mothers do when they're took out o' th' world.
They have to come back, tha' sees. Happen she's
been in the garden an' happen it was her set us
to work, an' told us to bring him here."

Mary had thought he meant something about
Magic. She was a great believer in Magic. Secretly
she quite believed that Dickon worked
Magic, of course good Magic, on everything near
him and that was why people liked him so much
and wild creatures knew he was their friend.
She wondered, indeed, if it were not possible that
his gift had brought the robin just at the right
moment when Colin asked that dangerous question.
She felt that his Magic was working all the
afternoon and making Colin look like an entirely
different boy. It did not seem possible that he
could be the crazy creature who had screamed and
beaten and bitten his pillow. Even his ivory
whiteness seemed to change. The faint glow of
color which had shown on his face and neck and
hands when he first got inside the garden really
never quite died away. He looked as if he were
made of flesh instead of ivory or wax.

They saw the robin carry food to his mate two
or three times, and it was so suggestive of afternoon
tea that Colin felt they must have some.

"Go and make one of the men servants bring
some in a basket to the rhododendron walk," he

[[274]]

p273 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p274w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p275

v?