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The Little Room..................................................................................................................................................1

Madelene Yale Wynne .............................................................................................................................1

"Just the very place; only, you know, Roger, you must not think of smoking in the house. I am almost afraid

having just a plain common man around, let alone a smokingman, will upset Aunt Hannah. She is New

"You leave Aunt Hannah to me: I shall find her tender side. I am going to ask her about the old seacaptain

"No, no! don't mix it up so; you won't know yourself what to expect, and that's half the fun."

"Now you tell me again exactly what to expect: to tell the truth, I didn't half hear about it the other day; I was

woolgathering. It was something queer that happened when you were a child, wasn't it?"

"Something that began to happen long before that, and kept happening, and may happen again; but I hope

"Well, mother was born in Vermont, you know; she was the only child by a second marriage. Aunt Hannah

"My aunts brought mother up; they were nearly twenty years older than she. I might say Hiram and they

brought her up. You see, Hiram was bound out to grandfather when he was a boy, and when grandfather died

Hiram said he s'posed he went with the farm, 'long o' the critters,' and he has been there ever since. He was

my mother's only refuge from the decorum of my aunts. They are simply workers. They make me think of the

"Seventy, or thereabouts; but they will die standing; or, at least, on a Saturday night, after all the housework

is done up. They were rather strict with mother, and I think she had a lonely childhood. The house is almost a

mile away from any neighbors, and off on top of what they call Stony Hill. It is bleak enough up there even in

"When Mamma was about ten years old they sent her to cousins in Brooklyn, who had children of their own,

and knew more about bringing them up. She staid there till she was married: she didn't go to Vermont in all

that time, and of course hadn't seen her sisters, for they never would leave home for a day. They couldn't even

be induced to go to Brooklyn to her wedding so she and father took their wedding trip up there."

"When they got to the house, mother wanted to take father right off into the little room; she had been telling

him about it, just as I am going to tell you and she had said that of all the rooms that one was the only one

that seemed pleasant to her. She described the furniture and the books and paper and everything, and said it

was on the north side, between the front and back room. Well, when they went to look for it, there was no

little room there; there was only a shallow chinacloset. She asked her sisters when the house had been

altered and a closet made of the room that used to be there. They both said the house was exactly as it had

been builtthat they had never made any changes, except to tear down the old woodshed and build a

"Father and mother laughed a good deal over it, and when anything was lost they would always say it must be

in the little room, and any exaggerated statement was called 'littleroomy." When I was a child I thought that

"Well, they talked it over, and finally they concluded that my mother had been a very imaginative sort of a

child and had read in some book about such a little room, or perhaps even dreamed it, and then had 'made

believe,' as children do till she herself had really thought the room was there."

"Yes, but you haven't heard the queer part yet; you wait and see if you can explain the rest as easily.

"They staid at the farm two weeks and then went to New York to live. When I was eight years old my father

was killed in the war, and mother was brokenhearted. She never was quite strong afterwards, and that

"I was a restless sort of a child, and the journey seemed very long to me: and finally, to pass the time mamma

told me the story of the little room, and how it was all in her own imagination and how there really was only

"She told it with all the particulars; and even to me, who knew beforehand that the room wasn't there, it

seemed just as real as could be. She said it was on the north side, between the front and back rooms; that it

was very small, and they sometimes called it an entry. There was a door also that opened outofdoors, and

that one was painted green and was cut in the middle like the old Dutch doors so that it could be used for a

window by opening the top part only. Directly opposite the door was a lounge or couch; it was covered with

blue chintzIndia chintzsome that had been brought over by an old Salem seacaptain as a 'venture.' He

had given it to Maria when she was a young girl. She was sent to Salem for two years to school. Grandfather

"That is just it. They had decided that mother had imagined it all, and yet you see how exactly everything was

painted in her mind, for she had even remembered that Hiram had told her that Maria could have married the

"The India cotton was the regular blue stamped chintz, with the peacock figure on it. The head and body of

the bird were in profile, while the tail was full front view behind it. It had seemed to take mamma's fancy, and

she drew it for me on a piece of paper as she talked. Doesn't it seem strange to you that she could have made

"At the foot of the lounge were some hanging shelves with some old books on them. All the books were

leathercolored except one; that was bright red, and was called the Ladies' Album. It made a bright break

"On the lower shelf was a beautiful pink seashell, lying on a mat made of balls of red shaded worsted. This

shell was greatly coveted by mother, but she was only allowed to play with it when she had been particularly

good. Hiram had showed her how to hold it close to her ear and hear the roar of the sea in it.

"Mamma said she remembered, or thought she remembered, having been sick once, and she had to lie quietly

for some days on the lounge; then was the time she had become so familiar with everything in the room, and

she had been allowed to have the shell to play with all the time. She had had her toast brought to her in there,

with makebelieve tea. It was one of her pleasant memories of her childhood; it was the first time she had

"Right at the head of the lounge was a lightstand, as they called it, and on it was a very brightly polished

brass candlestick and a brass tray, with snuffers. That is all I remember of her describing, except that there

was a braided rag rug on the floor, and on the wall was a beautiful flowered paperroses and

morningglories in a wreath on a light blue ground. The same paper was in the front room."

"She said that when she and father went up there, there wasn't any little room at all like it anywhere in the

"Not a scrap, and Aunt Hannah said there had never been any that she could remember; and Maria just

echoed hershe always does that. You see, Aunt Hannah is an upanddown New England woman. She

looks just like herself; I mean just like her character. Her joints move up and down or backward and forward

in a plain square fashion. I don't believe she ever leaned on anything in he life, or sat in an easy chair. But

Maria is different; she is rounder and softer; she hasn't any ideas of her own: she never had any. I don't

believe she would think it right or becoming to have one that differed from Aunt Hannah's, so what would be

"When mamma and I got there, of course I was all excitement to see the chinacloset, and I had a sort of

feeling that it would be the little room after all. So I ran ahead and threw open the door. Crying, 'Come and

"And, Roger,"said Mrs. Grant, laying her hand in his, "there really was a little room there, exactly as mother

had remembered it. There was the lounge, the peacock chintz, the green door, the shell, the morningglory

"Wait a minute and I will tell you. My mother was in the front hall still talking with Aunt Hannah. She didn't

hear me at first but I ran out there and dragged her through the front room, saying, The room is hereit is all

"It seemed for a minute as if my mother would faint. She clung to me in terror. I can remember now how

"I called out to Aunt Hannah and asked her when they had had the closet taken away and the little room built;

"'That little room has always been there,' said Aunt Hannah, 'ever since the house was built.'

"'But mamma said there wasn't any little room here, only a chinacloset, when she was here with papa,' said

"'No, there has never been any chinacloset there; it has always been just as it is now,' said Aunt Hannah.

"Then mother spoke; her voice sounded weak and far off. She said, slowly, and with an effort, 'Maria, don't

you remember that you told me that there had never been any little room here? and Hannah said so too, and

"'No, I don't remember anything of the kind,' said Maria, without the slightest emotion. 'I don't remember you

ever said anything about any chinacloset; the house has never been altered; you used to play in this room

" I know it,' said mother, in that queer slow voice that made me feel frightened. Hannah, don't you remember

my finding the chinacloset here, with the giltedged china on the shelves, and then you said that the

" No,' said Hannah, pleasantly but unemotionally'no, I don't think you ever asked me about any

"And that was the strangest thing about it. We never could make them remember that there had ever been any

question about it. You would think they could remember how surprised mother had been before, unless she

had imagined the whole thing. Oh, it was so queer! they were always pleasant about it, didn't seem to feel any

interest or curiosity. It was always this answer: The house is just as it was built; there have never been any

"And my mother was in an agony of perplexity. How cold their gray eyes looked to me! There was no

reading anything in them. I just seemed to break my mother down, this queer thing. Many times that summer,

in the middle of the night, I have seen her get up and take a candle and creep softly down stairs. I could hear

the steps creak softly under her weight. Then she would go through the front room and peer into the darkness,

holding her thin hand between the candle and her eyes. She seemed to think the little room might vanish.

Then she would come back to bed and toss about all night, or lie still and shiver; it used to frighten me.

"She grew pale and thin, and she had a little cough; then she did not like to be left alone. Sometimes she

would make errands in order to send me to the little room for somethinga book, or her fan, or her

handkerchief; but she would never sit there or let me stay in there long, and sometimes she wouldn't let me go

"Well, don't talk any more about it, Margaret, if it makes you feel so," said Mr. Grant.

"Oh, yes, I want you to know all about it, and then there isn't much moreno more about the room.

"Mother never got well, and she died that autumn. She used often to sigh, and say, with a wan little laugh,

There is one thing I am glad of, Margaret: your father knows now all about the little room.' I think she was

afraid I distrusted her. Of course, in a child's way, I thought there was something queer about it, but I did not

brood over it. I was too young then, and took it as a part of her illness. But Roger, do you know, it really did

affect me. I almost hate to go there after talking about it; I somehow feel as if it might, you know, be a

"I know it; of course it can't be. I saw the room, and there isn't any chinacloset there, and no giltedged

"And then she whispered, "But, Roger, you may hold my hand as you do now, if you will, when we go to

It was dusk when Mr. and Mrs. Grant went into the gate under the two old Lombardy poplars and walked up

Hannah gave Mrs. Grant a frigid but not unfriendly kiss; and Maria seemed for a moment to tremble on the

verge of an emotion, but she glanced at Hannah, and then gave er greeting in exactly the same repressed and

Supper was waiting for them. On the table was the giltedged china. Mrs. Grant didn't notice it immediately,

till she saw her husband smiling at her over his teacup; then she felt fidgety and couldn't eat. She was

nervous, and kept wondering what was behind her, whether it would be a little room or a closet.

After supper she offered to help about the dishes, but, mercy! she might as well have offered to help bring the

So she and her husband went to find the little room, or closet, or whatever was to be there.

Aunt Maria followed them, carrying the lamp, which she set down, and then went back to the dishwashing.

Margaret looked at her husband. He kissed her, for she seemed troubled; and then, hand in hand, they opened

the door. It opened into a chinacloset. The shelves were neatly draped with scalloped paper; on them was

the giltedged china, with the dishes missing that had been used at the supper, and which at that moment

Margaret's husband dropped her hand and looked at her. She was trembling a little, and turned to him for

help, for some explanation, but in an instant she knew that something was wrong. A cloud had come between

He paused for an appreciable instant, and then said kindly enough, but in a voice that cut her deeply, "I am

"Ended!" said she. "How ended?" And somehow her voice sounded to her as her mother's voice had when she

stood there and questioned her sisters about the little room. She seemed to have to drag her words out. She

spoke slowly: "It seems to me to have only just begun in my case. It was just so with mother when she"

"I really wish, Margaret, you would let it drop. I don't like to hear you speak of your mother in connection wit

it. It" He hesitated, for was not this their weddingday? "It doesn't seem quite the thing, quite delicate, you

She saw it all now: he didn't believe her. She felt a chill sense of withering under his glance.

"Come," he added, "let us go out, or into the diningroom, somewhere, anywhere, only drop this nonsense."

He went out; he did not take her hand nowhe was vexed, baffled, hurt. Had he not given her his sympathy,

his attention, his beliefand his hand?and she was fooling him. What did it mean?she was so truthful,

so free from morbidnessa thing he hated. He walked up and down under the poplars, trying to get into the

Margaret heard him go out; then she turned and shook the shelves; she reached her hand behind them and

tried to push the boards away; she ran out of the house on to the north side and tried to find in the darkness,

with her hands, a door, or some steps leading to one. She tore her dress on the old rosetrees, she fell and

rose and stumbled, then she sat down on the ground and tried to think. What could she thinkwas she

She went into the house and out into the kitchen, and begged Aunt Maria to tell her about the little

roomwhat had become of it, when had they built the closet, when had they bought the giltedged china?

They went on washing dishes and drying them on the spotless towels with methodical exactness; and as they

worked they said that there had never been any little room, so far as they knew; the chinacloset has always

been there, and the giltedged china had belonged to their mother, it had always been in the house.

"No. I don't remember that your mother ever asked about any little room," said Hannah. "She didn't seem

very well that summer, but she never asked about any changes in the house; there hadn't ever been any

There it was again: not a sign of interest, curiosity, or annoyance, not a spark of memory.

She went out to Hiram. He was telling Mr. Grant about the farm. She had meant to ask him about the room,

Months afterwards, when time had lessened the sharpness of their feelings, they learned to speculate

reasonably about the phenomenon, which Mr. Grant had accepted as something not to be scoffed away, not to

be treated as a poor joke, but to be put aside as something inexplicable on any ordinary theory.

Margaret alone in her heart knew that her mothers's words carried a deeper significance than she had dreamed

of at the time. "One thing I am glad of, your father knows now," and she wondered if Roger or she would

Five years later they were going to Europe. The packing was done; the children were lying asleep, with their

Roger had a foreign appointment. They were not to be back in America for some years. She had meant to go

up say goodby to her aunts; but a mother of three children intends to do a great many things that never get

done. One thing she had sone that a very day, and as she paused for a moment between the writing of two

"Roger, you remember Rita Lash? Well, she and Cousin Nan go up to the Adirondacks every

autumn. They are clever girls, and I have intrusted to them something I want done very much."

"Yes, I was a coward not to go up myself, but I didn't find time, because I hadn't the courage."

Rita Lash and Cousin Nan planned to go to Vermont on their way to the Adirondacks. They found they

would have three hours between trains, which would give them time to drive up to the Keys farm, and they

could still get to the camp that night. But, at the last minute, Rita was prevented from going. Nan had to go to

meet the Adirondack party, and she promised to telegraph her when she arrived at camp. Imagine Rita's

amusement when she received this message: "Safely arrived; went to the Keys farm; it is a little room."

Rita was amused, because she did not in the least think Nan had been there. She thought it was a hoax; but it

put it into her mind to carry the joke further by really stopping herself when she went up, as she meant to do

She did stop over. She introduced herself to the two maiden ladies, who seemed familiar, as they had been

They were, if not cordial, at least not disconcerted at her visit, and willingly showed her over the house. As

they did not speak of any other stranger's having been to see them lately, she became confirmed in her belief

In the north room she saw the roses and morning glory paper on the wall, and also the door that should open

She opened it and found the chinacloset. She experienced a certain relief; she at least was not under any

But she tried to induce the old sisters to remember that there had at various times been certain questions

relating to a confusion as to whether the closet had always been a closet. It was no use; their stony eyes gave

Then she thought of the story of the sea captain, and said, "Miss Keys, did you ever have a lounge covered

with India chintz, with a figure of a peacock on it, given to you in Salem by a seacaptain, who brought it

"I don'no' as I ever did," said Hannah. That was all. She thought Maria's cheeks were a little flushed, but her

She went on that night to the Adirondacks. When Nan and she were alone in their room she said,

"Bytheway, Nan, what did you see at the farmhouse? and how did you like Maria and Hannah?"

Nan didn't mistrust that Rita had been there, and she began excitedly to tell her all abut her visit. Rita could

almost have believed Nan had been there if she hadn't known it was not so. She let her go on for some time,

enjoying her enthusiasm, and the impressive way in which she described her opening the door and finding the

"little room." Then Rita said: "Now, Nan, that is enough fibbing. I went to the farm myself on the way up

yesterday, and there is no little room, and there never has been any; it is a chinacloset, just as Mrs. Grant

She was pretending to be busy unpacking her trunk, and did not look up for a moment; but as Nan did not say

anything, she glanced over her shoulder. Nan was actually pale, and it was hard to say whether she was most

angry or frightened. There was something of both in her look. And then Rita began to explain how her

telegram had put her in the spirit of going up there alone. She hadn't meant to cut Nan out. She only

thought Then Nan broke in: "It isn't that; I am sure you can't think is is that. But I went myself, and you

Oh, what a night they had! They couldn't sleep. They talked and argued, and then kept still for a while, only

to break out again, it was so absurd. They both maintained that they had been there, but both felt sure the

other one was either crazy or obstinate beyond reason. They were wretched; it was perfectly ridiculous, two

friends at odds over such a thing; but her it was"little room," "chinacloset,""china closet," "little

The next morning Nan was tacking up some tarlatan at a window to keep the midges out. Rita offered to help

her, as she had done for the past ten years. Nan's "No, thanks," cut her to the heart.

"Nan," said she, "come right down from that stepladder and pack your satchel. The stage leaves in just twenty

minutes. We can catch the afternoon express train, and then we ill go together to the farm. I am either going

Nan didn't say a word. She gathered up the hammer and tacks, and was ready to start when the stage came

It meant for them thirty miles of staging and six hours of train, besides crossing the lake; but what of that,

compared with having a lie lying round loose between them! Europe would have seemed easy to accomplish,

At the little junction in Vermont they found a farmer with a wagon full of mealbags. They asked him if he

could not take them up to the old Keys farm and bring them back in time for the return train, due in two

They had planned to call it a sketching trip, so they said, "We have been there before, we are artists, and we

might find some views worth taking, and we also want to make a short call upon the Misses Keys."

"Waal, I guess you are too late. The house burned down last night, and everything in it."