oid being stepped upon."

"I'll tell you a lovely secret,"
Whispered the butterfly.
"Next summer you will surely be
As beautiful as I,

"Because my gauzy wings you see,
Are very, very new.
A caterpillar once was I
And crawled about like you."

The ugly little caterpillar did not believe the beautiful butterfly. He
just laughed.

"Oh!" said the lovely butterfly,
"All that I say is true.
But you can't stay there very long,
There's work for you to do.

"To the very top of this big tree
You must begin to go,
Because all little crawling things,
They are so very slow.

"There you must even change your skin
Till it becomes dark brown.
And you must spin a rope of silk
To tie you tightly down.

"You will sleep through the long cold winter,
When the icy winds do blow.
You will sleep through the long cold winter,
When everywhere there's snow.

"But by and by, in the spring-time,
How happy you will be!
For you will wake and find yourself
A butterfly like me!

"Then work on, crawling little thing,"
Whispered the butterfly,
"For winter's coming very fast,
And so good-by, good-by."

The little caterpillar thought: "How could I possibly turn into a
butterfly? I have seen other caterpillars tie themselves to twigs, but
they always seemed very foolish to me."

However, that little caterpillar wanted more than anything else in the
world to become a butterfly, so he decided to try. He crawled slowly
up the tree until he found a branch that suited him exactly. Then he
selected a twig and spun about it a soft resting place of silk. He spun
a soft silken loop, too, with which he tied himself to the twig.

Very soon he lost all his bright color, and became as brown as the twig
itself. If you had seen him, you would probably have thought he was
nothing but a small brown leaf. When the cold, snowy days came, the
little caterpillar knew nothing whatever about them, for he was fast
asleep.

At last, after a long, long winter, there began to be signs of spring.
Soon, soft warm little rain drops began to fall on the chrysalis (for
that is what we call the sleeping caterpillar), whispering: "Spring is
coming and it's time to awake!" Soon, soft warm little sunbeams began to
dance on the chrysalis, whispering: "Spring is almost here, it is time
to awake!" Soon soft, warm little breezes began to blow the chrysalis
about, whis