The Wee Ones -Chapter 10

The Wee Ones

A novel

By Paul McCann

Chapter 10

The Colour Of Life

A long time ago just as the first flowers bloomed and the rivers began to flow a slice of heaven floated down to earth .

A doorway to new life had opened and all kinds of beautiful creatures ran through and made their home in the trees and under the ground .
The only thing that was missing from this picture of life was colour . Everything was black and white for a short time until there came a small group of wee ones that had the job of colouring every living thing .

Wasting no time they went straight to work .  With two drops of sunshine for every bucket of water they painted the buttercups yellow .They added some early morning dew to make blue and painted the blue bells . They collected every raindrop that fell and left them for some time in the sunshine . Before long they had every colour they needed .
The selection of colours was known as the Wee ones rainbow .
What a difference they had made . Sure it was a credit . Every flower was splattered with bright vivid hues and every leaf a glossy green that ran through into the long grass that grew wild in the glens .
This is the story of the first spring after the colour of life had come .

After the snow had fallen and the ice melted . Birds and bees where busy working building their nests and making lots and lots of honey .
Foxes chased rabbits into their burrows and ducks dived under the lake looking fish . Squirrels rubbed the sleep out of their eyes and they cleared out all the empty nutshells from their tree houses .

The trees all had a thick coat of new leaves and in a little cottage in the heart of the Glen the wee ones all sat looking out the window admiring all their hard work . What a beautiful new face the world outside had . Every texture and shape seemed to roll gently past the eye .

Suddenly a silence fell around the world and animals sensed that something was wrong . Birds flew high into trees and other creatures took shelter as heavy rain lashed from the heavens . It rained and it rained and it rained until the rivers rose and soon all the land was flooded . The Wee ones and some other creatures had been saved by a kind man who scooped them out of the water and took them into a large wooden ship .
The ship was afloat for a very long time and there was no sign of land anywhere . Water seemed to cover the whole world . Eventually the flood left and the first sight of land came into view .
There the Wee ones and all the small animals got off the ship .

In a short while most of the flood left and as more and more of the land returned the Wee ones stood and looked around . What they saw left them shocked and they sobbed and sobbed . The Silver birches had lost their silver
The plum trees where bleak and black . Maple trees where as white as snow and most of the blackthorn trees had been uprooted .
Here and there the sunshine fell on honeysuckle trees like a kiss of kind awakening . But the world again was colourless .
”I guess we will have to start all over again “
Said the Wee ones .
” Don’t worry” Whistled the thrush
“We will help too” Said the little Dicky birds .
“And us “said the squirrels who joined in .
“Let us help you .said the Swans
The ducks came and quacked .and beavers came to work .
The Wee ones where astonished and said
“Thank you for your help “
All the creatures replied ,
“ We couldn’t sing before you brought colour to the world “ The birds whistled “We couldn’t croak” said the frogs .
“We watched you work so hard every day” said the deer and the rabbits .
“ There was nothing we could do but watch as your colours were washed away in the flood, but now we want to help you put them back ”
said the bees .

In that very moment another slice of heaven fell from the sky and landed on softly on the earth .

“Look “ said the wee ones pointing to the sky .
”’Our rainbow selection has returned .
Arched across the horizon was the most beautiful rainbow and it remained there until all the colours of life where back again .

 End of chapter 10

The Wee Ones

Link to chapter 11

https://www.abctales.com/story/mcscraic/wee-ones-chapter-11

 By Paul McCann