The secret garden

2 THE SECRET GARDENkept out of the way, and when she became a sickly,fretful, toddling thing she was kept out of the wayalso. She never remembered seeing familiarlyanything but the dark faces of her Ayah and theother native servants, and as they always obeyedher and gave her her own way in everything, becausethe Mem Sahib would be angryif she wasdisturbed by her crying, by the time she was sixyears old she was as tyrannical and selfish a littlepig as ever lived. The young English governesswho came to teach her to read and write dislikedher so much that she gave up her place inthreemonths, and when other governesses came to tryto fill itthey always went away in a shorter timethan the first one. So ifMary had not chosento really want to know how to read books shewould never have learned her letters at all.One frightfully hot morning, when she wasabout nine years old, she awakened feeling verycross, and she became crosser still when she sawthat the servant who stood by her bedside was nother Ayah.Why did you come? " she said to the strangewoman." I will not let you stay. Send my Ayahto me.'The woman looked frightened, but she onlystammered that the Ayah could not come andwhen Mary threw herself into a passionand beat