"Oh, yes. It was a jolly festival," said Johannes. "Do you have to stay here all the time, in this dark passage?" "That is my own choice," said the glow-worm, in a bitter, mournful voice. "I care no more for vanities." "Come," said Windekind, "you do not mean that!" "It is just as I say. Formerly--formerly there was a time when I, too, went to feasts, and danced, and kept up with such frivolities; but now I am purified through suffering, now...." And he became so agitated that his light went out again. Fortunately they were near the outlet, and the rabbit, hearing them coming, moved a little to one side, so that the moonlight shone in. As soon as they were outside by the rabbit, Johannes said: "Will you not tell us your history, Glow-worm?" "Alas!" sighed the glow-worm, "it is a sad and simple story. It will not amuse you." "Tell us! Tell us, all the same!" they cried. "Well, then, you know that we glow-worms are very peculiar beings. Yes, I believe no one would contradict that we glow-worms are the most highly gifted of all who live. "Why? I do not know that," said the rabbit. At this, the glow-worm asked disdainfully, "Can you give light?" "No, indeed, I cannot," the rabbit was obliged to confess. "Now _we_ give light--all of us. And we can make it shine or can extinguish it. Light is the best gift of Nature, and to make light is the highest achievement of any living being. Ought any one then to contest our precedence? Moreover, we little fellows have wings, and can fly for miles." "I cannot do that, either," humbly admitted the rabbit. "Through the divine gift of light which we have," continued the glow-worm, "other creatures stand in awe of us, and no bird will attack us. Only one animal--the human being--the basest of all, chases us, and carries us off. He is the most detestable monster in creation!" At this sally Johannes looked at Windekind as though he did not understand. But Windekind smiled, and motioned to him to be silent. "Once, I flew gaily around among the shrubs, like a bright will-o'-the-wisp. In a moist, lonely meadow on the bank of a ditch there lived one whose existence was inseparably linked with my own happiness. She sparkled beautifully in her light emerald-green as she crept about in the grass, and my young heart was enraptured. I circled about her, and did my best, by making my light play, to attract her attention. Gratefully, I saw that she had perceived me, and demurely extinguished her own light. Trembling with emotion, I was on the point of folding my wings and sinking down in rapture beside my radiant loved one, when the air was filled with an awful noise. Dark figures approached. They were human beings. In terror, I took flight. They chased me, and struck at me with big black things. But my wings went faster than their clumsy legs." "When I returned--"