L.Frank Baum. The marvelous land of Oz -
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and began adding a portion of each to the contents of the kettle.
Occasionally she would draw near the candle and read from a yellow paper
the recipe of the mess she was concocting.
As Tip watched her his uneasiness increased.
"What is that for?" he asked.
"For you," returned Mombi, briefly.
Tip wriggled around upon his stool and stared awhile at the kettle,
which was beginning to bubble. Then he would glance at the stern and
wrinkled features of the witch and wish he were any place but in that dim
and smoky kitchen, where even the shadows cast by the candle upon the wall
were enough to give one the horrors. So an hour passed away, during which
the silence was only broken by the bubbling of the pot and the hissing of
the flames.
Finally, Tip spoke again.
"Have I got to drink that stuff?" he asked, nodding toward the pot.
"Yes," said Mombi.
"What'll it do to me?" asked Tip.
"If it's properly made," replied Mombi, "it will change or transform
you into a marble statue."
Tip groaned, and wiped the perspiration from his forehead with his
sleeve.
"I don't want to be a marble statue!" he protested.
"That doesn't matter I want you to be one," said the old woman,
looking at him severely.
"What use'll I be then?" asked Tip. "There won't be any one to work
for you."
"I'll make the Pumpkinhead work for me," said Mombi.
Again Tip groaned.
"Why don't you change me into a goat, or a chicken?" he asked,
anxiously. "You can't do anything with a marble statue."
"Oh, yes, I can," returned Mombi. "I'm going to plant a flower
garden, next Spring, and I'll put you in the middle of it, for an
ornament. I wonder I haven't thought of that before; you've been a bother