L. Frank Baum: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

I thought I had beaten the wicked Witch then, and I worked harder than ever; but I little knew how cruel my enemy could be. She thought of a new way to kill my love for the beautiful Munchkin maiden, and made my axe slip again, so that it cut right through my body, splitting me into two halves. Once more the tinner came to my help and made me a body of tin, fastening my tin arms and legs and head to it, by means of joints, so that I could move around as well as ever. But, alas! [42] I had now no heart, so that I lost all my love for the Munchkin girl, and did not care whether I married her or not. I suppose she is still living with the old woman, waiting for me to come after her.

My body shone so brightly in the sun that I felt very proud of it and it did not matter now if my axe slipped, for it could not cut me. There was only one danger – that my joints would rust; but I kept an oil-can in my cottage and took care to oil myself whenever I needed it. However, there came a day when I forgot to do this, and, being caught in a rainstorm, before I thought of the danger my joints had rusted, and I was left to stand in the woods until you came to help me. It was a terrible thing to undergo, but during the year I stood there I had time to think that the greatest loss I had known was the loss of my heart. While I was in love I was the happiest man on earth; but no one can love who has not a heart, and so I am resolved to ask Oz to give me one. If he does, I will go back to the Munchkin maiden and marry her.”

Both Dorothy and the Scarecrow had been greatly interested in the story of the Tin Woodman, and now they knew why he was so anxious to get a new heart.

“All the same,” said the Scarecrow, “I shall ask for brains instead of a heart; for a fool would not know what to do with a heart if he had one.”

“I shall take the heart,” returned the Tin Woodman; “for brains do not make one happy, and happiness is the best thing in the world.”

Dorothy did not say anything, for she was puzzled to [43] know which of her two friends was right, and she decided if she could only get back to Kansas and Aunt Em it did not matter so much whether the Woodman had no brains and the Scarecrow no heart, or each got what he wanted.

What worried her most was that the bread was nearly gone, and another meal for herself and Toto would empty the basket. To be sure neither the Woodman nor the Scarecrow ever ate anything, but she was not made of tin nor straw, and could not live unless she was fed.

woodman: Holzfäller.inconvenient: unbequem, umständlich.bother: Mühe, Umstand.spring: Quelle.scarcely (adv.): kaum.groan: Stöhnen; Seufzen.timidly (adv.): ängstlich, furchtsam.to stop short: plötzlich anhalten.to chop: hacken.to be jointed upon s.th.: an etwas befestigt, festgeschraubt sein.sharply (adv.): bösartig.to make a snap at s.th.: nach etwas schnappen.oil-can: Ölkanister, -kanne.joint: Gelenk.rusted: verrostet, eingerostet.freely (adv.): ungehindert, ungehemmt.to give a sigh of satisfaction: erleichtert aufatmen.release: Befreiung.heartily (adv.): herzlich, von Herzen.to set to work: mit der Arbeit anfangen, sich an die Arbeit machen.to clear a passage: einen Weg frei machen.wood-chopper: Holzhacker, -fäller.to make up one’s mind: sich entschließen.thereupon: darauf(hin).to enchant: verzaubern.at one’s best: nach besten Kräften.misfortune: Unglück.tinsmith: Blechschmied.tinner: Blechschmied.nothing daunted: unbeirrt, unverzagt.alas! (poet.): Ausruf des Bedauerns; o weh!to take care to do s.th.: darauf achten, etwas zu tun.to undergo: erleben, durchmachen, erleiden.to be sure: natürlich.

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