Mary Lennox was born in India. When she was nine years
old, her mother and father died of cholera. Mary did not
miss her mother very much when she was gone. She had
not seen or spoken to her very much when she was alive.
Mary’s mother had not wanted a child at all. She had
been very beautiful, and she had only been interested in
going to parties and meeting people. Mary’s father was
always busy with his work, too. So when Mary was born,
a servant looked after her. Her mother told the servant
to make sure that Mary did not cry or make too much noise. So the
servant always gave Mary whatever she asked for and Mary quickly became a
very difficult and selfish little girl.
Mary was a plain-looking child, too. She had a thin little face and body, and
she always looked cross.
Because Mary was such a selfish little girl, she only really thought about
herself. She wanted to know who would look after her now that her parents had
died. She hoped they would let her do what she wanted.
At first, Mary went to stay with a family called the Crawfords, in India. But
Mary was so disagreeable that none of the Crawford children wanted to play
with her. After she had been there for a week, one of the Crawfords’ little boys
told her that she was going to go back to England.
‘You are going to live with your uncle,’ the boy said. ‘He lives in a great big
old house in the country. He’s so cross, he won’t let people come and see
him. And no one would want to see him anyway. He’s a hunchback, and he’s
horrible.’
wouldn’t like it.’