L.Frank Baum. The marvelous land of Oz -
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more admirable than a decayed intellect."
"Very true," agreed the Scarecrow.
"Oh, dear!" moaned Jack; "what an unhappy lot is mine! Why, dear
father, did you not make me out of tin - or even out of straw - so that I
would keep indefinitely."
"Shucks!" returned Tip, indignantly. "You ought to be glad that I
made you at all." Then he added, reflectively, "everything has to come to
an end, some time."
"But I beg to remind you," broke in the Woggle-Bug, who had a
distressed look in his bulging, round eyes, "that this terrible Queen
Jinjur suggested making a goulash of me - Me! the only Highly Magnified
and Thoroughly Educated Woggle-Bug in the wide, wide world!"
"I think it was a brilliant idea," remarked the Scarecrow,
approvingly.
"Don't you imagine he would make a better soup?" asked the Tin
Woodman, turning toward his friend.
"Well, perhaps," acknowledged the Scarecrow.
The Woggle-Bug groaned.
"I can see, in my mind's eye," said he, mournfully, "the goats eating
small pieces of my dear comrade, the Tin Woodman, while my soup is being
cooked on a bonfire built of the Saw-Horse and Jack Pumpkinhead's body,
and Queen Jinjur watches me boil while she feeds the flames with my friend
the Scarecrow!"
This morbid picture cast a gloom over the entire party, making them
restless and anxious.
"It can't happen for some time," said the Tin Woodman, trying to
speak cheerfully; "for we shall be able to keep Jinjur out of the palace
until she manages to break down the doors."
"And in the meantime I am liable to starve to death, and so is the
WoggleBug," announced Tip.
"As for me," said the Woggle-Bug, "I think that I could live for some
time on Jack Pumpkinhead. Not that I prefer pumpkins for food; but I