Fifty-One Tales · Chapter
The Trouble in Leafy Green Street explained
A woman, seeking relief from rainy-day melancholy, buys a grey stone idol called the God of Rainy Cheerfulness from an old man in Moleshill Street.
What happens
A woman, seeking relief from rainy-day melancholy, buys a grey stone idol called the God of Rainy Cheerfulness from an old man in Moleshill Street. Despite warnings about idolatry, she prays to it on the next wet day, thereby invoking a doom upon herself in Leafy Green Street.
Free preview opens on this chapter — companions, themes, and character notes appear beside the text.
Narrative arc
Story tension across the book — this chapter sits in Rising action.
- Setup
- Escalation
- Breaking point
- Aftermath
- Closing
The emotional and psychological peak occurs when the black-clad figure (a rook or crow) confronts the existent…
Full beat labels and climax notes unlock in the reader.
Follow the arc while readingThemes in this chapter
- The Power of Myth and Imagination
The woman's belief in the idol's power to change her mood reflects the theme of myth and imagination shaping reality.
Characters to notice
- Unknown
The narrator recounts the woman's purchase of the idol and her subsequent doom.
Key passages
“She went to the idol-shop in Moleshill Street, where the old man mumbles, and said: “I want a god to worship when it is wet.””
She visited the idol shop on Moleshill Street, run by a mumbling old man, and requested a deity to worship during rainy weather.
The woman's pragmatic approach to spirituality is introduced.
“The same was carved of grey stone and wore a propitious look and was named, as the old man mumbled, The God of Rainy Cheerfulness.”
The idol was made of grey stone, had a favorable appearance, and was called the God of Rainy Cheerfulness.
The idol's description and name are given, emphasizing its intended purpose.
“and so brought down on her in Leafy Green Street, in the preposterous house at the corner, that doom of which all men speak.”
Thus, she incurred the infamous doom in her absurd corner house on Leafy Green Street.
The consequence of her prayer is revealed as a well-known catastrophe.
