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And the Lion would answer, "No. If you come in this yard, I

will bite you."

The reason the Lion did not have to do as the Witch wished was

that every night, while the woman was asleep, Dorothy carried him

food from the cupboard. After he had eaten he would lie down on

his bed of straw, and Dorothy would lie beside him and put her

head on his soft, shaggy mane, while they talked of their troubles

and tried to plan some way to escape. But they could find no way

to get out of the castle, for it was constantly guarded by the

yellow Winkies, who were the slaves of the Wicked Witch and

too afraid of her not to do as she told them.

The girl had to work hard during the day, and often the Witch

threatened to beat her with the same old umbrella she always

carried in her hand. But, in truth, she did not dare to strike

Dorothy, because of the mark upon her forehead. The child did not

know this, and was full of fear for herself and Toto. Once the

Witch struck Toto a blow with her umbrella and the brave little

dog flew at her and bit her leg in return. The Witch did not

bleed where she was bitten, for she was so wicked that the blood

in her had dried up many years before.

Dorothy's life became very sad as she grew to understand that

it would be harder than ever to get back to Kansas and Aunt Em again.

Sometimes she would cry bitterly for hours, with Toto sitting at her

feet and looking into her face, whining dismally to show how sorry

he was for his little mistress. Toto did not really care whether

he was in Kansas or the Land of Oz so long as Dorothy was with him;

but he knew the little girl was unhappy, and that made him unhappy too.

Now the Wicked Witch had a great longing to have for her own

the Silver Shoes which the girl always wore. Her bees and her

crows and her wolves were lying in heaps and drying up, and she

had used up all the power of the Golden Cap; but if she could

only get hold of the Silver Shoes, they would give her more power

than all the other things she had lost. She watched Dorothy carefully,

to see if she ever took off her shoes, thinking she might steal them.

But the child was so proud of her pretty shoes that she never took

them off except at night and when she took her bath. The Witch was

too much afraid of the dark to dare go in Dorothy's room at night

to take the shoes, and her dread of water was greater than her

fear of the dark, so she never came near when Dorothy was bathing.

Indeed, the old Witch never touched water, nor ever let water

touch her in any way.

But the wicked creature was very cunning, and she finally thought of

a trick that would give her what she wanted. She placed a bar of iron

in the middle of the kitchen floor, and then by her magic arts made the

iron invisible to human eyes. So that when Dorothy walked across the floor

she stumbled over the bar, not being able to see it, and fell at full length.

She was not much hurt, but in her fall one of the Silver Shoes came off; and

before she could reach it, the Witch had snatched it away and put it on her

own skinny foot.

The wicked woman was greatly pleased with the success of her trick,

for as long as she had one of the shoes she owned half the power of

their charm, and Dorothy could not use it against her, even had she

known how to do so.

The little girl, seeing she had lost one of her pretty shoes,

grew angry, and said to the Witch, "Give me back my shoe!"

"I will not," retorted the Witch, "for it is now my shoe, and

not yours."

"You are a wicked creature!"