, that I am going to tell you, but of John
Sturtridge, a streamer, and what befell him one year when he had been
keeping up St. Picrons' Day.

He had been up to the 'Rising Sun' to the great supper that was always
held there, and to the merry-making after it, and had enjoyed himself
mightily. Enjoyed himself so much, in fact, that he did not greatly
relish having to turn out, when both were ended, and face a long walk
home.

It was a bitterly cold night, and the road was a lonely one, all across
Tregarden Downs. However, it had to be faced, and nothing was gained by
putting it off, so John started, and at first he got along pretty well.
True, he found the roads very puzzling, and difficult to follow, but that
may have been the fault of the moonlight, or the will-o'-the-wisps.
Anyhow, if he did not get on very rapidly, he got on somehow, and
presently reached the Downs.

Now Tregarden Downs is a horribly wild, uncanny stretch of country,
a place where no one chooses to walk alone after nightfall, and, though
John was in a cheerful mood, and did not feel at all frightened, he
quickened his steps, and pulled hot-foot for home and bed. He kept a
sharp eye on the cart-tracks, too, for he had no fancy for going astray
here as he had done in the lanes. Whether, though, he did go a little
astray or not, no one can say, but all of a sudden what should he come
upon right across his path, but a host of piskies playing all sorts of
games and high jinks under the shelter of a great granite boulder.

Whatever John's feelings may have been at the sight of them, the piskies
were not troubled by the sight of John. They were not in the least
alarmed, the daring little imps. They only burst into roars of wicked
laughter, which pretty nearly scared the wits out of poor John, and made
him take to his heels and run for his life! If only he could get off the
Downs, he thought, he would be safe enough, but the Downs, of which he
knew every yard, seemed to-night to stretch for miles and miles, and,
try as he would, he could not find his way off them. He wandered round
and round, and up and down, and to and fro, until at last he was obliged
to admit to himself that he did not know in the least where he was, for he
could not find a single landmark to guide him.

It is a very unpleasant thing to lose yourself on a big lonely Down, on a
bleak winter's night, but it is ten times more unpleasant when you are
pursued all the way by scores