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<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Secret Garden, by Frances Hodgson Burnett</title>
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<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 113 ***</div>
<table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto" cellpadding="4" border="3">
<tr>
<td>
THERE IS AN ILLUSTRATED EDITION OF THIS TITLE WHICH MAY VIEWED AT EBOOK <big><b><a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17396">
[ #17396 ]</a></b></big>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
<h1>
THE SECRET GARDEN
</h1>
<h2 class="no-break">
by Frances Hodgson Burnett
</h2>
<p class="center">
<i>Author of
<br /><br />
“The Shuttle,” “The Making of a Marchioness,”
“The Methods of Lady Walderhurst,” “The Lass o’
Lowries,” “Through One Administration,” “Little Lord
Fauntleroy,” “A Lady of Quality,” etc.</i>
</p>
<hr />
<h2>
Contents
</h2>
<table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto">
<tr>
<td> <a href="#chap01">I. THERE IS NO ONE LEFT</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="#chap02">II. MISTRESS MARY QUITE CONTRARY</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="#chap03">III. ACROSS THE MOOR</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="#chap04">IV. MARTHA</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="#chap05">V. THE CRY IN THE CORRIDOR</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="#chap06">VI. “THERE WAS SOMEONE CRYING—THERE WAS!”</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="#chap07">VII. THE KEY TO THE GARDEN</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="#chap08">VIII. THE ROBIN WHO SHOWED THE WAY</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="#chap09">IX. THE STRANGEST HOUSE ANYONE EVER LIVED IN</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="#chap10">X. DICKON</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="#chap11">XI. THE NEST OF THE MISSEL THRUSH</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="#chap12">XII. “MIGHT I HAVE A BIT OF EARTH?”</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="#chap13">XIII. “I AM COLIN”</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="#chap14">XIV. A YOUNG RAJAH</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="#chap15">XV. NEST BUILDING</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="#chap16">XVI. “I WON’T!” SAID MARY</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="#chap17">XVII. A TANTRUM</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="#chap18">XVIII. “THA’ MUNNOT WASTE NO TIME”</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="#chap19">XIX. “IT HAS COME!”</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="#chap20">XX. “I SHALL LIVE FOREVER—AND EVER—AND EVER!”</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="#chap21">XXI. BEN WEATHERSTAFF</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="#chap22">XXII. WHEN THE SUN WENT DOWN</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="#chap23">XXIII. MAGIC</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="#chap24">XXIV. “LET THEM LAUGH”</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="#chap25">XXV. THE CURTAIN</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="#chap26">XXVI. “IT’S MOTHER!”</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <a href="#chap27">XXVII. IN THE GARDEN</a></td>
</tr>
</table>
<div class="chapter">
<h2><a name="chap01"></a>CHAPTER I.<br />
THERE IS NO ONE LEFT</h2>
<p>
When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle
everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen. It was
true, too. She had a little thin face and a little thin body, thin light hair
and a sour expression. Her hair was yellow, and her face was yellow because she
had been born in India and had always been ill in one way or another. Her
father had held a position under the English Government and had always been
busy and ill himself, and her mother had been a great beauty who cared only to
go to parties and amuse herself with gay people. She had not wanted a little
girl at all, and when Mary was born she handed her over to the care of an Ayah,
who was made to understand that if she wished to please the Mem Sahib she must
keep the child out of sight as much as possible. So when she was a sickly,
fretful, ugly little baby she was kept out of the way, and when she became a
sickly, fretful, toddling thing she was kept out of the way also. She never
remembered seeing familiarly anything but the dark faces of her Ayah and the
other native servants, and as they always obeyed her and gave her her own way
in everything, because the Mem Sahib would be angry if she was disturbed by her
crying, by the time she was six years old she was as tyrannical and selfish a
little pig as ever lived. The young English governess who came to teach her to
read and write disliked her so much that she gave up her place in three months,
and when other governesses came to try to fill it they always went away in a
shorter time than the first one. So if Mary had not chosen to really want to
know how to read books she would never have learned her letters at all.
</p>
<p>
One frightfully hot morning, when she was about nine years old, she awakened
feeling very cross, and she became crosser still when she saw that the servant
who stood by her bedside was not her Ayah.
</p>
<p>
“Why did you come?” she said to the strange woman. “I will
not let you stay. Send my Ayah to me.”
</p>
<p>
The woman looked frightened, but she only stammered that the Ayah could not
come and when Mary threw herself into a passion and beat and kicked her, she
looked only more frightened and repeated that it was not possible for the Ayah
to come to Missie Sahib.
</p>
<p>
There was something mysterious in the air that morning. Nothing was done in its
regular order and several of the native servants seemed missing, while those
whom Mary saw slunk or hurried about with ashy and scared faces. But no one
would tell her anything and her Ayah did not come. She was actually left alone
as the morning went on, and at last she wandered out into the garden and began
to play by herself under a tree near the veranda. She pretended that she was
making a flower-bed, and she stuck big scarlet hibiscus blossoms into little
heaps of earth, all the time growing more and more angry and muttering to
herself the things she would say and the names she would call Saidie when she
returned.
</p>
<p>
“Pig! Pig! Daughter of Pigs!” she said, because to call a native a
pig is the worst insult of all.
</p>
<p>
She was grinding her teeth and saying this over and over again when she heard
her mother come out on the veranda with someone. She was with a fair young man
and they stood talking together in low strange voices. Mary knew the fair young
man who looked like a boy. She had heard that he was a very young officer who
had just come from England. The child stared at him, but she stared most at her
mother. She always did this when she had a chance to see her, because the Mem
Sahib—Mary used to call her that oftener than anything else—was
such a tall, slim, pretty person and wore such lovely clothes. Her hair was
like curly silk and she had a delicate little nose which seemed to be
disdaining things, and she had large laughing eyes. All her clothes were thin
and floating, and Mary said they were “full of lace.” They looked
fuller of lace than ever this morning, but her eyes were not laughing at all.
They were large and scared and lifted imploringly to the fair boy
officer’s face.
</p>
<p>
“Is it so very bad? Oh, is it?” Mary heard her say.
</p>
<p>
“Awfully,” the young man answered in a trembling voice.
“Awfully, Mrs. Lennox. You ought to have gone to the hills two weeks
ago.”
</p>
<p>
The Mem Sahib wrung her hands.
</p>
<p>
“Oh, I know I ought!” she cried. “I only stayed to go to that
silly dinner party. What a fool I was!”
</p>
<p>
At that very moment such a loud sound of wailing broke out from the
servants’ quarters that she clutched the young man’s arm, and Mary
stood shivering from head to foot. The wailing grew wilder and wilder.
“What is it? What is it?” Mrs. Lennox gasped.
</p>
<p>
“Someone has died,” answered the boy officer. “You did not
say it had broken out among your servants.”
</p>
<p>
“I did not know!” the Mem Sahib cried. “Come with me! Come
with me!” and she turned and ran into the house.
</p>
<p>
After that appalling things happened, and the mysteriousness of the morning
was explained to Mary. The cholera had broken out in its most fatal form and
people were dying like flies. The Ayah had been taken ill in the night, and it
was because she had just died that the servants had wailed in the huts. Before
the next day three other servants were dead and others had run away in terror.
There was panic on every side, and dying people in all the bungalows.
</p>
<p>
During the confusion and bewilderment of the second day Mary hid herself in the
nursery and was forgotten by everyone. Nobody thought of her, nobody wanted
her, and strange things happened of which she knew nothing. Mary alternately
cried and slept through the hours. She only knew that people were ill and that
she heard mysterious and frightening sounds. Once she crept into the
dining-room and found it empty, though a partly finished meal was on the table
and chairs and plates looked as if they had been hastily pushed back when the
diners rose suddenly for some reason. The child ate some fruit and biscuits,
and being thirsty she drank a glass of wine which stood nearly filled. It was
sweet, and she did not know how strong it was. Very soon it made her intensely
drowsy, and she went back to her nursery and shut herself in again, frightened
by cries she heard in the huts and by the hurrying sound of feet. The wine made
her so sleepy that she could scarcely keep her eyes open and she lay down on
her bed and knew nothing more for a long time.
</p>
<p>
Many things happened during the hours in which she slept so heavily, but she
was not disturbed by the wails and the sound of things being carried in and out
of the bungalow.
</p>
<p>
When she awakened she lay and stared at the wall. The house was perfectly
still. She had never known it to be so silent before. She heard neither voices
nor footsteps, and wondered if everybody had got well of the cholera and all
the trouble was over. She wondered also who would take care of her now her Ayah
was dead. There would be a new Ayah, and perhaps she would know some new
stories. Mary had been rather tired of the old ones. She did not cry because
her nurse had died. She was not an affectionate child and had never cared much
for anyone. The noise and hurrying about and wailing over the cholera had
frightened her, and she had been angry because no one seemed to remember that
she was alive. Everyone was too panic-stricken to think of a little girl no one
was fond of. When people had the cholera it seemed that they remembered nothing
but themselves. But if everyone had got well again, surely someone would
remember and come to look for her.
</p>
<p>
But no one came, and as she lay waiting the house seemed to grow more and more
silent. She heard something rustling on the matting and when she looked down
she saw a little snake gliding along and watching her with eyes like jewels.
She was not frightened, because he was a harmless little thing who would not
hurt her and he seemed in a hurry to get out of the room. He slipped under the
door as she watched him.
</p>
<p>
“How queer and quiet it is,” she said. “It sounds as if there
were no one in the bungalow but me and the snake.”
</p>
<p>
Almost the next minute she heard footsteps in the compound, and then on the
veranda. They were men’s footsteps, and the men entered the bungalow and
talked in low voices. No one went to meet or speak to them and they seemed to
open doors and look into rooms.
</p>
<p>
“What desolation!” she heard one voice say. “That pretty,
pretty woman! I suppose the child, too. I heard there was a child, though no
one ever saw her.”
</p>
<p>
Mary was standing in the middle of the nursery when they opened the door a few
minutes later. She looked an ugly, cross little thing and was frowning because
she was beginning to be hungry and feel disgracefully neglected. The first man
who came in was a large officer she had once seen talking to her father. He
looked tired and troubled, but when he saw her he was so startled that he
almost jumped back.
</p>
<p>
“Barney!” he cried out. “There is a child here! A child
alone! In a place like this! Mercy on us, who is she!”
</p>
<p>
“I am Mary Lennox,” the little girl said, drawing herself up
stiffly. She thought the man was very rude to call her father’s bungalow
“A place like this!” “I fell asleep when everyone had the
cholera and I have only just wakened up. Why does nobody come?”
</p>
<p>
“It is the child no one ever saw!” exclaimed the man, turning to
his companions. “She has actually been forgotten!”
</p>
<p>
“Why was I forgotten?” Mary said, stamping her foot. “Why
does nobody come?”
</p>
<p>
The young man whose name was Barney looked at her very sadly. Mary even thought
she saw him wink his eyes as if to wink tears away.
</p>
<p>
“Poor little kid!” he said. “There is nobody left to
come.”
</p>
<p>
It was in that strange and sudden way that Mary found out that she had neither
father nor mother left; that they had died and been carried away in the night,
and that the few native servants who had not died also had left the house as
quickly as they could get out of it, none of them even remembering that there
was a Missie Sahib. That was why the place was so quiet. It was true that there
was no one in the bungalow but herself and the little rustling snake.
</p>
</div><!--end chapter-->
<div class="chapter">
<h2><a name="chap02"></a>CHAPTER II.<br />
MISTRESS MARY QUITE CONTRARY</h2>
<p>
Mary had liked to look at her mother from a distance and she had thought her
very pretty, but as she knew very little of her she could scarcely have been
expected to love her or to miss her very much when she was gone. She did not
miss her at all, in fact, and as she was a self-absorbed child she gave her
entire thought to herself, as she had always done. If she had been older she
would no doubt have been very anxious at being left alone in the world, but she
was very young, and as she had always been taken care of, she supposed she
always would be. What she thought was that she would like to know if she was
going to nice people, who would be polite to her and give her her own way as
her Ayah and the other native servants had done.
</p>
<p>
She knew that she was not going to stay at the English clergyman’s house
where she was taken at first. She did not want to stay. The English clergyman
was poor and he had five children nearly all the same age and they wore shabby
clothes and were always quarreling and snatching toys from each other. Mary
hated their untidy bungalow and was so disagreeable to them that after the
first day or two nobody would play with her. By the second day they had given
her a nickname which made her furious.
</p>
<p>
It was Basil who thought of it first. Basil was a little boy with impudent blue
eyes and a turned-up nose, and Mary hated him. She was playing by herself under
a tree, just as she had been playing the day the cholera broke out. She was
making heaps of earth and paths for a garden and Basil came and stood near to
watch her. Presently he got rather interested and suddenly made a suggestion.
</p>
<p>
“Why don’t you put a heap of stones there and pretend it is a
rockery?” he said. “There in the middle,” and he leaned over
her to point.
</p>
<p>
“Go away!” cried Mary. “I don’t want boys. Go
away!”
</p>
<p>
For a moment Basil looked angry, and then he began to tease. He was always
teasing his sisters. He danced round and round her and made faces and sang and
laughed.
</p>
<p class="poem">
“Mistress Mary, quite contrary,<br />
How does your garden grow?<br />
With silver bells, and cockle shells,<br />
And marigolds all in a row.”<br />
</p>
<p>
He sang it until the other children heard and laughed, too; and the crosser
Mary got, the more they sang “Mistress Mary, quite contrary”; and
after that as long as she stayed with them they called her “Mistress Mary
Quite Contrary” when they spoke of her to each other, and often when they
spoke to her.
</p>
<p>
“You are going to be sent home,” Basil said to her, “at the
end of the week. And we’re glad of it.”
</p>
<p>
“I am glad of it, too,” answered Mary. “Where is home?”
</p>
<p>
“She doesn’t know where home is!” said Basil, with
seven-year-old scorn. “It’s England, of course. Our grandmama lives
there and our sister Mabel was sent to her last year. You are not going to your
grandmama. You have none. You are going to your uncle. His name is Mr.
Archibald Craven.”
</p>
<p>
“I don’t know anything about him,” snapped Mary.
</p>
<p>
“I know you don’t,” Basil answered. “You don’t
know anything. Girls never do. I heard father and mother talking about him. He
lives in a great, big, desolate old house in the country and no one goes near
him. He’s so cross he won’t let them, and they wouldn’t come
if he would let them. He’s a hunchback, and he’s horrid.”
</p>
<p>
“I don’t believe you,” said Mary; and she turned her back and
stuck her fingers in her ears, because she would not listen any more.
</p>
<p>
But she thought over it a great deal afterward; and when Mrs. Crawford told her
that night that she was going to sail away to England in a few days and go to
her uncle, Mr. Archibald Craven, who lived at Misselthwaite Manor, she looked
so stony and stubbornly uninterested that they did not know what to think about
her. They tried to be kind to her, but she only turned her face away when Mrs.
Crawford attempted to kiss her, and held herself stiffly when Mr. Crawford
patted her shoulder.
</p>
<p>
“She is such a plain child,” Mrs. Crawford said pityingly,
afterward. “And her mother was such a pretty creature. She had a very
pretty manner, too, and Mary has the most unattractive ways I ever saw in a
child. The children call her ‘Mistress Mary Quite Contrary,’ and
though it’s naughty of them, one can’t help understanding
it.”
</p>
<p>
“Perhaps if her mother had carried her pretty face and her pretty manners
oftener into the nursery Mary might have learned some pretty ways too. It is
very sad, now the poor beautiful thing is gone, to remember that many people
never even knew that she had a child at all.”
</p>
<p>
“I believe she scarcely ever looked at her,” sighed Mrs. Crawford.
“When her Ayah was dead there was no one to give a thought to the little
thing. Think of the servants running away and leaving her all alone in that
deserted bungalow. Colonel McGrew said he nearly jumped out of his skin when he
opened the door and found her standing by herself in the middle of the
room.”
</p>
<p>
Mary made the long voyage to England under the care of an officer’s wife,
who was taking her children to leave them in a boarding-school. She was very
much absorbed in her own little boy and girl, and was rather glad to hand the
child over to the woman Mr. Archibald Craven sent to meet her, in London. The
woman was his housekeeper at Misselthwaite Manor, and her name was Mrs.
Medlock. She was a stout woman, with very red cheeks and sharp black eyes. She
wore a very purple dress, a black silk mantle with jet fringe on it and a black
bonnet with purple velvet flowers which stuck up and trembled when she moved
her head. Mary did not like her at all, but as she very seldom liked people
there was nothing remarkable in that; besides which it was very evident Mrs.
Medlock did not think much of her.
</p>
<p>
“My word! she’s a plain little piece of goods!” she said.
“And we’d heard that her mother was a beauty. She hasn’t
handed much of it down, has she, ma’am?”
</p>
<p>
“Perhaps she will improve as she grows older,” the officer’s
wife said good-naturedly. “If she were not so sallow and had a nicer
expression, her features are rather good. Children alter so much.”
</p>
<p>
“She’ll have to alter a good deal,” answered Mrs. Medlock.
“And, there’s nothing likely to improve children at
Misselthwaite—if you ask me!”
</p>
<p>
They thought Mary was not listening because she was standing a little apart
from them at the window of the private hotel they had gone to. She was watching
the passing buses and cabs and people, but she heard quite well and was made
very curious about her uncle and the place he lived in. What sort of a place
was it, and what would he be like? What was a hunchback? She had never seen
one. Perhaps there were none in India.
</p>
<p>
Since she had been living in other people’s houses and had had no Ayah,
she had begun to feel lonely and to think queer thoughts which were new to her.
She had begun to wonder why she had never seemed to belong to anyone even when
her father and mother had been alive. Other children seemed to belong to their
fathers and mothers, but she had never seemed to really be anyone’s
little girl. She had had servants, and food and clothes, but no one had taken
any notice of her. She did not know that this was because she was a
disagreeable child; but then, of course, she did not know she was disagreeable.
She often thought that other people were, but she did not know that she was so
herself.
</p>
<p>
She thought Mrs. Medlock the most disagreeable person she had ever seen, with
her common, highly colored face and her common fine bonnet. When the next day
they set out on their journey to Yorkshire, she walked through the station to
the railway carriage with her head up and trying to keep as far away from her
as she could, because she did not want to seem to belong to her. It would have
made her angry to think people imagined she was her little girl.
</p>
<p>
But Mrs. Medlock was not in the least disturbed by her and her thoughts. She
was the kind of woman who would “stand no nonsense from young
ones.” At least, that is what she would have said if she had been asked.
She had not wanted to go to London just when her sister Maria’s daughter
was going to be married, but she had a comfortable, well paid place as
housekeeper at Misselthwaite Manor and the only way in which she could keep it
was to do at once what Mr. Archibald Craven told her to do. She never dared
even to ask a question.
</p>
<p>
“Captain Lennox and his wife died of the cholera,” Mr. Craven had
said in his short, cold way. “Captain Lennox was my wife’s brother
and I am their daughter’s guardian. The child is to be brought here. You
must go to London and bring her yourself.”
</p>
<p>
So she packed her small trunk and made the journey.
</p>
<p>
Mary sat in her corner of the railway carriage and looked plain and fretful.
She had nothing to read or to look at, and she had folded her thin little
black-gloved hands in her lap. Her black dress made her look yellower than
ever, and her limp light hair straggled from under her black crêpe hat.
</p>
<p>
“A more marred-looking young one I never saw in my life,” Mrs.
Medlock thought. (Marred is a Yorkshire word and means spoiled and pettish.)
She had never seen a child who sat so still without doing anything; and at last
she got tired of watching her and began to talk in a brisk, hard voice.
</p>
<p>
“I suppose I may as well tell you something about where you are going
to,” she said. “Do you know anything about your uncle?”
</p>
<p>
“No,” said Mary.
</p>
<p>
“Never heard your father and mother talk about him?”
</p>
<p>
“No,” said Mary frowning. She frowned because she remembered that
her father and mother had never talked to her about anything in particular.
Certainly they had never told her things.
</p>
<p>
“Humph,” muttered Mrs. Medlock, staring at her queer, unresponsive
little face. She did not say any more for a few moments and then she began
again.
</p>
<p>
“I suppose you might as well be told something—to prepare you. You
are going to a queer place.”
</p>
<p>
Mary said nothing at all, and Mrs. Medlock looked rather discomfited by her
apparent indifference, but, after taking a breath, she went on.
</p>
<p>
“Not but that it’s a grand big place in a gloomy way, and Mr.
Craven’s proud of it in his way—and that’s gloomy enough,
too. The house is six hundred years old and it’s on the edge of the moor,
and there’s near a hundred rooms in it, though most of them’s shut
up and locked. And there’s pictures and fine old furniture and things
that’s been there for ages, and there’s a big park round it and
gardens and trees with branches trailing to the ground—some of
them.” She paused and took another breath. “But there’s
nothing else,” she ended suddenly.
</p>
<p>
Mary had begun to listen in spite of herself. It all sounded so unlike India,
and anything new rather attracted her. But she did not intend to look as if she
were interested. That was one of her unhappy, disagreeable ways. So she sat
still.
</p>
<p>
“Well,” said Mrs. Medlock. “What do you think of it?”
</p>
<p>
“Nothing,” she answered. “I know nothing about such
places.”
</p>
<p>
That made Mrs. Medlock laugh a short sort of laugh.
</p>
<p>
“Eh!” she said, “but you are like an old woman. Don’t
you care?”
</p>
<p>
“It doesn’t matter” said Mary, “whether I care or
not.”
</p>
<p>
“You are right enough there,” said Mrs. Medlock. “It
doesn’t. What you’re to be kept at Misselthwaite Manor for I
don’t know, unless because it’s the easiest way. <i>He’s</i>
not going to trouble himself about you, that’s sure and certain. He never
troubles himself about no one.”
</p>
<p>
She stopped herself as if she had just remembered something in time.
</p>
<p>
“He’s got a crooked back,” she said. “That set him
wrong. He was a sour young man and got no good of all his money and big place
till he was married.”
</p>
<p>
Mary’s eyes turned toward her in spite of her intention not to seem to
care. She had never thought of the hunchback’s being married and she was
a trifle surprised. Mrs. Medlock saw this, and as she was a talkative woman she
continued with more interest. This was one way of passing some of the time, at
any rate.
</p>
<p>
“She was a sweet, pretty thing and he’d have walked the world over
to get her a blade o’ grass she wanted. Nobody thought she’d marry
him, but she did, and people said she married him for his money. But she
didn’t—she didn’t,” positively. “When she
died—”
</p>
<p>
Mary gave a little involuntary jump.
</p>
<p>
“Oh! did she die!” she exclaimed, quite without meaning to. She had
just remembered a French fairy story she had once read called “Riquet à
la Houppe.” It had been about a poor hunchback and a beautiful princess
and it had made her suddenly sorry for Mr. Archibald Craven.
</p>
<p>
“Yes, she died,” Mrs. Medlock answered. “And it made him
queerer than ever. He cares about nobody. He won’t see people. Most of
the time he goes away, and when he is at Misselthwaite he shuts himself up in
the West Wing and won’t let anyone but Pitcher see him. Pitcher’s
an old fellow, but he took care of him when he was a child and he knows his
ways.”
</p>
<p>
It sounded like something in a book and it did not make Mary feel cheerful. A
house with a hundred rooms, nearly all shut up and with their doors
locked—a house on the edge of a moor—whatsoever a moor
was—sounded dreary. A man with a crooked back who shut himself up also!
She stared out of the window with her lips pinched together, and it seemed
quite natural that the rain should have begun to pour down in gray slanting
lines and splash and stream down the window-panes. If the pretty wife had been
alive she might have made things cheerful by being something like her own
mother and by running in and out and going to parties as she had done in frocks
“full of lace.” But she was not there any more.
</p>
<p>
“You needn’t expect to see him, because ten to one you
won’t,” said Mrs. Medlock. “And you mustn’t expect that
there will be people to talk to you. You’ll have to play about and look
after yourself. You’ll be told what rooms you can go into and what rooms
you’re to keep out of. There’s gardens enough. But when
you’re in the house don’t go wandering and poking about. Mr. Craven
won’t have it.”
</p>
<p>
“I shall not want to go poking about,” said sour little Mary and
just as suddenly as she had begun to be rather sorry for Mr. Archibald Craven
she began to cease to be sorry and to think he was unpleasant enough to deserve
all that had happened to him.
</p>
<p>
And she turned her face toward the streaming panes of the window of the railway
carriage and gazed out at the gray rain-storm which looked as if it would go on
forever and ever. She watched it so long and steadily that the grayness grew
heavier and heavier before her eyes and she fell asleep.
</p>
</div><!--end chapter-->
<div class="chapter">
<h2><a name="chap03"></a>CHAPTER III.<br />
ACROSS THE MOOR</h2>
<p>
She slept a long time, and when she awakened Mrs. Medlock had bought a
lunchbasket at one of the stations and they had some chicken and cold beef and
bread and butter and some hot tea. The rain seemed to be streaming down more
heavily than ever and everybody in the station wore wet and glistening
waterproofs. The guard lighted the lamps in the carriage, and Mrs. Medlock
cheered up very much over her tea and chicken and beef. She ate a great deal
and afterward fell asleep herself, and Mary sat and stared at her and watched
her fine bonnet slip on one side until she herself fell asleep once more in the
corner of the carriage, lulled by the splashing of the rain against the
windows. It was quite dark when she awakened again. The train had stopped at a
station and Mrs. Medlock was shaking her.
</p>
<p>
“You have had a sleep!” she said. “It’s time to open
your eyes! We’re at Thwaite Station and we’ve got a long drive
before us.”
</p>
<p>
Mary stood up and tried to keep her eyes open while Mrs. Medlock collected her
parcels. The little girl did not offer to help her, because in India native
servants always picked up or carried things and it seemed quite proper that
other people should wait on one.
</p>
<p>
The station was a small one and nobody but themselves seemed to be getting out
of the train. The station-master spoke to Mrs. Medlock in a rough, good-natured
way, pronouncing his words in a queer broad fashion which Mary found out
afterward was Yorkshire.
</p>
<p>
“I see tha’s got back,” he said. “An’ tha’s
browt th’ young ’un with thee.”
</p>
<p>
“Aye, that’s her,” answered Mrs. Medlock, speaking with a
Yorkshire accent herself and jerking her head over her shoulder toward Mary.
“How’s thy Missus?”
</p>
<p>
“Well enow. Th’ carriage is waitin’ outside for thee.”
</p>
<p>
A brougham stood on the road before the little outside platform. Mary saw that
it was a smart carriage and that it was a smart footman who helped her in. His
long waterproof coat and the waterproof covering of his hat were shining and
dripping with rain as everything was, the burly station-master included.
</p>
<p>
When he shut the door, mounted the box with the coachman, and they drove off,
the little girl found herself seated in a comfortably cushioned corner, but she
was not inclined to go to sleep again. She sat and looked out of the window,
curious to see something of the road over which she was being driven to the
queer place Mrs. Medlock had spoken of. She was not at all a timid child and
she was not exactly frightened, but she felt that there was no knowing what
might happen in a house with a hundred rooms nearly all shut up—a house
standing on the edge of a moor.
</p>
<p>
“What is a moor?” she said suddenly to Mrs. Medlock.
</p>
<p>
“Look out of the window in about ten minutes and you’ll see,”
the woman answered. “We’ve got to drive five miles across Missel
Moor before we get to the Manor. You won’t see much because it’s a
dark night, but you can see something.”
</p>
<p>
Mary asked no more questions but waited in the darkness of her corner, keeping
her eyes on the window. The carriage lamps cast rays of light a little distance
ahead of them and she caught glimpses of the things they passed. After they had
left the station they had driven through a tiny village and she had seen
whitewashed cottages and the lights of a public house. Then they had passed a
church and a vicarage and a little shop-window or so in a cottage with toys and
sweets and odd things set out for sale. Then they were on the highroad and she
saw hedges and trees. After that there seemed nothing different for a long
time—or at least it seemed a long time to her.
</p>
<p>
At last the horses began to go more slowly, as if they were climbing up-hill,
and presently there seemed to be no more hedges and no more trees. She could
see nothing, in fact, but a dense darkness on either side. She leaned forward
and pressed her face against the window just as the carriage gave a big jolt.
</p>
<p>
“Eh! We’re on the moor now sure enough,” said Mrs. Medlock.
</p>
<p>
The carriage lamps shed a yellow light on a rough-looking road which seemed to
be cut through bushes and low-growing things which ended in the great expanse
of dark apparently spread out before and around them. A wind was rising and
making a singular, wild, low, rushing sound.
</p>
<p>
“It’s—it’s not the sea, is it?” said Mary,
looking round at her companion.
</p>
<p>
“No, not it,” answered Mrs. Medlock. “Nor it isn’t
fields nor mountains, it’s just miles and miles and miles of wild land
that nothing grows on but heather and gorse and broom, and nothing lives on but
wild ponies and sheep.”
</p>
<p>
“I feel as if it might be the sea, if there were water on it,” said
Mary. “It sounds like the sea just now.”
</p>
<p>
“That’s the wind blowing through the bushes,” Mrs. Medlock
said. “It’s a wild, dreary enough place to my mind, though
there’s plenty that likes it—particularly when the heather’s
in bloom.”
</p>
<p>
On and on they drove through the darkness, and though the rain stopped, the
wind rushed by and whistled and made strange sounds. The road went up and down,
and several times the carriage passed over a little bridge beneath which water
rushed very fast with a great deal of noise. Mary felt as if the drive would
never come to an end and that the wide, bleak moor was a wide expanse of black
ocean through which she was passing on a strip of dry land.
</p>
<p>
“I don’t like it,” she said to herself. “I don’t
like it,” and she pinched her thin lips more tightly together.
</p>
<p>
The horses were climbing up a hilly piece of road when she first caught sight
of a light. Mrs. Medlock saw it as soon as she did and drew a long sigh of
relief.
</p>
<p>
“Eh, I am glad to see that bit o’ light twinkling,” she
exclaimed. “It’s the light in the lodge window. We shall get a good
cup of tea after a bit, at all events.”
</p>
<p>
It was “after a bit,” as she said, for when the carriage passed
through the park gates there was still two miles of avenue to drive through and
the trees (which nearly met overhead) made it seem as if they were driving
through a long dark vault.
</p>
<p>
They drove out of the vault into a clear space and stopped before an immensely
long but low-built house which seemed to ramble round a stone court. At first
Mary thought that there were no lights at all in the windows, but as she got
out of the carriage she saw that one room in a corner upstairs showed a dull
glow.
</p>
<p>
The entrance door was a huge one made of massive, curiously shaped panels of
oak studded with big iron nails and bound with great iron bars. It opened into
an enormous hall, which was so dimly lighted that the faces in the portraits on
the walls and the figures in the suits of armor made Mary feel that she did not
want to look at them. As she stood on the stone floor she looked a very small,
odd little black figure, and she felt as small and lost and odd as she looked.
</p>
<p>
A neat, thin old man stood near the manservant who opened the door for them.
</p>
<p>
“You are to take her to her room,” he said in a husky voice.
“He doesn’t want to see her. He’s going to London in the
morning.”
</p>
<p>
“Very well, Mr. Pitcher,” Mrs. Medlock answered. “So long as
I know what’s expected of me, I can manage.”
</p>
<p>
“What’s expected of you, Mrs. Medlock,” Mr. Pitcher said,
“is that you make sure that he’s not disturbed and that he
doesn’t see what he doesn’t want to see.”
</p>
<p>
And then Mary Lennox was led up a broad staircase and down a long corridor and
up a short flight of steps and through another corridor and another, until a
door opened in a wall and she found herself in a room with a fire in it and a
supper on a table.
</p>
<p>
Mrs. Medlock said unceremoniously:
</p>
<p>
“Well, here you are! This room and the next are where you’ll
live—and you must keep to them. Don’t you forget that!”
</p>
<p>
It was in this way Mistress Mary arrived at Misselthwaite Manor and she had
perhaps never felt quite so contrary in all her life.
</p>
</div><!--end chapter-->
<div class="chapter">
<h2><a name="chap04"></a>CHAPTER IV.<br />
MARTHA</h2>
<p>
When she opened her eyes in the morning it was because a young housemaid had
come into her room to light the fire and was kneeling on the hearth-rug raking
out the cinders noisily. Mary lay and watched her for a few moments and then
began to look about the room. She had never seen a room at all like it and
thought it curious and gloomy. The walls were covered with tapestry with a
forest scene embroidered on it. There were fantastically dressed people under
the trees and in the distance there was a glimpse of the turrets of a castle.
There were hunters and horses and dogs and ladies. Mary felt as if she were in
the forest with them. Out of a deep window she could see a great climbing
stretch of land which seemed to have no trees on it, and to look rather like an
endless, dull, purplish sea.
</p>
<p>
“What is that?” she said, pointing out of the window.
</p>
<p>
Martha, the young housemaid, who had just risen to her feet, looked and pointed
also.
</p>
<p>
“That there?” she said.
</p>
<p>
“Yes.”
</p>
<p>
“That’s th’ moor,” with a good-natured grin.
“Does tha’ like it?”
</p>
<p>
“No,” answered Mary. “I hate it.”
</p>
<p>
“That’s because tha’rt not used to it,” Martha said,
going back to her hearth. “Tha’ thinks it’s too big an’
bare now. But tha’ will like it.”
</p>
<p>
“Do you?” inquired Mary.
</p>
<p>
“Aye, that I do,” answered Martha, cheerfully polishing away at the
grate. “I just love it. It’s none bare. It’s covered
wi’ growin’ things as smells sweet. It’s fair lovely in
spring an’ summer when th’ gorse an’ broom an’
heather’s in flower. It smells o’ honey an’ there’s
such a lot o’ fresh air—an’ th’ sky looks so high
an’ th’ bees an’ skylarks makes such a nice noise
hummin’ an’ singin’. Eh! I wouldn’t live away from
th’ moor for anythin’.”
</p>
<p>
Mary listened to her with a grave, puzzled expression. The native servants she
had been used to in India were not in the least like this. They were obsequious
and servile and did not presume to talk to their masters as if they were their
equals. They made salaams and called them “protector of the poor”
and names of that sort. Indian servants were commanded to do things, not asked.
It was not the custom to say “please” and “thank you”
and Mary had always slapped her Ayah in the face when she was angry. She
wondered a little what this girl would do if one slapped her in the face. She
was a round, rosy, good-natured looking creature, but she had a sturdy way
which made Mistress Mary wonder if she might not even slap back—if the
person who slapped her was only a little girl.
</p>
<p>
“You are a strange servant,” she said from her pillows, rather
haughtily.
</p>
<p>
Martha sat up on her heels, with her blacking-brush in her hand, and laughed,
without seeming the least out of temper.
</p>
<p>
“Eh! I know that,” she said. “If there was a grand Missus at
Misselthwaite I should never have been even one of th’ under housemaids.
I might have been let to be scullerymaid but I’d never have been let
upstairs. I’m too common an’ I talk too much Yorkshire. But this is
a funny house for all it’s so grand. Seems like there’s neither
Master nor Mistress except Mr. Pitcher an’ Mrs. Medlock. Mr. Craven, he
won’t be troubled about anythin’ when he’s here, an’
he’s nearly always away. Mrs. Medlock gave me th’ place out
o’ kindness. She told me she could never have done it if Misselthwaite
had been like other big houses.”
</p>
<p>
“Are you going to be my servant?” Mary asked, still in her
imperious little Indian way.
</p>
<p>
Martha began to rub her grate again.
</p>
<p>
“I’m Mrs. Medlock’s servant,” she said stoutly.
“An’ she’s Mr. Craven’s—but I’m to do the
housemaid’s work up here an’ wait on you a bit. But you won’t
need much waitin’ on.”
</p>
<p>
“Who is going to dress me?” demanded Mary.
</p>
<p>
Martha sat up on her heels again and stared. She spoke in broad Yorkshire in
her amazement.
</p>
<p>
“Canna’ tha’ dress thysen!” she said.
</p>
<p>
“What do you mean? I don’t understand your language,” said
Mary.
</p>
<p>
“Eh! I forgot,” Martha said. “Mrs. Medlock told me I’d
have to be careful or you wouldn’t know what I was sayin’. I mean
can’t you put on your own clothes?”
</p>
<p>
“No,” answered Mary, quite indignantly. “I never did in my
life. My Ayah dressed me, of course.”
</p>
<p>
“Well,” said Martha, evidently not in the least aware that she was
impudent, “it’s time tha’ should learn. Tha’ cannot
begin younger. It’ll do thee good to wait on thysen a bit. My mother
always said she couldn’t see why grand people’s children
didn’t turn out fair fools—what with nurses an’ bein’
washed an’ dressed an’ took out to walk as if they was
puppies!”
</p>
<p>
“It is different in India,” said Mistress Mary disdainfully. She
could scarcely stand this.
</p>
<p>
But Martha was not at all crushed.
</p>
<p>
“Eh! I can see it’s different,” she answered almost
sympathetically. “I dare say it’s because there’s such a lot
o’ blacks there instead o’ respectable white people. When I heard
you was comin’ from India I thought you was a black too.”
</p>
<p>
Mary sat up in bed furious.
</p>
<p>
“What!” she said. “What! You thought I was a native.
You—you daughter of a pig!”
</p>
<p>
Martha stared and looked hot.
</p>
<p>
“Who are you callin’ names?” she said. “You
needn’t be so vexed. That’s not th’ way for a young lady to
talk. I’ve nothin’ against th’ blacks. When you read about
’em in tracts they’re always very religious. You always read as a
black’s a man an’ a brother. I’ve never seen a black
an’ I was fair pleased to think I was goin’ to see one close. When
I come in to light your fire this mornin’ I crep’ up to your bed
an’ pulled th’ cover back careful to look at you. An’ there
you was,” disappointedly, “no more black than me—for all
you’re so yeller.”
</p>
<p>
Mary did not even try to control her rage and humiliation.
</p>
<p>
“You thought I was a native! You dared! You don’t know anything
about natives! They are not people—they’re servants who must salaam
to you. You know nothing about India. You know nothing about anything!”
</p>
<p>
She was in such a rage and felt so helpless before the girl’s simple
stare, and somehow she suddenly felt so horribly lonely and far away from
everything she understood and which understood her, that she threw herself face
downward on the pillows and burst into passionate sobbing. She sobbed so
unrestrainedly that good-natured Yorkshire Martha was a little frightened and
quite sorry for her. She went to the bed and bent over her.
</p>
<p>
“Eh! you mustn’t cry like that there!” she begged. “You
mustn’t for sure. I didn’t know you’d be vexed. I don’t
know anythin’ about anythin’—just like you said. I beg your
pardon, Miss. Do stop cryin’.”
</p>
<p>
There was something comforting and really friendly in her queer Yorkshire
speech and sturdy way which had a good effect on Mary. She gradually ceased
crying and became quiet. Martha looked relieved.
</p>
<p>
“It’s time for thee to get up now,” she said. “Mrs.
Medlock said I was to carry tha’ breakfast an’ tea an’ dinner
into th’ room next to this. It’s been made into a nursery for thee.
I’ll help thee on with thy clothes if tha’ll get out o’ bed.
If th’ buttons are at th’ back tha’ cannot button them up
tha’self.”
</p>
<p>
When Mary at last decided to get up, the clothes Martha took from the wardrobe
were not the ones she had worn when she arrived the night before with Mrs.
Medlock.
</p>
<p>
“Those are not mine,” she said. “Mine are black.”
</p>
<p>
She looked the thick white wool coat and dress over, and added with cool
approval:
</p>
<p>
“Those are nicer than mine.”
</p>
<p>
“These are th’ ones tha’ must put on,” Martha answered.
“Mr. Craven ordered Mrs. Medlock to get ’em in London. He said
‘I won’t have a child dressed in black wanderin’ about like a
lost soul,’ he said. ‘It’d make the place sadder than it is.
Put color on her.’ Mother she said she knew what he meant. Mother always
knows what a body means. She doesn’t hold with black
hersel’.”
</p>
<p>
“I hate black things,” said Mary.
</p>
<p>
The dressing process was one which taught them both something. Martha had
“buttoned up” her little sisters and brothers but she had never
seen a child who stood still and waited for another person to do things for her
as if she had neither hands nor feet of her own.
</p>
<p>
“Why doesn’t tha’ put on tha’ own shoes?” she
said when Mary quietly held out her foot.
</p>
<p>
“My Ayah did it,” answered Mary, staring. “It was the
custom.”
</p>
<p>
She said that very often—“It was the custom.” The native
servants were always saying it. If one told them to do a thing their ancestors
had not done for a thousand years they gazed at one mildly and said, “It
is not the custom” and one knew that was the end of the matter.
</p>
<p>
It had not been the custom that Mistress Mary should do anything but stand and
allow herself to be dressed like a doll, but before she was ready for breakfast
she began to suspect that her life at Misselthwaite Manor would end by teaching
her a number of things quite new to her—things such as putting on her own
shoes and stockings, and picking up things she let fall. If Martha had been a
well-trained fine young lady’s maid she would have been more subservient
and respectful and would have known that it was her business to brush hair, and
button boots, and pick things up and lay them away. She was, however, only an
untrained Yorkshire rustic who had been brought up in a moorland cottage with a
swarm of little brothers and sisters who had never dreamed of doing anything
but waiting on themselves and on the younger ones who were either babies in
arms or just learning to totter about and tumble over things.
</p>
<p>
If Mary Lennox had been a child who was ready to be amused she would perhaps
have laughed at Martha’s readiness to talk, but Mary only listened to her
coldly and wondered at her freedom of manner. At first she was not at all
interested, but gradually, as the girl rattled on in her good-tempered, homely
way, Mary began to notice what she was saying.
</p>
<p>
“Eh! you should see ’em all,” she said. “There’s
twelve of us an’ my father only gets sixteen shilling a week. I can tell
you my mother’s put to it to get porridge for ’em all. They tumble
about on th’ moor an’ play there all day an’ mother says
th’ air of th’ moor fattens ’em. She says she believes they
eat th’ grass same as th’ wild ponies do. Our Dickon, he’s
twelve years old and he’s got a young pony he calls his own.”
</p>
<p>
“Where did he get it?” asked Mary.
</p>
<p>
“He found it on th’ moor with its mother when it was a little one
an’ he began to make friends with it an’ give it bits o’
bread an’ pluck young grass for it. And it got to like him so it follows
him about an’ it lets him get on its back. Dickon’s a kind lad
an’ animals likes him.”
</p>
<p>
Mary had never possessed an animal pet of her own and had always thought she
should like one. So she began to feel a slight interest in Dickon, and as she
had never before been interested in anyone but herself, it was the dawning of
a healthy sentiment. When she went into the room which had been made into a
nursery for her, she found that it was rather like the one she had slept in. It
was not a child’s room, but a grown-up person’s room, with gloomy
old pictures on the walls and heavy old oak chairs. A table in the center was
set with a good substantial breakfast. But she had always had a very small
appetite, and she looked with something more than indifference at the first
plate Martha set before her.
</p>
<p>
“I don’t want it,” she said.
</p>
<p>
“Tha’ doesn’t want thy porridge!” Martha exclaimed
incredulously.
</p>
<p>
“No.”
</p>
<p>
“Tha’ doesn’t know how good it is. Put a bit o’ treacle
on it or a bit o’ sugar.”
</p>
<p>
“I don’t want it,” repeated Mary.
</p>
<p>
“Eh!” said Martha. “I can’t abide to see good victuals
go to waste. If our children was at this table they’d clean it bare in
five minutes.”
</p>
<p>
“Why?” said Mary coldly.
</p>
<p>
“Why!” echoed Martha. “Because they scarce ever had their
stomachs full in their lives. They’re as hungry as young hawks an’
foxes.”
</p>
<p>
“I don’t know what it is to be hungry,” said Mary, with the
indifference of ignorance.
</p>
<p>
Martha looked indignant.
</p>
<p>
“Well, it would do thee good to try it. I can see that plain
enough,” she said outspokenly. “I’ve no patience with folk as
sits an’ just stares at good bread an’ meat. My word! don’t I
wish Dickon and Phil an’ Jane an’ th’ rest of ’em had
what’s here under their pinafores.”
</p>
<p>
“Why don’t you take it to them?” suggested Mary.
</p>
<p>
“It’s not mine,” answered Martha stoutly. “An’
this isn’t my day out. I get my day out once a month same as th’
rest. Then I go home an’ clean up for mother an’ give her a
day’s rest.”
</p>
<p>
Mary drank some tea and ate a little toast and some marmalade.
</p>
<p>
“You wrap up warm an’ run out an’ play you,” said
Martha. “It’ll do you good and give you some stomach for your
meat.”
</p>
<p>
Mary went to the window. There were gardens and paths and big trees, but
everything looked dull and wintry.
</p>
<p>
“Out? Why should I go out on a day like this?”
</p>
<p>
“Well, if tha’ doesn’t go out tha’lt have to stay in,
an’ what has tha’ got to do?”
</p>
<p>
Mary glanced about her. There was nothing to do. When Mrs. Medlock had prepared
the nursery she had not thought of amusement. Perhaps it would be better to go
and see what the gardens were like.
</p>
<p>
“Who will go with me?” she inquired.
</p>
<p>
Martha stared.
</p>
<p>
“You’ll go by yourself,” she answered. “You’ll
have to learn to play like other children does when they haven’t got
sisters and brothers. Our Dickon goes off on th’ moor by himself
an’ plays for hours. That’s how he made friends with th’
pony. He’s got sheep on th’ moor that knows him, an’ birds as
comes an’ eats out of his hand. However little there is to eat, he always
saves a bit o’ his bread to coax his pets.”
</p>
<p>
It was really this mention of Dickon which made Mary decide to go out, though
she was not aware of it. There would be, birds outside though there would not
be ponies or sheep. They would be different from the birds in India and it
might amuse her to look at them.
</p>
<p>
Martha found her coat and hat for her and a pair of stout little boots and she
showed her her way downstairs.
</p>
<p>
“If tha’ goes round that way tha’ll come to th’
gardens,” she said, pointing to a gate in a wall of shrubbery.
“There’s lots o’ flowers in summer-time, but there’s
nothin’ bloomin’ now.” She seemed to hesitate a second before
she added, “One of th’ gardens is locked up. No one has been in it
for ten years.”
</p>
<p>
“Why?” asked Mary in spite of herself. Here was another locked door
added to the hundred in the strange house.
</p>
<p>
“Mr. Craven had it shut when his wife died so sudden. He won’t let
no one go inside. It was her garden. He locked th’ door an’ dug a
hole and buried th’ key. There’s Mrs. Medlock’s bell
ringing—I must run.”
</p>
<p>
After she was gone Mary turned down the walk which led to the door in the
shrubbery. She could not help thinking about the garden which no one had been
into for ten years. She wondered what it would look like and whether there were
any flowers still alive in it. When she had passed through the shrubbery gate
she found herself in great gardens, with wide lawns and winding walks with
clipped borders. There were trees, and flower-beds, and evergreens clipped into
strange shapes, and a large pool with an old gray fountain in its midst. But
the flower-beds were bare and wintry and the fountain was not playing. This was
not the garden which was shut up. How could a garden be shut up? You could
always walk into a garden.
</p>
<p>
She was just thinking this when she saw that, at the end of the path she was
following, there seemed to be a long wall, with ivy growing over it. She was
not familiar enough with England to know that she was coming upon the
kitchen-gardens where the vegetables and fruit were growing. She went toward
the wall and found that there was a green door in the ivy, and that it stood
open. This was not the closed garden, evidently, and she could go into it.
</p>
<p>
She went through the door and found that it was a garden with walls all round
it and that it was only one of several walled gardens which seemed to open into
one another. She saw another open green door, revealing bushes and pathways
between beds containing winter vegetables. Fruit-trees were trained flat
against the wall, and over some of the beds there were glass frames. The place
was bare and ugly enough, Mary thought, as she stood and stared about her. It
might be nicer in summer when things were green, but there was nothing pretty
about it now.
</p>
<p>
Presently an old man with a spade over his shoulder walked through the door
leading from the second garden. He looked startled when he saw Mary, and then
touched his cap. He had a surly old face, and did not seem at all pleased to
see her—but then she was displeased with his garden and wore her
“quite contrary” expression, and certainly did not seem at all
pleased to see him.
</p>
<p>
“What is this place?” she asked.
</p>
<p>
“One o’ th’ kitchen-gardens,” he answered.
</p>
<p>
“What is that?” said Mary, pointing through the other green door.
</p>
<p>
“Another of ’em,” shortly. “There’s another on
t’other side o’ th’ wall an’ there’s th’
orchard t’other side o’ that.”
</p>
<p>
“Can I go in them?” asked Mary.
</p>
<p>
“If tha’ likes. But there’s nowt to see.”
</p>
<p>
Mary made no response. She went down the path and through the second green
door. There, she found more walls and winter vegetables and glass frames, but
in the second wall there was another green door and it was not open. Perhaps it
led into the garden which no one had seen for ten years. As she was not at all
a timid child and always did what she wanted to do, Mary went to the green door
and turned the handle. She hoped the door would not open because she wanted to
be sure she had found the mysterious garden—but it did open quite easily
and she walked through it and found herself in an orchard. There were walls all
round it also and trees trained against them, and there were bare fruit-trees
growing in the winter-browned grass—but there was no green door to be
seen anywhere. Mary looked for it, and yet when she had entered the upper end
of the garden she had noticed that the wall did not seem to end with the
orchard but to extend beyond it as if it enclosed a place at the other side.
She could see the tops of trees above the wall, and when she stood still she
saw a bird with a bright red breast sitting on the topmost branch of one of
them, and suddenly he burst into his winter song—almost as if he had
caught sight of her and was calling to her.
</p>
<p>
She stopped and listened to him and somehow his cheerful, friendly little
whistle gave her a pleased feeling—even a disagreeable little girl may be
lonely, and the big closed house and big bare moor and big bare gardens had
made this one feel as if there was no one left in the world but herself. If she
had been an affectionate child, who had been used to being loved, she would
have broken her heart, but even though she was “Mistress Mary Quite
Contrary” she was desolate, and the bright-breasted little bird brought a
look into her sour little face which was almost a smile. She listened to him
until he flew away. He was not like an Indian bird and she liked him and
wondered if she should ever see him again. Perhaps he lived in the mysterious
garden and knew all about it.
</p>
<p>
Perhaps it was because she had nothing whatever to do that she thought so much
of the deserted garden. She was curious about it and wanted to see what it was
like. Why had Mr. Archibald Craven buried the key? If he had liked his wife so
much why did he hate her garden? She wondered if she should ever see him, but
she knew that if she did she should not like him, and he would not like her,
and that she should only stand and stare at him and say nothing, though she
should be wanting dreadfully to ask him why he had done such a queer thing.
</p>
<p>
“People never like me and I never like people,” she thought.
“And I never can talk as the Crawford children could. They were always
talking and laughing and making noises.”
</p>
<p>
She thought of the robin and of the way he seemed to sing his song at her, and
as she remembered the tree-top he perched on she stopped rather suddenly on the
path.
</p>
<p>
“I believe that tree was in the secret garden—I feel sure it
was,” she said. “There was a wall round the place and there was no
door.”
</p>
<p>
She walked back into the first kitchen-garden she had entered and found the old
man digging there. She went and stood beside him and watched him a few moments
in her cold little way. He took no notice of her and so at last she spoke to
him.
</p>
<p>
“I have been into the other gardens,” she said.
</p>
<p>
“There was nothin’ to prevent thee,” he answered crustily.
</p>
<p>
“I went into the orchard.”
</p>
<p>
“There was no dog at th’ door to bite thee,” he answered.
</p>
<p>
“There was no door there into the other garden,” said Mary.
</p>
<p>
“What garden?” he said in a rough voice, stopping his digging for a
moment.
</p>
<p>
“The one on the other side of the wall,” answered Mistress Mary.
“There are trees there—I saw the tops of them. A bird with a red
breast was sitting on one of them and he sang.”
</p>
<p>
To her surprise the surly old weather-beaten face actually changed its
expression. A slow smile spread over it and the gardener looked quite
different. It made her think that it was curious how much nicer a person looked
when he smiled. She had not thought of it before.
</p>
<p>
He turned about to the orchard side of his garden and began to whistle—a
low soft whistle. She could not understand how such a surly man could make such
a coaxing sound.
</p>
<p>
Almost the next moment a wonderful thing happened. She heard a soft little
rushing flight through the air—and it was the bird with the red breast
flying to them, and he actually alighted on the big clod of earth quite near to
the gardener’s foot.
</p>
<p>
“Here he is,” chuckled the old man, and then he spoke to the bird
as if he were speaking to a child.
</p>
<p>
“Where has tha’ been, tha’ cheeky little beggar?” he
said. “I’ve not seen thee before today. Has tha begun tha’
courtin’ this early in th’ season? Tha’rt too forrad.”
</p>
<p>
The bird put his tiny head on one side and looked up at him with his soft
bright eye which was like a black dewdrop. He seemed quite familiar and not the
least afraid. He hopped about and pecked the earth briskly, looking for seeds
and insects. It actually gave Mary a queer feeling in her heart, because he was
so pretty and cheerful and seemed so like a person. He had a tiny plump body
and a delicate beak, and slender delicate legs.
</p>
<p>
“Will he always come when you call him?” she asked almost in a
whisper.
</p>
<p>
“Aye, that he will. I’ve knowed him ever since he was a fledgling.
He come out of th’ nest in th’ other garden an’ when first he
flew over th’ wall he was too weak to fly back for a few days an’
we got friendly. When he went over th’ wall again th’ rest of
th’ brood was gone an’ he was lonely an’ he come back to
me.”
</p>
<p>
“What kind of a bird is he?” Mary asked.
</p>
<p>
“Doesn’t tha’ know? He’s a robin redbreast an’
they’re th’ friendliest, curiousest birds alive. They’re
almost as friendly as dogs—if you know how to get on with ’em.
Watch him peckin’ about there an’ lookin’ round at us now
an’ again. He knows we’re talkin’ about him.”
</p>
<p>
It was the queerest thing in the world to see the old fellow. He looked at the
plump little scarlet-waistcoated bird as if he were both proud and fond of him.
</p>
<p>
“He’s a conceited one,” he chuckled. “He likes to hear
folk talk about him. An’ curious—bless me, there never was his like
for curiosity an’ meddlin’. He’s always comin’ to see
what I’m plantin’. He knows all th’ things Mester Craven
never troubles hissel’ to find out. He’s th’ head gardener,
he is.”
</p>
<p>
The robin hopped about busily pecking the soil and now and then stopped and
looked at them a little. Mary thought his black dewdrop eyes gazed at her with
great curiosity. It really seemed as if he were finding out all about her. The
queer feeling in her heart increased.
</p>
<p>
“Where did the rest of the brood fly to?” she asked.
</p>
<p>
“There’s no knowin’. The old ones turn ’em out o’
their nest an’ make ’em fly an’ they’re scattered
before you know it. This one was a knowin’ one an’ he knew he was
lonely.”
</p>
<p>
Mistress Mary went a step nearer to the robin and looked at him very hard.
</p>
<p>
“I’m lonely,” she said.
</p>
<p>
She had not known before that this was one of the things which made her feel
sour and cross. She seemed to find it out when the robin looked at her and she
looked at the robin.
</p>
<p>
The old gardener pushed his cap back on his bald head and stared at her a
minute.
</p>
<p>
“Art tha’ th’ little wench from India?” he asked.
</p>
<p>
Mary nodded.
</p>
<p>
“Then no wonder tha’rt lonely. Tha’lt be lonlier before
tha’s done,” he said.
</p>
<p>
He began to dig again, driving his spade deep into the rich black garden soil
while the robin hopped about very busily employed.
</p>
<p>
“What is your name?” Mary inquired.
</p>
<p>
He stood up to answer her.
</p>
<p>
“Ben Weatherstaff,” he answered, and then he added with a surly
chuckle, “I’m lonely mysel’ except when he’s with
me,” and he jerked his thumb toward the robin. “He’s
th’ only friend I’ve got.”
</p>
<p>
“I have no friends at all,” said Mary. “I never had. My Ayah
didn’t like me and I never played with anyone.”
</p>
<p>
It is a Yorkshire habit to say what you think with blunt frankness, and old Ben
Weatherstaff was a Yorkshire moor man.
</p>
<p>
“Tha’ an’ me are a good bit alike,” he said. “We
was wove out of th’ same cloth. We’re neither of us good
lookin’ an’ we’re both of us as sour as we look. We’ve
got the same nasty tempers, both of us, I’ll warrant.”
</p>
<p>
This was plain speaking, and Mary Lennox had never heard the truth about
herself in her life. Native servants always salaamed and submitted to you,
whatever you did. She had never thought much about her looks, but she wondered
if she was as unattractive as Ben Weatherstaff and she also wondered if she
looked as sour as he had looked before the robin came. She actually began to
wonder also if she was “nasty tempered.” She felt uncomfortable.
</p>
<p>
Suddenly a clear rippling little sound broke out near her and she turned round.
She was standing a few feet from a young apple-tree and the robin had flown on
to one of its branches and had burst out into a scrap of a song. Ben
Weatherstaff laughed outright.
</p>
<p>
“What did he do that for?” asked Mary.
</p>
<p>
“He’s made up his mind to make friends with thee,” replied
Ben. “Dang me if he hasn’t took a fancy to thee.”
</p>
<p>
“To me?” said Mary, and she moved toward the little tree softly and
looked up.
</p>
<p>
“Would you make friends with me?” she said to the robin just as if
she was speaking to a person. “Would you?” And she did not say it
either in her hard little voice or in her imperious Indian voice, but in a tone
so soft and eager and coaxing that Ben Weatherstaff was as surprised as she had
been when she heard him whistle.
</p>
<p>
“Why,” he cried out, “tha’ said that as nice an’
human as if tha’ was a real child instead of a sharp old woman.
Tha’ said it almost like Dickon talks to his wild things on th’
moor.”
</p>
<p>
“Do you know Dickon?” Mary asked, turning round rather in a hurry.
</p>
<p>
“Everybody knows him. Dickon’s wanderin’ about everywhere.
Th’ very blackberries an’ heather-bells knows him. I warrant
th’ foxes shows him where their cubs lies an’ th’ skylarks
doesn’t hide their nests from him.”
</p>
<p>
Mary would have liked to ask some more questions. She was almost as curious
about Dickon as she was about the deserted garden. But just that moment the
robin, who had ended his song, gave a little shake of his wings, spread them
and flew away. He had made his visit and had other things to do.
</p>
<p>
“He has flown over the wall!” Mary cried out, watching him.
“He has flown into the orchard—he has flown across the other
wall—into the garden where there is no door!”
</p>
<p>
“He lives there,” said old Ben. “He came out o’
th’ egg there. If he’s courtin’, he’s makin’ up
to some young madam of a robin that lives among th’ old rose-trees
there.”
</p>
<p>
“Rose-trees,” said Mary. “Are there rose-trees?”
</p>
<p>
Ben Weatherstaff took up his spade again and began to dig.
</p>
<p>
“There was ten year’ ago,” he mumbled.
</p>
<p>
“I should like to see them,” said Mary. “Where is the green
door? There must be a door somewhere.”
</p>
<p>
Ben drove his spade deep and looked as uncompanionable as he had looked when
she first saw him.
</p>
<p>
“There was ten year’ ago, but there isn’t now,” he
said.
</p>
<p>
“No door!” cried Mary. “There must be.”
</p>
<p>
“None as anyone can find, an’ none as is anyone’s business.
Don’t you be a meddlesome wench an’ poke your nose where it’s
no cause to go. Here, I must go on with my work. Get you gone an’ play
you. I’ve no more time.”
</p>
<p>
And he actually stopped digging, threw his spade over his shoulder and walked
off, without even glancing at her or saying good-by.
</p>
</div><!--end chapter-->
<div class="chapter">
<h2><a name="chap05"></a>CHAPTER V.<br />
THE CRY IN THE CORRIDOR</h2>
<p>
At first each day which passed by for Mary Lennox was exactly like the others.
Every morning she awoke in her tapestried room and found Martha kneeling upon
the hearth building her fire; every morning she ate her breakfast in the
nursery which had nothing amusing in it; and after each breakfast she gazed out
of the window across to the huge moor which seemed to spread out on all sides
and climb up to the sky, and after she had stared for a while she realized that
if she did not go out she would have to stay in and do nothing—and so she
went out. She did not know that this was the best thing she could have done,
and she did not know that, when she began to walk quickly or even run along the
paths and down the avenue, she was stirring her slow blood and making herself
stronger by fighting with the wind which swept down from the moor. She ran only
to make herself warm, and she hated the wind which rushed at her face and
roared and held her back as if it were some giant she could not see. But the
big breaths of rough fresh air blown over the heather filled her lungs with
something which was good for her whole thin body and whipped some red color
into her cheeks and brightened her dull eyes when she did not know anything
about it.
</p>
<p>
But after a few days spent almost entirely out of doors she wakened one morning
knowing what it was to be hungry, and when she sat down to her breakfast she
did not glance disdainfully at her porridge and push it away, but took up her
spoon and began to eat it and went on eating it until her bowl was empty.
</p>
<p>
“Tha’ got on well enough with that this mornin’, didn’t
tha’?” said Martha.
</p>
<p>
“It tastes nice today,” said Mary, feeling a little surprised
herself.
</p>
<p>
“It’s th’ air of th’ moor that’s givin’
thee stomach for tha’ victuals,” answered Martha. “It’s
lucky for thee that tha’s got victuals as well as appetite. There’s
been twelve in our cottage as had th’ stomach an’ nothin’ to
put in it. You go on playin’ you out o’ doors every day an’
you’ll get some flesh on your bones an’ you won’t be so
yeller.”
</p>
<p>
“I don’t play,” said Mary. “I have nothing to play
with.”
</p>
<p>
“Nothin’ to play with!” exclaimed Martha. “Our children
plays with sticks and stones. They just runs about an’ shouts an’
looks at things.” Mary did not shout, but she looked at things. There was
nothing else to do. She walked round and round the gardens and wandered about
the paths in the park. Sometimes she looked for Ben Weatherstaff, but though
several times she saw him at work he was too busy to look at her or was too
surly. Once when she was walking toward him he picked up his spade and turned
away as if he did it on purpose.
</p>
<p>
One place she went to oftener than to any other. It was the long walk outside
the gardens with the walls round them. There were bare flower-beds on either
side of it and against the walls ivy grew thickly. There was one part of the
wall where the creeping dark green leaves were more bushy than elsewhere. It
seemed as if for a long time that part had been neglected. The rest of it had
been clipped and made to look neat, but at this lower end of the walk it had
not been trimmed at all.
</p>
<p>
A few days after she had talked to Ben Weatherstaff, Mary stopped to notice
this and wondered why it was so. She had just paused and was looking up at a
long spray of ivy swinging in the wind when she saw a gleam of scarlet and
heard a brilliant chirp, and there, on the top of the wall, perched Ben
Weatherstaff’s robin redbreast, tilting forward to look at her with his
small head on one side.
</p>
<p>
“Oh!” she cried out, “is it you—is it you?” And
it did not seem at all queer to her that she spoke to him as if she were sure
that he would understand and answer her.
</p>
<p>
He did answer. He twittered and chirped and hopped along the wall as if he were
telling her all sorts of things. It seemed to Mistress Mary as if she
understood him, too, though he was not speaking in words. It was as if he said:
</p>
<p>
“Good morning! Isn’t the wind nice? Isn’t the sun nice?
Isn’t everything nice? Let us both chirp and hop and twitter. Come on!
Come on!”
</p>
<p>
Mary began to laugh, and as he hopped and took little flights along the wall
she ran after him. Poor little thin, sallow, ugly Mary—she actually
looked almost pretty for a moment.
</p>
<p>
“I like you! I like you!” she cried out, pattering down the walk;
and she chirped and tried to whistle, which last she did not know how to do in
the least. But the robin seemed to be quite satisfied and chirped and whistled
back at her. At last he spread his wings and made a darting flight to the top
of a tree, where he perched and sang loudly.
</p>
<p>
That reminded Mary of the first time she had seen him. He had been swinging on
a tree-top then and she had been standing in the orchard. Now she was on the
other side of the orchard and standing in the path outside a wall—much
lower down—and there was the same tree inside.
</p>
<p>
“It’s in the garden no one can go into,” she said to herself.
“It’s the garden without a door. He lives in there. How I wish I
could see what it is like!”
</p>
<p>
She ran up the walk to the green door she had entered the first morning. Then
she ran down the path through the other door and then into the orchard, and
when she stood and looked up there was the tree on the other side of the wall,
and there was the robin just finishing his song and beginning to preen his
feathers with his beak.
</p>
<p>
“It is the garden,” she said. “I am sure it is.”
</p>
<p>
She walked round and looked closely at that side of the orchard wall, but she
only found what she had found before—that there was no door in it. Then
she ran through the kitchen-gardens again and out into the walk outside the
long ivy-covered wall, and she walked to the end of it and looked at it, but
there was no door; and then she walked to the other end, looking again, but
there was no door.
</p>
<p>
“It’s very queer,” she said. “Ben Weatherstaff said
there was no door and there is no door. But there must have been one ten years
ago, because Mr. Craven buried the key.”
</p>
<p>
This gave her so much to think of that she began to be quite interested and
feel that she was not sorry that she had come to Misselthwaite Manor. In India
she had always felt hot and too languid to care much about anything. The fact
was that the fresh wind from the moor had begun to blow the cobwebs out of her
young brain and to waken her up a little.
</p>
<p>
She stayed out of doors nearly all day, and when she sat down to her supper at
night she felt hungry and drowsy and comfortable. She did not feel cross when
Martha chattered away. She felt as if she rather liked to hear her, and at last
she thought she would ask her a question. She asked it after she had finished
her supper and had sat down on the hearth-rug before the fire.
</p>
<p>
“Why did Mr. Craven hate the garden?” she said.
</p>
<p>
She had made Martha stay with her and Martha had not objected at all. She was
very young, and used to a crowded cottage full of brothers and sisters, and she
found it dull in the great servants’ hall downstairs where the footman
and upper-housemaids made fun of her Yorkshire speech and looked upon her as a
common little thing, and sat and whispered among themselves. Martha liked to
talk, and the strange child who had lived in India, and been waited upon by
“blacks,” was novelty enough to attract her.
</p>
<p>
She sat down on the hearth herself without waiting to be asked.
</p>
<p>
“Art tha’ thinkin’ about that garden yet?” she said.
“I knew tha’ would. That was just the way with me when I first
heard about it.”
</p>
<p>
“Why did he hate it?” Mary persisted.
</p>
<p>
Martha tucked her feet under her and made herself quite comfortable.
</p>
<p>
“Listen to th’ wind wutherin’ round the house,” she
said. “You could bare stand up on the moor if you was out on it
tonight.”
</p>
<p>
Mary did not know what “wutherin’” meant until she listened,
and then she understood. It must mean that hollow shuddering sort of roar which
rushed round and round the house as if the giant no one could see were
buffeting it and beating at the walls and windows to try to break in. But one
knew he could not get in, and somehow it made one feel very safe and warm
inside a room with a red coal fire.
</p>
<p>
“But why did he hate it so?” she asked, after she had listened. She
intended to know if Martha did.
</p>
<p>
Then Martha gave up her store of knowledge.
</p>
<p>
“Mind,” she said, “Mrs. Medlock said it’s not to be
talked about. There’s lots o’ things in this place that’s not
to be talked over. That’s Mr. Craven’s orders. His troubles are
none servants’ business, he says. But for th’ garden he
wouldn’t be like he is. It was Mrs. Craven’s garden that she had
made when first they were married an’ she just loved it, an’ they
used to ’tend the flowers themselves. An’ none o’ th’
gardeners was ever let to go in. Him an’ her used to go in an’ shut
th’ door an’ stay there hours an’ hours, readin’ and
talkin’. An’ she was just a bit of a girl an’ there was an
old tree with a branch bent like a seat on it. An’ she made roses grow
over it an’ she used to sit there. But one day when she was sittin’
there th’ branch broke an’ she fell on th’ ground an’
was hurt so bad that next day she died. Th’ doctors thought he’d go
out o’ his mind an’ die, too. That’s why he hates it. No
one’s never gone in since, an’ he won’t let anyone talk
about it.”
</p>
<p>
Mary did not ask any more questions. She looked at the red fire and listened to
the wind “wutherin’.” It seemed to be
“wutherin’” louder than ever.
</p>
<p>
At that moment a very good thing was happening to her. Four good things had
happened to her, in fact, since she came to Misselthwaite Manor. She had felt
as if she had understood a robin and that he had understood her; she had run in
the wind until her blood had grown warm; she had been healthily hungry for the
first time in her life; and she had found out what it was to be sorry for
someone.
</p>
<p>
But as she was listening to the wind she began to listen to something else. She
did not know what it was, because at first she could scarcely distinguish it
from the wind itself. It was a curious sound—it seemed almost as if a
child were crying somewhere. Sometimes the wind sounded rather like a child
crying, but presently Mistress Mary felt quite sure this sound was inside the
house, not outside it. It was far away, but it was inside. She turned round and
looked at Martha.
</p>
<p>
“Do you hear anyone crying?” she said.
</p>
<p>
Martha suddenly looked confused.
</p>
<p>
“No,” she answered. “It’s th’ wind. Sometimes it
sounds like as if someone was lost on th’ moor an’ wailin’.
It’s got all sorts o’ sounds.”
</p>
<p>
“But listen,” said Mary. “It’s in the house—down
one of those long corridors.”
</p>
<p>
And at that very moment a door must have been opened somewhere downstairs; for
a great rushing draft blew along the passage and the door of the room they sat
in was blown open with a crash, and as they both jumped to their feet the light
was blown out and the crying sound was swept down the far corridor so that it
was to be heard more plainly than ever.
</p>
<p>
“There!” said Mary. “I told you so! It is someone
crying—and it isn’t a grown-up person.”
</p>
<p>
Martha ran and shut the door and turned the key, but before she did it they
both heard the sound of a door in some far passage shutting with a bang, and
then everything was quiet, for even the wind ceased
“wutherin’” for a few moments.
</p>
<p>
“It was th’ wind,” said Martha stubbornly. “An’
if it wasn’t, it was little Betty Butterworth, th’ scullery-maid.
She’s had th’ toothache all day.”
</p>
<p>
But something troubled and awkward in her manner made Mistress Mary stare very
hard at her. She did not believe she was speaking the truth.
</p>
</div><!--end chapter-->
<div class="chapter">
<h2><a name="chap06"></a>CHAPTER VI.<br />
“THERE WAS SOMEONE CRYING—THERE WAS!”</h2>
<p>
The next day the rain poured down in torrents again, and when Mary looked out
of her window the moor was almost hidden by gray mist and cloud. There could be
no going out today.
</p>
<p>
“What do you do in your cottage when it rains like this?” she asked
Martha.
</p>
<p>
“Try to keep from under each other’s feet mostly,” Martha
answered. “Eh! there does seem a lot of us then. Mother’s a
good-tempered woman but she gets fair moithered. The biggest ones goes out in
th’ cow-shed and plays there. Dickon he doesn’t mind th’ wet.
He goes out just th’ same as if th’ sun was shinin’. He says
he sees things on rainy days as doesn’t show when it’s fair
weather. He once found a little fox cub half drowned in its hole and he brought
it home in th’ bosom of his shirt to keep it warm. Its mother had been
killed nearby an’ th’ hole was swum out an’ th’ rest
o’ th’ litter was dead. He’s got it at home now. He found a
half-drowned young crow another time an’ he brought it home, too,
an’ tamed it. It’s named Soot because it’s so black,
an’ it hops an’ flies about with him everywhere.”
</p>
<p>
The time had come when Mary had forgotten to resent Martha’s familiar
talk. She had even begun to find it interesting and to be sorry when she
stopped or went away. The stories she had been told by her Ayah when she lived
in India had been quite unlike those Martha had to tell about the moorland
cottage which held fourteen people who lived in four little rooms and never had
quite enough to eat. The children seemed to tumble about and amuse themselves
like a litter of rough, good-natured collie puppies. Mary was most attracted by
the mother and Dickon. When Martha told stories of what “mother”
said or did they always sounded comfortable.
</p>
<p>
“If I had a raven or a fox cub I could play with it,” said Mary.
“But I have nothing.”
</p>
<p>
Martha looked perplexed.
</p>
<p>
“Can tha’ knit?” she asked.
</p>
<p>
“No,” answered Mary.
</p>
<p>
“Can tha’ sew?”
</p>
<p>
“No.”
</p>
<p>
“Can tha’ read?”
</p>
<p>
“Yes.”
</p>
<p>
“Then why doesn’t tha read somethin’, or learn a bit o’
spellin’? Tha’st old enough to be learnin’ thy book a good
bit now.”
</p>
<p>
“I haven’t any books,” said Mary. “Those I had were
left in India.”
</p>
<p>
“That’s a pity,” said Martha. “If Mrs. Medlock’d
let thee go into th’ library, there’s thousands o’ books
there.”
</p>
<p>
Mary did not ask where the library was, because she was suddenly inspired by a
new idea. She made up her mind to go and find it herself. She was not troubled
about Mrs. Medlock. Mrs. Medlock seemed always to be in her comfortable
housekeeper’s sitting-room downstairs. In this queer place one scarcely
ever saw anyone at all. In fact, there was no one to see but the servants, and
when their master was away they lived a luxurious life below stairs, where
there was a huge kitchen hung about with shining brass and pewter, and a large
servants’ hall where there were four or five abundant meals eaten every
day, and where a great deal of lively romping went on when Mrs. Medlock was out
of the way.
</p>
<p>
Mary’s meals were served regularly, and Martha waited on her, but no one
troubled themselves about her in the least. Mrs. Medlock came and looked at her
every day or two, but no one inquired what she did or told her what to do. She
supposed that perhaps this was the English way of treating children. In India
she had always been attended by her Ayah, who had followed her about and waited
on her, hand and foot. She had often been tired of her company. Now she was
followed by nobody and was learning to dress herself because Martha looked as
though she thought she was silly and stupid when she wanted to have things
handed to her and put on.
</p>
<p>
“Hasn’t tha’ got good sense?” she said once, when Mary
had stood waiting for her to put on her gloves for her. “Our Susan Ann is
twice as sharp as thee an’ she’s only four year’ old.
Sometimes tha’ looks fair soft in th’ head.”
</p>
<p>
Mary had worn her contrary scowl for an hour after that, but it made her think
several entirely new things.
</p>
<p>
She stood at the window for about ten minutes this morning after Martha had
swept up the hearth for the last time and gone downstairs. She was thinking
over the new idea which had come to her when she heard of the library. She did
not care very much about the library itself, because she had read very few
books; but to hear of it brought back to her mind the hundred rooms with closed
doors. She wondered if they were all really locked and what she would find if
she could get into any of them. Were there a hundred really? Why
shouldn’t she go and see how many doors she could count? It would be
something to do on this morning when she could not go out. She had never been
taught to ask permission to do things, and she knew nothing at all about
authority, so she would not have thought it necessary to ask Mrs. Medlock if
she might walk about the house, even if she had seen her.
</p>
<p>
She opened the door of the room and went into the corridor, and then she began
her wanderings. It was a long corridor and it branched into other corridors and
it led her up short flights of steps which mounted to others again. There were
doors and doors, and there were pictures on the walls. Sometimes they were
pictures of dark, curious landscapes, but oftenest they were portraits of men
and women in queer, grand costumes made of satin and velvet. She found herself
in one long gallery whose walls were covered with these portraits. She had
never thought there could be so many in any house. She walked slowly down this
place and stared at the faces which also seemed to stare at her. She felt as if
they were wondering what a little girl from India was doing in their house.
Some were pictures of children—little girls in thick satin frocks which
reached to their feet and stood out about them, and boys with puffed sleeves
and lace collars and long hair, or with big ruffs around their necks. She
always stopped to look at the children, and wonder what their names were, and
where they had gone, and why they wore such odd clothes. There was a stiff,
plain little girl rather like herself. She wore a green brocade dress and held
a green parrot on her finger. Her eyes had a sharp, curious look.
</p>
<p>
“Where do you live now?” said Mary aloud to her. “I wish you
were here.”
</p>
<p>
Surely no other little girl ever spent such a queer morning. It seemed as if
there was no one in all the huge rambling house but her own small self,
wandering about upstairs and down, through narrow passages and wide ones, where
it seemed to her that no one but herself had ever walked. Since so many rooms
had been built, people must have lived in them, but it all seemed so empty that
she could not quite believe it true.
</p>
<p>
It was not until she climbed to the second floor that she thought of turning
the handle of a door. All the doors were shut, as Mrs. Medlock had said they
were, but at last she put her hand on the handle of one of them and turned it.
She was almost frightened for a moment when she felt that it turned without
difficulty and that when she pushed upon the door itself it slowly and heavily
opened. It was a massive door and opened into a big bedroom. There were
embroidered hangings on the wall, and inlaid furniture such as she had seen in
India stood about the room. A broad window with leaded panes looked out upon
the moor; and over the mantel was another portrait of the stiff, plain little
girl who seemed to stare at her more curiously than ever.
</p>
<p>
“Perhaps she slept here once,” said Mary. “She stares at me
so that she makes me feel queer.”
</p>
<p>
After that she opened more doors and more. She saw so many rooms that she
became quite tired and began to think that there must be a hundred, though she
had not counted them. In all of them there were old pictures or old tapestries
with strange scenes worked on them. There were curious pieces of furniture and
curious ornaments in nearly all of them.
</p>
<p>
In one room, which looked like a lady’s sitting-room, the hangings were
all embroidered velvet, and in a cabinet were about a hundred little elephants
made of ivory. They were of different sizes, and some had their mahouts or
palanquins on their backs. Some were much bigger than the others and some were
so tiny that they seemed only babies. Mary had seen carved ivory in India and
she knew all about elephants. She opened the door of the cabinet and stood on a
footstool and played with these for quite a long time. When she got tired she
set the elephants in order and shut the door of the cabinet.
</p>
<p>
In all her wanderings through the long corridors and the empty rooms, she had
seen nothing alive; but in this room she saw something. Just after she had
closed the cabinet door she heard a tiny rustling sound. It made her jump and
look around at the sofa by the fireplace, from which it seemed to come. In the
corner of the sofa there was a cushion, and in the velvet which covered it
there was a hole, and out of the hole peeped a tiny head with a pair of
frightened eyes in it.
</p>
<p>
Mary crept softly across the room to look. The bright eyes belonged to a little
gray mouse, and the mouse had eaten a hole into the cushion and made a
comfortable nest there. Six baby mice were cuddled up asleep near her. If there
was no one else alive in the hundred rooms there were seven mice who did not
look lonely at all.
</p>
<p>
“If they wouldn’t be so frightened I would take them back with
me,” said Mary.
</p>
<p>
She had wandered about long enough to feel too tired to wander any farther, and
she turned back. Two or three times she lost her way by turning down the wrong
corridor and was obliged to ramble up and down until she found the right one;
but at last she reached her own floor again, though she was some distance from
her own room and did not know exactly where she was.
</p>
<p>
“I believe I have taken a wrong turning again,” she said, standing
still at what seemed the end of a short passage with tapestry on the wall.
“I don’t know which way to go. How still everything is!”
</p>
<p>
It was while she was standing here and just after she had said this that the
stillness was broken by a sound. It was another cry, but not quite like the one
she had heard last night; it was only a short one, a fretful childish whine
muffled by passing through walls.
</p>
<p>
“It’s nearer than it was,” said Mary, her heart beating
rather faster. “And it <i>is</i> crying.”
</p>
<p>
She put her hand accidentally upon the tapestry near her, and then sprang back,
feeling quite startled. The tapestry was the covering of a door which fell open
and showed her that there was another part of the corridor behind it, and Mrs.
Medlock was coming up it with her bunch of keys in her hand and a very cross
look on her face.
</p>
<p>
“What are you doing here?” she said, and she took Mary by the arm
and pulled her away. “What did I tell you?”
</p>
<p>
“I turned round the wrong corner,” explained Mary. “I
didn’t know which way to go and I heard someone crying.” She quite
hated Mrs. Medlock at the moment, but she hated her more the next.
</p>
<p>
“You didn’t hear anything of the sort,” said the housekeeper.
“You come along back to your own nursery or I’ll box your
ears.”
</p>
<p>
And she took her by the arm and half pushed, half pulled her up one passage and
down another until she pushed her in at the door of her own room.
</p>
<p>
“Now,” she said, “you stay where you’re told to stay or
you’ll find yourself locked up. The master had better get you a
governess, same as he said he would. You’re one that needs someone to
look sharp after you. I’ve got enough to do.”
</p>
<p>
She went out of the room and slammed the door after her, and Mary went and sat
on the hearth-rug, pale with rage. She did not cry, but ground her teeth.
</p>
<p>
“There <i>was</i> someone crying—there <i>was</i>—there
<i>was!</i>” she said to herself.
</p>
<p>
She had heard it twice now, and sometime she would find out. She had found out
a great deal this morning. She felt as if she had been on a long journey, and
at any rate she had had something to amuse her all the time, and she had played
with the ivory elephants and had seen the gray mouse and its babies in their
nest in the velvet cushion.
</p>
</div><!--end chapter-->
<div class="chapter">
<h2><a name="chap07"></a>CHAPTER VII.<br />
THE KEY TO THE GARDEN</h2>
<p>
Two days after this, when Mary opened her eyes she sat upright in bed
immediately, and called to Martha.
</p>
<p>
“Look at the moor! Look at the moor!”
</p>
<p>
The rainstorm had ended and the gray mist and clouds had been swept away in the
night by the wind. The wind itself had ceased and a brilliant, deep blue sky
arched high over the moorland. Never, never had Mary dreamed of a sky so blue.
In India skies were hot and blazing; this was of a deep cool blue which almost
seemed to sparkle like the waters of some lovely bottomless lake, and here and
there, high, high in the arched blueness floated small clouds of snow-white
fleece. The far-reaching world of the moor itself looked softly blue instead of
gloomy purple-black or awful dreary gray.
</p>
<p>
“Aye,” said Martha with a cheerful grin. “Th’
storm’s over for a bit. It does like this at this time o’ th’
year. It goes off in a night like it was pretendin’ it had never been
here an’ never meant to come again. That’s because th’
springtime’s on its way. It’s a long way off yet, but it’s
comin’.”
</p>
<p>
“I thought perhaps it always rained or looked dark in England,”
Mary said.
</p>
<p>
“Eh! no!” said Martha, sitting up on her heels among her black lead
brushes. “Nowt o’ th’ soart!”
</p>
<p>
“What does that mean?” asked Mary seriously. In India the natives
spoke different dialects which only a few people understood, so she was not
surprised when Martha used words she did not know.
</p>
<p>
Martha laughed as she had done the first morning.
</p>
<p>
“There now,” she said. “I’ve talked broad Yorkshire
again like Mrs. Medlock said I mustn’t. ‘Nowt o’ th’
soart’ means ‘nothin’-of-the-sort,’” slowly and
carefully, “but it takes so long to say it. Yorkshire’s th’
sunniest place on earth when it is sunny. I told thee tha’d like
th’ moor after a bit. Just you wait till you see th’ gold-colored
gorse blossoms an’ th’ blossoms o’ th’ broom, an’
th’ heather flowerin’, all purple bells, an’ hundreds
o’ butterflies flutterin’ an’ bees hummin’ an’
skylarks soarin’ up an’ singin’. You’ll want to get out
on it at sunrise an’ live out on it all day like Dickon does.”
</p>
<p>
“Could I ever get there?” asked Mary wistfully, looking through her
window at the far-off blue. It was so new and big and wonderful and such a
heavenly color.
</p>
<p>
“I don’t know,” answered Martha. “Tha’s never
used tha’ legs since tha’ was born, it seems to me. Tha’
couldn’t walk five mile. It’s five mile to our cottage.”
</p>
<p>
“I should like to see your cottage.”
</p>
<p>
Martha stared at her a moment curiously before she took up her polishing brush
and began to rub the grate again. She was thinking that the small plain face
did not look quite as sour at this moment as it had done the first morning she
saw it. It looked just a trifle like little Susan Ann’s when she wanted
something very much.
</p>
<p>
“I’ll ask my mother about it,” she said. “She’s
one o’ them that nearly always sees a way to do things. It’s my day
out today an’ I’m goin’ home. Eh! I am glad. Mrs. Medlock
thinks a lot o’ mother. Perhaps she could talk to her.”
</p>
<p>
“I like your mother,” said Mary.
</p>
<p>
“I should think tha’ did,” agreed Martha, polishing away.
</p>
<p>
“I’ve never seen her,” said Mary.
</p>
<p>
“No, tha’ hasn’t,” replied Martha.
</p>
<p>
She sat up on her heels again and rubbed the end of her nose with the back of
her hand as if puzzled for a moment, but she ended quite positively.
</p>
<p>
“Well, she’s that sensible an’ hard workin’ an’
good-natured an’ clean that no one could help likin’ her whether
they’d seen her or not. When I’m goin’ home to her on my day
out I just jump for joy when I’m crossin’ the moor.”
</p>
<p>
“I like Dickon,” added Mary. “And I’ve never seen
him.”
</p>
<p>
“Well,” said Martha stoutly, “I’ve told thee that
th’ very birds likes him an’ th’ rabbits an’ wild sheep
an’ ponies, an’ th’ foxes themselves. I wonder,”
staring at her reflectively, “what Dickon would think of thee?”
</p>
<p>
“He wouldn’t like me,” said Mary in her stiff, cold little
way. “No one does.”
</p>
<p>
Martha looked reflective again.
</p>
<p>
“How does tha’ like thysel’?” she inquired, really
quite as if she were curious to know.
</p>
<p>
Mary hesitated a moment and thought it over.
</p>
<p>
“Not at all—really,” she answered. “But I never thought
of that before.”
</p>
<p>
Martha grinned a little as if at some homely recollection.
</p>
<p>
“Mother said that to me once,” she said. “She was at her
wash-tub an’ I was in a bad temper an’ talkin’ ill of folk,
an’ she turns round on me an’ says: ‘Tha’ young vixen,
tha’! There tha’ stands sayin’ tha’ doesn’t like
this one an’ tha’ doesn’t like that one. How does tha’
like thysel’?’ It made me laugh an’ it brought me to my
senses in a minute.”
</p>
<p>
She went away in high spirits as soon as she had given Mary her breakfast. She
was going to walk five miles across the moor to the cottage, and she was going
to help her mother with the washing and do the week’s baking and enjoy
herself thoroughly.
</p>
<p>
Mary felt lonelier than ever when she knew she was no longer in the house. She
went out into the garden as quickly as possible, and the first thing she did
was to run round and round the fountain flower garden ten times. She counted
the times carefully and when she had finished she felt in better spirits. The
sunshine made the whole place look different. The high, deep, blue sky arched
over Misselthwaite as well as over the moor, and she kept lifting her face and
looking up into it, trying to imagine what it would be like to lie down on one
of the little snow-white clouds and float about. She went into the first
kitchen-garden and found Ben Weatherstaff working there with two other
gardeners. The change in the weather seemed to have done him good. He spoke to
her of his own accord.
</p>
<p>
“Springtime’s comin,’” he said. “Cannot
tha’ smell it?”
</p>
<p>
Mary sniffed and thought she could.
</p>
<p>
“I smell something nice and fresh and damp,” she said.
</p>
<p>
“That’s th’ good rich earth,” he answered, digging
away. “It’s in a good humor makin’ ready to grow things.
It’s glad when plantin’ time comes. It’s dull in th’
winter when it’s got nowt to do. In th’ flower gardens out there
things will be stirrin’ down below in th’ dark. Th’
sun’s warmin’ ’em. You’ll see bits o’ green
spikes stickin’ out o’ th’ black earth after a bit.”
</p>
<p>
“What will they be?” asked Mary.
</p>
<p>
“Crocuses an’ snowdrops an’ daffydowndillys. Has tha’
never seen them?”
</p>
<p>
“No. Everything is hot, and wet, and green after the rains in
India,” said Mary. “And I think things grow up in a night.”
</p>
<p>
“These won’t grow up in a night,” said Weatherstaff.
“Tha’ll have to wait for ’em. They’ll poke up a bit
higher here, an’ push out a spike more there, an’ uncurl a leaf
this day an’ another that. You watch ’em.”
</p>
<p>
“I am going to,” answered Mary.
</p>
<p>
Very soon she heard the soft rustling flight of wings again and she knew at
once that the robin had come again. He was very pert and lively, and hopped
about so close to her feet, and put his head on one side and looked at her so
slyly that she asked Ben Weatherstaff a question.
</p>
<p>
“Do you think he remembers me?” she said.
</p>
<p>
“Remembers thee!” said Weatherstaff indignantly. “He knows
every cabbage stump in th’ gardens, let alone th’ people.
He’s never seen a little wench here before, an’ he’s bent on
findin’ out all about thee. Tha’s no need to try to hide anything
from <i>him</i>.”
</p>
<p>
“Are things stirring down below in the dark in that garden where he
lives?” Mary inquired.
</p>
<p>
“What garden?” grunted Weatherstaff, becoming surly again.
</p>
<p>
“The one where the old rose-trees are.” She could not help asking,
because she wanted so much to know. “Are all the flowers dead, or do some
of them come again in the summer? Are there ever any roses?”
</p>
<p>
“Ask him,” said Ben Weatherstaff, hunching his shoulders toward the
robin. “He’s the only one as knows. No one else has seen inside it
for ten year’.”
</p>
<p>
Ten years was a long time, Mary thought. She had been born ten years ago.
</p>
<p>
She walked away, slowly thinking. She had begun to like the garden just as she
had begun to like the robin and Dickon and Martha’s mother. She was
beginning to like Martha, too. That seemed a good many people to
like—when you were not used to liking. She thought of the robin as one of
the people. She went to her walk outside the long, ivy-covered wall over which
she could see the tree-tops; and the second time she walked up and down the
most interesting and exciting thing happened to her, and it was all through Ben
Weatherstaff’s robin.
</p>
<p>
She heard a chirp and a twitter, and when she looked at the bare flower-bed at
her left side there he was hopping about and pretending to peck things out of
the earth to persuade her that he had not followed her. But she knew he had
followed her and the surprise so filled her with delight that she almost
trembled a little.
</p>
<p>
“You do remember me!” she cried out. “You do! You are
prettier than anything else in the world!”
</p>
<p>
She chirped, and talked, and coaxed and he hopped, and flirted his tail and
twittered. It was as if he were talking. His red waistcoat was like satin and
he puffed his tiny breast out and was so fine and so grand and so pretty that
it was really as if he were showing her how important and like a human person a
robin could be. Mistress Mary forgot that she had ever been contrary in her
life when he allowed her to draw closer and closer to him, and bend down and
talk and try to make something like robin sounds.
</p>
<p>
Oh! to think that he should actually let her come as near to him as that! He
knew nothing in the world would make her put out her hand toward him or startle
him in the least tiniest way. He knew it because he was a real
person—only nicer than any other person in the world. She was so happy
that she scarcely dared to breathe.
</p>
<p>
The flower-bed was not quite bare. It was bare of flowers because the perennial
plants had been cut down for their winter rest, but there were tall shrubs and
low ones which grew together at the back of the bed, and as the robin hopped
about under them she saw him hop over a small pile of freshly turned up earth.
He stopped on it to look for a worm. The earth had been turned up because a dog
had been trying to dig up a mole and he had scratched quite a deep hole.
</p>
<p>
Mary looked at it, not really knowing why the hole was there, and as she looked
she saw something almost buried in the newly-turned soil. It was something like
a ring of rusty iron or brass and when the robin flew up into a tree nearby she
put out her hand and picked the ring up. It was more than a ring, however; it
was an old key which looked as if it had been buried a long time.
</p>
<p>
Mistress Mary stood up and looked at it with an almost frightened face as it
hung from her finger.
</p>
<p>
“Perhaps it has been buried for ten years,” she said in a whisper.
“Perhaps it is the key to the garden!”
</p>
</div><!--end chapter-->
<div class="chapter">
<h2><a name="chap08"></a>CHAPTER VIII.<br />
THE ROBIN WHO SHOWED THE WAY</h2>
<p>
She looked at the key quite a long time. She turned it over and over, and
thought about it. As I have said before, she was not a child who had been
trained to ask permission or consult her elders about things. All she thought
about the key was that if it was the key to the closed garden, and she could
find out where the door was, she could perhaps open it and see what was inside
the walls, and what had happened to the old rose-trees. It was because it had
been shut up so long that she wanted to see it. It seemed as if it must be
different from other places and that something strange must have happened to it
during ten years. Besides that, if she liked it she could go into it every day
and shut the door behind her, and she could make up some play of her own and
play it quite alone, because nobody would ever know where she was, but would
think the door was still locked and the key buried in the earth. The thought of
that pleased her very much.
</p>
<p>
Living as it were, all by herself in a house with a hundred mysteriously closed
rooms and having nothing whatever to do to amuse herself, had set her inactive
brain to working and was actually awakening her imagination. There is no doubt
that the fresh, strong, pure air from the moor had a great deal to do with it.
Just as it had given her an appetite, and fighting with the wind had stirred
her blood, so the same things had stirred her mind. In India she had always
been too hot and languid and weak to care much about anything, but in this
place she was beginning to care and to want to do new things. Already she felt
less “contrary,” though she did not know why.
</p>
<p>
She put the key in her pocket and walked up and down her walk. No one but
herself ever seemed to come there, so she could walk slowly and look at the
wall, or, rather, at the ivy growing on it. The ivy was the baffling thing.
Howsoever carefully she looked she could see nothing but thickly growing,
glossy, dark green leaves. She was very much disappointed. Something of her
contrariness came back to her as she paced the walk and looked over it at the
tree-tops inside. It seemed so silly, she said to herself, to be near it and
not be able to get in. She took the key in her pocket when she went back to the
house, and she made up her mind that she would always carry it with her when
she went out, so that if she ever should find the hidden door she would be
ready.
</p>
<p>
Mrs. Medlock had allowed Martha to sleep all night at the cottage, but she was
back at her work in the morning with cheeks redder than ever and in the best of
spirits.
</p>
<p>
“I got up at four o’clock,” she said. “Eh! it was
pretty on th’ moor with th’ birds gettin’ up an’
th’ rabbits scamperin’ about an’ th’ sun risin’.
I didn’t walk all th’ way. A man gave me a ride in his cart
an’ I did enjoy myself.”
</p>
<p>
She was full of stories of the delights of her day out. Her mother had been
glad to see her and they had got the baking and washing all out of the way. She
had even made each of the children a doughcake with a bit of brown sugar in it.
</p>
<p>
“I had ’em all pipin’ hot when they came in from
playin’ on th’ moor. An’ th’ cottage all smelt o’
nice, clean hot bakin’ an’ there was a good fire, an’ they
just shouted for joy. Our Dickon he said our cottage was good enough for a
king to live in.”
</p>
<p>
In the evening they had all sat round the fire, and Martha and her mother had
sewed patches on torn clothes and mended stockings and Martha had told them
about the little girl who had come from India and who had been waited on all
her life by what Martha called “blacks” until she didn’t know
how to put on her own stockings.
</p>
<p>
“Eh! they did like to hear about you,” said Martha. “They
wanted to know all about th’ blacks an’ about th’ ship you
came in. I couldn’t tell ’em enough.”
</p>
<p>
Mary reflected a little.
</p>
<p>
“I’ll tell you a great deal more before your next day out,”
she said, “so that you will have more to talk about. I dare say they
would like to hear about riding on elephants and camels, and about the officers
going to hunt tigers.”
</p>
<p>
“My word!” cried delighted Martha. “It would set ’em
clean off their heads. Would tha’ really do that, Miss? It would be same
as a wild beast show like we heard they had in York once.”
</p>
<p>
“India is quite different from Yorkshire,” Mary said slowly, as she
thought the matter over. “I never thought of that. Did Dickon and your
mother like to hear you talk about me?”
</p>
<p>
“Why, our Dickon’s eyes nearly started out o’ his head, they
got that round,” answered Martha. “But mother, she was put out
about your seemin’ to be all by yourself like. She said,
‘Hasn’t Mr. Craven got no governess for her, nor no nurse?’
and I said, ‘No, he hasn’t, though Mrs. Medlock says he will when
he thinks of it, but she says he mayn’t think of it for two or three
years.’”
</p>
<p>
“I don’t want a governess,” said Mary sharply.
</p>
<p>
“But mother says you ought to be learnin’ your book by this time
an’ you ought to have a woman to look after you, an’ she says:
‘Now, Martha, you just think how you’d feel yourself, in a big
place like that, wanderin’ about all alone, an’ no mother. You do
your best to cheer her up,’ she says, an’ I said I would.”
</p>
<p>
Mary gave her a long, steady look.
</p>
<p>
“You do cheer me up,” she said. “I like to hear you
talk.”
</p>
<p>
Presently Martha went out of the room and came back with something held in her
hands under her apron.
</p>
<p>
“What does tha’ think,” she said, with a cheerful grin.
“I’ve brought thee a present.”
</p>
<p>
“A present!” exclaimed Mistress Mary. How could a cottage full of
fourteen hungry people give anyone a present!
</p>
<p>
“A man was drivin’ across the moor peddlin’,” Martha
explained. “An’ he stopped his cart at our door. He had pots
an’ pans an’ odds an’ ends, but mother had no money to buy
anythin’. Just as he was goin’ away our ’Lizabeth Ellen
called out, ‘Mother, he’s got skippin’-ropes with red
an’ blue handles.’ An’ mother she calls out quite sudden,
‘Here, stop, mister! How much are they?’ An’ he says
‘Tuppence’, an’ mother she began fumblin’ in her pocket
an’ she says to me, ‘Martha, tha’s brought me thy wages like
a good lass, an’ I’ve got four places to put every penny, but
I’m just goin’ to take tuppence out of it to buy that child a
skippin’-rope,’ an’ she bought one an’ here it
is.”
</p>
<p>
She brought it out from under her apron and exhibited it quite proudly. It was
a strong, slender rope with a striped red and blue handle at each end, but Mary
Lennox had never seen a skipping-rope before. She gazed at it with a mystified
expression.
</p>
<p>
“What is it for?” she asked curiously.
</p>
<p>
“For!” cried out Martha. “Does tha’ mean that
they’ve not got skippin’-ropes in India, for all they’ve got
elephants and tigers and camels! No wonder most of ’em’s black.
This is what it’s for; just watch me.”
</p>
<p>
And she ran into the middle of the room and, taking a handle in each hand,
began to skip, and skip, and skip, while Mary turned in her chair to stare at
her, and the queer faces in the old portraits seemed to stare at her, too, and
wonder what on earth this common little cottager had the impudence to be doing
under their very noses. But Martha did not even see them. The interest and
curiosity in Mistress Mary’s face delighted her, and she went on skipping
and counted as she skipped until she had reached a hundred.
</p>
<p>
“I could skip longer than that,” she said when she stopped.
“I’ve skipped as much as five hundred when I was twelve, but I
wasn’t as fat then as I am now, an’ I was in practice.”
</p>
<p>
Mary got up from her chair beginning to feel excited herself.
</p>
<p>
“It looks nice,” she said. “Your mother is a kind woman. Do
you think I could ever skip like that?”
</p>
<p>
“You just try it,” urged Martha, handing her the skipping-rope.
“You can’t skip a hundred at first, but if you practice
you’ll mount up. That’s what mother said. She says,
‘Nothin’ will do her more good than skippin’ rope. It’s
th’ sensiblest toy a child can have. Let her play out in th’ fresh
air skippin’ an’ it’ll stretch her legs an’ arms
an’ give her some strength in ’em.’”
</p>
<p>
It was plain that there was not a great deal of strength in Mistress
Mary’s arms and legs when she first began to skip. She was not very
clever at it, but she liked it so much that she did not want to stop.
</p>
<p>
“Put on tha’ things and run an’ skip out o’
doors,” said Martha. “Mother said I must tell you to keep out
o’ doors as much as you could, even when it rains a bit, so as tha’
wrap up warm.”
</p>
<p>
Mary put on her coat and hat and took her skipping-rope over her arm. She
opened the door to go out, and then suddenly thought of something and turned
back rather slowly.
</p>
<p>
“Martha,” she said, “they were your wages. It was your
two-pence really. Thank you.” She said it stiffly because she was not
used to thanking people or noticing that they did things for her. “Thank
you,” she said, and held out her hand because she did not know what else
to do.
</p>
<p>
Martha gave her hand a clumsy little shake, as if she was not accustomed to
this sort of thing either. Then she laughed.
</p>
<p>
“Eh! th’ art a queer, old-womanish thing,” she said.
“If tha’d been our ’Lizabeth Ellen tha’d have given me
a kiss.”
</p>
<p>
Mary looked stiffer than ever.
</p>
<p>
“Do you want me to kiss you?”
</p>
<p>
Martha laughed again.
</p>
<p>
“Nay, not me,” she answered. “If tha’ was different,
p’raps tha’d want to thysel’. But tha’ isn’t. Run
off outside an’ play with thy rope.”
</p>
<p>
Mistress Mary felt a little awkward as she went out of the room. Yorkshire
people seemed strange, and Martha was always rather a puzzle to her. At first
she had disliked her very much, but now she did not. The skipping-rope was a
wonderful thing. She counted and skipped, and skipped and counted, until her
cheeks were quite red, and she was more interested than she had ever been since
she was born. The sun was shining and a little wind was blowing—not a
rough wind, but one which came in delightful little gusts and brought a fresh
scent of newly turned earth with it. She skipped round the fountain garden, and
up one walk and down another. She skipped at last into the kitchen-garden and
saw Ben Weatherstaff digging and talking to his robin, which was hopping about
him. She skipped down the walk toward him and he lifted his head and looked at
her with a curious expression. She had wondered if he would notice her. She
wanted him to see her skip.
</p>
<p>
“Well!” he exclaimed. “Upon my word. P’raps tha’
art a young ’un, after all, an’ p’raps tha’s got
child’s blood in thy veins instead of sour buttermilk. Tha’s
skipped red into thy cheeks as sure as my name’s Ben Weatherstaff. I
wouldn’t have believed tha’ could do it.”
</p>
<p>
“I never skipped before,” Mary said. “I’m just
beginning. I can only go up to twenty.”
</p>
<p>
“Tha’ keep on,” said Ben. “Tha’ shapes well
enough at it for a young ’un that’s lived with heathen. Just see
how he’s watchin’ thee,” jerking his head toward the robin.
“He followed after thee yesterday. He’ll be at it again today.
He’ll be bound to find out what th’ skippin’-rope is.
He’s never seen one. Eh!” shaking his head at the bird,
“tha’ curiosity will be th’ death of thee sometime if
tha’ doesn’t look sharp.”
</p>
<p>
Mary skipped round all the gardens and round the orchard, resting every few
minutes. At length she went to her own special walk and made up her mind to try
if she could skip the whole length of it. It was a good long skip and she began
slowly, but before she had gone half-way down the path she was so hot and
breathless that she was obliged to stop. She did not mind much, because she had
already counted up to thirty. She stopped with a little laugh of pleasure, and
there, lo and behold, was the robin swaying on a long branch of ivy. He had
followed her and he greeted her with a chirp. As Mary had skipped toward him
she felt something heavy in her pocket strike against her at each jump, and
when she saw the robin she laughed again.
</p>
<p>
“You showed me where the key was yesterday,” she said. “You
ought to show me the door today; but I don’t believe you know!”
</p>
<p>
The robin flew from his swinging spray of ivy on to the top of the wall and he
opened his beak and sang a loud, lovely trill, merely to show off. Nothing in
the world is quite as adorably lovely as a robin when he shows off—and
they are nearly always doing it.
</p>
<p>
Mary Lennox had heard a great deal about Magic in her Ayah’s stories, and
she always said that what happened almost at that moment was Magic.
</p>
<p>
One of the nice little gusts of wind rushed down the walk, and it was a
stronger one than the rest. It was strong enough to wave the branches of the
trees, and it was more than strong enough to sway the trailing sprays of
untrimmed ivy hanging from the wall. Mary had stepped close to the robin, and
suddenly the gust of wind swung aside some loose ivy trails, and more suddenly
still she jumped toward it and caught it in her hand. This she did because she
had seen something under it—a round knob which had been covered by the
leaves hanging over it. It was the knob of a door.
</p>
<p>
She put her hands under the leaves and began to pull and push them aside. Thick
as the ivy hung, it nearly all was a loose and swinging curtain, though some
had crept over wood and iron. Mary’s heart began to thump and her hands
to shake a little in her delight and excitement. The robin kept singing and
twittering away and tilting his head on one side, as if he were as excited as
she was. What was this under her hands which was square and made of iron and
which her fingers found a hole in?
</p>
<p>
It was the lock of the door which had been closed ten years and she put her
hand in her pocket, drew out the key and found it fitted the keyhole. She put
the key in and turned it. It took two hands to do it, but it did turn.
</p>
<p>
And then she took a long breath and looked behind her up the long walk to see
if anyone was coming. No one was coming. No one ever did come, it seemed, and
she took another long breath, because she could not help it, and she held back
the swinging curtain of ivy and pushed back the door which opened
slowly—slowly.
</p>
<p>
Then she slipped through it, and shut it behind her, and stood with her back
against it, looking about her and breathing quite fast with excitement, and
wonder, and delight.
</p>
<p>
She was standing <i>inside</i> the secret garden.
</p>
</div><!--end chapter-->
<div class="chapter">
<h2><a name="chap09"></a>CHAPTER IX.<br />
THE STRANGEST HOUSE ANYONE EVER LIVED IN</h2>
<p>
It was the sweetest, most mysterious-looking place anyone could imagine. The
high walls which shut it in were covered with the leafless stems of climbing
roses which were so thick that they were matted together. Mary Lennox knew they
were roses because she had seen a great many roses in India. All the ground was
covered with grass of a wintry brown and out of it grew clumps of bushes which
were surely rosebushes if they were alive. There were numbers of standard roses
which had so spread their branches that they were like little trees. There were
other trees in the garden, and one of the things which made the place look
strangest and loveliest was that climbing roses had run all over them and swung
down long tendrils which made light swaying curtains, and here and there they
had caught at each other or at a far-reaching branch and had crept from one
tree to another and made lovely bridges of themselves. There were neither
leaves nor roses on them now and Mary did not know whether they were dead or
alive, but their thin gray or brown branches and sprays looked like a sort of
hazy mantle spreading over everything, walls, and trees, and even brown grass,
where they had fallen from their fastenings and run along the ground. It was
this hazy tangle from tree to tree which made it all look so mysterious. Mary
had thought it must be different from other gardens which had not been left all
by themselves so long; and indeed it was different from any other place she had
ever seen in her life.
</p>
<p>
“How still it is!” she whispered. “How still!”
</p>
<p>
Then she waited a moment and listened at the stillness. The robin, who had
flown to his treetop, was still as all the rest. He did not even flutter his
wings; he sat without stirring, and looked at Mary.
</p>
<p>
“No wonder it is still,” she whispered again. “I am the first
person who has spoken in here for ten years.”
</p>
<p>
She moved away from the door, stepping as softly as if she were afraid of
awakening someone. She was glad that there was grass under her feet and that
her steps made no sounds. She walked under one of the fairy-like gray arches
between the trees and looked up at the sprays and tendrils which formed them.
</p>
<p>
“I wonder if they are all quite dead,” she said. “Is it all a
quite dead garden? I wish it wasn’t.”
</p>
<p>
If she had been Ben Weatherstaff she could have told whether the wood was alive
by looking at it, but she could only see that there were only gray or brown
sprays and branches and none showed any signs of even a tiny leaf-bud anywhere.
</p>
<p>
But she was <i>inside</i> the wonderful garden and she could come through the
door under the ivy any time and she felt as if she had found a world all her
own.
</p>
<p>
The sun was shining inside the four walls and the high arch of blue sky over
this particular piece of Misselthwaite seemed even more brilliant and soft than
it was over the moor. The robin flew down from his tree-top and hopped about or
flew after her from one bush to another. He chirped a good deal and had a very
busy air, as if he were showing her things. Everything was strange and silent
and she seemed to be hundreds of miles away from anyone, but somehow she did
not feel lonely at all. All that troubled her was her wish that she knew
whether all the roses were dead, or if perhaps some of them had lived and might
put out leaves and buds as the weather got warmer. She did not want it to be a
quite dead garden. If it were a quite alive garden, how wonderful it would be,
and what thousands of roses would grow on every side!
</p>
<p>
Her skipping-rope had hung over her arm when she came in and after she had
walked about for a while she thought she would skip round the whole garden,
stopping when she wanted to look at things. There seemed to have been grass
paths here and there, and in one or two corners there were alcoves of evergreen
with stone seats or tall moss-covered flower urns in them.
</p>
<p>
As she came near the second of these alcoves she stopped skipping. There had
once been a flowerbed in it, and she thought she saw something sticking out of
the black earth—some sharp little pale green points. She remembered what
Ben Weatherstaff had said and she knelt down to look at them.
</p>
<p>
“Yes, they are tiny growing things and they <i>might</i> be crocuses or
snowdrops or daffodils,” she whispered.
</p>
<p>
She bent very close to them and sniffed the fresh scent of the damp earth. She
liked it very much.
</p>
<p>
“Perhaps there are some other ones coming up in other places,” she
said. “I will go all over the garden and look.”
</p>
<p>
She did not skip, but walked. She went slowly and kept her eyes on the ground.
She looked in the old border beds and among the grass, and after she had gone
round, trying to miss nothing, she had found ever so many more sharp, pale
green points, and she had become quite excited again.
</p>
<p>
“It isn’t a quite dead garden,” she cried out softly to
herself. “Even if the roses are dead, there are other things
alive.”
</p>
<p>
She did not know anything about gardening, but the grass seemed so thick in
some of the places where the green points were pushing their way through that
she thought they did not seem to have room enough to grow. She searched about
until she found a rather sharp piece of wood and knelt down and dug and weeded
out the weeds and grass until she made nice little clear places around them.
</p>
<p>
“Now they look as if they could breathe,” she said, after she had
finished with the first ones. “I am going to do ever so many more.
I’ll do all I can see. If I haven’t time today I can come
tomorrow.”
</p>
<p>
She went from place to place, and dug and weeded, and enjoyed herself so
immensely that she was led on from bed to bed and into the grass under the
trees. The exercise made her so warm that she first threw her coat off, and
then her hat, and without knowing it she was smiling down on to the grass and
the pale green points all the time.
</p>
<p>
The robin was tremendously busy. He was very much pleased to see gardening
begun on his own estate. He had often wondered at Ben Weatherstaff. Where
gardening is done all sorts of delightful things to eat are turned up with the
soil. Now here was this new kind of creature who was not half Ben’s size
and yet had had the sense to come into his garden and begin at once.
</p>
<p>
Mistress Mary worked in her garden until it was time to go to her midday
dinner. In fact, she was rather late in remembering, and when she put on her
coat and hat, and picked up her skipping-rope, she could not believe that she
had been working two or three hours. She had been actually happy all the time;
and dozens and dozens of the tiny, pale green points were to be seen in cleared
places, looking twice as cheerful as they had looked before when the grass and
weeds had been smothering them.
</p>
<p>
“I shall come back this afternoon,” she said, looking all round at
her new kingdom, and speaking to the trees and the rose-bushes as if they heard
her.
</p>
<p>
Then she ran lightly across the grass, pushed open the slow old door and
slipped through it under the ivy. She had such red cheeks and such bright eyes
and ate such a dinner that Martha was delighted.
</p>
<p>
“Two pieces o’ meat an’ two helps o’ rice
puddin’!” she said. “Eh! mother will be pleased when I tell
her what th’ skippin’-rope’s done for thee.”
</p>
<p>
In the course of her digging with her pointed stick Mistress Mary had found
herself digging up a sort of white root rather like an onion. She had put it
back in its place and patted the earth carefully down on it and just now she
wondered if Martha could tell her what it was.
</p>
<p>
“Martha,” she said, “what are those white roots that look
like onions?”
</p>
<p>
“They’re bulbs,” answered Martha. “Lots o’ spring
flowers grow from ’em. Th’ very little ones are snowdrops an’
crocuses an’ th’ big ones are narcissuses an’ jonquils and
daffydowndillys. Th’ biggest of all is lilies an’ purple flags. Eh!
they are nice. Dickon’s got a whole lot of ’em planted in our bit
o’ garden.”
</p>
<p>
“Does Dickon know all about them?” asked Mary, a new idea taking
possession of her.
</p>
<p>
“Our Dickon can make a flower grow out of a brick walk. Mother says he
just whispers things out o’ th’ ground.”
</p>
<p>
“Do bulbs live a long time? Would they live years and years if no one
helped them?” inquired Mary anxiously.
</p>
<p>
“They’re things as helps themselves,” said Martha.
“That’s why poor folk can afford to have ’em. If you
don’t trouble ’em, most of ’em’ll work away underground
for a lifetime an’ spread out an’ have little ’uns.
There’s a place in th’ park woods here where there’s
snowdrops by thousands. They’re the prettiest sight in Yorkshire when
th’ spring comes. No one knows when they was first planted.”
</p>
<p>
“I wish the spring was here now,” said Mary. “I want to see
all the things that grow in England.”
</p>
<p>
She had finished her dinner and gone to her favorite seat on the hearth-rug.
</p>
<p>
“I wish—I wish I had a little spade,” she said.
</p>
<p>
“Whatever does tha’ want a spade for?” asked Martha,
laughing. “Art tha’ goin’ to take to diggin’? I must
tell mother that, too.”
</p>
<p>
Mary looked at the fire and pondered a little. She must be careful if she meant
to keep her secret kingdom. She wasn’t doing any harm, but if Mr. Craven
found out about the open door he would be fearfully angry and get a new key and
lock it up forevermore. She really could not bear that.
</p>
<p>
“This is such a big lonely place,” she said slowly, as if she were
turning matters over in her mind. “The house is lonely, and the park is
lonely, and the gardens are lonely. So many places seem shut up. I never did
many things in India, but there were more people to look at—natives and
soldiers marching by—and sometimes bands playing, and my Ayah told me
stories. There is no one to talk to here except you and Ben Weatherstaff. And
you have to do your work and Ben Weatherstaff won’t speak to me often. I
thought if I had a little spade I could dig somewhere as he does, and I might
make a little garden if he would give me some seeds.”
</p>
<p>
Martha’s face quite lighted up.
</p>
<p>
“There now!” she exclaimed, “if that wasn’t one of
th’ things mother said. She says, ‘There’s such a lot
o’ room in that big place, why don’t they give her a bit for
herself, even if she doesn’t plant nothin’ but parsley an’
radishes? She’d dig an’ rake away an’ be right down happy
over it.’ Them was the very words she said.”
</p>
<p>
“Were they?” said Mary. “How many things she knows,
doesn’t she?”
</p>
<p>
“Eh!” said Martha. “It’s like she says: ‘A woman
as brings up twelve children learns something besides her A B C.
Children’s as good as ’rithmetic to set you findin’ out
things.’”
</p>
<p>
“How much would a spade cost—a little one?” Mary asked.
</p>
<p>
“Well,” was Martha’s reflective answer, “at Thwaite
village there’s a shop or so an’ I saw little garden sets with a
spade an’ a rake an’ a fork all tied together for two shillings.
An’ they was stout enough to work with, too.”
</p>
<p>
“I’ve got more than that in my purse,” said Mary. “Mrs.
Morrison gave me five shillings and Mrs. Medlock gave me some money from Mr.
Craven.”
</p>
<p>
“Did he remember thee that much?” exclaimed Martha.
</p>
<p>
“Mrs. Medlock said I was to have a shilling a week to spend. She gives me
one every Saturday. I didn’t know what to spend it on.”
</p>
<p>
“My word! that’s riches,” said Martha. “Tha’ can
buy anything in th’ world tha’ wants. Th’ rent of our cottage
is only one an’ threepence an’ it’s like pullin’
eye-teeth to get it. Now I’ve just thought of somethin’,”
putting her hands on her hips.
</p>
<p>
“What?” said Mary eagerly.
</p>
<p>
“In the shop at Thwaite they sell packages o’ flower-seeds for a
penny each, and our Dickon he knows which is th’ prettiest ones an’
how to make ’em grow. He walks over to Thwaite many a day just for
th’ fun of it. Does tha’ know how to print letters?”
suddenly.
</p>
<p>
“I know how to write,” Mary answered.
</p>
<p>
Martha shook her head.
</p>
<p>
“Our Dickon can only read printin’. If tha’ could print we
could write a letter to him an’ ask him to go an’ buy th’
garden tools an’ th’ seeds at th’ same time.”
</p>
<p>
“Oh! you’re a good girl!” Mary cried. “You are, really!
I didn’t know you were so nice. I know I can print letters if I try.
Let’s ask Mrs. Medlock for a pen and ink and some paper.”
</p>
<p>
“I’ve got some of my own,” said Martha. “I bought
’em so I could print a bit of a letter to mother of a Sunday. I’ll
go and get it.”
</p>
<p>
She ran out of the room, and Mary stood by the fire and twisted her thin little
hands together with sheer pleasure.
</p>
<p>
“If I have a spade,” she whispered, “I can make the earth
nice and soft and dig up weeds. If I have seeds and can make flowers grow the
garden won’t be dead at all—it will come alive.”
</p>
<p>
She did not go out again that afternoon because when Martha returned with her
pen and ink and paper she was obliged to clear the table and carry the plates
and dishes downstairs and when she got into the kitchen Mrs. Medlock was there
and told her to do something, so Mary waited for what seemed to her a long time
before she came back. Then it was a serious piece of work to write to Dickon.
Mary had been taught very little because her governesses had disliked her too
much to stay with her. She could not spell particularly well but she found that
she could print letters when she tried. This was the letter Martha dictated to
her:
</p>
<blockquote> <div>
<p class="noindent">
“<i>My Dear Dickon:</i>
</p>
<p>
This comes hoping to find you well as it leaves me at present. Miss Mary has
plenty of money and will you go to Thwaite and buy her some flower seeds and a
set of garden tools to make a flower-bed. Pick the prettiest ones and easy to
grow because she has never done it before and lived in India which is
different. Give my love to mother and everyone of you. Miss Mary is going to
tell me a lot more so that on my next day out you can hear about elephants and
camels and gentlemen going hunting lions and tigers.
</p>
<p>
“Your loving sister,<br />
“Martha Phœbe Sowerby.”<br />
</p>
</div> </blockquote>
<p>
“We’ll put the money in th’ envelope an’ I’ll get
th’ butcher boy to take it in his cart. He’s a great friend
o’ Dickon’s,” said Martha.
</p>
<p>
“How shall I get the things when Dickon buys them?”
</p>
<p>
“He’ll bring ’em to you himself. He’ll like to walk
over this way.”
</p>
<p>
“Oh!” exclaimed Mary, “then I shall see him! I never thought
I should see Dickon.”
</p>
<p>
“Does tha’ want to see him?” asked Martha suddenly, for Mary
had looked so pleased.
</p>
<p>
“Yes, I do. I never saw a boy foxes and crows loved. I want to see him
very much.”
</p>
<p>
Martha gave a little start, as if she remembered something.
</p>
<p>
“Now to think,” she broke out, “to think o’ me
forgettin’ that there; an’ I thought I was goin’ to tell you
first thing this mornin’. I asked mother—and she said she’d
ask Mrs. Medlock her own self.”
</p>
<p>
“Do you mean—” Mary began.
</p>
<p>
“What I said Tuesday. Ask her if you might be driven over to our cottage
some day and have a bit o’ mother’s hot oat cake, an’ butter,
an’ a glass o’ milk.”
</p>
<p>
It seemed as if all the interesting things were happening in one day. To think
of going over the moor in the daylight and when the sky was blue! To think of
going into the cottage which held twelve children!
</p>
<p>
“Does she think Mrs. Medlock would let me go?” she asked, quite
anxiously.
</p>
<p>
“Aye, she thinks she would. She knows what a tidy woman mother is and how
clean she keeps the cottage.”
</p>
<p>
“If I went I should see your mother as well as Dickon,” said Mary,
thinking it over and liking the idea very much. “She doesn’t seem
to be like the mothers in India.”
</p>
<p>
Her work in the garden and the excitement of the afternoon ended by making her
feel quiet and thoughtful. Martha stayed with her until tea-time, but they sat
in comfortable quiet and talked very little. But just before Martha went
downstairs for the tea-tray, Mary asked a question.
</p>
<p>
“Martha,” she said, “has the scullery-maid had the toothache
again today?”
</p>
<p>
Martha certainly started slightly.
</p>
<p>
“What makes thee ask that?” she said.
</p>
<p>
“Because when I waited so long for you to come back I opened the door and
walked down the corridor to see if you were coming. And I heard that far-off
crying again, just as we heard it the other night. There isn’t a wind
today, so you see it couldn’t have been the wind.”
</p>
<p>
“Eh!” said Martha restlessly. “Tha’ mustn’t go
walkin’ about in corridors an’ listenin’. Mr. Craven would be
that there angry there’s no knowin’ what he’d do.”
</p>
<p>
“I wasn’t listening,” said Mary. “I was just waiting
for you—and I heard it. That’s three times.”
</p>
<p>
“My word! There’s Mrs. Medlock’s bell,” said Martha,
and she almost ran out of the room.
</p>
<p>
“It’s the strangest house anyone ever lived in,” said Mary
drowsily, as she dropped her head on the cushioned seat of the armchair near
her. Fresh air, and digging, and skipping-rope had made her feel so comfortably
tired that she fell asleep.
</p>
</div><!--end chapter-->
<div class="chapter">
<h2><a name="chap10"></a>CHAPTER X.<br />
DICKON</h2>
<p>
The sun shone down for nearly a week on the secret garden. The Secret Garden
was what Mary called it when she was thinking of it. She liked the name, and
she liked still more the feeling that when its beautiful old walls shut her in
no one knew where she was. It seemed almost like being shut out of the world in
some fairy place. The few books she had read and liked had been fairy-story
books, and she had read of secret gardens in some of the stories. Sometimes
people went to sleep in them for a hundred years, which she had thought must be
rather stupid. She had no intention of going to sleep, and, in fact, she was
becoming wider awake every day which passed at Misselthwaite. She was beginning
to like to be out of doors; she no longer hated the wind, but enjoyed it. She
could run faster, and longer, and she could skip up to a hundred. The bulbs in
the secret garden must have been much astonished. Such nice clear places were
made round them that they had all the breathing space they wanted, and really,
if Mistress Mary had known it, they began to cheer up under the dark earth and
work tremendously. The sun could get at them and warm them, and when the rain
came down it could reach them at once, so they began to feel very much alive.
</p>
<p>
Mary was an odd, determined little person, and now she had something
interesting to be determined about, she was very much absorbed, indeed. She
worked and dug and pulled up weeds steadily, only becoming more pleased with
her work every hour instead of tiring of it. It seemed to her like a
fascinating sort of play. She found many more of the sprouting pale green
points than she had ever hoped to find. They seemed to be starting up
everywhere and each day she was sure she found tiny new ones, some so tiny that
they barely peeped above the earth. There were so many that she remembered what
Martha had said about the “snowdrops by the thousands,” and about
bulbs spreading and making new ones. These had been left to themselves for ten
years and perhaps they had spread, like the snowdrops, into thousands. She
wondered how long it would be before they showed that they were flowers.
Sometimes she stopped digging to look at the garden and try to imagine what it
would be like when it was covered with thousands of lovely things in bloom.
</p>
<p>
During that week of sunshine, she became more intimate with Ben Weatherstaff.
She surprised him several times by seeming to start up beside him as if she
sprang out of the earth. The truth was that she was afraid that he would pick
up his tools and go away if he saw her coming, so she always walked toward him
as silently as possible. But, in fact, he did not object to her as strongly as
he had at first. Perhaps he was secretly rather flattered by her evident desire
for his elderly company. Then, also, she was more civil than she had been. He
did not know that when she first saw him she spoke to him as she would have
spoken to a native, and had not known that a cross, sturdy old Yorkshire man
was not accustomed to salaam to his masters, and be merely commanded by them to
do things.
</p>
<p>
“Tha’rt like th’ robin,” he said to her one morning
when he lifted his head and saw her standing by him. “I never knows when
I shall see thee or which side tha’ll come from.”
</p>
<p>
“He’s friends with me now,” said Mary.
</p>
<p>
“That’s like him,” snapped Ben Weatherstaff.
“Makin’ up to th’ women folk just for vanity an’
flightiness. There’s nothin’ he wouldn’t do for th’
sake o’ showin’ off an’ flirtin’ his tail-feathers.
He’s as full o’ pride as an egg’s full o’ meat.”
</p>
<p>
He very seldom talked much and sometimes did not even answer Mary’s
questions except by a grunt, but this morning he said more than usual. He stood
up and rested one hobnailed boot on the top of his spade while he looked her
over.
</p>
<p>
“How long has tha’ been here?” he jerked out.
</p>
<p>
“I think it’s about a month,” she answered.
</p>
<p>
“Tha’s beginnin’ to do Misselthwaite credit,” he said.
“Tha’s a bit fatter than tha’ was an’ tha’s not
quite so yeller. Tha’ looked like a young plucked crow when tha’
first came into this garden. Thinks I to myself I never set eyes on an uglier,
sourer faced young ’un.”
</p>
<p>
Mary was not vain and as she had never thought much of her looks she was not
greatly disturbed.
</p>
<p>
“I know I’m fatter,” she said. “My stockings are
getting tighter. They used to make wrinkles. There’s the robin, Ben
Weatherstaff.”
</p>
<p>
There, indeed, was the robin, and she thought he looked nicer than ever. His
red waistcoat was as glossy as satin and he flirted his wings and tail and
tilted his head and hopped about with all sorts of lively graces. He seemed
determined to make Ben Weatherstaff admire him. But Ben was sarcastic.
</p>
<p>
“Aye, there tha’ art!” he said. “Tha’ can put up
with me for a bit sometimes when tha’s got no one better. Tha’s
been reddenin’ up thy waistcoat an’ polishin’ thy feathers
this two weeks. I know what tha’s up to. Tha’s courtin’ some
bold young madam somewhere tellin’ thy lies to her about bein’
th’ finest cock robin on Missel Moor an’ ready to fight all
th’ rest of ’em.”
</p>
<p>
“Oh! look at him!” exclaimed Mary.
</p>
<p>
The robin was evidently in a fascinating, bold mood. He hopped closer and
closer and looked at Ben Weatherstaff more and more engagingly. He flew on to
the nearest currant bush and tilted his head and sang a little song right at
him.
</p>
<p>
“Tha’ thinks tha’ll get over me by doin’ that,”
said Ben, wrinkling his face up in such a way that Mary felt sure he was trying
not to look pleased. “Tha’ thinks no one can stand out against
thee—that’s what tha’ thinks.”
</p>
<p>
The robin spread his wings—Mary could scarcely believe her eyes. He flew
right up to the handle of Ben Weatherstaff’s spade and alighted on the
top of it. Then the old man’s face wrinkled itself slowly into a new
expression. He stood still as if he were afraid to breathe—as if he would
not have stirred for the world, lest his robin should start away. He spoke
quite in a whisper.
</p>
<p>
“Well, I’m danged!” he said as softly as if he were saying
something quite different. “Tha’ does know how to get at a
chap—tha’ does! Tha’s fair unearthly, tha’s so
knowin’.”
</p>
<p>
And he stood without stirring—almost without drawing his
breath—until the robin gave another flirt to his wings and flew away.
Then he stood looking at the handle of the spade as if there might be Magic in
it, and then he began to dig again and said nothing for several minutes.
</p>
<p>
But because he kept breaking into a slow grin now and then, Mary was not afraid
to talk to him.
</p>
<p>
“Have you a garden of your own?” she asked.
</p>
<p>
“No. I’m bachelder an’ lodge with Martin at th’
gate.”
</p>
<p>
“If you had one,” said Mary, “what would you plant?”
</p>
<p>
“Cabbages an’ ’taters an’ onions.”
</p>
<p>
“But if you wanted to make a flower garden,” persisted Mary,
“what would you plant?”
</p>
<p>
“Bulbs an’ sweet-smellin’ things—but mostly
roses.”
</p>
<p>
Mary’s face lighted up.
</p>
<p>
“Do you like roses?” she said.
</p>
<p>
Ben Weatherstaff rooted up a weed and threw it aside before he answered.
</p>
<p>
“Well, yes, I do. I was learned that by a young lady I was gardener to.
She had a lot in a place she was fond of, an’ she loved ’em like
they was children—or robins. I’ve seen her bend over an’ kiss
’em.” He dragged out another weed and scowled at it. “That
were as much as ten year’ ago.”
</p>
<p>
“Where is she now?” asked Mary, much interested.
</p>
<p>
“Heaven,” he answered, and drove his spade deep into the soil,
“’cording to what parson says.”
</p>
<p>
“What happened to the roses?” Mary asked again, more interested
than ever.
</p>
<p>
“They was left to themselves.”
</p>
<p>
Mary was becoming quite excited.
</p>
<p>
“Did they quite die? Do roses quite die when they are left to
themselves?” she ventured.
</p>
<p>
“Well, I’d got to like ’em—an’ I liked
her—an’ she liked ’em,” Ben Weatherstaff admitted
reluctantly. “Once or twice a year I’d go an’ work at
’em a bit—prune ’em an’ dig about th’ roots. They
run wild, but they was in rich soil, so some of ’em lived.”
</p>
<p>
“When they have no leaves and look gray and brown and dry, how can you
tell whether they are dead or alive?” inquired Mary.
</p>
<p>
“Wait till th’ spring gets at ’em—wait till th’
sun shines on th’ rain and th’ rain falls on th’ sunshine
an’ then tha’ll find out.”
</p>
<p>
“How—how?” cried Mary, forgetting to be careful.
</p>
<p>
“Look along th’ twigs an’ branches an’ if tha’
see a bit of a brown lump swelling here an’ there, watch it after
th’ warm rain an’ see what happens.” He stopped suddenly and
looked curiously at her eager face. “Why does tha’ care so much
about roses an’ such, all of a sudden?” he demanded.
</p>
<p>
Mistress Mary felt her face grow red. She was almost afraid to answer.
</p>
<p>
“I—I want to play that—that I have a garden of my own,”
she stammered. “I—there is nothing for me to do. I have
nothing—and no one.”
</p>
<p>
“Well,” said Ben Weatherstaff slowly, as he watched her,
“that’s true. Tha’ hasn’t.”
</p>
<p>
He said it in such an odd way that Mary wondered if he was actually a little
sorry for her. She had never felt sorry for herself; she had only felt tired
and cross, because she disliked people and things so much. But now the world
seemed to be changing and getting nicer. If no one found out about the secret
garden, she should enjoy herself always.
</p>
<p>
She stayed with him for ten or fifteen minutes longer and asked him as many
questions as she dared. He answered everyone of them in his queer grunting way
and he did not seem really cross and did not pick up his spade and leave her.
He said something about roses just as she was going away and it reminded her of
the ones he had said he had been fond of.
</p>
<p>
“Do you go and see those other roses now?” she asked.
</p>
<p>
“Not been this year. My rheumatics has made me too stiff in th’
joints.”
</p>
<p>
He said it in his grumbling voice, and then quite suddenly he seemed to get
angry with her, though she did not see why he should.
</p>
<p>
“Now look here!” he said sharply. “Don’t tha’ ask
so many questions. Tha’rt th’ worst wench for askin’
questions I’ve ever come across. Get thee gone an’ play thee.
I’ve done talkin’ for today.”
</p>
<p>
And he said it so crossly that she knew there was not the least use in staying
another minute. She went skipping slowly down the outside walk, thinking him
over and saying to herself that, queer as it was, here was another person whom
she liked in spite of his crossness. She liked old Ben Weatherstaff. Yes, she
did like him. She always wanted to try to make him talk to her. Also she began
to believe that he knew everything in the world about flowers.
</p>
<p>
There was a laurel-hedged walk which curved round the secret garden and ended
at a gate which opened into a wood, in the park. She thought she would slip
round this walk and look into the wood and see if there were any rabbits
hopping about. She enjoyed the skipping very much and when she reached the
little gate she opened it and went through because she heard a low, peculiar
whistling sound and wanted to find out what it was.
</p>
<p>
It was a very strange thing indeed. She quite caught her breath as she stopped
to look at it. A boy was sitting under a tree, with his back against it,
playing on a rough wooden pipe. He was a funny looking boy about twelve. He
looked very clean and his nose turned up and his cheeks were as red as poppies
and never had Mistress Mary seen such round and such blue eyes in any
boy’s face. And on the trunk of the tree he leaned against, a brown
squirrel was clinging and watching him, and from behind a bush nearby a cock
pheasant was delicately stretching his neck to peep out, and quite near him
were two rabbits sitting up and sniffing with tremulous noses—and
actually it appeared as if they were all drawing near to watch him and listen
to the strange low little call his pipe seemed to make.
</p>
<p>
When he saw Mary he held up his hand and spoke to her in a voice almost as low
as and rather like his piping.
</p>
<p>
“Don’t tha’ move,” he said. “It’d flight
’em.”
</p>
<p>
Mary remained motionless. He stopped playing his pipe and began to rise from
the ground. He moved so slowly that it scarcely seemed as though he were moving
at all, but at last he stood on his feet and then the squirrel scampered back
up into the branches of his tree, the pheasant withdrew his head and the
rabbits dropped on all fours and began to hop away, though not at all as if
they were frightened.
</p>
<p>
“I’m Dickon,” the boy said. “I know tha’rt Miss
Mary.”
</p>
<p>
Then Mary realized that somehow she had known at first that he was Dickon. Who
else could have been charming rabbits and pheasants as the natives charm snakes
in India? He had a wide, red, curving mouth and his smile spread all over his
face.
</p>
<p>
“I got up slow,” he explained, “because if tha’ makes a
quick move it startles ’em. A body ’as to move gentle an’
speak low when wild things is about.”
</p>
<p>
He did not speak to her as if they had never seen each other before but as if
he knew her quite well. Mary knew nothing about boys and she spoke to him a
little stiffly because she felt rather shy.
</p>
<p>
“Did you get Martha’s letter?” she asked.
</p>
<p>
He nodded his curly, rust-colored head.
</p>
<p>
“That’s why I come.”
</p>
<p>
He stooped to pick up something which had been lying on the ground beside him
when he piped.
</p>
<p>
“I’ve got th’ garden tools. There’s a little spade
an’ rake an’ a fork an’ hoe. Eh! they are good ’uns.
There’s a trowel, too. An’ th’ woman in th’ shop threw
in a packet o’ white poppy an’ one o’ blue larkspur when I
bought th’ other seeds.”
</p>
<p>
“Will you show the seeds to me?” Mary said.
</p>
<p>
She wished she could talk as he did. His speech was so quick and easy. It
sounded as if he liked her and was not the least afraid she would not like him,
though he was only a common moor boy, in patched clothes and with a funny face
and a rough, rusty-red head. As she came closer to him she noticed that there
was a clean fresh scent of heather and grass and leaves about him, almost as if
he were made of them. She liked it very much and when she looked into his funny
face with the red cheeks and round blue eyes she forgot that she had felt shy.
</p>
<p>
“Let us sit down on this log and look at them,” she said.
</p>
<p>
They sat down and he took a clumsy little brown paper package out of his coat
pocket. He untied the string and inside there were ever so many neater and
smaller packages with a picture of a flower on each one.
</p>
<p>
“There’s a lot o’ mignonette an’ poppies,” he
said. “Mignonette’s th’ sweetest smellin’ thing as
grows, an’ it’ll grow wherever you cast it, same as poppies will.
Them as’ll come up an’ bloom if you just whistle to ’em,
them’s th’ nicest of all.”
</p>
<p>
He stopped and turned his head quickly, his poppy-cheeked face lighting up.
</p>
<p>
“Where’s that robin as is callin’ us?” he said.
</p>
<p>
The chirp came from a thick holly bush, bright with scarlet berries, and Mary
thought she knew whose it was.
</p>
<p>
“Is it really calling us?” she asked.
</p>
<p>
“Aye,” said Dickon, as if it was the most natural thing in the
world, “he’s callin’ someone he’s friends with.
That’s same as sayin’ ‘Here I am. Look at me. I wants a bit
of a chat.’ There he is in the bush. Whose is he?”
</p>
<p>
“He’s Ben Weatherstaff’s, but I think he knows me a
little,” answered Mary.
</p>
<p>
“Aye, he knows thee,” said Dickon in his low voice again.
“An’ he likes thee. He’s took thee on. He’ll tell me
all about thee in a minute.”
</p>
<p>
He moved quite close to the bush with the slow movement Mary had noticed
before, and then he made a sound almost like the robin’s own twitter. The
robin listened a few seconds, intently, and then answered quite as if he were
replying to a question.
</p>
<p>
“Aye, he’s a friend o’ yours,” chuckled Dickon.
</p>
<p>
“Do you think he is?” cried Mary eagerly. She did so want to know.
“Do you think he really likes me?”
</p>
<p>
“He wouldn’t come near thee if he didn’t,” answered
Dickon. “Birds is rare choosers an’ a robin can flout a body worse
than a man. See, he’s making up to thee now. ‘Cannot tha’ see
a chap?’ he’s sayin’.”
</p>
<p>
And it really seemed as if it must be true. He so sidled and twittered and
tilted as he hopped on his bush.
</p>
<p>
“Do you understand everything birds say?” said Mary.
</p>
<p>
Dickon’s grin spread until he seemed all wide, red, curving mouth, and he
rubbed his rough head.
</p>
<p>
“I think I do, and they think I do,” he said. “I’ve
lived on th’ moor with ’em so long. I’ve watched ’em
break shell an’ come out an’ fledge an’ learn to fly
an’ begin to sing, till I think I’m one of ’em. Sometimes I
think p’raps I’m a bird, or a fox, or a rabbit, or a squirrel, or
even a beetle, an’ I don’t know it.”
</p>
<p>
He laughed and came back to the log and began to talk about the flower seeds
again. He told her what they looked like when they were flowers; he told her
how to plant them, and watch them, and feed and water them.
</p>
<p>
“See here,” he said suddenly, turning round to look at her.
“I’ll plant them for thee myself. Where is tha’
garden?”
</p>
<p>
Mary’s thin hands clutched each other as they lay on her lap. She did not
know what to say, so for a whole minute she said nothing. She had never thought
of this. She felt miserable. And she felt as if she went red and then pale.
</p>
<p>
“Tha’s got a bit o’ garden, hasn’t tha’?”
Dickon said.
</p>
<p>
It was true that she had turned red and then pale. Dickon saw her do it, and as
she still said nothing, he began to be puzzled.
</p>
<p>
“Wouldn’t they give thee a bit?” he asked.
“Hasn’t tha’ got any yet?”
</p>
<p>
She held her hands tighter and turned her eyes toward him.
</p>
<p>
“I don’t know anything about boys,” she said slowly.
“Could you keep a secret, if I told you one? It’s a great secret. I
don’t know what I should do if anyone found it out. I believe I should
die!” She said the last sentence quite fiercely.
</p>
<p>
Dickon looked more puzzled than ever and even rubbed his hand over his rough
head again, but he answered quite good-humoredly.
</p>
<p>
“I’m keepin’ secrets all th’ time,” he said.
“If I couldn’t keep secrets from th’ other lads, secrets
about foxes’ cubs, an’ birds’ nests, an’ wild
things’ holes, there’d be naught safe on th’ moor. Aye, I can
keep secrets.”
</p>
<p>
Mistress Mary did not mean to put out her hand and clutch his sleeve but she
did it.
</p>
<p>
“I’ve stolen a garden,” she said very fast. “It
isn’t mine. It isn’t anybody’s. Nobody wants it, nobody cares
for it, nobody ever goes into it. Perhaps everything is dead in it already. I
don’t know.”
</p>
<p>
She began to feel hot and as contrary as she had ever felt in her life.
</p>
<p>
“I don’t care, I don’t care! Nobody has any right to take it
from me when I care about it and they don’t. They’re letting it
die, all shut in by itself,” she ended passionately, and she threw her
arms over her face and burst out crying—poor little Mistress Mary.
</p>
<p>
Dickon’s curious blue eyes grew rounder and rounder.
</p>
<p>
“Eh-h-h!” he said, drawing his exclamation out slowly, and the way
he did it meant both wonder and sympathy.
</p>
<p>
“I’ve nothing to do,” said Mary. “Nothing belongs to
me. I found it myself and I got into it myself. I was only just like the robin,
and they wouldn’t take it from the robin.”
</p>
<p>
“Where is it?” asked Dickon in a dropped voice.
</p>
<p>
Mistress Mary got up from the log at once. She knew she felt contrary again,
and obstinate, and she did not care at all. She was imperious and Indian, and
at the same time hot and sorrowful.
</p>
<p>
“Come with me and I’ll show you,” she said.
</p>
<p>
She led him round the laurel path and to the walk where the ivy grew so
thickly. Dickon followed her with a queer, almost pitying, look on his face. He
felt as if he were being led to look at some strange bird’s nest and must
move softly. When she stepped to the wall and lifted the hanging ivy he
started. There was a door and Mary pushed it slowly open and they passed in
together, and then Mary stood and waved her hand round defiantly.
</p>
<p>
“It’s this,” she said. “It’s a secret garden, and
I’m the only one in the world who wants it to be alive.”
</p>
<p>
Dickon looked round and round about it, and round and round again.
</p>
<p>
“Eh!” he almost whispered, “it is a queer, pretty place!
It’s like as if a body was in a dream.”
</p>
</div><!--end chapter-->
<div class="chapter">
<h2><a name="chap11"></a>CHAPTER XI.<br />
THE NEST OF THE MISSEL THRUSH</h2>
<p>
For two or three minutes he stood looking round him, while Mary watched him,
and then he began to walk about softly, even more lightly than Mary had walked
the first time she had found herself inside the four walls. His eyes seemed to
be taking in everything—the gray trees with the gray creepers climbing
over them and hanging from their branches, the tangle on the walls and among
the grass, the evergreen alcoves with the stone seats and tall flower urns
standing in them.
</p>
<p>
“I never thought I’d see this place,” he said at last, in a
whisper.
</p>
<p>
“Did you know about it?” asked Mary.
</p>
<p>
She had spoken aloud and he made a sign to her.
</p>
<p>
“We must talk low,” he said, “or someone’ll hear us
an’ wonder what’s to do in here.”
</p>
<p>
“Oh! I forgot!” said Mary, feeling frightened and putting her hand
quickly against her mouth. “Did you know about the garden?” she
asked again when she had recovered herself.
</p>
<p>
Dickon nodded.
</p>
<p>
“Martha told me there was one as no one ever went inside,” he
answered. “Us used to wonder what it was like.”
</p>
<p>
He stopped and looked round at the lovely gray tangle about him, and his round
eyes looked queerly happy.
</p>
<p>
“Eh! the nests as’ll be here come springtime,” he said.
“It’d be th’ safest nestin’ place in England. No one
never comin’ near an’ tangles o’ trees an’ roses to
build in. I wonder all th’ birds on th’ moor don’t build
here.”
</p>
<p>
Mistress Mary put her hand on his arm again without knowing it.
</p>
<p>
“Will there be roses?” she whispered. “Can you tell? I
thought perhaps they were all dead.”
</p>
<p>
“Eh! No! Not them—not all of ’em!” he answered.
“Look here!”
</p>
<p>
He stepped over to the nearest tree—an old, old one with gray lichen all
over its bark, but upholding a curtain of tangled sprays and branches. He took
a thick knife out of his pocket and opened one of its blades.
</p>
<p>
“There’s lots o’ dead wood as ought to be cut out,” he
said. “An’ there’s a lot o’ old wood, but it made some
new last year. This here’s a new bit,” and he touched a shoot which
looked brownish green instead of hard, dry gray.
</p>
<p>
Mary touched it herself in an eager, reverent way.
</p>
<p>
“That one?” she said. “Is that one quite alive quite?”
</p>
<p>
Dickon curved his wide smiling mouth.
</p>
<p>
“It’s as wick as you or me,” he said; and Mary remembered
that Martha had told her that “wick” meant “alive” or
“lively.”
</p>
<p>
“I’m glad it’s wick!” she cried out in her whisper.
“I want them all to be wick. Let us go round the garden and count how
many wick ones there are.”
</p>
<p>
She quite panted with eagerness, and Dickon was as eager as she was. They went
from tree to tree and from bush to bush. Dickon carried his knife in his hand
and showed her things which she thought wonderful.
</p>
<p>
“They’ve run wild,” he said, “but th’ strongest
ones has fair thrived on it. The delicatest ones has died out, but th’
others has growed an’ growed, an’ spread an’ spread, till
they’s a wonder. See here!” and he pulled down a thick gray,
dry-looking branch. “A body might think this was dead wood, but I
don’t believe it is—down to th’ root. I’ll cut it low
down an’ see.”
</p>
<p>
He knelt and with his knife cut the lifeless-looking branch through, not far
above the earth.
</p>
<p>
“There!” he said exultantly. “I told thee so. There’s
green in that wood yet. Look at it.”
</p>
<p>
Mary was down on her knees before he spoke, gazing with all her might.
</p>
<p>
“When it looks a bit greenish an’ juicy like that, it’s
wick,” he explained. “When th’ inside is dry an’ breaks
easy, like this here piece I’ve cut off, it’s done for.
There’s a big root here as all this live wood sprung out of, an’ if
th’ old wood’s cut off an’ it’s dug round, and took
care of there’ll be—” he stopped and lifted his face to look
up at the climbing and hanging sprays above him—“there’ll be
a fountain o’ roses here this summer.”
</p>
<p>
They went from bush to bush and from tree to tree. He was very strong and
clever with his knife and knew how to cut the dry and dead wood away, and could
tell when an unpromising bough or twig had still green life in it. In the
course of half an hour Mary thought she could tell too, and when he cut through
a lifeless-looking branch she would cry out joyfully under her breath when she
caught sight of the least shade of moist green. The spade, and hoe, and fork
were very useful. He showed her how to use the fork while he dug about roots
with the spade and stirred the earth and let the air in.
</p>
<p>
They were working industriously round one of the biggest standard roses when he
caught sight of something which made him utter an exclamation of surprise.
</p>
<p>
“Why!” he cried, pointing to the grass a few feet away. “Who
did that there?”
</p>
<p>
It was one of Mary’s own little clearings round the pale green points.
</p>
<p>
“I did it,” said Mary.
</p>
<p>
“Why, I thought tha’ didn’t know nothin’ about
gardenin’,” he exclaimed.
</p>
<p>
“I don’t,” she answered, “but they were so little, and
the grass was so thick and strong, and they looked as if they had no room to
breathe. So I made a place for them. I don’t even know what they
are.”
</p>
<p>
Dickon went and knelt down by them, smiling his wide smile.
</p>
<p>
“Tha’ was right,” he said. “A gardener couldn’t
have told thee better. They’ll grow now like Jack’s bean-stalk.
They’re crocuses an’ snowdrops, an’ these here is
narcissuses,” turning to another patch, “an here’s
daffydowndillys. Eh! they will be a sight.”
</p>
<p>
He ran from one clearing to another.
</p>
<p>
“Tha’ has done a lot o’ work for such a little wench,”
he said, looking her over.
</p>
<p>
“I’m growing fatter,” said Mary, “and I’m growing
stronger. I used always to be tired. When I dig I’m not tired at all. I
like to smell the earth when it’s turned up.”
</p>
<p>
“It’s rare good for thee,” he said, nodding his head wisely.
“There’s naught as nice as th’ smell o’ good clean
earth, except th’ smell o’ fresh growin’ things when
th’ rain falls on ’em. I get out on th’ moor many a day when
it’s rainin’ an’ I lie under a bush an’ listen to
th’ soft swish o’ drops on th’ heather an’ I just sniff
an’ sniff. My nose end fair quivers like a rabbit’s, mother
says.”
</p>
<p>
“Do you never catch cold?” inquired Mary, gazing at him
wonderingly. She had never seen such a funny boy, or such a nice one.
</p>
<p>
“Not me,” he said, grinning. “I never ketched cold since I
was born. I wasn’t brought up nesh enough. I’ve chased about
th’ moor in all weathers same as th’ rabbits does. Mother says
I’ve sniffed up too much fresh air for twelve year’ to ever get to
sniffin’ with cold. I’m as tough as a white-thorn knobstick.”
</p>
<p>
He was working all the time he was talking and Mary was following him and
helping him with her fork or the trowel.
</p>
<p>
“There’s a lot of work to do here!” he said once, looking
about quite exultantly.
</p>
<p>
“Will you come again and help me to do it?” Mary begged.
“I’m sure I can help, too. I can dig and pull up weeds, and do
whatever you tell me. Oh! do come, Dickon!”
</p>
<p>
“I’ll come every day if tha’ wants me, rain or shine,”
he answered stoutly. “It’s the best fun I ever had in my
life—shut in here an’ wakenin’ up a garden.”
</p>
<p>
“If you will come,” said Mary, “if you will help me to make
it alive I’ll—I don’t know what I’ll do,” she
ended helplessly. What could you do for a boy like that?
</p>
<p>
“I’ll tell thee what tha’ll do,” said Dickon, with his
happy grin. “Tha’ll get fat an’ tha’ll get as hungry as
a young fox an’ tha’ll learn how to talk to th’ robin same as
I do. Eh! we’ll have a lot o’ fun.”
</p>
<p>
He began to walk about, looking up in the trees and at the walls and bushes
with a thoughtful expression.
</p>
<p>
“I wouldn’t want to make it look like a gardener’s garden,
all clipped an’ spick an’ span, would you?” he said.
“It’s nicer like this with things runnin’ wild, an’
swingin’ an’ catchin’ hold of each other.”
</p>
<p>
“Don’t let us make it tidy,” said Mary anxiously. “It
wouldn’t seem like a secret garden if it was tidy.”
</p>
<p>
Dickon stood rubbing his rusty-red head with a rather puzzled look.
</p>
<p>
“It’s a secret garden sure enough,” he said, “but seems
like someone besides th’ robin must have been in it since it was shut up
ten year’ ago.”
</p>
<p>
“But the door was locked and the key was buried,” said Mary.
“No one could get in.”
</p>
<p>
“That’s true,” he answered. “It’s a queer place.
Seems to me as if there’d been a bit o’ prunin’ done here
an’ there, later than ten year’ ago.”
</p>
<p>
“But how could it have been done?” said Mary.
</p>
<p>
He was examining a branch of a standard rose and he shook his head.
</p>
<p>
“Aye! how could it!” he murmured. “With th’ door locked
an’ th’ key buried.”
</p>
<p>
Mistress Mary always felt that however many years she lived she should never
forget that first morning when her garden began to grow. Of course, it did seem
to begin to grow for her that morning. When Dickon began to clear places to
plant seeds, she remembered what Basil had sung at her when he wanted to tease
her.
</p>
<p>
“Are there any flowers that look like bells?” she inquired.
</p>
<p>
“Lilies o’ th’ valley does,” he answered, digging away
with the trowel, “an’ there’s Canterbury bells, an’
campanulas.”
</p>
<p>
“Let’s plant some,” said Mary.
</p>
<p>
“There’s lilies o’ th, valley here already; I saw ’em.
They’ll have growed too close an’ we’ll have to separate
’em, but there’s plenty. Th’ other ones takes two years to
bloom from seed, but I can bring you some bits o’ plants from our cottage
garden. Why does tha’ want ’em?”
</p>
<p>
Then Mary told him about Basil and his brothers and sisters in India and of how
she had hated them and of their calling her “Mistress Mary Quite
Contrary.”
</p>
<p>
“They used to dance round and sing at me. They sang—
</p>
<p class="poem">
‘Mistress Mary, quite contrary,<br />
How does your garden grow?<br />
With silver bells, and cockle shells,<br />
And marigolds all in a row.’<br />
</p>
<p class="noindent">
I just remembered it and it made me wonder if there were really flowers like
silver bells.”
</p>
<p>
She frowned a little and gave her trowel a rather spiteful dig into the earth.
</p>
<p>
“I wasn’t as contrary as they were.”
</p>
<p>
But Dickon laughed.
</p>
<p>
“Eh!” he said, and as he crumbled the rich black soil she saw he
was sniffing up the scent of it. “There doesn’t seem to be no need
for no one to be contrary when there’s flowers an’ such like,
an’ such lots o’ friendly wild things runnin’ about
makin’ homes for themselves, or buildin’ nests an’
singin’ an’ whistlin’, does there?”
</p>
<p>
Mary, kneeling by him holding the seeds, looked at him and stopped frowning.
</p>
<p>
“Dickon,” she said, “you are as nice as Martha said you were.
I like you, and you make the fifth person. I never thought I should like five
people.”
</p>
<p>
Dickon sat up on his heels as Martha did when she was polishing the grate. He
did look funny and delightful, Mary thought, with his round blue eyes and red
cheeks and happy looking turned-up nose.
</p>
<p>
“Only five folk as tha’ likes?” he said. “Who is
th’ other four?”
</p>
<p>
“Your mother and Martha,” Mary checked them off on her fingers,
“and the robin and Ben Weatherstaff.”
</p>
<p>
Dickon laughed so that he was obliged to stifle the sound by putting his arm
over his mouth.
</p>
<p>
“I know tha’ thinks I’m a queer lad,” he said,
“but I think tha’ art th’ queerest little lass I ever
saw.”
</p>
<p>
Then Mary did a strange thing. She leaned forward and asked him a question she
had never dreamed of asking anyone before. And she tried to ask it in
Yorkshire because that was his language, and in India a native was always
pleased if you knew his speech.
</p>
<p>
“Does tha’ like me?” she said.
</p>
<p>
“Eh!” he answered heartily, “that I does. I likes thee
wonderful, an’ so does th’ robin, I do believe!”
</p>
<p>
“That’s two, then,” said Mary. “That’s two for
me.”
</p>
<p>
And then they began to work harder than ever and more joyfully. Mary was
startled and sorry when she heard the big clock in the courtyard strike the
hour of her midday dinner.
</p>
<p>
“I shall have to go,” she said mournfully. “And you will have
to go too, won’t you?”
</p>
<p>
Dickon grinned.
</p>
<p>
“My dinner’s easy to carry about with me,” he said.
“Mother always lets me put a bit o’ somethin’ in my
pocket.”
</p>
<p>
He picked up his coat from the grass and brought out of a pocket a lumpy little
bundle tied up in a quite clean, coarse, blue and white handkerchief. It held
two thick pieces of bread with a slice of something laid between them.
</p>
<p>
“It’s oftenest naught but bread,” he said, “but
I’ve got a fine slice o’ fat bacon with it today.”
</p>
<p>
Mary thought it looked a queer dinner, but he seemed ready to enjoy it.
</p>
<p>
“Run on an’ get thy victuals,” he said. “I’ll be
done with mine first. I’ll get some more work done before I start back
home.”
</p>
<p>
He sat down with his back against a tree.
</p>
<p>
“I’ll call th’ robin up,” he said, “and give him
th’ rind o’ th’ bacon to peck at. They likes a bit o’
fat wonderful.”
</p>
<p>
Mary could scarcely bear to leave him. Suddenly it seemed as if he might be a
sort of wood fairy who might be gone when she came into the garden again. He
seemed too good to be true. She went slowly half-way to the door in the wall
and then she stopped and went back.
</p>
<p>
“Whatever happens, you—you never would tell?” she said.
</p>
<p>
His poppy-colored cheeks were distended with his first big bite of bread and
bacon, but he managed to smile encouragingly.
</p>
<p>
“If tha’ was a missel thrush an’ showed me where thy nest
was, does tha’ think I’d tell anyone? Not me,” he said.
“Tha’ art as safe as a missel thrush.”
</p>
<p>
And she was quite sure she was.
</p>
</div><!--end chapter-->
<div class="chapter">
<h2><a name="chap12"></a>CHAPTER XII.<br />
“MIGHT I HAVE A BIT OF EARTH?”</h2>
<p>
Mary ran so fast that she was rather out of breath when she reached her room.
Her hair was ruffled on her forehead and her cheeks were bright pink. Her
dinner was waiting on the table, and Martha was waiting near it.
</p>
<p>
“Tha’s a bit late,” she said. “Where has tha’
been?”
</p>
<p>
“I’ve seen Dickon!” said Mary. “I’ve seen
Dickon!”
</p>
<p>
“I knew he’d come,” said Martha exultantly. “How does
tha’ like him?”
</p>
<p>
“I think—I think he’s beautiful!” said Mary in a
determined voice.
</p>
<p>
Martha looked rather taken aback but she looked pleased, too.
</p>
<p>
“Well,” she said, “he’s th’ best lad as ever was
born, but us never thought he was handsome. His nose turns up too much.”
</p>
<p>
“I like it to turn up,” said Mary.
</p>
<p>
“An’ his eyes is so round,” said Martha, a trifle doubtful.
“Though they’re a nice color.”
</p>
<p>
“I like them round,” said Mary. “And they are exactly the
color of the sky over the moor.”
</p>
<p>
Martha beamed with satisfaction.
</p>
<p>
“Mother says he made ’em that color with always lookin’ up at
th’ birds an’ th’ clouds. But he has got a big mouth,
hasn’t he, now?”
</p>
<p>
“I love his big mouth,” said Mary obstinately. “I wish mine
were just like it.”
</p>
<p>
Martha chuckled delightedly.
</p>
<p>
“It’d look rare an’ funny in thy bit of a face,” she
said. “But I knowed it would be that way when tha’ saw him. How did
tha’ like th’ seeds an’ th’ garden tools?”
</p>
<p>
“How did you know he brought them?” asked Mary.
</p>
<p>
“Eh! I never thought of him not bringin’ ’em. He’d be
sure to bring ’em if they was in Yorkshire. He’s such a trusty
lad.”
</p>
<p>
Mary was afraid that she might begin to ask difficult questions, but she did
not. She was very much interested in the seeds and gardening tools, and there
was only one moment when Mary was frightened. This was when she began to ask
where the flowers were to be planted.
</p>
<p>
“Who did tha’ ask about it?” she inquired.
</p>
<p>
“I haven’t asked anybody yet,” said Mary, hesitating.
</p>
<p>
“Well, I wouldn’t ask th’ head gardener. He’s too
grand, Mr. Roach is.”
</p>
<p>
“I’ve never seen him,” said Mary. “I’ve only seen
undergardeners and Ben Weatherstaff.”
</p>
<p>
“If I was you, I’d ask Ben Weatherstaff,” advised Martha.
“He’s not half as bad as he looks, for all he’s so crabbed.
Mr. Craven lets him do what he likes because he was here when Mrs. Craven was
alive, an’ he used to make her laugh. She liked him. Perhaps he’d
find you a corner somewhere out o’ the way.”
</p>
<p>
“If it was out of the way and no one wanted it, no one <i>could</i> mind
my having it, could they?” Mary said anxiously.
</p>
<p>
“There wouldn’t be no reason,” answered Martha. “You
wouldn’t do no harm.”
</p>
<p>
Mary ate her dinner as quickly as she could and when she rose from the table
she was going to run to her room to put on her hat again, but Martha stopped
her.
</p>
<p>
“I’ve got somethin’ to tell you,” she said. “I
thought I’d let you eat your dinner first. Mr. Craven came back this
mornin’ and I think he wants to see you.”
</p>
<p>
Mary turned quite pale.
</p>
<p>
“Oh!” she said. “Why! Why! He didn’t want to see me
when I came. I heard Pitcher say he didn’t.”
</p>
<p>
“Well,” explained Martha, “Mrs. Medlock says it’s
because o’ mother. She was walkin’ to Thwaite village an’ she
met him. She’d never spoke to him before, but Mrs. Craven had been to our
cottage two or three times. He’d forgot, but mother hadn’t
an’ she made bold to stop him. I don’t know what she said to him
about you but she said somethin’ as put him in th’ mind to see you
before he goes away again, tomorrow.”
</p>
<p>
“Oh!” cried Mary, “is he going away tomorrow? I am so
glad!”
</p>
<p>
“He’s goin’ for a long time. He mayn’t come back till
autumn or winter. He’s goin’ to travel in foreign places.
He’s always doin’ it.”
</p>
<p>
“Oh! I’m so glad—so glad!” said Mary thankfully.
</p>
<p>
If he did not come back until winter, or even autumn, there would be time to
watch the secret garden come alive. Even if he found out then and took it away
from her she would have had that much at least.
</p>
<p>
“When do you think he will want to see—”
</p>
<p>
She did not finish the sentence, because the door opened, and Mrs. Medlock
walked in. She had on her best black dress and cap, and her collar was fastened
with a large brooch with a picture of a man’s face on it. It was a
colored photograph of Mr. Medlock who had died years ago, and she always wore
it when she was dressed up. She looked nervous and excited.
</p>
<p>
“Your hair’s rough,” she said quickly. “Go and brush
it. Martha, help her to slip on her best dress. Mr. Craven sent me to bring her
to him in his study.”
</p>
<p>
All the pink left Mary’s cheeks. Her heart began to thump and she felt
herself changing into a stiff, plain, silent child again. She did not even
answer Mrs. Medlock, but turned and walked into her bedroom, followed by
Martha. She said nothing while her dress was changed, and her hair brushed, and
after she was quite tidy she followed Mrs. Medlock down the corridors, in
silence. What was there for her to say? She was obliged to go and see Mr.
Craven and he would not like her, and she would not like him. She knew what he
would think of her.
</p>
<p>
She was taken to a part of the house she had not been into before. At last Mrs.
Medlock knocked at a door, and when someone said, “Come in,” they
entered the room together. A man was sitting in an armchair before the fire,
and Mrs. Medlock spoke to him.
</p>
<p>
“This is Miss Mary, sir,” she said.
</p>
<p>
“You can go and leave her here. I will ring for you when I want you to
take her away,” said Mr. Craven.
</p>
<p>
When she went out and closed the door, Mary could only stand waiting, a plain
little thing, twisting her thin hands together. She could see that the man in
the chair was not so much a hunchback as a man with high, rather crooked
shoulders, and he had black hair streaked with white. He turned his head over
his high shoulders and spoke to her.
</p>
<p>
“Come here!” he said.
</p>
<p>
Mary went to him.
</p>
<p>
He was not ugly. His face would have been handsome if it had not been so
miserable. He looked as if the sight of her worried and fretted him and as if
he did not know what in the world to do with her.
</p>
<p>
“Are you well?” he asked.
</p>
<p>
“Yes,” answered Mary.
</p>
<p>
“Do they take good care of you?”
</p>
<p>
“Yes.”
</p>
<p>
He rubbed his forehead fretfully as he looked her over.
</p>
<p>
“You are very thin,” he said.
</p>
<p>
“I am getting fatter,” Mary answered in what she knew was her
stiffest way.
</p>
<p>
What an unhappy face he had! His black eyes seemed as if they scarcely saw her,
as if they were seeing something else, and he could hardly keep his thoughts
upon her.
</p>
<p>
“I forgot you,” he said. “How could I remember you? I
intended to send you a governess or a nurse, or someone of that sort, but I
forgot.”
</p>
<p>
“Please,” began Mary. “Please—” and then the lump
in her throat choked her.
</p>
<p>
“What do you want to say?” he inquired.
</p>
<p>
“I am—I am too big for a nurse,” said Mary. “And
please—please don’t make me have a governess yet.”
</p>
<p>
He rubbed his forehead again and stared at her.
</p>
<p>
“That was what the Sowerby woman said,” he muttered absent-mindedly.
</p>
<p>
Then Mary gathered a scrap of courage.
</p>
<p>
“Is she—is she Martha’s mother?” she stammered.
</p>
<p>
“Yes, I think so,” he replied.
</p>
<p>
“She knows about children,” said Mary. “She has twelve. She
knows.”
</p>
<p>
He seemed to rouse himself.
</p>
<p>
“What do you want to do?”
</p>
<p>
“I want to play out of doors,” Mary answered, hoping that her voice
did not tremble. “I never liked it in India. It makes me hungry here, and
I am getting fatter.”
</p>
<p>
He was watching her.
</p>
<p>
“Mrs. Sowerby said it would do you good. Perhaps it will,” he said.
“She thought you had better get stronger before you had a
governess.”
</p>
<p>
“It makes me feel strong when I play and the wind comes over the
moor,” argued Mary.
</p>
<p>
“Where do you play?” he asked next.
</p>
<p>
“Everywhere,” gasped Mary. “Martha’s mother sent me a
skipping-rope. I skip and run—and I look about to see if things are
beginning to stick up out of the earth. I don’t do any harm.”
</p>
<p>
“Don’t look so frightened,” he said in a worried voice.
“You could not do any harm, a child like you! You may do what you
like.”
</p>
<p>
Mary put her hand up to her throat because she was afraid he might see the
excited lump which she felt jump into it. She came a step nearer to him.
</p>
<p>
“May I?” she said tremulously.
</p>
<p>
Her anxious little face seemed to worry him more than ever.
</p>
<p>
“Don’t look so frightened,” he exclaimed. “Of course
you may. I am your guardian, though I am a poor one for any child. I cannot
give you time or attention. I am too ill, and wretched and distracted; but I
wish you to be happy and comfortable. I don’t know anything about
children, but Mrs. Medlock is to see that you have all you need. I sent for you
today because Mrs. Sowerby said I ought to see you. Her daughter had talked
about you. She thought you needed fresh air and freedom and running
about.”
</p>
<p>
“She knows all about children,” Mary said again in spite of
herself.
</p>
<p>
“She ought to,” said Mr. Craven. “I thought her rather bold
to stop me on the moor, but she said—Mrs. Craven had been kind to
her.” It seemed hard for him to speak his dead wife’s name.
“She is a respectable woman. Now I have seen you I think she said
sensible things. Play out of doors as much as you like. It’s a big place
and you may go where you like and amuse yourself as you like. Is there anything
you want?” as if a sudden thought had struck him. “Do you want
toys, books, dolls?”
</p>
<p>
“Might I,” quavered Mary, “might I have a bit of
earth?”
</p>
<p>
In her eagerness she did not realize how queer the words would sound and that
they were not the ones she had meant to say. Mr. Craven looked quite startled.
</p>
<p>
“Earth!” he repeated. “What do you mean?”
</p>
<p>
“To plant seeds in—to make things grow—to see them come
alive,” Mary faltered.
</p>
<p>
He gazed at her a moment and then passed his hand quickly over his eyes.
</p>
<p>
“Do you—care about gardens so much,” he said slowly.
</p>
<p>
“I didn’t know about them in India,” said Mary. “I was
always ill and tired and it was too hot. I sometimes made little beds in the
sand and stuck flowers in them. But here it is different.”
</p>
<p>
Mr. Craven got up and began to walk slowly across the room.
</p>
<p>
“A bit of earth,” he said to himself, and Mary thought that somehow
she must have reminded him of something. When he stopped and spoke to her his
dark eyes looked almost soft and kind.
</p>
<p>
“You can have as much earth as you want,” he said. “You
remind me of someone else who loved the earth and things that grow. When you
see a bit of earth you want,” with something like a smile, “take
it, child, and make it come alive.”
</p>
<p>
“May I take it from anywhere—if it’s not wanted?”
</p>
<p>
“Anywhere,” he answered. “There! You must go now, I am
tired.” He touched the bell to call Mrs. Medlock. “Good-by. I shall
be away all summer.”
</p>
<p>
Mrs. Medlock came so quickly that Mary thought she must have been waiting in
the corridor.
</p>
<p>
“Mrs. Medlock,” Mr. Craven said to her, “now I have seen the
child I understand what Mrs. Sowerby meant. She must be less delicate before
she begins lessons. Give her simple, healthy food. Let her run wild in the
garden. Don’t look after her too much. She needs liberty and fresh air
and romping about. Mrs. Sowerby is to come and see her now and then and she may
sometimes go to the cottage.”
</p>
<p>
Mrs. Medlock looked pleased. She was relieved to hear that she need not
“look after” Mary too much. She had felt her a tiresome charge and
had indeed seen as little of her as she dared. In addition to this she was fond
of Martha’s mother.
</p>
<p>
“Thank you, sir,” she said. “Susan Sowerby and me went to
school together and she’s as sensible and good-hearted a woman as
you’d find in a day’s walk. I never had any children myself and
she’s had twelve, and there never was healthier or better ones. Miss Mary
can get no harm from them. I’d always take Susan Sowerby’s advice
about children myself. She’s what you might call healthy-minded—if
you understand me.”
</p>
<p>
“I understand,” Mr. Craven answered. “Take Miss Mary away now
and send Pitcher to me.”
</p>
<p>
When Mrs. Medlock left her at the end of her own corridor Mary flew back to her
room. She found Martha waiting there. Martha had, in fact, hurried back after
she had removed the dinner service.
</p>
<p>
“I can have my garden!” cried Mary. “I may have it where I
like! I am not going to have a governess for a long time! Your mother is coming
to see me and I may go to your cottage! He says a little girl like me could not
do any harm and I may do what I like—anywhere!”
</p>
<p>
“Eh!” said Martha delightedly, “that was nice of him
wasn’t it?”
</p>
<p>
“Martha,” said Mary solemnly, “he is really a nice man, only
his face is so miserable and his forehead is all drawn together.”
</p>
<p>
She ran as quickly as she could to the garden. She had been away so much longer
than she had thought she should and she knew Dickon would have to set out early
on his five-mile walk. When she slipped through the door under the ivy, she saw
he was not working where she had left him. The gardening tools were laid
together under a tree. She ran to them, looking all round the place, but there
was no Dickon to be seen. He had gone away and the secret garden was
empty—except for the robin who had just flown across the wall and sat on
a standard rose-bush watching her.
</p>
<p>
“He’s gone,” she said woefully. “Oh! was he—was
he—was he only a wood fairy?”
</p>
<p>
Something white fastened to the standard rose-bush caught her eye. It was a
piece of paper, in fact, it was a piece of the letter she had printed for
Martha to send to Dickon. It was fastened on the bush with a long thorn, and in
a minute she knew Dickon had left it there. There were some roughly printed
letters on it and a sort of picture. At first she could not tell what it was.
Then she saw it was meant for a nest with a bird sitting on it. Underneath were
the printed letters and they said:
</p>
<p>
“I will cum bak.”
</p>
</div><!--end chapter-->
<div class="chapter">
<h2><a name="chap13"></a>CHAPTER XIII.<br />
“I AM COLIN”</h2>
<p>
Mary took the picture back to the house when she went to her supper and she
showed it to Martha.
</p>
<p>
“Eh!” said Martha with great pride. “I never knew our Dickon
was as clever as that. That there’s a picture of a missel thrush on her
nest, as large as life an’ twice as natural.”
</p>
<p>
Then Mary knew Dickon had meant the picture to be a message. He had meant that
she might be sure he would keep her secret. Her garden was her nest and she was
like a missel thrush. Oh, how she did like that queer, common boy!
</p>
<p>
She hoped he would come back the very next day and she fell asleep looking
forward to the morning.
</p>
<p>
But you never know what the weather will do in Yorkshire, particularly in the
springtime. She was awakened in the night by the sound of rain beating with
heavy drops against her window. It was pouring down in torrents and the wind
was “wuthering” round the corners and in the chimneys of the huge
old house. Mary sat up in bed and felt miserable and angry.
</p>
<p>
“The rain is as contrary as I ever was,” she said. “It came
because it knew I did not want it.”
</p>
<p>
She threw herself back on her pillow and buried her face. She did not cry, but
she lay and hated the sound of the heavily beating rain, she hated the wind and
its “wuthering.” She could not go to sleep again. The mournful
sound kept her awake because she felt mournful herself. If she had felt happy
it would probably have lulled her to sleep. How it “wuthered” and
how the big raindrops poured down and beat against the pane!
</p>
<p>
“It sounds just like a person lost on the moor and wandering on and on
crying,” she said.<br /><br />
</p>
<p>
She had been lying awake turning from side to side for about an hour, when
suddenly something made her sit up in bed and turn her head toward the door
listening. She listened and she listened.
</p>
<p>
“It isn’t the wind now,” she said in a loud whisper.
“That isn’t the wind. It is different. It is that crying I heard
before.”
</p>
<p>
The door of her room was ajar and the sound came down the corridor, a far-off
faint sound of fretful crying. She listened for a few minutes and each minute
she became more and more sure. She felt as if she must find out what it was. It
seemed even stranger than the secret garden and the buried key. Perhaps the
fact that she was in a rebellious mood made her bold. She put her foot out of
bed and stood on the floor.
</p>
<p>
“I am going to find out what it is,” she said. “Everybody is
in bed and I don’t care about Mrs. Medlock—I don’t
care!”
</p>
<p>
There was a candle by her bedside and she took it up and went softly out of the
room. The corridor looked very long and dark, but she was too excited to mind
that. She thought she remembered the corners she must turn to find the short
corridor with the door covered with tapestry—the one Mrs. Medlock had
come through the day she lost herself. The sound had come up that passage. So
she went on with her dim light, almost feeling her way, her heart beating so
loud that she fancied she could hear it. The far-off faint crying went on and
led her. Sometimes it stopped for a moment or so and then began again. Was this
the right corner to turn? She stopped and thought. Yes it was. Down this
passage and then to the left, and then up two broad steps, and then to the
right again. Yes, there was the tapestry door.
</p>
<p>
She pushed it open very gently and closed it behind her, and she stood in the
corridor and could hear the crying quite plainly, though it was not loud. It
was on the other side of the wall at her left and a few yards farther on there
was a door. She could see a glimmer of light coming from beneath it. The
Someone was crying in that room, and it was quite a young Someone.
</p>
<p>
So she walked to the door and pushed it open, and there she was standing in the
room!
</p>
<p>
It was a big room with ancient, handsome furniture in it. There was a low fire
glowing faintly on the hearth and a night light burning by the side of a carved
four-posted bed hung with brocade, and on the bed was lying a boy, crying
fretfully.
</p>
<p>
Mary wondered if she was in a real place or if she had fallen asleep again and
was dreaming without knowing it.
</p>
<p>
The boy had a sharp, delicate face the color of ivory and he seemed to have
eyes too big for it. He had also a lot of hair which tumbled over his forehead
in heavy locks and made his thin face seem smaller. He looked like a boy who
had been ill, but he was crying more as if he were tired and cross than as if
he were in pain.
</p>
<p>
Mary stood near the door with her candle in her hand, holding her breath. Then
she crept across the room, and, as she drew nearer, the light attracted the
boy’s attention and he turned his head on his pillow and stared at her,
his gray eyes opening so wide that they seemed immense.
</p>
<p>
“Who are you?” he said at last in a half-frightened whisper.
“Are you a ghost?”
</p>
<p>
“No, I am not,” Mary answered, her own whisper sounding half
frightened. “Are you one?”
</p>
<p>
He stared and stared and stared. Mary could not help noticing what strange eyes
he had. They were agate gray and they looked too big for his face because they
had black lashes all round them.
</p>
<p>
“No,” he replied after waiting a moment or so. “I am
Colin.”
</p>
<p>
“Who is Colin?” she faltered.
</p>
<p>
“I am Colin Craven. Who are you?”
</p>
<p>
“I am Mary Lennox. Mr. Craven is my uncle.”
</p>
<p>
“He is my father,” said the boy.
</p>
<p>
“Your father!” gasped Mary. “No one ever told me he had a
boy! Why didn’t they?”
</p>
<p>
“Come here,” he said, still keeping his strange eyes fixed on her
with an anxious expression.
</p>
<p>
She came close to the bed and he put out his hand and touched her.
</p>
<p>
“You are real, aren’t you?” he said. “I have such real
dreams very often. You might be one of them.”
</p>
<p>
Mary had slipped on a woolen wrapper before she left her room and she put a
piece of it between his fingers.
</p>
<p>
“Rub that and see how thick and warm it is,” she said. “I
will pinch you a little if you like, to show you how real I am. For a minute I
thought you might be a dream too.”
</p>
<p>
“Where did you come from?” he asked.
</p>
<p>
“From my own room. The wind wuthered so I couldn’t go to sleep and
I heard someone crying and wanted to find out who it was. What were you crying
for?”
</p>
<p>
“Because I couldn’t go to sleep either and my head ached. Tell me
your name again.”
</p>
<p>
“Mary Lennox. Did no one ever tell you I had come to live here?”
</p>
<p>
He was still fingering the fold of her wrapper, but he began to look a little
more as if he believed in her reality.
</p>
<p>
“No,” he answered. “They daren’t.”
</p>
<p>
“Why?” asked Mary.
</p>
<p>
“Because I should have been afraid you would see me. I won’t let
people see me and talk me over.”
</p>
<p>
“Why?” Mary asked again, feeling more mystified every moment.
</p>
<p>
“Because I am like this always, ill and having to lie down. My father
won’t let people talk me over either. The servants are not allowed to
speak about me. If I live I may be a hunchback, but I shan’t live. My
father hates to think I may be like him.”
</p>
<p>
“Oh, what a queer house this is!” Mary said. “What a queer
house! Everything is a kind of secret. Rooms are locked up and gardens are
locked up—and you! Have you been locked up?”
</p>
<p>
“No. I stay in this room because I don’t want to be moved out of
it. It tires me too much.”
</p>
<p>
“Does your father come and see you?” Mary ventured.
</p>
<p>
“Sometimes. Generally when I am asleep. He doesn’t want to see
me.”
</p>
<p>
“Why?” Mary could not help asking again.
</p>
<p>
A sort of angry shadow passed over the boy’s face.
</p>
<p>
“My mother died when I was born and it makes him wretched to look at me.
He thinks I don’t know, but I’ve heard people talking. He almost
hates me.”
</p>
<p>
“He hates the garden, because she died,” said Mary half speaking to
herself.
</p>
<p>
“What garden?” the boy asked.
</p>
<p>
“Oh! just—just a garden she used to like,” Mary stammered.
“Have you been here always?”
</p>
<p>
“Nearly always. Sometimes I have been taken to places at the seaside, but
I won’t stay because people stare at me. I used to wear an iron thing to
keep my back straight, but a grand doctor came from London to see me and said
it was stupid. He told them to take it off and keep me out in the fresh air. I
hate fresh air and I don’t want to go out.”
</p>
<p>
“I didn’t when first I came here,” said Mary. “Why do
you keep looking at me like that?”
</p>
<p>
“Because of the dreams that are so real,” he answered rather
fretfully. “Sometimes when I open my eyes I don’t believe I’m
awake.”
</p>
<p>
“We’re both awake,” said Mary. She glanced round the room
with its high ceiling and shadowy corners and dim fire-light. “It looks
quite like a dream, and it’s the middle of the night, and everybody in
the house is asleep—everybody but us. We are wide awake.”
</p>
<p>
“I don’t want it to be a dream,” the boy said restlessly.
</p>
<p>
Mary thought of something all at once.
</p>
<p>
“If you don’t like people to see you,” she began, “do
you want me to go away?”
</p>
<p>
He still held the fold of her wrapper and he gave it a little pull.
</p>
<p>
“No,” he said. “I should be sure you were a dream if you
went. If you are real, sit down on that big footstool and talk. I want to hear
about you.”
</p>
<p>
Mary put down her candle on the table near the bed and sat down on the
cushioned stool. She did not want to go away at all. She wanted to stay in the
mysterious hidden-away room and talk to the mysterious boy.
</p>
<p>
“What do you want me to tell you?” she said.
</p>
<p>
He wanted to know how long she had been at Misselthwaite; he wanted to know
which corridor her room was on; he wanted to know what she had been doing; if
she disliked the moor as he disliked it; where she had lived before she came to
Yorkshire. She answered all these questions and many more and he lay back on
his pillow and listened. He made her tell him a great deal about India and
about her voyage across the ocean. She found out that because he had been an
invalid he had not learned things as other children had. One of his nurses had
taught him to read when he was quite little and he was always reading and
looking at pictures in splendid books.
</p>
<p>
Though his father rarely saw him when he was awake, he was given all sorts of
wonderful things to amuse himself with. He never seemed to have been amused,
however. He could have anything he asked for and was never made to do anything
he did not like to do.
</p>
<p>
“Everyone is obliged to do what pleases me,” he said indifferently.
“It makes me ill to be angry. No one believes I shall live to grow
up.”
</p>
<p>
He said it as if he was so accustomed to the idea that it had ceased to matter
to him at all. He seemed to like the sound of Mary’s voice. As she went
on talking he listened in a drowsy, interested way. Once or twice she wondered
if he were not gradually falling into a doze. But at last he asked a question
which opened up a new subject.
</p>
<p>
“How old are you?” he asked.
</p>
<p>
“I am ten,” answered Mary, forgetting herself for the moment,
“and so are you.”
</p>
<p>
“How do you know that?” he demanded in a surprised voice.
</p>
<p>
“Because when you were born the garden door was locked and the key was
buried. And it has been locked for ten years.”
</p>
<p>
Colin half sat up, turning toward her, leaning on his elbows.
</p>
<p>
“What garden door was locked? Who did it? Where was the key
buried?” he exclaimed as if he were suddenly very much interested.
</p>
<p>
“It—it was the garden Mr. Craven hates,” said Mary nervously.
“He locked the door. No one—no one knew where he buried the
key.”
</p>
<p>
“What sort of a garden is it?” Colin persisted eagerly.
</p>
<p>
“No one has been allowed to go into it for ten years,” was
Mary’s careful answer.
</p>
<p>
But it was too late to be careful. He was too much like herself. He too had had
nothing to think about and the idea of a hidden garden attracted him as it had
attracted her. He asked question after question. Where was it? Had she never
looked for the door? Had she never asked the gardeners?
</p>
<p>
“They won’t talk about it,” said Mary. “I think they
have been told not to answer questions.”
</p>
<p>
“I would make them,” said Colin.
</p>
<p>
“Could you?” Mary faltered, beginning to feel frightened. If he
could make people answer questions, who knew what might happen!
</p>
<p>
“Everyone is obliged to please me. I told you that,” he said.
“If I were to live, this place would sometime belong to me. They all know
that. I would make them tell me.”
</p>
<p>
Mary had not known that she herself had been spoiled, but she could see quite
plainly that this mysterious boy had been. He thought that the whole world
belonged to him. How peculiar he was and how coolly he spoke of not living.
</p>
<p>
“Do you think you won’t live?” she asked, partly because she
was curious and partly in hope of making him forget the garden.
</p>
<p>
“I don’t suppose I shall,” he answered as indifferently as he
had spoken before. “Ever since I remember anything I have heard people
say I shan’t. At first they thought I was too little to understand and
now they think I don’t hear. But I do. My doctor is my father’s
cousin. He is quite poor and if I die he will have all Misselthwaite when my
father is dead. I should think he wouldn’t want me to live.”
</p>
<p>
“Do you want to live?” inquired Mary.
</p>
<p>
“No,” he answered, in a cross, tired fashion. “But I
don’t want to die. When I feel ill I lie here and think about it until I
cry and cry.”
</p>
<p>
“I have heard you crying three times,” Mary said, “but I did
not know who it was. Were you crying about that?” She did so want him to
forget the garden.
</p>
<p>
“I dare say,” he answered. “Let us talk about something else.
Talk about that garden. Don’t you want to see it?”
</p>
<p>
“Yes,” answered Mary, in quite a low voice.
</p>
<p>
“I do,” he went on persistently. “I don’t think I ever
really wanted to see anything before, but I want to see that garden. I want the
key dug up. I want the door unlocked. I would let them take me there in my
chair. That would be getting fresh air. I am going to make them open the
door.”
</p>
<p>
He had become quite excited and his strange eyes began to shine like stars and
looked more immense than ever.
</p>
<p>
“They have to please me,” he said. “I will make them take me
there and I will let you go, too.”
</p>
<p>
Mary’s hands clutched each other. Everything would be
spoiled—everything! Dickon would never come back. She would never again
feel like a missel thrush with a safe-hidden nest.
</p>
<p>
“Oh, don’t—don’t—don’t—don’t do
that!” she cried out.
</p>
<p>
He stared as if he thought she had gone crazy!
</p>
<p>
“Why?” he exclaimed. “You said you wanted to see it.”
</p>
<p>
“I do,” she answered almost with a sob in her throat, “but if
you make them open the door and take you in like that it will never be a secret
again.”
</p>
<p>
He leaned still farther forward.
</p>
<p>
“A secret,” he said. “What do you mean? Tell me.”
</p>
<p>
Mary’s words almost tumbled over one another.
</p>
<p>
“You see—you see,” she panted, “if no one knows but
ourselves—if there was a door, hidden somewhere under the ivy—if
there was—and we could find it; and if we could slip through it together
and shut it behind us, and no one knew anyone was inside and we called it our
garden and pretended that—that we were missel thrushes and it was our
nest, and if we played there almost every day and dug and planted seeds and
made it all come alive—”
</p>
<p>
“Is it dead?” he interrupted her.
</p>
<p>
“It soon will be if no one cares for it,” she went on. “The
bulbs will live but the roses—”
</p>
<p>
He stopped her again as excited as she was herself.
</p>
<p>
“What are bulbs?” he put in quickly.
</p>
<p>
“They are daffodils and lilies and snowdrops. They are working in the
earth now—pushing up pale green points because the spring is
coming.”
</p>
<p>
“Is the spring coming?” he said. “What is it like? You
don’t see it in rooms if you are ill.”
</p>
<p>
“It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sunshine,
and things pushing up and working under the earth,” said Mary. “If
the garden was a secret and we could get into it we could watch the things grow
bigger every day, and see how many roses are alive. Don’t you see? Oh,
don’t you see how much nicer it would be if it was a secret?”
</p>
<p>
He dropped back on his pillow and lay there with an odd expression on his face.
</p>
<p>
“I never had a secret,” he said, “except that one about not
living to grow up. They don’t know I know that, so it is a sort of
secret. But I like this kind better.”
</p>
<p>
“If you won’t make them take you to the garden,” pleaded
Mary, “perhaps—I feel almost sure I can find out how to get in
sometime. And then—if the doctor wants you to go out in your chair, and
if you can always do what you want to do, perhaps—perhaps we might find
some boy who would push you, and we could go alone and it would always be a
secret garden.”
</p>
<p>
“I should—like—that,” he said very slowly, his eyes
looking dreamy. “I should like that. I should not mind fresh air in a
secret garden.”
</p>
<p>
Mary began to recover her breath and feel safer because the idea of keeping the
secret seemed to please him. She felt almost sure that if she kept on talking
and could make him see the garden in his mind as she had seen it he would like
it so much that he could not bear to think that everybody might tramp in to it
when they chose.
</p>
<p>
“I’ll tell you what I <i>think</i> it would be like, if we could go
into it,” she said. “It has been shut up so long things have grown
into a tangle perhaps.”
</p>
<p>
He lay quite still and listened while she went on talking about the roses which
<i>might</i> have clambered from tree to tree and hung down—about the
many birds which <i>might</i> have built their nests there because it was so
safe. And then she told him about the robin and Ben Weatherstaff, and there was
so much to tell about the robin and it was so easy and safe to talk about it
that she ceased to be afraid. The robin pleased him so much that he smiled
until he looked almost beautiful, and at first Mary had thought that he was
even plainer than herself, with his big eyes and heavy locks of hair.
</p>
<p>
“I did not know birds could be like that,” he said. “But if
you stay in a room you never see things. What a lot of things you know. I feel
as if you had been inside that garden.”
</p>
<p>
She did not know what to say, so she did not say anything. He evidently did not
expect an answer and the next moment he gave her a surprise.
</p>
<p>
“I am going to let you look at something,” he said. “Do you
see that rose-colored silk curtain hanging on the wall over the
mantel-piece?”
</p>
<p>
Mary had not noticed it before, but she looked up and saw it. It was a curtain
of soft silk hanging over what seemed to be some picture.
</p>
<p>
“Yes,” she answered.
</p>
<p>
“There is a cord hanging from it,” said Colin. “Go and pull
it.”
</p>
<p>
Mary got up, much mystified, and found the cord. When she pulled it the silk
curtain ran back on rings and when it ran back it uncovered a picture. It was
the picture of a girl with a laughing face. She had bright hair tied up with a
blue ribbon and her gay, lovely eyes were exactly like Colin’s unhappy
ones, agate gray and looking twice as big as they really were because of the
black lashes all round them.
</p>
<p>
“She is my mother,” said Colin complainingly. “I don’t
see why she died. Sometimes I hate her for doing it.”
</p>
<p>
“How queer!” said Mary.
</p>
<p>
“If she had lived I believe I should not have been ill always,” he
grumbled. “I dare say I should have lived, too. And my father would not
have hated to look at me. I dare say I should have had a strong back. Draw the
curtain again.”
</p>
<p>
Mary did as she was told and returned to her footstool.
</p>
<p>
“She is much prettier than you,” she said, “but her eyes are
just like yours—at least they are the same shape and color. Why is the
curtain drawn over her?”
</p>
<p>
He moved uncomfortably.
</p>
<p>
“I made them do it,” he said. “Sometimes I don’t like
to see her looking at me. She smiles too much when I am ill and miserable.
Besides, she is mine and I don’t want everyone to see her.”
</p>
<p>
There were a few moments of silence and then Mary spoke.
</p>
<p>
“What would Mrs. Medlock do if she found out that I had been here?”
she inquired.
</p>
<p>
“She would do as I told her to do,” he answered. “And I
should tell her that I wanted you to come here and talk to me every day. I am
glad you came.”
</p>
<p>
“So am I,” said Mary. “I will come as often as I can,
but”—she hesitated—“I shall have to look every day for
the garden door.”
</p>
<p>
“Yes, you must,” said Colin, “and you can tell me about it
afterward.”
</p>
<p>
He lay thinking a few minutes, as he had done before, and then he spoke again.
</p>
<p>
“I think you shall be a secret, too,” he said. “I will not
tell them until they find out. I can always send the nurse out of the room and
say that I want to be by myself. Do you know Martha?”
</p>
<p>
“Yes, I know her very well,” said Mary. “She waits on
me.”
</p>
<p>
He nodded his head toward the outer corridor.
</p>
<p>
“She is the one who is asleep in the other room. The nurse went away
yesterday to stay all night with her sister and she always makes Martha attend
to me when she wants to go out. Martha shall tell you when to come here.”
</p>
<p>
Then Mary understood Martha’s troubled look when she had asked questions
about the crying.
</p>
<p>
“Martha knew about you all the time?” she said.
</p>
<p>
“Yes; she often attends to me. The nurse likes to get away from me and
then Martha comes.”
</p>
<p>
“I have been here a long time,” said Mary. “Shall I go away
now? Your eyes look sleepy.”
</p>
<p>
“I wish I could go to sleep before you leave me,” he said rather
shyly.
</p>
<p>
“Shut your eyes,” said Mary, drawing her footstool closer,
“and I will do what my Ayah used to do in India. I will pat your hand and
stroke it and sing something quite low.”
</p>
<p>
“I should like that perhaps,” he said drowsily.
</p>
<p>
Somehow she was sorry for him and did not want him to lie awake, so she leaned
against the bed and began to stroke and pat his hand and sing a very low little
chanting song in Hindustani.
</p>
<p>
“That is nice,” he said more drowsily still, and she went on
chanting and stroking, but when she looked at him again his black lashes were
lying close against his cheeks, for his eyes were shut and he was fast asleep.
So she got up softly, took her candle and crept away without making a sound.
</p>
</div><!--end chapter-->
<div class="chapter">
<h2><a name="chap14"></a>CHAPTER XIV.<br />
A YOUNG RAJAH</h2>
<p>
The moor was hidden in mist when the morning came, and the rain had not stopped
pouring down. There could be no going out of doors. Martha was so busy that
Mary had no opportunity of talking to her, but in the afternoon she asked her
to come and sit with her in the nursery. She came bringing the stocking she was
always knitting when she was doing nothing else.
</p>
<p>
“What’s the matter with thee?” she asked as soon as they sat
down. “Tha’ looks as if tha’d somethin’ to say.”
</p>
<p>
“I have. I have found out what the crying was,” said Mary.
</p>
<p>
Martha let her knitting drop on her knee and gazed at her with startled eyes.
</p>
<p>
“Tha’ hasn’t!” she exclaimed. “Never!”
</p>
<p>
“I heard it in the night,” Mary went on. “And I got up and
went to see where it came from. It was Colin. I found him.”
</p>
<p>
Martha’s face became red with fright.
</p>
<p>
“Eh! Miss Mary!” she said half crying. “Tha’
shouldn’t have done it—tha’ shouldn’t! Tha’ll get
me in trouble. I never told thee nothin’ about him—but tha’ll
get me in trouble. I shall lose my place and what’ll mother do!”
</p>
<p>
“You won’t lose your place,” said Mary. “He was glad I
came. We talked and talked and he said he was glad I came.”
</p>
<p>
“Was he?” cried Martha. “Art tha’ sure? Tha’
doesn’t know what he’s like when anything vexes him. He’s a
big lad to cry like a baby, but when he’s in a passion he’ll fair
scream just to frighten us. He knows us daren’t call our souls our
own.”
</p>
<p>
“He wasn’t vexed,” said Mary. “I asked him if I should
go away and he made me stay. He asked me questions and I sat on a big footstool
and talked to him about India and about the robin and gardens. He
wouldn’t let me go. He let me see his mother’s picture. Before I
left him I sang him to sleep.”
</p>
<p>
Martha fairly gasped with amazement.
</p>
<p>
“I can scarcely believe thee!” she protested. “It’s as
if tha’d walked straight into a lion’s den. If he’d been like
he is most times he’d have throwed himself into one of his tantrums and
roused th’ house. He won’t let strangers look at him.”
</p>
<p>
“He let me look at him. I looked at him all the time and he looked at me.
We stared!” said Mary.
</p>
<p>
“I don’t know what to do!” cried agitated Martha. “If
Mrs. Medlock finds out, she’ll think I broke orders and told thee and I
shall be packed back to mother.”
</p>
<p>
“He is not going to tell Mrs. Medlock anything about it yet. It’s
to be a sort of secret just at first,” said Mary firmly. “And he
says everybody is obliged to do as he pleases.”
</p>
<p>
“Aye, that’s true enough—th’ bad lad!” sighed
Martha, wiping her forehead with her apron.
</p>
<p>
“He says Mrs. Medlock must. And he wants me to come and talk to him every
day. And you are to tell me when he wants me.”
</p>
<p>
“Me!” said Martha; “I shall lose my place—I shall for
sure!”
</p>
<p>
“You can’t if you are doing what he wants you to do and everybody
is ordered to obey him,” Mary argued.
</p>
<p>
“Does tha’ mean to say,” cried Martha with wide open eyes,
“that he was nice to thee!”
</p>
<p>
“I think he almost liked me,” Mary answered.
</p>
<p>
“Then tha’ must have bewitched him!” decided Martha, drawing
a long breath.
</p>
<p>
“Do you mean Magic?” inquired Mary. “I’ve heard about
Magic in India, but I can’t make it. I just went into his room and I was
so surprised to see him I stood and stared. And then he turned round and stared
at me. And he thought I was a ghost or a dream and I thought perhaps he was.
And it was so queer being there alone together in the middle of the night and
not knowing about each other. And we began to ask each other questions. And
when I asked him if I must go away he said I must not.”
</p>
<p>
“Th’ world’s comin’ to a end!” gasped Martha.
</p>
<p>
“What is the matter with him?” asked Mary.
</p>
<p>
“Nobody knows for sure and certain,” said Martha. “Mr. Craven
went off his head like when he was born. Th’ doctors thought he’d
have to be put in a ’sylum. It was because Mrs. Craven died like I told
you. He wouldn’t set eyes on th’ baby. He just raved and said
it’d be another hunchback like him and it’d better die.”
</p>
<p>
“Is Colin a hunchback?” Mary asked. “He didn’t look
like one.”
</p>
<p>
“He isn’t yet,” said Martha. “But he began all wrong.
Mother said that there was enough trouble and raging in th’ house to set
any child wrong. They was afraid his back was weak an’ they’ve
always been takin’ care of it—keepin’ him lyin’ down
and not lettin’ him walk. Once they made him wear a brace but he fretted
so he was downright ill. Then a big doctor came to see him an’ made them
take it off. He talked to th’ other doctor quite rough—in a polite
way. He said there’d been too much medicine and too much lettin’
him have his own way.”
</p>
<p>
“I think he’s a very spoiled boy,” said Mary.
</p>
<p>
“He’s th’ worst young nowt as ever was!” said Martha.
“I won’t say as he hasn’t been ill a good bit. He’s had
coughs an’ colds that’s nearly killed him two or three times. Once
he had rheumatic fever an’ once he had typhoid. Eh! Mrs. Medlock did get
a fright then. He’d been out of his head an’ she was talkin’
to th’ nurse, thinkin’ he didn’t know nothin’,
an’ she said, ‘He’ll die this time sure enough, an’
best thing for him an’ for everybody.’ An’ she looked at him
an’ there he was with his big eyes open, starin’ at her as sensible
as she was herself. She didn’t know wha’d happen but he just stared
at her an’ says, ‘You give me some water an’ stop
talkin’.’”
</p>
<p>
“Do you think he will die?” asked Mary.
</p>
<p>
“Mother says there’s no reason why any child should live that gets
no fresh air an’ doesn’t do nothin’ but lie on his back
an’ read picture-books an’ take medicine. He’s weak and hates
th’ trouble o’ bein’ taken out o’ doors, an’ he
gets cold so easy he says it makes him ill.”
</p>
<p>
Mary sat and looked at the fire.
</p>
<p>
“I wonder,” she said slowly, “if it would not do him good to
go out into a garden and watch things growing. It did me good.”
</p>
<p>
“One of th’ worst fits he ever had,” said Martha, “was
one time they took him out where the roses is by the fountain. He’d been
readin’ in a paper about people gettin’ somethin’ he called
‘rose cold’ an’ he began to sneeze an’ said he’d
got it an’ then a new gardener as didn’t know th’ rules
passed by an’ looked at him curious. He threw himself into a passion
an’ he said he’d looked at him because he was going to be a
hunchback. He cried himself into a fever an’ was ill all night.”
</p>
<p>
“If he ever gets angry at me, I’ll never go and see him
again,” said Mary.
</p>
<p>
“He’ll have thee if he wants thee,” said Martha.
“Tha’ may as well know that at th’ start.”
</p>
<p>
Very soon afterward a bell rang and she rolled up her knitting.
</p>
<p>
“I dare say th’ nurse wants me to stay with him a bit,” she
said. “I hope he’s in a good temper.”
</p>
<p>
She was out of the room about ten minutes and then she came back with a puzzled
expression.
</p>
<p>
“Well, tha’ has bewitched him,” she said. “He’s
up on his sofa with his picture-books. He’s told the nurse to stay away
until six o’clock. I’m to wait in the next room. Th’ minute
she was gone he called me to him an’ says, ‘I want Mary Lennox to
come and talk to me, and remember you’re not to tell anyone.’
You’d better go as quick as you can.”
</p>
<p>
Mary was quite willing to go quickly. She did not want to see Colin as much as
she wanted to see Dickon; but she wanted to see him very much.
</p>
<p>
There was a bright fire on the hearth when she entered his room, and in the
daylight she saw it was a very beautiful room indeed. There were rich colors in
the rugs and hangings and pictures and books on the walls which made it look
glowing and comfortable even in spite of the gray sky and falling rain. Colin
looked rather like a picture himself. He was wrapped in a velvet dressing-gown
and sat against a big brocaded cushion. He had a red spot on each cheek.
</p>
<p>
“Come in,” he said. “I’ve been thinking about you all
morning.”
</p>
<p>
“I’ve been thinking about you, too,” answered Mary.
“You don’t know how frightened Martha is. She says Mrs. Medlock
will think she told me about you and then she will be sent away.”
</p>
<p>
He frowned.
</p>
<p>
“Go and tell her to come here,” he said. “She is in the next
room.”
</p>
<p>
Mary went and brought her back. Poor Martha was shaking in her shoes. Colin was
still frowning.
</p>
<p>
“Have you to do what I please or have you not?” he demanded.
</p>
<p>
“I have to do what you please, sir,” Martha faltered, turning quite
red.
</p>
<p>
“Has Medlock to do what I please?”
</p>
<p>
“Everybody has, sir,” said Martha.
</p>
<p>
“Well, then, if I order you to bring Miss Mary to me, how can Medlock
send you away if she finds it out?”
</p>
<p>
“Please don’t let her, sir,” pleaded Martha.
</p>
<p>
“I’ll send <i>her</i> away if she dares to say a word about such a
thing,” said Master Craven grandly. “She wouldn’t like that,
I can tell you.”
</p>
<p>
“Thank you, sir,” bobbing a curtsy, “I want to do my duty,
sir.”
</p>
<p>
“What I want is your duty” said Colin more grandly still.
“I’ll take care of you. Now go away.”
</p>
<p>
When the door closed behind Martha, Colin found Mistress Mary gazing at him as
if he had set her wondering.
</p>
<p>
“Why do you look at me like that?” he asked her. “What are
you thinking about?”
</p>
<p>
“I am thinking about two things.”
</p>
<p>
“What are they? Sit down and tell me.”
</p>
<p>
“This is the first one,” said Mary, seating herself on the big
stool. “Once in India I saw a boy who was a Rajah. He had rubies and
emeralds and diamonds stuck all over him. He spoke to his people just as you
spoke to Martha. Everybody had to do everything he told them—in a minute.
I think they would have been killed if they hadn’t.”
</p>
<p>
“I shall make you tell me about Rajahs presently,” he said,
“but first tell me what the second thing was.”
</p>
<p>
“I was thinking,” said Mary, “how different you are from
Dickon.”
</p>
<p>
“Who is Dickon?” he said. “What a queer name!”
</p>
<p>
She might as well tell him, she thought she could talk about Dickon without
mentioning the secret garden. She had liked to hear Martha talk about him.
Besides, she longed to talk about him. It would seem to bring him nearer.
</p>
<p>
“He is Martha’s brother. He is twelve years old,” she
explained. “He is not like anyone else in the world. He can charm foxes
and squirrels and birds just as the natives in India charm snakes. He plays a
very soft tune on a pipe and they come and listen.”
</p>
<p>
There were some big books on a table at his side and he dragged one suddenly
toward him.
</p>
<p>
“There is a picture of a snake-charmer in this,” he exclaimed.
“Come and look at it.”
</p>
<p>
The book was a beautiful one with superb colored illustrations and he turned to
one of them.
</p>
<p>
“Can he do that?” he asked eagerly.
</p>
<p>
“He played on his pipe and they listened,” Mary explained.
“But he doesn’t call it Magic. He says it’s because he lives
on the moor so much and he knows their ways. He says he feels sometimes as if
he was a bird or a rabbit himself, he likes them so. I think he asked the robin
questions. It seemed as if they talked to each other in soft chirps.”
</p>
<p>
Colin lay back on his cushion and his eyes grew larger and larger and the spots
on his cheeks burned.
</p>
<p>
“Tell me some more about him,” he said.
</p>
<p>
“He knows all about eggs and nests,” Mary went on. “And he
knows where foxes and badgers and otters live. He keeps them secret so that
other boys won’t find their holes and frighten them. He knows about
everything that grows or lives on the moor.”
</p>
<p>
“Does he like the moor?” said Colin. “How can he when
it’s such a great, bare, dreary place?”
</p>
<p>
“It’s the most beautiful place,” protested Mary.
“Thousands of lovely things grow on it and there are thousands of little
creatures all busy building nests and making holes and burrows and chippering
or singing or squeaking to each other. They are so busy and having such fun
under the earth or in the trees or heather. It’s their world.”
</p>
<p>
“How do you know all that?” said Colin, turning on his elbow to
look at her.
</p>
<p>
“I have never been there once, really,” said Mary suddenly
remembering. “I only drove over it in the dark. I thought it was hideous.
Martha told me about it first and then Dickon. When Dickon talks about it you
feel as if you saw things and heard them and as if you were standing in the
heather with the sun shining and the gorse smelling like honey—and all
full of bees and butterflies.”
</p>
<p>
“You never see anything if you are ill,” said Colin restlessly. He
looked like a person listening to a new sound in the distance and wondering
what it was.
</p>
<p>
“You can’t if you stay in a room,” said Mary.
</p>
<p>
“I couldn’t go on the moor,” he said in a resentful tone.
</p>
<p>
Mary was silent for a minute and then she said something bold.
</p>
<p>
“You might—sometime.”
</p>
<p>
He moved as if he were startled.
</p>
<p>
“Go on the moor! How could I? I am going to die.”
</p>
<p>
“How do you know?” said Mary unsympathetically. She didn’t
like the way he had of talking about dying. She did not feel very sympathetic.
She felt rather as if he almost boasted about it.
</p>
<p>
“Oh, I’ve heard it ever since I remember,” he answered
crossly. “They are always whispering about it and thinking I don’t
notice. They wish I would, too.”
</p>
<p>
Mistress Mary felt quite contrary. She pinched her lips together.
</p>
<p>
“If they wished I would,” she said, “I wouldn’t. Who
wishes you would?”
</p>
<p>
“The servants—and of course Dr. Craven because he would get
Misselthwaite and be rich instead of poor. He daren’t say so, but he
always looks cheerful when I am worse. When I had typhoid fever his face got
quite fat. I think my father wishes it, too.”
</p>
<p>
“I don’t believe he does,” said Mary quite obstinately.
</p>
<p>
That made Colin turn and look at her again.
</p>
<p>
“Don’t you?” he said.
</p>
<p>
And then he lay back on his cushion and was still, as if he were thinking. And
there was quite a long silence. Perhaps they were both of them thinking strange
things children do not usually think of.
</p>
<p>
“I like the grand doctor from London, because he made them take the iron
thing off,” said Mary at last “Did he say you were going to
die?”
</p>
<p>
“No.”
</p>
<p>
“What did he say?”
</p>
<p>
“He didn’t whisper,” Colin answered. “Perhaps he knew I
hated whispering. I heard him say one thing quite aloud. He said, ‘The
lad might live if he would make up his mind to it. Put him in the humor.’
It sounded as if he was in a temper.”
</p>
<p>
“I’ll tell you who would put you in the humor, perhaps,” said
Mary reflecting. She felt as if she would like this thing to be settled one way
or the other. “I believe Dickon would. He’s always talking about
live things. He never talks about dead things or things that are ill.
He’s always looking up in the sky to watch birds flying—or looking
down at the earth to see something growing. He has such round blue eyes and
they are so wide open with looking about. And he laughs such a big laugh with
his wide mouth—and his cheeks are as red—as red as cherries.”
</p>
<p>
She pulled her stool nearer to the sofa and her expression quite changed at the
remembrance of the wide curving mouth and wide open eyes.
</p>
<p>
“See here,” she said. “Don’t let us talk about dying; I
don’t like it. Let us talk about living. Let us talk and talk about
Dickon. And then we will look at your pictures.”
</p>
<p>
It was the best thing she could have said. To talk about Dickon meant to talk
about the moor and about the cottage and the fourteen people who lived in it on
sixteen shillings a week—and the children who got fat on the moor grass
like the wild ponies. And about Dickon’s mother—and the
skipping-rope—and the moor with the sun on it—and about pale green
points sticking up out of the black sod. And it was all so alive that Mary
talked more than she had ever talked before—and Colin both talked and
listened as he had never done either before. And they both began to laugh over
nothings as children will when they are happy together. And they laughed so
that in the end they were making as much noise as if they had been two ordinary
healthy natural ten-year-old creatures—instead of a hard, little,
unloving girl and a sickly boy who believed that he was going to die.
</p>
<p>
They enjoyed themselves so much that they forgot the pictures and they forgot
about the time. They had been laughing quite loudly over Ben Weatherstaff and
his robin, and Colin was actually sitting up as if he had forgotten about his
weak back, when he suddenly remembered something.
</p>
<p>
“Do you know there is one thing we have never once thought of,” he
said. “We are cousins.”
</p>
<p>
It seemed so queer that they had talked so much and never remembered this
simple thing that they laughed more than ever, because they had got into the
humor to laugh at anything. And in the midst of the fun the door opened and in
walked Dr. Craven and Mrs. Medlock.
</p>
<p>
Dr. Craven started in actual alarm and Mrs. Medlock almost fell back because he
had accidentally bumped against her.
</p>
<p>
“Good Lord!” exclaimed poor Mrs. Medlock with her eyes almost
starting out of her head. “Good Lord!”
</p>
<p>
“What is this?” said Dr. Craven, coming forward. “What does
it mean?”
</p>
<p>
Then Mary was reminded of the boy Rajah again. Colin answered as if neither the
doctor’s alarm nor Mrs. Medlock’s terror were of the slightest
consequence. He was as little disturbed or frightened as if an elderly cat and
dog had walked into the room.
</p>
<p>
“This is my cousin, Mary Lennox,” he said. “I asked her to
come and talk to me. I like her. She must come and talk to me whenever I send
for her.”
</p>
<p>
Dr. Craven turned reproachfully to Mrs. Medlock.
</p>
<p>
“Oh, sir” she panted. “I don’t know how it’s
happened. There’s not a servant on the place tha’d dare to
talk—they all have their orders.”
</p>
<p>
“Nobody told her anything,” said Colin. “She heard me crying
and found me herself. I am glad she came. Don’t be silly, Medlock.”
</p>
<p>
Mary saw that Dr. Craven did not look pleased, but it was quite plain that he
dare not oppose his patient. He sat down by Colin and felt his pulse.
</p>
<p>
“I am afraid there has been too much excitement. Excitement is not good
for you, my boy,” he said.
</p>
<p>
“I should be excited if she kept away,” answered Colin, his eyes
beginning to look dangerously sparkling. “I am better. She makes me
better. The nurse must bring up her tea with mine. We will have tea
together.”
</p>
<p>
Mrs. Medlock and Dr. Craven looked at each other in a troubled way, but there
was evidently nothing to be done.
</p>
<p>
“He does look rather better, sir,” ventured Mrs. Medlock.
“But”—thinking the matter over—“he looked better
this morning before she came into the room.”
</p>
<p>
“She came into the room last night. She stayed with me a long time. She
sang a Hindustani song to me and it made me go to sleep,” said Colin.
“I was better when I wakened up. I wanted my breakfast. I want my tea
now. Tell nurse, Medlock.”
</p>
<p>
Dr. Craven did not stay very long. He talked to the nurse for a few minutes
when she came into the room and said a few words of warning to Colin. He must
not talk too much; he must not forget that he was ill; he must not forget that
he was very easily tired. Mary thought that there seemed to be a number of
uncomfortable things he was not to forget.
</p>
<p>
Colin looked fretful and kept his strange black-lashed eyes fixed on Dr.
Craven’s face.
</p>
<p>
“I <i>want</i> to forget it,” he said at last. “She makes me
forget it. That is why I want her.”
</p>
<p>
Dr. Craven did not look happy when he left the room. He gave a puzzled glance
at the little girl sitting on the large stool. She had become a stiff, silent
child again as soon as he entered and he could not see what the attraction was.
The boy actually did look brighter, however—and he sighed rather heavily
as he went down the corridor.
</p>
<p>
“They are always wanting me to eat things when I don’t want
to,” said Colin, as the nurse brought in the tea and put it on the table
by the sofa. “Now, if you’ll eat I will. Those muffins look so nice
and hot. Tell me about Rajahs.”
</p>
</div><!--end chapter-->
<div class="chapter">
<h2><a name="chap15"></a>CHAPTER XV.<br />
NEST BUILDING</h2>
<p>
After another week of rain the high arch of blue sky appeared again and the sun
which poured down was quite hot. Though there had been no chance to see either
the secret garden or Dickon, Mistress Mary had enjoyed herself very much. The
week had not seemed long. She had spent hours of every day with Colin in his
room, talking about Rajahs or gardens or Dickon and the cottage on the moor.
They had looked at the splendid books and pictures and sometimes Mary had read
things to Colin, and sometimes he had read a little to her. When he was amused
and interested she thought he scarcely looked like an invalid at all, except
that his face was so colorless and he was always on the sofa.
</p>
<p>
“You are a sly young one to listen and get out of your bed to go
following things up like you did that night,” Mrs. Medlock said once.
“But there’s no saying it’s not been a sort of blessing to
the lot of us. He’s not had a tantrum or a whining fit since you made
friends. The nurse was just going to give up the case because she was so sick
of him, but she says she doesn’t mind staying now you’ve gone on
duty with her,” laughing a little.
</p>
<p>
In her talks with Colin, Mary had tried to be very cautious about the secret
garden. There were certain things she wanted to find out from him, but she felt
that she must find them out without asking him direct questions. In the first
place, as she began to like to be with him, she wanted to discover whether he
was the kind of boy you could tell a secret to. He was not in the least like
Dickon, but he was evidently so pleased with the idea of a garden no one knew
anything about that she thought perhaps he could be trusted. But she had not
known him long enough to be sure. The second thing she wanted to find out was
this: If he could be trusted—if he really could—wouldn’t it
be possible to take him to the garden without having anyone find it out? The
grand doctor had said that he must have fresh air and Colin had said that he
would not mind fresh air in a secret garden. Perhaps if he had a great deal of
fresh air and knew Dickon and the robin and saw things growing he might not
think so much about dying. Mary had seen herself in the glass sometimes lately
when she had realized that she looked quite a different creature from the child
she had seen when she arrived from India. This child looked nicer. Even Martha
had seen a change in her.
</p>
<p>
“Th’ air from th’ moor has done thee good already,” she
had said. “Tha’rt not nigh so yeller and tha’rt not nigh so
scrawny. Even tha’ hair doesn’t slamp down on tha’ head so
flat. It’s got some life in it so as it sticks out a bit.”
</p>
<p>
“It’s like me,” said Mary. “It’s growing stronger
and fatter. I’m sure there’s more of it.”
</p>
<p>
“It looks it, for sure,” said Martha, ruffling it up a little round
her face. “Tha’rt not half so ugly when it’s that way
an’ there’s a bit o’ red in tha’ cheeks.”
</p>
<p>
If gardens and fresh air had been good for her perhaps they would be good for
Colin. But then, if he hated people to look at him, perhaps he would not like
to see Dickon.
</p>
<p>
“Why does it make you angry when you are looked at?” she inquired
one day.
</p>
<p>
“I always hated it,” he answered, “even when I was very
little. Then when they took me to the seaside and I used to lie in my carriage
everybody used to stare and ladies would stop and talk to my nurse and then
they would begin to whisper and I knew then they were saying I shouldn’t
live to grow up. Then sometimes the ladies would pat my cheeks and say
‘Poor child!’ Once when a lady did that I screamed out loud and bit
her hand. She was so frightened she ran away.”
</p>
<p>
“She thought you had gone mad like a dog,” said Mary, not at all
admiringly.
</p>
<p>
“I don’t care what she thought,” said Colin, frowning.
</p>
<p>
“I wonder why you didn’t scream and bite me when I came into your
room?” said Mary. Then she began to smile slowly.
</p>
<p>
“I thought you were a ghost or a dream,” he said. “You
can’t bite a ghost or a dream, and if you scream they don’t
care.”
</p>
<p>
“Would you hate it if—if a boy looked at you?” Mary asked
uncertainly.
</p>
<p>
He lay back on his cushion and paused thoughtfully.
</p>
<p>
“There’s one boy,” he said quite slowly, as if he were
thinking over every word, “there’s one boy I believe I
shouldn’t mind. It’s that boy who knows where the foxes
live—Dickon.”
</p>
<p>
“I’m sure you wouldn’t mind him,” said Mary.
</p>
<p>
“The birds don’t and other animals,” he said, still thinking
it over, “perhaps that’s why I shouldn’t. He’s a sort
of animal charmer and I am a boy animal.”
</p>
<p>
Then he laughed and she laughed too; in fact it ended in their both laughing a
great deal and finding the idea of a boy animal hiding in his hole very funny
indeed.
</p>
<p>
What Mary felt afterward was that she need not fear about Dickon.<br /><br />
</p>
<p>
On that first morning when the sky was blue again Mary wakened very early. The
sun was pouring in slanting rays through the blinds and there was something so
joyous in the sight of it that she jumped out of bed and ran to the window. She
drew up the blinds and opened the window itself and a great waft of fresh,
scented air blew in upon her. The moor was blue and the whole world looked as
if something Magic had happened to it. There were tender little fluting sounds
here and there and everywhere, as if scores of birds were beginning to tune up
for a concert. Mary put her hand out of the window and held it in the sun.
</p>
<p>
“It’s warm—warm!” she said. “It will make the
green points push up and up and up, and it will make the bulbs and roots work
and struggle with all their might under the earth.”
</p>
<p>
She kneeled down and leaned out of the window as far as she could, breathing
big breaths and sniffing the air until she laughed because she remembered what
Dickon’s mother had said about the end of his nose quivering like a
rabbit’s.
</p>
<p>
“It must be very early,” she said. “The little clouds are all
pink and I’ve never seen the sky look like this. No one is up. I
don’t even hear the stable boys.”
</p>
<p>
A sudden thought made her scramble to her feet.
</p>
<p>
“I can’t wait! I am going to see the garden!”
</p>
<p>
She had learned to dress herself by this time and she put on her clothes in
five minutes. She knew a small side door which she could unbolt herself and she
flew downstairs in her stocking feet and put on her shoes in the hall. She
unchained and unbolted and unlocked and when the door was open she sprang
across the step with one bound, and there she was standing on the grass, which
seemed to have turned green, and with the sun pouring down on her and warm
sweet wafts about her and the fluting and twittering and singing coming from
every bush and tree. She clasped her hands for pure joy and looked up in the
sky and it was so blue and pink and pearly and white and flooded with
springtime light that she felt as if she must flute and sing aloud herself and
knew that thrushes and robins and skylarks could not possibly help it. She ran
around the shrubs and paths towards the secret garden.
</p>
<p>
“It is all different already,” she said. “The grass is
greener and things are sticking up everywhere and things are uncurling and
green buds of leaves are showing. This afternoon I am sure Dickon will
come.”
</p>
<p>
The long warm rain had done strange things to the herbaceous beds which
bordered the walk by the lower wall. There were things sprouting and pushing
out from the roots of clumps of plants and there were actually here and there
glimpses of royal purple and yellow unfurling among the stems of crocuses. Six
months before Mistress Mary would not have seen how the world was waking up,
but now she missed nothing.
</p>
<p>
When she had reached the place where the door hid itself under the ivy, she was
startled by a curious loud sound. It was the caw—caw of a crow and it
came from the top of the wall, and when she looked up, there sat a big
glossy-plumaged blue-black bird, looking down at her very wisely indeed. She
had never seen a crow so close before and he made her a little nervous, but the
next moment he spread his wings and flapped away across the garden. She hoped
he was not going to stay inside and she pushed the door open wondering if he
would. When she got fairly into the garden she saw that he probably did intend
to stay because he had alighted on a dwarf apple-tree and under the apple-tree
was lying a little reddish animal with a Bushy tail, and both of them were
watching the stooping body and rust-red head of Dickon, who was kneeling on the
grass working hard.
</p>
<p>
Mary flew across the grass to him.
</p>
<p>
“Oh, Dickon! Dickon!” she cried out. “How could you get here
so early! How could you! The sun has only just got up!”
</p>
<p>
He got up himself, laughing and glowing, and tousled; his eyes like a bit of
the sky.
</p>
<p>
“Eh!” he said. “I was up long before him. How could I have
stayed abed! Th’ world’s all fair begun again this mornin’,
it has. An’ it’s workin’ an’ hummin’ an’
scratchin’ an’ pipin’ an’ nest-buildin’ an’
breathin’ out scents, till you’ve got to be out on it ’stead
o’ lyin’ on your back. When th’ sun did jump up, th’
moor went mad for joy, an’ I was in the midst of th’ heather,
an’ I run like mad myself, shoutin’ an’ singin’.
An’ I come straight here. I couldn’t have stayed away. Why,
th’ garden was lyin’ here waitin’!”
</p>
<p>
Mary put her hands on her chest, panting, as if she had been running herself.
</p>
<p>
“Oh, Dickon! Dickon!” she said. “I’m so happy I can
scarcely breathe!”
</p>
<p>
Seeing him talking to a stranger, the little bushy-tailed animal rose from its
place under the tree and came to him, and the rook, cawing once, flew down from
its branch and settled quietly on his shoulder.
</p>
<p>
“This is th’ little fox cub,” he said, rubbing the little
reddish animal’s head. “It’s named Captain. An’ this
here’s Soot. Soot he flew across th’ moor with me an’ Captain
he run same as if th’ hounds had been after him. They both felt same as I
did.”
</p>
<p>
Neither of the creatures looked as if he were the least afraid of Mary. When
Dickon began to walk about, Soot stayed on his shoulder and Captain trotted
quietly close to his side.
</p>
<p>
“See here!” said Dickon. “See how these has pushed up,
an’ these an’ these! An’ Eh! Look at these here!”
</p>
<p>
He threw himself upon his knees and Mary went down beside him. They had come
upon a whole clump of crocuses burst into purple and orange and gold. Mary bent
her face down and kissed and kissed them.
</p>
<p>
“You never kiss a person in that way,” she said when she lifted her
head. “Flowers are so different.”
</p>
<p>
He looked puzzled but smiled.
</p>
<p>
“Eh!” he said, “I’ve kissed mother many a time that way
when I come in from th’ moor after a day’s roamin’ an’
she stood there at th’ door in th’ sun, lookin’ so glad
an’ comfortable.”
</p>
<p>
They ran from one part of the garden to another and found so many wonders that
they were obliged to remind themselves that they must whisper or speak low. He
showed her swelling leafbuds on rose branches which had seemed dead. He showed
her ten thousand new green points pushing through the mould. They put their
eager young noses close to the earth and sniffed its warmed springtime
breathing; they dug and pulled and laughed low with rapture until Mistress
Mary’s hair was as tumbled as Dickon’s and her cheeks were almost
as poppy red as his.
</p>
<p>
There was every joy on earth in the secret garden that morning, and in the
midst of them came a delight more delightful than all, because it was more
wonderful. Swiftly something flew across the wall and darted through the trees
to a close grown corner, a little flare of red-breasted bird with something
hanging from its beak. Dickon stood quite still and put his hand on Mary almost
as if they had suddenly found themselves laughing in a church.
</p>
<p>
“We munnot stir,” he whispered in broad Yorkshire. “We munnot
scarce breathe. I knowed he was mate-huntin’ when I seed him last.
It’s Ben Weatherstaff’s robin. He’s buildin’ his nest.
He’ll stay here if us don’t flight him.”
</p>
<p>
They settled down softly upon the grass and sat there without moving.
</p>
<p>
“Us mustn’t seem as if us was watchin’ him too close,”
said Dickon. “He’d be out with us for good if he got th’
notion us was interferin’ now. He’ll be a good bit different till
all this is over. He’s settin’ up housekeepin’. He’ll
be shyer an’ readier to take things ill. He’s got no time for
visitin’ an’ gossipin’. Us must keep still a bit an’
try to look as if us was grass an’ trees an’ bushes. Then when
he’s got used to seein’ us I’ll chirp a bit an’
he’ll know us’ll not be in his way.”
</p>
<p>
Mistress Mary was not at all sure that she knew, as Dickon seemed to, how to
try to look like grass and trees and bushes. But he had said the queer thing as
if it were the simplest and most natural thing in the world, and she felt it
must be quite easy to him, and indeed she watched him for a few minutes
carefully, wondering if it was possible for him to quietly turn green and put
out branches and leaves. But he only sat wonderfully still, and when he spoke
dropped his voice to such a softness that it was curious that she could hear
him, but she could.
</p>
<p>
“It’s part o’ th’ springtime, this nest-buildin’
is,” he said. “I warrant it’s been goin’ on in
th’ same way every year since th’ world was begun. They’ve
got their way o’ thinkin’ and doin’ things an’ a body
had better not meddle. You can lose a friend in springtime easier than any
other season if you’re too curious.”
</p>
<p>
“If we talk about him I can’t help looking at him,” Mary said
as softly as possible. “We must talk of something else. There is
something I want to tell you.”
</p>
<p>
“He’ll like it better if us talks o’ somethin’
else,” said Dickon. “What is it tha’s got to tell me?”
</p>
<p>
“Well—do you know about Colin?” she whispered.
</p>
<p>
He turned his head to look at her.
</p>
<p>
“What does tha’ know about him?” he asked.
</p>
<p>
“I’ve seen him. I have been to talk to him every day this week. He
wants me to come. He says I’m making him forget about being ill and
dying,” answered Mary.
</p>
<p>
Dickon looked actually relieved as soon as the surprise died away from his
round face.
</p>
<p>
“I am glad o’ that,” he exclaimed. “I’m right
down glad. It makes me easier. I knowed I must say nothin’ about him
an’ I don’t like havin’ to hide things.”
</p>
<p>
“Don’t you like hiding the garden?” said Mary.
</p>
<p>
“I’ll never tell about it,” he answered. “But I says to
mother, ‘Mother,’ I says, ‘I got a secret to keep. It’s
not a bad ’un, tha’ knows that. It’s no worse than
hidin’ where a bird’s nest is. Tha’ doesn’t mind it,
does tha’?’”
</p>
<p>
Mary always wanted to hear about mother.
</p>
<p>
“What did she say?” she asked, not at all afraid to hear.
</p>
<p>
Dickon grinned sweet-temperedly.
</p>
<p>
“It was just like her, what she said,” he answered. “She give
my head a bit of a rub an’ laughed an’ she says, ‘Eh, lad,
tha’ can have all th’ secrets tha’ likes. I’ve knowed
thee twelve year’.’”
</p>
<p>
“How did you know about Colin?” asked Mary.
</p>
<p>
“Everybody as knowed about Mester Craven knowed there was a little lad as
was like to be a cripple, an’ they knowed Mester Craven didn’t like
him to be talked about. Folks is sorry for Mester Craven because Mrs. Craven
was such a pretty young lady an’ they was so fond of each other. Mrs.
Medlock stops in our cottage whenever she goes to Thwaite an’ she
doesn’t mind talkin’ to mother before us children, because she
knows us has been brought up to be trusty. How did tha’ find out about
him? Martha was in fine trouble th’ last time she came home. She said
tha’d heard him frettin’ an’ tha’ was askin’
questions an’ she didn’t know what to say.”
</p>
<p>
Mary told him her story about the midnight wuthering of the wind which had
wakened her and about the faint far-off sounds of the complaining voice which
had led her down the dark corridors with her candle and had ended with her
opening of the door of the dimly lighted room with the carven four-posted bed
in the corner. When she described the small ivory-white face and the strange
black-rimmed eyes Dickon shook his head.
</p>
<p>
“Them’s just like his mother’s eyes, only hers was always
laughin’, they say,” he said. “They say as Mr. Craven
can’t bear to see him when he’s awake an’ it’s because
his eyes is so like his mother’s an’ yet looks so different in his
miserable bit of a face.”
</p>
<p>
“Do you think he wants to die?” whispered Mary.
</p>
<p>
“No, but he wishes he’d never been born. Mother she says
that’s th’ worst thing on earth for a child. Them as is not wanted
scarce ever thrives. Mester Craven he’d buy anythin’ as money could
buy for th’ poor lad but he’d like to forget as he’s on
earth. For one thing, he’s afraid he’ll look at him some day and
find he’s growed hunchback.”
</p>
<p>
“Colin’s so afraid of it himself that he won’t sit up,”
said Mary. “He says he’s always thinking that if he should feel a
lump coming he should go crazy and scream himself to death.”
</p>
<p>
“Eh! he oughtn’t to lie there thinkin’ things like
that,” said Dickon. “No lad could get well as thought them sort
o’ things.”
</p>
<p>
The fox was lying on the grass close by him, looking up to ask for a pat now
and then, and Dickon bent down and rubbed his neck softly and thought a few
minutes in silence. Presently he lifted his head and looked round the garden.
</p>
<p>
“When first we got in here,” he said, “it seemed like
everything was gray. Look round now and tell me if tha’ doesn’t see
a difference.”
</p>
<p>
Mary looked and caught her breath a little.
</p>
<p>
“Why!” she cried, “the gray wall is changing. It is as if a
green mist were creeping over it. It’s almost like a green gauze
veil.”
</p>
<p>
“Aye,” said Dickon. “An’ it’ll be greener and
greener till th’ gray’s all gone. Can tha’ guess what I was
thinkin’?”
</p>
<p>
“I know it was something nice,” said Mary eagerly. “I believe
it was something about Colin.”
</p>
<p>
“I was thinkin’ that if he was out here he wouldn’t be
watchin’ for lumps to grow on his back; he’d be watchin’ for
buds to break on th’ rose-bushes, an’ he’d likely be
healthier,” explained Dickon. “I was wonderin’ if us could
ever get him in th’ humor to come out here an’ lie under th’
trees in his carriage.”
</p>
<p>
“I’ve been wondering that myself. I’ve thought of it almost
every time I’ve talked to him,” said Mary. “I’ve
wondered if he could keep a secret and I’ve wondered if we could bring
him here without anyone seeing us. I thought perhaps you could push his
carriage. The doctor said he must have fresh air and if he wants us to take him
out no one dare disobey him. He won’t go out for other people and perhaps
they will be glad if he will go out with us. He could order the gardeners to
keep away so they wouldn’t find out.”
</p>
<p>
Dickon was thinking very hard as he scratched Captain’s back.
</p>
<p>
“It’d be good for him, I’ll warrant,” he said.
“Us’d not be thinkin’ he’d better never been born.
Us’d be just two children watchin’ a garden grow, an’
he’d be another. Two lads an’ a little lass just lookin’ on
at th’ springtime. I warrant it’d be better than doctor’s
stuff.”
</p>
<p>
“He’s been lying in his room so long and he’s always been so
afraid of his back that it has made him queer,” said Mary. “He
knows a good many things out of books but he doesn’t know anything else.
He says he has been too ill to notice things and he hates going out of doors
and hates gardens and gardeners. But he likes to hear about this garden because
it is a secret. I daren’t tell him much but he said he wanted to see
it.”
</p>
<p>
“Us’ll have him out here sometime for sure,” said Dickon.
“I could push his carriage well enough. Has tha’ noticed how
th’ robin an’ his mate has been workin’ while we’ve
been sittin’ here? Look at him perched on that branch wonderin’
where it’d be best to put that twig he’s got in his beak.”
</p>
<p>
He made one of his low whistling calls and the robin turned his head and looked
at him inquiringly, still holding his twig. Dickon spoke to him as Ben
Weatherstaff did, but Dickon’s tone was one of friendly advice.
</p>
<p>
“Wheres’ever tha’ puts it,” he said, “it’ll
be all right. Tha’ knew how to build tha’ nest before tha’
came out o’ th’ egg. Get on with thee, lad. Tha’st got no
time to lose.”
</p>
<p>
“Oh, I do like to hear you talk to him!” Mary said, laughing
delightedly. “Ben Weatherstaff scolds him and makes fun of him, and he
hops about and looks as if he understood every word, and I know he likes it.
Ben Weatherstaff says he is so conceited he would rather have stones thrown at
him than not be noticed.”
</p>
<p>
Dickon laughed too and went on talking.
</p>
<p>
“Tha’ knows us won’t trouble thee,” he said to the
robin. “Us is near bein’ wild things ourselves. Us is
nest-buildin’ too, bless thee. Look out tha’ doesn’t tell on
us.”
</p>
<p>
And though the robin did not answer, because his beak was occupied, Mary knew
that when he flew away with his twig to his own corner of the garden the
darkness of his dew-bright eye meant that he would not tell their secret for
the world.
</p>
</div><!--end chapter-->
<div class="chapter">
<h2><a name="chap16"></a>CHAPTER XVI.<br />
“I WON’T!” SAID MARY</h2>
<p>
They found a great deal to do that morning and Mary was late in returning to
the house and was also in such a hurry to get back to her work that she quite
forgot Colin until the last moment.
</p>
<p>
“Tell Colin that I can’t come and see him yet,” she said to
Martha. “I’m very busy in the garden.”
</p>
<p>
Martha looked rather frightened.
</p>
<p>
“Eh! Miss Mary,” she said, “it may put him all out of humor
when I tell him that.”
</p>
<p>
But Mary was not as afraid of him as other people were and she was not a
self-sacrificing person.
</p>
<p>
“I can’t stay,” she answered. “Dickon’s waiting
for me;” and she ran away.
</p>
<p>
The afternoon was even lovelier and busier than the morning had been. Already
nearly all the weeds were cleared out of the garden and most of the roses and
trees had been pruned or dug about. Dickon had brought a spade of his own and
he had taught Mary to use all her tools, so that by this time it was plain that
though the lovely wild place was not likely to become a “gardener’s
garden” it would be a wilderness of growing things before the springtime
was over.
</p>
<p>
“There’ll be apple blossoms an’ cherry blossoms
overhead,” Dickon said, working away with all his might. “An’
there’ll be peach an’ plum trees in bloom against th’ walls,
an’ th’ grass’ll be a carpet o’ flowers.”
</p>
<p>
The little fox and the rook were as happy and busy as they were, and the robin
and his mate flew backward and forward like tiny streaks of lightning.
Sometimes the rook flapped his black wings and soared away over the tree-tops
in the park. Each time he came back and perched near Dickon and cawed several
times as if he were relating his adventures, and Dickon talked to him just as
he had talked to the robin. Once when Dickon was so busy that he did not answer
him at first, Soot flew on to his shoulders and gently tweaked his ear with his
large beak. When Mary wanted to rest a little Dickon sat down with her under a
tree and once he took his pipe out of his pocket and played the soft strange
little notes and two squirrels appeared on the wall and looked and listened.
</p>
<p>
“Tha’s a good bit stronger than tha’ was,” Dickon said,
looking at her as she was digging. “Tha’s beginning to look
different, for sure.”
</p>
<p>
Mary was glowing with exercise and good spirits.
</p>
<p>
“I’m getting fatter and fatter every day,” she said quite
exultantly. “Mrs. Medlock will have to get me some bigger dresses. Martha
says my hair is growing thicker. It isn’t so flat and stringy.”
</p>
<p>
The sun was beginning to set and sending deep gold-colored rays slanting under
the trees when they parted.
</p>
<p>
“It’ll be fine tomorrow,” said Dickon. “I’ll be
at work by sunrise.”
</p>
<p>
“So will I,” said Mary.<br /><br />
</p>
<p>
She ran back to the house as quickly as her feet would carry her. She wanted to
tell Colin about Dickon’s fox cub and the rook and about what the
springtime had been doing. She felt sure he would like to hear. So it was not
very pleasant when she opened the door of her room, to see Martha standing
waiting for her with a doleful face.
</p>
<p>
“What is the matter?” she asked. “What did Colin say when you
told him I couldn’t come?”
</p>
<p>
“Eh!” said Martha, “I wish tha’d gone. He was nigh
goin’ into one o’ his tantrums. There’s been a nice to do all
afternoon to keep him quiet. He would watch the clock all th’
time.”
</p>
<p>
Mary’s lips pinched themselves together. She was no more used to
considering other people than Colin was and she saw no reason why an
ill-tempered boy should interfere with the thing she liked best. She knew
nothing about the pitifulness of people who had been ill and nervous and who
did not know that they could control their tempers and need not make other
people ill and nervous, too. When she had had a headache in India she had done
her best to see that everybody else also had a headache or something quite as
bad. And she felt she was quite right; but of course now she felt that Colin
was quite wrong.
</p>
<p>
He was not on his sofa when she went into his room. He was lying flat on his
back in bed and he did not turn his head toward her as she came in. This was a
bad beginning and Mary marched up to him with her stiff manner.
</p>
<p>
“Why didn’t you get up?” she said.
</p>
<p>
“I did get up this morning when I thought you were coming,” he
answered, without looking at her. “I made them put me back in bed this
afternoon. My back ached and my head ached and I was tired. Why didn’t
you come?”
</p>
<p>
“I was working in the garden with Dickon,” said Mary.
</p>
<p>
Colin frowned and condescended to look at her.
</p>
<p>
“I won’t let that boy come here if you go and stay with him instead
of coming to talk to me,” he said.
</p>
<p>
Mary flew into a fine passion. She could fly into a passion without making a
noise. She just grew sour and obstinate and did not care what happened.
</p>
<p>
“If you send Dickon away, I’ll never come into this room
again!” she retorted.
</p>
<p>
“You’ll have to if I want you,” said Colin.
</p>
<p>
“I won’t!” said Mary.
</p>
<p>
“I’ll make you,” said Colin. “They shall drag you
in.”
</p>
<p>
“Shall they, Mr. Rajah!” said Mary fiercely. “They may drag
me in but they can’t make me talk when they get me here. I’ll sit
and clench my teeth and never tell you one thing. I won’t even look at
you. I’ll stare at the floor!”
</p>
<p>
They were a nice agreeable pair as they glared at each other. If they had been
two little street boys they would have sprung at each other and had a
rough-and-tumble fight. As it was, they did the next thing to it.
</p>
<p>
“You are a selfish thing!” cried Colin.
</p>
<p>
“What are you?” said Mary. “Selfish people always say that.
Anyone is selfish who doesn’t do what they want. You’re more
selfish than I am. You’re the most selfish boy I ever saw.”
</p>
<p>
“I’m not!” snapped Colin. “I’m not as selfish as
your fine Dickon is! He keeps you playing in the dirt when he knows I am all by
myself. He’s selfish, if you like!”
</p>
<p>
Mary’s eyes flashed fire.
</p>
<p>
“He’s nicer than any other boy that ever lived!” she said.
“He’s—he’s like an angel!” It might sound rather
silly to say that but she did not care.
</p>
<p>
“A nice angel!” Colin sneered ferociously. “He’s a
common cottage boy off the moor!”
</p>
<p>
“He’s better than a common Rajah!” retorted Mary.
“He’s a thousand times better!”
</p>
<p>
Because she was the stronger of the two she was beginning to get the better of
him. The truth was that he had never had a fight with anyone like himself in
his life and, upon the whole, it was rather good for him, though neither he nor
Mary knew anything about that. He turned his head on his pillow and shut his
eyes and a big tear was squeezed out and ran down his cheek. He was beginning
to feel pathetic and sorry for himself—not for anyone else.
</p>
<p>
“I’m not as selfish as you, because I’m always ill, and
I’m sure there is a lump coming on my back,” he said. “And I
am going to die besides.”
</p>
<p>
“You’re not!” contradicted Mary unsympathetically.
</p>
<p>
He opened his eyes quite wide with indignation. He had never heard such a thing
said before. He was at once furious and slightly pleased, if a person could be
both at one time.
</p>
<p>
“I’m not?” he cried. “I am! You know I am! Everybody
says so.”
</p>
<p>
“I don’t believe it!” said Mary sourly. “You just say
that to make people sorry. I believe you’re proud of it. I don’t
believe it! If you were a nice boy it might be true—but you’re too
nasty!”
</p>
<p>
In spite of his invalid back Colin sat up in bed in quite a healthy rage.
</p>
<p>
“Get out of the room!” he shouted and he caught hold of his pillow
and threw it at her. He was not strong enough to throw it far and it only fell
at her feet, but Mary’s face looked as pinched as a nutcracker.
</p>
<p>
“I’m going,” she said. “And I won’t come
back!”
</p>
<p>
She walked to the door and when she reached it she turned round and spoke
again.
</p>
<p>
“I was going to tell you all sorts of nice things,” she said.
“Dickon brought his fox and his rook and I was going to tell you all
about them. Now I won’t tell you a single thing!”
</p>
<p>
She marched out of the door and closed it behind her, and there to her great
astonishment she found the trained nurse standing as if she had been listening
and, more amazing still—she was laughing. She was a big handsome young
woman who ought not to have been a trained nurse at all, as she could not bear
invalids and she was always making excuses to leave Colin to Martha or anyone
else who would take her place. Mary had never liked her, and she simply stood
and gazed up at her as she stood giggling into her handkerchief..
</p>
<p>
“What are you laughing at?” she asked her.
</p>
<p>
“At you two young ones,” said the nurse. “It’s the best
thing that could happen to the sickly pampered thing to have someone to stand
up to him that’s as spoiled as himself;” and she laughed into her
handkerchief again. “If he’d had a young vixen of a sister to fight
with it would have been the saving of him.”
</p>
<p>
“Is he going to die?”
</p>
<p>
“I don’t know and I don’t care,” said the nurse.
“Hysterics and temper are half what ails him.”
</p>
<p>
“What are hysterics?” asked Mary.
</p>
<p>
“You’ll find out if you work him into a tantrum after
this—but at any rate you’ve given him something to have hysterics
about, and I’m glad of it.”
</p>
<p>
Mary went back to her room not feeling at all as she had felt when she had come
in from the garden. She was cross and disappointed but not at all sorry for
Colin. She had looked forward to telling him a great many things and she had
meant to try to make up her mind whether it would be safe to trust him with the
great secret. She had been beginning to think it would be, but now she had
changed her mind entirely. She would never tell him and he could stay in his
room and never get any fresh air and die if he liked! It would serve him right!
She felt so sour and unrelenting that for a few minutes she almost forgot about
Dickon and the green veil creeping over the world and the soft wind blowing
down from the moor.
</p>
<p>
Martha was waiting for her and the trouble in her face had been temporarily
replaced by interest and curiosity. There was a wooden box on the table and its
cover had been removed and revealed that it was full of neat packages.
</p>
<p>
“Mr. Craven sent it to you,” said Martha. “It looks as if it
had picture-books in it.”
</p>
<p>
Mary remembered what he had asked her the day she had gone to his room.
“Do you want anything—dolls—toys—books?” She
opened the package wondering if he had sent a doll, and also wondering what she
should do with it if he had. But he had not sent one. There were several
beautiful books such as Colin had, and two of them were about gardens and were
full of pictures. There were two or three games and there was a beautiful
little writing-case with a gold monogram on it and a gold pen and inkstand.
</p>
<p>
Everything was so nice that her pleasure began to crowd her anger out of her
mind. She had not expected him to remember her at all and her hard little heart
grew quite warm.
</p>
<p>
“I can write better than I can print,” she said, “and the
first thing I shall write with that pen will be a letter to tell him I am much
obliged.”
</p>
<p>
If she had been friends with Colin she would have run to show him her presents
at once, and they would have looked at the pictures and read some of the
gardening books and perhaps tried playing the games, and he would have enjoyed
himself so much he would never once have thought he was going to die or have
put his hand on his spine to see if there was a lump coming. He had a way of
doing that which she could not bear. It gave her an uncomfortable frightened
feeling because he always looked so frightened himself. He said that if he felt
even quite a little lump some day he should know his hunch had begun to grow.
Something he had heard Mrs. Medlock whispering to the nurse had given him the
idea and he had thought over it in secret until it was quite firmly fixed in
his mind. Mrs. Medlock had said his father’s back had begun to show its
crookedness in that way when he was a child. He had never told anyone but Mary
that most of his “tantrums” as they called them grew out of his
hysterical hidden fear. Mary had been sorry for him when he had told her.
</p>
<p>
“He always began to think about it when he was cross or tired,” she
said to herself. “And he has been cross today. Perhaps—perhaps he
has been thinking about it all afternoon.”
</p>
<p>
She stood still, looking down at the carpet and thinking.
</p>
<p>
“I said I would never go back again—” she hesitated, knitting
her brows—“but perhaps, just perhaps, I will go and see—if he
wants me—in the morning. Perhaps he’ll try to throw his pillow at
me again, but—I think—I’ll go.”
</p>
</div><!--end chapter-->
<div class="chapter">
<h2><a name="chap17"></a>CHAPTER XVII.<br />
A TANTRUM</h2>
<p>
She had got up very early in the morning and had worked hard in the garden and
she was tired and sleepy, so as soon as Martha had brought her supper and she
had eaten it, she was glad to go to bed. As she laid her head on the pillow she
murmured to herself:
</p>
<p>
“I’ll go out before breakfast and work with Dickon and then
afterward—I believe—I’ll go to see him.”
</p>
<p>
She thought it was the middle of the night when she was awakened by such
dreadful sounds that she jumped out of bed in an instant. What was
it—what was it? The next minute she felt quite sure she knew. Doors were
opened and shut and there were hurrying feet in the corridors and someone was
crying and screaming at the same time, screaming and crying in a horrible way.
</p>
<p>
“It’s Colin,” she said. “He’s having one of those
tantrums the nurse called hysterics. How awful it sounds.”
</p>
<p>
As she listened to the sobbing screams she did not wonder that people were so
frightened that they gave him his own way in everything rather than hear them.
She put her hands over her ears and felt sick and shivering.
</p>
<p>
“I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what to do,” she
kept saying. “I can’t bear it.”
</p>
<p>
Once she wondered if he would stop if she dared go to him and then she
remembered how he had driven her out of the room and thought that perhaps the
sight of her might make him worse. Even when she pressed her hands more tightly
over her ears she could not keep the awful sounds out. She hated them so and
was so terrified by them that suddenly they began to make her angry and she
felt as if she should like to fly into a tantrum herself and frighten him as he
was frightening her. She was not used to anyone’s tempers but her own.
She took her hands from her ears and sprang up and stamped her foot.
</p>
<p>
“He ought to be stopped! Somebody ought to make him stop! Somebody ought
to beat him!” she cried out.
</p>
<p>
Just then she heard feet almost running down the corridor and her door opened
and the nurse came in. She was not laughing now by any means. She even looked
rather pale.
</p>
<p>
“He’s worked himself into hysterics,” she said in a great
hurry. “He’ll do himself harm. No one can do anything with him. You
come and try, like a good child. He likes you.”
</p>
<p>
“He turned me out of the room this morning,” said Mary, stamping
her foot with excitement.
</p>
<p>
The stamp rather pleased the nurse. The truth was that she had been afraid she
might find Mary crying and hiding her head under the bed-clothes.
</p>
<p>
“That’s right,” she said. “You’re in the right
humor. You go and scold him. Give him something new to think of. Do go, child,
as quick as ever you can.”
</p>
<p>
It was not until afterward that Mary realized that the thing had been funny as
well as dreadful—that it was funny that all the grown-up people were so
frightened that they came to a little girl just because they guessed she was
almost as bad as Colin himself.
</p>
<p>
She flew along the corridor and the nearer she got to the screams the higher
her temper mounted. She felt quite wicked by the time she reached the door. She
slapped it open with her hand and ran across the room to the four-posted bed.
</p>
<p>
“You stop!” she almost shouted. “You stop! I hate you!
Everybody hates you! I wish everybody would run out of the house and let you
scream yourself to death! You <i>will</i> scream yourself to death in a minute,
and I wish you would!”
</p>
<p>
A nice sympathetic child could neither have thought nor said such things, but
it just happened that the shock of hearing them was the best possible thing for
this hysterical boy whom no one had ever dared to restrain or contradict.
</p>
<p>
He had been lying on his face beating his pillow with his hands and he actually
almost jumped around, he turned so quickly at the sound of the furious little
voice. His face looked dreadful, white and red and swollen, and he was gasping
and choking; but savage little Mary did not care an atom.
</p>
<p>
“If you scream another scream,” she said, “I’ll scream
too—and I can scream louder than you can and I’ll frighten you,
I’ll frighten you!”
</p>
<p>
He actually had stopped screaming because she had startled him so. The scream
which had been coming almost choked him. The tears were streaming down his face
and he shook all over.
</p>
<p>
“I can’t stop!” he gasped and sobbed. “I
can’t—I can’t!”
</p>
<p>
“You can!” shouted Mary. “Half that ails you is hysterics and
temper—just hysterics—hysterics—hysterics!” and she
stamped each time she said it.
</p>
<p>
“I felt the lump—I felt it,” choked out Colin. “I knew
I should. I shall have a hunch on my back and then I shall die,” and he
began to writhe again and turned on his face and sobbed and wailed but he
didn’t scream.
</p>
<p>
“You didn’t feel a lump!” contradicted Mary fiercely.
“If you did it was only a hysterical lump. Hysterics makes lumps.
There’s nothing the matter with your horrid back—nothing but
hysterics! Turn over and let me look at it!”
</p>
<p>
She liked the word “hysterics” and felt somehow as if it had an
effect on him. He was probably like herself and had never heard it before.
</p>
<p>
“Nurse,” she commanded, “come here and show me his back this
minute!”
</p>
<p>
The nurse, Mrs. Medlock and Martha had been standing huddled together near the
door staring at her, their mouths half open. All three had gasped with fright
more than once. The nurse came forward as if she were half afraid. Colin was
heaving with great breathless sobs.
</p>
<p>
“Perhaps he—he won’t let me,” she hesitated in a low
voice.
</p>
<p>
Colin heard her, however, and he gasped out between two sobs:
</p>
<p>
“Sh-show her! She-she’ll see then!”
</p>
<p>
It was a poor thin back to look at when it was bared. Every rib could be
counted and every joint of the spine, though Mistress Mary did not count them
as she bent over and examined them with a solemn savage little face. She looked
so sour and old-fashioned that the nurse turned her head aside to hide the
twitching of her mouth. There was just a minute’s silence, for even Colin
tried to hold his breath while Mary looked up and down his spine, and down and
up, as intently as if she had been the great doctor from London.
</p>
<p>
“There’s not a single lump there!” she said at last.
“There’s not a lump as big as a pin—except backbone lumps,
and you can only feel them because you’re thin. I’ve got backbone
lumps myself, and they used to stick out as much as yours do, until I began to
get fatter, and I am not fat enough yet to hide them. There’s not a lump
as big as a pin! If you ever say there is again, I shall laugh!”
</p>
<p>
No one but Colin himself knew what effect those crossly spoken childish words
had on him. If he had ever had anyone to talk to about his secret
terrors—if he had ever dared to let himself ask questions—if he had
had childish companions and had not lain on his back in the huge closed house,
breathing an atmosphere heavy with the fears of people who were most of them
ignorant and tired of him, he would have found out that most of his fright and
illness was created by himself. But he had lain and thought of himself and his
aches and weariness for hours and days and months and years. And now that an
angry unsympathetic little girl insisted obstinately that he was not as ill as
he thought he was he actually felt as if she might be speaking the truth.
</p>
<p>
“I didn’t know,” ventured the nurse, “that he thought
he had a lump on his spine. His back is weak because he won’t try to sit
up. I could have told him there was no lump there.” Colin gulped and
turned his face a little to look at her.
</p>
<p>
“C-could you?” he said pathetically.
</p>
<p>
“Yes, sir.”
</p>
<p>
“There!” said Mary, and she gulped too.
</p>
<p>
Colin turned on his face again and but for his long-drawn broken breaths, which
were the dying down of his storm of sobbing, he lay still for a minute, though
great tears streamed down his face and wet the pillow. Actually the tears meant
that a curious great relief had come to him. Presently he turned and looked at
the nurse again and strangely enough he was not like a Rajah at all as he spoke
to her.
</p>
<p>
“Do you think—I could—live to grow up?” he said.
</p>
<p>
The nurse was neither clever nor soft-hearted but she could repeat some of the
London doctor’s words.
</p>
<p>
“You probably will if you will do what you are told to do and not give
way to your temper, and stay out a great deal in the fresh air.”
</p>
<p>
Colin’s tantrum had passed and he was weak and worn out with crying and
this perhaps made him feel gentle. He put out his hand a little toward Mary,
and I am glad to say that, her own tantum having passed, she was softened too
and met him half-way with her hand, so that it was a sort of making up.
</p>
<p>
“I’ll—I’ll go out with you, Mary,” he said.
“I shan’t hate fresh air if we can find—” He remembered
just in time to stop himself from saying “if we can find the secret
garden” and he ended, “I shall like to go out with you if Dickon
will come and push my chair. I do so want to see Dickon and the fox and the
crow.”
</p>
<p>
The nurse remade the tumbled bed and shook and straightened the pillows. Then
she made Colin a cup of beef tea and gave a cup to Mary, who really was very
glad to get it after her excitement. Mrs. Medlock and Martha gladly slipped
away, and after everything was neat and calm and in order the nurse looked as
if she would very gladly slip away also. She was a healthy young woman who
resented being robbed of her sleep and she yawned quite openly as she looked at
Mary, who had pushed her big footstool close to the four-posted bed and was
holding Colin’s hand.
</p>
<p>
“You must go back and get your sleep out,” she said.
“He’ll drop off after a while—if he’s not too upset.
Then I’ll lie down myself in the next room.”
</p>
<p>
“Would you like me to sing you that song I learned from my Ayah?”
Mary whispered to Colin.
</p>
<p>
His hand pulled hers gently and he turned his tired eyes on her appealingly.
</p>
<p>
“Oh, yes!” he answered. “It’s such a soft song. I shall
go to sleep in a minute.”
</p>
<p>
“I will put him to sleep,” Mary said to the yawning nurse.
“You can go if you like.”
</p>
<p>
“Well,” said the nurse, with an attempt at reluctance. “If he
doesn’t go to sleep in half an hour you must call me.”
</p>
<p>
“Very well,” answered Mary.
</p>
<p>
The nurse was out of the room in a minute and as soon as she was gone Colin
pulled Mary’s hand again.
</p>
<p>
“I almost told,” he said; “but I stopped myself in time. I
won’t talk and I’ll go to sleep, but you said you had a whole lot
of nice things to tell me. Have you—do you think you have found out
anything at all about the way into the secret garden?”
</p>
<p>
Mary looked at his poor little tired face and swollen eyes and her heart
relented.
</p>
<p>
“Ye-es,” she answered, “I think I have. And if you will go to
sleep I will tell you tomorrow.” His hand quite trembled.
</p>
<p>
“Oh, Mary!” he said. “Oh, Mary! If I could get into it I
think I should live to grow up! Do you suppose that instead of singing the Ayah
song—you could just tell me softly as you did that first day what you
imagine it looks like inside? I am sure it will make me go to sleep.”
</p>
<p>
“Yes,” answered Mary. “Shut your eyes.”
</p>
<p>
He closed his eyes and lay quite still and she held his hand and began to speak
very slowly and in a very low voice.
</p>
<p>
“I think it has been left alone so long—that it has grown all into
a lovely tangle. I think the roses have climbed and climbed and climbed until
they hang from the branches and walls and creep over the ground—almost
like a strange gray mist. Some of them have died but many—are alive and
when the summer comes there will be curtains and fountains of roses. I think
the ground is full of daffodils and snowdrops and lilies and iris working their
way out of the dark. Now the spring has
begun—perhaps—perhaps—”
</p>
<p>
The soft drone of her voice was making him stiller and stiller and she saw it
and went on.
</p>
<p>
“Perhaps they are coming up through the grass—perhaps there are
clusters of purple crocuses and gold ones—even now. Perhaps the leaves
are beginning to break out and uncurl—and perhaps—the gray is
changing and a green gauze veil is creeping—and creeping
over—everything. And the birds are coming to look at it—because it
is—so safe and still. And
perhaps—perhaps—perhaps—” very softly and slowly
indeed, “the robin has found a mate—and is building a nest.”
</p>
<p>
And Colin was asleep.
</p>
</div><!--end chapter-->
<div class="chapter">
<h2><a name="chap18"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.<br />
“THA’ MUNNOT WASTE NO TIME”</h2>
<p>
Of course Mary did not waken early the next morning. She slept late because she
was tired, and when Martha brought her breakfast she told her that though
Colin was quite quiet he was ill and feverish as he always was after he had
worn himself out with a fit of crying. Mary ate her breakfast slowly as she
listened.
</p>
<p>
“He says he wishes tha’ would please go and see him as soon as
tha’ can,” Martha said. “It’s queer what a fancy
he’s took to thee. Tha’ did give it him last night for
sure—didn’t tha? Nobody else would have dared to do it. Eh! poor
lad! He’s been spoiled till salt won’t save him. Mother says as
th’ two worst things as can happen to a child is never to have his own
way—or always to have it. She doesn’t know which is th’
worst. Tha’ was in a fine temper tha’self, too. But he says to me
when I went into his room, ‘Please ask Miss Mary if she’ll please
come an’ talk to me?’ Think o’ him saying please! Will you
go, Miss?”
</p>
<p>
“I’ll run and see Dickon first,” said Mary. “No,
I’ll go and see Colin first and tell him—I know what I’ll
tell him,” with a sudden inspiration.
</p>
<p>
She had her hat on when she appeared in Colin’s room and for a second he
looked disappointed. He was in bed. His face was pitifully white and there were
dark circles round his eyes.
</p>
<p>
“I’m glad you came,” he said. “My head aches and I ache
all over because I’m so tired. Are you going somewhere?”
</p>
<p>
Mary went and leaned against his bed.
</p>
<p>
“I won’t be long,” she said. “I’m going to
Dickon, but I’ll come back. Colin, it’s—it’s something
about the garden.”
</p>
<p>
His whole face brightened and a little color came into it.
</p>
<p>
“Oh! is it?” he cried out. “I dreamed about it all night. I
heard you say something about gray changing into green, and I dreamed I was
standing in a place all filled with trembling little green leaves—and
there were birds on nests everywhere and they looked so soft and still.
I’ll lie and think about it until you come back.”
</p>
<p>
In five minutes Mary was with Dickon in their garden. The fox and the crow were
with him again and this time he had brought two tame squirrels.
</p>
<p>
“I came over on the pony this mornin’,” he said. “Eh!
he is a good little chap—Jump is! I brought these two in my pockets. This
here one he’s called Nut an’ this here other one’s called
Shell.”
</p>
<p>
When he said “Nut” one squirrel leaped on to his right shoulder and
when he said “Shell” the other one leaped on to his left shoulder.
</p>
<p>
When they sat down on the grass with Captain curled at their feet, Soot
solemnly listening on a tree and Nut and Shell nosing about close to them, it
seemed to Mary that it would be scarcely bearable to leave such delightfulness,
but when she began to tell her story somehow the look in Dickon’s funny
face gradually changed her mind. She could see he felt sorrier for Colin than
she did. He looked up at the sky and all about him.
</p>
<p>
“Just listen to them birds—th’ world seems full of
’em—all whistlin’ an’ pipin’,” he said.
“Look at ’em dartin’ about, an’ hearken at ’em
callin’ to each other. Come springtime seems like as if all th’
world’s callin’. The leaves is uncurlin’ so you can see
’em—an’, my word, th’ nice smells there is
about!” sniffing with his happy turned-up nose. “An’ that
poor lad lyin’ shut up an’ seein’ so little that he gets to
thinkin’ o’ things as sets him screamin’. Eh! my! we mun get
him out here—we mun get him watchin’ an listenin’ an’
sniffin’ up th’ air an’ get him just soaked through wi’
sunshine. An’ we munnot lose no time about it.”
</p>
<p>
When he was very much interested he often spoke quite broad Yorkshire though at
other times he tried to modify his dialect so that Mary could better
understand. But she loved his broad Yorkshire and had in fact been trying to
learn to speak it herself. So she spoke a little now.
</p>
<p>
“Aye, that we mun,” she said (which meant “Yes, indeed, we
must”). “I’ll tell thee what us’ll do first,” she
proceeded, and Dickon grinned, because when the little wench tried to twist her
tongue into speaking Yorkshire it amused him very much. “He’s took
a graidely fancy to thee. He wants to see thee and he wants to see Soot
an’ Captain. When I go back to the house to talk to him I’ll ax him
if tha’ canna’ come an’ see him tomorrow
mornin’—an’ bring tha’ creatures wi’
thee—an’ then—in a bit, when there’s more leaves out,
an’ happen a bud or two, we’ll get him to come out an’
tha’ shall push him in his chair an’ we’ll bring him here
an’ show him everything.”
</p>
<p>
When she stopped she was quite proud of herself. She had never made a long
speech in Yorkshire before and she had remembered very well.
</p>
<p>
“Tha’ mun talk a bit o’ Yorkshire like that to Mester
Colin,” Dickon chuckled. “Tha’ll make him laugh an’
there’s nowt as good for ill folk as laughin’ is. Mother says she
believes as half a hour’s good laugh every mornin’ ’ud cure a
chap as was makin’ ready for typhus fever.”
</p>
<p>
“I’m going to talk Yorkshire to him this very day,” said
Mary, chuckling herself.
</p>
<p>
The garden had reached the time when every day and every night it seemed as if
Magicians were passing through it drawing loveliness out of the earth and the
boughs with wands. It was hard to go away and leave it all, particularly as Nut
had actually crept on to her dress and Shell had scrambled down the trunk of
the apple-tree they sat under and stayed there looking at her with inquiring
eyes. But she went back to the house and when she sat down close to
Colin’s bed he began to sniff as Dickon did though not in such an
experienced way.
</p>
<p>
“You smell like flowers and—and fresh things,” he cried out
quite joyously. “What is it you smell of? It’s cool and warm and
sweet all at the same time.”
</p>
<p>
“It’s th’ wind from th’ moor,” said Mary.
“It comes o’ sittin’ on th’ grass under a tree
wi’ Dickon an’ wi’ Captain an’ Soot an’ Nut
an’ Shell. It’s th’ springtime an’ out o’ doors
an’ sunshine as smells so graidely.”
</p>
<p>
She said it as broadly as she could, and you do not know how broadly Yorkshire
sounds until you have heard someone speak it. Colin began to laugh.
</p>
<p>
“What are you doing?” he said. “I never heard you talk like
that before. How funny it sounds.”
</p>
<p>
“I’m givin’ thee a bit o’ Yorkshire,” answered
Mary triumphantly. “I canna’ talk as graidely as Dickon an’
Martha can but tha’ sees I can shape a bit. Doesn’t tha’
understand a bit o’ Yorkshire when tha’ hears it? An’
tha’ a Yorkshire lad thysel’ bred an’ born! Eh! I wonder
tha’rt not ashamed o’ thy face.”
</p>
<p>
And then she began to laugh too and they both laughed until they could not stop
themselves and they laughed until the room echoed and Mrs. Medlock opening the
door to come in drew back into the corridor and stood listening amazed.
</p>
<p>
“Well, upon my word!” she said, speaking rather broad Yorkshire
herself because there was no one to hear her and she was so astonished.
“Whoever heard th’ like! Whoever on earth would ha’ thought
it!”
</p>
<p>
There was so much to talk about. It seemed as if Colin could never hear enough
of Dickon and Captain and Soot and Nut and Shell and the pony whose name was
Jump. Mary had run round into the wood with Dickon to see Jump. He was a tiny
little shaggy moor pony with thick locks hanging over his eyes and with a
pretty face and a nuzzling velvet nose. He was rather thin with living on moor
grass but he was as tough and wiry as if the muscle in his little legs had been
made of steel springs. He had lifted his head and whinnied softly the moment he
saw Dickon and he had trotted up to him and put his head across his shoulder
and then Dickon had talked into his ear and Jump had talked back in odd little
whinnies and puffs and snorts. Dickon had made him give Mary his small front
hoof and kiss her on her cheek with his velvet muzzle.
</p>
<p>
“Does he really understand everything Dickon says?” Colin asked.
</p>
<p>
“It seems as if he does,” answered Mary. “Dickon says
anything will understand if you’re friends with it for sure, but you have
to be friends for sure.”
</p>
<p>
Colin lay quiet a little while and his strange gray eyes seemed to be staring
at the wall, but Mary saw he was thinking.
</p>
<p>
“I wish I was friends with things,” he said at last, “but
I’m not. I never had anything to be friends with, and I can’t bear
people.”
</p>
<p>
“Can’t you bear me?” asked Mary.
</p>
<p>
“Yes, I can,” he answered. “It’s funny but I even like
you.”
</p>
<p>
“Ben Weatherstaff said I was like him,” said Mary. “He said
he’d warrant we’d both got the same nasty tempers. I think you are
like him too. We are all three alike—you and I and Ben Weatherstaff. He
said we were neither of us much to look at and we were as sour as we looked.
But I don’t feel as sour as I used to before I knew the robin and
Dickon.”
</p>
<p>
“Did you feel as if you hated people?”
</p>
<p>
“Yes,” answered Mary without any affectation. “I should have
detested you if I had seen you before I saw the robin and Dickon.”
</p>
<p>
Colin put out his thin hand and touched her.
</p>
<p>
“Mary,” he said, “I wish I hadn’t said what I did about
sending Dickon away. I hated you when you said he was like an angel and I
laughed at you but—but perhaps he is.”
</p>
<p>
“Well, it was rather funny to say it,” she admitted frankly,
“because his nose does turn up and he has a big mouth and his clothes
have patches all over them and he talks broad Yorkshire, but—but if an
angel did come to Yorkshire and live on the moor—if there was a Yorkshire
angel—I believe he’d understand the green things and know how to
make them grow and he would know how to talk to the wild creatures as Dickon
does and they’d know he was friends for sure.”
</p>
<p>
“I shouldn’t mind Dickon looking at me,” said Colin; “I
want to see him.”
</p>
<p>
“I’m glad you said that,” answered Mary,
“because—because—”
</p>
<p>
Quite suddenly it came into her mind that this was the minute to tell him.
Colin knew something new was coming.
</p>
<p>
“Because what?” he cried eagerly.
</p>
<p>
Mary was so anxious that she got up from her stool and came to him and caught
hold of both his hands.
</p>
<p>
“Can I trust you? I trusted Dickon because birds trusted him. Can I trust
you—for sure—<i>for sure?</i>” she implored.
</p>
<p>
Her face was so solemn that he almost whispered his answer.
</p>
<p>
“Yes—yes!”
</p>
<p>
“Well, Dickon will come to see you tomorrow morning, and he’ll
bring his creatures with him.”
</p>
<p>
“Oh! Oh!” Colin cried out in delight.
</p>
<p>
“But that’s not all,” Mary went on, almost pale with solemn
excitement. “The rest is better. There is a door into the garden. I found
it. It is under the ivy on the wall.”
</p>
<p>
If he had been a strong healthy boy Colin would probably have shouted
“Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!” but he was weak and rather hysterical;
his eyes grew bigger and bigger and he gasped for breath.
</p>
<p>
“Oh! Mary!” he cried out with a half sob. “Shall I see it?
Shall I get into it? Shall I <i>live</i> to get into it?” and he clutched
her hands and dragged her toward him.
</p>
<p>
“Of course you’ll see it!” snapped Mary indignantly.
“Of course you’ll live to get into it! Don’t be silly!”
</p>
<p>
And she was so un-hysterical and natural and childish that she brought him to
his senses and he began to laugh at himself and a few minutes afterward she was
sitting on her stool again telling him not what she imagined the secret garden
to be like but what it really was, and Colin’s aches and tiredness were
forgotten and he was listening enraptured.
</p>
<p>
“It is just what you thought it would be,” he said at last.
“It sounds just as if you had really seen it. You know I said that when
you told me first.”
</p>
<p>
Mary hesitated about two minutes and then boldly spoke the truth.
</p>
<p>
“I had seen it—and I had been in,” she said. “I found
the key and got in weeks ago. But I daren’t tell you—I
daren’t because I was so afraid I couldn’t trust you—<i>for
sure!</i>”
</p>
</div><!--end chapter-->
<div class="chapter">
<h2><a name="chap19"></a>CHAPTER XIX.<br />
“IT HAS COME!”</h2>
<p>
Of course Dr. Craven had been sent for the morning after Colin had had his
tantrum. He was always sent for at once when such a thing occurred and he
always found, when he arrived, a white shaken boy lying on his bed, sulky and
still so hysterical that he was ready to break into fresh sobbing at the least
word. In fact, Dr. Craven dreaded and detested the difficulties of these
visits. On this occasion he was away from Misselthwaite Manor until afternoon.
</p>
<p>
“How is he?” he asked Mrs. Medlock rather irritably when he
arrived. “He will break a blood-vessel in one of those fits some day. The
boy is half insane with hysteria and self-indulgence.”
</p>
<p>
“Well, sir,” answered Mrs. Medlock, “you’ll scarcely
believe your eyes when you see him. That plain sour-faced child that’s
almost as bad as himself has just bewitched him. How she’s done it
there’s no telling. The Lord knows she’s nothing to look at and you
scarcely ever hear her speak, but she did what none of us dare do. She just
flew at him like a little cat last night, and stamped her feet and ordered him
to stop screaming, and somehow she startled him so that he actually did stop,
and this afternoon—well just come up and see, sir. It’s past
crediting.”
</p>
<p>
The scene which Dr. Craven beheld when he entered his patient’s room was
indeed rather astonishing to him. As Mrs. Medlock opened the door he heard
laughing and chattering. Colin was on his sofa in his dressing-gown and he was
sitting up quite straight looking at a picture in one of the garden books and
talking to the plain child who at that moment could scarcely be called plain at
all because her face was so glowing with enjoyment.
</p>
<p>
“Those long spires of blue ones—we’ll have a lot of
those,” Colin was announcing. “They’re called
Del-phin-iums.”
</p>
<p>
“Dickon says they’re larkspurs made big and grand,” cried
Mistress Mary. “There are clumps there already.”
</p>
<p>
Then they saw Dr. Craven and stopped. Mary became quite still and Colin looked
fretful.
</p>
<p>
“I am sorry to hear you were ill last night, my boy,” Dr. Craven
said a trifle nervously. He was rather a nervous man.
</p>
<p>
“I’m better now—much better,” Colin answered, rather
like a Rajah. “I’m going out in my chair in a day or two if it is
fine. I want some fresh air.”
</p>
<p>
Dr. Craven sat down by him and felt his pulse and looked at him curiously.
</p>
<p>
“It must be a very fine day,” he said, “and you must be very
careful not to tire yourself.”
</p>
<p>
“Fresh air won’t tire me,” said the young Rajah.
</p>
<p>
As there had been occasions when this same young gentleman had shrieked aloud
with rage and had insisted that fresh air would give him cold and kill him, it
is not to be wondered at that his doctor felt somewhat startled.
</p>
<p>
“I thought you did not like fresh air,” he said.
</p>
<p>
“I don’t when I am by myself,” replied the Rajah; “but
my cousin is going out with me.”
</p>
<p>
“And the nurse, of course?” suggested Dr. Craven.
</p>
<p>
“No, I will not have the nurse,” so magnificently that Mary could
not help remembering how the young native Prince had looked with his diamonds
and emeralds and pearls stuck all over him and the great rubies on the small
dark hand he had waved to command his servants to approach with salaams and
receive his orders.
</p>
<p>
“My cousin knows how to take care of me. I am always better when she is
with me. She made me better last night. A very strong boy I know will push my
carriage.”
</p>
<p>
Dr. Craven felt rather alarmed. If this tiresome hysterical boy should chance
to get well he himself would lose all chance of inheriting Misselthwaite; but
he was not an unscrupulous man, though he was a weak one, and he did not intend
to let him run into actual danger.
</p>
<p>
“He must be a strong boy and a steady boy,” he said. “And I
must know something about him. Who is he? What is his name?”
</p>
<p>
“It’s Dickon,” Mary spoke up suddenly. She felt somehow that
everybody who knew the moor must know Dickon. And she was right, too. She saw
that in a moment Dr. Craven’s serious face relaxed into a relieved smile.
</p>
<p>
“Oh, Dickon,” he said. “If it is Dickon you will be safe
enough. He’s as strong as a moor pony, is Dickon.”
</p>
<p>
“And he’s trusty,” said Mary. “He’s th’
trustiest lad i’ Yorkshire.” She had been talking Yorkshire to
Colin and she forgot herself.
</p>
<p>
“Did Dickon teach you that?” asked Dr. Craven, laughing outright.
</p>
<p>
“I’m learning it as if it was French,” said Mary rather
coldly. “It’s like a native dialect in India. Very clever people
try to learn them. I like it and so does Colin.”
</p>
<p>
“Well, well,” he said. “If it amuses you perhaps it
won’t do you any harm. Did you take your bromide last night, Colin?”
</p>
<p>
“No,” Colin answered. “I wouldn’t take it at first and
after Mary made me quiet she talked me to sleep—in a low
voice—about the spring creeping into a garden.”
</p>
<p>
“That sounds soothing,” said Dr. Craven, more perplexed than ever
and glancing sideways at Mistress Mary sitting on her stool and looking down
silently at the carpet. “You are evidently better, but you must
remember—”
</p>
<p>
“I don’t want to remember,” interrupted the Rajah, appearing
again. “When I lie by myself and remember I begin to have pains
everywhere and I think of things that make me begin to scream because I hate
them so. If there was a doctor anywhere who could make you forget you were ill
instead of remembering it I would have him brought here.” And he waved a
thin hand which ought really to have been covered with royal signet rings made
of rubies. “It is because my cousin makes me forget that she makes me
better.”
</p>
<p>
Dr. Craven had never made such a short stay after a “tantrum”;
usually he was obliged to remain a very long time and do a great many things.
This afternoon he did not give any medicine or leave any new orders and he was
spared any disagreeable scenes. When he went downstairs he looked very
thoughtful and when he talked to Mrs. Medlock in the library she felt that he
was a much puzzled man.
</p>
<p>
“Well, sir,” she ventured, “could you have believed
it?”
</p>
<p>
“It is certainly a new state of affairs,” said the doctor.
“And there’s no denying it is better than the old one.”
</p>
<p>
“I believe Susan Sowerby’s right—I do that,” said Mrs.
Medlock. “I stopped in her cottage on my way to Thwaite yesterday and had
a bit of talk with her. And she says to me, ‘Well, Sarah Ann, she
mayn’t be a good child, an’ she mayn’t be a pretty one, but
she’s a child, an’ children needs children.’ We went to
school together, Susan Sowerby and me.”
</p>
<p>
“She’s the best sick nurse I know,” said Dr. Craven.
“When I find her in a cottage I know the chances are that I shall save my
patient.”
</p>
<p>
Mrs. Medlock smiled. She was fond of Susan Sowerby.
</p>
<p>
“She’s got a way with her, has Susan,” she went on quite
volubly. “I’ve been thinking all morning of one thing she said
yesterday. She says, ‘Once when I was givin’ th’ children a
bit of a preach after they’d been fightin’ I ses to ’em all,
“When I was at school my jography told as th’ world was shaped like
a orange an’ I found out before I was ten that th’ whole orange
doesn’t belong to nobody. No one owns more than his bit of a quarter
an’ there’s times it seems like there’s not enow quarters to
go round. But don’t you—none o’ you—think as you own
th’ whole orange or you’ll find out you’re mistaken,
an’ you won’t find it out without hard knocks.” ‘What
children learns from children,’ she says, ‘is that there’s no
sense in grabbin’ at th’ whole orange—peel an’ all. If
you do you’ll likely not get even th’ pips, an’ them’s
too bitter to eat.’”
</p>
<p>
“She’s a shrewd woman,” said Dr. Craven, putting on his coat.
</p>
<p>
“Well, she’s got a way of saying things,” ended Mrs. Medlock,
much pleased. “Sometimes I’ve said to her, ‘Eh! Susan, if you
was a different woman an’ didn’t talk such broad Yorkshire
I’ve seen the times when I should have said you was clever.’”
<br /><br />
</p>
<p>
That night Colin slept without once awakening and when he opened his eyes in
the morning he lay still and smiled without knowing it—smiled because he
felt so curiously comfortable. It was actually nice to be awake, and he turned
over and stretched his limbs luxuriously. He felt as if tight strings which had
held him had loosened themselves and let him go. He did not know that Dr.
Craven would have said that his nerves had relaxed and rested themselves.
Instead of lying and staring at the wall and wishing he had not awakened, his
mind was full of the plans he and Mary had made yesterday, of pictures of the
garden and of Dickon and his wild creatures. It was so nice to have things to
think about. And he had not been awake more than ten minutes when he heard feet
running along the corridor and Mary was at the door. The next minute she was in
the room and had run across to his bed, bringing with her a waft of fresh air
full of the scent of the morning.
</p>
<p>
“You’ve been out! You’ve been out! There’s that nice
smell of leaves!” he cried.
</p>
<p>
She had been running and her hair was loose and blown and she was bright with
the air and pink-cheeked, though he could not see it.
</p>
<p>
“It’s so beautiful!” she said, a little breathless with her
speed. “You never saw anything so beautiful! It has <i>come!</i> I
thought it had come that other morning, but it was only coming. It is here now!
It has come, the Spring! Dickon says so!”
</p>
<p>
“Has it?” cried Colin, and though he really knew nothing about it
he felt his heart beat. He actually sat up in bed.
</p>
<p>
“Open the window!” he added, laughing half with joyful excitement
and half at his own fancy. “Perhaps we may hear golden trumpets!”
</p>
<p>
And though he laughed, Mary was at the window in a moment and in a moment more
it was opened wide and freshness and softness and scents and birds’ songs
were pouring through.
</p>
<p>
“That’s fresh air,” she said. “Lie on your back and
draw in long breaths of it. That’s what Dickon does when he’s lying
on the moor. He says he feels it in his veins and it makes him strong and he
feels as if he could live forever and ever. Breathe it and breathe it.”
</p>
<p>
She was only repeating what Dickon had told her, but she caught Colin’s
fancy.
</p>
<p>
“’Forever and ever’! Does it make him feel like that?”
he said, and he did as she told him, drawing in long deep breaths over and over
again until he felt that something quite new and delightful was happening to
him.
</p>
<p>
Mary was at his bedside again.
</p>
<p>
“Things are crowding up out of the earth,” she ran on in a hurry.
“And there are flowers uncurling and buds on everything and the green
veil has covered nearly all the gray and the birds are in such a hurry about
their nests for fear they may be too late that some of them are even fighting
for places in the secret garden. And the rose-bushes look as wick as wick can
be, and there are primroses in the lanes and woods, and the seeds we planted
are up, and Dickon has brought the fox and the crow and the squirrels and a
new-born lamb.”
</p>
<p>
And then she paused for breath. The new-born lamb Dickon had found three days
before lying by its dead mother among the gorse bushes on the moor. It was not
the first motherless lamb he had found and he knew what to do with it. He had
taken it to the cottage wrapped in his jacket and he had let it lie near the
fire and had fed it with warm milk. It was a soft thing with a darling silly
baby face and legs rather long for its body. Dickon had carried it over the
moor in his arms and its feeding bottle was in his pocket with a squirrel, and
when Mary had sat under a tree with its limp warmness huddled on her lap she
had felt as if she were too full of strange joy to speak. A lamb—a lamb!
A living lamb who lay on your lap like a baby!
</p>
<p>
She was describing it with great joy and Colin was listening and drawing in
long breaths of air when the nurse entered. She started a little at the sight
of the open window. She had sat stifling in the room many a warm day because
her patient was sure that open windows gave people cold.
</p>
<p>
“Are you sure you are not chilly, Master Colin?” she inquired.
</p>
<p>
“No,” was the answer. “I am breathing long breaths of fresh
air. It makes you strong. I am going to get up to the sofa for breakfast. My
cousin will have breakfast with me.”
</p>
<p>
The nurse went away, concealing a smile, to give the order for two breakfasts.
She found the servants’ hall a more amusing place than the
invalid’s chamber and just now everybody wanted to hear the news from
upstairs. There was a great deal of joking about the unpopular young recluse
who, as the cook said, “had found his master, and good for him.”
The servants’ hall had been very tired of the tantrums, and the butler,
who was a man with a family, had more than once expressed his opinion that the
invalid would be all the better “for a good hiding.”
</p>
<p>
When Colin was on his sofa and the breakfast for two was put upon the table he
made an announcement to the nurse in his most Rajah-like manner.
</p>
<p>
“A boy, and a fox, and a crow, and two squirrels, and a new-born lamb,
are coming to see me this morning. I want them brought upstairs as soon as they
come,” he said. “You are not to begin playing with the animals in
the servants’ hall and keep them there. I want them here.”
</p>
<p>
The nurse gave a slight gasp and tried to conceal it with a cough.
</p>
<p>
“Yes, sir,” she answered.
</p>
<p>
“I’ll tell you what you can do,” added Colin, waving his
hand. “You can tell Martha to bring them here. The boy is Martha’s
brother. His name is Dickon and he is an animal charmer.”
</p>
<p>
“I hope the animals won’t bite, Master Colin,” said the
nurse.
</p>
<p>
“I told you he was a charmer,” said Colin austerely.
“Charmers’ animals never bite.”
</p>
<p>
“There are snake-charmers in India,” said Mary. “And they can
put their snakes’ heads in their mouths.”
</p>
<p>
“Goodness!” shuddered the nurse.
</p>
<p>
They ate their breakfast with the morning air pouring in upon them.
Colin’s breakfast was a very good one and Mary watched him with serious
interest.
</p>
<p>
“You will begin to get fatter just as I did,” she said. “I
never wanted my breakfast when I was in India and now I always want it.”
</p>
<p>
“I wanted mine this morning,” said Colin. “Perhaps it was the
fresh air. When do you think Dickon will come?”
</p>
<p>
He was not long in coming. In about ten minutes Mary held up her hand.
</p>
<p>
“Listen!” she said. “Did you hear a caw?”
</p>
<p>
Colin listened and heard it, the oddest sound in the world to hear inside a
house, a hoarse “caw-caw.”
</p>
<p>
“Yes,” he answered.
</p>
<p>
“That’s Soot,” said Mary. “Listen again. Do you hear a
bleat—a tiny one?”
</p>
<p>
“Oh, yes!” cried Colin, quite flushing.
</p>
<p>
“That’s the new-born lamb,” said Mary. “He’s
coming.”
</p>
<p>
Dickon’s moorland boots were thick and clumsy and though he tried to walk
quietly they made a clumping sound as he walked through the long corridors.
Mary and Colin heard him marching—marching, until he passed through the
tapestry door on to the soft carpet of Colin’s own passage.
</p>
<p>
“If you please, sir,” announced Martha, opening the door, “if
you please, sir, here’s Dickon an’ his creatures.”
</p>
<p>
Dickon came in smiling his nicest wide smile. The new-born lamb was in his arms
and the little red fox trotted by his side. Nut sat on his left shoulder and
Soot on his right and Shell’s head and paws peeped out of his coat
pocket.
</p>
<p>
Colin slowly sat up and stared and stared—as he had stared when he first
saw Mary; but this was a stare of wonder and delight. The truth was that in
spite of all he had heard he had not in the least understood what this boy
would be like and that his fox and his crow and his squirrels and his lamb were
so near to him and his friendliness that they seemed almost to be part of
himself. Colin had never talked to a boy in his life and he was so overwhelmed
by his own pleasure and curiosity that he did not even think of speaking.
</p>
<p>
But Dickon did not feel the least shy or awkward. He had not felt embarrassed
because the crow had not known his language and had only stared and had not
spoken to him the first time they met. Creatures were always like that until
they found out about you. He walked over to Colin’s sofa and put the
new-born lamb quietly on his lap, and immediately the little creature turned to
the warm velvet dressing-gown and began to nuzzle and nuzzle into its folds and
butt its tight-curled head with soft impatience against his side. Of course no
boy could have helped speaking then.
</p>
<p>
“What is it doing?” cried Colin. “What does it want?”
</p>
<p>
“It wants its mother,” said Dickon, smiling more and more. “I
brought it to thee a bit hungry because I knowed tha’d like to see it
feed.”
</p>
<p>
He knelt down by the sofa and took a feeding-bottle from his pocket.
</p>
<p>
“Come on, little ’un,” he said, turning the small woolly
white head with a gentle brown hand. “This is what tha’s after.
Tha’ll get more out o’ this than tha’ will out o’ silk
velvet coats. There now,” and he pushed the rubber tip of the bottle into
the nuzzling mouth and the lamb began to suck it with ravenous ecstasy.
</p>
<p>
After that there was no wondering what to say. By the time the lamb fell asleep
questions poured forth and Dickon answered them all. He told them how he had
found the lamb just as the sun was rising three mornings ago. He had been
standing on the moor listening to a skylark and watching him swing higher and
higher into the sky until he was only a speck in the heights of blue.
</p>
<p>
“I’d almost lost him but for his song an’ I was
wonderin’ how a chap could hear it when it seemed as if he’d get
out o’ th’ world in a minute—an’ just then I heard
somethin’ else far off among th’ gorse bushes. It was a weak
bleatin’ an’ I knowed it was a new lamb as was hungry an’ I
knowed it wouldn’t be hungry if it hadn’t lost its mother somehow,
so I set off searchin’. Eh! I did have a look for it. I went in an’
out among th’ gorse bushes an’ round an’ round an’ I
always seemed to take th’ wrong turnin’. But at last I seed a bit
o’ white by a rock on top o’ th’ moor an’ I climbed up
an’ found th’ little ’un half dead wi’ cold an’
clemmin’.”
</p>
<p>
While he talked, Soot flew solemnly in and out of the open window and cawed
remarks about the scenery while Nut and Shell made excursions into the big
trees outside and ran up and down trunks and explored branches. Captain curled
up near Dickon, who sat on the hearth-rug from preference.
</p>
<p>
They looked at the pictures in the gardening books and Dickon knew all the
flowers by their country names and knew exactly which ones were already growing
in the secret garden.
</p>
<p>
“I couldna’ say that there name,” he said, pointing to one
under which was written “Aquilegia,” “but us calls that a
columbine, an’ that there one it’s a snapdragon and they both grow
wild in hedges, but these is garden ones an’ they’re bigger
an’ grander. There’s some big clumps o’ columbine in
th’ garden. They’ll look like a bed o’ blue an’ white
butterflies flutterin’ when they’re out.”
</p>
<p>
“I’m going to see them,” cried Colin. “I am going to
see them!”
</p>
<p>
“Aye, that tha’ mun,” said Mary quite seriously.
“An’ tha’ munnot lose no time about it.”
</p>
</div><!--end chapter-->
<div class="chapter">
<h2><a name="chap20"></a>CHAPTER XX.<br />
“I SHALL LIVE FOREVER—AND EVER—AND EVER!”</h2>
<p>
But they were obliged to wait more than a week because first there came some
very windy days and then Colin was threatened with a cold, which two things
happening one after the other would no doubt have thrown him into a rage but
that there was so much careful and mysterious planning to do and almost every
day Dickon came in, if only for a few minutes, to talk about what was happening
on the moor and in the lanes and hedges and on the borders of streams. The
things he had to tell about otters’ and badgers’ and
water-rats’ houses, not to mention birds’ nests and field-mice and
their burrows, were enough to make you almost tremble with excitement when you
heard all the intimate details from an animal charmer and realized with what
thrilling eagerness and anxiety the whole busy underworld was working.
</p>
<p>
“They’re same as us,” said Dickon, “only they have to
build their homes every year. An’ it keeps ’em so busy they fair
scuffle to get ’em done.”
</p>
<p>
The most absorbing thing, however, was the preparations to be made before Colin
could be transported with sufficient secrecy to the garden. No one must see the
chair-carriage and Dickon and Mary after they turned a certain corner of the
shrubbery and entered upon the walk outside the ivied walls. As each day
passed, Colin had become more and more fixed in his feeling that the mystery
surrounding the garden was one of its greatest charms. Nothing must spoil that.
No one must ever suspect that they had a secret. People must think that he was
simply going out with Mary and Dickon because he liked them and did not object
to their looking at him. They had long and quite delightful talks about their
route. They would go up this path and down that one and cross the other and go
round among the fountain flower-beds as if they were looking at the
“bedding-out plants” the head gardener, Mr. Roach, had been having
arranged. That would seem such a rational thing to do that no one would think
it at all mysterious. They would turn into the shrubbery walks and lose
themselves until they came to the long walls. It was almost as serious and
elaborately thought out as the plans of march made by great generals in time of
war.
</p>
<p>
Rumors of the new and curious things which were occurring in the
invalid’s apartments had of course filtered through the servants’
hall into the stable yards and out among the gardeners, but notwithstanding
this, Mr. Roach was startled one day when he received orders from Master
Colin’s room to the effect that he must report himself in the apartment
no outsider had ever seen, as the invalid himself desired to speak to him.
</p>
<p>
“Well, well,” he said to himself as he hurriedly changed his coat,
“what’s to do now? His Royal Highness that wasn’t to be
looked at calling up a man he’s never set eyes on.”
</p>
<p>
Mr. Roach was not without curiosity. He had never caught even a glimpse of the
boy and had heard a dozen exaggerated stories about his uncanny looks and ways
and his insane tempers. The thing he had heard oftenest was that he might die
at any moment and there had been numerous fanciful descriptions of a humped
back and helpless limbs, given by people who had never seen him.
</p>
<p>
“Things are changing in this house, Mr. Roach,” said Mrs. Medlock,
as she led him up the back staircase to the corridor on to which opened the
hitherto mysterious chamber.
</p>
<p>
“Let’s hope they’re changing for the better, Mrs.
Medlock,” he answered.
</p>
<p>
“They couldn’t well change for the worse,” she continued;
“and queer as it all is there’s them as finds their duties made a
lot easier to stand up under. Don’t you be surprised, Mr. Roach, if you
find yourself in the middle of a menagerie and Martha Sowerby’s Dickon
more at home than you or me could ever be.”
</p>
<p>
There really was a sort of Magic about Dickon, as Mary always privately
believed. When Mr. Roach heard his name he smiled quite leniently.
</p>
<p>
“He’d be at home in Buckingham Palace or at the bottom of a coal
mine,” he said. “And yet it’s not impudence, either.
He’s just fine, is that lad.”
</p>
<p>
It was perhaps well he had been prepared or he might have been startled. When
the bedroom door was opened a large crow, which seemed quite at home perched on
the high back of a carven chair, announced the entrance of a visitor by saying
“Caw—Caw” quite loudly. In spite of Mrs. Medlock’s
warning, Mr. Roach only just escaped being sufficiently undignified to jump
backward.
</p>
<p>
The young Rajah was neither in bed nor on his sofa. He was sitting in an
armchair and a young lamb was standing by him shaking its tail in feeding-lamb
fashion as Dickon knelt giving it milk from its bottle. A squirrel was perched
on Dickon’s bent back attentively nibbling a nut. The little girl from
India was sitting on a big footstool looking on.
</p>
<p>
“Here is Mr. Roach, Master Colin,” said Mrs. Medlock.
</p>
<p>
The young Rajah turned and looked his servitor over—at least that was
what the head gardener felt happened.
</p>
<p>
“Oh, you are Roach, are you?” he said. “I sent for you to
give you some very important orders.”
</p>
<p>
“Very good, sir,” answered Roach, wondering if he was to receive
instructions to fell all the oaks in the park or to transform the orchards into
water-gardens.
</p>
<p>
“I am going out in my chair this afternoon,” said Colin. “If
the fresh air agrees with me I may go out every day. When I go, none of the
gardeners are to be anywhere near the Long Walk by the garden walls. No one is
to be there. I shall go out about two o’clock and everyone must keep away
until I send word that they may go back to their work.”
</p>
<p>
“Very good, sir,” replied Mr. Roach, much relieved to hear that the
oaks might remain and that the orchards were safe.
</p>
<p>
“Mary,” said Colin, turning to her, “what is that thing you
say in India when you have finished talking and want people to go?”
</p>
<p>
“You say, ‘You have my permission to go,’” answered
Mary.
</p>
<p>
The Rajah waved his hand.
</p>
<p>
“You have my permission to go, Roach,” he said. “But,
remember, this is very important.”
</p>
<p>
“Caw—Caw!” remarked the crow hoarsely but not impolitely.
</p>
<p>
“Very good, sir. Thank you, sir,” said Mr. Roach, and Mrs. Medlock
took him out of the room.
</p>
<p>
Outside in the corridor, being a rather good-natured man, he smiled until he
almost laughed.
</p>
<p>
“My word!” he said, “he’s got a fine lordly way with
him, hasn’t he? You’d think he was a whole Royal Family rolled into
one—Prince Consort and all.”
</p>
<p>
“Eh!” protested Mrs. Medlock, “we’ve had to let him
trample all over everyone of us ever since he had feet and he thinks
that’s what folks was born for.”
</p>
<p>
“Perhaps he’ll grow out of it, if he lives,” suggested Mr.
Roach.
</p>
<p>
“Well, there’s one thing pretty sure,” said Mrs. Medlock.
“If he does live and that Indian child stays here I’ll warrant she
teaches him that the whole orange does not belong to him, as Susan Sowerby
says. And he’ll be likely to find out the size of his own quarter.”
</p>
<p>
Inside the room Colin was leaning back on his cushions.
</p>
<p>
“It’s all safe now,” he said. “And this afternoon I
shall see it—this afternoon I shall be in it!”
</p>
<p>
Dickon went back to the garden with his creatures and Mary stayed with Colin.
She did not think he looked tired but he was very quiet before their lunch came
and he was quiet while they were eating it. She wondered why and asked him
about it.
</p>
<p>
“What big eyes you’ve got, Colin,” she said. “When you
are thinking they get as big as saucers. What are you thinking about
now?”
</p>
<p>
“I can’t help thinking about what it will look like,” he
answered.
</p>
<p>
“The garden?” asked Mary.
</p>
<p>
“The springtime,” he said. “I was thinking that I’ve
really never seen it before. I scarcely ever went out and when I did go I never
looked at it. I didn’t even think about it.”
</p>
<p>
“I never saw it in India because there wasn’t any,” said
Mary.
</p>
<p>
Shut in and morbid as his life had been, Colin had more imagination than she
had and at least he had spent a good deal of time looking at wonderful books
and pictures.
</p>
<p>
“That morning when you ran in and said ‘It’s come! It’s
come!’, you made me feel quite queer. It sounded as if things were coming
with a great procession and big bursts and wafts of music. I’ve a picture
like it in one of my books—crowds of lovely people and children with
garlands and branches with blossoms on them, everyone laughing and dancing and
crowding and playing on pipes. That was why I said, ‘Perhaps we shall
hear golden trumpets’ and told you to throw open the window.”
</p>
<p>
“How funny!” said Mary. “That’s really just what it
feels like. And if all the flowers and leaves and green things and birds and
wild creatures danced past at once, what a crowd it would be! I’m sure
they’d dance and sing and flute and that would be the wafts of
music.”
</p>
<p>
They both laughed but it was not because the idea was laughable but because
they both so liked it.
</p>
<p>
A little later the nurse made Colin ready. She noticed that instead of lying
like a log while his clothes were put on he sat up and made some efforts to
help himself, and he talked and laughed with Mary all the time.
</p>
<p>
“This is one of his good days, sir,” she said to Dr. Craven, who
dropped in to inspect him. “He’s in such good spirits that it makes
him stronger.”
</p>
<p>
“I’ll call in again later in the afternoon, after he has come
in,” said Dr. Craven. “I must see how the going out agrees with
him. I wish,” in a very low voice, “that he would let you go with
him.”
</p>
<p>
“I’d rather give up the case this moment, sir, than even stay here
while it’s suggested,” answered the nurse. With sudden firmness.
</p>
<p>
“I hadn’t really decided to suggest it,” said the doctor,
with his slight nervousness. “We’ll try the experiment.
Dickon’s a lad I’d trust with a new-born child.”
</p>
<p>
The strongest footman in the house carried Colin downstairs and put him in his
wheeled chair near which Dickon waited outside. After the manservant had
arranged his rugs and cushions the Rajah waved his hand to him and to the
nurse.
</p>
<p>
“You have my permission to go,” he said, and they both disappeared
quickly and it must be confessed giggled when they were safely inside the
house.
</p>
<p>
Dickon began to push the wheeled chair slowly and steadily. Mistress Mary
walked beside it and Colin leaned back and lifted his face to the sky. The arch
of it looked very high and the small snowy clouds seemed like white birds
floating on outspread wings below its crystal blueness. The wind swept in soft
big breaths down from the moor and was strange with a wild clear scented
sweetness. Colin kept lifting his thin chest to draw it in, and his big eyes
looked as if it were they which were listening—listening, instead of his
ears.
</p>
<p>
“There are so many sounds of singing and humming and calling out,”
he said. “What is that scent the puffs of wind bring?”
</p>
<p>
“It’s gorse on th’ moor that’s openin’
out,” answered Dickon. “Eh! th’ bees are at it wonderful
today.”
</p>
<p>
Not a human creature was to be caught sight of in the paths they took. In fact
every gardener or gardener’s lad had been witched away. But they wound in
and out among the shrubbery and out and round the fountain beds, following
their carefully planned route for the mere mysterious pleasure of it. But when
at last they turned into the Long Walk by the ivied walls the excited sense of
an approaching thrill made them, for some curious reason they could not have
explained, begin to speak in whispers.
</p>
<p>
“This is it,” breathed Mary. “This is where I used to walk up
and down and wonder and wonder.”
</p>
<p>
“Is it?” cried Colin, and his eyes began to search the ivy with
eager curiousness. “But I can see nothing,” he whispered.
“There is no door.”
</p>
<p>
“That’s what I thought,” said Mary.
</p>
<p>
Then there was a lovely breathless silence and the chair wheeled on.
</p>
<p>
“That is the garden where Ben Weatherstaff works,” said Mary.
</p>
<p>
“Is it?” said Colin.
</p>
<p>
A few yards more and Mary whispered again.
</p>
<p>
“This is where the robin flew over the wall,” she said.
</p>
<p>
“Is it?” cried Colin. “Oh! I wish he’d come
again!”
</p>
<p>
“And that,” said Mary with solemn delight, pointing under a big
lilac bush, “is where he perched on the little heap of earth and showed
me the key.”
</p>
<p>
Then Colin sat up.
</p>
<p>
“Where? Where? There?” he cried, and his eyes were as big as the
wolf’s in Red Riding-Hood, when Red Riding-Hood felt called upon to
remark on them. Dickon stood still and the wheeled chair stopped.
</p>
<p>
“And this,” said Mary, stepping on to the bed close to the ivy,
“is where I went to talk to him when he chirped at me from the top of the
wall. And this is the ivy the wind blew back,” and she took hold of the
hanging green curtain.
</p>
<p>
“Oh! is it—is it!” gasped Colin.
</p>
<p>
“And here is the handle, and here is the door. Dickon push him
in—push him in quickly!”
</p>
<p>
And Dickon did it with one strong, steady, splendid push.
</p>
<p>
But Colin had actually dropped back against his cushions, even though he gasped
with delight, and he had covered his eyes with his hands and held them there
shutting out everything until they were inside and the chair stopped as if by
magic and the door was closed. Not till then did he take them away and look
round and round and round as Dickon and Mary had done. And over walls and earth
and trees and swinging sprays and tendrils the fair green veil of tender little
leaves had crept, and in the grass under the trees and the gray urns in the
alcoves and here and there everywhere were touches or splashes of gold and
purple and white and the trees were showing pink and snow above his head and
there were fluttering of wings and faint sweet pipes and humming and scents and
scents. And the sun fell warm upon his face like a hand with a lovely touch.
And in wonder Mary and Dickon stood and stared at him. He looked so strange and
different because a pink glow of color had actually crept all over
him—ivory face and neck and hands and all.
</p>
<p>
“I shall get well! I shall get well!” he cried out. “Mary!
Dickon! I shall get well! And I shall live forever and ever and ever!”
</p>
</div><!--end chapter-->
<div class="chapter">
<h2><a name="chap21"></a>CHAPTER XXI.<br />
BEN WEATHERSTAFF</h2>
<p>
One of the strange things about living in the world is that it is only now and
then one is quite sure one is going to live forever and ever and ever. One
knows it sometimes when one gets up at the tender solemn dawn-time and goes out
and stands alone and throws one’s head far back and looks up and up and
watches the pale sky slowly changing and flushing and marvelous unknown things
happening until the East almost makes one cry out and one’s heart stands
still at the strange unchanging majesty of the rising of the sun—which
has been happening every morning for thousands and thousands and thousands of
years. One knows it then for a moment or so. And one knows it sometimes when
one stands by oneself in a wood at sunset and the mysterious deep gold
stillness slanting through and under the branches seems to be saying slowly
again and again something one cannot quite hear, however much one tries. Then
sometimes the immense quiet of the dark blue at night with millions of stars
waiting and watching makes one sure; and sometimes a sound of far-off music
makes it true; and sometimes a look in someone’s eyes.
</p>
<p>
And it was like that with Colin when he first saw and heard and felt the
Springtime inside the four high walls of a hidden garden. That afternoon the
whole world seemed to devote itself to being perfect and radiantly beautiful
and kind to one boy. Perhaps out of pure heavenly goodness the spring came and
crowded everything it possibly could into that one place. More than once Dickon
paused in what he was doing and stood still with a sort of growing wonder in
his eyes, shaking his head softly.
</p>
<p>
“Eh! it is graidely,” he said. “I’m twelve goin’
on thirteen an’ there’s a lot o’ afternoons in thirteen
years, but seems to me like I never seed one as graidely as this
’ere.”
</p>
<p>
“Aye, it is a graidely one,” said Mary, and she sighed for mere
joy. “I’ll warrant it’s the graidelest one as ever was in
this world.”
</p>
<p>
“Does tha’ think,” said Colin with dreamy carefulness,
“as happen it was made loike this ’ere all o’ purpose for
me?”
</p>
<p>
“My word!” cried Mary admiringly, “that there is a bit
o’ good Yorkshire. Tha’rt shapin’ first-rate—that
tha’ art.”
</p>
<p>
And delight reigned.
</p>
<p>
They drew the chair under the plum-tree, which was snow-white with blossoms and
musical with bees. It was like a king’s canopy, a fairy king’s.
There were flowering cherry-trees near and apple-trees whose buds were pink and
white, and here and there one had burst open wide. Between the blossoming
branches of the canopy bits of blue sky looked down like wonderful eyes.
</p>
<p>
Mary and Dickon worked a little here and there and Colin watched them. They
brought him things to look at—buds which were opening, buds which were
tight closed, bits of twig whose leaves were just showing green, the feather of
a woodpecker which had dropped on the grass, the empty shell of some bird early
hatched. Dickon pushed the chair slowly round and round the garden, stopping
every other moment to let him look at wonders springing out of the earth or
trailing down from trees. It was like being taken in state round the country of
a magic king and queen and shown all the mysterious riches it contained.
</p>
<p>
“I wonder if we shall see the robin?” said Colin.
</p>
<p>
“Tha’ll see him often enow after a bit,” answered Dickon.
“When th’ eggs hatches out th’ little chap he’ll be
kep’ so busy it’ll make his head swim. Tha’ll see him
flyin’ backward an’ for’ard carryin’ worms nigh as big
as himsel’ an’ that much noise goin’ on in th’ nest
when he gets there as fair flusters him so as he scarce knows which big mouth
to drop th’ first piece in. An’ gapin’ beaks an’
squawks on every side. Mother says as when she sees th’ work a robin has
to keep them gapin’ beaks filled, she feels like she was a lady with
nothin’ to do. She says she’s seen th’ little chaps when it
seemed like th’ sweat must be droppin’ off ’em, though folk
can’t see it.”
</p>
<p>
This made them giggle so delightedly that they were obliged to cover their
mouths with their hands, remembering that they must not be heard. Colin had
been instructed as to the law of whispers and low voices several days before.
He liked the mysteriousness of it and did his best, but in the midst of excited
enjoyment it is rather difficult never to laugh above a whisper.
</p>
<p>
Every moment of the afternoon was full of new things and every hour the
sunshine grew more golden. The wheeled chair had been drawn back under the
canopy and Dickon had sat down on the grass and had just drawn out his pipe
when Colin saw something he had not had time to notice before.
</p>
<p>
“That’s a very old tree over there, isn’t it?” he said.
</p>
<p>
Dickon looked across the grass at the tree and Mary looked and there was a
brief moment of stillness.
</p>
<p>
“Yes,” answered Dickon, after it, and his low voice had a very
gentle sound.
</p>
<p>
Mary gazed at the tree and thought.
</p>
<p>
“The branches are quite gray and there’s not a single leaf
anywhere,” Colin went on. “It’s quite dead, isn’t
it?”
</p>
<p>
“Aye,” admitted Dickon. “But them roses as has climbed all
over it will near hide every bit o’ th’ dead wood when
they’re full o’ leaves an’ flowers. It won’t look dead
then. It’ll be th’ prettiest of all.”
</p>
<p>
Mary still gazed at the tree and thought.
</p>
<p>
“It looks as if a big branch had been broken off,” said Colin.
“I wonder how it was done.”
</p>
<p>
“It’s been done many a year,” answered Dickon.
“Eh!” with a sudden relieved start and laying his hand on Colin.
“Look at that robin! There he is! He’s been foragin’ for his
mate.”
</p>
<p>
Colin was almost too late but he just caught sight of him, the flash of
red-breasted bird with something in his beak. He darted through the greenness
and into the close-grown corner and was out of sight. Colin leaned back on his
cushion again, laughing a little.
</p>
<p>
“He’s taking her tea to her. Perhaps it’s five o’clock.
I think I’d like some tea myself.”
</p>
<p>
And so they were safe.
</p>
<p>
“It was Magic which sent the robin,” said Mary secretly to Dickon
afterward. “I know it was Magic.” For both she and Dickon had been
afraid Colin might ask something about the tree whose branch had broken off ten
years ago and they had talked it over together and Dickon had stood and rubbed
his head in a troubled way.
</p>
<p>
“We mun look as if it wasn’t no different from th’ other
trees,” he had said. “We couldn’t never tell him how it
broke, poor lad. If he says anything about it we mun—we mun try to look
cheerful.”
</p>
<p>
“Aye, that we mun,” had answered Mary.
</p>
<p>
But she had not felt as if she looked cheerful when she gazed at the tree. She
wondered and wondered in those few moments if there was any reality in that
other thing Dickon had said. He had gone on rubbing his rust-red hair in a
puzzled way, but a nice comforted look had begun to grow in his blue eyes.
</p>
<p>
“Mrs. Craven was a very lovely young lady,” he had gone on rather
hesitatingly. “An’ mother she thinks maybe she’s about
Misselthwaite many a time lookin’ after Mester Colin, same as all mothers
do when they’re took out o’ th’ world. They have to come
back, tha’ sees. Happen she’s been in the garden an’ happen
it was her set us to work, an’ told us to bring him here.”
</p>
<p>
Mary had thought he meant something about Magic. She was a great believer in
Magic. Secretly she quite believed that Dickon worked Magic, of course good
Magic, on everything near him and that was why people liked him so much and
wild creatures knew he was their friend. She wondered, indeed, if it were not
possible that his gift had brought the robin just at the right moment when
Colin asked that dangerous question. She felt that his Magic was working all
the afternoon and making Colin look like an entirely different boy. It did not
seem possible that he could be the crazy creature who had screamed and beaten
and bitten his pillow. Even his ivory whiteness seemed to change. The faint
glow of color which had shown on his face and neck and hands when he first got
inside the garden really never quite died away. He looked as if he were made of
flesh instead of ivory or wax.
</p>
<p>
They saw the robin carry food to his mate two or three times, and it was so
suggestive of afternoon tea that Colin felt they must have some.
</p>
<p>
“Go and make one of the men servants bring some in a basket to the
rhododendron walk,” he said. “And then you and Dickon can bring it
here.”
</p>
<p>
It was an agreeable idea, easily carried out, and when the white cloth was
spread upon the grass, with hot tea and buttered toast and crumpets, a
delightfully hungry meal was eaten, and several birds on domestic errands
paused to inquire what was going on and were led into investigating crumbs with
great activity. Nut and Shell whisked up trees with pieces of cake and Soot
took the entire half of a buttered crumpet into a corner and pecked at and
examined and turned it over and made hoarse remarks about it until he decided
to swallow it all joyfully in one gulp.
</p>
<p>
The afternoon was dragging towards its mellow hour. The sun was deepening the
gold of its lances, the bees were going home and the birds were flying past
less often. Dickon and Mary were sitting on the grass, the tea-basket was
repacked ready to be taken back to the house, and Colin was lying against his
cushions with his heavy locks pushed back from his forehead and his face
looking quite a natural color.
</p>
<p>
“I don’t want this afternoon to go,” he said; “but I
shall come back tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after, and the day
after.”
</p>
<p>
“You’ll get plenty of fresh air, won’t you?” said Mary.
</p>
<p>
“I’m going to get nothing else,” he answered.
“I’ve seen the spring now and I’m going to see the summer.
I’m going to see everything grow here. I’m going to grow here
myself.”
</p>
<p>
“That tha’ will,” said Dickon. “Us’ll have thee
walkin’ about here an’ diggin’ same as other folk afore
long.”
</p>
<p>
Colin flushed tremendously.
</p>
<p>
“Walk!” he said. “Dig! Shall I?”
</p>
<p>
Dickon’s glance at him was delicately cautious. Neither he nor Mary had
ever asked if anything was the matter with his legs.
</p>
<p>
“For sure tha’ will,” he said stoutly.
“Tha—tha’s got legs o’ thine own, same as other
folks!”
</p>
<p>
Mary was rather frightened until she heard Colin’s answer.
</p>
<p>
“Nothing really ails them,” he said, “but they are so thin
and weak. They shake so that I’m afraid to try to stand on them.”
</p>
<p>
Both Mary and Dickon drew a relieved breath.
</p>
<p>
“When tha’ stops bein’ afraid tha’lt stand on
’em,” Dickon said with renewed cheer. “An’ tha’lt
stop bein’ afraid in a bit.”
</p>
<p>
“I shall?” said Colin, and he lay still as if he were wondering
about things.
</p>
<p>
They were really very quiet for a little while. The sun was dropping lower. It
was that hour when everything stills itself, and they really had had a busy and
exciting afternoon. Colin looked as if he were resting luxuriously. Even the
creatures had ceased moving about and had drawn together and were resting near
them. Soot had perched on a low branch and drawn up one leg and dropped the
gray film drowsily over his eyes. Mary privately thought he looked as if he
might snore in a minute.
</p>
<p>
In the midst of this stillness it was rather startling when Colin half lifted
his head and exclaimed in a loud suddenly alarmed whisper:
</p>
<p>
“Who is that man?”
</p>
<p>
Dickon and Mary scrambled to their feet.
</p>
<p>
“Man!” they both cried in low quick voices.
</p>
<p>
Colin pointed to the high wall.
</p>
<p>
“Look!” he whispered excitedly. “Just look!”
</p>
<p>
Mary and Dickon wheeled about and looked. There was Ben Weatherstaff’s
indignant face glaring at them over the wall from the top of a ladder! He
actually shook his fist at Mary.
</p>
<p>
“If I wasn’t a bachelder, an’ tha’ was a wench o’
mine,” he cried, “I’d give thee a hidin’!”
</p>
<p>
He mounted another step threateningly as if it were his energetic intention to
jump down and deal with her; but as she came toward him he evidently thought
better of it and stood on the top step of his ladder shaking his fist down at
her.
</p>
<p>
“I never thowt much o’ thee!” he harangued. “I
couldna’ abide thee th’ first time I set eyes on thee. A scrawny
buttermilk-faced young besom, allus askin’ questions an’
pokin’ tha’ nose where it wasna, wanted. I never knowed how
tha’ got so thick wi’ me. If it hadna’ been for th’
robin— Drat him—”
</p>
<p>
“Ben Weatherstaff,” called out Mary, finding her breath. She stood
below him and called up to him with a sort of gasp. “Ben Weatherstaff, it
was the robin who showed me the way!”
</p>
<p>
Then it did seem as if Ben really would scramble down on her side of the wall,
he was so outraged.
</p>
<p>
“Tha’ young bad ’un!” he called down at her.
“Layin’ tha’ badness on a robin—not but what he’s
impidint enow for anythin’. Him showin’ thee th’ way! Him!
Eh! tha’ young nowt”—she could see his next words burst out
because he was overpowered by curiosity—“however i’ this
world did tha’ get in?”
</p>
<p>
“It was the robin who showed me the way,” she protested
obstinately. “He didn’t know he was doing it but he did. And I
can’t tell you from here while you’re shaking your fist at
me.”
</p>
<p>
He stopped shaking his fist very suddenly at that very moment and his jaw
actually dropped as he stared over her head at something he saw coming over the
grass toward him.
</p>
<p>
At the first sound of his torrent of words Colin had been so surprised that he
had only sat up and listened as if he were spellbound. But in the midst of it
he had recovered himself and beckoned imperiously to Dickon.
</p>
<p>
“Wheel me over there!” he commanded. “Wheel me quite close
and stop right in front of him!”
</p>
<p>
And this, if you please, this is what Ben Weatherstaff beheld and which made
his jaw drop. A wheeled chair with luxurious cushions and robes which came
toward him looking rather like some sort of State Coach because a young Rajah
leaned back in it with royal command in his great black-rimmed eyes and a thin
white hand extended haughtily toward him. And it stopped right under Ben
Weatherstaff’s nose. It was really no wonder his mouth dropped open.
</p>
<p>
“Do you know who I am?” demanded the Rajah.
</p>
<p>
How Ben Weatherstaff stared! His red old eyes fixed themselves on what was
before him as if he were seeing a ghost. He gazed and gazed and gulped a lump
down his throat and did not say a word.
</p>
<p>
“Do you know who I am?” demanded Colin still more imperiously.
“Answer!”
</p>
<p>
Ben Weatherstaff put his gnarled hand up and passed it over his eyes and over
his forehead and then he did answer in a queer shaky voice.
</p>
<p>
“Who tha’ art?” he said. “Aye, that I
do—wi’ tha’ mother’s eyes starin’ at me out
o’ tha’ face. Lord knows how tha’ come here. But tha’rt
th’ poor cripple.”
</p>
<p>
Colin forgot that he had ever had a back. His face flushed scarlet and he sat
bolt upright.
</p>
<p>
“I’m not a cripple!” he cried out furiously. “I’m
not!”
</p>
<p>
“He’s not!” cried Mary, almost shouting up the wall in her
fierce indignation. “He’s not got a lump as big as a pin! I looked
and there was none there—not one!”
</p>
<p>
Ben Weatherstaff passed his hand over his forehead again and gazed as if he
could never gaze enough. His hand shook and his mouth shook and his voice
shook. He was an ignorant old man and a tactless old man and he could only
remember the things he had heard.
</p>
<p>
“Tha’—tha’ hasn’t got a crooked back?” he
said hoarsely.
</p>
<p>
“No!” shouted Colin.
</p>
<p>
“Tha’—tha’ hasn’t got crooked legs?”
quavered Ben more hoarsely yet.
</p>
<p>
It was too much. The strength which Colin usually threw into his tantrums
rushed through him now in a new way. Never yet had he been accused of crooked
legs—even in whispers—and the perfectly simple belief in their
existence which was revealed by Ben Weatherstaff’s voice was more than
Rajah flesh and blood could endure. His anger and insulted pride made him
forget everything but this one moment and filled him with a power he had never
known before, an almost unnatural strength.
</p>
<p>
“Come here!” he shouted to Dickon, and he actually began to tear
the coverings off his lower limbs and disentangle himself. “Come here!
Come here! This minute!”
</p>
<p>
Dickon was by his side in a second. Mary caught her breath in a short gasp and
felt herself turn pale.
</p>
<p>
“He can do it! He can do it! He can do it! He can!” she gabbled
over to herself under her breath as fast as ever she could.
</p>
<p>
There was a brief fierce scramble, the rugs were tossed on the ground, Dickon
held Colin’s arm, the thin legs were out, the thin feet were on the
grass. Colin was standing upright—upright—as straight as an arrow
and looking strangely tall—his head thrown back and his strange eyes
flashing lightning.
</p>
<p>
“Look at me!” he flung up at Ben Weatherstaff. “Just look at
me—you! Just look at me!”
</p>
<p>
“He’s as straight as I am!” cried Dickon. “He’s
as straight as any lad i’ Yorkshire!”
</p>
<p>
What Ben Weatherstaff did Mary thought queer beyond measure. He choked and
gulped and suddenly tears ran down his weather-wrinkled cheeks as he struck his
old hands together.
</p>
<p>
“Eh!” he burst forth, “th’ lies folk tells!
Tha’rt as thin as a lath an’ as white as a wraith, but
there’s not a knob on thee. Tha’lt make a mon yet. God bless
thee!”
</p>
<p>
Dickon held Colin’s arm strongly but the boy had not begun to falter. He
stood straighter and straighter and looked Ben Weatherstaff in the face.
</p>
<p>
“I’m your master,” he said, “when my father is away.
And you are to obey me. This is my garden. Don’t dare to say a word about
it! You get down from that ladder and go out to the Long Walk and Miss Mary
will meet you and bring you here. I want to talk to you. We did not want you,
but now you will have to be in the secret. Be quick!”
</p>
<p>
Ben Weatherstaff’s crabbed old face was still wet with that one queer
rush of tears. It seemed as if he could not take his eyes from thin straight
Colin standing on his feet with his head thrown back.
</p>
<p>
“Eh! lad,” he almost whispered. “Eh! my lad!” And then
remembering himself he suddenly touched his hat gardener fashion and said,
“Yes, sir! Yes, sir!” and obediently disappeared as he descended
the ladder.
</p>
</div><!--end chapter-->
<div class="chapter">
<h2><a name="chap22"></a>CHAPTER XXII.<br />
WHEN THE SUN WENT DOWN</h2>
<p>
When his head was out of sight Colin turned to Mary.
</p>
<p>
“Go and meet him,” he said; and Mary flew across the grass to the
door under the ivy.
</p>
<p>
Dickon was watching him with sharp eyes. There were scarlet spots on his cheeks
and he looked amazing, but he showed no signs of falling.
</p>
<p>
“I can stand,” he said, and his head was still held up and he said
it quite grandly.
</p>
<p>
“I told thee tha’ could as soon as tha’ stopped bein’
afraid,” answered Dickon. “An’ tha’s stopped.”
</p>
<p>
“Yes, I’ve stopped,” said Colin.
</p>
<p>
Then suddenly he remembered something Mary had said.
</p>
<p>
“Are you making Magic?” he asked sharply.
</p>
<p>
Dickon’s curly mouth spread in a cheerful grin.
</p>
<p>
“Tha’s doin’ Magic thysel’,” he said.
“It’s same Magic as made these ’ere work out o’
th’ earth,” and he touched with his thick boot a clump of crocuses
in the grass.
</p>
<p>
Colin looked down at them.
</p>
<p>
“Aye,” he said slowly, “there couldna’ be bigger Magic
than that there—there couldna’ be.”
</p>
<p>
He drew himself up straighter than ever.
</p>
<p>
“I’m going to walk to that tree,” he said, pointing to one a
few feet away from him. “I’m going to be standing when Weatherstaff
comes here. I can rest against the tree if I like. When I want to sit down I
will sit down, but not before. Bring a rug from the chair.”
</p>
<p>
He walked to the tree and though Dickon held his arm he was wonderfully steady.
When he stood against the tree trunk it was not too plain that he supported
himself against it, and he still held himself so straight that he looked tall.
</p>
<p>
When Ben Weatherstaff came through the door in the wall he saw him standing
there and he heard Mary muttering something under her breath.
</p>
<p>
“What art sayin’?” he asked rather testily because he did not
want his attention distracted from the long thin straight boy figure and proud
face.
</p>
<p>
But she did not tell him. What she was saying was this:
</p>
<p>
“You can do it! You can do it! I told you you could! You can do it! You
can do it! You <i>can!</i>”
</p>
<p>
She was saying it to Colin because she wanted to make Magic and keep him on his
feet looking like that. She could not bear that he should give in before Ben
Weatherstaff. He did not give in. She was uplifted by a sudden feeling that he
looked quite beautiful in spite of his thinness. He fixed his eyes on Ben
Weatherstaff in his funny imperious way.
</p>
<p>
“Look at me!” he commanded. “Look at me all over! Am I a
hunchback? Have I got crooked legs?”
</p>
<p>
Ben Weatherstaff had not quite got over his emotion, but he had recovered a
little and answered almost in his usual way.
</p>
<p>
“Not tha’,” he said. “Nowt o’ th’ sort.
What’s tha’ been doin’ with thysel’—hidin’
out o’ sight an’ lettin’ folk think tha’ was cripple
an’ half-witted?”
</p>
<p>
“Half-witted!” said Colin angrily. “Who thought that?”
</p>
<p>
“Lots o’ fools,” said Ben. “Th’ world’s
full o’ jackasses brayin’ an’ they never bray nowt but lies.
What did tha’ shut thysel’ up for?”
</p>
<p>
“Everyone thought I was going to die,” said Colin shortly.
“I’m not!”
</p>
<p>
And he said it with such decision Ben Weatherstaff looked him over, up and
down, down and up.
</p>
<p>
“Tha’ die!” he said with dry exultation. “Nowt o’
th’ sort! Tha’s got too much pluck in thee. When I seed thee put
tha’ legs on th’ ground in such a hurry I knowed tha’ was all
right. Sit thee down on th’ rug a bit young Mester an’ give me thy
orders.”
</p>
<p>
There was a queer mixture of crabbed tenderness and shrewd understanding in his
manner. Mary had poured out speech as rapidly as she could as they had come
down the Long Walk. The chief thing to be remembered, she had told him, was
that Colin was getting well—getting well. The garden was doing it. No one
must let him remember about having humps and dying.
</p>
<p>
The Rajah condescended to seat himself on a rug under the tree.
</p>
<p>
“What work do you do in the gardens, Weatherstaff?” he inquired.
</p>
<p>
“Anythin’ I’m told to do,” answered old Ben.
“I’m kep’ on by favor—because she liked me.”
</p>
<p>
“She?” said Colin.
</p>
<p>
“Tha’ mother,” answered Ben Weatherstaff.
</p>
<p>
“My mother?” said Colin, and he looked about him quietly.
“This was her garden, wasn’t it?”
</p>
<p>
“Aye, it was that!” and Ben Weatherstaff looked about him too.
“She were main fond of it.”
</p>
<p>
“It is my garden now. I am fond of it. I shall come here every
day,” announced Colin. “But it is to be a secret. My orders are
that no one is to know that we come here. Dickon and my cousin have worked and
made it come alive. I shall send for you sometimes to help—but you must
come when no one can see you.”
</p>
<p>
Ben Weatherstaff’s face twisted itself in a dry old smile.
</p>
<p>
“I’ve come here before when no one saw me,” he said.
</p>
<p>
“What!” exclaimed Colin. “When?”
</p>
<p>
“Th’ last time I was here,” rubbing his chin and looking
round, “was about two year’ ago.”
</p>
<p>
“But no one has been in it for ten years!” cried Colin.
</p>
<p>
“There was no door!”
</p>
<p>
“I’m no one,” said old Ben dryly. “An’ I
didn’t come through th’ door. I come over th’ wall. Th’
rheumatics held me back th’ last two year’.”
</p>
<p>
“Tha’ come an’ did a bit o’ prunin’!” cried
Dickon. “I couldn’t make out how it had been done.”
</p>
<p>
“She was so fond of it—she was!” said Ben Weatherstaff
slowly. “An’ she was such a pretty young thing. She says to me
once, ‘Ben,’ says she laughin’, ‘if ever I’m ill
or if I go away you must take care of my roses.’ When she did go away
th’ orders was no one was ever to come nigh. But I come,” with
grumpy obstinacy. “Over th’ wall I come—until th’
rheumatics stopped me—an’ I did a bit o’ work once a year.
She’d gave her order first.”
</p>
<p>
“It wouldn’t have been as wick as it is if tha’ hadn’t
done it,” said Dickon. “I did wonder.”
</p>
<p>
“I’m glad you did it, Weatherstaff,” said Colin.
“You’ll know how to keep the secret.”
</p>
<p>
“Aye, I’ll know, sir,” answered Ben. “An’
it’ll be easier for a man wi’ rheumatics to come in at th’
door.”
</p>
<p>
On the grass near the tree Mary had dropped her trowel. Colin stretched out his
hand and took it up. An odd expression came into his face and he began to
scratch at the earth. His thin hand was weak enough but presently as they
watched him—Mary with quite breathless interest—he drove the end of
the trowel into the soil and turned some over.
</p>
<p>
“You can do it! You can do it!” said Mary to herself. “I tell
you, you can!”
</p>
<p>
Dickon’s round eyes were full of eager curiousness but he said not a
word. Ben Weatherstaff looked on with interested face.
</p>
<p>
Colin persevered. After he had turned a few trowelfuls of soil he spoke
exultantly to Dickon in his best Yorkshire.
</p>
<p>
“Tha’ said as tha’d have me walkin’ about here same as
other folk—an’ tha’ said tha’d have me diggin’. I
thowt tha’ was just leein’ to please me. This is only th’
first day an’ I’ve walked—an’ here I am
diggin’.”
</p>
<p>
Ben Weatherstaff’s mouth fell open again when he heard him, but he ended
by chuckling.
</p>
<p>
“Eh!” he said, “that sounds as if tha’d got wits enow.
Tha’rt a Yorkshire lad for sure. An’ tha’rt diggin’,
too. How’d tha’ like to plant a bit o’ somethin’? I can
get thee a rose in a pot.”
</p>
<p>
“Go and get it!” said Colin, digging excitedly. “Quick!
Quick!”
</p>
<p>
It was done quickly enough indeed. Ben Weatherstaff went his way forgetting
rheumatics. Dickon took his spade and dug the hole deeper and wider than a new
digger with thin white hands could make it. Mary slipped out to run and bring
back a watering-can. When Dickon had deepened the hole Colin went on turning
the soft earth over and over. He looked up at the sky, flushed and glowing with
the strangely new exercise, slight as it was.
</p>
<p>
“I want to do it before the sun goes quite—quite down,” he
said.
</p>
<p>
Mary thought that perhaps the sun held back a few minutes just on purpose. Ben
Weatherstaff brought the rose in its pot from the greenhouse. He hobbled over
the grass as fast as he could. He had begun to be excited, too. He knelt down
by the hole and broke the pot from the mould.
</p>
<p>
“Here, lad,” he said, handing the plant to Colin. “Set it in
the earth thysel’ same as th’ king does when he goes to a new
place.”
</p>
<p>
The thin white hands shook a little and Colin’s flush grew deeper as he
set the rose in the mould and held it while old Ben made firm the earth. It was
filled in and pressed down and made steady. Mary was leaning forward on her
hands and knees. Soot had flown down and marched forward to see what was being
done. Nut and Shell chattered about it from a cherry-tree.
</p>
<p>
“It’s planted!” said Colin at last. “And the sun is
only slipping over the edge. Help me up, Dickon. I want to be standing when it
goes. That’s part of the Magic.”
</p>
<p>
And Dickon helped him, and the Magic—or whatever it was—so gave him
strength that when the sun did slip over the edge and end the strange lovely
afternoon for them there he actually stood on his two feet—laughing.
</p>
</div><!--end chapter-->
<div class="chapter">
<h2><a name="chap23"></a>CHAPTER XXIII.<br />
MAGIC</h2>
<p>
Dr. Craven had been waiting some time at the house when they returned to it. He
had indeed begun to wonder if it might not be wise to send someone out to
explore the garden paths. When Colin was brought back to his room the poor man
looked him over seriously.
</p>
<p>
“You should not have stayed so long,” he said. “You must not
overexert yourself.”
</p>
<p>
“I am not tired at all,” said Colin. “It has made me well.
Tomorrow I am going out in the morning as well as in the afternoon.”
</p>
<p>
“I am not sure that I can allow it,” answered Dr. Craven. “I
am afraid it would not be wise.”
</p>
<p>
“It would not be wise to try to stop me,” said Colin quite
seriously. “I am going.”
</p>
<p>
Even Mary had found out that one of Colin’s chief peculiarities was that
he did not know in the least what a rude little brute he was with his way of
ordering people about. He had lived on a sort of desert island all his life and
as he had been the king of it he had made his own manners and had had no one to
compare himself with. Mary had indeed been rather like him herself and since
she had been at Misselthwaite had gradually discovered that her own manners had
not been of the kind which is usual or popular. Having made this discovery she
naturally thought it of enough interest to communicate to Colin. So she sat and
looked at him curiously for a few minutes after Dr. Craven had gone. She wanted
to make him ask her why she was doing it and of course she did.
</p>
<p>
“What are you looking at me for?” he said.
</p>
<p>
“I’m thinking that I am rather sorry for Dr. Craven.”
</p>
<p>
“So am I,” said Colin calmly, but not without an air of some
satisfaction. “He won’t get Misselthwaite at all now I’m not
going to die.”
</p>
<p>
“I’m sorry for him because of that, of course,” said Mary,
“but I was thinking just then that it must have been very horrid to have
had to be polite for ten years to a boy who was always rude. I would never have
done it.”
</p>
<p>
“Am I rude?” Colin inquired undisturbedly.
</p>
<p>
“If you had been his own boy and he had been a slapping sort of
man,” said Mary, “he would have slapped you.”
</p>
<p>
“But he daren’t,” said Colin.
</p>
<p>
“No, he daren’t,” answered Mistress Mary, thinking the thing
out quite without prejudice. “Nobody ever dared to do anything you
didn’t like—because you were going to die and things like that. You
were such a poor thing.”
</p>
<p>
“But,” announced Colin stubbornly, “I am not going to be a
poor thing. I won’t let people think I’m one. I stood on my feet
this afternoon.”
</p>
<p>
“It is always having your own way that has made you so queer,” Mary
went on, thinking aloud.
</p>
<p>
Colin turned his head, frowning.
</p>
<p>
“Am I queer?” he demanded.
</p>
<p>
“Yes,” answered Mary, “very. But you needn’t be
cross,” she added impartially, “because so am I queer—and so
is Ben Weatherstaff. But I am not as queer as I was before I began to like
people and before I found the garden.”
</p>
<p>
“I don’t want to be queer,” said Colin. “I am not going
to be,” and he frowned again with determination.
</p>
<p>
He was a very proud boy. He lay thinking for a while and then Mary saw his
beautiful smile begin and gradually change his whole face.
</p>
<p>
“I shall stop being queer,” he said, “if I go every day to
the garden. There is Magic in there—good Magic, you know, Mary. I am sure
there is.”
</p>
<p>
“So am I,” said Mary.
</p>
<p>
“Even if it isn’t real Magic,” Colin said, “we can
pretend it is. <i>Something</i> is there—<i>something!</i>”
</p>
<p>
“It’s Magic,” said Mary, “but not black. It’s as
white as snow.”
</p>
<p>
They always called it Magic and indeed it seemed like it in the months that
followed—the wonderful months—the radiant months—the amazing
ones. Oh! the things which happened in that garden! If you have never had a
garden you cannot understand, and if you have had a garden you will know that
it would take a whole book to describe all that came to pass there. At first it
seemed that green things would never cease pushing their way through the earth,
in the grass, in the beds, even in the crevices of the walls. Then the green
things began to show buds and the buds began to unfurl and show color, every
shade of blue, every shade of purple, every tint and hue of crimson. In its
happy days flowers had been tucked away into every inch and hole and corner.
Ben Weatherstaff had seen it done and had himself scraped out mortar from
between the bricks of the wall and made pockets of earth for lovely clinging
things to grow on. Iris and white lilies rose out of the grass in sheaves, and
the green alcoves filled themselves with amazing armies of the blue and white
flower lances of tall delphiniums or columbines or campanulas.
</p>
<p>
“She was main fond o’ them—she was,” Ben Weatherstaff
said. “She liked them things as was allus pointin’ up to th’
blue sky, she used to tell. Not as she was one o’ them as looked down on
th’ earth—not her. She just loved it but she said as th’ blue
sky allus looked so joyful.”
</p>
<p>
The seeds Dickon and Mary had planted grew as if fairies had tended them.
Satiny poppies of all tints danced in the breeze by the score, gaily defying
flowers which had lived in the garden for years and which it might be confessed
seemed rather to wonder how such new people had got there. And the
roses—the roses! Rising out of the grass, tangled round the sun-dial,
wreathing the tree trunks and hanging from their branches, climbing up the
walls and spreading over them with long garlands falling in cascades—they
came alive day by day, hour by hour. Fair fresh leaves, and buds—and
buds—tiny at first but swelling and working Magic until they burst and
uncurled into cups of scent delicately spilling themselves over their brims and
filling the garden air.
</p>
<p>
Colin saw it all, watching each change as it took place. Every morning he was
brought out and every hour of each day when it didn’t rain he spent in
the garden. Even gray days pleased him. He would lie on the grass
“watching things growing,” he said. If you watched long enough, he
declared, you could see buds unsheath themselves. Also you could make the
acquaintance of strange busy insect things running about on various unknown but
evidently serious errands, sometimes carrying tiny scraps of straw or feather
or food, or climbing blades of grass as if they were trees from whose tops one
could look out to explore the country. A mole throwing up its mound at the end
of its burrow and making its way out at last with the long-nailed paws which
looked so like elfish hands, had absorbed him one whole morning. Ants’
ways, beetles’ ways, bees’ ways, frogs’ ways, birds’
ways, plants’ ways, gave him a new world to explore and when Dickon
revealed them all and added foxes’ ways, otters’ ways,
ferrets’ ways, squirrels’ ways, and trout’ and
water-rats’ and badgers’ ways, there was no end to the things to
talk about and think over.
</p>
<p>
And this was not the half of the Magic. The fact that he had really once stood
on his feet had set Colin thinking tremendously and when Mary told him of the
spell she had worked he was excited and approved of it greatly. He talked of it
constantly.
</p>
<p>
“Of course there must be lots of Magic in the world,” he said
wisely one day, “but people don’t know what it is like or how to
make it. Perhaps the beginning is just to say nice things are going to happen
until you make them happen. I am going to try and experiment.”
</p>
<p>
The next morning when they went to the secret garden he sent at once for Ben
Weatherstaff. Ben came as quickly as he could and found the Rajah standing on
his feet under a tree and looking very grand but also very beautifully smiling.
</p>
<p>
“Good morning, Ben Weatherstaff,” he said. “I want you and
Dickon and Miss Mary to stand in a row and listen to me because I am going to
tell you something very important.”
</p>
<p>
“Aye, aye, sir!” answered Ben Weatherstaff, touching his forehead.
(One of the long concealed charms of Ben Weatherstaff was that in his boyhood
he had once run away to sea and had made voyages. So he could reply like a
sailor.)
</p>
<p>
“I am going to try a scientific experiment,” explained the Rajah.
“When I grow up I am going to make great scientific discoveries and I am
going to begin now with this experiment.”
</p>
<p>
“Aye, aye, sir!” said Ben Weatherstaff promptly, though this was
the first time he had heard of great scientific discoveries.
</p>
<p>
It was the first time Mary had heard of them, either, but even at this stage
she had begun to realize that, queer as he was, Colin had read about a great
many singular things and was somehow a very convincing sort of boy. When he
held up his head and fixed his strange eyes on you it seemed as if you believed
him almost in spite of yourself though he was only ten years old—going on
eleven. At this moment he was especially convincing because he suddenly felt
the fascination of actually making a sort of speech like a grown-up person.
</p>
<p>
“The great scientific discoveries I am going to make,” he went on,
“will be about Magic. Magic is a great thing and scarcely anyone knows
anything about it except a few people in old books—and Mary a little,
because she was born in India where there are fakirs. I believe Dickon knows
some Magic, but perhaps he doesn’t know he knows it. He charms animals
and people. I would never have let him come to see me if he had not been an
animal charmer—which is a boy charmer, too, because a boy is an animal. I
am sure there is Magic in everything, only we have not sense enough to get hold
of it and make it do things for us—like electricity and horses and
steam.”
</p>
<p>
This sounded so imposing that Ben Weatherstaff became quite excited and really
could not keep still.
</p>
<p>
“Aye, aye, sir,” he said and he began to stand up quite straight.
</p>
<p>
“When Mary found this garden it looked quite dead,” the orator
proceeded. “Then something began pushing things up out of the soil and
making things out of nothing. One day things weren’t there and another
they were. I had never watched things before and it made me feel very curious.
Scientific people are always curious and I am going to be scientific. I keep
saying to myself, ‘What is it? What is it?’ It’s something.
It can’t be nothing! I don’t know its name so I call it Magic. I
have never seen the sun rise but Mary and Dickon have and from what they tell
me I am sure that is Magic too. Something pushes it up and draws it. Sometimes
since I’ve been in the garden I’ve looked up through the trees at
the sky and I have had a strange feeling of being happy as if something were
pushing and drawing in my chest and making me breathe fast. Magic is always
pushing and drawing and making things out of nothing. Everything is made out of
Magic, leaves and trees, flowers and birds, badgers and foxes and squirrels and
people. So it must be all around us. In this garden—in all the places.
The Magic in this garden has made me stand up and know I am going to live to be
a man. I am going to make the scientific experiment of trying to get some and
put it in myself and make it push and draw me and make me strong. I don’t
know how to do it but I think that if you keep thinking about it and calling it
perhaps it will come. Perhaps that is the first baby way to get it. When I was
going to try to stand that first time Mary kept saying to herself as fast as
she could, ‘You can do it! You can do it!’ and I did. I had to try
myself at the same time, of course, but her Magic helped me—and so did
Dickon’s. Every morning and evening and as often in the daytime as I can
remember I am going to say, ‘Magic is in me! Magic is making me well! I
am going to be as strong as Dickon, as strong as Dickon!’ And you must
all do it, too. That is my experiment Will you help, Ben Weatherstaff?”
</p>
<p>
“Aye, aye, sir!” said Ben Weatherstaff. “Aye, aye!”
</p>
<p>
“If you keep doing it every day as regularly as soldiers go through drill
we shall see what will happen and find out if the experiment succeeds. You
learn things by saying them over and over and thinking about them until they
stay in your mind forever and I think it will be the same with Magic. If you
keep calling it to come to you and help you it will get to be part of you and
it will stay and do things.”
</p>
<p>
“I once heard an officer in India tell my mother that there were fakirs
who said words over and over thousands of times,” said Mary.
</p>
<p>
“I’ve heard Jem Fettleworth’s wife say th’ same thing
over thousands o’ times—callin’ Jem a drunken brute,”
said Ben Weatherstaff dryly. “Summat allus come o’ that, sure
enough. He gave her a good hidin’ an’ went to th’ Blue Lion
an’ got as drunk as a lord.”
</p>
<p>
Colin drew his brows together and thought a few minutes. Then he cheered up.
</p>
<p>
“Well,” he said, “you see something did come of it. She used
the wrong Magic until she made him beat her. If she’d used the right
Magic and had said something nice perhaps he wouldn’t have got as drunk
as a lord and perhaps—perhaps he might have bought her a new
bonnet.”
</p>
<p>
Ben Weatherstaff chuckled and there was shrewd admiration in his little old
eyes.
</p>
<p>
“Tha’rt a clever lad as well as a straight-legged one, Mester
Colin,” he said. “Next time I see Bess Fettleworth I’ll give
her a bit of a hint o’ what Magic will do for her. She’d be rare
an’ pleased if th’ sinetifik ’speriment
worked—an’ so ’ud Jem.”
</p>
<p>
Dickon had stood listening to the lecture, his round eyes shining with curious
delight. Nut and Shell were on his shoulders and he held a long-eared white
rabbit in his arm and stroked and stroked it softly while it laid its ears
along its back and enjoyed itself.
</p>
<p>
“Do you think the experiment will work?” Colin asked him, wondering
what he was thinking. He so often wondered what Dickon was thinking when he saw
him looking at him or at one of his “creatures” with his happy wide
smile.
</p>
<p>
He smiled now and his smile was wider than usual.
</p>
<p>
“Aye,” he answered, “that I do. It’ll work same as
th’ seeds do when th’ sun shines on ’em. It’ll work for
sure. Shall us begin it now?”
</p>
<p>
Colin was delighted and so was Mary. Fired by recollections of fakirs and
devotees in illustrations Colin suggested that they should all sit cross-legged
under the tree which made a canopy.
</p>
<p>
“It will be like sitting in a sort of temple,” said Colin.
“I’m rather tired and I want to sit down.”
</p>
<p>
“Eh!” said Dickon, “tha’ mustn’t begin by
sayin’ tha’rt tired. Tha’ might spoil th’ Magic.”
</p>
<p>
Colin turned and looked at him—into his innocent round eyes.
</p>
<p>
“That’s true,” he said slowly. “I must only think of
the Magic.”
</p>
<p>
It all seemed most majestic and mysterious when they sat down in their circle.
Ben Weatherstaff felt as if he had somehow been led into appearing at a
prayer-meeting. Ordinarily he was very fixed in being what he called
“agen’ prayer-meetin’s” but this being the
Rajah’s affair he did not resent it and was indeed inclined to be
gratified at being called upon to assist. Mistress Mary felt solemnly
enraptured. Dickon held his rabbit in his arm, and perhaps he made some
charmer’s signal no one heard, for when he sat down, cross-legged like
the rest, the crow, the fox, the squirrels and the lamb slowly drew near and
made part of the circle, settling each into a place of rest as if of their own
desire.
</p>
<p>
“The ‘creatures’ have come,” said Colin gravely.
“They want to help us.”
</p>
<p>
Colin really looked quite beautiful, Mary thought. He held his head high as if
he felt like a sort of priest and his strange eyes had a wonderful look in
them. The light shone on him through the tree canopy.
</p>
<p>
“Now we will begin,” he said. “Shall we sway backward and
forward, Mary, as if we were dervishes?”
</p>
<p>
“I canna’ do no swayin’ back’ard and
for’ard,” said Ben Weatherstaff. “I’ve got th’
rheumatics.”
</p>
<p>
“The Magic will take them away,” said Colin in a High Priest tone,
“but we won’t sway until it has done it. We will only chant.”
</p>
<p>
“I canna’ do no chantin’” said Ben Weatherstaff a
trifle testily. “They turned me out o’ th’ church choir
th’ only time I ever tried it.”
</p>
<p>
No one smiled. They were all too much in earnest. Colin’s face was not
even crossed by a shadow. He was thinking only of the Magic.
</p>
<p>
“Then I will chant,” he said. And he began, looking like a strange
boy spirit. “The sun is shining—the sun is shining. That is the
Magic. The flowers are growing—the roots are stirring. That is the Magic.
Being alive is the Magic—being strong is the Magic. The Magic is in
me—the Magic is in me. It is in me—it is in me. It’s in
everyone of us. It’s in Ben Weatherstaff’s back. Magic! Magic! Come
and help!”
</p>
<p>
He said it a great many times—not a thousand times but quite a goodly
number. Mary listened entranced. She felt as if it were at once queer and
beautiful and she wanted him to go on and on. Ben Weatherstaff began to feel
soothed into a sort of dream which was quite agreeable. The humming of the bees
in the blossoms mingled with the chanting voice and drowsily melted into a
doze. Dickon sat cross-legged with his rabbit asleep on his arm and a hand
resting on the lamb’s back. Soot had pushed away a squirrel and huddled
close to him on his shoulder, the gray film dropped over his eyes. At last
Colin stopped.
</p>
<p>
“Now I am going to walk round the garden,” he announced.
</p>
<p>
Ben Weatherstaff’s head had just dropped forward and he lifted it with a
jerk.
</p>
<p>
“You have been asleep,” said Colin.
</p>
<p>
“Nowt o’ th’ sort,” mumbled Ben. “Th’
sermon was good enow—but I’m bound to get out afore th’
collection.”
</p>
<p>
He was not quite awake yet.
</p>
<p>
“You’re not in church,” said Colin.
</p>
<p>
“Not me,” said Ben, straightening himself. “Who said I were?
I heard every bit of it. You said th’ Magic was in my back. Th’
doctor calls it rheumatics.”
</p>
<p>
The Rajah waved his hand.
</p>
<p>
“That was the wrong Magic,” he said. “You will get better.
You have my permission to go to your work. But come back tomorrow.”
</p>
<p>
“I’d like to see thee walk round the garden,” grunted Ben.
</p>
<p>
It was not an unfriendly grunt, but it was a grunt. In fact, being a stubborn
old party and not having entire faith in Magic he had made up his mind that if
he were sent away he would climb his ladder and look over the wall so that he
might be ready to hobble back if there were any stumbling.
</p>
<p>
The Rajah did not object to his staying and so the procession was formed. It
really did look like a procession. Colin was at its head with Dickon on one
side and Mary on the other. Ben Weatherstaff walked behind, and the
“creatures” trailed after them, the lamb and the fox cub keeping
close to Dickon, the white rabbit hopping along or stopping to nibble and Soot
following with the solemnity of a person who felt himself in charge.
</p>
<p>
It was a procession which moved slowly but with dignity. Every few yards it
stopped to rest. Colin leaned on Dickon’s arm and privately Ben
Weatherstaff kept a sharp lookout, but now and then Colin took his hand from
its support and walked a few steps alone. His head was held up all the time and
he looked very grand.
</p>
<p>
“The Magic is in me!” he kept saying. “The Magic is making me
strong! I can feel it! I can feel it!”
</p>
<p>
It seemed very certain that something was upholding and uplifting him. He sat
on the seats in the alcoves, and once or twice he sat down on the grass and
several times he paused in the path and leaned on Dickon, but he would not give
up until he had gone all round the garden. When he returned to the canopy tree
his cheeks were flushed and he looked triumphant.
</p>
<p>
“I did it! The Magic worked!” he cried. “That is my first
scientific discovery.”
</p>
<p>
“What will Dr. Craven say?” broke out Mary.
</p>
<p>
“He won’t say anything,” Colin answered, “because he
will not be told. This is to be the biggest secret of all. No one is to know
anything about it until I have grown so strong that I can walk and run like any
other boy. I shall come here every day in my chair and I shall be taken back in
it. I won’t have people whispering and asking questions and I won’t
let my father hear about it until the experiment has quite succeeded. Then
sometime when he comes back to Misselthwaite I shall just walk into his study
and say ‘Here I am; I am like any other boy. I am quite well and I shall
live to be a man. It has been done by a scientific experiment.’”
</p>
<p>
“He will think he is in a dream,” cried Mary. “He won’t
believe his eyes.”
</p>
<p>
Colin flushed triumphantly. He had made himself believe that he was going to
get well, which was really more than half the battle, if he had been aware of
it. And the thought which stimulated him more than any other was this imagining
what his father would look like when he saw that he had a son who was as
straight and strong as other fathers’ sons. One of his darkest miseries
in the unhealthy morbid past days had been his hatred of being a sickly
weak-backed boy whose father was afraid to look at him.
</p>
<p>
“He’ll be obliged to believe them,” he said.
</p>
<p>
“One of the things I am going to do, after the Magic works and before I
begin to make scientific discoveries, is to be an athlete.”
</p>
<p>
“We shall have thee takin’ to boxin’ in a week or so,”
said Ben Weatherstaff. “Tha’lt end wi’ winnin’
th’ Belt an’ bein’ champion prize-fighter of all
England.”
</p>
<p>
Colin fixed his eyes on him sternly.
</p>
<p>
“Weatherstaff,” he said, “that is disrespectful. You must not
take liberties because you are in the secret. However much the Magic works I
shall not be a prize-fighter. I shall be a Scientific Discoverer.”
</p>
<p>
“Ax pardon—ax pardon, sir” answered Ben, touching his
forehead in salute. “I ought to have seed it wasn’t a jokin’
matter,” but his eyes twinkled and secretly he was immensely pleased. He
really did not mind being snubbed since the snubbing meant that the lad was
gaining strength and spirit.
</p>
</div><!--end chapter-->
<div class="chapter">
<h2><a name="chap24"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.<br />
“LET THEM LAUGH”</h2>
<p>
The secret garden was not the only one Dickon worked in. Round the cottage on
the moor there was a piece of ground enclosed by a low wall of rough stones.
Early in the morning and late in the fading twilight and on all the days Colin
and Mary did not see him, Dickon worked there planting or tending potatoes and
cabbages, turnips and carrots and herbs for his mother. In the company of his
“creatures” he did wonders there and was never tired of doing them,
it seemed. While he dug or weeded he whistled or sang bits of Yorkshire moor
songs or talked to Soot or Captain or the brothers and sisters he had taught to
help him.
</p>
<p>
“We’d never get on as comfortable as we do,” Mrs. Sowerby
said, “if it wasn’t for Dickon’s garden. Anything’ll
grow for him. His ’taters and cabbages is twice th’ size of anyone
else’s an’ they’ve got a flavor with ’em as
nobody’s has.”
</p>
<p>
When she found a moment to spare she liked to go out and talk to him. After
supper there was still a long clear twilight to work in and that was her quiet
time. She could sit upon the low rough wall and look on and hear stories of the
day. She loved this time. There were not only vegetables in this garden. Dickon
had bought penny packages of flower seeds now and then and sown bright
sweet-scented things among gooseberry bushes and even cabbages and he grew
borders of mignonette and pinks and pansies and things whose seeds he could
save year after year or whose roots would bloom each spring and spread in time
into fine clumps. The low wall was one of the prettiest things in Yorkshire
because he had tucked moorland foxglove and ferns and rock-cress and hedgerow
flowers into every crevice until only here and there glimpses of the stones
were to be seen.
</p>
<p>
“All a chap’s got to do to make ’em thrive, mother,” he
would say, “is to be friends with ’em for sure. They’re just
like th’ ‘creatures.’ If they’re thirsty give ’em
drink and if they’re hungry give ’em a bit o’ food. They want
to live same as we do. If they died I should feel as if I’d been a bad
lad and somehow treated them heartless.”
</p>
<p>
It was in these twilight hours that Mrs. Sowerby heard of all that happened at
Misselthwaite Manor. At first she was only told that “Mester Colin”
had taken a fancy to going out into the grounds with Miss Mary and that it was
doing him good. But it was not long before it was agreed between the two
children that Dickon’s mother might “come into the secret.”
Somehow it was not doubted that she was “safe for sure.”
</p>
<p>
So one beautiful still evening Dickon told the whole story, with all the
thrilling details of the buried key and the robin and the gray haze which had
seemed like deadness and the secret Mistress Mary had planned never to reveal.
The coming of Dickon and how it had been told to him, the doubt of Mester Colin
and the final drama of his introduction to the hidden domain, combined with the
incident of Ben Weatherstaff’s angry face peering over the wall and
Mester Colin’s sudden indignant strength, made Mrs. Sowerby’s
nice-looking face quite change color several times.
</p>
<p>
“My word!” she said. “It was a good thing that little lass
came to th’ Manor. It’s been th’ makin’ o’ her
an’ th’ savin, o’ him. Standin’ on his feet! An’
us all thinkin’ he was a poor half-witted lad with not a straight bone in
him.”
</p>
<p>
She asked a great many questions and her blue eyes were full of deep thinking.
</p>
<p>
“What do they make of it at th’ Manor—him being so well
an’ cheerful an’ never complainin’?” she inquired.
</p>
<p>
“They don’t know what to make of it,” answered Dickon.
“Every day as comes round his face looks different. It’s
fillin’ out and doesn’t look so sharp an’ th’ waxy
color is goin’. But he has to do his bit o’
complainin’,” with a highly entertained grin.
</p>
<p>
“What for, i’ Mercy’s name?” asked Mrs. Sowerby.
</p>
<p>
Dickon chuckled.
</p>
<p>
“He does it to keep them from guessin’ what’s happened. If
the doctor knew he’d found out he could stand on his feet he’d
likely write and tell Mester Craven. Mester Colin’s savin’
th’ secret to tell himself. He’s goin’ to practise his Magic
on his legs every day till his father comes back an’ then he’s
goin’ to march into his room an’ show him he’s as straight as
other lads. But him an’ Miss Mary thinks it’s best plan to do a bit
o’ groanin’ an’ frettin’ now an’ then to throw
folk off th’ scent.”
</p>
<p>
Mrs. Sowerby was laughing a low comfortable laugh long before he had finished
his last sentence.
</p>
<p>
“Eh!” she said, “that pair’s enjoyin’
theirselves I’ll warrant. They’ll get a good bit o’
actin’ out of it an’ there’s nothin’ children likes as
much as play actin’. Let’s hear what they do, Dickon lad.”
</p>
<p>
Dickon stopped weeding and sat up on his heels to tell her. His eyes were
twinkling with fun.
</p>
<p>
“Mester Colin is carried down to his chair every time he goes out,”
he explained. “An’ he flies out at John, th’ footman, for not
carryin’ him careful enough. He makes himself as helpless lookin’
as he can an’ never lifts his head until we’re out o’ sight
o’ th’ house. An’ he grunts an’ frets a good bit when
he’s bein’ settled into his chair. Him an’ Miss Mary’s
both got to enjoyin’ it an’ when he groans an’ complains
she’ll say, ‘Poor Colin! Does it hurt you so much? Are you so weak
as that, poor Colin?’—but th’ trouble is that sometimes they
can scarce keep from burstin’ out laughin’. When we get safe into
the garden they laugh till they’ve no breath left to laugh with.
An’ they have to stuff their faces into Mester Colin’s cushions to
keep the gardeners from hearin’, if any of, ’em’s
about.”
</p>
<p>
“Th’ more they laugh th’ better for ’em!” said
Mrs. Sowerby, still laughing herself. “Good healthy child laughin’s
better than pills any day o’ th’ year. That pair’ll plump up
for sure.”
</p>
<p>
“They are plumpin’ up,” said Dickon. “They’re
that hungry they don’t know how to get enough to eat without makin’
talk. Mester Colin says if he keeps sendin’ for more food they
won’t believe he’s an invalid at all. Miss Mary says she’ll
let him eat her share, but he says that if she goes hungry she’ll get
thin an’ they mun both get fat at once.”
</p>
<p>
Mrs. Sowerby laughed so heartily at the revelation of this difficulty that she
quite rocked backward and forward in her blue cloak, and Dickon laughed with
her.
</p>
<p>
“I’ll tell thee what, lad,” Mrs. Sowerby said when she could
speak. “I’ve thought of a way to help ’em. When tha’
goes to ’em in th’ mornin’s tha’ shall take a pail
o’ good new milk an’ I’ll bake ’em a crusty cottage
loaf or some buns wi’ currants in ’em, same as you children like.
Nothin’s so good as fresh milk an’ bread. Then they could take off
th’ edge o’ their hunger while they were in their garden an’
th, fine food they get indoors ’ud polish off th’ corners.”
</p>
<p>
“Eh! mother!” said Dickon admiringly, “what a wonder
tha’ art! Tha’ always sees a way out o’ things. They was
quite in a pother yesterday. They didn’t see how they was to manage
without orderin’ up more food—they felt that empty inside.”
</p>
<p>
“They’re two young ’uns growin’ fast, an’
health’s comin’ back to both of ’em. Children like that feels
like young wolves an’ food’s flesh an’ blood to
’em,” said Mrs. Sowerby. Then she smiled Dickon’s own curving
smile. “Eh! but they’re enjoyin’ theirselves for sure,”
she said.
</p>
<p>
She was quite right, the comfortable wonderful mother creature—and she
had never been more so than when she said their “play actin’”
would be their joy. Colin and Mary found it one of their most thrilling sources
of entertainment. The idea of protecting themselves from suspicion had been
unconsciously suggested to them first by the puzzled nurse and then by Dr.
Craven himself.
</p>
<p>
“Your appetite. Is improving very much, Master Colin,” the nurse
had said one day. “You used to eat nothing, and so many things disagreed
with you.”
</p>
<p>
“Nothing disagrees with me now” replied Colin, and then seeing the
nurse looking at him curiously he suddenly remembered that perhaps he ought not
to appear too well just yet. “At least things don’t so often
disagree with me. It’s the fresh air.”
</p>
<p>
“Perhaps it is,” said the nurse, still looking at him with a
mystified expression. “But I must talk to Dr. Craven about it.”
</p>
<p>
“How she stared at you!” said Mary when she went away. “As if
she thought there must be something to find out.”
</p>
<p>
“I won’t have her finding out things,” said Colin. “No
one must begin to find out yet.”
</p>
<p>
When Dr. Craven came that morning he seemed puzzled, also. He asked a number of
questions, to Colin’s great annoyance.
</p>
<p>
“You stay out in the garden a great deal,” he suggested.
“Where do you go?”
</p>
<p>
Colin put on his favorite air of dignified indifference to opinion.
</p>
<p>
“I will not let anyone know where I go,” he answered. “I go
to a place I like. Everyone has orders to keep out of the way. I won’t
be watched and stared at. You know that!”
</p>
<p>
“You seem to be out all day but I do not think it has done you
harm—I do not think so. The nurse says that you eat much more than you
have ever done before.”
</p>
<p>
“Perhaps,” said Colin, prompted by a sudden inspiration,
“perhaps it is an unnatural appetite.”
</p>
<p>
“I do not think so, as your food seems to agree with you,” said Dr.
Craven. “You are gaining flesh rapidly and your color is better.”
</p>
<p>
“Perhaps—perhaps I am bloated and feverish,” said Colin,
assuming a discouraging air of gloom. “People who are not going to live
are often—different.”
</p>
<p>
Dr. Craven shook his head. He was holding Colin’s wrist and he pushed up
his sleeve and felt his arm.
</p>
<p>
“You are not feverish,” he said thoughtfully, “and such flesh
as you have gained is healthy. If you can keep this up, my boy, we need not
talk of dying. Your father will be happy to hear of this remarkable
improvement.”
</p>
<p>
“I won’t have him told!” Colin broke forth fiercely.
“It will only disappoint him if I get worse again—and I may get
worse this very night. I might have a raging fever. I feel as if I might be
beginning to have one now. I won’t have letters written to my
father—I won’t—I won’t! You are making me angry and you
know that is bad for me. I feel hot already. I hate being written about and
being talked over as much as I hate being stared at!”
</p>
<p>
“Hush-h! my boy,” Dr. Craven soothed him. “Nothing shall be
written without your permission. You are too sensitive about things. You must
not undo the good which has been done.”
</p>
<p>
He said no more about writing to Mr. Craven and when he saw the nurse he
privately warned her that such a possibility must not be mentioned to the
patient.
</p>
<p>
“The boy is extraordinarily better,” he said. “His advance
seems almost abnormal. But of course he is doing now of his own free will what
we could not make him do before. Still, he excites himself very easily and
nothing must be said to irritate him.”
</p>
<p>
Mary and Colin were much alarmed and talked together anxiously. From this time
dated their plan of “play actin’.”
</p>
<p>
“I may be obliged to have a tantrum,” said Colin regretfully.
“I don’t want to have one and I’m not miserable enough now to
work myself into a big one. Perhaps I couldn’t have one at all. That lump
doesn’t come in my throat now and I keep thinking of nice things instead
of horrible ones. But if they talk about writing to my father I shall have to
do something.”
</p>
<p>
He made up his mind to eat less, but unfortunately it was not possible to carry
out this brilliant idea when he wakened each morning with an amazing appetite
and the table near his sofa was set with a breakfast of home-made bread and
fresh butter, snow-white eggs, raspberry jam and clotted cream. Mary always
breakfasted with him and when they found themselves at the
table—particularly if there were delicate slices of sizzling ham sending
forth tempting odors from under a hot silver cover—they would look into
each other’s eyes in desperation.
</p>
<p>
“I think we shall have to eat it all this morning, Mary,” Colin
always ended by saying. “We can send away some of the lunch and a great
deal of the dinner.”
</p>
<p>
But they never found they could send away anything and the highly polished
condition of the empty plates returned to the pantry awakened much comment.
</p>
<p>
“I do wish,” Colin would say also, “I do wish the slices of
ham were thicker, and one muffin each is not enough for anyone.”
</p>
<p>
“It’s enough for a person who is going to die,” answered Mary
when first she heard this, “but it’s not enough for a person who is
going to live. I sometimes feel as if I could eat three when those nice fresh
heather and gorse smells from the moor come pouring in at the open
window.”
</p>
<p>
The morning that Dickon—after they had been enjoying themselves in the
garden for about two hours—went behind a big rosebush and brought forth
two tin pails and revealed that one was full of rich new milk with cream on the
top of it, and that the other held cottage-made currant buns folded in a clean
blue and white napkin, buns so carefully tucked in that they were still hot,
there was a riot of surprised joyfulness. What a wonderful thing for Mrs.
Sowerby to think of! What a kind, clever woman she must be! How good the buns
were! And what delicious fresh milk!
</p>
<p>
“Magic is in her just as it is in Dickon,” said Colin. “It
makes her think of ways to do things—nice things. She is a Magic person.
Tell her we are grateful, Dickon—extremely grateful.”
</p>
<p>
He was given to using rather grown-up phrases at times. He enjoyed them. He
liked this so much that he improved upon it.
</p>
<p>
“Tell her she has been most bounteous and our gratitude is
extreme.”
</p>
<p>
And then forgetting his grandeur he fell to and stuffed himself with buns and
drank milk out of the pail in copious draughts in the manner of any hungry
little boy who had been taking unusual exercise and breathing in moorland air
and whose breakfast was more than two hours behind him.
</p>
<p>
This was the beginning of many agreeable incidents of the same kind. They
actually awoke to the fact that as Mrs. Sowerby had fourteen people to provide
food for she might not have enough to satisfy two extra appetites every day. So
they asked her to let them send some of their shillings to buy things.
</p>
<p>
Dickon made the stimulating discovery that in the wood in the park outside the
garden where Mary had first found him piping to the wild creatures there was a
deep little hollow where you could build a sort of tiny oven with stones and
roast potatoes and eggs in it. Roasted eggs were a previously unknown luxury
and very hot potatoes with salt and fresh butter in them were fit for a
woodland king—besides being deliciously satisfying. You could buy both
potatoes and eggs and eat as many as you liked without feeling as if you were
taking food out of the mouths of fourteen people.
</p>
<p>
Every beautiful morning the Magic was worked by the mystic circle under the
plum-tree which provided a canopy of thickening green leaves after its brief
blossom-time was ended. After the ceremony Colin always took his walking
exercise and throughout the day he exercised his newly found power at
intervals. Each day he grew stronger and could walk more steadily and cover
more ground. And each day his belief in the Magic grew stronger—as well
it might. He tried one experiment after another as he felt himself gaining
strength and it was Dickon who showed him the best things of all.
</p>
<p>
“Yesterday,” he said one morning after an absence, “I went to
Thwaite for mother an’ near th’ Blue Cow Inn I seed Bob Haworth.
He’s the strongest chap on th’ moor. He’s the champion
wrestler an’ he can jump higher than any other chap an’ throw
th’ hammer farther. He’s gone all th’ way to Scotland for
th’ sports some years. He’s knowed me ever since I was a little
’un an’ he’s a friendly sort an’ I axed him some
questions. Th’ gentry calls him a athlete and I thought o’ thee,
Mester Colin, and I says, ‘How did tha’ make tha’ muscles
stick out that way, Bob? Did tha’ do anythin’ extra to make
thysel’ so strong?’ An’ he says ‘Well, yes, lad, I did.
A strong man in a show that came to Thwaite once showed me how to exercise my
arms an’ legs an’ every muscle in my body. An’ I says,
‘Could a delicate chap make himself stronger with ’em, Bob?’
an’ he laughed an’ says, ‘Art tha’ th’ delicate
chap?’ an’ I says, ‘No, but I knows a young gentleman
that’s gettin’ well of a long illness an’ I wish I knowed
some o’ them tricks to tell him about.’ I didn’t say no names
an’ he didn’t ask none. He’s friendly same as I said
an’ he stood up an’ showed me good-natured like, an’ I
imitated what he did till I knowed it by heart.”
</p>
<p>
Colin had been listening excitedly.
</p>
<p>
“Can you show me?” he cried. “Will you?”
</p>
<p>
“Aye, to be sure,” Dickon answered, getting up. “But he says
tha’ mun do ’em gentle at first an’ be careful not to tire
thysel’. Rest in between times an’ take deep breaths an’
don’t overdo.”
</p>
<p>
“I’ll be careful,” said Colin. “Show me! Show me!
Dickon, you are the most Magic boy in the world!”
</p>
<p>
Dickon stood up on the grass and slowly went through a carefully practical but
simple series of muscle exercises. Colin watched them with widening eyes. He
could do a few while he was sitting down. Presently he did a few gently while
he stood upon his already steadied feet. Mary began to do them also. Soot, who
was watching the performance, became much disturbed and left his branch and
hopped about restlessly because he could not do them too.
</p>
<p>
From that time the exercises were part of the day’s duties as much as the
Magic was. It became possible for both Colin and Mary to do more of them each
time they tried, and such appetites were the results that but for the basket
Dickon put down behind the bush each morning when he arrived they would have
been lost. But the little oven in the hollow and Mrs. Sowerby’s bounties
were so satisfying that Mrs. Medlock and the nurse and Dr. Craven became
mystified again. You can trifle with your breakfast and seem to disdain your
dinner if you are full to the brim with roasted eggs and potatoes and richly
frothed new milk and oatcakes and buns and heather honey and clotted cream.
</p>
<p>
“They are eating next to nothing,” said the nurse.
“They’ll die of starvation if they can’t be persuaded to take
some nourishment. And yet see how they look.”
</p>
<p>
“Look!” exclaimed Mrs. Medlock indignantly. “Eh! I’m
moithered to death with them. They’re a pair of young Satans. Bursting
their jackets one day and the next turning up their noses at the best meals
Cook can tempt them with. Not a mouthful of that lovely young fowl and bread
sauce did they set a fork into yesterday—and the poor woman fair
<i>invented</i> a pudding for them—and back it’s sent. She almost
cried. She’s afraid she’ll be blamed if they starve themselves into
their graves.”
</p>
<p>
Dr. Craven came and looked at Colin long and carefully, He wore an extremely
worried expression when the nurse talked with him and showed him the almost
untouched tray of breakfast she had saved for him to look at—but it was
even more worried when he sat down by Colin’s sofa and examined him. He
had been called to London on business and had not seen the boy for nearly two
weeks. When young things begin to gain health they gain it rapidly. The waxen
tinge had left, Colins skin and a warm rose showed through it; his beautiful
eyes were clear and the hollows under them and in his cheeks and temples had
filled out. His once dark, heavy locks had begun to look as if they sprang
healthily from his forehead and were soft and warm with life. His lips were
fuller and of a normal color. In fact as an imitation of a boy who was a
confirmed invalid he was a disgraceful sight. Dr. Craven held his chin in his
hand and thought him over.
</p>
<p>
“I am sorry to hear that you do not eat anything,” he said.
“That will not do. You will lose all you have gained—and you have
gained amazingly. You ate so well a short time ago.”
</p>
<p>
“I told you it was an unnatural appetite,” answered Colin.
</p>
<p>
Mary was sitting on her stool nearby and she suddenly made a very queer sound
which she tried so violently to repress that she ended by almost choking.
</p>
<p>
“What is the matter?” said Dr. Craven, turning to look at her.
</p>
<p>
Mary became quite severe in her manner.
</p>
<p>
“It was something between a sneeze and a cough,” she replied with
reproachful dignity, “and it got into my throat.”
</p>
<p>
“But,” she said afterward to Colin, “I couldn’t stop
myself. It just burst out because all at once I couldn’t help remembering
that last big potato you ate and the way your mouth stretched when you bit
through that thick lovely crust with jam and clotted cream on it.”
</p>
<p>
“Is there any way in which those children can get food secretly?”
Dr. Craven inquired of Mrs. Medlock.
</p>
<p>
“There’s no way unless they dig it out of the earth or pick it off
the trees,” Mrs. Medlock answered. “They stay out in the grounds
all day and see no one but each other. And if they want anything different to
eat from what’s sent up to them they need only ask for it.”
</p>
<p>
“Well,” said Dr. Craven, “so long as going without food
agrees with them we need not disturb ourselves. The boy is a new
creature.”
</p>
<p>
“So is the girl,” said Mrs. Medlock. “She’s begun to be
downright pretty since she’s filled out and lost her ugly little sour
look. Her hair’s grown thick and healthy looking and she’s got a
bright color. The glummest, ill-natured little thing she used to be and now her
and Master Colin laugh together like a pair of crazy young ones. Perhaps
they’re growing fat on that.”
</p>
<p>
“Perhaps they are,” said Dr. Craven. “Let them laugh.”
</p>
</div><!--end chapter-->
<div class="chapter">
<h2><a name="chap25"></a>CHAPTER XXV.<br />
THE CURTAIN</h2>
<p>
And the secret garden bloomed and bloomed and every morning revealed new
miracles. In the robin’s nest there were Eggs and the robin’s mate
sat upon them keeping them warm with her feathery little breast and careful
wings. At first she was very nervous and the robin himself was indignantly
watchful. Even Dickon did not go near the close-grown corner in those days, but
waited until by the quiet working of some mysterious spell he seemed to have
conveyed to the soul of the little pair that in the garden there was nothing
which was not quite like themselves—nothing which did not understand the
wonderfulness of what was happening to them—the immense, tender,
terrible, heart-breaking beauty and solemnity of Eggs. If there had been one
person in that garden who had not known through all his or her innermost being
that if an Egg were taken away or hurt the whole world would whirl round and
crash through space and come to an end—if there had been even one who did
not feel it and act accordingly there could have been no happiness even in that
golden springtime air. But they all knew it and felt it and the robin and his
mate knew they knew it.
</p>
<p>
At first the robin watched Mary and Colin with sharp anxiety. For some
mysterious reason he knew he need not watch Dickon. The first moment he set his
dew-bright black eye on Dickon he knew he was not a stranger but a sort of
robin without beak or feathers. He could speak robin (which is a quite distinct
language not to be mistaken for any other). To speak robin to a robin is like
speaking French to a Frenchman. Dickon always spoke it to the robin himself, so
the queer gibberish he used when he spoke to humans did not matter in the
least. The robin thought he spoke this gibberish to them because they were not
intelligent enough to understand feathered speech. His movements also were
robin. They never startled one by being sudden enough to seem dangerous or
threatening. Any robin could understand Dickon, so his presence was not even
disturbing.
</p>
<p>
But at the outset it seemed necessary to be on guard against the other two. In
the first place the boy creature did not come into the garden on his legs. He
was pushed in on a thing with wheels and the skins of wild animals were thrown
over him. That in itself was doubtful. Then when he began to stand up and move
about he did it in a queer unaccustomed way and the others seemed to have to
help him. The robin used to secrete himself in a bush and watch this anxiously,
his head tilted first on one side and then on the other. He thought that the
slow movements might mean that he was preparing to pounce, as cats do. When
cats are preparing to pounce they creep over the ground very slowly. The robin
talked this over with his mate a great deal for a few days but after that he
decided not to speak of the subject because her terror was so great that he was
afraid it might be injurious to the Eggs.
</p>
<p>
When the boy began to walk by himself and even to move more quickly it was an
immense relief. But for a long time—or it seemed a long time to the
robin—he was a source of some anxiety. He did not act as the other humans
did. He seemed very fond of walking but he had a way of sitting or lying down
for a while and then getting up in a disconcerting manner to begin again.
</p>
<p>
One day the robin remembered that when he himself had been made to learn to fly
by his parents he had done much the same sort of thing. He had taken short
flights of a few yards and then had been obliged to rest. So it occurred to him
that this boy was learning to fly—or rather to walk. He mentioned this to
his mate and when he told her that the Eggs would probably conduct themselves
in the same way after they were fledged she was quite comforted and even became
eagerly interested and derived great pleasure from watching the boy over the
edge of her nest—though she always thought that the Eggs would be much
cleverer and learn more quickly. But then she said indulgently that humans were
always more clumsy and slow than Eggs and most of them never seemed really to
learn to fly at all. You never met them in the air or on tree-tops.
</p>
<p>
After a while the boy began to move about as the others did, but all three of
the children at times did unusual things. They would stand under the trees and
move their arms and legs and heads about in a way which was neither walking nor
running nor sitting down. They went through these movements at intervals every
day and the robin was never able to explain to his mate what they were doing or
tying to do. He could only say that he was sure that the Eggs would never flap
about in such a manner; but as the boy who could speak robin so fluently was
doing the thing with them, birds could be quite sure that the actions were not
of a dangerous nature. Of course neither the robin nor his mate had ever heard
of the champion wrestler, Bob Haworth, and his exercises for making the muscles
stand out like lumps. Robins are not like human beings; their muscles are
always exercised from the first and so they develop themselves in a natural
manner. If you have to fly about to find every meal you eat, your muscles do
not become atrophied (atrophied means wasted away through want of use).
</p>
<p>
When the boy was walking and running about and digging and weeding like the
others, the nest in the corner was brooded over by a great peace and content.
Fears for the Eggs became things of the past. Knowing that your Eggs were as
safe as if they were locked in a bank vault and the fact that you could watch
so many curious things going on made setting a most entertaining occupation. On
wet days the Eggs’ mother sometimes felt even a little dull because the
children did not come into the garden.
</p>
<p>
But even on wet days it could not be said that Mary and Colin were dull. One
morning when the rain streamed down unceasingly and Colin was beginning to feel
a little restive, as he was obliged to remain on his sofa because it was not
safe to get up and walk about, Mary had an inspiration.
</p>
<p>
“Now that I am a real boy,” Colin had said, “my legs and arms
and all my body are so full of Magic that I can’t keep them still. They
want to be doing things all the time. Do you know that when I waken in the
morning, Mary, when it’s quite early and the birds are just shouting
outside and everything seems just shouting for joy—even the trees and
things we can’t really hear—I feel as if I must jump out of bed and
shout myself. If I did it, just think what would happen!”
</p>
<p>
Mary giggled inordinately.
</p>
<p>
“The nurse would come running and Mrs. Medlock would come running and
they would be sure you had gone crazy and they’d send for the
doctor,” she said.
</p>
<p>
Colin giggled himself. He could see how they would all look—how horrified
by his outbreak and how amazed to see him standing upright.
</p>
<p>
“I wish my father would come home,” he said. “I want to tell
him myself. I’m always thinking about it—but we couldn’t go
on like this much longer. I can’t stand lying still and pretending, and
besides I look too different. I wish it wasn’t raining today.”
</p>
<p>
It was then Mistress Mary had her inspiration.
</p>
<p>
“Colin,” she began mysteriously, “do you know how many rooms
there are in this house?”
</p>
<p>
“About a thousand, I suppose,” he answered.
</p>
<p>
“There’s about a hundred no one ever goes into,” said Mary.
“And one rainy day I went and looked into ever so many of them. No one
ever knew, though Mrs. Medlock nearly found me out. I lost my way when I was
coming back and I stopped at the end of your corridor. That was the second time
I heard you crying.”
</p>
<p>
Colin started up on his sofa.
</p>
<p>
“A hundred rooms no one goes into,” he said. “It sounds
almost like a secret garden. Suppose we go and look at them. Wheel me in my
chair and nobody would know we went.”
</p>
<p>
“That’s what I was thinking,” said Mary. “No one would
dare to follow us. There are galleries where you could run. We could do our
exercises. There is a little Indian room where there is a cabinet full of ivory
elephants. There are all sorts of rooms.”
</p>
<p>
“Ring the bell,” said Colin.
</p>
<p>
When the nurse came in he gave his orders.
</p>
<p>
“I want my chair,” he said. “Miss Mary and I are going to
look at the part of the house which is not used. John can push me as far as the
picture-gallery because there are some stairs. Then he must go away and leave
us alone until I send for him again.”
</p>
<p>
Rainy days lost their terrors that morning. When the footman had wheeled the
chair into the picture-gallery and left the two together in obedience to
orders, Colin and Mary looked at each other delighted. As soon as Mary had made
sure that John was really on his way back to his own quarters below stairs,
Colin got out of his chair.
</p>
<p>
“I am going to run from one end of the gallery to the other,” he
said, “and then I am going to jump and then we will do Bob
Haworth’s exercises.”
</p>
<p>
And they did all these things and many others. They looked at the portraits and
found the plain little girl dressed in green brocade and holding the parrot on
her finger.
</p>
<p>
“All these,” said Colin, “must be my relations. They lived a
long time ago. That parrot one, I believe, is one of my great, great, great,
great aunts. She looks rather like you, Mary—not as you look now but as
you looked when you came here. Now you are a great deal fatter and better
looking.”
</p>
<p>
“So are you,” said Mary, and they both laughed.
</p>
<p>
They went to the Indian room and amused themselves with the ivory elephants.
They found the rose-colored brocade boudoir and the hole in the cushion the
mouse had left, but the mice had grown up and run away and the hole was empty.
They saw more rooms and made more discoveries than Mary had made on her first
pilgrimage. They found new corridors and corners and flights of steps and new
old pictures they liked and weird old things they did not know the use of. It
was a curiously entertaining morning and the feeling of wandering about in the
same house with other people but at the same time feeling as if one were miles
away from them was a fascinating thing.
</p>
<p>
“I’m glad we came,” Colin said. “I never knew I lived
in such a big queer old place. I like it. We will ramble about every rainy day.
We shall always be finding new queer corners and things.”
</p>
<p>
That morning they had found among other things such good appetites that when
they returned to Colin’s room it was not possible to send the luncheon
away untouched.
</p>
<p>
When the nurse carried the tray downstairs she slapped it down on the kitchen
dresser so that Mrs. Loomis, the cook, could see the highly polished dishes and
plates.
</p>
<p>
“Look at that!” she said. “This is a house of mystery, and
those two children are the greatest mysteries in it.”
</p>
<p>
“If they keep that up every day,” said the strong young footman
John, “there’d be small wonder that he weighs twice as much today
as he did a month ago. I should have to give up my place in time, for fear of
doing my muscles an injury.”
</p>
<p>
That afternoon Mary noticed that something new had happened in Colin’s
room. She had noticed it the day before but had said nothing because she
thought the change might have been made by chance. She said nothing today but
she sat and looked fixedly at the picture over the mantel. She could look at it
because the curtain had been drawn aside. That was the change she noticed.
</p>
<p>
“I know what you want me to tell you,” said Colin, after she had
stared a few minutes. “I always know when you want me to tell you
something. You are wondering why the curtain is drawn back. I am going to keep
it like that.”
</p>
<p>
“Why?” asked Mary.
</p>
<p>
“Because it doesn’t make me angry any more to see her laughing. I
wakened when it was bright moonlight two nights ago and felt as if the Magic
was filling the room and making everything so splendid that I couldn’t
lie still. I got up and looked out of the window. The room was quite light and
there was a patch of moonlight on the curtain and somehow that made me go and
pull the cord. She looked right down at me as if she were laughing because she
was glad I was standing there. It made me like to look at her. I want to see
her laughing like that all the time. I think she must have been a sort of Magic
person perhaps.”
</p>
<p>
“You are so like her now,” said Mary, “that sometimes I think
perhaps you are her ghost made into a boy.”
</p>
<p>
That idea seemed to impress Colin. He thought it over and then answered her
slowly.
</p>
<p>
“If I were her ghost—my father would be fond of me,” he said.
</p>
<p>
“Do you want him to be fond of you?” inquired Mary.
</p>
<p>
“I used to hate it because he was not fond of me. If he grew fond of me I
think I should tell him about the Magic. It might make him more
cheerful.”
</p>
</div><!--end chapter-->
<div class="chapter">
<h2><a name="chap26"></a>CHAPTER XXVI.<br />
“IT’S MOTHER!”</h2>
<p>
Their belief in the Magic was an abiding thing. After the morning’s
incantations Colin sometimes gave them Magic lectures.
</p>
<p>
“I like to do it,” he explained, “because when I grow up and
make great scientific discoveries I shall be obliged to lecture about them and
so this is practise. I can only give short lectures now because I am very
young, and besides Ben Weatherstaff would feel as if he were in church and he
would go to sleep.”
</p>
<p>
“Th’ best thing about lecturin’,” said Ben, “is
that a chap can get up an’ say aught he pleases an’ no other chap
can answer him back. I wouldn’t be agen’ lecturin’ a bit
mysel’ sometimes.”
</p>
<p>
But when Colin held forth under his tree old Ben fixed devouring eyes on him
and kept them there. He looked him over with critical affection. It was not so
much the lecture which interested him as the legs which looked straighter and
stronger each day, the boyish head which held itself up so well, the once sharp
chin and hollow cheeks which had filled and rounded out and the eyes which had
begun to hold the light he remembered in another pair. Sometimes when Colin
felt Ben’s earnest gaze meant that he was much impressed he wondered what
he was reflecting on and once when he had seemed quite entranced he questioned
him.
</p>
<p>
“What are you thinking about, Ben Weatherstaff?” he asked.
</p>
<p>
“I was thinkin’” answered Ben, “as I’d warrant
tha’s gone up three or four pound this week. I was lookin’ at
tha’ calves an’ tha’ shoulders. I’d like to get thee on
a pair o’ scales.”
</p>
<p>
“It’s the Magic and—and Mrs. Sowerby’s buns and milk
and things,” said Colin. “You see the scientific experiment has
succeeded.”
</p>
<p>
That morning Dickon was too late to hear the lecture. When he came he was ruddy
with running and his funny face looked more twinkling than usual. As they had a
good deal of weeding to do after the rains they fell to work. They always had
plenty to do after a warm deep sinking rain. The moisture which was good for
the flowers was also good for the weeds which thrust up tiny blades of grass
and points of leaves which must be pulled up before their roots took too firm
hold. Colin was as good at weeding as anyone in these days and he could
lecture while he was doing it.
</p>
<p>
“The Magic works best when you work, yourself,” he said this
morning. “You can feel it in your bones and muscles. I am going to read
books about bones and muscles, but I am going to write a book about Magic. I am
making it up now. I keep finding out things.”
</p>
<p>
It was not very long after he had said this that he laid down his trowel and
stood up on his feet. He had been silent for several minutes and they had seen
that he was thinking out lectures, as he often did. When he dropped his trowel
and stood upright it seemed to Mary and Dickon as if a sudden strong thought
had made him do it. He stretched himself out to his tallest height and he threw
out his arms exultantly. Color glowed in his face and his strange eyes widened
with joyfulness. All at once he had realized something to the full.
</p>
<p>
“Mary! Dickon!” he cried. “Just look at me!”
</p>
<p>
They stopped their weeding and looked at him.
</p>
<p>
“Do you remember that first morning you brought me in here?” he
demanded.
</p>
<p>
Dickon was looking at him very hard. Being an animal charmer he could see more
things than most people could and many of them were things he never talked
about. He saw some of them now in this boy.
</p>
<p>
“Aye, that we do,” he answered.
</p>
<p>
Mary looked hard too, but she said nothing.
</p>
<p>
“Just this minute,” said Colin, “all at once I remembered it
myself—when I looked at my hand digging with the trowel—and I had
to stand up on my feet to see if it was real. And it is real! I’m
<i>well</i>—I’m <i>well!</i>”
</p>
<p>
“Aye, that th’ art!” said Dickon.
</p>
<p>
“I’m well! I’m well!” said Colin again, and his face
went quite red all over.
</p>
<p>
He had known it before in a way, he had hoped it and felt it and thought about
it, but just at that minute something had rushed all through him—a sort
of rapturous belief and realization and it had been so strong that he could not
help calling out.
</p>
<p>
“I shall live forever and ever and ever!” he cried grandly.
“I shall find out thousands and thousands of things. I shall find out
about people and creatures and everything that grows—like
Dickon—and I shall never stop making Magic. I’m well! I’m
well! I feel—I feel as if I want to shout out something—something
thankful, joyful!”
</p>
<p>
Ben Weatherstaff, who had been working near a rose-bush, glanced round at him.
</p>
<p>
“Tha’ might sing th’ Doxology,” he suggested in his
dryest grunt. He had no opinion of the Doxology and he did not make the
suggestion with any particular reverence.
</p>
<p>
But Colin was of an exploring mind and he knew nothing about the Doxology.
</p>
<p>
“What is that?” he inquired.
</p>
<p>
“Dickon can sing it for thee, I’ll warrant,” replied Ben
Weatherstaff.
</p>
<p>
Dickon answered with his all-perceiving animal charmer’s smile.
</p>
<p>
“They sing it i’ church,” he said. “Mother says she
believes th’ skylarks sings it when they gets up i’ th’
mornin’.”
</p>
<p>
“If she says that, it must be a nice song,” Colin answered.
“I’ve never been in a church myself. I was always too ill. Sing it,
Dickon. I want to hear it.”
</p>
<p>
Dickon was quite simple and unaffected about it. He understood what Colin felt
better than Colin did himself. He understood by a sort of instinct so natural
that he did not know it was understanding. He pulled off his cap and looked
round still smiling.
</p>
<p>
“Tha’ must take off tha’ cap,” he said to Colin,
“an’ so mun tha’, Ben—an’ tha’ mun stand
up, tha’ knows.”
</p>
<p>
Colin took off his cap and the sun shone on and warmed his thick hair as he
watched Dickon intently. Ben Weatherstaff scrambled up from his knees and bared
his head too with a sort of puzzled half-resentful look on his old face as if
he didn’t know exactly why he was doing this remarkable thing.
</p>
<p>
Dickon stood out among the trees and rose-bushes and began to sing in quite a
simple matter-of-fact way and in a nice strong boy voice:
</p>
<p class="poem">
“Praise God from whom all blessings flow,<br />
Praise Him all creatures here below,<br />
Praise Him above ye Heavenly Host,<br />
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.<br />
Amen.”<br />
</p>
<p>
When he had finished, Ben Weatherstaff was standing quite still with his jaws
set obstinately but with a disturbed look in his eyes fixed on Colin.
Colin’s face was thoughtful and appreciative.
</p>
<p>
“It is a very nice song,” he said. “I like it. Perhaps it
means just what I mean when I want to shout out that I am thankful to the
Magic.” He stopped and thought in a puzzled way. “Perhaps they are
both the same thing. How can we know the exact names of everything? Sing it
again, Dickon. Let us try, Mary. I want to sing it, too. It’s my song.
How does it begin? ‘Praise God from whom all blessings
flow’?”
</p>
<p>
And they sang it again, and Mary and Colin lifted their voices as musically as
they could and Dickon’s swelled quite loud and beautiful—and at the
second line Ben Weatherstaff raspingly cleared his throat and at the third line
he joined in with such vigor that it seemed almost savage and when the
“Amen” came to an end Mary observed that the very same thing had
happened to him which had happened when he found out that Colin was not a
cripple—his chin was twitching and he was staring and winking and his
leathery old cheeks were wet.
</p>
<p>
“I never seed no sense in th’ Doxology afore,” he said
hoarsely, “but I may change my mind i’ time. I should say
tha’d gone up five pound this week Mester Colin—five on
’em!”
</p>
<p>
Colin was looking across the garden at something attracting his attention and
his expression had become a startled one.
</p>
<p>
“Who is coming in here?” he said quickly. “Who is it?”
</p>
<p>
The door in the ivied wall had been pushed gently open and a woman had entered.
She had come in with the last line of their song and she had stood still
listening and looking at them. With the ivy behind her, the sunlight drifting
through the trees and dappling her long blue cloak, and her nice fresh face
smiling across the greenery she was rather like a softly colored illustration
in one of Colin’s books. She had wonderful affectionate eyes which seemed
to take everything in—all of them, even Ben Weatherstaff and the
“creatures” and every flower that was in bloom. Unexpectedly as she
had appeared, not one of them felt that she was an intruder at all.
Dickon’s eyes lighted like lamps.
</p>
<p>
“It’s mother—that’s who it is!” he cried and went
across the grass at a run.
</p>
<p>
Colin began to move toward her, too, and Mary went with him. They both felt
their pulses beat faster.
</p>
<p>
“It’s mother!” Dickon said again when they met halfway.
“I knowed tha’ wanted to see her an’ I told her where
th’ door was hid.”
</p>
<p>
Colin held out his hand with a sort of flushed royal shyness but his eyes quite
devoured her face.
</p>
<p>
“Even when I was ill I wanted to see you,” he said, “you and
Dickon and the secret garden. I’d never wanted to see anyone or anything
before.”
</p>
<p>
The sight of his uplifted face brought about a sudden change in her own. She
flushed and the corners of her mouth shook and a mist seemed to sweep over her
eyes.
</p>
<p>
“Eh! dear lad!” she broke out tremulously. “Eh! dear
lad!” as if she had not known she were going to say it. She did not say,
“Mester Colin,” but just “dear lad” quite suddenly. She
might have said it to Dickon in the same way if she had seen something in his
face which touched her. Colin liked it.
</p>
<p>
“Are you surprised because I am so well?” he asked.
</p>
<p>
She put her hand on his shoulder and smiled the mist out of her eyes.
</p>
<p>
“Aye, that I am!” she said; “but tha’rt so like thy
mother tha’ made my heart jump.”
</p>
<p>
“Do you think,” said Colin a little awkwardly, “that will
make my father like me?”
</p>
<p>
“Aye, for sure, dear lad,” she answered and she gave his shoulder a
soft quick pat. “He mun come home—he mun come home.”
</p>
<p>
“Susan Sowerby,” said Ben Weatherstaff, getting close to her.
“Look at th’ lad’s legs, wilt tha’? They was like
drumsticks i’ stockin’ two month’ ago—an’ I heard
folk tell as they was bandy an’ knock-kneed both at th’ same time.
Look at ’em now!”
</p>
<p>
Susan Sowerby laughed a comfortable laugh.
</p>
<p>
“They’re goin’ to be fine strong lad’s legs in a
bit,” she said. “Let him go on playin’ an’
workin’ in the garden an’ eatin’ hearty an’
drinkin’ plenty o’ good sweet milk an’ there’ll not be
a finer pair i’ Yorkshire, thank God for it.”
</p>
<p>
She put both hands on Mistress Mary’s shoulders and looked her little
face over in a motherly fashion.
</p>
<p>
“An’ thee, too!” she said. “Tha’rt grown near as
hearty as our ’Lisabeth Ellen. I’ll warrant tha’rt like thy
mother too. Our Martha told me as Mrs. Medlock heard she was a pretty woman.
Tha’lt be like a blush rose when tha’ grows up, my little lass,
bless thee.”
</p>
<p>
She did not mention that when Martha came home on her “day out” and
described the plain sallow child she had said that she had no confidence
whatever in what Mrs. Medlock had heard. “It doesn’t stand to
reason that a pretty woman could be th’ mother o’ such a fou’
little lass,” she had added obstinately.
</p>
<p>
Mary had not had time to pay much attention to her changing face. She had only
known that she looked “different” and seemed to have a great deal
more hair and that it was growing very fast. But remembering her pleasure in
looking at the Mem Sahib in the past she was glad to hear that she might some
day look like her.
</p>
<p>
Susan Sowerby went round their garden with them and was told the whole story of
it and shown every bush and tree which had come alive. Colin walked on one side
of her and Mary on the other. Each of them kept looking up at her comfortable
rosy face, secretly curious about the delightful feeling she gave them—a
sort of warm, supported feeling. It seemed as if she understood them as Dickon
understood his “creatures.” She stooped over the flowers and talked
about them as if they were children. Soot followed her and once or twice cawed
at her and flew upon her shoulder as if it were Dickon’s. When they told
her about the robin and the first flight of the young ones she laughed a
motherly little mellow laugh in her throat.
</p>
<p>
“I suppose learnin’ ’em to fly is like learnin’
children to walk, but I’m feared I should be all in a worrit if mine had
wings instead o’ legs,” she said.
</p>
<p>
It was because she seemed such a wonderful woman in her nice moorland cottage
way that at last she was told about the Magic.
</p>
<p>
“Do you believe in Magic?” asked Colin after he had explained about
Indian fakirs. “I do hope you do.”
</p>
<p>
“That I do, lad,” she answered. “I never knowed it by that
name but what does th’ name matter? I warrant they call it a different
name i’ France an’ a different one i’ Germany. Th’ same
thing as set th’ seeds swellin’ an’ th’ sun
shinin’ made thee a well lad an’ it’s th’ Good Thing.
It isn’t like us poor fools as think it matters if us is called out of
our names. Th’ Big Good Thing doesn’t stop to worrit, bless thee.
It goes on makin’ worlds by th’ million—worlds like us. Never
thee stop believin’ in th’ Big Good Thing an’ knowin’
th’ world’s full of it—an’ call it what tha’
likes. Tha’ wert singin’ to it when I come into th’
garden.”
</p>
<p>
“I felt so joyful,” said Colin, opening his beautiful strange eyes
at her. “Suddenly I felt how different I was—how strong my arms and
legs were, you know—and how I could dig and stand—and I jumped up
and wanted to shout out something to anything that would listen.”
</p>
<p>
“Th’ Magic listened when tha’ sung th’ Doxology. It
would ha’ listened to anything tha’d sung. It was th’ joy
that mattered. Eh! lad, lad—what’s names to th’ Joy
Maker,” and she gave his shoulders a quick soft pat again.
</p>
<p>
She had packed a basket which held a regular feast this morning, and when the
hungry hour came and Dickon brought it out from its hiding place, she sat down
with them under their tree and watched them devour their food, laughing and
quite gloating over their appetites. She was full of fun and made them laugh at
all sorts of odd things. She told them stories in broad Yorkshire and taught
them new words. She laughed as if she could not help it when they told her of
the increasing difficulty there was in pretending that Colin was still a
fretful invalid.
</p>
<p>
“You see we can’t help laughing nearly all the time when we are
together,” explained Colin. “And it doesn’t sound ill at all.
We try to choke it back but it will burst out and that sounds worse than
ever.”
</p>
<p>
“There’s one thing that comes into my mind so often,” said
Mary, “and I can scarcely ever hold in when I think of it suddenly. I
keep thinking suppose Colin’s face should get to look like a full moon.
It isn’t like one yet but he gets a tiny bit fatter every day—and
suppose some morning it should look like one—what should we do!”
</p>
<p>
“Bless us all, I can see tha’ has a good bit o’ play
actin’ to do,” said Susan Sowerby. “But tha’
won’t have to keep it up much longer. Mester Craven’ll come
home.”
</p>
<p>
“Do you think he will?” asked Colin. “Why?”
</p>
<p>
Susan Sowerby chuckled softly.
</p>
<p>
“I suppose it ’ud nigh break thy heart if he found out before
tha’ told him in tha’ own way,” she said. “Tha’s
laid awake nights plannin’ it.”
</p>
<p>
“I couldn’t bear anyone else to tell him,” said Colin.
“I think about different ways every day, I think now I just want to run
into his room.”
</p>
<p>
“That’d be a fine start for him,” said Susan Sowerby.
“I’d like to see his face, lad. I would that! He mun come
back—that he mun.”
</p>
<p>
One of the things they talked of was the visit they were to make to her
cottage. They planned it all. They were to drive over the moor and lunch out of
doors among the heather. They would see all the twelve children and
Dickon’s garden and would not come back until they were tired.
</p>
<p>
Susan Sowerby got up at last to return to the house and Mrs. Medlock. It was
time for Colin to be wheeled back also. But before he got into his chair he
stood quite close to Susan and fixed his eyes on her with a kind of bewildered
adoration and he suddenly caught hold of the fold of her blue cloak and held it
fast.
</p>
<p>
“You are just what I—what I wanted,” he said. “I wish
you were my mother—as well as Dickon’s!”
</p>
<p>
All at once Susan Sowerby bent down and drew him with her warm arms close
against the bosom under the blue cloak—as if he had been Dickon’s
brother. The quick mist swept over her eyes.
</p>
<p>
“Eh! dear lad!” she said. “Thy own mother’s in this
’ere very garden, I do believe. She couldna’ keep out of it. Thy
father mun come back to thee—he mun!”
</p>
</div><!--end chapter-->
<div class="chapter">
<h2><a name="chap27"></a>CHAPTER XXVII.<br />
IN THE GARDEN</h2>
<p>
In each century since the beginning of the world wonderful things have been
discovered. In the last century more amazing things were found out than in any
century before. In this new century hundreds of things still more astounding
will be brought to light. At first people refuse to believe that a strange new
thing can be done, then they begin to hope it can be done, then they see it can
be done—then it is done and all the world wonders why it was not done
centuries ago. One of the new things people began to find out in the last
century was that thoughts—just mere thoughts—are as powerful as
electric batteries—as good for one as sunlight is, or as bad for one as
poison. To let a sad thought or a bad one get into your mind is as dangerous as
letting a scarlet fever germ get into your body. If you let it stay there after
it has got in you may never get over it as long as you live.
</p>
<p>
So long as Mistress Mary’s mind was full of disagreeable thoughts about
her dislikes and sour opinions of people and her determination not to be
pleased by or interested in anything, she was a yellow-faced, sickly, bored and
wretched child. Circumstances, however, were very kind to her, though she was
not at all aware of it. They began to push her about for her own good. When her
mind gradually filled itself with robins, and moorland cottages crowded with
children, with queer crabbed old gardeners and common little Yorkshire
housemaids, with springtime and with secret gardens coming alive day by day,
and also with a moor boy and his “creatures,” there was no room
left for the disagreeable thoughts which affected her liver and her digestion
and made her yellow and tired.
</p>
<p>
So long as Colin shut himself up in his room and thought only of his fears and
weakness and his detestation of people who looked at him and reflected hourly
on humps and early death, he was a hysterical half-crazy little hypochondriac
who knew nothing of the sunshine and the spring and also did not know that he
could get well and could stand upon his feet if he tried to do it. When new
beautiful thoughts began to push out the old hideous ones, life began to come
back to him, his blood ran healthily through his veins and strength poured into
him like a flood. His scientific experiment was quite practical and simple and
there was nothing weird about it at all. Much more surprising things can happen
to anyone who, when a disagreeable or discouraged thought comes into his mind,
just has the sense to remember in time and push it out by putting in an
agreeable determinedly courageous one. Two things cannot be in one place.
</p>
<p class="poem">
“Where you tend a rose, my lad,<br />
A thistle cannot grow.”<br />
</p>
<p>
While the secret garden was coming alive and two children were coming alive
with it, there was a man wandering about certain far-away beautiful places in
the Norwegian fiords and the valleys and mountains of Switzerland and he was a
man who for ten years had kept his mind filled with dark and heart-broken
thinking. He had not been courageous; he had never tried to put any other
thoughts in the place of the dark ones. He had wandered by blue lakes and
thought them; he had lain on mountain-sides with sheets of deep blue gentians
blooming all about him and flower breaths filling all the air and he had
thought them. A terrible sorrow had fallen upon him when he had been happy and
he had let his soul fill itself with blackness and had refused obstinately to
allow any rift of light to pierce through. He had forgotten and deserted his
home and his duties. When he traveled about, darkness so brooded over him that
the sight of him was a wrong done to other people because it was as if he
poisoned the air about him with gloom. Most strangers thought he must be either
half mad or a man with some hidden crime on his soul. He, was a tall man with a
drawn face and crooked shoulders and the name he always entered on hotel
registers was, “Archibald Craven, Misselthwaite Manor, Yorkshire,
England.”
</p>
<p>
He had traveled far and wide since the day he saw Mistress Mary in his study
and told her she might have her “bit of earth.” He had been in the
most beautiful places in Europe, though he had remained nowhere more than a few
days. He had chosen the quietest and remotest spots. He had been on the tops of
mountains whose heads were in the clouds and had looked down on other mountains
when the sun rose and touched them with such light as made it seem as if the
world were just being born.
</p>
<p>
But the light had never seemed to touch himself until one day when he realized
that for the first time in ten years a strange thing had happened. He was in a
wonderful valley in the Austrian Tyrol and he had been walking alone through
such beauty as might have lifted, any man’s soul out of shadow. He had
walked a long way and it had not lifted his. But at last he had felt tired and
had thrown himself down to rest on a carpet of moss by a stream. It was a clear
little stream which ran quite merrily along on its narrow way through the
luscious damp greenness. Sometimes it made a sound rather like very low
laughter as it bubbled over and round stones. He saw birds come and dip their
heads to drink in it and then flick their wings and fly away. It seemed like a
thing alive and yet its tiny voice made the stillness seem deeper. The valley
was very, very still.
</p>
<p>
As he sat gazing into the clear running of the water, Archibald Craven
gradually felt his mind and body both grow quiet, as quiet as the valley
itself. He wondered if he were going to sleep, but he was not. He sat and gazed
at the sunlit water and his eyes began to see things growing at its edge. There
was one lovely mass of blue forget-me-nots growing so close to the stream that
its leaves were wet and at these he found himself looking as he remembered he
had looked at such things years ago. He was actually thinking tenderly how
lovely it was and what wonders of blue its hundreds of little blossoms were. He
did not know that just that simple thought was slowly filling his
mind—filling and filling it until other things were softly pushed aside.
It was as if a sweet clear spring had begun to rise in a stagnant pool and had
risen and risen until at last it swept the dark water away. But of course he
did not think of this himself. He only knew that the valley seemed to grow
quieter and quieter as he sat and stared at the bright delicate blueness. He
did not know how long he sat there or what was happening to him, but at last he
moved as if he were awakening and he got up slowly and stood on the moss
carpet, drawing a long, deep, soft breath and wondering at himself. Something
seemed to have been unbound and released in him, very quietly.
</p>
<p>
“What is it?” he said, almost in a whisper, and he passed his hand
over his forehead. “I almost feel as if—I were alive!”
</p>
<p>
I do not know enough about the wonderfulness of undiscovered things to be able
to explain how this had happened to him. Neither does anyone else yet. He did
not understand at all himself—but he remembered this strange hour months
afterward when he was at Misselthwaite again and he found out quite by accident
that on this very day Colin had cried out as he went into the secret garden:
</p>
<p>
“I am going to live forever and ever and ever!”
</p>
<p>
The singular calmness remained with him the rest of the evening and he slept a
new reposeful sleep; but it was not with him very long. He did not know that it
could be kept. By the next night he had opened the doors wide to his dark
thoughts and they had come trooping and rushing back. He left the valley and
went on his wandering way again. But, strange as it seemed to him, there were
minutes—sometimes half-hours—when, without his knowing why, the
black burden seemed to lift itself again and he knew he was a living man and
not a dead one. Slowly—slowly—for no reason that he knew
of—he was “coming alive” with the garden.
</p>
<p>
As the golden summer changed into the deep golden autumn he went to the Lake of
Como. There he found the loveliness of a dream. He spent his days upon the
crystal blueness of the lake or he walked back into the soft thick verdure of
the hills and tramped until he was tired so that he might sleep. But by this
time he had begun to sleep better, he knew, and his dreams had ceased to be a
terror to him.
</p>
<p>
“Perhaps,” he thought, “my body is growing stronger.”
</p>
<p>
It was growing stronger but—because of the rare peaceful hours when his
thoughts were changed—his soul was slowly growing stronger, too. He began
to think of Misselthwaite and wonder if he should not go home. Now and then he
wondered vaguely about his boy and asked himself what he should feel when he
went and stood by the carved four-posted bed again and looked down at the
sharply chiseled ivory-white face while it slept and, the black lashes rimmed
so startlingly the close-shut eyes. He shrank from it.
</p>
<p>
One marvel of a day he had walked so far that when he returned the moon was
high and full and all the world was purple shadow and silver. The stillness of
lake and shore and wood was so wonderful that he did not go into the villa he
lived in. He walked down to a little bowered terrace at the water’s edge
and sat upon a seat and breathed in all the heavenly scents of the night. He
felt the strange calmness stealing over him and it grew deeper and deeper until
he fell asleep.
</p>
<p>
He did not know when he fell asleep and when he began to dream; his dream was
so real that he did not feel as if he were dreaming. He remembered afterward
how intensely wide awake and alert he had thought he was. He thought that as he
sat and breathed in the scent of the late roses and listened to the lapping of
the water at his feet he heard a voice calling. It was sweet and clear and
happy and far away. It seemed very far, but he heard it as distinctly as if it
had been at his very side.
</p>
<p>
“Archie! Archie! Archie!” it said, and then again, sweeter and
clearer than before, “Archie! Archie!”
</p>
<p>
He thought he sprang to his feet not even startled. It was such a real voice
and it seemed so natural that he should hear it.
</p>
<p>
“Lilias! Lilias!” he answered. “Lilias! where are you?”
</p>
<p>
“In the garden,” it came back like a sound from a golden flute.
“In the garden!”
</p>
<p>
And then the dream ended. But he did not awaken. He slept soundly and sweetly
all through the lovely night. When he did awake at last it was brilliant
morning and a servant was standing staring at him. He was an Italian servant
and was accustomed, as all the servants of the villa were, to accepting without
question any strange thing his foreign master might do. No one ever knew when
he would go out or come in or where he would choose to sleep or if he would
roam about the garden or lie in the boat on the lake all night. The man held a
salver with some letters on it and he waited quietly until Mr. Craven took
them. When he had gone away Mr. Craven sat a few moments holding them in his
hand and looking at the lake. His strange calm was still upon him and something
more—a lightness as if the cruel thing which had been done had not
happened as he thought—as if something had changed. He was remembering
the dream—the real—real dream.
</p>
<p>
“In the garden!” he said, wondering at himself. “In the
garden! But the door is locked and the key is buried deep.”
</p>
<p>
When he glanced at the letters a few minutes later he saw that the one lying at
the top of the rest was an English letter and came from Yorkshire. It was
directed in a plain woman’s hand but it was not a hand he knew. He opened
it, scarcely thinking of the writer, but the first words attracted his
attention at once.
</p>
<blockquote> <div>
<p class="noindent">
“<i>Dear Sir:</i>
</p>
<p>
I am Susan Sowerby that made bold to speak to you once on the moor. It was
about Miss Mary I spoke. I will make bold to speak again. Please, sir, I would
come home if I was you. I think you would be glad to come and—if you will
excuse me, sir—I think your lady would ask you to come if she was here.
</p>
<p>
Your obedient servant,<br />
Susan Sowerby.”<br />
</p>
</div> </blockquote>
<p>
Mr. Craven read the letter twice before he put it back in its envelope. He kept
thinking about the dream.
</p>
<p>
“I will go back to Misselthwaite,” he said. “Yes, I’ll
go at once.”
</p>
<p>
And he went through the garden to the villa and ordered Pitcher to prepare for
his return to England.<br /><br />
</p>
<p>
In a few days he was in Yorkshire again, and on his long railroad journey he
found himself thinking of his boy as he had never thought in all the ten years
past. During those years he had only wished to forget him. Now, though he did
not intend to think about him, memories of him constantly drifted into his
mind. He remembered the black days when he had raved like a madman because the
child was alive and the mother was dead. He had refused to see it, and when he
had gone to look at it at last it had been, such a weak wretched thing that
everyone had been sure it would die in a few days. But to the surprise of those
who took care of it the days passed and it lived and then everyone believed it
would be a deformed and crippled creature.
</p>
<p>
He had not meant to be a bad father, but he had not felt like a father at all.
He had supplied doctors and nurses and luxuries, but he had shrunk from the
mere thought of the boy and had buried himself in his own misery. The first
time after a year’s absence he returned to Misselthwaite and the small
miserable looking thing languidly and indifferently lifted to his face the
great gray eyes with black lashes round them, so like and yet so horribly
unlike the happy eyes he had adored, he could not bear the sight of them and
turned away pale as death. After that he scarcely ever saw him except when he
was asleep, and all he knew of him was that he was a confirmed invalid, with a
vicious, hysterical, half-insane temper. He could only be kept from furies
dangerous to himself by being given his own way in every detail.
</p>
<p>
All this was not an uplifting thing to recall, but as the train whirled him
through mountain passes and golden plains the man who was “coming
alive” began to think in a new way and he thought long and steadily and
deeply.
</p>
<p>
“Perhaps I have been all wrong for ten years,” he said to himself.
“Ten years is a long time. It may be too late to do anything—quite
too late. What have I been thinking of!”
</p>
<p>
Of course this was the wrong Magic—to begin by saying “too
late.” Even Colin could have told him that. But he knew nothing of
Magic—either black or white. This he had yet to learn. He wondered if
Susan Sowerby had taken courage and written to him only because the motherly
creature had realized that the boy was much worse—was fatally ill. If he
had not been under the spell of the curious calmness which had taken possession
of him he would have been more wretched than ever. But the calm had brought a
sort of courage and hope with it. Instead of giving way to thoughts of the
worst he actually found he was trying to believe in better things.
</p>
<p>
“Could it be possible that she sees that I may be able to do him good and
control him?” he thought. “I will go and see her on my way to
Misselthwaite.”
</p>
<p>
But when on his way across the moor he stopped the carriage at the cottage,
seven or eight children who were playing about gathered in a group and bobbing
seven or eight friendly and polite curtsies told him that their mother had gone
to the other side of the moor early in the morning to help a woman who had a
new baby. “Our Dickon,” they volunteered, was over at the Manor
working in one of the gardens where he went several days each week.
</p>
<p>
Mr. Craven looked over the collection of sturdy little bodies and round
red-cheeked faces, each one grinning in its own particular way, and he awoke to
the fact that they were a healthy likable lot. He smiled at their friendly
grins and took a golden sovereign from his pocket and gave it to “our
’Lizabeth Ellen” who was the oldest.
</p>
<p>
“If you divide that into eight parts there will be half a crown for each
of, you,” he said.
</p>
<p>
Then amid grins and chuckles and bobbing of curtsies he drove away, leaving
ecstasy and nudging elbows and little jumps of joy behind.
</p>
<p>
The drive across the wonderfulness of the moor was a soothing thing. Why did it
seem to give him a sense of homecoming which he had been sure he could never
feel again—that sense of the beauty of land and sky and purple bloom of
distance and a warming of the heart at drawing, nearer to the great old house
which had held those of his blood for six hundred years? How he had driven away
from it the last time, shuddering to think of its closed rooms and the boy
lying in the four-posted bed with the brocaded hangings. Was it possible that
perhaps he might find him changed a little for the better and that he might
overcome his shrinking from him? How real that dream had been—how
wonderful and clear the voice which called back to him, “In the
garden—In the garden!”
</p>
<p>
“I will try to find the key,” he said. “I will try to open
the door. I must—though I don’t know why.”
</p>
<p>
When he arrived at the Manor the servants who received him with the usual
ceremony noticed that he looked better and that he did not go to the remote
rooms where he usually lived attended by Pitcher. He went into the library and
sent for Mrs. Medlock. She came to him somewhat excited and curious and
flustered.
</p>
<p>
“How is Master Colin, Medlock?” he inquired.
</p>
<p>
“Well, sir,” Mrs. Medlock answered,
“he’s—he’s different, in a manner of speaking.”
</p>
<p>
“Worse?” he suggested.
</p>
<p>
Mrs. Medlock really was flushed.
</p>
<p>
“Well, you see, sir,” she tried to explain, “neither Dr.
Craven, nor the nurse, nor me can exactly make him out.”
</p>
<p>
“Why is that?”
</p>
<p>
“To tell the truth, sir, Master Colin might be better and he might be
changing for the worse. His appetite, sir, is past understanding—and his
ways—”
</p>
<p>
“Has he become more—more peculiar?” her master, asked,
knitting his brows anxiously.
</p>
<p>
“That’s it, sir. He’s growing very peculiar—when you
compare him with what he used to be. He used to eat nothing and then suddenly
he began to eat something enormous—and then he stopped again all at once
and the meals were sent back just as they used to be. You never knew, sir,
perhaps, that out of doors he never would let himself be taken. The things
we’ve gone through to get him to go out in his chair would leave a body
trembling like a leaf. He’d throw himself into such a state that Dr.
Craven said he couldn’t be responsible for forcing him. Well, sir, just
without warning—not long after one of his worst tantrums he suddenly
insisted on being taken out every day by Miss Mary and Susan Sowerby’s
boy Dickon that could push his chair. He took a fancy to both Miss Mary and
Dickon, and Dickon brought his tame animals, and, if you’ll credit it,
sir, out of doors he will stay from morning until night.”
</p>
<p>
“How does he look?” was the next question.
</p>
<p>
“If he took his food natural, sir, you’d think he was putting on
flesh—but we’re afraid it may be a sort of bloat. He laughs
sometimes in a queer way when he’s alone with Miss Mary. He never used to
laugh at all. Dr. Craven is coming to see you at once, if you’ll allow
him. He never was as puzzled in his life.”
</p>
<p>
“Where is Master Colin now?” Mr. Craven asked.
</p>
<p>
“In the garden, sir. He’s always in the garden—though not a
human creature is allowed to go near for fear they’ll look at him.”
</p>
<p>
Mr. Craven scarcely heard her last words.
</p>
<p>
“In the garden,” he said, and after he had sent Mrs. Medlock away
he stood and repeated it again and again. “In the garden!”
</p>
<p>
He had to make an effort to bring himself back to the place he was standing in
and when he felt he was on earth again he turned and went out of the room. He
took his way, as Mary had done, through the door in the shrubbery and among the
laurels and the fountain beds. The fountain was playing now and was encircled
by beds of brilliant autumn flowers. He crossed the lawn and turned into the
Long Walk by the ivied walls. He did not walk quickly, but slowly, and his eyes
were on the path. He felt as if he were being drawn back to the place he had so
long forsaken, and he did not know why. As he drew near to it his step became
still more slow. He knew where the door was even though the ivy hung thick over
it—but he did not know exactly where it lay—that buried key.
</p>
<p>
So he stopped and stood still, looking about him, and almost the moment after
he had paused he started and listened—asking himself if he were walking
in a dream.
</p>
<p>
The ivy hung thick over the door, the key was buried under the shrubs, no human
being had passed that portal for ten lonely years—and yet inside the
garden there were sounds. They were the sounds of running scuffling feet
seeming to chase round and round under the trees, they were strange sounds of
lowered suppressed voices—exclamations and smothered joyous cries. It
seemed actually like the laughter of young things, the uncontrollable laughter
of children who were trying not to be heard but who in a moment or so—as
their excitement mounted—would burst forth. What in heaven’s name
was he dreaming of—what in heaven’s name did he hear? Was he losing
his reason and thinking he heard things which were not for human ears? Was it
that the far clear voice had meant?
</p>
<p>
And then the moment came, the uncontrollable moment when the sounds forgot to
hush themselves. The feet ran faster and faster—they were nearing the
garden door—there was quick strong young breathing and a wild outbreak of
laughing shouts which could not be contained—and the door in the wall was
flung wide open, the sheet of ivy swinging back, and a boy burst through it at
full speed and, without seeing the outsider, dashed almost into his arms.
</p>
<p>
Mr. Craven had extended them just in time to save him from falling as a result
of his unseeing dash against him, and when he held him away to look at him in
amazement at his being there he truly gasped for breath.
</p>
<p>
He was a tall boy and a handsome one. He was glowing with life and his running
had sent splendid color leaping to his face. He threw the thick hair back from
his forehead and lifted a pair of strange gray eyes—eyes full of boyish
laughter and rimmed with black lashes like a fringe. It was the eyes which made
Mr. Craven gasp for breath.
</p>
<p>
“Who—What? Who!” he stammered.
</p>
<p>
This was not what Colin had expected—this was not what he had planned. He
had never thought of such a meeting. And yet to come dashing out—winning
a race—perhaps it was even better. He drew himself up to his very
tallest. Mary, who had been running with him and had dashed through the door
too, believed that he managed to make himself look taller than he had ever
looked before—inches taller.
</p>
<p>
“Father,” he said, “I’m Colin. You can’t believe
it. I scarcely can myself. I’m Colin.”
</p>
<p>
Like Mrs. Medlock, he did not understand what his father meant when he said
hurriedly:
</p>
<p>
“In the garden! In the garden!”
</p>
<p>
“Yes,” hurried on Colin. “It was the garden that did
it—and Mary and Dickon and the creatures—and the Magic. No one
knows. We kept it to tell you when you came. I’m well, I can beat Mary in
a race. I’m going to be an athlete.”
</p>
<p>
He said it all so like a healthy boy—his face flushed, his words tumbling
over each other in his eagerness—that Mr. Craven’s soul shook with
unbelieving joy.
</p>
<p>
Colin put out his hand and laid it on his father’s arm.
</p>
<p>
“Aren’t you glad, Father?” he ended. “Aren’t you
glad? I’m going to live forever and ever and ever!”
</p>
<p>
Mr. Craven put his hands on both the boy’s shoulders and held him still.
He knew he dared not even try to speak for a moment.
</p>
<p>
“Take me into the garden, my boy,” he said at last. “And tell
me all about it.”
</p>
<p>
And so they led him in.
</p>
<p>
The place was a wilderness of autumn gold and purple and violet blue and
flaming scarlet and on every side were sheaves of late lilies standing
together—lilies which were white or white and ruby. He remembered well
when the first of them had been planted that just at this season of the year
their late glories should reveal themselves. Late roses climbed and hung and
clustered and the sunshine deepening the hue of the yellowing trees made one
feel that one, stood in an embowered temple of gold. The newcomer stood silent
just as the children had done when they came into its grayness. He looked round
and round.
</p>
<p>
“I thought it would be dead,” he said.
</p>
<p>
“Mary thought so at first,” said Colin. “But it came
alive.”
</p>
<p>
Then they sat down under their tree—all but Colin, who wanted to stand
while he told the story.
</p>
<p>
It was the strangest thing he had ever heard, Archibald Craven thought, as it
was poured forth in headlong boy fashion. Mystery and Magic and wild creatures,
the weird midnight meeting—the coming of the spring—the passion of
insulted pride which had dragged the young Rajah to his feet to defy old Ben
Weatherstaff to his face. The odd companionship, the play acting, the great
secret so carefully kept. The listener laughed until tears came into his eyes
and sometimes tears came into his eyes when he was not laughing. The Athlete,
the Lecturer, the Scientific Discoverer was a laughable, lovable, healthy young
human thing.
</p>
<p>
“Now,” he said at the end of the story, “it need not be a
secret any more. I dare say it will frighten them nearly into fits when they
see me—but I am never going to get into the chair again. I shall walk
back with you, Father—to the house.”<br /><br />
</p>
<p>
Ben Weatherstaff’s duties rarely took him away from the gardens, but on
this occasion he made an excuse to carry some vegetables to the kitchen and
being invited into the servants’ hall by Mrs. Medlock to drink a glass of
beer he was on the spot—as he had hoped to be—when the most
dramatic event Misselthwaite Manor had seen during the present generation
actually took place.
</p>
<p>
One of the windows looking upon the courtyard gave also a glimpse of the lawn.
Mrs. Medlock, knowing Ben had come from the gardens, hoped that he might have
caught sight of his master and even by chance of his meeting with Master Colin.
</p>
<p>
“Did you see either of them, Weatherstaff?” she asked.
</p>
<p>
Ben took his beer-mug from his mouth and wiped his lips with the back of his
hand.
</p>
<p>
“Aye, that I did,” he answered with a shrewdly significant air.
</p>
<p>
“Both of them?” suggested Mrs. Medlock.
</p>
<p>
“Both of ’em,” returned Ben Weatherstaff. “Thank ye
kindly, ma’am, I could sup up another mug of it.”
</p>
<p>
“Together?” said Mrs. Medlock, hastily overfilling his beer-mug in
her excitement.
</p>
<p>
“Together, ma’am,” and Ben gulped down half of his new mug at
one gulp.
</p>
<p>
“Where was Master Colin? How did he look? What did they say to each
other?”
</p>
<p>
“I didna’ hear that,” said Ben, “along o’ only
bein’ on th’ stepladder lookin over th’ wall. But I’ll
tell thee this. There’s been things goin’ on outside as you house
people knows nowt about. An’ what tha’ll find out tha’ll find
out soon.”
</p>
<p>
And it was not two minutes before he swallowed the last of his beer and waved
his mug solemnly toward the window which took in through the shrubbery a piece
of the lawn.
</p>
<p>
“Look there,” he said, “if tha’s curious. Look
what’s comin’ across th’ grass.”
</p>
<p>
When Mrs. Medlock looked she threw up her hands and gave a little shriek and
every man and woman servant within hearing bolted across the servants’
hall and stood looking through the window with their eyes almost starting out
of their heads.
</p>
<p>
Across the lawn came the Master of Misselthwaite and he looked as many of them
had never seen him. And by his side with his head up in the air and his eyes
full of laughter walked as strongly and steadily as any boy in
Yorkshire—Master Colin!<br /><br />
</p>
<h5>
THE END
</h5>
</div><!--end chapter-->
<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 113 ***</div>
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