- Miss Minchin: [after ordering the girls out and punishing Becky, to Sara] And you will perform all her chores in addition to your own without breakfast, lunch, OR dinner! It's time you learn, Sara Crewe, that real life has nothing to do with your little fantasy games. It's a cruel, nasty world out there, and it's our duty to make the best of it - not to indulge in ridiculous *dreams*, but to be productive and useful! Do you understand what I'm saying?
- Sara Crewe: [short pause] Yes, ma'am.
- Miss Minchin: [short pause] Good.
- [she leaves]
- Sara Crewe: But I don't believe in it.
- [Miss Minchin stops, turns back to Sara, and goes awestruck]
- Miss Minchin: Don't tell me you still fancy yourself a princess!
- [laughs]
- Miss Minchin: Good God, child, look around you! Or better yet, look in the mirror!
- [after a long pause]
- Sara Crewe: [confidently] I am a princess.
- Miss Minchin: [in disbelief] Oh!
- Sara Crewe: All girls are! Even if they live in tiny old attics, even if they dress in rags, even if they aren't pretty, or smart, or young, they're still princesses - *all* of us! Didn't *your* father ever tell you that? Didn't he?
- Miss Minchin: [furiously, in tears] If I find you up here with any of the girls again, I WILL THROW YOU OUT INTO THE STREET!
- [Sara is tracing her father's face with her finger]
- Capt. Crewe: What are you doing? Memorizing me by heart?
- Sara Crewe: No... I already know you by heart.
- Sara Crewe: Papa? Maya told me that all girls are princesses.
- Capt. Crewe: Maya... is a very wise woman.
- Sara Crewe: Then it's true?
- Capt. Crewe: You can be anything you want to be, my love, as long as you believe.
- Sara Crewe: What do you believe?
- Capt. Crewe: I believe that you are... and always will be... my little princess.
- [Sara just met her new doll, Emily]
- Capt. Crewe: You know, dolls make the very best friends. Just because they can't speak doesn't mean they don't listen. And did you know that when we leave them alone in our room, they come to life?
- Sara Crewe: They do?
- Capt. Crewe: Yes! But before we walk in and catch them, they return to their place as quick as lightning!
- Sara Crewe: Why don't they come to life in front of us so we can see them?
- Capt. Crewe: Because it's magic. Magic has to be believed. It's the only way it's real.
- Sara Crewe: Don't cry, Becky.
- Becky: I'm scared. If Minchin throws me out, I got no place to go.
- Sara Crewe: That's not true. I'm here with you. I've always thought of us as sisters.
- Becky: You have?
- Sara Crewe: Let's make a promise right now: to always look out for each other.
- Becky: It's a promise.
- [they embrace]
- [the amnesiac Capt. Crewe comes across Sara crying in a corner of a darkened room in Randolph's house]
- Capt. Crewe: What is it? Why are you crying? Please tell me. I won't hurt you. Won't you tell me your name?
- Sara Crewe: [sobbing] Sara.
- Capt. Crewe: 'Sara'... that's such a pretty name. Sara...
- Sara Crewe: [there is a flash of lightening, and the lights suddenly come back on] Papa...
- [she rises, and stares at Crewe in shock]
- Sara Crewe: Papa...
- Capt. Crewe: What did you say?
- Sara Crewe: [she runs to him, and he tries to hold her away] Papa...
- Capt. Crewe: I'm sorry...
- Sara Crewe: Papa, it's me! It's Sara!
- Capt. Crewe: Sara, do you know me?
- Sara Crewe: Oh, God, papa, don't you remember me?
- Miss Minchin: [faintly] She must be in here!
- Sara Crewe: Papa, please! You've got to know me! It's Sara, remember? Remember India and Maya? Remember the Ramayana... and Emily? And the locket with Mama's picture in it?
- Capt. Crewe: [still struggling to push her away] No...
- Sara Crewe: Oh, God, papa, please!
- Miss Minchin: [entering the room with the policemen and Randolph] Sara!
- Sara Crewe: Papa, please!
- Charles Randolph: Do you know this man?
- Sara Crewe: Papa, tell them!
- Miss Minchin: [recognizes Captain Crewe] This child has no father. Take her away!
- Sara Crewe: [a policeman tears Sara away and carries her, kicking and screaming, from the room] No! No! Papa!
- Capt. Crewe: I'm so sorry...
- [at Sara's birthday party, Sara blows out the candles on her cake]
- Lottie: [happily jumping up and down as the others clap] I want a big piece!
- Lavinia: [sarcastically] Oh hush up, Lottie! I'm sure *Princess Sara* will give everyone a fair share. Right, Princess?
- Lottie: [to Sara] I told her that's what you were.
- Sara Crewe: Well, not just me, *all* girls are princesses. Even snotty, two-face bullies like *you*, Lavinia!
- Capt. Crewe: Sometimes when I dream, I sense a part of me that's missing. It's a strange feeling having your heart remember something your mind can not.
- [the girls have awoken to find the attic beautifully redecorated and a breakfast of sausages, muffins, and fruit awaiting them]
- Sara Crewe: Look! Just what we ordered!
- Becky: I'm a little scared about all of this.
- Sara Crewe: Me, too. Do you think we shouldn't eat it?
- Becky: I'm not that scared!
- Becky: Sara... why don't you tell your stories anymore?
- Sara Crewe: They're just make-believe. They don't mean anything.
- Becky: Oh, but they've always meant something to me. There were days I thought I would die, until I heard you talk about the magic.
- Sara Crewe: There is no magic, Becky.
- Sara Crewe: One knock means, "I'm here." Two knocks means, "All is well." Three knocks means, "The coast is clear - the demon Minchinweed is asleep."
- Miss Minchin: Sara, this is Monsieur Dufarge. You will begin French lessons with him this afternoon.
- Sara Crewe: Do I have to?
- Miss Minchin: Sara! You most certainly do! Now apologize to Monsieur this instant for your rudeness!
- Sara Crewe: But I didn't mean to be rude.
- Miss Minchin: [shouts] Now!
- [Sara says three sentences entirely in French. Monsieur Dufarge looks at her through his monicle impressed]
- Monsieur Dufarge: This child doesn't need to learn French, she practically *is* French! Says she learned it from her father.
- Miss Minchin: I understood perfectly well what she said, Monsieur.
- Sara Crewe: I'm sorry, but we tried to tell you.
- Monsieur Dufarge: Well, perhaps she can tutor the younger children, and she might just be able to help you with your pronunciation, Miss Minchin.
- [sniffs deeply]
- Monsieur Dufarge: Are those sausages I smell? Oh...
- [Randolph and his servant are at a military hospital, where Randolph has discovered that the amnesiac soldier there is not his son John]
- Charles Randolph: All the hoping... you must think me a fool.
- Ram Dass: Is it your wish to be wise, sahib?
- Charles Randolph: I don't know. I suppose a wise man wouldn't have come here at all.
- Ram Dass: But if he had, he would have looked more closely upon the soldier's face.
- Charles Randolph: And what would he have seen?
- Ram Dass: Pain, sahib. He needs to be cared for.
- Charles Randolph: He's not my responsibility.
- Ram Dass: A wise man would remember that this soldier was in John's regiment. If his memory returns... he might tell sahib what happened to his son. Perhaps sahib would learn that John is in British hospital now wishing a kind man would take him home... away from his pain.
- Miss Minchin: [after Sara makes up her own ending for the class's bedtime story] What are you doing?
- Sara Crewe: I couldn't bear to see Charlotte marry that awful man, so I imagined a different ending.
- Miss Minchin: You imagined it?
- Sara Crewe: [nodding] Don't you ever do that, Miss Minchin? Believe in something just to make it seem real?
- Miss Minchin: I suppose that's rather easy for a child who has everything.
- [announcing to the rest of the class]
- Miss Minchin: And now from now on, there will be no more 'make believe' at this school during reading hour or at any other time. Is that understood?
- Girls: [in unison] Yes, Miss Minchin.
- Miss Minchin: Now all of you go to your beds this instant.
- Sara Crewe: What are you doing here?
- Ermengarde: We brought you something.
- [the five girls stand in line, then curtsy one at a time]
- Ermengarde: Princess Sara, we'd like to present you with something we rescued.
- Betsy: In a most dangerous adventure.
- Gertrude: Our very own crusade.
- Rosemary: Risking all our lives.
- Lottie: And mine, too.
- [Lottie hands her the locket Miss Minchin confiscated]
- Sara Crewe: I - I don't know what to say. You all are the *best* friends anyone could ever ask for!
- [Captain Crewe has just presented his young daughter with a doll named Emily]
- Capt. Crewe: Whenever you're afraid, or miss me terribly... just tell Emily. And she'll get the message to me, wherever I am. And I'll send one back right away... so that when you hug her... you'll really be getting a hug from me.
- Sara Crewe: ...It's alright, Papa. I'm going to be fine.
- Miss Minchin: [voiceover, as she leads Sara up to the attic] And because of the expenses you've incurred, everything you own now belongs to me: your clothes, your toys, everything, though it will hardly make up for the financial losses I've suffered. From now on, you must earn your room and board here. You will move to the attic with Becky and work as a servant. If you fail to meet the standards of this institution or if you don't do as you're told, you'll be thrown out. And believe me, Sara, the streets of the city are not kind to homeless beggars.
- [as they arrive at the attic]
- Miss Minchin: You should report to Mabel in the kitchen promptly at 5 a.m.
- [sees Sara's locket, then takes it away]
- Miss Minchin: I could have you arrested for taking this. You're lucky I let you keep that doll. You may have the book, but another incident like this, and I will call the authorities.
- [lighting and thunder]
- Miss Minchin: I expect you to remember, Sara Crewe: you're not a princess any longer.
- Rosemary: That's *it*! I can't take it anymore! I don't care what you say about Sara's stories. They've got to be more fun than watching your hair being combed!
- [Rosemary leaves in anger]
- Lavinia: If anyone else feels the same way, I think she should leave, too!
- [the other two girls leave as Lavinia goes stunned]
- Miss Minchin: A child from the school has escaped into your house.
- Charles Randolph: Ram Dass, what's going on here?
- Miss Minchin: I'm sorry to bother you, but there's a child hiding in your house unlawfully!
- Charles Randolph: What?
- Miss Minchin: Search the rooms upstairs!
- Sara Crewe: [as Becky serves her breakfast] Thank you.
- Miss Minchin: Sara, there's no talking at the table.
- Sara Crewe: Doesn't seem natural.
- [the other girls stare at her in shock]
- Miss Minchin: [staring at Sara coldly] I won't say it again.
- Becky: [after she and Sara place a board stretching across to Randolph's house] Sara, you'll fall!
- Sara Crewe: I can do it. I'll come back for you. I promise.
- [they embrace]
- Miss Minchin: [after a young chimney sweep falls into the fireplace] UGH! Soot all over the place! You clumsy fool, GET OUT! Get out of my house this instant!
- [as Sara works, she witnesses Minchin taking the boy out by his ear]
- Miss Minchin: And you can forget being paid this week! Ungrateful little wretch!
- [Minchin leaves, but the boy goes back to her in anger]
- Miss Minchin: Oh no, you don't! I told you, I wouldn't tolerate the slightest bit of SOOT in this house! And there - just look at my BOOT! IT'S FILTHY!
- [the boy goes angry going back to her again]
- Miss Minchin: Get out - OUT!
- [kicks him out again and throws his chimney sweeper's broom out as well]
- Miss Minchin: And take this ri*dic*ulous-looking thing with you!
- [slams the door]
- Sara Crewe: I'm wearing a long, velvet cape with fur on the collar. How about you?
- Becky: Well, I've always liked diamonds myself. Rings and bracelets, and a whole dress just covered with them!
- [they both laugh]
- Sara Crewe: [smelling imaginary sausages] *Mmm*, smell those sausages!
- Becky: Oh, I *love* sausages!
- [they both laugh again]
- [last scene; Miss Minchin, stripped of her position as headmistress and reduced to working alongside the young Chimney sweeper she coldly mistreated earlier, looks at both Sara & Becky and the girls in great scorn and distain; the young Chimney sweeper whistles at Minchin]
- Miss Minchin: Yeah, I'm coming! I'm coming.
- Chimney-sweeper: [enjoying his sweet revenge] Come on! Get over here. I've been looking for you, Minchin. Now, pick up the bucket!
- Miss Minchin: Hey! When do I get my break?
- Chimney-sweeper: Hey! Follow me.
- Miss Minchin: [picks up the heavy bucket] Ugh! Ooh, what are you putting in it? Rocks?
- [the girls are doing their math test in class, one by one, they stand up saying the answers]
- Gertrude: Seven times five is 35.
- Rosemary: Seven times six is 42.
- Betsy: Seven times seven is 49.
- Ermengarde: [nervously] Seven times eight is... 58.
- [the girls turn and stare at her, Sara watches looking concerned]
- Ermengarde: No, wait... 54? No, um... 55?
- Miss Minchin: Or 72, or 93, or 12?
- Ermengarde: [guiltily] I'm sorry, Miss Minchin. I've studied for hours last night.
- Miss Minchin: [smirks] I find that very hard to believe. And I imagine your father would as well.
- Ermengarde: [about to cry] Please, don't tell him, Miss Minchin. I promise I'll do better. Please!
- Miss Minchin: [ignores her] Lavinia, you may continue.
- Lavinia: [prudely] Seven times eight is 56.
- Jesse: Seven times nine is 63.
- [Sara looks at Ermengarde, who turns to her with a tear rolling down her cheek making Sara go sad too]
- [the girls are getting ready for breakfast as they wait for Sara and talk about her]
- Ruth: She hasn't come out of her room yet. Did you see all her toys?
- Lottie: [to another girl] I want your hair ribbon.
- Jane: [happily] Her father grows crackers or something. They're very rich.
- Rosemary: [smiles as well] They must be! Everyone I know eats crackers.
- Betsy: Her father's British. I heard he's best friends with the King and Queen.
- Lavinia: [rudely] Ha! Well, I heard he was thrown out of India, because people died from eating his poisoned crackers.
- Jesse: [prudely] Poisoned crackers.
- Lottie: [confused] Poisoned crackers?
- Gertrude: I once had an aunt who died from eating poisoned string beans.
- Lavinia: Oh, who cares about her!
- Jesse: Yeah, who cares.
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