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The Emerald City of Oz by L. Frank (Lyman Frank) Baum
page 41 of 231 (17%)
across the deadly desert to the east of the Land of Oz. As the
mountains were also on the edge of the desert the Nome King found
that he had only to tunnel underneath the desert to reach Ozma's
dominions. He did not wish his armies to appear above ground in the
Country of the Winkies, which was the part of the Land of Oz nearest
to King Roquat's own country, as then the people would give the alarm
and enable Ozma to fortify the Emerald City and assemble an army. He
wanted to take all the Oz people by surprise; so he decided to run the
tunnel clear through to the Emerald City, where he and his hosts could
break through the ground without warning and conquer the people before
they had time to defend themselves.

Roquat the Red began work at once upon his tunnel, setting a thousand
miners at the task and building it high and broad enough for his
armies to march through it with ease. The Nomes were used to making
tunnels, as all the kingdom in which they lived was under ground; so
they made rapid progress.

While this work was going on General Guph started out alone to visit
the Chief of the Whimsies.

These Whimsies were curious people who lived in a retired country of
their own. They had large, strong bodies, but heads so small that
they were no bigger than door-knobs. Of course, such tiny heads could
not contain any great amount of brains, and the Whimsies were so
ashamed of their personal appearance and lack of commonsense that
they wore big heads made of pasteboard, which they fastened over their
own little heads. On these pasteboard heads they sewed sheep's wool
for hair, and the wool was colored many tints--pink, green and
lavender being the favorite colors. The faces of these false heads
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