Now, it is quite beyond my powers to make a cyclone; but I've been thinking the matter over, and I believe I can make a balloon." "How ?" asked Dorothy.
"A balloon," said Oz, "is made of silk, which is coated with glue to keep the gas in it.

I have plenty of silk in the Palace, so it will be no trouble to make the balloon.

But in all this country there is no gas to fill the balloon with, to make it float." "If it won't float," remarked Dorothy, "it will be of no use to us." "True," answered Oz.

"But there is another way to make it float, which is to fill it with hot air.

Hot air isn't as good as gas, for if the air should get cold the balloon would come down in the desert, and we should be lost." "We!" exclaimed the girl.