THE CLOUD[10]


One hot summer morning a little Cloud rose out of the sea and floated
lightly and happily across the blue sky. Far below lay the earth, brown,
dry, and desolate, from drought. The little Cloud could see the poor
people of the earth working and suffering in the hot fields, while she
herself floated on the morning breeze, hither and thither, without a
care.

"Oh, if I could only help the poor people down there!" she thought. "If
I could but make their work easier, or give the hungry ones food, or the
thirsty a drink!"

And as the day passed, and the Cloud became larger, this wish to do
something for the people of earth was ever greater in her heart.

On earth it grew hotter and hotter; the sun burned down so fiercely that
the people were fainting in its rays; it seemed as if they must die of
heat, and yet they were obliged to go on with their work, for they were
very poor. Sometimes they stood and looked up at the Cloud, as if they
were praying, and saying, "Ah, if you could help us!"

"I will help you; I will!" said the Cloud. And she began to sink softly
down toward the earth.

But suddenly, as she floated down, she remembered something which had
been told her when she was a tiny Cloud-child, in the lap of Mother