The Road to Oz
In which is related how Dorothy Gale of Kansas,
The Shaggy Man, Button Bright, and Polychrome
the Rainbow's Daughter met on an
Enchanted Road and followed
it all the way to the
Marvelous Land
of Oz.

by L.  Frank Baum
"Royal Historian of Oz"

Contents

--To My Readers--
1.  The Way to Butterfield
2.  Dorothy Meets Button-Bright
3.  A Queer Village
4.  King Dox
5.  The Rainbow's Daughter
6.  The City of Beasts
7.  The Shaggy Man's Transformation
8.  The Musicker
9.  Facing the Scoodlers
10.  Escaping the Soup-Kettle
11.  Johnny Dooit Does It
12.  The Deadly Desert Crossed
13.  The Truth Pond
14.  Tik-Tok and Billina
15.  The Emperor's Tin Castle
16.  Visiting the Pumpkin-Field
17.  The Royal Chariot Arrives
18.  The Emerald City
19.  The Shaggy Man's Welcome
20.  Princess Ozma of Oz
21.  Dorothy Receives the Guests
22.  Important Arrivals
23.  The Grand Banquet
24.  The Birthday Celebration

To My Readers

Well, my dears, here is what you have asked for: another "Oz Book"
about Dorothy's strange adventures.  Toto is in this story, because
you wanted him to be there, and many other characters which you will
recognize are in the story, too.  Indeed, the wishes of my little
correspondents have been considered as carefully as possible, and if
the story is not exactly as you would have written it yourselves, you
must remember that a story has to be a story before it can be written
down, and the writer cannot change it much without spoiling it.

In the preface to "Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz" I said I would like
to write some stories that were not "Oz" stories, because I thought I
had written about Oz long enough; but since that volume was published
I have been fairly deluged with letters from children imploring me to
"write more about Dorothy," and "more about Oz," and since I write
only to please the children I shall try to respect their wishes.

There are some new characters in this book that ought to win your
live.  I'm very fond of the shaggy man myself, and I think you will
like him, too.  As for Polychrome--the Rainbow's Daughter--and stupid
little Button-Bright, they seem to have brought a new element of fun
into these Oz stories, and I am glad I discovered them.  Yet I am
anxious to have you write and tell me how you like them.

Since this book was written I have received some very remarkable News
from The Land of Oz, which has greatly astonished me.  I believe it
will astonish you, too, my dears, when you hear it.  But it is such a
long and exciting story that it must be saved for another book--and
perhaps that book will be the last story that will ever be told about
the Land of Oz.

L. FRANK BAUM

Coronado, 1909.

1.  The Way to Butterfield

"Please, miss," said the shaggy man, "can you tell me the road
to Butterfield?"

Dorothy looked him over.  Yes, he was shaggy, all right, but there was
a twinkle in his eye that seemed pleasant.

"Oh yes," she replied; "I can tell you.  But it isn't this road at all."

"No?"

"You cross the ten-acre lot, follow the lane to the highway, go north
to the five branches, and take--let me see--"

"To be sure, miss; see as far as Butterfield, if you like," said the
shaggy man.

"You take the branch next the willow stump, I b'lieve; or else the
branch by the gopher holes; or else--"

"Won't any of 'em do, miss?"

"'Course not, Shaggy Man.  You must take the right road to get
to Butterfield."

"And is that the one by the gopher stump, or--"

"Dear me!" cried Dorothy.  "I shall have to show you the way, you're
so stupid.  Wait a minute till I run in the house and get my sunbonnet."

The shaggy man waited.  He had an oat-straw in his mouth, which he
chewed slowly as if it tasted good; but it didn't.  There was an
apple-tree beside the house, and some apples had fallen to the ground.
The shaggy man thought they would taste better than the oat-straw, so
he walked over to get some.  A little black dog with bright brown eyes
dashed out of the farm-house and ran madly toward the shaggy man, who
had already picked up three apples and put them in one of the big
wide pockets of his shaggy coat.  The little dog barked and made a
dive for the shaggy man's leg; but he grabbed the dog by the neck and
put it in his big pocket along with the apples.  He took more apples,
afterward, for many were on the ground; and each one that he tossed
into his pocket hit the little dog somewhere upon the head or back,
and made him growl.  The little dog's name was Toto, and he was sorry
he had been put in the shaggy man's pocket.

Pretty soon Dorothy came out of the house with her sunbonnet, and she
called out:

"Come on, Shaggy Man, if you want me to show you the road to
Butterfield."  She climbed the fence into the ten-acre lot and he
followed her, walking slowly and stumbling over the little hillocks in
the pasture as if he was thinking of something else and did not notice
them.

"My, but you're clumsy!" said the little girl.  "Are your feet tired?"

"No, miss; it's my whiskers; they tire very easily in this warm
weather," said he.  "I wish it would snow, don't you?"

"'Course not, Shaggy Man," replied Dorothy, giving him a severe look.
"If it snowed in August it would spoil the corn and the oats and the
wheat; and then Uncle Henry wouldn't have any crops; and that would
make him poor; and--"

"Never mind," said the shaggy man.  "It won't snow, I guess.  Is this
the lane?"

"Yes," replied Dorothy, climbing another fence; "I'll go as far as
the highway with you."

"Thankee, miss; you're very kind for your size, I'm sure,"
said he gratefully.

"It isn't everyone who knows the road to Butterfield," Dorothy
remarked as she tripped along the lane; "but I've driven there many a
time with Uncle Henry, and so I b'lieve I could find it blindfolded."

"Don't do that, miss," said the shaggy man earnestly; "you might make
a mistake."

"I won't," she answered, laughing.  "Here's the highway.  Now it's the
second--no, the third turn to the left--or else it's the fourth.
Let's see.  The first one is by the elm tree, and the second is by the
gopher holes; and then--"

"Then what?" he inquired, putting his hands in his coat pockets.
Toto grabbed a finger and bit it; the shaggy man took his hand out of
that pocket quickly, and said "Oh!"

Dorothy did not notice.  She was shading her eyes from the sun with
her arm, looking anxiously down the road.

"Come on," she commanded.  "It's only a little way farther, so I may
as well show you."

After a while, they came to the place where five roads branched in
different directions; Dorothy pointed to one, and said:

"That's it, Shaggy Man."

"I'm much obliged, miss," he said, and started along another road.

"Not that one!" she cried; "you're going wrong."

He stopped.

"I thought you said that other was the road to Butterfield," said he,
running his fingers through his shaggy whiskers in a puzzled way.

"So it is."

"But I don't want to go to Butterfield, miss."

"You don't?"

"Of course not.  I wanted you to show me the road, so I shouldn't go
there by mistake."

"Oh!  Where DO you want to go, then?"

"I'm not particular, miss."

This answer astonished the little girl; and it made her provoked, too,
to think she had taken all this trouble for nothing.