The Green Door

The Green Door

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Green Door, by Mary E. Wilkins
Freeman This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and
with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away
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Title: The Green Door
Author: Mary E. Wilkins Freeman
Release Date: March 1, 2006 [EBook #17887]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE
GREEN DOOR ***

Produced by Jeff Kaylin and Andrew Sly

The Green Door
By
Mary E. Wilkins-Freeman
Illustrated by Mary R. Bassett

New York Dodd, Mead & Company 1931

Letitia lived in the same house where her grandmother and her
great-grandmother had lived and died. Her own parents died when she
was very young, and she had come there to live with her Great-aunt
Peggy. Her Great-aunt Peggy was her grandfather's sister, and was a
very old woman. However, she was very active and bright, and good
company for Letitia. That was fortunate, because there were no little
girls of Letitia's age nearer than a mile. The one maid-servant whom
Aunt Peggy kept was older than she, and had chronic rheumatism in the
right foot and left shoulder-blade, which affected her temper.
Letitia's Great-aunt Peggy used to play grace-hoops with her, and
dominoes and checkers, and even dolls. Sometimes it was hard for
Letitia to realize that she was not another little girl. Her Aunt Peggy
was very kind to her and fond of her, and took care of her as well as her
own mother could have done. Letitia had all the care and comforts and
pleasant society that she really needed, but she was not a very
contented little girl. She was naturally rather idle, and her Aunt Peggy,
who was a wise old woman and believed thoroughly in the proverb
about Satan and idle hands, would keep her always busy at something.
If she were not playing, she had to sew or study or dust, or read a stent
in a story-book. Letitia had very nice story-books, but she was not
particularly fond of reading. She liked best of anything to sit quite idle,
and plan what she would like to do if she could have her wish--and that
her Aunt Peggy would not allow.
Letitia was not satisfied with her dolls and little treasures. She wanted
new ones. She wanted fine clothes like one little girl, and plenty of
candy like another. When Letitia went to school she always came home
more dissatisfied. She wanted her room newly furnished, and thought
the furniture in the whole house very shabby. She disliked to rise so
early in the morning. She did not like to take a walk every day, and
besides everything else to make her discontented, there was the little
green door, which she must never open and pass through.

The house where Letitia lived was, of course, a very old one. It had a
roof, saggy and mossy, gray shingles in the walls, lilac bushes half
hiding the great windows, and a well-sweep in the yard. It was quite a
large house, and there were sheds and a great barn attached to it, but
they were all on the side. At the back of the house the fields stretched
away for acres, and there were no outbuildings. The little green door
was at the very back of the house, toward the fields, in a room opening
out of the kitchen. It was called the cheese-room, because Letitia's
grandmother, who had made cheeses, had kept them there. She fancied
she could smell cheese, though none had been there for years, and it
was used now only for a lumber-room. She always sniffed hard for
cheese, and then she eyed the little green door with wonder and longing.
It was a small green door, scarcely higher than her head. A grown
person could not have passed through without stooping almost double.
It was very narrow, too, and no one who was not slender could have
squeezed through it. In this door there was a little black keyhole, with
no key in it, but it was always locked. Letitia knew that her Aunt Peggy
kept the key in some very safe place, but she would never show it to
her, nor unlock the door.
"It is not best for you, my dear," she always replied, when Letitia
teased her; and when Letitia begged only to know why she could not go
out of the door, she made the same reply, "It is not best for you, my
dear."
Sometimes, when Aunt Peggy was not by, Letitia would tease the old
maid-servant about the little green door,