"I'm dreadful sorry to see Polychrome go,"
said Betsy, who felt like crying; "but I s'pose
she'll be a good deal happier with her sisters in
the sky palaces."
"To be sure," returned Shaggy, nodding
gravely. "It's her home, you know, and those
poor wanderers who, like ourselves, have no
home, can realize what that means to her."
"Once," said Betsy, "I, too, had a home. Now,
I've only--only--dear old Hank!"
She twined her arms around her shaggy friend who
was not human, and he said: "Hee-haw!" in a tone
that showed he understood her mood. And the shaggy
friend who was human stroked the child's head
tenderly and said: "You're wrong about that,
Betsy, dear. I will never desert you."
"Nor I!" exclaimed Shaggy's brother, in earnest
tones.
The little girl looked up at them gratefully,
and her eyes smiled through their tears.
"All right," she said. "It's raining again, so
let's go back into the cavern."
Rather soberly, for all loved Polychrome and
would miss her, they reentered the dominions of
the Nome King.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Dorothy is Delighted
"Well," said Queen Ann, when all were again seated
in Kaliko's royal cavern, "I wonder what we shall
do next. If I could find my way back to Oogaboo
I'd take my army home at once, for I'm sick and
tired of these dreadful hardships."
"Don't you want to conquer the world?" asked Betsy.
"No; I've changed my mind about that," admitted
the Queen. "The world is too big for one person to
conquer and I was happier with my own people in
Oogaboo.
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