CONTENTS
AN UNPLEASANT, SICKLY LITTLE GIRL
PAG. 5
THE HIDDEN KEY PAG. 25
OUTDOORS PAG. 15
CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 3CHAPTER 4
MYSTERIOUS
PAG. 37
CRYING
CHAPTER 5
A BOY WITHOUT HOPE
PAG. 47
CHAPTER 6
THE MAGIC OF THE GARDEN PAG.
55
AN UNPLEASANT, SICKLY LITTLE GIRL
Mary was anything but a nice little girl. She wasn’t kind, and she wasn’t very cute either. She grew up in a large house in India where she almost never saw her parents because they were too busy with their jobs. She had a nanny by her side at all times, but Mary wasn’t very attached to her. Actually, she was very mean to her!
One day, when she was just ten years old, Mary realized that something strange was going on. Her nanny didn’t show up to dress her or take her to breakfast, and there was no trace of her parents. Even the servants were gone!
But Mary wasn’t the kind of little girl who worried much. She found something to eat and drink in the kitchen, then she fell asleep in her room until she was awoken by male voices.
Martha left Mary on her own.
The next day, intense rain stopped the girl from going out in the large gardens of Misselthwaite Manor.
“Martha, what do your brothers and sisters do on a day like this?” asked Mary.
“They go out to the barn to help pass the time. Except Dickon, of course. He goes out to the moor, even in the rain,” Martha answered.
“What can I do?” Mary asked.
“Why don’t you read a book? The library’s full of them.”
Mary left her room, but she decided not to look for the library. Disobeying what she had been told, she wanted to explore the large manor. The long hallways of the estate were dark and covered in portraits of men and women wearing
old clothes with solemn looks on their faces.
It wasn’t hard to get lost in the intricate labyrinth of closed doors and paintings. Mary opened the door to a dusty bedroom, where she found a large collection of toy elephants of different sizes to play with. She then meandered until she was in a hallway covered in embroidered tapestries. The faint sound of someone crying was coming from one area. Lifting the tapestry, Mary found a door. She could hear the crying even more distinctly now.
“I knew it!” she thought as she opened the door. Behind it, she glimpsed another corridor, down which Mrs. Medlock was walking toward her. As soon as she saw Mary, the governess grew furious. “What do you think you’re doing? Didn’t I tell you not to wander around the house?”
“I got lost, ma’am. I heard someone crying.”
“You can’t fool me, little girl! Now go straight to your room and stay put, or I’ll have to lock you in there!” As she spoke, the governess pulled Mary away from a mysterious door.
THE HIDDEN KEY
When the rain finally stopped falling, a bright blue sky lit up the moor. Happy to be able to go outside, Mary ran out to the gardens and began walking around the vegetable patches and greenhouses, finally reaching the long wall covered in ivy.
Happy chirping came from a tree on the other side of the wall. It was her robin friend! He seemed to greet her with his song.
“You haven’t forgotten me!” Mary happily exclaimed.
The little bird flew to her feet and began looking for worms in the damp earth. Mary watched him, content. On a mound of freshly loosened dirt, maybe formed by a dog looking for moles, the robin delicately pecked about.
i
Dickon was in awe when he saw a door appear under the thick layer of ivy leaves, and even more so when he found himself in the secret garden. “This is incredible! All these rose bushes have grown everywhere!” he said, taking a few steps.
“I’m afraid they’re dead,” said Mary. “Not all of them! Look over here,” Dickon added, showing Mary how to tell if a plant was dead or alive and just waiting for spring to come before it bloomed. Martha’s brother knew the plants very well; in the next few hours, they trimmed dry branches, pulled up weeds, and planted the seeds of what would become magnificent flowers. The robin stayed with them, singing the whole time. When the large clock on the facade of the house chimed at noon, Mary knew it was time to go back for lunch.
“I have to go now. Will you come back to help me, Dickon?” she asked timidly.
A sad smile appeared on her uncle’s face.
“I once knew someone who loved to take care of plants and spend time in the garden. You can have all the land you want!”
Mary had never been so happy in her life.
Over the next few days, the rain began to fall, more and more of it.
One night, Mary was awoken by the wind, which almost seemed to howl. Still in her bed, she realized that the noise of the storm had been joined by something else familiar: someone crying!
She decided to find out what it was once and for all. She grabbed a candle and quietly went to look for the hallway hidden by the large tapestry.
She got lost a few times, but in the end she managed to find the room where the crying was coming from.
She walked in without making a peep. She was in a large room decorated with fine furniture and a big bed. Beneath a heavy blanket surrounded by soft cushions, she saw a very pale, thin face, with two large gray eyes staring out at her.
“Are you a dream?” said that little face with big eyes.
“No! Are you a dream?” answered Mary. “Of course not! I’m Colin Craven, the son of the master of the house.”
So it was that Mary had a good time with him, telling him about India, but also about Ben Weatherstaff, Dickon, and everything she had learned about the moor. When the sun finally began to shine again, Mary ran to the secret garden before dawn and found Dickon already working as a fox and raven perched on a branch looked on. She had never felt so alive, and she couldn’t help but confess her discovery to her friend.
“Dickon, did you know I had a cousin?”
The boy looked at her seriously and said, “Martha told me, but it’s a secret and I never revealed it. They say he’s very sick.”
“He never goes outside. He’s always in his room, in bed, and he doesn’t have any friends. If only he could go outside, breathe the air of the moor, and sit in the sun, I’m sure he would heal and he’d work up an appetite, just like it happened to me!” “I guess we have to find a way to bring him here,” said Dickon.
THE MAGIC OF THE GARDEN
One afternoon, Colin gathered Mary, Dickon, and even Ben Weatherstaff under a tree to make an announcement. “I’m sure that magic exists. Just look at what this garden has done for me!” Then he continued, “But now I want to become even stronger and learn how to move about, to walk and run like a healthy boy so that I can surprise my father when he comes home.”
Everyone wanted to help Colin achieve his dream, but it was essential that no one in Misselthwaite Manor knew that the boy’s health was improving. If they found out, they might tell Mr. Craven! For that very reason, Mary and Colin decided to stage a bit of theater; every day, the boy had someone carry him to his wheelchair and, once they were back in his room, he would complain about how tired and weak he was. Even Mary played her part, pretending to be worried about her cousin’s health.
