As he lay here on the grass, the sun became very hot and he grew very tired. Soon he was fast asleep. He slept a long time.
As he began to awake, he found something soft around him. As he stretched, he found it everywhere around him. It was strange – he had never felt this before. What was it?
He raised his head and looked around. It looked grey and white, almost the color he was. Content, he lay back down and slept again.
A long time later he awoke and peered over the edge, he was moving!! He was very surprised. Down below he could see farms and houses. It was quite an experience for him and he could not quite believe it. Imagine, he was on a cloud!!
Towards evening, it began to grow cool. Then there was a flash of lightening and soon thunder. He could see the raindrops hurtling down from the next cloud.
When would it be his turn? Would he go down too? It wasn’t long. Soon he and all the raindrops around him were dashing down. He was surrounded by them and it seemed dark that he could not see. It all happened so suddenly. Whoosh! Plop and he was down. He had to get himself together again. It seemed green around him – he must be in one of the pastures that he had seen floating by. There was grass all around.
More and more raindrops were coming down. As they grew in number he began to float. past one little piece of dirt under some roots of grass or weds on around again, and on and on. And guess where he was! Plop! He slid right into a stream – a small creek. He was happy. He would get to travel again.
All the time he was moving along other raindrops popped in too from the sides and from the sky. There were many of them. He enjoyed bouncing along, past the rocks and under the blades of grass and weeds that bent over the stream. Since it was dark he could not tell what he was passing. He bounced along all night.
In the morning, as it began to get light, he saw the prettiest trees along the way. There were all red and green and some yellow. They were maple. He thought they were so pretty. He had heard that some raindrops go right up into the trees to make them moist and nice. He thought he would like to do that. Anyway, they were pretty to look at.
All day he bobbed and floated on looking at the trees and pasture land. Toward evening, they went thru a deep forest and it grew very dark. So thick was the sod and heavy the branches of pine that he could not see the sun. All was quiet save for the water which grew deep. A deer here and there bending its head to drink. It was solemn.
With the last ray of light, the stream emerged into the open and making a turn, joined with a river. But it was dark all night he went along without seeing. There were a few stars, but they wee not bright. He did not know it, but he was on a main stream to the west coast.
The next morning he was surprised to see how wide the river was. There were not only fish but also boats. The fish would swim underneath, both big and small ones. Sometimes they would nudge him or rise up but he would just slide off. They made good company. The boats were pretty to watch. There were also tugs and barges. But prettiest of all were the sailboats. He thought he had never seen anything as pretty as they. He would have liked to have taken a ride but he just kept floating along.
It was days and days. Then they came to a place with high cliffs on either side. The clouds above were so fluffy and white just laying in the sky. A great peace enveloped all and a great satisfaction. The peace of nature, god and man. How calm it was.
Sometimes there were islands in the river and the water went around on both sides. Sometimes there were sandbars under the water or coming out from the banks. He brushed up on one and pretty soon was stuck there. So he rested and looked around. It had been a long trip. The water kept on going by. He sat there for several hours with not a care in the world. He noticed the birds overhead too. How wonderful they were he thought.
And when he would go up, he saw the most beautiful water everywhere. How excited he was!! It was the ocean!! He couldn’t wait to get there. After several hours, leaping and forth, he just seemed to move on and glide out to the sea. The tide was down. Never had he ever seen so much water. He couldn’t believe it but it was nice.
It was almost dark and as he drifted out he saw the most beautiful sunset!! All the sky was red, purple and orange. He was so glad he was there for never had he seen anything
more beautiful. As it faded he watched it every second to remember it always.
Then it became cold. All night he bobbed up and down and moved along. He could not tell where he was going. Actually, he was moving northward. For many, many days he kept on, always north. It got cold too. Sometimes he could see land, sometimes he could not.
Then one day, again the sun sucked him clean out of the water and up in the sky. Up and up he went. It was fun – like being in a parachute – but going up. And soon, there he was on a cloud again, very high up and it was sort of gray all around and very cold. And do you know that very same day, he came down again too. This time he was a snowflake!! He was very beautiful. He could not get over how pretty he looked. There were 6 parts of him, all alike. He hardly recognized himself, but he like it very much.
Also, stretched out like he was and light too. He could float. He liked this. He could float and see for miles around except that it was a little gray. He floated down and down. At last he landed, rather high up, on some snow. There was snow everywhere and he was rather high up. He had landed on the side of a mountain, covered with snow, in Alaska.
For a long time, he stayed there and watched the sparkling snow in the sun. Then it became dark for a long time. This was the winter. Sometimes a little gust of wind would blow the flakes a little way and then they would settle again.
At last, the sun started coming and it stayed light for days and days. How dazzling was the snow then, clear and beautiful and some of it started to melt. All of a sudden there was a terrible noise and some of it fell in a stream below which was melting. Almost everyday another piece of ice and snow would crash in the river below.
One day it was his turn and with a thundering crash they fell in the river below. The ice bounced in the river sometime and finally settled. He was on the top side. He had melted from being a snowflake and now he was ice – a part of this huge iceberg.
There was nothing he would rather be than a drop of rain. His life went on forever, in one form or another.
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