Tik-Tok of Oz
Tik-Tok of Oz is the eighth Land of Oz book written by L. Frank Baum, published on June 19, 1914. The book actually has little to do with Tik-Tok and is primarily the quest of the Shaggy Man (introduced in The Road to Oz) to rescue his brother, and his resulting conflict with the Nome King.Queen Ann Soforth of Oogaboo, a small monarchy separated from the rest of Oz's Winkie Country, sets out to raise an army to conquer Oz. Seventeen men eventually make up the Army of Oogaboo; they march out of their valley. Glinda magically rearranges the path through the mountains and Queen Ann and her army march out of Oz into a low-lying, befogged country.Betsy Bobbin, a girl who is a year older than Dorothy Gale, and her loyal mule Hank are washed ashore during a storm. They arrive at a large greenhouse that is the domain of the Rose Kingdom, where the roses tell them that no strangers are allowed. Just as the Royal Gardener (apparently the only human allowed in this flowery kingdom) is about to pass sentence on Betsy and Hank, the Shaggy Man falls through the greenhouse's roof, and charms the Gardener into sparing all of their lives with his Love Magnet. The flowers, not having hearts, are unaffected by the Magnet, and force the travellers to leave, taking with them the newly plucked Rose Princess Ozga, a cousin of Ozma, the ruler of Oz.The Shaggy Man relates how Ozma sent him here by means of the Magic Belt because he wanted to find his brother, who went digging underground in Oklahoma and disappeared. He surmised that the Nome King, ruler of the underground Nome Kingdom, captured him. They meet up with Polychrome the Rainbow's Daughter; and they rescue Tik-Tok from the well where the Nome King had tossed him. Once Tik-Tok is wound up, he accompanies Betsy, Hank, the Shaggy Man, Ozga, and Polychrome to their chance encounter with Queen Ann and her army. In a rage, Queen Ann orders them to be seized and bound, but Private Files — the only private in this army of generals, colonels, and majors — refuses to bind innocent girls. He resigns his commission on the spot. When Queen Ann learns of the riches to be found in the Nome King's underground kingdom, she calms down and accepts the services of Tik-Tok as her new private.The Nome King (who has recovered from having drunk the Water of Oblivion in The Emerald City of Oz) is aghast at this group coming toward his underground kingdom. Since no one can be killed in Oz, the Nome King seeks to discourage them, first by taking them through the Rubber Country, and then disposing of them by dropping them through the Hollow Tube, a conduit leading to the other side of the world.There the party enters the jurisdiction of the immortal called Tittiti-Hoochoo, the Great Jinjin, who vows to punish the Nome King for using the Hollow Tube. He sends Tik-Tok and the others back with his Instrument of Vengeance, a lackadaisical dragon named Quox. Quox and his riders bound from the other end of the Tube into an army of Nomes and narrowly evade them. Queen Ann and the Army of Oogaboo fall into the Slimy Cave when they enter the Nome Kingdom; the Shaggy Man and his companions are captured by the Nome King. Ann and her army escape the cave while the Nome King amuses himself by transforming his captives into various objects. Quox arrives, bursting through the main cavern. The Nome King sees the ribbon around Quox's neck and forgets all the magic he ever knew. The Nome King is driven out of his kingdom when Quox releases six eggs from the padlock around his neck. The eggs, poisonous to Nomes, follow the Nome King to the Earth's surface and confine him there.The new Nome King, the former chief steward Kaliko, vows to help the Shaggy Man find his brother, who he knows is in the Metal Forest. The Shaggy Man meets his brother in the center of the Forest; but the brother was cursed with a charm of ugliness by the former Nome King. A kiss will break a charm. First Betsy, a mortal maid, tries to undo the spell; then Ozga, a mortal maid who was once a fairy, tries. Finally the fairy Polychrome's kiss restores the Shaggy Man's brother to his former self.There is a banquet of rejoicing in the Nome Kingdom, and the former Nome King earnestly pleads to be let back into the underground lair ("No Nome can really be happy except underground"), which Kaliko allows on condition that he behave himself. Once on the surface again, Polychrome ascends her rainbow and Ozma uses the magic belt to bring Tik-Tok back to Oz and send Queen Ann, the Army of Oogaboo, Files, and Ozga back to Oogaboo. The Shaggy Man only agrees to return when his brother, Betsy, and Hank are allowed to enter Oz too.Upon being welcomed in Oz, Hank, the Cowardly Lion, the Hungry Tiger, and the Saw-Horse debate who is the best mistress — Betsy (for Hank), Dorothy (for the Lion and the Tiger), or Ozma (for the Saw-Horse). The three girls are listening and laugh at a silly quarrel, which the animals realize is silly too. In addition, Dorothy finally gets to hear her dog Toto speak — for all animals can in the Land of Oz.
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The Lost Princess Of Oz
L. Frank Baum
The book is the eleventh canonical Oz book written by L. Frank Baum. Published on June 5, 1917, it begins with the disappearance of Princess Ozma, the ruler of Oz and covers Dorothy and the Wizard's efforts to find her. The introduction to the book states that its inspiration was a letter a little girl had written to Baum: "I suppose if Ozma ever got hurt or losted, everybody would be sorry."Dorothy has risen from bed for the day and is seeing to her friends in the Emerald City and notices that Ozma has not awakened yet. Dorothy goes into Ozma's chambers only to find she is not there.Glinda awakens in her palace in the Quadling Country and finds her Great Book of Records is missing. She goes to prepare a magic spell to find it- only to see her magic tools are gone as well. She dispatches a messenger to the Emerald City to relay news of the theft. Receiving the news, the Wizard hastily offers his magic tools to assist Glinda, however, these are missing as well. Glinda, Dorothy, and the Wizard organize search parties to find Ozma and the missing magic. Accompanying them are Button-Bright, Trot, and Betsy Bobbin. Dorothy and the Wizard's party begins to search the Winkie Country to the west of the Emerald City.Meanwhile, in the southwestern corner of the Winkie Country on a plateau belonging to the Yips, and Cayke the cookie cook has had her diamond-studded gold dishpan stolen. The self-proclaimed adviser to the Yips, a human-sized dandy of a frog called the Frogman, hears Cayke's story and offers to help her find the dishpan. When they have gotten down the mountain, Cayke reveals to the Frogman that the dishpan has magic powers, for her cookies come out perfect every time.Dorothy, the Wizard, and their party enter the previously unknown communities of Thi and Herku. The citizens of Thi are ruled by the High Coco-Lorum (really the King, but the people do not know it) and repeat the same story about the Herkus: they keep giants for their slaves. In the Great Orchard between Thi and Herku, the party enjoys a variety of fruits. Button-Bright eats from the one peach tree in the orchard. When he reaches the peach's center he discovers it to be made of gold. He pockets the gold peach pit to show Dorothy, Betsy, and Trot later - despite warnings from the local animals that the evil Ugu the Shoemaker has enchanted it.In the city of Herku, Dorothy and the Wizard's party are greeted by the emaciated but jovial Czarover of Herku, who has invented a pure energy compound called zosozo that can make his people strong enough to keep giants as slaves. The Czarover offers them six doses to use in their travels and casually reveals that Ugu the Shoemaker came from Herku. Ugu found magic books in his attic one day because he was descended from the greatest enchanter ever known and learned over time to do a great many magical things. The Shoemaker has since moved from Herku and built a castle high in the mountains. This clue leads Dorothy and the Wizard to think that Ugu might be behind all the recent thefts of magic and the ruler of Oz. They proceed from Herku toward the castle and meet with the Frogman, Cayke the Cookie Cook, and the Lavender Bear the stuffed bear who rules Bear Center. Lavender Bear carries the Little Pink Bear a small wind-up toy that can answer any question about the past put to it.When the combined party arrives at Ugu's castle, Button-Bright is separated from them and falls into a pit. Before they rescue him, the Wizard asks the Little Pink Bear where Ozma is and it says that she is in the pit, too. After Button-Bright is let out of the pit, the Little Pink Bear says that she is there among the party. Unsure what to make of this seeming contradiction, the party advances toward the castle. Sure enough, Ugu is the culprit and the castle's magical defenses are techniques from Glinda and the Wizard. Once over coming the castle's exterior, the party soon finds themselves standing before the thief himself.Ugu uses magic to send the room spinning and retreats. Dorothy stops it by making a wish with the magic belt. She uses its power to turn Ugu into a dove, but he modifies the enchantment so he retains human size and aggressive nature. Fighting his way past Dorothy and her companions, Ugu the dove uses Cayke's diamond-studded dishpan to flee to the Quadling Country.Once the magic tools are recovered, the conquering search party turns their attention to finding Ozma. The Little Pink Bear reveals that Ozma is being carried in Button-Bright's jacket pocket, where he placed the gold peach pit. The Wizard opens it with a knife, and Ozma is released from where Ugu had imprisoned her. She was kidnapped by Ugu when she came upon him stealing her and the Wizard's magic instruments.The people of the Emerald City and Ozma's friends all celebrate her return. Days later, the transformed Ugu flies in to see Dorothy and ask her forgiveness for what he did. She offers it and offers to change him back with the Magic Belt, but Ugu has decided that he likes being a dove much better.
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Rinkitink In Oz
L. Frank Baum
Wherein is Recorded the Perilous Quest of Prince Inga of Pingaree and King Rinkitink in the Magical Isles that Lie Beyond the Borderland of Oz. is the tenth book in the Land of Oz series written by L. Frank Baum. Published on June 20, 1916, with full-color and black-and-white illustrations by artist John R. Neill, it is significant that no one from Oz appears in the book until its climax; this is due to Baum having originally written most of the book as an original fantasy novel over ten years earlier, in 1905. Most of the action takes place on three islands — Pingaree, Regos, and Coregos — and within the Nome King's caverns. Since the original ruler of the nomes, Roquat — who later renamed himself Ruggedo, was deposed in 1914's Tik-Tok of Oz, Baum had to cleverly rework the tale to accommodate his successor, the well-intentioned—but politically motivated--Kaliko.Pingaree is an island in the Nonestic Ocean that surrounds the fairy countries that encircle the Deadly Desert that surrounds the Land of Oz. Many years before this story begins, the armies of Regos and Coregos sought to invade Pingaree, but their advance was repelled by Pingaree's king with the help of three magic pearls given to him by the Mermaids. The Blue Pearl gave the king superhuman strength, the Pink Pearl protected him from any form of harm, and the White Pearl provided words of wisdom that only he could hear. Buoyed by the Pearl's magic powers, the king of Pingaree led his people to victory and the invaders from Regos and Coregos drowned on the return trip.At the beginning of Rinkitink in Oz King Kitticut and Queen Garee, the son and daughter-in-law of the victorious king are introduced. Their son Inga is coming of age to learn the secret of the pearls, and one day Kitticut reveals their secret hiding place to Inga. The next day, a royal visitor arrives at the island—King Rinkitink of Gilgad, a jovial and pleasantly plump fellow on royal holiday who remains on the island as Kitticut's guest for several weeks. Rinkitink's companion, other than the rowers from Gilgad, is a surly goat named Bilbil who seems to be Rinkitink's opposite in attitude.Invaders from Regos and Coregos come again to Pingaree and seize the king before he can grab the pearls. All of the buildings are torn down, and all of the people are carried into slavery. The only ones remaining on the island are Inga, who was able to successfully hide by climbing a tree, Rinkitink, who escaped his pursuers by falling into a well, and Bilbil the goat whom the invaders did not see any value of. Inga realizes the only way he will be able to free his family and people is with the help of the magic pearls, so he comes to the palace floor to retrieve them. To make sure the pearls are not lost, he hides one each in the toes of his shoes and carries the speaking White Pearl with him. The White Pearl guides him to a boat the following morning, which he, Bilbil, and Rinkitink begin to row toward the island of Regos.Regos and Coregos are respectively ruled by a wicked king and queen, King Gos and Queen Cor. These two ruthless tyrants see no reason they cannot capture and enslave Inga and his companions as they did the rest of Pingaree's inhabitants. However, none of King Gos of Regos’ forces can lay a hand on Inga, Rinkitink, or Bilbil when they are touching each other due to the Pink Pearl's power. They stride into the royal palace with the strength conferred by the Blue Pearl and force Gos and his evil forces to flee the island to Coregos and then free the king's slaves.Inga and Rinkitink wake the next morning to find the Pink Pearl is gone—it was in the shoe that Rinkitink carelessly threw at a howling cat the previous night. While out searching for the lost shoe, the royal maid cleans their room and, finding the other shoe with no mate, assumed it was discarded and disposed of it accordingly—and with it, the blue pearl. At a complete loss, Inga tells Rinkitink about the power of the Pearls and, at the advice of the white pearl, attempts to bluff Gos and his wife, Queen Cor, into believing he still has the power of the Pearls. Cor uses diplomacy and trickery to capture him and Rinkitink and bring them to serve her on Coregos.Nikobob, a poor woodchopper who resides on Regos, finds the discarded shoes (unaware that they contain the Blue and Pink Pearls) and plans to give them to his daughter Zella. While he has the shoes, however, he encounters the giant worm Choggenmugger and chops it into pieces—something he couldn't do without the pearls. Zella is wearing the shoes with the pearls inside when she delivers honey to Queen Cor on Coregos, Inga recognizes the shoes, and he offers his new shoes to Zella in exchange for his old ones. Now with the Pearls in his possession, he defeats Cor and sends her fleeing to Regos with the captive Queen Garee. The captives from Pingaree and all the other places the invaders have been are freed and sent home—except for Inga's parents.To consolidate the situation of Regos and Coregos, Inga offers to make Nikobob king of the islands, which he adamantly refuses. He instead asks to go himself with his family to Pingaree. They learn from a palace guard that Gos and Cor took King Kitticut and Queen Garee to the underground caverns of the Nome King, and Inga, Rinkitink, and Bilbil set out after them.Although Kaliko is a kinder Nome King than the previous one, he proves to be a politician who "prefers to deal with the strong." Kaliko considers himself bound by his word to King Gos and Queen Cor and has Kitticut and Garee kept prisoner. Before Inga, Rinkitink, and Bilbil enter the underground kingdom, Rinkitink asks Inga to loan him the Pink Pearl in case they are separated. They are welcomed cordially enough by the Nomes and spend the night underground, but the next day Rinkitink and Bilbil have an audience with King Kaliko who is unable to harm them together while Inga works his way through the Three Trick Caverns with his strength and the White Pearl's Wisdom.Princess Ozma, the ruler of Oz, is viewing what's happening to Inga, Rinkitink, and Bilbil through her Magic Picture and Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz go to confront King Kaliko and resolve the entire matter. Dorothy herself carries a basket of eggs to keep the Nomes from attacking her (as eggs are poisonous to the Nomes). Upon her arrival, Dorothy delivers stunning news to Kaliko: King Gos and Queen Cor are dead—a storm at sea wrecked their boat on their return trip to Regos and Coregos leaving the two evil rulers to drown in the Nonestic Ocean (according to Glinda's Book of Records). Kaliko, although shocked by the news, still refuses to release Kitticut and Garee. At that point, Dorothy pulls the cover off her basket revealing the eggs, and a frightened Kaliko immediately orders the release of Inga's parents. The reunited father, mother, and son with Bilbil and Rinkitink journey to the Emerald City, where it is revealed that Bilbil is actually enchanted himself.The Wizard asks Bilbil how it is that he is able to talk when he is not from, nor ever visited, the Land of Oz. The Wizard learns that the crusty goat is actually Prince Bobo of Boboland, and the enchanter who transformed him into a goat is long since dead; however, Glinda is able to change him back to human form. This also cures his bad disposition, which was a cover for Bobo/Bilbil's ill feelings. After a celebration, Kitticut, Garee, Inga, Rinkitink, and Bobo return to the rebuilt island of Pingaree for a victory celebration. Soon afterwards, to his sadness, Rinkitink learns that must return home to Gilgad and fulfill his duties as their king...but accompanied by his friend Prince Bobo.
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The Scarecrow of Oz
L. Frank Baum
The Scarecrow of Oz is the ninth book set in the Land of Oz written by L. Frank Baum. Published on July 16, 1915, it was Baum's personal favorite of the Oz books and tells of Cap'n Bill and Trot journeying to Oz and, with the help of the Scarecrow, overthrowing the cruel King Krewl of Jinxland. Cap'n Bill and Trot (Mayre Griffiths) had previously appeared in two other novels by Baum, The Sea Fairies and Sky Island.Cap'n Bill, a sailor with a wooden peg-leg, and his friend, a little girl named Trot, set out from California on a calm day for a short ride in their row-boat. The calm day suddenly turns dark and stormy and Cap'n Bill and Trot are washed overboard and are carried by mermaids (referred to but not seen) to a cave where they meet an ostrich-like flying creature called an Ork. Flying on the Ork's back, the Ork, Cap'n Bill and Trot strain to arrive at an island where a grim man calling himself Pessim the Observer points out that the Ork should not have eaten the light lavender berries growing on the island. The light lavender berries cause a person to shrink, and the dark purple berries cause a person to grow. Once the Ork resumes normal size, Cap'n Bill and Trot leave the island to escape the Observer's negative attitude—which drove the people in his homeland to exile him here in the first place. To reduce the load on the Ork, Cap'n Bill and Trot each eat a light lavender berry so they are small enough to carry in Trot's bonnet.Flying away from the island, Cap'n Bill, Trot, and the Ork alight in the land of Mo, one of Baum's non-Oz creations. They meet the Bumpy Man, who specializes in serving sugar and molasses and has some of their appearance too. After dining on Mo rain (lemonade) and Mo snow (popcorn), they run into Button Bright, the sailor boy from The Road to Oz who has gotten lost again. Cap'n Bill calls down some of the native birds (who, like all birds in fairy countries, can talk back) and offers them the dark purple berries to make them grow large enough to carry himself, Trot, and Button-Bright (for the Ork can fly) to the land of Oz across the Deadly Desert to the north of them. When they make it across the desert, Button-Bright, Cap'n Bill, and Trot are set down in a field and the Ork leaves them to find his own country, which he got lost from on a routine flight.The place Button-Bright, Cap'n Bill, and Trot have arrived in, Jinxland, has had a turbulent recent history. The rightful king of Jinxland, King Kynd, was killed by his prime minister Phearse, who was in turn killed by his prime minister Krewl. Now King Krewl rules over the land and seeks to marry King Kynd's daughter, Princess Gloria, to legitimize his claim to the throne. However, she wants nothing to do with him or another suitor, Googly-Goo; she is in love with Pon, the current gardener who is the son of the first usurper Phearse. King Krewl and Googly-Goo decide that if neither of them can have Gloria, no one can, and hire a witch named Blinkie to freeze her heart so she can love no one. Cap'n Bill happens on this plot, and to keep him from interfering, Blinkie turns him into a grasshopper.The Scarecrow is at Glinda's palace in the Quadling Country and learns about these events from reading Glinda's Great Book of Records, a magical volume which transcribes every event in the world at the instant it happens. The Scarecrow wants to help Cap'n Bill, Button-Bright, and Trot, and Glinda sends him to Jinxland with some of her magic to aid him. The Scarecrow uses a magic thread to cross the gorge separating Jinxland from the rest of the Quadling Country, and before he meets Cap'n Bill and Trot, he encounters the Ork, who has found his homeland. The Scarecrow attempts to depose Krewl and is captured, with Googly-Goo suggesting the Scarecrow be burned, but then the Ork arrives with fifty others who attack the Jinxlanders and turn the tables on Krewl. The victorious party then arrives at Blinkie’s and makes her undo her magic on Cap'n Bill and Princess Gloria by using a magic powder to shrink her in size. When she has undone her evil spells, the Scarecrow stops Blinkie's shrinking, but she remains at a small size and loses all her magic powers.Gloria takes the throne of Jinxland and elevates Pon to be her royal consort, and the Scarecrow, Button-Bright, Cap'n Bill, Trot, and the Orks return to the Emerald City for a celebration.
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The Patchwork Girl of Oz
L. Frank Baum
The Patchwork Girl of Oz by L. Frank Baum, is a children's novel, the seventh set in the Land of Oz. Characters include the Woozy, Ojo "the Unlucky", Unc Nunkie, Dr. Pipt, Scraps (the patchwork girl), and others. The book was first published on July 1, 1913, with illustrations by John R. Neill. In 1914, Baum adapted the book to film through his "Oz Film Manufacturing Company."In the previous Oz book, The Emerald City of Oz, magic was used to isolate Oz from all outside worlds. Baum did this to end the Oz series, but was forced to restart the series with this book due to financial hardships. In the prologue, he explains how he managed to get another story about Oz, even though it is isolated from all other worlds. He explains that a child suggested he make contact with Oz with wireless telegraphy. Glinda, using her book that records everything that happens, is able to know that someone is using a telegraph to contact Oz, so she erects a telegraph tower and has the Shaggy Man, who knows how to make a telegraph reply, tell the story contained in this book to Baum.This story is the first one since the original The Wonderful Wizard of Oz to send its hero on a quest through the land of Oz, a technique that allowed Baum to showcase the marvels of the land.Ojo the Unlucky is a Munchkin boy who, devoted to life with his uncle Unc Nunkie in the wilderness but on the verge of starvation, goes to see a neighboring "magician" and old friend of Unc’s, Dr. Pipt. While there they see a demonstration of the Pipt-made Powder of Life, which animates any object it touches. Unc Nunkie and Dr. Pipt's wife are also the sufferers of the consequences of another of the Doctor's inventions, the Liquid of Petrifaction, which turns them into solid marble statues.The remainder of this book is Ojo's quest through Oz to retrieve the five components of an antidote to the Liquid: a six-leaved clover found only in the Emerald City, three hairs from the tip of a Woozy's tail, a gill (a quarter of a pint) of water from a dark well (one that remains untouched by natural light), a drop of oil from a live man's body, and the left wing of a yellow butterfly. With the help of the patchwork girl Scraps, Bungle the Glass Cat (another of Dr. Pipt's creations), the Woozy, Dorothy, the Shaggy Man, the Scarecrow, and the Tin Woodman, Ojo gathers all of these supplies but the left wing — the Tin Woodman will not allow any living thing to be killed, even to save another's life.The party returns to the Emerald City, where the Wizard of Oz (one of the few allowed to lawfully practice magic in Oz) restores Unc Nunkie and Dr. Pipt's wife. The story is also a growth process for Ojo; he learns that luck is not a matter of who you are or what you have, but what you do; he is renamed "Ojo the Lucky," and so he appears in the following Oz books.
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Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz
L. Frank Baum
Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz is the fourth book set in the Land of Oz written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by John R. Neill. It was published on June 18, 1908 and reunites Dorothy with the humbug Wizard from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.Baum, having resigned himself to writing a series of Oz books, set up elements of this book in the prior Ozma of Oz. He was not entirely pleased with this, as the introduction to Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz opens with the protest that he knows many tales of many lands, and hoped that children would permit him to tell them those tales.Written shortly after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and around the time Baum moved to California, the book starts with an earthquake in California. Dorothy and others are swallowed up by cracks in the earth, and fall into an underground cavern, where begin their adventures.Very little of the story—six of the twenty chapters—actually takes place in Oz. As in Ozma of Oz before it, and in some of the books after, Oz is not the land where the adventures take place, but the land the characters are seeking as a refuge from adventure.In the story, set after the last book, Dorothy is joining Uncle Henry in California at Hugson's Ranch, on their way home from Australia, Dorothy having visited friends in San Francisco. She strikes up an acquaintance with Hugson's nephew and her second cousin, Zeb. Dorothy, Eureka (who is Dorothy's cat) and Zeb are riding a buggy being pulled by a cab-horse named Jim when an earthquake starts and opens a crevice beneath them that sends them hurtling into the bowels of the earth.Dorothy, Eureka, Jim, Zeb, and the buggy alight in the land of the Mangaboos, a vegetable people who accuse them of causing the Rain of Stones (what the Mangaboos call the earthquake because they are beneath the surface of the earth, and earth instead falls on them). Zeb is surprised by this strange new land, but Dorothy surmises that they are in a fairy country because they are meeting vegetable people and Jim and Eureka are now speaking. Just as they are about to be sentenced to death by the Mangaboos, a hot air balloon falls out of the sky, and in the basket is the Wizard of Oz (whom Dorothy last met as he floated away from the Emerald City).The Wizard brags about his showmanship and with the others' aid attempts to awe the Mangaboos into sparing their lives. After defeating their wizard Gwig by slicing him in half—and showing him, as a vegetable, completely solid inside—he is appointed by the Mangaboo prince as their temporary wizard. The Wizard, Dorothy, and Zeb temporarily escape the fate of all intruders—to be cut up and planted—when they release a Princess from the garden who assumes authority. The Prince will now lose his authority and be planted himself. The cold Princess, however, vows to have Jim and Eureka killed nonetheless, so they all plan to escape higher into the earth where the Mangaboos cannot follow them due to the stronger pull of gravity the further they rise.Dorothy, Eureka, Zeb, Jim, and the Wizard enter a beautiful green valley and the Wizard's nine tiny piglets devour an enticing fruit which they find makes them invisible. They enter a seemingly empty cottage and are welcomed by invisible people, for they have entered the Valley of Voe, whose inhabitants use their invisibility to hide from marauding bears. The inhabitants of Voe help them escape the bears and explain what lies ahead, particularly the terrible Gargoyles (a story the Voe people tell seems to indicate that by now Baum had decided that people in a fairy land do not die; even cut into pieces, an individual is still active and aware. See The Tin Woodman of Oz for another example of this).The companions reach the base of Pyramid Mountain and meet the Braided Man halfway up. He used to make holes, Flutters (guaranteed to make any flag flutter on a windless day), and Rustles for silk skirts. One day he stacked up many postholes he had made and fell into Pyramid Mountain and since then kept shop there, continuing to make his wares. His facial hair has gotten so long, however, that he has had to braid it to keep from tripping. Dorothy had given him a blue bow, for he had tied each braid with a different color hair bow. The only color he didn't have was blue so Dorothy gave him one. They head into the land of the Gargoyles and at first repel them successfully because the winged wooden creatures are startled by loud noises. However, they do not tire and soon imprison Dorothy and her friends. They manage to escape the Gargoyles' grasp, using their detached wings and Jim's guidance.After a close encounter with the Dragonettes, baby dragons whose mother has tied their tails to a post until she returns from hunting, they find themselves trapped in a cave which they can not exit. Dorothy suggests that she signal Ozma to bring them to Oz by using the magic belt which she'd captured from the Nome King in Ozma of Oz. She does so at a prearranged time of day, and Dorothy, the Wizard, Zeb, Eureka, and Jim arrive within the Emerald City.Soon after renewing his acquaintance with the Emerald City staff and making the acquaintance of Ozma, the Wizard elects to remain in Oz permanently. The others' visit is highlighted by the wooden Saw-Horse beating Jim in a race and the trial of Eureka for eating Ozma's pet piglet given to her by the Wizard; in fact, the kitten is innocent and the piglet alive and well, but the obstinate Eureka will not say so. After the piglet is restored to Ozma and Zeb and Jim decide they've had enough of fairyland, Ozma then uses the magic belt to send Dorothy and Eureka back to Kansas, and Zeb and Jim back to California.