Down below the surface of a quiet pond lived a little colony of waterbugs.
They were a happy colony, living far away from the sun. For many months they
were very busy, scurrying over the soft mud on the bottom of the pond. They did
notice that every once in a while one of their colony seemed to lose interest in
going about with its friends. Clinging to the stem of a pond lily, it gradually
moved out of sight and was seen no more.
"Look!"
said one of the water bugs to another, "one of our colony is climbing up
the lily stalk. Where do you think she's going?" Up, up, up it slowly
went... Even as they watched, the water bug disappeared from sight. Its friends
waited and waited but it didn't return...
"That's
funny!" said one water bug to another...
" Wasn't she happy here?" asked a second...
"Where do you suppose she went?" wondered a third...
No one had an answer. They were greatly puzzled.
Finally
one of the water bugs gathered its friends together. "I have an idea. The
next one of us who climbs up the lily stalk must promise to come back and tell
us where he or she went and why." "We promise" they said
solemnly.
One spring day not long after the very water bug who had suggested the
plan found himself climbing up the lily stalk. Up, up, up he went. Before he
knew what was happening, he had broken through the surface of the water and
fallen into the broad and free lily pad above.
When
he awoke, he looked about with surprise. He couldn't believe what he saw. A
startling change had come over his old body. His movement revealed four silver
wings and a long tail.
Even
as he struggled, he felt an impulse to move his wings... The warmth of the sun
soon dried the moisture from his new body. He moved his wings again and suddenly
found himself above the water.
He
had become a dragonfly. Swooping and dipping in great curves, he flew through
the air. He felt exhilarated in the new atmosphere.
By
and by the new dragonfly landed happily on a lily pad to rest. Then it was that
he chanced to look below to the bottom of the pond. Why, he was right above his
old friends, the water bugs! There they were scurrying around, just as he had
been doing some time before.
Then
the dragonfly remembered the promise.
Without thinking, the dragonfly darted down.
Suddenly he hit the surface of the water and bounced away. Now that he was a
dragonfly, he could no longer go into the water...
"I
can't return!" he said in dismay. "At
least I tried. But I can't keep my promise.
Even if I could go back, not one of the water bugs would know me in my
new body.
I guess I'll just have to wait until they become dragonflies too.
Then they'll understand what has happened to me, and where I went."
And
the dragonfly winged off happily into its wonderful new world of sun and air...
