As ducks and hippopotamuses and you and I get older, we get bigger. Especially hippopotamuses.
But not caterpillars.
They turn into butterflies.
Turning into something else like that is not a thing just anybody can do.
Down by the pond there lived a caterpillar who was very proud of being different.
She bragged about it to her friends.
“When I grow up, I’m going to turn into something else,” she told the snail.
“That’s nice,” said the snail, who really didn’t care one way or the other.
“When I grow up, I’m going to turn into something else,” she told the turtle.
“I don’t blame you,” said the turtle, who didn’t much like wiggly things.
“When I grow up, I’m going to turn into something else,” she told the polliwog.
“What fun!” said the polliwog.
“What are you going to turn into?”
But the caterpillar hurried on her way, looking for someone else to tell her secret to.
“I wish I could turn into something else when I grow up!” said the polliwog.
“You will,” said the fish. “All polliwogs do.”
“What am I going to turn into?” the polliwog asked.
But the fish saw a tasty bug and dashed after it.
“When I grow up,” said the caterpillar, who had circled the pond and was going around for the second time, “when I grow up,” she told the polliwog again, “I’m going to turn into something else.”
“So am I!” said the polliwog.
“You?!” The caterpillar was so surprised she almost fell into the pond.
“The fish said so,” the polliwog told her. “Fish know things. They go to school.”
The caterpillar was upset.
“I though only caterpillars could do it,” she said rather sadly.
“What am we going to turn into?” the polliwog asked.
“Well, I’m going to turn into a butterfly!” said the caterpillar.
“Then I guess I will, too!” the polliwog said happily. “What fun! Let’s do it together!”
“All right,” the caterpillar agreed, although she would rather have done it alone. “But I get to go first!”
The polliwog didn’t mind. He wasn’t at all sure how it was done. “I’ll watch you,” he said.
So when the time came, the caterpillar started to spin a cocoon.
“This is the tricky part,” she said.
The polliwog watched as the caterpillar spun. Soon only her head was uncovered.
“Now I have to close the lid,” she said.
“And when I come out, I’ll be a butterfly.”
“Go ahead!” the polliwog said excitedly. “I want to see you do it!”
“It will take a while,” the caterpillar warned. She started spinning again and was soon out of sight in the cocoon.
For a long time nothing happened.
But the polliwog was patient.
He watched
and watched
and watched,
for days
and days,
and days.
At last there was activity in the cocoon. The end of it opened and, very slowly, the caterpillar climbed out.
Only she wasn’t a caterpillar anymore. She was a butterly! A beautiful yellow butterfly!
The polliwog was so excited he hopped up and down with delight!
He hopped! Up and down! Like a frog!
“I was so busy watching you,” he said, “I didn’t notice what was happening to me!”
“You’re a very handsome frog,” the butterfly said, as she flew off to try her new wings.
But the frog was puzzled. “I thought I was going to be a butterfly,” he said.
A caterpillar wiggled by. “When I grow up,” he said proudly to the frog, “I’m going to turn into something else!”
But the frog wasn’t listening.
He was admiring his reflection in the water.
“I am, you know, a very handsome frog!” he said.
