A Little Princess Chapter 16 Summary

The Visitor

  • For the rest of the evening, Becky and Sara drink tea and eat good food and basically have a jolly good time.
  • Lavinia and Jessie gossip about what's happened at school, and everyone expects that Sara will look very ill and unhappy when she comes downstairs the next morning.
  • But in fact, Sara trots down all happy and healthy, which just makes the grumpy Miss Minchin even nastier and more mean-spirited, because she is literally the worst person in the world.
  • The weather is even worse today, and everyone is just awful to Sara. But she has the Magic—and it doesn't let her down.
  • When she gets back to her room at night, it's even more magically outfitted than before—with a blazing fire, and a bunch of new things like cups and plates.
  • Becky comes over again and they sit around and talk and really have a rather pleasant evening.
  • Day after day, the magic adds pretty things (not to mention good, nourishing food) to Sara's room.
  • One day, Sara receives some large parcels that are filled with beautiful and fancy clothes.
  • Oh, and there's a note that says she has to wear them all the time.
  • This doesn't sit well with Miss Minchin, who is pretty paranoid that someone is looking out for Sara and would be pretty peeved if they found that Sara was being mistreated, overworked, and practically starved.
  • She lets Sara go into the schoolroom in her nice new clothes to learn her lessons with the other students again.
  • You know who else doesn't like this one bit? Yep, Lavinia.
  • When Sara returns to the room, she writes a thank you note and leaves it so that the person who's doing magical things for her will know just how much she appreciates it.
  • And then hears a scratching on the skylight: it's the monkey from next door. He's escaped again!
  • Sara brings him inside. He can sleep there tonight, but she'll take him back to the Indian gentleman tomorrow.