Little Women quotes

“Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents,” grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.

“It’s so dreadful to be poor!” sighed Meg, looking down at her old dress.

“Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents,” grumbled Jo, lying on the rug.

“It’s so dreadful to be poor!” sighed Meg, looking down at her old dress.

“I don’t think it’s fair for some girls to have plenty of pretty things, and other girls nothing at all,” added little Amy, with an injured sniff.

“

If you mean libel, I’d say so, and not talk about labels, as if papa was a pickle-bottle

,” advised Jo, laughing.

“I’m not! and if turning up my hair makes me one, I’ll wear it in two tails till I’m twenty,” cried Jo, pulling off her net, and shaking down a chestnut mane. “

I hate to think I’ve got to grow up, and be Miss March, and wear long gowns, and look as prim as a China-aster!

It’s bad enough to be a girl, anyway, when I like boys’ games and work and manners! I can’t get over my disappointment in not being a boy;

“

I’m the man of the family now papa is away

, and I shall provide the slippers, for he told me to take special care of mother while he was gone.”

Everybody sniffed when they came to that part;

Jo wasn’t ashamed of the great tear that dropped off the end of her nose

, and Amy never minded the rumpling of her curls as she hid her face on her mother’s shoulder and sobbed out, “I am a selfish girl! but I’ll truly try to be better, so he mayn’t be disappointed in me by and by.”

“

We never are too old for this, my dear, because it is a play we are playing all the time in one way or another.

Our burdens are here, our road is before us, and the longing for goodness and happiness is the guide that leads us through many troubles and mistakes to the peace which is a true Celestial City.

“

Funny angels in hoods and mittens

,” said Jo, and set them laughing.

“You must have gloves, or I won’t go,” cried Meg decidedly. “

Gloves are more important than anything else; you can’t dance without them

, and if you don’t I should be so mortified.”

“Yes, yes, spandy nice, and Meg has cologne on hers,” cried Jo, adding, with a laugh, as they went on, “

I do believe Marmee would ask that if we were all running away from an earthquake.

”

“

I can’t thrash Aunt March, so I suppose I shall have to bear it

”; and Jo resigned herself with a sigh.

“

Oh, dear, what a blunderbuss I am!

” exclaimed Jo, finishing Meg’s glove by scrubbing her gown with it.

“

I don’t believe fine young ladies enjoy themselves a bit more than we do, in spite of our burnt hair, old gowns, one glove apiece, and tight slippers that sprain our ankles when we are silly enough to wear them.

” And I think Jo was quite right.

“

I like good strong words, that mean something

,” replied Jo, catching her hat as it took a leap off her head, preparatory to flying away altogether.

“Lucky for you I am; for if I put on crushed airs, and tried to be dismal, as you do, we should be in a nice state.

Thank goodness, I can always find something funny to keep me up.

Don’t croak any more, but come home jolly, there’s a dear.”

Josy-phine!” and she had to leave her paradise to wind yarn, wash the poodle, or read Belsham’s Essays by the hour together.

Jo’s ambition was to do something very splendid; what it was she had no idea, as yet, but left it for time to tell her

; and, meanwhile, found her greatest affliction in the fact that she couldn’t read, run, and ride as much as she liked.

“Never take advice!

Can’t keep still all day, and, not being a pussycat, I don’t like to doze by the fire. I like adventures, and I’m going to find some.

”

her face is right opposite, and it looks so sweet behind the flowers, I can’t help watching it. I haven’t got any mother, you know;” and Laurie poked the fire to hide a little twitching of the lips that he could not control.

The solitary, hungry look in his eyes went straight to Jo’s warm heart.

She had been so simply taught that there was no nonsense in her head, and at fifteen she was as innocent and frank as any child. Laurie was sick and lonely;

“

A fellow can’t live on books

,” said Laurie, shaking his head, as he perched on a table opposite.

That answer pleased the old gentleman; he gave a short laugh, shook hands with her, and, putting his finger under her chin, turned up her face, examined it gravely, and let it go, saying, with a nod, “

You’ve got your grandfather’s spirit, if you haven’t his face.

He was a fine man, my dear; but, what is better, he was a brave and an honest one, and I was proud to be his friend.”

… long and stormy war, had made a bonfire of the confiscated novels and newspapers, had suppressed a private post-office, had forbidden distortions of the face, nicknames, and caricatures, and done all that one man could do to keep half a hundred rebellious girls in order.

Boys are trying enough to human patience, goodness knows! but girls are infinitely more so

, especially to nervous gentlemen, with tyrannical tempers, and no more talent for teaching than Dr. Blimber. Mr. Davis knew any quantity of Greek, Latin, Algebra, and ologies of all sorts, so he was called a fine teacher;

“but I’m not sure that it won’t do you more good than a milder method. You are getting to be rather conceited, my dear, and it is quite time you set about correcting it.

You have a good many little gifts and virtues, but there is no need of parading them, for conceit spoils the finest genius.

There is not much danger that real talent or goodness will be overlooked long; even if it is, the consciousness of possessing and using it well should satisfy one, and the great charm of all power is modesty.”

her anger never lasted long, and, having humbly confessed her fault, she sincerely repented, and tried to do better. Her sisters used to say that they rather liked to get Jo into a fury, because she was such an angel afterward.

Poor Jo tried desperately to be good, but her bosom enemy was always ready to flame up and defeat her; and it took years of patient effort to subdue it.

When they got home, they found Amy reading in the parlor. She assumed an injured air as they came in; never lifted her eyes from her book, or asked a single question.

Although the oldest, Jo had the least self-control, and had hard times trying to curb the fiery spirit which was continually getting her into trouble; her anger never lasted long, and, having humbly confessed her fault, she sincerely repented, and tried to do better.

Her sisters used to say that they rather liked to get Jo into a fury, because she was such an angel afterward.

Poor Jo tried desperately to be good, but her bosom enemy was always ready to flame up and defeat her; and it took years of patient effort to subdue it.

“

My dear, don’t let the sun go down upon your anger; forgive each other, help each other, and begin again tomorrow.

”

“

It’s my dreadful temper! I try to cure it; I think I have, and then it breaks out worse than ever.

O mother, what shall I do? what shall I do?” cried poor Jo, in despair.

“

I’ve been trying to cure it for forty years, and have only succeeded in controlling it.

I am angry nearly every day of my life, Jo; but I have learned not to show it; and I still hope to learn not to feel it, though it may take me another forty years to do so.”

“I’ve been trying to cure it for forty years, and have only succeeded in controlling it.

I am angry nearly every day of my life, Jo; but I have learned not to show it; and I still hope to learn not to feel it, though it may take me another forty years to do so.

”

“No, I wouldn’t; for the smart caps won’t match the plain gowns, without any trimming on them.

Poor folks shouldn’t rig

,” said Jo decidedly.

“

I don’t like fuss and feathers.

”

“

Pin it round your neck, and then it will be useful

,” said Laurie, looking down at the little blue boots, which he evidently approved of.

“It does seem pleasant to be quiet, and not have company manners on all the time.

Home is a nice place, though it isn’t splendid

,” said Meg, looking about her with a restful expression, as she sat with her mother and Jo on the Sunday evening.

Money is a needful and precious thing—and, when well used, a noble thing—but I never want you to think it is the first or only prize to strive for.

I’d rather see you poor men’s wives, if you were happy, beloved, contented, than queens on thrones, without self-respect and peace.

”

In fact it was an immense relief to them all to have a little work, and they took hold with a will, but soon realized the truth of Hannah’s saying, “

Housekeeping ain’t no joke.

” There was plenty of food in the larder, and, while Beth and Amy set the table, Meg and Jo got breakfast, wondering, as they did so, why servants ever talked about hard work.

So Meg gave her the easy-chair, and tried to entertain her, while she asked questions, criticised everything, and told stories of the people whom she knew.

Language cannot describe the anxieties, experiences, and exertions which Jo underwent that morning; and the dinner she served up became a standing joke.

Fearing to ask any more advice, she did her best alone, and discovered that something more than energy and goodwill is necessary to make a cook.

The bread burnt black; for the salad-dressing so aggravated her, that she let everything else go till she had convinced herself that she could not make it fit to eat.

The lobster was a scarlet mystery to her, but she hammered and poked, till it was unshelled, and its meagre proportions concealed in a grove of lettuce-leaves.

The potatoes had to be hurried, not to keep the asparagus waiting, and were not done at last. The blancmange was lumpy, and the strawberries not as ripe as they looked, having been skilfully “deaconed.”

“Here lies Pip March, Who died the 7th of June; Loved and lamented sore, And not forgotten soon.”

At the conclusion of the ceremonies, Beth retired to her room, overcome with emotion and lobster; but there was no place of repose, for the beds were not made, and she found her grief much assuaged by beating up pillows and putting things in order.

Meg helped Jo clear away the remains of the feast, which took half the afternoon, and left them so tired that they agreed to be contented with tea and toast for supper.

“Then let me advise you to take up your little burdens again; for though they seem heavy sometimes, they are good for us, and lighten as we learn to carry them.

Work is wholesome, and there is plenty for everyone; it keeps us from ennui and mischief, is good for health and spirits, and gives us a sense of power and independence better than money or fashion.

”

only don’t go to the other extreme, and delve like slaves. Have regular hours for work and play; make each day both useful and pleasant, and prove that you understand the worth of time by employing it well.

Then youth will be delightful, old age will bring few regrets, and life become a beautiful success, in spite of poverty.

”

“That’s my good girl; you do try to fight off your shyness, and I love you for it.

Fighting faults isn’t easy, as I know; and a cheery word kind of gives a lift.

Thank you, mother,” and Jo gave the thin cheek a grateful kiss, more precious to Mrs. March than if it had given back the rosy roundness of her youth.

“Don’t praise me, Meg, for I could box his ears this minute.

I should certainly have boiled over if I hadn’t stayed among the nettles till I got my rage under enough to hold my tongue.

It’s simmering now, so I hope he’ll keep out of my way,” returned Jo, biting her lips, as she glowered at Fred from under her big hat.

“You’ll get there, Beth, sooner or later; no fear of that,” said Jo; “

I’m the one that will have to fight and work, and climb and wait, and maybe never get in after all.

”

Something in the boy’s face troubled his little friend; but she said cheerfully, with her quiet eyes on the changing clouds, “

If people really want to go, and really try all their lives, I think they will get in; for I don’t believe there are any locks on that door, or any guards at the gate.

I always imagine it is as it is in the picture, where the shining ones stretch out their hands to welcome poor Christian as he comes up from the river.”

“

We’re an ambitious set, aren’t we? Every one of us, but Beth, wants to be rich and famous, and gorgeous in every respect.

I do wonder if any of us will ever get our wishes,” said Laurie, chewing grass, like a meditative calf.

“

I’ve got the key to my castle in the air; but whether I can unlock the door remains to be seen,

” observed Jo mysteriously.

“Never till I’m stiff and old, and have to use a crutch.

Don’t try to make me grow up before my time, Meg: it’s hard enough to have you change all of a sudden; let me be a little girl as long as I can.

”

Writing, thinking, and directing, all at once, might well bewilder the poor lady, and Meg begged her to sit quietly in her room for a little while, and let them work.

Everyone scattered like leaves before a gust of wind; and the quiet, happy household was broken up as suddenly as if the paper had been an evil spell.

Mr. Laurence came hurrying back with Beth, bringing every comfort the kind old gentleman could think of for the invalid, and friendliest promises of protection for the girls during the mother’s absence, which comforted her very much.

As everyone exclaimed, and Beth hugged the cropped head tenderly, Jo assumed an indifferent air, which did not deceive anyone a particle, and said, rumpling up the brown bush, and trying to look as if she liked it, “

It doesn’t affect the fate of the nation, so don’t wail, Beth.

It will be good for my vanity; I was getting too proud of my wig. It will do my brains good to have that mop taken off;

“I’m not sorry,” protested Jo, with a choke. “I’d do it again tomorrow, if I could. It’s only the vain, selfish part of me that goes and cries in this silly way. Don’t tell anyone, it’s all over now.

I thought you were asleep, so I just made a little private moan for my one beauty.

How came you to be awake?”

As she lifted the curtain to look out into the dreary night, the moon broke suddenly from behind the clouds, and shone upon her like a bright, benignant face, which seemed to whisper in the silence, “

Be comforted, dear soul! There is always light behind the clouds.

”

Don’t grieve and fret when I am gone, or think that you can comfort yourselves by being idle and trying to forget. Go on with your work as usual, for work is a blessed solace.

Hope and keep busy; and whatever happens, remember that you never can be fatherless.

”

“

I’m here. Hold on to me, Jo, dear!

”

“Oh, yes; she tries to, but she can’t love Bethy as I do; and she won’t miss her as I shall.

Beth is my conscience, and I can’t give her up.

I can’t! I can’t!”

“Yes; but I have more faith in the corner of the big closet.

Wear your ring, dear, and do your best; I think you will prosper, for the sincere wish to be good is half the battle.

Now I must go back to Beth. Keep up your heart, little daughter, and we will soon have you home again.”

Meg will be absorbed, and no good to me any more; Brooke will scratch up a fortune somehow, carry her off, and make a hole in the family; and I shall break my heart, and everything will be abominably uncomfortable.

Oh, dear me! why weren’t we all boys, then there wouldn’t be any bother.

”

“She’ll see his in those handsome eyes that she talks about, and then it will be all up with her.

She’s got such a soft heart, it will melt like butter in the sun if anyone looks sentimentally at her.

She read the short reports he sent more than she did your letters, and pinched me when I spoke of it, and likes brown eyes, and doesn’t think John an ugly name, and she’ll go and fall in love, and there’s an end of peace …

“Well, I won’t; but I hate to see things going all crisscross and getting snarled up, when a pull here and a snip there would straighten it out.

I wish wearing flatirons on our heads would keep us from growing up.

But buds will be roses, and kittens, cats—more’s the pity!”

“You hussy, how dare you talk in that way? Where’s your respect for me, and your proper bringing up?

Bless the boys and girls! What torments they are; yet we can’t do without them,

” he said, pinching her cheeks good-humoredly. “Go and bring that boy down to his dinner, tell him it’s all right, and advise him not to put on tragedy airs with his grandfather. I won’t bear it.”

“

I keep turning over new leaves, and spoiling them, as I used to spoil my copybooks; and I make so many beginnings there never will be an end,

” he said dolefully.

“Go and eat your dinner; you’ll feel better after it.

Men always croak when they are hungry,

” and Jo whisked out at the front door after that.

“

I’m so full of happiness, that, if father was only here, I couldn’t hold one drop more,

” said Beth, quite sighing with contentment as Jo carried her off to the study to rest after the excitement, and to refresh herself with some of the delicious grapes the “Jungfrau” had sent her.

said Mrs. March gratefully, as her eyes went from her husband’s letter to Beth’s smiling face, and her hand caressed the brooch made of gray and golden, chestnut and dark brown hair, which the girls had just fastened on her breast.

Now and then, in this work-a-day world, things do happen in the delightful storybook fashion, and what a comfort that is.

Half an hour after everyone had said they were so happy they could only hold one drop more, the drop came. Laurie opened the parlor door, and popped his head in very quietly.

also why Mrs. March gently nodded her head, and asked, rather abruptly, if he wouldn’t have something to eat. Jo saw and understood the look; and she stalked grimly away to get wine and beef-tea, muttering to herself, as she slammed the door, “

I hate estimable young men with brown eyes!

”

Now Aunt March possessed in perfection the art of rousing the spirit of opposition in the gentlest people, and enjoyed doing it.

The best of us have a spice of perversity in us, especially when we are young and in love.

If Aunt March had begged Meg to accept John Brooke, she would probably have declared she couldn’t think of it; but as she was peremptorily ordered not to like him, she immediately made up her mind that she would.

for to him the busy, anxious women always turned in troublous times, finding him, in the truest sense of those sacred words, husband and father.

The girls gave their hearts into their mother’s keeping, their souls into their father’s;

and to both parents, who lived and labored so faithfully for them, they gave a love that grew with their growth, and bound them tenderly together by the sweetest tie which blesses life and outlives death.

It takes people a long time to learn the difference between talent and genius, especially ambitious young men and women.

Amy was learning this distinction through much tribulation; for, mistaking enthusiasm for inspiration, she attempted every branch of art with youthful audacity.

Fortune suddenly smiled upon Jo, and dropped a good-luck penny in her path.

Not a golden penny, exactly, but I doubt if half a million would have given more real happiness than did the little sum that came to her in this wise.

“The Duke’s Daughter” paid the butcher’s bill, “A Phantom Hand” put down a new carpet, and the “Curse of the Coventrys” proved the blessing of the Marches in the way of groceries and gowns.

Wealth is certainly a most desirable thing, but poverty has its sunny side, and one of the sweet uses of adversity is the genuine satisfaction which comes from hearty work of head or hand;

and to the inspiration of necessity, we owe half the wise, beautiful, and useful blessings of the world.

“Now I must either bundle it back into my tin-kitchen to mould, pay for printing it myself, or chop it up to suit purchasers, and get what I can for it.

Fame is a very good thing to have in the house, but cash is more convenient

; so I wish to take the sense of the meeting on this important subject,” said Jo, calling a family council.

So, with Spartan firmness, the young authoress laid her firstborn on her table, and chopped it up as ruthlessly as any ogre.

In the hope of pleasing everyone, she took everyone’s advice; and, like the old man and his donkey in the fable, suited nobody.

Her father liked the metaphysical streak which had unconsciously got into it; so that was allowed to remain, though she had her doubts about it. Her mother thought that there was a trifle too much description;

“

Not being a genius, like Keats, it won’t kill me,

” she said stoutly; “and I’ve got the joke on my side, after all;

But, although they had had company from time to time, it never happened to be unexpected, and Meg had never had an opportunity to distinguish herself till now.

It always happens so in this vale of tears; there is an inevitability about such things which we can only wonder at, deplore, and bear as we best can.

If John had not forgotten all about the jelly, it really would have been unpardonable in him to choose that day, of all the days in the year, to bring a friend home to dinner unexpectedly.

“

Because they are mean is no reason why I should be.

I hate such things, and though I think I’ve a right to be hurt, I don’t intend to show it. They will feel that more than angry speeches or huffy actions, won’t they, Marmee?”

Amy stood a minute, turning the leaves in her hand, reading on each some sweet rebuke for all heartburnings and uncharitableness of spirit.

Many wise and true sermons are preached us every day by unconscious ministers in street, school, office, or home; even a fair-table may become a pulpit, if it can offer the good and helpful words which are never out of season.

Amy’s conscience preached her a little sermon from that text, then and there; and she did what many of us do not always do—took the sermon to heart, and straightway put it in practice.

“Sensible girls, for whom I do care whole papers of pins, won’t let me send them ‘flowers and things,’ so what can I do?

My feelings must have a went.

”

“

Ah, that depends on who wears the apron!

” and Laurie gave an audacious tweak at the tassel.

As she departed, Mr. Dashwood put up his feet, with the graceful remark, “

Poor and proud, as usual, but she’ll do.

”

plain and peculiar, yet his face looked beautiful to many, and his oddities were freely forgiven for his sake. Jo often watched him, trying to discover the charm, and, at last, decided that it was benevolence which worked the miracle.

If he had any sorrow, “it sat with its head under its wing,” and he turned only his sunny side to the world.

There were lines upon his forehead, but Time seemed to have touched him gently, remembering how kind he was to others. The pleasant curves about his mouth were the memorials of many friendly words and cheery laughs;

that religion was in a fair way to be reasoned into nothingness, and intellect was to be the only God.

Jo knew nothing about philosophy or metaphysics of any sort, but a curious excitement, half pleasurable, half painful, came over her, as she listened with a sense of being turned adrift into time and space, like a young balloon out on a holiday.

She looked round to see how the Professor liked it, and found him looking at her with the grimmest expression she had ever seen him wear. He shook his head, and beckoned her to come away;

She did neither; but she remembered this scene, and gave the Professor her heartiest respect, for she knew it cost him an effort to speak out then and there, because his conscience would not let him be silent.

She began to see that character is a better possession than money, rank, intellect, or beauty; and to feel that if greatness is what a wise man has defined it to be, “truth, reverence, and goodwill,” then her friend Friedrich Bhaer was not only good, but great.

This belief strengthened daily. She valued his esteem, she coveted his respect, she wanted to be worthy of his friendship; and, just when the wish was sincerest, she came near losing everything. It all grew out of a cocked hat;

“

There is a demand for whiskey, but I think you and I do not care to sell it.

If the respectable people knew what harm they did, they would not feel that the living was honest. They haf no right to put poison in the sugarplum, and let the small ones eat it. No;

“There is a demand for whiskey, but I think you and I do not care to sell it. If the respectable people knew what harm they did, they would not feel that the living was honest.

They haf no right to put poison in the sugarplum, and let the small ones eat it.

No; they should think a little, and sweep mud in the street before they do this thing.”

“I think I haven’t done much harm yet, and may keep this to pay for my time,” she said, after a long meditation, adding impatiently, “

I almost wish I hadn’t any conscience, it’s so inconvenient.

If I didn’t care about doing right, and didn’t feel uncomfortable when doing wrong, I should get on capitally. I can’t help wishing sometimes, that father and mother hadn’t been so particular about such things.”

“

So are women; don’t blame John till you see where you are wrong yourself.

”

That is the secret of our home happiness: he does not let business wean him from the little cares and duties that affect us all, and I try not to let domestic worries destroy my interest in his pursuits.

Each do our part alone in many things, but at home we work together, always.

”

Then I’d try to take an interest in whatever John likes—talk with him, let him read to you, exchange ideas, and help each other in that way.

Don’t shut yourself up in a bandbox because you are a woman, but understand what is going on, and educate yourself to take your part in the world’s work, for it all affects you and yours.

”

“That’s just why—because talent isn’t genius, and no amount of energy can make it so.

I want to be great, or nothing. I won’t be a commonplace dauber, so I don’t intend to try any more.

”

“

I’m never angry with you. It takes two flints to make a fire: you are as cool and soft as snow.

”

I don’t pretend to be wise, but I am observing, and I see a great deal more than you’d imagine. I’m interested in other people’s experiences and inconsistencies; and, though I can’t explain, I remember and use them for my own benefit.

Love Jo all your days, if you choose, but don’t let it spoil you, for it’s wicked to throw away so many good gifts because you can’t have the one you want.

There, I won’t lecture any more, for I know you’ll wake up and be a man in spite of that hard-hearted girl.”

“It’s just what you need to bring out the tender, womanly half of your nature, Jo.

You are like a chestnut-burr, prickly outside, but silky-soft within, and a sweet kernel, if one can only get at it.

Love will make you show your heart some day, and then the rough burr will fall off.”

“

Frost opens chestnut-burrs, ma’am, and it takes a good shake to bring them down. Boys go nutting, and I don’t care to be bagged by them,

” returned Jo, pasting away at the kite which no wind that blows would ever carry up, for Daisy had tied herself on as a bob.

Now, if she had been the heroine of a moral storybook, she ought at this period of her life to have become quite saintly, renounced the world, and gone about doing good in a mortified bonnet, with tracts in her pocket.

But, you see, Jo wasn’t a heroine; she was only a struggling human girl, like hundreds of others, and she just acted out her nature, being sad, cross, listless, or energetic, as the mood suggested.

It’s highly virtuous to say we’ll be good, but we can’t do it all at once, and it takes a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull all together, before some of us even get our feet set in the right way.

But, you see, Jo wasn’t a heroine; she was only a struggling human girl, like hundreds of others, and she just acted out her nature, being sad, cross, listless, or energetic, as the mood suggested.

It’s highly virtuous to say we’ll be good, but we can’t do it all at once, and it takes a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull all together, before some of us even get our feet set in the right way.

Jo had got so far, she was learning to do her duty, and to feel unhappy if she did not; but to do it cheerfully—ah, that was another thing! She had often said she wanted to do something splendid, no matter how hard;

“

Mothers have need of sharp eyes and discreet tongues when they have girls to manage.

I was half afraid to put the idea into your head, lest you should write and congratulate them before the thing was settled.”

“

Mothers are the best lovers in the world; but I don’t mind whispering to Marmee that I’d like to try all kinds.

It’s very curious, but the more I try to satisfy myself with all sorts of natural affections, the more I seem to want. I’d no idea hearts could take in so many;

“

Wait for me, my friend. I may be a little late, but I shall surely come.

”

“

Oh, if he only would! So kind, so good, so patient with me always; my dear old Fritz, I didn’t value him half enough when I had him, but now how I should love to see him, for everyone seems going away from me, and I’m all alone.

”

And holding the little paper fast, as if it were a promise yet to be fulfilled, Jo laid her head down on a comfortable ragbag, and cried, as if in opposition to the rain pattering on the roof.

Was it all self-pity, loneliness, or low spirits? or was it the waking up of a sentiment which had bided its time as patiently as its inspirer? Who shall say?

Her face looked tired, grave, and rather sad; for tomorrow was her birthday, and she was thinking how fast the years went by, how old she was getting, and how little she seemed to have accomplished.

Almost twenty-five, and nothing to show for it.

Jo was mistaken in that; there was a good deal to show, and by and by she saw, and was grateful for it.

“

An old maid, that’s what I’m to be. A literary spinster, with a pen for a spouse, a family of stories for children, and twenty years hence a morsel of fame, perhaps; when, like poor Johnson, I’m old, and can’t enjoy it, solitary, and can’t share it, independent, and don’t need it.

Well, I needn’t be a sour saint nor a selfish sinner; and, I dare say, old maids are very comfortable when they get used to it; but—” and there Jo sighed, as if the prospect was not inviting.

“I don’t mind telling you that she does, now; at least I let her think so—it pleases her, you know.

By and by we shall take turns, for marriage, they say, halves one’s rights and doubles one’s duties.

”

“Well, she does it so imperceptibly that I don’t think I shall mind much.

She is the sort of woman who knows how to rule well; in fact, I rather like it, for she winds one round her finger as softly and prettily as a skein of silk, and makes you feel as if she was doing you a favor all the while.

”

and Jo liked it rampantly erect better than flat, because she thought it gave his fine forehead a Jove-like aspect.

Poor Jo, how she did glorify that plain man, as she sat knitting away so quietly, yet letting nothing escape her, not even the fact that Mr. Bhaer actually had gold sleeve-buttons in his immaculate wristbands!

“Dear old fellow! He couldn’t have got himself up with more care if he’d been going a-wooing,” said Jo to herself;

“Am I an idiot and a brute? How could I think so, when you refused a richer man for me, and won’t let me give you half I want to now, when I have the right?

Girls do it every day, poor things, and are taught to think it is their only salvation; but you had better lessons, and, though I trembled for you at one time, I was not disappointed, for the daughter was true to the mother’s teaching.

I told mamma so yesterday, and she looked as glad and grateful as if I’d given her a check for a million, to be spent in charity. You are not listening to my moral remarks, Mrs. Laurence;”

“And so you shall, like an angel as you are!” cried Laurie, resolving, with a glow of philanthropic zeal, to found and endow an institution for the express benefit of young women with artistic tendencies. “

Rich people have no right to sit down and enjoy themselves, or let their money accumulate for others to waste.

It’s not half so sensible to leave legacies when one dies as it is to use the money wisely while alive, and enjoy making one’s fellow-creatures happy with it.

It’s not half so sensible to leave legacies when one dies as it is to use the money wisely while alive, and enjoy making one’s fellow-creatures happy with it.

We’ll have a good time ourselves, and add an extra relish to our own pleasure by giving other people a generous taste.

Will you be a little Dorcas, going about emptying a big basket of comforts, and filling it up with good deeds?”

also a basket hung over the back of a big chair, in which he vainly tried to hoist his too confiding sister, who, with feminine devotion, allowed her little head to be bumped till rescued, when the young inventor indignantly remarked,

“Why, marmar, dat’s my lellywaiter, and me’s trying to pull her up.”

Though utterly unlike in character, the twins got on remarkably well together, and seldom quarrelled more than thrice a day. Of course, Demi tyrannized over Daisy, and gallantly defended her from every other aggressor;

Everyone was a friend, and she offered kisses to a stranger so confidingly that the most inveterate bachelor relented, and baby-lovers became faithful worshippers.

“Me loves evvybody,” she once said, opening her arms, with her spoon in one hand, and her mug in the other, as if eager to embrace and nourish the whole world.

As she grew, her mother began to feel that the Dovecote would be blest by the presence of an inmate as serene and loving as that which had helped to make the old house home, and to pray that she might be spared a loss …

Demi felt of his back, as if expecting to find it like that of the watch, and then gravely remarked—

“I dess Dod does it when I’s asleep.”

A careful explanation followed, to which he listened so attentively that his anxious grandmother said—

“Yes, truly; anything you say,” replies the shortsighted parent, preparing herself to sing “The Three Little Kittens” half a dozen times over, or to take her family to “Buy a penny bun,” regardless of wind or limb. But Demi corners her by the cool reply—

“Then we’ll go and eat up all the raisins.”

Aunt Dodo was chief playmate and confidante of both children, and the trio turned the little house topsy-turvy.

But when Mr. Bhaer came, Jo neglected her playfellows, and dismay and desolation fell upon their little souls.

Daisy, who was fond of going about peddling kisses, lost her best customer and became bankrupt;

Demi, with infantile penetration, soon discovered that Dodo liked to play with “the bear-man” better than she did with him;

Gentlemen are sometimes seized with sudden fits of admiration for the young relatives of ladies whom they honor with their regard; but this counterfeit philoprogenitiveness sits uneasily upon them, and does not deceive anybody a particle.

Mr. Bhaer’s devotion was sincere, however likewise effective⁠—for honesty is the best policy in love as in law;

he was one of the men who are at home with children, and looked particularly well when little faces made a pleasant contrast with his manly one.

“You precocious chick! Who put that into your head?” said Jo, enjoying the innocent revelations as much as the Professor.

“ ’Tisn’t in mine head; it’s in mine mouf,” answered literal Demi, putting out his tongue, with a chocolate-drop on it, thinking she alluded to confectionery, not ideas.

“Thou shouldst save some for the little friend: sweets to the sweet, mannling;” and Mr. Bhaer offered Jo some, with a look that made her wonder if chocolate was not the nectar drunk by the gods.

and no one seemed to have the slightest suspicion that Professor Bhaer, while talking philosophy with the father, was giving the daughter lessons in love.

Jo couldn’t even lose her heart in a decorous manner, but sternly tried to quench her feelings; and, failing to do so, led a somewhat agitated life.

She was mortally afraid of being laughed at for surrendering, after her many and vehement declarations of independence. Laurie was her especial dread; but, thanks to the new manager, he behaved with praiseworthy propriety, never called Mr.