The Grand Chew Chew was the first to rise, and folding his arms, he asked solemnly: "What are your commands, Ancient and Honorable Scarecrowcus?" "If you'd just omit the Cus," begged the Scarecrow in an embarrassed voice, "I believe I could think better. Am I in China, or where? Are you Chinamen, or what?" "We are Silvermen," said the Grand Chew Chew impressively, "and a much older race than our Chinese cousins. They are people of the sun. We are people of the stars. Has your Highness so soon forgotten?" "I am afraid," said the Scarecrow, rubbing his chin reflectively, "that I have." He gazed slowly around the great throne room. Ozma's palace itself was not more dazzling. The floor of dull silver blocks was covered with rich blue rugs. Furniture, chairs, screens and everything were made of silver inlaid with precious stones. Filigreed silver lanterns hung from the high ceilings, and tall silver vases filled with pink and blue blossoms filled the rooms with their perfume. Blue flags embroidered with silver stars fluttered from the walls and the tips of the pikebearers' spears, and silver seemed to be so plentiful that even shoes were fashioned of it. Faintly through the windows came the sweet tones of a hundred silver chimes, and altogether the Scarecrow was quite dazed by his apparent good fortune. Surely they had called him Emperor, but how could that be? He turned to address the Grand Chew Chew; then as he saw out of the corner of his eye that the assemblage were making ready to fall upon their faces, he exclaimed in a hoarse whisper: "May I speak to you alone?" The Grand Chew Chew waved his hand imperiously, and the courtiers with a great crackling of silver brocade backed from the hall. "Very kind of them to bow, but I wish they wouldn't," sighed the Scarecrow, sinking back on the great throne. "It blows one about so. I declare, if another person falls at my feet, I'll have nervous prostration." Again he took a long survey of the hall, then turned to the Grand Chew Chew. "Would you mind," he asked simply, "telling me again who I am and how?" "Who and how? Who--You are, illustrious Sir, the Emperor Chang Wang Woe, or to be more exact, his spirit!" "I have always been a spirited person," observed the Scarecrow dubiously, "but never a spirit without a person. I must insist on being a person." "How?" the Grand Chew Chew proceeded without noticing the Scarecrow's remarks. "Fifty years ago--after your Extreme Highness had defeated in battle the King of the Golden Islands--a magician entered the realm. This magician, in the employ of this wicked king, entered a room in the palace where your Highness lay sleeping and by an act of necromancy changed you to a crocus!" "Ouch!" exclaimed the Scarecrow, shuddering involuntarily. "And had it not been for the Empress, your faithful wife, you would have been lost forever to the Empire." "Wife?" gasped the Scarecrow faintly. "Have I a wife?"