They defied us, so Rora prepared a kettleful of magic
poison and went down to the lake one night to dump it
all in the water and poison the fish. It was a clever
idea, quite worthy of my dear wife, but the Skeezer
Queen -- a young lady named Coo-ee-oh -- hid on the
bank of the lake and taking Rora unawares, transformed
her into a Golden Pig. The poison was spilled on the
ground and wicked Queen Coo-ee-oh, not content with her
cruel transformation, even took away my wife's four
cans of brains, so she is now a common grunting pig
without even brains enough to know her own name."
"Then," said Ozma thoughtfully, "the Queen of the
Skeezers must be a Sorceress."
"Yes," said the Su-dic, "but she doesn't know much
magic, after all. She is not as powerful as Rora
Flathead was, nor half as powerful as I am now, as
Queen Coo-ee-oh will discover when we fight our great
battle and destroy her."
"The Golden Pig can't be a witch any more, of
course," observed Dorothy.
"No; even had Queen Coo-ee-oh left her the four cans
of brains, poor Rora, in a pig's shape, couldn't do any
witchcraft. A witch has to use her fingers, and a pig
has only cloven hoofs."
"It seems a sad story," was Ozma's comment, "and all
the trouble arose because the Flatheads wanted fish
that did not belong to them.
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