my
readers favor me.

Assuring you that my love for you has never faltered and hoping the Oz
Books will continue to give you pleasure as long as I am able to write
them, I am

Yours affectionately,

L. FRANK BAUM,
"Royal Historian of Oz."
"OZCOT"
at HOLLYWOOD
in CALIFORNIA
1919

1. Mount Munch

On the east edge of the Land of Oz, in the Munchkin Country, is a big,
tall hill called Mount Munch. One one side, the bottom of this hill
just touches the Deadly Sandy Desert that separates the Fairyland of Oz
from all the rest of the world, but on the other side, the hill touches
the beautiful, fertile Country of the Munchkins.

The Munchkin folks, however, merely stand off and look at Mount Munch
and know very little about it; for, about a third of the way up, its
sides become too steep to climb, and if any people live upon the top of
that great towering peak that seems to reach nearly to the skies, the
Munchkins are not aware of the fact.

But people DO live there, just the same. The top of Mount Munch is
shaped like a saucer, broad and deep, and in the saucer are fields
where grains and vegetables grow, and flocks are fed, and brooks flow
and trees bear all sorts of things. There are houses scattered here
and there, each having its family of Hyups, as the people call
themselves. The Hyups seldom go down the mountain, for the same reason
that the Munchkins never climb up: the sides are too steep.

In one of the houses lived a wise old Hyup named Bini Aru, who used to
be a clever Sorcerer. But Ozma of Oz, who rules everyone in the Land
of Oz, had made a decree that no one should practice magic in her
dominions except Glinda the Good and the Wizard of Oz, and when Glinda
sent this royal command to the Hyups by means of a strong-winged Eagle,
old Bini Aru at once stopped performing magical arts. He destroyed
many of his magic powders and tools of magic, and afterward honestly
obeyed the law. He had never seen Ozma, but he knew she was his Ruler
and must be obeyed.

There was only one thing that grieved him. He had discovered a new and
secret method of transformations that was unknown to any other
Sorcerer. Glinda the Good did not know it, nor did the little Wizard
of Oz, nor Dr. Pipt nor old Mombi, nor anyone else who dealt in magic
arts. It was Bini Aru's own secret. By its means, it was the simplest
thing in the world to transform anyone into beast, bird or fish, or
anything el