How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I just love [the moor]. It's none bare. It's covered wi' growin' things as smells sweet. It's fair lovely in spring an' summer when th' gorse an' broom an' heather's in flower. It smells o' honey an' there's such a lot o' fresh air—an' th' sky looks so high an' th' bees an' skylarks makes such a nice noise hummin' an' singin'. Eh! I wouldn't live away from th' moor for anythin'. (4.8)
The Sowerby family—Dickon, and here, Martha—seem to belong to Yorkshire in this intense way. They all speak with thick Yorkshire accents, and they all have a deep appreciation for the natural beauties of the area. Compare their deep sense of belonging with Mary's total alienation from India. There, she has a lot of luxury—a nanny and servants—but she doesn't seem to feel that she belongs.
According to The Secret Garden, what makes a person belong in a place? Does Colin belongin Yorkshire the same way Martha says she does? Why or why not?
Quote #2
"You'll go by yourself," [Martha] answered. "You'll have to learn to play like other children does when they haven't got sisters and brothers. Our Dickon goes off on th' moor by himself an' plays for hours. That's how he made friends with th' pony. He's got sheep on th' moor that knows him, an' birds as comes an' eats out of his hand. However little there is to eat, he always saves a bit o' his bread to coax his pets."
It was really this mention of Dickon which made Mary decide to go out, though she was not aware of it. There would be birds outside though there would not be ponies or sheep. They would be different from the birds in India and it might amuse her to look at them. (4.74-75)
What is it that you think starts Mary's transformation into a better person? Is it simply moving into Misselthwaite Manor, away from her spoiled early life? Is it meeting Martha? Is it hearing about Dickon? Is it playing outside for pretty much the first time in her whole life? Why do you think Mary starts to change?
Quote #3
Presently an old man with a spade over his shoulder walked through the door leading from the second garden. He looked startled when he saw Mary, and then touched his cap. He had a surly old face, and did not seem at all pleased to see her—but then she was displeased with his garden and wore her "quite contrary" expression, and certainly did not seem at all pleased to see him. (4.83)
Like Dickon, Ben Weatherstaff spends almost all of his time outside. But unlike Dickon, it doesn't seem to have transformed him into this angelic, practically-able-to-talk-to-animals kind of character. He's still crusty and unfriendly. But we do find out that he has a good heart: He was really attached to the late Mrs. Craven, and he's tried to look after her Secret Garden for her, even against Mr. Craven's wishes. He may not have the best people skills, but his love of gardening still indicates that he's a great guy underneath.
Quote #4
Mistress Mary went a step nearer to the robin and looked at him very hard.
"I'm lonely," she said.
She had not known before that this was one of the things which made her feel sour and cross. She seemed to find it out when the robin looked at her and she looked at the robin. (4.123-125)
Ben Weatherstaff tells Mary that the robin hangs around because he likes company—and without company, he gets lonely. This discovery that therobingets lonely helps Mary to realize that she does, too. For someone who spends a lot of her time thinking about herself and what she wants, she doesn't seem to understand herself much. It's only when she compares herself with the living things she sees around her that she starts to recognize what she needs in this world.
Quote #5
[Mary] did not know that [going outside] was the best thing she could have done, and she did not know that, when she began to walk quickly or even run along the paths and down the avenue, she was stirring her slow blood and making herself stronger by fighting with the wind which swept down from the moor. She ran only to make herself warm, and she hated the wind which rushed at her face and roared and held her back as if it were some giant she could not see. But the big breaths of rough fresh air blown over the heather filled her lungs with something which was good for her whole thin body and whipped some red color into her cheeks and brightened her dull eyes when she did not know anything about it. (5.1)
It's interesting to get this divided point of view on Mary's actions. By running around outside, Mary isn't starting a new exercise routine on purpose, but even so, the narrator wants to make sure that we understand that outdoor exercise is good, no matter why you do it. Mary's instincts lead her in the best direction for her, even without input from her conscious mind. It's like that totally self-contradicting One Direction song: Mary doesn't know she's exercising, which is what makes her exercise.
Quote #6
"I smell something nice and fresh and damp," she said.
"That's th' good rich earth," he answered, digging away. "It's in a good humor makin' ready to grow things. It's glad when plantin' time comes. It's dull in th' winter when it's got nowt to do. In th' flower gardens out there things will be stirrin' down below in th' dark. Th' sun's warmin' 'em. You'll see bits o' green spikes stickin' out o' th' black earth after a bit." (7.34-35)
One part of Frances Hodgson Burnett's claim that we humans are all a part of nature seems to be that nature is also a lot like us. That is, the book often implies that different elements of our environment think and feel the way humans do. There's that scene in Chapter 25 told from the robin's perspective, and there's also this moment, when Ben Weatherstaff describes the earth as though it wants to be producing plants.
Quote #7
"Do you understand everything birds say?" said Mary.
Dickon's grin spread until he seemed all wide, red, curving mouth, and he rubbed his rough head.
"I think I do, and they think I do," he said. "I've lived on th' moor with 'em so long. I've watched 'em break shell 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 I'm a bird, or a fox, or a rabbit, or a squirrel, or even a beetle, an' I don't know it." (9.83-85)
Dickon loves animals so much that he feels like he is one. Still, his animal-like traits—his innocence, and his love of being outside all the time—also means that he doesn't seem that easy to talk to about human stuff. For example, we doubt that Mary has spent a lot of time chatting with him about her history in India, or about her parents. All of their dialogue in this novel focuses primarily on nature and the life cycles of living things.
It's hard to imagine what Dickon would be like at school or at a job or as an adult more generally. Of course, that may be part of the point: this book is like The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe or Peter Pan in that it sets up a separate, special, protected world just for kids.
Quote #8
"I'm sure you wouldn't mind [Dickon]," 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. (15.16-18)
This description Colin uses for himself—that he's a "boy animal"—is pretty far from his previous pose as a king of all of the lowly servants around him. Colin's willingness to be charmed by Dickon, the same way Dickon's bird and pony and lamb have been, shows that he's starting to let go of some of his more stuck-up and entitled ideas. At least, he's willing to make an exception for Dickon, He's still pretty bossy and unpleasant to Martha and his nurse and the other Misselthwaite Manor servants.
Quote #9
"Tha's doin' Magic thysel'," [Dickon] said. "It's same Magic as made these 'ere work out o' th' earth," and he touched with his thick boot a clump of crocuses in the grass.
Colin looked down at them.
"Aye," he said slowly, "there couldna' be bigger Magic than that there—there couldna' be." (22.10-12)
When Colin first stands up, he thinks that Dickon's doing magic. But no, reassures Dickon, the magic is all Colin's—he's doing the same magic that makes plants grow out of the ground.
We talk about Colin's cure in the "Characters" section, so here we plan to chat about the plant half of this passage. We just want to say: Nature isn't all fun plants growing out of the ground. Plants are tough guys, and they have all kinds of natural defense systems to fight back against animals and insects that might eat or destroy them. Sure, we're not saying that your lawn is about to rise up and attack you, but Frances Hodgson Burnett's view of nature lacks any sense of the struggle that plants (and animals) have to go through to survive and thrive.
Quote #10
He could only say that he was sure that the Eggs would never flap about in such a manner; but as the boy who could speak robin so fluently was doing the thing with them, birds could be quite sure that the actions were not of a dangerous nature. Of course neither the robin nor his mate had ever heard of the champion wrestler, Bob Haworth, and his exercises for making the muscles stand out like lumps. Robins are not like human beings; their muscles are always exercised from the first and so they develop themselves in a natural manner. If you have to fly about to find every meal you eat, your muscles do not become atrophied (atrophied means wasted away through want of use). (25.6)
We definitely agree that, to robins, watching humans work out to build muscle must seem deeply stupid. Why would a robin worry about keeping in shape? But most of us have grown so far from the need to make our own nests or to gather our own food that we can't exactly imitate a robin's lifestyle to keep in shape.