Straight into a great pile of snow went the car, and the Snow Fairies, looking up, saw it coming and skipped away in every direction.
There was a shock, snow flew in showers, then the car buried itself in a great white pile up to the window tops and stopped stock still.
Stamping and pawing the snow out of their eyes and mouths, the motorman and conductor came back into the car.
“Pleasant weather, gentlemen,” said Nimbus. “Looks a little like snow, however. Suppose you go out now and clear the track. You’re used to it.”
Angry, but too much ashamed of themselves to show their feelings, the motorman and the conductor got shovels from under the seats and went out to clear away a path for the car.
“It always pays best to let Nature take care of herself, as the boy said who sat on the volcano,” Nimbus observed.
“It will be a dreadful delay, though, and we are in such a hurry to get to the Equator,” said Billy.
“Oh, no, there will be no delay at all! The Cloud is going right in our direction just as fast as we were. We’ll warm up, however, for it’s a trifle cold,” said Nimbus. And taking out the sunbeam he had brought with him from the lilac bush, he hit a piece out of it and handed it to Billy.
“Eat it,” he said. “Nothing so stimulating in cold weather as a sunbeam. We’ll just sit here and wait for an answer to my telegram. And you can act acquainted with the sky people.”
Billy looked out of the window into the sky. Was it true, he wondered, that the Sun and Moon were really sky people?