Catching up on Classics (and lots more!) discussion

Includes:
Chapter Eight: The Robin Who Showed the Way
Chapter Nine: The Strangest House Any One Ever Lived In
Chapter Ten: Dickon
Chapter Eleven: The Nest of the Missel Thrush
Chapter Twelve: "Might I Have a Bit of Earth?"

Those are such a wonderful observations, Badger. Learning to share secrets is part of the healing and so is Mary's instinctive curiosity about all the mysteries; both bring her out of her closed, locked self.

Don't open this until you've read chapter nine :) (view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)]

In Ch.11, Mary comments to Dickon something along the lines of "I never thought I should like five people". What a shame that a little girl could think that.

It is sad! But it is such a transformation for lonely, hard little Mary to gradually realize she likes someone, and that, perhaps, someone might like her back.

It is so moving when Mary tells Dickon about the five people she likes (including the robin, of course) and "Then Mary did a strange thing. She leaned forward and asked him a question she had never dreamed of asking any on before....'Does tha' like me?'" And I was thrilled when Dickon answers that he does--and so does the robin. "'That's two, then', said Mary, 'That's two for me.'" (Ch. 11)

Dickon admiring the work Mary has done making room for all the new little bulbs coming up: "Why, I thought tha' didn't know nothing' about gardenin'."

'"Might I," quavered Mary, "might I have a bit of earth?"
In her eagerness she did not realize how queer the words would sound and that they were not the ones she had meant to say. Mr. Craven looked quite startled.'

When Mary describes her meeting with the dreaded Mr. Craven to Martha she says, "he is really a nice man, only his face is so miserable and his forehead is all drawn together." Mary's ability to empathize is growing amazingly and she has managed to touch something deep in Mr. Craven's long-buried memories.

I've just completed this section.

I must say, I really enjoy this book when Mary is outdoors. I almost feel as if I could smell the fresh soil and other scents of the breeze.

FHB has done a really good job of taking the reader to the great outdoors of Yorkshire. I don't know how accurate she is, but I like it.

I glad that we've finally met Dickon. There was quite a lot of talk about him before he appears at Misslethwait Manor. He's very likable.

Mary has gone through an inner and outer transformation. She has warm feelings for five people (the robin seems to be a character in the story) and she finds out that she is liked in return.

I'll bet Mary never liked anyone in India nor gave any thought if she was liked by anyone as well.

Mary also "notices" that Uncle Craven is really quite nice.

I think she was so disagreeable and out of temper in India, that she was irritated by everyone, even by people who might have tried to be nice to her. I think that the clergy man's family might have been nice to her, but she would not play with his children and hated them. They would have tried to be nice and show her extra consideration because of her loss (they couldn't have known that it really wasn't that big of a loss).

Andrea, I was also struck by the fact that by the time she meets Mr. Craven Mary is able to feel sorry for him and see that he is trying to be nice.

Badger, wonderful observations! Can you put an HTML spoiler code around the section of you comment from "I love how, later,..." on to the end of you post? We have some first time readers on the thread who have yet to meet (view spoiler)[ Colin. (hide spoiler)]

Perfect, Badger! I never thought I'd be learning HTML coding at my ripe old age, either, but Goodreads has been a wonderful learning experience on so many fronts :))

I agree, Mary. I feel really sorry for a lot of the children being raised now. Parking kids in day care centers often for ten hours or more is the norm here in the Boston/Brookline area. The poor little hothouse children never get to just run around outdoors.

Study after study has shown how important exercise is for health, and especially being outdoors in the sunlight. FHB was so right about that--and she also makes good points (through Mrs. Sowerby's comments) about allowing children unstructured, unsupervised play time.

Both Mary and Colin may have had what is now known as Seasonal Affective Disorder.

I too feel for children growing up in confined urban environments. Fortunately, where I live they still play outside games, race around with animals etc. Probably getting too much midday sunshine!

This is our Revisit the Shelf read for February 2021.