Napoleon’s Journey
When he’d recovered his hat, he made a very proper and polite bow and started to introduce himself. “Good day Madame, I’m ........” but he could not finish because he hadn’t a clue who he was, what he was or whether he had a name.
Our little friend thought that was rather rude and was about to say as much when the voice continued: “I’m Penny Wren; Jenny’s little sister, what’s your name?” “I haven’t got a name, I was only born five minutes ago and I haven’t had the chance to
“I see your problem; I mean you couldn’t very well call yourself ‘Tiddles’ if you were a big fierce dog, could you?” “Oh, do you think that’s what I might be?” said our little green pal, having a quick go at growling (but not succeeding).
“Don’t be stupid”, said penny Wren, “Us wrens don’t eat big fierce dogs for breakfast. You’re a caterpillar”.
Caterpillar sat down and thought. He seemed to be in a fix. He was not a big fierce dog and wrens don’t eat dogs. He was a caterpillar and wrens do eat them. And here he was, face to knee with a wren!
“You wouldn’t eat a caterpillar without a name, would you?” he asked hopefully.
“Not if you think of one quickly”, replied Penny.
Fortunately for him, and to make our story longer, the Man From The House came up the path just then and Penny flew off in alarm.
Caterpillar sat very still in the shade of a cabbage and thought. A name suitable for a caterpillar? Rover?... No. Jumbo?.... No. Dobin?.... No. “How about Napoleon?� he wondered and the more he thought about it and the more
he said it to
himself the more he
thought it suited
him.
Napoleon decided that encounters with pompous
wrens
made one hungry and set off to find something more to eat. Before long he discovered a rather splendid looking cauliflower and quickly climbed the stalk.
When he awoke The Man From The House was walking through the vegetable patch with a basket and a large knife.
With one deft movement of the knife, the cauliflower (and Napoleon) were on the ground only to
be picked up and placed in the basket.
That was the start of a long journey which took Napoleon from his birthplace. He travelled in a van to a large, bustling, noisy market and after a brief rest he was lifted into a big lorry.
The lorry sped through the night and daylight found our friend in a bigger, more bustling, noisier market.
There were voices shouting and the rattle of coins; engines and trolleys added to the din.
Breakfast time arrived and Napoleon was surprised to find that all the excitement had had no ill effect on his appetite at all.
While he was munching, he felt himself being lifted again. This time he was packed onto another van and driven to a shop.
There the crate was opened and the cauliflower was put onto a shelf.
It rested there for a while before being taken down and placed inside a dark bag.
Napoleon just thought that night had arrived earlier than he’d expected, so he decided to get down to some serious eating to make up for the time he thought he’d lost.
Before he got very far however, he was lifted out of the bag and placed on a hard, shiny draining board. lady and a little girl.
And that’s how the caterpillar came to be in our cauliflower last week.
But what happened to Napoleon after that is another story for another day.