published, however, I don't recall Jenny showing any enmity toward
Ozma. She covets Ozma's position, yes, but the two of them seem to get
along pretty well when they're together. Perhaps their relationship is
somewhat like that of the Wizard of Oz and Jinnicky: professional rivals,
but personal friends. Or perhaps Jenny just knows better than to express
her dislike for Ozma in public. I think it's likely that neither Neill nor
the WONDER CITY editor ever intended to show Jenny as an enemy of Ozma; she
was just a nuisance in WONDER CITY, and not even that in the other two Neill
books. (Incidentally, I read the three FF Neill books in the reverse order
from that in which they were written and published, so perhaps that's one
reason I tend to have a more positive opinionAfter Jenny
captures the Bell-Snickle and runs him through her turn-style, she
recognizes him as "the little flabbergasted Bell-snickle" (p. 272), despite
the fact that there doesn't seem to be any way she would have known that the
creature is called a Bell-snickle, or that he had gotten into the
flabbergas. (Perhaps the Lollies and Tik-Tok told her these things, but
there's no indication of it in the book.)
Betsy Bobbin and Trot, who were not even mentioned in WONDER CITY, are given
minor roles in SCALAWAGONS. Neill reports on p. 131 that Betsy "had been
invited to the palace for the day." Last I heard, she lived there.
As in WONDER CITY, Scraps enjoys fighting in this book, as is shown on p.
298. She doesn't seem to be quite as obsessed with it as she was in