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Monty Visits the Sugar Bush by Dianne Lemire |
One beautiful summer day, Grant, Eric and
their friends were playing outside. They decided to visit their special "Sugar
Bush" fort.
As they were exploring their secret hideout, they
noticed something small inching its way up a branch. It was long and skinny and
coloured yellow with black stripes. What was it? A Caterpillar?
The caterpillar, which they decided to call
"Monty", kept climbing up the branch until he decided to rest under a large
leaf. What was Monty up to?
They had watched worms crawling in the dirt or
caterpillars eating leaves, but Monty was climbing under the leaf.
Grant decided to stay and keep an eye on Monty, so
he sat down on a rock and gazed up at the leaf. Monty stopped under the milkweed leaf.
He seemed to glue himself to the leaf.
Monty moved his head round and round. A small thin
thread was coming from his mouth and Monty was wrapping it around himself. What was he
building?
Monty worked and worked spinning round. Gradually,
Monty's work began to take shape. Monty was building a pupa, which was a shiny pale green
colour. Soon Grant could not see Monty, because he was completely covered. Why was Monty
hiding? What was he doing in there?
Grant waited and waited, but nothing happened. He
started to get tired, so he decided to go home and come back the next day. He kept
coming, day after day, to check on Monty. Was he all right? Was he stuck in there?
Finally, one day when Grant was checking Monty, he
noticed something was different. The pupa or chrysalis seemed to be splitting apart.
Was Monty OK? What was happening?
Grant decided to get his friends. As they watched
the pupa, something began to emerge out the bottom, but it did not look like Monty. What
had happened to Monty? What was coming out of the pupa?
As the children watched, a wet butterfly pulled
itself out of the pupa. It held on to the pupa and slowly stretched its wings out and
fanned them gently so they would dry. Could this butterfly be Monty?
The beautiful Monarch butterfly gracefully moved
its wings back and forth. Then all at once, the butterfly took to flight. It swooped down
passed Grant, Eric and their friends, and then flew off into the air.
The children watched Monty, the Monarch butterfly,
fly up and around the Sugar Bush. Monty flew out to the field, and just kept on
flying.
So, if you see a Monarch butterfly fly by, remember,
it might be Monty.
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