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The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Chapter 17. How the Balloon Was Launched
For three days Dorothy heard nothing from Oz.
These were sad days for the little girl, although her friends were all quite happy and content.
The Scarecrow told them there were wonderful thoughts in his head.
But he wouldn't say what they were because he knew no one could understand them but himself.
When the Tin Woodman walked about he felt his heart rattling around in his breast.
He told Dorothy he had found his heart kinder and softer than when he was flesh.
The Lion said he was afraid of nothing on earth, and would gladly face an army or a dozen of the fierce Kalidahs.
Thus each of the little party was satisfied except Dorothy, who longed more than ever to get back to Kansas.
On the fourth day, to her great joy, Oz sent for her, and when she entered the Throne Room he greeted her kindly.
"Sit down, my dear. I think I have found the way to get you out of this country," he said.
"And back to Kansas?" she asked eagerly.
"Well, I'm not sure about Kansas," said Oz.
"For I haven't the faintest notion which way it lies."
"But the first thing to do is to cross the desert, and then it should be easy to find your way home."
"How can I cross the desert?" she asked.
"Well, I'll tell you what I think," said the little man.
"You see, when I came to this country it was in a balloon."
"You also came through the air, being carried by a cyclone."
"So I believe the best way to get across the desert will be through the air."
"Now, it's quite beyond my powers to make a cyclone, but I've been thinking the matter over,"
"And I believe I can make a balloon."
"How?" asked Dorothy.
"A balloon," said Oz.
"Is made of silk, which is coated with glue to keep the gas in it."
"I have plenty of silk in the Palace, so it'll be no trouble to make the balloon."
"But in all this country there's no gas to fill the balloon with, to make it float."
"If it won't float," remarked Dorothy, "it'll be of no use to us."
"True," answered Oz.
"But there's another way to make it float, which is to fill it with hot air."
"Hot air isn't as good as gas, for if the air should get cold the balloon would come down in the desert, and we should be lost."
"We!" exclaimed the girl.
"Are you going with me?"
"Yes, of course," said Oz.
"I'm tired of being such a humbug."
If I leave the Palace my people will soon learn I am not a Wizard and will be angry for tricking them.
"So I have to stay shut up in these rooms all day, and it gets tiresome."
"I'd much rather go back to Kansas with you and be in a circus again."
"I shall be glad to have your company," said Dorothy.
"Thank you," he said.
"Now, if you'll help me sew the silk together, we'll begin to work on our balloon."
Dorothy took a needle and thread, and as Oz cut the silk strips the girl sewed them together.
First there was a strip of light green silk.
Then a strip of dark green and a strip of emerald green, because Oz wanted the balloon in different shades.
It took three days to sew all the strips together.
When it was finished, they had a big bag of green silk more than twenty feet long.
Then Oz painted the inside with thin glue so it would hold air, and he said the balloon was ready.
"But we must have a basket to ride in," he said.
So he sent the soldier with the green whiskers to bring a clothes basket and fastened it to the balloon.
When it was ready, Oz told his people he would visit a great brother Wizard who lived in the clouds.
The news spread fast through the city and everyone came to see the wonderful sight.
Oz ordered the balloon carried out in front of the Palace, and the people looked at it with great wonder.
The Tin Woodman had chopped a big pile of wood.
Now he made a fire of it.
Oz held the balloon's bottom over the fire so the rising hot air filled the silk bag.
Slowly the balloon swelled out and rose into the air, until finally the basket just touched the ground.
Then Oz got into the basket and said to all the people in a loud voice,
"I'm now going away to make a visit."
"While I'm gone the Scarecrow will rule over you."
"I command you to obey him as you'd me."
The balloon was by this time pulling hard at the rope that held it to the ground.
The air inside the big silk bag was hot and made the balloon lift.
So it was much lighter than the air outside and pulled hard to rise into the sky.
"Come, Dorothy!" cried the Wizard.
"Hurry up, or the balloon will fly away."
"I can't find Toto anywhere," said Dorothy, who didn't want to leave her little dog behind.
Toto had run into the crowd to bark at a kitten, and Dorothy at last found him.
She picked him up and ran towards the balloon.
She was a few steps from it, and Oz was holding out his hands to help her into the basket.
Then, crack! went the ropes and the balloon rose into the air without her.
"Come back!" she screamed.
"I want to go, too!"
"I can't come back, my dear," called Oz from the basket.
"Good-bye!"
"Good-bye!" shouted everyone, and all eyes were turned up to where the Wizard was riding in the basket, rising every moment farther and farther into the sky.
And that was the last any of them ever saw of Oz, the Wonderful Wizard.
He may have reached Omaha safely and be there now, for all we know.
But the people remembered him kindly, and said to one another,
"Oz was always our friend."
"When he was here he built for us this beautiful Emerald City, and now he's gone he has left the Wise Scarecrow to rule over us."
Still, for many days they grieved over the loss of the Wonderful Wizard, and wouldn't be comforted.