The Tin Woodman was usually a peaceful man, but when occasion required hecould fight as fiercely as a Roman gladiator. So, when the Jackdaws nearlyknocked him down in their rush of wings, and their sharp beaks and clawsthreatened to damage his brilliant plating, the Woodman picked up his axeand made it whirl swiftly around his head.

But although many were beaten off in this way, the birds were so numerousand so brave that they continued the attack as furiously as before. Some ofthem pecked at the eyes of the Gump, which hung over the nest in a helplesscondition; but the Gump's eyes were of glass and could not be injured.Others of the Jackdaws rushed at the Saw-Horse; but that animal, being stillupon his back, kicked out so viciously with his wooden legs that he beat offas many assailants as did the Woodman's axe.

Finding themselves thus opposed, the birds fell upon the Scarecrow's straw,which lay at the center of the nest, covering Tip and the Woggle-Bug andJack's pumpkin head, and began tearing it away and flying off with it, onlyto let it drop, straw by straw into the great gulf beneath.

The Scarecrow's head, noting with dismay this wanton destruction of hisinterior, cried to the Tin Woodman to save him; and that good friendresponded with renewed energy. His axe fairly flashed among the Jackdaws,and fortunately the Gump began wildly waving the two wings remaining on theleft side of its body. The flutter of these great wings filled the Jackdawswith terror, and when the Gump by its exertions freed itself from the peg ofrock on which it hung, and sank flopping into the nest, the alarm of thebirds knew no bounds and they fled screaming over the mountains.

When the last foe had disappeared, Tip crawled from under the sofas andassisted the Woggle-Bug to follow him.

"We are saved!" shouted the boy, delightedly.

"We are, indeed!" responded the Educated Insect, fairly hugging the stiffhead of the Gump in his joy. "and we owe it all to the flopping of theThing, and the good axe of the Woodman!"

"If I am saved, get me out of here!" called Jack; whose head was stillbeneath the sofas; and Tip managed to roll the pumpkin out and place it uponits neck again. He also set the Saw-Horse upright, and said to it:

"We owe you many thanks for the gallant fight you made."

"I really think we have escaped very nicely," remarked the Tin Woodman, in atone of pride.

"Not so!" exclaimed a hollow voice.

At this they all turned in surprise to look at the Scarecrow's head, whichlay at the back of the nest.

"I am completely ruined!" declared the Scarecrow, as he noted theirastonishment. "For where is the straw that stuffs my body?"

The awful question startled them all. They gazed around the nest withhorror, for not a vestige of straw remained. TheJackdaws had stolen it to the last wisp and flung it all into the chasm thatyawned for hundreds of feet beneath the nest.

"My poor, poor friend!" said the Tin Woodman, taking up the Scarecrow's headand caressing it tenderly; "whoever could imagine you would come to thisuntimely end?"

"I did it to save my friends," returned the head; "and I am glad that Iperished in so noble and unselfish a manner."

"But why are you all so despondent?" inquired the Woggle-Bug. "TheScarecrow's clothing is still safe."

"Yes," answered the Tin Woodman; "but our friend's clothes are uselesswithout stuffing."

"Why not stuff him with money?" asked Tip.

"Money!" they all cried, in an amazed chorus.

"To be sure," said the boy. "In the bottom of the nest are thousands ofdollar bills -- and two-dollar bills -- and five-dollar bills -- and tens,and twenties, and fifties. There are enough of them to stuff a dozenScarecrows. Why not use the money?"

The Tin Woodman began to turn over the rubbish with the handle of his axe;and, sure enough, what they had first thought only worthless papers werefound to be all bills of various denominations,which the mischievous Jackdaws had for years been engaged in stealing fromthe villages and cities they visited.

There was an immense fortune lying in that inaccessible nest; and Tip'ssuggestion was, with the Scarecrow's consent, quickly acted upon.

They selected all the newest and cleanest bills and assorted them intovarious piles. The Scarecrow's left leg and boot were stuffed with five-dollar bills; his right leg was stuffed with ten-dollar bills, and his bodyso closely filled with fifties, one-hundreds and one-thousands that he couldscarcely button his jacket with comfort.

"You are now" said the Woggle-Bug, impressively, when the task had beencompleted, "the most valuable member of our party; and as youare among faithful friends there is little danger of your being spent."

"Thank you," returned the Scarecrow, gratefully. "I feel like a new man; andalthough at first glance I might be mistaken for a Safety Deposit Vault, Ibeg you to remember that my Brains are still composed of the same oldmaterial. And these are the possessions that have always made me a person tobe depended upon in an emergency."

"Well, the emergency is here," observed Tip; "and unless your brains help usout of it we shall be compelled to pass the remainder of our lives in thisnest."

"How about these wishing pills?" enquired the Scarecrow, taking the box fromhis jacket pocket. "Can't we use them to escape?"

"Not unless we can count seventeen by twos," answered the Tin Woodman. "Butour friend the Woggle-Bug claims to be highly educated, so he ought easilyto figure out how that can be done."

"It isn't a question of education," returned the Insect; "it's merely aquestion of mathematics. I've seen the professor work lots of sums on theblackboard, and he claimed anything could be done with x's and y's and a's,and such things, by mixing them up with plenty of plusses and minuses andequals, and so forth. But he never said anything, so far asI can remember, about counting up to the odd number of seventeen by the evennumbers of twos."

"Stop! stop!" cried the Pumpkinhead. "You're making my head ache."

"And mine," added the Scarecrow. "Your mathematics seem to me very like abottle of mixed pickles the more you fish for what you want the less chanceyou have of getting it. I am certain that if the thing can be accomplishedat all, it is in a very simple manner."

"Yes," said Tip. "old Mombi couldn't use x's and minuses, for she never wentto school."

"Why not start counting at a half of one?" asked the Saw-Horse, abruptly."Then anyone can count up to seventeen by twos very easily."

They looked at each other in surprise, for the Saw-Horse was considered themost stupid of the entire party.

"You make me quite ashamed of myself," said the Scarecrow, bowing low to theSaw-Horse.

"Nevertheless, the creature is right," declared the Woggle-Bug; for twiceone-half is one, and if you get to one it is easy to count from one up toseventeen by twos."

"I wonder I didn't think of that myself," said the Pumpkinhead.

"I don't," returned the Scarecrow. "You're no wiser than the rest of us, areyou? But let us make a wish at once. Who will swallow the first pill?"

"Suppose you do it," suggested Tip.

"I can't," said the Scarecrow.

"Why not? You've a mouth, haven't you?" asked the boy.

"Yes; but my mouth is painted on, and there's no swallow connected with it,'answered the Scarecrow. "In fact," he continued, looking from one to anothercritically, "I believe the boy and the Woggle-Bug are the only ones in ourparty that are able to swallow."

Observing the truth of this remark, Tip said:

"Then I will undertake to make the first wish. Give me one of the SilverPills."

This the Scarecrow tried to do; but his padded gloves were too clumsy toclutch so small an object, and he held the box toward the boy while Tipselected one of the pills and swallowed it.

"Count!" cried the Scarecrow.

"One-half, one, three, five, seven, nine, eleven,!" counted Tip. thirteen,fifteen, seventeen.

"Now wish!" said the Tin Woodman anxiously:

But Just then the boy began to suffer such fearful pains that he becamealarmed.

"The pill has poisoned me!" he gasped; "O -- h! O-o-o-o-o! Ouch! Murder!Fire! O-o-h!" and here he rolled upon the bottom of the nest in suchcontortions that he frightened them all.

"What can we do for you. Speak, I beg!" entreated the Tin Woodman, tears ofsympathy running down his nickel cheeks.

"I -- I don't know!" answered Tip. "O -- h! I wish I'd never swallowed thatpill!"

Then at once the pain stopped, and the boy rose to his feet again and foundthe Scarecrow looking with amazement at the end of the pepper-box.

"What's happened?" asked the boy, a little ashamed of his recent exhibition.

"Why, the three pills are in the box again!" said the Scarecrow.

"Of course they are," the Woggle-Bug declared. "Didn't Tip wish that he'dnever swallowed one of them? Well, the wish came true, and he didn't swallowone of them. So of course they are all three in the box."

"That may be; but the pill gave me a dreadful pain, just the same," said theboy.

"Impossible!" declared the Woggle-Bug. "If you have never swallowed it, the pill can not have given you apain. And as your wish, being granted, proves you did not swallow the pill,it is also plain that you suffered no pain."

"Then it was a splendid imitation of a pain," retorted Tip, angrily."Suppose you try the next pill yourself. We've wasted one wish already."

"Oh, no, we haven't!" protested the Scarecrow. "Here are still three pillsin the box, and each pill is good for a wish."

"Now you're making my head ache," said Tip. "I can't understand the thing atall. But I won't take another pill, I promise you!" and with this remark heretired sulkily to the back of the nest.

"Well," said the Woggle-Bug, "it remains for me to save us in my most HighlyMagnified and Thoroughly Educated manner; for I seem to be the only one ableand willing to make a wish. Let me have one of the pills."

He swallowed it without hesitation, and they all stood admiring his couragewhile the Insect counted seventeen by twos in the same way that Tip haddone. And for some reason -- perhaps because Woggle-Bugs have strongerstomachs than boys -- the silver pellet caused it no pain whatever.

"I wish the Gump's broken wings mended, andas good as new!" said the Woggle-Bug, in a slow; impressive voice.

All turned to look at the Thing, and so quickly had the wish been grantedthat the Gump lay before them in perfect repair, and as well able to flythrough the air as when it had first been brought to life on the roof of thepalace.