Cowardly Lion (Fictitious character) -- Juvenile fiction; Fantasy literature; Oz (Imaginary place) -- Juvenile fiction
"Don't you dare love me," rumbled the Cowardly Lion, wrathfully jerking
his head from beneath the seat. "I won't allow it!"
"All right," sighed Nick, adjusting his nose. "I'll try not to love
you, but it's going to be hard work, you're so handsome."
"There! There!" interrupted the Cowardly Lion gruffly, but he couldn't
help looking pleased. "You may like me if you wish," he added mildly.
"Any land in sight?"
Notta leaned far over the edge of the bus. "I think I see a village of
some kind far down below. Here, Bob, you come help steer." So, while
Nick grasped the lever to hold the bus steady, Bob sat in the high seat
and turned the great goose head as Notta directed, now to the left and
now to the right, and in less than an hour, they were floating slowly
over a quaint blue city.
"We're still in the Munchkin country," rumbled the Cowardly Lion,
standing on his hind legs and looking over the side.
"Well, we'll just fly over this town and land in one of those fields,"
puffed Notta uneasily. He was not sure he wouldn't impale the
Flyaboutabus on a steeple, or run over some of the inhabitants, if
he attempted to land in the city itself. As it was they flew quite a
distance before he located all the buttons necessary to make a landing.
The Flyaboutabus came to earth with such a bounce that they all flew up
like rubber balls, while the bus continued to fly and bump around the
field until Notta ran after it and tied it to a tree.
"And now what?" asked Nick, carefully putting his troublesome nose on
its hook.
"Breakfast!" wheezed the Cowardly Lion, rolling out of a huge bramble
bush. "Aren't you hungry, Bob?"
Bob nodded. "But where are we going to get it?" he asked, looking
rather puzzled.
"One never knows in Oz, but if we look carefully, we'll be sure to find
something," answered the lion easily.
"Let's make it a game," suggested Notta, patting his figure in various
important places to see whether his disguises were still safe. "Now
then, all ready for a breakfast hunt. I'll take this field, Nick can
take the air and Bob and the Cowardly Lion may have the woods."
Bob smiled a little to himself. Hunting breakfast in the woods did
seem ridiculous but, as the Cowardly Lion went poking his head in
bushes and sniffing around trees in a businesslike manner, Bob began
to look too. There were plenty of flowers in the woods, and for a time
Bob found nothing else. At last pushing through a tangle of vines,
the little boy found himself standing under a stout little tree that
rattled curiously when the wind passed through its branches. There
was a sign on the tree. Standing on his toes Bob spelled it out
laboriously. Then he called Notta in excited little shrieks.
"What is it?" panted the clown, breaking through the vines with the
Cowardly Lion one leap behind him. "Are you hurt?"
"No," cried Bob, "but I've won!" He pointed gleefully to the tree.
"Travelers' Tree," read Notta, "planted by the Wizard Wam in the year
1120 O. Z. "
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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