‘I am rather tired after tramping here from Tintagel,’ said the little fellow, ‘and I don’t feel like going all the way to Dozmare Pool. I have no spring in my legs since my laugh left me,’ he added, as the little Lantern Man smiled rather sadly. ‘I never knew what it was to be tired and wisht before I lost my laugh.’
‘I don’t suppose you did, you poor little chap!’ cried the little Lantern Man, ‘and you must do all you can to find your laugh. I am going to Dozmare Pool, or the Magic Lake, as it was called in the long ago; and if you don’t mind travelling in my Lantern, I’ll give you a lift as far as that.’
‘Will you?’ exclaimed the little Piskey, his tiny brown face brightening as the Lantern Man smiled. ‘You are very kind, and I will go with you gladly.’
‘That’s right!’ cried the little Lantern Man; and he held out his hand, which shone like his face, and helped the little brown Piskey into his Lantern.
When the Piskey was safe inside the Lantern, he thought it was the very brightest place he was ever in—’even brighter than a fairy’s palace,’ he said.
‘There is no seat in my Lantern except the floor,’ said the little Lantern Man, as the Piskey looked about him. ‘The floor is not uncomfortable, if you care to sit down. I always sleep on it when my night work of giving light to the poor things that live in the marshes is done.’
‘I would rather stand, thank you.’ returned the Piskey. ‘I can look out of your windows better.’
‘Do as you like, only it is my duty to tell you that you would be safer on the floor. My Lantern and I travel so fast that the creatures that fly by night often knock up against us and turn us upside down.’
By Rough Tor’s granite-piled height the bright little Lantern went.