美国女作家弗朗西丝·霍奇森·伯内特(Frances Hodgson Burnett) 的小说The Secret Garden（《秘密花园》），作为中小学校的课外阅读书，同学们应该都不陌生。小说讲述了一个富家女mary的故事，从小在唯命是从的印度奶妈（Ayah）的照料下长大，mary很是固执、冷漠。从霍乱（ cholera ）中的幸存的她成了孤儿，继而离开印度、被送往伦敦的姑父家-米瑟斯韦特庄园（Misselthwaite Manor）。姑父的家不仅拥有上百间房子的豪宅，还有一个接一个、望不到头的果园。漠不关心的mary在路途中被一望无际的荒野（moor）所吸引，又从当地女仆martha那知道了一个“荒弃十年”的花园及一个能与动物沟通的男孩Dickon。无穷的好奇心让她开启了一个寻找“秘密花园”的冒险、并有了自己的第一个朋友。
When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen. It was true, too. She had a little thin face and a little thin body, thin light hair and a sour expression. Her hair was yellow, and her face was yellow because she had been born in India and had always been ill in one way or another.
玛丽·伦诺克斯被送到米瑟斯韦特庄园和她姑父一起生活。那里的每个人都说，从没见过如此别扭的小孩儿。不过，也确实如此。她小脸消瘦、身板单薄、头发稀疏，总是一脸不高兴的样子。她头发是黄色的，再加上出生在印度，且常常不是得这病就是生那病，脸色也是蜡黄的。
…her mother had been a great beauty who cared only to go to parties and amuse herself with gay people. She had not wanted a little girl at all, and when Mary was born she handed her over to the care of an Ayah…
她妈妈以前可是个大美女，满脑子只想着参加各种宴会，于觥筹交错之间寻欢作乐。她本来一点儿也不打算要这个女孩儿。所以玛丽一出生，便把她交给印度奶妈照看。
She never remembered seeing familiarly anything but the dark faces of her Ayah and the other native servants, and as they always obeyed her and gave her her own way in everything…
印度奶妈和当地仆人的黑脸是她印象中唯一熟悉的事物。他们总是顺着她，对她有求必应。
The house is six hundred years old and it's on the edge of the moor, and there's near a hundred rooms in it, though most of them's shut up and locked. And there's pictures and fine old furniture and things that's been there for ages, and there's a big park round it and gardens and trees with branches trailing to the ground—some of them.”
“尽管那房子很大很宏伟，却有些阴森。克雷文先生用自己的方式为这所房子感到自豪，他的方式也足够阴森。房子有六百多年的历史了，地处旷野边上。里面有接近一百个房间，不过大部分都锁了起来。里面有画、精美的古董家具、还有很多颇有年代的东西。房子四周是一个大园子，长长的树枝拖到了地上。”
She（martha） seemed to hesitate a second before she added, "One of th' gardens is locked up. No one has been in it for ten years."
她似乎停顿了一下，补充道：“其中一个花园是锁上的。十年了，没人进去过。”
