e to life."

"All very true," answered the Shaggy Man, quietly; "but I know this
gate, having passed through it many times."

"How?" they all eagerly inquired.

"I'll show you how," said he. He stood Ojo in the middle of the road
and placed Scraps just behind him, with her padded hands on his
shoulders. After the Patchwork Girl came the Woozy, who held a part of
her skirt in his mouth. Then, last of all, was the Glass Cat, holding
fast to the Woozy's tail with her glass jaws.

"Now," said the Shaggy Man, "you must all shut your eyes tight, and
keep them shut until I tell you to open them."

"I can't," objected Scraps. "My eyes are buttons, and they won't shut."

So the Shaggy Man tied his red handkerchief over the Patchwork Girl's
eyes and examined all the others to make sure they had their eyes fast
shut and could see nothing.

"What's the game, anyhow--blind-man's-buff?" asked Scraps.

"Keep quiet!" commanded the Shaggy Man, sternly. "All ready? Then
follow me."

He took Ojo's hand and led him forward over the road of yellow bricks,
toward the gate. Holding fast to one another they all followed in a
row, expecting every minute to bump against the iron bars. The Shaggy
Man also had his eyes closed, but marched straight ahead, nevertheless,
and after he had taken one hundred steps, by actual count, he stopped
and said:

"Now you may open your eyes."

They did so, and to their astonishment found the wall and the gateway
far behind them, while in front the former Blue Country of the
Munchkins had given way to green fields, with pretty farm-houses
scattered among them.

"That wall," explained the Shaggy Man, "is what is called an optical
illusion. It is quite real while you have your eyes open, but if you
are not looking at it the barrier doesn't exist at all. It's the same
way with many other evils in life; they seem to exist, and yet it's all
seeming and not true. You will notice that the wall--or what we thought
was a wall--separates the Munchkin Country from the green country that
surrounds the Emerald City, which lies exactly in the center of Oz.
There are two roads of yellow bricks through the Munchkin Country, but
the one we followed is the best of the two. Dorothy once traveled the
other way, and met with more dangers than we did. But all our troubles
are over for the present, as another day's journey will bring us to the
great Emerald City."

They were delighted to know this, and proceeded with ne