Read Online A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett - Free Book Online Page A

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 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, "Menny
hapy returns."
    "Oh!" cried Sara, with a warm feeling in her heart. "What pains
she has taken! I like it so, it—it makes me feel sorrowful."
    But the next moment she was mystified. On the under side of the
pincushion 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 yer like it, Miss Sara?" she said. "Do yer?"
    "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 nothin' but flannin, an' the flannin ain't new; but I
wanted to give yer somethin' an' I made it of nights. I knew yer
could PRETEND it was satin with diamond pins in.
I
tried to
when I was makin' it. The card, miss," rather doubtfully; "'t
warn't wrong of me to pick it up out o' the dust-bin, was it?
Miss 'Meliar had throwed it away. I hadn't no card o' my own,
an' I knowed it wouldn't be a proper presink if I didn't pin a
card on— so I pinned Miss 'Meliar'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 yer, miss, kindly; it ain't
good enough for that. The—the flannin wasn't new."

7 - The Diamond Mines Again
*
    When Sara entered the holly-hung schoolroom in the afternoon, she
did so as the head of a sort of procession. Miss Minchin, in
her grandest silk dress, led her by the hand. A manservant
followed, carrying the box containing the Last Doll, a housemaid
carried a second box, and Becky brought up the rear, carrying a
third and wearing a clean apron and a new cap. Sara would have
much preferred to enter in the usual way, but Miss Minchin had
sent for her, and, after an interview in her private sitting
room, had expressed her wishes.
    "This is not an ordinary occasion," she said. "I do not desire
that it should be treated as one."
    So Sara was led grandly in and felt shy when, on her entry, the
big girls stared at her and touched each other's elbows, and the
little ones began to squirm joyously in their seats.
    "Silence, young ladies!" said Miss Minchin, at the murmur which
arose. "James, place the box on the table and remove the lid.
Emma, put