The Story of the Big Front Door

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Story of the Big Front Door, by Mary Finley Leonard

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Title: The Story of the Big Front Door
Author: Mary Finley Leonard
Release Date: September 20, 2006 [EBook #19340]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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[Illustration: "THEY HAD DRAWN THEIR CHAIRS TOGETHER IN A COSEY GROUP."]

THE STORY OF THE BIG FRONT DOOR

BY MARY F. LEONARD
"THEY HELPED EVERY ONE HIS NEIGHBOR."

NEW YORK: 46 EAST FOURTEENTH STREET THOMAS Y. CROWELL & COMPANY BOSTON: 100 PURCHASE STREET

COPYRIGHT, 1898, BY THOMAS Y. CROWELL & COMPANY.

CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE OUTLAWS 1
II. IN THE STAR CHAMBER 12
III. THE LADY OF THE BROWN HOUSE 20
IV. DORA 31
V. UNCLE WILLIAM 51
VI. THE MAGIC DOOR 59
VII. IKEY'S ACCIDENT 65
VIII. THE M.KS. 74
IX. A RIVAL CLUB 84
X. GOOD NEIGHBORS 93
XI. PLANS 103
XII. CEDAR AND HOLLY 112
XIII. THE HARP MAN'S BENEFIT 127
XIV. CLOUDS 140
XV. DORA'S BRIGHT IDEA 156
XVI. SILVER KEYS 165
XVII. A PRISONER 172
XVIII. SOMETHING ELSE HAPPENS 183
XIX. AUNT SUKEY'S STORY 190
XX. THE ORDER OF THE BIG FRONT DOOR 198
XXI. WORK AND PLAY 206
XXII. UNCLE WILLIAM IS SURPRISED 219
XXIII. JIM 230
XXIV. A DISAPPOINTMENT 238
XXV. AUNT ZéLIE 246
XXVI. THE BIG FRONT DOOR IS LEFT ALONE 255

THE STORY
OF
THE BIG FRONT DOOR.
CHAPTER I.
THE OUTLAWS.
"Come listen to me, ye gallants so free, All ye who love mirth for to hear; And I will tell you of a bold outlaw Who lived in Nottinghamshire."
Old Ballad.
Ikey Ford was the first to make the discovery, and he lost no time in carrying the news to the others.
Great was their consternation!
"Moving into the Brown house? Nonsense, Ikey, you are making it up!" Carl exclaimed.
"What shall we do about the banquet for King Richard?" cried Bess, sitting down on the doorstep despairingly.
"And my racket is over there, and your grandma's fur rug, Ikey Ford!" wailed Louise, shaking her finger at the bringer of evil tidings. He assented meekly, adding, "and Sallie's clothes-pins."
A stranger might have been puzzled to guess what sort of calamity had befallen the little group in the doorway of the pleasant, hospitable-looking house among the maple trees, that warm August morning. Something serious certainly, for Louise's dimples had disappeared, Bess was almost tearful, and the boys, though they affected to take it more lightly, wore plainly depressed.
"Let's go over to Ikey's and look through the fence," suggested Carl, and, as there seemed nothing else to do, the others agreed.
They filed solemnly down the walk and across the street,--Bess with a roll of green cambric under her arm,--and nobody uttered a word till a secluded spot behind Mrs. Ford's syringa bushes was reached, where, through an opening in the division fence, they could look out unobserved upon the adjoining house.
"The side windows are open!" Louise announced in a tragic whisper.
"Didn't I tell you so?" replied Ikey with mournful triumph.
It was a small house with a pointed roof, and it stood in the midst of an old-fashioned garden, where for years and years lilacs and snowballs, peonies and roses, pinks and sweet-william, and dozens of other flowers, had bloomed happily in their season, without any trouble to anybody. In the background sunflowers and hollyhocks grew, and on either side of the front gate two stout little cedars stood like sentinels on guard. The street upon which this gate opened was wide and shady, and the bustle and din of the city had not yet invaded its quiet.
Though in reality a red house grown somewhat rusty, it was called the "Brown house," because as far back as any one in the neighborhood could remember it had been occupied by an old lady of that name. For years before she died she was bed-ridden, and to the children there was something mysterious about this person who was never seen, but on whose account they were cautioned not to be noisy at their play. After her death the house was left closed and unoccupied, but hardly more silent than before. An air of mystery still hung about the place; the children when they passed peeped in at the flowers alone in their glory, and spoke softly as though even yet their owner might be disturbed.
This was in the early spring; as the