better than the
other. You yourself agreed. We can't allow either race to be lost in
favor of the other. That would upset the balance of Nature."

"But how else can we stop them from expanding to wherever they like?"
asked the Sniffer citizen.

"There has to be a fair way to settle the dispute," replied the little
Queen. "And it is up to us to find it."

"What if we forbade them from eating any more stinkweeds?" suggested
Nibbles. "That way, they wouldn't smell so bad, and the Sniffers would
have no further trouble with them. Also, they would no longer need to be
living