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Hello and welcome to the Storytime for Grown Ups Christmas Spectacular. I'm Faith Moore and for the months of November and December, we'll be reading A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Each episode I'll read one chapter from the book, pausing from time to time to give brief explanations so it's easier to follow along. It's like an audiobook with built in notes. So gather your family together, brew a pot of tea or a mug of hot chocolate, find a cozy chair and settle in. It's story time. Hi everyone. Welcome back. I'm so happy to be here with you today. I hope that you are here gathered around with your family, if only in your mind. You know, a lot of you sometimes write in to say, oh, you know, I wish I could sit down with my cozy cup of tea in my cozy chair, but I'm always rushing around and I always write back. That's okay. It's not that I think that you should all sit down in a cozy chair, although I do think that would be wonderful. It's that I hope that this podcast feels like your cozy chair and feels like your lovely cup of tea. And right now, this Christmas season, I hope this podcast feels feels like gathering together with friends and family to listen to a wonderful story and talk about it together. So I hope that that's what this is for you, or at least what this is becoming. It certainly is what it is for me, and I'm so grateful to you for that. I've been thinking a lot about that as we approach Thanksgiving. I'm so thankful for you and for this show and I couldn't be more thrilled with what it is and what it's becoming. So thank you for being here. Thanks for listening. So, a couple of housekeeping things. I know there's been a lot of housekeeping lately doing all these fun things and I know it's made these intros a little long, so I'm going to try to keep it as brief as I possibly can. But I do want to announce what the next prize is for the prize drawing. So remember, if you buy a copy of my book Christmas Carol and you follow the directions on the Storytime for Grown Ups page, then you will be entered into a prize drawing. You can also get a signed book plate that's just free. You get it. You don't have to win it. You just get it if you follow those directions. But last time we had the winner for our first prize drawing, which was a membership at the house guest level in the drawing room, our online community. But Now I am going to announce a new prize and that will be the prize for the next two weeks. And then I will announce a winner and then another prize. There will be more. So now the prize is going to be a Story Time for Grownups mug from our merch store. So it will have the Storytime for Grownups logo on it and it will be a mug from which you can sip your tea or your hot chocolate or whatever your hot drink of choice is this holiday season. So that's the prize. So if you're interested in winning the prize, you have to do two things. First, go into the Show Notes, find the link to the Amazon page for my book Christmas Carol. Click on it, Buy the book. Once that has happened, go back into the Show Notes, find. Find the link to the Storytime for Grown Ups page, click on that, and there you will find the directions for how to enter the drawing and also how to request a book plate, if you want. A book plate is a sticker that I sign. I make it out to whoever you want me to make it out to. I put a little note, I sign it with my signature, and then I mail it to you and you can stick it into the front of the book to turn the book into a signed copy. So you can have that just for buying the book. Buy the book, get the book plate, and you can enter the drawing and hopefully win a Storytime for Grown Ups mug. So that is our next prize. So that's that. Otherwise we have a Christmas card exchange going on over in the drawing room. So if you're not a member and you'd like to be, there's a link in the show notes for that. Christmas cards must be mailed out by November 30th. So we're getting there. You want to be buying your cards and filling them out and getting them into the mail. That's in the announcements channel of the drawing room. The directions are there. And speaking of the drawing room, our next tea time, which are monthly voice chats where we come together and we talk. It's kind of like a group phone call. I'm there, I'm talking, you're there. You can talk to me and to each other or you can just listen, that's fine too. The next one is going to be December 2nd. That's a Tuesday at 8pm Eastern. And if you'd like to participate, you have to be a member of the landed gentry membership tier of the drawing room. So again, if you'd like to join the drawing room or just click on a link and learn a little bit more about it. That link is in the show notes and I would love, love to have you with us for our next tea time. It's going to be fun. We're going to be talking both about a little princess and what we've read so far. Any of your questions, but also we can talk a little bit about Christmas Carol, my novel as well. If you have questions, if you've been reading it and you would like to talk to me about it, that's a great place to do that as well. So please feel free to sign up for that and join us on December 2nd at 8pm Eastern. The only other announcement I have is I forgot to mention this, but a couple of weeks ago I was in interviewed on a show called A Drink with a Friend, which is hosted by my friend Tish Oxenrider. She's wonderful. We've had her on the show before in our summer session about Jane Eyre. And we had a talk. It's just a very quick little chat about two books that matter to me, one from my childhood and one from my adulthood. And so if you're interested in listening to that conversation, there's a link to that in the show notes as well. Okay, let's get into the episode. Don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already. Don't tell all your friends, tell your family, bring your kids, come on over. We're having a wonderful, cozy, Christmasy time over here on Storytime for Grown Ups. So spread the word. If you're liking the show, please tap the five stars. If you have a couple of extra seconds, please leave a positive review and let's head on into this episode. So last time we read chapters four and five of A Little Princess. Today we're reading just one chapter. We're going to read chapter six. And I have some great, great questions today and we've got a lot to talk about. So first let's just remind ourselves what happened in chapters four. And so here is the recap. Okay, so where we left off, Sara has now established herself as a beloved member of the school. The other children love her because she's kind and she tells these wonderful stories. And the only person who doesn't like her is Lavinia because she's jealous of her and angry that she's kind of usurped her place as star pupil. Also, Ms. Minchin doesn't really like her either, but she pretends that she does because Sara is a credit to the school. In addition to Ermengarde who is her friend. Sara befriends and sort of adopts a spoiled little girl named Lottie who no one else can manage. And she also befriends the scullery maid, Becky, whom she finds one day asleep in her room, having accidentally fallen asleep there because she's so overworked. So Sara tells her she will tell her a bit of a story each time she comes to clean Sara's room and she'll give her some cake and help her as she can. Sara decides to pretend to be a princess and and she's going to scatter largesse by doing kind things for people. Okay, so I have four comments that I want to read today. The first one comes to us from Kinsey O. And Kinsey is 14 years old. Here's what she One thing I found interesting from the latest episodes was Sara's queer mix of maturity and childishness. For instance, Sara acknowledges that she is pretending Emily is alive in chapter two, but she still pretends wholeheartedly and makes up stories about the secret lives of dolls and toys. This next one comes from Discord. So this person uses the handle pinelikethetree. So she says, am I the only one whose heart breaks for little Becky? For some reason, that chapter was quite sad, and I'm so thankful that Sara is there and is kind to her. As you can tell, it meant the world to her. It just makes me sad that little Becky was so exhausted from working so hard and being so worried about being scolded and enjoying a story like she's never heard one. I think it was probably a sad life for kids like her. This next one comes from evelyn, who is 8. She says, hi, my name is Evelyn. I am 8 years old and listen with my mom. I listen to Frankenstein too, and I like a little princess. My question is, what does the word mean at the end of the episode when she was talking about doing nice things for people, like the things a princess would do. And this last one comes from John. John writes, I was with you for the fairy tale summer, and I noticed a lot of fairy tale references in this last chapter. Obviously, the title of the book has Princess in it, but they kept talking about fairy stories, which I take to mean fairy tales. And the story Sorrow was telling the other students was kind of like a reverse Little Mermaid. And I think there was also a reference to Sleeping Beauty. Do you think this is intentional? Okay, well, you guys. You guys are so smart, all of you, the grown ups, the kids. You're brilliant. I absolutely love these questions because of course, the book is called A Little Princess, but at least so far, there isn't actually a princess in it. But as you've all noticed, the idea of princesses and sort of things related to princesses has started to crop up the book. And since the title of the book has princess in it, I think it makes sense to pay attention to those things and to talk about them a little. And your questions are the perfect way to do that. Thank you for sending them in. Okay, so I want to begin with Evelyn's question about largesse. That's the word that she was talking about at the end of the last chapter, and I knew it was something that we would need to come back to. But I try not to do notes along the way on the very last sentence of a chapter, because I feel like it kind of cuts into the mood a little bit. Like, you don't to want. Want me to sort of butt in right there at the end? I don't think so. I left it alone, but I marked it to come back to, and Evelyn was right on top of that, which is fantastic. But also, this concept of largesse will, I think, lead us very nicely into the various other topics that you guys have raised for today. Because today, mostly what I want to talk about is what princesses, and specifically fairy tale princesses, might have to do with this story, at least so far. So first, let's just remind ourselves of what it actually said in the book about largesse. This is at the very end of chapter five, and here is what it if I was a princess, a real princess, she murmured, I could scatter largess to the populace. But even if I am only a pretend princess, I can invent little things to do for people. Things like this. She was just as happy as if it was largesse. I'll pretend that to do things people like is scattering largesse. I've scattered largesse. Okay, so Sara is talking about what she did for Becky, the scullery maid, and we'll talk more about Becky in a minute, but she's saying that what she did for Becky, giving her food and talking to her and promising that she could come back and hear the story and everything. She wants to pretend that she is a princess and that what she did for Becky is her version of scattering largesse. Okay, so what is largesse? Largesse is a word which just means the act of giving things away, generally generously, and not expecting anything in return. But in practice, it's something that was done by very wealthy people or even royalty in a sort of ceremonial Way. Okay? So a princess or a king or someone like that might have a special time each week or on festival days or whatever, where poor people could come, and then the princess would give things out to the people as a kind of ceremony. So it could be money, it could be food, little trinkets, something like that. And there's a way in which it was a time for the person giving the largesse to prove, like, how generous they were. Like, look at me. I like to give to the poor. Aren't I wonderful? Right? When in reality, they had so many fancy things and so much money, and they were giving only a tiny fraction of it away, essentially for show. So it's a kind of ceremonial act of generosity, although it may not actually come with real generosity in the sense of actually making someone's life, like, demonstrably better. But if the person scattering largess actually is a generous person and really does feel for the people who are receiving these gifts, then it could be an incredibly compassionate and generous thing to do. So it depends on who's doing it. But that's what largesse is. And so Sara, who we've now learned, loves to pretend things, right? She has decided that she is going to pretend to be a princess. And as part of that, she will do kind things to people like Becky, who clearly need some kindness in their lives. And that will be her version of scattering largesse. So in Sara's case, it really is coming from a place of generosity and caring. And I will talk more about that in a minute, but I want to just back up a little and talk about the way in which the concept of princess is being used in the book, because I think it's important. So the first references to princesses that we get in the whole book have to do with Sarah's wealth and the way that her father, Captain Crew, has provided for her as if she were a princess. Right? Remember in chapter one, when he takes her shopping, all the shopkeepers wonder if she's a princess because of how much he's buying for her. And Ms. Minchin thinks it's ridiculous that Sarah has all these clothes and toys and things. And she says, here is a quote. She has been provided for as if she were a little princess. So there's that version of being a princess just being, like a very rich, sort of overindulged little girl. And that version of princess has a kind of negative connotation. It's like, oh, who do you think you are? A princess, right? So that's one version of being a princess. And I'd call that the sort of literal version. Like a princess actually is a very wealthy sort of set apart girl with servants and castles and things like that. So that's the literal version. And Sarah has been compared to that sort of princess at the beginning of the book. But the second version of the idea of a princess first appears in the book with Mariette, Sarah's maid. Right. Mariette says this is from chapter two and Elle a lair d' une princesse sete petite, which means she has the air of a princess, that little one. But what she is referring to here is not Sara's beautiful clothes and toys and things. She is talking about the way that Sara treats Mariette as a person. Right. We talked about this last time. So Mariette is implying that a princess isn't just a wealthy little girl with lots of stuff. That's the literal version of a princess. A princess is also like a way of being. And I'm going to call this the metaphorical version of being a princess or and this is actually probably better, I think I'll call it the fairy tale version of being a princess. Because if you were with us over the summer for our summer session on fairy tales, or if you've read my book Saving Cinderella or any of the articles that I've written about this, you will remember that a princess in a fairy tale is a very specific thing. It's not a literal princess. It's a sort of symbol that stands for perfect woman or perfect girl, meaning that when you encounter a princess in a fair fairy tale, you know, simply by being told that the person is a princess, that they are going to be like good and loyal and generous and caring and all the good qualities that you would hope that someone might have. Not because all princesses are good and caring, that would be the literal version, but because princess is a kind of shorthand or a code for a person who is all of those wonderful things. And that is what Mariette is referring to when she calls Sarah a princess for treating her a servant as if she were a person and not just a servant or like a slave or something. Because the literal princess might not treat Mariette that way. Right. But a fairy tale princess would. So we've got these two versions of being a princess. The literal, which has usually negative connotations, and the metaphorical or symbolic or fairy tale, which has positive connotations. Which brings me, I think, to Kinsey's comment, which I have to tell you, just blew me away when I got this. Kinsey is 14 years old, but this is a college level observation, this idea that Sara is both childish and adult at the same time. And that these two things are kind of intertwined together in her character to make her who she is. And you can see that really clearly in this thing where she's pretending to be a princess. Because obviously pretending to be a princess is a very little girl thing to do. I don't know about you, but I definitely pretended to be a princess when I was little. Probably a lot of the kids listening now have pretended to be princesses. Or if not princesses, then whatever thing you're into, maybe like a knight or a pirate or a dinosaur or whatever it is, right? Kids pretend to be other things. That's normal. And a pretty common pretend is that you're a princess. So in that way, Sarah is acting very much like a child. But if you look at what this pretend of being a princess or other pretends that she does, which I'll get to in a second, if you look at what they make her actually do, those things are very grown up. Like, and this is what I was just alluding to a second ago, like this pretend that she now has of being Lottie's mother, right? Playing house, pretending to be mom or dad or whatever, that's a very common thing for kids to pretend. But then Sara is actually doing it, right? Her pretend of being Lottie's mother actually causes her to take this motherless little girl under her wing. And instead of just pretending like, okay, now you have to do whatever I say because I'm the mom or whatever. And she's actually imposing some much needed order and some much needed discipline in Lottie's life, as well as some much needed maternal affection. So her childish pretend of being Lottie's mother leads to a very grown up thing. This very grown up behavior. It's actually like Sara is so good at pretending that she goes beyond the typical childish pretends and really becomes the thing that she's pretending to be. So then when she starts pretending to be a princess, it isn't the literal version of princessness that appeals to her. It's not the clothes and the jewels and the servants and things. She's got all that already. It's the fairy tale version of generosity and kindness and love and loyalty and all of this. And we know this because of the very concrete examples of what she does for Becky. But we also know it, as John points out in his letter, we also know it because of all the references we're suddenly getting to fairy tales. We had as John pointed out this sort of like gender swapped Little Mermaid story, right? The story that Sara is telling the other students. It's about a merman who falls in love with a human woman. So this is an obvious fairy tale reference. But Becky is also compared to Sleeping Beauty when Sara finds her sleeping in her chair. Here's what that says. It says she had really been only about 10 minutes in the room when Sara entered, but she was in as deep asleep as if she had been like the Sleeping Beauty slumbering for a hundred years. Okay. So I think that Frances Hodgson Burnett is sort of alerting us here to the fact that the princess that Sara is, the kind of princess that Sara is going to be in this story is not a literal princess, even though she has the wealth and the clothes and the toys and everything. So she's not a literal princess. She's going to be a fairy tale one, even though this is not a fairy tale. Exactly. And we don't really know how or why she'll need to be a princess or what her pretending to be a princess is going to to do here. But that's the kind of princess that is referred to in the title, I think. But I want to take a little time, the last couple of minutes here before we get into the chapters to talk about Becky. Both because Becky is the person who seems to have prompted Sara to decide to pretend to be a princess, but also because, like pinelikethetree was saying in her letter, Becky is kind of the first character in the book that we really feel so sorry for. The first character who kind of bursts this little bubble of like wealthy, well cared for children and reminds us that actually there are other children in this world of Victorian London who don't get to go to fancy schools and don't have loving parents or whatever it is. So the thing that I want to focus on about Becky at this point is the thing that Sara focuses on about her and the thing that pine, like the tree, is pointing out as well. And that is this idea of some Sara and Becky being just the same, right? On the surface, they're incredibly different. Sara is this upper class wealthy heiress, and Becky is the lowliest sort of servant, a scullery maid, meaning she does all the most, like, menial jobs around the school, like scrubbing, carrying coal to the fire, sweeping up the coal dust, mending things, whatever needs to be done, basically. And remember in the intro episode we talked about how the story servants had a kind of hierarchy, just like the social classes had a hierarchy and the scullery maid is about as low as you can get in the servant hierarchy. Sara is well educated. Becky probably has no education at all or very little. So they are as far apart from each other socially as it's possible to be. And yet they are both two little girls. And Sara is very aware of this, right? Here is what she says, why we are just the same. I am only a little girl like you. It's just an accident that I am not you and you are not me. And that's actually true, right? It's an accident of their birth that Sara was born wealthy and Becky was born poor. And there's no reason that if their roles were reversed, there's no reason that Becky wouldn't be the well spoken, well educated one and Sara wouldn't be the scullery maid. But it's very astute and very kind of clear eyed of Sara to see this, I think. But it's exactly this gift of being able to understand that everyone, even the lowest of the low, is a person of value in their own right. It's this that makes Sara a sort of fairy tale princess. Or let's say it's the way that she embodies the traits of a fairy tale princess. And we get this comparison between the viewpoint of Lavinia, who does think that having more money makes you a better person, and the viewpoint of Satan, Sara, who doesn't think this. Right? This is when Becky is caught listening to the story that Sarah is telling in the schoolroom. And here is what it says. It says, well, she remarked, she being Lavinia here, well, I do not know whether your mama would like you to tell stories to servant girls, but I know my mama wouldn't like me to do it. My mama said Sara looking odd. I don't believe she would mind in the least. She knows that stories belong to everybody, right? So Sara says, sees that it isn't the physical trappings of her life that make her who she is, it's the things on the inside that matter which is a very fairy tale idea, right? But it's also sort of a universal idea which is essentially the same thing as a fairy tale idea. And like Kinsey pointed out in her letter, this very grown up, very astute observation of Sara's that she is not better than people just because she has money is of coupled with the very childlike pretends that she does that kind of bring forth for us the reader the idea of the fairy tale or the fairy tale princess. It's really masterful. I think the way that Sara loses herself in the story she tells. Kind of paints this picture for us of Sara as being from like another world, like a fairy tale world. Here is what we're told. It says she forgot that she was talking to listening children she saw and lived with the fairy folk or the kings and queens and beautiful ladies whose adventures she was narrating. Sometimes when she had finished her story, she was quite out of breath with excitement and would lay her hand on her thin, little, quick rising chest and half laugh as if at herself, right? And then Becky, when she wakes up and sees Sara there, she thinks immediately of fairy tale characters, right? Here's that quote. It says the wonderful pupil who sat perched quite near her like a rose colored fairy with interested eyes. Okay, so something is going on here about fairy tales and fairy tale princesses especially. So I'm going to leave it there for now. But I think it's worth keeping that in mind as we go along and sort of viewing this story through that lens, this kind of fairy tale lens, to see what it does for us. So let's now get back to the book and of course, don't forget to write in it's faith k.moore.com and then you click on Contact. Or you can just scroll into the show notes and click on the link that's there that takes you to that same Contact page, right in with your questions, your comments, kids, right into I love to hear from all of you. And if you'd like to enter the drawing for the Storytime for Grownups mug, please check the show notes for instructions for that as well. All right, let's get started with chapter six of A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It's story time. Chapter six. The Diamond Mines. Not very long after this, a very exciting thing happened. Not only Sara, but the entire school found it exciting and made it the chief subject of conversation for weeks after it occurred. In one of his letters, Captain Crewe told a most interesting story. A friend who had been at school with him when he was a boy had unexpectedly come to see him in India. He was the owner of a large tract of land upon which diamonds had been found, and he was engaged in developing the mines. If all went as was confidently expected, he would become possessed of such wealth as it made one dizzy to think of. And because he was fond of the friend of his school days, he had given him an opportunity to share in this enormous fortune by becoming a partner in his scheme. This, at least, was what Sara gathered from his letters. It is true that any other business scheme, however magnificent, would have had but small attraction for her or for the schoolroom. But diamond mines sounded so like the Arabian Nights that no one could be indifferent. Sara thought them enchanting and painted pictures for Ermengarde and Lottie of labyrinthine passages in the bowels of the earth where sparkling stones studded the walls and roofs and ceilings, and strange dark men dug them out with heavy picks. Ermengarde delighted in the story, and Lottie insisted on its being retold to her every evening. Lavinia was very spiteful about it and told Jessie that she didn't believe such things as diamond mines existed. My mama has a diamond ring which cost 40 pounds, she said, and it is not a big one either. If there were mines full of diamonds, people would be so rich it would be ridiculous. Perhaps sorrow will be so rich that she will be ridiculous, giggled Jessie. She's ridiculous without being rich. Lavinia sniffed. I believe you hate her, said Jessie. No, I don't, snapped Lavinia. But I don't believe in mines full of diamonds. Well, people have to get them from somewhere, said Jessie Lavinia with a new giggle. What do you think Gertrude says? I don't know, I'm sure, and I don't care if it's something more about that everlasting smell. Sara. Well, it is. One of her pretends is that she is a princess. She plays it all the time, even in school. She says it makes her learn her lessons better. She wants Ermengarde to be one too, but Ermengarde says she is too fat. She is too fat, said Lavinia. And Sara is too thin. Naturally Jessie giggled again. She says it has nothing to do with what you look like or what you have. It has only to do with what you think of and what you do. I suppose she thinks she could be a princess if she was a beggar, said Lavinia. Let us begin to call her your Royal Highness. Lessons for the day were over and they were sitting before the schoolroom fire, enjoying the time they liked best. It was the time when Miss Minchin and Miss Amelia were taking their tea in the sitting room, sacred to themselves. At this hour a great deal of talking was done and a great many secrets changed hands, particularly if the younger pupils behaved themselves well and did not squabble or run about noisily, which, it must be confessed, they usually did when they made an uproar. The older girls usually interfered with scolding and shakes. They were expected to keep order, and there was danger that if they did not Miss Minchin or Miss Amelia would appear and put an end to festivities. Even as Lavinia spoke, the door opened and Sara entered with Lottie, whose habit was to trot everywhere after her like a little dog. There she is with that horrid child. Exclaimed Lavinia in a whisper. If she's so fond of her, why doesn't she keep her in her own room? She will begin howling about something in five minutes. It happened that Lottie had been seized with a sudden desire to play in the schoolroom and had begged her adopted parent to come with her. She joined a group of little ones who were playing in a corner. Sara curled herself up in the window seat, opened a book and began to read. It was a book about the French Revolution, and she was soon lost in a harrowing picture of the prisoners in the Bastille. Men who had spent so many years in dungeons that when they were dragged out by those who rescued them, their long gray hair and beards almost hid their faces. And they had forgotten that an outside, outside world existed at all and were like beings in a dream. She was so far away from the schoolroom that it was not agreeable to be dragged back suddenly by a howl from Lottie. Never did she find anything so difficult as to keep herself from losing her temper when she was suddenly disturbed while absorbed in a book. People who are fond of books know the feeling of irritation which sweeps over them at such a moment. The temptation to be unreasonable and snappish is one not easy to manage. It makes me feel as if someone had hit me, sara had told Ermengarde once in confidence and as if I want to hit back. I have to remember things quickly to keep from saying something ill tempered. She had to remember things quickly when she laid her book on the window seat and jumped down from her comfortable corner. Lottie had been sliding across the schoolroom floor and having first irritated Lavinia and Jesse by making a noise, had ended by falling down and hurting her fat knee. She was screaming and dancing up and down in the midst of a group of friends and enemies who were alternately coaxing and scolding her. Stop this minute, you cry baby. Stop this minute, Lavinia commanded. I'm not a crybaby. I'm not. Wailed Lottie. Sara. Sarah, if she doesn't stop, Ms. Minchin will hear her, cried Jessie. Lottie darling, I'll give you a penny. I don't want your penny, sobbed Lottie, and she looked down at the fat knee and seeing a drop of blood on it, burst forth again. Sara flew across the room and, kneeling down, put her arms round her. Now, Lottie, she said. Now, Lottie, you promised, Sara, she said. I was a crybaby. Wept, Lottie. Sara patted her, but spoke in the steady voice Lottie knew. But if you cry you will be one, Lottie Pet. You promised. Lottie remembered that she had promised, but she preferred to lift up her voice. I haven't any mama, she proclaimed. I haven't a bit of mama. Yes, you have, said Sara cheerfully. Have you forgotten? Don't you know that Sara is your mama? Don't you want Sara for your mama? Lottie cuddled up to her with a consoled sniff. Come and sit in the window seat with me, sara went on, and I'll whisper a story to you. Will you? Whimpered Lottie. Will you tell me about the diamond mines? The diamond mines broke out. Lavinia. Nasty little spoiled thing. I should like to slap her. Sara got up quickly on her feet. It must be remembered that she had been very deeply absorbed in the book about the Bastille, and she had had to recall several things rapidly when she realized that she must go and take care of her adopted child. She was not an angel and she was not fond of Lavinia. Well, she said with some fire, I should like to slap you, but I don't want to slap you. Restraining herself. At least I both want to slap you. And I should like to slap you, but I won't slap you. We are not little gutter children. We are both old enough to know better. Here was Lavinia's opportunity. Ah, yes, your royal highness, she said. We are princesses, I believe. At least one of us is. The school ought to be very fashionable now Ms. Minchin has a princess for a pupil. Sara started toward her. She looked as if she were going to box her ears. Perhaps she was. Her trick of pretending things was the joy of her life. She never spoke of it to girls she was not fond of. Her new pretend about being a princess was very near to her heart, and she was shy and sensitive about it. She had meant it to be rather a secret, and here was Lavinia deriding it before nearly all the school. She felt the blood rush up into her face and tingle in her ears. She only just saved herself. If you were a princess, you did not fly into rages. Her hand dropped and she stood quite still a moment. When she spoke, it was in a quiet, steady voice. She held her head up and everybody listened to her. It's true, she said, sometimes I do pretend I am a Princess. I pretend I am a princess so that I can try and behave like one. Lavinia could not think of exactly the right thing to say. Several times she had found that she could not think of a satisfactory reply when she was dealing with Sara. The reason for this was that somehow the rest always seemed to be vaguely in sympathy with her opponent. She saw now that they were pricking up their ears interestedly. The truth was, they liked princesses, and they all hoped they might hear something more definite about this one, and drew nearer Sara accordingly. Lavinia could only invent one remark, and it fell rather flat. Dear me, she said, I hope when you ascend the throne you won't forget us. I won't, said Sorrow, and she did not utter another word, but stood quite still and stared at her steadily as she saw her take Jessie's arm and turn away. After this the girls who were jealous of her used to speak of her as Princess Sara whenever they wished to be particularly distinct, disdainful, and those who were fond of her gave her the name among themselves as a term of affection. No one called her Princess instead of Sara, but her adorers were much pleased with the picturesqueness and grandeur of the title, and Miss Minchin, hearing of it, mentioned it more than once to visiting parents, feeling that it rather suggested a sort of royal boarding school. To Becky it seemed the most appropriate thing in the world. The acquaintance begun on the foggy afternoon when she had jumped up, terrified from her sleep in the comfortable chair had ripened and grown, though it must be confessed that Miss Minchin and Miss Amelia knew very little about it. They were aware that Sara was kind to the scullery maid, but they knew nothing of certain delightful moments snatched perilously when, the upstairs rooms being set in order with lightning rapidity, Sara's sitting room was reached and the heavy coal box set down with a sigh of joy. At such times stories were told by installments. Things of a satisfying nature were either produced and eaten or hastily tucked into pockets to be disposed of at night when Becky went upstairs to her attic bed. But I has to eat em. Careful, miss, she said once, cause if I leaves crumbs, the rats come out to get em. Rats. Exclaimed Sara in horror. Are there rats there? Lots of em, Miss, Becky answered in quite a matter of fact manner. They're mostly rats and mice and attics. Yet used to the noise they make scuttlin about I've got so I don't mind em so long as they don't run over my pillar. Meaning her pillow Ugh, said Sorrow. You gets used to anything after a bit, said Becky. You have to, miss, if you're born a scullery maid. I'd rather have rats than cockroaches. So would I, said Sara. I suppose you might make friends with a rat in time, but I don't believe I should like to make friends with a cockroach. Sometimes Becky did not dare to spend more than a few minutes in the bright, warm room, and when this was the case, perhaps only a few words could be exchanged, and a small purchase slipped into the old fashioned pocket Becky carried under her dress skirt, tied round her waist with a band of tape. The search for and discovery of satisfying things to eat, which could be packed into small compass, added a new interest to Sara's existence. When she drove or walked out, she used to look into shop windows eagerly. The first time it occurred to her to bring home two or three little meat pies, she felt that she had hit upon a discovery. When she exhibited them, Becky's eyes quite sparkled. Oh, Miss, she murmured, them will be nice and fillin. It's fillinness that's best. Sponge cake's a heavenly thing, but it melts away like. If you understand, Ms. Veesel, stay in your stomach. Well, hesitated Sara, I don't think it would be good if they stayed always, but I do believe they will be satisfying. They were satisfying, and so were beef sandwiches bought at a cook shop, and so were rolls and bologna sausage. In time Becky began to lose her hungry, tired feeling, and the coal box did not seem so unbearably heavy, however heavy it was, and whatsoever the temper of the cook and the hardness of the work heaped upon her shoulders, she had always the chance of the afternoon to look forward to the chance that Miss Sara would be able to be in her sitting room. In fact, the mere seeing of Miss Sara would have been enough without meat pies. If there was time only for a few words, they were always friendly, merry words that put heart into one. And if there was time for more, then there was an installment of a story to be told, or some other thing one remembered afterward and sometimes lay awake in one's bed in the attic to think over Sara, who was only doing what she unconsciously liked better than anything else. Nature, having made her for a giver, had not the least idea what she meant to poor Becky, and how wonderful a benefactor she seemed. If nature has made you for a giver, your hands are born open, and so is your heart. And though there may be times when your hands are empty Your heart is always full and you can give things out of that. Warm things, kind things, sweet things, help and comfort and laughter and sometimes gay kind laughter is the best help of all. Becky had scarcely known what laughter was. Through all her poor little hard driven life. Sara made her laugh and laughed with her and though neither of them quite knew it, the laughter was as fillin as the meat pies. A few weeks before Sarah's 11th birthday a letter came to her from her father which did not seem to be written in such boyish high spirits as usual. He was not very well and was evidently overweighted by the business connected with the diamond mines. You see, little Sara, he wrote, your daddy is not a business man at all and figures and documents bother him. He does not really understand them. And all this seems so enormous. Perhaps if I was not feverish I should not be awake tossing about one half of the night and spend the other half in troublesome dreams. If my little misses Were here, I dare say she would give me some solemn good advice. You would, wouldn't you, little missus? One of his many jokes had been to call her his little missus because she had such an old fashioned air. He had made wonderful preparations for her birthday. Among other things, a new doll had been ordered in Paris and her wardrobe was to be indeed a marvel of sort splendid perfection. When she had replied to the letter asking her if the doll would be an acceptable present, Sarah had been very quaint. I am getting very old, she wrote. You see, I shall never live to have another doll given me. This will be my last doll. There is something solemn about it. If I could write poetry, I am sure a poem about a last doll would be very nice. But I cannot write poetry. I have tried and it made me laugh. It did not sound like Watts or Coleridge or Shakespeare at all. No one could ever take Emily's place. But I should respect the last doll very much, and I am sure the school would love it. They all like dolls, though some of the big ones, the almost 15 ones, pretend they are too grown up. Captain Crewe had a splitting headache when he read this letter in his bungalow in India. The table before him was heaped with papers and letters which were alarming him and filling him with anxious dread. But he laughed as he had not laughed for weeks. Oh, he said, she's better fun every year she lives. God grant this business may right itself and leave me free to run home and see her. What wouldn't I give to have her little arms round my neck this minute? What wouldn't I give. The birthday was to be celebrated by great festivities. The schoolroom was to be decorated, and there was to be a party. The boxes containing the presents were to be opened with great ceremony, and there was to be a glittering feast spread in Miss Minchin's sacred room. When the day arrived, the whole house was in a whirl of excitement. How the morning passed nobody quite knew, because there seemed such preparations to be made. The schoolroom was being decked with garlands of holly, the desks had been moved away and red covers had been put on the forms, the forms meaning the benches which were arrayed round the room against the wall. When Sara went into her sitting room in the morning, she found on the table a small dumpy package tied up in a piece of brown paper. She knew it was a present and she thought she could guess whom it came from. She opened it quite tenderly. It was a square pincushion made of not quite clean red flannel, and black pins had been stuck carefully into it to form the words Many happy returns. It's spelled incorrectly since you can't see it. Oh, cried Sara, with a warm feeling in her heart. What pain she has taken. I like it so. Makes me feel sorrowful. But the next moment she was mystified. On the underside of the pin cushion was secured a card bearing in neat letters the name Miss Amelia Minchin. Sara turned it over and over. Miss Amelia, she said to herself, how can it be? And just at that very moment she heard the door being cautiously pushed open and saw Becky peeping round it. There was an affectionate, happy grin on her face and she shuffled forward and stood nervously pulling at her fingers. Do you like it, Miss Sara? She said. Do you like it? Cried Sara. You darling Becky. You made it all yourself. Becky gave a hysteric but joyful sniff and her eyes looked quite moist with delight. It ain't nothing but Flannin, and the Flannin ain't new. But I wanted to give you something and I made it of nights. I knew you could pretend it was satin with diamond pins in. I tried to when I was makin it. The card missrather doubtfully. Twarn't wrong of me to pick it up out of the dustbin, was it? Ms. Melier had throwed it away. I hadn't no card o my own and I knowed it wouldn't be a proper present gif I didn't pin a card on, So I pinned Ms. Melier's. Sara flew at her and hugged her. She could not have told herself or anyone else why there was a lump in her throat. Oh Becky. She cried out with a queer little laugh. I love you Becky. I do, I do. Oh Miss. Breathed Becky. Thank you Miss kindly. It ain't good enough for that. The the flanten wasn't. Thank you so much for listening. Don't forget to check out my novel Christmas Carol. That's Carol with a K Using the link in the Show Notes I would be so grateful if you would consider buying a copy or a few copies for yourself, or as a gift. If you buy a copy of the book and email me a screenshot of your receipt, you'll be entered into a drawing to receive your choice of either your money back or an additional signed copy. The email to send the receipt to is in the Show Notes. If you buy multiple copies, you can enter the drawing multiple times. The winner will be notified by email. Also, everyone who buys a copy of the book is entitled to a free signed book plate, which you can stick into the book to make it a signed copy. If you'd like one, just email the screenshot of your receipt to the email address listed it in the Show Notes and let me know whom you'd like the book plate made out to and what address to mail it to. Thank you so much for supporting me and the work I do by buying my book this Christmas time. And of course, don't forget to get in touch with comments or questions about this episode. Please go to my website, faithkmoore.com click on contact and send me your questions and thoughts. Or you can click on the link in the Show Notes to contact me. I'll feature one or two of your entries at the start of the next episode. All right everyone, story time is over. To be continued.