Dorothy lives in the middle of the Kansas prairie with Uncle Henry and Aunt Em. Uncle is a farmer and aunt is his wife. Because it is not easy to transport the wood for building a house from miles by truck, the room they live in is just a small room with four stacks of boards, a roof and a floor. There is a rusty stove, a cupboard, a table, three or four chairs and two beds in the room. The big bed that Uncle Henry and Aunt Em slept in is in the corner, and the little bed that Dorothy slept in is in the other corner. There is no attic or basement in the house, only a small hole leading to the ground. This hole is called "whirlwind hole". If a big tornado comes, the whole family can hide inside, because it can blow down any house on the way through. In the middle of the floor, there is a movable wooden door with a ladder. If you go down, you will reach a small, dark hole.

Dorothy West Station looked around at the door, but she couldn't see anything except the surrounding gray grassland. There is not a tree or a small house in that wide and flat Yuan Ye. In every direction, it extends to the horizon. The sun scorched the cultivated land and turned it into a gray wasteland with many cracks. Even the grass is not green, because the sun bakes their top leaves, making them gray wherever they look. Once, the house was painted, the sun blistered the paint, and the rain washed it clean. Now the house is as dark and gloomy as anything else.

Aunt Amy was a beautiful young wife when she first came here. Sunshine and wind also changed her appearance. They took away the brilliance in her eyes and left a heavy gray; From her cheeks and lips, the rosy color was taken away, leaving only gray. Now she is thin and haggard, and she doesn't laugh anymore.

Dorothy is an orphan. When she first came to Aunt Amy's house, her aunt was startled by the girl's laughter. Whenever Dorothy's cheerful voice reached menstruation's ears, Dorothy always let out a scream and put her hand over her heart. She looked at the little girl in surprise-because she can find jokes on anything.

Uncle Henry never smiles. He works from morning till night and doesn't know what happiness is. Everything from his long beard to his rough shoes is gray. He looks steady and serious, and seldom talks.

What makes Dorothy laugh is Toto, who is not gray in an environment where everything around her turns gray in the same way; It is a little black dog, with soft and smooth long hair and a pair of small black eyes, blinking happily on both sides of its funny little nose. Toto plays with it all day, and Dorothy plays with it, too. She likes it very much.

However, they don't play today. Uncle Henry sat on the doorstep and looked anxiously at the darker sky than usual. Dorothy stood at the door with Toto in her arms, looking at the sky. Aunt Amy is washing a bunch of pots.

They heard the low wind coming from the far north. Before the storm came, Uncle Henry and Dorothy saw the grass undulating there. Now, from the high altitude in the south, there is also a sharp whistle. Their eyes turned to there and saw that the grass in that direction also set off waves.

Uncle Henry suddenly stood up.

"Em, the whirlwind is coming!" He said to his wife, "I want to look after the livestock." So he ran to the barn, where there were some cows and sheep.

Aunt em put down the washbasin and ran to the door. I took one look and knew that danger was coming soon.

"Dorothy, hurry up!" She screamed, "Run into the hole!"

Toto jumped out of Dorothy's arms and hid under the bed. The girl ran to catch it.

Aunt Amy was very scared. She opened the movable door on the floor, climbed down the ladder and hid in a small, dark hole.

Dorothy grabbed Toto and ran away with her menstruation. When she ran to the center of the room, a strong wind blew. Suddenly, the room shook so much that she sat on the floor.

The house rotated two or three times and slowly rose to the sky. Dorothy felt as if she were sitting in a balloon, rising gradually.

The winds of the south and the north meet at the place of the house, forming the center of the whirlwind. In the center of the cyclone, the air is usually calm, but the strong winds around it oppress the house and make it rise higher and higher, reaching the highest top of the cyclone directly; The house is carried into the air miles away, just as easily as you take a feather.

At that time, the sky was very dark and the wind roared horribly around her. But Dorothy is comfortable. After the first slight rotation, when the room tilted sharply, she seemed to feel like a baby lying in a cradle.

Toto doesn't like swinging like this. It runs around the house, here and there, shouting loudly; But Dorothy sat quietly on the floor, waiting to see what happened.

Once, Toto was too close to the open door of the raised floor and fell down. At first, the little girl thought it had fallen. But after a while, she saw one of its ears standing at the mouth of the cave, and the strong air pressure held it up so that it could not fall. She climbed to the mouth of the cave, grabbed Toto's ear, pulled into the house and closed the raised floor door, so that nothing would happen again.

A few hours later, Dorothy gradually lost her fear, but she felt very lonely and windy, and she almost became deaf. At first, she was worried that if the house fell down again, she would be smashed to pieces, but several hours passed and nothing happened. She stopped worrying and waited calmly to see what would happen in the future. Finally, she climbed onto the bed from the shaking floor and lay down. Toto followed her and lay beside her.

Regardless of the swing of the room and the whine of the whirlwind, Dorothy quickly closed her eyes and fell asleep.