robin pleased him so much that he smiled until he looked almost
beautiful, and at first Mary had thought that he was even plainer than
herself, with his big eyes and heavy locks of hair.
I did not know birds could be like that, he said. But if you stay in
a room you never see things. What a lot of things you know. I feel as
if you had been inside that garden.
She did not know what to say, so she did not say anything. He evidently
did not expect an answer and the next moment he gave her a surprise.
I am going to let you look at something, he said. Do you see that
rose-colored silk curtain hanging on the wall over the mantel-piece?
Mary had not noticed it before, but she looked up and saw it. It was a
curtain of soft silk hanging over what seemed to be some picture.
Yes, she answered.
There is a cord hanging from it, said Colin. Go and pull it.
Mary got up, much mystified, and found the cord. When she pulled it the
silk curtain ran back on rings and when it ran back it uncovered a
picture. It was the picture of a girl with a laughing face. She had
bright hair tied up with a blue ribbon and her gay, lovely eyes were
exactly like Colin s unhappy ones, agate gray and looking twice as big
as they really were because of the black lashes all round them.
She is my mother, said Colin complainingly. I don t see why she
died. Sometimes I hate her for doing it.
How queer! said Mary.
If she had lived I believe I should not have been ill always, he
grumbled. I dare say I should have lived, too. And my father would not
have hated to look at me. I dare say I should have had a strong back.
Draw the curtain again.
Mary did as she was told and returned to her footstool.
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