The Essential Works of L. Frank Baum. L. Frank Baum

a bit; then he wiped the tears from his face and said:

      “Ah, what delightful children I have! What do you wish, my darlings?”

      “I want a cent for chewing gum,” said the Girl Weasel.

      “Get it from the Guinea-Pig; you have my assent. And what does my dear boy want?”

      “Pop,” went the Weasel, “our billy-goat has swallowed the hare you gave me to play with.”

      “Dear me,” sighed the King, “how often I find a hair in the butter! Whenever I reign people carry umbrellas; and my son, although quite polished, indulges only in monkey-shines! Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown! but if one is scalped, the loss of the crown renders the head still more uneasy.”

      “Couldn’t they find a better king than you?” enquired the WoggleBug, curiously, as the children left the bower.

      “Yes; but no worse,” answered the Weasel; “and here in the jungle honors are conferred only upon the unworthy. For if a truly great animal is honored he gets a swelled head, and that renders him unbearable. They now regard the King of the Jungle with contempt, and that makes all my subjects self-respecting.”

      “There is wisdom in that,” declared the WoggleBug, approvingly; “a single glance at you makes me content with being so excellent a bug.”

      “True,” murmured the King, yawning. “But you tire me, good stranger. Miss Chim, will you kindly get the gasoline can? It’s high time to eradicate this insect.”

      “With pleasure,” said Miss Chim, moving away with a smile.

      But the WoggleBug did not linger to be eradicated. With one wild bound he cleared the door of the palace and sprinted up the entrance of the Jungle. The bear soldiers saw him running away, and took careful aim and fired. But the gold-plated muskets would not shoot straight, and now the WoggleBug was far distant, and still running with all his might.

      Nor did he pause until he had emerged from the forest and crossed the plains, and reached at last the city from whence he had escaped in the balloon. And, once again in his old lodgings, he looked at himself in the mirror and said:

      “After all, this necktie is my love—and my love is now mine forevermore! Why should I not be happy and content?”

      Ozma of Oz

       Table of Contents

       Author’s Note

       1. The Girl in the Chicken Coop

       2. The Yellow Hen

       3. Letters in the Sand

       4. Tiktok the Machine Man

       5. Dorothy Opens the Dinner Pail

       6. The Heads of Langwidere

       7. Ozma of Oz to the Rescue

       8. The Hungry Tiger

       9. The Royal Family of Ev

       10. The Giant with the Hammer

       11. The Nome King

       12. The Eleven Guesses

       13. The Nome King Laughs

       14. Dorothy Tries to be Brave

       15. Billina Frightens the Nome King

       16. Purple, Green, and Gold

       17. The Scarecrow Wins the Fight

       18. The Fate of the Tin Woodman

       19. The King of Ev

       20. The Emerald City

       21. Dorothy’s Magic Belt

      A Record of Her Adventures with Dorothy Gale of

       Kansas, the Yellow Hen, the Scarecrow, the Tin

       Woodman, Tiktok, the Cowardly Lion and

       the Hungry Tiger; Besides Other Good

       People too Numerous to Mention

       Faithfully Recorded Herein

      Author’s Note

       Table of Contents

      My friends the children are responsible for this new “Oz Book,” as they were for the last one, which was called The Land of Oz. Their sweet little letters plead to know “more about Dorothy”; and they ask: “What became of the Cowardly Lion?” and “What did Ozma do afterward?”—meaning, of course, after she became the Ruler of Oz. And some of them suggest plots to me, saying: “Please have Dorothy go to the Land of Oz again”; or, “Why don’t you make Ozma and Dorothy meet, and have a good time together?” Indeed, could I do all that my little friends ask, I would be obliged to write dozens of books to satisfy their demands. And I wish I could, for I enjoy writing these stories just as much as the children say they enjoy reading them.

      Well, here is “more about Dorothy,” and about our old friends the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman, and about the Cowardly Lion, and Ozma, and all the rest of them; and here, likewise, is a good deal about some new folks that are queer and unusual. One little friend, who read this story before it was printed, said to me: “Billina is REAL OZZY, Mr. Baum, and so are Tiktok and the Hungry Tiger.”

      If this judgment is unbiased and correct, and the little folks find this new story “real Ozzy,” I shall be very glad indeed that I wrote it. But perhaps I shall get some more of those very welcome letters from my readers, telling me just how they like “Ozma of Oz.” I hope so, anyway.

      L. FRANK BAUM.

       MACATAWA, 1907.

      1. The Girl in the Chicken Coop

       Table of Contents

      The wind blew hard and joggled the water of the ocean, sending ripples across its surface. Then the wind pushed the edges of