The Wizard of Oz

Part One · The Storm

Dorothy watched the sky turn the color of a bruise, and out on the flat Kansas prairie the tall grass bent double as the wind began to scream. Uncle Henry shouted "Cyclone!" and ran to let the cattle loose, while Aunt Em pointed at the cellar door in the floor. Dorothy raced toward it, but her little dog Toto had bolted under the bed in terror, and she turned back to grab him. That was the mistake.

Before she could reach the cellar, the whole house shuddered, rose off the ground, and began to spin like a leaf in a storm. Dorothy clung to the bed with Toto shivering in her arms, and for hours the wind carried them through the howling dark, while cows and chairs and a very surprised rocking horse flew past the window. At last, exhausted, she fell asleep. A soft bump woke her, and bright sunshine was pouring through the glass.

The house had landed in a green and golden country where birds sang and a brook splashed over the stones. Tiny people in blue hats gathered around and bowed, because Dorothy's house had come down on the wicked Witch of the East. They gave Dorothy the silver shoes the witch had worn, but all Dorothy wanted was to go home. "Only the great Wizard of Oz can help you," said a kind old woman. "Follow the road of yellow brick."

Part Two · The Yellow Road

So Dorothy and Toto set off along the shining yellow road. Soon they passed a cornfield where a scarecrow hung from a pole, and to her amazement he winked. "Good day," he said. "I have no brains, only straw, and I am very bored of crows." Dorothy lifted him down, and he flopped along beside her, falling over every ten steps and hoping the Wizard would give him a brain. Deeper in a dark forest they found a man made of tin, rusted so stiff that he could not move until Dorothy oiled his jaw.

The Tin Woodman creaked and squeaked and explained that he had no heart, which was the saddest thing of all, and he joined them at once. Then the forest rumbled, and a huge lion leaped onto the path with a roar that shook the leaves. Toto barked bravely, and the lion swiped at him, so Dorothy slapped the great beast on the nose. "Shame on you!" she cried. The lion burst into tears. "I am a terrible coward," he sobbed. "Please let me come along, because I want courage."

The road was never safe for long. They crossed a gap too wide to jump when the Lion carried them over one by one, with his eyes squeezed shut, and they staggered into a field of red poppies whose sweet scent made everyone sleepy. Dorothy and the Lion collapsed in the flowers and could not be woken. A swarm of field mice rescued them by dragging the heavy Lion away on a cart, which took four hundred mice and a great deal of squeaking. At last green towers glittered ahead, and the Emerald City stood before them.

The Wizard of Oz appeared as a giant head floating above a throne, with a voice like rolling thunder. "I will grant your wishes," it boomed, "if you bring me the broomstick of the Wicked Witch of the West." Dorothy gulped. The Lion fainted, quite quietly, on the carpet. They had no choice, so they marched west toward the witch's country, where nothing was green and the wind smelled of smoke.

Part Three · The Witch and the Curtain

The Witch watched them with her single enormous eye, and she attacked at once. She sent a pack of wolves, but the Tin Woodman's axe stopped them before they could come near. She sent a flock of crows, and the Scarecrow stood up and flapped his arms like the world's worst scarecrow until the crows screamed and flew away. Then she sent the flying monkeys. They swooped down in a screeching cloud, scattered the Scarecrow's straw across the fields, and bent the Tin Woodman into a pretzel.

The monkeys carried Dorothy and Toto off to the Witch's gloomy castle, and the Witch smiled a thin green smile. Dorothy was a prisoner, alone and afraid. The Witch wanted the silver shoes, and one day she tripped Dorothy and snatched one off her foot. Dorothy was so furious that she grabbed a bucket of water and threw it at the Witch. "What have you done?" the Witch shrieked. "I'm melting! Such a world!" She shrank into a sticky puddle on the stone floor, and just like that, she was gone.

The castle servants cheered. Dorothy took the broomstick, her friends were stuffed and straightened and mended, and they hurried back to the Emerald City. But when Toto tugged aside a curtain in the throne room, everyone gasped. Behind it stood a small, round old man, pulling levers and speaking into a horn. "I am only an ordinary man," he admitted sheepishly, "and the great head was a trick. Please do not tell anyone."

Dorothy was angry, but the little man pointed out that the Scarecrow had been thinking cleverly all along, the Lion had faced down the wolves, and the Tin Woodman had wept over a beetle he stepped on. He gave them a pot of bran, a silk heart, and a green drink, and they felt wonderful, even though none of it was magic. That left Dorothy. The Wizard offered to carry her home in his balloon, but the ropes snapped too early, and the balloon drifted away without her.

Dorothy sank down in despair. Then the good witch of the South told her a secret. "Your silver shoes can take you anywhere," she said. "You could have gone home the whole time. Click your heels three times and say where you want to go." Dorothy stared at her feet. She hugged her three friends goodbye, with a heart that ached, and then she held Toto tight, shut her eyes, and clicked her heels together once, twice, three times.

"Take me home to Aunt Em!" she cried. The wind roared past her ears, and then everything was still. When she opened her eyes, she was sitting on the Kansas prairie, and the silver shoes had vanished. Out of the farmhouse ran Aunt Em with her arms wide. "Where in the world have you been?" she cried. Dorothy gazed at the gray sky and whispered, "In the land of Oz. And oh, Aunt Em, I'm so glad to be home!" Toto barked and wagged his tail, and somewhere far off, a scarecrow fell off a pole.