Mr. H. M. Wogglebug T. E. stood in front of a newspaper stand and read the headlines of the latest edition. They told about reports from individuals around the United States who had seen an unidentified flying object soaring through the sky. The strange object was reported to big about as big as a horse and had four large flapping wings and could sometimes be seen as having three or four queer figures riding along in it.
Mr. Wogglebug began smiling and chuckling to himself as he read over the article and viewed the black-and-white photographs of the unidentified flying object which was actually the marvelous flying Gump which was made of two sofas tied together and a broomstick and four palm fronds for wings, and the figures spotted riding in it were none other than he and his comrades who had rode in it to visit these United States of America for the purpose to explore and learn and have fun, and indeed they had.
Together one happy, hearty band they had traveled the world and seen the many wonderful inventions of human-beings such as cars, trains, airplanes, and telephones. They had had many startling yet fun adventures at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, in the Rocky Mountains, and also in the state of Kansas where they had visited a little girl named Dorothy who was a friend of the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman and he and Jack Pumpkinhead had found her to be quite charming.
He and his comrades were always delighted when they had the opportunity to do something nice for the citizens of America. For instance he had single-handed caught three wild turkeys for a poor little girl's Thanksgiving dinner, and they had all created toys in their own likenesses for Santa Claus to deliver to as many children as he could for Christmas, and he sincerely hoped it would leave a lasting impression.
It was a couple of weeks ago he and his comrades had become separated from each other after he had found a lost child and then his they had had to return the many children his three friends had
found, in mistaking them for the lost child in question, to their own homes around this city which he had heard from its inhabitants was called New York. So now with his friends scattered around the city he had been having unique adventures of his own which had consisted of trying to possess a dress of bright Wagnerian plaid and after much struggle he had obtained a small portion of it for himself which was the necktie he was now wearing.
Now he was eager to be reunited with his comrades again, and also rather anxious for he knew time was hanging heavily upon his hands, and he decided now was the time to look for them. Walking away from the newspaper stand he looked all around the street and then stopped to question the first person he saw which was a uniformed policeman standing at a corner.
"Pardon me," he said as he approached. "Have you by any chance seen a walking, talking scarecrow?"
The policeman shook his head. "No, can't say that I have."
"Well, have you seen a tall and gangly pumpkinheaded figure riding on a wooden horse?"
"No, I am afraid not," replied the officer.
"Hmm...Well, I don't suppose you've seen a nickle-plated, polished man made out of tin cross your path, have you?"
"Why, yes, I have!" exclaimed the policeman. "The last I saw him he was walking that way toward Main Street."
"Thank you, officer! Much obliged!" he said tipping his hat, and then he rushed quickly toward the direction he was pointed.
He reached Main Street and sure enough he spotted the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman walking arm in arm.
"Oh! My friends! My dear comrades! How glad I am to have found you at last!" he exclaimed as he rushed towards them.
"Mr. Wogglebug! How grand to see you!" exclaimed the Scarecrow as they met up with each other.
"Where have you fellas been, I wonder?"
"We've been up in Brooklyn," replied the Tin Woodman. "We have you been?"
"Where haven't I been! I've seen parts of the world I never even knew existed!" he replied with a hearty laugh.
"Now the only one remaining to be reunited is Jack. Let's go find him at once," said the Tin Woodman.
"Dear me, I hope we do," said Mr. Wogglebug. "The pumpkinhead is liable to get himself into trouble often."
Just then they heard the sound of barking and yipping coming up the street which was followed by clattering hooves. They turned rapidly in the direction and suddenly there came Jack Pumpkinhead himself riding upon the wooden sawhorse and they were following after a tiny poodle dog with a big brass collar around its neck. Jack stopped the moment he saw them and the poodle ran away down the street barking and howling.
"Hullo!" he said upon reuniting with them. "I was really worrying about all of you! Now I'm so relieved."
"Not as worried as we were about you," said Mr. Wogglebug. "Now what have I told you about wandering off, friend Jack?"
"I'm sorry," said Jack humbly. "I was just wanting to pet the little doggie but for some reason it seemed afraid of me."
"It was probably just shy," said the Tin Woodman. "I remember from when it became attached to my left elbow a while ago."
"It became attached? Whatever do you mean?" inquired Mr. Wogglebug curiously.
"It is a long and funny story," said the Tin Woodman with a chuckle. "You see I became magnetized after the Scarecrow and I became caught in a thunderstorm."
"Well, now the only one who's left to be reunited is the Gump," said Mr. Wogglebug. "Let's go find him."
"But what did we do with him?" asked Jack Pumpkinhead.
"Where did we leave him after we arrived in this city?" The Scarecrow began thinking hard.
After a few moments of silent deep thinking Mr. Wogglebug suddenly spoke. "Now I remember! We landed down on 34th Street and we left the Gump beside the greenhouse we saw there!"
"Then come on, let's retrieve our flying friend!" declared the Scarecrow, at once they rushed away to the desired destination.
They found the greenhouse, which was a glass domain with an abundance of flowers and plants both inside and outside and it was on the left side and partially hidden within a dozen rosebushes that they found their Gump as he was leisurely sniffing away to his heart's content.
"So there you are!" exclaimed the Scarecrow.
"We've found you at last!" exclaimed Mr. Wogglebug as he fairly hugged the Gump's head in his joy. "We would have been lost without you!"
"I've been just fine right here," the Gump replied softly. "It seems like it was only yesterday you left me here and these roses might not be the best conversationalists but they certainly are a pleasure to be around."
"So I should well imagine!" Mr. Wogglebug chuckled warmly.
"Well, now you have found me, so where shall I fly you to now?" The Gump inquired.
"Hmm... I think it is high time we return to Oz," said the Scarecrow.
"I do, too," agreed the Tin Woodman.
"So do I," added Mr. Wogglebug.
"And I!" concluded Jack Pumpkinhead.
"Finally! I shall be glad to be upon the mantle once again! Though I am rather sorry to leave my new friends," said the Gump with a sigh. "Goodbye, posies!"
So the foursome mounted into the comfortable cushions of the Gump's body and then with great flaps of its of its four palm frond wings the creature swept off of the ground, leaving some discarded flower petals in its wake, and soared into the sky.
As they drifted through the air high above the city of New York and headed toward the Atlantic Ocean they related the unique adventures they had had to one another.
"So I thought I was doing a favor for old Mr. Wimbleton," said Jack Pumpkinhead. "But then it turned out to be the opposite for everyone shunned him when he had two legs and was an ordinary man while when he had only one he was special so I had to undo the magic I had done."
"Well, I am glad you realized your mistake, friend Jack," said Mr. Wogglebug approvingly. "You at least meant well."
"It is a sad fact that sometimes when tries to do something nice for someone else it turns out poorly," reflected the Tin Woodman. "I myself gave two wishes to two little boys to cheer them up, however one of them wished to be a good boy and then he said it actually hurt him to be good, which can't possibly be right, so he his brother used his own wish to reverse his."
"You know, something similar happened with me," said the Scarecrow. "I was passing through a village and I met with a sad little girl who wished for an automobile of her very own and so I gave her one by duplicating one which I had seen
earlier, a simple trick which the Wizard had taught me, and she was quite happy with it then, but later that day I met with some construction workers who told me how they had watched a big red automobile with a little boy and girl in it crash into their working site and the children were alright but the automobile was completely destroyed."
"I am sorry for you all," said Mr. Wogglebug. "Though sometimes the things we do for others does turn it for the better. A few weeks ago a young girl named Nan Digsby came to me and said she needed desperately to learn how to cook for her father and four younger siblings and so I gave to her a magic button which would give her extraordinary cooking skills and so far she has done quite well, and I was once invited to dinner with her family."
"She's alright then, as long as she doesn't lose the magic button," said the Scarecrow.
"Even if she does she will most likely have obtained enough skill of her own to last a lifetime
from it," said Mr. Wogglebug brightly "Although shortly afterward I did meet with a short stature man who said he and his wife were very unhappy with their sizes, he wished to be taller and she wished to be shorter. Well, I thought their wishes seemed reasonable and so I gave him a box of growing and shrinking lozenges I had with me, and then their little ate the growing pills and grew to be as big as a small mountain. I watched as this caused chaos around the neighborhood until her father was able to get her attention and tell her to eat the rest of the lozenges and then she returned to her normal size."
The Scarecrow shook his head sadly. "Sometimes a lesson must be learned the hard way."
"I am often sorry for those poor mortals," said Mr. Wogglebug. "Perhaps it is fortunate that they do not understand the grave and important secrets of magic. Now let me tell you about how I learned something of my own, I learned about love."
He then told them all about he had fallen in love at first sight with the most beautiful Wagnerian plaid dress worn by a wax figure model in a store window, and then it was bought a rich woman who gave it to her servant who sold it to a secondhand store and it was bought by a Swedish widow and then she gave it to a black washerwoman, and then she gave it to a China man who made it into a robe and then he had torn off a large portion of it for himself. "Then I went up in a balloon and I landed in a village in the Arabian desert and the Sheik captured me and stole my precious Wagnerian plaids and made them into a waistcoat for himself, and then when I was released he apologized to me by having the scraps of them leftover made into this necktie which you see me wearing now and it is my pride and joy. I am glad I ended up with something rather than nothing, of course."
"Nice philosophy," remarked the Scarecrow. "We've all had our share of adventures in these United States, and I hope L. Frank Baum will do us justice when he writes about them in the Sunday paper."
"Ozma will be so pleased at all the knowledge we'll bring back to Oz," said Mr. Wogglebug. "It will be good to be home again."
"I'll also be glad to be back in my Kingdom in the Winkie Country," said the Tin Woodman. "I was just beginning to get homesick."
"So was I," said the Scarecrow.
"I don't know what homesickness is, but if I have it is it a disease fatal for pumpkins?" asked Jack Pumpkinhead worriedly.
Mr. Wogglebug laughed warmly and said "I highly doubt it, for it is really a longing you feel inside when you are far away from home." He looked over his shoulder and saw they were just leaving the land behind and New York city was now far in the distance. "Perhaps someday, before too long, we shall all be coming back," he said. "Who knows? Certainly not we ourselves, for it would make life very dull if we knew what was going to happen to us."
"Indeed it would be," agreed the Scarecrow. He looked out in front of them and saw the wide blue ocean shining in the sunset out before them. "Isn't it just wondrous!" he said in a sigh of admiration.
"It's almost like a rainbow in the evening," sighed Mr. Wogglebug. "There is the North Star, Gump. Just follow it and it will lead straight to the Land of Oz."
The Gump flew straight ahead at the guide of the North Star and evening settled in. They flew along peacefully for a while, and then they began to feel a light breeze around them and the Tin Woodman glanced up at the sky and said "Oh dear, look at those dark clouds up there! A storm must be close at hand. I do hope we have my oil can."
"We do, my friend," assured the Scarecrow. "We also have an umbrella."
While the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman were thus in conversation, Mr. Wogglebug was studying the cloudy atmosphere with concern. The
clouds did indeed seem thick and heavy with storms and he noted how warm it had became in the air around them and could feel a slight increase in the wind which seemed to be blowing South. He reached into an inside pocket of his coat and took out a compass and a thermometer. He held the thermometer up close where he could see it and saw the red line of it was very close to the top at approximately eighty-one degrees. Then he held up the compass and saw to his chagrin the arrow was spinning rapidly in all directions. Stunned, he looked over the side of the Gump and at the ocean below and saw the waters were churning and a short distance above he could see misty clouds swirling around and around in-between them and the sea.
His breathing became rigid as the realization of what all this meant came to him. "No, it is not a storm... it's a hurricane!"
"What is a hurricane?" asked the Scarecrow.
"A hurricane is a tropical cyclone, a typhoon, a whirly-whirly. There are many names for it but
they all mean the same thing which is the worst kind of storm there is. They form over the ocean in very warm temperatures and they can be two-hundred miles wide and they spin all around with a speed up to seventy-five miles and they don't stop until they reach inland where they are very dangerous to people and to buildings, they can destroy anything in their path," as he spoke the wind around them picked up more strength and he had to clutch onto his hat.
"Oh dear! Oh no! Whatever shall we do?" cried the Scarecrow.
"We must try to steer clear of it," said Mr. Wogglebug as the wind became louder and stronger. "You must try to fly us out of the storm's course, faithful Gump!"
"I shall try! I shall really try!" said the Gump trying to be heard above the rushing of the wind.
The loyal Gump tried to steer out of the hurricane's path but every attempt was in vain for
it kept on gaining speed and size and strength and it spun them around here and there, steering them off of their main course completely. The clouds above them finally burst open and poured heavy rain down on them and the clouds in the air around them thickened and nearly blinded everything else out of sight as they swirled and twirled in a great mass and the dreadful sound of thunder combined with the terrible shrieks of the wind filled their ears.
"Oh no! We're heading right towards the... eye wall of the hurricane!" exclaimed Mr. Wogglebug in horror.
"I – I can't hold on! I've lost all control!" screamed the Gump as the hurricane gained full strength and threw them around in a great arch nearly tossing the four riders out.
Mr. Wogglebug let out a yell as he felt himself being hurled over and he clutched onto the side of the Gump to keep from falling out. "Everyone, lay down flat on the floor, and
quickly!" he yelled trying to be heard over the dark cacophony of the hurricane.
Everyone laid down flatly on the floor of the Gump with their hands clutching onto the walls as the hurricane continued to toss them here and there and to and fro making them as dizzy as frightened.
Mr. Wogglebug could feel the rage of the hurricane against his clothed back and seemed to be nearly ripping at it and he began dreading the thought of something hitting them. Then he suddenly felt something smack against the back of his head and he quickly lost all consciousness.
Mr. Wogglebug was slowly regaining consciousness and he could tell the hurricane winds were all gone as was the thunder and rain. He still felt slightly dizzy as he slowly opened his eyes and his vision was blurry at first and then the first thing he noticed was he was on a dry and sandy land and his ears met with complete peace and quiet.
"I'm alive!" he breathed. "I'm alive!" he said in ecstasy. He turned to the first of his comrades he saw. "Jack! We're alive!"
He delightedly embraced the pumpkinhead except when he looked up he saw there was no pumpkin set on the wooden pin which was Jack's neck. Then he heard muffled exclamations coming from within the Gump which he saw was turned upside down.
"Help me! Help me!"came Jack's voice. At once he turned the Gump's sofa body upright and found Jack's head half buried in the sand.
"Oh dear me, Jack! But at least you're alright and without a scratch," he said as he promptly set his head onto his neck again. "There we are."
"Oh my! That was some storm, wasn't it!" exclaimed Jack. "I thought we were goners!"
"So did I!" said another voice from underneath the Gump's body.
At once they found the Scarecrow lying on his back with about half of his straw spilled out and scattered around him.
"Scarecrow!" Mr. Wogglebug exclaimed. "I'm sorry we didn't notice you sooner! Here, I'll help you with your insides." He and Jack quickly began restoring the missing straw and patting him into shape again.
"The nasty old hurricane really knocked the stuffing right out of me!" exclaimed the Scarecrow, patting his chest. "And there, look at the poor Tin Woodman! He's all bent out of shape and rusted!"
They found the Tin Woodman sitting close by with all his metal limbs askew and his head down gloomily. As soon as the Scarecrow was alright they all went and oiled the Tin Woodman and straightened him up.
"You were right," the Tin Woodman said to Mr. Wogglebug. "A hurricane really is the worst storm of all! But now I'm glad to were together and we're alright."
"I'm alright... at least part of me is," the Gump said from behind them.
They all turned around and were quite stunned to see the Gump's head had become completely detached from it's body and he was lying with his eyes to the sky, while beside of him there lay his body of two sofas untied with the cord shredded and laying apart in the sand, and near by was his broomstick tail with the handle broken off short; and worst of all, they found the remains of its palm frond wings lying scattered all over the sand.
"Oh no!" exclaimed the Tin Woodman. "The Gump's wings have been completely destroyed in the hurricane!"
"We have no way of mending them without the wishing pills we'd used the last time," said the
Scarecrow mournfully, "and without wings he can't fly, and if he can't fly... we can't get home!"
"We're lost!" wailed Jack Pumpkinhead in misery. "We're lost! Woe is me!"
"Oh no!" moaned the Tin Woodman sobbing his heart out.
Mr. Wogglebug was quite distressed at seeing his friends in such anguish. "Scarecrow... Jack... calm yourselves, please! Tin Woodman you mustn't cry and rust yourself," he said giving the Tin Woodman his handkerchief. "Comrades, listen, we mustn't lose heart now for we still have each other and we have landed somewhere rather than nowhere and seem to be upon an unknown island which might possibly be inhabited, and if it is then we may yet find a way back home."
"Mr. Wogglebug is right," said the Scarecrow brightening. "Come, let's see if we can find someone or something here that can help us."
Jack Pumpkinhead mounted the Sawhorse and just as they started leaving the site they had landed in the Gump's head exclaimed, "Hey now what about me?"
Mr. Wogglebug looked thoughtfully at the detached Gump head. "Hmm... I suppose it won't do to leave the Gump's head here all alone," he said and picked it up and carried with them as they set off on foot to explore the island they were on.