The Secret Garden

Mary's first few days are all the same. She gets up, eats breakfast, and then goes outside. The narrator notes that Mary doesn’t realize that this is actually the best thing for her, as the moor air puts color in her cheeks and is invigorating. After a few days of this routine, Mary wakes up and knows that she's truly hungry. Martha insists that this is because of the moor and encourages Mary to play. Mary notices that Ben Weatherstaff seems to avoid her, and she spends most of her time walking outside the gardens, where ivy covers the walls and everything seems neglected.

As Mary studies the bushy ivy, she hears the robin singing. She greets the robin, and in reply, the robin chirps and hops around. Laughing, Mary runs after the robin and tries to whistle. The robin settles in a tree, which Mary realizes is in the garden without a door. She runs back to the kitchen gardens and into the orchard and decides that the tree the robin is in is indeed the same one she saw him in on her first day at the manor. She makes another lap around the gardens and thinks it's strange that she can't find the door. Mary realizes that though Ben Weatherstaff said there's no door, there must be one since Mr. Craven buried the key.

Mary stays outside all day and, for the first time, feels glad she came to Misselthwaite Manor. The narrator explains that the fresh moor wind is blowing "cobwebs" out of her brain and waking her up. By the end of the day, Mary is pleasantly tired. After supper, she asks Martha why Mr. Craven hates the garden. Martha is happy to sit with Mary and talk. She instructs Mary to listen to the wind "wutherin'" and finally starts her story. She reminds Mary that Mr. Craven has ordered that nobody speak about the garden. Martha says that Mrs. Craven made the garden, and she and her husband were the only ones allowed in to tend to it. Because she was so small, Mrs. Craven often sat on a tree with roses growing on it, but one day, the branch broke and she died.

Mary sits silently and notices that she's feeling sorry for someone for the first time. Then, as the wind blows, she hears a strange cry from somewhere within the house. Mary tries to point it out to Martha, but Martha insists that the house makes strange sounds. Suddenly, the wind gusts through the house and blows open their door, making the sound easier to hear. Martha shuts the door and insists that if it was anything, it was the scullery maid crying about a toothache. Mary doesn't believe her.