"Who—what are you?" stuttered Philador in an unsteady voice. "And how did you get into the bottle?" He half expected the man to melt and run away, but the liquid from which he was formed seemed to have hardened perfectly and, except for his strange eyes and powdered hair, the old fellow looked almost natural. He sighed deeply at the little Prince's question and seating himself on a low bench, motioned for the Prince to sit beside him. Rather nervously Philador seated himself on the other end of the bench.
"I am a medicine man, and a Gilliken," began the old gentleman solemnly.
"Of course!" thought Philador with a little chuckle. "Who but a medicine man would come out of a bottle!"
"I spent my whole life studying cures and remedies, but though I hung out my sign, and had office hours every day, no one ever came to consult me," said the medicine man sorrowfully. "But this was not strange when you stop to consider that no one in Oz is ever ill; however, it was very dull for me."
The little Prince nodded sympathetically and gave a slight start as he noticed for the first time that the medicine man's eyes were cough drops. He was so interested in this discovery he missed a whole sentence of the old fellow's story. "So I decided to travel," the medicine man was now hurrying on to explain, "and discover cures for trouble Oz people really did suffer from, such as impatience, bad tempers, rudeness and so on. In the forests hereabout grow many powerful roots and herbs and it was while I was searching for an herb to prevent talkativeness that I met the wicked witch of the North."
"Mombi!" gasped Philador, edging closer, and thinking how much mischief this old sorceress was responsible for.
"Yes, Mombi!" sighed the medicine man mournfully. "I had a great cauldron of cough mixture, which I always use as the basis for all my cures, boiling over the fire, and Mombi, declaring I had stolen her rarest herbs, threw me into the pot." Philador shuddered. He could fairly see the furious witch pouncing upon the helpless little gentleman.
"She Threw Me Into the Pot"