She ran to the plaec and then stopped short, with a little cry of surprise.
One of the big trees had been partly chopped through, and standing beside it,
with an uplifted axe in his hands, was a man made entirelt of tin.
His head and arms and legs were jointed upon his body,
but he stood perfrectly motionless, as if he could not stir at all.
Dorothy looked at him in amazement, and so did the Scarecrow,
while Toto barked sharply and made a snap at the tin legs, which hurt his teeth.
'Did you groan?' asked Dorothy.
'Yes,' answerd the tin man, 'I did. I've been groaning for more that a year,
and no one has ever heard me before or come to help me.'
'What can I do for you?' she inquried softly,
for she was moved by the sad voice in which the man spoke.
'Get an oil-can and oil my joints,' he answered.
'They are rusted so badly that I cannot move them at all;
if I am well oiled I shall soon be all right again.
You will find an oil-can on a shelf in mu cottage.'
Dorothy at once ran back to the cottage and found the oil-can,
and then she returned and asked anxiously, 'Where are you joints?'
'oil my neck, first,' replied the Tin Woodman.
So she oiled, and as it was quite badly rusted the Scarecrow took hold of the tin head and moved it gently from side to side until it wokred freely and then the man could turn it himself.