Out of Context

There was yet another Rapture-That-Didn’t-Happen today.

The Tin Woodman of Oz
L. Frank (Lyman Frank) Baum

“A Canary-Bird on a Rainbow wouldn’t be so bad,” asserted the Tin Owl, winking and blinking with his round tin eyes, “so if you can manage to find your Rainbow again you need have little to worry about.”

“That’s nonsense, Friend Chopper,” exclaimed Woot. “I know just how Polychrome feels. A beautiful girl is much superior to a little yellow bird, and a boy–such as I was–far better than a Green Monkey. Neither of us can be happy again unless we recover our rightful forms.”

“I feel the same way,” announced the stuffed Bear. “What do you suppose my friend the Patchwork Girl would think of me, if she saw me wearing this beastly shape?”

“She’d laugh till she cried,” admitted the Tin Owl. “For my part, I’ll have to give up the notion of marrying Nimmie Amee, but I’ll try not to let that make me unhappy. If it’s my duty, I’d like to do my duty, but if magic prevents my getting married I’ll flutter along all by myself and be just as contented.”

Their serious misfortuntes made them all silent for a time, and as their thoughts were busy in dwelling upon the evils with which fate had burdened them, none noticed that Jinjur had suddenly appeared in the doorway and was looking at them in astonishment. The next moment her astonishment changed to anger, for there, in her best rocking-chair, sat a Green Monkey. A great shiny Owl perched upon another chair and a Brown Bear squatted upon her parlor rug.