Chapter 18

"THA' MUNNOT WASTE NO TIME"

Of course Mary did not waken early the next morning.

She slept late because she was tired, and when Marthabrought her breakfast she told her that though.

Colin was quite quiet he was ill and feverish as he alwayswas after he had worn himself out with a fit of crying.

Mary ate her breakfast slowly as she listened.

"He says he wishes tha' would please go and see him as soonas tha' can," Martha said. "It's queer what a fancyhe's took to thee. Tha' did give it him last night forsure--didn't tha? Nobody else would have dared to do it.

Eh! poor lad! He's been spoiled till salt won't save him.

Mother says as th' two worst things as can happen to achild is never to have his own way--or always to have it.

She doesn't know which is th' worst. Tha' was in a fine tempertha'self, too. But he says to me when I went into his room,`Please ask Miss Mary if she'll please come an, talk to me?'

Think o' him saying please! Will you go, Miss?" "I'll runand see Dickon first," said Mary. "No, I'll go and seeColin first and tell him--I know what I'll tell him,"with a sudden inspiration.

She had her hat on when she appeared in Colin's roomand for a second he looked disappointed. He was in bed.

His face was pitifully white and there were dark circlesround his eyes.

"I'm glad you came," he said. "My head aches and I acheall over because I'm so tired. Are you going somewhere?"Mary went and leaned against his bed.

"I won't be long," she said. "I'm going to Dickon,but I'll come back. Colin, it's--it's something aboutthe garden."His whole face brightened and a little color came into it.

"Oh! is it?" he cried out. "I dreamed about it all nightI heard you say something about gray changing into green,and I dreamed I was standing in a place all filledwith trembling little green leaves--and there were birdson nests everywhere and they looked so soft and still.

I'll lie and think about it until you come back."In five minutes Mary was with Dickon in their garden.

The fox and the crow were with him again and this timehe had brought two tame squirrels. "I came over on thepony this mornin', " he said. "Eh! he is a good littlechap--Jump is! I brought these two in my pockets.

This here one he's called Nut an' this here other one'scalled Shell."When he said "Nut" one squirrel leaped on to his rightshoulder and when he said "Shell" the other one leapedon to his left shoulder.

When they sat down on the grass with Captain curled attheir feet, Soot solemnly listening on a tree and Nut andShell nosing about close to them, it seemed to Mary that itwould be scarcely bearable to leave such delightfulness,but when she began to tell her story somehow the lookin Dickon's funny face gradually changed her mind.

She could see he felt sorrier for Colin than she did.

He looked up at the sky and all about him.

"Just listen to them birds--th' world seems fullof 'em--all whistlin' an' pipin'," he said.

"Look at 'em dartin' about, an' hearken at 'em callin'

to each other. Come springtime seems like as if all th'

world's callin'. The leaves is uncurlin' so you can see'em--an', my word, th' nice smells there is about!"sniffing with his happy turned-up nose. "An' that poorlad lyin' shut up an' seein' so little that he getsto thinkin' o' things as sets him screamin'. Eh! my!

we mun get him out here--we mun get him watchin'

an listenin' an' sniffin' up th' air an' get him just soakedthrough wi' sunshine. An' we munnot lose no time about it."When he was very much interested he often spoke quitebroad Yorkshire though at other times he tried to modifyhis dialect so that Mary could better understand.

But she loved his broad Yorkshire and had in fact beentrying to learn to speak it herself. So she spokea little now.

"Aye, that we mun," she said (which meant "Yes, indeed,we must"). "I'll tell thee what us'll do first," she proceeded,and Dickon grinned, because when the little wench triedto twist her tongue into speaking Yorkshire it amusedhim very much. "He's took a graidely fancy to thee.

He wants to see thee and he wants to see Soot an' Captain.

When I go back to the house to talk to him I'll ax himif tha' canna' come an' see him tomorrow mornin'--an'.

bring tha' creatures wi' thee--an' then--in a bit,when there's more leaves out, an' happen a bud or two,we'll get him to come out an' tha' shall push him in hischair an' we'll bring him here an' show him everything."When she stopped she was quite proud of herself.

She had never made a long speech in Yorkshire beforeand she had remembered very well.

"Tha' mun talk a bit o' Yorkshire like that to Mester Colin,"Dickon chuckled. "Tha'll make him laugh an' there's nowtas good for ill folk as laughin' is. Mother says shebelieves as half a hour's good laugh every mornin'

'ud cure a chap as was makin' ready for typhus fever.""I'm going to talk Yorkshire to him this very day,"said Mary, chuckling herself.

The garden had reached the time when every day and every nightit seemed as if Magicians were passing through it drawingloveliness out of the earth and the boughs with wands.

It was hard to go away and leave it all, particularly as Nuthad actually crept on to her dress and Shell had scrambleddown the trunk of the apple-tree they sat under and stayedthere looking at her with inquiring eyes. But she went backto the house and when she sat down close to Colin's bedhe began to sniff as Dickon did though not in such an experiencedway.

"You smell like flowers and--and fresh things," he criedout quite joyously. "What is it you smell of? It's cooland warm and sweet all at the same time.""It's th' wind from th' moor," said Mary. "It comes o' sittin'

on th' grass under a tree wi' Dickon an' wi' Captain an'

Soot an' Nut an' Shell. It's th' springtime an' out o'

doors an' sunshine as smells so graidely."She said it as broadly as she could, and you do not knowhow broadly Yorkshire sounds until you have heard someone speak it. Colin began to laugh.

"What are you doing?" he said. "I never heard you talklike that before. How funny it sounds.""I'm givin' thee a bit o' Yorkshire," answered Mary triumphantly.

`I canna' talk as graidely as Dickon an' Martha can but tha'

sees I can shape a bit. Doesn't tha' understand a bit o'

Yorkshire when tha' hears it? An' tha' a Yorkshire lad thysel'

bred an' born! Eh! I wonder tha'rt not ashamed o'

thy face."And then she began to laugh too and they both laughed untilthey could not stop themselves and they laughed untilthe room echoed and Mrs. Medlock opening the door to comein drew back into the corridor and stood listening amazed.

"Well, upon my word!" she said, speaking rather broadYorkshire herself because there was no one to hearher and she was so astonished. "Whoever heard th'

like! Whoever on earth would ha' thought it!"There was so much to talk about. It seemed as if Colincould never hear enough of Dickon and Captain and Sootand Nut and Shell and the pony whose name was Jump.

Mary had run round into the wood with Dickon to see Jump.

He was a tiny little shaggy moor pony with thick lockshanging over his eyes and with a pretty face and a nuzzlingvelvet nose. He was rather thin with living on moorgrass but he was as tough and wiry as if the musclein his little legs had been made of steel springs.

He had lifted his head and whinnied softly the momenthe saw Dickon and he had trotted up to him and put hishead across his shoulder and then Dickon had talked intohis ear and Jump had talked back in odd little whinniesand puffs and snorts. Dickon had made him give Maryhis small front hoof and kiss her on her cheek with hisvelvet muzzle.

"Does he really understand everything Dickon says?"Colin asked.

"It seems as if he does," answered Mary. "Dickon saysanything will understand if you're friends with it for sure,but you have to be friends for sure."Colin lay quiet a little while and his strange grayeyes seemed to be staring at the wall, but Mary sawhe was thinking.

"I wish I was friends with things," he said at last,"but I'm not. I never had anything to be friends with,and I can't bear people.""Can't you bear me?" asked Mary.

"Yes, I can," he answered. "It's funny but I even like you.""Ben Weatherstaff said I was like him," said Mary.

"He said he'd warrant we'd both got the same nasty tempers.

I think you are like him too. We are all three alike--youand I and Ben Weatherstaff. He said we were neitherof us much to look at and we were as sour as we looked.

But I don't feel as sour as I used to before I knew the robinand Dickon.""Did you feel as if you hated people?""Yes," answered Mary without any affectation.

"I should have detested you if I had seen you beforeI saw the robin and Dickon."Colin put out his thin hand and touched her.

"Mary," he said, "I wish I hadn't said what I did aboutsending Dickon away. I hated you when you said he waslike an angel and I laughed at you but--but perhaps he is.""Well, it was rather funny to say it," she admitted frankly,"because his nose does turn up and he has a big mouthand his clothes have patches all over them and he talksbroad Yorkshire, but--but if an angel did come to Yorkshireand live on the moor--if there was a Yorkshire angel--Ibelieve he'd understand the green things and know how tomake them grow and he would know how to talk to the wildcreatures as Dickon does and they'd know he was friends forsure.""I shouldn't mind Dickon looking at me," said Colin;"I want to see him.""I'm glad you said that," answered Mary, "because--because--"Quite suddenly it came into her mind that this was theminute to tell him. Colin knew something new was coming.

"Because what?" he cried eagerly.

Mary was so anxious that she got up from her stooland came to him and caught hold of both his hands.

"Can I trust you? I trusted Dickon because birds trusted him.

Can I trust you--for sure--for sure?" she implored.

Her face was so solemn that he almost whispered his answer.

"Yes--yes!""Well, Dickon will come to see you tomorrow morning,and he'll bring his creatures with him.""Oh! Oh!" Colin cried out in delight.

"But that's not all," Mary went on, almost pale withsolemn excitement. "The rest is better. There is a doorinto the garden. I found it. It is under the ivy on the wall."If he had been a strong healthy boy Colin would probablyhave shouted "Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!" but he was weakand rather hysterical; his eyes grew bigger and biggerand he gasped for breath.

"Oh! Mary!" he cried out with a half sob. "Shall I seeit? Shall I get into it? Shall I live to get into it?"and he clutched her hands and dragged her toward him.

"Of course you'll see it!" snapped Mary indignantly.

"Of course you'll live to get into it! Don't be silly!"And she was so un-hysterical and natural and childishthat she brought him to his senses and he began to laughat himself and a few minutes afterward she was sittingon her stool again telling him not what she imaginedthe secret garden to be like but what it really was,and Colin's aches and tiredness were forgotten and hewas listening enraptured.

"It is just what you thought it would be," he said at last.

"It sounds just as if you had really seen it. You know Isaid that when you told me first."Mary hesitated about two minutes and then boldly spokethe truth.

"I had seen it--and I had been in," she said. "I foundthe key and got in weeks ago. But I daren't tell you--Idaren't because I was so afraid I couldn't trust you--for sure!"