troubled
the inhabitants of the rest of Oz, but those who invaded their domains
encountered many dangers from them.

It was a two days journey from Jack Pumkinhead's house to the edge of
the Quadling Country, for neither Dorothy nor Ojo could walk very fast
and they often stopped by the wayside to rest. The first night they
slept on the broad fields, among the buttercups and daisies, and the
Scarecrow covered the children with a gauze blanket taken from his
knapsack, so they would not be chilled by the night air. Toward evening
of the second day they reached a sandy plain where walking was
difficult; but some distance before them they saw a group of palm
trees, with many curious black dots under them; so they trudged bravely
on to reach that place by dark and spend the night under the shelter of
the trees.

The black dots grew larger as they advanced and although the light was
dim Dorothy thought they looked like big kettles turned upside down.
Just beyond this place a jumble of huge, jagged rocks lay scattered,
rising to the mountains behind them.

Our travelers preferred to attempt to climb these rocks by daylight,
and they realized that for a time this would be their last night on the
plains.

Twilight had fallen by the time they came to the trees, beneath which
were the black, circular objects they had marked from a distance.
Dozens of them were scattered around and Dorothy bent near to one,
which was about as tall as she was, to examine it more closely. As she
did so the top flew open and out popped a dusky creature, rising its
length into the air and then plumping down upon the ground just beside
the little girl. Another and another popped out of the circular,
pot-like dwelling, while from all the other black objects came popping
more creatures--very like jumping-jacks when their boxes are
unhooked--until fully a hundred stood gathered around our little group
of travelers.

By this time Dorothy had discovered they were people, tiny and
curiously formed, but still people. Their skins were dusky and their
hair stood straight up, like wires, and was brilliant scarlet in color.
Their bodies were bare except for skins fastened around their waists
and they wore bracelets on their ankles and wrists, and necklaces, and
great pendant earrings.

Toto crouched beside his mistress and wailed as if he did not like
these strange creatures a bit. Scraps began to mutter something about
"hoppity, poppity, jumpity, dump!"