saw Mary, and then touched his cap. He had
a surly old face, and did not seem at all pleased to
see her -- but then she was displeased with his
garden and wore her "quite contrary" expression,
and certainly did not seem at all pleased to see him.

"What is this place?" she asked.

"One o' th' kitchen-gardens," he answered.

"What is that?" said Mary, pointing through
the other green door.

"Another of 'em," shortly. "There's another
on t'other side o' th' wall an' there's th' orchard
t'other side o' that."

"Can I go in them?" asked Mary.

"If tha' likes. But there's nowt to see."

Mary made no response. She went down the
path and through the second green door. There
she found more walls and winter vegetables and
glass frames, but in the second wall there was another
green door and it was not open. Perhaps
it led into the garden which no one had seen for
ten years. As she was not at all a timid child and
always did what she wanted to do, Mary went to
the green door and turned the handle. She hoped
the door would not open because she wanted to
be sure she had found the mysterious garden -- but
it did open quite easily and she walked through
it and found herself in an orchard. There were
walls all round it also and trees trained against

[[44]]

p043 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p044w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p045

v?