ed rather
contemptuously, but the Lion whispered to the wooden steed: "Bear with
this strange creature, my friend, and remember he is no more
extraordinary than you are. Indeed, it is more natural for a frog to be
big than for a Sawhorse to be alive."

On being questioned, the Frogman told them the whole story of the loss
of Cayke's highly prized dishpan and their adventures in search of it.
When he came to tell of the Lavender Bear King and of the Little Pink
Bear who could tell anything you wanted to know, his hearers became
eager to see such interesting animals.

"It will be best," said the Wizard, "to unite our two parties and share
our fortunes together, for we are all bound on the same errand and as
one band we may more easily defy this shoemaker magician than if
separate. Let us be allies."

"I will ask my friends about that," replied the Frogman, and climbed
over the hill to find Cayke and the toy bears. The Patchwork Girl
accompanied him and when they came upon the Cookie Cook and the Lavender
Bear and the Pink Bear it was hard to tell which of the lot was the most
surprised.

"Mercy me!" cried Cayke, addressing the Patchwork Girl. "However did you
come alive?"

Scraps stared at the bears.

"Mercy me!" she echoed; "you are stuffed, as I am, with cotton, and yet
you appear to be living. That makes me feel ashamed, for I have prided
myself on being the only live cotton-stuffed person in Oz."

"Perhaps you are," returned the Lavender Bear, "for I am stuffed with
extra-quality curled hair, and so is the Little Pink Bear."

"You have relieved my mind of a great anxiety," declared the Patchwork
Girl, now speaking more cheerfully. "The Scarecrow is stuffed with
straw, and you with hair, so I am still the Original and Only
Cotton-Stuffed!"

"I hope I am too polite to criticize cotton, as compared with curled
hair," said the King, "especially as you seem satisfied with it."

Then the Frogman told of his interview with the party from the Emerald
City and added that the Wizard of Oz had invited the bears and Cayke and
himself to travel in company with them to the castle of Ugu the
Shoemaker. Cayke was much pleased, but the Bear King looked solemn. He
set the Little Pink Bear on his lap and turned the crank in its side and
asked:

"Is it safe for us to associate with those people from the Emerald
City?"

And the Pink Bear at once replied:

"Safe for you and safe for me;
Perhaps no others safe wil