Complete Works of L. Frank Baum

by L. Frank Baum

  Then the party moved on again, and after crossing a broad river on a ferry and passing many fine farm houses that were dome shaped and painted a pretty green color, they came in sight of a large building that was covered with flags and bunting.

  “I don’t remember that building,” said Dorothy. “What is it?”

  “That is the College of Art and Athletic Perfection,” replied Ozma. “I had it built quite recently, and the Woggle-Bug is its president. It keeps him busy, and the young men who attend the college are no worse off than they were before. You see, in this country are a number of youths who do not like to work, and the college is an excellent place for them.”

  And now they came in sight of the Emerald City, and the people flocked out to greet their lovely ruler. There were several bands and many officers and officials of the realm, and a crowd of citizens in their holiday attire.

  Thus the beautiful Ozma was escorted by a brilliant procession to her royal city, and so great was the cheering that she was obliged to constantly bow to the right and left to acknowledge the greetings of her subjects.

  That evening there was a grand reception in the royal palace, attended by the most important persons of Oz, and Jack Pumpkinhead, who was a little overripe but still active, read an address congratulating Ozma of Oz upon the success of her generous mission to rescue the royal family of a neighboring kingdom.

  Then magnificent gold medals set with precious stones were presented to each of the twenty-six officers; and the Tin Woodman was given a new axe studded with diamonds; and the Scarecrow received a silver jar of complexion powder. Dorothy was presented with a pretty coronet and made a Princess of Oz, and Tiktok received two bracelets set with eight rows of very clear and sparkling emeralds.

  Afterward they sat down to a splendid feast, and Ozma put Dorothy at her right and Billina at her left, where the hen sat upon a golden roost and ate from a jeweled platter. Then were placed the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman and Tiktok, with baskets of lovely flowers before them, because they did not require food. The twenty-six officers were at the lower end of the table, and the Lion and the Tiger also had seats, and were served on golden platters, that held a half a bushel at one time.

  The wealthiest and most important citizens of the Emerald City were proud to wait upon these famous adventurers, and they were assisted by a sprightly little maid named Jellia Jamb, whom the Scarecrow pinched upon her rosy cheeks and seemed to know very well.

  During the feast Ozma grew thoughtful, and suddenly she asked:

  “Where is the private?”

  “Oh, he is sweeping out the barracks,” replied one of the generals, who was busy eating a leg of a turkey. “But I have ordered him a dish of bread and molasses to eat when his work is done.”

  “Let him be sent for,” said the girl ruler.

  While they waited for this command to be obeyed, she enquired:

  “Have we any other privates in the armies?”

  “Oh, yes,” replied the Tin Woodman, “I believe there are three, altogether.”

  The private now entered, saluting his officers and the royal Ozma very respectfully.

  “What is your name, my man?” asked the girl.

  “Omby Amby,” answered the private.

  “Then, Omby Amby,” said she, “I promote you to be Captain General of all the armies of my kingdom, and especially to be Commander of my Body Guard at the royal palace.”

  “It is very expensive to hold so many offices,” said the private, hesitating. “I have no money with which to buy uniforms.”

  “You shall be supplied from the royal treasury,” said Ozma.

  Then the private was given a seat at the table, where the other officers welcomed him cordially, and the feasting and merriment were resumed.

  Suddenly Jellia Jamb exclaimed:

  “There is nothing more to eat! The Hungry Tiger has consumed everything!”

  “But that is not the worst of it,” declared the Tiger, mournfully. “Somewhere or somehow, I’ve actually lost my appetite!”

  21. Dorothy’s Magic Belt

  Dorothy passed several very happy weeks in the Land of Oz as the guest of the royal Ozma, who delighted to please and interest the little Kansas girl. Many new acquaintances were formed and many old ones renewed, and wherever she went Dorothy found herself among friends.

  One day, however, as she sat in Ozma’s private room, she noticed hanging upon the wall a picture which constantly changed in appearance, at one time showing a meadow and at another time a forest, a lake or a village.

  “How curious!” she exclaimed, after watching the shifting scenes for a few moments.

  “Yes,” said Ozma, “that is really a wonderful invention in magic. If I wish to see any part of the world or any person living, I need only express the wish and it is shown in the picture.”

  “May I use it?” asked Dorothy, eagerly.

  “Of course, my dear.”

  “Then I’d like to see the old Kansas farm, and Aunt Em,” said the girl.

  Instantly the well remembered farmhouse appeared in the picture, and Aunt Em could be seen quite plainly. She was engaged in washing dishes by the kitchen window and seemed quite well and contented. The hired men and the teams were in the harvest fields behind the house, and the corn and wheat seemed to the child to be in prime condition. On the side porch Dorothy’s pet dog, Toto, was lying fast asleep in the sun, and to her surprise old Speckles was running around with a brood of twelve new chickens trailing after her.

  “Everything seems all right at home,” said Dorothy, with a sigh of relief. “Now I wonder what Uncle Henry is doing.”

  The scene in the picture at once shifted to Australia, where, in a pleasant room in Sydney, Uncle Henry was seated in an easy chair, solemnly smoking his briar pipe. He looked sad and lonely, and his hair was now quite white and his hands and face thin and wasted.

  “Oh!” cried Dorothy, in an anxious voice, “I’m sure Uncle Henry isn’t getting any better, and it’s because he is worried about me. Ozma, dear, I must go to him at once!”

  “How can you?” asked Ozma.

  “I don’t know,” replied Dorothy; “but let us go to Glinda the Good. I’m sure she will help me, and advise me how to get to Uncle Henry.”

  Ozma readily agreed to this plan and caused the Sawhorse to be harnessed to a pretty green and pink phaeton, and the two girls rode away to visit the famous sorceress.

  Glinda received them graciously, and listened to Dorothy’s story with attention.

  “I have the magic belt, you know,” said the little girl. “If I buckled it around my waist and commanded it to take me to Uncle Henry, wouldn’t it do it?”

  “I think so,” replied Glinda, with a smile.

  “And then,” continued Dorothy, “if I ever wanted to come back here again, the belt would bring me.”

  “In that you are wrong,” said the sorceress. “The belt has magical powers only while it is in some fairy country, such as the Land of Oz, or the Land of Ev. Indeed, my little friend, were you to wear it and wish yourself in Australia, with your uncle, the wish would doubtless be fulfilled, because it was made in fairyland. But you would not find the magic belt around you when you arrived at your destination.”

  “What would become of it?” asked the girl.

  “It would be lost, as were your silver shoes when you visited Oz before, and no one would ever see it again. It seems too bad to destroy the use of the magic belt in that way, doesn’t it?”

  “Then,” said Dorothy, after a moment’s thought, “I will give the magic belt to Ozma, for she can use it in her own country. And she can wish me transported to Uncle Henry without losing the belt.”

  “That is a wise plan,” replied Glinda.

  So they rode back to the Emerald City, and on the way it was arranged that every Saturday morning Ozma would look at Dorothy in her magic picture, wherever the little girl might chance to be. And, if she saw Dorothy make a certain signal, then Ozma would know that th
e little Kansas girl wanted to revisit the Land of Oz, and by means of the Nome King’s magic belt would wish that she might instantly return.

  This having been agreed upon, Dorothy bade good-bye to all her friends. Tiktok wanted to go to Australia; too, but Dorothy knew that the machine man would never do for a servant in a civilized country, and the chances were that his machinery wouldn’t work at all. So she left him in Ozma’s care.

  Billina, on the contrary, preferred the Land of Oz to any other country, and refused to accompany Dorothy.

  “The bugs and ants that I find here are the finest flavored in the world,” declared the yellow hen, “and there are plenty of them. So here I shall end my days; and I must say, Dorothy, my dear, that you are very foolish to go back into that stupid, humdrum world again.”

  “Uncle Henry needs me,” said Dorothy, simply; and every one except Billina thought it was right that she should go.

  All Dorothy’s friends of the Land of Oz--both old and new--gathered in a group in front of the palace to bid her a sorrowful good-bye and to wish her long life and happiness. After much hand shaking, Dorothy kissed Ozma once more, and then handed her the Nome King’s magic belt, saying:

  “Now, dear Princess, when I wave my handkerchief, please wish me with Uncle Henry. I’m aw’fly sorry to leave you--and the Scarecrow--and the Tin Woodman--and the Cowardly Lion--and Tiktok--and--and everybody--but I do want my Uncle Henry! So good-bye, all of you.”

  Then the little girl stood on one of the big emeralds which decorated the courtyard, and after looking once again at each of her friends, waved her handkerchief.

  “No,” said Dorothy, “I wasn’t drowned at all. And I’ve come to nurse you and take care of you, Uncle Henry, and you must promise to get well as soon as poss’ble.”

  Uncle Henry smiled and cuddled his little niece close in his lap.

  “I’m better already, my darling,” said he.

  DOROTHY AND THE WIZARD IN OZ

  Published by Reilly & Britton in 1908 and illustrated by John R. Neill, Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz was Baum’s fourth Oz book and one of his most exciting. In the narrative, Dorothy Gale is on her way to see Uncle Henry in California at Hugson’s Ranch. She joins her cousin Zeb for a ride in a buggy drawn by a horse named Jim. An earthquake opens a crevice which they fall through, ending up in the land of the Mangaboos, strange vegetable people who blame Dorothy and Zeb for damaging their glass dwellings. Jim and Dorothy’s cat, Eureka, are able to talk and so Dorothy knows that once again she is in a fairyland. While there, a balloon falls from the sky, and Dorothy meets her old friend the humbug Wizard of Oz. Escaping the Mangaboos, the companions travel through the beautiful Valley of Voe, which features invisible people and marauding bears, meet the “Braided Man” in Pyramid Mountain, and fight the hideous, winged, wooden Gargoyles. After a few further adventures, Dorothy uses the magic belt she’d captured from the Nome King, and they arrive at the Emerald City, where, among other happenings, Jim the cab-horse races the Sawhorse and Eureka the cat undergoes a trial for apparently eating one of the Wizard’s nine tiny piglets.

  A first edition copy of Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz

  CONTENTS

  CHAPTER 1.

  CHAPTER 2.

  CHAPTER 3.

  CHAPTER 4.

  CHAPTER 5.

  CHAPTER 6.

  CHAPTER 7.

  CHAPTER 8.

  CHAPTER 9.

  CHAPTER 10.

  CHAPTER 11.

  CHAPTER 12.

  CHAPTER 13.

  CHAPTER 14.

  CHAPTER 15.

  CHAPTER 16.

  CHAPTER 17.

  CHAPTER 18.

  CHAPTER 19.

  CHAPTER 20.

  A copy of the 1947 edition

  DEDICATED TO HARRIET A. B. NEAL.

  To My Readers

  It’s no use; no use at all. The children won’t let me stop telling tales of the Land of Oz. I know lots of other stories, and I hope to tell them, some time or another; but just now my loving tyrants won’t allow me. They cry: “Oz — Oz! more about Oz, Mr. Baum!” and what can I do but obey their commands?

  This is Our Book — mine and the children’s. For they have flooded me with thousands of suggestions in regard to it, and I have honestly tried to adopt as many of these suggestions as could be fitted into one story.

  After the wonderful success of “Ozma of Oz” it is evident that Dorothy has become a firm fixture in these Oz stories. The little ones all love Dorothy, and as one of my small friends aptly states: “It isn’t a real Oz story without her.” So here she is again, as sweet and gentle and innocent as ever, I hope, and the heroine of another strange adventure.

  There were many requests from my little correspondents for “more about the Wizard.” It seems the jolly old fellow made hosts of friends in the first Oz book, in spite of the fact that he frankly acknowledged himself “a humbug.” The children had heard how he mounted into the sky in a balloon and they were all waiting for him to come down again. So what could I do but tell “what happened to the Wizard afterward”? You will find him in these pages, just the same humbug Wizard as before.

  There was one thing the children demanded which I found it impossible to do in this present book: they bade me introduce Toto, Dorothy’s little black dog, who has many friends among my readers. But you will see, when you begin to read the story, that Toto was in Kansas while Dorothy was in California, and so she had to start on her adventure without him. In this book Dorothy had to take her kitten with her instead of her dog; but in the next Oz book, if I am permitted to write one, I intend to tell a good deal about Toto’s further history.

  Princess Ozma, whom I love as much as my readers do, is again introduced in this story, and so are several of our old friends of Oz. You will also become acquainted with Jim the Cab-Horse, the Nine Tiny Piglets, and Eureka, the Kitten. I am sorry the kitten was not as well behaved as she ought to have been; but perhaps she wasn’t brought up properly. Dorothy found her, you see, and who her parents were nobody knows.

  I believe, my dears, that I am the proudest story-teller that ever lived. Many a time tears of pride and joy have stood in my eyes while I read the tender, loving, appealing letters that come to me in almost every mail from my little readers. To have pleased you, to have interested you, to have won your friendship, and perhaps your love, through my stories, is to my mind as great an achievement as to become President of the United States. Indeed, I would much rather be your story-teller, under these conditions, than to be the President. So you have helped me to fulfill my life’s ambition, and I am more grateful to you, my dears, than I can express in words.

  I try to answer every letter of my young correspondents; yet sometimes there are so many letters that a little time must pass before you get your answer. But be patient, friends, for the answer will surely come, and by writing to me you more than repay me for the pleasant task of preparing these books. Besides, I am proud to acknowledge that the books are partly yours, for your suggestions often guide me in telling the stories, and I am sure they would not be half so good without your clever and thoughtful assistance.

  L. FRANK BAUM

  Coronado, 1908.

  CHAPTER 1.

  THE EARTHQUAKE

  THE train from ‘Frisco was very late. It should have arrived at Hugson’s siding at midnight, but it was already five o’clock and the gray dawn was breaking in the east when the little train slowly rumbled up to the open shed that served for the station-house. As it came to a stop the conductor called out in a loud voice:

  “Hugson’s Siding!”

  At once a little girl rose from her seat and walked to the door of the car, carrying a wicker suit-case in one hand and a round bird-cage covered up with newspapers in the other, while a parasol was tucked under her arm. The conductor helped her off the car and then the engineer started his train again, so that it puffed and groaned and moved slowly away up the track. The reason he was so late was because all
through the night there were times when the solid earth shook and trembled under him, and the engineer was afraid that at any moment the rails might spread apart and an accident happen to his passengers. So he moved the cars slowly and with caution.

  The little girl stood still to watch until the train had disappeared around a curve; then she turned to see where she was.

  The shed at Hugson’s Siding was bare save for an old wooden bench, and did not look very inviting. As she peered through the soft gray light not a house of any sort was visible near the station, nor was any person in sight; but after a while the child discovered a horse and buggy standing near a group of trees a short distance away. She walked toward it and found the horse tied to a tree and standing motionless, with its head hanging down almost to the ground. It was a big horse, tall and bony, with long legs and large knees and feet. She could count his ribs easily where they showed through the skin of his body, and his head was long and seemed altogether too big for him, as if it did not fit. His tail was short and scraggly, and his harness had been broken in many places and fastened together again with cords and bits of wire. The buggy seemed almost new, for it had a shiny top and side curtains. Getting around in front, so that she could look inside, the girl saw a boy curled up on the seat, fast asleep.

  She set down the bird-cage and poked the boy with her parasol. Presently he woke up, rose to a sitting position and rubbed his eyes briskly.

  “Hello!” he said, seeing her, “are you Dorothy Gale?”

  “Yes,” she answered, looking gravely at his tousled hair and blinking gray eyes. “Have you come to take me to Hugson’s Ranch?”

  “Of course,” he answered. “Train in?”

  “I couldn’t be here if it wasn’t,” she said.