onged to a
tiny little girl named Dorothy Gale. To think that a mere toddler could
bring an end to the story of the Wicked Witch of the East!

But the story did not exactly end there. It seems that, before such time
as the old woman's liveliness was shmushed by little Dorothy's home, she
had left a little souvenir to remember her by. Actually, it was quite a
large souvenir!

She and her equally-vile sister Allidap, the Wicked Witch of the West,
had created the souvenir to do battle with the Wonderful Wizard of Oz
himself. Had it not been for the Wizard's powerful magic charms, he may
well have been defeated. But thanks to his magic, the Wizard of Oz was
able to thwart the attacks of the Witches and banish their souvenir to a
forest that lay in the southern land of the Quadlings. But fearing the
Witches may try to attack him again, the Wizard hid himself away in the
glorious Emerald City and became a hermit.

Then, one day, Dorothy's house came down and whumped out the Wicked
Witch of the East. This, needless to say, was not a healthy situation
for the Wicked Witch. Little Dorothy was advised in the Munchkin Country
to head for the central city and seek out the reclusive old Wizard,
being told that he alone could help her to get home to Kansas.

It was a long and difficult journey, but the child was equal to the
challenge. Along the way, she chanced to meet up with the Cowardly Lion.
He was a formerly respected leader of the Animal Kingdom, but this
particular lion had fallen into disgrace due to his outlandishly
unkinglike cowardice. He and the little girl became fast friends, and
they journeyed together in search of Oz and, later on, Glinda the Good.
It was on their journey to locate Glinda the Good that they happened to
stray into the very forest where the Witches' souvenir was staying. As
they walked through the vast forest, a large and tawny tiger approached
the Cowardly Lion and bowed subjectively before him.

"Welcome, O King of Beasts!" quoth the tiger. "You have come in good
time to fight our enemy and bring peace to all the animals of the forest
once more."

"What is your trouble?" asked the Cowardly Lion in a quiet voice.

"We are all threatened," answered the tiger, "by a fierce enemy which
has lately come into this forest. It is a most tremendous Monster, like
a great spider, with a body as big as an elephant and legs as long as a
tree trunk. It has eight of these long legs, and as the Monster crawls