How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"That's fresh air," she said. "Lie on your back and draw in long breaths of it. That's what Dickon does when he's lying on the moor. He says he feels it in his veins and it makes him strong and he feels as if he could live forever and ever. Breathe it and breathe it." (19.46)
Here's the thing: The big cities of the early 20th century were pretty gross. Imagine what New York or London must have smelled like before cars were in common use, when horses were still the main form of transportation. Plus, chimneys and smokestacks for private homes and factories added to the overall stink of the city air. So we can understand why this book keeps repeating this great appreciation for the health and deliciousness of country air.
Quote #8
And this, if you please, this is what Ben Weatherstaff beheld and which made his jaw drop. A wheeled chair with luxurious cushions and robes which came toward him looking rather like some sort of State Coach because a young Rajah leaned back in it with royal command in his great black-rimmed eyes and a thin white hand extended haughtily toward him. And it stopped right under Ben Weatherstaff's nose. It was really no wonder his mouth dropped open.
"Do you know who I am?" demanded the Rajah.
How Ben Weatherstaff stared! His red old eyes fixed themselves on what was before him as if he were seeing a ghost. He gazed and gazed and gulped a lump down his throat and did not say a word. "Do you know who I am?" demanded Colin still more imperiously. "Answer!" (21.68-70)
When Ben Weatherstaff spots Mary in the Secret Garden and starts yelling at her, he probably should have looked around a little first—then he might have spotted Colin sitting there in all of his luxury. Again, this passage presents the strange contrast of Colin's life: He is so spoiled and so sure of his own authority over his employees that he behaves with the manners of a "young Rajah." At the same time, we know that he throws tantrums like a two-year-old when he's on his own.
Quote #9
"Tha'—tha' hasn't got crooked legs?" quavered Ben more hoarsely yet. It was too much. The strength which Colin usually threw into his tantrums rushed through him now in a new way. Never yet had he been accused of crooked legs—even in whispers—and the perfectly simple belief in their existence which was revealed by Ben Weatherstaff's voice was more than Rajah flesh and blood could endure. His anger and insulted pride made him forget everything but this one moment and filled him with a power he had never known before, an almost unnatural strength. (21.81)
On the one hand, Ben has no right to make any kind of assumptions about Colin's physical health without even knowing the kid. We can understand Colin getting mad over that. But on the other hand, it sounds a little bit like Colin is getting angry, not just because Ben is making assumptions, but also because he is personally offended at the idea of disability.
Why should "insulted pride" come up, as though having "crooked legs" would be a sign of anything at all about Colin as a person? Again, we can see the subtle, underlying assumption in this book that being healthy is morally good and being disabled is somehow a personal weakness. For more on The Secret Garden and disability rights, check out our analysis of Colin Craven over in the "Characters" section.