CHAPTER 4
Betsy Braves the Billows
The waves dashed and the lightning flashed and the thunder rolled andthe ship struck a rock. Betsy Bobbin was running across the deck and theshock sent her flying through the air until she fell with a splash intothe dark blue water. The same shock caught Hank, a thin little, sad-facedmule, and tumbled him also into the sea, far from the ship's side.
When Betsy came up, gasping for breath because the wet plunge hadsurprised her, she reached out in the dark and grabbed a bunch of hair.At first she thought it was the end of a rope, but presently she heard adismal "Hee-haw!" and knew she was holding fast to the end of Hank's tail.
Suddenly the sea was lighted up by a vivid glare. The ship, now in thefar distance, caught fire, blew up and sank beneath the waves.
Betsy shuddered at the sight, but just then her eye caught a mass ofwreckage floating near her and she let go the mule's tail and seized therude raft, pulling herself up so that she rode upon it in safety. Hankalso saw the raft and swam to it, but he was so clumsy he never wouldhave been able to climb upon it had not Betsy helped him to get aboard.
They had to crowd close together, for their support was only ahatch-cover torn from the ship's deck; but it floated them fairly welland both the girl and the mule knew it would keep them from drowning.
The storm was not over, by any means, when the ship went down. Blindingbolts of lightning shot from cloud to cloud and the clamor of deepthunderclaps echoed far over the sea. The waves tossed the little rafthere and there as a child tosses a rubber ball and Betsy had a solemnfeeling that for hundreds of watery miles in every direction there was noliving thing besides herself and the small donkey.
Perhaps Hank had the same thought, for he gently rubbed his nose againstthe frightened girl and said "Hee-haw!" in his softest voice, as if tocomfort her.
"You'll protect me, Hank dear, won't you?" she cried helplessly, and themule said "Hee-haw!" again, in tones that meant a promise.
On board the ship, during the days that preceded the wreck, when thesea was calm, Betsy and Hank had become good friends; so, while thegirl might have preferred a more powerful protector in this dreadfulemergency, she felt that the mule would do all in a mule's power to guardher safety.
All night they floated, and when the storm had worn itself out andpassed away with a few distant growls, and the waves had grown smallerand easier to ride, Betsy stretched herself out on the wet raft and fellasleep.
Hank did not sleep a wink. Perhaps he felt it his duty to guard Betsy.Anyhow, he crouched on the raft beside the tired sleeping girl andwatched patiently until the first light of dawn swept over the sea.
The light wakened Betsy Bobbin. She sat up, rubbed her eyes and staredacross the water.
"Oh, Hank; there's land ahead!" she exclaimed.
"Hee-haw!" answered Hank in his plaintive voice.
The raft was floating swiftly toward a very beautiful country and asthey drew near Betsy could see banks of lovely flowers showing brightlybetween leafy trees. But no people were to be seen at all.
Tik-Tok of Oz Page 6
