前言

秘方简介

常用词列表

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

CHAPTER IX

THE STRANGEST HOUSE ANY ONE EVER LIVED IN

It was the sweetest, most mysterious 神秘-looking place any one could imagine. The high walls which shut 关闭 it in were covered with the leaf‧less 叶子‧少 stems of climbing roses which were so thick that they were matted 席子 together. Mary Lennox knew they were roses because she had seen a great many roses in India. All the ground grind was covered with grass 草 of a wintry brown and out of it grew grow clumps 丛 of bushes 灌木 which were surely rose rise-bushes if they were alive 活的；有生命的. There were numbers of standard roses which had so spread their branches that they were like little trees. There were other trees in the garden, and one of the things which made the place look strangest and loveliest was that climbing roses had run all over them and swung swing down long tendrils which made light swaying 摇摆 curtains 窗帘, and here and there they had caught catch at each other or at a far-reaching branch and had crept 爬行:creep from one tree to another and made lovely 可爱的 bridges of themselves. There were neither leaves nor roses on them now and Mary did not know whether they were dead or alive 活的；有生命的, but their thin gray or brown branches and sprays 喷雾 looked like a sort of hazy mantle 披风 spreading over everything, walls, and trees, and even brown grass 草, where they had fallen fall from their fastenings 系牢 and run along the ground. It was this hazy tangle 纠纷 from tree to tree which made it all look so mysterious 神秘. Mary had thought it must be different from other gardens which had not been left all by themselves so long; and indeed it was different from any other place she had ever seen in her life.

"How still it is!" she whispered 低声说. "How still!"

Then she waited a moment and listened at the stillness. The robin, who had flown fly to his tree-top, was still as all the rest. He did not even flutter 扑 his wings 翅膀; he sat sit without stirring 搅动, and looked at Mary.

"No wonder it is still," she whispered again. "I am the first person who has spoken speak in here for ten 十 years."

She moved away from the door, stepping as softly as if she were afraid of awakening 憬 some one. She was glad 高兴的 that there was grass under her feet and that her steps made no sounds. She walked under one of the fairy 仙女-like gray arches 弓形 between the trees and looked up at the sprays 喷雾 and tendrils which formed them.

"I wonder if they are all quite dead," she said. "Is it all a quite dead garden? I wish it wasn't."

If she had been Ben Weatherstaff she could have told whether the wood was alive by looking at it, but she could only see that there were only gray or brown sprays 喷雾 and branches and none showed any signs of even a tiny 小 leaf 叶子-bud 芽 any‧where 任何地方.

But she was inside the wonderful 精彩 garden and she could come through the door under the ivy any time and she felt as if she had found a world all her own.

The sun was shining 发光 inside the four walls and the high arch 弓形 of blue sky over this particular piece of Misselthwaite seemed even more brilliant 出色的 and soft than it was over the moor 泊. The robin flew fly down from his tree-top and hopped 跳 about or flew after her from one bush 灌木 to another. He chirped a good deal and had a very busy air, as if he were showing her things. Everything was strange and silent and she seemed to be hundreds 百 of miles away from any one, but somehow she did not feel lonely 孤独的 at all. All that troubled her was her wish that she knew whether all the roses were dead, or if perhaps some of them had lived and might put out leaves and buds 芽 as the weather got warmer. She did not want it to be a quite dead garden. If it were a quite alive garden, how wonderful 精彩 it would be, and what thou‧sand 千 of roses would grow on every side!

Her skipping 跳跃-rope 粗绳 had hung over her arm when she came in and after she had walked about for a while she thought she would skip 跳跃 round the whole garden, stopping when she wanted to look at things. There seemed to have been grass paths 小路 here and there, and in one or two corners there were alcoves of ever‧green 永远；曾经‧绿色的 with stone seats or tall moss 苔藓-covered flower urns in them.

As she came near the second of these alcoves she stopped skipping 跳跃. There had once been a flower-bed in it, and she thought she saw something sticking out of the black earth—some sharp little pale green points. She remembered what Ben Weatherstaff had said and she knelt 跪:kneel down to look at them.

"Yes, they are tiny 小 growing things and they might be crocuses or snowdrops or daffodils," she whispered.

She bent bend very close to them and sniffed 吸气 the fresh scent 香味 of the damp 微湿的 earth. She liked it very much.

"Perhaps there are some other ones coming up in other places," she said. "I will go all over the garden and look."

She did not skip 跳跃, but walked. She went slowly and kept her eyes on the ground. She looked in the old border 边；界 beds and among the grass, and after she had gone round, trying to miss nothing, she had found ever so many more sharp, pale green points, and she had become quite excited again.

"It isn't a quite dead garden," she cried out softly to her‧self 她自己. "Even if the roses are dead, there are other things alive."

She did not know anything about gardening, but the grass seemed so thick in some of the places where the green points were pushing their way through that she thought they did not seem to have room enough to grow. She searched about until she found a rather sharp piece of wood and knelt down and dug 挖:dig and weeded 杂草 out the weeds 杂草 and grass until she made nice little clear places around them.

"Now they look as if they could breathe 呼吸," she said, after she had finished with the first ones. "I am going to do ever so many more. I'll do all I can see. If I haven't time to-day I can come to-morrow."

She went from place to place, and dug 挖:dig and weeded, and enjoyed her‧self 她自己 so immensely 极大的 that she was led on from bed to bed and into the grass under the trees. The exercise made her so warm that she first threw throw her coat off, and then her hat, and without knowing it she was smiling down on to the grass and the pale green points all the time.

The robin was tremendously 异常 busy. He was very much pleased to see gardening begun on his own estate 房地产. He had often wondered at Ben Weatherstaff. Where gardening is done all sorts of delightful 愉快 things to eat are turned up with the soil. Now here was this new kind of creature 动物；生物 who was not half Ben's size and yet had had the sense to come into his garden and begin at once.

Mistress Mary worked in her garden until it was time to go to her midday 正午 dinner. In fact, she was rather late in remembering, and when she put on her coat and hat, and picked up her skipping 跳跃-rope 粗绳, she could not believe that she had been working two or three hours. She had been actually happy all the time; and dozens and dozens of the tiny 小, pale green points were to be seen in cleared places, looking twice 两次 as cheerful 快乐 as they had looked before when the grass and weeds had been smothering 扼杀 them.

"I shall come back this afternoon," she said, looking all round at her new kingdom 王国, and speaking to the trees and the rose-bushes as if they heard her.

Then she ran lightly across the grass, pushed open the slow old door and slipped through it under the ivy. She had such red cheeks 脸颊 and such bright eyes and ate such a dinner that Martha was delighted.

"Two pieces o' meat 肉 an' two helps o' rice 稻 puddin'!" she said. "Eh! mother will be pleased when I tell her what th' skip‧pin 跳跃‧钉'-rope 粗绳's done for thee."

In the course of her digging 挖 with her pointed stick Mistress Mary had found her‧self 她自己 digging up a sort of white root rather like an onion 洋葱. She had put it back in its place and patted 拍 the earth carefully 小心 down on it and just now she wondered if Martha could tell her what it was.

"Martha," she said, "what are those white roots that look like onions 洋葱?"

"They're bulbs 灯泡," answered Martha. "Lots o' spring flowers grow from 'em. Th' very little ones are snowdrops an' crocuses an' th' big ones are narcissusis an' jonquils an' daffydowndillys. Th' biggest of all is lilies 百合 an' purple 紫色的 flags 旗；石地板. Eh! they are nice. Dickon's got a whole lot of 'em planted in our bit 一点 o' garden."

"Does Dickon know all about them?" asked Mary, a new idea taking possession 所有物 of her.

"Our Dickon can make a flower grow out of a brick 砖 walk. Mother says he just whispers 低声说 things out o' th' ground."

"Do bulbs 灯泡 live a long time? Would they live years and years if no one helped them?" inquired 打听 Mary anxiously 焦急的.

"They're things as helps themselves," said Martha. "That's why poor folk 民间 can afford 买得起 to have 'em. If you don't trouble 'em, most of 'em'll work away under‧ground 地下 for a life‧time 一生 an' spread out an' have little 'uns. There's a place in th' park woods here where there's snowdrops by thou‧sand 千. They're the prettiest sight in Yorkshire when th' spring comes. No one knows when they was first planted."

"I wish the spring was here now," said Mary. "I want to see all the things that grow in England."

She had finished her dinner and gone to her favorite 喜爱的 seat on the hearth 炉-rug 小块地毯.

"I wish—I wish I had a little spade 铁锹," she said.

"Whatever does tha' want a spade for?" asked Martha, laughing. "Art tha' goin' to take to diggin'? I must tell mother that, too."

Mary looked at the fire and pondered 思考 a little. She must be careful 小心 if she meant to keep her secret kingdom 王国. She wasn't doing any harm 损害, but if Mr. Craven found out about the open door he would be fearfully 可怕 angry 生气的 and get a new key and lock it up forever‧more 永远‧更. She really could not bear that.

"This is such a big lonely 孤独的 place," she said slowly, as if she were turning matters over in her mind. "The house is lonely, and the park is lonely 3, and the gardens are lonely. So many places seem shut 关闭 up. I never did many things in India, but there were more people to look at— natives 本土的 and soldiers marching 行军；三月 by—and sometimes bands playing, and my Ayah told me stories. There is no one to talk to here except you and Ben Weatherstaff. And you have to do your work and Ben Weatherstaff won win't speak to me often. I thought if I had a little spade 铁锹 I could dig 挖 somewhere as he does, and I might make a little garden if he would give me some seeds."

Martha's face quite lighted up.

"There now!" she exclaimed 喊叫, "if that wasn't one of th' things mother said. She says, 'There's such a lot o' room in that big place, why don't they give her a bit 一点 for her‧self 她自己, even if she doesn't plant nothin' but parsley an' radishes? She'd dig 挖 an' rake 耙子 away an' be right down happy over it.' Them was the very words she said."

"Were they?" said Mary. "How many things she knows, doesn't she?"

"Eh!" said Martha. "It's like she says: 'A woman as brings up twelve 十二 children learns something besides her A B C. Children's as good as 'rithmetic to set you findin' out things.'"

"How much would a spade 铁锹 cost—a little one?" Mary asked.

"Well," was Martha's reflective 反光 answer, "at Thwaite village there's a shop or so an' I saw little garden sets with a spade 4 an' a rake 耙子 an' a fork 叉 all tied together for two shillings 一毛钱. An' they was stout 肥硕 enough to work with, too."

"I've got more than that in my purse 钱包," said Mary. "Mrs. Morrison gave me five shillings and Mrs. Medlock gave me some money from Mr. Craven."

"Did he remember thee that much?" exclaimed 喊叫 Martha.

"Mrs. Medlock said I was to have a shilling 一毛钱 a week to spend. She gives me one every Saturday. I didn't know what to spend it on."

"My word! that's riches," said Martha. "Tha' can buy anything in th' world tha' wants. Th' rent 租；租金 of our cottage 小屋 is only one an' three‧pence 3‧便士 an' it's like pullin' eye-teeth to get it. Now I've just thought of some‧thin 一些‧薄的'," putting her hands on her hips 臀部.

"What?" said Mary eagerly 渴望的.

"In the shop at Thwaite they sell pack‧age 包装 o' flower-seeds for a penny 便士 each, and our Dickon he knows which is th' prettiest ones an' how to make 'em grow. He walks over to Thwaite many a day just for th' fun 乐趣 of it. Does tha' know how to print letters?" suddenly.

"I know how to write," Mary answered.

Martha shook shake her head.

"Our Dickon can only read printin'. If tha' could print we could write a letter to him an' ask him to go an' buy th' garden tools an' th' seeds at th' same time."

"Oh! you're a good girl!" Mary cried. "You are, really! I didn't know you were so nice. I know I can print letters if I try. Let's ask Mrs. Medlock for a pen 笔 and ink 墨水 and some paper."

"I've got some of my own," said Martha. "I bought buy 'em so I could print a bit of a letter to mother of a Sunday. I'll go and get it."

She ran out of the room, and Mary stood by the fire and twisted 扭成一束 her thin little hands together with sheer pleasure.

"If I have a spade 5," she whispered, "I can make the earth nice and soft and dig 挖 up weeds. If I have seeds and can make flowers grow the garden won't be dead at all—it will come alive."

She did not go out again that afternoon because when Martha returned with her pen 笔 and ink 墨水 and paper she was obliged 责成 to clear the table and carry the plates 盘子 and dishes 盘 down-stairs 楼梯 and when she got into the kitchen Mrs. Medlock was there and told her to do something, so Mary waited for what seemed to her a long time before she came back. Then it was a serious piece of work to write to Dickon. Mary had been taught teach very little because her governesses had disliked 反感 her too much to stay with her. She could not spell 拼写 particularly well but she found that she could print letters when she tried. This was the letter Martha dictated 听写 to her:

"We'll put the money in th' envelope 信封 an' I'll get th' butcher 屠夫's boy to take it in his cart 运货马车. He's a great friend o' Dickon's," said Martha.

"How shall I get the things when Dickon buys them?" asked Mary.

"He'll bring 'em to you himself. He'll like to walk over this way."

"Oh!" exclaimed 喊叫 Mary, "then I shall see him! I never thought I should see Dickon."

"Does tha' want to see him?" asked Martha suddenly, she had looked so pleased.

"Yes, I do. I never saw a boy foxes 狐狸 and crows 乌鸦 loved. I want to see him very much."

Martha gave a little start, as if she suddenly remembered something.

"Now to think," she broke break out, "to think o' me forget‧tin 忘记‧锡' that there; an' I thought I was goin' to tell you first thing this mornin'. I asked mother—and she said she'd ask Mrs. Medlock her own self 自己."

"Do you mean—" Mary began.

"What I said Tuesday. Ask her if you might be driven drive over to our cottage 小屋 some day and have a bit o' mother's hot oat 燕麦 cake 蛋糕, an' butter 黄油, an' a glass o' milk 奶."

It seemed as if all the interesting things were happening in one day. To think of going over the moor 泊 in the day‧light 日光 and when the sky was blue! To think of going into the cottage which held twelve 十二 children!

"Does she think Mrs. Medlock would let me go?" she asked, quite anxiously.

"Aye, she thinks she would. She knows what a tidy 整洁的 woman mother is and how clean she keeps the cottage 3."

"If I went I should see your mother as well as Dickon," said Mary, thinking it over and liking the idea very much. "She doesn't seem to be like the mothers in India."

Her work in the garden and the excitement 激动 of the afternoon ended by making her feel quiet and thoughtful 周到. Martha stayed with her until tea 茶水-time, but they sat in comfort‧able 舒服；自在 quiet and talked very little. But just before Martha went down-stairs for the tea-tray 盘子, Mary asked a question.

"Martha," she said, "has the scullery-maid 女佣 had the tooth‧ache 牙‧疼痛 again to-day?"

Martha certainly started slightly.

"What makes thee ask that?" she said.

"Because when I waited so long for you to come back I opened the door and walked down the corridor 走廊 to see if you were coming. And I heard that far-off crying again, just as we heard it the other night. There isn't a wind to-day, so you see it couldn't have been the wind."

"Eh!" said Martha rest‧less 不安. "Tha' mustn't go walkin' about in corridors 走廊 an' listenin'. Mr. Craven would be that there angry 生气的 there's no knowin' what he'd do."

"I wasn't listening," said Mary. "I was just waiting for you—and I heard it. That's three times."

"My word! There's Mrs. Medlock's bell 钟," said Martha, and she almost ran out of the room.

"It's the strangest house any one ever lived in," said Mary drowsily, as she dropped her head on the cushioned 垫子 seat of the arm‧chair 扶手椅 near her. Fresh air, and digging, and skipping 跳跃-rope 3 had made her feel so comfort‧able 舒服 tired that she fell fall asleep 睡着的.

---

CHAPTER X

DICKON

The sun shone 发光:shine down for nearly a week on the secret garden. The Secret Garden was what Mary called it when she was thinking of it. She liked the name, and she liked still more the feeling that when its beautiful 美丽 old walls shut her in no one knew where she was. It seemed almost like being shut out of the world in some fairy 仙女 place. The few books she had read and liked had been fairy 仙女-story books, and she had read of secret gardens in some of the stories. Sometimes people went to sleep in them for a hundred 百 years, which she had thought must be rather stupid 愚蠢的. She had no intention of going to sleep, and, in fact, she was becoming wider awake 醒着的 every day which passed at Misselthwaite. She was beginning to like to be out of doors; she no longer hated the wind, but enjoyed it. She could run faster, and longer, and she could skip 跳跃 up to a hundred 百. The bulbs 灯泡 in the secret garden must have been much astonished 使惊讶. Such nice clear places were made round them that they had all the breathing 呼吸 space they wanted, and really, if Mistress Mary had known it, they began to cheer 欢呼 up under the dark earth and work tremendously 异常. The sun could get at them and warm them, and when the rain came down it could reach them at once, so they began to feel very much alive.

Mary was an odd 奇, determined little person, and now she had something interesting to be determined about, she was very much absorbed 吸收, indeed. She worked and dug 挖:dig and pulled up weeds steadily, only becoming more pleased with her work every hour instead of tiring of it. It seemed to her like a fascinating 深深吸引；迷住 sort of play. She found many more of the sprouting 发芽 pale green points than she had ever hoped to find. They seemed to be starting up every‧where 到处 and each day she was sure she found tiny 小 new ones, some so tiny 小 that they barely 光秃秃的 peeped 窥视 above the earth. There were so many that she remembered what Martha had said about the "snowdrops by the thou‧sand 千," and about bulbs 灯泡 spreading and making new ones. These had been left to themselves for ten 十 years and perhaps they had spread, like the snowdrops, into thou‧sand 千. She wondered how long it would be before they showed that they were flowers. Sometimes she stopped digging to look at the garden and try to imagine what it would be like when it was covered with thou‧sand 千 of lovely 可爱的 things in bloom 盛开.

During that week of sun‧shine 阳光, she became more intimate 亲密 with Ben Weatherstaff. She surprised him several times by seeming to start up beside him as if she sprang out of the earth. The truth was that she was afraid that he would pick up his tools and go away if he saw her coming, so she always walked toward him as silently as possible. But, in fact, he did not object to her as strongly as he had at first. Perhaps he was secretly rather flattered 奉承 by her evident 明显 desire for his elderly 年老的；上了年纪的 company. Then, also, she was more civil 国内 than she had been. He did not know that when she first saw him she spoke speak to him as she would have spoken to a native 本土的, and had not known that a cross, sturdy 粗壮 old Yorkshire man was not accustomed 使习惯 to salaam to his masters, and be merely commanded by them to do things.

"Tha'rt like th' robin," he said to her one morning when he lifted his head and saw her standing by him. "I never knows when I shall see thee or which side tha'll come from."

"He's friends with me now," said Mary.

"That's like him," snapped 卡 Ben Weatherstaff. "Makin' up to th' women folk 民间 just for vanity 虚荣 an' flightiness. There's nothin' he wouldn't do for th' sake 缘故 o' showin' off an' flirtin' his tail 尾-feathers 羽毛. He's as full o' pride 自尊 as an egg 鸡蛋's full o' meat 肉."

He very seldom 很少 talked much and sometimes did not even answer Mary's questions except by a grunt 咕噜, but this morning he said more than usual. He stood up and rested one hobnailed boot 靴；鞋 on the top of his spade while he looked her over.

"How long has tha' been here?" he jerked 混蛋 out.

"I think it's about a month," she answered.

"Tha's beginnin' to do Misselthwaite credit 信用," he said. "Tha's a bit fatter than tha' was an' tha's not quite so yeller 叫喊. Tha' looked like a young plucked 采摘 crow 乌鸦 when tha' first came into this garden. Thinks I to myself 我 I never set eyes on an uglier 难看的, sourer 有酸味的 faced young 'un."

Mary was not vain 徒劳的 and as she had never thought much of her looks she was not greatly disturbed 打扰.

"I know I'm fatter," she said. "My stockings are getting tighter 紧的. They used to make wrinkles 皱纹. There's the robin, Ben Weatherstaff."

There, indeed, was the robin, and she thought he looked nicer than ever. His red waist‧coat 腰‧上衣 was as glossy 光滑 as satin 缎 and he flirted 调情 his wings and tail 尾 and tilted 倾斜 his head and hopped 跳 about with all sorts of lively graces 优雅；惠赐. He seemed determined to make Ben Weatherstaff admire him. But Ben was sarcastic 讽刺的；挖苦的.

"Aye, there tha' art!" he said. "Tha' can put up with me for a bit sometimes when tha's got no one better. Tha's been reddinin' up thy 你的 waist‧coat 腰‧上衣 an' polishin' thy 你的 feathers this two weeks. I know what tha's up to. Tha's courtin' some bold 胆大的；醒目的 young madam 夫人 somewhere, tellin' thy 你的 lies to her about bein' th' finest cock 公鸡 robin on Missel Moor an' ready to fight all th' rest of 'em."

"Oh! look at him!" exclaimed 喊叫 Mary.

The robin was evidently 明显地 in a fascinating, bold mood 心境. He hopped 跳 closer and closer and looked at Ben Weatherstaff more and more engagingly. He flew on to the nearest currant bush 灌木 and tilted 倾斜 his head and sang sing a little song right at him.

"Tha' thinks tha'll get over me by doin' that," said Ben, wrinkling 皱纹 his face up in such a way that Mary felt sure he was trying not to look pleased. "Tha' thinks no one can stand out against thee—that's what tha' thinks."

The robin spread his wings—Mary could scarcely 缺乏的 believe her eyes. He flew right up to the handle of Ben Weatherstaff's spade and alighted 落 on the top of it. Then the old man's face wrinkled 皱纹 itself 本身 slowly into a new expression. He stood still as if he were afraid to breathe 呼吸—as if he would not have stirred 搅动 for the world, lest 免得 his robin should start away. He spoke quite in a whisper 低声说.

"Well, I'm danged!" he said as softly as if he were saying something quite different. "Tha' does know how to get at a chap 皴裂—tha' does! Tha's fair unearthly 挖掘, tha's so knowin'."

And he stood without stirring—almost without drawing his breath—until the robin gave another flirt 调情 to his wings and flew away. Then he stood looking at the handle of the spade as if there might be Magic in it, and then he began to dig 3 again and said nothing for several minutes.

But because he kept breaking into a slow grin 微笑 now and then, Mary was not afraid to talk to him.

"Have you a garden of your own?" she asked.

"No. I'm bachelder an' lodge 存放 with Martin at th' gate 门."

"If you had one," said Mary, "what would you plant?"

"Cabbages an' 'taters an' onions 洋葱."

"But if you wanted to make a flower garden," persisted 坚持 Mary, "what would you plant?"

"Bulbs an' sweet-smellin' things—but mostly roses."

Mary's face lighted up.

"Do you like roses?" she said.

Ben Weatherstaff rooted up a weed 杂草 and threw it aside before he answered.

"Well, yes, I do. I was learned learn that by a young lady I was gardener to. She had a lot in a place she was fond 喜欢的 of, an' she loved 'em like they was children—or robins. I've seen her bend over an' kiss 接吻 'em." He dragged 拖拽 out another weed 杂草 and scowled at it. "That were as much as ten 十 year' ago."

"Where is she now?" asked Mary, much interested.

" Heaven 天," he answered, and drove drive his spade deep into the soil, "'cording 绳 to what parson says."

"What happened to the roses?" Mary asked again, more interested than ever.

"They was left to themselves."

Mary was becoming quite excited.

"Did they quite die? Do roses quite die when they are left to themselves?" she ventured 企业；投机活动；商业冒险.

"Well, I'd got to like 'em—an' I liked her—an' she liked 'em," Ben Weatherstaff admitted reluctantly 勉强. "Once or twice 两次 a year I'd go an' work at 'em a bit—prune 修剪 'em an' dig about th' roots. They run wild, but they was in rich soil, so some of 'em lived."

"When they have no leaves and look gray and brown and dry, how can you tell whether they are dead or alive?" inquired Mary.

"Wait till 到 th' spring gets at 'em—wait till th' sun shines 发光 on th' rain an' th' rain falls on th' sun‧shine 阳光 an' then tha'll find out."

"How—how?" cried Mary, forgetting to be careful 小心.

"Look along th' twigs 枝条 an' branches an' if tha' sees a bit of a brown lump 块 swelling 膨胀；增强 here an' there, watch it after th' warm rain an' see what happens." He stopped suddenly and looked curiously at her eager 渴望的 face. "Why does tha' care so much about roses an' such, all of a sudden?" he demanded.

Mistress Mary felt her face grow red. She was almost afraid to answer.

"I—I want to play that—that I have a garden of my own," she stammered. "I—there is nothing for me to do. I have nothing—and no one."

"Well," said Ben Weatherstaff slowly, as he watched her, "that's true. Tha' hasn't."

He said it in such an odd 奇 way that Mary wondered if he was actually a little sorry 对不起的 for her. She had never felt sorry for her‧self 她自己; she had only felt tired and cross, because she disliked 反感 people and things so much. But now the world seemed to be changing and getting nicer. If no one found out about the secret garden, she should enjoy her‧self 她自己 always.

She stayed with him for ten 十 or fifteen 十五 minutes longer and asked him as many questions as she dared 敢. He answered every one of them in his queer 奇怪 grunting 咕噜 way and he did not seem really cross and did not pick up his spade and leave her. He said something about roses just as she was going away and it reminded her of the ones he had said he had been fond 喜欢的 of.

"Do you go and see those other roses now?" she asked.

"Not been this year. My rheumatics has made me too stiff 严厉的 in th' joints 共同的."

He said it in his grumbling 叽 voice, and then quite suddenly he seemed to get angry with her, though she did not see why he should.

"Now look here!" he said sharply. "Don't tha' ask so many questions. Tha'rt th' worst 生病:ill wench for askin' questions I've ever come across. Get thee gone an' play thee. I've done talkin' for to-day."

And he said it so crossly that she knew there was not the least use in staying another minute. She went skipping 跳跃 slowly down the outside walk, thinking him over and saying to her‧self 她自己 that, queer 奇怪 as it was, here was another person whom 谁 she liked in spite 恶意 of his crossness. She liked old Ben Weatherstaff. Yes, she did like him. She always wanted to try to make him talk to her. Also she began to believe that he knew everything in the world about flowers.

There was a laurel-hedged 树篱 walk which curved round the secret garden and ended at a gate 门 which opened into a wood, in the park. She thought she would skip 跳跃 round this walk and look into the wood and see if there were any rabbits 兔子 hopping 跳 about. She enjoyed the skipping 跳跃 very much and when she reached the little gate she opened it and went through because she heard a low, peculiar 奇怪的 whistling 吹口哨 sound and wanted to find out what it was.

It was a very strange thing indeed. She quite caught her breath as she stopped to look at it. A boy was sitting under a tree, with his back against it, playing on a rough wooden 木制的 pipe 管子. He was a funny 有趣的 looking boy about twelve 十二. He looked very clean and his nose turned up and his cheeks 脸颊 were as red as poppies 罂粟 and never had Mistress Mary seen such round and such blue eyes in any boy's face. And on the trunk 树干 of the tree he leaned lean against, a brown squirrel 松鼠 was clinging 依偎 and watching him, and from behind a bush 灌木 nearby 附近 a cock 公鸡 pheasant was delicately 微妙的；纤弱的 stretching his neck to peep 窥视 out, and quite near him were two rabbits sitting up and sniffing 吸气 with tremulous noses—and actually it appeared as if they were all drawing near to watch him and listen to the strange low little call his pipe 管子 seemed to make.

When he saw Mary he held up his hand and spoke to her in a voice almost as low as and rather like his piping 管子.

"Don't tha' move," he said. "It'd flight 飞行 'em."

Mary remained motion‧less 运动‧少. He stopped playing his pipe and began to rise from the ground. He moved so slowly that it scarcely seemed as though he were moving at all, but at last he stood on his feet and then the squirrel 松鼠 scampered back up into the branches of his tree, the pheasant withdrew his head and the rabbits dropped on all fours and began to hop 跳 away, though not at all as if they were frightened 使惊恐.

"I'm Dickon," the boy said. "I know tha'rt Miss Mary."

Then Mary realized that somehow she had known at first that he was Dickon. Who else could have been charming 魔力；使陶醉 rabbits and pheasants as the natives charm 魔力；使陶醉 snakes in India? He had a wide, red, curving mouth and his smile spread all over his face.

"I got up slow," he explained, "because if tha' makes a quick move it startles 惊吓 'em. A body 'as to move gentle an' speak low when wild things is about."

He did not speak to her as if they had never seen each other before but as if he knew her quite well. Mary knew nothing about boys and she spoke to him a little stiffly 严厉的 because she felt rather shy 害羞.

"Did you get Martha's letter?" she asked.

He nodded 点头 his curly 卷曲, rust 荒废；铁锈-colored head.

"That's why I come."

He stooped 哈腰 to pick up something which had been lying on the ground beside him when he piped 管子.

"I've got th' garden tools. There's a little spade an' rake 耙子 an' a fork 叉 an' hoe. Eh! they are good 'uns. There's a trowel, too. An' th' woman in th' shop threw in a packet 包 o' white poppy 罂粟 an' one o' blue larkspur when I bought th' other seeds."

"Will you show the seeds to me?" Mary said.

She wished she could talk as he did. His speech was so quick and easy. It sounded as if he liked her and was not the least afraid she would not like him, though he was only a common moor 泊 boy, in patched 补丁 clothes and with a funny 有趣的 face and a rough, rusty 生疏-red head. As she came closer to him she noticed that there was a clean fresh scent 香味 of heather 石南属 and grass and leaves about him, almost as if he were made of them. She liked it very much and when she looked into his funny face with the red cheeks 脸颊 and round blue eyes she forgot forget that she had felt shy 害羞.

"Let us sit down on this log 记录 and look at them," she said.

They sat down and he took a clumsy 笨拙 little brown paper pack‧age 包装 out of his coat pocket 口袋. He untied the string 绳子 and inside there were ever so many neater 整洁的 and smaller packages with a picture of a flower on each one.

"There's a lot o' mignonette an' poppies 罂粟," he said. "Mignonette's th' sweetest smellin' thing as grows, an' it'll grow wherever 随地 you cast 投 it, same as poppies 罂粟 will. Them as'll come up an' bloom 盛开 if you just whistle 吹口哨 to 'em, them's th' nicest of all."

He stopped and turned his head quickly, his poppy 罂粟-cheeked 脸颊 face lighting up.

"Where's that robin as is callin' us?" he said.

The chirp came from a thick holly bush 3, bright with scar‧let 猩红 berries 梅；浆果, and Mary thought she knew whose 谁的 it was.

"Is it really calling us?" she asked.

"Aye," said Dickon, as if it was the most natural 自然 thing in the world, "he's callin' some one he's friends with. That's same as sayin' 'Here I am. Look at me. I wants a bit of a chat 聊.' There he is in the bush. Whose 谁的 is he?"

"He's Ben Weatherstaff's, but I think he knows me a little," answered Mary.

"Aye, he knows thee," said Dickon in his low voice again. "An' he likes thee. He's took thee on. He'll tell me all about thee in a minute."

He moved quite close to the bush with the slow movement 运动 Mary had noticed before, and then he made a sound almost like the robin's own twitter. The robin listened a few seconds, intently 意图, and then answered quite as if he were replying to a question.

"Aye, he's a friend o' yours," chuckled 暗笑 Dickon.

"Do you think he is?" cried Mary eagerly. She did so want to know. "Do you think he really likes me?"

"He wouldn't come near thee if he didn't," answered Dickon. "Birds is rare choosers an' a robin can flout a body worse than a man. See, he's making up to thee now. 'Cannot tha' see a chap 皴裂?' he's sayin'."

And it really seemed as if it must be true. He so sidled and twittered and tilted 倾斜 as he hopped 跳 on his bush.

"Do you understand everything birds say?" said Mary.

Dickon's grin 微笑 spread until he seemed all wide, red, curving mouth, and he rubbed 擦 his rough head.

"I think I do, and they think I do," he said. "I've lived on th' moor 泊 with 'em so long. I've watched 'em break shell 壳 an' come out an' fledge an' learn to fly an' begin to sing, till I think I'm one of 'em. Sometimes I think p'raps 敲击 I'm a bird, or a fox 狐狸, or a rabbit 兔子, or a squirrel 松鼠, or even a beetle 甲虫, an' I don't know it."

He laughed and came back to the log 记录 and began to talk about the flower seeds again. He told her what they looked like when they were flowers; he told her how to plant them, and watch them, and feed and water them.

"See here," he said suddenly, turning round to look at her. "I'll plant them for thee myself 我. Where is tha' garden?"

Mary's thin hands clutched 离合器 each other as they lay lie on her lap 膝部. She did not know what to say, so for a whole minute she said nothing. She had never thought of this. She felt miserable 悲惨的. And she felt as if she went red and then pale.

"Tha's got a bit o' garden, hasn't tha'?" Dickon said.

It was true that she had turned red and then pale. Dickon saw her do it, and as she still said nothing, he began to be puzzled 使迷惑.

"Wouldn't they give thee a bit?" he asked. "Hasn't tha' got any yet?"

She held her hands even tighter and turned her eyes toward him.

"I don't know anything about boys," she said slowly. "Could you keep a secret, if I told you one? It's a great secret. I don't know what I should do if any one found it out. I believe I should die!" She said the last sentence 句子 quite fiercely 凶猛的.

Dickon looked more puzzled than ever and even rubbed his hand over his rough head again, but he answered quite good-humoredly.

"I'm keepin' secrets all th' time," he said. "If I couldn't keep secrets from th' other lads 小伙子, secrets about foxes 狐狸' cubs, an' birds' nests （鸟）窝, an' wild things' holes, there'd be naught 零 safe on th' moor 泊. Aye, I can keep secrets."

Mistress Mary did not mean to put out her hand and clutch 离合器 his sleeve 袖 but she did it.

"I've stolen a garden," she said very fast. "It isn't mine. It isn't any‧body 任何人's. Nobody wants it, nobody cares for it, nobody ever goes into it. Perhaps everything is dead in it already; I don't know."

She began to feel hot and as contrary 相反 as she had ever felt in her life.

"I don't care, I don't care! Nobody has any right to take it from me when I care about it and they don't. They're letting it die, all shut in by itself 本身," she ended passionately 热情, and she threw her arms over her face and burst 爆裂 out crying—poor little Mistress Mary.

Dickon's curious blue eyes grew rounder and rounder.

"Eh-h-h!" he said, drawing his exclamation out slowly, and the way he did it meant both wonder and sympathy 同情.

"I've nothing to do," said Mary. "Nothing belongs to me. I found it myself 我 and I got into it myself 我. I was only just like the robin, and they wouldn't take it from the robin."

"Where is it?" asked Dickon in a dropped voice.

Mistress Mary got up from the log 记录 at once. She knew she felt contrary 相反 again, and obstinate, and she did not care at all. She was imperious and Indian, and at the same time hot and sorrowful.

"Come with me and I'll show you," she said.

She led him round the laurel path 小路 and to the walk where the ivy grew so thickly. Dickon followed her with a queer 奇怪, almost pitying 怜悯, look on his face. He felt as if he were being led to look at some strange bird's nest （鸟）窝 and must move softly. When she stepped to the wall and lifted the hanging ivy he started. There was a door and Mary pushed it slowly open and they passed in together, and then Mary stood and waved her hand round defiantly 目中无人.

"It's this," she said. "It's a secret garden, and I'm the only one in the world who wants it to be alive."

Dickon looked round and round about it, and round and round again.

"Eh!" he almost whispered, "it is a queer 奇怪, pretty place! It's like as if a body was in a dream."

---

CHAPTER XI

THE NEST OF THE MISSEL THRUSH

For two or three minutes he stood looking round him, while Mary watched him, and then he began to walk about softly, even more lightly than Mary had walked the first time she had found her‧self 她自己 inside the four walls. His eyes seemed to be taking in everything—the gray trees with the gray creepers climbing over them and hanging from their branches, the tangle 纠纷 on the walls and among the grass, the ever‧green 永远；曾经‧绿色的 alcoves with the stone seats and tall flower urns standing in them.

"I never thought I'd see this place," he said at last, in a whisper 低声说.

"Did you know about it?" asked Mary.

She had spoken aloud 高声 and he made a sign to her.

"We must talk low," he said, "or some one'll hear us an' wonder what's to do in here."

"Oh! I forgot!" said Mary, feeling frightened and putting her hand quickly against her mouth. "Did you know about the garden?" she asked again when she had recovered 恢复 her‧self 她自己.

Dickon nodded 点头.

"Martha told me there was one as no one ever went inside," he answered. "Us used to wonder what it was like."

He stopped and looked round at the lovely gray tangle 纠纷 about him, and his round eyes looked queerly 奇怪 happy.

"Eh! the nests as'll be here come spring‧time 春季‧时间," he said. "It'd be th' safest nestin' place in England. No one never comin' near an' tangles 纠纷 o' trees an' roses to build in. I wonder all th' birds on th' moor 泊 don't build here."

Mistress Mary put her hand on his arm again without knowing it.

"Will there be roses?" she whispered. "Can you tell? I thought perhaps they were all dead."

"Eh! No! Not them—not all of 'em!" he answered. "Look here!"

He stepped over to the nearest tree—an old, old one with gray lichen all over its bark 吠, but upholding 坚持 a curtain 窗帘 of tangled 纠纷 sprays 喷雾 and branches. He took a thick knife out of his pocket 口袋 and opened one of its blades 刀片.

"There's lots o' dead wood as ought to be cut out," he said. "An' there's a lot o' old wood, but it made some new last year. This here's a new bit," and he touched a shoot which looked brownish green instead of hard, dry gray.

Mary touched it her‧self 她自己 in an eager 渴望的, reverent way.

"That one?" she said. "Is that one quite alive—quite?"

Dickon curved his wide smiling mouth.

"It's as wick as you or me," he said; and Mary remembered that Martha had told her that "wick" meant "alive" or "lively."

"I'm glad 高兴的 it's wick!" she cried out in her whisper. "I want them all to be wick. Let us go round the garden and count how many wick ones there are."

She quite panted 喘气 with eagerness, and Dickon was as eager as she was. They went from tree to tree and from bush to bush. Dickon carried his knife in his hand and showed her things which she thought wonderful 精彩.

"They've run wild," he said, "but th' strongest ones has fair thrived 兴旺 on it. The delicatest 微妙的；纤弱的 ones has died out, but th' others has growed an' growed, an' spread an' spread, till they's a wonder. See here!" and he pulled down a thick gray, dry-looking branch. "A body might think this was dead wood, but I don't believe it is—down to th' root. I'll cut it low down an' see."

He knelt and with his knife cut the life‧less 生活‧少-looking branch through, not far above the earth.

"There!" he said exultantly. "I told thee so. There's green in that wood yet. Look at it."

Mary was down on her knees before he spoke, gazing 凝视 with all her might.

"When it looks a bit greenish an' juicy 多汁 like that, it's wick," he explained. "When th' inside is dry an' breaks easy, like this here piece I've cut off, it's done for. There's a big root here as all this live wood sprung out of, an' if th' old wood's cut off an' it's dug 3 round, an' took care of there'll be—" he stopped and lifted his face to look up at the climbing and hanging sprays 喷雾 above him—"there'll be a fountain 喷泉 o' roses here this summer."

They went from bush to bush and from tree to tree. He was very strong and clever 聪明的 with his knife and knew how to cut the dry and dead wood away, and could tell when an unpromising bough or twig 枝条 had still green life in it. In the course of half an hour Mary thought she could tell too, and when he cut through a life‧less 生活‧少-looking branch she would cry out joyfully 快乐 under her breath when she caught sight of the least shade 遮阳；阴 of moist 湿 green. The spade, and hoe, and fork 叉 were very useful 有用. He showed her how to use the fork 3 while he dug about roots with the spade and stirred the earth and let the air in.

They were working industriously round one of the biggest standard roses when he caught sight of something which made him utter 说出 an exclamation of surprise.

"Why!" he cried, pointing to the grass a few feet away. "Who did that there?"

It was one of Mary's own little clearings round the pale green points.

"I did it," said Mary.

"Why, I thought tha' didn't know nothin' about gardenin'," he exclaimed 喊叫.

"I don't," she answered, "but they were so little, and the grass was so thick and strong, and they looked as if they had no room to breathe 呼吸. So I made a place for them. I don't even know what they are."

Dickon went and knelt down by them, smiling his wide smile.

"Tha' was right," he said. "A gardener couldn't have told thee better. They'll grow now like Jack's bean 豆-stalk 茎. They're crocuses an' snowdrops, an' these here is narcissuses," turning to another patch 补丁, "an' here's daffydowndillys. Eh! they will be a sight."

He ran from one clearing to another.

"Tha' has done a lot o' work for such a little wench," he said, looking her over.

"I'm growing fatter," said Mary, "and I'm growing stronger. I used always to be tired. When I dig I'm not tired at all. I like to smell the earth when it's turned up."

"It's rare good for thee," he said, nodding 点头 his head wisely 明智的；聪明的. "There's naught 零 as nice as th' smell o' good clean earth, except th' smell o' fresh growin' things when th' rain falls on 'em. I get out on th' moor 泊 many a day when it's rainin' an' I lie under a bush an' listen to th' soft swish o' drops on th' heather 石南属 an' I just sniff 吸气 an' sniff 吸气. My nose end fair quivers 颤动 like a rabbit 兔子's, mother says."

"Do you never catch cold?" inquired Mary, gazing 凝视 at him wonderingly. She had never seen such a funny boy, or such a nice one.

"Not me," he said, grinning 微笑. "I never ketched cold since I was born bear. I wasn't brought up nesh enough. I've chased 追 about th' moor 泊 in all weathers same as th' rabbits does. Mother says I've sniffed 吸气 up too much fresh air for twelve 十二 year' to ever get to sniffin' with cold. I'm as tough 坚强的 as a white-thorn 刺 knob‧stick 把手‧棍；粘贴."

He was working all the time he was talking and Mary was following him and helping him with her fork or the trowel.

"There's a lot of work to do here!" he said once, looking about quite exultantly.

"Will you come again and help me to do it?" Mary begged 乞讨. "I'm sure I can help, too. I can dig and pull up weeds, and do whatever you tell me. Oh! do come, Dickon!"

"I'll come every day if tha' wants me, rain or shine 发光," he answered stoutly 肥硕. "It's th' best fun 乐趣 I ever had in my life—shut in here an' wakenin' up a garden."

"If you will come," said Mary, "if you will help me to make it alive I'll—I don't know what I'll do," she ended help‧less 无助. What could you do for a boy like that?

"I'll tell thee what tha'll do," said Dickon, with his happy grin 微笑. "Tha'll get fat an' tha'll get as hungry 饥饿 as a young fox 狐狸 an' tha'll learn how to talk to th' robin same as I do. Eh! we'll have a lot o' fun."

He began to walk about, looking up in the trees and at the walls and bushes with a thoughtful 周到 expression.

"I wouldn't want to make it look like a gardener's garden, all clipped 夹 an' spick an' span 跨度, would you?" he said. "It's nicer like this with things runnin' wild, an' swingin' an' cat‧chin 猫‧下巴' hold of each other."

"Don't let us make it tidy 整洁的," said Mary anxiously. "It wouldn't seem like a secret garden if it was tidy."

Dickon stood rubbing 擦 his rusty 生疏-red head with a rather puzzled look.

"It's a secret garden sure enough," he said, "but seems like some one besides th' robin must have been in it since it was shut up ten 十 year' ago."

"But the door was locked and the key was buried 埋葬," said Mary. "No one could get in."

"That's true," he answered. "It's a queer 奇怪 place. Seems to me as if there'd been a bit o' prunin' done here an' there, later than ten 十 year' ago."

"But how could it have been done?" said Mary.

He was examining a branch of a standard rose and he shook his head.

"Aye! how could it!" he murmured 私语. "With th' door locked an' th' key buried."

Mistress Mary always felt that however many years she lived she should never forget that first morning when her garden began to grow. Of course, it did seem to begin to grow for her that morning. When Dickon began to clear places to plant seeds, she remembered what Basil had sung sing at her when he wanted to tease 逗 her.

"Are there any flowers that look like bells 钟?" she inquired.

"Lilies o' th' valley does," he answered, digging away with the trowel, "an' there's Canterbury bells, an' campanulas."

"Let us plant some," said Mary.

"There's lilies 百合 o' th' valley here already; I saw 'em. They'll have growed too close an' we'll have to separate 'em, but there's plenty. Th' other ones takes two years to bloom 盛开 from seed, but I can bring you some bits 一点 o' plants from our cottage garden. Why does tha' want 'em?"

Then Mary told him about Basil and his brothers and sisters 姐妹 in India and of how she had hated them and of their calling her "Mistress Mary Quite Contrary."

"They used to dance round and sing at me. They sang—

I just remembered it and it made me wonder if there were really flowers like silver bells."

She frowned 皱眉 a little and gave her trowel a rather spiteful dig into the earth.

"I wasn't as contrary 相反 as they were."

But Dickon laughed.

"Eh!" he said, and as he crumbled 崩溃 the rich black soil she saw he was sniffing 吸气 up the scent 香味 of it, "there doesn't seem to be no need for no one to be contrary 相反 when there's flowers an' such like, an' such lots o' friendly wild things runnin' about makin' homes for themselves, or buildin' nests an' singin' an' whistlin', does there?"

Mary, kneeling 跪 by him holding the seeds, looked at him and stopped frowning 皱眉.

"Dickon," she said. "You are as nice as Martha said you were. I like you, and you make the fifth person. I never thought I should like five people."

Dickon sat up on his heels 脚跟 as Martha did when she was polishing 擦光 the grate 炉排. He did look funny and delightful 愉快, Mary thought, with his round blue eyes and red cheeks 脸颊 and happy looking turned-up nose.

"Only five folk 民间 as tha' likes?" he said. "Who is th' other four?"

"Your mother and Martha," Mary checked them off on her fingers, "and the robin and Ben Weatherstaff."

Dickon laughed so that he was obliged 责成 to stifle 窒息 the sound by putting his arm over his mouth.

"I know tha' thinks I'm a queer 奇怪 lad 小伙子," he said, "but I think tha' art th' queerest 奇怪 little lass I ever saw."

Then Mary did a strange thing. She leaned forward and asked him a question she had never dreamed dream of asking any one before. And she tried to ask it in Yorkshire because that was his language, and in India a native 本土的 was always pleased if you knew his speech.

"Does tha' like me?" she said.

"Eh!" he answered heartily 爽朗, "that I does. I likes thee wonderful 精彩, an' so does th' robin, I do believe!"

"That's two, then," said Mary. "That's two for me."

And then they began to work harder than ever and more joyfully 快乐. Mary was startled 惊吓 and sorry when she heard the big clock 钟 in the court‧yard 庭院 strike the hour of her midday 正午 dinner.

"I shall have to go," she said mourn‧fully 悼‧完全地. "And you will have to go too, won't you?"

Dickon grinned 微笑.

"My dinner's easy to carry about with me," he said. "Mother always lets me put a bit o' some‧thin 一些‧薄的' in my pocket."

He picked up his coat from the grass and brought out of a pocket a lumpy little bundle 捆 tied up in a quiet clean, coarse 粗鄙的, blue and white handkerchief 手帕. It held two thick pieces of bread 面包 with a slice 片 of something laid between them.

"It's oftenest naught 零 but bread," he said, "but I've got a fine slice 片 o' fat bacon 培根 with it to-day."

Mary thought it looked a queer 奇怪 dinner, but he seemed ready to enjoy it.

"Run on an' get thy 你的 victuals," he said. "I'll be done with mine first. I'll get some more work done before I start back home."

He sat down with his back against a tree.

"I'll call th' robin up," he said, "and give him th' rind o' th' bacon 培根 to peck 啄 at. They likes a bit o' fat wonderful 精彩."

Mary could scarcely bear to leave him. Suddenly it seemed as if he might be a sort of wood fairy 仙女 who might be gone when she came into the garden again. He seemed too good to be true. She went slowly half-way to the door in the wall and then she stopped and went back.

"Whatever happens, you—you never would tell?" she said.

His poppy 罂粟-colored cheeks 脸颊 were distended with his first big bite 咬 of bread 面包 and bacon 培根, but he managed to smile encouragingly.

"If tha' was a missel thrush an' showed me where thy 你的 nest （鸟）窝 was, does tha' think I'd tell any one? Not me," he said. "Tha' art as safe as a missel thrush."

And she was quite sure she was.

---

CHAPTER XII

"MIGHT I HAVE A BIT OF EARTH?"

Mary ran so fast that she was rather out of breath when she reached her room. Her hair was ruffled 生气 on her fore‧head 前额 and her cheeks 脸颊 were bright pink 粉红色的. Her dinner was waiting on the table, and Martha was waiting near it.

"Tha's a bit late," she said. "Where has tha' been?"

"I've seen Dickon!" said Mary. "I've seen Dickon!"

"I knew he'd come," said Martha exultantly. "How does tha' like him?"

"I think—I think he's beautiful 美丽!" said Mary in a determined voice.

Martha looked rather taken aback 吓了一跳 but she looked pleased, too.

"Well," she said, "he's th' best lad 小伙子 as ever was born, but us never thought he was hand‧some 英俊. His nose turns up too much."

"I like it to turn up," said Mary.

"An' his eyes is so round," said Martha, a trifle 琐事 doubtful 疑. "Though they're a nice color."

"I like them round," said Mary. "And they are exactly the color of the sky over the moor 泊."

Martha beamed 梁 with satisfaction 满足.

"Mother says he made 'em that color with always lookin' up at th' birds an' th' clouds. But he has got a big mouth, hasn't he, now?"

"I love his big mouth," said Mary obstinately. "I wish mine were just like it."

Martha chuckled 暗笑 delightedly.

"It'd look rare an' funny in thy 你的 bit of a face," she said. "But I knowed it would be that way when tha' saw him. How did tha' like th' seeds an' th' garden tools?"

"How did you know he brought them?" asked Mary.

"Eh! I never thought of him not bringin' 'em. He'd be sure to bring 'em if they was in Yorkshire. He's such a trusty lad 小伙子."

Mary was afraid that she might begin to ask difficult questions, but she did not. She was very much interested in the seeds and gardening tools, and there was only one moment when Mary was frightened. This was when she began to ask where the flowers were to be planted.

"Who did tha' ask about it?" she inquired.

"I haven't asked any‧body 任何人 yet," said Mary, hesitating 犹豫.

"Well, I wouldn't ask th' head gardener. He's too grand 宏大的, Mr. Roach is."

"I've never seen him," said Mary. "I've only seen under-gardeners 园丁 and Ben Weatherstaff."

"If I was you, I'd ask Ben Weatherstaff," advised Martha. "He's not half as bad as he looks, for all he's so crabbed 螃蟹. Mr. Craven lets him do what he likes because he was here when Mrs. Craven was alive, an' he used to make her laugh. She liked him. Perhaps he'd find you a corner somewhere out o' the way."

"If it was out of the way and no one wanted it, no one could mind my having it, could they?" Mary said anxiously.

"There wouldn't be no reason," answered Martha. "You wouldn't do no harm 损害."

Mary ate her dinner as quickly as she could and when she rose from the table she was going to run to her room to put on her hat again, but Martha stopped her.

"I've got some‧thin 一些‧薄的' to tell you," she said. "I thought I'd let you eat your dinner first. Mr. Craven came back this mornin' and I think he wants to see you."

Mary turned quite pale.

"Oh!" she said. "Why! Why! He didn't want to see me when I came. I heard Pitcher say he didn't."

"Well," explained Martha, "Mrs. Medlock says it's because o' mother. She was walkin' to Thwaite village an' she met him. She'd never spoke to him before, but Mrs. Craven had been to our cottage two or three times. He'd forgot, but mother hadn't an' she made bold 胆大的；醒目的 to stop him. I don't know what she said to him about you but she said some‧thin 一些‧薄的' as put him in th' mind to see you before he goes away again, to-morrow."

"Oh!" cried Mary, "is he going away to-morrow? I am so glad!"

"He's goin' for a long time. He mayn't come back till autumn 秋 or winter. He's goin' to travel in foreign places. He's always doin' it."

"Oh! I'm so glad—so glad!" said Mary thankfully 感激地.

If he did not come back until winter, or even autumn, there would be time to watch the secret garden come alive. Even if he found out then and took it away from her she would have had that much at least.

"When do you think he will want to see—"

She did not finish the sentence 句子, because the door opened, and Mrs. Medlock walked in. She had on her best black dress and cap 盖, and her collar 衣领 was fastened 系牢 with a large brooch with a picture of a man's face on it. It was a colored photograph 照片 of Mr. Medlock who had died years ago, and she always wore wear it when she was dressed up. She looked nervous 担心的 and excited.

"Your hair's rough," she said quickly. "Go and brush it. Martha, help her to slip on her best dress. Mr. Craven sent send me to bring her to him in his study."

All the pink 粉红色的 left Mary's cheeks 脸颊. Her heart began to thump 扑通 and she felt her‧self 她自己 changing into a stiff 严厉的, plain, silent child again. She did not even answer Mrs. Medlock, but turned and walked into her bed‧room 卧室, followed by Martha. She said nothing while her dress was changed, and her hair brushed, and after she was quite tidy 整洁的 she followed Mrs. Medlock down the corridors 走廊, in silence. What was there for her to say? She was obliged 责成 to go and see Mr. Craven and he would not like her, and she would not like him. She knew what he would think of her.

She was taken to a part of the house she had not been into before. At last Mrs. Medlock knocked 敲 at a door, and when some one said, "Come in," they entered the room together. A man was sitting in an arm‧chair 扶手椅 before the fire, and Mrs. Medlock spoke to him.

"This is Miss Mary, sir 先生," she said.

"You can go and leave her here. I will ring for you when I want you to take her away," said Mr. Craven.

When she went out and closed the door, Mary could only stand waiting, a plain little thing, twisting 扭成一束 her thin hands together. She could see that the man in the chair was not so much a hunch‧back 直觉‧背；往回 as a man with high, rather crooked 弯曲 shoulders, and he had black hair streaked 条纹 with white. He turned his head over his high shoulders and spoke to her.

"Come here!" he said.

Mary went to him.

He was not ugly 难看的. His face would have been hand‧some 英俊 if it had not been so miserable 悲惨的. He looked as if the sight of her worried and fretted 烦恼 him and as if he did not know what in the world to do with her.

"Are you well?" he asked.

"Yes," answered Mary.

"Do they take good care of you?"

"Yes."

He rubbed his fore‧head 前额 fret‧fully 烦恼‧完全地 as he looked her over.

"You are very thin," he said.

"I am getting fatter," Mary answered in what she knew was her stiffest 严厉的 way.

What an unhappy 不快乐 face he had! His black eyes seemed as if they scarcely saw her, as if they were seeing something else, and he could hardly keep his thoughts upon her.

"I forgot you," he said. "How could I remember you? I intended to send you a governess or a nurse 护士, or some one of that sort, but I forgot."

"Please," began Mary. "Please—" and then the lump 块 in her throat choked 呛 her.

"What do you want to say?" he inquired.

"I am—I am too big for a nurse," said Mary. "And please—please don't make me have a governess yet."

He rubbed his fore‧head 前额 again and stared at her.

"That was what the Sowerby woman said," he muttered 咕哝 absent 缺席的-mindedly.

Then Mary gathered a scrap 废料 of courage 勇气.

"Is she—is she Martha's mother?" she stammered.

"Yes, I think so," he replied.

"She knows about children," said Mary. "She has twelve 十二. She knows."

He seemed to rouse 唤醒 himself.

"What do you want to do?"

"I want to play out of doors," Mary answered, hoping that her voice did not tremble 发抖. "I never liked it in India. It makes me hungry 饥饿 here, and I am getting fatter."

He was watching her.

"Mrs. Sowerby said it would do you good. Perhaps it will," he said. "She thought you had better get stronger before you had a governess."

"It makes me feel strong when I play and the wind comes over the moor 泊," argued Mary.

"Where do you play?" he asked next.

" Everywhere 到处," gasped 喘气 Mary. "Martha's mother sent me a skipping 跳跃-rope. I skip 跳跃 and run—and I look about to see if things are beginning to stick up out of the earth. I don't do any harm 损害."

"Don't look so frightened," he said in a worried voice. "You could not do any harm 3, a child like you! You may do what you like."

Mary put her hand up to her throat because she was afraid he might see the excited lump 块 which she felt jump into it. She came a step nearer to him.

"May I?" she said tremulously.

Her anxious 焦急的 little face seemed to worry him more than ever.

"Don't look so frightened," he exclaimed 喊叫. "Of course you may. I am your guardian 监护人, though I am a poor one for any child. I cannot give you time or attention. I am too ill 生病, and wretched 不幸的人 and distracted 转移; but I wish you to be happy and comfort‧able 舒服；自在. I don't know anything about children, but Mrs. Medlock is to see that you have all you need. I sent for you to-day because Mrs. Sowerby said I ought to see you. Her daughter had talked about you. She thought you needed fresh air and freedom and running about."

"She knows all about children," Mary said again in spite 恶意 of her‧self 她自己.

"She ought to," said Mr. Craven. "I thought her rather bold 3 to stop me on the moor 泊, but she said—Mrs. Craven had been kind to her." It seemed hard for him to speak his dead wife's name. "She is a respect‧able 可敬 woman. Now I have seen you I think she said sensible 明智 things. Play out of doors as much as you like. It's a big place and you may go where you like and amuse 使人发笑 your‧self 你自己 as you like. Is there anything you want?" as if a sudden thought had struck strike him. "Do you want toys 玩具, books, dolls 娃娃?"

"Might I," quavered Mary, "might I have a bit of earth?"

In her eagerness she did not realize how queer 奇怪 the words would sound and that they were not the ones she had meant to say. Mr. Craven looked quite startled 惊吓.

"Earth!" he repeated. "What do you mean?"

"To plant seeds in—to make things grow—to see them come alive," Mary faltered 衰退.

He gazed 凝视 at her a moment and then passed his hand quickly over his eyes.

"Do you—care about gardens so much," he said slowly.

"I didn't know about them in India," said Mary. "I was always ill 生病 and tired and it was too hot. I sometimes made little beds in the sand 沙 and stuck stick flowers in them. But here it is different."

Mr. Craven got up and began to walk slowly across the room.

"A bit of earth," he said to himself, and Mary thought that somehow she must have reminded him of something. When he stopped and spoke to her his dark eyes looked almost soft and kind.

"You can have as much earth as you want," he said. "You remind me of some one else who loved the earth and things that grow. When you see a bit of earth you want," with something like a smile, "take it, child, and make it come alive."

"May I take it from any‧where 任何地方—if it's not wanted?"

" Anywhere," he answered. "There! You must go now, I am tired." He touched the bell 钟 to call Mrs. Medlock. "Good-by. I shall be away all summer."

Mrs. Medlock came so quickly that Mary thought she must have been waiting in the corridor 走廊.

"Mrs. Medlock," Mr. Craven said to her, "now I have seen the child I understand what Mrs. Sowerby meant. She must be less delicate 微妙的；纤弱的 before she begins lessons 教训. Give her simple, healthy 健康 food. Let her run wild in the garden. Don't look after her too much. She needs liberty 自由 and fresh air and romping about. Mrs. Sowerby is to come and see her now and then and she may sometimes go to the cottage."

Mrs. Medlock looked pleased. She was relieved 解除 to hear that she need not "look after" Mary too much. She had felt her a tire‧some 使…疲惫‧一些 charge and had indeed seen as little of her as she dared. In addition 加成 to this she was fond 喜欢的 of Martha's mother.

"Thank you, sir 先生," she said. "Susan Sowerby and me went to school together and she's as sensible 明智 and good-hearted a woman as you'd find in a day's walk. I never had any children myself 我 and she's had twelve 十二, and there never was healthier 健康 or better ones. Miss Mary can get no harm from them. I'd always take Susan Sowerby's advice 劝告 about children myself 我. She's what you might call healthy 健康-minded—if you understand me."

"I understand," Mr. Craven answered. "Take Miss Mary away now and send Pitcher to me."

When Mrs. Medlock left her at the end of her own corridor 走廊 Mary flew back to her room. She found Martha waiting there. Martha had, in fact, hurried back after she had removed 去掉 the dinner service.

"I can have my garden!" cried Mary. "I may have it where I like! I am not going to have a governess for a long time! Your mother is coming to see me and I may go to your cottage! He says a little girl like me could not do any harm and I may do what I like—anywhere 3!"

"Eh!" said Martha delightedly, "that was nice of him wasn't it?"

"Martha," said Mary solemnly 庄严的, "he is really a nice man, only his face is so miserable 悲惨的 and his fore‧head 前额 is all drawn draw together."

She ran as quickly as she could to the garden. She had been away so much longer than she had thought she should and she knew Dickon would have to set out early on his five-mile walk. When she slipped through the door under the ivy, she saw he was not working where she had left him. The gardening tools were laid together under a tree. She ran to them, looking all round the place, but there was no Dickon to be seen. He had gone away and the secret garden was empty—except for the robin who had just flown across the wall and sat on a standard rose-bush watching her.

"He's gone," she said wofully. "Oh! was he—was he—was he only a wood fairy 仙女?"

Something white fastened to the standard rose-bush caught her eye. It was a piece of paper—in fact, it was a piece of the letter she had printed for Martha to send to Dickon. It was fastened on the bush with a longthorn 刺, and in a minute she knew Dickon had left it there. There were some roughly printed letters on it and a sort of picture. At first she could not tell what it was. Then she saw it was meant for a nest （鸟）窝 with a bird sitting on it. Underneath 在...之下 were the printed letters and they said:

"I will cum bak."

---

CHAPTER XIII

"I AM COLIN"

Mary took the picture back to the house when she went to her supper 晚饭 and she showed it to Martha.

"Eh!" said Martha with great pride 自尊. "I never knew our Dickon was as clever 聪明的 as that. That there's a picture of a missel thrush on her nest 3, as large as life an' twice 两次 as natural 自然."

Then Mary knew Dickon had meant the picture to be a message. He had meant that she might be sure he would keep her secret. Her garden was her nest and she was like a missel thrush. Oh, how she did like that queer 奇怪, common boy!

She hoped he would come back the very next day and she fell asleep 睡着的 looking forward to the morning.

But you never know what the weather will do in Yorkshire, particularly in the spring‧time 春季‧时间. She was awakened 憬 in the night by the sound of rain beating with heavy drops against her window. It was pouring 淋；倒 down in torrents 激流 and the wind was "wuthering" round the corners and in the chimneys 烟囱 of the huge 巨大 old house. Mary sat up in bed and felt miserable 3 and angry.

"The rain is as contrary 相反 as I ever was," she said. "It came because it knew I did not want it."

She threw her‧self 她自己 back on her pillow 枕头 and buried her face. She did not cry, but she lay and hated the sound of the heavily 很大，沉重地 beating rain, she hated the wind and its "wuthering." She could not go to sleep again. The mournful sound kept her awake 醒着的 because she felt mournful her‧self 她自己. If she had felt happy it would probably have lulled 麻痹 her to sleep. How it "wuthered" and how the big rain-drops poured 淋；倒 down and beat against the pane 窗格!

"It sounds just like a person lost on the moor 泊 and wandering 漫步 on and on crying," she said.

---

She had been lying awake turning from side to side for about an hour, when suddenly something made her sit up in bed and turn her head toward the door listening. She listened and she listened.

"It isn't the wind now," she said in a loud 响亮的 whisper. "That isn't the wind. It is different. It is that crying I heard before."

The door of her room was ajar and the sound came down the corridor 走廊, a far-off faint 微弱的 sound of fretful crying. She listened for a few minutes and each minute she became more and more sure. She felt as if she must find out what it was. It seemed even stranger than the secret garden and the buried key. Perhaps the fact that she was in a rebellious 悖 mood 心境 made her bold. She put her foot out of bed and stood on the floor.

"I am going to find out what it is," she said. "Everybody is in bed and I don't care about Mrs. Medlock—I don't care!"

There was a candle 蜡烛 by her bed‧side 床头 and she took it up and went softly out of the room. The corridor 走廊 looked very long and dark, but she was too excited to mind that. She thought she remembered the corners she must turn to find the short corridor 走廊 with the door covered with tapestry 挂毯—the one Mrs. Medlock had come through the day she lost her‧self 她自己. The sound had come up that passage. So she went on with her dim 暗淡 light, almost feeling her way, her heart beating so loud 响亮的 that she fancied 想像 she could hear it. The far-off faint 微弱的 crying went on and led her. Sometimes it stopped for a moment or so and then began again. Was this the right corner to turn? She stopped and thought. Yes it was. Down this passage and then to the left, and then up two broad steps, and then to the right again. Yes, there was the tapestry 挂毯 door.

She pushed it open very gently and closed it behind her, and she stood in the corridor 走廊 and could hear the crying quite plainly, though it was not loud. It was on the other side of the wall at her left and a few yards farther on there was a door. She could see a glimmer of light coming from beneath 之下 it. The Someone was crying in that room, and it was quite a young Someone.

So she walked to the door and pushed it open, and there she was standing in the room!

It was a big room with ancient, hand‧some 英俊 furniture 家具 in it. There was a low fire glowing 辉光 faintly 微弱的 on the hearth 炉 and a night light burning by the side of a carved 雕刻 four-posted bed hung with brocade, and on the bed was lying a boy, crying fret‧fully 烦恼‧完全地.

Mary wondered if she was in a real place or if she had fallen asleep 睡着的 again and was dreaming without knowing it.

The boy had a sharp, delicate 微妙的；纤弱的 face the color of ivory 象牙 and he seemed to have eyes too big for it. He had also a lot of hair which tumbled 下跌 over his fore‧head 前额 in heavy locks and made his thin face seem smaller. He looked like a boy who had been ill, but he was crying more as if he were tired and cross than as if he were in pain.

Mary stood near the door with her candle 蜡烛 in her hand, holding her breath. Then she crept across the room, and as she drew draw nearer the light attracted 吸引 the boy's attention and he turned his head on his pillow 枕头 and stared at her, his gray eyes opening so wide that they seemed immense 极大的.

"Who are you?" he said at last in a half-frightened whisper. "Are you a ghost 鬼?"

"No, I am not," Mary answered, her own whisper sounding half frightened. "Are you one?"

He stared and stared and stared. Mary could not help noticing what strange eyes he had. They were agate gray and they looked too big for his face because they had black lashes 睫毛 all round them.

"No," he replied after waiting a moment or so. "I am Colin."

"Who is Colin?" she faltered 衰退.

"I am Colin Craven. Who are you?"

"I am Mary Lennox. Mr. Craven is my uncle 叔叔."

"He is my father," said the boy.

"Your father!" gasped 喘气 Mary. "No one ever told me he had a boy! Why didn't they?"

"Come here," he said, still keeping his strange eyes fixed on her with an anxious 焦急的 expression.

She came close to the bed and he put out his hand and touched her.

"You are real, aren't you?" he said. "I have such real dreams very often. You might be one of them."

Mary had slipped on a woolen 羊毛制的 wrapper 包 before she left her room and she put a piece of it between his fingers.

" Rub 擦 that and see how thick and warm it is," she said. "I will pinch 捏 you a little if you like, to show you how real I am. For a minute I thought you might be a dream too."

"Where did you come from?" he asked.

"From my own room. The wind wuthered so I couldn't go to sleep and I heard some one crying and wanted to find out who it was. What were you crying for?"

"Because I couldn't go to sleep either and my head ached 疼痛. Tell me your name again."

"Mary Lennox. Did no one ever tell you I had come to live here?"

He was still fingering the fold 折叠 of her wrapper, but he began to look a little more as if he believed in her reality 现实.

"No," he answered. "They daren't."

"Why?" asked Mary.

"Because I should have been afraid you would see me. I won't let people see me and talk me over."

"Why?" Mary asked again, feeling more mystified every moment.

"Because I am like this always, ill and having to lie down. My father won't let people talk me over either. The servants 仆人 are not allowed to speak about me. If I live I may be a hunch‧back 直觉‧背；往回, but I shan't live. My father hates to think I may be like him."

"Oh, what a queer 奇怪 house this is!" Mary said. "What a queer 奇怪 house! Everything is a kind of secret. Rooms are locked up and gardens are locked up—and you! Have you been locked up?"

"No. I stay in this room because I don't want to be moved out of it. It tires me too much."

"Does your father come and see you?" Mary ventured.

"Sometimes. Generally when I am asleep 3. He doesn't want to see me."

"Why?" Mary could not help asking again.

A sort of angry shadow passed over the boy's face.

"My mother died when I was born and it makes him wretched 不幸的人 to look at me. He thinks I don't know, but I've heard people talking. He almost hates me."

"He hates the garden, because she died," said Mary half speaking to her‧self 她自己.

"What garden?" the boy asked.

"Oh! just—just a garden she used to like," Mary stammered. "Have you been here always?"

"Nearly always. Sometimes I have been taken to places at the sea‧side 海滨, but I won't stay because people stare at me. I used to wear an iron 铁器 thing to keep my back straight, but a grand 宏大的 doctor came from London to see me and said it was stupid 愚蠢的. He told them to take it off and keep me out in the fresh air. I hate fresh air and I don't want to go out."

"I didn't when first I came here," said Mary. "Why do you keep looking at me like that?"

"Because of the dreams that are so real," he answered rather fret‧fully 烦恼‧完全地. "Sometimes when I open my eyes I don't believe I'm awake 3."

"We're both awake," said Mary. She glanced 一瞥 round the room with its high ceiling 天花板 and shadowy 神出鬼没 corners and dim 暗淡 fire‧light 火‧光；灯. "It looks quite like a dream, and it's the middle of the night, and everybody in the house is asleep—everybody but us. We are wide awake."

"I don't want it to be a dream," the boy said rest‧less 不安.

Mary thought of something all at once.

"If you don't like people to see you," she began, "do you want me to go away?"

He still held the fold 折叠 of her wrapper and he gave it a little pull.

"No," he said. "I should be sure you were a dream if you went. If you are real, sit down on that big foot‧stool 脚；英尺‧粪便 and talk. I want to hear about you."

Mary put down her candle 蜡烛 on the table near the bed and sat down on the cushioned stool 粪便. She did not want to go away at all. She wanted to stay in the mysterious 神秘 hidden hide-away room and talk to the mysterious 神秘 boy.

"What do you want me to tell you?" she said.

He wanted to know how long she had been at Misselthwaite; he wanted to know which corridor 走廊 her room was on; he wanted to know what she had been doing; if she disliked 反感 the moor 泊 as he disliked 反感 it; where she had lived before she came to Yorkshire. She answered all these questions and many more and he lay back on his pillow 枕头 and listened. He made her tell him a great deal about India and about her voyage 旅行 across the ocean 洋. She found out that because he had been an invalid 无效 he had not learned things as other children had. One of his nurses 护士 had taught him to read when he was quite little and he was always reading and looking at pictures in splendid 壮观的 books.

Though his father rarely 很少；不常见；难得 saw him when he was awake, he was given all sorts of wonderful 精彩 things to amuse 使人发笑 himself with. He never seemed to have been amused 使人发笑, however. He could have anything he asked for and was never made to do anything he did not like to do.

"Every one is obliged 责成 to do what pleases me," he said indifferently 冷漠. "It makes me ill to be angry. No one believes I shall live to grow up."

He said it as if he was so accustomed to the idea that it had ceased 停止 to matter to him at all. He seemed to like the sound of Mary's voice. As she went on talking he listened in a drowsy, interested way. Once or twice 两次 she wondered if he were not gradually 逐步地 falling into a doze. But at last he asked a question which opened up a new subject.

"How old are you?" he asked.

"I am ten 十," answered Mary, forgetting her‧self 她自己 for the moment, "and so are you."

"How do you know that?" he demanded in a surprised voice.

"Because when you were born the garden door was locked and the key was buried. And it has been locked for ten 十 years."

Colin half sat up, turning toward her, leaning on his elbows 弯头.

"What garden door was locked? Who did it? Where was the key buried?" he exclaimed 喊叫 as if he were suddenly very much interested.

"It—it was the garden Mr. Craven hates," said Mary nervously 担心的. "He locked the door. No one—no one knew where he buried the key."

"What sort of a garden is it?" Colin persisted 坚持 eagerly.

"No one has been allowed to go into it for ten 十 years," was Mary's careful 小心 answer.

But it was too late to be careful 小心. He was too much like her‧self 她自己. He too had had nothing to think about and the idea of a hidden hide garden attracted him as it had attracted her. He asked question after question. Where was it? Had she never looked for the door? Had she never asked the gardeners 园丁?

"They won't talk about it," said Mary. "I think they have been told not to answer questions."

"I would make them," said Colin.

"Could you?" Mary faltered 衰退, beginning to feel frightened. If he could make people answer questions, who knew what might happen!

"Every one is obliged 责成 to please me. I told you that," he said. "If I were to live, this place would some‧time 有时 belong to me. They all know that. I would make them tell me."

Mary had not known that she her‧self 她自己 had been spoiled 损坏；变质, but she could see quite plainly that this mysterious 神秘 boy had been. He thought that the whole world belonged to him. How peculiar 奇怪的 he was and how coolly he spoke of not living.

"Do you think you won't live?" she asked, partly because she was curious and partly in hope of making him forget the garden.

"I don't suppose I shall," he answered as indifferently 冷漠 as he had spoken before. "Ever since I remember anything I have heard people say I shan't. At first they thought I was too little to understand and now they think I don't hear. But I do. My doctor is my father's cousin. He is quite poor and if I die he will have all Misselthwaite when my father is dead. I should think he wouldn't want me to live."

"Do you want to live?" inquired Mary.

"No," he answered, in a cross, tired fashion. "But I don't want to die. When I feel ill I lie here and think about it until I cry and cry."

"I have heard you crying three times," Mary said, "but I did not know who it was. Were you crying about that?" She did so want him to forget the garden.

"I dare 敢 say," he answered. "Let us talk about something else. Talk about that garden. Don't you want to see it?"

"Yes," answered Mary, in quite a low voice.

"I do," he went on persistently 一贯. "I don't think I ever really wanted to see anything before, but I want to see that garden. I want the key dug up. I want the door unlocked 开锁. I would let them take me there in my chair. That would be getting fresh air. I am going to make them open the door."

He had become quite excited and his strange eyes began to shine 发光 like stars and looked more immense 极大的 than ever.

"They have to please me," he said. "I will make them take me there and I will let you go, too."

Mary's hands clutched 离合器 each other. Everything would be spoiled—everything! Dickon would never come back. She would never again feel like a missel thrush with a safe-hidden hide nest.

"Oh, don't—don't—don't—don't do that!" she cried out.

He stared as if he thought she had gone crazy 荒唐的!

"Why?" he exclaimed 喊叫. "You said you wanted to see it."

"I do," she answered almost with a sob 哭泣 in her throat, "but if you make them open the door and take you in like that it will never be a secret again."

He leaned still farther forward.

"A secret," he said. "What do you mean? Tell me."

Mary's words almost tumbled 下跌 over one another.

"You see—you see," she panted 喘气, "if no one knows but ourselves 我们自己—if there was a door, hidden hide somewhere under the ivy—if there was—and we could find it; and if we could slip through it together and shut it behind us, and no one knew any one was inside and we called it our garden and pretended 假装 that—that we were missel thrushes and it was our nest, and if we played there almost every day and dug and planted seeds and made it all come alive—"

"Is it dead?" he interrupted 打断 her.

"It soon will be if no one cares for it," she went on. "The bulbs 灯泡 will live but the roses—"

He stopped her again as excited as she was her‧self 她自己.

"What are bulbs 灯泡?" he put in quickly.

"They are daffodils and lilies 百合 and snowdrops. They are working in the earth now—pushing up pale green points because the spring is coming."

"Is the spring coming?" he said. "What is it like? You don't see it in rooms if you are ill."

"It is the sun shining on the rain and the rain falling on the sun‧shine 阳光, and things pushing up and working under the earth," said Mary. "If the garden was a secret and we could get into it we could watch the things grow bigger every day, and see how many roses are alive. Don't you see? Oh, don't you see how much nicer it would be if it was a secret?"

He dropped back on his pillow 枕头 and lay there with an odd 奇 expression on his face.

"I never had a secret," he said, "except that one about not living to grow up. They don't know I know that, so it is a sort of secret. But I like this kind better."

"If you won't make them take you to the garden," pleaded 求情 Mary, "perhaps—I feel almost sure I can find out how to get in sometime. And then—if the doctor wants you to go out in your chair, and if you can always do what you want to do, perhaps—perhaps we might find some boy who would push you, and we could go alone and it would always be a secret garden."

"I should—like—that," he said very slowly, his eyes looking dreamy. "I should like that. I should not mind fresh air in a secret garden."

Mary began to recover 恢复 her breath and feel safer because the idea of keeping the secret seemed to please him. She felt almost sure that if she kept on talking and could make him see the garden in his mind as she had seen it he would like it so much that he could not bear to think that everybody might tramp 流浪汉 into it when they chose choose.

"I'll tell you what I think it would be like, if we could go into it," she said. "It has been shut up so long things have grown grow into a tangle 纠纷 perhaps."

He lay quite still and listened while she went on talking about the roses which might have clambered from tree to tree and hung down—about the many birds which might have built their nests there because it was so safe. And then she told him about the robin and Ben Weatherstaff, and there was so much to tell about the robin and it was so easy and safe to talk about it that she ceased 停止 to feel afraid. The robin pleased him so much that he smiled until he looked almost beautiful 美丽, and at first Mary had thought that he was even plainer than her‧self 她自己, with his big eyes and heavy locks of hair.

"I did not know birds could be like that," he said. "But if you stay in a room you never see things. What a lot of things you know. I feel as if you had been inside that garden."

She did not know what to say, so she did not say anything. He evidently 明显地 did not expect an answer and the next moment he gave her a surprise.

"I am going to let you look at something," he said. "Do you see that rose-colored silk 丝 curtain 窗帘 hanging on the wall over the mantel-piece?"

Mary had not noticed it before, but she looked up and saw it. It was a curtain of soft silk hanging over what seemed to be some picture.

"Yes," she answered.

"There is a cord 绳 hanging from it," said Colin. "Go and pull it."

Mary got up, much mystified, and found the cord 绳. When she pulled it the silk curtain 3 ran back on rings and when it ran back it uncovered 揭露 a picture. It was the picture of a girl with a laughing face. She had bright hair tied up with a blue ribbon 带 and her gay 快乐的, lovely eyes were exactly like Colin's unhappy 不快乐 ones, agate gray and looking twice 两次 as big as they really were because of the black lashes 睫毛 all round them.

"She is my mother," said Colin complainingly. "I don't see why she died. Sometimes I hate her for doing it."

"How queer 奇怪!" said Mary.

"If she had lived I believe I should not have been ill always," he grumbled 叽. "I dare 敢 say I should have lived, too. And my father would not have hated to look at me. I dare say I should have had a strong back. Draw the curtain again."

Mary did as she was told and returned to her foot‧stool 脚；英尺‧粪便.

"She is much prettier than you," she said, "but her eyes are just like yours—at least they are the same shape and color. Why is the curtain drawn over her?"

He moved uncomfortably 不舒服.

"I made them do it," he said. "Sometimes I don't like to see her looking at me. She smiles too much when I am ill and miserable. Besides, she is mine and I don't want every one to see her."

There were a few moments of silence and then Mary spoke.

"What would Mrs. Medlock do if she found out that I had been here?" she inquired.

"She would do as I told her to do," he answered. "And I should tell her that I wanted you to come here and talk to me every day. I am glad you came."

"So am I," said Mary. "I will come as often as I can, but"—she hesitated 犹豫—"I shall have to look every day for the garden door."

"Yes, you must," said Colin, "and you can tell me about it after‧ward 之后."

He lay thinking a few minutes, as he had done before, and then he spoke again.

"I think you shall be a secret, too," he said. "I will not tell them until they find out. I can always send the nurse out of the room and say that I want to be by myself 我. Do you know Martha?"

"Yes, I know her very well," said Mary. "She waits on me."

He nodded 点头 his head toward the outer corridor 走廊.

"She is the one who is asleep in the other room. The nurse went away yesterday to stay all night with her sister 姐妹 and she always makes Martha attend to me when she wants to go out. Martha shall tell you when to come here."

Then Mary understood understand Martha's troubled look when she had asked questions about the crying.

"Martha knew about you all the time?" she said.

"Yes; she often attends to me. The nurse likes to get away from me and then Martha comes."

"I have been here a long time," said Mary. "Shall I go away now? Your eyes look sleepy 困."

"I wish I could go to sleep before you leave me," he said rather shyly 害羞.

"Shut your eyes," said Mary, drawing her foot‧stool 脚；英尺‧粪便 closer, "and I will do what my Ayah used to do in India. I will pat 拍 your hand and stroke 一击;轻抚 it and sing something quite low."

"I should like that perhaps," he said drowsily.

Somehow she was sorry for him and did not want him to lie awake, so she leaned against the bed and began to stroke and pat 拍 his hand and sing a very low little chanting 呗 song in Hindustani.

"That is nice," he said more drowsily still, and she went on chanting 呗 and stroking 一击;轻抚, but when she looked at him again his black lashes 睫毛 were lying close against his cheeks 脸颊, for his eyes were shut and he was fast asleep. So she got up softly, took her candle 蜡烛 and crept away without making a sound.

---

CHAPTER XIV

A YOUNG RAJAH

The moor 泊 was hidden hide in mist 薄雾 when the morning came and the rain had not stopped pouring down. There could be no going out of doors. Martha was so busy that Mary had no opportunity of talking to her, but in the afternoon she asked her to come and sit with her in the nursery 婴儿室；苗圃. She came bringing the stocking 长袜 she was always knitting 针织 when she was doing nothing else.

"What's the matter with thee?" she asked as soon as they sat down. "Tha' looks as if tha'd some‧thin 一些‧薄的' to say."

"I have. I have found out what the crying was," said Mary.

Martha let her knitting 针织 drop on her knee and gazed 凝视 at her with startled 惊吓 eyes.

"Tha' hasn't!" she exclaimed 喊叫. "Never!"

"I heard it in the night," Mary went on. "And I got up and went to see where it came from. It was Colin. I found him."

Martha's face became red with fright 恐怖.

"Eh! Miss Mary!" she said half crying. "Tha' shouldn't have done it—tha' shouldn't! Tha'll get me in trouble. I never told thee nothin' about him—but tha'll get me in trouble. I shall lose my place and what'll mother do!"

"You won't lose your place," said Mary. "He was glad I came. We talked and talked and he said he was glad I came."

"Was he?" cried Martha. "Art tha' sure? Tha' doesn't know what he's like when anything vexes him. He's a big lad 小伙子 to cry like a baby, but when he's in a passion 激情，热情；强烈情感 he'll fair scream 叫喊 just to frighten 使惊恐 us. He knows us daren't call our souls our own."

"He wasn't vexed," said Mary. "I asked him if I should go away and he made me stay. He asked me questions and I sat on a big foot‧stool 脚；英尺‧粪便 and talked to him about India and about the robin and gardens. He wouldn't let me go. He let me see his mother's picture. Before I left him I sang him to sleep."

Martha fairly gasped 喘气 with amazement 惊愕.

"I can scarcely believe thee!" she protested 抗议. "It's as if tha'd walked straight into a lion 狮子's den 巢穴. If he'd been like he is most times he'd have throwed himself into one of his tantrums 发脾气 and roused 唤醒 th' house. He won't let strangers 陌生人 look at him."

"He let me look at him. I looked at him all the time and he looked at me. We stared!" said Mary.

"I don't know what to do!" cried agitated 激荡 Martha. "If Mrs. Medlock finds out, she'll think I broke orders and told thee and I shall be packed back to mother."

"He is not going to tell Mrs. Medlock anything about it yet. It's to be a sort of secret just at first," said Mary firmly. "And he says everybody is obliged 责成 to do as he pleases."

"Aye, that's true enough—th' bad lad 小伙子!" sighed 叹 Martha, wiping 擦 her fore‧head 前额 with her apron 围裙.

"He says Mrs. Medlock must. And he wants me to come and talk to him every day. And you are to tell me when he wants me."

"Me!" said Martha; " I shall lose my place—I shall for sure!"

"You can't if you are doing what he wants you to do and everybody is ordered to obey 服从 him," Mary argued.

"Does tha' mean to say," cried Martha with wide open eyes, "that he was nice to thee!"

"I think he almost liked me," Mary answered.

"Then tha' must have bewitched him!" decided Martha, drawing a long breath.

"Do you mean Magic?" inquired Mary. "I've heard about Magic in India, but I can't make it. I just went into his room and I was so surprised to see him I stood and stared. And then he turned round and stared at me. And he thought I was a ghost 鬼 or a dream and I thought perhaps he was. And it was so queer 奇怪 being there alone together in the middle of the night and not knowing about each other. And we began to ask each other questions. And when I asked him if I must go away he said I must not."

"Th' world's comin' to a end!" gasped 喘气 Martha.

"What is the matter with him?" asked Mary.

"Nobody knows for sure and certain," said Martha. "Mr. Craven went off his head like when he was born. Th' doctors thought he'd have to be put in a 'sylum. It was because Mrs. Craven died like I told you. He wouldn't set eyes on th' baby. He just raved 狂欢 and said it'd be another hunch‧back 直觉‧背；往回 like him and it'd better die."

"Is Colin a hunch‧back 直觉‧背；往回?" Mary asked. "He didn't look like one."

"He isn't yet," said Martha. "But he began all wrong. Mother said that there was enough trouble and raging 愤怒 in th' house to set any child wrong. They was afraid his back was weak an' they've always been takin' care of it—keepin' him lyin' down and not lettin' him walk. Once they made him wear a brace 支撑 but he fretted 烦恼 so he was down‧right 彻头彻尾 ill. Then a big doctor came to see him an' made them take it off. He talked to th' other doctor quite rough—in a polite 有礼貌的 way. He said there'd been too much medicine 医学 and too much lettin' him have his own way."

"I think he's a very spoiled boy," said Mary.

"He's th' worst young nowt as ever was!" said Martha. "I won't say as he hasn't been ill a good bit. He's had coughs 咳嗽 an' colds that's nearly killed him two or three times. Once he had rheumatic fever 发热 an' once he had typhoid. Eh! Mrs. Medlock did get a fright 恐怖 then. He'd been out of his head an' she was talkin' to th' nurse, thin‧kin 薄的‧亲属' he didn't know nothin', an' she said, 'He'll die this time sure enough, an' best thing for him an' for everybody.' An' she looked at him an' there he was with his big eyes open, starin' at her as sensible 明智 as she was her‧self 她自己. She didn't know what'd happen but he just stared at her an' says, 'You give me some water an' stop talkin'.'"

"Do you think he will die?" asked Mary.

"Mother says there's no reason why any child should live that gets no fresh air an' doesn't do nothin' but lie on his back an' read picture-books an' take medicine 医学. He's weak and hates th' trouble o' bein' taken out o' doors, an' he gets cold so easy he says it makes him ill."

Mary sat and looked at the fire.

"I wonder," she said slowly, "if it would not do him good to go out into a garden and watch things growing. It did me good."

"One of th' worst fits he ever had," said Martha, "was one time they took him out where the roses is by the fountain 喷泉. He'd been readin' in a paper about people gettin' some‧thin 一些‧薄的' he called 'rose cold' an' he began to sneeze 喷嚏 an' said he'd got it an' then a new gardener as didn't know th' rules passed by an' looked at him curious. He threw himself into a passion 激情，热情；强烈情感 an' he said he'd looked at him because he was going to be a hunch‧back 直觉‧背；往回. He cried himself into a fever 发热 an' was ill all night."

"If he ever gets angry at me, I'll never go and see him again," said Mary.

"He'll have thee if he wants thee," said Martha. "Tha' may as well know that at th' start."

Very soon after‧ward 之后 a bell 钟 rang and she rolled up her knitting 针织.

"I dare say th' nurse wants me to stay with him a bit," she said. "I hope he's in a good temper 性情."

She was out of the room about ten 十 minutes and then she came back with a puzzled expression.

"Well, tha' has bewitched him," she said. "He's up on his sofa 沙发 with his picture-books. He's told the nurse to stay away until six o' clock 钟. I'm to wait in the next room. Th' minute she was gone he called me to him an' says, 'I want Mary Lennox to come and talk to me, and remember you're not to tell any one.' You'd better go as quick as you can."

Mary was quite willing to go quickly. She did not want to see Colin as much as she wanted to see Dickon, but she wanted to see him very much.

There was a bright fire on the hearth 炉 when she entered his room, and in the day‧light 日光 she saw it was a very beautiful 美丽 room indeed. There were rich colors in the rugs 小块地毯 and hangings and pictures and books on the walls which made it look glowing 辉光 and comfort‧able 舒服；自在 even in spite of the gray sky and falling rain. Colin looked rather like a picture himself. He was wrapped 包 in a velvet 丝绒 dressing-gown 袍 and sat against a big brocaded cushion 垫子. He had a red spot on each cheek 脸颊.

"Come in," he said. "I've been thinking about you all morning."

"I've been thinking about you, too," answered Mary. "You don't know how frightened Martha is. She says Mrs. Medlock will think she told me about you and then she will be sent away."

He frowned 皱眉.

"Go and tell her to come here," he said. "She is in the next room."

Mary went and brought her back. Poor Martha was shaking in her shoes. Colin was still frowning 皱眉.

"Have you to do what I please or have you not?" he demanded.

"I have to do what you please, sir 先生," Martha faltered 衰退, turning quite red.

"Has Medlock to do what I please?"

"Everybody has, sir 3," said Martha.

"Well, then, if I order you to bring Miss Mary to me, how can Medlock send you away if she finds it out?"

"Please don't let her, sir," pleaded 求情 Martha.

"I'll send her away if she dares 敢 to say a word about such a thing," said Master Craven grandly 宏大的. "She wouldn't like that, I can tell you."

"Thank you, sir," bobbing 短发 a curtsy, "I want to do my duty, sir."

"What I want is your duty," said Colin more grandly still. "I'll take care of you. Now go away."

When the door closed behind Martha, Colin found Mistress Mary gazing 凝视 at him as if he had set her wondering.

"Why do you look at me like that?" he asked her. "What are you thinking about?"

"I am thinking about two things."

"What are they? Sit down and tell me."

"This is the first one," said Mary, seating her‧self 她自己 on the big stool 粪便. "Once in India I saw a boy who was a Rajah. He had rubies and emeralds and diamonds 钻石 stuck all over him. He spoke to his people just as you spoke to Martha. Everybody had to do everything he told them—in a minute. I think they would have been killed if they hadn't."

"I shall make you tell me about Rajahs presently," he said, "but first tell me what the second thing was."

"I was thinking," said Mary, "how different you are from Dickon."

"Who is Dickon?" he said. "What a queer 奇怪 name!"

She might as well tell him, she thought. She could talk about Dickon without mentioning the secret garden. She had liked to hear Martha talk about him. Besides, she longed to talk about him. It would seem to bring him nearer.

"He is Martha's brother. He is twelve 十二 years old," she explained. "He is not like any one else in the world. He can charm 魔力；使陶醉 foxes 狐狸 and squirrels 松鼠 and birds just as the natives in India charm snakes. He plays a very soft tune 曲调 on a pipe 3 and they come and listen."

There were some big books on a table at his side and he dragged one suddenly toward him.

"There is a picture of a snake-charmer 魔力；使陶醉 in this," he exclaimed 喊叫. "Come and look at it."

The book was a beautiful 美丽 one with superb 高超 colored illustrations 插图 and he turned to one of them.

"Can he do that?" he asked eagerly.

"He played on his pipe and they listened," Mary explained. "But he doesn't call it Magic. He says it's because he lives on the moor 泊 so much and he knows their ways. He says he feels sometimes as if he was a bird or a rabbit 兔子 himself, he likes them so. I think he asked the robin questions. It seemed as if they talked to each other in soft chirps."

Colin lay back on his cushion 垫子 and his eyes grew larger and larger and the spots on his cheeks 脸颊 burned burn.

"Tell me some more about him," he said.

"He knows all about eggs 鸡蛋 and nests," Mary went on. " And he knows where foxes 狐狸 and badgers 獾 and otters live. He keeps them secret so that other boys won't find their holes and frighten 使惊恐 them. He knows about everything that grows or lives on the moor 泊."

"Does he like the moor 泊?" said Colin. "How can he when it's such a great, bare 光秃秃的, dreary 凄凉 place?"

"It's the most beautiful 美丽 place," protested 抗议 Mary. "Thousands of lovely things grow on it and there are thou‧sand 千 of little creatures 动物；生物 all busy building nests and making holes and burrows 地洞 and chippering or singing or squeaking 吱 to each other. They are so busy and having such fun under the earth or in the trees or heather 石南属. It's their world."

"How do you know all that?" said Colin, turning on his elbow 弯头 to look at her.

"I have never been there once, really," said Mary suddenly remembering. "I only drove over it in the dark. I thought it was hideous 可怕. Martha told me about it first and then Dickon. When Dickon talks about it you feel as if you saw things and heard them and as if you were standing in the heather 石南属 with the sun shining and the gorse smelling like honey 蜜糖—and all full of bees 蜜蜂 and butter‧fly 蝴蝶."

"You never see anything if you are ill," said Colin rest‧less 不安. He looked like a person listening to a new sound in the distance and wondering what it was.

"You can't if you stay in a room," said Mary.

"I couldn't go on the moor 泊," he said in a resentful tone 音.

Mary was silent for a minute and then she said something bold.

"You might—sometime."

He moved as if he were startled 惊吓.

"Go on the moor 泊! How could I? I am going to die."

"How do you know?" said Mary unsympathetically. She didn't like the way he had of talking about dying. She did not feel very sympathetic 同情的. She felt rather as if he almost boasted 自夸 about it.

"Oh, I've heard it ever since I remember," he answered crossly. "They are always whispering 低声说 about it and thinking I don't notice. They wish I would, too."

Mistress Mary felt quite contrary 相反. She pinched 捏 her lips together.

"If they wished I would," she said, "I wouldn't. Who wishes you would?"

"The servants—and of course Dr. Craven because he would get Misselthwaite and be rich instead of poor. He daren't say so, but he always looks cheerful 快乐 when I am worse. When I had typhoid fever 发热 his face got quite fat. I think my father wishes it, too."

"I don't believe he does," said Mary quite obstinately.

That made Colin turn and look at her again.

"Don't you?" he said.

And then he lay back on his cushion 垫子 and was still, as if he were thinking. And there was quite a long silence. Perhaps they were both of them thinking strange things children do not usually think of.

"I like the grand doctor from London, because he made them take the iron 铁器 thing off," said Mary at last. "Did he say you were going to die?"

"No."

"What did he say?"

"He didn't whisper," Colin answered. "Perhaps he knew I hated whispering. I heard him say one thing quite aloud 高声. He said, 'The lad 小伙子 might live if he would make up his mind to it. Put him in the humor 幽默.' It sounded as if he was in a temper."

"I'll tell you who would put you in the humor 幽默, perhaps," said Mary reflecting. She felt as if she would like this thing to be settled one way or the other. "I believe Dickon would. He's always talking about live things. He never talks about dead things or things that are ill. He's always looking up in the sky to watch birds flying—or looking down at the earth to see something growing. He has such round blue eyes and they are so wide open with looking about. And he laughs such a big laugh with his wide mouth—and his cheeks 脸颊 are as red—as red as cherries 樱桃."

She pulled her stool 粪便 nearer to the sofa 沙发 and her expression quite changed at the remembrance 纪念 of the wide curving mouth and wide open eyes.

"See here," she said. "Don't let us talk about dying; I don't like it. Let us talk about living. Let us talk and talk about Dickon. And then we will look at your pictures."

It was the best thing she could have said. To talk about Dickon meant to talk about the moor 泊 and about the cottage and the four‧teen 十四 people who lived in it on six‧teen 十六 shillings a week—and the children who got fat on the moor 泊 grass like the wild ponies 小马. And about Dickon's mother—and the skipping 跳跃-rope—and the moor 泊 with the sun on it—and about pale green points sticking up out of the black sod. And it was all so alive that Mary talked more than she had ever talked before—and Colin both talked and listened as he had never done either before. And they both began to laugh over nothings as children will when they are happy together. And they laughed so that in the end they were making as much noise 噪音 as if they had been two ordinary healthy 健康 natural 自然 ten 十-year-old creatures—instead of a hard, little, unloving girl and a sickly boy who believed that he was going to die.

They enjoyed themselves so much that they forgot the pictures and they forgot about the time. They had been laughing quite loudly 响亮的 over Ben Weatherstaff and his robin and Colin was actually sitting up as if he had forgotten forget about his weak back when he suddenly remembered something.

"Do you know there is one thing we have never once thought of," he said. "We are cousins."

It seemed so queer 奇怪 that they had talked so much and never remembered this simple thing that they laughed more than ever, because they had got into the humor 幽默 to laugh at anything. And in the midst 中间 of the fun the door opened and in walked Dr. Craven and Mrs. Medlock.

Dr. Craven started in actual alarm 警告 and Mrs. Medlock almost fell back because he had accidentally 偶然 bumped 磕碰 against her.

"Good Lord!" exclaimed 喊叫 poor Mrs. Medlock, with her eyes almost starting out of her head. "Good Lord!"

"What is this?" said Dr. Craven, coming forward. "What does it mean?"

Then Mary was reminded of the boy Rajah again. Colin answered as if neither the doctor's alarm 警告 nor Mrs. Medlock's terror 恐怖 were of the slightest consequence 后果. He was as little disturbed or frightened as if an elderly cat 猫 and dog had walked into the room.

"This is my cousin, Mary Lennox," he said. "I asked her to come and talk to me. I like her. She must come and talk to me when‧ever 随时 I send for her."

Dr. Craven turned reproach‧fully 责备‧完全地 to Mrs. Medlock.

"Oh, sir," she panted 喘气. "I don't know how it's happened. There's not a servant 仆人 on the place that'd dare to talk—they all have their orders."

"Nobody told her anything," said Colin, "she heard me crying and found me her‧self 她自己. I am glad she came. Don't be silly 愚蠢, Medlock."

Mary saw that Dr. Craven did not look pleased, but it was quite plain that he dare not oppose his patient. He sat down by Colin and felt his pulse 脉冲.

"I am afraid there has been too much excitement 激动. Excitement is not good for you, my boy," he said.

"I should be excited if she kept away," answered Colin, his eyes beginning to look dangerously 危险 sparkling 火花. "I am better. She makes me better. The nurse must bring up her tea with mine. We will have tea together."

Mrs. Medlock and Dr. Craven looked at each other in a troubled way, but there was evidently 明显地 nothing to be done.

"He does look rather better, sir," ventured Mrs. Medlock. "But"—thinking the matter over—"he looked better this morning before she came into the room."

"She came into the room last night. She stayed with me a long time. She sang a Hindustani song to me and it made me go to sleep," said Colin. "I was better when I wakened up. I wanted my break‧fast 早餐. I want my tea now. Tell nurse, Medlock."

Dr. Craven did not stay very long. He talked to the nurse for a few minutes when she came into the room and said a few words of warning to Colin. He must not talk too much; he must not forget that he was ill; he must not forget that he was very easily tired. Mary thought that there seemed to be a number of uncomfortable 不舒服 things he was not to forget.

Colin looked fretful and kept his strange black-lashed 睫毛 eyes fixed on Dr. Craven's face.

"I want to forget it," he said at last. "She makes me forget it. That is why I want her."

Dr. Craven did not look happy when he left the room. He gave a puzzled glance 一瞥 at the little girl sitting on the large stool 粪便. She had become a stiff 严厉的, silent child again as soon as he entered and he could not see what the attraction 吸引 was. The boy actually did look brighter, however—and he sighed 叹 rather heavily 很大，沉重地 as he went down the corridor 走廊.

"They are always wanting me to eat things when I don't want to," said Colin, as the nurse brought in the tea and put it on the table by the sofa 沙发. "Now, if you'll eat I will. Those muffins look so nice and hot. Tell me about Rajahs."

---

CHAPTER XV

NEST BUILDING

After another week of rain the high arch 弓形 of blue sky appeared again and the sun which poured down was quite hot. Though there had been no chance to see either the secret garden or Dickon, Mistress Mary had enjoyed her‧self 她自己 very much. The week had not seemed long. She had spent spend hours of every day with Colin in his room, talking about Rajahs or gardens or Dickon and the cottage on the moor 泊. They had looked at the splendid 壮观的 books and pictures and sometimes Mary had read things to Colin, and sometimes he had read a little to her. When he was amused and interested she thought he scarcely looked like an invalid 无效 at all, except that his face was so color‧less 颜色‧少 and he was always on the sofa 沙发.

"You are a sly young one to listen and get out of your bed to go following things up like you did that night," Mrs. Medlock said once. "But there's no saying it's not been a sort of blessing 祝福 to the lot of us. He's not had a tantrum 发脾气 or a whining 抱怨 fit since you made friends. The nurse was just going to give up the case because she was so sick of him, but she says she doesn't mind staying now you've gone on duty with her," laughing a little.

In her talks with Colin, Mary had tried to be very cautious 小心的 about the secret garden. There were certain things she wanted to find out from him, but she felt that she must find them out without asking him direct questions. In the first place, as she began to like to be with him, she wanted to discover whether he was the kind of boy you could tell a secret to. He was not in the least like Dickon, but he was evidently 明显地 so pleased with the idea of a garden no one knew anything about that she thought perhaps he could be trusted. But she had not known him long enough to be sure. The second thing she wanted to find out was this: If he could be trusted—if he really could—wouldn't it be possible to take him to the garden without having any one find it out? The grand doctor had said that he must have fresh air and Colin had said that he would not mind fresh air in a secret garden. Perhaps if he had a great deal of fresh air and knew Dickon and the robin and saw things growing he might not think so much about dying. Mary had seen her‧self 她自己 in the glass sometimes lately 近来 when she had realized that she looked quite a different creature 动物；生物 from the child she had seen when she arrived from India. This child looked nicer. Even Martha had seen a change in her.

"Th' air from th' moor 泊 has done thee good already," she had said. "Tha'rt not nigh so yeller 叫喊 and tha'rt not nigh so scrawny. Even tha' hair doesn't slamp down on tha' head so flat. It's got some life in it so as it sticks out a bit."

"It's like me," said Mary. "It's growing stronger and fatter. I'm sure there's more of it."

"It looks it, for sure," said Martha, ruffling 生气 it up a little round her face. "Tha'rt not half so ugly 难看的 when it's that way an' there's a bit o' red in tha' cheeks 脸颊."

If gardens and fresh air had been good for her perhaps they would be good for Colin. But then, if he hated people to look at him, perhaps he would not like to see Dickon.

"Why does it make you angry when you are looked at?" she inquired one day.

"I always hated it," he answered, "even when I was very little. Then when they took me to the sea‧side 海滨 and I used to lie in my carriage 运输 everybody used to stare and ladies would stop and talk to my nurse and then they would begin to whisper and I knew then they were saying I shouldn't live to grow up. Then sometimes the ladies would pat 拍 my cheeks 脸颊 and say 'Poor child!' Once when a lady did that I screamed 叫喊 out loud and bit her hand. She was so frightened she ran away."

"She thought you had gone mad 疯狂的 like a dog," said Mary, not at all admiringly.

"I don't care what she thought," said Colin, frowning 皱眉.

"I wonder why you didn't scream 叫喊 and bite 咬 me when I came into your room?" said Mary. Then she began to smile slowly.

"I thought you were a ghost 鬼 or a dream," he said. "You can't bite a ghost 鬼 or a dream, and if you scream they don't care."

"Would you hate it if—if a boy looked at you?" Mary asked uncertainly 不确定.

He lay back on his cushion 垫子 and paused 暂停 thoughtfully 沉思地.

"There's one boy," he said quite slowly, as if he were thinking over every word, "there's one boy I believe I shouldn't mind. It's that boy who knows where the foxes 狐狸 live—Dickon."

"I'm sure you wouldn't mind him," said Mary.

"The birds don't and other animals," he said, still thinking it over, "perhaps that's why I shouldn't. He's a sort of animal charmer and I am a boy animal."

Then he laughed and she laughed too; in fact it ended in their both laughing a great deal and finding the idea of a boy animal hiding in his hole very funny indeed.

What Mary felt after‧ward 之后 was that she need not fear about Dickon.

---

On that first morning when the sky was blue again Mary wakened very early. The sun was pouring in slanting 倾斜 rays 光束 through the blinds and there was something so joyous in the sight of it that she jumped out of bed and ran to the window. She drew up the blinds and opened the window itself 本身 and a great waft of fresh, scented 香味 air blew blow in upon her. The moor 泊 was blue and the whole world looked as if something Magic had happened to it. There were tender 纤弱的 little fluting 长笛 sounds here and there and everywhere, as if scores 得分了 of birds were beginning to tune 曲调 up for a concert 音乐会. Mary put her hand out of the window and held it in the sun.

"It's warm—warm!" she said. "It will make the green points push up and up and up, and it will make the bulbs 灯泡 and roots work and struggle with all their might under the earth."

She kneeled 跪 down and leaned out of the window as far as she could, breathing big breaths and sniffing 吸气 the air until she laughed because she remembered what Dickon's mother had said about the end of his nose quivering 颤动 like a rabbit 3's.

"It must be very early," she said. "The little clouds are all pink and I've never seen the sky look like this. No one is up. I don't even hear the stable 稳定 boys."

A sudden thought made her scramble 争夺 to her feet.

"I can't wait! I am going to see the garden!"

She had learned to dress her‧self 她自己 by this time and she put on her clothes in five minutes. She knew a small side door which she could unbolt her‧self 她自己 and she flew down-stairs in her stocking 长袜 feet and put on her shoes in the hall. She unchained and unbolted and unlocked 开锁 and when the door was open she sprang across the step with one bound 必定；跳, and there she was standing on the grass, which seemed to have turned green, and with the sun pouring down on her and warm sweet wafts about her and the fluting 长笛 and twittering and singing coming from every bush and tree. She clasped 钩 her hands for pure joy 喜悦 and looked up in the sky and it was so blue and pink and pearly 梨 and white and flooded 洪水 with spring‧time 春季‧时间 light that she felt as if she must flute 长笛 and sing aloud 高声 her‧self 她自己 and knew that thrushes and robins and skylarks could not possibly help it. She ran around the shrubs 灌木 and paths toward the secret garden.

"It is all different already," she said. "The grass is greener and things are sticking up everywhere and things are uncurling and green buds 芽 of leaves are showing. This afternoon I am sure Dickon will come."

The long warm rain had done strange things to the herbaceous beds which bordered 边；界 the walk by the lower wall. There were things sprouting 发芽 and pushing out from the roots of clumps 丛 of plants and there were actually here and there glimpses 一瞥 of royal 王国的 purple 紫色的 and yellow unfurling among the stems of crocuses. Six months before Mistress Mary would not have seen how the world was waking 醒 up, but now she missed nothing.

When she had reached the place where the door hid hide itself 本身 under the ivy, she was startled 惊吓 by a curious loud sound. It was the caw—caw of a crow 乌鸦 and it came from the top of the wall, and when she looked up, there sat a big glossy 光滑-plumaged blue-black bird, looking down at her very wisely indeed. She had never seen a crow 乌鸦 so close before and he made her a little nervous 担心的, but the next moment he spread his wings and flapped 拍打 away across the garden. She hoped he was not going to stay inside and she pushed the door open wondering if he would. When she got fairly into the garden she saw that he probably did intend to stay because he had alighted 落 on a dwarf 矮人 apple 苹果-tree, and under the apple-tree was lying a little red‧dish 红色的‧盘 animal with a bushy tail 尾, and both of them were watching the stooping 哈腰 body and rust 荒废；铁锈-red head of Dickon, who was kneeling on the grass working hard.

Mary flew across the grass to him.

"Oh, Dickon! Dickon!" she cried out. "How could you get here so early! How could you! The sun has only just got up!"

He got up himself, laughing and glowing 辉光, and tousled; his eyes like a bit of the sky.

"Eh!" he said. "I was up long before him. How could I have stayed abed! Th' world's all fair begun again this mornin', it has. An' it's workin' an' hummin' an' scratchin' an' pipin' an' nest-buildin' an' breathin' out scents 香味, till you've got to be out on it 'stead o' lyin' on your back. When th' sun did jump up, th' moor 泊 went mad for joy 喜悦, an' I was in the midst 中间 of th' heather 石南属, an' I run like mad myself 我, shoutin' an' singin'. An' I come straight here. I couldn't have stayed away. Why, th' garden was lyin' here waitin'!"

Mary put her hands on her chest 胸部, panting 喘气, as if she had been running her‧self 她自己.

"Oh, Dickon! Dickon!" she said. "I'm so happy I can scarcely breathe 3!"

Seeing him talking to a stranger, the little bushy-tailed 尾 animal rose from its place under the tree and came to him, and the rook, cawing once, flew down from its branch and settled quietly on his shoulder.

"This is th' little fox 狐狸 cub," he said, rubbing the little red‧dish 红色的‧盘 animal's head. "It's named Captain. An' this here's Soot. Soot he flew across th' moor 泊 with me an' Captain he run same as if th' hounds 猎犬 had been after him. They both felt same as I did."

Neither of the creatures looked as if he were the least afraid of Mary. When Dickon began to walk about, Soot stayed on his shoulder and Captain trotted 小跑 quietly close to his side.

"See here!" said Dickon. "See how these has pushed up, an' these an' these! An' Eh! look at these here!"

He threw himself upon his knees and Mary went down beside him. They had come upon a whole clump 丛 of crocuses burst 爆裂 into purple 紫色的 and orange 桔子 and gold 金. Mary bent her face down and kissed 接吻 and kissed them.

"You never kiss 接吻 a person in that way," she said when she lifted her head. "Flowers are so different."

He looked puzzled but smiled.

"Eh!" he said, "I've kissed mother many a time that way when I come in from th' moor 泊 after a day's roamin' an' she stood there at th' door in th' sun, lookin' so glad an' comfort‧able 舒服；自在."

They ran from one part of the garden to another and found so many wonders that they were obliged 责成 to remind themselves that they must whisper or speak low. He showed her swelling leaf 叶子-buds 芽 on rose branches which had seemed dead. He showed her ten 十 thou‧sand 千 new green points pushing through the mould. They put their eager young noses close to the earth and sniffed 吸气 its warmed spring‧time 春季‧时间 breathing; they dug and pulled and laughed low with rapture until Mistress Mary's hair was as tumbled 下跌 as Dickon's and her cheeks 脸颊 were almost as poppy 罂粟 red as his.

There was every joy on earth in the secret garden that morning, and in the midst 中间 of them came a delight more delightful 愉快 than all, because it was more wonderful 精彩. Swiftly something flew across the wall and darted 镖 through the trees to a close grown corner, a little flare 闪光 of red-breasted 乳房 bird with something hanging from its beak 喙. Dickon stood quite still and put his hand on Mary almost as if they had suddenly found themselves laughing in a church.

"We munnot stir 搅动," he whispered in broad Yorkshire. "We munnot scarce 缺乏的 breathe. I knowed he was mate 伴，友-huntin' when I seed him last. It's Ben Weatherstaff's robin. He's buildin' his nest. He'll stay here if us don't flight 飞行 him."

They settled down softly upon the grass and sat there without moving.

"Us mustn't seem as if us was watchin' him too close," said Dickon. "He'd be out with us for good if he got th' notion 概念 us was interferin' now. He'll be a good bit different till all this is over. He's settin' up housekeepin'. He'll be shyer 害羞 an' readier to take things ill. He's got no time for visitin' an' gossipin'. Us must keep still a bit an' try to look as if us was grass an' trees an' bushes. Then when he's got used to seein' us I'll chirp a bit an' he'll know us'll not be in his way."

Mistress Mary was not at all sure that she knew, as Dickon seemed to, how to try to look like grass and trees and bushes. But he had said the queer 奇怪 thing as if it were the simplest and most natural 自然 thing in the world, and she felt it must be quite easy to him, and indeed she watched him for a few minutes carefully 小心, wondering if it was possible for him to quietly turn green and put out branches and leaves. But he only sat wonderfully 奇妙 still, and when he spoke dropped his voice to such a softness that it was curious that she could hear him, but she could.

"It's part o' th' spring‧time 春季‧时间, this nest-buildin' is," he said. "I war‧rant 保证 it's been goin' on in th' same way every year since th' world was begun. They've got their way o' thin‧kin 薄的‧亲属' and doin' things an' a body had better not meddle. You can lose a friend in spring‧time 春季‧时间 easier than any other season if you're too curious."

"If we talk about him I can't help looking at him," Mary said as softly as possible. "We must talk of something else. There is something I want to tell you."

"He'll like it better if us talks o' some‧thin 一些‧薄的' else," said Dickon. "What is it tha's got to tell me?"

"Well—do you know about Colin?" she whispered.

He turned his head to look at her.

"What does tha' know about him?" he asked.

"I've seen him. I have been to talk to him every day this week. He wants me to come. He says I'm making him forget about being ill and dying," answered Mary.

Dickon looked actually relieved as soon as the surprise died away from his round face.

"I am glad o' that," he exclaimed 喊叫. "I'm right down glad. It makes me easier. I knowed I must say nothin' about him an' I don't like havin' to hide things."

"Don't you like hiding the garden?" said Mary.

"I'll never tell about it," he answered. "But I says to mother, 'Mother,' I says, 'I got a secret to keep. It's not a bad 'un, tha' knows that. It's no worse than hidin' where a bird's nest is. Tha' doesn't mind it, does tha'?'"

Mary always wanted to hear about mother.

"What did she say?" she asked, not at all afraid to hear.

Dickon grinned 微笑 sweet-temperedly.

"It was just like her, what she said," he answered. "She give my head a bit of a rub 擦 an' laughed an' she says, 'Eh, lad 小伙子, tha' can have all th' secrets tha' likes. I've knowed thee twelve 十二 year'.'"

"How did you know about Colin?" asked Mary.

"Everybody as knowed about Mester Craven knowed there was a little lad 小伙子 as was like to be a cripple 削弱, an' they knowed Mester Craven didn't like him to be talked about. Folks is sorry for Mester Craven because Mrs. Craven was such a pretty young lady an' they was so fond 3 of each other. Mrs. Medlock stops in our cottage when‧ever 随时 she goes to Thwaite an' she doesn't mind talkin' to mother before us children, because she knows us has been brought up to be trusty. How did tha' find out about him? Martha was in fine trouble th' last time she came home. She said tha'd heard him fret‧tin 烦恼‧锡' an' tha' was askin' questions an' she didn't know what to say."

Mary told him her story about the mid‧night 午夜 wuthering of the wind which had wakened her and about the faint 微弱的 far-off sounds of the complaining 抱怨 voice which had led her down the dark corridors 走廊 with her candle 蜡烛 and had ended with her opening of the door of the dimly 暗淡 lighted room with the carven four-posted bed in the corner. When she described the small ivory 象牙-white face and the strange black-rimmed 轮缘 eyes Dickon shook his head.

"Them's just like his mother's eyes, only hers was always laughin', they say," he said. "They say as Mr. Craven can't bear to see him when he's awake an' it's because his eyes is so like his mother's an' yet looks so different in his miserable bit of a face."

"Do you think he wants him to die?" whispered Mary.

"No, but he wishes he'd never been born. Mother she says that's th' worst thing on earth for a child. Them as is not wanted scarce 缺乏的 ever thrives 兴旺. Mester Craven he'd buy any‧thin 任何的‧薄的' as money could buy for th' poor lad 小伙子 but he'd like to forget as he's on earth. For one thing, he's afraid he'll look at him some day and find he's growed hunch‧back 直觉‧背；往回."

"Colin's so afraid of it himself that he won't sit up," said Mary. "He says he's always thinking that if he should feel a lump 3 coming he should go crazy 荒唐的 and scream 3 himself to death."

"Eh! he oughtn't to lie there thin‧kin 薄的‧亲属' things like that," said Dickon. "No lad 小伙子 could get well as thought them sort o' things."

The fox 狐狸 was lying on the grass close by him looking up to ask for a pat 拍 now and then, and Dickon bent down and rubbed his neck softly and thought a few minutes in silence. Presently he lifted his head and looked round the garden.

"When first we got in here," he said, "it seemed like everything was gray. Look round now and tell me if tha' doesn't see a difference."

Mary looked and caught her breath a little.

"Why!" she cried, "the gray wall is changing. It is as if a green mist 薄雾 were creeping 爬行 over it. It's almost like a green gauze veil 面纱."

"Aye," said Dickon. "An' it'll be greener and greener till th' gray's all gone. Can tha' guess what I was thin‧kin 薄的‧亲属'?"

"I know it was something nice," said Mary eagerly. "I believe it was something about Colin."

"I was thin‧kin 薄的‧亲属' that if he was out here he wouldn't be watchin' for lumps 块 to grow on his back; he'd be watchin' for buds 芽 to break on th' rose-bushes, an' he'd likely be healthier 健康," explained Dickon. "I was wonderin' if us could ever get him in th' humor 幽默 to come out here an' lie under th' trees in his carriage 运输."

"I've been wondering that myself 我. I've thought of it almost every time I've talked to him," said Mary. "I've wondered if he could keep a secret and I've wondered if we could bring him here without any one seeing us. I thought perhaps you could push his carriage. The doctor said he must have fresh air and if he wants us to take him out no one dare disobey him. He won't go out for other people and perhaps they will be glad if he will go out with us. He could order the gardeners 园丁 to keep away so they wouldn't find out."

Dickon was thinking very hard as he scratched 刮 Captain's back.

"It'd be good for him, I'll war‧rant 保证," he said. "Us'd not be thin‧kin 薄的‧亲属' he'd better never been born. Us'd be just two children watchin' a garden grow, an' he'd be another. Two lads 小伙子 an' a little lass just lookin' on at th' spring‧time 春季‧时间. I war‧rant 保证 it'd be better than doctor's stuff 塞满；材料."

"He's been lying in his room so long and he's always been so afraid of his back that it has made him queer 奇怪," said Mary. "He knows a good many things out of books but he doesn't know anything else. He says he has been too ill to notice things and he hates going out of doors and hates gardens and gardeners 园丁. But he likes to hear about this garden because it is a secret. I daren't tell him much but he said he wanted to see it."

"Us'll have him out here sometime for sure," said Dickon. "I could push his carriage 3 well enough. Has tha' noticed how th' robin an' his mate has been workin' while we've been sittin' here? Look at him perched 栖息 on that branch wonderin' where it'd be best to put that twig 枝条 he's got in his beak 喙."

He made one of his low whistling calls and the robin turned his head and looked at him inquiringly, still holding his twig 枝条. Dickon spoke to him as Ben Weatherstaff did, but Dickon's tone 音 was one of friendly advice 劝告.

"Wheres'ever tha' puts it," he said, "it'll be all right. Tha' knew how to build tha' nest before tha' came out o' th' egg 鸡蛋. Get on with thee, lad 小伙子. Tha'st got no time to lose."

"Oh, I do like to hear you talk to him!" Mary said, laughing delightedly. "Ben Weatherstaff scolds 责骂 him and makes fun of him, and he hops 跳 about and looks as if he understood every word, and I know he likes it. Ben Weatherstaff says he is so conceited he would rather have stones thrown throw at him than not be noticed."

Dickon laughed too and went on talking.

"Tha' knows us won't trouble thee," he said to the robin. "Us is near bein' wild things ourselves 我们自己. Us is nest-buildin' too, bless 祝福 thee. Look out tha' doesn't tell on us."

And though the robin did not answer, because his beak 喙 was occupied 占据, Mary knew that when he flew away with his twig 枝条 to his own corner of the garden the darkness 黑暗 of his dew-bright eye meant that he would not tell their secret for the world.

---

CHAPTER XVI

"I WON'T!" SAID MARY

They found a great deal to do that morning and Mary was late in returning to the house and was also in such a hurry to get back to her work that she quite forgot Colin until the last moment.

"Tell Colin that I can't come and see him yet," she said to Martha. "I'm very busy in the garden."

Martha looked rather frightened.

"Eh! Miss Mary," she said, "it may put him all out of humor 幽默 when I tell him that."

But Mary was not as afraid of him as other people were and she was not a self 自己-sacrificing 牺牲 person.

"I can't stay," she answered. "Dickon's waiting for me;" and she ran away.

The afternoon was even lovelier 可爱的 and busier than the morning had been. Already nearly all the weeds were cleared out of the garden and most of the roses and trees had been pruned 修剪 or dug about. Dickon had brought a spade of his own and he had taught Mary to use all her tools, so that by this time it was plain that though the lovely wild place was not likely to become a "gardener's garden" it would be a wilderness 荒野 of growing things before the spring‧time 春季‧时间 was over.

"There'll be apple 苹果 blossoms 开花 an' cherry 樱桃 blossoms 开花 over‧head 高架," Dickon said, working away with all his might. "An' there'll be peach 桃子 an' plum 李子 trees in bloom 盛开 against th' walls, an' th' grass'll be a carpet 地毯 o' flowers."

The little fox 狐狸 and the rook were as happy and busy as they were, and the robin and his mate flew backward 向后的 and forward like tiny 小 streaks 条纹 of lightning 闪电. Sometimes the rook flapped 拍打 his black wings and soared 翱翔 away over the tree-tops in the park. Each time he came back and perched 栖息 near Dickon and cawed several times as if he were relating his adventures 冒险活动, and Dickon talked to him just as he had talked to the robin. Once when Dickon was so busy that he did not answer him at first, Soot flew on to his shoulders and gently tweaked 拧 his ear with his large beak 喙. When Mary wanted to rest a little Dickon sat down with her under a tree and once he took his pipe out of his pocket and played the soft strange little notes and two squirrels 松鼠 appeared on the wall and looked and listened.

"Tha's a good bit stronger than tha' was," Dickon said, looking at her as she was digging. "Tha's beginning to look different, for sure."

Mary was glowing 辉光 with exercise and good spirits.

"I'm getting fatter and fatter every day," she said quite exultantly. "Mrs. Medlock will have to get me some bigger dresses. Martha says my hair is growing thicker. It isn't so flat and stringy."

The sun was beginning to set and sending deep gold 金-colored rays slanting 倾斜 under the trees when they parted.

"It'll be fine to-morrow," said Dickon. "I'll be at work by sun‧rise 日出."

"So will I," said Mary.

---

She ran back to the house as quickly as her feet would carry her. She wanted to tell Colin about Dickon's fox 狐狸 cub and the rook and about what the spring‧time 春季‧时间 had been doing. She felt sure he would like to hear. So it was not very pleasant when she opened the door of her room, to see Martha standing waiting for her with a doleful face.

"What is the matter?" she asked. "What did Colin say when you told him I couldn't come?"

"Eh!" said Martha, "I wish tha'd gone. He was nigh goin' into one o' his tantrums 发脾气. There's been a nice to do all afternoon to keep him quiet. He would watch the clock 钟 all th' time."

Mary's lips pinched themselves together. She was no more used to considering other people than Colin was and she saw no reason why an ill-tempered 性情 boy should interfere 干预 with the thing she liked best. She knew nothing about the pitifulness of people who had been ill and nervous 担心的 and who did not know that they could control their tempers 性情 and need not make other people ill and nervous, too. When she had had a head‧ache 头痛 in India she had done her best to see that everybody else also had a headache or something quite as bad. And she felt she was quite right; but of course now she felt that Colin was quite wrong.

He was not on his sofa 沙发 when she went into his room. He was lying flat on his back in bed and he did not turn his head toward her as she came in. This was a bad beginning and Mary marched 行军；三月 up to him with her stiff 3 manner.

"Why didn't you get up?" she said.

"I did get up this morning when I thought you were coming," he answered, without looking at her. "I made them put me back in bed this afternoon. My back ached and my head ached and I was tired. Why didn't you come?"

"I was working in the garden with Dickon," said Mary.

Colin frowned 皱眉 and condescended to look at her.

"I won't let that boy come here if you go and stay with him instead of coming to talk to me," he said.

Mary flew into a fine passion 激情，热情；强烈情感. She could fly into a passion without making a noise 噪音. She just grew sour 有酸味的 and obstinate and did not care what happened.

"If you send Dickon away, I'll never come into this room again!" she retorted 反驳.

"You'll have to if I want you," said Colin.

"I won't!" said Mary.

"I'll make you," said Colin, "They shall drag 拖拽 you in."

"Shall they, Mr. Rajah!" said Mary fiercely. "They may drag me in but they can't make me talk when they get me here. I'll sit and clench 咬紧 my teeth and never tell you one thing. I won't even look at you. I'll stare at the floor!"

They were a nice agree‧able 合适的 pair as they glared 强光 at each other. If they had been two little street boys they would have sprung at each other and had a rough-and-tumble 下跌 fight. As it was, they did the next thing to it.

"You are a selfish 自私的 thing!" cried Colin.

"What are you?" said Mary. " Selfish people always say that. Any one is selfish who doesn't do what they want. You're more selfish 3 than I am. You're the most selfish boy I ever saw."

"I'm not!" snapped 卡 Colin. "I'm not as selfish as your fine Dickon is! He keeps you playing in the dirt when he knows I am all by myself 我. He's selfish, if you like!"

Mary's eyes flashed 使闪光 fire.

"He's nicer than any other boy that ever lived!" she said. "He's—he's like an angel 天使!" It might sound rather silly 愚蠢 to say that but she did not care.

"A nice angel 天使!" Colin sneered 冷笑 ferociously 凶猛. "He's a common cottage boy off the moor 泊!"

"He's better than a common Rajah!" retorted 反驳 Mary. "He's a thou‧sand 千 times better!"

Because she was the stronger of the two she was beginning to get the better of him. The truth was that he had never had a fight with any one like himself in his life and, upon the whole, it was rather good for him, though neither he nor Mary knew anything about that. He turned his head on his pillow 枕头 and shut his eyes and a big tear was squeezed 挤 out and ran down his cheek 脸颊. He was beginning to feel pathetic 可怜 and sorry for himself—not for any one else.

"I'm not as selfish as you, because I'm always ill, and I'm sure there is a lump coming on my back," he said. "And I am going to die besides."

"You're not!" contradicted 顶撞 Mary unsympathetically.

He opened his eyes quite wide with indignation 愤慨. He had never heard such a thing said before. He was at once furious 狂怒 and slightly pleased, if a person could be both at the same time.

"I'm not?" he cried. "I am! You know I am! Everybody says so."

"I don't believe it!" said Mary sourly 有酸味的. "You just say that to make people sorry. I believe you're proud of it. I don't believe it! If you were a nice boy it might be true—but you're too nasty 讨厌!"

In spite of his invalid 无效 back Colin sat up in bed in quite a healthy 健康 rage 愤怒.

"Get out of the room!" he shouted and he caught hold of his pillow 枕头 and threw it at her. He was not strong enough to throw it far and it only fell at her feet, but Mary's face looked as pinched as a nut‧cracker 螺母‧饼干.

"I'm going," she said. "And I won't come back!"

She walked to the door and when she reached it she turned round and spoke again.

"I was going to tell you all sorts of nice things," she said. "Dickon brought his fox 狐狸 and his rook and I was going to tell you all about them. Now I won't tell you a single thing!"

She marched out of the door and closed it behind her, and there to her great astonishment 惊愕 she found the trained nurse standing as if she had been listening and, more amazing 使大为惊奇，使惊愕 still—she was laughing. She was a big hand‧some 英俊 young woman who ought not to have been a trained nurse at all, as she could not bear invalids 无效 and she was always making excuses 原谅 to leave Colin to Martha or any one else who would take her place. Mary had never liked her, and she simply stood and gazed 凝视 up at her as she stood giggling 傻笑 into her handkerchief 手帕.

"What are you laughing at?" she asked her.

"At you two young ones," said the nurse. "It's the best thing that could happen to the sickly pampered thing to have some one to stand up to him that's as spoiled as himself;" and she laughed into her handkerchief again. "If he'd had a young vixen of a sister to fight with it would have been the saving of him."

"Is he going to die?"

"I don't know and I don't care," said the nurse. "Hysterics and temper are half what ails AIL him."

"What are hysterics?" asked Mary.

"You'll find out if you work him into a tantrum 发脾气 after this—but at any rate you've given him something to have hysterics about, and I'm glad of it."

Mary went back to her room not feeling at all as she had felt when she had come in from the garden. She was cross and disappointed 使失望 but not at all sorry for Colin. She had looked forward to telling him a great many things and she had meant to try to make up her mind whether it would be safe to trust him with the great secret. She had been beginning to think it would be, but now she had changed her mind entirely. She would never tell him and he could stay in his room and never get any fresh air and die if he liked! It would serve him right! She felt so sour 有酸味的 and unrelenting that for a few minutes she almost forgot about Dickon and the green veil 面纱 creeping over the world and the soft wind blowing down from the moor 泊.

Martha was waiting for her and the trouble in her face had been temporarily 暂时 replaced by interest and curiosity 好奇心. There was a wooden 木制的 box on the table and its cover had been removed 去掉 and revealed 揭示 that it was full of neat 整洁的 packages.

"Mr. Craven sent it to you," said Martha. "It looks as if it had picture-books in it."

Mary remembered what he had asked her the day she had gone to his room. "Do you want anything—dolls 娃娃—toys—books?" She opened the pack‧age 包装 wondering if he had sent a doll 娃娃, and also wondering what she should do with it if he had. But he had not sent one. There were several beautiful 美丽 books such as Colin had, and two of them were about gardens and were full of pictures. There were two or three games and there was a beautiful 美丽 little writing-case with a gold monogram on it and a gold pen 笔 and ink‧stand 墨水‧站；台.

Everything was so nice that her pleasure began to crowd her anger 生气 out of her mind. She had not expected him to remember her at all and her hard little heart grew quite warm.

"I can write better than I can print," she said, "and the first thing I shall write with that pen 3 will be a letter to tell him I am much obliged 责成."

If she had been friends with Colin she would have run to show him her presents at once, and they would have looked at the pictures and read some of the gardening books and perhaps tried playing the games, and he would have enjoyed himself so much he would never once have thought he was going to die or have put his hand on his spine 脊柱 to see if there was a lump coming. He had a way of doing that which she could not bear. It gave her an uncomfortable 不舒服 frightened feeling because he always looked so frightened himself. He said that if he felt even quite a little lump some day he should know his hunch 直觉 had begun to grow. Something he had heard Mrs. Medlock whispering to the nurse had given him the idea and he had thought over it in secret until it was quite firmly fixed in his mind. Mrs. Medlock had said his father's back had begun to show its crookedness in that way when he was a child. He had never told any one but Mary that most of his "tantrums 发脾气" as they called them grew out of his hysterical 歇斯底里 hidden hide fear. Mary had been sorry for him when he had told her.

"He always began to think about it when he was cross or tired," she said to her‧self 她自己. "And he has been cross to-day. Perhaps—perhaps he has been thinking about it all afternoon."

She stood still, looking down at the carpet 地毯 and thinking.

"I said I would never go back again—" she hesitated, knitting 针织 her brows 眉头—"but perhaps, just perhaps, I will go and see—if he wants me—in the morning. Perhaps he'll try to throw his pillow 枕头 at me again, but—I think—I'll go."

---

CHAPTER XVII

A TANTRUM

She had got up very early in the morning and had worked hard in the garden and she was tired and sleepy 困, so as soon as Martha had brought her supper 晚饭 and she had eaten it, she was glad to go to bed. As she laid her head on the pillow 枕头 she murmured 私语 to her‧self 她自己:

"I'll go out before break‧fast 早餐 and work with Dickon and then after‧ward 之后—I believe—I'll go to see him."

She thought it was the middle of the night when she was wakened by such dreadful 可怕 sounds that she jumped out of bed in an instant 瞬间. What was it—what was it? The next minute she felt quite sure she knew. Doors were opened and shut and there were hurrying feet in the corridors 走廊 and some one was crying and screaming 叫喊 at the same time, screaming and crying in a horrible 可怕 way.

"It's Colin," she said. "He's having one of those tantrums 发脾气 the nurse called hysterics. How awful 糟糕的 it sounds."

As she listened to the sobbing 哭泣 screams 叫喊 she did not wonder that people were so frightened that they gave him his own way in everything rather than hear them. She put her hands over her ears and felt sick and shivering 发抖.

"I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do," she kept saying. "I can't bear it."

Once she wondered if he would stop if she dared go to him and then she remembered how he had driven her out of the room and thought that perhaps the sight of her might make him worse. Even when she pressed her hands more tightly 紧的 over her ears she could not keep the awful 糟糕的 sounds out. She hated them so and was so terrified 惊吓 by them that suddenly they began to make her angry and she felt as if she should like to fly into a tantrum 发脾气 her‧self 她自己 and frighten him as he was frightening 使惊恐 her. She was not used to any one's tempers but her own. She took her hands from her ears and sprang up and stamped 邮票 her foot.

"He ought to be stopped! Somebody ought to make him stop! Somebody ought to beat him!" she cried out.

Just then she heard feet almost running down the corridor 走廊 and her door opened and the nurse came in. She was not laughing now by any means. She even looked rather pale.

"He's worked himself into hysterics," she said in a great hurry. "He'll do himself harm. No one can do anything with him. You come and try, like a good child. He likes you."

"He turned me out of the room this morning," said Mary, stamping 邮票 her foot with excitement 激动.

The stamp 邮票 rather pleased the nurse. The truth was that she had been afraid she might find Mary crying and hiding her head under the bed-clothes.

"That's right," she said. "You're in the right humor 幽默. You go and scold 责骂 him. Give him something new to think of. Do go, child, as quick as ever you can."

It was not until after‧ward 之后 that Mary realized that the thing had been funny as well as dreadful 可怕—that it was funny that all the grown-up people were so frightened that they came to a little girl just because they guessed she was almost as bad as Colin himself.

She flew along the corridor 走廊 and the nearer she got to the screams the higher her temper mounted 增加. She felt quite wicked 邪恶的 by the time she reached the door. She slapped 拍击 it open with her hand and ran across the room to the four-posted bed.

"You stop!" she almost shouted. "You stop! I hate you! Everybody hates you! I wish everybody would run out of the house and let you scream your‧self 你自己 to death! You will scream your‧self 你自己 to death in a minute, and I wish you would!"

A nice sympathetic 同情的 child could neither have thought nor said such things, but it just happened that the shock of hearing them was the best possible thing for this hysterical 歇斯底里 boy whom 谁 no one had ever dared to rest‧rain 抑制 or contradict 顶撞.

He had been lying on his face beating his pillow 枕头 with his hands and he actually almost jumped around, he turned so quickly at the sound of the furious 狂怒 little voice. His face looked dreadful 可怕, white and red and swollen 膨胀；增强:swell, and he was gasping 喘气 and choking 呛; but savage 野蛮人 little Mary did not care an atom 原子.

"If you scream another scream," she said, "I'll scream too—and I can scream louder 响亮的 than you can and I'll frighten you, I'll frighten you!"

He actually had stopped screaming because she had startled 惊吓 him so. The scream which had been coming almost choked 呛 him. The tears were streaming down his face and he shook all over.

"I can't stop!" he gasped 喘气 and sobbed 哭泣. "I can't—I can't!"

"You can!" shouted Mary. "Half that ails AIL you is hysterics and temper—just hysterics—hysterics—hysterics!" and she stamped each time she said it.

"I felt the lump—I felt it," choked 呛 out Colin. "I knew I should. I shall have a hunch 直觉 on my back and then I shall die," and he began to writhe again and turned on his face and sobbed 哭泣 and wailed 哀号 but he didn't scream.

"You didn't feel a lump!" contradicted 顶撞 Mary fiercely. "If you did it was only a hysterical 歇斯底里 lump. Hysterics makes lumps. There's nothing the matter with your horrid back—nothing but hysterics! Turn over and let me look at it!"

She liked the word "hysterics" and felt somehow as if it had an effect on him. He was probably like her‧self 她自己 and had never heard it before.

"Nurse," she commanded, "come here and show me his back this minute!"

The nurse, Mrs. Medlock and Martha had been standing huddled 乱堆 together near the door staring at her, their mouths half open. All three had gasped 喘气 with fright more than once. The nurse came forward as if she were half afraid. Colin was heaving 举起 with great breath‧less 咋舌 sobs 哭泣.

"Perhaps he—he won't let me," she hesitated in a low voice.

Colin heard her, however, and he gasped 喘气 out between two sobs 哭泣:

"Sh—show her! She—she'll see then!"

It was a poor thin back to look at when it was bared 光秃秃的. Every rib 肋骨 could be counted and every joint 共同的 of the spine 脊柱, though Mistress Mary did not count them as she bent over and examined them with a solemn 庄严的 savage 野蛮人 little face. She looked so sour 有酸味的 and old-fashioned that the nurse turned her head aside to hide the twitching 抽搐 of her mouth. There was just a minute's silence, for even Colin tried to hold his breath while Mary looked up and down his spine 脊柱, and down and up, as intently 意图 as if she had been the great doctor from London.

"There's not a single lump there!" she said at last. "There's not a lump as big as a pin 钉—except back‧bone 骨干 lumps, and you can only feel them because you're thin. I've got back‧bone 骨干 lumps myself 我, and they used to stick out as much as yours do, until I began to get fatter, and I am not fat enough yet to hide them. There's not a lump as big as a pin! If you ever say there is again, I shall laugh!"

No one but Colin himself knew what effect those crossly spoken childish 幼稚 words had on him. If he had ever had any one to talk to about his secret terrors 恐怖—if he had ever dared to let himself ask questions—if he had had childish 幼稚 companions 同伴 and had not lain lie on his back in the huge 巨大 closed house, breathing an atmosphere 大气层 heavy with the fears of people who were most of them ignorant 愚昧 and tired of him, he would have found out that most of his fright and illness 疾病 was created by himself. But he had lain and thought of himself and his aches 疼痛 and weariness for hours and days and months and years. And now that an angry unsympathetic little girl insisted 咬定 obstinately that he was not as ill as he thought he was he actually felt as if she might be speaking the truth.

"I didn't know," ventured the nurse, "that he thought he had a lump on his spine 脊柱. His back is weak because he won't try to sit up. I could have told him there was no lump there."

Colin gulped 吞 and turned his face a little to look at her.

"C-could you?" he said pathetically 可怜.

"Yes, sir."

"There!" said Mary, and she gulped 吞 too.

Colin turned on his face again and but for his long-drawn broken break breaths, which were the dying down of his storm 暴风雨 of sobbing 哭泣, he lay still for a minute, though great tears streamed down his face and wet 湿的 the pillow 枕头. Actually the tears meant that a curious great relief had come to him. Presently he turned and looked at the nurse again and strangely enough he was not like a Rajah at all as he spoke to her.

"Do you think—I could—live to grow up?" he said.

The nurse was neither clever 聪明的 nor soft-hearted but she could repeat some of the London doctor's words.

"You probably will if you will do what you are told to do and not give way to your temper, and stay out a great deal in the fresh air."

Colin's tantrum 发脾气 had passed and he was weak and worn wear out with crying and this perhaps made him feel gentle. He put out his hand a little toward Mary, and I am glad to say that, her own tantrum 发脾气 having passed, she was softened 软的:soft too and met him half-way with her hand, so that it was a sort of making up.

"I'll—I'll go out with you, Mary," he said. "I shan't hate fresh air if we can find—" He remembered just in time to stop himself from saying "if we can find the secret garden" and he ended, "I shall like to go out with you if Dickon will come and push my chair. I do so want to see Dickon and the fox 狐狸 and the crow 乌鸦."

The nurse remade the tumbled 下跌 bed and shook and straightened 变直 the pillows 枕头. Then she made Colin a cup of beef 牛肉 tea and gave a cup to Mary, who really was very glad to get it after her excitement 激动. Mrs. Medlock and Martha gladly 高兴的 slipped away, and after everything was neat 整洁的 and calm 镇定的 and in order the nurse looked as if she would very gladly slip away also. She was a healthy 健康 young woman who resented 愤恨 being robbed 抢劫 of her sleep and she yawned 打哈欠 quite openly as she looked at Mary, who had pushed her big foot‧stool 脚；英尺‧粪便 close to the four-posted bed and was holding Colin's hand.

"You must go back and get your sleep out," she said. "He'll drop off after a while—if he's not too upset 打翻. Then I'll lie down myself 我 in the next room."

"Would you like me to sing you that song I learned from my Ayah?" Mary whispered to Colin.

His hand pulled hers gently and he turned his tired eyes on her appealingly.

"Oh, yes!" he answered. "It's such a soft song. I shall go to sleep in a minute."

"I will put him to sleep," Mary said to the yawning 打哈欠 nurse. "You can go if you like."

"Well," said the nurse, with an attempt at reluctance 不情愿. "If he doesn't go to sleep in half an hour you must call me."

"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 我 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 ES," she answered, "I think I have. And if you will go to sleep I will tell you to-morrow."

His hand quite trembled 发抖.

"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 纠纷. I think the roses have climbed and climbed and climbed until they hang from the branches and walls and creep 爬行 over the ground—almost like a strange gray mist 薄雾. Some of them have died but many—are alive and when the summer comes there will be curtains and fountains 喷泉 of roses. I think the ground is full of daffodils and snowdrops and lilies 百合 and iris working their way out of the dark. Now the spring has begun—perhaps—perhaps—"

The soft drone 无人驾驶飞机 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 簇 of purple 紫色的 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 面纱 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.

---