21. The Wonderful Book of Magic

The Enchanted Island of Yew

by L. Frank Baum

Whatever their fears might be, none of Prince Marvel's party
hesitated to follow him along the path through the forest in search
of the sorcerer, and by and by they came upon a large clearing. In
the middle of this open space was a big building in such bad repair
that its walls were tumbling down in several places, and all around
it the ground was uncared for and littered with rubbish. A man was
walking up and down in front of this building, with his head bowed
low; but when he heard the sound of approaching horses' hoofs he
looked up and stared for a moment in amazement. Then, with a shout
of rage, he rushed toward them and caught Prince Marvel's horse by
the bridle.

"How dare you!" he cried; "how dare you enter my forest?"

Marvel jerked his bridle from the man's grasp and said in
return:

"Who are you?"

"Me! Who am I? Why, I am the great and powerful Kwytoffle! So
beware! Beware my sorcery!"

They all looked at the man curiously. He was short and very
fat, and had a face like a puff-ball, with little red eyes and
scarcely any nose at all. He wore a black gown with scarlet
grasshoppers and june-bugs embroidered upon the cloth; and his hat
was high and peaked, with an imitation grasshopper of extraordinary
size perched upon its point. In his right hand he carried a small
black wand, and around his neck hung a silver whistle on a silver
cord.

Seeing that the strangers were gazing on him so earnestly,
Kwytoffle thought they were frightened; so he said again, in a big
voice:

"Beware my vengeance!"

"Beware yourself!" retorted the prince. "For if you do not
treat us more respectfully, I shall have you flogged."

"What! Flog me!" shouted Kwytoffle, furiously. "For this I
will turn every one of you into grasshoppers--unless you at once give
me all the wealth you possess!"

"Poor man!" exclaimed Nerle; "I can see you are longing for that
flogging. Will you have it now?" and he raised his riding-whip above
his head.

Kwytoffle stumbled backward a few paces and blew shrilly upon
his silver whistle. Instantly a number of soldiers came running from
the building, others following quickly after them until fully a
hundred rough-looking warriors, armed with swords and axes, had
formed in battle array, facing the little party of Prince Marvel.

"Arrest these strangers!" commanded Kwytoffle, in a voice like a
roar. "Capture them and bind them securely, and then I will change
them all into grasshoppers!"

"All right," answered the captain of the soldiers; and then he
turned to his men and shouted: "Forward--double-quick--march!"

They came on with drawn swords; at first running, and then
gradually dropping into a walk, as they beheld Nerle, Wul-Takim, King
Terribus and Marvel standing quietly waiting to receive them, weapons
in hand and ready for battle. A few paces off the soldiers hesitated
and stopped altogether, and Kwytoffle yelled at the captain:

"Why don't you go on? Why don't you capture them? Why don't
you fight them?"

"Why, they have drawn their swords!" responded the captain,
reproachfully.

"Who cares?" roared the sorcerer.

"We care," said the captain, giving a shudder, as he looked upon
the strangers. "Their swords are sharp, and some of us would get
hurt."

"You're cowards!" shrieked the enraged Kwytoffle. "I'll turn
you all into June-bugs!"

At this threat the soldiers dropped their swords and axes, and
all fell upon their knees, trembling visibly and imploring their
cruel master not to change them into june-bugs.

"Bah!" cried Nerle, scornfully; "why don't you fight? If we
kill you, then you will escape being June-bugs."

"The fact is," said the captain, woefully, "we simply can't
fight. For our swords are only tin, and our axes are made of wood,
with silver-paper pasted over them."

"But why is that?" asked Wul-Takim, while all the party showed
their surprise.

"Why, until now we have never had any need to fight," said the
captain, "for every one has quickly surrendered to us or run away the
moment we came near. But you people do not appear to be properly
frightened, and now, alas! since you have drawn upon us the great
sorcerer's anger, we shall all be transformed into June-bugs."

"Yes!" roared Kwytoffle, hopping up and down with anger, "you
shall all be June-bugs, and these strangers I will transform into
grasshoppers!"

"Very well," said Prince Marvel, quietly; "you can do it
now."

"I will! I will!" cried the sorcerer.

"Then why don't you begin?" inquired the prince.

"Why don't I begin? Why, I haven't got the enchantments with
me, that's why. Do you suppose we great magicians carry around
enchantments in our pockets?" returned the other, in a milder
tone.

"Where do you keep your enchantments?" asked the prince.

"They're in my dwelling," snapped Kwytoffle, taking off his hat
and fanning his fat face with the brim.

"Then go and get them," said Marvel.

"Nonsense! If I went to get the enchantments you would all run
away!" retorted the sorcerer.

"Not so!" protested Nerle, who was beginning to be amused. "My
greatest longing in life is to become a grasshopper."

"Oh, yes! Please let us be grasshoppers!" exclaimed the High Ki
maids in the same breath.

"We want to hop! We want to hop! Please--please let us hop!"
implored the bald-headed Ki, winking their left eyes at Wul-Takim.

"By all means let us become grasshoppers," said King Terribus,
smiling; and Wul-Takim added:

"I'm sure your soldiers would enjoy being June-bugs, for then
they wouldn't have to work. Isn't that so, boys?"

The bewildered soldiers looked at one another in perplexity, and
the still more bewildered sorcerer gazed on the speakers with staring
eyes and wide-open mouth.

"I insist," said Prince Marvel, "upon your turning us into
grasshoppers and your soldiers into June-bugs, as you promised. If
you do not, then I will flog you--as I promised."

"Very well," returned the sorcerer, with a desperate look upon
his face; "I'll go and find the enchantment."

"And we'll go with you," remarked the prince, pleasantly.

So the entire party accompanied Kwytoffle into the house, where
they entered a large room that was in a state of much disorder.

"Let me see," said the sorcerer, rubbing his ears, as if trying
to think; "I wonder if I put them in this cupboard. You see," he
explained, "no one has ever before dared me to transform him into a
June-bug or grasshopper, so I have almost forgotten where I keep my
book of enchantments. No, it's not in the cupboard," he continued,
looking there; "but it surely must be in this chest."

It was not in the chest, either, and so the sorcerer continued
to look in all sorts of queer places for his book of enchantments,
without finding it. Whenever he paused in his search Prince Marvel
would say, sternly:

"Go on! Find the book! Hunt it up. We are all anxious to
become grasshoppers." And then Kwytoffle would set to work again,
although big drops of perspiration were now streaming down his
face.

Finally he pulled an old book from underneath the pillow of his
bed, and crying, "Here it is!" carried it to the window.

He turned a few leaves of the book and then said:

"How unfortunate! The compound I require to change you into
grasshoppers must be mixed on the first day of September; and as this
is now the eighth day of September I must wait nearly a year before I
can work the enchantment."

"How about the June-bugs?" asked Nerle.

"Oh! Ah!. The June-bug mixture can only be made at the dark o'
the moon," said the sorcerer, pretending to read, "and that is three
weeks from now."

"Let me read it," said Prince Marvel, suddenly snatching the
book from Kwytoffle's hands. Then he turned to the title-page and
read:

"'Lives of Famous Thieves and Impostors.' Why, this is not a
book of enchantments."

"That is what I suspected," said Terribus.

"No one but a sorcerer can read the enchantments in this book,"
declared Kwytoffle; but he hung his head with a sheepish look, for he
knew his deception had been well understood.

"Is your own history written in this volume?" inquired
Marvel.

"No," answered the sorcerer.

"Then it ought to be," said the prince, "for you are no sorcerer
at all, but merely a thief and an impostor!"