The whole castle had been plunged into utmost gloom by this terrible happening, for Peg was the kindliest, best loved little Princess any Kingdom could wish for. Lord Tozzyfog and nearly all the Courtiers set out at once to search for the little tree and for two years they wandered over Oz, addressing every hopeful tree as Princess, but never happening on the right one. Finally they returned in despair and Sun Top Mountain, once the most cheerful Kingdom in all Oz, had become the gloomiest. There was no singing, nor dancing—no happiness of any kind. Even the flowers had drooped in the absence of their little Mistress. “Why didn’t you appeal to Ozma?” demanded Pompa at this point in the story. “Because in another scroll Glegg warned us that the day we told Ozma, Peg Amy would cease to even be a tree,” explained Uncle Tozzyfog hoarsely. “Then how did she become a doll? Tell me that, Uncle Fozzytog,” gulped Wag, raising one paw. “She’ll have to tell you that herself,” confessed Peg’s uncle, “for that’s all of the story I know.” So here Peg took up the story herself. The morning after her transformation into a tree Glegg had appeared and asked her again to marry him. “I was a little yellow tree, in the Winkie Country, not far from the Emerald City,” explained Peg, “and every day for two months Glegg appeared and gave me the power of speech long enough to answer his question. And each time he asked me to marry him but I always said ‘No!’” The Princess shook her yellow curls briskly. [Illustration: “Every day Glegg returned and asked me to marry him, but I always said ‘No’!” explained Peg] “One afternoon there came a one-legged sailor man and a little girl.” Even Kabumpo shuddered as Peg Amy told how Cap’n Bill had cut down the little tree, pared off all the branches and carved from the trunk a small wooden doll for Trot. “It didn’t hurt,” Princess Peg hastened to explain as she caught Pompa’s sorrowful expression, “and being a doll was a lot better than being a tree. I could not move or speak but I knew what was going on and life in Ozma’s palace was cheerful and interesting. Only, of course, I longed to tell Ozma or Trot of my enchantment. I missed dear Uncle Tozzyfog and all the people of Sun Top Mountain. Then, as you all know, I was stolen by the old gnome and after Ruggedo carried me underground I forgot all about being a Princess and remembered nothing of this.” Peg glanced lovingly around the room. “I only felt that I had been alive before. So you!” Peg jumped up and flung one arm around Wag, “and you,” she flung the other around Pompa, “saved me by calling me a Princess and really believing I was one. And you!” Peg hastened over to Kabumpo, who was rolling his eyes sadly. “You are the darlingest old elephant in Oz! See, I still have the necklace and bracelet!” And sure enough on Peg’s round arm and white neck gleamed the jewels the Elegant Elephant had generously given when he thought her only a funny Wooden Doll.