Dr Fairwell carried Mary to the Anning home down by the seawall in Cockmoile Square Concerned friends and neighbors followed the doctor They were heartsick to think that Molly and Richard might lose yet another child Molly prepared a basin of warm water Dr Fairwell slowly lowered the lifeless child into the calming bath He gently rubbed her arms and legs while Molly and Richard looked on helplessly Mary's eyelids fluttered as slowly her eyes opened People in Lyme Regis talked of that day for years They called Mary Anning a miracle child any were in awe of her Others wouldn't have anything to do with her because they believed she must be the devil s own to have survived such a powerful lightning strike one that had killed three grown WOMEN Certainly Mary was never the same again She'd been a dull and sickly baby lacking in curiosity or spark of any kind But after the strike Mary grew bright and lively Lightning it seemed had startled her brain into
PART ONE Hard Times
IEEEK ISE WA IIIIIIIIIIIIII ROUNDATISTIE WIN DR WAustin
A Birthday Surprise May 21 1807 During the night a powerful storm pounded the seawall and the cliffs of Lyme Regis A man made breakwater called the Cobb created a harbor for the village and held back the highest wash of the English Channel tides But a hard storm like this one always drenched the houses built close to the sea Mary Anning lived in one such soggy house She remembered a time when the rising water had flooded the first floor and crept step by wooden step up to the second floor where the family of four slept That time they were forced to climb out the bedroom window to escape drowning It had seemed a grand adventure to Mary to be perched like a gull on the rooftop waiting for the floodwater to ebb East of Lyme Regis large cliffs faced the sea The Black
