The Butterfly Story
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The Butterfly Story
by April Smith
One day Erica and Lauren were playing with their little sister, Briar, in the garden. It was summer and they were looking at all the poppy princesses with their frilly skirts, dancing in their Poppy Ballroom just outside the bedroom window.
Suddenly, Erica caught sight of a beautiful butterfly soaring above them. She had large orange and black wings, larger than any other kind of butterfly Erica had ever seen in their garden.
“Look!” cried Erica, “look at this beautiful Fairy Queen. She’s come to the ball to see the princesses. Let’s dance with her!”
So the girls danced around the lawn, waving their arms up and down, just as if they were beautiful Fairy Queens too. Little Briar toddled behind them as best she could. Soon it was time for lunch and the girls went inside to tell their mother all about their play.
While they were away, the beautiful Queen Butterfly settled upon the swan plant close to the house. This plant had long slender leaves, just the sort that Queen Butterfly was looking for. This was the plant that butterfly babies best liked to eat.
Queen Butterfly settled gently on the underside of the swan plant leaf, holding on tightly with her long slender black legs. And there she laid three tiny, tiny, pale yellowish eggs. Then she flew away.
A few days later, out of these tiny, tiny, eggs hatched three tiny, tiny caterpillars. They were yellowish in color, each with a little black head. We shall call them Incy, Wincy, and Tincy. My, they were hungry! And do you know what their first breakfast was? It was the shell of the little egg out of which they had just hatched. They ate it all up.“But we’re still hungry,” Incy, Wincy, and Tincy said. “Look,” said Incy, “Here’s a big green meadow we can eat. I’ll try it.” With his strong tiny jaws Incy ate some.
“Mmm, this is good,” he said to Wincy and Tincy. “You should try some.”
So Wincy and Tincy also tried some of the green meadow. They liked it too, and they all ate to their hearts’ content. Of course we know what the green meadow really was, don’t we? Yes, it was the swan plant leaf!
After two days of eating, Incy, Wincy, and Tincy had grown too fat for their first skin. Now, caterpillars are very lucky. They don’t have to wash their clothes when they get dirty, or buy new ones when they get too big.
They have a brand new set of clothes right under the old one. So when they feel their skin getting too tight, it just splits open - and out they crawl with their new skin already on. The three caterpillars had to change their clothes several times over the next few days because they grew very fast. Now their clothes were very colorful, and they were dressed in skins of black, yellow and white.
One day after school Erica and Lauren noticed Incy, Wincy, and Tincy, on the swan plant. They were very excited.
“Oh, Mummy, come and look!” cried Lauren.
Mummy came with Briar and the magnifying glass. They all had a close look at the three caterpillars with the magnifying glass and they could see their stubby little black legs and their pointy little front legs. They watched them push themselves along with the stubby legs.
“What are those long, thin black things on their heads and tail ends?” asked Erica.
Before Mummy could answer, Briar put out her little finger and touched Incy. Incy was afraid and the children saw him start whipping the long black things all about as if he were trying to scare them away.
“There, he’s showed you what they are for,” said Mummy. “And look, there’s a black beetle crawling along to see the other caterpillar there.” They all watched as the beetle crawled towards Wincy. Wincy sensed the beetle coming and suddenly disappeared before the beetle’s eyes. Oh, that beetle got such a surprise. He couldn’t see Wincy anywhere so he just flew away. Erica and Lauren just laughed and laughed because they had seen Wincy’s trick. Wincy had fallen off the leaf, but as she’d gone, she’d let out a silken thread and there she was, hanging in mid-air under the leaf. Soon she began eating her silk thread and pulling herself back up.
Now the girls watched the caterpillars start to eat the leaves again. Through the magnifying glass they could see their strong little jaws munching and munching through the edge of the leaf.
“Mmm, I’m hungry too,” said Lauren. “Come on,” said Mummy. “Let’s all go and have our own afternoon tea.”
So they all went inside for tea. Lauren and Erica went to see the caterpillars every day for the next two weeks. Every day they looked bigger. One day the girls got such a fright! They ran inside calling, “Mummy, Mummy, the caterpillars have gone!” “A bird has eaten them. I know he has!” cried Erica, sadly. “Calm down now,” said Mummy softly. “It’s all right. Birds don’t like eating brightly colored caterpillars. They taste yucky to them. Come with me and I’ll show you something special.”
Mummy took them outside and there, attached to some wire on the wall of the house, a short distance from the swan plant, was hanging the most beautiful little green lantern house the girls had ever seen. It was yellow-green and round like a thimble but all closed in over the top. And around the widest part near the top was a little line of golden dots that shone brightly in the sunshine.
“It looks like the lights are on inside the house,” said Lauren. “Yes,” said Mummy,” and guess who is inside the house?” “But a caterpillar couldn’t fit in there,” objected Erica.
“Well, come over here and have a look,” said Mummy. The girls followed her over to the window ledge and there they saw Incy hanging upside down by his tail from a piece of overhanging wood. His head was curled up as though he was looking at his tail. He wasn’t moving at all.
“He’s the last one to start building his house,” said Mummy. “Now come and look here.”
And there on another part of the wall was the third caterpillar. Near the tail end the girls could see the old yellow-black and white skin shrinking away. Now most of the caterpillar was covered with a green colored soft skin, like the little lantern that was hanging on the wire.
The next day when Erica and Lauren went to look, they found there were three little lantern houses hanging very still with their little golden lights shining.
Each day the girls went to look at the lantern chrysalis houses where the three little caterpillars were having a sleep. Nothing moved, nothing changed. And then, as happens with little girls when there’s nothing new to look at, they forgot to look for a few days. But Mummy had thought to count the days on a calendar, and after eleven days and nights had passed she reminded the girls to have another look at the little lanterns. Lauren and Erica noticed they had gone from light, yellow-green to a darker browny color.
When they got home from school the following day there was a BIG SURPRISE waiting for them.There on the wire by the house was something hanging where the lantern chrysalises had been. Hang- ing onto the spot where the chrysa- lises had attached to the wire was a rather crunched up, orange and black creature with white spots, hanging on with long and slender black legs. Erica suddenly remembered the beau- tiful Queen Butterfly they had seen in the garden a few weeks ago.
“Mummy, Mummy,” cried Erica, “come and see!” Mummy came, and as they watched, the butterfly started to gently move its wings back and forth.
“This may take a little while,” said Mummy. “I’ll fetch afternoon tea and we’ll have it outside where we can watch.”
So that’s what they did. Then the girls played in the garden while the sun shone brightly. They came back every so often to look, being very careful not to touch the butterfly, as Mummy said it would damage its wings.
Soon the butterfly had opened its wings and was moving them back and forth, faster, and faster, drying them in the sunshine. Then suddenly it let go of the old chrysalis and flew. It flew from flower to flower, resting here, flying there, and soon it was flying very strongly just as though it had been flying forever. Oh, how wonderful it was to soar through the air! The girls ran around pretending they too were beautiful orange and black Monarch butterflies. Little Briar happily danced with them, as best she could.
Over the next two days, the other two butterflies came out of their chrysalises and showed the girls their beautiful wings. They also flew around the garden with the children, enjoying their new shapes, sipping nectar from the flowers, and soaring on the breezes.
This was a summer Erica and Lauren would remember joyfully forever.