My Life – The Tale of a Butterfly

I am a little butterfly. My mother says I am very pretty like her. Now, I will tell you the story of my life.

My mother is a real beauty.

Her brown velvety wings have white spots on them. With her wings spread wide, she looks like a pretty flower. I am really proud of her.

It was the month of October.

One day my mother flew over a milk-weed plant growing in a garden. She fluttered down the plant. After a while, she laid white eggs on the underside of the soft green leaves.

On the third day, the eggs hatched and tiny caterpillars came out. I was one of them. At this stage we were called larvae.

I was very happy to have come out of the egg. I moved about on the plant eating the leaves,

I grew very fast and moulted several times.

And lo! In two weeks I was six-seven centimeters long. Now wasn’t that quick?

In a matter of days I had turned into a large brown, yellow and orange striped caterpillar.

From then on, I stopped having any food.

I was very skilful. I crawled under a leaf of the plant. With my head hanging down, I spun a pad of silk and soon fastened myself to the pad.

Ah! Look! It was a yellow orange bag that I spun. A warm, cosy and beautiful bag. My mother told me that I was a pupa and must rest at this stage.

The very next day the yellow-orange bag turned into a shining silvery one with black trimming. This was my silver cascade.

It was the eighth day of my pupal stage. My silver cascade took a blue tinge. Then, it all happened very soon.

The silver cascade turned bluish black

At first, two little feet came out of the cascade. Then two more…

…and finally two more.

Finally, it’s me with six feet and four wings like my mother.

My wings looked wet and crumpled. I rested for a while. Then I began to fan my wings up and down. Soon my wings became large and beautiful.

Now, I am a full grown butterfly kid. Fluttering my wings, I fly happily saying good bye.

I am full grown.

First published by National Book Trust, India

390 words | 4 minutes
Readability: Grade 4 (9-10 year old children)
Based on Flesch–Kincaid readability scores

Filed under: planet earth
Tags: #butterfly, #wings, #silver, #orange

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