Jane Eyre
Part I
(Jane Eyre, a little girl of ten, had no mother or father and
lived in the family of her uncle, Mr. Reed. When her uncle
died, Jane stayed in the family. Mrs. Reed, the uncle's wife,
had three children: a boy of fourteen and two younger girls.
Mrs. Reed was not kind to Jane and her children beat the
girls. One day Mrs. Reed decides to send Jane to a school for
poor girls. She asked Mr. Brocklehurst, one of the organized
of the school, to come to ter house. Mr.Brocklehurst asked to
see Jane. Jane tells the story herself.)
I came into the room and saw a tall man in black. Mrs. Reed introduced me to the
man. “This is the girl I spoke to you about,” she said.
The man looked at me and said, “She is small. How old is she?”
Ten years.”
“So small?” the man was looking at me for some time, then asked me, “Your
name, little girl?”
“Jane Eyre, sir.”
“Well, Jane Eyre, and are you a good girl?”
I did not answer. Mrs. Reed answered for me, “It's better to say nothing about that,
Mr. Brocklehurst.”
“That's too bad,” he said and sat down on a chair. “I must talk to her. Come here,
Jane Eyre.”
I went up to his chair. Now I could see him well. What a face he had! What a great
nose!
He looked at me and then said, “Do you read the Bible?”
“Sometimes.”
“Is it interesting?'
“No, sir.”
“This shows that you are a bad girl,” said the man.
“Mr. Brocklehurst,” said Mrs. Reed, “I told you in my letter, that she is not a good
child. If you take her to Lowood school, tell the teachers, what kind of girl she is.”
“I'll speak to the teacher, “he said.
When Mr. Brocklehurst left the room, Mrs. Reed told me to leave her. I looked at
her and decided that I must speak.
“I am happy that you are not my aunt,” I said. “I'll never call you aunt again as
long as I live. I'll never come to see you when I am grown up, and if anyone asks
me how I like you, I'll say that you are a bad woman.”
Three days passed. Then very early in the morning I left the house and never went
back again. A new life began for me at Lowood school for poor girls.
Jane Eyre
Part II
A woman met me in Lowood school. She took my things and we
walked to a big house. We went into the house. A teacher came
and took me by the hand. The woman went away with my things
and the teacher took me into a long room wiyh a lot of large tables
round it. Girls of nine to twelve years old sat on benches round the
tables. They all had brown dresses on. It was dark and cold in the
room.
“Sit down on one of the benches,” said the teacher. “The girls are
learning their lessons for tomorrow. They will soon finish and you
will have supper. Then you will go to bed.”
For supper we had a piece of bread and some water. After that we marched to the
bedroom. It was a large room with many beds. Two girls slept in each bed. In ten
minutes the teacher took away the light.
The night passed quickly. In the morning it was very cold in the room. We washed
our fased in water with ice. Then we marched to the cold schoolroom where
lessons began. We read the Bible and did exercises in our exercise-books. This
lasted for an hour. Then we marched to another room for breakfast. After breakfast
there was reading, writing, history and geography. Before dinner we went into
cold, windy garden for an hour.
For dinner we had some had meat and potatoes. I ate what I could. Then we
marched back to the schoolroom and our lessons till five o'clock.
The next day began as before, but we could not wash. The water in the washroom
was ice.
During January, February and March there was much snow in the garden. We had
no boots and could not walk far. The rooms were very cold. The food was bad and
in spring many of the pupils were ill with typhus. In May Lowood school was a
hospital. We had no lessons. Many pupils went home and died there. Some girls
died in the school.