The Green Door | Page 9

You
had curls, and we went coasting down that long hill near Grandmother's
together."

"Seems to me we did," said Letitia, and her own tone was dazed and
hopeless.
"Since I have been here," whispered the boy, "I haven't been exactly
sure who I was and that is the truth. The folks where I am staying are
real good. They go to meeting all day Sunday and they don't work
Saturday nights, but I can't understand it. We have to make all the
things I have seen already made, for one thing."
Letitia nodded in the dark.
"That is the way here," said she.
"And Mr. Cephas Holbrook has just the name that my
great-great-great-uncle on my mother's side had," said the boy, in a
whisper so puzzled that it was fairly agonized. "Grandmother has told
me about him. He had a battle with six Injuns and killed them all
himself, and this Mr. Cephas Holbrook has done just that same thing.
And he killed ten wolves and nailed their heads to the meeting-house.
Say," the boy continued confidentially, "those were the heads I meant,
you know."
"Of course I know," whispered Letitia. "I wouldn't speak to you if you
had done such awful things."
"I didn't, honestly," said Josephus Peabody. "Where did you come from
to-night?" asked Letitia.
"Why, I came from Mr. Cephas Holbrook's. It's about ten miles away
on that side." The boy pointed in the dark.
"You came all that way?"
"I had to if I came at all. I don't get any time to see my traps day-times.
I have to work. I have to chop wood, and make wooden pegs. I never
saw wooden pegs, till--till I came here. I have to work all day. Eliphalet
Holbrook, he's a boy about my size, got out of the window one night,
when it was moonlight, and we set traps, and we haven't either of us

had a chance to look at them and see if we've caught anything; but
to-night, I had a cold and they sent me to bed early and I whispered to
Eliphalet, that I'd see those traps; and I had a pine knot, and I run and
run, but I couldn't find the traps."
"You didn't run ten miles?"
"No, the traps were set only about three miles from where we live and I
rather think I lost my way. Then I heard the Injuns--say, I used to call
them Indians."
"So did I," said Letitia.
"They say Injuns here. Then I heard them, and I run the rest of the way,
and then I saw your light. Are you one of Captain John Hopkins'
children?"
"I don't know. I don't think I am," replied Letitia miserably.
"What is your name?"
"Letitia Hopkins."
"Then you must be."
"I don't believe I am."
Suddenly Letitia felt a hard little boy-hand clutch hers in the dark. The
boy's voice whispered forcibly in her ear. "Say," said the voice, "did
you--did you get here, I wonder, in some queer way just as I did?"
Letitia whispered forcibly, "Through a little green door in my
Great-aunt Peggy's cheese-room."
"Had she told you never to open it?"
"Yes, but she and Hannah left me alone when they went to meeting and
I found the key in a little box, and the key had a green ribbon and it
unlocked the door, and I was in the woods around here, and Aunt

Peggy's house was gone and everything."
"How long have you been here?"
"I don't know. It must have been a long time, for I have done so much
work, and learned to do so much that I had started with all done."
"It is just the same with me," whispered the boy.
Letitia shivered, half with joy, half with horror. "Did you come through
a little green door?"
"No, I came through a book."
Letitia jumped. "A book!" she repeated feebly.
"Yes, it was a book. I didn't know it at first. I thought it was just a
wooden box up in Grandmother Peabody's garret, and it was always
locked, and Grandmother Peabody said I was never to ask any
questions about it, and never to try to open it. I expect she was afraid I
might try to pick the lock. Then I began to suspect that it was a book,
and then I found the key. I stayed at home from meeting just like you,
and I had a cold. My father had died, and I had come to live with
Grandmother Peabody."
"I remember now Aunt Peggy told Hannah about it," whispered Letitia
with sudden remembrance.
"I don't know how long ago it was, for I have done so much work
making wooden nails, when all the nails I had ever seen were bought at