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Whizz! Whizz! Whizz! The blue
dragonfly whizzed back and forth across the pond. "I’m the most beautiful
insect in the glen," Billy said. "I’ve got gossamer wings that look like
they belong on a fairy. My body is slender and sleek and I make sounds as
I fly around. Ants can’t do that, neither can butterflies." He flew over a
ladybug. "Hey, ladybug. Don’t you wish you were as wonderful as me?" The
ladybug looked up at him and scoffed. An ant came walking out from behind
a rock. "Hey, ant. Look at me! I’m beautiful. You’re an awful boring red
color. Too bad you aren’t as great as me," Billy boasted. The ant looked
at the dragonfly and shook its head back and forth.
This went on all day long. Billy
flew near the fish in the pond. He shouted things at them. He whizzed
around the flowers and bragged about himself to the bumblebees and
beetles. One morning Billy flew down to the pond. It was a quiet day. The
water was calm. "Oh look! I can see myself in the pond. Don’t I look
beautiful? Look at my wings. They’re especially perfect today!"
Farquahard, the fish, stuck his head
out of the water and said, "Billy, you’d better stop boasting about
yourself. We are all wonderful in our own way. You aren’t better than any
of the rest of us."
Billy started to laugh. "Surely you
can’t be serious. Just look at me and then look at yourself. You aren’t
blue and beautiful. You’re purple and you have scales and you’re slimy."
"I’m a fish. That’s the way fish
are!" Farquahard said. He was so angry that he slipped back under the
water and disappeared.
Another dragonfly happened to be
whizzing by. "Hi Billy," she said. "Do you like to fly down by the pond?
It’s dangerous down here."
"What? How could it be dangerous?
Don’t be so silly. I come down here every day to see my reflection in the
water. Just look at me. You’re looking very…orange….today," he sneered.
Doris looked angrily at Billy. "I am
orange and I like it that way. I am the same color as the flowers. You’re
not very nice. I’m leaving," she said and flew away.
"Good riddance," Billy said.
"There’s only room here for one dragonfly."
Billy whizzed around the pond,
stopping now and then to admire his reflection. Just then a frog hopped
onto one of the lily pads. Billy didn’t see it. Its red tongue shot out of
its mouth and grabbed Billy. Soon it was munching him all up.
Farquahard watched from below the
water. He started to laugh. "You’re not so beautiful any more, are you,
Billy?" He blew some bubbles and swam away.
Life at the pond was much quieter
after that. The ladybugs, ants, bumblebees and beetles could come for a
drink without having to worry about Billy and his boasting! |
