“Do you like me better this way?” Reera inquired with a smile.

  “You look better,” he said calmly, “but I’m not sure I like you any better.”

  She laughed, saying: “During the heat of the day I like to be an ape, for an ape doesn’t wear any clothes to speak of. But if one has gentlemen callers it is proper to dress up.”

  Ervic noticed her right hand was closed, as if she held something in it. She shut the cupboard door, bent over the crocodile and in a moment the creature had changed to a red wolf. It was not pretty even now, and the wolf crouched beside its mistress as a dog might have done. Its teeth looked as dangerous as had those of the crocodile.

  Next the Yookoohoo went about touching all the lizards and toads, and at her touch they became kittens. The rats she changed into chipmunks. Now the only horrid creatures remaining were the four great spiders, which hid themselves behind their thick webs.

  “There!” Reera cried, “now my cottage presents a more comfortable appearance. I love the toads and lizards and rats, because most people hate them, but I would tire of them if they always remained the same. Sometimes I change their forms a dozen times a day.”

  “You are clever,” said Ervic. “I did not hear you utter any incantations or magic words. All you did was to touch the creatures.”

  “Oh, do you think so?” she replied. “Well, touch them yourself, if you like, and see if you can change their forms.”

  “No,” said the Skeezer, “I don’t understand magic and if I did I would not try to imitate your skill. You are a wonderful Yookoohoo, while I am only a common Skeezer.”

  This confession seemed to please Reera, who liked to have her witchcraft appreciated.

  “Will you go away now?” she asked. “I prefer to be alone.”

  “I prefer to stay here,” said Ervic.

  “In another person’s home, where you are not wanted?”

  “Yes.”

  “Is not your curiosity yet satisfied?” demanded Reera, with a smile.

  “I don’t know. Is there anything else you can do?”

  “Many things. But why should I exhibit my powers to a stranger?”

  “I can think of no reason at all,” he replied.

  She looked at him curiously.

  “You want no power for yourself, you say, and you’re too stupid to be able to steal my secrets. This isn’t a pretty cottage, while outside are sunshine, broad prairies and beautiful wildflowers. Yet you insist on sitting on that bench and annoying me with your unwelcome presence. What have you in that kettle?”

  “Three fishes,” he answered readily.

  “Where did you get them?”

  “I caught them in the Lake of the Skeezers.”

  “What do you intend to do with the fishes?”

  “I shall carry them to the home of a friend of mine who has three children. The children will love to have the fishes for pets.”

  She came over to the bench and looked into the kettle, where the three fishes were swimming quietly in the water.

  “They’re pretty,” said Reera. “Let me transform them into something else.”

  “No,” objected the Skeezer.

  “I love to transform things; it’s so interesting. And I’ve never transformed any fishes in all my life.”

  “Let them alone,” said Ervic.

  “What shapes would you prefer them to have? I can make them turtles, or cute little sea-horses; or I could make them piglets, or rabbits, or guinea-pigs; or, if you like I can make chickens of them, or eagles, or bluejays.”

  “Let them alone!” repeated Ervic.

  “You’re not a very pleasant visitor,” laughed Red Reera. “People accuse me of being cross and crabbed and unsociable, and they are quite right. If you had come here pleading and begging for favors, and half afraid of my Yookoohoo magic, I’d have abused you until you ran away; but you’re quite different from that. You’re the unsociable and crabbed and disagreeable one, and so I like you, and bear with your grumpiness. It’s time for my midday meal; are you hungry?”

  “No,” said Ervic, although he really desired food.

  “Well, I am,” Reera declared and clapped her hands together. Instantly a table appeared, spread with linen and bearing dishes of various foods, some smoking hot. There were two plates laid, one at each end of the table, and as soon as Reera seated herself all her creatures gathered around her, as if they were accustomed to be fed when she ate. The wolf squatted at her right hand and the kittens and chipmunks gathered at her left.

  “Come, Stranger, sit down and eat,” she called cheerfully, “and while we’re eating let us decide into what forms we shall change your fishes.”

  “They’re all right as they are,” asserted Ervic, drawing up his bench to the table. “The fishes are beauties—one gold, one silver and one bronze. Nothing that has life is more lovely than a beautiful fish.”

  “What! Am I not more lovely?” Reera asked, smiling at his serious face.

  “I don’t object to you—for a Yookoohoo, you know,” he said, helping himself to the food and eating with good appetite.

  “And don’t you consider a beautiful girl more lovely than a fish, however pretty the fish may be?”

  “Well,” replied Ervic, after a period of thought, “that might be. If you transformed my three fish into three girls—girls who would be Adepts at Magic, you know they might please me as well as the fish do. You won’t do that of course, because you can’t, with all your skill. And, should you be able to do so, I fear my troubles would be more than I could bear. They would not consent to be my slaves—especially if they were Adepts at Magic—and so they would command me to obey them. No, Mistress Reera, let us not transform the fishes at all.”

  The Skeezer had put his case with remarkable cleverness. He realized that if he appeared anxious for such a transformation the Yookoohoo would not perform it, yet he had skillfully suggested that they be made Adepts at Magic.

  Chapter Nineteen.Red Reera, the Yookoohoo

  After the meal was over and Reera had fed her pets, including the four monster spiders which had come down from their webs to secure their share, she made the table disappear from the floor of the cottage.

  “I wish you’d consent to my transforming your fishes,” she said, as she took up her knitting again.

  The Skeezer made no reply. He thought it unwise to hurry matters. All during the afternoon they sat silent. Once Reera went to her cupboard and after thrusting her hand into the same drawer as before, touched the wolf and transformed it into a bird with gorgeous colored feathers. This bird was larger than a parrot and of a somewhat different form, but Ervic had never seen one like it before.

  “Sing!” said Reera to the bird, which had perched itself on a big wooden peg—as if it had been in the cottage before and knew just what to do.

  And the bird sang jolly, rollicking songs with words to them—just as a person who had been carefully trained might do. The songs were entertaining and Ervic enjoyed listening to them. In an hour or so the bird stopped singing, tucked its head under its wing and went to sleep. Reera continued knitting but seemed thoughtful.

  Now Ervic had marked this cupboard drawer well and had concluded that Reera took something from it which enabled her to perform her transformations. He thought that if he managed to remain in the cottage, and Reera fell asleep, he could slyly open the cupboard, take a portion of whatever was in the drawer, and by dropping it into the copper kettle transform the three fishes into their natural shapes. Indeed, he had firmly resolved to carry out this plan when the Yookoohoo put down her knitting and walked toward the door.

  “I’m going out for a few minutes,” said she; “do you wish to go with me, or will you remain here?”

  Ervic did not answer but sat quietly on his bench. So Reera went out and closed the cottage door.

  As soon as she was gone, Ervic rose and tiptoed to the cupboard.

  “Take care! Take care!” cried several voices, coming from the kittens and chipmunks. “If you touch anything we’ll tell the Yookoohoo!”

  Ervic hesitated a moment but, remembering that he need not consider Reera’s anger if he succeeded in transforming the fishes, he was about to open the cupboard when he was arrested by the voices of the fishes, which stuck their heads above the water in the kettle and called out:

  “Come here, Ervic!”

  So he went back to the kettle and bent over it

  “Let the cupboard alone,” said the goldfish to him earnestly. “You could not succeed by getting that magic powder, for only the Yookoohoo knows how to use it. The best way is to allow her to transform us into three girls, for then we will have our natural shapes and be able to perform all the Arts of Magic we have learned and well understand. You are acting wisely and in the most effective manner. We did not know you were so intelligent, or that Reera could be so easily deceived by you. Continue as you have begun and try to persuade her to transform us. But insist that we be given the forms of girls.”

  The goldfish ducked its head down just as Reera re-entered the cottage. She saw Ervic bent over the kettle, so she came and joined him.

  “Can your fishes talk?” she asked.

  “Sometimes,” he replied, “for all fishes in the Land of Oz know how to speak. Just now they were asking me for some bread. They are hungry.”

  “Well, they can have some bread,” said Reera. “But it is nearly supper-time, and if you would allow me to transform your fishes into girls they could join us at the table and have plenty of food much nicer than crumbs. Why not let me transform them?”

  “Well,” said Ervic, as if hesitating, “ask the fishes. If they consent, why—why, then, I’ll think it over.”

  Reera bent over the kettle and asked:

  “Can you hear me, little fishes?”

  All three popped their heads above water.

  “We can hear you,” said the bronzefish.

  “I want to give you other forms, such as rabbits, or turtles or girls, or something; but your master, the surly Skeezer, does not wish me to. However, he has agreed to the plan if you will consent.”

  “We’d like to be girls,” said the silverfish.

  “No, no!” exclaimed Ervic.

  “If you promise to make us three beautiful girls, we will consent,” said the goldfish.

  “No, no!” exclaimed Ervic again.

  “Also make us Adepts at Magic,” added the bronzefish.

  “I don’t know exactly what that means,” replied Reera musingly, “but as no Adept at Magic is as powerful as Yookoohoo, I’ll add that to the transformation.”

  “We won’t try to harm you, or to interfere with your magic in any way,” promised the goldfish. “On the contrary, we will be your friends.”

  “Will you agree to go away and leave me alone in my cottage, whenever I command you to do so?” asked Reera.

  “We promise that,” cried the three fishes.

  “Don’t do it! Don’t consent to the transformation,” urged Ervic.

  “They have already consented,” said the Yookoohoo, laughing in his face, “and you have promised me to abide by their decision. So, friend Skeezer, I shall perform the transformation whether you like it or not.”

  Ervic seated himself on the bench again, a deep scowl on his face but joy in his heart. Reera moved over to the cupboard, took something from the drawer and returned to the copper kettle. She was clutching something tightly in her right hand, but with her left she reached within the kettle, took out the three fishes and laid them carefully on the floor, where they gasped in distress at being out of water.

  Reera did not keep them in misery more than a few seconds, for she touched each one with her right hand and instantly the fishes were transformed into three tall and slender young women, with fine, intelligent faces and clothed in handsome, clinging gowns. The one who had been a goldfish had beautiful golden hair and blue eyes and was exceedingly fair of skin; the one who had been a bronzefish had dark brown hair and clear gray eyes and her complexion matched these lovely features. The one who had been a silverfish had snow-white hair of the finest texture and deep brown eyes. The hair contrasted exquisitely with her pink cheeks and ruby-red lips, nor did it make her look a day older than her two companions.

  As soon as they secured these girlish shapes, all three bowed low to the Yookoohoo and said:

  “We thank you, Reera.”

  Then they bowed to the Skeezer and said:

  “We thank you, Ervic.”

  “Very good!” cried the Yookoohoo, examining her work with critical approval. “You are much better and more interesting than fishes, and this ungracious Skeezer would scarcely allow me to do the transformations. You surely have nothing to thank him for. But now let us dine in honor of the occasion.”

  She clapped her hands together and again a table loaded with food appeared in the cottage. It was a longer table, this time, and places were set for the three Adepts as well as for Reera and Ervic.

  “Sit down, friends, and eat your fill,” said the Yookoohoo, but instead of seating herself at the head of the table she went to the cupboard, saying to the Adepts: “Your beauty and grace, my fair friends, quite outshine my own. So that I may appear properly at the banquet table I intend, in honor of this occasion, to take upon myself my natural shape.”

  Scarcely had she finished this speech when Reera transformed herself into a young woman fully as lovely as the three Adepts. She was not quite so tall as they, but her form was more rounded and more handsomely clothed, with a wonderful jeweled girdle and a necklace of shining pearls. Her hair was a bright auburn red, and her eyes large and dark.

  “Do you claim this is your natural form?” asked Ervic of the Yookoohoo.

  “Yes,” she replied. “This is the only form I am really entitled to wear. But I seldom assume it because there is no one here to admire or appreciate it and I get tired admiring it myself.”

  “I see now why you are named Reera the Red,” remarked Ervic.

  “It is on account of my red hair,” she explained smiling. “I do not care for red hair myself, which is one reason I usually wear other forms.”

  “It is beautiful,” asserted the young man; and then remembering the other women present he added: “But, of course, all women should not have red hair, because that would make it too common. Gold and silver and brown hair are equally handsome.”

  The smiles that he saw interchanged between the four filled the poor Skeezer with embarrassment, so he fell silent and attended to eating his supper, leaving the others to do the talking. The three Adepts frankly told Reera who they were, how they became fishes and how they had planned secretly to induce the Yookoohoo to transform them. They admitted that they had feared, had they asked her to help, that she would have refused them.

  “You were quite right,” returned the Yookoohoo. “I make it my rule never to perform magic to assist others, for if I did there would always be crowd at my cottage demanding help and I hate crowds and want to be left alone.”

  “However, now that you are restored to your proper shapes, I do not regret my action and I hope you will be of use in saving the Skeezer people by raising their island to the surface of the lake, where it really belongs. But you must promise me that after you go away you will never come here again, nor tell anyone what I have done for you.”

  The three Adepts and Ervic thanked the Yookoohoo warmly. They promised to remember her wish that they should not come to her cottage again and so, with a good-bye, took their departure.

  Chapter Twenty.A Puzzling Problem

  Glinda the Good, having decided to try her sorcery upon the abandoned submarine, so that it would obey her commands, asked all of her party, including the Skeezers, to withdraw from the shore of the take to the line of palm trees. She kept with her only the little Wizard of Oz, who was her pupil and knew how to assist her in her magic rites. When they two were alone beside the stranded boat, Glinda said to the Wizard:

  “I shall first try my magic recipe No. 1163, which is intended to make inanimate objects move at my command. Have you a skeropythrope with you?”

  “Yes, I always carry one in my bag,” replied the Wizard. He opened his black bag of magic tools and took out a brightly polished skeropythrope, which he handed to the Sorceress. Glinda had also brought a small wicker bag, containing various requirements of sorcery, and from this she took a parcel of powder and a vial of liquid. She poured the liquid into the skeropythrope and added the powder. At once the skeropythrope began to sputter and emit sparks of a violet color, which spread in all directions. The Sorceress instantly stepped into the middle of the boat and held the instrument so that the sparks fell all around her and covered every bit of the blackened steel boat. At the same time Glinda crooned a weird incantation in the language of sorcery, her voice sounding low and musical.

  After a little the violet sparks ceased, and those that had fallen upon the boat had disappeared and left no mark upon its surface. The ceremony was ended and Glinda returned the skeropythrope to the Wizard, who put it away in his black bag.

  “That ought to do the business all right,” he said confidently.

  “Let us make a trial and see,” she replied.

  So they both entered the boat and seated themselves.

  Speaking in a tone of command the Sorceress said to the boat: “Carry us across the lake, to the farther shore.”

  At once the boat backed off the sandy beach, turned its prow and moved swiftly over the water.

  “Very good—very good indeed!” cried the Wizard, when the boat slowed up at the shore opposite from that whence they had departed. “Even Coo-ee-oh, with all her witchcraft, could do no better.”