As ducks and hippopotamuses and anda 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 sejak the pond there lived a ulat, 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,” berkata the snail, who really didn’t care one way atau the other.
“When I grow up, I’m going to turn into something else,” she told the turtle.
“I don’t blame you,” berkata 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!” berkata the polliwog.
“What are anda going to turn into?”
But the ulat, 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!” berkata the polliwog.
“You will,” berkata the fish. “All polliwogs do.”
“What am I going to turn into?” the polliwog asked.
But the ikan saw a tasty bug and dashed after it.
“When I grow up,” berkata the caterpillar, who had circled the pond and was going around for the saat time, “when I grow up,” she told the polliwog again, “I’m going to turn into something else.”
“So am I!” berkata the polliwog.
“You?!” The ulat, caterpillar was so surprised she almost fell into the pond.
“The ikan berkata so,” the polliwog told her. “Fish know things. They go to school.”
The ulat, caterpillar was upset.
“I though only caterpillars could do it,” she berkata rather sadly.
“What am we going to turn into?” the polliwog asked.
“Well, I’m going to turn into a butterfly!” berkata the caterpillar.
“Then I guess I will, too!” the polliwog berkata happily. “What fun! Let’s do it together!”
“All right,” the ulat, 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 ulat, caterpillar started to spin a cocoon.
“This is the tricky part,” she said.
The polliwog watched as the ulat, 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 berkata excitedly. “I want to see anda do it!”
“It will take a while,” the ulat, 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 ulat, caterpillar climbed out.
Only she wasn’t a ulat, 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 rama-rama, taman rama-rama 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 ulat, caterpillar wiggled by. “When I grow up,” he berkata 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, anda know, a very handsome frog!” he said.
