The owner of the unseen voice laughed lightly and said:

"You cannot escape the bears that way."

"How CAN we 'scape?" asked Dorothy, nervously, for an unseen danger is
always the hardest to face.

"You must take to the river," was the reply. "The bears will not
venture upon the water."

"But we would be drowned!" exclaimed the girl.

"Oh, there is no need of that," said the voice, which from its gentle tones
seemed to belong to a young girl. "You are strangers in the Valley of Voe,
and do not seem to know our ways; so I will try to save you."

The next moment a broad-leaved plant was jerked from the ground where
it grew and held suspended in the air before the Wizard.

"Sir," said the voice, "you must rub these leaves upon the soles of
all your feet, and then you will be able to walk upon the water
without sinking below the surface. It is a secret the bears do not
know, and we people of Voe usually walk upon the water when we travel,
and so escape our enemies."

"Thank you!" cried the Wizard, joyfully, and at once rubbed a leaf
upon the soles of Dorothy's shoes and then upon his own. The girl
took a leaf and rubbed it upon the kitten's paws, and the rest of the
plant was handed to Zeb, who, after applying it to his own feet,
carefully rubbed it upon all four of Jim's hoofs and then upon the