Little Miss Mary Nobody seemed（ 似乎） to care（关心） about Mary. She was born in India（印度）, where her father was a British official（官员）. He was busy with his work, and her mother, who was very beautiful, spent all her time going to parties. So an Indian（印度的） woman, Kamala, was paid to take care of the little girl. Mary was not a pretty child. She had a thin（薄的）, angry face, and thin yellow hair.

  She was always giving orders to Kamala, who had to obey（顺从）. Mary never thought of other people, but only of herself. In fact, she was a very selfish（ 自私的）, disagreeable, bad-tempered（使回火） little girl. One very hot morning, when she was about nine years old, she woke up and saw that instead（代替） of Kamala, there was a different Indian servant（仆人） by her bed. "What are you doing here?" she asked crossly. "Go away, and send Kamala to me at once."

  The woman looked afraid. "I'm sorry, Miss Mary. She, she, she can't come." Something strange（陌生的） was happening that day. Some of the house servants were missing, and everybody looked frightened（害怕的）, but nobody told Mary anything, and Kamala still did not come. So at last（(使)持续）, Mary went out into the garden and played by herself under a tree. She pretended（假装） she was making（使） her own flower garden and picked（ 拾起） large red flowers to push into the ground.

  All the time, she was saying crossly to herself, "I hate Kamala! I'll hit（打） her when she comes back!" Just then, she saw her mother coming into the garden with a young Englishman（英国男子）. They did not notice（注意） the child, who listened to their conversation. "It's very bad, is it?" her mother asked the young man in a worried（ 担心的） voice（声音）. "Very bad," he answered seriously（严重地）. "People are dying like flies（蝇）. It's dangerous to stay in this town.

  You should go to the hills（小山）, where there's no disease（病）." "Ah（啊）, I know," she cried（喊）. "We must leave soon." Suddenly（突然地）, they heard loud（响亮的） cries（喊） coming from the servants（仆人）' rooms at the side of the house. "What's happened?" cried Mary's mother wildly（疯狂地）. "I think one of your servants has just died. You didn't tell me the disease is here in your house."

  "I didn't know!" she screamed（尖叫）. "Quick, come with me!" And together, they ran into the house. Now Mary understood what was wrong. The terrible disease had already（早已） killed（杀死） many people in the town, and in all the houses, people were dying.

  In Mary's house, it was Kamala who had just died. Later that day, three more servants died there. All through the night and the next day, people ran in and out of the house, shouting（ 呼喊） and crying（喊）. Nobody thought of Mary. She hid（把…藏起来） in her bedroom, frightened（使惊恐） by the strange（陌生的） and terrible sounds that she heard around her. Sometimes she cried and sometimes she slept.

  When she woke the next day, the house was silent（沉默的）. "Perhaps（也许） the disease（病） has gone," she thought, "and everybody is well again. I wonder（想知道） who will take care（关心） of me instead（代替） of Kamala. Why doesn't someone bring me some food?" "It's strange the house is so quiet." "But just then, she heard men's voices in the hall（门厅）." "How sad," said one, "that beautiful woman." "There was a child, too, wasn't there?" said the other, although none of us ever saw her.

  Mary was standing（站立） in the middle（中部） of her room when they opened the door a few minutes later. The two men jumped（跳） back in surprise（惊奇）. "My name is Mary Lennox," she said crossly. "I was asleep（睡着的） when everyone was ill（有病的）, and now I'm hungry." "It's the child, the one nobody ever saw," said the older man to the other. "They've all forgotten her."

  "Why was I forgotten?" asked Mary angrily（愤怒地）. "Why has nobody come to take care of me?" The younger man looked at her very sadly. "Poor child," he said. "You see, there's nobody left alive（活着的） in the house, so nobody can come." In this strange and sudden（ 突然的） way, Mary learnt that both her mother and her father had died. The few servants who had not died had run away in the night.

  No one had remembered little Miss Mary. She was all alone（单独地）. Because she had never known her parents well, she did not miss them at all. She only thought of herself, as she had always done. "Where will I live?" she wondered. "I hope I'll stay with people who let me do what I want."

  At first she was taken to an English family who had known her parents. She hated their untidy（不整洁的） house and noisy（嘈杂的） children and preferred playing by herself in the garden. One day she was playing her favourite game, pretending to make a garden, when one of the children, Basil, offered（提供） to help. "Go away!" cried Mary. "I don't want your help!"

  For a moment, Basil looked angry, and then he began to laugh. He danced round（圆） and round（圆） Mary and sang a funny little song about Miss Mary and her stupid（ 愚蠢的） flowers. This made Mary very cross（穿过） indeed（真正地）. No one had ever laughed at her so unkindly. "You're going home soon," said Basil. "And we're all very pleased（开心的） you're leaving."

  "I'm pleased too," replied（回答） Mary. "But where's home?" "You're stupid, if you don't know that," laughed Basil. "England, of course. You're going to live with your uncle, Mr Archibald Craven." "I've never heard of him," said Mary coldly. "But I know about him because I heard father and mother talking," said Basil. "He lives in a big, lonely（孤独的） old house and has no friends because he's so bad-tempered（使回火）. He's got a crooked（弯曲的） back and he's horrid."

  "I don't believe you," cried Mary. But the next day, Basil's parents explained that she was going to live with her uncle in Yorkshire（约克郡） in the north of England. Mary looked bored and cross and said nothing. After the long sea journey, she was met in London by Mr Craven's housekeeper（女管家）, Mrs Medlock. Together, they traveled north by train. Mrs Medlock was a large woman with a very red face and bright（明亮的） black eyes.

  Mary did not like her, but that was not surprising（令人惊讶的） because she did not usually like people. Mrs Medlock did not like Mary either（也(不)）. "What a disagreeable child!" thought the housekeeper. "But perhaps I should talk to her." "I can tell you a bit（一点） about your uncle, if you like," she said aloud.

  "He lives in a big old house a long way from anywhere（在什么地方）. There are nearly（差不多） a hundred rooms, but most of them are shut（（使）关[合]上） and locked（锁上）. There's a big park round the house and all kinds of gardens." "Well, what do you think of that?" "Nothing," replied Mary. "It doesn't matter（有关系） to me." Mrs Medlock laughed. "You're a hard little girl."

  "Well, if you don't care, Mr Craven doesn't either. He never spends time on anyone. He's got a crooked back, you see, and although he's always been rich, he was never really happy until he married（娶）." "Married?" repeated Mary in surprise. "Yes?" "He married a sweet（甜的）, pretty girl and he loved her deeply（深刻地）." "So when she died?" "Oh, did she die?" asked Mary, interested. "Yes, she did."

  "And now he doesn't care about anybody（任何人）. If he's at home, he stays in his room and sees nobody. He won't want to see you, so you must stay out of his way and do what you're told." Mary stared（ 盯着看） out of the train window at the gray sky（天空） and the rain. She was not looking forward（向前） to life at her uncle's house. The train journey lasted all day and it was dark when they arrived at the station. Then there was a long drive（驱动器） to get to the house.

  It was a cold, windy night and it was raining heavily（重重地）. After a while, Mary began to hear a strange, wild（野生的） noise（喧闹声）. She looked out of the window but could see nothing except（除了） the darkness（黑暗）. "What's that noise?" she asked Mrs.Medlock. "It's not the sea, is it?" "No, that's the mua. It's the sound the wind（风） makes（使） blowing（吹） across the mua." "What is a mua?" "It's just miles and miles of wild land with no trees or houses. Your uncle's house is right on the edge（边缘） of the mua."

  Mary listened to the strange, frightening（令人惊恐的） sound. "I don't like it," she thought. "I don't like it." She looked more disagreeable than ever.