One day there crawled over the meadow fence a jolly young Measuring
Worm. He came from a bush by the roadside, and although he was still a
young Worm he had kept his eyes open and had a very good idea how things
go in this world. "Now," thought he, as he rested on the top rail of the
fence, "I shall meet some new friends. I do hope they will be pleasant.
I will look about me and see if anyone is in sight." So he raised his
head high in the air and, sure enough, there were seven Caterpillars of
different kinds on a tall clump of weeds near by.
The Measuring Worm hurried over to where they were, and making his best
bow said: "I have just come from the roadside and think I shall live in
the meadow. May I feed with you?"
The Caterpillars were all glad to have him, and he joined their party.
He asked many questions about the meadow, and the people who lived
there, and the best place to find food. The Caterpillars said, "Oh, the
meadow is a good place, and the people are nice enough, but they are not
at all fashionable--not at all."
"Why," said the Measuring Worm, "if you have nice people and a pleasant
place in which to live, I don't see what more you need."
"That is all very well," said a black and yellow Caterpillar, "but what
we want is fashionable society. The meadow people always do things in
the same way, and one gets so tired of that. Now can you not tell us
something different, something that Worms do in the great world from
which you come?"
Just at this minute the Measuring Worm had a funny idea, and he wondered
if the Caterpillars would be foolish enough to copy him. He thought it
would be a good joke if they did, so he said very soberly, "I notice
that when you walk you keep your body quite close to the ground. I have
seen many Worms do the same thing, and it is all right if they wish to,
but none of my family ever do so. Did you notice how I walk?"
"Yes, yes," cried the Caterpillars, "show us again."
So the Measuring Worm walked back and forth for them, arching his body
as high as he could, and stopping every little while to raise his head
and look haughtily around.
"What grace!" exclaimed the Caterpillars. "What grace, and what style!"
and one black and brown one tried to walk in the same way.
The Measuring Worm wanted to laugh to see how awkward the black and
brown Caterpillar was, but he did not even smile, and soon every one of
the Caterpillars was trying the same thing, and saying "Look at me.
Don't I do well?" or, "How was that?"
You can just imagine how those seven Caterpillars looked when trying to
walk like the Measuring Worm. Every few minutes one of them would tumble
over, and they all got warm and tired. At last they thought they had
learned it very well, and took a long rest, in which they planned to
take a long walk and show the other meadow people the fashion they had
received from the outside world.
"We will walk in a line," they said, "as far as we can, and let them all
see us. Ah, it will be a great day for the meadow when we begin to set
the fashions!"
The mischievous young Measuring Worm said not a word, and off they
started. The big black and yellow Caterpillar went first, the black and
brown one next, and so on down to the smallest one at the end of the
line, all arching their bodies as high as they could. All the meadow
people stared at them, calling each other to come and look, and whenever
the Caterpillars reached a place where there were many watching them,
they would all raise their heads and look around exactly as the
Measuring Worm had done. When they got back to their clump of bushes,
they had the most dreadful backaches, but they said to each other,
"Well, we have been fashionable for once."
And, at the same time, out in the grass, the meadow people were saying,
"Did you ever see anything so ridiculous in your life?" All of which
goes to show how very silly people sometimes are when they think too
much of being fashionable.
[Illustration]