hin' else far off among th' gorse
bushes. It was a weak bleatin' an' I knowed it was a new lamb as was
hungry an' I knowed it wouldn't be hungry if it hadn't lost its mother
somehow, so I set off searchin'. Eh! I did have a look for it. I went
in an' out among th' gorse bushes an' round an' round an' I always
seemed to take th' wrong turnin'. But at last I seed a bit o' white by
a rock on top o' th' moor an' I climbed up an' found th' little 'un
half dead wi' cold an' clemmin'." While he talked, Soot flew solemnly
in and out of the open window and cawed remarks about the scenery while
Nut and Shell made excursions into the big trees outside and ran up and
down trunks and explored branches. Captain curled up near Dickon, who
sat on the hearth-rug from preference.

They looked at the pictures in the gardening books and Dickon knew all
the flowers by their country names and knew exactly which ones were
already growing in the secret garden.

"I couldna' say that there name," he said, pointing to one under which
was written "Aquilegia," "but us calls that a columbine, an' that there
one it's a snapdragon and they both grow wild in hedges, but these is
garden ones an' they're bigger an' grander. There's some big clumps o'
columbine in th' garden. They'll look like a bed o' blue an' white
butterflies flutterin' when they're out."

"I'm going to see them," cried Colin. "I am going to see them!"

"Aye, that tha' mun," said Mary quite seriously. "An' tha' munnot lose
no time about it."

CHAPTER XX

"I SHALL LIVE FOREVER--AND EVER--AND EVER!"

But they were obliged to wait more than a week because first there came
some very windy days and then Colin was threatened with a cold, which
two things happening one after the other would no doubt have thrown him
into a rage but that there was so much careful and mysterious planning
to do and almost every day Dickon came in, if only for a few minutes,
to talk about what was happening on the moor and in the lanes and
hedges and on the borders of streams. The things he had to tell about
otters' and badgers' and water-rats' houses, not to mention birds'
nests and field-mice and their burrows, were enough to make you almost
tremble with excitement when you heard all the intimate details from an
animal charmer and realized with what thrilling eagerness and anxiety
the whole busy underworld was working.

"They're same as us," said Dickon, "only they have to build their h