d I said, 'No, he hasn't, though
Mrs. Medlock says he will when he thinks of it, but she says he mayn't
think of it for two or three years.'"

"I don't 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 you'd 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. "I've brought
thee a present."

"A present!" exclaimed Mistress Mary. How could a cottage full of
fourteen hungry people give any one 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, he's 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, tha's brought
me thy wages like a good lass, an' I've got four places to put every
penny, but I'm 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 they've not got
skippin'-ropes in India, for all they've got elephants and tigers and
camels! No wonder most of 'em's black. This is what it's 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