In a small ant colony under a big oak tree, there lived a little ant named Andy. Andy was a worker ant. His job was to find food and carry it back to the queen.
One day, Andy saw a butterfly flying. "Wow," he said. "I wish I could fly. It must be so easy to find food from up there."
He told his friends. "I want wings."
"Ants don't have wings," said the other ants. "Only the queen and the special ants have wings. You are a worker. Get back to work."
But Andy didn't listen. He found two small, dry leaves. He glued them to his back with sticky tree sap. He climbed to the top of a mushroom and jumped.
*Flap, flap, crash!* He fell flat on his face. The leaves broke.
He didn't give up. He found two feathers dropped by a bird. He glued them on and jumped from a taller flower.
*Flap, flap, crash!* He fell again. This time he hurt his leg.
An old spider was watching him. "Why do you want to fly so badly?" asked the spider.
"I want to see the world," said Andy. "I'm tired of looking at the ground."
"You don't need wings to see the world," said the spider. "Climb the tree."
Andy looked up. The oak tree was huge. It went up into the clouds. He started climbing. It was hard work. He climbed for hours, then days. He climbed past the beetles, past the squirrels, past the birds' nests.
Finally, he reached the top leaf. He looked down. He could see the whole garden, the house, the river, and the hills beyond. It was beautiful.
He realized the spider was right. He didn't need wings to be high. He just needed to work hard and climb.
He climbed back down and told everyone about the amazing view. From then on, he was the happiest worker ant, because he knew that even small ants can reach great heights if they try.
