told me something."

"Is that the extent of your wisdom?" asked Scraps.

"No," replied the donkey; "I know many other things, but they wouldn't
interest you. So I'll give you a last word of advice: move on, for the
sooner you do that the sooner you'll get to the Emerald City of Oz."

"Hoot-ti-toot-ti-toot-ti-too!" screeched the owl;

"Off you go! fast or slow,
Where you're going you don't know.
Patches, Bungle, Munchkin lad,
Facing fortunes good and bad,
Meeting dangers grave and sad,
Sometimes worried, sometimes glad--
Where you're going you don't know,
Nor do I, but off you go!"

"Sounds like a hint, to me," said the Patchwork Girl.

"Then let's take it and go," replied Ojo.

They said good-bye to the Wise Donkey and the Foolish Owl and at once
resumed their journey.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

THEY MEET THE WOOZY

CHAP. NINE

[Illustration]

"There seem to be very few houses around here, after all," remarked Ojo,
after they had walked for a time in silence.

"Never mind," said Scraps; "we are not looking for houses, but rather
the road of yellow bricks. Won't it be funny to run across something
yellow in this dismal blue country?"

"There are worse colors than yellow in this country," asserted the Glass
Cat, in a spiteful tone.

"Oh; do you mean the pink pebbles you call your brains, and your red
heart and green eyes?" asked the Patchwork Girl.

"No; I mean you, if you must know it," growled the cat.

"You're jealous!" laughed Scraps. "You'd give your whiskers for a
lovely variegated complexion like mine."

"I wouldn't!" retorted the cat. "I've the clearest complexion in the
world, and I don't employ a beauty-doctor, either."

"I see you don't," said Scraps.

"Please don't quarrel," begged Ojo. "This is an important journey, and
quarreling makes me discouraged. To be brave, one must be cheerful, so I
hope you will be as good-tempered as possible."

They had traveled some distance when suddenly they faced a high fence
which barred any further progress straight ahead. It ran directly across
the road and enclosed a small forest of tall trees, set close together.
When the group of adventurers peered through the bars of the fence they
thought this forest looked more gloomy and forbidding than any they had
ever seen before.

They soon discovered that the path they had been following now made a
bend and passed around the enclosure, but wha