Page:Chinese Fables and Folk Stories.djvu/93

Rh will have plenty this year, for we had a thick cover of snow this winter.

"'It will soon be hot weather, but I do not fear the heat, for I have plenty of hard snow, pressed and packed for the summer time.'

"So you see the snow is useful to man. We could have stayed where we were in the sky and kept clean, and we need not have worked hard flying all the way down to the ground.

"We never hear that the clouds do any good thing," said the snow.

"The time may come when you will have finished talking," said the clouds. "Then we can tell you some things."

"We saw the big Ti-San Mountain to-day," continued the snow, "and many of the cloud children were playing around its summit, but what good did they do? None.

"A hunter was looking for wild beasts and your children were naughty and covered his eyes so that he could not see. Do you remember how he scolded your children and said, 'I do not like these cloudy, foggy days'? "Once the General San Chi led his soldiers to fight against his nation's enemy, and one night he went out to learn how many of the enemy could be seen.