Once inside the lumber room, lit only by a high window, Nicholas is met with a world that stirs his imagination. A piece of framed tapestry becomes a living story of a hunter with a stag he has shot with an arrow, being pursued by several wolves; a teapot is delightful, a book of birds resplendent, and a carved sandalwood box lovely.
Suddenly, Nicholas hears his aunt’s shrill voice calling him in the gooseberry garden. He smiles to himself.
Soon the angry cries give way to a shriek and a cry for help. Locking the lumber room, Nicholas enters the front garden, calling out to his aunt. She responds, informing him that she has fallen into the empty rain-water tank, and she asks Nicholas to fetch the small ladder under the cherry t