" was the
reply.

"Chiss! What is Chiss?"

"I think it is merely an overgrown porcupine, but here in Oz they
consider Chiss an evil spirit. He's different from a reg'lar porcupine,
because he can throw his quills in any direction, which an American
porcupine cannot do. That's what makes old Chiss so dangerous. If we get
too near, he'll fire those quills at us and hurt us badly."

"Then we will be foolish to get too near," said Scraps.

"I'm not afraid," declared the Woozy. "The Chiss is cowardly, I'm sure,
and if it ever heard my awful, terrible, frightful growl, it would be
scared stiff."

"Oh; can you growl?" asked the Shaggy Man.

"That is the only ferocious thing about me," asserted the Woozy with
evident pride. "My growl makes an earthquake blush and the thunder
ashamed of itself. If I growled at that creature you call Chiss, it
would immediately think the world had cracked in two and bumped against
the sun and moon, and that would cause the monster to run as far and as
fast as its legs could carry it."

"In that case," said the Shaggy Man, "you are now able to do us all a
great favor. Please growl."

"But you forget," returned the Woozy; "my tremendous growl would also
frighten you, and if you happen to have heart disease you might expire."

"True; but we must take that risk," decided the Shaggy Man, bravely.
"Being warned of what is to occur we must try to bear the terrific noise
of your growl; but Chiss won't expect it, and it will scare him away."

The Woozy hesitated.

"I'm fond of you all, and I hate to shock you," it said.

"Never mind," said Ojo.

"You may be made deaf."

"If so, we will forgive you."

"Very well, then," said the Woozy in a determined voice, and advanced a
few steps toward the giant porcupine. Pausing to look back, it asked:
"All ready?"

"All ready!" they answered.

"Then cover up your ears and brace yourselves firmly. Now, then--look
out!"

The Woozy turned toward Chiss, opened wide its mouth and said:

"Quee-ee-ee-eek."

"Go ahead and growl," said Scraps.

"Why, I--I _did_ growl!" retorted the Woozy, who seemed much astonished.

"What, that little squeak?" she cried.

[Illustration]

"It is the most awful growl that ever was heard, on land or sea, in
caverns or in the sky," protested the Woozy. "I wonder you stood the
shock so well. Didn't you feel the ground tremble? I suppose Chiss is
now quite dead with fright."

The Shaggy Man laughed merrily.

"P