'You poor thing' Sally said 'I'll take you down to the river if you would like me to, but the race has already finished, the ducks won'. 'Oh well' sighed the butterfly 'I'll go back then, if the wind blows in the right direction, otherwise who knows where I'll go' and off she went bobbing up and down and left and right until she disappeared out of sight.

'Strange girl is Flora' said Duncan, 'she wasn't always a butterfly, you know, she used to be a cattermapiggle. She took a long time to get anywhere in those days, but at least she could go were she wanted to go'.

'What's a cattermapiggle?' asked Sally. 'It's a sort of lumpy worm' Duncan explained 'that crawls along by folding itself up and then unfolding itself'. 'Oh, you mean a caterpillar' Sally laughed. 'That's what I said' Duncan insisted 'a cattermapiggle' and Sally left it at that.

'I think it's very sad, poor Flora' she said 'I always thought it would be wonderful to be a butterfly, such a beautiful creature and I thought they were free to go where they wished. Mind you, I don't fancy being a caterpillar much'.

Duncan continued 'She's not as strange as Henri though, he was a real funny one'. 'Who's Henri?' asked Sally. 'He's Flora's friend', Duncan said 'she's known him since he was a tadpole, and one day, when she was still a cattermapiggle, she explained to him about mettaporpoises' 'you mean metamorphosis' Sally interrupted. 'Whatever' Duncan continued 'anyway, she told him that she was going to be a butterfly one day, and that he would also turn into something else. Well Henri didn't believe her until it happened and Flora became this beautiful butterfly'.

'What's so strange about that?' asked Sally, and Duncan laughed 'Oh, that's not the strange part, the funny thing is that Henri fell in love with Flora, which is a bit strange for a tadpole, you must admit. But he thought that one day he would also be a butterfly and then he could marry Flora and they would live happily ever after. Well, you can imagine how disappointed he was when he turned into a frog'. Duncan laughed delightedly again, and Sally said 'I think that's a terribly sad story, what happened to Henri?' and Duncan said 'He's been hopping about flapping his legs and trying to fly ever since' and he kept on laughing.

'You are very cruel to laugh at the misfortune of others' Sally scolded 'you have a very strange philosophy of life, you think everything is funny'. 'Oh no I don't' Duncan claimed 'my philosophy is very sensible'.

'What is your philosophy then' Sally demanded 'tell me, go on'.

'All right then, I will. Here it is, my philosophy. The meaning of life. Are you ready, this is it:

and that's all I have to say on the matter'.

Sally couldn't think of anything more to say, so she remained quiet. It was starting to get dark now, and most of the animals had left, so she sat down by the river and pondered over all the strange things that had happened during the day.

Soon Sally was asleep.