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Robert Louis Stevenson reader

Part 2 — LEERIE

Reading edition

Leerie is the name the children in Scotland call the man who lights the street lamps.

“Leerie” means lighter.

Every evening, just as it begins to get dark, the lamplighter goes through the town.

He carries a ladder and a lantern.

When he comes to a lamp-post, he places his ladder against it.

Then he climbs up and lights the lamp from his lantern.

So through the town he goes lighting all the lamps.

Often a crowd of boys follow him, calling,

“Leerie, Leerie, light the lamp! Leerie, Leerie, light the lamp!”

Sometimes this makes the lamplighter angry.

He drops his ladder and chases the boys.

Just in front of Louis’s home was a lamp-post.

Every evening as soon as it began to get dark Louis ran to a front window.

There he would watch for the lamplighter.

He could not follow Leerie with the other boys and he never teased him.

The black-and-white image shows a lamplighter holding a short ladder in his left hand and traditional four-sided glass lantern in his right hand. He is dressed for winter in a thick coat, trousers, sturdy boots, and a scarf or cloth wrapped around his neck.
The black-and-white image shows a lamplighter holding a short ladder in his left hand and traditional four-sided glass lantern in his right hand. He is dressed for winter in a thick coat, trousers, sturdy boots, and a scarf or cloth wrapped around his neck.

When the lamplighter came Louis nodded and smiled to him.

He liked to watch Leerie light the lamp before the house.

I hope Leerie always looked up and saw the lonely little lad.

Perhaps he did and nodded to him.

Or, better still, perhaps he waved his bright lantern to Louis before he hurried down the street to light the other lamps.

Louis thought it must be great fun to be a lamplighter.

I think he told his nurse about it.

Perhaps he said, “Nursie, don’t you think it must be fine to be a lamplighter? I do.”

“But why, my child?”

“Well, you see, if we had no lamplighter, the town would all be dark.

I don’t like the dark.

It is good to make the town light for all little children.

Just think, Nursie, of coming into a street and finding it all dark.

Then as Leerie passes along with his ladder and his lantern, it all becomes light.

I had rather be a lamplighter than anything else in the world.”

“But, laddie, you told me the other day that you wanted to sail to the Far-away land.”

“So I do, Nursie.

But don’t you think I might go around, just once, and light the lamps with Leerie?”

Perhaps some night Leerie did take the little boy around with him.

Perhaps he often let him light the lamp before the door.

I hope so. Don’t you?

This black-and-white drawing shows a traditional lantern. The lantern has a rectangular box-shaped body and a flat circular base. A metal cage with a grid pattern protects the light source, and clear glass panels fit inside the frame. Inside the cage is a rounded bulb or candle shape. At the top, there is a simple wire or leather loop handle for carrying.
This black-and-white drawing shows a traditional lantern. The lantern has a rectangular box-shaped body and a flat circular base. A metal cage with a grid pattern protects the light source, and clear glass panels fit inside the frame. Inside the cage is a rounded bulb or candle shape. At the top, there is a simple wire or leather loop handle for carrying.
There are two black-and-white images. On the left is a doll. On the right appears to be a doll leaning over a bar with two posts on each side. The doll's hands hang down below the bar, clasped.
There are two black-and-white images. On the left is a doll. On the right appears to be a doll leaning over a bar with two posts on each side. The doll's hands hang down below the bar, clasped.
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