Never, in the records of memory, did so much rain fall. The transformed stone-breaker took pleasure in launching rain and hail upon the earth, and that in such a terrible fashion that the uprooted trees found nothing left but mud in which to hold on to the ground. Under his aquatic reign of several hours, streams became floods, floods became torrents, the seas were confounded with each other, and dreadful waterspouts whirled in every direction, wringing and destroying whatever was above the surface of the waters. A rock, however, made head against the force of the hurricane. In spite of all, it remained unmoved. On its granite sides the waves broke in frothy showers, the waterspouts sank at its feet, and the thunder made it laugh every time it burst against its unyielding flanks. "I am at the end of my powers!" said the cloud; "this rock defies me, masters me, and fills me with envy." "Take its place!" said the angel, "and let us see whether, at last, you are satisfied." The transformed cloud did not yet feel at his ease. Immovable, inaccessible, insensible to the burning caresses of the sun and to the booming of the thunder, he believed himself to be the master of the world. But at his feet a sharp hammering sound attracted his attention. He stooped and beheld a wretched being covered with rags, thin and bald, as he had been in the time of his deepest poverty, who, with a heavy hammer in his hand, was engaged in chipping off pieces of the granite for the purpose of mending the neighbouring road. [Illustration: "AT HIS FEET A SHARP HAMMERING SOUND ATTRACTED HIS ATTENTION."] "What is the meaning of this?" cried the haughty rock; "a poor wretch--wretched amongst the most wretched--mutilating me, and I cannot defend myself! I am profoundly humiliated--reduced to envy the lot even of this wretched being!" "Take his place!" said the angel, smiling. And the insatiate personage became again what he had been before--a poor little stone-breaker. As in the past, he worked on the highways as long as day lasted, in all weathers, in all seasons, in rain, in the burning sunshine, and in snow. He was always half dead with hunger, three-quarters dead with fatigue. But that did not prevent his being perfectly contented with his lot. [Illustration: "PERFECTLY CONTENTED WITH HIS LOT."] Transcriber Notes: Passages in italics were indicated by _underscores_. Small caps were replaced with ALL CAPS. Throughout the dialogues, there were words used to mimic accents of the speakers. Those words were retained as-is. The illustrations have been moved so that they do not break up paragraphs and so that they are next to the text they illustrate. Errors in punctuations and inconsistent hyphenation were not corrected unless otherwise noted. On page 234, the single quotation mark after "DAUBS" was replaced with a double quotation mark. On page 255, "idosyncrasy" was replaced with "idiosyncrasy".