The Battle with the Bees

The Battle with the Bees is the third of four escalating magical assaults the Wicked Witch of the West unleashes against Dorothy and her companions after they enter the Winkie Country. Having already lost her pack of forty wolves to the Tin Woodman's axe and her flock of forty crows to the Scarecrow's hands, the Witch grows ever more enraged. When she looks out from her castle door with her single telescopic eye and sees her crows lying dead in a heap, she gets into a terrible rage and blows three times upon her silver whistle. Forthwith a great buzzing fills the air, and a swarm of black bees flies toward her, ready to obey her command to go to the strangers and sting them to death.

The Scarecrow's Defensive Plan

The bees turn and fly rapidly until they reach Dorothy and her friends walking through the untilled western country. The Tin Woodman sees them coming, and the Scarecrow has already decided what to do. He instructs the Woodman to take out his straw and scatter it over the little girl, the dog, and the Lion, so the bees cannot sting them. The Woodman does this, and as Dorothy lies close beside the Lion and holds Toto in her arms, the straw covers them entirely. The Scarecrow, being made of straw himself, is not vulnerable to stings, and the Tin Woodman's metal body is impervious to the bees' attack.

The Bees' Destruction

When the swarm arrives, the bees find no one to sting except the Tin Woodman. They fly at him and break off all their stings against the tin, without hurting the Woodman at all. Because bees cannot live when their stings are broken, that is the end of the black bees. They lie scattered thick about the Woodman, like little heaps of fine coal. The Wicked Witch, watching from her castle, becomes so angry when she sees her black bees reduced to these heaps that she stamps her foot, tears her hair, and gnashes her teeth.

Aftermath and Continuation

Once the bees are dead, Dorothy and the Lion get up, and the girl helps the Tin Woodman put the straw back into the Scarecrow again, until he is as good as ever. The party then starts upon their journey once more, having survived the third magical attack. The Witch, now furious and desperate, next sends a dozen of her Winkie slaves armed with sharp spears, but the Cowardly Lion's great roar frightens them away. Finally, she resorts to the Golden Cap and summons the Winged Monkeys, who succeed where her other minions failed.