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L. Frank Baum_Oz 14

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GLINDA OF OZ
* * *
L. FRANK BAUM
 
*
Glinda of Oz
First published in 1920
ISBN 978-1-62011-981-5
Duke Classics
© 2012 Duke Classics and its licensors. All rights reserved.
While every effort has been used to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information contained in this edition, Duke Classics does not assume liability or responsibility for any errors or omissions in this book. Duke Classics does not accept responsibility for loss suffered as a result of reliance upon the accuracy or currency of information contained in this book.
Contents
*
Glinda of Oz
Chapter One - The Call to Duty
Chapter Two - Ozma and Dorothy
Chapter Three - The Mist Maidens
Chapter Four - The Magic Tent
Chapter Five - The Magic Stairway
Chapter Six - Flathead Mountain
Chapter Seven - The Magic Isle
Chapter Eight - Queen Coo-Ee-Oh
Chapter Nine - Lady Aurex
Chapter Ten - Under Water
Chapter Eleven - The Conquest of the Skeezers
Chapter Twelve - The Diamond Swan
Chapter Thirteen - The Alarm Bell
Chapter Fourteen - Ozma's Counsellors
Chapter Fifteen - The Great Sorceress
Chapter Sixteen - The Enchanted Fishes
Chapter Seventeen - Under the Great Dome
Chapter Eighteen - The Cleverness of Ervic
Chapter Nineteen - Red Reera, the Yookoohoo
Chapter Twenty - A Puzzling Problem
Chapter Twenty-One - The Three Adepts
Chapter Twenty-Two - The Sunken Island
Chapter Twenty-Three - The Magic Words
Chapter Twenty-Four - Glinda's Triumph
Glinda of Oz
*

In which are related the Exciting Experiences of Princess
Ozma of Oz, and Dorothy, in their hazardous journey
to the home of the Flatheads, and to the Magic
Isle of the Skeezers, and how they were
rescued from dire peril by the
sorcery of Glinda the
Good

by L. FRANK BAUM
"Royal Historian of Oz"

*

This Book
is Dedicated to
My Son
Robert Stanton Baum

Chapter One - The Call to Duty
*

Glinda, the good Sorceress of Oz, sat in the grand court of her palace,
surrounded by her maids of honor—a hundred of the most beautiful girls
of the Fairyland of Oz. The palace court was built of rare marbles,
exquisitely polished. Fountains tinkled musically here and there; the
vast colonnade, open to the south, allowed the maidens, as they raised
their heads from their embroideries, to gaze upon a vista of rose-hued
fields and groves of trees bearing fruits or laden with sweet-scented
flowers. At times one of the girls would start a song, the others
joining in the chorus, or one would rise and dance, gracefully swaying
to the music of a harp played by a companion. And then Glinda smiled,
glad to see her maids mixing play with work.

Presently among the fields an object was seen moving, threading the
broad path that led to the castle gate. Some of the girls looked upon
this object enviously; the Sorceress merely gave it a glance and nodded
her stately head as if pleased, for it meant the coming of her friend
and mistress—the only one in all the land that Glinda bowed to.

Then up the path trotted a wooden animal attached to a red wagon, and
as the quaint steed halted at the gate there descended from the wagon
two young girls, Ozma, Ruler of Oz, and her companion, Princess
Dorothy. Both were dressed in simple white muslin gowns, and as they
ran up the marble steps of the palace they laughed and chatted as gaily
as if they were not the most important persons in the world's loveliest
fairyland.

The maids of honor had risen and stood with bowed heads to greet the
royal Ozma, while Glinda came forward with outstretched arms to greet
her guests.

"We've just come on a visit, you know," said Ozma. "Both Dorothy and I
were wondering how we should pass the day when we happened to think
we'd not been to your Quadling Country for weeks, so we took the
Sawhorse and rode straight here."

"And we came so fast," added Dorothy, "that our hair is blown all
fuzzy, for the Sawhorse makes a wind of his own. Usually it's a day's
journey from the Em'rald City, but I don't s'pose we were two hours on
the way."

"You are most welcome," said Glinda the Sorceress, and led them through
the court to her magnificent reception hall. Ozma took the arm of her
hostess, but Dorothy lagged behind, kissing some of the maids she knew
best, talking with others, and making them all feel that she was their
friend. When at last she joined Glinda and Ozma in the reception hall,
she found them talking earnestly about the condition of the people, and
how to make them more happy and contented—although they were already
the happiest and most contented folks in all the world.

This interested Ozma, of course, but it didn't interest Dorothy very
much, so the little girl ran over to a big table on which was lying
open Glinda's Great Book of Records.

This Book is one of the greatest treasures in Oz, and the Sorceress
prizes it more highly than any of her magical possessions. That is the
reason it is firmly attached to the big marble table by means of golden
chains, and whenever Glinda leaves home she locks the Great Book
together with five jeweled padlocks, and carries the keys safely hidden
in her bosom.

I do not suppose there is any magical thing in any fairyland to compare
with the Record Book, on the pages of which are constantly being
printed a record of every event that happens in any part of the world,
at exactly the moment it happens. And the records are always truthful,
although sometimes they do not give as many details as one could wish.
But then, lots of things happen, and so the records have to be brief or
even Glinda's Great Book could not hold them all.

Glinda looked at the records several times each day, and Dorothy,
whenever she visited the Sorceress, loved to look in the Book and see
what was happening everywhere. Not much was recorded about the Land of
Oz, which is usually peaceful and uneventful, but today Dorothy found
something which interested her. Indeed, the printed letters were
appearing on the page even while she looked.

"This is funny!" she exclaimed. "Did you know, Ozma, that there were
people in your Land of Oz called Skeezers?"

"Yes," replied Ozma, coming to her side, "I know that on Professor
Wogglebug's Map of the Land of Oz there is a place marked 'Skeezer,'
but what the Skeezers are like I do not know. No one I know has ever
seen them or heard of them. The Skeezer Country is 'way at the upper
edge of the Gillikin Country, with the sandy, impassable desert on one
side and the mountains of Oogaboo on another side. That is a part of
the Land of Oz of which I know very little."

"I guess no one else knows much about it either, unless it's the
Skeezers themselves," remarked Dorothy. "But the Book says: 'The
Skeezers of Oz have declared war on the Flatheads of Oz, and there is
likely to be fighting and much trouble as the result.'"

"Is that all the Book says?" asked Ozma.

"Every word," said Dorothy, and Ozma and Glinda both looked at the
Record and seemed surprised and perplexed.

"Tell me, Glinda," said Ozma, "who are the Flatheads?"

"I cannot, your Majesty," confessed the Sorceress. "Until now I never
have heard of them, nor have I ever heard the Skeezers mentioned. In
the faraway corners of Oz are hidden many curious tribes of people, and
those who never leave their own countries and never are visited by
those from our favored part of Oz, naturally are unknown to me.
However, if you so desire, I can learn through my arts of sorcery
something of the Skeezers and the Flatheads."

"I wish you would," answered Ozma seriously. "You see, Glinda, if these
are Oz people they are my subjects and I cannot allow any wars or
troubles in the Land I rule, if I can possibly help it."

"Very well, your Majesty," said the Sorceress, "I will try to get some
information to guide you. Please excuse me for a time, while I retire
to my Room of Magic and Sorcery."

"May I go with you?" asked Dorothy, eagerly.

"No, Princess," was the reply. "It would spoil the charm to have anyone
present."

So Glinda locked herself in her own Room of Magic and Dorothy and Ozma
waited patiently for her to come out again.

In about an hour Glinda appeared, looking grave and thoughtful.

"Your Majesty," she said to Ozma, "the Skeezers live on a Magic Isle in
a great lake. For that reason—because the Skeezers deal in magic—I
can learn little about them."

"Why, I didn't know there was a lake in that part of Oz," exclaimed
Ozma. "The map shows a river running through the Skeezer Country, but
no lake."

"That is because the person who made the map never had visited that
part of the country," explained the Sorceress. "The lake surely is
there, and in the lake is an island—a Magic Isle—and on that island
live the people called the Skeezers."

"What are they like?" inquired the Ruler of Oz.

"My magic cannot tell me that," confessed Glinda, "for the magic of the
Skeezers prevents anyone outside of their domain knowing anything about
them."

"The Flatheads must know, if they're going to fight the Skeezers,"
suggested Dorothy.

"Perhaps so," Glinda replied, "but I can get little information
concerning the Flatheads, either. They are people who inhabit a
mountain just south of the Lake of the Skeezers. The mountain has steep
sides and a broad, hollow top, like a basin, and in this basin the
Flatheads have their dwellings. They also are magic-workers and usually
keep to themselves and allow no one from outside to visit them. I have
learned that the Flatheads number about one hundred people—men, women
and children—while the Skeezers number just one hundred and one."

"What did they quarrel about, and why do they wish to fight one
another?" was Ozma's next question.

"I cannot tell your Majesty that," said Glinda.

"But see here!" cried Dorothy, "it's against the law for anyone but
Glinda and the Wizard to work magic in the Land of Oz, so if these two
strange people are magic-makers they are breaking the law and ought to
be punished!" Ozma smiled upon her little friend.

"Those who do not know me or my laws," she said, "cannot be expected to
obey my laws. If we know nothing of the Skeezers or the Flatheads, it
is likely that they know nothing of us."

"But they ought to know, Ozma, and we ought to know. Who's going to
tell them, and how are we going to make them behave?"

"That," returned Ozma, "is what I am now considering. What would you
advise, Glinda?"

The Sorceress took a little time to consider this question, before she
made reply. Then she said: "Had you not learned of the existence of the
Flatheads and the Skeezers, through my Book of Records, you would never
have worried about them or their quarrels. So, if you pay no attention
to these peoples, you may never hear of them again."

"But that wouldn't be right," declared Ozma. "I am Ruler of all the
Land of Oz, which includes the Gillikin Country, the Quadling Country,
the Winkie Country and the Munchkin Country, as well as the Emerald
City, and being the Princess of this fairyland it is my duty to make
all my people—wherever they may be—happy and content and to settle
their disputes and keep them from quarreling. So, while the Skeezers
and Flatheads may not know me or that I am their lawful Ruler, I now
know that they inhabit my kingdom and are my subjects, so I would not
be doing my duty if I kept away from them and allowed them to fight."

"That's a fact, Ozma," commented Dorothy. "You've got to go up to
the Gillikin Country and make these people behave themselves and make
up their quarrels. But how are you going to do it?"

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