The Oz Series
Chapter 49
Part of the Ozma of Oz: The Land of Ev and the Nome King arc.
What happens
A powerful wind joggles the ocean, building ripples into waves and waves into billows that roll higher than houses and tall trees, with deep gulfs between them, producing a terrible storm. A ship sailing far out upon the waters rolls and tips sidewise, jostled so roughly that even the sailor-men must hold fast to ropes and railings to avoid being swept overboard. Thick clouds block the sunlight, turning day dark as night. The Captain, unafraid because he has weathered storms before, puts all his passengers into the cabin and tells them to stay there, keep brave hearts, and not be scared until the storm passes.
Among the passengers is a little Kansas girl named Dorothy Gale, traveling with her Uncle Henry to Australia to visit relatives they have never seen. Uncle Henry, weakened and made nervous by hard work on his Kansas farm, leaves Aunt Em at home to watch the hired men and the farm while he travels far away to rest and visit his cousins. Dorothy, eager to accompany him and expected to be good company, is an experienced traveller, having once been carried by a cyclone to the marvelous Land of Oz and met many adventures there before returning to Kansas. She is not easily frightened, so the howling wind and tossing waves do not trouble her. Dorothy tells Uncle Henry and the passengers they must stay quiet in the cabin, since the Captain warns going on deck risks being blown overboard, and all the passengers huddle in the dark cabin listening to the shrieking storm and creaking masts.
Dorothy nearly falls asleep before waking with a start to find Uncle Henry missing. Not knowing he has merely gone to lie down in his sleeping-berth, and remembering Aunt Em's caution to care for her uncle, she fears he went on deck and decides to find him despite the worsening tempest. She struggles up the stairs to the deck, where the fierce wind almost tears away her skirts, yet feels a joyous excitement in defying the storm. Peering through the gloom, she thinks she sees the dim form of a man clinging to a mast and calls "Uncle Henry!" but the wind drowns her voice and the man does not move.
Dorothy dashes forward during a lull toward a big square chicken-coop lashed to the deck with ropes. As soon as she seizes the slats, the wind, enraged at her defiance, redoubles its fury, tears away the ropes, and lifts the coop high into the air with Dorothy still clinging to it. After whirling about, the chicken-coop drops far away into the sea, where the big waves toss it up and down like a plaything. Dorothy gets a good ducking but keeps her presence of mind, holding tight to the stout slats. When she clears the water from her eyes, she sees the wind ripped the cover from the coop and the poor chickens flutter away in every direction like handleless feather dusters. The coop's thick-board bottom makes it a sort of raft that bears her weight, and after catching her breath she climbs over the slats to stand upon the firm wooden bottom.
Dorothy thinks she has a ship of her own, more amused than frightened, and looks around for the ship she was blown from, but it is far away; perhaps no one aboard has yet missed her. The ship soon looks like a toy boat and disappears in the gloom, and Dorothy sighs with regret at parting from Uncle Henry, wondering what will happen next. She is tossing on the ocean with nothing to keep her afloat but a wooden hen-coop with a plank bottom and slatted sides through which water splashes and wets her, with nothing to eat, no fresh water, and no dry clothes. She laughs at her predicament, calling herself in a pretty fix with no idea how to get out of it.
As the night creeps on and gray clouds turn inky black, the wind, satisfied with its pranks, stops blowing this ocean and hurries away, so the waves quiet down. It is lucky for Dorothy that the storm subsides, for she might otherwise have perished; but because she has come safely through so many adventures, she does not think to be especially afraid, only wet and uncomfortable, and decides to patiently await her fate. The black clouds roll away to show a blue sky, a silver moon, and winking stars, and the coop rides the gentler waves like a rocking cradle, no longer swept by water. Exhausted, Dorothy decides sleep is the best way to restore her strength and pass the time; the warm climate keeps her from feeling cold despite being wringing wet. She sits in a corner, leans against the slats, nods at the friendly stars, and falls asleep in half a minute.