The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett  was my 15th of 2021, Thanks to Sibi for recommending this. Though this was recommended on 13th Jan - not sure why and how Heidi reappeared! May be to throw light on the similarities?

Lovely book, teaches you about life and living, and drives home the point that Responsibility and care are acquired skills.

The Secret Garden is the story of a neglected and unloved 10 year old girl named  Mary Lennox who was born in British India to wealthy British parents. Her parents never wanted her and made an effort to ignore the girl. She is cared for primarily by native servants, who allow her to become spoiled, demanding, and self-centered. After a cholera epidemic kills Mary's parents, the few surviving servants flee the house without Mary.

She is discovered by British soldiers who place her in the temporary care of an English clergyman, whose children taunt her by calling her "Mistress Mary, quite contrary". She is soon sent to England to live with her uncle, Archibald Craven, whom her father's sister Lilias married. He lives on the Yorkshire Moors in a large English country house, Misselthwaite Manor. When escorted to Misselthwaite by the housekeeper Mrs Medlock, she discovers her mother's sister is dead, and that Mr Craven is a hunchback.

On her way she ask Mrs. Medlock "What is moor?" - Mrs. Medlock, asks her to see it for herself, and at night when they reach moors, Mary thinks it to be sea. To this Mrs. Medlock responds - "It isn't fields nor mountains, it's just miles and miles and miles of wild land that nothing grows on but heather and gorse and broom, and nothing lives on but wild ponies and sheep." " It's a wild dreary enough place, though there's plenty that likes it - particularly when the heather's in bloom", wind blowing through the bushes make it feel like sea. Sea without water.

"Wutherin" means hollow shuddering sort of roar which rushed round and round the house as if the giant no one could see were buffeting it and beating at the walls and windows to try to break in. But one knew he could not et in, and somehow it make one feel very safe and warm inside a room with a red coal fire. 

At first, Mary is as sour and rude as ever. She dislikes her new home, the people living in it, and most of all, the bleak moor on which it sits. Over time, she learns many things beginning with how to dress herself,  how much nicer a person looks when they smile. Talking to the birds she realized she was lonely and that is what made her feel sour and cross. She thinks of many things that she had not thought of before, and so do we. 

She befriends her maid Martha Sowerby, who tells Mary about Lilias, who would spend hours in a private walled garden growing roses. Martha tells Mary that  Lilias Craven died after an accident in the garden ten years prior, and the devastated Archibald locked the garden and buried the key.  She also tells her about her brother Dickon, who Mary fancy visiting soon. One night, Mary hears the cries once more and decides to follow them through the house. 

So much and this is just the beginning of the book we are not even 20% through.  

Mary is startled to find a boy of her age named Colin, who lives in a hidden bedroom. She soon discovers that they are cousins, Colin being the son of Archibald, and that he suffers from an unspecified spinal problem which precludes him from walking and causes him to spend all of his time in bed.  They get into the garden and finally he is able to walk. 

The story has everything that one live for: flowers, garden and hope. 

"Much more surprising things can happen to anyone who, when a disagreeable or discouraged thought comes into his mind, just has the sense to remember in time and push it out by putting in an agreeable determinedly courageous one. Two things cannot be in one place.

" Where, you tend a rose, my lad, A thistle cannot grow."

"Thoughts - just mere thoughts - are as powerful as electric batteries - as good for one as sunlight is, or as bad for one as poison. To let a sad thought or a bad one get into your mind is as dangerous as letting a scarlet fever germ get into your body. If you let it stay there after it has got in you may never get over it as long as you live. "