Summary
Narrated by an unnamed third-person omniscient narrator, “The Lumber Room” is set in an English country home in the early 1900s. The story opens with Nicholas, the story’s protagonist, having to stay home while his cousins and younger brother are treated to a day at the beach at Jagborough.
The narrator explains that Nicholas is in trouble with the adults because that morning he refused to eat breakfast, claiming there was a frog in his bowl of bread and milk. The “older and wiser and better” adults insisted it was nonsense, but there really was a frog: Nicholas had put it in the bowl himself. He pointed out their mistake, proud to have proved them wrong.
To punish Nicholas for his “disgraceful” behavior, Nicholas’s aunt decides the other children’s good behavior should be rewarded with a spontaneous beach trip. The narrator comments that Nicholas’s aunt is actually his cousins’ aunt, but she acts and speaks as if she is his aunt too. It is her habit to invent something fun to do whenever one of the children behaves badly, in order to exclude that child from the fun. When all the children do something to get in trouble, she pretends that there is suddenly a circus in town and all the children, for their sins, will not have the privilege of seeing the elephants.
Nicholas’s aunt hopes to see Nicholas crying as the others leave for the beach. In fact, the only person who cries is his cousin: she scrapes her knee against the step as she is scrambling into the carriage. As the carriage drives off with none of the high spirits that it normally would, Nicholas cheerfully reflects on how loudly his cousin is howling in pain. His aunt says she will soon get over it and that it will be a glorious afternoon for running about on the beach.
Nicholas gives a grim chuckle and says Bobby won’t enjoy running because his boots are too tight and are hurting him. The aunt asks why Bobby didn’t tell her. Nicholas says he told her twice but she wasn’t listening. He adds that she often doesn’t listen when they tell her important things.
The aunt changes the subject: she tells him he isn’t allowed to go into the gooseberry garden while he is “in disgrace.” Nicholas understands why she forbids him: he would be perfectly happy to be grounded if allowed in the garden. He assumes an expression of stubbornness. His aunt understands that Nicholas will now try to get into the gooseberry garden if only because she has told him not to.
The narrator comments that there are two doors leading to the garden. Once someone as small as Nicholas slips in an entrance, he can be hidden from view under artichokes, raspberry canes, and fruit bushes. Although the aunt has lots to do this afternoon, she spends an hour or two doing trivial gardening chores. From the flowerbeds and shrubberies she can keep a watchful eye on the two doors leading to the “forbidden paradise.” The narrator comments that she has few ideas, but an immense capacity for concentration.
Analysis
Saki—the pen name of Hector Hugh (H.H.) Munro—begins “The Lumber Room” by establishing the story’s premise: For his disobedient and disruptive behavior, Nicholas must stay home while his brother and cousins are treated to a trip to the beach.
Saki’s narrator explains that the situation came about because Nicholas put a frog in his bowl of milk and bread at breakfast. Needing to punish him, Nicholas’s aunt invented the trip to Jagborough beach only so that Nicholas would be excluded. With this premise, Saki introduces readers to his characteristic playful wit and the story’s major themes of mischief and authority.
When the aunt sends off the other children in a horse-drawn carriage, Saki introduces the theme of defiance: while the aunt hopes Nicholas will cry at being left out, in an instance of situational irony he defies her expectations by laughing at the misfortune of his cousin, who scraped her knee when climbing into the carriage.
Nicholas continues to defy his aunt’s authority by mischievously informing her—but only once it is too late—that his brother Bobby’s boots were tied too tight. In retaliation for Nicholas’s smugness, the aunt adds an additional punishment to his grounding: He is not allowed to enter the gooseberry garden. Nicholas acts as though he is dismayed by the rule, and makes sure to manipulate his face into a look of stubborn defiance.
The look of obstinacy convinces Nicholas’s aunt that he will try to defy her authority yet again, if only because she has expressly forbidden him from entering the gooseberry garden. She sets up an observation position among the flowerbeds, from where she can catch Nicholas when he attempts to sneak into the gooseberry garden. But she doesn’t realize Nicholas has other plans.
