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 a shop, and such things, that it seems an awful long time; but I was left alone just the way you were, and I found the key to that book that looked like a wooden box. It was in a little drawer of Grandmother's secretary.”
“Did it have a green ribbon on it?” whispered Letitia breathlessly.
“Yes, it did, honest, a green ribbon, and I went up in the garret and I unlocked that book, and first thing I knew I was in the woods around the house where I live now, and a wolf was chasing me, and Mr. Cephas Holbrook shot him, and took me home.”
Letitia sighed. “Do you like it here?” she whispered.
“I think it is awful, don't you?”