."

Rather soberly, for all loved Polychrome and would miss her, they
reentered the dominions of the Nome King.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Dorothy is Delighted

"Well," said Queen Ann, when all were again seated in Kaliko's royal
cavern, "I wonder what we shall do next. If I could find my way back to
Oogaboo I'd take my army home at once, for I'm sick and tired of these
dreadful hardships."

"Don't you want to conquer the world?" asked Betsy.

"No; I've changed my mind about that," admitted the Queen. "The world
is too big for one person to conquer and I was happier with my own
people in Oogaboo. I wish--Oh, how earnestly I wish--that I was back
there this minute!"

"So do I!" yelled every officer in a fervent tone.

Now, it is time for the reader to know that in the far-away Land of Oz
the lovely Ruler, Ozma, had been following the adventures of her Shaggy
Man, and Tik-Tok, and all the others they had met. Day by day Ozma,
with the wonderful Wizard of Oz seated beside her, had gazed upon a
Magic Picture in a radium frame, which occupied one side of the Ruler's
cosy boudoir in the palace of the Emerald City. The singular thing
about this Magic Picture was that it showed whatever scene Ozma wished
to see, with the figures all in motion, just as it was taking place. So
Ozma and the Wizard had watched every action of the adventurers from
the time Shaggy had met shipwrecked Betsy and Hank in the Rose Kingdom,
at which time the Rose Princess, a distant cousin of Ozma, had been
exiled by her heartless subjects.

When Ann and her people so earnestly wished to return to Oogaboo, Ozma
was sorry for them and remembered that Oogaboo was a corner of the Land
of Oz. She turned to her attendant and asked:

"Can not your magic take these unhappy people to their old home,
Wizard?"

"It can, Your Highness," replied the little Wizard.

"I think the poor Queen has suffered enough in her misguided effort to
conquer the world," said Ozma, smiling at the absurdity of the
undertaking, "so no doubt she will hereafter be contented in her own
little Kingdom. Please send her there, Wizard, and with her the
officers and Files."

"How about the Rose Princess?" asked the Wizard.

"Send her to Oogaboo with Files," answered Ozma. "They have become such
good friends that I am sure it would make them unhappy to separate
them."

"Very well," said the Wizard, and without any fuss or mystery whatever
he performed a magical rite that