such a common thing as darn stockings.But, if you will stop to think, you will realize 
that a princess is sure to wear holes in her stockings, the same as other people; only it 
isn't considered quite polite to mention the matter.)
    "Oh!" said Langwidere, slightly lifting the nose of No. 17."I thought some one of 
importance had called."
    "Then you were right," declared Dorothy."I'm a good deal of 'portance myself, and 
when Billina lays an egg she has the proudest cackle you ever heard.As for Tiktok, he's 
the--"
    "Stop-Stop!" commanded the Princess, with an angry flash of her splendid eyes."How 
dare you annoy me with your senseless chatter?"
    "Why, you horrid thing!" said Dorothy, who was not accustomed to being treated so 
rudely.
    The Princess looked at her more closely.
    "Tell me," she resumed, "are you of royal blood?"
    "Better than that, ma'am," said Dorothy."I came from Kansas."
    "Huh!" cried the Princess, scornfully."You are a foolish child, and I cannot allow 
you to annoy me.Run away, you little goose, and bother some one else."
    Dorothy was so indignant that for a moment she could find no words to reply.But she 
rose from her chair, and was about to leave the room when the Princess, who had been 
scanning the girl's face, stopped her by saying, more gently:
    "Come nearer to me."
    Dorothy obeyed, without a thought of fear, and stood before the Princess while 
Langwidere examined her face with careful attention.
    "You are rather attractive," said the lady, presently."Not at all beautiful, you 
understand, but you have a certain style of prettiness that is different from that of any 
of my thirty heads.So I believe I'll take your head and give you No. 26 for it."
    "Well, I b'lieve you won't!" exclaimed Dorothy.
    "It will do you no good to refuse," continued the Princess; "for I need your head for 
my collection, and in the Land of Ev my will is law.I never have cared much for No. 26, 
and you will find that it is very little worn.Besides, it will do you just as well as the 
one you're wearing, for all practical purposes."
    "I don't know anything about your No. 26, and I don't want to," said Dorothy, 
firmly."I'm not used to taking cast-off things, so I'll just keep my own head."
    "You refuse?" cried the Princess, with a frown.
    "Of course I do," was the reply.
    "Then," said Langwidere, "I shall lock you up in a tower until you decide to obey 
me.Nanda," turning to her maid, "call my army."
    Nanda rang a silver bell, and at once a big fat colonel in a bright red uniform 
entered the room, followed by ten lean soldiers, who all looked sad and discouraged and 
saluted the princess in a very melancholy fashion.
    "Carry that girl to the North Tower and lock her up!" cried the Princess, pointing to 
Dorothy.
    "To hear is to obey," answered the big red colonel, and caught the child by her 
arm.But at that moment Tiktok raised his dinner-pail and pounded it so forcibly against 
the colonel's head that the big officer sat down upon the floor with a sudden bump, 
looking both dazed and very much astonished.
    "Help!" he shouted, and the ten lean soldiers sprang to assist their leader.
    There was great excitement for the next few moments, and Tiktok had knocked down 
seven of the army, who were sprawling in every direction upon the carpet, when suddenly 
the machine paused, with the dinner-pail raised for another blow, and remained perfectly 
motionless.
    "My ac-tion has run down," he called to Dorothy."Wind me up, quick."
    She tried to obey, but the big colonel had by this time managed to get upon his feet 
again, so he grabbed fast hold of the girl and she was helpless to escape.
    "This is too bad," said the machine."I ought to have run six hours lon-ger, at least, 
but I sup-pose my long walk and my fight with the Wheel-ers made me run down fast-er than 
us-u-al."
    "Well, it can't be helped," said Dorothy, with a sigh.
    "Will you exchange heads with me?" demanded the Princess.
    "No, indeed!" cried Dorothy.
    "Then lock her up," said Langwidere to her soldiers, and they led Dorothy to a high 
tower at the north of the palace and locked her securely within.
    The soldiers afterward tried to lift Tiktok, but they found the machine so solid and 
heavy that they could not stir it.So they left him standing in the center of the 
drawing-room.
    "People will think I have a new statue," said Langwidere, "so it won't matter in the 
least, and Nanda can keep him well polished."
    "What shall we do with the hen?" asked the colonel, who had just discovered Billina 
in the work-basket.
    "Put her in the chicken-house," answered the Princess."Someday I'll have her fried 
for breakfast."
    "She looks rather tough, Your Highness," said Nanda, doubtfully.
    "That is a base slander!" cried Billina, struggling frantically in the colonel's 
arms."But the breed of chickens I come from is said to be poison to all princesses."
    "Then," remarked Langwidere, "I will not fry the hen, but keep her to lay eggs; and 
if she doesn't do her duty I'll have her drowned in the horse trough."
    
    7.Ozma of Oz to the Rescue
    
    Nanda brought Dorothy bread and water for her supper, and she slept upon a hard stone 
couch with a single pillow and a silken coverlet.
    In the morning she leaned out of the window of her prison in the tower to see if 
there was any way to escape.The room was not so very high up, when compared with our 
modern buildings, but it was far enough above the trees and farm houses to give her a 
good view of the surrounding country.
    To the east she saw the forest, with the sands beyond it and the ocean beyond 
that.There was even a dark speck upon the shore that she thought might be the 
chicken-coop in which she had arrived at this singular country.
    Then she looked to the north, and saw a deep but narrow valley lying between two 
rocky mountains, and a third mountain that shut off the valley at the further end.
    Westward the fertile Land of Ev suddenly ended a little way from the palace, and the 
girl could see miles and miles of sandy desert that stretched further than her eyes could 
reach.It was this desert, she thought, with much interest, that alone separated her from 
the wonderful Land of Oz, and she remembered sorrowfully that she had been told no one 
had ever been able to cross this dangerous waste but herself.Once a cyclone had carried 
her across it, and a magical pair of silver shoes had carried her back again.But now she 
had neither a cyclone nor silver shoes to assist her, and her condition was sad 
indeed.For she had become the prisoner of a disagreeable princess who insisted that she 
must exchange her head for another one that she was not used to, and which might not fit 
her at all.