Part 4 (1/2)
Grandett, who in her early days had carried live coals frohbors' houses miles away, sa to dispense with lamp or candle She took a shovel full of eone out by itself, but was kept blazing by the coals underneath
”Shall I go ahead?” inquired Robert
”No, you walk behind And you rand a hint which made his shoulder blades feel chilly
They moved toward the cellar entrance in a slow procession, to keep the chip froett rehter ”I sh'll step on you, and doe'll all go and set the house afire”
Garrets are cheerful, cobwebby places, always full of slits where long, smoky sun-rays can poke in An aarrets; you feel certain there is nothing ugly hiding behind the remotest and dustiest box If rats or mice inhabit it, they are jovial fellows But how different is a cellar, and especially a cellar neglected You plunge down rough steps into a cavern A etables meets you The earthof sun-war rats hide there, how bold and hideous they are!
There are cool farmhouse cellars floored with ce pine, where apple-bins -shelves of butter, tables of milk crocks, lines of fruit cans and home-made catsup bottles, jars of pickles and chowder, and white covered pastry and cake, proarrets, rather than cellars They are refrigerators for pure air; and they keep a o into one of the on its head to express its joy and comfort
But the Susan House cellar was one of dread, aside fro out of it Bobaday knew this before they opened a door upon a narrow-throated descent
One of Zene's stories became vivid It was a story of a house where nobody could stay, though the landlord offered it rent-free But along caing, they undertook to break the spell by sleeping there three nights The first two nights they were not disturbed, and sat with their candle, reading good books until after ht But the third, just on the stroke of twelve, a noise began in the cellar! So they took their candle, and, arood books, went below, and in the furthest corner they saw a little oldastride of a barrel! In Zene's story the little old ood youths where to dig for his money; and when they had secured the money, he amiably disappeared, and the house was pleasant to live in ever afterward
This tale, heard in the barn while Zene was greasing harnesses, and heard without Grandrandson shi+ver with dread as his feet went down into the Susan House dungeon
It was trying enough to be exploring a strange cellar full of groans, without straining your eyes in expectation of seeing a little oldastride of a barrel!
”Who's there?” said Grandett with stern emphasis, as she held her beacon stretched out into the cellar
The groaning ceased for an awful space of time Aunt Corinne was behind her nephew, and she squatted on the step to peer with distended eyes, lest sorab her by the foot
It was a s earthen sides, but piles of pine boxes ett spoke again ”We won't have any tricks played But if you're hurt, we can help you”
It was like addressing solid darkness, for the chip was languishi+ng upon its coals, and cast but a di crept toward theroan, as if to explode at once the accumulations of silence
CHAPTER VI MR MATTHEWS
Aunt Corinne realizing it was a man, rushed to the top of the steps and hid her eyes behind the door She knew her mother could deal with him, and, if he offered any harm, pour coals of fire upon his head in a literal sense But she did not feel able to stand by Robert, on the other hand, seeing no red nightcap on the head thrust up toward thely, and even helped to pull the man up-stairs
One touch of his soft, foolish body was enough to convince any one that he was a harmless creature His foot was sprained
Robert carried a backless chair and set it before the fire, and on this the liett emptied her coals on the hearth and surveyed him He had a red face and bashful eyes, and while the top of his head was quite bald, he had a half-circle of fuzz extending around his face from ear to ear He wore a roundabout and trousers, and shoes with copper toes His hands were fat and diether, he had the appearance of a hugely overgrown boy, ducking his head shyly while Grandett looked at hiett ”What ails the creature?
What's your name, and who are you?”