192 
FINDING NATURE’S TREASURES 
“Yes, a real cloud is very much like the one you saw 
in the kitchen,” Uncle Jack replied. “Of course, the real 
clouds do not come out of a teakettle. The air has tiny 
drops of water in it all the time. The drops are so very 
small that you cannot see them. Air that is hot can hold 
much more water than cold air can. The air inside of 
the teakettle is very hot, so that it holds a great deal 
of water; but the hot air becomes cooler when it comes 
out of the teakettle. The cool air will not hold all of the 
tiny drops. Many of them go together and make larger 
drops. We can see these new drops, but they are so small 
that they float in the air, and we call them steam. The 
air is cold far up in the sky, and the tiny drops of water 
have come together to make a kind of cold steam which 
appears as clouds to us.” 
“Now, I understand what makes the clouds,” said 
Marylee. “But I would like to know what makes the 
water come down in big drops.” 
“I think that I can help you to understand that, too,” 
answered Uncle Jack. “The clouds of cold steam float in 
the sky until they come to a place where the air is much 
colder. Then the little drops get still closer together until 
they form drops so large that they will no longer float 
in the air. So they fall to the earth. If. we are under 
that cold place in the sky, the drops fall on us.” 
“Have you ever been up in a cloud, Uncle Jack?” asked 
Buddy. 
“Yes, I have been in clouds many times,” answered 
Uncle Jack. 
“Please tell us what they looked like,” begged Marylee. 
