The spring winds rocked Dickie Codlin to and fro as he lay in his
scented cradle, and the happy bees buzzed their honey song over him.
For he lay wrapped in his tiny egg-skin in the heart of an apple
blossom. Mrs. Moth had gently laid him there only a day or two before.
The pink apple-petals loosened their hold and dropped to the ground,
and the flower closed up and grew into an apple. And Dickie Codlin
hatched himself out of his egg-skin and grew into a little caterpillar,
with a pink and white skin and ever so many fat, short legs. He still
lived on in the heart of the apple.
It was a delightful place to have for a home, for the walls were made
of the food he liked best, and all he had to do was to turn himself
round and nibble. So he stayed there, eating and growing, till he
could not grow any bigger. Then he ate his way out to the skin.
He stood in the entrance of the opening he had made, and looked down.
"Dear me!" he said, "it seems a long way to the ground. But I must
reach it somehow."
He sat down on the apple and spun a silk thread, fixed it to the hole
through which he had come, and dropped by it. "Good-bye, apple-home,"
he called as he went; but the apple said nothing, for its heart was
eaten out.
When he reached the ground he hurried to the trunk of the tree, crawled
up it till he found a loose scrap of bark, and crept under this safe
hiding-place.
"Now I am going to make my new clothes for my wedding," he said; so he
spun a little silk workroom for himself. Into this he crept, and here
he made his new clothes for his wedding. He made a brown velvet suit
and beautiful bronze-tipped wings trimmed with gold-dust.
By and by he came out looking wonderfully neat and handsome. Off he
flew into the warm, scented air to be married to pretty Miss Codlin.
It was a splendid wedding. Everybody wore new clothes and danced in
the maze dance, and after that they had a honey feast.