The Lantern of Marrow Cove
A free B1-level English story for language learners, readable online in 7 languages, with an option to listen via the free Storyteller app.
When a storm douses the lighthouse at Marrow Cove, twelve-year-old Wren must climb its hundred stairs alone to save the ships out on the water.
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Chapter One: The Broken Light
For as long as anyone could remember, the lighthouse at Marrow Cove had never gone dark. Twelve-year-old Wren lived at its foot with her grandmother, the keeper, and she knew every one of its hundred and one stairs.
One stormy night, the great lamp flickered and died. Ships would come with the tide, and without the light they would break upon the rocks.
Her grandmother's knees were too old for the climb. So Wren took the spare oil, a box of matches, and a stubborn kind of courage, and began to climb.
Chapter Two: The Long Climb
The stairs groaned beneath her feet. Wind pushed through the cracks in the walls and tried to steal her small flame.
Halfway up, she found the reason for the darkness. A gull had built its nest against the lamp, and the oil line was clogged with feathers and salt.
Wren worked with cold fingers, clearing the line piece by piece. Twice the wind blew out her match, and twice she lit it again. She thought of the ships out on the dark water, and she did not stop.
Chapter Three: The Light Returns
At last the oil flowed freely, and Wren touched her flame to the wick.
Light burst out across the water, sweeping over the waves like a hand pushing the ships gently away from the rocks. Far below, she heard her grandmother cheer.
In the morning, the fishermen came to thank the new keeper of the light. Wren only smiled and looked up at the tower.
Some lights, she understood now, are kept burning by those who are brave enough to climb.
