opped she was quite proud of herself. She had never made a
long speech in Yorkshire before and she had remembered very well.

"Tha' mun talk a bit o' Yorkshire like that to Mester Colin," Dickon
chuckled. "Tha'll make him laugh an' there's nowt as good for ill folk
as laughin' is. Mother says she believes as half a hour's good laugh
every mornin' 'ud cure a chap as was makin' ready for typhus fever."

"I'm going to talk Yorkshire to him this very day," said Mary, chuckling
herself.

The garden had reached the time when every day and every night it seemed
as if Magicians were passing through it drawing loveliness out of the
earth and the boughs with wands. It was hard to go away and leave it
all, particularly as Nut had actually crept on to her dress and Shell
had scrambled down the trunk of the apple-tree they sat under and stayed
there looking at her with inquiring eyes. But she went back to the house
and when she sat down close to Colin's bed he began to sniff as Dickon
did though not in such an experienced way.

"You smell like flowers and--and fresh things," he cried out quite
joyously. "What is it you smell of? It's cool and warm and sweet all at
the same time."

"It's th' wind from th' moor," said Mary. "It comes o' sittin' on th'
grass under a tree wi' Dickon an' wi' Captain an' Soot an' Nut an'
Shell. It's th' springtime an' out o' doors an' sunshine as smells so
graidely."

She said it as broadly as she could, and you do not know how broadly
Yorkshire sounds until you have heard some one speak it. Colin began to
laugh.

"What are you doing?" he said. "I never heard you talk like that before.
How funny it sounds."

"I'm givin' thee a bit o' Yorkshire," answered Mary triumphantly. "I
canna' talk as graidely as Dickon an' Martha can but tha' sees I can
shape a bit. Doesn't tha' understand a bit o' Yorkshire when tha' hears
it? An' tha' a Yorkshire lad thysel' bred an' born! Eh! I wonder tha'rt
not ashamed o' thy face."

And then she began to laugh too and they both laughed until they could
not stop themselves and they laughed until the room echoed and Mrs.
Medlock opening the door to come in drew back into the corridor and
stood listening amazed.

"Well, upon my word!" she said, speaking rather broad Yorkshire herself
because there was no one to hear her and she was so astonished. "Whoever
heard th' like! Whoever on earth would ha' thought it!"

There was so much to talk about. It seemed as if Colin