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CHAPTER VII
THE KEY TO THE GARDEN
4. Two days after this, when Mary opened her eyes she sat
5. upright in bed immediately, and called to Martha.
6. "Look at the moor! Look at the moor!"
7. The rainstorm had ended and the gray mist and clouds
8. had been swept away in the night by the wind. The wind
9. itself had ceased and a brilliant, deep blue sky arched
10. high over the moorland. Never, never had Mary dreamed
11. of a sky so blue. In India skies were hot and blazing;
12. this was of a deep cool blue which almost seemed to
13. sparkle like the waters of some lovely bottomless lake,
14. and here and there, high, high in the arched blueness
15. floated small clouds of snow-white fleece. The far-reaching
16. world of the moor itself looked softly blue instead
17. of gloomy purple-black or awful dreary gray.
18. "Aye," said Martha with a cheerful grin. "Th' storm's
19. over for a bit. It does like this at this time o'
20. th' year. It goes off in a night like it was pretendin'
21. it had never been here an' never meant to come again.
22. That's because th' springtime's on its way. It's a long
23. way off yet, but it's comin'."
24. "I thought perhaps it always rained or looked dark
25. in England," Mary said.
26. "Eh! no!" said Martha, sitting up on her heels among
27. her black lead brushes. "Nowt o' th' soart!"
28. "What does that mean?" asked Mary seriously. In India
29. the natives spoke different dialects which only a few
30. people understood, so she was not surprised when Martha
31. used words she did not know.
32. Martha laughed as she had done the first morning.
33. "There now," she said. "I've talked broad Yorkshire
again
34. like Mrs. Medlock said I mustn't. `Nowt o' th' soart'
35. means `nothin'-of-the-sort,'" slowly and carefully,
36. "but it takes so long to say it. Yorkshire's th'
37. sunniest place on earth when it is sunny. I told thee
38. tha'd like th' moor after a bit. Just you wait till you
39. see th' gold-colored gorse blossoms an' th' blossoms o'
40. th' broom, an' th' heather flowerin', all purple bells, an'
41. hundreds o' butterflies flutterin' an' bees hummin' an'
42. skylarks soarin' up an' singin'. You'll want to get out on
43. it as sunrise an' live out on it all day like Dickon does."
44. "Could I ever get there?" asked Mary wistfully,
45. looking through her window at the far-off blue.
46. It was so new and big and wonderful and such a heavenly color.
47. "I don't know," answered Martha. "Tha's never used
tha'
48. legs since tha' was born, it seems to me. Tha' couldn't walk
49. five mile. It's five mile to our cottage."
50. "I should like to see your cottage."
51. Martha stared at her a moment curiously before she took
52. up her polishing brush and began to rub the grate again.
53. She was thining that the small plain face did not look quite
54. as sour at this moment as it had done the first morning
55. she saw it. It looked just a trifle like little Susan
56. Ann's when she wanted something very much.
57. "I'll ask my mother about it," she said. "She's one
o'
58. them that nearly always sees a way to do things.
59. It's my day out today an' I'm goin' home. Eh! I am glad.
60. Mrs. Medlock thinks a lot o' mother. Perhaps she could talk
61. to her."
62. "I like your mother," said Mary.
63. "I should think tha' did," agreed Martha, polishing away.
64. "I've never seen her," said Mary.
65. "No, tha' hasn't," replied Martha.
66. She sat up on her heels again and rubbed the end of her
67. nose with the back of her hand as if puzzled for a moment,
68. but she ended quite positively.
69. "Well, she's that sensible an' hard workin' an' goodnatured an'
70. clean that no one could help likin' her whether they'd
71. seen her or not. When I'm goin' home to her on my day
72. out I just jump for joy when I'm crossin' the moor."
73. "I like Dickon," added Mary. "And I've never seen
him."
74. "Well," said Martha stoutly, "I've told thee that th'
75. very birds likes him an' th' rabbits an' wild sheep an'
76. ponies, an' th' foxes themselves. I wonder," staring at
77. her reflectively, "what Dickon would think of thee?"
78. "He wouldn't like me," said Mary in her stiff,
79. cold little way. "No one does."
80. Martha looked reflective again.
81. "How does tha' like thysel'?" she inquired, really quite
82. as if she were curious to know.
83. Mary hesitated a moment and thought it over.
84. "Not at all--really," she answered. "But I never
thought
85. of that before."
86. Martha grinned a little as if at some homely recollection.
87. "Mother said that to me once," she said. "She was at
her
88. wash- tub an' I was in a bad temper an' talkin' ill of folk,
89. an' she turns round on me an' says: `Tha' young vixen,
90. tha'! There tha' stands sayin' tha' doesn't like this one an'
91. tha' doesn't like that one. How does tha' like thysel'?'
92. It made me laugh an' it brought me to my senses in a minute."
93. She went away in high spirits as soon as she had given
94. Mary her breakfast. She was going to walk five miles
95. across the moor to the cottage, and she was going to help
96. her mother with the washing and do the week's baking
97. and enjoy herself thoroughly.
98. Mary felt lonelier than ever when she knew she was no longer
99. in the house. She went out into the garden as quickly
100. as possible, and the first thing she did was to run
101. round and round the fountain flower garden ten times.
102. She counted the times carefully and when she had finished
103. she felt in better spirits. The sunshine made the
104. whole place look different. The high, deep, blue sky
105. arched over Misselthwaite as well as over the moor,
106. and she kept lifting her face and looking up into it,
107. trying to imagine what it would be like to lie down on
108. one of the little snow-white clouds and float about.
109. She went into the first kitchen-garden and found Ben
110. Weatherstaff working there with two other gardeners.
111. The change in the weather seemed to have done him good.
112. He spoke to her of his own accord. "Springtime's comin,'"
113. he said. "Cannot tha' smell it?"
114. Mary sniffed and thought she could.
115. "I smell something nice and fresh and damp," she said.
116. "That's th' good rich earth," he answered, digging away.
117. "It's in a good humor makin' ready to grow things.
118. It's glad when plantin' time comes. It's dull in th'
119. winter when it's got nowt to do. In th' flower gardens out
120. there things will be stirrin' down below in th' dark. Th'
121. sun's warmin' 'em. You'll see bits o' green spikes stickin'
122. out o' th' black earth after a bit."
123. "What will they be?" asked Mary.
124. "Crocuses an' snowdrops an' daffydowndillys. Has tha'
125. never seen them?"
126. "No. Everything is hot, and wet, and green after the
127. rains in India," said Mary. "And I think things grow
128. up in a night."
129. "These won't grow up in a night," said Weatherstaff.
130. "Tha'll have to wait for 'em. They'll poke up a bit
131. higher here, an' push out a spike more there, an' uncurl a
132. leaf this day an' another that. You watch 'em."
133. "I am going to," answered Mary.
134. Very soon she heard the soft rustling flight of wings
135. again and she knew at once that the robin had come again.
136. He was very pert and lively, and hopped about so close
137. to her feet, and put his head on one side and looked at
138. her so slyly that she asked Ben Weatherstaff a question.
139. "Do you think he remembers me?" she said.
140. "Remembers thee!" said Weatherstaff indignantly.
141. "He knows every cabbage stump in th' gardens, let
142. alone th' people. He's never seen a little wench
143. here before, an' he's bent on findin' out all about thee.
144. Tha's no need to try to hide anything from him."
145. "Are things stirring down below in the dark in that garden
146. where he lives?" Mary inquired.
147. "What garden?" grunted Weatherstaff, becoming surly
again.
148. "The one where the old rose-trees are." She could
149. not help asking, because she wanted so much to know.
150. "Are all the flowers dead, or do some of them come again
151. in the summer? Are there ever any roses?"
152. "Ask him," said Ben Weatherstaff, hunching his shoulders
153. toward the robin. "He's the only one as knows.
154. No one else has seen inside it for ten year'."
155. Ten years was a long time, Mary thought. She had been
156. born ten years ago.
157. She walked away, slowly thinking. She had begun to
158. like the garden just as she had begun to like the robin
159. and Dickon and Martha's mother. She was beginning
160. to like Martha, too. That seemed a good many people
161. to like--when you were not used to liking. She thought
162. of the robin as one of the people. She went to her walk
163. outside the long, ivy-covered wall over which she could
164. see the tree-tops; and the second time she walked up
165. and down the most interesting and exciting thing happened
166. to her, and it was all through Ben Weatherstaff's robin.
167. She heard a chirp and a twitter, and when she looked
168. at the bare flower-bed at her left side there he was
169. hopping about and pretending to peck things out of the
170. earth to persuade her that he had not followed her.
171. But she knew he had followed her and the surprise so filled
172. her with delight that she almost trembled a little.
173. "You do remember me!" she cried out. "You do! You
are
174. prettier than anything else in the world!"
175. She chirped, and talked, and coaxed and he hopped,
176. and flirted his tail and twittered. It was as if he
177. were talking. His red waistcoat was like satin and he
178. puffed his tiny breast out and was so fine and so grand
179. and so pretty that it was really as if he were showing her
180. how important and like a human person a robin could be.
181. Mistress Mary forgot that she had ever been contrary
182. in her life when he allowed her to draw closer and closer
183. to him, and bend down and talk and try to make something
184. like robin sounds.
185. Oh! to think that he should actually let her come as near
186. to him as that! He knew nothing in the world would make
187. her put out her hand toward him or startle him in the
188. least tiniest way. He knew it because he was a real
189. person--only nicer than any other person in the world.
190. She was so happy that she scarcely dared to breathe.
191. The flower-bed was not quite bare. It was bare of flowers
192. because the perennial plants had been cut down for their
193. winter rest, but there were tall shrubs and low ones which grew
194. together at the back of the bed, and as the robin hopped
195. about under them she saw him hop over a small pile of freshly
196. turned up earth. He stopped on it to look for a worm.
197. The earth had been turned up because a dog had been trying
198. to dig up a mole and he had scratched quite a deep hole.
199. Mary looked at it, not really knowing why the hole was there,
200. and as she looked she saw something almost buried in the
201. newly-turned soil. It was something like a ring of rusty
202. iron or brass and when the robin flew up into a tree
203. nearby she put out her hand and picked the ring up.
204. It was more than a ring, however; it was an old key
205. which looked as if it had been buried a long time.
206. Mistress Mary stood up and looked at it with an almost
207. frightened face as it hung from her finger.
208. "Perhaps it has been buried for ten years," she said
in a whisper. "Perhaps it is the key to the garden!"
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