There they sat upon the grass, their heads still swimming from theirdizzy flights, and looked at one another in silent bewilderment. Butpresently, when assured that no one was injured, they grew more calmand collected, and the Lion said with a sigh of relief, "Who wouldhave thought those Merry-Go-Round Mountains were made of rubber?"

"Are they really rubber?" asked Trot.

"They must be," replied the Lion, "for otherwise we would not havebounded so swiftly from one to another without getting hurt."

"That is all guesswork," declared the Wizard, unwinding the blanketsfrom his body, "for none of us stayed long enough on the mountains todiscover what they are made of. But where are we?"

"That's guesswork," said Scraps. "The shepherd said theThistle-Eaters live this side of the mountains and are waited on bygiants."

"Oh no," said Dorothy, "it's the Herkus who have giant slaves, and theThistle-Eaters hitch dragons to their chariots."

"How could they do that?" asked the Woozy. "Dragons have long tails,which would get in the way of the chariot wheels."

"And if the Herkus have conquered the giants," said Trot, "they mustbe at least twice the size of giants. P'raps the Herkus are thebiggest people in all the world!"

"Perhaps they are," assented the Wizard in a thoughtful tone of voice."And perhaps the shepherd didn't know what he was talking about. Letus travel on toward the west and discover for ourselves what thepeople of this country are like."

It seemed a pleasant enough country, and it was quite still andpeaceful when they turned their eyes away from the silently whirlingmountains. There were trees here and there and green bushes, whilethroughout the thick grass were scattered brilliantly colored flowers.About a mile away was a low hill that hid from them all the countrybeyond it, so they realized they could not tell much about the countryuntil they had crossed the hill. The Red Wagon having been leftbehind, it was now necessary to make other arrangements for traveling.The Lion told Dorothy she could ride upon his back as she had oftendone before, and the Woozy said he could easily carry both Trot andthe Patchwork Girl. Betsy still had her mule, Hank, and Button-Brightand the Wizard could sit together upon the long, thin back of theSawhorse, but they took care to soften their seat with a pad ofblankets before they started. Thus mounted, the adventurers startedfor the hill, which was reached after a brief journey.

As they mounted the crest and gazed beyond the hill, they discoverednot far away a walled city, from the towers and spires of which gaybanners were flying. It was not a very big city, indeed, but itswalls were very high and thick, and it appeared that the people wholived there must have feared attack by a powerful enemy, else theywould not have surrounded their dwellings with so strong a barrier.There was no path leading from the mountains to the city, and thisproved that the people seldom or never visited the whirling hills, butour friends found the grass soft and agreeable to travel over, andwith the city before them they could not well lose their way. Whenthey drew nearer to the walls, the breeze carried to their ears thesound of music--dim at first, but growing louder as they advanced.

"That doesn't seem like a very terr'ble place," remarked Dorothy.

"Well, it LOOKS all right," replied Trot from her seat on the Woozy,"but looks can't always be trusted."

"MY looks can," said Scraps. "I LOOK patchwork, and I AM patchwork,and no one but a blind owl could ever doubt that I'm the PatchworkGirl." Saying which, she turned a somersault off the Woozy and,alighting on her feet, began wildly dancing about.

"Are owls ever blind?" asked Trot.

"Always, in the daytime," said Button-Bright. "But Scraps can seewith her button eyes both day and night. Isn't it queer?"

"It's queer that buttons can see at all," answered Trot. "But goodgracious! What's become of the city?"

"I was going to ask that myself," said Dorothy. "It'sgone!"

"It's gone!"

The animals came to a sudden halt, for the city had reallydisappeared, walls and all, and before them lay the clear, unbrokensweep of the country. "Dear me!" exclaimed the Wizard. "This israther disagreeable. It is annoying to travel almost to a place andthen find it is not there."

"Where can it be, then?" asked Dorothy. "It cert'nly was there aminute ago."

"I can hear the music yet," declared Button-Bright, and when they alllistened, the strains of music could plainly be heard.

"Oh! There's the city over at the left," called Scraps, and turningtheir eyes, they saw the walls and towers and fluttering banners farto the left of them.

"We must have lost our way," suggested Dorothy.

"Nonsense," said the Lion.

"I, and all the other animals, have beentramping straight toward the city ever since we first saw it."

"Then how does it happen--"

"Never mind," interrupted the Wizard, "we are no farther from it thanwe were before. It is in a different direction, that's all, so let ushurry and get there before it again escapes us."

So on they went directly toward the city, which seemed only a coupleof miles distant. But when they had traveled less than a mile, itsuddenly disappeared again. Once more they paused, somewhatdiscouraged, but in a moment the button eyes of Scraps againdiscovered the city, only this time it was just behind them in thedirection from which they had come. "Goodness gracious!" criedDorothy. "There's surely something wrong with that city. Do yous'pose it's on wheels, Wizard?"

"It may not be a city at all," he replied, looking toward it with aspeculative glance.

"What COULD it be, then?"

"Just an illusion."

"What's that?" asked Trot.

"Something you think you see and don't see."

"I can't believe that," said Button-Bright. "If we only saw it, wemight be mistaken, but if we can see it and hear it, too, it must bethere."

"Where?" asked the Patchwork Girl.

"Somewhere near us," he insisted.

We will have to go back, I suppose," said the Woozy with a sigh.

So back they turned and headed for the walled city until itdisappeared again, only to reappear at the right of them. They wereconstantly getting nearer to it, however, so they kept their facesturned toward it as it flitted here and there to all points of thecompass. Presently the Lion, who was leading the procession, haltedabruptly and cried out, "Ouch!"

"What's the matter?" asked Dorothy.

"Ouch -- Ouch!~ repeated the Lion, and leapedbackward so suddenly that Dorothy nearly tumbled fromhis back. At the same time Hank the Mule yelled "Ouch!"

"Ouch! Ouch!" repeated the Lion and leaped backward so suddenly thatDorothy nearly tumbled from his back. At the same time, Hank the Muleyelled "Ouch!" almost as loudly as the Lion had done, and he alsopranced backward a few paces.

"It's the thistles," said Betsy.

"They prick their legs."

Hearing this, all looked down, and sure enough the ground was thickwith thistles, which covered the plain from the point where they stoodway up to the walls of the mysterious city. No pathways through themcould be seen at all; here the soft grass ended and the growth ofthistles began. "They're the prickliest thistles I ever felt,"grumbled the Lion. "My legs smart yet from their stings, though Ijumped out of them as quickly as I could."

"Here is a new difficulty," remarked the Wizard in a grieved tone."The city has stopped hopping around, it is true, but how are we toget to it over this mass of prickers?"

"They can't hurt ME," said the thick-skinned Woozy, advancingfearlessly and trampling among the thistles.

"Nor me," said the Wooden Sawhorse.

"But the Lion and the Mule cannot stand the prickers," assertedDorothy, "and we can't leave them behind."

"Must we all go back?" asked Trot.

"Course not!" replied Button-Bright scornfully."Always when there's trouble, there's a way out of it if you can find it."

"I wish the Scarecrow was here," said Scraps, standing on her head onthe Woozy's square back. "His splendid brains would soon show us howto conquer this field of thistles."

"What's the matter with YOUR brains?" asked the boy.

"Nothing," she said, making a flip-flop into the thistles and dancingamong them without feeling their sharp points. "I could tell you inhalf a minute how to get over the thistles if I wanted to."

"Tell us, Scraps!" begged Dorothy.

"I don't want to wear my brains out with overwork," replied thePatchwork Girl.

"Don't you love Ozma? And don't you want to find her?" asked Betsyreproachfully.

"Yes indeed," said Scraps, walking on her hands as an acrobat does atthe circus.

"Well, we can't find Ozma unless we get past these thistles," declaredDorothy.

Scraps danced around them two or three times without reply. Then shesaid, "Don't look at me, you stupid folks. Look at those blankets."

The Wizard's face brightened at once.

"Why didn't we think of those blankets before?"

"Because you haven't magic brains," laughed Scraps."Such brains as you have are of the common sort that grow in your heads, like weeds in a garden. I'm sorry for you people who have to be born in order to bealive."

But the Wizard was not listening to her. He quickly removed theblankets from the back of the Sawhorse and spread one of them upon thethistles, just next the grass. The thick cloth rendered the prickersharmless, so the Wizard walked over this first blanket and spread thesecond one farther on, in the direction of the phantom city. "Theseblankets," said he, "are for the Lion and the Mule to walk upon. TheSawhorse and the Woozy can walk on the thistles."

So the Lion and the Mule walked over the first blanket and stood uponthe second one until the Wizard had picked up the one they had passedover and spread it in front of them, when they advanced to that oneand waited while the one behind them was again spread in front. "Thisis slow work," said the Wizard, "but it will get us to the city aftera while."

"The city is a good half mile away yet," announced Button-Bright.

"And this is awful hard work for the Wizard," added Trot.

"Why couldn't the Lion ride on the Woozy's back?"asked Dorothy."it's a big, flat back, and the Woozy's mighty strong. Perhaps the Lion wouldn't fall off."

"You may try it if you like," said the Woozy to the Lion. "I can takeyou to the city in a jiffy and then come back for Hank."

"I'm--I'm afraid," said the Cowardly Lion. He was twice as big as theWoozy.

"Try it," pleaded Dorothy.

"And take a tumble among the thistles?"asked the Lion reproachfully.But when the Woozy came close to him, the big beast suddenly boundedupon its back and managed to balance himself there, although forced tohold his four legs so close together that he was in danger of topplingover. The great weight of the monster Lion did not seem to affect theWoozy, who called to his rider, "Hold on tight!" and ran swiftly overthe thistles toward the city. The others stood on the blanket andwatched the strange sight anxiously. Of course, the Lion couldn't"hold on tight" because there was nothing to hold to, and he swayedfrom side to side as if likely to fall off any moment. Still, hemanaged to stick to the Woozy's back until they were close to thewalls of the city, when he leaped to the ground. Next moment theWoozy came dashing back at full speed.

"There's a little strip of ground next the wall where there are nothistles," he told them when he had reached the adventurers once more."Now then, friend Hank, see if you can ride as well as the Lion did."

"Take the others first," proposed the Mule. So the Sawhorse and theWoozy made a couple of trips over the thistles to the city walls andcarried all the people in safety, Dorothy holding little Toto in herarms. The travelers then sat in a group on a little hillock justoutside the wall and looked at the great blocks of gray stone andwaited for the Woozy to bring Hank to them. The Mule was veryawkward, and his legs trembled so badly that more than once theythought he would tumble off, but finally he reached them in safety,and the entire party was now reunited. More than that, they hadreached the city that had eluded them for so long and in so strange amanner.

"The gates must be around the other side," said the Wizard. "Let usfollow the curve of the wall until we reach an opening in it."

"Which way?" asked Dorothy.

"We must guess that," he replied. "Suppose we go to the left. Onedirection is as good as another." They formed in marching order andwent around the city wall to the left. It wasn't a big city, as Ihave said, but to go way around it outside the high wall was quite awalk, as they became aware. But around it our adventurers wentwithout finding any sign of a gateway or other opening. When they hadreturned to the little mound from which they had started, theydismounted from the animals and again seated themselves on the grassymound.

"It's mighty queer, isn't it?" asked Button-Bright.

"There must be SOME way for the people to get out and in," declaredDorothy. "Do you s'pose they have flying machines, Wizard?"

"No," he replied, "for in that case they would be flying all over theLand of Oz, and we know they have not done that. Flying machines areunknown here. I think it more likely that the people use ladders toget over the walls."

"It would be an awful climb over that high stone wall," said Betsy.

"Stone, is it?" Scraps, who was again dancing wildly around, forshe never tired and could never keep still for long.

"Course it's stone," answered Betsy scornfully."Can't you see?"

"Yes," said Scraps, going closer. "I can SEE the wall, but I can'tFEEL it." And then, with her arms outstretched, she did a very queerthing. She walked right into the wall and disappeared.

"For goodness sake!" Dorothy, amazed, as indeed they all were.