Baby Caterpillar was tired. All summer long she had been travelling
slowly through the green world where she lived, and feeding on the green
leaves that grew near her home. Now Autumn had come and Mother Nature
had given a holiday to the leaves, who put on their new dresses of red
and gold and played tag with the breezes. Baby Caterpillar wanted to
play, too, but could not run so fast as the happy little leaves, and she
grew very tired and thought she would take a nap. So she found a cozy
place among the branches of a grape vine, and made herself a soft, silky
blanket. Then she rolled herself away within it, and then, in her queer
little cradle, went to sleep.
One night, late in the fall, Jack Frost came over the hill. He spied the
cradle swinging to and fro, and began to play roughly with it, for he is
a roguish little fellow, and touches everything that comes in his way.
But the warm blanket hid the little sleeper so that Jack could not find
her.
By and by King Winter came, bringing beautiful snow blankets to Mother
Nature's flower babies. He gently rocked the cradle as he passed, and
whispered, "Sleep, baby, sleep! You have no need of my blankets."
At last Spring came with the sunbeams, the best and merriest of Mother
Nature's helpers. They awoke the flowers from their long winter nap, and
called to the birds and the brooks to begin their songs. When they came
to the little brown cradle, they stopped to rest, and Baby Caterpillar
began to get very warm under the thick blanket. She woke up and
stretched herself, and her cradle broke, and she came out to greet the
Spring. But what a change! Instead of the old dingy dress that she
went to sleep in, she now had a beautiful yellow one; and, instead of
crawling among the leaves, she flew up and away into the sweet spring
air to play with the sunbeams and flowers; and the little children
called her a butterfly.