d talked very little.
But just before Martha went downstairs for the tea-tray, Mary asked a
question.

"Martha," she said, "has the scullery-maid had the toothache again
today?"

Martha certainly started slightly.

"What makes thee ask that?" she said.

"Because when I waited so long for you to come back I opened the door
and walked down the corridor to see if you were coming. And I heard
that far-off crying again, just as we heard it the other night. There
isn't a wind today, so you see it couldn't have been the wind."

"Eh!" said Martha restlessly. "Tha' mustn't go walkin' about in
corridors an' listenin'. Mr. Craven would be that there angry there's
no knowin' what he'd do."

"I wasn't listening," said Mary. "I was just waiting for you--and I
heard it. That's three times."

"My word! There's Mrs. Medlock's bell," said Martha, and she almost ran
out of the room.

"It's the strangest house any one ever lived in," said Mary drowsily,
as she dropped her head on the cushioned seat of the armchair near her.
Fresh air, and digging, and skipping-rope had made her feel so
comfortably tired that she fell asleep.

CHAPTER X

DICKON

The sun shone down for nearly a week on the secret garden. The Secret
Garden was what Mary called it when she was thinking of it. She liked
the name, and she liked still more the feeling that when its beautiful
old walls shut her in no one knew where she was. It seemed almost like
being shut out of the world in some fairy place. The few books she had
read and liked had been fairy-story books, and she had read of secret
gardens in some of the stories. Sometimes people went to sleep in them
for a hundred years, which she had thought must be rather stupid. She
had no intention of going to sleep, and, in fact, she was becoming
wider awake every day which passed at Misselthwaite. She was beginning
to like to be out of doors; she no longer hated the wind, but enjoyed
it. She could run faster, and longer, and she could skip up to a
hundred. The bulbs in the secret garden must have been much
astonished. Such nice clear places were made round them that they had
all the breathing space they wanted, and really, if Mistress Mary had
known it, they began to cheer up under the dark earth and work
tremendously. The sun could get at them and warm them, and when the
rain came down it could reach them at once, so they began to feel very
much alive.

Mary was an odd, determine