19 - “It Has Come!” - The Secret Garden

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Chapter nineteen. It has come,of course, Doctor Craven had been sent
for the morning after Colin had hadhis 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 hisbed, sulky and still so hysterical that

(00:22):
he was ready to break into freshsobbing at the least word. In fact,
doctor Craven dreaded and detested the difficultiesof these visits. On this occasion
he was away from misselthwaite Manor untilafternoon. How is he, he asked
Missus Medlock rather irritably when he arrived. He will break a blood vessel in

(00:45):
one of those fits some day.The boy is half insane with hysteria and
self indulgence. Well sir, answeredMissus Medlock. You'll scarcely believe your eyes
when you see him. That plainour faced child that's almost as bad as
himself, has just bewitched him.How she's done it, there's no telling.

(01:07):
The Lord knows she's nothing to lookat, and you scarcely ever hear
her speak. But she did whatnone of us dare do. She just
flew at him like a little catlast night, and stamped her feet and
ordered him to stop screaming, andsomehow she startled him so that he actually
did stop. And this afternoon,well, just come up and see,

(01:30):
sir, it's past crediting. Thescene which doctor Craven beheld when he entered
his patient's room was indeed rather astonishingto him. As missus Medlock opened the
door, he heard laughing and chattering. Colin was on his sofa in his
dressing gown, and he was sittingup quite straight, looking at a picture

(01:51):
in one of the garden books,and talking to the plain child, who
at that moment could scarcely be calledplane at all, because her face was
so glowing with enjoyment. Those longspires of blue ones will have a lot
of those, Colin was announcing.They're called del finiums. Dickens says they're

(02:14):
larkspurs made big and grand cried MistressMary, there are clumps there already.
Then they saw doctor Craven and stopped. Mary became quite still, and Colin
looked fretful. I am sorry tohear you are ill last night, my
boy, doctor Craven said, atrifle nervously. He was rather a nervous

(02:37):
man. I'm better now, muchbetter, Colin answered, rather like a
Rajah. I'm going out in mychair in a day or two. If
it is fine, I want somefresh air. Doctor Craven sat down by
him and felt his pulse and lookedat him curiously. It must be a

(02:58):
very fine day, he said,and you must be very careful not to
tire yourself. Fresh air won't tireme, said the young Rajah. As
there had been occasions when this sameyoung gentleman had shrieked aloud with rage and
had insisted that fresh air would givehim cold and kill him. It is

(03:21):
not to be wondered at that.His doctor felt somewhat startled. I thought
you did not like fresh air,he said. I don't when I am
by myself, replied the Rajah.But my cousin is going out with me,
and the nurse, of course,suggested doctor Craven. No, I

(03:43):
will not have the nurse so magnificentlythat Mary could not help remembering how the
young native prince had looked with hisdiamonds and rubies and pearls stuck all over
him, and the great rubies onthe small dark hand. He had waved
to command his servants to approach withsalaams and receive his orders. My cousin

(04:05):
knows how to take care of me. I am always better when she is
with me. She made me betterlast night. A very strong boy I
know will push my carriage. DoctorCraven felt rather alarmed. If this tiresome,
hysterical boy should chance to get well, he himself would lose all chance
of inheriting Misselthwaite. But he wasnot an unscrupulous man, though he was

(04:30):
a weak one, and he didnot intend to let him run into actual
danger. He must be a strongboy and a steady boy, he said,
And I must know something about him. Who is he? What is
his name? It's Dickon, Maryspoke up suddenly. She felt somehow that

(04:50):
everybody who knew the More must knowDickon. And she was right too,
She saw that. In a moment, Doctor Craven's serious face relaxed into a
relieved smile. Oh, Dickon,he said, If it is Dickon,
you will be safe enough. He'sas strong as a moor pony, is

(05:11):
Dickon. And he's trusty, saidMary. He's the trustiest lad of Yorkshire.
She had been talking Yorkshire to Colin, and she forgot herself. Did
Dickon teach you that, asked DoctorCraven, laughing outright. I'm learning it
as if it was French, saidMary, rather coldly. It's like a

(05:35):
native dialect in India. Very cleverpeople try to learn them. I like
it, and so does Colin.Well well, he said, if it
amuses you, perhaps it won't doyou any harm. Did you take your
bromide last night, Colin? No, Colin answered, I wouldn't take it
at first, And after Mary mademe quiet, she talked me to sleep

(05:59):
in a low voice about the springcreeping into a garden. That sounds soothing,
said doctor Craven, more perplexed thanever, and glancing sideways at Mistress
Mary, sitting on her stool andlooking down silently at the carpet. You
are evidently better, but you mustremember. I don't want to remember,

(06:24):
interrupted the rajah appearing again. WhenI lie by myself and remember, I
begin to have pains everywhere, andI 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 illinstead of remembering it, I would have
him brought here, and he waveda thin hand which ought really to have

(06:47):
been covered with royal signet rings madeof rubies. It is because my cousin
makes me forget that she makes mebetter. Doctor Craven had ever made such
a short stay after a tantrum.Usually he was obliged to remain a very
long time and do a great manythings. This afternoon, he did not

(07:10):
give any medicine or leave any neworders, and he was spared any disagreeable
scenes. When he went downstairs,he looked very thoughtful, and when he
talked to Missus Medlock in the library, she felt that he was a much
puzzled man. Well, sir,she ventured, could you have believed it?

(07:33):
It is certainly a new state ofaffairs, said the doctor, And
there's no denying it is better thanthe old one. I believe Susan Sowerby
is right. I'd do that,said Missus Medlock. I stopped in her
cottage on my way to Thwaite yesterdayand had a bit of a talk with
her, and she says to me, well, Sarah Anne, she mayn't

(07:57):
be a good child, and shemayn't be a pretty one, but she's
a child and children needs children.We went to school together, Susan Sowerby
and me. She's the best sicknurse I know, said doctor Craven.
When I find her in a cottage, I know the chances are that I
shall save my patient. Missus Medlocksmiled. She was fond of Susan Sowerby.

(08:24):
She's got away with her has Susan, she went on, quite volubly.
I've been thinking all morning of onething, she said. Yesterday,
she says. Once when I wasgiven the children a bit of a preach
after they had been fightin', Isays to them all. When I was
at school, my geography told asthe world was shaped like an orange.

(08:45):
And I found out before I wasten that the whole orange doesn't belong to
nobody. No one owns more thanhis bit of a quarter. And there's
times it seems like there's not anow quarters to go round. But don't
you none of you think as youown the whole orange, or you'll find
out you're mistaken, and you won'tfind it out without hard knocks. What

(09:07):
children learns from children, she says, is that there's no sense in grabbing
at the whole orange. Peel andall. If you do, you'll likely
not get even the pips, andthem's too bitter to eat. She's a
shrewd woman, said doctor Craven,putting on his coat. Well, she's

(09:28):
got a way of saying things ended, missus Medlock much pleased. Sometimes I've
said to her, Eh, Susan, if you was a different woman and
didn't talk such broad Yorkshire, I'veseen the times when I should have said
you was clever. That night,Colin slept without once awakening, and when

(09:48):
he opened his eyes in the morning, he lay still and smiled without knowing
it. Smiled because he felt socuriously comfortable. It was actually nice to
be awake, and he turned overand stretched his limbs luxuriously. He felt
as if tight strings which had heldhim had loosened themselves and let him go.

(10:13):
He did not know that Doctor Cravenwould have said that his nerves had
relaxed and rested themselves. Instead oflying and staring at the wall and wishing
he had not awakened. His mindwas full of the plans he and Mary
had made yesterday, of pictures ofthe garden and of Dickon and his wild
creatures. It was so nice tohave things to think about. And he

(10:37):
had not been awake more than tenminutes when he heard feet running along the
corridor, and Mary was at thedoor. The next minute she was in
the room and had run across tohis bed, bringing with her a waft
of fresh air, full of thescent of the morning. You've been out,
you've been out. There's that nicesmell of leaves ride. She had

(11:01):
been running, and her hair wasloose and blown, and she was bright
with the air and pink cheeked.Though he could not see it, it's
so beautiful, she said, alittle breathless with her speed. You never
saw anything so beautiful. It hascome. I thought it had come that

(11:22):
other morning, but it was onlycoming. It is here now. It
has come the spring. Dickon says, So has it, cried Colin,
And though he really knew nothing aboutit, he felt his heart beat.
He actually sat up in bed.Open the window, he added, laughing,

(11:43):
half with joyful excitement and half athis own fancy. Perhaps we may
hear golden trumpets. And though helaughed, Mary was at the window in
a moment, and in a momentmore it was opened wide, and freshness
and softness and scents and birds songswere pouring through. That's fresh air,

(12:07):
she said. Lie on your backand draw in long breaths of it.
That's what Dickon does when he's lyingon the moor. He says, he
feels it in his veins, andit makes him strong, and he feels
as if he could live forever andever. Breathe it, and breathe it.
She was only repeating what Dickon hadtold her, but she caught Colin's

(12:30):
fancy forever and ever? Does itmake him feel like that? He said,
And he did as she told him, drawing in long, deep breaths
over and over again, until hefelt that something quite new and delightful was
happening to him. Mary was athis bedside again. Things are crowding up

(12:54):
out of the earth. She ranon in a hurry, And there are
flowers curling and buds on everything,and the green vale has covered nearly all
the gray, and the birds arein 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. Andthe rose bushes look as wick as wick

(13:18):
can be, and there are primrosesin the lanes and woods, and the
seeds we planted are up, andDickon has brought the fox and the crow,
and the squirrels, and a newbornlamb. And then she paused for
breath. The newborn lamb Dickon hadfound three days before, lying by its
dead mother among the gorse bushes onthe moor. It was not the first

(13:41):
motherless lamb he had found, andhe knew what to do with it.
He had taken it to the cottagewrapped in his jacket, and he had
let it lie near the fire,and had fed it with warm milk.
It was a soft thing, witha darling, silly baby face, and
legs rather long or its body.Dickon had carried it over the moor in

(14:03):
his arms, and its feeding bottlewas in his pocket with a squirrel.
And when Mary had sat under atree with its limp warmness huddled on her
lap, she had felt as ifshe were too full of strange joy to
speak. A lamb, a lamb, a living lamb who lay on your
lap like a baby. She wasdescribing it with great joy, and Colin

(14:28):
was listening and drawing in long breathsof air. When the nurse entered.
She started a little at the sightof the open window. She had sat
stifling in the room many a warmday because her patient was sure that open
windows gave people cold. Are yousure you are not chilly, Master Colin,

(14:48):
she inquired, No, was theanswer. I am breathing long breaths
of fresh air. It makes youstrong. I going to get up to
the sofa for breakfast. My cousinwill have breakfast with me. The nurse
went away, concealing a smile,to give the order for two breakfasts.

(15:11):
She found the servants hall a moreamusing place than the invalid's chamber, and
just now everybody wanted to hear thenews from upstairs. There was a great
deal of joking about the unpopular youngrecluse, who, as the cook said,
had found his master, and goodfor him. The servants hall had

(15:33):
been very tired of the tantrums,and the butler, who was a man
with a family, had more thanonce expressed his opinion that the invalid would
be all the better for a goodhiding. When Colin was on his sofa
and the breakfast for two was putupon the table, he made an announcement
to the nurse in his most rajahlike manner. A boy and a fox,

(15:58):
and a crow, and two squirrelsand a new born lamb are coming
to see me this morning. Iwant them brought upstairs as soon as they
come, he said. You arenot to begin playing with the animals in
the servants hall and keep them there. I want them here. The nurse
gave a slight gasp and tried toconceal it with a cough. Yes,

(16:22):
sir, she answered. I'll tellyou what you can do, added Colin,
waving his hand. You can tellMartha to bring them here. The
boy is Martha's brother. His nameis Dickon, and he is an animal
charmer. I hope the animals won'tbite, master, Colin, said the
nurse. I told you he wasa charmer, said Colin. Austerely charmers

(16:47):
animals never bite. There are snakecharmers in India, said Mary, and
they can put their snake's heads intheir mouths. Goodness, shuddered the nurse.
They ate their breakfast with the morningair pouring in upon them. Colin's
breakfast was a very good one,and Mary watched him with serious interest.

(17:11):
You will begin to get fatter,just as I did. She said,
I never wanted my breakfast when Iwas in India, and now I always
want it. I wanted mine thismorning, said Colin. Perhaps it was
the fresh air. When do youthink Dickon will come? He was not
long in coming, in about tenminutes. Mary held up her hand.

(17:33):
Listen, she said, did youhear a caw? Colin listened and heard
it. The oddest sound in theworld to hear inside a house. A
horse caw caw? Yes, heanswered, that's soot, said Mary.
Listen again. Do you hear ableat a tiny one? Oh? Yes,

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cried Colin, white flushing. That'sthe newborn lamb, said Mary.
He's coming. Dickon's Moorland boots werethick and clumsy, and though he tried
to walk quietly, they made aclumping sound. As he walked through the
long corridors. Mary and Colin heardhim marching, marching, until he passed

(18:21):
through the tapestry door on to thesoft carpet of Colin's own passage. If
you please, sir, announced Martha, opening the door. If you please,
sir, here's Dickon and his creatures. Dickon came in, smiling his
nicest wide smile. The newborn lambwas in his arms, and the little

(18:44):
red fox trotted by his side.Nut sat on his left shoulder, and
soot on his right, and shellshead and paws peeped out of his coat
pocket. Colin slowly sat up andstared and stared, as he had stared
when he first saw Mary. Butthis was a stare of wonder and delight.

(19:06):
The truth was that, in spiteof all he had heard, he
had not in the least understood whatthis boy would be like, and that
his fox and his crow, andhis squirrels and his lamb were so near
to him and his friendliness that theyseemed almost to be a part of himself.
Colin had never talked to a boyin his life, and he was

(19:29):
so overwhelmed by his own pleasure andcuriosity that he did not even think of
speaking. But Dickon did not feelthe least shy or awkward. He had
not felt embarrassed because the crow hadnot known his language and had only stared
and had not spoken to him thefirst time they met. Creatures were always
like that until they found out aboutyou. He walked over to Colin's sofa

(19:53):
and put the newborn lamb quietly onhis lap, and immediately the little creature
turned to the warm velvet dressing gownand began to nuzzle and nuzzle into its
folds and butt its tight curled headwith soft impatience against his side. Of
course, no boy could have helped. Speaking then, what is it doing,

(20:17):
cried Colin. What does it want? It wants its mother, said
Dickon, smiling more and more.I brought it to thee a bit hungry,
because I knowed I'd like to seeit feed. He knelt down by
the sofa and took a feeding bottlefrom his pocket. Come on, little

(20:37):
un, he said, turning thesmall, wooly white head with a gentle
brown hand. This is what doesafter. They'll get more out of this
than they will out of silk velvetcoats. There now, and he pushed
the rubber tip of the bottle intothe nuzzling mouth, and the lamb began
to suck it with ravenous ecstasy.After that, there was no wondering what

(21:03):
to say. By the time thelamb fell asleep, questions poured forth,
and Dickon answered them all. Hetold 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 onlya speck in the heights of blue.

(21:27):
I'd almost lost him but for hissong, and I was wonderin' how a
chap could hear it when it seemedas if he'd get out of the world
in a minute. And just thenI heard something else far off among the
gorse bushes. It was a weakbleatin', and I know it it was
the new lamb as was hungry,and I know it it wouldn't be hungry
if it hadn't lost its mother somehow. So I set off searchin' eh I

(21:51):
did have a look for it.I went in and out among the gorse
bushes, and round and round,and I always seemed to take the wrong
turnin'. But at last past Iseed a bit of white by a rock
on top of the moor, andI climbed up and found the little and
half dead were cold and clemming.While he talked. Soot flew solemnly in

(22:11):
and out of the open window,and cowd remarks about the scenery, while
nut and shell made excursions into thebig trees outside, and ran up and
down trunks and explored branches. Captaincurled up near Dickon, who sat on
the hearth rug from preference. Theylooked at the pictures in the gardening books,

(22:32):
and Dickon knew all the flowers bytheir country names, and knew exactly
which ones were already growing in thesecret garden. I couldna say that their
name, he said, pointing toone under which was written aquileigia. But
us calls that a columbine, andthat there one it's a snapdragon. And

(22:53):
they both grow wild in hedges.But these is garden ones, and they
are bigger and grander. There's somebig clumps of columbine in the garden.
They'll look like a bed of blueand white butterflies flutterin' when they're out.
I'm going to see them, criedColin. I am going to see them.

(23:15):
Ay that, the mun said Mary, quite seriously, And the monnot
lose no time about it. Endof Chapter nineteen