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Copywork
About This Passage
Burnett lands on the exact word for Ben Weatherstaff here: he is a queer mixture. His tenderness is crabbed (bent, grumpy, hidden under crust) and his understanding is shrewd (sharp, quick, able to read the garden's secret without being told). The three sentences also track how Mary has done the work of protecting Colin from his own old story.
There was a queer mixture of crabbed tenderness and shrewd understanding in his manner. Mary had poured out speech as rapidly as she could as they had come down the Long Walk. The chief thing to be re...
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Retell Chapter 22 as Colin's second afternoon standing in the garden. Begin with Dickon's answer — 'I told thee tha' could as soon as tha' stopped bein' afraid' — and Colin's quiet 'Yes, I've stopped.' Move through Colin's walk to the tree, his confrontation with Ben Weatherstaff, Ben's revelation that he has been secretly climbing the wall for years to prune Mrs. Craven's roses, Colin's first trowelful of soil, the planting of the rose, and Colin standing on his two feet — laughing — as the sun slips over the edge.
Discussion Questions
- Dickon says Colin is making 'same Magic as made these 'ere work out o' th' earth' and touches a clump of crocuses. What does Dickon mean by calling Colin's standing up the SAME Magic as the Magic that lifts a crocus out of the soil, and why is it important that he does not say it is a DIFFERENT or BIGGER kind of Magic for a human boy?
- Ben Weatherstaff reveals that Mrs. Craven, before she died, said to him, 'Ben, if ever I'm ill or if I go away you must take care of my roses.' Ben then secretly climbed the wall once a year for years, even with rheumatics. What does this reveal about how Ben has carried grief, and how does it reframe his rough outside earlier in the book?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
Kept on trying, refused to give up even when something was hard; Burnett writes 'Colin persevered' when the thin-handed boy keeps turning trowelfuls of soil though the work is new and tiring
Item 2
Walked unsteadily, with a limping or stiff step, as someone with sore legs might walk; Ben Weatherstaff hobbles over the grass as fast as he can to bring the rose in its pot
Item 3
Outwardly grumpy or ill-tempered, especially when the grumpiness is hiding a softer feeling; Burnett calls Ben Weatherstaff's tenderness 'crabbed' because he cares deeply but will not show it on his face
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Critical Thinking
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