The Emerald City of Oz

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The Emerald City of Oz

by L. Frank Baum

Author of The Road to Oz,
Dorothy and The Wizard in Oz,
The Land of Oz, etc.

Contents

--Author's Note--
1. How the Nome King Became Angry
2. How Uncle Henry Got Into Trouble
3. How Ozma Granted Dorothy's Request
4. How The Nome King Planned Revenge
5. How Dorothy Became a Princess
6. How Guph Visited the Whimsies
7. How Aunt Em Conquered the Lion
8. How the Grand Gallipoot Joined The Nomes
9. How the Wogglebug Taught Athletics
10. How the Cuttenclips Lived
11. How the General Met the First and Foremost
12. How they Matched the Fuddles
13. How the General Talked to the King
14. How the Wizard Practiced Sorcery
15. How Dorothy Happened to Get Lost
16. How Dorothy Visited Utensia
17. How They Came to Bunbury
18. How Ozma Looked into the Magic Picture
19. How Bunnybury Welcomed the Strangers
20. How Dorothy Lunched With a King
21. How the King Changed His Mind
22. How the Wizard Found Dorothy
23. How They Encountered the Flutterbudgets
24. How the Tin Woodman Told the Sad News
25. How the Scarecrow Displayed His Wisdom
26. How Ozma Refused to Fight for Her Kingdom
27. How the Fierce Warriors Invaded Oz
28. How They Drank at the Forbidden Fountain
29. How Glinda Worked a Magic Spell
30. How the Story of Oz Came to an End

Author's Note

Perhaps I should admit on the title page that this book is "By L.
Frank Baum and his correspondents," for I have used many suggestions
conveyed to me in letters from children. Once on a time I really
imagined myself "an author of fairy tales," but now I am merely an
editor or private secretary for a host of youngsters whose ideas I am
requestsed to weave into the thread of my stories.

These ideas are often clever. They are also logical and interesting.
So I have used them whenever I could find an opportunity, and it is
but just that I acknowledge my indebtedness to my little friends.

My, what imaginations these children have developed! Sometimes I am
fairly astounded by their daring and genius. There will be no lack of
fairy-tale authors in the future, I am sure. My readers have told me
what to do with Dorothy, and Aunt Em and Uncle Henry, and I have
obeyed their mandates. They have also given me a variety of subjects
to write about in the future: enough, in fact, to keep me busy for
some time. I am very proud of this alliance. Children love these
stories because children have helped to create them. My readers know
what they want and realize that I try to please them. The result is
very satisfactory to the publishers, to me, and (I am quite sure) to
the children.

I hope, my dears, it will be a long time before we are obliged to
dissolve partnership.

L. FRANK BAUM.

Coronado, 1910

1. How the Nome King Became Angry

The Nome King was in an angry mood, and at such times he was
very disagreeable. Every one kept away from him, even his
Chief Steward Kaliko.

Therefore the King stormed and raved all by himself, walking up and
down in his jewel-studded cavern and getting angrier all the time.
Then he remembered that it was no fun being angry unless he had
some one to frighten and make miserable, and he rushed to his big
gong and made it clatter as loud as he could.

In came the Chief Steward, trying not to show the Nome King how
frightened he was.

"Send the Chief Counselor here!" shouted the angry monarch.

Kaliko ran out as fast as his spindle legs could carry his fat,
round body, and soon the Chief Counselor entered the cavern.
The King scowled and said to him:

"I'm in great trouble over the loss of my Magic Belt. Every little
while I want to do something magical, and find I can't because the
Belt is gone. That makes me angry, and when I'm angry I can't have
a good time. Now, what do you advise?"

"Some people," said the Chief Counselor, "enjoy getting angry."

"But not all the time," declared the King. "To be angry once in a
while is really good fun, because it makes others so miserable. But
to be angry morning, noon and night, as I am, grows monotonous and
prevents my gaining any other pleasure in life. Now what do you advise?"

"Why, if you are angry because you want to do magical things and
can't, and if you don't want to get angry at all, my advice is not to
want to do magical things."

Hearing this, the King glared at his Counselor with a furious
expression and tugged at his own long white whiskers until he pulled
them so hard that he yelled with pain.

"You are a fool!" he exclaimed.

"I share that honor with your Majesty," said the Chief Counselor.

The King roared with rage and stamped his foot.

"Ho, there, my guards!" he cried. "Ho" is a royal way of saying,
"Come here." So, when the guards had hoed, the King said to them:

"Take this Chief Counselor and throw him away."

Then the guards took the Chief Counselor, and bound him with chains to
prevent his struggling, and threw him away. And the King paced up and
down his cavern more angry than before.

Finally he rushed to his big gong and made it clatter like a fire
alarm. Kaliko appeared again, trembling and white with fear.

"Fetch my pipe!" yelled the King.

"Your pipe is already here, your Majesty," replied Kaliko.

"Then get my tobacco!" roared the King.

"The tobacco is in your pipe, your Majesty," returned the Steward.

"Then bring a live coal from the furnace!" commanded the King.

"The tobacco is lighted, and your Majesty is already smoking your
pipe," answered the Steward.

"Why, so I am!" said the King, who had forgotten this fact; "but you
are very rude to remind me of it."

"I am a lowborn, miserable villain," declared the Chief Steward, humbly.

The Nome King could think of nothing to say next, so he puffed away at
his pipe and paced up and down the room. Finally, he remembered how
angry he was, and cried out:

"What do you mean, Kaliko, by being so contented when your monarch
is unhappy?"

"What makes you unhappy?" asked the Steward.

"I've lost my Magic Belt. A little girl named Dorothy, who was here
with Ozma of Oz, stole my Belt and carried it away with her," said the
King, grinding his teeth with rage.

"She captured it in a fair fight," Kaliko ventured to say.

"But I want it! I must have it! Half my power is gone with that
Belt!" roared the King.

"You will have to go to the Land of Oz to recover it, and your Majesty
can't get to the Land of Oz in any possible way," said the Steward,
yawning because he had been on duty ninety-six hours, and was sleepy.

"Why not?" asked the King.

"Because there is a deadly desert all around that fairy country, which
no one is able to cross. You know that fact as well as I do, your
Majesty. Never mind the lost Belt. You have plenty of power left,
for you rule this underground kingdom like a tyrant, and thousands of
Nomes obey your commands. I advise you to drink a glass of melted
silver, to quiet your nerves, and then go to bed."

The King grabbed a big ruby and threw it at Kaliko's head. The
Steward ducked to escape the heavy jewel, which crashed against the
door just over his left ear.

"Get out of my sight! Vanish! Go away--and send General Blug here,"
screamed the Nome King.

Kaliko hastily withdrew, and the Nome King stamped up and down until
the General of his armies appeared.

This Nome was known far and wide as a terrible fighter and a cruel,
desperate commander. He had fifty thousand Nome soldiers, all well
drilled, who feared nothing but their stern master. Yet General Blug
was a trifle uneasy when he arrived and saw how angry the Nome King was.

"Ha! So you're here!" cried the King.

"So I am," said the General.

"March your army at once to the Land of Oz, capture and destroy the
Emerald City, and bring back to me my Magic Belt!" roared the King.

"You're crazy," calmly remarked the General.

"What's that? What's that? What's that?" And the Nome King danced
around on his pointed toes, he was so enraged.

"You don't know what you're talking about," continued the General,
seating himself upon a large cut diamond. "I advise you to stand
in a corner and count sixty before you speak again. By that time
you may be more sensible."

The King looked around for something to throw at General Blug, but as
nothing was handy he began to consider that perhaps the man was right
and he had been talking foolishly. So he merely threw himself into
his glittering throne and tipped his crown over his ear and curled his
feet up under him and glared wickedly at Blug.

"In the first place," said the General, "we cannot march across the
deadly desert to the Land of Oz. And if we could, the Ruler of that
country, Princess Ozma, has certain fairy powers that would render my
army helpless. Had you not lost your Magic Belt we might have some
chance of defeating Ozma; but the Belt is gone."

"I want it!" screamed the King. "I must have it."

"Well, then, let us try in a sensible way to get it," replied the
General. "The Belt was captured by a little girl named Dorothy, who
lives in Kansas, in the United States of America."

"But she left it in the Emerald City, with Ozma," declared the King.

"How do you know that?" asked the General.

"One of my spies, who is a Blackbird, flew over the desert to the
Land of Oz, and saw the Magic Belt in Ozma's palace," replied the
King with a groan.

"Now that gives me an idea," said General Blug, thoughtfully. "There
are two ways to get to the Land of Oz without traveling across the
sandy desert."

"What are they?" demanded the King, eagerly.

"One way is OVER the desert, through the air; and the other way is
UNDER the desert, through the earth."

Hearing this the Nome King uttered a yell of joy and leaped from his
throne, to resume his wild walk up and down the cavern.

"That's it, Blug!" he shouted. "That's the idea, General! I'm King
of the Under World, and my subjects are all miners. I'll make a
secret tunnel under the desert to the Land of Oz--yes! right up to the
Emerald City--and you will march your armies there and capture the
whole country!"

"Softly, softly, your Majesty. Don't go too fast," warned the
General. "My Nomes are good fighters, but they are not strong enough
to conquer the Emerald City."

"Are you sure?" asked the King.

"Absolutely certain, your Majesty."

"Then what am I to do?"

"Give up the idea and mind your own business," advised the General.
"You have plenty to do trying to rule your underground kingdom."

"But I want the Magic Belt--and I'm going to have it!" roared the
Nome King.

"I'd like to see you get it," replied the General, laughing maliciously.

The King was by this time so exasperated that he picked up his
scepter, which had a heavy ball, made from a sapphire, at the end of it,
and threw it with all his force at General Blug. The sapphire hit the
General upon his forehead and knocked him flat upon the ground, where he
lay motionless. Then the King rang his gong and told his guards to
drag out the General and throw him away; which they did.

This Nome King was named Roquat the Red, and no one loved him. He was
a bad man and a powerful monarch, and he had resolved to destroy the
Land of Oz and its magnificent Emerald City, to enslave Princess Ozma
and little Dorothy and all the Oz people, and recover his Magic Belt.
This same Belt had once enabled Roquat the Red to carry out many
wicked plans; but that was before Ozma and her people marched to the
underground cavern and captured it. The Nome King could not forgive
Dorothy or Princess Ozma, and he had determined to be revenged upon them.

But they, for their part, did not know they had so dangerous an enemy.
Indeed, Ozma and Dorothy had both almost forgotten that such a person
as the Nome King yet lived under the mountains of the Land of Ev--which
lay just across the deadly desert to the south of the Land of Oz.

An unsuspected enemy is doubly dangerous.

2. How Uncle Henry Got Into Trouble

Dorothy Gale lived on a farm in Kansas, with her Aunt Em and her Uncle
Henry. It was not a big farm, nor a very good one, because sometimes
the rain did not come when the crops needed it, and then everything
withered and dried up. Once a cyclone had carried away Uncle Henry's
house, so that he was obliged to build another; and as he was a poor
man he had to mortgage his farm to get the money to pay for the new
house. Then his health became bad and he was too feeble to work.
The doctor ordered him to take a sea voyage and he went to Australia
and took Dorothy with him. That cost a lot of money, too.

Uncle Henry grew poorer every year, and the crops raised on the farm
only bought food for the family. Therefore the mortgage could not be
paid. At last the banker who had loaned him the money said that if he
did not pay on a certain day, his farm would be taken away from him.

This worried Uncle Henry a good deal, for without the farm he would
have no way to earn a living. He was a good man, and worked in the
field as hard as he could; and Aunt Em did all the housework, with
Dorothy's help. Yet they did not seem to get along.

This little girl, Dorothy, was like dozens of little girls you know.
She was loving and usually sweet-tempered, and had a round rosy face
and earnest eyes. Life was a serious thing to Dorothy, and a
wonderful thing, too, for she had encountered more strange adventures
in her short life than many other girls of her age.

Aunt Em once said she thought the fairies must have marked Dorothy at
her birth, because she had wandered into strange places and had always
been protected by some unseen power. As for Uncle Henry, he thought
his little niece merely a dreamer, as her dead mother had been, for he
could not quite believe all the curious stories Dorothy told them of
the Land of Oz, which she had several times visited. He did not think
that she tried to deceive her uncle and aunt, but he imagined that she
had dreamed all of those astonishing adventures, and that the dreams
had been so real to her that she had come to believe them true.

Whatever the explanation might be, it was certain that Dorothy had
been absent from her Kansas home for several long periods, always
disappearing unexpectedly, yet always coming back safe and sound, with
amazing tales of where she had been and the unusual people she had
met. Her uncle and aunt listened to her stories eagerly and in spite
of their doubts began to feel that the little girl had gained a lot of
experience and wisdom that were unaccountable in this age, when
fairies are supposed no longer to exist.

Most of Dorothy's stories were about the Land of Oz, with its
beautiful Emerald City and a lovely girl Ruler named Ozma, who was the
most faithful friend of the little Kansas girl. When Dorothy told
about the riches of this fairy country Uncle Henry would sigh, for he
knew that a single one of the great emeralds that were so common there
would pay all his debts and leave his farm free. But Dorothy never
brought any jewels home with her, so their poverty became greater
every year.

When the banker told Uncle Henry that he must pay the money in thirty
days or leave the farm, the poor man was in despair, as he knew he
could not possibly get the money. So he told his wife, Aunt Em, of
his trouble, and she first cried a little and then said that they must
be brave and do the best they could, and go away somewhere and try to
earn an honest living. But they were getting old and feeble and she
feared that they could not take care of Dorothy as well as they had
formerly done. Probably the little girl would also be obliged to go
to work.

They did not tell their niece the sad news for several days,
not wishing to make her unhappy; but one morning the little girl
found Aunt Em softly crying while Uncle Henry tried to comfort her.
Then Dorothy asked them to tell her what was the matter.

"We must give up the farm, my dear," replied her uncle sadly, "and
wander away into the world to work for our living."

The girl listened quite seriously, for she had not known before how
desperately poor they were.

"We don't mind for ourselves," said her aunt, stroking the little
girl's head tenderly; "but we love you as if you were our own child,
and we are heart-broken to think that you must also endure poverty,
and work for a living before you have grown big and strong."

"What could I do to earn money?" asked Dorothy.

"You might do housework for some one, dear, you are so handy; or
perhaps you could be a nurse-maid to little children. I'm sure I don't
know exactly what you CAN do to earn money, but if your uncle and I
are able to support you we will do it willingly, and send you to
school. We fear, though, that we shall have much trouble in earning a
living for ourselves. No one wants to employ old people who are
broken down in health, as we are."

Dorothy smiled.

"Wouldn't it be funny," she said, "for me to do housework in Kansas,
when I'm a Princess in the Land of Oz?"

"A Princess!" they both exclaimed, astonished.

"Yes; Ozma made me a Princess some time ago, and she has often begged
me to come and live always in the Emerald City," said the child.

Her uncle and aunt looked at her in amazement. Then the man said:

"Do you suppose you could manage to return to your fairyland, my dear?"

"Oh yes," replied Dorothy; "I could do that easily."

"How?" asked Aunt Em.

"Ozma sees me every day at four o'clock, in her Magic Picture. She can
see me wherever I am, no matter what I am doing. And at that time, if
I make a certain secret sign, she will send for me by means of the
Magic Belt, which I once captured from the Nome King. Then, in the
wink of an eye, I shall be with Ozma in her palace."

The elder people remained silent for some time after Dorothy had
spoken. Finally, Aunt Em said, with another sigh of regret:

"If that is the case, Dorothy, perhaps you'd better go and live in the
Emerald City. It will break our hearts to lose you from our lives,
but you will be so much better off with your fairy friends that it
seems wisest and best for you to go."

"I'm not so sure about that," remarked Uncle Henry, shaking his gray
head doubtfully. "These things all seem real to Dorothy, I know; but
I'm afraid our little girl won't find her fairyland just what she had
dreamed it to be. It would make me very unhappy to think that she was
wandering among strangers who might be unkind to her."

Dorothy laughed merrily at this speech, and then she became very sober
again, for she could see how all this trouble was worrying her aunt
and uncle, and knew that unless she found a way to help them their
future lives would be quite miserable and unhappy. She knew that she
COULD help them. She had thought of a way already. Yet she did not
tell them at once what it was, because she must ask Ozma's consent
before she would be able to carry out her plans.

So she only said:

"If you will promise not to worry a bit about me, I'll go to the Land
of Oz this very afternoon. And I'll make a promise, too; that you shall
both see me again before the day comes when you must leave this farm."

"The day isn't far away, now," her uncle sadly replied. "I did not
tell you of our trouble until I was obliged to, dear Dorothy, so the
evil time is near at hand. But if you are quite sure your fairy
friends will give you a home, it will be best for you to go to them,
as your aunt says."

That was why Dorothy went to her little room in the attic that
afternoon, taking with her a small dog named Toto. The dog had curly
black hair and big brown eyes and loved Dorothy very dearly.

The child had kissed her uncle and aunt affectionately before she went
upstairs, and now she looked around her little room rather wistfully,
gazing at the simple trinkets and worn calico and gingham dresses, as
if they were old friends. She was tempted at first to make a bundle
of them, yet she knew very well that they would be of no use to her in
her future life.

She sat down upon a broken-backed chair--the only one the room
contained--and holding Toto in her arms waited patiently until the
clock struck four.

Then she made the secret signal that had been agreed upon between
her and Ozma.

Uncle Henry and Aunt Em waited downstairs. They were uneasy and a
good deal excited, for this is a practical humdrum world, and it
seemed to them quite impossible that their little niece could vanish
from her home and travel instantly to fairyland.

So they watched the stairs, which seemed to be the only way that Dorothy
could get out of the farmhouse, and they watched them a long time. They
heard the clock strike four but there was no sound from above.

Half-past four came, and now they were too impatient to wait
any longer. Softly, they crept up the stairs to the door of the
little girl's room.

"Dorothy! Dorothy!" they called.

There was no answer.

They opened the door and looked in.

The room was empty.

3. How Ozma Granted Dorothy's Request

I suppose you have read so much about the magnificent Emerald City
that there is little need for me to describe it here. It is the
Capital City of the Land of Oz, which is justly considered the most
attractive and delightful fairyland in all the world.

The Emerald City is built all of beautiful marbles in which are set a
profusion of emeralds, every one exquisitely cut and of very great
size. There are other jewels used in the decorations inside the
houses and palaces, such as rubies, diamonds, sapphires, amethysts
and turquoises. But in the streets and upon the outside of the
buildings only emeralds appear, from which circumstance the place is
named the Emerald City of Oz. It has nine thousand, six hundred and
fifty-four buildings, in which lived fifty-seven thousand three
hundred and eighteen people, up to the time my story opens.

All the surrounding country, extending to the borders of the desert
which enclosed it upon every side, was full of pretty and comfortable
farmhouses, in which resided those inhabitants of Oz who preferred
country to city life.

Altogether there were more than half a million people in the Land of
Oz--although some of them, as you will soon learn, were not made of
flesh and blood as we are--and every inhabitant of that favored
country was happy and prosperous.

No disease of any sort was ever known among the Ozites, and so no one
ever died unless he met with an accident that prevented him from
living. This happened very seldom, indeed. There were no poor people
in the Land of Oz, because there was no such thing as money, and all
property of every sort belonged to the Ruler. The people were her
children, and she cared for them. Each person was given freely by his
neighbors whatever he required for his use, which is as much as any one
may reasonably desire. Some tilled the lands and raised great crops
of grain, which was divided equally among the entire population, so
that all had enough. There were many tailors and dressmakers and
shoemakers and the like, who made things that any who desired them
might wear. Likewise there were jewelers who made ornaments for the
person, which pleased and beautified the people, and these ornaments
also were free to those who asked for them. Each man and woman, no
matter what he or she produced for the good of the community, was
supplied by the neighbors with food and clothing and a house and
furniture and ornaments and games. If by chance the supply ever ran
short, more was taken from the great storehouses of the Ruler, which
were afterward filled up again when there was more of any article than
the people needed.

Every one worked half the time and played half the time, and the
people enjoyed the work as much as they did the play, because it is
good to be occupied and to have something to do. There were no cruel
overseers set to watch them, and no one to rebuke them or to find
fault with them. So each one was proud to do all he could for his
friends and neighbors, and was glad when they would accept the things
he produced.

You will know by what I have here told you, that the Land of Oz was a
remarkable country. I do not suppose such an arrangement would be
practical with us, but Dorothy assures me that it works finely with
the Oz people.

Oz being a fairy country, the people were, of course, fairy people;
but that does not mean that all of them were very unlike the people of
our own world. There were all sorts of queer characters among them,
but not a single one who was evil, or who possessed a selfish or
violent nature. They were peaceful, kind hearted, loving and merry,
and every inhabitant adored the beautiful girl who ruled them and
delighted to obey her every command.

In spite of all I have said in a general way, there were some parts of
the Land of Oz not quite so pleasant as the farming country and the
Emerald City which was its center. Far away in the South Country
there lived in the mountains a band of strange people called
Hammer-Heads, because they had no arms and used their flat heads to
pound any one who came near them. Their necks were like rubber, so
that they could shoot out their heads to quite a distance, and
afterward draw them back again to their shoulders. The Hammer-Heads
were called the "Wild People," but never harmed any but those who
disturbed them in the mountains where they lived.

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