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those who asked for them. Each man and woman, no matter what he or

she produced for the good of the community, was supplied by the

neighbors with food and clothing and a house and furniture and

ornaments and games. If by chance the supply ever ran short, more was

taken from the great storehouses of the Ruler, which were afterward

filled up again when there was more of any article than the people

needed.

Every one worked half the time and played half the time, and the people

enjoyed the work as much as they did the play, because it is good to be

occupied and to have something to do. There were no cruel overseers set

to watch them, and no one to rebuke them or to find fault with them. So

each one was proud to do all he could for his friends and neighbors, and

was glad when they would accept the things he produced.

You will know by what I have here told you, that the Land of Oz was a

remarkable country. I do not suppose such an arrangement would be

practical with us, but Dorothy assures me that it works finely with the

Oz people.

Oz being a fairy country, the people were, of course, fairy people; but that

does not mean that all of them were very unlike the people of our own

world. There were all sorts of queer characters among them, but not a

single one who was evil, or who possessed a selfish or violent nature.

They were peaceful, kind hearted, loving and merry, and every inhabitant

adored the beautiful girl who ruled them and delighted to obey her every

command.

In spite of all I have said in a general way, there were some parts of the

Land of Oz not quite so pleasant as the farming country and the Emerald

City which was its center. Far away in the South Country there lived in

the mountains a band of strange people called Hammer-Heads, because

they had no arms and used their flat heads to pound any one who came

near them. Their necks were like rubber, so that they could shoot out

their heads to quite a distance, and afterward draw them back again to

their shoulders. The Hammer-Heads were called the "Wild People," but

never harmed any but those who disturbed them in the mountains where

they lived.

In some of the dense forests there lived great beasts of every sort; yet

these were for the most part harmless and even sociable, and conversed

agreeably with those who visited their haunts. The Kalidahs--beasts with

The Emerald City of Oz