"I guess U stands for Up. You surely bobbed up this time, didn't you?" Notta winked merrily at the little orphan, and then peered curiously through the holes in the net. "This reminds me of a balloon trip I once made for the circus. Wonder where we'll land?"
"Are we to land at all?" sighed the Cowardly Lion unhappily. Two of his legs had slipped through holes in the net and he was feeling uneasy and uncomfortable. "Climb on me, Bob, my boy. It will be a little softer. When you've been in Oz as long as I have, you'll take nothing for granted." He looked mournfully at the clown who was that moment below him.
"Then I'll just take it Oz is," laughed Notta. "Why, here's land now! And we're slowing down." So they were, down—down—down, until they were over a rocky island. When the net was almost resting on a little green hill, it turned completely and suddenly upside down, and shook them out with such violence that they rolled all the way to the bottom. The Cowardly Lion jumped up first and hurriedly placed himself in front of Bob. Though he was trembling even more than usual, he knew that he was a better fighter than these helpless mortals. And that there would be fighting he felt reasonably sure, for a great crowd was coming noisily toward them.
Notta nervously jerked Bob to his feet and stood beside the Cowardly Lion. There was no time for disguising. "We'll just start with rule two," panted the clown, running his finger hurriedly 'round his collar. "Let's be ex-tre-eemly polite. That's the way to meet strangers."
"All right," agreed the Cowardly Lion in a rather choked voice, "you meet 'em with politeness, and if that fails, I'll meet 'em with something else." He gnashed his teeth to keep them from chattering. As the first of the company reached the foot of the hill Bob gave a little scream, but Notta calmly stepped forward.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" began the clown in his best circus manner, "Let me introduce you to the most famous lion in the world, the Cowardly Lion of Oz, as brave as he is cowardly; allow me to present Bob Up, the brightest little boy in the United States, and myself, a harmless clown whose tricks have astonished the crowned heads of two continents. Ladies and gentlemen, let—"
"Two creatures and a beast," called the leader of the company, interrupting Notta in the middle of a sentence. "Two creatures and a beast," repeated the others, staring dully at the newcomers. The Cowardly Lion growled threateningly at this and Notta began running over all the jokes that he knew. As for Bob, he was too amazed to do anything but stare, for these were certainly the most curious beings he had ever seen in his life.
To begin with, they had feathers instead of hair. These feathers were small and fine and grew smoothly back from their foreheads, becoming longer at the back and curling softly behind the ears. Their eyes were perfectly round and their noses almost like bird beaks. Otherwise they were the same as regular folks, except in their manner of walking, for their feet turned in so much that they had to hop, putting one foot down and then hopping over it. Before Notta could start a joke, the leader of these singular creatures motioned to two behind him. They immediately stepped forward, unfurling as they did so a large banner.
