Sara must pause several times on the stairs to the attic, weakened by hunger and tiredness, after having been the target of the ill-tempered Miss Minchin and the cook. She does not have a crumb for Melchisedec’s supper. A visit from Ermengarde, who brings books sent by her father, cheers Sara. Sara looks forward to reading Carlyle’s French Revolution and the other books and will tell Ermengarde stories to help her remember the books’ contents.

She has never told Ermengarde of her hunger because this disclosure would make Sara feel like she was begging for food. Sara imagines herself as a soldier on a long march or a castle hostess during a famine: She can tell stories but does not let her guests know the extent of her disagreeable circumstances. Sara hears a sound on the roof but does not see Ram Dass peering into the room. Suddenly, the girls hear Miss Minchin angrily accusing Becky of having stolen a meat pie. Hungry Becky cries in her room that she never touched the item; the cook gave it to her policeman friend. Sara is angry at the mistreatment of Becky.