How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
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. (1.1)
This passage is how the story begins, and it sets up the main conflicts of the novel: Mary's need to shift from being "disagreeable-looking" to being healthy and fit, her need to reconnect with England (and, specifically, rural Yorkshire) after living in India. It almost reads like the opening to a fairytale, don't you think?
Quote #2
[Mary] was in such a rage and felt so helpless before the girl's simple stare, and somehow she suddenly felt so horribly lonely and far away from everything she understood and which understood her, that she threw herself face downward on the pillows and burst into passionate sobbing. She sobbed so unrestrainedly that good-natured Yorkshire Martha was a little frightened and quite sorry for her. She went to the bed and bent over her.
"Eh! you mustn't cry like that there!" she begged. "You mustn't for sure. I didn't know you'd be vexed. I don't know anythin' about anythin'—just like you said. I beg your pardon, Miss. Do stop cryin'."
There was something comforting and really friendly in her queer Yorkshire speech and sturdy way which had a good effect on Mary. She gradually ceased crying and became quiet. Martha looked relieved. (4.34-36)
Mary starts crying in this early scene, now that she's in Misselthwaite Manor, because she's far away from anything she's ever known. But this scene is pretty much the last moment in the novel when Mary actually misses her old life. When Martha starts speaking to Mary, Mary quickly seems to replace any attachment she had for India with her new ties to England. She doesn't seem to have too much trouble adapting to her new home, which says something about the flexibility and resilience of kids.
Quote #3
"Martha," [Mary] said, "they were your wages. It was your two-pence really. Thank you." She said it stiffly because she was not used to thanking people or noticing that they did things for her. "Thank you," she said, and held out her hand because she did not know what else to do.
Martha gave her hand a clumsy little shake, as if she was not accustomed to this sort of thing either. Then she laughed.
"Eh! th' art a queer, old-womanish thing," she said. "If tha'd been our 'Lizabeth Ellen tha'd have given me a kiss." (8.34-36)
Mary has had so little experience with other kids that she doesn't seem to know how to behave impulsively or openly. Here, she repays Martha for the jumprope Martha has brought her. Martha thinks Mary's effort at thanks is "old-womanish," since it's so stiff and formal. In a way, then, Mary's character development has less to do with becoming a grown-up and more to do with becoming a more natural, less stiff, and less awkward kid. She's not coming of age over the course of the novel, exactly; she's just becoming better.