Ozma of Oz | Page 2

a ship was sailing far out upon the
waters. When the waves began to tumble and toss and to grow bigger
and bigger the ship rolled up and down, and tipped sidewise--first one
way and then the other--and was jostled around so roughly that even
the sailor-men had to hold fast to the ropes and railings to keep
themselves from being swept away by the wind or pitched headlong
into the sea.
And the clouds were so thick in the sky that the sunlight couldn't get
through them; so that the day grew dark as night, which added to the
terrors of the storm.
The Captain of the ship was not afraid, because he had seen storms
before, and had sailed his ship through them in safety; but he knew that
his passengers would be in danger if they tried to stay on deck, so he
put them all into the cabin and told them to stay there until after the
storm was over, and to keep brave hearts and not be scared, and all
would be well with them.
Now, among these passengers was a little Kansas girl named Dorothy
Gale, who was going with her Uncle Henry to Australia, to visit some
relatives they had never before seen. Uncle Henry, you must know, was
not very well, because he had been working so hard on his Kansas farm
that his health had given way and left him weak and nervous. So he left
Aunt Em at home to watch after the hired men and to take care of the
farm, while he traveled far away to Australia to visit his cousins and
have a good rest.
Dorothy was eager to go with him on this journey, and Uncle Henry
thought she would be good company and help cheer him up; so he
decided to take her along. The little girl was quite an experienced
traveller, for she had once been carried by a cyclone as far away from
home as the marvelous Land of Oz, and she had met with a good many
adventures in that strange country before she managed to get back to
Kansas again. So she wasn't easily frightened, whatever happened, and
when the wind began to howl and whistle, and the waves began to
tumble and toss, our little girl didn't mind the uproar the least bit.

"Of course we'll have to stay in the cabin," she said to Uncle Henry and
the other passengers, "and keep as quiet as possible until the storm is
over. For the Captain says if we go on deck we may be blown
overboard."
No one wanted to risk such an accident as that, you may be sure; so all
the passengers stayed huddled up in the dark cabin, listening to the
shrieking of the storm and the creaking of the masts and rigging and
trying to keep from bumping into one another when the ship tipped
sidewise.
Dorothy had almost fallen asleep when she was aroused with a start to
find that Uncle Henry was missing. She couldn't imagine where he had
gone, and as he was not very strong she began to worry about him, and
to fear he might have been careless enough to go on deck. In that case
he would be in great danger unless he instantly came down again.
The fact was that Uncle Henry had gone to lie down in his little
sleeping-berth, but Dorothy did not know that. She only remembered
that Aunt Em had cautioned her to take good care of her uncle, so at
once she decided to go on deck and find him, in spite of the fact that
the tempest was now worse than ever, and the ship was plunging in a
really dreadful manner. Indeed, the little girl found it was as much as
she could do to mount the stairs to the deck, and as soon as she got
there the wind struck her so fiercely that it almost tore away the skirts
of her dress. Yet Dorothy felt a sort of joyous excitement in defying the
storm, and while she held fast to the railing she peered around through
the gloom and thought she saw the dim form of a man clinging to a
mast not far away from her. This might be her uncle, so she called as
loudly as she could:
"Uncle Henry! Uncle Henry!"
But the wind screeched and howled so madly that she scarce heard her
own voice, and the man certainly failed to hear her, for he did not
move.
Dorothy decided she must go to him; so she made a dash forward,

during a lull in the storm, to where a big square chicken-coop had been
lashed to the deck with ropes. She reached this place in safety, but