Introduction
Folklore, legends, myths and fairy tales have always been part of childhood. Every healthy child has a natural and good love for stories. Children love stories that are fantastic and marvelous, and clearly not real. The winged fairies of Grimm and Andersen have made children’s hearts happier than all other human creations.
But the old fairy tale has served for many generations. Now we may call it “historical” in the children’s library. The time has come for a series of newer “wonder tales.” In these new tales there is no typical genie, dwarf or fairy any more. All the horrible and terrifying events are gone, too. The old authors invented these events to teach a frightening moral in each tale. But modern education already teaches children what is right and wrong. So the modern child wants only to be entertained by its wonder tales. It is happy to do without all the unpleasant events.
With this thought in mind, the story of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” was written only to please the children of today. It tries to be a modern fairy tale. It keeps the wonder and the joy, and it leaves out the heartaches and the nightmares.
L. Frank Baum
Chicago, April, 1900.
Chapter I The Cyclone
Dorothy lived in the middle of the great Kansas prairies. She lived with Uncle Henry, who was a farmer, and Aunt Em, who was the farmer’s wife. Their house was small, because the wood to build it had to come by wagon from many miles away. There were four walls, a floor and a roof, and these made one room. In this room there was a rusty old cookstove and a cupboard for the dishes. There was also a table, three or four chairs, and the beds. Uncle Henry and Aunt Em had a big bed in one corner, and Dorothy had a little bed in another corner. There was no garret at all, and no cellar. There was only a small hole in the ground, called a cyclone cellar. The family could go there if one of those great whirlwinds came. These winds were strong enough to crush any building in their way. You reached the cellar through a trap door in the middle of the floor. From the trap door a ladder led down into the small, dark hole.
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When Dorothy stood in the doorway and looked around, she could see nothing but the great gray prairie on every side. There was not a single tree or house anywhere. The wide, flat country reached to the edge of the sky in all directions. The sun had baked the plowed land into a gray mass, with little cracks running through it. Even the grass was not green. The sun had burned the tops of the long blades of grass. Now they were the same gray color that you could see everywhere. Once the house had been painted. But the sun made bubbles in the paint, and the rains washed it away. Now the house was as dull and gray as everything else.
When Aunt Em came there to live, she was a young, pretty wife. The sun and wind had changed her, too. They had taken the sparkle from her eyes, and her eyes were a serious gray now. They had taken the red from her cheeks and lips, and these were gray also. She was thin and gaunt, and she never smiled now. Dorothy was an orphan. When she first came to live with Aunt Em, her laughter shocked her aunt. Whenever Aunt Em heard the child’s happy voice, she screamed and pressed her hand to her heart. And she still looked at the little girl with wonder. How could Dorothy find anything to laugh at?
Uncle Henry never laughed. He worked hard from morning till night, and he did not know what joy was. He was gray too, from his long beard to his rough boots. He looked stern and serious, and he rarely spoke.
It was Toto who made Dorothy laugh. He saved her from growing as gray as everything else around her. Toto was not gray. He was a little black dog with long silky hair. He had small black eyes that twinkled happily on each side of his funny little nose. Toto played all day long, and Dorothy played with him and loved him dearly.
Today, however, they were not playing. Uncle Henry sat on the doorstep and looked anxiously at the sky. It was even grayer than usual. Dorothy stood in the door with Toto in her arms, and she looked at the sky too. Aunt Em was washing the dishes.
From the far north they heard the wind give a low, sad cry. Uncle Henry and Dorothy could see the long grass bending in waves before the coming storm. Then a sharp whistling came through the air from the south. They turned their eyes that way. There they saw ripples in the grass coming from that direction too.
Suddenly Uncle Henry stood up.
“There’s a cyclone coming, Em,” he called to his wife. “I’ll go and look after the stock.” Then he ran toward the sheds where the cows and horses were kept.
Aunt Em dropped her work and came to the door. One look told her that the danger was very near.
“Quick, Dorothy!” she screamed. “Run for the cellar!”
Toto jumped out of Dorothy’s arms and hid under the bed, and the girl went to get him. Aunt Em was badly frightened. She threw open the trap door in the floor and climbed down the ladder into the small, dark hole. At last Dorothy caught Toto and started to follow her aunt. She was halfway across the room when the wind gave a great scream. The house shook so hard that Dorothy lost her balance. She sat down suddenly on the floor.
Then a strange thing happened.
The house turned around two or three times and rose slowly through the air. Dorothy felt as if she were going up in a balloon.