The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

by L. Frank Baum

The winged fairies of Grimm and Andersen have brought more happiness to childish hearts than all other human creations.

Uncle Henry never laughed. He worked hard from morning till night and did not know what joy was.

Very different description of Em and Henry from the movies.

It was Toto that made Dorothy laugh, and saved her from growing as gray as her other surroundings.

“Yes, indeed;” answered the little woman. “But I am a good witch, and the people love me. I am not as powerful as the wicked Witch was who ruled here, or I should have set the people free myself.”

“Then that accounts for it. In the civilized countries I believe there are no witches left; nor wizards, nor sorceresses, nor magicians. But, you see, the Land of Oz has never been civilized, for we are cut off from all the rest of the world. Therefore we still have witches and wizards amongst us.”

But the silver shoes are yours, and you shall have them to wear.”

“No, I cannot do that,” she replied; “but I will give you my kiss, and no one will dare injure a person who has been kissed by the Witch of the North.”

At that moment Dorothy saw lying on the table the silver shoes that had belonged to the Witch of the East.

“No matter how dreary and gray our homes are, we people of flesh and blood would rather live there than in any other country, be it ever so beautiful. There is no place like home.”

In the center of the chair was an enormous Head, without body to support it or any arms or legs whatever. There was no hair upon this head, but it had eyes and nose and mouth, and was bigger than the head of the biggest giant.

Dorothy still wore the pretty silk dress she had put on in the palace, but now, to her surprise, she found it was no longer green, but pure white. The ribbon around Toto’s neck had also lost its green color and was as white as Dorothy’s dress.

“But isn’t everything here green?” asked Dorothy. “No more than in any other city,” replied Oz; “but when you wear green spectacles, why of course everything you see looks green to you.

It was easy to make the Scarecrow and the Lion and the Woodman happy, because they imagined I could do anything.

“This is all true,” said Dorothy, “and I am glad I was of use to these good friends. But now that each of them has had what he most desired, and each is happy in having a kingdom to rule beside, I think I should like to go back to Kansas.”

“The Silver Shoes,” said the Good Witch, “have wonderful powers. And one of the most curious things about them is that they can carry you to any place in the world in three steps, and each step will be made in the wink of an eye. All you have to do is to knock the heels together three times and command the shoes to carry you wherever you wish to go.”