The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

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Dorothy lived on the great Kansas prairies. She lived with Uncle Henry, a farmer, and Aunt Em, his wife. Their house was small, because the wood for it came by wagon from many miles away. The house had four walls, a floor and a roof. It was all one room. In this room there was a rusty old cookstove and a cupboard for the dishes. There was a table, three or four chairs, and the beds. Uncle Henry and Aunt Em had a big bed in one corner. Dorothy had a little bed in another corner. There was no attic and no cellar. There was only a small hole in the ground, and they called it a cyclone cellar. The family could go there when one of the great cyclones came. Those winds were strong enough to crush any house in their path. There was a trap door in the middle of the floor. From it, a ladder went down into the small, dark hole.

When Dorothy stood in the doorway and looked around, she saw only the great gray prairie. There was not one tree or house. The flat land went on to the edge of the sky on every side. The sun had baked the plowed land hard and gray, with little cracks all over it. Even the grass was not green. The sun had burned the tops of the long blades, and now they were gray too. The house had paint on it once. But the sun burned the paint, and the rain washed it away. Now the house was as dull and gray as everything else.