J U N IO R K IN G 'S B U S IN E S S Edited by Martha S. Hooker
The Dragonfly and the Bullfrog
by Dr. W o lte r L . W ilson
like the dragonfly about which I want to tell you. Three baby grubs, Jimmy, Cecil and Percy, lived in the mud. They were having a family meeting around the little pebble which was their din ing table. Percy said, “Say, kids, I have been told that there is another world into which we go when we leave this mud, but I don’t believe a word of it. What do you think?” The other two replied, “We don’t believe it, either. We never saw it. Our daddy and mother never told us about it. Nobody ever came back from there to tell us what they found.” Just then there was a terrible splash, mud flew everywhere, and who should come into their midst but old Greenie, the bullfrog. How im polite to break into the family circle! “Where have you been, Greenie?” asked Jimmy. Greenie whispered, “Don’t tell any body, but I have been out in another world. It is a wonderful world. The plants are so large that it takes me a long time to hop around one of them. There isn’t any water or mud out there and the ground is green instead of black. There is warm sun shine, fresh air and beautiful flow ers.” The three baby grubs looked at each other and tapped their heads as if to say, “Poor Greenie is out of his head. We’d better call the doctor.” “ I knew you would not believe it,” went on Greenie, “but I know what I am talking about. How would you like to go and see this other world with me?” “ I will go,” Percy offered eagerly. “ I want to see it.” Greenie said, “All right. You jump up on my back and I’ll take you there and bring you back.” Percy crawled upon Greenie’s back. Jimmy and Cecil said, “Good-bye! We hope you will come back, but we are afraid you will not.” Greenie hopped along under the
L it t l e fr ie n d s , I would like to tell you about a frog and a fly. There are many, many kinds of flies, but this is the most beautiful of all the flies I have seen. The French people call it “ the young lady of the insect world” because it has such beautiful colors and is so graceful in its movements. It is large and long and its body has a brilliant metallic luster combining all the coiors of the rainbow. It loves the sunshine. I am sure you have seen it around rivers and ponds and lakes. It darts about very rapidly and is so alert that it ■is almost impossible to catch it. Boys and girls sometimes catch these flies in nets, but it is very difficult to do so. It rests on your hat for a moment; then it is out on the fishing rod and lights on the string until a fish pulls on the hook and frightens it away. Then it is back on your hat again— and then away it goes. It is so restless that it never stays in one place, but it has a very happy time flying around in this new world into which it has come. I am sure you have guessed by this time that I am talk ing about the dragonfly. It is also called a “ snake doctor” by some people. Boys and girls, the dragonfly did not always live in the air and the sunshine. It lived in another world— a world of mud down at the bottom of a lake, or a pond. It was a very ugly creature called a grub. It crawled about hunting for things to eat such as insects and bugs. These baby grubs are cannibals. They eat one another. Isn’t it terrible! After they are changed into the beautiful creatures you see flying about in the sunshine, they do not eat one another. When people live in wicked places and do sinful things, they mistreat other people and do not act as they should. If they would only trust the Lord Jesus and let Him save them, then they would be changed and would not do sinful things. They would have an experience something
water through the mud until he reached the bank. Then he slowly came out of the water, but when Percy Grub left the water, he could not breathe. You see, he was made to live under the water like a fish, and so he gasped for breath, fainted dead away and fell back into the water. He had a headache and he hurt his leg a little when he fell off, and so he came limping back to Jimmy and Cecil. Holding one hand to his head, he said, “Nobody can live out in that world, I am telling you. Old Greenie Frog went somewhere, but nobody can live out there. I’m sure of that.” Greenie Frog did not come back to this little family of grubs. He went off somewhere else to play and so they thought he had died. After a number of days, Percy said, “Boys, I feel so funny in my back. I don’t know what is going to happen, but I feel as if I’m going somewhere.” So he started to crawl up one of the bul rushes. T h e others came crying around him, “Percy, you cannot go away from us!” But he said, “Yes, I must go, I have a funny feeling inside.” They said, “Percy, will you come back and tell us about the other world you may find out there?” Percy said,- “ I certainly will. I give you my word, if there is really an other world, I will come back and tell you all about it.” So they told him “Good-bye” and he crawled to the top of the water. He came out of the wa ter just a little way. He felt queer and dizzy, and then suddenly he felt something bursting loose on his back. What do you think? The shell burst and out came Percy, now a beautiful dragonfly! Oh, he was pretty! He had such beautiful colors, such trans parent wings, such delicate little legs! Percy felt wonderful. He flew away to enjoy this world and. the new life. That evening when Percy went, to sleep, he remembered that he had
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