From the Lantern Keeper

My dearest …,

I go along the lane at dusk on the last night of October and I light every lantern on every gatepost, one after another, all the way down. I stopped at yours for a moment longer than the rest, because of the name on the house: .

Now. You may be told tonight is frightening. Let me tell you what it actually is, because I have been lighting these for a very long time. A carved lantern is not there to scare you. It is there to scare things away from you. That is its entire job. People have been putting a face and a light in the window on this night for hundreds of years for exactly one reason: so that whatever is out in the dark sees it first and keeps walking.

So the frightening face on your step, , is on your side. It is standing out there in the cold all night looking fierce so that you do not have to. I think that is rather a fine thing to be, and there are people like it too.

I heard about , which took a bit of nerve, and nerve is the whole theme of the evening.

Keep the light in the window,
and mind the step on the way home —

The Lantern Keeper

Who Walks the Lane at Dusk

P.S. — Leave the candle burning a while after you come in. The ones who are still out walking use them to find their way, and I am one of them.