November 13, 2023 • 23 mins
Colin, now stronger and more confident, spends more time in the garden with Mary and Dickon. He is amazed at the garden’s beauty and its effect on him. His emotional and physical healing accelerates as he embraces the joy of being outdoors and living life more fully. Summary by Dream Audio Books
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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,
(00:23):
chapter nineteen. It has come, of course Dr Craven had
been sent for the morning after Colin had had his 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 his bed, sulky and still
(00:45):
so hysterical that he was ready to break into fresh
sobbing at the least word. In fact, Dr Craven dreaded
and detested the difficulties of these visits. On this occasion
he was away from Misselthwaite Manor and till afternoon. How
is he? He asked Missus Medlock rather irritably when he arrived.
(01:07):
He will break a blood vessel in one of those
fits some day. The boy is half insane with hysteria
and self indulgence. Well, sir, answered Missus Medlock. You'll scarcely
believe your eyes when you see him. That plain sour
faced child that's almost as bad as himself, has just
bewitched him. How she's done it, there's no telling. The
(01:31):
Lord knows she's nothing to look at, and you scarcely
ever hear her speak. But she did what none of
us dare do. She just flew at him like a
little cat last night and stamped her feet and ordered
him to stop screaming. And somehow she startled him so
that he actually did stop. And this afternoon, well, just
(01:52):
come up and see, sir, it's past crediting. The scene
which doctor Craven beheld when he entered his patient's room
was indeed rather astonishing to him. As missus Medlock opened
the door, he heard laughing and chattering. Colin was on
his sofa in his dressing gown, and he was sitting
(02:13):
up quite straight, looking at a picture in one of
the garden books, and talking to the plain child, who
at that moment could scarcely be called plain at all,
because her face was so glowing with enjoyment. Those long
spires of blue ones, we'll have a lot of those,
Colin was announcing. They are called delphiniums. Dickens says, their
(02:38):
larkspurs made big and grand cried Mistress Mary. There are
clumps there already. Then they saw doctor Craven and stopped.
Mary became quite still, and Colin looked fretful. I am
sorry to hear you are ill last night, my boy,
Doctor Craven said, a trifle nervously. He was rather a
(03:01):
nervous man. I'm better now, much better, Colin answered, rather
like a raja. I'm going out in my chair in
a day or two, if it is fine. I want
some fresh air. Doctor Craven sat down by him and
felt his pulse and looked at him curiously. It must
(03:22):
be a very fine day, he said, and you must
be very careful not to tire yourself. Fresh air won't
tire me, said the young Raja, As there had been
occasions when this same young gentleman had shrieked aloud with
rage and had insisted that fresh air would give him
(03:43):
cold and kill him. It is 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 Raja. But my cousin
is going out with me, and the nurse, of course,
(04:03):
suggested doctor Craven, No, I will not have the nurse
so magnificently that Mary could not help remembering how the
young native prince had looked, with his diamonds and rubies
and pearls stuck all over him, and the great rubies
on the small dark hand. He had waved to command
(04:23):
his servants to approach with salaams and receive his orders.
My cousin knows how to take care of me. I
am always better when she is with me. She made
me better last night. A very strong boy, I know,
will push my carriage. Doctor Craven felt rather alarmed. If
this tiresome, hysterical boy should chance to get well, he
(04:47):
himself would lose all chance of inheriting Misselthwaite. But he
was not an unscrupulous man, though he was a weak one,
and he did not intend to let him run into
actual danger. He must be a strong boy and a
steady boy, he said, And I must know something about him.
Who is he? What is his name? It's Dickon. Mary
(05:12):
spoke up suddenly. She felt somehow that everybody who knew
the more must know Dickon. 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's as
(05:33):
strong as a moor pony, is Dickon. And he's trusty,
said Mary. He's the trustiest lad a Yorkshire. She had
been talking Yorkshire to Colin, and she forgot herself. Did
Dickon teach you that, asked Doctor Craven, laughing outright, I'm
(05:54):
learning it as if it was French, said Mary, rather coldly.
It's like a native dialect in India. Very clever people
try to learn them. I like it, and so does Colin.
Well well, he said, if it amuses you, perhaps it
won't do you any harm. Did you take your bromide
last night, Colin? No? Colin answered, I wouldn't take it
(06:19):
at first, And after Mary made me quiet, she talked
me to sleep in a low voice about the spring
creeping into a garden. That sounds soothing, said doctor Craven,
more perplexed than ever, and glancing sideways at Mistress Mary,
sitting on her stool and looking down silently at the carpet.
(06:41):
You are evidently better, but you must remember I don't
want to remember, interrupted the Rajah appearing again. When I
lie by myself and remember, I begin to have pains everywhere,
and I think of things that make me begin to scream,
because I hate that. If there was a doctor anywhere
(07:02):
who could make you forget you were ill instead of
remembering it, I would have him brought here. And he
waved a thin hand which ought really to have been
covered with royal signet rings made of rubies. It is
because my cousin makes me forget that she makes me better.
Dr Craven had never made such a short stay after
(07:25):
a tantrum. Usually he was obliged to remain a very
long time and do a great many things. This afternoon,
he did not give any medicine or leave any new orders,
and he was spared any disagreeable scenes. When he went downstairs,
he looked very thoughtful, and when he talked to missus
(07:46):
Medlock in the library, she felt that he was a
much puzzled man. Well, sir, she ventured, could you have
believed it? It is certainly a new state of affair,
said the doctor. And there's no denying it is better
than the old one. I believe Susan Sowerby's right, I'd
(08:09):
do that, said Missus Medlock. I stopped in her cottage
on my way to Thwaite yesterday and had a bit
of a talk with her, and she says to me, well,
Sarah Anne. She mayn't be a good child, and she
mayn't be a pretty one, but she's a child and
children needs children. We went to school together, Susan Sowerby
(08:30):
and me. She's the best sick nurse I know, said
doctor Craven. When I find her in a cottage, I
know the chances are that I shall save my patient.
Missus Medlock smiled. She was fond of Susan Sowerby. She's
got away with her has Susan, she went on, quite volubly.
(08:53):
I've been thinking all morning of one thing she said yesterday.
She says. Once when I was given the children a
bit of a preach after they'd been fightin', I says
to em all. When I was at school, my geography
told as the world was shaped like an orange. And
I've found out before I was ten that the whole
orange doesn't belong to nobody. No one owns more than
(09:16):
his bit of a quarter. And there's times it seems
like there's not a now quarters to go round. But
don't you none o you think as you own the
whole orange, or you'll find out you're mistaken, and you
won't find it out without hard knocks. What children learns
from children, she says, is that there's no sense in
grabbin at the whole orange peel and all. If you do,
(09:40):
you'll likely not get even the pips. An them's too
bitter to eat. She's a shrewd woman, said doctor Craven,
putting on his coat. Well she's got a way of
saying things ended, missus Medlock much pleased. Sometimes I've said
to her, Ah, Susan, if you was a different woman
(10:02):
and didn't talk such broad Yorkshire, I've seen the times
when I should have said you was clever. That night,
Colin slept without once awakening, and when he opened his
eyes in the morning, he lay still and smiled, without
knowing it, smiled because he felt so curiously comfortable. It
(10:22):
was actually nice to be awake, And he turned over
and stretched his limbs luxuriously. He felt as if tight
strings which had held him had loosened themselves and let
him go. He did not know that doctor Craven would
have said that his nerves had relaxed and rested themselves
(10:44):
instead of lying and staring at the wall and wishing
he had not awakened. His mind was full of the
plans he and Mary had made yesterday, of pictures of
the garden, and of Dickon and his wild creatures. It
was so nice to have things to think about. And
he had not been awake more than ten minutes when
he heard feet running along the corridor, and Mary was
(11:07):
at the door. The next minute she was in the
room and had run across to his bed, bringing with
her a waft of fresh air, full of the scent
of the morning. You've been out, you've been out. There's
that nice smell of leaves, he cried. She had been running,
and her hair was loose and blown, and she was
(11:29):
bright with the air and pink cheeked. Though he could
not see it, it's so beautiful, she said, a little
breathless with her speed. You never saw anything so beautiful.
It has come. I thought it had come that other morning,
but it was only coming. It is here now. It
(11:50):
has come the spring, Dickon says, So has it, cried Colin,
And though he really knew nothing about it, his heart beat.
He actually sat up in bed. Open the window, he added, laughing,
half with joyful excitement and half at his own fancy.
(12:13):
Perhaps we may hear golden trumpets. And though he laughed,
Mary was at the window in a moment, and in
a moment more It was opened wide, and freshness and
softness and scents and birds songs were pouring through. That's
fresh air, she said. Lie on your back and draw
(12:34):
in long breaths of it. That's what Dickon does when
he's lying on the moor. He says, he feels it
in his veins, and it makes him strong, and he
feels as if he could live forever and ever. Breathe it,
and breathe it. She was only repeating what Dickon had
told her, but she caught Colin's fancy. Forever and ever?
(12:57):
Does it make him feel like that? He said? And
he did as she told him, drawing in long, deep
breaths over and over again, until he felt that something
quite new and delightful was happening to him. Mary was
at his bedside again. Things are crowding up out of
(13:19):
the earth, she ran on in a hurry, And there
are flowers uncurling, and buds on everything, and the green
vale has covered nearly all the gray, and the birds
are in 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. And the
(13:40):
rose bushes look as wick as wick can be, and
there are primroses in the lanes and woods, and the
seeds we planted are up. And Dickon has brought the
fox and the crow, and the squirrels and a newborn lamb.
And then she paused for breath. The newborn lamb Dickon
had found three days before, lying by its dead mother
(14:01):
among the gorse bushes on the moor. It was not
the first motherless lamb he had found, and he knew
what to do with it. He had taken it to
the cottage wrapped in his jacket, and he had let
it lie near the fire and had fed it with
warm milk. It was a soft thing with a darling
silly baby face, and legs rather long for its body.
(14:26):
Dickon had carried it over the moor in his arms,
and its feeding bottle was in his pocket with a squirrel.
And when Mary had sat under a tree with its
limp warmness. Huddled on her lap, She had felt as
if she were too full of strange joy to speak.
A lamb, a lamb, a living lamb who lay on
(14:46):
your lap like a baby. She was describing it with
great joy, and Colin was listening and drawing in long
breaths of air. When the nurse entered, she started a
little at the sight of the open wind. She had
sat stifling in the room many a warm day because
her patient was sure that open windows gave people cold.
(15:10):
Are you sure you are not chilly, Master Colin, she inquired, No,
was the answer. I am breathing long breaths of fresh air.
It makes you strong. I am going to get up
to the sofa for breakfast. My cousin will have breakfast
with me. The nurse went away, concealing a smile, to
(15:33):
give the order for two breakfasts. She found the servants
hall a more amusing place than the invalid's chamber, and
just now everybody wanted to hear the news from upstairs.
There was a great deal of joking about the unpopular
young recluse, who, as the cook said, had found his master,
and good for him. The servants hall had been very
(15:57):
tired of the tantrums, and the butler, who was a
man with a family, had more than once expressed his
opinion that the invalid would be all the better for
a good hiding. When Colin was on his sofa and
the breakfast for two was put upon the table, he
made an announcement to the nurse in his most rajah
(16:18):
like manner. A boy and a fox, and a crow,
and two squirrels and a new born lamb are coming
to see me this morning. I want them brought upstairs
as soon as they come, he said. You are not
to begin playing with the animals in the servants hall
and keep them there. I want them here. The nurse
(16:40):
gave a slight gasp and tried to conceal it with
a cough. Yes, sir, she answered. I'll tell you what
you can do, added Colin, waving his hand. You can
tell Martha to bring them here. The boy is Martha's brother.
His name is Dickon, and he is an animal charm
(17:01):
I hope the animals won't bite, master, Colin, said the nurse.
I told you he was a charmer, said Colin, austerily.
Charmers animals never bite. There are snake charmers in India,
said Mary, and they can put their snakes heads in
their mouths. Goodness, shuddered the nurse. They ate their breakfast
(17:26):
with the morning air pouring in upon them. Colin's breakfast
was a very good one, and Mary watched him with
serious interest. You will begin to get fatter, just as
I did, she said. I never wanted my breakfast when
I was in India, and now I always want it.
I wanted mine this morning, said Colin. Perhaps it was
(17:48):
the fresh air. When do you think Dickon will come?
He was not long in coming, In about ten minutes.
Mary held up her hand. Listen, she said, did you
hear a caw? Colin listened and heard it, the oddest
sound in the world to hear inside a house, A
(18:08):
horse caw caw, Yes, he answered, that's soot, said Mary.
Listen again. Do you hear a bleat a tiny one? Oh? Yes,
cried Colin, quite flushing. That's the new born lamb, said Mary.
He's coming. Dickon's Moorland boots were thick and clumsy, and
(18:33):
though he tried to walk quietly, they made a clumping sound.
As he walked through the long corridors. Mary and Colin
heard him marching, marching, until he passed through the tapestry
door on to the soft carpet of Colin's own passage.
If you please, sir, announced Martha, opening the door. If
(18:55):
you please, sir, here's dickon and his creatures, and came in,
smiling his nicest wide smile. The new born lamb was
in his arms, and the little red fox trotted by
his side. Nut sat on his left shoulder, and soot
on his right, and shells head and paws peeped out
(19:17):
of his coat pocket. Colin slowly sat up and stared
and stared as he had stared when he first saw Mary.
But this was a stare of wonder and delight. The
truth was that, in spite of all he had heard,
he had not in the least understood what this boy
would be like, and that his fox and his crow,
(19:39):
and his squirrels and his lamb were so near to
him and his friendliness that they seemed almost to be
a part of himself. Colin had never talked to a
boy in his life, and he was so overwhelmed by
his own pleasure and curiosity that he did not even
think of speaking. But Dick did not feel the least
(20:01):
shy or awkward. He had not felt embarrassed because the
crow had not known his language and had only stared
and had not spoken to him the first time they met.
Creatures were always like that until they found out about you.
He walked over to Colin's sofa and put the new
born lamb quietly on his lap, and immediately the little
(20:23):
creature turned to the warm velvet dressing gown and began
to nuzzle and nuzzle into its folds, and but its
tight curled head with soft impatience against his side. Of course,
no boy could have helped speaking. Then what is it doing,
cried Colin. What does it want? It wants its mother,
(20:46):
said Dickon, smiling more and more. I brought it to
thee a bit hungry, because I knowed thou'd like to
see it feed. He knelt down by the sofa and
took a feeding bottle from his pocket. Come on, little un,
he said, turning the small, wooly white head with a
gentle brown hand. This is what does after. They'll get
(21:10):
more out o this than the will out o silk
velvet coats there now, and he pushed the rubber tip
of the bottle into the nuzzling mouth, and the lamb
began to suck it with ravenous ecstasy. After that, there
was no wondering what to say. By the time the
lamb fell asleep, questions poured forth, and Dickon answered them all.
(21:34):
He told 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 only a speck in the heights of blue.
I'd almost lost him but for his song, and I
was wonderin how a chap could hear it when it
(21:57):
seemed as if he'd get out of the world in
a minute. And just then I heard something else, far
off among the gorse bushes. It was a weak bleatin',
and I knowed it was the new lamb, as was hungry,
And I knowed it wouldn't be hungry if it hadn't
lost its mother somehow, So I set off searchin. Eh
I did have a look for it. I went in
(22:17):
and out among the gorse bushes, and round and round,
and I always seemed to take the wrong turnin', But
at last I seed a bit of white by a
rock on top of the moor, and I climbed up
and found the little and half dead were cold and clemmin'.
While he talked, Soot flew solemnly in and out of
the open window and cawed remarks about the scenery. While
(22:39):
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 hearth rug
from preference. They looked at the pictures in the gardening books,
and Dickon knew all the flowers by their country names,
and knew a exactly which ones were already growing in
(23:02):
the secret garden. I couldna say that their name, he said,
pointing to one under which was written Aquilegia. But us
calls that a columbine, and that there one it's a
snap dragon, and they both grow wild in hedges. But
these is garden ones, and they are bigger and grander.
(23:23):
There's some big clumps of columbine in the garden. They'll
look like a bed o blue and white butterflies flutterin
when they're out. I'm going to see them, cried Colin.
I am going to see them. Aye that the mun
said Mary quite seriously, and the monnot lose no time
(23:45):
about it. End of Chapter nineteen, read by Kara Shallenberg
on February eleventh, two thousand six, 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,
(00:23):
chapter nineteen. It has come, of course Dr Craven had
been sent for the morning after Colin had had his 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 his bed, sulky and still
(00:45):
so hysterical that he was ready to break into fresh
sobbing at the least word. In fact, Dr Craven dreaded
and detested the difficulties of these visits. On this occasion
he was away from Misselthwaite Manor and till afternoon. How
is he? He asked Missus Medlock rather irritably when he arrived.
(01:07):
He will break a blood vessel in one of those
fits some day. The boy is half insane with hysteria
and self indulgence. Well, sir, answered Missus Medlock. You'll scarcely
believe your eyes when you see him. That plain sour
faced child that's almost as bad as himself, has just
bewitched him. How she's done it, there's no telling. The
(01:31):
Lord knows she's nothing to look at, and you scarcely
ever hear her speak. But she did what none of
us dare do. She just flew at him like a
little cat last night and stamped her feet and ordered
him to stop screaming. And somehow she startled him so
that he actually did stop. And this afternoon, well, just
(01:52):
come up and see, sir, it's past crediting. The scene
which doctor Craven beheld when he entered his patient's room
was indeed rather astonishing to him. As missus Medlock opened
the door, he heard laughing and chattering. Colin was on
his sofa in his dressing gown, and he was sitting
(02:13):
up quite straight, looking at a picture in one of
the garden books, and talking to the plain child, who
at that moment could scarcely be called plain at all,
because her face was so glowing with enjoyment. Those long
spires of blue ones, we'll have a lot of those,
Colin was announcing. They are called delphiniums. Dickens says, their
(02:38):
larkspurs made big and grand cried Mistress Mary. There are
clumps there already. Then they saw doctor Craven and stopped.
Mary became quite still, and Colin looked fretful. I am
sorry to hear you are ill last night, my boy,
Doctor Craven said, a trifle nervously. He was rather a
(03:01):
nervous man. I'm better now, much better, Colin answered, rather
like a raja. I'm going out in my chair in
a day or two, if it is fine. I want
some fresh air. Doctor Craven sat down by him and
felt his pulse and looked at him curiously. It must
(03:22):
be a very fine day, he said, and you must
be very careful not to tire yourself. Fresh air won't
tire me, said the young Raja, As there had been
occasions when this same young gentleman had shrieked aloud with
rage and had insisted that fresh air would give him
(03:43):
cold and kill him. It is 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 Raja. But my cousin
is going out with me, and the nurse, of course,
(04:03):
suggested doctor Craven, No, I will not have the nurse
so magnificently that Mary could not help remembering how the
young native prince had looked, with his diamonds and rubies
and pearls stuck all over him, and the great rubies
on the small dark hand. He had waved to command
(04:23):
his servants to approach with salaams and receive his orders.
My cousin knows how to take care of me. I
am always better when she is with me. She made
me better last night. A very strong boy, I know,
will push my carriage. Doctor Craven felt rather alarmed. If
this tiresome, hysterical boy should chance to get well, he
(04:47):
himself would lose all chance of inheriting Misselthwaite. But he
was not an unscrupulous man, though he was a weak one,
and he did not intend to let him run into
actual danger. He must be a strong boy and a
steady boy, he said, And I must know something about him.
Who is he? What is his name? It's Dickon. Mary
(05:12):
spoke up suddenly. She felt somehow that everybody who knew
the more must know Dickon. 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's as
(05:33):
strong as a moor pony, is Dickon. And he's trusty,
said Mary. He's the trustiest lad a Yorkshire. She had
been talking Yorkshire to Colin, and she forgot herself. Did
Dickon teach you that, asked Doctor Craven, laughing outright, I'm
(05:54):
learning it as if it was French, said Mary, rather coldly.
It's like a native dialect in India. Very clever people
try to learn them. I like it, and so does Colin.
Well well, he said, if it amuses you, perhaps it
won't do you any harm. Did you take your bromide
last night, Colin? No? Colin answered, I wouldn't take it
(06:19):
at first, And after Mary made me quiet, she talked
me to sleep in a low voice about the spring
creeping into a garden. That sounds soothing, said doctor Craven,
more perplexed than ever, and glancing sideways at Mistress Mary,
sitting on her stool and looking down silently at the carpet.
(06:41):
You are evidently better, but you must remember I don't
want to remember, interrupted the Rajah appearing again. When I
lie by myself and remember, I begin to have pains everywhere,
and I think of things that make me begin to scream,
because I hate that. If there was a doctor anywhere
(07:02):
who could make you forget you were ill instead of
remembering it, I would have him brought here. And he
waved a thin hand which ought really to have been
covered with royal signet rings made of rubies. It is
because my cousin makes me forget that she makes me better.
Dr Craven had never made such a short stay after
(07:25):
a tantrum. Usually he was obliged to remain a very
long time and do a great many things. This afternoon,
he did not give any medicine or leave any new orders,
and he was spared any disagreeable scenes. When he went downstairs,
he looked very thoughtful, and when he talked to missus
(07:46):
Medlock in the library, she felt that he was a
much puzzled man. Well, sir, she ventured, could you have
believed it? It is certainly a new state of affair,
said the doctor. And there's no denying it is better
than the old one. I believe Susan Sowerby's right, I'd
(08:09):
do that, said Missus Medlock. I stopped in her cottage
on my way to Thwaite yesterday and had a bit
of a talk with her, and she says to me, well,
Sarah Anne. She mayn't be a good child, and she
mayn't be a pretty one, but she's a child and
children needs children. We went to school together, Susan Sowerby
(08:30):
and me. She's the best sick nurse I know, said
doctor Craven. When I find her in a cottage, I
know the chances are that I shall save my patient.
Missus Medlock smiled. She was fond of Susan Sowerby. She's
got away with her has Susan, she went on, quite volubly.
(08:53):
I've been thinking all morning of one thing she said yesterday.
She says. Once when I was given the children a
bit of a preach after they'd been fightin', I says
to em all. When I was at school, my geography
told as the world was shaped like an orange. And
I've found out before I was ten that the whole
orange doesn't belong to nobody. No one owns more than
(09:16):
his bit of a quarter. And there's times it seems
like there's not a now quarters to go round. But
don't you none o you think as you own the
whole orange, or you'll find out you're mistaken, and you
won't find it out without hard knocks. What children learns
from children, she says, is that there's no sense in
grabbin at the whole orange peel and all. If you do,
(09:40):
you'll likely not get even the pips. An them's too
bitter to eat. She's a shrewd woman, said doctor Craven,
putting on his coat. Well she's got a way of
saying things ended, missus Medlock much pleased. Sometimes I've said
to her, Ah, Susan, if you was a different woman
(10:02):
and didn't talk such broad Yorkshire, I've seen the times
when I should have said you was clever. That night,
Colin slept without once awakening, and when he opened his
eyes in the morning, he lay still and smiled, without
knowing it, smiled because he felt so curiously comfortable. It
(10:22):
was actually nice to be awake, And he turned over
and stretched his limbs luxuriously. He felt as if tight
strings which had held him had loosened themselves and let
him go. He did not know that doctor Craven would
have said that his nerves had relaxed and rested themselves
(10:44):
instead of lying and staring at the wall and wishing
he had not awakened. His mind was full of the
plans he and Mary had made yesterday, of pictures of
the garden, and of Dickon and his wild creatures. It
was so nice to have things to think about. And
he had not been awake more than ten minutes when
he heard feet running along the corridor, and Mary was
(11:07):
at the door. The next minute she was in the
room and had run across to his bed, bringing with
her a waft of fresh air, full of the scent
of the morning. You've been out, you've been out. There's
that nice smell of leaves, he cried. She had been running,
and her hair was loose and blown, and she was
(11:29):
bright with the air and pink cheeked. Though he could
not see it, it's so beautiful, she said, a little
breathless with her speed. You never saw anything so beautiful.
It has come. I thought it had come that other morning,
but it was only coming. It is here now. It
(11:50):
has come the spring, Dickon says, So has it, cried Colin,
And though he really knew nothing about it, his heart beat.
He actually sat up in bed. Open the window, he added, laughing,
half with joyful excitement and half at his own fancy.
(12:13):
Perhaps we may hear golden trumpets. And though he laughed,
Mary was at the window in a moment, and in
a moment more It was opened wide, and freshness and
softness and scents and birds songs were pouring through. That's
fresh air, she said. Lie on your back and draw
(12:34):
in long breaths of it. That's what Dickon does when
he's lying on the moor. He says, he feels it
in his veins, and it makes him strong, and he
feels as if he could live forever and ever. Breathe it,
and breathe it. She was only repeating what Dickon had
told her, but she caught Colin's fancy. Forever and ever?
(12:57):
Does it make him feel like that? He said? And
he did as she told him, drawing in long, deep
breaths over and over again, until he felt that something
quite new and delightful was happening to him. Mary was
at his bedside again. Things are crowding up out of
(13:19):
the earth, she ran on in a hurry, And there
are flowers uncurling, and buds on everything, and the green
vale has covered nearly all the gray, and the birds
are in 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. And the
(13:40):
rose bushes look as wick as wick can be, and
there are primroses in the lanes and woods, and the
seeds we planted are up. And Dickon has brought the
fox and the crow, and the squirrels and a newborn lamb.
And then she paused for breath. The newborn lamb Dickon
had found three days before, lying by its dead mother
(14:01):
among the gorse bushes on the moor. It was not
the first motherless lamb he had found, and he knew
what to do with it. He had taken it to
the cottage wrapped in his jacket, and he had let
it lie near the fire and had fed it with
warm milk. It was a soft thing with a darling
silly baby face, and legs rather long for its body.
(14:26):
Dickon had carried it over the moor in his arms,
and its feeding bottle was in his pocket with a squirrel.
And when Mary had sat under a tree with its
limp warmness. Huddled on her lap, She had felt as
if she were too full of strange joy to speak.
A lamb, a lamb, a living lamb who lay on
(14:46):
your lap like a baby. She was describing it with
great joy, and Colin was listening and drawing in long
breaths of air. When the nurse entered, she started a
little at the sight of the open wind. She had
sat stifling in the room many a warm day because
her patient was sure that open windows gave people cold.
(15:10):
Are you sure you are not chilly, Master Colin, she inquired, No,
was the answer. I am breathing long breaths of fresh air.
It makes you strong. I am going to get up
to the sofa for breakfast. My cousin will have breakfast
with me. The nurse went away, concealing a smile, to
(15:33):
give the order for two breakfasts. She found the servants
hall a more amusing place than the invalid's chamber, and
just now everybody wanted to hear the news from upstairs.
There was a great deal of joking about the unpopular
young recluse, who, as the cook said, had found his master,
and good for him. The servants hall had been very
(15:57):
tired of the tantrums, and the butler, who was a
man with a family, had more than once expressed his
opinion that the invalid would be all the better for
a good hiding. When Colin was on his sofa and
the breakfast for two was put upon the table, he
made an announcement to the nurse in his most rajah
(16:18):
like manner. A boy and a fox, and a crow,
and two squirrels and a new born lamb are coming
to see me this morning. I want them brought upstairs
as soon as they come, he said. You are not
to begin playing with the animals in the servants hall
and keep them there. I want them here. The nurse
(16:40):
gave a slight gasp and tried to conceal it with
a cough. Yes, sir, she answered. I'll tell you what
you can do, added Colin, waving his hand. You can
tell Martha to bring them here. The boy is Martha's brother.
His name is Dickon, and he is an animal charm
(17:01):
I hope the animals won't bite, master, Colin, said the nurse.
I told you he was a charmer, said Colin, austerily.
Charmers animals never bite. There are snake charmers in India,
said Mary, and they can put their snakes heads in
their mouths. Goodness, shuddered the nurse. They ate their breakfast
(17:26):
with the morning air pouring in upon them. Colin's breakfast
was a very good one, and Mary watched him with
serious interest. You will begin to get fatter, just as
I did, she said. I never wanted my breakfast when
I was in India, and now I always want it.
I wanted mine this morning, said Colin. Perhaps it was
(17:48):
the fresh air. When do you think Dickon will come?
He was not long in coming, In about ten minutes.
Mary held up her hand. Listen, she said, did you
hear a caw? Colin listened and heard it, the oddest
sound in the world to hear inside a house, A
(18:08):
horse caw caw, Yes, he answered, that's soot, said Mary.
Listen again. Do you hear a bleat a tiny one? Oh? Yes,
cried Colin, quite flushing. That's the new born lamb, said Mary.
He's coming. Dickon's Moorland boots were thick and clumsy, and
(18:33):
though he tried to walk quietly, they made a clumping sound.
As he walked through the long corridors. Mary and Colin
heard him marching, marching, until he passed through the tapestry
door on to the soft carpet of Colin's own passage.
If you please, sir, announced Martha, opening the door. If
(18:55):
you please, sir, here's dickon and his creatures, and came in,
smiling his nicest wide smile. The new born lamb was
in his arms, and the little red fox trotted by
his side. Nut sat on his left shoulder, and soot
on his right, and shells head and paws peeped out
(19:17):
of his coat pocket. Colin slowly sat up and stared
and stared as he had stared when he first saw Mary.
But this was a stare of wonder and delight. The
truth was that, in spite of all he had heard,
he had not in the least understood what this boy
would be like, and that his fox and his crow,
(19:39):
and his squirrels and his lamb were so near to
him and his friendliness that they seemed almost to be
a part of himself. Colin had never talked to a
boy in his life, and he was so overwhelmed by
his own pleasure and curiosity that he did not even
think of speaking. But Dick did not feel the least
(20:01):
shy or awkward. He had not felt embarrassed because the
crow had not known his language and had only stared
and had not spoken to him the first time they met.
Creatures were always like that until they found out about you.
He walked over to Colin's sofa and put the new
born lamb quietly on his lap, and immediately the little
(20:23):
creature turned to the warm velvet dressing gown and began
to nuzzle and nuzzle into its folds, and but its
tight curled head with soft impatience against his side. Of course,
no boy could have helped speaking. Then what is it doing,
cried Colin. What does it want? It wants its mother,
(20:46):
said Dickon, smiling more and more. I brought it to
thee a bit hungry, because I knowed thou'd like to
see it feed. He knelt down by the sofa and
took a feeding bottle from his pocket. Come on, little un,
he said, turning the small, wooly white head with a
gentle brown hand. This is what does after. They'll get
(21:10):
more out o this than the will out o silk
velvet coats there now, and he pushed the rubber tip
of the bottle into the nuzzling mouth, and the lamb
began to suck it with ravenous ecstasy. After that, there
was no wondering what to say. By the time the
lamb fell asleep, questions poured forth, and Dickon answered them all.
(21:34):
He told 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 only a speck in the heights of blue.
I'd almost lost him but for his song, and I
was wonderin how a chap could hear it when it
(21:57):
seemed as if he'd get out of the world in
a minute. And just then I heard something else, far
off among the gorse bushes. It was a weak bleatin',
and I knowed it was the new lamb, as was hungry,
And I knowed it wouldn't be hungry if it hadn't
lost its mother somehow, So I set off searchin. Eh
I did have a look for it. I went in
(22:17):
and out among the gorse bushes, and round and round,
and I always seemed to take the wrong turnin', But
at last I seed a bit of white by a
rock on top of the moor, and I climbed up
and found the little and half dead were cold and clemmin'.
While he talked, Soot flew solemnly in and out of
the open window and cawed remarks about the scenery. While
(22:39):
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 hearth rug
from preference. They looked at the pictures in the gardening books,
and Dickon knew all the flowers by their country names,
and knew a exactly which ones were already growing in
(23:02):
the secret garden. I couldna say that their name, he said,
pointing to one under which was written Aquilegia. But us
calls that a columbine, and that there one it's a
snap dragon, and they both grow wild in hedges. But
these is garden ones, and they are bigger and grander.
(23:23):
There's some big clumps of columbine in the garden. They'll
look like a bed o blue and white butterflies flutterin
when they're out. I'm going to see them, cried Colin.
I am going to see them. Aye that the mun
said Mary quite seriously, and the monnot lose no time
(23:45):
about it. End of Chapter nineteen, read by Kara Shallenberg
on February eleventh, two thousand six, in Oceanside, California,
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