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Updated: May 18, 2025
A silverfish then raised its head beside that of the goldfish, and a moment later a bronzefish lifted its head beside the others. The three fish, all in a row, looked earnestly with their round, bright eyes into the astonished eyes of Ervic the Skeezer.
"Yes," replied Ozma, coming to her side, "I know that on Professor Wogglebug's Map of the Land of Oz there is a place marked 'Skeezer, but what the Skeezers are like I do not know. No one I know has ever seen them or heard of them. The Skeezer Country is 'way at the upper edge of the Gillikin Country, with the sandy, impassable desert on one side and the mountains of Oogaboo on another side.
The spiders left their four corners, dropped to the floor and made a rush toward the young Skeezer, circling around his legs with their pinchers extended. Ervic paid no attention to them. An enormous black rat ran up Ervic's body, passed around his shoulders and uttered piercing squeals in his ears, but he did not wince.
Finally one and all present decided to go to the Skeezer country, with Glinda and the little Wizard to lead them. Magic must meet magic in order to conquer it, so these two skillful magic-workers were necessary to insure the success of the expedition. They were all ready to start at a moment's notice, for none had any affairs of importance to attend to.
"Let me transform them into something else." "No," objected the Skeezer. "I love to transform things; it's so interesting. And I've never transformed any fishes in all my life." "Let them alone," said Ervic. "What shapes would you prefer them to have?
The Cleverness of Ervic We must now return to Ervic the Skeezer, who, when he had set down the copper kettle containing the three fishes at the gate of the lonely cottage, had asked, "What next?" The goldfish stuck its head above the water in the kettle and said in its small but distinct voice: "You are to lift the latch, open the door, and walk boldly into the cottage.
"I want to give you other forms, such as rabbits, or turtles or girls, or something; but your master, the surly Skeezer, does not wish me to. However, he has agreed to the plan if you will consent." "We'd like to be girls," said the silverfish. "No, no!" exclaimed Ervic. "If you promise to make us three beautiful girls, we will consent," said the goldfish. "No, no!" exclaimed Ervic again.
The smiles that he saw interchanged between the four filled the poor Skeezer with embarrassment, so he fell silent and attended to eating his supper, leaving the others to do the talking. The three Adepts frankly told Reera who they were, how they became fishes and how they had planned secretly to induce the Yookoohoo to transform them.
When evening came, they saw the Diamond Swan, still keeping to the opposite shore of the lake, walk out of the water to the sands, shake her diamond-sprinkled feathers, and then disappear among the bushes to seek a resting place for the night. "I'm hungry," said Ervic. "I'm cold," said another Skeezer. "I'm tired," said a third. "I'm afraid," said the last one of them.
"Why, I didn't know there was a lake in that part of Oz," exclaimed Ozma. "The map shows a river running through the Skeezer Country, but no lake." "That is because the person who made the map never had visited that part of the country," explained the Sorceress. "The lake surely is there, and in the lake is an island a Magic Isle and on that island live the people called the Skeezers."
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