“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? “What’s the matter?” asked Nimbus. “I was just wondering if the Stars are all really people,” said Billy. “Really people!” said Nimbus. “Well I should say they are. And all the Clouds are, too. You see that bunch over there? Well, that is Mrs. Pink-Cloud and Mrs. White-Cloud and Mrs. Pearl-Cloud and Mrs. Mackerel-Cloud and Mrs. Yellow-Cloud sitting together and sewing on party dresses for their children to go to the Star children’s birthday party. It’s warm over there where they are.” “Oh!” said Billy. “Are they all named?” “Named! Of course they are! And every Star, too. But nobody can remember them but their own mother, Mrs. Moon. Even their father, Mr. Sun, gets confused sometimes and mixes the boys’ names with the girls’.” “Are the Clouds people, too?” asked Billy wonderingly. “Just as much people as you are,” answered Nimbus seriously. “Old General Gray-Cloud and old General Thunder-Cloud are great fighters and have awful battles. You can hear them down on the Earth sometimes. It sounds like thunder and looks like lightning from where you live, but from where we live--Oh, my!” “Dear me,” said Billy, “how very interesting! And do the mothers teach their children to behave the way our mothers do on the Earth, or are they allowed to do as they please in the sky?” “Well, you do show your ignorance!” said Nimbus, with such severity that Billy quite blushed for himself. “Why let me tell you what I saw only yesterday when I was under the lilac bush waiting for you.” “Did you know about me before I saw you?” asked Billy, much flattered. “Why, certainly I did. I saw you having such a stupid time with a geography lesson which I knew I could make so easy for you that I said to myself: ‘I’ll just wait until I have him all to myself and then I’ll show him!’” “That was very kind of you,” said Billy, “and I am sure that I shall never forget anything I have seen.” “That’s just the way with me,” said Nimbus; “so what I saw of the Cloud children I will tell to you, and then it will be just the same as if you had seen it.” “So it will,” said Billy, who by this time had got to have great faith in the Geography Fairy. “What do you suppose makes it rain?” asked Nimbus suddenly.