Cowardly Lion (Fictitious character) -- Juvenile fiction; Fantasy literature; Oz (Imaginary place) -- Juvenile fiction
13 Mustafa's Blue Magic
14 Flying in a Deluge
15 Mustafa Keeps Watch
16 A Fall from the Sky
17 The Stone Man of Oz
18 Notta's Last Disguise
19 In the Emerald City
20 The Cowardly Lion's Peril
21 Oz Magic Triumphs
22 A Happy Home in Oz
Chapter 1
Mustafa of Mudge
"Tazzywaller, I must have another lion," said Mustafa of Mudge, giving
his blue whiskers a terrible tweak. "Another lion, Tazzywaller, at
once!"
"Your Highness already has nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine
lions and a half!" said Tazzywaller bowing humbly.
"Oh, that!" interrupted Mustafa impatiently. "Very careless of you,
Tazzywaller, to bring me half a lion--the wrong half, too! Monstrous
annoying to see the back legs and tail of a lion jumping about in the
reservation. Unnatural, I call it."
"But, your Highness will remember that had not a fortunate blow of my
scimitar cut off the right half of the lion I would have been devoured,
eaten, destroyed!"
Tazzywaller's eyes bulged at the unhappy recollection.
"I'd have endeavored to console myself," sniffed Mustafa disagreeably,
"and Panapee would make an excellent chamberlain. But this is wasting
time. I must have another lion. A lion, I tell you, at once!"
Mustafa's voice rose to a roar. Springing from his throne, he began
stamping first one foot, then the other. The round face of poor
Tazzywaller grew paler at each stamp.
"But there are no more lions in Mudge," he pleaded. "Your Highness must
know that. The royal hunters have tracked them all down, and even if
there were more, we cannot afford another single lion. I beg of your
Highness to consider the nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine
already eating us out of our sandals. The Mudgers are complaining of
the lion tax--"
"Silence!" screamed Mustafa, jumping into the air so that he could
stamp both feet at the same time.
"You're making most of the noise yourself," said Tazzywaller sulkily.
"What is all this arguing about?" demanded a sleepy voice, and through
a curtain at the back of the apartment appeared the huge, turbaned head
of Mixtuppa, Queen of Mudge.
"Lions! your Majesty," sighed the chief chamberlain, looking uneasily
at Mustafa's wife, who was even more unreasonable than her royal
husband. "His Highness desires another lion."
"Well, why don't you get him one? You know I can't stand this
stamping," wheezed Mixtuppa irritably.
"Neither can I," grumbled Mustafa. "It hurts my royal feet."
"No one asked you to stamp. Why don't you stop it?" sniffed Tazzywaller.
"Will you get me the lion?" asked Mustafa, pausing with foot upraised.
"I would if there were any more, but there _are_ no more lions in
Mudge!" wailed Tazzywaller. Down came Mustafa's foot with a terrible
stamp.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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