Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Marib was a happy-go-lucky monkey who lived in the jungle. All day long he would jump from one tree to another, swinging by his tail and gobbling bananas. He loved the big green trees in the jungle, for this was his sweet home!

One fine sunny morning, Marib was sitting on a banana tree chomping delicious bananas. He looked down at the other animals grazing in the lush, greenfield below. He saw goats bleating and running here and there in fright. “Thank God, I am not a goat, otherwise I would have been always afraid of being eaten up by a lion.”  Then Marib saw some camels chewing acacia leaves and pitied them for having to eat prickly leaves. “I am happy the way I am. Whenever I am hungry I can easily move from one tree to another picking my choice of fruits and watch all the animals sitting atop the tree!”

Marib was about to eat another banana, when he heard a great noise. He looked up and saw the big grey clouds thundering aloud. “Let me gather some more bananas before the rains start splashing down on the ripe fruits,” he thought and quickly jumped from branch to branch gathering some ripe bananas. A while later, it started raining heavily. All the animals started running for shelter. The goats cried.for help and ran to the nearby caves. The poor camels got wet and all the birds came back to their nests, fluttering their colourful wings. The anthills were washed away too. All the poor little red ants got drenched! Marib covered himself with a big banana leaf and prayed that the rain would stop soon. “God, please save these poor animals!” he cried. After a few hours the rain slowed down, but the rivers were flooded and the earth was all wet. The ants started looking for a new place to build their home all over again. Marib shook off the leaf and climbed down. He was thankful that he lived on trees.