"I might have passed my whole life in the farmer's cornfield."
  "And I should not have had my lovely heart," said the Tin Woodman.
  "I might have stood and rusted in the forest till the end of the world."
  "And I should have lived a coward forever," declared the Lion, "and no beast in all the 
forest would have had a good word to say to me."
  "This is all true," said Dorothy, "and I am glad I was of use to these good friends. 
But now that each of them has had what he most desired, and each is happy in having a 
kingdom to rule besides, I think I should like to go back to Kansas."
  "The Silver Shoes," said the Good Witch, "have wonderful powers.
  And one of the most curious things about them is that they can carry you to any place 
in the world in three steps, and each step will be made in the wink of an eye. All you 
have to do is to knock the heels together three times and command the shoes to carry you 
wherever you wish to go."
  "If that is so," said the child joyfully, "I will ask them to carry me back to Kansas 
at once." She threw her arms around the Lion's neck and kissed him, patting his big head 
tenderly. Then she kissed the Tin Woodman, who was weeping in a way most dangerous to his 
joints. But she hugged the soft, stuffed body of the Scarecrow in her arms instead of 
kissing his painted face, and found she was crying herself at this sorrowful parting from 
her loving comrades.
  Glinda the Good stepped down from her ruby throne to give the little girl a good-bye 
kiss, and Dorothy thanked her for all the kindness she had shown to her friends and 
herself.
  Dorothy now took Toto up solemnly in her arms, and having said one last good-bye she 
clapped the heels of her shoes together three times, saying: "Take me home to Aunt Em!" 
Instantly she was whirling through the air, so swiftly that all she could see or feel was 
the wind whistling past her ears.
  The Silver Shoes took but three steps, and then she stopped so suddenly that she rolled 
over upon the grass several times before she knew where she was.
  At length, however, she sat up and looked about her.
  "Good gracious!" she cried.
  For she was sitting on the broad Kansas prairie, and just before her was the new 
farmhouse Uncle Henry built after the cyclone had carried away the old one. Uncle Henry 
was milking the cows in the barnyard, and Toto had jumped out of her arms and was running 
toward the barn, barking furiously.
  Dorothy stood up and found she was in her stocking-feet.
  For the Silver Shoes had fallen off in her flight through the air, and were lost 
forever in the desert.
  
  
  
  24. Home Again 
  Aunt Em had just come out of the house to water the cabbages when she looked up and saw 
Dorothy running toward her.
  "My darling child!" she cried, folding the little girl in her arms and covering her 
face with kisses. "Where in the world did you come from?"
  "From the Land of Oz," said Dorothy gravely. "And here is Toto, too. And oh, Aunt 
Em!I'm so glad to be at home again!"
  
  THE END



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