The Secret Garden Frances Hodgson Burnett (recommended reading .TXT) đ
- Author: Frances Hodgson Burnett
Book online «The Secret Garden Frances Hodgson Burnett (recommended reading .TXT) đ». Author Frances Hodgson Burnett
âI donât want to be queer,â said Colin. âI am not going to be,â and he frowned again with determination.
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.
âI shall stop being queer,â he said, âif I go every day to the garden. There is Magic in thereâ âgood Magic, you know, Mary. I am sure there is.â
âSo am I,â said Mary.
âEven if it isnât real Magic,â Colin said, âwe can pretend it is. Something is thereâ âsomething!â
âItâs Magic,â said Mary, âbut not black. Itâs as white as snow.â
They always called it Magic and indeed it seemed like it in the months that followedâ âthe wonderful monthsâ âthe radiant monthsâ âthe 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.
âShe was main fond oâ themâ âshe was,â Ben Weatherstaff said. âShe liked them things as was allus pointinâ up to thâ blue sky, she used to tell. Not as she was one oâ them as looked down on thâ earthâ ânot her. She just loved it but she said as thâ blue sky allus looked so joyful.â
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 rosesâ âthe roses! Rising out of the grass, tangled round the sundial, wreathing the tree trunks and hanging from their branches, climbing up the walls and spreading over them with long garlands falling in cascadesâ âthey came alive day by day, hour by hour. Fair fresh leaves, and budsâ âand budsâ âtiny 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.
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 didnât rain he spent in the garden. Even gray days pleased him. He would lie on the grass âwatching things growing,â 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. Antsâ ways, beetlesâ ways, beesâ ways, frogsâ ways, birdsâ ways, plantsâ ways, gave him a new world to explore and when Dickon revealed them all and added foxesâ ways, ottersâ ways, ferretsâ ways, squirrelsâ ways, and troutâs and water-ratsâ and badgersâ ways, there was no end to the things to talk about and think over.
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.
âOf course there must be lots of Magic in the world,â he said wisely one day, âbut people donât 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.â
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.
âGood morning, Ben Weatherstaff,â he said. âI 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.â
âAye, aye, sir!â 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.)
âI am going to try a scientific experiment,â explained the Rajah. âWhen I grow up I am going to make great scientific discoveries and I am going to begin now with this experiment.â
âAye, aye, sir!â said Ben Weatherstaff promptly, though this was the first time he had heard of great scientific discoveries.
It was the first time Mary had heard of them, either, but even at this stage she had begun
Comments (0)