The Wonderful Wizard of Oz – 13 – The Rescue

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Chapter 13 – The Rescue

The cowardly lion was very happy to hear that the Wicked Witch had been melted by a bucket of water, and right away, Dorothy unlocked the gate of his prison and set him free. They went in the castle together. Dorothy’s first act was to call all the Winkies together and tell them that they were no longer slaves.

The yellow Winkies rejoiced, because they had been working hard for many years for the Wicked Witch, who had always treated them with cruelty. They made this day a holiday, and celebrated it every year after. It was a holiday for feasting and dancing.

“If only our friends, the scarecrow and the tin man, were with us,” said the lion, “I would be very happy.”

“Do you think we could rescue them?” asked the girl anxiously.

“We can try,” answered the lion.

So they called the yellow Winkies and asked them if they would help rescue their friends. The Winkies said that they would be delighted to do all in their power for Dorothy, who had set them free. So she chose some Winkies who looked smart, and they all started. They traveled that day and part of the next day until they came to the rocky field where the tin man lay, all battered and bent. His ax was near him, but the blade was rusted and the handle was broken off.

The Winkies lifted him tenderly in their arms and carried him back to the Yellow Castle again. Dorothy shed a few tears because of the sad plight of her old friend. The lion looked solemn and sorry. When they reached the castle, Dorothy said to the Winkies:

“Are any of your people tinsmiths?”

“Oh, yes. Some of us are very good tinsmiths,” they told her.

“Then bring them to me,” she said. And when the tinsmiths came, bringing all their tools in baskets, she asked, “Can you straighten out those dents in the tin man, and bend him back into shape again, and patch him together where he is broken?”

The tinsmiths looked at the tin man carefully. Then they said that they thought they could fix him to be as good as before. So they got to work in one of the big yellow rooms of the castle and worked for three days and four nights. They hammered and twisted and bent and polished and pounded at the tin man’s legs and body and head, until at last, he returned to his old shape and his joints worked as well as ever. Sure, there were a few patches on him, but the tinsmiths did a good job, and the tin man wasn’t vain.

When, at last, he walked into Dorothy’s room and thanked her, he was so happy that he wept tears of joy. Dorothy had to wipe every tear carefully from his face with her apron, so his joints wouldn’t rust. At the same time, her own tears fell thick at the joy of meeting her old friend again, and these tears did not need to be wiped away. As for the lion, he wiped his eyes so often with the tip of his tail that it became quite wet. He had to go out into the courtyard and hold it in the sun until it dried.

“If only we had the scarecrow with us again,” said the tin man after Dorothy had finished telling him everything, “I would be quite happy.”

“We must try to find him,” said the girl.

So she called the Winkies to help her, and they walked all that day and part of the next until they came to a tall tree. It was the tree in which the Winged Monkeys had tossed the scarecrow’s clothes.

It was a very tall tree, and the trunk was so smooth that no one could climb it. But the tin man said, “I’ll chop it down and then we can get the scarecrow’s clothes.”

While the tinsmiths had been fixing the tin man, another of the Winkies, who was a goldsmith, had made an ax handle of solid gold and fitted it to the tin man’s ax. Other Winkies polished the blade until all the rust was removed and it glistened.

As soon as he had spoken, the tin man began to chop. In a short time, the tree fell over with a crash, and the scarecrow’s clothes fell out of the branches and onto the ground.

Dorothy picked them up and had the Winkies carry them back to the castle, where they were stuffed with nice, clean straw. And behold! Here was the scarecrow, as good as ever, thanking them over and over again for saving him.

Now that they were reunited, Dorothy and her friends spend a few happy days at the Yellow Castle, where they had everything they needed to make them comfortable.

But one day, the girl thought of Aunt Em, and said, “We must go back to Oz, and claim his promise.”

“Yes,” said the tin man, “at last I will get my heart.”

“And I will get my brain,” added the scarecrow joyfully.

“And I will get my courage,” said the lion happily.

“And I will get back to Kansas,” cried Dorothy, clapping her hands. “Oh, let us depart for the Emerald City tomorrow!”

They decided on this plan. The next day, they called the Winkies together and said goodbye. The Winkies were sorry to see them go, and they had become so fond of the tin man that they begged him to say and rule over them and the Yellow Land of the West. Seeing that they were determined to go, the Winkies gave Toto and the lion each a golden collar. And to Dorothy, they presented a beautiful bracelet studded with diamonds. And to the scarecrow, they gave a gold headed walking stick, to keep him from stumbling. And to the tin man, they offered a silver oil can, decorated with gold and jewels.

Each of them gave a goodbye speech to the Winkies and shook hands with them until their arms ached. Dorothy went to the witch’s cupboard to fill her basket with food for the journey. There, she noticed the Golden Cap. She tried it on her own head and found that it fitted her exactly. She did not know anything about the magic of the Golden Cap, but she saw that it was pretty, so she decided to wear it instead of her sun bonnet. She put her pink sun bonnet in her basket.

Then, after they prepared for the journey, they started for the Emerald City. The Winkies gave them three cheers and many good wishes.