L. Frank Baum - Oz 34 Read online

  The Wonder City Of Oz - Oz 34

  L. Frank Baum

  CHAPTER 1

  How Jenny Lost the Pepper-Cheese

  JENNY JUMP jumped. She was so surprised, she

  jumped halfway across the kitchen. She had never seen such a sight, never in the whole state of New Jersey!

  A tiny man was stealing pepper-cheese out of the cheese box! He was standing right on the table, and he was no taller than the cheese box.

  Jenny became very angry because she was to have that pepper-cheese for supper.

  “Don’t do that,” she cried.

  The little man turned, and Jenny was startled again. The man was a Leprechaun! She knew right away he was one of the Irish fairy folk because he had bushy red whiskers, a green coat, and an old hat with a white owl’s feather stuck in it. The red whiskers were as bushy as a porcupine. He held the whole pepper-cheese against him, and it was almost as big as he was.

  The little man looked at Jenny, and she stared back, remembering that a Leprechaun can’t get away as long as you keep your eyes fixed on him but if you as much as blink, he’ll get away. A Leprechaun will grant you any wish while your eyes have him in your power.

  Jenny stared and stared, until her eyes began to hurt. She dared not blink, for if she did the Leprechaun would be free to run away, and she would not get her wish. Jenny thought hard and fast, trying to

  decide what she wanted. Most of all, she wanted the pepper-cheese for supper.

  “Drop the pepper-cheese,” she ordered. The cheese fell to the table.

  Jenny’s eyes hurt more and more from looking so hard, but she would not blink until she had made the Leprechaun give her everything she wanted.

  “Make me into a fairy,” she said, staring at him. The strangest things began to happen. Her toes on one foot began to tingle and want to dance. First one finger felt that it was tinkling like a silver bell, then another finger, and then another. Both of her ears were full of wonderful music, and she could hear the chairs talking to each other. One eye changed and saw everything with new and more beautiful colors. Even the old kitchen wall became as bright as a rainbow. She felt like the song of an oriole, and the murmuring of leaves. She felt as if everything were beautiful and happy. She knew that she was being turned into a real fairy.

  Then a terrible thing happened: Jenny’s left eye, the one that wasn’t a fairy eye, blinked.

  Instantly the Leprechaun ran across the table and leaped to the window.

  “Stop, stop !” Jenny screamed.

  The Leprechaun stood on the window sill, but he did not lift his eyes to Jenny’s face.

  “Shure, and what d’ye want?” he asked with his Irish brogue. His voice was as gruff as an old bull

  frog’s.

  “Make me into a full fairy. I’m half girl and half fairy now. Only one eye is a fairy eye, and one foot; eight of my fingers are fairy fingers, and both of my ears. But I want to be all fairy.”

  “I’ll not be doin’ it. ‘Twill only get ye into trouble,” the Leprechaun said roughly.

  Jenny became so angry, she jumped. She jumped so high that she was headed right for the ceiling. She would have jumped clear through it, if she had not thrown up her hands and stopped herself. When she dropped down to the floor she was so surprised and pleased that she forgot to be angry.

  “Did you see that?” she asked.

  The Leprechaun did not answer, but turned to go. Jenny was sorry that she had been cross with him.

  “Do you have to go so soon?” she said politely. “If you’ll stay, you may have all the cheese you want -if you only take a little piece.”

  The Leprechaun jumped back to the table. He stuffed such a big piece of pepper-cheese into his mouth that his cheeks bulged wider than his shoulders. With his mouth full he said, “What may your name be?”

  “Jenny Jump,” she said.

  “How old be ye, Jenny?”

  “Fifteen,” she snapped, growing angry all over again. She didn’t like the way he kept tearing off bits of pepper-cheese, while her share grew smaller.

  “Now, me own name is a long one, for shure.” He puffed out his chest. “Siko Pompus it is. And it’s 857 years old I am!”

  “Don’t eat any more,” Jenny commanded. Siko Pompus kept eating and eating.

  “My, aren’t ye the spitfire, now,” he said.

  When Jenny tried to answer, instead of words, she was spitting fire. A spark fell on the Leprechaun’s bushy ‘red beard. The beard began to flame and smoke, and to Jenny’s astonishment, it grew longer and longer as it burned.

  Siko Pompus jumped up and down and screeched, “Git some water git some water! It’s a-growin’ so long, I shan’t be able to carry it around.”

  The red beard grew and grew while it smoked and flamed, until it half filled the kitchen. Jenny could no longer see Siko Pompus behind the big, red, burning beard.

  “Be throwin’ water on it!” Siko Pompus shouted. Jenny felt so sorry for the little fellow that she forgot to be angry. She ran for a bucket of water and splashed it over his beard. The fire went out, and the beard lay all over the kitchen floor, like an old hair mattress.

  “More water, more water,” Siko Pompus cried. Jenny fetched a second bucket and threw it over the beard. The beard began to shrink. It shrank a little way, then stopped.

  “More water, more water,” Siko Pompus kept ordering. Jenny had to fetch so many buckets that her arms ached. And each time the beard shrank a little way.

  When the beard was back to its own size, Siko Pompus said gruffly, “Next time ye’ll be thinkin’ twice, before losin’ your temper.”

  Jenny was too tired to be angry again. The little man was not through giving advice.

  “Remember, Jenny Jump, that it’s half fairy ye are now. Ye must not be selfish, vain, and fiery tempered. Now, I’ll be takin’ another piece of cheese and go. But I’ll come back, sometime!”

  “Just a small piece,” Jenny said, watching him

  closely.

  There was hardly any of the cheese left. The

  Leprechaun picked up the whole piece, jumped to the window, and sat in the tree outside.

  At that, Jenny was so furious, she stamped her fairy foot and bounced right out of the window!

  She stood surprised. “Well, I never took such a jump before,” she said. “I’ll try it again.”

  She stamped her foot, sailed over the house and came down on the other side.

  “Leaping Leprechauns!” she said. Looking far off, she saw the mountain that had stood between her and the rest of the world all her life.

  “I wonder if I could jump over that?” she said. “First I’ll have to dress more warmly.” Running into the house, she put on a hat and a cape. Then she ran out again. She bounced on her fairy foot, and next minute she was up, sailing over the pine trees on top of the mountain. She dropped to the other side.

  “Such wonderful things never happened to me in all my lonesome life. I wonder how far I can really jump?”

  As she said this, she stamped hard with her fairy foot, and the next instant she shot up and away through the air.

  Jenny sailed for four days, wondering all the time

  if she would ever land. Just afternoonon the fourth day, she looked down and saw a new country. One section of it was yellow, one blue, one purple, and another red. And right in the center there was a green sparkling patch.

  “That looks like a land of enchantment,” she said. “I can see it with my magic eye, but not with my ordinary one. I wish I were down there.”

  She felt herself beginning to drop.

  CHAPTER 2

  The Speck in the Magic Picture

  O ZMA was in her dressing room in the palace in t
heEmeraldCityof the enchanted Land of Oz of which she is queen. She was being dressed by her chief maid-in-waiting, Jellia Jamb. The fair young ruler was wearing her most beautiful clothes. It was her birthday, and there was to be a parade in her honor.

  Outside the palace, all the strange people and stranger creatures of Oz had gathered. They stood cheering for their Queen and for the parade. Everybody in Oz loves parades. The people had come from the four states of Oz. The Munchkins came from

  the western blue country, the Gillikins, from the northern purple country, the Winkies, from the eastern yellow country, and the Quadlings, from the land to the south that was bright red.

  The people were colored the same as their country, and all their clothes and pets and belongings were that color, too. It was easy to tell those who lived in the Emerald City, for they were green.

  Ozma was very happy because all was well in her land, and her subjects were contented and prosperous.

  “I hope trouble will never come to our fair land,” she said to her two friends who were watching her get ready. These two girls were Glinda the Good, a kindly, red-haired sorceress who ruled in the South; and Princess Dorothy, who had blown to Oz from Kansas on a cyclone many years ago.

  Jellia Jamb, who stood by with her mouth full of golden needles and silver thread, started to answer without taking the needles out of her mouth.

  “As long as you are Queen, there will be no”

  That was all she was able to say. For as her lips and tongue moved, they worked the needles and thread in and out and sewed her lips tightly together.

  Ozma turned to her maid. “What were you going

  to say, Jellia?”

  Jellia tried to answer, but the words couldn’t get out of her mouth. They just kept piling up inside her cheeks. The maid got very excited. She did not feel any pain, of course, for the needles and thread were those she had used to make Ozma’s dress, and therefore they were enchanted. But when her mouth became full of words, Jellia grew more excited. The more excited she became, the more she talked. And the more she talked, the fuller her mouth became.

  She was so frightened that she began to scream. And when the scream came into her mouth, her head became so full of sound that it lifted her right off the floor like a balloon.

  Dorothy ran and pulled the maid down, saying, “Help her, dear Ozma. Cut the thread that holds her lips together.”

  Ozma shook her head. “The silver thread is magical, and will not break until I have a new birthday dress made. Don’t talk any more, Jellia, or your head will get so big, it will explode.”

  Dorothy put two heavy emerald book-ends from the Queen’s table on the maid’s feet to hold her down.

  Ozma said, “I can’t undo the magic of the silver

  thread and the golden needles. But I can open one of your ears, so that the words can get out. You will have to talk through that ear until my new birthday dress is made.”

  Jellia nodded. Ozma closed her eyes, put one of her hands over Jellia’s ear, and said a few magical words. Immediately there was a rush of words and screams from her ear. The force of them was so strong that it pulled out the curtains and blew over two trees outside.

  The blue Munchkins, the purple Gillikins, the yellow Winkies, and the red Quadlings around the palace danced and shouted, for they thought magic was being performed for them.

  Jellia’s cheeks snapped together like a rubber band. She no longer needed to be weighted down.

  “For cake’s sake!” she said out of her ear, “I never had such a fright. It’s going to be awfully hard to chew chicken bones with my ear.”

  Ozma smiled. “I’ll enchant you so you won’t be hungry until your lips are free again,” she said, putting her arm around her little maid. “Now we must hurry with my dressing, for soon it will be time for the parade.”

  “Yes, dear Ozma,” Jellia said out of her ear.

  The dress of silver and gold was drawn about Ozma, and emerald bracelets were put around her wrist. The emerald crown that held the magic name of OZ was placed on her head.

  “You are very beautiful,” Glinda the Good said admiringly.

  There were still a few minutes before the parade. “I will look at the magic picture to see what is happening in all my countries,” Ozma said.

  Ozma went to the wall and drew a heavy cord there. Some thick velvet curtains drew apart, and a magic picture was revealed. This picture showed everything that was happening in the Land of Oz. Ozma smiled as she saw a peaceful country scene, for this meant that there was peace and happiness everywhere in her kingdom.

  Suddenly the smile went from Ozma’s face, and she leaned closer to the picture. Something was wrong. She looked and looked. There was a faraway speck in the picture, and the longer she looked, the bigger it got. Finally it was no longer a speck, but a girl. In her magic way, Ozma could see where she came from but she could not tell who she was.

  “A girl from U.S.A. is on her way to Oz. I wonder who she can be?” said Ozma, “She must have magic powers to get through the barrier surrounding Oz.

  Dorothy, come here, please.”

  Dorothy stepped up to the picture and looked at

  it. She saw the girl sailing through the air, coming

  straight toward the peaceful land of Oz.

  “We will have another friend,” she exclaimed. “She is a girl like me, only a few years older.”

  “I hope she is as dear and kind as you,” said Ozma. “Do you know her?”

  Dorothy stared hard into the picture and shook

  her head.

  “I never saw her before. But maybe Aunt Em and Uncle Henry will know. They lived longer in the States ‘cause they were born first. Shall I get

  them?”

  “Yes, fetch them.”

  Dorothy went out and soon came back, followed by her Aunt Em and Uncle Henry.

  “Do you know that girl who is sailing through the air?” Ozma asked.

  Aunt Em and Uncle Henry looked into the picture.

  “I never saw that girl before,” Aunt Em said. “I hope she’s not bringing trouble.”

  Uncle Henry stared and stared. “You know who that might be?” he said. “‘Pears to me she looks something like Nancy Dew Hickman who used to

  live on the farm next to ours in Kansas. Only Nancy Dew had black hair, and this girl’s hair is red. And Nancy Dew had brown eyes, and this girl’s eyes are green. And Nancy Dew had a sweet smile, but this girl looks as cross as a hen whose eggs have been stolen from her nest.”

  “Land sakes!” Aunt Em exclaimed. “How can you say they look alike, then? And anyway, Nancy Dew must be grown up by now. Maybe the Wizard knows who she is. He traveled all over the U.S.A. when he was a plain magician. He knows a lot of people.”

  There was a knock at the door. “Come in,” said

  Ozma.

  The Wizard of Oz entered. He was a short, round man, with a ruddy face, a brisk manner, and a twinkle in his eye.

  “I was trying out my latest invention, the teletable, just now, and heard you talking about me. So I came right down, without stopping to put on a disguise,” said the Wizard.

  “I’m glad you hurried,” said Ozma, “for something unusual is happening. Will you look at the magic picture and tell me whether you know that

  girl?”

  The Wizard stepped up and looked hard at the

  speck.

  “I don’t know who she is, but she is coming right here,” he said. “I calculate she will land at twenty-two minutes after two, P.M.”

  “Why, that is the exact time I am to ascend my carriage in the parade,” said Ozma.

  “So it is,” replied the Wizard. He kept staring into the picture. “Trouble ahead, fair Ruler. I can smell trouble 4,000 miles away. And I’m smelling it now. That girl who is coming has a terrible temper.”

  “Dear me,” Aunt Em said, “I know that kind of people. Just looking at ‘em causes a commotion.”

  The Wizard went toward the door. “If
I am not wanted here any longer, I shall return to my laboratory and continue my experiments.”

  “Wait, please,” said Ozma. “I need your advice. What shall I do to keep trouble from Oz?”

  “Turn that girl back and send her to the U.S.A.” The Wizard sneezed and blew his nose, for the smell of trouble was in his head.

  “I had better do that,” Ozma said.

  But Princess Dorothy asked eagerly, “Please, Ozma, can’t she come? It would be fun for us to have another friend.”

  Glinda the Good added, “Yes, why not let her come? There’s no harm she can do that your magic

  can’t undo.”

  “I won’t deny anyone’s wish on my birthday,” said Ozma, smiling. “I’ll let her come and hope she won’t make too much trouble.”

  Uncle Henry smiled. “A good spanking before every meal would teach her to behave.”

  “Spankings are old-fashioned,” Aunt Em put in. “What I say about mean folks is, let them get into all the trouble they can until they learn that making trouble isn’t any fun.”

  Ozma stood thinking. Finally she said, “I think you are right, Aunt Em.”

  Jellia Jamb thought it was time for her to give some advice. She began to talk out of her ear, “Trouble has started already. It started with me-” She began to weep sugary tears.

  As the tears hit the floor they hardened to crystal candies. Jellia Jamb could not stop weeping. The sugar tears poured until the floor was piled high with candy.

  Ozma summoned another maid-in-waiting and asked her to wade in and shovel up the candy The maid pushed the candy out of the window. The people outside caught it and laughed and shouted, for there was nothing tastier in all Oz than teardrop candy.