George stood staring at the wall in absolute fascination.  This couldn’t be happening!  This wall was impossible!  Yet, there it was, right in front of him.

Walking cautiously forward, he peered over the top of the wall.  Just as he had expected, he saw the china country, exactly as it was described in The Wizard of Oz!  There were barns and houses and rolling hills, and even a little church not far away.

“Oh, my goodness!” cried a voice from below.  Looking down, he saw a china milkmaid, holding a pail of milk, and leading a cow.  This must be the milkmaid mentioned in the book!

The milkmaid looked up at him with round eyes.  Her hands began to tremble, and she took a step backwards, nearly stumbling over her feet as she did so.

“Don’t come any closer!” she cried.  “You might break me!” 

“I’m not going to,” said George softly.  “I just want to ask where you came from.”

The girl looked at him quizzically.  “Whatever do you mean?” she asked curiously.

“How did you happen to get here?” asked George.  At her blank stare, he continued.  “You know.  To this planet—to L91.  How did you get here?”

“I don’t have the faintest idea what you’re talking about!” she said.  “Are you sick in the head?”

“No,” said George, trying to think fast.  He decided to change his tactics.  “I’m just trying to figure out where I am,” he said.

“The land of Oz, of course,” replied the milkmaid.  “In the south part, the land of the Quadlings.  You must be sick in the head to not know where you are.”

“How long have you been here?” asked George.

She looked at him for a moment, before answering.  “All of my life, of course.”  Then she added, “Maybe you should go see Glinda, the witch of the south.  She might help your head be all right again.”

At that moment, a jolly little china man rounded the corner of a nearby barn.  George recognized him immediately as the clown who was always standing on his head, and falling over and getting cracked and broken—exactly as he kept seeing in his dreams!

“Mr. Clown!” he called.

The man looked up and was so startled at the sight of George that he fell over backward with a resounding clatter.  It sounded exactly like a teacup falling on an empty plate.

Picking himself up, he gazed up at George with wide eyes.  “My, you’ve got a loud voice, giant.  I nearly broke myself again!”

The clown brushed himself off, apparently not greatly concerned that he had nearly broken when he fell.  The milkmaid pulled anxiously on the cow she had in tow, and walked quickly away.  Every once in awhile, she glanced worriedly over her shoulder at George.

“Now, what is it you wanted?” asked the clown, coming closer to the wall, and suddenly standing on his head.

“I just wondered where you came from,” said George.

“Seems to me, I’m the one who should be asking that question,” answered the clown, standing right side up again.  “After all, you’re the stranger from somewhere far away.”

“But I’m not!” insisted George.  “That is, I am from far away, but you’re a stranger here too.  How long has this china country been here?”

“As long as Oz has been here, I guess,” said the clown, pulling some tiny china balls out of his pocket, and starting to juggle them.

“But this isn’t Oz!” cried George.  “This is a strange planet, without any inhabitants.  There is no emerald city nearby, or Glinda the Good, or anything else from the book about Oz!”

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The clown stopped juggling to stare at George.  “My, you are a strange one,” he said at last.  “I don’t know how you come by your ideas.  I ought to know what country I was born and raised in!”

“Do you want to come outside the wall and see?” said George, leaning over the china wall toward him.  “I can show you.  You’ll see that there’s no emerald city.”

The clown backed quickly away.  “Not at all!” he cried.  “I’ve never been outside the wall—it’s too dangerous for us china people!  Someone is liable to pick us up and take us home to put on their fireplace mantle!”

“Well then,” said George, “how do you know you’re in the land of Oz?”

The clown shook his head sadly.  “Your head must be more cracked than mine,” he said sadly.  “Of course I’m in Oz!  Where else would I be?  Every once in awhile, we have some bungling visitor come through and assure us they just came from the emerald city, or are going to see Glinda.  Like that funny little girl and her dog the other day, who came with a walking scarecrow and some creature made out of metal—and a big, clumsy lion!”

George could see it was pointless to keep questioning him.  He and the milkmaid were both absolutely convinced that they were in the land of Oz.  He considered climbing over the wall and going farther into the china country, in search of someone who might know a bit more.  But in the distance he could see the milkmaid talking to a crowd of china people.  She was pointing toward him and talking excitedly.  The people looked restless and worried.  He wasn’t likely to get much help from them.

George pulled back from the wall, and pulled the direction finder out of his pocket.  He had to get back and tell the Protector about this!

Flipping the finder on, he headed off swiftly in the direction it indicated he should take.  It was late morning, and the sun was shining brightly.  But a cloud of worry covered George’s heart.

The china country from the Wizard of Oz couldn’t be here. It just couldn’t!  How was it possible?  Was it connected to his dream somehow?  But how could that be?

George was running now.  He had to find the Protector and his father and bring them back to this place.  Even if his father didn’t let him go out in the woods anymore, they had to know about what he had found.

The bushes tore at George’s clothes, and branches frequently slapped him in the face.  He often stumbled and fell over tree roots or loose stones.  But he didn’t care.  He just had to get back—and fast!

George suddenly burst into a clearing where the sun was shining brightly.  But this wasn’t the clearing where the teddy bear ship was resting.  And what George saw in the clearing was so astounding that he simply stood and gaped in wonder.

“Come on in, George!” came a voice from the clearing in front of him.  “The water’s fine!”