Later, the servants told me that the doctor had spoken to Mrs. Reed about me. Mrs. Reed had agreed that I should go away to school, Mrs. Reed's servant, Mrs. Abbott, said Mrs. Reed would be happy to send me away. She told me that my father had been a poor man. He married my uncle's sister, Miss Jane Reed of Gateshead. She was my mother. The Reed family was so angry that they never spoke to my mother again. Sadly, only a year after their wedding, both my parents died of a sickness and left me alone when I was only a baby. But many weeks passed and Mrs. Reed did not send me away to school. One day when she was scolding me I asked her a brave question. "Aunt, what would Uncle Reed say to you if he were alive?" I asked. "What did you say to me?" cried Mrs. Reed. Her small, cold gray eyes were afraid. She stared at me as if I knew something she did not know. "My uncle Reed is now in heaven, and he knows everything you think and do. So do my parents. They know how you are cruel to me, and how you hate me!" Mrs. Reed slapped my face and left me without saying anything. Bessie scolded me and said I was the worst child in the country for saying such things. Truly, with so much hate in my heart, I did fell terrible. Christmas came, but I received no gifts or new clothes. Every evening I watched Eliza and Georgiana putting on their new dresses and going out to parties. Sometimes Bessie would visit me in my bedroom. She would bring me a piece of cake, or tell me a story. When she was kind to me I thought she was the best person in the world. Unfortunately she did not always have time for me.