The Child's Story

One beautiful spring day — the sun shining, sending out warmth and light, the sky clear, and the birds singing in the trees — Noah's wife came out of her house and gazed at the green pastures adorned with olive trees. Then she shook her head in sorrow and regret, saying: “This is a strange business. I do not know what has come over my husband Noah. He must have gone mad. He is building a great ship on top of the hill. Whoever heard of any man building a ship on a hilltop? When he comes home I shall ask him the reason.”

When Noah returned, his wife asked him about it, and he laughed at her and said: “I have told you the reason, woman. An angel came to me and told me to do it.”

His wife asked him again: “Why?”

Noah answered her: “Because there is going to be a terrible flood that will drown all the wicked folk

here, and I fear this means that nearly everyone here will drown — except you, and me, my dear, and our little donkey, and the cow, and the cat, and the dog, and our many other animals, for we shall be traveling by sea.”

At this the donkey said, “Not I,” and went on nibbling his food in the bright sunshine.

But soon there came a day when the sun did not