"But what do you want us for?" asked the shaggy man, uneasily.
"Soup!" they all shouted, as if with one voice.
"Goodness me!" said Dorothy, trembling a little; "the Scoodlers must
be reg'lar cannibals."
"Don't want to be soup," protested Button-Bright, beginning to cry.
"Hush, dear," said the little girl, trying to comfort him; "we don't
any of us want to be soup. But don't worry; the shaggy man will take
care of us."
"Will he?" asked Polychrome, who did not like the Scoodlers at all,
and kept close to Dorothy.
"I'll try," promised the shaggy man; but he looked worried.
Happening just then to feel the Love Magnet in his pocket,
he said to the creatures, with more confidence:
"Don't you love me?"
"Yes!" they shouted, all together.
"Then you mustn't harm me, or my friends," said the shaggy man, firmly.
"We love you in soup!" they yelled, and in a flash turned their white
sides to the front.
"How dreadful!" said Dorothy. "This is a time, Shaggy Man, when you
get loved too much."
"Don't want to be soup!" wailed Button-Bright again; and Toto began
to whine dismally, as if he didn't want to be soup, either.
"The only thing to do," said the shaggy man to his friends, in a low
tone, "is to get out of this pocket in the rocks as soon as we can, and
leave the Scoodlers behind us. Follow me, my dears, and don't pay any
attention to what they do or say.
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