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Humpy was the first to reach the throne. "Glad you got the job," grinned the dummy cheerfully.
"But let me be your double, old fellow. I'll fall or die for you any time." Making his word good at once,
Humpy tripped over the King's foot and fell flat upon his nose.
"Why he is your double," gasped Dorothy eagerly. "The very image of you."
"King, King, double King,
never get him back again!"
screamed the Patch Work Girl, and from then on the uproar was tremendous. The courtiers and
servants, back from the long day's search, came crowding into the throne room, and when they heard the
whole story from the Soldier with the Green Whiskers they added their voices to the general clamor.
"Why the names should have told us," whispered Dorothy to Snip, whom she had dragged into
a corner for the confidence. "Tora the tailor and Pastoria, the King. How did we ever miss it?"
Snip shook his head and looked over contentedly at his two best friends. It seemed as if Ozma
and her father would never stop hugging one another but at last, with his little daughter on his right and
faithful Pajuka on his left, with Humpy standing importantly behind him and Snip in his lap, the King sat
down upon his throne and insisted upon hearing all that had happened during his weary exil -- for the
years he had been in Blankenburg had been blank indeed.
Taking turns, Dorothy, Trot and Ozma did their best to satisfy him. Then Pastoria, himself, told
how Lurline, Queen of the Fairy Band, had come to his shop, tried to disenchant him and when she found
Mombi's magic too strong for her, had bestowed upon him his remarkable flying ears.
"I'm going to miss those ears," sighed the King, touching his tight-on ones regretfully, "but it's
fine to be back just the same and to find my own dear little girl again!"
"There are still two things I don't understand," mused Dorothy, as Pastoria finished speaking.
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"Why did I change size in California, and how was it you could not get away from Blankenburg till Snip
helped you?"
"Both very easy to account for," explained the Wizard of Oz, who was glad to have some part
in clearing up the mysteries. "If you had lived in America as long as you have lived in Oz, you would be
quite a young lady by now, so of course, when you reached California, you resumed your proper age.
"Then I'm never going back," decided Dorothy, recalling her strange experience with a
shudder, "for I'm never going to grow up at all."
"The King was released by Snip," continued the Wizard, paying no attention to Dorothy's
remarks, "because kindness and generosity always dull green magic, and, while Snip could not entirely
restore the King, he broke part of the enchantment."
There was still so much to wonder and exclaim about and they were all by this time so
famished with hunger that Ozma ordered up a splendid feast and in all the annals of Oz there has never
been a more delightful nor a merrier one.
The King and Ozma sat at the head of the long table, Snip and Pajuka at the foot, while
ranged between were all of the adventurers and all the dear celebrities of Oz. Mombi had been securely
locked up in the cellar with a supper of bread and milk and Kabumpo, free from his troublesome charge,
had three bales of hay, nicely mixed with peanuts.
Snip, looking sideways at Pajuka, marveled to think how he had once carried the huge Prime
Minister through the forest. There was still something in Pajuka's walk and expression that reminded Snip
of the white goose, for all during the evening he was at some pains to conceal his yawns.
Well, with one dainty coming after the other, and one story following the next, the dinner
proceeded gaily enough, till no one, not even the Hungry Tiger, could eat another bite. And then it was
that Pastoria rose and, turning to Ozma, furnished the last surprise of that exceedingly surprising day.
"I am rejoiced," began the King in his deep, pleasant voice, "to find this beautiful castle and
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