There once was an old street lamp standing¹ on a remote corner of a town. The street lamp was worn out because he stayed up all night for several years to shine in a dark street. That's why he had to be replaced by a new lamp. It was the last night that the street lamp shone over the side street. He was an old kerosene² lamp.

The old street lamp burned himself as hard as he could since he thought it was his last night. "I have seen a lot of things since I stood here." The old street lamp looked back upon what he had seen for a long time. There were pleasant memories, and also sad memories, with those he could hardly keep from tears.

Suddenly the old street lamp sensed that there who were looking up at him. "Mr. Street Lamp, we heard that you will retire from your job." "Please hire me after you." "No, hire me." They were a head of a herring, a tree fragment³ and a firefly. The head of a herring glowed⁴ in the dark, and the tree fragment was bright in the dark when he was wet.

The old street lamp looked down and said, "I am sorry say this, but you both are not bright enough to be a street light." The three were angry about it. "Hum! You, old useless street lamp! You don't have to care about which of us will replace you!" They said this and went back.

The Next day, a janitor⁵ came to clear the old street lamp away. "Oh, I wish I can stay here." No one knew what the old lamp would become if he were broken to pieces. The old street lamp worried about this very much.

There were a good old man and a woman. They were living around the old street lamp. They used to turn on and put out the old street lamp at night and dawn.

The old street lamp happened to go to the old man and woman's house. The old man and woman did not want to live apart from the old street lamp which they used to take care of for a long time, so they asked the janitor to give them the old street lamp. "Whew, I am lucky." The old street lamp felt relieved⁶.

One day, one of their neighbors came and asked." What on earth is the use of this old lamp?" "We've been taking care of this lamp for a long time, so we don't want to throw it away." As the old street lamp was listening to their conversation, he felt his heart aching. "If they light me up, I can be quite helpful for them."

The old woman cleaned the old lamp in her spare time. Then, the old lamp slowly became clean. The lamp felt better. "Ha ha, it looks much better." The old man smiled pleasantly. "Shall we light up this lamp tonight?" "Yes. Let's do that."

The old woman bought a candle. That night, she lit up the clean old street lamp. "Great, I will try to brighten⁷ myself as hard as I can." The old street lamp shone all around him brightly. For the old man and woman who took care of him, he brightened⁸ his iron ornament⁹ glitteringly.