"It would be a lot easier," said a creaky sort of voice, "if you two-leggeds would use wooden horses like me instead of those ridiculous flesh-and-bone creatures that get tired out."
A comical-looking sawhorse, brought to life by the evil witch Mombi's Powder of Life, though through the boy Tip(who had really been the Princess Ozma transformed through the greedy witch's spell), laid its wooden ears back at an elderly man in green coveralls, which had emerald buckles, for they lived in the Emerald City of the land of Oz.
"I love real—er, flesh horses," the man amended, as he put a poultice over a wound on a chestnut mare's leg. "I took care of them for years on my father's farm, but I was never able to afford to have my own horse farm, myself. Now I get to take care of the horses of Oz."
"Besides," said a somewhat sniffy voice, "we real horses—and I won't apologize for saying 'real'!—are so much more beautiful and faster than you."
"Hold your tongue, Giselle," the old man admonished. "Let's not be getting airs!"
"Getting airs!" snorted the mare. "I pulled the carriage of Glinda the Good until I got too sore in the bones. She still does ride me, though, when she visits the Emerald City," Giselle said cheerfully.
"I will never retire," said the sawhorse snobbishly. "And I will never die."
"Unless you catch fire," Giselle returned nastily.
"Enough!" the old man shouted. "Neither of you are better than the other. Giselle, you're going to the back paddock until you behave. Sawhorse, I will speak to Princess Ozma if you don't control your tongue. Her favorite carriage-horse should not behave so shamelessly."
With that, the conversation was over. As the Sawhorse shambled indignantly down to the main road to the Emerald City, a short man in curious yellow clothes (this was in Winkie country, where yellow was the favorite color) came to greet the old man.
"Is my Giselle doing better, Henry?" he asked.
"Why don't you ask her yourself, Bimbleduff?" Henry answered.
"If she can answer without speaking long enough to put me to sleep," said Bimbleduff. "Are you doing better, Giselle?"
"Yes," said Giselle. "Although Henry has not been very nice. He's ordered me to the back pad—"
"Have you been rude to the Sawhorse again?"
"Rude? Just firm. That wooden joke of a 'horse' is so impudent."
The farmer took the mare's lead-rope as he thanked Henry for his help in treating the horse's wound. Bimbleduff scolded Giselle, leading her to the back paddock as Henry had promised.
"Strange mare," said Henry to himself. "But I suppose I should be used to strange things by now. It's been a year since Em and I moved to Oz."
Uncle Henry thought of this as he left Bimbleduff's simple farm in Winkie Country and walked back to the Emerald City. A year ago, he'd gone bankrupt and had had to give up his farm—but where he, his wife Em, and their niece Dorothy would go, he hadn't known, and it had nearly broken him.
And then Dorothy, through the magic of Princess Ozma, ruler of the whole land of Oz, had quite literally whisked them to this strange country. Then Henry and Em had realized that Dorothy's odd tales about Oz were true. Henry had taken less of a time than Em to really admit that everything as 'normal', after a while, but he never ceased being fascinated by this odd but peaceful empire.
"I'm home, Em!" he was saying just a short time later, as he entered his and Em's chambers in the royal palace of the Emerald City.
Em was sitting in the living room, studiously mending a beautiful dress that shimmered like mist and had all the colors of the rainbow.
"That's good, dear," she said, not looking up, "but I must concentrate on mending Polychrome's favorite dress. She is going to the ball with Dorothy tonight. I declare, a year ago I would have laughed silly to think there was such a thing as a rainbow's daughter."
"And she's a good girl, that," said Henry. "I thought that she'd be vain, being the rainbow's daughter, but she isn't."
"And quite beautiful, when she's in flesh-and-blood form," said Em.
Polychrome could transform into a woman (or at least take on the body of a woman), though she was often in the form of a shimmering mist.
"Are you going to the ball, Em?"
Em smiled. "Yes, but don't expect me to dance," she laughed.
"Well, I'd better be off to the Treasure Room," said Henry. "I need to take accounts, after the Gnome King had to pay for trying to invade Oz. Of course, our good Princess Ozma doesn't care about the jewel's themselves, but she knew what would hurt the King most would be having to give them up, the greedy creature!"
Though Henry helped the farmers with their animals and crops, his actual job was managing the storehouses of Oz and portioning out money and jewels to those who needed them (after careful scrutiny to make sure that they'd use them honestly and well). For Ozma was generous and kind, not hoarding treasure for herself.
"You know," Henry said to his wife, "I feel more at home now in this strange place than I ever did on our little farm in Kansas."
"Me, too, surprisingly," said Em. "It's a queer land…but after getting used to it, it's quite a charming place, and everyone here is so wonderful. It's lovely to see how happy Dorothy is, too—and that's the best of all."