y waited a long time, for the private was in no hurry to become an
ornament and made his guesses very slowly. The Nome King, who seemed
to know, by some magical power, all that took place in his beautiful
rooms of his palace, grew impatient finally and declared he would sit
up no longer.

"I love ornaments," said he, "but I can wait until tomorrow to get more
of them; so, as soon as that stupid private is transformed, we will all
go to bed and leave the job to be finished in the morning."

"Is it so very late?" asked Dorothy.

"Why, it is after midnight," said the King, "and that strikes me as
being late enough. There is neither night nor day in my kingdom,
because it is under the earth's surface, where the sun does not shine.
But we have to sleep, just the same as the up-stairs people do, and for
my part I'm going to bed in a few minutes."

Indeed, it was not long after this that the private made his last
guess. Of course he guessed wrongly, and of course he at once became
an ornament. So the King was greatly pleased, and clapped his hands to
summon his Chief Steward.

"Show these guests to some of the sleeping apartments," he commanded,
"and be quick about it, too, for I'm dreadfully sleepy myself."

"You've no business to sit up so late," replied the Steward, gruffly.
"You'll be as cross as a griffin tomorrow morning."

His Majesty made no answer to this remark, and the Chief Steward led
Dorothy through another doorway into a long hall, from which several
plain but comfortable sleeping rooms opened. The little girl was given
the first room, and the Scarecrow and Tiktok the next--although they
never slept--and the Lion and the Tiger the third. The Sawhorse
hobbled after the Steward into a fourth room, to stand stiffly in the
center of it until morning. Each night was rather a bore to the
Scarecrow, Tiktok and the Sawhorse; but they had learned from
experience to pass the time patiently and quietly, since all their
friends who were made of flesh had to sleep and did not like to be
disturbed.

When the Chief Steward had left them alone the Scarecrow remarked,
sadly:

"I am in great sorrow over the loss of my old comrade, the Tin Woodman.
We have had many dangerous adventures together, and escaped them all,
and now it grieves me to know he has become an ornament, and is lost to
me forever."

"He was al-ways an or-na-ment to so-ci-e-ty," said Tiktok.

"True; but now the Nome King laughs at him, and ca