Majors, four Colonels and four Generals, there was
likely to be jealousy in her army, and perhaps mutiny and desertions.

One of these men, however, was Jo Candy, and he would not go at all. No
promises could tempt him, nor could threats move him. He said he must
remain at home to harvest his crop of jackson-balls, lemon-drops,
bonbons and chocolate-creams. Also he had large fields of crackerjack
and buttered pop corn to be mowed and threshed, and he was determined
not to disappoint the children of Oogaboo by going away to conquer the
world and so let the candy crop spoil.

Finding Jo Candy so obstinate, Queen Ann let him have his own way and
continued her journey to the house of the eighteenth and last man in
Oogaboo, who was a young fellow named Jo Files. This Files had twelve
trees which bore steel files of various sorts; but also he had nine
book-trees, on which grew a choice selection of story-books. In case
you have never seen books growing upon trees, I will explain that those
in Jo Files' orchard were enclosed in broad green husks which, when
fully ripe, turned to a deep red color. Then the books were picked and
husked and were ready to read. If they were picked too soon, the
stories were found to be confused and uninteresting and the spelling
bad. However, if allowed to ripen perfectly, the stories were fine
reading and the spelling and grammar excellent.

Files freely gave his books to all who wanted them, but the people of
Oogaboo cared little for books and so he had to read most of them
himself, before they spoiled. For, as you probably know, as soon as the
books were read the words disappeared and the leaves withered and
faded--which is the worst fault of all books which grow upon trees.

When Queen Ann spoke to this young man Files, who was both intelligent
and ambitious, he said he thought it would be great fun to conquer the
world. But he called her attention to the fact that he was far superior
to the other men of her army. Therefore, he would not be one of her
Generals or Colonels or Majors or Captains, but claimed the honor of
being sole Private.

Ann did not like this idea at all.

"I hate to have a Private Soldier in my army," she said; "they're so
common. I am told that Princess Ozma once had a private soldier, but
she made him her Captain-General, which is good evidence that the
private was unnecessary."

"Ozma's army doesn't fight," returned Files; "but your army must fight
like fury in o