Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz

Published by Reilly & Britton in 1908 and illustrated by John R. Neill, Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz was Baum’s fourth Oz book and one of his most exciting. In the narrative, Dorothy Gale is on her way to see Uncle Henry in California at Hugson’s Ranch. She joins her cousin Zeb for a ride in a buggy drawn by a horse named Jim. An earthquake opens a crevice which they fall through, ending up in the land of the Mangaboos, strange vegetable people who blame Dorothy and Zeb for damaging their glass dwellings. Jim and Dorothy’s cat, Eureka, are able to talk and so Dorothy knows that once again she is in a fairyland. While there, a balloon falls from the sky, and Dorothy meets her old friend the humbug Wizard of Oz. Escaping the Mangaboos, the companions travel through the beautiful Valley of Voe, which features invisible people and marauding bears, meet the “Braided Man” in Pyramid Mountain, and fight the hideous, winged, wooden Gargoyles. After a few further adventures, Dorothy uses the magic belt she’d captured from the Nome King, and they arrive at the Emerald City, where, among other happenings, Jim the cab-horse races the Sawhorse and Eureka the cat undergoes a trial for apparently eating one of the Wizard’s nine tiny piglets.