f go to
sea in a toast-rack. Why don't you bring her head up to the wind?" he
shouted as the paragondola took another plunge.

"I can't!" cried the Admiral, despairingly; "she hasn't got any head."

"Then put me ashore!" roared Sir Walter, furiously.

Now this was all very well for Sir Walter to say, but by this time the
paragondola was racing through the water at such a rate that even the
sideboard could hardly keep up with it; and the waves were tossing about
in such wild confusion that it was perfectly ridiculous for any one to
talk about going ashore. In fact, it was a most exciting moment. The air
was filled with flying spray, and the paragondola dashed ahead faster
and faster, until at last Dorothy could no longer hear the sound of the
voices, and she could just see that they were throwing the big watch
overboard as if to lighten the ship. Then she caught sight of the
Highlander trying to climb up the handle, and Sir Walter frantically
beating him on the back with the tobacco-plant, and the next moment
there was another wild plunge and the paragondola and Caravan vanished
from sight.

CHAPTER IV

TREE-TOP COUNTRY

It was a very curious thing that the storm seemed to follow the Caravan
as if it were a private affair of their own, and the paragondola had no
sooner disappeared than Dorothy found herself sailing along as quietly
as if such a thing as bad weather had never been heard of. But there was
something very lonely about the sideboard now, as it went careering
through the water, and she felt quite disconsolate as she sat on the
little shelf and wondered what had become of the Caravan.

"If Mrs. Peevy's umbrella shuts up with them inside of it," she said
mournfully to herself, "I'm sure I don't know what they'll do. It's such
a stiff thing to open that it must be perfectly awful when it shuts up
all of a sudden," and she was just giving a little shudder at the mere
thought of such a thing, when the sideboard bumped up against something
and she found that it had run into a tree. In fact, she found that she
had drifted into a forest of enormous trees, growing in a most
remarkable manner straight up out of the lake; and as she looked up she
could see great branches stretching out in every direction far above her
head, all interlaced together and covered with leaves as if it had been
midsummer instead of being, as it certainly was, Christmas day.

[Illustration: "THE SIDEBOARD SLOWLY FLOATED ALONG T