re resolved on the venture, and the next
morning bade the friendly monarch a cordial goodbye and, mounting upon
their animals, left the Herkus and the City of Herku and headed for the
mountains that lay to the west.

CHAPTER 13

THE TRUTH POND

It seems a long time since we have heard anything of the Frogman and
Cayke the Cookie Cook, who had left the Yip Country in search of the
diamond-studded dishpan which had been mysteriously stolen the same
night that Ozma had disappeared from the Emerald City. But you must
remember that while the Frogman and the Cookie Cook were preparing to
descend from their mountaintop, and even while on their way to the
farmhouse of Wiljon the Winkie, Dorothy and the Wizard and their
friends were encountering the adventures we have just related.

So it was that on the very morning when the travelers from the Emerald
City bade farewell to the Czarover of the City of Herku, Cayke and the
Frogman awoke in a grove in which they had passed the night sleeping on
beds of leaves. There were plenty of farmhouses in the neighborhood,
but no one seemed to welcome the puffy, haughty Frogman or the little
dried-up Cookie Cook, and so they slept comfortably enough underneath
the trees of the grove. The Frogman wakened first on this morning, and
after going to the tree where Cayke slept and finding her still wrapped
in slumber, he decided to take a little walk and seek some breakfast.
Coming to the edge of the grove, he observed half a mile away a pretty
yellow house that was surrounded by a yellow picket fence, so he walked
toward this house and on entering the yard found a Winkie woman picking
up sticks with which to build a fire to cook her morning meal.

"For goodness sake!" she exclaimed on seeing the Frogman. "What are
you doing out of your frog-pond?"

"I am traveling in search of a jeweled gold dishpan, my good woman," he
replied with an air of great dignity.

"You won't find it here, then," said she. "Our dishpans are tin, and
they're good enough for anybody. So go back to your pond and leave me
alone." She spoke rather crossly and with a lack of respect that
greatly annoyed the Frogman.

"Allow me to tell you, madam," said he, "that although I am a frog, I
am the Greatest and Wisest Frog in all the world. I may add that I
possess much more wisdom than any Winkie--man or woman--in this land.
Wherever I go, people fall on their knees before me and render homage
to the Great