THE CLOUD[2]

[2] Adapted from the German of Robert Reinick's Maarchen,
Lieder-und Geschichtenbuch (Velhagen und Klasing, Bielefeld
and Leipsic).


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 drouth. 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.