e--at least for five minutes--and it had remained in the same
position, although the boy had continued to walk steadily on. So he
stopped short, and when he stopped, the tree and all the landscape, as
well as his companions, moved on before him and left him far behind.

Ojo uttered such a cry of astonishment that it aroused the Shaggy Man,
who also halted. The others then stopped, too, and walked back to the
boy.

"What's wrong?" asked the Shaggy Man.

"Why, we're not moving forward a bit, no matter how fast we walk,"
declared Ojo. "Now that we have stopped, we are moving backward! Can't
you see? Just notice that rock."

Scraps looked down at her feet and said: "The yellow bricks are not
moving."

"But the whole road is," answered Ojo.

"True; quite true," agreed the Shaggy Man. "I know all about the tricks
of this road, but I have been thinking of something else and didn't
realize where we were."

"It will carry us back to where we started from," predicted Ojo,
beginning to be nervous.

"No," replied the Shaggy Man; "it won't do that, for I know a trick to
beat this tricky road. I've traveled this way before, you know. Turn
around, all of you, and walk backward."

"What good will that do?" asked the cat.

"You'll find out, if you obey me," said the Shaggy Man.

So they all turned their backs to the direction in which they wished to
go and began walking backward. In an instant Ojo noticed they were
gaining ground and as they proceeded in this curious way they soon
passed the tree which had first attracted his attention to their
difficulty.

"How long must we keep this up, Shags?" asked Scraps, who was
constantly tripping and tumbling down, only to get up again with a
laugh at her mishap.

"Just a little way farther," replied the Shaggy Man.

A few minutes later he called to them to turn about quickly and step
forward, and as they obeyed the order they found themselves treading
solid ground.

"That task is well over," observed the Shaggy Man. "It's a little
tiresome to walk backward, but that is the only way to pass this part
of the road, which has a trick of sliding back and carrying with it
anyone who is walking upon it."

With new courage and energy they now trudged forward and after a time
came to a place where the road cut through a low hill, leaving high
banks on either side of it. They were traveling along this cut, talking
together, when the Shaggy Man seized Scraps with one arm and Ojo with