Dorothy and the wizard in oz

eing rose colored, one violet, one yellow, one blue and one orange. This splendid group of colored suns sent rays darting in every direction, and as the horse and buggywith Dorothy and Zebsank steadily downward and came nearer to the lights, the rays began to take on all the delicate tintings of a rainbow, growing more and more distinct every moment until all the space was brilliantly illuminated.
Dorothy was too dazed to say much, but she watched one of Jim`s big ears turn to violet and the other to rose, and wondered that his tail should be yellow and his body striped with blue and orange like the stripes of a zebra. Then she looked at Zeb, whose face was blue and whose hair was pink, and gave a little laugh that sounded a bit nervous.
“Isn`t it funny?” she said.
The boy was startled and his eyes were big. Dorothy had a green streak through the center of her face where the blue and yellow lights came together, and her appearance seemed to add to his fright.
“II don`t s-s-see any-thing funny`bout it!” he stammered.
Just then the buggy tipped slowly over upon its side, the body of the horse tipping also. But they continued to fall, all together, and the boy and girl had no difficulty in remaining upon the seat, just as they were before. Then they turned bottom side up, and continued to roll slowly over until they were right side up again. During this time Jim struggled frantically, all his legs kicking the air; but on finding himself in his former position the horse said, in a relieved tone of voice:
“Well, that`s better!”
Dorothy and Zeb looked at one another in wonder.
“Can your horse talk?” she asked.
“Never knew him to, before,” replied the boy.
“Those were the first words I ever said,” called out the horse, who had overheard them, “and I can`t explain why I happened to speak then. This is a nice scrape you`ve got me into, isn`t it?”
“As for that, we are in the same scrape ourselves,” answered Dorothy, cheerfully. “But never mind; something will happen pretty soon.”
“Of course,” growled the horse, “and then we shall be sorry it happened.”
Zeb gave a shiver. All this was so terrible and unreal that he could not understand it at all, and so had good reason to be afraid.
Swiftly they drew near to the flaming colored suns, and passed close beside them. The light was then so bright that it dazzled their eyes, and they covered their faces with their hands to escape being blinded. There was no heat in the colored suns, however, and after they had passed below them the top of the buggy shut out many of the piercing rays so that the boy and girl could open their eyes again.
“We`ve got to come to the bottom some time,” remarked Zeb, with a deep sigh. “We can`t keep falling forever, you know.”
“Of course not,” said Dorothy. “We are somewhere in the middle of the earth, and the chances are we`ll reach the other side of it before long. But it`s a big hollow, isn`t it?”
“Awful big!” answered the boy.
“We`re coming to something now,” announced the horse.
At this they both put their heads over the side of the buggy and looked down. Yes; there was land below them; and not so very far away, either. But they were floating very, very slowlyso slowly that it could no longer be called a falland the children had ample time to take heart and look about them.
They saw a landscape with mountains and plains, lakes and rivers, very like those upon the earth`s surface; but all the scene was splendidly colored by the variegated lights from the six suns. Here and there were groups of houses that seemed made of clear glass, because they sparkled so brightly.
“I`m sure we are in no danger,” said Dorothy, in a sober voice. “We are falling so slowly that we can`t be dashed to pieces when we land, and this country that we are coming to seems quite pretty.”
“We`ll never get home again, though!” declared Zeb, with a groan.
“Oh, I`m not so sure of that,” replied the girl. “But don`t let us worry over such things, Zeb; we can`t help ourselves just now, you know, and I`ve always been told it`s foolish to borrow trouble.”
The boy became silent, having no reply to so sensible a speech, and soon both were fully occupied in staring at the strange scenes spread out below them. They seemed to be falling right into the middle of a big city which had many tall buildings with glass domes and sharp-pointed spires. These spires were like great spear-points, and if they tumbled upon one of them they were likely to suffer serious injury.
Jim the horse had seen these spires, also, and his ears stood straight up with fear, while Dorothy and Zeb held their breaths in suspense. But no; they floated gently down upon a broad, flat roof, and came to a stop at last.
When Jim felt something firm under his feet the poor beast`s legs trembled so much that he could hardly stand; but Zeb at once leaped out of the buggy to the roof, and he was so awkward and hasty that he kicked over Dorothy`s bird-cage, which rolled out upon the roof so that the bottom came off. At once a pink kitten crept out of the upset cage, sat down upon the glass roof, and yawned and blinked its round eyes.
“Oh,” said Dorothy. “There`s Eureka.”
“First time I ever saw a pink cat,” said Zeb.
“Eureka isn`t pink; she`s white. It`s this strange light that gives her that color.”
“Where`s my milk?” asked the kitten, looking up into Dorothy`s face. “I`m `most starved to death.”
“Oh, Eureka! Can you talk?”
“Talk! Am I talking? Good gracious, I believe I am. Isn`t it funny?” asked the kitten.
“It`s all wrong,” said Zeb, gravely. “Animals ought not to talk. But even old Jim has been saying things since we had our accident.”
“I can`t see that it`s wrong,” remarked Jim, in his gruff tones. “At least, it isn`t as wrong as some other things. What`s going to become of us now?”
“I don`t know,” answered the boy, looking around him curiously.
The houses of the city were all made of glass, so clear and transparent that one could look through the walls as easily as through a window. Dorothy saw, underneath the roof on which she stood, several rooms used for rest chambers, and even thought she could make out a number of strange forms huddled into the corners of these rooms.
The roof beside them had a great hole smashed through it, and pieces of glass were lying scattered in every direction. A nearby steeple had been broken off short and the fragments lay heaped beside it. Other buildings were cracked in places or had corners chipped off from them; but they must have been very beautiful before these accidents had happened to mar their perfection. The rainbow tints from the colored suns fell upon the glass city softly and gave to the buildings many delicate, shifting hues which were very pretty to see.
But not a sound had broken the stillness since the strangers had arrived, except that of their own voices. They began to wonder if there were no people to inhabit this magnificent city of the inner world.
Suddenly a man appeared through a hole in the roof next to the one they were on and stepped into plain view. He was not a very large man, but was well formed and had a beautiful facecalm and serene as the face of a fine portrait. His clothing fitted his form snugly and was gorgeously colored in brilliant shades of green, which varied as the sunbeams touched them but was not wholly influenced by the solar rays.
The man had taken a step or two across the glass roof before he noticed the presence of the strangers; but then he stopped abruptly. There was no expression of either fear or surprise upon his tranquil face, yet he must have been both astonished and afraid; for after his eyes had rested upon the ungainly form of the horse for a moment he walked rapidly to the furthest edge of the roof, his head turned back over his shoulder to gaze at the strange animal.
“Look out!” cried Dorothy, who noticed that the beautiful man did not look where he was going; “be careful, or you`ll fall off!”
But he paid no attention to her warning. He reached the edge of the tall roof, stepped one foot out into the air, and walked into space as calmly as if he were on firm ground.
The girl, greatly astonished, ran to lean over the edge of the roof, and saw the man walking rapidly through the air toward the ground. Soon he reached the street and disappeared through a glass doorway into one of the glass buildings.
“How strange!” she exclaimed, drawing a long breath.
“Yes; but it`s lots of fun, if it IS strange,” remarked the small voice of the kitten, and Dorothy turned to find her pet walking in the air a foot or so away from the edge of the roof.
“Come back, Eureka!” she called, in distress, “you`ll certainly be killed.”
“I have nine lives,” said the kitten, purring softly as it walked around in a circle and then came back to the roof; “but I can`t lose even one of them by falling in this country, because I really couldn`t manage to fall if I wanted to.”
“Does the air bear up your weight?” asked the girl.
“Of course; can`t you see?” and again the kitten wandered into the air and back to the edge of the roof.
“It`s wonderful!” said Dorothy.
“Suppose we let Eureka go down to the street and get some one to help us,” suggested Zeb, who had been even more amazed than Dorothy at these strange happenings.
“Perhaps we can walk on the air ourselves,” replied the girl.
Zeb drew back with a shiver.
“I wouldn`t dare try,” he said.
“Maybe Jim will go,” continued Dorothy, looking at the horse.
“And maybe he won`t!” answered Jim. “I`ve tumbled through the air long enough to make me contented on this roof.”
“But we didn`t tumble to the roof,” said the girl; “by the time we reached here we were floating very slowly, and I`m almost sure we could float down to the street without getting hurt. Eureka walks on the air all right.”
“Eureka weighs only about half a pound,” replied the horse, in a scornful tone, “while I weigh about half a ton.”
“You don`t weigh as much as you ought to, Jim,” remarked the girl,…