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Ellen has fallen in love with the Oz series ever since I found “The Marvelous Land of Oz” at a thriftstore and read it to her. I have since found the Gutenberg project and I can’t tell you how wonderful it is, in our life which precludes libraries, to read classic literature without filling the trailer with books. I just might have to get one of those Ebook thingies. Anyway, we fininshed “Ozma of Oz” and I eavesdropped on a conversation between Sissy and Ellen.

Ellen “…and the cowardly lion and his friend the hungry tiger was never satisfied – he wanted to eat Dorothy – sissy!  He wanted to eat fat juicy babies but he didn’t because he knew it was wrong. Then he asked one of the servants to get him 10 or 5 pounds of ice cream and some meat maybe and finally at the end he was satisfied.

Sissy: “What, did he get all the food at the picnic?”

Ellen “No the feast.  Except for 2 pieces of bacon.  And there’s this Nome King and he thought eggs were poisonous and when Bellina laid an egg and the stuffed -”

Sissy “What happened to her first egg?”

Ellen “maybe it hatched, i don’t know.  And then the scarecrow threw the eggs at the King also they were poisonous to them.  And then the royal family of Ev, they were turned into ornaments and Bellinea -

Mom, what is Bellina’s real name?”

Me: “Bill”

Ellen “Yeah, Bill.  And then Bellina saw the Nome King and one of his servant were talking and Belllinas was under his chair and she heard them talking about what the ornaments were -

Mom, how many soldiers of privates were there?”

Me “26″

Ellen “all 26 got turned into orngmanets and so did Queen Ev and Ozma and she got turned into a pretty green grasshopper and then Bellina almost ate her and then she decided that wasn’t very tasty.

And then in the end they got all the princesses and prices back to their land where the napkins and lunchboxes and dinner pails grew on trees

and then in the end they went to Munchkinland and the other land.

and then the hungry tiger lost his appetite and he was finally satisfied.

Oh no, in the end Dorothy – she went back home by magic belt because one of her granpas was sad she was gone.”

And now you know the story of “Ozma from Oz”.  We’re now working on “Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz”.  I’m surprised how much she rememberd.  Each day I’d ask her what had happened in the previous chapters (I always do this with the kids when I read books to them) so that probably kept her memory fresh.