love. I pray you to give me a heart that I may be as other men are.
Why should I do this? demanded the Beast.
Because I ask it, and you alone can grant my request, answered the
Woodman.
Oz gave a low growl at this, but said, gruffly: If you indeed desire a
heart, you must earn it.
How? asked the Woodman.
Help Dorothy to kill the Wicked Witch of the West, replied the Beast.
When the Witch is dead, come to me, and I will then give you the
biggest and kindest and most loving heart in all the Land of Oz.
So the Tin Woodman was forced to return sorrowfully to his friends and
tell them of the terrible Beast he had seen. They all wondered greatly
at the many forms the Great Wizard could take upon himself, and the
Lion said:
If he is a Beast when I go to see him, I shall roar my loudest, and so
frighten him that he will grant all I ask. And if he is the lovely
Lady, I shall pretend to spring upon her, and so compel her to do my
bidding. And if he is the great Head, he will be at my mercy; for I
will roll this head all about the room until he promises to give us
what we desire. So be of good cheer, my friends, for all will yet be
well.
The next morning the soldier with the green whiskers led the Lion to
the great Throne Room and bade him enter the presence of Oz.
The Lion at once passed through the door, and glancing around saw, to
his surprise, that before the throne was a Ball of Fire, so fierce and
glowing he could scarcely bear to gaze upon it. His first thought was
that Oz had by accident caught on fire and was burning up; but when he
tried to go nearer, the heat was so intense that it singed his
whiskers, and he crept back tremblingly to a spot nearer the door.
Then a low, quiet voice came from the Ball of Fire, and these were the
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