The Emerald City of Oz | Page 6

so that he was obliged to build another; and as he
was a poor man he had to mortgage his farm to get the money to pay
for the new house. Then his health became bad and he was too feeble to
work. The doctor ordered him to take a sea voyage and he went to
Australia and took Dorothy with him. That cost a lot of money, too.
Uncle Henry grew poorer every year, and the crops raised on the farm
only bought food for the family. Therefore the mortgage could not be
paid. At last the banker who had loaned him the money said that if he
did not pay on a certain day, his farm would be taken away from him.
This worried Uncle Henry a good deal, for without the farm he would
have no way to earn a living. He was a good man, and worked in the
field as hard as he could; and Aunt Em did all the housework, with

Dorothy's help. Yet they did not seem to get along.
This little girl, Dorothy, was like dozens of little girls you know. She
was loving and usually sweet-tempered, and had a round rosy face and
earnest eyes. Life was a serious thing to Dorothy, and a wonderful
thing, too, for she had encountered more strange adventures in her short
life than many other girls of her age.
Aunt Em once said she thought the fairies must have marked Dorothy
at her birth, because she had wandered into strange places and had
always been protected by some unseen power. As for Uncle Henry, he
thought his little niece merely a dreamer, as her dead mother had been,
for he could not quite believe all the curious stories Dorothy told them
of the Land of Oz, which she had several times visited. He did not think
that she tried to deceive her uncle and aunt, but he imagined that she
had dreamed all of those astonishing adventures, and that the dreams
had been so real to her that she had come to believe them true.
Whatever the explanation might be, it was certain that Dorothy had
been absent from her Kansas home for several long periods, always
disappearing unexpectedly, yet always coming back safe and sound,
with amazing tales of where she had been and the unusual people she
had met. Her uncle and aunt listened to her stories eagerly and in spite
of their doubts began to feel that the little girl had gained a lot of
experience and wisdom that were unaccountable in this age, when
fairies are supposed no longer to exist.
Most of Dorothy's stories were about the Land of Oz, with its beautiful
Emerald City and a lovely girl Ruler named Ozma, who was the most
faithful friend of the little Kansas girl. When Dorothy told about the
riches of this fairy country Uncle Henry would sigh, for he knew that a
single one of the great emeralds that were so common there would pay
all his debts and leave his farm free. But Dorothy never brought any
jewels home with her, so their poverty became greater every year.
When the banker told Uncle Henry that he must pay the money in thirty
days or leave the farm, the poor man was in despair, as he knew he
could not possibly get the money. So he told his wife, Aunt Em, of his

trouble, and she first cried a little and then said that they must be brave
and do the best they could, and go away somewhere and try to earn an
honest living. But they were getting old and feeble and she feared that
they could not take care of Dorothy as well as they had formerly done.
Probably the little girl would also be obliged to go to work.
They did not tell their niece the sad news for several days, not wishing
to make her unhappy; but one morning the little girl found Aunt Em
softly crying while Uncle Henry tried to comfort her. Then Dorothy
asked them to tell her what was the matter.
"We must give up the farm, my dear," replied her uncle sadly, "and
wander away into the world to work for our living."
The girl listened quite seriously, for she had not known before how
desperately poor they were.
"We don't mind for ourselves," said her aunt, stroking the little girl's
head tenderly; "but we love you as if you were our own child, and we
are heart-broken to think that you must also endure poverty, and work
for a living before you have grown big and strong."
"What could I do to earn money?" asked Dorothy.
"You might do housework for some one, dear, you are so handy; or
perhaps you could