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Chapter 6 – The Heads of Langwidere

L. Frank Baum2016年07月19日'Command+D' Bookmark this page

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They walked slowly down the path between the rocks, Tiktok going
first, Dorothy following him, and the yellow hen trotting along last
of all.

At the foot of the path the copper man leaned down and tossed aside
with ease the rocks that encumbered the way. Then he turned to
Dorothy and said:

“Let me car-ry your din-ner-pail.”

She placed it in his right hand at once, and the copper fingers closed
firmly over the stout handle.

Then the little procession marched out upon the level sands.

As soon as the three Wheelers who were guarding the mound saw them,
they began to shout their wild cries and rolled swiftly toward the
little group, as if to capture them or bar their way. But when the
foremost had approached near enough, Tiktok swung the tin dinner-pail
and struck the Wheeler a sharp blow over its head with the queer
weapon. Perhaps it did not hurt very much, but it made a great noise,
and the Wheeler uttered a howl and tumbled over upon its side. The
next minute it scrambled to its wheels and rolled away as fast as it
could go, screeching with fear at the same time.

“I told you they were harm-less,” began Tiktok; but before he could
say more another Wheeler was upon them. Crack! went the dinner-pail
against its head, knocking its straw hat a dozen feet away; and that
was enough for this Wheeler, also. It rolled away after the first
one, and the third did not wait to be pounded with the pail, but
joined its fellows as quickly as its wheels would whirl.

The yellow hen gave a cackle of delight, and flying to a perch upon
Tiktok’s shoulder, she said:

“Bravely done, my copper friend! and wisely thought of, too. Now we
are free from those ugly creatures.”

But just then a large band of Wheelers rolled from the forest, and
relying upon their numbers to conquer, they advanced fiercely upon
Tiktok. Dorothy grabbed Billina in her arms and held her tight, and
the machine embraced the form of the little girl with his left arm,
the better to protect her. Then the Wheelers were upon them.

Rattlety, bang! bang! went the dinner-pail in every direction, and
it made so much clatter bumping against the heads of the Wheelers that
they were much more frightened than hurt and fled in a great panic.
All, that is, except their leader. This Wheeler had stumbled against
another and fallen flat upon his back, and before he could get his
wheels under him to rise again, Tiktok had fastened his copper fingers
into the neck of the gorgeous jacket of his foe and held him fast.

“Tell your peo-ple to go a-way,” commanded the machine.

The leader of the Wheelers hesitated to give this order, so Tiktok
shook him as a terrier dog does a rat, until the Wheeler’s teeth
rattled together with a noise like hailstones on a window pane. Then,
as soon as the creature could get its breath, it shouted to the others
to roll away, which they immediately did.

“Now,” said Tiktok, “you shall come with us and tell me what
I want to know.”

“You’ll be sorry for treating me in this way,” whined the Wheeler.
“I’m a terribly fierce person.”

“As for that,” answered Tiktok, “I am only a ma-chine, and can-not
feel sor-row or joy, no mat-ter what hap-pens. But you are wrong to
think your-self ter-ri-ble or fierce.”

“Why so?” asked the Wheeler.

“Be-cause no one else thinks as you do. Your wheels make you
help-less to in-jure an-y one. For you have no fists and can not
scratch or e-ven pull hair. Nor have you an-y feet to kick with.
All you can do is to yell and shout, and that does not hurt an-y
one at all.”

The Wheeler burst into a flood of tears, to Dorothy’s great surprise.

“Now I and my people are ruined forever!” he sobbed; “for you have
discovered our secret. Being so helpless, our only hope is to make
people afraid of us, by pretending we are very fierce and terrible,
and writing in the sand warnings to Beware the Wheelers. Until now we
have frightened everyone, but since you have discovered our weakness
our enemies will fall upon us and make us very miserable and unhappy.”

“Oh, no,” exclaimed Dorothy, who was sorry to see this beautifully
dressed Wheeler so miserable; “Tiktok will keep your secret, and so
will Billina and I. Only, you must promise not to try to frighten
children any more, if they come near to you.”

“I won’t–indeed I won’t!” promised the Wheeler, ceasing to cry and
becoming more cheerful. “I’m not really bad, you know; but we have to
pretend to be terrible in order to prevent others from attacking us.”

“That is not ex-act-ly true,” said Tiktok, starting to walk toward the
path through the forest, and still holding fast to his prisoner, who
rolled slowly along beside him. “You and your peo-ple are full of
mis-chief, and like to both-er those who fear you. And you are of-ten
im-pu-dent and dis-a-gree-a-ble, too. But if you will try to cure
those faults I will not tell any-one how help-less you are.”

“I’ll try, of course,” replied the Wheeler, eagerly. “And thank you,
Mr. Tiktok, for your kindness.”

“I am on-ly a ma-chine,” said Tiktok. “I can not be kind an-y more
than I can be sor-ry or glad. I can on-ly do what I am wound up to do.”

“Are you wound up to keep my secret?” asked the Wheeler, anxiously.

“Yes; if you be-have your-self. But tell me: who rules the Land of Ev
now?” asked the machine.

“There is no ruler,” was the answer, “because every member of the
royal family is imprisoned by the Nome King. But the Princess
Langwidere, who is a niece of our late King Evoldo, lives in a part of
the royal palace and takes as much money out of the royal treasury as
she can spend. The Princess Langwidere is not exactly a ruler, you
see, because she doesn’t rule; but she is the nearest approach to a
ruler we have at present.”

“I do not re-mem-ber her,” said Tiktok. “What does she look like?”

“That I cannot say,” replied the Wheeler, “although I have seen her
twenty times. For the Princess Langwidere is a different person every
time I see her, and the only way her subjects can recognize her at all
is by means of a beautiful ruby key which she always wears on a chain
attached to her left wrist. When we see the key we know we are
beholding the Princess.”

“That is strange,” said Dorothy, in astonishment. “Do you mean to say
that so many different princesses are one and the same person?”

“Not exactly,” answered the Wheeler. “There is, of course, but one
princess; but she appears to us in many forms, which are all more or
less beautiful.”

“She must be a witch,” exclaimed the girl.

“I do not think so,” declared the Wheeler. “But there is some mystery
connected with her, nevertheless. She is a very vain creature, and
lives mostly in a room surrounded by mirrors, so that she can admire
herself whichever way she looks.”

No one answered this speech, because they had just passed out of the
forest and their attention was fixed upon the scene before them–a
beautiful vale in which were many fruit trees and green fields, with
pretty farm-houses scattered here and there and broad, smooth roads
that led in every direction.

In the center of this lovely vale, about a mile from where our friends
were standing, rose the tall spires of the royal palace, which
glittered brightly against their background of blue sky. The palace
was surrounded by charming grounds, full of flowers and shrubbery.
Several tinkling fountains could be seen, and there were pleasant
walks bordered by rows of white marble statuary.

All these details Dorothy was, of course, unable to notice or admire
until they had advanced along the road to a position quite near to the
palace, and she was still looking at the pretty sights when her little
party entered the grounds and approached the big front door of the
king’s own apartments. To their disappointment they found the door
tightly closed. A sign was tacked to the panel which read as follows:

+—————————-+
| |
| OWNER ABSENT. |
| |
| Please Knock at the Third |
| Door in the Left Wing. |
| |
+—————————-+

“Now,” said Tiktok to the captive Wheeler, “you must show us the way
to the Left Wing.”

“Very well,” agreed the prisoner, “it is around here at the right.”

“How can the left wing be at the right?” demanded Dorothy, who feared
the Wheeler was fooling them.

“Because there used to be three wings, and two were torn down, so the
one on the right is the only one left. It is a trick of the Princess
Langwidere to prevent visitors from annoying her.”

Then the captive led them around to the wing, after which the machine
man, having no further use for the Wheeler, permitted him to depart
and rejoin his fellows. He immediately rolled away at a great pace
and was soon lost to sight.

Tiktok now counted the doors in the wing and knocked loudly upon the
third one.

It was opened by a little maid in a cap trimmed with gay ribbons, who
bowed respectfully and asked:

“What do you wish, good people?”

“Are you the Princess Langwidere?” asked Dorothy.

“No, miss; I am her servant,” replied the maid.

“May I see the Princess, please?”

“I will tell her you are here, miss, and ask her to grant you an audience,”
said the maid. “Step in, please, and take a seat in the drawing-room.”

So Dorothy walked in, followed closely by the machine. But as the
yellow hen tried to enter after them, the little maid cried “Shoo!”
and flapped her apron in Billina’s face.

“Shoo, yourself!” retorted the hen, drawing back in anger and ruffling
up her feathers. “Haven’t you any better manners than that?”

“Oh, do you talk?” enquired the maid, evidently surprised.

“Can’t you hear me?” snapped Billina. “Drop that apron, and get out of
the doorway, so that I may enter with my friends!”

“The Princess won’t like it,” said the maid, hesitating.

“I don’t care whether she likes it or not,” replied Billina, and
fluttering her wings with a loud noise she flew straight at the maid’s
face. The little servant at once ducked her head, and the hen reached
Dorothy’s side in safety.

“Very well,” sighed the maid; “if you are all ruined because of this
obstinate hen, don’t blame me for it. It isn’t safe to annoy the
Princess Langwidere.”

“Tell her we are waiting, if you please,” Dorothy requested, with
dignity. “Billina is my friend, and must go wherever I go.”

Without more words the maid led them to a richly furnished
drawing-room, lighted with subdued rainbow tints that came in through
beautiful stained-glass windows.

“Remain here,” she said. “What names shall I give the Princess?”

“I am Dorothy Gale, of Kansas,” replied the child; “and this gentleman
is a machine named Tiktok, and the yellow hen is my friend Billina.”

The little servant bowed and withdrew, going through several passages
and mounting two marble stairways before she came to the apartments
occupied by her mistress.

Princess Langwidere’s sitting-room was paneled with great mirrors,
which reached from the ceiling to the floor; also the ceiling was
composed of mirrors, and the floor was of polished silver that
reflected every object upon it. So when Langwidere sat in her easy
chair and played soft melodies upon her mandolin, her form was
mirrored hundreds of times, in walls and ceiling and floor, and
whichever way the lady turned her head she could see and admire her
own features. This she loved to do, and just as the maid entered she
was saying to herself:

“This head with the auburn hair and hazel eyes is quite attractive. I
must wear it more often than I have done of late, although it may not
be the best of my collection.”

“You have company, Your Highness,” announced the maid, bowing low.

“Who is it?” asked Langwidere, yawning.

“Dorothy Gale of Kansas, Mr. Tiktok and Billina,” answered the maid.

“What a queer lot of names!” murmured the Princess, beginning to
be a little interested. “What are they like? Is Dorothy Gale of
Kansas pretty?”

“She might be called so,” the maid replied.

“And is Mr. Tiktok attractive?” continued the Princess.

“That I cannot say, Your Highness. But he seems very bright. Will
Your Gracious Highness see them?”

“Oh, I may as well, Nanda. But I am tired admiring this head, and if
my visitor has any claim to beauty I must take care that she does not
surpass me. So I will go to my cabinet and change to No. 17, which I
think is my best appearance. Don’t you?”

“Your No. 17 is exceedingly beautiful,” answered Nanda, with another bow.

Again the Princess yawned. Then she said:

“Help me to rise.”

So the maid assisted her to gain her feet, although Langwidere was the
stronger of the two; and then the Princess slowly walked across the
silver floor to her cabinet, leaning heavily at every step upon
Nanda’s arm.

Now I must explain to you that the Princess Langwidere had thirty
heads–as many as there are days in the month. But of course she
could only wear one of them at a time, because she had but one neck.
These heads were kept in what she called her “cabinet,” which was a
beautiful dressing-room that lay just between Langwidere’s
sleeping-chamber and the mirrored sitting-room. Each head was in a
separate cupboard lined with velvet. The cupboards ran all around the
sides of the dressing-room, and had elaborately carved doors with gold
numbers on the outside and jeweled-framed mirrors on the inside of them.

When the Princess got out of her crystal bed in the morning she went
to her cabinet, opened one of the velvet-lined cupboards, and took the
head it contained from its golden shelf. Then, by the aid of the
mirror inside the open door, she put on the head–as neat and straight
as could be–and afterward called her maids to robe her for the day.
She always wore a simple white costume, that suited all the heads.
For, being able to change her face whenever she liked, the Princess
had no interest in wearing a variety of gowns, as have other ladies
who are compelled to wear the same face constantly.

Of course the thirty heads were in great variety, no two formed alike
but all being of exceeding loveliness. There were heads with golden
hair, brown hair, rich auburn hair and black hair; but none with gray
hair. The heads had eyes of blue, of gray, of hazel, of brown and of
black; but there were no red eyes among them, and all were bright and
handsome. The noses were Grecian, Roman, retrousse and Oriental,
representing all types of beauty; and the mouths were of assorted
sizes and shapes, displaying pearly teeth when the heads smiled. As
for dimples, they appeared in cheeks and chins, wherever they might be
most charming, and one or two heads had freckles upon the faces to
contrast the better with the brilliancy of their complexions.

One key unlocked all the velvet cupboards containing these
treasures–a curious key carved from a single blood-red ruby–and this
was fastened to a strong but slender chain which the Princess wore
around her left wrist.

When Nanda had supported Langwidere to a position in front of cupboard
No. 17, the Princess unlocked the door with her ruby key and after
handing head No. 9, which she had been wearing, to the maid, she took
No. 17 from its shelf and fitted it to her neck. It had black hair
and dark eyes and a lovely pearl-and-white complexion, and when
Langwidere wore it she knew she was remarkably beautiful in appearance.

There was only one trouble with No. 17; the temper that went with it
(and which was hidden somewhere under the glossy black hair) was
fiery, harsh and haughty in the extreme, and it often led the Princess
to do unpleasant things which she regretted when she came to wear her
other heads.

But she did not remember this today, and went to meet her guests in
the drawing-room with a feeling of certainty that she would surprise
them with her beauty.

However, she was greatly disappointed to find that her visitors were
merely a small girl in a gingham dress, a copper man that would only
go when wound up, and a yellow hen that was sitting contentedly in
Langwidere’s best work-basket, where there was a china egg used for
darning stockings. (It may surprise you to learn that a princess ever
does 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.”

 

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