by, which is the color I
like best, I might work a little while."

"I've got some Square Meal Tablets," said the Scarecrow. "Each one is
the same as a dish of soup, a fried fish, a mutton pot-pie, lobster
salad, charlotte russe and lemon jelly--all made into one little tablet
that you can swallow without trouble."

"Without trouble!" exclaimed the Quadling, much interested; "then those
tablets would be fine for a lazy man. It's such hard work to chew when
you eat."

"I'll give you six of those tablets if you'll help us make a raft,"
promised the Scarecrow. "They're a combination of food which people who
eat are very fond of. I never eat, you know, being straw; but some of
my friends eat regularly. What do you say to my offer, Quadling?"

"I'll do it," decided the man. "I'll help, and you can do most of the
work. But my wife has gone fishing for red eels to-day, so some of you
will have to mind the children."

Scraps promised to do that, and the children were not so shy when the
Patchwork Girl sat down to play with them. They grew to like Toto, too,
and the little dog allowed them to pat him on his head, which gave the
little ones much joy.

There were a number of fallen trees near the house and the Quadling got
his axe and chopped them into logs of equal length. He took his wife's
clothesline to bind these logs together, so that they would form a
raft, and Ojo found some strips of wood and nailed them along the tops
of the logs, to render them more firm. The Scarecrow and Dorothy helped
roll the logs together and carry the strips of wood, but it took so
long to make the raft that evening came just as it was finished, and
with evening the Quadling's wife returned from her fishing.

The woman proved to be cross and bad-tempered, perhaps because she had
only caught one red eel during all the day. When she found that her
husband had used her clothesline, and the logs she had wanted for
firewood, and the boards she had intended to mend the shed with, and a
lot of gold nails, she became very angry. Scraps wanted to shake the
woman, to make her behave, but Dorothy talked to her in a gentle tone
and told the Quadling's wife she was a Princess of Oz and a friend of
Ozma and that when she got back to the Emerald City she would send them
a lot of things to repay them for the raft, including a new
clothesline. This promise pleased the woman and she soon became more
pleasant, saying they could stay the night at her house and