k your Majesty," replied Woot, and then he turned to the Tin
Woodman and inquired: "What are your further plans, Mr. Emperor? Will
you still seek Nimmie Amee and marry her, or will you abandon the quest
and return to the Emerald City and your own castle?"

The Tin Woodman, now as highly polished and well-oiled as ever,
reflected a while on this question and then answered:

"Well, I see no reason why I should not find Nimmie Amee. We are now in
the Munchkin Country, where we are perfectly safe, and if it was right
for me, before our enchantment, to marry Nimmie Amee and make her
Empress of the Winkies, it must be right now, when the enchantment has
been broken and I am once more myself. Am I correct, friend Scarecrow?"

"You are, indeed," answered the Scarecrow. "No one can oppose such
logic."

"But I'm afraid you don't love Nimmie Amee," suggested Dorothy.

"That is just because I can't love anyone," replied the Tin Woodman.
"But, if I cannot love my wife, I can at least be kind to her, and all
husbands are not able to do that."

"Do you s'pose Nimmie Amee still loves you, after all these years?"
asked Dorothy.

"I'm quite sure of it, and that is why I am going to her to make her
happy. Woot the Wanderer thinks I ought to reward her for being faithful
to me after my meat body was chopped to pieces and I became tin. What do
_you_ think, Ozma?"

Ozma smiled as she said:

"I do not know your Nimmie Amee, and so I cannot tell what she most
needs to make her happy. But there is no harm in your going to her and
asking her if she still wishes to marry you. If she does, we will give
you a grand wedding at the Emerald City and, afterward, as Empress of
the Winkies, Nimmie Amee would become one of the most important ladies
in all Oz."

So it was decided that the Tin Woodman would continue his journey, and
that the Scarecrow and Woot the Wanderer should accompany him, as
before. Polychrome also decided to join their party, somewhat to the
surprise of all.

"I hate to be cooped up in a palace," she said to Ozma, "and of course
the first time I meet my Rainbow I shall return to my own dear home in
the skies, where my fairy sisters are even now awaiting me and my father
is cross because I get lost so often. But I can find my Rainbow just as
quickly while traveling in the Munchkin Country as I could if living in
the Emerald City--or any other place in Oz--so I shall go with the Tin
Woodman and help him woo Nimmie Amee."