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 "I hate being so tiny! I wish I was
big like a butterfly or a bumblebee," the ladybug mumbled. I’m so small
that these flowers are like giants to me. I want to be big."
Lily stood on the tip of an iris
leaf. Purple iris bloomed around her, along with bright yellow daffodils.
"If I was big, I could play with the frogs and jump from lotus pad to
lotus pad. I could look for acorns with the squirrels and play hide and
seek in the corn stalks like the cows do."
A raindrop splattered on Lily’s
wings. "A cloudburst!" she sighed and ran under the petals of the iris.
"Now the rain can’t get me." She could see the meadow. Several sheep were
standing in it and were getting drenched. Their wool started to smell and
drip water. "Those poor sheep have nowhere to go to stay dry."
Lily watched as the cows and horses
were pelted with the raindrops. "They have to stand in the mud," she said.
Birds flew into the treetops and
started fighting with each other because there wasn’t room for them on the
branches. "It’s awfully crowded in the trees. Just listen to those birds
fighting."
When the rain stopped, the sun came
out and a rainbow spread across the sky. Lily climbed back up the iris
leaf and looked around the meadow. The birds flew from the trees. One
headed right for her. "Yikes! I’d better hide," she said and crawled
inside the daffodil trumpet. "I’m safe in here." The bird flew past, not
being able to see where the ladybug was hiding.
Lily started to think about all the
things going on around here. "Maybe I am happy that I am small. I can hide
under the iris petals to stay dry. I don’t get my feet muddy and I don’t
smell like the sheep. I don’t have to fight with other bugs because I’m so
small and there’s a lot of room. I can hide from the birds when they come
to look for a morning snack too. I have decided that I don’t want to be
big after all. I want to stay small." Lily began to smile. She spent the
rest of the day watching the other animals as they tried to get dry. "I’m
happy to be small," she laughed out loud and sipped a drop of rainwater
from the iris’s petals. |
