Chapter-6
When the lion saw them coming, he gave a great roar. The poor Winkies were so frightened that they ran away as fast as they could.
When the wicked witch saw what had happened, she made up her mind how to act.
She went to the cupboard and took out her Golden Cap. This Cap had a special charm. Whoever owned it could call three times upon the Winged Monkeys. These creatures would obey any order they were given. But no one could command the Winged Monkeys more than three times. The wicked witch had used the charm of the Cap twice before, so this was her last wish.
She put the Golden Cap on her head and stood on her left foot. Then she recited a secret charm. Soon, the sky darkened and a low rumbling sound could be heard. In a few minutes, the witch was surrounded by a crowd of monkeys with huge and powerful wings on their shoulders.
The wicked witch ordered the Winged Monkeys to destroy the strangers except for the lion. She wanted him brought to her, so she could make him her slave.
“Your commands shall be obeyed,” said the leader. Then the Winged Monkeys flew away.
When they found the Tinman, the Monkeys grabbed him and carried him through the air. When they were over some sharp pointed rocks, they dropped the poor Tinman. He fell a great distance to the rocks, where he lay so battered and dented that he couldn’t move.
The rest of the Monkeys caught the Scarecrow, and with their long fingers pulled all of the straw out of his clothes and his head. They made his hat, boots and clothes into a small bundle and threw it into the top branches of a tall tree.
After they had done this, the Monkeys threw pieces of rope around the lion and wound many coils around his body, head and legs. When they were sure he was unable to bite or scratch, they lifted him up and flew away with him to the witch’s castle. At the castle, he was placed in a small yard with a high iron fence so that he might not escape.
But Dorothy was not harmed at all. She stood with Toto in her arms and watched what the Monkeys did to her friends. The leader of the Winged Monkeys flew up to her. His long hairy arms stretched out, and his ugly face grinned terribly. But when he saw the mark of the good witch’s kiss on her forehead, he stopped short and motioned the others not to touch her.
“We dare not harm this little girl,” he said to them, “for she is protected by the Power of Good, and that is greater than the Power of Evil. All we can do it to carry her to the castle of the wicked witch and leave her there.”
So, they carefully lifted Dorothy in their arms and carried her to the castle.
The wicked witch was surprised and worried when she saw the mark on Dorothy’s forehead. She knew that she could not hurt the girl in any way. When she saw Dorothy’s silver slippers, she began to tremble in fear, for she knew what a powerful charm belonged to them.
But the wicked witch was also very clever. She knew that Dorothy did not know the true power of the silver slippers. So the wicked witch laughed to herself and thought, ‘I can still make her my slave, for she does not know how to use her power.’
Then she said to Dorothy, “Come with me; and see that you mind everything I tell you, for if you do not, I will make an end of you as I did of the Tinman and the Scarecrow.”
The witch led Dorothy through the castle until they came to the kitchen. Here, the witch made Dorothy clean the pots and pans, sweep the floor and feed the fire with heavy logs.
While Dorothy was hard at work, the witch would go into the courtyard and harness the lion like a horse. She wanted the lion to pull her cart and take her wherever she wished to go. But as she opened the gate the lion gave a loud roar and bounded at her so fiercely that the witch was afraid and ran out and shut the gate again.
“If I cannot harness you,” said the witch, “I can starve you. You shall have nothing to eat until you do as I wish.”
So after that she took no food to the imprisoned lion. Every day, she came to the gate at noon and asked, “Are you ready to be harnessed like a horse?”
And the lion would answer, “No. If you come in this yard, I will tear you.”
The reason the lion did not have to do as the witch wished was that every night, while the witch was asleep, Dorothy carried him food from the cupboard. After he had eaten, Dorothy would sit beside him, and they would talk of their troubles and try to plan some way to escape. But they could not find a way to get out of the castle, for it was always guarded by the yellow Winkies, who were the slaves of the wicked witch and too afraid of her not to do as she ordered.
Dorothy worked very hard during the day, and her life became very sad. She knew it would be difficult to return to Kansas. Sometimes she held little Toto in her arms and cried bitterly.
Now the wicked witch had a great longing to own Dorothy’s silver slippers. She knew the power of these slippers would make her more evil and feared than she already was. She watched Dorothy carefully to see if she ever took off her slippers, thinking she might steal them. But Dorothy only removed them when she took her bath at night. The witch was too afraid of the dark to dare enter Dorothy’s room at night to take the slippers, and her fear of water was even greater than her fear of the dark, so she never came near when Dorothy took her bath. The old witch never touched water and never let water touch her in any way.
But the wicked witch was very clever, and she finally thought of a trick so that she might get Dorothy’s silver slippers. She placed an iron bar in the middle of the kitchen floor. Then she used her magic to make the bar invisible. In this way, she knew Dorothy would trip over the bar and lose her slippers.
But when Dorothy tripped over the invisible bar, she lost one slipper only. The witch quickly snatched it and put it on her own foot. When Dorothy saw what had happened, she grew very angry and said, “Give me back my slipper!”
“I will not,” laughed the witch, “Now it is my slipper, not yours. And some day, I shall get the other one from you too.”
This made Dorothy so angry that she picked up the bucket of water she had been using to wash the floor and threw it over the witch.
Instantly, the witch gave a loud scream and then, as Dorothy looked in wonder, the witch began to shrink and melt away.
“See what you have done!” she screamed, “In a minute I shall melt away.”
“I’m very sorry,” said Dorothy, who was truly frightened to see the witch melting away like brown sugar.
In a few minutes, the witch turned into a brown, melted, shapeless mass and began to spread over the kitchen floor. All that was left of the witch was the silver slipper. Dorothy picked it up, cleaned it and put it back on her own foot.
Thus, being free at last, Dorothy ran out to the courtyard to tell the lion that the wicked witch of the West had come to an end, and that they were no longer prisoners in a strange land.
