Page 36 - Secret Garden

Rose stems clambered everywhere – no flowers, but scrambling brambles and waving stems that tossed and tangled. Mary wondered if everything in the garden had died. But at least she was inside. And she could come and go whenever she chose. It might be grey and dead, but she had found a world all her own.
Mr Robin hopped along and showed her small sharp green points sticking out of the ground. Tiny growing things. After that, Mary spotted them everywhere – little signs of life pushing through the earth.
“Even if the roses are all dead, Mr Robin, other things are alive.” Grass and weeds grew so thickly in some places that the green points
could hardly see out. So Mary found herself a stick and cleared a little space until the green points had room to breathe.
There was a shine in Mary’s eyes when she got back to the house. Martha put it down to the skipping.
“How much would a spade cost?” asked Mary, wolfing down her dinner. “Just a little spade.”
“I seen little tool-sets for sale in’t village shop,” said Martha.
“I have ten shillings pocket money. Is that enough to buy one?” “Enough? Eh, that’s riches! The rent of our cottage is a shilling, and
Mother struggles to pay it and still feed the family! Tell you what: next time I see Dickon I’ll ask him to buy tools and fetch them here.”
Mary’s eyes shone brighter still. She had never thought to see Martha’s marvellous brother, loved by foxes and crows and rabbits. “Seeds? Could he bring seeds as well?”
Martha smiled and thought how wise her mother had been when she said