As John and Mary Green were on their way home from their aunt’s house,
where they had spent the day, they saw something bright in the grass by
the road-side.
“Look, look! what is that?” said John to the maid.
“Oh, I dare say it is a drop of dew which shines in the light of the
moon,” said she.
“Oh, no,” said Mary, “the moon does not shine through that thick hedge
at all: let me try to pick it up.”
“Here it is,” cried John, “I have got hold of it; but it does not shine
now: this cannot be it.”
“Do not drop it,” said Mary; “but take it home to mamma, and she will
tell us what it is.”
They now made all the haste they could: they found their mamma at the
hall-door, who was looking out for them, and told her what they had
brought.
“Oh, I dare say it is a glow-worm,” said she: “let me look at it: yes,
that it is.”
“A glow-worm! mamma,” said John and Mary, “what is that?”
“It is a small worm, which is able to send forth a light from its body,
which shines in the dark, as you saw it. This is the only insect of the
kind which is found in our isle, but there are many in other lands, and
some of them give far more light than this does. There is the fire-fly,
which, as it flits in and out of the dark bushes in the night with its
star-like light, must look very pretty.”
“Oh, how I wish I could see it!” said John.
“The men who live where the fireflies are, sometimes use them as a lamp,
to guide them from place to place.”
“How droll,” said Mary, “when you want a light, just to run into the
woods and catch one!”
“How many things there are in the world,” said John, “which I have not
heard of!”
“Yes,” said his mamma, “that is quite true; and though you should live
to be an old man, you will still have to say the same, for the earth and
the sea are full of the works of the Lord, and no life is too long in
which to learn them all.”