want her because I know she will like to see the presents,” she explained. “She is a little girl, too, you know.”

Miss Minchin was scandalized. She glanced from one figure to the other.

“My dear Sara,” she said, “Becky is the scullery maid. Scullery maids—er—are not little girls.”

It really had not occurred to her to think of them in that light. Scullery maids were machines who carried coal scuttles and made fires.

“But Becky is,” said Sara. “And I know she would enjoy herself. Please let her


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stories knows what the wonder means—how he or she is followed about and besought in a whisper to relate romances; how groups gather round and hang on the outskirts of the favored party in the hope of being allowed to join in and listen. Sara not only could tell stories, but she adored telling them.


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