After considering the matter
carefully, Tip decided that the best place to locate Jack would be at
the bend in the road, a little way from the house. So he started to
carry his man there, but found him heavy and rather awkward to handle.
After dragging the creature a short distance Tip stood him on his feet,
and by first bending the joints of one leg, and then those of the other,
at the same time pushing from behind, the boy managed to induce Jack to
walk to the bend in the road. It was not accomplished without a few
tumbles, and Tip really worked harder than he ever had in the fields or
forest; but a love of mischief urged him on, and it pleased him to test
the cleverness of his workmanship.
"Jack's all right, and works
fine!" he said to himself, panting with the unusual exertion. But just
then he discovered the man's left arm had fallen off in the journey so
he went back to find it, and afterward, by whittling a new and stouter
pin for the shoulder-joint, he repaired the injury so successfully that
the arm was stronger than before. Tip also noticed that Jack's pumpkin
head had twisted around until it faced his back; but this was easily
remedied. When, at last, the man was set up facing the turn in the path
where old Mombi was to appear, he looked natural enough to be a fair
imitation of a Gillikin farmer, -- and unnatural enough to startle
anyone that came on him unawares.
|
As it was yet too early in
the day to expect the old woman to return home, Tip went down
into the valley below the farm-house and began to gather nuts
from the trees that grew there.
However, old Mombi
returned earlier than usual. She had met a crooked wizard who
resided in a lonely cave in the mountains, and had traded
several important secrets of magic with him. Having in this way
secured three new recipes, four magical powders and a selection
of herbs of wonderful power and potency, she hobbled home as
fast as she could, in order to test her new sorceries.
So intent was Mombi on the
treasures she had gained that when she turned the bend in the
road and caught a glimpse of the man, she merely nodded and
said:
"Good evening, sir."
But, a moment after,
noting that the person did not move or reply, she cast a shrewd
glance into his face and discovered his pumpkin head elaborately
carved by Tip's jack-knife.
"Heh!" ejaculated Mombi,
giving a sort of grunt; "that rascally boy has been playing
tricks again! Very good! ve -- ry good! I'll beat him
black-and-blue for trying to scare me in this fashion!"
Angrily she raised her
stick to smash in the grinning pumpkin head of the dummy; but a
sudden thought made her pause, the uplifted stick left
motionless in the air.
"Why, here is a good
chance to try my new powder!" said she, eagerly. "And then I can
tell whether that crooked wizard has fairly traded secrets, or
whether he has fooled me as wickedly as I fooled him."
So she set down her basket
and began fumbling in it for one of the precious powders she had
obtained.
While Mombi was thus
occupied Tip strolled back, with his pockets full of nuts, and
discovered the old woman standing beside his man and apparently
not the least bit frightened by it. |
|
At first he was generally
disappointed; but the next moment he became curious to know what Mombi was
going to do. So he hid behind a hedge, where he could see without being
seen, and prepared to watch.
After some search the woman drew from
her basket an old pepper-box, upon the faded label of which the wizard had
written with a lead-pencil:
"Powder of Life."
"Ah -- here it is!" she cried,
joyfully. "And now let us see if it is potent. The stingy wizard didn't give
me much of it, but I guess there's enough for two or three doses."
Tip was much surprised when he
overheard this speech. Then he saw old Mombi raise her arm and sprinkle the
powder from the box over the pumpkin head of his man Jack. She did this in
the same way one would pepper a baked potato, and the powder sifted down
from Jack's head and scattered over the red shirt and pink waistcoat and
purple trousers Tip had dressed him in, and a portion even fell upon the
patched and worn shoes.
Then, putting the pepper-box back into
the basket, Mombi lifted her left hand, with its little finger pointed
upward, and said:
"Weaugh!"
Then she lifted her right hand, with
the thumb pointed upward, and said:
"Teaugh!"
Then she lifted both hands, with all
the fingers and thumbs spread out, and cried:
"Peaugh!"
Jack Pumpkinhead stepped back a pace,
at this, and said in a reproachful voice:
"Don't yell like that! Do you think
I'm deaf?"
Old Mombi danced around him, frantic
with delight.
"He lives!" she screamed: "He lives!
he lives!"
Then she threw her stick into the air
and caught it as it came down; and she hugged herself with both arms, and
tried to do a step of a jig; and all the time she repeated, rapturously:
"He lives! -- he lives! -- he lives!"
Now you may well suppose that Tip
observed all this with amazement.
At first he was so frightened and
horrified that he wanted to run away, but his legs trembled and shook so
badly that he couldn't. Then it struck him as a very funny thing for Jack to
come to life, especially as the expression on his pumpkin face was so droll
and comical it excited laughter on the instant. So, recovering from his
first fear, Tip began to laugh; and the merry peals reached old Mombi's ears
and made her hobble quickly to the hedge, where she seized Tip's collar and
dragged him back to where she had left her basket and the pumpkinheaded man.
"You naughty, sneaking, wicked boy!"
she exclaimed, furiously:" I'll teach you to spy out my secrets and to make
fun of me!"
"I wasn't making fun of you,"
protested Tip. "I was laughing at old Pumpkinhead! Look at him! Isn't he a
picture, though?"
"I hope you are not reflecting on my
personal appearance," said Jack; and it was so funny to hear his grave
voice, while his face continued to wear its jolly smile, that Tip again
burst into a peal of laughter.
Even Mombi was not without a curious
interest in the man her magic had brought to life; for, after staring at him
intently, she presently asked:
"What do you know?"
"Well, that is hard to tell," replied
Jack. "For although I feel that I know a tremendous lot, I am not yet aware
how much there is in the world to find out about. It will take me a little
time to discover whether I am very wise or very foolish."
"To be sure," said Mombi,
thoughtfully.
"But what are you going to do with
him, now he is alive?" asked Tip, wondering.
"I must think it over," answered
Mombi. "But we must get home at once, for it is growing dark. Help the
Pumpkinhead to walk."
"Never mind me," said Jack; "I can
walk as well as you can. Haven't I got legs and feet, and aren't they
jointed?"
"Are they?" asked the woman, turning
to Tip.
"Of course they are; I made 'em
myself," returned the boy, with pride.
So they started for the house, but
when they reached the farm yard old Mombi led the pumpkin man to the cow
stable and shut him up in an empty stall, fastening the door securely on the
outside.
"I've got to attend to you, first,"
she said, nodding her head at Tip.
Hearing this, the boy became uneasy;
for he knew Mombi had a bad and revengeful heart, and would not hesitate to
do any evil thing.
They entered the house. It was a
round, domeshaped structure, as are nearly all the farm houses in the Land
of Oz.
Mombi bade the boy light a candle,
while she put her basket in a cupboard and hung her cloak on a peg. Tip
obeyed quickly, for he was afraid of her.
After the candle had been lighted
Mombi ordered him to build a fire in the hearth, and while Tip was thus
engaged the old woman ate her supper. When the flames began to crackle the
boy came to her and asked a share of the bread and cheese; but Mombi refused
him.
"I'm hungry!" said Tip, in a sulky
tone.
"You won't be hungry long," replied
Mombi, with a grim look.
The boy didn't like this speech, for
it sounded like a threat; but he happened to remember he had nuts in his
pocket, so he cracked some of those and ate them while the woman rose, shook
the crumbs from her apron, and hung above the fire a small black kettle.
Then she measured out equal parts of
milk and vinegar and poured them into the kettle. Next she produced several
packets of herbs and powders and began adding a portion of each to the
contents of the kettle. Occasionally she would draw near the candle and read
from a yellow paper the recipe of the mess she was concocting.
As Tip watched her his uneasiness
increased.
"What is that for?" he asked.
"For you," returned Mombi, briefly.
Tip wriggled around upon his stool and
stared awhile at the kettle, which was beginning to bubble. Then he would
glance at the stern and wrinkled features of the witch and wish he were any
place but in that dim and smoky kitchen, where even the shadows cast by the
candle upon the wall were enough to give one the horrors. So an hour passed
away, during which the silence was only broken by the bubbling of the pot
and the hissing of the flames.
Finally, Tip spoke again.
"Have I got to drink that stuff?" he
asked, nodding toward the pot.
"Yes," said Mombi.
"What'll it do to me?" asked Tip.
"If it's properly made," replied
Mombi, "it will change or transform you into a marble statue."
Tip groaned, and wiped the
perspiration from his forehead with his sleeve.
"I don't want to be a marble statue!"
he protested.
"That doesn't matter I want you to be
one," said the old woman, looking at him severely.
"What use'll I be then?" asked Tip.
"There won't be any one to work for you."
"I'll make the Pumpkinhead work for
me," said Mombi.
Again Tip groaned.
"Why don't you change me into a goat,
or a chicken?" he asked, anxiously. "You can't do anything with a marble
statue."
"Oh, yes, I can," returned Mombi. "I'm
going to plant a flower garden, next Spring, and I'll put you in the middle
of it, for an ornament. I wonder I haven't thought of that before; you've
been a bother to me for years."
At this terrible speech Tip felt the
beads of perspiration starting all over his body. but he sat still and
shivered and looked anxiously at the kettle.
"Perhaps it won't work," he mutttered,
in a voice that sounded weak and discouraged.
"Oh, I think it will," answered Mombi,
cheerfully. "I seldom make a mistake."
Again there was a period of silence a
silence so long and gloomy that when Mombi finally lifted the kettle from
the fire it was close to midnight.
"You cannot drink it until it has
become quite cold," announced the old witch for in spite of the law she had
acknowledged practising witchcraft. "We must both go to bed now, and at
daybreak I will call you and at once complete your transformation into a
marble statue."
With this she hobbled into her room,
bearing the steaming kettle with her, and Tip heard her close and lock the
door.
The boy did not go to bed, as he had
been commanded to do, but still sat glaring at the embers of the dying fire.
Next chapter...
( The Flight of the Fugitives )
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