Well, our insect stopped moving one day and his 14th cousin bumped into his rear end. The startled cousin shouted (for it was very noisy with the sound of millions of tiny feet pattering and wings batting) "Why did you stop? Get moving will you? I'm on my way up!"
But our insect did not budge. You see, he was looking at the real Up.
The real Up was the sky. and he saw that the blue sky quivered, also with the movement of the clouds and the glittering yellow sun. He began to feel - desire.
He noticed his wings beginning to pump harder and his feet became lighter and his heart became so big that he could barely breathe. He needed - air.
A nosey old aunt saw what was happening, hurried over and using her antennae to stroke his brow, she said "I know what you are thinking my dear, but it is a very bad idea. I know because I also felt like you once and I ventured to the topmost limb of our tree and I crawled to the topmost branch and then I even stood on the tip-toppest stem. I had to hold on very tightly because the Great Wind was tempting me to let go. Then I heard the voices of my friends and family calling and I slowly backed down into the tree's canopy. When I had recovered myself in the shade of the leaves again, I realized what a terrible mistake I had almost made. Now there, there, don't you feel better?" Then she waddled off in the direction of the newest blooms for a nectar-party with her girlfriends.
However, our insect did not feel better and could not say so because his heart was so big now that all he could hear was its thumping in his ears. He listened to his heart and began to run. He ran all the way to the tip-toppest part of the tree and when he got there he stopped. Waiting for him was the Great Wind. He shook hands with the wind and she pulled him into the air. His wings began to pump and he flew! The Great Wind was kind enough to swirl him round and round the tree so that all his friends and relatives could see how wonderful it was to fly.
Everyone in the tree was a flutter! Soon they were all watching. The old aunt rolled up her tongue and stopped sucking nectar long enough to nudge her neighbor and say, "I tried to tell him, but young ones never listen to those of us with more experience. All over the tree young butterflies were flapping their wings and declaring they would also fly while their parents were refusing to grant permission.
All of a sudden, a great flying bird appeared behind our butterfly. A bird, we call the jay. It doesn't seem so big to us but back then, to the insects, it was monstrous! Jay came flying very, very fast and in an instant, the tiny butterfly was eaten up. His beautiful wings fluttered to the ground and he was gone. The whole colony witnessed the tragedy and they mourned, but there were one or two friends of our butterfly who could not forget how beautiful he had been with his wings flashing in the wind and they continued to tell his story. Soon the story became so enhanced and exaggerated that it was all any young butterfly could talk about.
Every time the butterflies spoke of the jay they felt venom rise in their throats. Their excitement grew within them all winter and the next spring when they emerged from their sleep, their desire to fly was uncontrollable. Hundreds of the young butterflies called out to shake hands with the Great Wind and she obliged. The air was soon filled with butterflies and the commotion attracted Jay and his friends.
The jays swooped into the flutter and began to catch them in their beaks. But now the jays were spitting the butterflies out! The venom that had grown in the butterflies poisoned the jays. They flew away and never bothered the butterflies again. The young butterflies now called to their aunts and uncles and sisters and brothers and mothers and fathers to follow them into the sky!
The Great Wind began to blow in thousands of directions because she wanted to play with all her new friends at once. Soon the tree was completely alone. The tree stretched her roots a little deeper into the soil where the water was good and cold and then stretched her limbs higher into the sky to gather a little more sunlight. She grew three feet that summer and many, many seedlings grew under her shade until she became old and laid herself down in the grass to rest and then the new trees grew over her and provided shade.
And the Jays? Why the Jays went off in disgust (they are a rowdy lot, you know) to visit an apple tree that was rumored to have a great many worms. After all, it was still very early in the morning and early in the life of the world.
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