Dorothy on a Proper Diet

In Ozma of Oz (1907), a yellow hen named Billina serves as Dorothy's animal companion instead of Toto. And they reach fairyland through a storm at sea rather than a cyclone. But the biggest difference may be that Billina speaks, and doesn't stand for lectures, from Dorothy or anyone else.

Here's a discussion between the hen and the little girl over what's proper to eat.

It did not take the castaways long to reach the shore, you may be sure. The yellow hen flew to the sands at once, but Dorothy had to climb over the high slats. Still, for a country girl, that was not much of a feat, and as soon as she was safe ashore Dorothy drew off her wet shoes and stockings and spread them upon the sun-warmed beach to dry.

Then she sat down and watched Billina, who was pick-pecking away with her sharp bill in the sand and gravel, which she scratched up and turned over with her strong claws.

"What are you doing?" asked Dorothy.

"Getting my breakfast, of course," murmured the hen, busily pecking away.

"What do you find?" inquired the girl, curiously.

"Oh, some fat red ants, and some sand-bugs, and once in a while a tiny crab. They are very sweet and nice, I assure you."

"How dreadful!" exclaimed Dorothy, in a shocked voice.

"What is dreadful?" asked the hen, lifting her head to gaze with one bright eye at her companion.

"Why, eating live things, and horrid bugs, and crawly ants. You ought to be 'shamed of yourself!"

"Goodness me!" returned the hen, in a puzzled tone; "how queer you are, Dorothy! Live things are much fresher and more wholesome than dead ones, and you humans eat all sorts of dead creatures."

"We don't!" said Dorothy.

"You do, indeed," answered Billina. "You eat lambs and sheep and cows and pigs and even chickens."

"But we cook 'em," said Dorothy, triumphantly.

"What difference does that make?"

"A good deal," said the girl, in a graver tone. "I can't just 'splain the diff'rence, but it's there. And, anyhow, we never eat such dreadful things as bugs."

"But you eat the chickens that eat the bugs," retorted the yellow hen, with an odd cackle. "So you are just as bad as we chickens are."

This made Dorothy thoughtful. What Billina said was true enough, and it almost took away her appetite for breakfast.

I love the "almost" in the last line. After all, a little girl's gotta eat.

Billina and Her Chicks

Billina the Yellow Hen is Dorothy's small animal companion in L. Frank Baum's Ozma of Oz (1907), the girl's first adventure after returning from Kansas. Compared to little Toto, Billina is talkative, opinionated, and independent--more like an eccentric aunt than a pet.

Dorothy goes back to Oz yet again in The Road to Oz (1909), and Billina has exciting news to share:

"I've hatched out ten of the loveliest chicks you ever saw."

"Oh, how nice! And where are they, Billina?"

"I left them at home. But they're beauties, I assure you, and all wonderfully clever. I've named them Dorothy."

"Which one?" asked the girl.

"All of them," replied Billina.

"That's funny. Why did you name them all with the same name?"

"It was so hard to tell them apart," explained the hen. "Now, when I call 'Dorothy,' they all come running to me in a bunch; it's much easier, after all, than having a separate name for each."

But in the next book, The Emerald City of Oz (1910), Billina reports that things have not turned out as she expected:

"I must show you all my Dorothys. Nine are living and have grown up to be very respectable hens; but one took cold at Ozma's birthday party and died of the pip, and the other two turned out to be horrid roosters, so I had to change their names from Dorothy to Daniel."

Baum, a chicken-raising expert in his youth, knew that it's notoriously difficult to tell the sex of a chick.

In between those books, I imagine Billina pronouncing this limerick:

"One of my Dorothys can’t be a hen.
I finally get them all sleeping, and then
This particular one
Starts to crow at the Sun
And wakes up her sisters all over again!"

verse copyright (c) 2004 by J. L. Bell