The Diamond and the Dewdrop38
A costly Diamond, that had once sparkled in a lady’s ring, lay in a field amid tall grasses and oxeye daisies.
Just above it, was a big Dewdrop that clung timidly to a nodding grass-blade.
Overhead, the blazing sun shone in all his noonday glory.
Ever since the first pink blush of dawn, the modest Dewdrop had gazed fixedly down upon the rich gem, but feared to address a person of such exalted consequence.
At last, a large Beetle, during his rambles, chanced to espy the Diamond, and he also recognised him to be some one of great rank and importance.
“Sire,” he said, making a low bow, “permit your humble servant to offer you greeting.”
“Tha—nks,” responded the Diamond in languid tones of affectation.
As the Beetle raised his head from his profound bow, his gaze happened to alight upon the Dewdrop.
“A relative of yours, I presume, Sire?” he remarked affably, waving one of his feelers in the direction of the Dewdrop.
The Diamond burst into a rude, contemptuous laugh.
“Quite too absurd, I declare!” he exclaimed loftily. “But there, what can you expect from a low, grovelling beetle? Away, sir, pass on! Your very presence is distasteful to me. The idea of placing ME upon the same level—in the same family, as a low-born, mean, insignificant, utterly valueless——” Here the Diamond fairly choked for breath.
“But has he not beauty exactly like your own, Sire?” the Beetle ventured to interpose, though with a very timid air.
“BEAU—TY!” flashed the Diamond, with fine disdain—“the impudent fellow merely apes and imitates ME. However, it is some small consolation to remember that ‘Imitation is the sincerest flattery.’ But, even allowing him to possess it, mere beauty without rank is ridiculous and worthless. A Boat without water—a Carriage, but no horses—a Well, but never a winch: such is beauty without rank and wealth! There is no real worth apart from rank and wealth. Combine Beauty, Rank, and Wealth, and you have the whole world at your feet. Now you know the secret of the world worshipping ME.”
And the Diamond sparkled and gleamed with vivid, violet flashes, so that the Beetle was glad to shade his eyes.
The poor Dewdrop had listened silently to all that had passed, and felt so wounded, that at last he wished he never had been born. Slowly a bright tear fell and splashed the dust.
Just then, a Skylark fluttered to the ground and eagerly darted his beak at the Diamond.
“Alas!” he piped, with a great sob of disappointment. “What I thought to be a precious dewdrop is only a worthless diamond. My throat is parched for want of water. I must die of thirst!”
“Really? The world will never get over your loss,” cruelly sneered the Diamond.
But a sudden and noble resolve came to the Dewdrop. Deeply did he repent his foolish wish. He could now lay down his life that the life of another might be saved!
“May I help you, please?” he gently asked.
The Lark raised his drooping head.
“Oh, my precious, precious friend, if you will, you can save my life!”
“Open your mouth then.”
And the Dewdrop slid from the blade of grass, tumbled into the parched beak, and was eagerly swallowed.
“Ah—well, well!” pondered the Beetle as he continued his homeward way. “I’ve been taught a lesson that I shall not easily forget. Yes, yes! Simple worth is far better than rank or wealth without modesty and unselfishness—and there is no true beauty where these virtues are absent!”
Footnotes
1 How to Tell Stories to Children.
2 In How to Tell Stories to Children, page 145.
3 How to Tell Stories to Children.
4 Nature Myths, Florence Holbrook.
5 Favourite Greek Myths, Lilian S. Hyde.
6 Legends of Greece and Rome, G.H. Kupfer.
7 Folk Tales from Many Lands, Lilian Gask.
8 These riddles were taken from the Gaelic, and are charming examples of the naïve beauty of the old Irish, and of Dr Hyde’s accurate and sympathetic modern rendering. From Beside the Fire (David Nutt).
9 From The Ignominy of being Grown Up, by Dr. Samuel M. Crothers, in the Atlantic Monthly for July 1906.
10 Adapted from the German of Robert Reinick’s Märchen-, Lieder-und Geschichtenbuch (Velhagen und Klasing, Bielefeld and Leipsic).
11 I have tried to give this story in the most familiar form; it varies a good deal in the hands of different story-tellers, but this is substantially the version I was “brought up on.”
12 The four stories of the little Jackal, in this book, are adapted from stories in Old Deccan Days, by Mary Frere (John Murray), a collection of orally transmitted Hindu folk tales, which every teacher would gain by knowing. In the Hindu animal legends the Jackal seems to play the rôle assigned in Germanic lore to Reynard the Fox, and to “Bre’r Rabbit” in the negro stories of Southern America; he is the clever and humorous trickster who usually comes out of an encounter with a whole skin, and turns the laugh on his enemy, however mighty he may be.
13 The following story of the two mice, with the similar fables of The Boy who cried Wolf, The Frog King, and The Sun and the Wind, are given here with the hope that they may be of use to the many teachers who find the over-familiar material of the fables difficult to adapt, and who are yet aware of the great usefulness of the stories to young minds. A certain degree of vividness and amplitude must be added to the compact statement of the famous collections, and yet it is not wise to change the style-effect of a fable, wholly. I venture to give these versions, not as perfect models, of course, but as renderings which have been acceptable to children, and which I believe retain the original point simply and strongly.
14 Based on Theodor Storm’s story of Der Kleine Häwelmann (George Westermann, Braunschweig). Very freely adapted from the German story.
15 Adapted from two tales included in the records of the American Folk-Lore Society.
16 From Celia Thaxter’s Stories and Poems for Children.
17 By William Allingham.
18 Adapted from the verse version, by Horace E. Scudder, which follows this as an alternative.
19 A Negro nonsense tale from the Southern States of America.
20 From Louisa M. Alcott’s Life, Letters and Journals.
21 From Celia Thaxter’s Stories and Poems for Children.
22 Adapted from the facts given in the German of Die Zehn Feen in Märchen und Erzählungen, Zweiter Teil, by H.A. Guerber.
23 Adapted from the story as told in Fables and Folk Tales from an Eastern Forest, by Walter Skeat.
24 From The Singing Leaves, by Josephine Preston Peabody.
25 Adapted from Hans Christian Andersen.
26 I have always been inclined to avoid, in my work among children, the “how to make” and “how to do” kind of story; it is too likely to trespass on the ground belonging by right to its more artistic and less intentional kinsfolk. Nevertheless, there is a legitimate place for the instruction-story. Within its own limits, and especially in a school use, it has a real purpose to serve, and a real desire to meet. Children have a genuine taste for such morsels of practical information, if the bites are not made too big and too solid. And to the elementary teacher, from whom so much is demanded in the way of practical instruction, I know that these stories are a boon. They must be chosen with care, and used with discretion, but they need never be ignored. I venture to give some little stories of this type, which I hope may be of use in the schools where country life and country work is an unknown experience to the children.
27 Very freely adapted from one of the Fables of Bidpai.
28 Adapted from Longfellow’s poem.
29 Adapted from H.A. Guerber’s Märchen und Erzählungen (D.C. Heath & Co.).
30 A shortened version of the familiar tale.
31 An Italian folk tale.
32 From Beside the Fire, Douglas Hyde (David Nutt).
33 Adapted from the German of Der Faule und der Fleissige, by Robert Reinick.
34 From the text of the Revised Version of the Old Testament, with introduction and slight interpolations, changes of order, and omissions.
35 Adapted, with quotations, from the poem in The Hidden Servants, by Francesca Alexander.
36 Adapted from the poem by Phœbe Gary, in A Treasury of Verse, Part I., M.G. Edgar.
37 From the German of Hedwig Levi.
38 By Rev. Albert E. Sims.