The Emerald City of Oz | Page 7

be a nurse-maid to little children. I'm sure I don't
know exactly what you CAN do to earn money, but if your uncle and I
are able to support you we will do it willingly, and send you to school.
We fear, though, that we shall have much trouble in earning a living for
ourselves. No one wants to employ old people who are broken down in
health, as we are."
Dorothy smiled.
"Wouldn't it be funny," she said, "for me to do housework in Kansas,
when I'm a Princess in the Land of Oz?"
"A Princess!" they both exclaimed, astonished.

"Yes; Ozma made me a Princess some time ago, and she has often
begged me to come and live always in the Emerald City," said the
child.
Her uncle and aunt looked at her in amazement. Then the man said:
"Do you suppose you could manage to return to your fairyland, my
dear?"
"Oh yes," replied Dorothy; "I could do that easily."
"How?" asked Aunt Em.
"Ozma sees me every day at four o'clock, in her Magic Picture. She can
see me wherever I am, no matter what I am doing. And at that time, if I
make a certain secret sign, she will send for me by means of the Magic
Belt, which I once captured from the Nome King. Then, in the wink of
an eye, I shall be with Ozma in her palace."
The elder people remained silent for some time after Dorothy had
spoken. Finally, Aunt Em said, with another sigh of regret:
"If that is the case, Dorothy, perhaps you'd better go and live in the
Emerald City. It will break our hearts to lose you from our lives, but
you will be so much better off with your fairy friends that it seems
wisest and best for you to go."
"I'm not so sure about that," remarked Uncle Henry, shaking his gray
head doubtfully. "These things all seem real to Dorothy, I know; but
I'm afraid our little girl won't find her fairyland just what she had
dreamed it to be. It would make me very unhappy to think that she was
wandering among strangers who might be unkind to her."
Dorothy laughed merrily at this speech, and then she became very
sober again, for she could see how all this trouble was worrying her
aunt and uncle, and knew that unless she found a way to help them
their future lives would be quite miserable and unhappy. She knew that
she COULD help them. She had thought of a way already. Yet she did

not tell them at once what it was, because she must ask Ozma's consent
before she would be able to carry out her plans.
So she only said:
"If you will promise not to worry a bit about me, I'll go to the Land of
Oz this very afternoon. And I'll make a promise, too; that you shall
both see me again before the day comes when you must leave this
farm."
"The day isn't far away, now," her uncle sadly replied. "I did not tell
you of our trouble until I was obliged to, dear Dorothy, so the evil time
is near at hand. But if you are quite sure your fairy friends will give you
a home, it will be best for you to go to them, as your aunt says."
That was why Dorothy went to her little room in the attic that afternoon,
taking with her a small dog named Toto. The dog had curly black hair
and big brown eyes and loved Dorothy very dearly.
The child had kissed her uncle and aunt affectionately before she went
upstairs, and now she looked around her little room rather wistfully,
gazing at the simple trinkets and worn calico and gingham dresses, as if
they were old friends. She was tempted at first to make a bundle of
them, yet she knew very well that they would be of no use to her in her
future life.
She sat down upon a broken-backed chair--the only one the room
contained--and holding Toto in her arms waited patiently until the
clock struck four.
Then she made the secret signal that had been agreed upon between her
and Ozma.
Uncle Henry and Aunt Em waited downstairs. They were uneasy and a
good deal excited, for this is a practical humdrum world, and it seemed
to them quite impossible that their little niece could vanish from her
home and travel instantly to fairyland.

So they watched the stairs, which seemed to be the only way that
Dorothy could get out of the farmhouse, and they watched them a long
time. They heard the clock strike four but there was no sound from
above.
Half-past four came, and now they were too impatient to