2. A long time ago…
And very high up in the sky…
There was a Cloud Kingdom...
2
3. Old clouds are slow and satisfied, and drift
along on their own fluffy satisfaction.
And the most drifty and satisfied of all were
the Cloud King and Cloud Queen.
3
4. They floated high up in the stratosphere
thinking deep, slow thoughts about the nature
of wind and weather, of earth and sky.
4
5. They contemplated the joyful life of the
platypus. They observed the deliberate
calm of the sloth. And they even
discussed the elemental nature of the
kumquat.
5
6. But far beneath them, storms were
brewing, like coffee in a cauldron.
6
7. Because young clouds are fierce and
willful, full of storm and light.
And the fiercest and most willful cloud of
all was the Cloud Princess.
7
8. The Cloud Princess and her Cumulus
Crowd stormed around the Earth, like a
mad pack of rainfaces.
8
9. In Ireland, they flashed lightning down on
the earth, terrifying all the people and
their potatoes. 9
10. In Iowa, they wound up tornadoes and
watched them spin trailers and terriers
around and around. 10
11. In India, they rained so long and so hard
that the people gave this terrifying storm
a terrifying name: “The Monsoon”. 11
12. The rampage and ruckus of the Cloud
Princess and her Cumulus Crowd got so
frightful that the rest of the Clouds finally
gathered together, and demanded that
the Cloud King and Cloud Queen “Do
something about all these dratted
rainfaces!”
12
13. The Cloud King took the lead, as he had a
deep and booming voice (when he chose
to use it, instead of quietly contemplating
kumquats).
He boomed out:
13
14. “Harken to me, all you cumulus girls and
stratus boys!
The storms will stop!
The lightning will cease!
The tornadoes will spin no more!”
14
15. And then the Cloud King took in a deep
breath, and blew out a massive breeze, a
wild wind that scattered the Cumulus
Crowd around the world, tumbling and
terrified.
15
16. When each of them finally came to a
shuddering stop, they fearfully kept close
to the ground for a very long time,
pretending to be the meekest kind of fog.
16
22. “You are banished from the stratosphere!
Linger near the surface, with the fog and
the mist, until your mend your rainface
ways!”
22
23. And so began the long banishment of the
Cloud Princess.
23
24. She continued to storm and hail and flash
lightning, but whenever she floated too
high in the Troposhere, the big old bulls of
the Cumulo-Nimbus Guard blocked her
way.
24
25. “The Queen has banished you, and
banished you remain!”
25
26. After a very, very, very long time, this
began to weary the Cloud Princess,
though she was too proud to show it.
26
27. Even so, she wandered slowly near the
surface, seldom storming, only making
shapes to entertain herself (as clouds do,
even today).
27
28. She wandered this way for a very, very, very
long time. Because while she wished to
return to the Stratosphere, she did not want
to give her mother the satisfaction -- very
much like human mothers and daughters!
28
30. Though she did not know enough to
recognize what had happened, she fell
instantly in love.
30
31. For days, all she could do was watch the
shepherd as he went about his work.
Herding the sheep out for the day, taking
long naps, then herding the sheep back.
31
32. Many of those days, when he wasn’t
napping or herding, the shepherd would
lean back on his hill, and try to pick out
what shape the single cloud above him
seemed to be making.
32
33. One day: “That looks like a heart!”
One day: “That looks like two holding
hands!”
One day: “That looks like a wedding cake!”
33
34. (You can probably see what the Cloud
Princess was up to. But don’t think to
harshly of the Shepherd! It is quite a
surprising thing to have a cloud trying to
communicate with you.)
34
35. (You can probably see what the Cloud
Princess was up to. But don’t think to
harshly of the Shepherd! It is quite a
surprising thing to have a cloud trying to
communicate with you.)
35
36. Until one day, the Shepherd dozed off into
his midday nap, and the Cloud Princess just
tried to talk directly to him.
“Hello,” she said.
36
38. The Cloud Princess was so shocked, she
nearly fell out of the sky like an infant
mist, too wobbly to fly.
He had heard her!
38
39. “I have been watching you for days,” the
Cloud Princess said. “I think you are the
most beautiful thing I have ever seen.”
“Well, thank you,” the Shepherd said.
“Where are you?”
39
40. “I am the cloud up in the sky,” the Cloud
Princess whispered. “Wouldn’t you like to
join me?”
40
41. “Yes, I would,” the
Shepherd said, for he
had immediately fallen
in love with the Cloud
Princess, just by the
sound of her voice.
“But how?”
41
42. She said: “Just dream about drifting away,
up and up, expanding and getting thinner
and wider until you are lighter than the air
itself. I will pull you along.”
42
43. And so the Shepherd
did. He drifted off,
and drifted up, and
drifted away. And the
Cloud Princess pulled
and dragged him up
and up, as best she
could
When he awoke, he 43
46. The Cloud Princess and he spent the rest of
their days together. The Cloud Shepherd
calmed her stormy rainface, and eventually
the Cloud Queen raised the banishment.
46
47. The Cloud Princess showed the Cloud
Shepherd the wonders of the
stratosphere, up and up and up, until
finally they could reach to the edge of
space. (Though young clouds cannot stay
there long.)
47
48. And in due course, when the Cloud King
and Queen slowed to philosophical depths
of thoughts that could only be thought at
the highest heights, and given the
deepest slowest considerations…
48
49. …the Cloud Princess became the new
Cloud Queen.
But her Shepherd always stayed her
Shepherd, never a King, and he continued
to calm her stormy rainface.
49
50. And they floated, happily.
If not forever, then for a very long time
indeed.
50
