[00:00.22]Chapter three.
[00:02.56]The friendly Robin.
[00:05.71]Mary couldn't stop thinking about the secret garden.
[00:10.73]What would it look like?
[00:12.53]She wondered.
[00:13.84]Would it still have flowers?
[00:17.04]Or would everything have died?
[00:22.22]I think I shall go out, she told Martha.
[00:27.08]Very good, miss, Martha said, and led Mary out of the house.
[00:35.25]Martha pointed towards a pathway opposite the door.
[00:39.90]Head that way, keep going, and you'll be fine.
[00:47.73]Mary walked along the pathway until she came to huge gardens with wide lawns and winding walks.
[00:56.59]There was a large pool with a fountain in the middle, but the flower beds were bare and wintery, and the fountain was not working.
[01:08.32]Mary looked around.
[01:11.85]Where could the locked up garden be?
[01:18.41]At the far end of the path, she noticed a wall covered in Ivy.
[01:24.75]Perhaps it was there.
[01:28.53]She hurried across and saw a green door in the Ivy, but it was already open.
[01:36.27]She sighed with disappointment and went in anyway.
[01:42.55]She found herself in another garden with walls all round it.
[01:50.74]One walled garden seemed to open into another, and another.
[01:58.44]It was all a bit dull, really, Mary thought.
[02:03.99]She kept walking.
[02:07.83]Through the next green door and the one after that, until there were no more doors.
[02:15.38]How annoying!
[02:21.96]Strangely, though, she could see the tops of trees above the wall at the far end of the orchard where she stood.
[02:30.61]She frowned.
[02:33.35]How could there be trees, but no door to them?
[02:39.73]Instead, the Ivy grew wild here, trailing like a waterfall down to the ground.
[02:50.75]The sound of chirping broke into her thoughts.
[02:55.47]She looked up.
[02:58.35]A robin was perched on the top branches of one of the trees.
[03:05.72]It sang so beautifully, and she was sure it was looking straight at her when it did so.
[03:14.63]For the first time in months, Mary felt happy.
[03:21.09]She stood very still, listening to its song until it finished and flew away.
[03:29.53]She gazed at the empty branch for a second.
[03:34.76]And that's when she knew, just knew that the Robin had sung to her from the locked secret garden.
[03:46.63]It has to be, she whispered to herself.
[03:54.41]So Mary's days took shape.
[03:58.25]She would awake to the sound of Martha making the fire, dress herself and go outside.
[04:09.28]Every day she searched for the door to the secret garden, but every day she came back disappointed.
[04:20.56]The days when she saw or heard the Robin were the best.
[04:26.33]Then she would run from one garden to the other, the wind in her face, her hair blowing everywhere.
[04:38.19]The fresh air put color in her cheeks, and she grew stronger.
[04:45.39]You look like a proper country girl now, Martha would laugh, as Mary asked for second helpings at lunchtimes.
[04:57.60]Sometimes it would rain, and she had to stay indoors.
[05:03.67]She hated those days.
[05:06.98]She was so bored.
[05:12.80]The only person she had to talk to was Martha, but Martha could never stay long.
[05:22.83]Mrs. Medlock was always calling her away.
[05:26.48]It was so unfair.
[05:33.23]One morning, Mary woke to find bright sunshine flooding her room.
[05:41.20]She dressed quickly and ran outside.
[05:46.30]Everything felt different.
[05:50.66]As she skipped along the paths leading to the kitchen gardens, she noticed they didn't seem so bare.
[05:58.85]Tiny green shoots were jutting out of the soil.
[06:04.91]What are they?
[06:06.81]She asked a gardener.
[06:10.91]The gardener, who was called Ben Weatherstaff, stopped digging.
[06:17.31]Them's the spring flowers coming up.
[06:21.72]When?
[06:23.58]Tomorrow?
[06:26.26]Mary was used to the heat of India, where flowers bloomed overnight.
[06:34.51]Tomorrow?
[06:35.99]Nay, lass.
[06:38.70]It'll be a few weeks at least.
[06:42.01]You'll have to watch and wait.
[06:47.49]A cheery sound distracted her.
[06:51.65]Mary looked and saw the Robin flying overhead.
[06:59.56]Bye, she called out to Ben, and ran after the bird.
[07:07.15]It stopped by the garden at the far end of the orchard.
[07:13.81]The one with the trees over the wall.
[07:18.52]It hopped towards the wall and began pulling at a fat juicy worm.
[07:27.14]What have you got there?
[07:29.64]Lunch, she asked.
[07:32.99]Then something caught her eye.
[07:38.05]A rusty object was poking out of the soil.
[07:44.40]Mary leaned forward and tugged at it, her heart thudding.
[07:51.04]It was a key, a long, rusty key.