Chapter 26 Chapter 26 "It's Mom!"

Their belief in magic continues unabated.Colin sometimes gave them magic lectures after the morning spells. "I like doing this," he explained, "because when I grow up and make big scientific discoveries, I have to explain them, so now it's a drill. Right now I can only give short lectures because I'm young, and Ji Yuanben It would feel like he was in church, he would fall asleep." "The biggest advantage of lectures," said Ji Yuanben, "is that people can stand up and say what they like, and others can't talk back. I don't object to giving lectures by myself at any time."

However, when Colin leaned forward under his tree, Ji Yuan's eyes fixed on him hungrily, and then stayed there.He examined him critically and affectionately.In fact, what interests him less than the lectures are not so much the legs that are getting straighter and stronger every day, the boyish head that is so well held up, the once thin chin and hollow face, which are now filled. Full, round and bulging, those eyes began to contain the brilliance of another pair of eyes in his memory. "What are you thinking, Ji Yuanben?" he asked. "I'm thinking," Ji Yuanben replied, "I'm sure you've gained three or four pounds this week. I'm looking at your calves and shoulders. I want to put you on the scale."

"It's magic and—and Mrs. Sowerby's buns and milk and things," said Colin. "You see the science experiment has worked." Deacon was too late that morning to miss the lecture.When he came, his face was rosy from running, and his happy face looked more radiant than usual.They had a lot of weeding after the rain, so they dived right in.They always have plenty to do after a warm, deep rain.Moisture is good for the flowers, but it's also good for the weeds, which have tiny blades of grass and little leaves that must be pulled up before the roots can get hold of them.Colin weeds as well as anyone these days, and he can lecture at the same time.

"Magic works best when you work yourself," he said this morning. "You can feel it in your bones, in your muscles. I'm going to read about bones and muscles, but I'm going to Writing a book about magic. I'm thinking about it now. I keep discovering." Not long after he had said this, he put down his trowel and stood up.He had just been silent for a few minutes, and they could tell he was designing the lecture, as he always did.When he put down the trowel and stood up straight, Mary and Dickon seemed to see a sudden and strong impulse to do so.He stretched himself to the top, throwing his arms out in ecstasy.Colin's face lighted up, and his strange eyes opened wide with joy.Suddenly, he understood exactly what was going on.

"Mary! Dickon!" he cried. "Look at me!" They stopped weeding and looked at him. "Do you remember the first morning you brought me here?" he ordered. Dickon looked at him hard.As an animal trainer, he sees more than most, much more than he ever talks about.He saw some of it in the boy now. "Oh yes, we remember," he replied. Mary looked hard too, but she said nothing. "Just now," said Colin, "all of a sudden I remembered to myself--as I watched my hands digging with the trowel--I had to get up and see if it was true. It was true I'm all right—I'm all right!"

"Well, yes, now," said Dickon. "I'm all right! I'm all right!" said Colin again, his whole face flushed. In a way, he had known before, he had expected, felt, thought, and yet at that moment something rushed through him--a grasping belief and realization so strong he couldn't help it. don't shout. "I will live forever and ever and ever!" he cried solemnly. "I will discover thousands and thousands of things. I will know about people, animals, and everything that grows—such as Dickon —I'll never stop doing magic. I'm all right! I'm all right! I feel—I feel as though I'd like to call out something—thanks, joyous thing!"

Ji Yuanben was working near a bush of roses just now, and turned to glance at him. "You might be able to sing hymns," he muttered coldly.He had no idea of ​​hymns, and he suggested them with no particular reverence. But Colin's mind was inquisitive, and he knew nothing of hymns. "What's that?" he investigates. "Dickon can sing for you, I promise." Ji Yuanben replied. Dickon answered with the knowing smile of a beastmaster. "They sing it in church," he said, "and Mother said she believed the larks sang it when they got up in the morning."

"It must be a nice song if she says that," replied Colin. "I've never been in church myself. I've always been very sick. Sing it, Dickon. I want to hear it." Dickon thought it was simple and had no emotion about it.He understood Colin's feelings better than Colin himself.He relied on some kind of intuition to understand, so naturally he didn't even know it was understanding.He took off his hat and looked around, still smiling. "You'll have to take off your hat," he said to Colin, "and you too, Ji Yuanben—and have to stand up, you know."

Colin took off his hat, and the sun was shining brightly, warming his thick hair, and he gazed intently at Dickon.Ji Yuanben got up on hands and feet, and his head was also bald, with a puzzled and half-resentful look on his old face, as if he hadn't fully figured out why he was doing such an extraordinary thing. Dickon, standing between the trees and the rosebushes, began to sing, simple and earnest, with a nice strong boyish voice. Praise God, send down all blessings, Praise him, all things that lie low, Praise him, who ruled the sun, moon and stars, Praise, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Amen! When he finished singing, Ji Yuanben stood quietly, his jaw was stubbornly closed, but his eyes were fixed on Ke Lin, and his eyes were troubled.Colin's face was thoughtful and appreciative. "It's a nice song," he said, "I like it. Maybe it means what I want to shout, I'm grateful for magic." He paused, wondering, "Maybe they're the same thing How can we know the name of everything so well? Sing it again, Dickon. Let's try it, Mary. I want to learn it too. It's my song. How did it begin?' Praise God , send down all blessings'?"

So they sang it again, Mary and Colin raising their voices as musically as they could, and Dickon's voice falling away very loudly and beautifully - by the second line, Ji Yuanben's voice cleared like a file Clearing his throat, he joins in the third line, with energy bordering on savage, and when "Amen" ends, Mary observes the same thing happening as when he discovers that Colin isn't crippled—his jaw Twitching, eyes staring and blinking, old leathery cheeks wet. "I never saw the point of hymns before," he said hoarsely, "but I may have changed my mind now. I should say you gained five pounds this week, Master Colin—five pounds." Colin was looking across the garden when something caught his attention, and his expression became surprised. "Who's coming?" he said quickly. "Who's that?" On the ivy-covered wall, the door opened softly, and a woman had entered.She came when they were singing the last line, and she stood still, listening to them and looking at them.Behind her was the ivy, and the sun filtered through the trees, speckling her long blue smock, and her fresh, pretty face smiled, and through the shades she looked like a color in Colin's book Pastel illustration.She has wonderfully affectionate eyes that seem to take in everything—all of them, even Ji Yuanben, the "living beings" and every flower that blooms.She came unexpectedly, and none of them thought she was an intruder.Dickon's eyes lit up like lights. "It's Mama—it's Mama!" he cried, running across the grass. Colin also started towards her, and Mary went with him.Both of them felt their pulse quicken. "It's Mother!" said Dickon again, when they met halfway, "I know you want to see her, and tell her where Nazha is." Colin held out his hand, blushing with royal shyness, but his eyes almost swallowed her face. "Even when I was sick I wanted to see you," he said. "You and Deacon and Secret Garden. I never wanted to see anyone or anything before." Seeing his looking up face brought a sudden change to her face as well.She blushed, the corners of her mouth quivered, and a mist floated over her eyes. "Oh! good boy!" she cried tremblingly, "oh! good boy!" as if she hadn't known she could say it.She didn't say "Master Colin" but "good boy" out of the blue.If she had seen something in Dickon's face that had moved her, she might have said the same.Colin likes this. "Are you surprised that I'm in such good health?" he asked. She put her hand on his shoulder and smiled to clear the fog from her eyes. "Yeah, I do," she said, "but you're so like your mother, it makes my heart beat." "Do you think," said Colin, a little awkwardly, "that my father would like me for it?" "Oh yes, sure, my dear boy," she answered, patting him on the shoulder softly and quickly, "he must come home—he must come home." "Susan Sowerby," said Ji Yuanben, approaching her, "look at the kid's legs, okay? They were like a pair of drumsticks in a stocking two months ago—I heard People say the knees bend back and front at the same time. Look at them now!" Susan Sowerby smiled contentedly. "They're going to be good legs for a strong lad in no time," she said. "Let him keep playing, keep working in the garden, eat human food, drink more good milk, and Yorkshire can't find it." Better legs, thank God." She put her hands on Miss Mary's shoulders and looked maternally at her little face. "And you!" she said, "you look almost as healthy as our Elizabeth Allen. I'm sure you'll be like your mother too. Our Martha told me that Mrs. Medlock heard her A pretty one. You'll be a pink rosebush when you grow up, my little girl, bless you." She did not mention that when Martha came home on her "day off" and described the dull, sallow child, she had said she had no confidence in what Mrs. Medlock had heard. "It just doesn't make sense that a beautiful woman should be the mother of such a boring little girl," she added firmly. Mary had no time to pay much attention to her changed face.All she knew was that she looked "different" and that her hair seemed to be growing much more quickly.But she remembered the pleasure she had used to watch her mistress, and she was glad to hear that one day she might look like her. Susan Sowerby walked with them round their garden, heard the whole story, and was shown every bush and every tree that came to life.Colin walked beside her and Mary on the other side.They both kept looking up at her comfortable rosy face, secretly curious about the pleasant feeling she made them feel—a feeling of being warmed, supported.As if she understood them as Dickon understood his "creatures."She bent over the flowers and talked about them as if they were her own children.Soot followed her, croaked at her once or twice, and flew up her shoulder as if it were Dickon's.They told her of the first flight of the robin and the chick, and a mellow, motherly little laugh escaped her throat. "I guess teaching them to fly is like teaching a child to walk, but I'm afraid I'll be worried if my child has wings instead of legs," she said. Because she seemed such a nice woman, with a good-natured wilderness style, that she was finally told about the magic. "Do you believe in magic?" said Colin, after explaining the Indian magicians. "I really hope you do." "I believe, child," she answered, "I never knew its name, but what does the name matter? I promise it's a different name in France, and another in Germany. Like letting a seed swell and the sun shine It's all good stuff to make you a healthy kid. It's not what us fools think because we call each other by first names. That giant good thing never stops caring about us and bless us. It Going on and on, making billions and billions of worlds - worlds like our own. You never stop believing in that big good thing, and always remember that the whole world is full of it - call it what you like What. You were singing to it when I entered the garden." "I feel so happy," said Colin, opening beautiful strange eyes at her, "and suddenly I feel very different—my arms and legs are very different, you know—how I can dig , stood up - I jumped up, trying to shout, to whatever would listen." "When you sing hymns, the magic listens. It listens to whatever you sing. The key is joy. Ah! child, child—what shall I call the thing that makes joy?" She gave him a light and gentle shoulder. slap. This morning she packed a basket of fixed feasts, and when the hour of hunger came, Dickon brought it out of its hiding place, and she sat with them under their tree, watching them gobble it up, and gaze adoringly their appetite.She was full of joy, and made them laugh with all kinds of strange things.She told them stories in flat Yorkshire, and taught them new words.They told her it was difficult to pretend that Colin was still a restless cripple, and she laughed as if she couldn't help it. "You see, we can't stop laughing almost all the time when we're together," Colin explained. "It doesn't sound like sick at all. We try to hold it back, but when it comes out, it sounds the worst." "There's one thing that keeps popping into my head," said Mary, "and I can't help it when I think of it suddenly. I keep thinking and imagining that Colin's face will look like a full moon. It's not like that yet. , but he's getting a little fatter every day—think it's going to be like a full moon one morning—what shall we do?" "Bless us all, I see you've got quite a game to play," said Susan Sowerby, "but you won't last long. Master Craven will be home." "You think he will?" asked Colin. "Why?" Susan Sowerby chuckled softly. "I guess it would break your heart if he found out before you told him your own way," she said. "I can't stand people telling him," Colin said. "I think of something different every day. Now I just want to run into his room." "It'll be a good start for him," said Susan Sowerby. "I'd like to see his face, boy. I would! He must come back—he must." One of the things they talked about was going to visit her farmhouse.They are all planned.They were going to drive across the moors and have a picnic in the heather for lunch.They would see all twelve children, Dickon's garden, and never come back till they were tired. Susan Sowerby rose at last, and went back to the house to Mrs. Medlock.It was time, too, that Colin was pushed back.But before he got into the wheelchair, he was standing very close to Susan, his eyes fixed on her with a sort of fascinated admiration, when suddenly he seized the cloth of her blue smock and held it tightly. "You're like me—what I want," he said. "I wish you were my mother—and Dickon's too!" Suddenly Susan Sowerby stooped and took him in her arms against her breast under the blue smock--as if he were Dickon's brother.Fog soon filled her eyes. "Ah! good boy!" said she, "your own mother is in this garden, I do believe it. She cannot leave this garden. Your father must come back—must!" 【①Pound, the imperial unit of weight, 1 pound = 0.4536 kilograms, which is close to 1 catty in China. 】