High in the night sky twinkled one tiny star, and right beside her, big and bright, hung Uncle Moon. "Your light is so big and wide! What good is a light like mine?" Uncle Moon only gave a soft smile.
All at once a huge black cloud came rumbling in. Little by little it swallowed Uncle Moon whole. The whole world turned pitch dark! "Uncle Moon, where are you?" "I'm stuck fast — I can't get out!"
Down in the village pond a little duckling was crying — peep, peep! Somewhere in the dark he'd lost his mother. From the bank she called, "Swim toward the light, sweetheart!" But in all that dark, where was any light to come from?
Uncle Moon called out, desperate. "It's all up to you now — shine your little light!" "But what can a light as tiny as mine do?" Still she pushed against the cloud with everything she had — until pop! a thin thread of gold slipped through.
The light spilled down onto the pond — shimmer, shimmer! Across the dark water, a slender golden path lit up. "There's the way home!" And splash by splash, the duckling swam straight into the safe curve of his mother's wing.
A little while later the cloud drifted off, and Uncle Moon beamed out bright again — but tonight it was the little star he smiled at most. "My great big light was hidden by a cloud — and your small one showed the way home!"
And from that night on, the little star never once thought herself too small again. Down below, the duckling sleeps soundly beneath his mother's wing. And high above, beside Uncle Moon, one little star twinkles on.