not afraid," replied the Scarecrow. "He can't hurt the straw.
Do let me carry that basket for you. I shall not mind it, for I can't
get tired. I'll tell you a secret," he continued, as he walked along.
"There is only one thing in the world I am afraid of."

"What is that?" asked Dorothy; "the Munchkin farmer who made you?"

"No," answered the Scarecrow; "it's a lighted match."

4. The Road Through the Forest

After a few hours the road began to be rough, and the walking grew so
difficult that the Scarecrow often stumbled over the yellow bricks,
which were here very uneven. Sometimes, indeed, they were broken or
missing altogether, leaving holes that Toto jumped across and Dorothy
walked around. As for the Scarecrow, having no brains, he walked
straight ahead, and so stepped into the holes and fell at full length
on the hard bricks. It never hurt him, however, and Dorothy would pick
him up and set him upon his feet again, while he joined her in laughing
merrily at his own mishap.

The farms were not nearly so well cared for here as they were farther
back. There were fewer houses and fewer fruit trees, and the farther
they went the more dismal and lonesome the country became.

At noon they sat down by the roadside, near a little brook, and Dorothy
opened her basket and got out some bread. She offered a piece to the
Scarecrow, but he refused.

"I am never hungry," he said, "and it is a lucky thing I am not, for my
mouth is only painted, and if I should cut a hole in it so I could eat,
the straw I am stuffed with would come out, and that would spoil the
shape of my head."

Dorothy saw at once that this was true, so she only nodded and went on
eating her bread.

"Tell me something about yourself and the country you came from," said
the Scarecrow, when she had finished her dinner. So she told him all
about Kansas, and how gray everything was there, and how the cyclone
had carried her to this queer Land of Oz.

The Scarecrow listened carefully, and said, "I cannot understand why
you should wish to leave this beautiful country and go back to the dry,
gray place you call Kansas."

"That is because you have no brains" answered the girl. "No matter how
dreary and gray our homes are, we people of flesh and blood would
rather live there than in any other country, be it ever so beautiful.
There is no place like home."

The Scarecrow sighed.

"Of course I cannot understand it," he said. "If your he