ne living near
here with whom Nimmie Amee might care to live."

"Why not go to Ku-Klip and ask him what has become of the girl?"
proposed Polychrome.

That struck them all as being a good suggestion, so once more they
started to tramp through the forest, taking the direct path to Ku-Klip's
house, for both the tin twins knew the way, having followed it many
times.

Ku-Klip lived at the far edge of the great forest, his house facing the
broad plains of the Munchkin Country that lay to the eastward. But, when
they came to this residence by the forest's edge, the tinsmith was not
at home.

It was a pretty place, all painted dark blue with trimmings of lighter
blue. There was a neat blue fence around the yard and several blue
benches had been placed underneath the shady blue trees which marked the
line between forest and plain. There was a blue lawn before the house,
which was a good sized building. Ku-Klip lived in the front part of the
house and had his work-shop in the back part, where he had also built a
lean-to addition, in order to give him more room.

Although they found the tinsmith absent on their arrival, there was
smoke coming out of his chimney, which proved that he would soon return.

"And perhaps Nimmie Amee will be with him," said the Scarecrow in a
cheerful voice.

While they waited, the Tin Woodman went to the door of the workshop and,
finding it unlocked, entered and looked curiously around the room where
he had been made.

"It seems almost like home to me," he told his friends, who had followed
him in. "The first time I came here I had lost a leg, so I had to carry
it in my hand while I hopped on the other leg all the way from the place
in the forest where the enchanted axe cut me. I remember that old
Ku-Klip carefully put my meat leg into a barrel--I think that is the
same barrel, still standing in the corner yonder--and then at once he
began to make a tin leg for me. He worked fast and with skill, and I was
much interested in the job."

"My experience was much the same," said the Tin Soldier. "I used to
bring all the parts of me, which the enchanted sword had cut away, here
to the tinsmith, and Ku-Klip would put them into the barrel."

"I wonder," said Woot, "if those cast-off parts of you two unfortunates
are still in that barrel in the corner?"

"I suppose so," replied the Tin Woodman. "In the Land of Oz no part of a
living creature can ever be destroyed."

"If that is true, how was tha