"Cold," she said, "I want you to get to work and cool the Earth off a little more quickly. Those animals down there are much too comfortable."
"Very well," said Cold, flapping his great frosty wings. "Just watch me make them shiver and shake."
Then Mother Nature went away, but as she went, she gave the Earth a little push, very gently, so as not to disturb things too much. And the Earth, which had been spinning around perfectly straight and upright, like a huge top, now leaned over a little, as it went swinging around the Sun.
"What did you do that for, Mother Nature?" asked the Sun.
"I did it, Sun, to make the Seasons. From now on, instead of it being warm all the time, there will be Winter and Summer on the Earth."
"How will tipping the Earth over like that make Winter and Summer?" the Sun asked.
"It is very simple. As long as the Earth swung around you in an upright position, your rays struck upon it just the same way the whole year round. Now that I have pushed it over a little, so that it no longer stands upright, don't you see that for half the year you will shine more strongly on the lower part of the Earth, which is turned toward you, and less strongly on the upper part, which I have tilted away from you. That will make Summer on the lower part of the Earth, where you are shining brightest, and Winter on the upper part, where you are shining least."
"I see," said the Sun, looking down at the Earth. "I can't reach the part that is turned away from me so well."
"Exactly. But six months from now, when the Earth has swung halfway around you, and is on the opposite side of you, the part that is now turned away from you will be turned toward you, and it will be Summer there, while the part that is having Summer now, will then be having Winter."
"It is very interesting," said the Sun, "but I still don't see what you did it for."