e something to do. There were no cruel overseers
set to watch them, and no one to rebuke them or to find fault with
them. So each one was proud to do all he could for his friends and
neighbors, and was glad when they would accept the things he produced.

You will know by what I have here told you, that the Land of Oz was a
remarkable country. I do not suppose such an arrangement would be
practical with us, but Dorothy assures me that it works finely with the
Oz people.

Oz being a fairy country, the people were, of course, fairy people; but
that does not mean that all of them were very unlike the people of our
own world. There were all sorts of queer characters among them, but
not a single one who was evil, or who possessed a selfish or violent
nature. They were peaceful, kind hearted, loving and merry, and every
inhabitant adored the beautiful girl who ruled them and delighted to
obey her every command.

In spite of all I have said in a general way, there were some parts of
the Land of Oz not quite so pleasant as the farming country and the
Emerald City which was its center. Far away in the South Country there
lived in the mountains a band of strange people called Hammer-Heads,
because they had no arms and used their flat heads to pound any one who
came near them. Their necks were like rubber, so that they could shoot
out their heads to quite a distance, and afterward draw them back again
to their shoulders. The Hammer-Heads were called the "Wild People,"
but never harmed any but those who disturbed them in the mountains
where they lived.

In some of the dense forests there lived great beasts of every sort;
yet these were for the most part harmless and even sociable, and
conversed agreeably with those who visited their haunts. The
Kalidahs--beasts with bodies like bears and heads like tigers--had once
been fierce and bloodthirsty, but even they were now nearly all tamed,
although at times one or another of them would get cross and
disagreeable.

Not so tame were the Fighting Trees, which had a forest of their own.
If any one approached them these curious trees would bend down their
branches, twine them around the intruders, and hurl them away.

But these unpleasant things existed only in a few remote parts of the
Land of Oz. I suppose every country has some drawbacks, so even this
almost perfect fairyland could not be quite perfect. Once there had
been wicked witches in the land, too; but now these ha