Living as it were, all by herself in a house with a hundred mysteriously closed rooms and having nothing whatever to do to amuse herself, had set her inactive brain to working and was actually awakening her imagination. There is no doubt that the fresh, strong, pure air from the moor had a great deal to do with it. Just as it had given her an appetite, and fighting with the wind had stirred 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, though she did not know why.
She put the key in her pocket and walked up and down her walk. No one but herself 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 thing. Howsoever carefully she looked she could see nothing but thickly growing, glossy, dark green leaves. She was very much disappointed. Something of her contrariness came back to her as she paced the walk and looked over it at the tree-tops inside. It seemed so silly, she said to herself, to be near it and not be able to get in. She took the key in her pocket 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 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 redder than ever and in the best of spirits.
I got up at four oclock, she said. Eh! it was pretty on th moor with th birds gettin up an th rabbits scamperin about an th sun risin. I didnt walk all th way. A man gave me a ride in his cart an I did enjoy myself.
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 doughcake with a bit of brown sugar in it.
I had em all pipin hot when they came in from playin on th moor. An th cottage all smelt o nice, clean hot bakin an there was a good fire, an they just shouted for joy. 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 patches on torn clothes and mended 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 didnt 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 couldnt tell em enough.
Mary reflected a little.
Ill tell you a great deal more before your next day out, she said, so that you will have more to talk about. I dare say they would like to hear about riding on elephants and camels, and about the officers going to hunt tigers.
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 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 Dickons 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 yourself like. She said, Hasnt Mr. Craven got no governess for her, nor no nurse? and I said, No, he hasnt, though Mrs. Medlock says he will when he thinks of it, but she says he maynt think of it for two or three years.
I dont 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 youd feel yourself, in a big place like that, wanderin about all alone, an no mother. You do your best to cheer 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.
What does tha think, she said, with a cheerful grin. Ive brought thee a present.
A present! exclaimed Mistress Mary. How could a cottage full of fourteen hungry people give anyone a present!
A man was drivin across the moor peddlin, Martha explained. An he stopped his cart at our door. He had pots an pans an odds an ends, but mother had no money to buy anythin. Just as he was goin away our Lizabeth Ellen called out, Mother, hes got skippin-ropes with red an blue handles. An mother she calls out quite sudden, Here, stop, mister! How much are they? An he says Tuppence, an mother she began fumblin in her pocket an she says to me, Martha, thas brought me thy wages like a good lass, an Ive got four places to put every penny, but Im just goin to take tuppence out of it to buy that child a skippin-rope, an she bought one an here it is.
She brought it out from under her apron and exhibited it quite proudly. It was a strong, slender rope with a striped red and blue handle at each end, but Mary Lennox had never seen a skipping-rope before. She gazed at it with a mystified expression.
What is it for? she asked curiously.
For! cried out Martha. Does tha mean that theyve not got skippin-ropes in India, for all theyve got elephants and tigers and camels! No wonder most of ems black. This is what its for; just watch me.
And she ran into the middle of the room and, taking a handle in each hand, began to skip, and skip, and skip, while Mary turned in her chair to stare at her, and the queer faces in the old portraits seemed to stare at her, too, and wonder what on earth this common little cottager had the impudence to be doing under their very noses. But Martha did not even see them. The interest and curiosity in Mistress Marys face delighted her, and she went on skipping and counted as she skipped until she had reached a hundred.
I could skip longer than that, she said when she stopped. Ive skipped as much as five hundred when I was twelve, but I wasnt as fat then as I am now, an I was in practice.
Mary got up from her chair beginning to feel excited herself.
It looks nice, she said. Your mother is a kind woman. Do you think I could ever skip like that?
You just try it, urged Martha, handing her the skipping-rope. You cant skip a hundred at first, but if you practice youll mount up. Thats what mother said. She says, Nothin will do her more good than skippin rope. Its th sensiblest toy a child can have. Let her play out in th fresh air skippin an itll 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 Marys arms and legs when she first began to skip. She was not very clever at it, but she liked it so much that she did not want to stop.