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The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Chapter 5. The Rescue of the Tin Woodman
When Dorothy woke the sun was shining through the trees and Toto had long been out chasing birds and squirrels.
She sat up and looked around her.
There was the Scarecrow, still standing in his corner, waiting for her.
"We must go and look for water," she said to him.
"Why do you want water?" he asked.
"To wash my face clean after the dust of the road, and to drink, so the dry bread won't stick in my throat."
"It must be hard to be made of flesh," said the Scarecrow slowly.
"For you must sleep and eat and drink. However, you have brains, and it's worth a lot of trouble to be able to think."
They left the cottage, walked through trees until they found a small clear spring where Dorothy drank, washed, ate.
She saw there wasn't much bread left in the basket.
The girl was glad the Scarecrow didn't have to eat anything, for there was hardly enough for herself and Toto for the day.
When she finished her meal and was going back to the yellow brick road, she heard a deep groan nearby.
"What was that?" she asked with fear.
"I can't tell," said the Scarecrow, "but we can go and see."
Just then another groan reached their ears, and the sound seemed to come from behind them.
They turned and walked a few steps when Dorothy saw something shining in a sunray between the trees.
She ran to the place and then stopped short, with a little cry of surprise.
One large tree had been partly cut, and beside it stood a man made all of tin with an axe.
His head and arms and legs were joined to his body.
But he stood perfectly still, as if he couldn't move at all.
Dorothy looked surprised at him, the Scarecrow did too, and Toto barked and bit the tin legs, hurting his teeth.
"Did you groan?" asked Dorothy.
"Yes," said the Tin Woodman.
"I did. I've been groaning for more than a year, and no one has heard me before or come to help me."
"What can I do for you?" she asked softly, for she felt sad to hear the man's voice.
"Get an oil-can and oil my joints," he said.
"They're rusted so that I can't move them at all."
"If I'm well oiled I'll soon be all right again."
"You'll find an oil-can on a shelf in my cottage."
Dorothy at once ran back to the cottage and found the oil-can, and then she came back and asked worried, "Where are your joints?"
"Oil my neck, first," said the Tin Woodman.
She oiled it, for it was badly rusted.
The Scarecrow moved the tin head side to side until it worked, and the man could turn it.
"Now oil the joints in my arms," he said.
And Dorothy oiled them and the Scarecrow bent them carefully until they were free from rust and as good as new.
The Tin Woodman gave a sigh of joy and lowered his axe, which he leaned against the tree.
"This is a great comfort," he said.
"I have been holding that axe in the air since I rusted, and I'm glad to put it down at last."
"Now, if you'll oil the joints of my legs, I'll be all right again."
So they oiled his legs until he could move them freely.
And he thanked them again and again for his release, for he seemed a very polite person and very thankful.
"I might have stood there always if you hadn't come along,"
He said, "so you have really saved my life. How did you come to be here?".
"We're on our way to the Emerald City to see the Great Oz,"
She answered, "and we stopped at your cottage to pass the night.".
"Why do you want to see Oz?" he asked.
"I want him to send me back to Kansas, and the Scarecrow wants him to put a few brains into his head," she answered.
The Tin Woodman thought for a moment, then he said,
"Do you think Oz could give me a heart?"
"Why, I guess so," Dorothy answered.
"It would be as easy as giving the Scarecrow brains."
"True," the Tin Woodman said.
"So, if you'll let me join your party, I'll go to the Emerald City and ask Oz to help me."
"Come along," said the Scarecrow happily, and Dorothy said she'd be glad to have him with them.
So the Tin Woodman put his axe on his shoulder.
They all passed through the forest until they came to the yellow brick road.
The Tin Woodman had asked Dorothy to put the oil-can in her basket.
"For," he said, "if I should get caught in the rain and rust again, I'd need the oil-can badly."
It was good luck to have their new friend join the party.
Soon after they began to walk again, they came to a place where the trees and branches grew very thick.
The road was covered and the travelers could not pass.
But the Tin Woodman took his axe and chopped so well that soon he cleared a way for the whole party.
Dorothy was thinking so hard as they walked.
She didn't see when the Scarecrow stumbled into a hole and fell to the side of the road.
Indeed he had to call to her to help him up again.
"Why didn't you walk around the hole?" asked the Tin Woodman.
"I don't know enough," said the Scarecrow cheerfully.
"My head is stuffed with straw, you know, and that's why I'm going to Oz to ask him for some brains."
"Oh, I see," said the Tin Woodman.
"But, after all, brains aren't the best things in the world."
"Have you any?" asked the Scarecrow.
"No, my head is quite empty," said the Woodman.
"But once I had brains, and a heart too, so, having tried them both, I'd much rather have a heart."
"And why is that?" asked the Scarecrow.
"I'll tell you my story, and then you'll know."
So, while they were walking through the forest, the Tin Woodman told the following story,
"I was born the son of a woodman who cut down trees in the forest and sold the wood to live".
When I grew up I became a wood-chopper and, after my father died, I cared for my mother.
Then I decided that instead of living alone I'd marry, so that I wouldn't be lonely.
"There was one Munchkin girl who was so beautiful that I soon loved her with all my heart".
She, on her part, promised to marry me as soon as I could earn enough money to build a better house for her.
So I worked harder than ever.
But the girl lived with an old woman who did not want her to marry anyone.
The old woman was lazy and wanted the girl to stay and do the cooking and housework.
The woman went to the Wicked Witch of the East and promised two sheep and a cow to stop it.
Then the Wicked Witch used magic on my axe.
One day I was chopping hard because I wanted the new house and my wife as soon as possible.
The axe slipped and cut off my left leg.
"At first this seemed a great misfortune, for a one-legged man couldn't do very well as a wood-chopper".
So I went to a man who made things of tin and had him make me a new leg out of tin.
The leg worked well once I was used to it.
But the Wicked Witch of the East was angry, for she had promised the old woman I must not marry.
When I began chopping again, my axe slipped and cut off my right leg.
Again I went to the man who made tin things, and he made me a leg of tin.
After this the magic axe cut off my arms, one after the other, but, nothing stopped me, I had them made of tin.
The Wicked Witch made the axe slip and cut off my head. At first I thought it was my end.
But the tin man happened to come by, and he made me a new head of tin.
"I thought I had beaten the Wicked Witch then, and I worked harder than ever, but I didn't know how cruel my enemy could be".
She thought of a new way to kill my love for the beautiful Munchkin girl.
Then she made my axe slip and it cut right through my body, splitting me in two.
Once more the man who made tin things came to my help and made me a body of tin.
He fastened my tin arms and legs and head to it by joints so that I could move around as well as before.
But, alas, I had now no heart.
So I lost all my love for the Munchkin girl, and didn't care whether I married her or not.
I think she's still living with the old woman, waiting for me to come.
"My body shone so brightly in the sun that I felt proud of it,"
"It didn't matter now if my axe slipped, for it couldn't cut me."
"There was only one danger, that my joints would rust,"
"But I kept an oil-can in my cottage and oiled myself when I needed it."
"However, there came a day when I forgot."
"I was caught in a rainstorm, and before I thought of the danger my joints had rusted."
"I was left to stand in the woods until you came to help me."
"It was a terrible thing to be left like that."
"While I stood there that year I had time to think my greatest loss was my heart."
"When I was in love I was the happiest man on earth."
"But no one can love who has no heart, so I have decided to ask Oz to give me one."
"If he does, I'll go back to the Munchkin maiden and marry her."
Both Dorothy and the Scarecrow were very interested in the Tin Woodman's story.
Now they knew why he wanted a new heart so much.
"All the same," said the Scarecrow.
"I'll ask for brains instead of a heart, for a fool wouldn't know what to do with a heart if he had one."
"I'll take the heart," said the Tin Woodman, "for brains don't make one happy, and happiness is the best thing in the world."
Dorothy didn't say anything, for she wasn't sure which of her two friends was right.
She decided that if she could only get back to Kansas and Aunt Em, it wouldn't matter so much.
She didn't care whether the Woodman had no brains and the Scarecrow had no heart, or whether each got what he wanted.
What worried her most was that the bread was nearly gone, and another meal for herself and Toto would empty the basket.
It's true, neither the Woodman nor the Scarecrow ever ate anything.
But she wasn't made of tin or straw, and couldn't live unless she was fed.