The Secret Garden

ned her eyes she sat upright in be

moor! Look

ver 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

o' th' year. It goes off in a night like it was pretendin' it had never been here an' never meant t

ways rained or looked da

p on her heels among her black l

s spoke different dialects which only a few people understood, s

s she had done t

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

a' legs since tha' was born, it seems to me. Tha' cou

ke to see yo

in. She was thinking that the small plain face did not look quite as sour at this moment as it had done the f

ys sees a way to do things. It's my day out today an' I'm goin' home. Eh! I

ur mother,

' did," agreed Mart

seen her,"

asn't," rep

of her nose with the back of her hand as if puz

no one could help likin' her whether they'd seen her or not. When I'm goin'

dded Mary. "And I'

im an' th' rabbits an' wild sheep an' ponies, an' th' foxes themselves.

d Mary in her stiff, cold

ked reflec

she inquired, really quite a

a moment and

answered. "But I never

ttle as if at some

an' she turns round on me an' says: 'Tha' young vixen, tha'! There tha' stands sayin' tha' doesn't like this one an'

going to walk five miles across the moor to the cottage, and she was going to hel

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 sno

d and thoug

nice and fresh an

lantin' 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

they be?"

an' daffydowndillys. H

en after the rains in India," said Mary.

ait for 'em. They'll poke up a bit higher here, an' push out a spike m

g to," ans

in had come again. He was very pert and lively, and hopped about so close to her feet, and pu

he remembers

' gardens, let alone th' people. He's never seen a little wench here before, an' he'

w in the dark in that garden w

ted Weatherstaff, b

because she wanted so much to know. "Are all the flowers dead, or d

ulders toward the robin. "He's the only one as kno

e, Mary thought. She had

at 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 w

pping about and pretending to peck things out of the earth to persuade her that he had not followed her. But

out. "You do! You are prettier t

y 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

make her put out her hand toward him or startle him in the least tiniest way. He knew it because he was a r

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 ea

rned 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 ha

d at it with an almost frightene

years," she said in a whisper. "Pe