When orphaned Mary Lennox was sent off 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. Indeed, she was "Mistress Mary, Quite Contrary," through and through!
Yet there was something strange about the place she was heading for. Said Mrs. Medlock to Mary beforehand, "Do you know anything about your uncle?"
"No," said Mary frowning. She frowned because she remembered how her father and mother had never talked to her about anything in particular.
"Humph," muttered Mrs. Medlock, staring at Mary's queer, unresponsive little face for a few moments. Then she said, "I suppose you might as well be told something, to prepare you. You are going to a rather queer place!"
English-born American author Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924) enjoyed international success with her 1886 novel Little Lord Fauntleroy. Twenty-five years later she achieved even greater fame with The Secret Garden, one of the most beloved children's novels of all time.