BOOK TWO: THE FIRST CATHERINE

CHAPTER ONE

The Gypsy Boy

The story of Wuthering Heights really began twenty five years ago, in the summer of 1777. A family named Earnshaw lived at the house then, and that family had owned it for over two hundred years. At that time, Ellen Dean was a young girl of eighteen. She had come to the house to take care of the Earnshaw family's two children: Hindley, who was fourteen, and little Catherine, who was six. In those days, Wuthering Heights was a happy house. So, on the night that the strange young boy came to live with them, no one in the house felt afraid or angry. It was an extremely strange thing, though. This is how it happened.

One morning, Mr Earnshaw, the children's father told the family that he had to go to the city of Liverpool for some business. He promised the children that he would bring them a special surprise when he returned.

He was gone three days, and on the evening of the third day the children were very excited. Mrs Earnshaw let Cathy and Hindley stay up late to wait for their father. Just after eleven o'clock, the door opened and Mr Earnshaw came into the house. The children jumped for joy and ran over to him. They saw that their father's coat was in his arms, and the coat seemed to be hiding something inside it. This was the surprise!

As the children watched, a surprising thing happened. The coat moved! Mr Earnshaw held out the object to his wife and said, "Listen, wife! Here is a gift from God—although he's dark enough to have come from the devil!" The family and Ellen ran over to look. They saw a dirty, black-haired little boy, with dark skin and large, frightened eyes. He stared at the strange people quietly, and did not say anything. Mrs Earnshaw stared at her husband. Mrs Earnshaw seemed very upset. "Why have you brought this child into my house? He looks like a gypsy. What are we going to do with him?"

Mr Earnshaw told his family how he had found the little boy, cold and alone in the streets of Liverpool. The child did not have a home and had no parents. No one would give the child a home, so Mr Earnshaw had decided to bring the little boy home with him. "I couldn't leave him there to die in the streets," he said. Mrs Earnshaw asked her husband many angry questions, but he did not pay attention to her. Instead, he turned to Ellen Dean and said, "Take the boy away and wash him, Ellen. You can find him some clean clothes, and then he can sleep with Cathy and Hindley."

Ellen did what Mr Earnshaw wanted. But when she took the boy into the children's room, the children would not sleep with him. They would not even let him into their room. At last, Ellen put the child in many blankets and let him sleep on the stairs. She almost hoped he would be gone in the morning. When Mr Earnshaw saw the boy sleeping on the stairs the next morning, he was angry. Ellen was sent away from the house for a few days, as a punishment. But when she came back, she saw that some things had changed. The boy was still there, and he had a name—Heathcliff. This was the name of one of Mr Earnshaw's sons, who had died when he was a baby. And Heathcliff and Cathy were now best friends. But Ellen saw that Hindley hated Heathcliff, and was cruel to him whenever Mr Earnshaw was not looking.

Heathcliff did not say anything about the way Hindley treated him. He was a quiet, patient child. Strangely, Mr Earnshaw seemed to love this boy the best of all his children. Ellen thought that this was why Hindley did not like Heathcliff. Mr Earnshaw loved the strange dark boy more than little Cathy, who was as pretty as a flower, but much too naughty and bad. Sadly, Mrs Earnshaw died two years later. She had been quiet and unhappy ever since Heathcliff had come, and no one understood why. Mr Earnshaw was getting older, and the three children were cared for by Ellen. It seemed that Mr Earnshaw did not have long to live. Almost overnight, he had become tired and sick. He did not leave the warm fireplace and always seemed angry with everyone, except Heathcliff. Whenever he saw Hindley and Heathcliff fighting, he grew angry at Hindley and would have hit his son, if he had not been so sick and weak. Finally, Hindley went away to college, and Ellen hoped that the house would be quiet again. However, this did not happen because of Joseph, the head servant. Joseph was a very cold and religious man. He told Mr Earnshaw and everyone in the house terrible stories about Heathcliff and Cathy. He did not like young people, and he always made Cathy seem like a terrible girl. It was true that Cathy was wild. She was always laughing and talking, and playing tricks on people. But she was quickly becoming the most beautiful young lady in the area. The strangest thing about Cathy was her feelings for Heathcliff. The worst thing you could do to Cathy was keeping her away from Heathcliff. And Heathcliff would do anything for her; he looked at her as if she were a princess. Ellen knew there was a deep connection between them. She wondered what might happen. One night in October, a strong wind was blowing outside. The family was together, sitting by the fire. Joseph was reading his Bible as usual, Ellen was sewing, and Cathy was leaning against her father's knee. He was stroking her hair. Mr Earnshaw seemed very tired and old that night. He sighed and said to Cathy, "Why can't you always be a good girl, Cathy?"

Cathy only laughed and said, "Being good all the time is boring!" But then she kissed her father and said she would sing him to sleep. She began to sing in a soft, pretty voice and soon her father was asleep. Ellen told Cathy not to move so that she would not wake her father up. Everyone was still and quiet for half an hour. Then Joseph said he had to wake Mr Earnshaw up, because it was time for bed. He called Mr Earnshaw's name and touched his arm, but he did not move. He looked carefully at Mr Earnshaw, and the look on his face changed. Quickly Joseph whispered to the children to go to bed immediately. "I'll say goodnight to father first," said Cathy, and before Joseph could stop her she put her arms around her father.

Cathy knew the truth immediately. She screamed, "Oh, Heathcliff! He's dead!" And the two began to cry. So Mr Earnshaw died, and after his death things were very different at Wuthering Heights.

(end of section)