Page:The art of story-telling, with nearly half a hundred stories, y Julia Darrow Cowles .. (IA artofstorytellin00cowl).pdf/32

 And then a very wonderful thought came to the poor, green Caterpillar. "If this part is true, it must all be true, and some day I shall be a butterfly."

She was so delighted that she began telling all her caterpillar friends about it—but they did not believe her any more than she had believed the Lark.

"But I know, I know," she kept saying to herself. And she never tired of hearing the Lark sing of the wonders of the earth below, and of the heavens above.

And all the time, the little green caterpillars on the leaf grew and thrived wonderfully, and the big green Caterpillar watched them and cared for them carefully every hour.

One day the Caterpillar's friends gathered around her and said, very sorrowfully, "It is time for you to spin your chrysalis and die."

But the Caterpillar replied, "You mean that I shall soon be changed into a beautiful butterfly. How wonderful it will be."

And her friends looked at one another sadly and said, "She is quite out of her mind."