Dickon,’ said Mary suddenly, ‘I like you. I never thought I’d like as many as five people!’
‘Only five!’ laughed Dickon.
He did look funny when he laughed, thought Mary.
‘Yes, your mother, Martha, the robin, Ben, and you.’ Then she asked him a question in Yorkshire dialect, because that was his language.
‘Does tha’ like me?’ was her question. It meant, ‘Do you like me?’.
‘Of course! I likes thee wonderful!’ replied Dickon, a big smile on his round face. It meant, of course, ‘I like you very much!’ Mary had never been so happy.
When she went back to the
