"
"What is queer about it?" asked Scraps.
"You, for instance," said he.
"Did you see no girls as beautiful as I am in
your own country?" she inquired.
"None with the same gorgeous, variegated
beauty," he confessed. "In America a girl stuffed
with cotton wouldn't be alive, nor would anyone
think of making a girl out of a patchwork quilt."
"What a queer country America must be!" she
exclaimed in great surprise. "The Scarecrow, whom
you say is wise, told me I am the most beautiful
creature he has ever seen."
"I know; and perhaps you are--from a scarecrow
point of view," replied the Shaggy Man; but why he
smiled as he said it Scraps could not imagine.
As they drew nearer to the Emerald City the
travelers were filled with admiration for the
splendid scenery they beheld. Handsome houses
stood on both sides of the road and each had a
green lawn before it as well as a pretty flower
garden.
"In another hour," said the Shaggy Man, "we
shall come in sight of the walls of the Royal
City."
He was walking ahead, with Scraps, and behind
them came the Woozy and the Glass Cat. Ojo had
lagged behind, for in spite of the warnings he
had received the boy's eyes were fastened on the
clover that bordered the road of yellow bricks and
he was eager to discover if such a thing as a
six-leaved clover really existed.
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