Hanging on, holding my little candle.

The kids in "The Silver Chair" by C.S. Lewis had been trapped in the underground realm of the evil queen for quite a while. She was trying to convince them that the world above, where they had lived for years, didn't exist.

She pointed to the lamp and said they had made up the sun from imagining a great big lamp. She didn't that in several different ways--you made up stuff from the stuff that is here which is the only real stuff.

Fortunately, the kids were accompanied by Puddleglum, who above ground was a notable pessimist, always expecting the worst. But underground, he was the one who said, "How come the stuff you say we're making up is so much better that what you say is the only real stuff? The sun is much more wonderful than you pathetic lamp, and it's better even if we made it up, which I don't believe for a moment. Real or not, the world above ground that we remember is better than your world. I'm loyal to the better thing."

So it's like his above ground pessimism had given him valuable experience in not getting with the program. He used it to save the children's clarity of thought, so they could hang in there and get out of there, which they did.