Somewhere Over The Rainbow

The Scarecrow

After a few hours of following the yellow brick road, Rhianna, Dorothy, and Toto stopped when they came to an intersection by a cornfield. There were three different directions to go now, but which road led to Emerald City?

"Now which way do we go?" Dorothy asked.

"Pardon me! That way is a very nice way," a voice said.

The girls looked around, but saw no one. All they saw was a scarecrow hanging on a pole in the cornfield. It wore a black hat, white gloves, a dark green jacket, patched brown pants, and black boots. It was pointing to the left.

     "Who said that?" Rhianna asked, trying to find the source of the voice.

     Toto started barking, and the girls saw that he was barking at the scarecrow.

     "Don't be silly, Toto. Scarecrows don't talk," Dorothy said.

     "It's pleasant down that way too," the voice said.

     The girls looked to see that the scarecrow was now pointing to the right.

     "That's funny. Wasn't he pointing the other way?" Dorothy asked.

     "I. . . I could've sworn he was," Rhianna muttered, sharing a look of confusion with her sister.

     "Of course, people do go both ways," the voice said.

     This time, the girls were shocked when they saw the scarecrow pointing in both directions. Now they knew they weren't seeing things.

     "Why, you did say something, didn't you?" Dorothy asked the scarecrow.

     The scarecrow shook his head, but then nodded his head afterwards.

     "Are you doing that on purpose, or can't you make up your mind?" Rhianna asked.

     "That's the trouble. I can't make up my mind. I haven't got a brain. Only straw," the scarecrow explained.

     "How can you talk if you haven't got a brain?" Rhianna asked.

     "I don't know. But some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don't they?" the scarecrow pointed out.

     "Yes, I guess you're right," Rhianna replied.

     "Well, we haven't really met properly, have we?" Dorothy asked as she came closer to the scarecrow.

     "Why, no," Scarecrow replied, smiling down at the girls.

     "How do you do?" Rhianna and Dorothy asked him.

     "How do you do?" the scarecrow asked them.

     "Very well, thank you," they replied politely.

The scarecrow's smile faded. "Oh, I'm not feeling at all well. You see, it's very tedious being stuck up here all day long with a pole up your back," he told them.

"Oh, dear. That must be terribly uncomfortable," Dorothy remarked, feeling awful for the poor scarecrow. "Can't you get down?"

"Down?" he repeated, and tried reaching for something behind him. "No, you see, I'm. . . Well, I'm. . ."

"Oh, well, here. Let us help you," Rhianna offered, and she and Dorothy went behind the pole.

     "Oh, that's very kind of you. Very kind," the scarecrow said, gratitude evident in his voice.

The girls tried to find a way to get him down.

"Oh, dear. We don't quite see how we can—" Dorothy started to say.