Mary looked at the key for quite a long time.
She turned it over in her hand, thinking.
If this were the key to the secret garden, all she had to do now was find the door!
She liked the idea of going into the garden and playing there by herself.
No one would even know she was there.
She put the key in her pocket, and strolled up and down her favorite path outside the walled gardens.
Nobody but Mary ever seemed to go there, so she could walk slowly and look at the wall closely.
But no matter how carefully she looked, she could see nothing but ivy.
She was very disappointed.
"It seems so silly," she said, "to be near that garden and not be able to get in!"
She decided that she would always carry the key with her.
That way, if she ever found the hidden door, she would be ready.
The next morning when Mary woke up, Martha was back at work and full of stories about her day off.
She left the room for a moment and came back, holding something under her apron.
"I've brought you a present!" she said with a grin.
"A present!" Mary wondered how someone from a cottage filled with so many hungry people could give anyone a present.
"A man was driving across the moor selling things.
He stopped his cart at our door, and Mother bought you a skipping rope with some of my wages."
Martha brought the rope out from underneath her apron and held it out proudly.
Mary looked puzzled. "What's it for?"
"Just watch me."
Martha ran to the next room and, taking a handle in each hand, began to skip and skip.
She counted up to a hundred.
"I used to be able to skip to five hundred, but I'm out of practice."
"Do you think I could ever skip like that?"
"You just try," urged Martha, handing her the rope.
"You can't skip to a hundred at first, but Mother says nothing will do you more good.
You'll soon build up strength in your arms and legs."
Mary tried skipping rope.
She was not very good at it, but she liked it so much that she did not want to stop.
"Put on your things and skip outdoors," said Martha.
Mary put on her coat and hat.
She opened the door to go out and then turned back.
"Martha," she said slowly, "those were your wages that your mother used to buy this skipping rope. Thank you."
She held out her hand.
Martha laughed and shook her hand. "Now run outside and play."
Mary skipped around the fountain and up one path and down another.
She skipped into the kitchen garden and saw Ben Weatherstaff digging and talking to his robin.
"Well!" he exclaimed. "You've skipped the roses into your cheeks.
I wouldn't have believed that you could do it."
"I never skipped before. I can only go up to twenty."
"Keep going. You're doing fine." Ben nodded in approval.
"Just see how the robin's watching you. He followed after you yesterday.
He'll be at it again today."
Mary skipped around all the gardens and the orchard, resting every few minutes.
At last she made up her mind to try to skip the length of her favorite path.
She counted up to thirty before she had to stop and rest.
Suddenly she spotted the robin swaying on a long branch of ivy.
"You showed me where the key was yesterday," she said.
"You ought to show me the door today, but I don't believe you know where it is."
The robin flew from the ivy to the top of the wall.
He opened his beak and sang a loud, lovely trill.
Mary laughed with delight.
She stepped closer to him, and what happened next seemed like magic.
A gust of wind swung aside some loose ivy trails.
Mary jumped forward and caught the ivy in her hand.
She'd seen something under the ivy—a round doorknob.
She began to push the leaves aside.
The ivy was thick, but nearly all of it hung in a loose, swinging curtain.
Mary's heart thumped, and her hands shook with excitement as she touched the door.
Mary reached into her pocket for the key.
She put the key in the lock and turned it.
And then she took a breath and looked up the long path to see if anyone was coming.
No one was there. She took another breath and slowly opened the door.