“‘“You are a vicious little vagabond,” he said. I don’t know what he meant, but those are the very words he used and I know they meant something disagreeable. He thought I had blown out his light, just for mischief. “But you shall be punished for it,” he went on. “I’ll see to it. I shall take you to the King himself!”
“‘I grew more and more frightened. His voice was so very cross and he clutched me so tight. Then, too, we were flying along through the dark over fields I had never visited before. I have always been afraid in the dark’ (here the little girl nodded her head understandingly and looked about her at the bright sunshine gratefully). ‘And the grasses rustled so queerly. I began to be afraid that they, too, meant to do me harm.
“‘At last, after we had been flying for what seemed to me to be hours, we reached a sort of open place, all bare and cold looking, with high rocks all about it. There were thousands of fireflies inside this place, all with their lanterns brightly burning. On one side a great many flies were bunched together to light a kind of throne, and on this throne sat the King and Queen of the Fireflies. My heart was in my mouth as my captor carried me across to them, for the King was ever so much bigger than any of the other fireflies and I did not know what he might do to punish me.
“‘There were two or three other fireflies talking to the King, but they all stopped and moved aside when they saw the old firefly coming up with his lantern gone out, and carrying me.
“‘“Why, what’s this, what’s this?” asked the King in a surprised voice as the fly sank down, all out of breath, at the foot of the throne.
“‘“Oh, Your Majesty,“ he gasped, as soon as he could get breath enough to speak, “I was hunting for corn-flowers down in the big meadow, trying to find enough honey to finish my supper before it grew too dark, for you know I am growing old and my light was giving out.”
“‘“Yes, yes, I know,” replied the King kindly. “We have all felt very sorry about it. And I am greatly shocked to see that it has now gone out altogether.”
“‘“Ah, but hear how that happened, Your Majesty. I was hunting about, very busy and never dreaming of the dreadful thing that was to happen, when this little creature”—he did not call me a vicious little vagabond to the King, but his voice sounded as if he would like to—“stole up behind me and blew out my light!”
“‘Everybody exclaimed at this and crowded about the old firefly to tell him how sorry they were. I was sorry too, as sorry as I could be, for I had not known that the firefly’s light was dim because he was growing old. I had not meant any harm, but rather to help him. I tried to explain this to the fireflies but no one would listen when I talked about the gnomes and their forge fires. I thought the Queen was listening, for she kept looking at me; but she did not say anything.
“‘The King ordered me off to prison, and appointed the old fly, whose light I had blown out, to be my keeper. There were two other guards to the prison too, and it was horrid. My prison was a long, narrow crack in one of the brown rocks and I don’t know how long a time I spent there. It seemed like years. At the back, very cold and dark indeed, was my bed. The front looked down on the open space which, I learned, was called the throne glade, and one could see everything that went on. But the two keepers always sat one on each side of the door, and the old fly in the middle so that I could not see out. If the King went by, or anything interesting happened, I would try to peep over their shoulders, but the guards scolded me so and made such unkind remarks that I was ready to cry.