CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

COMING ALIVE

Now that the sun had gone down, it was time for Mary and Colin to go back to the house. They were both very hungry, and couldn't wait to eat. They said goodbye to Ben Weatherstaff. "Make sure to come here tomorrow," said Colin to Ben.

While Dickon was pushing Colin's chair back to the house, Colin had an idea.

"Mary and Dickon," he said, "I am going to get well. I'm going to walk and run, and be just like any other boy. When my father returns, I will say to him, 'Here I am, father. I am well and I will live to be a man.' But I don't want the servants whispering and asking questions. I will go to the garden every day and practice walking and running until I can do both. But I will go there in my chair, and come back in my chair. No one will know I'm well, until I walk back to the house and show them."

Dickon and Mary were very impressed. It would be fun, to keep this secret from the adults.

When Colin was in his room again, his doctor came to see him. "You should not have stayed outside so long," he said seriously. "You will become tired and ill again."

"No, I won't. I'm not tired at all," said Colin. "I will go to the garden every day from now on."

"I don't think I can allow that. It would not be safe for you," said the doctor.

"You shouldn't try to stop me. I will go," said Colin. He wasn't angry, but he looked very serious.

After the doctor had gone Mary looked at Colin thoughtfully. He probably didn't know how rude he was, always telling people what to do. Mary had once been like that, in India. She had always ordered the servants, and never said "please" or "thank you" to anyone. However, she had discovered that this behavior was not normal, or nice.

"I feel sorry for the doctor," she said to Colin.

"Why?" Colin asked.

"Well, that doctor's taken care of you for ten years, and you're so terribly rude to him. I never would have done it," Mary said.

"Am I rude?" Colin asked calmly. He'd never thought of it before.

"Very," said Mary. "Everyone thought they had to do what you wanted, because they thought you were going to die. Everyone felt sorry for you, but they also didn't like you. You were awful to be with."

"I don't want people to feel sorry for me," said Colin. "I won't let people feel sorry for me. I stood up and walked this afternoon."

"It's always having your own way, that's made you so rude and strange," said Mary honestly. Colin looked a little upset. "But don't worry," she continued. "I'm very strange, too. So is Ben Weatherstaff. I was much stranger before I began to like people, and before I found the garden."

Colin looked serious. "I don't want to be poor, or strange," he said. "I am not going to be."

Soon he began to smile. "I'll stop being strange, if I go to the garden every day," he said. "There's magic there, Mary. I know it! It will make me well."

And in the next few months, it seemed that there really was magic in the garden. Every day, Colin was in the garden with Mary and Dickon. Often Ben Weatherstaff would come and help them care for their plants. The amazing things that happened in that garden! It seemed that the flowers would never stop growing. There were so many kinds of flowers, you could hardly count them all. And the roses! They grew until there were a thousand of them in the garden. There were mountains of roses. They grew around the tree trunks, over the stone benches, and everywhere. The air was filled with their scent. Ben Weatherstaff planted many special flowers that Colin's mother had loved.

"She always liked these, Master Colin," he said one day, pointing to some tall purple flowers. "Your mother liked flowers that always looked up at the sun and sky. She herself wasn't a lady who looked down at the ground. Not her! She said the blue sky always looked so happy."

Colin kept his promise to himself. Every day he took a walk around the garden. He was very slow at first, and he got tired easily. But he did not give up. He believed that there was some kind of magic in the garden. It gave his arms and legs strength to move. Of course, Colin wanted to walk and run, so he tried very hard. But who was to say there wasn't some magic there?

Colin grew very interested in the ways of nature. He would lie on the grass for hours, watching the insects and birds. He was certain that there was some magic in them that made them grow. Sometimes, he would talk to Mary, Ben Weatherstaff, and Dickon about magic.

"When I grow up, I am going to be a scientist," Colin would say. "I will learn about the magic that is in the earth. It is the same magic that is in me. It's the magic that made me want to walk."

The secret garden was not the only garden Dickon worked in. Often, when Mary and Colin didn't see him, he was busy working in his family's garden. They grew cabbages, potatoes, carrots, and herbs. Dickon's mother always said that their vegetables tasted better than anyone else's.

One evening in early summer Dickon was working in his garden. He was telling his mother, Mrs Sowerby, all about Colin and Mary. How they had changed! Mary had become a very pretty girl. She now looked like her mother once had. Colin was looking so much healthier. His face was fuller, and his skin was a healthy pink instead of pale white. He was always hungry from his daily exercise in the garden.

"Of course, Master Colin told us he doesn't want anyone to know," Dickon told his mother. "If his doctor knew how well Master Colin was doing, he'd write Master Craven. Colin wants to surprise his father when he comes home. But it's hard! Master Colin has to pretend to be sick and weak, when he's not. He and Mary have a good time acting! But they're always so hungry, and they can't send any food away. He and Mary have to eat it all. The doctor and Mrs Medlock, they don't know what to think." Mrs Sowerby laughed at this funny situation.

"Listen, Dickon. Tomorrow morning, when you go there, I'll send some fresh bread and milk with you. I'll do it as often as I can. Then they won't be so hungry in the evenings," she said. "They're just two growing children. They're hungry as little wolves, poor things!"

"You always think of a good idea, Mother," said Dickon.

Mary and Colin were very grateful the next day, when Dickon brought them a bucket of fresh milk, and a basket of warm bread. "Tell your mother she is a magic person, like you are!" said Colin.

The food that Mary and Colin received from Mrs Sowerby helped their "play acting" greatly. It was easy to eat little in the evenings, when they were filled with fresh bread and cream and milk. They could easily pretend to be sickly children who had no appetite. Sometimes, Colin would pretend he had a fever.

"I don't understand it at all!" Mrs Medlock said to the doctor. "Those terrible children are getting fatter and healthier looking every day. First, they ate like wolves. Now, they won't eat anything! They just send food right back to the kitchen. How is it possible?" The doctor immediately went to examine Colin.

"You are looking much better," he said to Colin. "I am sorry you are not eating. You will become thin and weak again, if you don't eat."

"I told you—it was not a natural hunger," said Colin. He tried not to laugh.

"I must write your father and tell him about this," said the doctor.

"No!" cried Colin. "I won't be written about, and talked about! I am probably going to be sick again. It will only disappoint him. I feel sick now; I think I have a fever. You are making me angry, and you know that is bad for me! I hate being written about, as much as I hate being looked at!"

"Quiet, my boy. No letter will be sent, without your permission," said the doctor. He said no more about it, and soon left the room. When he did, Colin and Mary burst out laughing.

"I don't understand it either, Sarah," said the doctor to Mrs Medlock. "Is there any way the children can get food secretly?"

"Not unless they dig it out of the ground!" said Mrs Medlock. "Really, the change is amazing. Miss Mary used to be the ugliest, thinnest little girl. She looked like a sour old woman! Now she's pretty. Now, she and Master Colin are always outside. They laugh together just like normal children. Maybe they're getting fat on that."

"Maybe they are," said the doctor. "Let them laugh!"

(end of section)