"Build a big bonfire and burn the
Scarecrow up, and that will be the end of him."
The King was so delighted with this suggestion that he hugged old
Googly-Goo in his joy.
"Of course!" he cried. "The very thing. Why did I not think of it
myself?"
So he summoned his soldiers and retainers and bade them prepare a great
bonfire in an open space in the castle park. Also he sent word to all
his people to assemble and witness the destruction of the Scarecrow who
had dared to defy his power. Before long a vast throng gathered in the
park and the servants had heaped up enough fuel to make a fire that
might be seen for miles away--even in the daytime.
When all was prepared, the King had his throne brought out for him to
sit upon and enjoy the spectacle, and then he sent his soldiers to
fetch the Scarecrow.
Now the one thing in all the world that the straw man really feared was
fire. He knew he would burn very easily and that his ashes wouldn't
amount to much afterward. It wouldn't hurt him to be destroyed in such
a manner, but he realized that many people in the Land of Oz, and
especially Dorothy and the Royal Ozma, would feel sad if they learned
that their old friend the Scarecrow was no longer in existence.
In spite of this, the straw man was brave and faced his fiery fate like
a hero. When they marched him out before the concourse of people he
turned to the King with great calmness and said:
"This wicked deed will cost you your throne, as well as much suffering,
for my friends will avenge my destruction."
"Your friends are not here, nor will they know what I have done to you,
when you are gone and can-not tell them," answered the King in a
scornful voice.
Then he ordered the Scarecrow bound to a stout stake that he had had
driven into the ground, and the materials for the fire were heaped all
around him. When this had been done, the King's brass band struck up a
lively tune and old Googly-Goo came forward with a lighted match and
set fire to the pile.
At once the flames shot up and crept closer and closer toward the
Scarecrow. The King and all his people were so intent upon this
terrible spectacle that none of them noticed how the sky grew suddenly
dark. Perhaps they thought that the loud buzzing sound--like the noise
of a dozen moving railway trains--came from the blazing fagots; that
the rush of wind was merely a breeze. But suddenly down swept a flock
of Orks, half a hundred of them at the least, and
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