1. In the opening chapter Tom seems sullen and selfish, even rude. Why does the reader feel sympathy for him?

2. What significance does Tom find in the grandfather clock's striking of the thirteenth hour?

3. Why does Abel fear trouble for Hatty when Tom helps her make the bow and arrows?

4. What is Abel's attitude toward Tom?

What part does his religious fervor play in forming that attitude?

5. How does Tom resolve in his own mind that troubling issue of whether he or Hatty is actually a ghost?

6. Hatty tells Tom a pretend story about being a princess in captivity. In what ways does she actually succeed, as Tom says, in making "this garden a kind of kingdom"?

7. Tom tells his brother Peter all about the garden and Hatty, but he never mentions his adventures to his aunt and uncle, not even at the end of...