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Perhaps all parts of Oz might not be called truly delightful, but it was surely

delightful in the neighborhood of the Emerald City, where Ozma reigned. Her

loving influence was felt for many miles around, but there were places in the

mountains of the Gillikin Country, and the forests of the Quadling Country,

and perhaps in far-away parts of the Munchkin and Winkie Countries,

where the inhabitants were somewhat rude and uncivilized and had not yet

come under the spell of Ozma's wise and kindly rule. Also, when Oz first

became a fairyland, it harbored several witches and magicians and sorcerers

and necromancers, who were scattered in various parts, but most of these

had been deprived of their magic powers, and Ozma had issued a royal edict

forbidding anyone in her dominions to work magic except Glinda the Good

and the Wizard of Oz. Ozma herself, being a real fairy, knew a lot of magic,

but she only used it to benefit her subjects.

This little explanation will help you to understand better the story you are

reaching, but most of it is already known to those who are familiar with the

Oz people whose adventures they have followed in other Oz books.

Ozma and Dorothy were fast friends and were much together. Everyone in

Oz loved Dorothy almost as well as they did their lovely Ruler, for the little

Kansas girl's good fortune had not spoiled her or rendered her at all vain.

She was just the same brave and true and adventurous child as before she

lived in a royal palace and became the chum of the fairy Ozma.

In the room in which the two sat--which was one of Ozma's private suite of

apartments--hung the famous Magic Picture. This was the source of

constant interest to little Dorothy. One had but to stand before it and wish

to see what any person was doing, and at once a scene would flash upon the

magic canvas which showed exactly where that person was, and like our

own moving pictures would reproduce the actions of that person as long as

you cared to watch them. So today, when Dorothy tired of her embroidery,

she drew the curtains from before the Magic Picture and wished to see what

her friend Button Bright was doing. Button Bright, she saw, was playing ball

with Ojo, the Munchkin boy, so Dorothy next wished to see what her Aunt

Em was doing. The picture showed Aunt Em quietly engaged in darning

socks for Uncle Henry, so Dorothy wished to see what her old friend the Tin

Woodman was doing.

The Tin Woodman was then just leaving his tin castle in the company of the

Scarecrow and Woot the Wanderer. Dorothy had never seen this boy before,

so she wondered who he was. Also she was curious to know where the three

were going, for she noticed Woot's knapsack and guessed they had started

on a long journey. She asked Ozma about it, but Ozma did not know.

The Tin Woodman of Oz