"What's all the excitement?" demanded Scraps, dancing up on one toe. Then, seeing they were all staring down at the marble, she bent over and read the message aloud herself. "Go to-morrow to-day. It can never be done! Just to think of it gives me a pain in the bun." screamed the Patch Work Girl, clapping her hand to her cotton forehead. "Hush, Scraps!" begged Ozma. "This is serious!" "Someone is delirious, or they'd never write such nonsense," declared Scraps defiantly. "What are you going to do about it?" "Think!" mumbled the Scarecrow, dropping down on a gold garden bench. "Send for the Wizard!" advised Betsy Bobbin, jumping up and down in her excitement. "Wait! I'll get him!" "It's a goose quill," announced Sir Hokus, as Betsy ran off toward the palace. He had picked up the golden feather and was examining it carefully. "A goose quill?" gasped Ozma. "Why what can that mean? Oh dear, I do wish Dorothy were back." "My gooseness!" giggled Scraps. "No wonder it's a silly message. Do you know any geese?" "None but you!" sniffed Trot, putting her arms about Ozma. "Silence, wench!" commanded Sir Hokus, pushing Scraps aside and seating himself beside the Scarecrow. "Methinks dark deeds are brewing here. Hast thought of anything friend?" "Not yet," sighed the Scarecrow, rubbing his forehead sadly with his wobbly finger. "Let me think some more." All were silent until Betsy Bobbin came hurrying back, bringing with her the Wizard of Oz and Tik Tok. As everyone in Oz knows, Tik Tok is another great celebrity, a machine man of burnished copper who can talk, walk and even think when properly wound. Betsy was winding up his think key, as she ran along, for Tik Tok's brains, in spite of their wheels, worked quite as well as the Scarecrow's, and there certainly was a lot of thinking to be done. "You say it was a golden goose feather?" panted the little Wizard of Oz, quickening his steps. "A goose feather! Humph!" Next instant he was bending over the strange inscription on the walk, while Ozma and Trot breathlessly explained just how and when it had all happened. "To-morrow to-day!" murmured the Wizard, mopping his bald head with his green hanky. "Why that's impossible, there's some trick to it." The Wizard drew a small green book from his pocket. It was the book of magic messages and the little company waited anxiously while he flipped over the pages. But although every other kind of message was touched upon, there was nothing at all about goose feathers. With a sigh, the Wizard returned the book to his pocket, and dropping upon his knees began to examine the letters through his smallifying glass. Tik Tok, except for the chug and whirr of his machinery, had been perfectly quiet. Now, leaning over so far he nearly tumbled on his copper nose, he began to read the message aloud.