A Little Princess Read Online Free PDF Page B

twenty."
    "Dear me," said Lavinia, "how we can calculate!" In fact, it
was not to be denied that sixteen and four made twenty—and
twenty was an age the most daring were scarcely bold enough to
dream of.
    So the younger children adored Sara. More than once she had
been known to have a tea party, made up of these despised ones,
in her own room. And Emily had been played with, and Emily's own
tea service used— the one with cups which held quite a lot of
much-sweetened weak tea and had blue flowers on them. No one had
seen such a very real doll's tea set before. From that afternoon
Sara was regarded as a goddess and a queen by the entire alphabet
class.
    Lottle Legh worshipped her to such an extent that if Sara had not
been a motherly person, she would have found her tiresome.
Lottie had been sent to school by a rather flighty young papa
who could not imagine what else to do with her. Her young mother
had died, and as the child had been treated like a favorite doll
or a very spoiled pet monkey or lap dog ever since the first hour
of her life, she was a very appalling little creature. When she
wanted anything or did not want anything she wept and howled;
and, as she always wanted the things she could not have, and did
not want the things that were best for her, her shrill little
voice was usually to be heard uplifted in wails in one part of
the house or another.
    Her strongest weapon was that in some mysterious way she had
found out that a very small girl who had lost her mother was a
person who ought to be pitied and made much of. She had probably
heard some grown-up people talking her over in the early days,
after her mother's death. So it became her habit to make great
use of this knowledge.
    The first time Sara took her in charge was one morning when, on
passing a sitting room, she heard both Miss Minchin and Miss
Amelia trying to suppress the angry wails of some child who,
evidently, refused to be silenced. She refused so strenuously
indeed that Miss Minchin was obliged to almost shout—in a
stately and severe manner— to make herself heard.
    "What IS she crying for?" she almost yelled.
    "Oh—oh—oh!" Sara heard; "I haven't got any mam—ma-a!"
    "Oh, Lottie!" screamed Miss Amelia. "Do stop, darling! Don't
cry! Please don't!"
    "Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh!" Lottle howled tempestuously. "Haven't-
-got—any—mam—ma-a!"
    "She ought to be whipped," Miss Minchin proclaimed. "You SHALL
be whipped, you naughty child!"
    Lottle wailed more loudly than ever. Miss Amelia began to cry.
Miss Minchin's voice rose until it almost thundered, then
suddenly she sprang up from her chair in impotent indignation and
flounced out of the room, leaving Miss Amelia to arrange the
matter.
    Sara had paused in the hall, wondering if she ought to go into
the room, because she had recently begun a friendly acquaintance
with Lottie and might be able to quiet her. When Miss Minchin
came out and saw her, she looked rather annoyed. She realized
that her voice, as heard from inside the room, could not have
sounded either dignified or amiable.
    "Oh, Sara!" she exclaimed, endeavoring to produce a suitable
smile.
    "I stopped," explained Sara, "because I knew it was Lottie— and
I thought, perhaps—just perhaps, I could make her be quiet. May
I try, Miss Minchin?"
    "If you can, you are a clever child," answered Miss Minchin,
drawing in her mouth sharply. Then, seeing that Sara looked
slightly chilled by her asperity, she changed her manner. "But
you are clever in everything," she said in her approving way. "I
dare say you can manage her. Go in." And she left her.
    When Sara entered the room, Lottie was lying upon the floor,
screaming and kicking her small fat legs violently, and Miss
Amelia was bending over her in consternation and despair, looking
quite red and damp with heat. Lottie had always found, when in
her own nursery at home, that kicking and screaming would always
be quieted by any means she insisted on. Poor plump Miss Amelia
was trying first one