Dorothy and her friends arrived at the Royal Palace at an opportune
time, for Ozma was holding high court in her Throne Room, where
Professor H. M. Wogglebug, T.E., was appealing to her to punish some of
the students of the Royal Athletic College, of which he was the
Principal.
This College is located in the Munchkin Country, but not far from the
Emerald City. To enable the students to devote their entire time to
athletic exercises, such as boating, foot-ball, and the like, Professor
Wogglebug had invented an assortment of Tablets of Learning. One of
these tablets, eaten by a scholar after breakfast, would instantly
enable him to understand arithmetic or algebra or any other branch of
mathematics. Another tablet eaten after lunch gave a student a complete
knowledge of geography. Another tablet made it possible for the eater to
spell the most difficult words, and still another enabled him to write a
beautiful hand. There were tablets for history, mechanics, home cooking
and agriculture, and it mattered not whether a boy or a girl was stupid
or bright, for the tablets taught them everything in the twinkling of an
eye.
This method, which is patented in the Land of Oz by Professor Wogglebug,
saves paper and books, as well as the tedious hours devoted to study in
some of our less favored schools, and it also allows the students to
devote all their time to racing, base-ball, tennis and other manly and
womanly sports, which are greatly interfered with by study in those
Temples of Learning where Tablets of Learning are unknown.
But it so happened that Professor Wogglebug (who had invented so much
that he had acquired the habit) carelessly invented a Square-Meal
Tablet, which was no bigger than your little finger-nail but contained,
in condensed form, the equal of a bowl of soup, a portion of fried fish,
a roast, a salad and a dessert, all of which gave the same nourishment
as a square meal.
The Professor was so proud of these Square-Meal Tablets that he began to
feed them to the students at his college, instead of other food, but the
boys and girls objected because they wanted food that they could enjoy
the taste of. It was no fun at all to swallow a tablet, with a glass of
water, and call it a dinner; so they refused to eat the Square-Meal
Tablets. Professor Wogglebug insisted, and the result was that the
Senior Class seized the learned Professor one day and threw him into the
river—clothes and all. Everyone knows that a wogglebug cannot swim, and
so the inventor of the wonderful Square-Meal Tablets lay helpless on the
bottom of the river for three days before a fisherman caught one of his
legs on a fishhook and dragged him out upon the bank.
The learned Professor was naturally indignant at such treatment, and so
he brought the entire senior class to the Emerald City and appealed to
Ozma of Oz to punish them for their rebellion.
I do not suppose the girl Ruler was very severe with the rebellious boys
and girls, because she had herself refused to eat the Square-Meal
Tablets in place of food, but while she was listening to the interesting
case in her Throne Room, Cap’n Bill managed to carry the golden
flower-pot containing the Magic Flower up to Trot’s room without it
being seen by anyone except Jellia Jamb, Ozma’s chief Maid of Honor, and
Jellia promised not to tell.
Also the Wizard was able to carry the cage of monkeys up to one of the
top towers of the palace, where he had a room of his own, to which no
one came unless invited. So Trot and Dorothy and Cap’n Bill and the
Wizard were all delighted at the successful end of their adventure. The
Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger went to the marble stables behind the
Royal Palace, where they lived while at home, and they too kept the
secret, even refusing to tell the Wooden Sawhorse, and Hank the Mule,
and the Yellow Hen, and the Pink Kitten where they had been.
Trot watered the Magic Flower every day and allowed no one in her room
to see the beautiful blossoms except her friends, Betsy Bobbin and
Dorothy. The wonderful plant did not seem to lose any of its magic by
being removed from its island, and Trot was sure that Ozma would prize
it as one of her most delightful treasures.
Up in his tower the little Wizard of Oz began training his twelve tiny
monkeys, and the little creatures were so intelligent that they learned
every trick the Wizard tried to teach them. The Wizard treated them with
great kindness and gentleness and gave them the food that monkeys love
best, so they promised to do their best on the great occasion of Ozma’s
birthday.
[Illustration]
Ozma’s Birthday Party