The Robin Who Showed the Way (The Secret Garden)

01CHAPTER VIII.

02THE ROBIN WHO SHOWED THE WAY She looked at the key quite a long time.

03She turned it over and over and thought about it.

04As I have said before, she was not a child who had been trained to ask permission or consult her elders about things.

05All she thought about the key was that, if it was the key to the closed garden, and she could find out where the door was, she could perhaps open it and see what was inside the walls and what had happened to the old rose-trees.

06It was because it had been shut up so long that she wanted to see it.

07It seemed as if it must be different from other places, and that something strange must have happened to it during ten years.

08Besides that, if she liked it, she could go into it every day and shut the door behind her.

09And she could make up some play of her own and play it quite alone, because nobody would ever know where she was, but would think the door was still locked and the key buried in the earth.

10The thought of that pleased her very much.

11Living, as it were, all by herself in a house with a hundred mysteriously closed rooms, and having nothing whatever to do to amuse herself, had set her inactive brain to working, and was actually awakening her imagination.

12There is no doubt that the fresh, strong, pure air from the moor had a great deal to do with it.

13Just as it had given her an appetite, and fighting with the wind had stirred her blood, so the same things had stirred her mind.

14In India she had always been too hot and languid and weak to care much about anything.

15But in this place she was beginning to care and to want to do new things.

16Already she felt less contrary, though she did not know why.

17She put the key in her pocket and walked up and down her walk.

18No one but herself ever seemed to come there, so she could walk slowly and look at the wall, or, rather, at the ivy growing on it.

19The ivy was the baffling thing.

20Howsoever carefully she looked, she could see nothing but thickly growing, glossy, dark green leaves.

21She was very much disappointed.

22Something of her contrariness came back to her as she paced the walk and looked over it at the treetops inside.

23It seemed so silly, she said to herself, to be near it and not be able to get in.

24She took the key in her pocket when she went back to the house, and she made up her mind that she would always carry it with her when she went out, so that if she ever should find the hidden door she would be ready.

25Mrs.

26Medlock had allowed Martha to sleep all night at the cottage, but she was back at her work in the morning with cheeks redder than ever and in the best of spirits.

27She was full of stories of the delights of her day out.

28Her mother had been glad to see her, and they had got the baking and washing all out of the way.

29She had even made each of the children a dough cake, with a bit of brown sugar in it.

30I had them all piping hot when they came in from playing on the moor, and the cottage all smelt a nice, clean, hot bacon, and there was a good fire, and they just shouted for joy.

31Our dickon, he said, our cottage was good enough for a king.

32In the evening they had all sat round the fire, and Martha and her mother had sewed patches on torn clothes and mended stockings, and Martha had told them about the little girl who had come from India, and who had been waited on all her life by what Martha called blacks, until she didn't know how to put on her own stockings.

33Hey, they did like to hear about you, said Martha.

34They wanted to know all about the blacks and about the ship you came in.

35I couldn't tell them enough.

36Mary reflected a little.

37I'll tell you a great deal more before your next day out, she said, so that you will have more to talk about.

38I dare say they would like to hear about riding on elephants and camels, and about the officers going to hunt tigers.

39My word!

40cried delighted Martha.

41It would set them clean off their heads.

42Would they really do that, miss?

43It would be the same as a wild beast show like we heard they had in York once.

44India is quite different from Yorkshire, Mary said slowly, as she thought the matter over.

45I never thought of that.

46Did Dickon and your mother like to hear you talk about me?

47Why, our Dickon's eyes nearly started out of his head.

48They got that round, answered Martha.

49But, Mother, she was put out about your semen to be all by yourself like.

50She said, Hasn't Mr.

51Craven got no governess for her?

52Nor no nurse?

53And I said, No, he hasn't, though Mrs.

54Medlock says he will when he thinks of it.

55But she says he mayn't think of it for two or three years.

56I don't want a governess, said Mary sharply.

57But Mother says you ought to be learning your book by this time, and you ought to have a woman to look after you.

58And she says, Now, Martha, you just think about how you'd feel yourself, in a big place like that, wandering about all alone and no mother.

59You do your best to cheer her up, she says.

60And I said I would.

61Mary gave her a long, steady look.

62You do cheer me up, she said.

63I like to hear you talk.

64Presently Martha went out of the room and came back with something held in her hands, under her apron.

65What does the think?

66she said, with a cheerful grin.

67I've brought thee a present.

68A present?

69exclaimed Mistress Mary.

70How could a cottage full of fourteen hungry people give anyone a present?

71A man was driving across the moor peddling, Martha explained, and he stopped his cart at our door.

72He had pots and pans and odds and ends, but Mother had no money to buy anything.

73Just as he was going away, our Elizabeth Ellen called out, Mother, he's got skipping ropes with red and blue handles.

74And Mother, she calls out quite sudden, Here, stop, mister.

75How much are they?

76And he says, Toppence.

77And Mother, she began fumbling in her pocket, and she says to me, Martha, thou's brought me thy wages like a good lass, and I've got four places to put every penny, but I'm just going to take toppence out of it to buy that child a skipping rope.

78And she bought one, and here it is.

79She brought it out from under her apron, and exhibited it quite proudly.

80It was a strong, slender rope, with a striped red and blue handle at each end.

81But Mary Lennox had never seen a skipping rope before.

82She gazed at it with a mystified expression.

83What is it for?

84she asked curiously.

85For?

86cried out Martha.

87Does the mean that they have not got skipping ropes in India?

88For all they've got elephants and tigers and camels.

89No wonder most of them's black.

90This is what it's for.

91Just watch me.

92And she ran into the middle of the room, and, taking a handle in each hand, began to skip and skip and skip, while Mary turned in her chair to stare at her, and the queer faces in the old portraits seemed to stare at her too, and wonder what on earth this common little cottager had the impudence to be doing under their very noses.

93But Martha did not even see them.

94The interest and curiosity in Mistress Mary's face delighted her, and she went on skipping, and counted as she skipped, until she had reached a hundred.

95I could skip longer than that, she said when she stopped.

96I've skipped as much as five hundred when I was twelve, but I wasn't as fat then as I am now, and I was in practice.

97Mary got up from her chair, beginning to feel excited herself.

98It looks nice, she said.

99Your mother is a kind woman.

100Do you think I could ever skip like that?

101You just try it, urged Martha, handing her the skipping rope.

102You can't skip a hundred at first, but if you practice, you'll mount up.

103That's what mother said.

104She says, Nothing will do her more good than a skipping rope.

105It's the sensiblest toy a child can have.

106Let her play out in the fresh air skipping, and it'll stretch her legs and arms and give her some strength in them.

107It was plain that there was not a great deal of strength in Mistress Mary's arms and legs when she first began to skip.

108She was not very clever at it, but she liked it so much that she did not want to stop.

109Put on the things, and run, and skip out-a-doors, said Martha.

110Mother said I must tell you to keep out-a-doors as much as you could, even when it rains a bit, so as the wrap-up warm.

111Mary put on her coat and hat and took her skipping rope over her arm.

112She opened the door to go out, and then suddenly thought of something and turned back rather slowly.

113Martha, she said, they were your wages.

114It was your tuppence, really.

115Thank you.

116She said it stiffly because she was not used to thanking people or noticing that they did things for her.

117Thank you, she said, and held out her hand because she did not know what else to do.

118Martha gave her hand a clumsy little shake, as if she was not accustomed to this sort of thing either.

119Then she laughed.

120Eh, thou art a queer old womanish thing, she said.

121If thou'd been our Elizabeth Ellen, thou'd have given me a kiss.

122Mary looked stiffer than ever.

123Do you want me to kiss you?

124Martha laughed again.

125Nay, not me, she answered.

126If thou was different, perhaps thou'd want to thysel.

127But thou isn't.

128Run off outside and play with thy rope.

129Mistress Mary felt a little awkward as she went out of the room.

130Yorkshire people seemed strange, and Martha was always rather a puzzle to her.

131At first she had disliked her very much, but now she did not.

132The skipping rope was a wonderful thing.

133She counted and skipped and skipped and counted, until her cheeks were quite red, and she was more interested than she had ever been since she was born.

134The sun was shining, and a little wind was blowing, not a rough wind, but one which came in delightful little gusts, and brought a fresh scent of newly turned earth with it.

135She skipped round the fountain garden and up one walk and down another.

136She skipped at last into the kitchen garden, and saw Ben Weatherstaff digging and talking to his robin, which was hopping about him.

137She skipped down the walk toward him, and he lifted his head and looked at her with a curious expression.

138She had wondered if he would notice her.

139She wanted him to see her skip.

140Well, he exclaimed, upon my word, perhaps thou art a young'un after all, and perhaps thou's got child's blood in thy veins instead of sour butter-milk.

141Thou's skipped red into thy cheeks as sure as my name's Ben Weatherstaff.

142I wouldn't have believed thou could do it.

143I never skipped before, Mary said.

144I'm just beginning.

145I can only go up to twenty.

146Thou keep on, said Ben.

147Thou shapes well enough at it for a young'un that's lived with heathen.

148Just see how he's watching thee, jerking his head toward the robin.

149He followed after thee yesterday.

150He'll be at it again to-day.

151He'll be bound to find out what the skipping-rope is.

152He's never seen one.

153Hey!

154Shaking his head at the bird.

155Thou curiosity will be the death of thee sometime if thou doesn't look sharp.

156Mary skipped round all the gardens and round the orchard, resting every few minutes.

157At length she went to her own special walk and made up her mind to try if she could skip the whole length of it.

158It was a good long skip, and she began slowly.

159But before she had gone half-way down the path she was so hot and breathless that she was obliged to stop.

160She did not mind much, because she had already counted up to thirty.

161She stopped with a little laugh of pleasure, and there, lo and behold, was the robin swaying on a long branch of ivy.

162He had followed her, and he greeted her with a chirp.

163As Mary had skipped toward him she felt something heavy in her pocket strike against her at each jump, and when she saw the robin she laughed again.

164You showed me where the key was yesterday, she said.

165You ought to show me the door to-day, but I don't believe you know.

166The robin flew from his swinging spray of ivy on to the top of the wall, and he opened his beak and sang a loud, lovely trill, merely to show off.

167Nothing in the world is quite as adorably lovely as a robin when he shows off, and they are nearly always doing it.

168Mary Lennox had heard a great deal about magic in her Aya's stories, and she always said that what happened almost at that moment was magic.

169One of the nice little gusts of wind rushed down the walk, and it was a stronger one than the rest.

170It was strong enough to wave the branches of the trees, and it was more than strong enough to sway the trailing sprays of untrimmed ivy hanging from the wall.

171Mary had stepped close to the robin, and suddenly the gust of wind swung aside some loose ivy trails, and more suddenly still she jumped toward it and caught it in her hand.

172This she did, because she had seen something under it, a round knob, which had been covered by the leaves hanging over it.

173It was the knob of a door.

174She put her hands under the leaves and began to pull and push them aside.

175Thick as the ivy hung, it nearly all was a loose and swinging curtain, though some had crept over wood and iron.

176Mary's heart began to thump, and her hands to shake a little in her delight and excitement.

177The robin kept singing and twittering away, and tilting his head on one side as if he were as excited as she was.

178What was this under her hands, which was square and made of iron, and which her fingers found a hole in?

179It was the lock of the door which had been closed ten years, and she put her hand in her pocket, drew out the key, and found it fitted the keyhole.

180She put the key in and turned it.

181It took two hands to do it, but it did turn.

182And then she took a long breath and looked behind her up the long walk to see if anyone was coming.

183No one was coming.

184No one ever did come, it seemed.

185And she took another long breath, because she could not help it, and she held back the swinging curtain of ivy and pushed back the door, which opened slowly, slowly.

186Then she slipped through it and shut it behind her and stood with her back against it, looking about her and breathing quite fast with excitement.

187and wonder and delight.

188She was standing inside the secret garden.

189End of chapter 8 Read by Kara Schallenberg on January 20, 2006 in Oceanside, California