Themes
Innocence
This story is about what happens when a young girl (Therese) digs up a hole in her garden, which is also dug into the next door neighbour, Mr Mordecai's garden. The theme of innocence is portrayed throughout the story - when Eveline and Therese discover a dead body in Mr Mordecai's garden they have the decision between right and wrong to make. Therese is a young innocent child and upon seeing a ring on the dead body she steals it and claims it to be her own. She does not know about morality and what to do when put in a situation when she has to choose between right and wrong.
Confinement
This theme is heavily portrayed throughout the story. The idea of boundaries - the garden wall, the end of childhood and a view into the real world is shown quite clearly in the story as one moment we are seeing the siblings relax in the garden and the next they are digging into someone else's garden (venturing into unknown territory). Also, when the girls discover the dead body rather than relaxing in the garden they stay inside the house like they know that the garden is a dangerous place.
Morality
In the story the girls have to make many moral decisions. An example of this is when the police officers come round to their house and ask if they have seen a missing girl. The girls are left with a decision between good and evil to make - should we tell them what we know? or just lie and tell them we don't know anything? In the end the girls make the decision that they shouldn't tell the police officers what they know, instead they lie and then carry on with their daily routine as usual.