and going to the doorway leading to the dome they found the Princess
and a throng of her people had entered the House of the Sorcerer.

So they went down to greet the beautiful vegetable lady, who said to them:

"I have been talking with my advisors about you meat people, and we
have decided that you do not belong in the Land of the Mangaboos and
must not remain here."

"How can we go away?" asked Dorothy.

"Oh, you cannot go away, of course; so you must be destroyed," was
the answer.

"In what way?" enquired the Wizard.

"We shall throw you three people into the Garden of the Twining
Vines," said the Princess, "and they will soon crush you and devour
your bodies to make themselves grow bigger. The animals you have with
you we will drive to the mountains and put into the Black Pit. Then
our country will be rid of all its unwelcome visitors."

"But you are in need of a Sorcerer," said the Wizard, "and not one of
those growing is yet ripe enough to pick. I am greater than any
thorn-covered sorcerer that every grew in your garden. Why destroy me?"

"It is true we need a Sorcerer," acknowledged the Princess, "but I am
informed that one of our own will be ready to pick in a few days, to
take the place of Gwig, whom you cut in two before it was time for him
to be planted. Let us see your arts, and the sorceries you are able