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The Little Princess Chapter 4 - Lottie · The Frances Hodgson Burnett Library

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  Speaker 1: CHAPTER IV. LOTTIE If Sarah had been a different kind
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  Speaker 1: of child, the life she led at Miss Minchin's select
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  Speaker 1: seminary for the next few years would not have been
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  Speaker 1: at all good for her. She was treated more as
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  Speaker 1: if she were a distinguished guest at the establishment than
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  Speaker 1: as if she were a mere little girl. If she
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  Speaker 1: had been a self-opinionated, domineering child, she might have become
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  Speaker 1: disagreeable enough to be unbearable through being so much indulged
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  Speaker 1: and flattered. If she had been an indolent child, she
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  Speaker 1: would have learned nothing. Privately, Miss Minchin disliked her, but
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  Speaker 1: she was far too worldly a woman to do or
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  Speaker 1: say anything which might make such a desirable pupil wish
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  Speaker 1: to leave her school. She knew quite well that if
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  Speaker 1: Sarah wrote to her papa to tell him she was
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  Speaker 1: uncomfortable or unhappy— Captain Crewe would remove her at once.
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  Speaker 1: Miss Minchin's opinion was that if a child were continually
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  Speaker 1: praised and never forbidden to do what she liked, she
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  Speaker 1: would be sure to be fond of the place where
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  Speaker 1: she was so treated. Accordingly, Sarah was praised for her
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  Speaker 1: quickness at her lessons, for her good manners, for her
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  Speaker 1: amiability to her fellow pupils, for her generosity if she
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  Speaker 1: gave sixpence to a beggar out of her full little purse.
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  Speaker 1: The simplest thing she did was treat it as if
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  Speaker 1: it were a virtue, and if she had not had
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  Speaker 1: a disposition and a clever little brain, she might have
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  Speaker 1: been a very self-satisfied young person. But the clever little
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  Speaker 1: brain told her a great many sensible and true things
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  Speaker 1: about herself and her circumstances, and now and then she
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  Speaker 1: talked these things over to Ermengarde as time went on.'
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  Speaker 1: Things happen to people by accident,' she used to say.'
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  Speaker 1: A lot of nice accidents have happened to me. It
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  Speaker 1: just happened that I always liked lessons and books,' and
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  Speaker 1: could remember things when I learned them. It just happened
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  Speaker 1: that I was born with a father who was beautiful
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  Speaker 1: and nice and clever, and could give me everything I liked.
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  Speaker 1: Perhaps I have not really a good temper at all,
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  Speaker 1: but if you have everything you want and everyone is
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  Speaker 1: kind to you, how can you help but be good-tempered?
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  Speaker 1: I don't know, looking quite serious, how I shall ever
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  Speaker 1: find out whether I am really a nice child or
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  Speaker 1: a horrid one. Perhaps I'm a hideous child, and no
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  Speaker 1: one will ever know, just because I never have any trials.
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  Speaker 1: Lavinia has no trials, said Ermengarde stolidly, and she is
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  Speaker 1: horrid enough. Sarah rubbed the end of her little nose
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  Speaker 1: reflectively as she thought the matter over. Well, she said
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  Speaker 1: at last, perhaps, perhaps that is because Lavinia is growing.
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  Speaker 1: This was the result of a charitable recollection of having
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  Speaker 1: heard Miss Amelia say that Lavinia was growing so fast
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  Speaker 1: that she believed it affected her health and temper. Lavinia,
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  Speaker 1: in fact, was spiteful. She was inordinately jealous of Sarah.
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  Speaker 1: Until the new pupil's arrival, she had felt herself the
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  Speaker 1: leader in the school. She had led because she was
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  Speaker 1: capable of making herself extremely disagreeable if the others did
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  Speaker 1: not follow her. She domineered over the little children and
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  Speaker 1: assumed grand airs with those big enough to be her companions.
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  Speaker 1: She was rather pretty, and had been the best-dressed pupil
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  Speaker 1: in the procession when the select seminary walked out two
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  Speaker 1: by two, until Sarah's velvet coats and sable muffs appeared,
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  Speaker 1: combined with drooping ostrich feathers, and were led by Miss
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  Speaker 1: Minchin at the head of the line. This at the
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  Speaker 1: beginning had been bitter enough, but as time went on
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  Speaker 1: it became apparent that Sarah was a leader too, and
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  Speaker 1: not because she could make herself disagreeable, but because she
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  Speaker 1: never did.' There' s one thing about Sarah Crewe,' Jessie had
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  Speaker 1: enraged her best friend by saying honestly.' She' s never grand
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  Speaker 1: about herself the least bit, and you know how she
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  Speaker 1: might be, Lavi. I believe I couldn't help being, just
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  Speaker 1: a little, if I had so many fine things and
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  Speaker 1: was made such a fuss over. It's disgusting, the way
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  Speaker 1: Miss Minchin shows her off when parents come.' Dear Sarah
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  Speaker 1: must come into the drawing-room and talk to Mrs Musgrave
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  Speaker 1: about India, mimicked Lavinia in her most highly flavoured imitation
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  Speaker 1: of Miss Minchin. Dear Sarah must speak French to Lady Pitkin.
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  Speaker 1: Her accent is so perfect. She didn't learn her French
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  Speaker 1: at the seminary at any rate, and there's nothing so
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  Speaker 1: clever in her knowing it. She says herself she didn't
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  Speaker 1: learn it at all. She just picked it up because
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  Speaker 1: she always heard her papa speak it. And as to
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  Speaker 1: her papa... There is nothing so grand in being an
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  Speaker 1: Indian officer. Well, said Jessie slowly. He's killed tigers. He
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  Speaker 1: killed the one in the skin Sarah has in her room.
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  Speaker 1: That's why she likes it so. She lies on it
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  Speaker 1: and strokes its head and talks to it as if
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  Speaker 1: it was a cat. She's always doing something silly, snapped Lavinia.
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  Speaker 1: My mama says that way of hers of pretending things
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  Speaker 1: is silly. She says she will grow up eccentric. It
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  Speaker 1: was quite true that Sarah was never grand. She was
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  Speaker 1: a friendly little soul, and shared her privileges and belongings
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  Speaker 1: with a free hand. The little ones who were accustomed
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  Speaker 1: to being disdained and ordered out of the way by
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  Speaker 1: mature ladies aged ten and twelve were never made to
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  Speaker 1: cry by this most envied of them all. She was
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  Speaker 1: a motherly young person, and when people fell down and
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  Speaker 1: scraped their knees, she ran and helped them up and
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  Speaker 1: patted them, or found in her pocket a bonbon or
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  Speaker 1: some other article of a soothing nature. She never pushed
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  Speaker 1: them out of her way or alluded to their years
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  Speaker 1: as a humiliation and a blot upon their small characters.'
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  Speaker 1: If you are full, then you are full,' she said
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  Speaker 1: severely to Lavinia on an occasion of her having, it
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  Speaker 1: must be confessed, slapped Lottie and called her a brat.'
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  Speaker 1: But you will be five next year and six the
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  Speaker 1: year after that. And,' opening large, convicting eyes,' it takes
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  Speaker 1: sixteen years to make you twenty.' Dear me, said Lavinia,
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  Speaker 1: how we can calculate. In fact, it was not to
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  Speaker 1: be denied that sixteen and four made twenty, and twenty
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  Speaker 1: was an age the most daring were scarcely bold enough
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  Speaker 1: to dream of. So the younger children adored Sarah. More
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  Speaker 1: than once she had been known to have a tea
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  Speaker 1: party made up of these despised ones in her own room,
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  Speaker 1: and Emily had been played with and Emily's own tea
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  Speaker 1: service used, the one with cups which held quite a
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  Speaker 1: lot of much-sweetened weak tea and had blue flowers on them.
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  Speaker 1: No one had seen such a very real doll's tea
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  Speaker 1: set before. From that afternoon, Sarah was regarded as a
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  Speaker 1: goddess and a queen by the entire alphabet class. Lottie
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  Speaker 1: Lee worshipped her to such an extent that if Sarah
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  Speaker 1: had not been a motherly person, she would have found
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  Speaker 1: her tiresome. Lottie had been sent to school by a
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  Speaker 1: rather flighty young papa who could not imagine what else
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  Speaker 1: to do with her. her young mother had died, and
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  Speaker 1: as the child had been treated like a favorite doll,
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  Speaker 1: or a very spoiled pet monkey, or lap-dog ever since
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  Speaker 1: the first hour of her life, she was a very
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  Speaker 1: appalling little creature. When she wanted anything or did not
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  Speaker 1: want anything, she wept and howled, and as she always
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  Speaker 1: wanted the things she could not have, and did not
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  Speaker 1: want the things that were best for her, her shrill
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  Speaker 1: little voice was usually to be heard uplifted in wails
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  Speaker 1: in one part of the house or another. Her strongest weapon,
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  Speaker 1: was that in some mysterious way she had found out
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  Speaker 1: that a very small girl who had lost her mother
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  Speaker 1: was a person who ought to be pitied and made
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  Speaker 1: much of. She had probably heard some grown-up people talking
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  Speaker 1: her over in the early days after her mother's death.
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  Speaker 1: So it became her habit to make great use of
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  Speaker 1: this knowledge. The first time Sarah took her in charge
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  Speaker 1: was one morning when, on passing a sitting-room, she heard
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  Speaker 1: both Miss Minchin and Miss Amelia trying to suppress the
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  Speaker 1: angry wails of some child who evidently refused to be silenced.
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  Speaker 1: She refused so strenuously, indeed, that Miss Minchin was obliged
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  Speaker 1: to almost shout, in a stately and severe manner, to
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  Speaker 1: make herself heard.' What is she crying for?' she almost yelled.' Oh, oh, oh!'
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  Speaker 1: Sarah heard.' I haven't got any mama!'' Oh, Lottie!' screamed
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  Speaker 1: Miss Amelia. Do stop, darling. Don't cry. Please don't. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.
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  Speaker 1: Lottie howled tempestuously. Haven't got any mama. She ought to
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  Speaker 1: be whipped, Miss Minchin proclaimed. You shall be whipped, you
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  Speaker 1: naughty child. Lottie wailed more loudly than ever. Miss Amelia
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  Speaker 1: began to cry. Miss Minchin's voice rose until it almost thundered.
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  Speaker 1: Then suddenly she sprang up from her chair in impotent
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  Speaker 1: indignation and flounced out of the room, leaving Miss Amelia
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  Speaker 1: to arrange the matter. Sarah had paused in the hall,
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  Speaker 1: wondering if she ought to go into the room, because
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  Speaker 1: she had recently begun a friendly acquaintance with Lottie and
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  Speaker 1: might be able to quiet her. When Miss Minchin came
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  Speaker 1: out and saw her, she looked rather annoyed. She realized
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  Speaker 1: that her voice, as heard from inside the room, could
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  Speaker 1: not have sounded either dignified or amiable. oh sara she
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  Speaker 1: exclaimed endeavoring to produce a suitable smile i stopped explained
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  Speaker 1: sara because i knew it was lottie and i thought
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  Speaker 1: perhaps just perhaps i could make her be quiet may
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  Speaker 1: i try miss minchin if you can you are a
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  Speaker 1: clever child answered Miss Minchin drawing in her mouth sharply
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  Speaker 1: then seeing that Sarah looked slightly chilled by her asperity
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  Speaker 1: she changed her manner but you are clever in everything
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  Speaker 1: she said in her approving way I dare say you
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  Speaker 1: can manage her go in and she left her. When
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  Speaker 1: Sarah entered the room, Lottie was lying upon the floor,
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  Speaker 1: screaming and kicking her small fat legs violently, and Miss
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  Speaker 1: Amelia was bending over her in consternation and despair, looking
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  Speaker 1: quite red and damp with heat. Lottie had always found,
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  Speaker 1: when in her own nursery at home, that kicking and
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  Speaker 1: screaming would always be quieted by any means she insisted on. Poor,
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  Speaker 1: plump Miss Amelia was trying first one method and then another.
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  Speaker 1: Poor darling, she said one moment. I know you haven't any, Mama, poor.
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  Speaker 1: Then in quite another tone. If you don't stop, Lottie,
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  Speaker 1: I will shake you. Poor little angel. There. You wicked, bad,
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  Speaker 1: detestable child. I will smack you. I will. Sarah went
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  Speaker 1: to them quietly. She did not know at all what
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  Speaker 1: she was going to do, but she had a vague
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  Speaker 1: inward conviction that it would be better not to say
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  Speaker 1: such different kinds of things quite so helplessly and excitedly.
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  Speaker 1: Miss Amelia, she said in a low voice, Miss Minchin
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  Speaker 1: says I may try to make her stop. May I?
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  Speaker 1: Miss Amelia turned and looked at her hopelessly. Oh, do
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  Speaker 1: you think you can? she gasped. I don't know whether
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  Speaker 1: I can, answered Sarah, still in her half-whisper. But I
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  Speaker 1: will try. Miss Amelia stumbled up from her knees with
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  Speaker 1: a heavy sigh. and Lottie's fat little legs kicked as
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  Speaker 1: hard as ever. If you will steal out of the room,
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  Speaker 1: said Sarah, I will stay with her. Oh, Sarah, almost
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  Speaker 1: whimpered Miss Amelia. We never had such a dreadful child before.
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  Speaker 1: I don't believe we can keep her. But she crept
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  Speaker 1: out of the room and was very much relieved to
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  Speaker 1: find an excuse for doing it. Sarah stood by the howling,
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  Speaker 1: furious child for a few moments, and looked down at
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  Speaker 1: her without saying anything. Then she sat down flat on
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  Speaker 1: the floor beside her and waited. Except for Lottie's angry screams,
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  Speaker 1: the room was quite quiet. This was a new state
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  Speaker 1: of affairs for Little Miss Lee, who was accustomed, when
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  Speaker 1: she screamed, to hear other people protest and implore and
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  Speaker 1: command and coax by turns. To lie and kick and shriek,
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  Speaker 1: and find the only person near you not seeming to
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  Speaker 1: mind in the least, attracted her attention. She opened her tight, shut,
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  Speaker 1: streaming eyes to see who this person was. And it
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  Speaker 1: was only another little girl. But it was the one
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  Speaker 1: who owned Emily and all the nice things. And she
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  Speaker 1: was looking at her steadily and as if she were
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  Speaker 1: merely thinking. Having paused for a few seconds to find
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  Speaker 1: this out, Lottie thought she must begin again. But the
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  Speaker 1: quiet of the room and of Sarah's odd, interested face
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  Speaker 1: made her first howl rather half-hearted. I... haven't any ma-ma-ma,
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  Speaker 1: she announced, but her voice was not so strong. Sarah
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  Speaker 1: looked at her still more steadily, but with a sort
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  Speaker 1: of understanding in her eyes. Neither have I, she said.
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  Speaker 1: This was so unexpected that it was astounding. Lottie actually
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  Speaker 1: dropped her legs, gave a wriggle, and lay and stared.
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  Speaker 1: A new idea will stop a crying child when nothing
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  Speaker 1: else will. Also, It was true that while Lottie disliked
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  Speaker 1: Miss Minchin, who was cross, and Miss Amelia, who was
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  Speaker 1: foolishly indulgent, she rather liked Sarah, little as she knew her.
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  Speaker 1: She did not want to give up her grievance, but
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  Speaker 1: her thoughts were distracted from it. So she wriggled again,
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  Speaker 1: and after a sulky sob said, Where is she? Sarah
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  Speaker 1: paused a moment. Because she had been told that her
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  Speaker 1: Mama was in Heaven, she had thought a great deal
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  Speaker 1: about the matter. and her thoughts had not been quite
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  Speaker 1: like those of other people. She went to heaven, she said,
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  Speaker 1: but I'm sure she comes out sometimes to see me,
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  Speaker 1: though I don't see her. So does yours. Perhaps they
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  Speaker 1: can both see us now. Perhaps they are both in
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  Speaker 1: this room. Lottie sat bolt upright and looked about her.
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  Speaker 1: She was a pretty little curly-headed creature, and her round
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  Speaker 1: eyes were like wet forget-me-nots. If her mama had seen
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  Speaker 1: her during the last half hour, she might not have
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  Speaker 1: thought her the kind of child who ought to be
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  Speaker 1: related to an angel. Sarah went on talking. Perhaps some
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  Speaker 1: people might think that what she said was rather like
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  Speaker 1: a fairy story, but it was all so real to
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  Speaker 1: her own imagination that Lottie began to listen in spite
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  Speaker 1: of herself. She had been told that her mama had
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  Speaker 1: wings and a crown, and she had been shown pictures
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  Speaker 1: of ladies in beautiful white nightgowns who were said to
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  Speaker 1: be angels. but Sarah seemed to be telling a real
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  Speaker 1: story about a lovely country where real people were.' There
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  Speaker 1: are fields and fields of flowers,' she said, forgetting herself
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  Speaker 1: as usual when she began, and talking rather as if
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  Speaker 1: she were in a dream.' Fields and fields of lilies,
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  Speaker 1: and when the soft wind blows over them, it wafts
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  Speaker 1: the scent of them into the air, and everybody always
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  Speaker 1: breathes it because the soft wind is always blowing.' And
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  Speaker 1: little children run about in the lily fields and gather
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  Speaker 1: armfuls of them and laugh and make little wreaths. And
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  Speaker 1: the streets are shining. And people are never tired, however
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  Speaker 1: far they walk. They can float anywhere they like. And
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  Speaker 1: there are walls made of pearl and gold all round
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  Speaker 1: the city, but they are low enough for the people
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  Speaker 1: to go and lean on them and look down onto
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  Speaker 1: the earth and smile and send beautiful messages. Whatsoever story
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  Speaker 1: she had begun to tell, Lottie would no doubt have
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  Speaker 1: stopped crying and been fascinated into listening. But there was
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  Speaker 1: no denying that this story was prettier than most others.
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  Speaker 1: She dragged herself close to Sarah and drank in every
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  Speaker 1: word until the end came, far too soon. When it
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  Speaker 1: did come, she was so sorry that she put up
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  Speaker 1: her lip ominously.' I want to go there,' she cried.'
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  Speaker 1: I haven't any mama in the school.' Sarah saw the
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  Speaker 1: danger signal and came out of her dream. She took
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  Speaker 1: hold of the chubby hand and pulled her close to
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  Speaker 1: her side with a coaxing little laugh. I will be
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  Speaker 1: your mama, she said. We will play that you are
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  Speaker 1: my little girl, and Emily shall be your sister. Lottie's
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  Speaker 1: dimples all began to show themselves. Shall she? she said. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: answered Sarah, jumping to her feet. Let us go and
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  Speaker 1: tell her, and then I will wash your face and
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  Speaker 1: brush your hair. to which Lottie agreed quite cheerfully, and
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  Speaker 1: trotted out of the room and upstairs with her, without
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  Speaker 1: seeming even to remember that the whole of the last
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  Speaker 1: hour's tragedy had been caused by the fact that she
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  Speaker 1: had refused to be washed and brushed for lunch, and
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  Speaker 1: Miss Minchin had been called in to use her majestic authority.
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  Speaker 1: And from that time, Sarah was an adopted mother. End
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  Speaker 1: of chapter 4