regos
12 The Excitement of Bilbil the Goat
13 Zella Saves the Prince
14 The Escape
15 The Flight of the Rulers
16 Nikobob Refuses a Crown
17 The Nome King
18 Inga Parts With His Pink Pearl
19 Rinkitink Chuckles
20 Dorothy to the Rescue
21 The Wizard Finds an Enchantment
22 Ozma's Banquet
23 The Pearl Kingdom
24 The Captive King

Chapter One

The Prince of Pingaree

If you have a map of the Land of Oz handy, you will find that the great
Nonestic Ocean washes the shores of the Kingdom of Rinkitink, between
which and the Land of Oz lies a strip of the country of the Nome King
and a Sandy Desert. The Kingdom of Rinkitink isn't very big and lies
close to the ocean, all the houses and the King's palace being built
near the shore. The people live much upon the water, boating and
fishing, and the wealth of Rinkitink is gained from trading along the
coast and with the islands nearest it.

Four days' journey by boat to the north of Rinkitink is the Island of
Pingaree, and as our story begins here I must tell you something about
this island. At the north end of Pingaree, where it is widest, the land
is a mile from shore to shore, but at the south end it is scarcely half
a mile broad; thus, although Pingaree is four miles long, from north to
south, it cannot be called a very big island. It is exceedingly pretty,
however, and to the gulls who approach it from the sea it must resemble
a huge green wedge lying upon the waters, for its grass and trees give
it the color of an emerald.

The grass came to the edge of the sloping shores; the beautiful trees
occupied all the central portion of Pingaree, forming a continuous
grove where the branches met high overhead and there was just space
beneath them for the cosy houses of the inhabitants. These houses were
scattered everywhere throughout the island, so that there was no town
or city, unless the whole island might be called a city. The canopy of
leaves, high overhead, formed a shelter from sun and rain, and the
dwellers in the grove could all look past the straight tree-trunks and
across the grassy slopes to the purple waters of the Nonestic Ocean.

At the big end of the island, at the north, stood the royal palace of
King Kitticut, the lord and ruler of Pingaree. It was a beautiful
palace, built entirely of snow-white marble and capped by domes of
burnished gold, for the King was exceedingly wealthy. All along the
coast of Pi