"Just go right into the next office, and you'll find him," said Mr. Oliver's secretary, smiling. CHAPTER XVI MR. OLIVER AND SARAH The door into the next office stood open. Sarah walked in, that is, she stepped just inside the doorway and stood there as though glued to the floor. The thin, gray-haired man who was stooping over the flat-topped desk, looking at a card file, glanced up at her and smiled. This was the principal, Mr. Oliver. "Good morning," he said. "Did you wish to see me?" "No-o," stammered Sarah, "I didn't. But Miss Ames sent me." Mr. Oliver sat down and pointed to a chair drawn up beside the desk. "Suppose you come and sit down and tell me all about it," he suggested. His secretary in the next room stepped over and closed the connecting door noiselessly as Sarah seated herself on the edge of the chair and stared unhappily at the floor. "If you're in Miss Ames' room, you are a fourth grader," said Mr. Oliver pleasantly. "What is your name?" "Sarah," the small girl whispered, "Sarah Willis." "Oh, yes--then you're a sister of Doctor Willis," said the principal. "And I know Rosemary, too. Isn't there another sister--a little light-haired girl in one of the grades?" "That's Shirley," answered Sarah, forgetting her errand for an instant and looking Mr. Oliver in the face for the first time. "She's in the first grade." "Well, Sarah, what have you to tell me?" said the principal quietly. "Why did Miss Ames send you to me?" "I don't know where to begin," complained Sarah forlornly. "Don't be afraid--there is nothing to be afraid of," said Mr. Oliver. "Just tell me everything that has happened and I promise to listen to you and believe you." Sarah, as Doctor Hugh had discovered, was morally not very brave. She was afraid of people and though the Willis will was as strong in her as in any of the others, she would not come out openly and demand her way. Rather Sarah would do as she pleased and shirk the consequences wherever possible. The doctor had had several little talks with her on this subject of fear and he was gradually teaching her to acknowledge her mistakes and wrong doings and patiently explaining at every opportunity the rules of fair play. "It is both cowardly and contemptible to let someone else be blamed for what you have done," he said once to her. "I understand that you are not really a coward, Sarah--you have to fight an extra enemy called Fear. So when you do wrong and see a chance to escape blame and punishment and refuse to wriggle out, you are really braver than the girl who isn't afraid to say she did it. And every time you conquer Fear, Sarah, you've made the next conquest easier. You'll find that is so."