This Book is Dedicated
  To My Granddaughter
  OZMA BAUM

   To My Readers

    Some of my youthful readers
        are developing wonderful imaginations.

    This pleases me.

    Imagination has
          brought mankind
               through the Dark Ages
                   to its present
               state of civilization.

    Imagination led Columbus
          to discover America.

    Imagination led Franklin
          to discover electricity.

    Imagination has
          given us the steam engine,
           the telephone,
         the talking-machine and the automobile,
           for these things
            had to be dreamed of
             before they became realities.

    So I believe that dreams
         -- day dreams,
               you know,
             with your eyes wide open
                   and your brain-machinery
                  whizzing --
            are likely
              to lead
                   to the betterment
                       of the world.

    The imaginative child
        will become the imaginative man
              or woman most apt
                   to create,
           to invent,
         and therefore to foster civilization.

    A prominent educator tells me
         that fairy tales
            are of untold value
                   in developing imagination
                 in the young.

    I believe it.

    Among the letters
         I receive from children
            are many containing suggestions of
         "what to write
               about in the
                   next Oz Book."

    Some of the ideas advanced
        are mighty interesting,
           while others
            are too extravagant
                  to be seriously considered
          -- even
               in a fairy tale.

    Yet I like them all,
           and I must admit
             that the main idea in
         "The Lost Princess of Oz"
            was suggested to me
               by a sweet little girl
                   of eleven
             who called
                  to see me
                      and to talk
                           about the Land of Oz.

    Said she:
         "I s'pose
             if Ozma ever got lost,
               or stolen,
             ev'rybody in Oz
                would be dreadful sorry."

    That was all,
           but quite enough foundation
              to build
                   this present story on.

    If you
          happen to like the story,
           give credit
            to my little friend's
                    clever hint.

    L.
     Frank Baum Royal
         Historian of Oz
 
  Chapter One
  A Terrible Loss

    There could be
           no doubt of the fact:
        Princess Ozma,
           the lovely girl ruler
               of the Fairyland of Oz,
         was lost.

    She had completely disappeared.

    Not one of her subjects
         -- not
             even her closest friends --
            knew what had
             become of her.

    It was Dorothy
         who first discovered it.

    Dorothy was
           a little Kansas girl
         who had come
               to the Land of Oz
                   to live
            and had been given
                   a delightful suite
                 of rooms
                   in Ozma's royal palace,
           just because Ozma
              loved Dorothy and
                  wanted her
                      to live
                           as near her as possible,
         so the two girls
            might be much together.

    Dorothy was not the
          only girl from the
               outside world
         who had been welcomed
               to Oz and
              lived in the royal palace.

    There was another
          named Betsy Bobbin,
           whose adventures
            had led her
                  to seek refuge with Ozma,
         and still another named Trot,
           who had been invited,
         together with her faithful companion,
           Cap'n Bill,
         to make her home
               in this wonderful fairyland.

    The three girls all
        had rooms in the palace
            and were great chums;
        but Dorothy
            was the dearest friend
                   of their gracious Ruler
                 and only
             she at any hour dared
                  to seek Ozma
                       in her royal apartments.

    For Dorothy
        had lived
               in Oz much longer
             than the other girls
            and had been made
                   a Princess
                 of the realm.

    Betsy was a year older
           than Dorothy and Trot
        was a year younger,
           yet the three
            were near enough
                   of an age
                  to become great playmates and
              to have nice times together.

    It was
         while the three
            were talking
                   together one morning