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A story about a boy, a cupboard

and lots of hidden things…

by Anita Bekker

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Nicholas was a very bad little

boy. You would not think it to look

at him, because outside Nicholas

was a very nice-looking little boy.

However, inside he was very bad

indeed!

He was always hiding away.

When it was time to bath, Nicho-

las could not be found. When it

was time to go to bed, no one knew

where Nicholas was. He was a very

hiding-sort of little boy.

He had learned that he could hide

his bad things out of sight.

Nicholas lived with his

Daddy and Mummy, and brother and

sister and Granny in an up-stairs-

down-stairs house. At the bottom

of the stairs going up, there stood a

large, old cupboard, which no one

ever used.

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In fact, everyone had for-

gotten about the old cupboard

even being there, except

Nicholas. One day Nicholas de-

cided to open the door and look

inside, and to his great surprise

and delight, he found it quite

empty, and big enough to hold

him! So he climbed inside and

shut the door behind him.

At first, it seemed too

dark inside there to suit Nicho-

las, but the longer he stayed there, the more he liked

it, and after a short while the darkness didn’t bother

Nicholas at all. In fact, he rather liked it!

While he was sitting

there thinking what to do

next, Mummy called out,

“Nicholas! Where are you?”

But Nicholas kept perfectly

still and very quiet, and

Mummy soon went away,

never knowing where he was!

He thought to himself,

‘What a very clever boy I am, to have found such a good hiding place!’

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(Was he clever? Oh, no! It is a very fool-ish thing to do to climb into a cupboard and close the door behind you, for you may never get out again!)

But Nicholas was a hiding sort of little boy, and

he liked being there, all shut up in the dark, where no

one could find him. When he came out at last, Mummy

asked him where on earth he had been, but Nicholas

did not tell her. He pretended that he could not re-

member a thing about it! He was very bad!

One day Nicholas was playing with Martin’s tele-

scope. Martin was Nicholas’ big brother, and he didn’t

allow Nicholas to play with it, but Nicholas had waited

until Martin was gone, and then took it! Well, Nicholas

was very careless, as a rule, and of course, he broke

it! And of course he did not go straight away to Mar-

tin to tell him what had happened, as he should have.

No, Nicholas decided to hide it

away instead.

But where?

Of course! His cupboard! That

was just the right sort of hiding

place for it, he thought, and he ran

there quickly and hid the telescope

in the cupboard where no one would

ever think to look for it. Poor Mar-

tin was terribly unhappy!

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Martin hunted high and low for the telescope, but

couldn’t find it anywhere! Everyone thought that a

thief might have taken it through the open window. It

was a mystery to all, except Nicholas, who kept quiet.

Another time, Karen, his little sister, wouldn’t

play with him – she was too busy with her new doll to

have time for Nicholas. He got really fed up with

Karen, and when she went to take her bath, Nicholas

took her doll and hid it in the cupboard!

“Now let her try to play with the silly thing!” said

Nicholas crossly. “She’ll never find it there!”

And she never did! Poor Karen was heartbroken.

She hunted high and low for her dear dolly, but in the

end, Daddy said she might have left it outside, and

perhaps the dog from next door had gotten hold of it.

Karen cried for days.

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Well, things continued to

go missing in the house.

Daddy’s brand new rake disap-

peared - Nicholas didn’t like hav-

ing to sweep up all the leaves in

the yard on Saturday.

Mummy’s wooden spoon went

missing, too - Nicholas didn’t

like it when Mommy paddled

him for being naughty!

Granny lost her spectacles-

Nicholas didn’t like the way

Granny would look over the tops

of them at him with her piercing

eyes and ask, “Nicholas, have you

been a good boy today?”

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Once, a whole batch of muffins went missing.

Mummy had baked them for Aunty Mabel’s visit, and

Nicholas loved muffins. So he took them and left

them in the cupboard for later, but when he went into

the cupboard to enjoy

them, he could never

find them again! It

was terribly dark in

the cupboard when the door was shut and, try as he

may, he just could not lay hold of them. Nicholas hid

everything in his cupboard.

He even hid his peas! He didn’t like

peas, and he’d hide them in his serviette

at dinner, and then go and deposit them

in his cupboard later.

His new track shoes that pinched

him went in.

Broken things went in, for Nicholas

would never own up when he’d broken

something and simply say, “Sorry.”

His friend’s new soccer ball went in.

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Things that got on his nerves went in there. He

was the most hiding sort of little boy imaginable! And

soon the cupboard became uncomfortably full, almost

too full for Nicholas to fit in, too! But he would

squeeze inside, and wriggle around, until he got in. It

was rather dark and stuffy now, what with all those

moldy peas and rotten muffins. And the things that

were on top kept falling down and hitting him on the

head! And the things on the bottom kept poking him,

so that he was rather afraid to put his feet anywhere,

and he had to be very careful about the rake - he did

not want to find that again with his tail-end!

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Once when he was hiding there,

he’d accidently sat down on the rake,

and it had left his end aching, so much

so, that he couldn’t sit still at dinner,

and Granny had looked at him and said,

“Whatever is the matter with you, my boy? Do sit still

at once!” Granny couldn’t stand any fidgeting at all!

To top it all, Nicholas had started to have night-

mares about the cupboard. He dreamed that he was

running down the street in the dark and the cupboard

was chasing him, trying to catch him and lock him away

forever!

When Aunty Mabel said she was coming for a visit

again, Nicholas decided he’d have to go back into the

cupboard. Mummy had baked a fresh batch of deli-

cious, golden donuts, and Nicholas knew he’d have to

take several into the cupboard with him before Aunty

Mabel arrived, otherwise he’d

miss out on the donuts, as he

in any case would be inside

the cupboard hiding from his

aunty. But this time when he

thought of the cupboard, his

heart sank!

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The smell! The dark! The falling

-down-and-poking-up-things!

But then he thought of the

donuts, and the more he thought of

the donuts, the less he minded the

cupboard!

When he heard Aunty Mabel’s knock at the door,

he quickly filled his pockets and dived into the cup-

board, just before Mummy came around the corner to

answer the door.

“Nicholas!” called Mummy, “Where are you?

Nicholas?”

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Nicholas kept quiet and bit into a

donut. He could hear Mummy opening the

door, and he sat back to enjoy his mouth-

ful of warm, crispy donut.

Just as the front door opened, and Aunty Mabel

stepped in, the cupboard door flew open and Nicholas

tumbled out with a blood-curdling shriek!

He’d forgotten all about the rake, and had sat

down on it again! And not only did Nicholas come tum-

bling out of the cupboard, but every hidden thing

came tumbling with him, including a family of mice

that had decided to move into the cupboard, too! And

where should the whole tumbling mess land but right

at Aunty Mabel’s feet!

There lay Nicholas with all his hidden-ness around

him - the telescope, the spectacles, the soccer ball,

the wooden spoon, the moldy peas, the rotten muffins,

the lost dolly, and on top of the lot, Daddy’s rake!

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“NICHOLAS!” murmured Mabel.

“NICHOLAS!” moaned Mummy.

“NICHOLAS!” muttered Martin.

“NICHOLAS!” cried Karen.

“NICHOLAS!” gasped Granny.

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“NICHOLAS!” demanded Daddy,

“You had better come along with me!”

All Nicholas’ hiding-ness had come

out into the open. His cupboard was

just too full and couldn’t take another

thing, not even a donut with a hole in

the middle! Nicholas dragged himself

up out of the mess with the help of

Daddy’s firm hand on his shoulder.

It was time for a Conference with

Daddy, he knew, and his already aching

end - for remember it was due to the rake that Nicholas was there in the

first place - was sure to ache some

more before too long!

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After all was said and done (and there was a lot

said and done that day), Daddy told Nicholas that he

would have to clean up the mess, and sort everything

out with everyone he had ever stolen and hidden from.

That took Nicholas a good long time, because you will

remember that Nicholas’ cupboard was rather a large

one, and he had hidden a lot in it there over time. No

one was very happy with him, but in the end Nicholas

learned a very good lesson that we find in the Bible:

THINGS CANNOT

STAY HIDDEN FOREVER!

The verse says: “Be sure your sin will find you

out!” (Numbers 32:23). How true!

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The cupboard went to Aunty Mabel, who had a

good use for it. Empty cupboards always become a

problem if they are not filled quickly with good things.

Nicholas was glad to see it go - he’d had enough of

hiding places. He had decided that he was not going

to be a hiding sort of little boy any longer, and from

that day on, Nicholas never hid himself or anything

else away in the dark again!

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