"It looks it, for sure," said Martha, ruffling it up a little round her face. "Tha"rt not half so ugly when it"s that way an" there"s a bit o" red in tha" cheeks."
If gardens and fresh air had been good for her perhaps they would be good for Colin. But then, if he hated people to look at him, perhaps he would not like to see d.i.c.kon.
"Why does it make you angry when you are looked at?" she inquired one day.
"I always hated it," he answered, "even when I was very little. Then when they took me to the seaside and I used to lie in my carriage everybody used to stare and ladies would stop and talk to my nurse and then they would begin to whisper and I knew then they were saying I shouldn"t live to grow up. Then sometimes the ladies would pat my cheeks and say "Poor child!" Once when a lady did that I screamed out loud and bit her hand. She was so frightened she ran away."
"She thought you had gone mad like a dog," said Mary, not at all admiringly.
"I don"t care what she thought," said Colin, frowning.
"I wonder why you didn"t scream and bite me when I came into your room?" said Mary. Then she began to smile slowly.
"I thought you were a ghost or a dream," he said. "You can"t bite a ghost or a dream, and if you scream they don"t care."
"Would you hate it if-if a boy looked at you?" Mary asked uncertainly.
He lay back on his cushion and paused thoughtfully.
"There"s one boy," he said quite slowly, as if he were thinking over every word, "there"s one boy I believe I shouldn"t mind. It"s that boy who knows where the foxes live-d.i.c.kon."
"I"m sure you wouldn"t mind him," said Mary.
"The birds don"t and other animals," he said, still thinking it over, "perhaps that"s why I shouldn"t. He"s a sort of animal charmer and I am a boy animal."
Then he laughed and she laughed too; in fact it ended in their both laughing a great deal and finding the idea of a boy animal hiding in his hole very funny indeed.
What Mary felt afterward was that she need not fear about d.i.c.kon.
On that first morning when the sky was blue again Mary wakened very early. The sun was pouring in slanting rays through the blinds and there was something so joyous in the sight of it that she jumped out of bed and ran to the window. She drew up the blinds and opened the window itself and a great waft of fresh, scented air blew in upon her. The moor was blue and the whole world looked as if something Magic had happened to it. There were tender little fluting sounds here and there and everywhere, as if scores of birds were beginning to tune up for a concert. Mary put her hand out of the window and held it in the sun.
"It"s warm-warm!" she said. "It will make the green points push up and up and up, and it will make the bulbs and roots work and struggle with all their might under the earth."
She kneeled down and leaned out of the window as far as she could, breathing big breaths and sniffing the air until she laughed because she remembered what d.i.c.kon"s mother had said about the end of his nose quivering like a rabbit"s. "It must be very early," she said. "The little clouds are all pink and I"ve never seen the sky look like this. No one is up. I don"t even hear the stable boys."
A sudden thought made her scramble to her feet.
"I can"t wait! I am going to see the garden!"
She had learned to dress herself by this time and she put on her clothes in five minutes. She knew a small side door which she could unbolt herself and she flew downstairs in her stocking feet and put on her shoes in the hall. She unchained and unbolted and unlocked and when the door was open she sprang across the step with one bound, and there she was standing on the gra.s.s, which seemed to have turned green, and with the sun pouring down on her and warm sweet wafts about her and the fluting and twittering and singing coming from every bush and tree. She clasped her hands for pure joy and looked up in the sky and it was so blue and pink and pearly and white and flooded with springtime light that she felt as if she must flute and sing aloud herself and knew that thrushes and robins and skylarks could not possibly help it. She ran around the shrubs and paths towards the secret garden.
"It is all different already," she said. "The gra.s.s is greener and things are sticking up everywhere and things are uncurling and green buds of leaves are showing. This afternoon I am sure d.i.c.kon will come."
The long warm rain had done strange things to the herbaceous beds which bordered the walk by the lower wall. There were things sprouting and pushing out from the roots of clumps of plants and there were actually here and there glimpses of royal purple and yellow unfurling among the stems of crocuses. Six months before Mistress Mary would not have seen how the world was waking up, but now she missed nothing.
When she had reached the place where the door hid itself under the ivy, she was startled by a curious loud sound. It was the caw-caw of a crow and it came from the top of the wall, and when she looked up, there sat a big glossy-plumaged blue-black bird, looking down at her very wisely indeed. She had never seen a crow so close before and he made her a little nervous, but the next moment he spread his wings and flapped away across the garden. She hoped he was not going to stay inside and she pushed the door open wondering if he would. When she got fairly into the garden she saw that he probably did intend to stay because he had alighted on a dwarf apple-tree and under the apple-tree was lying a little reddish animal with a Bushy tail, and both of them were watching the stooping body and rust-red head of d.i.c.kon, who was kneeling on the gra.s.s working hard.
Mary flew across the gra.s.s to him.
"Oh, d.i.c.kon! d.i.c.kon!" she cried out. "How could you get here so early! How could you! The sun has only just got up!"
He got up himself, laughing and glowing, and tousled; his eyes like a bit of the sky.
"Eh!" he said. "I was up long before him. How could I have stayed abed! Th" world"s all fair begun again this mornin", it has. An" it"s workin" an" hummin" an" scratchin" an" pipin" an" nest-buildin" an" breathin" out scents, till you"ve got to be out on it "stead o" lyin" on your back. When th" sun did jump up, th" moor went mad for joy, an" I was in the midst of th" heather, an" I run like mad myself, shoutin" an" singin". An" I come straight here. I couldn"t have stayed away. Why, th" garden was lyin" here waitin"!"
Mary put her hands on her chest, panting, as if she had been running herself.
"Oh, d.i.c.kon! d.i.c.kon!" she said. "I"m so happy I can scarcely breathe!"
Seeing him talking to a stranger, the little bushy-tailed animal rose from its place under the tree and came to him, and the rook, cawing once, flew down from its branch and settled quietly on his shoulder.
"This is th" little fox cub," he said, rubbing the little reddish animal"s head. "It"s named Captain. An" this here"s Soot. Soot he flew across th" moor with me an" Captain he run same as if th" hounds had been after him. They both felt same as I did."
Neither of the creatures looked as if he were the least afraid of Mary. When d.i.c.kon began to walk about, Soot stayed on his shoulder and Captain trotted quietly close to his side.
"See here!" said d.i.c.kon. "See how these has pushed up, an" these an" these! An" Eh! Look at these here!"
He threw himself upon his knees and Mary went down beside him. They had come upon a whole clump of crocuses burst into purple and orange and gold. Mary bent her face down and kissed and kissed them.
"You never kiss a person in that way," she said when she lifted her head. "Flowers are so different."
He looked puzzled but smiled.
"Eh!" he said, "I"ve kissed mother many a time that way when I come in from th" moor after a day"s roamin" an" she stood there at th" door in th" sun, lookin" so glad an" comfortable." They ran from one part of the garden to another and found so many wonders that they were obliged to remind themselves that they must whisper or speak low. He showed her swelling leafbuds on rose branches which had seemed dead. He showed her ten thousand new green points pushing through the mould. They put their eager young noses close to the earth and sniffed its warmed springtime breathing; they dug and pulled and laughed low with rapture until Mistress Mary"s hair was as tumbled as d.i.c.kon"s and her cheeks were almost as poppy red as his.
There was every joy on earth in the secret garden that morning, and in the midst of them came a delight more delightful than all, because it was more wonderful. Swiftly something flew across the wall and darted through the trees to a close grown corner, a little flare of red-breasted bird with something hanging from its beak. d.i.c.kon stood quite still and put his hand on Mary almost as if they had suddenly found themselves laughing in a church.
"We munnot stir," he whispered in broad Yorkshire. "We munnot scarce breathe. I knowed he was mate-huntin" when I seed him last. It"s Ben Weatherstaff"s robin. He"s buildin" his nest. He"ll stay here if us don"t fight him." They settled down softly upon the gra.s.s and sat there without moving.
"Us mustn"t seem as if us was watchin" him too close," said d.i.c.kon. "He"d be out with us for good if he got th" notion us was interferin" now. He"ll be a good bit different till all this is over. He"s settin" up housekeepin". He"ll be shyer an" readier to take things ill. He"s got no time for visitin" an" gossipin". Us must keep still a bit an" try to look as if us was gra.s.s an" trees an" bushes. Then when he"s got used to seein" us I"ll chirp a bit an" he"ll know us"ll not be in his way."
Mistress Mary was not at all sure that she knew, as d.i.c.kon seemed to, how to try to look like gra.s.s and trees and bushes. But he had said the queer thing as if it were the simplest and most natural thing in the world, and she felt it must be quite easy to him, and indeed she watched him for a few minutes carefully, wondering if it was possible for him to quietly turn green and put out branches and leaves. But he only sat wonderfully still, and when he spoke dropped his voice to such a softness that it was curious that she could hear him, but she could.
"It"s part o" th" springtime, this nest-buildin" is," he said. "I warrant it"s been goin" on in th" same way every year since th" world was begun. They"ve got their way o" thinkin" and doin" things an" a body had better not meddle. You can lose a friend in springtime easier than any other season if you"re too curious."
"If we talk about him I can"t help looking at him," Mary said as softly as possible. "We must talk of something else. There is something I want to tell you."
"He"ll like it better if us talks o" somethin" else," said d.i.c.kon. "What is it tha"s got to tell me?"
"Well-do you know about Colin?" she whispered.
He turned his head to look at her.
"What does tha" know about him?" he asked.
"I"ve seen him. I have been to talk to him every day this week. He wants me to come. He says I"m making him forget about being ill and dying," answered Mary.
d.i.c.kon looked actually relieved as soon as the surprise died away from his round face.