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Läsebok. N:o 76 — 77.
47
kitchen-shutter, shining full upon the dial-plate, made it
brighten up as if nothing had been the matter. — When the
farmer came down to breakfast, he declared, upon looking
at the clock, that his watch had gained half an hour in the
night.
Jane Taylor.
58. The Nightingale and the Glow-worm.
A nightingale, that all day long
Had cheer’d the village with his song,
Nor yet at eve his note suspended,
Nor yet when even-tide was ended, —
Began to feel, as well he might,
The keen demands of appetite;
When looking eagerly around,
He spied far off, upon the ground,
A something shiniug in the dark,
And knew the glow-worm by his spark,
So, stooping down from hawthorn top,
He thought to put him in his crop;
The worm, aware of his intent,
Harangu’d him thus, right eloquent.
»Did you admire my lamp», quoth he,
»As much as I your minstrelsy,
You would abhor to do me wrong,
As much as I to spoil your song;
For ’twas the self-same pow’r divine
Taught you to sing and me to shine;
That you with music, I with light,
Might beautify and cheer the night».
The songster heard his short oration,
And, warbling out his approbation,
Releas’d him, as my story tells,
And found a supper somewhere else.
«
Hence jarring sectaries may learn
Their real int’rest to discern;
That brother should not war with brother,
And worry and devour each other;
But sing and shine by sweet consent,
Till life’s poor transient night is spent,
Respecting in each other’s case
The gifts of nature and of grace.
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