Like many children, the characters in Ransome’s books have a refreshing way of stripping things down to essentials.  

‘This isn’t a secret place,’ said the boy.

‘Any place is secret if nobody else is there.’ 

See another comment on the nature of secrets. 

Source: Arthur Ransome, Swallows and Amazons (London: Vintage, 2015 (1930)), p. 349

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