Chapter 23 Chapter 23 Magic
When they got back into the room, Dr. Craven had been waiting.He actually began to wonder whether it would be wise to send someone into the garden to investigate.
"You shouldn't be out that long," he said. "You mustn't be overtired."
"I'm not tired at all," said Colin. "I feel better. I'm going out in the morning and in the afternoon to-morrow."
"It would be unwise to try to stop me," said Colin, rather gravely. "I'm going."
One of the chief oddities that even Mary found in Colin was that he had no idea what a rough little beast he was when he went about giving orders.He has lived in a place similar to a deserted island all his life, and has always been the king on it. He has formed his own etiquette, which no one can compare.Mary had been really like him, and since coming to Misselwest she had come to find that her own manners were neither normal nor welcome.After she made this discovery, she naturally found it interesting to associate with Colin.So, after Dr. Craven left, she sat and watched curiously for a few minutes.She wanted him to ask why she did it, which of course she did.
"What are you looking at me for?" he said.
"I was thinking, I feel sorry for Dr. Craven."
"Me too," said Colin quietly, but without satisfaction. "He won't get a bit of Misselwest, and now I won't die."
"I pity him for that, of course," said Mary, "but just now I was thinking how terrible it must be to have to be polite to a boy who's always been rude for ten years."
"Am I being rude?" Colin asked nonchalantly.
"If you were his kid, and he's a slapper," said Mary, "he might have slapped you already."
"But he dared not," said Colin.
"No, he wouldn't," replied Miss Mary, who considered the matter impartially. "No one would dare to do something you don't like—because you'd die or something. You're a poor wretch."
"But," declared Colin stubbornly, "I won't be a wretch. I won't be thought I am. I stood on my feet this afternoon."
"What makes you weird is that you can always get your own way," Mary went on, thinking aloud.
Colin turned his head, frowning.
"Am I weird?" he demanded.
"Yes," Mary replied, "very much. But you don't have to feel bad about it." She added impartially, "Because I'm weird too—and Ji Yuanben. But I'm not weird like I used to be, when I started liking people Before, and before finding the garden."
"I don't want to be weird," said Colin, "I don't want to." He frowned resolutely again.
He is a very proud boy.He lay thinking for a while, and then Mary saw his beautiful smile unfold and gradually change his whole face.
"I'd stop being queer," he said, "if I went to the garden every day. There's magic there—good magic, you know, Mary. I'm sure there is."
"Me too," said Mary.
"Even if it's not real magic," said Colin, "we can pretend it is. There's something there—something!"
"It's magic," said Mary, "but it's not black. It's white as snow."
They always call it magic, and the next few months do look like magic—beautiful months—shiny months—amazing.Oh!What happened in that garden!If you've never had a garden, you don't understand it. If you have a garden, you know that it would take a whole book to describe everything that came and went.At first, it seemed like green things would never stop bubbling out of the soil, in the grass, in the flower beds, even in the cracks in the walls.Then the green stuff began to unfurl, showing colors, every blue, every purple, every smear of crimson.In happy days, there are flowers hidden in every inch of ground, in every hole, in every corner.Ji Yuan had seen how others did it, and he himself scraped off the plaster between the cracks of the bricks on the wall, and made bags of soil to grow beautiful climbing plants.Irises and white lilies burst out of the grass in bunches, and the green arbors are filled with blue and white arrowheads, or tall delphiniums, or columbine, or bluebells.
"She dotes on them very much—she is." Ji Yuanben said, "She likes them always pointing up to the sky, she used to say. She is not a person who looks down—she is not. She is just like that Like it, she said that the blue sky is always so happy to look at."
Mary and Dickon sowed seeds that looked as if fairies tended them.The satiny poppies, in every hue, danced in groups in the breeze, bright, happy, nonchalant flowers that had lived in the garden for years, and frankly seemed very strange how these newcomers got here.And roses—roses!Emerging from the grass, twining around the sundial, garlanding the trunks, hanging from the branches, climbing the walls, covering them with long crowns, hanging like cascades—they watch every day, every hour survived.The sharp, fresh leaves, and the buds—and the buds—were tiny at first, but bulging and bewitching, until they burst open and unfurled into cups of fragrance that daintily splashed themselves off the sides and filled the into the garden air.
Colin saw it all, watched every change come into play.Every morning he was brought out, and every hour of every day, when it was not raining, he spent in the garden.Even cloudy days cheer him up.He'd lie on the grass "and watch things grow," he said.If you watch long enough, he announced, you can see the buds come out of their sheaths.You also get acquainted with the strange busy bugs, who go about on various unknown but obviously important errands, sometimes carrying tiny bits of hay, feathers, or food, or climbing onto a blade of grass, As if the blades of grass were the trees, from the top one could look out and explore the kingdom.A mole threw up the dirt and piled it at the end of the hole, and finally crawled out with long-nailed, elf-like claws, and attracted him all the afternoon.The way of the ants, the way of the beetle, the way of the bee, the way of the frog, the way of the bird, the way of the plant, gave him a whole new world to explore, when Dickon revealed them all, plus the way of the fox, The ways of the otter, the way of the ermine, the way of the squirrel, the way of the trout, the way of the water rat and the badger, there is so much to talk and think about.
Not even half the magic.He had actually stood on his feet, and had given Colin a lot of thought, and when Mary told him that she had said a spell, he was thrilled and appreciative.He talks about it often.
"There's definitely a lot of magic in the world," he said wisely one day, "but people don't know what it's like, or how to make it. Maybe it's all about saying good things will happen until you make it happen. I'm going to try Try an experiment."
The next morning when they arrived at the secret garden, he immediately sent for Ji Yuanben.Ji Yuanben came at the fastest speed, seeing the prince standing under the tree with his own feet, looking solemn, but also smiling beautifully.
"Good morning, Ji Yuanben," he said, "I want you, Dickon, and Miss Mary to stand in a row and listen to me, because I have something very important to tell you."
"Yes, yes, sir!" Ji Yuanben replied, touching his forehead. (One of Ji Yuanben's long-buried charms is that he once ran away from home as a child and sailed many times at sea. So he can cope like a sailor.)
"I'm going to try a scientific experiment," the prince explained. "When I grow up, I'm going to make a major scientific discovery. I'm going to start with this experiment now."
"Yes, yes, sir!" Ji Yuanben replied immediately, even though this was the first time he had heard of a major scientific discovery.
It was also the first time Mary had heard of it, but even at this stage she was beginning to realize that Colin, despite his eccentricity, had read a great deal about unique things, and was somehow a convincing child.When he looks up and fixes his eyes on you, it's like you can't help but believe him, even though he's only ten years old—almost eleven.He was especially convincing at this moment, because he suddenly felt the temptation to give some kind of speech like an adult.
"The great scientific discovery I'm about to make," he went on, "is about magic. Magic is a good thing that almost no one understands except a few characters in ancient books—and Mary, because she Born in India, where there are magicians. I'm sure Dickon knows some magic, but maybe he doesn't know he does. He charms animals and people. I wouldn't let him see me if he wasn't an animal trainer— —a boy tamer, too, because boys are animals. I'm sure everything has magic, it's just that we don't have enough judgment to catch it and make it do things for us—like electricity, horses, and Like steam."
This sounded so magnificent and magnificent, Ji Yuanben became excited and really felt a little restless, "Yes, yes, sir." He said, and began to sit up straight.
"When Mary found this garden it looked dead," continued the orator, "and then something began to push things out of the soil and make things out of nothing. One day there was nothing there the next day .I've never observed anything before and it made me curious. Scientists are always curious, and I'm going to talk about science. I keep saying to myself, 'What's that? What's that?' There's something. Impossible something None! I don't know the name of it, so I call it magic. I've never seen a sunrise, but Mary and Dickon have, and from what they tell me, I'm sure that's magic too. Something pushes out the sun, la Looking at it. Ever since I entered this garden, I used to look at the sky through the tree, and I had a strange feeling, I felt happy, as if something was pushing and pulling in my chest, making something out of nothing. Everything is magic Made, leaves and trees, flowers and birds, badgers and foxes and squirrels and men, so magic must be all around us. In this garden—in all places. The magic of this garden has made me stand up, let I know I can live and grow into a man. I'm going to do a science experiment and try to get some magic and put it on myself and let it push me and pull me and make me strong. I don't know how, but I want to be You keep thinking about it, calling it, and maybe it will come. Maybe it's the first step in kindergarten magic. The first time I tried to stand up, Mary kept talking to herself rapidly: 'Can you Yes! You can do it!' I will. Of course I had to cast spells on myself at the same time, but her magic helped me--and Dickon's. Every morning and night and day as long as I can remember , I'm going to say to myself 'Magic is on me! Magic is making me better! I'll be as strong as Dickon, as strong as Dickon!' You have to do the same. This is my experiment. Can you help, Ji Yuanben?"
"Yes, yes, sir!" Ji Yuanben said, "Yes, yes!"
"If you stick to it every day, it's as routine as a soldier's drill, and we'll see what happens, see if the experiment works. You have to read and think about it over and over again until it's in your head forever, so you learn things, I Think magic is the same. If you keep calling on it to help you, it becomes part of you and it stays and does things."
"In India I once heard an army officer tell my mother that some dervishes recite a sentence thousands of times," Mary said.
"I've heard Jim Feltworth's wife say the same thing a thousand times—calling Jim a drunken beast," Ji-Won said dryly. "It sure did. He gave her a good one." Beat the whip, and run to the blue lion drunk to become an old man."
Colin frowned and thought for a few minutes.Then he cheered up.
"Well," he said, "you see it worked. She used the wrong spell until she got him to beat her up. If she had used the right spell, and put it nicely, maybe he wouldn't have Get drunk and maybe—maybe he'll buy her a new hat."
Ji Yuanben laughed, and there was a cunning appreciation in his small old eyes.
"You're a bright lad, and straight-legged, Master Colin," said he. "Next time I see Beth Feltworth, I'll give her a hint of what magic can do for her. . She's going to be happy for a while, if science experiments can work--and Jim can."
Dickon stood listening to the speech, his round eyes twinkling with curiosity and pleasure.Nuts and kernels were on his shoulders, and he was holding a white rabbit with long ears in his arms, stroking it tenderly, while it put its ears on its back, enjoying itself.
"Do you think this experiment will work?" Colin asked him, wondering what he was thinking.He often wondered what Deacon was thinking when he saw Deacon grinning happily and looking at him or Deacon's "creatures."
He was smiling now, a wider smile than usual.
"Oh yes," he replied, "it will work. It will do as well as the sun on the seeds. It will certainly work. Shall we start now?"
Colin was happy, and so was Mary.Colin remembered the dervishes and the devotees in the illustration with enthusiasm, and suggested that they all sit cross-legged under the canopy tree.
"It was like sitting in some kind of temple," Colin said. "I'm tired and I want to sit down."
"Ah!" said Dickon, "you mustn't start off saying you're tired. It might break the magic."
Colin turned and looked at him--into his round, innocent eyes.
"That's right," he said slowly, "I must be thinking only of magic." When they sat down in a circle, everything looked very dignified and mysterious.Ji Yuan felt as if he had been led into what looked like a prayer meeting.He was usually very stiff in what he called a "surrogate's prayer meeting," but he did not resent participating in this Lord's business, and was indeed almost grateful that he had been called to help.Miss Mary was solemnly full of joy.Dickon had the rabbit in his arms, and perhaps he was giving some kind of animal-tamer signal that no one heard, for he sat down, cross-legged like the rest, and the crow, the fox, the squirrel, the lamb all approached and joined the circle , each of them found a place to settle down as if voluntarily.
"The 'creatures' are coming," said Colin solemnly. "They want to help us."
Colin really looked beautiful, Mary thought.He held his head high as if he thought he was some kind of priest, and there was a wonderful look in his strange eyes.Light shone on him through the canopy.
"Now we begin," he said, "shall we rock back and forth, Mary, as if we were dervishes?"
"I can't rock back and forth," Ji Yuanben said, "I have rheumatism."
"Magic will get rid of them," said Colin, in the tone of the high priest, "but we will not waver until the magic has cured the sick. We only chant."
"I don't know how to chant," Ji Yuanben said with a touch of grumpiness, "I only tried it once, and they kicked me out of the church choir."
No one smiles.They are all too serious and focused.Not even a shadow passed over Colin's face.All he could think about was magic.
"Then I will chant," he said.Then he started, looking like a strange boy soul. "The sun shines—the sun shines. That's magic. The flower grows—the roots move. That's magic. To be alive is magic—to be strong is magic. The magic is in me—the magic is in me. In me—in On me. On each of us. On Ji Yuanben's back. Magic! Magic! Come help!"
He said it many times—not a thousand times, but a considerable number.Mary listened fascinated.She finds it strange and beautiful at the same time, and she wants him to keep going.Ji Yuanben began to feel comforted and sank into a harmonious and comfortable dream.The buzzing of bees among the flowers mixed with the singing of human voices, turning into a doze.Dickon sat cross-legged with the Rabbit asleep in his arms and his hand on the lamb's back.Soot pushed aside a squirrel and snuggled up against his shoulder, eyes cast down by the gray membrane.Finally, Colin stopped.
"Now I'm going to walk around the garden," he announced.
Just as Ji Yuanben's head drooped forward, he suddenly lifted it up.
"You fell asleep," said Colin.
"It doesn't matter much." Yuan Ben murmured in a low voice, "The sermon was good—but I was determined to go out before collecting donations."①.
He hasn't woken up yet.
"You're not in church," said Colin.
"I didn't." Yuan Ben said, sitting up straight, "Who said I fell asleep? I heard every word. You said the magic was on my back. The doctor said it was rheumatism."
"That's wrong magic," he said. "You'll be all right. I give you permission to do your work. But come back tomorrow."
"I want to see you walk around the garden." Ji Yuanben muttered.
A mumble is not unfriendly, but a mumble.In fact, being a stubborn old participant who didn't quite believe in magic, he had decided that if he was sent away, he would climb up his ladder and look over the wall, so that if something slipped, he could always Limp back.
The prince had no objection to him staying, so the queue took shape.It really looks like a queue.Colin led the way, Dickon on one side and Mary on the other.Ji Yuanben walked behind, the "creatures" dragged behind them, the lamb and the little fox followed Dickon, the white rabbit jumped all the way, stopping to gnaw things occasionally, and Soot followed, with a person in charge.
The queue moved slowly but with dignity.Stop and rest every few yards.Colin leaned on Dickon's arm, and Ji Yuanben was privately wary, but Colin took his hands off the support now and then, and took a few steps by himself.His head was kept high, and he looked very dignified.
"The magic is on me!" he kept saying. "The magic makes me strong! I can feel it! I can feel it!"
Pretty sure something was holding him up, lifting him up.He sat on the seat in the arbor, once or twice on the grass, and stopped a few times on the path to lean against Dickon, yet he would not give up until he had walked the full circle of the garden.When he returned to the canopy tree, his face was flushed, and he looked as if he had returned in triumph.
"I've done it! The magic works!" he cried. "This is my first scientific discovery."
"What would Dr. Craven say?" Mary interrupted suddenly.
"He won't say anything," replied Colin, "because it won't be told to him. It will be the biggest secret of all. No one will know a iota till I'm strong enough to walk and run like the other boys. I'm going to come here in a wheelchair every day and go back in a wheelchair. I won't have people whispering, asking questions, I won't let my dad hear the news until the experiment is completely successful. Then when he returns to Misselwest Manor I'm going to walk right into his study and say, 'Here I am; I'm just like any other boy. I'm in good health and I'll live to be a man. This is the result of a scientific experiment.' "
"He'll think he's dreaming," exclaimed Mary, "and he won't believe his eyes."
Colin blushed triumphantly.He's already convinced himself he's going to be fine, which is more than half the battle, if he realizes it.What inspired him more than any other thought was what his father would look like when he saw his son as straight and strong as any other father's son.One of his darkest pains, during his unhealthy past, was that he hated himself as a kid with a weak back that his own father was afraid to see.
"He had to believe his eyes," he said.
"One of the things I'm going to do after the magic happens, before I start making scientific discoveries, is to become an athlete."
"In a week or so, we will take you to a boxing match," Ji Yuanben said, "you will finally win the championship and become the professional boxing champion of England."
Colin stared at him sternly.
"Old Season," he said, "it's disrespectful. You mustn't do anything just because you know a secret. No matter how good the magic is, I'm not going to be a professional boxer. I'm going to be a scientific discoverer."
"Excuse me, forgive me, sir," Ji Yuanben replied, touching his forehead and saluting, "I should have known this was not a joke," but his eyes blinked, and he was secretly overjoyed.He really doesn't mind being reprimanded, because reprimanding means that the boy is gaining strength and spirit.
【①In Western churches, when there is an assembly, the pastor usually makes a speech first, explaining the truth, which is called a sermon.After the sermon, the congregation members begin to donate money to the church, which is called fundraising. 】