The Magic of Oz

a secret place. He wandered all over the Saucer at the top of Mount Munch,

but found no place in which to write the secret word where others might

not be likely to stumble upon it. So finally he decided it must be written

somewhere in his own house.

Bini Aru had a wife named Mopsi Aru who was famous for making

fine huckleberry pies, and he had a son named Kiki Aru who was not

famous at all. He was noted as being cross and disagreeable because he

was not happy, and he was not happy because he wanted to go down the

mountain and visit the big world below and his father would not let him.

No one paid any attention to Kiki Aru, because he didn't amount to

anything, anyway.

Once a year there was a festival on Mount Munch which all the Hyups

attended. It was held in the center of the saucer-shaped country, and the

day was given over to feasting and merry-making. The young folks danced

and sang songs; the women spread the tables with good things to eat, and

the men played on musical instruments and told fairy tales.

Kiki Aru usually went to these festivals with his parents, and then sat

sullenly outside the circle and would not dance or sing or even talk to the

other young people. So the festival did not make him any happier than

other days, and this time he told Bini Aru and Mopsi Aru that he would not

go. He would rather stay at home and be unhappy all by himself, he said,

and so they gladly let him stay.

But after he was left alone Kiki decided to enter his father's private

room, where he was forbidden to go, and see if he could find any of the

magic tools Bini Aru used to work with when he practiced sorcery. As he

went in Kiki stubbed his toe on one of the floor boards. He searched

everywhere but found no trace of his father's magic. All had been

destroyed.

Much disappointed, he started to go out again when he stubbed his toe

on the same floor board. That set him thinking. Examining the board more

closely, Kiki found it had been pried up and then nailed down again in

such a manner that it was a little higher than the other boards. But why had

his father taken up the board? Had he hidden some of his magic tools