Front matter
Reading edition
Dear Boys and Girls:
This book is all about an old soldier called Grampa, a young Prince, a lost Princess and a weather cock named Bill. I might never have known a thing about them if Dorothy had not been mixed up in the story. But if there is any excitement in Oz, that girl is bound to be right in the middle of it, and her adventures with Grampa, Prince Tatters and Bill are the most curious that have happened in a year of Oz days. Really!
“I hope the other boys and girls will like Grampa as much as I do,” says Dorothy, and I hope so too, for I’m awfully fond of the old soldier.
I hear from Glinda that Mombi the witch is up to some mischief, so I must hurry off to the Emerald City at once. If it is true I’ll tell you all about it in the next story. Now please do write me some more of those jolly letters and tell me any Oz news you may hear. Will you? Meanwhile, lots of love, good wishes and good times to you!
Ruth Plumly Thompson.
Philadelphia, July, 1924.
This book is dedicated, with deep affection, to
Uncle Billy
(Major William J. Hammer)
Author, inventor and second cousin to Santa Claus
Ruth Plumly Thompson.
List of Chapters
1A Rainy Day in Ragbad
2The Wise Man Speaks
3The Blue Forest of Oz
4The Baffled Bandits
5Down the Hollow Tree
6The Wizard’s Garden
7The Winding Stairway
8Strange Happenings in Perhaps City
9Dorothy Meets a New Celebrity
10Prince Forge John of Fire Island
11Into the Volcano
12The Island of Isa Poso
13Tatters Receives the Reward
14On Monday Mountain
15The Finding of Fumbo’s Head
16Princess Dorothy Escapes
17The Adventurers Meet
18The Mischievous Play Fellows
19Back to Perhaps City
20The Prophet Confesses
21Urtha Is Transformed
22Rejoicing in Ragbad