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