Tik-Tok of Oz | Page 9

the sea.
The light wakened Betsy Bobbin. She sat up, rubbed her eyes and
stared across the water.
"Oh, Hank; there's land ahead!" she exclaimed.
"Hee-haw!" answered Hank in his plaintive voice.
The raft was floating swiftly toward a very beautiful country and as
they drew near Betsy could see banks of lovely flowers showing
brightly between leafy trees. But no people were to be seen at all.
Chapter Five
The Roses Repulse the Refugees
Gently the raft grated on the sandy beach. Then Betsy easily waded
ashore, the mule following closely behind her. The sun was now
shining and the air was warm and laden with the fragrance of roses.
"I'd like some breakfast, Hank," remarked the girl, feeling more
cheerful now that she was on dry land; "but we can't eat the flowers,
although they do smell mighty good."
"Hee-haw!" replied Hank and trotted up a little pathway to the top of

the bank.
Betsy followed and from the eminence looked around her. A little way
off stood a splendid big greenhouse, its thousands of crystal panes
glittering in the sunlight.
"There ought to be people somewhere 'round," observed Betsy
thoughtfully; "gardeners, or somebody. Let's go and see, Hank. I'm
getting hungrier ev'ry minute."
So they walked toward the great greenhouse and came to its entrance
without meeting with anyone at all. A door stood ajar, so Hank went in
first, thinking if there was any danger he could back out and warn his
companion. But Betsy was close at his heels and the moment she
entered was lost in amazement at the wonderful sight she saw.
The greenhouse was filled with magnificent rosebushes, all growing in
big pots. On the central stem of each bush bloomed a splendid Rose,
gorgeously colored and deliciously fragrant, and in the center of each
Rose was the face of a lovely girl.
As Betsy and Hank entered, the heads of the Roses were drooping and
their eyelids were closed in slumber; but the mule was so amazed that
he uttered a loud "Hee-haw!" and at the sound of his harsh voice the
rose leaves fluttered, the Roses raised their heads and a hundred startled
eyes were instantly fixed upon the intruders.
"I--I beg your pardon!" stammered Betsy, blushing and confused.
"O-o-o-h!" cried the Roses, in a sort of sighing chorus; and one of them
added: "What a horrid noise!"
"Why, that was only Hank," said Betsy, and as if to prove the truth of
her words the mule uttered another loud "Hee-haw!"
At this all the Roses turned on their stems as far as they were able and
trembled as if some one were shaking their bushes. A dainty Moss
Rose gasped: "Dear me! How dreadfully dreadful!"

"It isn't dreadful at all," said Betsy, somewhat indignant. "When you
get used to Hank's voice it will put you to sleep."
The Roses now looked at the mule less fearfully and one of them
asked:
"Is that savage beast named Hank?"
"Yes; Hank's my comrade, faithful and true," answered the girl, twining
her arms around the little mule's neck and hugging him tight. "Aren't
you, Hank?"
Hank could only say in reply: "Hee-haw!" and at his bray the Roses
shivered again.
"Please go away!" begged one. "Can't you see you're frightening us out
of a week's growth?"
"Go away!" echoed Betsy. "Why, we've no place to go. We've just been
wrecked."
"Wrecked?" asked the Roses in a surprised chorus.
"Yes; we were on a big ship and the storm came and wrecked it,"
explained the girl. "But Hank and I caught hold of a raft and floated
ashore to this place, and--we're tired and hungry. What country is this,
please?"
"This is the Rose Kingdom," replied the Moss Rose, haughtily, "and it
is devoted to the culture of the rarest and fairest Roses grown."
"I believe it," said Betsy, admiring the pretty blossoms.
"But only Roses are allowed here," continued a delicate Tea Rose,
bending her brows in a frown; "therefore you must go away before the
Royal Gardener finds you and casts you back into the sea."
"Oh! Is there a Royal Gardener, then?" inquired Betsy.

"To be sure."
"And is he a Rose, also?"
"Of course not; he's a man--a wonderful man," was the reply.
"Well, I'm not afraid of a man," declared the girl, much relieved, and
even as she spoke the Royal Gardener popped into the greenhouse--a
spading fork in one hand and a watering pot in the other.
He was a funny little man, dressed in a rose- colored costume, with
ribbons at his knees and elbows, and a bunch of ribbons in his hair. His
eyes were small and twinkling, his nose sharp and his face puckered
and deeply lined.
"O-ho!" he exclaimed, astonished to find strangers in his greenhouse,