The secret garden

THE MISSEL THRUSH 137about makin' homes for themselves, or buildin'nests an' singin' an' whistlin', does there?'Mary, kneeling by him holding the seeds, lookedat him and stopped frowning." Dickon," she said. You are as nice asI like you, and you makeMartha said you were.the fifth person. I never thoughtfiveI should likepeople."Dickon sat up on his heels as Martha didwhen she was polishing the grate. He did lookfunny and delightful, Mary thought, with hisround blue eyes and red cheeks and happy lookingturned-up nose." Only five folk as tha' likes " ? he said." Whois th' other four? "" Your mother and Martha," Mary checked"them off on her fingers, and the robin and BenWeatherstaff."Dickon laughed so that he was obliged tostifle the sound by putting his arm over hismouth." I know tha' thinks I'm a queer lad," he said," but I think tha' art th' queerest little lass I eversaw.'Then Mary did a strange thing. She leanedforward and asked him a question she had neverdreamed of asking any one before. And she triedto ask it in Yorkshire because that was his Ian-