Dr. Do-Diddily and the Dee-Dot's : Blog

Dr. Do-Diddily and the Dee-Dot's : Blog

Dr. Do-Diddily and the Dee-Dot's
Have come specially to the southern hemesphere to ask all the children to read this and remember not to do what Frances did .... Read on.
 FRANCES THE FIREFLY

reproduced for the guidence for the children of the world

Frances the Firefly
wanted to grow up quickly, but there were one or two things she had to learn first...

Deep
in the middle of a forest far away was the Kingdom of the Insects. They
were a friendly bunch who worked together to build a land where
everyone had a purpose.
The spiders spun silky, silvery webs to decorate the land and fill it with splendour.
The
ants, who were immensely strong, built houses. And the bees ran the
honey factories making sure that everyone had enough delicious honey to
eat.

 

The fireflies had a very special
job. Because they could make their tails glow, they lit up the forest
at night time, so that the other insects could see in the dark.  

Every
evening, after the sun had sunk below the trees, they flew up into the
sky with their tail torches glowing, and shone like rays of sunlight.

Nobody needed street lamps in the Kingdom of the Insects!
There was one little firefly called Frances, who wanted to join the others in the sky at night.

She
watched them take off and begged to go with them. But they told her she
was too young. "You can't make your tail glow brightly enough yet,"
they said kindly.
"I shall practice until I can make it glow
properly," she thought. She flapped herwings furiously, trying with all
her might, buther tail hardly glowed at all.
This made her feel very
sad. The other fireflies
said, "Don't worry, Frances. One day you will
be old enough to join in with thegrown-ups." Frances felt that day was
so far off, it would never come.
A few nights later, Frances was
sitting on a twig in the forest, feeling sorry for herself.
Suddenly,
something tapped her sharply on the shoulder.


It was Cocky
Roach. Cocky was a naughty young insect who was always getting into
trouble. He knew Frances was upset, and he thought he would play a
trick on her.
I've got something exciting to
show you, Frances," said Cocky. "Come with me." He led her to his
hiding place, and pushed a leaf to one side and pointed. It was a box
of matches!

"Oh Cocky, where did you get these?" asked Frances. "Matches are dangerous, Mummy said so."
"I
found them on the kitchen table at home," Cocky chuckled. "And nobody
has noticed that they're missing yet." Cocky leaned over and whispered
in Frances's ear.
"If you strike one, you can have a tail torch of your
own, and be like the grown-up fireflies."

Frances wanted to be grown up, so with Cocky's help she lit the match. At once a bright glow shone all around her.

"Fly up, fly up with it!" yelled Cocky with delight.
Frances
flew up and up. "Just wait till everyone sees what I can do," she
thought. But she was too pleased with her lovely bright light to notice
that the flame was growing larger and larger.

It came creeping
up the match until it reached her wings and burned them. The flame hurt
Frances so much that she dropped the match, which fell down to the
forest below.
The match landed on some dry
leaves and twigs on the forest floor, and of course they started to
burn. The flames spread quickly, and it was only a matter of minutes
before the whole forest was alight.
All the houses were destroyed, and the honey factories burnt to cinders the good work that the insects
had done was ruined.

Next morning, when the fire had
finally been put out, the insects held an emergency meeting. Many of
them had been badly burned, including Frances, whose blackened wings
were still very painful. King Chrysalis, a grand butterfly who ruled
the Kingdom of the Insects, rose to speak:
"We must rebuild our land at
once, and make it beautiful again."
 He looked down at Frances, who was
feeling very ashamed of herself.
"I hope you now understand how dangerous fire can be," he said to her in a stern voice.
Frances had indeed learned her
lesson. She helped the rest of her friends rebuild the houses and
factories, but she was also given a special job to do. Every now and
then she gathered together all the younger insects and told them her
story. They would sit and listen to her tale, and understand why they
should never play with matches.

And what about Cocky Roach? He
was sent away from the Insect Kingdom in disgrace. Even today, you can
see him scuttling amongst the litter in towns and villages, looking for
something to eat.

I
don't think this little story can be counted as a fable but it is
definitely a lesson that tells us how very, very dangerous it is to
play with fire and remember matches are one of the worse causes of fire
accidents.
Don't you forget then my little ones........

........ NEVER, NEVER PLAY WITH MATCHES, COS MATCHES MEAN FIRE AND FIRE MEANS PAIN AND SOMETIMES DEATH.