Kabumpo in Oz, Ruth Plumly Thompson [the snowy day read aloud TXT] 📗

“Why, it’s the old gnome!” cried the Wooden Doll in surprise. “The wicked old gnome who used to shake me all the time. Why, how small he is! I could pick him up with one hand!” She made a snatch at Ruggedo.

“Go away!” shrieked Ruggedo, ducking behind a rock. “Go away-there’s a dear girl,” he added coaxingly. “I didn’t shake you much-not too much, you know!”

Peg Amy put a wooden finger to her forehead and regarded him attentively.

“I remember,” she murmured thoughtfully. “You found a magic box, and you’re going to harm Ozma and try to conquer Oz. I must get that box!”

Reaching around the rock she seized Ruggedo by the arm.

In a panic, he jerked away. “Help! Help!” cried the gnome King, darting off toward the other end of the cave. “Help! Help!”

In his little rock room Wag stirred uneasily. Then, as Ruggedo’s cries grew louder, he bounced erect and almost cracked his skull on the low ceiling. Hardly knowing what he was doing he rushed at the door only to knock himself almost senseless against the top, for of course he did not realize he had expanded into a giant rabbit. But as the cries from the other room became louder and louder he got up and rubbing his head in a dazed fashion he somehow crowded himself through the door and hopped into the cave. When he saw Peg Amy chasing Ruggedo, Wag fell back against the wall.

“My wocks and hoop soons!” stuttered the rabbit. “She is alive! And he’s shrunk!”

Wag’s voice rose triumphantly. “I’m going to pound his curly toes off!” he shouted. With this he joined merrily in the chase.

“I’ll catch him!” he called, “I’ll catch him, Peg, my dear, and make him pay for all the shakings he has given you. I’ll pound his curly toes off!”

“Oh, Wag! Don’t do that,” cried the Wooden Doll, stopping short. “I didn’t mind the shakings and gnomes don’t know any better!”

“Neither do rabbits!” cried Wag stubbornly, bounding after Ruggedo. “I’ll pound his curly toes off, I tell you!”

The old gnome was sputtering like a fire-cracker. What chance had he now with two after him? Then suddenly he had an idea. Without stopping, he fumbled in the box which he still clutched under one arm and pulled out the bottle of Expanding Fluid. Uncorking the bottle he poured its contents over his head-every single drop!

This is what happened: First he shot out sideways, till Peg and Wag were almost crushed against the wall. With a hoarse scream Wag dragged Peg Amy back into his room, which was now barely large enough to hold them. They were just in time, for Ruggedo was still spreading. Soon there was not an inch of space left to expand in. Then he shot up and grew up and grew and grew and groaned and grew till there wasn’t any more room to grow in. So, he burst through the top of the cave, with a noise like fifty boilers exploding.

No wonder Dorothy thought it was a cyclone! For what was on the top of the cave but the royal palace of Oz? The next instant it was impaled fast on the spikes of Ruggedo’s giant head and shooting up with him toward the clouds. And that wretched gnome never stopped growing till he was three-quarters of mile high!

If the people in the palace were frightened, Ruggedo was more frightened still. Being a giant was a new experience for him and having a castle jammed on his head was worse still. The first thing he tried to do, when he stopped growing, was to lift the castle off, but his spikes were driven fast into the foundations and it fitted closer than his scalp.

In a panic Ruggedo began to run, and when a giant runs he gets somewhere. Each step carried him a half mile and shook the country below like an earthquake and rattled the people in the castle above like pennies in a Christmas bank. Shaking with terror and hardly knowing why, the gnome made for his old Kingdom, and in an hour had reached the little country of Oogaboo, which is in the very northwestern corner of Oz, opposite his old dominions.

The Deadly Desert is so narrow at this point that with one jump Ruggedo was across and, puffing like a volcano about to erupt, he sank down on the highest mountain in Ev. Fortunately he had not stepped on any cities in his flight, although he had crushed several forests and about a hundred fences. “Oh, Oh, My head!” groaned Ruggedo, rocking to and fro. He seemed to have forgotten all about conquering Oz. He was full of twinges and growing pains. Ozma’s castle was giving him a thundering headache, and there he sat, a fearsome figure in the bright moonlight, moaning and groaning instead of conquering.

The Book of Records had been right indeed when it stated that Ruggedo had something on his mind. Ozma’s castle itself sat squarely upon that mischievous mind-and every moment it seemed to grow heavier.

No wonder there had been confusion in the castle! Every time Ruggedo shook his aching head Ozma and her guests were tossed about like leaves in a storm. Mixed magic had made mischief indeed.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,, CHAPTER 10

Peg and Wag to the Rescue

For a long time after the terrific bang following Ruggedo’s final expansion, Wag and Peg Amy had been too stunned to even move. Crowded together in the little rock room, they lay perfectly breathless.

“Umpthing sappened,” quavered the rabbit at last.

“That sounds rather queer, but I think I know what you mean,” said Peg, sitting up cautiously.

“Something has happened. Ruggedo’s been blown up, I guess.”

“Mixed Magic!” groaned Wag gloomily. “I knew it would explode. Say, Peg, what makes this room so small?”

“I don’t know,” sighed the doll in a puzzled voice, for neither Peg nor Wag realized how much they had grown. “But let’s go above ground and see what has become of Ruggedo.” One at a time and with great difficulty they got through the door.

“Why, there are the stars!” cried Peg Amy, clasping her wooden hands rapturously. “Real stars!” The top of the cave had gone off with the old gnome King and the two stood looking up at the lovely skies of Oz.

“It doesn’t seem so high as it used to,” said the rabbit, looking at the walls. “Why, I believe I could jump out if I took a good run and carry you, too. Come ashort, Peg!”

“Aren’t you mixed, Wag dear? Don’t you mean come along?” asked Peg, smoothing down her torn dress.

“Well, now that you mention it, my head does feel queer,” admitted the rabbit, twitching his nose, “bort of sackwards!”

“Sort of backwards,” corrected Peg gently. “Well, never mind. I know what you mean. Peg and Wag to the Rescue But do let’s try to find that awful box of magic.

You know Ruggedo brought me to life, Wag, with something in that box!”

“Only good thing he ever did,” said Wag, shaking his head. “But I think you were alive before,” he added solemnly. “You always seemed alive to me.

“I think so, too,” whispered Peg excitedly. “I can’t remember just how, or where, but Oh! Wag! I know I’ve been alive before. I remember dancing.”

Peg took a few awkward steps and Wag looked on dubiously, too polite to criticize her efforts. He didn’t even laugh when Peg Amy fell down. Peg laughed herself, however, as merrily as possible. “It’s going to be such fun being alive,” she said, picking herself up gaily, “such fun, Wag dear. Why, there’s Glegg’s box!” She pounced upon the little shining gold casket. “Ruggedo didn’t take it after all!”

“Is it shut?” asked Wag, clapping both paws to his ears. “Look out for explosions, say I.”

“No, but I’ll soon close it,” said Peg and, shutting Glegg’s box, she slipped it into pocket of her dress. It was about half the size of this book you are reading and as Peg’s pockets were big and old fashioned, it fitted quite nicely.

“Come ashort,” said Wag again, looking uneasily, for he was anxious to get out of the gnome’s cave. So Peg seated herself carefully on his back and clasped her wooden arms around his neck. Then Wag ran back a few steps, gave a great jump and sailed up, up and out of the cave.

“Ten penny tea cups!” shrieked the Soldier with the Green Whiskers, falling over backwards. “What next?” For Wag with Peg on his back had leaped straight over his head.

Picking himself up, and with every whisker in his beard prickling straight on end, the Grand Army of Oz backed toward the royal stable. When he had backed half the distance he turned and ran for his life. But he need not have been afraid.

“What a funny little man,” chuckled Wag. “Why, he’s no bigger than we are. He’s n—!” Then suddenly Wag clutched his ears. “Oh!” he screamed, beginning to hop up and down, “I forgot all my treasures-my olden goop soons. Oh! Oh! My urple sool wocks! I’ve forgotten my urple sool wocks!”

“Your what?” cried Peg Amy, clutching him by the fur. “Now Wag, dear, you’re all mixed up. Perhaps it’s ‘cause your ears are crossed. There, now, do stop wiggling your whiskers and turn out your toes!”

But Wag continued to wiggle his whiskers and turn in his toes and roar for his urple sool wocks.

“Stop!” screamed Peg at last, with both hands over her wooden ears. “I know what you mean! Your purple wool socks!”

“Yes,” sobbed the rabbit, slumping down on a rock and holding his head in both paws.

“Well, don’t you think”-the Wooden Doll shook her head jerkily-“Don’t you think it’s just as well? Ruggedo stole all those things and you wouldn’t want stolen soup spoons, now would you?”

Wag took a long breath and regarded Peg uncertainly. Then something in her pleasant wooden face seemed to brace him up.

“No!” he sighed solemnly-“I ‘spose not. I ought to have left Rug long ago.

“But then you couldn’t have helped me, said Peg brightly. “Let’s don’t think about it any more. You’ve been awfully good to me, Wag.”

“Have I?” said Wag more cheerfully. “Well, you’re a good sort, Peg-a regular Princess!” he finished, puffing out his chest, “and anything you say goes.

“Princess?” laughed the Wooden Doll, pleased nevertheless. “I’m a funny Princess, in this old dress. Did you ever hear of a wooden Princess, Wag?”

“You look like a Princess to me,” said the rabbit stoutly. “Dresses don’t matter.”

This speech so tickled the Wooden Doll that she gave Wag a good hug and began dancing again. “Being alive is such fun!” she called gaily over her shoulder, “and you are so wonderful!”

Wag’s chest expanded at least three inches and his whiskers trembled with emotion. “Hop on my back Peg and I’ll take you anywhere you want to go,” he puffed magnificently.

But the Wooden Doll had suddenly grown sober. “Wherever is the castle?” she cried anxiously. She remembered exactly where it had stood when she was an unalive doll and now not a tower or turret of the castle was to be seen.“Oh!” groaned Peg Amy, “Ruggedo has done something dreadful with his Mixed Magic!”

Wag rubbed his eyes and looked all around. “Why, it’s gone!” he cried, waving his paws. “What shall we do? If only we weren’t so small!”

“We’ve got the magic box,” said Peg hopefully, “and somehow I don’t feel as small as I used to feel; do you?”

“Well, I feel pretty queer, myself,” said the rabbit, twitching his nose. “Maybe it’s because I’m hungry. There’s a kitchen garden over there near the royal stables and I