气球是如何升空的
连续三天，多萝西没有收到奥兹的任何消息。对小女孩来说，这些日子是忧伤的，尽管她的朋友们都相当快乐和满足。稻草人告诉他们，他的脑袋里有着奇妙的思想；但他不肯说那是什么，因为他知道除了他自己，谁也无法理解。当铁皮樵夫走动时，他感觉到自己的心在胸腔里咯咯作响；他告诉多萝西，他发觉这是一颗比他肉身时期所拥有的更仁慈、更温柔的心。狮子宣称世上没什么他害怕的，乐意直面一支军队或十几个凶猛的卡利达。
就这样，除了多萝西，这一小行人个个心满意足，而她比以往任何时候都更渴望回到堪萨斯去。
第四天，令她大为欢喜的是，奥兹派人来叫她，当她走进王座厅时，他亲切地招呼她：
“坐下吧，我亲爱的；我想我已经找到了带你离开这个国家的办法。”
“回到堪萨斯？”她急切地问。
“嗯，堪萨斯在哪儿我可说不准，”奥兹说，“因为我完全不知道它朝哪个方向。但首先要做的是穿过沙漠，之后要找到回家的路就应该容易了。”
“我怎么穿过沙漠呢？”她问道。
“嗯，我跟你说说是怎么想的，”小个子男人说。“你看，我当初来到这个国家，是乘着气球来的。你也是穿过空气，被一阵旋风带着来的。所以我相信，穿过沙漠最好的办法就是走空中。现在，造一场旋风远远超出了我的能力；但我仔细琢磨了这事，相信我能造一个气球。”
“怎么造？”多萝西问。
“气球，”奥兹说，“是用丝绸做的，外面涂了胶水好让气体留在里面。宫殿里我有的是丝绸，所以做气球不成问题。可这整个国家没有能充进气球让它飘起来的气体。”
“要是飘不起来，”多萝西说，“那对我们就没用。”
“确实，”奥兹答道。“但还有另一种让它飘起来的办法，就是灌进热空气。热空气不如气体好，因为一旦空气冷下来，气球就会掉在沙漠里，那我们就完了。”
“我们！”女孩叫道。“你要和我一起去吗？”
“是的，当然，”奥兹答道。“我厌倦了当这样一个骗子。我要是走出这宫殿，我的百姓很快就会发现我不是什么巫师，那时他们准会因我欺骗了他们而恼火。所以我整天得关在这些屋子里，实在烦人。我倒更愿意跟你回堪萨斯，再去马戏团里干活。”
“有你作伴我会很高兴。”多萝西说。
“谢谢你，”他答道。“现在，你要是愿意帮我缝丝绸，我们就动手做气球。”
于是多萝西拿起针线，奥兹把丝绸裁成合适的条状，女孩就飞快地把它整齐缝好。先是一条浅绿丝绸，接着一条深绿，再一条翡翠绿；因为奥兹想用身边这种种层次的绿色来做气球。缝完所有条带花了三天，但完工时，他们有了一个二十多英尺长的绿色丝绸大袋。
随后奥兹在袋子里面刷了一层薄胶，使它不透气，然后宣布气球已经就绪。
“但我们还得有个篮子来乘坐，”他说。于是他派绿胡子士兵去取来一只大衣篮，用许多绳子把它系在气球底部。
一切就绪后，奥兹传话给他的百姓，说要去拜访一位住在云端的伟大巫师兄弟。消息迅速传遍全城，人人都来看这奇景。
奥兹吩咐把气球抬到宫殿前，百姓们好奇地望着它。铁皮樵夫劈了一大堆木柴，这时生起火来，奥兹把气球底部举在火上方，好让升起的熱空气收进丝绸袋里。气球渐渐鼓胀，升入空中，直到最后篮子刚好触到地面。
接着奥兹钻进篮子，大声对所有人说：
“我现在要出门拜访了。我不在时，由稻草人统治你们。我命令你们像服从我一样服从他。”
这时气球正使劲拽着拴在地上的绳子，因为里面的空气是热的，这使它比外面的空气轻得多，拼命想升上天空。
“快来，多萝西！”巫师喊道。“快点，不然气球要飞走了。”
“我哪儿也找不到托托，”多萝西答道，她不愿把小狗落下。托托跑进人群冲一只小猫吠叫，多萝西终于找到了他。她抱起他朝气球跑去。
她离气球只剩几步远，奥兹正伸出双手扶她进篮子，这时，啪的一声！绳子断了，气球带着她升上了天空。
“回来！”她尖叫。“我也要去！”
“我回不来了，我亲爱的，”奥兹在篮子里喊道。“再见！”
“再见！”大家齐声喊，所有的目光都朝上望去，望着巫师乘在篮子里，一刻比一刻更高更远地升入天空。
那就是他们任何人最后一次见到神奇巫师奥兹，尽管他也许平安到了奥马哈，如今就在那儿，也未可知。但人们深情地记着他，彼此说：
“奥兹一直是我们的朋友。他在这儿时，为我们建了这座美丽的翡翠城，如今他走了，留下聪明的稻草人统治我们。”
然而，许多天里他们仍为失去神奇巫师而悲伤，难以慰藉。
How the Balloon Was Launched
For three days Dorothy heard nothing from Oz. These were sad days for
the little girl, although her friends were all quite happy and
contented. The Scarecrow told them there were wonderful thoughts in his
head; but he would not say what they were because he knew no one could
understand them but himself. When the Tin Woodman walked about he felt
his heart rattling around in his breast; and he told Dorothy he had
discovered it to be a kinder and more tender heart than the one he had
owned when he was made of flesh. The Lion declared he was afraid of
nothing on earth, and would gladly face an army or a dozen of the
fierce Kalidahs.
Thus each of the little party was satisfied except Dorothy, who longed
more than ever to get back to Kansas.
On the fourth day, to her great joy, Oz sent for her, and when she
entered the Throne Room he greeted her pleasantly:
“Sit down, my dear; I think I have found the way to get you out of this
country.”
“And back to Kansas?” she asked eagerly.
“Well, I’m not sure about Kansas,” said Oz, “for I haven’t the faintest
notion which way it lies. But the first thing to do is to cross the
desert, and then it should be easy to find your way home.”
“How can I cross the desert?” she inquired.
“Well, I’ll tell you what I think,” said the little man. “You see, when
I came to this country it was in a balloon. You also came through the
air, being carried by a cyclone. So I believe the best way to get
across the desert will be through the air. Now, it is quite beyond my
powers to make a cyclone; but I’ve been thinking the matter over, and I
believe I can make a balloon.”
“How?” asked Dorothy.
“A balloon,” said Oz, “is made of silk, which is coated with glue to
keep the gas in it. I have plenty of silk in the Palace, so it will be
no trouble to make the balloon. But in all this country there is no gas
to fill the balloon with, to make it float.”
“If it won’t float,” remarked Dorothy, “it will be of no use to us.”
“True,” answered Oz. “But there is another way to make it float, which
is to fill it with hot air. Hot air isn’t as good as gas, for if the
air should get cold the balloon would come down in the desert, and we
should be lost.”
“We!” exclaimed the girl. “Are you going with me?”
“Yes, of course,” replied Oz. “I am tired of being such a humbug. If I
should go out of this Palace my people would soon discover I am not a
Wizard, and then they would be vexed with me for having deceived them.
So I have to stay shut up in these rooms all day, and it gets tiresome.
I’d much rather go back to Kansas with you and be in a circus again.”
“I shall be glad to have your company,” said Dorothy.
“Thank you,” he answered. “Now, if you will help me sew the silk
together, we will begin to work on our balloon.”
So Dorothy took a needle and thread, and as fast as Oz cut the strips
of silk into proper shape the girl sewed them neatly together. First
there was a strip of light green silk, then a strip of dark green and
then a strip of emerald green; for Oz had a fancy to make the balloon
in different shades of the color about them. It took three days to sew
all the strips together, but when it was finished they had a big bag of
green silk more than twenty feet long.
Then Oz painted it on the inside with a coat of thin glue, to make it
airtight, after which he announced that the balloon was ready.
“But we must have a basket to ride in,” he said. So he sent the soldier
with the green whiskers for a big clothes basket, which he fastened
with many ropes to the bottom of the balloon.
When it was all ready, Oz sent word to his people that he was going to
make a visit to a great brother Wizard who lived in the clouds. The
news spread rapidly throughout the city and everyone came to see the
wonderful sight.
Oz ordered the balloon carried out in front of the Palace, and the
people gazed upon it with much curiosity. The Tin Woodman had chopped a
big pile of wood, and now he made a fire of it, and Oz held the bottom
of the balloon over the fire so that the hot air that arose from it
would be caught in the silken bag. Gradually the balloon swelled out
and rose into the air, until finally the basket just touched the
ground.
Then Oz got into the basket and said to all the people in a loud voice:
“I am now going away to make a visit. While I am gone the Scarecrow
will rule over you. I command you to obey him as you would me.”
The balloon was by this time tugging hard at the rope that held it to
the ground, for the air within it was hot, and this made it so much
lighter in weight than the air without that it pulled hard to rise into
the sky.
“Come, Dorothy!” cried the Wizard. “Hurry up, or the balloon will fly
away.”
“I can’t find Toto anywhere,” replied Dorothy, who did not wish to
leave her little dog behind. Toto had run into the crowd to bark at a
kitten, and Dorothy at last found him. She picked him up and ran
towards the balloon.
She was within a few steps of it, and Oz was holding out his hands to
help her into the basket, when, crack! went the ropes, and the balloon
rose into the air without her.
“Come back!” she screamed. “I want to go, too!”
“I can’t come back, my dear,” called Oz from the basket. “Good-bye!”
“Good-bye!” shouted everyone, and all eyes were turned upward to where
the Wizard was riding in the basket, rising every moment farther and
farther into the sky.
And that was the last any of them ever saw of Oz, the Wonderful Wizard,
though he may have reached Omaha safely, and be there now, for all we
know. But the people remembered him lovingly, and said to one another:
“Oz was always our friend. When he was here he built for us this
beautiful Emerald City, and now he is gone he has left the Wise
Scarecrow to rule over us.”
Still, for many days they grieved over the loss of the Wonderful
Wizard, and would not be comforted.
