Dorothy lived in a small house in Kansas, with Uncle Henry, Aunt Em, and a little black dog called Toto.

There were no trees and no hills in Kansas, and it was often very windy. Sometimes the wind came very fast and very suddenly. That was a cyclone, and it could blow trees and people and buildings away. There were cellars under all the houses. And when a cyclone came, people went down into their cellars and stayed there.

One day Uncle Henry came out and looked up at the sky. Then he ran quickly back into the house.

‘There’s a cyclone coming,’ he called to Aunt Em and Dorothy.‘We must go down into the cellar!’

They ran to the door of the cellar, but Toto was afraid, and he ran under the bed. Dorothy ran after him.

‘Quick!’ shouted Aunt Em from the cellar. ‘Leave the dog and come down into the cellar!’