North Cornwall Fairies and Legends Part 2

Just as he was in despair of the wonderful little Lantern coming his way again, it came, and so fast did it come, and so afraid was he of its pa.s.sing him without making himself heard, that he shouted with all his might, 'Please, little Lantern Man, stop; I want to ask you something.' And to his joy the little Lantern Man stopped. The door of the little Lantern opened wide, and a tiny, s.h.i.+ning face looked out.

'Did anybody call?' asked the little Lantern Man in a voice so kind that the Piskey's little heart leaped for joy.

'Yes, I called,' said the little Piskey. 'I called twice before, but you did not stop.'

'I never heard you call till now,' said the little Lantern Man. 'Who are you, and what do you want?'

'I am an unfortunate little Piskey who has lost his laugh,' answered the Piskey, 'and I have tramped all the way from Tintagel Head to Rough Tor Marsh to ask if you have seen it.'

'Lost your laugh, you poor little chap!' e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the little Lantern Man in the same kind voice. 'How came you to lose it?'

The little Piskey told him how he had lost his laugh, and what Granfer Piskey had said, and how the mole who called herself the Lady Want had told him to come to him.

'I would gladly help you to find your laugh if I knew where it was,' said the Lantern Man when the Piskey had told him all; 'but, unfortunately, I have never seen it.'

'Haven't you?' cried the poor little Piskey. 'I am disappointed. As you are always travelling about the country in your little Lantern, I felt sure you had seen my laugh.'

'I only travel in marshy ground,' said the little Lantern Man, still standing in the doorway of his tiny Lantern; 'and your laugh may not have pa.s.sed along my way.'

'Do you happen to know anybody else who has seen my laugh?' asked the little Piskey anxiously.

'n.o.body except Giant Tregeagle, of whom I dare say you have heard--that unhappy fellow who for some terrible wrong-doing has to dip Dozmare [4] Pool dry with a limpet-sh.e.l.l.'

'Yes, I have heard about that great Giant from Granfer Piskey,'

answered the little Piskey. 'He was a wicked seigneur who once had a fine house at Dozmare Pool and a great park on Bodmin Moors, and he is often flying about the country with the Wicked One at his heels.'

'The very same,' cried the little Lantern Man. 'He travels from east to west, and from west to south, and back again. He will be sure to have seen your laugh.'

'I am afraid my laugh is too small for a great big giant to have noticed, even if it pa.s.sed him,' said the little Piskey.

'He isn't so big but what he can see a laugh,' said the little Lantern Man. 'You had better go and ask him.'

'I don't know where he is,' said the little Piskey, who was in a most dejected frame of mind.

'He is at Dozmare Pool--or was not long since, doing his best to dip the big pool dry.'

'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.'

The little Lantern Man shut the door of his Lantern as he was speaking, and in another minute they were rus.h.i.+ng over Rough Tor Marsh at a fearful speed, and the little Piskey had to hold on to the frame of one of the tiny windows to keep himself on his feet. By Rough Tor's granite-piled heights the bright little Lantern went. On by Bronwilli (Brown w.i.l.l.y) it sped, and by many a solitary hill, almost as wild and untamed as old Rough Tor itself. Over lonely moors, bogs, rivers, and streams, it flew, and rocked and whirled as it went. As it sped on it b.u.mped against all manner of strange creatures, and once a night-hawk [5] turned the little Lantern upside down, and the Piskey found himself standing on his head with his tiny lean legs sticking up in the air; and he looked so funny that the little Lantern Man laughed till the tears ran down his s.h.i.+ning face, and if the Piskey had had his laugh he would have laughed too!

On and on the Lantern rushed, zigzagging up and down, down and up, and as it went strange moths and queer things that go about only by night fluttered their wings against its bright windows and door. Once a widdy-mouse, with a face like a cat, looked in, and then vanished into the darkness; and once a short-eared owl gripped the Lantern in his talons, but it sped on all the same.

About an hour after midnight the Lantern reached Dozmare Pool, which lies on the top of a great lonely moor surrounded by desolate hills. The moon was only a few days old, and had set long before the sun had gone down; but it was by no means dark by the big pool, for there was stars.h.i.+ne from innumerable stars, and also the light that fell from the wonderful little Lantern.

The little Lantern Man stopped his Lantern on a boulder by the pool, where was stretched a huge dark form, almost as big as a headland. It was Giant Tregeagle, lying face down on the margin of the pool, dipping water with a limpet-sh.e.l.l which had a hole in it.

The little Lantern Man opened the door of his Lantern, and telling the little Piskey that now was his chance to ask the Giant about his laugh, he helped him out.

'Shout into his ear till he hears you,' he whispered, hanging out of his door, 'and don't despair if he does not hear you just at first.'

The Piskey stepped up quite close to the great Giant, and he looked so tiny beside him that the little Lantern Man laughed, and said he was like a G.o.d's little cow [6] by the side of a plough-horse. 'Why,'

he said, 'his ear alone would make a dozen little chaps like you and me. Now I must be off and give light to the poor things that want light. Good luck to you, my friend, in finding your laugh;' and the little Lantern Man closed the door of his Lantern, which sped away over the big pool, shedding light as it went.

The Piskey watched the Lantern till it was hidden among the reeds and rushes, and then he turned his face to the Giant's ear, and when he had climbed up into it, he shouted:

'Giant Tregeagle, Giant Tregeagle, I am a poor little Piskey who has lost his laugh. Please stop dipping water for a minute, and tell me if you have seen it.'

But the Giant took no notice of the little Piskey, and went on dipping out water with a limpet-sh.e.l.l that had a hole in it.

Again and again the tiny brown Piskey shouted into the Giant's ear, but the big Giant took no more notice of his little piping voice than if a fly had buzzed close to his ear, and went on dipping.

Once more the Piskey shouted with all the voice he had, thrusting his red-capped head into the hollow of the Giant's ear as he shouted:

'Giant Tregeagle, Giant Tregeagle, I am a poor little Piskey who has lost his laugh. Please stop dipping water for a minute, and tell me if you have seen it.'

This time the Giant heard, and without pausing for a moment his hopeless task of emptying the pool dry, he said:

'What tiny squeak did I hear?'

The Piskey was too frightened to answer, for Giant Tregeagle's voice was almost as loud as the roar of breakers breaking in the cavern under King Arthur's Castle, and the tiny fellow crouched down in the curl of the Giant's ear.

'What tiny squeak did I hear?' again asked the Giant; and the little Piskey, taking his courage in both his hands, answered back as loud as he could:

'It was a little Piskey who spoke to you--a little Piskey who has had the great misfortune to lose his laugh.'

'A little Piskey has lost his laugh, has he?' roared Giant Tregeagle. 'Why, that's nothing compared to a Giant who has lost his soul!'

'Have you lost your soul?' cried the little Piskey, who, having got the Giant's ear, could now make his tiny voice distinctly heard.

'Yes, I have lost my soul,' moaned the great fellow, and his moan s.h.i.+vered over the surface of Dozmare Pool, and made all the sallows that grew beside it s.h.i.+ver and shake as if a blasting wind had pa.s.sed over them; and the reeds and rushes growing in the water sighed so sadly that the little Piskey felt ever so wisht, and sighed too.

'How did you come to lose your soul, Mister Giant?' asked the little Piskey after a while.

'That's a question,' answered the Giant, beginning again his hopeless task of emptying the pool.