A GREAT Cloud passed rapidly over a country which was parched by heat,
but did not let fall a single drop to refresh it. Presently it poured
copious streams of rain into the sea and, when it had done so, began to
boast of its generosity in the hearing of the neighboring Mountain.
But the Mountain replied: “What good have you done by such generosity?
and how can any one help being pained at the sight of it? If you
had poured your showers over the land, you might have saved a whole
district from famine. But as to the sea, my friend, it has plenty of
water already, without additions from you.”