own name is Ozma. No one, I am sure, is better
able to explain this mystery than you."

"That is true," answered the little Wizard; "therefore it will give me
pleasure to explain my connection with your country. In the first place,
I must tell you that I was born in Omaha, and my father, who was a
politician, named me Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle
Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs, Diggs being the last name because he could
think of no more to go before it. Taken altogether, it was a dreadfully
long name to weigh down a poor innocent child, and one of the hardest
lessons I ever learned was to remember my own name. When I grew up I
just called myself O. Z., because the other initials were P-I-N-H-E-A-D;
and that spelled 'pinhead,' which was a reflection on my intelligence."

"Surely no one could blame you for cutting your name short," said Ozma,
sympathetically. "But didn't you cut it almost too short?"

"Perhaps so," replied the Wizard. "When a young man I ran away from home
and joined a circus. I used to call myself a Wizard, and do tricks of
ventriloquism."

"What does that mean?" asked the Princess.

"Throwing my voice into any object I pleased, to make it appear that the
object was speaking instead of me. Also I began to make balloon
ascensions. On my balloon and on all the other articles I used in the
circus I painted the two initials: 'O. Z.', to show that those things
belonged to me.

"One day my balloon ran away with me and brought me across the deserts
to this beautiful country. When the people saw me come from the sky they
naturally thought me some superior creature, and bowed down before me. I
told them I was a Wizard, and showed them some easy tricks that amazed
them; and when they saw the initials painted on the balloon they called
me Oz."

"Now I begin to understand," said the Princess, smiling.

"At that time," continued the Wizard, busily eating his soup while
talking, "there were four separate countries in this Land, each one of
the four being ruled by a Witch. But the people thought my power was
greater than that of the Witches; and perhaps the Witches thought so
too, for they never dared oppose me. I ordered the Emerald City to be
built just where the four countries cornered together, and when it was
completed I announced myself the Ruler of the Land of Oz, which included
all the four countries of the Munchkins, the Gillikins, the Winkies and
the Quadlings. Over this Land I ruled in pea