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the Fire Quest; one and all they burned their bright wings in the flame

and so died. And the Poet was grieved.



"Little harmless children of the night," he said, "why will you still

fly upon the Fire Quest? Never, never can you attain, yet you strive and

die. Foolish ones, have you never heard the story of the Firefly Queen?"



The moths and the cockchafers and the dragon-flies fluttered about the

taper and paid him no heed.



"They have never heard it," said the Poet; "yet it is old enough.

Listen:



"The Firefly Queen was the brightest and most beautiful of small things

that fly. She dwelt in the heart of a rosy lotus. The lotus grew on a

still lake, and it swayed to and fro upon the lake's bosom while the

Firefly Queen slept within. It was like the reflection of a star in the

water.



"You must know, oh, little children of the night, that the Firefly Queen

had many suitors. Moths and cockchafers and dragon-flies innumerable

flew to the lotus on the lake. And their hearts were filled with

passionate love. 'Have pity, have pity,' they cried, 'Queen of the

Fireflies, Bright Light of the Lake.' But the Firefly Queen sat and

smiled and shone. It seemed that she was not sensible of the incense of

love that arose about her.



"At last she said, 'Oh, you lovers, one and all, what make you here

idly, cumbering my lotus house? Prove your love, if you love me indeed.

Go, you lovers, and bring me fire, and then I will answer.'



"Then, oh, little children of the night, there was a swift whirr of

wings, for the moths and the cockchafers and the dragon-flies

innumerable swiftly departed upon the Fire Quest. But the Firefly Queen

laughed. Afterwards I will tell you the reason of her laughter.



"So the lovers flew here and there in the still night, taking with them

their desire. They found lighted lattices ajar and entered forthwith. In

one chamber there was a girl who took a love-letter from her pillow and

read it in tears, by the light of a taper. In another a woman sat

holding the light close to a mirror, where she looked and painted her

face. A great white moth put out the trembling candle-flame with his

wings.



"'Alack! I am afraid,' shrieked the woman; 'the horrible dark!'



"In another place there lay a man dying. He said, 'For pity's sake light

me the lamp, for the black night falls.'



"'We have lighted it,' they said, 'long since. It is close beside you,

and a legion of moths and dragon-flies flutter about it.'



"'I cannot see anything at all,' murmured the man.



"But those that flew on the Fire Quest burnt their frail wings in the

fire. In the morning they lay dead by the hundred and were swept away

and forgotten.



"The Firefly Queen was safe in her lotus bower with her beloved, who was

as bright as she, for he was a great lord of the Fireflies. No need had

he to go upon the Fire Quest. He carried the living flame beneath his

wings.



"Thus the Firefly Queen deceived her lovers, and therefore she laughed

when she sent them from her on a vain adventure."



* * * * *



"Be not deceived," cried the Wise Poet, "oh, little children of the

night. The Firefly Queen is always the same. Give over the Fire Quest."



But the moths and the cockchafers and the dragon-flies paid no heed to

the words of the Wise Poet. Still they fluttered about his taper, and

they burnt their bright wings in the flame and so died.



Presently the Poet blew out the light. "I must needs sit in the dark,"

he said; "it is the only way."