Did Dickon and your mother like to hear you talk about me

　　Did Dickon and your mother like to hear you talk about me?""Why, our Dickon's eyes nearly started out o' his head,they got that round," answered Martha. "But mother, she wasput out about your seemin' to be all by yourself like.
　　She said, 'Hasn't Mr. Craven got no governess for her,nor no nurse?' and I said, 'No, he hasn't, though Mrs. Medlocksays he will when he thinks of it, but she says he mayn'tthink 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 timean'
　　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 bigplace 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 backwith 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 cottagefull 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 buyanythin'. Just as he was goin' away our 'Lizabeth Ellencalled 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 likea good lass, an' I've got four places to put every penny,but I'm just goin' to take tuppence out of it to buythat child a skippin'-rope,' an' she bought one an'
　　here it is."She brought it out from under her apron and exhibitedit quite proudly. It was a strong, slender ropewith 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 notgot skippin'-ropes in India, for all they've got elephantsand 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 ahandle in each hand, began to skip, and skip, and skip,while Mary turned in her chair to stare at her, and thequeer faces in the old portraits seemed to stare at her,too, and wonder what on earth this common little cottagerhad the impudence to be doing under their very noses.
　　But Martha did not even see them. The interest and curiosityin Mistress Mary's face delighted her, and she went on skippingand counted as she skipped until she had reached a hundred.
　　"I could skip longer than that," she said when she stopped.
　　"I've skipped as much as five hundred when I was twelve,but I wasn't as fat then as I am now, an' I was in practice."Mary got up from her chair beginning to feel excited herself.