ose--Pyrzqxgl!"

But the Nome did not pronounce the word aright, either, having never
heard it spoken but once before, and then with a wrong accent. So the
Fox was not transformed, but it had to run away to escape being caught
by the angry Nome.

Ruggedo now began pronouncing the Magic Word in every way he could
think of, hoping to hit the right one, and the Fox, hiding in a bush,
was somewhat troubled by the fear that he might succeed. However, the
Wizard, who was used to magic arts, remained calm and soon remembered
exactly how Kiki Aru had pronounced the word. So he repeated the
sentence he had before uttered and Ruggedo the Nome became an ordinary
walnut.

The Wizard now crept out from the bush and said: "I want my own form
again--Pyrzqxgl!"

Instantly he was the Wizard of Oz, and after picking up the hickory-nut
and the walnut, and carefully placing them in his pocket, he ran back
to the big clearing.

Dorothy the Lamb uttered a bleat of delight when she saw her old friend
restored to his natural shape. The others were all there, not having
found the Goose. The fat Gillikin woman, the Munchkin boy, the Rabbit
and the Glass Cat crowded around the Wizard and asked what had happened.

Before he explained anything of his adventure, he transformed them
all--except, of course, the Glass Cat--into their natural shapes, and
when their joy permitted them to quiet somewhat, he told how he had by
chance surprised the Magician's secret and been able to change the two
Li-Mon-Eags into shapes that could not speak, and therefore would be
unable to help themselves. And the little Wizard showed his astonished
friends the hickory-nut and the walnut to prove that he had spoken the
truth.

"But--see here!"--exclaimed Dorothy. "What has become of those Giant
Soldiers who used to be monkeys?"

"I forgot all about them!" admitted the Wizard; "but I suppose they are
still standing there in the forest."

15. The Lonesome Duck

Trot and Cap'n Bill stood before the Magic Flower, actually rooted to
the spot.

"Aren't you hungry, Cap'n?" asked the little girl, with a long sigh,
for she had been standing there for hours and hours.

"Well," replied the sailor-man, "I ain't sayin' as I couldn't EAT,
Trot--if a dinner was handy--but I guess old folks don't get as hungry
as young folks do."

"I'm not sure 'bout that, Cap'n Bill," she said thoughtfully. "Age
MIGHT make a diff'rence, but seems to me SIZE would make