"I am sitting by the Window in th is Atrocious Nursery."

THE YELLO\N \\TALL-PAPER.

By Cltarlotte Perkins Stetson.

T is very seldom Else, why should it be let so cheaply? that mere ordi­ And why have stood so long untenanted? nary P""ople like John laughs at me, of course, but one John and myself expects that in marriage. secure ancestral John is practical in the extreme. He hall s for the has no patience with faith, an intense summer. horror of superstition, and he scoffs A colonial man­ openly at any talk of things not to be felt sion, a hereditary and seen and put down in figures. estate, I would John is a physician, and perltaps - (I say a haunted would not say it to a living soul, of house, and reach the height of romantic course, but this is dead paper and a felicity- but that would be asking too great relief to my mind - ) per/zaps that much of fate! is one reason I do not get well faster. Still I will proudly declare that there is You see he does not believe I am sick! . something queer about it. And what can one do? THE YELLOW WALL-PARER.

If a physician of high standing, and I get unreasonably angry with John one's own husband, assures friends and sometimes. I'm sure I never used to be relatives that there is really nothing the so sensitive. I think it is due to this matter with one but temporary nervous nervous condition. depression - a slight hysterical tendency But John says if I feel so, I shall neglect - what is one to do? proper self-control; so I take pains to My brother is also a physician, and control myself-before him, at least, and also of high standing, and he says the that makes me very tired. same thing. • I don't like our room a bit. I wanted So I take phosphates or phosphites­ one downstairs that opened on the piazza whichever it is, and tonics, and journeys, and had roses all over the window, and and air, and exercise, and am absolutely such pretty old-fashioned chintz hang­ forbidden to "work" until I am well again. ings! but John would not hear of it. Personally, I disagree with their ideas. He said there was only one window Personally, I believe that congenial and not room for two beds, and no near work, with excitement and change, would room for him if he took another. do me good. He is very careful and loving, and But what is one to do? hardly lets me stir without special direc­ I did write for a while 111 spite of tion. them; but it does exhaust me a good I have a schedule prescription for each deal-having to be so sly about it, or hour in the day; he takes all care from else meet with heavy opposition. me, and so I feel basely ungrateful not to I sometimes fancy that in my condi­ value it ·more. tion if I had less opposition and more He said we came here solely on my . society and stimulus - but John says the account, that I was to have perfect rest very worst thing I can do is to think and all the air I could get. "Your ex­ about my condition, and I confess it ercise depends on your strength, my always makes me feel bad. dear," said he," and your food somewhat So I will let it alone and talk about on your appetite; but air you can ab­ the house. sorb all the time." So we took the nur­ The most beautiful place! It is quite sery at the top of the house. alone, standing well back from the road, It is a big, airy room, the whole floor quite three miles from the village. It nearly, with windows that look all ways, makes me think of English places that and air and sunshine galore. It was you read about, for there are hedges and nursery first and then playroom and walls and gates that lock, and lots of gymnasium, I should judge; for the win­ separate little houses for the gardeners dows are barred for little children, and and people. there are rings and things in the walls. There is a delicious garden! I never The paint and paper look as if a boys' saw such a garden -large and shady, school had used it. It is stripped off­ full of box-bordered paths, and lined with the paper - in great patches all around long grape-covered arbors with seats under the head of my bed, about as far as I can them. reach, and in a great place on the other There were greenhouses, too, but they side of the room low down. I never saw are all broken now. a worse paper in my life. There was some legal trouble, I be­ One of those sprawling flamboyant lieve, something about the heirs and co­ patterns committing every artistic sin. heirs; anyhow, the place has been empty It is dull enough to confuse the eye in for years. following, pronounced enough to con­ That spoils my ghostliness, I am afraid, stantly irritate and provoke study, and but I don't care - there is something when you follow the lame uncertain strange about the house - I can feel it. curves for a little distance they suddenly I even said so to John one moonlight commit suicide - plunge off at outrage­ evening, but he said what I felt was a ous angles, destroy themselves in un­ drauglzt, and shut the window. heard of contradictions. THE YELLOW ·WAL~PAPER. 649

The color is repellant, almost revolt­ good," he said, "and really, dear, I don't ing ; a smouldering unclean yellow, care to renovate the house just for a strangely faded by the slow-turning sun­ three months' rental." light. "Then do let us go downstairs," I It is a dull yet lurid orange in some said, "there are such pretty rooms there." places, a sickly sulphur tint in others. Then he took me in his arms and No wonder the children hated it! I called me a blessed little goose, and said should hate it myself if I had to live in he would go down cellar, if I wished, and this room long. have it whitewashed into the bargain. There comes John, and I must put this But he is right enough about the beds away, - he hates to have me write a and windows and things. word. It is an airy and comfortable room as • • • • * • anyone need wish, and, of course, I would We have been here two·weeks, and I not be so silly as to make him uncomfort­ haven't felt like writing before, since that able just for a whim. first day. I'm really getting quite fond of the I am sitting by the window now, up in big room, all but that horrid paper. this atrocious nursery, and there is noth­ Out of one window I can see the ing to hinder my writing as much as I garden, those mysterious deep-shaded please, save lack of strength. arbors, the riotous old-fashioned flowers, John is away all day, and even some and bushes and gnarly trees. nights when his cases are serious. Out of another I get a lovely view of I am glad my case is not serious! the bay and a little private wharf be­ But these nervous troubles are dread­ longing to the estate. There is a beauti­ fully depressing. ful shaded lane that runs down there John does not know how much I really from the house. I always fancy I see suffer. He knows there is no reason to people walking in these numerous paths suffer, and that satisfies him. and arbors, but John has cautioned me Ofcourse it is only nervousness. It does not to give way to fancy in the least. He weigh o"n me so not to do my duty in says that with my imaginative power and any way! habit of story-making, a nervous weak­ I meant to be such a help to John, ness like mine is sure to lead to all man­ such a real rest and comfort, and here I ner of excited fancies, and that I ought am a comparative burden already! to use my will and good sense to check Nobody would believe what an effort it the tendency. So I try. is to do what little I am able, - to dress I think sometimes that if I were only and entertain, and order things. well enough to write_ a little it would re­ It is fortunate Mary is so good with lieve the press of ideas and rest me. the baby. Such a dear baby! But I find I get pretty tired when I try. And yet I cannot be with him, it makes It is so discouraging not to have any me so nervous. advice and companionship about my I suppose John never was nervous in work. When I get really well, John says his life. He laughs at me so about this we will ask Cousin Henry and Julia down wall-paper! for a long visit; but he says he would as At first he meant to repaper the room, soon put fireworks in my pillow-case as to but afterwards he said that I was letting let me have those stimulating people it get the better of me, and that nothing about now. was worse for a nervous patient than to I wish I could get well faster. give way to such fancies. But I must not think about that. This He said that after the wall-paper was paper looks to me as if it knew what a changed it would be the heavy bedstead, vicious influence it had! and then the barred windows, and then There is a recurrent spot where the. that gate at the head of the stairs, and so pattern lolls like a broken neck and two on. bulbous eyes stare at you upside down. "You know the place is doing you I get positively angry with the imperti­

j 650 THE YELLOW WALL-PAPER.

nence of it and the everlastingness. Up irritating one, for you can only see It In and down and sideways they crawl, and certain lights, and not clearly then. those absurd, unblinking eyes are every­ But in the places where it isn't faded where. There is one place where two and where the sun is just so - I can see a breaths didn't match, and the eyes go all strange, provoking, formless sort of figure, up and down the line, one a little higher that seems to skulk about behind that silly than the other. and conspicuous front design. I never saw so much expression in an There's sister on the stairs! inanimate thing before, and we all know * * * * * * how much expression they have! I Well, the Fourth of July is over! The used to lie awake as a child and get more people are all gone and I am tired out. entertainment and terror out of blank John thought it might do me good to see walls and plain furniture than most chil­ a little company, so we just had mother dren could find in a toy-store. and Nellie and the children down for a I remember what a kindly wink the week. knobs of our big, old bureau used to Of course I didn't do a thing. Jennie have, and there was one chair that always sees to everything now. seemed like a strong friend. But it tired me all the same. I used to feel that if any of the other John says if I don't pick up faster he things looked too fierce I could always shall send me to Weir Mitchell in the fall. hop into that chair and be safe. But I don't want to go there at all. I The furniture in this room is no worse had a friend who was in his hands once, than inharmonious, however, for we had and she says he is just like John and my to bring it all from downstairs. I sup­ brother, only more so ! pose when this was used as a playroom Besides, it is such an undertaking to they had to take the nursery things out, go so far. and no wonder! I never saw such I don't feel as if it was worth while to raV .lges as the children have made here. turn my hand over for anything, and I'm The wall-paper, as I said before, is torn getting dreadfully fretful and querulous. off in spots, and it sticketh closer than a I cry at nothing, and cry most of the brother - they must have had persever­ time. ance as well as hatred. Of course I don't when John is here, Then the floor is scratched and gou~ed or anybody else, but when I am alone. and splintered, the plaster itself is dug And I am alone a good deal just now. out here and there, and this great heavy John is kept in town very often by serious bed which is all we found in the room, cases, and Jennie is good and lets me looks as if it had been through the wars. alone when I want her to. H But I don't mind it a bit - only the So I walk a little in the garden or paper. down that lovely lane, sit on the porch There comes John's sister. Such a under the roses, and lie down up here a dear girl as she is, and so careful of me ! good deal. I must not let her find me writing. I'm getting really fond of the room in She is a perfect and enthusiastic house­ spite of the wallpaper. Perhaps because keeper, and hopes for no better profes­ of the wallpaper. sion. I verily believe she thinks it is the It dwells in my mind so ! writing which made me sick! I lie here on this great immovable bed But I can write when she is out, and - it is nailed down, I believe - and fol­ see her a long way off from these windows. low that pattern about by the hour. It it There is one that commands the road, as good as gymnastics, I assure you. I a lovely shaded winding road, and one start, we'll say, at the bottom, down in that just looks off over the country. A the corner over there where it has nos lovely country, too, full of great elms and been touched, and I determine for the velvet meadows. thousandth time that I will follow that This wallpaper has a kind of su b­ pointless pattern to some sort of a con­ pattern in a different shade, a particularly clusion. THE YELLOW WALL-PAPER. 651

I know a little of the principle of absurd. But I must say what I feel design, and I know this thing was not and think in some way - it is such a­ arranged on any laws of radiation, or relief ! alternation, or repetition, or symmetry, or But the effort is getting to be greater anything else that I ever heard of. than the relief. It is repeated, of course, by the Half the time now I am awfully lazy,. breadths, but not otherwise. and lie down ever so much.

Looked at in one way each breadth o John says I mustn't lose my strength,. stands alone, the bloated curves and and has me take cod liver oil and lots of flourishes - a kind of " debased Roma­ nesque" with deli­ rium tremens - go waddling up and down in isolated columns of fatuity. But, on the other hand, they connect diagonally, and the sprawling outlines run off in great slanting waves of optic horror, like a lot of wallowing sea­ weeds in full chase. The whole thing goes horizontally, too, at least it seems so, and I exhaust myself in trying to distinguish the order of its going in that "direction. They have used a horizontal breadth for a frieze, and that adds wonderfully to the confusion. There is one end of the room where it is almost intact, II Sh e didn't know I was in the Room. Il and there, when the crosslights fade and the low sun shines tonics and things, to say nothing of ale­ directly upon it, I can almost fancy radia­ and wine and rare meat. tion after all, - the interminable gro­ Dear John! He loves me very dearlYr tesque seem to form around a common and hates to have me sick. I tried to centre and rush off in headlong plunges have a real earnest reasonable talk with. of equal distraction. him the other day, and tell him how I It makes me tired to follow it. I will wish he would let me go and make a visit take a nap I guess. to Cousin Henry and Julia. * * * * * * But he said I wasn't able to go, nor" I don't know why I should write this. able to stand it after I got there j and I I don't want to. did not make out a very good case for I don't feel able. myself, for I was crying before I had fin­ And I know John would think it ished. ·652 THE YELLOW WALL-PAPER.

It is getting to be a great effort for me The faint figure behind seemed to to think straight. Just this nervous weak­ shake the pattern, just as if she wanted ness I suppose. to get out. And dear John gathered me up in his I got up softly and went to feel and see arms, and just carried me upstairs and if the paper did move, and when I came laid me on the bed, and sat by me and back John was awake. read to me till it tired my head. "What is it, little girl?" he said. He said I was his darling and his COl).1­ "Don't go walking about like that­ fort and all he had, and that I must take you'll get cold." .care of myself for his sake, and keep I thought it was a good time to talk, well. so I told him that I really was not gain­ He says no one but myself can help ing here, and that I wished he would me out of it, that I must use my will and take me away. self-control and not let any silly fancies "Why, darling!" said he, "our lease run away with me. will be up in three weeks, and I can't see There's one comfort, the baby is well how to leave before. .and happy, and does not have to occupy " The repairs are not done at home, and this nursery with the horrid wallpaper. I cannot possibly leave town just now. If we had not used it, that blessed Of course if you were in any danger, I child would have! What a fortunate es­ could and would, but you really are bet­ cape! Why, I wouldn't have a child of ·ter, dear, whether you can 6ee it or not. mine, an impressionable little thing, live I am a doctor, dear, and I know. You in such a room for worlds. are gaining flesh and color, your appetite is I never thought of it before, but it is better, I feel really much easier about you." lucky that John kept me here after all, I "I don't weigh a bit more," said I, .can stand it so much easier than a baby, "nor as much; and my appetite may be you see. better in the evening when you are here, Of course I never mention it to them but it is worse in the morning when you .any more - I am too wise, - but I keep are awav!" watch of it all the same. " Ble~s her little heart!" s:1id he with There are things in that paper that a big hug, "she shall be as sick as she nobody knows but me, or ever will. pleases! But now let's improve the shin­ Behind that outside pattern the dim ing hours by going to sleep, and talk shapes get clearer every day. about it in the morning! " It is always the same shape, only very "And you won't go away?" I asked num::!rous. gloomily. And it is like a woman stooping down "Why, how can I, dear? It is only .and creeping about behind that pattern. three weeks more and then we will take I don't like it a bit. I wonder - I be­ a nice little trip of a few days while -gin to think - I wish John would take Jennie is getting the house ready. Really ,me away from here! dear you are better! " * * * * * * " Better in body perhaps - " I began, It is so hard to talk with John about and stopped short, for he sat up straight my case, because he is so wise, and be­ and looked at me with such a stern, re­ .cause he loves me so. proachful look that I could not say But I tried it last night. another word. It was moonlight. The moon shines "My darling," said he, " I beg of you, in all around just as the sun does. for my sake and for our child's sake, as I hate to see it sometimes, it creeps so well as for your own, that you will never slowly, and always comes in by one win­ for one instant let that idea enter your ,dow or another. mind! There is nothing so dangerous, John was asleep and I hated to waken so fascinating, to a temperament like nim, so I kept still and watched the yours. It is a false and foolish fancy. moonlight on that undulating wallpaper Can you not trust me as a physician when till I felt creepy. I tell you so? " THE YELLOW WALL-PAPER. 653­

So of course I said no more on that Indeed he started the habit by making­ score, and we went to sleep before long. me lie down for an hour after each meal. He thought I was asleep first, but I It is a very bad habit I am convinced,. wasn't, and lay there for hours trying to for you see I don't sleep. .decide whether that front pattern and the And that cultivates deceit, for I don't back pattern really did move together or tell them I'm awake - 0 no ! separately. The fact is I am getting a little afraid * * * * * * of John. On a pattern like this, by daylight, He seems very queer sometimes, and there is a lack of sequence, a defiance of even Jennie has an inexplicable look. law, that is a ' constant irritant to a nor­ It strikes me occasionally, just as a mal mind. scientific hypothesis,- that perhaps it is· The color is hideous enough, and un­ the paper! reliable enough, and infuriating enough, I have watched John when he did not but the pattern is torturing. know I was looking, and come into the You think you have mastered it, but room suddenly on the most innocent ex­ just as you get well underway in following, cuses, and I've caught him several times. it turns a back-somersault and there you looking at the paper! And Jennie too. I are. It slaps you in the face, knocks caught Jennie with her hand on it once_ you down, and tramples upon you. It is She didn't know I was in the room,. like a bad dream. and when I asked her in a quiet, a very The outside pattern is a florid ara­ quiet voice, with the most restrained man­ besque, reminding one of a fungus. If ner possible, what she was doing with the you can imagine a toadstool in joints, an paper - she turned around as if she had interminable string of toadstools, budding been caught stealing, and looked quite and sprouting in endless convolutions­ angry - asked me why I should frighten . why, that is something like it. her so ! That is, sometimes! Then she said that the paper stained There is one marked peculiarity about everything it touched, that she had found this paper, a thing nobody seems to yellow smooches on all my clothes and notice but myself, and that is that it John's, and she wished we would be more' changes as the light changes. careful! When the sun shoots in through the Did not that sound innocent? But I east window - I always watch for that know she was studying that pattern, and first long, straight ray - it changes so I am determined that nobody shall find quickly that I never can quite believe it. it out but myself! That is why I watch it always. * * * * * * By moonligh[ - the moon shines in all Life is very much more excltmg now night when there is a moon - I wouldn't than it used to be. You see I have some­ know it was the same paper. thing more to expect, to look forward to,. At night in any kind of light, in twi­ to watch. I really do eat better, and am light, candlelight, lamplight, and worst of more quiet than I was. all by moonlight, it becomes bars! The John is so pleased to see me improve! outside pattern I mean, and the woman He laughed a little the other day, and behind it is as plain as can be. said I seemed to be flourishing in spite I didn't realize for a long time what of my wall-paper. the thing was that showed behind, that I turned it off with a laugh. I had no dim sub-pattern, but now I am quite sure intention of telling him it was because of it is a woman. the wall-paper - he would make fun of By daylight she is subdued, quiet. I me. He might even want to take me away. fancy it is the pattern that keeps her so I don't want to leave now until I have still. It is so puzzling. It keeps me found it out. There is a week more, and quiet by the hour. I think that will be enough. I lie down ever so much now. John says * * * * * * it is good for me, and to sleep all I can. I'm feeling ever so much better! I 654 THE YELLOW WALL-PAPER.

<1on't sleep much at night, for it is so in­ I really have discovered something at teresting to watch developments j but I last. :sleep a good deal in the daytime. Through watching so much at night, In the daytime it is tiresome and per­ when it changes so, I have finally founu out. p lexing. The front pattern does move - and no There are always new shoots on the wonder! The woman behind shakes it! fungus, and new shades of yellow all over Sometimes I think there are a great jt. I cannot keep count of them, though many women behind, and sometime;, .:;~:!y I have tried conscientiously. one, and she crawls around fast, and her It is the strangest yellow, that wall­ crawling shakes it all over. paper! It makes me think of all the Then in the very ' bright spots she yellow things I ever saw - not beautiful keeps still, and in the very shady spots ()nes like buttercups, but old foul, bad yel­ she just takes hold of the bars and shakes low things. them hard. But there is something else about that And she is all the time trying to climb paper - the smell! I noticed it the mo­ through. But nobody could climb through ment we came into the room, but with so that pattern - it strangles so; I think much air and sun it was not bad. Now that is why it has so many heads. we have had a week of fog and rain, and They get through, and then the pat­ whether the windows are open or not, the tern strangles them off and turns them :smell is here. upside down, and makes their eyes white! It creeps all over the house. If those heads were covered or taken I find it hovering in the dining-room, off it would not be half so bad. skulking in the parlor, hiding in the hall, * * * * * * lying in wait for me on the stairs. I think that woman gets out in the It gets into my hair. daytime! . Even when I go to ride, if I turn my And I'll tell you why - privately ­ bead suddenly and surprise it - there is I've seen her! that smell ! I can see her out of everyone of my Such a peculiar odor, too! I have windows! :spent hours in trying to analyze it, to find It is the same woman, I know, for she what it smelled like. is always creeping, and most women do It is not bad - at first, and very not creep by daylight. gentle, hut quite the subtlest, most endur­ I see her in that long shaded lane, ing odor I ever met. creeping up and down. I see her in In this damp weather it is awful, I those dark grape ' arbors, creeping all wake up in the night and fihd it hanging around the garden. ()ver me. I see her on that long road under the It used to disturb me at first. I trees, creeping along, and when a car­ thought seriously of burning the house­ riage comes she hides under the black­ to reach the smell. berry vines. But now I am used to it. The only I don't blame her a bit. It must be thing I can think of that it is like is the very humiliating to be caught creeping by ~olor of the paper! A yellow smell. daylight ! There is a very funny mark on this I always lock the door when I creep wall, low down, near the mopboard. A by daylight. I can't do it at night, for I streak that runs round the room. It goes know John would suspect something at behind every piece of furnitnre, except once. the bed, a long, straight, even smoocll, as And John is so queer now, that I don't if it had been rubbed over and over. want to irritate him. I wish he would I 'wonder how it was done and who did take another room! Besides, I don't it, and what they did it for. Round and want anybody to get that woman out at round and round - round and round and night but myself. round - it makes me di zzy! I often wonder if I could see her out * * * ¥ * * of all the windows at once. THE YELLOW WALL-PAPER. 655

But, turn as fast as I can, I can only moving all my furniture down again to see out of one at one time. leave things as they were before. And though I always see her, she may Jennie looked at the wall in amaze­ be able to creep faster than I can turn ! ment, but I told her merrily that I did it I have watched her sometimes away out of pure spite at the vicious thing. off in the open country, creeping as fast She laughed and said she wouldn't as a cloud shadow in a high wind. mind doing it herself, but I must not get * * * * * * tired. If only that top pattern could be got­ How she betrayed herself that time! ten off from the under one! I mean to But I am here, and no person touches try it, little by little. this paper but me,- not alive! I have found out another funny thing, She tried to get me out of the room­ but I shan't tell it this time! It does it was too patent! But I said it was so not do to trust people too much. quiet and empty and clean now that I be­ There are only two more days to get lieved I would lie down again and sleep this paper off, and I believe John is all I could; and not to wake me even for beginning to notice. I don't like the dinner - I would call when I woke. look in his eyes. So now she is gone, and the servants And I heard him ask Jennie a lot of are gone, and the things are gone, and professional questions about me. She there is nothing left but that great bed­ had a very good report to give. stead nailed down, with the canvas mat­ She said I slept a good deal in the tress we found on it. daytime. We shall sleep downstairs to-night, and John 'knows I don't sleep very well at take the boat home to-morrow. . night, for all I'm so quiet! I quite enjoy the room, now it is bare He asked me all sorts of questions, too, again. and pretended to be very loving and How those children did tear about kind. here! As if I couldn't see through him! This bedstead is fairly gnawed! Still, I don't wonder he acts so, sleep­ But I must get to work. ing under this paper for three months. I have locked the door and thrown the It only interests me, but I feel sure key down into the front path. John and Jennie are secretly affected by it. . I don't want to go out, and I don't * * * * * * want to have anybody come in, till ] ohn Hurrah! This is the last day, but it comes. is enough. John to stay in town over I want to astonish him. night, and won't be out until this evening. I've got a rope up here that even J en­ Jennie wanted to sleep with me - the nie did not find. If that woman does sly thing! but T told her I should un­ get out, and tries to get away, I can tie doubtedly rest better for a night all her! alone. . But I forgot I could not reach far with­ That was clever, for really I wasn't out anything to stand on ! alone a bit! As soon as it was moon­ This bed will not move! light and that poor thing began to crawl I tried to lift and push it until I was and shake the pattern, I got up and ran lame, and then I got so angry I bit off a to help her. little piece at one corner - but it hurt I pulled and she shook, I shook and my teeth. she pulled, and before morning we had. Then I peeled off all the paper I could peeled off yards of that paper. reach standing on the floor. It sticks A strip about as high as my head and horribly and the pattern just enjoys it ! half around the room. All those strangled heads and bulbous And then when the sun came and that eyes and waddling fungus growths just awful pattern began to laugh at me, I de­ shriek with derision i clared I would finish it to-dav ! I am getting angry enough to do some­ We go away to-morrow, ~nd they are thing desperate. To jump out of the 656 THE YELLOW WALL-PAPER. window would be admirable exercise, but I t is no use, young man, you can't open it r the bars are too strong even to try. How he does call and pound! Besides I wouldn't do it. Of course Now he's crying for an axe. not. I know well enough that a step like It would be a shame to break dOWI1l thJ.t is improper and might be miscon· that beautiful door! strued. " John dear! " said I in the gentlest I don't like to look out of the windows voice, "the key is down by the front: evell - there are so many of those creep­ steps, under a plaintain leaf! " ing women, and they creep so fast. That silenced him for a few moments_ I wonder if they all come out of that Then he said - very quietly indeed. wall-p3.per as I did? " Open the door, my darling! " But I am securely fastened now by my " I can't," said 1. "The key is down well-hidden rope - you don't get me out by the front door under a plantain leaf! .. in the road there ! And then I said it again, several times. I suppose I shall have to get back be­ very gently and slowly, and said it so hind the pattern when it comes night, often that he had to go and see, and he and that is hard! got it of course, and came in. He stop­ It is so pleasant to be out in this great ped short by the door. room and creep around as I please! "What is the matter?" he cried. "For I don't want to go outside. I won't, God's sake, what are you doing! " even if Jennie asks me to. I kept on creeping just the same, but I For outside you have to creep on the looked at him over my shoulder. ground, and everything is green instead " I've got out at last," said I, " in spite of yellow. of you and Jane? And I've pulled off most But here I can creep smoothly on the of the paper, so you can't put me back! " floor, and my shoulder just fits in that Now why should that man have fainted? long smooch around the wall, so I cannot But he did, and right across my path by lose my way. the wall, so that I had to creep over him Why there's John at the door! every time!