The Secret Garden Frances Hodgson Burnett (recommended reading .TXT) š
- Author: Frances Hodgson Burnett
Book online Ā«The Secret Garden Frances Hodgson Burnett (recommended reading .TXT) šĀ». Author Frances Hodgson Burnett
āIād almost lost him but for his song anā I was wonderinā how a chap could hear it when it seemed as if heād get out oā thā world in a minuteā āanā just then I heard somethinā else far off among thā gorse bushes. It was a weak bleatinā anā I knowed it was a new lamb as was hungry anā I knowed it wouldnāt be hungry if it hadnāt lost its mother somehow, so I set off searchinā. Eh! I did have a look for it. I went in anā out among thā gorse bushes anā round anā round anā I always seemed to take thā wrong turninā. But at last I seed a bit oā white by a rock on top oā thā moor anā I climbed up anā found thā little āun half dead wiā cold anā clemminā.ā
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 hearthrug from preference.
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.
āI couldnaā say that there name,ā he said, pointing to one under which was written āAquilegia,ā ābut us calls that a columbine, anā that there one itās a snapdragon and they both grow wild in hedges, but these is garden ones anā theyāre bigger anā grander. Thereās some big clumps oā columbine in thā garden. Theyāll look like a bed oā blue anā white butterflies flutterinā when theyāre out.ā
āIām going to see them,ā cried Colin. āI am going to see them!ā
āAye, that thaā mun,ā said Mary quite seriously. āAn thaā munnot lose no time about it.ā
XX āI Shall Live Foreverā āand Everā āand Ever!āBut 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 ottersā and badgersā and water-ratsā houses, not to mention birdsā 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.
āTheyāre same as us,ā said Dickon, āonly they have to build their homes every year. Anā it keeps āem so busy they fair scuffle to get āem done.ā
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 flowerbeds as if they were looking at the ābedding-out plantsā 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.
Rumors of the new and curious things which were occurring in the invalidās apartments had of course filtered through the servantsā 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 Colinās 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.
āWell, well,ā he said to himself as he hurriedly changed his coat, āwhatās to do now? His Royal Highness that wasnāt to be looked at calling up a man heās never set eyes on.ā
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.
āThings are changing in this house, Mr. Roach,ā said Mrs. Medlock, as she led him up the back staircase to the corridor on to which opened the hitherto mysterious chamber.
āLetās hope theyāre changing for the better, Mrs. Medlock,ā he answered.
āThey couldnāt well change for the worse,ā she continued; āand queer as it all is thereās them as finds their duties made a lot easier to stand up under. Donāt you be surprised, Mr. Roach, if you find yourself in the middle of a menagerie and Martha Sowerbyās Dickon more at home than you or me could ever be.ā
There really was a sort of Magic about Dickon, as Mary always privately
Comments (0)