The secret garden

354 THE SECRET GARDENopinions of people and her determination not tobe pleased by or interested in anything, she was ayellow-faced, sickly, bored and wretched child.Circumstances, however, were very kind to her,Whenthough she was not at all aware of it. They beganto push her about for her own good.her mind gradually filled itself with robins, andmoorland cottages crowded with children, withqueer crabbed old gardeners and common littleYorkshire housemaids, with springtime and withsecret gardens coming alive day by day, and alsowith a moor boy and his u creatures," there wasno room left for the disagreeable thoughts whichaffected her liver and her digestion and made heryellow and tired.So long as Colin shut himself up in his roomand thought only of his fears and weakness andhis detestation of people who looked at him andreflected hourly on humps and early death, he wasa hysterical half-crazy little hypochondriac whoknew nothing of the sunshine and the spring andalso did not know that he could get well andcould stand upon his feet if he tried to do it.When new beautiful thoughts began to push outthe old hideous ones, life began to come back tohim, his blood ran healthily through his veins andstrength poured into him like a flood. His scientificexperiment was guite practical and simple and