Mary Lennox was sent to her uncle at Misselthwaite Manor, and everyone said they had never seen such an awkward child.Indeed it is.She had a thin face, thin body, thin hair, and an unhappy expression.Her hair was yellow, and her face was yellow too, for she was born in India with one disease or another.Her father had a job with the British government, and he was always sick himself.Her mother was a great beauty, who cared only for parties, for the pleasures of the society.She had not wanted the little girl at all, and when Mary was born she gave Mary to the Indian nurse, who knew that if she wanted to please the mistress she must take the child as far away as possible.When she was a sickly, fussy, ugly baby, she was taken out of the way; when she was a sickly, fussy, toddler, she was still taken out of the way.She never recalled seeing anything familiar, except the black faces of the Indian nanny and the other Indian servants, who always obeyed her and let her do as she pleased, because the mistress was angry when she was disturbed by her cries.By the time she was six, she was the most selfish and bossy little piggy in the world.A young English governess who came to teach her to read and write hated her so much that he resigned after three months.Other governesses came for the job and stayed for a shorter period of time than the first one.If Mary hadn't been so eager to read, she probably wouldn't know a single letter.

This morning, it was terribly hot, and she was almost nine years old, and she woke up feeling very bad.She was even more displeased when she saw that the servant standing by the bed was not her nurse. "What are you doing here?" she said to the strange woman. "I won't let you stay here. Call my nurse." The woman looked terrified, but she just stammered that the nurse couldn't come.Mary was so angry that she beat and kicked her, and she looked more frightened, and repeated that the nurse could not come to the lady. There was something mysterious about the atmosphere that morning.Nothing was done as usual, a few native servants disappeared, and all the servants Mary saw were ashen-faced, running away or running around.But no one told her anything, and her nurse didn't come.She was by herself that morning, and at last she wandered out into the garden and played with herself under a tree by the veranda.She pretended to be making a flower bed, inserting crimson hibiscus flowers into the little mounds, and getting more and more angry, muttering to herself what the nurse was going to scold her when she came back.

"Pigs! Pigs! Pigs!" she said, because calling an indigenous Indian pig was the most insulting thing ever. She was gritting her teeth and swearing over and over when she heard her mother come out on the porch with the others.She was with a handsome young man, and they stood together talking in low, strange voices.Mary knew the young man, who looked like a little boy.She had heard that he was a young officer who had just arrived from England.The little girl stared at him, but at her mother even more.Whenever she had the opportunity to see her mother, she did so, because Mistress—as Mary most commonly called her—was so tall and slender and wore such beautiful clothes.Her hair is like curly satin, her small and exquisite nose seems to look down on everything, and her big eyes seem to be smiling.All her dresses were light and flowing, and Mary said they were "full of lace."Their lace seemed fuller than ever this morning.The great lace splayed open in terror, and towered over the young officer's face, imploring.

"Is it that bad? Oh, really?" Mary heard her say. "Bad," answered the young man in a trembling voice, "bad, Mrs. Lennox. You should have been up the hill two weeks ago." The hostess wrung her hands tightly together. "Oh, I know I should!" she cried. "I'm for that stupid party. What a fool I am!" Just then a loud howl broke through the servants' quarters, and she grabbed the young man by the arm, and Mary stood up, shaking from head to toe.The howling became wilder and wilder. "What's that sound? What's that?" Mrs. Lennox was out of breath.

"Someone died," replied the young officer, "you didn't tell me that there was an outbreak at the servants." "I don't know!" cried the mistress, "come with me! come with me!" she turned and ran into the house. Then, in a chilling event, Mary understood all the mysteries of the morning. One of the deadliest forms of cholera broke out, and people died like flies.The nanny fell ill at night, and the howling in the shed just now was because she died.Within a day, three other servants were killed, and the others fled in terror.There is fear everywhere, and the little bungalow is full of dead people.

In all the confusion and mess, Mary hid in her nursery the next day, forgotten by all.No one thought of her, no one wanted her, strange things were happening, and she knew nothing about it.During that time, Mary cried and slept.She knew everyone was sick, and she heard mysterious, urgent voices.She crawled into the dining room and found that it was empty, although the table was only half-eaten, as if the diners suddenly stood up for some reason, and the chairs and plates were hurriedly pushed away.The little one 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 Going back to the nursery and shutting herself up again, the shouts in the shed and the hurried footsteps frightened her.The wine made her so sleepy that she could barely keep her eyes open, and she lay down on the bed, not knowing anything for a while.

While she was sleeping, many things happened, but the sounds of things being carried in and out of the small bungalow no longer bothered her. When she woke up, she lay on the bed and stared at the wall.The house was silent.She had never heard the house so quiet.She couldn't hear voices or footsteps, and she wondered if everyone had recovered from the cholera and all their troubles were over.She also wondered, her nanny died, who would take care of her now?There will be a new nurse, and perhaps a new story to tell.Mary was very tired of those old stories.She was not a human child, and she never cared about anyone.She was terrified by all the noise, bustle, and howling brought on by the cholera, and she was very angry because no one seemed to remember that she was alive.Panic overwhelmed everyone, and no one had time to think of a "suspicious person".When cholera came, people seemed to remember nothing but themselves.However, if everyone gets better, someone will definitely remember and come to her.

But no one came, and she lay and waited, and the house seemed to grow quieter and quieter.She heard rustling on the carpet, and she looked down to see a little snake crawling by, looking at her with eyes like jewels.She wasn't frightened because it was a harmless little thing and was anxious to get out of the room.She watched it slip through the crack of the door. "It's so strange and quiet in here," she said. "It sounds like it's just me and the snake in the house." Within a minute or so she heard footsteps in the yard and out on the veranda.It was the footsteps of men entering the house, talking in low voices.No one came to receive them or speak to them, they seemed to open doors and look into rooms. "A ruin!" she heard a voice say. "Such a beauty! I suppose the child was... I heard there was a child, but no one ever saw her."

When they opened the door a few minutes later, Mary was standing in the middle of the nursery.She looked like an ugly, unhappy little thing, frowning because she was starting to feel hungry and shamefully neglected.The first man to come in was a senior officer whom she had seen talking to her father once.He looked tired and restless, but when he saw her he almost jumped back in surprise. "Barney!" he exclaimed, "here's a kid! Just the kid herself! In a place like this! For God's sake, who is she?" "I'm Mary Lennox," said the little girl, trying stiffly to stand upright.She thought the man was rude, referring to her father's house as "such a place!" "I fell asleep when everyone got cholera and just woke up. Why didn't anyone come?"

"This is the child no one has ever seen!" exclaimed the man, turning to his partner. "She was forgotten!" "Why was I forgotten?" asked Mary, stomping her foot. "Why didn't anyone come?" The young man named Barney looked at her sadly.Mary even thought she wanted to wink the tears away when she saw him wink. "Poor boy!" he said, "no one is left, and no one can come." So inexplicably, so suddenly, Mary learned that she had neither father nor 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 that there Miss Mary.So it's so quiet in the house.Really, in this big house, there are only her and the rustling little snake