The Magic of Oz

CHAPTER 22. Ozma's Birthday

Party

It seems odd that a fairy should have a birthday, for fairies, they say,

were born at the beginning of time and live forever. Yet, on the other hand,

it would be a shame to deprive a fairy, who has so many other good things,

of the delights of a birthday. So we need not wonder that the fairies keep

their birthdays just as other folks do, and consider them occasions for

feasting and rejoicing.

Ozma, the beautiful girl Ruler of the Fairyland of Oz, was a real fairy,

and so sweet and gentle in caring for her people that she was greatly

beloved by them all. She lived in the most magnificent palace in the most

magnificent city in the world, but that did not prevent her from being the

friend of the most humble person in her dominions. She would mount her

Wooden Sawhorse, and ride out to a farm house and sit in the kitchen to

talk with the good wife of the farmer while she did her family baking; or

she would play with the children and give them rides on her famous

wooden steed; or she would stop in a forest to speak to a charcoal burner

and ask if he was happy or desired anything to make him more content; or

she would teach young girls how to sew and plan pretty dresses, or enter

the shops where the jewelers and craftsmen were busy and watch them at

their work, giving to each and all a cheering word or sunny smile.

And then Ozma would sit in her jeweled throne, with her chosen

courtiers all about her, and listen patiently to any complaint brought to her

by her subjects, striving to accord equal justice to all. Knowing she was

fair in her decisions, the Oz people never murmured at her judgments, but

agreed, if Ozma decided against them, she was right and they wrong.

When Dorothy and Trot and Betsy Bobbin and Ozma were together,

one would think they were all about of an age, and the fairy Ruler no older

and no more "grown up" than the other three. She would laugh and romp

with them in regular girlish fashion, yet there was an air of quiet dignity

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