"Just a row of them," replied Glinda, "for no one knows how old Ozma
is, although she appears to us to be just a young girl--as fresh and
fair as if she had lived but a few years."

"A cake doesn't seem like much of a present," Dorothy asserted.

"Make it a surprise cake," suggested the Sorceress. "Don't you
remember the four and twenty blackbirds that were baked in a pie?
Well, you need not use live blackbirds in your cake, but you could
have some surprise of a different sort."

"Like what?" questioned Dorothy, eagerly.

"If I told you, it wouldn't be YOUR present to Ozma, but MINE,"
answered the Sorceress, with a smile. "Think it over, my dear, and I
am sure you can originate a surprise that will add greatly to the joy
and merriment of Ozma's birthday banquet."

Dorothy thanked her friend and entered the Red Wagon and told the
Sawhorse to take her back home to the palace in the Emerald City.

On the way she thought the matter over seriously of making a
surprise birthday cake and finally decided what to do.

As soon as she reached home, she went to the Wizard of Oz, who had a
room fitted up in one of the high towers of the palace, where he
studied magic so as to be able to perform such wizardry as Ozma
commanded him to do for the welfare of her subjects.