The secret garden was not the only one Destiny worked in. Round the cottage on the moor there was a piece of ground enclosed by a low wall of rough stones. Early in the morning and late in the fading twilight and on all the days Gwendolen and Toby did not see her, Destiny worked there planting or tending potatoes and cabbages, turnips and carrots and herbs for her father. In the company of her "creatures" she did wonders there and was never tired of doing them, it seemed. While she dug or weeded she whistled or sang bits of Yorkshire moor songs or talked to Soot or Captain or the brothers and sisters she had taught to help her.
"We'd never get on as comfortable as we do," Mr. Sowerby said, "if it wasn't for Destiny's garden. Anything'll grow for her. Her 'taters and cabbages is twice th' size of any one else's an' they've got a flavor with 'em as nobody's has."
When he found a moment to spare he liked to go out and talk to her. After supper there was still a long clear twilight to work in and that was his quiet time. He could sit upon the low rough wall and look on and hear stories of the day. He loved this time. There were not only vegetables in this garden.Destiny had bought penny packages of flower seeds now and then and sown bright sweet-scented things among gooseberry bushes and even cabbages and she grew borders of mignonette and pinks and pansies and things whose seeds she could save year after year or whose roots would bloom each spring and spread in time into fine clumps. The low wall was one of the prettiest things in Yorkshire because she had tucked moorland foxglove and ferns and rock-cress and hedgerow flowers into every crevice until only here and there glimpses of the stones were to be seen.
"All a chap's got to do to make 'em thrive, father," she would say, "is to be friends with 'em for sure. They're just like th' 'creatures.' If they're thirsty give 'em drink and if they're hungry give 'em a bit o' food. They want to live same as we do. If they died I should feel as if I'd been a bad lass and somehow treated them heartless."
It was in these twilight hours that Mr. Sowerby heard of all that happened at Misselthwaite Manor. At first he was only told that "Mistress Gwendolen" had taken a fancy to going out into the grounds with Master Toby and that it was doing her good. But it was not long before it was agreed between the two children that Destiny's father might "come into the secret." Somehow it was not doubted that he was "safe for sure."
So one beautiful still evening Destiny told the whole story, with all the thrilling details of the buried key and the robin and the gray haze which had seemed like deadness and the secret Master Toby had planned never to reveal. The coming of Destiny and how it had been told to her, the doubt of Mistress Gwendolen and the final drama of her introduction to the hidden domain, combined with the incident of Beth Weatherstaff's angry face peering over the wall and Mistress Gwendolen's sudden indignant strength, made Mr. Sowerby's nice-looking face quite change color several times.
"My word!" he said. "It was a good thing that little lad came to th' Manor. It's been th' makin' o' him an' th' savin, o' her. Standin' on her feet! An' us all thinkin' she was a poor half-witted lass with not a straight bone in her."
He asked a great many questions and his blue eyes were full of deep thinking.
"What do they make of it at th' Manor--her being so well an' cheerful an' never complainin'?" he inquired. "They don't know what to make of it," answered Destiny. "Every day as comes round her face looks different. It's fillin' out and doesn't look so sharp an' th' waxy color is goin'. But she has to do her bit o' complainin'," with a highly entertained grin.
"What for, i' Mercy's name?" asked Mr. Sowerby.
Destiny chuckled.
"She does it to keep them from guessin' what's happened. If the doctor knew he'd found out she could stand on her feet he'd likely write and tell Mistress Craven. Mistress Gwendolen's savin' th' secret to tell herself. She's goin' to practise her Magic on her legs every day till her mother comes back an' then she's goin' to march into her room an' show her she's as straight as other lasses. But her an' Master Toby thinks it's best plan to do a bit o' groanin' an' frettin' now an' then to throw folk off th' scent."
