Down below the surface of a quiet pond lived a little colony of
water bugs. They were a happy colony, living far away from the
sun. For many months they were busy, scurrying over the soft
muc on the bottom of the pond. They did notice that every once in
a while one of their colony seemed to lose 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 water bugs to another. "One of our colony is
climbing up the lily stalk. Where do you suppose she is going?" Up,
up, up it went slowly. Even as they watched, the water bug
disappeared from sight. Its friends waited and waited but it didn't
return. "That's funny!" said one water bug to another. "Wasn't she
happy here?" asked a second water bug. "Where do you suppose she
went?" wondered a third. No one had the answer. They were greatly puzzled.

Finally one of the water bugs, a leader in the colony, gathered its
friends together. "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 and she
went and why." "We promise," they said solemnly.

One spring day, not long after, the very water bug 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 couldn't 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. Then it was that he
chanced to look below to the bottom of the pond. Why he was right
above his old friends, the water bugs! 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 where he or she went and why."

Without thinking, the dragonfly darted down. Suddenly, he hit the
surface of 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 water bugs 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!