"So there you are!" Pinny Penny straightened up with a little grimace, for he had been planting flowers in a new rock garden he was planning for the King. With an expression about equally compounded of exasperation and affection, he looked at his former Master and the white horse who had, without sound or warning, dropped down in the path before him. "I thought you'd come back," continued Pinny Penny, calmly rubbing the mud from his fingers and putting out his hand. "So it was your horse, after all." His gaze rested speculatively on the splendid white steed and richly jeweled robes of Skamperoo. "And you've made your fortune, I see! Well, welcome home anyway, your crown's hanging on a nail back of the throne and I think you will find everything in order." "In order! Why, it looks wonderful!" shouted Skamperoo, leaping exuberantly out of the saddle, and honestly surprised and pleased at the pleasure he felt in seeing old Pinny Penny again. "You've had the palace painted and this garden and that fountain and the flowers. They're all new, aren't they?" "Yes," agreed Pinny Penny guardedly. "I made a few new laws while you were gone, Skamper, making the tax only one-twentieth of our subjects' earnings. They were so grateful and delighted, they've been sending you presents ever since. Then the guards (having no drill or marching to bother them, I did away with THAT, too), the guards in their odd time agreed to work around the castle and we've been brightening up the old place quite a bit. I tell you," Pinny Penny exhaled his breath noisily, "we'll make a going and coming country of this yet!" "Of course we will," said Skamperoo, bouncing happily along at his side. "I've had a lot of experience since I saw you, old Skinny Pins. Ho, Pinny, my boy, I've been an Emperor in Oz!" "OZ? Never!" Closing his lips into a thin line, Pinny Penny looked from his Master to Chalk, who was stepping sedately along on his other side. "But it's perfectly true," whinnied the white horse, prancing a bit from sheer enjoyment, "and now we are home with five splendid wishes." "Wishes?" sniffed Pinny Penny, rearing his head suspiciously. "What good are wishes?" "But these wishes really work and come true," explained Chalk with a toss of his head, "and what's more they are going to work and come true for Skampavia!" "Any wish you work hard enough for will come true," insisted Pinny Penny stubbornly. "Wishes--POOH! Wishes--POOH! 'If wishes were horses, beggars would ride!'" finished the little Prime Minister half under his breath. "But don't you see?" Skamperoo grasped Pinny Penny firmly by the shoulders. "This is one time when wishes WERE horses and beggars DID ride. My first wish was for a horse and here he is, and as true as you are and as wise and clever. Why, even if the magic emeralds give me nothing more, I am still the luckiest fellow on this side of the Deadly Desert!"