you? I intended to send you a governess or a nurse, or some one of that sort, but I forgot.

MARY. Please Please

MR. CRAVEN. What do you want to say?

MARY. [Frightened.] I am-I am too big for a nurse. And please please don't make me have a governess yet.

MR. CRAVEN. [Absentmindedly.] That was what the Sowerby woman said.

MARY. [Gaining composure.] Is she-is she Martha's

mother?

MR. CRAVEN. Yes, I think so.

MARY. She knows about children. She has twelve. She knows.

MR. CRAVEN. [Rousing himself.] What do you want to do?

MARY. I want to play out of doors. I never liked it in India. It makes me hungry here, and I am getting fatter.

MR. CRAVEN. Mrs. Sowerby said it would do you good. Perhaps it will. She thought you had better get stronger before you had a governess.

MARY. It makes me feel strong when I play and the wind comes over the moor.

MR. CRAVEN. Where do you play?

MARY. [Gasping.] Everywhere. -Martha's

mother

sent me a skipping-rope. I skip and run-and I look about

to see if things are beginning to stick up out of the earth. I don't do any harm.

MR. CRAVEN. Don't look so frightened. You could not do any harm, a child like you! You may do what you like.

MARY. [Coming a step nearer to him, tremulously.] May I?

MR. CRAVEN. Of course you may. I am your guardian, though I am a poor one for any child. I cannot give you time or attention. I am too ill, and wretched and distracted; but I wish you to be happy and comfortable. I don't know anything about children, but Mrs. Medlock is to see that you have all you need. I sent for you to-day because Mrs. Sowerby said I ought to see you. Her daughter had talked about you. She thought you needed fresh air and freedom and running about.

MARY. She knows all about children.

MR. CRAVEN. She ought to. I thought her rather bold to stop me on the moor, but she said-Mrs. Craven had been kind to her. She is a respectable woman. Now I have seen you I think she said sensible things. Play out of doors as much as you like. It's a big place and you may go where you like and amuse yourself as you like. Is there anything you want? Do you want toys, books, dolls?

MARY. [Eagerly.] Might I-might I have a bit of earth?

MR. CRAVEN. Earth! What do you mean?

MARY. To plant seeds in-to make things grow-to see them come alive.

MR. CRAVEN. [Slowly.] Do you-care about gardens so much?

MARY. I did n't know about them in India. I was always ill and tired and it was too hot. I sometimes made little beds in the sand and stuck flowers in them. But here

it is different.

MR. CRAVEN. [Walking slowly up and down.] A bit of earth. You can have as much earth as you want. You remind me of some one else who loved the earth and things that grow. When you see a bit of earth you want, take it, child, and make it come alive.

MARY. May I take it from anywhere-if it's not wanted?

MR. CRAVEN. Anywhere. There! You must go now, I am tired. [Touches button.] Good-by, I shall be away all summer. [MRS. MEDLOCK comes into room in answer to bell.] Mrs. Medlock, now I have seen the child I understand what Mrs. Sowerby meant. She must be less delicate before she begins lessons. Give her simple, healthy food. Let her run wild in the garden. Don't look after her too much. She needs liberty and fresh air and romping about. Mrs. Sowerby is to come and see her now and then and she may sometimes go to the cottage.

MRS. MEDLOCK. Thank you, sir. Susan Sowerby and I went to school together and she 's as sensible and goodhearted a woman as you'd find in a day's walk. She's what you might call healthy-minded-if you understand

me.

MR. CRAVEN. I understand. Take Miss Mary away now and send Pitcher to me.

MRS. MEDLOCK. Yes, sir. [Pass out.]

FIFTH SCENE

[In COLIN's bedroom.]

CHORUS. Mary awakes in the night and hears loud crying. She has heard it several times before but was rudely repulsed by Mrs. Medlock, the housekeeper, when she spoke about it. She determines to find out where this crying is.

MARY. [Sitting up in bed; listening.] It is not the wind that is crying now. It is different. It is what I heard before. [Gets up.] I am going to find out what it is. Everybody is in bed and I don't care about Mrs. Medlock. Besides she is asleep by this time and can't stop me as she did last time. I'm going! [Walks, listening, peering right and left, until she finds a tapestried door; enters. COLIN, the little sick son of MR. CRAVEN, is lying in bed, crying.]

COLIN. [Frightened.] Who are you? Are you a ghost?

MARY. No, I am not. Are you one?

COLIN. No. I am Colin.

MARY. Who is Colin?

COLIN. I am Colin Craven. Who are you?

MARY. I am Mary Lennox. Mr. Craven is my uncle. COLIN. He is my father.

MARY. [Gasping in astonishment.] Your father! No one ever told me he had a boy! Why didn't they?

COLIN. Come here. You are real, aren't you? I have such real dreams very often. You might be one of them.

MARY. [Putting a piece of her woolen wrapper between his fingers.] Rub that and see how thick and warm it is. I shall pinch you a little if you like, to show you how real I am. For a minute I thought you might be a dream too.

COLIN. Where did you come from.

MARY. From my own room. The wind wuthered so I could n't go to sleep and I heard some one crying and wanted to find out who it was. What were you crying for?

COLIN. Because I could n't go to sleep either and my head ached. Tell me your name again.

MARY. Mary Lennox. Did no one ever tell you I had come to live here?

COLIN. NO. They dare n't.

MARY. Why?

COLIN. Because I should have been afraid you would see me. I won't let people see me and talk me over.

MARY. Why?

COLIN. Because I am like this always, ill and having to lie down. My father won't let people talk me over either. The servants are not allowed to speak about me. If I live I may be a hunchback but I shan't live. My father hates to think I may be like him.

MARY. Oh, what a queer house this is! What a queer house! Everything is kind of secret. Rooms are locked