“Very well,” answered Mary.
The nurse was out of the room in a minute and as soon
as she was gone Colin pulled Mary’s hand again.
“I almost told,” he said; “but I
stopped myself in time. I won’t talk and
I’ll go to sleep, but you said you had a whole
lot of nice things to tell me. Have you—do
you think you have found out anything at all about
the way into the secret garden?”
Mary looked at his poor little tired face and swollen
eyes and her heart relented.
“Ye-es,” she answered, “I think
I have. And if you will go to sleep I will tell
you to-morrow.”
His hand quite trembled.
“Oh, Mary!” he said. “Oh, Mary!
If I could get into it I think I should live to grow
up! Do you suppose that instead of singing the
Ayah song—you could just tell me softly
as you did that first day what you imagine it looks
like inside? I am sure it will make me go to sleep.”
“Yes,” answered Mary. “Shut
your eyes.”
He closed his eyes and lay quite still and she held
his hand and began to speak very slowly and in a very
low voice.
“I think it has been left alone so long—that
it has grown all into a lovely tangle. I think
the roses have climbed and climbed and climbed until
they hang from the branches and walls and creep over
the ground—almost like a strange gray mist.
Some of them have died but many—are alive
and when the summer comes there will be curtains and
fountains of roses. I think the ground is full
of daffodils and snowdrops and lilies and iris working
their way out of the dark. Now the spring has
begun—perhaps—perhaps—”
The soft drone of her voice was making him stiller
and stiller and she saw it and went on.
“Perhaps they are coming up through the grass—perhaps
there are clusters of purple crocuses and gold ones—even
now. Perhaps the leaves are beginning to break
out and uncurl—and perhaps—the
gray is changing and a green gauze veil is creeping—and
creeping over—everything. And the
birds are coming to look at it—because it
is—so safe and still. And perhaps—perhaps—perhaps—”
very softly and slowly indeed, “the robin has
found a mate—and is building a nest.”
And Colin was asleep.
“THA’ MUNNOT WASTE NO TIME”
Of course Mary did not waken early the next morning.
She slept late because she was tired, and when Martha
brought her breakfast she told her that though Colin
was quite quiet he was ill and feverish as he always
was after he had worn himself out with a fit of crying.
Mary ate her breakfast slowly as she listened.
