The Boarded Window

The Boarded Window Summary | Detailed Summary

The Boarded Window is set in 1830 in a small frontier forest near what is now the city of Cincinnati. Pioneers, most of whom stay a short time before pushing further west, sparsely populate the forest. The story centers on an exceptional citizen, Murlock, who is one of the first inhabitants to arrive, who lives alone and ekes out a meager existence by trading in animal skins. It is obvious that at some point in the past, the man had lived a different life. The land bears evidence of an attempt at farming, but the stumps of the trees he had once cleared are now partially obscured by new growth.

The man's small log house is a poor affair with a chimney of sticks, warped clapboards, a single door and a window. It is this boarded up windowthat is a curiosity for most, who never remember a time it was open. The all-knowing narrator claims to know the secret of the boarded-up window. He begins by painting a picture of his subject, a man named Murlock, who looks seventy but is thought to be only fifty. "Something besides years had had a hand in his aging," he says as he describes the tall but stooped figure with a full gray beard and wrinkled face as a "burden bearer." Although his imagery is crisp, the narrator confesses to never having seen the man himself, but to getting the description and the story of Murlock's life from his grandfather, a neighbor who had known him before his life changed.

Upon Murlock's death, probably from natural causes, his body is buried near the cabin alongside the grave of his wife. She had died so many years earlier that there was little evidence of her existence at all, save her final resting place. It would have been the end of the tale, the narrator says, had his grandfather not supplied the rest of the story.

Murlock's life had begun with much promise. He was young and strong when he built the cabin, cleared the fields and hunted in the nearby woods. He had brought a bride to share his adventuresome lot. The narrator finds evidence of their love and affection in Murlock's unwillingness to leave his wife, even after her death.

After a day of hunting, Murlock returns home to find his wife delirious with fever. With no physician or neighbor to help, he attempts to nurse her back to health. She dies on the third day of her illness. Despite his shock and the anticipation of overwhelming grief, Murlock tries to follow tradition and prepare the body for burial. He lays her on the table, dresses her, fixes her hair, crosses her wrists and ties them together. Planning to dig her grave and make her coffin the following day, he sinks into a chair, exhausted, folding his arms on the table and resting his head.

Murlock sleeps, but in his sleep he hears a wailing through the window coming closer and closer. He does not move, but some hours later awakens, not knowing why, and strains his eyes to see something, but he doesn't know what he is looking for. He feels the table shake and thinks he hears steps on the floor. He is terrified beyond reaching for his wife or crying out. He then hears some heavy body hurled against the table and feels the table strike his chest sharply. A scuffling ensues. Murlock flings his hands on the table, but finds nothing there.

Murlock gropes for his gun and fires. In the flash that lights up the room, he sees an enormous panther dragging his wife's body from the room, his teeth fixed in her throat. Murlock passes out. When he wakes a second time, the sun is high. He finds the body in disarray at the window where the frightened cat has left it. Blood from her throat is not quite coagulated. The ribbon with which he bound her wrists is broken and her hands are tightly clenched. In her teeth is a piece of the animal's ear.