BEFORE YOU READ

• How do we judge the people around us — by their money, wealth

and possessions? Or is there something of more enduring value
to look for in a person?
• This story is a sensitive account of how a poor young girl is
judged by her classmates. Wanda Petronski is a young Polish
girl who goes to school with other American children in an American
town. These other children see Wanda as ‘different’ in many
ways. Can you guess how they treat her?
• Read the information in the box below. Find out more about this
community (or about a related topic) from an encyclopedia, or
the Internet.

The Polish-American Community

in the United States
The first Polish immigrants arrived in America in 1608, but
the largest wave of Polish immigration occurred in the early
twentieth century, when more than one million Poles migrated
to the United States. The Polish State did not exist at that
time, and the immigrants were identified according to their
country of origin rather than to ethnicity. They were identified
as Russian Poles, German Poles and Austrian Poles.
One of the most notable Polish-American communities
is in Chicago and its suburbs; so Chicago is sometimes called
the second largest ‘Polish’ city in the world, next only to
Warsaw, the capital of Poland. Polish-Americans were
sometimes discriminated against in the United States, as
were the Irish, Italians, and Jews.
According to the United States 2000 Census, 667,414
Americans of age five years and older reported Polish as the
language spoken at home, which is about 1.4 per cent of
the people who speak languages other than English, or
0.25 per cent of the U.S. population.
 TODAY , Monday, Wanda Petronski was not in her
seat. But nobody, not even Peggy and Madeline, the
girls who started all the fun, noticed her absence.
Usually Wanda sat in the seat next to the last seat
in the last row in Room Thirteen. She sat in the
corner of the room where the rough boys who did
not make good marks sat, the corner of the room
where there was most scuffling of feet, most roars scuffling of feet
of laughter when anything funny was said, and most noisy, dragging
mud and dirt on the floor. movements of the
feet on the ground
Wanda did not sit there because she was rough
and noisy. On the contrary, she was very quiet and
rarely said anything at all. And nobody had ever
heard her laugh out loud. Sometimes she twisted
her mouth into a crooked sort of smile, but that
was all.
Nobody knew exactly why Wanda sat in that seat,
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unless it was because she came all the way from

Boggins Heights and her feet were usually caked
with dry mud. But no one really thought much
about Wanda Petronski, once she sat in the corner
of the room.
64 The time when they thought about Wanda was
outside of school hours — at noon-time when they
were coming back to school or in the morning early
before school began, when groups of two or three,
or even more, would be talking and laughing on
their way to the school yard.
Then, sometimes, they waited for Wanda — to
have fun with her.
The next day, Tuesday, Wanda was not in school,
either. And nobody noticed her absence again.
But on Wednesday, Peggy and Maddie, who sat
down front with other children who got good marks
and who didn’t track in a whole lot of mud, did
notice that Wanda wasn’t there. Peggy was the most
popular girl in school. She was pretty, she had
many pretty clothes and her hair was curly. Maddie
was her closest friend. The reason Peggy and Maddie
noticed Wanda’s absence was because Wanda had
made them late to school. They had waited and
waited for Wanda, to have some fun with her, and
she just hadn’t come.
They often waited for Wanda Petronski — to have
fun with her.
Oral Comprehension Check
1. Where in the classroom does Wanda sit and why?
2. Where does Wanda live? What kind of a place do you think it is?
3. When and why do Peggy and Maddie notice Wanda’s absence?
4. What do you think “to have fun with her” means?

Wanda Petronski. Most of the children in Room

Thirteen didn’t have names like that. They had
names easy to say, like Thomas, Smith or Allen.
There was one boy named Bounce, Willie Bounce,
and people thought that was funny, but not funny
in the same way that Petronski was.
Wanda didn’t have any friends. She came to
school alone and went home alone. She always
wore a faded blue dress that didn’t hang right. It didn’t hang right
was clean, but it looked as though it had never didn’t fit properly
been ironed properly. She didn’t have any friends, 65
but a lot of girls talked to her. Sometimes, they
surrounded her in the school yard as she stood
watching the little girls play hopscotch on the worn hopscotch
hard ground. a game in which
children hop into and
“Wanda,” Peggy would say in a most courteous over squares marked
manner as though she were talking to Miss Mason. on the ground
“Wanda,” she’d say, giving one of her friends a nudge, nudge The Hundred Dresses ñI
“tell us. How many dresses did you say you had a gentle push
hanging up in your closet?”
 “A hundred,” Wanda would say.
“A hundred!” exclaimed all the little girls
incredulously, and the little ones would stop playing incredulously
hopscotch and listen. showing
unwillingness to
“Yeah, a hundred, all lined up,” said Wanda. believe
Then her thin lips drew together in silence.
“What are they like? All silk, I bet,” said Peggy.
“Yeah, all silk, all colours.”
“Velvet, too?”
“Yeah, velvet too. A hundred dresses,” Wanda
would repeat stolidly. “All lined up in my closet.” stolidly
Then they’d let her go. And then before she’d not showing any
feeling
gone very far, they couldn’t help bursting into
shrieks and peals of laughter.
A hundred dresses! Obviously, the only dress
Wanda had was the blue one she wore every day. So
why did she say she had a hundred? What a story!
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“How many shoes did you say you had?”

“Sixty pairs. All lined up in my closet.”
Cries of exaggerated politeness greeted this. “All
alike?”
“Oh, no. Every pair is different. All colours. All
66 lined up.”
Peggy, who had thought up this game, and
Maddie, her inseparable friend, were always the
last to leave. Finally Wanda would move up the
street, her eyes dull and her mouth closed, hitching
her left shoulder every now and then in the funny
way she had, finishing the walk to school alone.
Peggy was not really cruel. She protected small
children from bullies. And she cried for hours if she bullies
saw an animal mistreated. If anybody had said to those who use their
her, “Don’t you think that is a cruel way to treat strength or power to
frighten weaker
Wanda?” she would have been very surprised. Cruel? people
Why did the girl say she had a hundred dresses?
Anybody could tell that that was a lie. Why did she
want to lie? And she wasn’t just an ordinary person,
else why did she have a name like that? Anyway,
they never made her cry.
As for Maddie, this business of asking Wanda
every day how many dresses and how many hats,
and how many this and that she had was bothering
her. Maddie was poor herself. She usually wore
somebody’s hand-me-down clothes. Thank goodness, hand-me-down
she didn’t live up on Boggins Heights or have a clothes
old clothes, handed
funny name.
down by someone
Sometimes, when Peggy was asking Wanda those else
questions in that mocking polite voice, Maddie felt
mocking
embarrassed and studied the marbles in the palm here, false; meant
of her hand, rolling them around and saying nothing to make fun of
herself. Not that she felt sorry for Wanda, exactly. embarrassed
She would never have paid any attention to Wanda ashamed
if Peggy hadn’t invented the dresses game. But
suppose Peggy and all the others started in on her
next? She wasn’t as poor as Wanda, perhaps, but
she was poor. Of course she would have more sense
than to say she had a hundred dresses. Still she
would not like for them to begin on her. She wished
Peggy would stop teasing Wanda Petronski.
Oral Comprehension Check
1. In what way was Wanda different from the other children? 67
2. Did Wanda have a hundred dresses? Why do you think she said
she did?
3. Why is Maddie embarrassed by the questions Peggy asks Wanda? Is
she also like Wanda, or is she different?

Today, even though they had been late to school,

Maddie was glad she had not had to make fun of The Hundred Dresses ñI
Wanda. She worked her arithmetic problems absent-
mindedly. “Eight times eight — let’s see…” She
wished she had the nerve to write Peggy a note,
because she knew she never would have the courage
to speak right out to Peggy, to say, “Hey, Peg, let’s
stop asking Wanda how many dresses she has.”
When she finished her arithmetic she did start a
note to Peggy. Suddenly she paused and shuddered.
She pictured herself in the school yard, a new target target
for Peggy and the girls. Peggy might ask her where here, a person
deliberately chosen
she got the dress that she had on, and Maddie for attack
would have to say it was one of Peggy’s old ones
that Maddie’s mother had tried to disguise with
 new trimmings so no one in Room Thirteen would
recognise it.
If only Peggy would decide of her own accord to
stop having fun with Wanda. Oh, well! Maddie ran
her hand through her short blonde hair as though to
push the uncomfortable thoughts away. What
difference did it make? Slowly Maddie tore into bits
the note she had started. She was Peggy’s best friend,
and Peggy was the best-liked girl in the whole room.
Peggy could not possibly do anything that was really
wrong, she thought.
As for Wanda, she was just some girl who lived
up on Boggins Heights and stood alone in the school
yard. She scarcely ever said anything to anybody.
The only time she talked was in the school yard about
her hundred dresses. Maddie remembered her telling
about one of her dresses, pale blue with coloured
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trimmings. And she remembered another that was

brilliant jungle green with a red sash. “You’d look
like a Christmas tree in that,” the girls had said in
pretended admiration. pretended
Thinking about Wanda and her hundred dresses not real
68 all lined up in the closet, Maddie began to wonder
who was going to win the drawing and colouring
contest. For girls, this contest consisted of designing
dresses and for boys, of designing motorboats.
Probably Peggy would win the girls’ medal. Peggy drew
better than anyone else in the room. At least, that’s
what everybody thought. She could copy a picture in
a magazine or some film star’s head so that you could
almost tell who it was. Oh, Maddie was sure Peggy
would win. Well, tomorrow the teacher was going to
announce the winners. Then they’d know.
The next day it was drizzling. Maddie and Peggy drizzling
hurried to school under Peggy’s umbrella. Naturally, a very light rain was
falling
on a day like this, they didn’t wait for Wanda
Petronski on the corner of Oliver Street, the street
that far, far away, under the railroad tracks and up
the hill, led to Boggins Heights. Anyway, they
weren’t taking chances on being late today, because
today was important.
 “Do you think Miss Mason will announce the
winners today?” asked Peggy.
“Oh, I hope so, the minute we get in,” said
Maddie. “Of course, you’ll win, Peg.”
“Hope so,” said Peggy eagerly.
The minute they entered the classroom, they
stopped short and gasped. There were drawings all
over the room, on every ledge and windowsill, dazzling
colours and brilliant, lavish designs, all drawn on lavish
great sheets of wrapping paper. There must have been very grand
a hundred of them, all lined up. These must be the
drawings for the contest. They were! Everybody
stopped and whistled or murmured admiringly.
As soon as the class had assembled, Miss Mason
announced the winners. Jack Beggles had won for
the boys, she said, and his design for an outboard
motor was on exhibition in Room Twelve, along with
the sketches by all the other boys.
“As for the girls,” she said, “although just one or
two sketches were submitted by most, one girl —
and Room Thirteen should be proud of her — this 69
one girl actually drew one hundred designs — all
different and all beautiful. In the opinion of the
judges, any one of the drawings is worthy of winning
the prize. I am very happy to say that Wanda
Petronski is the winner of the girls’ medal.

The Hundred Dresses ñI

 Unfortunately, Wanda has been absent from school
for some days and is not here to receive the
applause that is due to her. Let us hope she will be
back tomorrow. Now class, you may file around the
room quietly and look at her exquisite drawings.” exquisite
The children burst into applause, and even the extremely beautiful
and well-made
boys were glad to have a chance to stamp on the
floor, put their fingers in their mouths and whistle, burst into
applause
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though they were not interested in dresses. suddenly and

“Look, Peg,” whispered Maddie. “There’s that blue spontaneously
one she told us about. Isn’t it beautiful?” clapped hands
“Yes,” said Peggy, “And here’s that green one.
Boy, and I thought I could draw.”
70
Oral Comprehension Check
1. Why didn’t Maddie ask Peggie to stop teasing Wanda? What was she
afraid of?
2. Who did Maddie think would win the drawing contest? Why?
3. Who won the drawing contest? What had the winner drawn?

1. How is Wanda seen as different by the other girls? How do they treat her?
2. How does Wanda feel about the dresses game? Why does she say that she
has a hundred dresses?
3. Why does Maddie stand by and not do anything? How is she different from
Peggy? (Was Peggy’s friendship important to Maddie? Why? Which lines in
the text tell you this?)
4. What does Miss Mason think of Wanda’s drawings? What do the children
think of them? How do you know?
I. Look at these sentences
(a) She sat in the corner of the room where the rough boys who did not
make good marks sat, the corner of the room where there was most
scuffling of feet, ...
(b) The time when they thought about Wanda was outside of school hours ...
These italicised clauses help us to identify a set of boys, a place, and a time.
They are answers to the questions ‘What kind of rough boys?’ ‘Which corner
did she sit in?’ and ‘What particular time outside of school hours?’ They are
‘defining’ or ‘restrictive’ relative clauses. (Compare them with the ‘non-
defining’ relative clauses discussed in Unit 1.)
Combine the following to make sentences like those above.
1. This is the bus (what kind of bus?). It goes to Agra. (use which or that)
2. I would like to buy (a) shirt (which shirt?). (The) shirt is in the shop window.
(use which or that)
3. You must break your fast at a particular time (when?). You see the moon
in the sky. (use when)
4. Find a word (what kind of word?). It begins with the letter Z. (use which
or that)
5. Now find a person (what kind of person). His or her name begins with the
letter Z. (use whose) 71
6. Then go to a place (what place?). There are no people whose name begins
with Z in that place. (use where)

II. The Narrative Voice

This story is in the ‘third person’ that is, the narrator is not a participant in
the story. But the narrator often seems to tell the story from the point of
view of one of the characters in the story. For example, look at the italicised
The Hundred Dresses ñI
words in this sentence
Thank goodness, she did not live up on Boggins Heights or have a funny
name.
Whose thoughts do the words ‘Thank goodness’ express? Maddie’s, who is
grateful that although she is poor, she is yet not as poor as Wanda, or as
‘different’. (So she does not get teased; she is thankful about that.)
1. Here are two other sentences from the story. Can you say whose
point of view the italicised words express?
(i) But on Wednesday, Peggy and Maddie, who sat down front with other
children who got good marks and who didn’t track in a whole lot of
mud, did notice that Wanda wasn’t there.
(ii) Wanda Petronski. Most of the children in Room Thirteen didn’t have
names like that. They had names easy to say, like Thomas, Smith
or Allen.
 2. Can you find other such sentences in the story? You can do this
after you read the second part of the story as well.

III. Look at this sentence. The italicised adverb expresses an opinion or point
of view.
Obviously, the only dress Wanda had was the blue one she wore every
day. (This was obvious to the speaker.)
Other such adverbs are apparently, evidently, surprisingly, possibly,
hopefully, incredibly, luckily. Use these words appropriately in the
blanks in the sentences below. (You may use a word more than once,
and more than one word may be appropriate for a given blank.)

1. , he finished his work on time.

2. , it will not rain on the day of the match.

3. , he had been stealing money from his employer.

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4. Television is to blame for the increase in violence in

society.

5. The children will learn from their mistakes.

6. I can’t lend you that much money.

72
7. The thief had been watching the house for many days.

8. The thief escaped by bribing the jailor.

9. , no one had suggested this before.

10. The water was hot.