第44章 One of the Populace(1)(2 / 3)

"That is warmer,miss,"said Becky,gratefully;"but,someways,even the Bastille is sort of heatin'when you gets to tellin' about it."

"That is because it makes you think of something else,"said Sara,wrapping the coverlet round her until only her small dark face was to be seen looking out of it."I've noticed this.What you have to do with your mind,when your body is miserable,is to make it think of something else."

"Can you do it,miss?"faltered Becky,regarding her with admiring eyes.

Sara knitted her brows a moment.

"Sometimes I can and sometimes I can't,"she said stoutly.

"But when I CAN I'm all right.And what I believe is that we always could--if we practiced enough.I've been practicing a good deal lately,and it's beginning to be easier than it used to be.

When things are horrible--just horrible--I think as hard as ever I can of being a princess.I say to myself,`I am a princess,and I am a fairy one,and because I am a fairy nothing can hurt me or make me uncomfortable.'You don't know how it makes you forget"--with a laugh.

She had many opportunities of making her mind think of something else,and many opportunities of proving to herself whether or not she was a princess.But one of the strongest tests she was ever put to came on a certain dreadful day which,she often thought afterward,would never quite fade out of her memory even in the years to come.

For several days it had rained continuously;the streets were chilly and sloppy and full of dreary,cold mist;there was mud everywhere--sticky London mud--and over everything the pall of drizzle and fog.