Ozma had warned Dorothy to keep their journey a
secret and say nothing to anyone about the Skeezers and
Flatheads until their return, and Dorothy promised to
obey. She longed to tell her girl friends, tiny Trot
and Betsy Bobbin, of the adventure they were
undertaking, but refrained from saying a word on the
subject although both these girls lived with her in
Ozma's palace.

Indeed, only Glinda the Sorceress knew they were
going, until after they had gone, and even the
Sorceress didn't know what their errand might be.

Princess Ozma took the Sawhorse and the Red Wagon,
although she was not sure there was a wagon road all
the way to the Lake of the Skeezers. The Land of Oz is
a pretty big place, surrounded on all sides by a Deadly
Desert which it is impossible to cross, and the Skeezer
Country, according to the map, was in the farthest
northwestern part of Oz, bordering on the north desert.
As the Emerald City was exactly in the center of Oz, it
was no small journey from there to the Skeezers.

Around the Emerald City the country is thickly
settled in every direction, but the farther away you
get from the city the fewer people there are, until
those parts that border on the desert have small
populations. Also those faraway sections are little
known to the Oz people, except in the south, where
Glinda lives and where Dorothy has often wandered on