asleep before Toto's barks
aroused him, for he was now rubbing his eyes and staring at the little
dog with all his might.

There was something about this man that Toto objected to, and when he
slowly rose to his foot they saw what it was. He had but one leg, set
just below the middle of his round, fat body; but it was a stout leg
and had a broad, flat foot at the bottom of it, on which the man seemed
to stand very well. He had never had but this one leg, which looked
something like a pedestal, and when Toto ran up and made a grab at the
man's ankle he hopped first one way and then another in a very active
manner, looking so frightened that Scraps laughed aloud.

Toto was usually a well behaved dog, but this time he was angry and
snapped at the man's leg again and again. This filled the poor fellow
with fear, and in hopping out of Toto's reach he suddenly lost his
balance and tumbled heel over head upon the floor. When he sat up he
kicked Toto on the nose and made the dog howl angrily, but Dorothy now
ran forward and caught Toto's collar, holding him back.

"Do you surrender?" she asked the man.

"Who? Me?" asked the Hopper.

"Yes; you," said the little girl.

"Am I captured?" he inquired.

"Of course. My dog has captured you," she said.

"Well," replied the man, "if I'm captured I must surrender, for it's
the proper thing to do. I like to do everything proper, for it saves
one a lot of trouble."

"It does, indeed," said Dorothy. "Please tell us who you are."

"I'm Hip Hopper--Hip Hopper, the Champion."

"Champion what?" she asked in surprise.

"Champion wrestler. I'm a very strong man, and that ferocious animal
which you are so kindly holding is the first living thing that has ever
conquered me."

"And you are a Hopper?" she continued.

"Yes. My people live in a great city not far from here. Would you like
to visit it?"

"I'm not sure," she said with hesitation. "Have you any dark wells in
your city?"

"I think not. We have wells, you know, but they're all well lighted,
and a well lighted well cannot well be a dark well. But there may be
such a thing as a very dark well in the Horner Country, which is a
black spot on the face of the earth."

"Where is the Horner Country?" Ojo inquired.

"The other side of the mountain. There's a fence between the Hopper
Country and the Horner Country, and a gate in the fence; but you can't
pass through just now, because we are at war with the Horners."

"That'