The Lost King of Oz
BY RUTH PLUMLY THOMPSON
_Founded on and continuing the Famous Oz Stories_
BY
L. FRANK BAUM
"Royal Historian of Oz"
Illustrated by
JOHN R. NEILL
The Reilly & Lee Co.
Chicago
_Printed in the United States of America_
Copyright, 1925
By
The Reilly & Lee Co.
_All Rights Reserved_
_The Lost King of Oz_
* * * * *
This book is dedicated to
My Best Girl--Mother
RUTH PLUMLY THOMPSON
* * * * *
Dear Boys and Girls:
A whole book full of news has happened in Oz since I wrote to you
last year. But before I tell a word of it, I must thank you for the
wonderful letters you have written to me. It is fine to know which
of the dear old Ozzy celebrities you like best, so please do keep on
writing. If you tell me all the Oz news you hear, I'll tell you all
I hear. Is it a bargain? Well, the most surprising news right now is
about the Lost King.
"Lost! Lost! Lost! What an exciting word!" writes a little girl to whom
I confided the secret. "Who is he? Where was he and will he replace
Ozma on the throne?"
I could hardly wait to find out the answers to all of these questions
my own self and if it had not been for Snip, the little Button Boy and
Pajuka, the goose, I never would have discovered them.
Almost everybody is in this adventure--even Kabumpo had a trunk in the
affair. When you have read the whole strange story, let me know what
you think of Mombi's wicked behavior, will you?
And I cannot say good-bye without a big cheer for every boy and girl
who believes in OZ! Lots of love to you!
RUTH PLUMLY THOMPSON.
254 S. Farragut Terrace,
Philadelphia,
July, 1925.
_The Lost King of Oz_
Princess Ozma has ruled so wisely and happily in the wonderful Land of
Oz for so long that most of us have forgotten the strange story of the
Lost King of Oz--Ozma's father.
As everyone in Oz knows, the King was transformed from his royal self
by Mombi, the wicked old Gilliken witch, and lost his throne and his
crown when he, himself, was lost.
In this new Oz book the Royal Historian tells how Snip, the little
buttonboy, and Pajuka, the great white goose--who had been the lost
King's prime minister in the good old days--set out from the jolly
Kingdom of Kimbaloo to find the King and to petition Princess Ozma to
punish Mombi for her wicked mischief.
Princess Dorothy meets Snip and Pajuka, as she returns from a sudden
and curious visit to Hollywood with a funny and friendly moving picture
dummy, and the four adventurers are whisked to the Emerald City by
Kabumpo, the Elegant Elephant. At the Court of Ozma the Scarecrow and
the Wizard of Oz join in the attempt to find the Lost King, and the
surprising events that follow make a truly exciting Oz story.
After many thrilling attempts, the mystery of the Lost King is
magically solved, but you must read for yourself to find out all about
it.
List of Chapters
1 In Jolly Kimbaloo
2 Snip's Great Adventure
3 King Kinda Jolly Is Sad
4 In the Purple Forest
5 The Rolling Hoopers
6 In Catty Corners
7 The Magic Pudding
8 The Mysterious Message
9 In the Castle of Morrow
10 Dorothy and the Dummy
11 A Real Oz Adventure
12 The Playful Scooters
13 Snip Meets the Blanks
14 The Old Tailor's Story
15 Kabumpo to the Rescue
16 Humpy Hailed as King
17 Mombi's Magic
18 Ozma's Odd Home-Coming
19 The Wizard Takes a Hand
20 The Lost King Is Found
21 The Grand Procession
CHAPTER 1
In Jolly Kimbaloo
The King of Kimbaloo was kind'a jolly, and Kinda Jolly was the King
of Kimbaloo. And no wonder he was kind'a jolly! He had made a great
fortune in buttons, and had one of the coziest castles in Oz. It was
set in the very center of a thick button wood in the Gilliken country,
and had more chimneys and windows than any dozen castles I can think
of.
The castle owed much of its coziness to Rosa Merry, the quaint little
Queen of Kimbaloo, who kept it spick and spandy and simply blooming
with flowers. This she could easily do, for in the castle garden grew
a simply enormous bouquet bush, where old and new fashioned bouquets
blossomed in bewildering profusion. There were violets and rosebuds
edged with lace paper, lovely red roses tied with satin bows, daisies
and daffodils, pinks and larkspur, and every other sort of delightful
nosegay you could ever imagine. No matter how many were gathered,
others immediately blossomed, so that Rosa Merry had made almost as
much of a fortune in bouquets as Kinda had in buttons, and could have
jelly-roll every lunchtime if she cared to.
There were some who thought the castle, built as it was of dark purple
button wood, studded with rows and rows of bright buttons, extremely
odd, but it suited Kinda Jolly and Rosa Merry right down to the cellar
and the five hundred inhabitants of Kimbaloo thought it extremely
magnificent. No doubt they were right. However that may be, anyone who
had seen Kinda Jolly and Rosa Merry walking in the gardens on pleasant
summer evenings would have had to admit they were the most lovable
little couple in the land. Kinda was short and fat and Rosa was short
and merry. They both dressed in the purple costumes of the Gillikens,
but their robes were trimmed all over with buttons that chinked
delightfully when they walked and almost dazzled one by the brilliance
of their colors.
King Kinda's crown was made of silver buttons to match his whiskers and
Rosa's was of gold to match her curls. Both had cheerful dispositions
to match their crowns, so that life in Kimbaloo was cheerful for
everyone. The Kimbles themselves lived in tiny cottages scattered
about under the trees, and as they were all girls and boys, they were
all happy and light hearted as birds in the button wood. Half of them
worked for the King and half for the Queen. Yes, every morning, the two
hundred and fifty merry little maids would run into the castle garden,
where Rosa Merry would fill their arms with bouquets from the bouquet
bush. Then away down the Queen's Highway, that led through the wood
into the Winkie Country, they would hurry--and so charming and quaint
were the Queen's little flower girls no one could help buying their
posies. So by noon time they would come back with empty arms and heavy
pockets and nothing to do for the rest of the day but swing in the
hammocks or dance in the gardens.
The boys' work was almost as delightful. Every morning they would
scamper into the button wood with Kinda Jolly and shake down a good
crop of buttons. Then each button boy would fill his button box with
a gay assortment and set off down the King's Highway to sell them to
the good dames in the Gilliken Country. There are no stores in Oz, so
they never had any trouble in disposing of their wares, especially the
collar buttons. The men of the Gilliken country are as good at losing
collar buttons as men in your own town, so by noon time the button
boxes would be full of coins and the button boys would come racing back
to the castle with nothing more to do for the rest of the day but play
quoits or "button-button-who's-got-the-button?"
Altogether, life in Kimbaloo was as jolly as possible. Indeed, there
was so much laughing to be done that King Kinda had a Town Laugher to
help out on particularly funny days and to keep him from busting all
the buttons from his purple vest. Yes sir, everybody in Kimbaloo was
laughing and happy--excepting one and that person was the King's cook.
Mombi never laughed at all, and how she came to be cook I will tell you
at once. She was not a native of Kimbaloo and, though no one in the
kingdom knew it, Mombi was really an old Gilliken witch. Long ago, for
her wicked transformations, she had been deprived of her magic powers
by Glinda, the good sorceress, and given enough to live on honestly and
comfortably.
But after you have been a witch all of your life, it is dreadfully hard
to settle down to being just an ugly old woman. Mombi had stood it as
long as she could, and then one day she had closed up her little hut
at the foot of the Gilliken mountains, taken her crooked stick, and set
out to seek a position as cook in one of the castles of Oz--for she
felt that only among a great many kettles and cauldrons could she ever
be contented or at home. Besides being cross and crooked, Mombi was so
ugly and ill-tempered that most of the castle doors were slammed in her
face, but one day she had come to Kimbaloo. Hobbling through the button
wood she found King Kinda Jolly under a shoe button tree. Falling upon
her knees Mombi begged him so hard to let her remain as cook that the
gentle old monarch finally consented, though much against the advice
of Hah Hoh, the Town Laugher. But Kinda, thinking her a poor and needy
old woman, had kept her nevertheless, and as Mombi, like many another
old witch, was an excellent cook, he had never regretted his bargain.
In spite of her wonderful cooking no one had ever grown really fond of
her, but she was treated with consideration and respect and allowed to
do pretty much as she pleased in the castle kitchen.
[Illustration: MOMBI SETS OUT TO SEEK A POSITION AS COOK]
So while everyone else in the kingdom was being useful and happy,
Mombi went muttering and sputtering about among the pots and kettles
and every minute when she was not cooking she was trying to remember
her magic formulas, mixing pepper with onions, onions with cinders,
and cinders with suspender buttons. But stir as she would, nothing
ever came of it, for Mombi had forgotten every witch word she had ever
known. She knew a good many other words, however, and said very nearly
all of them when her magic failed to work, flinging her stick into the
air and hopping up and down with rage and disappointment. But as she
never allowed anyone in the kitchen but herself, there was no one to
witness her shocking behavior, until Snip, one of the King's button
boys, climbing through the window one afternoon to steal a cooky,
caught her right in the midst of a frightful incantation.
"Salt--vinegar--mustard--mutton!
The king shall be a collar button!"
That was what Snip heard Mombi mumble, bending over a peppery mixture
on the fire. So dreadful was her expression as she scowled into the
frying pan that Snip tumbled from the window sill into a rose bush.
Picking himself up, he rushed down the garden path convinced that the
King was done for. But there was Kinda Jolly, with his silver crown,
walking calmly under the button trees. Snip looked again to be sure
Kinda was not turning to a collar button and then, a little ashamed
of being so easily frightened, he crept back to the ledge to see what
Mombi would do next. He was just in time to see her fling the frying
pan down the cellar steps and kick over a basket of potatoes. Then,
grumbling and snarling and rubbing her shins, she limped into the
garden to fetch the goose Kinda Jolly had bought for dinner--for magic
or no magic the cooking had to be attended to. The goose had come
straight from a neighboring farm and was still in the flimsy wooden
crate. Scowling and scolding, Mombi slammed the crate on the table and
ripped off the top slats.
As soon as the slats were removed, the goose thrust its head out of the
crate and peered about the kitchen. As he looked at the big white bird,
Snip had a feeling that there was something human about him. The old
witch-cook made a grab at the bobbing white head.
"Help!" squawked the luckless bird, as Mombi seized it roughly by the
feathers. Then, catching a really good look at Mombi, it reared up
its neck till its eyes were on a level with her own. "YOU!" cried the
goose, so shrilly that Snip's hair rose up and waved to and fro under
his stiff little hat. He was not surprised to hear the goose talk, for
all beasts and birds in the Land of Oz converse, but its next words
were so strange and mysterious the little button boy nearly lost his
balance again.
"Woman!" hissed the goose, thrusting its bill under Mombi's long nose,
"Woman, what have you done with the King?"