"The houses are always furnished with lamps, of course, and everybody
carries a lantern. No one dreams of stirring out in Pokonoket without
a lantern. The men go to their work with lanterns, the ladies take
theirs when they go out shopping, and all the children have their
little lanterns to carry to school.

[Illustration: SCHOOL CHILDREN IN POKONOKET.]

"On account of the darkness, there are some very curious customs in
Pokonoket. One is, all the inhabitants are required by law to wear
squeaky shoes. Whenever anybody's shoes don't squeak according to the
prescribed standard he is fined, and sometimes even imprisoned, if he
persists in his offense. A great many sad accidents are prevented by
this custom. People hear each other's shoes squeaking in the darkness
at quite a distance, and don't run into each other. Pokonoket
shoemakers make a specialty of squeaky shoes, and the squeakier they
are, the higher prices they bring; they can even put in new squeaks
when the old ones are worn out. It is a very common thing to see a
Pokonoket man with his little boy's shoes under his arm, carrying them
to a shoemaker to get them re-squeaked.

"Another funny custom is the wearing of phosphorescent buttons.
Everybody, men, women and children, are required to wear
phosphorescent buttons on their outside garments. They are quite
large--about the size of an old-fashioned cent--and there are,
generally, two rows of them down the front of a garment. It is rather
a frightful sight to see a person with phosphorescent buttons on his
coat advancing toward one in the dark, till you are accustomed to it;
he looks as if he had two rows of enormous eyes.