"cheer up," said he. "i'll light your fire for you." and off he went, and in a few minutes he came back with a great armful of sticks from the pine trees outside, and with these and a lesson book or two that he had forgotten to lose before, and which, quite by an oversight, were safe in his pocket, he lit a fire all around the cockatrice. the wood blazed up, and presently something in the basin caught fire, and edmund saw that it was a sort of liquid that burned like the brandy in a snapdragon. and now the cockatrice stirred it with his tail and flapped his wings in it so that some of it splashed out on edmund's hand and burnt it rather badly. but the cockatrice grew red and strong and happy, and its comb grew scarlet, and its feathers glossy, and it lifted itself up and crowed "cock-a-trice-a-doodle-doo!" very loudly and clearly.