Dickon pushed Colin's wheelchair until they came to a spot in the garden filled with flowering trees.
Mary and Dickon worked here and there as Colin watched.
They brought him things to look at: green buds on a twig, a woodpecker's feather, the empty shell of a bird that had hatched.
Then Dickon pushed him slowly around the garden.
"I wonder if we'll see the robin," said Colin.
"Oh, you'll see him soon enough," said Dickon.
"When the eggs hatch, he'll be busy bringing worms to his family."
Dickon pulled out his pipe.
Before he could begin to play, Colin noticed something.
"That's a very old tree over there."
"Yes," Dickon said quietly. He glanced at Mary.
"It looks as if a big branch broke off," said Colin.
"I wonder how that happened."
"It broke a long time ago," said Dickon. "Oh, look, here's the robin."
Colin laughed as he watched the bird flying around.
He forgot all about the tree.
When they talked about it later, Mary told Dickon it was magic that the robin had appeared just then.
They hadn't wanted to tell Colin about the horrible accident.
"Mother thinks Colin's mother sometimes comes back to watch over him," Dickon had said.
"Perhaps she set us to work and told us to bring him here."
Mary wondered whether this could be true.
There was no question, however, that being in the garden was doing Colin good.
He was still gazing around in wonder.
"I'll watch everything grow here," he announced, "and I'll grow too."
"That's true," said Dickon. "We'll have you walking and digging soon."
"Walking! Digging! Will I really do those things?"
Dickon and Mary looked at each other.
Neither of them had ever asked Colin about his legs.
But it was as if he could read their minds.
"Nothing is really wrong with my legs, but they're so thin and weak.
They shake so much that I'm afraid to try to stand."
Both Dickon and Mary breathed a sigh of relief.
"When you stop being afraid," said Dickon, "then you'll stand.
And you'll stop being afraid soon."
They all sat quietly for a while. The sun was dropping lower.
It was that hour of the day when everything stills itself.
So in the midst of this stillness, it was rather alarming when Colin suddenly said, "Who is that man?"
Dickon and Mary scrambled to their feet. "Man?" they cried.
Colin pointed to the wall. "Look!"
They turned around. There was Ben Weatherstaff glaring at them from the top of a ladder.
He shook his fist at Mary.
"I've never liked you!" he shouted.
"You're always poking your nose where it's not wanted.
If it hadn't been for that robin . . ."
"Ben Weatherstaff!" Mary stood below him.
"It was the robin who showed me the way."
At this the old gardener seemed so outraged that Mary thought he was going to scramble down on her side of the wall.
"You're a bad one. Blaming the robin for what you did."
While Ben kept scolding, Colin whispered to Dickon. "Wheel me over there."
Ben's mouth dropped open at the sight of Colin.
"Do you know who I am?" demanded Colin.
Ben stared at the boy in the wheelchair.
He passed his hands over his eyes, and when he answered, it was in a shaky voice.
"Know who you are? With your mother's eyes staring out of your face?
Of course I know who you are.
You're that poor sick boy with the crooked back and legs."
Colin turned bright red and sat up straight.
"I don't have a crooked back and legs."
"He doesn't!" said Mary angrily.
"I've looked, and he doesn't have any lumps on his back."
Ben kept staring at Colin.
"You don't have a crooked back? You don't have crooked legs?"
This was too much for Colin.
The energy that he usually threw into his tantrums rushed through him in a new way.
His anger and insulted pride filled him with strength.
"Stand by my side!" he ordered Dickon, throwing the blankets off his legs.
Dickon held Colin's arm as Colin put his feet on the ground.
"He can do it!" Mary whispered.
Then Colin was standing as straight as an arrow.
"Look at me!" he said to Ben. "Just you look at me!"
"He's as straight as I am," said Dickon.
Mary couldn't believe what Ben did next.
He choked and gulped, and tears ran down his cheeks.
"When my father is away," said Colin, "I am your master, and you must obey me.
This is my garden. Don't you dare say a word about it.
Get down from that ladder at once. Mary will meet you and bring you to us."
"Yes, sir!" said Ben, and he climbed down the ladder.