The secret garden

MARTHA 37son to do things for her as if she had neither handsnor 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 answered it," Mary, staring." It was the custom."She said that very often " It was the custom."The native servants were always sayingit. If onetold them to do a thing their ancestors had notdone for a thousand years they gazed at one mildly'and said, It is not the custom ' and one knewthat was the end of the matter.It had not been the custom that Mistress Maryshould do anything but stand and allow herselfto be dressed like a doll, but before she was readyfor breakfast she began to suspectthat her life atMisselthwaite Manor would end by teaching hera number of things quite new to her thingssuch as putting on her own shoes and stockings, andpicking up things she let fall. If Martha hadbeen a well-trained fine young lady's maid shewould have been more subservient and respectfuland would have known that it was her business tobrush hair, and button boots, and pick things upand lay them away. She was, however, only an untrainedYorkshire rustic who had been brought upin a moorland cottage with a swarm of little