Jims hated being shut up alone -- especially in the blue room . Its bigness and dimness and silence filled his sensitive little soul with vague horror . Sometimes he became almost sick with fear in it . To do Aunt Augusta justice , she never suspected this . If she had she would not have decreed this particular punishment , because she knew Jims was delicate and must not be subjected to any great physical or mental strain . That was why she shut him up instead of whipping him . But how was she to know it ? Aunt Augusta was one of those people who never know anything unless it is told them in plain language and then hammered into their heads . There was no one to tell her but Jims , and Jims would have died the death before he would have told Aunt Augusta , with her cold , spectacled eyes and thin , smileless mouth , that he was desperately frightened when he was shut in the blue room . So he was always shut in it for punishment ; and the punishments came very often , for Jims was always doing things that Aunt Augusta considered naughty . At first , this time , Jims did not feel quite so frightened as usual because he was very angry . As he put it , he was very mad at Aunt Augusta . He had n't meant to spill his pudding over the floor and the tablecloth and his clothes ; and how such a little bit of pudding -- Aunt Augusta was mean with desserts -- could ever have spread itself over so much territory Jims could not understand . But he had made a terrible mess and Aunt Augusta had been very angry and had said he must be cured of such carelessness . She said he must spend the afternoon in the blue room instead of going for a ride with Mrs. Loring in her new car . Jims was bitterly disappointed . If Uncle Walter had been home Jims would have appealed to him -- for when Uncle Walter could be really wakened up to a realization of his small nephew 's presence in his home , he was very kind and indulgent . But it was so hard to waken him up that Jims seldom attempted it . He liked Uncle Walter , but as far as being acquainted with him went he might as well have been the inhabitant of a star in the Milky Way . Jims was just a lonely , solitary little creature , and sometimes he felt so friendless that his eyes smarted , and several sobs had to be swallowed .
There were no XXXXX just now , though -- Jims was still too angry .
bit home horror nephew presence punishment punishments room sobs soul