The Santa Claus Stories

by L. Frank Baum

  Next marched the invited guests, who were loudly cheered by the people of Oz along the road, and were therefore obliged to bow to right and left almost every step of the way. First was Santa Claus, who, because he was fat and not used to walking, rode the wonderful Saw-Horse. The merry old gentleman had a basket of small toys with him, and he tossed the toys one by one to the children as he passed by. His Ryls and Knooks marched close behind him.

  Queen Zixi of Ix came after; then John Dough and the Cherub, with the rubber bear named Para Bruin strutting between them on its hind legs; then the Queen of Merryland, escorted by her wooden soldiers; then King Bud of Noland and his sister, the Princess Fluff; then the Queen of Ev and her ten royal children; then the Braided Man and the Candy Man, side by side; then King Dox of Foxville and King Kik-a-bray of Dunkiton, who by this time had become good friends; and finally Johnny Dooit, in his leather apron, smoking his long pipe.

  These wonderful personages were not more heartily cheered by the people than were those who followed after them in the procession. Dorothy was a general favorite, and she walked arm in arm with the Scarecrow, who was beloved by all. Then came Polychrome and Button-Bright, and the people loved the Rainbow’s pretty Daughter and the beautiful blue-eyed boy as soon as they saw them. The Shaggy Man in his shaggy new suit attracted much attention because he was such a novelty. With regular steps tramped the machine-man Tik-Tok, and there was more cheering when the Wizard of Oz followed in the procession. The Woggle-Bug and Jack Pumpkinhead were next, and behind them Glinda the Sorceress and the Good Witch of the North. Finally came Billina, with her brood of chickens to whom she clucked anxiously to keep them together and to hasten them along so they would not delay the procession.

  Another band followed, this time the Tin Band of the Emperor of the Winkies, playing a beautiful march called, “There’s No Plate Like Tin.” Then came the servants of the Royal Palace, in a long line, and behind them all the people joined the procession and marched away through the emerald gates and out upon the broad green.

  Here had been erected a splendid pavilion, with a grandstand big enough to seat all the royal party and those who had taken part in the procession. Over the pavilion, which was of green silk and cloth of gold, countless banners waved in the breeze. Just in front of this, and connected with it by a runway, had been built a broad platform, so that all the spectators could see plainly the entertainment provided for them.

  The Wizard now became Master of Ceremonies, as Ozma had placed the conduct of the performance in his hands. After the people had all congregated about the platform and the royal party and the visitors were seated in the grandstand, the Wizard skillfully performed some feats of juggling glass balls and lighted candles. He tossed a dozen or so of them high in the air and caught them one by one as they came down, without missing any.

  Then he introduced the Scarecrow, who did a sword-swallowing act that aroused much interest. After this the Tin Woodman gave an exhibition of Swinging the Axe, which he made to whirl around him so rapidly that the eye could scarcely follow the motion of the gleaming blade. Glinda the Sorceress then stepped upon the platform, and by her magic made a big tree grow in the middle of the space, made blossoms appear upon the tree, and made the blossoms become delicious fruit called tamornas; and so great was the quantity of fruit thus produced that when the servants climbed the tree and tossed it down to the crowd, there was enough to satisfy every person present.

  Para Bruin, the rubber bear, climbed to a limb of the big tree, rolled himself into a ball, and dropped to the platform, whence he bounded up again to the limb. He repeated this bouncing act several times, to the great delight of all the children present. After he had finished, and bowed, and returned to his seat, Glinda waved her wand and the tree disappeared; but its fruit still remained to be eaten.

  The Good Witch of the North amused the people by transforming ten stones into ten birds, the ten birds into ten lambs, and the ten lambs into ten little girls, who gave a pretty dance and were then transformed into ten stones again, just as they were in the beginning.

  Johnny Dooit next came on the platform with his tool-chest, and in a few minutes built a great flying machine; then put his chest in the machine and the whole thing flew away together—Johnny and all—after he had bid good-bye to those present and thanked the Princess for her hospitality.

  The Wizard then announced the last act of all, which was considered really wonderful. He had invented a machine to blow huge soap-bubbles, as big as balloons, and this machine was hidden under the platform so that only the rim of the big clay pipe to produce the bubbles showed above the flooring. The tank of soap-suds, and the air-pumps to inflate the bubbles, were out of sight beneath, so that when the bubbles began to grow upon the floor of the platform it really seemed like magic to the people of Oz, who knew nothing about even the common soap-bubbles that our children blow with a penny clay pipe and a basin of soap-and-water.

  The Wizard had invented another thing. Usually soap-bubbles are frail and burst easily, lasting only a few moments as they float in the air; but the Wizard added a sort of glue to his soapsuds, which made his bubbles tough; and, as the glue dried rapidly when exposed to the air, the Wizard’s bubbles were strong enough to float for hours without breaking.

  He began by blowing—by means of his machinery and air-pumps—several large bubbles which he allowed to float upward into the sky, where the sunshine fell upon them and gave them iridescent hues that were most beautiful. This aroused much wonder and delight, because it was a new amusement to every one present—except perhaps Dorothy and Button-Bright, and even they had never seen such big, strong bubbles before.

  The Wizard then blew a bunch of small bubbles and afterward blew a big bubble around them so they were left in the center of it; then he allowed the whole mass of pretty globes to float into the air and disappear in the far distant sky.

  “That is really fine!” declared Santa Claus, who loved toys and pretty things. “I think, Mr. Wizard, I shall have you blow a bubble around me; then I can float away home and see the country spread out beneath me as I travel. There isn’t a spot on earth that I haven’t visited, but I usually go in the night-time, riding behind my swift reindeer. Here is a good chance to observe the country by daylight, while I am riding slowly and at my ease.”

  “Do you think you will be able to guide the bubble?” asked the Wizard.

  “Oh yes; I know enough magic to do that,” replied Santa Claus. “You blow the bubble, with me inside of it, and I’ll be sure to get home in safety.”

  “Please send me home in a bubble, too!” begged the Queen of Merryland.

  “Very well, madam; you shall try the journey first,” politely answered old Santa.

  The pretty wax doll bade good-bye to the Princess Ozma and the others, and stood on the platform while the Wizard blew a big soap-bubble around her. When completed he allowed the bubble to float slowly upward, and there could be seen the little Queen of Merryland standing in the middle of it and blowing kisses from her fingers to those below. The bubble took a southerly direction, quickly floating out of sight.

  “That’s a very nice way to travel,” said Princess Fluff. “I’d like to go home in a bubble, too.”

  So the Wizard blew a big bubble around Princess Fluff, and another around King Bud, her brother, and a third one around Queen Zixi; and soon these three bubbles had mounted into the sky and were floating off in a group in the direction of the kingdom of Noland.

  THE WIZARD BLEW A BUBBLE AROUND SANTA CLAUS

  The success of these ventures induced the other guests from foreign lands to undertake bubble journeys, also; so the Wizard put them one by one inside his bubbles, and Santa Claus directed the way they should go, because he knew exactly where everybody lived.

  Finally Button-Bright said:

  “I want to go home, too.”

  “Why, so you shall!” cried Santa; “for I’m sure your father and mother will be glad to see you again. Mr. Wizard, please bl
ow a big, fine bubble for Button-Bright to ride in, and I’ll agree to send him home to his family as safe as safe can be.”

  “I’m sorry,” said Dorothy with a sigh, for she was fond of her little comrade; “but p’raps it’s best for Button-Bright to get home; ’cause his folks must be worrying just dreadful.”

  She kissed the boy, and Ozma kissed him, too, and all the others waved their hands and said good-bye and wished him a pleasant journey.

  “Are you glad to leave us, dear?” asked Dorothy, a little wistfully.

  “Don’t know,” said Button-Bright.

  He sat down cross-legged on the platform, with his sailor hat tipped back on his head, and the Wizard blew a beautiful bubble all around him.

  A minute later it had mounted into the sky, sailing toward the west, and the last they saw of Button-Bright he was still sitting in the middle of the shining globe and waving his sailor-hat at those below.

  “Will you ride in a bubble, or shall I send you and Toto home by means of the Magic Belt?” the Princess asked Dorothy.

  “Guess I’ll use the Belt,” replied the little girl. “I’m sort of ’fraid of those bubbles.”

  “Bow-wow!” said Toto, approvingly. He loved to bark at the bubbles as they sailed away, but he didn’t care to ride in one.

  Santa Claus decided to go next. He thanked Ozma for her hospitality and wished her many happy returns of the day. Then the Wizard blew a bubble around his chubby little body and smaller bubbles around each of his Ryls and Knooks.

  As the kind and generous friend of children mounted into the air the people all cheered at the top of their voices, for they loved Santa Claus dearly; and the little man heard them through the walls of the bubble and waved his hands in return as he smiled down upon them. The band played bravely while every one watched the bubble until it was completely out of sight.

  “How ’bout you, Polly?” Dorothy asked her friend. “Are you ’fraid of bubbles, too?”

  “No,” answered Polychrome, smiling; “but Santa Claus promised to speak to my father as he passed through the sky. So perhaps I shall get home an easier way.”

  Indeed, the little maid had scarcely made this speech when a sudden radiance filled the air, and while the people looked on in wonder the end of a gorgeous rainbow slowly settled down upon the platform.

  With a glad cry the Rainbow’s Daughter sprang from her seat and danced along the curve of the bow, mounting gradually upward, while the folds of her gauzy gown whirled and floated around her like a cloud and blended with the colors of the rainbow itself.

  “Good-bye, Ozma! Good-bye, Dorothy!” cried a voice they knew belonged to Polychrome; but now the little maiden’s form had melted wholly into the rainbow, and their eyes could no longer see her.

  Suddenly the end of the rainbow lifted and its colors slowly faded like mist before a breeze. Dorothy sighed deeply and turned to Ozma.

  “I’m sorry to lose Polly,” she said; “but I guess she’s better off with her father; ’cause even the Land of Oz couldn’t be like home to a cloud fairy.”

  “GOOD-BYE, OZMA! GOOD-BYE, DOROTHY!”

  “No, indeed,” replied the Princess; “but it has been delightful for us to know Polychrome for a little while, and—who knows?—perhaps we may meet the Rainbow’s Daughter again, some day.”

  The entertainment being now ended, all left the pavilion and formed their gay procession back to the Emerald City again. Of Dorothy’s recent traveling companions only Toto and the Shaggy Man remained, and Ozma had decided to allow the latter to live in Oz for a time, at least. If he proved honest and true, she promised to let him live there always, and the Shaggy Man was anxious to earn this reward.

  They had a nice quiet dinner together and passed a pleasant evening with the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, Tik-Tok, and the Yellow Hen for company.

  When Dorothy bade them good-night she kissed them all good-bye at the same time. For Ozma had agreed that while Dorothy slept she and Toto should be transported by means of the Magic Belt to her own little bed in the Kansas farmhouse and the little girl laughed as she thought how astonished Uncle Henry and Aunt Em would be when she came down to breakfast with them next morning.

  Quite content to have had so pleasant an adventure, and a little tired by all the day’s busy scenes, Dorothy clasped Toto in her arms and lay down upon the pretty white bed in her room in Ozma’s royal palace.

  Presently she was sound asleep.

  How the Wogglebug and His Friends Visited Santa Claus

  Illustrated by Walt McDougall

  * * *

  Editor’s note: Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz was a weekly comic page running for six months in such newspapers as the Philadelphia North American, the Sunday Boston Herald, and the Richmond Times-Dispatch, from August 1904 to February 1905. The comic filled an entire page of the Sunday paper and consisted of a short story and colorful illustrations by Baum and Walt McDougall, respectively. Many of these comics ended by asking, “What did the Wogglebug say?” Each newspaper that ran the comic then offered prizes to readers who mailed in the correct answer.

  The original summer, 1904, newspaper announcement for Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land of Oz series proclaimed (note the various spellings of Wogglebug and Tin Woodman):

  * * *

  From the Land of Oz to the United States. Here they come! The Scarecrow and Tinwoodman, Jack Pumpkinhead, the Woggle Bug, the Animated Sawhorse and the Gump. They are on their first vacation away from the Emerald City and the Land of Oz. They want to romp with the children of the United States. The glad news comes to this newspaper as follows:

  Proclamation Extraordinary

  To MR. L. FRANK BAUM,

  by Royal Appointment Historian to the Land of Oz.

  At the request of your Highly Esteemed Writeness, I have issued a Decree permitting my beloved subjects, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, the Woggle-Bug and Jack Pumpkinhead, to visit the United States of America, in order that they may accumulate great store of Wisdom and Experience in your most prosaic Country. They are permitted to take with them the Animated Saw-Horse, and their journey will be made in the Flying Gump. They should arrive upon your Earth Planet within a brief space of Time, and I trust you will accord them a warm Welcome and watch carefully over their Interests.

  Given under my Hand and Seal at my Royal Palace in the Emerald City in the Ninth Division of the Second Year of my Reign.

  Signed, Ozma

  Reigning Princess of the Fairyland of Oz (Successor to the Wizard of Oz)

  Illustration by McDougall showing Baum (left) and McDougall as part of the announcement of the Queer Visitors from the Marvelous Land Oz series.

  A typical entry form for the Wogglebug contest, this one taken from the Richmond-Times Dispatch, reads in part:

  What Did the Woggle Bug Say?

  Every reader of the Times-Dispatch will find himself or herself puzzling over this perplexing question after he has read the page in the Magazine Section devoted to the doings of the “Queer Visitors From the Marvelous Land of Oz.”

  The Woggle Bug, wise man of the party, undertakes to answer all questions for his comrades from Oz. He has to answer one each week. His answer is not printed. The reader is left to discover it. The pictures and descriptive matter make this comparatively easy to the active mind. Both the pictures and the story are guides to the solution of the problem, and the question admits of but one correct answer. The puzzles require only ordinary skill.

  TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS IN PRIZES

  To stimulate interest in the visit of the people from the Land of Oz, The Times-Dispatch will give Twenty Dollars in cash and five copies of Mr. Baum’s interesting book “The Marvelous Land of Oz” each month to those of its readers who send in correct or nearly correct answers to the questions put to the Woggle Bug by his companions.

  Entry form for Baum and McDougall’s Wogglebug contest in the Richmond Times-Dispatch on Saturday, September 24, 1904.

  FILL OUT THE A
BOVE COUPON. Also the coupon to be found each day in The Times-Dispatch until Saturday, September 24th. This gives you six chances to answer the question suggested in the page to-day. Do the same next Sunday, and also on each week-day, until the end of the month. SAVE YOUR COUPONS, and on the last day of the month send them all to the WOGGLE BUG EDITOR…

  Here is the story from the December 18, 1904, Sunday comics where the Scarecrow, Tin Woodman, and their friends visit Santa Claus, along with the answer as to what the Wogglebug said.

  “It's nearly Christmas time,” said the Scarecrow, yesterday, “and I really think we ought to do something for the children of America who have welcomed us so kindly.”

  “What can we do?” asked the Tin Woodman.

  “Why, it seems that on every Christmas Santa Claus brings the children toys for presents. So it strikes me that we also ought to furnish toys for the little ones, to prove our love for them,” returned the Scarecrow.

  “But where can we get the toys?” the Wogglebug inquired. “We have no money with which to purchase such things.”

  “True,” acknowledged the Straw Man; “but in Oz we do without money, because when we want a thing we create it by means of the magical arts we are learned in. Let us therefore provide, by means of our magic, the toys we require for the children.”

  This suggestion being agreed to, they all retired to private rooms, that they might create the toys undisturbed and before long the Tin Woodman came back with an armful of tiny tin men that were exact duplicates of himself. They were all jointed in their legs and arms, and their heads could be made to turn to right or left.