"Why do you want water?" he asked.
  "To wash my face clean after the dust of the road, and to drink, so the dry bread will 
not stick in my throat."
  "It must be inconvenient to be made of flesh," said the Scarecrow thoughtfully, "for 
you must sleep, and eat and drink. However, you have brains, and it is worth a lot of 
bother to be able to think properly." They left the cottage and walked through the trees 
until they found a little spring of clear water, where Dorothy drank and bathed and ate 
her breakfast. She saw there was not much bread left in the basket, and the girl was 
thankful the Scarecrow did not have to eat anything, for there was scarcely enough for 
herself and Toto for the day.
  When she had finished her meal, and was about to go back to the road of yellow brick, 
she was startled to hear a deep groan near by.
  "What was that?" she asked timidly.
  "I cannot imagine," replied the Scarecrow; "but we can go and see." Just then another 
groan reached their ears, and the sound seemed to come from behind them. They turned and 
walked through the forest a few steps, when Dorothy discovered something shining in a ray 
of sunshine that fell between the trees. She ran to the place and then stopped short, 
with a little cry of surprise.
  One of the big trees had been partly chopped through, and standing beside it, with an 
uplifted axe in his hands, was a man made entirely of tin. His head and arms and legs 
were jointed upon his body, but he stood perfectly motionless, as if he could not stir at 
all.
  Dorothy looked at him in amazement, and so did the Scarecrow, while Toto barked sharply 
and made a snap at the tin legs, which hurt his teeth.
  "Did you groan?" asked Dorothy.
  "Yes," answered the tin man, "I did. I've been groaning for more than a year, and no 
one has ever heard me before or come to help me."
  "What can I do for you?" she inquired softly, for she was moved by the sad voice in 
which the man spoke.
  "Get an oil-can and oil my joints," he answered. "They are rusted so badly that I 
cannot move them at all; if I am well oiled I shall soon be all right again. You will 
find an oil-can on a shelf in my cottage." Dorothy at once ran back to the cottage and 
found the oil-can, and then she returned and asked anxiously, "Where are your joints?"
  "Oil my neck, first," replied the Tin Woodman. So she oiled it, and as it was quite 
badly rusted the Scarecrow took hold of the tin head and moved it gently from side to 
side until it worked freely, and then the man could turn it himself.
  "Now oil the joints in my arms," he said. And Dorothy oiled them and the Scarecrow bent 
them carefully until they were quite free from rust and as good as new.
  The Tin Woodman gave a sigh of satisfaction and lowered his axe, which he leaned 
against the tree.
  "This is a great comfort," he said. "I have been holding that axe in the air ever since 
I rusted, and I'm glad to be able to put it down at last. Now, if you will oil the joints 
of my legs, I shall be all right once more." So they oiled his legs until he could move 
them freely; and he thanked them again and again for his release, for he seemed a very 
polite creature, and very grateful.
  "I might have stood there always if you had not come along," he said; "so you have 
certainly saved my life. How did you happen to be here?"
  "We are on our way to the Emerald City to see the Great Oz," she answered, "and we 
stopped at your cottage to pass the night."
  "Why do you wish to see Oz?" he asked.
  "I want him to send me back to Kansas, and the Scarecrow wants him to put a few brains 
into his head," she replied.
  The Tin Woodman appeared to think deeply for a moment. Then he said: "Do you suppose Oz 
could give me a heart?"
  "Why, I guess so," Dorothy answered. "It would be as easy as to give the Scarecrow 
brains."
  "True," the Tin Woodman returned. "So, if you will allow me to join your party, I will 
also go to the Emerald City and ask Oz to help me."
  "Come along," said the Scarecrow heartily, and Dorothy added that she would be pleased 
to have his company. So the Tin Woodman shouldered his axe and they all passed through 
the forest until they came to the road that was paved with yellow brick.
  The Tin Woodman had asked Dorothy to put the oil-can in her basket.
  "For," he said, "if I should get caught in the rain, and rust again, I would need the 
oil-can badly." It was a bit of good luck to have their new comrade join the party, for 
soon after they had begun their journey again they came to a place where the trees and 
branches grew so thick over the road that the travelers could not pass. But the Tin 
Woodman set to work with his axe and chopped so well that soon he cleared a passage for 
the entire party.
  Dorothy was thinking so earnestly as they walked along that she did not notice when the 
Scarecrow stumbled into a hole and rolled over to the side of the road. Indeed he was 
obliged to call to her to help him up again.
  "Why didn't you walk around the hole?" asked the Tin Woodman.
  "I don't know enough," replied the Scarecrow cheerfully.
  "My head is stuffed with straw, you know, and that is why I am going to Oz to ask him 
for some brains."
  "Oh, I see," said the Tin Woodman. "But, after all, brains are not the best things in 
the world."
  "Have you any?" inquired the Scarecrow.
  "No, my head is quite empty," answered the Woodman.
  "But once I had brains, and a heart also; so, having tried them both, I should much 
rather have a heart."
  "And why is that?" asked the Scarecrow.
  "I will tell you my story, and then you will know." So, while they were walking through 
the forest, the Tin Woodman told the following story: "I was born the son of a woodman 
who chopped down trees in the forest and sold the wood for a living. When I grew up, I 
too became a woodchopper, and after my father died I took care of my old mother as long 
as she lived. Then I made up my mind that instead of living alone I would marry, so that 
I might not become lonely.
  "There was one of the Munchkin girls who was so beautiful that I soon grew to love her 
with all my heart. She, on her part, promised to marry me as soon as I could earn enough 
money to build a better house for her; so I set to work harder than ever.
  But the girl lived with an old woman who did not want her to marry anyone, for she was 
so lazy she wished the girl to remain with her and do the cooking and the housework. So 
the old woman went to the Wicked Witch of the East, and promised her two sheep and a cow 
if she would prevent the marriage. Thereupon the Wicked Witch enchanted my axe, and when 
I was chopping away at my best one day, for I was anxious to get the new house and my 
wife as soon as possible, the axe slipped all at once and cut off my left leg.
  "This at first seemed a great misfortune, for I knew a one-legged man could not do very 
well as a wood-chopper. So I went to a tinsmith and had him make me a new leg out of tin. 
The leg worked very well, once I was used to it. But my action angered the Wicked Witch