"Mercy!" spluttered Dorothy, nearly choking on her coffee. "Do your ears tell you everything?" "Oh no, just odds and ends of things," answered Tora, reaching up to touch them affectionately. "Well, did they tell you about me?" inquired Humpy, straightening his crown importantly. "No," smiled the old man. "That's just what we're waiting to hear, though I declare I have seen you somewhere before. Have you ever seen me?" Humpy shook his head very positively and Dorothy, settling back against a tree, proceeded with her story. Introducing herself modestly and beginning with Wish Way, she related every single thing that had happened since her fall into California. Snip was especially interested in Dorothy's sudden change in size. "Is that what tore your dress?" he asked curiously. The little girl nodded and Tora, ruffling up his silver locks and looking first at Dorothy and then at Humpy, murmured over and over: "Well, I can hardly believe my ears, I can hardly believe my ears!" Dorothy could not help thinking that the tailor's ears were hard for anyone to believe, but feeling it would be rude to say so, went hurriedly on with her adventures, telling of her meeting with the Scooters and with the Elegant Elephant, whom she described at some length. "And now," concluded the little girl, finishing off the last of the toast, "we're going straight to the Emerald City. Where are _you_ going?" "Why we're going to the Emerald City too!" burst out Snip, "and maybe Dorothy can help us find Pajuka and warn Ozma!" "Warn Ozma?" cried Dorothy, jumping up in a hurry. "Why, what is the matter?" "Better tell her," advised the tailor gravely, while Humpy edged close to the little button boy and looked earnestly up into his face. "Well," began Snip, feeling a bit shy in the presence of a person as important as Princess Dorothy of Oz, "Mombi is trying to find the lost King of Oz and turn Ozma to a piano. Pajuka, he's a goose, I mean a Prime Minister, and he's trying to find the King too, and if we don't get to the Emerald City first that old witch will steal all the magic and capture everybody." "Why this is a regular thriller," puffed the dummy, pushing back his crown. "Witches, geese, lost kings and everything. Oh, I'm enjoying this picture immensely. Couldn't I fall for this lost king, Dorothy?" "I thought you were the King, yourself, at first," explained Snip, "but of course, if Dorothy found you in America, you couldn't possibly be the King of Oz. Besides, I don't believe Mombi would turn the King to a dummy, do you?" "Oh, anything can happen in the pictures," said Humpy carelessly.