nning of time and live forever. Yet, on the
other hand, it would be a shame to deprive a fairy, who has so many
other good things, of the delights of a birthday. So we need not
wonder that the fairies keep their birthdays just as other folks do,
and consider them occasions for feasting and rejoicing.

Ozma, the beautiful girl Ruler of the Fairyland of Oz, was a real
fairy, and so sweet and gentle in caring for her people that she was
greatly beloved by them all. She lived in the most magnificent palace
in the most magnificent city in the world, but that did not prevent her
from being the friend of the most humble person in her dominions. She
would mount her Wooden Sawhorse, and ride out to a farm house and sit
in the kitchen to talk with the good wife of the farmer while she did
her family baking; or she would play with the children and give them
rides on her famous wooden steed; or she would stop in a forest to
speak to a charcoal burner and ask if he was happy or desired anything
to make him more content; or she would teach young girls how to sew and
plan pretty dresses, or enter the shops where the jewelers and
craftsmen were busy and watch them at their work, giving to each and
all a cheering word or sunny smile.

And then Ozma would sit in her jeweled throne, with her chosen
courtiers all about her, and listen patiently to any complaint brought
to her by her subjects, striving to accord equal justice to all.
Knowing she was fair in her decisions, the Oz people never murmured at
her judgments, but agreed, if Ozma decided against them, she was right
and they wrong.

When Dorothy and Trot and Betsy Bobbin and Ozma were together, one
would think they were all about of an age, and the fairy Ruler no older
and no more "grown up" than the other three. She would laugh and romp
with them in regular girlish fashion, yet there was an air of quiet
dignity about Ozma, even in her merriest moods, that, in a manner,
distinguished her from the others. The three girls loved her
devotedly, but they were never able to quite forget that Ozma was the
Royal Ruler of the wonderful Fairyland of Oz, and by birth belonged to
a powerful race.

Ozma's palace stood in the center of a delightful and extensive garden,
where splendid trees and flowering shrubs and statuary and fountains
abounded. One could walk for hours in this fascinating park and see
something interesting at every step. In one place was an aquarium,
where strange