The Secret Garden. Фрэнсис Элиза Бёрнетт

breast sitting on the topmost branch of one of them, and suddenly he burst into his winter song-almost as if he had caught sight of her and was calling to her.

      She stopped and listened to him and somehow his cheerful, friendly little whistle gave her a pleased feeling-even a disagreeable little girl may be lonely, and the big closed house and big bare moor and big bare gardens had made this one feel as if there was no one left in the world but herself. If she had been an affectionate child, who had been used to being loved, she would have broken her heart, but even though she was “Mistress Mary Quite Contrary” she was desolate, and the bright-breasted little bird brought a look into her sour little face which was almost a smile. She listened to him until he flew away. He was not like an Indian bird and she liked him and wondered if she should ever see him again. Perhaps he lived in the mysterious garden and knew all about it.

      Perhaps it was because she had nothing whatever to do that she thought so much of the deserted garden. She was curious about it and wanted to see what it was like. Why had Mr. Archibald Craven buried the key? If he had liked his wife so much why did he hate her garden? She wondered if she should ever see him, but she knew that if she did she should not like him, and he would not like her, and that she should only stand and stare at him and say nothing, though she should be wanting dreadfully to ask him why he had done such a queer thing.

      “People never like me and I never like people,” she thought. “And I never can talk as the Crawford children could. They were always talking and laughing and making noises.”

      She thought of the robin and of the way he seemed to sing his song at her, and as she remembered the tree-top he perched on she stopped rather suddenly on the path.

      “I believe that tree was in the secret garden-I feel sure it was,” she said. “There was a wall round the place and there was no door.”

      She walked back into the first kitchen-garden she had entered and found the old man digging there. She went and stood beside him and watched him a few moments in her cold little way. He took no notice of her and so at last she spoke to him.

      “I have been into the other gardens,” she said.

      “There was nothin’ to prevent thee,” he answered crustily.

      “I went into the orchard.”

      “There was no dog at th’ door to bite thee,” he answered.

      “There was no door there into the other garden,” said Mary.

      “What garden?” he said in a rough voice, stopping his digging for a moment.

      “The one on the other side of the wall,” answered Mistress Mary. “There are trees there-I saw the tops of them. A bird with a red breast was sitting on one of them and he sang.”

      To her surprise the surly old weather-beaten face actually changed its expression. A slow smile spread over it and the gardener looked quite different. It made her think that it was curious how much nicer a person looked when he smiled. She had not thought of it before.

      He turned about to the orchard side of his garden and began to whistle-a low soft whistle. She could not understand how such a surly man could make such a coaxing sound.

      Almost the next moment a wonderful thing happened. She heard a soft little rushing flight through the air-and it was the bird with the red breast flying to them, and he actually alighted on the big clod of earth quite near to the gardener’s foot.

      “Here he is,” chuckled the old man, and then he spoke to the bird as if he were speaking to a child.

      “Where has tha’ been, tha’ cheeky little beggar?” he said. “I’ve not seen thee before today. Has tha begun tha’ courtin’ this early in th’ season? Tha’rt too forrad.”

      The bird put his tiny head on one side and looked up at him with his soft bright eye which was like a black dewdrop. He seemed quite familiar and not the least afraid. He hopped about and pecked the earth briskly, looking for seeds and insects. It actually gave Mary a queer feeling in her heart, because he was so pretty and cheerful and seemed so like a person. He had a tiny plump body and a delicate beak, and slender delicate legs.

      “Will he always come when you call him?” she asked almost in a whisper.

      “Aye, that he will. I’ve knowed him ever since he was a fledgling. He come out of th’ nest in th’ other garden an’ when first he flew over th’ wall he was too weak to fly back for a few days an’ we got friendly. When he went over th’ wall again th’ rest of th’ brood was gone an’ he was lonely an’ he come back to me.”

      “What kind of a bird is he?” Mary asked.

      “Doesn’t tha’ know? He’s a robin redbreast an’ they’re th’ friendliest, curiousest birds alive. They’re almost as friendly as dogs-if you know how to get on with ’em. Watch him peckin’ about there an’ lookin’ round at us now an’ again. He knows we’re talkin’ about him.”

      It was the queerest thing in the world to see the old fellow. He looked at the plump little scarlet-waistcoated bird as if he were both proud and fond of him.

      “He’s a conceited one,” he chuckled. “He likes to hear folk talk about him. An’ curious-bless me, there never was his like for curiosity an’ meddlin’. He’s always comin’ to see what I’m plantin’. He knows all th’ things Mester Craven never troubles hissel’ to find out. He’s th’ head gardener, he is.”

      The robin hopped about busily pecking the soil and now and then stopped and looked at them a little. Mary thought his black dewdrop eyes gazed at her with great curiosity. It really seemed as if he were finding out all about her. The queer feeling in her heart increased.

      “Where did the rest of the brood fly to?” she asked.

      “There’s no knowin’. The old ones turn ’em out o’ their nest an’ make ’em fly an’ they’re scattered before you know it. This one was a knowin’ one an’ he knew he was lonely.”

      Mistress Mary went a step nearer to the robin and looked at him very hard.

      “I’m lonely,” she said.

      She had not known before that this was one of the things which made her feel sour and cross. She seemed to find it out when the robin looked at her and she looked at the robin.

      The old gardener pushed his cap back on his bald head and stared at her a minute.

      “Art tha’ th’ little wench from India?” he asked.

      Mary nodded.

      “Then no wonder tha’rt lonely. Tha’lt be lonlier before tha’s done,” he said.

      He began to dig again, driving his spade deep into the rich black garden soil while the robin hopped about very busily employed.

      “What is your name?” Mary inquired.

      He stood up to answer her.

      “Ben Weatherstaff,” he answered, and then he added with a surly chuckle, “I’m lonely mysel’ except when he’s with me,” and he jerked his thumb toward the robin. “He’s th’ only friend I’ve got.”

      “I have no friends at all,” said Mary. “I never had. My Ayah didn’t like me and I never played with anyone.”

      It is a Yorkshire habit to say what you think with blunt frankness, and old Ben Weatherstaff was a Yorkshire moor man.

      “Tha’ an’ me are a good bit alike,” he said. “We was wove out of th’ same cloth. We’re neither of us good lookin’ an’ we’re both of us as sour as we look. We’ve got the same nasty tempers, both of us, I’ll warrant.”

      This was plain speaking, and Mary Lennox had never heard the truth about herself in her life. Native servants always salaamed and submitted to you, whatever you did. She had never thought much about her looks, but she wondered if she was as unattractive as Ben Weatherstaff and she also wondered if she looked as sour as he had looked before the robin came. She actually began to wonder also if she was “nasty tempered.” She felt uncomfortable.

      Suddenly