She tried to
count them, knowing there ought to be five, but when she had counted
seventeen she grew bewildered and stopped, for the roads were as many
as the spokes of a wheel and ran in every direction from the place
where they stood; so if she kept on counting she was likely to count
some of the roads twice.
"Dear me!" she exclaimed. "There used to be only five roads, highway
and all. And now--why, where's the highway, Shaggy Man?"
"Can't say, miss," he responded, sitting down upon the ground as if
tired with standing. "Wasn't it here a minute ago?"
"I thought so," she answered, greatly perplexed. "And I saw the
gopher holes, too, and the dead stump; but they're not here now.
These roads are all strange--and what a lot of them there are!
Where do you suppose they all go to?"
"Roads," observed the shaggy man, "don't go anywhere. They stay in
one place, so folks can walk on them."
He put his hand in his side-pocket and drew out an apple--quick,
before Toto could bite him again. The little dog got his head out
this time and said "Bow-wow!" so loudly that it made Dorothy jump.
"O, Toto!" she cried; "where did you come from?"
"I brought him along," said the shaggy man.
"What for?" she asked.
"To guard these apples in my pocket, miss, so no one would steal them."
With one hand the shaggy man held the apple, which he began eating,
while with the other hand he pulled Toto out of his pocket and dropped
him to the ground.
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