Henry are ready."

"That won't matter," declared Ozma. "The old life can have very
little to interest them, and the sooner they begin the new life here
the happier they will be. Here they come, my dear!"

As she spoke, there before the throne appeared Uncle Henry and Aunt
Em, who for a moment stood motionless, glaring with white and startled
faces at the scene that confronted them. If the ladies and gentlemen
present had not been so polite I am sure they would have laughed at
the two strangers.

Aunt Em had her calico dress skirt "tucked up," and she wore a faded,
blue-checked apron. Her hair was rather straggly and she had on a
pair of Uncle Henry's old slippers. In one hand she held a dish-towel
and in the other a cracked earthenware plate, which she had been
engaged in wiping when so suddenly transported to the Land of Oz.

Uncle Henry, when the summons came, had been out in the barn "doin'
chores." He wore a ragged and much soiled straw hat, a checked shirt
without any collar and blue overalls tucked into the tops of his old
cowhide boots.

"By gum!" gasped Uncle Henry, looking around as if bewildered.

"Well, I swan!" gurgled Aunt Em in a hoarse, frightened voice. Then
her eyes fell upon Dorothy, and she said: "D-d-d-don't that look like
our little girl--our Dorothy, Henry?"

"Hi, there--look out, Em!" exclaimed the old man, as Aunt Em advanced