The first night in the attic. The book tells us it can't possibly relate what Sara goes through. She is kept awake by a very hard bed, can hear the wind howling "like something that wailed aloud" and the mice and rats playing with each other in the walls and running around the floor, to the point that she pulls the cover over her head. On top of this, she has only learned of her father's death that very day.
It was, indeed, well for her that as she lay awake in the darkness her mind was forcibly distracted, now and then, by the strangeness of her surroundings. It was, perhaps, well for her that she was reminded by her small body of material things. If this had not been so, the anguish of her young mind might have been to great for a child to bear. But, really, while the night was passing she scarcely knew that she had a body at all, or remembered any other thing than one.
"My Papa is dead!" she kept whispering to herself. "My Papa is dead!"
Sara walks into her attic, sees Emily and says, "I shall die presently". She says how bad her day has been and then smacks Emily to the ground, letting loose all her pent-up emotions.
"You are nothing but a doll! Nothing but a doll-doll-doll! You care for nothing. You are stuffed with sawdust. You never had a heart. Nothing could ever make you feel. You are a doll!"
Another darker and no less heart breaking layer to this rant is that Sara realises that her Companion Cube is nothing but an inanimate object who can't and won't care if Sara lives or dies.
After venting, Sara cries for a while and slowly sits Emily upright again and apologizes. Goes to show that, no matter how much her pride lets her keep up a good face towards others, she is being horribly broken by her mistreatment.
During the winter, even the small comforts of the attic - the view of the stars and the sunsets - become scarce as it becomes colder and colder, and the women in the kitchen become more ill-tempered. Becky and Sara wrap themselves up and talk to try and distract themselves but it's clearly a struggle.
When Sara tries to control her anger, complaining about how Becky is being accused of having stolen a meatpie when the cook is the culprit, she breaks down crying and Ermengarde is horrified.
"I don't want to be rude, but... are you ever hungry?"
Of course, the 'feast' being discovered by Miss Minchin. She is furious about this behavior and sends Ermengarde away in disgrace, threatens to throw Becky out on the street and Sara to have no meals the next day, although she hasn't eaten all day already. After she's left alone, Sara just crawls into bed and hopes to fall asleep soon, to escape the harsh reality.
