Today | News | Books | Recipes Adventure | Science Fiction | Ghost stories | Poetry | Children | History The Wonderful Wizard of OzThe Project Gutenberg eBook of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz Author: L. Frank Baum Illustrator: W. W. Denslow Release date: October 12, 2013 [eBook #43936] Most recently updated: May 17, 2026 Language: English Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43936 Credits: Douglas L. Alley III, Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ *** The WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ BY L. Frank Baum W. W. Denslow. [Illustration] Geo. M. Hill Co. New York. INTRODUCTION. Folk lore, 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 incident 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. [Illustration] Having this thought in mind, the story of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" was written solely to pleasure children of today. It aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heart-aches and nightmares are left out. L. FRANK BAUM. CHICAGO, APRIL, 1900. [Illustration] Copyright 1899 By L. Frank Baum and W. W. Denslow. All rights reserved [Illustration] LIST OF CHAPTERS. CHAPTER I.--The Cyclone. CHAPTER II.--The Council with The Munchkins. CHAPTER III.--How Dorothy Saved the Scarecrow. CHAPTER IV.--The Road Through the Forest. CHAPTER V.--The Rescue of the Tin Woodman. CHAPTER VI.--The Cowardly Lion. CHAPTER VII.--The Journey to The Great Oz. CHAPTER VIII.--The Deadly Poppy Field. CHAPTER IX.--The Queen of the Field Mice. CHAPTER X.--The Guardian of the Gates. CHAPTER XI.--The Wonderful Emerald City of Oz. CHAPTER XII.--The Search for the Wicked Witch. CHAPTER XIII.--How the Four were Reunited. CHAPTER XIV.--The Winged Monkeys. CHAPTER XV.--The Discovery of Oz the Terrible. CHAPTER XVI.--The Magic Art of the Great Humbug. CHAPTER XVII.--How the Balloon was Launched. CHAPTER XVIII.--Away to the South. CHAPTER XIX.--Attacked by the Fighting Trees. CHAPTER XX.--The Dainty China Country. CHAPTER XXI.--The Lion Becomes the King of Beasts. CHAPTER XXII.--The Country of the Quadlings. CHAPTER XXIII.--The Good Witch grants Dorothy's Wish. CHAPTER XXIV.--Home Again. _This book is dedicated to my good friend & comrade. My Wife L.F.B._ Chapter I. The Cyclone. [Illustration] [Illustration] [Illustration] 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 cooking stove, 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 little bed in another corner. There was no garret at all, and no cellar--except a small hole, dug in the ground, called a cyclone cellar, where the family could go in case one of those great whirlwinds arose, mighty enough to crush any building in its path. It was reached by a trap-door in the middle of the floor, from which a ladder led down into the small, dark hole. When Dorothy stood in the doorway and looked around, she could see nothing but the great gray prairie on every side. Not a tree nor a house broke the broad sweep of flat country that reached the edge of the sky in all directions. The sun had baked the plowed land into a gray mass, with little cracks running through it. Even the grass was not green, for the sun had burned the tops of the long blades until they were the same gray color to be seen everywhere. Once the house had been painted, but the sun blistered the paint and the rains washed it away, and now the house was as dull and gray as everything else. [Illustration: "_She caught Toto by the ear._"] When Aunt Em came there to live she was a young, pretty wife. The sun and wind had changed her, too. They had taken the sparkle from her eyes and left them a sober gray; they had taken the red from her cheeks and lips, and they were gray also. She was thin and gaunt, and never smiled, now. When Dorothy, who was an orphan, first came to her, Aunt Em had been so startled by the child's laughter that she would scream and press her hand upon her heart whenever Dorothy's merry voice reached her ears; and she still looked at the little girl with wonder that she could find anything to laugh at. Uncle Henry never laughed. He worked hard from morning till night and did not know what joy was. He was gray also, from his long beard to his rough boots, and he looked stern and solemn, and rarely spoke. It was Toto that made Dorothy laugh, and saved her from growing as gray as her other surroundings. Toto was not gray; he was a little black dog, with long, silky hair and small black eyes that twinkled merrily on either side of his funny, wee nose. Toto played all day long, and Dorothy played with him, and loved him dearly. [Illustration] To-day, however, they were not playing. Uncle Henry sat upon the door-step and looked anxiously at the sky, which was even grayer than usual. Dorothy stood in the door with Toto in her arms, and looked at the sky too. Aunt Em was washing the dishes. From the far north they heard a low wail of the wind, and Uncle Henry and Dorothy could see where the long grass bowed in waves before the coming storm. There now came a sharp whistling in the air from the south, and as they turned their eyes that way they saw ripples in the grass coming from that direction also. Suddenly Uncle Henry stood up. "There's a cyclone coming, Em," he called to his wife; "I'll go look after the stock." Then he ran toward the sheds where the cows and hors |