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asked Dorothy.

"No, for this pole is stuck up my back. If you will please

take away the pole I shall be greatly obliged to you."

Dorothy reached up both arms and lifted the figure off the pole,

for, being stuffed with straw, it was quite light.

"Thank you very much," said the Scarecrow, when he had been

set down on the ground. "I feel like a new man."

Dorothy was puzzled at this, for it sounded queer to hear a

stuffed man speak, and to see him bow and walk along beside her.

"Who are you?" asked the Scarecrow when he had stretched

himself and yawned. "And where are you going?"

"My name is Dorothy," said the girl, "and I am going to the

Emerald City, to ask the Great Oz to send me back to Kansas."

"Where is the Emerald City?" he inquired. "And who is Oz?"

"Why, don't you know?" she returned, in surprise.

"No, indeed. I don't know anything. You see, I am stuffed,

so I have no brains at all," he answered sadly.

"Oh," said Dorothy, "I'm awfully sorry for you."

"Do you think," he asked, "if I go to the Emerald City with you,

that Oz would give me some brains?"

"I cannot tell," she returned, "but you may come with me,

if you like. If Oz will not give you any brains you will be

no worse off than you are now."

"That is true," said the Scarecrow. "You see," he continued

confidentially, "I don't mind my legs and arms and body being

stuffed, because I cannot get hurt. If anyone treads on my toes

or sticks a pin into me, it doesn't matter, for I can't feel it.

But I do not want people to call me a fool, and if my head stays

stuffed with straw instead of with brains, as yours is, how am I

ever to know anything?"

"I understand how you feel," said the little girl, who was

truly sorry for him. "If you will come with me I'll ask Oz to

do all he can for you."

"Thank you," he answered gratefully.

They walked back to the road. Dorothy helped him over the

fence, and they started along the path of yellow brick for the

Emerald City.

Toto did not like this addition to the party at first.

He smelled around the stuffed man as if he suspected there

might be a nest of rats in the straw, and he often growled

in an unfriendly way at the Scarecrow.

"Don't mind Toto," said Dorothy to her new friend.

"He never bites."

"Oh, I'm not afraid," replied the Scarecrow. "He can't hurt

the straw. Do let me carry that basket for you. I shall not mind

it, for I can't get tired. I'll tell you a secret," he continued,

as he walked along. "There is only one thing in the world I am

afraid of."

"What is that?" asked Dorothy; "the Munchkin farmer who made you?"

"No," answered the Scarecrow; "it's a lighted match."

4. The Road Through the Forest

After a few hours the road began to be rough, and the walking

grew so difficult that the Scarecrow often stumbled over the

yellow bricks, which were here very uneven. Sometimes, indeed,

they were broken or missing altogether, leaving holes that Toto

jumped across and Dorothy walked around. As for the Scarecrow,

having no brains, he walked straight ahead, and so stepped into

the holes and fell at full length on the hard bricks. It never hurt

him, however, and Dorothy would pick him up and set him upon his

feet again, while he joined her in laughing merrily at his own mishap.

The farms were not nearly so well cared for here as they were

farther back. There were fewer houses and fewer fruit trees, and

the farther they went the more dismal and lonesome the country became.

At noon they sat down by the roadside, near a little brook,

and Dorothy opened her basket and got out some bread. She offered

a piece to the Scarecrow, but he refused.

"I am never hungry," he said, "and it is a lucky thing I am not,

for my mouth is only painted, and if I should cut a hole in it so

I could eat, the straw I am stuffed with would come out, and that

would spoil the shape of my head."

Dorothy saw at once that this was true, so she only nodded and

went on eating her bread.

"Tell me something about yourself and the country you came from,"

said the Scarecrow, when she had finished her dinner. So she told him

all about Kansas, and how gray everything was there, and how the cyclone

had carried her to this queer Land of Oz.

The Scarecrow listened carefully, and said, "I cannot

understand why you should wish to leave this beautiful country and

go back to the dry, gray place you call Kansas."

"That is because you have no brains" answered the girl.

"No matter how dreary and gray our homes are, we people of

flesh and blood would rather live there than in any other country,

be it ever so beautiful. There is no place like home."

The Scarecrow sighed.

"Of course I cannot understand it," he said. "If your heads

were stuffed with straw, like mine, you would probably all live in

the beautiful places, and then Kansas would have no people at all.

It is fortunate for Kansas that you have brains."

"Won't you tell me a story, while we are resting?"