The Lighthouse and the Little Boat
- 3 minute read
- Ages 5-9
- Bedtime Stories
A lighthouse stood on a rock at the end of a headland and had one job, which was to turn.
Every night, all night, the light went round: a long white sweep out over the water, then dark, then the sweep again. It had done this for sixty years and it did not vary and it did not stop.
The boat's complaint
A little fishing boat was tied up in the harbour below, and one evening she said what she had been thinking for a while.
"Do you ever get bored?"
"Of what?"
"Of that," said the boat. "Round and round. The same thing, all night, every night. You never go anywhere. I go out and come back and see things. You just turn."
"I do," said the lighthouse.
"Does it not bother you?"
"No," said the lighthouse, and went round again.
The night it mattered
Late that autumn the boat went out further than she meant to and the weather changed behind her.
The wind came round and the sky closed up and the light went, all in about forty minutes, and then there was no coast and no stars and no horizon and no way to tell which direction was which. There was only water, in every direction, all of it moving.
The boat did not know which way home was. She might have been pointing straight out to sea.
She turned in a slow circle, looking.
And out of the dark on her left side, a long way off, something swept white across the water, and was gone, and after a while came again.
Home
She went towards it.
It took her a long time and it was a bad crossing, but every time she began to doubt herself the light came round again and told her she was still right, and then again, and then again.
She came in past the rock at about two in the morning and tied up in the harbour and sat there for a while.
Then she looked up.
"You were turning," she said.
"I am always turning," said the lighthouse. "That is the entire point. It is no use at all if I only do it on the nights somebody needs it, because nobody tells me which nights those are."
Moral of the story
The value of something dependable is that it is there on the night you did not know you would need it. That is why it cannot take nights off.
Questions and answers
- What was the lighthouse's job?
To turn its light in a steady sweep over the water, all night, every night, without stopping.
- What did the little boat find strange about it?
That the lighthouse did the same thing every night and never went anywhere, while she went out and saw things.
- What happened to the boat that autumn?
She went out too far, the weather changed, and she lost all sight of the coast, the stars and the horizon.
- How did she find her way home?
She saw the lighthouse beam sweep across the water and steered towards it, checking herself each time it came round.
- Why did the lighthouse say it could not only shine when needed?
Because nobody tells it which nights those will be. It has to be reliable every night for it to be useful on any night.
Word meanings
- headland
- A piece of land that sticks out into the sea.
- harbour
- A sheltered place where boats are kept.
- horizon
- The line where the sea meets the sky.
- dependable
- Able to be relied on.
Questions about The Lighthouse and the Little Boat
What is the moral of The Lighthouse and the Little Boat?
That reliability only works if it is unbroken. Something dependable is valuable precisely because it is there on the night nobody expected to need it.
Is this a comforting story for bedtime?
Yes, deliberately. The frightening part is short and the ending is safe, warm and settled, which is the right shape last thing at night.
Who might the lighthouse represent?
Most readers take it as a parent or grandparent. The story never says so, which lets a child arrive at it themselves.
How long does it take to read aloud?
About four and a half minutes, and the storm section should be read slower rather than faster.