














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