he slipped among the crimson cushions, to sleep until morning. Then
the leaves opened, and rolling over in his bed he called out, "Please,
dear Sun, take me with you again." So the sunbeams caught him up a
second time, and they flew through the air till the noon-time, when it
grew warmer and warmer, and there was no red rose to hide him, not
even a blade of grass to shade his tired head; but just as he was
crying out, "Please, King Sun, let me go back to the dear mother
Ocean," the wind took pity on him, and came with its cool breath and
fanned him, with all his brothers, into a heavy gray cloud, after
which he blew them apart and told them to join hands and hurry away to
the earth. Helter-skelter down they went, rolling over each other
pell-mell, till with a patter and clatter and spatter they touched the
ground, and all the people cried, "It rains."

Some of the drops fell on a mountain side, Aqua among them, and down
the rocky cliff he ran, leading the way for his brothers. Soon,
together they plunged into a mountain brook, which came foaming and
dashing along, leaping over rocks and rushing down the hillside, till
in the valley below they heard the strangest clattering noise.

On the bank stood a flour-mill, and at the door a man whose hat and
clothes were gray with dust.

Inside the mill were two great stones, which kept whizzing round and
round, faster than a boy's top could spin, worked by the big wheel
outside; and these stones ground the wheat into flour and the corn
into golden meal.

But what giant do you suppose it was who could turn and swing that
tremendous wheel, together with those heavy stones? No giant at all.