"Toto," called Princess Ozma of Oz, as a small black dog trotted down the corridor past the open door of her study in the Royal Palace of the Emerald City, "Toto, will you do me a favor?"

"Certainly," answered the little dog, his bright eyes regarding the Princess questioningly. "What can I do for your Majesty?"

Ozma smiled. "I wonder if you would go to Dorothy's rooms and ask her to join me here as soon as possible."

"That'll be easy, Ozma," said Toto, "I was just on my way to see Dorothy. It's time for our morning romp in the garden."

"Well," laughed Ozma, "I shall keep Dorothy for only a few minutes, then she can join you in the garden for your play."

"Thank you, Ozma," replied Toto as he turned and trotted down the corridor leading to Dorothy's suite of rooms.

As the little dog disappeared, the smile slowly faded from Ozma's face, and the lovely little ruler of the world's most beautiful fairyland looked unusually serious.

The truth was that Ozma was thinking of events that had happened many years before in the history of the Land of Oz. Not always had Oz been a fairy realm. In those olden times Oz had been nothing more than a remarkably beautiful country of rolling plains, wooded hills and rich farm lands. Indeed, Oz had not been so much different from our own United States, except that it was surrounded on all sides by a Deadly Desert. It was this desert which prevented curious men from the great outside world from finding their way to Oz. For the fumes and gasses that rose from the shifting sands of the desert were deadly poison to all living things, and for a human to have set foot on the desert would have meant instant and terrible death. Consequently, all living things avoided the Deadly Desert, and it is no wonder that Oz was so entirely secluded and went unnoticed by the rest of the world for so many long years.

Meanwhile, the Oz people were happy and contented, living their simple carefree lives without worries or troubles. The soil of Oz was fertile and the people naturally industrious, so there was always an abundance of everything for everyone. Hence destructive and terrible wars were unknown in Oz even in the olden days.

One fine day Queen Lurline, Ruler of all the fairies in the world, chanced to be flying over the Land of Oz with her fairy band. She was greatly impressed with the beauty of the hidden country. The Fairy Queen paused, flying in wide circles over the peaceful land. Here was a country so entirely beautiful and charming that it deserved to be a fairy realm.

Queen Lurline sought out the King of this favored land and found him to be an old man with no son or daughter to whom he could pass on his crown. With great joy the old King accepted the tiny, baby fairy whom Queen Lurline placed in his care. When the baby fairy attained her full age of girlhood (no fairy ever appears to be older than a young girl of fourteen or fifteen) she was to be crowned Princess Ozma of Oz.

From the time of Lurline's visit, Oz became a fairyland, abounding in enchantments and strange happenings. Indeed, several of the inhabitants of Oz fell to studying the magic arts and became witches and magicians, very nearly preventing Ozma from becoming the rightful ruler of the fairyland.