one day when princess dorothy of oz was visiting glinda the good, who is ozma's royal sorceress, she was looking through glinda's great book of records—wherein is inscribed all important events that happen in every part of the world—when she came upon the record of the destruction of pingaree, the capture of king kitticut and queen garee and all their people, and the curious escape of inga, the boy prince, and of king rinkitink and the talking goat. turning over some of the following pages, dorothy read how inga had found the magic pearls and was rowing the silver-lined boat to regos to try to rescue his parents.
the little girl was much interested to know how well inga succeeded, but she returned to the palace of ozma at the emerald city of oz the next day and other events made her forget the boy prince of pingaree for a time. however, she was one day idly looking at ozma's magic picture, which shows any scene you may wish to see, when the girl thought of inga and commanded the magic picture to show what the boy was doing at that moment.
it was the time when inga and rinkitink had followed the king of regos and queen of coregos to the nome king's country and she saw them hiding behind the rock as cor and gos passed them by after having placed the king and queen of pingaree in the keeping of the nome king. from that time dorothy followed, by means of the magic picture, the adventures of inga and his friend in the nome king's caverns, and the danger and helplessness of the poor boy aroused the little girl's pity and indignation.
so she went to ozma and told the lovely girl ruler of oz all about inga and rinkitink.
"i think kaliko is treating them dreadfully mean," declared dorothy, "and i wish you'd let me go to the nome country and help them out of their troubles."
"go, my dear, if you wish to," replied ozma, "but i think it would be best for you to take the wizard with you."
"oh, i'm not afraid of the nomes," said dorothy, "but i'll be glad to take the wizard, for company. and may we use your magic carpet, ozma?"
"of course. put the magic carpet in the red wagon and have the sawhorse take you and the wizard to the edge of the desert. while you are gone, dorothy, i'll watch you in the magic picture, and if any danger threatens you i'll see you are not harmed."
dorothy thanked the ruler of oz and kissed her good-bye, for she was determined to start at once. she found the wizard of oz, who was planting shoetrees in the garden, and when she told him inga's story he willingly agreed to accompany the little girl to the nome king's caverns. they had both been there before and had conquered the nomes with ease, so they were not at all afraid.
the wizard, who was a cheery little man with a bald head and a winning smile, harnessed the wooden sawhorse to the red wagon and loaded on ozma's magic carpet. then he and dorothy climbed to the seat and the sawhorse started off and carried them swiftly through the beautiful land of oz to the edge of the deadly desert that separated their fairyland from the nome country.
even dorothy and the clever wizard would not have dared to cross this desert without the aid of the magic carpet, for it would have quickly destroyed them; but when the roll of carpet had been placed upon the edge of the sands, leaving just enough lying flat for them to stand upon, the carpet straightway began to unroll before them and as they walked on it continued to unroll, until they had safely passed over the stretch of deadly desert and were on the border of the nome king's dominions.
this journey had been accomplished in a few minutes, although such a distance would have required several days travel had they not been walking on the magic carpet. on arriving they at once walked toward the entrance to the caverns of the nomes.
the wizard carried a little black bag containing his tools of wizardry, while dorothy carried over her arm a covered basket in which she had placed a dozen eggs, with which to conquer the nomes if she had any trouble with them.
eggs may seem to you to be a queer weapon with which to fight, but the little girl well knew their value. the nomes are immortal; that is, they do not perish, as mortals do, unless they happen to come in contact with an egg. if an egg touches them—either the outer shell or the inside of the egg—the nomes lose their charm of perpetual life and thereafter are liable to die through accident or old age, just as all humans are.
for this reason the sight of an egg fills a nome with terror and he will do anything to prevent an egg from touching him, even for an instant. so, when dorothy took her basket of eggs with her, she knew that she was more powerfully armed than if she had a regiment of soldiers at her back.
