It is autumn. The leaves of the trees became yellow and covered the earth.

Grey clouds appeared in the sky and hid the sun. They would throw their first raindrops in a short while. 

A snow-white cloud, Feathery,

did not want to throw its drops,

because it thought it would lose its beauty.

“Look how beautiful I am!” it told the other clouds.

“If I drop my raindrops I won’t be beautiful anymore, but ugly!”

“Your work is to throw rain!” the other clouds told it.

Feathery looked at them disparagingly and said:

“But I don’t want to throw my drops. I will become ugly!”

It decided to leave away all by itself because it didn’t want to throw its rain.

It proudly travelled for days in the sky, when it suddenly met a tired stork.

“Hello, stork! I’m Feathery! Where are you going in such a hurry?”

“Feathery, I’m very lucky to have met you! I travel for many days and I’m very thirsty. Could you give me some water?”

Feathery frowned because it didn’t like what it heard.

“No, I cannot” it said and moved away. 

A bit later it heard a voice telling him:

“Hey, little cloud, welcome!

Give me some rain so I can grow!” It was a small seed on the ground.

“No, no, I cannot” Feathery said and moved away.

After a little while it reached a dry creek. It saw people and animals being thirsty and asking for some water.

“Little cloud, give me some water to quench the animals’ and people’s thirst!”.

“No, no I cannot!” Feathery proudly said and hid behind the mountain.

Further down it saw a forest burning,

but it again didn’t throw it water.

Feathery continued its journey and reached over a city where everything was grey and black smoke covered the sky.

“Help us!” the people cried to it.

“No, no I cannot” Feathery said and left.

How snooty was Feathery!

It thought it was in the sky just for beauty.

The creatures of the earth begged it in vain. 

It set to leave when suddenly a voice told it:

“Little cloud, don’t go! You‘re valuable for the land. You must throw your rain and help all those suffering because of you!”

It was a snow white pigeon. 

The cloud then repented and understood how important its rain for nature was. It had to let its rain to fall on the land. It called the wind and told him:

“Come Mr. Wind! Run! Blow, blow hard! I want to rain a lot! I want to send water to the thirsty land!”

Then Feathery started crying

and its tears became rain

that watered the seed,

put the fire out,

cleaned the sky,

filled the creek with water.

Since then, Feathery was not selfish anymore and understood that we have to care and help others. It was finally a useful cloud.

It continuously became rain, went down to earth and with the help of the Sun he became a cloud again in the sky. 

It was never selfish again.

It was a happy and content cloud and with its friend the rainbow, made earth more beautiful.