everyone here knows it nearly as well as I do. But you,
being a stranger, are no doubt curious to learn how I
became so beautiful and prosperous, so I will recite
for your benefit my strange adventures."

"Thank you," said Woot the Wanderer, still eating.

"I was not always made of tin," began the Emperor,
"for in the beginning I was a man of flesh and bone and
blood and lived in the Munchkin Country of Oz. There I
was, by trade, a woodchopper, and contributed my share
to the comfort of the Oz people by chopping up the
trees of the forest to make firewood, with which the
women would cook their meals while the children warmed
themselves about the fires. For my home I had a little
hut by the edge of the forest, and my life was one of
much content until I fell in love with a beautiful
Munchkin girl who lived not far away."

"What was the Munchkin girl's name?" asked Woot.

"Nimmie Amee. This girl, so fair that the sunsets
blushed when their rays fell upon her, lived with a
powerful witch who wore silver shoes and who had made
the poor child her slave. Nimmie Amee was obliged to
work from morning till night for the old Witch of the
East, scrubbing and sweeping her hut and cooking her
meals and washing her dishes. She had to cut firewood,
too, until I found her one day in the forest and fell
in love with her. After that, I always brought plenty