Sara liked to watch the sunset from her skylight.
One evening it was especially beautiful. The sky glowed with golden light.
"It's a splendid one," Sara said softly to herself.
Suddenly she heard an odd chattering sound.
She looked toward the skylight next door.
There she saw a dark-skinned man, wearing white clothes and a turban.
He too was looking at the sunset.
The strange noise had come from a little monkey he was holding.
Sara thought the man must be a servant. She also thought he looked sad.
"Perhaps he's homesick," she said to herself.
It was often hot and sunny in India, but here in England, the sun rarely appeared.
He'd probably come up to the roof to catch a glimpse of the sun.
The man suddenly looked at her, and she smiled at him.
She had learned how comforting a smile could be.
The man's face lit up, and he smiled back.
At that instant the man's grip on the monkey loosened, and the creature escaped from his arms!
It ran across the roof and down into Sara's room.
Luckily Sara still remembered the language she'd learned while living in India.
The man was delighted to hear someone speaking his language.
"My name is Ram Dass." He bowed to Sara.
"That monkey is nice, but he's a mischievous fellow.
If you'll let me enter your room, I'll capture it."
Sara nodded, and Ram Dass slipped through his skylight.
He easily crossed the steep roof and dropped through her skylight without making a sound.
Within a few moments, he had captured the monkey.
"My master would be very sad to lose his little friend."
Ram Dass patted the monkey. "Thank you, miss."
Ram Dass spoke to Sara very politely.
He treated her as if she weren't a servant.
She noticed him glancing around her shabby room.
But Ram Dass pretended he'd seen nothing.
Then he bowed once more and disappeared through the skylight.
After Ram Dass left, Sara thought about her life in India.
Only a few years ago, she had been surrounded by servants who treated her with respect.
That all seemed like a dream now.
Sara knew that her life at Miss Minchin's would never improve.
One day she might be a teacher.
But her clothes would still be plain and ugly.
She would still be a servant, and Miss Minchin would still make every day miserable.
Then Sara realized something important.
"Even if I am dressed in rags, I can still act like a princess," she declared.
This thought warmed her cheeks, and she stood up straight.
"It would be easy to be a princess if I were dressed in golden clothing," she told herself.
"But it is a great deal harder to be a princess when I'm dressed like this. I can do this. I know I can!
I must think like a solider marching into battle."
The next morning Sara was in the schoolroom.
She had finished teaching her pupils and was putting away their books.
She thought of a story about a famous king who had lived in disguise.
A shepherd's wife had not known he was a king and slapped him.
The woman must have been very frightened when she found out the truth about the man, Sara thought.
"What would Miss Minchin do if she discovered that I am a princess?" Sara wondered.
Meanwhile Miss Minchin was watching Sara daydreaming.
She hated the look on Sara's face.
It was as if the child were living in a world far away.
Full of rage, Miss Minchin walked over to Sara and slapped her.
Sara was so stunned that something strange happened—she burst out laughing.
"Why are you laughing, you rude child?" Miss Minchin demanded.
Sara took a deep breath. "I was thinking."
"Beg my pardon immediately!" said the headmistress.
Sara hesitated. "I will beg your pardon for laughing," she said.
"But I won't beg your pardon for thinking."
"What were you thinking? How dare you think?"
Jessie and Lavinia giggled, and the other girls looked up from their books.
Sara always had something strange to say to Miss Minchin.
Sara blurted out the truth.
"I was thinking what would happen if I were a princess and you slapped me.
And how shocked and frightened you'd be when you found out."
Every pair of eyes in the room widened in surprise.
"Go to your room this instant!" cried Miss Minchin.
"Back to your lessons, everyone."
Sara left the headmistress shaking with rage and the girls still whispering about her.
"Sara is so strange," Jessie said to Lavinia.
"What if she did turn out to be a princess? I wouldn't be surprised at all!"