Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-07-12

THE DISCONNECTED BEETLE.
(By Julie Closson Kenly.

THE DISCONTINUED BEETLE.
(By Julie Closson Kenly)
There was once big, disconnected beetle.
He had no pretty colors on his wing cases.
and the wings themselves, folded beneath,
were too small to hold his heavy body up
for any length of flight. All day he bur-
rowed in the earth and decayed leaves and
at night he crept out to envy the fire flies.
ooh" he sighed, what happiness to fly
about in the warm air carrying one of those
beautiful lamps. How l wish 1 was a
lightning bug and not a clumsy old black
BEETLE
One day as he was digging in the earth he
came on angle worms tunnel. Now the
bug people think that the angle worms are
very wise and useful, and so they are for
all their lives long they spend in working
the soil over and over so that it will be
loose for the roots Of the trees and the
flowers to move through; you know they do
move, very. very slowly, or else they would
always stay in one spot, and not go crawl
ing under the ground this way and that.
Say. asked the discontinued beetle Of
the angle worm, you are wise can YOU
tell me where the fire flies buy their
Lamps"
mo- the worm answered. turning his
blind, pink face toward the beetle. But
gether, and, If 1 remember rightly, they
spoke Of a fire somewhere up in the sky
that warmed them; maybe the fire flies
light their lamps there"
Then the worm turned away to bite off
great mouthful of clay. swallowing it quite
contentedly. "Why idgn't you ask the fire
flies themselves" it mumbled. seeing the
b. beetle aIs stil waiting there. that is what
Now the beetle gas very shy and very
proud. He was not afraid of a blind angle
worm but when it came to introducing
himself to fire fly, with lovely red head
and black markings-to say nothing of the
lamp-that was too much
Il Will not ask any more questions I will
hunt the world over till I find that fire for
myself said the Beetle sulenly, so off he
started. When he stuck his head out of
the earth worms, tunnel the first thing he
saw was bright red light. glittering be-
mind the leaves He was sure it was far
away, because he felt 20 heat from it. Ger
tainly that must be the fire the roots were
talking of. He would go there as straight
as he could crawl. so he scrambled off over
the ground. his nose pushing the grass and
ms two little fcclers showing him the way,
JUST as you can see any of the bug people
walk, If you watch them. Bye and bye he
looked up, thinking, undoubt edly that he
mad made long journey and must be near
t rrie emu. mercy; not sign of the fire any
where, no smoke even which was not
strange when you think that what the
stupid beetle had taken for fire was the
setting sun. which had dropped over the
edge of the world long ago and left only =
pig pink stain in the sky where it had
been. -''0
Dear me- fretted the beetle, how tired
l am all for nothing and no good" and
he burrowed under some drv leaves TO suIts
When he looked I'D again however he for
got that he had been discoura ged for there
Whlte and beautiful and shining between
me Tree branches he saw another fire. and
as soon as he saw it he made up his mind
that this was the very one he was looking
for S
Here goes"' exclaimed the beetle cheer
luiE, ana he began to climb the first tree
ne came to. 1t was a slow Journey and
many a time he would have fallen but for
the hard, hooked claws which he dug into
the bark of the tree. He did reach the ton
at iasl, as men and beetles always can If
they dig their claws in and work hard
enough, but when the tip-top leaf had been
reached, dreadful to say, the white fire had
noWn a million miles away up among the
stars. Can you guess what IT was that had
fooled the old beetle so?
for long time the discontinued beetle
stood on the top leaf, which looked to his
niue eyes like wide, black floor, swinging
ana tllting with the wind There was no
use. ne thought, he would give up his hunt
ana go pack to his cell in the ground where
ne could neither see nor hear, for what
GOOD We're eyes and ears except to put i'm
POSSIBLE IDEAS in ones head? AS he turned
TO go down the tree he stopped suddenly.
ouSted ms eyes with his feelers and looked
again. Was it possible-there in the street
peioW MN, the Very fire he was looking for?
Yes. there 1t shone. dangling from an iron
post ana so wonderfully white that the
moon looked like dirty silver plate beside
II. "A perfect cloud of bug people danced
teAclteoly around it-come to light their
lamps too. the beetle told himself, and the
next moment he stretch his wings and
Went Swimming through the darkness He
sorgot the other bug people dancing there,
!prsot the red sun that hid over the hill,
me "hite moon that ran away to the
stars the long journey he had come on;
iorsot everything except the great. blazing
uiaiIiono light that was growing nearer
with every culver Of his wings
YOURSELF"
The next morning when the man came to
cream out the electric globes he found, with
pint OF other burned up bugs, the body
OF a big black beetle
=, HOW can such a large bug have so lit
Tie sense!' he exclaimed, but when the
grass roots told the angle worm he said
nothing, because his mouth was full of dirt.
"