Chapter 4 Chapter 4 Lottie

If Sara had been a child of another nature, the next ten years at Miss Minchin's Senior Girls' Institute would have done her no good.There she was treated as if she were a guest of honor and not just a little girl.If she had been a stubborn, domineering child, who had been so pampered and flattered, she might have grown into an intolerable nuisance; if she had been a lazy child, she would learn nothing.Ms. Minchin hated her privately, but Ms. Minchin was a very worldly woman to do or say anything that might cause such a desirable student to wish to leave her school.She knew full well that if Sarah wrote to her father to tell her father that she was not feeling well or happy, Captain Crewe would take her away immediately.Ms. Minchin's opinion is that as long as a child is constantly praised and never forbidden to do what she likes, she must like a place where she is treated that way.Sarah, therefore, is praised for her cleverness in study, her good manners, and her kindness to her schoolmates; if she gives a paltry sixpence out of a bulging little purse to a beggar, she is praised for her generosity.The simplest things she did were treated as virtues, and if she hadn't had a good temper and a bright little mind, she might have become a very complacent little fellow.But that bright little mind told her many practical truths about herself and her situation, which she spoke to Ermengarde from time to time as time went on.

"Some of the things that happen to people happen by chance," she once said. "A lot of good things have happened to me. It just so happens that I've always liked lessons and books, and I remember them when I learn them. It just so happens that I was born with a perfect, wise father who provided me with everything I liked. Perhaps I There's no real good temper at all, but if you've got everything you want and everyone's been kind to you, how can you not have good temper naturally? I don't know,"--attitude very Serious - "I don't know how to find out if I'm really a good kid or a nasty kid. Maybe I'm a terrible bad kid, but no one will ever know because I've never been tested." "Lavigne Ya is untested," said Ermengarde obstinately, "and she is abominable enough."

Sarah stroked the tip of her little nose reflectively, thinking about it. "Yes," she said at last, "maybe—maybe it's because Lavinia is developing." Recalling that she had heard Miss Amelia say that Lavinia had grown so rapidly that she feared it would affect Lavinia's health and temperament, Sarah came to this generous conclusion. Actually Lavinia is vicious.She was jealous of Sarah without restraint.Until Sarah, a freshman, arrived, she thought she was the head of the school.She was able to be the boss because she could make the students who didn't listen to her feel that she was extremely difficult to deal with.She bullied the younger children and put on airs to the older ones who could be her companions.She was quite beautiful, and when the students of the Advanced Girls Training Institute went out in twos, she was the best dressed one.But then came Sarah, in a velvet frock, with a sable muff and drooping ostrich feathers, at the head of the procession, led by Miss Minchin.This made Lavinia feel bad enough at first; then, as time went on, it became obvious that Sara was also the head of the class, not because she could quarrel, but because she never did.

"But there's one thing about Sarah Crewe," said Jessie, irritating her "best friend" with this honest truth, "she never showed herself off, but you know she could have, Ravi. If I had all that good stuff and got that much hype, I'm sure I couldn't help but feel a little bit like that. Ms. Minchin showing off Sara when the parents came to school It's so disgusting." ① Lavinia's nickname. "My dear Sara must go into the drawing-room and talk to Mrs Musgrave about India," said Lavinia, in her most charming imitation of Miss Minchin, "and my dear Sara must say to Mrs Pitkin." Speaks French. Mademoiselle's pronunciation is so perfect. Anyway, she didn't learn French in this institution. She doesn't know French. She doesn't know French at all. She said it herself. She picked it up by chance, because she often heard her father speak French. As for her father, he was nothing special as an officer stationed in India."

"But," said Jessie slowly, "he killed a tiger. That tiger skin in Sarah's room was the same tiger her father killed. No wonder she loved it so much. She lay on it , stroking its head, talking to it, treating it like a cat." "She's always doing stupid things," Lavinia snapped. "My mom said it was stupid to fake like she did, and that she was going to be a weirdo when she grew up." It's true, Sarah never "shows off."She's a friendly elf who hands out her perks and possessions.Those younger children are used to being despised by the more mature girls aged ten or twelve and scolded to go away, but they have never been made to cry by this most enviable classmate.She was a motherly little person, and when people fell and scratched their knees, she ran to help them up, to pet them, or to fish out a bonbon or something to soothe them.She never pushed them away to make way for her, and never insinuatedly insulted them for being immature or flawed in character. "If you're four, you're four," she said sternly to Lavinia, because once Lavinia--that was undeniable--slapped Lottie and called her "stinking." Doll", "But next year you'll be five, and the next year six. And," she stared with convincingly wide eyes, "in just sixteen more years, you'll be twenty."

"My God!" said Lavinia, "how we can count so far!" In fact, it was undeniable that sixteen plus four made twenty--and twenty was an age that even the most daring child could hardly imagine. And just like that, the younger kids adored Sarah.She was known to hold tea parties in her room more than once for the slighted children.Emily was also brought in to play with, and it was Emily's own tea set - a tea set with blue flowered teacups filled with generous amounts of weaker tea with more sugar.No one has ever seen such a realistic tea set for dolls.From that afternoon on, Sara was revered as a goddess and empress by the entire elementary alphabet class.

Lottie Leigh adored Sarah so much that if she wasn't motherly she would be bored with her.Lottie had been sent to school by her whimsical young father, who could think of nothing else to do with her.Her mother had died young, and the child had been doted on like beloved dolls, spoiled monkeys, and lap dogs, so she was a frightening little creature.She cries and howls when she asks for or does not want anything; and as she always wants what is impossible for her, instead of what is best for her, her astonishment is often heard. His little voice escalated into a wail in one part of the house.

Lottie had her greatest weapon, which was that she had discovered, without anyone knowing it, that a little girl who lost her mother deserved pity and favor from others.She had probably heard some grown-ups talk about her not long after her mother's death.So making full use of this principle has become her habit. Sarah first attended to Lottie when she passed the drawing-room one morning when she heard Miss Minchin and Miss Amelia trying to quell the angry cries of a child who was evidently unwilling to be quiet. came down, and would not stop, forcing Miss Minchin to literally shout - solemn and stern - over Lottie's voice.

"Why is she crying?" Minqin almost shouted. "Woo-oo-oo!" Sara heard the girl whimper, "I don't have a ma-mo-mo!" "Oh, Lottie!" cried Miss Amelia. "There, baby! Don't cry! Please don't cry!" "Woo! woo! woo!" howled Lottie in a fit of fits. "There's no mother!" "She should be whipped," Ms. Minchin declared. "You're going to get spanked, you wayward boy!" Lottie cried louder.Miss Amelia also began to cry.Miss Minchin raised her voice almost like thunder, jumped out of her seat, and rushed out of the room in a dismay, leaving Miss Amelia to clean up the situation.

Sarah was standing in the aisle now wondering whether she should go in, for she had recently made friends with Lottie, which might calm her down.When Ms. Minchin came out of the room and saw Sarah, she looked troubled.She knew that her voice from the back room sounded neither dignified nor kind. "Ah, Sarah!" she cried, trying to put on a proper smile. "I'm standing here," Sara said aloud, "because I knew it was Lottie—and I thought, maybe—just maybe, I can calm her down. Can I try, Ming Ms Chin?" "You can do it! You're a bright boy," replied Miss Minchin, her lips tightening sharply.Then, seeing that Sara was getting a little frustrated by her rudeness, she changed her attitude. "But you're clever in every way," she said approvingly. "I bet you can keep her under control. Go in." And leaving Sarah, he left.

Lottie was lying on the floor screaming and kicking violently with her fat little legs when Sara came in, and Miss Amelia crouched beside her in panic and despair, flushed with anxiety, sweaty.Lottie had long discovered in her family's nursery that the kicking and screaming were always quenched by satisfying her obsessive demands.Poor fat lady Amelia tried one method after another to no avail. "Poor darling!" she said, waiting a moment, "I know you don't have a mother, poor--" and then, in a quite different tone, "If you don't stop crying, Lottie , I'm going to slap you. Poor little angel! Come on—come on! You naughty, hideous boy, I'm going to slap you! I will!" Sarah walked up to them without saying a word.She had no idea what she was going to do, but she had a vague conviction that it was best not to say such useless provocations to her. "Miss Amelia," she whispered, "Miss Minchin said I could try to make her stop crying--can I?" Miss Amelia turned and looked at her helplessly, panting Say, "Oh, do you think you can?" "I don't know if I can do it," Sarah replied, still speaking half to herself, "but I'm going to try." Miss Amelia staggered to her feet with a deep sigh, while Lottie's fat little legs continued to kick. "If you leave the room quietly," said Sarah, "I will stay with her." "Oh, Sarah!" Miss Amelia almost whimpered, "we never had such a dreadful child. I don't believe we can keep her." So she sneaked out of the room, finding such an excuse It was such a relief to walk away. Sarah stood for a moment beside the howling, wild child, looking down at her, without saying a word.Then she sat down straight on the floor and waited by her side.Except for Lottie's angry screams, the room was silent.This was a new situation for Miss Leigh, who was used to hearing reprimands, entreaties, orders, coaxings in turn while she cried.Lying on the ground kicking and screaming now, only to find that the only person beside her didn't seem to care at all, which attracted her attention.She opened her closed tearful eyes, wanting to see who the person next to her was.All I saw was a little girl.But it was the little girl who had Emily and all the goodies, and she was looking at herself calmly and thoughtfully.Lottie paused for a few seconds to see what was going on and felt compelled to start over, but the silence of the room and Sarah's strange, attentive, peaceful face made Lottie's first howl a bit half-hearted. "I don't have any mothers!" she cried, but her voice was weak. Sarah looked at her more calmly, but with understanding. "I don't have a mother either," she said. This one was so unexpected, it was amazing.Lottie literally dropped her legs, squirmed a bit, and lay there wide-eyed looking.In desperate situations, a new thought can stop a child from crying.It was also true that Lottie didn't like Miss Minchin, who was too rough, and Miss Amelia, who was only foolishly indulgent, but she liked Sarah, though she didn't know her very well.She didn't intend to give up complaining, but her thoughts were distracted, so she twisted herself again, sobbed angrily and said: "Where did she go?" Sarah paused for a moment.Because she had been told that her mother was in heaven, and she thought a lot about it, and she didn't think exactly like everyone else. "She's gone to heaven," she said, "but I'm sure she comes out to see me sometimes—though I can't see her. So does your mother. Maybe they can both see us now. Maybe they're both in this room." ." Lottie sat upright, looking around.She was a pretty curly-haired little fellow with round eyes like dewy forget-me-nots.If her mother had seen her messing around in the previous half hour, she would have understood that her child was not the kind that could be called an angel.Sarah went on.Some people may think that what she tells is a bit like a fairy tale, but in her fantasy, it is so real that Lottie began to listen involuntarily.Sarah had been told that her mother had wings and a crown of flowers, and she had seen pictures of ladies in beautiful white nightgowns, who were said to be angels.And Sarah now seemed to be telling the true story of a lovely land inhabited by real people. "There are fields full of flowers," she said, and, as usual, she forgot herself as she talked, as if in a dream--"fields full of lilies-- -When the soft wind blows, the air is filled with the scent of flowers--Everyone breathes the scent of flowers, for the soft wind always blows.The little children run in the field of lilies, picking their arms Lilies in their arms, weaving little garlands while laughing. The streets are bright. No matter how far they walk, they will not get tired. They can fly wherever they like. The walls of the city are built of pearls and gold, but the walls are quite It is low, so that people can rely on it to overlook the world, and send good wishes with a smile." Whatever story Sara begins, no doubt Lottie will stop crying and listen mesmerized, but it is undeniably more beautiful than most of the others.She moved closer to Sarah and listened intently to every word until the end of the story - which came too soon.How she regretted it when the end did come, and pouted ominously again. "I'm going there," she cried, "I--there's no mother in this school." Sara saw the danger signal and woke up from the dream.She took the chubby little hand, pulled Lottie to her side, and coaxed Lottie with a slight smile. "I'll be your mother," she said. "Let's play together, you are my little girl. Emily is your sister." Lottie's dimples are starting to show in full. "Will she be my sister?" she said. "Yes," replied Sara, jumping up, "let's tell her. Then I'll wash and comb your hair." Lottie readily obliged, and ran out of the room and upstairs with Sarah, seemingly oblivious to the fact that the whole hour of tragedy had been caused by Miss Minchin's authority over her refusal to wash before lunch. From then on, Sarah became a foster mother.