The Secret Garden — Chapter 10

About This Passage

This is the very moment Mary decides to share the garden with Dickon. Burnett piles on opposites inside one short sentence — contrary and obstinate, imperious and Indian, hot and sorrowful — and then has Mary walk Dickon down the laurel path to the ivy door and 'wave her hand round defiantly.' Copying this passage lets a Trailblazer feel the mix of fear, anger, and hope that pushes Mary into sharing her secret.

Narration Prompt

Retell Chapter 10 with attention to how Mary changes. Remember the week of sunshine in the secret garden, Mary's longer conversation with Ben Weatherstaff about the roses and the lady he used to work for, Mary hearing the whistling pipe and finding Dickon with wild animals gathered around him, and the chapter's ending where Mary makes her first big decision to share her secret.

Discussion Questions

1. Ben Weatherstaff tells Mary, 'Tha's beginnin' to do Misselthwaite credit,' and says she is 'a bit fatter' and 'not quite so yeller.' What evidence does Burnett give us across this chapter that Mary is becoming a different child than the one who first arrived at Misselthwaite?
2. Ben Weatherstaff becomes gentler in this chapter, especially after the robin lands on his spade. What does Burnett want us to understand about Ben from the way he stands 'still as if he were afraid to breathe' when the robin is there, even though he pretends to be cross?

+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide