Dickon (The Secret Garden)

01CHAPTER X.

02DICKON The sun shone down for nearly a week on the secret garden.

03The secret garden was what Mary called it when she was thinking of it.

04She liked the name, and she liked still more the feeling that, when its beautiful old walls shut her in, no one knew where she was.

05It seemed almost like being shut out of the world in some fairy place.

06The few books she had read and liked had been fairy story books, and she had read of secret gardens in some of the stories.

07Sometimes people went to sleep in them for a hundred years, which she had thought must be rather stupid.

08She had no intention of going to sleep, and, in fact, she was becoming wider awake every day which passed at Misselthwaite.

09She was beginning to like to be out of doors.

10She no longer hated the wind, but enjoyed it.

11She could run faster, and longer, and she could skip up to a hundred.

12The bulbs in the secret garden must have been much astonished.

13Such nice, clear places were made round them, that they had all the breathing space they wanted, and really, if Mistress Mary had known it, they began to cheer up under the dark earth, and work tremendously.

14The sun could get at them and warm them, and when the rain came down it could reach them at once, so they began to feel very much alive.

15Mary was an odd, determined little person, and, now she had something interesting to be determined about, she was very much absorbed indeed.

16She worked, and dug, and pulled up weeds steadily, only becoming more pleased with her work every hour, instead of tiring of it.

17It seemed to her like a fascinating sort of play.

18She found many more of the sprouting, pale green points than she had ever hoped to find.

19They seemed to be starting up everywhere, and each day she was sure she found tiny new ones, some so tiny that they barely peeped above the earth.

20There were so many that she remembered what Martha had said about the snowdrops by the thousands, and about bulbs spreading and making new ones.

21These had been left to themselves for ten years, and perhaps they had spread, like the snowdrops, into thousands.

22She wondered how long it would be before they showed that they were flowers.

23Sometimes she stopped digging, to look at the garden, and try to imagine what it would be like when it was covered with thousands of lovely things in bloom.

24During that week of sunshine, she became more intimate with Ben Weatherstaff.

25She surprised him several times by seeming to start up beside him, as if she sprang out of the earth.

26The truth was that she was afraid that he would pick up his tools and go away if he saw her coming, so she always walked toward him as silently as possible.

27But, in fact, he did not object to her as strongly as he had at first.

28Perhaps he was secretly rather flattered by her evident desire for his elderly company.

29Then, also, she was more civil than she had been.

30He did not know that when she first saw him, she spoke to him as she would have spoken to a native, and had not known that a cross, sturdy old Yorkshire man was not accustomed to salaam to his masters, and be merely commanded by them to do things.

31"'The art like the robin,' he said to her one morning, when he lifted his head and saw her standing by him.

32"'I never knows when I shall see thee, or which side thou come from.' "'He's friends with me now,' said Mary.

33"'That's like him,' snapped Ben Weatherstaff.

34"'Makin' up to the womenfolk just for vanity and flightiness.

35"'There's nothin' he wouldn't do for the sake of showin' off "'and flirtin' his tail feathers.

36"'He's as full o' pride as an egg's full o' meat.' He very seldom talked much, and sometimes did not even answer Mary's questions except by a grunt, but this morning he said more than usual.

37He stood up, and rested one hobnailed boot on the top of his spade, while he looked her over.

38"'How long has the bin here?' he jerked out.

39"'I think it's about a month,' she answered.

40"'Thus beginnin' to do misselthwaite credit,' he said.

41"'Thus a bit fatter than thus was, and thus not quite so yeller.

42Tha looked like a young plucked crow when thus first came into this garden.

43Thinks I to myself, I never set eyes on an uglier, sourer-faced young'un.' Mary was not vain, and as she had never thought much of her looks, she was not greatly disturbed.

44"'I know I'm fatter,' she said.

45"'My stockings are getting tighter.

46They used to make wrinkles.

47There's the robin, Ben Weatherstaff.' There, indeed, was the robin, and she thought he looked nicer than ever.

48His red waistcoat was as glossy as satin, and he flirted his wings and tail and tilted his head, and hopped about with all sorts of lively graces.

49He seemed determined to make Ben Weatherstaff admire him, but Ben was sarcastic.

50"'Aye, there the art,' he said.

51"'Thus can put up with me for a bit sometimes when thus got no one better.

52Thus been reddin' up thy waistcoat, and polishin' thy feathers this two weeks.

53I know what thus up to.

54Thus courtin' some bold young madam somewhere, tellin' thy lies to her about bein' the finest cock-rubbin' on Missilemoor, and ready to fight all the rest of em.' "'Oh, look at him!' exclaimed Mary.

55The robin was evidently in a fascinating, bold mood.

56He hopped closer and closer, and looked at Ben Weatherstaff more and more engagingly.

57He flew on to the nearest currant-bush, and tilted his head, and sang a little song right at him.

58"'Thus thinks thou get over me by doin' that,' said Ben, wrinkling his face up in such a way that Mary felt sure he was trying not to look pleased.

59"'Thus thinks no one can stand out against thee.

60That's what thus thinks.' The robin spread his wings.

61Mary could scarcely believe her eyes.

62He flew right up to the handle of Ben Weatherstaff's spade, and alighted on the top of it.

63Then the old man's face wrinkled itself slowly into a new expression.

64He stood still, as if he were afraid to breathe, as if he would not have stirred for the world, lest his robin should start away.

65He spoke quite in a whisper.

66"'Well, I'm danged,' he said, as softly as if he were saying something quite different.

67"'Thus does know how to get it a chap, thus does, thus fair unearthly, thus so knowin.' And he stood without stirring, almost without drawing his breath, until the robin gave another flirt to his wings and flew away.

68Then he stood looking at the handle of the spade as if there might be magic in it, and then he began to dig again, and said nothing for several minutes.

69But because he kept breaking into a slow grin now and then, Mary was not afraid to talk to him.

70"'Have you a garden of your own?' she asked.

71"'No, I'm Batchelder, and Lodge with Martin at the gate.' "'If you had one,' said Mary, "'what would you plant?' "'Cabbages and taters and onions.' "'But if you wanted to make a flower garden,' persisted Mary, "'what would you plant?' "'Bulbs and sweet-smelling things, but mostly roses.' Mary's face lighted up.

72"'Do you like roses?' she said.

73Ben Weatherstaff rooted up a weed and threw it aside before he answered.

74"'Well, yes, I do.

75I was learned that by a young lady I was gardener to.

76She had a lot in a place she was fond of, and she loved them like they was children, or robins.

77I've seen her bend over and kiss them.' He dragged out another weed and scowled at it.

78"'That were as much as ten year ago.' "'Where is she now?' asked Mary, much interested.

79"'Heaven,' he answered, and drove his spade deep into the soil.

80"'According to what Parson says.' "'What happened to the roses?' Mary asked again, more interested than ever.

81"'They was left to themselves.' Mary was becoming quite excited.

82"'Did they quite die?

83Do roses quite die when they are left to themselves?' she ventured.

84"'Well, I'd got to like them, and I liked her, and she liked them,' Ben Weatherstaff admitted reluctantly.

85"'Once or twice a year I'd go and work at them a bit, prune them and dig about the roots.

86They run wild, but they was in rich soil, so some of them lived.' "'When they have no leaves, and look grey and brown and dry, how can you tell whether they are dead or alive?' inquired Mary.

87"'Wait till the spring gets at them.

88Wait till the sun shines on the rain, and the rain falls on the sunshine, and then they'll find out.' "'How!

89How!' cried Mary, forgetting to be careful.

90"'Look along the twigs and branches, and if they'll see a bit of a brown lump swelling here and there, watch it after the warm rain, and see what happens.' He stopped suddenly, and looked curiously at her eager face.

91"'Why does the care so much about roses and such, all of a sudden?' he demanded.

92Mistress Mary felt her face grow red.

93She was almost afraid to answer.

94"'I—I want to play that— that I have a garden of my own,' she stammered.

95"'I—there is nothing for me to do.

96I have nothing, and no one.' "'Well,' said Ben Weatherstaff slowly as he watched her, "'That's true.

97The hasn't.' He said it in such an odd way that Mary wondered if he was actually a little sorry for her.

98She had never felt sorry for herself.

99She had only felt tired and cross, because she disliked people and things so much.

100But now the world seemed to be changing and getting nicer.

101If no one found out about the secret garden, she should enjoy herself always.

102She stayed with him for ten or fifteen minutes longer, and asked him as many questions as she dared.

103He answered every one of them in his queer, grunting way, and he did not seem really cross, and did not pick up his spade and leave her.

104He said something about roses just as she was going away, and it reminded her of the ones he had said he had been fond of.

105"'Do you go and see those other roses now?' she asked.

106"'Not been this year.

107My aromatics has made me too stiff in the joints.' He said it in his grumbling voice, and then quite suddenly he seemed to get angry with her, though she did not see why he should.

108"'Now look here,' he said sharply, "'don't the ask so many questions.

109The art the worst wench for asking questions I've ever come across.

110Get thee gone and play thee.

111I've done talking for to-day.' And he said it so crossly that she knew there was not the least use in staying another minute.

112She went skipping slowly down the outside walk, thinking him over and saying to herself that, queer as it was, here was another person whom she liked in spite of his crossness.

113She liked old Ben Weatherstaff.

114Yes, she did like him.

115She always wanted to try to make him talk to her.

116Also she began to believe that he knew everything in the world about flowers.

117There was a laurel-hedged walk which curved round the secret garden and ended at a gate which opened into a wood in the park.

118She thought she would slip round this walk and look into the wood and see if there were any rabbits hopping about.

119She enjoyed the skipping very much, and when she reached the little gate she opened it and went through because she heard a low peculiar whistling sound and wanted to find out what it was.

120It was a very strange thing indeed.

121She quite caught her breath as she stopped to look at it.

122A boy was sitting under a tree with his back against it playing on a rough wooden pipe.

123He was a funny-looking boy about twelve.

124He looked very clean and his nose turned up and his cheeks were as red as poppies and never had Mistress Mary seen such round and such blue eyes in any boy's face.

125And on the trunk of the tree he leaned against a brown squirrel was clinging and watching him and from behind a bush nearby a cock-pheasant was delicately stretching his neck to peep out and quite near him were two rabbits sitting up and sniffing with tremulous noses and actually it appeared as if they were all drawing near to watch him and listen to the strange low little call his pipe seemed to make.

126When he saw Mary he held up his hand and spoke to her in a voice almost as low as and rather like his piping.

127Don't thou move he said it'd flight em.

128Mary remained motionless.

129He stopped playing his pipe and began to rise from the ground.

130He moved so slowly that it scarcely seemed as though he were moving at all but at last he stood on his feet and then the squirrel scampered back up into the branches of his tree.

131The pheasant withdrew his head and the rabbits dropped on all fours and began to hop away though not at all as if they were frightened.

132I'm Dickon the boy said I know the art Miss Mary.

133Then Mary realized that somehow she had known at first that he was Dickon.

134Who else could have been charming rabbits and pheasants as the natives charm snakes in India?

135He had a wide red curving mouth and his smile spread all over his face.

136I got up slow he explained because if the makes a quick move it startles em.

137A body has to move gentle and speak low when wild things is about.

138He did not speak to her as if they had never seen each other before but as if he knew her quite well.

139Mary knew nothing about boys and she spoke to him a little stiffly because she felt rather shy.

140Did you get Martha's letter?

141she asked.

142He nodded his curly rust-colored head.

143That's why I come.

144He stooped to pick up something which had been lying on the ground beside him when he piped.

145I've got the garden tools.

146There's a little spade and rake and a fork and hoe.

147Eh, they are good uns.

148There's a trowel too and the woman in the shop threw in a packet a white poppy and one a blue larkspur when I bought the other seeds.

149Will you show the seeds to me?

150Mary said.

151She wished she could talk as he did.

152His speech was so quick and easy.

153It sounded as if he liked her and was not the least afraid she would not like him though he was only a common moor boy in patched clothes and with a funny face and a rough rusty red head.

154As she came closer to him she noticed that there was a clean fresh scent of heather and grass and leaves about him almost as if he were made of them.

155She liked it very much and when she looked into his funny face with the red cheeks and round blue eyes she forgot that she had felt shy.

156Let us sit down on this log and look at them she said.

157They sat down and he took a clumsy little brown paper package out of his coat pocket.

158He untied the string and inside there were ever so many neater and smaller packages with a picture of a flower on each one.

159There's a lot of mignonette and poppies he said.

160Mignonette's the sweetest smell and thing as grows and it'll grow wherever you cast it same as poppies will.

161Them as'll come up and bloom if you just whistle to em them's the nicest of all.

162He stopped and turned his head quickly his poppy-cheeked face lighting up.

163Where's that robin as is calling us?

164he said.

165The chirp came from a thick holly-bush bright with scarlet berries and Mary thought she knew whose it was.

166Is it really calling us?

167she asked.

168Aye, said Dickon as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

169He's calling someone he's friends with that same as saying here I am look at me I wants a bit of a chat.

170There he is in the bush whose is he?

171He's been weatherstaff's but I think he knows me a little answered Mary.

172Aye, he knows thee said Dickon in his low voice again.

173And he likes thee he's took thee on he'll tell me all about thee in a minute.

174He moved quite close to the bush with the slow movement Mary had noticed before and then he made a sound almost like the robin's own twitter.

175The robin listened a few seconds intently and then answered quite as if he were replying to a question.

176Aye, he's a friend of yours chuckled Dickon.

177Do you think he is?

178cried Mary eagerly.

179She did so want to know.

180Do you think he really likes me?

181He wouldn't come near thee if he didn't answered Dickon.

182Birds is rare choosers and a robin can flout a body worse than a man.

183See, he's making up to thee now.

184Cannot thus see a chap?

185he's saying.

186And it really seemed as if it must be true.

187He so sidled and twittered and tilted as he hopped on his bush.

188Do you understand everything birds say?

189said Mary.

190Dickon's grin spread until he seemed all wide, red, curving mouth and he rubbed his rough head.

191I think I do and they think I do he said.

192I've lived on the moor with them so long.

193I've watched them break shell and come out and fledge and learn to fly and begin to sing till I think I'm one of them.

194Sometimes I think perhaps I'm a bird or a fox or a rabbit or a squirrel or even a beetle and I don't know it.

195He laughed and came back to the log and began to talk about the flower seeds again.

196He told her what they looked like when they were flowers.

197He told her how to plant them and watch them and feed and water them.

198See here, he said suddenly, turning round to look at her.

199I'll plant them for thee myself.

200Where is the garden?

201Mary's thin hands clutched each other as they lay on her lap.

202She did not know what to say, so for a whole minute she said nothing.

203She had never thought of this.

204She felt miserable, and she felt as if she went red and then pale.

205Tha's got a bit o' garden, hasn't tha?

206Dickon said.

207It was true that she had turned red and then pale.

208Dickon saw her do it, and as she still said nothing he began to be puzzled.

209Wouldn't they give thee a bit?

210he asked.

211Hasn't tha got any yet?

212She held her hands tighter and turned her eyes toward him.

213I don't know anything about boys, she said slowly.

214Could you keep a secret, if I told you one?

215It's a great secret.

216I don't know what I should do if anyone found it out.

217I believe I should die.

218She said the last sentence quite fiercely.

219Dickon looked more puzzled than ever, and even rubbed his hand over his rough head again, but he answered quite good-humouredly.

220I'm keepin' secrets all the time, he said.

221If I couldn't keep secrets from the other lads, secrets about foxes' cubs and birds' nests and wild things' holes, there'd be naught safe on the moor.

222I, I can keep secrets.

223Mistress Mary did not mean to put out her hand and clutch his sleeve, but she did it.

224I've stolen a garden, she said very fast.

225It isn't mine, it isn't anybody's.

226Nobody wants it, nobody cares for it, nobody ever goes into it.

227Perhaps everything is dead in it already, I don't know.

228She began to feel hot and as contrary as she had ever felt in her life.

229I don't care, I don't care, nobody has any right to take it from me when I care about it and they don't.

230They're letting it die, all shut in by itself, she ended passionately, and she threw her arms over her face and burst out crying, poor little Mistress Mary.

231Dickon's curious blue eyes grew rounder and rounder.

232Eh!

233he said, drawing his exclamation out slowly, and the way he did it meant both wonder and sympathy.

234I've nothing to do, said Mary.

235Nothing belongs to me.

236I found it myself and I got into it myself.

237I was only just like the robin and they wouldn't take it from the robin.

238Where is it?

239asked Dickon, in a dropped voice.

240Mistress Mary got up from the log at once.

241She knew she felt contrary again and obstinate, and she did not care at all.

242She was imperious and Indian, and at the same time hot and sorrowful.

243Come with me and I'll show you, she said.

244She led him round the laurel path and to the walk where the ivy grew so thickly.

245Dickon followed her with a queer, almost pitying look on his face.

246He felt as if he were being led to look at some strange bird's nest and must move softly.

247When she stepped to the wall and lifted the hanging ivy, he started.

248There was a door, and Mary pushed it slowly open, and they passed in together, and then Mary stood and waved her hand round defiantly.

249It's this, she said.

250It's a secret garden, and I'm the only one in the world who wants it to be alive.

251Dickon looked round and round about it, and round and round again.

252Eh, he almost whispered, it is a queer, pretty place.

253It's like as if a body was in a dream.

254End of chapter 10 Read by Kara Schallenberg on January 20, 2006 in Oceanside, California