(第二)風雲雪
Just then the clouds’ lawyer, the wind, came to defend them. “Whom are
you scolding?” he asked.
“You think the Creator should have made the snow king of a world, I
suppose, and that there is no place or use for the clouds.
“You talk so much that we can not find opportunity to tell what we are
good for. You are not the only helper of man and of growing things in
the hot summer time.
“Do you remember when the great General Dhi-Sing led five thousand
soldiers to battle? They traveled 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.
“I tell you there would be no rain nor snow but for the help of the
wind and the clouds.
“You know well that the rain is made from the ocean water.
“One day the water said to the cloud, ‘Friend, I should like to journey
around and around the sky, but I have no wings, and can not fly. My
body is so heavy that I can not move it, and I never expect to take
this trip unless you, my friend, help me.’
“And so we lifted the water and helped it step by step until we floated
it through the air. Our first cloud faces were very light, but after we
had traveled five or six miles through the sky our faces changed to
gray, and when we had gone one thousand miles our faces became black
and the farmers said, ‘We shall soon have rain.’
“Do you know why the faces of clouds grow black?” asked the wind.
“Anger makes things black,” said the snow, “but why should we know, for
of ourselves we never change color.”
“It was because great strength was being put forth to travel through
the sky,” argued the wind, “for soon the drops of water said, ‘We are
tired and want to go back to earth again.’
“Then we said to the water, ‘The earth people need you and all growing
things need you. It is good that you go.’
“And on the place where that water fell there had been no rain for
three years.
“The king had bowed his head a thousand times before our father and
mother and had cried, ‘Oh, rain cloud, why are you so long in coming?’
“We heard the earth king’s cry, and that night the mother of clouds
said to us, ‘My children, you must go down to earth and help its people
or they will perish.’ So we called all our brothers and sisters to go
at the same time, and we went to earth and saved a million and a
million lives.
“The greatest wrong you have done is to forget who helped you when you
were needy,” continued the wind.
“Do you remember that you once lived in the ocean, river, or lake? At
that time I do believe that you were not well liked. In the sea you
were in the lowest class and worked hard every day and night.
“When the wind came and blew you into waves you would always call out
in a big rough voice, ‘Muh; Muh; Spsh; Sph -s -s.’
“You were restless and unhappy, and tried and tried to escape from that
place, and the cloud mother pitied you.
“She said, ‘I am very sorry. We will bring them up here with us,’ and
she asked the sun’s help to do it.
“For a day and a day, a night and a night, you were carried up, up to
the first section. But you were not satisfied then, and you were taken
to very high seats.
“You wanted the best places and would do no work unless the winds
pushed and the clouds carried you. So we took you up high where we
lived and had a happy time.
“Now you have forgotten all this. Who helped you up? Who made you
pure?” But the snow did not answer.
Finally the snow said, “Yes, our family is from the rivers and seas. We
had forgotten. If we had only thought, we should have been more
grateful.”
The sun was judge, and he said, “We decide this case in favor of the
wind and the clouds.”