Dorothy and her dog Toto crosses a wooden bridge, and the runaways encounter a horse-drawn carnival wagon broken down in an embankment, inscribed on the side with big letters:

"Professor MARVEL, Acclaimed by The Crowned Heads of Europe, Let Him Read Your Past, Present & Future in His Crystal, Also Juggling and Sleight of Hand."

Prophetically also, white-haired Professor Marvel, dressed in formal clothes and wearing a black neckerchief around his collar is a genial, but fraudulent, down-and-out fortune teller and carnival showman. Playing his accustomed role as a kindly fortune teller, he makes several guesses about what she is doing by analyzing her appearance, while roasting a hot dog/sausage on a long stick over an open fire at his campsite. He miraculously divines/'guesses' her plight and objectives by noting her little suitcase.

While Professor Marvel is not looking, Toto impolitely eats his sausage, but is quickly forgiven by the medicine man.

Dorothy wishes to join him on his adventures: "Why can't we go with you and see all the Crowned Heads of Europe?" To find an answer to her request, he consults his crystal ball inside the wagon: "I never do anything without consulting my crystal first." He leads Dorothy inside the wagon where a crystal ball rests on a low table. To promote his magic, he removes his broad-brimmed black hat and places a silken turban on his head:

"This is the same, genuine magic authentic crystal used by the priests of Isis and Osiris in the days of the Pharaohs of Egypt, in which Cleopatra first saw the approach of Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. And so on and so on."

After she is instructed to close her eyes so she can be "better in tune with the infinite," he rummages through her basket and finds a photo of her with her kindly Aunt next to the farm's white picket fence. Cleverly, he reports a painful vision of a house, a picket fence, a barn, a weathervane of a running horse, and a care-worn farm woman wearing a polka-dot dress. He reports that the woman is crying. Someone has hurt her. Someone has just about broken her heart.

In a very subtle manner, Professor Marvel forces Dorothy to fear both losing and hurting her Auntie Em. He persuades Dorothy to return home, playing on her sense of loyalty and concern toward her family. Understandably, Dorothy is worried about her absence from the farm and its effect upon her sick Aunt.

She jumps up and is willing to return home immediately, as a fierce storm brews and looms on the horizon: "I have to get to her right away." She turns back to thank the Professor before hurrying up to the road to get home:

"Goodbye, Professor Marvel, and thanks a lot."