The Oz Allusion

Saturday’s Oz-book allusion appeared in the heading for the post, which quoted this passage from L. Frank Baum’s Tik-Tok of Oz, describing the heroes’ overmatched assault on the Nome Kingdom, spearheaded by a clockwork robot:

It was now Queen Ann’s turn to attack, so the Generals yelled “Forward march!” and the Colonels and Majors and Captains repeated the command and the valiant Army of Oogaboo, which seemed to be composed mainly of Tik-Tok, marched forward in single column toward the nomes, while Betsy and Polychrome cheered and Hank gave a loud “Hee-haw!” and Shaggy shouted “Hooray!” and Queen Ann screamed: “At ’em, Tik-Tok—at ’em!”

The nomes did not await the Clockwork Man’s attack but in a twinkling disappeared into the underground caverns. They made a great mistake in being so hasty, for Tik-Tok had not taken a dozen steps before he stubbed his copper toe on a rock and fell flat to the ground, where he cried: “Pick me up! Pick me up! Pick me up!” until Shaggy and Files ran forward and raised him to his feet again.

The lesson of this part of Tik-Tok of Oz is that when you’re planning an attack on a magical kingdom with an immense number of warriors, and your own forces include a large dragon who’s been equipped by an incredibly powerful enchanter, you should let the dragon go first.