"I think Oz is the funniest place in the world, don't you, Nick?" cried the little boy merrily.
"Well," chirruped Snorer, "as I was never any place else, I can hardly say. Look, look! There goes a canned cat!" And so it was, as canned a cat as you'd ever want to see.
But right here their guide turned the corner and they found themselves in the presence of another Queen. They knew she was a Queen, for on the pad held up for their inspection the guide had written, "Preserva the Great." Notta stopped the bus before the low glass throne and they stared in wonder at her Majesty. Preserva seemed as much surprised as they.
"Well, I'll be jellied!" wheezed the Queen, taking off her lid and thrusting out a moist head. Bob thought she need not have said this, for she was jellied already—her face and royal robes being a quivery and delicious pink.
The Prime Preserve seemed very much alarmed at the Queen's action and quickly wrote on his pad, "Shut your lid." Bob considered this dreadfully disrespectful, and Snorer began to chuckle with enjoyment. Preserva quite meekly obeyed, but her eyes, behind the thick glass of the jar, grew larger and larger, and finally, snatching the pad from the Prime Preserve, she dashed off in great excitement these words, "A tomato can would be about right for him!" Holding up the pad she pointed joyfully at Notta.
"Serves you right for coming as a fish," chortled the Cowardly Lion. "So we'll have to take you back in a can. Well, well!"
Then he craned his neck to see what else the Queen had written. A rapid conversation was going on between Preserva and their guide. One would write a message and pass it to the other. The other would snatch the page and dash off an answer, and so quickly was it done, the four in the bus had all they could do to keep up with the conversation.