The Secret Garden — Chapter 26

About This Passage

This passage opens Chapter 26 and shows how firmly the three children believe in the Magic. Colin has begun to give lectures under his tree as practise for the scientist he means to become, and old Ben Weatherstaff — who used to growl at everyone — now watches the boy with devouring eyes and critical affection. Burnett is quietly showing that the garden’s work has already reached the hardest hearts before the chapter’s big singing scene begins.

Narration Prompt

Retell Chapter 26 from beginning to end in your own words. Begin with Colin’s Magic lectures, move through the moment he realizes he is well and the singing of the Doxology, and end with Susan Sowerby’s visit to the garden and her quiet words about Colin’s father returning home.

Discussion Questions

1. Colin stands suddenly and shouts, “I’m well! I’m well!” Burnett writes that “something had rushed all through him — a sort of rapturous belief and realization.” What does the word “rapturous” tell us about how this realization was different from the times he had only hoped it?
2. Ben Weatherstaff suggests the Doxology in “his dryest grunt” and says he has no opinion of it, yet by the third line of the song he joins in “with such vigor that it seemed almost savage” and his cheeks are wet. How do the two moments together show a change in Ben?

+ 3 more questions in the complete study guide