For October 2:
Plot:
From his earliest days, Tommy Tucker seemed uneasy in the kitchen, especially if the door to the cellar was open. The cellar was larger than one would expect for the size of the house. The entrance was a “stout oaken door,” more suitable for an outside door.
The author tells the reader the cellar is one where “successive owners of the house had placed their firewood, winter vegetables and junk.” The stuff had piled high enough to form a barricade. No one knew or cared what lay beyond the barricade.
When Tommy reaches the advanced age of six and is about to go off to school, his parents decide it is time for their offspring to get over his fear of the cellar. They take him to Dr. Hawthorn.
Tommy can’t tell Dr. Hawthorn what he’s afraid of. He won’t fetch anything from the cellar for his mother, no matter how many whippings he gets. The doctor tells his parents to nail the cellar door open and leave Tommy in the kitchen for one hour by himself—in the dark. That will show him there’s nothing to worry about.
Thoughts:
This is a depressing little tale, from the father who wants his six-year-old boy to become a man, to the parents who find their son’s dread of the cellar an embarrassment, to the doctor’s annoyance with a little boy who won’t (or can’t) describe what terrifies him. I found it interesting that the author, a physician himself, made a doctor so obtuse.
Dr. Hawthorn has dinner with an old classmate, a psychiatrist interested in children, who perhaps supplies an answer to the problem, then goes to the Tucker house to try to prevent a tragedy.
The story leaves the question of what is in the cellar unanswered. Is there a monster? Was it all in Tommy’s imagination? Was Dr. Hawthorn’s friend correct? Or was something created from Tommy’s long and ongoing fear?
Bio: David H. Keller, M.D. (1880-1966) was an American writer, physician, and psychiatrist. During WWI, he treated soldiers with PTSD, then known as shell shock. He is best known for his science fiction writing, but he also wrote fantasy and horror. In addition, he wrote a series involving occult detective Taine of San Francisco.
The story can be read here:
The story can be listened to here: (16:28)
Title: “The Thing in the Cellar”
Author: David H. Keller, M.D. (1880-1966)
First published: Weird Tales, March 1932
Reviews of Old and New Stories. Mostly Old 
I agree that a six-year old kid should get a pass on being afraid of the cellar. I think the “monster” in the cellar were the adult expecatations that a six-year-old shouldn’t be afraid of dark, dank, under-the-ground places!
I agree.