Kitabı oku: «Таинственный сад / The secret garden», sayfa 9

Chapter VII
The key of the garden

Two days after this, when Mary opened her eyes she sat upright in bed immediately, and called to Martha.

“Look at the moor! Look at the moor!”

A brilliant, deep blue sky arched high over the moorland. In India skies were hot and blazing. The world of the moor looked softly blue instead of gloomy purple-black or awful dreary gray.

“I thought perhaps it always rained in England,” Mary said.

“Eh! no!” said Martha, sitting up on her heels.

“Can I ever get there?” asked Mary wistfully, looking through her window at the far-off blue. It was new and big and wonderful.

“I don’t know,” answered Martha. “Five miles, I think.”

“I want to see your cottage.”

Martha stared at her.

“I’ll ask my mother about it,” Martha said. “Mrs. Medlock likes my mother. Perhaps she can talk to her.”

“I like your mother, too” said Mary.

“Of course,” agreed Martha.

“And I like Dickon,” added Mary.

“Well,” said Martha stoutly, “all the birds like him and the rabbits and wild sheep and the ponies, and the foxes.”

“But he won’t like me,” said Mary. “No one does.”

“Do you like yourself?” Martha inquired.

Mary hesitated a moment.

“Not at all-really,” she answered.

Martha went away after the breakfast. She was going to walk five miles across the moor to the cottage, and she was going to help her mother.

Mary went out into the garden. She went into the first kitchen-garden and found Ben Weatherstaff working there with two other gardeners.

She began to like the garden and Ben Weatherstaff – like the robin and Dickon and Martha’s mother. She was beginning to like Martha, too. She went outside the long, ivy-covered wall over which she could see the tree-tops.

She looked at the bare flower-bed at her left side. The flower-bed was not quite bare. It was bare of flowers, but there were tall and low shrubs. The robin hopped about under them. He stopped on it to look for a worm. A dog scratched quite a deep hole there.

Mary looked at it and saw something in the soil. It was an old key!

Mary stood up and looked at it.

“Perhaps it is the key to the secret garden!” she said in a whisper.

Mary put the key in her pocket. She will always carry it with her when she goes out – to find the hidden door.

Chapter VIII
The Robin who showed the way

“I’ve brought you a present,” Martha said in the morning, with a cheerful grin.

“A present!” exclaimed Mary.

“Yes. It’s a skipping-rope.”

She brought it out from under her apron and exhibited it quite proudly. It was a strong, slender rope with a striped red and blue handle at each end. Mary gazed at it with a mystified expression.

“What is it for?” she asked curiously.

“Just watch me!” cried out Martha.

And she ran into the middle of the room and, taking a handle in each hand, began to skip, and skip, and skip.

“I could skip longer than that,” Martha said when she stopped. “But I’m fat now.”

Mary was excited.

“It looks nice,” she said. “Do you think I could ever skip like that?”

“You just try it,” urged Martha.

Mary’s arms and legs were weak, but she liked it so much that she did not want to stop. She opened the door to go out, and then suddenly thought of something and turned back rather slowly.

“Martha,” she said, “the money for this rope was your wages. Thank you.”

She said it stiffly andheld out her hand¹⁷ because she did not know what else to do.

Martha laughed. Mary felt a little awkward as she went out of the room.

The skipping-rope was a wonderful thing. She counted and skipped, and skipped and counted, until her cheeks were quite red. The sun was shining and a little wind was blowing. She skipped round the fountain garden, and up one walk and down another. She skipped at last into the kitchen-garden and saw Ben Weatherstaff digging and talking to his robin, which was hopping about him. She skipped down the walk toward him and he lifted his head and looked at her with a curious expression.

“Well!” he exclaimed. “Upon my word!¹⁸ You have child’s blood in your veins instead of sour buttermilk.”

“I never skipped before,” Mary said. “I’m just beginning.”

“Keep on,” said Ben.

Mary skipped round all the gardens and round the orchard. The robin followed her and greeted her with a chirp. The girl laughed.

“Yesterday you showed me the key,” she said. “Show me the door today!”

The robin flew to the top of the wall and sang a loud, lovely trill. One of the nice little gusts of wind rushed down the walk. It waved the branches of the trees. Mary stepped close to the robin, and suddenly the gust of wind swung aside some loose ivy trails. She saw a round knob which was covered by the leaves. It was the knob of a door.