“Oh!” said Langwidere, slightly lifting the nose of No. 17.  “I thought some one of importance had called.”

“Then you were right,” declared Dorothy.  “I’m a good deal of ’portance myself, and when Billina lays an egg she has the proudest cackle you ever heard.  As for Tiktok, he’s the—­”

“Stop—­Stop!” commanded the Princess, with an angry flash of her splendid eyes.  “How dare you annoy me with your senseless chatter?”

“Why, you horrid thing!” said Dorothy, who was not accustomed to being treated so rudely.

The Princess looked at her more closely.

“Tell me,” she resumed, “are you of royal blood?”

“Better than that, ma’am,” said Dorothy.  “I came from Kansas.”

“Huh!” cried the Princess, scornfully.  “You are a foolish child, and I cannot allow you to annoy me.  Run away, you little goose, and bother some one else.”

Dorothy was so indignant that for a moment she could find no words to reply.  But she rose from her chair, and was about to leave the room when the Princess, who had been scanning the girl’s face, stopped her by saying, more gently: 

“Come nearer to me.”

Dorothy obeyed, without a thought of fear, and stood before the Princess while Langwidere examined her face with careful attention.

“You are rather attractive,” said the lady, presently.  “Not at all beautiful, you understand, but you have a certain style of prettiness that is different from that of any of my thirty heads.  So I believe I’ll take your head and give you No. 26 for it.”

“Well, I b’lieve you won’t!” exclaimed Dorothy.

“It will do you no good to refuse,” continued the Princess; “for I need your head for my collection, and in the Land of Ev my will is law.  I never have cared much for No. 26, and you will find that it is very little worn.  Besides, it will do you just as well as the one you’re wearing, for all practical purposes.”

“I don’t know anything about your No. 26, and I don’t want to,” said Dorothy, firmly.  “I’m not used to taking cast-off things, so I’ll just keep my own head.”

“You refuse?” cried the Princess, with a frown.

“Of course I do,” was the reply.

“Then,” said Langwidere, “I shall lock you up in a tower until you decide to obey me.  Nanda,” turning to her maid, “call my army.”

Nanda rang a silver bell, and at once a big fat colonel in a bright red uniform entered the room, followed by ten lean soldiers, who all looked sad and discouraged and saluted the princess in a very melancholy fashion.

“Carry that girl to the North Tower and lock her up!” cried the Princess, pointing to Dorothy.

“To hear is to obey,” answered the big red colonel, and caught the child by her arm.  But at that moment Tiktok raised his dinner-pail and pounded it so forcibly against the colonel’s head that the big officer sat down upon the floor with a sudden bump, looking both dazed and very much astonished.