In the summer, long hay grows beside the railway line and work gangers cut it and rake it into heaps to dry in the sun. At this time of year, Percy collects the hay in his empty wagons and takes them to the station. There, Toby collects the freight cars and takes them to some farms in the hills so that the farmers can feed their stock.
One day, Percy arrives at the station and starts to tease Thomas for thinking he was a ghost. Thomas retorts that Percy is a "green caterpillar with red stripes", which makes Percy very upset but Thomas continues to rant and reminds Percy that he has been late at the station every afternoon throughout the week. Percy tells Thomas that it is the hay that is making him late, but Thomas is not interested in Percy's excuses and Percy fumes away. Percy grumbles to himself during the afternoon that he is only ever late by a few minutes, but all the same, he and his driver decide to head to the station early after going to the harbor to drop off some hay wagons. At the harbor, however, there is trouble; a loose crate of treacle hanging over Percy drops and splatters all over him. The workmen and his crew try to clean him up, but Percy has to leave and is still very sticky.
On the way home, Percy comes to the hill where the hay is laying but by now, it is gotten very windy, which blows the hay all over the tracks. The line continues to climb, so Percy's driver advises the tank engine to take a run at it. But Percy's wheels keep slipping on the hay and he has to wait for the line to be cleared. While he does so, the wind continues to blow the hay all over the area, including onto Percy's sticky boiler. At the junction, Thomas waits impatiently for Percy, who is now 10 minutes behind schedule. Suddenly, all the passengers start laughing when Percy arrives, as he is now completely covered with hay, apologizing for his late arrival. Thomas finds Percy's appearance very amusing and begins teasing him, saying Percy has crawled out of the hay. Percy does not know what Thomas is talking about, but Thomas tells him that seeing him like a hairy caterpillar is worth being late.
Percy goes back to the sheds, where his driver shows him what he looks like in a mirror. Now Percy understands why everyone was laughing at him, stating that he looks just like a woolly bear. He asks to be cleaned before Toby arrives, not knowing that Thomas has already told Toby everything. In the end, it does not matter; when Toby and Thomas arrive, Percy is still a long way from being cleaned, causing the two other engines to make jokes about woolly bear caterpillars and other creatures that crawl about in hay. Percy does not find these jokes very funny at all.
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