THE UNHAPPY CATERPILLAR

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22465, 28 July 1938, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE UNHAPPY CATERPILLAR

A caterpillar met a snail Upon a lettuce leaf. And there to him unfolded A tale of woe and grief. He sighed and said, “I am ashamed, I have no shell like you; 1 make no silvery path That glistens like the dew. “The only thing I have Is hairs upon my back, And these I do not like; Besides, I also lack “Tflour smooth and gentle movement, So straight and free from swerves, I always have to move i In Humps and Loops and Curves.

"How awkward I must look Beside a fly or bee. Oh, have you ever seen An . insect quite like me?” He then 'burst into tears And cried and cried and cried, And sobbed that he would go Beneath a leaf and’ hide. The snail felt very sorry, but There was nothing he could do; He merely bit the leaf And began again to chew ... The caterpillar ’neath the. leaf A brown cocoon soon made, A thick-walled nobbly one That hung well in the shade. "Inside this house of mine,” he thought,

“No one will ever see How plain and long I am Or sigh and pity me.” He sniffed and sneezed, then wiped his eyes . And tried hard not to weep, But thought of Other Things And soon was fast asleep. He slept for days and days, And when at last he woke, He felt somehow quite different As if he wore a cloak Of soft-spun spider silk; and so He opened wide his door And crept out on the leaf Into the sun once more.

His friend the snail was there again And gazed at him with awe; He’d never seen a thing So beautiful before. Gone was that long ungainly length, Those bristles on the back, Now wings a. promise made Of movement that would lack, No doubt, the slow snail’s steadier tread And never leave a glistening track, But would be far more graceful - And quickly carry back And forth across the garden beds Of flowers and of. lettuce green, The dainty butterfly that once An ugly grub had been. —W.F.W.