L.Frank Baum. The marvelous land of Oz -
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"If you do, you're a wonder," remarked the boy "but there's no harm
in thinking you understand. I guess these ears are ready now. Will you
hold the horse while I stick them on?"
"Certainly, if you'll help me up," said Jack.
So Tip raised him to his feet, and the Pumpkinhead went to the horse
and held its head while the boy bored two holes in it with his knife-blade
and inserted the ears.
"They make him look very handsome," said Jack, admiringly.
But those words, spoken close to the Saw-Horse, and being the first
sounds he had ever heard, so startled the animal that he made a bound
forward and tumbled Tip on one side and Jack on the other. Then he
continued to rush forward as if frightened by the clatter of his own
foot-steps.
"Whoa!" shouted Tip, picking himself up; "whoa! you idiot whoa!" The
SawHorse would probably have paid no attention to this, but just then it
stepped a leg into a gopher-hole and stumbled head-over-heels to the
ground, where it lay upon its back, frantically waving its four legs in
the air.
Tip ran up to it.
"You're a nice sort of a horse, I must say!" he exclaimed. "Why
didn't you stop when I yelled 'whoa?'"
"Does 'whoa' mean to stop?" asked the Saw-Horse, in a surprised
voice, as it rolled its eyes upward to look at the boy.
"Of course it does," answered Tip.
"And a hole in the ground means to stop, also, doesn't it?" continued
the horse.
"To be sure; unless you step over it," said Tip.
"What a strange place this is," the creature exclaimed, as if amazed.
"What am I doing here, anyway?"
"Why, I've brought you to life," answered the boy "but it won't hurt
you any, if you mind me and do as I tell you."
"Then I will do as you tell me," replied the Saw-Horse, humbly. "But