A Stormy Day in Mother Earth’s Garden

Mother Earth lives in a beautiful green garden. In the back of her house is a lovely blue pond, as round as the moon and as blue as the sky on a bright sunny day. When Father Sun shines his warm sun rays down to Mother Earth’s garden, they dance around on the surface of the pond behind her house, and then the golden fishes living there jump up high to catch them.

At one edge of the pond is a great old willow tree, whose branches float over the edge of the water. Under the willow tree, at the edge of the pond, is a patch of soft green lily pads, where all the frogs that live in the pond like to sit. The great big frogs sit on the great big lily pads and the little frogs sit on the little lily pads, and they all sit there and sing together when Father Sun wakes up and again when he goes to sleep. Their song is very loud, so even Father Sun can hear it!

The little frogs like to swim in the pond all day long and they are friends with the golden fishes that live there. Sometimes they swim together with the golden fishes down to a world of rocks at the very bottom of the center of the pond. This is their very own castle and they love to play there, for there are many rooms to play in!

Brother Wind comes visiting Mother Earth’s garden some days and blows his gentle breath across the land. Then the branches of the old willow tree dance on top of the pond and tickle the great big frogs that are sitting on the lily pads there. Brother Wind sends his gentle breath across the surface of the pond and the golden fishes are rocked ever so gently down below. Sister Rain sometimes comes visiting Mother Earth’s garden and sprinkles her drops all around. The little frogs love to swim on the surface of the pond when she comes to visit and to feel the pit-a-pat, pit-a-pat of her fingers tapping on their backs.

One day, Brother Wind came visiting Mother Earth’s garden and brought two new friends with him: Terrible Thunder and Crackling Lightning. Even Brother Wind didn’t know how much trouble they could make! Into Mother Earth’s garden they came to play. At first nothing seemed unusual. But

then Terrible Thunder began to clap and shout so loudly that all the little frogs went dashing down to the bottom of the pond to their castle of rocks to get away from the terrible sound. Then Crackling Lightning began to shriek and pounce, and all the golden fishes went dashing down to the bottom of the pond to get away from him. Brother Wind was so upset that he began to whirl and dash here and there, round and about, great waves began to crash on the edge of the pond and the great old willow tree’s branches got tied into a terrible knot.

Mother Earth heard all the noise in her garden, and saw how frightened everyone was. She went outside and called to Father Sun for help. Together

they shooed Terrible Thunder and Crackling Lightning on their way. Only then did Mother Earth see what a terrible mess they had made! Then she called to the flower fairies and garden elves, and together they worked to make the garden beautiful again. The flower fairies untied the great old

willow’s terrible knot and her branches hung gently over the edge of the pond again. But the little frogs and the golden fishes were nowhere to be found!

They stayed hidden in their underwater castle until Mother Earth called her water fairies to swim down and tell them all was safe again. That night the great big frogs and the little frogs sang to Father Sun as he got ready to go to bed, and they were as loud as ever could be. They wanted

Father Sun to know how glad they were to see him again! That night Lady Moon brought all her star children to shine and sparkle in the dark night sky and they sang lullabies over Mother Earth’s garden all night long.