Samuel
M. Crothers, in the Atlantic Monthly for July, 1906.
A very little boy made this story up
"out of his head," and told it to his papa
I think you littlest ones will like it; I do.
Once upon a time there was a little boy,
and he wanted to be a cock-a-doo-dle-doo
So he was a cock-a-doo-dle-doo. And
he wanted to fly up into the sky. So he
did fly up into the sky. And he wanted
to get wings and a tail. So he did get
some wings and a tail.
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.
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.
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