iends?"

"Not a friend. And I've nothing to do. I've lived a long time, and
I've got to live forever, because I belong in the Land of Oz, where no
living thing dies. Think of existing year after year, with no friends,
no family, and nothing to do! Can you wonder I'm lonesome?"

"Why don't you make a few friends, and find something to do?" inquired
Cap'n Bill.

"I can't make friends because everyone I meet--bird, beast, or
person--is disagreeable to me. In a few minutes I shall be unable to
bear your society longer, and then I'll go away and leave you," said
the Lonesome Duck. "And, as for doing anything, there's no use in it.
All I meet are doing something, so I have decided it's common and
uninteresting and I prefer to remain lonesome."

"Don't you have to hunt for your food?" asked Trot.

"No. In my diamond palace, a little way up the river, food is
magically supplied me; but I seldom eat, because it is so common."

"You must be a Magician Duck," remarked Cap'n Bill.

"Why so?"

"Well, ordinary ducks don't have diamond palaces an' magic food, like
you do."

"True; and that's another reason why I'm lonesome. You must remember
I'm the only Duck in the Land of Oz, and I'm not like any other duck in
the outside world."

"Seems to me you LIKE bein' lonesome," observed Cap'n Bill.

"I can't say I like it, exactly," replied the Duck, "but since it seems
to be my fate, I'm rather proud of it."

"How do you s'pose a single, solitary Duck happened to be in the Land
of Oz?" asked Trot, wonderingly.

"I used to know the reason, many years ago, but I've quite forgotten
it," declared the Duck. "The reason for a thing is never so important
as the thing itself, so there's no use remembering anything but the
fact that I'm lonesome."

"I guess you'd be happier if you tried to do something," asserted Trot.
"If you can't do anything for yourself, you can do things for others,
and then you'd get lots of friends and stop being lonesome."

"Now you're getting disagreeable," said the Lonesome Duck, "and I shall
have to go and leave you."

"Can't you help us any," pleaded the girl. "If there's anything magic
about you, you might get us out of this scrape."

"I haven't any magic strong enough to get you off the Magic Isle,"
replied the Lonesome Duck. "What magic I possess is very simple, but I
find it enough for my own needs."

"If we could only sit down a while, we could stand it better," said
Trot, "but we