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The Prince had been staring hard at the girl on the bush. Now he
answered, with a touch of uneasiness in his cold tones:
"She is the Ruler destined to be my successor, for she is a Royal
Princess. When she becomes fully ripe I must abandon the sovereignty of
the Mangaboos to her."
"Isn't she ripe now?" asked Dorothy.
He hesitated.
"Not quite," said he, finally. "It will be several days before she needs
to be picked, or at least that is my judgment. I am in no hurry to
resign my office and be planted, you may be sure."
"Probably not," declared the Wizard, nodding.
"This is one of the most unpleasant things about our vegetable lives,"
continued the Prince, with a sigh, "that while we are in our full prime
we must give way to another, and be covered up in the ground to sprout
and grow and give birth to other people."
"I'm sure the Princess is ready to be picked," asserted Dorothy, gazing
hard at the beautiful girl on the bush. "She's as perfect as she can
be."
"Never mind," answered the Prince, hastily, "she will be all right for a
few days longer, and it is best for me to rule until I can dispose of
you strangers, who have come to our land uninvited and must be attended
to at once."
"What are you going to do with us?" asked Zeb.
"That is a matter I have not quite decided upon," was the reply. "I
think I shall keep this Wizard until a new Sorcerer is ready to pick,
for he seems quite skillful and may be of use to us. But the rest of you
must be destroyed in some way, and you cannot be planted, because I do
not wish horses and cats and meat people growing all over our country."
"You needn't worry," said Dorothy. "We wouldn't grow under ground, I'm
sure."
"But why destroy my friends?" asked the little Wizard. "Why not let them
live?"
"They do not belong here," returned the Prince. "They have no right to
be inside the earth at all."
"We didn't ask to come down here; we fell," said Dorothy.
"That is no excuse," declared the Prince, coldly.
The children looked at each other in perplexity, and the Wizard sighed.
Eureka rubbed her paw on her face and said in her soft, purring voice:
"He won't need to destroy _me_, for if I don't get something to eat
pretty soon I shall starve to death, and so save him the trouble."
"If he planted you, he might grow some cat-tails," suggested the Wizard.
"Oh, Eureka! perhaps we can find you some milk-weeds to eat," said the
boy.
"Phoo!" snarled the kitten; "I wouldn't touch the nasty things!"
"You don't need milk, Eureka," remarked Dorothy; "you are big enough now
to eat any kind of food."
"If I can get it," added Eureka.
"I'm hungry myself," said Zeb. "But I noticed some strawberries growing
in one of the gardens, and some melons in another place. These people
don't eat such things, so perhaps on our way back they will let us get
them."
"Never mind your hunger," interrupted the Prince. "I shall order you
destroyed in a few minutes, so you will have no need to ruin our pretty
melon vines and berry bushes. Follow me, please, to meet your doom."
CHAPTER 5.
DOROTHY PICKS THE PRINCESS
The words of the cold and moist vegetable Prince were not very
comforting, and as he spoke them he turned away and left the enclosure.
The children, feeling sad and despondent, were about to follow him when
the Wizard touched Dorothy softly on her shoulder.
"Wait!" he whispered.
"What for?" asked the girl.
"Suppose we pick the Royal Princess," said the Wizard. "I'm quite sure
she's ripe, and as soon as she comes to life she will be the Ruler, and
may treat us better than that heartless Prince intends to."