The Wonderful Wizard of Oz | Page 8

got out some bread. She offered a piece to the
Scarecrow, but he refused.

"I am never hungry," he said, "and it is a lucky thing I am not, for my
mouth is only painted, and if I should cut a hole in it so I could eat, the
straw I am stuffed with would come out, and that would spoil the shape
of my head."
Dorothy saw at once that this was true, so she only nodded and went on
eating her bread.
"Tell me something about yourself and the country you came from,"
said the Scarecrow, when she had finished her dinner. So she told him
all about Kansas, and how gray everything was there, and how the
cyclone had carried her to this queer Land of Oz.
The Scarecrow listened carefully, and said, "I cannot understand why
you should wish to leave this beautiful country and go back to the dry,
gray place you call Kansas."
"That is because you have no brains" answered the girl. "No matter
how dreary and gray our homes are, we people of flesh and blood
would rather live there than in any other country, be it ever so beautiful.
There is no place like home."
The Scarecrow sighed.
"Of course I cannot understand it," he said. "If your heads were stuffed
with straw, like mine, you would probably all live in the beautiful
places, and then Kansas would have no people at all. It is fortunate for
Kansas that you have brains."
"Won't you tell me a story, while we are resting?" asked the child.
The Scarecrow looked at her reproachfully, and answered:
"My life has been so short that I really know nothing whatever. I was
only made day before yesterday. What happened in the world before
that time is all unknown to me. Luckily, when the farmer made my
head, one of the first things he did was to paint my ears, so that I heard
what was going on. There was another Munchkin with him, and the

first thing I heard was the farmer saying, `How do you like those ears?'
"`They aren't straight,'" answered the other.
"`Never mind,'" said the farmer. "`They are ears just the same,'" which
was true enough.
"`Now I'll make the eyes,'" said the farmer. So he painted my right eye,
and as soon as it was finished I found myself looking at him and at
everything around me with a great deal of curiosity, for this was my
first glimpse of the world.
"`That's a rather pretty eye,'" remarked the Munchkin who was
watching the farmer. "`Blue paint is just the color for eyes.'
"`I think I'll make the other a little bigger,'" said the farmer. And when
the second eye was done I could see much better than before. Then he
made my nose and my mouth. But I did not speak, because at that time
I didn't know what a mouth was for. I had the fun of watching them
make my body and my arms and legs; and when they fastened on my
head, at last, I felt very proud, forI thought I was just as good a man as
anyone.
"`This fellow will scare the crows fast enough,' said the farmer. `He
looks just like a man.'
"`Why, he is a man,' said the other, and I quite agreed with him. The
farmer carried me under his arm to the cornfield, and set me up on a tall
stick, where you found me. He and his friend soon after walked away
and left me alone.
"I did not like to be deserted this way. So I tried to walk after them. But
my feet would not touch the ground, and I was forced to stay on that
pole. It was a lonely life to lead, for I had nothing to think of, having
been made such a little while before. Many crows and other birds flew
into the cornfield, but as soon as they saw me they flew away again,
thinking I was a Munchkin; and this pleased me and made me feel that
I was quite an important person. By and by an old crow flew near me,

and after looking at me carefully he perched upon my shoulder and
said:
"`I wonder if that farmer thought to fool me in this clumsy manner.
Any crow of sense could see that you are only stuffed with straw.' Then
he hopped down at my feet and ate all the corn he wanted. The other
birds, seeing he was not harmed by me, came to eat the corn too, so in a
short time there was a great flock of them about me.
"I felt sad at this, for it showed I was not such a good Scarecrow after
all; but the