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 GoodBaum, L. Frank (Lyman Frank)
Science
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
Baum, L. Frank (Lyman Frank)
Adventure and adventurers -- Juvenile fiction; Animals, Mythical -- Juvenile fiction; Courage -- Juvenile fiction; Fantasy literature; Gale, Dorothy (Fictitious character) -- Juvenile fiction; Good and evil -- Juvenile fiction; Magic -- Juvenile fiction; Oz (Imaginary place) -- Juvenile fiction; Tri
"Can't your magic give us a horse an' wagon, or an automobile?"
inquired Dorothy.
"No, dear; I'm sorry that such magic is beyond my power," confessed
her fairy friend.
"Perhaps Glinda could," said Dorothy thoughtfully.
"Glinda has a stork chariot that carries her through the air," said
Ozma, "but even our great Sorceress cannot conjure up other modes of
travel. Don't forget what I told you last night, that no one is
powerful enough to do everything."
"Well, I s'pose I ought to know that, having lived so long in the Land
of Oz," replied Dorothy; "but _I_ can't do any magic at all, an' so I
can't figure out e'zactly how you an' Glinda an' the Wizard do it."
"Don't try," laughed Ozma. "But you have at least one magical art,
Dorothy: you know the trick of winning all hearts."
"No, I don't," said Dorothy earnestly. "If I really can do it, Ozma,
I am sure I don't know _how_ I do it."
It took them a good two hours to reach the foot of the round, flat
mountain, and then they found the sides so steep that they were like
the wall of a house.
"Even my purple kitten couldn't climb 'em," remarked Dorothy, gazing
upward.
"But there is some way for the Flatheads to get down and up again,"
declared Ozma; "otherwise they couldn't make war with the Skeezers, or
even meet them and quarrel with them."
"That's so, Ozma. Let's walk around a ways; perhaps we'll find a
ladder or something."
They walked quite a distance, for it was a big mountain, and as they
circled around it and came to the side that faced the palm trees, they
suddenly discovered an entrance way cut out of the rock wall. This
entrance was arched overhead and not very deep because it merely led
to a short flight of stone stairs.
"Oh, we've found a way to the top at last," announced Ozma, and the
two girls turned and walked straight toward the entrance. Suddenly
they bumped against something and stood still, unable to proceed
farther.
"Dear me!" exclaimed Dorothy, rubbing her nose, which had struck
something hard, although she could not see what it was; "this isn't
as easy as it looks. What has stopped us, Ozma? Is it magic of some
sort?"
Ozma was feeling around, her hands outstretched before her.
"Yes, dear, it is magic," she replied. "The Flatheads had to have a
way from their mountain top from the plain below, but to prevent
enemies from rushing up the stairs to conquer them, they have built,
at a small distance before the entrance a wall of solid stone, the
stones being held in place by cement, and then they made the wall
invisible."
"I wonder why they did that?" mused Dorothy. "A wall would keep folks
out anyhow, whether it could be seen or not, so there wasn't any use
making it invisible. Seems to me it would have been better to have
left it solid, for then no one would have seen the entrance behind it.
Now anybody can see the entrance, as we did. And prob'bly anybody that
tries to go up the stairs gets bumped, as we did."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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