The Story of the Big Front Door | Page 4

not happened to be looking across the street she would have
seen some guilty faces. Bess grew red, Louise opened her mouth and
shut it again without saying anything, Carl drummed on the back of his
chair with an air of extreme indifference which Ikey tried to copy, and
Helen looked from one to the other with very big eyes.
The Fords' tea bell, rung at the front door for Ikey's benefit, relieved the
strain. Then presently Louise saw her father and baby Carie coming up
the street, and the Brown house was not mentioned again.
As Aunt Zélie was on her way upstairs that night she was waylaid in
the dimly lighted hall by three ghostly figures.
"What are you doing out of bed?" she exclaimed.
"Oh, auntie, we want to tell you something! It is about the Brown house.

We have been playing Robin Hood in the garden."
"It was a lovely place, and we didn't do any harm, really."
Aunt Zélie listened with just a little bit of a smile till she had heard the
whole story. It had been great fun, there could be no doubt of that.
"Was it wrong?" asked Bess anxiously.
"We did not hurt anything, not one bit," Carl insisted.
"Why did you keep it such a secret?"
"That was part of the fun; but I wish we had told you," said Louise.
"Yes, it is nicer to have you know things;" and Bess sighed, relieved
now that confession was made.
"It is too late to discuss it to-night, but I want you to think about it and
decide for yourselves whether or not it was right."
"Did you know it before we told you?" Carl asked suddenly.
"I only guessed it to-day," she replied, smiling.
CHAPTER II.
IN THE STAR CHAMBER.
There never lived a more genial, kindly man than old Judge Hazeltine,
and the house he planned and built reflected, as perfectly as a house
could, the character of its owner.
"The front door looks like the Judge," people used to say, laughing as
they said it, for he was portly and the door was wide. But they meant
more than just that, for there were few, even among the unimaginative,
who did not feel drawn to that door. Hospitality shone from every panel,
the big fanlight was like a genial sun, and the resemblance to his cheery
face and cordial manner was not altogether fanciful.

Of the inside of the house perhaps it is enough to say at present that it
kept the promise of the outside.
After the judge's death the old home fell to the share of the younger of
his two sons, for the William Hazeltines had already built their fine
mansion out on Dean avenue, where Aunt Marcia found things more
suited to her fastidious taste than on the quiet street which had ceased
to be fashionable.
On the other hand, her brother-in-law declared that he much preferred
his large garden and home-like neighborhood to the elegant monotony
of her surroundings. The children agreed with their father, and so
perhaps, for the matter of that, did Uncle William.
At the top of the house there was a long low room, with five windows
looking east, west, and south, which was known as the star chamber.
This name had originated with Uncle William in the days when he and
his brother Frank played and studied there, as Carl and his sisters did
now. On rainy days when the garden was out of the question the
children were most likely to be found here.
It was a pleasant place and well suited for any sort of indoor game.
Except for a rug or two the floor was bare, and the furniture consisted
of an old claw-footed sofa on which at least six people could sit
comfortably at one time, a wardrobe, some book-shelves, and a
hammock swung across one corner. There may have been a chair or
two, but the wide window-sills made pleasanter resting-places. Here in
the summer time you looked out into the soft greenness of the maple
trees, getting glimpses of the quiet street, but when the branches were
bare a fine outlook was to be had all over the neighborhood, and you
saw how big houses and little houses stood sociably side by side, while
an old gray church kept guard at one corner. Here Bess and Louise
romanced over an imaginary family known as "The Carletons," or
played dolls with Helen, and here Carl arranged his stamp album and
made signals to Ikey across the street. Sometimes their father and uncle
would drop in and pretend they were boys once more. Then what
delight it was to listen to their stories of boyish pranks!

Aunt Zélie was their most frequent visitor. The days when she