The Rainy Day - A Children's Story

Yesterday was a very rainy day. My back garden was miserable.

The sunflowers tried to keep dry by covering their faces with their petals. The poor fir tree was so cold that his needles were shaking. I had to fill all the hot water bottles in the house and wrap them around his trunk.

Our weeping willow made matters worse by crying so hard that little rivers flowed down his leaves on to the other plants. They were all annoyed. The willow tree said he was sorry and explained that he was always unhappy when it rained.

"That's silly," said his neighbor the apple tree. "Rain is good for willow trees!"

"Be brave," said the giant cherry tree. "None of us are comfortable, but the rain won't last for ever." Then the cherry tree shook her branches, sending water drops flying through the air and into the fishpond. The fish swam angrily to the water surface. They had been studying fish dancing.

"Do you know how hard it is to concentrate on our lesson with the rain pounding on our roof?" asked the biggest fish. "You just made it twice as noisy in here. I have such a headache!"

The cherry tree apologized for being so thoughtless. She promised to shake her branches in a different direction next time.

There was so much water on the roof of our house that a river formed in the gutter. Two green-and-gold ducks landed and went for a swim in the river. They began quarreling about who should be the leader, because the gutter was only wide enough for one duck.

I threw some birdseed on the roof and the ducks stopped arguing to eat. "Why don't you take turns being the leader?" I suggested. The ducks liked my idea and quacked their thanks.

I found some spiderlings in the blueberry bush. They were swinging from branch to branch on spider silk, seeing how many water drops they could crash into. Their mother scurried out from the middle of the bush and scolded them. "You're soaking wet!" she said. "It will serve you right if you all catch a cold." Then she ran around gathering them up and chasing them back into the bush.

After lunch a big green frog visited the garden and challenged the two garden mice to a puddle jumping contest. The mice played bravely with the frog, but were secretly glad when he left. They told me that every time the frog jumped he made splash landings and the water went right up their noses.

The earthworms from the vegetable patch were in a bad mood all afternoon because their burrows were flooded. The worms sheltered under the cherry tree, cleaning themselves and grumbling about having to build new homes. "Mud baths are good for the skin," said a passing slug, but the earthworms didn't agree with him. The cherry tree tried hard to stay still so that she wouldn't drip water over her guests.

Luckily today is sunny and the plants and animals are much happier. The garden should be back to normal by tomorrow.