Gerald Wil l iam Dowel l

The Little Drop ThatTraveled

Gerald Wil l iam Dowel l

The Little Drop ThatTraveled

Published in 2005 by R&G Design

Book design by Gerald Dowell – Kingston, Washington

Prepress by MediaCor – Fairview, Oregon

Printing by Sound Repro Graphics – Bainbridge Island, Washington

Book Assembly by Sound Repro Graphics – Bainbridge Island, Washington

All rights reserved. Subject to the Copyright Act of 1968, no part of this publication may be repro-duced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic,mechan-ical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

ISBN # 0-9705033-1-8

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Once upon a time…

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A little family of drops lived in a lake high in the mountains. Therewas the daddy drop, the momma drop, and the baby drop. They wereso happy in the beautiful little lake.

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As the baby drop grew older, however, he became tired of seeing thesame lake bottom every day, and he longed for adventure.

Now, there was a section of the lake where his mom and dad had forbidden him to go. It was a dangerous place where the water emptied from the lake. The little drop decided he would venture intothat part of the lake to see what would happen. As he got closer to the lake’s outlet, he was caught in a strong current and couldn't get out. This frightened him at first, but he soon began to enjoy the swift flow of the water.

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Then, all of a sudden, the little drop found himself tumbling andbouncing over big rocks. He was bouncing right out of the lake and into a stream! He giggled as he leaped from rock to rock.This was really fun.

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He went racing with the stream for some time and then flew out intothin air, tumbling head over heels. He looked around and discoveredhe had come to great waterfall and was falling down, down – but towhere he had no idea!

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Finally he crashed headlong and then swoosh, right into a little pool. The little drop was dazed as a result of such a sudden fall and just floated around and around in the pool until he could get his senses back again. Even though it was quite a strain, the little drop was enjoying his travels thus far.

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Once more he started off down the stream. It meandered through lovely country with high mountains and stately pines and an occasional grassy meadow filled with wild flowers everywhere. The little drop of water loved seeing such fine country. He noticed now there were other little brooks feeding the stream he was in and it was getting larger now.

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It was sunset, and night began to fall. The shadows were long, so thelittle drop found a tiny whirlpool in which to spend the night.

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The next morning, the little drop awoke refreshed and ready for newadventures. He swam out into the middle of the stream and let thecurrent carry him down. He went on for many days like this and eachday the stream grew in width and depth. The land no longer had highpeaks but instead rolling hills with large oaks and an occasional farm.

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Finally he was no longer in a stream but a great river, which flowed through a large, flat country. There were many large cities with great high buildings.

Every so often the little drop had to swim very hard to get out of theway of a riverboat. But he loved seeing so much of the world.

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Many days passed and finally the little drop could no longer see theland anymore, for he was now in the ocean. It was awfully salty, buthe found when he was tired he could float easily on the salt water.

He was amazed to see such monstrous fish. He was used to the littletrout in the lake where his parents lived. He started thinking of hismom and dad and he became very lonesome for home. He wonderedhow he was ever going to get back. Seeing so much of the world wasfun for the little water drop, but he knew that his mom and dad wouldbe worried because he had been gone so long.

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One day the little drop saw rays of the sun come down and touch theocean. They seemed so bright, warm, and inviting, he floated up tothe surface of the water. One of the rays touched him. He felt astrong tug and climbed onto the sun ray, and it quickly lifted him highinto the sky. The little drop laughed with glee at this new adventure.He looked around and saw the shoreline way off in the distance. Bynow he was so high it seemed he could see the whole world.

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Pretty soon the little drop could make out valleys and streams, buteven the mountains were far below him. Suddenly a bolt of lightningcrashed past him, and then another and another. The little drop wasso frightened he shivered all over. He wept bitterly with fear andwished he had never gone away from home.

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Suddenly things got hazy and then he couldn't see anything anymore. He was in a great cloud. The little drop climbed off the sun ray and floated down to the bottom of the cloud so he might be able to see better. He shivered because it was cold up in the heavens where the sun didn't shine. There was a stiff wind drifting the cloud closer to land.

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Soon, though, it became unbearably cold, and the little water drop noticed something. He was no longer heavy. Now he was light as a feather.

He looked at himself and was amazed to discover he was white andthe most beautiful shape of a crystal snowflake. He was beautiful andhe knew it. He danced around the cloud with sheer delight. As hedanced, the little drop slipped and fell from the cloud, but he didn'tfall fast. He sort of floated down slowly.

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This was so much fun he laughed and giggled all the way down to earth. Finally he landed with other snowflakes in a beautiful pine tree. The little drop looked around and saw how lovely the land was, covered in snow. He had never seen it this way, for at certain times of the year his home lake was frozen over and he couldn't see the shoreline at all.

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Many, many days passed and finally the sun shone warm and brightover all the land. The little drop noticed the snow was disappearing,and soon it was all gone. He also saw he had changed back into a drop of water. He danced for joy in the warm spring day. He slid down a pine needle and swung back and forth and then dropped to the branch below.

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He slid down one branch and then down another. As he raced down the tree, he realized to his great joy that the lake where he lived was at the base of the tree. It had been hidden all winter long under the snow.

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The little water drop was so overjoyed that he didn't watch his stepand tumbled headfirst off the branch, laughing all the way down. Hebounced off a rock and splashed loudly into the lake.

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The noise startled all the water drops in the lake, including his momand dad and all the neighbor water drops. When they discovered thelittle water drop had returned, there was great joy and merriment overthe entire lake. It rippled and shook with laughter all over. Many anevening was spent in story telling, for the little water drop had muchto tell. He had surely seen the world.

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The End