may call you Polly, mayn't I? Your whole name's awful
hard to say."

"Call me Polly if you wish, Dorothy."

"Well, Polly, Toto's just a dog; but he has more sense than
Button-Bright, to tell the truth; and I'm very fond of him."

"So am I," said Polychrome, bending gracefully to pat Toto's head.

"But how did the Rainbow's Daughter ever get on this lonely road, and
become lost?" asked the shaggy man, who had listened wonderingly to all
this.

"Why, my father stretched his rainbow over here this morning, so that
one end of it touched this road," was the reply; "and I was dancing upon
the pretty rays, as I love to do, and never noticed I was getting too
far over the bend in the circle. Suddenly I began to slide, and I went
faster and faster until at last I bumped on the ground, at the very end.
Just then father lifted the rainbow again, without noticing me at all,
and though I tried to seize the end of it and hold fast, it melted away
entirely and I was left alone and helpless on the cold, hard earth!"

"It doesn't seem cold to me, Polly," said Dorothy; "but perhaps you're
not warmly dressed."

"I'm so used to living nearer the sun," replied the Rainbow's Daughter,
"that at first I feared I would freeze down here. But my dance has
warmed me some, and now I wonder how I am ever to get home again."

"Won't your father miss you, and look for you, and let down another
rainbow for you?"

[Illustration]

"Perhaps so; but he's busy just now because it rains in so many parts of
the world at this season, and he has to set his rainbow in a lot of
different places. What would you advise me to do, Dorothy?"

"Come with us," was the answer. "I'm going to try to find my way to the
Emerald City, which is in the fairy Land of Oz. The Emerald City is
ruled by a friend of mine, the Princess Ozma, and if we can manage to
get there I'm sure she will know a way to send you home to your father
again."

"Do you really think so?" asked Polychrome, anxiously.

"I'm pretty sure."

"Then I'll go with you," said the little maid; "for travel will help
keep me warm, and father can find me in one part of the world as well as
another--if he gets time to look for me."

"Come along, then," said the shaggy man, cheerfully; and they started on
once more. Polly walked beside Dorothy a while, holding her new friend's
hand as if she feared to let it go; but her nature seemed as light and
buoyant as her fleecy robes, for suddenly she darted a