Page:Chinese Fables and Folk Stories.djvu/95

Rh over mountains and through wild places until they were worn and weary.

"They found water to drink by the Gold Mine Mountain and stopped there to rest; but there were no trees or growing things on that mountain and they could find no shade.

"The sun sent down great heat and they suffered so that they could not rest. Then they held their faces up to heaven and in anguish they cried, 'Oh, sun, why shine so hot to-day?'

Then they looked to the east and saw our brother, the cloud, beginning to appear.

"'Why do you not come to us, and cover the face of the sun that we may have shade and rest?' they pleaded of the cloud; and so our brother came and stood between the earth and the sun.

"'Oh, this is rest, rest,' said the soldiers in great relief. 'How we wish that the cloud might always shield us from the burning fire of the sun.'

"And not only the soldiers, but all the farmers and woodcutters ask us to help them in the time when the sun comes close."

"Can you do only this one thing?" asked the snow, coldly.

"Who carries the rain and the snow through the sky?" asked the wind.