The Sun and The Rain

By Manoshi De Silva

One sunny morning, three little eggs in a birds nest, hatched one by one. The little chicks looked around in surprise. The world outside was so bright and colourful. "Look at all this!" they chirped in excitement, seeing the trees, flowers and the clouds. The sun was slowly rising up in the sky. They all stared at the golden morning sun in surprise. "Isn't that light so bright and beautiful?" "That is the sun," said their mother, who came to feed them. "The sunrays are so warm and nice," said the little chicks. "We love the sun!"

    The mother of the little chicks came to the nest from time to time and fed them. The chicks peeped out of their nest and looked at everything around them. How big the world outside was! They saw so many interesting things. But they all agreed that the sun was the most beautiful thing out of them all. Nothing was as bright or shiny as the sun.

Little by little the day passed by and the sun went higher and higher up in the sky. The warm sunrays got hotter as time went by. By afternoon the sunrays were very hot and the chicks couldn't bear the heat. "It's too hot!" they panted. They were very tired and they started to complain, "We don't like the sun anymore. We wish it wasn't there in the sky!"

The sun heard this and felt very sad. So he pulled a cloud and covered his face. It got dark suddenly. "Where did the sun go?" wondered the chicks. "It's not hot anymore but now it's dark and gloomy!" A raincloud that was passing by saw what happened and decided to make use of this opportunity. So he started to shed tiny droplets of rain water.

When the raindrops started falling from the sky, the little chicks looked around in surprise. "What is happening?" they wondered. "Is the sun crying because we scolded him?" The tiny raindrops fell on the chicks and it was very cool and refreshing for them, as they were feeling hot and tired by the sunrays which fell on them earlier. "This is very cool and nice," said the chicks, "we love this!"   

"Yes, it feels very nice after the harsh sunrays," said the mother of the little chicks, who came to the nest. "This is called the rain." The chicks chirped happily, "We love the rain. We don't want the sun again. We want it to rain without stopping!" The raincloud got very excited after hearing this. So he made the rain heavier.

The tiny water drops turned bigger and heavier as they splashed on the little chicks. The chicks started getting wet. If was not nice and fun anymore. They all started to cry as they became like wet sponges. Their mother sheltered them with her wings and tried to keep them from getting wet. But the wind blew hard, splashing water drops all over and their tree shook in the wind, frightening the chicks even more.

Then came the lightning and thunder. The chicks became very scared. They started to cry saying, "Please make this stop! We don't like the rain either!" The rain slowly stopped. The chicks were all soaking wet. "We wish that there will be no more sunshine and no more rain, ever again!" they said shivering in their wet nest. But without the sunshine and rain, we wouldn’t be here," said their mother. "There won't be any trees, flowers or fruits. There won't even be any birds or animals!"

"Why not?" the chicks wanted to know. "Well, rain water on the ground is absorbed by the trees and plants, making them grow big and strong. Then they give flowers and fruits to the insects, birds and animals. Also, all living things need to drink water," explained their mother.

"Well then, it's okay if it rains a little. But we don't want any sunlight!" shouted the chicks. "But without sunlight how would you see?" laughed their mother. "We will manage to somehow find our way around," said the chicks. "But do you think that is all we get from the sun?" asked the little chicks' mother, "without the sun, there won't be any life in this world!"

"How can that be?" shouted the chicks, "The plants and animals don't eat or drink the sunshine like food or water. So why do we need it, other than for light?"
"We need it because plants can't grow without sunlight, and without plants, flowers and fruits, how can all the other animals survive?" asked their mother and the chicks were very surprised.

"You see the green tree leaves absorb the sunlight and make food for the trees in their leaves. If there is no sunlight, the plants and trees will wither away. And without the food that the trees provide for the animals, they won't be able to live too!" explained the mother of the chicks. "So the sun and rain are both very important," said the chicks, "we didn't know that."

"Yes, although too much of sunrays and rain can be difficult for us sometimes, they are both very important to this world. So we should appreciate what nature provides for us," said the little chicks' mother. "Everything in nature is there to serve a purpose."

"We are sorry Sun and Rain!" shouted the little chicks. "We now understand that the sunshine and rain is important to this world and also for us!" The sun peeped from the clouds and gentle warm sunrays fell on the bird nest. The rain cloud also shed happy tears which were light and cool. "What a wonderful world we live in," said the little chicks, "we must appreciate it and look after it well!"