KidLit Forum

This short story has a very obvious message: we should never interfere in matters that do not concern us. To illustrate this the narrator shows us the case of little Martha. Being alone at home, while playing with her dolls she remembers about a house doll in the attic. In the attic she discovers an old chest that was sent to her family by uncle Walter. Her curiosity is extraordinary so that she tries all the keys from collection in order to open the lock. This made me thought about Pandora ’s Box. When she opens the box her day is ruined by three Italian bandits who engage her in conversation and then plunder her house. Finally Martha is saved by the door’s bell. The girl shows to be very clever, tells the bandits that the police has arrived to arrest them and then locks them back in the chest.

Very interesting how she turns everything in her favour, trying to get rid of the bandits..."Tis so!" the police is here and they need to go back in the chest, where they came from, so innocent and clever Martha, managed the situation extremely well...don't forget their names...Luigi(the fat man),Beni(the middle sized) and Victor(the thin man)... These respectful men, that you couldn't find all other three "in the whole world",are quite naive, but "wicked" as they proclame themselves. Unfortunately they arrived in the wrong place, and the wrong period, because "here" in America they do not know"whom to rob or how much to ask for a ransom". When Martha tries to find them the right job for them, they do not want to abandon their "true calling". When the girl says there is nothing to rob, because they all have been robbed, they decide to rob the robbers, cause they have "great experience and talent"in robbing. Starting with the house they are in, after scarrying Martha with their supposed cruel behaviour, they appologised her and assured her they won't do any harm to such a young lady...How they enjoyed the pie and shared it as comrades...but their joy was short because of the postman and Martha's idea with the 112 policemen tunned with axes, pistols,swords and cannons, that made them call Americans "painted indians who are bloodthirsty and terrible". So the little girl made them go back into the chest a bit heavier because of the pie they ate.
The ending/conclusion given by the author is great, by the way, so I quote it:"This story should teach us not to interfere in matters that do not concern us. For had Martha refrained from opening Uncle Walter's mysterious chest she would not have been obliged to carry downstairs all the plunder the robbers had brought into the attic."

Now she would have bored playing with her four dolls and the dolls' house she was looking for...

I think that after this experience the little girl learned that it is wrong to do something that you are not allowed. I think that this story tells us that it is in our nature to break the rules, that it is our nature to satisfy our curiosities.

As we can see, the message of this FT is well known through Martha's deeds and also due to the author's remark in the end of it. If we were in Martha's shoes we can say that our reaction would have been the same because we long to experiment new things or we are just curious about some existential aspects . However, all those circumstances related to the fact that Martha remains alone at home lead to the perfect occasion for taking a look in the attic.
One important aspect is the way in which Martha manages the difficult situation, namely being surrounded by three Italian bandits who start to robber her house and finally getting rid of them in a clever manner, it reveals our heroine's irreproachable abilities. In my opinion, her acts are not blameworthy because she, after all, succeeds in the created situation.