THE SECRET GARDEN
                                                                           BY FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT


CONTENTS

CHAPTER TITLE

I THERE IS NO ONE LEFT
II MISTRESS MARY QUITE CONTRARY
III ACROSS THE MOOR
IV MARTHA
V THE CRY IN THE CORRIDOR
VI "THERE WAS SOME ONE CRYING--THERE WAS!"
VII THE KEY TO THE GARDEN
VIII THE ROBIN WHO SHOWED THE WAY
IX THE STRANGEST HOUSE ANY ONE EVER LIVED IN
X DICKON
XI THE NEST OF THE MISSEL THRUSH
XII "MIGHT I HAVE A BIT OF EARTH?"
XIII "I AM COLIN"
XIV A YOUNG RAJAH
XV NEST BUILDING
XVI "I WON'T!" SAID MARY
XVII A TANTRUM
XVIII "THA' MUNNOT WASTE NO TIME"
XIX "IT HAS COME!"
XX "I SHALL LIVE FOREVER--AND EVER--AND EVER!"
XXI BEN WEATHERSTAFF
XXII WHEN THE SUN WENT DOWN
XXIII MAGIC
XIV "LET THEM LAUGH"
XXV THE CURTAIN
XXVI "IT'S MOTHER!"
XXVII IN THE GARDEN

THE SECRET GARDEN
BY FRANCES HODGSON BURNETT

CHAPTER I
THERE IS NO ONE LEFT
1.    When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor
2.    to live with her uncle everybody said she was the most
3.    disagreeable-looking child ever seen. It was true, too.
4.    She had a little thin face and a little thin body,
5.    thin light hair and a sour expression. Her hair was yellow,
6.    and her face was yellow because she had been born in
7.    India and had always been ill in one way or another.
8.    Her father had held a position under the English
9.    Government and had always been busy and ill himself,
10.    and her mother had been a great beauty who cared only
11.    to go to parties and amuse herself with gay people.
12.    She had not wanted a little girl at all, and when Mary
13.    was born she handed her over to the care of an Ayah,
14.    who was made to understand that if she wished to please
15.    the Mem Sahib she must keep the child out of sight as much
16.    as possible. So when she was a sickly, fretful, ugly little
17.    baby she was kept out of the way, and when she became
18.    a sickly, fretful, toddling thing she was kept out of
19.    the way also. She never remembered seeing familiarly
20.    anything but the dark faces of her Ayah and the other
21.    native servants, and as they always obeyed her and gave
22.    her her own way in everything, because the Mem Sahib
23.    would be angry if she was disturbed by her crying,
24.    by the time she was six years old she was as tyrannical
25.    and selfish a little pig as ever lived. The young English
26.    governess who came to teach her to read and write disliked
27.    her so much that she gave up her place in three months,
28.    and when other governesses came to try to fill it they
29.    always went away in a shorter time than the first one.
30.    So if Mary had not chosen to really want to know how
31.    to read books she would never have learned her letters at all.
32.    One frightfully hot morning, when she was about nine
33.    years old, she awakened feeling very cross, and she became
34.    crosser still when she saw that the servant who stood
35.    by her bedside was not her Ayah.
36.    "Why did you come?" she said to the strange woman.
37.    "I will not let you stay. Send my Ayah to me."
38.    The woman looked frightened, but she only stammered
39.    that the Ayah could not come and when Mary threw herself
40.    into a passion and beat and kicked her, she looked only
41.    more frightened and repeated that it was not possible
42.    for the Ayah to come to Missie Sahib.
43.    There was something mysterious in the air that morning.
44.    Nothing was done in its regular order and several of the
45.    native servants seemed missing, while those whom Mary
46.    saw slunk or hurried about with ashy and scared faces.
47.    But no one would tell her anything and her Ayah did not come.
48.    She was actually left alone as the morning went on,
49.    and at last she wandered out into the garden and began
50.    to play by herself under a tree near the veranda.
51.    She pretended that she was making a flower-bed, and she stuck
52.    big scarlet hibiscus blossoms into little heaps of earth,
53.    all the time growing more and more angry and muttering
54.    to herself the things she would say and the names she
55.    would call Saidie when she returned.
56.    "Pig! Pig! Daughter of Pigs!" she said, because to call
57.    a native a pig is the worst insult of all.
58.    She was grinding her teeth and saying this over and over
59.    again when she heard her mother come out on the veranda
60.    with some one. She was with a fair young man and they stood
61.    talking together in low strange voices. Mary knew the fair
62.    young man who looked like a boy. She had heard that he
63.    was a very young officer who had just come from England.
64.    The child stared at him, but she stared most at her mother.
65.    She always did this when she had a chance to see her,
66.    because the Mem Sahib--Mary used to call her that oftener
67.    than anything else--was such a tall, slim, pretty person
68.    and wore such lovely clothes. Her hair was like curly
69.    silk and she had a delicate little nose which seemed
70.    to be disdaining things, and she had large laughing eyes.
71.    All her clothes were thin and floating, and Mary said they
72.    were "full of lace." They looked fuller of lace than ever
73.    this morning, but her eyes were not laughing at all.
74.    They were large and scared and lifted imploringly to the fair
75.    boy officer's face.
76.    "Is it so very bad? Oh, is it?" Mary heard her say.
77.    "Awfully," the young man answered in a trembling voice.
78.    "Awfully, Mrs. Lennox. You ought to have gone to the hills
79.    two weeks ago."
80.    The Mem Sahib wrung her hands.
81.    "Oh, I know I ought!" she cried. "I only stayed to go
82.    to that silly dinner party. What a fool I was!"
83.    At that very moment such a loud sound of wailing broke
84.    out from the servants' quarters that she clutched the young
85.    man's arm, and Mary stood shivering from head to foot.
86.    The wailing grew wilder and wilder. "What is it? What is it?"
87.    Mrs. Lennox gasped.
88.    "Some one has died," answered the boy officer. "You did
89.    not say it had broken out among your servants."
90.    "I did not know!" the Mem Sahib cried. "Come with me!
91.    Come with me!" and she turned and ran into the house.
92.    After that, appalling things happened, and the mysteriousness
93.    of the morning was explained to Mary. The cholera had
94.    broken out in its most fatal form and people were dying
95.    like flies. The Ayah had been taken ill in the night,
96.    and it was because she had just died that the servants
97.    had wailed in the huts. Before the next day three other
98.    servants were dead and others had run away in terror.
99.    There was panic on every side, and dying people in all
100.    the bungalows.
101.    During the confusion and bewilderment of the second day Mary
102.    hid herself in the nursery and was forgotten by everyone.
103.    Nobody thought of her, nobody wanted her, and strange things
104.    happened of which she knew nothing. Mary alternately cried
105.    and slept through the hours. She only knew that people were
106.    ill and that she heard mysterious and tightening sounds.
107.    Once she crept into the dining-room and found it empty,
108.    though a partly finished meal was on the table and chairs
109.    and plates looked as if they had been hastily pushed
110.    back when the diners rose suddenly for some reason.
111.    The child ate some fruit and biscuits, and being thirsty
112.    she drank a glass of wine which stood nearly filled.
113.    It was sweet, and she did not know how strong it was.
114.    Very soon it made her intensely drowsy, and she went back
115.    to her nursery and shut herself in again, frightened by cries
116.    she heard in the huts and by the hurrying sound of feet.
117.    The wine made her so sleepy that she could scarcely keep her
118.    eyes open and she lay down on her bed and knew nothing more
119.    for a long time.
120.    Many things happened during the hours in which she slept
121.    so heavily, but she was not disturbed by the wails and the
122.    sound of things being carried in and out of the bungalow.
123.    When she awakened she lay and stared at the wall.
124.    The house was perfectly still. She had never known
125.    it to be so silent before. She heard neither voices
126.    nor footsteps, and wondered if everybody had got well of
127.    the cholera and all the trouble was over. She wondered
128.    also who would take care of her now her Ayah was dead.
129.    There would be a new Ayah, and perhaps she would know
130.    some new stories. Mary had been rather tired of the
131.    old ones. She did not cry because her nurse had died.
132.    She was not an affectionate child and had never cared much
133.    for any one. The noise and hurrying about and wailing
134.    over the cholera had frightened her, and she had been angry
135.    because no one seemed to remember that she was alive.
136.    Everyone was too panic-stricken to think of a little
137.    girl no one was fond of. When people had the cholera
138.    it seemed that they remembered nothing but themselves.
139.    But if everyone had got well again, surely some one would
140.    remember and come to look for her.
141.    But no one came, and as she lay waiting the house seemed
142.    to grow more and more silent. She heard something rustling
143.    on the matting and when she looked down she saw a little
144.    snake gliding along and watching her with eyes like jewels.
145.    She was not frightened, because he was a harmless little
146.    thing who would not hurt her and he seemed in a hurry
147.    to get out of the room. He slipped under the door as she
148.    watched him.
149.    "How queer and quiet it is," she said. "It sounds as
150.    if there were no one in the bungalow but me and the snake."
151.    Almost the next minute she heard footsteps in the compound,
152.    and then on the veranda. They were men's footsteps,
153.    and the men entered the bungalow and talked in low voices.
154.    No one went to meet or speak to them and they seemed
155.    to open doors and look into rooms. "What desolation!"
156.    she heard one voice say. "That pretty, pretty woman!
157.    I suppose the child, too. I heard there was a child,
158.    though no one ever saw her."
159.    Mary was standing in the middle of the nursery when they
160.    opened the door a few minutes later. She looked an ugly,
161.    cross little thing and was frowning because she was
162.    beginning to be hungry and feel disgracefully neglected.
163.    The first man who came in was a large officer she had once
164.    seen talking to her father. He looked tired and troubled,
165.    but when he saw her he was so startled that he almost
166.    jumped back.
167.    "Barney!" he cried out. "There is a child here! A child
168.    alone! In a place like this! Mercy on us, who is she!"
169.    "I am Mary Lennox," the little girl said, drawing herself
170.    up stiffly. She thought the man was very rude to call her
171.    father's bungalow "A place like this!" "I fell asleep when
172.    everyone had the cholera and I have only just wakened up.
173.    Why does nobody come?"
174.    "It is the child no one ever saw!" exclaimed the man,
175.    turning to his companions. "She has actually been forgotten!"
176.    "Why was I forgotten?" Mary said, stamping her foot.
177.    "Why does nobody come?"
178.    The young man whose name was Barney lookedat her very sadly.
179.    Mary even thought she saw him wink his eyes as if to wink
180.    tears away.
181.    "Poor little kid!" he said. "There is nobody left to come."
182.    It was in that strange and sudden way that Mary found
183.    out that she had neither father nor mother left;
184.    that they had died and been carried away in the night,
185.    and that the few native servants who had not died also had
186.    left the house as quickly as they could get out of it,
187.    none of them even remembering that there was a Missie Sahib.
188.    That was why the place was so quiet. It was true that there
189.    was no one in the bungalow but herself and the little
190.    rustling snake.

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