her birthday."

"That's true," agreed Trot. "I've been wondering, too, what I could
give Ozma. It's pretty hard to decide, 'cause she's got already all
she wants, and as she's a fairy and knows a lot about magic, she could
satisfy any wish."

"I know," returned Dorothy, "but that isn't the point. It isn't that
Ozma NEEDS anything, but that it will please her to know we've
remembered her birthday. But what shall we give her?"

Trot shook her head in despair.

"I've tried to think and I can't," she declared.

"It's the same way with me," said Dorothy.

"I know one thing that 'ud please her," remarked Cap'n Bill, turning
his round face with its fringe of whiskers toward the two girls and
staring at them with his big, light-blue eyes wide open.

"What is it, Cap'n Bill?"

"It's an Enchanted Flower," said he. "It's a pretty plant that stands
in a golden flower-pot an' grows all sorts o' flowers, one after
another. One minute a fine rose buds an' blooms, an' then a tulip, an'
next a chrys--chrys--"

"--anthemum," said Dorothy, helping him.

"That's it; and next a dahlia, an' then a daffydil, an' on all through
the range o' posies. Jus' as soon as one fades away, another comes, of
a different sort, an' the perfume from 'em is mighty snifty, an' they
keeps bloomin' night and day, year in an' year out."

"That's wonderful!" exclaimed Dorothy. "I think Ozma would like it."

"But where is the Magic Flower, and how can we get it?" asked Trot.

"Dun'no, zac'ly," slowly replied Cap'n Bill. "The Glass Cat tol' me
about it only yesterday, an' said it was in some lonely place up at the
nor'east o' here. The Glass Cat goes travelin' all around Oz, you
know, an' the little critter sees a lot o' things no one else does."

"That's true," said Dorothy, thoughtfully. "Northeast of here must be
in the Munchkin Country, and perhaps a good way off, so let's ask the
Glass Cat to tell us how to get to the Magic Flower."

So the two girls, with Cap'n Bill stumping along on his wooden leg
after them, went out into the garden, and after some time spent in
searching, they found the Glass Cat curled up in the sunshine beside a
bush, fast sleep.

The Glass Cat is one of the most curious creatures in all Oz. It was
made by a famous magician named Dr. Pipt before Ozma had forbidden her
subjects to work magic. Dr. Pipt had made the Glass Cat to catch mice,
but the Cat refused to catch mice and was considered more curious th