The Secret Garden - "Beauty" by Frances Hodgson Burnett/

Chapter 1 There is no one left

Mary Lennox was sent to her uncle at Miserswaite Manor, and everyone said they had never seen such an awkward child. Indeed it is. Her face was thin, her figure was thin, her hair was thin, and she looked unhappy. Her hair was yellow, and her face was yellow, because she was born in India, and she either had this disease or that disease. Her father had a position in the British government, and he himself was always sick. Her mother was a great beauty who cared only about banquets and wanted to have fun with social figures. Originally she did not want this little girl at all, when Mary was born, she gave Mary to the Indian nurse, who knew that if she wanted to make the hostess happy, she must take the child as far away as possible. When she was a sick, irritable, ugly baby, she was taken

to a place that does not hinder the adults; When she grew into a sickly, irritable, toddler, she was still taken to a place that didn't hinder adults. She never remembered seeing anything familiar, except for the black faces of the Indian nurses and other Indian servants, who always obeyed her and let her do as she pleased, for the mistress would be angry if disturbed by her cries. By the time she was six years old, she was the most selfish and domineering piglet in the world. A young British governess came to teach her to read and write, hated her so much that he quit his job after three months. Other governesses applied for jobs, staying shorter than the first. If it weren't for Mary's own desire to read, she probably wouldn't have known a single letter.

It was a terrible heat this morning, she was almost nine years old, and she woke up feeling very unhappy. She was even more upset when she saw that the servant standing by the bed was not her wet nurse.

"What are you here for?" She said to the strange woman, "I won't let you stay here." Call my wet nurse. ”

The woman looked scared, but she just stuttered and said that the nurse could not come. Mary was furious and punched and kicked her, and she looked even more frightened, repeatedly saying that the wet nurse really could not come to the young lady.

The atmosphere that morning was somewhat mysterious. None of the things were done as usual, a few native servants were gone, and the servants Mary saw were all dead-faced, either slipping away or wandering around. But no one told her anything, and her wet nurse didn't come. That morning, slowly she was left alone, and finally she wandered into the garden and played with herself under a tree next to the veranda. She pretended to be making flower beds, and inserted crimson hibiscus flowers into small mounds, becoming more and more angry in her heart, muttering to herself that she would scold her when she returned.

"Pigs! pig! Pig raised!" She said that because calling indian indigenous pigs was the most insulting.

She was gritting her teeth and cursing repeatedly when she heard her mother come to the veranda with someone. She was with a pretty lad, and they stood together talking in a low voice with strange sounds. Mary knew the young man, who looked like a little boy. She had heard that he was a young officer, fresh from England. The little girl stared at him, but more at her mother. As soon as she had the chance to meet her mother, she was like that, because the hostess—Mary's most common name for her—was so tall, slender, and dressed in such beautiful clothes. Her hair was like curly silk satin, her small nose seemed to look down on anything, and her big eyes seemed to be smiling. All her clothes were light and flowing, and Mary said they were "full of lace." On this morning, their lace seemed to be fuller than ever. The big lace opened in fear, towering into the face of the young officer, pleading.

"Is it so bad? Oh, really?" Mary heard her say.

"It's bad," replied the young man in a trembling voice, "it's bad, Mrs. Lennox." You should have gone up the hill two weeks ago. ”

The hostess's hands were clasped together.

"Oh, I know I should!" She shouted, "I'm for that silly fool's banquet." What a fool I am!"

It was then that a loud howl broke through the servants' quarters, and as soon as she grabbed the young man's arm, Mary stood up and shook from head to toe. The howling became more and more wild. "What's that sound?" What's that?" Mrs. Lennox was out of breath.

"Someone died," replied the young officer, "and you didn't tell me that there was an outbreak at the servant's place too." ”

"I don't know!" The hostess cried out, "Come with me! Come with me!" She turned and ran into the house.

Then something creepy came, and Mary understood everything mysterious about the morning.

One of the deadliest outbreaks of cholera, people die like mosquitoes and flies. The nurse fell ill at night, and the crying in the shack just now was because she died. Within a day, three other servants were killed, and the rest fled in horror. There was fear everywhere, and the little bungalow was full of dead people.

In the midst of chaos and chaos, Mary hid in her toddler's room the next day, forgotten by everyone. No one thought of her, no one wanted her, strange things were happening, and she knew nothing. During that time, Mary slept while crying. She knew everyone was sick, and she heard mysterious, urgent voices. She crawled into the dining room and found it empty, though only half of the meal on the table had been eaten, as if the eater had suddenly stood up for some reason, and the chair and plate had been pushed away in a panic. The little fellow ate some fruit and biscuits, and she felt thirsty, and drank a glass of wine, which was almost full and sweet, and she did not know how strong the wine was, and soon she felt very sleepy, and she went back to the nursery and shut herself up again, and the shouts in the shack, the hurried footsteps, made her afraid. The wine had made her so sleepy that she could hardly open her eyes, and she lay down on the bed, knowing nothing for a moment.

When she slept, a lot of things happened, but the sounds of things being lifted out of the small bungalow no longer bothered her.

When she woke up, she lay on the bed and stared at the wall. There was silence in the house. She had never heard the house so quiet. She couldn't hear the voices or the footsteps, and she wondered if everyone had recovered from cholera and all the trouble was over. She also guessed that her wet nurse was dead, and who would take care of her now? There will be a new nurse who may be able to tell a new story. Those old stories Mary was very tired of. She wasn't a human child and had never cared about anyone. The noise, hecticness and howling that had come with cholera frightened her, and she was very angry, for it seemed that no one remembered that she was still alive. Panic crushed everyone, and no one had time to think of a "million people". When cholera comes, people can't seem to remember anything but themselves. However, if everyone is getting better, someone will definitely remember and come to her.

But no one came, she lay and waited, and the house seemed to be getting quieter and quieter. She heard the rumbling of the carpet, and she looked down to see a small snake crawling over, looking at her, eyes like jewels. She didn't feel frightened, for it was a harmless little thing and was anxious to leave the room. She watched it slip through the crack in the door.

"How strange it is, how quiet it is," she said, "it sounds as if it were just me and the snake in this house." ”

Within almost a minute she heard footsteps in the courtyard and then reached the veranda. It was the footsteps of the men who entered the house and whispered. No one went to receive them, to talk to them, and they seemed to open the door and look at the rooms. "A ruin!" She heard a voice say. "What a beauty! I guess that kid too... I heard about a child, but no one had ever seen her. ”

A few minutes later, when they opened the door, Mary was standing in the middle of the toddler's room. She looked like an ugly, unpleasant little thing, frowning, for she was beginning to feel hungry, to be shamefully ignored. The first man to come in was a high-ranking officer, and she had once seen him talking to her father. He looked tired and restless, but when he saw her, he was so startled that he almost jumped backwards.

"Barney!" He exclaimed, "There's a kid here!" Just kid yourself! In such a place! God pity, who is she?"

"I'm Mary Lennox," said the little girl, trying to stand up straight. She thought the man was rude and said of her father's house as "such a place!" When everyone was infected with cholera, I fell asleep and had just woken up. Why didn't anyone come?"

"This is the kid no one has ever seen!" The man exclaimed and turned to his partner. "She was forgotten!"

"Why am I forgotten?" Mary stomped her feet and asked, "Why didn't anyone come?"

The young man named Barney looked at her sadly. Mary even felt that she saw him blinking and wanted to blink away the tears.

"Poor boy!" He said, "There's no one left, no one can come." ”

So inexplicably, suddenly, Mary learns that she has no father and no mother; They had died in the night and had been carried away, and the few Indian servants who were not dead had fled the house as quickly as possible, and no one remembered another Miss Mary. So it's so quiet in the house. Really, in this big house, there was only her and the little snake.