There is no space to tell a thousandth part of the benefits conferred by
the Flamp upon the city which once had used him so ill. Suffice it to
say, that henceforward the Flamp became the guardian of Ule.
A line of communication was set up between his cave and the city, and
when wanted he was signalled for; then at a rush he would cross the
plain, ready for any duty.
He helped the people of Ule in countless ways, from overwhelming the
attacking force of the King of Unna, without the loss of a single man in
the defending army, to lying on the plain in the heat of summer and
casting a shadow in which picnic parties might have lunch.
Sometimes the Flamp came when the signal had not been set in motion; and
then it was known that he was again in need of sympathy, and the
children of the city, headed by Tilsa and Tobene, would run out into the
plain to meet him and join in a game, or if it was at night, and he came
within the walls, the house-holders would join in the song of welcome
which the Poet Laureate of Ule had written for such occasions. And soon
the Flamp would return to the mountains happy again.
The Christmas following the Understanding of the Flamp (as the
establishment of these new relations was called) was a time of good
fellowship, such as no Ulian had dreamed to be possible. Christmas at
last really was Christmas. The Flamp as of old came down at evening, but
this year no doors were barred, no blinds were drawn; instead he passed
from house to house throughout the city, looking in at the upper windows
and receiving a welcome at each, and sometimes a piece of plum-cake,
sometimes a packet of sweets, all of which passed down his huge red
throat. Is it necessary to say that his longest stay was at the nursery
window of the Liglid's house?
In fact Tilsa and Tobene, as you may imagine, were always the Flamp's
favourites, and every summer it was they, and they alone, who were
honoured by an invitation to stay for a fortnight in the Blue Mountains,
where they had such a holiday as falls to the lot of few children.
So did Ule, under the Flampian influence, become one of the happiest
spots in the world, and strangers poured into the city every day to
learn the secret of contentment.