The Secret Garden — Chapter 16

About This Passage

This is the moment Mary does something nobody at Misselthwaite has ever done: she tells Colin to his face that she does not believe he is dying. For a boy who has been told for ten years that he is ill, being contradicted by another child is like opening a window in a shut-up room. The pillow he throws is weak — it falls at her feet — and even his rage is the first healthy thing he has done in months.

Narration Prompt

Retell Chapter 16 in your own words. Start with Mary’s happy day in the garden with Dickon, Soot, and Captain; then the fight with Colin about dying and lumps and the pillow; then the nurse laughing in the hall; then Mr. Craven’s box of books; and end with Mary deciding she will go back in the morning.

Discussion Questions

1. Mary chooses to stay in the garden with Dickon instead of going in to sit with Colin. How do you know from the chapter that Mary is not being mean on purpose, but is just in love with being outside with Dickon and Soot and Captain for the very first time in her life?
2. When Colin says he is going to die, Mary says, ‘I don’t believe it!’ What makes you think this is the first time anyone has answered Colin that way — and how can you tell the chapter thinks Mary’s answer is the right one?

+ 2 more questions in the complete study guide