"I can't wait! I am going to see the garden!"She had learned to dress herself by this time and she put on her clothes in five minutes.She knew a small side door which she could unbolt herself and she flew downstairs in her stocking feet and put on her shoes in the hall.
She unchained and unbolted and unlocked and when the door was open she sprang across the step with one bound, 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 and twittering and singing coming from every bush and tree.
She clasped her hands for pure joy and looked up in the sky and it was so blue and pink and pearly and white and flooded with springtime light that she felt as if she must flute and sing aloud herself and knew that thrushes and robins and skylarks could not possibly help it.She ran around the shrubs and paths towards the secret garden.
"It is all different already," she said."The grass is greener and things are sticking up every- where and things are uncurling and green buds 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 the walk by the lower wall.
There were things sprouting and pushing out from the roots of clumps of plants and there were actually here and there glimpses of royal purple and yellow unfurling among the stems of crocuses.Six months before Mistress Mary would not have seen how the world was waking up, but now she missed nothing.
When she had reached the place where the door hid itself under the ivy, she was startled by a curious loud sound.
It was the caw--caw of a crow and it came from the top of the wall, and when she looked up, there sat a big glossy-plumaged blue-black bird, looking down at her very wisely indeed.She had never seen a crow so close before and he made her a little nervous, but the next moment he spread his wings and flapped 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 on a dwarf apple-tree and under the apple-tree was lying a little reddish animal with a Bushy tail, and both of them were watching the stooping body and rust-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, and tousled;his eyes like a bit of the sky.
"Eh!" he said."I was up long before him.How could Ihave 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, till you've got to be out on it 'stead o' lyin' on your back.
When th' sun did jump up, th' moor went mad for joy, an'
I was in the midst of th' heather, an' I run like mad myself, 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, panting, as if she had been running herself.
"Oh, Dickon! Dickon!" she said."I'm so happy I can scarcely breathe!"Seeing him talking to a stranger, the little bushy-tailed 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 cub," he said, rubbing the little reddish animal's head."It's named Captain.An' this here's Soot.Soot he flew across th' moor with me an'
Captain he run same as if th' hounds 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 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 of crocuses burst into purple and orange and gold.
Mary bent her face down and kissed and kissed them.
"You never kiss 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 after a day's roamin' an'
she stood there at th' door in th' sun, lookin' so glad an'
comfortable." They ran from one part of the garden to another and found so many wonders that they were obliged to remind themselves that they must whisper or speak low.
He showed her swelling leafbuds on rose branches which had seemed dead.He showed her ten thousand new green points pushing through the mould.They put their eager young noses close to the earth and sniffed its warmed springtime breathing; they dug and pulled and laughed low with rapture until Mistress Mary's hair was as tumbled as Dickon's and her cheeks were almost as poppy red as his.
There was every joy on earth in the secret garden that morning, and in the midst of them came a delight more delightful than all, because it was more wonderful.
Swiftly something flew across the wall and darted through the trees to a close grown corner, a little flare of red-breasted bird with something hanging from its beak.
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," he whispered in broad Yorkshire.
"We munnot scarce breathe.I knowed he was mate-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 fight 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 us was interferin' now.He'll be a good bit different till all this is over.He's settin' up housekeepin'.