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Baum, L. Frank

"The Marvelous Land Of Oz"

With the point of his knife he made two round eyes,
a three-cornered nose, and
Line-Art Drawing
10
a mouth shaped like a new moon. The face, when completed, could not have
been considered strictly beautiful; but it wore a smile so big and broad,
and was so Jolly in expression, that even Tip laughed as he looked
admiringly at his work.
The child had no playmates, so he did not know that boys often dig out the
inside of a "pumpkin-jack," and in the space thus made put a lighted candle
to render the face more startling; but he conceived an idea of his own that
promised to be quite as effective. He decided to manufacture the form of a
man, who would wear this pumpkin head, and to stand it in a place where old
Mombi would meet it face to face.
"And then," said Tip to himself, with a laugh, "she'll squeal louder than
the brown pig does when I pull her tail, and shiver with fright worse than I
did last year when I had the ague!"
He had plenty of time to accomplish this task, for Mombi had gone to a
village -- to buy groceries, she said -- and it was a journey of at least
two days.
So he took his axe to the forest, and selected some stout, straight
saplings, which he cut down and trimmed of all their twigs and leaves.


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