_In which the silent forces of nature show themselves to be more
powerful than the noisy ones._
The Wind and the Sun quarreled one day as to which of the two was
the stronger. Each contended that he was mightier than the other,
and stood ready to prove it in any way. They got so angry that
people thought a storm was coming on and ran inside their houses.
The Sun said:
“I am able to bring the summer, to ripen the grain and the fruit,
and cover the earth with flowers. I can melt icebergs and clear
whole fields of snow. I can drive away darkness and night and make
day to come.”
“And I,” said the Wind, “can break down trees and move ships across
the ocean, and bring the cold winter. I make icebergs when I am
cold. I turn wind-mills, and move clouds across the sky. I can be
a breeze or a hurricane. I can raise great clouds of dust so that
people will hide from me.”
So they ended where they had begun; each thinking that he had the
greater power. Quarrels never do go very far in settling anything.
The wind still boasted of what he could do, and the sun still
insisted he was the stronger.
Just then they saw a traveler coming and they agreed whichever
should make the traveler take off his coat should be counted the
stronger.
The Wind was the first to try, so the Sun went behind the clouds.
The Wind blew with all his might; he blew so strong that he almost
blew the traveler away. He blew ice into the traveler’s face, and
snow down his back. But the harder the Wind blew and the more noise
he made the more closely the traveler wrapped his coat about him.
At last the Wind gave up in despair, for the traveler had buttoned
his coat firmly and strapped it around his waist.
Then the Sun came and sent his warmest rays right down upon the
traveler’s head. It grew hotter and hotter. There was no noise and
no storm, just sunshine. The traveler threw open his coat, turned
it back, and at last took it off altogether. He said:
“I am glad that the blustering wind has gone and the sunshine has
come. It is so hot I must take off my coat.” And so it was that the
Sun who had made so little noise in the world, yet proved himself
to be very powerful.