The Rescue of the Tin Woodman (Second)

After the Wicked Witch of the West had been melted by a bucket of water, Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion were free to rescue their scattered companions. The Tin Woodman had been seized by the Winged Monkeys, carried through the air, and dropped onto a country thickly covered with sharp rocks. He fell a great distance onto the rocks, where he lay so battered and dented that he could neither move nor groan. His axe lay near him, but the blade was rusted and the handle broken off short.

The Journey to the Rocky Plain

Dorothy and the Lion called the yellow Winkies together and asked if they would help rescue their friends. The Winkies, who had been set free from bondage by Dorothy, said they would be delighted to do all in their power for her. She chose a number of Winkies who looked as if they knew the most, and they all started away. They traveled that day and part of the next until they came to the rocky plain where the Tin Woodman lay. The Winkies lifted him tenderly in their arms and carried him back to the Yellow Castle. Dorothy shed a few tears by the way at the sad plight of her old friend, and the Lion looked sober and sorry.

The Tinsmiths' Work

When they reached the castle, Dorothy asked the Winkies if any of them were tinsmiths. Some of them were very good tinsmiths, they told her. She had them brought to her, along with all their tools in baskets, and asked if they could straighten out the dents in the Tin Woodman, bend him back into shape, and solder him together where he was broken. The tinsmiths looked the Woodman over carefully and answered that they thought they could mend him so he would be as good as ever. They set to work in one of the big yellow rooms of the castle and worked for three days and four nights, hammering and twisting and bending and soldering and polishing and pounding at the legs and body and head of the Tin Woodman, until at last he was straightened out into his old form, and his joints worked as well as ever. There were several patches on him, but the tinsmiths did a good job, and as the Woodman was not a vain man he did not mind the patches at all.

The Reunion

When the Tin Woodman finally walked into Dorothy's room and thanked her for rescuing him, he was so pleased that he wept tears of joy. Dorothy had to wipe every tear carefully from his face with her apron, so his joints would not be rusted. At the same time her own tears fell thick and fast at the joy of meeting her old friend again, and these tears did not need to be wiped away. The Lion wiped his eyes so often with the tip of his tail that it became quite wet, and he was obliged to go out into the courtyard and hold it in the sun till it dried. The Tin Woodman then said that if they only had the Scarecrow with them again, he would be quite happy, setting the stage for the next rescue.