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The Little Princess Chapter 5 - Becky · The Frances Hodgson Burnett Library

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  Speaker 1: CHAPTER V. BECKY Of course the greatest power Sarah possessed,
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  Speaker 1: and the one which gained her even more followers than
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  Speaker 1: her luxuries and the fact that she was the show pupil,
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  Speaker 1: the power that Lavinia and certain other girls were most
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  Speaker 1: envious of, and at the same time most fascinated by
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  Speaker 1: in spite of themselves, was her power of telling stories,
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  Speaker 1: and of making everything she talked about seem like a story,
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  Speaker 1: whether it was one or not. Anyone who has been
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  Speaker 1: at school with a teller of stories knows what the
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  Speaker 1: wonder means, how he or she is followed about and
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  Speaker 1: besought in a whisper to relate romances, how groups gather
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  Speaker 1: round and hang on the outskirts of the favoured party
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  Speaker 1: in the hope of being allowed to join in and listen.
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  Speaker 1: Sarah not only could tell stories, but she adored telling them,
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  Speaker 1: When she sat or stood in the midst of a
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  Speaker 1: circle and began to invent wonderful things, her green eyes
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  Speaker 1: grew big and shining, her cheeks flushed, and without knowing
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  Speaker 1: that she was doing it, she began to act and
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  Speaker 1: made what she told lovely or alarming by the raising
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  Speaker 1: or dropping of her voice, the bend and sway of
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  Speaker 1: her slim body, and the dramatic movement of her hands.
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  Speaker 1: She forgot that she was talking to listening children. She
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  Speaker 1: saw and lived with the fairy-folk, or the kings and
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  Speaker 1: queens and beautiful ladies whose adventures she was narrating. Sometimes
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  Speaker 1: when she had finished her story, and she was quite
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  Speaker 1: out of breath with excitement, and would lay her hand
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  Speaker 1: on her thin little quick-rising chest and half laugh as
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  Speaker 1: if but herself. When I am telling it, she would say,
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  Speaker 1: it doesn't seem as if it was only made up.
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  Speaker 1: It seems more real than you are, more real than
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  Speaker 1: the schoolroom. I feel as if I were all the
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  Speaker 1: people in the story, one after the other. It is queer.
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  Speaker 1: She had been at Miss Minchin's school about two years,
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  Speaker 1: when one foggy winter's afternoon, as she was getting out
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  Speaker 1: of her carriage, comfortably wrapped up in her warmest velvets
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  Speaker 1: and furs, and looking very much grander than she knew,
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  Speaker 1: she caught sight, as she crossed the pavement, of a
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  Speaker 1: dingy little figure standing on the area's steps, and stretching
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  Speaker 1: its neck so that its wide-open eyes might peer at
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  Speaker 1: her through the railings. Something in the eagerness and timidity
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  Speaker 1: of the smudgy face made her look at it, and
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  Speaker 1: when she looked she smiled, because it was her way
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  Speaker 1: to smile at people. But the owner of the smudgy
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  Speaker 1: face and the wide-open eyes evidently was afraid that she
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  Speaker 1: ought not to have been caught looking at pupils of importance.
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  Speaker 1: She dodged out of sight like a jack-in-the-box and scurried
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  Speaker 1: back into the kitchen, disappearing so suddenly that if she
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  Speaker 1: had not been such a poor forlorn little thing Sarah
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  Speaker 1: would have laughed in spite of herself. That very evening,
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  Speaker 1: as Sarah was sitting in the midst of a group
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  Speaker 1: of listeners in a corner of the schoolroom, telling one
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  Speaker 1: of her stories, the very same figure timidly entered the room,
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  Speaker 1: carrying a coal box much too heavy for her, and
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  Speaker 1: knelt down upon the hearth-rug to replenish the fire and
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  Speaker 1: sweep up the ashes. She was cleaner than she had
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  Speaker 1: been when she peeped through the area railings, but she
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  Speaker 1: looked just as frightened. She was evidently afraid to look
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  Speaker 1: at the children or seem to be listening. she put
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  Speaker 1: on pieces of coal cautiously with her fingers so that
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  Speaker 1: she might make no disturbing noise, and she swept about
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  Speaker 1: the fire irons very softly. But Sarah saw in two
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  Speaker 1: minutes that she was deeply interested in what was going
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  Speaker 1: on and that she was doing her work slowly in
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  Speaker 1: the hope of catching a word here and there. And
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  Speaker 1: realizing this, she raised her voice and spoke more clearly.'
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  Speaker 1: The mermaid swam softly about in the crystal-green water,' and
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  Speaker 1: dragged after them a fishing net woven of deep-sea pearls,
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  Speaker 1: she said. The princess sat on the white rock and
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  Speaker 1: watched them. It was a wonderful story about a princess
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  Speaker 1: who was loved by a prince merman and went to
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  Speaker 1: live with him in shining caves under the sea. The
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  Speaker 1: small drudge before the great swept the hearth once and
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  Speaker 1: then swept it again. Having done it twice, she did
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  Speaker 1: it three times, and as she was doing it the
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  Speaker 1: third time, The sound of the story so lured her
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  Speaker 1: to listen that she fell under the spell and actually
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  Speaker 1: forgot that she had no right to listen at all
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  Speaker 1: and also forgot everything else. She sat down upon her
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  Speaker 1: heels as she knelt on the hearth-rug and the brush
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  Speaker 1: hung idly in her fingers. The voice of the storyteller
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  Speaker 1: went on and drew her with it into winding grottoes
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  Speaker 1: under the sea, glowing with soft clear blue light and
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  Speaker 1: paved with pure golden sands. Strange sea-flowers and grasses waved
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  Speaker 1: about her, and far away, faint singing and music echoed.
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  Speaker 1: The hearth-brush fell from the work-roughened hand, and Lavinia Herbert
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  Speaker 1: looked round.' That girl has been listening,' she said. The
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  Speaker 1: culprit snatched up her brush and scrambled to her feet.
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  Speaker 1: She caught at the coal-box and simply scuttled out of
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  Speaker 1: the room like a frightened rabbit. Sarah felt rather hot-tempered.
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  Speaker 1: I knew she was listening, she said. Why shouldn't she?
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  Speaker 1: Lavinia tossed her head with great elegance. Well, she remarked,
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  Speaker 1: I do not know whether your mama would like you
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  Speaker 1: to tell stories to servant girls, but I know my
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  Speaker 1: mama wouldn't like me to do it. My mama, said Sarah,
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  Speaker 1: looking odd. I don't believe she would mind in the least.
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  Speaker 1: She knows that stories belong to everybody. I thought... retorted
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  Speaker 1: Lavinia in severe recollection, that your mamma was dead. How
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  Speaker 1: can she know things? Do you think she doesn't know things?
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  Speaker 1: said Sarah in her stern little voice. Sometimes she had
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  Speaker 1: a rather stern little voice. Sarah's mamma knows everything, piped
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  Speaker 1: in Lottie. So does my mamma, except Sarah is my
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  Speaker 1: mamma at Miss Minchin's. My other one knows everything. The
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  Speaker 1: streets are shining and there are fields and fields of
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  Speaker 1: lilies and everybody gathers them. Sarah tells me when she
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  Speaker 1: puts me to bed. You wicked thing, said Lavinia, turning
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  Speaker 1: on Sarah. Making fairy stories about heaven. There are much
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  Speaker 1: more splendid stories in Revelation, returned Sarah. Just look and see.
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  Speaker 1: How do you know mine are fairy stories? But I
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  Speaker 1: can tell you, with a fine bit of unheavenly temper.
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  Speaker 1: You will never find out whether they are or not
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  Speaker 1: if you're not kinder to people than you are now.
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  Speaker 1: Come along, Lottie. and she marched out of the room,
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  Speaker 1: rather hoping that she might see the little servant again somewhere,
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  Speaker 1: but she found no trace of her when she got
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  Speaker 1: into the hall.' Who is that little girl who makes
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  Speaker 1: the fires?' she asked Mariette that night. Mariette broke forth
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  Speaker 1: into a flow of description.' Ah, indeed, Mademoiselle Sarah might
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  Speaker 1: well ask. She was a forlorn little thing who had
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  Speaker 1: just taken the place of scullery-maid, though as to being
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  Speaker 1: scullery-maid she was everything else besides.' She blacked boots and
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  Speaker 1: grates and carried heavy coal scuttles up and down stairs
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  Speaker 1: and scrubbed floors and cleaned windows and was ordered about
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  Speaker 1: by everybody. She was fourteen years old but was so
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  Speaker 1: stunted in growth that she looked about twelve. In truth,
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  Speaker 1: Mariette was sorry for her. She was so timid that
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  Speaker 1: if one chanced to speak to her, it appeared as
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  Speaker 1: if her poor frightened eyes would jump out of her head.
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  Speaker 1: What is her name? asked Sarah. who had sat by
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  Speaker 1: the table with her chin on her hands and listened
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  Speaker 1: absorbedly to the recital. Her name was Becky. Mariette heard
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  Speaker 1: everyone below stairs calling, Becky, do this, and Becky, do that,
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  Speaker 1: every five minutes in the day. Sarah sat and looked
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  Speaker 1: into the fire, reflecting on Becky for some time after
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  Speaker 1: Mariette left her. She made up a story of which
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  Speaker 1: Becky was the ill-used heroine. She thought she looked as
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  Speaker 1: if she had never quite had enough to eat. Her
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  Speaker 1: very eyes were hungry. She hoped she should see her again,
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  Speaker 1: but though she caught sight of her carrying things up
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  Speaker 1: or down stairs on several occasions, she always seemed in
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  Speaker 1: such a hurry and so afraid of being seen that
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  Speaker 1: it was impossible to speak to her. But a few
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  Speaker 1: weeks later, on another foggy afternoon, when she entered her
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  Speaker 1: sitting room, she found herself confronting a rather pathetic picture.
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  Speaker 1: in her own special and pet easy chair before the
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  Speaker 1: bright fire, Becky, with a coal smudge in her nose
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  Speaker 1: and several on her apron, with her poor little cap
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  Speaker 1: hanging half off her head and an empty coal box
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  Speaker 1: on the floor near her, sat fast asleep, tired out
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  Speaker 1: beyond even the endurance of her hard-working young body. She'd
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  Speaker 1: been sent up to put the bedrooms in order for
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  Speaker 1: the evening. There were a great many of them, and
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  Speaker 1: she'd been running about all day, Sarah's room she had
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  Speaker 1: saved until the last. They were not like the other rooms,
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  Speaker 1: which were plain and bare. Ordinary pupils were expected to
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  Speaker 1: be satisfied with mere necessities. Sarah's comfortable sitting room seemed
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  Speaker 1: a bower of luxury to the scullery maid, though it
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  Speaker 1: was in fact merely a nice, bright little room. But
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  Speaker 1: there were pictures and books in it, and curious things
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  Speaker 1: from India. There was a sofa and the low, soft chair.
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  Speaker 1: Emily sat in a chair of her own, with the
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  Speaker 1: air of a presiding goddess, and there was always a
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  Speaker 1: glowing fire and a polished grate. Becky saved it until
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  Speaker 1: the end of her afternoon's work, because it rested her
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  Speaker 1: to go into it, and she always hoped to snatch
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  Speaker 1: a few minutes to sit down in the soft chair
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  Speaker 1: and look about her, and think about the wonderful good
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  Speaker 1: fortune of the child who owned such surroundings, and who
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  Speaker 1: went out on the cold days in beautiful hats and
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  Speaker 1: coats one tried to catch a glimpse of through the
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  Speaker 1: area railing. On this afternoon, when she had sat down,
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  Speaker 1: the sensation of relief to her short aching legs had
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  Speaker 1: been so wonderful and delightful that that it had seemed
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  Speaker 1: to soothe her whole body, and the glow of warmth
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  Speaker 1: and comfort from the fire had crept over her like
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  Speaker 1: a spell, until, as she looked at the red coals,
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  Speaker 1: a tired, slow smile stole over her smudged face, her
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  Speaker 1: head nodded forward without her being aware of it, her
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  Speaker 1: eyes drooped, and she fell fast asleep. She had really
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  Speaker 1: been only about ten minutes in the room when Sarah entered,
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  Speaker 1: but she was in as deep a sleep as if
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  Speaker 1: she had been like the Sleeping Beauty, slumbering for a
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  Speaker 1: hundred years. But she did not look, poor Becky, like
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  Speaker 1: a Sleeping Beauty at all. She looked only like an ugly, stunted,
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  Speaker 1: worn-out little scullery drudge. Sarah seemed as much unlike her
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  Speaker 1: as if she were a creature from another world. On
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  Speaker 1: this particular afternoon, she had been taking her dancing lesson,
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  Speaker 1: and the afternoon on which the dancing-master appeared was rather
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  Speaker 1: a grand occasion at the seminary, though it occurred every week.
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  Speaker 1: The pupils were attired in their prettiest frocks, and as
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  Speaker 1: Sarah danced particularly well, she was very much brought forward,
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  Speaker 1: and Mariette was requested to make her as diaphanous and
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  Speaker 1: fine as possible. Today a frock the color of a
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  Speaker 1: rose had been put on her, and Mariette had bought
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  Speaker 1: some real buds and made her a wreath to wear
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  Speaker 1: on her black locks. She had been learning a new,
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  Speaker 1: delightful dance, in which she had been skimming and flying
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  Speaker 1: about the room like a large, rose-colored butterfly, and the
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  Speaker 1: enjoyment and exercise had brought a brilliant, happy glow into
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  Speaker 1: her face. When she entered the room, she floated in
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  Speaker 1: with a few of the butterfly steps, and there sat Becky,
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  Speaker 1: nodding her cap sideways off her head.' Oh!' cried Sarah
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  Speaker 1: softly when she saw her.' That poor thing!' It did
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  Speaker 1: not occur to her to feel cross at finding her
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  Speaker 1: pet chair occupied by the small, dingy figure. To tell
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  Speaker 1: the truth, she was quite glad to find it there.
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  Speaker 1: When the ill-used heroine of her story wakened, she could
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  Speaker 1: talk to her. She crept toward her quietly and stood
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  Speaker 1: looking at her. Becky gave a little snore. I wish
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  Speaker 1: she'd waken herself, Sarah said. I don't like to waken her.
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  Speaker 1: But Miss Minchin would be cross if she found out.
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  Speaker 1: I'll just wait a few minutes. She took a seat
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  Speaker 1: on the edge of the table and sat swinging her
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  Speaker 1: slim rose-colored legs and wondering what it would be best
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  Speaker 1: to do. Miss Amelia might come in at any moment,
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  Speaker 1: and if she did, Becky would be sure to be scolded.
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  Speaker 1: But she is so tired, she thought. She is so tired.
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  Speaker 1: A piece of flaming coal ended her perplexity for her
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  Speaker 1: that very moment. It broke off from a large lump
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  Speaker 1: and fell onto the fender. Becky started. and opened her
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  Speaker 1: eyes with a frightened gasp. She did not know she
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  Speaker 1: had fallen asleep. She had only sat down for one
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  Speaker 1: moment and felt the beautiful glow, and here she found
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  Speaker 1: herself staring in wild alarm at the wonderful pupil who
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  Speaker 1: sat perched quite near her like a rose-colored fairy with
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  Speaker 1: interested eyes. She sprang up and clutched at her cap.
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  Speaker 1: She felt it dangling over her ear and tried wildly
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  Speaker 1: to put it straight. Oh, she had got herself into
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  Speaker 1: trouble now with a vengeance, to have impudently fallen asleep
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  Speaker 1: on such a young lady's chair. She would be turned
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  Speaker 1: out of doors without wages. She made a sound like
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  Speaker 1: a big, breathless sob.' Oh, miss! Oh, miss!' she stuttered.'
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  Speaker 1: I ask your pardon, miss! Oh, I do, miss!' Sarah
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  Speaker 1: jumped down and came quite close to her.' Don' t be frightened,'
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  Speaker 1: she said, quite as if she had been speaking to
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  Speaker 1: a little girl like herself.' It doesn't matter the least bit.'
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  Speaker 1: I didn't go to do it, miss, protested Becky. It
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  Speaker 1: was the warm fire and me being so tired. It
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  Speaker 1: wasn't impertinence. Sarah broke into a friendly little laugh and
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  Speaker 1: put her hand on her shoulder. You were tired, she said.
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  Speaker 1: You could not help it. You were not really awake yet.
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  Speaker 1: How poor Becky stared at her. In fact, she had
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  Speaker 1: never heard such a nice, friendly sound in anyone's voice before.
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  Speaker 1: She was used to being ordered about and scolded and
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  Speaker 1: having her ears boxed. And this one, in her rose-colored
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  Speaker 1: dancing afternoon splendor, was looking at her as if she
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  Speaker 1: were not a culprit at all, as if she had
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  Speaker 1: a right to be tired, even to fall asleep. The
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  Speaker 1: touch of the soft, slim little paw on her shoulder
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  Speaker 1: was the most amazing thing she had ever known.' Ain' t— ain' t
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  Speaker 1: you angry, miss?' she gasped.' Ain' t you gonna tell the missus?'' No!'
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: cried out Sarah. Of course I'm not. The woeful fright
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  Speaker 1: in the coal-smutted face made her suddenly so sorry that
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  Speaker 1: she could scarcely bear it. One of her queer thoughts
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  Speaker 1: rushed into her mind. She put her hand against Becky's cheek. Why,
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  Speaker 1: she said, we are just the same. I am only
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  Speaker 1: a little girl like you. It's just an accident that
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  Speaker 1: I am not you and you are not me. Becky
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: did not understand in the least. Her mind could not
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: grasp such amazing thoughts, and an accident meant to her
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: a calamity in which someone was run over or fell
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: off a ladder and was carried to the hospital.' A accident, miss?'
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: she fluttered respectfully.' Is it?'' Yes,' Sarah answered, and she
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: looked at her dreamily for a moment. But then asked
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: she spoke in a different tone. She realized that Becky
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: did not know what she meant.' Have you done your work?'
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  Speaker 1: she asked. Dare you stay here a few minutes? Becky
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  Speaker 1: lost her breath again. Amos? Me? Sarah ran to the door,
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  Speaker 1: opened it, and looked out and listened. No one is
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  Speaker 1: anywhere about, she explained. If your bedrooms are finished, perhaps
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  Speaker 1: you might stay a tiny while. I thought, perhaps, you
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  Speaker 1: might like a piece of cake. The next ten minutes
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: seemed to Becky like a sort of delirium. Sarah opened
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  Speaker 1: a cupboard and gave her a thick slice of cake.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: She seemed to rejoice when it was devoured in hungry bites.
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  Speaker 1: She talked and asked questions and laughed until Becky's fears
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: actually began to calm themselves, and she once or twice
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  Speaker 1: gathered boldness enough to ask a question or so herself,
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: daring as she felt it to be.' Is that—' she ventured,
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: looking longingly at the rose-colored frock. And she asked it
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: almost in a whisper. Is that there your best? It
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  Speaker 1: is one of my dancing frocks, answered Sarah. I like it,
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  Speaker 1: don't you? For a few seconds Becky was almost speechless
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: with admiration. Then she said in an awed voice, Once
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: I seen a princess. I was standing in the street
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: with the crowd outside Covent Garden, watching the swells go
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  Speaker 1: into the opera. And there was one everyone stared at most.
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  Speaker 1: They says to each other, That's the princess. She was
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: a grown-up young lady, but she was pink all over,
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  Speaker 1: gown and cloak and flowers and all. I called her
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  Speaker 1: to mind the minute I see you sitting there on
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  Speaker 1: the table, miss. You looked like her. I've often thought,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: said Sarah in her reflecting voice, that I should like
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  Speaker 1: to be a princess. I wonder what it feels like.
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  Speaker 1: I believe I will begin pretending I am one. Becky
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  Speaker 1: stared at her admiringly and, as before, did not understand
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  Speaker 1: her in the least. She watched her with a sort
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: of adoration. Very soon Sarah left her reflections and turned
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  Speaker 1: to her with a new question. Becky, she said, weren't
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: you listening to that story? Yes, miss, confessed Becky, a
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: little alarmed again. I know they hadn't taught her, but
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: it was that beautiful, I couldn't, I couldn't help it.
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  Speaker 1: I liked you to listen to it, said Sarah. If
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: you tell stories, You like nothing so much as to
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: tell them to people who want to listen. I don't
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: know why it is. Would you like to hear the rest?
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: Becky lost her breath again. Me hear it, she cried.
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  Speaker 1: Like as if I was a pupil, miss. All about
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  Speaker 1: the prince and the little white mer-baby swimming about laughing
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: with stars in their air. Sarah nodded. You haven't time
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  Speaker 1: to hear it now, I'm afraid, she said. But if
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: you will tell me just what time you come to
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  Speaker 1: do my rooms... I will try to be here and
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: tell you a bit of it every day until it
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: is finished. It's a lovely long one, and I'm always
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: putting new bits to it. Then, breathed Becky devoutly, I
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: wouldn't mind how heavy the coal boxes was, or what
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: the cook done to me, if, if I might have
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: that to think of. You may, said Sarah. I'll tell
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: it all to you. When Becky went downstairs, she was
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: not the same Becky who had staggered up loaded down
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: by the weight of the coal-scuttle she had an extra
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: piece of cake in her pocket and she had been
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: fed and warmed but not only by cake and fire
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: something else had warmed and fed her and the something
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: else was Sarah. When she was gone, Sarah sat on
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: her favorite perch at the end of her table. Her
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: feet were on a chair, her elbows on her knees,
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: and her chin in her hands.' If I was a princess,
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: a real princess,' she murmured,' I could scatter largesse to
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: the populace. But even if I am only a pretend
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: princess—' I can invent little things to do for people.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: Things like this. She was just as happy as if
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: it was largesse. I'll pretend that to do things people
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: like is scattering largesse. I've scattered largesse. End of chapter
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: 5