The Secret Garden: Chapter 4 Summary & Analysis

Mary wakes up in the morning when she hears a young maid attending to the fire. She looks around and sees that her walls are covered in gloomy tapestries depicting people and animals in a forest. Out the window, Mary can see what looks like an endless purple sea. She points out the window and asks what it is. With a smile, the maid, Martha, says that it's the moor and asks Mary if she likes it. Mary declares that she hates it, to which Martha replies that she loves it: it's alive and smells sweet. This puzzles Mary, as servants in India never spoke to her as though she were an equal. Mary often slapped her Ayah, but she wonders if Martha might slap back. Mary tells her she's a strange servant.

Martha laughs and says if Mrs. Craven were alive, she wouldn't even be a servant—she's too "common" and speaks such broad Yorkshire (the local dialect). However, the strangeness of the house means that Mrs. Medlock was willing to hire her. When Mary asks if Martha is going to wait on her, Martha says curtly that she's Mrs. Medlock's servant, though she's going to help Mary a bit. Indignantly, Mary asks who's going to dress her. This shocks Martha and in broad Yorkshire that Mary can't understand, she incredulously asks if Mary can't dress herself. When Mary learns what Martha asked, she explains that her Ayah dressed her.

Martha says that it's time Mary learned and notes that Mother spoke often about "grand people's children" turning out to be fools because of this sort of thing. Mary feels close to the breaking point as she says that things are different in India, but Martha surprisingly agrees and says that India is different because there are black people there. She admits that she thought Mary was going to be black too. Mary is offended and insults Martha, but Martha insists that there's nothing wrong with black people, as they're so religious, but says she was disappointed that Mary is white. Humiliated, Mary screams that native Indians aren't people and throws herself onto her pillows to cry.

This frightens Martha, so she comforts Mary and begs her to stop crying. Despite herself, Mary finds Martha's Yorkshire accent soothing and calms down. Then, Martha tells Mary to get up so they can get her dressed. Though Mary is initially surprised to see that Mr. Craven ordered new clothes for her, she's glad they're not black. Martha gently coaches Mary through putting on her clothes and shoes. Mary privately wonders at Martha's manner, while the narrator notes that Martha behaves this way because she's an "untrained Yorkshire rustic" and not a real lady's maid.

Martha talks the entire time. Mary tries not to listen at first, as to express her displeasure, but soon finds herself interested in what Martha says about her eleven siblings, her parents' poverty, and her brother Dickon, who tamed a moor pony. This intrigues Mary, as she's always wanted a pet. When Mary is dressed, she goes into the next room and refuses to eat her breakfast, insisting imperiously that she doesn't know what it feels like to be hungry. Martha is aghast, but refuses to take the porridge to her siblings. Mary has some tea and toast to appease her.

Then, Martha tells Mary to go outside and play. Mary doesn't want to go out, but decides she'll have to when she sees that there's nothing to do inside. She asks Martha who will go with her and is perplexed when Martha says she'll have to go alone. Martha talks about Dickon, who plays alone on the moor for hours and befriends animals. This makes Mary want to go outside, as she'd like to see the birds. Martha bundles Mary up, points her out the door, and says that there's one garden that's been locked up for ten years since Mrs. Craven died. She says there's a buried key somewhere.

Mary walks off into the grounds, thinking of the garden and whether there's anything still alive in it. She walks past flowerbeds with nothing in them and comes upon a long wall covered in ivy. She finds a door in the wall and walks through several walled vegetable gardens. Mary thinks that the gardens are ugly and wonders if they'll be prettier in spring. An old man (Ben Weatherstaff) walks into the garden and seems surprised and unhappy to see Mary. He explains that these are the kitchen gardens, and Mary walks off without a word to explore them.

Mary finds a closed door to another garden but it opens into an orchard, not the secret garden. She does notice that the wall seems to continue as though it's enclosing another garden, possibly with trees in it. As Mary studies the trees, a robin starts singing. It makes her feel happy, and she hopes she'll see it again. She continues to think about the secret garden and wonders why Mr. Craven buried the key and why, if he loved Mrs. Craven, he locked the garden. Mary thinks that even if she meets Mr. Craven, she'll never be able to ask him about it because she doesn't like people and people never like her. She suddenly wonders if the robin was in a tree in the secret garden.

Mary walks back to Ben Weatherstaff and coldly informs him that she's been through the gardens. He seems surly when she mentions a garden with no door and tells him about the robin. However, at the mention of the robin, Ben starts to smile, and Mary thinks it makes him look nice. He whistles, and the robin appears almost instantly. Ben teases the robin and tells Mary that the robin comes when called, as the bird got stuck on the wrong side of the wall as a fledgling and befriended Ben.

Looking at the robin, Mary says that she's lonely. This has never occurred to her before, and the narrator notes that this is why she feels so angry. She asks Ben Weatherstaff's name and he says that he's lonely too; the robin is his only friend. Ben declares that he and Mary are a lot alike: both are cross, unattractive, and have bad tempers. Mary has never heard someone speak the truth like this before, and she begins to wonder if she's unattractive and bad-tempered. Suddenly, the robin flies into a tree and starts to sing. Ben Weatherstaff explains that the robin wants to be friends with Mary and hopefully, Mary steps towards the tree and asks the robin if he'd be friends with her. Ben is surprised at how pleasant her voice is and says it sounds almost like how Dickon speaks to his animals.

The robin flies over the wall again, and Mary cries out. Ben Weatherstaff explains that he lives there among the roses. Mary asks if there are actually roses in the garden, and Ben mumbles that there were ten years ago. When Mary asks where the door is, Ben Weatherstaff tells her that there's no door now and that she shouldn't go looking for it. He marches off.