A/N: I wrote this poem at least five YEARS ago, hence the quality. Back in July 2011, I posted it over on Wikia. Recently I thought, why not put all my fanfic in one place? So here it is: a poem loosely based on a scene from Anne's House of Dreams; the italicised text is a selection from Chapter 13: A Ghostly Evening. I hope you won't judge me too badly once you read it.

They walked on in silence for a little while. Presently Anne said, 'Do you know, Captain Jim, I never like walking with a lantern. I have always the strangest feeling that just outside the circle of light, just over its edge in the darkness, I am surrounded by a ring of furtive, sinister things, watching me from the shadows with hostile eyes. I've had that feeling from childhood. What is the reason? I never feel like that when I'm really in the darkness – when it is close all around me – I'm not the least frightened.'

I've something of that feeling myself,' admitted Captain Jim. 'I reckon when the darkness is close to us it is a friend. But when we sorter push it away from us – divorce ourselves from it, so to speak, with lantern light – it becomes an enemy. But the fog is lifting.

There's a smart west wind rising, if you notice. The stars will be out when you get home.'

They were out; and when Anne re-entered her house of dreams the red embers were still glowing on the hearth, and all the haunting presences were gone.

When I walk at night,
I never take a light,
For there are fairies, yet
Beyond the rim of lamplight, I bet.

They are on the flowers, dancing,
Dressed in purple frocks and prancing,
The dryads of the trees have all come out
Watching me and fluttering all about.

All the spirits of the flowers
And the elfkin in their bowers
Dance in the silver moonlight
In the magical hour in night.

For in their enchanted night
They revel ... oh, what a sight
But only those who live in fairyland, see it
For the magic is only for the gentle, to meet it.