The Diamond Mines (A Little Princess)

01Chapter 6.

02The Diamond Mines.

03Not very long after this, a very exciting thing happened.

04Not only Sarah, but the entire school found it exciting, and made it the chief subject of conversation for weeks after it occurred.

05In one of his letters Captain Crewe told a most interesting story.

06A friend who had been at school with him when he was a boy, had unexpectedly come to see him in India.

07He was the owner of a large tract of land, upon which diamonds had been found, and he was engaged in developing the mines.

08If all went as was confidently expected, he would become possessed of such wealth as made one dizzy to think of.

09And 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.

10This, at least, was what Sarah gathered from his letters.

11It is true that any other business scheme, however magnificent, would have had but small attraction for her, or for the schoolroom.

12But Diamond Mines sounded so like the Arabian Nights, that no one could be indifferent.

13Sarah thought them enchanting in 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.

14Ermengarde delighted in the story, and Lottie insisted on its being retold to her every evening.

15Lavinia was very spiteful about it, and told Jessie that she didn't believe such things as diamond mines existed.

16"'My mama has a diamond ring which costs forty pounds,' she said, "'and it is not a big one, either.

17If there were mines full of diamonds, people would be so rich it would be ridiculous.' "'Perhaps Sarah will be so rich she will be ridiculous,' giggled Jessie.

18"'She's ridiculous without being rich,' Lavinia sniffed.

19"'I believe you hate her,' said Jessie.

20"'No, I don't,' snapped Lavinia.

21"'But I don't believe in mines full of diamonds.' "'Well, people have to get them from somewhere,' said Jessie.

22"'Lavinia?' with a new giggle.

23"'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 Sarah.' "'Well, it is.

24One of her pretends is that she is a princess.

25She plays it all the time, even in school.

26She says it makes her learn her lessons better.

27She wants Ermengarde to be one, too, but Ermengarde says she is too fat.' "'She is too fat,' said Lavinia, "'and Sarah is too thin.' Naturally, Jessie giggled again.

28"'She says it has nothing to do with what you look like or what you have.

29It 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.

30"'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.

31It was the time when Miss Minchin and Miss Amelia were taking their tea in the sitting-room sacred to themselves.

32At 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.

33When they made an uproar the older girls usually interfered with scolding and shakes.

34They 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.

35Even as Lavinia spoke, the door opened and Sarah entered with Lottie, whose habit was to trot everywhere after her like a little dog.

36"'There she is with that horrid child!' exclaimed Lavinia in a whisper.

37"'If she's so fond of her, why doesn't she keep her in her own room?

38She 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.

39She joined a group of little ones who were playing in a corner.

40Sarah curled herself up in the window-seat, opened a book, and began to read.

41It 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 grey hair and beards almost hid their faces, and they had forgotten that an outside world existed at all, and they were like beings in a dream.

42She was so far away from the schoolroom, that it was not agreeable to be dragged back suddenly by a howl from Lottie.

43Never did she find anything so difficult as to keep herself from losing her temper when she was suddenly disturbed while absorbed in a book.

44People who are fond of books know the feeling of irritation which sweeps over them at such a moment.

45The temptation to be unreasonable and snappish is one not easy to manage.

46It makes me feel as if someone had hit me, Sarah had told Ermengarde once in confidence, and as if I want to hit back.

47I have to remember things quickly to keep from saying something ill-tempered.

48She had to remember things quickly when she laid her book down on the window-seat and jumped down from a comfortable corner.

49Lottie had been sliding across the schoolroom floor, and having first irritated Lavinia and Jessie by making a noise, had ended by falling down and hurting her fat knee.

50She was screaming and dancing up and down in the midst of a group of friends and enemies, who were alternately coaxing and scolding her.

51"'Stop this minute, you crybaby!

52Stop this minute!' Lavinia commanded.

53"'I'm not a crybaby!

54I'm not!' wailed Lottie.

55"'Sarah!

56Sarah!' "'If she doesn't stop, Miss Mincham will hear her,' cried Jessie.

57"'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.

58Sarah flew across the room, and kneeling down, put her arms around her.

59"'Now, Lottie,' she said.

60"'Now, Lottie, you promised Sarah.' "'She said I was a crybaby!' wept Lottie.

61Sarah patted her, but spoke in the steady voice Lottie knew.

62"'But if you cry you will be one, Lottie Pet.

63"'You promised?' "'Lottie remembered that she had promised, but she preferred to lift up her voice.

64"'I haven't any mama,' she proclaimed.

65"'I haven't a bit of mama.' "'Yes, you have,' said Sarah cheerfully.

66"'Have you forgotten?

67Don't you know that Sarah is your mama?

68Don't you want Sarah for your mama?' Lottie cuddled up to her with a consoled sniff.

69"'Come and sit in the window-seat with me,' Sarah went on, "'and I'll whisper a story to you.' "'Will you?' whimpered Lottie.

70"'Will you tell me—about the diamond mines?' "'The diamond mines?' broke out Lavinia.

71"'Nasty little spoiled thing.

72I should like to slap her.' Sarah got up quickly on her feet.

73It 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 realised that she must go and take care of her adopted child.

74She was not an angel, and she was not fond of Lavinia.

75"'Well,' she said with some fire, "'I should like to slap you, but I don't want to slap you,' restraining herself.

76"'At least, I both want to slap you, and I should like to slap you, but I won't slap you.

77We are not little gutted children.

78We are both old enough to know better.' Here was Lavinia's opportunity.

79"'Ah, yes, Your Royal Highness,' she said.

80"'We are princesses, I believe.

81At least one of us is.

82The school ought to be very fashionable now Miss Minchin has a princess for a pupil.' Sarah started toward her.

83She looked as if she were going to box her ears.

84Perhaps she was.

85Her trick of pretending things was the joy of her life.

86She never spoke of it to girls she was not fond of.

87Her new pretend about being a princess was very near to her heart, and she was shy and sensitive about it.

88She had meant it to be rather a secret, and here was Lavinia deriding it before nearly all the school.

89She felt the blood rush up into her face and tingle in her ears.

90She only just saved herself.

91If you were a princess you did not fly into rages.

92Her hand dropped, and she stood quite still a moment.

93When she spoke it was in a quiet, steady voice.

94She held her head up, and everybody listened to her.

95"'It's true,' she said.

96"'Sometimes I do pretend I am a princess.

97I 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.

98Several times she had found that she could not think of a satisfactory reply when she was dealing with Sarah.

99The reason for this was that, somehow, the rest always seemed to be vaguely in sympathy with her opponent.

100She saw now that they were pricking up their ears interestedly.

101The truth was, they liked princesses, and they all hoped they might hear something more definite about this one, and drew nearer Sarah accordingly.

102Lavinia could only invent one remark, and it fell rather flat.

103"'Dear me,' she said, "'I hope when you ascend the throne you won't forget us.' "'I won't,' said Sarah.

104And 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.

105After this, the girls who were jealous of her used to speak of her as Princess Sarah, whenever they wished to be particularly disdainful.

106And those who were fond of her gave her the name among themselves as a term of affection.

107No one called her Princess instead of Sarah, 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.

108To Becky it seemed the most appropriate thing in the world.

109The 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.

110They were aware that Sarah 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, Sarah's sitting-room was reached, and the heavy coal-box sat down with a sigh of joy.

111At such times stories were told by instalments.

112Things 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 to bed.

113If you're born a scullery-maid.

114I'd rather have rats than cockroaches.

115So would I, said Sarah.

116I suppose you might make friends with a rat in time, but I don't believe I should like to make friends with a cockroach.

117Sometimes 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.

118The search for and discovery of satisfying things to eat, which could be packed into a small compass, added a new interest to Sarah's existence.

119When she drove or walked out, she used to look into shop windows eagerly.

120The first time it occurred to her to bring home two or three little meat pies, she felt that she had hit upon a discovery.

121When she exhibited them, Becky's eyes quite sparkled.

122Oh, miss!

123she murmured.

124Them will be nice and filling.

125It's fillin'ness that's best.

126Sponge-cake's a heavenly thing, but it melts away like, if you understand, miss.

127These'll just stay in your stomach.

128Well, hesitated Sarah, I don't think it would be good if they stayed always, but I do believe they will be satisfying.

129They were satisfying, and so were beef sandwiches, bought at a cookshop, and so were rolls and bologna sausage.

130In time Becky began to lose her hungry, tired feeling, and the coal-box did not seem so unbearably heavy.

131However 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 Sarah would be able to be in her sitting-room.

132In fact, the mere seeing of Miss Sarah would have been enough, without meat pies.

133If there was time only for a few words, there were always friendly, merry words that put heart into one, and if there was time for more, then there was an instalment of a story to be told, or some other thing one remembered afterwards, and sometimes lay awake in one's bed in the attic to think over.

134Sarah, 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.

135If Nature has made you for a giver, your hands are borne 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.

136Warm things, kind things, sweet things, help and comfort and laughter, and sometimes gay, kind laughter, is the best help of all.

137Becky had scarcely known what laughter was, all through her poor, little, hard-driven life.

138Sarah made her laugh, and loved with her, and though neither of them quite knew it, the laughter was as fillin' as the meat-pies.

139A few weeks before Sarah's eleventh birthday, a letter came to her from her father, which did not seem to be written in such boyish, high spirits as usual.

140He was not very well, and was evidently overweighted by the business connected with the diamond mines.

141You see, little Sarah," he wrote, "'your daddy is not a businessman at all, and figures and documents bother him.

142He does not really understand them, and all this seems so enormous.

143Perhaps 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.

144If my little missus were here, I dare say she would give me some solemn good advice.

145You 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.

146He had made wonderful preparations for her birthday.

147Among other things, a new doll had been ordered in Paris, and her wardrobe was to be, indeed, a marvel of splendid perfection.

148When she had replied to the letter, asking her if the doll would be an acceptable present, Sarah had been very quaint.

149"'I am getting very old,' she wrote, "'you see.

150I shall never live to have another doll given me.

151This will be my last doll.

152There is something solemn about it.

153If I could write poetry, I am sure a poem about a last doll would be very nice, but I cannot write poetry.

154I have tried, and it made me laugh.

155It did not sound like Watts, or Coleridge, or Shakespeare at all.

156No 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.

157They all like dolls, though some of the big ones, the almost fifteen ones, pretend they are too grown up.' Captain Crewe had a splitting headache when he read this letter in his bungalow in India.

158The 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.

159"'Oh,' he said, "'she's better fun every year she lives.

160God grant this business may right itself and leave me free to run home and see her.

161What wouldn't I give to have her little arms round my neck this minute?

162What wouldn't I give?' The birthday was to be celebrated by great festivities.

163The schoolroom was to be decorated, and there was to be a party.

164The 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.

165When the day arrived, the whole house was in a whirl of excitement.

166How the morning passed nobody quite knew, because there seemed such preparations to be made.

167The 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.

168When Sarah 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.

169She knew it was a present, and she thought she could guess whom it came from.

170She opened it quite tenderly.

171It 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.' "'Oh!' cried Sarah, with a warm feeling in her heart, "'what pains she has taken!

172I like it so.

173It—it makes me feel sorrowful.' But the next moment she was mystified.

174On the underside of the pincushion was secured a card bearing the neat letters, the name Miss Amelia Minchin.

175Sarah turned it over and over.

176"'Miss Amelia!' she said to herself.

177"'How can it be?' And just at that very moment she heard the door being cautiously pushed open, and saw becky peeping round it.

178There was an affectionate happy grin on her face, and she shuffled forward and stood nervously, pulling at her fingers.

179"'D'ye like it, Miss Sarah?' she said.

180"'Do ye?' "'Like it?' cried Sarah.

181"'You darling Becky, you made it all yourself.' Becky gave a hysteric but joyful sniff, and her eyes looked quite moist with delight.

182"'It ain't nothing but flannin', and the flannin ain't new.

183But I wanted to give you something, and I made it of nights.

184I knew you could pretend it was satin with diamond pins in.

185I tried to when I was makin' it.

186The card, miss,' rather doubtfully.

187"'Twas't wrong of me to pick it out of the dustbin, was it?

188Miss Amelia drove it away.

189I hadn't no card of my own, and I knowed it wouldn't be a proper present if I didn't pin a card on, so I pinned Miss Amelia's.' Sarah flew at her and hugged her.

190She could not have told herself or anyone else why there was a lump in her throat.

191"'Oh, Becky!' she cried out with a queer little laugh.

192I love you, Becky.

193I do, I do.

194"'Oh, Miss,' breathed Becky.

195"'Thank you, Miss, kindly.

196It ain't good enough for that.

197The—the flannin wasn't new.' End of chapter 6