Читать книгу Rover - Barry Blackstone - Страница 11

It is mid-July on the coast of Maine, and last night was one of those perfect “mid-summer night” evenings; not hot nor humid, but warm and pleasant with just enough breeze to refresh you both physically and spiritually. It is on a night like that I reflect on a similar time when I was a boy with my dog Rover on a farm in Northern Maine. Rarely did the sticky humidity of the south reach that far north, and one could almost guarantee that once the sun began to set the air would begin to cool no matter the daytime temperature before it. As dusk turned into darkness and blackness invaded the barnyard another enjoyable event took place around the family home: the flight of the fireflies and their effect on me and my dog Rover.

It wasn’t until years later that I learned much about what we were enjoying and who we were dancing with. During those carefree days of my youth all I cared about was catching fireflies in a bottle. Chasing fireflies through the tall grass by the potato house was a summer adventure remembered fondly. My dog and I spend a good many warm summer’s eve in search of what we called “lighting bugs”.

According to the Expects, the flashing lights that attracted my dog and I was in actuality a chemical reaction taking place. Bioluminescence is the scientific name given to the process. I have learned that there are nearly 2000 kinds of fireflies and that each one has its own light code (what a wonderful Creator we believe in). I was saddened to learn that they were not flashing their lights for Rover or me. The flicker of light from their abdomen was for attracting a mate. A firefly will set on the stem of a high blade of field grass and wait for another firefly to pass. If the correct light is flashed and returned, there is a match! Little did I imagine what I was interrupting on those warm summer evening on the Blackstone Homestead when Rover and I went about chasing ‘lights’?

Another favorite hunting ground for fireflies for my dog and I was across the road from our home. A small field boxed in by woods always had an abundance of these beetle-like creatures. Feeding during the day on pollen, the “glowworm” as he is sometimes called, would only reveal himself when dusk could reflect the glow of his light. Grabbing an old canning jar, I would set out to catch enough fireflies to make my own flashlight. Easier said than done, the firefly would resist capture by moving between flashes, for it was only during that tiny spark that the fly was vulnerable. I caught a few, but I was never a great firefly catcher and neither was Rover. I was also to compassionate to be very good at it. I can’t remember ever keeping any of them. After we tired of running around, we would always let them go. Periodically, we might take them home to show Mom and Dad, but before we were off to bed, they were released into the backyard!

I live in the city now with few fireflies ever being seen in my backyard. It is for this reason I must chase fireflies in my mind and memory; see again only in my memory a field sparking with thousands of tiny lights inviting me and my dog to a dance. The sun sets and the frogs begin their croaking from the pond across the way, and Rover and I are lead to a field by a spark in the dark! I don’t know about you but I have always been amazed at the simplicity in the diversity that the Great Creator God put in His creation. As He created “ . . . the lesser light to rule the night . . . ” (Genesis 1:16) on the 4th day of creation; He also created a tiny “ . . . creeping thing . . . ” (Genesis 1:24), not to rule the night on the 6th day, but to light the night for a boy and his boyhood friend that they might have a wonderful time of play in the dusk of their relationship with a few fireflies.