<h2 id="c7"><span class="smaller">Chapter 7</span> <br/>Sir Hokus And The Giants</h2>
<p>“Oh!” sighed Sir Hokus of Pokes and Oz, stretching
his armored legs to the fire. “How I yearn to
slay a giant! How it would refresh me! Hast any real
giants in Oz, Dorothy?”</p>
<p>“Don’t you remember the candy giant?” laughed
the little girl, looking up from the handkerchief she
was making for Ozma.</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_96">96</div>
<p>“Not to my taste,” said the Knight, “though his vest
buttons were vastly nourishing.”</p>
<p>“Well, there’s Mr. Yoop—he’s a real blood-and-bone
giant. There are plenty of giants, I guess, if we
knew just where to find them!” said the little girl,
biting off her thread.</p>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">“Find ’em—bind ’em,</p>
<p class="t0">Get behind ’em!</p>
<p class="t0">Hokus Pokus</p>
<p class="t0">He don’t mind ’em!”</p>
</div>
<p class="pnindent">screamed the Patch Work Girl, bounding out of her
chair. “But why can’t you stay peaceably at home,
old Iron Sides, and be jolly like the rest of us?”</p>
<p>“You don’t understand, Scraps,” put in Dorothy
gravely. “Sir Hokus is a Knight and it is a true
Knight’s duty to slay giants and dragons and go on
quests!”</p>
<p>“<i>That</i> it is, my Lady Patches!” boomed Sir Hokus,
puffing out his chest. “I’ve rusted here in idleness
long enough. To-morrow, with Ozma’s permission, I
shall start on a giant quest.”</p>
<p>“I’d go with you, only I’ve promised to help Ozma
count the royal emeralds,” said the Scarecrow, who
had ridden over from his Corn-Ear residence to spend
a week with his old friends in the Emerald City.</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_97">97</div>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">“Giants, Sir, are bluff and rude</p>
<p class="t0">And might mistake a man for food!</p>
</div>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">Hokus Pokus, be discreet,</p>
<p class="t0">Or you will soon be giant meat!”</p>
</div>
<p class="pnindent">chuckled the Patch Work Girl, crooking her finger
under the Knight’s nose.</p>
<p>“Nonsense!” blustered Sir Hokus, waving Scraps
aside. Rising from his green arm chair, he strode up
and down the room, his armor clanking at every step.
Straightway the company began to tell about wild
giants they had read of or known. Trot and Betsy
Bobbin held hands as they sat together on the sofa, and
Toto, Dorothy’s small dog, crept closer to his little
mistress, the bristles on his back rising higher as each
story was finished. “Giant stories are all very well,
but why tell ’em at night?” shivered Toto, peering
nervously at the long shadows in the corners of the
room.</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_98">98</div>
<p>It was the evening after Ruggedo’s strange discovery
of the mixed magic and in the royal palace Ozma
and most of the Courtiers had retired. But a few of
Princess Dorothy’s special friends had gathered in the
cozy sitting-room of her apartment to talk about old
times. They were very unusual and interesting
friends, not at all the sort one would expect to find in
a royal palace, even in Fairyland. Dorothy, herself,
before she had become a Princess of Oz, had been a
little girl from Kansas but, after several visits to this
delightful country, she had preferred to make Oz her
home.</p>
<p>Trot and Betsy Bobbin also had come from the
United States by way of shipwrecks, so to speak, and
had been invited to remain by Ozma, the little fairy
Princess who ruled Oz, and now each of these girls
had a cozy little apartment in the royal palace. Toto
had come with Dorothy, but the rest of the company
were of more or less magic extraction.</p>
<p>The Scarecrow, a stuffed straw person, with a marvelous
set of mixed brains given to him by the Wizard
of Oz, was Dorothy’s favorite. In fact she had discovered
him herself upon a Munchkin farm, lifted him
down from his bean pole and brought him to the
Emerald City. Tik Tok was a wonderful man made
entirely of copper, who could talk, think and act as
well as the next fellow when properly wound. You
would have been amazed to hear the giant story he
was ticking off at this very minute. As for Scraps,
she had been made by a magician’s wife out of old
pieces of patch-work and magically brought to life.
Her bright patches, yarn hair and silver suspender
button eyes gave Scraps so comical an expression that
just to look at her tickled one’s funny bone. Her head
was full of nonsense rhymes and she was so amusing
and cheerful that Ozma insisted upon her living with
the rest of the celebrities in the Emerald City.</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_99">99</div>
<div class="fig"> <ANTIMG src="images/i_101.jpg" alt="Just to Look at Scraps Tickled One’s Funny Bone" width-obs="500" height-obs="682" /> <p class="caption"><span class="sc">Just to Look at Scraps Tickled One’s Funny Bone</span></p> </div>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_100">100</div>
<p>Sir Hokus of Pokes was a comparative new-comer
in the capital city of Oz. Yet the Knight was so old
that it would give me lumbago just to try to count up
his birthdays. He dated back to King Arthur, in fact,
and had been wished into the Land of Oz centuries
before by an enemy sorcerer. Dorothy had found and
rescued him, with the Cowardly Lion’s help, from
Pokes, the dullest Kingdom in Oz. As there were no
other Knights in the Emerald City, Sir Hokus was
much stared at and admired. Even the Soldier with
the Green Whiskers, the one and only soldier and
entire army of Oz—yes, even the soldier with the
Green Whiskers saluted Sir Hokus when he passed.
Ozma, herself, felt more secure since the Knight had
come to live in the palace. He was well versed in
adventure and always courageous and courteous,
withal.</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_101">101</div>
<p>But, while I’ve been telling you all this, Tik Tok
had finished his story of a three-legged giant who
lived in Ev.</p>
<p>“And where is Ev?” puffed Sir Hokus, planting
himself before Tik Tok.</p>
<p>“Ev,” began Tik Tok in his precise fashion, “is to
the north-west of here on the oth-er side of the
im—” There was a whirr and a click and the copper
man stood motionless and soundless, his round eyes
fixed solemnly on the Knight.</p>
<p>“Pass-able des-ert,” finished the Scarecrow, jumping
up and kindly winding all of Tik Tok’s keys as if
nothing had happened.</p>
<p>“Pass-able des-ert,” continued the Copper Man.</p>
<p>“That’s where the old Gnome King used to live,”
piped Betsy Bobbin, bouncing up and down upon the
sofa, “under the mountains of Ev, and he threw us
down a tube and tried to melt you in a crucible,
didn’t he, Tik Tok?”</p>
<p>“He was a ve-ry bad per-son,” said the Copper Man.</p>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">“Ruggedo was a wicked King,</p>
<p class="t0">’Tho’ now he’s good as pie,</p>
<p class="t0">But none the less, I must confess,</p>
<p class="t0">He has a wicked eye!”</p>
</div>
<p class="pnindent">burst out Scraps, who was tired of sitting still listening
to giant stories.</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_102">102</div>
<p>But Sir Hokus could not be got off the subject of
giants. “To Ev!” thundered the Knight, raising his
sword. “To-morrow I’m off to Ev to conquer this
terrible monster. Large as a mountain, you say, Tik
Tok? Well, what care I for mountains? I, Sir Hokus
of Pokes, will slay him!”</p>
<p>“Hurrah for the giant killer!” giggled Scraps,
turning a somersault and nearly falling in the fire.</p>
<p>“Let’s go to bed!” said Dorothy uneasily. She had
for the last few minutes been hearing strange rumbles.
Of course it could not be giants; still the conversation,
she concluded, had better be finished by sunlight.</p>
<p>But it never was, for at that moment there was a
deafening crash. The lights went out; the whole
castle shivered; furniture fell every which way. Down
clattered Sir Hokus, falling with a terrible clangor
on top of the Copper Man. Down rolled the little girls
and the Scarecrow and Scraps. Down tumbled
everybody.</p>
<p>“Cyclone!” gasped Dorothy, who had experienced
several in Kansas.</p>
<p>“Giants!” stuttered Betsy Bobbin, clutching Trot.</p>
<p>The Wizard of Oz tried to reassure the agitated
company. He told them there was no cause for alarm,
and that they would soon find out what was the trouble.
The soothing words of the Wizard were scarcely
heard.</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_103">103</div>
<div class="fig"> <ANTIMG src="images/i_105.jpg" alt="The Smiling Little Wizard of Oz" width-obs="500" height-obs="685" /> <p class="caption"><span class="sc">The Smiling Little Wizard of Oz</span></p> </div>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_104">104</div>
<p>What the others said was lost in the noise that followed.
Thumps—bangs—crashes—screams came
from every room in the rocking palace.</p>
<p>“We’re flying! The whole castle’s flying up in the
air!” screamed Dorothy. Then she subsided, as an
emerald clock and three pictures came thumping
down on her head.</p>
<p>What had happened? No one could say. Dorothy,
Betsy Bobbin and Trot had fainted dead away. The
Scarecrow and Sir Hokus were tangled up on the
floor, clasped in each other’s arms.</p>
<p>The confusion was terrific. Only the Wizard was
still calm and smiling.</p>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_105">105</div>
<div class="fig"> <ANTIMG src="images/i_109.jpg" alt="(unlabelled)" width-obs="500" height-obs="491" /></div>
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