They all ran forward to greet Dorothy, as she approached, and Aunt Em
exclaimed: "Goodness gracious, child! Where have you been?"
"You've played hookey the whole day," added the Shaggy Man, reproachfully.
"Well, you see, I've been lost," explained the little girl, "and I've
tried awful hard to find the way back to you, but just couldn't do it."
"Did you wander in the forest all day?" asked Uncle Henry.
"You must be a'most starved!" said Aunt Em.
"No," said Dorothy, "I'm not hungry. I had a wheelbarrow and a piano
for breakfast, and lunched with a King."
"Ah!" exclaimed the Wizard, nodding with a bright smile. "So you've
been having adventures again."
"She's stark crazy!" cried Aunt Em. "Whoever heard of eating
a wheelbarrow?"
"It wasn't very big," said Dorothy; "and it had a zuzu wheel."
"And I ate the crumbs," said Billina, soberly.
"Sit down and tell us about it," begged the Wizard. "We've hunted for
you all day, and at last I noticed your footsteps in this path--and
the tracks of Billina. We found the path by accident, and seeing it
only led to two places I decided you were at either one or the other
of those places.
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