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.The baby cooed and wet itself with pleasure.The Witch handed itback quickly before the wet could soak through her skirt."Regardless of the shoes," said the Witch, "do you think a child like that should besent unarmed straight into the jaws of the Wizard? Has she been told what a monsterhe is?"Boq looked uncomfortable."Well, Elphie, I don't like speaking ill ofthe Wizard.I'm afraid there are too many pitchers with big ears in thiscommunity, and you never know who is on what side.Between you and me, I hopeNessa's death will result in some sort of a sensible government, but if we are overrunwith an invading army in two months I wouldn't want it bruited about that I'd beenbad-mouthing the invaders.And there are rumors of reunffication.""Oh, don't tell me you're hoping for that," she said, "not you too.""I'm not hoping for anything, except for peace and quiet," he said."I have enoughtrouble getting crops out of these rocky fields.That's what I was in Shiz to learn, doyou remember?-agriculture.I've put the best of my efforts into our small holdings,and we only manage to eke out a living."But he looked rather proud about it, and so did Milla.- 449 - "And I guess you have a couple of Cows in your barn," said the Witch."Oh, you're testy.Of course we don't.Do you think I could forget what we workedfor-you and Crope and Tibbett and I? It was the high point of a very quiet life.""You didn't have to have a quiet life, Boq," said the Witch."Don't be superior.I didn't say I was sorry for it, neither the excitement of arighteous campaign nor the relief of a family and a farm.Did we ever do any goodback then?""If nothing else," said the Witch, "we helped Doctor Dillamond.He was very muchalone in his work, you know.And the philosophical basis for the resistance grew outof his pioneering hypotheses.His findings outlived him; they still do." She did notmention her own experiments with the winged monkeys.Her practical applicationswere directly derived from Doctor Dillamond's theories."We had no idea we were at the end of a golden age," Boq said, sighing."When'sthe last time you saw an Animal in the professions?""Ah, don't get me started," the Witch said.She couldn't stay seated."Do you remember, you hoarded those notes of Dillamond's.You never really letme know what they were all about.Did you make any use of them?""I learned enough from his research to keep questioning," said the Witch, but shefelt bombastic, and wanted to stop talking.It made herfeel too sad, too desperate.Milla saw this, and with a brusque charity declared,"Those times are over and gone, and good riddance to them, too.We were hopelesslyhigh-spirited.Now we're the thick-waisted generation, dragging along our childrenbehind us and carrying our parents on our backs.And we're in charge, while thefigures who used to command our respect are wasting away."- 450 - "The Wizard doesn't," said the Witch."Well, Madame Morrible does," said Milla."Or so Shenshen told me in her lastletter.""Oh?" said the Witch."Yes, that's right," said Boq."Though from her bed of pain Madame Morriblecontinues to advise our Emperor Wizard on policy matters about education.I'msurprised that Glinda didn't send Dorothy to Shiz to study with Madame Morrible.Instead she directed her to the Emerald City."The Witch could not picture Dorothy, but for a moment she saw the stoopedfigure of Nor.She saw a crowd of girls like Nor, in chains and yokes, drifting aroundMadame Morrible the way those schoolgirls had, all those years ago."Elphie, sit down again, you don't look well," said Boq."This is a hard time for you.You didn't get along well with Nessarose, I seem to remember."But the Witch didn't want to think of her sister."It's a rather ugly name, Dorothy,"she said."Don't you think?" She sat back down heavily, and Boq relaxed on a stool afew feet away."I don't know," he said."Actually we had a chat about it.She said that the King ofher homeland was a man named Theodore.Her teacher explained that the namemeant Gift of God, and that this was a sign that he was ordained to be King or PrimeMinister.Dorothy remarked that Dorothy was a sort of backward Theodore, but theteacher looked it up and said no, Dorothy meant Goddess of Gifts.""Well, I know what she can give me," said the Witch."She can give me my shoes.Are you trying to say that you think she was a gift of God, or that she is some sort ofqueen or goddess? Boq, you used not to go in for superstition."- 451 - "I'm not saying anything of the sort.I'm having a conversation on wordderivations," he answered calmly."Let others more enlightenedthan I ferret out the hidden meanings of life.But I do think it interesting that hername so resembles the name of her king."Milla said, "Well, I think she's a holy little girl, ordinary and sanctified just as anychild is, no more no less.Yellowgage, get your paws off that lemon tart, I can see youfrom here, or I'll whip you from now to eternity.The Dorothy child reminded me ofwhat Ozma might have been like, or might yet be like, if she ever comes out of thedeep sleep she's supposed to be enchanted into.""She sounds like a little fright," said the Witch."Ozma, Dorothy- all this talk aboutsavior children.I have always detested it.""You know what it is?" said Boq, thinkÒ g carefully."Since we're talking about theold days, it comes back to me.I wonder if you remember that medieval painting Ionce found in the library at Three Queens? The one with the female figure cradlingthe beast? There was a sort of tenderness and awfulness in that painting.Well, there'ssomething in Dorothy that reminds me of that unnamed figure.You might even call itthe Unnamed Goddess-is that sacrilegious or what? Dorothy has this sweet charitytoward her dog, a pretty dreadful little beast.And whiffy? You wouldn't believe howrepugnant.Once she swooped the dog up in her arms and bent over it, crooning to it,in just the same pose as that medieval figure.Dorothy is a child, but she has aheaviness of bearing like an adult, and a gravity you don't often find in the young.It'svery becoming.Elphie, I was charmed by her, to tell you the truth." He cracked acouple of walnuts and eastern macarands, and passed them around."I am sure youwill be, too."- 452 - "I would like to avoid her at all costs, at the sound of it," said the Witch."The lastthing I'm in a mood for these days is to be charmed by juvenile purity.But I insist onrecovering my property.""The shoes are very magic, are they?" said Milla."Or is it just symbolic?""How do I even know?" said the Witch."I haven't ever put them on.But if I couldget them and they could walk me out of this parlous life, I wouldn't be sorry.""Anyway, everyone blamed the shoes for Nessa's tyranny.I think it's good ofGlinda to have gotten them out of Munchkinland
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