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The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

by L. Frank Baum

Contents

--Introduction--

1. The Cyclone

2. The Council with the Munchkins

3. How Dorothy Saved the Scarecrow

4. The Road Through the Forest

5. The Rescue of the Tin Woodman

6. The Cowardly Lion

7. The Journey to the Great Oz

8. The Deadly Poppy Field

9. The Queen of the Field Mice

10. The Guardian of the Gates

11. The Emerald City of Oz

12. The Search for the Wicked Witch

13. The Rescue

14. The Winged Monkeys

15. The Discovery of Oz the Terrible

16. The Magic Art of the Great Humbug

17. How the Balloon Was Launched

18. Away to the South

19. Attacked by the Fighting Trees

20. The Dainty China Country

21. The Lion Becomes the King of Beasts

22. The Country of the Quadlings

23. Glinda The Good Witch Grants Dorothy's Wish

24. Home Again

Introduction

Folklore, legends, myths and fairy tales have followed childhood

through the ages, for every healthy youngster has a wholesome and

instinctive love for stories fantastic, marvelous and manifestly unreal.

The winged fairies of Grimm and Andersen have brought more happiness to

childish hearts than all other human creations.

Yet the old time fairy tale, having served for generations,

may now be classed as "historical" in the children's library; for

the time has come for a series of newer "wonder tales" in which

the stereotyped genie, dwarf and fairy are eliminated, together

with all the horrible and blood-curdling incidents devised by

their authors to point a fearsome moral to each tale. Modern

education includes morality; therefore the modern child seeks only

entertainment in its wonder tales and gladly dispenses with all

disagreeable incident.

Having this thought in mind, the story of "The Wonderful

Wizard of Oz" was written solely to please children of today. It

aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment

and joy are retained and the heartaches and nightmares are left out.

L. Frank Baum

Chicago, April, 1900.

THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ

1. The Cyclone

Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies, with

Uncle Henry, who was a farmer, and Aunt Em, who was the farmer's

wife. Their house was small, for the lumber to build it had to be

carried by wagon many miles. There were four walls, a floor and a

roof, which made one room; and this room contained a rusty looking

cookstove, a cupboard for the dishes, a table, three or four

chairs, and the beds. Uncle Henry and Aunt Em had a big bed in

one corner, and Dorothy a little bed in another corner. There was

no garret at all, and no cellar--except a small hole dug in the

ground, called a cyclone cellar, where the family could go in case

one of those great whirlwinds arose, mighty enough to crush any

building in its path. It was reached by a trap door in the middle

of the floor, from which a ladder led down into the small, dark hole.

When Dorothy stood in the doorway and looked around, she could

see nothing but the great gray prairie on every side. Not a tree

nor a house broke the broad sweep of flat country that reached to

the edge of the sky in all directions. The sun had baked the

plowed land into a gray mass, with little cracks running through it.

Even the grass was not green, for the sun had burned the tops of

the long blades until they were the same gray color to be seen

everywhere. Once the house had been painted, but the sun

blistered the paint and the rains washed it away, and now the

house was as dull and gray as everything else.

When Aunt Em came there to live she was a young, pretty wife.

The sun and wind had changed her, too. They had taken the sparkle

from her eyes and left them a sober gray; they had taken the red

from her cheeks and lips, and they were gray also. She was thin

and gaunt, and never smiled now. When Dorothy, who was an orphan,

first came to her, Aunt Em had been so startled by the child's

laughter that she would scream and press her hand upon her heart

whenever Dorothy's merry voice reached her ears; and she still

looked at the little girl with wonder that she could find anything

to laugh at.

Uncle Henry never laughed. He worked hard from morning till

night and did not know what joy was. He was gray also, from his

long beard to his rough boots, and he looked stern and solemn,

and rarely spoke.

It was Toto that made Dorothy laugh, and saved her from

growing as gray as her other surroundings. Toto was not gray; he

was a little black dog, with long silky hair and small black eyes

that twinkled merrily on either side of his funny, wee nose. Toto

played all day long, and Dorothy played with him, and loved him dearly.

Today, however, they were not playing. Uncle Henry sat upon

the doorstep and looked anxiously at the sky, which was even

grayer than usual. Dorothy stood in the door with Toto in her

arms, and looked at the sky too. Aunt Em was washing the dishes.

From the far north they heard a low wail of the wind, and

Uncle Henry and Dorothy could see where the long grass bowed in

waves before the coming storm. There now came a sharp whistling

in the air from the south, and as they turned their eyes that way

they saw ripples in the grass coming from that direction also.

Suddenly Uncle Henry stood up.

"There's a cyclone coming, Em," he called to his wife. "I'll

go look after the stock." Then he ran toward the sheds where the

cows and horses were kept.

Aunt Em dropped her work and came to the door. One glance

told her of the danger close at hand.

"Quick, Dorothy!"