The Marvelous Land of Oz | Page 7

it sounded like a threat; but he happened to remember
he had nuts in his pocket, so he cracked some of those and ate them while the woman
rose, shook the crumbs from her apron, and hung above the fire a small black kettle.
Then she measured out equal parts of milk and vinegar and poured them into the kettle.
Next she

25 produced several packets of herbs and powders and began adding a portion of each to
the contents of the kettle. Occasionally she would draw near the candle and read from a
yellow paper the recipe of the mess she was concocting.
As Tip watched her his uneasiness increased.
"What is that for?" he asked.
"For you," returned Mombi, briefly.
Tip wriggled around upon his stool and stared awhile at the kettle, which was beginning
to bubble. Then he would glance at the stern and wrinkled features of the witch and wish
he were any place but in that dim and smoky kitchen, where even the shadows cast by the
candle upon the wall were enough to give one the horrors. So an hour passed away,
during which the silence was only broken by the bubbling of the pot and the hissing of
the flames.

Finally, Tip spoke again.
"Have I got to drink that stuff?" he asked, nodding toward the pot.
"Yes," said Mombi.
"What'll it do to me?" asked Tip.
"If it's properly made," replied Mombi, "it will change or transform you into a marble
statue."
Tip groaned, and wiped the perspiration from his forehead with his sleeve.

26
"I don't want to be a marble statue!" he protested.
"That doesn't matter I want you to be one," said the old woman, looking at him severely.
"What use'll I be then?" asked Tip. "There won't be any one to work for you."
"I'll make the Pumpkinhead work for me," said Mombi.
Again Tip groaned.
"Why don't you change me into a goat, or a chicken?" he asked, anxiously. "You can't do
anything with a marble statue."
"Oh, yes, I can," returned Mombi. "I'm going to plant a flower garden, next Spring, and
I'll put you in the middle of it, for an ornament. I wonder I haven't thought of that before;
you've been a bother to me for years."
At this terrible speech Tip felt the beads of perspiration starting all over his body. but he
sat still and shivered and looked anxiously at the kettle.
"Perhaps it won't work," he mutttered, in a voice that sounded weak and discouraged.
"Oh, I think it will," answered Mombi, cheerfully. "I seldom make a mistake."
Again there was a period of silence a silence so long and gloomy that when Mombi
finally lifted the kettle from the fire it was close to midnight.

27 Full page line-art drawing.
"I DON'T WANT TO BE A MARBLE STATUE."

28
"You cannot drink it until it has become quite cold," announced the old witch for in spite
of the law she had acknowledged practising witchcraft. "We must both go to bed now,
and at daybreak I will call you and at once complete your transformation into a marble
statue."
With this she hobbled into her room, bearing the steaming kettle with her, and Tip heard
her close and lock the door.
The boy did not go to bed, as he had been commanded to do, but still sat glaring at the
embers of the dying fire.
Line-Art Drawing

29 The Flight of the Fugitives
Tip reflected.
"It's a hard thing, to be a marble statue," he thought, rebelliously, "and I'm not going to
stand it. For years I've been a bother to her, she says; so she's going to get rid of me. Well,
there's an easier way than to become a statue. No boy could have any fun forever
standing in the middle of a flower garden! I'll run away, that's what I'll do -- and I may as
well go before she makes me drink that nasty stuff in the kettle." He waited until the
snores of the old witch announced she was fast asleep, and then he arose softly and went
to the cupboard to find something to eat.

30
"No use starting on a journey without food," he decided, searching upon the narrow
shelves.
He found some crusts of bread; but he had to look into Mombi's basket to find the cheese
she had brought from the village. While turning over the contents of the basket he came
upon the pepper-box which contained the "Powder of Life."
"I may as well take this with me," he thought, "or Mombi'll be using it to make more
mischief with." So he put the box in his pocket, together with the bread and cheese.
Then he cautiously