The Secret Garden
By Frances Hodgson Burnett (1911)
Sour, neglected Mary Lennox sent to Misselthwaite Manor on the Yorkshire moors, the buried brass key, the robin redbreast, Dickon, and bringing Colin back to life.
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Ch. I.: THERE IS NO ONE LEFT
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett — Chapter 1
CHAPTER I. THERE IS NO ONE LEFT
When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen. It was true, too. She had a little thin face and a little thin body, thin light hair and a sour expression. Her hair was yellow, and her face was yellow because she had been born in India and had always been ill in one way or another. Her father had held a position under the English Government and had always been busy and ill himself, and her mother had been a great beauty who cared only to go to parties and amuse herself with gay people. She had not wanted a little girl at all, and when Mary was born she handed her over to the care of an Ayah, who was made to understand that if she wished to please the Mem Sahib she must keep the child out of sight as much as possible. So when she was a sickly, fretful, ugly little baby she was kept out of the way, and when she became a sickly, fretful, toddling thing she was kept out of the way also. She never remembered seeing familiarly anything but the dark faces of her Ayah and the other native servants, and as they always obeyed her and gave her her own way in everything, because the Mem Sahib would be angry if she was disturbed by her crying, by the time she was six years old she was as tyrannical and selfish a little pig as ever lived. The young English governess who came to teach her to read and write disliked her so much that she gave up her place in three months, and when other governesses came to try to fill it they always went away in a shorter time than the first one. So if Mary had not chosen to really want to know how to read books she would never have learned her letters at all.
One frightfully hot morning, when she was about nine years old, she awakened feeling very cross, and she became crosser still when she saw that the servant who stood by her bedside was not her Ayah.
“Why did you come?” she said to the strange woman. “I will not let you stay. Send my Ayah to me.”
The woman looked frightened, but she only stammered that the Ayah could not come and when Mary threw herself into a passion and beat and kicked her, she looked only more frightened and repeated that it was not possible for the Ayah to come to Missie Sahib.
There was something mysterious in the air that morning. Nothing was done in its regular order and several of the native servants seemed missing, while those whom Mary saw slunk or hurried about with ashy and scared faces. But no one would tell her anything and her Ayah did not come. She was actually left alone as the morning went on, and at last she wandered out into the garden and began to play by herself under a tree near the veranda. She pretended that she was making a flower-bed, and she stuck big scarlet hibiscus blossoms into little heaps of earth, all the time growing more and more angry and muttering to herself the things she would say and the names she would call Saidie when she returned.
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Table of Contents
35 ChaptersEvery chapter below is pre-indexed for oral narration and easy 1-click scheduling into your weekly Charlotte Mason lesson plan.
Ch. I.: THERE IS NO ONE LEFT
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett — Chapter 1
Chapter 1: There Is No One Left
Mary Lennox orphaned in India; arriving at the hundred-room mansion on the edge of the wild purple moor.
Chapter 2: The Robin Redbreast and the Walled Garden
Ben Weatherstaff's friendly robin shows Mary the ivy-covered wall with no door.
Ch. II.: MISTRESS MARY QUITE CONTRARY
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett — Chapter 2
Ch. III.: ACROSS THE MOOR
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett — Chapter 3
Chapter 3: The Buried Key in the Earth
The robin scratches the soil; Mary unearths the rusty brass key buried ten years ago.
Ch. IV.: MARTHA
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett — Chapter 4
Chapter 4: Inside the Secret Garden
Parting the ivy to step into the hidden world of gray climbing roses, wondering if anything is still alive.
Ch. V: THE CRY IN THE CORRIDOR
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett — Chapter 5
Chapter 5: Dickon the Animal Charmer
Meeting the moor boy who talks to foxes, crows, and ponies; planting seeds in the rich black soil.
Chapter 6: The Cry in the Corridor
Exploring the dark halls at night; finding her sickly cousin Colin weeping in his grand four-poster bed.
Ch. VI.: “THERE WAS SOMEONE CRYING—THERE WAS!”
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett — Chapter 6
Ch. VII.: THE KEY TO THE GARDEN
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett — Chapter 7
Chapter 7: Bringing Colin into the Sun
Wheeling Colin's chair through the ivy door into the fragrant garden; the miracle of fresh air and green shoots.
Chapter 8: 'I Shall Live Forever and Ever!'
Colin stands on his own feet on the grass; the return of Archibald Craven to find his son running like a deer.
Ch. VIII.: THE ROBIN WHO SHOWED THE WAY
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett — Chapter 8
Ch. IX.: THE STRANGEST HOUSE ANYONE EVER LIVED IN
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett — Chapter 9
Ch. X.: DICKON
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett — Chapter 10
Ch. XI.: THE NEST OF THE MISSEL THRUSH
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett — Chapter 11
Ch. XII.: “MIGHT I HAVE A BIT OF EARTH?”
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett — Chapter 12
Ch. XIII.: “I AM COLIN”
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett — Chapter 13
Ch. XIV.: A YOUNG RAJAH
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett — Chapter 14
Ch. XV.: NEST BUILDING
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett — Chapter 15
Ch. XVI.: “I WON’T!” SAID MARY
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett — Chapter 16
Ch. XVII.: A TANTRUM
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett — Chapter 17
Ch. XVIII.: “THA’ MUNNOT WASTE NO TIME”
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett — Chapter 18
Ch. XIX.: “IT HAS COME!”
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett — Chapter 19
Ch. XX.: “I SHALL LIVE FOREVER—AND EVER—AND EVER!”
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett — Chapter 20
Ch. XXI.: BEN WEATHERSTAFF
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett — Chapter 21
Ch. XXII.: WHEN THE SUN WENT DOWN
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett — Chapter 22
Ch. XXIII.: MAGIC
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett — Chapter 23
Ch. XXIV.: “LET THEM LAUGH”
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett — Chapter 24
Ch. XXV.: THE CURTAIN
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett — Chapter 25
Ch. XXVI.: “IT's MOTHER!”
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett — Chapter 26
Ch. XXVII.: IN THE GARDEN
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett — Chapter 27
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