he Shaggy Man.

"Oh, suppose I had pricked my foot!" she wailed. "Then the doctors
would have cut my foot off, and I'd be lamed for life!"

"Surely, ma'am," replied the Wizard, "and if you'd pricked your nose
they might cut your head off. But you see you didn't."

"But I might have!" she exclaimed, and began to cry again. So they
left her and drove away in their wagon. And her husband came out and
began calling "Help!" as he had before; but no one seemed to pay any
attention to him.

As the travelers turned into another street they found a man walking
excitedly up and down the pavement. He appeared to be in a very
nervous condition and the Wizard stopped him to ask:

"Is anything wrong, sir?"

"Everything is wrong," answered the man, dismally. "I can't sleep."

"Why not?" inquired Omby Amby.

"If I go to sleep I'll have to shut my eyes," he explained; "and if I
shut my eyes they may grow together, and then I'd be blind for life!"

"Did you ever hear of any one's eyes growing together?" asked Dorothy.

"No," said the man, "I never did. But it would be a dreadful thing,
wouldn't it? And the thought of it makes me so nervous I'm afraid to
go to sleep."

"There's no help for this case," declared the Wizard; and they went on.

At the next street corner a woman rushed up to them crying:

"Save my baby! Oh, good, kind people, save my baby!"

"Is it in danger?" asked Dorothy, noticing that the child was clasped
in her arms and seemed sleeping peacefully.

"Yes, indeed," said the woman, nervously. "If I should go into the
house and throw my child out of the window, it would roll way down to
the bottom of the hill; and then if there were a lot of tigers and
bears down there, they would tear my darling babe to pieces and eat it
up!"

"Are there any tigers and bears in this neighborhood?" the Wizard asked.

"I've never heard of any," admitted the woman, "but if there were--"

"Have you any idea of throwing your baby out of the window?" questioned
the little man.

"None at all," she said; "but if--"

"All your troubles are due to those 'ifs'," declared the Wizard. "If
you were not a Flutterbudget you wouldn't worry."

"There's another 'if'," replied the woman. "Are you a Flutterbudget,
too?"

"I will be, if I stay here long," exclaimed the Wizard, nervously.

"Another 'if'!" cried the woman.

But the Wizard did not stop to argue with her. He made the Sawhorse
canter all the way down the hil