Bertie sat on a leaf looking miserable. He was a caterpillar.
He saw a butterfly with black, yellow and gold wings whizz past him and called out. But the butterfly didn’t hear him at all.
“What life I have!” he grumbled, “No one sees me sitting here because I am green like the leaf, so they can’t see me! And everyone flies around; whereas all I do is sit here and chew leaves!”
A bright ladybird had climbed onto the branch and crawled near the caterpillar. She heard the caterpillar grumbling. “You shouldn’t be such a grouchy fellow!” she said. “You have such a bright red coat. Why can’t I be colourful too?” howled the caterpillar.
“Just wait!” advised the ladybird, before moving off. “You’ll see.”
The next day, a fat bee landed near Bertie. “What’s the matter with you?” asked the bee, seeing Bertie looking so unhappy.
“You have such beautiful stripes. And you can fly! Look at me! I am stuck on this leaf and am just green! How dull!” said the grumpy caterpillar.
“Don’t be silly!” scolded the bee, “You just wait and you’ll see.” “That’s all they say. And they fly off. What’s the use?” thought Bertie.
A while later, a sparrow came along and looked at Bertie thinking he’d make a nice snack for her family. Then she heard him grumbling as usual and went closer.
“I can help you to fly, my dear,” said the sly sparrow, “Just get on my back and I’ll take you along and teach you.”
“will you?” said Bertie, excited and thrilled. He happily crawled up on the sparrow’s back and they took off. Bertie was delighted to feel the breeze and the freedom from the leaf!
The sparrow landed on a branch and told her husband that she had brought a nice juicy caterpillar for him and the kids.
“What caterpillar?” he asked. She looked around and saw she had dropped him somewhere!
Lucky Bertie! One gust of wind had swept him off the sparrow’s back and dropped him on to a bundle of leaves.
He looked around him. “Leaves again! Oh, no!” he thought, “Now what do I do?”
Soon he found he couldn’t move much. There was little brown mud on a leaf.
After some time Bertie woke up inside the mud-like shell. He found he could break it. He came out and stood on the leaves again. Something orange and gold unfurled from his sides. “Wings!” he exclaimed, “Wow! I’m a beautiful butterfly!”
