Jump to content

Page:Kabumpo in Oz.djvu/57

From Wikisource
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Kabumpo in Oz

a-thinking of all he had heard of Ozma of Oz, the love-liest little fairy imaginable.

"She wouldn't want one of her Kingdom to disap- pear," reflected Pompadore sagely. Now, as it happened, Ozma did not even know of the existence of Pumperdink. Oz is so large and inhabited by so many strange and singular peoples that although fourteen books of history have been written about it, only half the story has been told. There are no Oz railway or steamship lines and traveling is tedious and slow, owing to the magic nature of the land itself, its many mountains and fairy forests, so that Pumperdink, like many of the small Kingdoms on the outskirts of Oz, has never been explored by Ozma.

Oz itself is a huge oblong country divided into four parts, the North being the purple Gilliken country, the East the blue Munchkin country, the South the red lands of the Quadlings, and the West the pleasant yellow country of the Winkies. In the very center of Oz, as almost every boy and girl knows, is the wonderful Emerald City, and in its gorgeous green palace lives Ozma, the lovely little Fairy Princess, whom Kabumpo wanted Pompadore to marry.

"Do you know," mused the Prince, after they had traveled some time through the dim forest, "I believe

54