F. Baum
Ozma Of Oz
    
    
    
    
    
    
    1.The Girl in the Chicken Coop
    
    The wind blew hard and joggled the water of the ocean, sending ripples across its 
surface.Then the wind pushed the edges of the ripples until they became waves, and shoved 
the waves around until they became billows.The billows rolled dreadfully high: higher 
even than the tops of houses.Some of them, indeed, rolled as high as the tops of tall 
trees, and seemed like mountains; and the gulfs between the great billows 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 to cut many queer pranks and do a lot of damage.
    At the time the wind began to blow, 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 no sooner had she seized fast hold of the slats of the 
big box in which the chickens were kept than the wind, as if enraged because the little 
girl dared to resist its power, suddenly redoubled its fury. With a scream like that of 
an angry giant it tore away the ropes that held the coop and lifted it high into the air, 
with Dorothy still clinging to the slats.Around and over it whirled, this way and that, 
and a few moments later the chicken-coop dropped far away into the sea, where the big 
waves caught it and slid it up-hill to a foaming crest and then down-hill into a deep 
valley, as if it were nothing more than a plaything to keep them amused.
    Dorothy had a good ducking, you may be sure, but she didn't loose her presence of 
mind even for a second.She kept tight hold of the stout slats and as soon as she could 
get the water out of her eyes she saw that the wind had ripped the cover from the coop, 
and the poor chickens were fluttering away in every direction, being blown by the wind 
until they looked like feather dusters without handles.The bottom of the coop was made of 
thick boards, so Dorothy found she was clinging to a sort of raft, with sides of slats, 
which readily bore up her weight.
    After coughing the water out of her throat and getting her breath again, she managed 
to climb over the slats and stand upon the firm wooden bottom of the coop, which 
supported her easily enough.
    "Why, I've got a ship of my own!" she thought, more amused than frightened at her 
sudden change of condition; and then, as the coop climbed up to the top of a big wave, 
she looked eagerly around for the ship from which she had been blown.
    It was far, far away, by this time.Perhaps no one on board had yet missed her, or 
knew of her strange adventure.Down into a valley between the waves the coop swept her, 
and when she climbed another crest 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 a sigh of 
regret at parting with Uncle Henry and began to wonder what was going to happen to her 
next.
    Just now she was tossing on the bosom of a big ocean, with nothing to keep her afloat 
but a miserable wooden hen-coop that had a plank bottom and slatted sides, through which 
the water constantly splashed and wetted her through to the skin!And there was nothing to