"The third tent," explained the Wizard, "is our dining room and kitchen."
They visited that next, and found a table and dishes in the dining
tent, with plenty of those things necessary to use in cooking. The
Wizard carried out a big kettle and set it swinging on a crossbar
before the tent. While he was doing this Omby Amby and the Shaggy
Man brought a supply of twigs from the forest and then they built a
fire underneath the kettle.
"Now, Dorothy," said the Wizard, smiling, "I expect you to cook
our supper."
"But there is nothing in the kettle," she cried.
"Are you sure?" inquired the Wizard.
"I didn't see anything put in, and I'm almost sure it was empty when
you brought it out," she replied.
"Nevertheless," said the little man, winking slyly at Uncle Henry,
"you will do well to watch our supper, my dear, and see that it
doesn't boil over."
Then the men took some pails and went into the forest to search for a
spring of water, and while they were gone Aunt Em said to Dorothy:
"I believe the Wizard is fooling us. I saw the kettle myself, and
when he hung it over the fire there wasn't a thing in it but air."
"Don't worry," remarked Billina, confidently, as she nestled in the
grass before the fire. "You'll find something in the kettle when it's
taken off--and it won't be poor, innocent chickens, either."
"Your hen has very bad manners, Dorothy," said Aunt Em, looking
somewhat disdainfully at Billina. "It seems too bad she ever learned
how to talk."
|