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 Ocean: it had been
whispered that if the Clouds go too near
the earth they die. When she remembered
this she held herself from sinking, and
swayed here and there on the breeze,
thinking,--thinking. But at last she stood
quite still, and spoke boldly and proudly.
She said, "Men of earth, I will help you,
come what may!"
The thought made her suddenly marvelously
big and strong and powerful. Never
had she dreamed that she could be so big.
Like a mighty angel of blessing she stood
above the earth, and lifted her head and
spread her wings far over the fields and
woods. She was so great, so majestic, that
men and animals were awe-struck at the
sight; the trees and the grasses bowed
before her; yet all the earth-creatures felt that
she meant them well.
"Yes, I will help you," cried the Cloud
once more. "Take me to yourselves; I will
give my life for you!"
As she said the words a wonderful light
glowed from her heart, the sound of thunder
rolled through the sky, and a love greater
than words can tell filled the Cloud; down,
down, close to the earth she swept, and gave
up her life in a blessed, healing shower of
rain.
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