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      21. Dorothy’s Magic Belt

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      Dorothy passed several very happy weeks in the Land of Oz as the guest of the royal Ozma, who delighted to please and interest the little Kansas girl. Many new acquaintances were formed and many old ones renewed, and wherever she went Dorothy found herself among friends.

      One day, however, as she sat in Ozma’s private room, she noticed hanging upon the wall a picture which constantly changed in appearance, at one time showing a meadow and at another time a forest, a lake or a village.

      “How curious!” she exclaimed, after watching the shifting scenes for a few moments.

      “Yes,” said Ozma, “that is really a wonderful invention in magic. If I wish to see any part of the world or any person living, I need only express the wish and it is shown in the picture.”

      “May I use it?” asked Dorothy, eagerly.

      “Of course, my dear.”

      “Then I’d like to see the old Kansas farm, and Aunt Em,” said the girl.

      Instantly the well remembered farmhouse appeared in the picture, and Aunt Em could be seen quite plainly. She was engaged in washing dishes by the kitchen window and seemed quite well and contented. The hired men and the teams were in the harvest fields behind the house, and the corn and wheat seemed to the child to be in prime condition. On the side porch Dorothy’s pet dog, Toto, was lying fast asleep in the sun, and to her surprise old Speckles was running around with a brood of twelve new chickens trailing after her.

      “Everything seems all right at home,” said Dorothy, with a sigh of relief. “Now I wonder what Uncle Henry is doing.”

      The scene in the picture at once shifted to Australia, where, in a pleasant room in Sydney, Uncle Henry was seated in an easy chair, solemnly smoking his briar pipe. He looked sad and lonely, and his hair was now quite white and his hands and face thin and wasted.

      “Oh!” cried Dorothy, in an anxious voice, “I’m sure Uncle Henry isn’t getting any better, and it’s because he is worried about me. Ozma, dear, I must go to him at once!”

      “How can you?” asked Ozma.

      “I don’t know,” replied Dorothy; “but let us go to Glinda the Good. I’m sure she will help me, and advise me how to get to Uncle Henry.”

      Ozma readily agreed to this plan and caused the Sawhorse to be harnessed to a pretty green and pink phaeton, and the two girls rode away to visit the famous sorceress.

      Glinda received them graciously, and listened to Dorothy’s story with attention.

      “I have the magic belt, you know,” said the little girl. “If I buckled it around my waist and commanded it to take me to Uncle Henry, wouldn’t it do it?”

      “I think so,” replied Glinda, with a smile.

      “And then,” continued Dorothy, “if I ever wanted to come back here again, the belt would bring me.”

      “In that you are wrong,” said the sorceress. “The belt has magical powers only while it is in some fairy country, such as the Land of Oz, or the Land of Ev. Indeed, my little friend, were you to wear it and wish yourself in Australia, with your uncle, the wish would doubtless be fulfilled, because it was made in fairyland. But you would not find the magic belt around you when you arrived at your destination.”

      “What would become of it?” asked the girl.

      “It would be lost, as were your silver shoes when you visited Oz before, and no one would ever see it again. It seems too bad to destroy the use of the magic belt in that way, doesn’t it?”

      “Then,” said Dorothy, after a moment’s thought, “I will give the magic belt to Ozma, for she can use it in her own country. And she can wish me transported to Uncle Henry without

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