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“We’re alike, you and me,” Ben Weatherstaff told Mary. “We’re not pretty to look at, and we both are very disagreeable.” Poor Mary! She was only a ten-year-old little girl. No one wants her, and no one loves her. After her parents died of disease, she had been sent from India to Yorkshire in England, and lived in her uncle’s family. That is an old house, and very big. Although there were hundreds of rooms, most of them were locked. Mary felt unpleasant and depressive living there. Everyday her life was boring and lonely. With the exception of Ben Weatherstaff, an old gardener, no one talked to her. She lost her temper now and then, and, she, as Ben Weatherstaff said, was ugly. She had thin angry face and thin yellow hair. There was a secret garden in her uncle’s home. It is said that the key of the lock of that garden gate was lost. So almost 10 years, except Robins, no one went to that garden. Mary became more and more curious. Finally she found the key, and invited her servant’s brother, Dickon to play with her in that garden without letting others know. Strangely, Mary often heard some cries in the house, hearing like a child. Luckily, Mary found the owner of the cries, Colin, who was her uncle’s ten-year-old son. He was afraid of his back, which may be crooked, like his father, and he would die one day. Fortunately, after Mary helped Colin to conquer this disease and this kind of thought and told him it was false. Gradually under the help of Mary Colin became healthier and began to go to the secret garden with Mary and Dickon, and played with them together. Henceforth, Mary became more beautiful than before and never lost her temper. She and her cousin Colin, lived happily. | 
