The Magic of Oz

CHAPTER 21. The College of

Athletic Arts

Dorothy and her friends arrived at the Royal Palace at an opportune

time, for Ozma was holding high court in her Throne Room, where

Professor H. M. Wogglebug, T.E., was appealing to her to punish some of

the students of the Royal Athletic College, of which he was the Principal.

This College is located in the Munchkin Country, but not far from the

Emerald City. To enable the students to devote their entire time to athletic

exercises, such as boating, foot-ball, and the like, Professor Wogglebug

had invented an assortment of Tablets of Learning. One of these tablets,

eaten by a scholar after breakfast, would instantly enable him to

understand arithmetic or algebra or any other branch of mathematics.

Another tablet eaten after lunch gave a student a complete knowledge of

geography. Another tablet made it possible for the eater to spell the most

difficult words, and still another enabled him to write a beautiful hand.

There were tablets for history, mechanics, home cooking and agriculture,

and it mattered not whether a boy or a girl was stupid or bright, for the

tablets taught them everything in the twinkling of an eye.

This method, which is patented in the Land of Oz by Professor

Wogglebug, saves paper and books, as well as the tedious hours devoted to

study in some of our less favored schools, and it also allows the students

to devote all their time to racing, base-ball, tennis and other manly and

womanly sports, which are greatly interfered with by study in those

Temples of Learning where Tablets of Learning are unknown.

But it so happened that Professor Wogglebug (who had invented so

much that he had acquired the habit) carelessly invented a Square-Meal

Tablet, which was no bigger than your little finger-nail but contained, in

condensed form, the equal of a bowl of soup, a portion of fried fish, a roast,

a salad and a dessert, all of which gave the same nourishment as a square

meal.