The wind blew hard and joggled the water of the ocean, sending ripplesacross its surface. Then the wind pushed the edges of the ripplesuntil they became waves, and shoved the waves around until they becamebillows. The billows rolled dreadfully high: higher even than thetops of houses. Some of them, indeed, rolled as high as the tops oftall trees, and seemed like mountains; and the gulfs between the greatbillows were like deep valleys.

All this mad dashing and splashing of the waters of the big ocean,which the mischievous wind caused without any good reason whatever,resulted in a terrible storm, and a storm on the ocean is liable tocut many queer pranks and do a lot of damage.

At the time the wind began to blow, a ship was sailing far out uponthe waters. When the waves began to tumble and toss and to growbigger and bigger the ship rolled up and down, and tippedsidewise--first one way and then the other--and was jostled around soroughly that even the sailor-men had to hold fast to the ropes andrailings to keep themselves from being swept away by the wind orpitched headlong into the sea.

And the clouds were so thick in the sky that the sunlight couldn't getthrough them; so that the day grew dark as night, which added to theterrors of the storm.

The Captain of the ship was not afraid, because he had seen stormsbefore, and had sailed his ship through them in safety; but he knewthat 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 untilafter 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 DorothyGale, who was going with her Uncle Henry to Australia, to visit somerelatives they had never before seen. Uncle Henry, you must know, wasnot very well, because he had been working so hard on his Kansas farmthat his health had given way and left him weak and nervous. So heleft Aunt Em at home to watch after the hired men and to take care ofthe farm, while he traveled far away to Australia to visit his cousinsand have a good rest.

Dorothy was eager to go with him on this journey, and Uncle Henrythought she would be good company and help cheer him up; so he decidedto 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 asthe marvelous Land of Oz, and she had met with a good many adventuresin that strange country before she managed to get back to Kansasagain. So she wasn't easily frightened, whatever happened, and whenthe wind began to howl and whistle, and the waves began to tumble andtoss, our little girl didn't mind the uproar the least bit.

"Of course we'll have to stay in the cabin," she said to UncleHenry and the other passengers, "and keep as quiet as possibleuntil the storm is over. For the Captain says if we go on deckwe 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 themasts and rigging and trying to keep from bumping into one anotherwhen the ship tipped sidewise.

Dorothy had almost fallen asleep when she was aroused with a start tofind that Uncle Henry was missing. She couldn't imagine where he hadgone, and as he was not very strong she began to worry about him, andto fear he might have been careless enough to go on deck. In thatcase 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 littlesleeping-berth, but Dorothy did not know that. She only rememberedthat Aunt Em had cautioned her to take good care of her uncle, so atonce she decided to go on deck and find him, in spite of the fact thatthe tempest was now worse than ever, and the ship was plunging in areally dreadful manner. Indeed, the little girl found it was as muchas she could do to mount the stairs to the deck, and as soon as shegot there the wind struck her so fiercely that it almost tore away theskirts of her dress. Yet Dorothy felt a sort of joyous excitement indefying the storm, and while she held fast to the railing she peeredaround through the gloom and thought she saw the dim form of a manclinging to a mast not far away from her. This might be her uncle, soshe called as loudly as she could:

"Uncle Henry! Uncle Henry!"

But the wind screeched and howled so madly that she scarce heardher own voice, and the man certainly failed to hear her, for hedid not move.

Dorothy decided she must go to him; so she made a dash forward, duringa lull in the storm, to where a big square chicken-coop had beenlashed to the deck with ropes. She reached this place in safety, butno sooner had she seized fast hold of the slats of the big box inwhich the chickens were kept than the wind, as if enraged because thelittle girl dared to resist its power, suddenly redoubled its fury.With a scream like that of an angry giant it tore away the ropes thatheld the coop and lifted it high into the air, with Dorothy stillclinging to the slats. Around and over it whirled, this way and that,and a few moments later the chicken-coop dropped far away into thesea, where the big waves caught it and slid it up-hill to a foamingcrest and then down-hill into a deep valley, as if it were nothingmore than a plaything to keep them amused.

Dorothy had a good ducking, you may be sure, but she didn't loose herpresence of mind even for a second. She kept tight hold of the stoutslats and as soon as she could get the water out of her eyes she sawthat the wind had ripped the cover from the coop, and the poorchickens were fluttering away in every direction, being blown by thewind until they looked like feather dusters without handles. Thebottom of the coop was made of thick boards, so Dorothy found she wasclinging to a sort of raft, with sides of slats, which readily bore upher weight. After coughing the water out of her throat and gettingher breath again, she managed to climb over the slats and stand uponthe firm wooden bottom of the coop, which supported her easily enough.

"Why, I've got a ship of my own!" she thought, more amused thanfrightened at her sudden change of condition; and then, as the coopclimbed up to the top of a big wave, she looked eagerly around for theship from which she had been blown.

It was far, far away, by this time. Perhaps no one on board had yetmissed her, or knew of her strange adventure. Down into a valleybetween the waves the coop swept her, and when she climbed anothercrest the ship looked like a toy boat, it was such a long way off.Soon it had entirely disappeared in the gloom, and then Dorothy gave asigh of regret at parting with Uncle Henry and began to wonder whatwas going to happen to her next.

Just now she was tossing on the bosom of a big ocean, with nothing tokeep her afloat but a miserable wooden hen-coop that had a plankbottom and slatted sides, through which the water constantly splashedand wetted her through to the skin! And there was nothing to eat whenshe became hungry--as she was sure to do before long--and no freshwater to drink and no dry clothes to put on.

"Well, I declare!" she exclaimed, with a laugh. "You're in a prettyfix, Dorothy Gale, I can tell you! and I haven't the least idea howyou're going to get out of it!"

As if to add to her troubles the night was now creeping on, and thegray clouds overhead changed to inky blackness. But the wind, as ifsatisfied at last with its mischievous pranks, stopped blowing thisocean and hurried away to another part of the world to blow somethingelse; so that the waves, not being joggled any more, began to quietdown and behave themselves.

It was lucky for Dorothy, I think, that the storm subsided; otherwise,brave though she was, I fear she might have perished. Many children,in her place, would have wept and given way to despair; but becauseDorothy had encountered so many adventures and come safely throughthem it did not occur to her at this time to be especially afraid.She was wet and uncomfortable, it is true; but, after sighing that onesigh I told you of, she managed to recall some of her customarycheerfulness and decided to patiently await whatever her fate might be.

By and by the black clouds rolled away and showed a blue sky overhead,with a silver moon shining sweetly in the middle of it and littlestars winking merrily at Dorothy when she looked their way. The coopdid not toss around any more, but rode the waves more gently--almostlike a cradle rocking--so that the floor upon which Dorothy stood wasno longer swept by water coming through the slats. Seeing this, andbeing quite exhausted by the excitement of the past few hours, thelittle girl decided that sleep would be the best thing to restore herstrength and the easiest way in which she could pass the time. Thefloor was damp and she was herself wringing wet, but fortunately thiswas a warm climate and she did not feel at all cold.

So she sat down in a corner of the coop, leaned her back against theslats, nodded at the friendly stars before she closed her eyes, andwas asleep in half a minute.