The House of Dies Drear Read Online Free

about him.”
    Mr. Small sighed. “I might as well,” he said. “We still have a long ride ahead of us.”
    Mr. Small started talking and Thomas listened, letting his long arms dangle over the front seat.
    “As I’ve told you, he’s the caretaker of the new house,” Mr. Small said. “Pluto isn’t his real name, but another name for Hades, the Lord of the Underworld. Well, Hades had cloven hooves.”
    “I know that,” Thomas said.
    “Mr. Pluto has been lame in one leg for as long as anyone can remember,” Mr. Small said. “I have no idea how old he is. Neither does the foundation, which hired him years ago. He’s spry, although that isn’t quite the right word to describe the way he gets around. He’s a big man, with white hair and a beard. I believe he has the most piercing green eyes I’ve ever seen. With that beard and hair and those eyes, it’s no wonder he’s known as Pluto. Otherwise,” Mr. Small added, “he’s harmless enough, and takes fine care of the place.”
    “The dream!” shouted Thomas. “It was him!”
    “Thomas, please!” said Mrs. Small, holding her ears.
    The twins began yelling, too, and Thomas had to hold them for a moment before they calmed down.
    “I had this dream,” Thomas told his mother and father. “Mr. Pluto was in it, but I didn’t know it was him until just now!”
    “Pluto knows many of the secret recesses of the house,” his father was saying to Mrs. Small. “He was kind enough to show them to me. I’m glad we’re keeping him on as caretaker—Thomas, I want you to be nice to him, no funny business. He’s an old man with quiet ways about him. You could even say he’s a bit secretive and strange. He rides around in a two-wheeled buggy drawn by two horses, one bay and one roan. He has a black, too, that he switches off with the other two. He’s lived all alone on that property for such a long time, I’m sure he wouldn’t know what to do without it.”
    “Does he live in our new house?” Thomas asked.
    “No,” said Mr. Small. “No, he lives on the other side of the hill from us. You’ll be surprised by his house and the way he lives.” He was about to say more, but seemed to change his mind.
    “I’ll warn you though,” he said. “Pluto walks as agile as a cat. He came upon me while I was in the cellar. I hadn’t heard him or seen him coming, and I nearly jumped out of my skin.”
    “Does he really look like the devil?” Thomas asked.
    “Oh, anyone can startle you in a house as old as that,” said Mr. Small. “I don’t think there’s a straight angle in the whole place. All the ceilings are amazingly high. But Pluto’s no devil. He did try to convince me not to live in that house. He was serious about it, too. He knows the legend, and I’m sure by now he believes it.”
    “Are there a lot of old people?” asked Thomas. “I mean in the town—old ones who remember everything and talk a lot, like Great-grandmother always did?”
    Mr. Small was silent a moment. “You are going to miss her, aren’t you?” he said.
    “Yes,” said Thomas, “I guess I will miss her.”
    “I’m sorry she wouldn’t come with us,” said Mr. Small, “but she has that right to end where she began. Anyway, it’s time you learned about young people. You are already wise in the ways of the old.”
    “I like old people,” said Thomas. “They never need to know what you are carving out of wood or even why. They just wait until it’s done and then they say it’s good.”
    Mr. Small had to laugh. “You don’t like to be bothered, do you? You have to be free. Well, there was a freeman’s community in the town even during slavery. Many slaves probably settled there. There are young people and there are old ones who remember things.”
    Thomas had a jumble of thoughts he couldn’t quite make come clear, so he began to ask question after question about the town. They had driven a long way before he did catch hold of what he was after.
    “Papa!” he