When autumn comes, the sun starts setting earlier, more clouds frequently gather in the sky, and often there is a rainy period. Sometimes it rains for a little while, but sometimes it rains for entire weeks. One time, such bad weather came to our village as well. It was very windy and the clouds gathered up together. It was a proper storm. But when the storm passed, it kept on raining.
Just then, little Hannah was sitting in her house, right by the window. She was looking outside, and she was very sad that the rain didn’t seem to be stopping. She wanted to play outside, but she couldn’t do that while it was raining. There wasn’t anything she could think of to do in the rain. Her mother felt sorry for little Hannah and so she came up with an idea. “Hannah, what if we sent a message on the water,” her mother suggested. Little Hannah’s eyes brightened. “What do you mean? What kind of message and on what water? Tell me, mommy, quick,” little Hannah asked quickly.
“First, we will make little boats. We will glue together wooden skewers until they look like boats. We will paint them nicely and attach a message to them. We will write something nice on a piece of paper and carefully tie it to the boat. Then we will go out to the stream and send the boat down the water. Maybe it will reach someone,” her mother explained.
Little Hannah was very excited by the idea. Right away, she gathered wooden skewers, paints, and glue, and spent hours making a boat. Once it was finished, she drew a picture and beneath it, she wrote: “I wish you a nice day.” She placed the paper in a small bag and glued it to the boat. Then both little Hannah and her mom put on their rainboots and raincoats. They went to the stream and carefully placed the boat in it. Little Hannah was so happy. The boat she made was floating so well on the water, proudly carrying her message. She still hoped that someone would find her message and her boat.
The rain didn’t cease for a long time and little Hannah never stopped making boats. Nearly every day, she sent one down the stream with a nice message.
Several weeks passed. It wasn’t raining outside anymore, but the first morning frosts were starting to appear. Little Hannah was sick now, lying in her bed and listening to the radio, when suddenly something incredible happened. An older woman’s voice could be heard on the radio. “We would really like to thank and send a song to whoever kept our spirits up in the awful rainy weather with their messages in boats, which floated to us every day along the stream. It was really lovely. And it made us laugh every time.”
“Mommy, did you hear that? The boats floated down to someone! All of them did. And the people liked them and they liked the messages as well!” little Hanna called to her mother from her bed. Her mother came to her, patted her soft hair, and said: “Yes, my dear girl, I heard it. I’m so happy that you gave someone such joy. And I’m proud of you. Now rest nicely so that you’ll recover soon and you can go play outside again.”
That night, little Hannah slept so well. She was so happy about the message she’d heard on the radio. She was looking forward to being healthy again, so that she could start making something again and cheer up someone else.
