Animals -- Juvenile fiction; Children's stories; Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction; Natural history -- Juvenile fiction
The beautiful, brilliant Butterflies of the Meadow had many cousins
living in the forest, most of whom were Night Moths. They also were very
beautiful creatures, but they dressed in duller colors and did not have
slender waists. Some of the Butterflies, you know, wear whole gowns of
black and yellow, others have stripes of black and white, while some
have clear yellow with only a bit of black trimming the edges of the
wings.
The Moths usually wear brown and have it brightened with touches of buff
or dull blue. If they do wear bright colors, it is only on the back pair
of wings, and when the Moth alights, he slides his front pair of wings
over these and covers all the brightness. They do not rest with their
wings folded over their heads like the Butterflies, but leave them flat.
All the day long, when the sun is shining, the Moths have to rest on
trees and dead leaves. If they were dressed in yellow or red, any
passing bird would see them, and there is no telling what might happen.
As it is, their brown wings are so nearly the color of dead leaves or
bark that you might often look right at them without seeing them.
Yet even among Moths there are some more brightly colored than others,
and when you find part of the family quietly dressed you can know it is
because they have to lay the eggs. Moths are safer in dull colors, and
the egg-layers should always be the safest of all. If anything happened
to them, you know, there would be no Caterpillar babies.
One day a fine-looking Cecropia Moth came out of her chrysalis and clung
to the nearest twig while her wings grew and dried and flattened. At
first they had looked like tiny brown leaves all drenched with rain and
wrinkled by somebody's stepping on them. The fur on her fat body was
matted and wet, and even her feelers were damp and stuck to her head.
Her six beautiful legs were weak and trembling, and she moved her body
restlessly while she tried again and again to raise her crumpled wings.
She had not been there so very long before she noticed another Cecropia
Moth near her, clinging to the under side of a leaf. He was also just
out of the chrysalis and was drying himself. "Good morning!" he cried.
"I think I knew you when we were Caterpillars. Fine day to break the
chrysalis, isn't it?"
"Lovely," she answered. "I remember you very well. You were the
Caterpillar who showed me where to find food last summer when the hot
weather had withered so many of the plants."
"I thought you would recall me," he said. "And when we were spinning our
chrysalides we visited together. Do you remember that also?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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