thought Dorothy, as the
Camel took her by the hand, "but she's certainly big enough to be his
great-grandmother ten times over." Before she had time to think any more
about it, however, the Elephant called out, "Ladies change!" and the
dancing began again harder than ever.

It was a very peculiar dance this time, and, as near as Dorothy could
make it out, consisted principally in the animals passing her along from
one to another as if they were each anxious to get rid of her; and
presently she discovered that, in some unaccountable manner, she had
been passed directly through the fireplace into the next house; but as
this house was quite as full of dancing animals as the other, this
didn't help matters much except that it got Sarah out of the way--"and
_that_," said poor little Dorothy to herself, "is certainly _something_!"

[Illustration: THE ANIMALS CROSSING OVER.]

Just then the Elephant, who had mysteriously appeared from a pantry in
one corner of the room, shouted out, "All cross over!" and the animals
began to crowd out of the house into the courtyard, and then, pushing
in great confusion through a large gateway, rushed across the street and
into the house on the other side of the way. Dorothy was quite taken off
her feet in the rush, but, watching her chance, she hid behind a large
churn that was standing conveniently in the middle of the street; and
when they had all passed in, she ran away down the street as fast as she
could go.

She ran on until she had got quite out of the Ferryman's street, and was
walking along in the open country, feeling quite pleased with herself
for having so cleverly escaped from the dancing-party without having to
take the trouble of saying "Good night" to the Elephant, when she saw,
in the moonlight, something white lying beside the road, and going up to
it, she discovered it was a letter.

CHAPTER XII

THE CARAVAN COMES HOME

The letter was lying on a flat stone, with several lumps of sugar laid
on it like paper-weights to keep it from blowing away. It wasn't at all
a nice-looking letter; in fact, it looked as if it had been dragged over
the ground for a long distance; and Dorothy, after observing all this,
was just turning away when she chanced to look at the address and saw
that the letter was intended for her. The address was written in a very
cramped little hand, and the writing was crowded up into one corner as
if it were trying to get over the edge of the env