Читать книгу The Illustrated London Reading Book - Various - Страница 36

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 shining in the dark,

And knew the glowworm by his spark:

So stooping down from hawthorn top,

He thought to put him in his crop.

The worm, aware of his intent,

Harangued 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 power 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,

Released him, as my story tells,

And found a supper somewhere else.