Camp Hain

005 The Secret Garden Chapters 16-20 Summary

• Tia Hain • Season 1 • Episode 5

Share episode

Summarizing Chapters 16-20 of 'The Secret Garden'

In this episode, Tia Hain provides a detailed summary of chapters 16 through 20 of Frances Hodgson Burnett's 'The Secret Garden,' a novel from the Classical Conversations Challenge A curriculum. Highlights include Mary and Dickon's growing friendship and dedication to the garden, Colin's temper tantrums and his fears of becoming a hunchback, as well as his transformative experiences that lead him to exclaim with newfound hope that he will get well and live forever. The episode also mentions upcoming content on the 'Lost Tools of Writing' and finishes with some tips for viewers on how to support the channel.

Internet Grandpa
Chapter 16 - https://youtu.be/uG5u5srJXEY?si=dU1mwYR5oGKTAaQw
Chapter 17 - https://youtu.be/5fc_Mzt7zbk?si=qfmvCe2YupOUh_vs
Chapter 18 - https://youtu.be/oGBV9PEFZnM?si=lyxWMTDgmym2L7kU
Chapter 19 - https://youtu.be/JyCrzhZu3vE?si=HkhGu9pJ4crIKxwJ
Chapter 20 - https://youtu.be/yji5YX5HNXw?si=Ra3w9GrzTCvv83iy

00:00 Introduction to The Secret Garden
00:39 Welcome to Camp Hain
01:23 Summary of Chapters 16-20
03:06 Chapter 16: I Won't, Said Mary
06:00 Chapter 17: A Tantrum
08:05 Chapter 18: Tha' Munot Waste No Time
10:44 Chapter 19: It Has Come
14:22 Chapter 20: I Shall Live Forever and Ever and Ever
15:48 Conclusion and Next Steps

005 The Secret Garden Chapters 16-20

[00:00:00] Tia: "I shall get well. I shall get well, he cried out. Mary, Dickon, I shall get well and I shall live forever and ever." That is what Colin, the sickly child whom everyone thinks will die, cries out when he finally gets into The Secret Garden. The garden gives him so much energy and hope. The Secret Garden is the Classical Conversations Challenge A novel we will be summarizing today.

[00:00:27] Chapter 16 through 20, but Colin doesn't say this until the end of chapter 20. So let's find out what happens before. In the description you can find links to chapters. 1 15 summarized, but first. Welcome to Camp Hain, the adventures of a Catholic family that homeschools, public schools, online schools, and has one super obsessed with baseball kid.

[00:00:49] Currently, I, Tia Hain, am a Classical Conversations Challenge A Director, so a lot of this podcast is related to that, for now. But I also post videos about math, [00:01:00] when they're on YouTube, mostly algebra, because that's what I tutor right now. and I post about our life. We love our adventures so come along for the ride and click the subscribe button if you are a homeschooler or are thinking about homeschooling or even if this content just interests you.

[00:01:16] And if you are on YouTube give this video a like to help with the algorithm there. I've said the things now let's move on into the content. So like I said today I'm summarizing The Secret Garden chapters 16 through 20. I've already done 1 through 15 so you can find those. Just to let you know I am not reading the book.

[00:01:34] Internet Grandpa does that, and I've got links in the description for his chapters 16 through 20 to hear him reading it. The next episode is going to be finishing summarizing chapters 21 through 25, and then the episode after that will finish the book. And I will also talk about the issues and ANI chart for Lost Tools of [00:02:00] Writing that goes along with this book.

[00:02:03] That's what Classical Conversations use as the writing curriculum for the challenge levels. 

[00:02:08] Those are the upper levels of Classical Conversations. They use the Lost Tools of Writing program. We really like it a lot, and so I will have an episode later on that's going to dive into the Lost Tools of Writing program, how it works, and why we like it so much. But just to know for now, what happens at the beginning of it, after you've read a book, is you choose a couple characters to figure out issues.

[00:02:33] It's whether they should have done this, or they should have done that. Some kind of decision that they've made, and then you create an ANI chart for affirmative, negative, and interesting, because you pick out different points that could support that they should make the decision, or support that they should not make the decision.

[00:02:49] So that stuff is mainly going to be for people that are in the Classical Conversations curriculum. If perchance you are reading this somewhere else, and you do need to write [00:03:00] some kind of persuasive essay on it, these points will help you with that also.

[00:03:04] Now let's get into the book. Chapter 16. It's titled, I Won't, Said Mary. 

[00:03:10] So Mary is so busy in the garden that she's actually late to having her lunch and almost forgets about Colin. When she gets back she tells Martha to tell Colin that she can't come see him yet and Martha tells her that he will be put out of humor.

[00:03:24] She'll remember the last episode that we talked about. We talked about he needs to be put in the humor, now he's going to be put out of the humor. But Mary doesn't care and she wants to get back to Dickon in the garden. Mary and Dickon work all afternoon until the sun starts to set and then they both make a pact saying that they will be back at work by sunrise.

[00:03:43] When Mary gets back, she finds out Colin is having a tantrum. Mary isn't used to considering other people, just like Colin isn't, and she doesn't understand why he's so upset. Mary marches down to Colin's room to tell him how selfish he is. Then they get into an argument [00:04:00] about who is more selfish, each saying the other is.

[00:04:03] Then Colin says Dickon is the most selfish and Mary has a fit on him. Colin begins to waver because he's not used to people fighting him. Then Colin talks about how he's going to have a hump. He's going to die. 

[00:04:15] Okay, so just for some context on this, because I don't think I mentioned it before because it's incidentally mentioned in the book, but Mr. Craven is considered a hunchback. Colin's dad is considered a hunchback, which I'm guessing today he probably had some kind of scoliosis was what they had.

[00:04:36] Cause he wasn't like, crazily deformed, but people considered him quote unquote deformed enough that they were surprised that Mrs. Craven even married him. And so Colin is convinced because he's overheard the doctors say that he, Colin will probably end up with a quote unquote hunchback like his [00:05:00] dad so that's why he's always talking about he has a hump or a lump on his back and he's really freaked out and will have a horrible tantrum about that so now you've got the context for that.

[00:05:10] Let's get back into the book

[00:05:12] He yells for Mary to get out of the room. When Mary leaves, she runs into the nurse who is giggling because of the two arguing.

[00:05:20] Because she's not used to hearing anybody stand up to Colin in any way, shape, or form. The nurse tells Mary that hysterics and temper are half of what ails him. Mary is grumpy when she goes back to her room, and Martha is there with a package from Mr. Craven. When she opens it, it's full of books, a couple of games, and a beautiful gold writing pen.

[00:05:41] Mary decided that the first thing she is going to write is a letter to Mr. Craven, thanking him for the presents. But then she starts to thinking about Colin. And why he has his hysterical tantrums out of fear, and she begins to feel sorry for him. She decides she will try to see him the next morning.[00:06:00] 

[00:06:00] Okay, that's chapter 16, so chapter 17 is called, A Tantrum. Mary went to bed and was awoken in the middle of the night by a horrible crying and screaming. She knew it was Colin having one of his hysterics. The sounds frightened her because she wasn't used to anyone's temper but her own. All of a sudden the nurse came running into her room and asked Mary to help because nothing else will calm him down.

[00:06:27] Mary was so upset the closer she got to his room and the more and more she got upset the closer and closer she got. Mary threw open Colin's door and ran over to him shouting at him that everyone hates him and she wishes he would scream himself to death. Then Colin swears there's a lump on his back and that's why he's having a fit.

[00:06:47] And Mary has the nurse come over and show her his back, and she saw that there was no lump. Everything was just fine. She said that there were some backbone lumps, but that she had them too, and that if they just got fatter, they wouldn't feel them. [00:07:00] The nurse realized what was going on and said that she could have told him that there were no lumps there.

[00:07:06] Colin then asked if he could possibly live to grow up. And the nurse said, sure, if you just do it. The London doctor told him that he could do it. He needs to get out in the fresh air and stop having tantrums. Colin said he would go out in the fresh air if he could go with Mary and Dickon.

[00:07:24] Mary tells the nurse that she will go ahead and help put Colin to sleep. She's going to sing him a song, and that the nurse could just go out of the room now, that she would take care of it. When the nurse was gone, Colin asked Mary if they had found the garden yet. She said that she thinks they have, and she would tell him about it in the morning.

[00:07:45] Colin thinks that if they can get into the garden, that he should live to grow up, and he asked Mary to tell him about her imagining of the garden again, so he can go to sleep thinking about that. So Mary describes the garden to him, and Colin falls asleep. [00:08:00] Okay, that's the end of chapter 17. Now we're on to chapter 18.

[00:08:05] Tha' Munot Waste No Time. It's written in Yorkshire, so it says T H A apostrophe M U N O T W A S T E N O T I M E.   Tha' Munot Waste No Time. So I'm guessing it's you mustn't waste no time? Something like that. Anyway. Mary slept late the next morning because of the crazy night she had. She got up and went into Colin's room and told him that she was going to go see Dickon, but she'd come back because she has something to tell him about the garden. His face brightened and he got excited and he said he would dream about it until she got back. 

[00:08:45] When Mary got to the garden, Dickon was already there and he had two friends with him in his pockets. Two squirrels named Nut and Shell.

[00:08:52] Dickon started talking about Colin and how being out in the garden would do him good. And then Mary spoke in her [00:09:00] best Yorkshire to Dickon about Dickon going in to see Colin the next morning because he was really excited to meet him. And Colin also wanted to meet Captain and Soot. So after listening to Mary speak Yorkshire, Dickon mentioned that she should speak that way to Colin and it would make him laugh.

[00:09:18] Then Mary went back inside and saw Colin. He loved how she smelled like flowers and outside and fresh things. Then Mary told him how it was because she was out on the moor with Dickon and Captain and Soot and Nut and Shell. And then she spoke it in her best Yorkshire, and it did make Colin laugh. Colin couldn't get enough of Mary talking about Dickon and Captain and Soot and Nut and Shell and a pony that Dickon had found and he named him Jump.

[00:09:47] Colin talks about how he doesn't have any friends and he can't bear people. Mary said that they are like Ben Weatherstaff. They all have nasty tempers and neither of them are much to look at and are sour. She said [00:10:00] she doesn't feel sour now that she's met Robin and Dickon. So Ben Weatherstaff actually told her that before when he was describing himself and Mary.

[00:10:09] And so Mary said that Colin is like the two of them. Then Colin said he was sad about telling Mary he would send Dickon away and he actually wants to meet him. Then Mary gets excited and says that she would love to bring Dickon in to meet him. And then she asked Colin if she could really trust him for sure for sure and told him that they had found the door to the garden.

[00:10:31] Colin asked her if it was just like she had thought, and then she confessed to him that she's actually been in the garden for the last couple of weeks, but she was afraid to tell him because she wasn't sure if she could trust him. That's the end of chapter 18. 

[00:10:44] Now chapter 19, it's titled, It Has Come. Dr. Craven had been sent for when Colin had his temper tantrum the night before, but he wasn't able to get there until that afternoon. So when he came in, Mrs. Medlock told him [00:11:00] about Mary getting Colin to stop having the tantrum, and then she took Dr. Craven upstairs to Colin's room.

[00:11:07] Mary and Colin were there talking about the garden. They stopped talking as soon as they saw Dr. Craven and Mrs. Medlock come in. Colin announced that he was much better now, and that he was going to go outside in the fresh air in the next day or two. Dr. Craven was confused considering Colin had always said the fresh air would probably kill him.

[00:11:27] Colin said that he would not go out with a nurse, that he would go out with just Mary and a boy who was a friend of Mary's. Then Dr. Craven quizzed him about who the boy was when Mary announced that it was Dickon.

[00:11:40] And then once Dr. Craven knew it was Dickon, he relaxed because everybody knows Dickon and knows that he's strong and trusty. Mary had answered Dr. Craven in Yorkshire, so she spoke in Yorkshire, and Dr. Craven laughed and asked if it was Dickon who had been teaching it to her. When Dr. Craven left, he stopped to talk to Mrs. Medlock downstairs. They talked about [00:12:00] how Colin is learning more by being with Mary than he has from adults. They talked about what happened the night before, and the discussion moved to Susan Sowerby, who is Martha and Dickon's mother. Mrs. Medlock had a run in with Mrs. Sowerby the other day, and Susan had told her about when her children were arguing. This is the story she tells. She told them that the world is shaped like an orange, but nobody owns the whole orange. And you don't find that out until you've had some hard knocks in life. Susan said that when children learn from other children, that if they try to grab up the whole orange, they won't get any of it. So that's her story for what's happening with Mary and Colin. 

[00:12:43] The next morning, when Colin awoke, instead of lying and staring at the wall, wishing he had not awakened, like he had always done before, he started to make plans and was excited. Not too long after he woke up, Mary came running in. Mary was very excited because she had been [00:13:00] outside and realized that spring had come.

[00:13:02] Colin told her to open the windows and let it in. Then she described everything that was happening outside in the garden and told Colin how Dickon had brought the fox and the crow and the squirrels and a newborn lamb. He had found the newborn lamb a few days before and its mother had died so he took it in and nursed it.

[00:13:21] Just like what happened with the other animals. 

[00:13:23] The nurse came in and Colin sent her away for two breakfasts. One for him and one for Mary. When the nurse came back, Colin announced that a boy and a fox and a crow and two squirrels and a newborn lamb were coming to see him this morning and he wanted them brought upstairs as soon as possible.

[00:13:39] And then he said to have Martha be the one to bring him there since it was Martha's brother. And in a few minutes, Dickon and all the animals came in. At first, Colin couldn't talk because he had never seen another boy before. But Dickon wasn't shy, and he walked straight over to Colin and put the newborn lamb in his lap.

[00:13:57] Then Colin relaxed [00:14:00] and had no problems talking. He asked Dickon about the lamb. He asked so many questions and how he found him. And then all the animals got comfortable including Soot flying in and out of the window. Then they looked at gardening books and talked about all the flowers that are in The Secret Garden.

[00:14:19] Okay, so that's the end of chapter 19. 

[00:14:22] Now we're on the last chapter for this episode, chapter 20, and it's titled, I Shall Live Forever and Ever and Ever. They had to wait a week for Colin to be able to go into the garden because a strong wind came and Colin got a cold. Normally that would send Colin into a rage, but he was just fine.

[00:14:40] Dickon came every day. Dickon talked about all the things that were happening on the moor and they made preparations to be able to take Colin out into The Secret Garden. Colin summons Mr. Roach, who is the head gardener, and he summons him to his room. He tells him that he is going out this afternoon, and he's going out in his chair with Dickon and [00:15:00] Mary, and Mr. Roach is to make sure that nobody is around them in the main garden area. One of the servants had to carry Colin downstairs and get him settled into his wheeled chair, where Dickon was waiting for him.

[00:15:12] Dickon and Mary pushed Colin around the main garden area to make sure there was no one around, and no one was in the gardens and there were no gardeners and there was no one there. So the gardeners had done their job.

[00:15:25] When they got to the door of The Secret Garden, they quickly pushed Colin in his chair. 

[00:15:31] So Colin looked around and this is where we get the quote from at the beginning of this podcast episode. He cries out, "I shall get well, I shall get well. Mary Dickon, I shall get well and I shall live forever and ever." And that's the end of chapter 20. So if you like this episode, give it a thumbs up, let the algorithm do the work, and then I can make more.

[00:15:54] And be sure to subscribe if you want more.

[00:15:57] Tia: Until next time.