Ozma of Oz Read Free

I was the only yellow chicken in the whole brood. When I grew up, and he found that I didn't crow and fight, as all the roosters do, he did not think to change my name, and every creature in the barn–yard, as well as the people in the house, knew me as "Bill." So Bill I've always been called, and Bill is my name."
    "But it's all wrong, you know," declared Dorothy, earnestly; "and, if you don't mind, I shall call you "Billina." Putting the "eena" on the end makes it a girl's name, you see."
    "Oh, I don't mind it in the least," returned the yellow hen. "It doesn't matter at all what you call me, so long as I know the name means ME."
    "Very well, Billina. MY name is Dorothy Gale—just Dorothy to my friends and Miss Gale to strangers. You may call me Dorothy, if you like. We're getting very near the shore. Do you suppose it is too deep for me to wade the rest of the way?"
    "Wait a few minutes longer. The sunshine is warm and pleasant, and we are in no hurry."
    "But my feet are all wet and soggy," said the girl. "My dress is dry enough, but I won't feel real comfor'ble till I get my feet dried."
    She waited, however, as the hen advised, and before long the big wooden coop grated gently on the sandy beach and the dangerous voyage was over.
    It did not take the castaways long to reach the shore, you may be sure. The yellow hen flew to the sands at once, but Dorothy had to climb over the high slats. Still, for a country girl, that was not much of a feat, and as soon as she was safe ashore Dorothy drew off her wet shoes and stockings and spread them upon the sun–warmed beach to dry.
    Then she sat down and watched Billina, who was pick–pecking away with her sharp bill in the sand and gravel, which she scratched up and turned over with her strong claws.
    "What are you doing?" asked Dorothy.
    "Getting my breakfast, of course," murmured the hen, busily pecking away.
    "What do you find?" inquired the girl, curiously.
    "Oh, some fat red ants, and some sand–bugs, and once in a while a tiny crab. They are very sweet and nice, I assure you."
    "How dreadful!" exclaimed Dorothy, in a shocked voice.
    "What is dreadful?" asked the hen, lifting her head to gaze with one bright eye at her companion.
    "Why, eating live things, and horrid bugs, and crawly ants. You ought to be 'SHAMED of yourself!"
    "Goodness me!" returned the hen, in a puzzled tone; "how queer you are, Dorothy! Live things are much fresher and more wholesome than dead ones, and you humans eat all sorts of dead creatures."
    "We don't!" said Dorothy.
    "You do, indeed," answered Billina. "You eat lambs and sheep and cows and pigs and even chickens."
    "But we cook 'em," said Dorothy, triumphantly.
    "What difference does that make?"
    "A good deal," said the girl, in a graver tone. "I can't just 'splain the diff'rence, but it's there. And, anyhow, we never eat such dreadful things as BUGS."
    "But you eat the chickens that eat the bugs," retorted the yellow hen, with an odd cackle. "So you are just as bad as we chickens are."
    This made Dorothy thoughtful. What Billina said was true enough, and it almost took away her appetite for breakfast. As for the yellow hen, she continued to peck away at the sand busily, and seemed quite contented with her bill–of–fare.
    Finally, down near the water's edge, Billina stuck her bill deep into the sand, and then drew back and shivered.
    "Ow!" she cried. "I struck metal, that time, and it nearly broke my beak."
    "It prob'bly was a rock," said Dorothy, carelessly.
    "Nonsense. I know a rock from metal, I guess," said the hen. "There's a different feel to it."
    "But there couldn't be any metal on this wild, deserted seashore," persisted the girl. "Where's the place? I'll dig it up, and prove to you I'm right."
    Billina showed her the place where she had "stubbed her bill," as she expressed it, and Dorothy dug away the sand until she felt something hard. Then, thrusting in her hand, she pulled the thing out, and discovered it to be a large sized