1 Sara

A Little Princess Retold from the Frances HodgSon Burnett original

CHAPTER 1 Sara Not terribly long ago, on a dark winter's day, a little girl sat in a coach with her father and stared out the windows at the broad, fog- covered streets of London. It seemed to her like only yesterday that they had been strolling the sunny streets of India. But, of course, it hadn't been yesterday. They had taken a long sea voyage, and now they were here in this new and strange place. Sara was only seven, but felt very much

older, as though she had lived a long, long time. "Papa," she said, as the coach started to slow down. "Papa?" Captain Crewe looked down at his daughter. "Yes, my Little Missus?" Captain Crewe was a boyish, happy-go-lucky sort of man with a post in the British army in India. "Little Missus" was his pet name for her because she seemed to be so old-fashioned and wise for her age. Sara loved it when he called her that. "Are we there yet?" she whispered. The driver steered the coach through tall iron gates and into a cobblestone square. "Yes, Sara, we are finally here." Although he tried to hide his sadness, Sara knew that he wished they hadn't arrived. For a long time now, he had been preparing her for "here"—the boarding school

that was to be her new home. Because the climate of India was bad for children—either blazing hot, or cold and wet during the monsoons—they were generally sent away to England. She had seen other children go, and sometimes felt excited about leaving on such an adventure herself, but was sad and scared at the thought of parting from her father. "It will only be for a little while," her papa had always said. Everyone would be nice to her there, and he would send her plenty of books that she would devour. Before she knew it, she would be grown up and smart enough to come back to India and take care of him. Sara liked the thought of that. Since her mother had died when Sara was born, only the two of them were left, to take care of each other. For that reason only, she decided she would go. "Well," she said, teasing him, "if I have

plenty of books, I guess I shall be all right." Her father laughed and kissed her. He wasn't sure he would be all right, though, without his sprightly little companion Sara, but he knew he must keep that a secret for her sake. The driver let them out in front of a big brick building that seemed fussy and old, but at the same time, stiff and cold. An engraved brass plate on the front door read: MISS MINCHIN Select Boarding School for Young Ladies They pulled open the heavy door and went inside. The first thing Sara thought of when Miss Minchin entered the room was that she, too, was fussy and old, but somehow also stiff and cold. Miss Minchin smiled a fake and fishy smile.

"It will be a great honor to take care of such a clever and beautiful child, Captain Crewe," she flattered Sara. Sara thought about Miss Minchin's words. She supposed that she was clever for her age— she had often heard people say so to her papa— Miss Minchin was right about that. However, although mistaken, Sara was thinking that she was not beautiful at all. "I am the skinniest, ugliest girl in the world," she thought. "Miss Minchin is a big storyteller." Later she would learn that Miss Minchin said the same things to each parent who brought a child to her school. Sara listened while her papa and Miss Minchin talked. Sara was to be given anything she asked for, they agreed, and Captain Crewe's business manager, of the firm Barrow and Skipworth, would pay all her bills.