"We are very important people," declared the Tin Woodman.

"All the better," she replied. "I shall enjoy your
society the more on that account. For I mean to keep
you here as long as I live, to amuse me when I get
lonely. And," she added slowly, "in this Valley no one
ever dies."

They didn't like this speech at all, so the Scarecrow
frowned in a way that made Mrs. Yoop smile, while
the Tin Woodman looked so fierce that Mrs. Yoop
laughed. The Scarecrow suspected she was going to
laugh, so he slipped behind his friends to escape the
wind from her breath. From this safe position he
said warningly:

"We have powerful friends who will soon come to
rescue us."

"Let them come," she returned, with an accent of
scorn. "When they get here they will find neither a
boy, nor a tin man, nor a scarecrow, for tomorrow
morning I intend to transform you all into other
shapes, so that you cannot be recognized."

This threat filled them with dismay. The good-natured
Giantess was more terrible than they had imagined. She
could smile and wear pretty clothes and at the same
time be even more cruel than her wicked husband had been.