Una the Careful Caterpillar

Slow and steady is a good motto when you have this many legs!

Once upon a time, Rhoda Rabbit was hopping on The Greenway trail between Windsor and Kingsville, Ont., when she noticed Una Caterpillar starting to climb up a clover stem. For some reason, Una was not walking normally. She was walking very slowly, very cautiously, lifting each foot and putting it down very carefully. Because she had so many feet, it took a long time for her to lift each one and put it down in exactly the right spot so that she wouldn’t trip over it. She did that with each foot. By the time she got to the last one, Una had moved forward only a tiny bit. Then Una started all over again with her first foot. She lifted it, put it down, and did the same with her second foot, her third, and all the way to the last one. She was now only a short distance up the stem. After watching this five times, Rhoda could be quiet no longer.

“What in the world are you doing?” she asked Una.

To keep from falling, Una wrapped all her legs around the stem before answering. “Don’t scare me like that! I was so busy concentrating that I never noticed you.”

“At the rate you’re going, it’ll take you all day to reach the flower. Why don’t you run up the stem?” asked Rhoda.

“Let me show you what happens if I do that,” Una said. She started to race up the stem. Suddenly, her feet were tripping over each other. She fell to the ground and lay there, her legs tangled together.

“See what happens when I rush?” said Una. “Now you know why I was concentrating on what I was doing. If I hadn’t shown you what happens when I hurry, I would have been all right. As the mess I’m in is really your fault, would you mind helping me untangle my legs?”

“Of course!” responded Rhoda, and promptly set to untangling her Una’s many legs, vowing never to rush her friend again!