No more than this is expected of you. Now, not to change the
subject, exactly. But would you like to look around?"
"Yes, we'd love to," replied Dorothy.
"All right," said the Elf. "But no talking to anyone until his work is
done."
"When will that be?" inquired Dorothy.
"Well ... actually ... never, but they'll be having a little break
soon," replied the Elf, with a grin. "As you can see, we work very hard
here."
"Everyone seems so happy as they work," said Dorothy.
"It wasn't always this way," replied the Elf. "We used to be ruled by a
wicked king who used us as slave labor, but we broke away from that
wicked king and came here and started a new land. Now that we are free
to live as we wish, we pool our labor for the benefit of all."
"Are you the leader?" asked Dorothy.
"We don't have one," answered the Elf. "We do not allow any person or
any group of people absolute power over the rest of us."
"How are things decided, then?" asked the Tin Woodman, who had been
listening very intently.
"Well, we are not a big country," replied the Elf, "so we don't need a
full-time government.
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