Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion
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The Secret Garden
Old School Classics, Pre-1915
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The Secret Garden: Chapters Eighteen through Twenty-Two
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Ch. 18. One of my favorite scenes: Mary comes in to visit Colin after working in the garden and Colin cries out joyously: "You smell like flowers--and fresh things...What is it you smell of?" And Mary, who as a child of the Raj views learning native dialects as a proper scholarly pursuit, answers in broad Yorkshire to Colin's delight: "It's th'wind from th' moor....It's th' springtime an' out o' doors an sunshine as smells so graidely....Doesn't tha' understand a bit o' Yorkshire when tha' hears it? An' tha' a Yorkshire lad thysel' bred an born! Eh! I wonder tha'rt not ashamed o' thy face."
Chapter 18 has several wonderful breakthrough moments --Mary decides she really can trust Colin, and Colin discovers that he longs to meet Dickon and see the garden.
Thank you, Badger! I'm having lots of fun. The tantrum scene is wonderful and it is hilarious in a dark way. I'll post another great Nora Unwin picture on the Chapter 17 thread illustrating Mistress Mary getting ready to tell off the Rajah!
Ch. 19. Colin makes an announcement to the nurse "in his most Rajah-like manner. 'A boy and a fox, and a crow, and two squirrels, and a new-born lamb, are coming to see me this morning. I want them brought upstairs as soon as they come...You are not to begin playing with the animals in the servants' hall...I want them here.'"
It makes me smile that Mary can be rather imperial herself. When she accidentally talks broad Yorkshire to Dr. Craven about Dickon being "th' trustiest lad i'Yorkshire" and the doctor laughs out loud, Mary goes all cold and grand and counters, "I'm learning it as if it was French. It's like a native dialect in India. Very clever people try to learn them."
Ben Weatherstaff is the link to Colin's mother and he is also the catalyst for Colin's breakthrough moment. When he first sees Colin "His red old eyes fixed themselves on what was before him as if he were seeing a ghost....'Do you know who I am? demanded the Rahjah...'Aye, that I do--with tha' mother's eyes starin' at me out o' that face.'When Colin stands 'as straight as any lad i' Yorkshire' tears run down Ben Weatherstaff's cheeks.
It's Ben's idea that Colin plant a rose bush--forging a link with his mother who loved both roses and the garden that is the source of her son's healing.
I admit I had tears in my own eyes by the end of that chapter! Ben has quite a way with words :)The garden's link to Colin's mother is an idea that you'll spot again in later chapters. What Dickon says is intriguing: "Mrs. Craven was a very lovely lady...An mother she thinks maybe she's about Misselthwaite many a time lookin' after Mester Colin same as all mothers do when they're took out o' the world."
I just love her descriptions of the magic of nature and the beauty of that very special first day. And you are really going to enjoy her descriptions of the garden coming to life in the next section of the book.
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Chapter Eighteen: "Tha' Munnot Waste No Time"
Chapter Nineteen: "It Has Come!"
Chapter Twenty: "I Shall Live Forever"
Chapter Twenty-One: Ben Weatherstaff
Chapter Twenty-Two: When the Sun Went Down