l save Unc Nunkie,"
declared Ojo, earnestly.

"Then you'd better begin your journey at once," advised the Wizard.

Dorothy had been listening with interest to this conversation. Now she
turned to Ozma and asked: "May I go with Ojo, to help him?"

"Would you like to?" returned Ozma.

"Yes. I know Oz pretty well, but Ojo doesn't know it at all. I'm sorry
for his uncle and poor Margolotte and I'd like to help save them. May I
go?"

"If you wish to," replied Ozma.

"If Dorothy goes, then I must go to take care of her," said the
Scarecrow, decidedly. "A dark well can only be discovered in some
out-of-the-way place, and there may be dangers there."

"You have my permission to accompany Dorothy," said Ozma. "And while
you are gone I will take care of the Patchwork Girl."

"I'll take care of myself," announced Scraps, "for I'm going with the
Scarecrow and Dorothy. I promised Ojo to help him find the things he
wants and I'll stick to my promise."

"Very well," replied Ozma. "But I see no need for Ojo to take the Glass
Cat and the Woozy."

"I prefer to remain here," said the cat. "I've nearly been nicked half
a dozen times, already, and if they're going into dangers it's best for
me to keep away from them."

"Let Jellia Jamb keep her till Ojo returns," suggested Dorothy. "We
won't need to take the Woozy, either, but he ought to be saved because
of the three hairs in his tail."

"Better take me along," said the Woozy. "My eyes can flash fire, you
know, and I can growl--a little."

"I'm sure you'll be safer here," Ozma decided, and the Woozy made no
further objection to the plan.

After consulting together they decided that Ojo and his party should
leave the very next day to search for the gill of water from a dark
well, so they now separated to make preparations for the journey.

Ozma gave the Munchkin boy a room in the palace for that night and the
afternoon he passed with Dorothy--getting acquainted, as she said--and
receiving advice from the Shaggy Man as to where they must go. The
Shaggy Man had wandered in many parts of Oz, and so had Dorothy, for
that matter, yet neither of them knew where a dark well was to be found.

"If such a thing is anywhere in the settled parts of Oz," said Dorothy,
"we'd prob'ly have heard of it long ago. If it's in the wild parts of
the country, no one there would need a dark well. P'raps there isn't
such a thing."

"Oh, there must be!" returned Ojo, positively; "or else the re