For a while the travelers were constantly losing their direction, forbeyond the thistle fields they again found themselves upon theturning-lands, which swung them around one way and then another. Butby keeping the City of Thi constantly behind them, the adventurersfinally passed the treacherous turning-lands and came upon a stonycountry where no grass grew at all. There were plenty of bushes,however, and although it was now almost dark, the girls discoveredsome delicious yellow berries growing upon the bushes, one taste ofwhich set them all to picking as many as they could find. The berriesrelieved their pangs of hunger for a time, and as it now became toodark to see anything, they camped where they were.

The three girls lay down upon one of the blankets--all in a row--andthe Wizard covered them with the other blanket and tucked them in.Button-Bright crawled under the shelter of some bushes and was asleep

The Wizard sat down with his back to a big stoneand looked at the stars in the sky and thought gravely upon thedangerous adventure they had undertaken, wondering if they would everbe able to find their beloved Ozma again. The animals lay in a groupby themselves, a little distance from the others. "I've lost mygrowl!" said Toto, who had been very silent and sober all that day."What do you suppose has become of it?"

"If you had asked me to keep track of your growl, I might be able totell you," remarked the Lion sleepily. "But frankly, Toto, I supposedyou were taking care of it yourself."

"It's an awful thing to lose one's growl," said Toto, wagging his taildisconsolately. "What if you lost your roar, Lion? Wouldn't you feelterrible?"

"My roar,"replied the Lion, "is the fiercest thing about me. I dependon it to frighten my enemies so badly that they won't dare to fightme."

"Once," said the Mule, "I lost my bray so that I couldn't call toBetsy to let her know I was hungry. That was before I could talk, youknow, for I had not yet come into the Land of Oz, and I found it wascertainly very uncomfortable not to be able to make a noise."

"You make enough noise now," declared Toto. "But none of you haveanswered my question: Where is my growl?"

"You may search ME," said the Woozy. "I don't care for such things,myself."

"You snore terribly," asserted Toto.

"It may be," said the Woozy. "What one does when asleep one is notaccountable for. I wish you would wake me up sometime when I'msnoring and let me hear the sound. Then I can judge whether it isterrible or delightful."

"It isn't pleasant, I assure you," said the Lion, yawning.

"To me it seems wholly unnecessary," declared Hank the Mule.

"You ought to break yourself of the habit," said the Sawhorse. "Younever hear me snore, because I never sleep. I don't even whinny asthose puffy meat horses do. I wish that whoever stole Toto's growlhad taken the Mule's bray and the Lion's roar and the Woozy's snore atthe same time."

"Do you think, then, that my growl was stolen?"

"You have never lost it before, have you?" inquiredinquired the Sawhorse.

"Only once, when I had a sore throat from barking too long at themoon."

"Is your throat sore now?" asked the Woozy.

"No," replied the dog.

"I can't understand," said Hank, "why dogs bark at the moon. Theycan't scare the moon, and the moon doesn't pay any attention to thebark. So why do dogs do it?"

"Were you ever a dog?" asked Toto.

"No indeed," replied Hank. "I am thankful to say I was created amule--the most beautiful of all beasts--and have always remained one."

The Woozy sat upon his square haunches to examine Hank with care."Beauty," he said, "must be a matter of taste. I don't say yourjudgment is bad, friend Hank, or that you are so vulgar as to beconceited. But if you admire big, waggy ears and a tail like apaintbrush and hoofs big enough for an elephant and a long neck and abody so skinny that one can count the ribs with one eye shut--ifthat's your idea of beauty, Hank, then either you or I must be muchmistaken."

"You're full of edges," sneered the Mule. "If I were square as youare, I suppose you'd think me lovely."

"Outwardly, dear Hank, I would," replied the Woozy."But to be really lovely, one must be beautiful without and within."

The Mule couldn't deny this statement, so he gave a disgusted gruntand rolled over so that his back was toward the Woozy. But the Lion,regarding the two calmly with his great, yellow eyes, said to the dog,"My dear Toto, our friends have taught us a lesson in humility. Ifthe Woozy and the Mule are indeed beautiful creatures as they seem tothink, you and I must be decidedly ugly."

"Not to ourselves," protested Toto, who was a shrewd little dog. "Youand I, Lion, are fine specimens of our own races. I am a fine dog,and you are a fine lion. Only in point of comparison, one withanother, can we be properly judged, so I will leave it to the poor oldSawhorse to decide which is the most beautiful animal among us all.The Sawhorse is wood, so he won't be prejudiced and will speak thetruth."

"I surely will," responded the Sawhorse, wagging his ears, which werechips set in his wooden head. "Are you all agreed to accept myjudgment?"

"We are!" they declared, each one hopeful.

"Then," said the Sawhorse, "I must point out to you the fact that youare all meat creatures, who tire unless they sleep and starve unlessthey eat and suffer from thirst unless they drink. Such animals mustbe very imperfect, and imperfect creatures cannot be beautiful. Now,I am made of wood."

"You surely have a wooden head," said the Mule.

"Yes, and a wooden body and wooden legs, which are as swift as thewind and as tireless. I've heard Dorothy say that 'handsome is ashandsome does,' and I surely perform my duties in a handsome manner.Therefore, if you wish my honest judgment, I will confess that amongus all I am the most beautiful."

The Mule snorted, and the Woozy laughed; Toto had lost his growl andcould only look scornfully at the Sawhorse, who stood in his placeunmoved. But the Lion stretched himself and yawned, saying quietly,"Were we all like the Sawhorse, we would all be Sawhorses, which wouldbe too many of the kind. Were we all like Hank, we would be a herd ofmules; if like Toto, we would be a pack of dogs; should we all becomethe shape of the Woozy, he would no longer be remarkable for hisunusual appearance. Finally, were you all like me, I would consideryou so common that I would not care to associate with you. To beindividual, my friends, to be different from others, is the only wayto become distinguished from the common herd. Let us be glad,therefore, that we differ from one another in form and in disposition.Variety is the spice of life, and we are various enough to enjoy oneanother's society; so let us be content."

"There is some truth in that speech," remarked Toto reflectively."But how about my lost growl?"

"The growl is of importance only to you," responded the Lion, "so itis your business to worry over the loss, not ours. If you love us, donot afflict your burdens on us; be unhappy all by yourself."

"If the same person stole my growl who stole Ozma," said the littledog, "I hope we shall find him very soon and punish him as hedeserves. He must be the most cruel person in all the world, for toprevent a dog from growling when it is his nature to growl is just aswicked, in my opinion, as stealing all the magic in Oz."