Daily Short Stories - Children's Stories

The Fire-Fly's Lovers

Listen Ad Free https://www.solgoodmedia.com - Listen to hundreds of audiobooks, thousands of short stories, and ambient sounds all ad free!

Duration:: 12m
Broadcast on:: 12 Jul 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Hey there, it's Solomon from Saul Good Media. A lot of our listeners have asked how to get ad-free access to our podcast. You asked, and we answered, we're offering an exclusive one-month free trial to our ad-free streaming platform, packed with over 500 audiobooks, meditation sounds, and engaging podcasts. No strings attached, just pure listening pleasure. Sign up today at Saul Good Media dot com and dive into a world of stories and sounds that inspire and relax. Don't miss out on this limited time offer, it's your gateway to unlimited audio enjoyment. That's Saulgoodmedia.com, S-O-L-G-O-O-D-M-E-D-I-A dot com. Check it out, we hope to see you over there. Hey there, listeners. Are you ready to unlock a world of captivating stories, soothing sounds, and enlightening lectures? At Saul Good Media, we believe in the power of audio to enrich your life, and now we're offering you a chance to experience it all for free. For a limited time, you can get a one-month free trial to our premium, ad-free service. Imagine having unlimited access to over 500 audiobooks, meditative sounds, and exclusive shows, all at your fingertips. Just head over to Saulgoodmedia.com and sign up to start your free trial today. No ads, no interruptions just pure, immersive audio content. Don't miss out. Transform your listening experience with Saulgoodmedia. Visit Saulgoodmedia.com and start your free trial now. We can't wait for you to join our audio community. Happy listening. The firefly's lovers. On the southern and sunny side of the castle milks of the Fukui castle in Etchizan, the water had long ago become shallow, so that lotus lilies grew luxuriantly. Deep in the heart of one of the great flowers, whose petals were as pink as the lining of a sea shell, lived the king of the fireflies, Hyo, whose only daughter was the lovely princess Hotaru. While still a child, the princess had been carefully kept at home within the pink petals of the lily, never going even to the edges except to see her father fly off on his journey. Dutifully she waited until of age, when the fire glowed in her own body and shone beautifully illuminating the lotus, until it's light gleamed like a lamp within a globe of coral. Every night her light grew brighter and brighter, until at last it was as mellow as gold. Then her father said, "My daughter is now of age, she may fly abroad with me sometimes, and when the proper suitor comes, she may marry whom she will." So Hotaru flew forth in and out among the lotus lilies of the moon, then into rich rice fields, and at last far off to the indigo meadows. Wherever she went, a crowd of suitors followed her, for she had the singular power of attracting all the night flying insects to herself, but she cared for none of their attentions, and though she spoke politely to them all, she gave encouragement to none, yet some of the sheenie-winged gallants called her a coquette. One night she said to her mother, the queen, "I have met many admirers, but I do not wish a husband from any of them. Tonight I shall stay at home, and if any of them love me truly, they will come and pay me court here. Then I shall lay an impossible duty on them. If they are wise, they will not try to perform it, but if they love their lives more than they love me, I do not want any of them. Whoever succeeds may have me for his bride." "As you will, my child," said the queen mother, who arrayed her daughter in her most resplendent robes, and set her on the throne in the heart of the lotus. Then she gave orders to her bodyguard to keep all suitors at a respectful distance, lest some stupid gallant, a hornbug or a cockchafer, dazzled by the light, should approach to near and hurt the princess or shake her throne. No sooner had twilight faded away. Then forth came the golden beetle, who stood on a statement in making a basin, said, "I am Lord Green Gold. I offer my house, my fortune, and my love to Princess Hottaru. "Go and bring me fire, and I will be your bride," said Hottaru. With a bow of the head, the beetle opened its wings and departed with a stately whirr. Next came a shining bug with wings and body as black as lamp-smoke, who solemnly professed his passion. He received the same answer. "Bring me fire, and you may have me for your wife." Off flew the bug with a buzz. Pretty soon came the scarlet dragonfly, expecting so to dazzle the princess by his gorgeous colors, that she would accept him at once. "I decline your offer," said the princess. "Unless you bring me a flash of fire," Swift was the flight of the dragonfly on his errand, and in came the beetle with a tremendous buzz and ardently pleaded his suit. "I will say yes, if you bring me fire," said the glittering princess. Suitor after suitor appeared to woo the daughter of the king of the fireflies, until every petal was dotted with them. One after another in a long troop they appeared, each in his own way, proudly, humbly, boldly, mildly, with flattery, with boasting, even with tears, preferred his love, told his rank or expatiated on his fortune or vowed his constancy, sang his tuner, played his music. To every one of her lovers, the princess in modest voice returned the same answer. "Bring me fire, and I'll be your bride." So without telling his rivals, each one thinking he had the secret alone sped away after fire, but none ever came back to wet the princess, alas, for the poor suitors, the beetle whizzed off to a house nearby, through the paper windows of which light glimmered, so full was he of his passion, the thinking nothing of wood or iron, he dashed his head against the nail, and fell dead on the ground. The black bug flew into a room, where a poor student was reading. His lamp was only a dish of earthenware full of rapeseed oil, with a wick made of pith. Knowing nothing of oil, the love-learned bug crawled into the dish, to reach the flame, and in a few seconds was drowned as in a sea. "What's that?" said the thrifty housewife, sitting with needle in hand, as her lamp flared up for a moment, smoking the chimney and then cracking it. While picking out the scorched bits, she found a roasted dragonfly, whose scarlet wings were all burned off. Mad with love, the brilliant hawk moth, afraid of the flame, yet determined to win the fire for the princess, hovered round and round the candle flame, coming nearer and nearer each time. "Now or never, the princess or death," he buzzed as he darted forward to snatch a flash of flame, but singing his wings, he fell helplessly down and died in agony. "What a fool he was, to be sure," said the ugly clothes moth, coming on the spot. "I'll get the fire, I'll crawl up inside the candle." So he climbed up the hollow paper wick, and was nearly to the top, and close to the blue part of the flame, when the man, snuffing the wick, crushed him to death. Said, indeed, was the fate of the lovers of he or his daughter, some hovered around the beacons on the headland, some fluttered about the great wax candles, which stood eight feet high in their brass sockets in the temples of Buddha. Some burned their noses at the top of incense sticks, or were nearly choked by the smoke, some danced all night round the lanterns into shrines, some sought the sepulchral lamps in the graveyards, one visited the cremation furnace, another in the kitchen, where a feast was going on. Another chased the sparks flew out of the chimney, but none brought fire to the princess, or won the lover's prize. Many lost their feelers, had their shining bodies scorched, or their wings singed, but most of them, alas, laid dead, black and cold next morning. As the priests trimmed the lamps in the shrines, and the servant made the lanterns, each said alike. The princess Hotaru must have had many lovers last night. Alas, alas poor suitors, some tried to snatch a streak of green fire from the cat's eyes, and were snapped up for their pains. One attempted to get a mouthful of bird's breath, but was swallowed alive. A carrion beetle, the ugly lover, crawled off to the seashore, and found some fish scales that emitted light. The stag beetle climbed the mountain, and in a rotten tree stump, found some bits of glowing wood like fire, but the distance was so great that long before they reached the castle moat, it was daylight, and the fire had gone out, so they threw their fish scales in old wood away. The next day was one of great mourning, and there were so many funerals going on, that Himaro, the prince of the fireflies on the north side of the castle moat, inquired of his servants the cause. Then he learned for the first time of the glittering princess. Upon this, the prince, who had just succeeded his father upon the throne, fell in love with the princess and resolved to marry her. He sent his chamberlain to ask of her father, his daughter in marriage, according to true etiquette. The father agreed to the prince's proposal, with the condition that the prince should obey her behasting one thing, which was to come in person, bringing her fire. Then the prince, at the head of his glittering battalions, came in person, and filled the lotus palace with the flood of golden light. But Hotaru was so beautiful that her charms paled not their fire, even in the blaze of the prince's glory. The visit ended in wooing, and the wooing in wedding. On the night appointed, in a palantin made of the white lotus petals. Amid the blazing torches of the prince's battalions of warriors, Hotaru was born to the prince's palace, and there the prince and princess were joined in wedlock. Many generations have passed since Himaro and Hotaru were married, and still it is the whim of all firefly princesses, that their baseborn lovers must bring fire as their love offering, or lose their prize. Else with the glittering fair ones be wearied unto death, by the importunity of their lovers. Great indeed is the loss, for in this quest to fire, many thousand insects, attracted by the firefly, are burned to death in the vain hope of winning the fire that shall gain the cruel but beautiful one that fascinates them. It is for this cause that each night insects hover around the lamp flame, and every morning a crowd of victims drowned in the oil, or scorched in the flame, must be clean from the lamp. This is the reason why young ladies catch and imprison the fireflies, to watch the war of insect love, in the hope that they may have human lovers who will dare as much through fire and flood as they end off the firefly's lovers by William Elliot Griffiths.