But he found the opening too small, and
so was forced to drop down again. Then he crouched
trembling in the fireplace, his pretty green hair all
blackened with soot and covered with ashes. From this
position Woot watched to see what would happen next.
"Stop, Jinjur -- stop!" cried the Brown Bear, when
the broom again threatened him. "Don't you know me? I'm
your old friend the Scarecrow?"
"You're trying to deceive me, you naughty beast! I
can see plainly that you are a bear, and a mighty poor
specimen of a bear, too," retorted the girl.
"That's because I'm not properly stuffed," he assured
her. "When Mrs. Yoop transformed me, she didn't realize
I should have more stuffing."
"Who is Mrs. Yoop?" inquired Jinjur, pausing with the
broom still upraised.
"A Giantess in the Gillikin Country."
"Oh; I begin to understand. And Mrs. Yoop transformed
you? You are really the famous Scarecrow of Oz."
"I was, Jinjur. Just now I'm as you see me -- a
miserable little Brown Bear with a poor quality of
stuffing. That Tin Owl is none other than our dear Tin
Woodman -- Nick Chopper, the Emperor of the Winkies --
while this Green Monkey is a nice little boy we
recently became acquainted with, Woot the Wanderer."
"And I," said the Canary, flying close to Jinjur, "am
Polychrome, the Daughter of the Rainbow, in the form of
a bird."
"Goodness me!" cried Jinjur, amazed; "that Giantess
must be a powerful Sorceress, and as wicked as she is
powerful.
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