As ducks and hippopotamuses and wewe 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 kwa 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,” alisema the snail, who really didn’t care one way au the other.
“When I grow up, I’m going to turn into something else,” she told the turtle.
“I don’t blame you,” alisema 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!” alisema the polliwog.
“What are wewe 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!” alisema the polliwog.
“You will,” alisema the fish. “All polliwogs do.”
“What am I going to turn into?” the polliwog asked.
But the samaki saw a tasty bug and dashed after it.
“When I grow up,” alisema the caterpillar, who had circled the pond and was going around for the sekunde time, “when I grow up,” she told the polliwog again, “I’m going to turn into something else.”
“So am I!” alisema the polliwog.
“You?!” The caterpillar was so surprised she almost fell into the pond.
“The samaki alisema so,” the polliwog told her. “Fish know things. They go to school.”
The caterpillar was upset.
“I though only caterpillars could do it,” she alisema rather sadly.
“What am we going to turn into?” the polliwog asked.
“Well, I’m going to turn into a butterfly!” alisema the caterpillar.
“Then I guess I will, too!” the polliwog alisema 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 alisema excitedly. “I want to see wewe 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, kipepeo 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 alisema 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, wewe know, a very handsome frog!” he said.
