45

The four children just looked at each other.
“What on earth does Mary’s yellow canary have to do with the fig tree?” Beth mumbled.

“ Or Captain Patch’s treasure?” added Carrie.

“Wait, please let me see the book a second.” Aaron took the book in his hands and looked at the table of contents.

“Hold up, guys!,” he shouted almost immediately with a   spark in his voice , as if  he found the treasure itself.“Listen to this one on page 200:

  “Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
     How does your garden grow?
     Silver bells and cockle shells,
     And pretty maids all in a row.”

“That’s it, " Aaron said in a loud voice. “That is the one in the poem. It has the word ‘contrary.' "

46

“What does ‘contrary’ mean?” both Carrie and Beth wanted to know.

“It means thinking in an opposite way,” said Aaron who then continued,  “Mary is certainly  a girls name.”

“ Or a  grown up woman’s name,” David added.

“ Yes, that’s right," Aaron continued,his voice a bit softer now. “In the olden times when Captain Patch was alive, I think they often called a woman a  Mistress. It is the same thing as ‘Mrs’, I think...anyway I think it is!.”

So this could be the Mistress Mary in the poem,” Carrie was so excited that now her voice became loud. “Let’s go, and start digging.”
“Go where, and dig what? “ asked David.

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