"
"May I see him?" asked Woot the Wanderer, after a
moment's thought.
"If it please you to wait a moment, I will go and ask
him," said the servant, and then he went into the hall
where the Tin Woodman sat with his friend the
Scarecrow. Both were glad to learn that a stranger had
arrived at the castle, for this would give them
something new to talk about, so the servant was asked
to admit the boy at once.
By the time Woot the Wanderer had passed through the
grand corridors -- all lined with ornamental tin -- and
under stately tin archways and through the many tin
rooms all set with beautiful tin furniture, his eyes
had grown bigger than ever and his whole little body
thrilled with amazement. But, astonished though he was,
he was able to make a polite bow before the throne and
to say in a respectful voice: "I salute your
Illustrious Majesty and offer you my humble services."
"Very good!" answered the Tin Woodman in his
accustomed cheerful manner. "Tell me who you are, and
whence you come."
"I am known as Woot the Wanderer," answered the boy,
"and I have come, through many travels and by
roundabout ways, from my former home in a far corner of
the Gillikin Country of Oz."
"To wander from one's home," remarked the Scarecrow,
"is to encounter dangers and hardships, especially if
one is made of meat and bone. Had you no friends in
that corner of the Gillikin Country? Was it not
homelike and comfortable?"
To hear a man stuffed with straw speak, and speak so
well, quite startled Woot, and perhaps he stared a bit
rudely at the Scarecrow.
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