Have you ever wondered why the sky is so far away? Well, let me tell you an amazing story from long, long ago.
In ancient times, the sky wasn’t high up like it is today. In fact, it was so close to the earth that if you climbed on a stool and stretched your arms up, you could actually touch it!
Far away on the horizon, where the sky hung especially low, there was a small village. In this village lived a very old woman in a tiny mud hut with a straw roof. She was so old that nobody could remember when she was born. Some said she might be the oldest person in the whole world.
This old woman lived completely alone. She had no family, no friends, nobody to talk to. Day after day, she stayed inside her little hut, cleaning and sweeping from morning till night. She scrubbed the floors, dusted the corners, swept every inch of her home. Cleaning was all she thought about anymore.
One scorching summer, a terrible drought came to the land. There was no rain, and dust covered everything – the trees, the houses, the roads, even the air itself. People coughed and sneezed everywhere they went. And because the sky was so close to the ground, even the poor sky started choking on all that dust.
The old woman’s hut was covered in thick dust too. She grabbed her broom and started sweeping furiously. She swept inside the hut, outside the hut, the doorstep, the yard – everywhere! But the more she swept, the more dust rose up in huge brown clouds around her.
All that dust flew straight up into the sky’s face. The sky began to cough and choke. The dust tickled its nose until – ACHOO! – the sky let out an enormous sneeze that shook the whole world like thunder. Terrified people ran into their homes. But the old woman? She didn’t even notice. She just kept sweeping.
The sky sneezed again and again. The dust got into its eyes and made them water. Soon, big fat raindrops started falling down onto the dry earth below.
The old woman barely paid attention – until suddenly, a large raindrop splashed right onto the clean spot she had just swept!
She glared up at the sky and wiped the raindrop away. But then another drop fell. And another. And another. Soon her beautifully clean doorstep was covered with wet splotches.
That was it. The old woman had had enough!
She straightened her bent back as much as she could, shook her fist at the sky, and started yelling. “Stop raining on my clean doorstep!” she screamed. She cursed at the sky and threatened it.
But the poor sky couldn’t stop crying – its eyes were still full of all that dust she had raised.
Finally, the old woman became so furious that she grabbed her broom and – THWACK! – she hit the sky with it!
The surprised sky gave another huge sneeze and jumped back. But the angry old woman didn’t stop. She kept hitting the sky with her broom again and again and again.
THWACK! THWACK! THWACK!
The sky had had enough. Between the dust, the old woman’s yelling, and especially that broom hitting it over and over, it couldn’t take anymore!
Sneezing and coughing, thundering and raining, the sky shot up, up, up into the air – far beyond the reach of the old woman’s broom. And the sky promised itself it would never, ever come down that low again.
And that, my friends, is why the sky is so high today. Even at the horizon, where it looks like the sky is touching the earth, it really isn’t. It’s still keeping its distance, remembering that angry old woman and her broom!