Animals For Children

CREATURES THAT WE LIKE TO 

WATCH!

BRIGHT YELLOW BUTTERFLIES

Tiger Swallowtail

BUTTERFLY

Flutter, flutter by butterfly

They are fluttering so high

Up and over the tree near by 

 What a beauty God made to fly.

Anise Swallowtail

 Click to see the butterfly.

Black Swallowtail

Catterpillar For Black Swallowtail 

 Zebra Swallowtail

Beautiful  

ON a beautiful summer's day a clergyman 

was  called to  preach in a  town in  Indiana, to  a  young Episcopal congregation.  At the close of his discourse he addressed his young hearers in such words as these:

"Learn that the present life is a preparation for, and has a tendency to, eternity.  The present  is  linked to the  future  throughout creation, in  the vegetable, in the  animal,  and in  the moral world.  As is the seed, so is the fruit;  as  is  the egg, so  is  the fowl;  as  is  the boy, so  is  the man;  and  as  the rational  being in this world, so will  he  be in  the  next; 

Dives estranged from God  here, is Dives    estranged from God  in  the  next,  and  Enoch walking with God here,  is  Enoch  walking with God  in  the  calm  and  better  world. I beseech you, live, then, for a blessed eternity. 

Go to  the  worm  that  you  tread  upon,  and learn  a  lesson  of wisdom.  The very caterpillar  seeks  the  food  that  fosters  it  for    another  and  similar  state;  and,  more  wisely than  man,  builds  its  own  sepulcher,  from whence, in  time, by  a  kind  of resurrection, it comes forth  a  new  creature  in  almost  an angelic form.  And now that which crawled, flies,  and  that  which  fed  on  comparatively gross  food, sips  the  dew  that  revels  in  the rich  pastures,  an  emblem  of  that  paradise where flows the river  of  life  and  grows  the tree of life.  Could the  caterpillar have been diverted from its  proper  element  and  mode of life,  if  it  had  never  attained  the butterfly’s splendid form  and  hue, it  had  perished a  worthless worm.  Consider her ways  and be wise.  Let it not be said that you are more negligent than  worms,  and  that  your reason is  less available than their instinct.  As often as  the  butterfly  flits  across  your  path,   remember that  it whispers in  its flight, 

 'Live for the future.'" 

Select

THE CATERPILLAR 

AND THE BUTTERFLY. 

A CATERPILLAR was one day warming herself in the bright rays of the sun. The sky was very blue above her head. The tree upon which she had always lived was covered with soft, tender, green leaves, upon which she could feed at any time; and she felt very happy. 

"Who in all the world is so fortunate as I?" thought she. "Here is my home. I am surrounded by the beautiful sunlight, and can breathe the clear, dry air: my food is all about me; and if an enemy approach, I can flee to the protecting shade of one of these leaves, and lo I am hidden from view." 

At that moment, a large butterfly alighted on a bush beneath the tree. The caterpillar gazed with wonder on the gorgeous wings of the stranger, and thus saluted him:— 

"Good morrow, fair sir. Didst thou come from the golden land of the sunbeams?" 

But the butterfly looked with scorn upon the worm, and bade her hide her unshapely form from the sight of day, as she did but mar the beauty of all around. 

Then the caterpillar hid her head in sorrow, and began to mourn; and she wept till the setting of the sun. And, behold, when the night came, she had spun a shroud, in which she folded herself, and she was hidden from the gaze of all. Then the caterpillar was content. 

It so happened one day that the master of the garden passed that way with his little daughter; and she, looking up, beheld the enshrouded caterpillar, but knew not what it was. Pointing it out to her father, she asked that it might be taken from the tree. 

"Not so," replied the master; "for within the covering you there see is that which will one day be a beautiful butterfly." 

Then the caterpillar, upon hearing these words, was filled with wonder and great joy. And she halted to find the sunlight, that she might see for herself the beauty of which the master had spoken. 

It so chanced 'one day that she was enabled to throw aside the covering that was enfolded about her, and to step forth into the beautiful light of day. 

Then, her heart being full of joy, so much so that she could not restrain herself, she sprang upward, and found herself floating in the air. On either hand, her outspread wings sparkled in the sunlight; and she knew that the master's words were true. 

Soon it chanced that she grew weary, and alighted on a low bush near by, where also came the same butterfly, which had scorned her not many days before. And the butterfly bowed low at her feet, offering homage to her in her new dress. 

"Thou art surely the queen of the butterflies," said he; "and as such I yield myself to thy service." 

 Not so, friend," replied she: "'tis but my dress thou dost serve. When I was but a homely worm, thou didst reject me and my greeting: how canst thou care for me now?" 

Then the butterfly was struck speechless, and hung his head in shame, while she whom he had scorned in her humility now soared in her beauty far away, until she was lost to his view.

Mrs. Sarah Eastman.