the queer weapon. Perhaps it did
not hurt very much, but it made a great noise, and the Wheeler uttered a
howl and tumbled over upon its side. The next minute it scrambled to its
wheels and rolled away as fast as it could go, screeching with fear at
the same time.

"I told you they were harm-less," began Tiktok; but before he could say
more another Wheeler was upon them. Crack! went the dinner-pail against
its head, knocking its straw hat a dozen feet away; and that was enough
for this Wheeler, also. It rolled away after the first one, and the
third did not wait to be pounded with the pail, but joined its fellows
as quickly as its wheels would whirl.

The yellow hen gave a cackle of delight, and flying to a perch upon
Tiktok's shoulder, she said:

"Bravely done, my copper friend! and wisely thought of, too. Now we are
free from those ugly creatures."

But just then a large band of Wheelers rolled from the forest, and
relying upon their numbers to conquer, they advanced fiercely upon
Tiktok. Dorothy grabbed Billina in her arms and held her tight, and the
machine embraced the form of the little girl with his left arm, the
better to protect her. Then the Wheelers were upon them.

Rattlety, bang! bang! went the dinner-pail in every direction, and it
made so much clatter bumping against the heads of the Wheelers that they
were much more frightened than hurt and fled in a great panic. All, that
is, except their leader. This Wheeler had stumbled against another and
fallen flat upon his back, and before he could get his wheels under him
to rise again, Tiktok had fastened his copper fingers into the neck of
the gorgeous jacket of his foe and held him fast.

"Tell your peo-ple to go a-way," commanded the machine.

The leader of the Wheelers hesitated to give this order, so Tiktok shook
him as a terrier dog does a rat, until the Wheeler's teeth rattled
together with a noise like hailstones on a window pane. Then, as soon as
the creature could get its breath, it shouted to the others to roll
away, which they immediately did.

"Now," said Tiktok, "you shall come with us and tell me what I want to
know."

[Illustration]

"You'll be sorry for treating me in this way," whined the Wheeler. "I'm
a terribly fierce person."

"As for that," answered Tiktok, "I am only a ma-chine, and can-not feel
sor-row or joy, no mat-ter what hap-pens. But you are wrong to think
your-self ter-ri-ble or fierce."

"Why so?" asked the Wheele