The Happy Reunion

He is very strange, sir. 

He looks better, it is true, but some days he eat nothing at all, and other days he eats just like a health boy.

He used to scream even at the idea of fresh air, but now he spends all his time outside in his wheelchair, with Mary and Dickon.

He is in the garden at the moment.

In the garden, repeated Craven.

Those were the words of the dream

He hurried out of the house and towards the place which he had not visited for so long.

He found the door with the climbing plant over it, and stood outside, listening, for a moment.

Surely I can hear voices inside the garden, he thought, Aren't there children whispering, laughing, runnin in there? Or am I going mad?

And then the moment came, when the children could not stay quiet.

There was wild laughing and shouting, and the door was thrown open.

A boy ran out, a tall, health, handsome boy, straight into the man's arms.

Craven stared into the boy's laughing eyes.

Who, what, who?he cried.

Colin had not planned to meet his father like this.

But perhaps this was the best way, to come running out with his cousin and his friend.

Father, he said, I am Colin, You cannot believe it, I cannot believe it myself.

It was the garden, and Mary and Dickon and the magic, that made me well.

We have kept it a secret up to now.

Aren't you happy, father? I am going to live for ever and ever and ever.

Craven put his hands on the boy's shoulders.

For a moment he could not speak.

Take me into the garden, my boy, he said at last, and tell me all about it.

And in the secret garden, where the roses were at their best, and the butterflies were flying from flower to flwer in the summer sunshine, they told Coin's father their story.

Sometimes he laughed and sometimes he cried, but most of the time, he just looked, unbelieving,into the handsome face of the son that he had almost forgotten.

Now, said Colin at the end, it isn't a secret any more, I will never use the wheelchair again, I am going to walk back with you ,father, to the house.

And so, that afternoon, and the other servants had the greate shock of their lives.

Through the gardens towards the house came Craven, looking happier than they had ever seen him.

And by his side, with his shoulders straight, his head held high and a smile on his lips, walked young Colin.