The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Road to Oz by L. Frank Baum: soldiers were not needed to fight battles, but only to look important,
and an officer always looks more imposing than a private.
While the people cheered and waved their hats and handkerchiefs, there
came walking the Royal Princess Ozma, looking so pretty and sweet that
it is no wonder her people love her so dearly. She had decided she
would not ride in her chariot that day, as she preferred to walk in
the procession with her favored subjects and her guests. Just in
front of her trotted the living Blue Bear Rug owned by old Dyna, which
wobbled clumsily on its four feet because there was nothing but the
skin to support them, with a stuffed head at one end and a stubby tail
at the other. But whenever Ozma paused in her walk the Bear Rug
 The Road to Oz |