Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz

Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz by Ruth Plumly Thompson

Ruth Plumly Thompson's Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz opens in Philadelphia, where Peter finds a leftover pirate's gold piece in his sack from a previous Oz adventure, wishes himself back to Oz, and lands in the Winkie Country before Jack Pumpkinhead's cottage. After reattaching Jack's fallen head, Peter learns Jack's origin story (as told by Jack himself) — how Ozma, once the boy Tip, was stolen by the witch Mombi and later restored to her rightful rule, and how Tip had carved Jack and brought him to life with the powder of life. Setting out for the Emerald City, Peter and Jack take a wrong turn through a black door and fall into Chimneyville, escaping a mob of smoky Chimney-villains by lighting a candle in Jack's hollow head. They visit a Goody Shop where an odd shopkeeper sells "good" abstractions rather than food, encounter an aggressive present-snatching Christmas tree, and tumble through a rock door into a corridor where a magic dinner bell (stolen from the Red Djinn by the tree) summons meals from a vanishing slave. They then blunder into Scare City, ruled by Harum Scarum, where Jack's pumpkin-carved candle piece and Peter's baseball-honed throwing arm help them survive — until Peter's pirate sack, torn open in the chaos, swallows the entire host of Scares and Fraid Cats. Unable to find an exit, they free a chained, weakened "Iffin" (a griffin who lost his growl and gained a habit of rhyming) named Snif, who flies them out. Snif carries them to the Land of the Barons, where they meet Belfaygor of Bourne, whose beard has been magically over-grown by a mesmerizer and who has lost his bride-to-be, Princess Shirley Sunshine, to the bandit Baron Mogodore of Baffleburg. The group resolves to help. Using Belfaygor's beard as a rope/bridge (with Snif's aid), they cross a chasm to Baffleburg, are captured, and in the struggle Jack loses his head (rolled away) and Peter loses the pirate sack; Snif, having eaten a "shrinking violet," shrinks to tiny size. Peter and Belfaygor are jailed, but Snif regrows to full size (and regains his growl) and bursts them free. Reunited with Jack's recovered head and the sack, and prompted by an overheard guard conversation, they descend into a labyrinth and an enchanted cavern of mirror-illusions ("Ugly Muglies") to retrieve a mysterious sealed "forbidden flagon" guarded there, using Belfaygor's beard to knock it from a fire fountain. Flying after Mogodore's army toward the Emerald City, they are waylaid by the aerial "Swing City," whose acrobatic citizens toss them about until Mogodore's confiscated magic sauce box (which shrieks abuse) frightens the Swingers into dropping them into a safety net. Escaping, they pursue Mogodore again, but a gust inflates the pirate sack and it accidentally swallows Peter, Belfaygor, and the now-regrown Snif, while Jack, jumping clear with the flagon, breaks his leg. Alone, Jack summons the Red Djinn's slave via the dinner bell and is whisked to the Red Djinn's glass palace; the jolly Djinn mends Jack's leg and gives him instructions (remove his head before throwing the flagon; shake the sack inside-out three times to free prisoners) before Jack is mysteriously transported away by Mogodore's use of Ozma's captured magic belt. Meanwhile, Mogodore's forces have already stormed the Emerald City, capturing Ozma, Dorothy, Betsy Bobbin, and the court during a game of blind-man's buff, binding them with chains, and briefly transforming Scraps the Patchwork Girl into a bird (who escapes to fetch Glinda). At the triumphant banquet, Mogodore demands the forbidden flagon; Jack crashes in through a window carrying it, removes his own head as instructed, and hurls the flagon at Mogodore, shattering it — the spilled liquid shrinks Mogodore and his entire army to midget size. Jack then empties the pirate sack (first accidentally releasing the Scares again, quickly banished back to Scare City by Ozma's command, then releasing Peter, Belfaygor, and Snif). Glinda explains the flagon's history: Mogodore's ancestor Jair, a red "reddy," had once been magically enlarged as a reward for good deeds, an enchantment sustained only by the flagon's sealed liquid. The story closes with celebrations at the palace, including a wedding feast for Belfaygor and the freed Shirley Sunshine, Snif's decision to stay on at the Emerald City stables, and Ozma sending the shrunken Mogodore and his men back to a now-tiny Baffleburg. Peter, despite the Iffin's and friends' entreaties, chooses to return home to Philadelphia for his baseball team and his grandfather, who calmly agrees they should try flying together sometime as Peter recounts the whole adventure to him.

By Ruth Plumly Thompson · First published 1923 · Genre: Fantasy, Children's Literature, Adventure · 21 chapters · 53,187 words

First lines

The rain beat heavily on the roof, swirled down the side walks and made / tumbling torrents of the gutters. Turning from the window in disgust, / Peter dropped his baseball mitt on the library sofa and started glumly / toward the stair. No practice to-day, doggone it! Why couldn't it rain / on Mondays and be clear on Saturdays for a change? How was he to have / the team in trim for the big match if this sort of thing kept up?

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fantasy · children's literature · adventure · magical world · whimsical · fairy tale · Oz universe · wooden character · sentient object · magic · classic literature · early 20th century

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