The Secret Garden — Chapter 15

About This Passage

Burnett’s inaugural morning of the real spring — the sensory argument for getting out of doors. The slanting light, the scented air, and the fluting of birds gather into what the narrator quietly calls ‘Magic,’ which turns out to be the plainest thing in the world: a person noticing what is actually happening. This is the passage Mary’s whole year has been moving toward.

Narration Prompt

Retell Chapter 15 in your own words. Begin with the week of indoor talks between Mary and Colin, move to Mary’s sunrise dash into the garden, her meeting with Dickon and his fox and rook, the hushed watching of the robin building his nest, and Mary’s first cautious confidence to Dickon about Colin.

Discussion Questions

1. Mrs. Medlock tells Mary that Colin has not had a tantrum or whining fit since she came, and the nurse is no longer planning to give up the case. What does Burnett show us about how friendship changes a whole household, not just the two children inside it?
2. When Mary opens her window at sunrise and feels the scented air, the narrator says ‘the whole world looked as if something Magic had happened to it.’ Why do you think Burnett keeps capitalizing ‘Magic’ — and what is the difference between this kind of magic and the magic in a fairy tale?

+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide