Tell us what she has thought of, my dear." "Well," said Trot, "Scraps says that if you could dry up all the water in the lake the island would be on dry land, an' everyone could come and go whenever they liked." Glinda smiled again, but the Wizard said to the girls: "If we should dry up the lake, what would become of all the beautiful fishes that now live in the water ?" "Dear me! That's so," admitted Betsy, crestfallen; "we never thought of that, did we Trot ?" "Couldn't you transform 'em into polliwogs ?" asked Scraps, turning a somersault and then standing on one leg.

"You could give them a little, teeny pond to swim in, and they'd be just as happy as they are as fishes." "No indeed!" replied the Wizard, severely.

"It is wicked to transform any living creatures without their consent, and the lake is the home of the fishes and belongs to them." "All right," said Scraps, making a face at him; "I don't care." "It's too bad," sighed Trot, "for I thought we'd struck a splendid idea." "So you did," declared Glinda, her face now grave and thoughtful.
"There is something in the Patchwork Girl's idea that may be of real value to us." "I think so, too," agreed the golden-haired Adept.

"The top of the Great Dome is only a few feet below the surface of the water.

If we could reduce the level of the lake until the Dome sticks a little above the water, we could remove some of the glass and let ourselves down into the village by means of ropes." "And there would be plenty of water left for the fishes to swim in," added the white-haired maiden.
"If we succeed in raising the island we could fill up the lake again," suggested the brown-haired Adept.
"I believe," said the Wizard, rubbing his hands together in delight, "that the Patchwork Girl has shown us the way to success." The girls were looking curiously at the three beautiful Adepts, wondering who they were, so Glinda introduced them to Trot and Betsy and Scraps, and then sent the children away while she considered how to carry the new idea into effect.
Not much could be done that night, so the Wizard prepared another tent for the Adepts, and in the evening Glinda held a reception and invited all her followers to meet the new arrivals.