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- Story Listed as: Fiction For Kids
- Theme: Fairy Tales & Fantasy
- Subject: Service / Giving Back
- Published: 11/09/2014
The Tadpole and the Caterpillar
Born 1942, M, from Hammonton, NJ, United States.jpg)
The Tadpole and the Caterpillar is one of 18 children's tales taken from the Jay Dubya book The Eighteen Story Gingerbread House
The Tadpole and the Caterpillar
One warm summer day Michael Caterpillar was searching for delicious leaves to nibble while slowly crawling on a tree limb near a New Jersey pond. Like most caterpillars, Michael was a big eater for his size. His light green body was growing very fast.
Suddenly Michael heard a frightened voice screaming, “Help! Help!” He turned his head around and saw Sydney Spider on his web pulling a little tadpole from the pond below.
“Leave that tiny creature alone!’ Michael boldly yelled to Sydney. “Drop it back into the pond and let him live.”
“Silly caterpillar,” Sydney nastily said, “I know you feel sorry for this tiny tadpole but you forget that I must eat to live. I can’t eat leaves like you do so I must eat things like bugs and tadpoles!” the spider very loudly answered.
“But can’t you hear that little tadpole crying and begging?” the caterpillar argued. “Drop him back into the pond and find some flying insects to munch on!”
Michael Caterpillar’s critical remarks made the mean spider very angry. Sydney replied to the green caterpillar with a threat. “If you don’t leave me alone and mind your own business,” the spider said, “then I’ll make it my business to eat you too, you crazy, stupid, slow limb climber! You always move very slowly and will be easy for me to catch!”
Although Michael was quite scared his mind was still set on saving the tiny tadpole from becoming the spider’s supper. The caterpillar never had liked the eight-legged bully, and Michael knew he had to use his brain to outsmart his dangerous enemy. “Sydney, you won’t like the taste of me,” the caterpillar stated. “As you can see,” Michael continued, “my body is still green and not yet ripe.”
The caterpillar’s strange comment confused the wicked hungry spider. “What do you mean you’re not quite ripe yet?” Sydney sternly asked. “I believe that you’re very crazy in your head besides being very slow with your legs!”
Michael had to think fast to further confuse the mean old spider. “Look Sydney, I know a lot about plants, fruits and vegetables,” the caterpillar claimed. “A red ripe tomato tastes a lot better than a green sour tomato. And I know that a red ripe apple tastes a lot better than a green tart apple. And also,” Michael continued, “a red ripe strawberry tastes better than a green unripe strawberry. Haven’t you ever heard these things?”
The caterpillar’s statements made the spider very upset and aggressive. “Do you think I’m a fool?” Sydney Spider hollered up to Michael. “I don’t care about plants, fruits and vegetables. I act like spiders all over the world and eat small animals like bugs and tadpoles. Nothing else really matters to me!”
“I still think you should change your diet and try eating what I do!” the caterpillar insisted. “You’re missing out on plenty of tasty meals!”
“Listen to me!” the spider demanded. “It’s all very simple. Must I explain it to you? You eat plants. I eat tiny animals. And that’s the way it is,” Sydney insisted. “The animals I eat don’t turn red and get ripe like tomatoes, apples and strawberries do. Stupid caterpillar, you’re much dumber than I thought you were!” the spider scoffed in a wild tone of voice.
“Help me! Help me!” the tadpole again screamed.
Michael knew that he had to act in a hurry to rescue the tiny tadpole from the spider’s grasp. “Sydney, your brain is not working too well today,” the caterpillar hollered down from his limb. “Every intelligent spider knows that a red caterpillar tastes much better than a green one and that a red tadpole tastes much better than a white one does. You ought to be ashamed of yourself for not knowing those simple facts!” the caterpillar scolded the spider. “How foolish you are to eat caterpillars and tadpoles before they get ripe and taste better!”
Of course Michael Caterpillar was just stalling for more time to try and save the helpless little tadpole from being the spider’s next juicy meal. Slowly but surely, the caterpillar had turned its body around and began inching its way down the limb toward the spider’s web that hung over the edge of the shallow pond.
The spider was still confused by the silly idea of red caterpillars tasting better than green ones and of red tadpoles tasting better than little white ones. Sydney turned his head from side to side to see if any other animals had overheard his conversation with the very talkative caterpillar.
“How come I never see any red tadpoles in the pond?” the puzzled spider asked Michael.
“Because dumb spiders like you eat all the white ones before they have a chance to ripen up and taste better,” the caterpillar shrewdly replied.
Before Sydney could answer, Michael raised his long body and managed to grab the tadpole’s tiny head. Soon a wild tug of war occurred between the spider and the caterpillar. The poor little tadpole thought that it was going to be torn apart as Michael pulled one way and Sydney tugged it in the other direction.
Then the smart caterpillar tricked the spider. Michael let go of the tadpole. The spider and his web smashed against the bark of a tree and the crash made Sydney drop the tadpole, which soon plopped into the pond below.
“Thank you Mr. Caterpillar for saving my life from the ugly spider!” the grateful tadpole yelled up from the water. “My name is Frankie Tadpole. I had almost died from being out of the water so long!”
The hero felt very proud of his good deed. “You’re very welcome,” he yelled down to his new friend swimming in circles in the pond. “My name’s Michael Caterpillar. I rescued you because I don’t like Sydney Spider. He has eaten many of my friends and also wants to have me for a snack!”
The tadpole then said something that surprised the brave hero. “I promise you caterpillar, some day I’ll return your favor by saving your life!” the little tadpole boldly predicted.
“That’s very nice for you to say,” Michael yelled down to the tiny tadpole, “but it’s very unlikely that you’ll ever have a chance to do that. You live in water and I live on land,” the caterpillar logically reasoned.
But the tadpole repeated his unusual prediction. “Michael, you do believe you speak the truth,” Frankie Tadpole said, “but I feel it in my tiny heart that some day I shall return your wonderful favor. I’ll be there to help you from danger when you need me the most,” the joyful tadpole stated in a shrill voice.
Sydney Spider had finally recovered from his impact with the tree and began untangling himself’ from his own twisted web. Michael Caterpillar and Frankie Tadpole went their separate ways but several weeks’ later strange things started happening to both the tadpole and the caterpillar.
Frankie swam cheerfully around the shallow pond playing tag while racing along with his tadpole friends. In less than a month the tadpole’s little outside breathing gills were replaced by lungs that had formed inside his chest. Frankie no longer felt happy breathing underwater like a fish does. Frankie now had to stick his head above water to breathe. His tail began to slowly disappear and his body made many other crazy changes. Legs began sprouting out from where his tail used to be.
The tadpole no longer felt like a fish living and swimming in water. Frankie now liked living on land and sitting on lily pads as much as he had previously enjoyed swimming as a fish in the pond. And it was not long before nature’s magic had changed little white Frankie Tadpole into a large green-colored Frankie Frog.
But Michael Caterpillar was also in for a few surprises from Mother Nature. One day the caterpillar was slowly climbing a tree branch looking for a tasty leaf to chew. Michael suddenly felt very tired and sleepy. He lazily closed his heavy eyelids. Soon the caterpillar was resting in a very deep slumber.
As the caterpillar slept, Michael’s sticky body spun a silk-like web around itself. In a short time the white threads covered the caterpillar’s entire body and all of the silky strands soon formed a cocoon. Then many great changes happened to the sleeping caterpillar inside the cocoon. Michael’s old body skin began breaking off while a new smaller body was taking shape. Next a pair of wings began forming on Michael’s back. But the caterpillar was not aware of the great changes happening to him because he was fast asleep inside the magical cocoon.
Then one hot morning the cocoon split open. Michael awoke from his long deep sleep. When he pushed his way out of the silky chamber he felt very different than he had before. His body was smaller and much lighter. Michael Caterpillar had magically changed into Michael Moth.
Michael Moth quickly learned how to fly around the forest trees and bushes. He very much enjoyed the thrill of sailing, drifting and floating around in the air. Flying gave Michael Moth much more speed and freedom gliding around in the air than he had known as a slow-moving caterpillar lazily crawling on land and in trees. Now Michael could travel much faster in the air than he could as a slow green caterpillar moving on a tree branch.
One bright late summer afternoon Frankie Frog was merrily hopping from lily pad to lily pad in the shallow pond. The happy frog heard some noises and looked to his right. Frankie saw a lady with a butterfly net chasing a moth down a forest trail. In her haste the woman tripped over a fallen tree and fell to the ground.
A minute later Frankie Frog heard a squeaky voice to his left yelling, “Help! Help!” The curious frog leaped up upon a big rock and saw a sad little moth trapped in the middle of Sydney Spider’s new web.
“Oh please someone help me!” the trapped moth cried. “I’m stuck here and cannot fly away!”
The hungry spider advanced closer and closer to its terrified victim. “Soon you’ll be inside my belly!” Sydney predicted to the extremely frightened moth.
Frankie Frog had little time to think. He leaped up from a rock as high as he could and his jump landed him right in the center of Sydney Spider’s sticky web. The frog’s weight easily broke the spider web, and in three seconds the moth flew away before Sydney had a chance to devour him.
Then a funny thing then happened to the frustrated spider. Frankie Frog grabbed the side of Sydney’s new web and pulled on it very hard. When the frog let go the defeated spider began twisting around very quickly inside its own web. Sydney was very dizzy by the time he had stopped spinning around inside his own flying insect trap.
The lady with the butterfly net got up off the ground, dusted herself off and then walked rapidly in the direction of Sydney Spider’s broken web. She looked down and saw the angry spider all tangled up inside its own trap. “Oh! What a cute little spider!” the woman exclaimed as she leaned over and looked down at her new pet. “Besides capturing pretty moths, I also like collecting ugly spiders too!”
Happy with her new discovery, the woman reached her left hand into her jacket pocket and removed a glass jar with small holes in its lid. The lady put down her butterfly net, captured Sydney Spider inside the glass jar and then she screwed the lid back on top. Finally the happy lady picked up her butterfly net. “Now I can go back home and add this cute black spider to my neat collection!” she said to Sydney inside the jar with a smile on her face.
After the woman left with her new prize, Michael Moth had something important to say to Frankie Frog.” Thank you for saving my life!” the moth said to the frog. “I felt for sure the spider was going to have me for dinner!”
“That’s perfectly all right!” Frankie Frog answered. “When I used to be a tiny tadpole a very kind and brave caterpillar saved me from being eaten by that villain Sydney Spider. I’ll always be grateful to him!”
“You’ll never believe this Mr. Frog,” Michael Moth replied as he gleefully fluttered above the pond. “I was a caterpillar before I changed into a moth. I had once rescued a tiny tadpole from Sydney Spider’s web. And then that crazy little tadpole promised me that he would one day save my life. I’m now sorry I had laughed at him that hot summer day,” Michael said with regret. “Are you that tiny white tadpole changed into a big green frog?” Michael asked Frankie.
“I certainly am!” the frog cheerfully replied. “I came to return your favor, even if my helping you happened by accident. A friend in need is a friend in deed!”
And Frankie Frog and Michael Moth became the best of friends. The moth explained to the frog exactly how he had changed from a caterpillar inside the cocoon, and the frog told the moth exactly how he had changed from a swimming tadpole into a large hopping green frog inside the pond.
And as far as Sydney Spider is concerned, the wicked creature has not been seen near the New Jersey pond since the excited lady had captured and put him into her glass jar with the tiny breathing holes in its lid. Now the pond is a much safer place for both tiny white tadpoles and tiny gray moths.
Jay Dubya
Google: Jay Dubya Books
The Tadpole and the Caterpillar(Jay Dubya)
The Tadpole and the Caterpillar is one of 18 children's tales taken from the Jay Dubya book The Eighteen Story Gingerbread House
The Tadpole and the Caterpillar
One warm summer day Michael Caterpillar was searching for delicious leaves to nibble while slowly crawling on a tree limb near a New Jersey pond. Like most caterpillars, Michael was a big eater for his size. His light green body was growing very fast.
Suddenly Michael heard a frightened voice screaming, “Help! Help!” He turned his head around and saw Sydney Spider on his web pulling a little tadpole from the pond below.
“Leave that tiny creature alone!’ Michael boldly yelled to Sydney. “Drop it back into the pond and let him live.”
“Silly caterpillar,” Sydney nastily said, “I know you feel sorry for this tiny tadpole but you forget that I must eat to live. I can’t eat leaves like you do so I must eat things like bugs and tadpoles!” the spider very loudly answered.
“But can’t you hear that little tadpole crying and begging?” the caterpillar argued. “Drop him back into the pond and find some flying insects to munch on!”
Michael Caterpillar’s critical remarks made the mean spider very angry. Sydney replied to the green caterpillar with a threat. “If you don’t leave me alone and mind your own business,” the spider said, “then I’ll make it my business to eat you too, you crazy, stupid, slow limb climber! You always move very slowly and will be easy for me to catch!”
Although Michael was quite scared his mind was still set on saving the tiny tadpole from becoming the spider’s supper. The caterpillar never had liked the eight-legged bully, and Michael knew he had to use his brain to outsmart his dangerous enemy. “Sydney, you won’t like the taste of me,” the caterpillar stated. “As you can see,” Michael continued, “my body is still green and not yet ripe.”
The caterpillar’s strange comment confused the wicked hungry spider. “What do you mean you’re not quite ripe yet?” Sydney sternly asked. “I believe that you’re very crazy in your head besides being very slow with your legs!”
Michael had to think fast to further confuse the mean old spider. “Look Sydney, I know a lot about plants, fruits and vegetables,” the caterpillar claimed. “A red ripe tomato tastes a lot better than a green sour tomato. And I know that a red ripe apple tastes a lot better than a green tart apple. And also,” Michael continued, “a red ripe strawberry tastes better than a green unripe strawberry. Haven’t you ever heard these things?”
The caterpillar’s statements made the spider very upset and aggressive. “Do you think I’m a fool?” Sydney Spider hollered up to Michael. “I don’t care about plants, fruits and vegetables. I act like spiders all over the world and eat small animals like bugs and tadpoles. Nothing else really matters to me!”
“I still think you should change your diet and try eating what I do!” the caterpillar insisted. “You’re missing out on plenty of tasty meals!”
“Listen to me!” the spider demanded. “It’s all very simple. Must I explain it to you? You eat plants. I eat tiny animals. And that’s the way it is,” Sydney insisted. “The animals I eat don’t turn red and get ripe like tomatoes, apples and strawberries do. Stupid caterpillar, you’re much dumber than I thought you were!” the spider scoffed in a wild tone of voice.
“Help me! Help me!” the tadpole again screamed.
Michael knew that he had to act in a hurry to rescue the tiny tadpole from the spider’s grasp. “Sydney, your brain is not working too well today,” the caterpillar hollered down from his limb. “Every intelligent spider knows that a red caterpillar tastes much better than a green one and that a red tadpole tastes much better than a white one does. You ought to be ashamed of yourself for not knowing those simple facts!” the caterpillar scolded the spider. “How foolish you are to eat caterpillars and tadpoles before they get ripe and taste better!”
Of course Michael Caterpillar was just stalling for more time to try and save the helpless little tadpole from being the spider’s next juicy meal. Slowly but surely, the caterpillar had turned its body around and began inching its way down the limb toward the spider’s web that hung over the edge of the shallow pond.
The spider was still confused by the silly idea of red caterpillars tasting better than green ones and of red tadpoles tasting better than little white ones. Sydney turned his head from side to side to see if any other animals had overheard his conversation with the very talkative caterpillar.
“How come I never see any red tadpoles in the pond?” the puzzled spider asked Michael.
“Because dumb spiders like you eat all the white ones before they have a chance to ripen up and taste better,” the caterpillar shrewdly replied.
Before Sydney could answer, Michael raised his long body and managed to grab the tadpole’s tiny head. Soon a wild tug of war occurred between the spider and the caterpillar. The poor little tadpole thought that it was going to be torn apart as Michael pulled one way and Sydney tugged it in the other direction.
Then the smart caterpillar tricked the spider. Michael let go of the tadpole. The spider and his web smashed against the bark of a tree and the crash made Sydney drop the tadpole, which soon plopped into the pond below.
“Thank you Mr. Caterpillar for saving my life from the ugly spider!” the grateful tadpole yelled up from the water. “My name is Frankie Tadpole. I had almost died from being out of the water so long!”
The hero felt very proud of his good deed. “You’re very welcome,” he yelled down to his new friend swimming in circles in the pond. “My name’s Michael Caterpillar. I rescued you because I don’t like Sydney Spider. He has eaten many of my friends and also wants to have me for a snack!”
The tadpole then said something that surprised the brave hero. “I promise you caterpillar, some day I’ll return your favor by saving your life!” the little tadpole boldly predicted.
“That’s very nice for you to say,” Michael yelled down to the tiny tadpole, “but it’s very unlikely that you’ll ever have a chance to do that. You live in water and I live on land,” the caterpillar logically reasoned.
But the tadpole repeated his unusual prediction. “Michael, you do believe you speak the truth,” Frankie Tadpole said, “but I feel it in my tiny heart that some day I shall return your wonderful favor. I’ll be there to help you from danger when you need me the most,” the joyful tadpole stated in a shrill voice.
Sydney Spider had finally recovered from his impact with the tree and began untangling himself’ from his own twisted web. Michael Caterpillar and Frankie Tadpole went their separate ways but several weeks’ later strange things started happening to both the tadpole and the caterpillar.
Frankie swam cheerfully around the shallow pond playing tag while racing along with his tadpole friends. In less than a month the tadpole’s little outside breathing gills were replaced by lungs that had formed inside his chest. Frankie no longer felt happy breathing underwater like a fish does. Frankie now had to stick his head above water to breathe. His tail began to slowly disappear and his body made many other crazy changes. Legs began sprouting out from where his tail used to be.
The tadpole no longer felt like a fish living and swimming in water. Frankie now liked living on land and sitting on lily pads as much as he had previously enjoyed swimming as a fish in the pond. And it was not long before nature’s magic had changed little white Frankie Tadpole into a large green-colored Frankie Frog.
But Michael Caterpillar was also in for a few surprises from Mother Nature. One day the caterpillar was slowly climbing a tree branch looking for a tasty leaf to chew. Michael suddenly felt very tired and sleepy. He lazily closed his heavy eyelids. Soon the caterpillar was resting in a very deep slumber.
As the caterpillar slept, Michael’s sticky body spun a silk-like web around itself. In a short time the white threads covered the caterpillar’s entire body and all of the silky strands soon formed a cocoon. Then many great changes happened to the sleeping caterpillar inside the cocoon. Michael’s old body skin began breaking off while a new smaller body was taking shape. Next a pair of wings began forming on Michael’s back. But the caterpillar was not aware of the great changes happening to him because he was fast asleep inside the magical cocoon.
Then one hot morning the cocoon split open. Michael awoke from his long deep sleep. When he pushed his way out of the silky chamber he felt very different than he had before. His body was smaller and much lighter. Michael Caterpillar had magically changed into Michael Moth.
Michael Moth quickly learned how to fly around the forest trees and bushes. He very much enjoyed the thrill of sailing, drifting and floating around in the air. Flying gave Michael Moth much more speed and freedom gliding around in the air than he had known as a slow-moving caterpillar lazily crawling on land and in trees. Now Michael could travel much faster in the air than he could as a slow green caterpillar moving on a tree branch.
One bright late summer afternoon Frankie Frog was merrily hopping from lily pad to lily pad in the shallow pond. The happy frog heard some noises and looked to his right. Frankie saw a lady with a butterfly net chasing a moth down a forest trail. In her haste the woman tripped over a fallen tree and fell to the ground.
A minute later Frankie Frog heard a squeaky voice to his left yelling, “Help! Help!” The curious frog leaped up upon a big rock and saw a sad little moth trapped in the middle of Sydney Spider’s new web.
“Oh please someone help me!” the trapped moth cried. “I’m stuck here and cannot fly away!”
The hungry spider advanced closer and closer to its terrified victim. “Soon you’ll be inside my belly!” Sydney predicted to the extremely frightened moth.
Frankie Frog had little time to think. He leaped up from a rock as high as he could and his jump landed him right in the center of Sydney Spider’s sticky web. The frog’s weight easily broke the spider web, and in three seconds the moth flew away before Sydney had a chance to devour him.
Then a funny thing then happened to the frustrated spider. Frankie Frog grabbed the side of Sydney’s new web and pulled on it very hard. When the frog let go the defeated spider began twisting around very quickly inside its own web. Sydney was very dizzy by the time he had stopped spinning around inside his own flying insect trap.
The lady with the butterfly net got up off the ground, dusted herself off and then walked rapidly in the direction of Sydney Spider’s broken web. She looked down and saw the angry spider all tangled up inside its own trap. “Oh! What a cute little spider!” the woman exclaimed as she leaned over and looked down at her new pet. “Besides capturing pretty moths, I also like collecting ugly spiders too!”
Happy with her new discovery, the woman reached her left hand into her jacket pocket and removed a glass jar with small holes in its lid. The lady put down her butterfly net, captured Sydney Spider inside the glass jar and then she screwed the lid back on top. Finally the happy lady picked up her butterfly net. “Now I can go back home and add this cute black spider to my neat collection!” she said to Sydney inside the jar with a smile on her face.
After the woman left with her new prize, Michael Moth had something important to say to Frankie Frog.” Thank you for saving my life!” the moth said to the frog. “I felt for sure the spider was going to have me for dinner!”
“That’s perfectly all right!” Frankie Frog answered. “When I used to be a tiny tadpole a very kind and brave caterpillar saved me from being eaten by that villain Sydney Spider. I’ll always be grateful to him!”
“You’ll never believe this Mr. Frog,” Michael Moth replied as he gleefully fluttered above the pond. “I was a caterpillar before I changed into a moth. I had once rescued a tiny tadpole from Sydney Spider’s web. And then that crazy little tadpole promised me that he would one day save my life. I’m now sorry I had laughed at him that hot summer day,” Michael said with regret. “Are you that tiny white tadpole changed into a big green frog?” Michael asked Frankie.
“I certainly am!” the frog cheerfully replied. “I came to return your favor, even if my helping you happened by accident. A friend in need is a friend in deed!”
And Frankie Frog and Michael Moth became the best of friends. The moth explained to the frog exactly how he had changed from a caterpillar inside the cocoon, and the frog told the moth exactly how he had changed from a swimming tadpole into a large hopping green frog inside the pond.
And as far as Sydney Spider is concerned, the wicked creature has not been seen near the New Jersey pond since the excited lady had captured and put him into her glass jar with the tiny breathing holes in its lid. Now the pond is a much safer place for both tiny white tadpoles and tiny gray moths.
Jay Dubya
Google: Jay Dubya Books
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