rdrobe and even into the great throne room, which
adjoined the royal suite, but in none of these places could she find
Ozma.

So she returned to the anteroom where she had left the maid, Jellia
Jamb, and said:

"She isn't in her rooms now, so she must have gone out."

"I don't understand how she could do that without my seeing her,"
replied Jellia, "unless she made herself invisible."

"She isn't there, anyhow," declared Dorothy.

"Then let us go find her," suggested the maid, who appeared to be a
little uneasy.

So they went into the corridors and there Dorothy almost stumbled over a
queer girl who was dancing lightly along the passage.

"Stop a minute, Scraps!" she called. "Have you seen Ozma this morning?"

"Not I!" replied the queer girl, dancing nearer. "I lost both my eyes in
a tussle with the Woozy, last night, for the creature scraped 'em both
off my face with his square paws. So I put the eyes in my pocket and
this morning Button-Bright led me to Aunt Em, who sewed 'em on again. So
I've seen nothing at all to-day, except during the last five minutes. So
of course I haven't seen Ozma."

"Very well, Scraps," said Dorothy, looking curiously at the eyes, which
were merely two round black buttons sewed upon the girl's face.

[Illustration]

There were other things about Scraps that would have seemed curious to
one seeing her for the first time. She was commonly called "The
Patchwork Girl," because her body and limbs were made from a gay-colored
patchwork quilt which had been cut into shape and stuffed with cotton.
Her head was a round ball stuffed in the same manner and fastened to her
shoulders. For hair she had a mass of brown yarn and to make a nose for
her a part of the cloth had been pulled out into the shape of a knob and
tied with a string to hold it in place. Her mouth had been carefully
made by cutting a slit in the proper place and lining it with red silk,
adding two rows of pearls for teeth and a bit of red flannel for a
tongue.

In spite of this queer make-up, the Patchwork Girl was magically alive
and had proved herself not the least jolly and agreeable of the many
quaint characters who inhabit the astonishing Fairyland of Oz. Indeed,
Scraps was a general favorite, although she was rather flighty and
erratic and did and said many things that surprised her friends. She was
seldom still, but loved to dance, to turn handsprings and somersaults,
to climb trees and to indulge in many other act