It was a sunny afternoon, and Nora, a curious girl of about nine, was frolicking about her grandmother’s old house. She found every corner of the place full of strange and delightful things. There were many rooms which she had never seen before, for she lived quite a distance away, and could only pay her visits occasionally.
She was just preparing to run down-stairs again when she noticed a drawer in the old cabinet open before her. As she turned towards it, her attention was attracted by another contrivance in the front of the cabinet, which, as she discovered, was a secret drawer. It slid out very nearly to the end, and contained a number of curious bits of furniture, which her grandmother said were toys that had once belonged to her mother.
While exploring the drawer, Nora was delighted to see an old silver key, which she took up. It bore no mark to show what it was for, but she thought it must fit one of the drawers in the cabinet, and might prove a nice little surprise for her grandmother.
“Nanna,” cried she, running into the room where her grandmother sat, “do come here and see what I have found! I do think it is a drawer-key!”
The kind grandmother took the key, and unlocked a couple of drawers with it. They were both quite empty. There was one drawer, however, which was more difficult to open than the others. Her grandmother gently pulled at it, and found it was locked, but that it was easily opened with the silver key. What a surprise was in store for them both!
In the very corner of the drawer lay a tiny little keyhole, rusted about the edges. Nanna inserted the silver key into it, and turning it, shook open the drawer; Nora, as she peered in, uttered a shriek of delight. It was their own little attic-cupboard up-stairs, and every single thing that she had ever had to play with was there disposed in every corner!
“Oh, Nanna!” exclaimed she, “they must have put it there to keep it safe till I was come of age!”
Nanna laughed heartily.
“Nora dear, darling,” said she, “do you know that your aunt Dora climbed through that cupboard when she was as willful, though not quite so old as you are?”
“Then is it not my cupboard?” asked Nora.
“Yes, my love,” said Nanna.
“It belongs to all of us,” added she: “and now, dear, if you really want to see the attic and some of those things, come at once and bring the key.”
Nora’s heart beat joyfully as she followed her grandmother through the little door in the wall. They climbed the stairs, and Nanna showed her that all the three roof-beams ended in a big cupboard, and that this cupboard and the drawer in the cabinet, where she had found the key, were one and the same.
In a closet at the end, which had also been there just as long, Nanna pointed out to Nora many of the millinery-boxes, name-boxes, and cupboards which belonged to herself and her sisters, and which her mother and Aunt Clara had also used some years before.
“That is why I thought it was the old little cupboard,” said Nora, “and that it belonged to them. All those things must be ever so old!”
“So old, my dear,” replied Nanna, “that some of them we dare not touch for fear they should fall to dust in our fingers.”
“Old things are not to be played with; at least, such old things as those,” she went on. “But the attic and the things it holds do not belong merely to aunt and myself: they are yours as well when you are older.”
Nora stood in deep thought, and when at last she spoke, it was to ask a question that had something more than childish curiosity and selfishness in it.
“Nanna,” said she, “must I take all those things? Cannot I leave aunt and you a few to keep house for me?”
“The child is right,” answered Nanna; “it never occurred to me before. We will try to do without some of the things that are already ours. But I do not think you ought to have the secrets of those drawers and the cupboards known just now.”
“I should like to keep it secret,” answered Nora.
“Then I think it would be only right of you to ask aunt Nora to give the attic to you,” said Nanna. “You will not care for it for some time to come; but you will take care of the key without knowing what your own thoughts mean by it, and you can then tell your children when you grow old like me, how very kind Nanna was in giving it to you.”