The Caterpillar Who Was in a Hurry

Cody the caterpillar hatched from a tiny egg on a milkweed leaf. The very first thing he saw was a butterfly floating past, orange and black and beautiful.

"I want to be a butterfly!" Cody said. "Right now!"

"First you have to eat," said a ladybug on the next leaf.

So Cody ate. He munched one leaf, then two, then ten. He grew so fast that his skin became too tight, and he wriggled right out of it. Then he did it again. And again!

"Now am I a butterfly?" he asked.

"Not yet," said the ladybug. "Now you have to rest."

"Rest?" groaned Cody. "But I'm in a hurry!"

Still, he felt sleepy. He hung upside down from a twig and wrapped himself in a snug green case called a chrysalis. Inside, everything was quiet and dark.

Days passed. Inside the chrysalis, something amazing was happening. Cody's body was changing, bit by bit, the way a seed slowly becomes a flower.

One sunny morning, the chrysalis cracked open. Out crawled Cody — with crumpled wings! He waited while they dried and stretched in the warm sun.

Then he flapped. Once. Twice. And he floated up into the sky, orange and black and beautiful.

"I did it!" he laughed. "And you know what? The waiting was part of the magic."

⭐ The End ⭐