In both Johanna Spyri's "Heidi" & Frances
Hodgson Burnett's "The Secret Garden", the above theme is fully
exploited. In both books, the unwitting catalysts of change are two orphan
girls, Heidi & Mary Lennox.
Sweet natured Heidi is brought to be a companion to a
wheel-chair bound rich girl, Clara Sesemann in Frankfurt. But Heidi is homesick
for her poor home in Swiss Alps, where she used to live with her grandfather.
Though fond of Clara, she manages to go back to her home in the Alps, not before inviting Clara to visit her. When Clara gets to visit Heidi, the invigorating climate & gentle nudging from Heidi, persuade Clara to stand up & take a few tottering steps. This gradually improves so that when Clara's father visits her, she is able to walk up to him!
In contrast, the sour tempered Mary Lennox after losing her
parents in India, arrives to live with her uncle, Archibald Craven, who after
losing his wife, shuts up the garden loved by her & also neglects his
sickly, bed-ridden but willful son Colin. Mary discovers both the
"secret" garden & the crying spoiled cousin, Colin. She, with the
help of Dickon, brother of a maid at the Craven manor, renovates the garden
& persuades Colin to visit it & regain his will to live & regain
his health.
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