20 - “I Shall Live Forever – and Ever – and Ever!” - The Secret Garden

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Chapter twenty, I shall live foreverand ever and ever. But they were
obliged to wait more than a week, because first there came some very windy
days, and then Colin was threatenedwith a cold, which two things happening

(00:20):
one after the other, would nodoubt have thrown him into a rage.
But that there was so much carefuland mysterious planning to do, and almost
every day Dickon came in, ifonly for a few minutes, to talk
about what was happening on the moorand in the lanes and hedges and on
the borders of streams. The thingshe had to tell about otters and badgers

(00:43):
and water rats houses, not tomention birds nests and field mice and their
burrows, were enough to make youalmost tremble with excitement when you heard all
the intimate details from an animal charmerand realized with what thrilling eagerness and anxiety
the whole busy underworld was working.They're the same as us, said Dickon,

(01:07):
only they have to build their homesevery year, and I keeps them
so busy they fair scuffle to getem done. The most absorbing thing,
however, was the preparations to bemade before Colin could be transported with sufficient
secrecy to the garden. No onemust see the chair carriage and Dickon and

(01:29):
Mary after they turned a certain cornerof the shrubbery and entered upon the walk
outside the ivied walls. As eachday passed, Colin had become more and
more fixed in his feeling that themystery surrounding the garden was one of its
greatest charms. Nothing must spoil that. No one must ever suspect that they

(01:52):
had a secret. People must thinkthat he was simply going out with Mary
and Dickon because he liked them anddid not to their looking at him.
They had long and quite delightful talksabout their route. They would go up
this path and down that one,and cross the other, and go round
among the fountain flower beds, asif they were looking at the bedding out

(02:15):
plants. The head gardener, misterRoach, had been having arranged that would
seem such a rational thing to dothat no one would think it at all
mysterious. They would turn into theshrubbery walks and lose themselves until they came
to the long walls. It wasalmost as serious and elaborately thought out as

(02:38):
the plans of march made by greatgenerals in time of war. Rumors of
the new and curious things which wereoccurring in the Invalid's apartments had of course
filtered through the servants hall, intothe stable yards, and out among the
gardeners. But notwithstanding this, misterRoach was startled one day when he received

(03:00):
orders from Master Colin's room to theeffect that he must report himself in the
apartment. No outsider had ever seenas the invalid himself desired to speak to
him. Well, well, hesaid to himself, as he hurriedly changed
his coat. What's to do now, his Royal Highness? That wasn't to

(03:23):
be looked at. Calling up aman he's never set eyes on, mister
Roach was not without curiosity. Hehad never caught even a glimpse of the
boy, and had heard a dozenexaggerated stories about his uncanny looks and ways,
and his insane tempers. The thinghe had heard oftenest was that he

(03:44):
might die at any moment, andthere had been numerous fanciful descriptions of a
humped back and helpless limbs given bypeople who had never seen him. Things
are changing in this house, misterRoach said, missus mead Locke as she
led him up the back staircase tothe corridor, on to which opened the
hitherto mysterious chamber. Let us hopethey're changing for the better, missus Medlock,

(04:12):
he answered. They couldn't well changefor the worse, she continued,
And queer as it all is,there's them as fines. Their duties made
a lot easier to stand up under. Don't you be surprised, mister Roach,
if you find yourself in the middleof a menagerie and Martha Sowerby's Dickon
more at home than you or mecould ever be. There really was a

(04:36):
sort of magic about Dickon, asMary always privately believed. When mister Roach
heard his name, he smiled quiteleniently. He'd be at home in Buckingham
Palace, or at the bottom ofa coal mine, he said. And
yet it's not impudence either. He'sjust fine, is that lad? It

(04:59):
was perhaps well he had been prepared, or he might have been startled.
When the bedroom door was opened,a large crow, which seemed quite at
home, perched on the high backof a carven chair, announced the entrance
of a visitor by saying, cawcaw quite loudly in spite of missus Medlock's

(05:20):
warning. Mister Roach only just escaped, being sufficiently undignified to jump backward.
The young Rajah was neither in bednor on his sofa. He was sitting
in an armchair, and a younglamb was standing by him, shaking its
tail in feeding lamb fashion as Dickonknelt giving it milk from its bottle.

(05:45):
A squirrel was perched on Dickon's bentback, attentively nibbling a nut. The
little girl from India was sitting ona big footstool looking on. Here is
mister roach master, Colin, saidMissus Medlock. The young Rajah turned and
looked his servitor over. At leastthat was what the head gardener felt happened.

(06:10):
Oh you are Roach, are you? He said? I sent for
you to give you some very importantorders. Very good, sir, answered
Roach, wondering if he was toreceive instructions to fell all the oaks in
the park or to transform the orchardsinto water gardens. I am going out

(06:31):
in my chair this afternoon, saidColin. If the fresh air agrees with
me, I may go out everyday. When I go none of the
gardeners are to be anywhere near thelong walk by the garden walls. No
one is to be there. Ishall go out about two o'clock and every
one must keep away until I sendword that they may go back to their

(06:55):
work. Very good, sir,replied mister Roach, much relieved to hear
that the oaks might remain and thatthe orchards were safe. Mary said colin
turning to her, what is thatthing you say in India when you have
finished talking and want people to go, You say you have my permission to

(07:19):
go, answered Mary. The Rajahwaved his hand. You have my permission
to go, Roach, he said, but remember this is very important.
Aw caw, remarked the crow,hoarsely, but not impolitely. Very good

(07:42):
sir, Thank you, sir,said mister Roach. And Missus Medlock took
him out of the room outside inthe corridor. Being a rather good natured
man, he smiled until he almostlaughed. My word, he said.
He's got a fine lordly way withhim, hasn't he. You'd think he

(08:03):
was a whole royal family rolled intoone. Prince Consort and all ey protested
Missus Medlock. We've had to lethim trample all over every one of us
ever since he had feet, andhe thinks that's what folks was born for.
Perhaps he'll grow out of it ifhe lives, suggested mister Roach.

(08:26):
Well there's one thing pretty sure,said missus Medlock. If he does live
and that Indian child stays here,I'll warrant she teaches him that the whole
orange does not belong to him,as Susan Sowerby says, and he'll be
likely to find out the size ofhis own quarter. Inside the room,

(08:48):
Colin was leaning back on his cushions. It's all safe now, he said,
And this afternoon I shall see it. This afternoon I shall be in
it. Dickon went back to thegarden with his creatures, and Mary stayed
with Colin. She did not thinkhe looked tired, but he was very

(09:09):
quiet before their lunch came, andhe was quiet while they were eating it.
She wondered why and asked him aboutit. What big eyes you've got,
Colin, she said, when youare thinking they get as big as
saucers, What are you thinking aboutnow? I can't help thinking about what

(09:30):
it will look like, he answered. The garden asked Mary the springtime he
said. I was thinking that I'vereally never seen it before. I scarcely
ever went out, and when Idid go I never looked at it.
I didn't even think about it.I never saw it in India because there

(09:52):
wasn't any, said Mary, shutin and morbid as his life had been.
Colin had more imagine nation than shehad, and at least he had
spent a good deal of time lookingat wonderful books and pictures. That morning,
when you ran in and said it'scome, It's come, you made
me feel quite queer. It soundedas if things were coming with a great

(10:16):
procession and big pursts and wafts ofmusic. I've a picture like it in
one of my books, crowds oflovely people and children with garlands and branches
with blossoms on them, everyone laughingand dancing and crowding and playing on pipes.
That was why I said, perhapswe shall hear golden trumpets, and

(10:39):
told you to throw open the window. How funny, said Mary. That's
really just what it feels like.And if all the flowers and leaves and
green things and birds and wild creaturesdanced past at once, what a crowd
it would be. I'm sure they'ddance and sing and flute, and that

(11:00):
would be the wafts of music.They both laughed, but it was not
because the idea was laughable, butbecause they both so liked it. A
little later, the nurse made Colinready. She noticed that, instead of
lying like a log while his clotheswere put on, he sat up and

(11:20):
made some efforts to help himself,and he talked and laughed with Mary all
the time. This is one ofhis good days, sir, she said
to doctor Craven, who dropped into inspect him. He's in such good
spirits that it makes him stronger.I'll call in again later in the afternoon

(11:41):
after he has come in, saiddoctor Craven. I must see how the
going out agrees with him. Iwish, in a very low voice,
that he would let you go withhim. I'd rather give up the case
this moment, sir, than evenstay here while it suggested, answered the

(12:01):
nurse with sudden firmness. I hadn'treally decided to suggest it, said the
doctor, with his slight nervousness.We'll try the experiment, dickens a lad
I'd trust with a newborn child.The strongest footman in the house carried Colin
downstairs and put him in his wheeledchair, near which Dickon waited outside.

(12:26):
After the man servant had arranged hisrugs and cushions, the Rajah waved his
hand to him and to the nurse. You have my permission to go,
he said, and they both disappearedquickly, and it must be confessed,
giggled. When they were safely insidethe house, Dickon began to push the

(12:48):
wheeled chair slowly and steadily. MistressMary walked beside it, and Colin leaned
back and lifted his face to thesky. The arch of it looked very
high, and the small snowy cloudsseemed like white birds floating on outspread wings
below its crystal blueness. The windswept in soft, big breaths down from

(13:13):
the moor and was strange with awild, clear, scented sweetness. Colin
kept lifting his thin chest to drawit in, and his big eyes looked
as if it were they which werelistening, listening instead of his ears.
There are so many sounds of singingand humming and calling out, he said,

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what is that scent? The puffsof wind bring it's gorse on the
moor that's open and out, answeredDickon. Ay, the bees are at
it wonderful today. Not a humancreature was to be caught sight of in
the paths they took. In fact, every gardener or gardener's lad had been

(13:58):
witched away. But they found inand out among the shrubbery, and out
and round the fountain beds, followingtheir carefully planned route for the mere mysterious
pleasure of it. But when atlast they turned into the long walk by
the ivied walls, the excited senseof an approaching thrill made them, for

(14:18):
some curious reason they could not haveexplained, begin to speak in whispers.
This is it, breathed Mary.This is where I used to walk up
and down and wonder and wonder isit? Cried Colin, and his eyes
began to search the ivy with eagercuriousness. But I can see nothing,

(14:41):
he whispered. There is no door. That's what I thought, said Mary.
Then there was a lovely, breathlesssilence, and the chair wheeled on.
That is the garden where ben Weatherstaffworks, said Mary. Is it?

(15:01):
Said Colin? A few yards more, and Mary whispered again, this
is where the robin flew over thewall, She said, is it?
Cried Colin. Oh, I wishhe'd come again. And that said Mary
with solemn delight, pointing under abig lilac bush. Is where he perched

(15:26):
on the little heap of earth andshowed me the key. Then Colin sat
up where where there he cried,and his eyes were as big as the
wolf's in Red Riding Hood. WhenRed Riding Hood felt called upon to remark
on them, Dickon stood still,and the wheeled chair stopped. And this

(15:52):
said Mary, stepping on to thebed close to the ivy. Is where
I went to talk to him whenhe chirped at me from the top of
the wall. And this is theivy. The wind blew back, and
she took hold of the hanging greencurtain. Oh is it is? It,
gasped Colin. And here is thehandle, and here is the door.

(16:17):
Dickon, Push him in, Pushhim in quickly. And Dickon did
it with one strong, steady,splendid push. But Colin had actually dropped
back against his cushions, even thoughhe gasped with delight, and he had
covered his eyes with his hands andheld them there, shutting out everything until

(16:38):
they were inside. And the chairstopped, as if by magic, and
the door was closed. Not tillthen did he take them away, and
look round and round and round,as Dickon and Mary had done, and
over walls and earth, and trees, and swinging sprays and tendrils, the

(17:00):
fair green veil of tender little leaveshad crept, and in the grass,
under the trees, and the grayurns, and the alcoves, and here
and there, everywhere were touches orsplashes of gold and purple and white,
and the trees were showing pink andsnow above his head, and there were

(17:22):
flutterings of wings, and faint sweetpipes, and humming, and scents and
scents, and the sun fell warmupon his face, like a hand with
a lovely touch, and in wonderMary and Dickon stood and stared at him.
He looked so strange and different,because a pink glow of color had

(17:47):
actually crept all over him, ivoryface and neck and hands, and all.
I shall get well. I shallget well, he cried out Mary
Dickon. I shall get well,and I shall live forever and ever and
ever. End of Chapter twenty