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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/34106-8.txt b/34106-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e99146b --- /dev/null +++ b/34106-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3496 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Little Women Letters from the House of +Alcott, by Louisa M. Alcott, et al. + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Little Women Letters from the House of Alcott + +Author: Louisa M. Alcott, et al. + +Release Date: October 20, 2010 [EBook #34106] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE WOMEN LETTERS *** + + + + +Produced by David Edwards, Ernest Schaal, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + + LITTLE WOMEN LETTERS + FROM THE + HOUSE OF ALCOTT + + + + + [Illustration: _Frontispiece._ + ORCHARD HOUSE, THE ALCOTT HOMESTEAD.] + + + + + LITTLE WOMEN + LETTERS + FROM THE + HOUSE OF ALCOTT + + + SELECTED BY + JESSIE BONSTELLE + AND + MARIAN DEFOREST + + + [Illustration] + + + BOSTON + LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY + 1914 + + + + + _Copyright, 1914_, + BY JOHN S. P. ALCOTT. + + + _All rights reserved_ + + + Published, September, 1914 + + + Set up and electrotyped by J. S. Cushing Co., Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. + Presswork by S. J. Parkhill & Co., Boston, Mass., U.S.A. + + + + + FOREWORD + +NEXT to the joy of giving to the Alcott-loving public "Little Women" as +a play, is the privilege and pleasure of offering this book of letters, +revealing the childhood and home life of the beloved Little Women. + +May they bring help and happiness to many mothers and inspiration and +love to many children. + + + + + CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I. THE "REALLY, TRULY" TRUE 1 + + II. THE ALCOTT BOY; THE ALCOTT MAN 10 + + III. THE ALCOTT CHILDREN 28 + + IV. THE ALCOTT BABY BOOK 39 + + V. LETTERS AND CONVERSATIONS WITH CHILDREN 59 + + VI. THE MOTHER'S INFLUENCE 98 + + VII. CHILDREN'S DIARIES 122 + + VIII. GIRLHOOD AND WOMANHOOD 140 + + IX. FRIENDSHIPS AND BELIEFS 162 + + CHRONOLOGY 195 + + + + + LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + Orchard House, the Alcott Homestead _Frontispiece_ + + PAGE + + A. Bronson Alcott at the age of 53, from + the portrait by Mrs. Hildreth 54 + + Facsimile of Mr. Alcott's Letter to + Louisa, Nov. 29, 1839 82 + + Facsimile of Mr. Alcott's Letter to Louisa, June 21, 1840 86 + + Facsimile of Mr. Alcott's Letter to Elizabeth, 1840 92 + + Abigail May, Mrs. A. Bronson Alcott, from a + Daguerreotype 106 + + Anna Bronson Alcott, from a Daguerreotype 122 + + Abba May Alcott, from a Photograph 142 + + Louisa May Alcott, from a Daguerreotype 160 + + + + + LITTLE WOMEN + LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE + OF ALCOTT + + + CHAPTER I + + THE "REALLY, TRULY" TRUE + + +WHEN "Little Women," the play, reopened to many readers the pages of +"Little Women," the book, that delightful chronicle of family life, +dramatist and producer learned from many unconscious sources the depth +of Louisa M. Alcott's human appeal. Standing one night at the back of +the theater as the audience was dispersing, they listened to its +comments on the play. + +"A wonderful picture of home life, only we don't have such homes," said +a big, prosperous-looking man to his wife, with a touch of regret in his +voice. + +"Yes," agreed his young daughter, a tall, slender, graceful girl, as she +snuggled down cosily into her fur coat and tucked a bunch of violets +away from the touch of the frosty night, "it is beautiful; but, daddy, +it isn't real. There never was such a family." + +But it is real; there was such a family, and in letters, journals, and +illustration this little book gives the history of the four Little +Women, the Alcott girls, whom Louisa immortalized in her greatest story: +Anna, who is Meg in "Little Women"; Louisa, the irrepressible and +ambitious Jo; Elizabeth, the little Beth of the book; and Abba May, the +graceful and statuesque Amy. + +Rare influences were at work in this ideal American home, where the +intellectual and brilliant father was gifted in all ways except those +that led to material success, and the wise and gentle mother combined +with her loyalty and devotion to her husband a stanch, practical common +sense, which more than once served to guide the frail Alcott bark +through troubled seas. + +Following her remarkable success as a writer of short stories, Louisa M. +Alcott was asked for a book. She said at first it was impossible, but +repeated requests from her publishers brought from her the announcement +that the only long story she could write would be about her own family. +"Little Women" resulted, and, in erecting this House of Delight for +young and old, Louisa Alcott builded better than she knew. Her Jo has +been the inspiration of countless girls, and the many-sidedness of her +character is indicated by the widely diverging lines of endeavor which +Jo's example has suggested to the girl readers of the story. + +In the case of the two editors, both from early childhood found their +inspiration in Jo. One, patterning after her idol, sought success in a +stage career, beginning to "act" before a mirror, with a kitchen apron +for a train and a buttonhook for a dagger. The other, always with a +pencil in hand, first copied Jo by writing "lurid tales" for the weekly +sensation papers, and later emerged into Newspaper Row. + +It was more than a year after the success of "Little Women" as a play +had become a part of theatrical history that they visited the scenes +hallowed by the memories of the Little Women. They wished to see Concord +together, so they made a Sentimental Journey to the House of Alcott. + +The sun was shining, and the air was crisp--just such a day as Miss +Alcott described in the Plumfield harvest home, the last chapter in +"Little Women." They spent hours in Orchard House, touching reverently +the small personal effects of Louisa M. Alcott, seeing the shelf +between the windows in that little upper room, where she wrote and +dreamed. They even climbed to the garret and wondered which window was +her favorite scribbling seat, with a tin kitchen for her manuscripts, a +pile of apples for her refreshment, and Scrabble, the bewhiskered rat, +for her playfellow. + +Through the woods back of Orchard House they followed the winding +pathway to the Hall of Philosophy, half hidden among the trees, where +Bronson Alcott had his Conversations, where Emerson and Thoreau were +often heard, and the most intellectual debates of the century took +place. + +At sunset they visited Sleepy Hollow, the resting place of the Alcotts, +with Emerson, Thoreau, and Hawthorne close by--a goodly company, +neighbors still as they were for so many years when they made Concord +America's literary shrine. + +Evening came, and the two pilgrims read together the Alcott journals and +letters. The ink was faded, the quaint, old-fashioned writing was hard +to decipher, but, beginning with a letter to Louisa written by Bronson +Alcott when his daughter was seven years old, they read on until the +dawn. + +Only one result could be expected from such an experience. They asked +permission to publish the letters and such portions of the journals as +would most completely reveal the rare spiritual companionship existing +between the Alcott parents and children. And, asking, they were refused, +because of a feeling that the letters and journals were intimate family +records, to be read, not by the many, but by the few. This same +sentiment withheld the dramatization of "Little Women" for many years. + +"You forget," they argued, holding fast to the dimly written pages, +"that Bronson Alcott and Louisa Alcott are a part of America's literary +heritage. They belong to the nation, to the world, not alone to you." + +This course of reasoning finally prevailed, but not without many months +of waiting. And thus, with the consent of the Alcott heirs, the book of +"Little Women Letters from the House of Alcott" came to be. + + + + + CHAPTER II + + I + + THE ALCOTT BOY + + +ONCE upon a time in the little town of Wolcott, Connecticut, was born a +boy destined to offer to the world new and beautiful thoughts. He was +laughed at and misunderstood; but the thoughts were truth, and they have +lived, although the boy grew weary and old and passed on. + +The boy was Amos Bronson Alcott. He was a country lad, used from infancy +to the rugged life of the farm, with its self-denial and makeshifts. The +seeming disadvantage, however, proved quite the opposite. His close +communion with Nature brought him nearer to the truths of life. For him +God ceased to be a mythical object to be studied and read about on +Sunday; but, as he roamed the fields and climbed the hills, the lad +found Him in the rocks and the woodlands, and in the sparkling streams. +He became a reality. The boy and God were friends. + +Of schooling he had little. When work at the farm permitted, he attended +the country school near his father's house. "Our copies," he told his +little daughters, "were set by the schoolmaster in books made of a few +sheets of foolscap, stitched together and ruled with a leather plummet. +We used ink made of maple and oak bark, which we manufactured ourselves. +With this I began keeping a diary of my doings." + +This was when the boy was twelve. His hours at school were few, but as +he went about his daily tasks on the farm, his thoughts grew and grew +until his mental stature far exceeded his physical. He read as he guided +the plow along the furrow, sometimes unmindful of his work until a +sudden punch from a neglected handle, as the plow struck a stone, would +bring him back to earth with a thump. He sowed seeds in the moist, sweet +earth, but his face was turned to the skies, and he knew the clouds and +the stars. When he gathered firewood, his eyes were keen for the soft, +dainty mosses, the clinging lichens. As he picked berries for the home +table, he never missed the whirr of a bird wing or passed unnoticed the +modest flowers half hidden in the soil. Nature was his library, and she +spread out her choicest treasures to this growing boy. + +A love for all of God's creations characterized him. He was fond, not +only of the growing things in the wood, but of all life. His love for +animals amounted almost to a passion, one reason for his being a strict +vegetarian and insisting upon bringing up his little family on a +vegetable diet. But in boyhood it was not always clear whether humanity +or the craving for knowledge made him so considerate of the plodding +team in the field. Never was team more carefully tended. Many were its +hours of grazing, when the noonday sun rode high in the heavens, and the +Alcott boy, book in hand, curled up under the shade of a gigantic elm +and read until the shadows began to lengthen. But these lapses were only +occasional, for the lad was faithful to his tasks, except when he +yielded to the lure of the printed page. + +When scarcely more than a child he began to keep a record of his books +and his reading, showing the first traces of the reflective, +introspective quality of mind which later led him to set down in letters +and unpublished manuscripts his inmost thoughts. He cultivated the same +habits of thought in his children, one reason, doubtless, for Louisa's +accurate and realistic descriptions of the lives of the four Little +Women of the Alcott family. + +His favorite books in boyhood, and, for that matter, in manhood, were +the Bible and Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," which he read and reread +and commented upon. Years later he mentions in his journal that he made +it a practice to read "Pilgrim's Progress" every year, which is a +remarkable record to the modern boy and girl who find it difficult to +struggle through that wonderful allegory even once. + +Bronson Alcott took his chance and made a stepping-stone of every +difficulty. Each obstacle he encountered in getting an education created +in him an even stronger determination to gain one. The modern boy has +the world of books opened wide to him through the library and the free +school. The treasures of art are spread out before him in the museums. +He is surrounded by helps. The boy of to-day is studied as an entity. +The boy of the last century could tell quite a different story. + +So the Alcott boy, passing long hours in the woods, reading, thinking, +getting close to Nature and to God, walked as one apart, seeing the +invisible. While still a boy, he began casting off the garment of a +conventional creed and to think for himself of God, the creation, of +life, unconsciously putting from him the trammeling, cumbersome +conventions with which man has often hidden truth. + +Out of this the man Alcott emerged--a great soul. + + + II + + THE ALCOTT MAN + + +With Bronson Alcott the craving for knowledge was scarcely stronger than +the craving for adventure, so it is not surprising that in the first +flush of young manhood he did not settle down to life on the farm. He +longed for the great world lying beyond the hills and valleys of +peaceful New England. He wanted experience, and experience he had. + +He went South, hoping to teach school, as he had original ideas on the +training of children. Unsuccessful in this, he decided to be a peddler, +naïvely remarking that "honesty of purpose could dignify any +profession." + +Think of the courage of this boy, for he was scarcely more than a boy, a +philosopher at heart, living in a world of dreams and books, his +ambitions all for intellectual rather than material achievement, +tramping the southern countryside, undauntedly peddling buttons, +elastic, pins and needles, and supplying all the small wants of the +country housewife! Often he encountered rebuffs, sometimes he had a +hearty welcome, for the visit of the country peddler was eagerly awaited +by the children. At times, when night came and he was far from the +shelter of an inn, he had to beg a lodging from some planter. On one +such occasion, as he entered the grounds, he saw a huge sign, "Beware +the dog." A shout from the house also warned him, and he saw dashing +toward him a savage-looking dog, powerful enough to have torn to pieces +the slender young peddler-student. But his love for animals triumphed. +Alcott stretched out his hand. The huge creature stopped short; then, +recognizing a friend and a fearless one, he bounded on, tail wagging, +barking joyously, snuggling his nose into the young man's palm, which he +licked as he escorted his new-found friend to the house. Animals always +recognized in Alcott an understanding comrade. + +From most of these trips Alcott brought back money to add to the scanty +funds at home, but on one memorable occasion the love of finery proved +stronger than the necessity for saving, and he returned to the farm +penniless, but dressed in the latest fashion, having used his savings +for a wardrobe that was the wonder of the countryside. That one debauch +of clothes satisfied him for life; after that his tastes were markedly +simple. With him the "dandy period" was short-lived indeed. That he +repented bitterly of this one excess of folly is shown in his journals, +where he sets down minutely what to him was a mistake that amounted +almost to a sin. As a rule, he was singularly free from folly. His +thoughts were too high, his ideals too lofty, for him to be long +concerned with trifles such as clothes, and the next expenditure +mentioned in his journal is for the "Vicar of Wakefield" and Johnson's +"Rasselas." Ever impractical, one likes him the better for the little +human moment when the vanities of the world overcame him. + +At last he secured a school, and then began the realization of his +ideals regarding the teaching of children. His methods were original and +highly successful, especially with the very young. He established a +mental kindergarten, and the fame of his teaching spread abroad. Through +his work as a teacher he achieved his greatest happiness, for it led to +his meeting with the woman who was destined to become his wife. + +As the result of correspondence between himself and Mr. May of +Brooklyn, Connecticut, whose attention had been attracted to the work +of the young teacher, Alcott, then twenty-eight years old, drove from +the Wolcott home to Brooklyn, where he met Abigail May of Boston, who +was visiting her brother. With both it was love at first sight, a love +that grew into a perfect spiritual union. + +It seemed almost providential that Bronson Alcott should have come into +Abigail May's life at just this time, when her heart had been touched by +its first great sorrow--the loss of her mother. Hitherto she had been a +light-hearted girl, fond of dancing and of the material side of life. +The young philosopher, with his dreams and his ideals, brought a new +interest into her now lonely life, and all that was spiritual in her +nature responded as he freely discussed his plans and ambitions with +her. In her he found both sympathy and understanding. + +A year of letter-writing, a frank and honest exchange of thought, +brought out the harmony of their natures and developed in both a sense +of oneness, laying a firm foundation for the comradeship which was not +broken through all the years, even when the wife and mother passed into +the Great Beyond. + +The Alcott-May courtship was ideal. Retaining the heaven that lay about +him in his infancy, keeping his close companionship with God and God's +great laboratory, Nature, Bronson Alcott demanded something more than +mere physical attraction in choosing his wife. A certain quaint +circumspection characterized their love-making. Abigail May once wrote: +"Mr. Alcott's views on education were very attractive, and I was charmed +by his modesty," and long after their engagement she spoke of her lover +as "her friend." He was, and so he continued to be in the highest sense +of the word. + +So satisfying were those friendship-courtship days, that apparently both +were loath to end them, for another twelvemonth passed before the +announcement of their betrothal, and it was nearly three years from the +date of their first meeting before their marriage in King's Chapel, +Boston, where the brother who had been the means of bringing them +together performed the ceremony. + +As their marriage day approached, there was little festivity and none of +the rush that usually precedes a modern wedding. Everything was simple, +quiet, and sure. + +This is Bronson Alcott's letter, asking a friend to act as best man at +his wedding. + + Dear Sir: + + Permit me to ask the favor of your calling at Col. May's at 4 + o'clock precisely on Sunday afternoon next, to accompany me and + my friend Miss May to King's Chapel. + + With esteem, + A. B. Alcott + + Thursday, May 20, + 112 Franklin St. 1830. + +So began the Alcott pilgrimage, their fortune consisting of love and +faith and brains. In these they were rich indeed, and thus closed +another chapter in the life of the gentle philosopher, of whom Ralph +Waldo Emerson once said: "Our Alcott has only just missed being a +seraph." + + + + + CHAPTER III + + THE ALCOTT CHILDREN + + +FOR some months after their marriage the Alcotts lived in Boston, where +the young enthusiast taught a school for infants. Again his fame as a +teacher traveled, and he received an offer from the Quakers of +Philadelphia to start a school there, an offer so tempting that the +Alcotts moved to Germantown, Pennsylvania, where Anna and Louisa were +born. + +Eugenics and prenatal influence were not discussed then as they are +to-day, but in the Alcott family nearly a century ago they were being +thought and lived. Bronson Alcott and his wife considered children an +expression, not of themselves, but of divinity, and as such to be +accepted as a trust, rather than as a gratification of their own human +longing for fatherhood and motherhood. They felt it their parental +privilege rather than their duty to aid the human development of the +child and thus further the fulfillment of its destiny. Each little soul +was humbly asked for and reverently prepared for. From the moment they +knew their prayer had been granted, the individuality and rights of that +soul were respected. It was considered as a little guest that must be +made happy and comfortable, carefully cherished, mentally and +physically, while its fleshly garment was being prepared and the little +personality made ready for its earthly appearance. How careful they were +of every thought and influence, for to both parents this period was the +most sacred and wonderful in their lives and in the lives of their +children. + +The depth of his joy and the simplicity of his faith are exquisitely +expressed in the lines which Bronson Alcott wrote before the birth of +his first child, Anna: + + TO AN EXPECTANT MOTHER + + The long advancing hour draws nigh--the hour + When life's young pulse begins its mystic play, + And deep affection's dreams of Form or Joy + Shall be unveiled, a bodily presence + To thy yearning heart and fond maternal eye, + The primal Soul, a semblance of thine own, + Its high abode shall leave and dwell in day, + Thyself its forming Parent. A miracle, indeed, + Shall nature work. Thou shalt become + The bearing mother of an Infant Soul-- + Its guardian spirit to its home above. + But yet erewhile the lagging moments come + That layeth the living, conscious, burden down, + Firm faith may rest in hope. Accordant toils + Shall leave no time for fear, nor doubt, nor gloom. + Love, peace, and virtue, are all born of Pain, + And He who rules o'er these is ever good. + The joyous promise is to her who trusts, + Who trusting, gains the vital boon she asks, + And meekly asking, learns to trust aright. + +Louisa, the second child, born on her father's birthday, was the most +intellectual and the most resourceful of the Alcott children, reflecting +in her own buoyant personality the happy conditions existing before and +at the time of her birth, when her father had attained his greatest +material prosperity and was also realizing his mental ambitions in his +little school, and her mother was temporarily relieved from the cares +that so often weighed heavily upon her. + +Shortly before the birth of Elizabeth the father makes this entry in his +journal: + + THE ADVENT COMETH + + Daily am I in expectation of beholding with the eye of sense, + the spirit that now lingers on the threshold of this terrestrial + life, and only awaits the bidding of the Reaper within, to usher + itself into the presence of mortals. It standeth at the door and + waiteth for admission to the exterior scene of things.... Let + the time come. Two little ones in advance await its coming; and + greetings of joy shall herald its approach. + +The birth of Elizabeth is followed by this entry in his journal: + + At sunset this day a daughter was born to us. + +One of the most trying of the Alcott family's experiences came after the +birth of Elizabeth, when Bronson Alcott, again in Boston, aroused a +storm of protest with his radical teachings and his advanced +interpretations of the Bible. Shocked that the city where he expected to +find sympathy and encouragement should have repudiated him, his school +disrupted and abject poverty his lot, broken mentally and physically, he +met with another cruel disappointment in the death of his infant son. +Yet even then there was no word of bitterness, and no mention is made in +his journal of the father's grief. Indirectly it is expressed in a +subsequent entry announcing the birth of the fourth daughter, Abba May. + +She was born under sunny skies. The storm had passed, and the Alcott +family had removed to Concord, where they enjoyed many of their happiest +years. A presage of May Alcott's artistic gifts, her queenly bearing, +elegance, and charm, all familiar to readers of "Little Women," is found +in this entry in the father's journal: + + July, 1840. + + A new life has arrived to us (July 26th). She was born with the + dawn, and is a proud little Queen, not deigning to give us the + light of her royal presence, but persists in sleeping all the + time, without notice of the broad world or ourselves. + Providence, it seems, decrees that we shall provide selectest + ministries alone, and so sends us successive daughters of Love + to quicken the Sons of Life. We joyfully acquiesce in the Divine + behest and are content to rear women for the future world. As + yet the ministry is unknown in the culture of the nations, but + the hour draws near when love shall be felt as a chosen Bride of + Wisdom, and the celestial pair preside over all the household of + mankind. + +Bronson Alcott did not feel his responsibility as a father alone; he +appreciated his own debt to his children, the mental and spiritual help +that came to him through them, an appreciation that found expression in +this poem, entered in his journal before the birth of Elizabeth: + + June, 1835 + + INVOCATION TO A CHILD + + She comes from Heaven, she dawns upon my sight, + O'er earth's dark scenes to pour her holy light! + In sense and blest the Infinite to see + And feel the heavenly mystery--_To Be._ + + She comes--in Nature's tenderest, fondest name-- + Daughter of God--'tis she--the same--the same + Mine is she too--my own--my latest child, + Myself, wrapt in Divinity, yet unbeguiled! + + Blest Infant! God's and mine! yet to me given, + That I might feel anew my Being's Heaven-- + In love and faith to urge my human way, + Till conscious time be lost in Immortality! + + Love thee I will; for thou didst first love me-- + My faith shall quicken as I dwell on thee, + Thy Spirit lift me from this "Grave of Things," + And bear me homeward, to the King of Kings. + + + + + CHAPTER IV + + THE ALCOTT BABY BOOK + + +BRONSON ALCOTT wrote the first Baby Book, a book which throws new light +on the character of the lovable philosopher, showing one of New +England's intellectual leaders as a very human and lovable man as well +as "a fond and foolish father." + +His Baby Book, however, contains no minute record of the first tooth, or +when the baby began to say "Goo" and "Pitty light"; rather it is the +father's earnest effort to learn how early in life the infant mind +begins to awaken, to indicate comprehension, thought, or logic. As +Maeterlinck studied the bee, so Alcott studied his children, and his +findings are a revelation, even to-day, when the study of the child has +become a science. + +Mr. Alcott considered vital the development of the child's individuality +and mind; the body seemed to him of secondary importance, for this +disregard of the material care of his family he has been severely +censured; but, not recognizing in his own life the claims of the body, +devoting all his energies to mental growth, it is not surprising that he +found his fatherly duty in the guidance of his children's minds. His +firm faith in the admonition, "Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven, and +all these things shall be added unto you," was to him excuse enough for +considering the intellect more than the body. + +His practical shortcomings reaped a rich and unexpected reward in the +next generation, for Louisa M. Alcott would probably not have developed +her original and highly entertaining literary gift without the +vicissitudes caused by her father's impractical nature and his sublime +faith that at all times and in all emergencies the Lord would provide. +He did provide; but Louisa was usually the channel, and many of her +stories were written under the whip of stern necessity. + +Doing without has its advantages. The Alcott children, never overfed, +overentertained, overburdened to baby boredom with dolls and toys and +games, developed appreciation, observation, and ingenuity. The creative +faculty was aroused. They found resources within themselves. What a +handbook Louisa might have written on How to be Happy though Poor! + +Mrs. Alcott's keen sense of humor, a characteristic inherited by Louisa, +often came to her rescue and allowed her to get fun out of a harassing +situation. In a letter to her brother, Colonel May, praising her +husband's intellect, she laughingly comments upon his disregard of +physical necessities: "I am not sure that we shall not blush into +obscurity and contemplate into starvation." + +But, to get back to the baby book, or, as Mr. Alcott called it, "the +psychological history," it was started with a high and unselfish motive; +it was developed to an astonishing degree. Its purpose and scope are +best expressed in this extract from Mr. Alcott's journal: + + The history of a human mind during its progressive stages of + earthly experience has never as yet, I believe, been attempted. + Faithfully compiled, from verified data, it would be a treasure + of wisdom to all mankind, replete with light to the + metaphysical and ethical inquirer. Comparative philosophy + deduced from an observation of man during all circumstances and + stages of his existence is a thing yet unthought of among us. + From such a work the unity of Humanity might be revealed. + +When Anna was born, the father began keeping a record of her "physical +and intellectual progress." When she was seven weeks old, her mother +wrote: "It seems as if she were conscious of his observations and +desirous of furnishing him daily with an item for this record." + +The following excerpt from the father's diary shows how well Anna +succeeded in her baby attempt: + + I am much interested in the progress of my little girl, now + five months old, which I have recorded from the day of her + birth. This record has swollen to a hundred pages. I have + attempted to discover, as far as this could be done by external + indication, the successive steps of her physical, mental and + moral advancement. + +Moral advancement of a baby five months old! + + + BIRTH OF LOUISA + +On November 29, 1832, his thirty-third birthday and also the natal day +of his friend, Ellery Channing, the poet, Mr. Alcott chronicles an +"interesting event," how interesting the father little dreamed, nor how +important, not alone to the house of Alcott, but to the world. Under the +heading of Circumstances, the father thus records the birth of Louisa +May Alcott: + + A daughter born, on the 29th. ulto., my birthday, being 33 + years of age. This is a most interesting event. Unless those + ties which connect it with others are formed, the wants of the + soul become morbid and all its fresh and primal affections + become dim and perverted.... Few can be happy shut out of the + nursery of the soul. + +While the New England philosopher was studying the development of his +little daughters and deducing therefrom facts for his psychological +history, these same little daughters were developing him, for, as the +child nature unfolded, the father's understanding of childhood expanded. + +Thus the baby book grew: + + The influence of children I regard as important to my own + improvement and happiness. It is also necessary to the + prosecution of my studies. Dwelling in the primal regions which + I wish to explore, they are the purest manifestations of its + phenomena, and the only subjects from which humanity is to be + interpreted in its purity. + +When Anna was three years old and Louisa eighteen months, the father +writes in his journal: + + I passed some time with the children, fitting up their + playthings, conversing with them and learning as far as I could + through the subtle meaning of looks, accents and gestures, + their thoughts and feelings. The avenues to the spirit are all + open, but how dim are our perceptions, how cold our sympathies, + to appreciate the pure and bright things which glitter in the + arena of the young mind! How little of this fairy land do we + know--we, whose early associations have all been swept from the + heart--over whose spirits have passed the cold winds, the + pelting storms, withering and destroying the heart's young + verdure! What is there to unite us with the spirit of a child? + What have we in common with its joyous yearning for the + beautiful, its trust in human sayings, its deep love for those + on whom it relies for attention and support, its vivid + picturing of ideal life, its simplicity, its freedom from + prejudice and false sentiment? Where are these to be seen in + our dim nature? + +He might have answered the question by looking within himself. Child +companionship kept alive the spirit of the Alcott boy, which constantly +shone through the man's philosophy. As the boy saw in every rock and +tree and flower an expression of the Infinite, is it any wonder that the +man should have recognized God's higher manifestation in the child, and +should have written in his journal these lines, which are the very +glorification of fatherhood and reveal the sacredness with which he +looked upon his stewardship? + + He who deals with the child deals--did he know it--with the + Infinite. Within the young spirit committed to his care are + infinite capacities to be filled, infinite energies to be + developed, and on him devolves the amazing responsibility--sacred, + personal, all his own--of filling these capacities, unfolding + these energies, from the stores and life of his own spirit. This + is his office as a parent. But how can he who knows nothing of the + Infinite within himself call it forth and direct its forces in + others? + +From the first, Louisa must have shown strong individuality and unusual +tendencies, for Mr. Alcott's notes on Louisa are entitled "Observations +on the Vital Phenomena of My Second Child." A more vital, lovable, +contradictory specimen of childhood cannot be imagined. Blessed with her +father's brilliancy of mind, her mother's quick wit and love of fun, +Louisa furnished a problem for endless study. She was less than two +years old when her individuality had so asserted itself that her father +found himself puzzled and admitted that elements were finding their +way into his observations of whose origin he could give no account. "My +analysis, however accurate and elaborate, was still imperfect, and I was +left in doubt. I had made no provision for the admission of innate +influences from the mind itself." + +Here is a quaint little record of the Alcott babies' school days, when +Anna was four years old and Louisa a little more than two: + + At school Anna reads, marks and listens to conversations and + stories. Louisa works with her in all except the reading and + marking. They have a playroom, where they enjoy their own + amusements, uninterrupted by the presence of adults--often a + bar to the genuine happiness of childhood. Anna reads simple + sentences from Leffanoch's Primer, writes intelligibly on + tablets and slates, and is improving in work and manners. + +(This of a baby of four.) + +A spiritual and moral inventory of the progress of Anna and Louisa is +set down by the father when his daughters had reached the dignified ages +of six and four: + + The children have improved under my training. Anna, who has + been with me more of the time than Louisa, has been greatly + benefited. She is happier, more capable of self control, more + docile and obeys from love and faith. She has fine elements for + excellence, moral and intellectual. If she does not evince a + pure and exalted character, it will be our failure, not hers, + in the improvement of her natural endowments. + + Louisa is yet too young for the formation of just views of her + character. She manifests uncommon activity and force of mind + at present, and is much in advance of her sister at the same + age; example has done much to call forth her nature. She is + more active and practical than Anna. Anna is ideal, sentimental. + Louisa is practical, energetic. The first imagines much more than + she can realize; the second, by force of will and practical talent, + realizes all that she conceives--but conceives less; understanding, + rather than imagination--the gift of her sister--seems to be her + prominent faculty. She finds no difficulty in developing ways and + means to obtain her purpose; while her sister, aiming at much, + imagining ideal forms of good, and shaping them out so vividly in + her mind that they become actual enjoyments, fails, when she + attempts to realize them in nature--she has been dwelling on the + higher and more speculative relations of things. + + Both represent interesting forms of character, both have wide + and useful spheres of action indicated in their conformation and + will doubtless if continued to us, be real blessings. + +That they did prove real blessings the history of the Alcott family has +shown. + + [Illustration: A. BRONSON ALCOTT AT THE AGE OF 53. + From the portrait by Mrs. Hildreth. + _Page_ 54.] + +How many fathers ever acknowledge their spiritual debt to the gift of +fatherhood as has Bronson Alcott: + + I know not how much more spiritual I am from the parental relation + (he writes), how much I have been indebted to them for the light + that hath dawned upon my own mind from the radiance of their + simple spirits. Certain it is that the more I associate with them + in the simple ways they love, the more do I seem to revere. Verily + had I not been called to associate with children, had I not devoted + myself to the study of human nature in its period of infancy and + childhood, I should never have found the tranquil repose, the steady + faith, the vivid hope that now sheds a glory and a dignity around + the humble path of my life. Childhood hath saved me. + +Out of his theories, his studies, and meditations came a sublime +ambition, a desire to become a laborer in the "Field of the Soul." + + Infancy I shall invest with a glory--a spirituality which the + disciples of Jesus, deeply as they entered into His spirit + and caught the life of His mind, have failed to bring forth in + their records of His sayings and life. I shall redeem infancy + and childhood, and, if a Saviour of Adults was given in the + person of Jesus, let me, without impiety or arrogance, regard + myself as the Children's Saviour. Divine are both missions. + Both seek out and endeavor to redeem the Infinite in man, + which, by reason of the clogs of sense and custom, is in + perpetual danger of being lost. The chief obstacle in the way + of human regeneration is the want of a due appreciation of + human nature, and particularly of the nature of children. + +Home and its influence upon children meant much to Mr. Alcott, and in +all his writing the nearest approach to a protest against the poverty +he was called upon to endure was when, for a time, he was obliged to +give up that home. Deep is the pathos that lies between the lines of +this entry in his journal: + + HOME FOR CHILDREN + + I deem it very important to the well being of my children to + insure them a home. At least their means of improvement are + limited, their pleasures are abridged, the domestic relations, so + vital to virtue--to all that lives in the heart and imagination, + are robbed of their essential glory, and the effect is felt + throughout the character in after life. I feel that my duty as a + father cannot be fully carried out when I am thus restricted. + Whether we can yet improve this condition remains to be + determined. + +The home was reestablished--and such a home! An influence felt +throughout the world, the inspiration of every book Louisa Alcott +wrote. + + + + + CHAPTER V + + LETTERS AND CONVERSATIONS WITH CHILDREN + + +HAPPINESS reigned in the Alcott home, and poverty seldom brought with it +a shadow. The girls had toys and a variety of them,--rag dolls, kittens, +gingerbread men, and barnyard animals (the latter skillfully cut out of +cake dough by the mother, who had a genius for inventing surprises). As +they grew older, they delighted in private theatricals. Some of their +plays, written by Anna and Louisa, have been published under the title +of "Comic Tragedies." They are thrillingly melodramatic, thickly +sprinkled with villains and heroes, witches and ruffians, lovely ladies +in distress, gallant knights to the rescue, evil spirits and good +fairies, gnomes and giants. All are direfully tragic and splendidly +spectacular. Louisa as a child showed the dramatic quality which later +found artistic expression in her stories. On a rainy afternoon the +children were never at a loss for entertainment. They "acted" in the +attic or played dolls in their own playroom, and such dolls! Old Joanna, +of whom Louisa has drawn a lifelike picture in "Little Women," is to-day +in existence, battered, scarred, but none the less precious, one foot +carefully bandaged, after the army-nurse method. + +Poverty was made interesting. At Christmas a tree was hung with apples, +nuts, and popped corn, and small trifles made by the children were +fastened to the branches. Father and mother made much of the spirit of +the Christ birthday, which was celebrated in simple, wholesome fashion, +in vivid contrast to the modern Christmas festival. + +The Alcott letters and journals show tremendous intellectual activity on +the part of the small atoms of humanity who came to grace the Alcott +home. Anna and her father held moral and intellectual discussions when +Anna was four. Louisa was writing a daily journal before she could more +than print. As soon as a child could read, family reproofs were +administered by notes from father and mother to the erring one, not only +pointing out the fault, but how to correct it. + +The father encouraged his daughters to study themselves and to write +down their thoughts. Their journals, in consequence, reflect the +characteristics of each one and are storehouses of information. Louisa, +poor little soul, in her happy, hoydenish childhood, found time one day +in a fit of mentality to set down in black and white her chief faults. +One of her most serious, according to the self-imposed confession, was +"love of cats," a sin which easily beset her all her days, for she +inherited her father's love of animals and of children. + +Widely varied in character and temperament were the four Alcott girls. +Anna, the first, reflected the beauty, the happiness, and the romance of +the Alcotts' first year of married life. Louisa, born some eighteen +months later, when father and mother had grown even closer together +through the new bond formed by the love of their little daughter, +embodied a deeper, stronger, surer character. She was decisive, with a +determination and surety of self and brilliancy of mind that reflected +the best in both parents. Elizabeth, the third child, was, in some +respects, the most beautiful character of all. About her, from the hour +of her conception, seemed to hover a spiritual, protecting love. +Seemingly from earliest infancy she stood on the borderland of the +spiritual world, in flesh all too fragile to retain the spirit which +remembered and longed, notwithstanding the love with which she was +surrounded, to return to the mystical beauty from which she had come. A +child of dreams and fancies, loving all that was harmonious, she entered +this life at twilight, she left it at the dawn, a coming and going +typical of this dream child, who was lent for a little time to make the +world more glad. + +The birth of Amy is also symbolical, the one sunny-haired, sunny-hearted +girl of the family, who came with the rising of the sun. She seemed made +for love, sunshine, and happiness, and had them all, but she was brave +to face hardships and equally ready to accept comfort and luxury. A +queen, the father called her the morning of her birth, and so they +brought her up, the Little Snow Queen. + +The wise, fostering love of the father, the helpful, understanding +watchfulness of the mother, are reflected in their letters to their +children. Time was not considered wasted that was devoted to these +letters of gentle admonition and kindly counsel. There was no discussion +of faults or mistakes in the Alcott household; reproofs remained little +secrets between father and daughter, or mother and daughter, and the +effect of this wise and constant watchfulness grows more apparent as the +children advance from childhood to girlhood and on to womanhood. They +were taught to know themselves. They were taught, too, the relation of +the Christ child with their own childhood, beautifully expressed in some +of the letters from Bronson Alcott to his eldest daughter. + +It was the father's habit to write each child on her birthday +anniversary and at Christmas. Anna was six years old when he gave her +this beautiful description of the coming of the Christ: + + For Anna + 1837 + + To my Daughter Anna. + + A longer time ago than you can understand, a beautiful Babe was + born. Angels sang at his birth. And stars shone brightly. + Shepherds watched their flocks by their light. The Babe was + laid in his Manger-cradle. And harmless oxen fed by his side. + There was no room for him nor his mother in the Inn, as she + journeyed from her own home. + + This Babe was born at this time of the year. His name was Jesus. + And he is also called Christ. This is his birth night. And we + call it Christ-mas, after him. + + I write you this little note as a Christmas Gift, and hope my + little girl will remember the birth night of Jesus. Think how + beautiful he was, and try to shine in lovely actions as he did. + God never had a child that pleased him so well. Be like a kind + sister of his, and so please your Father, who loves you very + much. + + Christmas Eve, + December 24th, 1837. + From your + Father. + +Again on Christmas Eve, two years later, he describes to his little +daughter of eight years her own coming into the world of material +things. + +The belief in prenatal influence is strongly indicated, for the father +tells his little girl that they thought just how she would look and +pictures to her the joy and the love with which she was surrounded +before her coming into the land of the material and first seeing with +her baby eyes the light of a world day. + + For Anna + 1839 + + You were once pleased, my daughter, with a little note which I + wrote you on Christmas Eve, concerning the birth of Jesus. I + am now going to write a few words about your own Birth. Mother + and I had no child. We wanted one--a little girl just like you; + and we thought how you would look, and waited a good while for + you to come, so that we might see you and have you for our own. + At last you came. We felt so happy that joy stood in our eyes. + You looked just as we wanted to have you. You were draped in a + pretty little white frock, and father took you in his arms every + day, and we loved you very much. Your large bright eyes looked + lovingly into ours, and you soon learned to love and know us. + When you were a few weeks old, you smiled on us. We lived then + in Germantown. It is now more than eight years since this + happened, but I sometimes see the same look and the same smile + on your face, and feel that my daughter is yet good and pure. O + keep it there, my daughter, and never lose it. + + Your Father, + Christmas Eve, + Beach Street, + Dec. 24, 1839. + +On her birthday some three months later, he continues the thought in +this exquisite letter: + + March 16, 1840. + + My dear Daughter, + + With this morning's dawn opens a new year of your Life on Earth. + Nine years ago you were sent, a sweet Babe into this world, a + joy and hope to your father and mother. After a while, through + many smiles and some few tears, you learned to lisp the names + of father and mother, and to make them feel once more how near + and dear you were to their hearts whenever you named their + names. Now you are a still dearer object of Love and hope to + them as your love buds and blossoms under their eye. They watch + this flower as it grows in the Garden of Life, and scents the + air with its fragrance, and delights the eye by its colours. + Soon they will look not for Beauty and fragrance alone, but for + the ripening and ripe fruit. May it be the Spirit of Goodness; + may its leaves never wither, its flowers never fade; its + fragrance never cease; but may it flourish in perpetual youth + and beauty, and be transplanted in its time, into the Garden of + God, whose plants are ever green, ever fresh, and bloom alway, + the amaranth of Heaven, the pride and joy of angels. Thus + writes your Father to you on this your birth morn. + + Monday, 16 March, 1840. + Beach Street, + Boston + + For + Anna, + in the Garden of Life. + +This letter and his allusion to "your life on earth" show plainly his +belief in life eternal, for Bronson Alcott considered earthly existence +merely a period in the evolution of the soul. + +On Christmas Eve, 1840; when Anna was nearly ten, Louisa just past her +eighth birthday, May, the golden-haired baby of the Alcott household, +and Elizabeth the little shadow child of four, he wrote Christmas +letters to his daughters, which show his appreciation of their special +needs, and his respect for their individualities. The letter to +Elizabeth is missing; to Anna he wrote: + + For Anna + 1840 + + BEAUTY or DUTY + which + loves Anna best? + + a + Question + from her + FATHER + + Christmas Eve + Dec. 1840 + Concordia. + +For Louisa, the father's message was this: + + For Louisa + 1840 + + Louisa loves-- + What? + (Softly) + FUN + Have some then, + Father + says. + + Christmas Eve, Dec. 1840 + Concordia. + +For the baby of the household, the father's love message took poetic +form: + + For Abba + 1840 + + For Abba + Babe fair, + Pretty hair, + Bright eye, + Deep sigh, + Sweet lip, + Feet slip, + Handsome hand, + Stout grand, + Happy smile, + Time beguile, + All I ween, + Concordia's Queen. + +Almost without the dates, one could keep track of the development of the +Alcott girls through their father's letters. This one demonstrates his +gift of teaching by the use of suggestion: + + For Anna + + 1842 + + _A Father's Gift_ + to his + _Daughter_ + on her + _Eleventh Birthday_. + + Concordia + 16th March + 1842 + + My dear daughter, + + This is your eleventh birthday, and as I have heretofore + addressed a few words to you on these interesting occasions, I + will not depart from my former custom now. + + And my daughter, what shall I say to you? Shall I say something + to please or to instruct you--to flatter or benefit you? I know + you dislike being pleased unless the pleasure make you better, + and you dislike all flattery. And you know too, that your father + never gave you a word of flattery in his life. So there remains + for you the true and purest pleasure of being instructed and + benefited by words of love and the deepest regard for your + improvement in all that shall make you more happy in yourself + and beautiful to others. And so I shall speak plainly to you of + yourself, and of my desire for your improvement in several + important things. + + _First--Your Manners._ Try to be more gentle. You like gentle + people and every one is more agreeable as he cultivates this + habit. None can be agreeable who are destitute of it and how + shall you become more gentle? Only by governing your passions, + and cherishing your love to everyone who is near you. Love is + gentle: Hate is violent. Love is well-mannered; Selfishness is + rude, vulgar. Love gives sweet tone to the voice, and makes the + countenance lovely. Love then, and grow fair and agreeable. + + _Second: Be Patient._ This is one of the most difficult things to + everyone, old or young. But it is also one of the greatest + things. And this comes of Love too. Love is Patient: it bears; + it suffers long; it is kind; it is beautiful; it makes us like + angels. Patience is, indeed, angelic; it is the Gate that opens + into the House of Happiness. Open it, my daughter, and enter in + and take all your sisters in with you. + + _Third: Be Resolute._ Shake off all Sluggishness, and follow your + Confidence as fast as your feelings, your thoughts, your eye, + your hand, your foot, will carry you. Hate all excuses: almost + always, these are lies. Be _quick_ in your obedience: delay is a + laggard, who never gets up with himself, and loses the company + of confidence always. Resolution is the ladder to Happiness. + Resolve and be a wise and happy girl. + + _Fourth: Be Diligent._ Put your heart into all you do: and fix + your thoughts on your doings. Halfness is almost as bad as + nothing: be whole then in all you do and say. + + But I am saying a great deal and will stop now with the hope of + meeting you on the 16th March, 1843 (the good God sparing us + till then) a gentler, a meeker, more determined and obligent + girl. + + Your friend + and + _Father_ + + Concordia + 16 March + _1842_ + + For + _Anna Bronson Alcott._ + +Such a gift to an eleven-year-old girl on her birthday! One would expect +not kindly counsel, but a toy, a picture book, something pretty for her +body, not much for her mind. The spirituality and the wisdom of the +poet-philosopher are shown in this letter with its "excuses, almost +always lies," and "delay is a laggard." + +When Louisa was seven years old, her mother was ill, and the child was +sent away from home for a time. To his little absent daughter the father +sends this letter, printed so that she might read it for herself: + + For Louisa. + 1839 + + My dear Little Girl. + + Father hopes you are well and happy. Mother will soon be well + enough we hope for you to come home. You want to see us all I + know. And we want to see you very much. Be a good girl and try + to do as they tell you. You shall see us all in a few days. + + You were never away from home so long before. It has given you + some new feelings. + + I have printed this note. I hope you can read it all yourself. + + Good Bye + From Father. + + Saturday + 11 o'clock in the School Room. + 1839 + +On her seventh birthday he writes her one of the most wonderful letters +of the many that have been preserved in the volumes of the Alcott +manuscripts: + + [Illustration] + + [Illustration] + + [Illustration] + + [Illustration] + + For Louisa + 1839 + + My Daughter, + + You are Seven years old to-day and your Father is forty. You + have learned a great many things, since you have lived in a + Body, about things going on around you and within you. You know + how to think, how to resolve, how to love, and how to obey. You + feel your Conscience, and have no real pleasure unless you obey + it. You cannot love yourself, or anyone else, when you do not + mind its commandments. It asks you always to BE GOOD, and bears, + O how gently! how patiently! with all endeavors to hate, and + treat it cruelly. How kindly it bears with you all the while. + How sweetly it whispers Happiness in your HEART when you Obey + its soft words. How it smiles upon you, and makes you Glad when + you Resolve to Obey it! How terrible its PUNISHMENTS. It is GOD + trying in your soul to keep you always Good. + + You begin, my dear daughter, another year this morning. Your + Father, your Mother, and Sisters, with your little friends, show + their love on this your Birthday, by giving you this BOX. Open + it, and take what is in it, and the best wishes of + + Your Father. + + Beach Street, + Friday morning, Nov. 29, 1839. + +His explanation to a seven-year-old girl that conscience is "God in your +soul," and the lines, "since you have lived in a body," are eloquent +manifestations of his belief. It is not surprising that, given such +thoughts at seven, Louisa at ten or eleven wrote that she was sure in +some previous life she must have been a horse,--she loved so to run. A +month before May Alcott was born, little Louisa, then eight, again away +from home, received this letter from her father: + + [Illustration] + + [Illustration] + + [Illustration] + + [Illustration] + + Cottage, Sunday June 21st, + 1840. + + We all miss the noisy little girl who used to make house and + garden, barn and field, ring with her footsteps, and even the + hens and chickens seem to miss her too. Right glad would father + and mother, Anna and Elizabeth, and all the little mates at + School, and Miss Russell, the House Playroom, Dolls, Hoop, + Garden, Flowers, Fields, Woods and Brooks, all be to see and + answer the voice and footsteps, the eye and hand of their + little companion. But yet all make themselves happy and + beautiful without her; all seem to say, "Be Good, little Miss, + while away from us, and when we meet again we shall love and + please one another all the more; we find how much we love now we + are separated." + + I wished you here very much on the morning when the Hen left her + nest and came proudly down with six little chickens, everyone + knowing how to walk, fly, eat and drink almost as well as its + own mother; to-day (Sunday) they all came to see the house and + took their breakfast from their nice little feeding trough; you + would have enjoyed the sight very much. But this and many other + pleasures all wait for you when you return. Be good, kind, + gentle, while you are away, step lightly, and speak soft about + the house; + + Grandpa loves quiet, as well as your sober father and other + grown people. + + Elizabeth says often, "Oh I wish I could see Louisa, when will + she come home, Mother?" And another feels so too; who is it? + + Your + Father. + + I forgot to write how much _Kit_ missed you. + +On her eighth birthday, her father writes: + + For Louisa + 1840 + + Two Passions strong divide our Life, + Meek gentle Love, or boisterous Strife. + + Love--Music Anger--Arrow + Concord Discord + From her Father + + On her eighth birthday Nov. 29th. + +At ten, her birthday greeting from her father is this: + + For Louisa + 1842 + + My daughter, + + This is your birthday: you are ten years of age to-day. I sought + amidst my papers for some pretty picture to place at the top of + this note, but I did not find anything that seemed at all + expressive of my interest in your well-being, or well-doing, and + so this note comes to you without any such emblem. Let me say, + my honest little girl, that I have had you often in my mind + during my separation from you and your devoted mother, and + well-meaning sisters, while on the sea or the land, and now that + I have returned to be with you and them again, meeting you daily + at fireside, at table, at study, and in your walk, and + amusements, in conversation and in silence, being daily with + you, I would have you feel my presence and be the happier, and + better that I am here. I want, most of all things, to be a + kindly influence on you, helping you to guide and govern your + heart, keeping it in a state of sweet and loving peacefulness, + so that you may feel how good and kind is that Love which lives + always in our breasts, and which we may always feel, if we will + keep the passions all in stillness and give up ourselves + entirely to its soft desires. I live, my dear daughter, to be + good and to do good to all, and especially to you and your + mother and sisters. Will you not let me do you all the good that + I would? And do you not know that I can do you little or none, + unless you give me your affections, incline your ears, and + earnestly desire to become daily better and wiser, more kind, + gentle, loving, diligent, heedful, serene. The good Spirit comes + into the Breast of the meek and loveful to abide long; anger, + discontent, impatience, evil appetites, greedy wants, + complainings, ill-speakings, idlenesses, heedlessness, rude + behaviour and all such, these drive it away, or grieve it so + that it leaves the poor misguided soul to live in its own + obstinate, perverse, proud discomfort, which is the very _Pain of + Sin_, and is in the _Bible_ called the worm that never dies, the + gnawing worm, the sting of _CONSCIENCE_: while the pleasures of + love and goodness are beyond all description--a peacefulness + that passes all understanding. I pray that my daughter may know + much of the last, and little of the first of these feelings. I + shall try every day to help her to the knowledge and love of + this good _Spirit_. I shall be with her, and as she and her + sisters come more and more into the presence of this Spirit, + shall we become a family more closely united in loves that can + never sunder us from each other. + + This your + Father + in Hope and Love + on your + Birthday + + Concordia, + Nov. 29, 1842. + +To little Elizabeth the letters were few. The child was so constantly +the companion of father and mother, that by speech rather than written +word, their messages were given. But on her fifth birthday, her father +carefully printed this letter: + + [Illustration] + + [Illustration] + + [Illustration] + + [Illustration] + + For Elizabeth + 1840 + + I I I I I Years + one two three four five + BIRTH-DAY + in the + COTTAGE + + My very dear little girl, + + You make me very happy every time I look at your smiling + pleasant face--and you make me very sorry every time I see your + face look cross and unpleasant. You are now five years old. You + can keep your little face pleasant all the time, if you will + try, and be happy yourself, and make everybody else happy too. + Father wants to have his little girl happy all the time. He + hopes her little friends and her presents and plays will + make her happy to-day; and this little note too. Last birthday + you were in Beach Street, in the great City, now you are at your + little cottage in the country where all is pretty and pleasant, + and you have fields and woods, and brooks and flowers to please + my little Queen, and keep her eyes, and ears, and hands and + tongue and feet, all busy. This little note is from + + FATHER, + + who loves his little girl very much, and knows that she loves + him very dearly. + + Play, play, + All the day, + Jump and run + Every one, + Full of fun, + All take + A piece of cake, + For my sake. + +His wish to encourage the little girl in her efforts to be good, kind, +gentle, and patient, and his appreciation of her accomplishment, is set +forth in this characteristic little note: + + Concord, Cottage, + February 2nd, 1842. + + My dear Elizabeth, + + You give me much pleasure by your still, quiet manners, and your + desire to do things, without asking impatiently and selfishly + for others to help you without trying first to help yourself. + Trying is doing; doing is but trying; try then always and you + will do; and every one loves to help those who try. I will print + a little sentence for you in large letters and you who have + already found it so easy to do things for yourself will, I dare + say, remember it, and follow it too--This is it-- + + TRY FIRST: AND + THEN ASK: AND + TRY PATIENTLY TILL + YOU HAVE TRIED + YOUR BEST: AND + YOU WILL NOT NEED + TO ASK AT ALL. + Trying is the only + Schoolmaster + whose + Scholars + always + Succeed. + Your Father. + + Cottage, + Feb. 2nd. + +Little May, the youngest, was the pet, not only of the Alcott household, +but of all the Alcott kin. This quaint little dolly letter, written to +her by her Uncle Junius, has been framed and hangs to-day in the library +of May Alcott's nephew, John: + + Gift of Junius S. Alcott + to + Abby. + + A + Little Face + once smiling + woke + to + greet, the day, + with sport and play, + Hands) on her Birthday, in shaking (Hands + with her sisters, + and, her visitors, + that, came, to, chime, + a, happy, time, with, Lizzy, + To, give, you, pleasure, uncle, + gives, this, treasure, to you, so, sweet, + So, keep, it, neat, and please, my, + Brother, & your Mother, by always, + finding that, by, minding, you + are, the kindest, little girl, that, + that, ever + stood d, in, + (Shoes) (Shoes) + + + + + CHAPTER VI + + THE MOTHER'S INFLUENCE + + +UPON the lives of all four of her daughters the mother's influence +rested like a benediction. It is felt in her letters; it is reflected in +the journals of her girls and in the musings of Bronson Alcott, as set +down in his voluminous journals. And the mother spirit hovers over +Orchard House, where "Little Women" was written and lived. + +While letters to Anna from her mother are missing, Anna's journal shows +how vital was Mrs. Alcott's power in the upbuilding of her noble +character. Louisa in "Little Women" has said that the girls gave their +hearts into their mother's keeping, their souls into their father's. +Anna's letters bear eloquent testimony to the strong, helpful, cheery +influence of the mother upon the child. Among the first was this letter, +written by Anna when she was five years old and visiting Mr. Alcott's +family at Wolcott: + + _Letter to Mrs. Alcott._ + Wolcott Aug. 12th, 1836. + _Friday Morning._ + + My dear Mother, + + I have to go away by myself and cry because I want to see you so + much, and little sister Lizy and Louisa. Doctor Fuller is + coming to cure Grandmother. i shall see you in a few days. You + have a splendid husband + + Anna + V years of age-- + +(On this she had drawn her hand.) + +She was six years old when she wrote this: + + Dear Mother, + + I have not had a note from you for a great while. You wanted + some wafers yesterday will you accept of them from me There is + not many but it is all that I have got. I am very glad my + birthday is so near for as I grow older, I hope I shall grow + better and more useful to you, I hope soon we shall be settled + down in some comfortable little home of our own and then shall + be contented and happy I hope. I must go to my sums now, so + goodbye dearest mother + + Your loving Anna + +A letter eloquent of the tender relation between mother and child is +this written during the Fruitlands period: + + For + + Dearest mother + fruitlands. + + Dear mother. + + I wish that you would come to the table again. I enjoy my meals + much better when you are at the table. Was not "Heraclitus" that + father read about to-day, a dear good man, it seems as though I + wanted to hug him up and kiss him. I wish men had understood his + thoughts better than they did he would have been happier I + think. I have enjoyed this morning readings and conversations + better than I have before for a good while, I suppose, because I + talked and I understood it so well. I do not write to you very + often dear mother but I love to dearly when I feel like it, and + I love to have letters from you. I have not been as good as I + wish I had this week. I send a little bunch of flowers to you + they are not very pretty but they are beautifully made and I + thought you would like them. I had a beautiful time walking this + morning with Louisa. Good bye dearest mother from your loving + + Anna. + +Many copies of her mother's letters are found in Louisa's journals, +showing the daughter's intense, almost idolatrous affection. Louisa +admired, respected, and loved her father, but to her mother her +tenderest thought was given. Marmee understood the wayward, +tempestuous, lovable child as no one else did, not even loyal Anna, +or admiring Elizabeth. On her birthday the mother writes to Louisa: + + My dear little girl, + + Will you accept this doll from me on your 7th birthday. She will + be a quiet play mate for my active Louisa for seven years more. + Be a kind mamma and love her for my sake. + + Your mother. + + Beach St., Boston, 1839. + +Louisa was ten when this birthday letter was sent: + + Cottage in Concord. + + Dear Daughter, + + Your 10th birthday has arrived, may it be a happy one, & on each + returning birthday may you feel new strength and resolution to be + gentle with sisters, obedient to parents, loving to everyone & + happy in yourself. + + I give you the pencil case I promised, for I have observed that + you are fond of writing & wish to encourage the habit. + + Go on trying, dear, & each day it will be easier to be & do good. + You must help yourself, for the cause of your little troubles is + in yourself, & patience & courage only will make you what mother + prays to see you her good and happy girl. + +During the Fruitlands period, when Louisa was eleven, she found this +little note tucked carefully away in a spot where only she would find +and read it: + + Fruitlands. + + My dear, + + Thank you for your sweet note and sweeter poetry. The second + verse is very good. Your love of nature is pure and true. It is + a lovely school in which good lessons may be learned. The happy + industry of birds, the beautiful lives of flowers, the music of + brooks all help-- + + "The little fountain flows + So noiseless thro the wood, + The wanderer tastes repose, + And from the silent flood + Learns meekly to do good." + +In the following letter, a pretty little deference to the child's own +personality is shown by the mother, in that way bringing out in the +child respect and deference for others: + + Dear Daughter, + + I hope you will not consider me an intruder for stopping a + moment in your "poet's corner" to admire the neatness of your + desk, the sweetness of your poetry, the beauty of the prospect + from your window. Cherish this love of nature, dear, enjoy all + it gives you, for God made these helps to charm contemplation, + and they strengthen the noble desire to be or to do all that is + sent for our training & our good. Heaven be about you my child, + is mother's Sunday prayer. + +Louisa Alcott filled her diary with letters from her mother, +occasionally adding in later life annotations of her own. This letter +from her mother when Louisa was eleven is an example: + + (From Louisa Alcott's Diary.) + Concord, 1843. + + Dear Louy, + + I enclose a picture for you which I always liked very much, for + I have imagined that you might be just such an industrious + daughter & I such a feeble but loving mother, looking to your + labor for my daily bread. Keep it for my sake, & your own, for + you and I always like to be grouped together. + + Mother. + + [Illustration: ABIGAIL MAY, MRS. A. BRONSON ALCOTT. + From a daguerreotype. + _Page 106._] + +Then follows the picture and the lines written by Louisa in her +journal: + + To Mother. + + I hope that soon dear mother, you & I may be + In the quiet room my fancy has so often made for thee, + The pleasant sunny chamber, the cushioned easy chair, + The books laid for your reading, the vase of flowers fair. + The desk beside the window where the sun shines warm and bright, + And there in ease and quiet, the promised book you write, + While I sit close beside you, content at last to see, + That you can rest dear mother, & I can cherish thee. + +Louisa lived to see her hope realized and the dream of many years a +beautiful reality. + +Like most writers, Louisa was moody, and in her hours of depression and +despondency she looked upon her work as a failure and herself as a +useless drag upon the family. At such times Marmee invariably came to +the rescue and persuaded her discouraged daughter to use the pen she was +ready to lay down. Even in Louisa's childhood, when her only promise of +future literary achievement were her tragedies and melodramas of lurid +style, little gifts show the mother's faith and pride in her daughter's +work. So did her letters, of which this is an example: + + Dear Louisa: + + I sometimes stray about the house and take a peep into the + journal. Your pages lately are blank. I am sure your life has + many fine passages well worth recording, and to me they are + always precious. Anything like intellectual progress in my + children seems to compensate for much disappointment & + perplexity in my own life. Do write a little each day, dear, if + but a line, to show me how bravely you begin the battle, how + patiently you wait for the rewards sure to come when the victory + is nobly won. + + Ever yrs. + Mother. + +On her fourteenth birthday the mother accompanies the gift of a pen with +this little poem: + + Oh, may this pen your muse inspire, + When wrapt in pure poetic fire, + To write some sweet, some thrilling verse; + A song of love or sorrow's lay, + Or duty's clear but tedious way + In brighter hope rehearse. + Oh, let your strain be soft and high, + Of crosses here, of crowns beyond the sky; + Truth guide your pen, inspire your theme, + And from each note joy's music stream. + +Louisa Alcott owed much to her mother's example and perhaps even more to +her mother's influence. This letter, carefully preserved in the +daughter's journal, reveals a wealth of mother-love and of God-given +wisdom: + + 15th Birthday, + Hillside. + + Dearest, + + Accept this pen from your mother and for her sake use it freely + & worthily that each day of this your fifteenth year may + testify to some good word or thought or work. + + I know there will be born into your spirit new hopes, new gifts, + for God helps the loving, trusting heart that turns to Him. Lift + up your soul to meet the highest, for that alone will satisfy + your yearning, aspiring nature. + + Your temperament is a peculiar one, & there are few who can + really help you. Set about the formation of character & believe + me you are capable of obtaining a noble one. Industry, patience, + love, creates, endures, gives all things, for these are the + attributes of the Almighty, & they make us mighty in all things. + May eternal love sustain you, infinite wisdom guide you, & the + peace which passeth understanding reward you, my daughter. + + Mother. + Nov. 29th, 1846. + +Deeds, not words, characterized Elizabeth Alcott, as readers of "Little +Women" will recall. She was about seven when she sent this letter, one +of the very few she wrote, to her mother: + + May, Friday 29. + + Dear Mother, + + I thank you very much for your note. I will try to write better + than I have done. I have not always had a good pen. I hope I + shall improve in all my studies this summer. I hope I can read + German & French very well, and know a great deal about the + countries. I must write my journal now so I will bid you good + bye. + + From your loving + Elizabeth. + +Birthdays were always celebrated with much rejoicing in the Alcott +household, the gift made secondary to the spirit of the day. From the +time they were old enough to print, the Alcott children on the mother's +birthday made her some little gift, accompanying it with a note. Abba +May or May, as she was always called, at nine years old, began in prose +but lapsed into poetry: + + Dear Mother, + + I wish you a very happy birthday. I hope you will find my + present Useful, and when you wear it think of me. I have taken a + great-deal of Pleasure in making it for you. Please take this + Present mother on your 49 birthday + + With the dearest Love and wishes of your little daughter A. + +With Mrs. Alcott, hardship, poverty, the grief of seeing her husband +misunderstood and often scoffed at, never lessened her love for him, or +her contentment in the marriage relation. The year following her +marriage in a letter to her brother she wrote: "My father has never +married a daughter or son more completely happy than I am. I have cares, +and soon they will be arduous ones, but with the mild, constant, and +affectionate sympathy and aid of my husband, with the increasing health +and loveliness of my quiet and bright little Anna, with good health, +clear head, grateful heart and ready hand,--what can I not do when +surrounded by influences like this?" + +Ideals were never shattered; illusions, if so they may be called, were +never lost by Mrs. Alcott through the stormy years that laid between the +first happy months of her married life and the sunset days when all her +burdens were laid down. To her, the husband who was so long denied +material success and intellectual sympathy ever remained the lover and +friend. Her admiration for him was unbounded, her faith in him complete. +So high she held him in heart and mind, that it was difficult even for +those who loved him most to appreciate her estimate of him as Poet, +Philosopher, and Sage. + +Concerning the most famous portrait ever made of Bronson Alcott, done in +crayons by Mrs. Richard Hildredth, wife of the historian and aunt of the +portrait painter, George Fuller, which, beautiful as it was, did not +satisfy the wife's ideal, Mrs. Alcott writes: + + A tinge of the incomprehensible lies softly around it, a field + of atmosphere, as if she had worked with down from an angel's + wing rather than with a crayon,--as if the moonlight had cast a + shadow on the lights of her picture, and a divinity had touched + with a soft shade, the dark portion of the figure. Mrs. + Hildredth has changed the costume from a dress suit to a mantle + draped about the shoulders. This, I do not like. The chaste + simplicity of Mr. Alcott's dress is more in character and + keeping with the severe simplicity and rectitude of his life. + Louisa admirably describes her father's appearance as she + met him at the cars. "His dress was neat and poor. He looked + cold and thin as an icicle, but serene as God." After such a + testimony, from such a daughter, he can afford to dress shabbily. + +Contentment, whatever her lot, was an attribute of Marmee; she +underestimated herself always. Unquestionably, Louisa inherited her +literary gift quite as much from mother as from father, and flashes of +the quaint humor so delightful in the daughter's books are found in the +mother's letters. To a friend she writes: "My gifts are few. I live, +love and learn, and find myself more content every day of my life with +humble conditions." + +Louisa Alcott never laid claim to poetic gift, but on a few occasions +her verses take to themselves true poetic beauty. One of the most +exquisite of these poems was written by her on the death of her mother, +and was first published anonymously in the "Masque of Poets" of 1878: + + TRANSFIGURATION + In Memoriam + + Mysterious death; who in a single hour + Life's gold can so refine, + And by thy art divine + Change mortal weakness to immortal power: + + Bending beneath the weight of eighty years, + Spent with the noble strife + Of a victorious life, + We watched her fading heavenward, through our tears. + + But ere the sense of loss our hearts had wrung, + A miracle was wrought: + And swift as happy thought + She lived again--brave, beautiful and young. + + Age, pain and sorrow dropped the veils they wore, + And showed the tender eyes + Of angels in disguise, + Whose discipline so patiently she bore. + + The past years brought their harvest rich and fair; + While memory and love, + Together fondly wove + A golden garland for the silver hair. + + + + + CHAPTER VII + + CHILDREN'S DIARIES + + +THE Alcott children were brought up to think for themselves, to reflect, +and to give expression to their thoughts. Never laughed at, they were +not afraid to speak or write of what was in their minds. Each kept a +diary, and no incident that concerned the little girls was too trivial +for mention in the record of the day. These incidents, collected, give a +more comprehensive view of the Alcotts as a family than do the father's +voluminous journals. + + [Illustration: ANNA BRONSON ALCOTT. + From a daguerreotype. + _Page 122._] + +When Anna was ten, she gravely explains under date of April 13, 1841: + + Father was too unwell to come down stairs and mother ironed, + Louisa and I helped a little while. I wrote my journal and a + journal for Louisa as she thought she could not write well + enough. I had no other lessons than that. We watched a little + spider and gave it some water to drink. In the afternoon mother + read loud the story of the good aunt or part of it while we + sewed on the clean clothes I mended up the holes and Louisa and + Lizzy sewed on a sheet. In the evening we played mother lets us + play in the evening. We went to bed soon. + +This sewing bee recalls the long evenings in the March home, described +in "Little Women," when the four girls and the mother sewed dutifully +on sheets for Aunt March, dividing seams into countries, discussing +Europe, Asia, Africa, and America as they stitched. + +When she was twelve, Anna's literary aspirations sought a vent in +attempted poetry. Later she collaborated with Louisa in writing the +"Comic Tragedies." Anna's confidante and comrade, Louisa, was frequently +the victim of these poetic effusions, her reception of which gives quite +a line on her ardent temperament. This entry in Anna's journal for April +23, 1843, is eloquent: + + This morning I rose pretty early--After breakfast I read and + wrote stories. In the afternoon I wrote some letters and the + following one to Louisa: + + Louisa dear + With love sincere + Accept this little gift from me + It is with pleasure + I send this treasure + And with it send much love to thee. + + Sister dear + Never fear + God will help you if you try. + Do not despair + But always care + To be good and love to try. + + In the evening I read in a book called 'Stories on the + Lord's-prayer.' I talked with Louisa after I went to bed and she + pinched me on my leg. + +Two or three years later Anna writes: + + Monday. + + Mother went to Boston and Louisa and I cleaned house all day. I + love order above all things and I take great pleasure in seeing + all neat about the house. + + Tuesday. + + I worked hard till 2 o'clock when we all met to sew while mother + read aloud from "Miss Bremers Brothers and Sister's." It is most + beautiful such a happy family. I think Miss Bremer would make a + lovely mother the mothers in her books are so sweet and she has + beautiful idear's about family's. I love to read natural + stories. + + Wednesday 30th. + + We rose very early and eat breakfast. I think it is a dreadful + thing to grow old and not be able to fly about, but then I + suppose I shall not care about flying when I grow older, still + it is horrid to think about being an old woman all wrinkled and + blind. I wish I could keep young forever. I should love to live + among all those I love and be with them all the time. + +Reading was a part of the daily routine in the Alcott household, and +Anna's taste for German recalls vividly certain episodes between Meg and +John Brooks in "Little Women." + + Friday 18th. + + I read one of Krummacher's parables in German. I think they are + very beautiful, the language is so elegant. I love to hear + beautiful words and these stories are told so simply and are + full of such sweet thought. I found a great many which have + never been translated and I intend to try myself to translate + them. I think it is the pleasantest thing I do to read German. + It is such a splendid language. I mean Elizabeth shall learn to + read it, she will enjoy it so much. + + Saturday 19th. + + In the afternoon I sewed and Louisa read me a very silly story + called 'The Golden Cup.' I think there is a great deal of + nonsense written now a days, the papers are full of silly + stories. + + Sunday 20th. + + I have been reading lately a very beautiful book given me by my + mother. It is "Characteristics of Women" by Mrs. Jameson. I like + it very much. It is a description of Shakespear's Heroines, + Portia is my favorite, she was so noble and I liked the Trial + scene better than any of Shakespears that I ever read. I think + this part is beautiful. + + 'Let music sound while he doth make his choice; + Then if he love he make a swan like end + Fading in music.' + + I think this was a beautiful idea. + + I passed a pleasant morning in school, translating one of + Krummacher's beautiful parables. I find great pleasure in this. + I like German better than I do French. I want much to study + Italian. I have tried myself several times but cannot manage it + without help. I think I should be very happy if I could go to + school. I think about it most all the time and when I am in bed + I imagine myself in Boston going to Miss Peabody's school with + other girls and know that I am learning something. And I think + I lead rather too solitary a life. I love to see people. Mother + read in the afternoon from Miss Sedgwick's Letters. It was about + the Germans. She says they are a very cheerful people and though + poor yet they always have a happy smile and cheerful face. That + their manners are beautiful. They are so kind and simple. I know + I should love them, for I like everything German, except their + food, which I think must be horrid, greasy cabbage and sour + bread. That seems bad. I should think they are so fond of + beautiful things; music, poetry and flowers, that they would not + like such stuff. + + September, 1845. + Friday 1st. + + I walked before breakfast, the sun was bright and there was a + cool wind. The lane was full of beautiful flowers and the grass + was green and fresh. I had a lovely walk and gathered a bunch of + goldenrod, spirian and gerandia. Everything was so beautiful + that all my unhappy thoughts of last night flew away. I + sometimes have strange feelings, a sort of longing after + something I don't know what it is. I have a great many wishes. I + spent the day in the usual manner, sewing and studying. In the + evening Louisa and I walked through the lane and talked about + how we should like to live and dress and imagined all kinds of + beautiful things. + + Sunday 3rd. + + I sewed all day and mother read from "Miss Sedgwick's Letters." + I will write a piece of poetry, as I have nothing very pleasant + to write about: + + "Oh when thy heart is full of fears + And the way is dim to Heaven + When the sorrow and the sin of years + Peace from thy soul has driven + Then through the mist of falling tears + Look up and be forgiven. + + "And then rise up and sin no more + And from thy dark ways flee + Let Virtue o'er thy appetites + Have full and perfect mastery + And the kindly ones that hover o'er + Will ever strengthen thee. + + "And though thou art helpless and forlorn + Let not thy heart's peace go + And though the riches of this world are gone + And thy lot is care and woe + Faint not, but journey ever on + True wealth is not below. + + "Oh, falter not but still look up + Let Patience be thy guide + Bless the rod and take the cup + And trustfully abide + Let not temptation vanquish thee + And the Father will provide." + + Louisa composed these lines, which I think are beautiful. She is + a beautiful girl and writes as good poetry as Lucretia Davidson, + about whom so much has been written. I think she will write + _something great one of these days_. As for me I am perfect in + nothing. I have no genius. I know a little of music, a little of + French, German and Drawing, but none of them well. I have a + foolish wish to be something _great_ and I shall probably spend my + life in a kitchen and die in the poor-house. I want to be Jenny + Lind or Mrs. Seguin and I can't and so I cry. Here is another of + Louisa's pieces to mother. + + "God comfort thee dear mother, + For sorrow sad and deep + Is lying heavy on thy heart + And this hath made thee weep. + + "There is a Father o'er us, mother, + Who orders for the best + And peace shall come ere long, mother, + And dwell within thy breast. + + "Then let us journey onward, mother, + And trustfully abide, + The coming forth of good or ill + Whatever may betide." + +Helpfulness was encouraged in the Alcott household; habits of industry +were carefully fostered. The Alcott children worked when they worked, +played when they played, but wasted hours were unknown. They were taught +to make the most of every day. When Anna was seventeen she wrote in her +diary: + + August, 1848. + Thursday 17th. + + Lizzy and I are making plans for spending our days usefully. + Here is mine. + + Plan. + + Rise at half past 4, bathe, dress and walk till half past 5. + + Dress and bathe the children. + + Breakfast at 7. Work till 9. School till 12. Work till 2. + + Sew till 4. Practice till 5. + + Hear Lizzy recite German and French till 6. Supper. + + This will keep me pretty busy, but I find I accomplish so much + more when I have a plan and certain times for certain things. I + never can do things without order. I like to have something + planned for every moment of the day, so that when I get up in + the morning I may know what to do. I wish I could be learned. + +An entry in Louisa's diary during the Fruitlands period gives this +insight into one of her average days, when a child of eleven: + + I rose at five, and after breakfast washed the dishes and then + helped mother work. I took care of May in the afternoon. In the + evening I made some pretty things for my dolly. Father and Mr. + Lane had a talk and father asked us if we saw any reason for us + to separate. Mother wanted to, she is so tired. I like it, but + not the school part or Mr. L. + +Note, too, that when it came to a conference concerning family affairs, +the father asked the advice of his eleven-year-old daughter, instead of +following the more customary method of withholding from her the family +confidence and deferring discussion of plans until the children had gone +to bed. + +"Know Thyself," was ever the aim of Bronson Alcott in the training of +his children, and Mr. Lane at Fruitlands followed this same line of +mental development. This is one of his sample lessons which Louisa +Alcott has copied into her journal: + + Sample of our Lessons + + "What virtues do you wish more of," asked Mr. L. I answer: + + Patience Love Silence + Obedience Generosity Perseverance + Industry Respect Self-denial + + "What vices less of?" + + Idleness Wilfulness Vanity + Impatience Impudence Pride + Selfishness Activity Love of cats + +In this same lesson comes the twelve-year-old Louisa's explanation of +the difference between faith and hope: + + Faith can believe without seeing; hope is not sure, but tries + to have faith when it desires. + +Louisa's love of nature, her trained habits of thought, her poetic +imagination, and her keen appreciation of beauty are indicated in this +entry in her journal, written at Fruitlands in 1843 or 1844, when she +was a child of ten or eleven: + + I wrote in my imagination book, and enjoyed it very much. Life + is pleasanter than it used to be, and I don't care about dying + any more. Had a splendid run, and got a box of cones to burn. + Sat and heard the pines sing a long time. Had good dreams, and + woke now and then to think, and watch the moon. I had a + pleasant time with my mind, for it was happy. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII + + GIRLHOOD AND WOMANHOOD + + +FAMILIAR to every reader of "Little Women" is the March family's quaint +brown house with its many windows, its old-fashioned garden, its homely, +homelike air, its unfailing hospitality. This home, as described by +Louisa M. Alcott, is a picture of the Alcott home at Concord, the scene +of the girlhood and young womanhood of the Alcott children. Many of +Louisa's books were written there; "Little Women" was lived there. In +Concord, Anna met John Pratt, and the first love story in "Little +Women" is Anna's life romance. There little Beth passed from the +material to the spiritual life, and Amy first developed the artistic +talents which later caused her work to be sought for by art museums and +private collectors. + +Anna's marriage was a great trial to Louisa, for from early childhood +the two girls had been inseparable companions, and after Anna's marriage +Louisa learned to look upon John as her brother. + +Louisa's diary in the April following the passing of Elizabeth touches +upon the change of homes in Concord, the absence of May, who was +studying art in Boston, of Elizabeth and of Anna: + + April. + + Came to occupy one wing of Hawthorne's house (once ours) while the + new one was being repaired. Father, mother and I kept house + together, May being in Boston, Anna at Pratt farm, & for the first + time Lizzy absent. I don't miss her as I expected to do, for she + seems nearer & dearer than before, & I am glad to know she is safe + from pain & age in some world where her innocent soul must be happy. + + Death never seemed terrible to me, & now is beautiful, so I cannot + fear it, but find it friendly and wonderful. + + [Illustration: ABBA MAY ALCOTT. + From a photograph. + _Page 142._] + +Amy's artistic efforts and her failures in "Little Women" are taken from +May's actual experiences in Concord. Turning the career of the youngest +of the Alcott girls into a romance earlier in "Little Women" than it +actually occurred in life, doubtless prevented Louisa Alcott from +chronicling the artistic success of her youngest sister, a success to +which she largely contributed and in which she took great pride. + +May Alcott's pictures are found to-day in art museums and in leading +private collections in this country and abroad. Her copies of Turner are +remarkable. In the Kensington Gallery in London students are given them +to study in preference to the originals. Several fine examples are in +American museums, and a few are owned by members of the Alcott family. + +When the Alcotts moved into Orchard House, the girls painted and +papered the interior themselves. May filled the nooks and corners with +panels, on which she painted birds and flowers. Over the fireplaces she +inscribed mottoes in Old English characters. + +The study in Orchard House was the real center of the household. For the +chimney piece Ellery Channing wrote an epigram, which May Alcott painted +upon it, and which has been used in the stage reproduction of "Little +Women": + + "The Hills are reared, the Valleys scooped in vain, + If Learning's Altars vanish from the Plain." + +In Orchard House to-day, walls, doors, and window casings are etched +with May Alcott's drawings, many preserved under glass, including a +miniature portrait of a little girl, naïvely and modestly inscribed "The +Artist." + +High thoughts and cheerful minds triumphed over poverty in those Concord +days. Shortly after the family's return from Fruitlands, Louisa wrote +for Ellen Emerson the fairy stories, "Flower Fables." She was at the +time only sixteen. This was her earliest published work, and it was many +years before she achieved literary fame, although, as did Jo in "Little +Women," she materially helped in the support of the family by writing +lurid tales. + +Literature rather than commerce freed the Alcotts from the burden of +debt. Louisa's fame was the result, neither of accident, nor of a +single achievement, but had for its background the whole generous past +of her family. Her "Hospital Sketches" were her letters home, when she +was serving as hospital nurse during the Civil War. "Little Women" is a +chronicle of her family. Louisa certainly made good use of the +vicissitudes of the Alcotts. She always saw the funny side and was not +afraid to make book material of the home experiences, elevating or +humiliating. Her books number between twenty-five and thirty. Nearly +every one takes its basic idea from some real experience. The books +written by the Alcott family, including some eight or ten published by +Mr. Alcott, Louisa's output, and one or two written by May, fill two +shelves of an alcove devoted to Concord authors in the Alcott town +library. + +Anna's little sons, familiarly known in the Alcott household as Freddie +and Johnnie, or Jack, gave to Bronson Alcott in his later days fresh +opportunity for his favorite study--childhood. To both boys came +frequent messages and gifts from Grandpa, Grandma, and Aunt Louisa. + +Louisa Alcott sent to Freddie this poem on his third birthday: + + A song for little Freddie + On his third Birthday. + + Down in the field + Where the brook goes, + Lives a white lammie + With a little black nose. + + He eats the grass so green, + He drinks the "la la" sweet, + "Buttertups" and daisies, + Grow all about his feet. + + The "birdies" they sing to him, + The big sun in the sky, + Warms his little "Toe-toes," + And peeps into his eye. + + He's a very gentle lammie, + He never makes a fuss, + He never "saps his marmar," + He never says "I muss." + + He hops and he runs, + "Wound and wound" all day, + And when the night comes, + He goes "bye low" on the hay. + + In a nice little barn, + Where the "moo-moos" are; + Freddie says "Good night," + But the lammie he says "Baa!" + + To be sung by Marmar with appropriate accompaniment of gesture, etc. + +On the outside of the letter appears: + + A little song for Freddie, + On his third birthday, + With "lots" of loving kisses, + From his Wee-wee far away. + +On his sixth birthday Grandpa contributes: + + Concord, Freddie's + 6th Birthday, + 1869. + + Dear Freddy, + + I give you for your Birth Day Present this new Picture Book. It + has plain words for you to pick out and read. The stories are + short and about things that you know. Now, my little scholar, + look among the leaves every day, and see how many words you can + tell,--Very soon you will find you can read whole pages, spell + the whole book through, and write the stories, word for word on + your slate or in your little writing book. Then you will not be + a little Dunce, and when Grandpa comes to see you, you will be + glad to show him how well you can read. + + Grandma gives the top to Johnny. + From Grandpa. + +Grandma, not to be outdone, sent this: + + Dear Freddy, + + If worms give us the silk thread--can't we find time enough to + find out how the Fabric is made which dresses are formed + of--minutes and days--ours. Days and Years are passing away--let + us be busy--and I guess we will get to the Vienna Exposition-- + + "How doth the little busy Bee" + + Improve each shining hour--Be a Bee--and your hours will be too + few for the Flowers of Science and the Wheels of Use. Grandma + will help you with her one dim eye and Grandpa will explain a + great deal to you with his Shining Light--Mama with your help + will make you a true, good man.-- + + 1873. + +On his twelfth birthday Aunt Louisa again lapsed into poetry: + + F. A. P. + + Who likes to read a fairy tale, + Or stories told of sword and sail, + Until his little optics fail? + Our boy. + + Who loves his father's watch to wear + And often draw it out with care + Upon its round white face to stare? + Our boy. + + Who rather proud of his small feet + When wearing slippers new and neat, + And stockings red as any beet? + Our boy. + + Who in his pocket keeps his hands + As round the house he "mooning" stands + Or reads the paper like the mans? + Our boy. + + Who likes to "boss" it over Jack, + And sometimes gives a naughty whack, + But gets it heartily paid back? + Our boy. + + Who likes to have a birthday frolic + And eats until he has a colic, + That for the time is diabolic? + Our boy. + + Who is the dearest little lad, + That aunt or mother ever had, + To love when gay and cheer when sad? + Our boy. + + May angels guard him with their wings, + And all brave, good and happy things, + Make nobler thou than crowned kings. + Our boy. + + March 28th, 1875. + +John, the original of Daisy in "Little Women," received in his babyhood +days from Aunt Louisa, some tiny blue stockings with this verse: + + Two pair of blue hose, + For Johnny's white toes, + So Jack Frost can't freeze em, + Nor darned stockings tease em, + So pretty and neat + I hope the small feet + Will never go wrong, + But walk straight and strong, + The way father went. + We shall all be content, + If the dear little son + Be a second good John. + +On his tenth birthday, both Grandpa and Grandma Alcott sent these +characteristic greetings to their younger grandson: + + Grandma Alcott to Johnny. + + 10th birthday. June 24th. 1875. + + Giving song, all day long, + Under the elm or willow; + With sunshine shed + On the little head + That rests on Grandma's pillow. + To and fro, + Let it go, + While inside piping cheery, + As he takes his rest + In his hang-bird's nest + Lies Grandma's little deary. + + * * * * * + + Grandpa Alcott to Johnny. + June 24th. 1875. + + A fine little sword + For gallant Capt. Jack, + As he marches down the hill + His army at his back. + + No giants will it kill + Since its only made for show, + And the best way to fight, + Is a kiss for a blow. + +In these days of private secretaries, labor-saving devices, and +specialization, it is difficult to comprehend the obstacles that Louisa +Alcott encountered in writing. Her day was filled with other tasks, +housework, sewing, teaching, nursing--yet the pen was never idle, the +busy brain was never still. Her power of concentration made it possible +for her to write under harassing conditions. This is her own description +of her methods of work: + + My methods of work are very simple and soon told. My head is my + study, and there I keep the various plans of stories for years + sometimes, letting them grow as they will till I am ready to + put them on paper. Then it is quick work, as chapters go down + word for word as they stand in my mind, and need no alteration. + I never copy, since I find by experience that the work I spend + the least time upon is best liked by critics and speakers. + + Any paper, any pen, any place that is quiet suit me, and I used + to write from morning till night without fatigue when "the steam + was up." Now, however, I am paying the penalty of twenty years + of over work, and can write but two hours a day, doing about + twenty pages, sometimes more, though my right thumb is useless + from writer's cramp. + + While a story is under way I live in it, see the people more + plainly than real ones around me, hear them talk, and am much + interested, surprised and provoked at their actions, for I seem + to have no power to rule them, and can simply record their + experiences and performances. + + Materials for the children's tales I find in the lives of the + little people about me, for no one can invent anything so droll, + pretty or pathetic as the sayings and doings of these small + actors, poets and martyrs. In the older books, the events are + mostly from real life, the strongest the truest, and I yet hope + to write a few of the novels which have been simmering in my + brain while necessity and unexpected success have confined me to + juvenile literature. + + I gave Mrs. Moulton many facts for her article in "Famous + Women," and there are many other sketches which will add more if + they are wanted. The first edition of "Jo's Boys" was twenty + thousand I believe, and over fifty thousand were soon gone. + Since January I know little about the sales. People usually ask + "How much have you made?" I am contented with a hundred + thousand, and find my best success in the comfort my family + enjoy; also a naughty satisfaction in proving that it was better + _not_ to "stick to teaching" as advised, but to write. + + [Illustration: LOUISA MAY ALCOTT. + From a daguerreotype. + _Page 160._] + +With all her love for her father, irreverent Louisa delighted in making +fun of him. The complacent philosopher, with his voluminous journals, +his several books in manuscript, his liking, despite the brilliancy of +his conversations, for the written rather than the spoken word, was a +wasteful user of paper and a careless dispenser of ink. That her father +enjoyed her good-natured banter is shown by the fact that in his journal +he has entered the following poem, written by Louisa at nineteen: + + From Louisa on my 52nd birthday. + Nov. 29th, 1851. + + To Father. + + A cloth on the table where dear Plato sits + By one of the Graces was spread + With the single request that he would not design + New patterns with black ink or red. + And when he is soaring away in the clouds + I beg he'll remember and think + Though the "blackbirds" are fair his cloth will be fairer + For not being deluged with ink. + May plenty of paper of pens and of quiet + To my dear pa forever be given + Till he has written such piles that when on the top + He can walk calmly on into Heaven. + + + + + CHAPTER IX + + FRIENDSHIPS AND BELIEFS + + +RARE friendships existed among the great minds of that period, when +Transcendentalism in America was first talked and lived, a close bond of +sympathy uniting Bronson Alcott, Emerson, Thoreau, Ellery Channing, +Margaret Fuller, and Elizabeth Peabody. Such association made its +impress upon the Alcott daughters. Anna's diary is filled with +references to visits with the Emersons. Louisa's deal less with the +family and more with the intellectual life of the great philosopher, +whom she made her idol. Through life he was her stanch and +understanding friend. + +"The Apostles of the Newness" was the scoffing term applied to these +literary giants of New England by those who lacked the mental and +spiritual insight to recognize greatness in others. + +This attitude of ridicule was largely responsible for the continued +attacks upon the _Dial_, a quarterly issued by the Transcendentalists, +edited from 1840 to 1844 by Emerson, Margaret Fuller, George Ripley, and +Thoreau. Between its modest covers were many of the intellectual +masterpieces of the time: its rare volumes are still treasure-houses of +literature which to-day command any price. Mr. Alcott selected its title +and was to a large extent responsible for its policy. His Orphic +Sayings in the _Dial_, now looked upon as classics, were the butt of the +press at the time, and the derision of Boston society. + +In these Orphic Sayings, he gave this remarkable definition of Reform: +"Reforms are the noblest of facts. Extant in time, they work for +eternity: dwelling with men, they are with God." + +Conversation among these friends was neither trivial nor useless, and in +the Alcott circle, which included Emerson, Thoreau, Theodore Parker, +William Henry Channing, James Freeman Clarke, Elizabeth Peabody, Mrs. +Cheney, and other of the early Transcendentalists, later on augmented by +James Russell Lowell and Nathaniel Hawthorne, a series of drawing-room +symposiums was established, with Alcott, whom Emerson called "serious +and superior," as a leader. Much of the substance of these conversations +is found in the Alcott journals, and in the unpublished manuscripts of +the poet-philosopher. + +In Concord, the Alcotts once more enjoyed the literary companionship +they craved. Emerson was a near neighbor. Thoreau had his cabin at +Walden, where he had established "a community of one." To and from +Boston came others of the Transcendental group, and Concord became the +center of thought for New England. + +Thinking, however, was not the only occupation of Bronson Alcott. +Dreamer he was, but he delighted in toil and ever upheld the dignity of +labor, not ashamed nor afraid to work for hire as a laborer in his +neighbor's field, while nightly conducting drawing-room conversations +with a company of peers and students. + +When Thoreau built his cabin, Alcott helped him. They cut the trees from +Emerson's grove. While Emerson was abroad, they built a summer-house for +him on his grounds. It stood for many years, a picturesque temple of +friendship. William Henry Channing mentions a morning spent there, +reading Margaret Fuller's Italian letters. May Alcott has made drawings +of it, which were published in a volume of "Concord Sketches" that also +contained her drawing of Hawthorne's house. + +Mr. Alcott practically rebuilt Orchard House for his own family. Mrs. +Child, a friend of Mrs. Alcott, thus describes this home, which is now +preserved as a memorial to Louisa M. Alcott and is visited by thousands +every year: + + When they bought the place the house was so very old that it + was thrown into the bargain, with the supposition that it was + fit for nothing but firewood. But Mr. Alcott had an + architectural taste, more intelligible than his Orphic Sayings. + He let every old rafter and beam stay in its place, changed old + ovens and ash holes into Saxon arched alcoves, and added a + washerwoman's old shanty to the rear. The result is a house + full of queer nooks and corners, with all manner of juttings in + and out. It seems as if the spirit of some old architect had + dropped it down in Concord. + +Thoreau, master builder himself, has paid to Bronson Alcott this +tribute: + + One of the last of the philosophers, Connecticut gave him to + the world. He peddled first her wares, afterwards, as he + declares, his brains. These he peddles still, bearing for + fruit, only his brain, like the nut its kernel. His words and + attitude always suppose a better state of things than other men + are aquainted with, and he will be the last man to be + disappointed when the ages revolve. He has no venture in the + present. But though comparatively disregarded now, when his + day comes, laws unsuspected by most will take effect, and + rulers will come to him for advice. + +Emerson, who saw the boy mind beneath the philosopher's dignity, said +tenderly of Bronson Alcott: "He is certainly the youngest man of his age +we have seen. When I looked at his gray hairs, his conversation sounded +pathetic; but I looked again and they reminded me of the gray dawn." + +Even his friends, to say nothing of Louisa, occasionally poked fun at +him for chronicling so minutely all his thoughts. Ellery Channing called +his library, "Encyclopediea de Moi-meme, en cents volumes." Yet these +journals and records are now worth more than the fine library he +collected and in which he delighted. + +Emerson has thus described the origin of the Fruitlands community: + + On the invitation of James P. Greaves of London, the friend and + fellow-laborer of Pestalozzi in Switzerland, Mr. Alcott went to + England in 1842. Mr. Greaves died before his arrival, but Mr. + Alcott was received cordially by his friends, who had given his + name to their school, Alcott House, Ham, near London. He spent + several months in making acquaintance with various classes of + reformers. On his return to America, he brought with him two of + his English friends, Chas. Lane and H. C. Wright; and Mr. Lane + having bought a farm which he called Fruitlands, at Harvard, + Mass., they all went there to found a new community. + +The Fruitlands experiment and its failure have been immortalized by +Louisa Alcott in her "Transcendental Wild Oats." The detail of it is +thus described by a friend of the Alcott family, who had the story from +Bronson Alcott himself: + + The crop failures necessitated the community living on a barley + diet, as anything animal was not allowed, not even milk and + eggs. Now and then they gave a thought as to what they should + do for shoes when those they had were gone; for depriving the + cow of her skin was a crime not to be tolerated. The barley + crop was injured in harvesting, and before long want was + staring them in the face. The Alcotts remained at Fruitlands + till mid-winter in dire poverty, all the guests having taken + their departure as provisions vanished. Friends came to the + rescue, and, Mr. Alcott concluded with pathos in his voice, "We + put our little women on an ox-sled and made our way to Concord! + So faded one of the dreams of my youth. I have given you + the facts as they were; Louisa has given the comic side in + 'Transcendental Wild Oats'; but Mrs. Alcott could give you the + tragic side." + +Indeed, it was always Mrs. Alcott who could have given the tragic side, +skillfully as she kept her worries hidden. Her own family, indignant +because Bronson Alcott could not better provide the material needs for +his family, on more than one occasion besought the faithful wife to +leave him. + +A letter from her brother, urging this step, drew forth from her a +defense of Bronson Alcott which the husband enters in his journal as +follows: + + November + 1840 + + Passages of a letter from my wife to one who misapprehends and + perverts my life and purposes. + + "If I do not mistake the spirit as well as letter of your remark + you would have us believe that a righteous retribution has + overtaken us, (or my husband, and we are one,) and that the + world is justly punishing him for not having conciliated it, by + conforming to its wills and ways.--You say that my husband was + told ten years ago, that the world could not understand him. It + perhaps fell dead on his ears and ever will. There is no human + voice can convince him that the path he has chosen to tread, + thorny, bleak, solitary, as it is, is not the right one for him. + Just so did that man of Nazareth whom all the world profess to + admire and adore, but few to imitate; and these few are the + laughing-stock of the Christian Community. They are branded as + visionaries and fools. But this little band when alone and + disencumbered of idle observation, enjoy the recital of their + privations; they have been reviled, but they revile not again; + they know sorrow and are acquainted with grief; and yet there is + joy in that group of sinless men, such as angels might desire + to partake of. I am not writing poetry, but I have tried to + place before your mind, in as brief, but clear a manner as I am + able, our real condition, and Mr. Alcott's merit as a man, who, + though punished and neglected by a wicked world, has much to + console and encourage him in the confidence and cooperation of + some of the wisest and best men living. Ten such, were they + permitted in their several vocations to act as teachers, + preachers, and printers, would save our wicked city from the + ruin that awaits it. But they are turned, like the Nazarene, + into solitary places to lament the blindness and folly of + mankind, who are following the vain and fleeting shadow for the + real and abiding substance. But to return to Mr. Alcott, is he + to sell his soul, or what is the same thing, his principles, for + the bread that perisheth? No one will employ him in his way; he + cannot work in theirs, if he thereby involve his conscience. He + is so resolved in this matter that I believe he will starve and + freeze before he will sacrifice principle to comfort. In this, I + and my children are necessarily implicated: we make and mean to + make all the sacrifices we can to sustain him, but we have less + to sustain us in the spirit, and therefore, are more liable to + be overcome of the flesh. He has, for a long time gone without + everything which he could not produce by labor, from his own + place, that no one could in truth reproach him with wantonly + eating of the fruits of another's labor. + + He was sent for by friends in Hingham to talk with them; which + he did two evenings; his expenses were paid and $23. put into + his hands as a slight compensation for the benefit they felt he + had conferred upon them by his conversations. I should like to + copy the note accompanying it, but you never care to see how his + fellow fanatics rave on these holy themes, life, duty, destiny + of man. Thus he occasionally finds a market for his thoughts and + experiences, which, though inadequate to our support, is richly + prized as the honest gains of an innocent and righteous labor. + You spoke of his "poetical wardrobe" whether in satire or in a + worthier spirit, I cannot tell. However spiritual he may have + become, there is still enough of the carnal to feel the chills + of winter, and the chiller blasts of satire. His tatters are the + rags of righteousness and keep him warmer than they would anyone + whose spirit was less cheered and warmed by the fires of eternal + love and truth. + +An appreciative account of Mr. Alcott's famous school in the Masonic +Temple, Boston, is found in the "Record of a School," edited by +Elizabeth Peabody, published in 1835, republished in 1874. The +"Conversations with Children on the Gospels," edited by Mr. Alcott in +two volumes, appearing in 1836-1837, caused such a commotion in Boston +as to result in the downfall of the Temple School. Reading these +conversations to-day, one is impressed with the modern quality of their +thought. They were forerunners of that higher criticism, which with the +Bible student now supplants the old blind acceptance without reflection +of even obscure Biblical passages. + +On philosophy and religion Mr. Alcott and Miss Peabody delighted to talk +and write. Their discussion of the existence of evil is startlingly +modern. + +"I do not think that evil should be clothed in form by the imagination," +writes Miss Peabody to Mr. Alcott; "I think every effort should be made +to strip it of all individuality, all shaping and all coloring. And +the reason is, that Evil has in truth no substantial existence, that +it acquires all the existence it has from want of faith and soul +cultivation, and that this is sufficient reason why all cultivation +should be directed to give positiveness, coloring, shaping, to all +kinds of good--Good only being eternal truth." + +In reply, the philosopher thus comments in his diary: "Evil has no +positive existence, I agree with Miss Peabody, but it has usurped a +positive place and being in the popular imagination, and by the +imagination must it be made to flee away into its negative life. How +shall this be done? By shadowing forth in vivid colors the absolute +beauty and phenomena of good, by assuming evil not as positive, but as +negative." + +"I shall always love you for loving Alcott," writes Emerson to his +schoolmate and lifelong friend, the Reverend W. H. Furness. "He is a +great man, the god with the herdsman of Admetus. His conversation is +sublime; yet when I see how he is underestimated by cultivated people, +I fancy none but I have heard him talk." + +In the midst of slander and petty persecutions, Alcott writes in his +diary for April, 1837: + + I have been striving to apprehend the real in the seeming, to + strip ideas of their adventitious phrases and behold them in + their order and powers. I have sought to penetrate the showy + terrestrial to find the heavenly things. I have tried to + translate into ideas the language and images of spirit, and + thus to read God in his works. The outward I have seen as the + visage and type of the inward. Ever doth this same nature + double its design and stand forth--now before the inner, now + before the outer sense of man, at once substance and form, + image and idea, so that God shall never slip wholly from the + consciousness of the soul. + +Emerson, weary of seeing his friend misunderstood, urges him to give up +teaching and become an author, picturing as his golden view for Alcott +that one day he will leave the impracticable world to wag its own way, +sit apart, and write his oracles for its behoof. + +"Write! let them hear or let them forbear," he thunders. "The written +word abides until, slowly and unexpectedly, and in widely sundered +places, it has created its own church." + +The unreality of evil, as taught and believed by Alcott nearly a century +ago, laughed and scoffed at then, was twenty-five years later +practically the foundation of a belief which gained its first foothold +in New England, and, with headquarters in Boston, has spread, until +to-day its followers and churches circle the civilized globe--a new-old +religion, based on the literal acceptance of the teachings of Christ. +What to-day is called metaphysical teaching was in the Alcott period +scoffed at as Transcendentalism. + +Mr. Alcott's strict adherence to a vegetarian diet was also the topic of +ridicule from public and press, although the Alcott children seemed to +thrive on it, and certainly, as four-year-old Louisa once remarked, "Did +pitty well for a wegetable diet." + +Louisa, in her journal, gives this sample of the vegetarian wafers they +had at Fruitlands: + + Vegetable | Pluck your | Without flesh + diet and | body from | + sweet repose | the orchard; | diet there + Animal food | do not snatch | could be no + and nightmare. | it from the | blood-shedding + | shamble. | war. + + Appollo eats no | Snuff is no less snuff + flesh and has no | though accepted + beard; his voice is | from a gold box. + melody itself. | + +Bronson Alcott constantly sought self-improvement, and the shortcomings +of his early education were more than offset by his untiring study. +Realizing at one time his lack of a vocabulary, he comments in his +journal, that to rectify this he has just bought two books, "A +Symposium of Melancholy," and "Hunter on the Blood." + +In their memoirs of Bronson Alcott, F. B. Sanborn and W. T. Harris +have thus summed up his character: "He was the most filial son, the +most faithful lover, the most attached friend, the most generous +philanthropist of his time. And when he died, he left fewer enemies +than any man of equal age can have provoked or encountered in so long +a career." + +In his study of childhood, Mr. Alcott sought first to reach the mind, +recognizing that as "the God within us." He encouraged individuality in +his children, trying in their earliest years to make them think for +themselves. All through his teaching runs the boy's friendship with God, +and his sense of oneness with his Maker was a part of the divine +heritage he passed on to his daughters. + +He records in his diary a conversation with Anna, who was four, and +Louisa, who was two, after reading to them the story of Jesus, which he +made so vital that, given their choice, they asked for it in preference +to a fairy tale. Anna remarked that Jesus did not really die. "They +killed his body, but not his soul." Her father asked: "What is the soul, +Anna?" The little four-year-old replied: "It's this inside of me that +makes me feel and think and love." "And," said the father, "what became +of Jesus' soul?" Anna replied: "It went back to God." Whereat little +two-year-old Louisa asked: "Why, isn't Dod inside of me?" + +A note in the father's diary at the birth of Elizabeth records "Anna's +first interview with her sister" (Elizabeth a few hours old), and a day +later comes this record: "Anna and Louisa interview their sister." +Louisa, two years old, wishes to have the baby sister put in her arms, +when four-year-old Anna says warningly: "Treat her very carefully, +Louisa, she comes from God." What a beautiful thought to give a child of +the divine mystery of birth! + +Instead of asserting what he intended to make of his children, Alcott +encouraged the child to make itself, beginning when it was a small +baby, treating it as an individual, giving it opportunity to use its +mentality, instilling principles of right and wrong by suggestion. +Alcott never commanded. "You don't wish to do that," was his way, not +exacting blind obedience, but expressing his conviction that the child +wished to do right. + +To him, God was love. He had no fear of God, for perfect love had cast +out fear. This same spirit was manifested in all his children. To them +the change called Death was not to be dreaded; it was a stepping forward +and upward. + +This thought that death is not the end, but the beginning, is expressed +in one of Louisa's most beautiful poems: + + THOREAU'S FLUTE + + We sighing said, "Our Pan is dead; + His pipe hangs mute beside the river. + Around it wistful sunbeams quiver, + And Music's airy voice is fled. + Spring mourns as for untimely frost; + The bluebird chants a requiem; + The willow-blossom waits for him;-- + The Genius of the wood is lost." + + Then from the flute, untouched by hands, + There came a low, harmonious breath; + "For such as he there is no death-- + His life the eternal life commands; + Above man's aims his nature rose, + The wisdom of a just content + Made one small spot a continent + And tuned to poetry life's prose. + + "Haunting the hills, the stream, the wild, + Swallow and aster, lake and pine, + To him grew human or divine,-- + Fit mates for this large-hearted child. + Such homage Nature ne'er forgets, + And yearly on the coverlid + 'Neath which her darling lieth hid + Will write his name in violets. + + "To him no vain regrets belong, + Whose soul, that finer instrument, + Gave to the world no poor lament, + But wood-notes ever sweet and strong. + O lonely friend! he still will be + A potent presence, though unseen;-- + Steadfast, sagacious and serene; + Seek not for him--he is with thee." + +A visit to Sleepy Hollow suggests life, not death. Giant trees stretch +their branches over marble and granite monuments, as if in benediction. +"There is no death, for God is life," they seem to say. For them there +is no death. Emerson lives to-day, the great philosopher; so do Thoreau, +Hawthorne, Bronson Alcott, and others of that mighty company. And who +shall say that Louisa Alcott is dead? She lives in the hearts of +thousands, and will go on living through the love they bear her. + +Bronson Alcott was a true disciple of Jesus Christ. He lived the example +set by his Master not alone in words and thoughts, but in deeds. He +lived through and beyond misunderstanding, ridicule, poverty, to see his +teachings respected, his name honored, to see the first glimmer of the +new light which was beginning to break over the world, the sunrise at +his own sunset. + +This thought is embodied in the last poem Louisa Alcott ever wrote: + + To my Father. + On his Eighty-Sixth Birthday. + + Dear Pilgrim, waiting patiently, + The long, long journey nearly done, + Beside the sacred stream that flows + Clear shining in the western sun; + Look backward on the varied road + Your steadfast feet have trod, + From youth to age, through weal and woe, + Climbing forever nearer God. + + Mountain and valley lie behind; + The slough is crossed, the wicket passed; + Doubt and despair, sorrow and sin, + Giant and fiend, conquered at last. + Neglect is changed to honor now, + The heavy cross may be laid down; + The white head wins and wears at length + The prophet's, not the martyr's crown. + + Greatheart and Faithful gone before, + Brave Christiana, Mercy sweet, + Are shining ones who stand and wait + The weary wanderer to greet. + Patience and Love his handmaids are, + And till time brings release, + Christian may rest in that bright room + Whose windows open to the east. + + The staff set by, the sandals off, + Still pondering the precious scroll, + Serene and strong he waits the call + That frees and wings a happy soul. + Then beautiful as when it lured, + The boy's aspiring eyes, + Before the pilgrim's longing sight, + Shall the Celestial City rise. + + + + + CHRONOLOGY + +It has been particularly the aim of the editors to lift these Little +Women Letters out of the biographical and into the narrative class. For +this reason dates have not been used with any degree of liberality, and +chronological facts have been minimized. + +However, as this is a story of the Alcott family, and seekers for +definite data will not be lacking, a chronological summary is herewith +furnished: + + Amos Bronson Alcott 1799-1888 + married + Abby May 1800-1877 + + Their Children + Anna Bronson 1831-1893 + Louisa May 1832-1888 + Elizabeth 1835-1858 + Abby May 1840-1879 + + Anna Bronson married John Bridge Pratt, 1860. + + Their Children + Frederick Alcott 1863-1910 + John Sewall 1865 + + Abby May married Ernst Nieriker, March, 1878. + + Children + Louisa May 1879 + + Frederick Alcott Pratt + married + Jessica Cate + February, 1888 + + Their Children + Bronson Alcott 1889 + Elizabeth Sewall 1891 + Louisa May 1900 + Frederick Woolsey 1902 + + Elizabeth Sewall married Alfred Redfield + June, 1913 + + [*]John Sewall Pratt + married + Eunie May Hunting + January, 1909 + +[*] John Sewall Pratt adopted in 1888 by Louisa May Alcott and +name changed to John Sewall Pratt Alcott. + + Children + Elverton Hunting + + Louisa May Nieriker 1878 + married + Ernst Rasim + + Children + Ernestine + + + + +Transcriber Notes: + +Passages in italics are indicated by _underscores_. + +Small caps have been replaced with ALL CAP text. + +Spelling errors, grammatical errors, and typographical errors within +letters were not corrected, in order to preserve the flavor of the +historical record of those letters. After all, some of these letters +were written by girls as young as five. + +Some of the illustrations have been moved so that they do not break up +paragraphs, thus the page number of the illustration might not match the +page number in the List of Illustrations. + +On page 58, "reëstablished" was replaced with "reestablished". + +On page 173, has a quotation mark at the beginning of "If I do not +mistake" but no closing quotation mark, and it is less than clear where +the closing quotation mark should be. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Little Women Letters from the House of +Alcott, by Louisa M. 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Alcott, et al. + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Little Women Letters from the House of Alcott + +Author: Louisa M. Alcott, et al. + +Release Date: October 20, 2010 [EBook #34106] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE WOMEN LETTERS *** + + + + +Produced by David Edwards, Ernest Schaal, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<h1>LITTLE WOMEN LETTERS</h1> + +<h2>FROM THE</h2> + +<h1>HOUSE OF ALCOTT</h1> + +<hr class="hr2"/> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/i001.jpg" width="400" height="466" alt="Frontispiece. +Orchard House, the Alcott Homestead." title="Frontispiece. +Orchard House, the Alcott Homestead." /> +<span class="captionr"><i>Frontispiece.</i></span><br /> +<span class="captionsc">Orchard House, the Alcott Homestead.</span> +</div> + +<hr class="hr2"/> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/i002.jpg" width="400" height="663" alt="Little Women Letters From The House of Alcott - Selected By Jessie Bonstelle and Marian deForest - Boston : Little, Brown, and Company : 1914" title="Little Women Letters From The House of Alcott - Selected By Jessie Bonstelle and Marian deForest - Boston : Little, Brown, and Company : 1914" /> +</div> + +<hr class="hr2"/> + +<p class="center"><i>Copyright, 1914</i>,<br /> +<span class="smcap">By John S. P. Alcott</span>.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="center"><i>All rights reserved</i></p> + +<p class="center">Published, September, 1914</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p class="center"><span style="font-size:smaller;">Set up and electrotyped by J. S. Cushing Co., Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.<br /> +Presswork by S. J. Parkhill & Co., Boston, Mass., U.S.A.</span></p> + +<hr class="hr2"/> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg v]</span></p> + +<h2>FOREWORD</h2> + +<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">Next</span> to the joy of giving to the Alcott-loving +public "Little Women" as a play, +is the privilege and pleasure of offering +this book of letters, revealing the childhood +and home life of the beloved Little +Women.</p> + +<p class="indent">May they bring help and happiness to +many mothers and inspiration and love +to many children.</p> + +<hr class="hr2"/> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg vii]</span></p> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<p><span style="font-variant: small-caps; margin-left: 10%">chapter</span> <span class="ralignsc">page</span></p> + +<ul class="TOCR"> + +<li><span class="smcap">The "Really, Truly" True</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">1</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">The Alcott Boy; The Alcott Man</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">10</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">The Alcott Children</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">28</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">The Alcott Baby Book</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">39</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Letters and Conversations with Children</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">59</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">The Mother's Influence</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">98</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Children's Diaries</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">122</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Girlhood and Womanhood</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">140</a></span></li> +<li><span class="smcap">Friendships and Beliefs</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">162</a></span></li> +</ul> + +<ul class="TOCU"> +<li><span class="smcap">Chronology</span> <span class="ralign"><a href="#CHRONOLOGY">195</a></span></li> +</ul> + +<hr class="hr2"/> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg ix]</span></p> + +<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + +<ul class="TOCU"> +<li>Orchard House, the Alcott Homestead <span class="ralign"><i>Frontispiece</i></span></li> + +<li> <span class="ralignsc">page</span></li> + +<li>A. Bronson Alcott at the age of 53, from +the portrait by Mrs. Hildreth <span class="ralign"><a href="#IMAGE_54">54</a></span></li> + +<li>Facsimile of Mr. Alcott's Letter to +Louisa, Nov. 29, 1839 <span class="ralign"><a href="#IMAGE_82">82</a></span></li> + +<li>Facsimile of Mr. Alcott's Letter to +Louisa, June 21, 1840 <span class="ralign"><a href="#IMAGE_86">86</a></span></li> + +<li>Facsimile of Mr. Alcott's Letter to +Elizabeth, 1840 <span class="ralign"><a href="#IMAGE_92">92</a></span></li> + +<li>Abigail May, Mrs. A. Bronson Alcott, +from a Daguerreotype <span class="ralign"><a href="#IMAGE_106">106</a></span></li> + +<li>Anna Bronson Alcott, from a Daguerreotype <span class="ralign"><a href="#IMAGE_122">122</a></span></li> + +<li>Abba May Alcott, from a Photograph <span class="ralign"><a href="#IMAGE_142">142</a></span></li> + +<li>Louisa May Alcott, from a Daguerreotype <span class="ralign"><a href="#IMAGE_160">160</a></span></li> +</ul> + +<hr class="hr2"/> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 1]</span></p> + +<h2>LITTLE WOMEN<br /> +LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE<br /> +OF ALCOTT</h2> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">The "Really, Truly" True</span></h3> + +<p class="cap">WHEN "Little Women," the play, +reopened to many readers the +pages of "Little Women," the +book, that delightful chronicle of family +life, dramatist and producer learned from +many unconscious sources the depth of +Louisa M. Alcott's human appeal. Standing +one night at the back of the theater +as the audience was dispersing, they listened +to its comments on the play.</p> + +<p class="indent">"A wonderful picture of home life, +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 2]</span> +only we don't have such homes," said +a big, prosperous-looking man to his +wife, with a touch of regret in his voice.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Yes," agreed his young daughter, a +tall, slender, graceful girl, as she snuggled +down cosily into her fur coat and tucked +a bunch of violets away from the touch +of the frosty night, "it is beautiful; +but, daddy, it isn't real. There never +was such a family."</p> + +<p class="indent">But it is real; there was such a family, +and in letters, journals, and illustration +this little book gives the history of the +four Little Women, the Alcott girls, +whom Louisa immortalized in her greatest +story: Anna, who is Meg in "Little +Women"; Louisa, the irrepressible and +ambitious Jo; Elizabeth, the little Beth +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 3]</span> +of the book; and Abba May, the graceful +and statuesque Amy.</p> + +<p class="indent">Rare influences were at work in this +ideal American home, where the intellectual +and brilliant father was gifted +in all ways except those that led to +material success, and the wise and gentle +mother combined with her loyalty and +devotion to her husband a stanch, +practical common sense, which more +than once served to guide the frail +Alcott bark through troubled seas.</p> + +<p class="indent">Following her remarkable success as +a writer of short stories, Louisa M. +Alcott was asked for a book. She said +at first it was impossible, but repeated +requests from her publishers brought +from her the announcement that the +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 4]</span> +only long story she could write would be +about her own family. "Little Women" +resulted, and, in erecting this House of +Delight for young and old, Louisa Alcott +builded better than she knew. Her Jo +has been the inspiration of countless +girls, and the many-sidedness of her +character is indicated by the widely +diverging lines of endeavor which Jo's +example has suggested to the girl readers +of the story.</p> + +<p class="indent">In the case of the two editors, both +from early childhood found their inspiration +in Jo. One, patterning after her +idol, sought success in a stage career, +beginning to "act" before a mirror, +with a kitchen apron for a train and a +buttonhook for a dagger. The other, +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 5]</span> +always with a pencil in hand, first copied +Jo by writing "lurid tales" for the weekly +sensation papers, and later emerged into +Newspaper Row.</p> + +<p class="indent">It was more than a year after the +success of "Little Women" as a play +had become a part of theatrical history +that they visited the scenes hallowed +by the memories of the Little Women. +They wished to see Concord together, +so they made a Sentimental Journey to +the House of Alcott.</p> + +<p class="indent">The sun was shining, and the air was +crisp—just such a day as Miss Alcott +described in the Plumfield harvest home, +the last chapter in "Little Women." +They spent hours in Orchard House, +touching reverently the small personal +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 6]</span> +effects of Louisa M. Alcott, seeing the +shelf between the windows in that +little upper room, where she wrote and +dreamed. They even climbed to the +garret and wondered which window was +her favorite scribbling seat, with a tin +kitchen for her manuscripts, a pile of +apples for her refreshment, and Scrabble, +the bewhiskered rat, for her playfellow.</p> + +<p class="indent">Through the woods back of Orchard +House they followed the winding pathway +to the Hall of Philosophy, half +hidden among the trees, where Bronson +Alcott had his Conversations, where +Emerson and Thoreau were often heard, +and the most intellectual debates of the +century took place.</p> + +<p class="indent">At sunset they visited Sleepy Hollow, +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 7]</span> +the resting place of the Alcotts, with +Emerson, Thoreau, and Hawthorne close +by—a goodly company, neighbors still +as they were for so many years when +they made Concord America's literary +shrine.</p> + +<p class="indent">Evening came, and the two pilgrims +read together the Alcott journals and +letters. The ink was faded, the quaint, +old-fashioned writing was hard to decipher, +but, beginning with a letter to +Louisa written by Bronson Alcott when +his daughter was seven years old, they +read on until the dawn.</p> + +<p class="indent">Only one result could be expected +from such an experience. They asked +permission to publish the letters and +such portions of the journals as would +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 8]</span> +most completely reveal the rare spiritual +companionship existing between the +Alcott parents and children. And, asking, +they were refused, because of a +feeling that the letters and journals were +intimate family records, to be read, not +by the many, but by the few. This +same sentiment withheld the dramatization +of "Little Women" for many +years.</p> + +<p class="indent">"You forget," they argued, holding +fast to the dimly written pages, "that +Bronson Alcott and Louisa Alcott are +a part of America's literary heritage. +They belong to the nation, to the world, +not alone to you."</p> + +<p class="indent">This course of reasoning finally prevailed, +but not without many months of +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 9]</span> +waiting. And thus, with the consent of +the Alcott heirs, the book of "Little +Women Letters from the House of +Alcott" came to be.</p> + +<hr class="hr2"/> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 10]</span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>I</h3> + +<h3><span class="smcap">The Alcott Boy</span></h3> + +<p class="cap">ONCE upon a time in the little +town of Wolcott, Connecticut, +was born a boy destined to offer +to the world new and beautiful thoughts. +He was laughed at and misunderstood; +but the thoughts were truth, and they +have lived, although the boy grew weary +and old and passed on.</p> + +<p class="indent">The boy was Amos Bronson Alcott. +He was a country lad, used from infancy +to the rugged life of the farm, with its +self-denial and makeshifts. The seeming +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 11]</span> +disadvantage, however, proved quite +the opposite. His close communion with +Nature brought him nearer to the truths +of life. For him God ceased to be a +mythical object to be studied and read +about on Sunday; but, as he roamed +the fields and climbed the hills, the lad +found Him in the rocks and the woodlands, +and in the sparkling streams. He +became a reality. The boy and God +were friends.</p> + +<p class="indent">Of schooling he had little. When +work at the farm permitted, he attended +the country school near his father's house. +"Our copies," he told his little daughters, +"were set by the schoolmaster in books +made of a few sheets of foolscap, stitched +together and ruled with a leather plummet. +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 12]</span> +We used ink made of maple and +oak bark, which we manufactured ourselves. +With this I began keeping a +diary of my doings."</p> + +<p class="indent">This was when the boy was twelve. +His hours at school were few, but as he +went about his daily tasks on the farm, +his thoughts grew and grew until his +mental stature far exceeded his physical. +He read as he guided the plow along +the furrow, sometimes unmindful of his +work until a sudden punch from a neglected +handle, as the plow struck a +stone, would bring him back to earth with +a thump. He sowed seeds in the moist, +sweet earth, but his face was turned to +the skies, and he knew the clouds and +the stars. When he gathered firewood, +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 13]</span> +his eyes were keen for the soft, dainty +mosses, the clinging lichens. As he +picked berries for the home table, he +never missed the whirr of a bird wing +or passed unnoticed the modest flowers +half hidden in the soil. Nature was his +library, and she spread out her choicest +treasures to this growing boy.</p> + +<p class="indent">A love for all of God's creations characterized +him. He was fond, not only +of the growing things in the wood, but of +all life. His love for animals amounted +almost to a passion, one reason for his +being a strict vegetarian and insisting +upon bringing up his little family on a +vegetable diet. But in boyhood it was +not always clear whether humanity or +the craving for knowledge made him so +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 14]</span> +considerate of the plodding team in the +field. Never was team more carefully +tended. Many were its hours of grazing, +when the noonday sun rode high +in the heavens, and the Alcott boy, +book in hand, curled up under the shade +of a gigantic elm and read until the +shadows began to lengthen. But these +lapses were only occasional, for the +lad was faithful to his tasks, except +when he yielded to the lure of the +printed page.</p> + +<p class="indent">When scarcely more than a child he +began to keep a record of his books and +his reading, showing the first traces of +the reflective, introspective quality of +mind which later led him to set down +in letters and unpublished manuscripts +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 15]</span> +his inmost thoughts. He cultivated the +same habits of thought in his children, +one reason, doubtless, for Louisa's accurate +and realistic descriptions of the +lives of the four Little Women of the +Alcott family.</p> + +<p class="indent">His favorite books in boyhood, and, +for that matter, in manhood, were the +Bible and Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," +which he read and reread and commented +upon. Years later he mentions +in his journal that he made it a practice +to read "Pilgrim's Progress" every year, +which is a remarkable record to the +modern boy and girl who find it difficult +to struggle through that wonderful allegory +even once.</p> + +<p class="indent">Bronson Alcott took his chance and +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 16]</span> +made a stepping-stone of every difficulty. +Each obstacle he encountered in getting +an education created in him an even +stronger determination to gain one. The +modern boy has the world of books +opened wide to him through the library +and the free school. The treasures of +art are spread out before him in the +museums. He is surrounded by helps. +The boy of to-day is studied as an entity. +The boy of the last century could tell +quite a different story.</p> + +<p class="indent">So the Alcott boy, passing long hours +in the woods, reading, thinking, getting +close to Nature and to God, walked as +one apart, seeing the invisible. While +still a boy, he began casting off the garment +of a conventional creed and to +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 17]</span> +think for himself of God, the creation, of +life, unconsciously putting from him the +trammeling, cumbersome conventions +with which man has often hidden truth.</p> + +<p class="indent">Out of this the man Alcott emerged—a +great soul.</p> + +<hr class="hr2"/> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 18]</span></p> + +<h3>II</h3> + +<h3><span class="smcap">The Alcott Man</span></h3> + +<p class="indent">With Bronson Alcott the craving for +knowledge was scarcely stronger than the +craving for adventure, so it is not surprising +that in the first flush of young manhood +he did not settle down to life on +the farm. He longed for the great world +lying beyond the hills and valleys of +peaceful New England. He wanted +experience, and experience he had.</p> + +<p class="indent">He went South, hoping to teach school, +as he had original ideas on the training +of children. Unsuccessful in this, he +decided to be a peddler, naïvely remarking +that "honesty of purpose could dignify +any profession."</p> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 19]</span> +Think of the courage of this boy, for +he was scarcely more than a boy, a philosopher +at heart, living in a world of +dreams and books, his ambitions all for +intellectual rather than material achievement, +tramping the southern countryside, +undauntedly peddling buttons, +elastic, pins and needles, and supplying +all the small wants of the country housewife! +Often he encountered rebuffs, +sometimes he had a hearty welcome, for +the visit of the country peddler was +eagerly awaited by the children. At +times, when night came and he was far +from the shelter of an inn, he had to beg +a lodging from some planter. On one +such occasion, as he entered the grounds, +he saw a huge sign, "Beware the dog." +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 20]</span> +A shout from the house also warned him, +and he saw dashing toward him a savage-looking +dog, powerful enough to have +torn to pieces the slender young peddler-student. +But his love for animals triumphed. +Alcott stretched out his hand. +The huge creature stopped short; then, +recognizing a friend and a fearless one, +he bounded on, tail wagging, barking +joyously, snuggling his nose into the +young man's palm, which he licked as +he escorted his new-found friend to the +house. Animals always recognized in +Alcott an understanding comrade.</p> + +<p class="indent">From most of these trips Alcott +brought back money to add to the +scanty funds at home, but on one memorable +occasion the love of finery proved +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 21]</span> +stronger than the necessity for saving, +and he returned to the farm penniless, +but dressed in the latest fashion, having +used his savings for a wardrobe that +was the wonder of the countryside. +That one debauch of clothes satisfied +him for life; after that his tastes were +markedly simple. With him the "dandy +period" was short-lived indeed. That +he repented bitterly of this one excess of +folly is shown in his journals, where he +sets down minutely what to him was a +mistake that amounted almost to a sin. +As a rule, he was singularly free from +folly. His thoughts were too high, his +ideals too lofty, for him to be long concerned +with trifles such as clothes, and +the next expenditure mentioned in his +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 22]</span> +journal is for the "Vicar of Wakefield" +and Johnson's "Rasselas." Ever impractical, +one likes him the better for +the little human moment when the vanities +of the world overcame him.</p> + +<p class="indent">At last he secured a school, and then +began the realization of his ideals regarding +the teaching of children. His +methods were original and highly successful, +especially with the very young. +He established a mental kindergarten, +and the fame of his teaching spread +abroad. Through his work as a teacher +he achieved his greatest happiness, for it +led to his meeting with the woman who +was destined to become his wife.</p> + +<p class="indent">As the result of correspondence between +himself and Mr. May of Brooklyn, +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 23]</span> +Connecticut, whose attention had been +attracted to the work of the young +teacher, Alcott, then twenty-eight years +old, drove from the Wolcott home to +Brooklyn, where he met Abigail May of +Boston, who was visiting her brother. +With both it was love at first sight, a love +that grew into a perfect spiritual union.</p> + +<p class="indent">It seemed almost providential that +Bronson Alcott should have come into +Abigail May's life at just this time, when +her heart had been touched by its first +great sorrow—the loss of her mother. +Hitherto she had been a light-hearted girl, +fond of dancing and of the material side +of life. The young philosopher, with his +dreams and his ideals, brought a new +interest into her now lonely life, and +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 24]</span> +all that was spiritual in her nature responded +as he freely discussed his plans +and ambitions with her. In her he +found both sympathy and understanding.</p> + +<p class="indent">A year of letter-writing, a frank and +honest exchange of thought, brought out +the harmony of their natures and developed +in both a sense of oneness, laying +a firm foundation for the comradeship +which was not broken through all the +years, even when the wife and mother +passed into the Great Beyond.</p> + +<p class="indent">The Alcott-May courtship was ideal. +Retaining the heaven that lay about +him in his infancy, keeping his close +companionship with God and God's +great laboratory, Nature, Bronson Alcott +demanded something more than mere +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 25]</span> +physical attraction in choosing his wife. +A certain quaint circumspection characterized +their love-making. Abigail May +once wrote: "Mr. Alcott's views on +education were very attractive, and I was +charmed by his modesty," and long after +their engagement she spoke of her lover as +"her friend." He was, and so he continued +to be in the highest sense of the +word.</p> + +<p class="indent">So satisfying were those friendship-courtship +days, that apparently both +were loath to end them, for another +twelvemonth passed before the announcement +of their betrothal, and it was nearly +three years from the date of their first +meeting before their marriage in King's +Chapel, Boston, where the brother who +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 26]</span> +had been the means of bringing them +together performed the ceremony.</p> + +<p class="indent">As their marriage day approached, +there was little festivity and none of the +rush that usually precedes a modern +wedding. Everything was simple, quiet, +and sure.</p> + +<p class="indent">This is Bronson Alcott's letter, asking +a friend to act as best man at his wedding.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="indent">Dear Sir:</p> + +<p class="indent">Permit me to ask the favor of your +calling at Col. May's at 4 o'clock precisely +on Sunday afternoon next, to accompany me +and my friend Miss May to King's Chapel.</p> + +<p class="right">With esteem, <br /> +A. B. Alcott</p> +<p>Thursday, May 20,<br /> + 112 Franklin St. <span class="ralign">1830.</span></p> +</div> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 27]</span> +So began the Alcott pilgrimage, their +fortune consisting of love and faith and +brains. In these they were rich indeed, +and thus closed another chapter in the +life of the gentle philosopher, of whom +Ralph Waldo Emerson once said: "Our +Alcott has only just missed being a +seraph."</p> + +<hr class="hr2"/> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 28]</span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">The Alcott Children</span> +</h3> + +<p class="cap">FOR some months after their marriage +the Alcotts lived in Boston, +where the young enthusiast taught +a school for infants. Again his fame as +a teacher traveled, and he received an +offer from the Quakers of Philadelphia +to start a school there, an offer so tempting +that the Alcotts moved to Germantown, +Pennsylvania, where Anna and +Louisa were born.</p> + +<p class="indent">Eugenics and prenatal influence were +not discussed then as they are to-day, +but in the Alcott family nearly a century +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 29]</span> +ago they were being thought and lived. +Bronson Alcott and his wife considered +children an expression, not of themselves, +but of divinity, and as such to be accepted +as a trust, rather than as a gratification +of their own human longing for +fatherhood and motherhood. They felt +it their parental privilege rather than +their duty to aid the human development +of the child and thus further the fulfillment +of its destiny. Each little soul +was humbly asked for and reverently +prepared for. From the moment they +knew their prayer had been granted, the +individuality and rights of that soul +were respected. It was considered as +a little guest that must be made happy +and comfortable, carefully cherished, +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 30]</span> +mentally and physically, while its fleshly +garment was being prepared and the little +personality made ready for its earthly +appearance. How careful they were of +every thought and influence, for to both +parents this period was the most sacred +and wonderful in their lives and in the +lives of their children.</p> + +<p class="indent">The depth of his joy and the simplicity +of his faith are exquisitely expressed in +the lines which Bronson Alcott wrote +before the birth of his first child, Anna:</p> + +<h3><span class="smcap">To An Expectant Mother</span></h3> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p> +The long advancing hour draws nigh—the hour<br /> +When life's young pulse begins its mystic play,<br /> +And deep affection's dreams of Form or Joy<br /> +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 31]</span> +Shall be unveiled, a bodily presence<br /> +To thy yearning heart and fond maternal eye,<br /> +The primal Soul, a semblance of thine own,<br /> +Its high abode shall leave and dwell in day,<br /> +Thyself its forming Parent. A miracle, indeed,<br /> +Shall nature work. Thou shalt become<br /> +The bearing mother of an Infant Soul—<br /> +Its guardian spirit to its home above.<br /> +But yet erewhile the lagging moments come<br /> +That layeth the living, conscious, burden down,<br /> +Firm faith may rest in hope. Accordant toils<br /> +Shall leave no time for fear, nor doubt, nor gloom.<br /> +Love, peace, and virtue, are all born of Pain,<br /> +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 32]</span> +And He who rules o'er these is ever good.<br /> +The joyous promise is to her who trusts,<br /> +Who trusting, gains the vital boon she asks,<br /> +And meekly asking, learns to trust aright. +</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">Louisa, the second child, born on her +father's birthday, was the most intellectual +and the most resourceful of the +Alcott children, reflecting in her own +buoyant personality the happy conditions +existing before and at the time of +her birth, when her father had attained +his greatest material prosperity and was +also realizing his mental ambitions in +his little school, and her mother was +temporarily relieved from the cares that +so often weighed heavily upon her.</p> + +<p class="indent">Shortly before the birth of Elizabeth +the father makes this entry in his journal: +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 33]</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<h3><span class="smcap">The Advent Cometh</span></h3> + +<p class="indent">Daily am I in expectation of beholding with +the eye of sense, the spirit that now lingers +on the threshold of this terrestrial life, and +only awaits the bidding of the Reaper within, +to usher itself into the presence of mortals. +It standeth at the door and waiteth for admission +to the exterior scene of things.... +Let the time come. Two little ones in advance +await its coming; and greetings of +joy shall herald its approach.</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">The birth of Elizabeth is followed by +this entry in his journal:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="indent">At sunset this day a daughter was born +to us.</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">One of the most trying of the Alcott +family's experiences came after the birth +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 34]</span> +of Elizabeth, when Bronson Alcott, again +in Boston, aroused a storm of protest +with his radical teachings and his +advanced interpretations of the Bible. +Shocked that the city where he expected +to find sympathy and encouragement +should have repudiated him, his school +disrupted and abject poverty his lot, +broken mentally and physically, he met +with another cruel disappointment in +the death of his infant son. Yet even +then there was no word of bitterness, +and no mention is made in his journal +of the father's grief. Indirectly it is +expressed in a subsequent entry announcing +the birth of the fourth daughter, +Abba May.</p> + +<p class="indent">She was born under sunny skies. The +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 35]</span> +storm had passed, and the Alcott family +had removed to Concord, where they +enjoyed many of their happiest years. +A presage of May Alcott's artistic gifts, +her queenly bearing, elegance, and charm, +all familiar to readers of "Little Women," +is found in this entry in the father's +journal:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="right"> +July, 1840. +</p> + +<p class="indent">A new life has arrived to us (July 26th). +She was born with the dawn, and is a proud +little Queen, not deigning to give us the light +of her royal presence, but persists in sleeping +all the time, without notice of the broad world +or ourselves. Providence, it seems, decrees +that we shall provide selectest ministries +alone, and so sends us successive daughters +of Love to quicken the Sons of Life. We +joyfully acquiesce in the Divine behest and +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 36]</span> +are content to rear women for the future +world. As yet the ministry is unknown in +the culture of the nations, but the hour +draws near when love shall be felt as a chosen +Bride of Wisdom, and the celestial pair +preside over all the household of mankind.</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">Bronson Alcott did not feel his responsibility +as a father alone; he appreciated +his own debt to his children, the +mental and spiritual help that came +to him through them, an appreciation +that found expression in this poem, entered +in his journal before the birth of +Elizabeth:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="right">June, 1835</p> +<h3><span class="smcap">Invocation to a Child</span></h3> +<p>She comes from Heaven, she dawns upon my sight,<br /> +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 37]</span>O'er earth's dark scenes to pour her holy light!<br /> +In sense and blest the Infinite to see<br /> +And feel the heavenly mystery—<i>To Be.</i><br /> +<br /> +She comes—in Nature's tenderest, fondest name—<br /> +Daughter of God—'tis she—the same—the same<br /> +Mine is she too—my own—my latest child,<br /> +Myself, wrapt in Divinity, yet unbeguiled!<br /> +<br /> +Blest Infant! God's and mine! yet to me given,<br /> +That I might feel anew my Being's Heaven—<br /> +In love and faith to urge my human way,<br /> +Till conscious time be lost in Immortality!<br /> +<br /> +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 38]</span>Love thee I will; for thou didst first love me—<br /> +My faith shall quicken as I dwell on thee,<br /> +Thy Spirit lift me from this "Grave of Things,"<br /> +And bear me homeward, to the King of Kings.<br /> +</p> +</div> + +<hr class="hr2"/> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 39]</span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">The Alcott Baby Book</span></h3> + +<p class="cap">BRONSON ALCOTT wrote the first +Baby Book, a book which throws +new light on the character of the +lovable philosopher, showing one of New +England's intellectual leaders as a very +human and lovable man as well as "a +fond and foolish father."</p> + +<p class="indent">His Baby Book, however, contains no +minute record of the first tooth, or +when the baby began to say "Goo" +and "Pitty light"; rather it is the +father's earnest effort to learn how early +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 40]</span> +in life the infant mind begins to awaken, +to indicate comprehension, thought, or +logic. As Maeterlinck studied the bee, +so Alcott studied his children, and his +findings are a revelation, even to-day, +when the study of the child has become +a science.</p> + +<p class="indent">Mr. Alcott considered vital the development +of the child's individuality and +mind; the body seemed to him of secondary +importance, for this disregard +of the material care of his family +he has been severely censured; but, not +recognizing in his own life the claims of +the body, devoting all his energies to +mental growth, it is not surprising that +he found his fatherly duty in the guidance +of his children's minds. His firm +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 41]</span> +faith in the admonition, "Seek ye first +the kingdom of heaven, and all these +things shall be added unto you," was to +him excuse enough for considering the +intellect more than the body.</p> + +<p class="indent">His practical shortcomings reaped a +rich and unexpected reward in the next +generation, for Louisa M. Alcott would +probably not have developed her original +and highly entertaining literary gift +without the vicissitudes caused by her +father's impractical nature and his sublime +faith that at all times and in all +emergencies the Lord would provide. +He did provide; but Louisa was usually +the channel, and many of her stories +were written under the whip of stern +necessity.</p> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 42]</span> +Doing without has its advantages. +The Alcott children, never overfed, overentertained, +overburdened to baby boredom +with dolls and toys and games, developed +appreciation, observation, and +ingenuity. The creative faculty was +aroused. They found resources within +themselves. What a handbook Louisa +might have written on How to be Happy +though Poor!</p> + +<p class="indent">Mrs. Alcott's keen sense of humor, a +characteristic inherited by Louisa, often +came to her rescue and allowed her to +get fun out of a harassing situation. In +a letter to her brother, Colonel May, +praising her husband's intellect, she +laughingly comments upon his disregard +of physical necessities: "I am not +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 43]</span> +sure that we shall not blush into obscurity +and contemplate into starvation."</p> + +<p class="indent">But, to get back to the baby book, or, +as Mr. Alcott called it, "the psychological +history," it was started with a high +and unselfish motive; it was developed +to an astonishing degree. Its purpose +and scope are best expressed in this +extract from Mr. Alcott's journal:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="indent">The history of a human mind during its +progressive stages of earthly experience has +never as yet, I believe, been attempted. +Faithfully compiled, from verified data, it +would be a treasure of wisdom to all mankind, +replete with light to the metaphysical and +ethical inquirer. Comparative philosophy +deduced from an observation of man during +all circumstances and stages of his existence +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 44]</span> +is a thing yet unthought of among us. From +such a work the unity of Humanity might be +revealed.</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">When Anna was born, the father +began keeping a record of her "physical +and intellectual progress." When she +was seven weeks old, her mother wrote: +"It seems as if she were conscious of +his observations and desirous of furnishing +him daily with an item for this +record."</p> + +<p class="indent">The following excerpt from the father's +diary shows how well Anna succeeded +in her baby attempt:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="indent">I am much interested in the progress of +my little girl, now five months old, which I +have recorded from the day of her birth. +This record has swollen to a hundred pages. +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 45]</span> +I have attempted to discover, as far as this +could be done by external indication, the +successive steps of her physical, mental and +moral advancement.</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">Moral advancement of a baby five +months old!</p> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Birth of Louisa</span></h3> + +<p class="indent">On November 29, 1832, his thirty-third +birthday and also the natal day of +his friend, Ellery Channing, the poet, +Mr. Alcott chronicles an "interesting +event," how interesting the father little +dreamed, nor how important, not alone +to the house of Alcott, but to the world. +Under the heading of Circumstances, +the father thus records the birth of +Louisa May Alcott: +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 46]</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="indent">A daughter born, on the 29th. ulto., my +birthday, being 33 years of age. This is +a most interesting event. Unless those ties +which connect it with others are formed, the +wants of the soul become morbid and all its +fresh and primal affections become dim and +perverted.... Few can be happy shut +out of the nursery of the soul.</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">While the New England philosopher +was studying the development of his little +daughters and deducing therefrom facts +for his psychological history, these same +little daughters were developing him, for, +as the child nature unfolded, the father's +understanding of childhood expanded.</p> + +<p class="indent">Thus the baby book grew:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="indent">The influence of children I regard as +important to my own improvement and +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 47]</span> +happiness. It is also necessary to the +prosecution of my studies. Dwelling in the +primal regions which I wish to explore, they +are the purest manifestations of its phenomena, +and the only subjects from which +humanity is to be interpreted in its purity.</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">When Anna was three years old and +Louisa eighteen months, the father writes +in his journal:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="indent">I passed some time with the children, +fitting up their playthings, conversing with +them and learning as far as I could through +the subtle meaning of looks, accents and +gestures, their thoughts and feelings. The +avenues to the spirit are all open, but how +dim are our perceptions, how cold our +sympathies, to appreciate the pure and +bright things which glitter in the arena of +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 48]</span> +the young mind! How little of this fairy +land do we know—we, whose early associations +have all been swept from the heart—over +whose spirits have passed the cold winds, +the pelting storms, withering and destroying +the heart's young verdure! What is there +to unite us with the spirit of a child? What +have we in common with its joyous yearning +for the beautiful, its trust in human sayings, +its deep love for those on whom it relies +for attention and support, its vivid picturing +of ideal life, its simplicity, its freedom from +prejudice and false sentiment? Where are +these to be seen in our dim nature?</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">He might have answered the question +by looking within himself. Child companionship +kept alive the spirit of the +Alcott boy, which constantly shone +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 49]</span> +through the man's philosophy. As the +boy saw in every rock and tree and +flower an expression of the Infinite, is it +any wonder that the man should have +recognized God's higher manifestation +in the child, and should have written +in his journal these lines, which are the +very glorification of fatherhood and reveal +the sacredness with which he looked +upon his stewardship?</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="indent">He who deals with the child deals—did +he know it—with the Infinite. Within the +young spirit committed to his care are infinite +capacities to be filled, infinite energies +to be developed, and on him devolves the +amazing responsibility—sacred, personal, +all his own—of filling these capacities, +unfolding these energies, from the stores and +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 50]</span> +life of his own spirit. This is his office as a +parent. But how can he who knows nothing +of the Infinite within himself call it forth and +direct its forces in others?</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">From the first, Louisa must have +shown strong individuality and unusual +tendencies, for Mr. Alcott's notes on +Louisa are entitled "Observations on the +Vital Phenomena of My Second Child." +A more vital, lovable, contradictory +specimen of childhood cannot be imagined. +Blessed with her father's brilliancy of +mind, her mother's quick wit and love of +fun, Louisa furnished a problem for endless +study. She was less than two years +old when her individuality had so asserted +itself that her father found himself puzzled +and admitted that elements were +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 51]</span> +finding their way into his observations of +whose origin he could give no account. +"My analysis, however accurate and +elaborate, was still imperfect, and I +was left in doubt. I had made no provision +for the admission of innate influences +from the mind itself."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p class="indent">Here is a quaint little record of the +Alcott babies' school days, when Anna +was four years old and Louisa a little +more than two:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="indent">At school Anna reads, marks and listens +to conversations and stories. Louisa works +with her in all except the reading and marking. +They have a playroom, where they +enjoy their own amusements, uninterrupted +by the presence of adults—often a bar to +the genuine happiness of childhood. Anna +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 52]</span> +reads simple sentences from Leffanoch's +Primer, writes intelligibly on tablets and +slates, and is improving in work and manners.</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">(This of a baby of four.)</p> + +<p class="indent">A spiritual and moral inventory of +the progress of Anna and Louisa is set +down by the father when his daughters +had reached the dignified ages of six +and four:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="indent">The children have improved under my +training. Anna, who has been with me more +of the time than Louisa, has been greatly +benefited. She is happier, more capable +of self control, more docile and obeys from +love and faith. She has fine elements for +excellence, moral and intellectual. If she +does not evince a pure and exalted character, +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 53]</span> +it will be our failure, not hers, in the improvement +of her natural endowments.</p> + +<p class="indent">Louisa is yet too young for the formation +of just views of her character. She manifests +uncommon activity and force of mind at +present, and is much in advance of her sister +at the same age; example has done much to +call forth her nature. She is more active +and practical than Anna. Anna is ideal, +sentimental. Louisa is practical, energetic. +The first imagines much more than she can +realize; the second, by force of will and +practical talent, realizes all that she conceives—but +conceives less; understanding, rather +than imagination—the gift of her sister—seems +to be her prominent faculty. She finds +no difficulty in developing ways and means to +obtain her purpose; while her sister, aiming +at much, imagining ideal forms of good, and +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 54]</span> +shaping them out so vividly in her mind +that they become actual enjoyments, fails, +when she attempts to realize them in nature—she +has been dwelling on the higher and +more speculative relations of things.</p> + +<p class="indent">Both represent interesting forms of character, +both have wide and useful spheres of +action indicated in their conformation and will +doubtless if continued to us, be real blessings.</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">That they did prove real blessings the +history of the Alcott family has shown.</p> + +<hr /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="IMAGE_54" id="IMAGE_54"></a> +<img src="images/i003.jpg" width="400" height="550" alt="A. Bronson Alcott at the Age of 53. From the portrait by Mrs. Hildreth. +Page 54." title="A. Bronson Alcott at the Age of 53. From the +portrait by Mrs. Hildreth. Page 54."/> +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold;">A. Bronson Alcott at the Age of 53.</span><br /> +<span style="font-weight: bold;">From the portrait by Mrs. Hildreth.</span><br /> +<span style="font-weight: bold;"><i>Page</i> 54.</span> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p class="indent">How many fathers ever acknowledge +their spiritual debt to the gift of fatherhood +as has Bronson Alcott:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="indent">I know not how much more spiritual I +am from the parental relation (he writes), +how much I have been indebted to them +for the light that hath dawned upon my own +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 55]</span> +mind from the radiance of their simple +spirits. Certain it is that the more I associate +with them in the simple ways they +love, the more do I seem to revere. Verily +had I not been called to associate with children, +had I not devoted myself to the study +of human nature in its period of infancy and +childhood, I should never have found the +tranquil repose, the steady faith, the vivid +hope that now sheds a glory and a dignity +around the humble path of my life. Childhood +hath saved me.</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">Out of his theories, his studies, and +meditations came a sublime ambition, a +desire to become a laborer in the "Field +of the Soul."</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="indent">Infancy I shall invest with a glory—a +spirituality which the disciples of Jesus, +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 56]</span> +deeply as they entered into His spirit and +caught the life of His mind, have failed to +bring forth in their records of His sayings and +life. I shall redeem infancy and childhood, +and, if a Saviour of Adults was given in the +person of Jesus, let me, without impiety or +arrogance, regard myself as the Children's +Saviour. Divine are both missions. Both +seek out and endeavor to redeem the Infinite +in man, which, by reason of the clogs of +sense and custom, is in perpetual danger of +being lost. The chief obstacle in the way +of human regeneration is the want of a due +appreciation of human nature, and particularly +of the nature of children.</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">Home and its influence upon children +meant much to Mr. Alcott, and in all +his writing the nearest approach to a +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 57]</span> +protest against the poverty he was called +upon to endure was when, for a time, he +was obliged to give up that home. Deep +is the pathos that lies between the lines +of this entry in his journal:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<h3><span class="smcap">Home for Children</span></h3> + +<p class="indent">I deem it very important to the well being +of my children to insure them a home. At +least their means of improvement are limited, +their pleasures are abridged, the domestic +relations, so vital to virtue—to all that +lives in the heart and imagination, are +robbed of their essential glory, and the effect +is felt throughout the character in after life. +I feel that my duty as a father cannot be +fully carried out when I am thus restricted. +Whether we can yet improve this condition +remains to be determined.</p> +</div><p class="indent"></p> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 58]</span> +The home was reestablished—and +such a home! An influence felt throughout +the world, the inspiration of every +book Louisa Alcott wrote. +</p> + +<hr class="hr2"/> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 59]</span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Letters and Conversations with Children</span></h3> + +<p class="cap">HAPPINESS reigned in the Alcott +home, and poverty seldom brought +with it a shadow. The girls had +toys and a variety of them,—rag dolls, +kittens, gingerbread men, and barnyard +animals (the latter skillfully cut out of +cake dough by the mother, who had a +genius for inventing surprises). As they +grew older, they delighted in private +theatricals. Some of their plays, written +by Anna and Louisa, have been published +under the title of "Comic Tragedies." +They are thrillingly melodramatic, +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 60]</span> +thickly sprinkled with villains and +heroes, witches and ruffians, lovely +ladies in distress, gallant knights to the +rescue, evil spirits and good fairies, +gnomes and giants. All are direfully +tragic and splendidly spectacular. +Louisa as a child showed the dramatic +quality which later found artistic +expression in her stories. On a rainy +afternoon the children were never at a +loss for entertainment. They "acted" +in the attic or played dolls in their own +playroom, and such dolls! Old Joanna, +of whom Louisa has drawn a lifelike picture +in "Little Women," is to-day in +existence, battered, scarred, but none the +less precious, one foot carefully bandaged, +after the army-nurse method.</p> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 61]</span> +Poverty was made interesting. At +Christmas a tree was hung with apples, +nuts, and popped corn, and small trifles +made by the children were fastened to +the branches. Father and mother made +much of the spirit of the Christ birthday, +which was celebrated in simple, wholesome +fashion, in vivid contrast to the +modern Christmas festival.</p> + +<p class="indent">The Alcott letters and journals show +tremendous intellectual activity on the +part of the small atoms of humanity who +came to grace the Alcott home. Anna +and her father held moral and intellectual +discussions when Anna was four. Louisa +was writing a daily journal before she +could more than print. As soon as a +child could read, family reproofs were +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 62]</span> +administered by notes from father and +mother to the erring one, not only pointing +out the fault, but how to correct it.</p> + +<p class="indent">The father encouraged his daughters +to study themselves and to write down +their thoughts. Their journals, in consequence, +reflect the characteristics of +each one and are storehouses of information. +Louisa, poor little soul, in her +happy, hoydenish childhood, found time +one day in a fit of mentality to set down +in black and white her chief faults. One +of her most serious, according to the self-imposed +confession, was "love of cats," +a sin which easily beset her all her days, +for she inherited her father's love of animals +and of children.</p> + +<p class="indent">Widely varied in character and temperament +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 63]</span> +were the four Alcott girls. +Anna, the first, reflected the beauty, the +happiness, and the romance of the Alcotts' +first year of married life. Louisa, +born some eighteen months later, when +father and mother had grown even closer +together through the new bond formed +by the love of their little daughter, embodied +a deeper, stronger, surer character. +She was decisive, with a determination +and surety of self and brilliancy +of mind that reflected the best +in both parents. Elizabeth, the third +child, was, in some respects, the most +beautiful character of all. About her, +from the hour of her conception, seemed +to hover a spiritual, protecting love. +Seemingly from earliest infancy she stood +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 64]</span> +on the borderland of the spiritual world, +in flesh all too fragile to retain the spirit +which remembered and longed, notwithstanding +the love with which she was +surrounded, to return to the mystical +beauty from which she had come. A +child of dreams and fancies, loving all +that was harmonious, she entered this +life at twilight, she left it at the dawn, +a coming and going typical of this dream +child, who was lent for a little time to +make the world more glad.</p> + +<p class="indent">The birth of Amy is also symbolical, +the one sunny-haired, sunny-hearted girl +of the family, who came with the rising +of the sun. She seemed made for love, +sunshine, and happiness, and had them +all, but she was brave to face hardships +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 65]</span> +and equally ready to accept comfort and +luxury. A queen, the father called her +the morning of her birth, and so they +brought her up, the Little Snow Queen.</p> + +<p class="indent">The wise, fostering love of the father, +the helpful, understanding watchfulness +of the mother, are reflected in their +letters to their children. Time was not +considered wasted that was devoted to +these letters of gentle admonition and +kindly counsel. There was no discussion +of faults or mistakes in the Alcott household; +reproofs remained little secrets +between father and daughter, or mother +and daughter, and the effect of this wise +and constant watchfulness grows more +apparent as the children advance from +childhood to girlhood and on to womanhood. +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 66]</span> +They were taught to know themselves. +They were taught, too, the relation +of the Christ child with their own +childhood, beautifully expressed in some +of the letters from Bronson Alcott to his +eldest daughter.</p> + +<p class="indent">It was the father's habit to write each +child on her birthday anniversary and +at Christmas. Anna was six years old +when he gave her this beautiful description +of the coming of the Christ:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="center"> +For Anna<br /> +1837</p> +<p>To my Daughter Anna.</p> + +<p class="indent">A longer time ago than you can understand, +a beautiful Babe was born. Angels +sang at his birth. And stars shone brightly. +Shepherds watched their flocks by their +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 67]</span> +light. The Babe was laid in his Manger-cradle. +And harmless oxen fed by his side. +There was no room for him nor his mother in +the Inn, as she journeyed from her own home.</p> + +<p class="indent">This Babe was born at this time of the +year. His name was Jesus. And he is +also called Christ. This is his birth night. +And we call it Christ-mas, after him.</p> + +<p class="indent">I write you this little note as a Christmas +Gift, and hope my little girl will remember the +birth night of Jesus. Think how beautiful he +was, and try to shine in lovely actions as he +did. God never had a child that pleased him +so well. Be like a kind sister of his, and so +please your Father, who loves you very much.</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span style="margin-right: 10em;">Christmas Eve,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;">December 24th, 1837.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">From your</span><br /> +Father.</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 68]</span> +Again on Christmas Eve, two years +later, he describes to his little daughter +of eight years her own coming into the +world of material things.</p> + +<p class="indent">The belief in prenatal influence is +strongly indicated, for the father tells +his little girl that they thought just how +she would look and pictures to her the +joy and the love with which she was surrounded +before her coming into the land +of the material and first seeing with her +baby eyes the light of a world day.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="center"> +For Anna<br /> +1839</p> + +<p class="indent">You were once pleased, my daughter, with +a little note which I wrote you on Christmas +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 69]</span> +Eve, concerning the birth of Jesus. I am +now going to write a few words about your +own Birth. Mother and I had no child. +We wanted one—a little girl just like you; +and we thought how you would look, and +waited a good while for you to come, so +that we might see you and have you for our +own. At last you came. We felt so happy +that joy stood in our eyes. You looked +just as we wanted to have you. You were +draped in a pretty little white frock, and +father took you in his arms every day, and +we loved you very much. Your large +bright eyes looked lovingly into ours, and +you soon learned to love and know us. When +you were a few weeks old, you smiled +on us. We lived then in Germantown. +It is now more than eight years since this +happened, but I sometimes see the same +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 70]</span> +look and the same smile on your face, and +feel that my daughter is yet good and pure. +O keep it there, my daughter, and never lose +it.</p> + +<p class="right">Your Father,</p> + +<p>Christmas Eve,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Beach Street,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Dec. 24, 1839.</span></p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">On her birthday some three months +later, he continues the thought in this +exquisite letter:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="right">March 16, 1840.</p> + +<p>My dear Daughter,</p> + +<p class="indent">With this morning's dawn opens a +new year of your Life on Earth. Nine years +ago you were sent, a sweet Babe into this +world, a joy and hope to your father and +mother. After a while, through many smiles +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 71]</span> +and some few tears, you learned to lisp the +names of father and mother, and to make +them feel once more how near and dear +you were to their hearts whenever you named +their names. Now you are a still dearer +object of Love and hope to them as your love +buds and blossoms under their eye. They +watch this flower as it grows in the Garden +of Life, and scents the air with its fragrance, +and delights the eye by its colours. Soon +they will look not for Beauty and fragrance +alone, but for the ripening and ripe fruit. +May it be the Spirit of Goodness; may its +leaves never wither, its flowers never fade; +its fragrance never cease; but may it flourish +in perpetual youth and beauty, and be transplanted +in its time, into the Garden of God, +whose plants are ever green, ever fresh, and +bloom alway, the amaranth of Heaven, the +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 72]</span> +pride and joy of angels. Thus writes your +Father to you on this your birth morn.</p> + +<p class="right"> +Monday, 16 March, 1840.<br /> +Beach Street,<br /> +Boston</p> + +<p>For<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Anna,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">in the Garden of Life.</span><br /> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">This letter and his allusion to "your +life on earth" show plainly his belief +in life eternal, for Bronson Alcott considered +earthly existence merely a period +in the evolution of the soul.</p> + +<p class="indent">On Christmas Eve, 1840; when Anna +was nearly ten, Louisa just past her +eighth birthday, May, the golden-haired +baby of the Alcott household, and Elizabeth +the little shadow child of four, he +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 73]</span> +wrote Christmas letters to his daughters, +which show his appreciation of their +special needs, and his respect for their +individualities. The letter to Elizabeth +is missing; to Anna he wrote:</p> + +<p class="center">For Anna<br /> +1840</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">beauty</span> or <span class="smcap">duty</span><br /> +which<br /> +loves Anna best?<br /> +a<br /> +Question<br /> +from her<br /> +<span class="smcap">father</span><br /> +Christmas Eve<br /> +Dec. 1840<br /> +Concordia.</p> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 74]</span> +For Louisa, the father's message was +this:</p> + +<p class="center">For Louisa<br /> +1840</p> + +<p class="center">Louisa loves—<br /> +What?<br /> +(Softly)<br /> +<span class="smcap">fun</span><br /> +Have some then,<br /> +Father<br /> +says.<br /> +Christmas Eve, Dec. 1840<br /> +Concordia.</p> + +<p class="indent"> +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 75]</span> +For the baby of the household, the +father's love message took poetic form:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="center"> +For Abba<br /> +1840</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 10em;">For Abba</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">Babe fair,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">Pretty hair,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">Bright eye,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">Deep sigh,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">Sweet lip,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">Feet slip,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">Handsome hand,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">Stout grand,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">Happy smile,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">Time beguile,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10em;">All I ween,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Concordia's Queen.</span></p> +</div> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 76]</span> +Almost without the dates, one could +keep track of the development of the +Alcott girls through their father's letters. +This one demonstrates his gift of teaching +by the use of suggestion:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="center"> +For Anna<br /> +1842<br /> +<span class="u">A Father's Gift</span><br /> +to his<br /> +<span class="u">Daughter</span><br /> +on her<br /> +<span class="u">Eleventh Birthday</span>.<br /> +Concordia<br /> +16th March<br /> +1842</p> + +<p class="indent">My dear daughter, +</p> + +<p class="indent">This is your eleventh birthday, and +as I have heretofore addressed a few words +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 77]</span> +to you on these interesting occasions, I +will not depart from my former custom +now.</p> + +<p class="indent">And my daughter, what shall I say to you? +Shall I say something to please or to instruct +you—to flatter or benefit you? I know +you dislike being pleased unless the pleasure +make you better, and you dislike all flattery. +And you know too, that your father never +gave you a word of flattery in his life. So +there remains for you the true and purest +pleasure of being instructed and benefited +by words of love and the deepest regard +for your improvement in all that shall +make you more happy in yourself and +beautiful to others. And so I shall speak +plainly to you of yourself, and of my desire +for your improvement in several important +things.</p> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 78]</span> +<span class="u">First—Your Manners.</span> Try to be more +gentle. You like gentle people and every +one is more agreeable as he cultivates this +habit. None can be agreeable who are destitute +of it and how shall you become more +gentle? Only by governing your passions, +and cherishing your love to everyone who is +near you. Love is gentle: Hate is violent. +Love is well-mannered; Selfishness is rude, +vulgar. Love gives sweet tone to the voice, +and makes the countenance lovely. Love +then, and grow fair and agreeable.</p> + +<p class="indent"><span class="u">Second: Be Patient.</span> This is one of the +most difficult things to everyone, old or +young. But it is also one of the greatest +things. And this comes of Love too. Love +is Patient: it bears; it suffers long; it is +kind; it is beautiful; it makes us like +angels. Patience is, indeed, angelic; it is +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 79]</span> +the Gate that opens into the House of Happiness. +Open it, my daughter, and enter in +and take all your sisters in with you.</p> + +<p class="indent"><span class="u">Third: Be Resolute.</span> Shake off all Sluggishness, +and follow your Confidence as +fast as your feelings, your thoughts, your +eye, your hand, your foot, will carry you. +Hate all excuses: almost always, these are +lies. Be <span class="u">quick</span> in your obedience: delay +is a laggard, who never gets up with himself, +and loses the company of confidence always. +Resolution is the ladder to Happiness. +Resolve and be a wise and happy girl.</p> + +<p class="indent"><span class="u">Fourth: Be Diligent.</span> Put your heart into +all you do: and fix your thoughts on your +doings. Halfness is almost as bad as nothing: +be whole then in all you do and say.</p> + +<p class="indent">But I am saying a great deal and will stop +now with the hope of meeting you on the +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 80]</span> +16th March, 1843 (the good God sparing us +till then) a gentler, a meeker, more determined +and obligent girl.</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span style="margin-right: 1em;">Your friend</span><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 3em;">and</span><br /> +<span class="u">Father</span></p> + +<p>Concordia<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">16 March</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em; text-decoration: underline;">1842</span><br /> +For<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em; text-decoration: underline;">Anna Bronson Alcott.</span><br /> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">Such a gift to an eleven-year-old girl +on her birthday! One would expect +not kindly counsel, but a toy, a picture +book, something pretty for her body, +not much for her mind. The spirituality +and the wisdom of the poet-philosopher +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 81]</span> +are shown in this letter with its +"excuses, almost always lies," and "delay +is a laggard."</p> + +<p class="indent">When Louisa was seven years old, her +mother was ill, and the child was sent +away from home for a time. To his little +absent daughter the father sends this letter, +printed so that she might read it for +herself:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="center"> +For Louisa.</p> + +<p class="center">1839</p> + +<p>My dear Little Girl.</p> + +<p class="indent">Father hopes you are well and happy. +Mother will soon be well enough we hope +for you to come home. You want to see us +all I know. And we want to see you very +much. Be a good girl and try to do as they +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 82]</span> +tell you. You shall see us all in a few +days.</p> + +<p class="indent">You were never away from home so long +before. It has given you some new feelings.</p> + +<p class="indent">I have printed this note. I hope you can +read it all yourself.</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span style="margin-right: 3em;">Good Bye</span><br /> +From Father.</p> + +<p>Saturday<br /> +11 o'clock in the School Room.<br /> +1839 +</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">On her seventh birthday he writes +her one of the most wonderful letters +of the many that have been preserved +in the volumes of the Alcott manuscripts:</p> + +<hr /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="IMAGE_82" id="IMAGE_82"></a> +<img src="images/i004.jpg" width="400" height="660" alt="Page 1 of letter for Louisa May Alcott 1839" title="Page 1 of letter for Louisa May Alcott 1839" /> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/i005.jpg" width="400" height="660" alt="Page 2 of letter for Louisa May Alcott 1839" title="Page 2 of letter for Louisa May Alcott 1839" /> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/i006.jpg" width="400" height="660" alt="Page 3 of letter for Louisa May Alcott 1839" title="Page 3 of letter for Louisa May Alcott 1839" /> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/i007.jpg" width="400" height="660" alt="Page 4 of letter for Louisa May Alcott 1839" title="Page 4 of letter for Louisa May Alcott 1839" /> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 83]</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="center"> +For Louisa</p> + +<p class="center">1839</p> + +<p>My Daughter,</p> + +<p class="indent">You are Seven years old to-day and +your Father is forty. You have learned a +great many things, since you have lived in a +Body, about things going on around you and +within you. You know how to think, how +to resolve, how to love, and how to obey. +You feel your Conscience, and have no real +pleasure unless you obey it. You cannot love +yourself, or anyone else, when you do not +mind its commandments. It asks you always +to BE GOOD, and bears, O how gently! how +patiently! with all endeavors to hate, and +treat it cruelly. How kindly it bears with +you all the while. How sweetly it whispers +Happiness in your HEART when you Obey +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 84]</span> +its soft words. How it smiles upon you, and +makes you Glad when you Resolve to Obey it! +How terrible its <span class="smcap">punishments</span>. It is GOD +trying in your soul to keep you always Good.</p> + +<p class="indent">You begin, my dear daughter, another year +this morning. Your Father, your Mother, +and Sisters, with your little friends, show +their love on this your Birthday, by giving +you this BOX. Open it, and take what is +in it, and the best wishes of</p> + +<p class="right">Your Father.</p> + +<p>Beach Street,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Friday morning, Nov. 29, 1839.</span></p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">His explanation to a seven-year-old +girl that conscience is "God in your +soul," and the lines, "since you have lived +in a body," are eloquent manifestations +of his belief. It is not surprising that, +given such thoughts at seven, Louisa +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 85]</span> +at ten or eleven wrote that she was sure +in some previous life she must have been +a horse,—she loved so to run. A month +before May Alcott was born, little +Louisa, then eight, again away from home, +received this letter from her father:</p> + +<hr /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="IMAGE_86" id="IMAGE_86"></a> +<img src="images/i008.jpg" width="400" height="660" alt="Page 1 of letter for Louisa May Alcott 1840" title="Page 1 of letter for Louisa May Alcott 1840" /> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/i009.jpg" width="400" height="660" alt="Page 2 of letter for Louisa May Alcott 1840" title="Page 2 of letter for Louisa May Alcott 1840" /> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/i010.jpg" width="400" height="660" alt="Page 3 of letter for Louisa May Alcott 1840" title="Page 3 of letter for Louisa May Alcott 1840" /> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/i011.jpg" width="400" height="660" alt="Page 4 of letter for Louisa May Alcott 1840" title="Page 4 of letter for Louisa May Alcott 1840" /> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p> +Cottage, Sunday June 21st,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">1840.</span> +</p> + +<p class="indent">We all miss the noisy little girl who used +to make house and garden, barn and field, +ring with her footsteps, and even the hens +and chickens seem to miss her too. Right +glad would father and mother, Anna and +Elizabeth, and all the little mates at +School, and Miss Russell, the House Playroom, +Dolls, Hoop, Garden, Flowers, Fields, +Woods and Brooks, all be to see and answer +the voice and footsteps, the eye and hand of +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 86]</span> +their little companion. But yet all make +themselves happy and beautiful without her; +all seem to say, "Be Good, little Miss, while +away from us, and when we meet again we +shall love and please one another all the more; +we find how much we love now we are +separated."</p> + +<p class="indent">I wished you here very much on the morning +when the Hen left her nest and came +proudly down with six little chickens, everyone +knowing how to walk, fly, eat and drink +almost as well as its own mother; to-day +(Sunday) they all came to see the house and +took their breakfast from their nice little +feeding trough; you would have enjoyed the +sight very much. But this and many other +pleasures all wait for you when you return. +Be good, kind, gentle, while you are away, +step lightly, and speak soft about the house;</p> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 87]</span> +Grandpa loves quiet, as well as your sober +father and other grown people.</p> + +<p class="indent">Elizabeth says often, "Oh I wish I could see +Louisa, when will she come home, Mother?" +And another feels so too; who is it?</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Your</span><br /> +Father. +</p> + +<p>I forgot to write how much <span class="u">Kit</span> missed you.</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">On her eighth birthday, her father +writes:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="center"> +For Louisa</p> + +<p class="center">1840</p> + +<p>Two Passions strong divide our Life,<br /> +Meek gentle Love, or boisterous Strife.<br /> +<br /> +Love—Music <span style="position: absolute; right: 10%; margin-right: 10%; top: auto;">Anger—Arrow</span><br /> +Concord <span style="position: absolute; right: 10%; margin-right: 14%; top: auto;">Discord</span><br /> +<span style="position: absolute; right: 10%; margin-right: 10%; top: auto;">From her Father</span><br /> +<br /> +On her eighth birthday Nov. 29th.<br /> +</p> +</div><p class="indent"></p> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 88]</span> +At ten, her birthday greeting from her +father is this:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="center"> +For Louisa</p> + +<p class="center">1842</p> + +<p>My Daughter,</p> + +<p class="indent">This is your birthday: you are ten +years of age to-day. I sought amidst my +papers for some pretty picture to place at +the top of this note, but I did not find anything +that seemed at all expressive of my +interest in your well-being, or well-doing, +and so this note comes to you without any +such emblem. Let me say, my honest little +girl, that I have had you often in my mind +during my separation from you and your +devoted mother, and well-meaning sisters, +while on the sea or the land, and now that +I have returned to be with you and them +again, meeting you daily at fireside, at +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 89]</span> +table, at study, and in your walk, and amusements, +in conversation and in silence, being +daily with you, I would have you feel my +presence and be the happier, and better that +I am here. I want, most of all things, to +be a kindly influence on you, helping you +to guide and govern your heart, keeping it +in a state of sweet and loving peacefulness, +so that you may feel how good and kind is +that Love which lives always in our breasts, +and which we may always feel, if we will keep +the passions all in stillness and give up ourselves +entirely to its soft desires. I live, +my dear daughter, to be good and to do good +to all, and especially to you and your mother +and sisters. Will you not let me do you all +the good that I would? And do you not +know that I can do you little or none, unless +you give me your affections, incline your +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 90]</span> +ears, and earnestly desire to become daily +better and wiser, more kind, gentle, loving, +diligent, heedful, serene. The good Spirit +comes into the Breast of the meek and loveful +to abide long; anger, discontent, impatience, +evil appetites, greedy wants, complainings, +ill-speakings, idlenesses, heedlessness, rude +behaviour and all such, these drive it away, +or grieve it so that it leaves the poor misguided +soul to live in its own obstinate, +perverse, proud discomfort, which is the +very <span class="u">Pain of Sin</span>, and is in the <span class="u">Bible</span> called +the worm that never dies, the gnawing worm, +the sting of <span style="font-variant: small-caps; text-decoration: underline;">conscience</span>: while the pleasures +of love and goodness are beyond all description—a +peacefulness that passes all understanding. +I pray that my daughter may +know much of the last, and little of the first +of these feelings. I shall try every day to +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 91]</span> +help her to the knowledge and love of this +good <span class="u">Spirit</span>. I shall be with her, and as she +and her sisters come more and more into +the presence of this Spirit, shall we become +a family more closely united in loves that +can never sunder us from each other.</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span style="margin-right: 8em;">This your</span><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 6em;">Father</span><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 4em;">in Hope and Love</span><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 6em;">on your</span><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 5em;">Birthday</span></p> + +<p>Concordia,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nov. 29, 1842.</span></p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">To little Elizabeth the letters were +few. The child was so constantly the +companion of father and mother, that by +speech rather than written word, their +messages were given. But on her fifth +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 92]</span> +birthday, her father carefully printed +this letter:</p> + +<hr /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="IMAGE_92" id="IMAGE_92"></a> +<img src="images/i012.jpg" width="400" height="660" alt="Page 1 of letter for Elizabeth Alcott 1840" title="Page 1 of letter for Elizabeth Alcott 1840" /> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/i013.jpg" width="400" height="660" alt="Page 2 of letter for Elizabeth Alcott 1840" title="Page 2 of letter for Elizabeth Alcott 1840" /> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/i014.jpg" width="400" height="660" alt="Page 3 of letter for Elizabeth Alcott 1840" title="Page 3 of letter for Elizabeth Alcott 1840" /> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/i015.jpg" width="400" height="660" alt="Page 4 of letter for Elizabeth Alcott 1840" title="Page 4 of letter for Elizabeth Alcott 1840" /> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="center"> +For Elizabeth<br /> +1840<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 0.5em;">I I I I I Years</span><br /> +one two three four five<br /> +<span class="smcap">birth-day</span><br /> +in the<br /> +<span class="smcap">cottage</span> +</p> + +<p class="indent">My very dear little girl,</p> + +<p class="indent">You make me very happy every time +I look at your smiling pleasant face—and +you make me very sorry every time I see +your face look cross and unpleasant. You +are now five years old. You can keep your +little face pleasant all the time, if you will +try, and be happy yourself, and make everybody +else happy too. Father wants to have +his little girl happy all the time. He hopes +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 93]</span> +her little friends and her presents and plays +will make her happy to-day; and this little +note too. Last birthday you were in Beach +Street, in the great City, now you are at +your little cottage in the country where all +is pretty and pleasant, and you have fields +and woods, and brooks and flowers to please +my little Queen, and keep her eyes, and ears, +and hands and tongue and feet, all busy. +This little note is from</p> + +<p class="center">FATHER,</p> + +<p class="indent">who loves his little girl very much, and knows +that she loves him very dearly.</p> + +<p class="indent"><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Play, play,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">All the day,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Jump and run</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Every one,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Full of fun,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">All take</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 94]</span> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">A piece of cake,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">For my sake.</span><br /> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">His wish to encourage the little girl +in her efforts to be good, kind, gentle, +and patient, and his appreciation of her +accomplishment, is set forth in this +characteristic little note:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="right"> +<span style="margin-right: 3em;">Concord, Cottage,</span><br /> +February 2nd, 1842.</p> + +<p>My dear Elizabeth, +</p> + +<p class="indent">You give me much pleasure by your +still, quiet manners, and your desire to do +things, without asking impatiently and selfishly +for others to help you without trying +first to help yourself. Trying is doing; +doing is but trying; try then always and you +will do; and every one loves to help those +who try. I will print a little sentence for +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 95]</span> +you in large letters and you who have already +found it so easy to do things for yourself will, +I dare say, remember it, and follow it too—This +is it—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 6em; font-variant: small-caps;">try first: and</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em; font-variant: small-caps;">then ask: and</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em; font-variant: small-caps;">patiently till</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em; font-variant: small-caps;">you have tried</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em; font-variant: small-caps;">your best: and</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em; font-variant: small-caps;">you will not need</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em; font-variant: small-caps;">to ask at all.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Trying is the only</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Schoolmaster</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">whose</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Scholars</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">always</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Succeed.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 14em;">Your Father.</span></p> + +<p>Cottage,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Feb. 2nd.</span></p> +</div> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 96]</span> +Little May, the youngest, was the +pet, not only of the Alcott household, +but of all the Alcott kin. This quaint +little dolly letter, written to her by her +Uncle Junius, has been framed and hangs +to-day in the library of May Alcott's +nephew, John:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="center"> +Gift of Junius S. Alcott<br /> +<br /> +to<br /> +Abby.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 97]</span></p> +<p><span style="margin-left: 12.5em;">A</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 10.5em;">Little Face</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9.5em;">once smiling</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 11em;">woke</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;">to</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">greet, the day,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">with sport and play,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Hands) on her Birthday, in shaking (Hands</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">with her sisters,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">and, her visitors,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">that, came, to, chime,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">a, happy, time, with, Lizzy,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">To, give, you, pleasure, uncle,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">gives, this, treasure, to you, so, sweet,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">So, keep, it, neat, and please, my,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Brother, & your Mother, by always,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">finding that, by, minding, you</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">are, the kindest, little girl, that,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">that, ever</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">stood d, in,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">(Shoes) (Shoes)</span><br /></p> +</div> + +<hr class="hr2"/> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 98]</span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">The Mother's Influence</span></h3> + +<p class="cap">UPON the lives of all four of her +daughters the mother's influence +rested like a benediction. It is +felt in her letters; it is reflected in the +journals of her girls and in the musings +of Bronson Alcott, as set down +in his voluminous journals. And the +mother spirit hovers over Orchard House, +where "Little Women" was written and +lived.</p> + +<p class="indent">While letters to Anna from her mother +are missing, Anna's journal shows how +vital was Mrs. Alcott's power in the +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 99]</span> +upbuilding of her noble character. +Louisa in "Little Women" has said that +the girls gave their hearts into their +mother's keeping, their souls into their +father's. Anna's letters bear eloquent +testimony to the strong, helpful, cheery +influence of the mother upon the child. +Among the first was this letter, written +by Anna when she was five years old +and visiting Mr. Alcott's family at Wolcott:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="right"> +<span style="margin-right: 6em;"><i>Letter to Mrs. Alcott.</i></span><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Wolcott Aug. 12th, 1836.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 1em;"><i>Friday Morning.</i></span></p> +<p>My dear Mother,</p> + +<p class="indent">I have to go away by myself and cry +because I want to see you so much, and +little sister Lizy and Louisa. Doctor Fuller +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 100]</span> +is coming to cure Grandmother. i shall see +you in a few days. You have a splendid +husband</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Anna</span><br /> +V years of age—</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">(On this she had drawn her hand.)</p> + +<p class="indent">She was six years old when she wrote +this:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="indent"> +Dear Mother,</p> + +<p class="indent">I have not had a note from you for +a great while. You wanted some wafers +yesterday will you accept of them from me +There is not many but it is all that I have got. +I am very glad my birthday is so near for +as I grow older, I hope I shall grow better +and more useful to you, I hope soon we shall +be settled down in some comfortable little +home of our own and then shall be contented +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 101]</span> +and happy I hope. I must go to my sums +now, so goodbye dearest mother</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Your loving Anna</span></p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">A letter eloquent of the tender relation +between mother and child is this written +during the Fruitlands period:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p> +For</p> + +<p class="indent">Dearest mother<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">fruitlands.</span></p> + +<p class="indent">Dear mother.</p> + +<p class="indent">I wish that you would come to the +table again. I enjoy my meals much better +when you are at the table. Was not "Heraclitus" +that father read about to-day, a dear +good man, it seems as though I wanted to +hug him up and kiss him. I wish men had +understood his thoughts better than they +did he would have been happier I think. I +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 102]</span> +have enjoyed this morning readings and conversations +better than I have before for a +good while, I suppose, because I talked and +I understood it so well. I do not write to +you very often dear mother but I love to +dearly when I feel like it, and I love to have +letters from you. I have not been as good +as I wish I had this week. I send a little +bunch of flowers to you they are not very +pretty but they are beautifully made and +I thought you would like them. I had a +beautiful time walking this morning with +Louisa. Good bye dearest mother from +your loving</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Anna.</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">Many copies of her mother's letters +are found in Louisa's journals, showing +the daughter's intense, almost idolatrous +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 103]</span> +affection. Louisa admired, respected, +and loved her father, but to her +mother her tenderest thought was given. +Marmee understood the wayward, +tempestuous, lovable child as no one +else did, not even loyal Anna, or admiring +Elizabeth. On her birthday the +mother writes to Louisa:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="indent"> +My dear little girl,</p> + +<p class="indent">Will you accept this doll from me +on your 7th birthday. She will be a quiet +play mate for my active Louisa for seven +years more. Be a kind mamma and love her +for my sake.</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Your mother.</span></p> + +<p>Beach St., Boston, 1839.</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">Louisa was ten when this birthday +letter was sent: +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 104]</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="right"> +Cottage in Concord.</p> + +<p>Dear Daughter,</p> + +<p class="indent">Your 10th birthday has arrived, may +it be a happy one, & on each returning birthday +may you feel new strength and resolution +to be gentle with sisters, obedient to parents, +loving to everyone & happy in yourself.</p> + +<p class="indent">I give you the pencil case I promised, for +I have observed that you are fond of writing +& wish to encourage the habit.</p> + +<p class="indent">Go on trying, dear, & each day it will +be easier to be & do good. You must help +yourself, for the cause of your little troubles +is in yourself, & patience & courage only +will make you what mother prays to see you +her good and happy girl.</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">During the Fruitlands period, when +Louisa was eleven, she found this little +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 105]</span> +note tucked carefully away in a spot +where only she would find and read it:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="right"> +Fruitlands.</p> + +<p class="indent">My dear,</p> + +<p class="indent">Thank you for your sweet note and +sweeter poetry. The second verse is very +good. Your love of nature is pure and true. +It is a lovely school in which good lessons +may be learned. The happy industry of +birds, the beautiful lives of flowers, the music +of brooks all help—</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 5.5em;">"The little fountain flows</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">So noiseless thro the wood,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">The wanderer tastes repose,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">And from the silent flood</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Learns meekly to do good."</span><br /> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">In the following letter, a pretty little +deference to the child's own personality +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 106]</span> +is shown by the mother, in that way +bringing out in the child respect and +deference for others:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="indent"> +Dear Daughter, +</p> + +<p class="indent">I hope you will not consider me an +intruder for stopping a moment in your +"poet's corner" to admire the neatness of +your desk, the sweetness of your poetry, the +beauty of the prospect from your window. +Cherish this love of nature, dear, enjoy all +it gives you, for God made these helps to +charm contemplation, and they strengthen +the noble desire to be or to do all that is +sent for our training & our good. Heaven +be about you my child, is mother's Sunday +prayer.</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">Louisa Alcott filled her diary with +letters from her mother, occasionally +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 107]</span> +adding in later life annotations of her +own. This letter from her mother when +Louisa was eleven is an example:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="right"> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">(From Louisa Alcott's Diary.)</span><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 6em;">Concord, 1843.</span></p> + +<p class="indent">Dear Louy, +</p> + +<p class="indent">I enclose a picture for you which I +always liked very much, for I have imagined +that you might be just such an industrious +daughter & I such a feeble but loving mother, +looking to your labor for my daily bread. +Keep it for my sake, & your own, for you and +I always like to be grouped together.</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Mother.</span></p> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="IMAGE_106" id="IMAGE_106"></a> +<img src="images/i016.jpg" width="400" height="536" alt="Abigail May, Mrs. A. Bronson Alcott. From a daguerreotype. Page 106." title="Abigail May, Mrs. A. Bronson Alcott. From a daguerreotype. Page 106." /> +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold;">Abigail May, Mrs. A. Bronson Alcott.</span><br /> +<span style="font-weight: bold;">From a daguerreotype.</span><br /> +<span style="font-weight: bold;"><i>Page</i> 106.</span> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p class="indent">Then follows the picture and the lines +written by Louisa in her journal: +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 108]</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="center">To Mother.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">I hope that soon dear mother, you & I may be</span><br /><span style="margin-left: 6em;"> +In the quiet room my fancy has so often made for thee,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">The pleasant sunny chamber, the cushioned easy chair,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">The books laid for your reading, the vase of flowers fair.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">The desk beside the window where the sun shines warm and bright,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">And there in ease and quiet, the promised book you write,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">While I sit close beside you, content at last to see,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">That you can rest dear mother, & I can cherish thee.</span><br /> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">Louisa lived to see her hope realized +and the dream of many years a beautiful +reality.</p> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 109]</span> +Like most writers, Louisa was moody, +and in her hours of depression and despondency +she looked upon her work as a +failure and herself as a useless drag upon +the family. At such times Marmee invariably +came to the rescue and persuaded +her discouraged daughter to use +the pen she was ready to lay down. +Even in Louisa's childhood, when her only +promise of future literary achievement +were her tragedies and melodramas of +lurid style, little gifts show the mother's +faith and pride in her daughter's work. +So did her letters, of which this is an +example:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="indent">Dear Louisa:</p> + +<p class="indent">I sometimes stray about the house and +take a peep into the journal. Your pages +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 110]</span> +lately are blank. I am sure your life has +many fine passages well worth recording, +and to me they are always precious. Anything +like intellectual progress in my children +seems to compensate for much disappointment +& perplexity in my own life. Do +write a little each day, dear, if but a line, +to show me how bravely you begin the +battle, how patiently you wait for the rewards +sure to come when the victory is nobly won.</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span style="margin-right: 2em;">Ever yrs.</span><br /> +Mother. +</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">On her fourteenth birthday the mother +accompanies the gift of a pen with this +little poem:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Oh, may this pen your muse inspire,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">When wrapt in pure poetic fire,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">To write some sweet, some thrilling verse;</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 111]</span> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">A song of love or sorrow's lay,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Or duty's clear but tedious way</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">In brighter hope rehearse.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Oh, let your strain be soft and high,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Of crosses here, of crowns beyond the sky;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Truth guide your pen, inspire your theme,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">And from each note joy's music stream.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p class="indent">Louisa Alcott owed much to her +mother's example and perhaps even more +to her mother's influence. This letter, +carefully preserved in the daughter's +journal, reveals a wealth of mother-love +and of God-given wisdom:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="right"> +<span style="margin-right: 1em;">15th Birthday,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-right: 1em;">Hillside.</span></p> + +<p class="indent">Dearest, +</p> + +<p class="indent">Accept this pen from your mother +and for her sake use it freely & worthily that +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 112]</span> +each day of this your fifteenth year may +testify to some good word or thought or work.</p> + +<p class="indent">I know there will be born into your spirit +new hopes, new gifts, for God helps the loving, +trusting heart that turns to Him. Lift up +your soul to meet the highest, for that alone +will satisfy your yearning, aspiring nature.</p> + +<p class="indent">Your temperament is a peculiar one, & +there are few who can really help you. Set +about the formation of character & believe +me you are capable of obtaining a noble one. +Industry, patience, love, creates, endures, +gives all things, for these are the attributes +of the Almighty, & they make us mighty in +all things. May eternal love sustain you, +infinite wisdom guide you, & the peace which +passeth understanding reward you, my +daughter.</p> + +<p class="right"><span style="margin-right: 1em;">Mother.</span></p> + +<p>Nov. 29th, 1846.</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 113]</span> +Deeds, not words, characterized Elizabeth +Alcott, as readers of "Little +Women" will recall. She was about +seven when she sent this letter, one of +the very few she wrote, to her mother:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="right">May, Friday 29.</p> + +<p>Dear Mother,</p> + +<p class="indent">I thank you very much for your +note. I will try to write better than I +have done. I have not always had a good +pen. I hope I shall improve in all my +studies this summer. I hope I can read +German & French very well, and know a +great deal about the countries. I must +write my journal now so I will bid you +good bye.</p> + +<p class="right"> +From your loving<br /> +Elizabeth.</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 114]</span> +Birthdays were always celebrated with +much rejoicing in the Alcott household, +the gift made secondary to the spirit of +the day. From the time they were old +enough to print, the Alcott children on +the mother's birthday made her some +little gift, accompanying it with a note. +Abba May or May, as she was always +called, at nine years old, began in prose +but lapsed into poetry:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>Dear Mother,</p> + +<p class="indent">I wish you a very happy +birthday. I hope you will find +my present Useful, and when you wear it +think of me. I have taken a great-deal +of Pleasure in making it for you. +Please take this Present mother +on your 49 birthday</p> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 115]</span></p> + +<p>With the dearest Love and wishes<br /> +of your little daughter A.<br /> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">With Mrs. Alcott, hardship, poverty, +the grief of seeing her husband misunderstood +and often scoffed at, never lessened +her love for him, or her contentment in +the marriage relation. The year following +her marriage in a letter to her +brother she wrote: "My father has +never married a daughter or son more +completely happy than I am. I have +cares, and soon they will be arduous ones, +but with the mild, constant, and affectionate +sympathy and aid of my husband, +with the increasing health and +loveliness of my quiet and bright little +Anna, with good health, clear head, +grateful heart and ready hand,—what +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 116]</span> +can I not do when surrounded by influences +like this?"</p> + +<p class="indent">Ideals were never shattered; illusions, +if so they may be called, were never lost +by Mrs. Alcott through the stormy years +that laid between the first happy months +of her married life and the sunset days +when all her burdens were laid down. +To her, the husband who was so long +denied material success and intellectual +sympathy ever remained the lover and +friend. Her admiration for him was +unbounded, her faith in him complete. +So high she held him in heart and mind, +that it was difficult even for those who +loved him most to appreciate her estimate +of him as Poet, Philosopher, and +Sage.</p> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 117]</span> +Concerning the most famous portrait +ever made of Bronson Alcott, done in +crayons by Mrs. Richard Hildredth, wife +of the historian and aunt of the portrait +painter, George Fuller, which, beautiful +as it was, did not satisfy the wife's ideal, +Mrs. Alcott writes:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="indent"> +A tinge of the incomprehensible lies +softly around it, a field of atmosphere, +as if she had worked with down from an +angel's wing rather than with a crayon,—as +if the moonlight had cast a shadow on +the lights of her picture, and a divinity had +touched with a soft shade, the dark portion +of the figure. Mrs. Hildredth has changed +the costume from a dress suit to a mantle +draped about the shoulders. This, I do +not like. The chaste simplicity of Mr. +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 118]</span> +Alcott's dress is more in character and +keeping with the severe simplicity and +rectitude of his life. Louisa admirably describes +her father's appearance as she met +him at the cars. "His dress was neat and +poor. He looked cold and thin as an icicle, +but serene as God." After such a testimony, +from such a daughter, he can afford to dress +shabbily.</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">Contentment, whatever her lot, was +an attribute of Marmee; she underestimated +herself always. Unquestionably, +Louisa inherited her literary gift +quite as much from mother as from +father, and flashes of the quaint humor +so delightful in the daughter's books are +found in the mother's letters. To a friend +she writes: "My gifts are few. I live, +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 119]</span> +love and learn, and find myself more content +every day of my life with humble +conditions."</p> + +<p class="indent">Louisa Alcott never laid claim to +poetic gift, but on a few occasions her +verses take to themselves true poetic +beauty. One of the most exquisite of +these poems was written by her on the +death of her mother, and was first published +anonymously in the "Masque of +Poets" of 1878:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<h3><span class="smcap">Transfiguration</span><br /> +In Memoriam</h3> + +<p>Mysterious death; who in a single hour<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Life's gold can so refine,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And by thy art divine</span><br /> +Change mortal weakness to immortal power:<br /> +<br /> +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 120]</span>Bending beneath the weight of eighty years,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Spent with the noble strife</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of a victorious life,</span><br /> +We watched her fading heavenward, through our tears.<br /> +<br /> +But ere the sense of loss our hearts had wrung,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A miracle was wrought:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And swift as happy thought</span><br /> +She lived again—brave, beautiful and young.<br /> +<br /> +Age, pain and sorrow dropped the veils they wore,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And showed the tender eyes</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of angels in disguise,</span><br /> +Whose discipline so patiently she bore.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 121]</span>The past years brought their harvest rich and fair;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">While memory and love,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Together fondly wove</span><br /> +A golden garland for the silver hair.</p> +</div> + +<hr class="hr2"/> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 122]</span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Children's Diaries</span></h3> + +<p class="cap">THE Alcott children were brought +up to think for themselves, to +reflect, and to give expression to +their thoughts. Never laughed at, they +were not afraid to speak or write of +what was in their minds. Each kept a +diary, and no incident that concerned +the little girls was too trivial for mention +in the record of the day. These incidents, +collected, give a more comprehensive +view of the Alcotts as a family +than do the father's voluminous journals.</p> + +<hr /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="IMAGE_122" id="IMAGE_122"></a> +<img src="images/i017.jpg" width="400" height="478" alt="Anna Bronson Alcott. From a daguerreotype. Page 122." title="Anna Bronson Alcott. From a daguerreotype. Page 122." /> +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold;">Anna Bronson Alcott.</span><br /> +<span style="font-weight: bold;">From a daguerreotype.</span><br /> +<span style="font-weight: bold;"><i>Page</i> 122.</span> +</div><p class="indent"></p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 123]</span> +When Anna was ten, she gravely explains +under date of April 13, 1841:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="indent">Father was too unwell to come down +stairs and mother ironed, Louisa and I +helped a little while. I wrote my journal and +a journal for Louisa as she thought she +could not write well enough. I had no other +lessons than that. We watched a little spider +and gave it some water to drink. In the +afternoon mother read loud the story of +the good aunt or part of it while we sewed +on the clean clothes I mended up the holes +and Louisa and Lizzy sewed on a sheet. In +the evening we played mother lets us play +in the evening. We went to bed soon.</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">This sewing bee recalls the long evenings +in the March home, described in +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 124]</span> +"Little Women," when the four girls +and the mother sewed dutifully on sheets +for Aunt March, dividing seams into +countries, discussing Europe, Asia, +Africa, and America as they stitched.</p> + +<p class="indent">When she was twelve, Anna's literary +aspirations sought a vent in attempted +poetry. Later she collaborated with +Louisa in writing the "Comic Tragedies." +Anna's confidante and comrade, Louisa, +was frequently the victim of these poetic +effusions, her reception of which gives +quite a line on her ardent temperament. +This entry in Anna's journal for April +23, 1843, is eloquent:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="indent">This morning I rose pretty early—After +breakfast I read and wrote stories. In the +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 125]</span> +afternoon I wrote some letters and the following +one to Louisa:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Louisa dear</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">With love sincere</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Accept this little gift from me</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">It is with pleasure</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">I send this treasure</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">And with it send much love to thee.</span></p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 7em;">Sister dear</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Never fear</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">God will help you if you try.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Do not despair</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">But always care</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">To be good and love to try.</span></p> + +<p class="indent">In the evening I read in a book called +'Stories on the Lord's-prayer.' I talked +with Louisa after I went to bed and she +pinched me on my leg.</p> +</div><p class="indent"></p> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 126]</span> +Two or three years later Anna writes:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p> +Monday.<br /> +</p> + +<p class="indent">Mother went to Boston and Louisa and +I cleaned house all day. I love order above +all things and I take great pleasure in seeing +all neat about the house.</p> + +<p>Tuesday.</p> + +<p class="indent">I worked hard till 2 o'clock when we all +met to sew while mother read aloud from +"Miss Bremers Brothers and Sister's." It +is most beautiful such a happy family. I +think Miss Bremer would make a lovely +mother the mothers in her books are so sweet +and she has beautiful idear's about family's. +I love to read natural stories.</p> + +<p>Wednesday 30th.</p> + +<p class="indent">We rose very early and eat breakfast. I +think it is a dreadful thing to grow old and +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 127]</span> +not be able to fly about, but then I suppose +I shall not care about flying when I grow +older, still it is horrid to think about being +an old woman all wrinkled and blind. I wish +I could keep young forever. I should love +to live among all those I love and be with +them all the time.</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">Reading was a part of the daily routine +in the Alcott household, and Anna's +taste for German recalls vividly certain +episodes between Meg and John Brooks +in "Little Women."</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>Friday 18th.</p> + +<p class="indent">I read one of Krummacher's parables +in German. I think they are very beautiful, +the language is so elegant. I love to hear +beautiful words and these stories are told so +simply and are full of such sweet thought. +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 128]</span> +I found a great many which have never been +translated and I intend to try myself to +translate them. I think it is the pleasantest +thing I do to read German. It is such a +splendid language. I mean Elizabeth shall +learn to read it, she will enjoy it so much.</p> + +<p>Saturday 19th.</p> + +<p class="indent">In the afternoon I sewed and Louisa +read me a very silly story called 'The Golden +Cup.' I think there is a great deal of +nonsense written now a days, the papers are +full of silly stories.</p> + +<p>Sunday 20th.</p> + +<p class="indent">I have been reading lately a very beautiful +book given me by my mother. It is "Characteristics +of Women" by Mrs. Jameson. I +like it very much. It is a description of +Shakespear's Heroines, Portia is my favorite, +she was so noble and I liked the Trial scene +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 129]</span> +better than any of Shakespears that I ever +read. I think this part is beautiful.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">'Let music sound while he doth make his choice;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Then if he love he make a swan like end</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Fading in music.'</span><br /> +</p> + +<p class="indent">I think this was a beautiful idea.</p> + +<p class="indent">I passed a pleasant morning in school, +translating one of Krummacher's beautiful +parables. I find great pleasure in this. I +like German better than I do French. I +want much to study Italian. I have tried +myself several times but cannot manage it +without help. I think I should be very +happy if I could go to school. I think about +it most all the time and when I am in bed I +imagine myself in Boston going to Miss +Peabody's school with other girls and know +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 130]</span> +that I am learning something. And I think +I lead rather too solitary a life. I love to see +people. Mother read in the afternoon from +Miss Sedgwick's Letters. It was about +the Germans. She says they are a very +cheerful people and though poor yet they +always have a happy smile and cheerful face. +That their manners are beautiful. They +are so kind and simple. I know I should +love them, for I like everything German, +except their food, which I think must be +horrid, greasy cabbage and sour bread. +That seems bad. I should think they are so +fond of beautiful things; music, poetry and +flowers, that they would not like such stuff.</p> + +<p> +September, 1845.<br /> +Friday 1st. +</p> + +<p class="indent">I walked before breakfast, the sun was +bright and there was a cool wind. The +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 131]</span> +lane was full of beautiful flowers and the grass +was green and fresh. I had a lovely walk +and gathered a bunch of goldenrod, spirian +and gerandia. Everything was so beautiful +that all my unhappy thoughts of last night +flew away. I sometimes have strange feelings, +a sort of longing after something I +don't know what it is. I have a great many +wishes. I spent the day in the usual manner, +sewing and studying. In the evening Louisa +and I walked through the lane and talked +about how we should like to live and +dress and imagined all kinds of beautiful +things.</p> + +<p class="indent"> +Sunday 3rd.<br /> +</p> + +<p class="indent">I sewed all day and mother read from +"Miss Sedgwick's Letters." I will write a +piece of poetry, as I have nothing very +pleasant to write about:</p> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 132]</span></p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 7.5em;"> +"Oh when thy heart is full of fears</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;"> +And the way is dim to Heaven</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;"> +When the sorrow and the sin of years</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;"> +Peace from thy soul has driven</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;"> +Then through the mist of falling tears</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;"> +Look up and be forgiven.</span></p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 7.5em;"> +"And then rise up and sin no more</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;"> +And from thy dark ways flee</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;"> +Let Virtue o'er thy appetites</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;"> +Have full and perfect mastery</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;"> +And the kindly ones that hover o'er</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;"> +Will ever strengthen thee.</span></p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 7.5em;"> +"And though thou art helpless and forlorn</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;"> +Let not thy heart's peace go</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;"> +And though the riches of this world are gone</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;"> +And thy lot is care and woe</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;"> +Faint not, but journey ever on</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;"> +True wealth is not below.</span></p> +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 133]</span></p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 7.5em;"> +"Oh, falter not but still look up</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;"> +Let Patience be thy guide</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;"> +Bless the rod and take the cup</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;"> +And trustfully abide</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;"> +Let not temptation vanquish thee</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;"> +And the Father will provide."</span> +</p> + +<p class="indent">Louisa composed these lines, which I +think are beautiful. She is a beautiful girl +and writes as good poetry as Lucretia Davidson, +about whom so much has been written. +I think she will write <span class="u">something great one +of these days</span>. As for me I am perfect in +nothing. I have no genius. I know a little +of music, a little of French, German and +Drawing, but none of them well. I have a +foolish wish to be something <span class="u">great</span> and I +shall probably spend my life in a kitchen +and die in the poor-house. I want to be +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 134]</span> +Jenny Lind or Mrs. Seguin and I can't and +so I cry. Here is another of Louisa's pieces +to mother.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 7.5em;"> +"God comfort thee dear mother,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;"> +For sorrow sad and deep</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;"> +Is lying heavy on thy heart</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;"> +And this hath made thee weep.</span></p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 7.5em;"> +"There is a Father o'er us, mother,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;"> +Who orders for the best</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;"> +And peace shall come ere long, mother,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;"> +And dwell within thy breast.</span></p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 7.5em;"> +"Then let us journey onward, mother,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;"> +And trustfully abide,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;"> +The coming forth of good or ill</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;"> +Whatever may betide."</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">Helpfulness was encouraged in the +Alcott household; habits of industry +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 135]</span> +were carefully fostered. The Alcott children +worked when they worked, played +when they played, but wasted hours +were unknown. They were taught to +make the most of every day. When +Anna was seventeen she wrote in her +diary:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p> +August, 1848.<br /> +Thursday 17th.</p> + +<p class="indent">Lizzy and I are making plans for spending +our days usefully. Here is mine.</p> + +<p class="center">Plan.</p> + +<p class="indent">Rise at half past 4, bathe, dress and walk +till half past 5.</p> + +<p class="indent">Dress and bathe the children.</p> + +<p class="indent">Breakfast at 7. Work till 9. School +till 12. Work till 2.</p> + +<p class="indent">Sew till 4. Practice till 5.</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 136]</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="indent">Hear Lizzy recite German and French till +6. Supper.</p> + +<p class="indent">This will keep me pretty busy, but I find +I accomplish so much more when I have a +plan and certain times for certain things. +I never can do things without order. I like +to have something planned for every moment +of the day, so that when I get up in the morning +I may know what to do. I wish I could +be learned.</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">An entry in Louisa's diary during the +Fruitlands period gives this insight into +one of her average days, when a child of +eleven:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="indent">I rose at five, and after breakfast washed +the dishes and then helped mother work. I +took care of May in the afternoon. In the +evening I made some pretty things for my +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 137]</span> +dolly. Father and Mr. Lane had a talk and +father asked us if we saw any reason for +us to separate. Mother wanted to, she is +so tired. I like it, but not the school part +or Mr. L.</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">Note, too, that when it came to a +conference concerning family affairs, the +father asked the advice of his eleven-year-old +daughter, instead of following +the more customary method of withholding +from her the family confidence +and deferring discussion of plans until +the children had gone to bed.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Know Thyself," was ever the aim of +Bronson Alcott in the training of his +children, and Mr. Lane at Fruitlands +followed this same line of mental development. +This is one of his sample +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 138]</span> +lessons which Louisa Alcott has copied +into her journal:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="indent">Sample of our Lessons</p> + +<p class="indent">"What virtues do you wish more of," +asked Mr. L. I answer:</p> + +<table style="width:90%;" border="0" summary="virtues wished for"> +<tr> + <td>Patience</td> + <td>Obedience</td> + <td>Industry</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td>Love</td> + <td>Generosity</td> + <td>Respect</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td>Silence</td> + <td>Perseverance</td> + <td>Self-denial</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<p class="indent">"What vices less of?"</p> + +<table style="width:90%;" border="0" summary="vices wished less"> +<tr> + <td>Idleness</td> + <td>Impatience</td> + <td>Selfishness</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td>Wilfulness</td> + <td>Impudence</td> + <td>Activity</td> +</tr> +<tr> + <td>Vanity</td> + <td>Pride</td> + <td>Love of cats</td> +</tr> +</table> +</div> + +<p class="indent">In this same lesson comes the twelve-year-old +Louisa's explanation of the difference +between faith and hope:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="indent">Faith can believe without seeing; hope is +not sure, but tries to have faith when it desires.</p> +</div><p class="indent"></p> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 139]</span> +Louisa's love of nature, her trained +habits of thought, her poetic imagination, +and her keen appreciation of beauty +are indicated in this entry in her journal, +written at Fruitlands in 1843 or 1844, +when she was a child of ten or eleven:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="indent">I wrote in my imagination book, and +enjoyed it very much. Life is pleasanter +than it used to be, and I don't care about +dying any more. Had a splendid run, and +got a box of cones to burn. Sat and heard +the pines sing a long time. Had good dreams, +and woke now and then to think, and watch +the moon. I had a pleasant time with my +mind, for it was happy.</p> +</div> + +<hr class="hr2"/> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 140]</span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Girlhood and Womanhood</span></h3> + +<p class="cap">FAMILIAR to every reader of +"Little Women" is the March +family's quaint brown house with +its many windows, its old-fashioned garden, +its homely, homelike air, its unfailing +hospitality. This home, as described by +Louisa M. Alcott, is a picture of the +Alcott home at Concord, the scene of +the girlhood and young womanhood of +the Alcott children. Many of Louisa's +books were written there; "Little +Women" was lived there. In Concord, +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 141]</span> +Anna met John Pratt, and the first love +story in "Little Women" is Anna's life +romance. There little Beth passed from +the material to the spiritual life, and +Amy first developed the artistic talents +which later caused her work to be sought +for by art museums and private collectors.</p> + +<p class="indent">Anna's marriage was a great trial to +Louisa, for from early childhood the two +girls had been inseparable companions, +and after Anna's marriage Louisa learned +to look upon John as her brother.</p> + +<p class="indent">Louisa's diary in the April following +the passing of Elizabeth touches upon +the change of homes in Concord, the +absence of May, who was studying art +in Boston, of Elizabeth and of Anna:</p> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 142]</span></p> + +<p class="center">April.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="indent">Came to occupy one wing of Hawthorne's +house (once ours) while the new one was +being repaired. Father, mother and I kept +house together, May being in Boston, Anna +at Pratt farm, & for the first time Lizzy +absent. I don't miss her as I expected to do, +for she seems nearer & dearer than before, +& I am glad to know she is safe from pain & +age in some world where her innocent soul +must be happy.</p> + +<p class="indent">Death never seemed terrible to me, & now +is beautiful, so I cannot fear it, but find it +friendly and wonderful.</p> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="IMAGE_142" id="IMAGE_142"></a> +<img src="images/i018.jpg" width="400" height="530" alt="Abba May Alcott. From a photograph. Page 142." title="Abba May Alcott. From a photograph. Page 142." /> +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold;">Abba May Alcott.</span><br /> +<span style="font-weight: bold;">From a photograph.</span><br /> +<span style="font-weight: bold;"><i>Page</i> 142.</span> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p class="indent">Amy's artistic efforts and her failures +in "Little Women" are taken from May's +actual experiences in Concord. Turning +the career of the youngest of the +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 143]</span> +Alcott girls into a romance earlier in +"Little Women" than it actually +occurred in life, doubtless prevented +Louisa Alcott from chronicling the artistic +success of her youngest sister, a success +to which she largely contributed +and in which she took great pride.</p> + +<p class="indent">May Alcott's pictures are found to-day +in art museums and in leading private +collections in this country and +abroad. Her copies of Turner are remarkable. +In the Kensington Gallery +in London students are given them to +study in preference to the originals. +Several fine examples are in American +museums, and a few are owned by members +of the Alcott family.</p> + +<p class="indent">When the Alcotts moved into Orchard +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 144]</span> +House, the girls painted and papered +the interior themselves. May filled the +nooks and corners with panels, on which +she painted birds and flowers. Over the +fireplaces she inscribed mottoes in Old +English characters.</p> + +<p class="indent">The study in Orchard House was the +real center of the household. For the +chimney piece Ellery Channing wrote an +epigram, which May Alcott painted upon +it, and which has been used in the stage +reproduction of "Little Women":</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 7.5em;">"The Hills are reared, the Valleys scooped in vain,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">If Learning's Altars vanish from the Plain."</span></p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">In Orchard House to-day, walls, doors, +and window casings are etched with May +Alcott's drawings, many preserved under +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 145]</span> +glass, including a miniature portrait of +a little girl, naïvely and modestly inscribed +"The Artist."</p> + +<p class="indent">High thoughts and cheerful minds +triumphed over poverty in those Concord +days. Shortly after the family's return +from Fruitlands, Louisa wrote for Ellen +Emerson the fairy stories, "Flower +Fables." She was at the time only +sixteen. This was her earliest published +work, and it was many years before she +achieved literary fame, although, as did +Jo in "Little Women," she materially +helped in the support of the family by +writing lurid tales.</p> + +<p class="indent">Literature rather than commerce freed +the Alcotts from the burden of debt. +Louisa's fame was the result, neither of +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 146]</span> +accident, nor of a single achievement, +but had for its background the whole +generous past of her family. Her "Hospital +Sketches" were her letters home, +when she was serving as hospital nurse +during the Civil War. "Little Women" +is a chronicle of her family. Louisa +certainly made good use of the vicissitudes +of the Alcotts. She always saw +the funny side and was not afraid to +make book material of the home experiences, +elevating or humiliating. Her +books number between twenty-five and +thirty. Nearly every one takes its basic +idea from some real experience. The +books written by the Alcott family, +including some eight or ten published by +Mr. Alcott, Louisa's output, and one or +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 147]</span> +two written by May, fill two shelves of +an alcove devoted to Concord authors +in the Alcott town library.</p> + +<p class="indent">Anna's little sons, familiarly known +in the Alcott household as Freddie and +Johnnie, or Jack, gave to Bronson Alcott +in his later days fresh opportunity for +his favorite study—childhood. To +both boys came frequent messages and +gifts from Grandpa, Grandma, and Aunt +Louisa.</p> + +<p class="indent">Louisa Alcott sent to Freddie this poem +on his third birthday:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">A song for little Freddie</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">On his third Birthday.</span></p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 8em;">Down in the field</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Where the brook goes,</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 148]</span> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Lives a white lammie</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">With a little black nose.</span></p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 8em;">He eats the grass so green,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">He drinks the "la la" sweet,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">"Buttertups" and daisies,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Grow all about his feet.</span></p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 8em;">The "birdies" they sing to him,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">The big sun in the sky,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Warms his little "Toe-toes,"</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">And peeps into his eye.</span></p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 8em;">He's a very gentle lammie,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">He never makes a fuss,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">He never "saps his marmar,"</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">He never says "I muss."</span></p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 8em;">He hops and he runs,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">"Wound and wound" all day,</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 149]</span><span style="margin-left: 8em;">And when the night comes,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">He goes "bye low" on the hay.</span></p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 8em;">In a nice little barn,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Where the "moo-moos" are;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Freddie says "Good night,"</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">But the lammie he says "Baa!"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p class="indent">To be sung by Marmar with appropriate +accompaniment of gesture, etc.</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">On the outside of the letter appears:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">A little song for Freddie,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">On his third birthday,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">With "lots" of loving kisses,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">From his Wee-wee far away.</span></p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">On his sixth birthday Grandpa contributes: +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 150]</span></p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="center"> +Concord, Freddie's<br /> +6th Birthday,<br /> +1869.</p> + +<p class="indent">Dear Freddy,</p> + +<p class="indent">I give you for your Birth Day Present +this new Picture Book. It has plain words +for you to pick out and read. The stories +are short and about things that you know. +Now, my little scholar, look among the +leaves every day, and see how many words +you can tell,—Very soon you will find you +can read whole pages, spell the whole book +through, and write the stories, word for word +on your slate or in your little writing book. +Then you will not be a little Dunce, and when +Grandpa comes to see you, you will be glad +to show him how well you can read.</p> + +<p class="indent">Grandma gives the top to Johnny.</p> + +<p class="right">From Grandpa.</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 151]</span> +Grandma, not to be outdone, sent +this:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="indent"> +Dear Freddy,<br /> +</p> + +<p class="indent">If worms give us the silk thread—can't +we find time enough to find out how the +Fabric is made which dresses are formed of—minutes +and days—ours. Days and Years +are passing away—let us be busy—and +I guess we will get to the Vienna Exposition—</p> + +<p class="center">"How doth the little busy Bee"</p> + +<p class="indent">Improve each shining hour—Be a Bee—and +your hours will be too few for the Flowers +of Science and the Wheels of Use. Grandma +will help you with her one dim eye and +Grandpa will explain a great deal to you with +his Shining Light—Mama with your help +will make you a true, good man.—</p> +</div> + +<p class="center"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 152]</span>1873.</p> + +<p class="indent">On his twelfth birthday Aunt Louisa +again lapsed into poetry:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="center">F. A. P.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Who likes to read a fairy tale,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Or stories told of sword and sail,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Until his little optics fail?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;">Our boy.</span></p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 8em;">Who loves his father's watch to wear</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">And often draw it out with care</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Upon its round white face to stare?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;">Our boy.</span></p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 8em;">Who rather proud of his small feet</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">When wearing slippers new and neat,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">And stockings red as any beet?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;">Our boy.</span></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 153]</span> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Who in his pocket keeps his hands</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">As round the house he "mooning" stands</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Or reads the paper like the mans?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;">Our boy.</span></p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 8em;">Who likes to "boss" it over Jack,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">And sometimes gives a naughty whack,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">But gets it heartily paid back?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;">Our boy.</span></p> + + +<p><span style="margin-left: 8em;">Who likes to have a birthday frolic</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">And eats until he has a colic,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">That for the time is diabolic?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;">Our boy.</span></p> + + +<p><span style="margin-left: 8em;">Who is the dearest little lad,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">That aunt or mother ever had,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">To love when gay and cheer when sad?</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;">Our boy.</span></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 154]</span><span style="margin-left: 8em;">May angels guard him with their wings,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">And all brave, good and happy things,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Make nobler thou than crowned kings.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 21em;">Our boy.</span></p> + +<p class="center">March 28th, 1875.</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">John, the original of Daisy in "Little +Women," received in his babyhood days +from Aunt Louisa, some tiny blue stockings +with this verse:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Two pair of blue hose,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">For Johnny's white toes,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">So Jack Frost can't freeze em,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Nor darned stockings tease em,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">So pretty and neat</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">I hope the small feet</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Will never go wrong,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">But walk straight and strong,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">The way father went.</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 155]</span><span style="margin-left: 8em;">We shall all be content,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">If the dear little son</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Be a second good John.</span></p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">On his tenth birthday, both Grandpa +and Grandma Alcott sent these characteristic +greetings to their younger +grandson:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="center">Grandma Alcott to Johnny.</p> + +<p>10th birthday. <span class="ralign">June 24th. 1875.</span></p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">Giving song, all day long,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Under the elm or willow;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">With sunshine shed</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">On the little head</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">That rests on Grandma's pillow.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">To and fro,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">Let it go,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">While inside piping cheery,</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 156]</span><span style="margin-left: 9em;">As he takes his rest</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">In his hang-bird's nest</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Lies Grandma's little deary.</span><br /> +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="center"> +Grandpa Alcott to Johnny.<br /> +June 24th. 1875.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 8em;">A fine little sword</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">For gallant Capt. Jack,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">As he marches down the hill</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">His army at his back.</span></p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 8em;">No giants will it kill</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">Since its only made for show,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">And the best way to fight,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">Is a kiss for a blow.</span><br /> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">In these days of private secretaries, +labor-saving devices, and specialization, +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 157]</span> +it is difficult to comprehend the obstacles +that Louisa Alcott encountered in writing. +Her day was filled with other +tasks, housework, sewing, teaching, +nursing—yet the pen was never idle, +the busy brain was never still. Her +power of concentration made it possible +for her to write under harassing conditions. +This is her own description of +her methods of work:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="indent">My methods of work are very simple and +soon told. My head is my study, and there +I keep the various plans of stories for years +sometimes, letting them grow as they will +till I am ready to put them on paper. Then +it is quick work, as chapters go down word +for word as they stand in my mind, and need +no alteration. I never copy, since I find by +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 158]</span> +experience that the work I spend the least +time upon is best liked by critics and speakers.</p> + +<p class="indent">Any paper, any pen, any place that is +quiet suit me, and I used to write from +morning till night without fatigue when +"the steam was up." Now, however, I am +paying the penalty of twenty years of over +work, and can write but two hours a day, +doing about twenty pages, sometimes more, +though my right thumb is useless from +writer's cramp.</p> + +<p class="indent">While a story is under way I live in it, +see the people more plainly than real ones +around me, hear them talk, and am much +interested, surprised and provoked at their +actions, for I seem to have no power to rule +them, and can simply record their experiences +and performances.</p> + +<p class="indent">Materials for the children's tales I find +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 159]</span> +in the lives of the little people about me, for +no one can invent anything so droll, pretty +or pathetic as the sayings and doings of these +small actors, poets and martyrs. In the +older books, the events are mostly from real +life, the strongest the truest, and I yet hope to +write a few of the novels which have been +simmering in my brain while necessity and +unexpected success have confined me to +juvenile literature.</p> + +<p class="indent">I gave Mrs. Moulton many facts for her +article in "Famous Women," and there are +many other sketches which will add more if +they are wanted. The first edition of +"Jo's Boys" was twenty thousand I believe, +and over fifty thousand were soon gone. +Since January I know little about the sales. +People usually ask "How much have you +made?" I am contented with a hundred +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 160]</span> +thousand, and find my best success in the +comfort my family enjoy; also a naughty +satisfaction in proving that it was better +<i>not</i> to "stick to teaching" as advised, but to +write.</p> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"><a name="IMAGE_160" id="IMAGE_160"></a> +<img src="images/i019.jpg" width="400" height="556" alt="Louisa May Alcott. From a daguerreotype. Page 160." title="Louisa May Alcott. From a daguerreotype. Page 160." /> +<span style="font-variant: small-caps; font-weight: bold;">Louisa May Alcott.</span><br /> +<span style="font-weight: bold;">From a daguerreotype.</span><br /> +<span style="font-weight: bold;"><i>Page</i> 160.</span> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p class="indent">With all her love for her father, irreverent +Louisa delighted in making fun of +him. The complacent philosopher, with +his voluminous journals, his several books +in manuscript, his liking, despite the +brilliancy of his conversations, for the +written rather than the spoken word, +was a wasteful user of paper and a careless +dispenser of ink. That her father +enjoyed her good-natured banter is shown +by the fact that in his journal he has +entered the following poem, written by +Louisa at nineteen:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="center"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 161]</span> +From Louisa on my 52nd birthday.</p> + +<p class="right">Nov. 29th, 1851.</p> + +<p class="center">To Father.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">A cloth on the table where dear Plato sits</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">By one of the Graces was spread</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">With the single request that he would not design</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">New patterns with black ink or red.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">And when he is soaring away in the clouds</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">I beg he'll remember and think</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Though the "blackbirds" are fair his cloth will be fairer</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">For not being deluged with ink.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">May plenty of paper of pens and of quiet</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">To my dear pa forever be given</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Till he has written such piles that when on the top</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">He can walk calmly on into Heaven.</span></p> +</div> + +<hr class="hr2"/> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 162]</span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Friendships and Beliefs</span></h3> + +<p class="cap">RARE friendships existed among the +great minds of that period, when +Transcendentalism in America was +first talked and lived, a close bond of +sympathy uniting Bronson Alcott, Emerson, +Thoreau, Ellery Channing, Margaret +Fuller, and Elizabeth Peabody. +Such association made its impress upon +the Alcott daughters. Anna's diary is +filled with references to visits with the +Emersons. Louisa's deal less with the +family and more with the intellectual +life of the great philosopher, whom she +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 163]</span> +made her idol. Through life he was her +stanch and understanding friend.</p> + +<p class="indent">"The Apostles of the Newness" was +the scoffing term applied to these literary +giants of New England by those who +lacked the mental and spiritual insight +to recognize greatness in others.</p> + +<p class="indent">This attitude of ridicule was largely +responsible for the continued attacks +upon the <i>Dial</i>, a quarterly issued by +the Transcendentalists, edited from 1840 +to 1844 by Emerson, Margaret Fuller, +George Ripley, and Thoreau. Between +its modest covers were many of the intellectual +masterpieces of the time: its +rare volumes are still treasure-houses of +literature which to-day command any +price. Mr. Alcott selected its title and +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 164]</span> +was to a large extent responsible for its +policy. His Orphic Sayings in the <i>Dial</i>, +now looked upon as classics, were the +butt of the press at the time, and the +derision of Boston society.</p> + +<p class="indent">In these Orphic Sayings, he gave this +remarkable definition of Reform: "Reforms +are the noblest of facts. Extant +in time, they work for eternity: dwelling +with men, they are with God."</p> + +<p class="indent">Conversation among these friends was +neither trivial nor useless, and in the +Alcott circle, which included Emerson, +Thoreau, Theodore Parker, William +Henry Channing, James Freeman Clarke, +Elizabeth Peabody, Mrs. Cheney, and +other of the early Transcendentalists, +later on augmented by James Russell +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 165]</span> +Lowell and Nathaniel Hawthorne, a series +of drawing-room symposiums was established, +with Alcott, whom Emerson called +"serious and superior," as a leader. +Much of the substance of these conversations +is found in the Alcott journals, +and in the unpublished manuscripts of +the poet-philosopher.</p> + +<p class="indent">In Concord, the Alcotts once more +enjoyed the literary companionship they +craved. Emerson was a near neighbor. +Thoreau had his cabin at Walden, where +he had established "a community of +one." To and from Boston came others +of the Transcendental group, and Concord +became the center of thought for New +England.</p> + +<p class="indent">Thinking, however, was not the only +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 166]</span> +occupation of Bronson Alcott. Dreamer +he was, but he delighted in toil and ever +upheld the dignity of labor, not ashamed +nor afraid to work for hire as a laborer +in his neighbor's field, while nightly +conducting drawing-room conversations +with a company of peers and students.</p> + +<p class="indent">When Thoreau built his cabin, Alcott +helped him. They cut the trees from +Emerson's grove. While Emerson was +abroad, they built a summer-house for +him on his grounds. It stood for many +years, a picturesque temple of friendship. +William Henry Channing mentions a +morning spent there, reading Margaret +Fuller's Italian letters. May Alcott has +made drawings of it, which were published +in a volume of "Concord Sketches" +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 167]</span> +that also contained her drawing of Hawthorne's +house.</p> + +<p class="indent">Mr. Alcott practically rebuilt Orchard +House for his own family. Mrs. Child, +a friend of Mrs. Alcott, thus describes +this home, which is now preserved as a +memorial to Louisa M. Alcott and is +visited by thousands every year:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="indent">When they bought the place the house +was so very old that it was thrown into the +bargain, with the supposition that it was fit +for nothing but firewood. But Mr. Alcott +had an architectural taste, more intelligible +than his Orphic Sayings. He let every old +rafter and beam stay in its place, changed +old ovens and ash holes into Saxon arched +alcoves, and added a washerwoman's old +shanty to the rear. The result is a house +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 168]</span> +full of queer nooks and corners, with all +manner of juttings in and out. It seems as +if the spirit of some old architect had dropped +it down in Concord.</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">Thoreau, master builder himself, has +paid to Bronson Alcott this tribute:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="indent">One of the last of the philosophers, Connecticut +gave him to the world. He peddled +first her wares, afterwards, as he declares, +his brains. These he peddles still, bearing +for fruit, only his brain, like the nut its kernel. +His words and attitude always suppose +a better state of things than other men are +aquainted with, and he will be the last man +to be disappointed when the ages revolve. +He has no venture in the present. But +though comparatively disregarded now, +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 169]</span> +when his day comes, laws unsuspected by +most will take effect, and rulers will come to +him for advice.</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">Emerson, who saw the boy mind beneath +the philosopher's dignity, said +tenderly of Bronson Alcott: "He is +certainly the youngest man of his age +we have seen. When I looked at his +gray hairs, his conversation sounded +pathetic; but I looked again and they +reminded me of the gray dawn."</p> + +<p class="indent">Even his friends, to say nothing of +Louisa, occasionally poked fun at him +for chronicling so minutely all his +thoughts. Ellery Channing called his +library, "Encyclopediea de Moi-meme, +en cents volumes." Yet these journals +and records are now worth more than the +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 170]</span> +fine library he collected and in which he +delighted.</p> + +<p class="indent">Emerson has thus described the origin +of the Fruitlands community:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="indent">On the invitation of James P. Greaves +of London, the friend and fellow-laborer of +Pestalozzi in Switzerland, Mr. Alcott went +to England in 1842. Mr. Greaves died +before his arrival, but Mr. Alcott was received +cordially by his friends, who had +given his name to their school, Alcott House, +Ham, near London. He spent several +months in making acquaintance with various +classes of reformers. On his return to +America, he brought with him two of his +English friends, Chas. Lane and H. C. +Wright; and Mr. Lane having bought a farm +which he called Fruitlands, at Harvard, +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 171]</span> +Mass., they all went there to found a new +community.</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">The Fruitlands experiment and its +failure have been immortalized by Louisa +Alcott in her "Transcendental Wild +Oats." The detail of it is thus described +by a friend of the Alcott family, +who had the story from Bronson Alcott +himself:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="indent">The crop failures necessitated the community +living on a barley diet, as anything +animal was not allowed, not even milk and +eggs. Now and then they gave a thought +as to what they should do for shoes when +those they had were gone; for depriving the +cow of her skin was a crime not to be tolerated. +The barley crop was injured in harvesting, +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 172]</span> +and before long want was staring them in +the face. The Alcotts remained at Fruitlands +till mid-winter in dire poverty, all the +guests having taken their departure as provisions +vanished. Friends came to the rescue, +and, Mr. Alcott concluded with pathos in his +voice, "We put our little women on an ox-sled +and made our way to Concord! So +faded one of the dreams of my youth. I +have given you the facts as they were; +Louisa has given the comic side in 'Transcendental +Wild Oats'; but Mrs. Alcott could +give you the tragic side."</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">Indeed, it was always Mrs. Alcott who +could have given the tragic side, skillfully +as she kept her worries hidden. Her +own family, indignant because Bronson +Alcott could not better provide the +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 173]</span> +material needs for his family, on more +than one occasion besought the faithful +wife to leave him.</p> + +<p class="indent">A letter from her brother, urging this +step, drew forth from her a defense of +Bronson Alcott which the husband enters +in his journal as follows:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="center"> +November<br /> +1840</p> + +<p class="indent">Passages of a letter from my wife to one +who misapprehends and perverts my life +and purposes.</p> + +<p class="indent">"If I do not mistake the spirit as well as +letter of your remark you would have us +believe that a righteous retribution has +overtaken us, (or my husband, and we are +one,) and that the world is justly punishing +him for not having conciliated it, by conforming +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 174]</span> +to its wills and ways.—You say that +my husband was told ten years ago, that the +world could not understand him. It perhaps +fell dead on his ears and ever will. +There is no human voice can convince him +that the path he has chosen to tread, thorny, +bleak, solitary, as it is, is not the right one +for him. Just so did that man of Nazareth +whom all the world profess to admire and +adore, but few to imitate; and these few +are the laughing-stock of the Christian +Community. They are branded as visionaries +and fools. But this little band when +alone and disencumbered of idle observation, +enjoy the recital of their privations; they +have been reviled, but they revile not again; +they know sorrow and are acquainted with +grief; and yet there is joy in that group of +sinless men, such as angels might desire to +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 175]</span> +partake of. I am not writing poetry, but I +have tried to place before your mind, in as +brief, but clear a manner as I am able, our +real condition, and Mr. Alcott's merit as a +man, who, though punished and neglected +by a wicked world, has much to console and +encourage him in the confidence and cooperation +of some of the wisest and best men +living. Ten such, were they permitted in +their several vocations to act as teachers, +preachers, and printers, would save our +wicked city from the ruin that awaits it. +But they are turned, like the Nazarene, into +solitary places to lament the blindness and +folly of mankind, who are following the vain +and fleeting shadow for the real and abiding +substance. But to return to Mr. Alcott, is +he to sell his soul, or what is the same thing, +his principles, for the bread that perisheth? +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 176]</span> +No one will employ him in his way; he cannot +work in theirs, if he thereby involve his +conscience. He is so resolved in this matter +that I believe he will starve and freeze before +he will sacrifice principle to comfort. In this, +I and my children are necessarily implicated: +we make and mean to make all the sacrifices +we can to sustain him, but we have less to +sustain us in the spirit, and therefore, are +more liable to be overcome of the flesh. +He has, for a long time gone without everything +which he could not produce by labor, +from his own place, that no one could in +truth reproach him with wantonly eating +of the fruits of another's labor.</p> + +<p class="indent">He was sent for by friends in Hingham to +talk with them; which he did two evenings; +his expenses were paid and $23. put into his +hands as a slight compensation for the benefit +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 177]</span> +they felt he had conferred upon them by his +conversations. I should like to copy the +note accompanying it, but you never care +to see how his fellow fanatics rave on these +holy themes, life, duty, destiny of man. +Thus he occasionally finds a market for his +thoughts and experiences, which, though +inadequate to our support, is richly prized +as the honest gains of an innocent and +righteous labor. You spoke of his "poetical +wardrobe" whether in satire or in a worthier +spirit, I cannot tell. However spiritual +he may have become, there is still enough of +the carnal to feel the chills of winter, and +the chiller blasts of satire. His tatters are +the rags of righteousness and keep him +warmer than they would anyone whose +spirit was less cheered and warmed by the +fires of eternal love and truth.</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 178]</span> +An appreciative account of Mr. Alcott's +famous school in the Masonic Temple, +Boston, is found in the "Record of a +School," edited by Elizabeth Peabody, +published in 1835, republished in 1874. +The "Conversations with Children on +the Gospels," edited by Mr. Alcott in +two volumes, appearing in 1836-1837, +caused such a commotion in Boston as +to result in the downfall of the Temple +School. Reading these conversations +to-day, one is impressed with the modern +quality of their thought. They were +forerunners of that higher criticism, +which with the Bible student now supplants +the old blind acceptance without +reflection of even obscure Biblical passages.</p> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 179]</span> +On philosophy and religion Mr. Alcott +and Miss Peabody delighted to talk and +write. Their discussion of the existence +of evil is startlingly modern.</p> + +<p class="indent">"I do not think that evil should be +clothed in form by the imagination," +writes Miss Peabody to Mr. Alcott; +"I think every effort should be made to +strip it of all individuality, all shaping +and all coloring. And the reason is, +that Evil has in truth no substantial +existence, that it acquires all the existence +it has from want of faith and soul cultivation, +and that this is sufficient reason +why all cultivation should be directed +to give positiveness, coloring, shaping, +to all kinds of good—Good only being +eternal truth."</p> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 180]</span> +In reply, the philosopher thus comments +in his diary: "Evil has no positive +existence, I agree with Miss Peabody, +but it has usurped a positive place +and being in the popular imagination, +and by the imagination must it be made +to flee away into its negative life. How +shall this be done? By shadowing forth +in vivid colors the absolute beauty and +phenomena of good, by assuming evil +not as positive, but as negative."</p> + +<p class="indent">"I shall always love you for loving +Alcott," writes Emerson to his schoolmate +and lifelong friend, the Reverend +W. H. Furness. "He is a great man, +the god with the herdsman of Admetus. +His conversation is sublime; yet when +I see how he is underestimated by cultivated +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 181]</span> +people, I fancy none but I have +heard him talk."</p> + +<p class="indent">In the midst of slander and petty persecutions, +Alcott writes in his diary for +April, 1837:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="indent">I have been striving to apprehend the +real in the seeming, to strip ideas of their +adventitious phrases and behold them in +their order and powers. I have sought to +penetrate the showy terrestrial to find the +heavenly things. I have tried to translate +into ideas the language and images of spirit, +and thus to read God in his works. The +outward I have seen as the visage and type +of the inward. Ever doth this same nature +double its design and stand forth—now +before the inner, now before the outer sense +of man, at once substance and form, image +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 182]</span> +and idea, so that God shall never slip wholly +from the consciousness of the soul.</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">Emerson, weary of seeing his friend +misunderstood, urges him to give up +teaching and become an author, picturing +as his golden view for Alcott that +one day he will leave the impracticable +world to wag its own way, sit apart, and +write his oracles for its behoof.</p> + +<p class="indent">"Write! let them hear or let them +forbear," he thunders. "The written +word abides until, slowly and unexpectedly, +and in widely sundered places, +it has created its own church."</p> + +<p class="indent">The unreality of evil, as taught and +believed by Alcott nearly a century ago, +laughed and scoffed at then, was twenty-five +years later practically the foundation +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 183]</span> +of a belief which gained its first +foothold in New England, and, with +headquarters in Boston, has spread, until +to-day its followers and churches circle +the civilized globe—a new-old religion, +based on the literal acceptance of the +teachings of Christ. What to-day is +called metaphysical teaching was in the +Alcott period scoffed at as Transcendentalism.</p> + +<p class="indent">Mr. Alcott's strict adherence to a +vegetarian diet was also the topic of +ridicule from public and press, although +the Alcott children seemed to thrive on it, +and certainly, as four-year-old Louisa +once remarked, "Did pitty well for a +wegetable diet."</p> + +<p class="indent">Louisa, in her journal, gives this sample +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 184]</span> +of the vegetarian wafers they had at +Fruitlands:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<table style="width:90%;" border="0" summary="vegetarian wafers"> +<tr > +<td style="width: 20%"> +Vegetable<br /> +diet and<br /> +sweet repose<br /> +Animal food<br /> +and nightmare. +</td> +<td style="width: 20%;"> +Pluck your<br /> +body from<br /> +the orchard;<br /> +do not snatch<br /> +it from the<br /> +shamble. +</td> +<td style="width: 20%;"> +Without flesh<br /> +<br /> +diet there<br /> +could be no<br /> +blood-shedding<br /> +war. +</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td style="width: 45%;"> +Appollo eats no<br /> +flesh and has no<br /> +beard; his voice is<br /> +melody itself. +</td> +<td style="width: 45%;"> +Snuff is no less snuff<br /> +though accepted<br /> +from a gold box. +</td> +</tr> +</table> +</div> + +<p class="indent">Bronson Alcott constantly sought self-improvement, +and the shortcomings of +his early education were more than offset +by his untiring study. Realizing at one +time his lack of a vocabulary, he comments +in his journal, that to rectify this +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 185]</span> +he has just bought two books, "A Symposium +of Melancholy," and "Hunter +on the Blood."</p> + +<p class="indent">In their memoirs of Bronson Alcott, +F. B. Sanborn and W. T. Harris have +thus summed up his character: "He was +the most filial son, the most faithful +lover, the most attached friend, the +most generous philanthropist of his time. +And when he died, he left fewer enemies +than any man of equal age can have +provoked or encountered in so long a +career."</p> + +<p class="indent">In his study of childhood, Mr. Alcott +sought first to reach the mind, recognizing +that as "the God within us." He +encouraged individuality in his children, +trying in their earliest years to make +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 186]</span> +them think for themselves. All through +his teaching runs the boy's friendship +with God, and his sense of oneness with +his Maker was a part of the divine heritage +he passed on to his daughters.</p> + +<p class="indent">He records in his diary a conversation +with Anna, who was four, and Louisa, +who was two, after reading to them the +story of Jesus, which he made so vital +that, given their choice, they asked for +it in preference to a fairy tale. Anna +remarked that Jesus did not really die. +"They killed his body, but not his soul." +Her father asked: "What is the soul, +Anna?" The little four-year-old replied: +"It's this inside of me that +makes me feel and think and love." +"And," said the father, "what became of +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 187]</span> +Jesus' soul?" Anna replied: "It went +back to God." Whereat little two-year-old +Louisa asked: "Why, isn't Dod +inside of me?"</p> + +<p class="indent">A note in the father's diary at the +birth of Elizabeth records "Anna's first +interview with her sister" (Elizabeth a +few hours old), and a day later comes +this record: "Anna and Louisa interview +their sister." Louisa, two years +old, wishes to have the baby sister put +in her arms, when four-year-old Anna +says warningly: "Treat her very carefully, +Louisa, she comes from God." +What a beautiful thought to give a child +of the divine mystery of birth!</p> + +<p class="indent">Instead of asserting what he intended +to make of his children, Alcott encouraged +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 188]</span> +the child to make itself, beginning +when it was a small baby, treating it as +an individual, giving it opportunity to +use its mentality, instilling principles of +right and wrong by suggestion. Alcott +never commanded. "You don't wish +to do that," was his way, not exacting +blind obedience, but expressing his conviction +that the child wished to do right.</p> + +<p class="indent">To him, God was love. He had no +fear of God, for perfect love had cast out +fear. This same spirit was manifested +in all his children. To them the change +called Death was not to be dreaded; +it was a stepping forward and upward.</p> + +<p class="indent">This thought that death is not the +end, but the beginning, is expressed in +one of Louisa's most beautiful poems:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 189]</span></p> +<h3><span class="smcap">Thoreau's Flute</span></h3> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 8em;">We sighing said, "Our Pan is dead;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">His pipe hangs mute beside the river.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Around it wistful sunbeams quiver,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">And Music's airy voice is fled.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Spring mourns as for untimely frost;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">The bluebird chants a requiem;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">The willow-blossom waits for him;—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">The Genius of the wood is lost."</span></p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 8em;">Then from the flute, untouched by hands,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">There came a low, harmonious breath;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">"For such as he there is no death—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">His life the eternal life commands;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Above man's aims his nature rose,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">The wisdom of a just content</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Made one small spot a continent</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">And tuned to poetry life's prose.</span></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum">[Pg 190]</span><span style="margin-left: 8em;">"Haunting the hills, the stream, the wild,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">Swallow and aster, lake and pine,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">To him grew human or divine,—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Fit mates for this large-hearted child.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">Such homage Nature ne'er forgets,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">And yearly on the coverlid</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">'Neath which her darling lieth hid</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">Will write his name in violets.</span></p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 8em;">"To him no vain regrets belong,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">Whose soul, that finer instrument,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Gave to the world no poor lament,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">But wood-notes ever sweet and strong.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">O lonely friend! he still will be</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">A potent presence, though unseen;—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Steadfast, sagacious and serene;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">Seek not for him—he is with thee."</span> +</p> +</div> + +<p class="indent">A visit to Sleepy Hollow suggests life, +not death. Giant trees stretch their +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 191]</span> +branches over marble and granite monuments, +as if in benediction. "There is +no death, for God is life," they seem to +say. For them there is no death. Emerson +lives to-day, the great philosopher; +so do Thoreau, Hawthorne, Bronson +Alcott, and others of that mighty company. +And who shall say that Louisa +Alcott is dead? She lives in the hearts +of thousands, and will go on living +through the love they bear her.</p> + +<p class="indent">Bronson Alcott was a true disciple of +Jesus Christ. He lived the example +set by his Master not alone in words +and thoughts, but in deeds. He lived +through and beyond misunderstanding, +ridicule, poverty, to see his teachings +respected, his name honored, to see the +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 192]</span> +first glimmer of the new light which was +beginning to break over the world, the +sunrise at his own sunset.</p> + +<p class="indent">This thought is embodied in the last +poem Louisa Alcott ever wrote:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="center"> +To my Father.<br /> +On his Eighty-Sixth Birthday.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Dear Pilgrim, waiting patiently,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">The long, long journey nearly done,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Beside the sacred stream that flows</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">Clear shining in the western sun;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Look backward on the varied road</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">Your steadfast feet have trod,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">From youth to age, through weal and woe,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">Climbing forever nearer God.</span></p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 8em;">Mountain and valley lie behind;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">The slough is crossed, the wicket passed;</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 193]</span> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Doubt and despair, sorrow and sin,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">Giant and fiend, conquered at last.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Neglect is changed to honor now,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">The heavy cross may be laid down;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">The white head wins and wears at length</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">The prophet's, not the martyr's crown.</span></p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 8em;">Greatheart and Faithful gone before,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;"> +Brave Christiana, Mercy sweet,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Are shining ones who stand and wait</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">The weary wanderer to greet.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Patience and Love his handmaids are,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">And till time brings release,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Christian may rest in that bright room</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">Whose windows open to the east.</span></p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 8em;">The staff set by, the sandals off,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">Still pondering the precious scroll,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Serene and strong he waits the call</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 194]</span> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">That frees and wings a happy soul.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Then beautiful as when it lured,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">The boy's aspiring eyes,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Before the pilgrim's longing sight,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">Shall the Celestial City rise.</span></p> +</div> + +<hr class="hr2"/> + +<p class="indent"><span class="pagenum">[Pg 195]</span></p> + +<h2><a name="CHRONOLOGY" id="CHRONOLOGY"></a>CHRONOLOGY</h2> + +<p class="indent">It has been particularly the aim of the +editors to lift these Little Women Letters +out of the biographical and into the narrative +class. For this reason dates have not been +used with any degree of liberality, and +chronological facts have been minimized.</p> + +<p class="indent">However, as this is a story of the Alcott +family, and seekers for definite data will not +be lacking, a chronological summary is +herewith furnished:</p> + +<p class="center"> +Amos Bronson Alcott . . . . 1799-1888<br /> +married<br /> +Abby May . . . . . . . . . .1800-1877<br /> +<br /> +Their Children<br /> +Anna Bronson . . . . . . . .1831-1893<br /> +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 196]</span>Louisa May . . . . . . . 1832-1888<br /> +Elizabeth . . . . . . . . . 1835-1858<br /> +Abby May . . . . . . . . . .1840-1879</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="center">Anna Bronson married John Bridge Pratt, 1860.<br /> +<br /> +Their Children<br /> +Frederick Alcott . . . . . .1863-1910<br /> +John Sewall . . . . . . . . 1865</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="center">Abby May married Ernst Nieriker, March,<br /> +1878.<br /> +<br /> +Children<br /> +Louisa May . . . . . . 1879</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="center">Frederick Alcott Pratt<br /> +married<br /> +Jessica Cate<br /> +February, 1888<br /> +<br /> +Their Children<br /> +Bronson Alcott . . . . 1889<br /> +<span class="pagenum">[Pg 197]</span> +Elizabeth Sewall . . . 1891<br /> +Louisa May . . . . . . 1900<br /> +Frederick Woolsey . . . 1902</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="center">Elizabeth Sewall married Alfred Redfield<br /> +June, 1913</p> + +<p class="center"><a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a>John Sewall Pratt<br /> +married<br /> +Eunie May Hunting<br /> +January, 1909<br /> +<br /> +Children<br /> +Elverton Hunting</p> + +<div class="footnotes"> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"> +</a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> John Sewall Pratt adopted in 1888 by Louisa May Alcott +and name changed to John Sewall Pratt Alcott.</p> +</div></div> + +<hr /> + +<p class="center">Louisa May Nieriker . . . 1878<br /> +married<br /> +Ernst Rasim<br /> +<br /> +Children<br /> +Ernestine<br /> +</p> + +<hr class="hr2"/> + +<div class="tnote"> +<h3>Transcriber's Notes:</h3> + +<hr /> + +<p class="indent">Spelling errors, grammatical errors, and typographical errors within +letters were not corrected, in order to preserve the flavor of the +historical record of those letters. After all, some of these letters +were written by girls as young as five.</p> + +<p class="indent">Some of the illustrations have been moved so that they do not break up +paragraphs, thus the page number of the illustration might not match the +page number in the List of Illustrations.</p> + +<p class="indent">On page 58, "reëstablished" was replaced with "reestablished".</p> + +<p class="indent">On page 173, has a quotation mark at the beginning of "If I do not +mistake" but no closing quotation mark, and it is less than clear where +the closing quotation mark should be.</p> + +<p class="indent"> In the Chronology, horizontal rules were added to give clarity to the tables.</p> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Little Women Letters from the House of +Alcott, by Louisa M. 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Alcott, et al. + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Little Women Letters from the House of Alcott + +Author: Louisa M. Alcott, et al. + +Release Date: October 20, 2010 [EBook #34106] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE WOMEN LETTERS *** + + + + +Produced by David Edwards, Ernest Schaal, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + + LITTLE WOMEN LETTERS + FROM THE + HOUSE OF ALCOTT + + + + + [Illustration: _Frontispiece._ + ORCHARD HOUSE, THE ALCOTT HOMESTEAD.] + + + + + LITTLE WOMEN + LETTERS + FROM THE + HOUSE OF ALCOTT + + + SELECTED BY + JESSIE BONSTELLE + AND + MARIAN DEFOREST + + + [Illustration] + + + BOSTON + LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY + 1914 + + + + + _Copyright, 1914_, + BY JOHN S. P. ALCOTT. + + + _All rights reserved_ + + + Published, September, 1914 + + + Set up and electrotyped by J. S. Cushing Co., Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. + Presswork by S. J. Parkhill & Co., Boston, Mass., U.S.A. + + + + + FOREWORD + +NEXT to the joy of giving to the Alcott-loving public "Little Women" as +a play, is the privilege and pleasure of offering this book of letters, +revealing the childhood and home life of the beloved Little Women. + +May they bring help and happiness to many mothers and inspiration and +love to many children. + + + + + CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I. THE "REALLY, TRULY" TRUE 1 + + II. THE ALCOTT BOY; THE ALCOTT MAN 10 + + III. THE ALCOTT CHILDREN 28 + + IV. THE ALCOTT BABY BOOK 39 + + V. LETTERS AND CONVERSATIONS WITH CHILDREN 59 + + VI. THE MOTHER'S INFLUENCE 98 + + VII. CHILDREN'S DIARIES 122 + + VIII. GIRLHOOD AND WOMANHOOD 140 + + IX. FRIENDSHIPS AND BELIEFS 162 + + CHRONOLOGY 195 + + + + + LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + Orchard House, the Alcott Homestead _Frontispiece_ + + PAGE + + A. Bronson Alcott at the age of 53, from + the portrait by Mrs. Hildreth 54 + + Facsimile of Mr. Alcott's Letter to + Louisa, Nov. 29, 1839 82 + + Facsimile of Mr. Alcott's Letter to Louisa, June 21, 1840 86 + + Facsimile of Mr. Alcott's Letter to Elizabeth, 1840 92 + + Abigail May, Mrs. A. Bronson Alcott, from a + Daguerreotype 106 + + Anna Bronson Alcott, from a Daguerreotype 122 + + Abba May Alcott, from a Photograph 142 + + Louisa May Alcott, from a Daguerreotype 160 + + + + + LITTLE WOMEN + LETTERS FROM THE HOUSE + OF ALCOTT + + + CHAPTER I + + THE "REALLY, TRULY" TRUE + + +WHEN "Little Women," the play, reopened to many readers the pages of +"Little Women," the book, that delightful chronicle of family life, +dramatist and producer learned from many unconscious sources the depth +of Louisa M. Alcott's human appeal. Standing one night at the back of +the theater as the audience was dispersing, they listened to its +comments on the play. + +"A wonderful picture of home life, only we don't have such homes," said +a big, prosperous-looking man to his wife, with a touch of regret in his +voice. + +"Yes," agreed his young daughter, a tall, slender, graceful girl, as she +snuggled down cosily into her fur coat and tucked a bunch of violets +away from the touch of the frosty night, "it is beautiful; but, daddy, +it isn't real. There never was such a family." + +But it is real; there was such a family, and in letters, journals, and +illustration this little book gives the history of the four Little +Women, the Alcott girls, whom Louisa immortalized in her greatest story: +Anna, who is Meg in "Little Women"; Louisa, the irrepressible and +ambitious Jo; Elizabeth, the little Beth of the book; and Abba May, the +graceful and statuesque Amy. + +Rare influences were at work in this ideal American home, where the +intellectual and brilliant father was gifted in all ways except those +that led to material success, and the wise and gentle mother combined +with her loyalty and devotion to her husband a stanch, practical common +sense, which more than once served to guide the frail Alcott bark +through troubled seas. + +Following her remarkable success as a writer of short stories, Louisa M. +Alcott was asked for a book. She said at first it was impossible, but +repeated requests from her publishers brought from her the announcement +that the only long story she could write would be about her own family. +"Little Women" resulted, and, in erecting this House of Delight for +young and old, Louisa Alcott builded better than she knew. Her Jo has +been the inspiration of countless girls, and the many-sidedness of her +character is indicated by the widely diverging lines of endeavor which +Jo's example has suggested to the girl readers of the story. + +In the case of the two editors, both from early childhood found their +inspiration in Jo. One, patterning after her idol, sought success in a +stage career, beginning to "act" before a mirror, with a kitchen apron +for a train and a buttonhook for a dagger. The other, always with a +pencil in hand, first copied Jo by writing "lurid tales" for the weekly +sensation papers, and later emerged into Newspaper Row. + +It was more than a year after the success of "Little Women" as a play +had become a part of theatrical history that they visited the scenes +hallowed by the memories of the Little Women. They wished to see Concord +together, so they made a Sentimental Journey to the House of Alcott. + +The sun was shining, and the air was crisp--just such a day as Miss +Alcott described in the Plumfield harvest home, the last chapter in +"Little Women." They spent hours in Orchard House, touching reverently +the small personal effects of Louisa M. Alcott, seeing the shelf +between the windows in that little upper room, where she wrote and +dreamed. They even climbed to the garret and wondered which window was +her favorite scribbling seat, with a tin kitchen for her manuscripts, a +pile of apples for her refreshment, and Scrabble, the bewhiskered rat, +for her playfellow. + +Through the woods back of Orchard House they followed the winding +pathway to the Hall of Philosophy, half hidden among the trees, where +Bronson Alcott had his Conversations, where Emerson and Thoreau were +often heard, and the most intellectual debates of the century took +place. + +At sunset they visited Sleepy Hollow, the resting place of the Alcotts, +with Emerson, Thoreau, and Hawthorne close by--a goodly company, +neighbors still as they were for so many years when they made Concord +America's literary shrine. + +Evening came, and the two pilgrims read together the Alcott journals and +letters. The ink was faded, the quaint, old-fashioned writing was hard +to decipher, but, beginning with a letter to Louisa written by Bronson +Alcott when his daughter was seven years old, they read on until the +dawn. + +Only one result could be expected from such an experience. They asked +permission to publish the letters and such portions of the journals as +would most completely reveal the rare spiritual companionship existing +between the Alcott parents and children. And, asking, they were refused, +because of a feeling that the letters and journals were intimate family +records, to be read, not by the many, but by the few. This same +sentiment withheld the dramatization of "Little Women" for many years. + +"You forget," they argued, holding fast to the dimly written pages, +"that Bronson Alcott and Louisa Alcott are a part of America's literary +heritage. They belong to the nation, to the world, not alone to you." + +This course of reasoning finally prevailed, but not without many months +of waiting. And thus, with the consent of the Alcott heirs, the book of +"Little Women Letters from the House of Alcott" came to be. + + + + + CHAPTER II + + I + + THE ALCOTT BOY + + +ONCE upon a time in the little town of Wolcott, Connecticut, was born a +boy destined to offer to the world new and beautiful thoughts. He was +laughed at and misunderstood; but the thoughts were truth, and they have +lived, although the boy grew weary and old and passed on. + +The boy was Amos Bronson Alcott. He was a country lad, used from infancy +to the rugged life of the farm, with its self-denial and makeshifts. The +seeming disadvantage, however, proved quite the opposite. His close +communion with Nature brought him nearer to the truths of life. For him +God ceased to be a mythical object to be studied and read about on +Sunday; but, as he roamed the fields and climbed the hills, the lad +found Him in the rocks and the woodlands, and in the sparkling streams. +He became a reality. The boy and God were friends. + +Of schooling he had little. When work at the farm permitted, he attended +the country school near his father's house. "Our copies," he told his +little daughters, "were set by the schoolmaster in books made of a few +sheets of foolscap, stitched together and ruled with a leather plummet. +We used ink made of maple and oak bark, which we manufactured ourselves. +With this I began keeping a diary of my doings." + +This was when the boy was twelve. His hours at school were few, but as +he went about his daily tasks on the farm, his thoughts grew and grew +until his mental stature far exceeded his physical. He read as he guided +the plow along the furrow, sometimes unmindful of his work until a +sudden punch from a neglected handle, as the plow struck a stone, would +bring him back to earth with a thump. He sowed seeds in the moist, sweet +earth, but his face was turned to the skies, and he knew the clouds and +the stars. When he gathered firewood, his eyes were keen for the soft, +dainty mosses, the clinging lichens. As he picked berries for the home +table, he never missed the whirr of a bird wing or passed unnoticed the +modest flowers half hidden in the soil. Nature was his library, and she +spread out her choicest treasures to this growing boy. + +A love for all of God's creations characterized him. He was fond, not +only of the growing things in the wood, but of all life. His love for +animals amounted almost to a passion, one reason for his being a strict +vegetarian and insisting upon bringing up his little family on a +vegetable diet. But in boyhood it was not always clear whether humanity +or the craving for knowledge made him so considerate of the plodding +team in the field. Never was team more carefully tended. Many were its +hours of grazing, when the noonday sun rode high in the heavens, and the +Alcott boy, book in hand, curled up under the shade of a gigantic elm +and read until the shadows began to lengthen. But these lapses were only +occasional, for the lad was faithful to his tasks, except when he +yielded to the lure of the printed page. + +When scarcely more than a child he began to keep a record of his books +and his reading, showing the first traces of the reflective, +introspective quality of mind which later led him to set down in letters +and unpublished manuscripts his inmost thoughts. He cultivated the same +habits of thought in his children, one reason, doubtless, for Louisa's +accurate and realistic descriptions of the lives of the four Little +Women of the Alcott family. + +His favorite books in boyhood, and, for that matter, in manhood, were +the Bible and Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," which he read and reread +and commented upon. Years later he mentions in his journal that he made +it a practice to read "Pilgrim's Progress" every year, which is a +remarkable record to the modern boy and girl who find it difficult to +struggle through that wonderful allegory even once. + +Bronson Alcott took his chance and made a stepping-stone of every +difficulty. Each obstacle he encountered in getting an education created +in him an even stronger determination to gain one. The modern boy has +the world of books opened wide to him through the library and the free +school. The treasures of art are spread out before him in the museums. +He is surrounded by helps. The boy of to-day is studied as an entity. +The boy of the last century could tell quite a different story. + +So the Alcott boy, passing long hours in the woods, reading, thinking, +getting close to Nature and to God, walked as one apart, seeing the +invisible. While still a boy, he began casting off the garment of a +conventional creed and to think for himself of God, the creation, of +life, unconsciously putting from him the trammeling, cumbersome +conventions with which man has often hidden truth. + +Out of this the man Alcott emerged--a great soul. + + + II + + THE ALCOTT MAN + + +With Bronson Alcott the craving for knowledge was scarcely stronger than +the craving for adventure, so it is not surprising that in the first +flush of young manhood he did not settle down to life on the farm. He +longed for the great world lying beyond the hills and valleys of +peaceful New England. He wanted experience, and experience he had. + +He went South, hoping to teach school, as he had original ideas on the +training of children. Unsuccessful in this, he decided to be a peddler, +naively remarking that "honesty of purpose could dignify any +profession." + +Think of the courage of this boy, for he was scarcely more than a boy, a +philosopher at heart, living in a world of dreams and books, his +ambitions all for intellectual rather than material achievement, +tramping the southern countryside, undauntedly peddling buttons, +elastic, pins and needles, and supplying all the small wants of the +country housewife! Often he encountered rebuffs, sometimes he had a +hearty welcome, for the visit of the country peddler was eagerly awaited +by the children. At times, when night came and he was far from the +shelter of an inn, he had to beg a lodging from some planter. On one +such occasion, as he entered the grounds, he saw a huge sign, "Beware +the dog." A shout from the house also warned him, and he saw dashing +toward him a savage-looking dog, powerful enough to have torn to pieces +the slender young peddler-student. But his love for animals triumphed. +Alcott stretched out his hand. The huge creature stopped short; then, +recognizing a friend and a fearless one, he bounded on, tail wagging, +barking joyously, snuggling his nose into the young man's palm, which he +licked as he escorted his new-found friend to the house. Animals always +recognized in Alcott an understanding comrade. + +From most of these trips Alcott brought back money to add to the scanty +funds at home, but on one memorable occasion the love of finery proved +stronger than the necessity for saving, and he returned to the farm +penniless, but dressed in the latest fashion, having used his savings +for a wardrobe that was the wonder of the countryside. That one debauch +of clothes satisfied him for life; after that his tastes were markedly +simple. With him the "dandy period" was short-lived indeed. That he +repented bitterly of this one excess of folly is shown in his journals, +where he sets down minutely what to him was a mistake that amounted +almost to a sin. As a rule, he was singularly free from folly. His +thoughts were too high, his ideals too lofty, for him to be long +concerned with trifles such as clothes, and the next expenditure +mentioned in his journal is for the "Vicar of Wakefield" and Johnson's +"Rasselas." Ever impractical, one likes him the better for the little +human moment when the vanities of the world overcame him. + +At last he secured a school, and then began the realization of his +ideals regarding the teaching of children. His methods were original and +highly successful, especially with the very young. He established a +mental kindergarten, and the fame of his teaching spread abroad. Through +his work as a teacher he achieved his greatest happiness, for it led to +his meeting with the woman who was destined to become his wife. + +As the result of correspondence between himself and Mr. May of +Brooklyn, Connecticut, whose attention had been attracted to the work +of the young teacher, Alcott, then twenty-eight years old, drove from +the Wolcott home to Brooklyn, where he met Abigail May of Boston, who +was visiting her brother. With both it was love at first sight, a love +that grew into a perfect spiritual union. + +It seemed almost providential that Bronson Alcott should have come into +Abigail May's life at just this time, when her heart had been touched by +its first great sorrow--the loss of her mother. Hitherto she had been a +light-hearted girl, fond of dancing and of the material side of life. +The young philosopher, with his dreams and his ideals, brought a new +interest into her now lonely life, and all that was spiritual in her +nature responded as he freely discussed his plans and ambitions with +her. In her he found both sympathy and understanding. + +A year of letter-writing, a frank and honest exchange of thought, +brought out the harmony of their natures and developed in both a sense +of oneness, laying a firm foundation for the comradeship which was not +broken through all the years, even when the wife and mother passed into +the Great Beyond. + +The Alcott-May courtship was ideal. Retaining the heaven that lay about +him in his infancy, keeping his close companionship with God and God's +great laboratory, Nature, Bronson Alcott demanded something more than +mere physical attraction in choosing his wife. A certain quaint +circumspection characterized their love-making. Abigail May once wrote: +"Mr. Alcott's views on education were very attractive, and I was charmed +by his modesty," and long after their engagement she spoke of her lover +as "her friend." He was, and so he continued to be in the highest sense +of the word. + +So satisfying were those friendship-courtship days, that apparently both +were loath to end them, for another twelvemonth passed before the +announcement of their betrothal, and it was nearly three years from the +date of their first meeting before their marriage in King's Chapel, +Boston, where the brother who had been the means of bringing them +together performed the ceremony. + +As their marriage day approached, there was little festivity and none of +the rush that usually precedes a modern wedding. Everything was simple, +quiet, and sure. + +This is Bronson Alcott's letter, asking a friend to act as best man at +his wedding. + + Dear Sir: + + Permit me to ask the favor of your calling at Col. May's at 4 + o'clock precisely on Sunday afternoon next, to accompany me and + my friend Miss May to King's Chapel. + + With esteem, + A. B. Alcott + + Thursday, May 20, + 112 Franklin St. 1830. + +So began the Alcott pilgrimage, their fortune consisting of love and +faith and brains. In these they were rich indeed, and thus closed +another chapter in the life of the gentle philosopher, of whom Ralph +Waldo Emerson once said: "Our Alcott has only just missed being a +seraph." + + + + + CHAPTER III + + THE ALCOTT CHILDREN + + +FOR some months after their marriage the Alcotts lived in Boston, where +the young enthusiast taught a school for infants. Again his fame as a +teacher traveled, and he received an offer from the Quakers of +Philadelphia to start a school there, an offer so tempting that the +Alcotts moved to Germantown, Pennsylvania, where Anna and Louisa were +born. + +Eugenics and prenatal influence were not discussed then as they are +to-day, but in the Alcott family nearly a century ago they were being +thought and lived. Bronson Alcott and his wife considered children an +expression, not of themselves, but of divinity, and as such to be +accepted as a trust, rather than as a gratification of their own human +longing for fatherhood and motherhood. They felt it their parental +privilege rather than their duty to aid the human development of the +child and thus further the fulfillment of its destiny. Each little soul +was humbly asked for and reverently prepared for. From the moment they +knew their prayer had been granted, the individuality and rights of that +soul were respected. It was considered as a little guest that must be +made happy and comfortable, carefully cherished, mentally and +physically, while its fleshly garment was being prepared and the little +personality made ready for its earthly appearance. How careful they were +of every thought and influence, for to both parents this period was the +most sacred and wonderful in their lives and in the lives of their +children. + +The depth of his joy and the simplicity of his faith are exquisitely +expressed in the lines which Bronson Alcott wrote before the birth of +his first child, Anna: + + TO AN EXPECTANT MOTHER + + The long advancing hour draws nigh--the hour + When life's young pulse begins its mystic play, + And deep affection's dreams of Form or Joy + Shall be unveiled, a bodily presence + To thy yearning heart and fond maternal eye, + The primal Soul, a semblance of thine own, + Its high abode shall leave and dwell in day, + Thyself its forming Parent. A miracle, indeed, + Shall nature work. Thou shalt become + The bearing mother of an Infant Soul-- + Its guardian spirit to its home above. + But yet erewhile the lagging moments come + That layeth the living, conscious, burden down, + Firm faith may rest in hope. Accordant toils + Shall leave no time for fear, nor doubt, nor gloom. + Love, peace, and virtue, are all born of Pain, + And He who rules o'er these is ever good. + The joyous promise is to her who trusts, + Who trusting, gains the vital boon she asks, + And meekly asking, learns to trust aright. + +Louisa, the second child, born on her father's birthday, was the most +intellectual and the most resourceful of the Alcott children, reflecting +in her own buoyant personality the happy conditions existing before and +at the time of her birth, when her father had attained his greatest +material prosperity and was also realizing his mental ambitions in his +little school, and her mother was temporarily relieved from the cares +that so often weighed heavily upon her. + +Shortly before the birth of Elizabeth the father makes this entry in his +journal: + + THE ADVENT COMETH + + Daily am I in expectation of beholding with the eye of sense, + the spirit that now lingers on the threshold of this terrestrial + life, and only awaits the bidding of the Reaper within, to usher + itself into the presence of mortals. It standeth at the door and + waiteth for admission to the exterior scene of things.... Let + the time come. Two little ones in advance await its coming; and + greetings of joy shall herald its approach. + +The birth of Elizabeth is followed by this entry in his journal: + + At sunset this day a daughter was born to us. + +One of the most trying of the Alcott family's experiences came after the +birth of Elizabeth, when Bronson Alcott, again in Boston, aroused a +storm of protest with his radical teachings and his advanced +interpretations of the Bible. Shocked that the city where he expected to +find sympathy and encouragement should have repudiated him, his school +disrupted and abject poverty his lot, broken mentally and physically, he +met with another cruel disappointment in the death of his infant son. +Yet even then there was no word of bitterness, and no mention is made in +his journal of the father's grief. Indirectly it is expressed in a +subsequent entry announcing the birth of the fourth daughter, Abba May. + +She was born under sunny skies. The storm had passed, and the Alcott +family had removed to Concord, where they enjoyed many of their happiest +years. A presage of May Alcott's artistic gifts, her queenly bearing, +elegance, and charm, all familiar to readers of "Little Women," is found +in this entry in the father's journal: + + July, 1840. + + A new life has arrived to us (July 26th). She was born with the + dawn, and is a proud little Queen, not deigning to give us the + light of her royal presence, but persists in sleeping all the + time, without notice of the broad world or ourselves. + Providence, it seems, decrees that we shall provide selectest + ministries alone, and so sends us successive daughters of Love + to quicken the Sons of Life. We joyfully acquiesce in the Divine + behest and are content to rear women for the future world. As + yet the ministry is unknown in the culture of the nations, but + the hour draws near when love shall be felt as a chosen Bride of + Wisdom, and the celestial pair preside over all the household of + mankind. + +Bronson Alcott did not feel his responsibility as a father alone; he +appreciated his own debt to his children, the mental and spiritual help +that came to him through them, an appreciation that found expression in +this poem, entered in his journal before the birth of Elizabeth: + + June, 1835 + + INVOCATION TO A CHILD + + She comes from Heaven, she dawns upon my sight, + O'er earth's dark scenes to pour her holy light! + In sense and blest the Infinite to see + And feel the heavenly mystery--_To Be._ + + She comes--in Nature's tenderest, fondest name-- + Daughter of God--'tis she--the same--the same + Mine is she too--my own--my latest child, + Myself, wrapt in Divinity, yet unbeguiled! + + Blest Infant! God's and mine! yet to me given, + That I might feel anew my Being's Heaven-- + In love and faith to urge my human way, + Till conscious time be lost in Immortality! + + Love thee I will; for thou didst first love me-- + My faith shall quicken as I dwell on thee, + Thy Spirit lift me from this "Grave of Things," + And bear me homeward, to the King of Kings. + + + + + CHAPTER IV + + THE ALCOTT BABY BOOK + + +BRONSON ALCOTT wrote the first Baby Book, a book which throws new light +on the character of the lovable philosopher, showing one of New +England's intellectual leaders as a very human and lovable man as well +as "a fond and foolish father." + +His Baby Book, however, contains no minute record of the first tooth, or +when the baby began to say "Goo" and "Pitty light"; rather it is the +father's earnest effort to learn how early in life the infant mind +begins to awaken, to indicate comprehension, thought, or logic. As +Maeterlinck studied the bee, so Alcott studied his children, and his +findings are a revelation, even to-day, when the study of the child has +become a science. + +Mr. Alcott considered vital the development of the child's individuality +and mind; the body seemed to him of secondary importance, for this +disregard of the material care of his family he has been severely +censured; but, not recognizing in his own life the claims of the body, +devoting all his energies to mental growth, it is not surprising that he +found his fatherly duty in the guidance of his children's minds. His +firm faith in the admonition, "Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven, and +all these things shall be added unto you," was to him excuse enough for +considering the intellect more than the body. + +His practical shortcomings reaped a rich and unexpected reward in the +next generation, for Louisa M. Alcott would probably not have developed +her original and highly entertaining literary gift without the +vicissitudes caused by her father's impractical nature and his sublime +faith that at all times and in all emergencies the Lord would provide. +He did provide; but Louisa was usually the channel, and many of her +stories were written under the whip of stern necessity. + +Doing without has its advantages. The Alcott children, never overfed, +overentertained, overburdened to baby boredom with dolls and toys and +games, developed appreciation, observation, and ingenuity. The creative +faculty was aroused. They found resources within themselves. What a +handbook Louisa might have written on How to be Happy though Poor! + +Mrs. Alcott's keen sense of humor, a characteristic inherited by Louisa, +often came to her rescue and allowed her to get fun out of a harassing +situation. In a letter to her brother, Colonel May, praising her +husband's intellect, she laughingly comments upon his disregard of +physical necessities: "I am not sure that we shall not blush into +obscurity and contemplate into starvation." + +But, to get back to the baby book, or, as Mr. Alcott called it, "the +psychological history," it was started with a high and unselfish motive; +it was developed to an astonishing degree. Its purpose and scope are +best expressed in this extract from Mr. Alcott's journal: + + The history of a human mind during its progressive stages of + earthly experience has never as yet, I believe, been attempted. + Faithfully compiled, from verified data, it would be a treasure + of wisdom to all mankind, replete with light to the + metaphysical and ethical inquirer. Comparative philosophy + deduced from an observation of man during all circumstances and + stages of his existence is a thing yet unthought of among us. + From such a work the unity of Humanity might be revealed. + +When Anna was born, the father began keeping a record of her "physical +and intellectual progress." When she was seven weeks old, her mother +wrote: "It seems as if she were conscious of his observations and +desirous of furnishing him daily with an item for this record." + +The following excerpt from the father's diary shows how well Anna +succeeded in her baby attempt: + + I am much interested in the progress of my little girl, now + five months old, which I have recorded from the day of her + birth. This record has swollen to a hundred pages. I have + attempted to discover, as far as this could be done by external + indication, the successive steps of her physical, mental and + moral advancement. + +Moral advancement of a baby five months old! + + + BIRTH OF LOUISA + +On November 29, 1832, his thirty-third birthday and also the natal day +of his friend, Ellery Channing, the poet, Mr. Alcott chronicles an +"interesting event," how interesting the father little dreamed, nor how +important, not alone to the house of Alcott, but to the world. Under the +heading of Circumstances, the father thus records the birth of Louisa +May Alcott: + + A daughter born, on the 29th. ulto., my birthday, being 33 + years of age. This is a most interesting event. Unless those + ties which connect it with others are formed, the wants of the + soul become morbid and all its fresh and primal affections + become dim and perverted.... Few can be happy shut out of the + nursery of the soul. + +While the New England philosopher was studying the development of his +little daughters and deducing therefrom facts for his psychological +history, these same little daughters were developing him, for, as the +child nature unfolded, the father's understanding of childhood expanded. + +Thus the baby book grew: + + The influence of children I regard as important to my own + improvement and happiness. It is also necessary to the + prosecution of my studies. Dwelling in the primal regions which + I wish to explore, they are the purest manifestations of its + phenomena, and the only subjects from which humanity is to be + interpreted in its purity. + +When Anna was three years old and Louisa eighteen months, the father +writes in his journal: + + I passed some time with the children, fitting up their + playthings, conversing with them and learning as far as I could + through the subtle meaning of looks, accents and gestures, + their thoughts and feelings. The avenues to the spirit are all + open, but how dim are our perceptions, how cold our sympathies, + to appreciate the pure and bright things which glitter in the + arena of the young mind! How little of this fairy land do we + know--we, whose early associations have all been swept from the + heart--over whose spirits have passed the cold winds, the + pelting storms, withering and destroying the heart's young + verdure! What is there to unite us with the spirit of a child? + What have we in common with its joyous yearning for the + beautiful, its trust in human sayings, its deep love for those + on whom it relies for attention and support, its vivid + picturing of ideal life, its simplicity, its freedom from + prejudice and false sentiment? Where are these to be seen in + our dim nature? + +He might have answered the question by looking within himself. Child +companionship kept alive the spirit of the Alcott boy, which constantly +shone through the man's philosophy. As the boy saw in every rock and +tree and flower an expression of the Infinite, is it any wonder that the +man should have recognized God's higher manifestation in the child, and +should have written in his journal these lines, which are the very +glorification of fatherhood and reveal the sacredness with which he +looked upon his stewardship? + + He who deals with the child deals--did he know it--with the + Infinite. Within the young spirit committed to his care are + infinite capacities to be filled, infinite energies to be + developed, and on him devolves the amazing responsibility--sacred, + personal, all his own--of filling these capacities, unfolding + these energies, from the stores and life of his own spirit. This + is his office as a parent. But how can he who knows nothing of the + Infinite within himself call it forth and direct its forces in + others? + +From the first, Louisa must have shown strong individuality and unusual +tendencies, for Mr. Alcott's notes on Louisa are entitled "Observations +on the Vital Phenomena of My Second Child." A more vital, lovable, +contradictory specimen of childhood cannot be imagined. Blessed with her +father's brilliancy of mind, her mother's quick wit and love of fun, +Louisa furnished a problem for endless study. She was less than two +years old when her individuality had so asserted itself that her father +found himself puzzled and admitted that elements were finding their +way into his observations of whose origin he could give no account. "My +analysis, however accurate and elaborate, was still imperfect, and I was +left in doubt. I had made no provision for the admission of innate +influences from the mind itself." + +Here is a quaint little record of the Alcott babies' school days, when +Anna was four years old and Louisa a little more than two: + + At school Anna reads, marks and listens to conversations and + stories. Louisa works with her in all except the reading and + marking. They have a playroom, where they enjoy their own + amusements, uninterrupted by the presence of adults--often a + bar to the genuine happiness of childhood. Anna reads simple + sentences from Leffanoch's Primer, writes intelligibly on + tablets and slates, and is improving in work and manners. + +(This of a baby of four.) + +A spiritual and moral inventory of the progress of Anna and Louisa is +set down by the father when his daughters had reached the dignified ages +of six and four: + + The children have improved under my training. Anna, who has + been with me more of the time than Louisa, has been greatly + benefited. She is happier, more capable of self control, more + docile and obeys from love and faith. She has fine elements for + excellence, moral and intellectual. If she does not evince a + pure and exalted character, it will be our failure, not hers, + in the improvement of her natural endowments. + + Louisa is yet too young for the formation of just views of her + character. She manifests uncommon activity and force of mind + at present, and is much in advance of her sister at the same + age; example has done much to call forth her nature. She is + more active and practical than Anna. Anna is ideal, sentimental. + Louisa is practical, energetic. The first imagines much more than + she can realize; the second, by force of will and practical talent, + realizes all that she conceives--but conceives less; understanding, + rather than imagination--the gift of her sister--seems to be her + prominent faculty. She finds no difficulty in developing ways and + means to obtain her purpose; while her sister, aiming at much, + imagining ideal forms of good, and shaping them out so vividly in + her mind that they become actual enjoyments, fails, when she + attempts to realize them in nature--she has been dwelling on the + higher and more speculative relations of things. + + Both represent interesting forms of character, both have wide + and useful spheres of action indicated in their conformation and + will doubtless if continued to us, be real blessings. + +That they did prove real blessings the history of the Alcott family has +shown. + + [Illustration: A. BRONSON ALCOTT AT THE AGE OF 53. + From the portrait by Mrs. Hildreth. + _Page_ 54.] + +How many fathers ever acknowledge their spiritual debt to the gift of +fatherhood as has Bronson Alcott: + + I know not how much more spiritual I am from the parental relation + (he writes), how much I have been indebted to them for the light + that hath dawned upon my own mind from the radiance of their + simple spirits. Certain it is that the more I associate with them + in the simple ways they love, the more do I seem to revere. Verily + had I not been called to associate with children, had I not devoted + myself to the study of human nature in its period of infancy and + childhood, I should never have found the tranquil repose, the steady + faith, the vivid hope that now sheds a glory and a dignity around + the humble path of my life. Childhood hath saved me. + +Out of his theories, his studies, and meditations came a sublime +ambition, a desire to become a laborer in the "Field of the Soul." + + Infancy I shall invest with a glory--a spirituality which the + disciples of Jesus, deeply as they entered into His spirit + and caught the life of His mind, have failed to bring forth in + their records of His sayings and life. I shall redeem infancy + and childhood, and, if a Saviour of Adults was given in the + person of Jesus, let me, without impiety or arrogance, regard + myself as the Children's Saviour. Divine are both missions. + Both seek out and endeavor to redeem the Infinite in man, + which, by reason of the clogs of sense and custom, is in + perpetual danger of being lost. The chief obstacle in the way + of human regeneration is the want of a due appreciation of + human nature, and particularly of the nature of children. + +Home and its influence upon children meant much to Mr. Alcott, and in +all his writing the nearest approach to a protest against the poverty +he was called upon to endure was when, for a time, he was obliged to +give up that home. Deep is the pathos that lies between the lines of +this entry in his journal: + + HOME FOR CHILDREN + + I deem it very important to the well being of my children to + insure them a home. At least their means of improvement are + limited, their pleasures are abridged, the domestic relations, so + vital to virtue--to all that lives in the heart and imagination, + are robbed of their essential glory, and the effect is felt + throughout the character in after life. I feel that my duty as a + father cannot be fully carried out when I am thus restricted. + Whether we can yet improve this condition remains to be + determined. + +The home was reestablished--and such a home! An influence felt +throughout the world, the inspiration of every book Louisa Alcott +wrote. + + + + + CHAPTER V + + LETTERS AND CONVERSATIONS WITH CHILDREN + + +HAPPINESS reigned in the Alcott home, and poverty seldom brought with it +a shadow. The girls had toys and a variety of them,--rag dolls, kittens, +gingerbread men, and barnyard animals (the latter skillfully cut out of +cake dough by the mother, who had a genius for inventing surprises). As +they grew older, they delighted in private theatricals. Some of their +plays, written by Anna and Louisa, have been published under the title +of "Comic Tragedies." They are thrillingly melodramatic, thickly +sprinkled with villains and heroes, witches and ruffians, lovely ladies +in distress, gallant knights to the rescue, evil spirits and good +fairies, gnomes and giants. All are direfully tragic and splendidly +spectacular. Louisa as a child showed the dramatic quality which later +found artistic expression in her stories. On a rainy afternoon the +children were never at a loss for entertainment. They "acted" in the +attic or played dolls in their own playroom, and such dolls! Old Joanna, +of whom Louisa has drawn a lifelike picture in "Little Women," is to-day +in existence, battered, scarred, but none the less precious, one foot +carefully bandaged, after the army-nurse method. + +Poverty was made interesting. At Christmas a tree was hung with apples, +nuts, and popped corn, and small trifles made by the children were +fastened to the branches. Father and mother made much of the spirit of +the Christ birthday, which was celebrated in simple, wholesome fashion, +in vivid contrast to the modern Christmas festival. + +The Alcott letters and journals show tremendous intellectual activity on +the part of the small atoms of humanity who came to grace the Alcott +home. Anna and her father held moral and intellectual discussions when +Anna was four. Louisa was writing a daily journal before she could more +than print. As soon as a child could read, family reproofs were +administered by notes from father and mother to the erring one, not only +pointing out the fault, but how to correct it. + +The father encouraged his daughters to study themselves and to write +down their thoughts. Their journals, in consequence, reflect the +characteristics of each one and are storehouses of information. Louisa, +poor little soul, in her happy, hoydenish childhood, found time one day +in a fit of mentality to set down in black and white her chief faults. +One of her most serious, according to the self-imposed confession, was +"love of cats," a sin which easily beset her all her days, for she +inherited her father's love of animals and of children. + +Widely varied in character and temperament were the four Alcott girls. +Anna, the first, reflected the beauty, the happiness, and the romance of +the Alcotts' first year of married life. Louisa, born some eighteen +months later, when father and mother had grown even closer together +through the new bond formed by the love of their little daughter, +embodied a deeper, stronger, surer character. She was decisive, with a +determination and surety of self and brilliancy of mind that reflected +the best in both parents. Elizabeth, the third child, was, in some +respects, the most beautiful character of all. About her, from the hour +of her conception, seemed to hover a spiritual, protecting love. +Seemingly from earliest infancy she stood on the borderland of the +spiritual world, in flesh all too fragile to retain the spirit which +remembered and longed, notwithstanding the love with which she was +surrounded, to return to the mystical beauty from which she had come. A +child of dreams and fancies, loving all that was harmonious, she entered +this life at twilight, she left it at the dawn, a coming and going +typical of this dream child, who was lent for a little time to make the +world more glad. + +The birth of Amy is also symbolical, the one sunny-haired, sunny-hearted +girl of the family, who came with the rising of the sun. She seemed made +for love, sunshine, and happiness, and had them all, but she was brave +to face hardships and equally ready to accept comfort and luxury. A +queen, the father called her the morning of her birth, and so they +brought her up, the Little Snow Queen. + +The wise, fostering love of the father, the helpful, understanding +watchfulness of the mother, are reflected in their letters to their +children. Time was not considered wasted that was devoted to these +letters of gentle admonition and kindly counsel. There was no discussion +of faults or mistakes in the Alcott household; reproofs remained little +secrets between father and daughter, or mother and daughter, and the +effect of this wise and constant watchfulness grows more apparent as the +children advance from childhood to girlhood and on to womanhood. They +were taught to know themselves. They were taught, too, the relation of +the Christ child with their own childhood, beautifully expressed in some +of the letters from Bronson Alcott to his eldest daughter. + +It was the father's habit to write each child on her birthday +anniversary and at Christmas. Anna was six years old when he gave her +this beautiful description of the coming of the Christ: + + For Anna + 1837 + + To my Daughter Anna. + + A longer time ago than you can understand, a beautiful Babe was + born. Angels sang at his birth. And stars shone brightly. + Shepherds watched their flocks by their light. The Babe was + laid in his Manger-cradle. And harmless oxen fed by his side. + There was no room for him nor his mother in the Inn, as she + journeyed from her own home. + + This Babe was born at this time of the year. His name was Jesus. + And he is also called Christ. This is his birth night. And we + call it Christ-mas, after him. + + I write you this little note as a Christmas Gift, and hope my + little girl will remember the birth night of Jesus. Think how + beautiful he was, and try to shine in lovely actions as he did. + God never had a child that pleased him so well. Be like a kind + sister of his, and so please your Father, who loves you very + much. + + Christmas Eve, + December 24th, 1837. + From your + Father. + +Again on Christmas Eve, two years later, he describes to his little +daughter of eight years her own coming into the world of material +things. + +The belief in prenatal influence is strongly indicated, for the father +tells his little girl that they thought just how she would look and +pictures to her the joy and the love with which she was surrounded +before her coming into the land of the material and first seeing with +her baby eyes the light of a world day. + + For Anna + 1839 + + You were once pleased, my daughter, with a little note which I + wrote you on Christmas Eve, concerning the birth of Jesus. I + am now going to write a few words about your own Birth. Mother + and I had no child. We wanted one--a little girl just like you; + and we thought how you would look, and waited a good while for + you to come, so that we might see you and have you for our own. + At last you came. We felt so happy that joy stood in our eyes. + You looked just as we wanted to have you. You were draped in a + pretty little white frock, and father took you in his arms every + day, and we loved you very much. Your large bright eyes looked + lovingly into ours, and you soon learned to love and know us. + When you were a few weeks old, you smiled on us. We lived then + in Germantown. It is now more than eight years since this + happened, but I sometimes see the same look and the same smile + on your face, and feel that my daughter is yet good and pure. O + keep it there, my daughter, and never lose it. + + Your Father, + Christmas Eve, + Beach Street, + Dec. 24, 1839. + +On her birthday some three months later, he continues the thought in +this exquisite letter: + + March 16, 1840. + + My dear Daughter, + + With this morning's dawn opens a new year of your Life on Earth. + Nine years ago you were sent, a sweet Babe into this world, a + joy and hope to your father and mother. After a while, through + many smiles and some few tears, you learned to lisp the names + of father and mother, and to make them feel once more how near + and dear you were to their hearts whenever you named their + names. Now you are a still dearer object of Love and hope to + them as your love buds and blossoms under their eye. They watch + this flower as it grows in the Garden of Life, and scents the + air with its fragrance, and delights the eye by its colours. + Soon they will look not for Beauty and fragrance alone, but for + the ripening and ripe fruit. May it be the Spirit of Goodness; + may its leaves never wither, its flowers never fade; its + fragrance never cease; but may it flourish in perpetual youth + and beauty, and be transplanted in its time, into the Garden of + God, whose plants are ever green, ever fresh, and bloom alway, + the amaranth of Heaven, the pride and joy of angels. Thus + writes your Father to you on this your birth morn. + + Monday, 16 March, 1840. + Beach Street, + Boston + + For + Anna, + in the Garden of Life. + +This letter and his allusion to "your life on earth" show plainly his +belief in life eternal, for Bronson Alcott considered earthly existence +merely a period in the evolution of the soul. + +On Christmas Eve, 1840; when Anna was nearly ten, Louisa just past her +eighth birthday, May, the golden-haired baby of the Alcott household, +and Elizabeth the little shadow child of four, he wrote Christmas +letters to his daughters, which show his appreciation of their special +needs, and his respect for their individualities. The letter to +Elizabeth is missing; to Anna he wrote: + + For Anna + 1840 + + BEAUTY or DUTY + which + loves Anna best? + + a + Question + from her + FATHER + + Christmas Eve + Dec. 1840 + Concordia. + +For Louisa, the father's message was this: + + For Louisa + 1840 + + Louisa loves-- + What? + (Softly) + FUN + Have some then, + Father + says. + + Christmas Eve, Dec. 1840 + Concordia. + +For the baby of the household, the father's love message took poetic +form: + + For Abba + 1840 + + For Abba + Babe fair, + Pretty hair, + Bright eye, + Deep sigh, + Sweet lip, + Feet slip, + Handsome hand, + Stout grand, + Happy smile, + Time beguile, + All I ween, + Concordia's Queen. + +Almost without the dates, one could keep track of the development of the +Alcott girls through their father's letters. This one demonstrates his +gift of teaching by the use of suggestion: + + For Anna + + 1842 + + _A Father's Gift_ + to his + _Daughter_ + on her + _Eleventh Birthday_. + + Concordia + 16th March + 1842 + + My dear daughter, + + This is your eleventh birthday, and as I have heretofore + addressed a few words to you on these interesting occasions, I + will not depart from my former custom now. + + And my daughter, what shall I say to you? Shall I say something + to please or to instruct you--to flatter or benefit you? I know + you dislike being pleased unless the pleasure make you better, + and you dislike all flattery. And you know too, that your father + never gave you a word of flattery in his life. So there remains + for you the true and purest pleasure of being instructed and + benefited by words of love and the deepest regard for your + improvement in all that shall make you more happy in yourself + and beautiful to others. And so I shall speak plainly to you of + yourself, and of my desire for your improvement in several + important things. + + _First--Your Manners._ Try to be more gentle. You like gentle + people and every one is more agreeable as he cultivates this + habit. None can be agreeable who are destitute of it and how + shall you become more gentle? Only by governing your passions, + and cherishing your love to everyone who is near you. Love is + gentle: Hate is violent. Love is well-mannered; Selfishness is + rude, vulgar. Love gives sweet tone to the voice, and makes the + countenance lovely. Love then, and grow fair and agreeable. + + _Second: Be Patient._ This is one of the most difficult things to + everyone, old or young. But it is also one of the greatest + things. And this comes of Love too. Love is Patient: it bears; + it suffers long; it is kind; it is beautiful; it makes us like + angels. Patience is, indeed, angelic; it is the Gate that opens + into the House of Happiness. Open it, my daughter, and enter in + and take all your sisters in with you. + + _Third: Be Resolute._ Shake off all Sluggishness, and follow your + Confidence as fast as your feelings, your thoughts, your eye, + your hand, your foot, will carry you. Hate all excuses: almost + always, these are lies. Be _quick_ in your obedience: delay is a + laggard, who never gets up with himself, and loses the company + of confidence always. Resolution is the ladder to Happiness. + Resolve and be a wise and happy girl. + + _Fourth: Be Diligent._ Put your heart into all you do: and fix + your thoughts on your doings. Halfness is almost as bad as + nothing: be whole then in all you do and say. + + But I am saying a great deal and will stop now with the hope of + meeting you on the 16th March, 1843 (the good God sparing us + till then) a gentler, a meeker, more determined and obligent + girl. + + Your friend + and + _Father_ + + Concordia + 16 March + _1842_ + + For + _Anna Bronson Alcott._ + +Such a gift to an eleven-year-old girl on her birthday! One would expect +not kindly counsel, but a toy, a picture book, something pretty for her +body, not much for her mind. The spirituality and the wisdom of the +poet-philosopher are shown in this letter with its "excuses, almost +always lies," and "delay is a laggard." + +When Louisa was seven years old, her mother was ill, and the child was +sent away from home for a time. To his little absent daughter the father +sends this letter, printed so that she might read it for herself: + + For Louisa. + 1839 + + My dear Little Girl. + + Father hopes you are well and happy. Mother will soon be well + enough we hope for you to come home. You want to see us all I + know. And we want to see you very much. Be a good girl and try + to do as they tell you. You shall see us all in a few days. + + You were never away from home so long before. It has given you + some new feelings. + + I have printed this note. I hope you can read it all yourself. + + Good Bye + From Father. + + Saturday + 11 o'clock in the School Room. + 1839 + +On her seventh birthday he writes her one of the most wonderful letters +of the many that have been preserved in the volumes of the Alcott +manuscripts: + + [Illustration] + + [Illustration] + + [Illustration] + + [Illustration] + + For Louisa + 1839 + + My Daughter, + + You are Seven years old to-day and your Father is forty. You + have learned a great many things, since you have lived in a + Body, about things going on around you and within you. You know + how to think, how to resolve, how to love, and how to obey. You + feel your Conscience, and have no real pleasure unless you obey + it. You cannot love yourself, or anyone else, when you do not + mind its commandments. It asks you always to BE GOOD, and bears, + O how gently! how patiently! with all endeavors to hate, and + treat it cruelly. How kindly it bears with you all the while. + How sweetly it whispers Happiness in your HEART when you Obey + its soft words. How it smiles upon you, and makes you Glad when + you Resolve to Obey it! How terrible its PUNISHMENTS. It is GOD + trying in your soul to keep you always Good. + + You begin, my dear daughter, another year this morning. Your + Father, your Mother, and Sisters, with your little friends, show + their love on this your Birthday, by giving you this BOX. Open + it, and take what is in it, and the best wishes of + + Your Father. + + Beach Street, + Friday morning, Nov. 29, 1839. + +His explanation to a seven-year-old girl that conscience is "God in your +soul," and the lines, "since you have lived in a body," are eloquent +manifestations of his belief. It is not surprising that, given such +thoughts at seven, Louisa at ten or eleven wrote that she was sure in +some previous life she must have been a horse,--she loved so to run. A +month before May Alcott was born, little Louisa, then eight, again away +from home, received this letter from her father: + + [Illustration] + + [Illustration] + + [Illustration] + + [Illustration] + + Cottage, Sunday June 21st, + 1840. + + We all miss the noisy little girl who used to make house and + garden, barn and field, ring with her footsteps, and even the + hens and chickens seem to miss her too. Right glad would father + and mother, Anna and Elizabeth, and all the little mates at + School, and Miss Russell, the House Playroom, Dolls, Hoop, + Garden, Flowers, Fields, Woods and Brooks, all be to see and + answer the voice and footsteps, the eye and hand of their + little companion. But yet all make themselves happy and + beautiful without her; all seem to say, "Be Good, little Miss, + while away from us, and when we meet again we shall love and + please one another all the more; we find how much we love now we + are separated." + + I wished you here very much on the morning when the Hen left her + nest and came proudly down with six little chickens, everyone + knowing how to walk, fly, eat and drink almost as well as its + own mother; to-day (Sunday) they all came to see the house and + took their breakfast from their nice little feeding trough; you + would have enjoyed the sight very much. But this and many other + pleasures all wait for you when you return. Be good, kind, + gentle, while you are away, step lightly, and speak soft about + the house; + + Grandpa loves quiet, as well as your sober father and other + grown people. + + Elizabeth says often, "Oh I wish I could see Louisa, when will + she come home, Mother?" And another feels so too; who is it? + + Your + Father. + + I forgot to write how much _Kit_ missed you. + +On her eighth birthday, her father writes: + + For Louisa + 1840 + + Two Passions strong divide our Life, + Meek gentle Love, or boisterous Strife. + + Love--Music Anger--Arrow + Concord Discord + From her Father + + On her eighth birthday Nov. 29th. + +At ten, her birthday greeting from her father is this: + + For Louisa + 1842 + + My daughter, + + This is your birthday: you are ten years of age to-day. I sought + amidst my papers for some pretty picture to place at the top of + this note, but I did not find anything that seemed at all + expressive of my interest in your well-being, or well-doing, and + so this note comes to you without any such emblem. Let me say, + my honest little girl, that I have had you often in my mind + during my separation from you and your devoted mother, and + well-meaning sisters, while on the sea or the land, and now that + I have returned to be with you and them again, meeting you daily + at fireside, at table, at study, and in your walk, and + amusements, in conversation and in silence, being daily with + you, I would have you feel my presence and be the happier, and + better that I am here. I want, most of all things, to be a + kindly influence on you, helping you to guide and govern your + heart, keeping it in a state of sweet and loving peacefulness, + so that you may feel how good and kind is that Love which lives + always in our breasts, and which we may always feel, if we will + keep the passions all in stillness and give up ourselves + entirely to its soft desires. I live, my dear daughter, to be + good and to do good to all, and especially to you and your + mother and sisters. Will you not let me do you all the good that + I would? And do you not know that I can do you little or none, + unless you give me your affections, incline your ears, and + earnestly desire to become daily better and wiser, more kind, + gentle, loving, diligent, heedful, serene. The good Spirit comes + into the Breast of the meek and loveful to abide long; anger, + discontent, impatience, evil appetites, greedy wants, + complainings, ill-speakings, idlenesses, heedlessness, rude + behaviour and all such, these drive it away, or grieve it so + that it leaves the poor misguided soul to live in its own + obstinate, perverse, proud discomfort, which is the very _Pain of + Sin_, and is in the _Bible_ called the worm that never dies, the + gnawing worm, the sting of _CONSCIENCE_: while the pleasures of + love and goodness are beyond all description--a peacefulness + that passes all understanding. I pray that my daughter may know + much of the last, and little of the first of these feelings. I + shall try every day to help her to the knowledge and love of + this good _Spirit_. I shall be with her, and as she and her + sisters come more and more into the presence of this Spirit, + shall we become a family more closely united in loves that can + never sunder us from each other. + + This your + Father + in Hope and Love + on your + Birthday + + Concordia, + Nov. 29, 1842. + +To little Elizabeth the letters were few. The child was so constantly +the companion of father and mother, that by speech rather than written +word, their messages were given. But on her fifth birthday, her father +carefully printed this letter: + + [Illustration] + + [Illustration] + + [Illustration] + + [Illustration] + + For Elizabeth + 1840 + + I I I I I Years + one two three four five + BIRTH-DAY + in the + COTTAGE + + My very dear little girl, + + You make me very happy every time I look at your smiling + pleasant face--and you make me very sorry every time I see your + face look cross and unpleasant. You are now five years old. You + can keep your little face pleasant all the time, if you will + try, and be happy yourself, and make everybody else happy too. + Father wants to have his little girl happy all the time. He + hopes her little friends and her presents and plays will + make her happy to-day; and this little note too. Last birthday + you were in Beach Street, in the great City, now you are at your + little cottage in the country where all is pretty and pleasant, + and you have fields and woods, and brooks and flowers to please + my little Queen, and keep her eyes, and ears, and hands and + tongue and feet, all busy. This little note is from + + FATHER, + + who loves his little girl very much, and knows that she loves + him very dearly. + + Play, play, + All the day, + Jump and run + Every one, + Full of fun, + All take + A piece of cake, + For my sake. + +His wish to encourage the little girl in her efforts to be good, kind, +gentle, and patient, and his appreciation of her accomplishment, is set +forth in this characteristic little note: + + Concord, Cottage, + February 2nd, 1842. + + My dear Elizabeth, + + You give me much pleasure by your still, quiet manners, and your + desire to do things, without asking impatiently and selfishly + for others to help you without trying first to help yourself. + Trying is doing; doing is but trying; try then always and you + will do; and every one loves to help those who try. I will print + a little sentence for you in large letters and you who have + already found it so easy to do things for yourself will, I dare + say, remember it, and follow it too--This is it-- + + TRY FIRST: AND + THEN ASK: AND + TRY PATIENTLY TILL + YOU HAVE TRIED + YOUR BEST: AND + YOU WILL NOT NEED + TO ASK AT ALL. + Trying is the only + Schoolmaster + whose + Scholars + always + Succeed. + Your Father. + + Cottage, + Feb. 2nd. + +Little May, the youngest, was the pet, not only of the Alcott household, +but of all the Alcott kin. This quaint little dolly letter, written to +her by her Uncle Junius, has been framed and hangs to-day in the library +of May Alcott's nephew, John: + + Gift of Junius S. Alcott + to + Abby. + + A + Little Face + once smiling + woke + to + greet, the day, + with sport and play, + Hands) on her Birthday, in shaking (Hands + with her sisters, + and, her visitors, + that, came, to, chime, + a, happy, time, with, Lizzy, + To, give, you, pleasure, uncle, + gives, this, treasure, to you, so, sweet, + So, keep, it, neat, and please, my, + Brother, & your Mother, by always, + finding that, by, minding, you + are, the kindest, little girl, that, + that, ever + stood d, in, + (Shoes) (Shoes) + + + + + CHAPTER VI + + THE MOTHER'S INFLUENCE + + +UPON the lives of all four of her daughters the mother's influence +rested like a benediction. It is felt in her letters; it is reflected in +the journals of her girls and in the musings of Bronson Alcott, as set +down in his voluminous journals. And the mother spirit hovers over +Orchard House, where "Little Women" was written and lived. + +While letters to Anna from her mother are missing, Anna's journal shows +how vital was Mrs. Alcott's power in the upbuilding of her noble +character. Louisa in "Little Women" has said that the girls gave their +hearts into their mother's keeping, their souls into their father's. +Anna's letters bear eloquent testimony to the strong, helpful, cheery +influence of the mother upon the child. Among the first was this letter, +written by Anna when she was five years old and visiting Mr. Alcott's +family at Wolcott: + + _Letter to Mrs. Alcott._ + Wolcott Aug. 12th, 1836. + _Friday Morning._ + + My dear Mother, + + I have to go away by myself and cry because I want to see you so + much, and little sister Lizy and Louisa. Doctor Fuller is + coming to cure Grandmother. i shall see you in a few days. You + have a splendid husband + + Anna + V years of age-- + +(On this she had drawn her hand.) + +She was six years old when she wrote this: + + Dear Mother, + + I have not had a note from you for a great while. You wanted + some wafers yesterday will you accept of them from me There is + not many but it is all that I have got. I am very glad my + birthday is so near for as I grow older, I hope I shall grow + better and more useful to you, I hope soon we shall be settled + down in some comfortable little home of our own and then shall + be contented and happy I hope. I must go to my sums now, so + goodbye dearest mother + + Your loving Anna + +A letter eloquent of the tender relation between mother and child is +this written during the Fruitlands period: + + For + + Dearest mother + fruitlands. + + Dear mother. + + I wish that you would come to the table again. I enjoy my meals + much better when you are at the table. Was not "Heraclitus" that + father read about to-day, a dear good man, it seems as though I + wanted to hug him up and kiss him. I wish men had understood his + thoughts better than they did he would have been happier I + think. I have enjoyed this morning readings and conversations + better than I have before for a good while, I suppose, because I + talked and I understood it so well. I do not write to you very + often dear mother but I love to dearly when I feel like it, and + I love to have letters from you. I have not been as good as I + wish I had this week. I send a little bunch of flowers to you + they are not very pretty but they are beautifully made and I + thought you would like them. I had a beautiful time walking this + morning with Louisa. Good bye dearest mother from your loving + + Anna. + +Many copies of her mother's letters are found in Louisa's journals, +showing the daughter's intense, almost idolatrous affection. Louisa +admired, respected, and loved her father, but to her mother her +tenderest thought was given. Marmee understood the wayward, +tempestuous, lovable child as no one else did, not even loyal Anna, +or admiring Elizabeth. On her birthday the mother writes to Louisa: + + My dear little girl, + + Will you accept this doll from me on your 7th birthday. She will + be a quiet play mate for my active Louisa for seven years more. + Be a kind mamma and love her for my sake. + + Your mother. + + Beach St., Boston, 1839. + +Louisa was ten when this birthday letter was sent: + + Cottage in Concord. + + Dear Daughter, + + Your 10th birthday has arrived, may it be a happy one, & on each + returning birthday may you feel new strength and resolution to be + gentle with sisters, obedient to parents, loving to everyone & + happy in yourself. + + I give you the pencil case I promised, for I have observed that + you are fond of writing & wish to encourage the habit. + + Go on trying, dear, & each day it will be easier to be & do good. + You must help yourself, for the cause of your little troubles is + in yourself, & patience & courage only will make you what mother + prays to see you her good and happy girl. + +During the Fruitlands period, when Louisa was eleven, she found this +little note tucked carefully away in a spot where only she would find +and read it: + + Fruitlands. + + My dear, + + Thank you for your sweet note and sweeter poetry. The second + verse is very good. Your love of nature is pure and true. It is + a lovely school in which good lessons may be learned. The happy + industry of birds, the beautiful lives of flowers, the music of + brooks all help-- + + "The little fountain flows + So noiseless thro the wood, + The wanderer tastes repose, + And from the silent flood + Learns meekly to do good." + +In the following letter, a pretty little deference to the child's own +personality is shown by the mother, in that way bringing out in the +child respect and deference for others: + + Dear Daughter, + + I hope you will not consider me an intruder for stopping a + moment in your "poet's corner" to admire the neatness of your + desk, the sweetness of your poetry, the beauty of the prospect + from your window. Cherish this love of nature, dear, enjoy all + it gives you, for God made these helps to charm contemplation, + and they strengthen the noble desire to be or to do all that is + sent for our training & our good. Heaven be about you my child, + is mother's Sunday prayer. + +Louisa Alcott filled her diary with letters from her mother, +occasionally adding in later life annotations of her own. This letter +from her mother when Louisa was eleven is an example: + + (From Louisa Alcott's Diary.) + Concord, 1843. + + Dear Louy, + + I enclose a picture for you which I always liked very much, for + I have imagined that you might be just such an industrious + daughter & I such a feeble but loving mother, looking to your + labor for my daily bread. Keep it for my sake, & your own, for + you and I always like to be grouped together. + + Mother. + + [Illustration: ABIGAIL MAY, MRS. A. BRONSON ALCOTT. + From a daguerreotype. + _Page 106._] + +Then follows the picture and the lines written by Louisa in her +journal: + + To Mother. + + I hope that soon dear mother, you & I may be + In the quiet room my fancy has so often made for thee, + The pleasant sunny chamber, the cushioned easy chair, + The books laid for your reading, the vase of flowers fair. + The desk beside the window where the sun shines warm and bright, + And there in ease and quiet, the promised book you write, + While I sit close beside you, content at last to see, + That you can rest dear mother, & I can cherish thee. + +Louisa lived to see her hope realized and the dream of many years a +beautiful reality. + +Like most writers, Louisa was moody, and in her hours of depression and +despondency she looked upon her work as a failure and herself as a +useless drag upon the family. At such times Marmee invariably came to +the rescue and persuaded her discouraged daughter to use the pen she was +ready to lay down. Even in Louisa's childhood, when her only promise of +future literary achievement were her tragedies and melodramas of lurid +style, little gifts show the mother's faith and pride in her daughter's +work. So did her letters, of which this is an example: + + Dear Louisa: + + I sometimes stray about the house and take a peep into the + journal. Your pages lately are blank. I am sure your life has + many fine passages well worth recording, and to me they are + always precious. Anything like intellectual progress in my + children seems to compensate for much disappointment & + perplexity in my own life. Do write a little each day, dear, if + but a line, to show me how bravely you begin the battle, how + patiently you wait for the rewards sure to come when the victory + is nobly won. + + Ever yrs. + Mother. + +On her fourteenth birthday the mother accompanies the gift of a pen with +this little poem: + + Oh, may this pen your muse inspire, + When wrapt in pure poetic fire, + To write some sweet, some thrilling verse; + A song of love or sorrow's lay, + Or duty's clear but tedious way + In brighter hope rehearse. + Oh, let your strain be soft and high, + Of crosses here, of crowns beyond the sky; + Truth guide your pen, inspire your theme, + And from each note joy's music stream. + +Louisa Alcott owed much to her mother's example and perhaps even more to +her mother's influence. This letter, carefully preserved in the +daughter's journal, reveals a wealth of mother-love and of God-given +wisdom: + + 15th Birthday, + Hillside. + + Dearest, + + Accept this pen from your mother and for her sake use it freely + & worthily that each day of this your fifteenth year may + testify to some good word or thought or work. + + I know there will be born into your spirit new hopes, new gifts, + for God helps the loving, trusting heart that turns to Him. Lift + up your soul to meet the highest, for that alone will satisfy + your yearning, aspiring nature. + + Your temperament is a peculiar one, & there are few who can + really help you. Set about the formation of character & believe + me you are capable of obtaining a noble one. Industry, patience, + love, creates, endures, gives all things, for these are the + attributes of the Almighty, & they make us mighty in all things. + May eternal love sustain you, infinite wisdom guide you, & the + peace which passeth understanding reward you, my daughter. + + Mother. + Nov. 29th, 1846. + +Deeds, not words, characterized Elizabeth Alcott, as readers of "Little +Women" will recall. She was about seven when she sent this letter, one +of the very few she wrote, to her mother: + + May, Friday 29. + + Dear Mother, + + I thank you very much for your note. I will try to write better + than I have done. I have not always had a good pen. I hope I + shall improve in all my studies this summer. I hope I can read + German & French very well, and know a great deal about the + countries. I must write my journal now so I will bid you good + bye. + + From your loving + Elizabeth. + +Birthdays were always celebrated with much rejoicing in the Alcott +household, the gift made secondary to the spirit of the day. From the +time they were old enough to print, the Alcott children on the mother's +birthday made her some little gift, accompanying it with a note. Abba +May or May, as she was always called, at nine years old, began in prose +but lapsed into poetry: + + Dear Mother, + + I wish you a very happy birthday. I hope you will find my + present Useful, and when you wear it think of me. I have taken a + great-deal of Pleasure in making it for you. Please take this + Present mother on your 49 birthday + + With the dearest Love and wishes of your little daughter A. + +With Mrs. Alcott, hardship, poverty, the grief of seeing her husband +misunderstood and often scoffed at, never lessened her love for him, or +her contentment in the marriage relation. The year following her +marriage in a letter to her brother she wrote: "My father has never +married a daughter or son more completely happy than I am. I have cares, +and soon they will be arduous ones, but with the mild, constant, and +affectionate sympathy and aid of my husband, with the increasing health +and loveliness of my quiet and bright little Anna, with good health, +clear head, grateful heart and ready hand,--what can I not do when +surrounded by influences like this?" + +Ideals were never shattered; illusions, if so they may be called, were +never lost by Mrs. Alcott through the stormy years that laid between the +first happy months of her married life and the sunset days when all her +burdens were laid down. To her, the husband who was so long denied +material success and intellectual sympathy ever remained the lover and +friend. Her admiration for him was unbounded, her faith in him complete. +So high she held him in heart and mind, that it was difficult even for +those who loved him most to appreciate her estimate of him as Poet, +Philosopher, and Sage. + +Concerning the most famous portrait ever made of Bronson Alcott, done in +crayons by Mrs. Richard Hildredth, wife of the historian and aunt of the +portrait painter, George Fuller, which, beautiful as it was, did not +satisfy the wife's ideal, Mrs. Alcott writes: + + A tinge of the incomprehensible lies softly around it, a field + of atmosphere, as if she had worked with down from an angel's + wing rather than with a crayon,--as if the moonlight had cast a + shadow on the lights of her picture, and a divinity had touched + with a soft shade, the dark portion of the figure. Mrs. + Hildredth has changed the costume from a dress suit to a mantle + draped about the shoulders. This, I do not like. The chaste + simplicity of Mr. Alcott's dress is more in character and + keeping with the severe simplicity and rectitude of his life. + Louisa admirably describes her father's appearance as she + met him at the cars. "His dress was neat and poor. He looked + cold and thin as an icicle, but serene as God." After such a + testimony, from such a daughter, he can afford to dress shabbily. + +Contentment, whatever her lot, was an attribute of Marmee; she +underestimated herself always. Unquestionably, Louisa inherited her +literary gift quite as much from mother as from father, and flashes of +the quaint humor so delightful in the daughter's books are found in the +mother's letters. To a friend she writes: "My gifts are few. I live, +love and learn, and find myself more content every day of my life with +humble conditions." + +Louisa Alcott never laid claim to poetic gift, but on a few occasions +her verses take to themselves true poetic beauty. One of the most +exquisite of these poems was written by her on the death of her mother, +and was first published anonymously in the "Masque of Poets" of 1878: + + TRANSFIGURATION + In Memoriam + + Mysterious death; who in a single hour + Life's gold can so refine, + And by thy art divine + Change mortal weakness to immortal power: + + Bending beneath the weight of eighty years, + Spent with the noble strife + Of a victorious life, + We watched her fading heavenward, through our tears. + + But ere the sense of loss our hearts had wrung, + A miracle was wrought: + And swift as happy thought + She lived again--brave, beautiful and young. + + Age, pain and sorrow dropped the veils they wore, + And showed the tender eyes + Of angels in disguise, + Whose discipline so patiently she bore. + + The past years brought their harvest rich and fair; + While memory and love, + Together fondly wove + A golden garland for the silver hair. + + + + + CHAPTER VII + + CHILDREN'S DIARIES + + +THE Alcott children were brought up to think for themselves, to reflect, +and to give expression to their thoughts. Never laughed at, they were +not afraid to speak or write of what was in their minds. Each kept a +diary, and no incident that concerned the little girls was too trivial +for mention in the record of the day. These incidents, collected, give a +more comprehensive view of the Alcotts as a family than do the father's +voluminous journals. + + [Illustration: ANNA BRONSON ALCOTT. + From a daguerreotype. + _Page 122._] + +When Anna was ten, she gravely explains under date of April 13, 1841: + + Father was too unwell to come down stairs and mother ironed, + Louisa and I helped a little while. I wrote my journal and a + journal for Louisa as she thought she could not write well + enough. I had no other lessons than that. We watched a little + spider and gave it some water to drink. In the afternoon mother + read loud the story of the good aunt or part of it while we + sewed on the clean clothes I mended up the holes and Louisa and + Lizzy sewed on a sheet. In the evening we played mother lets us + play in the evening. We went to bed soon. + +This sewing bee recalls the long evenings in the March home, described +in "Little Women," when the four girls and the mother sewed dutifully +on sheets for Aunt March, dividing seams into countries, discussing +Europe, Asia, Africa, and America as they stitched. + +When she was twelve, Anna's literary aspirations sought a vent in +attempted poetry. Later she collaborated with Louisa in writing the +"Comic Tragedies." Anna's confidante and comrade, Louisa, was frequently +the victim of these poetic effusions, her reception of which gives quite +a line on her ardent temperament. This entry in Anna's journal for April +23, 1843, is eloquent: + + This morning I rose pretty early--After breakfast I read and + wrote stories. In the afternoon I wrote some letters and the + following one to Louisa: + + Louisa dear + With love sincere + Accept this little gift from me + It is with pleasure + I send this treasure + And with it send much love to thee. + + Sister dear + Never fear + God will help you if you try. + Do not despair + But always care + To be good and love to try. + + In the evening I read in a book called 'Stories on the + Lord's-prayer.' I talked with Louisa after I went to bed and she + pinched me on my leg. + +Two or three years later Anna writes: + + Monday. + + Mother went to Boston and Louisa and I cleaned house all day. I + love order above all things and I take great pleasure in seeing + all neat about the house. + + Tuesday. + + I worked hard till 2 o'clock when we all met to sew while mother + read aloud from "Miss Bremers Brothers and Sister's." It is most + beautiful such a happy family. I think Miss Bremer would make a + lovely mother the mothers in her books are so sweet and she has + beautiful idear's about family's. I love to read natural + stories. + + Wednesday 30th. + + We rose very early and eat breakfast. I think it is a dreadful + thing to grow old and not be able to fly about, but then I + suppose I shall not care about flying when I grow older, still + it is horrid to think about being an old woman all wrinkled and + blind. I wish I could keep young forever. I should love to live + among all those I love and be with them all the time. + +Reading was a part of the daily routine in the Alcott household, and +Anna's taste for German recalls vividly certain episodes between Meg and +John Brooks in "Little Women." + + Friday 18th. + + I read one of Krummacher's parables in German. I think they are + very beautiful, the language is so elegant. I love to hear + beautiful words and these stories are told so simply and are + full of such sweet thought. I found a great many which have + never been translated and I intend to try myself to translate + them. I think it is the pleasantest thing I do to read German. + It is such a splendid language. I mean Elizabeth shall learn to + read it, she will enjoy it so much. + + Saturday 19th. + + In the afternoon I sewed and Louisa read me a very silly story + called 'The Golden Cup.' I think there is a great deal of + nonsense written now a days, the papers are full of silly + stories. + + Sunday 20th. + + I have been reading lately a very beautiful book given me by my + mother. It is "Characteristics of Women" by Mrs. Jameson. I like + it very much. It is a description of Shakespear's Heroines, + Portia is my favorite, she was so noble and I liked the Trial + scene better than any of Shakespears that I ever read. I think + this part is beautiful. + + 'Let music sound while he doth make his choice; + Then if he love he make a swan like end + Fading in music.' + + I think this was a beautiful idea. + + I passed a pleasant morning in school, translating one of + Krummacher's beautiful parables. I find great pleasure in this. + I like German better than I do French. I want much to study + Italian. I have tried myself several times but cannot manage it + without help. I think I should be very happy if I could go to + school. I think about it most all the time and when I am in bed + I imagine myself in Boston going to Miss Peabody's school with + other girls and know that I am learning something. And I think + I lead rather too solitary a life. I love to see people. Mother + read in the afternoon from Miss Sedgwick's Letters. It was about + the Germans. She says they are a very cheerful people and though + poor yet they always have a happy smile and cheerful face. That + their manners are beautiful. They are so kind and simple. I know + I should love them, for I like everything German, except their + food, which I think must be horrid, greasy cabbage and sour + bread. That seems bad. I should think they are so fond of + beautiful things; music, poetry and flowers, that they would not + like such stuff. + + September, 1845. + Friday 1st. + + I walked before breakfast, the sun was bright and there was a + cool wind. The lane was full of beautiful flowers and the grass + was green and fresh. I had a lovely walk and gathered a bunch of + goldenrod, spirian and gerandia. Everything was so beautiful + that all my unhappy thoughts of last night flew away. I + sometimes have strange feelings, a sort of longing after + something I don't know what it is. I have a great many wishes. I + spent the day in the usual manner, sewing and studying. In the + evening Louisa and I walked through the lane and talked about + how we should like to live and dress and imagined all kinds of + beautiful things. + + Sunday 3rd. + + I sewed all day and mother read from "Miss Sedgwick's Letters." + I will write a piece of poetry, as I have nothing very pleasant + to write about: + + "Oh when thy heart is full of fears + And the way is dim to Heaven + When the sorrow and the sin of years + Peace from thy soul has driven + Then through the mist of falling tears + Look up and be forgiven. + + "And then rise up and sin no more + And from thy dark ways flee + Let Virtue o'er thy appetites + Have full and perfect mastery + And the kindly ones that hover o'er + Will ever strengthen thee. + + "And though thou art helpless and forlorn + Let not thy heart's peace go + And though the riches of this world are gone + And thy lot is care and woe + Faint not, but journey ever on + True wealth is not below. + + "Oh, falter not but still look up + Let Patience be thy guide + Bless the rod and take the cup + And trustfully abide + Let not temptation vanquish thee + And the Father will provide." + + Louisa composed these lines, which I think are beautiful. She is + a beautiful girl and writes as good poetry as Lucretia Davidson, + about whom so much has been written. I think she will write + _something great one of these days_. As for me I am perfect in + nothing. I have no genius. I know a little of music, a little of + French, German and Drawing, but none of them well. I have a + foolish wish to be something _great_ and I shall probably spend my + life in a kitchen and die in the poor-house. I want to be Jenny + Lind or Mrs. Seguin and I can't and so I cry. Here is another of + Louisa's pieces to mother. + + "God comfort thee dear mother, + For sorrow sad and deep + Is lying heavy on thy heart + And this hath made thee weep. + + "There is a Father o'er us, mother, + Who orders for the best + And peace shall come ere long, mother, + And dwell within thy breast. + + "Then let us journey onward, mother, + And trustfully abide, + The coming forth of good or ill + Whatever may betide." + +Helpfulness was encouraged in the Alcott household; habits of industry +were carefully fostered. The Alcott children worked when they worked, +played when they played, but wasted hours were unknown. They were taught +to make the most of every day. When Anna was seventeen she wrote in her +diary: + + August, 1848. + Thursday 17th. + + Lizzy and I are making plans for spending our days usefully. + Here is mine. + + Plan. + + Rise at half past 4, bathe, dress and walk till half past 5. + + Dress and bathe the children. + + Breakfast at 7. Work till 9. School till 12. Work till 2. + + Sew till 4. Practice till 5. + + Hear Lizzy recite German and French till 6. Supper. + + This will keep me pretty busy, but I find I accomplish so much + more when I have a plan and certain times for certain things. I + never can do things without order. I like to have something + planned for every moment of the day, so that when I get up in + the morning I may know what to do. I wish I could be learned. + +An entry in Louisa's diary during the Fruitlands period gives this +insight into one of her average days, when a child of eleven: + + I rose at five, and after breakfast washed the dishes and then + helped mother work. I took care of May in the afternoon. In the + evening I made some pretty things for my dolly. Father and Mr. + Lane had a talk and father asked us if we saw any reason for us + to separate. Mother wanted to, she is so tired. I like it, but + not the school part or Mr. L. + +Note, too, that when it came to a conference concerning family affairs, +the father asked the advice of his eleven-year-old daughter, instead of +following the more customary method of withholding from her the family +confidence and deferring discussion of plans until the children had gone +to bed. + +"Know Thyself," was ever the aim of Bronson Alcott in the training of +his children, and Mr. Lane at Fruitlands followed this same line of +mental development. This is one of his sample lessons which Louisa +Alcott has copied into her journal: + + Sample of our Lessons + + "What virtues do you wish more of," asked Mr. L. I answer: + + Patience Love Silence + Obedience Generosity Perseverance + Industry Respect Self-denial + + "What vices less of?" + + Idleness Wilfulness Vanity + Impatience Impudence Pride + Selfishness Activity Love of cats + +In this same lesson comes the twelve-year-old Louisa's explanation of +the difference between faith and hope: + + Faith can believe without seeing; hope is not sure, but tries + to have faith when it desires. + +Louisa's love of nature, her trained habits of thought, her poetic +imagination, and her keen appreciation of beauty are indicated in this +entry in her journal, written at Fruitlands in 1843 or 1844, when she +was a child of ten or eleven: + + I wrote in my imagination book, and enjoyed it very much. Life + is pleasanter than it used to be, and I don't care about dying + any more. Had a splendid run, and got a box of cones to burn. + Sat and heard the pines sing a long time. Had good dreams, and + woke now and then to think, and watch the moon. I had a + pleasant time with my mind, for it was happy. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII + + GIRLHOOD AND WOMANHOOD + + +FAMILIAR to every reader of "Little Women" is the March family's quaint +brown house with its many windows, its old-fashioned garden, its homely, +homelike air, its unfailing hospitality. This home, as described by +Louisa M. Alcott, is a picture of the Alcott home at Concord, the scene +of the girlhood and young womanhood of the Alcott children. Many of +Louisa's books were written there; "Little Women" was lived there. In +Concord, Anna met John Pratt, and the first love story in "Little +Women" is Anna's life romance. There little Beth passed from the +material to the spiritual life, and Amy first developed the artistic +talents which later caused her work to be sought for by art museums and +private collectors. + +Anna's marriage was a great trial to Louisa, for from early childhood +the two girls had been inseparable companions, and after Anna's marriage +Louisa learned to look upon John as her brother. + +Louisa's diary in the April following the passing of Elizabeth touches +upon the change of homes in Concord, the absence of May, who was +studying art in Boston, of Elizabeth and of Anna: + + April. + + Came to occupy one wing of Hawthorne's house (once ours) while the + new one was being repaired. Father, mother and I kept house + together, May being in Boston, Anna at Pratt farm, & for the first + time Lizzy absent. I don't miss her as I expected to do, for she + seems nearer & dearer than before, & I am glad to know she is safe + from pain & age in some world where her innocent soul must be happy. + + Death never seemed terrible to me, & now is beautiful, so I cannot + fear it, but find it friendly and wonderful. + + [Illustration: ABBA MAY ALCOTT. + From a photograph. + _Page 142._] + +Amy's artistic efforts and her failures in "Little Women" are taken from +May's actual experiences in Concord. Turning the career of the youngest +of the Alcott girls into a romance earlier in "Little Women" than it +actually occurred in life, doubtless prevented Louisa Alcott from +chronicling the artistic success of her youngest sister, a success to +which she largely contributed and in which she took great pride. + +May Alcott's pictures are found to-day in art museums and in leading +private collections in this country and abroad. Her copies of Turner are +remarkable. In the Kensington Gallery in London students are given them +to study in preference to the originals. Several fine examples are in +American museums, and a few are owned by members of the Alcott family. + +When the Alcotts moved into Orchard House, the girls painted and +papered the interior themselves. May filled the nooks and corners with +panels, on which she painted birds and flowers. Over the fireplaces she +inscribed mottoes in Old English characters. + +The study in Orchard House was the real center of the household. For the +chimney piece Ellery Channing wrote an epigram, which May Alcott painted +upon it, and which has been used in the stage reproduction of "Little +Women": + + "The Hills are reared, the Valleys scooped in vain, + If Learning's Altars vanish from the Plain." + +In Orchard House to-day, walls, doors, and window casings are etched +with May Alcott's drawings, many preserved under glass, including a +miniature portrait of a little girl, naively and modestly inscribed "The +Artist." + +High thoughts and cheerful minds triumphed over poverty in those Concord +days. Shortly after the family's return from Fruitlands, Louisa wrote +for Ellen Emerson the fairy stories, "Flower Fables." She was at the +time only sixteen. This was her earliest published work, and it was many +years before she achieved literary fame, although, as did Jo in "Little +Women," she materially helped in the support of the family by writing +lurid tales. + +Literature rather than commerce freed the Alcotts from the burden of +debt. Louisa's fame was the result, neither of accident, nor of a +single achievement, but had for its background the whole generous past +of her family. Her "Hospital Sketches" were her letters home, when she +was serving as hospital nurse during the Civil War. "Little Women" is a +chronicle of her family. Louisa certainly made good use of the +vicissitudes of the Alcotts. She always saw the funny side and was not +afraid to make book material of the home experiences, elevating or +humiliating. Her books number between twenty-five and thirty. Nearly +every one takes its basic idea from some real experience. The books +written by the Alcott family, including some eight or ten published by +Mr. Alcott, Louisa's output, and one or two written by May, fill two +shelves of an alcove devoted to Concord authors in the Alcott town +library. + +Anna's little sons, familiarly known in the Alcott household as Freddie +and Johnnie, or Jack, gave to Bronson Alcott in his later days fresh +opportunity for his favorite study--childhood. To both boys came +frequent messages and gifts from Grandpa, Grandma, and Aunt Louisa. + +Louisa Alcott sent to Freddie this poem on his third birthday: + + A song for little Freddie + On his third Birthday. + + Down in the field + Where the brook goes, + Lives a white lammie + With a little black nose. + + He eats the grass so green, + He drinks the "la la" sweet, + "Buttertups" and daisies, + Grow all about his feet. + + The "birdies" they sing to him, + The big sun in the sky, + Warms his little "Toe-toes," + And peeps into his eye. + + He's a very gentle lammie, + He never makes a fuss, + He never "saps his marmar," + He never says "I muss." + + He hops and he runs, + "Wound and wound" all day, + And when the night comes, + He goes "bye low" on the hay. + + In a nice little barn, + Where the "moo-moos" are; + Freddie says "Good night," + But the lammie he says "Baa!" + + To be sung by Marmar with appropriate accompaniment of gesture, etc. + +On the outside of the letter appears: + + A little song for Freddie, + On his third birthday, + With "lots" of loving kisses, + From his Wee-wee far away. + +On his sixth birthday Grandpa contributes: + + Concord, Freddie's + 6th Birthday, + 1869. + + Dear Freddy, + + I give you for your Birth Day Present this new Picture Book. It + has plain words for you to pick out and read. The stories are + short and about things that you know. Now, my little scholar, + look among the leaves every day, and see how many words you can + tell,--Very soon you will find you can read whole pages, spell + the whole book through, and write the stories, word for word on + your slate or in your little writing book. Then you will not be + a little Dunce, and when Grandpa comes to see you, you will be + glad to show him how well you can read. + + Grandma gives the top to Johnny. + From Grandpa. + +Grandma, not to be outdone, sent this: + + Dear Freddy, + + If worms give us the silk thread--can't we find time enough to + find out how the Fabric is made which dresses are formed + of--minutes and days--ours. Days and Years are passing away--let + us be busy--and I guess we will get to the Vienna Exposition-- + + "How doth the little busy Bee" + + Improve each shining hour--Be a Bee--and your hours will be too + few for the Flowers of Science and the Wheels of Use. Grandma + will help you with her one dim eye and Grandpa will explain a + great deal to you with his Shining Light--Mama with your help + will make you a true, good man.-- + + 1873. + +On his twelfth birthday Aunt Louisa again lapsed into poetry: + + F. A. P. + + Who likes to read a fairy tale, + Or stories told of sword and sail, + Until his little optics fail? + Our boy. + + Who loves his father's watch to wear + And often draw it out with care + Upon its round white face to stare? + Our boy. + + Who rather proud of his small feet + When wearing slippers new and neat, + And stockings red as any beet? + Our boy. + + Who in his pocket keeps his hands + As round the house he "mooning" stands + Or reads the paper like the mans? + Our boy. + + Who likes to "boss" it over Jack, + And sometimes gives a naughty whack, + But gets it heartily paid back? + Our boy. + + Who likes to have a birthday frolic + And eats until he has a colic, + That for the time is diabolic? + Our boy. + + Who is the dearest little lad, + That aunt or mother ever had, + To love when gay and cheer when sad? + Our boy. + + May angels guard him with their wings, + And all brave, good and happy things, + Make nobler thou than crowned kings. + Our boy. + + March 28th, 1875. + +John, the original of Daisy in "Little Women," received in his babyhood +days from Aunt Louisa, some tiny blue stockings with this verse: + + Two pair of blue hose, + For Johnny's white toes, + So Jack Frost can't freeze em, + Nor darned stockings tease em, + So pretty and neat + I hope the small feet + Will never go wrong, + But walk straight and strong, + The way father went. + We shall all be content, + If the dear little son + Be a second good John. + +On his tenth birthday, both Grandpa and Grandma Alcott sent these +characteristic greetings to their younger grandson: + + Grandma Alcott to Johnny. + + 10th birthday. June 24th. 1875. + + Giving song, all day long, + Under the elm or willow; + With sunshine shed + On the little head + That rests on Grandma's pillow. + To and fro, + Let it go, + While inside piping cheery, + As he takes his rest + In his hang-bird's nest + Lies Grandma's little deary. + + * * * * * + + Grandpa Alcott to Johnny. + June 24th. 1875. + + A fine little sword + For gallant Capt. Jack, + As he marches down the hill + His army at his back. + + No giants will it kill + Since its only made for show, + And the best way to fight, + Is a kiss for a blow. + +In these days of private secretaries, labor-saving devices, and +specialization, it is difficult to comprehend the obstacles that Louisa +Alcott encountered in writing. Her day was filled with other tasks, +housework, sewing, teaching, nursing--yet the pen was never idle, the +busy brain was never still. Her power of concentration made it possible +for her to write under harassing conditions. This is her own description +of her methods of work: + + My methods of work are very simple and soon told. My head is my + study, and there I keep the various plans of stories for years + sometimes, letting them grow as they will till I am ready to + put them on paper. Then it is quick work, as chapters go down + word for word as they stand in my mind, and need no alteration. + I never copy, since I find by experience that the work I spend + the least time upon is best liked by critics and speakers. + + Any paper, any pen, any place that is quiet suit me, and I used + to write from morning till night without fatigue when "the steam + was up." Now, however, I am paying the penalty of twenty years + of over work, and can write but two hours a day, doing about + twenty pages, sometimes more, though my right thumb is useless + from writer's cramp. + + While a story is under way I live in it, see the people more + plainly than real ones around me, hear them talk, and am much + interested, surprised and provoked at their actions, for I seem + to have no power to rule them, and can simply record their + experiences and performances. + + Materials for the children's tales I find in the lives of the + little people about me, for no one can invent anything so droll, + pretty or pathetic as the sayings and doings of these small + actors, poets and martyrs. In the older books, the events are + mostly from real life, the strongest the truest, and I yet hope + to write a few of the novels which have been simmering in my + brain while necessity and unexpected success have confined me to + juvenile literature. + + I gave Mrs. Moulton many facts for her article in "Famous + Women," and there are many other sketches which will add more if + they are wanted. The first edition of "Jo's Boys" was twenty + thousand I believe, and over fifty thousand were soon gone. + Since January I know little about the sales. People usually ask + "How much have you made?" I am contented with a hundred + thousand, and find my best success in the comfort my family + enjoy; also a naughty satisfaction in proving that it was better + _not_ to "stick to teaching" as advised, but to write. + + [Illustration: LOUISA MAY ALCOTT. + From a daguerreotype. + _Page 160._] + +With all her love for her father, irreverent Louisa delighted in making +fun of him. The complacent philosopher, with his voluminous journals, +his several books in manuscript, his liking, despite the brilliancy of +his conversations, for the written rather than the spoken word, was a +wasteful user of paper and a careless dispenser of ink. That her father +enjoyed her good-natured banter is shown by the fact that in his journal +he has entered the following poem, written by Louisa at nineteen: + + From Louisa on my 52nd birthday. + Nov. 29th, 1851. + + To Father. + + A cloth on the table where dear Plato sits + By one of the Graces was spread + With the single request that he would not design + New patterns with black ink or red. + And when he is soaring away in the clouds + I beg he'll remember and think + Though the "blackbirds" are fair his cloth will be fairer + For not being deluged with ink. + May plenty of paper of pens and of quiet + To my dear pa forever be given + Till he has written such piles that when on the top + He can walk calmly on into Heaven. + + + + + CHAPTER IX + + FRIENDSHIPS AND BELIEFS + + +RARE friendships existed among the great minds of that period, when +Transcendentalism in America was first talked and lived, a close bond of +sympathy uniting Bronson Alcott, Emerson, Thoreau, Ellery Channing, +Margaret Fuller, and Elizabeth Peabody. Such association made its +impress upon the Alcott daughters. Anna's diary is filled with +references to visits with the Emersons. Louisa's deal less with the +family and more with the intellectual life of the great philosopher, +whom she made her idol. Through life he was her stanch and +understanding friend. + +"The Apostles of the Newness" was the scoffing term applied to these +literary giants of New England by those who lacked the mental and +spiritual insight to recognize greatness in others. + +This attitude of ridicule was largely responsible for the continued +attacks upon the _Dial_, a quarterly issued by the Transcendentalists, +edited from 1840 to 1844 by Emerson, Margaret Fuller, George Ripley, and +Thoreau. Between its modest covers were many of the intellectual +masterpieces of the time: its rare volumes are still treasure-houses of +literature which to-day command any price. Mr. Alcott selected its title +and was to a large extent responsible for its policy. His Orphic +Sayings in the _Dial_, now looked upon as classics, were the butt of the +press at the time, and the derision of Boston society. + +In these Orphic Sayings, he gave this remarkable definition of Reform: +"Reforms are the noblest of facts. Extant in time, they work for +eternity: dwelling with men, they are with God." + +Conversation among these friends was neither trivial nor useless, and in +the Alcott circle, which included Emerson, Thoreau, Theodore Parker, +William Henry Channing, James Freeman Clarke, Elizabeth Peabody, Mrs. +Cheney, and other of the early Transcendentalists, later on augmented by +James Russell Lowell and Nathaniel Hawthorne, a series of drawing-room +symposiums was established, with Alcott, whom Emerson called "serious +and superior," as a leader. Much of the substance of these conversations +is found in the Alcott journals, and in the unpublished manuscripts of +the poet-philosopher. + +In Concord, the Alcotts once more enjoyed the literary companionship +they craved. Emerson was a near neighbor. Thoreau had his cabin at +Walden, where he had established "a community of one." To and from +Boston came others of the Transcendental group, and Concord became the +center of thought for New England. + +Thinking, however, was not the only occupation of Bronson Alcott. +Dreamer he was, but he delighted in toil and ever upheld the dignity of +labor, not ashamed nor afraid to work for hire as a laborer in his +neighbor's field, while nightly conducting drawing-room conversations +with a company of peers and students. + +When Thoreau built his cabin, Alcott helped him. They cut the trees from +Emerson's grove. While Emerson was abroad, they built a summer-house for +him on his grounds. It stood for many years, a picturesque temple of +friendship. William Henry Channing mentions a morning spent there, +reading Margaret Fuller's Italian letters. May Alcott has made drawings +of it, which were published in a volume of "Concord Sketches" that also +contained her drawing of Hawthorne's house. + +Mr. Alcott practically rebuilt Orchard House for his own family. Mrs. +Child, a friend of Mrs. Alcott, thus describes this home, which is now +preserved as a memorial to Louisa M. Alcott and is visited by thousands +every year: + + When they bought the place the house was so very old that it + was thrown into the bargain, with the supposition that it was + fit for nothing but firewood. But Mr. Alcott had an + architectural taste, more intelligible than his Orphic Sayings. + He let every old rafter and beam stay in its place, changed old + ovens and ash holes into Saxon arched alcoves, and added a + washerwoman's old shanty to the rear. The result is a house + full of queer nooks and corners, with all manner of juttings in + and out. It seems as if the spirit of some old architect had + dropped it down in Concord. + +Thoreau, master builder himself, has paid to Bronson Alcott this +tribute: + + One of the last of the philosophers, Connecticut gave him to + the world. He peddled first her wares, afterwards, as he + declares, his brains. These he peddles still, bearing for + fruit, only his brain, like the nut its kernel. His words and + attitude always suppose a better state of things than other men + are aquainted with, and he will be the last man to be + disappointed when the ages revolve. He has no venture in the + present. But though comparatively disregarded now, when his + day comes, laws unsuspected by most will take effect, and + rulers will come to him for advice. + +Emerson, who saw the boy mind beneath the philosopher's dignity, said +tenderly of Bronson Alcott: "He is certainly the youngest man of his age +we have seen. When I looked at his gray hairs, his conversation sounded +pathetic; but I looked again and they reminded me of the gray dawn." + +Even his friends, to say nothing of Louisa, occasionally poked fun at +him for chronicling so minutely all his thoughts. Ellery Channing called +his library, "Encyclopediea de Moi-meme, en cents volumes." Yet these +journals and records are now worth more than the fine library he +collected and in which he delighted. + +Emerson has thus described the origin of the Fruitlands community: + + On the invitation of James P. Greaves of London, the friend and + fellow-laborer of Pestalozzi in Switzerland, Mr. Alcott went to + England in 1842. Mr. Greaves died before his arrival, but Mr. + Alcott was received cordially by his friends, who had given his + name to their school, Alcott House, Ham, near London. He spent + several months in making acquaintance with various classes of + reformers. On his return to America, he brought with him two of + his English friends, Chas. Lane and H. C. Wright; and Mr. Lane + having bought a farm which he called Fruitlands, at Harvard, + Mass., they all went there to found a new community. + +The Fruitlands experiment and its failure have been immortalized by +Louisa Alcott in her "Transcendental Wild Oats." The detail of it is +thus described by a friend of the Alcott family, who had the story from +Bronson Alcott himself: + + The crop failures necessitated the community living on a barley + diet, as anything animal was not allowed, not even milk and + eggs. Now and then they gave a thought as to what they should + do for shoes when those they had were gone; for depriving the + cow of her skin was a crime not to be tolerated. The barley + crop was injured in harvesting, and before long want was + staring them in the face. The Alcotts remained at Fruitlands + till mid-winter in dire poverty, all the guests having taken + their departure as provisions vanished. Friends came to the + rescue, and, Mr. Alcott concluded with pathos in his voice, "We + put our little women on an ox-sled and made our way to Concord! + So faded one of the dreams of my youth. I have given you + the facts as they were; Louisa has given the comic side in + 'Transcendental Wild Oats'; but Mrs. Alcott could give you the + tragic side." + +Indeed, it was always Mrs. Alcott who could have given the tragic side, +skillfully as she kept her worries hidden. Her own family, indignant +because Bronson Alcott could not better provide the material needs for +his family, on more than one occasion besought the faithful wife to +leave him. + +A letter from her brother, urging this step, drew forth from her a +defense of Bronson Alcott which the husband enters in his journal as +follows: + + November + 1840 + + Passages of a letter from my wife to one who misapprehends and + perverts my life and purposes. + + "If I do not mistake the spirit as well as letter of your remark + you would have us believe that a righteous retribution has + overtaken us, (or my husband, and we are one,) and that the + world is justly punishing him for not having conciliated it, by + conforming to its wills and ways.--You say that my husband was + told ten years ago, that the world could not understand him. It + perhaps fell dead on his ears and ever will. There is no human + voice can convince him that the path he has chosen to tread, + thorny, bleak, solitary, as it is, is not the right one for him. + Just so did that man of Nazareth whom all the world profess to + admire and adore, but few to imitate; and these few are the + laughing-stock of the Christian Community. They are branded as + visionaries and fools. But this little band when alone and + disencumbered of idle observation, enjoy the recital of their + privations; they have been reviled, but they revile not again; + they know sorrow and are acquainted with grief; and yet there is + joy in that group of sinless men, such as angels might desire + to partake of. I am not writing poetry, but I have tried to + place before your mind, in as brief, but clear a manner as I am + able, our real condition, and Mr. Alcott's merit as a man, who, + though punished and neglected by a wicked world, has much to + console and encourage him in the confidence and cooperation of + some of the wisest and best men living. Ten such, were they + permitted in their several vocations to act as teachers, + preachers, and printers, would save our wicked city from the + ruin that awaits it. But they are turned, like the Nazarene, + into solitary places to lament the blindness and folly of + mankind, who are following the vain and fleeting shadow for the + real and abiding substance. But to return to Mr. Alcott, is he + to sell his soul, or what is the same thing, his principles, for + the bread that perisheth? No one will employ him in his way; he + cannot work in theirs, if he thereby involve his conscience. He + is so resolved in this matter that I believe he will starve and + freeze before he will sacrifice principle to comfort. In this, I + and my children are necessarily implicated: we make and mean to + make all the sacrifices we can to sustain him, but we have less + to sustain us in the spirit, and therefore, are more liable to + be overcome of the flesh. He has, for a long time gone without + everything which he could not produce by labor, from his own + place, that no one could in truth reproach him with wantonly + eating of the fruits of another's labor. + + He was sent for by friends in Hingham to talk with them; which + he did two evenings; his expenses were paid and $23. put into + his hands as a slight compensation for the benefit they felt he + had conferred upon them by his conversations. I should like to + copy the note accompanying it, but you never care to see how his + fellow fanatics rave on these holy themes, life, duty, destiny + of man. Thus he occasionally finds a market for his thoughts and + experiences, which, though inadequate to our support, is richly + prized as the honest gains of an innocent and righteous labor. + You spoke of his "poetical wardrobe" whether in satire or in a + worthier spirit, I cannot tell. However spiritual he may have + become, there is still enough of the carnal to feel the chills + of winter, and the chiller blasts of satire. His tatters are the + rags of righteousness and keep him warmer than they would anyone + whose spirit was less cheered and warmed by the fires of eternal + love and truth. + +An appreciative account of Mr. Alcott's famous school in the Masonic +Temple, Boston, is found in the "Record of a School," edited by +Elizabeth Peabody, published in 1835, republished in 1874. The +"Conversations with Children on the Gospels," edited by Mr. Alcott in +two volumes, appearing in 1836-1837, caused such a commotion in Boston +as to result in the downfall of the Temple School. Reading these +conversations to-day, one is impressed with the modern quality of their +thought. They were forerunners of that higher criticism, which with the +Bible student now supplants the old blind acceptance without reflection +of even obscure Biblical passages. + +On philosophy and religion Mr. Alcott and Miss Peabody delighted to talk +and write. Their discussion of the existence of evil is startlingly +modern. + +"I do not think that evil should be clothed in form by the imagination," +writes Miss Peabody to Mr. Alcott; "I think every effort should be made +to strip it of all individuality, all shaping and all coloring. And +the reason is, that Evil has in truth no substantial existence, that +it acquires all the existence it has from want of faith and soul +cultivation, and that this is sufficient reason why all cultivation +should be directed to give positiveness, coloring, shaping, to all +kinds of good--Good only being eternal truth." + +In reply, the philosopher thus comments in his diary: "Evil has no +positive existence, I agree with Miss Peabody, but it has usurped a +positive place and being in the popular imagination, and by the +imagination must it be made to flee away into its negative life. How +shall this be done? By shadowing forth in vivid colors the absolute +beauty and phenomena of good, by assuming evil not as positive, but as +negative." + +"I shall always love you for loving Alcott," writes Emerson to his +schoolmate and lifelong friend, the Reverend W. H. Furness. "He is a +great man, the god with the herdsman of Admetus. His conversation is +sublime; yet when I see how he is underestimated by cultivated people, +I fancy none but I have heard him talk." + +In the midst of slander and petty persecutions, Alcott writes in his +diary for April, 1837: + + I have been striving to apprehend the real in the seeming, to + strip ideas of their adventitious phrases and behold them in + their order and powers. I have sought to penetrate the showy + terrestrial to find the heavenly things. I have tried to + translate into ideas the language and images of spirit, and + thus to read God in his works. The outward I have seen as the + visage and type of the inward. Ever doth this same nature + double its design and stand forth--now before the inner, now + before the outer sense of man, at once substance and form, + image and idea, so that God shall never slip wholly from the + consciousness of the soul. + +Emerson, weary of seeing his friend misunderstood, urges him to give up +teaching and become an author, picturing as his golden view for Alcott +that one day he will leave the impracticable world to wag its own way, +sit apart, and write his oracles for its behoof. + +"Write! let them hear or let them forbear," he thunders. "The written +word abides until, slowly and unexpectedly, and in widely sundered +places, it has created its own church." + +The unreality of evil, as taught and believed by Alcott nearly a century +ago, laughed and scoffed at then, was twenty-five years later +practically the foundation of a belief which gained its first foothold +in New England, and, with headquarters in Boston, has spread, until +to-day its followers and churches circle the civilized globe--a new-old +religion, based on the literal acceptance of the teachings of Christ. +What to-day is called metaphysical teaching was in the Alcott period +scoffed at as Transcendentalism. + +Mr. Alcott's strict adherence to a vegetarian diet was also the topic of +ridicule from public and press, although the Alcott children seemed to +thrive on it, and certainly, as four-year-old Louisa once remarked, "Did +pitty well for a wegetable diet." + +Louisa, in her journal, gives this sample of the vegetarian wafers they +had at Fruitlands: + + Vegetable | Pluck your | Without flesh + diet and | body from | + sweet repose | the orchard; | diet there + Animal food | do not snatch | could be no + and nightmare. | it from the | blood-shedding + | shamble. | war. + + Appollo eats no | Snuff is no less snuff + flesh and has no | though accepted + beard; his voice is | from a gold box. + melody itself. | + +Bronson Alcott constantly sought self-improvement, and the shortcomings +of his early education were more than offset by his untiring study. +Realizing at one time his lack of a vocabulary, he comments in his +journal, that to rectify this he has just bought two books, "A +Symposium of Melancholy," and "Hunter on the Blood." + +In their memoirs of Bronson Alcott, F. B. Sanborn and W. T. Harris +have thus summed up his character: "He was the most filial son, the +most faithful lover, the most attached friend, the most generous +philanthropist of his time. And when he died, he left fewer enemies +than any man of equal age can have provoked or encountered in so long +a career." + +In his study of childhood, Mr. Alcott sought first to reach the mind, +recognizing that as "the God within us." He encouraged individuality in +his children, trying in their earliest years to make them think for +themselves. All through his teaching runs the boy's friendship with God, +and his sense of oneness with his Maker was a part of the divine +heritage he passed on to his daughters. + +He records in his diary a conversation with Anna, who was four, and +Louisa, who was two, after reading to them the story of Jesus, which he +made so vital that, given their choice, they asked for it in preference +to a fairy tale. Anna remarked that Jesus did not really die. "They +killed his body, but not his soul." Her father asked: "What is the soul, +Anna?" The little four-year-old replied: "It's this inside of me that +makes me feel and think and love." "And," said the father, "what became +of Jesus' soul?" Anna replied: "It went back to God." Whereat little +two-year-old Louisa asked: "Why, isn't Dod inside of me?" + +A note in the father's diary at the birth of Elizabeth records "Anna's +first interview with her sister" (Elizabeth a few hours old), and a day +later comes this record: "Anna and Louisa interview their sister." +Louisa, two years old, wishes to have the baby sister put in her arms, +when four-year-old Anna says warningly: "Treat her very carefully, +Louisa, she comes from God." What a beautiful thought to give a child of +the divine mystery of birth! + +Instead of asserting what he intended to make of his children, Alcott +encouraged the child to make itself, beginning when it was a small +baby, treating it as an individual, giving it opportunity to use its +mentality, instilling principles of right and wrong by suggestion. +Alcott never commanded. "You don't wish to do that," was his way, not +exacting blind obedience, but expressing his conviction that the child +wished to do right. + +To him, God was love. He had no fear of God, for perfect love had cast +out fear. This same spirit was manifested in all his children. To them +the change called Death was not to be dreaded; it was a stepping forward +and upward. + +This thought that death is not the end, but the beginning, is expressed +in one of Louisa's most beautiful poems: + + THOREAU'S FLUTE + + We sighing said, "Our Pan is dead; + His pipe hangs mute beside the river. + Around it wistful sunbeams quiver, + And Music's airy voice is fled. + Spring mourns as for untimely frost; + The bluebird chants a requiem; + The willow-blossom waits for him;-- + The Genius of the wood is lost." + + Then from the flute, untouched by hands, + There came a low, harmonious breath; + "For such as he there is no death-- + His life the eternal life commands; + Above man's aims his nature rose, + The wisdom of a just content + Made one small spot a continent + And tuned to poetry life's prose. + + "Haunting the hills, the stream, the wild, + Swallow and aster, lake and pine, + To him grew human or divine,-- + Fit mates for this large-hearted child. + Such homage Nature ne'er forgets, + And yearly on the coverlid + 'Neath which her darling lieth hid + Will write his name in violets. + + "To him no vain regrets belong, + Whose soul, that finer instrument, + Gave to the world no poor lament, + But wood-notes ever sweet and strong. + O lonely friend! he still will be + A potent presence, though unseen;-- + Steadfast, sagacious and serene; + Seek not for him--he is with thee." + +A visit to Sleepy Hollow suggests life, not death. Giant trees stretch +their branches over marble and granite monuments, as if in benediction. +"There is no death, for God is life," they seem to say. For them there +is no death. Emerson lives to-day, the great philosopher; so do Thoreau, +Hawthorne, Bronson Alcott, and others of that mighty company. And who +shall say that Louisa Alcott is dead? She lives in the hearts of +thousands, and will go on living through the love they bear her. + +Bronson Alcott was a true disciple of Jesus Christ. He lived the example +set by his Master not alone in words and thoughts, but in deeds. He +lived through and beyond misunderstanding, ridicule, poverty, to see his +teachings respected, his name honored, to see the first glimmer of the +new light which was beginning to break over the world, the sunrise at +his own sunset. + +This thought is embodied in the last poem Louisa Alcott ever wrote: + + To my Father. + On his Eighty-Sixth Birthday. + + Dear Pilgrim, waiting patiently, + The long, long journey nearly done, + Beside the sacred stream that flows + Clear shining in the western sun; + Look backward on the varied road + Your steadfast feet have trod, + From youth to age, through weal and woe, + Climbing forever nearer God. + + Mountain and valley lie behind; + The slough is crossed, the wicket passed; + Doubt and despair, sorrow and sin, + Giant and fiend, conquered at last. + Neglect is changed to honor now, + The heavy cross may be laid down; + The white head wins and wears at length + The prophet's, not the martyr's crown. + + Greatheart and Faithful gone before, + Brave Christiana, Mercy sweet, + Are shining ones who stand and wait + The weary wanderer to greet. + Patience and Love his handmaids are, + And till time brings release, + Christian may rest in that bright room + Whose windows open to the east. + + The staff set by, the sandals off, + Still pondering the precious scroll, + Serene and strong he waits the call + That frees and wings a happy soul. + Then beautiful as when it lured, + The boy's aspiring eyes, + Before the pilgrim's longing sight, + Shall the Celestial City rise. + + + + + CHRONOLOGY + +It has been particularly the aim of the editors to lift these Little +Women Letters out of the biographical and into the narrative class. For +this reason dates have not been used with any degree of liberality, and +chronological facts have been minimized. + +However, as this is a story of the Alcott family, and seekers for +definite data will not be lacking, a chronological summary is herewith +furnished: + + Amos Bronson Alcott 1799-1888 + married + Abby May 1800-1877 + + Their Children + Anna Bronson 1831-1893 + Louisa May 1832-1888 + Elizabeth 1835-1858 + Abby May 1840-1879 + + Anna Bronson married John Bridge Pratt, 1860. + + Their Children + Frederick Alcott 1863-1910 + John Sewall 1865 + + Abby May married Ernst Nieriker, March, 1878. + + Children + Louisa May 1879 + + Frederick Alcott Pratt + married + Jessica Cate + February, 1888 + + Their Children + Bronson Alcott 1889 + Elizabeth Sewall 1891 + Louisa May 1900 + Frederick Woolsey 1902 + + Elizabeth Sewall married Alfred Redfield + June, 1913 + + [*]John Sewall Pratt + married + Eunie May Hunting + January, 1909 + +[*] John Sewall Pratt adopted in 1888 by Louisa May Alcott and +name changed to John Sewall Pratt Alcott. + + Children + Elverton Hunting + + Louisa May Nieriker 1878 + married + Ernst Rasim + + Children + Ernestine + + + + +Transcriber Notes: + +Passages in italics are indicated by _underscores_. + +Small caps have been replaced with ALL CAP text. + +Spelling errors, grammatical errors, and typographical errors within +letters were not corrected, in order to preserve the flavor of the +historical record of those letters. After all, some of these letters +were written by girls as young as five. + +Some of the illustrations have been moved so that they do not break up +paragraphs, thus the page number of the illustration might not match the +page number in the List of Illustrations. + +On page 58, "reestablished" was replaced with "reestablished". + +On page 173, has a quotation mark at the beginning of "If I do not +mistake" but no closing quotation mark, and it is less than clear where +the closing quotation mark should be. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Little Women Letters from the House of +Alcott, by Louisa M. 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