The Secret Garden

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

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 M

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. 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.

e lifted his head and saw her standing by him. "I never kn

s with me no

vanity an' flightiness. There's nothin' he wouldn't do for th' sake o' showin' of

s except by a grunt, but this morning he said more than usual. He stood up a

ha' been here?"

about a month,

n' tha's not quite so yeller. Tha' looked like a young plucked crow when tha' first came i

d never thought much of her loo

s are getting tighter. They used to make wr

lossy as satin and he flirted his wings and tail and tilted his head and hopped about with all sort

in' up thy waistcoat an' polishin' thy feathers this two weeks. I know what tha's up to. Tha's courtin' some bold young mada

t him!" exc

ser and looked at Ben Weatherstaff more and more engagingly. He flew on to th

ace up in such a way that Mary felt sure he was trying not to look please

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

something quite different. "Tha' does know how to get at

flirt to his wings and flew away. Then he stood looking at the handle of the spade as if th

to a slow grin now and then, Ma

rden of your o

an' lodge with Ma

said Mary, "what

n' 'taters

flower garden," persisted M

smellin' things-b

face li

ke roses?"

up a weed and threw it a

she was fond of, an' she loved 'em like they was children-or robins. I've seen her bend over an

w?" asked Mary,

e his spade deep into the soil,

ses?" Mary asked again,

left to th

ecoming qu

quite die when they are left

tted reluctantly. "Once or twice a year I'd go an' work at 'em a bit-prune 'em an' d

nd brown and dry, how can you tell whethe

th' sun shines on th' rain and th' rain fall

own lump swelling here an' there, watch it after th' warm rain an' see what happens." He stopped suddenly and loo

face grow red. She was

of my own," she stammered. "I-there is nothi

f slowly, as he watched her,

for herself; she had only felt tired and cross, because she disliked people and things so much. But now the world s

one 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

e those other ros

rheumatics has made me t

quite suddenly he seemed to get angry with

ns. Tha'rt th' worst wench for askin' questions I've ever come a

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

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

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

and spoke to her in a voice almost

owly 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 branch

boy said. "I know

lse could have been charming rabbits and pheasants as the natives charm snakes i

kes a quick move it startles 'em. A body 'as to mo

re but as if he knew her quite well. Mary knew nothing about boys

Martha's lett

rust-colored head.

g which had been lying on the

Eh! they are good 'uns. There's a trowel, too. An' th' woman in th' shop threw i

the seeds to

oor 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

this log and look

his coat pocket. He untied the string and inside there were ever so m

it'll grow wherever you cast it, same as poppies will. Them as'll come up an' bloom if you just whistle to

obin as is call

sh, bright with scarlet berries, and

y calling us

s callin' some one he's friends with. That's same as sayin' 'Here I am. Lo

but I think he knows me

oice again. "An' he likes thee. He's took thee

nd then he made a sound almost like the robin's own twitter. The robin listened a

iend o' yours,"

eagerly. She did so want to know.

is rare choosers an' a robin can flout a body worse than a man. See

be true. He so sidled and twittered

d everything bird

emed all wide, red, curving mout

reak shell an' come out an' fledge an' learn to fly an' begin to sing, till I think I'm one of 'em. Someti

seeds again. He told her what they looked like when they were flowers;

round to look at her. "I'll plant them

ow what to say, so for a whole minute she said nothing. She had never though

' garden, hasn't t

en pale. Dickon saw her do it, and as she

e a bit?" he asked. "Ha

tighter and turned

f I told you one? It's a great secret. I don't know what I should do if any one

umoredly. "I'm keepin' secrets all th' time," he said. "If I couldn't keep secrets from th' other lads, secrets about

o put out her hand and clutc

't anybody's. Nobody wants it, nobody cares for it, nobody ever go

nd as contrary as she h

it and they don't. They're letting it die, all shut in by itself," she ended passionate

"Eh-h-h!" he said, drawing his exclamation out slowly

and I got into it myself. I was only just like the robin, and they wouldn

ntrary again, and obstinate, and she did not care at all. She w

and I'll show

e. 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 i

et garden, and I'm the only one in

d round about it, and

s a queer, pretty place! It's li