Waterbugs and Dragonflies

This is a really nice story that I thought I'd share with you:

Down below the surface of a quiet point lived a colony of water bugs. They were happy there, living far away from the sun. For many months they were busy, scurrying over the soft mud on the bottom of the pond.
They noticed that every once in a while a waterbug lost interest in going about with its friends. Clinging to the stem of a pond lily, it gradually moved out of sight and was seen no more.
‘Look!’ said one of the waterbugs. ’Where is that bug going.

Up, up, up the bug went slowly. Even as they watched, the waterbug disappeared from sight. Down below, the rest of the waterbugs waited and waited, but it did not return.

‘That’s funny!’ said one waterbug to another.

‘Wasn’t she happy here?’ asked a second waterbug.

‘Where do you suppose she went?’ wondered a third.

N one had the answer. They were greatly puzzled. Finally, one of the waterbugs, a leader in the colony, said, ‘I have an idea. The next one of us who climbs up the lily stalk must promise to come back and tell us where he or she went and why’.

‘We promise’, they said solemnly.

One spring day, not long after, the very waterbug who had suggested the plan found himself climbing up the lily stalk. Up, up, up, he went. Before he knew what was happening, he had broken through the surface of the water and fallen onto the broad, green pad above. When he awoke, he looked about with surprise. He could not believe what he saw. A startling change had come to his old body. His movement revealed four silver wings and a long tail. Even as he struggled, he felt an impulse to move his wings. The warmth of the sun soon dried the moisture from the new body. He moved his wings again and suddenly found himself up above the water. He had become a dragonfly. Swooping and dipping in great curves, he flew through the air. He felt exhilarated in the new atmosphere. By and by, the new dragonfly lighted happily on a lily pad to rest.

At that moment, he chanced to look below to the bottom of the pond. Why, he was right above his old friends, the waterbugs! There they were, scurrying about, just as he had been doing some time before. Then the dragonfly remembered the promise: ’The next one of us who climbs up the lily stalk will come back and tell the water and bounced away. Now that he was a dragonfly, he could no longer go into the water.

‘I can’t return!’ he said in dismay. ‘At least I tried, but I can’t keep my promise. Even if I could go back, not one of the waterbugs would know me in my new body. I guess I’ll just have to wait until they become dragonflies too. Then they’ll understand what happened to me and where I went’.

And the dragonfly winged off happily into its wonderful world of sun and air!