er feet. In the room were assembled many ladies and
gentlemen of the court, clothed in rich apparel and wearing fine
jewelry. Two immense animals squatted, one on each side of the
throne--the Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger. In a balcony high up
in the dome an orchestra played sweet music, and beneath the dome two
electric fountains sent sprays of colored perfumed water shooting up
nearly as high as the arched ceiling.

"Are you ready, Dorothy?" asked the Ruler.

"I am," replied Dorothy; "but I don't know whether Aunt Em and Uncle
Henry are ready."

"That won't matter," declared Ozma. "The old life can have very little
to interest them, and the sooner they begin the new life here the
happier they will be. Here they come, my dear!"

As she spoke, there before the throne appeared Uncle Henry and Aunt Em,
who for a moment stood motionless, glaring with white and startled
faces at the scene that confronted them. If the ladies and gentlemen
present had not been so polite I am sure they would have laughed at the
two strangers.

Aunt Em had her calico dress skirt "tucked up," and she wore a faded,
blue-checked apron. Her hair was rather straggly and she had on a pair
of Uncle Henry's old slippers. In one hand she held a dish-towel and
in the other a cracked earthenware plate, which she had been engaged in
wiping when so suddenly transported to the Land of Oz.

Uncle Henry, when the summons came, had been out in the barn "doin'
chores." He wore a ragged and much soiled straw hat, a checked shirt
without any collar and blue overalls tucked into the tops of his old
cowhide boots.

"By gum!" gasped Uncle Henry, looking around as if bewildered.

"Well, I swan!" gurgled Aunt Em in a hoarse, frightened voice. Then
her eyes fell upon Dorothy, and she said: "D-d-d-don't that look like
our little girl--our Dorothy, Henry?"

"Hi, there--look out, Em!" exclaimed the old man, as Aunt Em advanced a
step; "take care o' the wild beastses, or you're a goner!"

But now Dorothy sprang forward and embraced and kissed her aunt and
uncle affectionately, afterward taking their hands in her own.

"Don't be afraid," she said to them. "You are now in the Land of Oz,
where you are to live always, and be comfer'ble an' happy. You'll
never have to worry over anything again, 'cause there won't be anything
to worry about. And you owe it all to the kindness of my friend
Princess Ozma."

Here she led them before the throne and c