Read the chapter
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Chapter 1. The Cyclone
Dorothy lived on the Kansas plains with Uncle Henry, a farmer, and his wife Aunt Em.
Their house was small because the wood to build it had to be carried by wagon many miles.
There were four walls, a floor and a roof that made one room.
This room had a rusty cookstove, a cupboard for the dishes, a table, three or four chairs, and the beds.
Uncle Henry and Aunt Em had a big bed in one corner and Dorothy a little bed in another corner.
There was no attic at all and no cellar.
Only a small hole in the ground, called a cyclone cellar, let the family go if a great whirlwind came.
It was reached by a trap door in the middle of the floor and a ladder led down into the small dark hole.
When Dorothy stood in the doorway and looked around she could see nothing but the great gray plain on every side.
No tree or house broke the wide sweep of flat land reaching to the edge of the sky.
The sun had baked the plowed land into a gray hard mass with little cracks running through it.
Even the grass was not green, the sun had burned the long blade tops to the same gray everywhere.
Once the house had been painted, the sun burned the paint and the rains washed it away.
Now the house was as dull and gray as everything else.
When Aunt Em came there to live she was a young pretty wife.
The sun and wind had changed her too.
They had taken the sparkle from her eyes and left them a sober gray.
They had taken the red from her cheeks and lips and they were gray also.
She was thin and pale and she didn't smile now.
When Dorothy, who was an orphan, first came to her, Aunt Em was so startled by the child's laughter that she'd scream.
She'd press her hand on her heart whenever Dorothy's merry voice reached her ears.
She still looked at the little girl with wonder that she could find anything to laugh at.
Uncle Henry never laughed, he worked hard from morning till night and didn't know what joy was.
He was gray also from his long beard to his rough boots.
He looked stern and serious and rarely spoke.
It was Toto that made Dorothy laugh and saved her from growing as gray as her other surroundings.
Toto wasn't gray. He was a small black dog with long soft hair.
He was a little black dog with long soft hair and black eyes that shone beside his funny nose.
Toto played all day and Dorothy played with him and loved him dearly.
Today, however, they weren't playing, everyone watched the dark sky with fear.
Uncle Henry sat on the doorstep and looked anxiously at the sky which was even grayer than usual.
Dorothy stood in the door with Toto in her arms and looked at the sky too.
Aunt Em was washing the dishes.
From the far north they heard a low wail of the wind.
Uncle Henry and Dorothy saw the long grass bow in waves before the storm.
A sharp whistling came from the south.
When they turned, they saw ripples in the grass from that direction too.
Suddenly Uncle Henry stood up from the chair and looked toward the open sky.
"There's a cyclone coming, Em," he called to his wife.
"I'll go look after the animals." Then he ran toward the sheds where the cows and horses were kept.
Aunt Em dropped her work and came to the door.
One look told her the danger was close at hand.
"Quick, Dorothy!" she shouted.
"Run for the cellar!"
Toto jumped out of Dorothy's arms and hid under the bed and the girl started to get him.
Aunt Em, badly frightened, opened the trap door in the floor and climbed down the ladder into the small dark hole.
Dorothy caught Toto at last and started to follow her aunt.
When she was halfway across the room, a great shriek came from the wind.
The house shook so hard that she lost her balance and sat down suddenly on the floor.
Then a strange thing happened, the little house began to lift from the ground.
The house turned around two or three times and rose slowly into the air.
Dorothy felt as if she were going up in a balloon.
The north and south winds met where the house stood and made it the exact center of the cyclone.
In the middle of a cyclone the air is often still.
But the strong wind pushed on every side of the house and raised it higher and higher.
It went until it reached the very top of the cyclone.
There it stayed and was carried miles and miles away as easily as you could carry a feather.
It was very dark and the wind howled horribly around her but Dorothy found she was riding quite easily.
At first the house turned a few times and once it tipped badly.
Then she felt as if she were being rocked gently like a baby in a cradle.
Toto didn't like it, he ran all around the room, barking and whining loudly.
He ran about the room here and there, barking, but Dorothy sat still on the floor and waited.
Once Toto got too near the open trap door and fell in and at first the little girl thought she had lost him.
But soon she saw one of his ears sticking up through the hole.
The strong push of the air held him up so he could not fall.
She crept to the hole, caught Toto by the ear, and pulled him into the room again.
She then closed the trap door so no more accidents could happen.
Hour after hour passed and slowly Dorothy got over her fear.
She felt quite lonely and the wind shrieked so loudly all about her that she nearly became deaf.
At first she had wondered if she'd be dashed to pieces when the house fell again.
As hours passed and nothing bad happened, she stopped worrying and decided to wait and see what would happen.
At last she crawled across the swaying floor to her bed. Toto followed and lay down beside her.
In spite of the swaying of the house and the wailing of the wind, Dorothy soon closed her eyes and fell fast asleep.