"I'll get up early
to-morrow morning and be at the Forbidden Fountain when the fierce
warriors break through the crust of the earth. I will speak to them
pleasantly and perhaps they won't be so very bad, after all."
"Why do they call it the Forbidden Fountain?" asked Dorothy, thoughtfully.
"Don't you know, dear?" returned Ozma, surprised.
"No," said Dorothy. "Of course I've seen the fountain in the palace
grounds, ever since I first came to Oz; and I've read the sign which
says: 'All Persons are Forbidden to Drink at this Fountain.' But I
never knew WHY they were forbidden. The water seems clear and
sparkling and it bubbles up in a golden basin all the time."
"That water," declared Ozma, gravely, "is the most dangerous thing
in all the Land of Oz. It is the Water of Oblivion."
"What does that mean?" asked Dorothy.
"Whoever drinks at the Forbidden Fountain at once forgets everything
he has ever known," Ozma asserted.
"It wouldn't be a bad way to forget our troubles," suggested Uncle Henry.
"That is true; but you would forget everything else, and become as
ignorant as a baby," returned Ozma.
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