ntil she laughed because she
remembered what Dickon's mother had said about the end of his nose
quivering like a rabbit's.

"It must be very early," she said. "The little clouds are all pink and
I've never seen the sky look like this. No one is up. I don't even hear
the stable boys."

A sudden thought made her scramble to her feet.

"I can't wait! I am going to see the garden!"

She had learned to dress herself by this time and she put on her clothes
in five minutes. She knew a small side door which she could unbolt
herself and she flew down-stairs in her stocking feet and put on her
shoes in the hall. She unchained and unbolted and unlocked and when the
door was open she sprang across the step with one bound, and there she
was standing on the grass, which seemed to have turned green, and with
the sun pouring down on her and warm sweet wafts about her and the
fluting and twittering and singing coming from every bush and tree. She
clasped her hands for pure joy and looked up in the sky and it was so
blue and pink and pearly and white and flooded with springtime light
that she felt as if she must flute and sing aloud herself and knew that
thrushes and robins and skylarks could not possibly help it. She ran
around the shrubs and paths toward the secret garden.

"It is all different already," she said. "The grass is greener and
things are sticking up everywhere and things are uncurling and green
buds of leaves are showing. This afternoon I am sure Dickon will come."

The long warm rain had done strange things to the herbaceous beds which
bordered the walk by the lower wall. There were things sprouting and
pushing out from the roots of clumps of plants and there were actually
here and there glimpses of royal purple and yellow unfurling among the
stems of crocuses. Six months before Mistress Mary would not have seen
how the world was waking up, but now she missed nothing.

When she had reached the place where the door hid itself under the ivy,
she was startled by a curious loud sound. It was the caw--caw of a crow
and it came from the top of the wall, and when she looked up, there sat
a big glossy-plumaged blue-black bird, looking down at her very wisely
indeed. She had never seen a crow so close before and he made her a
little nervous, but the next moment he spread his wings and flapped away
across the garden. She hoped he was not going to stay inside and she
pushed the door open wondering if he would. When she got fa