Mary Lennox and Dickon Sowerby (friends)

The friendship between Mary Lennox and Dickon Sowerby is the first genuine, reciprocal bond either child has ever formed, and it becomes the emotional and practical engine that restores the secret garden and, through it, transforms the lives of everyone at Misselthwaite Manor. Dickon, the twelve-year-old moor boy who can charm foxes and robins as easily as he talks to people, meets Mary when he arrives at Misselthwaite Manor carrying the garden tools and flower seeds she had ordered through his sister Martha. From that first encounter, their connection is immediate and natural, built on a shared love of living things and a mutual recognition of each other's loneliness.

First Meeting and Immediate Connection

When Mary first sees Dickon, he is sitting under a tree playing a rough wooden pipe, surrounded by a brown squirrel, a cock pheasant, and two rabbits who have drawn near to listen. He speaks to her in a low voice, telling her not to move because sudden motion would frighten the animals. Mary realizes at once that this boy is unlike anyone she has ever known: he moves slowly and speaks gently with wild things, and his presence seems to make the creatures trust him completely. He introduces himself simply: "I'm Dickon. I know tha'rt Miss Mary." He has brought the garden tools and seeds, and when Mary hesitates to show him the secret garden, he assures her he can keep secrets, having kept the locations of foxes' cubs and birds' nests from other lads all his life. She leads him to the hidden door under the ivy, and together they enter the garden for the first time.

Working Together in the Garden

From that morning onward, Dickon comes to the garden every day, rain or shine, to work alongside Mary. He teaches her how to use the spade, hoe, and fork, how to cut away dead wood and recognize which branches still have green life in them, and how to clear the grass and weeds from the pale green points pushing through the soil. Mary, who had never before cared for anything outside herself, finds herself digging and weeding with an absorption she has never known. She tells Dickon, "I like to smell the earth when it's turned up," and he replies that there is nothing nicer than the smell of good clean earth except the smell of fresh growing things when rain falls on them. Their work is not merely practical; it is a shared joy. When Mary asks him to come again, he answers stoutly, "I'll come every day if tha' wants me, rain or shine. It's the best fun I ever had in my life—shut in here an' wakenin' up a garden."

Mutual Affection and Trust

The friendship deepens through trust and open affection. Mary, who had never liked anyone before, tells Dickon, "You are as nice as Martha said you were. I like you, and you make the fifth person. I never thought I should like five people." She counts off on her fingers: his mother, Martha, the robin, Ben Weatherstaff, and Dickon himself. Dickon laughs and calls her the queerest little lass he ever saw, but when Mary asks him in Yorkshire, "Does tha' like me?" he answers heartily, "That I does. I likes thee wonderful, an' so does th' robin, I do believe!" This exchange marks a turning point: Mary, who had always believed no one could like her, now has proof that she is loved. Dickon's trustworthiness is absolute; when Mary shows him the secret garden and confesses she has stolen it, he does not betray her confidence. He leaves her a note with a picture of a missel thrush on its nest and the words "I will cum bak," a promise he keeps faithfully.

The Friendship's Transformative Power

Dickon's influence on Mary is profound and visible. Under his patient teaching, she grows stronger, fatter, and healthier, her sour expression replaced by a bright color in her cheeks and a new liveliness in her hair. More importantly, she learns to care about something beyond herself. Dickon's way of understanding the world—his belief that everything, from the smallest beetle to the largest tree, is alive and worthy of attention—becomes her own. He tells her that when he lies on the moor and breathes the fresh air, he feels it in his veins and feels as if he could live forever. Mary repeats this to Colin, and the idea takes root. Dickon also brings his "creatures"—the fox cub Captain, the rook Soot, the squirrels Nut and Shell, and later a newborn lamb—into the garden, and Mary learns to handle them with the same gentle confidence he shows. Their friendship is not possessive or exclusive; when Mary discovers Colin, she immediately tells Dickon, and together they plan how to bring Colin into the garden. Dickon's response is generous: "I am glad o' that. I'm right down glad. It makes me easier." The three children form a trio, but the bond between Mary and Dickon remains the foundational one, the first relationship that taught Mary what it meant to trust, to work alongside another person, and to be loved for who she was.