From the Lantern Keeper

My dearest Emma,

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: EMMA.

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, Emma, 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.

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.