How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
In all [Mary's] wanderings through the long corridors and the empty rooms, she had seen nothing alive; but in this room she saw something. Just after she had closed the cabinet door she heard a tiny rustling sound. It made her jump and look around at the sofa by the fireplace, from which it seemed to come. In the corner of the sofa there was a cushion, and in the velvet which covered it there was a hole, and out of the hole peeped a tiny head with a pair of frightened eyes in it.
Mary crept softly across the room to look. The bright eyes belonged to a little gray mouse, and the mouse had eaten a hole into the cushion and made a comfortable nest there. Six baby mice were cuddled up asleep near her. If there was no one else alive in the hundred rooms there were seven mice who did not look lonely at all. (6.27-28)
At first, Mary's new home at Misselthwaite Manor seems even lonelier than her parents' house in India: It's a giant, (mostly) empty mansion in the middle of bleak Yorkshire countryside. How creepy is it that Mary can walk around for hours inside and see "nothing alive" around her? But then, there's this little mouse family—for more on them, hop on over to the "Symbols" section.
Quote #5
"Whatever happens, you—you never would tell?" [Mary] said.
[Dickon's] poppy-colored cheeks were distended with his first big bite of bread and bacon, but he managed to smile encouragingly.
"If tha' was a missel thrush an' showed me where thy nest was, does tha' think I'd tell any one? Not me," he said. "Tha' art as safe as a missel thrush."
And she was quite sure she was. (11.91-94)
Considering how neglected Mary was while living in India, it makes sense that she doesn't trust grown-ups to help her or support her choices. So she worries that, if an adult finds out about the Secret Garden, he might try to stop her from gardening there. Dickon agrees to keep quiet about Mary's garden because he sees that the garden is more than just a garden for her. It's like Mary's nest—her true home, which she is starting to build for herself in this unfamiliar place.
Quote #6
"I'll never tell about it," he answered. "But I says to mother, 'Mother,' I says, 'I got a secret to keep. It's not a bad 'un, tha' knows that. It's no worse than hidin' where a bird's nest is. Tha' doesn't mind it, does tha'?'"
Mary always wanted to hear about mother.
"What did she say?" she asked, not at all afraid to hear.
Dickon grinned sweet-temperedly.
"It was just like her, what she said," he answered. "She give my head a bit of a rub an' laughed an' she says, 'Eh, lad, tha' can have all th' secrets tha' likes. I've knowed thee twelve year'.'" (15.61-65)
First of all, this whole exchange is really sweet—Dickon wants to be honest with his mom, so he tells her that he has a secret, even though he can't tell her what it is because he promised Mary he wouldn't. And then his mom—who loves and trusts him because she's known him his whole life—says that's totally fine.
But beyond this view of Dickon and his mother's close relationship, this scene is also interesting for what it says about Mary. We know that Mary's mother let her down. But the personal failure of Mary's mother doesn't mean that Mary isn't interested in mothers, as a general category. She loves hearing about Dickon's mom perhaps because she wants to know what mothers can be like at their best.
In short, the whole idea of motherhood is still super-important to this book and to Mary personally, even though Mary's own mom didn't live up to the high standards set by Dickon's mother.