Little Wizard Stories of Oz

Two great beasts, a lion and a tiger, shared guard duties at the throne of beloved Queen Ozma.

"You have enough to eat, I'm sure!" said the Cowardly Lion.

"Enough, perhaps -- but not the kind of food I long for," answered the Hungry Tiger. "What I'm hungry for is fat babies. I have a great desire to eat a few fat babies. Then, perhaps, the people of Oz would fear me and I'd become more important!"

"True," agreed the Lion. "It would stir up quite a rumpus if you ate but one fat baby. As for myself, if I should spring upon a man and make chop suey of him, there would be wild excitement in the Emerald City and the people would fall upon their knees and beg me for mercy. That, in my opinion, would render me of considerable importance!"

The great beasts looked at one another -- and began their plans.

L. Frank Baum wrote some of the most imaginative and delightful novels of all time in his marvelous series about the magical kingdom of Oz. In Little Wizard Stories of Oz, Baum revisits some of his most charming characters in a half-dozen shorter tales -- "The Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger," "Little Dorothy and Toto," "Tiktok and the Nome King," "Ozma and the Little Wizard," "Jack Pumpkinhead and the Sawhorse," and "The Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman."