The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Writings Read Free Page B

hours in trying to
analyze it, to find what it smelled like.
    It is not bad—at first, and very gentle, but quite the subtlest,
most enduring odor I ever met.
    In this damp weather it is awful, I wake up in the night and
find it hanging over me.
    It used to disturb me at first. I thought seriously of burning
the house—to reach the smell.
    But now I am used to it. The only thing I can 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 furniture, except the bed, a long, straight, even SMOOCH,
as if it had been rubbed over and over.
    I wonder 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!
    I really have discovered something at last.
    Through watching so much at night, when it changes so, I 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 only one, 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 pattern strangles them off and
turns them upside down, and makes their eyes white!
    If those heads were covered or taken off it would not be half so
bad.
    I think that woman gets out in the daytime!
    And I'll tell you why—privately—I've seen her!
    I can see her out of every one of my windows!
    It is the same woman, I know, for she is always creeping, and
most women do not creep by daylight.
    I see her on that long road under the trees, creeping along, and
when a carriage comes she hides under the blackberry vines.
    I don't blame her a bit. It must be very humiliating to be
caught creeping by daylight!
    I always lock the door when I creep by daylight. I can't do it
at night, for I know John would suspect something at once.
    And John is so queer now, that I don't want to irritate him. I
wish he would take another room! Besides, I don't want anybody to
get that woman out at night but myself.
    I often wonder if I could see her out of all the windows at
once.
    But, turn as fast as I can, I can only see out of one at a
time.
    And though I always see her, she MAY be able to creep faster
than I can turn!
    I have watched her sometimes away off in the open country,
creeping as fast as a cloud shadow in a high wind.
    If only that top pattern could be gotten off from the under one!
I mean to try it, little by little.
    I have found out another funny 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 look 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 so
quiet!
    He asked me all sorts of questions, too, and pretended to be
very loving and kind.
    As if I couldn't see through him!
    Still, I don't wonder he acts so, sleeping under this paper for
three months.
    It only interests me, but I feel sure John and Jennie are
secretly affected by it.
    Hurrah! This is the last day, but it is enough. John is to stay
in town over night, and won't be out until this evening.
    Jennie wanted to sleep with me—the sly thing! but I told her I
should undoubtedly rest better for a night all alone.
    That was clever, for really I wasn't alone a bit! As soon as it
was moonlight and that poor thing began to crawl and shake the
pattern, I got up and ran to help her.
    I pulled and she