The first knowledge of the Flamp which came to Tilsa and Tobene was gained at breakfast on Christmas morning, when the Liglid warned them of the precautions necessary in the city at night, and besought them to make no noise lest the attention of the Loathly Beast should be drawn to their house.

'But what is the Flamp?' asked Tilsa.

'What!' said the Liglid. 'A monster, a dreadful monster!'

'What is it like?' Tobene asked.

'Like?' said the Liglid, 'like? Why, no one knows. No one has seen it. But we can hear it—oh, horrible, horrible!' and the little man covered his eyes and shuddered.

'Why does it come?' Tilsa went on.

'To eat us,' said the Liglid.

'How many people has it eaten?' said Tobene.

'Eh!' the Liglid replied. 'Well, I don't—well, I can't exactly—well, I don't think it has ever eaten any one yet. But it wants to and means to.'

'Then how do you know it wants to eat you?' Tilsa persisted.

'Because,' said the Liglid, 'because it sounds like it.'

At night the Flamp came, and the city trembled and the earth shook. Before the Liglid's house it sat down and wept and sighed for fully five minutes, while within doors the Liglid turned all the colours of the rainbow with fright. 'His face was fine,' said Tobene afterwards: 'just like those whirligig things at the end of magic-lantern shows.' From which remark you may judge that Tobene did not share his grandfather's alarm, nor did Tilsa, nor old Alison.

The next morning there was a pool outside the Liglid's house large enough to sail a boat on.

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