"Why not?" asked Johnnie Jones. "It's such an ugly caterpillar."
"It can't help being ugly," Mother answered, "and besides some day it will be a beautiful butterfly."
"Really?" Johnnie Jones asked, much surprised. Then Mother told him a story about a caterpillar and a butterfly.
Once upon a time, a little caterpillar was crawling slowly up a tree. "Oh! dear," he said to himself, "I wish I had wings like the birds, and could fly away to the top of a tree, instead of having to crawl slowly about."
A beautiful butterfly was resting a moment near by and heard what the little caterpillar said, "How would you like to be a beautiful butterfly such as I am," she asked him, "and go flying about all day, sipping honey from the flowers?"
"I should like it very much indeed," he answered, "but you see I am only an ugly little caterpillar who can do nothing but crawl, and I have to be very careful to avoid being stepped upon."
"I'll tell you a lovely secret,"
Whispered the butterfly.
"Next summer you will surely be
As beautiful as I,