ACROSS THE MOOR

She slept a long time, and when she awakened Mrs. Medlock had bought arnlunchbasket at one of the stations and they had some chicken and coldrnbeef and bread and butter and some hot tea. The rain seemed to bernstreaming down more heavily than ever and everybody in the station worernwet and glistening waterproofs. The guard lighted the lamps in therncarriage, and Mrs. Medlock cheered up very much over her tea and chickenrnand beef. She ate a great deal and afterward fell asleep herself, andrnMary sat and stared at her and watched her fine bonnet slip on one sidernuntil she herself fell asleep once more in the corner of the carriage,rnlulled by the splashing of the rain against the windows. It was quiterndark when she awakened again. The train had stopped at a station andrnMrs. Medlock was shaking her.rnrn"You have had a sleep!" she said. "It's time to open your eyes! We're atrnThwaite Station and we've got a long drive before us."rnrnMary stood up and tried to keep her eyes open while Mrs. Medlockrncollected her parcels. The little girl did not offer to help her,rnbecause in India native servants always picked up or carried things andrnit seemed quite proper that other people should wait on one.rnrnThe station was a small one and nobody but themselves seemed to berngetting out of the train. The station-master spoke to Mrs. Medlock in arnrough, good-natured way, pronouncing his words in a queer broad fashionrnwhich Mary found out afterward was Yorkshire.rnrn"I see tha's got back," he said. "An' tha's browt th' young 'un withrnthee."rnrn"Aye, that's her," answered Mrs. Medlock, speaking with a Yorkshirernaccent herself and jerking her head over her shoulder toward Mary."How's thy Missus?"rnrn"Well enow. Th' carriage is waitin' outside for thee."rnrnA brougham stood on the road before the little outside platform. Maryrnsaw that it was a smart carriage and that it was a smart footman whornhelped her in. His long waterproof coat and the waterproof covering ofrnhis hat were shining and dripping with rain as everything was, the burlyrnstation-master included.rnrnWhen he shut the door, mounted the box with the coachman, and they drovernoff, the little girl found herself seated in a comfortably cushionedrncorner, but she was not inclined to go to sleep again. She sat andrnlooked out of the window, curious to see something of the road overrnwhich she was being driven to the queer place Mrs. Medlock had spokenrnof. She was not at all a timid child and she was not exactly frightened,rnbut she felt that there was no knowing what might happen in a house withrna hundred rooms nearly all shut up--a house standing on the edge of arnmoor.rnrn"What is a moor?" she said suddenly to Mrs. Medlock.rnrn"Look out of the window in about ten minutes and you'll see," the womanrnanswered. "We've got to drive five miles across Missel Moor before wernget to the Manor. You won't see much because it's a dark night, but yourncan see something."rnrnMary asked no more questions but waited in the darkness of her corner,rnkeeping her eyes on the window. The carriage lamps cast rays of light arnlittle distance ahead of them and she caught glimpses of the things theyrnpassed. After they had left the station they had driven through a tinyrnvillage and she had seen whitewashed cottages and the lights of a publicrnhouse. Then they had passed a church and a vicarage and a littlernshop-window or so in a cottage with toys and sweets and odd things setrnout for sale. Then they were on the highroad and she saw hedges andrntrees. After that there seemed nothing different for a long time--or atrnleast it seemed a long time to her.rnrnAt last the horses began to go more slowly, as if they were climbingrnup-hill, and presently there seemed to be no more hedges and no morerntrees. She could see nothing, in fact, but a dense darkness on eitherrnside. She leaned forward and pressed her face against the window just asrnthe carriage gave a big jolt.rnrn"Eh! We're on the moor now sure enough," said Mrs. Medlock.rnrnThe carriage lamps shed a yellow light on a rough-looking road whichrnseemed to be cut through bushes and low growing things which ended inrnthe great expanse of dark apparently spread out before and around them.rnA wind was rising and making a singular, wild, low, rushing sound.rnrn"It's--it's not the sea, is it?" said Mary, looking round at herrncompanion.rnrn"No, not it," answered Mrs. Medlock. "Nor it isn't fields nor mountains,rnit's just miles and miles and miles of wild land that nothing grows onrnbut heather and gorse and broom, and nothing lives on but wild poniesrnand sheep."rnrn"I feel as if it might be the sea, if there were water on it," saidrnMary. "It sounds like the sea just now."rnrn"That's the wind blowing through the bushes," Mrs. Medlock said. "It's arnwild, dreary enough place to my mind, though there's plenty that likesrnit--particularly when the heather's in bloom."rnrnOn and on they drove through the darkness, and though the rain stopped,rnthe wind rushed by and whistled and made strange sounds. The road wentrnup and down, and several times the carriage passed over a little bridgernbeneath which water rushed very fast with a great deal of noise. Maryrnfelt as if the drive would never come to an end and that the wide, bleakrnmoor was a wide expanse of black ocean through which she was passing onrna strip of dry land.rnrn"I don't like it," she said to herself. "I don't like it," and shernpinched her thin lips more tightly together.rnrnThe horses were climbing up a hilly piece of road when she first caughtrnsight of a light. Mrs. Medlock saw it as soon as she did and drew a longrnsigh of relief.rnrn"Eh, I am glad to see that bit o' light twinkling," she exclaimed. "It'srnthe light in the lodge window. We shall get a good cup of tea after arnbit, at all events."rnrnIt was "after a bit," as she said, for when the carriage passed throughrnthe park gates there was still two miles of avenue to drive through andrnthe trees (which nearly met overhead) made it seem as if they wererndriving through a long dark vault.rnrnThey drove out of the vault into a clear space and stopped before anrnimmensely long but low-built house which seemed to ramble round a stonerncourt. At first Mary thought that there were no lights at all in thernwindows, but as she got out of the carriage she saw that one room in arncorner up-stairs showed a dull glow.rnrnThe entrance door was a huge one made of massive, curiously shapedrnpanels of oak studded with big iron nails and bound with great ironrnbars. It opened into an enormous hall, which was so dimly lighted thatrnthe faces in the portraits on the walls and the figures in the suits ofrnarmor made Mary feel that she did not want to look at them. As she stoodrnon the stone floor she looked a very small, odd little black figure, andrnshe felt as small and lost and odd as she looked.rnrnA neat, thin old man stood near the manservant who opened the door forrnthem.rnrn"You are to take her to her room," he said in a husky voice. "He doesn'trnwant to see her. He's going to London in the morning."rnrn"Very well, Mr. Pitcher," Mrs. Medlock answered. "So long as I knowrnwhat's expected of me, I can manage."rnrn"What's expected of you, Mrs. Medlock," Mr. Pitcher said, "is that yournmake sure that he's not disturbed and that he doesn't see what herndoesn't want to see."rnrnAnd then Mary Lennox was led up a broad staircase and down a longrncorridor and up a short flight of steps and through another corridor andrnanother, until a door opened in a wall and she found herself in a roomrnwith a fire in it and a supper on a table.rnrnMrs. Medlock said unceremoniously:rnrn"Well, here you are! This room and the next are where you'll live--andrnyou must keep to them. Don't you forget that!"rnrnIt was in this way Mistress Mary arrived at Misselthwaite Manor and shernhad perhaps never felt quite so contrary in all her life.