Adventure and adventurers -- Juvenile fiction; Fantasy fiction; Oz (Imaginary place) -- Juvenile fiction
Betsy looked, and shuddered a little as she did so. She was about to
tell the Queen that she had no desire to be a cash girl, when Fi Nance
haughtily held up her hand for silence. "The lad shall be an office
boy," she decided imperiously. "Who did you say he was?"
"A Prince," growled the Hungry Tiger.
"A dry goods store will be the best place for him," murmured Dad. "What
can you two do?" he demanded, looking over his specs at the barber and
sad singer of Rash.
"Anything! Anything!" whined the frightened prisoners, bumping their
heads together in their anxiety to please.
"Pooh!" sniffed Dad scornfully. "That means nothing whatsoever."
"Shampoo?" suggested the barber hopefully. "Let me give your Highness a
little shave and hair cut."
"Are you a barber?" asked Dad, looking at the Rasher with more
interest. "If you're a barber, you can stay and welcome. There's always
room for another barber, Down Town."
"Thank you! Thank you! If your majesty will permit--" The barber bowed
apologetically to the Prince of Rash, "I will remain here. I have
always wanted to make money," he acknowledged frankly.
"Me too!" gulped the sad singer eagerly.
"I've sung until I'm hoarse, in Rash,
And never earned a cent in cash!"
"He has a voice like a horse," whispered Dad, in a loud aside to the
Queen.
"He sings like a jack-ass!" agreed Her Majesty readily. "But let him
stay. Any kind of a noise goes, Down Town. Now as to these others?" She
rolled her golden eyes in perplexity and disapproval at the Vegetable
Man and the Hungry Tiger; then evidently giving them up, cried in a
loud voice, "The audience is over and the prisoners are discharged. Let
them make some money, pay up and settle down."
"Well, good-bye!" smiled Dad, picking up his paper with a sigh of
relief. "If you don't like the positions we have chosen for you, go
down to the square and choose some others. Take them to the public
square!" he ordered, waving at the officers.
So, much to Betsy's and the little Prince's amusement, they were all
hurried into the elevator, out of the bank and marched along the
streets of the city. A curious sign on the first corner puzzled Betsy
very much.
"Down Town belongs to the Daddies," said the sign severely, "No aunts,
mothers or sisters allowed."
"Why, anybody can go down town at home," exclaimed the little girl in
surprise.
"I noticed there were no ladies about," observed Carter in an amused
voice. "The Daddies have it all their own way here."
As they passed along, Betsy looked curiously in the windows of the
shops and offices and saw that everywhere the Dads were making money.
Some were making money out of leather, some were making money out of
oil and some were even making money out of old papers and rags. It
looked quite simple.
"But there must be some trick to it," she whispered hurriedly to the
Prince of Rash. "I hope we don't have to stay here long. I won't be a
cash girl."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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