Clara Dillingham Pierson Nature Reader Part I

AMONG THE MEADOW PEOPLE “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 48