Once upon a time, a delightful little cloud floated about in the bright blue sky above a cheerful little village. The people down below said, “What charming rain we’re having! The flowers will love to drink it.’ But the little cloud only said, “Boo-hoo!” and sent down more rain still.
The little boys and girls came out to play, and the little cloud said to him, “Why do you look so bright and happy? Why can’t I find something to play about?”
“Come,” he said, “and play with my kite. I can fly high in the sky with my kite, as you can see.’ And the little cloud said, “Boo-hoo!” and sent down more rain still. Then the little boy went indoors, and the little cloud said, “Please come and help my flowers to grow.
The little sunbeams are throwing my leaves about with this strong wind, and I want you to make the grass moist and sweet.’ “Boo-hoo!” said the little cloud, and sent down more rain, and now, indeed, it was time for the little sunbeam to come. “Good-morning, Mr. Cloud!” he said kindly. “How are you today, and why do you look so dull and dreary?”
“I know I ought to feel bright and happy, but all the flowers on the earth keep moving their heads up and down and asking me to play with them, and that big boy with a kite keeps trundling his big hoop round and asking me to come out and jump over it, but my heart is too heavy to take any interest in what they all say and do.”
“Then, dear Mr. Cloud,” said the sunbeam, “you don’t listen to your heart! If you did, instead of Boo-hoo! say A-ha!” So the little cloud did listen to his heart, which said quite distinctly:
“A-ha! A-ha! Let your tears fall and be a happy cloud once more, to ride through the sky on this bright sunny morning. Then your heart will be light and your eyes will he bright. So listen to your heart, and be a bright and happy little cloud once more.”
And now the little cloud will ever after listen to his heart. He said:
“A-ha! A-ha! Oh, pitter-patter-pat! I am going to be good and happy now;” and he began to descent in the form of gentle rain on pool and pond and on the flowers, grass, and matted leaves; and the flowers drank and drank and laughed, and the grass said: “I feel so much happier now. Don’t you?”
And the sunbeam’s warm light seemed to shine so much brighter, and said:
“Do you feel happier now, dear Mr. Cloud, who cried, and can you tell me how it is we sweat so very much?”
“Such heat as that will make the thin vapor rise,” replied the little cloud.
“But it has nothing to do; it has nothing to do with what made me cry, you know. That, next to my heart, by listening to what that big boy told me.”
So the little cloud listened to his heart, and, lightened of his burden, he floated gaily hardly knowing, in the clear sky above his merry little village.