THE CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY CHEER: 180+ Novels, Tales & Poems in One Volume (Illustrated Edition). Лаймен Фрэнк Баум
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СКАЧАТЬ that I'm far happier than I deserve," added Jo, glancing from her good husband to her chubby children, tumbling on the grass beside her. "Fritz is getting gray and stout; I'm growing as thin as a shadow, and am thirty; we never shall be rich, and Plumfield may burn up any night, for that incorrigible Tommy Bangs will smoke sweet-fern cigars under the bed-clothes, though he's set himself afire three times already. But in spite of these unromantic facts, I have nothing to complain of, and never was so jolly in my life. Excuse the remark, but living among boys, I can't help using their expressions now and then."

      "Yes, Jo, I think your harvest will be a good one," began Mrs. March, frightening away a big black cricket that was staring Teddy out of countenance.

      "Not half so good as yours, mother. Here it is, and we never can thank you enough for the patient sowing and reaping you have done," cried Jo, with the loving impetuosity which she never could outgrow.

      "I hope there will be more wheat and fewer tares every year," said Amy softly.

      "A large sheaf, but I know there's room in your heart for it, Marmee dear," added Meg's tender voice.

      Touched to the heart, Mrs. March could only stretch out her arms, as if to gather children and grandchildren to herself, and say, with face and voice full of motherly love, gratitude, and humility,—

      "O, my girls, however long you may live, I never can wish you a greater happiness than this!"

Tail-piece

       Table of Contents

       Introduction

       1. The Cyclone

       2. The Council with the Munchkins

       3. How Dorothy Saved the Scarecrow

       4. The Road Through the Forest

       5. The Rescue of the Tin Woodman

       6. The Cowardly Lion

       7. The Journey to the Great Oz

       8. The Deadly Poppy Field

       9. The Queen of the Field Mice

       10. The Guardian of the Gate

       11. The Wonderful City of Oz

       12. The Search for the Wicked Witch

       13. The Rescue

       14. The Winged Monkeys

       15. The Discovery of Oz, the Terrible

       16. The Magic Art of the Great Humbug

       17. How the Balloon Was Launched

       18. Away to the South

       19. Attacked by the Fighting Trees

       20. The Dainty China Country

       21. The Lion Becomes the King of Beasts

       22. The Country of the Quadlings

       23. Glinda The Good Witch Grants Dorothy’s Wish

       24. Home Again

       Table of Contents

      Folklore, legends, myths and fairy tales have followed childhood through the ages, for every healthy youngster has a wholesome and instinctive love for stories fantastic, marvelous and manifestly unreal. The winged fairies of Grimm and Andersen have brought more happiness to childish hearts than all other human creations.

      Yet the old time fairy tale, having served for generations, may now be classed as “historical” in the children’s library; for the time has come for a series of newer “wonder tales” in which the stereotyped genie, dwarf and fairy are eliminated, together with all the horrible and blood-curdling incidents devised by their authors to point a fearsome moral to each tale. Modern education includes morality; therefore the modern child seeks only entertainment in its wonder tales and gladly dispenses with all disagreeable incident.

      Having this thought in mind, the story of “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” was written solely to please children of today. It aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heartaches and nightmares are left out.

      L. Frank Baum

      Chicago, April, 1900.

       Table of Contents

      Dorothy lived in the midst of the great Kansas prairies, with Uncle Henry, who was a farmer, and Aunt Em, who was the farmer’s wife. Their house was small, for the lumber to build it had to be carried by wagon many miles. There were four walls, a floor and a roof, which made one room; and this room contained a rusty СКАЧАТЬ