On a summer's evening, about half an hour after bed time, as three
little brothers lay talking together they heard a gentle footstep on the
stairs. It was their sister Lucy. "Are you asleep," she asked.
"No, we are not asleep," cried the boys.
"I have brought something to show you," said Lucy, and going into the
darkest corner of the room, she opened her hand and the boys saw
something sparkle like a diamond or a star.
"What is it," cried little Frank, jumping out of bed and running to
look. Lucy held out her hand, but told him not to touch it.
"Oh, it moves! It moves!" said he. "It must be something alive."
"Ah!" said John, "it is a glow worm. I saw one last summer on a bank in
Sand Lee."
"Take care," said Frank, "that it does not burn the counterpane." The
two elder brothers laughed; but Lucy reminded them that they would most
likely have fallen into the same mistake, if they had not been taught
that the glow worm's light, though it shines so brightly, does not burn.
To convince Frank she told him to hold out his hand. The little boy felt
afraid, but as he knew that Lucy never deceived him, he put out his
hand, and soon, to his great delight, the harmless glow worm lay in his
hand. Lucy promised to tell him something about the glow worm another
time. Frank went back to his bed, and Lucy bid her brothers good night,
promising to put the prize under a glass on the lawn.
So night after night, for weeks, the three boys saw the twinkling light
of the glow worm on the dewy grass. One evening they began to quarrel
about it, and none but little Frank was willing to give up his claim to
it. It grieved him to hear his brothers quarrelling and saying unkind
words to each other; and he also thought that the poor glow worm ought
not to be kept a prisoner under the glass, instead of flying over the
green turf or the mossy bank. But when he tried to bring John and Robert
to the same opinion, they would not hear to him. So Lucy, who was a kind
sister, when she found that the pleasure she had procured for them was
the occasion of their naughty conduct, sat down by the window and told
them to remember that God, who made the glow worm and caused its light
to shine, could see them in their chamber, and hear every sinful word.
John and Robert felt the force of their sister's words, and settled
their quarrel without delay, and they gave Frank permission to go early
in the morning and let the imprisoned glow worm creep away.