"Alas," returned the Sorceress sorrowfully, "we cannot do that, for
the Great Book of Records has also disappeared!"




CHAPTER 3

OF CAYKE THE COOKIE COOK

One more important theft was reported in the Land of Oz that eventful
morning, but it took place so far from either the Emerald City or the
castle of Glinda the Good that none of those persons we have mentioned
learned of the robbery until long afterward.

In the far southwestern corner of the Winkie Country is a broad
tableland that can be reached only by climbing a steep hill, whichever
side one approaches it. On the hillside surrounding this tableland
are no paths at all, but there are quantities of bramble bushes with
sharp prickers on them, which prevent any of the Oz people who live
down below from climbing up to see what is on top. But on top live
the Yips, and although the space they occupy is not great in extent,
the wee country is all their own. The Yips had never--up to the time
this story begins--left their broad tableland to go down into the Land
of Oz, nor had the Oz people ever climbed up to the country of the
Yips.

Living all alone as they did, the Yips had queer ways and notions of
their own and did not resemble any other people of the Land of Oz.
Their houses were scattered all over the flat surface; not like a