The Glow-worm And The Famished Nightingale

A famished Nightingale, who had been singing to very thin houses,

chanced to encounter a Glow-worm at eventide and prepared to make upon

him a light repast. The unfortunate Lampyris Splendidula besought the

Songster, in the sacred name of Art, not to quench his vital spark, and

appealed to his magnanimity. "The Nightingale who needlessly sets claw

upon a Glow-worm," he said, "is a being whom it were gross flattery to

term a Luscinia Philomela." The Bird, however, turned a deaf beak to

these appeals and was about to douse the glim, when the Glow-worm cried

out, "Beware, lest I give you the heartburn; remember how Herod and

Luther died of a diet of Glow-worms," and while the Nightingale (who

was by no means a bad bird at stomach) was considering these

propositions, escaped, hanging out false lights to baffle his enemy's

pursuit.





Moral: Let the dead past bury its dead; act, act in the living

present.