You have no weapons," Pon reminded him.

"True," said the Scarecrow. "But if I carried weapons I might injure
someone--perhaps seriously--and that would make me unhappy. I will just
borrow that riding-whip, which I see in the corner of your hut, if you
don't mind. It isn't exactly proper to walk with a riding-whip, but I
trust you will excuse the inconsistency."

Pon handed him the whip and the Scarecrow bowed to all the party and
left the hut, proceeding leisurely along the way to the King's castle.

Chapter Seventeen

The Ork Rescues Button-Bright

I must now tell you what had become of Button-Bright since he wandered
away in the morning and got lost. This small boy, as perhaps you have
discovered, was almost as destitute of nerves as the Scarecrow. Nothing
ever astonished him much; nothing ever worried him or made him unhappy.
Good fortune or bad fortune he accepted with a quiet smile, never
complaining, whatever happened. This was one reason why Button-Bright
was a favorite with all who knew him--and perhaps it was the reason why
he so often got into difficulties, or found himself lost.

To-day, as he wandered here and there, over hill and down dale, he
missed Trot and Cap'n Bill, of whom he was fond, but nevertheless he
was not unhappy. The birds sang merrily and the wildflowers were
beautiful and the breeze had a fragrance of new-mown hay.

"The only bad thing about this country is its King," he reflected; "but
the country isn't to blame for that."

A prairie-dog stuck its round head out of a mound of earth and looked
at the boy with bright eyes.

"Walk around my house, please," it said, "and then you won't harm it or
disturb the babies."

"All right," answered Button-Bright, and took care not to step on the
mound. He went on, whistling merrily, until a petulant voice cried:

"Oh, stop it! Please stop that noise. It gets on my nerves."

Button-Bright saw an old gray owl sitting in the crotch of a tree, and
he replied with a laugh: "All right, old Fussy," and stopped whistling
until he had passed out of the owl's hearing. At noon he came to a
farmhouse where an aged couple lived. They gave him a good dinner and
treated him kindly, but the man was deaf and the woman was dumb, so
they could answer no questions to guide him on the way to Pon's house.
When he left them he was just as much lost as he had been before.

Every grove of trees he saw from a distance he visited, for he
remembered that t