Mistress Mary: Mistress Mary, quite contrary, How does your garden grow? With dingle bells and cockle shells And cowslips, all in a row.

Mary was the beloved daughter of a sailor and his wife who lived on a hill close to the sea. The rhyme calls her 'Mistress Mary, quite contrary' because sad to say she was a contrary child often doing the exact opposite of what her mother and father advised for no reason but that she did not wish to follow their advice. But her parents loved her and knew that she would some day grow out of this peevish behavior. One day her father and brothers were to leave on a long sea journey and she asked him ' And how long will you be gone, papa?' He responded Why, just this, sweetheart,' returned the sailor gravely; 'all the time that it takes the cowslips and dingle-bells and cockle-shells to sprout from the ground, and grow big and strong, and blossom into flower, and, yes—to wither and die away again—all that time shall your brothers and I sail the seas. But when the cold winds begin to blow, and the flowers are gone, then, God willing, we shall come back to you; and by that time you may have grown wiser and bigger, and I am sure you will have grown older. So one more kiss, sweetheart, and then we must go, for our time is up.'

After he left, Mistress Mary decided to plant a garden of these flowers to know when her father and brothers would return and that garden is what the poem is talking about. But it did not happen as she expected! Oh no! Listen to this delightful story to see how Mary learned to not be so contrary.