Dickon (The Secret Garden (Full Cast))

01X.

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.

14And really, if Mistress Mary had known it, they began to cheer up under the dark earth and work tremendously.

15The 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.

16Mary was an odd, determined little person.

17And now she had something interesting to be determined about, she was very much absorbed indeed.

18She worked and dug and pulled up weeds steadily, only becoming more pleased with her work every hour instead of tiring of it.

19It seemed to her like a fascinating sort of play.

20She found many more of the sprouting pale green points than she had ever hoped to find.

21They 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.

22There were so many that she remembered what Martha had said about the snowdrops by the thousands, and about bulbs spreading and making new ones.

23These had been left to themselves for ten years, and perhaps they had spread like the snowdrops into thousands.

24She wondered how long it would be before they showed that they were flowers.

25Sometimes 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.

26During that week of sunshine she became more intimate with Ben Weatherstaff.

27She surprised him several times by seeming to start up beside him as if she sprang out of the earth.

28The 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.

29But in fact he did not object to her as strongly as he had at first.

30Perhaps he was secretly rather flattered by her evident desire for his elderly company.

31Then also she was more civil than she had been.

32He 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 Yorkshireman was not accustomed to salaam to his masters, and be merely commanded by them to do things.

33That like the robin'.

34He said to her one morning when he lifted his head and saw her standing by him.

35I never knows when I shall see thee, or which side thou come from.

36He's friends with me now, said Mary.

37That's like him, snapped Ben Weatherstaff.

38Making up to the womenfolk just for vanity and flightiness.

39There's nothing he wouldn't do for the sake of showing off and flirting his tail feathers.

40He's as full of pride as an egg's full of meat.

41He 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.

42He stood up and rested one hobnailed boot on the top of his spade while he looked her over.

43"'How long has thou been here?' he jerked out.

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

45"'Thou's beginning to do mistlethwaite credit,' he said.

46"'Thou's a bit fatter than thou was, and thou's not quite so yellow.

47"'Thou looked like a young plucked crow when thou first came into this garden.

48"'Think's I to myself I never set eyes on an ugly and sour-a-faced young'un.'" Mary was not vain, and as she had never thought much of her looks, she was not greatly disturbed.

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

50"'My stockings are getting tighter.

51They used to make wrinkles.

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

53His 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.

54He seemed determined to make Ben Weatherstaff admire him.

55But Ben was sarcastic.

56"'Aye, there thou art,' he said.

57"'Thou've put up wi' me for a bit sometimes, when thou's got no one better.

58Thou's been reddin' up thy waistcoat, and polishin' thy feathers this two week.

59I know what thou's up to.

60Thou's caught in some bold young madam somewhere, tellin' thy lies to her about bein' the finest cock-robin on Missalmoor, and ready to fight all the rest of em.' "'Oh, look at him!' exclaimed Mary.

61The robin was evidently in a fascinating bold mood.

62He hopped closer and closer, and looked at Ben Weatherstaff more and more engagingly.

63He flew on to the nearest currant-bush, and tilted his head, and sang a little song right at him.

64"'Thou thinks they'll get over me by doin' that?' said Ben, wrinkling up his face in such a way that Mary felt sure he was trying not to look pleased.

65"'Thou thinks no one can stand out against thee.

66That's what thou thinks.' The robin spread his wings.

67Mary could scarcely believe her eyes.

68He flew right up to the handle of Ben Weatherstaff's spade and alighted on the top of it.

69Then the old man's face wrinkled itself slowly into a new expression.

70He 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.

71He spoke quite in a whisper.

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

73"'Thou does know how to get at a chap, thou does.

74That's fair unearthly thou'st so knowin.' And he stood without stirring, almost without drawing his breath, until the robin gave another flirt to his wings and flew away.

75Then he stood looking at the handle of the spade as if there might be magic in it, and he began to dig again and said nothing for several minutes.

76But because he kept breaking into a slow grin now and then, Mary was not afraid to talk to him.

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

78"'No, I am a bachilder and lodgery-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.

79"'What would you plant?' "'Well, bulbs and sweet-smelling things, but mostly roses.' Mary's face lighted up.

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

81Ben Weatherstaff rooted up a weed and threw it aside before he answered.

82"'Well, yes, I do.

83I was learned that by a young lady I was gardener to.

84She had a lot in the place she was fond of, and she loved them like they was children.

85Or robins.

86I've seen her bend over and kiss them.' He dragged out another weed and scowled at it.

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

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

89"'Good into what Barson says.' "'What happened to the roses?' Mary asked again, more interested than ever.

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

91"'Did they quite die?

92Do roses quite die when they are left to themselves?' she ventured.

93"'Well, I got to like em, and I liked her, and she liked em.' Ben Weatherstaff admitted reluctantly.

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

95They run wild, but they was in rich soil, so some of em 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.

96"'Wait till the spring gets at em.

97Wait till the sun shines on the rain, and the rain falls on the sunshine, and then they'll find out.' "'How?

98How?' cried Mary, forgetting to be careful.

99"'Look along the twigs and branches, and if thou sees 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.

100"'Why dost thou care so much about roses and such all of a sudden?' he demanded.

101Mistress Mary felt her face grow red.

102She was almost afraid to answer.

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

104"'I—there is nothing for me to do.

105I have nothing, and no one.' "'Hm—well,' said Ben Weatherstaff slowly as he watched her.

106"'That's true, hasn't?' He said it in such an odd way that Mary wondered if he was actually a little sorry for her.

107She had never felt sorry for herself.

108She had only felt tired and cross, because she disliked people and things so much.

109But now the world seemed to be changing and getting nicer.

110If no one found out about the secret garden, she should enjoy herself always.

111She stayed with him for ten or fifteen minutes longer, and asked him as many questions as she dared.

112He 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.

113He 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.

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

115"'Not been this year.

116My rheumatics has made me too stiffy the joints.' He said it in his grumbling way, and then suddenly he seemed to get angry with her, though she did not see why he should.

117"'Now look here,' he said sharply.

118"'Doesn't ask so many questions.

119That worst wench for asking questions I've ever come across.

120Get thee gone and play thee.

121I'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.

122She 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.

123She liked old Ben Weatherstaff.

124Yes, she did like him.

125She always wanted to try to make him talk to her.

126Also she began to believe that he knew everything in the world about flowers.

127There was a laurel-hedged walk which curved round the secret garden, and ended at a gate which opened into a wood in the park.

128She thought she would slip round this walk and look into the wood, and see if there were any rabbits hopping about.

129She 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.

130It was a very strange thing indeed.

131She quite caught her breath as she stopped to look at it.

132A boy was sitting under a tree with his back against it, playing on a rough wooden pipe.

133He was a funny-looking boy around twelve.

134He looked very clean, and his nose turned up, and his cheeks were as red as poppies.

135And never had Mistress Mary seen such round and such blue eyes in any boy's face.

136And on the trunk of the tree he leaned against, a brown squirrel was clinging and watching him.

137And 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 tremendous noses.

138And 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.

139When he saw Mary he held up his hand and spoke to her in a voice almost as low and rather like his piping.

140Don't thou move, he said.

141It'd fight them.

142Mary remained motionless.

143He stopped playing his pipe and began to rise from the ground.

144He moved so slowly that it scarcely seemed as though he were moving at all.

145But at last he stood on his feet, and then the squirrels scampered back up into the branches of his tree, the 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.

146"'I'm Dickon,' the boy said.

147"'I know that, Miss Mary.' Then Mary realised that somehow she had known at first that he was Dickon.

148Who else could have been charming rabbits and pheasants as the natives charm snakes in India?

149He had a wide red curving mouth, and his smile spread all over his face.

150"'I got up slow,' he explained.

151"'Because if thou makes a quick move it startles them.

152A body has to move gentle and speak low when wild things is about.' He did not speak to her as if they had never seen each other before, but as if he knew her quite well.

153Mary knew nothing about boys, and she spoke to him a little stiffly because she felt rather shy.

154"'Did you get Martha's letter?' she asked.

155He nodded his curly rust-coloured head.

156"'That's why I come.' He stooped to pick up something which had been lying on the ground beside him when he piped.

157"'I've got to garden tools.

158There's a little spade and rake and a fork and oh.

159Eh, they are good'uns.

160There's a trowel too.

161And to a woman at the shop threw in a packet of white poppy.

162And one of blue-black spur when I brought t'other seeds.' "'Will you show the seeds to me?' Mary said.

163She wished she could talk as he did.

164His speech was so quick and easy.

165It 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.

166As he 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.

167She 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.

168"'Let us sit down on this log and look at them,' she said.

169They sat down and he took a clumsy little brown paper package out of his coat pocket.

170He untied the string, and inside there were ever so many neater and smaller packages with a picture of a flower on each one.

171"'There's a lot o' mignonette an' poppies,' he said.

172"'Mignonette's to the sweet smellin' thing as grows.

173And it'll grow wherever you cast it, same as poppies will.

174Them as'll come up and bloom if you just whistle at them.

175Them's the nicest of all.' He stopped and turned his head quickly, his poppy-cheeked face lighting up.

176"'Where's that robin as is callin' us?' he said.

177The chirp came from a thick holly-bush bright with scarlet berries, and Mary thought she knew whose it was.

178"'Is it really calling us?' she asked.

179"'Aye,' said Dickon, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

180"'He's callin' some one he's friends with.

181That's the same as sayin'.

182"'Here I am.

183Look at me.

184I wants a bit o' chat.

185There he is in the bush.

186Who's is he?' "'He's Ben Weatherstaff's.

187But I think he knows me a little,' answered Mary.

188"'Aye, he knows thee.' Said Dickon in his low voice again.

189"'And he likes thee.

190He's tuck thee on.

191He'll tell me all about thee in a minute.' He 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.

192The robin listened a few seconds, intently, and then answered quite as if he were replying to a question.

193"'I think I do, and they think I do,' said Mary.

194"'I'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.

195Sometimes 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.' He 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.

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

199"'I'll plant them for thee myself.

200Where's the garden?' Mary's thin hands clutched each other as they lay on her lap.

201She did not know what to say, so for a whole minute she said nothing.

202She had never thought of this.

203She felt miserable, and she felt as if she went red and then pale.

204"'Thou's got a bit o' garden, hasn't thou?' Dickon said.

205It was true that she had turned red and then pale.

206Dickon saw her do it, and as she still said nothing he began to be puzzled.

207"'Wouldn't they give thee a bit?' he asked.

208"'Hasn't that got any yet?' She held her hands tighter and turned her eyes toward him.

209"'I don't know—anything—about boys,' she said slowly.

210"'Could you keep a secret if I told you one?

211It's a great secret.

212I don't know what I should do if anyone found it out.

213I believe I should die.' She said the last sentence quite fiercely.

214Dickon looked more puzzled than ever, and even rubbed his hand over his rough head again, but he answered quite good-humouredly.

215"'I'm keepin' secrets all time,' he said.

216"'If I couldn't keep secrets from to the lads—secrets about foxes' cubs and birds' nests and wild things's holes—there'd be naught safe for them on to more.

217Aye, I can keep secrets.' Mistress Mary did not mean to put out her hand and clutch his sleeve, but she did it.

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

219"'It isn't mine.

220It isn't anybody's.

221Nobody wants it.

222Nobody cares for it.

223Nobody ever goes in it.

224Perhaps everything is dead in it already.

225I don't know.' She began to feel hot and as contrary as she had ever felt in her life.

226"'I don't care.

227I don't care.

228Nobody has any right to take it from me when I care about it and they don't.

229They're letting it die, all shut in by itself.' She ended passionately and she threw her arms over her face and burst out crying.

230Poor little Mistress Mary.

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

232"'Aye!' he said, drawing his exclamation out slowly, and the way he did it meant both wonder and sympathy.

233"'I've nothing to do,' said Mary.

234"'Nothing belongs to me.

235I found it myself and I got into it myself.

236I was only just like the robin, and they wouldn't take it from the robin.' "'Where is it?' asked Dickon in a dropped voice.

237Mistress Mary got up from the log at once.

238She knew she felt contrary again and obstinate, and she did not care at all.

239She was imperious and Indian, and at the same time hot and sorrowful.

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

241She led him round the laurel path and to the walk where the ivy grew so thickly.

242Dickon followed her with a queer, almost pitying look on his face.

243He felt as if he were being led to look at some strange bird's nest and must move softly.

244When she stepped to the wall and lifted the hanging ivy he started.

245There was a door, and Mary pushed it slowly open, and they passed in together, and then Mary stood and waved her hand round defiantly.

246"'It's this,' she said.

247"'It's a secret garden, and I'm the only one in the world who wants it to be alive.' Dickon looked round and round about it, and round and round again.

248"'A,' he almost whispered, "'it is a queer, pretty place.

249It's like as if a body was in a dream.'" End of chapter 10 End of chapter 10 End of chapter 10 End of chapter 10 End