How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
The nurse went away, concealing a smile, to give the order for two breakfasts. She found the servants' hall a more amusing place than the invalid's chamber and just now everybody wanted to hear the news from upstairs. There was a great deal of joking about the unpopular young recluse who, as the cook said, "had found his master, and good for him." The servants' hall had been very tired of the tantrums, and the butler, who was a man with a family, had more than once expressed his opinion that the invalid would be all the better "for a good hiding." (15.55)
Of course, as we've all seen on Downton Abbey, the whole idea of a home gets a little weird when you're talking about a giant English mansion at the beginning of the twentieth century. Imagine sharing your house with a bunch of people paid to serve you—or imagine living in a house where you are paid to take care of the owner—and you'll see what we mean when we say that the word home doesn't totally seem to apply to Misselthwaite Manor.
Even though Misselthwaite Manor is technically Colin Craven's home—it's where he was born, after all—the people who work there all hate him. Of course he feels isolated. It takes his friendship with Mary to make Misselthwaite Manor into a warmer, more genuine home for Colin.
Quote #8
"Tha'll see [the robin] often enow after a bit," answered Dickon. "When th' eggs hatches out th' little chap he'll be kep' so busy it'll make his head swim. […] Mother says as when she sees th' work a robin has to keep them gapin' beaks filled, she feels like she was a lady with nothin' to do. She says she's seen th' little chaps when it seemed like th' sweat must be droppin' off 'em, though folk can't see it." (21.12)
There's a lot in this book about just how much work it takes for parents to keep a family together and make a home. There's this robin here, who'll be so busy feeding his chicks that "it'll make his head swim," and then there is also Mrs. Sowerby, Dickon's mom, who is constantly working to keep her many kids fed and happy.
While all this family-directed housework (both bird and human) sounds like a lot of effort to us, the novel definitely emphasizes the positive, healthy side of hard work. After all, the parents who don't take the time to work hard for their kids, like Mary's mother and Mr. Craven, turn their kids (Mary and Colin) into truly terrible human beings.
Quote #9
"When Mary found this garden it looked quite dead," the orator [Colin] proceeded. "Then something began pushing things up out of the soil and making things out of nothing. One day things weren't there and another they were. I had never watched things before and it made me feel very curious. Scientific people are always curious and I am going to be scientific. I keep saying to myself, 'What is it? What is it?' It's something. It can't be nothing! I don't know its name so I call it Magic. […] Magic is always pushing and drawing and making things out of nothing. Everything is made out of Magic, leaves and trees, flowers and birds, badgers and foxes and squirrels and people. So it must be all around us. In this garden—in all the places. (23.41)
Colin sees people as closely connected with the natural world of "leaves and trees, flowers and birds, badgers and foxes and squirrels." Nature is, in a strong sense, home for the characters of the Secret Garden.