'Tell us your history, Glow-worm.'
'Alas!' sighed the glow-worm,' it is simple and sad. It will not amuse
you.'
'Tell it, tell it all the same,' they all cried.
'Well--you all know of course, that we glow-worms are very remarkable
creatures. Yes, I believe that no one will venture to dispute that we
are the most gifted creatures in existence.'
'Pray why? I do not see that!' said the rabbit.
'Can you give light?' asked the glow-worm contemptuously.
'No, certainly not,' the rabbit was forced to admit.
'Well, _we_ give light! all of us. And we can let it shine or extinguish
it at will. Light is the best of nature's gifts, and to give light is
the highest function to which a living creature can attain. Can any one
now doubt our pre-eminence? Besides, we, the males, have wings and can
fly for miles.'
'That I cannot do,' the rabbit humbly owned.
'For the divine gift of light which we possess, all other creatures look
up to us; no bird may attack us. One animal alone, the lowest of them
all, seeks us out and carries us off. That is man--the vilest monster in
creation!'
At this Johannes looked round at Windekind as though he did not
understand the meaning of it. But Windekind smiled and nodded to him to
say nothing.
'Once I flew gaily about the world like a bright will-o'-the-wisp among
the dark bushes. And in a lonely damp meadow, on the bank of a stream,
dwelt she whose existence was inseparably bound up with my happiness.
She glittered in exquisite emerald green light as she crept among the
grass stems, and she entirely possessed my youthful heart. I fluttered
round her and did my utmost to attract her attention by changing my
light. I gladly perceived that she noticed my salutation and eclipsed
her own light. Tremulous with devotion, I was about to fold my wings and
drop in ecstasy at the side of my radiant and adored one, when a
tremendous noise filled the air. Dark figures were approaching: they
were men. I fled in terror. They rushed after me and struck at me with
great black tilings, but my wings were swifter than their clumsy
legs.--When I returned--'
Here the narrator's voice failed him. It was only after a pause of
silent meditation, while his three hearers reverently kept silence, that
he went on: 'You have guessed the rest. My gentle bride, the brightest
and most sparkling of her kind, had disappeared, carried away by cruel
men. The peaceful, moist grass plot was trodden down, and her favourite
place by the stream was dark and desolate. I was alone in the world.'
Here the tender-hearted rabbit again used his ear to wipe a tear from
his eyes.
'From that night I am an altered creature. I have a horror of all vain
amusements. I think only of her whom I have lost, and of the time when I
may see her again.'
'What, have you still a hope?' asked the rabbit in surprise.
'I have more than hope; I have assurance. Up there I shall see my
beloved once more.'
'But--' the rabbit put in.
'Rab,' said the glow-worm solemnly, 'I can understand the doubts of
those who must feel their way in the dark. But to those who can see with
their own eyes!--then all doubt is to me incomprehensible. There!' cried
the glow-worm, looking reverently up at the twinkling, starry sky, 'I
see them there! All my ancestors, all my friends,--and she among
them--they shine up there in still greater radiance than here on earth.
Ah! when shall I be released from this lower life and fly to her who
twinkles at me so tenderly. When, ah! when?'
The glow-worm turned away with a sigh, and crept back into the dark
again.
'Poor fellow!' said the rabbit, 'I hope he may be right.'
'I hope so too,' added Johannes.
'I have my fears,' said Windekind. 'But it was very interesting.'
'Dear Windekind,' Johannes began, 'I am very tired and sleepy.'
'Come close to me, then, and I will cover you with my cloak.'
Windekind took off his blue mantle and spread it over Johannes and
himself. So they lay down together in the sweet moss on the down, their
arms round each other's necks.
'Your heads lie rather low,' cried the rabbit. 'Will you rest them
against me?' And so they did.
'Good-night, mother!' said Windekind to the Moon.
And Johannes shut his hand tight on the little golden key, laid his head
on the downy fur of the good-natured rabbit, and slept soundly.
[Footnote 1: The child of the bindweed.]