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Introduction he Secret Garden begins as a sad story. Mary live in India with her family. When Mary is nine, hg parents die suddenly. Mary has no one, so she hast move to England. At first, Mary is ill and unhappy in England. She has no one to play with. She doesn’t like her dark bedroom, Outside,...

Introduction he Secret Garden begins as a sad story. Mary live in India with her family. When Mary is nine, hg parents die suddenly. Mary has no one, so she hast move to England. At first, Mary is ill and unhappy in England. She has no one to play with. She doesn’t like her dark bedroom, Outside, however, Mary sees something interesting What is over the wall in the garden? Why does no one go there? Life becomes interesting when Mary finds the secrst garden. Mary learns about the garden. She also leamns about the people around her. The garden is not the only secret in her new home. Here are some of the people in the story: Mary Lennox Mary does not have any parents. She lives with her uncle and his family. Dickon Dickon is the brother of a servant at the house. He becomes Mary’s friend: Ben Weatherstaff Ben is a gardener for the house. He likes to talk to the birds. Introduction ' vii Mr Craven Mr Craven is Mary/8iincle, Mary does not see him much. Colin Craven Colin is Mary’s cousin. He is an unhappy little boy. He stays in bed and does not go out. What do you think will happen to Mary and the other people? What secrets will Mary learn? About Frances Hodgson Burnett Frances Hodgson Burnett was born in Manchester, England, in 1849. She was the third of five children. When she was a teenager, Frances’s father died. The family left England. They started a new life in Tennessee in the USA. Frances did not want to leave her home in England. This is easy to see in her writing. The children in her books are often unhappy. Frances became successful quickly in the USA. She wrote for magazines. Later she wrote a book about life in Lancashire. This made her famous. For most of her life, she lived in the USA. She married and had children. She continued to write. Frances wrote more than forty books. Many are for children. Frances had the idea for The Secret Garden when she lived in a country house in England: Children love the idea of a secret, beautiful well loved even today. place. This story is 1 An English Girl in India Mary Lennox hen Mary Lennox was a young girl, she lived in India. Her father was working for the government there. She was a sick little child, but her parents did not really try to look after her. Her father was often s ill himself, while her tall, beautiful mother was only interested in going to parties with her friends. Mrs Lennox had not wanted a little girl at all. The day Mary was born, Mrs Lennox told one of the servants that she wanted to see the child as little as possible. So Mary had her own special servant, or ‘Ayah’ as they said in India. Her Ayah dressed her and undressed her and did everything for her. Because she never felt well, Mary selfish. She also had temper. what would until was g7 a terrible When she did not get she wanted, she cry and scream & someone gave it to her. very; : 10 2 | The Secret Garden All the servants were afraid of Mary, and nobody liked her. One very hot morning, when she was nine years olg, Mary woke up feeling tired and angry. She becamg really angry when she saw the servant who stood by he bed. The servant was not her Ayah. The missing servants ‘Why did you come?’ she said to the strange womap, ‘T will not let you stay. Send me my Ayah.’ 10 The woman looked frightened. ‘She cannot come,” whispered the woman. This made Mary show her bad temper. The little girl screamed and kicked the servant. woman repeated that the Ayah 15 hurried away. There was something But the poor could not come strange as she happening in the house that morning. Many of the servants were missing, and those who Mary saw all looked very afraid. But no one would tell her anything, so Mary went out to play under the tree in the garden. From where she was, she could see her mother talking to a young soldier. Suddenly there was a terrible cry. It was coming from the part of the house where the servants lived. 25 ‘What is it? What is it?’ asked Mary’s mother. ‘Someone has died,” answered the soldier. ‘The terrible sickness, cholera, has come to this house. You should have left here two weeks ago.’ ‘I know!” cried Mrs Lennox. 30 ‘I only stayed to go to that silly party. How foolish I was!’ Mrs Lennox looked very frightened. Mary watched her mother pull the soldier’s arm. An English Girl in India } 3§ * ‘Come with me!” she said to the soldier. Then she turned and ran into the house. The sickness After that, terrible things happened. Mary learned that her Ayah had become ill during the night. The servants were crying because she had just died. The next s day three more servants died and the others ran away. All over the house and the garden were dying people. Mary ate some fruit and biscuits that she found. fell asleep. Then she 10 During the second day of the cholera, Mary hid herself in the nursery and was forgotten by everybody. All through the night she slept. When she woke up, the house was completely silent. Mary waited in her room for somebody to come for her, but her only visitor was door. a snake. ‘How strange and The snake quiet it is,” Mary came 15 under the said to herself. ‘Perhaps there is nobody in the house but me and the snake.’ Almost the next minute 4 she heard voices. ‘How terrible!” she heard i one voice say. ‘That beautiful is dead. woman I think the child is too. I heard there was a child, though nobody ever - saw her.” =35 i ’ % e 2. 4 i The Secret Garden There is no one left Mary was standing in the middle of the nursery whe, someone opened the door. It was a soldier and looked completely surprised when he saw her. ‘Barney!’ he cried out to his friend. ‘There is a chiy here! A child alone! In a place like this! Who is she? ‘I am Mary Lennox,’ the little girl said. ‘I fell aslee when had the cholera. everyone Why does nobod; come?’ The young man whose name was Barney looked a her very sadly. ‘Poor child!’ he said. “There is nobody left to come.’ It was in that strange and sudden that Mary. way found out about the death of her mother and father 15 Everyone had either died was why the house was or left the house. Tha so quiet. Nobody had remembered Mary. There was no one in the house but herself and the snake. Mary goes to England 20 There was 1o one left to look after Mary in India, so shg was sent to live with her uncle in England. The wiféof a soldier travelled with her on the long journey across the sea. ‘Where am I going?” Mary asked. 25 ‘To live with your uncle, Mr Archibald Craven,’ said the woman kindly. ‘They say he lives in a big house called Misselthwaite Manor. I'm sure you’ll like it one of the there.’ At the 30 servants railway from station Misselthwaite Mary. Her name was in London, Manor Mrs: Medlock: came She to was meet a fat \J An English Girl in India § 5 woman with very red cheeks and black eyes. She wore a purple dress and a black hat with purple flowers. Mary did not like her, but she almost never liked anyone. And it was clear that Mrs Medlock did not like Mary. g ‘What an ugly little girl she is!’ she said to the soldier’s wife. ‘And we heard that her mother was beaut1fu1 ’ ‘Perhaps she will improve as she grows older,” said the woman. ‘She does look so pale and thin and she never smiles. But children can change so much.’ Mrs Medlock looked again at Mary. The little girl had a thin face and a thin little body. Even her hair was thin and yellow. 15 ‘She will have to change a lot,” she answered. ‘And there’s nothing to improve children at Misselthwaite.’ The two women did not realize that Mary was listening to what they were saying. But Mary had heard every word. She wanted to know more about her uncle and the house he lived in. What sort of place was it? What would he be like? 20