1 am ting bythe Window in is Avoca Mane THE YELLOW WALL-PAPER. "T is very seldom that mere ordi- nary prople like John and myself Secure ancestral halls for the ‘A colonial man- sion, a hereditary estate, TL would say a haunted house, and reach the height of romantic felicity—but that would be asking too rmiuch of fate! Still I will proudly declare that there is something queer about it By Charlot Perkins Stetson. Ele, why should it be let so cheaply? And why have stood so long untenanted? John laughs at me, of course, but one expects that in marriage. John is practical in the extreme. He has no patience with faith, an intense horror of superstition, and he scofls ‘openly at any talk of things not to be felt and seen and put dovn in figures. John isa physician, and ferhaps— (I would not say it toa living soul, of course, but this is dead paper and a great relief to my mind —) perhaps that is one reason I do not get well faster You see he does not believe T am sick ! And what ean one do?64s. Ifa physician of high standing, and one's own husband, asses fiends and felatves that theres really nothing the Ihatter with obe but temporary nenous ‘depression —a alight hysterical tendency Ahwhat is one to do? My brother is slso a physician, and also of high standing, and he says the ‘same thing. i So 1 take phosphates or phosphites— whichever it fy and fonicy and Journeys, nd ain and exereke, and’ am absolutely forbidden to “work” ontit Cam well again Personally, 1 disagree with thet ideas Personally, I believe that congenial work, withexclement and change, would 40 me good. ‘Bit what i one to do? 1'did write for’ a while in spite of them; bat it doer exhaust me a good deal —having #0 be 30 aly about it, oF tke meet with heavy opposition. T sometimes fancy that in my condi- tion if T had less opposition and more Society and stimulus “bet John says the wery wont thing T can dois to think bout my. condition, and. confess it always makes me fel bad ‘So T will let it alone and talk about the house. The most beautifel place! Te i quite alone, standing well back from the roa, Gute’ thre les ftom the village. TE Toakes'me think of English places that you read about, for there are hedges nd alle and. gates that lock, and lots of Separate litle houses for the ganteners aid people. ‘There fa delicous garde saw sich a” garden Large and shady fll of box-bordered paths and lined with Jong grape-covered atbors with seatsunder them. "There were greenhouses, 100, but they axe al broken now. “There was some Tegal trouble, E be- live, something about the heirs and 6o- heim; anyhow, the place has been empty for years. "That spoils my ghostness, Iam fad, but Tedon't care—there fs something strange about the house 1 ean feel Teven si so to John one moonlight evening, but he said what Tf was. rangi, and shut the window. THE YELLOW WALL~PAPER. I get unreasonably angry with John sometimes. I'm sure I never used to be so sensitive, I think it is due to this nervous condition, ‘But John says if I feel so, I shall neglect proper self-control ; so 1 take pains to ‘control myself — before him, at least, and. that makes me very tired. T don’t like our room a bit, I wanted. one downstairs that opened on the piazza ‘and had roses all over the window, and such pretty old-fashioned. chintz_ hang. ings! but John would not hear of i He said there was only one window and not room for two beds, and no near room for him if he took another. He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direc tion. T have a schedule prescription for each hour in the day; he takes all care from ame and so I feel basely ungrateful not to He said we came here solely on my account, that I was to have perfect rest and all the air I could get. Your ex- ercise depends on your strength, my dear,” said he, “and your food somewhat fon your appetite; but air you can al sorb all the time.” So we took the nur- sery at the top of the house. It is a big, airy room, the whole floor nearly, with windows that look all ways, and air and sunshine galore. It was nursery first and then playroom and gymnasium, I should judge ; for the win- dows are barred for little children, and there are rings and things in the walls, ‘The paint and paper look as if a boys’ school had used it. It is stripped off — the paper—in great patches all around the head of my bed, about as far as T can reach, and in a great place on the other side of the room low down, I never saw a worse paper in my life. ‘One of those sprawling flamboyant patterns committing every artistic sin. tis dull enough to. confuse the eye in following, pronounced enough to con stantly irritate and provoke study, and when’ you follow the lame uncertain ‘curves for a little distance they suddenly ‘commit suicide —phinge off at outrage- fous angles, destroy themselves in un heard of contradictions.THE YELLOW The color is repellant, almost revolt- ing; a smouldering unclean yellow, strangely faded by the slow-turning sun” Tight. Te is a dull yet lurid orange in some places, a sickly sulphur tint in others. 'No wonder the children hated it! I should hate it myself if I had to live in this room long. ‘There comes John, and I must put this away,—he hates to have me write a word, We have been here two weeks, and I haven't felt like writing before, since that first day. Tam sitting by the window now, up in this atrocious nursery, and there is noth- ing to hinder my writing as much as T please, save lack of strength. John is away all day, and even some nights when his eases ate serious. Tam glad my case is not serious! But these nervous troubles are dread. filly depressing. Jobn does not know how much I really suifer. He knows there is no reason to suffer, and that satisfies him. ‘Ofcourse itis only nervousness. It does weigh on me so not to do my duty in any way | T meant to be such a help to John, ‘such a real rest and comfort, and here T am a comparative burden already ! ‘Nobody would believe what an effort it is to do what little I am able, — to dress and entertain, and order things. Te is fortunate Mary is so good with the baby. Such a dear baby ! ‘And yet I canto? be with him, it makes L suppose John never was nervous in his lif. He laughs at me so about this wwall-paper ! ‘At first he meant to repaper the room, but afterwards he said that I was letting it get the better of me, and that nothing was worse for a nervous patient than to give way to such fancies. He said that after the wall-paper was ‘changed it would be the heavy bedstead, and then the barred windows, and then ‘that gate at the head of the stairs, and so “You know the place is doing you WALL-PAPER. 49 good," he said, “and really, dear, I don't fare to renovate the house just for a ‘three months! rental “Then do let us go downstairs,” 1 said, “ there are such pretty rooms there.”” ‘Then he took me in his arms and called me a blessed little goose, and said he would go down cellar, if I wished, and have it whitewashed into the bargain, But he is right enough about the beds and windows and things. tis an airy and comfortable room as any one need wish, and, of course, I would not be so silly as to make him uncomfort- able just for & whim, T'm really getting quite fond of the big room, all but that horrid paper. ‘Out of one window I can sce the garden, those mysterious deep-shaded arbors, the riotous old-fashioned flowers, and bushes and gnarly trees. ‘Out of another T get a lovely view of the bay and a little private wharf be longing to the estate. ‘There is a beauti- fal shaded lane that runs down there from the house. I always fancy 1 see people walking in these numerous paths ‘and arbors, but John has cautioned me not to give way to fancy in the least. He says that with my imaginative power and Ihabit of story-making, a nervous weak- ress like mine is sure to lead to all man- ner of excited fancies, and that I ought to use my will and good sense to check the tendency. So I try. 1 think sometimes that if I were only well enough to write-a little it would re- lieve the press of ideas and rest me. But I find I get pretty tired when I try. It is s0 discouraging not to have any advice and companionship about my work. When I get really well, Jobn says ‘we will ask Cousin Henry and Julia down for a long visit; but he says he would as soon put fireworks in my pillow-case as to let me have those stimulating people about now. I wish Fcould get well faster. But I must not think about that. ‘This paper looks to me as if it Anew what a vicious influence it had ! There is a recurrent spot where the pattern loll like a broken neck and two Dulbous eyes stare at you upside down. T get positively angry with the imperti650 rence of it and the everlastingness. Up and down and sideways they crawl, and those absurd, unblinking eyes are every- where. There is one place where two breaths didn't match, and the eyes go all up and down the line, one a little higher than the other. T never saw so much expression in an inanimate thing before, and we all know how much expression they have! I used to lie awake as a child and get more entertainment and terror out of blank walls and plain furniture than most chil- dren could find in a toy-store. T remember what 2 kindiy wink the knobs of our big, old bureau used to have, and there was one chair that always seemed like a strong friend used to feel that if any of the other things looked too fierce T could always hhop into that chair and be safe “Phe furniture in this room is no worse than inharmonious, however, for we had to bring it all from downstairs. I sup- pose when this was used as a playroom they had to take the nursery things out, and no wonder! I never saw such ravages as the children have made here. ‘The wall-paper, as I said before is torn off in spots, and it sticketh closer than a brother —they must have had persever- ance as well as hatred. "Then the floor is scratched and gouged and splintered, the plaster itself is dug fut here and there, and this great heavy bed which is all we found in the room, looks as if it had been through the wars. “But I don't mind it a bit—only the Paper. "There comes John's sister. Such a dear girl as she is, and so careful of me! T must not let her find me writing. She is a perfect and enthusiastic house- ‘keeper, and hopes for no better profes- sion. I verily believe she thinks itis the ‘writing which made me sick ! ‘But T can write when she is out, and see her a long way off from these windows. ‘There is one that commands the road, lovely shaded winding road, and one that just looks off over the country. A lovely country, too, fall of great elms and velvet meadows. ‘This wallpaper has a kind of sub- pattern in a different shade, « particularly THE YELLOW WALL-PAPER. tating one, for you can only see it in certain lights, and not clearly then, But in the places where it isn't faded and where the sun is just so—T can see a strange, provoking, formless sort of figure, that seems to skulk about behind that silly and conspicuous front design. "There's sister on the stairs! Well, the Fourth of July is over! ‘The people are alll gone and I am tired out, John thought it might do me good to see alittle company, so we just had mother and Nelie and the chilren down for (Of course I didn't do a thing sees to everything now. at it tired me all the same. John says if T don't pick up faster he shall send me to Weir Mitchell in the fll. ‘But I don't want to go there at all. I had a friend who was in his hands once, and she says he is just like John and my brother, only more so ! Besides, it is such an undertaking to 10 50 far. T don’t feel as if it was worth while to turn my hand over for anything, and I'm. getting dreadfully fretful and querulous. [ ery at nothing, and ery most of the ‘Of course I don't when John is here, ‘or anybody else, but when I'am alone. And Tam alone a good deal just now. John is kept in town very often by serious ‘eases, and Jennie is good and lets me alone when I want her to. So I walk a little in the garden or down that lovely lane, sit on the porch. under the roses, and lie down up here a deal. Tm getting really fond of the room in spite of the wallpaper. Perhaps because of the wallpaper. It dwells in'my mind so! lie here on this great immovable hed — it is nailed down, I believe — and fol low that pattern about by the hour. Tt it as good as gymnastics, I assure you. T start, well say, at the bottom, down in the comer over there where it has Os Deen touched, and I determine for the thousandth time that I wii! follow that pointless pattern to some sort of a cone clusion. JennieTHE YELLOW I know a little of the principle of design, and I know this thing was not arranged on any laws of radiation, or alternation, or repetition, or symmetry, oF anything else that I ever heard of. Tt is repeated, of course, breadths, but not otherwise Looked at in one way each breadth stands alone, the bloated curves and flourishes —a kind of * debased Roma- nnesque” with deli- rium tremens —g0 waddling up and down in isolated ‘columns of fatity.. But, on the other hand, they connect, diagonally, and the by the sprawling outlines runoff in great slanting waves of ‘optic horror, like lot of wallowing sea: weeds in fall chase. ‘The whole thing goes horizontally, too, at least it see so, and I exhaust myself in trying to distinguish the order of its going in that direction ‘They have used 2 horizontal breadth for a frieze, and that adds wonderfully to the confusion, There is one end of the room where it is almost intact, and there, when the crosslights fade and the low sun shines directly upon it, I ean almost fancy radia tion after all, the interminable gro. tesque seem to form around a common centre and rush off in headlong plunges ‘of equal distraction. Tt makes me tired to follow it. take a nap T guess. Iwill don't know why I should write this. T don't want to. I don’t feel able. And I know John would think it WALL~PAPER. 651 absurd. But I must say what I feel fand think in some way—it is such a relief! But the effort is getting to be greater than the relief Half the time now I am awfully lazy, and lie down ever so much. John says T mustn't lose my strength, and has me take cod liver oil and lots of a’ tonics and things, to say nothing of ale and wine and rare meat. Dear John! He loves me very dearly, and hates to have me sick. I tried to have a real earnest reasonable talk with hhim the other day, and tell him how I wish he would let me go and make a visit to Cousin Henry and Julia, But he said 1 wasi’t able to go, nor able to stand it after I got there ; and did not make out a very good case for nye for T mas crying before T had fine652 tis getting to be a great effort for me to think straight. Just this nervous weak- snes I suppose. "And dear John gathered me up in his farms, and just carried me upstairs and laid me on the bed, and sat by me and read to me till it tired my head. He said I was his darling and his com- fort and all he bad, and that I must take -eare of myself for his sake, and keep well. He says no one but myself can help ‘me out of it, that I must use my will and self-control and not let any silly fancies run away with me, ‘There's one comfort, the baby is well and happy, and does not have to occupy ‘this nursery with the horrid wallpaper. Tf we had not used it, that blessed cchild would have! What & fortunate es- ‘cape! Why, wouldn't have a child of ‘mine, an impressionable little thing, live in such a room for worlds, [ never thought of it before, but it is lucky that John kept me here after all, T ‘can stand it so much easier than a baby, ‘you see. ‘Of course T never mention it to them any more —I am too wise, —but I keep ‘watch of it all the same. “There are things in that paper that nobody knows but me, or ever will. Behind that outside pattern the dim shapes get clearer every day. tis always the same shape, only very And jt is like a woman stooping down and creeping about behind that pattern, I don’t like it a bit. 1 wonder—I be- gin to think—T wish John would take sme away from here ! It is so hard to talk with John about my case, because he is so wise, and be- ‘cause he loves me 80. ‘Bat I tried it last night. It was moonlight. The moon shines in all around just as the sun does. hate to see it sometimes, it ereeps s0 slowly, and always comes in by one win- dow or another. John was asleep and I hated to waken » $0 T kept still and watched the ‘moonlight on that undulating wallpaper Aill I felt creepy. THE YELLOW WALL~PAPER. ‘The faint figure behind seemed to shake the pattern, just as if she wanted to get out. T'got up softly and went to feel and see if the paper did move, and when T came ‘back John was awake. “What is it, litte girl?” he said. “Don't go walking about like the you'll get cold.” TT thought it was a good time to talk, s0 I told him that I really was not gai ing here, and that I wished he would take me away. “Why, darling !" said he, “our lease il be up in three weeks, and I can’t see how to leave before. “The repairs are notdone at home, and T cannot possibly leave town just now, Of course if you were in any danger, T could and would, but you really are bet~ ter, dear, whether you can see it or not, Tam a doctor, dear, and I know. You are gaining flesh and color, your appetite is. bette, I feel really much easier about you.” “1 'don't weigh a bit more,” said T, “nor as much; and my appetite may be better in the evening when you are here, but it is worse in the morning when you are away!" “Bless her little heart!” said he with a big hug, “she shall be as sick as she But now let's improve the shin= Jeep, and talk pleases 1 ing hours by going to about it in the morning ! “And you won't go away?” I asked gloornily. “Why, how can I, dear? It is only three weeks more and then we will take a nice little tip of a few days while Jennie is getting the house ready. Really dear you are better!" “Better in body perhaps—" I began, and stopped short, for he sat up straight and looked at me with such a stern, re= proachful look that I could not’ say another word, “My darling,” said he, “I beg of you, for my sake and for our child’s sake, as well as for your owa, that you will never for one instant let that idea enter your mind ‘There is nothing so dangerous, so fascinating, to a temperament like yours. It isa false and foolish fancy. ‘Can you not trust me as physician when Teli you so?”THE YELLOW WALL-PAPER. So of course I said no more on that score, and we went to sleep before long. Hee thought I was asleep first, but I veasn't, and lay there for hous trying to decide whether that front pattern and the back pattern really did’ move together oF separately. ‘On a pattern like this, by daylight, there isa lack of sequence, a defance of Jaw, that is a constant irritant to a nor- smal min. “The color is hideous enough, and un- reliable enough, and infuriating enough, Dut the pattern is torturing. ‘You think you have mastered it, but just as you get well underway in following, tums a buck-somersault and there you are, It slaps you in the face, knocks you down, and tramples upon you. Tt is Tike a bad dream. The outside pattern is a florid ara- Desque, reminding one of fungus. If you ean imagine a toadstool in joints an interminable string of toadstool budding and sprouting in endless convolutions — why, that is something like it. That is, sometimes ! ‘There is one marked peculiarity about this paper, a thing nobody seems to notice bt myself, and that is that it changes as the light changes. When the sun shoots in through the cast window —I always watch for that first long, straight ray —it_ changes. 30 quickly that I never ean quite believe it “That is why T watch it always. By moonlight—-the moon shines in all night when there is a moon —I wouldn't know it was the same paper. ‘AU night in any kind of light, in light, candlelight, lamplight, and worstof all by moonlight, it becomes bars! ‘The fotside pattern | mean, and the woman behind itis as plain as can be. T didn't realize for a long time what the thing was that showed behind, that dim sub-pattern, but now I am quite sure iis a woman, By daylight she is subdued, quiet. 1 fancy its the pattern that keeps het 50 stil” “Te is so puzzling, It keeps me ‘uit by the hour, Tie down ever so much now. John says itis good for me, and to sleep all can, 658. Indeed he started the habit by making sme lie down for an hour after each meal. Tt is a very bad habit I am convinced, for you see I don't sleep. ‘And that cultivates deceit, for I don't tell them I'm awake —O noi ‘The fact is Tam getting a litle afraid of John. He seems very queer sometimes, and ceven Jennie has an inexplicable look, It Strikes me occasionally, just as 2 scientific hypothesis,— that perhaps it is the paper! T have watched John when he did not Know I was looking, and come into the room suddenly on the most innocent ex- ‘uses, and I've caught him several times looking at the paper! And Jennie too. T caught Jennie with her hand on it once. She didn't know Twas in the room, and when I asked her in a quiet, a very quiet voice, with the most restrained man- ner possible, what she was doing with the paper —she turned around as if she had been caught stealing, and looked quite angry asked me why T should frighten, ‘Then she said that the paper stained everything it touched, that she had found yellow smooches on ‘ll my clothes and John’s, and she wished we would be more careful! Did not that sound innocent? But T know she was studying that pattern, and Tam determined that nobody shall find it out but myself! Life is very much more exciting now than it used to be. You see T have some- thing more to expect, to look forward to, to watch. I really do eat better, and am ‘more quiet than T was, Joh is so pleased to see me improve ! He laughed a little the other day, and stid I seemed to be flourishing in ‘spite of my wall-paper. T turned it off with a laugh. I had no intention of telling him it was Because of the wall-paper—he would make fun of me. He might even want to take me away. T don’t want to leave now until 1 have found it out. ‘There is a week more, and I think that will be enough. T’m feeling ever so much better! I54 THE YELLOW don’t sleep much at night, for it is so in- teresting to watch developments; but I sleep a good deal in the daytime. In the daytime it is tiresome and per- plexing. ‘There are always new shoots on the fungus, and new shades of yellow all over it, I cannot keep count of them, though ‘Thave tried conscientiously. It is the strangest yellow, that wall ‘paper! It makes me think of all the ‘yellow things I ever saw — not beautiful ‘ones like buttercups, but old foul, bad yel- low things. ‘But there is something else about that aper—the smell! I noticed it the mo- ‘ment we came into the room, but with 0 ‘much air and sun it was not bad. Now swe have had a week of fog and rain, and ‘whether the windows are open or not, the ‘smell is here, It creeps all over the house. Tfind it hovering in the dining-room, ‘skulking in the parlor, hiding in the hall, lying in wait for me on the stairs. Te gets into my hair. Even when I go to ride, if I tum my hhead suddenly and surprise it — there is ‘that smell! Such a peculiar odor, too! I have ‘spent hours in trying to analyze it, to find ‘what it smelled like. Tt ig not bad—at first, and very _gentle, but quite the subtlest, most endur- ng odor I ever met. ‘in this damp weather it is awful, 1 ‘wake up in the night and find it hanging Te used to disturb me at first. 1 thought seriously of burning the house — to reach the smell But now I am’ used to it. The only ‘hing [Link] think of that it is like is the color of the paper! A yellow smell ‘There is a very funny mark on this wall, low down, near the mopboard. A ‘streak that runs round the room. It goes behind every piece of furitnre, except ‘the bed, a long, straight, even smooch, as if it had been rubbed over and over. Twonder how it was done and who did it, and what they did it for. Round and round and round — round and round and round —it makes me dizzy ! WALL-PAPER. I really have discovered something at last. “Through watching so much at night, when it chaniges so, [have finally found out. “The front pattern does move — and no wonder! ‘The woman behind shakes it! Sometimes I think there are a great ‘many women behind, and sometimes fone, and she crawls around fast, and her crawling shakes it all over. “Then in the very: bright spots she keeps still, and in the very shady spots she just takes hold of the bars and shakes them hard. ‘And she is all the time trying to climb through.» But nobody could climb through that pattern —it strangles so; I think that is why it has so many heads. ‘They get through, and then the pat tern strangles them’ off and tums them upside down, and makes their eyes white ! If those heads were covered or taken off it would not be half so bad. I that woman gets out in the daytime | ‘And I'l tell you why— privately — Tve seen her! ean see her out of every one of my windows | tis the same woman, I know, for she is always creeping, and’ most women do not creep by daylight T see her in that long shaded lane, creeping up and down. I sce her in those dark grape arbors, creeping. all around the garden. TTsee her on that long road under the trees, creeping along, and when a car~ riage comes she hides under the black- berry vines. T don't blame her a Dit. It must be very humiliating to be caught creeping by daylight T always lock the door when I creep by daylight. Tean't do it at night, for 1 know John would suspect something at ‘And John is so queer now, that T don’t want t6 irritate him, I wish he would take another room! Besides, I don't want anybody to get that woman out at night but myself, Toften wonder if I could see her out of all the windows at once.THE YELLOW WALL~PAPER, But, turn as fast as I can, I can only see out of one at one time. ‘And though I always see her, she may be able to efeep faster than T ean turn! T have watched her sometimes away off in the open country, creeping as fast asa cloud shadow in a high wind. Ifonly that top pattern could be got- ten off from the under one! I mean to try it, litle by little. Thave found out another fanny thing, but I shan't tell it this time! It does not do to trust people too much. ‘There are only two more days to get this paper off, and I believe John is beginning to notice, I don't like the Took in his eyes. And I heard’ him ask Jennie a lot of professional questions about me. She had a very good report to give. She said’ I slept a good deal in the daytime. John knows I don’t sleep very well at night, for all I'm 0 quiet! He asked me all sorts of questions, too, and pretended to be very loving’ and kind. As if I coulda see through him ! Still, Idon’t wonder he acts so, sleep- ing unter this paper for three months. It only interests me, but I feel sure Jobn and Jennie are secretly affected by it. Hurrah ! ‘This is the last day, but it is enough. John to stay in town over night, and won't be out until this evening. Jennie wanted to sleep with me—the sly thing! but T told her T should un- doubtedly rest better for a night all alone. That was clever, for really I wasn't alone a bit! AS soon as it was moon: light and that poor thing began to crawl and shake the pattern, I got up and ran to help her. T pulled and she shook, I shook and she pulled, and before morning we had, peeled off yards of that paper. strip about as high as my head and half around the room. ‘And then when the sun came and that wil pattern began to laugh at me, T de- clared T would finish it to-day ! We go away to-morrow, and they are 655 moving all my furniture down again to leave things as they were before- “Jennie looked at the wall in amaze- rent, but Itokd her merrily that T did i Out of pure spite at the vicious thing ‘She laughed and said she wouldn't rind doing it herself, but I must not get tied, How she betrayed herself that time ! But Tam here, and no- person touches this paper but me,—not alice! ‘She ted to get me out of the room — it was too patent! But T sid it was so quiet and empty and clean now that 1 be- Tleved T would fie down again and sleep all could j and not to wake me even for dinner —1 would call when I woke. $0 now she ls gone, and the servants are gone, and the things are gone, and dere is nothing le but that great bed- stead nailed down, with the canvas mat tress we found on it We shall sleep downstairs to-night, and take the boat home to-morrow. T quite enjoy the room, now i again How those children did tear about here! ‘This bedstead is fairly gnawed ! But I must get to work T have locked the door and thrown the key down into the front path, 1 don't want to go out, and I don't want tohave anybody come in, tll John T want to astonish him. I've gota rope up here that even Jen- nie did’ not find. "If that woman does et out, and tries to. get away, T can tie fer! ‘But I forgot I could not reach far with- cout anything to stand on! This bed will no move | I tied to lit and” push it until T was lame, and then I got so angry I bit off a lite’ piece at one comer—~but it hurt ay teeth “Then T pected off ll the paper T could reach standing on the floor. It sticks ory and the pattern just enjoys it! AAI those. strangled. heads and bulbous eyes and waddling Sungus growths just shriek with derision ‘Tam getting angry enough to do some- thing desperate, To jump out of the bare656 window would be admirable exercise, but the bars are too strong even to try. Besides I wouldn't do it. Of course not. I know well enough that a step like thit is improper and might be miscon- stew T don't like to dook out of the windows even — there are so many of those ereep- ing women, and they creep s0 fast. ‘L wonder if they all come out of that wall-paper as I did? But Lam securely fastened now by my well-hidden rope — you don't get me out in the road there ! I suppose I shall have to get back be- hhind the pattern when it comes night, and that is hard ! tis s0 pleasant to be out in this great room and creep around as I please ! T don’t want to go outside. I won't, ceven if Jennie asks me to. For outside you have to creep on the ground, and everything is green instead of yellow. But here T can creep smoothly on the floor, and my shoulder just fits in that Jong’ smooch around the wall, so I cannot lose my wa ‘Why there's John at the door! THE YELLOW WALL-PAPER. Itisno use, youngman,youcan’topenit t How he does call and pound ! Now he's crying for an axe. It would be a shame to break down that beautiful door ! “John dear!" said I in the gentlest voice, “the key is down by the front steps, under a plaintain leaf! That silenced him for a few moments. ‘Then he said—very quietly indeed, “Open the door, my darling “Tean',” said I. “The key is down by the front door under a plantain leat!” nd then I said it again, several times, very gently and slowly, and said it so often that he had to go and see, and he {got it of course, and came in. He stop- ped short by the door. “What is the matter?" he cried. « For God's sake, what are you doing 1” T kept on creeping just the same, but I looked at him over my shoulder. “ Lve got out at last," said 1, “in spite of youand Jane? And I've pulled off most of the paper, so you can't put me back!” Now why shotld that man have fainted ? But he did, and right across my path by the wall, so that T had to ereep over him every time!