In a lovely little meadow, there lived a timid little firefly named Flicker. She was just a tiny thing, with a very small yellowish light that was always twinkling and flickering. Every evening when the sun went down, the big glow-worms would come out of their houses and twinkle in the grass. Sometimes they would play together, but Flicker usually sat high up on her favorite flower, peering out into the dark sky, wondering why other little fireflies did not come to play with her.
“Are you not lonesome up there all alone, little girl?” asked one of the big glow-worms one evening.
“I am not alone,” she answered; “my heart is always with the stars.”
“But they do not come down to play with you.”
“I do not want them to come down. Oh dear, no! I want to shine as they shine up there.”
“You cannot shine as brightly as we can. Why do you not come down here on the grass, and have a good time with us?”
So Flicker came down to her companions. They were very jolly cousins of hers, and did all they could to amuse her. But she never forgot her wish to shine like the stars. One night, high above her little companions whose heads were directed toward the ground, she suddenly dashed into the air, and spiraled around and down, down, down; then away towards some far-away star in the sky. But feeling very tired with her exertions, she stopped to rest for a while on a big moonflower which was white as a Cup. Just around her were a brown and white little butterfly and a black and white bumblebee.
“Will you search the meadows with me to see whether you can find the missing light?” said the firefly.
“What a surprise that would be to everybody!” said the butterfly. “There was nobody noticed it but myself. I had just gathered some honey, and was resting on this flower, when the firefly danced around me, putting out his light.”
“You surely will not be mistaken!” observed the bumblebee. “Do you remember what his light was like?”
“Indeed I do,” said the butterfly; “it was brilliant!”
One evening, a party of glow-worms went to see their cousin Flicker. As twilight was setting in, she went up higher and higher above her companions, and, opening her wings, twinkled her fire to the stars. But the wise glow-worms knew better than Flicker that it is best to let one’s charms be seen at once. They were always burning their small lights more brightly still by putting forth efforts and attention; but their small stars went out after a while. Flicker found this out when she came down to them again.
“You have burned yourself out,” they said; “you have no light left for to-night and no light for to-morrow night.”
“Will it ever come again?” asked she, with tears of disappointment in her eyes.
“Bright little stars never forget their brightness; yes, Flicker will have light,” said a few friendly glow-worms.
“Oh, how much longer must we wait?” said the firefly.
But, after waiting a long time, she flew up high into the air, determined to find out about her light. And then prayed, she said:
“Little star, beautiful star, pure and tender, come down, and bring my light again!”
And, lo! the bright star under whose care she was fell down as if from a thousand little worlds; and sparkling little Flicker soon put it into the lantern of her little home.
“Now, dear Godfather, turn the bright glass toward the meadow, so that poor Flicker may see to-morrow morning where her little dark house is.”
And when Flicker awoke in the morning, she was quite pleased to see the gleaming dew-drops and the gauzy perspective of the warm color that surrounded everything. The air was so still that a dew-drop mixed with sunshine and rain would sometimes be shot out of her neighbor’s favoured star as a fountain, and many a long way off its little colored bridges were used in London’s illuminated streets.
But Flicker paid no more attention to the surrounding sea. She did not tremble after her long wait to be home again, for everything twinkled so brightly and many little glittering ears pricked up on seeing the dew-drops rolling along.
She wanted, as everybody else, to have friends about her whom she might praise, and who would praise her again. That is a universal human trait, and Flicker was still human amongst her surroundings.
But she nobody among all her friends! They had remained behind the colored windows of the tall houses in the neighbouring city, while her parents and uncles, and learned little Juno in the moon, all sat diligently studying by the light of their white star, which sent its sharp rays like a golden cable into her dwelling for her own and their little glimmer might shine much brighter.