bit reassured. Perhaps they would listen to reason after all and let the Scarecrow depart peaceably. How they were ever to escape if they didn't the little girl could not see.
"My dear children," began the Scarecrow in his jolly voice, "nothing could have been more wonderful than my return to this lovely island, but in the years I have been away from you I have changed very much, and I find I no longer care for being Emperor. So, with your kind permission, I will keep the excellent body I now have and will abdicate in favor of my eldest son and return with my friends to Oz. For in Oz I really belong."
A dead silence followed the Scarecrow’s speech—then perfect pandemonium.
"No! No! You are a good Emperor! We will not let you go!" shrieked the people. "You are our honorable little Father. The Prince shall be Emperor after you have peacefully returned to your ancestors but not now. No! No! We will not have it!"
"I feared this!" quavered Happy Toko.
"It is not the Emperor, but the Scarecrow who speaks!" shrilled the Grand Chew Chew craftily. "He knows not what he says. But after the transformation—Ah, you shall see!"
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