“Right or wrong,” said the Patchwork Girl, “to be different is to be distinguished. Now, in my case, I’m just like all other Patchwork Girls because I’m the only one there is. But, tell me, where did you come from?”

“The Yip Country,” said he.

“Is that in the Land of Oz?”

“Of course,” replied the Frogman.

“And do you know that your Ruler, Ozma of Oz, has been stolen?”

“I was not aware that I had a Ruler, so of course I couldn’t know that she was stolen.”

“Well, you have. All the people of Oz,” explained Scraps, “are ruled by Ozma, whether they know it or not. And she has been stolen. Aren’t you angry? Aren’t you indignant? Your Ruler, whom you didn’t know you had, has positively been stolen!”

“That is queer,” remarked the Frogman thoughtfully. “Stealing is a thing practically unknown in Oz, yet this Ozma has been taken and a friend of mine has also had her dishpan stolen. With her I have traveled all the way from the Yip Country in order to recover it.”

“I don’t see any connection between a Royal Ruler of Oz and a dishpan!” declared Scraps.

“They’ve both been stolen, haven’t they?”

“True. But why can’t your friend wash her dishes in another dishpan?” asked Scraps.

“Why can’t you use another Royal Ruler? I suppose you prefer the one who is lost, and my friend wants her own dishpan, which is made of gold and studded with diamonds and has magic powers.”

“Magic, eh?” exclaimed Scraps. “There is a link that connects the two steals, anyhow, for it seems that all the magic in the Land of Oz was stolen at the same time, whether it was in the Emerald City or in Glinda’s castle or in the Yip Country. Seems mighty strange and mysterious, doesn’t it?”

“It used to seem that way to us,” admitted the Frogman, “but we have now discovered who took our dishpan. It was Ugu the Shoemaker.”

“Ugu? Good gracious! That’s the same magician we think has stolen Ozma. We are now on our way to the castle of this Shoemaker.”

“So are we,” said the Frogman.

“Then follow me, quick! and let me introduce you to Dorothy and the other girls and to the Wizard of Oz and all the rest of us.”

She sprang up and seized his coat-sleeve, dragging him off the hilltop and down the other side from that whence he had come. And at the foot of the hill the Frogman was astonished to find the three girls and the Wizard and Button-Bright, who were surrounded by a wooden Sawhorse, a lean Mule, a square Woozy and a Cowardly Lion. A little black dog ran up and smelled at the Frogman, but couldn’t growl at him.