Little Cottage In The Woods
Written by Anne Gilstrap
I would like to share a story with you that my two best friends related to me. Kathy, who had just had her fourteenth birthday, and Nan, her sister, went with their parents to their grandparents’ farm right outside Montgomery, Alabama. It had been a long, hot, boring ride from Atlanta, and having arrived at their grandparents’ farm, they were restless to do something besides watch Mom and Dad busy working to settle the estate.
As they wandered off into the cooler woods gathering wildflowers, they came to a clearing. There, in the middle of the clearing, was a small cottage, run down so badly even the shutters hung at an angle – never again to cover the windows that had lost most of their window panes – and a porch with tall grass, growing where there were no boards.
With a sudden burst of recklessness, the girls raced to the cottage. As they reached the half open front door, Kathy called out, “Is there anybody home?” And then they laughed, for of course, there was no one there.
As they came into the front room that at one time may have been pretty, they found it was full of dust and cobwebs, and stuffing falling out of the sofa cushions. Hurrying along to the next room, they found a kitchen with a table set for a meal, looking as if someone had hurriedly left the room, the chair being pushed half way aside at the table.
A growing sense of being watched overwhelmed the girls. They bolted from the room and down the hall.
As they reached the stairs, curiosity overcame their fear, and they climbed the stairs to the second floor. Kathy opened the door to the left of the hallway. “Whew!” she said as she viewed the pretty brass bed with a dirty old quilt that had become home for many different wild animals.
Closing the door, Kathy crossed the hall and gasped as she opened the door. Nan looked over her shoulder and saw a room as neat as a pin, no dust anywhere – a shining floor with an old worn rug, tattered curtains hanging listlessly at the open windows. And there in the middle of the room was a rocking horse, rocking back and forth very fast as if a child had just jumped off.
They watched with fascination as the horse slowed and stopped. As they looked around the room, they saw a child’s bed with a rocking chair beside it, and against the wall on the other side of the room was an old trunk. Quickly the girls moved to the trunk, knelt beside it and opened the lid. Kathy reached in and found a letter that gave her a hint of the occupants of the little cottage. The letter was from a soldier husband fighting in Virginia. He wrote, “I miss you and our little son so very much. It frightens me to think I might not be able to come back home to be with you.”
Putting the letter back, Kathy picked up another and started reading it out loud. Suddenly she grew silent, and Nan saw tears running down her checks. Taking the letter, Nan saw it was from the mother, and it read, “My dearest love, our precious son had pneumonia, and because the doctor was away with the troops, there was no one to save him.”
Nan put the letter back in the trunk, and as she did, her hand touched a piece of parchment. Drawing it out of the trunk, careful not to let the pieces fall away, she read a telegram that had been sent to the soldier in Virginia: “We regret to inform you your wife has taken her life.”
As the girls sat looking at each other through tears, there suddenly seemed to be a presence in the room, and the soft sound of a lullaby could be heard above the hum of the bees. Quickly and carefully, they put the paper back in the trunk, closed the lid, and hurriedly crossed the room. As Nan passed the closet, she felt something brush against her arm. Whirling around, she saw to her horror the rocking chair begin to slowly rock back and forth, and the sound of a lullaby became louder.
The girls frantically dashed down the stairs, out into the yard, and into the safety of the woods. Turning back to look at the little old cottege once again, they saw in the upstairs window a little blond boy watching them. Panicked, they ran through the woods, falling over broken limbs and being scratched by the briars.
When they arrived at the farm, they rushed to tell their father what they had seen. Father listened and then said, “Girls, the story is told that in anguish and grief, the solider, upon returning home, burned the cottage to the ground. The woods have long ago grown over the clearing where the little cottage once stood. There is no house.”
- THE END -
Story Credits | Story Background
25 Responses to “Little Cottage In The Woods”
col.jeremiah d.fish sr:
i read and enjoyed the storyand bealive in these happings they are real and do happen it is a way of the dead staying in contact with the living world there is grate information and history to be found in these sightings ill be 65 in dec. of 2009 and my mother used to tell me of things like this that took place when she was young and her mother and the elders of the community talking of places that appear and just fade away in the mist in the night i have seen this happen in my time also .
Callie:
ok but if the guy burned down the house, why did it look like it was all falling apart? Shouldn’t it just have appeared like it was when he burned it?
Brian:
Wow. That is one of the best ghost stories I’ve ever heard.Lots of detail and just enough creepiness to it. Excellent story.
Oliver Santos:
well, it could have been more scarier if the ghost chased the girls down the woods… but regardless of that, this story is still good!
nari:
wow so creepy i wonder what i would do if it happend to me
Michelle:
It was not so much scary as it was sad, so very sad.
Blades of the Moon:
This story was amazing…though i have never heard of such places myself that appear and disappear into nothingness other than a few legends and such…even in folklore such places are rare. I believe they do exist…and there is no way to prove that something doesn’t exist regardless of how much you try.
nina:
what a sad tale of love lost
tim:
wow that was pretty cool not so scary though
tim:
and kind of sad
Mary:
This story was great, it grabs you and doesn’t want to let you go until it is finnished.
t-bone:
Sorry…just wanted to point out the typo…..Cathy vs. Kathy.
Continuity is very important to keep the suspense
themoonlitroad:
Fixed, thanks.
Nic:
The ending totally had me!!!! Good one!
dorthy:
it was a good book!!!
chloe:
omg i loved the story
chloe:
i love the ending
Misty:
I had to read the story twice. I would love to share this story with my students. I am always looking for short stories that have surprise endings.
Javier M:
WOW!!!!!
lily:
This was a very intresting story that had me at the edge of my seat, holding my breath.
dk rizzs:
Very good story
Georgia:
I liked the story. I wish something like that would happen to me. I probably have enough stories of my own though.
Robbie Scifres:
Calli, some of these men were gone so long during the Civil War that when they returned they did find their families dead or gone, never to be seen again. It could have been that when he finally got home (some were a year trying to get home) the house may have very well been in dire need of repair. Other soldiers on the way home may have ripped up the front port to build camp fires. or even slept in the house. It most probably broke his heart and he decided to burn it down. So it is very likely that when it “reappeared” in the story it would look as it did when the father came home from the war. Gosh, I think the “facts” just made this story sadder! What if the letters telling him about the fate of his family had not found him and he didn’t know until he returned home what had happened? And what if by some wierd mistake the wife might have heard that her soldier husband had been in a battle and there were no survivors in his unit? It has been known to happen before. I gotta stop before I cry.
Georgia:
good story but i love long books apat from rthat, good ending and sad too.
Georgia:
I also think maybe the father wasn’t right maybe the girls didn’t imagine they just
really did see it. I think seeing the ghost must of frihtened them loads!
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