"What rubbish?" asked the child, who was now finishing her
nuts and raisins.

"Why, your impossible stories about animals that can talk, and a tin
woodman who is alive, and a scarecrow who can think."

"They are all there," said Dorothy, "for I have seen them."

"I don't believe it!" cried the hen, with a toss of her head.

"That's 'cause you're so ign'rant," replied the girl, who was a little
offended at her friend Billina's speech.

"In the Land of Oz," remarked Tiktok, turning toward them, "an-y-thing
is pos-si-ble. For it is a won-der-ful fair-y coun-try."

"There, Billina! what did I say?" cried Dorothy. And then she turned
to the machine and asked in an eager tone: "Do you know the Land of
Oz, Tiktok?"

"No; but I have heard a-bout it," said the cop-per man. "For it is
on-ly sep-a-ra-ted from this Land of Ev by a broad des-ert."

Dorothy clapped her hands together delightedly.

"I'm glad of that!" she exclaimed. "It makes me quite happy to be so
near my old friends. The scarecrow I told you of, Billina, is the
King of the Land of Oz."