Little Women Read online

  LITTLE WOMEN

  CONTENTS

  PART 1

  ONE PLAYING PILGRIMS

  TWO A MERRY CHRISTMAS

  THREE THE LAURENCE BOY

  FOUR BURDENS

  FIVE BEING NEIGHBORLY

  SIX BETH FINDS THE PALACE BEAUTIFUL

  SEVEN AMY'S VALLEY OF HUMILIATION

  EIGHT JO MEETS APOLLYON

  NINE MEG GOES TO VANITY FAIR

  TEN THE P.C. AND P.O.

  ELEVEN EXPERIMENTS

  TWELVE CAMP LAURENCE

  THIRTEEN CASTLES IN THE AIR

  FOURTEEN SECRETS

  FIFTEEN A TELEGRAM

  SIXTEEN LETTERS

  SEVENTEEN LITTLE FAITHFUL

  EIGHTEEN DARK DAYS

  NINETEEN AMY'S WILL

  TWENTY CONFIDENTIAL

  TWENTY-ONE LAURIE MAKES MISCHIEF, AND JO MAKES PEACE

  TWENTY-TWO PLEASANT MEADOWS

  TWENTY-THREE AUNT MARCH SETTLES THE QUESTION

  PART 2

  TWENTY-FOUR GOSSIP

  TWENTY-FIVE THE FIRST WEDDING

  TWENTY-SIX ARTISTIC ATTEMPTS

  TWENTY-SEVEN LITERARY LESSONS

  TWENTY-EIGHT DOMESTIC EXPERIENCES

  TWENTY-NINE CALLS

  THIRTY CONSEQUENCES

  THIRTY-ONE OUR FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT

  THIRTY-TWO TENDER TROUBLES

  THIRTY-THREE JO'S JOURNAL

  THIRTY-FOUR FRIEND

  THIRTY-FIVE HEARTACHE

  THIRTY-SIX BETH'S SECRET

  THIRTY-SEVEN NEW IMPRESSIONS

  THIRTY-EIGHT ON THE SHELF

  THIRTY-NINE LAZY LAURENCE

  FORTY THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW

  FORTY-ONE LEARNING TO FORGET

  FORTY-TWO ALL ALONE

  FORTY-THREE SURPRISES

  FORTY-FOUR MY LORD AND LADY

  FORTY-FIVE DAISY AND DEMI

  FORTY-SIX UNDER THE UMBRELLA

  FORTY-SEVEN HARVEST TIME

  PART 1

  CHAPTER ONE

  PLAYING PILGRIMS

  "Christmas might not be Christmas without any presents," grumbled Jo, mendacity on the rug.

  "It's so dreadful to be negative!" sighed Meg, looking down at her vintage get dressed.

  "I don't assume it is fair for a few ladies to have plenty of quite matters, and other women not anything at all," added little Amy, with an injured sniff.

  "We've were given Father and Mother, and every different," said Beth contentedly from her nook.

  The four young faces on which the firelight shone brightened on the cheerful words, however darkened once more as Jo stated unfortunately, "We have not got Father, and shall no longer have him for a long term." She did not say "possibly by no means," but every silently delivered it, deliberating Father a long way away, where the fighting turned into.

  Nobody spoke for a minute; then Meg stated in an altered tone, "You understand the reason Mother proposed now not having any offers this Christmas was because it is going to be a difficult winter for everyone; and she or he thinks we ought no longer to spend money for pride, when our men are struggling so inside the navy. We cannot do a good deal, but we are able to make our little sacrifices, and ought to do it gladly. But I am afraid I don't," and Meg shook her head, as she thought regretfully of all the quite things she desired.

  "But I do not suppose the little we should spend might do any properly. We've every got a greenback, and the military would not be a whole lot helped through our giving that. I agree now not to anticipate something from Mother otherwise you, but I do need to shop for Undine and Sintran for myself. I've desired it goodbye," said Jo, who was a bookworm.

  "I planned to spend mine in new music," stated Beth, with a little sigh, which no one heard but the hearth brush and kettle-holder.

  "I shall get a nice field of Faber's drawing pencils; I actually need them," stated Amy decidedly.

  "Mother didn't say anything approximately our money, and he or she won't want us to surrender everything. Let's each purchase what we need, and feature a bit a laugh; I'm positive we paintings tough sufficient to earn it," cried Jo, inspecting the heels of her shoes in a gentlemanly manner.

  "I know I do—teaching those tiresome youngsters almost all day, after I'm longing to experience myself at domestic," began Meg, in the complaining tone again.

  "You don't have 1/2 this type of tough time as I do," stated Jo. "How could you like to be close up for hours with a nervous, fussy old female, who maintains you trotting, is never glad, and worries you till you are geared up to fly out the window or cry?"

  "It's naughty to fret, however I do assume washing dishes and preserving things tidy is the worst paintings within the world. It makes me move, and my hands get so stiff, I cannot exercise well in any respect." And Beth checked out her hard arms with a sigh that any person should listen that point.

  "I don't agree with any of you suffer as I do," cried Amy, "for you do not must go to high school with impertinent women, who plague you if you do not know your lessons, and giggle at your dresses, and label your father if he is not rich, and insult you while your nose is not satisfactory."

  "If you imply libel, I'd say so, and no longer speak about labels, as though Papa became a pickle bottle," recommended Jo, guffawing.

  "I know what I suggest, and also you needn't be statirical about it. It's proper to apply appropriate words, and improve your vocabilary," returned Amy, with dignity.

  "Don't % at each other, youngsters. Don't you wish we had the cash Papa lost whilst we were little, Jo? Dear me! How happy and good we might be, if we had no worries!" stated Meg, who should don't forget higher instances.

  "You said the other day you thought we have been a deal happier than the King youngsters, for they had been fighting and fretting all of the time, no matter their money."

  "So I did, Beth. Well, I assume we are. For though we do should work, we make fun of ourselves, and are a pretty jolly set, as Jo could say."

  "Jo does use such slang phrases!" determined Amy, with a reproving observe the long determine stretched at the rug.

  Jo straight away sat up, placed her palms in her wallet, and began to whistle.

  "Don't, Jo. It's so boyish!"

  "That's why I do it."

  "I detest rude, unladylike ladies!"

  "I hate affected, niminy-piminy chits!"

  "Birds of their little nests agree," sang Beth, the peacemaker, with one of these humorous face that both sharp voices softened to a laugh, and the "pecking" ended for that time.

  "Really, girls, you are each to be blamed," said Meg, beginning to lecture in her elder-sisterly style. "You are vintage enough to leave off boyish tricks, and to behave better, Josephine. It failed to rely so much when you were a bit female, however now you're so tall, and flip up your hair, you must remember that you're a younger woman."

  "I'm now 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 develop up, and be Miss March, and put on lengthy gowns, and appearance as prim as a China Aster! It's bad sufficient to be a woman, besides, once I like boy's video games and paintings and manners! I cannot recover from my unhappiness in now not being a boy. And it's worse than ever now, for I'm demise to go and combat with Papa. And I can handiest stay domestic and knit, like a poky vintage girl!"

  And Jo shook the blue army sock until the needles rattled like castanets, and her ball bounded across the room.

  "Poor Jo! It's too awful, but it cannot be helped. So you should try to be contented with making your call boyish, and playing brother to us ladies," said Beth, stroking the rough head with a hand that every one the dish washing and dusting in the world couldn't make ungentle
in its contact.

  "As for you, Amy," persisted Meg, "you are altogether too specific and prim. Your airs are humorous now, however you'll grow up an affected little goose, in case you do not take care. I like your satisfactory manners and subtle approaches of talking, while you don't attempt to be stylish. But your absurd phrases are as terrible as Jo's slang."

  "If Jo is a tomboy and Amy a goose, what am I, please?" requested Beth, geared up to share the lecture.

  "You're a pricey, and not anything else," answered Meg warmly, and no person contradicted her, for the 'Mouse' was the puppy of the own family.

  As younger readers like to understand 'how people appearance', we are able to take this second to present them a bit sketch of the four sisters, who sat knitting away in the twilight, while the December snow fell quietly without, and the hearth crackled cheerfully inside. It became a at ease room, even though the carpet turned into diminished and the fixtures very undeniable, for an excellent image or two held on the walls, books crammed the recesses, chrysanthemums and Christmas roses bloomed in the home windows, and a nice atmosphere of domestic peace pervaded it.

  Margaret, the eldest of the 4, turned into 16, and really quite, being plump and fair, with large eyes, plenty of gentle brown hair, a candy mouth, and white arms, of which she was rather vain. Fifteen-12 months-antique Jo become very tall, skinny, and brown, and reminded one of a colt, for she never appeared to recognize what to do along with her long limbs, which have been very plenty in her manner. She had a determined mouth, a comical nostril, and sharp, grey eyes, which seemed to see the whole lot, and have been through turns fierce, funny, or thoughtful. Her lengthy, thick hair was her one beauty, but it was normally bundled right into a net, to be out of her manner. Round shoulders had Jo, large arms and feet, a flyaway look to her garments, and the uncomfortable appearance of a woman who changed into swiftly popping up into a woman and didn't adore it. Elizabeth, or Beth, as all of us called her, become a rosy, smooth-haired, vivid-eyed female of thirteen, with a shy way, a timid voice, and a non violent expression which turned into seldom disturbed. Her father known as her 'Little Miss Tranquility', and the call suited her excellently, for she seemed to stay in a happy world of her very own, handiest venturing out to satisfy the few whom she relied on and cherished. Amy, though the youngest, changed into a maximum critical character, in her personal opinion at the least. A regular snow maiden, with blue eyes, and yellow hair curling on her shoulders, faded and narrow, and usually carrying herself like a younger girl mindful of her manners. What the characters of the 4 sisters had been we can go away to be located out.

  The clock struck six and, having swept up the fireplace, Beth put a couple of slippers all the way down to heat. Somehow the sight of the vintage shoes had an amazing impact upon the ladies, for Mother was coming, and absolutely everyone brightened to welcome her. Meg stopped lecturing, and lighted the lamp, Amy got out of the smooth chair with out being asked, and Jo forgot how worn-out she was as she sat up to preserve the slippers nearer to the blaze.

  "They are quite worn out. Marmee need to have a brand new pair."

  "I concept I'd get her a few with my dollar," stated Beth.

  "No, I shall!" cried Amy.

  "I'm the oldest," started Meg, however Jo cut in with a decided, "I'm the man of the family now Papa is away, and I shall offer the slippers, for he instructed me to take special care of Mother at the same time as he become gone."

  "I'll let you know what we're going to do," stated Beth, "let's each get her something for Christmas, and not get whatever for ourselves."

  "That's like you, pricey! What will we get?" exclaimed Jo.

  Everyone thought soberly for a minute, then Meg introduced, as if the idea turned into advised via the sight of her personal pretty hands, "I shall provide her a pleasing pair of gloves."

  "Army shoes, pleasant available," cried Jo.

  "Some handkerchiefs, all hemmed," stated Beth.

  "I'll get a touch bottle of cologne. She likes it, and it won't value lots, so I'll have a few left to buy my pencils," delivered Amy.

  "How do we provide the things?" asked Meg.

  "Put them on the table, and bring her in and notice her open the bundles. Don't you do not forget how we used to do on our birthdays?" replied Jo.

  "I was once so nervous when it was my turn to sit in the chair with the crown on, and see you all come marching spherical to provide the affords, with a kiss. I preferred the matters and the kisses, however it was dreadful to have you ever sit looking at me at the same time as I opened the bundles," said Beth, who became toasting her face and the bread for tea on the equal time.

  "Let Marmee assume we are becoming matters for ourselves, and then wonder her. We ought to go shopping the following day afternoon, Meg. There is a lot to do about the play for Christmas night," stated Jo, marching up and down, together with her hands behind her returned, and her nose within the air.

  "I don't imply to act any extra after this time. I'm getting too old for such things," located Meg, who became as much a toddler as ever about 'dressing-up' frolics.

  "You might not stop, I understand, as long as you can trail round in a white robe along with your hair down, and put on gold-paper rings. You are the fine actress we have got, and there'll be an end of the whole thing if you quit the boards," said Jo. "We must rehearse tonight. Come here, Amy, and do the fainting scene, for you are as stiff as a poker in that."

  "I cannot help it. I by no means noticed everybody faint, and I don't pick to make myself all black and blue, tumbling flat as you do. If I can pass down without problems, I'll drop. If I can not, I shall fall into a chair and be sleek. I do not care if Hugo does come at me with a pistol," back Amy, who turned into no longer proficient with dramatic power, but changed into selected due to the fact she was small sufficient to be borne out shrieking by the villain of the piece.

  "Do it this manner. Clasp your palms so, and stagger throughout the room, crying frantically, 'Roderigo! Save me! Save me!'" and away went Jo, with a melodramatic scream which changed into simply interesting.

  Amy followed, however she poked her fingers out stiffly before her, and jerked herself alongside as though she went by means of machinery, and her "Ow!" turned into greater suggestive of pins being run into her than of fear and ache. Jo gave a despairing groan, and Meg laughed outright, while Beth allow her bread burn as she watched the fun with hobby. "It's no use! Do the high-quality you could whilst the time comes, and if the target audience laughs, don't blame me. Come on, Meg."

  Then things went easily, for Don Pedro defied the sector in a speech of pages without a unmarried destroy. Hagar, the witch, chanted an awful incantation over her kettleful of simmering toads, with weird effect. Roderigo hire his chains asunder manfully, and Hugo died in agonies of remorse and arsenic, with a wild, "Ha! Ha!"

  "It's the quality we've got had yet," stated Meg, as the useless villain sat up and rubbed his elbows.

  "I do not see how you can write and act such first rate things, Jo. You're a normal Shakespeare!" exclaimed Beth, who firmly believed that her sisters had been proficient with notable genius in all things.

  "Not quite," replied Jo modestly. "I do assume The Witches Curse, an Operatic Tragedy is alternatively a pleasant issue, however I'd like to strive Macbeth, if we only had a trapdoor for Banquo. I usually wanted to do the killing part. 'Is that a dagger that I see earlier than me?" muttered Jo, rolling her eyes and clutching on the air, as she had seen a well-known tragedian do.

  "No, it is the toasting fork, with Mother's shoe on it instead of the bread. Beth's level-struck!" cried Meg, and the rehearsal led to a standard burst of laughter.

  "Glad to find you so merry, my women," stated a cheery voice at the door, and actors and target audience became to welcome a tall, motherly girl with a 'can I assist you' appearance approximately her which became simply pleasant. She become now not elegantly dressed, however a noble-searching lady, and the women thought the gray cloak and retro bonnet co
vered the maximum great mom inside the world.

  "Well, dearies, how have you obtain on these days? There turned into so much to do, getting the packing containers prepared to move the next day, that I didn't come domestic to dinner. Has everybody known as, Beth? How is your cold, Meg? Jo, you look tired to dying. Come and kiss me, toddler."

  While making those maternal inquiries Mrs. March got her wet things off, her heat slippers on, and sitting down within the easy chair, drew Amy to her lap, preparing to experience the happiest hour of her busy day. The girls flew approximately, seeking to make matters cozy, each in her own way. Meg arranged the tea table, Jo delivered timber and set chairs, dropping, over-turning, and clattering the whole lot she touched. Beth trotted back and forth among parlor kitchen, quiet and busy, even as Amy gave instructions to all and sundry, as she sat along with her hands folded.

  As they accumulated approximately the table, Mrs. March stated, with a in particular satisfied face, "I've were given a deal with for you after supper."

  A quick, bright smile went spherical like a streak of sunshine. Beth clapped her palms, irrespective of the biscuit she held, and Jo tossed up her napkin, crying, "A letter! A letter! Three cheers for Father!"