f 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!"

[Illustra