him laugh an' there's nowt as good for ill folk as
laughin' is. Mother says she believes as half a
hour's good laugh every mornin' 'ud cure a chap
as was makin' ready for typhus fever."

"I'm going to talk Yorkshire to him this very
day," said Mary, chuckling herself.

The garden had reached the time when every
day and every night it seemed as if Magicians were
passing through it drawing loveliness out of the
earth and the boughs with wands. It was hard
to go away and leave it all, particularly as Nut had
actually crept on to her dress and Shell had scrambled
down the trunk of the apple-tree they sat
under and stayed there looking at her with inquiring
eyes. But she went back to the house and
when she sat down close to Colin's bed he began to
sniff as Dickon did though not in such an experienced
way.

"You smell like flowers and -- and fresh
things," he cried out quite joyously. "What is
it you smell of? It's cool and warm and sweet
all at the same time."

"It's th' wind from th' moor," said Mary.
"It comes o' sittin' on th' grass under a tree wi'
Dickon an' wi' Captain an' Soot an' Nut an' Shell.
It's th' springtime an' out o' doors an' sunshine
as smells so graidely."

She said it as broadly as she could, and you do

[[233]]

p232 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p233w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p234

v?