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Just then, as they rode along the pretty green lane toward
Fuddlecumjig, they espied a kangaroo sitting by the roadside. The
poor animal had its face covered with both its front paws and was
crying so bitterly that the tears coursed down its cheeks in two tiny
streams and trickled across the road, where they formed a pool in a
small hollow.
The Sawhorse stopped short at this pitiful sight, and Dorothy cried
out, with ready sympathy:
"What's the matter, Kangaroo?"
"Boo-hoo! Boo-hoo!" wailed the Kangaroo; "I've lost my mi--mi--mi--
Oh,
boo-hoo! Boo-hoo!"--
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"Poor thing," said the Wizard, "she's lost her mister. It's probably
her husband, and he's dead."
"No, no, no!" sobbed the kangaroo. "It--it isn't that. I've lost my
mi--mi--Oh, boo, boo-hoo!"
"I know," said the Shaggy Man; "she's lost her mirror."
"No; it's my mi--mi--mi--Boo-hoo! My mi--Oh, Boo-hoo!" and the
kangaroo cried harder than ever.
"It must be her mince-pie," suggested Aunt Em.
"Or her milk-toast," proposed Uncle Henry.
"I've lost my mi--mi--mittens!" said the kangaroo, getting it out at last.
"Oh!" cried the Yellow Hen, with a cackle of relief. "Why didn't you
say so before?"
"Boo-hoo! I--I--couldn't," answered the kangaroo.
"But, see here," said Dorothy, "you don't need mittens in this
warm weather."
"Yes, indeed I do," replied the animal, stopping her sobs and
removing
her paws from her face to look at the little girl reproachfully. "My
hands will get all sunburned and tanned without my mittens, and I've
worn them so long that I'll probably catch cold without them."
"Nonsense!" said Dorothy. "I never heard of any kangaroo
wearing mittens."
"Didn't you?" asked the animal, as if surprised.
"Never!" repeated the girl. "And you'll probably make yourself sick
if you don't stop crying. Where do you live?"
"About two miles beyond Fuddlecumjig," was the answer.
"Grandmother
Gnit made me the mittens, and she's one of the Fuddles."
"Well, you'd better go home now, and perhaps the old lady will make
you another pair," suggested Dorothy. "We're on our way to
Fuddlecumjig, and you may hop along beside us."
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So they rode on, and the kangaroo hopped beside the red wagon and
seemed quickly to have forgotten her loss. By and by the Wizard said
to the animal:
"Are the Fuddles nice people?"
"Oh, very nice," answered the kangaroo; "that is, when they're
properly put together. But they get dreadfully scattered and mixed
up, at times, and then you can't do anything with them."
"What do you mean by their getting scattered?" inquired Dorothy.
"Why, they're made in a good many small pieces," explained the
kangaroo; "and whenever any stranger comes near them they have a
habit of falling apart and scattering themselves around. That's when
they get so dreadfully mixed, and it's a hard puzzle to put them
together again."
"Who usually puts them together?" asked Omby Amby.
"Any one who is able to match the pieces. I sometimes put
Grandmother
Gnit together myself, because I know her so well I can tell every
piece that belongs to her. Then, when she's all matched, she knits
for me, and that's how she made my mittens. But it took a good many
days hard knitting, and I had to put Grandmother together a good
many
times, because every time I came near, she'd scatter herself."
"I should think she would get used to your coming, and not be afraid,"
said Dorothy.
"It isn't that," replied the kangaroo. "They're not a bit afraid,
when they're put together, and usually they're very jolly and pleasant.
It's just a habit they have, to scatter themselves, and if they didn't
do it they wouldn't be Fuddles."
The travelers thought upon this quite seriously for a time, while the
Sawhorse continued to carry them rapidly forward. Then Aunt Em
remarked:
"I don't see much use our visitin' these Fuddles. If we find
them scattered, all we can do is to sweep 'em up, and then go
about our business."
"Oh, I b'lieve we'd better go on," replied Dorothy. "I'm getting
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hungry, and we must try to get some luncheon at Fuddlecumjig.
Perhaps
the food won't be scattered as badly as the people."
"You'll find plenty to eat there," declared the kangaroo, hopping
along in big bounds because the Sawhorse was going so fast; "and
they
have a fine cook, too, if you can manage to put him together. There's
the town now--just ahead of us!"
They looked ahead and saw a group of very pretty houses standing in
a
green field a little apart from the main road.
"Some Munchkins came here a few days ago and matched a lot of
people
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