前言

秘方简介

常用词列表

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

CHAPTER I

THERE IS NO ONE LEFT

When Mary Lennox was sent send to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle 叔叔 everybody said she was the most disagree‧able 不同意‧能够的-looking child ever seen. It was true, too. She had a little thin face and a little thin body, thin light hair and a sour 有酸味的 expression. Her hair was yellow, and her face was yellow because she had been born bear in India and had always been ill 生病 in one way or another. Her father had held a position under the English Government and had always been busy and ill himself, and her mother had been a great beauty who cared only to go to parties and amuse 使人发笑 her‧self 她自己 with gay 快乐的 people. She had not wanted a little girl at all, and when Mary was born she handed her over to the care of an Ayah, who was made to understand that if she wished to please the Mem Sahib she must keep the child out of sight as much as possible. So when she was a sickly, fretful, ugly 难看的 little baby she was kept out of the way, and when she became a sickly, fretful, toddling thing she was kept out of the way also. She never remembered seeing familiarly anything but the dark faces of her Ayah and the other native 本土的 servants 仆人, and as they always obeyed 服从 her and gave her her own way in everything, because the Mem Sahib would be angry 生气的 if she was disturbed 打扰 by her crying, by the time she was six years old she was as tyrannical and selfish 自私的 a little pig 猪 as ever lived. The young English governess who came to teach her to read and write disliked 反感 her so much that she gave up her place in three months, and when other governesses came to try to fill it they always went away in a shorter time than the first one. So if Mary had not chosen choose to really want to know how to read books she would never have learned learn her letters at all.

One fright‧fully 恐怖‧完全地 hot morning, when she was about nine 九 years old, she awakened 憬 feeling very cross, and she became crosser still when she saw that the servant 仆人 who stood by her bed‧side 床头 was not her Ayah.

"Why did you come?" she said to the strange woman. "I will not let you stay. Send my Ayah to me."

The woman looked frightened 使惊恐, but she only stammered that the Ayah could not come and when Mary threw throw her‧self 她自己 into a passion 激情，热情；强烈情感 and beat and kicked 踢 her, she looked only more frightened and repeated that it was not possible for the Ayah to come to Missie Sahib.

There was something mysterious 神秘 in the air that morning. Nothing was done in its regular order and several of the native 本土的 servants seemed missing, while those whom 谁 Mary saw slunk or hurried about with ashy and scared 惊恐 faces. But no one would tell her anything and her Ayah did not come. She was actually left alone as the morning went on, and at last she wandered 漫步 out into the garden and began to play by her‧self 她自己 under a tree near the veranda. She pretended 假装 that she was making a flower-bed, and she stuck stick big scar‧let 猩红 hibiscus blossoms 开花 into little heaps 堆 of earth, all the time growing more and more angry 生气的 and muttering 咕哝 to her‧self 她自己 the things she would say and the names she would call Saidie when she returned.

" Pig 猪! Pig! Daughter of Pigs!" she said, because to call a native a pig 3 is the worst 生病:ill insult 侮辱 of all.

She was grinding 磨碎 her teeth and saying this over and over again when she heard her mother come out on the veranda with some one. She was with a fair young man and they stood talking together in low strange voices. Mary knew the fair young man who looked like a boy. She had heard that he was a very young officer who had just come from England. The child stared at him, but she stared most at her mother. She always did this when she had a chance to see her, because the Mem Sahib—Mary used to call her that oftener than anything else—was such a tall, slim 瘦, pretty person and wore wear such lovely 可爱的 clothes. Her hair was like curly 卷曲 silk 丝 and she had a delicate 微妙的；纤弱的 little nose which seemed to be disdaining 蔑视 things, and she had large laughing eyes. All her clothes were thin and floating 漂浮, and Mary said they were "full of lace 花边." They looked fuller of lace 花边 than ever this morning, but her eyes were not laughing at all. They were large and scared and lifted imploringly to the fair boy officer's face.

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

"Awfully," the young man answered in a trembling 发抖 voice. "Awfully, Mrs. Lennox. You ought to have gone to the hills two weeks ago."

The Mem Sahib wrung her hands.

"Oh, I know I ought!" she cried. "I only stayed to go to that silly 愚蠢 dinner party. What a fool I was!"

At that very moment such a loud 响亮的 sound of wailing 哀号 broke break out from the servants' quarters that she clutched 离合器 the young man's arm, and Mary stood shivering 发抖 from head to foot. The wailing 哀号 grew grow wilder and wilder.

"What is it? What is it?" Mrs. Lennox gasped 喘气.

"Some one has died," answered the boy officer. "You did not say it had broken break out among your servants."

"I did not know!" the Mem Sahib cried. "Come with me! Come with me!" and she turned and ran into the house.

After that appalling 惊恐 things happened, and the mysteriousness of the morning was explained to Mary. The cholera 霍乱 had broken out in its most fatal 致命 form and people were dying like flies. The Ayah had been taken ill in the night, and it was because she had just died that the servants had wailed 哀号 in the huts 小屋. Before the next day three other servants were dead and others had run away in terror 恐怖. There was panic 恐慌 on every side, and dying people in all the bungalows 平房.

During the confusion 混乱 and bewilderment of the second day Mary hid hide her‧self 她自己 in the nursery 婴儿室；苗圃 and was forgotten forget by every one. Nobody thought of her, nobody wanted her, and strange things happened of which she knew nothing. Mary alternately 备用 cried and slept sleep through the hours. She only knew that people were ill and that she heard mysterious 神秘 and frightening 使惊恐 sounds. Once she crept 爬行:creep into the dining 吃饭-room and found it empty, though a partly finished meal 餐 was on the table and chairs and plates 盘子 looked as if they had been hastily 草草 pushed back when the diners 餐车 rose rise suddenly for some reason. The child ate some fruit and biscuits 饼干, and being thirsty 渴 she drank drink a glass of wine which stood nearly filled. It was sweet, and she did not know how strong it was. Very soon it made her intensely 强烈的，极度的 drowsy, and she went back to her nursery 婴儿室；苗圃 and shut 关闭 her‧self 她自己 in again, frightened by cries she heard in the huts and by the hurrying sound of feet. The wine made her so sleepy 困 that she could scarcely 缺乏的 keep her eyes open and she lay lie down on her bed and knew nothing more for a long time.

Many things happened during the hours in which she slept so heavily 很大，沉重地, but she was not disturbed by the wails 哀号 and the sound of things being carried in and out of the bungalow 平房.

When she awakened 憬 she lay and stared at the wall. The house was perfectly still. She had never known it to be so silent before. She heard neither voices nor foot‧step 脚步, and wondered if everybody had got well of the cholera 霍乱 and all the trouble was over. She wondered also who would take care of her now her Ayah was dead. There would be a new Ayah, and perhaps she would know some new stories. Mary had been rather tired of the old ones. She did not cry because her nurse 护士 had died. She was not an affectionate 亲热 child and had never cared much for any one. The noise 噪音 and hurrying about and wailing 哀号 over the cholera 霍乱 had frightened her, and she had been angry because no one seemed to remember that she was alive 活的；有生命的. Every one was too panic 恐慌-stricken to think of a little girl no one was fond 喜欢的 of. When people had the cholera 霍乱 it seemed that they remembered nothing but themselves. But if every one had got well again, surely some one would remember and come to look for her.

But no one came, and as she lay waiting the house seemed to grow more and more silent. She heard something rustling 沙沙 on the matting 席子 and when she looked down she saw a little snake gliding 滑行 along and watching her with eyes like jewels 宝石. She was not frightened, because he was a harm‧less 无害 little thing who would not hurt 损害 her and he seemed in a hurry to get out of the room. He slipped under the door as she watched him.

"How queer 奇怪 and quiet it is," she said. "It sounds as if there was no one in the bungalow 平房 but me and the snake."

Almost the next minute she heard foot‧step 脚步 in the compound 组合, and then on the veranda. They were men's foot‧step 脚步, and the men entered the bungalow 平房 and talked in low voices. No one went to meet or speak to them and they seemed to open doors and look into rooms.

"What desolation!" she heard one voice say. "That pretty, pretty woman! I suppose the child, too. I heard there was a child, though no one ever saw her."

Mary was standing in the middle of the nursery 婴儿室；苗圃 when they opened the door a few minutes later. She looked an ugly 难看的, cross little thing and was frowning 皱眉 because she was beginning to be hungry 饥饿 and feel disgrace‧fully 耻辱‧完全地 neglected 疏忽. The first man who came in was a large officer she had once seen talking to her father. He looked tired and troubled, but when he saw her he was so startled 惊吓 that he almost jumped back.

"Barney!" he cried out. "There is a child here! A child alone! In a place like this! Mercy 宽容 on us, who is she!"

"I am Mary Lennox," the little girl said, drawing her‧self 她自己 up stiffly 严厉的. She thought the man was very rude 粗鲁的 to call her father's bungalow 平房 "A place like this!" "I fell fall asleep 睡着的 when every one had the cholera 霍乱 and I have only just wakened up. Why does nobody come?"

"It is the child no one ever saw!" exclaimed 喊叫 the man, turning to his companions 同伴. "She has actually been forgotten!"

"Why was I forgotten?" Mary said, stamping 邮票 her foot. "Why does nobody come?"

The young man whose 谁的 name was Barney looked at her very sadly 悲哀的. Mary even thought she saw him wink 眨眼 his eyes as if to wink 眨眼 tears away.

"Poor little kid 孩子!" he said. "There is nobody left to come."

It was in that strange and sudden way that Mary found out that she had neither father nor mother left; that they had died and been carried away in the night, and that the few native servants who had not died also had left the house as quickly as they could get out of it, none of them even remembering that there was a Missie Sahib. That was why the place was so quiet. It was true that there was no one in the bungalow 平房 but her‧self 她自己 and the little rustling 沙沙 snake.

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CHAPTER II

MISTRESS MARY QUITE CONTRARY

Mary had liked to look at her mother from a distance and she had thought her very pretty, but as she knew very little of her she could scarcely have been expected to love her or to miss her very much when she was gone. She did not miss her at all, in fact, and as she was a self 自己-absorbed 吸收 child she gave her entire thought to her‧self 她自己, as she had always done. If she had been older she would no doubt have been very anxious 焦急的 at being left alone in the world, but she was very young, and as she had always been taken care of, she supposed she always would be. What she thought was that she would like to know if she was going to nice people, who would be polite 有礼貌的 to her and give her her own way as her Ayah and the other native servants had done.

She knew that she was not going to stay at the English clergy‧man 牧师's house where she was taken at first. She did not want to stay. The English clergy‧man 牧师 was poor and he had five children nearly all the same age and they wore shabby 破旧 clothes and were always quarreling 争吵 and snatching 抢夺 toys 玩具 from each other. Mary hated their untidy 襶 bungalow 平房 and was so disagree‧able 不同意‧能够的 to them that after the first day or two nobody would play with her. By the second day they had given her a nick‧name 昵称 which made her furious 狂怒.

It was Basil who thought of it first. Basil was a little boy with impudent blue eyes and a turned-up nose and Mary hated him. She was playing by her‧self 她自己 under a tree, just as she had been playing the day the cholera 霍乱 broke out. She was making heaps of earth and paths 小路 for a garden and Basil came and stood near to watch her. Presently he got rather interested and suddenly made a suggestion 建议.

"Why don't you put a heap 堆 of stones there and pretend 假装 it is a rockery?" he said. "There in the middle," and he leaned lean over her to point.

"Go away!" cried Mary. "I don't want boys. Go away!"

For a moment Basil looked angry, and then he began to tease 逗. He was always teasing 逗 his sisters 姐妹. He danced round and round her and made faces and sang sing and laughed.

He sang it until the other children heard and laughed, too; and the crosser Mary got, the more they sang "Mistress Mary, quite contrary 相反"; and after that as long as she stayed with them they called her "Mistress Mary Quite Contrary" when they spoke speak of her to each other, and often when they spoke to her.

"You are going to be sent home," Basil said to her, "at the end of the week. And we're glad 高兴的 of it."

"I am glad of it, too," answered Mary. "Where is home?"

"She doesn't know where home is!" said Basil, with seven 七-year-old scorn 鄙视. "It's England, of course. Our grand‧mama 宏大的‧妈妈 lives there and our sister 姐妹 Mabel was sent to her last year. You are not going to your grand‧mama 宏大的‧妈妈. You have none. You are going to your uncle 叔叔. His name is Mr. Archibald Craven."

"I don't know anything about him," snapped 卡 Mary.

"I know you don't," Basil answered. "You don't know anything. Girls never do. I heard father and mother talking about him. He lives in a great, big, desolate 荒凉 old house in the country and no one goes near him. He's so cross he won win't let them, and they wouldn't come if he would let them. He's a hunch‧back 直觉‧背；往回, and he's horrid."

"I don't believe you," said Mary; and she turned her back and stuck her fingers in her ears, because she would not listen any more.

But she thought over it a great deal after‧ward 之后; and when Mrs. Crawford told her that night that she was going to sail 航行；帆 away to England in a few days and go to her uncle, Mr. Archibald Craven, who lived at Misselthwaite Manor, she looked so stony and stubbornly 倔强 uninterested that they did not know what to think about her. They tried to be kind to her, but she only turned her face away when Mrs. Crawford attempted to kiss 接吻 her, and held her‧self 她自己 stiffly when Mr. Crawford patted 拍 her shoulder.

"She is such a plain child," Mrs. Crawford said pityingly, after‧ward 之后. "And her mother was such a pretty creature 动物；生物. She had a very pretty manner, too, and Mary has the most unattractive 没有吸引力 ways I ever saw in a child. The children call her 'Mistress Mary Quite Contrary,' and though it's naughty 淘气 of them, one can't help understanding it."

"Perhaps if her mother had carried her pretty face and her pretty manners oftener into the nursery 婴儿室；苗圃 Mary might have learned some pretty ways too. It is very sad 悲哀的, now the poor beautiful 美丽 thing is gone, to remember that many people never even knew that she had a child at all."

"I believe she scarcely ever looked at her," sighed 叹 Mrs. Crawford. "When her Ayah was dead there was no one to give a thought to the little thing. Think of the servants running away and leaving her all alone in that deserted 沙漠；抛弃 bungalow 平房. Colonel McGrew said he nearly jumped out of his skin 皮 when he opened the door and found her standing by her‧self 她自己 in the middle of the room."

Mary made the long voyage 旅行 to England under the care of an officer's wife, who was taking her children to leave them in a boarding-school. She was very much absorbed 吸收 in her own little boy and girl, and was rather glad to hand the child over to the woman Mr. Archibald Craven sent to meet her, in London. The woman was his house‧keep 管家 at Misselthwaite Manor, and her name was Mrs. Medlock. She was a stout 肥硕 woman, with very red cheeks 脸颊 and sharp black eyes. She wore a very purple 紫色的 dress, a black silk 丝 mantle 披风 with jet 喷射 fringe 边缘 on it and a black bonnet 帽子 with purple velvet 丝绒 flowers which stuck up and trembled 发抖 when she moved her head. Mary did not like her at all, but as she very seldom 很少 liked people there was nothing remark‧able 非凡的；奇异的；引人注目的 in that; besides which it was very evident 明显 Mrs. Medlock did not think much of her.

"My word! she's a plain little piece of goods!" she said. "And we'd heard that her mother was a beauty. She hasn't handed much of it down, has she, ma 嘛'am?"

"Perhaps she will improve as she grows older," the officer's wife said good-naturedly. "If she were not so sallow and had a nicer expression, her features 特征 are rather good. Children alter 改变 so much."

"She'll have to alter a good deal," answered Mrs. Medlock. "And there's nothing likely to improve children at Misselthwaite—if you ask me!"

They thought Mary was not listening because she was standing a little apart 相隔 from them at the window of the private hotel they had gone to. She was watching the passing buses 公共汽车 and cabs 出租车, and people, but she heard quite well and was made very curious about her uncle and the place he lived in. What sort of a place was it, and what would he be like? What was a hunch‧back 直觉‧背；往回? She had never seen one. Perhaps there were none in India.

Since she had been living in other people's houses and had had no Ayah, she had begun to feel lonely 孤独的 and to think queer 奇怪 thoughts which were new to her. She had begun to wonder why she had never seemed to belong to any one even when her father and mother had been alive 活的；有生命的. Other children seemed to belong to their fathers and mothers, but she had never seemed to really be any one's little girl. She had had servants, and food and clothes, but no one had taken any notice of her. She did not know that this was because she was a disagree‧able 不同意‧能够的 child; but then, of course, she did not know she was disagree‧able 不同意‧能够的. She often thought that other people were, but she did not know that she was so her‧self 她自己.

She thought Mrs. Medlock the most disagree‧able 不同意‧能够的 person she had ever seen, with her common, highly colored face and her common fine bonnet 帽子. When the next day they set out on their journey 旅行 to Yorkshire, she walked through the station to the rail‧way 铁路 carriage 运输 with her head up and trying to keep as far away from her as she could, because she did not want to seem to belong to her. It would have made her very angry to think people imagined she was her little girl.

But Mrs. Medlock was not in the least disturbed by her and her thoughts. She was the kind of woman who would "stand no non‧sense 废话 from young ones." At least, that is what she would have said if she had been asked. She had not wanted to go to London just when her sister 姐妹 Maria's daughter was going to be married, but she had a comfort‧able 舒服；自在, well paid place as house‧keep 管家 at Misselthwaite Manor and the only way in which she could keep it was to do at once what Mr. Archibald Craven told her to do. She never dared 敢 even to ask a question.

"Captain Lennox and his wife died of the cholera 霍乱," Mr. Craven had said in his short, cold way. "Captain Lennox was my wife's brother and I am their daughter's guardian 监护人. The child is to be brought here. You must go to London and bring her your‧self 你自己."

So she packed her small trunk 树干 and made the journey 旅行.

Mary sat sit in her corner of the rail‧way 铁路 carriage 运输 and looked plain and fretful. She had nothing to read or to look at, and she had folded 折叠 her thin little black-gloved 手套 hands in her lap 膝部. Her black dress made her look yellower than ever, and her limp 跛行 light hair straggled from under her black crêpe hat.

"A more marred 损伤-looking young one I never saw in my life," Mrs. Medlock thought. (Marred is a Yorkshire word and means spoiled 损坏；变质 and pettish.) She had never seen a child who sat so still without doing anything; and at last she got tired of watching her and began to talk in a brisk 轻快, hard voice.

"I suppose I may as well tell you something about where you are going to," she said. "Do you know anything about your uncle?"

"No," said Mary.

"Never heard your father and mother talk about him?"

"No," said Mary frowning 皱眉. She frowned 皱眉 because she remembered that her father and mother had never talked to her about anything in particular. Certainly they had never told her things.

"Humph," muttered 咕哝 Mrs. Medlock, staring at her queer 奇怪, unresponsive little face. She did not say any more for a few moments and then she began again.

"I suppose you might as well be told something—to prepare you. You are going to a queer 奇怪 place."

Mary said nothing at all, and Mrs. Medlock looked rather discomfited by her apparent 清晰可见的；显而易见的；明白易懂的 indifference 漠不关心, but, after taking a breath, she went on.

"Not but that it's a grand 宏大的 big place in a gloomy 阴沉 way, and Mr. Craven's proud of it in his way—and that's gloomy 阴沉 enough, too. The house is six hundred 百 years old and it's on the edge of the moor 泊, and there's near a hundred 百 rooms in it, though most of them's shut 关闭 up and locked. And there's pictures and fine old furniture 家具 and things that's been there for ages, and there's a big park round it and gardens and trees with branches trailing 乡间小道 to the ground grind—some of them." She paused 暂停 and took another breath. "But there's nothing else," she ended suddenly.

Mary had begun to listen in spite 恶意 of her‧self 她自己. It all sounded so unlike 不像 India, and anything new rather attracted 吸引 her. But she did not intend to look as if she were interested. That was one of her unhappy 不快乐, disagree‧able 不同意‧能够的 ways. So she sat still.

"Well," said Mrs. Medlock. "What do you think of it?"

"Nothing," she answered. "I know nothing about such places."

That made Mrs. Medlock laugh a short sort of laugh.

"Eh!" she said, "but you are like an old woman. Don't you care?"

"It doesn't matter," said Mary, "whether I care or not."

"You are right enough there," said Mrs. Medlock. "It doesn't. What you're to be kept at Misselthwaite Manor for I don't know, unless because it's the easiest way. He's not going to trouble himself about you, that's sure and certain. He never troubles himself about no one."

She stopped her‧self 她自己 as if she had just remembered something in time.

"He's got a crooked 弯曲 back," she said. "That set him wrong. He was a sour 有酸味的 young man and got no good of all his money and big place till 到 he was married."

Mary's eyes turned toward her in spite 恶意 of her intention not to seem to care. She had never thought of the hunch‧back 直觉‧背；往回's being married and she was a trifle 琐事 surprised. Mrs. Medlock saw this, and as she was a talkative woman she continued with more interest. This was one way of passing some of the time, at any rate.

"She was a sweet, pretty thing and he'd have walked the world over to get her a blade 刀片 o' grass 草 she wanted. Nobody thought she'd marry him, but she did, and people said she married him for his money. But she didn't—she didn't," positively 积极. "When she died—"

Mary gave a little involuntary 非自愿 jump.

"Oh! did she die!" she exclaimed 喊叫, quite without meaning to. She had just remembered a French fairy 仙女 story she had once read called "Riquet à la Houppe." It had been about a poor hunch‧back 直觉‧背；往回 and a beautiful 美丽 princess 公主 and it had made her suddenly sorry 对不起的 for Mr. Archibald Craven.

"Yes, she died," Mrs. Medlock answered. "And it made him queerer 奇怪 than ever. He cares about nobody. He won't see people. Most of the time he goes away, and when he is at Misselthwaite he shuts 关闭 himself up in the West Wing 翅膀 and won't let any one but Pitcher see him. Pitcher's an old fellow, but he took care of him when he was a child and he knows his ways."

It sounded like something in a book and it did not make Mary feel cheerful 快乐. A house with a hundred 百 rooms, nearly all shut up and with their doors locked—a house on the edge of a moor 泊—whatsoever 任何 a moor 泊 was—sounded dreary 凄凉. A man with a crooked 弯曲 back who shut himself up also! She stared out of the window with her lips pinched 捏 together, and it seemed quite natural 自然 that the rain should have begun to pour 淋；倒 down in gray slanting 倾斜 lines and splash 溅 and stream down the window-panes 窗格. If the pretty wife had been alive she might have made things cheerful 快乐 by being something like her own mother and by running in and out and going to parties as she had done in frocks "full of lace 花边." But she was not there any more.

"You needn't expect to see him, because ten 十 to one you won't," said Mrs. Medlock. "And you mustn't expect that there will be people to talk to you. You'll have to play about and look after your‧self 你自己. You'll be told what rooms you can go into and what rooms you're to keep out of. There's gardens enough. But when you're in the house don't go wandering 漫步 and poking 戳 about. Mr. Craven won't have it."

"I shall not want to go poking 戳 about," said sour 有酸味的 little Mary; and just as suddenly as she had begun to be rather sorry 对不起的 for Mr. Archibald Craven she began to cease 停止 to be sorry and to think he was unpleasant 不愉快 enough to deserve 应受 all that had happened to him.

And she turned her face toward the streaming panes 窗格 of the window of the rail‧way 铁路 carriage 运输 and gazed 凝视 out at the gray rain-storm 暴风雨 which looked as if it would go on for‧ever 永远 and ever. She watched it so long and steadily that the grayness grew heavier and heavier before her eyes and she fell asleep 睡着的.

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CHAPTER III

ACROSS THE MOOR

She slept a long time, and when she awakened 憬 Mrs. Medlock had bought buy a lunch‧basket 午餐‧篮 at one of the stations and they had some chicken 鸡 and cold beef 牛肉 and bread 面包 and butter 黄油 and some hot tea 茶水. The rain seemed to be streaming down more heavily 很大，沉重地 than ever and everybody in the station wore wet 湿的 and glistening 闪亮 water‧proof 防水. The guard lighted the lamps 灯 in the carriage 3, and Mrs. Medlock cheered 欢呼 up very much over her tea and chicken 鸡 and beef 牛肉. She ate a great deal and after‧ward 之后 fell asleep 睡着的 her‧self 她自己, and Mary sat and stared at her and watched her fine bonnet 帽子 slip on one side until she her‧self 她自己 fell asleep 3 once more in the corner of the carriage, lulled 麻痹 by the splashing 溅 of the rain against the windows. It was quite dark when she awakened 憬 again. The train had stopped at a station and Mrs. Medlock was shaking her.

"You have had a sleep!" she said. "It's time to open your eyes! We're at Thwaite Station and we've got a long drive before us."

Mary stood up and tried to keep her eyes open while Mrs. Medlock collected her parcels 包袱. The little girl did not offer to help her, because in India native servants always picked up or carried things and it seemed quite proper that other people should wait on one.

The station was a small one and nobody but themselves seemed to be getting out of the train. The station-master spoke to Mrs. Medlock in a rough, good-natured way, pronouncing 发音 his words in a queer 奇怪 broad fashion which Mary found out after‧ward 之后 was Yorkshire.

"I see tha's got back," he said. "An' tha's browt th' young 'un with thee."

"Aye, that's her," answered Mrs. Medlock, speaking with a Yorkshire accent 口音 her‧self 她自己 and jerking 混蛋 her head over her shoulder toward Mary. "How's thy 你的 Missus?"

"Well enow. Th' carriage is waitin' outside for thee."

A brougham stood on the road before the little outside platform 平台. Mary saw that it was a smart 聪明 carriage and that it was a smart 聪明 foot‧man 脚；英尺‧男人 who helped her in. His long water‧proof 防水 coat and the water‧proof 防水 covering of his hat were shining 发光 and dripping 滴 with rain as everything was, the burly station-master included.

When he shut the door, mounted 增加 the box with the coach‧man 教师‧男人, and they drove drive off, the little girl found her‧self 她自己 seated in a comfort‧able 舒服 cushioned 垫子 corner, but she was not inclined 倾斜 to go to sleep again. She sat and looked out of the window, curious to see something of the road over which she was being driven drive to the queer 奇怪 place Mrs. Medlock had spoken speak of. She was not at all a timid 胆小 child and she was not exactly frightened, but she felt that there was no knowing what might happen in a house with a hundred 百 rooms nearly all shut up—a house standing on the edge of a moor 泊.

"What is a moor 泊?" she said suddenly to Mrs. Medlock.

"Look out of the window in about ten 十 minutes and you'll see," the woman answered. "We've got to drive five miles across Missel Moor before we get to the Manor. You won't see much because it's a dark night, but you can see something."

Mary asked no more questions but waited in the darkness 黑暗 of her corner, keeping her eyes on the window. The carriage lamps cast 投 rays 光束 of light a little distance ahead of them and she caught catch glimpses 一瞥 of the things they passed. After they had left the station they had driven through a tiny 小 village and she had seen white‧wash 撇清 cottages 小屋 and the lights of a public house. Then they had passed a church and a vicar‧age 牧师‧年龄 and a little shop-window or so in a cottage 小屋 with toys and sweets and odd 奇 things set out for sale. Then they were on the high‧road 高的‧路 and she saw hedges 树篱 and trees. After that there seemed nothing different for a long time—or at least it seemed a long time to her.

At last the horses began to go more slowly, as if they were climbing up-hill, and presently there seemed to be no more hedges 树篱 and no more trees. She could see nothing, in fact, but a dense 稠密 darkness 黑暗 on either side. She leaned forward and pressed her face against the window just as the carriage gave a big jolt 颠簸.

"Eh! We're on the moor 泊 now sure enough," said Mrs. Medlock.

The carriage lamps shed a yellow light on a rough-looking road which seemed to be cut through bushes 灌木 and low growing things which ended in the great expanse 广阔 of dark apparently 据…所知；看来；据说；听说 spread out before and around them. A wind was rising and making a singular 单数, wild, low, rushing 仓促 sound.

"It's—it's not the sea, is it?" said Mary, looking round at her companion 同伴.

"No, not it," answered Mrs. Medlock. "Nor it isn't fields nor mountains, it's just miles and miles and miles of wild land that nothing grows on but heather 石南属 and gorse and broom 扫帚, and nothing lives on but wild ponies 小马 and sheep 羊."

"I feel as if it might be the sea, if there were water on it," said Mary. "It sounds like the sea just now."

"That's the wind blowing through the bushes," Mrs. Medlock said. "It's a wild, dreary 凄凉 enough place to my mind, though there's plenty that likes it—particularly when the heather 石南属's in bloom 盛开."

On and on they drove through the darkness 黑暗, and though the rain stopped, the wind rushed 仓促 by and whistled 吹口哨 and made strange sounds. The road went up and down, and several times the carriage passed over a little bridge beneath 之下 which water rushed very fast with a great deal of noise 噪音. Mary felt as if the drive would never come to an end and that the wide, bleak 苍凉 moor 泊 was a wide expanse 广阔 of black ocean 洋 through which she was passing on a strip of dry land.

"I don't like it," she said to her‧self 她自己. "I don't like it," and she pinched her thin lips more tightly 紧的 together.

The horses were climbing up a hilly piece of road when she first caught sight of a light. Mrs. Medlock saw it as soon as she did and drew draw a long sigh 叹 of relief.

"Eh, I am glad to see that bit 一点 o' light twinkling 眨眼," she exclaimed 喊叫. "It's the light in the lodge 存放 window. We shall get a good cup of tea after a bit, at all events."

It was "after a bit," as she said, for when the carriage passed through the park gates 门 there was still two miles of avenue to drive through and the trees (which nearly met over‧head 高架) made it seem as if they were driving through a long dark vault 拱顶.

They drove out of the vault 拱顶 into a clear space and stopped before an immensely 极大的 long but low-built house which seemed to ramble 漫谈 round a stone court. At first Mary thought that there were no lights at all in the windows, but as she got out of the carriage she saw that one room in a corner up-stairs 楼梯 showed a dull 钝的；没兴趣 glow 辉光.

The entrance 入口 door was a huge 巨大 one made of massive 大规模的, curiously shaped panels 面板 of oak 橡木 studded 螺柱 with big iron 铁器 nails 钉子 and bound 必定；跳 with great iron bars. It opened into an enormous 巨大 hall, which was so dimly 暗淡 lighted that the faces in the portraits 肖像 on the walls and the figures in the suits of armor 盔甲 made Mary feel that she did not want to look at them. As she stood on the stone floor she looked a very small, odd 奇 little black figure, and she felt as small and lost and odd 奇 as she looked.

A neat 整洁的, thin old man stood near the man‧servant 男人‧仆人 who opened the door for them.

"You are to take her to her room," he said in a husky voice. "He doesn't want to see her. He's going to London in the morning."

"Very well, Mr. Pitcher," Mrs. Medlock answered. "So long as I know what's expected of me, I can manage."

"What's expected of you, Mrs. Medlock," Mr. Pitcher said, "is that you make sure that he's not disturbed and that he doesn't see what he doesn't want to see."

And then Mary Lennox was led up a broad stair‧case 楼梯 and down a long corridor 走廊 and up a short flight 飞行 of steps and through another corridor 走廊 and another, until a door opened in a wall and she found her‧self 她自己 in a room with a fire in it and a supper 晚饭 on a table.

Mrs. Medlock said unceremoniously:

"Well, here you are! This room and the next are where you'll live—and you must keep to them. Don't you forget that!"

It was in this way Mistress Mary arrived at Misselthwaite Manor and she had perhaps never felt quite so contrary 相反 in all her life.

---

CHAPTER IV

MARTHA

When she opened her eyes in the morning it was because a young house‧maid 房屋‧女佣 had come into her room to light the fire and was kneeling 跪 on the hearth 炉-rug 小块地毯 raking 耙子 out the cinders noisily 嘈杂. Mary lay and watched her for a few moments and then began to look about the room. She had never seen a room at all like it and thought it curious and gloomy 阴沉. The walls were covered with tapestry 挂毯 with a forest scene embroidered 绣 on it. There were fantastically 奇妙 dressed people under the trees and in the distance there was a glimpse 一瞥 of the turrets of a castle 城堡. There were hunters 猎人 and horses and dogs and ladies. Mary felt as if she were in the forest with them. Out of a deep window she could see a great climbing stretch of land which seemed to have no trees on it, and to look rather like an end‧less 无穷, dull 钝的；没兴趣, purplish sea.

"What is that?" she said, pointing out of the window.

Martha, the young house‧maid 房屋‧女佣, who had just risen rise to her feet, looked and pointed also.

"That there?" she said.

"Yes."

"That's th' moor 泊," with a good-natured grin 微笑. "Does tha' like it?"

"No," answered Mary. "I hate it."

"That's because tha'rt not used to it," Martha said, going back to her hearth 炉. "Tha' thinks it's too big an' bare 光秃秃的 now. But tha' will like it."

"Do you?" inquired 打听 Mary.

"Aye, that I do," answered Martha, cheerfully 乐意 polishing 擦光 away at the grate 炉排. "I just love it. It's none bare. It's covered wi' growin' things as smells sweet. It's fair lovely 可爱的 in spring an' summer when th' gorse an' broom 扫帚 an' heather 石南属's in flower. It smells o' honey 蜜糖 an' there's such a lot o' fresh air—an' th' sky looks so high an' th' bees 蜜蜂 an' skylarks makes such a nice noise hummin' an' singin'. Eh! I wouldn't live away from th' moor 泊 for any‧thin 任何的‧薄的'."

Mary listened to her with a grave 坟墓；严重的, puzzled 使迷惑 expression. The native servants she had been used to in India were not in the least like this. They were obsequious and servile and did not presume 假设 to talk to their masters as if they were their equals. They made salaams and called them "protector 保护者 of the poor" and names of that sort. Indian servants were commanded to do things, not asked. It was not the custom 习惯 to say "please" and "thank you" and Mary had always slapped 拍击 her Ayah in the face when she was angry. She wondered a little what this girl would do if one slapped 拍击 her in the face. She was a round, rosy 红润, good-natured looking creature 动物；生物, but she had a sturdy 粗壮 way which made Mistress Mary wonder if she might not even slap 拍击 back—if the person who slapped 拍击 her was only a little girl.

"You are a strange servant 仆人," she said from her pillows 枕头, rather haughtily.

Martha sat up on her heels 脚跟, with her blacking-brush in her hand, and laughed, without seeming the least out of temper 性情.

"Eh! I know that," she said. "If there was a grand 宏大的 Missus at Misselthwaite I should never have been even one of th' under housemaids. I might have been let to be scullery-maid 女佣 but I'd never have been let up-stairs. I'm too common an' I talk too much Yorkshire. But this is a funny 有趣的 house for all it's so grand. Seems like there's neither Master nor Mistress except Mr. Pitcher an' Mrs. Medlock. Mr. Craven, he won't be troubled about any‧thin 任何的‧薄的' when he's here, an' he's nearly always away. Mrs. Medlock gave me th' place out o' kindness 善良. She told me she could never have done it if Misselthwaite had been like other big houses."

"Are you going to be my servant 仆人?" Mary asked, still in her imperious little Indian way.

Martha began to rub 擦 her grate 炉排 again.

"I'm Mrs. Medlock's servant 3," she said stoutly 肥硕. "An' she's Mr. Craven's—but I'm to do the house‧maid 房屋‧女佣's work up here an' wait on you a bit. But you won't need much waitin' on."

"Who is going to dress me?" demanded Mary.

Martha sat up on her heels 脚跟 again and stared. She spoke in broad Yorkshire in her amazement 惊愕.

"Canna' tha' dress thysen!" she said.

"What do you mean? I don't understand your language," said Mary.

"Eh! I forgot forget," Martha said. "Mrs. Medlock told me I'd have to be careful 小心 or you wouldn't know what I was sayin'. I mean can't you put on your own clothes?"

"No," answered Mary, quite indignantly. "I never did in my life. My Ayah dressed me, of course."

"Well," said Martha, evidently 明显地 not in the least aware 知道的 that she was impudent, "it's time tha' should learn. Tha' cannot begin younger. It'll do thee good to wait on thysen a bit. My mother always said she couldn't see why grand people's children didn't turn out fair fools—what with nurses 护士 an' bein' washed an' dressed an' took out to walk as if they was puppies 小狗!"

"It is different in India," said Mistress Mary disdain‧fully 蔑视‧完全地. She could scarcely stand this.

But Martha was not at all crushed 压破.

"Eh! I can see it's different," she answered almost sympathetically 同情的. "I dare 敢 say it's because there's such a lot o' blacks there instead o' respect‧able 可敬 white people. When I heard you was comin' from India I thought you was a black too."

Mary sat up in bed furious 狂怒.

"What!" she said. "What! You thought I was a native. You—you daughter of a pig!"

Martha stared and looked hot.

"Who are you callin' names?" she said. "You needn't be so vexed. That's not th' way for a young lady to talk. I've nothin' against th' blacks. When you read about 'em in tracts 管道 they're always very religious 宗教. You always read as a black's a man an' a brother. I've never seen a black an' I was fair pleased to think I was goin' to see one close. When I come in to light your fire this mornin' I crep' up to your bed an' pulled th' cover back careful 小心 to look at you. An' there you was," disappointedly, "no more black than me—for all you're so yeller 叫喊."

Mary did not even try to control her rage 愤怒 and humiliation 屈辱.

"You thought I was a native! You dared! You don't know anything about natives 本土的! They are not people—they're servants who must salaam to you. You know nothing about India. You know nothing about anything!"

She was in such a rage 愤怒 and felt so help‧less 无助 before the girl's simple stare, and somehow she suddenly felt so horribly 可怕 lonely 孤独的 and far away from everything she understood understand and which understood her, that she threw her‧self 她自己 face down‧ward 向下 on the pillows 枕头 and burst 爆裂 into passionate 多情 sobbing 哭泣. She sobbed 哭泣 so unrestrainedly that good-natured Yorkshire Martha was a little frightened and quite sorry for her. She went to the bed and bent bend over her.

"Eh! you mustn't cry like that there!" she begged 乞讨. "You mustn't for sure. I didn't know you'd be vexed. I don't know any‧thin 任何的‧薄的' about any‧thin 任何的‧薄的'—just like you said. I beg 乞讨 your pardon 宽恕；说啥？, Miss. Do stop cryin'."

There was something comforting and really friendly in her queer 奇怪 Yorkshire speech and sturdy 粗壮 way which had a good effect on Mary. She gradually 逐步地 ceased 停止 crying and became quiet. Martha looked relieved 解除.

"It's time for thee to get up now," she said. "Mrs. Medlock said I was to carry tha' break‧fast 早餐 an' tea an' dinner into th' room next to this. It's been made into a nursery 4 for thee. I'll help thee on with thy 你的 clothes if tha'll get out o' bed. If th' buttons 按钮 are at th' back tha' cannot button 按钮 them up tha' self 自己."

When Mary at last decided to get up, the clothes Martha took from the wardrobe 衣柜 were not the ones she had worn wear when she arrived the night before with Mrs. Medlock.

"Those are not mine," she said. "Mine are black."

She looked the thick white wool 羊毛 coat and dress over, and added with cool approval 批准；同意；赞成:

"Those are nicer than mine."

"These are th' ones tha' must put on," Martha answered. "Mr. Craven ordered Mrs. Medlock to get 'em in London. He said 'I won't have a child dressed in black wanderin' about like a lost soul,' he said. 'It'd make the place sadder 悲哀的 than it is. Put color on her.' Mother she said she knew what he meant. Mother always knows what a body means. She doesn't hold with black hersel'."

"I hate black things," said Mary.

The dressing process was one which taught teach them both something. Martha had " buttoned 按钮 up" her little sisters and brothers but she had never seen a child who stood still and waited for another person to do things for her as if she had neither hands nor feet of her own.

"Why doesn't tha' put on tha' own shoes?" she said when Mary quietly held out her foot.

"My Ayah did it," answered Mary, staring. "It was the custom 习惯."

She said that very often—"It was the custom." The native servants were always saying it. If one told them to do a thing their ancestors 祖先 had not done for a thou‧sand 千 years they gazed 凝视 at one mildly 温柔的 and said, "It is not the custom" and one knew that was the end of the matter.

It had not been the custom that Mistress Mary should do anything but stand and allow her‧self 她自己 to be dressed like a doll 娃娃, but before she was ready for break‧fast 早餐 she began to suspect 怀疑；嫌疑犯 that her life at Misselthwaite Manor would end by teaching her a number of things quite new to her—things such as putting on her own shoes and stockings, and picking up things she let fall. If Martha had been a well-trained fine young lady's maid 女佣 she would have been more subservient and respectful 尊敬的 and would have known that it was her business to brush hair, and button 按钮 boots 靴；鞋, and pick things up and lay them away. She was, however, only an untrained Yorkshire rustic 乡村 who had been brought up in a moor‧land 泊‧陆地；着陆 cottage 小屋 with a swarm 一群 of little brothers and sisters who had never dreamed dream of doing anything but waiting on themselves and on the younger ones who were either babies in arms or just learning to totter about and tumble 下跌 over things.

If Mary Lennox had been a child who was ready to be amused 使人发笑 she would perhaps have laughed at Martha's readiness 准备就绪 to talk, but Mary only listened to her coldly and wondered at her freedom of manner. At first she was not at all interested, but gradually 逐步地, as the girl rattled 霸王鞭 on in her good-tempered 性情, homely way, Mary began to notice what she was saying.

"Eh! you should see 'em all," she said. "There's twelve 十二 of us an' my father only gets six‧teen 十六 shilling 一毛钱 a week. I can tell you my mother's put to it to get porridge for 'em all. They tumble 下跌 about on th' moor 泊 an' play there all day an' mother says th' air of th' moor 泊 fattens 'em. She says she believes they eat th' grass 草 same as th' wild ponies 小马 do. Our Dickon, he's twelve 十二 years old and he's got a young pony 小马 he calls his own."

"Where did he get it?" asked Mary.

"He found it on th' moor 泊 with its mother when it was a little one an' he began to make friends with it an' give it bits 一点 o' bread 面包 an' pluck 采摘 young grass for it. And it got to like him so it follows him about an' it lets him get on its back. Dickon's a kind lad 小伙子 an' animals likes him."

Mary had never possessed 拥有 an animal pet 宠物 of her own and had always thought she should like one. So she began to feel a slight interest in Dickon, and as she had never before been interested in any one but her‧self 她自己, it was the dawning 黎明 of a healthy 健康 sentiment 情绪. When she went into the room which had been made into a nursery 5 for her, she found that it was rather like the one she had slept in. It was not a child's room, but a grown grow-up person's room, with gloomy 阴沉 old pictures on the walls and heavy old oak 橡木 chairs. A table in the center was set with a good substantial 大量的 breakfast. But she had always had a very small appetite 食欲, and she looked with something more than indifference 漠不关心 at the first plate 盘子 Martha set before her.

"I don't want it," she said.

"Tha' doesn't want thy 你的 porridge!" Martha exclaimed 喊叫 incredulously.

"No."

"Tha' doesn't know how good it is. Put a bit o' treacle on it or a bit o' sugar 食糖."

"I don't want it," repeated Mary.

"Eh!" said Martha. "I can't abide 遵守 to see good victuals go to waste. If our children was at this table they'd clean it bare 光秃秃的 in five minutes."

"Why?" said Mary coldly.

"Why!" echoed 回声 Martha. "Because they scarce 缺乏的 ever had their stomachs 胃 full in their lives. They're as hungry 饥饿 as young hawks 鹰 an' foxes 狐狸."

"I don't know what it is to be hungry 饥饿," said Mary, with the indifference 漠不关心 of ignorance 无知.

Martha looked indignant.

"Well, it would do thee good to try it. I can see that plain enough," she said outspokenly 直言不讳. "I've no patience 耐心 with folk 民间 as sits an' just stares at good bread 面包 an' meat 肉. My word! don't I wish Dickon and Phil an' Jane an' th' rest of 'em had what's here under their pinafores."

"Why don't you take it to them?" suggested Mary.

"It's not mine," answered Martha stoutly 肥硕. "An' this isn't my day out. I get my day out once a month same as th' rest. Then I go home an' clean up for mother an' give her a day's rest."

Mary drank some tea and ate a little toast 烤面包 and some marmalade.

"You wrap 包 up warm an' run out an' play you," said Martha. "It'll do you good and give you some stomach 胃 for your meat 肉."

Mary went to the window. There were gardens and paths and big trees, but everything looked dull 钝的；没兴趣 and wintry.

"Out? Why should I go out on a day like this?"

"Well, if tha' doesn't go out tha'lt have to stay in, an' what has tha' got to do?"

Mary glanced 一瞥 about her. There was nothing to do. When Mrs. Medlock had prepared the nursery she had not thought of amusement 娱乐. Perhaps it would be better to go and see what the gardens were like.

"Who will go with me?" she inquired.

Martha stared.

"You'll go by your‧self 你自己," she answered. "You'll have to learn to play like other children does when they haven't got sisters and brothers. Our Dickon goes off on th' moor 泊 by himself an' plays for hours. That's how he made friends with th' pony 小马. He's got sheep 羊 on th' moor 泊 that knows him, an' birds as comes an' eats out of his hand. However little there is to eat, he always saves a bit o' his bread 3 to coax 哄 his pets 宠物."

It was really this mention of Dickon which made Mary decide to go out, though she was not aware 知道的 of it. There would be birds outside though there would not be ponies 小马 or sheep 羊. They would be different from the birds in India and it might amuse 使人发笑 her to look at them.

Martha found her coat and hat for her and a pair of stout 肥硕 little boots and she showed her her way down-stairs.

"If tha' goes round that way tha'll come to th' gardens," she said, pointing to a gate 门 in a wall of shrubbery. "There's lots o' flowers in summer-time, but there's nothin' bloomin' now." She seemed to hesitate 犹豫 a second before she added, "One of th' gardens is locked up. No one has been in it for ten 十 years."

"Why?" asked Mary in spite of her‧self 她自己. Here was another locked door added to the hundred 百 in the strange house.

"Mr. Craven had it shut when his wife died so sudden. He won't let no one go inside. It was her garden. He locked th' door an' dug 挖:dig a hole and buried 埋葬 th' key. There's Mrs. Medlock's bell 钟 ringing—I must run."

After she was gone Mary turned down the walk which led to the door in the shrubbery. She could not help thinking about the garden which no one had been into for ten 十 years. She wondered what it would look like and whether there were any flowers still alive in it. When she had passed through the shrubbery gate 门 she found her‧self 她自己 in great gardens, with wide lawns 草坪 and winding walks with clipped 夹 borders 边；界. There were trees, and flower-beds, and evergreens clipped 夹 into strange shapes, and a large pool with an old gray fountain 喷泉 in its midst 中间. But the flower-beds were bare 3 and wintry and the fountain 喷泉 was not playing. This was not the garden which was shut up. How could a garden be shut up? You could always walk into a garden.

She was just thinking this when she saw that, at the end of the path 小路 she was following, there seemed to be a long wall, with ivy growing over it. She was not familiar enough with England to know that she was coming upon the kitchen-gardens where the vegetables 蔬菜 and fruit were growing. She went toward the wall and found that there was a green door in the ivy, and that it stood open. This was not the closed garden, evidently 明显地, and she could go into it.

She went through the door and found that it was a garden with walls all round it and that it was only one of several walled gardens which seemed to open into one another. She saw another open green door, revealing 揭示 bushes and path‧way 路 between beds containing winter vegetables. Fruit-trees were trained flat against the wall, and over some of the beds there were glass frames. The place was bare and ugly 难看的 enough, Mary thought, as she stood and stared about her. It might be nicer in summer when things were green, but there was nothing pretty about it now.

Presently an old man with a spade 铁锹 over his shoulder walked through the door leading from the second garden. He looked startled 惊吓 when he saw Mary, and then touched his cap 盖. He had a surly old face, and did not seem at all pleased to see her—but then she was displeased with his garden and wore her "quite contrary 相反" expression, and certainly did not seem at all pleased to see him.

"What is this place?" she asked.

"One o' th' kitchen-gardens," he answered.

"What is that?" said Mary, pointing through the other green door.

"Another of 'em," shortly. "There's another on t'other side o' th' wall an' there's th' orchard 果园 t'other side o' that."

"Can I go in them?" asked Mary.

"If tha' likes. But there's nowt to see."

Mary made no response 响应. She went down the path 小路 and through the second green door. There she found more walls and winter vegetables and glass frames, but in the second wall there was another green door and it was not open. Perhaps it led into the garden which no one had seen for ten 十 years. As she was not at all a timid 胆小 child and always did what she wanted to do, Mary went to the green door and turned the handle. She hoped the door would not open because she wanted to be sure she had found the mysterious 神秘 garden—but it did open quite easily and she walked through it and found her‧self 她自己 in an orchard 果园. There were walls all round it also and trees trained against them, and there were bare fruit-trees growing in the winter-browned grass—but there was no green door to be seen any‧where 任何地方. Mary looked for it, and yet when she had entered the upper end of the garden she had noticed that the wall did not seem to end with the orchard 果园 but to extend beyond it as if it enclosed 围起来 a place at the other side. She could see the tops of trees above the wall, and when she stood still she saw a bird with a bright red breast 乳房 sitting on the top‧most 顶‧最 branch of one of them, and suddenly he burst 爆裂 into his winter song—almost as if he had caught sight of her and was calling to her.

She stopped and listened to him and somehow his cheerful 快乐, friendly little whistle 吹口哨 gave her a pleased feeling—even a disagree‧able 不同意‧能够的 little girl may be lonely 孤独的, and the big closed house and big bare moor 泊 and big bare gardens had made this one feel as if there was no one left in the world but her‧self 她自己. If she had been an affectionate 亲热 child, who had been used to being loved, she would have broken her heart, but even though she was "Mistress Mary Quite Contrary" she was desolate 荒凉, and the bright-breasted 乳房 little bird brought a look into her sour 有酸味的 little face which was almost a smile. She listened to him until he flew fly away. He was not like an Indian bird and she liked him and wondered if she should ever see him again. Perhaps he lived in the mysterious 神秘 garden and knew all about it.

Perhaps it was because she had nothing whatever to do that she thought so much of the deserted garden. She was curious about it and wanted to see what it was like. Why had Mr. Archibald Craven buried the key? If he had liked his wife so much why did he hate her garden? She wondered if she should ever see him, but she knew that if she did she should not like him, and he would not like her, and that she should only stand and stare at him and say nothing, though she should be wanting dreadfully 可怕 to ask him why he had done such a queer 奇怪 thing.

"People never like me and I never like people," she thought. "And I never can talk as the Crawford children could. They were always talking and laughing and making noises 噪音."

She thought of the robin and of the way he seemed to sing his song at her, and as she remembered the tree-top he perched 栖息 on she stopped rather suddenly on the path.

"I believe that tree was in the secret garden—I feel sure it was," she said. "There was a wall round the place and there was no door."

She walked back into the first kitchen-garden she had entered and found the old man digging 挖 there. She went and stood beside him and watched him a few moments in her cold little way. He took no notice of her and so at last she spoke to him.

"I have been into the other gardens," she said.

"There was nothin' to prevent thee," he answered crustily.

"I went into the orchard 果园."

"There was no dog at th' door to bite 咬 thee," he answered.

"There was no door there into the other garden," said Mary.

"What garden?" he said in a rough voice, stopping his digging for a moment.

"The one on the other side of the wall," answered Mistress Mary. "There are trees there—I saw the tops of them. A bird with a red breast 乳房 was sitting on one of them and he sang."

To her surprise the surly old weather-beaten beat face actually changed its expression. A slow smile spread over it and the gardener looked quite different. It made her think that it was curious how much nicer a person looked when he smiled. She had not thought of it before.

He turned about to the orchard 果园 side of his garden and began to whistle 吹口哨—a low soft whistle. She could not understand how such a surly man could make such a coaxing 哄 sound.

Almost the next moment a wonderful 精彩 thing happened. She heard a soft little rushing flight 飞行 through the air—and it was the bird with the red breast 乳房 flying to them, and he actually alighted 落 on the big clod of earth quite near to the gardener's foot.

"Here he is," chuckled 暗笑 the old man, and then he spoke to the bird as if he were speaking to a child.

"Where has tha' been, tha' cheeky little beggar 乞丐?" he said. "I've not seen thee before to-day. Has tha' begun tha' courtin' this early in th' season? Tha'rt too forrad."

The bird put his tiny 小 head on one side and looked up at him with his soft bright eye which was like a black dewdrop. He seemed quite familiar and not the least afraid. He hopped 跳 about and pecked 啄 the earth briskly 轻快, looking for seeds and insects 虫. It actually gave Mary a queer 奇怪 feeling in her heart, because he was so pretty and cheerful 快乐 and seemed so like a person. He had a tiny 小 plump 丰满 body and a delicate 微妙的；纤弱的 beak 喙, and slender 苗条 delicate legs.

"Will he always come when you call him?" she asked almost in a whisper 低声说.

"Aye, that he will. I've knowed him ever since he was a fledgling. He come out of th' nest （鸟）窝 in th' other garden an' when first he flew over th' wall he was too weak to fly back for a few days an' we got friendly. When he went over th' wall again th' rest of th' brood 窝 was gone an' he was lonely 3 an' he come back to me."

"What kind of a bird is he?" Mary asked.

"Doesn't tha' know? He's a robin red‧breast 红色的‧乳房，女性 an' they're th' friendliest, curiousest birds alive. They're almost as friendly as dogs—if you know how to get on with 'em. Watch him peckin' about there an' lookin' round at us now an' again. He knows we're talkin' about him."

It was the queerest 奇怪 thing in the world to see the old fellow. He looked at the plump 丰满 little scar‧let 猩红-waistcoated bird as if he were both proud and fond 喜欢的 of him.

"He's a conceited one," he chuckled 暗笑. "He likes to hear folk 民间 talk about him. An' curious— bless 祝福 me, there never was his like for curiosity 好奇心 an' meddlin'. He's always comin' to see what I'm plan‧tin 计划‧锡'. He knows all th' things Mester Craven never troubles hissel' to find out. He's th' head gardener, he is."

The robin hopped 跳 about busily pecking 啄 the soil and now and then stopped and looked at them a little. Mary thought his black dewdrop eyes gazed 凝视 at her with great curiosity 好奇心. It really seemed as if he were finding out all about her. The queer 奇怪 feeling in her heart increased.

"Where did the rest of the brood 窝 fly to?" she asked.

"There's no knowin'. The old ones turn 'em out o' their nest （鸟）窝 an' make 'em fly an' they're scattered 散落 before you know it. This one was a knowin' one an' he knew he was lonely."

Mistress Mary went a step nearer to the robin and looked at him very hard.

"I'm lonely," she said.

She had not known before that this was one of the things which made her feel sour 4 and cross. She seemed to find it out when the robin looked at her and she looked at the robin.

The old gardener pushed his cap back on his bald 秃 head and stared at her a minute.

"Art tha' th' little wench from India?" he asked.

Mary nodded 点头.

"Then no wonder tha'rt lonely. Tha'lt be lonelier 孤独的 before tha's done," he said.

He began to dig 挖 again, driving his spade 铁锹 deep into the rich black garden soil while the robin hopped 跳 about very busily employed.

"What is your name?" Mary inquired.

He stood up to answer her.

"Ben Weatherstaff," he answered, and then he added with a surly chuckle 暗笑, "I'm lonely mysel' except when he's with me," and he jerked 混蛋 his thumb 拇指 toward the robin. "He's th' only friend I've got."

"I have no friends at all," said Mary. "I never had. My Ayah didn't like me and I never played with any one."

It is a Yorkshire habit 习惯 to say what you think with blunt 钝 frankness, and old Ben Weatherstaff was a Yorkshire moor 泊 man.

"Tha' an' me are a good bit alike 同样的," he said. "We was wove out of th' same cloth 布. We're neither of us good lookin' an' we're both of us as sour 5 as we look. We've got the same nasty 讨厌 tempers 性情, both of us, I'll war‧rant 保证."

This was plain speaking, and Mary Lennox had never heard the truth about her‧self 她自己 in her life. Native servants always salaamed and submitted 给 to you, whatever you did. She had never thought much about her looks, but she wondered if she was as unattractive 没有吸引力 as Ben Weatherstaff and she also wondered if she looked as sour as he had looked before the robin came. She actually began to wonder also if she was "nasty 讨厌 tempered." She felt uncomfortable 不舒服.

Suddenly a clear rippling 波纹 little sound broke out near her and she turned round. She was standing a few feet from a young apple 苹果-tree and the robin had flown fly on to one of its branches and had burst out into a scrap 废料 of a song. Ben Weatherstaff laughed out‧right 公然.

"What did he do that for?" asked Mary.

"He's made up his mind to make friends with thee," replied Ben. "Dang me if he hasn't took a fancy 想像 to thee."

"To me?" said Mary, and she moved toward the little tree softly and looked up.

"Would you make friends with me?" she said to the robin just as if she was speaking to a person. "Would you?" And she did not say it either in her hard little voice or in her imperious Indian voice, but in a tone 音 so soft and eager 渴望的 and coaxing 哄 that Ben Weatherstaff was as surprised as she had been when she heard him whistle 3.

"Why," he cried out, "tha' said that as nice an' human as if tha' was a real child instead of a sharp old woman. Tha' said it almost like Dickon talks to his wild things on th' moor 泊."

"Do you know Dickon?" Mary asked, turning round rather in a hurry.

"Everybody knows him. Dickon's wanderin' about every‧where 到处. Th' very blackberries an' heather 石南属-bells knows him. I war‧rant 保证 th' foxes 狐狸 shows him where their cubs lies an' th' skylarks doesn't hide their nests （鸟）窝 from him."

Mary would have liked to ask some more questions. She was almost as curious about Dickon as she was about the deserted garden. But just that moment the robin, who had ended his song, gave a little shake of his wings 翅膀, spread them and flew away. He had made his visit and had other things to do.

"He has flown over the wall!" Mary cried out, watching him. "He has flown into the orchard 果园—he has flown across the other wall—into the garden where there is no door!"

"He lives there," said old Ben. "He came out o' th' egg 鸡蛋 there. If he's courtin', he's makin' up to some young madam 夫人 of a robin that lives among th' old rose-trees there."

"Rose-trees," said Mary. "Are there rose-trees?"

Ben Weatherstaff took up his spade 铁锹 again and began to dig 挖.

"There was ten 十 year' ago," he mumbled 咕哝.

"I should like to see them," said Mary. "Where is the green door? There must be a door somewhere."

Ben drove his spade deep and looked as uncompanionable as he had looked when she first saw him.

"There was ten 十 year' ago, but there isn't now," he said.

"No door!" cried Mary. "There must be."

"None as any one can find, an' none as is any one's business. Don't you be a meddlesome wench an' poke 戳 your nose where it's no cause to go. Here, I must go on with my work. Get you gone an' play you. I've no more time."

And he actually stopped digging, threw his spade 4 over his shoulder and walked off, without even glancing 一瞥 at her or saying good-by.

---

CHAPTER V

THE CRY IN THE CORRIDOR

At first each day which passed by for Mary Lennox was exactly like the others. Every morning she awoke 醒着的:awake in her tapestried 挂毯 room and found Martha kneeling upon the hearth 炉 building her fire; every morning she ate her breakfast in the nursery which had nothing amusing 使人发笑 in it; and after each breakfast she gazed 凝视 out of the window across to the huge 巨大 moor 泊 which seemed to spread out on all sides and climb up to the sky, and after she had stared for a while she realized that if she did not go out she would have to stay in and do nothing—and so she went out. She did not know that this was the best thing she could have done, and she did not know that, when she began to walk quickly or even run along the paths and down the avenue, she was stirring 搅动 her slow blood and making her‧self 她自己 stronger by fighting with the wind which swept sweep down from the moor 泊. She ran only to make her‧self 她自己 warm, and she hated the wind which rushed at her face and roared 咆哮 and held her back as if it were some giant 巨人 she could not see. But the big breaths of rough fresh air blown blow over the heather 石南属 filled her lungs 肺 with something which was good for her whole thin body and whipped 鞭打 some red color into her cheeks 脸颊 and brightened 变亮 her dull 3 eyes when she did not know anything about it.

But after a few days spent spend almost entirely out of doors she wakened one morning knowing what it was to be hungry 饥饿, and when she sat down to her breakfast she did not glance 一瞥 disdain‧fully 蔑视‧完全地 at her porridge and push it away, but took up her spoon 匙 and began to eat it and went on eating it until her bowl 碗 was empty.

"Tha' got on well enough with that this mornin', didn't tha'?" said Martha.

"It tastes nice to-day," said Mary, feeling a little surprised her‧self 她自己.

"It's th' air of th' moor 泊 that's givin' thee stomach 胃 for tha' victuals," answered Martha. "It's lucky 幸运 for thee that tha's got victuals as well as appetite 食欲. There's been twelve 十二 in our cottage 小屋 as had th' stomach an' nothin' to put in it. You go on playin' you out o' doors every day an' you'll get some flesh 肉 on your bones 骨头 an' you won't be so yeller 叫喊."

"I don't play," said Mary. "I have nothing to play with."

"Nothin' to play with!" exclaimed 喊叫 Martha. "Our children plays with sticks and stones. They just runs about an' shouts an' looks at things."

Mary did not shout, but she looked at things. There was nothing else to do. She walked round and round the gardens and wandered about the paths in the park. Sometimes she looked for Ben Weatherstaff, but though several times she saw him at work he was too busy to look at her or was too surly. Once when she was walking toward him he picked up his spade 5 and turned away as if he did it on purpose.

One place she went to oftener than to any other. It was the long walk outside the gardens with the walls round them. There were bare flower-beds on either side of it and against the walls ivy grew thickly. There was one part of the wall where the creeping 爬行 dark green leaves were more bushy than else‧where 在别处. It seemed as if for a long time that part had been neglected. The rest of it had been clipped 夹 and made to look neat 整洁的, but at this lower end of the walk it had not been trimmed 修剪 at all.

A few days after she had talked to Ben Weatherstaff Mary stopped to notice this and wondered why it was so. She had just paused and was looking up at a long spray 喷雾 of ivy swinging in the wind when she saw a gleam 闪光 of scar‧let 猩红 and heard a brilliant 出色的 chirp, and there, on the top of the wall, perched 栖息 Ben Weatherstaff's robin red‧breast 红色的‧乳房，女性, tilting 倾斜 forward to look at her with his small head on one side.

"Oh!" she cried out, "is it you—is it you?" And it did not seem at all queer 奇怪 to her that she spoke to him as if she was sure that he would understand and answer her.

He did answer. He twittered and chirped and hopped 跳 along the wall as if he were telling her all sorts of things. It seemed to Mistress Mary as if she understood him, too, though he was not speaking in words. It was as if he said:

"Good morning! Isn't the wind nice? Isn't the sun nice? Isn't everything nice? Let us both chirp and hop 跳 and twitter. Come on! Come on!"

Mary began to laugh, and as he hopped 跳 and took little flights 飞行 along the wall she ran after him. Poor little thin, sallow, ugly 3 Mary—she actually looked almost pretty for a moment.

"I like you! I like you!" she cried out, pattering down the walk; and she chirped and tried to whistle, which last she did not know how to do in the least. But the robin seemed to be quite satisfied and chirped and whistled back at her. At last he spread his wings and made a darting 镖 flight 飞行 to the top of a tree, where he perched 栖息 and sang loudly 响亮的.

That reminded Mary of the first time she had seen him. He had been swinging on a tree-top then and she had been standing in the orchard 果园. Now she was on the other side of the orchard 果园 and standing in the path outside a wall—much lower down—and there was the same tree inside.

"It's in the garden no one can go into," she said to her‧self 她自己. "It's the garden without a door. He lives in there. How I wish I could see what it is like!"

She ran up the walk to the green door she had entered the first morning. Then she ran down the path through the other door and then into the orchard 果园, and when she stood and looked up there was the tree on the other side of the wall, and there was the robin just finishing his song and beginning to preen his feathers 羽毛 with his beak 喙.

"It is the garden," she said. "I am sure it is."

She walked round and looked closely at that side of the orchard 果园 wall, but she only found what she had found before—that there was no door in it. Then she ran through the kitchen-gardens again and out into the walk outside the long ivy-covered wall, and she walked to the end of it and looked at it, but there was no door; and then she walked to the other end, looking again, but there was no door.

"It's very queer 奇怪," she said. "Ben Weatherstaff said there was no door and there is no door. But there must have been one ten 十 years ago, because Mr. Craven buried the key."

This gave her so much to think of that she began to be quite interested and feel that she was not sorry that she had come to Misselthwaite Manor. In India she had always felt hot and too languid to care much about anything. The fact was that the fresh wind from the moor 泊 had begun to blow the cobwebs out of her young brain and to waken her up a little.

She stayed out of doors nearly all day, and when she sat down to her supper 晚饭 at night she felt hungry 饥饿 and drowsy and comfort‧able 舒服；自在. She did not feel cross when Martha chattered 喋喋不休 away. She felt as if she rather liked to hear her, and at last she thought she would ask her a question. She asked it after she had finished her supper and had sat down on the hearth 炉-rug 小块地毯 before the fire.

"Why did Mr. Craven hate the garden?" she said.

She had made Martha stay with her and Martha had not objected at all. She was very young, and used to a crowded cottage 3 full of brothers and sisters, and she found it dull in the great servants' hall down-stairs where the foot‧man 脚；英尺‧男人 and upper-housemaids made fun 乐趣 of her Yorkshire speech and looked upon her as a common little thing, and sat and whispered 低声说 among themselves. Martha liked to talk, and the strange child who had lived in India, and been waited upon by "blacks," was novelty 新奇 enough to attract 吸引 her.

She sat down on the hearth 炉 her‧self 她自己 without waiting to be asked.

"Art tha' thin‧kin 薄的‧亲属' about that garden yet?" she said. "I knew tha' would. That was just the way with me when I first heard about it."

"Why did he hate it?" Mary persisted 坚持.

Martha tucked 掖 her feet under her and made her‧self 她自己 quite comfort‧able 舒服；自在.

"Listen to th' wind wutherin' round the house," she said. "You could bare stand up on the moor 泊 if you was out on it to-night."

Mary did not know what "wutherin'" meant until she listened, and then she understood. It must mean that hollow 空的 shuddering 不寒而栗 sort of roar 咆哮 which rushed round and round the house as if the giant 巨人 no one could see were buffeting 自助餐 it and beating at the walls and windows to try to break in. But one knew he could not get in, and somehow it made one feel very safe and warm inside a room with a red coal 煤 fire.

"But why did he hate it so?" she asked, after she had listened. She intended to know if Martha did.

Then Martha gave up her store of knowledge.

"Mind," she said, "Mrs. Medlock said it's not to be talked about. There's lots o' things in this place that's not to be talked over. That's Mr. Craven's orders. His troubles are none servants' business, he says. But for th' garden he wouldn't be like he is. It was Mrs. Craven's garden that she had made when first they were married an' she just loved it, an' they used to 'tend the flowers themselves. An' none o' th' gardeners 园丁 was ever let to go in. Him an' her used to go in an' shut th' door an' stay there hours an' hours, readin' an' talkin'. An' she was just a bit of a girl an' there was an old tree with a branch bent like a seat on it. An' she made roses grow over it an' she used to sit there. But one day when she was sittin' there th' branch broke an' she fell on th' ground an' was hurt 损害 so bad that next day she died. Th' doctors thought he'd go out o' his mind an' die, too. That's why he hates it. No one's never gone in since, an' he won't let any one talk about it."

Mary did not ask any more questions. She looked at the red fire and listened to the wind "wutherin'." It seemed to be "wutherin'" louder 响亮的 than ever.

At that moment a very good thing was happening to her. Four good things had happened to her, in fact, since she came to Misselthwaite Manor. She had felt as if she had understood a robin and that he had understood her; she had run in the wind until her blood had grown warm; she had been healthily 健康 hungry 饥饿 for the first time in her life; and she had found out what it was to be sorry for some one. She was getting on.

But as she was listening to the wind she began to listen to something else. She did not know what it was, because at first she could scarcely distinguish it from the wind itself 本身. It was a curious sound—it seemed almost as if a child were crying somewhere. Sometimes the wind sounded rather like a child crying, but presently Mistress Mary felt quite sure that this sound was inside the house, not outside it. It was far away, but it was inside. She turned round and looked at Martha.

"Do you hear any one crying?" she said.

Martha suddenly looked confused 使困窘.

"No," she answered. "It's th' wind. Sometimes it sounds like as if some one was lost on th' moor 泊 an' wailin'. It's got all sorts o' sounds."

"But listen," said Mary. "It's in the house—down one of those long corridors 走廊."

And at that very moment a door must have been opened somewhere down-stairs; for a great rushing draft 草案 blew blow along the passage and the door of the room they sat in was blown open with a crash 碰撞, and as they both jumped to their feet the light was blown out and the crying sound was swept down the far corridor 走廊 so that it was to be heard more plainly than ever.

"There!" said Mary. "I told you so! It is some one crying—and it isn't a grown-up person."

Martha ran and shut the door and turned the key, but before she did it they both heard the sound of a door in some far passage shutting 关闭 with a bang 砰, and then everything was quiet, for even the wind ceased 停止 "wutherin'" for a few moments.

"It was th' wind," said Martha stubbornly 倔强. "An' if it wasn't, it was little Betty Butterworth, th' scullery-maid 女佣. She's had th' tooth‧ache 牙‧疼痛 all day."

But something troubled and awkward 难堪 in her manner made Mistress Mary stare very hard at her. She did not believe she was speaking the truth.

---

CHAPTER VI

"THERE WAS SOME ONE CRYING—THERE WAS!"

The next day the rain poured 淋；倒 down in torrents 激流 again, and when Mary looked out of her window the moor 泊 was almost hidden hide by gray mist 薄雾 and cloud. There could be no going out to-day.

"What do you do in your cottage when it rains like this?" she asked Martha.

"Try to keep from under each other's feet mostly," Martha answered. "Eh! there does seem a lot of us then. Mother's a good-tempered woman but she gets fair moithered. The biggest ones goes out in th' cow 奶牛-shed and plays there. Dickon he doesn't mind th' wet 湿的. He goes out just th' same as if th' sun was shinin'. He says he sees things on rainy 多雨的 days as doesn't show when it's fair weather. He once found a little fox 狐狸 cub half drowned 淹死 in its hole and he brought it home in th' bosom of his shirt 衬衫 to keep it warm. Its mother had been killed nearby 附近 an' th' hole was swum 游泳:swim out an' th' rest o' th' litter 窝 was dead. He's got it at home now. He found a half-drowned young crow 乌鸦 another time an' he brought it home, too, an' tamed 驯服的 it. It's named Soot because it's so black, an' it hops 跳 an' flies about with him every‧where 到处."

The time had come when Mary had forgotten to resent 愤恨 Martha's familiar talk. She had even begun to find it interesting and to be sorry when she stopped or went away. The stories she had been told by her Ayah when she lived in India had been quite unlike 不像 those Martha had to tell about the moor‧land 泊‧陆地；着陆 cottage which held four‧teen 十四 people who lived in four little rooms and never had quite enough to eat. The children seemed to tumble 下跌 about and amuse 使人发笑 themselves like a litter 窝 of rough, good-natured collie puppies 小狗. Mary was most attracted by the mother and Dickon. When Martha told stories of what "mother" said or did they always sounded comfort‧able 舒服；自在.

"If I had a raven or a fox 狐狸 cub I could play with it," said Mary. "But I have nothing."

Martha looked perplexed 困扰.

"Can tha' knit 针织?" she asked.

"No," answered Mary.

"Can tha' sew 缝?"

"No."

"Can tha' read?"

"Yes."

"Then why doesn't tha' read some‧thin 一些‧薄的', or learn a bit o' spellin'? Tha'st old enough to be learnin' thy 你的 book a good bit now."

"I haven't any books," said Mary. "Those I had were left in India."

"That's a pity 怜悯," said Martha. "If Mrs. Medlock'd let thee go into th' library, there's thou‧sand 千 o' books there."

Mary did not ask where the library was, because she was suddenly inspired 激励，鼓舞 by a new idea. She made up her mind to go and find it her‧self 她自己. She was not troubled about Mrs. Medlock. Mrs. Medlock seemed always to be in her comfort‧able 舒服；自在 house‧keep 管家's sitting-room down-stairs. In this queer 奇怪 place one scarcely ever saw any one at all. In fact, there was no one to see but the servants, and when their master was away they lived a luxurious 豪华 life below stairs, where there was a huge 巨大 kitchen hung about with shining brass 黄铜 and pewter, and a large servants' hall where there were four or five abundant 丰富 meals 餐 eaten every day, and where a great deal of lively romping went on when Mrs. Medlock was out of the way.

Mary's meals were served regularly 经常, and Martha waited on her, but no one troubled themselves about her in the least. Mrs. Medlock came and looked at her every day or two, but no one inquired what she did or told her what to do. She supposed that perhaps this was the English way of treating children. In India she had always been attended by her Ayah, who had followed her about and waited on her, hand and foot. She had often been tired of her company. Now she was followed by nobody and was learning to dress her‧self 她自己 because Martha looked as though she thought she was silly 愚蠢 and stupid 愚蠢的 when she wanted to have things handed to her and put on.

"Hasn't tha' got good sense?" she said once, when Mary had stood waiting for her to put on her gloves 手套 for her. "Our Susan Ann is twice 两次 as sharp as thee an' she's only four year' old. Sometimes tha' looks fair soft in th' head."

Mary had worn her contrary 相反 scowl for an hour after that, but it made her think several entirely new things.

She stood at the window for about ten 十 minutes this morning after Martha had swept up the hearth 炉 for the last time and gone down-stairs. She was thinking over the new idea which had come to her when she heard of the library. She did not care very much about the library itself 本身, because she had read very few books; but to hear of it brought back to her mind the hundred 百 rooms with closed doors. She wondered if they were all really locked and what she would find if she could get into any of them. Were there a hundred 百 really? Why shouldn't she go and see how many doors she could count? It would be something to do on this morning when she could not go out. She had never been taught to ask per‧mission 允许 to do things, and she knew nothing at all about authority 权威, so she would not have thought it necessary to ask Mrs. Medlock if she might walk about the house, even if she had seen her.

She opened the door of the room and went into the corridor 走廊, and then she began her wanderings 漫步. It was a long corridor 走廊 and it branched into other corridors 走廊 and it led her up short flights 飞行 of steps which mounted to others again. There were doors and doors, and there were pictures on the walls. Sometimes they were pictures of dark, curious landscapes 景观, but oftenest they were portraits 肖像 of men and women in queer 奇怪, grand costumes 服装 made of satin 缎 and velvet 丝绒. She found her‧self 她自己 in one long gallery 画廊 whose 谁的 walls were covered with these portraits 肖像. She had never thought there could be so many in any house. She walked slowly down this place and stared at the faces which also seemed to stare at her. She felt as if they were wondering what a little girl from India was doing in their house. Some were pictures of children—little girls in thick satin 缎 frocks which reached to their feet and stood out about them, and boys with puffed 噗 sleeves 袖 and lace 花边 collars 衣领 and long hair, or with big ruffs around their necks. She always stopped to look at the children, and wonder what their names were, and where they had gone, and why they wore such odd 奇 clothes. There was a stiff 严厉的, plain little girl rather like her‧self 她自己. She wore a green brocade dress and held a green parrot 鹦鹉 on her finger. Her eyes had a sharp, curious look.

"Where do you live now?" said Mary aloud 高声 to her. "I wish you were here."

Surely no other little girl ever spent such a queer 奇怪 morning. It seemed as if there was no one in all the huge 巨大 rambling 漫谈 house but her own small self, wandering about up-stairs and down, through narrow passages and wide ones, where it seemed to her that no one but her‧self 她自己 had ever walked. Since so many rooms had been built, people must have lived in them, but it all seemed so empty that she could not quite believe it true.

It was not until she climbed to the second floor that she thought of turning the handle of a door. All the doors were shut, as Mrs. Medlock had said they were, but at last she put her hand on the handle of one of them and turned it. She was almost frightened for a moment when she felt that it turned without difficulty and that when she pushed upon the door itself 本身 it slowly and heavily 很大，沉重地 opened. It was a massive 大规模的 door and opened into a big bed‧room 卧室. There were embroidered 绣 hangings on the wall, and inlaid furniture 家具 such as she had seen in India stood about the room. A broad window with leaded panes 窗格 looked out upon the moor 泊; and over the mantel was another portrait 肖像 of the stiff 严厉的, plain little girl who seemed to stare at her more curiously than ever.

"Perhaps she slept here once," said Mary. "She stares at me so that she makes me feel queer 奇怪."

After that she opened more doors and more. She saw so many rooms that she became quite tired and began to think that there must be a hundred 百, though she had not counted them. In all of them there were old pictures or old tapestries 挂毯 with strange scenes worked on them. There were curious pieces of furniture 家具 and curious ornaments 装饰 in nearly all of them.

In one room, which looked like a lady's sitting-room, the hangings were all embroidered 绣 velvet 丝绒, and in a cabinet 内阁 were about a hundred 百 little elephants 象 made of ivory 象牙. They were of different sizes, and some had their mahouts or palanquins on their backs. Some were much bigger than the others and some were so tiny 小 that they seemed only babies. Mary had seen carved 雕刻 ivory 象牙 in India and she knew all about elephants. She opened the door of the cabinet 内阁 and stood on a foot‧stool 脚；英尺‧粪便 and played with these for quite a long time. When she got tired she set the elephants in order and shut the door of the cabinet 内阁.

In all her wanderings through the long corridors 走廊 and the empty rooms, she had seen nothing alive; but in this room she saw something. Just after she had closed the cabinet 内阁 door she heard a tiny 小 rustling 沙沙 sound. It made her jump and look around at the sofa 沙发 by the fire‧place 壁炉, from which it seemed to come. In the corner of the sofa 沙发 there was a cushion 垫子, and in the velvet 丝绒 which covered it there was a hole, and out of the hole peeped 窥视 a tiny 小 head with a pair of frightened eyes in it.

Mary crept softly across the room to look. The bright eyes belonged to a little gray mouse 老鼠, and the mouse had eaten a hole into the cushion and made a comfort‧able 舒服；自在 nest （鸟）窝 there. Six baby mice were cuddled 偎 up asleep near her. If there was no one else alive in the hundred 百 rooms there were seven 七 mice who did not look lonely at all.

"If they wouldn't be so frightened I would take them back with me," said Mary.

She had wandered about long enough to feel too tired to wander 漫步 any farther, and she turned back. Two or three times she lost her way by turning down the wrong corridor 走廊 and was obliged 责成 to ramble 漫谈 up and down until she found the right one; but at last she reached her own floor again, though she was some distance from her own room and did not know exactly where she was.

"I believe I have taken a wrong turning again," she said, standing still at what seemed the end of a short passage with tapestry 挂毯 on the wall. "I don't know which way to go. How still everything is!"

It was while she was standing here and just after she had said this that the stillness was broken by a sound. It was another cry, but not quite like the one she had heard last night; it was only a short one, a fretful, childish 幼稚 whine 抱怨 muffled by passing through walls.

"It's nearer than it was," said Mary, her heart beating rather faster. "And it is crying."

She put her hand accidentally 偶然 upon the tapestry 挂毯 near her, and then sprang back, feeling quite startled 惊吓. The tapestry 挂毯 was the covering of a door which fell open and showed her that there was another part of the corridor 走廊 behind it, and Mrs. Medlock was coming up it with her bunch 束 of keys in her hand and a very cross look on her face.

"What are you doing here?" she said, and she took Mary by the arm and pulled her away. "What did I tell you?"

"I turned round the wrong corner," explained Mary. "I didn't know which way to go and I heard some one crying."

She quite hated Mrs. Medlock at the moment, but she hated her more the next.

"You didn't hear anything of the sort," said the house‧keep 管家. "You come along back to your own nursery or I'll box your ears."

And she took her by the arm and half pushed, half pulled her up one passage and down another until she pushed her in at the door of her own room.

"Now," she said, "you stay where you're told to stay or you'll find your‧self 你自己 locked up. The master had better get you a governess, same as he said he would. You're one that needs some one to look sharp after you. I've got enough to do."

She went out of the room and slammed 猛撞 the door after her, and Mary went and sat on the hearth 炉-rug 小块地毯, pale with rage 愤怒. She did not cry, but ground her teeth.

"There was some one crying—there was—there was!" she said to her‧self 她自己.

She had heard it twice 两次 now, and some‧time 有时 she would find out. She had found out a great deal this morning. She felt as if she had been on a long journey 旅行, and at any rate she had had something to amuse 3 her all the time, and she had played with the ivory 象牙 elephants and had seen the gray mouse 老鼠 and its babies in their nest 3 in the velvet 丝绒 cushion 垫子.

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CHAPTER VII

THE KEY OF THE GARDEN

Two days after this, when Mary opened her eyes she sat upright 直立的 in bed immediately, and called to Martha.

"Look at the moor 泊! Look at the moor 泊!"

The rain-storm 暴风雨 had ended and the gray mist 薄雾 and clouds had been swept away in the night by the wind. The wind itself 本身 had ceased 停止 and a brilliant 出色的, deep blue sky arched 弓形 high over the moor‧land 泊‧陆地；着陆. Never, never had Mary dreamed of a sky so blue. In India skies 滑雪 were hot and blazing 火焰; this was of a deep cool blue which almost seemed to sparkle 火花 like the waters of some lovely bottom‧less 底部‧少 lake, and here and there, high, high in the arched blueness floated 漂浮 small clouds of snow-white fleece 羊毛. The far-reaching world of the moor 泊 itself 本身 looked softly blue instead of gloomy 阴沉 purple 紫色的-black or awful 糟糕的 dreary 凄凉 gray.

"Aye," said Martha with a cheerful 快乐 grin 微笑. "Th'storm 暴风雨's over for a bit. It does like this at this time o' th' year. It goes off in a night like it was pretendin' it had never been here an' never meant to come again. That's because th' spring‧time 春季‧时间's on its way. It's a long way off yet, but it's comin'."

"I thought perhaps it always rained or looked dark in England," Mary said.

"Eh! no!" said Martha, sitting up on her heels 脚跟 among her black lead brushes. "Nowt o' th' soart!"

"What does that mean?" asked Mary seriously. In India the natives spoke different dialects 方言 which only a few people understood, so she was not surprised when Martha used words she did not know.

Martha laughed as she had done the first morning.

"There now," she said. "I've talked broad Yorkshire again like Mrs. Medlock said I mustn't. 'Nowt o' th' soart' means 'nothin'-of-the-sort,'" slowly and carefully 小心, "but it takes so long to say it. Yorkshire's th' sunniest place on earth when it is sunny 晴朗. I told thee tha'd like th' moor 泊 after a bit. Just you wait till 到 you see th' gold 金-colored gorse blossoms 开花 an' th' blossoms 开花 o' th' broom 扫帚, an' th' heather 石南属 flowerin', all purple 紫色的 bells, an' hundreds 百 o' butter‧fly 蝴蝶 flutterin' an' bees 蜜蜂 hummin' an' skylarks soarin' up an' singin'. You'll want to get out on it at sun‧rise 日出 an' live out on it all day like Dickon does."

"Could I ever get there?" asked Mary wistfully, looking through her window at the far-off blue. It was so new and big and wonderful 精彩 and such a heavenly 神圣的 color.

"I don't know," answered Martha. "Tha's never used tha' legs since tha' was born, it seems to me. Tha' couldn't walk five mile. It's five mile to our cottage."

"I should like to see your cottage."

Martha stared at her a moment curiously before she took up her polishing brush and began to rub 擦 the grate 炉排 again. She was thinking that the small plain face did not look quite as sour at this moment as it had done the first morning she saw it. It looked just a trifle 琐事 like little Susan Ann's when she wanted something very much.

"I'll ask my mother about it," she said. "She's one o' them that nearly always sees a way to do things. It's my day out to-day an' I'm goin' home. Eh! I am glad. Mrs. Medlock thinks a lot o' mother. Perhaps she could talk to her."

"I like your mother," said Mary.

"I should think tha' did," agreed Martha, polishing away.

"I've never seen her," said Mary.

"No, tha' hasn't," replied Martha.

She sat up on her heels 脚跟 again and rubbed 擦 the end of her nose with the back of her hand as if puzzled for a moment, but she ended quite positively 积极.

"Well, she's that sensible 明智 an' hard workin' an' good-natured an' clean that no one could help likin' her whether they'd seen her or not. When I'm goin' home to her on my day out I just jump for joy 喜悦 when I'm crossin' th' moor 泊."

"I like Dickon," added Mary. "And I've never seen him."

"Well," said Martha stoutly 肥硕, "I've told thee that th' very birds likes him an' th' rabbits 兔子 an' wild sheep 3 an' ponies 小马, an' th' foxes 狐狸 themselves. I wonder," staring at her reflectively 反光, "what Dickon would think of thee?"

"He wouldn't like me," said Mary in her stiff 严厉的, cold little way. "No one does."

Martha looked reflective 反光 again.

"How does tha' like thysel'?" she inquired, really quite as if she were curious to know.

Mary hesitated 犹豫 a moment and thought it over.

"Not at all—really," she answered. "But I never thought of that before."

Martha grinned 微笑 a little as if at some homely recollection 回忆.

"Mother said that to me once," she said. "She was at her wash-tub 桶 an' I was in a bad temper an' talkin' ill of folk 民间, an' she turns round on me an' says: 'Tha' young vixon, tha'! There tha' stands sayin' tha' doesn't like this one an' tha' doesn't like that one. How does tha' like thysel'?' It made me laugh an' it brought me to my senses in a minute."

She went away in high spirits as soon as she had given Mary her breakfast. She was going to walk five miles across the moor 泊 to the cottage, and she was going to help her mother with the washing and do the week's baking 烤 and enjoy her‧self 她自己 thoroughly.

Mary felt lonelier than ever when she knew she was no longer in the house. She went out into the garden as quickly as possible, and the first thing she did was to run round and round the fountain 喷泉 flower garden ten 十 times. She counted the times carefully 小心 and when she had finished she felt in better spirits. The sun‧shine 阳光 made the whole place look different. The high, deep, blue sky arched over Misselthwaite as well as over the moor 泊, and she kept lifting her face and looking up into it, trying to imagine what it would be like to lie down on one of the little snow-white clouds and float 漂浮 about. She went into the first kitchen-garden and found Ben Weatherstaff working there with two other gardeners 园丁. The change in the weather seemed to have done him good. He spoke to her of his own accord.

"Springtime's comin'," he said. "Cannot tha' smell it?"

Mary sniffed 吸气 and thought she could.

"I smell something nice and fresh and damp 微湿的," she said.

"That's th' good rich earth," he answered, digging away. "It's in a good humor 幽默 makin' ready to grow things. It's glad when plan‧tin 计划‧锡' time comes. It's dull in th' winter when it's got nowt to do. In th' flower gardens out there things will be stirrin' down below in th' dark. Th' sun's warmin' 'em. You'll see bits o' green spikes 穗 stickin' out o' th' black earth after a bit."

"What will they be?" asked Mary.

"Crocuses an' snowdrops an' daffydowndillys. Has tha' never seen them?"

"No. Everything is hot, and wet, and green after the rains in India," said Mary. "And I think things grow up in a night."

"These won't grow up in a night," said Weatherstaff. "Tha'll have to wait for 'em. They'll poke 戳 up a bit higher here, an' push out a spike 穗 more there, an' uncurl a leaf 叶子 this day an' another that. You watch 'em."

"I am going to," answered Mary.

Very soon she heard the soft rustling 沙沙 flight 飞行 of wings again and she knew at once that the robin had come again. He was very pert and lively, and hopped 跳 about so close to her feet, and put his head on one side and looked at her so slyly that she asked Ben Weatherstaff a question.

"Do you think he remembers me?" she said.

"Remembers thee!" said Weatherstaff indignantly. "He knows every cabbage 卷心菜 stump 树墩 in th' gardens, let alone th' people. He's never seen a little wench here before, an' he's bent on findin' out all about thee. Tha's no need to try to hide anything from him."

"Are things stirring down below in the dark in that garden where he lives?" Mary inquired.

"What garden?" grunted 咕噜 Weatherstaff, becoming surly again.

"The one where the old rose-trees are." She could not help asking, because she wanted so much to know. "Are all the flowers dead, or do some of them come again in the summer? Are there ever any roses?"

"Ask him," said Ben Weatherstaff, hunching 直觉 his shoulders toward the robin. "He's the only one as knows. No one else has seen inside it for ten 十 year'."

Ten 十 years was a long time, Mary thought. She had been born ten 十 years ago.

She walked away, slowly thinking. She had begun to like the garden just as she had begun to like the robin and Dickon and Martha's mother. She was beginning to like Martha, too. That seemed a good many people to like—when you were not used to liking. She thought of the robin as one of the people. She went to her walk outside the long, ivy-covered wall over which she could see the tree-tops; and the second time she walked up and down the most interesting and exciting thing happened to her, and it was all through Ben Weatherstaff's robin.

She heard a chirp and a twitter, and when she looked at the bare flower-bed at her left side there he was hopping 跳 about and pretending 假装 to peck 啄 things out of the earth to persuade 说服 her that he had not followed her. But she knew he had followed her and the surprise so filled her with delight that she almost trembled a little.

"You do remember me!" she cried out. "You do! You are prettier than anything else in the world!"

She chirped, and talked, and coaxed 哄 and he hopped 跳, and flirted 调情 his tail 尾 and twittered. It was as if he were talking. His red waist‧coat 腰‧上衣 was like satin 缎 and he puffed 噗 his tiny 小 breast 乳房 out and was so fine and so grand and so pretty that it was really as if he were showing her how important and like a human person a robin could be. Mistress Mary forgot that she had ever been contrary 相反 in her life when he allowed her to draw closer and closer to him, and bend down and talk and try to make something like robin sounds.

Oh! to think that he should actually let her come as near to him as that! He knew nothing in the world would make her put out her hand toward him or startle 惊吓 him in the least tiniest way. He knew it because he was a real person—only nicer than any other person in the world. She was so happy that she scarcely dared to breathe 呼吸.

The flower-bed was not quite bare. It was bare of flowers because the perennial 多年生 plants had been cut down for their winter rest, but there were tall shrubs 灌木 and low ones which grew together at the back of the bed, and as the robin hopped 跳 about under them she saw him hop 跳 over a small pile 堆 of freshly turned up earth. He stopped on it to look for a worm 虫. The earth had been turned up because a dog had been trying to dig 挖 up a mole 痣 and he had scratched 刮 quite a deep hole.

Mary looked at it, not really knowing why the hole was there, and as she looked she saw something almost buried in the newly 最近，新近-turned soil. It was something like a ring of rusty 生疏 iron or brass 黄铜 and when the robin flew up into a tree nearby 附近 she put out her hand and picked the ring up. It was more than a ring, however; it was an old key which looked as if it had been buried a long time.

Mistress Mary stood up and looked at it with an almost frightened face as it hung from her finger.

"Perhaps it has been buried for ten 十 years," she said in a whisper 低声说. "Perhaps it is the key to the garden!"

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CHAPTER VIII

THE ROBIN WHO SHOWED THE WAY

She looked at the key quite a long time. She turned it over and over, and thought about it. As I have said before, she was not a child who had been trained to ask per‧mission 允许 or consult 咨询；请教；查阅 her elders 年长的 about things. All she thought about the key was that if it was the key to the closed garden, and she could find out where the door was, she could perhaps open it and see what was inside the walls, and what had happened to the old rose-trees. It was because it had been shut up so long that she wanted to see it. It seemed as if it must be different from other places and that something strange must have happened to it during ten 十 years. Besides that, if she liked it she could go into it every day and shut the door behind her, and she could make up some play of her own and play it quite alone, because nobody would ever know where she was, but would think the door was still locked and the key buried in the earth. The thought of that pleased her very much.

Living as it were, all by her‧self 她自己 in a house with a hundred 百 mysteriously 神秘 closed rooms and having nothing whatever to do to amuse her‧self 她自己, had set her inactive 待用 brain to working and was actually awakening 憬 her imagination 想像力. There is no doubt that the fresh, strong, pure air from the moor 泊 had a great deal to do with it. Just as it had given her an appetite 食欲, and fighting with the wind had stirred 搅动 her blood, so the same things had stirred her mind. In India she had always been too hot and languid and weak to care much about anything, but in this place she was beginning to care and to want to do new things. Already she felt less "contrary 相反," though she did not know why.

She put the key in her pocket 口袋 and walked up and down her walk. No one but her‧self 她自己 ever seemed to come there, so she could walk slowly and look at the wall, or, rather, at the ivy growing on it. The ivy was the baffling 障 thing. Howsoever carefully 小心 she looked she could see nothing but thickly-growing, glossy 光滑, dark green leaves. She was very much disappointed 使失望. Something of her contrariness came back to her as she paced 步伐，速度 the walk and looked over it at the tree-tops inside. It seemed so silly 愚蠢, she said to her‧self 她自己, to be near it and not be able to get in. She took the key in her pocket 口袋 when she went back to the house, and she made up her mind that she would always carry it with her when she went out, so that if she ever should find the hidden hide door she would be ready.

Mrs. Medlock had allowed Martha to sleep all night at the cottage, but she was back at her work in the morning with cheeks 脸颊 redder than ever and in the best of spirits.

"I got up at four o' clock 钟," she said. "Eh! it was pretty on th' moor 泊 with th' birds gettin' up an' th' rabbits scamperin' about an' th' sun risin'. I didn't walk all th' way. A man gave me a ride in his cart 运货马车 an' I can tell you I did enjoy myself 我."

She was full of stories of the delights of her day out. Her mother had been glad to see her and they had got the baking and washing all out of the way. She had even made each of the children a dough 面团-cake 蛋糕 with a bit of brown sugar 食糖 in it.

"I had 'em all pipin' hot when they came in from playin' on th' moor 泊. An' th' cottage all smelt smell o' nice, clean hot bakin' an' there was a good fire, an' they just shouted for joy 喜悦. Our Dickon he said our cottage was good enough for a king to live in."

In the evening they had all sat round the fire, and Martha and her mother had sewed 缝:sew patches 补丁 on torn tear clothes and mended 修理 stockings and Martha had told them about the little girl who had come from India and who had been waited on all her life by what Martha called "blacks" until she didn't know how to put on her own stockings.

"Eh! they did like to hear about you," said Martha. "They wanted to know all about th' blacks an' about th' ship you came in. I couldn't tell 'em enough."

Mary reflected a little.

"I'll tell you a great deal more before your next day out," she said, "so that you will have more to talk about. I dare 敢 say they would like to hear about riding on elephants and camels 骆驼, and about the officers going to hunt tigers 虎."

"My word!" cried delighted Martha. "It would set 'em clean off their heads. Would tha' really do that, Miss? It would be same as a wild beast 野兽 show like we heard they had in York once."

"India is quite different from Yorkshire," Mary said slowly, as she thought the matter over. "I never thought of that. Did Dickon and your mother like to hear you talk about me?"

"Why, our Dickon's eyes nearly started out o' his head, they got that round," answered Martha. "But mother, she was put out about your seemin' to be all by your‧self 你自己 like. She said, 'Hasn't Mr. Craven got no governess for her, nor no nurse 护士?' and I said, 'No, he hasn't, though Mrs. Medlock says he will when he thinks of it, but she says he mayn't think of it for two or three years.'"

"I don't want a governess," said Mary sharply.

"But mother says you ought to be learnin' your book by this time an' you ought to have a woman to look after you, an' she says: 'Now, Martha, you just think how you'd feel your‧self 你自己, in a big place like that, wanderin' about all alone, an' no mother. You do your best to cheer 欢呼 her up,' she says, an' I said I would."

Mary gave her a long, steady look.

"You do cheer me up," she said. "I like to hear you talk."

Presently Martha went out of the room and came back with something held in her hands under her apron 围裙.

"What does tha' think," she said, with a cheerful 快乐 grin 微笑. "I've brought thee a present."

"A present!" exclaimed 喊叫 Mistress Mary. How could a cottage full of four‧teen 十四 hungry 饥饿 people give any one a present!

"A man was drivin' across the moor 泊 peddlin'," Martha explained. "An' he stopped his cart 运货马车 at our door. He had pots 罐 an' pans 平底锅 an' odds 奇 an' ends, but mother had no money to buy any‧thin 任何的‧薄的'. Just as he was goin' away our 'Lizabeth Ellen called out, 'Mother, he's got skip‧pin 跳跃‧钉'- ropes 粗绳 with red an' blue handles.' An' mother she calls out quite sudden, 'Here, stop, mister 薄雾! How much are they?' An' he says 'Tuppence,' an' mother she began fumblin' in her pocket an' she says to me, 'Martha, tha's brought me thy 你的 wages like a good lass, an' I've got four places to put every penny 便士, but I'm just goin' to take tuppence out of it to buy that child a skip‧pin 跳跃‧钉'- rope 粗绳,' an' she bought one an' here it is."

She brought it out from under her apron 围裙 and exhibited 展示 it quite proudly. It was a strong, slender 苗条 rope with a striped 条纹 red and blue handle at each end, but Mary Lennox had never seen a skipping 跳跃- rope before. She gazed 凝视 at it with a mystified expression.

"What is it for?" she asked curiously.

"For!" cried out Martha. "Does tha' mean that they've not got skip‧pin 跳跃‧钉'-ropes in India, for all they've got elephants and tigers 虎 and camels 骆驼! No wonder most of 'em's black. This is what it's for; just watch me."

And she ran into the middle of the room and, taking a handle in each hand, began to skip 跳跃, and skip 跳跃, and skip 跳跃, while Mary turned in her chair to stare at her, and the queer 奇怪 faces in the old portraits 肖像 seemed to stare at her, too, and wonder what on earth this common little cottager 小屋 had the impudence to be doing under their very noses. But Martha did not even see them. The interest and curiosity 好奇心 in Mistress Mary's face delighted her, and she went on skipping 跳跃 and counted as she skipped 跳跃 until she had reached a hundred 百.

"I could skip 跳跃 longer than that," she said when she stopped. "I've skipped 跳跃 as much as five hundred 百 when I was twelve 十二, but I wasn't as fat then as I am now, an' I was in practice."

Mary got up from her chair beginning to feel excited her‧self 她自己.

"It looks nice," she said. "Your mother is a kind woman. Do you think I could ever skip 跳跃 like that?"

"You just try it," urged Martha, handing her the skipping 跳跃-rope 3. "You can't skip 跳跃 a hundred 百 at first, but if you practise you'll mount 增加 up. That's what mother said. She says, 'Nothin' will do her more good than skip‧pin 跳跃‧钉' rope. It's th' sensiblest 明智 toy 玩具 a child can have. Let her play out in th' fresh air skip‧pin 跳跃‧钉' an' it'll stretch her legs an' arms an' give her some strength in 'em.'"

It was plain that there was not a great deal of strength in Mistress Mary's arms and legs when she first began to skip 跳跃. She was not very clever 聪明的 at it, but she liked it so much that she did not want to stop.

"Put on tha' things and run an' skip 跳跃 out o' doors," said Martha. "Mother said I must tell you to keep out o' doors as much as you could, even when it rains a bit, so as tha' wrap 包 up warm."

Mary put on her coat and hat and took her skipping 跳跃-rope over her arm. She opened the door to go out, and then suddenly thought of something and turned back rather slowly.

"Martha," she said, "they were your wages. It was your two‧pence 2‧便士 really. Thank you." She said it stiffly because she was not used to thanking people or noticing that they did things for her. "Thank you," she said, and held out her hand because she did not know what else to do.

Martha gave her hand a clumsy 笨拙 little shake, as if she was not accustomed 使习惯 to this sort of thing either. Then she laughed.

"Eh! tha' art a queer 奇怪, old-womanish thing," she said. "If tha'd been our 'Lizabeth Ellen tha'd have give me a kiss 接吻."

Mary looked stiffer 严厉的 than ever.

"Do you want me to kiss you?"

Martha laughed again.

"Nay, not me," she answered. "If tha' was different, p'raps 敲击 tha'd want to thysel'. But tha' isn't. Run off outside an' play with thy 你的 rope."

Mistress Mary felt a little awkward 难堪 as she went out of the room. Yorkshire people seemed strange, and Martha was always rather a puzzle 使迷惑 to her. At first she had disliked 反感 her very much, but now she did not.

The skipping 跳跃-rope was a wonderful 精彩 thing. She counted and skipped 跳跃, and skipped 跳跃 and counted, until her cheeks 脸颊 were quite red, and she was more interested than she had ever been since she was born. The sun was shining and a little wind was blowing—not a rough wind, but one which came in delightful 愉快 little gusts 阵风 and brought a fresh scent 香味 of newly 最近，新近 turned earth with it. She skipped 跳跃 round the fountain 喷泉 garden, and up one walk and down another. She skipped 跳跃 at last into the kitchen-garden and saw Ben Weatherstaff digging and talking to his robin, which was hopping 跳 about him. She skipped 跳跃 down the walk toward him and he lifted his head and looked at her with a curious expression. She had wondered if he would notice her. She really wanted him to see her skip 跳跃.

"Well!" he exclaimed 喊叫. "Upon my word! P'raps 敲击 tha' art a young 'un, after all, an' p'raps 敲击 tha's got child's blood in thy 你的 veins 静脉 instead of sour butter‧milk 黄油‧奶. Tha's skipped 跳跃 red into thy 你的 cheeks 脸颊 as sure as my name's Ben Weatherstaff. I wouldn't have believed tha' could do it."

"I never skipped 跳跃 before," Mary said. "I'm just beginning. I can only go up to twenty 二十."

"Tha' keep on," said Ben. "Tha' shapes well enough at it for a young 'un that's lived with heat‧hen 热‧母鸡. Just see how he's watchin' thee," jerking 混蛋 his head toward the robin. "He followed after thee yesterday. He'll be at it again to-day. He'll be bound 必定；跳 to find out what th' skip‧pin 跳跃‧钉'-rope is. He's never seen one. Eh!" shaking his head at the bird, "tha' curosity will be th' death of thee sometime if tha' doesn't look sharp."

Mary skipped 跳跃 round all the gardens and round the orchard 果园, resting every few minutes. At length she went to her own special walk and made up her mind to try if she could skip 跳跃 the whole length of it. It was a good long skip 跳跃 and she began slowly, but before she had gone half-way down the path she was so hot and breath‧less 咋舌 that she was obliged 责成 to stop. She did not mind much, because she had already counted up to thirty 三十. She stopped with a little laugh of pleasure, and there, lo and behold 不料, was the robin swaying 摇摆 on a long branch of ivy. He had followed her and he greeted 欢迎 her with a chirp. As Mary had skipped 跳跃 toward him she felt something heavy in her pocket strike against her at each jump, and when she saw the robin she laughed again.

"You showed me where the key was yesterday," she said. "You ought to show me the door to-day; but I don't believe you know!"

The robin flew from his swinging spray 喷雾 of ivy on to the top of the wall and he opened his beak 喙 and sang a loud 响亮的, lovely trill, merely to show off. Nothing in the world is quite as adorably lovely as a robin when he shows off—and they are nearly always doing it.

Mary Lennox had heard a great deal about Magic in her Ayah's stories, and she always said that what happened almost at that moment was Magic.

One of the nice little gusts 阵风 of wind rushed down the walk, and it was a stronger one than the rest. It was strong enough to wave the branches of the trees, and it was more than strong enough to sway 摇摆 the trailing sprays 喷雾 of untrimmed ivy hanging from the wall. Mary had stepped close to the robin, and suddenly the gust 阵风 of wind swung swing aside some loose ivy trails 乡间小道, and more suddenly still she jumped toward it and caught it in her hand. This she did because she had seen something under it—a round knob 把手 which had been covered by the leaves hanging over it. It was the knob 把手 of a door.

She put her hands under the leaves and began to pull and push them aside. Thick as the ivy hung, it nearly all was a loose and swinging curtain 窗帘, though some had crept over wood and iron. Mary's heart began to thump 扑通 and her hands to shake a little in her delight and excitement 激动. The robin kept singing and twittering away and tilting 倾斜 his head on one side, as if he were as excited as she was. What was this under her hands which was square and made of iron and which her fingers found a hole in?

It was the lock of the door which had been closed ten 十 years and she put her hand in her pocket, drew out the key and found it fitted the key‧hole 钥匙‧洞. She put the key in and turned it. It took two hands to do it, but it did turn.

And then she took a long breath and looked behind her up the long walk to see if any one was coming. No one was coming. No one ever did come, it seemed, and she took another long breath, because she could not help it, and she held back the swinging curtain 窗帘 of ivy and pushed back the door which opened slowly—slowly.

Then she slipped through it, and shut it behind her, and stood with her back against it, looking about her and breathing 呼吸 quite fast with excitement 激动, and wonder, and delight.

She was standing inside the secret garden.

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