The Secret Garden, complete online version

First edition illustrated Children's Book By Frances Hodgson Burnett

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A TANTRUM
227
" Ye-es," she answered, " I think I have. And if you will go to sleep I will tell you to-morrow."
His hand quite trembled.
"Oh, Mary!" he said. "Oh, Mary! If I could get into it I think I should live to grow up I Do you suppose that instead of singing the Ayah song — you could just tell me softly as you did that first day what you imagine it looks like inside? I am sure it will make me go to sleep."
" Yes," answered Mary. " Shut your eyes."
He closed his eyes and lay quite still and she held his hand and began to speak very slowly and in a very low voice.
" I think it has been left alone so long — that it has grown all into a lovely tangle. I think the roses have climbed and climbed and climbed until they hang from the branches and walls and creep over the ground — almost like a strange gray mist. Some of them have died but many — are alive and when the summer comes there will be curtains and fountains of roses. I think the ground is full of daffodils and snowdrops and lilies and iris working their way out of the dark. Now the spring has begun — perhaps — perhaps—"
The soft drone of her voice was making him stiller and stiller and she saw it and went on.
" Perhaps they are coming up through the grass 1— perhaps there are clusters of purple crocuses