"I SHALL LIVE FOREVER--AND EVER--AND EVER!"But they were obliged to wait more than a week becausefirst there came some very windy days and then Colinwas threatened with a cold, which two things happeningone after the other would no doubt have thrown him intoa rage but that there was so much careful and mysteriousplanning to do and almost every day Dickon came in,if only for a few minutes, to talk about what was happeningon the moor and in the lanes and hedges and on the bordersof streams. The things he had to tell about otters'

　　and badgers' and water-rats' houses, not to mention birds'

　　nests and field-mice and their burrows, were enoughto make you almost tremble with excitement when youheard all the intimate details from an animal charmerand realized with what thrilling eagerness and anxietythe whole busy underworld was working.

　　"They're same as us," said Dickon, "only they have tobuild their homes every year. An' it keeps 'em so busythey fair scuffle to get 'em done."The most absorbing thing, however, was the preparationsto be made before Colin could be transported with sufficientsecrecy to the garden. No one must see the chair-carriageand Dickon and Mary after they turned a certain cornerof the shrubbery and entered upon the walk outsidethe ivied walls. As each day passed, Colin had becomemore and more fixed in his feeling that the mysterysurrounding the garden was one of its greatest charms.

　　Nothing must spoil that. No one must ever suspectthat they had a secret. People must think that hewas simply going out with Mary and Dickon because heliked them and did not object to their looking at him.

　　They had long and quite delightful talks about their route.

　　They would go up this path and down that one and crossthe other and go round among the fountain flower-bedsas if they were looking at the "bedding-out plants"the head gardener, Mr. Roach, had been having arranged.

　　That would seem such a rational thing to do that no onewould think it at all mysterious. They would turn intothe shrubbery walks and lose themselves until they cameto the long walls. It was almost as serious and elaboratelythought out as the plans of march made by geat generalsin time of war.

　　Rumors of the new and curious things which were occurringin the invalid's apartments had of course filteredthrough the servants' hall into the stable yardsand out among the gardeners, but notwithstanding this,Mr. Roach was startled one day when he received ordersfrom Master Colin's room to the effect that he must reporthimself in the apartment no outsider had ever seen,as the invalid himself desired to speak to him.

　　"Well, well," he said to himself as he hurriedly changedhis coat, "what's to do now? His Royal Highness that wasn'tto be looked at calling up a man he's never set eyes on."Mr. Roach was not without curiosity. He had nevercaught even a glimpse of the boy and had heard a dozenexaggerated stories about his uncanny looks and waysand his insane tempers. The thing he had heardoftenest was that he might die at any moment and therehad been numerous fanciful descriptions of a humpedback and helpless limbs, given by people who had never seen him.

　　"Things are changing in this house, Mr. Roach,"said Mrs. Medlock, as she led him up the back staircaseto the corridor on to which opened the hitherto mysteriouschamber.

　　"Let's hope they're changing for the better, Mrs. Medlock,"he answered.

　　"They couldn't well change for the worse," she continued;"and queer as it all is there's them as finds theirduties made a lot easier to stand up under. Don't yoube surprised, Mr. Roach, if you find yourself in the middleof a menagerie and Martha Sowerby's Dickon more at homethan you or me could ever be."There really was a sort of Magic about Dickon, as Maryalways privately believed. When Mr. Roach heard his namehe smiled quite leniently.

　　"He'd be at home in Buckingham Palace or at the bottomof a coal mine," he said. "And yet it's not impudence,either. He's just fine, is that lad."It was perhaps well he had been prepared or he mighthave been startled. When the bedroom door was openeda large crow, which seemed quite at home perched onthe high back of a carven chair, announced the entranceof a visitor by saying "Caw--Caw" quite loudly.

　　In spite of Mrs. Medlock's warning, Mr. Roach only justescaped being sufficiently undignified to jump backward.

　　The young Rajah was neither in bed nor on his sofa.

　　He was sitting in an armchair and a young lamb was standingby him shaking its tail in feeding-lamb fashion as Dickonknelt giving it milk from its bottle. A squirrel wasperched on Dickon's bent back attentively nibbling a nut.

　　The little girl from India was sitting on a big footstoollooking on.

　　"Here is Mr. Roach, Master Colin," said Mrs. Medlock.

　　The young Rajah turned and looked his servitor over--atleast that was what the head gardener felt happened.

　　"Oh, you are Roach, are you?" he said. "I sent for youto give you some very important orders.""Very good, sir," answered Roach, wondering if he wasto receive instructions to fell all the oaks in the parkor to transform the orchards into water-gardens.

　　"I am going out in my chair this afternoon," said Colin.

　　"If the fresh air agrees with me I may go out every day.

　　When I go, none of the gardeners are to be anywhere nearthe Long Walk by the garden walls. No one is to be there.

　　I shall go out about two o'clock and everyone mustkeep away until I send word that they may go back totheir work.""Very good, sir," replied Mr. Roach, much relieved to hearthat the oaks might remain and that the orchards were safe.

　　"Mary," said Colin, turning to her, "what is that thingyou say in India when you have finished talking and wantpeople to go?""You say, `You have my permission to go,'" answered Mary.

　　The Rajah waved his hand.

　　"You have my permission to go, Roach," he said.

　　"But, remember, this is very important.""Caw--Caw!" remarked the crow hoarsely but not impolitely.

　　"Very good, sir. Thank you, sir," said Mr. Roach,and Mrs. Medlock took him out of the room.

　　Outside in the corridor, being a rather good-natured man,he smiled until he almost laughed.

　　"My word!" he said, "he's got a fine lordly way with him,hasn't he? You'd think he was a whole Royal Family rolledinto one--Prince Consort and all.".

　　"Eh!" protested Mrs. Medlock, "we've had to let himtrample all over every one of us ever since he had feetand he thinks that's what folks was born for.""Perhaps he'll grow out of it, if he lives," suggested Mr. Roach.

　　"Well, there's one thing pretty sure," said Mrs. Medlock.

　　"If he does live and that Indian child stays here I'llwarrant she teaches him that the whole orange does notbelong to him, as Susan Sowerby says. And he'll be likelyto find out the size of his own quarter."Inside the room Colin was leaning back on his cushions.

　　"It's all s............