November 13, 2023 • 14 mins
As Colin’s strength grows, his personality changes as well. He becomes less spoiled and more kind-hearted. His transformation is a reflection of the garden’s influence, and he begins to interact positively with others. His relationship with Mary and Dickon strengthens, symbolizing the power of friendship and nature. Summary by Dream Audio Books
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
visit LibriVox dot org. This reading by Kara Shallenberg www
dot kay dot org. The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett,
(00:27):
Chapter eighteen. Theou mannot waste no time. Of course, Mary
did not waken early the next morning. She slept late
because she was tired, and when Martha brought her breakfast,
she told her that though Colin was quite quiet, he
was ill and feverish, as he always was, after he
(00:49):
had worn himself out with a fit of crying. Mary
ate her breakfast slowly as she listened. He says he
wishes thou would please please go and see him as
soon as they can. Martha said, it's queer, what a
fancy he's took to thee. Thou did give it him
last night, for sure, didn't they? Nobody else would have
(01:10):
dared to do it, Eh, poor lad, he's been spoiled
till salt won't save him. Mother says, as the two
worst things as can happen to a child is never
to have his own way or always to have it.
She doesn't know which is the worst. Thou wasn't a
fine temper? Thus off too, But he says to me
when I went into his room, please ask miss Mary
(01:33):
if she'll please come and talk to me, think o him, saying, please,
will you go, Miss I'll run and see Dickon first,
said Mary. No, I'll go and see Colin first and
tell him. I know what I'll tell him with a
sudden inspiration. She had her hat on when she appeared
(01:56):
in Colin's room, and for a second he looked disappointed.
He was in bed, His face was pitifully white, and
there were dark circles round his eyes. I'm glad you came,
he said. My head aches and I ache all over
because I'm so tired. Are you going somewhere? Mary went
(02:19):
and leaned against his bed. I won't be long, she said,
I'm going to Dickon, but i'll come back. Colin. It's
it's something about the garden. His whole face brightened and
a little color came into it. Oh is it, he
cried out. I dreamed about it all night. I heard
(02:42):
you say something about gray changing into green, and I
dreamed I was standing in a place all filled with
trembling little green leaves, and there were birds on nests everywhere,
and they looked so soft and still. I'll lie and
think about it until you come back. In five minutes,
(03:02):
Mary was with Dickon in their garden. The fox and
the crow were with him again, and this time he
had brought two tame squirrels. I came over on the
pony this mornin, he said, Ay, he is a good
little chap, jump is I brought these two in my pockets.
This here one he's called Nut, and this here other
(03:24):
one's called shell. When he said nut, one squirrel leaped
on to his right shoulder, and when he said shell,
the other one leaped on to his left shoulder. When
they sat down on the grass with Captain curled at
their feet, soot solemnly listening on a tree, and Nut
(03:44):
and Shell nosing about close to them, it seemed to
Mary that it would be scarcely bearable to leave such delightfulness.
But when she began to tell her story, somehow the
look in Dickon's funny face gradually changed her mind. She
could see he felt sorrier for Colin than she did.
(04:05):
He looked up at the sky and all about him,
just listen to them birds. The world seems full of em,
all whistlin' and pipin, he said, look at 'em dartin
about an hearken at em callin to each other come springtime.
Seems like as if all the world's callin the leaves
is uncurlin. So you can see em an my word,
(04:27):
the nice smells there is about sniffing with his happy
turned up nose. An that poor lad lyin shut up
an seein so little that he gets to thinkin o
things a set him screamin' eh my, we mun get
him out here, We mun get him watchin an listenin
an sniffin up the air, and get him just soaked
through with sunshine, and we mun not lose no time
(04:50):
about it. When he was very much interested, he often
spoke quite broad Yorkshire, though at other times he tried
to modify his dialect so that Mary could better understand.
But she loved his broad Yorkshire, and had in fact
been trying to learn to speak it herself. So she
spoke a little now ay that we mun, she said,
(05:14):
which meant, yes, indeed we must. I'll tell thee what
us'll do. First, she proceeded, and dickon grinned, because when
the little wench tried to twist her tongue into speaking Yorkshire,
it amused him very much. He's took a gradely fancy
to thee. He wants to see thee and he wants
(05:36):
to see Soot and Captain. When I go back to
the house to talk to him, I'll axe him if
thou cannot come and see him tomorrow mornin and bring
the creatures with thee. And then in a bit, when
there's more leaves out an happen a bud or two,
we'll get him to come out, and thou shalt push
him in his chair, and we'll bring him here and
(05:57):
show him everything. When she stopped, she was quite proud
of herself. She had never made a long speech in
Yorkshire before, and she had remembered very well the mun
talk of it at Yorkshire like that. To Mester Colin
Dickon chuckled. They'll make him laugh. And there's nowt as
good for ill folk as laughin is. Mother says she
(06:19):
believes as a half hour's good laugh every mornin' a'd
curate chap as was makin ready for typhus fever. I'm
going to talk Yorkshire to him. This very day, said Mary,
chuckling herself. The garden had reached the time when every
day and every night it seemed as if magicians were
passing through it, drawing loveliness out of the earth and
(06:42):
the boughs with wands. It was hard to go away
and leave it all, particularly as Nut had actually crept
on to her dress, and Shell had scrambled down the
trunk of the apple tree they sat under, and stayed there,
looking at her with inquiring eyes. But she went back
to the house, and when she sat down close to
(07:04):
Colin's bed, he began to sniff as Dickon did, though
not in such an experienced way. You smell like flowers
and and fresh things, he cried out, quite joyously. What
is it you smell of? It's cool and warm and
sweet all at the same time. It's the wind from
(07:26):
the moor, said Mary. It comes a sittin on the
grass under a tree with Dickon and with Captain and
soot and Nut and Shell. It's the springtime and out
o doors and sunshine. As smell so greatly. She said
it as broadly as she could, And you do not
know how broadly Yorkshire sounds until you have heard some
(07:47):
one speak it. Colin began to laugh. What are you doing?
He said, I never heard you talk like that before.
How funny it sounds. I'm givin thee a bit o Yorkshire,
answered Mary triumphantly. I cannot talk as greatly as Dickon
and Martha can, but the seas I can shape a bit,
doesn't the understand a bit o Yorkshire? When the heir
(08:10):
is it and the a Yorkshire lad thy sell bread
and born? Eh? I wonder that art not ashamed thy face?
And then she began to laugh too, and they both
laughed until they could not stop themselves, and they laughed
until the room echoed, and missus Medlock, opening the door
to come in, drew back into the corridor and stood listening, amazed.
(08:35):
Well upon my word, she said, speaking rather broad Yorkshire herself,
because there was no one to hear her, And she
was so astonished. Whoever heard the like, whoever on earth
would ha thought it? There was so much to talk about.
It seemed as if Colin could never hear enough of
(08:55):
Dickon and Captain, and Soot and nut and Shell and
the pony whose name was Jump. Mary had run round
into the wood with Dickon to see Jump. He was
a tiny, little shaggy more pony, with thick locks hanging
over his eyes, and with a pretty face and a
nuzzling velvet nose. He was rather thin, with living on
(09:17):
moor grass, but he was as tough and wiry as
if the muscle in his little legs had been made
of steel springs. He had lifted his head and whinnied
softly the moment he saw Dickon, and he had trotted
up to him and put his head across his shoulder,
And then Dickon had talked into his ear, and Jump
had talked back in odd little whinnies and puffs and snorts.
(09:42):
Dickon had made him give Mary his small front hoof
and kiss her on the cheek with his velvet muzzle.
Does he really understand everything, Dickon says. Colin asked, it
seems as if he does, answered Mary. Dickon says, any,
we'll understand if you're friends with it, for sure, but
(10:03):
you have to be friends for sure. Colin lay quiet
a little while, and his strange gray eyes seemed to
be staring at the wall, but Mary saw he was thinking,
I wish I was friends with things, he said at last,
But I'm not. I never had anything to be friends with,
(10:24):
and I can't bear people. Can't you bear me? Asked Mary? Yes,
I can, he answered. It's funny, but I even like you.
Ben Weatherstaff said I was like him, said Mary. He
said he'd warrant we'd both got the same nasty tempers.
(10:44):
I think you are like him too. We are all
three alike, you and I and Ben Weatherstaff, he said.
We were neither of us much to look at, and
we were as sour as we looked. But I don't
feel as sour as I used to before I knew
the Robin and Dickon. Did you feel as if you
hated people? Yes, answered Mary, without any affectation. I should
(11:08):
have detested you if I had seen you before I
saw the Robin and Dickon. Colin put out his thin
hand and touched her. Mary. He said, I wish I
hadn't said what I did about sending Dickon away. I
hated you when you said he was like an angel,
and I laughed at you. But but perhaps he is well.
(11:32):
It was rather funny to say it, she admitted, frankly,
because his nose does turn up, and he has a
big mouth, and his clothes have patches all over them,
and he talks broad Yorkshire. But but if an angel
did come to Yorkshire and live on the moor, If
there was a Yorkshire angel, I believe he'd understand the
(11:53):
green things and know how to make them grow, and
he would know how to talk to the wild creatures
as Dickon does, and they'd know he was friends for sure.
I shouldn't mind Dickon looking at me, said Colin. I
want to see him. I'm glad you said that, answered Mary,
because because quite suddenly it came into her mind that
(12:18):
this was the minute to tell him. Colin knew something
new was coming because what he cried eagerly. Mary was
so anxious that she got up from her stool and
came to him and caught hold of both his hands.
Can I trust you? I trusted Dickon because birds trusted him.
(12:40):
Can I trust you for sure? For sure? She implored.
Her face was so solemn that he almost whispered his answer. Yes, Yes, Well,
Dickon will come to see you tomorrow morning, and he'll
bring his creatures with him. Oh oh, Colin cried out
(13:03):
in delight. But that's not all, Mary went on, almost
pale with solemn excitement. The rest is better. There is
a door into the garden. I found it. It is
under the ivy on the wall. If he had been
a strong, healthy boy, Colin would probably have shouted hooray, hooray, hooray.
(13:27):
But he was weak and rather hysterical. His eyes grew
bigger and bigger, and he gasped for breath. Oh Mary,
he cried out, with a half sob Shall I see it?
Shall I get into it? Shall I live to get
into it? And he clutched her hands and dragged her
toward him. Of course you'll see it, snapped Mary, indignantly.
(13:51):
Of course you'll live to get into it. Don't be silly.
And she was so unhysterical and natural and childish that
she brought him to his sense, and he began to
laugh at himself. And a few minutes afterward, she was
sitting on her stool again, telling him not what she
imagined the secret garden to be like, but what it
really was. And Colin's aches and tiredness were forgotten, and
(14:15):
he was listening and raptured. It is just what you
thought it would be, he said at last, It sounds
just as if you had really seen it. You know,
I said that when you told me first. Mary hesitated
about two minutes and then boldly spoke the truth. I
(14:37):
had seen it, and I had been in. She said,
I found the key and got in weeks ago, but
I daren't tell you. I daren't because I was so
afraid I couldn't trust you for sure. End of chapter eighteen,
read by Kara Shallenberg on February ninth, two thousand six,
(15:00):
in Oceanside, California,
This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
visit LibriVox dot org. This reading by Kara Shallenberg www
dot kay dot org. The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett,
(00:27):
Chapter eighteen. Theou mannot waste no time. Of course, Mary
did not waken early the next morning. She slept late
because she was tired, and when Martha brought her breakfast,
she told her that though Colin was quite quiet, he
was ill and feverish, as he always was, after he
(00:49):
had worn himself out with a fit of crying. Mary
ate her breakfast slowly as she listened. He says he
wishes thou would please please go and see him as
soon as they can. Martha said, it's queer, what a
fancy he's took to thee. Thou did give it him
last night, for sure, didn't they? Nobody else would have
(01:10):
dared to do it, Eh, poor lad, he's been spoiled
till salt won't save him. Mother says, as the two
worst things as can happen to a child is never
to have his own way or always to have it.
She doesn't know which is the worst. Thou wasn't a
fine temper? Thus off too, But he says to me
when I went into his room, please ask miss Mary
(01:33):
if she'll please come and talk to me, think o him, saying, please,
will you go, Miss I'll run and see Dickon first,
said Mary. No, I'll go and see Colin first and
tell him. I know what I'll tell him with a
sudden inspiration. She had her hat on when she appeared
(01:56):
in Colin's room, and for a second he looked disappointed.
He was in bed, His face was pitifully white, and
there were dark circles round his eyes. I'm glad you came,
he said. My head aches and I ache all over
because I'm so tired. Are you going somewhere? Mary went
(02:19):
and leaned against his bed. I won't be long, she said,
I'm going to Dickon, but i'll come back. Colin. It's
it's something about the garden. His whole face brightened and
a little color came into it. Oh is it, he
cried out. I dreamed about it all night. I heard
(02:42):
you say something about gray changing into green, and I
dreamed I was standing in a place all filled with
trembling little green leaves, and there were birds on nests everywhere,
and they looked so soft and still. I'll lie and
think about it until you come back. In five minutes,
(03:02):
Mary was with Dickon in their garden. The fox and
the crow were with him again, and this time he
had brought two tame squirrels. I came over on the
pony this mornin, he said, Ay, he is a good
little chap, jump is I brought these two in my pockets.
This here one he's called Nut, and this here other
(03:24):
one's called shell. When he said nut, one squirrel leaped
on to his right shoulder, and when he said shell,
the other one leaped on to his left shoulder. When
they sat down on the grass with Captain curled at
their feet, soot solemnly listening on a tree, and Nut
(03:44):
and Shell nosing about close to them, it seemed to
Mary that it would be scarcely bearable to leave such delightfulness.
But when she began to tell her story, somehow the
look in Dickon's funny face gradually changed her mind. She
could see he felt sorrier for Colin than she did.
(04:05):
He looked up at the sky and all about him,
just listen to them birds. The world seems full of em,
all whistlin' and pipin, he said, look at 'em dartin
about an hearken at em callin to each other come springtime.
Seems like as if all the world's callin the leaves
is uncurlin. So you can see em an my word,
(04:27):
the nice smells there is about sniffing with his happy
turned up nose. An that poor lad lyin shut up
an seein so little that he gets to thinkin o
things a set him screamin' eh my, we mun get
him out here, We mun get him watchin an listenin
an sniffin up the air, and get him just soaked
through with sunshine, and we mun not lose no time
(04:50):
about it. When he was very much interested, he often
spoke quite broad Yorkshire, though at other times he tried
to modify his dialect so that Mary could better understand.
But she loved his broad Yorkshire, and had in fact
been trying to learn to speak it herself. So she
spoke a little now ay that we mun, she said,
(05:14):
which meant, yes, indeed we must. I'll tell thee what
us'll do. First, she proceeded, and dickon grinned, because when
the little wench tried to twist her tongue into speaking Yorkshire,
it amused him very much. He's took a gradely fancy
to thee. He wants to see thee and he wants
(05:36):
to see Soot and Captain. When I go back to
the house to talk to him, I'll axe him if
thou cannot come and see him tomorrow mornin and bring
the creatures with thee. And then in a bit, when
there's more leaves out an happen a bud or two,
we'll get him to come out, and thou shalt push
him in his chair, and we'll bring him here and
(05:57):
show him everything. When she stopped, she was quite proud
of herself. She had never made a long speech in
Yorkshire before, and she had remembered very well the mun
talk of it at Yorkshire like that. To Mester Colin
Dickon chuckled. They'll make him laugh. And there's nowt as
good for ill folk as laughin is. Mother says she
(06:19):
believes as a half hour's good laugh every mornin' a'd
curate chap as was makin ready for typhus fever. I'm
going to talk Yorkshire to him. This very day, said Mary,
chuckling herself. The garden had reached the time when every
day and every night it seemed as if magicians were
passing through it, drawing loveliness out of the earth and
(06:42):
the boughs with wands. It was hard to go away
and leave it all, particularly as Nut had actually crept
on to her dress, and Shell had scrambled down the
trunk of the apple tree they sat under, and stayed there,
looking at her with inquiring eyes. But she went back
to the house, and when she sat down close to
(07:04):
Colin's bed, he began to sniff as Dickon did, though
not in such an experienced way. You smell like flowers
and and fresh things, he cried out, quite joyously. What
is it you smell of? It's cool and warm and
sweet all at the same time. It's the wind from
(07:26):
the moor, said Mary. It comes a sittin on the
grass under a tree with Dickon and with Captain and
soot and Nut and Shell. It's the springtime and out
o doors and sunshine. As smell so greatly. She said
it as broadly as she could, And you do not
know how broadly Yorkshire sounds until you have heard some
(07:47):
one speak it. Colin began to laugh. What are you doing?
He said, I never heard you talk like that before.
How funny it sounds. I'm givin thee a bit o Yorkshire,
answered Mary triumphantly. I cannot talk as greatly as Dickon
and Martha can, but the seas I can shape a bit,
doesn't the understand a bit o Yorkshire? When the heir
(08:10):
is it and the a Yorkshire lad thy sell bread
and born? Eh? I wonder that art not ashamed thy face?
And then she began to laugh too, and they both
laughed until they could not stop themselves, and they laughed
until the room echoed, and missus Medlock, opening the door
to come in, drew back into the corridor and stood listening, amazed.
(08:35):
Well upon my word, she said, speaking rather broad Yorkshire herself,
because there was no one to hear her, And she
was so astonished. Whoever heard the like, whoever on earth
would ha thought it? There was so much to talk about.
It seemed as if Colin could never hear enough of
(08:55):
Dickon and Captain, and Soot and nut and Shell and
the pony whose name was Jump. Mary had run round
into the wood with Dickon to see Jump. He was
a tiny, little shaggy more pony, with thick locks hanging
over his eyes, and with a pretty face and a
nuzzling velvet nose. He was rather thin, with living on
(09:17):
moor grass, but he was as tough and wiry as
if the muscle in his little legs had been made
of steel springs. He had lifted his head and whinnied
softly the moment he saw Dickon, and he had trotted
up to him and put his head across his shoulder,
And then Dickon had talked into his ear, and Jump
had talked back in odd little whinnies and puffs and snorts.
(09:42):
Dickon had made him give Mary his small front hoof
and kiss her on the cheek with his velvet muzzle.
Does he really understand everything, Dickon says. Colin asked, it
seems as if he does, answered Mary. Dickon says, any,
we'll understand if you're friends with it, for sure, but
(10:03):
you have to be friends for sure. Colin lay quiet
a little while, and his strange gray eyes seemed to
be staring at the wall, but Mary saw he was thinking,
I wish I was friends with things, he said at last,
But I'm not. I never had anything to be friends with,
(10:24):
and I can't bear people. Can't you bear me? Asked Mary? Yes,
I can, he answered. It's funny, but I even like you.
Ben Weatherstaff said I was like him, said Mary. He
said he'd warrant we'd both got the same nasty tempers.
(10:44):
I think you are like him too. We are all
three alike, you and I and Ben Weatherstaff, he said.
We were neither of us much to look at, and
we were as sour as we looked. But I don't
feel as sour as I used to before I knew
the Robin and Dickon. Did you feel as if you
hated people? Yes, answered Mary, without any affectation. I should
(11:08):
have detested you if I had seen you before I
saw the Robin and Dickon. Colin put out his thin
hand and touched her. Mary. He said, I wish I
hadn't said what I did about sending Dickon away. I
hated you when you said he was like an angel,
and I laughed at you. But but perhaps he is well.
(11:32):
It was rather funny to say it, she admitted, frankly,
because his nose does turn up, and he has a
big mouth, and his clothes have patches all over them,
and he talks broad Yorkshire. But but if an angel
did come to Yorkshire and live on the moor, If
there was a Yorkshire angel, I believe he'd understand the
(11:53):
green things and know how to make them grow, and
he would know how to talk to the wild creatures
as Dickon does, and they'd know he was friends for sure.
I shouldn't mind Dickon looking at me, said Colin. I
want to see him. I'm glad you said that, answered Mary,
because because quite suddenly it came into her mind that
(12:18):
this was the minute to tell him. Colin knew something
new was coming because what he cried eagerly. Mary was
so anxious that she got up from her stool and
came to him and caught hold of both his hands.
Can I trust you? I trusted Dickon because birds trusted him.
(12:40):
Can I trust you for sure? For sure? She implored.
Her face was so solemn that he almost whispered his answer. Yes, Yes, Well,
Dickon will come to see you tomorrow morning, and he'll
bring his creatures with him. Oh oh, Colin cried out
(13:03):
in delight. But that's not all, Mary went on, almost
pale with solemn excitement. The rest is better. There is
a door into the garden. I found it. It is
under the ivy on the wall. If he had been
a strong, healthy boy, Colin would probably have shouted hooray, hooray, hooray.
(13:27):
But he was weak and rather hysterical. His eyes grew
bigger and bigger, and he gasped for breath. Oh Mary,
he cried out, with a half sob Shall I see it?
Shall I get into it? Shall I live to get
into it? And he clutched her hands and dragged her
toward him. Of course you'll see it, snapped Mary, indignantly.
(13:51):
Of course you'll live to get into it. Don't be silly.
And she was so unhysterical and natural and childish that
she brought him to his sense, and he began to
laugh at himself. And a few minutes afterward, she was
sitting on her stool again, telling him not what she
imagined the secret garden to be like, but what it
really was. And Colin's aches and tiredness were forgotten, and
(14:15):
he was listening and raptured. It is just what you
thought it would be, he said at last, It sounds
just as if you had really seen it. You know,
I said that when you told me first. Mary hesitated
about two minutes and then boldly spoke the truth. I
(14:37):
had seen it, and I had been in. She said,
I found the key and got in weeks ago, but
I daren't tell you. I daren't because I was so
afraid I couldn't trust you for sure. End of chapter eighteen,
read by Kara Shallenberg on February ninth, two thousand six,
(15:00):
in Oceanside, California,
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Are You A Charlotte?
In 1997, actress Kristin Davis’ life was forever changed when she took on the role of Charlotte York in Sex and the City. As we watched Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte navigate relationships in NYC, the show helped push once unacceptable conversation topics out of the shadows and altered the narrative around women and sex. We all saw ourselves in them as they searched for fulfillment in life, sex and friendships. Now, Kristin Davis wants to connect with you, the fans, and share untold stories and all the behind the scenes. Together, with Kristin and special guests, what will begin with Sex and the City will evolve into talks about themes that are still so relevant today. "Are you a Charlotte?" is much more than just rewatching this beloved show, it brings the past and the present together as we talk with heart, humor and of course some optimism.