disappearance of the Scarecrow.

"Passing strange, yet how refreshing," murmured Sir Hokus. "And if I
seem a little behind times, you must not blame me. For centuries, I
have dozed in this gray castle, and it cometh over me that things
have greatly changed. This beast now, he talks quite manfully, and
this Kingdom that you mention, this Oz? Never heard of it!"

"Never heard of Oz?" gasped the little girl. "Why, you're a subject
of Oz, and Pokes is in Oz, though I don't know just where."

Here Dorothy gave him a short history of the Fairy country, and of
the many adventures she had had since she had come there. Sir Hokus
listened with growing melancholy.

"To think," he sighed mournfully, "that I was prisoner here while all
that was happening!"

"Are _you_ a prisoner?" asked Dorothy in surprise. "I thought you were
King of the Pokes!"

"Uds daggers!" thundered Sir Hokus so suddenly that Dorothy jumped.
"I am a _knight!"_

Seeing her startled expression, he controlled himself. "I was a
knight," he continued brokenly. "Long centuries ago, mounted on my
goodly steed, I fared from my father's castle to offer my sword to a
mighty king. His name?" Sir Hokus tapped his forehead uncertainly.
"Go to, I have forgot."

"Could it have been King Arthur?" exclaimed Dorothy, wide-eyed with
interest. "Why, just think of your being still alive!"

"That's just the point," choked the Knight. "I've been alive--still,
so still that I've forgotten everything. Why, I can't even remember
how I used to talk," he confessed miserably.

"But how did you get here?" rumbled the Cowardly Lion, who did not
like being left out of the conversation.

"I had barely left my father's castle before I met a stranger," said
Sir Hokus, sitting up very straight, "who challenged me to battle. I
spurred my horse forward, our lances met, and the stranger was
unseated. But by my faith, 'twas no mortal Knight." Sir Hokus sighed
deeply and lapsed into silence.

"What happened?" asked Dorothy curiously, for Sir Hokus seemed to
have forgotten them.

"The Knight," said he with another mighty sigh, "struck the ground
with his lance and cried, 'Live Wretch, for centuries in the
stupidest country out of the world,' and disappeared. And here--here
I am!" With a despairing gesture, Sir Hokus arose, big tears
splashing down his armor.

"I feel that I am brave, very brave, but how am I to know until I
have encountered danger? Ah, friends, behold in me a Knigh