"Fetch it! Fetch it, bring it to me at once!" panted the King, bouncing up and down on his throne like a big bad baby (which in truth he was). "I must discover why Oz is so rich and prosperous while we are so poor and unfortunate." "Not so unfortunate and poor as we are unwise and greedy," stated Pinny Penny, stalking calmly across the room. "If your Majesty would study ways to improve Skampavia and allow your own subjects to keep a fair share of their crops and merchandise, we might be a powerful country, too." "Nonsense! What can we do with a rocky little desert like this?" blustered Skamperoo contemptuously. "Skampavia is a dull little Kingdom, a dumb little Kingdom--a KingDUMB, that's a good name for it." "And you?" murmured Pinny Penny under his breath as he hastened away to fetch the book on Oz. Returning, he plumped the fat volume down on the King's knees and stood back with folded arms. "Well--well? Do you expect me to read all this?" wailed Skamperoo in dismay. "Why, it would take a year or more. Explain it to me, Pinny Penny. Just give me the gist of the matter. Just give me the gist--there, I've made a joke. Ha! ha! ha! I've made a joke." "But Oz is no joke," said the Prime Minister shortly, "your Majesty had better get that through your head at once. Now attend closely and I will endeavor to give you the most important facts about this rich and enchanting country across the desert. In the first place," Pinny Penny looked severely over his specs, "Oz is about fifty times as large as Skampavia, a great oblong, undulating country divided into four triangular Kingdoms. Each of these Kingdoms has its own ruler, but all four are subject to the rule of Ozma of Oz, whose capital, the Emerald City, is in the exact center of Oz." "A girl?" exclaimed Skamperoo, leaning forward excitedly. "How can a mere girl rule over an important country like that?" "By using her heart as well as her head, by encouraging thrift and rewarding industry," announced Pinny Penny in a tone that made the King wince. "Your Majesty would do well to read of her wise laws and plans for the betterment of her country." "You may just skip all that," sniffed Skamperoo, closing his mouth stubbornly. "Tell me who are the rulers of these four Kingdoms and the general customs and characteristics of the people."