16. Visiting the Pumpkin-Field
Dorothy let Button-Bright wind up the clock-work in the copper man this
morning--his thinking machine first, then his speech, and finally his
action; so he would doubtless run perfectly until they had reached the
Emerald City. The copper man and the tin man were good friends, and
not so much alike as you might think. For one was alive and the other
moved by means of machinery; one was tall and angular and the other
short and round. You could love the Tin Woodman because he had a fine
nature, kindly and simple; but the machine man you could only admire
without loving, since to love such a thing as he was as impossible as
to love a sewing-machine or an automobile. Yet Tik-tok was popular
with the people of Oz because he was so trustworthy, reliable and
true; he was sure to do exactly what he was wound up to do, at all
times and in all circumstances. Perhaps it is better to be a machine
that does its duty than a flesh-and-blood person who will not, for a
dead truth is better than a live falsehood.
About noon the travelers reached a large field of pumpkins--a
vegetable quite appropriate to the yellow country of the Winkies--and
some of the pumpkins which grew there were of remarkable size. Just
before they entered upon this field they saw three little mounds that
looked like graves, with a pretty headstone to each one of them.
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