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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of Louisa May Alcott, Her Life, Letters, and Journals, by Louisa M. Alcott
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you
+will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
+using this eBook.
+
+Title: Louisa May Alcott
+       Her Life, Letters, and Journals
+
+Author: Louisa May Alcott
+
+Editor: Ednah D. Cheney
+
+Release Date: November 18, 2011 [eBook #38049]
+[Most recently updated: September 3, 2021]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+Produced by: Juliet Sutherland, Melissa McDaniel and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOUISA MAY ALCOTT ***
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+  Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have
+  been preserved.  Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
+
+  Italic text is denoted by _underscores_ and bold text by =equal
+  signs=
+
+
+
+
+     LOUISA MAY ALCOTT
+     HER
+     Life, Letters, and Journals.
+
+     EDITED BY
+     EDNAH D. CHENEY
+
+     BOSTON
+     LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
+     1898
+
+
+
+
+     _Copyright, 1889_,
+     BY J. S. P. ALCOTT.
+
+     UNIVERSITY PRESS:
+     JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE.
+
+
+
+
+     TO
+     MRS. ANNA B. PRATT,
+     THE SOLE SURVIVING SISTER OF LOUISA M. ALCOTT, AND HER
+     NEVER-FAILING HELP, COMFORTER, AND FRIEND
+     FROM BIRTH TO DEATH,
+
+     This Memoir
+     IS RESPECTFULLY AND TENDERLY DEDICATED,
+     BY
+     EDNAH D. CHENEY.
+
+     JAMAICA PLAIN,
+     June, 1889.
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration: Portrait of Miss Alcott]
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+Louisa May Alcott is universally recognized as the greatest and most
+popular story-teller for children in her generation. She has known the
+way to the hearts of young people, not only in her own class, or even
+country, but in every condition of life, and in many foreign lands.
+Plato says, "Beware of those who teach fables to children;" and it is
+impossible to estimate the influence which the popular writer of
+fiction has over the audience he wins to listen to his tales. The
+preacher, the teacher, the didactic writer find their audience in
+hours of strength, with critical faculties all alive, to question
+their propositions and refute their arguments. The novelist comes to
+us in the intervals of recreation and relaxation, and by his seductive
+powers of imagination and sentiment takes possession of the fancy and
+the heart before judgment and reason are aroused to defend the
+citadel. It well becomes us, then, who would guard young minds from
+subtle temptations, to study the character of those works which charm
+and delight the children.
+
+Of no author can it be more truly said than of Louisa Alcott that her
+works are a revelation of herself. She rarely sought for the material
+of her stories in old chronicles, or foreign adventures. Her capital
+was her own life and experiences and those of others directly about
+her; and her own well-remembered girlish frolics and fancies were sure
+to find responsive enjoyment in the minds of other girls.
+
+It is therefore impossible to understand Miss Alcott's works fully
+without a knowledge of her own life and experiences. By inheritance
+and education she had rich and peculiar gifts; and her life was one of
+rare advantages, as well as of trying difficulties. Herself of the
+most true and frank nature, she has given us the opportunity of
+knowing her without disguise; and it is thus that I shall try to
+portray her, showing what influences acted upon her through life, and
+how faithfully and fully she performed whatever duties circumstances
+laid upon her. Fortunately I can let her speak mainly for herself.
+
+Miss Alcott revised her journals at different times during her later
+life, striking out what was too personal for other eyes than her own,
+and destroying a great deal which would doubtless have proved very
+interesting.
+
+The small number of letters given will undoubtedly be a
+disappointment. Miss Alcott wished to have most of her letters
+destroyed, and her sister respected her wishes. She was not a
+voluminous correspondent; she did not encourage many intimacies, and
+she seldom wrote letters except to her family, unless in reference to
+some purpose she had strongly at heart. Writing was her constant
+occupation, and she was not tempted to indulge in it as a recreation.
+Her letters are brief, and strictly to the point, but always
+characteristic in feeling and expression; and, even at the risk of the
+repetition of matter contained in her journals or her books, I shall
+give copious extracts from such as have come into my hands.
+
+     E. D. C.
+     JAMAICA PLAIN, Mass., 1889.
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS.
+
+
+                                             PAGE
+
+     INTRODUCTION                             iii
+
+     CHAPTER.
+
+        I. GENEALOGY AND PARENTAGE             11
+       II. CHILDHOOD                           16
+      III. FRUITLANDS                          32
+       IV. THE SENTIMENTAL PERIOD              56
+        V. AUTHORSHIP                          75
+       VI. THE YEAR OF GOOD LUCK              110
+      VII. "HOSPITAL SKETCHES"                136
+     VIII. EUROPE, AND "LITTLE WOMEN"         170
+       IX. EUROPE                             204
+        X. FAMILY CHANGES                     263
+       XI. LAST YEARS                         329
+      XII. CONCLUSION                         387
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+                                                                PAGE
+
+     PORTRAIT OF MISS ALCOTT                          _Frontispiece_
+
+     Photogravure by A. W. Elson & Co., from a photograph by
+     Notman (negative destroyed), taken in 1883. The facsimile
+     of her writing is an extract from a letter to her
+     publisher, written from her hospital retreat a few weeks
+     previous to her death.
+
+     ORCHARD HOUSE ("APPLE SLUMP"), CONCORD,
+     MASS., THE HOME OF THE ALCOTTS, 1858 TO
+     1878                                                         93
+
+     Engraved by John Andrew & Son Co., from a photograph.
+
+     PORTRAIT OF MISS ALCOTT                                     140
+
+     Photogravure by A. W. Elson & Co., from a photograph
+     taken just previous to her going to Washington as a hospital
+     nurse, in 1862.
+
+     FAC-SIMILE OF MISS ALCOTT'S WRITING                         362
+
+     Extract from a letter to her publisher, January, 1886.
+
+     FAC-SIMILE OF PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION OF
+     "A MODERN MEPHISTOPHELES," NOW FIRST
+     PRINTED                                                     380
+
+
+
+
+LOUISA MAY ALCOTT.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+GENEALOGY AND PARENTAGE.
+
+     TO LOUISA MAY ALCOTT.
+
+     BY HER FATHER.
+
+     When I remember with what buoyant heart,
+       Midst war's alarms and woes of civil strife,
+     In youthful eagerness thou didst depart,
+       At peril of thy safety, peace, and life,
+     To nurse the wounded soldier, swathe the dead,--
+       How piercèd soon by fever's poisoned dart,
+     And brought unconscious home, with wildered head,
+       Thou ever since 'mid langour and dull pain,
+     To conquer fortune, cherish kindred dear,
+       Hast with grave studies vexed a sprightly brain,
+     In myriad households kindled love and cheer,
+       Ne'er from thyself by Fame's loud trump beguiled,
+     Sounding in this and the farther hemisphere,--
+       I press thee to my heart as Duty's faithful child.
+
+
+Louisa Alcott was the second child of Amos Bronson and Abba May
+Alcott. This name was spelled Alcocke in English history. About 1616 a
+coat-of-arms was granted to Thomas Alcocke of Silbertoft, in the
+county of Leicester. The device represents three cocks, emblematic of
+watchfulness; and the motto is _Semper Vigilans_.
+
+The first of the name appearing in English history is John Alcocke of
+Beverley, Yorkshire, of whom Fuller gives an account in his Worthies
+of England.
+
+Thomas and George Alcocke were the first of the name among the
+settlers in New England. The name is frequently found in the records
+of Dorchester and Roxbury, and has passed through successive changes
+to its present form.
+
+The name of Bronson came from Mr. Alcott's maternal grandfather, the
+sturdy Capt. Amos Bronson of Plymouth, Conn. "His ancestors on both
+sides had been substantial people of respectable position in England,
+and were connected with the founders and governors of the chief New
+England colonies. At the time of Mr. Alcott's birth they had become
+simple farmers, reaping a scanty living from their small farms in
+Connecticut."
+
+Amos Bronson Alcott, the father of Louisa, was born Nov. 29, 1799, at
+the foot of Spindle Hill, in the region called New Connecticut. He has
+himself given in simple verse the story of his quaint rustic life in
+his boyhood, and Louisa has reproduced it in her story of "Eli's
+Education" (in the Spinning-Wheel Stories), which gives a very true
+account of his youthful life and adventures. He derived his refined,
+gentle nature from his mother, who had faith in her son, and who lived
+to see him the accomplished scholar he had vowed to become in his
+boyhood. Although brought up in these rustic surroundings, his manners
+were always those of a true gentleman. The name of the little mountain
+town afterward became Wolcott, and Louisa records in her journal a
+pilgrimage made thither in after years.[1]
+
+Louisa Alcott's mother was a daughter of Col. Joseph May of Boston.
+This family is so well known that it is hardly necessary to repeat its
+genealogy here.[2] She was a sister of Samuel J. May, for many years
+pastor of the Unitarian church at Syracuse, who was so tenderly
+beloved by men of all religious persuasions in his home, and so widely
+known and respected for his courage and zeal in the Antislavery cause,
+as well as for his many philanthropic labors.
+
+Mrs. Alcott's mother was Dorothy Sewall, a descendant of that family
+already distinguished in the annals of the Massachusetts colony, and
+which has lost nothing of its reputation for ability and virtue in its
+latest representatives.[3]
+
+Mrs. Alcott inherited in large measure the traits which distinguished
+her family. She was a woman of large stature, fine physique, and
+overflowing life. Her temper was as quick and warm as her affections,
+but she was full of broad unselfish generosity. Her untiring energies
+were constantly employed, not only for the benefit of her family, but
+for all around her. She had a fine mind, and if she did not have
+large opportunities for scholastic instruction, she always enjoyed the
+benefit of intellectual society and converse with noble minds. She
+loved expression in writing, and her letters are full of wit and
+humor, keen criticism, and noble moral sentiments. Marriage with an
+idealist, who had no means of support, brought her many trials and
+privations. She bore them heroically, never wavering in affection for
+her husband or in devotion to her children. If the quick, impatient
+temper sometimes relieved itself in hasty speech, the action was
+always large and unselfish.
+
+It will be apparent from Louisa's life that she inherited the traits
+of both her parents, and that the uncommon powers of mind and heart
+that distinguished her were not accidental, but the accumulated result
+of the lives of generations of strong and noble men and women.
+
+She was well born.
+
+
+_Mr. Alcott to Colonel May._
+
+     GERMANTOWN, Nov. 29, 1832.
+
+   DEAR SIR,--It is with great pleasure that I announce to you the
+   _birth of a second daughter_. She was born at half-past 12 this
+   morning, on my birthday (33), and is a very fine healthful child,
+   much more so than Anna was at birth,--has a fine foundation for
+   health and energy of character. Abba is very comfortable, and
+   will soon be restored to the discharge of those domestic and
+   maternal duties in which she takes so much delight, and in the
+   performance of which she furnishes so excellent a model for
+   imitation. Those only who have seen her in those relations, much
+   as there is in her general character to admire and esteem, can
+   form a true estimate of her personal worth and uncommon devotion
+   of heart. She was formed for domestic sentiment rather than the
+   gaze and heartlessness of what is falsely called "society." Abba
+   inclines to call the babe _Louisa May_,--a name to her full of
+   every association connected with amiable benevolence and exalted
+   worth. I hope its _present possessor_ may rise to equal
+   attainment, and deserve a place in the estimation of society.
+
+   With Abba's and Anna's and Louisa's regards, allow me to assure
+   you of the sincerity with which I am
+
+     Yours,
+     A. BRONSON ALCOTT.
+
+The children who lived to maturity were--
+
+     ANNA BRONSON ALCOTT,
+     LOUISA MAY ALCOTT,
+     ELIZABETH SEWALL ALCOTT,
+     ABBA MAY ALCOTT.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] For further particulars of the Alcott genealogy, see "New
+Connecticut," a poem by A. B. Alcott, published in 1887. I am also
+indebted to Mr. F. B. Sanborn's valuable paper read at the memorial
+service at Concord in 1888.
+
+[2] For particulars of the genealogy of the May families, see "A
+Genealogy of the Descendants of John May," who came from England to
+Roxbury in America, 1640.
+
+[3] For the Sewall family, see "Drake's History of Boston," or fuller
+accounts in the Sewall Papers published by the Massachusetts
+Historical Society.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+CHILDHOOD.
+
+     TO THE FIRST ROBIN.[4]
+
+     Welcome, welcome, little stranger,
+     Fear no harm, and fear no danger;
+     We are glad to see you here,
+     For you sing "Sweet Spring is near."
+
+     Now the white snow melts away;
+     Now the flowers blossom gay:
+     Come dear bird and build your nest,
+     For we love our robin best.
+
+       LOUISA MAY ALCOTT.
+       CONCORD.
+
+
+Mr. Alcott had removed to Germantown, Penn, to take charge of a
+school, and here Louisa was born, Nov. 29, 1832. She was the second
+daughter, and was welcomed with the same pride and affection as her
+elder sister had been. We have this pleasant little glimpse of her
+when she was hardly a month old, from the pen of one of her mother's
+friends. Even at that extremely early age love saw the signs of more
+than usual intelligence, and friends as well as fond parents looked
+forward to a promising career.
+
+
+_Extract from a Letter by Miss Donaldson._
+
+     GERMANTOWN, PENN., Dec. 16, 1832.
+
+   I have a dear little pet in Mrs. Alcott's little Louisa. It is
+   the prettiest, best little thing in the world. You will wonder to
+   hear me call anything so young pretty, but it is really so in an
+   uncommon degree; it has a fair complexion, dark bright eyes, long
+   dark hair, a high forehead, and altogether a countenance of more
+   than usual intelligence.
+
+   The mother is such a delightful woman that it is a cordial to my
+   heart whenever I go to see her. I went in to see her for a few
+   moments the evening we received your letter, and I think I never
+   saw her in better spirits; and truly, if goodness and integrity
+   can insure felicity, she deserves to be happy.
+
+The earliest anecdote remembered of Louisa is this: When the family
+went from Philadelphia to Boston by steamer, the two little girls were
+nicely dressed in clean nankeen frocks for the voyage; but they had
+not been long on board before the lively Louisa was missing, and after
+a long search she was brought up from the engine-room, where her eager
+curiosity had carried her, and where she was having a beautiful time,
+with "plenty of dirt."
+
+The family removed to Boston in 1834, and Mr. Alcott opened his famous
+school in Masonic Temple. Louisa was too young to attend the school
+except as an occasional visitor; but she found plenty of interest and
+amusement for herself in playing on the Common, making friends with
+every child she met, and on one occasion falling into the Frog Pond.
+She has given a very lively picture of this period of her life in
+"Poppy's Pranks," that vivacious young person being a picture of
+herself, not at all exaggerated.
+
+The family lived successively in Front Street, Cottage Place, and
+Beach Street during the six succeeding years in Boston. They
+occasionally passed some weeks at Scituate during the summer, which
+the children heartily enjoyed.
+
+Mrs. Hawthorne gives a little anecdote which shows how the child's
+heart was blossoming in this family sunshine: "One morning in Front
+Street, at the breakfast table, Louisa suddenly broke silence, with a
+sunny smile saying, 'I love everybody in _dis_ whole world.'"
+
+Two children were born during this residence in Boston. Elizabeth was
+named for Mr. Alcott's assistant in his school,--Miss E. P. Peabody,
+since so widely known and beloved by all friends of education. A boy
+was born only to die. The little body was laid reverently away in the
+lot of Colonel May in the old burial-ground on the Common, and the
+children were taught to speak with tenderness of their "baby brother."
+
+When Louisa was about seven years old she made a visit to friends in
+Providence. Miss C. writes of her: "She is a beautiful little girl to
+look upon, and I love her affectionate manners. I think she is more
+like her mother than either of the others." As is usually the case,
+Louisa's journal, which she began at this early age, speaks more fully
+of her struggles and difficulties than of the bright, sunny moods
+which made her attractive. A little letter carefully printed and sent
+home during this visit is preserved. In it she says she is not happy;
+and she did have one trying experience there, to which she refers in
+"My Boys." Seeing some poor children who she thought were hungry, she
+took food from the house without asking permission, and carried it to
+them, and was afterward very much astonished and grieved at being
+reprimanded instead of praised for the deed. Miss C. says: "She has
+had several spells of feeling sad; but a walk or a talk soon dispels
+all gloom. She was half moody when she wrote her letter; but now she
+is gay as a lark. She loves to play out of doors, and sometimes she is
+not inclined to stay in when it is unpleasant." In her sketches of "My
+Boys" she describes two of her companions here, not forgetting the
+kindness of the one and the mischievousness of the other.
+
+Although the family were quite comfortable during the time of Mr.
+Alcott's teaching in Boston, yet the children wearied of their
+extremely simple diet of plain boiled rice without sugar, and graham
+meal without butter or molasses. An old friend who could not eat the
+bountiful rations provided for her at the United States Hotel, used to
+save her piece of pie or cake for the Alcott children. Louisa often
+took it home to the others in a bandbox which she brought for the
+purpose.
+
+This friend was absent in Europe many years, and returned to find the
+name of Louisa Alcott famous. When she met the authoress on the street
+she was eagerly greeted. "Why, I did not think you would remember me!"
+said the old lady. "Do you think I shall ever forget that bandbox?"
+was the instant reply.
+
+In 1840, Mr. Alcott's school having proved unsuccessful, the family
+removed to Concord, Mass., and took a cottage which is described in
+"Little Women" as "Meg's first home," although Anna never lived there
+after her marriage. It was a pleasant house, with a garden full of
+trees, and best of all a large barn, in which the children could have
+free range and act out all the plays with which their little heads
+were teeming. Of course it was a delightful change from the city for
+the children, and here they passed two very happy years, for they were
+too young to understand the cares which pressed upon the hearts of
+their parents. Life was full of interest. One cold morning they found
+in the garden a little half-starved bird; and having warmed and fed
+it, Louisa was inspired to write a pretty poem to "The Robin." The
+fond mother was so delighted that she said to her, "You will grow up a
+Shakspeare!" From the lessons of her father she had formed the habit
+of writing freely, but this is the first recorded instance of her
+attempting to express her feelings in verse.
+
+From the influences of such parentage as I have described, the family
+life in which Louisa was brought up became wholly unique.
+
+If the father had to give up his cherished projects of a school
+modelled after his ideas, he could at least conduct the education of
+his own children; and he did so with the most tender devotion. Even
+when they were infants he took a great deal of personal care of them,
+and loved to put the little ones to bed and use the "children's hour"
+to instil into their hearts lessons of love and wisdom. He was full of
+fun too, and would lie on the floor and frolic with them, making
+compasses of his long legs with which to draw letters and diagrams. No
+shade of fear mingled with the children's reverent recognition of his
+superior spiritual life. So their hearts lay open to him, and he was
+able to help them in their troubles.
+
+He taught them much by writing; and we have many specimens of their
+lists of words to be spelled, written, and understood. The lessons at
+Scituate were often in the garden, and their father always drew their
+attention to Nature and her beautiful forms and meanings. Little
+symbolical pictures helped to illustrate his lessons, and he sometimes
+made drawings himself. Here is an example of lessons. A quaint little
+picture represents one child playing on a harp, another drawing an
+arrow. It is inscribed--
+
+     FOR LOUISA.
+
+     1840.
+
+     Two passions strong divide our life,--
+     Meek, gentle love, or boisterous strife.
+
+Below the child playing the harp is--
+
+     Love, Music,
+       Concord.
+
+Below the shooter is--
+
+     Anger, Arrow,
+       Discord.
+
+Another leaflet is--
+
+     FOR LOUISA
+
+     1840.
+
+       Louisa loves--
+         What?
+     (_Softly._)
+         Fun.
+       Have some then,
+            Father
+                says.
+
+     Christmas Eve, December, 1840.
+     Concordia.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     FOR ANNA.
+
+     1840.
+
+     Beauty or Duty,--
+           which
+       loves Anna best?
+             A
+         Question
+         from her
+         Father.
+
+     Christmas Eve,
+     December, 1840.
+     Concordia.
+
+A letter beautifully printed by her father for Louisa (1839) speaks to
+her of conscience, and she adds to it this note: "L. began early, it
+seems, to wrestle with her conscience." The children were always
+required to keep their journals regularly, and although these were
+open to the inspection of father and mother, they were very frank, and
+really recorded their struggles and desires. The mother had the habit
+of writing little notes to the children when she wished to call their
+attention to any fault or peculiarity. Louisa preserved many of them,
+headed,--
+
+   [_Extracts_ from letters from Mother, received during these early
+   years. I preserve them to show the ever tender, watchful help she
+   gave to the child who caused her the most anxiety, yet seemed to
+   be the nearest to her heart till the end.--L. M. A.]
+
+   No. 1.--MY DEAR LITTLE GIRL,--Will you accept this doll from me
+   on your seventh birthday? She will be a quiet playmate for my
+   active Louisa for seven years more. Be a kind mamma, and love her
+   for my sake.
+
+     YOUR MOTHER.
+     BEACH STREET, BOSTON, 1839.
+
+
+_From her Mother._
+
+     COTTAGE IN CONCORD.
+
+   DEAR DAUGHTER,--Your tenth birthday has arrived. May it be a
+   happy one, and on each returning birthday may you feel new
+   strength and resolution to be gentle with sisters, obedient to
+   parents, loving to every one, and happy in yourself.
+
+   I give you the pencil-case I promised, for I have observed that
+   you are fond of writing, and wish to encourage the habit.
+
+   Go on trying, dear, and each day it will be easier to be and do
+   good. You must help yourself, for the cause of your little
+   troubles is in yourself; and patience and courage age only will
+   make you what mother prays to see you,--her good and happy girl.
+
+     CONCORD, 1843.
+
+   DEAR LOUY,--I enclose a picture for you which I always liked very
+   much, for I imagined that you might be just such an industrious
+   daughter and I such a feeble but loving mother, looking to your
+   labor for my daily bread.
+
+   Keep it for my sake and your own, for you and I always liked to
+   be grouped together.
+
+     MOTHER.
+
+   The lines I wrote under the picture in my journal:--
+
+     TO MOTHER.
+
+     I hope that soon, dear mother,
+       You and I may be
+     In the quiet room my fancy
+       Has so often made for thee,--
+
+     The pleasant, sunny chamber,
+       The cushioned easy-chair,
+     The book 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,
+       And I can cherish thee.
+
+   [The dream came true, and for the last ten years of her life
+   Marmee sat in peace, with every wish granted, even to the
+   "grouping together;" for she died in my arms.--L. M. A.]
+
+A passage in Louisa's story of "Little Men" (p. 268) describes one of
+their childish plays. They "made believe" their minds were little
+round rooms in which the soul lived, and in which good or bad things
+were preserved. This play was never forgotten in after life, and the
+girls often looked into their little rooms for comfort or guidance in
+trial or temptation.
+
+Louisa was very fond of animals, as is abundantly shown in her
+stories. She never had the happiness of owning many pets, except cats,
+and these were the delight of the household. The children played all
+manner of plays with them, tended them in sickness, buried them with
+funeral honors, and Louisa has embalmed their memory in the story of
+"The Seven Black Cats" in "Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag."
+
+Dolls were an equal source of pleasure. The imaginative children
+hardly recognized them as manufactured articles, but endowed them with
+life and feeling. Louisa put her dolls through every experience of
+life; they were fed, educated, punished, rewarded, nursed, and even
+hung and buried, and then resurrected in her stories. The account of
+the "Sacrifice of the Dolls" to the exacting Kitty Mouse in "Little
+Men" delights all children by its mixture of pathetic earnestness and
+playfulness. It is taken from the experience of another family of
+children.
+
+Miss Alcott twice says that she never went to any school but her
+father's; but there were some slight exceptions to this rule. She went
+a few months to a little district school in Still River Village. This
+was a genuine old-fashioned school, from which she took the hint of
+the frolics in "Under the Lilacs." Miss Ford also kept a little school
+in Mr. Emerson's barn, to which the children went; and Mary Russell
+had a school, which Louisa attended when eight or nine years old.
+These circumstances, however, had small influence in her education.
+
+During this period of life in Concord, which was so happy to the
+children, the mother's heart was full of anxious care. She however
+entered into all their childish pleasures, and her watchful care over
+their moral growth is shown by her letters and by Louisa's journals.
+
+The youngest child, Abba May, who was born in the cottage, became the
+pet of the family and the special care of the oldest sister, Anna.
+
+Louisa's childish journal gives us many hints of this happy life. She
+revised these journals in later years, adding significant comments
+which are full of interest. She designed them to have place in her
+autobiography, which she hoped to write.
+
+From three different sources--her journals, an article written for
+publication, and a manuscript prepared for a friend,--we give her own
+account of these childish years. She has not followed the order of
+events strictly, and it has not been possible, therefore, to avoid all
+repetition; but they give the spirit of her early life, and clearly
+show the kind of education she received from her father and from the
+circumstances around her.
+
+
+_Sketch of Childhood, by herself._
+
+   One of my earliest recollections is of playing with books in my
+   father's study,--building houses and bridges of the big
+   dictionaries and diaries, looking at pictures, pretending to
+   read, and scribbling on blank pages whenever pen or pencil could
+   be found. Many of these first attempts at authorship still remain
+   in Bacon's Essays, Plutarch's Lives, and other works of a serious
+   nature, my infant taste being for solid literature, apparently.
+
+   On one occasion we built a high tower round baby Lizzie as she
+   sat playing with her toys on the floor, and being attracted by
+   something out-of-doors, forgot our little prisoner. A search was
+   made, and patient baby at last discovered curled up and fast
+   asleep in her dungeon cell, out of which she emerged so rosy and
+   smiling after her nap that we were forgiven for our carelessness.
+
+   Another memory is of my fourth birthday, which was celebrated at
+   my father's school-room in Masonic Temple. All the children were
+   there. I wore a crown of flowers, and stood upon a table to
+   dispense cakes to each child as the procession marched past. By
+   some oversight the cakes fell short, and I saw that if I gave
+   away the last one I should have none. As I was queen of the
+   revel, I felt that I ought to have it, and held on to it tightly
+   till my mother said,--
+
+   "It is always better to give away than to keep the nice things;
+   so I know my Louy will not let the little friend go without."
+
+   The little friend received the dear plummy cake, and I a kiss and
+   my first lesson in the sweetness of self-denial,--a lesson which
+   my dear mother beautifully illustrated all her long and noble
+   life.
+
+   Running away was one of the delights of my early days; and I
+   still enjoy sudden flights out of the nest to look about this
+   very interesting world, and then go back to report.
+
+   On one of these occasions I passed a varied day with some Irish
+   children, who hospitably shared their cold potatoes, salt-fish,
+   and crusts with me as we revelled in the ash-heaps which then
+   adorned the waste lands where the Albany Depot now stands. A trip
+   to the Common cheered the afternoon, but as dusk set in and my
+   friends deserted me, I felt that home was a nice place after all,
+   and tried to find it. I dimly remember watching a lamp-lighter as
+   I sat to rest on some doorsteps in Bedford Street, where a big
+   dog welcomed me so kindly that I fell asleep with my head
+   pillowed on his curly back, and was found there by the
+   town-crier, whom my distracted parents had sent in search of me.
+   His bell and proclamation of the loss of "a little girl, six
+   years old, in a pink frock, white hat, and new green shoes," woke
+   me up, and a small voice answered out of the darkness,--
+
+   "Why, dat's me!"
+
+   Being with difficulty torn from my four-footed friend, I was
+   carried to the crier's house, and there feasted sumptuously on
+   bread-and-molasses in a tin plate with the alphabet round it. But
+   my fun ended next day when I was tied to the arm of the sofa to
+   repent at leisure.
+
+   I became an Abolitionist at a very early age, but have never been
+   able to decide whether I was made so by seeing the portrait of
+   George Thompson hidden under a bed in our house during the
+   Garrison riot, and going to comfort "the poor man who had been
+   good to the slaves," or because I was saved from drowning in the
+   Frog Pond some years later by a colored boy. However that may be,
+   the conversion was genuine; and my greatest pride is in the fact
+   that I lived to know the brave men and women who did so much for
+   the cause, and that I had a very small share in the war which put
+   an end to a great wrong.
+
+Another recollection of her childhood was of a "contraband" hidden in
+the oven, which must have made her sense of the horrors of slavery
+very keen.
+
+   I never went to school except to my father or such governesses as
+   from time to time came into the family. Schools then were not
+   what they are now; so we had lessons each morning in the study.
+   And very happy hours they were to us, for my father taught in the
+   wise way which unfolds what lies in the child's nature, as a
+   flower blooms, rather than crammed it, like a Strasburg goose,
+   with more than it could digest. I never liked arithmetic nor
+   grammar, and dodged those branches on all occasions; but reading,
+   writing, composition, history, and geography I enjoyed, as well
+   as the stories read to us with a skill peculiarly his own.
+
+   "Pilgrim's Progress," Krummacher's "Parables," Miss Edgeworth,
+   and the best of the dear old fairy tales made the reading hour
+   the pleasantest of our day. On Sundays we had a simple service of
+   Bible stories, hymns, and conversation about the state of our
+   little consciences and the conduct of our childish lives which
+   never will be forgotten.
+
+   Walks each morning round the Common while in the city, and long
+   tramps over hill and dale when our home was in the country, were
+   a part of our education, as well as every sort of housework,--for
+   which I have always been very grateful, since such knowledge
+   makes one independent in these days of domestic tribulation with
+   the "help" who are too often only hindrances.
+
+   Needle-work began early, and at ten my skilful sister made a
+   linen shirt beautifully; while at twelve I set up as a doll's
+   dressmaker, with my sign out and wonderful models in my window.
+   All the children employed me, and my turbans were the rage at one
+   time, to the great dismay of the neighbors' hens, who were hotly
+   hunted down, that I might tweak out their downiest feathers to
+   adorn the dolls' headgear.
+
+   Active exercise was my delight, from the time when a child of six
+   I drove my hoop round the Common without stopping, to the days
+   when I did my twenty miles in five hours and went to a party in
+   the evening.
+
+   I always thought I must have been a deer or a horse in some
+   former state, because it was such a joy to run. No boy could be
+   my friend till I had beaten him in a race, and no girl if she
+   refused to climb trees, leap fences, and be a tomboy.
+
+   My wise mother, anxious to give me a strong body to support a
+   lively brain, turned me loose in the country and let me run wild,
+   learning of Nature what no books can teach, and being led,--as
+   those who truly love her seldom fail to be,--
+
+     "Through Nature up to Nature's God."
+
+   I remember running over the hills just at dawn one summer
+   morning, and pausing to rest in the silent woods, saw, through an
+   arch of trees, the sun rise over river, hill, and wide green
+   meadows as I never saw it before.
+
+   Something born of the lovely hour, a happy mood, and the
+   unfolding aspirations of a child's soul seemed to bring me very
+   near to God; and in the hush of that morning hour I always felt
+   that I "got religion," as the phrase goes. A new and vital sense
+   of His presence, tender and sustaining as a father's arms, came
+   to me then, never to change through forty years of life's
+   vicissitudes, but to grow stronger for the sharp discipline of
+   poverty and pain, sorrow and success.
+
+   Those Concord days were the happiest of my life, for we had
+   charming playmates in the little Emersons, Channings, Hawthornes,
+   and Goodwins, with the illustrious parents and their friends to
+   enjoy our pranks and share our excursions.
+
+   Plays in the barn were a favorite amusement, and we dramatized
+   the fairy tales in great style. Our giant came tumbling off a
+   loft when Jack cut down the squash-vine running up a ladder to
+   represent the immortal bean. Cinderella rolled away in a vast
+   pumpkin, and a long black pudding was lowered by invisible hands
+   to fasten itself on the nose of the woman who wasted her three
+   wishes.
+
+   Pilgrims journeyed over the hill with scrip and staff and
+   cockle-shells in their hats; fairies held their pretty revels
+   among the whispering birches, and strawberry parties in the
+   rustic arbor were honored by poets and philosophers, who fed us
+   on their wit and wisdom while the little maids served more mortal
+   food.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[4] Written at eight years of age.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+FRUITLANDS.
+
+     MY KINGDOM.
+
+     A little kingdom I possess,
+       Where thoughts and feelings dwell,
+     And very hard I find the task
+       Of governing it well;
+     For passion tempts and troubles me,
+       A wayward will misleads,
+     And selfishness its shadow casts
+       On all my words and deeds.
+
+     How can I learn to rule myself,
+       To be the child I should,
+     Honest and brave, nor ever tire
+       Of trying to be good?
+     How can I keep a sunny soul
+       To shine along life's way?
+     How can I tune my little heart
+       To sweetly sing all day?
+
+     Dear Father, help me with the love
+       That casteth out my fear,
+     Teach me to lean on thee, and feel
+       That thou art very near,
+     That no temptation is unseen,
+       No childish grief too small,
+     Since thou, with patience infinite,
+       Doth soothe and comfort all.
+
+     I do not ask for any crown
+       But that which all may win,
+     Nor seek to conquer any world
+       Except the one within.
+     Be thou my guide until I find,
+       Led by a tender hand,
+     Thy happy kingdom in _myself_,
+     And dare to take command.
+
+
+In 1842 Mr. Alcott went to England. His mind was very much exercised
+at this time with plans for organized social life on a higher plane,
+and he found like-minded friends in England who gave him sympathy and
+encouragement. He had for some years advocated a strictly vegetarian
+diet, to which his family consented from deference to him;
+consequently the children never tasted meat till they came to
+maturity. On his return from England he was accompanied by friends who
+were ready to unite with him in the practical realization of their
+social theories. Mr. Lane resided for some months in the Alcott family
+at Concord, and gave instruction to the children. Although he does not
+appear to have won their hearts, they yet reaped much intellectual
+advantage from his lessons, as he was an accomplished scholar.
+
+In 1843 this company of enthusiasts secured a farm in the town of
+Harvard, near Concord, which with trusting hope they named Fruitlands.
+Mrs. Alcott did not share in all the peculiar ideas of her husband and
+his friends, but she was so utterly devoted to him that she was ready
+to help him in carrying out his plans, however little they commended
+themselves to her better judgment.
+
+She alludes very briefly to the experiment in her diary, for the
+experience was too bitter to dwell upon. She could not relieve her
+feelings by bringing out the comic side, as her daughter did. Louisa's
+account of this colony, as given in her story called "Transcendental
+Wild Oats," is very close to the facts; and the mingling of pathos and
+humor, the reverence and ridicule with which she alternately treats
+the personages and the notions of those engaged in the scheme, make a
+rich and delightful tale. It was written many years later, and gives
+the picture as she looked back upon it, the absurdities coming out in
+strong relief, while she sees also the grand, misty outlines of the
+high thoughts so poorly realized. This story was published in the
+"Independent," Dec. 8, 1873, and may now be found in her collected
+works ("Silver Pitchers," p. 79).
+
+Fortunately we have also her journal written at the time, which shows
+what education the experience of this strange life brought to the
+child of ten or eleven years old.
+
+The following extract from Mr. Emerson proves that this plan of life
+looked fair and pleasing to his eye, although he was never tempted to
+join in it. He was evidently not unconscious of the inadequacy of the
+means adopted to the end proposed, but he rejoiced in any endeavor
+after high ideal life.
+
+     JULY, 8, 1843.
+
+   _Journal._--The sun and the evening sky do not look calmer than
+   Alcott and his family at Fruitlands. They seemed to have arrived
+   at the fact,--to have got rid of the show, and so to be serene.
+   Their manners and behavior in the house and in the field were
+   those of superior men,--of men at rest. What had they to conceal?
+   What had they to exhibit? And it seemed so high an attainment
+   that I thought--as often before, so now more, because they had a
+   fit home, or the picture was fitly framed--that these men ought
+   to be maintained in their place by the country for its culture.
+
+   Young men and young maidens, old men and women, should visit them
+   and be inspired. I think there is as much merit in beautiful
+   manners as in hard work. I will not prejudge them successful.
+   They look well in July; we will see them in December. I know they
+   are better for themselves than as partners. One can easily see
+   that they have yet to settle several things. Their saying that
+   things are clear, and they sane, does not make them so. If they
+   will in very deed be lovers, and not selfish; if they will serve
+   the town of Harvard, and make their neighbors feel them as
+   benefactors wherever they touch them,--they are as safe as the
+   sun.[5]
+
+
+_Early Diary kept at Fruitlands_, 1843.
+
+_Ten Years Old._
+
+   _September 1st._--I rose at five and had my bath. I love cold
+   water! Then we had our singing-lesson with Mr. Lane. After
+   breakfast I washed dishes, and ran on the hill till nine, and had
+   some thoughts,--it was so beautiful up there. Did my
+   lessons,--wrote and spelt and did sums; and Mr. Lane read a
+   story, "The Judicious Father": How a rich girl told a poor girl
+   not to look over the fence at the flowers, and was cross to her
+   because she was unhappy. The father heard her do it, and made the
+   girls change clothes. The poor one was glad to do it, and he told
+   her to keep them. But the rich one was very sad; for she had to
+   wear the old ones a week, and after that she was good to shabby
+   girls. I liked it very much, and I shall be kind to poor people.
+
+   Father asked us what was God's noblest work. Anna said _men_, but
+   I said _babies_. Men are often bad; babies never are. We had a
+   long talk, and I felt better after it, and _cleared up_.
+
+   We had bread and fruit for dinner. I read and walked and played
+   till supper-time. We sung in the evening. As I went to bed the
+   moon came up very brightly and looked at me. I felt sad because I
+   have been cross to-day, and did not mind Mother. I cried, and
+   then I felt better, and said that piece from Mrs. Sigourney, "I
+   must not tease my mother." I get to sleep saying poetry,--I know
+   a great deal.
+
+   _Thursday, 14th._--Mr. Parker Pillsbury came, and we talked about
+   the poor slaves. I had a music lesson with Miss F. I hate her,
+   she is so fussy. I ran in the wind and played be a horse, and had
+   a lovely time in the woods with Anna and Lizzie. We were fairies,
+   and made gowns and paper wings. I "flied" the highest of all. In
+   the evening they talked about travelling. I thought about Father
+   going to England, and said this piece of poetry I found in
+   Byron's poems:--
+
+     "When I left thy shores, O Naxos,
+       Not a tear in sorrow fell;
+     Not a sigh or faltered accent
+       Told my bosom's struggling swell."
+
+   It rained when I went to bed, and made a pretty noise on the
+   roof.
+
+   _Sunday, 24th._--Father and Mr. Lane have gone to N. H. to
+   preach. It was very lovely.... Anna and I got supper. In the eve
+   I read "Vicar of Wakefield." I was cross to-day, and I cried when
+   I went to bed. I made good resolutions, and felt better in my
+   heart. If I only _kept_ all I make, I should be the best girl in
+   the world. But I don't, and so am very bad.
+
+   [Poor little sinner! _She says the same at fifty._--L. M. A.]
+
+   _October 8th._--When I woke up, the first thought I got was,
+   "It's Mother's birthday: I must be very good." I ran and wished
+   her a happy birthday, and gave her my kiss. After breakfast we
+   gave her our presents. I had a moss cross and a piece of poetry
+   for her.
+
+   We did not have any school, and played in the woods and got red
+   leaves. In the evening we danced and sung, and I read a story
+   about "Contentment." I wish I was rich, I was good, and we were
+   all a happy family this day.
+
+   _Thursday, 12th._--After lessons I ironed. We all went to the
+   barn and husked corn. It was good fun. We worked till eight
+   o'clock and had lamps. Mr. Russell came. Mother and Lizzie are
+   going to Boston. I shall be very lonely without dear little
+   Betty, and no one will be as good to me as mother. I read in
+   Plutarch. I made a verse about sunset:--
+
+     Softly doth the sun descend
+       To his couch behind the hill,
+     Then, oh, then, I love to sit
+       On mossy banks beside the rill.
+
+   Anna thought it was very fine; but I didn't like it very well.
+
+   _Friday, Nov. 2nd._--Anna and I did the work. In the evening Mr.
+   Lane asked us, "What is man?" These were our answers: A human
+   being; an animal with a mind; a creature; a body; a soul and a
+   mind. After a long talk we went to bed very tired.
+
+   [No wonder, after doing the work and worrying their little wits
+   with such lessons.--L. M. A.]
+
+   A sample of the vegetarian wafers we used at Fruitlands:--
+
+     Vegetable diet
+     and sweet repose.
+     Animal food and
+     nightmare.
+
+     Pluck your body
+     from the orchard;
+     do not snatch it
+     from the shamble.
+
+     Without flesh diet
+     there could be no
+     blood-shedding war.
+
+     Apollo eats no
+     flesh and has no
+     beard; his voice is
+     melody itself.
+
+     Snuff is no less snuff
+     though accepted from
+     a gold box.
+
+   _Tuesday, 20th._--I rose at five, and after breakfast washed the
+   dishes, and then helped mother work. Miss F. is gone, and Anna in
+   Boston with Cousin Louisa. I took care of Abby (May) in the
+   afternoon. In the evening I made some pretty things for my dolly.
+   Father and Mr. L. 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.
+
+   Eleven years old. _Thursday, 29th._--It was Father's and my
+   birthday. We had some nice presents. We played in the snow before
+   school. Mother read "Rosamond" when we sewed. Father asked us in
+   the eve what fault troubled us most. I said my bad temper.
+
+   I told mother I liked to have her write in my book. She said she
+   would put in more, and she wrote this to help me:--
+
+   DEAR LOUY,--Your handwriting improves very fast. Take pains and
+   do not be in a hurry. I like to have you make observations about
+   our conversations and your own thoughts. It helps you to express
+   them and to understand your little self. Remember, dear girl,
+   that a diary should be an epitome of your life. May it be a
+   record of pure thought and good actions, then you will indeed be
+   the precious child of your loving mother.
+
+   _December 10th._--I did my lessons, and walked in the afternoon.
+   Father read to us in dear Pilgrim's Progress. Mr. L. was in
+   Boston, and we were glad. In the eve father and mother and Anna
+   and I had a long talk. I was very unhappy, and we all cried. Anna
+   and I cried in bed, and I prayed God to keep us all together.
+
+   [Little Lu began early to feel the family cares and peculiar
+   trials.--L. M. A.]
+
+   I liked the verses Christian sung and will put them in:--
+
+     "This place has been our second stage,
+       Here we have heard and seen
+     Those good things that from age to age
+       To others hid have been.
+
+     "They move me for to watch and pray,
+       To strive to be sincere,
+     To take my cross up day by day,
+       And serve the Lord with fear."
+
+   [The appropriateness of the song at this time was much greater
+   than the child saw. She never forgot this experience, and her
+   little cross began to grow heavier from this hour.--L. M. A.]
+
+   CONCORD, _Sunday_.--We all went into the woods to get moss for
+   the _arbor_ Father is making for _Mr. Emerson_. I miss Anna so
+   much. I made two verses for her:--
+
+     TO ANNA.
+
+     Sister, dear, when you are lonely,
+       Longing for your distant home,
+     And the images of loved ones
+       Warmly to your heart shall come,
+     Then, mid tender thoughts and fancies,
+       Let one fond voice say to thee,
+     "Ever when your heart is heavy,
+       Anna, dear, then think of me."
+
+     Think how we two have together
+       Journeyed onward day by day,
+     Joys and sorrows ever sharing,
+       While the swift years roll away.
+     Then may all the sunny hours
+       Of our youth rise up to thee,
+     And when your heart is light and happy,
+       Anna, dear, then think of me.
+
+   [Poetry began to flow about this time in a thin but copious
+   stream.--L. M. A.]
+
+   _Wednesday._--Read Martin Luther. A long letter from Anna. She
+   sends me a picture of Jenny Lind, the great singer. She must be a
+   happy girl. I should like to be famous as she is. Anna is very
+   happy; and I don't miss her as much as I shall by and by in the
+   winter.
+
+   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. Read Miss Bremer's "Home" in
+   the eve. 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.
+
+   [Moods began early.--L. M. A.]
+
+   _January, 1845, Friday._--Did my lessons, and in the P.M. mother
+   read "Kenilworth" to us while we sewed. It is splendid! I got
+   angry and called Anna mean. Father told me to look out the word
+   in the Dic., and it meant "base," "contemptible." I was so
+   ashamed to have called my dear sister that, and I cried over my
+   bad tongue and temper.
+
+   We have had a lovely day. All the trees were covered with ice,
+   and it shone like diamonds or fairy palaces. I made a piece of
+   poetry about winter:--
+
+     The stormy winter's come at last,
+       With snow and rain and bitter blast;
+     Ponds and brooks are frozen o'er,
+       We cannot sail there any more.
+
+     The little birds are flown away
+       To warmer climes than ours;
+     They'll come no more till gentle May
+       Calls them back with flowers.
+
+     Oh, then the darling birds will sing
+       From their neat nests in the trees.
+     All creatures wake to welcome Spring,
+       And flowers dance in the breeze.
+
+     With patience wait till winter is o'er,
+       And all lovely things return;
+     Of every season try the more
+       Some knowledge or virtue to learn.
+
+   [A moral is tacked on even to the early poems.--L. M. A.]
+
+   I read "Philothea,"[6] by Mrs. Child. I found this that I liked
+   in it. Plato said:--
+
+   "When I hear a note of music I can at once strike its chord. Even
+   as surely is there everlasting harmony between the soul of man
+   and the invisible forms of creation. If there were no innocent
+   hearts there would be no white lilies.... I often think flowers
+   are the angel's alphabet whereby they write on hills and fields
+   mysterious and beautiful lessons for us to feel and learn."
+
+   [Well done, twelve-year-old! Plato, the father's delight, had a
+   charm for the little girl also.--L. M. A.]
+
+   _Wednesday._--I am so cross I wish I had never been born.
+
+   _Thursday._--Read the "Heart of Mid-Lothian," and had a very
+   happy day. Miss Ford gave us a botany lesson in the woods. I am
+   always good there. In the evening Miss Ford told us about the
+   bones in our bodies, and how they get out of order. I must be
+   careful of mine, I climb and jump and run so much.
+
+   I found this note from dear mother in my journal:--
+
+   MY DEAREST LOUY,--I often peep into your diary, hoping to see
+   some record of more happy days. "Hope, and keep busy," dear
+   daughter, and in all perplexity or trouble come freely to your
+
+     MOTHER.
+
+   DEAR MOTHER,--You _shall_ see more happy days, and I _will_ come
+   to you with my worries, for you are the best woman in the world.
+
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+_A Sample of our Lessons._
+
+   "What virtues do you wish more of?" asks Mr. L.
+
+   I answer:--
+
+     Patience,
+     Obedience,
+     Industry,
+
+     Love,
+     Generosity,
+     Respect,
+
+     Silence,
+     Perseverance,
+     Self-denial.
+
+"What vices less of?"
+
+     Idleness,
+     Impatience,
+     Selfishness,
+
+     Wilfulness,
+     Impudence,
+     Activity,
+
+     Vanity,
+     Pride,
+     Love of cats.
+
+       MR. L.          L.
+     SOCRATES.     ALCIBIADES.
+
+   How can you get what you need? By trying.
+
+   How do you try? By resolution and perseverance.
+
+   How gain love? By gentleness.
+
+   What is gentleness? Kindness, patience, and care for other
+   people's feelings.
+
+   Who has it? Father and Anna.
+
+   Who means to have it? Louisa, if she can.
+
+   [She never got it.--L. M. A.]
+
+   Write a sentence about anything. "I hope it will rain; the garden
+   needs it."
+
+   What are the elements of _hope_? Expectation, desire, faith.
+
+   What are the elements in _wish_? Desire.
+
+   What is the difference between faith and hope? "Faith can believe
+   without seeing; hope is not sure, but tries to have faith when it
+   desires."
+
+     No. 3.
+
+   What are the most valuable kinds of self-denial? Appetite,
+   temper.
+
+   How is self-denial of temper known? If I control my temper, I am
+   respectful and gentle, and every one sees it.
+
+   What is the result of this self-denial? Every one loves me, and I
+   am happy.
+
+   Why use self-denial? For the good of myself and others.
+
+   How shall we learn this self-denial? By resolving, and then
+   trying _hard._
+
+   What then do you mean to do? To resolve and try.
+
+   [Here the record of these lessons ends, and poor little
+   Alcibiades went to work and tried till fifty, but without any
+   very great success, in spite of all the help Socrates and Plato
+   gave her.--L. M. A.]
+
+   _Tuesday._--More people coming to live with us; I wish we could
+   be together, and no one else. I don't see who is to clothe and
+   feed us all, when we are so poor now. I was very dismal, and then
+   went to walk and made a poem.
+
+     DESPONDENCY.
+
+           Silent and sad,
+           When all are glad,
+     And the earth is dressed in flowers;
+           When the gay birds sing
+           Till the forests ring,
+     As they rest in woodland bowers.
+
+           Oh, why these tears,
+           And these idle fears
+     For what may come to-morrow?
+           The birds find food
+           From God so good,
+     And the flowers know no sorrow.
+
+           If He clothes these
+           And the leafy trees,
+     Will He not cherish thee?
+           Why doubt His care;
+           It is everywhere,
+     Though the way we may not see.
+
+           Then why be sad
+           When all are glad,
+     And the world is full of flowers?
+           With the gay birds sing,
+           Make life all Spring,
+     And smile through the darkest hours.
+
+Louisa Alcott grew up so naturally in a healthy religious atmosphere
+that she breathed and worked in it without analysis or question. She
+had not suffered from ecclesiastical tyranny or sectarian bigotry,
+and needed not to expend any time or strength in combating them. She
+does not appear to have suffered from doubt or questioning, but to
+have gone on her way fighting all the real evils that were presented
+to her, trusting in a sure power of right, and confident of victory.
+
+   CONCORD, _Thursday._--I had an early run in the woods before the
+   dew was off the grass. The moss was like velvet, and as I ran
+   under the arches of yellow and red leaves I sang for joy, my
+   heart was so bright and the world so beautiful. I stopped at the
+   end of the walk and saw the sunshine out over the wide "Virginia
+   meadows."
+
+   It seemed like going through a dark life or grave into heaven
+   beyond. A very strange and solemn feeling came over me as I stood
+   there, with no sound but the rustle of the pines, no one near me,
+   and the sun so glorious, as for me alone. It seemed as if I
+   _felt_ God as I never did before, and I prayed in my heart that I
+   might keep that happy sense of nearness all my life.
+
+   [I have, for I most sincerely think that the little girl "got
+   religion" that day in the wood when dear mother Nature led her to
+   God.--L. M. A., 1885.]
+
+One of Louisa's strongest desires at this time was for a room of her
+own, where she might have the solitude she craved to dream her dreams
+and work out her fancies. These sweet little notes and an extract from
+her journal show how this desire was felt and gratified.
+
+   DEAREST MOTHER,--I have tried to be more contented, and I think I
+   have been more so. I have been thinking about my little room,
+   which I suppose I never shall have. I should want to be there
+   about all the time, and I should go there and sing and think.
+
+     But I'll be contented
+       With what I have got;
+     Of folly repented,
+       Then sweet is my lot.
+
+     From your trying daughter,
+     LOUY.
+
+   MY DEAR LOUISA,--Your note gave me so much delight that I cannot
+   close my eyes without first thanking you, dear, for making me so
+   happy, and blessing God who gave you this tender love for your
+   mother.
+
+   I have observed all day your patience with baby, your obedience
+   to me, and your kindness to all.
+
+   Go on "trying," my child; God will give you strength and courage,
+   and help you fill each day with words and deeds of love. I shall
+   lay this on your pillow, put a warm kiss on your lips, and say a
+   little prayer over you in your sleep.
+
+     MOTHER.
+
+   MY LOUY,--I was grieved at your selfish behavior this morning,
+   but also greatly pleased to find you bore so meekly Father's
+   reproof for it. That is the way, dear; if you find you are wrong,
+   take the discipline sweetly, and do so no more. It is not to be
+   expected that children should always do right; but oh, how lovely
+   to see a child penitent and patient when the passion is over.
+
+   I thought a little prayer as I looked at you, and said in my
+   heart, "Dear God, sustain my child in this moment of trial, that
+   no hasty word, no cruel look, no angry action may add to her
+   fault." And you were helped. I know that you will have a happy
+   day after the storm and the gentle shower; keep quiet, read,
+   walk, but do not talk much till all is peace again.
+
+     MOTHER.
+
+     HILLSIDE, CONCORD.
+
+   DEAR,--I am glad you put your heart in the right place; for I am
+   sure all true strength comes from above. Continue to feel that
+   God is _near_ you, dear child, and He never will forsake you in a
+   weak moment. Write me always when you feel that I can help you;
+   for, though God is near, Mother never forgets you, and your
+   refuge is her arms.
+
+   Patience, dear, will give us content, if nothing else. Be assured
+   the little room you long for will come, if it is necessary to
+   your peace and well-being. Till then try to be happy with the
+   good things you have. They are many,--more perhaps than we
+   deserve, after our frequent complaints and discontent.
+
+   Be cheerful, my Louy, and all will be gayer for your laugh, and
+   all good and lovely things will be given to you when you deserve
+   them.
+
+   I am a busy woman, but never can forget the calls of my children.
+
+     MOTHER.
+
+   DEAREST,--I am sure you have lived very near to God _to-day_, you
+   have been so good and happy. Let each day be like this, and life
+   will become a sweet song for you and all who love you,--none so
+   much as your
+
+     MOTHER.
+
+
+_Thirteen Years Old._
+
+     HILLSIDE.
+
+   _March, 1846._--I have at last got the little room I have wanted
+   so long, and am very happy about it. It does me good to be
+   alone, and Mother has made it very pretty and neat for me. My
+   work-basket and desk are by the window, and my closet is full of
+   dried herbs that smell very nice. The door that opens into the
+   garden will be very pretty in summer, and I can run off to the
+   woods when I like.
+
+   I have made a plan for my life, as I am in my teens and no more a
+   child. I am old for my age, and don't care much for girl's
+   things. People think I'm wild and queer; but Mother understands
+   and helps me. I have not told any one about my plan; but I'm
+   going to _be_ good. I've made so many resolutions, and written
+   sad notes, and cried over my sins, and it doesn't seem to do any
+   good! Now I'm going to _work really_, for I feel a true desire to
+   improve, and be a help and comfort, not a care and sorrow, to my
+   dear mother.
+
+
+ _Fifteen Years Old._
+
+   _Sunday, Oct. 9, 1847._--I have been reading to-day Bettine's
+   correspondence with Goethe.
+
+   She calls herself a child, and writes about the lovely things she
+   saw and heard, and felt and did. I liked it much.
+
+   [First taste of Goethe. Three years later R. W. E. gave me
+   "Wilhelm Meister," and from that day Goethe has been my chief
+   idol.--L. M. A., 1885.]
+
+The experiment at Fruitlands was (outwardly) an utter failure, and had
+exhausted Mr. Alcott's resources of mind, body, and estate. Louisa has
+not exaggerated the collapse which followed. But the brave, loving
+mother could not give way to despondency, for she had her young to
+care for. After a few days Mr. Alcott rose from his despair, and
+listened to her counsel. They lived a short time at Still River, and
+then returned to Concord; but not to the happy little cottage.
+
+Mr. Alcott sought such work as he could find to do with his hands; but
+it was scanty and insufficient. Mrs. Alcott subdued her proud heart to
+the necessity of seeking help from friends. They had a few rooms in
+the house of a kind neighbor, who welcomed them to her house, in
+addition to her own large family; and there they struggled with the
+poverty which Louisa for the first time fully realized.
+
+Yet her journal says little of the hardships they endured, but is full
+of her mental and moral struggles. It was characteristic of this
+family that they never were conquered by their surroundings. Mr.
+Alcott might retire into sad and silent musing, Mrs. Alcott's warm,
+quick temper, might burst out into flame, the children might be
+quarrelsome or noisy; but their ideal of life always remained high,
+fresh, and ennobling. Their souls always "knew their destiny divine,"
+and believed that they would find fitting expression in life some
+time. "Chill penury" could not repress "their noble rage," nor freeze
+"the genial current" of their souls.
+
+The children escaped from the privations of daily life into a world of
+romance, and in the plays in the old barn revelled in luxury and
+splendor. This dramatic tendency was very strong in Louisa, and she
+never outgrew it. It took various shapes and colors, and at one time
+threatened to dominate her life.
+
+The education of the children was certainly desultory and
+insufficient; but it was inspiring, and brought out their powers. They
+learned to feel and to think justly, and to express their thoughts and
+feelings freely and forcibly, if they did not know well the rules of
+grammar and rhetoric. Mr. Alcott always loved the study of language,
+and became a master of it; while Mrs. Alcott had a rich and
+well-chosen vocabulary, gained from the intelligent companions of her
+youth and the best literature, which she read freely. Mr. Alcott made
+great use of the study of language in his teaching, and often employed
+the definition of a word to convey a lesson or a rebuke. The children
+were encouraged, and even required, to keep their journals regularly,
+and to write letters. Their efforts at poetry or the drama were not
+laughed at, but treasured by their parents as indications of progress.
+Mr. Alcott's records of his own theory and practice in the education
+of children are full of valuable suggestion, and much yet remains
+buried in his journals. The girls had full freedom to act out their
+natures, with little fear of ridicule or criticism. An innate sense of
+dignity and modesty kept them from abusing this liberty; and perhaps
+nowhere in the world could it have been more safely indulged than in
+the simple life of Concord, whose very atmosphere seemed then filled
+with a spiritual presence which made life free, pure, and serene.
+
+Louisa gives this interesting anecdote of their life at that time:--
+
+   People wondered at our frolics, but enjoyed them, and droll
+   stories are still told of the adventures of those days. Mr.
+   Emerson and Margaret Fuller were visiting my parents one
+   afternoon, and the conversation having turned to the ever
+   interesting subject of education, Miss Fuller said:--
+
+   "Well, Mr. Alcott, you have been able to carry out your methods
+   in your own family, and I should like to see your model
+   children."
+
+   She did in a few moments, for as the guests stood on the
+   door-steps a wild uproar approached, and round the corner of the
+   house came a wheelbarrow holding baby May arrayed as a queen; I
+   was the horse, bitted and bridled, and driven by my elder sister
+   Anna; while Lizzie played dog, and barked as loud as her gentle
+   voice permitted.
+
+   All were shouting and wild with fun, which, however, came to a
+   sudden end as we espied the stately group before us; for my foot
+   tripped, and down we all went in a laughing heap; while my mother
+   put a climax to the joke by saying, with a dramatic wave of the
+   hand,--
+
+   "Here are the model children, Miss Fuller."
+
+They were undoubtedly very satisfactory to Miss Fuller, who partook
+largely of the educational views of that time, and who loved to tell
+anecdotes of this family. One of the sisters writes in her diary: "She
+_said_ prayers; but I think my resolutions to be good are prayers."
+
+In 1841 Colonel May, Mrs. Alcott's father, died and left her a small
+amount of property. Mrs. Alcott decided to purchase with this a house
+in Concord, and the addition of five hundred dollars from Mr. Emerson,
+who was always the good Providence of the family, enabled her in 1845
+to buy the place in Concord known as Hillside. This house is on the
+road to Lexington, about one third of a mile from Mr. Emerson's home.
+It was afterward occupied by Mr. Hawthorne.
+
+In this house the girlish life of Louisa was passed, which she has
+represented so fully in "Little Women," and of which she speaks in her
+journal as the happiest time of her life. Yet she was not unmindful of
+the anxiety of her parents; and the determined purpose to retrieve the
+fortunes of the family and to give to her mother the comfort and ease
+which she had never known in her married life became the constant
+motive of her conduct. It is in the light of this purpose alone that
+her character and her subsequent career can be fully understood. She
+naturally thought of teaching as her work, and had for a short time a
+little school in the barn for Mr. Emerson's children and others.
+
+It was indeed a great comfort to be sure of the house over their
+heads, but there were still six mouths to be fed, six bodies to be
+clothed, and four young, eager minds to be educated. Concord offered
+very little opportunity for such work as either Mr. or Mrs. Alcott
+could do, and at last even the mother's brave heart broke down. She
+was painfully anxious about the support of her household. A friend
+passing through Concord called upon her, and Mrs. Alcott could not
+hide the traces of tears on her face. "Abby Alcott, what does this
+mean?" said the visitor, with determined kindness. The poor mother
+opened her heart to her friend, and told the story of their privations
+and sufferings.
+
+"Come to Boston, and I will find you employment," said the friend.
+
+The family removed to Boston in 1848, and Mrs. Alcott became a visitor
+to the poor in the employ of one or more benevolent societies, and
+finally kept an intelligence office. Her whole heart went into her
+work; and the children, as well as the mother, learned many valuable
+lessons from it. Her reports of her work are said to have been very
+interesting, and full of valuable suggestion.
+
+Mr. Alcott began to hold conversations in West Street. He attracted a
+small circle of thoughtful men and women about him, who delighted in
+the height of his aspirations and the originality of his thoughts. It
+was congenial occupation for him, and thus added to the happiness of
+the family, though very little to its pecuniary resources. His price
+of admission was small, and he freely invited any one who would enjoy
+the meetings although unable to pay for them. He was a great and
+helpful influence to young minds. Besides the morally pure and
+spiritually elevated atmosphere of thought to which they were
+introduced by him, they found a great intellectual advantage in the
+acquaintance with ancient poets and philosophers, into whose life he
+had entered sympathetically. His peculiar theories of temperament and
+diet never failed to call out discussion and opposition. One of my
+earliest recollections of Louisa is on one of these occasions, when he
+was emphasizing his doctrine that a vegetable diet would produce
+unruffled sweetness of temper and disposition. I heard a voice behind
+me saying to her neighbor: "I don't know about that. I've never eaten
+any meat, and I'm awful cross and irritable very often."
+
+On her fourteenth birthday her mother wrote her the following poem,
+with a present of a pen. It was a prophetic gift, and well used by the
+receiver.
+
+     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.
+
+   [Original, I think. I have tried to obey.--L. M. A., 1885.]
+
+In a sketch written for a friend, Louisa gives this account of the
+parents' influence on the children:--
+
+   When cautious friends asked mother how she dared to have such
+   outcasts among her girls, she always answered, with an expression
+   of confidence which did much to keep us safe, "I can trust my
+   daughters, and this is the best way to teach them how to shun
+   these sins and comfort these sorrows. They cannot escape the
+   knowledge of them; better gain this under their father's roof and
+   their mother's care, and so be protected by these experiences
+   when their turn comes to face the world and its temptations."
+   Once we carried our breakfast to a starving family; once lent our
+   whole dinner to a neighbor suddenly taken unprepared by
+   distinguished guests. Another time, one snowy Saturday night,
+   when our wood was very low, a poor child came to beg a little, as
+   the baby was sick and the father on a spree with all his wages.
+   My mother hesitated at first, as we also had a baby. Very cold
+   weather was upon us, and a Sunday to be got through before more
+   wood could be had. My father said, "Give half our stock, and
+   trust in Providence; the weather will moderate, or wood will
+   come." Mother laughed, and answered in her cheery way, "Well,
+   their need is greater than ours, and if our half gives out we can
+   go to bed and tell stories." So a generous half went to the poor
+   neighbor, and a little later in the eve, while the storm still
+   raged and we were about to cover our fire to keep it, a knock
+   came, and a farmer who usually supplied us appeared, saying
+   anxiously, "I started for Boston with a load of wood, but it
+   drifts so I want to go home. Wouldn't you like to have me drop
+   the wood here; it would accommodate me, and you needn't hurry
+   about paying for it." "Yes," said Father; and as the man went off
+   he turned to Mother with a look that much impressed us children
+   with his gifts as a seer, "Didn't I tell you wood would come if
+   the weather did not moderate?" Mother's motto was "Hope, and keep
+   busy," and one of her sayings, "Cast your bread upon the waters,
+   and after many days it will come back buttered."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[5] Emerson in Concord. By Edward Waldo Emerson.
+
+[6] "Philothea" was the delight of girls. The young Alcotts made a
+dramatic version of it, which they acted under the trees. Louisa made
+a magnificent Aspasia, which was a part much to her fancy. Mrs. Child
+was a very dear friend of Mrs. Alcott, and her daughters knew her
+well.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE SENTIMENTAL PERIOD.
+
+     A SONG FROM THE SUDS.
+
+     Queen of my tub, I merrily sing,
+       While the white foam rises high,
+     And sturdily wash, and rinse, and wring,
+       And fasten the clothes to dry;
+     Then out in the free fresh air they swing,
+       Under the sunny sky.
+
+     I wish we could wash from our hearts and our souls
+       The stains of the week away,
+     And let water and air by their magic make
+       Ourselves as pure as they;
+     Then on the earth there would be indeed
+       A glorious washing-day!
+
+     Along the path of a useful life
+       Will heart's-ease ever bloom;
+     The busy mind has no time to think
+       Of sorrow, or care, or gloom;
+     And anxious thoughts may be swept away
+       As we busily wield a broom.
+
+     I am glad a task to me is given
+       To labor at day by day;
+     For it brings me health, and strength, and hope,
+       And I cheerfully learn to say,--
+     "Head, you may think; heart, you may feel;
+       But hand, you shall work alway!"
+
+
+The period of free, happy childhood was necessarily short, and at
+about the age of fifteen Louisa Alcott began to feel the pressure of
+thoughts and duties which made life a more solemn matter. In spite of
+the overflowing fun which appears in her books, her nature was very
+serious, and she could not cast aside care lightly. So many varying
+tendencies existed in her character that she must have struggled with
+many doubts and questions before finding the true path. But she always
+kept the pole-star of right strictly in view, and never failed in
+truth to that duty which seemed to her nearest and most imperative. If
+she erred in judgment, she did not err in conscientious fidelity.
+
+Her mother's rules for her guidance were--
+
+     Rule yourself.
+     Love your neighbor.
+     Do the duty which lies nearest you.
+
+She never lost sight of these instructions.
+
+I will introduce this period in her own words, as written later for
+the use of a friend.
+
+   My romantic period began at fifteen, when I fell to writing
+   poetry, keeping a heart-journal, and wandering by moonlight
+   instead of sleeping quietly. About that time, in browsing over
+   Mr. Emerson's library, I found Goethe's "Correspondence with a
+   Child," and at once was fired with a desire to be a Bettine,
+   making my father's friend my Goethe. So I wrote letters to him,
+   but never sent them; sat in a tall cherry-tree at midnight,
+   singing to the moon till the owls scared me to bed; left wild
+   flowers on the doorstep of my "Master," and sung Mignon's song
+   under his window in very bad German.
+
+   Not till many years later did I tell _my_ Goethe of this early
+   romance and the part he played in it. He was much amused, and
+   begged for his letters, kindly saying he felt honored to be so
+   worshipped. The letters were burnt long ago, but Emerson remained
+   my "Master" while he lived, doing more for me,--as for many
+   another,--than he knew, by the simple beauty of his life, the
+   truth and wisdom of his books, the example of a great, good man,
+   untempted and unspoiled by the world which he made better while
+   in it, and left richer and nobler when he went.
+
+   The trials of life began about this time, and happy childhood
+   ended. One of the most memorable days of my life is a certain
+   gloomy November afternoon, when we had been holding a family
+   council as to ways and means. In summer we lived much as the
+   birds did, on our fruit and bread and milk; the sun was our fire,
+   the sky our roof, and Nature's plenty made us forget that such a
+   thing as poverty existed.
+
+In 1850 she heads her diary "The Sentimental Period." She was then
+seventeen years old, but her diary gives no hint of the sentimental
+notions that often fill the heads of young girls at that period. The
+experiences of Jo with her charming young neighbor in "Little Women"
+do not represent hers at all.
+
+One bit of romance was suggested by Goethe's "Correspondence with a
+Child." It may be difficult for readers of to-day to understand the
+fascination which this book exercised upon young minds of the last
+generation, yet it is certain that it led more than one young girl to
+form an ideal attachment to a man far older than herself, but full of
+nobility and intellectual greatness. Theodore Parker said of letters
+addressed to him by a young New Hampshire girl, "They are as good as
+Bettine's without the lies." This mingling of idealism and
+hero-worship was strongly characteristic of that transcendental period
+when women, having little solid education and less industrial
+employment, were full of noble aspirations and longings for fuller and
+freer life, which must find expression in some way.
+
+The young woman of to-day, wearing waterproof and india-rubber boots,
+skating, driving, and bicycling, studying chemistry in the laboratory,
+exhibiting her pictures in open competition, adopting a profession
+without opposition, and living single without fear of reproach, has
+less time for fancies and more regard for facts.
+
+Miss Alcott was safe in choosing her idol. Worship of Emerson could
+only refine and elevate her thoughts, and her intimate acquaintance
+with his beautiful home chastened her idolatry into pure reverent
+friendship which never failed her. She kept her worship to herself,
+and never sent him the letters in which she poured out the longings
+and raptures which filled her girlish heart.
+
+Her diary, which was revised by herself in later years, tells the
+story of this period quite fully. The details may seem trifling, but
+they help to illustrate this important formative period of her life.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+THE SENTIMENTAL PERIOD.
+
+   BOSTON, _May, 1850._--So long a time has passed since I kept a
+   journal that I hardly know how to begin. Since coming to the city
+   I don't seem to have thought much, for the bustle and dirt and
+   change send all lovely images and restful feelings away. Among my
+   hills and woods I had fine free times alone, and though my
+   thoughts were silly, I daresay, they helped to keep me happy and
+   good. I see now what Nature did for me, and my "romantic tastes,"
+   as people called that love of solitude and out-of-door life,
+   taught me much.
+
+   This summer, like the last, we shall spend in a large house
+   (Uncle May's, Atkinson Street), with many comforts about us which
+   we shall enjoy, and in the autumn I hope I shall have something
+   to show that the time has not been wasted. Seventeen years have I
+   lived, and yet so little do I know, and so much remains to be
+   done before I begin to be what I desire,--a truly good and useful
+   woman.
+
+   In looking over our journals, Father says, "Anna's is about other
+   people, Louisa's about herself." That is true, for I don't _talk_
+   about myself; yet must always think of the wilful, moody girl I
+   try to manage, and in my journal I write of her to see how she
+   gets on. Anna is so good she need not take care of herself, and
+   can enjoy other people. If I look in my glass, I try to keep down
+   vanity about my long hair, my well-shaped head, and my good nose.
+   In the street I try not to covet fine things. My quick tongue is
+   always getting me into trouble, and my moodiness makes it hard to
+   be cheerful when I think how poor we are, how much worry it is to
+   live, and how many things I long to do I never can.
+
+   So every day is a battle, and I'm so tired I don't want to live;
+   only it's cowardly to die till you have done something.
+
+   I can't talk to any one but Mother about my troubles, and she has
+   so many now to bear I try not to add any more. I know God is
+   always ready to hear, but heaven's so far away in the city, and
+   I so heavy I can't fly up to find Him.
+
+     FAITH.
+     Written in the diary.
+
+     Oh, when the heart is full of fears
+       And the way seems dim to heaven,
+     When the sorrow and the care of years
+       Peace from the heart has driven,--
+     Then, through the mist of falling tears,
+       Look up and be forgiven.
+
+     Forgiven for the lack of faith
+       That made all dark to thee,
+     Let conscience o'er thy wayward soul
+       Have fullest mastery:
+     Hope on, fight on, and thou shalt win
+       A noble victory.
+
+     Though thou art weary and forlorn,
+       Let not thy heart's peace go;
+     Though the riches of this world are gone,
+       And thy lot is care and woe,
+     Faint not, but journey hourly on:
+       True wealth is not below.
+
+     Through all the darkness still look up:
+       Let virtue be thy guide;
+     Take thy draught from sorrow's cup,
+       Yet trustfully abide;
+     Let not temptation vanquish thee,
+       And the Father will provide.
+
+   [We had small-pox in the family this summer, caught from some
+   poor immigrants whom mother took into our garden and fed one day.
+   We girls had it lightly, but Father and Mother were very ill, and
+   we had a curious time of exile, danger, and trouble. No doctors,
+   and all got well.--L. M. A.]
+
+   _July_, 1850.--Anna is gone to L. after the varioloid. She is to
+   help Mrs. ---- with her baby. I had to take A.'s school of twenty
+   in Canton Street. I like it better than I thought, though it's
+   very hard to be patient with the children sometimes. They seem
+   happy, and learn fast; so I am encouraged, though at first it was
+   very hard, and I missed Anna so much I used to cry over my dinner
+   and be very blue. I guess this is the teaching I need; for as a
+   _school-marm_ I must behave myself and guard my tongue and temper
+   carefully, and set an example of sweet manners.
+
+   I found one of mother's notes in my journal, so like those she
+   used to write me when she had more time. It always encourages me;
+   and I wish some one would write as helpfully to her, for she
+   needs cheering up with all the care she has. I often think what a
+   hard life she has had since she married,--so full of wandering
+   and all sorts of worry! so different from her early easy days,
+   the youngest and most petted of her family. I think she is a very
+   brave, good woman; and my dream is to have a lovely, quiet home
+   for her, with no debts or troubles to burden her. But I'm afraid
+   she will be in heaven before I can do it. Anna, too, she is
+   feeble and homesick, and I miss her dreadfully; for she is my
+   conscience, always true and just and good. She must have a good
+   time in a nice little home of her own some day, as we often plan.
+   But waiting is so _hard_!
+
+   _August_, 1850.--School is hard work, and I feel as though I
+   should like to run away from it. But my children get on; so I
+   travel up every day, and do my best.
+
+   I get very little time to write or think; for my working days
+   have begun, and when school is over Anna wants me; so I have no
+   quiet. I think a little solitude every day is good for me. In
+   the quiet I see my faults, and try to mend them; but, deary me, I
+   don't get on at all.
+
+   I used to imagine my mind a room in confusion, and I was to put
+   it in order; so I swept out useless thoughts and dusted foolish
+   fancies away, and furnished it with good resolutions and began
+   again. But cobwebs get in. I'm not a good housekeeper, and never
+   get my room in nice order. I once wrote a poem about it when I
+   was fourteen, and called it "My Little Kingdom." It is still hard
+   to rule it, and always will be I think.
+
+   Reading Miss Bremer and Hawthorne. The "Scarlet Letter" is my
+   favorite. Mother likes Miss B. better, as more wholesome. I fancy
+   "lurid" things, if true and strong also.
+
+   Anna wants to be an actress, and so do I. We could make plenty of
+   money perhaps, and it is a very gay life. Mother says we are too
+   young, and must wait. A. acts often splendidly. I like tragic
+   plays, and shall be a Siddons if I can. We get up fine ones, and
+   make harps, castles, armor, dresses, water-falls, and thunder,
+   and have great fun.
+
+It was at this period of her life that she was violently attacked by a
+mania for the stage, and the greater part of her leisure time was
+given to writing and enacting dramas. Her older sister, Anna, had the
+same taste, and assisted her in carrying out all her plans. A family
+of great talent with whom they were intimate joined with them, and
+their mother always allowed them to have all the private theatricals
+they wished to perform.
+
+Some of these early plays are preserved in manuscripts as she wrote
+them. They are written in stilted, melodramatic style, full of
+highstrung sentiments of loyalty, honor and devotion, with the most
+improbable incidents and violent devices, and without a touch of
+common life or the slightest flavor of humor. The idea of
+self-sacrifice always comes into them; but they are thoroughly
+girlish. It is so that girls dream and feel before they know life at
+all. Their hearts are full of vague, restless longings, and they seek
+some vent for the repressed energies of their natures away from the
+prosaic realities of the present. While Louisa sat sewing the tedious
+seams of her daily task what a relief it was to let her imagination
+run riot among the wildest and most exciting scenes. Of course she had
+a "Bandit's Bride" among her plays. "The Captive of Castile; or, The
+Moorish Maiden's Vow," is preserved entire, and is a good specimen of
+these girlish efforts. It is full of surprises and concealments, and
+the denouement is as unnatural as could well be imagined. The dialogue
+is often bright and forcible, and the sentiments always lofty, and we
+have no doubt it seemed very grand to the youthful audience. It is
+taken from her reading, with no touch of her own life in it. This is
+not the same play described with such a ludicrous finale in "Little
+Women," although the heroine bears the same favorite name of Zara. Her
+own early amusement was, however, fully in her mind when she wrote
+that scene, which is true to fact.
+
+A friend and relative of the family living in Roxbury, Dr. Windship,
+was much interested in the development of Louisa's dramatic talent.
+The girls always enjoyed delightful visits at his house. He tried to
+help the young dramatist to public success, and writes to her
+mother:--
+
+   I have offered to Mr. Barry of the Boston Theatre Louisa's "Prima
+   Donnas." He is very much pleased with it just as it is, and will
+   bring it out this season in good style. He thinks it will have a
+   fine run.
+
+Mrs. Barry and Mrs. Wood consented to take the principal characters.
+But from some difficulty in the arrangements "The Rival Prima Donnas"
+was not produced. One great pleasure was gained, however, as Mr. Barry
+gave her a free pass to the theatre, which proved a source of constant
+refreshment and delight.
+
+Of course Louisa was eager to go on to the stage herself. She had
+indeed extraordinary dramatic power, and could at any time quickly
+transform herself into Hamlet, and recite a scene with tragic effect.
+But the careful mother knew better than the girl the trials and
+dangers of the profession, and dissuaded her from it. She also knew
+how little such youthful facility of expression indicates the power
+which will make a great actress. Louisa has reproduced her dramatic
+experience in "Work," which gives a picture faithful in spirit and in
+many of its details to this phase of her life. She here indicates a
+knowledge of her own limitation of talent. "Christie's gala" was a
+part quite after her own heart.
+
+A farce, called "Nat Batchelor's Pleasure Trip; or, The Trials of a
+Good-natured Man," was brought out at the Howard Athenaeum. The papers
+of the day said of it: "It is a creditable first attempt at dramatic
+composition, and received frequent applause." Another critic says: "It
+proved a full success." This performance, however, took place in
+1860,--a later period than that of which I am now speaking.
+
+An incident which occurred at this representation probably suggested
+scenes which recur in "Work" and other of Miss Alcott's stories.
+
+   Quite a hit was made by a little girl, a Miss Jones, who, having
+   to speak but a few lines, spoke them so well that upon her exit
+   she received the rare compliment of an enthusiastic recall from
+   the audience, despite the fact that "some necessary question of
+   the play was then to be considered." For the time being she
+   certainly was the sensation of the piece.
+
+Miss Alcott had in Dr. Windship a kind and judicious helper in her
+dramatic undertakings, with whom she kept up a correspondence under
+the names of Beaumont and Fletcher.
+
+In 1851 Louisa had an experience which she has reproduced in her story
+called "How I Went Out to Service." Her mother's work among the poor
+of Boston led to her being applied to for employment, and at one time
+she kept a regular intelligence office. A gentleman came to her
+seeking a companion for his aged father and sister, who was to do only
+light work, and to be treated with the greatest respect and kindness.
+As Mrs. Alcott did not readily think of any who would fill the place,
+the impulsive Louisa suggested, "Why couldn't I go, Mother?" She went,
+and had two months of disappointment and painful experience which she
+never forgot. She wrote out the story which was published later,
+called "How I Went Out to Service."
+
+The story has an important lesson for those who condemn severely young
+girls who prefer the more independent life of the factory or shop to
+what is considered the safety and comfort of service in families. If a
+girl like Louisa Alcott, belonging to a well-known, highly esteemed
+family, and herself commanding respect by her abilities and character,
+could be treated with such indignity by a family in which no one would
+have feared to place her, how much may not a poor unfriended girl be
+called upon to endure!
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   1851.--We went to a meeting, and heard splendid speaking from
+   Phillips, Channing, and others. People were much excited, and
+   cheered "Shadrack and liberty," groaned for "Webster and
+   slavery," and made a great noise. I felt ready to do
+   anything,--fight or work, hoot or cry,--and laid plans to free
+   Simms. I shall be horribly ashamed of my country if this thing
+   happens and the slave is taken back.
+
+   [He was.--L. M. A.]
+
+   1852.--_High Street, Boston._--After the small-pox summer, we
+   went to a house in High Street. Mother opened an intelligence
+   office, which grew out of her city missionary work and a desire
+   to find places for good girls. It was not fit work for her, but
+   it paid; and she always did what came to her in the way of duty
+   or charity, and let pride, taste, and comfort suffer for love's
+   sake.
+
+   Anna and I taught; Lizzie was our little housekeeper,--our angel
+   in a cellar kitchen; May went to school; father wrote and talked
+   when he could get classes or conversations. Our poor little home
+   had much love and happiness in it, and was a shelter for lost
+   girls, abused wives, friendless children, and weak or wicked men.
+   Father and Mother had no money to give, but gave them time,
+   sympathy, help; and if blessings would make them rich, they would
+   be millionnaires. This is practical Christianity.
+
+   My first story was printed, and $5 paid for it. It was written in
+   Concord when I was sixteen. Great rubbish! Read it aloud to
+   sisters, and when they praised it, not knowing the author, I
+   proudly announced her name.
+
+   Made a resolution to read fewer novels, and those only of the
+   best. List of books I like:--
+
+     Carlyle's French Revolution and Miscellanies.
+     Hero and Hero-Worship.
+     Goethe's poems, plays, and novels.
+     Plutarch's Lives.
+     Madame Guion.
+     Paradise Lost and Comus.
+     Schiller's Plays.
+     Madame de Staël.
+     Bettine.
+     Louis XIV.
+     Jane Eyre.
+     Hypatia.
+     Philothea.
+     Uncle Tom's Cabin.
+     Emerson's Poems.
+
+In "Little Women" (p. 174), she has told a story which has usually
+been supposed to represent her first success in literature; but she
+has transferred the incident from her sister to her own
+representative, Jo. It was the quiet Anna who had secretly written a
+story and fastened it inside of a newspaper. She read it to her mother
+and sisters, as described in the book, and was very much delighted
+with their approbation and astonishment.
+
+   1853.--In January I started a little school,--E. W., W. A., two
+   L's, two H's,--about a dozen in our parlor. In May, when my
+   school closed, I went to L. as second girl. I needed the change,
+   could do the wash, and was glad to earn my $2 a week. Home in
+   October with $34 for my wages. After two days' rest, began school
+   again with ten children. Anna went to Syracuse to teach; Father
+   to the West to try his luck,--so poor, so hopeful, so serene. God
+   be with him! Mother had several boarders, and May got on well at
+   school. Betty was still the home bird, and had a little romance
+   with C.
+
+   Pleasant letters from Father and Anna. A hard year. Summer
+   distasteful and lonely; winter tiresome with school and people I
+   didn't like. I miss Anna, my one bosom friend and comforter.
+
+   1854.--_Pinckney Street._--I have neglected my journal for
+   months, so must write it up. School for me month after month.
+   Mother busy with boarders and sewing. Father doing as well as a
+   philosopher can in a money-loving world. Anna at S.
+
+   I earned a good deal by sewing in the evening when my day's work
+   was done.
+
+   In February Father came home. Paid his way, but no more. A
+   dramatic scene when he arrived in the night. We were waked by
+   hearing the bell. Mother flew down, crying "My husband!" We
+   rushed after, and five white figures embraced the half-frozen
+   wanderer who came in hungry, tired, cold, and disappointed, but
+   smiling bravely and as serene as ever. We fed and warmed and
+   brooded over him, longing to ask if he had made any money; but no
+   one did till little May said, after he had told all the pleasant
+   things, "Well, did people pay you?" Then, with a queer look, he
+   opened his pocket-book and showed one dollar, saying with a smile
+   that made our eyes fill, "Only that! My overcoat was stolen, and
+   I had to buy a shawl. Many promises were not kept, and travelling
+   is costly; but I have opened the way, and another year shall do
+   better."
+
+   I shall never forget how beautifully Mother answered him, though
+   the dear, hopeful soul had built much on his success; but with a
+   beaming face she kissed him, saying, "I call that doing _very
+   well_. Since you are safely home, dear, we don't ask anything
+   more."
+
+   Anna and I choked down our tears, and took a little lesson in
+   real love which we never forgot, nor the look that the tired man
+   and the tender woman gave one another. It was half tragic and
+   comic, for Father was very dirty and sleepy, and Mother in a big
+   nightcap and funny old jacket.
+
+   [I began to see the strong contrasts and the fun and follies in
+   every-day life about this time.--L. M. A.]
+
+   Anna came home in March. Kept our school all summer. I got
+   "Flower Fables" ready to print.
+
+Louisa also tried service with a relative in the country for a short
+time, but teaching, sewing, and writing were her principal occupations
+during this residence in Boston.
+
+These seven years, from Louisa's sixteenth to her twenty-third year,
+might be called an apprenticeship to life. She tried various paths,
+and learned to know herself and the world about her, although she was
+not even yet certain of success in the way which finally opened before
+her and led her so successfully to the accomplishment of her
+life-purpose. She tried teaching, without satisfaction to herself or
+perhaps to others. The kind of education she had herself received
+fitted her admirably to understand and influence children, but not to
+carry on the routine of a school. Sewing was her resource when nothing
+else offered, but it is almost pitiful to think of her as confined to
+such work when great powers were lying dormant in her mind. Still,
+Margaret Fuller said that a year of enforced quiet in the country
+devoted mainly to sewing was very useful to her, since she reviewed
+and examined the treasures laid up in her memory; and doubtless Louisa
+Alcott thought out many a story which afterward delighted the world
+while her fingers busily plied the needle. Yet it was a great
+deliverance when she first found that the products of her brain would
+bring in the needed money for family support.
+
+
+_L. in Boston to A. in Syracuse._
+
+     THURSDAY, 27th.
+
+   DEAREST NAN,--I was so glad to hear from you, and hear that all
+   were well.
+
+   I am grubbing away as usual, trying to get money enough to buy
+   Mother a nice warm shawl. I have eleven dollars, all my own
+   earnings,--five for a story, and four for the pile of sewing I
+   did for the ladies of Dr. Gray's society, to give him as a
+   present.
+
+   ... I got a crimson ribbon for a bonnet for May, and I took my
+   straw and fixed it nicely with some little duds I had. Her old
+   one has haunted me all winter, and I want her to look neat. She
+   is so graceful and pretty and loves beauty so much, it is hard
+   for her to be poor and wear other people's ugly things. You and I
+   have learned not to mind _much_; but when I think of her I long
+   to dash out and buy the finest hat the limited sum of ten dollars
+   can procure. She says so sweetly in one of her letters: "It is
+   hard sometimes to see other people have so many nice things and I
+   so few; but I try not to be envious, but contented with my poor
+   clothes, and cheerful about it." I hope the little dear will like
+   the bonnet and the frills I made her and some bows I fixed over
+   from bright ribbons L. W. threw away. I get half my rarities from
+   her rag-bag, and she doesn't know her own rags when fixed over. I
+   hope I shall live to see the dear child in silk and lace, with
+   plenty of pictures and "bottles of cream," Europe, and all she
+   longs for.
+
+   For our good little Betty, who is wearing all the old gowns we
+   left, I shall soon be able to buy a new one, and send it with my
+   blessing to the cheerful saint. She writes me the funniest notes,
+   and tries to keep the old folks warm and make the lonely house in
+   the snowbanks cosey and bright.
+
+   To Father I shall send new neckties and some paper; then he will
+   be happy, and can keep on with the beloved diaries though the
+   heavens fall.
+
+   Don't laugh at my plans; I'll carry them out, if I go to service
+   to do it. Seeing so much money flying about, I long to honestly
+   get a little and make my dear family more comfortable. I feel
+   weak-minded when I think of all they need and the little I can
+   do.
+
+   Now about you: Keep the money you have earned by so many tears
+   and sacrifices, and clothe yourself; for it makes me mad to know
+   that my good little lass is going round in shabby things, and
+   being looked down upon by people who are not worthy to touch her
+   patched shoes or the hem of her ragged old gowns. Make yourself
+   tidy, and if any is left over send it to Mother; for there are
+   always many things needed at home, though they won't tell us. I
+   only wish I too by any amount of weeping and homesickness could
+   earn as much. But my mite won't come amiss; and if tears can add
+   to its value, I've shed my quart,--first, over the book not
+   coming out; for that was a sad blow, and I waited so long it was
+   dreadful when my castle in the air came tumbling about my ears.
+   Pride made me laugh in public; but I wailed in private, and no
+   one knew it. The folks at home think I rather enjoyed it, for I
+   wrote a jolly letter. But my visit was spoiled; and now I'm
+   digging away for dear life, that I may not have come entirely in
+   vain. I didn't mean to groan about it; but my lass and I must
+   tell some one our trials, and so it becomes easy to confide in
+   one another. I never let Mother know how unhappy you were in S.
+   till Uncle wrote.
+
+   My doings are not much this week. I sent a little tale to the
+   "Gazette," and Clapp asked H. W. if five dollars would be enough.
+   Cousin H. said yes, and gave it to me, with kind words and a nice
+   parcel of paper, saying in his funny way, "Now, Lu, the door is
+   open, go in and win." So I shall try to do it. Then cousin L. W.
+   said Mr. B. had got my play, and told her that if Mrs. B. liked
+   it as well, it must be clever, and if it didn't cost too much, he
+   would bring it out by and by. Say nothing about it yet. Dr. W.
+   tells me Mr. F. is very sick; so the farce cannot be acted yet.
+   But the Doctor is set on its coming out, and we have fun about
+   it. H. W. takes me often to the theatre when L. is done with me.
+   I read to her all the P.M. often, as she is poorly, and in that
+   way I pay my debt to them.
+
+   I'm writing another story for Clapp. I want more fives, and mean
+   to have them too.
+
+   Uncle wrote that you were Dr. W.'s pet teacher, and every one
+   loved you dearly. But if you are not well, don't stay. Come home,
+   and be cuddled by your old
+
+     LU.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+AUTHORSHIP.
+
+     OUR ANGEL IN THE HOUSE.
+
+     Sitting patient in the shadow
+       Till the blessed light shall come,
+     A serene and saintly presence
+       Sanctifies our troubled home.
+     Earthly joys and hopes and sorrows
+       Break like ripples on the strand
+     Of the deep and solemn river,
+       Where her willing feet now stand.
+
+     O my sister, passing from me
+       Out of human care and strife,
+     Leave me as a gift those virtues
+       Which have beautified your life.
+     Dear, bequeath me that great patience
+       Which has power to sustain
+     A cheerful, uncomplaining spirit
+       In its prison-house of pain.
+
+     Give me--for I need it sorely--
+       Of that courage, wise and sweet,
+     Which has made the path of duty
+       Green beneath your willing feet.
+     Give me that unselfish nature
+       That with charity divine
+     Can pardon wrong for love's dear sake,--
+       Meek heart, forgive me mine!
+
+     Thus our parting daily loseth
+       Something of its bitter pain,
+     And while learning this hard lesson
+       My great loss becomes my gain;
+     For the touch of grief will render
+       My wild nature more serene,
+     Give to life new aspirations,
+       A new trust in the unseen.
+
+     Henceforth safe across the river
+       I shall see forevermore
+     A beloved household spirit
+       Waiting for me on the shore;
+     Hope and faith, born of my sorrow,
+       Guardian angels shall become;
+     And the sister gone before me
+       By their hands shall lead me home.
+
+
+When only twenty-two years old Miss Alcott began her career of
+authorship by launching a little flower bark, which floated gaily on
+the stream. She had always written poems, plays, and stories for her
+own and her friends' pleasure, and now she gathered up some tales she
+had written for Mr. Emerson's daughter, and published them under the
+name of "Flower Fables." She received the small amount of thirty-two
+dollars for the book; but it gave her the great satisfaction of having
+earned it by work that she loved, and which she could do well. She
+began to have applications for stories from the papers; but as yet
+sewing and teaching paid better than writing. While she sewed her
+brain was busy with plans of poems, plays, and tales, which she made
+use of at a later period.
+
+The following letter to her mother shows how closely she associated
+her with this early success:--
+
+     20 PINCKNEY STREET, BOSTON, Dec. 25, 1854. (With "Flower
+     Fables,")
+
+   DEAR MOTHER,--Into your Christmas stocking I have put my
+   "first-born," knowing that you will accept it with all its
+   faults (for grandmothers are always kind), and look upon it
+   merely as an earnest of what I may yet do; for, with so much to
+   cheer me on, I hope to pass in time from fairies and fables to
+   men and realities.
+
+   Whatever beauty or poetry is to be found in my little book is
+   owing to your interest in and encouragement of all my efforts
+   from the first to the last; and if ever I do anything to be proud
+   of, my greatest happiness will be that I can thank you for that,
+   as I may do for all the good there is in me; and I shall be
+   content to write if it gives you pleasure.
+
+     Jo is fussing about;
+     My lamp is going out.
+
+   To dear mother, with many kind wishes for a happy New Year and
+   merry Christmas.
+
+   I am ever your loving daughter
+
+     LOUY.
+
+This letter shows that she had already begun to see that she must
+study not only fairies and fancies, but men and realities; and she now
+began to observe life, not in books, but as it went on around her. In
+the intense excitement of the anti-slavery struggles of that period
+she might well learn how full of dramatic situations and the elements
+of both tragedy and comedy real human life is. She says: "I began to
+see the strong contrasts and fun and frolic in every day life about
+this time." She also considered her reading, and tried to make it more
+thorough and profitable; and she did not "waste even _ink_ on poems
+and fancies," but planned stories, that everything might help toward
+her great object of earning support for her family.
+
+In June, 1855, Miss Alcott went to Walpole, N. H., where she had a
+free life among the hills for a few months. It must have been a great
+refreshment to her after the winter's work in the city. In July the
+family followed her thither, and occupied a small house. The country
+life and joy soon began to find expression, and she wrote a little
+story called "King Goldenrod," which she says "ought to be fresh and
+true," as written at that beautiful time and place. But this pleasant
+country life was for a short season only; and in chill November she
+set out for the city, with brave heart and scanty outfit, to seek her
+fortune once more. While still continuing to sew as a means of
+livelihood, she began to try a great variety of literary ventures. She
+wrote notices of books for the papers, and at one time got five
+dollars for a story, besides twelve dollars for sewing. The following
+year the publishers began to find out the value of her work, and to
+call for more stories. Even her poems were accepted. Little Nell was
+then the favorite heroine of Dickens, and Louisa's poem on that
+subject was published in the "Courier." Although she at first enjoyed
+the beautiful scenery of Walpole, she found the dull little town did
+not offer her the opportunities for work that she needed; and leaving
+her family there, she came down to Boston to seek her fortune, and
+went to the well-known boarding-house of Mrs. David Reed on Chauncey
+Street. The happy home which she had here during the winter is
+represented as Mrs. Kirke's house in "Little Women," and Jo's garret
+is the sky-parlor in which she lived and wrote. She had a rich
+winter, hearing many of the finest lectures, and enjoying her free
+pass to the theatre. One of her greatest helps, however, was the
+friendship of Theodore Parker, who took great interest in her
+struggles, and wisely strengthened and encouraged her. She loved to go
+to his Sunday evening receptions, and sit quietly watching the varied
+company who collected there; and a word or pressure of the hand from
+her host was enough to cheer her for the whole week. She has
+gratefully recorded this influence in her sketch of Mr. Power in
+"Work;" but she has not given to that delineation the striking
+personality of her subject which we should have expected of her. She
+then perhaps looked up to him too much to take note of the rich
+elements of wit and humor in his nature, and has painted him wholly
+seriously, and with a colorless brush.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+_Twenty-two Years Old._
+
+   PINCKNEY STREET, BOSTON, _Jan._ 1, 1855.--The principal event of
+   the winter is the appearance of my book "Flower Fables." An
+   edition of sixteen hundred. It has sold very well, and people
+   seem to like it. I feel quite proud that the little tales that I
+   wrote for Ellen E. when I was sixteen should now bring money and
+   fame.
+
+   I will put in some of the notices as "varieties." Mothers are
+   always foolish over their first-born.
+
+   Miss Wealthy Stevens paid for the book, and I received $32.
+
+   [A pleasing contrast to the receipts of six months only in 1886,
+   being $8000 for the sale of books, and no new one; but I was
+   prouder over the $32 than the $8000.--L. M. A., 1886.]
+
+   _April_, 1855.--I am in the garret with my papers round me, and a
+   pile of apples to eat while I write my journal, plan stories, and
+   enjoy the patter of rain on the roof, in peace and quiet.
+
+   [Jo in the garret.--L. M. A.]
+
+   Being behindhand, as usual, I'll make note of the main events up
+   to date, for I don't waste ink in poetry and pages of rubbish
+   now. I've begun to _live_, and have no time for sentimental
+   musing.
+
+   In October I began my school; Father talked, Mother looked after
+   her boarders, and tried to help everybody. Anna was in Syracuse
+   teaching Mrs. S----'s children.
+
+   My book came out; and people began to think that topsey-turvey
+   Louisa would amount to something after all, since she could do so
+   well as housemaid, teacher, seamstress, and story-teller. Perhaps
+   she may.
+
+   In February I wrote a story for which C. paid $5, and asked for
+   more.
+
+   In March I wrote a farce for W. Warren, and Dr. W. offered it to
+   him; but W. W. was too busy.
+
+   Also began another tale, but found little time to work on it,
+   with school, sewing, and house-work. My winter's earnings are,--
+
+     School, one quarter    $50
+     Sewing                 $50
+     Stories                $20
+
+   if I am ever paid.
+
+   A busy and a pleasant winter, because, though hard at times, I do
+   seem to be getting on a little; and that encourages me.
+
+   Have heard Lowell and Hedge lecture, acted in plays, and thanks
+   to our rag-money and good cousin H., have been to the theatre
+   several times,--always my great joy.
+
+   Summer plans are yet unsettled. Father wants to go to England:
+   not a wise idea, I think. We shall probably stay here, and A. and
+   I go into the country as governesses. It's a queer way to live,
+   but dramatic, and I rather like it; for we never know what is to
+   come next. We are real "Micawbers," and always "ready for a
+   spring."
+
+   I have planned another Christmas book, and hope to be able to
+   write it.
+
+   1855.--Cousin L. W. asks me to pass the summer at Walpole with
+   her. If I can get no teaching, I shall go; for I long for the
+   hills, and can write my fairy tales there.
+
+   I delivered my burlesque lecture on "Woman, and Her Position; by
+   Oronthy Bluggage," last evening at Deacon G.'s. Had a merry time,
+   and was asked by Mr. W. to do it at H. for money. Read "Hamlet"
+   at our club,--my favorite play. Saw Mrs. W. H. Smith about the
+   farce; says she will do it at her benefit.
+
+   _May._--Father went to C. to talk with Mr. Emerson about the
+   England trip. I am to go to Walpole. I have made my own gowns,
+   and had money enough to fit up the girls. So glad to be
+   independent.
+
+   [I wonder if $40 fitted up the whole family. Perhaps so, as my
+   wardrobe was made up of old clothes from cousins and friends.--L.
+   M. A.]
+
+   WALPOLE, N. H., _June, 1855_.--Pleasant journey and a kind
+   welcome. Lovely place, high among the hills. So glad to run and
+   skip in the woods and up the splendid ravine. Shall write here, I
+   know.
+
+   Helped cousin L. in her garden; and the smell of the fresh earth
+   and the touch of green leaves did me good.
+
+   Mr. T. came and praised my first book, so I felt much inspired to
+   go and do another. I remember him at Scituate years ago, when he
+   was a young ship-builder and I a curly-haired hoyden of five or
+   six.
+
+   Up at five, and had a lovely run in the ravine, seeing the woods
+   wake. Planned a little tale which ought to be fresh and true, as
+   it came at that hour and place,--"King Goldenrod." Have lively
+   days,--writing in A.M., driving in P.M., and fun in eve. My visit
+   is doing me much good.
+
+   _July, 1855._--Read "Hyperion." On the 16th the family came to
+   live in Mr. W.'s house rent free. No better plan offered, and we
+   were all tired of the city. Here Father can have a garden; Mother
+   can rest and be near her good niece; the children have freedom
+   and fine air; and A. and I can go from here to our teaching,
+   wherever it may be.
+
+   Busy and happy times as we settle in the little house in the lane
+   near by my dear ravine,--plays, picnics, pleasant people, and
+   good neighbors. Fanny Kemble came up, Mrs. Kirkland and others,
+   and Dr. Bellows is the gayest of the gay. We acted the
+   "Jacobite," "Rivals," and "Bonnycastles," to an audience of a
+   hundred, and were noticed in the Boston papers. H. T. was our
+   manager, and Dr. B., D. D., our dramatic director. Anna was the
+   star, her acting being really very fine. I did "Mrs. Malaprop,"
+   "Widow Pottle," and the old ladies.
+
+   Finished fairy book in September. Anna had an offer from Dr.
+   Wilbur of Syracuse to teach at the great idiot asylum. She
+   disliked it, but decided to go. Poor dear! so beauty-loving,
+   timid, and tender. It is a hard trial; but she is so
+   self-sacrificing she tries to like it because it is duty.
+
+   _October._--A. to Syracuse. May illustrated my book, and tales
+   called "Christmas Elves." Better than "Flower Fables." Now I must
+   try to sell it.
+
+   [Innocent Louisa, to think that a Christmas book could be sold in
+   October.--L. M. A.]
+
+   _November._--Decided to seek my fortune; so, with my little trunk
+   of home-made clothes, $20 earned by stories sent to the
+   "Gazette," and my MSS., I set forth with Mother's blessing one
+   rainy day in the dullest month in the year.
+
+   [My birth-month; always to be a memorable one.--L. M. A.]
+
+   Found it too late to do anything with the book, so put it away
+   and tried for teaching, sewing, or any honest work. Won't go home
+   to sit idle while I have a head and pair of hands.
+
+   _December._--H. and L. W. very kind, and my dear cousins the
+   Sewalls take me in. I sew for Mollie and others, and write
+   stories. C. gave me books to notice. Heard Thackeray. Anxious
+   times; Anna very home-sick. Walpole very cold and dull now the
+   summer butterflies have gone. Got $5 for a tale and $12 for
+   sewing; sent home a Christmas-box to cheer the dear souls in the
+   snow-banks.
+
+   _January, 1856._--C. paid $6 for "A Sister's Trial," gave me more
+   books to notice, and wants more tales.
+
+   [Should think he would at that price.--L. M. A.]
+
+   Sewed for L. W. Sewall and others. Mr. J. M. Field took my farce
+   to Mobile to bring out; Mr. Barry of the Boston Theatre has the
+   play.
+
+   Heard Curtis lecture. Began a book for summer,--"Beach Bubbles."
+   Mr. F. of the "Courier" printed a poem of mine on "Little Nell."
+   Got $10 for "Bertha," and saw great yellow placards stuck up
+   announcing it. Acted at the W.'s.
+
+   _March._--Got $10 for "Genevieve." Prices go up, as people like
+   the tales and ask who wrote them. Finished "Twelve Bubbles."
+   Sewed a great deal, and got very tired; one job for Mr. G. of a
+   dozen pillow-cases, one dozen sheets, six fine cambric neckties,
+   and two dozen handkerchiefs, at which I had to work all one night
+   to get them done, as they were a gift to him. I got only $4.
+
+   Sewing won't make my fortune; but I can plan my stories while I
+   work, and then scribble 'em down on Sundays.
+
+   Poem on "Little Paul;" Curtis's lecture on "Dickens" made it go
+   well. Hear Emerson on "England."
+
+   _May._--Anna came on her way home, sick and worn out; the work
+   was too much for her. We had some happy days visiting about.
+   Could not dispose of B. B. in book form, but C. took them for his
+   paper. Mr. Field died, so the farce fell through there. Altered
+   the play for Mrs. Barrow to bring out next winter.
+
+   _June, 1856._--Home, to find dear Betty very ill with
+   scarlet-fever caught from some poor children Mother nursed when
+   they fell sick, living over a cellar where pigs had been kept.
+   The landlord (a deacon) would not clean the place till Mother
+   threatened to sue him for allowing a nuisance. Too late to save
+   two of the poor babies or Lizzie and May from the fever.
+
+   [L. never recovered, but died of it two years later.--L. M. A.]
+
+   An anxious time. I nursed, did house-work, and wrote a story a
+   month through the summer.
+
+   Dr. Bellows and Father had Sunday eve conversations.
+
+   _October._--Pleasant letters from Father, who went on a tour to
+   N. Y., Philadelphia, and Boston.
+
+   Made plans to go to Boston for the winter, as there is nothing to
+   do here, and there I can support myself and help the family. C.
+   offers 10 dollars a month, and perhaps more. L. W., M. S., and
+   others, have plenty of sewing; the play _may_ come out, and Mrs.
+   R. will give me a sky-parlor for $3 a week, with fire and board.
+   I sew for her also.
+
+   If I can get A. L. to governess I shall be all right.
+
+   I was born with a boy's spirit under my bib and tucker. I _can't
+   wait_ when I _can work_; so I took my little talent in my hand
+   and forced the world again, braver than before and wiser for my
+   failures.
+
+   [Jo in N. Y.--L. M. A.]
+
+   I don't often pray in words; but when I set out that day with all
+   my worldly goods in the little old trunk, my own earnings ($25)
+   in my pocket, and much hope and resolution in my soul, my heart
+   was very full, and I said to the Lord, "Help us all, and keep us
+   for one another," as I never said it before, while I looked back
+   at the dear faces watching me, so full of love and hope and
+   faith.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   BOSTON, _November, 1856_. _Mrs. David Reed's._--I find my little
+   room up in the attic very cosey, and a house full of boarders
+   very amusing to study. Mrs. Reed very kind. Fly round and take C.
+   his stories. Go to see Mrs. L. about A. Don't want me. A blow,
+   but I cheer up and hunt for sewing. Go to hear Parker, and he
+   does me good. Asks me to come Sunday evenings to his house. I did
+   go there, and met Phillips, Garrison, Hedge, and other great men,
+   and sit in my corner weekly, staring and enjoying myself.
+
+   When I went Mr. Parker said, "God bless you, Louisa; come again;"
+   and the grasp of his hand gave me courage to face another anxious
+   week.
+
+   _November 3d._--Wrote all the morning. In the P.M. went to see
+   the Sumner reception as he comes home after the Brooks affair. I
+   saw him pass up Beacon Street, pale and feeble, but smiling and
+   bowing. I rushed to Hancock Street, and was in time to see him
+   bring his proud old mother to the window when the crowd gave
+   three cheers for her. I cheered too, and was very much excited.
+   Mr. Parker met him somewhere before the ceremony began, and the
+   above P. cheered like a boy; and Sumner laughed and nodded as his
+   friend pranced and shouted, bareheaded and beaming.
+
+   My kind cousin, L. W., got tickets for a course of lectures on
+   "Italian Literature," and seeing my old cloak sent me a new one,
+   with other needful and pretty things such as girls love to have.
+   I shall never forget how kind she has always been to me.
+
+   _November 5th._--Went with H. W. to see Manager Barry about the
+   everlasting play which is always coming out but never comes. We
+   went all over the great new theatre, and I danced a jig on the
+   immense stage. Mr. B. was very kind, and gave me a pass to come
+   whenever I liked. This was such richness I didn't care if the
+   play was burnt on the spot, and went home full of joy. In the eve
+   I saw La Grange as Norma, and felt as if I knew all about that
+   place. Quite stage-struck, and imagined myself in her place, with
+   white robes and oak-leaf crown.
+
+   _November 6th._--Sewed happily on my job of twelve sheets for H.
+   W., and put lots of good will into the work after his kindness to
+   me.
+
+   Walked to Roxbury to see cousin Dr. W. about the play and tell
+   the fine news. Rode home in the new cars, and found them very
+   nice.
+
+   In the eve went to teach at Warren Street Chapel Charity School.
+   I'll help as I am helped, if I can. Mother says no one so poor he
+   can't do a little for some one poorer yet.
+
+   _Sunday._--Heard Parker on "Individuality of Character," and
+   liked it much. In the eve I went to his house. Mrs. Howe was
+   there, and Sumner and others. I sat in my usual corner, but Mr.
+   P. came up and said, in that cordial way of his, "Well, child,
+   how goes it?" "Pretty well, sir." "That's brave;" and with his
+   warm hand-shake he went on, leaving me both proud and happy,
+   though I have my trials. He is like a great fire where all can
+   come and be warmed and comforted. Bless him!
+
+   Had a talk at tea about him, and fought for him when W. R. said
+   he was not a Christian. He is my _sort_; for though he may lack
+   reverence for other people's God, he works bravely for his own,
+   and turns his back on no one who needs help, as some of the pious
+   do.
+
+   _Monday, 14th._--May came full of expectation and joy to visit
+   good aunt B. and study drawing. We walked about and had a good
+   home talk, then my girl went off to Auntie's to begin what I hope
+   will be a pleasant and profitable winter. She needs help to
+   develop her talent, and I can't give it to her.
+
+   Went to see Forrest as Othello. It is funny to see how attentive
+   all the once cool gentlemen are to Miss Alcott now she has a pass
+   to the new theatre.
+
+   _November 29th._--My birthday. Felt forlorn so far from home.
+   Wrote all day. Seem to be getting on slowly, so should be
+   contented. To a little party at the B.'s in the eve. May looked
+   very pretty, and seemed to be a favorite. The boys teased me
+   about being an authoress, and I said I'd be famous yet. Will if I
+   can, but something else may be better for me.
+
+   Found a pretty pin from Father and a nice letter when I got home.
+   Mr. H. brought them with letters from Mother and Betty, so I went
+   to bed happy.
+
+   _December._--Busy with Christmas and New Year's tales. Heard a
+   good lecture by E. P. Whipple on "Courage." Thought I needed it,
+   being rather tired of living like a spider;--spinning my brains
+   out for money.
+
+   Wrote a story, "The Cross on the Church Tower," suggested by the
+   tower before my window.
+
+   Called on Mrs. L., and she asked me to come and teach A. for
+   three hours each day. Just what I wanted; and the children's
+   welcome was very pretty and comforting to "Our Olly," as they
+   call me.
+
+   Now board is all safe, and something over for home, if stories
+   and sewing fail. I don't do much, but can send little comforts to
+   Mother and Betty, and keep May neat.
+
+   _December 18th._--Begin with A. L., in Beacon Street. I taught C.
+   when we lived in High Street, A. in Pinckney Street, and now Al.;
+   so I seem to be an institution and a success, since I can start
+   the boy, teach one girl, and take care of the little invalid. It
+   is hard work, but I can do it; and am glad to sit in a large,
+   fine room part of each day, after my sky-parlor, which has
+   nothing pretty in it, and only the gray tower and blue sky
+   outside as I sit at the window writing. I love luxury, but
+   freedom and independence better.
+
+
+_To her Father, written from Mrs. Reed's._
+
+     BOSTON, Nov. 29, 1856.
+
+   DEAREST FATHER,--Your little parcel was very welcome to me as I
+   sat alone in my room, with snow falling fast outside, and a few
+   tears in (for birthdays are dismal times to me); and the fine
+   letter, the pretty gift, and, most of all, the loving thought so
+   kindly taken for your old absent daughter, made the cold, dark
+   day as warm and bright as summer to me.
+
+   And now, with the birthday pin upon my bosom, many thanks on my
+   lips, and a whole heart full of love for its giver, I will tell
+   you a little about my doings, stupid as they will seem after your
+   own grand proceedings. How I wish I could be with you, enjoying
+   what I have always longed for,--fine people, fine amusements, and
+   fine books. But as I can't, I am glad you are; for I love to see
+   your name first among the lecturers, to hear it kindly spoken of
+   in papers and inquired about by good people here,--to say nothing
+   of the delight and pride I take in seeing you at last filling the
+   place you are so fitted for, and which you have waited for so
+   long and patiently. If the New Yorkers raise a statue to the
+   modern Plato, it will be a wise and highly creditable action.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+   I am very well and very happy. Things go smoothly, and I think I
+   shall come out right, and prove that though an _Alcott_ I _can_
+   support myself. I like the independent feeling; and though not an
+   easy life, it is a free one, and I enjoy it. I can't do much with
+   my hands; so I will make a battering-ram of my head and make a
+   way through this rough-and-tumble world. I have very pleasant
+   lectures to amuse my evenings,--Professor Gajani on "Italian
+   Reformers," the Mercantile Library course, Whipple, Beecher, and
+   others, and, best of all, a free pass at the Boston Theatre. I
+   saw Mr. Barry, and he gave it to me with many kind speeches, and
+   promises to bring out the play very soon. I hope he will.
+
+   My farce is in the hands of Mrs. W. H. Smith, who acts at Laura
+   Keene's theatre in New York. She took it, saying she would bring
+   it out there. If you see or hear anything about it, let me know.
+   I want something doing. My mornings are spent in writing. C.
+   takes one a month, and I am to see Mr. B., who may take some of
+   my wares.
+
+   In the afternoons I walk and visit my hundred relations, who are
+   all kind and friendly, and seem interested in our various
+   successes.
+
+   Sunday evenings I go to Parker's parlor, and there meet Phillips,
+   Garrison, Scherb, Sanborn, and many other pleasant people. All
+   talk, and I sit in a corner listening, and wishing a certain
+   placid gray-haired gentleman was there talking too. Mrs. Parker
+   calls on me, reads my stories, and is very good to me. Theodore
+   asks Louisa "how her worthy parents do," and is otherwise very
+   friendly to the large, bashful girl who adorns his parlor
+   steadily.
+
+   Abby is preparing for a busy and, I hope, a profitable winter.
+   She has music lessons already, French and drawing in store, and,
+   if her eyes hold out, will keep her word and become what none of
+   us can be, "an accomplished Alcott." Now, dear Father, I shall
+   hope to hear from you occasionally, and will gladly answer all
+   epistles from the Plato whose parlor parish is becoming quite
+   famous. I got the "Tribune," but not the letter, and shall look
+   it up. I have been meaning to write, but did not know where you
+   were.
+
+   Good-by, and a happy birthday from your ever loving child,
+
+     LOUISA.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+_Twenty-four Years Old._
+
+   _January, 1857._--Had my first new silk dress from good little L.
+   W.,--very fine; and I felt as if all the Hancocks and Quincys
+   beheld me as I went to two parties in it on New Year's eve.
+
+   A busy, happy month,--taught, wrote, sewed, read aloud to the
+   "little mother," and went often to the theatre; heard good
+   lectures; and enjoyed my Parker evenings very much.
+
+   Father came to see me on his way home; little money; had had a
+   good time, and was asked to come again. Why don't rich people who
+   enjoy his talk pay for it? Philosophers are always poor, and too
+   modest to pass round their own hats.
+
+   Sent by him a good bundle to the poor Forlornites among the
+   ten-foot drifts in W.
+
+   _February._--Ran home as a valentine on the 14th.
+
+   _March._--Have several irons in the fire now, and try to keep 'em
+   all hot.
+
+   _April._--May did a crayon head of Mother with Mrs. Murdock; very
+   good likeness. All of us as proud as peacocks of our "little
+   Raphael."
+
+   Heard Mrs. Butler read; very fine.
+
+   _May._--Left the L.'s with my thirty-three dollars, glad to rest.
+   May went home with her picture, happy in her winter's work and
+   success.
+
+   Father had three talks at W. F. Channing's. Good
+   company,--Emerson, Mrs. Howe, and the rest.
+
+   Saw young Booth in Brutus, and liked him better than his father;
+   went about and rested after my labors; glad to be with Father,
+   who enjoyed Boston and friends.
+
+   Home on the 10th, passing Sunday at the Emerson's. I have done
+   what I planned,--supported myself, written eight stories, taught
+   four months, earned a hundred dollars, and sent money home.
+
+   _June._--All happy together. My dear Nan was with me, and we had
+   good times. Betty was feeble, but seemed to cheer up for a time.
+   The long, cold, lonely winter has been too hard for the frail
+   creature, and we are all anxious about her. I fear she may slip
+   away; for she never seemed to care much for this world beyond
+   home.
+
+So gradually the day seemed to be coming to which Louisa had long
+looked forward. She found that she could be independent, could help
+her family, and even indulge some of her own tastes.
+
+About this time Miss Alcott mentions a young friend who died in her
+arms, and speaks of going to console the sister in her loneliness.
+This shows how warmly her heart beat for others while her head was so
+busy with her ambitious plans. She speaks also of the hint of a new
+story called "The Cost of an Idea." She never lost sight of this plan,
+but did not carry it out. Her father's life and character were in her
+mind, and she longed to portray the conflict between his high ideal
+and the practical difficulties of his life; but it was an impossible
+subject. The Fruitlands episode was told in "Transcendental Wild
+Oats," and his early life in "Elis's Education." But although her
+admiration and affection for him are abundantly shown in her journals,
+she never perhaps understood him so thoroughly that she could
+adequately portray his personality; neither could she do justice to
+all related to him without trenching upon the privacy due to sacred
+feelings.
+
+  [Illustration: ORCHARD HOUSE, CONCORD, MASS. Home of the Alcott
+  Family, 1858.]
+
+A great shadow fell over Louisa's heart and life from the increasing
+illness of her dear younger sister Elizabeth. This young girl was
+tenderly beloved by all the family, and was indeed as pure,
+refined, and holy as she is represented as Beth in "Little Women."
+Her decay was very gradual, and she was so patient and sweet that the
+sad time of anxiety was a very precious one in remembrance.
+
+This sickness added to the pecuniary burdens of the family, and eight
+years afterward Louisa paid the bill of the physician who attended her
+sister.
+
+In October, 1857, the family removed again to Concord, and Louisa
+remained at home to assist in the care of the beloved invalid. They
+lived a few months in a part of a house which they hired until the
+Orchard House, which they had bought, was ready for them. Here the
+dear sister's life came to a close.
+
+This was the first break in the household, and the mother's heart
+never fully recovered from it. Louisa accepted death with strong,
+sweet wisdom. It never seemed to have any terror for her.
+
+In July they took possession of the Orchard House, which was hereafter
+the permanent residence of the family. This was a picturesque old
+house on the side of a hill, with an orchard of apple-trees. It was
+not far from Mr. Emerson's, and within walking distance of the
+village, yet very quiet and rural. Mr. Alcott had his library, and was
+always very happy there; but Louisa's heart never clung to it.
+
+The engagement of the elder sister was a very exciting event to
+Louisa, who did not like having the old sisterly relation broken in
+upon; but everything was so genuine and true in the love of the newly
+betrothed pair that she could not help accepting the change as a
+blessing to her sister and taking the new brother into her heart. The
+entries in her journal show that the picture she has drawn in "Little
+Women" of this noble man is from life, and not exaggerated.
+
+Louisa went to Boston for a visit, and again had hopes of going on to
+the stage; but an accident prevented it; and she returned to Concord
+and her writing, working off her disappointment in a story called
+"Only an Actress."
+
+Among her experiences at this time was an offer of marriage, about
+which she consulted her mother, telling her that she did not care for
+the lover very much. The wise mother saved her from the impulse to
+self-sacrifice, which might have led her to accept a position which
+would have given help to the family.
+
+Although this was not the only instance of offers of marriage, more or
+less advantageous, made to her, Louisa had no inclination toward
+matrimony. Her heart was bound up in her family, and she could hardly
+contemplate her own interests as separate from theirs. She loved
+activity, freedom, and independence. She could not cherish illusions
+tenderly; and she always said that she got tired of everybody, and
+felt sure that she should of her husband if she married. She never
+wished to make her heroines marry, and the love story is the part of
+her books for which she cared least. She yielded to the desire of the
+public, who will not accept life without a recognition of this great
+joy in it. Still it must be acknowledged that she has sometimes
+painted very sweet and natural love scenes, although more often in
+quaint and homely guise than in the fashion of ancient romance. "King
+of Clubs and Queen of Hearts" is very prettily told; and "Mrs.
+Todger's Teapot" is true to that quiet, earnest affection which does
+not pass away with youth.
+
+The writing went on, and she received five, six, or ten dollars apiece
+for her stories; but she did not yet venture to give up the sewing and
+teaching, which was still the sure reliance.
+
+Her younger sister now began to exercise her talent, and illustrated a
+little book of Louisa's called "Christmas Elves," which she says is
+better than "Flower Fables."
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   Read Charlotte Bronté's life. A very interesting, but sad one. So
+   full of talent; and after working long, just as success, love,
+   and happiness come, she dies.
+
+   Wonder if I shall ever be famous enough for people to care to
+   read my story and struggles. I can't be a C. B., but I may do a
+   little something yet.
+
+   _July._--Grandma Alcott came to visit us. A sweet old lady; and I
+   am glad to know her, and see where Father got his nature.
+   Eighty-four; yet very smart, industrious, and wise. A house needs
+   a grandma in it.
+
+   As we sat talking over Father's boyhood, I never realized so
+   plainly before how much he has done for himself. His early life
+   sounded like a pretty old romance, and Mother added the love
+   passages.
+
+   I got a hint for a story; and some day will do it, and call it
+   "The Cost of an Idea." Spindle Hill, Temple School, Fruitlands,
+   Boston, and Concord, would make fine chapters. The trials and
+   triumphs of the Pathetic Family would make a capital book; may I
+   live to do it.
+
+   _August._--A sad, anxious month. Betty worse; Mother takes her
+   to the seashore. Father decides to go back to Concord; he is
+   never happy far from Emerson, the one true friend who loves and
+   understands and helps him.
+
+   _September._--An old house near R. W. E.'s is bought with
+   Mother's money, and we propose to move. Mother in Boston with
+   poor Betty, who is failing fast. Anna and I have a hard time
+   breaking up.
+
+   _October._--Move to Concord. Take half a house in town till
+   spring, when the old one is to be made ready.
+
+   Find dear Betty a shadow, but sweet and patient always. Fit up a
+   nice room for her, and hope home and love and care may keep her.
+
+   People kind and friendly, and the old place looks pleasant,
+   though I never want to live in it.
+
+   _November._--Father goes West, taking Grandma home. We settle
+   down to our winter, whatever it is to be. Lizzie seems better,
+   and we have some plays. Sanborn's school makes things lively, and
+   we act a good deal.
+
+   Twenty-five this month. I feel my quarter of a century rather
+   heavy on my shoulders just now. I lead two lives. One seems gay
+   with plays, etc., the other very sad,--in Betty's room; for
+   though she wishes us to act, and loves to see us get ready, the
+   shadow is there, and Mother and I see it. Betty loves to have me
+   with her; and I am with her at night, for Mother needs rest.
+   Betty says she feels "strong" when I am near. So glad to be of
+   use.
+
+   _December._--Some fine plays for charity.
+
+   _January, 1858._--Lizzie much worse; Dr. G. says there is no
+   hope. A hard thing to hear; but if she is only to suffer, I pray
+   she may go soon. She was glad to know she was to "get well," as
+   she called it, and we tried to bear it bravely for her sake. We
+   gave up plays; Father came home; and Anna took the housekeeping,
+   so that Mother and I could devote ourselves to her. Sad, quiet
+   days in her room, and strange nights keeping up the fire and
+   watching the dear little shadow try to wile away the long
+   sleepless hours without troubling me. She sews, reads, sings
+   softly, and lies looking at the fire,--so sweet and patient and
+   so worn, my heart is broken to see the change. I wrote some lines
+   one night on "Our Angel in the House."
+
+   [Jo and Beth.--L. M. A.]
+
+   _February._--A mild month; Betty very comfortable, and we hope a
+   little.
+
+   Dear Betty is slipping away, and every hour is too precious to
+   waste, so I'll keep my lamentations over Nan's [affairs] till
+   this duty is over.
+
+   Lizzie makes little things, and drops them out of windows to the
+   school-children, smiling to see their surprise. In the night she
+   tells me to be Mrs. Gamp, when I give her her lunch, and tries to
+   be gay that I may keep up. Dear little saint! I shall be better
+   all my life for these sad hours with you.
+
+   _March 14th._--My dear Beth died at three this morning, after two
+   years of patient pain. Last week she put her work away, saying
+   the needle was "too heavy," and having given us her few
+   possessions, made ready for the parting in her own simple, quiet
+   way. For two days she suffered much, begging for ether, though
+   its effect was gone. Tuesday she lay in Father's arms, and called
+   us round her, smiling contentedly as she said, "All here!" I
+   think she bid us good-by then, as she held our hands and kissed
+   us tenderly. Saturday she slept, and at midnight became
+   unconscious, quietly breathing her life away till three; then,
+   with one last look of the beautiful eyes, she was gone.
+
+   A curious thing happened, and I will tell it here, for Dr. G.
+   said it was a fact. A few moments after the last breath came, as
+   Mother and I sat silently watching the shadow fall on the dear
+   little face, I saw a light mist rise from the body, and float up
+   and vanish in the air. Mother's eyes followed mine, and when I
+   said, "What did you see?" she described the same light mist. Dr.
+   G. said it was the life departing visibly.
+
+   For the last time we dressed her in her usual cap and gown, and
+   laid her on her bed,--at rest at last. What she had suffered was
+   seen in the face; for at twenty-three she looked like a woman of
+   forty, so worn was she, and all her pretty hair gone.
+
+   On Monday Dr. Huntington read the Chapel service, and we sang her
+   favorite hymn. Mr. Emerson, Henry Thoreau, Sanborn, and John
+   Pratt, carried her out of the old home to the new one at Sleepy
+   Hollow chosen by herself. So the first break comes, and I know
+   what death means,--a liberator for her, a teacher for us.
+
+   _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,
+   and, for the first time, Lizzie absent. I don't miss her as I
+   expected to do, for she seems nearer and dearer than before; and
+   I am glad to know she is safe from pain and age in some world
+   where her innocent soul must be happy.
+
+   Death never seemed terrible to me, and now is beautiful; so I
+   cannot fear it, but find it friendly and wonderful.
+
+   _May._--A lonely month with all the girls gone, and Father and
+   Mother absorbed in the old house, which I don't care about, not
+   liking Concord.
+
+   On the 7th of April, Anna came walking in to tell us she was
+   engaged to John Pratt; so another sister is gone. J. is a model
+   son and brother,--a true man,--full of fine possibilities, but so
+   modest one does not see it at once. He is handsome, healthy, and
+   happy; just home from the West, and so full of love he is
+   pleasant to look at.
+
+   I moaned in private over my great loss, and said I'd never
+   forgive J. for taking Anna from me; but I shall if he makes her
+   happy, and turn to little May for my comfort.
+
+   [Now that John is dead, I can truly say we all had cause to bless
+   the day he came into the family; for we gained a son and brother,
+   and Anna the best husband ever known.
+
+   For ten years he made her home a little heaven of love and peace;
+   and when he died he left her the legacy of a beautiful life, and
+   an honest name to his little sons.--L. M. A., 1873.]
+
+   _June._--The girls came home, and I went to visit L. W. in
+   Boston. Saw Charlotte Cushman, and had a stage-struck fit. Dr. W.
+   asked Barry to let me act at his theatre, and he agreed. I was to
+   do Widow Pottle, as the dress was a good disguise and I knew the
+   part well. It was all a secret, and I had hopes of trying a new
+   life; the old one being so changed now, I felt as if I must find
+   interest in something absorbing. But Mr. B. broke his leg, so I
+   had to give it up; and when it was known, the dear, respectable
+   relations were horrified at the idea. I'll try again by-and-by,
+   and see if I have the gift. Perhaps it is acting, not writing,
+   I'm meant for. Nature must have a vent somehow.
+
+   _July._--Went into the new house and began to settle. Father is
+   happy; Mother glad to be at rest; Anna is in bliss with her
+   gentle John; and May busy over her pictures. I have plans
+   simmering, but must sweep and dust and wash my dish-pans a while
+   longer till I see my way.
+
+   Worked off my stage fever in writing a story, and felt better;
+   also a moral tale, and got twenty-five dollars, which pieced up
+   our summer gowns and bonnets all round. The inside of my head can
+   at least cover the outside.
+
+   _August._--Much company to see the new house. All seem to be glad
+   that the wandering family is anchored at last. We won't move
+   again for twenty years if I can help it. The old people need an
+   abiding place; and now that death and love have taken two of us
+   away, I can, I hope, soon manage to care for the remaining four.
+
+   The weeklies will all take stories; and I can simmer novels while
+   I do my housework, so see my way to a little money, and perhaps
+   more by-and-by if I ever make a hit.
+
+Probably owing to the excitement of grief for her sister's death, and
+sympathy in Anna's happy betrothal, Louisa became in October more
+discouraged than she had ever been, and went to Boston in search of
+work. As she walked over the mill dam the running stream brought the
+thought of the River of Death, which would end all troubles. It was
+but a momentary impulse, and the brave young heart rallied to the
+thought, "There is work for me, and I'll have it!" Her journal
+narrates how Mr. Parker helped her through this period of anxiety. She
+was all ready to go to Lancaster, to hard drudgery at sewing, when her
+old place as governess was again offered to her, and her own support
+was assured.
+
+   _October._--Went to Boston on my usual hunt for employment, as I
+   am not needed at home and seem to be the only bread-winner just
+   now.
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   My fit of despair was soon over, for it seemed so cowardly to run
+   away before the battle was over I couldn't do it. So I said
+   firmly, "There _is_ work for me, and I'll have it," and went home
+   resolved to take Fate by the throat and shake a living out of
+   her.
+
+   Sunday Mr. Parker preached a sermon on "Laborious Young Women."
+   Just what I needed; for it said: "Trust your fellow-beings, and
+   let them help you. Don't be too proud to ask, and accept the
+   humblest work till you can find the task you want."
+
+   "I will," said I, and went to Mr. P.'s. He was out; but I told
+   Mrs. P. my wants, and she kindly said Theodore and Hannah would
+   be sure to have something for me. As I went home I met Mrs. L.,
+   who had not wanted me, as Alice went to school. She asked if I
+   was engaged, and said A. did not do well, and she thought perhaps
+   they would like me back. I was rejoiced, and went home feeling
+   that the tide had begun to turn. Next day came Miss H. S. to
+   offer me a place at the Girls' Reform School at Lancaster, to sew
+   ten hours a day, make and mend. I said I'd go, as I could do
+   anything with a needle; but added, if Mrs. L. wants me I'd rather
+   do that.
+
+   "Of course you had. Take it if it comes, and if not, try my
+   work." I promised and waited. That eve, when my bag was packed
+   and all was ready for Lancaster, came a note from Mrs. L.
+   offering the old salary and the old place. I sang for joy, and
+   next day early posted off to Miss S. She was glad and shook
+   hands, saying, "It was a test, my dear, and you stood it. When I
+   told Mr. P. that you would go, he said, 'That is a true girl;
+   Louisa will succeed.'"
+
+   I was very proud and happy; for these things are tests of
+   character as well as courage, and I covet the respect of such
+   true people as Mr. P. and Miss S.
+
+   So away to my little girl with a bright heart! for with tales,
+   and sewing for Mary, which pays my board, there I am fixed for
+   the winter and my cares over. Thank the Lord!
+
+She now found publishers eager for her stories, and went on writing
+for them. She was encouraged by E. P. Whipple's praise of "Mark
+Field's Mistake," and by earning thirty dollars, most of which she
+sent home.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   Earned thirty dollars; sent twenty home. Heard Curtis, Parker,
+   Higginson, and Mrs. Dall lecture. See Booth's Hamlet, and my
+   ideal done at last.
+
+   My twenty-sixth birthday on the 29th. Some sweet letters from
+   home, and a ring of A.'s and J.'s hair as a peace-offering. A
+   quiet day, with many thoughts and memories.
+
+   The past year has brought us the first death and betrothal,--two
+   events that change my life. I can see that these experiences have
+   taken a deep hold, and changed or developed me. Lizzie helps me
+   spiritually, and a little success makes me more self-reliant. Now
+   that Mother is too tired to be wearied with my moods, I have to
+   manage them alone, and am learning that work of head and hand is
+   my salvation when disappointment or weariness burden and darken
+   my soul.
+
+   In my sorrow I think I instinctively came nearer to God, and
+   found comfort in the knowledge that he was sure to help when
+   nothing else could.
+
+   A great grief has taught me more than any minister, and when
+   feeling most alone I find refuge in the Almighty Friend. If this
+   is experiencing religion I have done it; but I think it is only
+   the lesson one must learn as it comes, and I am glad to know it.
+
+   After my fit of despair I seem to be braver and more cheerful,
+   and grub away with a good heart. Hope it will last, for I need
+   all the courage and comfort I can get.
+
+   I feel as if I could write better now,--more truly of things I
+   have felt and therefore _know_. I hope I shall yet do my great
+   book, for that seems to be my work, and I am growing up to it. I
+   even think of trying the "Atlantic." There 's ambition for you!
+   I'm sure some of the stories are very flat. If Mr. L. takes the
+   one Father carried to him, I shall think I can do something.
+
+   _December._--Father started on his tour West full of hope. Dear
+   man! How happy he will be if people will only listen to and _pay_
+   for his wisdom.
+
+   May came to B. and stayed with me while she took drawing lessons.
+   Christmas at home. Write an Indian story.
+
+   _January_, 1859.--Send a parcel home to Marmee and Nan.
+
+   Mother very ill. Home to nurse her for a week. Wonder if I ought
+   not to be a nurse, as I seem to have a gift for it. Lizzie, L.
+   W., and Mother all say so; and I like it. If I couldn't write or
+   act I'd try it. May yet. $21 from L.; $15 home.
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   Some day I'll do my best, and get well paid for it.
+
+   [$3,000 for a short serial in 1876. True prophet.--L. M. A.]
+
+   Wrote a sequel to "Mark Field." Had a queer time over it, getting
+   up at night to write it, being too full to sleep.
+
+   _March._--"Mark" was a success, and much praised. So I found the
+   divine afflatus did descend. Busy life teaching, writing, sewing,
+   getting all I can from lectures, books, and good people. Life is
+   my college. May I graduate well, and earn some honors!
+
+   _April._--May went home after a happy winter at the School of
+   Design, where she did finely, and was pronounced full of promise.
+   Mr. T. said good things of her, and we were very proud. No doubt
+   now what she is to be, if we can only keep her along.
+
+   I went home also, being done with A., who went out of town early.
+   Won't teach any more if I can help it; don't like it; and if I
+   can get writing enough can do much better.
+
+   I have done more than I hoped. Supported myself, helped May, and
+   sent something home. Not borrowed a penny, and had only five
+   dollars given me. So my third campaign ends well.
+
+   _May._--Took care of L. W., who was ill. Walked from C. to B. one
+   day, twenty miles, in five hours, and went to a party in the
+   evening. Not very tired. Well done for a vegetable production!
+
+   _June._--Took two children to board and teach. A busy month, as
+   Anna was in B.
+
+   _September._--Great State Encampment here. Town full of soldiers,
+   with military fuss and feathers. I like a camp, and long for a
+   war, to see how it all seems. I can't fight, but I can nurse.
+
+   [Prophetic again.--L. M. A.]
+
+   _October_, 1859.--May did a fine copy of Emerson's Endymion[7]
+   for me.
+
+   Mother sixty. God bless the dear, brave woman!
+
+   Good news of Parker in Florence,--my beloved minister and friend.
+   To him and R. W. E. I owe much of my education. May I be a worthy
+   pupil of such men!
+
+   _November._--Hurrah! My story was accepted; and Lowell asked if
+   it was not a translation from the German, it was so unlike most
+   tales. I felt much set up, and my fifty dollars will be very
+   happy money. People seem to think it a great thing to get into
+   the "Atlantic;" but I've not been pegging away all these years in
+   vain, and may yet have books and publishers and a fortune of my
+   own. Success has gone to my head, and I wander a little.
+   Twenty-seven years old, and very happy.
+
+   The Harper's Ferry tragedy makes this a memorable month. Glad I
+   have lived to see the Antislavery movement and this last heroic
+   act in it. Wish I could do my part in it.
+
+   _December_, 1859.--The execution of Saint John the Just took
+   place on the second. A meeting at the hall, and all Concord was
+   there. Emerson, Thoreau, Father, and Sanborn spoke, and all were
+   full of reverence and admiration for the martyr.
+
+   I made some verses on it, and sent them to the "Liberator."
+
+A sickness of Mrs. Alcott through which she nursed her makes Louisa
+question whether nursing is not her true vocation. She had an
+opportunity to try it later.
+
+Much interest attaches to this period of Louisa's work, when she
+dashed off sensational stories as fast as they were wanted, from the
+account which she has given of it in "Little Women." She has
+concentrated into one short period there the work and the feelings of
+a much longer time. She certainly did let her fancy run riot in these
+tales, and they were as sensational as the penny papers desired. She
+had a passion for wild, adventurous life, and even for lurid passion
+and melodramatic action, which she could indulge to the utmost in
+these stories. Louisa was always a creature of moods; and it was a
+great relief to work off certain feelings by the safe vent of
+imaginary persons and scenes in a story. She had no one to guide or
+criticise her; and the fact that these gambols of fancy brought the
+much-needed money, and were, as she truly called them, "pot boilers,"
+certainly did not discourage her from indulging in them. She is
+probably right in calling most of them "trash and rubbish," for she
+was yet an unformed girl, and had not studied herself or life very
+deeply; but her own severe condemnation of them in "Little Women"
+might give a false idea. The stories are never coarse or immoral. They
+give a lurid, unnatural picture of life, but sin is not made
+captivating or immorality attractive. There is often a severe moral
+enforced. They did not give poison to her readers, only over-seasoned
+unnatural food, which might destroy the relish for wholesome mental
+nourishment.
+
+We are inclined to ask, What did Louisa herself get out of this wild,
+Walpurgis-Night ride among ghosts and goblins, letting her fancy run
+riot, and indulging every mood as it rose? Did it not give her the
+dash and freedom in writing which we find in all her books, a command
+of language, and a recognition of the glow and force of life? She
+finds life no mere commonplace drudgery, but full of great
+possibilities. Did it not also give her an interest in all the wild
+fancies and dreams of girls, all the longing for adventure of boys,
+and make her hopeful even of the veriest young scamps that they would
+work off the turbulent energies of youth safely if activities were
+wisely provided for them?
+
+No writer for children ever was so fully recognized as understanding
+them. They never felt that she stood on a pinnacle of wisdom to
+censure them, but came right down into their midst to work and play
+with them, and at the same time to show them the path out of the
+tangled thickets, and to help them to see light in their gloomiest
+despair.
+
+Yet she unquestionably recognized that she was not doing the best work
+of which she was capable; and she looked forward still to the books
+she was to write, as well as the fortune she was to make. She did not
+like any reference to these sensational stories in after life,
+although she sometimes re-used plots or incidents in them; and she was
+very unwilling to have them republished.
+
+
+_Boston Bulletin,--Ninth Issue._
+
+     SUNDAY EVE, November, 1858.
+
+   MY BLESSED NAN,--Having finished my story, I can refresh my soul
+   by a scribble to you, though I have nothing to tell of much
+   interest.
+
+   Mrs. L. is to pay me my "celery" each month, as she likes to
+   settle all bills in that way; so yesterday she put $20.85 into my
+   willing hands, and gave me Saturday P.M. for a holiday. This
+   unexpected $20, with the $10 for my story (if I get it) and $5
+   for sewing, will give me the immense sum of $35. I shall get a
+   second-hand carpet for the little parlor, a bonnet for you, and
+   some shoes and stockings for myself, as three times round the
+   Common in cold weather conduces to chilblains, owing to
+   stockings with a profusion of toe, but no heel, and shoes with
+   plenty of heel, but a paucity of toe. The prejudices of society
+   demand that my feet be covered in the houses of the rich and
+   great; so I shall hose and shoe myself, and if any of my fortune
+   is left, will invest it in the Alcott Sinking Fund, the Micawber
+   R. R., and the Skimpole three per cents.
+
+   Tell me how much carpet you need, and T. S. will find me a good
+   one. In December I shall have another $20; so let me know what is
+   wanting, and don't live on "five pounds of rice and a couple of
+   quarts of split peas" all winter, I beg.
+
+   How did you like "Mark Field's Mistake"? I don't know whether it
+   is good or bad; but it will keep the pot boiling, and I ask no
+   more. I wanted to go and see if "Hope's Treasures" was accepted,
+   but was afeared. M. and H. both appeared; but one fell asleep,
+   and the other forgot to remember; so I still wait like Patience
+   on a hard chair, smiling at an inkstand. Miss K. asked me to go
+   to see Booth for the last time on Saturday. Upon that ravishing
+   thought I brooded all the week very merrily, and I danced, sang,
+   and clashed my cymbals daily. Saturday A.M. Miss K. sent word she
+   couldn't go, and from my pinnacle of joy I was precipitated into
+   an abyss of woe. While in said abyss Mrs. L. put the $20 into my
+   hands. That was a moment of awful trial. Every one of those
+   dollars cried aloud, "What, ho! Come hither, and be happy!" But
+   eight cold feet on a straw carpet marched to and fro so
+   pathetically that I locked up the tempting fiend, and fell to
+   sewing, as a Saturday treat!
+
+   But, lo! virtue was rewarded. Mrs. H. came flying in, and took me
+   to the Museum to see "Gold" and "Lend Me Five Shillings." Warren,
+   in an orange tie, red coat, white satin vest, and scarlet
+   ribbons on his ankles, was the funniest creature you ever saw;
+   and I laughed till I cried,--which was better for me than the
+   melancholy Dane, I dare say.
+
+   I'm disgusted with this letter; for I always begin trying to be
+   proper and neat; but my pen will not keep in order, and ink has a
+   tendency to splash when used copiously and with rapidity. I have
+   to be so moral and so dignified nowadays that the jocosity of my
+   nature will gush out when it gets a chance, and the consequences
+   are, as you see, rubbish. But you like it; so let's be merry
+   while we may, for to-morrow is Monday, and the weekly grind
+   begins again.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[7] A fine bas-relief owned by Mr. Emerson.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE YEAR OF GOOD LUCK.
+
+     THE CHILDREN'S SONG.
+
+     _Tune._--"Wait for the Wagon."
+
+     The world lies fair about us, and a friendly sky above;
+     Our lives are full of sunshine, our homes are full of love;
+     Few cares or sorrows sadden the beauty of our day;
+     We gather simple pleasures like daisies by the way.
+
+             _Chorus._--Oh! sing with cheery voices,
+                        Like robins on the tree;
+                      For little lads and lasses
+                        As blithe of heart should be.
+
+     The village is our fairyland: its good men are our kings;
+     And wandering through its by-ways our busy minds find wings.
+     The school-room is our garden, and we the flowers there,
+     And kind hands tend and water us that we may blossom fair.
+
+             _Chorus._--Oh! dance in airy circles,
+                        Like fairies on the lee;
+                      For little lads and lasses
+                        As light of foot should be.
+
+     There's the Shepherd of the sheepfold; the Father of the vines;
+     The Hermit of blue Walden; the Poet of the pines;
+     And a Friend who comes among us, with counsels wise and mild
+     With snow upon his forehead, yet at heart a very child.
+
+             _Chorus._--Oh! smile as smiles the river,
+                        Slow rippling to the sea;
+                      For little lads and lasses
+                        As full of peace should be.
+
+     There's not a cloud in heaven but drops its silent dew;
+     No violet in the meadow but blesses with its blue;
+     No happy child in Concord who may not do its part
+     To make the great world better by innocence of heart.
+
+             _Chorus._--Oh! blossom in the sunshine
+                           Beneath the village tree;
+                         For little lads and lasses
+                           Are the fairest flowers we see.
+
+
+After such long and hard struggles, it is pleasant to find the diary
+for 1860 headed "A Year of Good Luck." The appointment of Mr. Alcott
+as Superintendent of Schools in Concord was a great happiness to the
+family. It was a recognition of his character and ability, and gave
+him congenial occupation and some small pecuniary compensation.
+
+Louisa was writing for the "Atlantic," and receiving better pay for
+her work; Anna was happy; and May absorbed in her art.
+
+In the summer Miss Alcott had an experience in caring for a young
+friend during a temporary fit of insanity, which she has partially
+reproduced in the touching picture of Helen in the story of "Work." It
+is a powerful lesson; but it is almost cruelly enforced, and is an
+artistic blemish in the book. While the great problem of heredity
+should be studied and its lessons enforced, it is yet a mystery, whose
+laws are not understood; and it is not wise to paint its possible
+effects in the lurid light of excited imagination, which may too often
+bring about the very evils which a wise and temperate caution might
+prevent. For the physician and teacher such investigations are
+important; but they are dangerous to the young and sensitive.
+
+The following unusually long letter gives a pleasing picture of the
+family life at this time:--
+
+
+_To Mrs. Bond._
+
+     APPLE SLUMP, Sept. 17, 1860.
+
+   DEAR AUNTIE,--I consider this a practical illustration of one of
+   Mother's naughty amended sayings, "Cast your bread upon the
+   waters, and after many days it will return buttered;" and this
+   "rule of three" don't "puzzle me," as the other did; for my
+   venerable raiment went away with one if not two feet in the
+   grave, and came back in the guise of three stout angels, having
+   been resurrectionized by the spirit who lives on the other side
+   of a Charles River Jordan. Thank you very much, and be sure the
+   dreams I dream in them will be pleasant ones; for, whether you
+   sewed them or not, I know they bring some of the Auntie influence
+   in their strength, softness, and warmth; and, though a Vandal, I
+   think any prayers I may say in them will be the better for the
+   affectionate recollections that will clothe me with the putting
+   on of these friendly gowns, while my belief in both heavenly and
+   earthly providences will be amazingly strengthened by the
+   knowledge of some lives here, whose beauty renders it impossible
+   to doubt the existence of the life hereafter.
+
+   We were very glad to hear that the Papa was better; for when
+   paternal "Richards" ain't "themselves," everybody knows the
+   anxious state of the domestic realms.
+
+   I hope Georgie (last name disremembered) has recovered from the
+   anguish of discontented teeth and berry-seeds, and that "the
+   Mama" was as much benefited by the trip as the other parties
+   were, barring the horse perhaps.
+
+   This amiable town is convulsed just now with a gymnastic fever,
+   which shows itself with great violence in all the schools, and
+   young societies generally. Dr. Lewis has "inoculated us for the
+   disease," and it has "taken finely;" for every one has become a
+   perambulating windmill, with all its four sails going as if a
+   wind had set in; and the most virulent cases present the
+   phenomena of black eyes and excoriation of the knobby parts of
+   the frame, to say nothing of sprains and breakage of vessels
+   looming in the future.
+
+   The City Fathers approve of it; and the city sons and daughters
+   intend to show that Concord has as much muscle as brain, and be
+   ready for another Concord fight, if Louis Napoleon sees fit to
+   covet this famous land of Emerson, Hawthorne, Thoreau, Alcott, &
+   Co. Abby and I are among the pioneers; and the delicate vegetable
+   productions clash their cymbals in private, when the beef-eating
+   young ladies faint away and become superfluous _dumb belles_.
+
+   Saturday we had J. G. Whittier, Charlotte Cushman, Miss Stebbins
+   the sculptress, and Mr. Stuart, conductor of the underground
+   railroad of this charming free country. So you see our humble
+   place of abode is perking up; and when the "great authoress and
+   artist" are fairly out of the shell, we shall be an honor to our
+   country and terror to the foe,--provided good fortune don't addle
+   or bad fortune smash us.
+
+   Father continues to stir up the schools like a mild
+   pudding-stick, Mother to sing Hebron among her pots and pans,
+   Anna and the Prince Consort to bill and coo in the little
+   dove-cot, Oranthy Bluggage to launch chips on the Atlantic and
+   make a gigantic blot of herself in working the vessel, Abby to
+   teach the fine arts and play propriety for the family, and the
+   old house to put its best foot foremost and hoot at the idea of
+   ever returning to the chaos from which it came.
+
+   This is a condensed history of "the pathetic family," which is
+   also a "happy family," owing to the prevalence of friends and
+   lots of kindness in the original packages, "which are always
+   arriving" when the "Widow Cruise's oil-bottle" begins to give
+   out.
+
+   You know I never _could_ do anything in a neat and proper manner;
+   so you will receive this topsy-turvy note as you do its writer,
+   and with love to all from all, believe her, dear auntie,
+
+     Ever lovingly yours,
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+This characteristic letter not only shows Louisa's affectionate
+feelings and gives a picture of her life, but indicates that "The
+Pathetic Family," which was the foundation of "Little Women," was
+already shaping itself in her mind.
+
+Mr. Alcott's career as Superintendent of Schools was a gratifying
+success, and is still remembered by friends of education in the town.
+The year closed with a school festival, for which Louisa wrote a poem,
+and in which she took hearty delight.
+
+In 1861 war was declared with the South. The Alcotts were all alive
+with patriotic enthusiasm, and Louisa took an active part in fitting
+off the boys for the army. But she also found time for much reading.
+Mr. Alcott, in his sonnet, uses the expression about Louisa--
+
+     "Hast with grave studies vexed a lively brain."
+
+He may possibly have referred to this period, though she could never
+properly be called a student. She was a rapid, intelligent reader,
+and her taste was severe and keen. From her childhood she had browsed
+in her father's library, full of the works of ancient philosophers and
+quaint English poets, and had imbibed from them great thoughts and
+noble sentiments; but her reading, like all her education, was
+immethodical. Occasionally she would lay out courses of reading, which
+she pursued for a time; but in general she followed the cravings of a
+healthy appetite for knowledge, reading what came in her way. Later in
+life she often read light literature in abundance, to drown the
+sensations of pain, and to pass away the hours of invalidism.
+
+She read French easily, and learned to speak it when abroad; she also
+studied German, but did not acquire equal facility in that tongue. Of
+ancient languages she had no knowledge. History could not fail to
+interest such a student of life, and she loved Nature too well not to
+enjoy the revelations of science when brought to her notice; but she
+had never time to give to a thorough study of either.
+
+In her journal at this time she speaks of her religious feelings,
+which the experiences of grief and despair and reviving hope had
+deepened. Louisa Alcott's was a truly religious soul; she always lived
+in the consciousness of a Higher Power sustaining and blessing her,
+whose presence was revealed to her through Nature, through the
+inspired words of great thinkers and the deep experiences of her own
+heart. She never held her life as an isolated possession which she was
+free to use for her own enjoyment or glory. Her father truly called
+her "Duty's faithful child," and her life was consecrated to the duty
+she recognized as specially hers. But for outward forms and rites of
+religion she cared little; her home was sacred to her, and she found
+her best life there. She loved Theodore Parker, and found great
+strength and help from his preaching, and afterward liked to listen to
+Dr. Bartol; but she never joined any church. The Bible was not her
+favorite reading, though her father had read it much to her in her
+childhood, with his own peculiar charm of interpretation. Pilgrim's
+Progress was one of the few religious books which became dear to her
+in the same way.
+
+Her sister Anna was married in May; this was of course a great event
+in the family. While fully rejoicing in her sister's happiness, Louisa
+felt her loss as a constant companion and confidant. The journal gives
+a sufficient description of the event. Her strong affection for her
+brother-in-law appears in "Little Women" and in "Jo's Boys." About
+this time her farce was brought out at the Howard Athenæum.
+
+The story-writing continued, as it helped to pay the expenses of the
+family; but the continuous, hurried work had begun to affect her
+health, and she occasionally suffered from illness.
+
+In the summer of 1861 Miss Alcott began to write her first novel,
+entitled "Moods;" this proved to be the least successful of her books,
+and yet like many an unfortunate child, it was the dearest to the
+mother's heart. It was not written for money, but for its own sake,
+and she was possessed by the plot and the characters. Warwick
+represented her ideal of a hero, while her sister preferred the type
+of the amiable Moor; yet there is far less of her outward self
+revealed in this than in her other stories. It is full of her thoughts
+and fancies, but not of her life. The wilful, moody, charming Sylvia
+does not affect us like the stormy Jo, who is a real presence to us,
+and whom we take to our hearts in spite of her faults. The men are
+such as she found in books, but had never known herself, and,
+carefully as she has drawn them, have not the individuality of Laurie
+and Professor Bhaer. The action takes place in an unreal world; and
+though there are many pretty scenes, they have not the real flavor of
+New England life. The principal incident, of a young girl going up the
+river on a picnic-voyage for some days with her brother and two other
+young men, was so contrary to common ideas of decorum, that the motive
+hardly seems sufficient for the staid sister's consent; but in the
+simple, innocent life which the Alcotts lived in Concord such scruples
+were little felt.
+
+Miss Alcott did not lay stress upon the marriage question as the
+principal feature of the book; she cared more to describe the wilful
+moods of a young girl, full of good feelings, and longing for a rich
+and noble life, but not established in convictions and principles. She
+meant to represent much of her own nature in Sylvia, for she was
+always a creature of moods, which her family learned to recognize and
+respect. But how unlike was the discipline of family work and love,
+which saved Louisa from fatal caprices and fitful gusts of fancy
+called passion, to the lot of the wealthy and admired Sylvia. Miss
+Alcott says that the incidents of the marriage, although not drawn
+from life, were so close to an actual case that the wife asked her how
+she had known her secret; but such realism is a poor justification in
+art. It is that which becomes true to the imagination and heart
+through its vivid personation of character which is accepted, not the
+bare facts. The great question of the transcendental period was truth
+to the inward life instead of the outward law. But in "Moods" the
+marriage question is not stated strongly; it does not reach down to
+this central principle. It is only in tragedy that such a double
+relation could be endured, when the situation is compelled by
+fate,--the fate of character and overpowering circumstances,--and when
+there is no happy solution possible. But Sylvia's position is made
+only by her own weakness, and the love which stands in opposition to
+outward duty has no right of existence. If her love for Warwick
+_could_ be overcome, there was no question of her duty; and when she
+accepts Faith's criticism of him, it is clear that it is a much
+lighter spell than love which has fascinated her. We do not accept the
+catastrophe which sacrifices a splendid life to make a comfortable
+solution of the practical difficulty, and to allow Sylvia to accept a
+happy home without a thorough regeneration of heart and mind. But
+these were the natural mistakes of youth and inexperience; Louisa had
+known but little of such struggles. Love and marriage were rather
+uninteresting themes to her, and she had not yet found her true power.
+
+Still the book has great literary merit. It is well written, in a more
+finished style than any of her other work, except "Modern
+Mephistopheles," and the dialogue is vigorous and sprightly. In spite
+of her careful revision and pruning, there is something left of
+youthful gush in it, and this perhaps touched the heart of young
+girls, who found in Sylvia's troubles with herself a reflection of
+their own.
+
+The "golden wedding" scenes have some of her usual freedom and
+vivacity. She is at home with a troop of mothers and babies and noisy
+boys. But the "golden wedding" was a new importation from Germany, and
+not at home in the New England farmhouse. Why might it not have been a
+true wedding or a harvest feast?
+
+Louisa never lost her interest in this early work, though it was the
+most unlucky of books, and subjected to severe handling. It was sent
+to and fro from publisher to author, each one suggesting some change.
+Redpath sent it back as being too long. Ticknor found it very
+interesting, but could not use it then. Loring liked it, but wanted it
+shorter. She condensed and altered until her author's spirit rebelled,
+and she declared she would change it no more.
+
+After her other books had made her famous, "Moods" was again brought
+forward and republished as it was originally written. It met with
+warmer welcome than before, and a cheap edition was published in
+England to supply the popular demand.
+
+Miss Alcott learned the first painful lesson of over-work on this
+book. She was possessed by it, and for three weeks labored so
+constantly that she felt the physical effects keenly. Fortunately new
+household tasks (for the daughters of John Brown came to board with
+them), and the enthusiasm of the time, changed the current of her
+thoughts.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _February_, 1860.--Mr. ---- won't have "M. L.," as it is
+   antislavery, and the dear South must not be offended. Got a
+   carpet with my $50, and wild Louisa's head kept the feet of the
+   family warm.
+
+   _March._--Wrote "A Modern Cinderella," with Nan for the heroine
+   and John for the hero.
+
+   Made my first ball dress for May, and she was the finest girl at
+   the party. My tall, blond, graceful girl! I was proud of her.
+
+   Wrote a song for the school festival, and heard it sung by four
+   hundred happy children. Father got up the affair, and such a
+   pretty affair was never seen in Concord before. He said, "We
+   spend much on our cattle and flower shows; let us each spring
+   have a show of our children, and begrudge nothing for their
+   culture." All liked it but the old fogies who want things as they
+   were in the ark.
+
+   _April._--Made two riding habits, and May and I had some fine
+   rides. Both needed exercise, and this was good for us. So one of
+   our dreams came true, and we really did "dash away on horseback."
+
+   Sanborn was nearly kidnapped for being a friend of John Brown;
+   but his sister and A. W. rescued him when he was handcuffed, and
+   the scamps drove off. Great ferment in town. A meeting and
+   general flurry.
+
+   Had a funny lover who met me in the cars, and said he lost his
+   heart at once. Handsome man of forty. A Southerner, and very
+   demonstrative and gushing, called and wished to pay his
+   addresses; and being told I didn't wish to see him, retired, to
+   write letters and haunt the road with his hat off, while the
+   girls laughed and had great fun over Jo's lover. He went at last,
+   and peace reigned. My adorers are all queer.
+
+   Sent "Cinderella" to the "Atlantic," and it was accepted. Began
+   "By the River," and thought that this was certainly to be a lucky
+   year; for after ten years hard climbing I had reached a good
+   perch on the ladder, and could look more hopefully into the
+   future, while my paper boats sailed gaily over the Atlantic.
+
+   _May._--Meg's wedding.
+
+   My farce was acted, and I went to see it. Not very well done; but
+   I sat in a box, and the good Doctor handed up a bouquet to the
+   author, and made as much as he could of a small affair.
+
+   Saw Anna's honeymoon home at Chelsea,--a little cottage in a
+   blooming apple-orchard. Pretty place, simple and sweet. God bless
+   it!
+
+   The dear girl was married on the 23d, the same day as Mother's
+   wedding. A lovely day; the house full of sunshine, flowers,
+   friends, and happiness. Uncle S. J. May married them, with no
+   fuss, but much love; and we all stood round her. She in her
+   silver-gray silk, with lilies of the valley (John's flower) in
+   her bosom and hair. We in gray thin stuff and roses,--sackcloth,
+   I called it, and ashes of roses; for I mourn the loss of my Nan,
+   and am not comforted. We have had a little feast, sent by good
+   Mrs. Judge Shaw; then the old folks danced round the bridal pair
+   on the lawn in the German fashion, making a pretty picture to
+   remember, under our Revolutionary elm.
+
+   Then, with tears and kisses, our dear girl, in her little white
+   bonnet, went happily away with her good John; and we ended our
+   first wedding. Mr. Emerson kissed her; and I thought that honor
+   would make even matrimony endurable, for he is the god of my
+   idolatry, and has been for years.
+
+   _June._--To Boston to the memorial meeting for Mr. Parker, which
+   was very beautiful, and proved how much he was beloved. Music
+   Hall was full of flowers and sunshine, and hundreds of faces,
+   both sad and proud, as the various speakers told the life of love
+   and labor which makes Theodore Parker's memory so rich a legacy
+   to Boston. I was very glad to have known so good a man, and been
+   called "friend" by him.
+
+   Saw Nan in her nest, where she and her mate live like a pair of
+   turtle doves. Very sweet and pretty, but I'd rather be a free
+   spinster and paddle my own canoe.
+
+   _August._--"Moods." Genius burned so fiercely that for four weeks
+   I wrote all day and planned nearly all night, being quite
+   possessed by my work. I was perfectly happy, and seemed to have
+   no wants. Finished the book, or a rough draught of it, and put it
+   away to settle. Mr. Emerson offered to read it when Mother told
+   him it was "Moods" and had one of his sayings for motto.
+
+   Daresay nothing will ever come of it; but it _had_ to be done,
+   and I'm the richer for a new experience.
+
+   _September._--Received $75 of Ticknor for "Cinderella," and feel
+   very rich. Emerson praised it, and people wrote to me about it
+   and patted me on the head. Paid bills, and began to simmer
+   another.
+
+   _October._--I went to B. and saw the Prince of Wales trot over
+   the Common with his train at a review. A yellow-haired laddie
+   very like his mother. Fanny W. and I nodded and waved as he
+   passed, and he openly winked his boyish eye at us; for Fanny,
+   with her yellow curls and wild waving, looked rather rowdy, and
+   the poor little prince wanted some fun. We laughed, and thought
+   that we had been more distinguished by the saucy wink than by a
+   stately bow. Boys are always jolly,--even princes.
+
+   Read Richter, and enjoyed him very much.
+
+   Mother went to see Uncle S. J. May, and I was house-keeper. Gave
+   my mind to it so energetically that I dreamed dip-toast, talked
+   apple-sauce, thought pies, and wept drop-cakes. Read my book to
+   Nan, who came up to cheer me in my struggles; and she laughed and
+   cried over it and said it was "good." So I felt encouraged, and
+   will touch it up when duty no longer orders me to make a
+   burnt-offering of myself.
+
+   _November._--Father sixty-one; L. aged twenty-eight. Our
+   birthday. Gave Father a ream of paper, and he gave me Emerson's
+   picture; so both were happy.
+
+   Wrote little, being busy with visitors. The John Brown
+   Association asked me for a poem, which I wrote.
+
+   Kind Miss R. sent May $30 for lessons, so she went to B. to take
+   some of Johnstone. She is one of the fortunate ones, and gets
+   what she wants easily. I have to grub for my help, or go without
+   it. Good for me, doubtless, or it wouldn't be so; so cheer up,
+   Louisa, and grind away!
+
+   _December._--More luck for May. She wanted to go to Syracuse and
+   teach, and Dr. W. sends for her, thanks to Uncle S. J. May. I sew
+   like a steam-engine for a week, and get her ready. On the 17th go
+   to B. and see our youngest start on her first little flight
+   alone into the world, full of hope and courage. May all go well
+   with her!
+
+   Mr. Emerson invited me to his class when they meet to talk on
+   Genius; a great honor, as all the learned ladies go.
+
+   Sent "Debby's Debit" to the "Atlantic," and they took it. Asked
+   to the John Brown meeting, but had no "good gown," so didn't go;
+   but my "pome" did, and came out in the paper. Not good. I'm a
+   better patriot than poet, and couldn't say what I felt.
+
+   A quiet Christmas; no presents but apples and flowers. No
+   merry-making; for Nan and May were gone, and Betty under the
+   snow. But we are used to hard times, and, as Mother says, "while
+   there is a famine in Kansas we mustn't ask for sugar-plums."
+
+   All the philosophy in our house is not in the study; a good deal
+   is in the kitchen, where a fine old lady thinks high thoughts and
+   does kind deeds while she cooks and scrubs.
+
+   _January, 1861._--Twenty-eight; received thirteen New Year's
+   gifts. A most uncommon fit of generosity seemed to seize people
+   on my behalf, and I was blessed with all manner of nice things,
+   from a gold and ivory pen to a mince-pie and a bonnet.
+
+   Wrote on a new book--"Success" ["Work"]--till Mother fell ill,
+   when I corked up my inkstand and turned nurse. The dear woman was
+   very ill, but rose up like a phoenix from her ashes after what
+   she gayly called "the irrepressible conflict between sickness and
+   the May constitution."
+
+   Father had four talks at Emerson's; good people came, and he
+   enjoyed them much; made $30. R. W. E. probably put in $20. He has
+   a sweet way of bestowing gifts on the table under a book or
+   behind a candle-stick, when he thinks Father wants a little
+   money, and no one will help him earn. A true friend is this
+   tender and illustrious man.
+
+   Wrote a tale and put it away,--to be sent when "Debby" comes out.
+   "F. T." appeared, and I got a dress, having mended my six-year
+   old silk till it is more patch and tear than gown. Made the
+   claret merino myself, and enjoyed it, as I do anything bought
+   with my "head-money."
+
+   _February._--Another turn at "Moods," which I remodelled. From
+   the 2d to the 25th I sat writing, with a run at dusk; could not
+   sleep, and for three days was so full of it I could not stop to
+   get up. Mother made me a green silk cap with a red bow, to match
+   the old green and red party wrap, which I wore as a "glory
+   cloak." Thus arrayed I sat in groves of manuscripts, "living for
+   immortality," as May said. Mother wandered in and out with
+   cordial cups of tea, worried because I couldn't eat. Father
+   thought it fine, and brought his reddest apples and hardest cider
+   for my Pegasus to feed upon. All sorts of fun was going on; but I
+   didn't care if the world returned to chaos if I and my inkstand
+   only "lit" in the same place.
+
+   It was very pleasant and queer while it lasted; but after three
+   weeks of it I found that my mind was too rampant for my body, as
+   my head was dizzy, legs shaky, and no sleep would come. So I
+   dropped the pen, and took long walks, cold baths, and had Nan up
+   to frolic with me. Read all I had done to my family; and Father
+   said: "Emerson must see this. Where did you get your
+   metaphysics?" Mother pronounced it wonderful, and Anna laughed
+   and cried, as she always does, over my works, saying, "My dear,
+   I'm proud of you."
+
+   So I had a good time, even if it never comes to anything; thing;
+   for it was worth something to have my three dearest sit up till
+   midnight listening with wide-open eyes to Lu's first novel.
+
+   I planned it some time ago, and have had it in my mind ever so
+   long; but now it begins to take shape.
+
+   Father had his usual school festival, and Emerson asked me to
+   write a song, which I did. On the 16th the schools all met in the
+   hall (four hundred),--a pretty posy bed, with a border of proud
+   parents and friends. Some of the fogies objected to the names
+   Phillips and John Brown. But Emerson said: "Give it up? No, no;
+   _I_ will read it." Which he did, to my great contentment; for
+   when the great man of the town says "Do it," the thing is done.
+   So the choir warbled, and the Alcotts were uplifted in their vain
+   minds.
+
+   Father was in glory, like a happy shepherd with a large flock of
+   sportive lambs; for all did something. Each school had its
+   badge,--one pink ribbons, one green shoulder-knots, and one
+   wreaths of pop-corn on the curly pates. One school to whom Father
+   had read Pilgrim's Progress told the story, one child after the
+   other popping up to say his or her part; and at the end a little
+   tot walked forward, saying with a pretty air of wonder,--"And
+   behold it was all a dream."
+
+   When all was over, and Father about to dismiss them, F. H., a
+   tall, handsome lad came to him, and looking up confidingly to the
+   benign old face, asked "our dear friend Mr. Alcott to accept of
+   Pilgrim's Progress and George Herbert's Poems from the children
+   of Concord, as a token of their love and respect."
+
+   Father was much touched and surprised, and blushed and stammered
+   like a boy, hugging the fine books while the children cheered
+   till the roof rung.
+
+   His report was much admired, and a thousand copies printed to
+   supply the demand; for it was a new thing to have a report,
+   neither dry nor dull; and teachers were glad of the hints given,
+   making education a part of religion, not a mere bread-making
+   grind for teacher and an irksome cram for children.
+
+   _April._--War declared with the South, and our Concord company
+   went to Washington. A busy time getting them ready, and a sad day
+   seeing them off; for in a little town like this we all seem like
+   one family in times like these. At the station the scene was very
+   dramatic, as the brave boys went away perhaps never to come back
+   again.
+
+   I've often longed to see a war, and now I have my wish. I long to
+   be a man; but as I can't fight, I will content myself with
+   working for those who can.
+
+   Sewed a good deal getting May's summer things in order, as she
+   sent for me to make and mend and buy and send her outfit.
+
+   Stories simmered in my brain, demanding to be writ; but I let
+   them simmer, knowing that the longer the divine afflatus was
+   bottled up the better it would be.
+
+   John Brown's daughters came to board, and upset my plans of rest
+   and writing when the report and the sewing were done. I had my
+   fit of woe up garret on the fat rag-bag, and then put my papers
+   away, and fell to work at housekeeping. I think disappointment
+   must be good for me, I get so much of it; and the constant
+   thumping Fate gives me may be a mellowing process; so I shall be
+   a ripe and sweet old pippin before I die.
+
+   _May._--Spent our May-day working for our men,--three hundred
+   women all sewing together at the hall for two days.
+
+   May will not return to S. after her vacation in July; and being a
+   lucky puss, just as she wants something to do, F. B. S. needs a
+   drawing teacher in his school and offers her the place.
+
+   Nan found that I was wearing all the old clothes she and May
+   left; so the two dear souls clubbed together and got me some new
+   ones; and the great parcel, with a loving letter, came to me as a
+   beautiful surprise.
+
+   Nan and John walked up from Cambridge for a day, and we all
+   walked back. Took a sail to the forts, and saw our men on guard
+   there. Felt very martial and Joan-of-Arc-y as I stood on the
+   walls with the flag flying over me and cannon all about.
+
+   _June._--Read a good deal; grubbed in my garden, and made the old
+   house pretty for May. Enjoyed Carlyle's French Revolution very
+   much. His earthquaky style suits me.
+
+   "Charles Auchester" is charming,--a sort of fairy tale for grown
+   people. Dear old "Evelina," as a change, was pleasant. Emerson
+   recommended Hodson's India, and I got it, and liked it; also read
+   Sir Thomas More's Life. I read Fielding's "Amelia," and thought
+   it coarse and queer. The heroine having "her lovely nose smashed
+   all to bits falling from a post shay" was a new idea. What some
+   one says of Richardson applies to Fielding, "The virtues of his
+   heroes are the vices of decent men."
+
+   _July._--Spent a month at the White Mountains with L. W.,--a
+   lovely time, and it did me much good. Mountains are restful and
+   uplifting to my mind. Lived in the woods, and revelled in brooks,
+   birds, pines, and peace.
+
+   _August._--May came home very tired, but satisfied with her first
+   attempt, which has been very successful in every way. She is
+   quite a belle now, and much improved,--a tall blond lass, full of
+   grace and spirit.
+
+   _September._--Ticknor sent $50. Wrote a story for C., as Plato
+   needs new shirts, and Minerva a pair of boots, and Hebe a fall
+   hat.
+
+   _October._--All together on Marmee's birthday. Sewing and
+   knitting for "our boys" all the time. It seems as if a few
+   energetic women could carry on the war better than the men do it
+   so far.
+
+   A week with Nan in the dove-cot. As happy as ever.
+
+   _November_ and _December_.--Wrote, read, sewed, and wanted
+   something to do.
+
+In 1862, at the suggestion of Miss Peabody, Miss Alcott opened a
+Kindergarten school; but it was not successful, and she took a final
+leave of the teacher's profession, and returned to her writing, which
+she found to be her true calling. She wrote much; for "brain was
+lively, and work paid for readily." Besides the occasional stories in
+papers and magazines, her most important labor was the preparation of
+the story called "Work," or, as she originally named it, "Success."
+This story however was not published until ten years later. Here she
+took the road that was later to lead to fame and fortune, by writing
+from her own experience of life. Christie is Louisa herself under very
+thin disguise; and all her own experiences, as servant, governess,
+companion, seamstress, and actress are brought in to give vividness to
+the picture; while many other persons may be recognized as models for
+her skilful portraiture. The book has always been deservedly popular.
+
+   _January, 1862._--E. P. Peabody wanted me to open a Kindergarten,
+   and Mr. Barnard gave a room at the Warren Street Chapel. Don't
+   like to teach, but take what comes; so when Mr. F. offered $40 to
+   fit up with, twelve pupils, and his patronage, I began.
+
+   Saw many great people, and found them no bigger than the rest of
+   the world,--often not half so good as some humble soul who made
+   no noise. I learned a good deal in my way, and am not half so
+   much impressed by society as before I got a peep at it. Having
+   known Emerson, Parker, Phillips, and that set of really great and
+   good men and women living for the world's work and service of
+   God, the mere show people seem rather small and silly, though
+   they shine well, and feel that they are stars.
+
+   _February._--Visited about, as my school did not bring enough to
+   pay board and the assistant I was made to have, though I didn't
+   want her.
+
+   Went to lectures; saw Booth at the Goulds',--a handsome, shy man,
+   glooming in a corner.
+
+   Very tired of this wandering life and distasteful work; but kept
+   my word and tugged on.
+
+   Hate to visit people who only ask me to help amuse others, and
+   often longed for a crust in a garret with freedom and a pen. I
+   never knew before what insolent things a hostess can do, nor what
+   false positions poverty can push one into.
+
+   _April._--Went to and from C. every day that I might be at home.
+   Forty miles a day is dull work; but I have my dear people at
+   night, and am not a beggar.
+
+   Wrote "King of Clubs,"--$30. The school having no real foundation
+   (as the people who sent didn't care for Kindergartens, and Miss
+   P. wanted me to take pupils for nothing, to try the new system),
+   I gave it up, as I could do much better at something else. May
+   took my place for a month, that I might keep my part of the
+   bargain; and I cleaned house, and wrote a story which made more
+   than all my months of teaching. They ended in a wasted winter and
+   a debt of $40,--to be paid if I sell my hair to do it.
+
+   _May._--School finished for me, and I paid Miss N. by giving her
+   all the furniture, and leaving her to do as she liked; while I
+   went back to my writing, which pays much better, though Mr. F.
+   did say, "Stick to your teaching; you can't write." Being wilful,
+   I said, "I won't teach; and I can write, and I'll prove it."
+
+   Saw Miss Rebecca Harding, author of "Margret Howth," which has
+   made a stir, and is very good. A handsome, fresh, quiet woman,
+   who says she never had any troubles, though she writes about
+   woes. I told her I had had lots of troubles; so I write jolly
+   tales; and we wondered why we each did so.
+
+   _June_, _July_, _August._--Wrote a tale for B., and he lost it,
+   and wouldn't pay.
+
+   Wrote two tales for L. I enjoy romancing to suit myself; and
+   though my tales are silly, they are not bad; and my sinners
+   always have a good spot somewhere. I hope it is good drill for
+   fancy and language, for I can do it fast; and Mr. L. says my
+   tales are so "dramatic, vivid, and full of plot," they are just
+   what he wants.
+
+   _September_, _October._--Sewing Bees and Lint Picks for "our
+   boys" kept us busy, and the prospect of the first grandchild
+   rejoiced the hearts of the family.
+
+   Wrote much; for brain was lively, and work paid for readily.
+   Rewrote the last story, and sent it to L., who wants more than I
+   can send him. So, between blue flannel jackets for "our boys" and
+   dainty slips for Louisa Caroline or John B., Jr., as the case may
+   be, I reel off my "thrilling" tales, and mess up my work in a
+   queer but interesting way.
+
+   War news bad. Anxious faces, beating hearts, and busy minds.
+
+   I like the stir in the air, and long for battle like a war-horse
+   when he smells powder. The blood of the Mays is up!
+
+
+_After Anna's Marriage._
+
+     SUNDAY MORN, 1860.
+     MRS. PRATT:
+
+   MY DEAR MADAM,--The news of the town is as follows, and I present
+   it in the usual journalesque style of correspondence. After the
+   bridal train had departed, the mourners withdrew to their
+   respective homes; and the bereaved family solaced their woe by
+   washing dishes for two hours and bolting the remains of the
+   funeral baked meats. At four, having got settled down, we were
+   all routed up by the appearance of a long procession of children
+   filing down our lane, headed by the Misses H. and R. Father
+   rushed into the cellar, and appeared with a large basket of
+   apples, which went the rounds with much effect. The light
+   infantry formed in a semi-circle, and was watered by the matron
+   and maids. It was really a pretty sight, these seventy children
+   loaded with wreaths and flowers, standing under the elm in the
+   sunshine, singing in full chorus the song I wrote for them. It
+   was a neat little compliment to the superintendent and his
+   daughter, who was glad to find that her "pome" was a favorite
+   among the "lads and lasses" who sang it "with cheery voices, like
+   robins on the tree."
+
+   Father put the finishing stroke to the spectacle by going off at
+   full speed, hoppity-skip, and all the babes followed in a whirl
+   of rapture at the idea. He led them up and down and round and
+   round till they were tired; then they fell into order, and with
+   a farewell song marched away, seventy of the happiest little ones
+   I ever wish to see. We subsided, and fell into our beds with the
+   new thought "Annie is married and gone" for a lullaby, which was
+   not very effective in its results with all parties.
+
+   Thursday we set our house in order, and at two the rush began. It
+   had gone abroad that Mr. M. and Mrs. Captain Brown were to adorn
+   the scene, so many people coolly came who were not invited, and
+   who had no business here. People sewed and jabbered till Mrs.
+   Brown, with Watson Brown's widow and baby came; then a levee took
+   place. The two pale women sat silent and serene through the
+   clatter; and the bright-eyed, handsome baby received the homage
+   of the multitude like a little king, bearing the kisses and
+   praises with the utmost dignity. He is named Frederick Watson
+   Brown, after his murdered uncle and father, and is a fair,
+   heroic-looking baby, with a fine head, and serious eyes that look
+   about him as if saying, "I am a Brown! Are these friends or
+   enemies?" I wanted to cry once at the little scene the
+   unconscious baby made. Some one caught and kissed him rudely; he
+   didn't cry, but looked troubled, and rolled his great eyes
+   anxiously about for some familiar face to reassure him with its
+   smile. His mother was not there; but though many hands were
+   stretched to him, he turned to Grandma Bridge, and putting out
+   his little arms to her as if she was a refuge, laughed and crowed
+   as he had not done before when she danced him on her knee. The
+   old lady looked delighted; and Freddy patted the kind face, and
+   cooed like a lawful descendant of that pair of ancient turtle
+   doves.
+
+   When he was safe back in the study, playing alone at his mother's
+   feet, C. and I went and worshipped in our own way at the shrine
+   of John Brown's grandson, kissing him as if he were a little
+   saint, and feeling highly honored when he sucked our fingers, or
+   walked on us with his honest little red shoes, much the worse for
+   wear.
+
+   Well, the baby fascinated me so that I forgot a raging headache
+   and forty gabbling women all in full clack. Mrs. Brown, Sen., is
+   a tall, stout woman, plain, but with a strong, good face, and a
+   natural dignity that showed she was something better than a
+   "lady," though she _did_ drink out of her saucer and used the
+   plainest speech.
+
+   The younger woman had such a patient, heart-broken face, it was a
+   whole Harper's Ferry tragedy in a look. When we got your letter,
+   Mother and I ran into the study to read it. Mother read aloud;
+   for there were only C., A., I, and Mrs. Brown, Jr., in the room.
+   As she read the words that were a poem in their simplicity and
+   happiness, the poor young widow sat with tears rolling down her
+   face; for I suppose it brought back her own wedding-day, not two
+   years ago, and all the while she cried the baby laughed and
+   crowed at her feet as if there was no trouble in the world.
+
+   The preparations had been made for twenty at the utmost; so when
+   forty souls with the usual complement of bodies appeared, we grew
+   desperate, and our neat little supper turned out a regular "tea
+   fight." A., C., B., and I rushed like comets to and fro trying to
+   fill the multitude that would eat fast and drink like sponges. I
+   filled a big plate with all I could lay hands on, and with two
+   cups of tea, strong enough for a dozen, charged upon Mr. E. and
+   Uncle S., telling them to eat, drink, and be merry, for a famine
+   was at hand. They cuddled into a corner; and then, feeling that
+   my mission was accomplished, I let the hungry _wait_ and the
+   thirsty _moan_ for tea, while I picked out and helped the regular
+   Antislavery set.
+
+   We got through it; but it was an awful hour; and Mother wandered
+   in her mind, utterly lost in a grove of teapots; while B.
+   pervaded the neighborhood demanding hot water, and we girls sowed
+   cake broadcast through the land.
+
+   When the plates were empty and the teapots dry, people wiped
+   their mouths and confessed at last that they had done. A
+   conversation followed, in which Grandpa B. and E. P. P. held
+   forth, and Uncle and Father mildly upset the world, and made a
+   new one in which every one desired to take a place. Dr. B., Mr.
+   B., T., etc., appeared, and the rattle continued till nine, when
+   some Solomon suggested that the Alcotts must be tired, and every
+   one departed but C. and S. We had a polka by Mother and Uncle,
+   the lancers by C. and B., and an _étude_ by S., after which
+   scrabblings of feast appeared, and we "drained the dregs of every
+   cup," all cakes and pies we gobbled up, etc.; then peace fell
+   upon us, and our remains were interred decently.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+HOSPITAL SKETCHES.
+
+     THOREAU'S FLUTE.
+
+     We sighing said, "Our Pan is dead;
+       His pipe hangs mute beside the river
+       Around it wistful sunbeams quiver,
+     But 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."
+
+
+Miss Alcott could not help feeling deeply the excitement of the hour
+when the war broke out. Her father had been one of the earliest
+Abolitionists, having joined the Antislavery Society with Garrison,
+and she well remembered the fugitive slave whom her mother had hidden
+in the oven. Now this feeling could be united with her patriotic zeal
+and her strong love of active life, and it was inevitable that she
+should long to share personally in the dangers and excitement of the
+war.
+
+Louisa had always been the nurse in the family, and had by nature the
+magnetic power which encourages and helps the feeble and suffering;
+therefore, since no other way of serving the cause opened to her, it
+was most like her to take her own life in her hands and join the corps
+of devoted nurses. She was accepted, and went to Washington. Her
+journal gives an account of her situation in the Union Hospital at
+Georgetown. It was a small hospital, much inferior in its appointments
+to those which were afterward arranged. Although Louisa had never been
+very ill up to that time, and thought herself exceptionally strong,
+yet she had not the rugged constitution fit to bear the labors and
+exposures of such a position; and the healthful habits of outdoor life
+and simple food to which she had always been accustomed made the
+conditions of the crowded, ill-ventilated hospital peculiarly perilous
+to her. She says, "I was never ill before this time, and never well
+afterward."
+
+But with all its hardships, Miss Alcott found in the hospital the
+varied and intense human life she had longed to know. Her great heart
+went out to all the men, black or white, the Virginia blacksmith and
+the rough Michigander. She even tried to befriend the one solitary
+rebel who had got left behind, and who was taken into the hospital to
+the disgust of some of the men; but he was impervious to all kindness,
+and she could find nothing in him for sympathy or romance to fasten
+upon.
+
+Miss Alcott remained in the hospital only about six weeks. Yet this
+short period had a very strong influence, both for good and evil, on
+her future life. The severe attack of fever which drove her from her
+post left her with shattered nerves and weakened constitution, and she
+never again knew the fulness of life and health which she had before.
+The chamber in her quiet home at Concord was evermore haunted by the
+fearful visions of delirium, and she could not regain there the peace
+she needed for work. But the experience of life, the observation of
+men under the excitement of war, the way in which they met the great
+conqueror Death, the revelations of heroism and love, and sometimes of
+bitterness and hate, brought her a deeper insight into human life than
+she ever had before, and gave to her writings greater reality.
+
+Louisa constantly wrote to the family of her experiences, and these
+letters were so interesting that she was persuaded to publish them in
+the "Commonwealth" newspaper. They attracted great attention, and
+first made her widely and favorably known to a higher public than that
+which had read her stories.
+
+These letters were published by James Redpath in book form, and Miss
+Alcott received $200 for the book,--a welcome sum to her at that time.
+The sketches are almost a literal reproduction of her letters to her
+family; but as they have been so extensively read, and are accessible
+to every one, I shall give in preference to them extracts from her
+journal kept at the hospital. Other stories growing out of her
+experience in the hospital, or more remotely connected with it, have
+been published in the same volume in later editions. "My Contraband"
+is one of the most dramatic and powerful stories she ever wrote. She
+portrays the intensity of hatred in a noble nature,--hatred justified
+by the provocation, and yet restrained from fatal execution by the
+highest suggestions of religion. This story called forth a letter of
+commendation and frank criticism from Col. T. W. Higginson, which was
+very encouraging to the young writer.
+
+The beautiful lines on Thoreau's flute, the most perfect of her poems,
+excepting the exquisite tribute to her mother, were first composed in
+the watches of the night in the hospital, and afterwards recalled
+during the tedious days of convalescence at Concord. This poem was
+printed in the "Atlantic," and brought her a welcome ten-dollar bill.
+
+"Hospital Sketches" were hastily written, and with little regard to
+literary execution, but they are fresh and original, and, still more,
+they are true, and they appeared at just the time the public wanted
+them. Every heart was longing to hear not only from field and camp,
+but from the hospitals, where sons and brothers were tenderly cared
+for. The generous, hopeful spirit with which Miss Alcott entered into
+the work was recognized as that which animated the brave corps of
+women who answered so promptly to their country's call, and every
+loyal and loving heart vibrated in unison with the strings she touched
+so skilfully.
+
+
+_Journal kept at the Hospital, Georgetown, D. C., 1862._
+
+   _November._--Thirty years old. Decided to go to Washington as
+   nurse if I could find a place. Help needed, and I love nursing,
+   and _must_ let out my pent-up energy in some new way. Winter is
+   always a hard and a dull time, and if I am away there is one less
+   to feed and warm and worry over.
+
+   I want new experiences, and am sure to get 'em if I go. So I've
+   sent in my name, and bide my time writing tales, to leave all
+   snug behind me, and mending up my old clothes,--for nurses don't
+   need nice things, thank Heaven!
+
+   _December._--On the 11th I received a note from Miss H. M.
+   Stevenson telling me to start for Georgetown next day to fill a
+   place in the Union Hotel Hospital. Mrs. Ropes of Boston was
+   matron, and Miss Kendall of Plymouth was a nurse there, and
+   though a hard place, help was needed. I was ready, and when my
+   commander said "March!" I marched. Packed my trunk, and reported
+   in B. that same evening.
+
+  [Illustration: _From a photograph of Miss Alcott taken about
+  1862._]
+
+   We had all been full of courage till the last moment came; then
+   we all broke down. I realized that I had taken my life in my
+   hand, and might never see them all again. I said, "Shall I stay,
+   Mother?" as I hugged her close. "No, go! and the Lord be with
+   you!" answered the Spartan woman; and till I turned the corner
+   she bravely smiled and waved her wet handkerchief on the
+   door-step. Shall I ever see that dear old face again?
+
+   So I set forth in the December twilight, with May and Julian
+   Hawthorne as escort, feeling as if I was the son of the house
+   going to war.
+
+   Friday, the 12th, was a very memorable day, spent in running all
+   over Boston to get my pass, etc., calling for parcels, getting a
+   tooth filled, and buying a veil,--my only purchase. A. C. gave me
+   some old clothes; the dear Sewalls money for myself and boys,
+   lots of love and help; and at 5 P.M., saying "good-by" to a group
+   of tearful faces at the station, I started on my long journey,
+   full of hope and sorrow, courage and plans.
+
+   A most interesting journey into a new world full of stirring
+   sights and sounds, new adventures, and an ever-growing sense of
+   the great task I had undertaken.
+
+   I said my prayers as I went rushing through the country white
+   with tents, all alive with patriotism, and already red with
+   blood.
+
+   A solemn time, but I'm glad to live in it; and am sure it will do
+   me good whether I come out alive or dead.
+
+   All went well, and I got to Georgetown one evening very tired.
+   Was kindly welcomed, slept in my narrow bed with two other
+   room-mates, and on the morrow began my new life by seeing a poor
+   man die at dawn, and sitting all day between a boy with pneumonia
+   and a man shot through the lungs. A strange day, but I did my
+   best; and when I put mother's little black shawl round the boy
+   while he sat up panting for breath, he smiled and said, "You are
+   real motherly, ma'am." I felt as if I was getting on. The man
+   only lay and stared with his big black eyes, and made me very
+   nervous. But all were well behaved; and I sat looking at the
+   twenty strong faces as they looked back at me,--the only new
+   thing they had to amuse them,--hoping that I looked "motherly" to
+   them; for my thirty years made me feel old, and the suffering
+   round me made me long to comfort every one.
+
+   _January, 1863. Union Hotel Hospital, Georgetown, D. C._--I never
+   began the year in a stranger place than this: five hundred miles
+   from home, alone, among strangers, doing painful duties all day
+   long, and leading a life of constant excitement in this great
+   house, surrounded by three or four hundred men in all stages of
+   suffering, disease, and death. Though often homesick, heartsick,
+   and worn out, I like it, find real pleasure in comforting,
+   tending, and cheering these poor souls who seem to love me, to
+   feel my sympathy though unspoken, and acknowledge my hearty
+   good-will, in spite of the ignorance, awkwardness, and
+   bashfulness which I cannot help showing in so new and trying a
+   situation. The men are docile, respectful, and affectionate, with
+   but few exceptions; truly lovable and manly many of them. John
+   Sulie, a Virginia blacksmith, is the prince of patients; and
+   though what we call a common man in education and condition, to
+   me is all I could expect or ask from the first gentleman in the
+   land. Under his plain speech and unpolished manner I seem to see
+   a noble character, a heart as warm and tender as a woman's, a
+   nature fresh and frank as any child's. He is about thirty, I
+   think, tall and handsome, mortally wounded, and dying royally
+   without reproach, repining, or remorse. Mrs. Ropes and myself
+   love him, and feel indignant that such a man should be so early
+   lost; for though he might never distinguish himself before the
+   world, his influence and example cannot be without effect, for
+   real goodness is never wasted.
+
+   _Monday, 4th._--I shall record the events of a day as a sample of
+   the days I spend:--
+
+   Up at six, dress by gaslight, run through my ward and throw up
+   the windows, though the men grumble and shiver; but the air is
+   bad enough to breed a pestilence; and as no notice is taken of
+   our frequent appeals for better ventilation, I must do what I
+   can. Poke up the fire, add blankets, joke, coax, and command; but
+   continue to open doors and windows as if life depended upon it.
+   Mine does, and doubtless many another, for a more perfect
+   pestilence-box than this house I never saw,--cold, damp, dirty,
+   full of vile odors from wounds, kitchens, wash-rooms, and
+   stables. No competent head, male or female, to right matters, and
+   a jumble of good, bad, and indifferent nurses, surgeons, and
+   attendants, to complicate the chaos still more.
+
+   After this unwelcome progress through my stifling ward, I go to
+   breakfast with what appetite I may; find the uninvitable fried
+   beef, salt butter, husky bread, and washy coffee; listen to the
+   clack of eight women and a dozen men,--the first silly, stupid,
+   or possessed of one idea; the last absorbed with their breakfast
+   and themselves to a degree that is both ludicrous and provoking,
+   for all the dishes are ordered down the table _full_ and returned
+   _empty_; the conversation is entirely among themselves, and each
+   announces his opinion with an air of importance that frequently
+   causes me to choke in my cup, or bolt my meals with undignified
+   speed lest a laugh betray to these famous beings that a "chiel's
+   amang them takin' notes."
+
+   Till noon I trot, trot, giving out rations, cutting up food for
+   helpless "boys," washing faces, teaching my attendants how beds
+   are made or floors are swept, dressing wounds, taking Dr. F. P.'s
+   orders (privately wishing all the time that he would be more
+   gentle with my big babies), dusting tables, sewing bandages,
+   keeping my tray tidy, rushing up and down after pillows,
+   bed-linen, sponges, books, and directions, till it seems as if I
+   would joyfully pay down all I possess for fifteen minutes' rest.
+   At twelve the big bell rings, and up comes dinner for the boys,
+   who are always ready for it and never entirely satisfied. Soup,
+   meat, potatoes, and bread is the bill of fare. Charley Thayer,
+   the attendant, travels up and down the room serving out the
+   rations, saving little for himself, yet always thoughtful of his
+   mates, and patient as a woman with their helplessness. When
+   dinner is over, some sleep, many read, and others want letters
+   written. This I like to do, for they put in such odd things, and
+   express their ideas so comically, I have great fun interiorally,
+   while as grave as possible exteriorally. A few of the men word
+   their paragraphs well and make excellent letters. John's was the
+   best of all I wrote. The answering of letters from friends after
+   some one had died is the saddest and hardest duty a nurse has to
+   do.
+
+   Supper at five sets every one to running that can run; and when
+   that flurry is over, all settle down for the evening amusements,
+   which consist of newspapers, gossip, the doctor's last round,
+   and, for such as need them, the final doses for the night. At
+   nine the bell rings, gas is turned down, and day nurses go to
+   bed. Night nurses go on duty, and sleep and death have the house
+   to themselves.
+
+   My work is changed to night watching, or half night and half
+   day,--from twelve to twelve. I like it, as it leaves me time for
+   a morning run, which is what I need to keep well; for bad air,
+   food, and water, work and watching, are getting to be too much
+   for me. I trot up and down the streets in all directions,
+   sometimes to the Heights, then half way to Washington, again to
+   the hill, over which the long trains of army wagons are
+   constantly vanishing and ambulances appearing. That way the
+   fighting lies, and I long to follow.
+
+   Ordered to keep my room, being threatened with pneumonia. Sharp
+   pain in the side, cough, fever, and dizziness. A pleasant
+   prospect for a lonely soul five hundred miles from home! Sit and
+   sew on the boys' clothes, write letters, sleep, and read; try to
+   talk and keep merry, but fail decidedly, as day after day goes,
+   and I feel no better. Dream awfully, and wake unrefreshed, think
+   of home, and wonder if I am to die here, as Mrs. R., the matron,
+   is likely to do. Feel too miserable to care much what becomes of
+   me. Dr. S. creaks up twice a day to feel my pulse, give me doses,
+   and ask if I am at all consumptive, or some other cheering
+   question. Dr. O. examines my lungs and looks sober. Dr. J. haunts
+   the room, coming by day and night with wood, cologne, books, and
+   messes, like a motherly little man as he is. Nurses fussy and
+   anxious, matron dying, and everything very gloomy. They want me
+   to go home, but I _won't_ yet.
+
+   _January 16th._--Was amazed to see Father enter the room that
+   morning, having been telegraphed to by order of Mrs. R. without
+   asking leave. I was very angry at first, though glad to see him,
+   because I knew I should have to go. Mrs. D. and Miss Dix came,
+   and pretty Miss W., to take me to Willard's to be cared for by
+   them. I wouldn't go, preferring to keep still, being pretty ill
+   by that time.
+
+   On the 21st I suddenly decided to go home, feeling very
+   strangely, and dreading to be worse. Mrs. R. died, and that
+   frightened the doctors about me; for my trouble was the
+   same,--typhoid pneumonia. Father, Miss K., and Lizzie T. went
+   with me. Miss Dix brought a basket full of bottles of wine, tea,
+   medicine, and cologne, besides a little blanket and pillow, a
+   fan, and a testament. She is a kind old soul, but very queer and
+   arbitrary.
+
+   Was very sorry to go, and "my boys" seemed sorry to have me.
+   Quite a flock came to see me off; but I was too sick to have but
+   a dim idea of what was going on.
+
+   Had a strange, excited journey of a day and night,--half asleep,
+   half wandering, just conscious that I was going home; and, when I
+   got to Boston, of being taken out of the car, with people looking
+   on as if I was a sight. I daresay I was all blowzed, crazy, and
+   weak. Was too sick to reach Concord that night, though we tried
+   to do so. Spent it at Mr. Sewall's; had a sort of fit; they sent
+   for Dr. H., and I had a dreadful time of it.
+
+   Next morning felt better, and at four went home. Just remember
+   seeing May's shocked face at the depot, Mother's bewildered one
+   at home, and getting to bed in the firm belief that the house was
+   roofless, and no one wanted to see me.
+
+   As I never shall forget the strange fancies that haunted me, I
+   shall amuse myself with recording some of them.
+
+   The most vivid and enduring was the conviction that I had married
+   a stout, handsome Spaniard, dressed in black velvet, with very
+   soft hands, and a voice that was continually saying, "Lie still,
+   my dear!" This was Mother, I suspect; but with all the comfort I
+   often found in her presence, there was blended an awful fear of
+   the Spanish spouse who was always coming after me, appearing out
+   of closets, in at windows, or threatening me dreadfully all night
+   long. I appealed to the Pope, and really got up and made a
+   touching plea in something meant for Latin, they tell me. Once I
+   went to heaven, and found it a twilight place, with people
+   darting through the air in a queer way,--all very busy, and
+   dismal, and ordinary. Miss Dix, W. H. Channing, and other people
+   were there; but I thought it dark and "slow," and wished I hadn't
+   come.
+
+   A mob at Baltimore breaking down the door to get me, being hung
+   for a witch, burned, stoned, and otherwise maltreated, were some
+   of my fancies. Also being tempted to join Dr. W. and two of the
+   nurses in worshipping the Devil. Also tending millions of rich
+   men who never died or got well.
+
+   _February._--Recovered my senses after three weeks of delirium,
+   and was told I had had a very bad typhoid fever, had nearly died,
+   and was still very sick. All of which seemed rather curious, for
+   I remembered nothing of it. Found a queer, thin, big-eyed face
+   when I looked in the glass; didn't know myself at all; and when I
+   tried to walk discovered that I couldn't, and cried because my
+   legs wouldn't go.
+
+   Never having been sick before, it was all new and very
+   interesting when I got quiet enough to understand matters. Such
+   long, long nights; such feeble, idle days; dozing, fretting about
+   nothing; longing to eat, and no mouth to do it with,--mine being
+   so sore, and full of all manner of queer sensations, it was
+   nothing but a plague. The old fancies still lingered, seeming so
+   real I believed in them, and deluded Mother and May with the most
+   absurd stories, so soberly told that they thought them true.
+
+   Dr. B. came every day, and was very kind. Father and Mother were
+   with me night and day, and May sang "Birks of Aberfeldie," or
+   read to me, to wile away the tiresome hours. People sent
+   letters, money, kind inquiries, and goodies for the old "Nuss." I
+   tried to sew, read, and write, and found I had to begin all over
+   again. Received $10 for my labors in Washington. Had all my hair,
+   a yard and a half long, cut off, and went into caps like a
+   grandma. Felt badly about losing my one beauty. Never mind, it
+   might have been my head, and a wig outside is better than a loss
+   of wits inside.
+
+   _March._--Began to get about a little, sitting up nearly all day,
+   eating more regularly, and falling back into my old ways. My
+   first job was characteristic: I cleared out my piece-bags and
+   dusted my books, feeling as tired as if I had cleaned the whole
+   house. Sat up till nine one night, and took no lunch at three
+   A.M.,--two facts which I find carefully recorded in my pocket
+   diary in my own shaky handwriting.
+
+   Father had two courses of conversations: one at Mr. Quincy's,
+   very select and fine; the other at a hall not so good. He was
+   tired out with taking care of me, poor old gentleman; and typhus
+   was not inspiring.
+
+   Read a great deal, being too feeble to do much else. No end of
+   rubbish, with a few good things as ballast. "Titan" was the one I
+   enjoyed the most, though it tired my weak wits to read much at a
+   time. Recalled, and wrote some lines on "Thoreau's Flute," which
+   I composed one night on my watch by little Shaw at the hospital.
+
+   On the 28th Father came home from Boston, bringing word that Nan
+   had a fine boy. We all screamed out when he burst in, snowy and
+   beaming; then Mother began to cry, May to laugh, and I to say,
+   like B. Trotwood, "There, I knew it wouldn't be a girl!" We were
+   all so glad it was safely over, and a jolly little lad was added
+   to the feminine family.
+
+   Mother went straight down to be sure that "mother and child were
+   doing well," and I fell to cleaning house, as good work for an
+   invalid and a vent for a happy aunt.
+
+
+_First Birth in the Alcott and Pratt Branch, 1863._
+
+     MONDAY EVE.
+
+   DEAREST LITTLE MOTHER,--Allow me to ask who was a true prophet.
+
+   Also to demand, "Where is my niece, Louisa Caroline?"
+
+   No matter, I will forgive you, and propose three cheers for my
+   _nephew_. Hurrah! hurrah! Hurray!
+
+   I wish you could have seen the performance on Saturday evening.
+
+   We were all sitting deep in a novel, not expecting Father home
+   owing to the snowstorm, when the door burst open, and in he came,
+   all wet and white, waving his bag, and calling out, "Good news!
+   good news! Anna has a fine boy!"
+
+   With one accord we opened our mouths and screamed for about two
+   minutes. Then Mother began to cry; I began to laugh; and May to
+   pour out questions; while Papa beamed upon us all,--red, damp,
+   and shiny, the picture of a proud old Grandpa. Such a funny
+   evening as we had! Mother kept breaking down, and each time
+   emerged from her handkerchief saying solemnly, "I must go right
+   down and see that baby!" Father had told every one he met, from
+   Mr. Emerson to the coach driver, and went about the house saying,
+   "Anna's boy! yes, yes, Anna's boy!" in a mild state of
+   satisfaction.
+
+   May and I at once taxed our brains for a name, and decided upon
+   "Amos Minot Bridge Bronson May Sewall Alcott Pratt," so that all
+   the families would be suited.
+
+   I was so anxious to hear more that I went up to town this A.M.
+   and found John's note.
+
+   Grandma and Grandpa Pratt came to hear the great news; but we
+   could only inform them of the one tremendous fact, that Pratt,
+   Jr., had condescended to arrive. Now tell us his weight, inches,
+   color, etc.
+
+   I know I shall fall down and adore when I see that mite; yet my
+   soul is rent when I think of the _L. C._ on the pincushion, and
+   all the plans I had made for "my niece."
+
+   Now get up quickly, and be a happy mamma. Of course John does
+   _not_ consider his son as _the_ most amazing product of the
+   nineteenth century.
+
+   Bless the baby!
+
+     Ever your admiring LU.
+
+   _April._--Had some pleasant walks and drives, and felt as if born
+   again, everything seemed so beautiful and new. I hope I was, and
+   that the Washington experience may do me lasting good. To go very
+   near to death teaches one to value life, and this winter will
+   always be a very memorable one to me.
+
+   Sewed on little shirts and gowns for my blessed nephew, who
+   increased rapidly in stature and godliness.
+
+   Sanborn asked me to do what Conway suggested before he left for
+   Europe; viz., to arrange my letters in a printable shape, and put
+   them in the "Commonwealth." They thought them witty and pathetic.
+   I didn't; but I wanted money; so I made three hospital sketches.
+   Much to my surprise, they made a great hit; and people bought the
+   papers faster than they could be supplied. The second, "A Night"
+   was much liked, and I was glad; for my beautiful "John Sulie" was
+   the hero, and the praise belonged to him. More were wanted; and I
+   added a postscript in the form of a letter, which finished it
+   up, as I then thought.
+
+   Received $100 from F. L. for a tale which won the prize last
+   January; paid debts, and was glad that my winter bore visible
+   fruit. Sent L. another tale. Went to Boston, and saw "our baby;"
+   thought him ugly, but promising. Got a set of furniture for my
+   room,--a long-talked-of dream of ours.
+
+   _May._--Spent the first week or two in putting the house in
+   order. May painted and papered the parlors. I got a new carpet
+   and rug besides the paper, and put things to rights in a thorough
+   manner. Mother was away with Nan, so we had full sweep; and she
+   came home to a clean, fresh house.
+
+   Nan and the Royal Infanta came as bright as a whole gross of
+   buttons, and as good as a hairless brown angel. Went to
+   Readville, and saw the 54th Colored Regiment, both there and next
+   day in town as they left for the South. Enjoyed it very much;
+   also the Antislavery meetings.
+
+   Had a fresh feather in my cap; for Mrs. Hawthorne showed Fields
+   "Thoreau's Flute," and he desired it for the "Atlantic." Of
+   course I didn't say no. It was printed, copied, praised, and
+   glorified; also _paid for_, and being a mercenary creature, I
+   liked the $10 nearly as well as the honor of being "a new star"
+   and "a literary celebrity."
+
+   _June._--Began to write again on "Moods," feeling encouraged by
+   the commendation bestowed on "Hospital Sketches," which were
+   noticed, talked of, and inquired about, much to my surprise and
+   delight. Had a fine letter from Henry James, also one from
+   Wasson, and a request from Redpath to be allowed to print the
+   sketches in a book. _Roberts Bros. also asked, but I preferred
+   the _Redpath_, and said yes; so he fell to work with all his
+   might.
+
+   Went to Class Day for the first time; had a pleasant day seeing
+   new sights and old friends.
+
+   G. H. came to the H.'s. Didn't like her as well as Miss H.; too
+   sharp and full of herself; insisted on talking about religion
+   with Emerson, who glided away from the subject so sweetly, yet
+   resolutely, that the energetic lady gave it up at last.
+
+   [1877.--Short-sighted Louisa! Little did you dream that this same
+   Roberts Bros. were to help you to make your fortune a few years
+   later. The "Sketches" never made much money, but showed me "my
+   style," and taking the hint, I went where glory waited me.--L. M.
+   A.]
+
+   _July._--Sanborn asked for more contributions, and I gave him
+   some of my old Mountain Letters vamped up. They were not good,
+   and though they sold the paper, I was heartily ashamed of them,
+   and stopped in the middle, resolving never again to try to be
+   funny, lest I should be rowdy and nothing more. I'm glad of the
+   lesson, and hope it will do me good.
+
+   Had some pleasant letters from Sergeant Bain,--one of my boys who
+   has not forgotten me, though safely at home far away in Michigan.
+   It gratified me very much, and brought back the hospital days
+   again. He was a merry, brave little fellow, and I liked him very
+   much. His right arm was amputated after Fredericksburg, and he
+   took it very cheerfully, trying at once to train his left hand to
+   do duty for both, and never complained of his loss. "Baby B."
+
+   _August._--Redpath carried on the publishing of the "Sketches"
+   vigorously, sending letters, proof, and notices daily, and making
+   all manner of offers, suggestions, and prophecies concerning the
+   success of the book and its author.
+
+   Wrote a story, "My Contraband," and sent it to Fields, who
+   accepted and paid $50 for it, with much approbation for it and
+   the "Sketches." L. sent $40 for a story, and wanted another.
+
+   Major M. invited me to Gloucester; but I refused, being too busy
+   and too bashful to be made a lion of, even in a very small way.
+   Letters from Dr. Hyde, Wilkie (home with a wound from Wagner),
+   Charles Sumner, Mr. Hale, and others,--all about the little
+   "Sketches," which keep on making friends for me, though I don't
+   get used to the thing at all, and think it must be all a mistake.
+
+   On the 25th my first morning-glory bloomed in my room,--a hopeful
+   blue,--and at night up came my book in its new dress. I had added
+   several chapters to it, and it was quite a neat little affair. An
+   edition of one thousand, and I to have five cents on each copy.
+
+   _September._--Redpath anxious for another book. Send him a volume
+   of stories and part of a book to look at. He likes both; but I
+   decide on waiting a little, as I'm not satisfied with the
+   stories, and the novel needs time. "Sketches" sell well, and a
+   new edition is called for.
+
+   Dear old Grandma died at Aunt Betsey's in her eighty-ninth
+   year,--a good woman, and much beloved by her children. I sent
+   money to help lay her away; for Aunt B. is poor, and it was all I
+   could do for the kind little old lady.
+
+   Nan and Freddy made us a visit, and we decided that of all
+   splendid babies he was the king. Such a hearty, happy, funny boy,
+   I could only play with and adore him all the while he stayed, and
+   long for him when he went. Nan and John are very fond of "our
+   son," and well they may be. Grandma and Grandpa think him
+   perfect, and even artistic Aunty May condescends to say he is "a
+   very nice thing."
+
+   "My Contraband; or, The Brothers," my story in the "Atlantic,"
+   came out, and was liked. Received $40 from Redpath for
+   "Sketches,"--first edition; wanted me to be editor of a paper;
+   was afraid to try, and let it go.
+
+   Poor old "Moods" came out for another touching up.
+
+   _October._--Thought much about going to Port Royal to teach
+   contrabands. Fields wanted the letters I should write, and asked
+   if I had no book. Father spoke of "Moods," and he desired to see
+   it. So I fell to work, and finished it off, thinking the world
+   must be coming to an end, and all my dreams getting fulfilled in
+   a most amazing way. If there was ever an astonished young woman,
+   it is myself; for things have gone on so swimmingly of late I
+   don't know who I am. A year ago I had no publisher, and went
+   begging with my wares; now _three_ have asked me for something,
+   several papers are ready to print my contributions, and F. B. S.
+   says "any publisher this side of Baltimore would be glad to get a
+   book." There is a sudden hoist for a meek and lowly scribbler,
+   who was told to "stick to her teaching," and never had a literary
+   friend to lend a helping hand! Fifteen years of hard grubbing may
+   be coming to something after all; and I may yet "pay all the
+   debts, fix the house, send May to Italy, and keep the old folks
+   cosey," as I've said I would so long, yet so hopelessly.
+
+   May began to take anatomical drawing lessons of Rimmer. I was
+   very glad to be able to pay her expenses up and down and clothe
+   her neatly. Twenty dollars more from Redpath on account.
+
+   _December._--Earnings 1863, $380.
+
+   The principal event of this otherwise quiet month was the
+   Sanitary Fair in Boston, and our part in it. At G. G. B.'s
+   request, I dramatized six scenes from Dickens, and went to town
+   on the 14th to play. Things did not go well for want of a good
+   manager and more time. Our night was not at all satisfactory to
+   us, owing to the falling through of several scenes for want of
+   actors. People seemed to like what there was of it, and after a
+   wearisome week I very gladly came home again. Our six
+   entertainments made twenty-five hundred dollars for the Fair.
+
+   Rewrote the fairy tales, one of which was published; but owing to
+   delays it was late for the holidays, and badly bound in the
+   hurry; so the poor "Rose Family" fared badly.
+
+   Had a letter from the publisher of a new magazine, called the
+   "Civil Service Magazine," asking for a long tale. Had no time to
+   write one; but will by and by, if the thing is good.
+
+   While in town received $10 of F. B. S. and $20 of Redpath, with
+   which I bought May hat, boots, gloves, ribbons, and other little
+   matters, besides furnishing money for her fares up and down to
+   Rimmer.
+
+   _January, 1864._--New Year's Day was a very quiet one. Nan and
+   Freddy were here, and in the evening we went to a dance at the
+   hall. A merry time; for all the town was there, as it was for the
+   Soldiers' Aid Society, and every one wanted to help. Nan and I
+   sat in the gallery, and watched the young people dance the old
+   year out, the new year in as the clock struck twelve.
+
+   On looking over my accounts, I find I have earned by my _writing_
+   alone nearly _six hundred dollars_ since last January, and spent
+   less than a hundred for myself, which I am glad to know. May has
+   had $70 for herself, and the rest has paid debts or bought
+   necessary things for the family.
+
+   Received from the "Commonwealth" $18 for "A Hospital Christmas."
+   Wrote a fairy tale, "Fairy Pinafores." "Picket Duty" and other
+   tales came out,--first of Redpath's series of books for the "Camp
+   Fires." Richardson sent again for a long story for the "Civil
+   Service Magazine." Tried a war story, but couldn't make it go.
+
+   _February._--Nan quite sick again. Mother passed most of the
+   month with her; so I had to be housekeeper, and let my writing
+   go,--as well perhaps, as my wits are tired, and the "divine
+   afflatus" don't descend as readily as it used to do. Must wait
+   and fill up my idea-box before I begin again. There is nothing
+   like work to set fancy a-going.
+
+   Redpath came flying up on the 4th to get "Moods," promising to
+   have it out by May. Gave it to him with many fears, and he
+   departed content. The next day received a telegram to come down
+   at once and see the printers. Went, and was told the story was
+   too long for a single volume, and a two-volume novel was bad to
+   begin with. Would I cut the book down about half? No, I wouldn't,
+   having already shortened it all it would bear. So I took my
+   "opus" and posted home again, promising to try and finish my
+   shorter book in a month.
+
+   A dull, heavy month, grubbing in the kitchen, sewing, cleaning
+   house, and trying to like my duty.
+
+   Mrs. S. takes a great fancy to May; sends her flowers, offers to
+   pay for her to go to the new Art School, and arranges everything
+   delightfully for her. She is a fortunate girl, and always finds
+   some one to help her as she wants to be helped. Wish I could do
+   the same, but suppose as I never do that it is best for me to
+   work and wait and do all for myself.
+
+   Mr. Storrs, D.D., wrote for a sketch for his little paper, "The
+   Drum Beat," to be printed during the Brooklyn Sanitary Fair. A
+   very cordial, pleasant letter, which I answered by a little
+   sketch called "A Hospital Lamp." He sent me another friendly
+   letter, and all the daily papers as they came out. A very
+   gentlemanly D.D. is Dr. Storrs.
+
+The "Hospital Sketches" were fully entitled to their wide and rapid
+popularity; and for the first time perhaps Miss Alcott felt sure of
+her vocation, and knew that it would bring at last the success which
+would enable her to carry out her plans for the family. And yet the
+battle was not over. She gained in reputation, was received with great
+attention in society, and lionized more than she cared for. But she
+still continued writing stories for the various papers at very low
+prices. Some of them were refused by the publishers, as she thinks, on
+account of the Antislavery sentiments expressed in them. Her "blood
+and thunder" stories continued in demand, and she wrote them rapidly,
+and was glad of the money they brought. But she had not yet found her
+true path, and she suffered at times from keen depression of spirits;
+for the way seemed long and dark, and she did not see the end. In more
+than one sense she struggled with Moods; for that unhappy book was
+still tossed from publisher to publisher, who gave her much praise,
+but no satisfaction.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   A busy month getting settled. Freddy's birthday on the 28th, one
+   year old. He had a dozen nice little presents laid out in a row
+   when he came down to breakfast, and seemed quite overpowered with
+   his riches. On being told to take what he liked best, he chose
+   the picture of little Samuel which Father gave him, and the good
+   pope was much delighted at that.
+
+   Was asked for a poem for the great album at the St. Louis Fair,
+   and sent "Thoreau's Flute" as my best. Also received a letter
+   from the Philadelphia managers asking contributions for the paper
+   to be printed at their Fair.
+
+   Wrote nothing this month.
+
+   _April._--At Father's request I sent "Moods" to T., and got a
+   very friendly note from him, saying they had so many books on
+   hand that they could do nothing about it now. So I put it back on
+   the shelf, and set about my other work. Don't despair, "Moods,"
+   we'll try again by and by!
+
+   [Alas! we did try again.--L. M. A.]
+
+   Wrote the first part of a story for Professor C. called "Love and
+   Loyalty,"--flat, patriotic, and done to order. Wrote a new fairy
+   tale, "Nelly's Hospital."
+
+   _May._--Had a letter from Mrs. Gildersleeve, asking for my
+   photograph and a sketch of my life, for a book called "Heroic
+   Women" which she was getting up. Respectfully refused. Also a
+   letter and flattering notice from "Ruth Hall," and a notice from
+   a Chicago critic with a long extract from "Rose Family." My tale
+   "Enigmas" came out, and was much liked by readers of sensation
+   rubbish. Having got my $50, I was resigned.
+
+   _June._--To town with Father on the 3d to a Fraternity Festival
+   to which we were invited. Had a fine time, and was amazed to find
+   my "'umble" self made a lion of, set up among the great ones,
+   stared at, waited upon, complimented, and made to hold a "layvee"
+   whether I would or no; for Mr. S. kept bringing up people to be
+   introduced till I was tired of shaking hands and hearing the
+   words "Hospital Sketches" uttered in every tone of interest,
+   admiration, and respect. Mr. Wasson, Whipple, Alger, Clarke,
+   Calthrop, and Chadwick came to speak to me, and many more whose
+   names I forget. It was a very pleasant surprise and a new
+   experience. I liked it, but think a small dose quite as much as
+   is good for me; for after sitting in a corner and grubbing _à la_
+   Cinderella, it rather turns one's head to be taken out and be
+   treated like a princess all of a sudden.
+
+   _August._--Went to Gloucester for a fortnight with May at the
+   M.'s. Found a family of six pretty daughters, a pleasant mother,
+   and a father who was an image of one of the Cheeryble brothers.
+   Had a jolly time boating, driving, charading, dancing, and
+   picnicking. One mild moonlight night a party of us camped out on
+   Norman's Woe, and had a splendid time, lying on the rocks
+   singing, talking, sleeping, and rioting up and down. Had a fine
+   time, and took coffee at all hours. The moon rose and set
+   beautifully, and the sunrise was a picture I never shall forget.
+
+   Wrote another fairy tale, "Jamie's Wonder Book," and sent the
+   "Christmas Stories" to W. & W., with some lovely illustrations by
+   Miss Greene. They liked the book very much, and said they would
+   consult about publishing it, though their hands were full.
+
+   _September._--Mrs. D. made a visit, and getting hold of my old
+   book of stories liked them, and insisted on taking "Moods" home
+   to read. As she had had experience with publishers, was a good
+   business woman, and an excellent critic, I let her have it,
+   hoping she might be able to give the poor old book the lift it
+   has been waiting for all these years. She took it, read it, and
+   admired it heartily, saying that "no American author had showed
+   so much promise; that the plan was admirable; the execution
+   unequal, but often magnificent; that I had a great field before
+   me, and my book must be got out."
+
+   Mrs. D. sent it to L., who liked it exceedingly, and asked me to
+   shorten it if I could, else it would be too large to sell well.
+   Was much disappointed, said I'd never touch it again, and tossed
+   it into the spidery little cupboard where it had so often
+   returned after fruitless trips.
+
+At last, in the excited hours of a wakeful night, Miss Alcott thought
+of a way to curtail the objectionable length of the book, and she
+spent a fortnight in remodelling it,--as she then thought improving it
+greatly,--although she afterwards returned to her original version as
+decidedly the best. The book was brought out, and she had the pleasure
+of presenting the first copy to her mother on her sixty fourth
+birthday. She had various projects in her mind, one of which was a
+novel, with two characters in it like Jean Paul Richter and Goethe. It
+is needless to say this was never carried out. Miss Alcott had great
+powers of observation, and a keen insight into character as it fell
+within her own range of life, but she had not the creative
+imagination which could paint to the life the subtlest workings of
+thought and feeling in natures foreign to her own experience. She
+could not have portrayed such men: but who could?
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _October._--Wrote several chapters of "Work," and was getting on
+   finely, when, as I lay awake one night, a way to shorten and
+   arrange "Moods" came into my head. The whole plan laid itself
+   smoothly out before me, and I slept no more that night, but
+   worked on it as busily as if mind and body had nothing to do with
+   one another. Up early, and began to write it all over again. The
+   fit was on strong, and for a fortnight I hardly ate, slept, or
+   stirred, but wrote, wrote, like a thinking machine in full
+   operation. When it was all rewritten without copying, I found it
+   much improved, though I'd taken out ten chapters, and sacrificed
+   many of my favorite things; but being resolved to make it simple,
+   strong, and short, I let everything else go, and hoped the book
+   would be better for it.
+
+   [It wasn't. 1867.]
+
+   Sent it to L.; and a week after, as I sat hammering away at the
+   parlor carpet,--dusty, dismal, and tired,--a letter came from L.
+   praising the story more enthusiastically than ever, thanking me
+   for the improvements, and proposing to bring out the book at
+   once. Of course we all had a rapture, and I finished my work
+   "double quick," regardless of weariness, toothache, or blue
+   devils.
+
+   Next day I went to Boston and saw L. A brisk, business-like man
+   who seemed in earnest and said many complimentary things about
+   "Hospital Sketches" and its author. It was agreed to bring out
+   the book immediately, and Mrs. D. offered to read the proof with
+   me.
+
+   Was glad to have the old thing under way again, but didn't quite
+   believe it would ever come out after so many delays and
+   disappointments.
+
+   Sewed for Nan and Mary, heard Anna Dickinson and liked her. Read
+   "Emily Chester" and thought it an unnatural story, yet just
+   enough like "Moods" in a few things to make me sorry that it came
+   out now.
+
+   On Mother's sixty-fourth birthday I gave her "Moods" with this
+   inscription,--"To Mother, my earliest patron, kindest critic,
+   dearest reader, I gratefully and affectionately inscribe my first
+   romance."
+
+   A letter from T. asking me to write for the new magazine "Our
+   Young Folks," and saying that "An Hour" was in the hands of the
+   editors.
+
+   _November._--Proof began to come, and the chapters seemed small,
+   stupid, and no more my own in print. I felt very much afraid that
+   I'd ventured too much and should be sorry for it. But Emerson
+   says "that what is true for your own private heart is true for
+   others." So I wrote from my own consciousness and observation and
+   hope it may suit some one and at least do no harm.
+
+   I sent "An Hour" to the "Commonwealth" and it was considered
+   _excellent_. Also wrote a Christmas Story, "Mrs. Todger's
+   Teapot." T. asked to see the other fairy tales and designs and
+   poems, as he liked "Nelly's Hospital" so much.
+
+   On my thirty-second birthday received Richter's Life from Nan and
+   enjoyed it so much that I planned a story of two men something
+   like Jean Paul and Goethe, only more every-day people. Don't know
+   what will come of it, but if "Moods" goes well "Success" shall
+   follow.
+
+   Sewed for Wheeler's colored company and sent them comfort-bags,
+   towels, books, and bed-sacks. Mr. W. sent me some relics from
+   Point Look Out and a pleasant letter.
+
+   _December._--Earnings, 1864,--$476.
+
+   On Christmas Eve received ten copies of "Moods" and a friendly
+   note from L. The book was hastily got out, but on the whole
+   suited me, and as the inside was considered good I let the
+   outside go. For a week wherever I went I saw, heard, and talked
+   "Moods;" found people laughing or crying over it, and was
+   continually told how well it was going, how much it was liked,
+   how fine a thing I'd done. I was glad but not proud, I think, for
+   it has always seemed as if "Moods" grew in spite of me, and that
+   I had little to do with it except to put into words the thoughts
+   that would not let me rest until I had. Don't know why.
+
+   By Saturday the first edition was gone and the second ready.
+   Several booksellers ordered a second hundred, the first went so
+   fast, and friends could not get it but had to wait till more were
+   ready.
+
+   Spent a fortnight in town at Mary's, shopping, helping Nan, and
+   having plays. Heard Emerson once. Gave C. "Mrs. Todger's Teapot,"
+   which was much liked. Sent L. the rest of his story and got $50.
+   S. paid $35 for "An Hour." R. promised $100 for "Love and
+   Loyalty," so my year closes with a novel well-launched and about
+   $300 to pay debts and make the family happy and comfortable till
+   spring. Thank God for the success of the old year, the promise of
+   the new!
+
+The sale of "Moods" was at first very rapid; for "Hospital Sketches"
+had created an interest in the author, and welcome recognition came to
+her from many sources. She received a handsome sum from the
+copyright, and "the year closed with enough to make her feel free of
+debt and the family comfortable." She ends the year's journal
+triumphantly.
+
+The following year was spent mostly in Boston. Miss Alcott went into
+society and enjoyed the friendly attentions of men and women of
+ability. She continued to write stories for money, but now received
+fifty, seventy-five, or a hundred dollars for them. She frequently
+took part in theatrical performances for charities. She was always
+brilliant and successful and enjoyed them with something of her early
+zest.
+
+Her long story of "Success," or "Work," as she afterwards named it,
+was still in her mind, but she did not finish it at this time.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _January, 1865._--The month began with some plays at the town
+   hall to raise funds for the Lyceum. We did very well and some
+   Scenes from Dickens were excellent. Father lectured and preached
+   a good deal, being asked like a regular minister and paid like
+   one. He enjoyed it very much and said good things on the new
+   religion which we ought to and shall have. May had orders from
+   Canada and England for her pretty pen-and-ink work and did well
+   in that line.
+
+   Notices of "Moods" came from all directions, and though people
+   didn't understand my ideas owing to my shortening the book so
+   much, the notices were mostly favorable and gave quite as much
+   praise as was good for me. I had letters from Mrs. Parker,
+   Chadwick, Sanborn, E. B. Greene, the artist, T. W. Higginson and
+   some others. All friendly and flattering.
+
+   Saw more notices of "Moods" and received more letters, several
+   from strangers and some very funny. People seemed to think the
+   book finely written, very promising, wise, and interesting; but
+   some fear it isn't moral, because it speaks freely of marriage.
+
+   Wrote a little on poor old "Work" but being tired of novels, I
+   soon dropped it and fell back on rubbishy tales, for they pay
+   best, and I can't afford to starve on praise, when sensation
+   stories are written in half the time and keep the family cosey.
+
+   Earned $75 this month.
+
+   I went to Boston and heard Father lecture before the Fraternity.
+   Met Henry James, Sr., there, and he asked me to come and dine,
+   also called upon me with Mrs. James. I went, and was treated like
+   the Queen of Sheba. Henry Jr. wrote a notice of "Moods" for the
+   "North American," and was very friendly. Being a literary youth
+   he gave me advice, as if he had been eighty and I a girl. My
+   curly crop made me look young, though thirty-one.
+
+   Acted in some public plays for the N. E. Women's Hospital and had
+   a pleasant time.
+
+   L. asked me to be a regular contributor to his new paper, and I
+   agreed if he'd pay beforehand; he said he would, and bespoke two
+   tales at once, $50 each, longer ones as often as I could, and
+   whatever else I liked to send. So here's another source of income
+   and Alcott brains seem in demand, whereat I sing "Hallyluyer" and
+   fill up my inkstand.
+
+   _April._--Richmond taken on the 2d. Hurrah! Went to Boston and
+   enjoyed the grand jollification. Saw Booth again in Hamlet and
+   thought him finer than ever. Had a pleasant walk and talk with
+   Phillips.
+
+   On the 15th in the midst of the rejoicing came the sad news of
+   the President's assassination, and the city went into mourning. I
+   am glad to have seen such a strange and sudden change in a
+   nation's feelings. Saw the great procession, and though few
+   colored men were in it, one was walking arm in arm with a white
+   gentleman, and I exulted thereat.
+
+   Nan went to housekeeping in a pleasant house at Jamaica Plain,
+   and I went to help her move. It was beautiful to see how Freddy
+   enjoyed the freedom, after being cooped up all winter, and how
+   every morning, whether it rained or shone, he looked out and
+   said, with a smile of perfect satisfaction, "Oh, pretty
+   day!"--for all days _were_ pretty to him, dear little soul!
+
+   Had a fine letter from Conway, and a notice in the "Reader,"--an
+   English paper. He advised sending copies to several of the best
+   London papers. English people don't understand "transcendental
+   literature," as they call "Moods." My next book shall have no
+   _ideas_ in it, only facts, and the people shall be as ordinary as
+   possible; then critics will say it's all right. I seem to have
+   been playing with edge tools without knowing it. The relations
+   between Warwick, Moor, and Sylvia are pronounced impossible; yet
+   a case of the sort exists, and the woman came and asked me how I
+   knew it. I did _not_ know or guess, but perhaps felt it, without
+   any other guide, and unconsciously put the thing into my book,
+   for I changed the ending about that time. It was meant to show a
+   life affected by _moods_, not a discussion of marriage, which I
+   knew little about, except observing that very few were happy
+   ones.
+
+   _June._--Busy writing, keeping house, and sewing. Company often;
+   and strangers begin to come, demanding to see the authoress, who
+   does not like it, and is porcupiny. Admire the books, but let
+   the woman alone, if you please, dear public!
+
+   On the 24th Anna's second boy was born, at half-past three in the
+   morning,--Lizzie's birthday. A fine, stout, little lad, who took
+   to life kindly, and seemed to find the world all right. Freddy
+   could not understand it at first, and told his mother that "the
+   babee" had got his place. But he soon loved the "tunning sing,"
+   and would stand watching it with a grave face, till some funny
+   little idea found vent in still funnier words or caresses.
+
+   Nan was very happy with her two boys, so was John, though both
+   had wished for a daughter.
+
+   _July._--While at Nan's Mrs. B. asked me if I would go abroad
+   with her sister. I said "yes;" but as I spoke neither French nor
+   German, she didn't think I'd do. I was sorry; but being used to
+   disappointment, went to work for Nan, and bided my time, which
+   came very soon.
+
+
+_To Anna._
+
+     [Date uncertain.]
+
+   MY LASS,--This must be a frivolous and dressy letter, because you
+   always want to know about our clothes, and we have been at it
+   lately. May's bonnet is a sight for gods and men. Black and white
+   outside, with a great cockade boiling over the front to meet a
+   red ditto surging from the interior, where a red rainbow darts
+   across the brow, and a surf of white lace foams up on each side.
+   I expect to hear that you and John fell flat in the dust with
+   horror on beholding it.
+
+   My bonnet has nearly been the death of me; for, thinking some
+   angel might make it possible for me to go to the mountains, I
+   felt a wish for a tidy hat, after wearing an old one till it fell
+   in tatters from my brow. Mrs. P. promised a bit of gray silk, and
+   I built on that; but when I went for it I found my hat was
+   founded on sand; for she let me down with a crash, saying she
+   wanted the silk herself, and kindly offering me a flannel
+   petticoat instead. I was in woe for a spell, having one dollar in
+   the world, and scorning debt even for that prop of life, a
+   "bonnet." Then I roused myself, flew to Dodge, demanded her
+   cheapest bonnet, found one for a dollar, took it, and went home
+   wondering if the sky would open and drop me a trimming. I am
+   simple in my tastes, but a naked straw bonnet is a little too
+   severely chaste even for me. Sky did not open; so I went to the
+   "Widow Cruise's oil bottle"--my ribbon box--which, by the way, is
+   the eighth wonder of the world, for nothing is ever put in, yet I
+   always find some old dud when all other hopes fail. From this
+   salvation bin I extracted the remains of the old white ribbon
+   (used up, as I thought, two years ago), and the bits of black
+   lace that have adorned a long line of departed hats. Of the lace
+   I made a dish, on which I thriftily served up bows of ribbon,
+   like meat on toast. Inside put the lace bow, which adorns my form
+   anywhere when needed. A white flower A. H. gave me sat airily on
+   the brim,--fearfully unbecoming, but pretty in itself, and in
+   keeping. Strings are yet to be evolved from chaos. I feel that
+   they await me somewhere in the dim future. Green ones _pro tem._
+   hold this wonder of the age upon my gifted brow, and I survey my
+   hat with respectful awe. I trust you will also, and see in it
+   another great example of the power of mind over matter, and the
+   convenience of a colossal brain in the primeval wrestle with the
+   unruly atoms which have harassed the feminine soul ever since Eve
+   clapped on a modest fig-leaf and did up her hair with a thorn for
+   a hairpin.
+
+   I feel very moral to-day, having done a big wash alone, baked,
+   swept the house, picked the hops, got dinner, and written a
+   chapter in "Moods." May gets exhausted with work, though she
+   walks six miles without a murmur.
+
+   It is dreadfully dull, and I work so that I may not "brood."
+   Nothing stirring but the wind; nothing to see but dust; no one
+   comes but rose-bugs; so I grub and scold at the "A." because it
+   takes a poor fellow's tales and keeps 'em years without paying
+   for 'em. If I think of my woes I fall into a vortex of debts,
+   dishpans, and despondency awful to see. So I say, "every path has
+   its puddle," and try to play gayly with the tadpoles in _my_
+   puddle, while I wait for the Lord to give me a lift, or some
+   gallant Raleigh to spread his velvet cloak and fetch me over dry
+   shod.
+
+   L. W. adds to my woe by writing of the splendors of Gorham, and
+   says, "When tired, run right up here and find rest among these
+   everlasting hills." All very aggravating to a young woman with
+   one dollar, no bonnet, half a gown, and a discontented mind. It's
+   a mercy the mountains are everlasting, for it will be a century
+   before _I_ get there. Oh, me, such is life!
+
+   Now I've done my Jeremiad, and I will go on twanging my harp in
+   the "willow tree."
+
+   You ask what I am writing. Well, two books half done, nine
+   stories simmering, and stacks of fairy stories moulding on the
+   shelf. I can't do much, as I have no time to get into a real good
+   vortex. It unfits me for work, worries Ma to see me look pale,
+   eat nothing, and ply by night. These extinguishers keep genius
+   from burning as I could wish, and I give up ever hoping to do
+   anything unless luck turns for your
+
+     LU.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+EUROPE AND LITTLE WOMEN.
+
+     LITTLE WOMEN.
+
+     Four little chests all in a row,
+       Dim with dust and worn by time,
+     All fashioned and filled long ago
+       By children now in their prime.
+     Four little keys hung side by side,
+       With faded ribbons, brave and gay
+     When fastened there with childish pride
+       Long ago on a rainy day.
+     Four little names, one on each lid,
+       Carved out by a boyish hand;
+     And underneath there lieth hid
+       Histories of the happy band
+     Once playing here, and pausing oft
+       To hear the sweet refrain
+     That came and went on the roof aloft
+       In the falling summer rain.
+
+            *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Four little chests all in a row,
+       Dim with dust and worn by time:
+     Four women, taught by weal and woe
+       To love and labor in their prime;
+     Four sisters parted for an hour,--
+       None lost, one only gone before,
+     Made by love's immortal power
+       Nearest and dearest evermore.
+     Oh! when these hidden stores of ours
+       Lie open to the Father's sight,
+     May they be rich in golden hours,--
+       Deeds that show fairer for the light,
+     Deeds whose brave music long shall ring
+       Like a spirit-stirring strain,
+     Souls that shall gladly soar and sing
+       In the long sunshine, after rain.
+
+
+The years which followed the war and Miss Alcott's experience as a
+hospital nurse were rather sad and anxious from many causes. Louisa
+felt deeply the loss of one sister by death and the separation from
+another by marriage. The success of "Hospital Sketches" and a few
+other stories published about the same time had given her confidence
+in her powers and hopes of a successful future. But for nearly five
+years she accomplished nothing which met with equal favor. The
+reception of the novel "Moods," in which she thought she had expressed
+her best life, was not cheering to her; and she had become wholly
+dissatisfied with the sensational stories, which formed the most ready
+resource for earning money. Her health was seriously injured by the
+fever from which she suffered in the hospital, and she had no longer
+the physical energy to sustain the unceasing activity of her brain.
+
+Under these difficulties she naturally desired a change of
+circumstances; and the old longing for a journey to Europe--which she
+had felt strongly in her youth, and which, like all Americans of
+culture, she felt more and more as time passed on--became her ruling
+desire. She was very fond of new scenes and variety of people, and she
+often expressed a wish to live many years in Europe.
+
+The circumstances of the family were not yet such as to justify
+Louisa, in her own eyes, in taking her earnings for the desired trip.
+But in 1865 an opportunity was offered her to go to Europe as
+companion to an invalid lady. From her experience in nursing--for
+which she had a natural gift--she and her friends thought her suited
+to the position, and advised her acceptance of the offer.
+
+Although devotedly kind, unselfish, and generous, Louisa had not the
+temperament suited to the needs of a nervous invalid. She was
+impetuous and impatient, and her own life was too strong within her
+and too earnest in its cravings, for her to restrain her moods and
+actions within the narrow limits of a companion's service. She found
+even what she recognized as fair services wearisome and distasteful,
+and sometimes chafed severely under what seemed unnecessary demands on
+her time, strength, and patience. Looking back on this experience in
+later years, she recognized these facts, and wrote in 1885: "Now,
+being a nervous invalid myself, I understand what seemed whims,
+selfishness, and folly in others."
+
+Louisa finally decided to leave her companions and go on alone to
+Paris and England, where she would find many of her own and her
+father's friends. At Vevay she had made the acquaintance of a young
+Polish lad, whom she found very interesting, and who was the original
+of the charming Laurie in "Little Women." He met her again in Paris,
+and contributed greatly to the pleasure of her stay there. He
+afterwards came to America, and visited her; but finally returned to
+his own country.
+
+The journal gives a sufficient account of her life while on this
+journey. I have no letters written at this time, as she wished all her
+family letters destroyed. Her few weeks in London passed very happily.
+Her wide reading in English history and in contemporary fiction,
+especially the works of Dickens and Thackeray, filled London with
+interesting associations, and she enjoyed thoroughly her free rambles
+through the old city, as well as the interesting people, who received
+her with great kindness.
+
+That Louisa might have these few weeks of entire relaxation and
+enjoyment, her mother had been obliged to borrow means for the support
+of the family; and Louisa was very anxious to clear off this debt like
+all others. She was very exact in pecuniary matters. Money to her was
+not an end, but a most necessary means. She paid every debt that her
+father had incurred, even though outlawed by time. It is often asked
+whether she ever sold her beautiful hair, as represented in "Little
+Women." The deed was never really done; but she and her sisters always
+held this treasure as a possible resource in case of need; and Louisa
+once says in her journal, "I will pay my debts, if I have to sell my
+hair to do it." She even went so far as to inquire of a barber as to
+its money value.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _1865._--Mr. W., hearing that I was something of a nurse and
+   wanted to travel, proposed my going with his invalid daughter. I
+   agreed, though I had my doubts. But every one said "Go;" so after
+   a week of worry I did go. On the 19th we sailed in the "China." I
+   could not realize that my long-desired dream was coming true; and
+   fears that I might not see all the dear home faces when I came
+   back made my heart very full as we steamed down the harbor and
+   Boston vanished.
+
+   Was not very sick, but uncomfortable all the way, and found the
+   Ladies' Saloon my only refuge till we were nearly across; enjoyed
+   intervals of quiet, and had many fine glimpses of the sea in its
+   various moods, sunsets and sunrises, fogs, icebergs, rain-storms,
+   and summer calms. No very pleasant people on board; so I read,
+   took notes, and _wiled_ away the long days as I best could.
+
+   We had a very quiet and quick passage of nine days, and on
+   Saturday, the 29th, steamed up the Mersey at dawn, and got to
+   Liverpool at nine. I was heartily glad to set my feet on the
+   solid earth, and thought I'd never go to sea again; rested, and
+   looked about a little.
+
+   _August._--Went up to London, and there spent four dull, drizzly
+   days. I amused myself in my usual way, looking well about me, and
+   writing down all I saw in my pocket-diary or letters. Went to the
+   parks, Westminster Abbey, and some of the famous streets. I felt
+   as if I'd got into a novel while going about in the places I'd
+   read so much of; saw no one I knew, and thought English weather
+   abominable.
+
+   On the 5th to Dover through a lovely green country; took steamer
+   there to Ostende; but was ill all the way, and saw nothing but a
+   basin; spent two days at a queer hotel near the fine promenade,
+   which was a very foreign and brilliant scene. To Brussels on the
+   7th. Here I enjoyed much, for the quaint old city was full of
+   interesting things. The ancient square, where the statues of
+   Egmont and Horn stand, was my delight; for the old Dutch houses
+   were still standing, and everything was so new and strange I
+   wanted to stay a month.
+
+   To Cologne on the 9th, and the country we passed through was like
+   a big picture-book. The city was very hot, dirty, and
+   evil-smelling. We saw the Cathedral, got eau de Cologne, and very
+   gladly left after three days.
+
+   On the 12th began a lovely voyage up the Rhine. It was too
+   beautiful to describe, so I shall not try; but I feel richer and
+   better for that memorable day. We reached Coblenz at sunset, and
+   I was up half the night enjoying the splendid view of the
+   fortress opposite the town, the moonlit river with its bridges of
+   boats, and troops crossing at midnight.
+
+   A second day, still more charming, took us through the famous
+   parts of the Rhine, and filled my head with pictures that will
+   last all my life.
+
+   Before we reached Bieberich we stopped at a queer little Dutch
+   town, and had a queer time; for no one spoke English, and we only
+   a little bad French. Passed the night there, and next day reached
+   Schwalbach after many trials and tribulations.
+
+   The place is a narrow valley shut in by high hills, the town
+   being divided into two parts: the lowest is the original
+   town--queer ale-houses, churches, and narrow streets; the upper
+   part, near the springs, is full of fine hotels, pleasure-grounds,
+   and bath-houses.
+
+   We took lodgings with Madame Genth, wife of the Forestmeister
+   (forest master),--two rooms,--and began the water under Dr.
+   Genth's care.
+
+   We walked a little, talked a little, bathed and rode a little,
+   worried a good deal, and I grubbed away at French, with no master
+   and small success.
+
+   _September._--Still at Schwalbach, A. doing her best to get well,
+   and I doing mine to help her. Rather dull days,--bathing,
+   walking, and quiddling about.
+
+   A letter from home on the 20th. All well and happy, thank God. It
+   touched and pleased me very much to see how they missed me,
+   thought of me, and longed to have me back. Every little thing I
+   ever did for them is now so tenderly and gratefully remembered;
+   and my absence seems to have left so large a gap that I begin to
+   realize how much I am to them in spite of all my faults. The
+   letters made me very happy, and everything brightened immensely.
+   A. got stronger, and when G. came on the 28th was able to start
+   off next day on the way to Vevay, where we are to pass some weeks
+   before we are to go to Nice.
+
+   Went to Wiesbaden first, a pleasant, gay place, full of people.
+   Saw the gambling hall and people playing, the fine grounds and
+   drives, and then went on to Frankfort. Here I saw and enjoyed a
+   good deal. The statues of Goethe, Schiller, Faust, Gutenberg, and
+   Schaeffer are in the squares. Goethe's house is a tall, plain
+   building, with each story projecting over the lower, and a Dutch
+   roof; a marble slab over the front door recording the date of
+   Goethe's birth. I took a look at it and wanted to go in, as it
+   was empty, but there was no time. Some Americans said, "Who was
+   Goethe, to fuss about?"
+
+   Frankfort is a pleasant old city on the river, and I'm glad to
+   have been there.
+
+   _October._--On to Heidelberg, a charming old place surrounded by
+   mountains. We went to the Castle and had a fine time roving about
+   the ruins, looking at the view from the great terrace, admiring
+   the quaint stone images of knights, saints, monsters, and angels,
+   and visiting the big tun in the cellar by torchlight.
+
+   The moon rose while we were there and completed the enchantment
+   of the scene.
+
+   The drive home was like looking at a picture-book, for the street
+   was narrow, the carriage high, and we looked in at the windows,
+   seeing pretty scenes. Here, men drinking beer in a Dutch-looking
+   room; there, little children going to bed; a pair of lovers with
+   a pot of flowers between them; an old woman brooding over the
+   fire like a witch; and in one room some one lay dead surrounded
+   by candles.
+
+   From H. we went to Baden-Baden, a very fashionable place. The old
+   château was my delight, and we passed a morning going up and down
+   to visit it. Next to Freiburg, where the Cathedral delighted me
+   extremely, being full of old carved images and grotesque designs;
+   the market-place with the fountains, statues, water running
+   beside the streets, and queer costumes.
+
+   Basle came next, and a firemen's fête made the city very gay. The
+   hotel was on the river, and moonlight made a Venetian scene for
+   me with the lighted bridge, covered with gondola-like boats and
+   music from both shores. I walk while A. rests, and enjoy sights
+   from my window when she is asleep, as I cannot leave her at
+   night.
+
+   On our way to Berne I caught my first glimpse of the Alps,
+   October 8th, mother's birthday. Tall, white, spectral-looking
+   shapes they were, towering above the green hills and valleys that
+   lay between. Clouds half hid them, and the sun glittered on the
+   everlasting snow that lay upon their tops. Sharp, strange
+   outlines against the sky they became as night came on, and in the
+   morning I had a fine view of the Jungfrau, the Blümlis, the
+   Wetterhorn, and Mönch from the terrace at Berne.
+
+   B. was a queer old city, but I saw little of it except the bears
+   and shops. No time.
+
+   Freiburg No. 2 was the most romantic place we have been in. The
+   town is built in a wide crevice or valley between two steep
+   hills, so that suspension bridges are hung from height to height
+   over a winding river and the streets of the town. Watch-towers
+   stand all about on the hills, and give a very romantic air to the
+   place. The hotel overhung the valley, and from our rooms we went
+   out along a balcony to a wide, paved platform with a fountain in
+   the middle, an aviary, and flowers all about. The view down the
+   valley was charming,--the airy bridges, green or rocky slopes,
+   busy squares below, cows and goats feeding on the hills, the
+   towers, the old church, and a lovely blue sky overhead. I longed
+   to sketch it.
+
+   At Lausanne we stopped at the Hotel Gibbon and saw the garden
+   where the great historian wrote his history. The view of the lake
+   was lovely, with rocky mountains opposite, little towns at their
+   feet, vineyards along the hillsides, and pretty boats on the
+   lake, the water of which was the loveliest blue.
+
+   To Vevay at last,--a pleasant hour's sail to a very pleasant
+   place. We took rooms at the Pension Victoria.
+
+   Our landlady was an English woman who had married a French
+   courier. Very kind sort of people: rooms comfortable, meals good,
+   and surroundings agreeable. Our fellow-boarders varied from time
+   to time,--an English doctor and wife, a fine old lady with them
+   who looked like Marie Antoinette; two Scotch ladies named
+   Glennie, very pleasant, well-bred ladies who told me about
+   Beattie who was their grandfather, and Walter Scott whom they
+   knew; Colonel ---- and family, rebels, and very bitter and rude
+   to us. Had queer times with them.
+
+   I did not enjoy the life nor the society after the first novelty
+   wore off, for I missed my freedom and grew very tired of the
+   daily worry which I had to go through with.
+
+   _November._--(Laurie) Took some French lessons with Mademoiselle
+   Germain and learned a little, but found it much harder than I
+   thought, and often got discouraged, I was so stupid. A. got much
+   better, and some new people came. The doctor and his set left,
+   and in their place came a Russian family, an Irish lady and
+   daughter, and a young Pole with whom we struck up a friendship.
+   Ladislas Wisinewski (Laurie) was very gay and agreeable, and
+   being ill and much younger we petted him. He played beautifully,
+   and was very anxious to learn English, so we taught him that and
+   he taught us French.
+
+   On my birthday A. gave me a pretty painting of Chillon. Ladislas
+   promised me the notes of the Polish National Hymn, and played me
+   his sweetest airs as a present after wishing me "All good and
+   happiness on earth, and a high place in Heaven as my reward." It
+   was a mild, windy day, very like me in its fitful changes of
+   sunshine and shade. Usually I am sad on my birthday, but not this
+   time; for though nothing very pleasant happened, I was happy and
+   hopeful and enjoyed everything with unusual relish. I feel rather
+   old with my thirty-three years, but have much to keep me young,
+   and hope I shall not grow older in heart as the time goes on. I
+   thought much of dear father on this his sixty-sixth birthday, and
+   missed the little ceremony that always takes place on these
+   occasions. Hope I shall be safely at home before another November
+   comes.
+
+   _December._--Laurie very interesting and good. Pleasant walks and
+   talks with him in the château garden and about Vevay. A lovely
+   sail on the lake, and much fun giving English and receiving
+   French lessons. Every one very kind, and the house quite
+   home-like. Much indecision about going to Nice owing to the
+   cholera. At last we decided to go, and started on the 6th to meet
+   G. at Geneva. L. went with us to Lausanne, kissed our hands at
+   parting, and went back to V. disconsolate. Sad times for all, but
+   we journeyed away to Nice and tried to forget our troubles. A
+   flat uninteresting country till we approached the sea.
+
+   Nice very pleasant, climate lovely, and sea beautiful. We lived
+   in our own rooms, and saw no one but the doctor and Consul and a
+   few American callers. A pleasant drive every day on the
+   Promenade,--a wide curving wall along the bay with hotels and
+   Pensions on one side and a flowery walk on the other. Gay
+   carriages and people always to be seen; shops full of fine and
+   curious things; picturesque castles, towers, and walls on one
+   hill; a lighthouse on each point of the moon-shaped bay; boats
+   and our fleet on the water; gardens, olive and orange-trees,
+   queer cacti, and palms all about on the land; monks, priests,
+   soldiers, peasants, etc.
+
+   A dull Christmas within doors, though a lovely day without.
+   Windows open, roses blooming, air mild, and city gay. With
+   friends, health, and a little money how jolly one might be in
+   this perpetual summer.
+
+   _January, 1866._--Nice. Rained all New Year's day, and I spent it
+   sewing, writing, and reading an American newspaper which came in
+   the morning, my only present. I hoped for letters but got none,
+   and was much disappointed. A. was ill, so I had to receive in
+   American style. Mr. Perkins, Cooper, and the Consul called. At
+   dinner we drank the healths of all at home, and did not forget
+   Laddie (Laurie).
+
+   A quiet, dull time generally, driving sometimes, walking little,
+   and writing letters. Now and then I got a pleasant walk by myself
+   away among the vineyards and olive-trees or down into the queer
+   old city. I soon tired of the fashionable Promenade, for every
+   one was on exhibition. Sometimes before or after the fashionable
+   hour I walked there and enjoyed the sea and sky.
+
+   A ball was given at our Pension and we went. A queer
+   set,--Russians, Spaniards, French, English, Americans, Italians,
+   Jews, and Sandwich Islanders. They danced wildly, dressed gayly,
+   and sounded as if the "confusion of tongues" was come again. A
+   few pleasant Americans called on us, but we were very lonely and
+   uncomfortable.
+
+   Decided to take an apartment No. 10 Rue Geoffredo, paying six
+   hundred francs for ten weeks, six rooms, all large and handsome.
+   Dr. P. got us a good maid, and on the 17th we went to our new
+   quarters. Madame Rolande was French governess for six years to
+   Victoria's children, and was a funny old party.
+
+   Couldn't sleep at all for some nights, and felt very poorly, for
+   my life didn't suit me and the air was too exciting.
+
+   _February._--Got on excellently with our housekeeping, for Julie
+   proved a treasure and we were very comfortable. Had many lovely
+   drives, and saw something of Nice and its beauties. To Cimies, an
+   old Franciscan monastery near the ruins of a Roman amphitheatre.
+   The convent stands where a temple of Diana once stood, and is
+   surrounded by ancient ilex trees. A monk in his cowl, brown robe,
+   sandals, and rope girdle did the honors of the church, which was
+   dark and full of bad pictures. San Andre with its château and
+   grotto, Villa Franca in a lovely little bay, the wood of Var
+   where the daisies grew, Valrosa, a villa in a rose garden, and
+   the Porte were all interesting. Also Castle Hill, which overlooks
+   the town.
+
+   I decided to go home in May, though A. wants me to stay. I'm
+   tired of it, and as she is not going to travel, my time is too
+   valuable to be wasted.
+
+   The carnival occurred. Funny, but not so fine a sight as I
+   expected. Also went to the theatre to see "Lady Tartuffe." Had a
+   pleasant time, though I couldn't understand much. The acting was
+   so natural and good that I caught the plot, and with a little
+   telling from Hosmer knew what was going on.
+
+   Wrote a little on three stories which would come into my head and
+   worry me till I gave them a "vent."
+
+   Good letters from home. All well and busy, and longing for me in
+   the spring.
+
+   _March._--A tedious month, which might have been quite the
+   reverse had I been free to enjoy it in my own way. Read French,
+   walked to my favorite places, and wrote letters when I found
+   time.
+
+   Went often to Valrosa, a lovely villa buried in roses. Got a
+   wheeled chair and a man to draw it, then with books, lunch, and
+   work, I tempted A. out into the woods, and we had some pleasant
+   hours.
+
+   _April._--Went to the Cathedral to see the Easter ceremonies.
+   Fine music, the Gloria was sung, a Franciscan monk preached, the
+   Bishop blessed every one, and was fussed over like a great doll.
+   A very splendid scene.
+
+   Saw Ristori twice, once in "Medea" and once in "Elizabeth." Never
+   saw such acting; especially in Queen Bess, it was splendid, as
+   she changes from the young, violent, coquettish woman to the
+   peevish old crone dying with her crown on, vain, ambitious, and
+   remorseful.
+
+   _May._--On the first day of the month left A. and Nice and
+   started alone for Paris, feeling as happy as a freed bird.
+
+   A pleasant journey, Laddie waiting for me in Paris to take me to
+   my room at Madame Dyne's. A very charming fortnight here; the
+   days spent in seeing sights with my Laddie, the evenings in
+   reading, writing, hearing "my boy" play, or resting. Saw all that
+   I wished to see in a very pleasant way, and on the 17th
+   reluctantly went to London.
+
+   Passed a fortnight at a lovely old place on Wimbledon Common with
+   the Conways, going to town with them to see the lions, Royal
+   Exhibition, Hampton Court, Kensington and British Museums,
+   Crystal Palace, and many other pleasant places. But none were
+   lovelier to me than the old farm-house with the thatched roof,
+   the common of yellow gorse, larks going up in the morning,
+   nightingales flying at night, hawthorne everywhere, and Richmond
+   Park full of deer close by. Also Robin Hood's barn.
+
+   _June._--Passed the first ten days of the month at Aubrey House
+   with the Peter Taylors. A lovely English home with kind, pure,
+   and friendly people. Saw many interesting persons,--Miss Cobbe,
+   Jean Ingelow, Dr. Garrett, Madame Bodichon, Matilde Blinde, Mill,
+   Bright, Gladstone, Hughes, and the rest at the House of Commons
+   where Mr. T. took me.
+
+   Went to a dinner-party or two, theatres, to hear Dickens read, a
+   concert, _conversazione_ and receptions, seeing English society,
+   or rather one class of it, and liking what I saw.
+
+   On the 11th went to board with Mrs. Travers in Westbourne Grove
+   Terrace. A pleasant little room, plain living, and for society
+   Mrs. T. and daughter, two sisters from Dublin, and ten young
+   men,--barristers, clerks, ministers, and students. A guinea a
+   week.
+
+   Very free and jolly, roaming about London all day, dining late
+   and resting, chatting, music, or fun in the evening.
+
+   Saw the Tower, Windsor, Parks, Gardens, and all manner of haunts
+   of famous men and women,--Milton's house, Johnson's in Bolt
+   Court, Lamb's, Sairy Gamp's, Saracen's Head, the Charter House
+   where Thackeray was when a lad, Furnival's Inn where Dickens
+   wrote Pickwick, Bacon's Walk, and endless memorable sights. St.
+   Paul's I liked better than Notre Dame.
+
+   _July._--At Mrs. Travers's till the 7th. Saw Routledge about
+   "Moods." He took it, would like another book, and was very
+   friendly. Said good-by all round, and at six A.M. on the 7th left
+   for Liverpool with Mr. W., who saw to my luggage and went part
+   way. Reached the "Africa" safely.
+
+   A trip of fourteen stormy, dull, long, sick days, but at last at
+   eleven at night we sailed up the harbor in the moonlight, and I
+   saw dear John waiting for me on the wharf. Slept on board, and
+   next day reached home at noon to find Father at the station, Nan
+   and babies at the gate, May flying wildly round the lawn, and
+   Marmee crying at the door. Into her arms I went, and was at home
+   at last.
+
+   Happy days, talking and enjoying one another. Many people came to
+   see me, and all said I was much improved; of which I was glad, as
+   there was, is, and always will be room for it.
+
+   Found Mother looking old, sick, and tired; Father as placid as
+   ever; Nan poorly, but blest in her babies; May full of plans, as
+   usual; Freddy very stout and loving; and my Jack the dearest,
+   prettiest, merriest baby boy that ever kissed and loved
+   everybody.
+
+   _August._--Soon fell to work on some stories, for things were, as
+   I expected, behindhand when the money-maker was away. Found
+   plenty to do, as orders from E., L., "Independent," "U. S. C. S.
+   Magazine," and several other offers waited for me. Wrote two long
+   tales for L. and got $200 for them. One for E. for which he paid
+   $75, also a bit of poetry for $5. He wanted a long story in
+   twenty-four chapters, and I wrote it in a fortnight,--one hundred
+   and eighty-five pages,--besides work, sewing, nursing, and
+   company.
+
+   Sent S. E. S. the first $100 on my account; could have sent $300,
+   but it was needed, so I gave it up unwillingly, and must work
+   away for the rest. Mother borrowed the money that I might stay
+   longer and see England, as I had missed much while condemned to
+   "hard work and solitary confinement for nine months," as she
+   expressed it.
+
+   _September._--Mother sick, did little with my pen. Got a girl,
+   and devoted myself to Mother, writing after she was abed. In this
+   way finished a long tale. But E. would not have it, saying it was
+   too long and too sensational!
+
+   _November._--Mother slowly mending. A sensible Western woman
+   "rubbed" her, and did her a great deal of good. She left her room
+   and seemed more like herself. I never expect to see the strong,
+   energetic Marmee of old times, but, thank the Lord! she is still
+   here, though pale and weak, quiet and sad; all her fine hair
+   gone, and face full of wrinkles, bowed back, and every sign of
+   age. Life has been so hard for her, and she so brave, so glad to
+   spend herself for others. Now we must live for her.
+
+On Miss Alcott's return from Europe in July, 1866, she devoted herself
+as earnestly as ever to the personal care of her mother and to
+story-writing for the support of the family. She agreed to write a
+fifty-dollar tale once a month, and besides this wrote many short
+stories for other publishers. Her father's return from the West with
+two hundred dollars, earned on his western trip, gave her some relief;
+and she was cheered by hearing that "Moods" was selling well in
+Europe. But she was not well, and she felt anxious and troubled about
+many things. Her journal of these months is very meagre; and January,
+1867, opens with the statement that she is "sick from too hard work."
+Yet the account of stories furnished to publishers continues till
+August, when she went to Clark's Island for a few weeks of recreation.
+Here her spirits returned, and she spent, as she says, "a
+harem-scarem fortnight," which must have given her great refreshment.
+She says: "Got to work again after my long vacation, for bills
+accumulate and worry me. I dread debt more than anything."
+
+In the journal occurs this slight notice of the first step in one of
+the most important achievements of her life, of which I shall speak
+more fully hereafter:--
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _September, 1867._--Niles, partner of Roberts, asked me to write
+   a girls' book. Said I'd try.
+
+   F. asked me to be the editor of "Merry's Museum." Said I'd try.
+
+   Began at once on both new jobs; but didn't like either.
+
+   The Radical Club met at Sargent's. Fine time. Bartol inspired;
+   Emerson chairman; Alcott on his legs; strong-minded ladies out in
+   full force; æsthetic tea for refreshment.
+
+   _October._--Agreed with F. to be editor for $500 a year. Read
+   manuscripts, write one story each month and an editorial. On the
+   strength of this engagement went to Boston, took a room--No. 6
+   Hayward Place--furnished it, and set up housekeeping for myself.
+   Cannot keep well in C., so must try Boston, and not work too
+   hard.
+
+   On the 28th rode to B. on my load of furniture with Fred, feeling
+   as if I was going to camp out in a new country; hoped it would
+   prove a hospitable and healthy land.
+
+This incident appears in "The Old-fashioned Girl" (p. 153), where the
+country girl goes into the city in a farmer's cart, with a squash pie
+in her hand given her at parting by an old friend. Her sister May had
+a drawing class at her room every day, which gave Louisa the pleasure
+of companionship.
+
+Miss Alcott was an enthusiastic admirer of Dickens, and she entered
+into the humor of his homely characters most heartily. She acted "Mrs.
+Jarley displaying her waxwork" nine times this winter, and was always
+successful in giving life and variety to the representation. She was
+constantly called upon to act for charity. She enjoyed the fun, and as
+she could not give money, it satisfied her generous nature to be able
+to help in any way.
+
+She wrote an article for Mr. B., called "Happy Women," in which she
+gratified her love of single life by describing the delightful
+spinsters of her acquaintance. Her sketches are all taken from life,
+and are not too highly colored. The Physician, the Artist, the
+Philanthropist, the Actress, the Lawyer, are easily recognizable. They
+were a "glorious phalanx of old maids," as Theodore Parker called the
+single women of his Society, who aided him so much in his work.
+
+
+_To her Mother._
+
+     JANUARY, 1868.
+
+   Things look promising for the new year. F. $20 for the little
+   tales, and wrote two every month; G. $25 for the "Bells;" L. $100
+   for the two "Proverb" stories. L. takes all I'll send; and F.
+   seems satisfied.
+
+   So my plan will work well, and I shall make my $1,000 this year
+   in spite of sickness and worry. Praise the Lord and keep busy,
+   say I.
+
+   I am pretty well, and keep so busy I haven't time to be sick.
+   Every one is very clever to me; and I often think as I go larking
+   round, independent, with more work than I can do, and
+   half-a-dozen publishers asking for tales, of the old times when I
+   went meekly from door to door peddling my first poor little
+   stories, and feeling so rich with $10.
+
+   It's clear that Minerva Moody is getting on, in spite of many
+   downfalls, and by the time she is a used up old lady of seventy
+   or so she may finish her job, and see her family well off. A
+   little late to enjoy much maybe; but I guess I shall turn in for
+   my last long sleep with more content, in spite of the mortal
+   weariness, than if I had folded my hands and been supported in
+   elegant idleness, or gone to the devil in fits of despair because
+   things moved so slowly.
+
+   Keep all the money I send; pay up every bill; get comforts and
+   enjoy yourselves. Let's be merry while we may, and lay up a bit
+   for a rainy day.
+
+   With which gem from Aristotle, I am, honored Madam, your dutiful
+   and affectionate
+
+     L. M. ALCOTT.
+
+   Regards to Plato. Don't he want new socks? Are his clothes
+   getting shiny?
+
+Although, as I have said, little direct European influence is
+observable in Miss Alcott's writings from her journeys in Europe, yet
+this first visit had a marked effect upon her life and writings. She
+was unfavorably situated to gain the refreshment she sorely needed;
+and yet she did get a great deal from the entire change of
+surroundings, from the larger horizon into which she entered, from her
+rich enjoyment of scenery, and from the variety of companions she
+met. Probably she looked through new spectacles at her own work, as
+she describes herself as looking through those of Professor Bhaer, and
+she saw all the defects of the pot-boiling stories which she had been
+pouring out one after another, without strong purpose, or regard for
+artistic excellence. She had also the chance to look upon her own
+early life and home from a distance; and as she thought of the
+incidents of those years they grouped into more harmonious lines, and
+she saw how much they contained of real life, of true poetry and
+humor, as well as moral significance. So the old idea of "The Pathetic
+Family" took shape anew in her mind.
+
+In July, 1863, the enterprising firm of Roberts Brothers asked her for
+the publication in book form of "Hospital Sketches," which were then
+appearing in the "Commonwealth" newspaper, being struck by their
+intense reality and originality. At the time, as she states in her
+journal, she preferred to allow Mr. Redpath to publish them. Later, in
+September, 1867, Roberts Brothers asked her to write a girls' book for
+them, and in May, 1868, they repeated the request through her father,
+who had brought to them a collection of short stories for publication.
+
+Miss Alcott's fancy had always been for depicting the life of boys
+rather than girls; but she fortunately took the suggestion of the
+publisher, and said, like Col. Miller, "I'll try, sir." The old idea
+of "The Pathetic Family" recurred to her mind; and she set herself to
+describe the early life of her home. The book was finished in July,
+named "Little Women," and sent to the publishers, who promptly
+accepted it, making Miss Alcott an outright offer for the copyright,
+but at the same time advising her not to part with it. It was
+published in October, and the result is well known. She was quite
+unconscious of the unusual merit of the book, thinking, as she says,
+the first chapters dull, and so was quite surprised at her success.
+"It reads better than I expected," she says; and she truly adds, "We
+really lived most of it, and if it succeeds, that will be the reason
+of it."
+
+But that is not the whole secret of its success. Through many trials
+and many failures Louisa had learned her literary art. By her
+experience in melodrama she had proved the emptiness of sensational
+writing, and knew how to present the simple and true,--seemingly
+without art, but really with the nicest art of discrimination and
+emphasis. All her previous training and experience were needed to fit
+her for the production of her masterpiece; for in spite of all the
+good work she did later, this remains her masterpiece, by which she
+will be remembered and loved. Already twenty-one years have passed,
+and another generation has come up since she published this book, yet
+it still commands a steady sale; and the mothers who read it in their
+childhood renew their enjoyment as they watch the faces of their
+little girls brighten with smiles over the theatricals in the barn, or
+moisten with tears at the death of the beloved sister. One of the
+greatest charms of the book is its perfect truth to New England life.
+But it is not merely local; it touches the universal heart deeply.
+
+The excitement of the children was intense; they claimed the author as
+their own property, and felt as if she were interpreting their very
+lives and thoughts. The second series was anticipated with the
+eagerness of a bulletin from the war and the stock market. But unlike
+Miss Alcott herself, the children took especial interest in the
+love-story, and when poor Laurie was so obstinately refused by Jo,
+"they wept aloud, and refused to be comforted," and in some instances
+were actually made ill by grief and excitement.
+
+Miss Alcott had now secured publishers in whom she placed perfect
+confidence, and who henceforth relieved her of the worry of business
+matters, dealing directly and fairly by her, and consulting her
+interests as well as their own. This is abundantly shown by her
+private journals and letters.
+
+The success of "Little Women" was so well assured that Miss Alcott at
+once set about preparing the second part, which was eagerly demanded
+by the little women outside, who wanted all the girls to marry, and
+rather troubled her by wishing to settle matters their own way. She
+finished writing the sequel, which had been rapid work, Jan. 1, 1869.
+
+The success of "Little Women" was not confined to this country. The
+book was translated into French, German, and Dutch, and has become
+familiarly known in England and on the Continent. In Holland the first
+series was published under the title "Under the Mother's Wings," and
+the second part as "On Their Own Wings;" and these two books with
+"Work" established her fame among the children, who still continue to
+read her stories with fresh delight.
+
+It is hardly necessary to analyze or criticise this happy production.
+It is a realistic transcript of life, but idealized by the tenderness
+of real feeling. It teaches the lessons of every-day conduct and
+inculcates the simplest virtues of truth, earnest effort, and loving
+affection. There is abundant humor, but no caricature, and tender,
+deep feeling without sentimentality.
+
+Miss Alcott herself did not wish her representative, Jo, to marry; but
+the demand of the publisher and the public was so imperative that she
+created her German professor, of whom no prototype existed. While some
+of her romantic young readers were not satisfied at Jo's preferring
+him to the charming Laurie, he is certainly a genuine, warm-hearted
+man, who would probably have held her affections by his strong moral
+and intellectual traits. That he became a very living personality to
+the author is evident from his reappearance in "Jo's Boys," where he
+has the same strong, cheery influence in the school and home that she
+found from him in her girlhood. The style of the book is thoroughly
+easy and colloquial; and the girls talk and act like girls, and not
+like prim little women. The influence of the book has been wide and
+deep, and has helped to make a whole generation of girls feel a deeper
+sense of family love and the blessings to be gained from lives of
+earnest effort, mutual sacrifice, and high aims.
+
+Much interest has been expressed in regard to the originals of the
+characters in "Little Women." This is the author's own statement:--
+
+   Facts in the stories that are true, though often changed as to
+   time and place:--
+
+   "Little Women"--The early plays and experiences; Beth's death;
+   Jo's literary and Amy's artistic experiences; Meg's happy home;
+   John Brooke and his death; Demi's character. Mr. March did not go
+   to the war, but Jo did. Mrs. March is all true, only not half
+   good enough. Laurie is not an American boy, though every lad I
+   ever knew claims the character. He was a Polish boy, met abroad
+   in 1865. Mr. Lawrence is my grandfather, Colonel Joseph May. Aunt
+   March is no one.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _January, 1868. Gamp's Garret, Hayward Place, Boston._--The year
+   begins well and cheerfully for us all. Father and Mother
+   comfortable at home; Anna and family settled in Chelsea; May busy
+   with her drawing classes, of which she has five or six, and the
+   prospect of earning $150 a quarter; also she is well and in good
+   spirits.
+
+   I am in my little room, spending busy, happy days, because I have
+   quiet, freedom, work enough, and strength to do it. F. pays me
+   $500 a year for my name and some editorial work on Merry's
+   Museum; "The Youth's Companion" pays $20 for two short tales each
+   month; L. $50 and $100 for all I will send him; and others take
+   anything I have. My way seems clear for the year if I can only
+   keep well. I want to realize my dream of supporting the family
+   and being perfectly independent. Heavenly hope!
+
+   I have written twenty-five stories the past year, besides the
+   fairy book containing twelve. Have earned $1,000, paid my own
+   way, sent home some, paid up debts, and helped May.
+
+   For many years we have not been so comfortable: May and I both
+   earning, Annie with her good John to lean on, and the old people
+   in a cosey home of our own.
+
+   After last winter's hard experience, we cannot be too grateful.
+
+   To-day my first hyacinth bloomed, white and sweet,--a good
+   omen,--a little flag of truce, perhaps, from the enemies whom we
+   have been fighting all these years. Perhaps we are to win after
+   all, and conquer poverty, neglect, pain, and debt, and march on
+   with flags flying into the new world with the new year.
+
+   _Thursday, 7th._--A queer day. Up early, and had my bread and
+   milk and baked apples. Fed my doves. Made May a bonnet, and cut
+   out a flannel wrapper for Marmee, who feels the cold in the
+   Concord snowbanks. Did my editorial work in the P.M., and fixed
+   my dresses for the plays. L. sent $50, and F. $40, for tales. A.
+   and boys came.
+
+   To Dorchester in evening, and acted Mrs. Pontifex, in "Naval
+   Engagements," to a good house. A gay time, had flowers, etc.
+   Talked half the night with H. A. about the fast ways of young
+   people nowadays, and gave the child much older-sisterly advice,
+   as no one seems to see how much she needs help at this time of
+   her young life.
+
+   Dreamed that I was an opera dancer, and waked up prancing.
+
+   _Wednesday, 15th._--Wrote all day. Did two short tales for F. In
+   the evening with A. M. to hear Fanny Kemble read "The Merchant of
+   Venice." She was a whole stock company in herself. Looked younger
+   and handsomer than ever before, and happy, as she is to be with
+   her daughters now. We went to supper afterwards at Mrs.
+   Parkman's, and saw the lioness feed. It was a study to watch her
+   face, so full of varying expression was it,--always strong,
+   always sweet, then proud and fierce as she sniffed at nobodies
+   who passed about her. Being one, I kept away, and enjoyed the
+   great creature afar off, wondering how a short, stout, red woman
+   _could_ look so like a queen in her purple velvet and point lace.
+
+   Slipped behind a door, but Dr. Holmes found me out, and affably
+   asked, "How many of you children are there?" As I was looking
+   down on the top of his illustrious head, the question was funny.
+   But I answered the little man with deep respect, "Four, sir." He
+   seemed to catch my naughty thought, and asked, with a twinkle in
+   his eye, looking up as if I were a steeple, "And all as tall as
+   you?" Ha! ha!
+
+   _18th._--Played again at D., and had a jolly time. Home early,
+   and putting off my fine feathers, fell to work on my stories. F.
+   seems to expect me to write the whole magazine, which I did not
+   bargain for.
+
+   To Nan's in p. m., to take care of her while the Papa and Freddie
+   went to C. The dear little man, so happy and important with his
+   bit of a bag, six pennies, and a cake for refreshment during the
+   long journey of an hour.
+
+   We brooded over Johnny as if he were a heavenly sort of fire to
+   warm and comfort us with his sunny little face and loving ways.
+   She is a happy woman! I sell _my_ children; and though they feed
+   me, they don't love me as hers do.
+
+   Little Tranquillity played alone all day, and made a pretty
+   picture sitting in "marmar's" lap in his night-gown, talking
+   through the trumpet to her. She never heard his sweet little
+   voice in any other way. Poor Nan!
+
+   _Wednesday, 22d._--To the Club with Father. A good paper on the
+   "Historical View of Jesus." Father spoke finely. It amuses me to
+   see how people listen and applaud _now_ what was hooted at twenty
+   years ago.
+
+   The talk lasted until two, and then the hungry philosophers
+   remembered they had bodies and rushed away, still talking.
+
+   [Hard to feed.--L. M. A.]
+
+   Got a snow-slide on my bonnet, so made another in the P.M., and
+   in the evening to the Antislavery Festival. All the old faces and
+   many new ones. Glad I have lived in the time of this great
+   movement, and known its heroes so well. War times suit me, as I
+   am a fighting _May_.
+
+   _24th._--My second hyacinth bloomed pale blue, like a timid hope,
+   and I took the omen for a good one, as I _am_ getting on, and
+   have more than I can do of the work that I once went begging for.
+   Enjoyed the little spring my little flower made for me, and
+   Buzzy, my pet fly, moved into the sweet mansion from his hanging
+   garden in the ivy pot.
+
+   Acted in Cambridge, Lucretia Buzzard and Mrs. Jarley.
+
+   _Sunday, 31st._--Last day of the month, but I'm not satisfied
+   with my four weeks' work. Acting for charity upsets my work. The
+   change is good for me, and so I do it, and because I have no
+   money to give.
+
+   Four tales this month. Received $70; sent $30 home. No debts.
+
+   _February 1st._--Arranged "Hospital Sketches and War Stories" for
+   a book. By taking out all Biblical allusions, and softening all
+   allusions to rebs., the book may be made "quite perfect," I am
+   told. Anything to suit customers.
+
+   _Friday, 14th._--My third hyacinth bloomed this A.M., a lovely
+   pink. So I found things snug, and had a busy day chasing----who
+   dodged. Then I wrote my tales. Made some shirts for my boys, and
+   went out to buy a squash pie for my lonely supper. It snowed; was
+   very cold. No one paid, and I wanted to send some money home.
+   Felt cross and tired as I trudged back at dusk. My pie turned a
+   somersault, a boy laughed, so did I, and felt better. On my
+   doorstep I found a gentleman who asked if Miss A. lived here. I
+   took him up my winding stair and found him a very delightful fly,
+   for he handed me a letter out of which fell a $100 bill. With
+   this bait Mr. B. lured me to write "one column of Advice to Young
+   Women," as Mrs. Shaw and others were doing. If he had asked me
+   for a Greek oration I would have said "yes." So I gave a receipt,
+   and the very elegant agent bowed himself away, leaving my
+   "'umble" bower full of perfume, and my soul of peace.
+
+   Thriftily taking advantage of the enthusiastic moment, I planned
+   my article while I ate my dilapidated pie, and then proceeded to
+   write it with the bill before me. It was about old maids. "Happy
+   Women" was the title, and I put in my list all the busy, useful,
+   independent spinsters I know, for liberty is a better husband
+   than love to many of us. This was a nice little episode in my
+   trials of an authoress, so I record it.
+
+   So the pink hyacinth was a true prophet, and I went to bed a
+   happy millionaire, to dream of flannel petticoats for my blessed
+   Mother, paper for Father, a new dress for May, and sleds for my
+   boys.
+
+   _Monday, 17th._--Father came full of plans about his book. Went
+   with him to the Club. P. read a paper, and the Rabbi Nathan
+   talked. A curious jumble of fools and philosophers. The Club
+   should be kept more select, and not be run by one person.
+
+   _Tuesday, 25th._--Note from Lady Amberly as I sat sewing on my
+   ninepenny dress. She wanted to come and see me, and I told her to
+   do so, and I'd show her how I lived in my sky-parlor,--spinning
+   yarns like a spider. Met her at the Club, and liked her, so
+   simple and natural.
+
+   Acted for Mr. Clarke's Church Fair in the evening. Did Mrs.
+   Jarley three times. Very hoarse with a cold, but kept my promise.
+
+   "Proverb Stories" suggested, and "Kitty's Class-Day" written.
+
+   _Friday, 28th._--Packed for home, as I am needed there, and acted
+   Jarley for the third evening. Have done it nine times this week,
+   and my voice is gone.
+
+   I am sorry to leave my quiet room, for I've enjoyed it very much.
+
+   Written eight long tales, ten short ones, read stacks of
+   manuscripts, and done editorial work. Acted for charity twelve
+   times.
+
+   Not a bad two months' work. I can imagine an easier life, but
+   with love, health, and work I can be happy; for these three help
+   one to do, to be, and to endure all things.
+
+   _March, April, and May._--Had the pleasure of providing Marmee
+   with many comforts, and keeping the hounds of care and debt from
+   worrying her. She sits at rest in her sunny room, and that is
+   better than any amount of fame to me.
+
+   _May, 1868._--Father saw Mr. Niles about a fairy book. Mr. N.
+   wants a _girls' story_, and I begin "Little Women." Marmee, Anna,
+   and May all approve my plan. So I plod away, though I don't enjoy
+   this sort of thing. Never liked girls or knew many, except my
+   sisters; but our queer plays and experiences may prove
+   interesting, though I doubt it.
+
+   [Good joke.--L. M. A.]
+
+   _June._--Sent twelve chapters of "L. W." to Mr. N. He thought it
+   _dull_; so do I. But work away and mean to try the experiment;
+   for lively, simple books are very much needed for girls, and
+   perhaps I can supply the need.
+
+   Wrote two tales for Ford, and one for F. L. clamors for more, but
+   must wait.
+
+   _July 15th._--Have finished "Little Women," and sent it off,--402
+   pages. May is designing some pictures for it. Hope it will go,
+   for I shall probably get nothing for "Morning Glories."
+
+   Very tired, head full of pain from overwork, and heart heavy
+   about Marmee, who is growing feeble.
+
+   [Too much work for one young woman. No wonder she broke down.
+   1876.--L. M. A.]
+
+   _August._--Roberts Bros. made an offer for the story, but at the
+   same time advised me to keep the copyright; so I shall.
+
+   [An honest publisher and a lucky author, for the copyright made
+   her fortune, and the "dull book" was the first golden egg of the
+   ugly duckling. 1885.--L. M. A.]
+
+   _August 26th._--Proof of whole book came. It reads better than I
+   expected. Not a bit sensational, but simple and true, for we
+   really lived most of it; and if it succeeds that will be the
+   reason of it. Mr. N. likes it better now, and says some girls who
+   have read the manuscripts say it is "splendid!" As it is for
+   them, they are the best critics, so I should be satisfied.
+
+   _September._--Father's book ["Tablets"] came out. Very simple
+   outside, wise and beautiful within. Hope it will bring him praise
+   and profit, for he has waited long.
+
+   No girl, Mother poorly, May busy with pupils, Nan with her boys,
+   and much work to be done. We don't like the kitchen department,
+   and our tastes and gifts lie in other directions, so it is hard
+   to make the various Pegasuses pull the plan steadily.
+
+   _October 8th._--Marmee's birthday; sixty-eight. After breakfast
+   she found her gifts on a table in the study. Father escorted her
+   to the big red chair, the boys prancing before blowing their
+   trumpets, while we "girls" marched behind, glad to see the dear
+   old Mother better and able to enjoy our little fête. The boys
+   proudly handed her the little parcels, and she laughed and cried
+   over our gifts and verses.
+
+   I feel as if the decline had begun for her; and each year will
+   add to the change which is going on, as time alters the
+   energetic, enthusiastic home-mother into a gentle, feeble old
+   woman, to be cherished and helped tenderly down the long hill she
+   has climbed so bravely with her many burdens.
+
+   _October 26th._--Came to Boston, and took a quiet room in
+   Brookline Street. Heard Emerson in the evening. Sent a report of
+   it to A. P. for the "Standard" at his desire.
+
+   Anna is nicely settled in her new house, and Marmee is with her.
+   Helped put down carpets and settle things.
+
+   _30th._--Saw Mr. N. of Roberts Brothers, and he gave me good news
+   of the book. An order from London for an edition came in. First
+   edition gone and more called for. Expects to sell three or four
+   thousand before the New Year.
+
+   Mr. N. wants a second volume for spring. Pleasant notices and
+   letters arrive, and much interest in my little women, who seem to
+   find friends by their truth to life, as I hoped.
+
+   _November 1st._--Began the second part of "Little Women." I can
+   do a chapter a day, and in a month I mean to be done. A little
+   success is so inspiring that I now find my "Marches" sober, nice
+   people, and as I can launch into the future, my fancy has more
+   play. Girls write to ask who the little women marry, as if that
+   was the only end and aim of a woman's life. I _won't_ marry Jo to
+   Laurie to please any one.
+
+   _Monday, 16th._--To the Club for a change, as I have written like
+   a steam engine since the 1st. Weiss read a fine paper on "Woman
+   Suffrage." Good talk afterward. Lunched with Kate Field, Celia
+   Thaxter, and Mr. Linton. Woman's Club in P.M.
+
+   _17th._--Finished my thirteenth chapter. I am so full of my work,
+   I can't stop to eat or sleep, or for anything but a daily run.
+
+   _29th._--My birthday; thirty-six. Spent alone, writing hard. No
+   presents but Father's "Tablets."
+
+   I never seem to have many presents, as some do, though I give a
+   good many. That is best perhaps, and makes a gift very precious
+   when it does come.
+
+   _December._--Home to shut up the house, as Father goes West and
+   Mother to Anna's. A cold, hard, dirty time; but was so glad to be
+   off out of C. that I worked like a beaver, and turned the key on
+   Apple Slump with joy.
+
+   May and I went to the new Bellevue Hotel in Beacon Street. She
+   doesn't enjoy quiet corners as I do, so we took a sky-parlor, and
+   had a queer time whisking up and down in the elevator, eating in
+   a marble café, and sleeping on a sofa bed, that we might be
+   genteel. It did not suit me at all. A great gale nearly blew the
+   roof off. Steam pipes exploded, and we were hungry. I was very
+   tired with my hard summer, with no rest for the brains that earn
+   the money.
+
+   _January, 1869._--Left our lofty room at Bellevue and went to
+   Chauncey Street. Sent the sequel of "L. W." to Roberts on New
+   Year's Day. Hope it will do as well as the first, which is
+   selling finely, and receives good notices. F. and F. both want me
+   to continue working for them, and I shall do so if I am able; but
+   my head-aches, cough, and weariness keep me from working as I
+   once could, fourteen hours a day.
+
+   In March we went home, as Mother was restless at Nan's, and
+   Father wanted his library. Cold and dull; not able to write; so
+   took care of Marmee and tried to rest.
+
+   Paid up all the debts, thank the Lord!--every penny that money
+   can pay,--and now I feel as if I could die in peace. My dream is
+   beginning to come true; and if my head holds out I'll do all I
+   once hoped to do.
+
+   _April._--Very poorly. Feel quite used up. Don't care much for
+   myself, as rest is heavenly even with pain; but the family seem
+   so panic-stricken and helpless when I break down, that I try to
+   keep the mill going. Two short tales for L., $50; two for Ford,
+   $20; and did my editorial work, though two months are unpaid for.
+   Roberts wants a new book, but am afraid to get into a vortex lest
+   I fall ill.
+
+
+_To her Publishers._
+
+      BOSTON, Dec. 28, 1869.
+
+   Many thanks for the check which made my Christmas an unusually
+   merry one.
+
+   After toiling so many years along the uphill road,--always a
+   hard one to women writers,--it is peculiarly grateful to me to
+   find the way growing easier at last, with pleasant little
+   surprises blossoming on either side, and the rough places made
+   smooth by the courtesy and kindness of those who have proved
+   themselves friends as well as publishers.
+
+   With best wishes for the coming year,
+
+     I am yours truly,
+     L. M. ALCOTT.
+
+     AUGUST, 1871.
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--Many thanks for the fortune and the kind note
+   accompanying it. Please hand the money to S. E. S., and he will
+   put it somewhere for me....
+
+   You are very kind to find a minute out of your hurried day to
+   attend to this affair.... I'm not sure but I shall try Dr. B. if
+   my present and ninth doctor fails to cure my aching bones. I
+   haven't a bit of faith in any of them; but my friends won't let
+   me gently slip away where bones cease from troubling, so I must
+   keep trying.
+
+     Very gratefully your friend,
+     L. M. A.
+
+Written in 1871, just after the publication of "Little Men":--
+
+      AUGUST 5TH.
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--Thanks for the parcel and notes.
+
+   ... The letters were very gushing from Nellie and Dollie and
+   Sallie Somebody asking for pictures, autographs, family history,
+   and several new books right away.
+
+   I must give Dr. R. a fair trial, and if he fails I'll try Dr. B.,
+   just to make up the number of doctors to a round ten.
+
+   "Happy Thoughts" is very funny, especially the trip to Antwerp.
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+EUROPE.
+
+     THE LAY OF A GOLDEN GOOSE.
+
+     Long ago in a poultry yard
+       One dull November morn,
+     Beneath a motherly soft wing
+       A little goose was born.
+
+     Who straightway peeped out of the shell
+       To view the world beyond,
+     Longing at once to sally forth
+       And paddle in the pond.
+
+     "Oh! be not rash," her father said,
+       A mild Socratic bird;
+     Her mother begged her not to stray
+       With many a warning word.
+
+     But little goosey was perverse,
+       And eagerly did cry,
+     "I've got a lovely pair of wings,
+       Of course I ought to fly."
+
+     In vain parental cacklings,
+       In vain the cold sky's frown,
+     Ambitious goosey tried to soar,
+       But always tumbled down.
+
+     The farm-yard jeered at her attempts,
+       The peacocks screamed, "Oh fie!
+     You're only a domestic goose,
+       So don't pretend to fly."
+
+     Great cock-a-doodle from his perch
+       Crowed daily loud and clear,
+     "Stay in the puddle, foolish bird,
+       That is your proper sphere."
+
+     The ducks and hens said, one and all,
+       In gossip by the pool,
+     "Our children never play such pranks;
+       My dear, that fowl's a fool."
+
+     The owls came out and flew about,
+       Hooting above the rest,
+     "No useful egg was ever hatched
+       From transcendental nest."
+
+     Good little goslings at their play
+       And well-conducted chicks
+     Were taught to think poor goosey's flights
+       Were naughty, ill-bred tricks.
+
+     _They_ were content to swim and scratch,
+       And not at all inclined
+     For any wild-goose chase in search
+       Of something undefined.
+
+     Hard times she had as one may guess,
+       That young aspiring bird,
+     Who still from every fall arose
+       Saddened but undeterred.
+
+     She knew she was no nightingale,
+       Yet spite of much abuse,
+     She longed to help and cheer the world,
+       Although a plain gray goose.
+
+     She could not sing, she could not fly,
+       Nor even walk with grace,
+     And all the farm-yard had declared
+       A puddle was her place.
+
+     But something stronger than herself
+       Would cry, "Go on, go on!
+     Remember, though an humble fowl,
+       You're cousin to a swan."
+
+     So up and down poor goosey went,
+       A busy, hopeful bird.
+     Searched many wide unfruitful fields,
+       And many waters stirred.
+
+     At length she came unto a stream
+       Most fertile of all _Niles_,
+     Where tuneful birds might soar and sing
+       Among the leafy isles.
+
+     Here did she build a little nest
+       Beside the waters still,
+     Where the parental goose could rest
+       Unvexed by any _bill_.
+
+     And here she paused to smooth her plumes,
+       Ruffled by many plagues;
+     When suddenly arose the cry,
+       "This goose lays golden eggs."
+
+     At once the farm-yard was agog;
+       The ducks began to quack;
+     Prim Guinea fowls relenting called,
+       "Come back, come back, come back."
+
+     Great chanticleer was pleased to give
+       A patronizing crow,
+     And the contemptuous biddies clucked,
+       "I wish my chicks did so."
+
+     The peacocks spread their shining tails,
+       And cried in accents soft,
+     "We want to know you, gifted one,
+       Come up and sit aloft."
+
+     Wise owls awoke and gravely said,
+       With proudly swelling breasts,
+     "Rare birds have always been evoked
+       From transcendental nests!"
+
+     News-hunting turkeys from afar
+       Now ran with all thin legs
+     To gobble facts and fictions of
+       The goose with golden eggs.
+
+     But best of all the little fowls
+       Still playing on the shore,
+     Soft downy chicks and goslings gay,
+       Chirped out, "Dear Goose, lay more."
+
+     But goosey all these weary years
+       Had toiled like any ant,
+     And wearied out she now replied,
+       "My little dears, I can't.
+
+     "When I was starving, half this corn
+       Had been of vital use,
+     Now I am surfeited with food
+       Like any Strasbourg goose."
+
+     So to escape too many friends,
+       Without uncivil strife,
+     She ran to the Atlantic pond
+       And paddled for her life.
+
+     Soon up among the grand old Alps
+       She found two blessed things,
+     The health she had so nearly lost,
+       And rest for weary limbs.
+
+     But still across the briny deep
+       Couched in most friendly words,
+     Came prayers for letters, tales, or verse,
+       From literary birds.
+
+     Whereat the renovated fowl
+       With grateful thanks profuse,
+     Took from her wing a quill and wrote
+       This lay of a Golden Goose.
+
+     BEX, SWITZERLAND, August, 1870.
+
+
+The year 1869 was less fruitful in work than the preceding one. Miss
+Alcott spent the winter in Boston and the summer in Concord. She was
+ill and very tired, and felt little inclined for mental effort.
+"Hospital Sketches," which had been first published by Redpath, was
+now republished by Roberts Brothers, with the addition of six shorter
+"Camp and Fireside Stories." The interest of the public in either the
+author or the work had not lessened; for two thousand copies of the
+book in its new form were sold the first week. In her weary condition
+she finds her celebrity rather a burden than a pleasure, and says in
+her journal:--
+
+   People begin to come and stare at the Alcotts. Reporters haunt
+   the place to look at the authoress, who dodges into the woods _à
+   la_ Hawthorne, and won't be even a very small lion.
+
+   Refreshed my soul with Goethe, ever strong and fine and alive.
+   Gave S. E. S. $200 to invest. What richness to have a little not
+   needed!
+
+Miss Alcott had some pleasant refreshment in travelling during the
+summer.
+
+   _July._-- ... Spent in Canada with my cousins, the Frothinghams,
+   at their house at Rivière du Loup,--a little village on the St.
+   Lawrence, full of queer people. Drove, read, and walked with the
+   little ones. A pleasant, quiet time.
+
+   _August._-- ... A month with May at Mt. Desert. A gay time, and a
+   little rest and pleasure before the old pain and worry began
+   again.
+
+   Made up $1,000 for S. E. S. to invest. Now I have $1,200 for a
+   rainy day, and no debts. With that thought I can bear neuralgia
+   gayly.
+
+In the autumn the whole family went to Boston, the father and mother
+staying with Mrs. Pratt; while Louisa and her sister May, "the
+workers," occupied rooms in Pinckney Street. Not being well enough to
+do much new work, Louisa began using up her old stories, and found
+that the little women "helped their rejected sisters to good places
+where once they went a-begging." In January, 1870, she suffered from
+loss of voice, for which she tried "heroic treatment" under a
+distinguished physician. She got well enough to write a little, and in
+February wrote the conclusion to "The Old-fashioned Girl," which was
+published in March. She says:--
+
+   I wrote it with left hand in a sling, one foot up, head aching,
+   and no voice. Yet, as the book is funny, people will say, "Didn't
+   you enjoy doing it?" I often think of poor Tom Hood as I
+   scribble, rather than lie and groan. I certainly earn my living
+   by the sweat of my brow.
+
+The book does not reveal this condition; for nothing could be fresher,
+brighter, and more wholesome than the heroine Polly, many of whose
+adventures are drawn from the author's own experience. She steps out
+of her usual surroundings into the fashionable life of the city, but
+betrays her own want of sympathy with it. The book has always been
+very popular.
+
+In 1870, the success of "Hospital Sketches" and the continued receipts
+from "Little Women" put their author in a pecuniary position which
+enabled her to go abroad for the rest and refreshment which she sorely
+needed. The younger sister was invited to go by her friend A. B. on
+condition that Louisa would accompany them. This journey was very free
+and independent. She has given an account--somewhat travestied
+certainly, but very true to the general facts--in "Shawl Straps,"
+although the reader would hardly suppose the old lady described in
+that book had not yet reached her fortieth year. These sketches were
+arranged after her return, at the request of Mrs. Stowe, for the
+"Christian Union," and were published in a book forming one volume of
+"Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag" in 1872.
+
+Fortunately we have many of Louisa's original letters preserved in her
+father's copies, which have escaped the destruction of her
+correspondence. With some extracts from her journals, they give a
+sufficient account of this journey. In many respects the contrast to
+her former visit to Europe is most pleasant. She has now become
+pecuniarily independent by her own exertions, and has a popular
+reputation which brings her welcome and recognition wherever she goes.
+But she has paid a heavy price for these gains. Her health has become
+seriously shattered. The long application to writing, sometimes even
+for fourteen hours a day,--a pressure of excitement which kept her
+from eating and sleeping,--added to sorrow and anxiety, have told upon
+her nerves and strength, and she is often unfitted to enjoy the
+pleasures which are open to her. Yet her journal and letters are as
+full of wit and humor as ever; and she laid up stores of pleasant
+memories which lasted her through life. Readers of "Shawl Straps" will
+recognize the originals of those bright sketches in the series of
+letters from Dinan.
+
+
+_Second Trip to Europe._
+
+   _April._--... On the first day of the month (fit day for _my_
+   undertaking I thought) May and I went to N. Y. to meet A. B.,
+   with John for escort. Every one very kind. Thirty gifts, a
+   parting ball among our house-mates, and a great cake.
+   Half-a-dozen devoted beings at the station to see us off. But I
+   remember only Father and Mother as they went away the day before,
+   leaving the two ambitious daughters to sail away, perhaps
+   forever.
+
+   Marmee kept up bravely, and nodded and smiled; but at the corner
+   I saw the white handkerchief go up to the eyes, after being
+   gayly waved to us. May and I broke down, and said, "We won't go;"
+   but next day we set forth, as young birds will, and left the nest
+   empty for a year.
+
+   Sailed on the 2d in a gale of wind in the French steamer
+   "Lafayette" for Brest. Our adventures are told in "Shawl Straps."
+
+   "O. F. G." came out in March, and sold well. Train-boy going to
+   N. Y. put it into my lap; and when I said I didn't care for it,
+   exclaimed with surprise,--
+
+   "Bully book, ma'am! Sell a lot; better have it."
+
+   John told him I wrote it; and his chuckle, stare, and astonished
+   "No!" was great fun. On the steamer little girls had it, and came
+   in a party to call on me, very sea-sick in my berth, done up like
+   a mummy.
+
+   Spent some charming weeks in Brittany.
+
+   _June and July._--"O. F. G." was published in London by Sampson
+   Low & Co. We left Dinan on the 15th, and had a lovely trip
+   through France to Vevay and Bex.
+
+   Talk of war between France and Prussia.
+
+   Much excitement at Vevay. Refugees from Lyons come in. Isabella
+   and Don Carlos were there, with queer followers.
+
+   _September._--... On the 3d came news of the Emperor's surrender.
+   Great wailing among the French here. All well at home. Books
+   going finely; no debts.
+
+   We decide to go to Rome for the winter, as May pines for the
+   artist's Paradise; and war will not trouble us I hope.
+
+     SHIP "LAFAYETTE," April 9, 1870.
+
+   DEAREST MARMEE,--To-morrow we come to our long journey's end
+   [Brest, France], thank the Lord. It has been a good one on the
+   whole, and I have got along as well as I expected. But it is
+   tiresome to be day after day doing nothing; for my head will not
+   let me read. May has done well, and has been very kind to me and
+   good, and is the life of the table, I guess. I never go up to
+   meals, for Marie takes such good care of me; I lie and peck all
+   sorts of funny messes, and receive calls in my den. People seem
+   to think we are "guns," and want to know us; but as they are not
+   interesting, we are on the reserve, and it has a fine effect.
+   About three thousand miles away does not seem possible in so
+   little while. How do you all get along,--Marmee, Father, the
+   laddies, my lass, and dear old John? He was so good and kind all
+   the way I had no care or worry, but just lopped round and let him
+   do all the work. Bless the dear!
+
+   I shall despatch a good long letter as soon as we arrive and have
+   something to tell. We send this to ease your mind. Letters here
+   are not prepaid, so pay for mine out of my money. Don't forget to
+   tell the post-master in Boston about my letters.
+
+   Bless you all, says your
+
+     LU.
+
+     MORLAIX, April 14, 1870.
+
+   DEAREST MARMEE,--Having got our "poise" a bit by a day and night
+   on land, I begin at once to scribble to you, as I mean to keep a
+   letter on hand all the time, and send them off as fast as they
+   are done. We had a twelve days' passage, owing to a double screw
+   which they were trying and which delayed us, though it is safer
+   than one. The weather was cold and rainy, and the sea rough, so I
+   only went up once or twice, and kept warm in my den most of the
+   time. After the first two days I didn't feel sick, except my head
+   as usual. I slept, ate, ruminated, and counted the hours. May
+   poked about more, and was liked by all.
+
+   We got to Brest about noon Wednesday. A. and I got our trunks
+   through the custom-house, and after some squabbling with the men,
+   got all aboard for Morlaix, which is a curious old place worth
+   seeing. It was a lovely day, warm as our June, and we had a
+   charming trip of three hours through a country already green and
+   flowery. We reached our hotel all right, and after a nice dinner
+   had baths and went to bed. May's room being some way from mine,
+   she came and bunked in with me in my little bed, and we slept.
+
+   To-day is lovely, warm, and I am sitting at an open window
+   looking at the square, enjoying the queer sights and sounds; for
+   the air resounds with the rattle of wooden shoes on the stones.
+
+   Market-women sit all about selling queer things, among which are
+   snails; they buy them by the pint, pick them out with a pin like
+   nuts, and seem to relish them mightily. We went out this A.M.
+   after breakfast, and took a stroll about the queer old town. May
+   was in heaven, and kept having raptures over the gables, the
+   turrets with storks on them, the fountains, people, and churches.
+   She is now sketching the tower of St. Melanie, with a crowd of
+   small boys round her enjoying the sight and criticising the work.
+   It don't seem very new to me, but I enjoy it, and feel pretty
+   well. We are to study French every day when we settle, and I am
+   to do the mending, etc., for A., who is to talk for us, and make
+   our bargains. So far we go well together.
+
+   To-morrow we go on to Lamballe, where we take the diligence to
+   Dinan, fourteen miles farther, and there settle for some weeks. I
+   wish the boys could see the funny children here in little wooden
+   shoes like boats, the girls in blue cloth caps, aprons, and
+   shawls, just like the women, and the boys in funny hats and
+   sheepskin jackets. Now I must go and get May, who can't speak a
+   word of French, and has a panic if any one speaks to her. The
+   beggars afflict her, and she wants to give them money on all
+   occasions. This P.M. we go for a drive to see all there is, as
+   neither A. nor I are good walkers; "adoo" till by and by. I wish
+   I could send you this balmy day.
+
+     DINAN, Sunday, April 17, 1870.
+
+   Here we are, all settled at our first neat stopping-place, and
+   are in clover, as you will see when I tell you how plummy and
+   lovely it is. We left Morlaix Friday at 8 A.M., and were so
+   amazed at the small bill presented us that we couldn't praise the
+   town enough. You can judge of the cheapness of things, when I say
+   that my share of the expenses from Brest here, including two days
+   at a hotel, car, 'bus, and diligence fare, fees, and everything,
+   was $8. The day was divine, and we had a fine little journey to
+   Lamballe, where the fun began; for instead of a big diligence, we
+   found only a queer ramshackle thing like an insane carryall, with
+   a wooden boot and queer porch for the driver.
+
+   Our four trunks were piled up behind and tied on with old ropes,
+   our bags stowed in a wooden box on top, and ourselves inside with
+   a fat Frenchman. The humpbacked driver "ya hooped" to the horses,
+   and away we clattered at a wild pace, all feeling dead sure that
+   something would happen, for the old thing bounded and swayed
+   awfully, the trunks were in danger of tumbling off, and to our
+   dismay we soon discovered that the big Frenchman was tipsy. He
+   gabbled to A. as only a tipsy person could, quoted poetry; said
+   he was Victor Hugo's best friend, and a child of Nature; that
+   English ladies were all divine, but too cold,--for when he
+   pressed A.'s hand she told him it was not allowed in England, and
+   he was overwhelmed with remorse; bowed, sighed, rolled his eyes,
+   and told her that he drank much ale, because it flew to his head
+   and gave him "commercial ideas."
+
+   I never saw anything so perfectly absurd as it was, and after we
+   got used to it we laughed ourselves sick over the lark. You ought
+   to have seen us and our turnout, tearing over the road at a
+   breakneck pace, pitching, creaking, and rattling, the funny
+   driver hooting at the horses, who had their tails done up in
+   chignons, blue harness, and strings of bells, the drunken man
+   warbling, exhorting, and languishing at us all by turns, while A.
+   headed him off with great skill. I sat, a mass of English dignity
+   and coolness, suffering alternate agonies of anxiety and
+   amusement, and May, who tied her head up in a bundle, looked like
+   a wooden image.
+
+   It was rich; and when we took up first a peasant woman in wooden
+   shoes and fly-away cap, and then a red-nosed priest smoking a
+   long pipe, we were a superb spectacle. In this style we banged
+   into Dinan, stopped at the gate, and were dumped bag and baggage
+   in the square. Finding Madame Coste's man was not here for us, we
+   hired a man to bring our trunks up. To our great amazement, an
+   oldish woman, who was greasing the wheels of a diligence, came,
+   and catching up our big trunks, whipped them into two broad
+   carts, and taking one trotted down the street at a fine pace,
+   followed by the man with the other. That was the finishing touch;
+   and we went laughing after them through the great arched gate
+   into the quaintest, prettiest, most romantic town I ever saw.
+   Narrow streets with overhanging gables, distracting roofs,
+   windows, and porches, carved beams, and every sort of richness.
+   The strong old lady beat the man, and finally landed us close by
+   another old gate at a charming house fronting the south,
+   overlooking a lovely green valley, full of gardens, blooming
+   plum and peach trees, windmills, and a ruined castle, at sight of
+   which we all skipped. Madame Coste received us with rapture, for
+   A. brought a letter from Mrs. L., who stayed here and was the joy
+   of the old lady's soul. We were in great luck, for being early in
+   the season she had three rooms left, and we nabbed them at
+   once,--a salon with old oak walls and wardrobes, blue damask
+   furniture, a fireplace, funny windows, and quaint furniture. A
+   little room out of it for A., and upstairs a larger room for May
+   and me, with two beds draped in green chintz, and carved big
+   wardrobe, etc., and best of all, a sunny window toward the
+   valley. For these rooms and our board we each pay $1 a day, and I
+   call that cheap. It would be worth that to get the fun and air
+   alone, for it is like June, and we sit about with open windows,
+   flowers in the fields, birds singing, and everything spring-like.
+
+   We took possession at once, and dressed for a dinner at six. We
+   were then presented to our fellow-boarders,--Madame Forney, a
+   buxom widow, her son Gaston, a handsome Frenchy youth of
+   twenty-three, and her daughter, a homely girl of twenty, who is
+   to be married here on the 3d of May. After a great bowing and
+   scraping we had a funny fish dinner, it being Good Friday. When
+   they found we didn't speak French they were "desolated," and
+   begged us to learn at once, which we solemnly vowed to do. Gaston
+   "knew English," so May at once began to teach him more, and the
+   ice being broken we got gay and friendly at once. I could
+   understand them pretty well, but can't talk, and A. told them
+   that I was forbidden to say much on account of my throat. This
+   will give me a chance to get a fair start. May pegs away at her
+   grammar, and with that and the elegant Gaston, she will soon
+   begin to "parlez-vous."
+
+   After dinner we were borne to the great salon, where a fire,
+   lights, and a piano appeared. Every one sat round and gabbled
+   except the Alcotts, who looked and laughed. Mademoiselle Forney
+   played, and then May convulsed them by singing some _Chants
+   Amériques_, which they thought very lively and droll. They were
+   all attention and devotion to Madame Coste,--a tall old lady with
+   whiskers, who kept embracing A. and beaming at us in her great
+   content at being friends of _chère_ Madame L. A. told them that I
+   was a celebrated authoress, and May a very fine artist, and we
+   were beamed at more than ever. Being tired, we turned in early,
+   after a jolly time in our own little salon, eating chocolate and
+   laying plans.
+
+     DINAN, April 20, 1870.
+
+   ... A. and I went shopping. A. got a little bird to enliven our
+   parlor, a sort of sparrow, gray with a red head and a lively
+   song. We named him Bernard du Guesclin (the hero of the town),
+   and call him Bernie. I got some nice gloves for three francs
+   (sixty cents), and a white sun-umbrella for May (forty cents).
+   She needs it when she sketches, and there is always a crowd of
+   children round her to watch and admire; she gives one of them a
+   sou to hold the umbrella, and so gets on nicely.
+
+   In the P.M. A. and I went to the little village of Lahou, in the
+   valley where the ruined castle is, to a fair. It was a very
+   picturesque sight, for the white-capped women, sitting about on
+   the green hillside, looked like flowers, and the blue blouses of
+   the men and wide-brimmed hats added to the effect. The little
+   street was lined with booths, where they sold nuts, queer cakes,
+   hot sausages, and pancakes, toys, etc. I got a funny cake, just
+   the size and shape of a deep pie-dish, and a jack-knife, for a
+   sou. We also indulged in nuts, and sat on our campstools in a
+   shady place and ate them boldly in the public mart, while
+   enjoying the lively scene. French and English people went by in
+   droll parties, and we coolly sat and stared at them. May is going
+   to sketch the castle, so I won't waste paper describing the
+   pretty place with the ruined church full of rooks, the old mill
+   with the waterwheel housed in vines, or the winding river, and
+   meadows full of blue hyacinths and rosy daisies.
+
+   Yesterday, A. and I had to return the call of Mademoiselle M.,
+   and as she speaks English I got on very well. The stairs to her
+   apartment were so steep that we held on by a velvet-covered rope
+   as we climbed up. In the P.M. we had fun, for we took two donkey
+   carriages and rode to the mineral spring. Gaston was sick and
+   couldn't go, as we had planned, so May drove herself in one, and
+   A. and I in the other. I wish the boys could have seen us, it was
+   so funny. The carriages were bath-chairs with a wee donkey
+   harnessed to each, so small, so neat, and looking so venerable
+   with thin long ears and bits of feet that I felt as if I was
+   driving my grandmother. May was a very imposing sight, alone in
+   her chair under her new umbrella, in her gray suit, with bright
+   gloves and a big whip, driving a gray rat who wouldn't trot
+   unless pounded and banged and howled at in the maddest way. Our
+   steed was bigger, but the most pig-headed old scamp you ever saw,
+   for it took two big women to make him go. I drove, and A.
+   thrashed away with all her might,--our joint efforts only
+   producing occasional short trots which enraged us dreadfully.
+
+   We laughed till we were sick, it was so very absurd; while May
+   trundled serenely along, enjoying the fine views regardless of
+   her rat, who paced along at his ease, wagging his ears and
+   meditating.
+
+   We had a nice trip, but didn't drink the water, as iron don't
+   suit us. Coming home, we passed the home of the donkeys, and they
+   at once turned in, and were with much difficulty persuaded to go
+   on by two short girls in caps and short gowns, who ran and
+   shouted "E! E! va oui!" and punched sticks into the poor asses,
+   rattling us over the stones till our eyes danced in our heads. We
+   found it rather hard work, and A. means to buy a horse and straw
+   pony-chaise, so we can drive ourselves in peace where we like....
+
+   A. is bargaining for a horse which an Englishman wishes to sell
+   for $50, including harness and cart. We can't hire horses for
+   less than $2 a drive, and donkeys are vile, so it is cheaper to
+   buy, and sell when we go away, and so drive as much as we like.
+   A. knows about such things, and takes all the responsibility....
+   To-morrow we go on a little excursion in the steamboat down the
+   river, and return _à la_ donkey with the English ladies, who have
+   returned our call and are very friendly.
+
+   Please forward this little note in an envelope to its address.
+   The child wrote me a pretty letter, which N. sent, and the pa
+   said I wouldn't answer. The child said, "I know she will, she is
+   so nice." So I do. Best love to every one. Don't go home too
+   soon. I shall write to Fred and Jack next time. Good-by.
+
+     LU.
+
+
+_To M. S._
+
+   ... They call each other pet names that convulse us,--"my little
+   pig," "my sweet hen," "my cabbage," and "my tom-cat." A French
+   lady with her son and daughter board here, and their ways amuse
+   us mightily. The girl is to be married next week to a man whom
+   she has seen twice, and never talked to but an hour in her life.
+   She writes to him what her mother dictates, and says she should
+   be ashamed to love him before they were married. Her wedding
+   clothes absorb her entire mind, and her Jules will get a pretty
+   doll when he takes Mademoiselle A. F. to wife. Gaston, the son,
+   puts on _blasé_ airs, though only twenty-two, and languishes at
+   May, for they can't talk, as he does not know English nor she
+   French.
+
+     April 27.
+
+   I left my letter to drive to a ruined château, which we went all
+   over, as a part is inhabited by a farmer who keeps his hog in the
+   great banqueting hall, his grain in the chapel, and his hens in
+   the lady's chamber. It was very picturesque; the old rooms, with
+   ivy coming in at the windows, choking up the well, and climbing
+   up the broken towers. The lady of the château was starved to
+   death by her cruel brothers, and buried in the moat, where her
+   bones were found long afterward, and her ghost still haunts the
+   place they say. Here we had cider, tell Pa.
+
+   Coming home we saw a Dolmen, one of the Druidical remains. It
+   stood in a grove of old pines,--a great post of gray stone, some
+   twenty-five feet high, and very big round. It leaned as if
+   falling, and had queer holes in it. Brittany is full of these
+   relics, which no one can explain, and I was glad to see the
+   mysterious things.
+
+   Yesterday we took a little trip down the river in a tiny steamer,
+   going through a lock and skimming along between the green banks
+   of the narrow river to Miss M.'s country-house, where we had new
+   milk, and lay on the grass for an hour or so. Then May and Miss
+   M. walked home, and A. and I went in a donkey cart.
+
+   To-day the girls have gone to La Garaye with Gaston on donkeys.
+   The weather has been cold for a day or two with easterly winds.
+   So I feel it at once and keep warm. It is very unusual at this
+   time, but comes, I suppose, because I've travelled hundreds of
+   miles to get rid of them. It won't last long, and then we shall
+   be hot enough.
+
+   We lead such quiet, lazy lives I really have nothing to tell.
+
+   Oh, yes, the _fiancé_ of Mademoiselle has arrived, and amuses us
+   very much. He is a tiny man in uniform, with a red face, big
+   moustache, and blue eyes. He thinks he talks English, and makes
+   such very funny mistakes. He asked us if we had been to
+   "promenade on monkeys" meaning donkeys, and called the Casino
+   "the establishment of dance." He addresses all his attentions to
+   the ma, and only bows to his future wife, who admires her
+   diamonds and is contented. We are going away on the day of the
+   wedding, as it is private.
+
+   The girls have just returned in great spirits, for A.'s donkey
+   kept lying down, and it took all three to get him up again. They
+   sat in a sort of chair, and looked very funny with the four
+   little legs under them and long ears flopping before. I shall go
+   to Garaye some fine day, and will tell you about it.
+
+   Adieu, love to all.
+
+     Yours,
+     LU.
+
+     _Dinan_, May 6, 1870.
+
+   DEAR PEOPLE,--I have just got a fat letter full of notices from
+   N.,--all good, and news generally pleasant.
+
+   The great event of the season is over, and Miss F. is Mrs. C. It
+   was a funny scene, for they had a breakfast the day before, then
+   on Tuesday the wedding. We did not go, as the church is like a
+   tomb, but we saw the bride, in white satin, pearls, orange
+   flowers, and lace, very pretty, and like other brides. Her ma, in
+   purple moire and black lace, was fine to see; and the little
+   groom, in full regimentals, with a sabre as large as himself, was
+   very funny. A lot of people came in carriages to escort them to
+   church; and our little square was full of queer turnouts, smartly
+   dressed people, and a great bustle. There was some mistake about
+   the bride's carriage, and it did not drive up in time, so she
+   stood on the steps till it came as near as it could, and then she
+   trotted out to it on Gaston's arm, with her maid holding up her
+   satin train. Uncle, ma, bride, and brother drove off, but the
+   groom's carriage was delayed by the breaking of a trace, and
+   there he sat, with his fat pa and ma, after every one had gone,
+   fuming, and poking his little cocked hat out of the window, while
+   the man mended the harness, and every one looked on with
+   breathless interest.
+
+   We went to D---- with Coste in the P.M., and had a fine view of
+   the sea and San Malo. We didn't like D----, and won't go there.
+   When we got home about eight o'clock the wedding dinner was in
+   full blast, and I caught a glimpse of a happy pair at the head of
+   the table, surrounded by a lot of rigged-up ladies and fine men,
+   all gabbing and gabbling as only French folk can. The couple are
+   still here, resting and getting acquainted before they go to
+   Lamballe for a week of festivity. A church wedding is a very
+   funny thing, and I wish you could have seen it.
+
+   The dry season continues, and the people have processions and
+   masses to pray for rain. One short flurry of hail is all we have
+   had, and the cold winds still blow. When our month is out we
+   shall go somewhere near the sea if it is at all warm. Nothing
+   could be kinder than dear old Coste, and I couldn't be in a
+   better place to be poorly in than this; she coddles me like a
+   mother, and is so grieved that I don't get better.
+
+   Send Ma a bit of the gorse flower with which the fields are now
+   yellow.
+
+     Yours,
+     LU.
+
+     DINAN, May 13, 1870.
+
+   DEAREST FOLKS,--We drove to Guildo yesterday to see if we should
+   like it for July. It is a queer little town on the seashore, with
+   ruins near by, bright houses, and lots of boats. Rooms a franc a
+   day, and food very cheap. The man of the house--a big, brown,
+   Peggotty sailor--has a sloop, and promised the girls as much
+   sailing as they liked. We may go, but our plans are very vague,
+   and one day we say we will go to one place and the next to
+   another, and shall probably end by staying where we are.
+
+     Yours,
+     LU.
+
+     DINAN, May 17, 1870.
+
+   DEAREST PEOPLE,--We run out and do errands in the cool before
+   breakfast at ten, then we write, sew, and read, and look round,
+   till four, when we go to drive. May and I in the cherry bounce
+   with M. Harmon to drive us, and A. on horseback; for, after
+   endless fuss, she has at last evoked a horse out of chaos, and
+   comes galloping gayly after us as we drive about the lovely roads
+   with the gallant hotel-keeper, Adolph Harmon. We are getting
+   satiated with ruins and châteaux, and plan a trip by water to
+   Nantes; for the way they do it is to hire a big boat and be towed
+   by a horse in the most luxurious manner.
+
+
+_To Anna._
+
+     DINAN, May 25, 1870.
+
+   DEAR BETSEY,[8]--All well. We have also had fun about the queer
+   food, as we don't like brains, liver, etc. A. does; and when we
+   eat some mess, not knowing what it is, and find it is sheep's
+   tails or eels, she exults over us, and writes poems.
+
+   I wander dreadfully, but the girls are racketing, birdie singing
+   like mad, and nine horses neighing to one another in the place,
+   so my ideas do not flow as clearly as they should. Besides, I
+   expect Gaston to come in every minute to show us his rig; for he
+   is going to a picnic in Breton costume,--a very French affair,
+   for the party are to march two and two, with fiddlers in front,
+   and donkeys bearing the feast in the rear. Such larks!
+
+   Yesterday we had a funny time. We went to drive in a basket
+   chair, very fine, with a perch behind and a smart harness; but
+   most of the horses here are stallions, and act like time. Ours
+   went very well at first, but in the town took to cutting up, and
+   suddenly pounced on to a pile of brush, and stuck his head into a
+   bake-shop. We tried to get him out, but he only danced and
+   neighed, and all the horses in town seemed to reply. A man came
+   and led him on a bit, but he didn't mean to go, and whisked over
+   to the other side, where he tangled us and himself up with a long
+   string of team horses. I flew out and May soon followed. A. was
+   driving, and kept in while the man led the "critter" back to the
+   stable. I declined my drive with the insane beast, and so we left
+   him and bundled home in the most ignominious manner. All the
+   animals are very queer here, and, unlike ours, excessively big.
+
+   We went to a ruin one day, and were about to explore the castle,
+   when a sow, with her family of twelve, charged through the
+   gateway at us so fiercely that we fled in dismay; for pigs are
+   not nice when they attack, as we don't know where to bone 'em,
+   and I saw a woman one day whose nose had been bitten off by an
+   angry pig. I flew over a hedge; May tried to follow. I pulled
+   her over head first, and we tumbled into the tower like a routed
+   garrison. It wasn't a nice ruin, but we were bound to see it,
+   having suffered so much. And we did see it, in spite of the pigs,
+   who waylaid us on all sides, and squealed in triumph when we
+   left,--dirty, torn, and tired. The ugly things wander at their
+   own sweet will, and are tall, round-backed, thin wretches, who
+   run like race horses, and are no respecters of persons.
+
+   Sunday was a great day here, for the children were confirmed. It
+   was a pretty sight to see the long procession of little girls, in
+   white gowns and veils, winding through the flowery garden and the
+   antique square, into the old church, with their happy mothers
+   following, and the boys in their church robes singing as they
+   went. The old priest was too ill to perform the service, but the
+   young one who did announced afterward that if the children would
+   pass the house the old man would bless them from his bed. So all
+   marched away down the street, with crosses and candles, and it
+   was very touching to see the feeble old man stretch out his hands
+   above them as the little white birds passed by with bended heads,
+   while the fresh, boyish voices chanted the responses. This old
+   priest is a very interesting man, for he is a regular saint,
+   helping every one, keeping his house as a refuge for poor and old
+   priests, settling quarrels among the people, and watching over
+   the young people as if they were his own. I shall put him in a
+   story.
+
+   _Voilà!_ Gaston has just come in, rigged in a white embroidered
+   jacket, with the Dinan coat-of-arms worked in scarlet and yellow
+   silk on it fore and aft; a funny hat, with streamers, and a belt,
+   with a knife, horn, etc. He is handsome, and as fond of finery as
+   a girl. I'll send you his picture next time, and one of Dinan.
+
+   You will see that Marmee has all she needs, and a girl, and as
+   much money as she wants for being cosey and comfortable. S. E. S.
+   will let her have all she wants, and make her take it. I'm sorry
+   the chapel $100 didn't come, for she likes to feel that she has
+   some of her very own.
+
+   I have written to Conway and Mrs. Taylor, so that if we decide to
+   take a run to England before we go to Italy, the way will be
+   open....
+
+   But Dinan is so healthy and cosey, that we shall linger till the
+   heat makes us long for the sea. Roses, cherries, strawberries,
+   and early vegetables are come, and we are in clover. Dear old
+   Coste broods over us like a motherly hen, and just now desired me
+   to give her affectionate and respectful compliments to my _bonne
+   mère_.
+
+   Now I'm spun out; so adieu, my darling Nan. Write often, and I
+   will keep sending,--trusting that you will get them in time.
+
+   Kisses all round.
+
+     Yours,
+     LU.
+
+     DINAN, May 30, 1870.
+
+   DEAR FOLKS,--May has made up such a big letter that I will only
+   add a line to give you the last news of the health of her
+   Highness Princess Louisa. She is such a public character nowadays
+   that even her bones are not her own, and her wails of woe cannot
+   be kept from the long ears of the world,--old donkey as it is!
+
+   Dr. Kane, who was army surgeon in India, and doctor in England
+   for forty years, says my leg trouble and many of my other woes
+   come from the calomel they gave me in Washington. He has been
+   through the same thing with an Indian jungle fever, and has never
+   got the calomel out of him.... I don't know anything about it,
+   only my leg is the curse of my life. But I think Dr. K.'s iodine
+   of potash will cure it in the end, as it did his arms, after
+   taking it for three months. It is simple, pleasant, and seems to
+   do something to the bones that gives them ease; so I shall sip
+   away and give it a good trial.
+
+   We are now revelling in big strawberries, green peas, early
+   potatoes, and other nice things, on which we shall grow fat as
+   pigs.
+
+   We are beginning to think of a trip into Normandy, where the H.'s
+   are.
+
+   Love to all. By-by!
+
+     Your loving
+     LU.
+
+   No news except through N., who yesterday sent me a nice letter
+   with July account of $6,212,--a neat little sum for "the Alcotts,
+   who can't make money!" With $10,000 well invested, and more
+   coming in all the time, I think we may venture to enjoy
+   ourselves, after the hard times we have all had.
+
+   The cream of the joke is, that we made our own money ourselves,
+   and no one gave us a blessed penny. That does soothe my rumpled
+   soul so much that the glory is not worth thinking of.
+
+
+_To Anna._
+
+     DINAN, June 4, 1870.
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   The present excitement is the wood which Coste is having put in.
+   Loads keep coming in queer, heavy carts drawn by four horses
+   each, and two men to work the machine. Two men chop the great oak
+   stumps, and a woman puts it in down cellar by the armful. The men
+   get two francs a day,--forty cents! (Wouldn't our $3 a day
+   workmen howl at that sort of wages!) When several carts arrive at
+   once the place is a lively scene. Just now there were three carts
+   and twelve horses, and eight were all up in a snarl, while
+   half-a-dozen ladies stood at their doors and gave advice. One
+   had a half-dressed baby in her arms; one a lettuce she was
+   washing; another her distaff; and a fourth her little bowl of
+   soup, which she ate at on the sidewalk, in the intervals
+   gesticulating so frantically that her sabots rattled on the
+   stones. The horses had a free fight, and the man couldn't seem to
+   manage one big one, who romped about like a wild elephant, till
+   the lady with the baby suddenly set the half-naked cherub on the
+   doorsteps, charged in among the rampant beasts, and, by some
+   magic howl or jerk, brought the bad horse to order, when she
+   quietly returned to her baby, who had sat placidly eating dirt,
+   and with a calm _Voilà, messieurs_, she skipped little Jean into
+   his shirt, and the men sat down to smoke.
+
+   We are now in great excitement over Gaston, who has lately become
+   so very amiable that we don't know him. We began by letting the
+   spoiled child severely alone. This treatment worked well, and now
+   he offers us things at table, bows when we enter, and to-day
+   presented us with green tulips, violet shrubs, and queer medals
+   all round. We have let little bits of news leak out about us, and
+   they think we are dukes and duchesses in _Amérique_, and
+   pronounce us _très spirituelles; très charmantes; très seductives
+   femmes_. We laugh in private, and are used to having the entire
+   company rise when we enter, and embrace us with ardor, listen
+   with uplifted hands and shrieks of _mon Dieu! grand ciel!_ etc.,
+   to all remarks, and point us out in public as _les dames
+   Américaines_. Such is fame!
+
+   An English lady arrived to-day--a Miss B.--dressed, with English
+   taste, in a little green skirt, pink calico waist, a large
+   crumpled frill, her hair in a tight knot, one front tooth
+   sticking straight out, and a golden oriole in a large cage. She
+   is about forty, very meek and pursy, and the old ladies have been
+   sitting in a heap since breakfast, talking like mad.
+
+   May has "sack" on the brain just now, and A. has "hose" on the
+   brain; and at this moment they are both gabbling wildly, one
+   saying, "I shall trim it with blue and have it pinked!" the other
+   shrieking, "My hose must be red, with little dragons in black all
+   over it, like small-pox!" and the bird flies to her upper perch
+   in dismay at the riot, while I sit and laugh, with an occasional
+   duennaish, "Young ladies, less noise if you please!"
+
+   It rained last eve, and we are waiting for it to dry before going
+   out in the donkey chaise to buy a warm bun and some strawberries
+   for lunch, to be eaten as we parade the town and drink ale at
+   intervals.
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   Do tell me how things are about my pictures. I see they are
+   advertised, and if they sell I want my share of the profits. Send
+   me one of those that are in the market, after taking off the
+   heavy card.
+
+   Love to all, and the best of luck.
+
+     Ever your
+     LU.
+
+     HOTEL D'UNIVERSE, TOURS, June 17, 1870.
+
+   DEAREST PEOPLE,--Our wanderings have begun again, and here we are
+   in this fine old city in a cosey hotel, as independent and happy
+   as three old girls can be. We left Dinan Wednesday at 7 A.M.
+   Gaston got up to see us off,--a most unusual and unexpected
+   honor; also Mrs. B. and all the old ladies, whom we left
+   dissolved in tears.
+
+   We had a lovely sail down the river to St. Malo, where we
+   breakfasted at Hotel Franklin, a quaint old house in a flowery
+   corner. At twelve we went by rail to Le Mans,--a long trip,--and
+   arrived at 6 P.M. so tired that we went to bed in the moonlight
+   while a band played in the square before the hotel, and the
+   sidewalks before the café were full of people taking ices and
+   coffee round little tables.
+
+   Next morning we went to see the famous cathedral and had
+   raptures, for it is like a dream in stone. Pure Gothic of the
+   twelfth century, with the tomb of Berengaria, wife of Coeur de
+   Leon, stained glass of the richest kind, dim old chapels with
+   lamps burning, a gorgeous high altar all crimson and gold and
+   carmine, and several organs. Anything more lovely and divine I
+   never saw, for the arches, so light and graceful, seemed to soar
+   up one above the other like the natural curves of trees or the
+   spray of a great fountain. We spent a long time here and I sat
+   above in the quaint old chapel with my eyes and heart full, and
+   prayed a little prayer for my family. Old women and men knelt
+   about in corners telling their beads, and the priest was quietly
+   saying his prayers at the altar. Outside it was a pile of gray
+   stone, with towers and airy pinnacles full of carved saints and
+   busy rooks. I don't think we shall see anything finer anywhere.
+   It was very hot for there had been no rain for four months, so we
+   desired to start for town at 5 and get in about 8 as it is light
+   then.
+
+   We had a pleasant trip in the cool of the day, and found Tours a
+   great city, like Paris on a small scale. Our hotel is on the
+   boulevard, and the trees, fountains, and fine carriages make our
+   windows very tempting. We popped into bed early; and my bones are
+   so much better that I slept without any opium or anything,--a
+   feat I have not performed for some time.
+
+   This morning we had coffee and rolls in bed, then as it was a
+   fine cool day we dressed up clean and nice and went out for a
+   walk. At the post-office we found your letters of May 31, one
+   from Nan and Ma, and one from L. We were exalted, and went into
+   the garden and read them in bliss, with the grand cathedral right
+   before us. Cathedral St. Martin, twelfth century, with tomb of
+   Charles XIII.'s children, the armor of Saint Louis, fine pictures
+   of Saint Martin, his cloak, etc. May will tell you about it and I
+   shall put in a photograph, if I can find one. We are now--12
+   o'clock--in our pleasant room all round the table writing letters
+   and resting for another trip by and by.
+
+   The _Fête Dieu_ is on Monday,--very splendid,--and we shall then
+   see the cathedral in its glory. To-day a few hundred children
+   were having their first communion there, girls all in white, with
+   scarlet boys, crosses, candles, music, priests, etc. Get a
+   Murray, and on the map of France follow us to Geneva, _via_ St.
+   Malo, Le Mans, Tours, Amboise and Blois, Orleans, Nevers, Autun.
+   We may go to the Vosges instead of the Jura if Mrs. H. can go, as
+   A. wants to see her again. But we head for the Alps of some sort
+   and will report progress as we go.
+
+   My money holds out well so far, as we go second class.
+
+
+_To her Father._
+
+     TOURS, June 20, 1870.
+
+   DEAR PAPA,--Before we go on to fresh "châteaux and churches new,"
+   I must tell you about the sights here in this pleasant, clean,
+   handsome old city. May has done the church for you, and I send a
+   photograph to give some idea of it. The inside is very beautiful;
+   and we go at sunset to see the red light make the gray walls
+   lovely outside and the shadows steal from chapel to chapel
+   inside, filling the great church with what is really "a dim
+   religious gloom." We wandered about it the other evening till
+   moonrise, and it was very interesting to see the people scattered
+   here and there at their prayers; some kneeling before Saint
+   Martin's shrine, some in a flowery little nook dedicated to the
+   infant Christ, and one, a dark corner with a single candle
+   lighting up a fine picture of the Mater Dolorosa, where a widow
+   all in her weeds sat alone, crying and praying. In another a sick
+   old man sat, while his old wife knelt by him praying with all her
+   might to Saint Gratien (the patron saint of the church) for her
+   dear old invalid. Nuns and priests glided about, and it was all
+   very poetical and fine, till I came to an imposing priest in a
+   first class chapel who was taking snuff and gaping, instead of
+   piously praying.
+
+   The _Fête Dieu_ was yesterday, and I went out to see the
+   procession. The streets were hung with old tapestry, and sheets
+   covered with flowers. Crosses, crowns, and bouquets were
+   suspended from house to house, and as the procession approached,
+   women ran out and scattered green boughs and rose-leaves before
+   the train. A fine band and a lot of red soldiers came first, then
+   the different saints on banners, carried by girls, and followed
+   by long trains of girls bearing the different emblems. Saint
+   Agnes and her lamb was followed by a flock of pretty young
+   children all in white, carrying tall white lilies that filled the
+   air with their fragrance.
+
+   "Mary our Mother" was followed by orphans with black ribbons
+   crossed on their breasts. Saint Martin led the charity boys in
+   their gray suits, etc. The Host under a golden canopy was borne
+   by priests in gorgeous rig, and every one knelt as it passed with
+   censors swinging, candles burning, boys chanting, and flowers
+   dropping from the windows. A pretty young lady ran out and set
+   her baby in a pile of green leaves in the middle of the street
+   before the Host, and it passed over the little thing who sat
+   placidly staring at the show and admiring its blue shoes. I
+   suppose it is a saved and sacred baby henceforth.
+
+   It was a fine pageant and quite touching, some of it; but as
+   usual, I saw something funny to spoil the solemnity. A very fat
+   and fine priest, who walked with his eyes upon his book and sung
+   like a pious bumblebee, suddenly destroyed the effect by rapping
+   a boy over the head with his gold prayer-book, as the black sheep
+   strayed a little from the flock. I thought the old saint swore
+   also.
+
+   The procession went from the cathedral to Charlemagne's Tower, an
+   old, old relic, all that is left of the famous church which once
+   covered a great square. We went to see it, and the stones looked
+   as if they were able to tell wonderful tales of the scenes they
+   had witnessed all these hundreds of years. I think the
+   "Reminiscences of a Rook" would be a good story, for these old
+   towers are full of them, and they are long-lived birds.
+
+     AMBOISE, THE GOLDEN LION,
+     Tuesday, June 21, 1870.
+
+   Here we go again! now in an utterly different scene from Tours.
+   We left at 5 P.M., and in half an hour were here on the banks of
+   the Loire in a queer little inn where we are considered duchesses
+   at least, owing to our big trunks and A.'s good French. I am the
+   Madame, May Mam'selle, and A. the companion.
+
+   Last evening being lovely, we went after dinner up to the castle
+   where Charles VIII. was born in 1470. The Arab chief,
+   Abd-el-Kader, and family were kept prisoners here, and in the old
+   garden is a tomb with the crescent over it where some of them
+   were buried. May was told about the terrace where the Huguenots
+   hung thick and the court enjoyed the sight till the Loire,
+   choked up with dead bodies, forced them to leave. We saw the
+   little low door where Anne of Brittany's first husband Charles
+   VIII. "bumped his head" and killed himself, as he was running
+   through to play bowls with his wife.
+
+   It has been modernized and is now being restored as in old times,
+   so the interior was all in a toss. But we went down the winding
+   road inside the tower, up which the knights and ladies used to
+   ride. Father would have enjoyed the _pleached_ walks, for they
+   are cut so that looking down on them, it is like a green floor,
+   and looking up it is a thick green wall. There also Margaret of
+   Anjou and her son were reconciled to Warwick. Read Murray, I beg,
+   and see all about it. We sat in the twilight on the terrace and
+   saw what Fred would have liked, a little naked boy ride into the
+   river on one horse after another, and swim them round in the deep
+   water till they were all clean and cool.
+
+   This morning at 7 o'clock we drove to Chenonceaux, the chateau
+   given by Henry II. to Diane de Poictiers. It was a lovely day,
+   and we went rolling along through the most fruitful country I
+   ever saw. Acre on acre of yellow grain, vineyards miles long,
+   gardens and orchards full of roses and cherries. The Cher is a
+   fine river winding through the meadows, where haymakers were at
+   work and fat cattle feeding. It was a very happy hour, and the
+   best thing I saw was May's rapturous face opposite, as she sat
+   silently enjoying everything, too happy to talk.
+
+   The château built over the water is very interesting; Catherine
+   de Medicis took it away from Diane when the king died, and her
+   room is still seen as she left it; also a picture of Diane, a
+   tall simpering woman in a tunic, with hounds, stag, cupids, and
+   other rubbish round her. The gallery of pictures was fine; for
+   here were old, old portraits and bas-reliefs, Agnes Sorel,
+   Montaigne, Rabelais, many kings and queens, and among them
+   Lafayette and dear old Ben Franklin.
+
+   There is a little theatre where Rousseau's plays were acted. This
+   place at the time of the Revolution belonged to the grandmother
+   of George Sand, and she was so much respected that no harm was
+   done to it. So three cheers for Madame Dupin! Among the pictures
+   were Ninon D'Enclos, and Madame Sevigné holding a picture of her
+   beloved daughter. The Guidos, etc. I don't care for so much as
+   they were all grimy and convulsive, and I prefer pictures of
+   people who really lived, to these impossible Venuses and
+   repulsive saints,--bad taste, but I can't help it. The walls were
+   hung with stamped leather and tapestry, carved chairs in which
+   queens had sat, tables at which kings had eaten, books they had
+   read, and glasses that had reflected their faces were all about,
+   and I just revelled. The old kitchen had a fireplace quaint
+   enough to suit Pa, with immense turn-spits, cranes, andirons,
+   etc. The chapel, balcony, avenue, draw-bridge, and all the other
+   pleasing bits were enjoyed, and I stole a sprig of jasmine from
+   the terrace which I shall press for Mamma. Pray take extra care
+   of the photographs, for if lost, we cannot replace them, and I
+   want to make a fine album of pictures with flowers and
+   descriptions after I get home.... But all goes well and we enjoy
+   much every day. Love to all,
+
+     LU.
+
+
+_To her Mother._
+
+     BLOIS, June 24, 1870.
+
+   DEAR MARMEE,--On this, Lizzie's and Johnny's birthday, I'll begin
+   a letter to you. We found at the Poste Restante here two "Moods"
+   and a paper for me, one book from L., and one from N. I think
+   the pictures horrid, and sent them floating down the Loire as
+   soon as possible, and put one book at the bottom of my trunk and
+   left the other where no one will find it. I couldn't read the
+   story, and try to forget that I ever wrote it.
+
+   Blois is a noisy, dusty, soldierly city with nothing to admire
+   but the river, nearly dry now with this four months' drought, and
+   the old castle where Francis I., Louis XII., Catherine de
+   Medicis, and other great folks lived. It has been very splendidly
+   restored by the Government, and the ceilings are made with beams
+   blazoned with coats-of-arms, the walls hung with cameos, painted
+   with the same design as the stamped leather in old times, and the
+   floors inlaid with colored tiles. Brown and gold, scarlet, blue,
+   and silver, quaint dragons and flowers, porcupines and
+   salamanders, crowns and letters, glittered everywhere. We saw the
+   guard-room and the very chimney where the Duc de Guise was
+   leaning when the king Henry III. sent for him; the little door
+   where the king's gentlemen fell upon and stabbed him with forty
+   wounds; the cabinet where the king and his mother plotted the
+   deed; the chapel where the monks prayed for success; and the
+   great hall where the body lay covered with a cloak till the king
+   came and looked at it and kicked his dead enemy, saying, "I did
+   not think he was so tall." We also saw the cell where the brother
+   of the duke was murdered the next day, and the attic entire where
+   their bodies were burnt, after which the ashes were thrown into
+   the Loire by order of the king; the window out of which Marie de
+   Medicis lowered herself when her son Louis XIII. imprisoned her
+   there; the recess where Catherine de Medicis died; and many other
+   interesting places. What a set of rascals these old kings and
+   queens were!
+
+   The _Salle des États_ was very gorgeous, and here in a week or so
+   are to be tried the men who lately fired at the Emperor. It will
+   be a grand, a fine sight when the great arched hall is full. I
+   got a picture of the castle, and one of a fireplace for Pa. It is
+   a mass of gold and color, with the porcupine of Louis XIII. and
+   the ermine of his wife Anne of Brittany, their arms, in medallion
+   over it.
+
+   At 5 P.M. we go on to Orleans for a day, where I shall get some
+   relics of Joan of Arc for Nan. We shall pass Sunday at Bourges
+   where the great church is, and then either to Geneva or the Jura,
+   for a few weeks of rest.
+
+     GENEVA, June 29, 1870.
+
+   It seems almost like getting home again to be here where I never
+   thought to come again when I went away five years ago. We are at
+   the Metropole Hotel right on the lake with a glimpse of Mount
+   Blanc from our windows. It is rather fine after the grimy little
+   inns of Brittany, and we enjoy a sip of luxury and put on our
+   best gowns with feminine satisfaction after living in old
+   travelling suits for a fortnight.
+
+   I began my letter at Blois, where we spent a day or two. At
+   Orleans we only passed a night, but we had time to see the famous
+   statue of the Maid, put up in gratitude by the people of the city
+   she saved. It is a fine statue of Joan in her armor on horseback,
+   with her sword drawn. Round the base of the statue are bronzed
+   bas-reliefs of her life from the girl with her sheep, to the
+   martyr at the stake. They were very fine, but don't show much in
+   the photograph which I got for Nan, remembering the time when she
+   translated Schiller's play for me.
+
+   At Bourges we saw the great cathedral, but didn't like it as well
+   as that in Tours. We only spent a night there, and A. bought an
+   antique ring of the time of Francis I.,--an emerald set in
+   diamonds. It cost $9, and is very quaint and handsome.
+
+   Moulins we reached Sunday noon, and at 3 o'clock went to vespers
+   in the old church, where we saw a good deal of mumbo-jumbo by
+   red, purple, and yellow priests, and heard a boy with a lovely
+   voice sing in the hidden choir like a little angel among the
+   clouds. A. had a fancy to stay a week, if we could find rooms out
+   of town in some farm-house; for the handsome white cattle have
+   captivated her, and we were rather tired. So the old lady at the
+   hotel said she had a little farm-house out in the fields, and we
+   should go see it with her in basket _chay_. After dinner we all
+   piled in and went along a dusty road to a little dirty
+   garden-house with two rooms and a few cabbages and rose-bushes
+   round it. She said we could sleep and eat at the hotel and come
+   down here for the day. That didn't suit at all, so we declined;
+   and on Monday morning we set out for Lyons. It was a very
+   interesting trip under, over, and through the mountains with two
+   engines and much tunnelling and up-and-down grading. May was
+   greatly excited at the queer things we did, and never knew that
+   cars could turn such sharp corners. We wound about so that we
+   could see the engine whisking out of sight round one corner while
+   we were turning another, and the long train looked like a snake
+   winding through the hills. The tunnels were so long that lamps
+   were lighted, and so cold we put on our sacks while passing in
+   the darkness. The scenery was very fine; and after we left Lyons,
+   where we merely slept, the Alps began to appear, and May and I
+   stared in blissful silence; for we had two tall old men opposite,
+   and a little priest, so young that we called him the Rev. boy. He
+   slept and said his prayers most of the time, stealing sly looks
+   at May's hair, A.'s pretty hands, and my buckled shoes, which
+   were like his own and seemed to strike him as a liberty on my
+   part. The old boys were very jolly, especially the one with three
+   chins, who smiled paternally upon us and tried to talk. But we
+   were very English and mum, and he thought we didn't understand
+   French, and confided to his friend that he didn't see "how the
+   English could travel and know not the French tongue." They sang,
+   gabbled, slept, and slapped one another at intervals, and were
+   very amusing till they left, and another very handsome Booth-like
+   priest took their places.
+
+
+_To her Father._
+
+     BEX, July 14, 1870.
+
+   DEAR PA,--As I have not written to you yet, I will send you a
+   picture-letter and tell you about the very interesting old Count
+   Sz-- who is here. This morning he asked us to go to the hills and
+   see some curious trees which he says were planted from acorns and
+   nuts brought from Mexico by Atala. We found some very ancient
+   oaks and chestnuts, and the enthusiastic old man told us the
+   story about the Druids who once had a church, amphitheatre, and
+   sacrificial altar up there. No one knows much about it, and he
+   imagines a good deal to suit his own pet theory. You would have
+   liked to hear him hold forth about the races and Zoroaster,
+   Plato, etc. He is a Hungarian of a very old family, descended
+   from Semiramide and Zenobia. He believes that the body can be
+   cured often by influencing the soul, and that doctors should be
+   priests, and priests doctors, as the two affect the body and soul
+   which depend on one another. He is doing a great deal for Miss
+   W., who has tried many doctors and got no help. I never saw such
+   a kindly, simple, enthusiastic, old soul, for at sixty-seven he
+   is as full of hope and faith and good-will as a young man. I told
+   him I should like my father to see a little book he has written,
+   and he is going to give me one.
+
+   We like this quiet little place among the mountains, and pass
+   lazy days; for it is very warm, and we sit about on our balconies
+   enjoying the soft air, the moonlight, and the changing aspect of
+   the hills.
+
+   May had a fine exciting time going up St. Bernard, and is now
+   ready for another....
+
+   The Polish Countess and her daughter have been reading my books
+   and are charmed with them. Madame says she is not obliged to turn
+   down any pages so that the girls may not read them, as she does
+   in many books, "All is so true, so sweet, so pious, she may read
+   every word."
+
+   I send by this mail the count's little pamphlet. I don't know as
+   it amounts to much, but I thought you might like to see it.
+
+   Love to every one, and write often to your
+
+     Affectionate daughter
+     L. M. A.
+
+     BEX, July 18, 1870.
+
+   DEAR PEOPLE,--The breaking out of this silly little war between
+   France and Prussia will play the deuce with our letters. I have
+   had none from you for a long time; and Alexandre, the English
+   waiter here, says that the mails will be left to come as they
+   can, for the railroads are all devoted to carrying troops to the
+   seat of war. The French have already crossed the Rhine, and
+   rumors of a battle came last eve; but the papers have not
+   arrived, and no letters for any one, so all are fuming for news,
+   public and private, and I am howling for my home letter, which is
+   more important than all the papers on the continent....
+
+   Don't be worried if you don't hear regularly, or think us in
+   danger. Switzerland is out of the mess, and if she gets in, we
+   can skip over into Italy, and be as cosey as possible. It will
+   make some difference in money, perhaps, as Munroe in Paris is our
+   banker, and we shall be plagued about our letters, otherwise the
+   war won't effect us a bit; I dare say you know as much about it
+   as we do, and Marmee is predicting "a civil war" all over the
+   world. We hear accounts of the frightful heat with you. Don't
+   wilt away before we come....
+
+   Lady Amberley is a trump, and I am glad she says a word for her
+   poor sex though she _is_ a peeress....
+
+   I should like to have said of me what Hedge says of Dickens; and
+   when I die, I should prefer such a memory rather than a tomb in
+   Westminster Abbey.
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   I hope to have a good letter from Nan soon. May does the
+   descriptions so well that I don't try it, being lazy.
+
+     LU.
+
+
+_To Anna._
+
+     SUNDAY, July 24, 1870.
+
+   ... The war along the Rhine is sending troops of travellers to
+   Switzerland for refuge; and all the large towns are brimful of
+   people flying from Germany. It won't trouble us, for we have done
+   France and don't mean to do Germany. So when August is over, we
+   shall trot forward to Italy, and find a warm place for our
+   winter-quarters. At any time twenty-four hours carries us over
+   the Simplon, so we sit at ease and don't care a straw for old
+   France and Prussia. Russia, it is reported, has joined in the
+   fight, but Italy and England are not going to meddle, so we can
+   fly to either "in case of fire."[9]
+
+     BEX, July 27, 1870.
+
+   We heard of Dickens's death some weeks ago and have been reading
+   notices, etc., in all the papers since. One by G. Greenwood in
+   the Tribune was very nice. I shall miss my old Charlie, but he is
+   not the old idol he once was....
+
+   Did you know that Higginson and a little girl friend had written
+   out the Operatic Tragedy in "Little Women" and set the songs to
+   music and it was all to be put in "Our Young Folks." What are we
+   coming to in our old age? Also I hope to see the next designs N.
+   has got for "Little Women." I know nothing about them.
+
+
+_To her Mother._
+
+     3 P.M., BEX, July 31, 1870.
+
+   Papers are suppressed by the Government so we know nothing about
+   the war, except the rumors that float about. But people seem to
+   think that Europe is in for a general fight, and there is no
+   guessing when it will end.
+
+   The trouble about getting into Italy is, that civil war always
+   breaks out there and things are so mixed up that strangers get
+   into scrapes among the different squabblers. When the P.'s were
+   abroad during the last Italian fuss, they got shut up in some
+   little city and would have been killed by Austrians, who were
+   rampaging round the place drunk and mad, if a woman had not hid
+   them in a closet for a day and night, and smuggled them out at
+   last, when they ran for their lives. I don't mean to get into any
+   mess, and between Switzerland and England we can manage for a
+   winter. London is so near home and so home-like that we shall be
+   quite handy and can run up to Boston at any time. Perhaps Pa will
+   step across to see us.
+
+   All these plans may be knocked in the head to-morrow and my next
+   letter may be dated from the Pope's best parlor or Windsor
+   Castle; but I like to spin about on ups and downs so you can have
+   something to talk about at Apple Slump. Uncertainty gives a
+   relish to things, so we chase about and have a dozen plans a day.
+   It is an Alcott failing you know....
+
+   Love to all and bless you,
+
+     Ever yours
+     LU.
+
+     BEX, Aug. 7, 1870.
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--I keep receiving requests from editors to write
+   for their papers and magazines. I am truly grateful, but having
+   come abroad for rest I am not inclined to try the treadmill till
+   my year's vacation is over. So to appease these worthy gentlemen
+   and excuse my seeming idleness I send you a trifle in rhyme,[10]
+   which you can (if you think it worth the trouble) set going as a
+   general answer to everybody; for I can't pay postage in replies
+   to each separately,--"it's very costly." Mr. F. said he would pay
+   me $10, $15, $20 for any little things I would send him; so
+   perhaps you will let him have it first.
+
+   The war makes the bankers take double toll on our money, so we
+   feel very poor and as if we ought to be earning, not spending;
+   only we are _so_ lazy we can't bear to think of it in earnest....
+
+   We shall probably go to London next month if the war forbids
+   Italy for the winter; and if we can't get one dollar without
+   paying five for it, we shall come home disgusted.
+
+   Perhaps if I can do nothing else this year I could have a book of
+   short stories, old and new, for Christmas. F. and F. have some
+   good ones, and I have the right to use them. We could call them
+   "Jo March's Necessity Stories." Would it go with new ones added
+   and good illustrations?
+
+   I am rising from my ashes in a most phoenix-like manner.
+
+     L. M.A.
+
+
+_To her Mother._
+
+     VEVAY, PENSION PARADIS, Aug. 11, 1870.
+
+   DEAR MARMEE,--.... This house is very cosey, and the food
+   excellent. I thought it would be when I heard gentlemen liked
+   it,--they always want good fodder. There are only three now,--an
+   old Spaniard and his son, and a young Frenchman. We see them at
+   meals, and the girls play croquet with them....
+
+   This is the gay season here, and in spite of the war Vevay is
+   full. The ex-Queen of Spain and her family are here at the Grand
+   Hotel; also Don Carlos, the rightful heir to the Spanish throne.
+   Our landlady says that her house used to be full of Spaniards,
+   who every day went in crowds to call on the two kings, Alphonse
+   and Carlos. We see brown men and women with black eyes driving
+   round in fine coaches, with servants in livery, who I suppose are
+   the Court people.
+
+   The papers tell us that the French have lost two big battles; the
+   Prussians are in Strasbourg, and Paris in a state of siege. The
+   papers are also full of theatrical messages from the French to
+   the people, asking them to come up and be slaughtered for _la
+   patrie_, and sober, cool reports from the Prussians. I side with
+   the Prussians, for they sympathized with us in our war. Hooray
+   for old Pruss!...
+
+   France is having a bad time. Princess Clotilde passed through
+   Geneva the other day with loads of baggage, flying to Italy; and
+   last week a closed car with the imperial arms on it went by here
+   in the night,--supposed to be Matilde and other royal folks
+   flying away from Paris. The Prince Imperial has been sent home
+   from the seat of war; and poor Eugénie is doing her best to keep
+   things quiet in Paris. The French here say that a republic is
+   already talked of; and the Emperor is on his last legs in every
+   way. He is sick, and his doctor won't let him ride, and so
+   nervous he can't command the army as he wanted to. Poor old man!
+   one can't help pitying him when all his plans fail.
+
+   We still dawdle along, getting fat and hearty. The food is
+   excellent. A breakfast of coffee and tip-top bread, fresh butter,
+   with eggs or fried potatoes, at 8; a real French dinner at 1.30,
+   of soup, fish, meat, game, salad, sweet messes, and fruit, with
+   wine; and at 7 cold meat, salad, sauce, tea, and bread and
+   butter. It is grape time now, and for a few cents we get pounds,
+   on which we feast all day at intervals. We walk and play as well
+   as any one, and feel so well I ought to do something....
+
+   Fred and Jack would like to look out of my window now and see the
+   little boys playing in the lake. They are there all day long like
+   little pigs, and lie around on the warm stones to dry, splashing
+   one another for exercise. One boy, having washed himself, is now
+   washing his clothes, and all lying out to dry together....
+
+     Ever yours,
+     LU.
+
+
+_To Anna._
+
+     VEVAY, Aug. 21, 1870.
+
+   I had such a droll dream last night I must tell you. I thought I
+   was returning to Concord after my trip, and was alone. As I
+   walked from the station I missed Mr. Moore's house, and turning
+   the corner, found the scene so changed that I did not know where
+   I was. Our house was gone, and in its place stood a great gray
+   stone castle, with towers and arches and lawns and bridges, very
+   fine and antique. Somehow I got into it without meeting any one
+   of you, and wandered about trying to find my family. At last I
+   came across Mr. Moore, papering a room, and asked him where his
+   house was. He didn't know me, and said,--
+
+   "Oh! I sold it to Mr. Alcott for his school, and we live in Acton
+   now."
+
+   "Where did Mr. Alcott get the means to build this great concern?"
+   I asked.
+
+   "Well, he _gave_ his own land, and took the great pasture his
+   daughter left him,--the one that died some ten years ago."
+
+   "So I am dead, am I?" says I to myself, feeling so queerly.
+
+   "Government helped build this place, and Mr. A. has a fine
+   college here," said Mr. Moore, papering away again.
+
+   I went on, wondering at the news, and looked into a glass to see
+   how I looked dead. I found myself a fat old lady, with gray hair
+   and specs,--very like E. P. P. I laughed, and coming to a Gothic
+   window, looked out and saw hundreds of young men and boys in a
+   queer flowing dress, roaming about the parks and lawns; and among
+   them was Pa, looking as he looked thirty years ago, with brown
+   hair and a big white neckcloth, as in the old times. He looked so
+   plump and placid and young and happy I was charmed to see him,
+   and nodded; but he didn't know me; and I was so grieved and
+   troubled at being a Rip Van Winkle, I cried, and said I had
+   better go away and not disturb any one,--and in the midst of my
+   woe, I woke up. It was all so clear and funny, I can't help
+   thinking that it may be a foreshadowing of something real. I used
+   to dream of being famous, and it has partly become true; so why
+   not Pa's college blossom, and he get young and happy with his
+   disciples? I only hope he won't quite forget me when I come back,
+   fat and gray and old. Perhaps his dream is to come in another
+   world, where everything is fresh and calm, and the reason why he
+   didn't recognize me was because I was still in this work-a-day
+   world, and so felt old and strange in this lovely castle in the
+   air. Well, he is welcome to my fortune; but the daughter who did
+   die ten years ago is more likely to be the one who helped him
+   build his School of Concord up aloft.
+
+   I can see how the dream came; for I had been looking at Silling's
+   boys in their fine garden, and wishing I could go in and know the
+   dear little lads walking about there, in the forenoon. I had got
+   a topknot at the barber's, and talked about my gray hairs, and
+   looking in the glass thought how fat and old I was getting, and
+   had shown the B.'s Pa's picture, which they thought saintly, etc.
+   I believe in dreams, though I am free to confess that
+   "cowcumbers" for tea may have been the basis of this
+   "ally-gorry-cal wision."...
+
+   As we know the Consul at Spezzia,--that is, we have letters to
+   him, as well as to many folks in Rome, etc.,--I guess we shall
+   go; for the danger of Europe getting into the fight is over now,
+   and we can sail to England or home any time from Italy.... Love
+   to every one.
+
+   Kiss my _cousin_ for me.
+
+     Ever your
+     LU.
+
+
+_To Mr. Niles._
+
+     AUGUST 23, 1870.
+
+   Your note of August 2 has just come, with a fine budget of
+   magazines and a paper, for all of which many thanks.
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   Don't give my address to any one. I don't want the young ladies'
+   notes. They can send them to Concord, and I shall get them next
+   year.
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   The boys at Silling's school are a perpetual source of delight to
+   me; and I stand at the gate, like the Peri, longing to go in and
+   play with the lads. The young ladies who want to find live
+   Lauries can be supplied here, for Silling has a large assortment
+   always on hand.
+
+   My B. says she is constantly trying to incite me to literary
+   effort, but I hang fire. So I do,--but only that I may go off
+   with a bang by and by, _à la mitrailleuse_.
+
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+_To her Family._
+
+     VEVAY, Aug. 29, 1870.
+
+   DEAR PEOPLE,--... M. Nicaud, the owner of this house,--a funny
+   old man, with a face so like a parrot that we call him M.
+   Perrot,--asked us to come and visit him at his _châlet_ up among
+   the hills. He is building a barn there, and stays to see that all
+   goes well; so we only see him on Sundays, when he convulses us by
+   his funny ways. Last week seven of us went up in a big landau,
+   and the old dear entertained us like a prince. We left the
+   carriage at the foot of a little steep path, and climbed up to
+   the dearest old _châlet_ we ever saw. Here Pa Nicaud met us, took
+   us up the outside steps into his queer little salon, and regaled
+   us with his sixty-year old wine and nice little cakes. We then
+   set forth, in spite of clouds and wind, to view the farm and
+   wood. It showered at intervals, but no one seemed to care; so we
+   trotted about under umbrellas, getting mushrooms, flowers, and
+   colds, viewing the Tarpeian Rock, and sitting on rustic seats to
+   enjoy the _belle vue_, which consisted of fog. It was such a
+   droll lark that we laughed and ran, and enjoyed the damp picnic
+   very much. Then we had a tip-top Swiss dinner, followed by
+   coffee, three sorts of wine, and cigars. Every one smoked, and as
+   it poured guns, the old Perrot had a blazing fire made, round
+   which we sat, talking many languages, singing, and revelling. We
+   had hardly got through dinner and seen another foggy view when
+   tea was announced, and we stuffed again, having pitchers of
+   cream, fruit, and a queer but very nice dish of slices of light
+   bread dipped in egg and fried, and eaten with sugar. The buxom
+   Swiss maid flew and grinned, and kept serving up some new mess
+   from her tiny dark kitchen. It cleared off, and we walked home in
+   spite of our immense exploits in the eating line. Old Perrot
+   escorted us part way down, and we gave three cheers for him as we
+   parted. Then we showed Madame and the French governess and Don
+   Juan (the Spanish boy) some tall walking, though the roads were
+   very steep and rough and muddy. We tramped some five miles; and
+   our party (May, A., the governess, and I) got home long before
+   Madame and Don Juan, who took a short cut, and wouldn't believe
+   that we didn't get a lift somehow. I felt quite proud of my old
+   pins; for they were not tired, and none the worse for the long
+   walk. I think they are really all right now, for the late cold
+   weather has not troubled them in the least; and I sleep--O ye
+   gods, how I do sleep!--ten or twelve hours sound, and get up so
+   drunk with dizziness it is lovely to see. Aint I grateful? Oh,
+   yes! oh, yes!
+
+   We began French lessons to-day, May and I, of the French
+   governess,--a kind old girl who only asks two francs a lesson. We
+   _must_ speak the language, for it is disgraceful to be so stupid;
+   so we have got to work, and mean to be able to _parlez-vous_ or
+   die. The war is still a nuisance, and we may be here some time,
+   and really need some work; for we are so lazy we shall be spoilt,
+   if we don't fall to....
+
+   I gave Count C. Pa's message, and he was pleased. He reads no
+   English, and is going to Hungary soon; so Pa had better not send
+   the book....
+
+     LU.
+
+     VEVAY, Sept. 10, 1870.
+
+   DEAR PEOPLE,--As all Europe seems to be going to destruction, I
+   hasten to drop a line before the grand smash arrives. We mean to
+   skip over the Alps next week, if weather and war permit; for we
+   are bound to see Milan and the lakes, even if we have to turn and
+   come back without a glimpse of Rome. The Pope is beginning to
+   perk up; and Italy and England and Russia seem ready to join in
+   the war, now that France is down. Think of Paris being bombarded
+   and smashed up like Strasbourg. We never shall see the grand old
+   cathedral at Strasbourg now, it is so spoilt.
+
+   Vevay is crammed with refugees from Paris and Strasbourg. Ten
+   families applied here yesterday....
+
+   Our house is brimful, and we have funny times. The sick Russian
+   lady and her old Ma make a great fuss if a breath of air comes in
+   at meal times, and expect twenty people to sit shut tight in a
+   smallish room for an hour on a hot day. We protested, and Madame
+   put them in the parlor, where they glower as we pass, and lock
+   the door when they can. The German Professor is learning English,
+   and is a quiet, pleasant man. The Polish General, a little
+   cracked, is very droll, and bursts out in the middle of the
+   general chat with stories about transparent apples and golden
+   horses.... Benda, the crack book-and-picture man, has asked May
+   if she was the Miss Alcott who wrote the popular books; for he
+   said he had many calls for them, and wished to know where they
+   could be found. We told him "at London," and felt puffed up....
+
+   May and I delve away at French; but it makes my head ache, and I
+   don't learn enough to pay for the trouble. I never could _study_,
+   you know, and suffer such agony when I try that it is piteous to
+   behold. The little brains I have left I want to keep for future
+   works, and not exhaust them on grammar,--vile invention of Satan!
+   May gets on slowly, and don't have fits after it; so she had
+   better go on (the lessons only cost two francs)....
+
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+_To her Mother._
+
+     LAGO DI COMO, Oct. 8, 1870.
+
+   DEAREST MARMEE,--A happy birthday, and many of 'em! Here we
+   actually are in the long-desired Italy, and find it as lovely as
+   we hoped. Our journey was a perfect success,--sunlight,
+   moonlight, magnificent scenery, pleasant company, no mishaps, and
+   one long series of beautiful pictures all the way.
+
+   Crossing the Simplon is an experience worth having; for without
+   any real danger, fatigue, or hardship, one sees some of the
+   finest as well as most awful parts of these wonderful Alps.
+
+   The road,--a miracle in itself! for all Nature seems to protest
+   against it, and the elements never tire of trying to destroy it.
+   Only a Napoleon would have dreamed of making a path through such
+   a place; and he only cared for it as a way to get his men and
+   cannon into an enemy's country by this truly royal road.
+
+   May has told you about our trip; so I will only add a few bits
+   that she forgot.
+
+   Our start in the dawn from Brieg, with two diligences, a
+   carriage, and a cart, was something between a funeral and a
+   caravan: first an immense diligence with seven horses, then a
+   smaller one with four, then our _calèche_ with two, and finally
+   the carrier's cart with one. It was very exciting,--the general
+   gathering of sleepy travellers in the dark square, the tramping
+   of horses, the packing in, the grand stir of getting off; then
+   the slow winding up, up, up out of the valley toward the sun,
+   which came slowly over the great hills, rising as we never saw it
+   rise before. The still, damp pine-forests kept us in shadow a
+   long time after the white mountain-tops began to shine. Little by
+   little we wound through a great gorge, and then the sun came
+   dazzling between these grand hills, showing us a new world. Peak
+   after peak of the Bernese Oberland rose behind us, and great
+   white glaciers lay before us; while the road crept like a narrow
+   line, in and out over chasms that made us dizzy to look at, under
+   tunnels, and through stone galleries with windows over which
+   dashed waterfalls from the glaciers above. Here and there were
+   refuges, a hospice, and a few _châlets_, where shepherds live
+   their wild, lonely lives. In the P.M. we drove rapidly down
+   toward Italy through the great Valley of Gondo,--a deep rift in
+   rock thousands of feet deep, and just wide enough for the road
+   and a wild stream that was our guide; a never-to-be-forgotten
+   place, and a fit gateway to Italy, which soon lay smiling below
+   us. The change is very striking; and when we came to Lago
+   Maggiore lying in the moonlight we could only sigh for happiness,
+   and love and look and look. After a good night's rest at Stresa,
+   we went in a charming gondola-sort of boat to see Isola
+   Bella,--the island you see in the chromo over the fireplace at
+   home,--a lovely island, with famous castle, garden, and town on
+   it. The day was as balmy as summer, and we felt like butterflies
+   after a frost, and fluttered about, enjoying the sunshine all
+   day.
+
+   A sail by steamer brought us to Luino, where we went on the
+   diligence to Lugano. Moonlight all the way, and a gay driver, who
+   wound his horn as we clattered into market-places and over
+   bridges in the most gallant style. The girls were on top, and in
+   a state of rapture all the way. After supper in a vaulted,
+   frescoed hall, with marble floors, pillars, and galleries, we
+   went to a room which had green doors, red carpet, blue walls, and
+   yellow bed-covers,--all so gay! It was like sleeping in a
+   rainbow.
+
+   As if a heavenly lake under our windows with moonlight _ad
+   libitum_ wasn't enough, we had music next door; and on leaning
+   out of a little back window, we made the splendid discovery that
+   we could look on to the stage of the opera-house across a little
+   alley. My Nan can imagine with what rapture I stared at the
+   scenes going on below me, and how I longed for her as I stood
+   there wrapped in my yellow bed-quilt, and saw gallant knights in
+   armor warble sweetly to plump ladies in masks, or pretty peasants
+   fly wildly from ardent lovers in red tights; also a dishevelled
+   maid who tore her hair in a forest, while a man aloft made
+   thunder and lightning,--and _I saw him do it_!
+
+   It was the climax to a splendid day; for few travellers can go to
+   the opera luxuriously in their night-gowns, and take naps between
+   the acts as I did.
+
+   A lovely sail next morning down the lake; then a carriage to
+   Menaggio; and then a droll boat, like a big covered market-wagon
+   with a table and red-cushioned seats, took us and our trunks to
+   Cadenabbia, for there is only a donkey road to the little town.
+   At the hotel on the edge of the lake we found Nelly L., a sweet
+   girl as lovely as Minnie, and so glad to see us; for since her
+   mother died in Venice last year she has lived alone with her
+   maid. She had waited for us, and next day went to Milan, where
+   we join her on Monday. She paints; and May and she made plans at
+   once to study together, and enjoy some of the free art-schools at
+   Milan and Naples or Florence, if we can all be together. It is a
+   great chance for May, and I mean she shall have a good time, and
+   not wait for tools and teachers; for all is in the way of her
+   profession, and of use to her.
+
+   Cadenabbia is only two hotels and a few villas opposite Bellagio,
+   which is a town, and fashionable. We were rowed over to see it by
+   our boatman, who spends his time at the front of the stone steps
+   before the hotel, and whenever we go out he tells us, "The lake
+   is tranquil; the hour is come for a walk on the water," and is as
+   coaxing as only an Italian can be. He is amiably tipsy most of
+   the time.
+
+   To-day it rains so we cannot go out, and I rest and write to my
+   Marmee in a funny room with a stone floor inlaid till it looks
+   like castile soap, a ceiling in fat cupids and trumpeting
+   fairies, a window on the lake, with balcony, etc. Hand-organs
+   with jolly singing boys jingle all day, and two big bears go by
+   led by a man with a drum. The boys would laugh to see them dance
+   on their hind legs, and shoulder sticks like soldiers.
+
+   ... All looks well, and if the winter goes on rapidly and
+   pleasantly as the summer we shall soon be thinking of home,
+   unless one of us decides to stay. I shall post this at Milan
+   to-morrow, and hope to find letters there from you. By-by till
+   then.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _October_, 1870.--A memorable month.... Off for Italy on the 2d.
+   A splendid journey over the Alps and Maggiore by moonlight.
+
+   Heavenly days at the lakes, and so to Milan, Parma, Pisa,
+   Bologna, and Florence. Disappointed in some things, but found
+   Nature always lovely and wonderful; so didn't mind faded
+   pictures, damp rooms, and the cold winds of "sunny Italy." Bought
+   furs at Florence, and arrived in Rome one rainy night.
+
+   _November 10th._--In Rome, and felt as if I had been there before
+   and knew all about it. Always oppressed with a sense of sin,
+   dirt, and general decay of all things. Not well; so saw things
+   through blue glasses. May in bliss with lessons, sketching, and
+   her dreams. A. had society, her house, and old friends. The
+   artists were the best company; counts and princes very dull, what
+   we saw of them. May and I went off on the Campagna, and
+   criticised all the world like two audacious Yankees.
+
+   Our apartment in Piazza Barbarini was warm and cosey; and I
+   thanked Heaven for it, as it rained for two months, and my first
+   view most of the time was the poor Triton with an icicle on his
+   nose.
+
+   We pay $60 a month for six good rooms, and $6 a month for a girl,
+   who cooks and takes care of us.
+
+   _29th._--My thirty-eighth birthday. May gave me a pretty sketch,
+   and A. a fine nosegay.
+
+In Rome Miss Alcott was shocked and grieved by the news of the death
+of her well-beloved brother-in-law, Mr. Pratt. She has drawn so
+beautiful a picture of him in "Little Women" and in "Little Men," that
+it is hardly needful to dwell upon his character or the grief which
+his death caused her. With her usual care for others, her thoughts at
+once turned to the support of the surviving family, and she found
+comfort in writing "Little Men" with the thought of the dear sister
+and nephews constantly in her heart.
+
+In spite of this great sorrow and anxiety for the dear ones at home,
+the year of travel was very refreshing to her. Her companions were
+congenial, she took great delight in her sister's work, and she was
+independent in her plans, and could go whither and when she would.
+
+The voyage home was a hard one; there was small-pox on board, but Miss
+Alcott fortunately escaped the infection. "Little Men" was out the day
+she arrived, as a bright red placard in the carriage announced, and
+besides all the loving welcomes from family and friends, she received
+the pleasing news that fifty thousand of the books were already sold.
+
+But the old pains and weariness came home with her also. She could not
+stay in Concord, and went again to Boston, hoping to rest and work.
+Her young sister came home to brighten up the family with her hopeful,
+helpful spirit.
+
+At forty years of age Louisa had accomplished the task she set for
+herself in youth. By unceasing toil she had made herself and her
+family independent; debts were all paid, and enough was invested to
+preserve them from want. And yet wants seemed to increase with their
+satisfaction, and she felt impelled to work enough to give to all the
+enjoyments and luxuries which were fitted to them after the
+necessaries were provided for. It may be that her own exhausted
+nervous condition made it impossible for her to rest, and the demand
+which she fancied came from without was the projection of her own
+thought.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   1871.--_Rome._--Great inundation. Streets flooded, churches with
+   four feet of water in them, and queer times for those who were in
+   the overflowed quarters. Meals hoisted up at the window; people
+   carried across the river-like streets to make calls; and all
+   manner of funny doings. We were high and dry at Piazza Barbarini,
+   and enjoyed the flurry.
+
+   To the Capitol often, to spend the A.M. with the Roman emperors
+   and other great men. M. Aurelius as a boy was fine; Cicero looked
+   very like W. Phillips; Agrippina in her chair was charming; but
+   the other ladies, with hair _à la sponge_, were ugly; Nero & Co.
+   a set of brutes and bad men. But a better sight to me was the
+   crowd of poor people going to get the bread and money sent by the
+   king; and the splendid snow-covered hills were finer than the
+   marble beauty inside. Art tires; Nature never.
+
+   Professor Pierce and his party just from Sicily, where they had
+   been to see the eclipse,--all beaming with delight, and well
+   repaid for the long journey by a _two minutes'_ squint at the sun
+   when darkest.
+
+   Began to write a new book, "Little Men," that John's death may
+   not leave A. and the dear little boys in want. John took care
+   that they should have enough while the boys are young, and worked
+   very hard to have a little sum to leave, without a debt anywhere.
+
+   In writing and thinking of the little lads, to whom I must be a
+   father now, I found comfort for my sorrow. May went on with her
+   lessons, "learning," as she wisely said, how little she knew and
+   how to go on.
+
+   _February._--A gay month in Rome, with the carnival, artists'
+   fancy ball, many parties, and much calling.
+
+   Decided to leave May for another year, as L. sends $700 on
+   "Moods," and the new book will provide $1,000 for the dear girl;
+   so she may be happy and free to follow her talent.
+
+   _March._--Spent at Albano. A lovely place. Walk, write, and rest.
+   A troop of handsome officers from Turin, who clatter by, casting
+   soft glances at my two blonde signorinas, who enjoy it very
+   much.[11] Baron and Baroness Rothschild were there, and the W.'s
+   from Philadelphia, Dr. O. W. and wife, and S. B. Mrs. W. and A.
+   B. talk _all day_, May sketches, I write, and so we go on. Went
+   to look at rooms at the Bonapartes.
+
+   _April._--Venice. Floated about for two weeks seeing sights. A
+   lovely city for a short visit. Not enough going on to suit brisk
+   Americans. May painted, A. hunted up old jewelry and friends, and
+   I dawdled after them.
+
+   A very interesting trip to London,--over the Brenner Pass to
+   Munich, Cologne, Antwerp, and by boat to London.
+
+   _May._--A busy month. Settled in lodgings, Brompton Road, and
+   went sight-seeing. Mrs. P. Taylor, Conway, and others very kind.
+   Enjoyed showing May my favorite places and people.
+
+   A. B. went home on the 11th, after a pleasant year with us. I am
+   glad to know her, for she is true and very interesting. May took
+   lessons of Rowbotham and was happy. "Little Men" came out in
+   London.
+
+   I decided to go home on the 25th, as I am needed. A very pleasant
+   year in spite of constant pain, John's death, and home anxieties.
+   Very glad I came, for May's sake. It has been a very useful year
+   for her.
+
+   _June._--After an anxious passage of twelve days, got safely
+   home. Small-pox on board, and my room-mate, Miss D., very ill. I
+   escaped, but had a sober time lying next door to her, waiting to
+   see if my turn was to come. She was left at the island, and I
+   went up the harbor with Judge Russell, who took some of us off in
+   his tug.
+
+   Father and T. N. came to meet me with a great red placard of
+   "Little Men" pinned up in the carriage. After due precautions,
+   hurried home and found all well. My room refurnished and much
+   adorned by Father's earnings.
+
+   Nan well and calm, but under her sweet serenity is a very sad
+   soul, and she mourns for her mate like a tender turtle-dove.
+
+   The boys were tall, bright lads, devoted to Marmee, and the life
+   of the house.
+
+   Mother feeble and much aged by this year of trouble. I shall
+   never go far away from her again. Much company, and loads of
+   letters, all full of good wishes and welcome.
+
+   "Little Men" was out the day I arrived. Fifty thousand sold
+   before it was out.
+
+   A happy month, for I felt well for the first time in two years. I
+   knew it wouldn't last, but enjoyed it heartily while it did, and
+   was grateful for rest from pain and a touch of the old
+   cheerfulness. It was much needed at home.
+
+   _July, August, September._--Sick. Holiday soon over. Too much
+   company and care and change of climate upset the poor nerves
+   again. Dear Uncle S. J. May died; our best friend for years.
+   Peace to his ashes. He leaves a sweeter memory behind him than
+   any man I know. Poor Marmee is the last of her family now.
+
+   _October._--Decided to go to B.; Concord is so hard for me, with
+   its dampness and worry. Get two girls to do the work, and leave
+   plenty of money and go to Beacon Street to rest and try to get
+   well that I may work. A lazy life, but it seemed to suit; and
+   anything is better than the invalidism I hate worse than death.
+
+   Bones ached less, and I gave up morphine, as sunshine, air, and
+   quiet made sleep possible without it. Saw people, pictures,
+   plays, and read all I could, but did not enjoy much, for the
+   dreadful weariness of nerves makes even pleasure hard.
+
+   _November._--May sent pleasant letters and some fine copies of
+   Turner. She decides to come home, as she feels she is needed as I
+   give out. Marmee is feeble, Nan has her boys and her sorrow, and
+   one strong head and hand is wanted at home. A year and a half of
+   holiday is a good deal, and duty comes first always. Sorry to
+   call her back, but her eyes are troublesome, and housework will
+   rest them and set her up. Then she can go again when I am better,
+   for I don't want her to be thwarted in her work more than just
+   enough to make her want it very much.
+
+   On the 19th she came. Well, happy, and full of sensible plans. A
+   lively time enjoying the cheerful element she always brings into
+   the house. Piles of pictures, merry adventures, and interesting
+   tales of the fine London lovers.
+
+   Kept my thirty-ninth and Father's seventy-second birthday in the
+   old way.
+
+   Thanksgiving dinner at Pratt Farm. All well and all together.
+   Much to give thanks for.
+
+   _December._--Enjoyed my quiet, sunny room very much; and this
+   lazy life seems to suit me, for I am better, mind and body. All
+   goes well at home, with May to run the machine in her cheery,
+   energetic style, and amuse Marmee and Nan with gay histories. Had
+   a furnace put in, and all enjoyed the new climate. No more
+   rheumatic fevers and colds, with picturesque open fires. Mother
+   is to be cosey if money can do it. She seems to be now, and my
+   long-cherished dream has come true; for she sits in a pleasant
+   room, with no work, no care, no poverty to worry, but peace and
+   comfort all about her, and children glad and able to stand
+   between trouble and her. Thank the Lord! I like to stop and
+   "remember my mercies." Working and waiting for them makes them
+   very welcome.
+
+   Went to the ball for the Grand Duke Alexis. A fine sight, and the
+   big blonde boy the best of all. Would dance with the pretty
+   girls, and leave the Boston dowagers and their diamonds in the
+   lurch.
+
+   To the Radical Club, where the philosophers mount their hobbies
+   and prance away into time and space, while we gaze after them and
+   try to look wise.
+
+   A merry Christmas at home. Tree for the boys, family dinner, and
+   frolic in the evening.
+
+   A varied, but on the whole a good year, in spite of pain. Last
+   Christmas we were in Rome, mourning for John. What will next
+   Christmas bring forth? I have no ambition now but to keep the
+   family comfortable and not ache any more. Pain has taught me
+   patience, I hope, if nothing more.
+
+   _January_, 1872.--Roberts Brothers paid $4,400 as six months'
+   receipts for the books. A fine New Year's gift. S. E. S. invested
+   $3,000, and the rest I put in the bank for family needs. Paid for
+   the furnace and all the bills. What bliss it is to be able to do
+   that and ask no help!
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   Mysterious bouquets came from some unknown admirer or friend.
+   Enjoyed them very much, and felt quite grateful and romantic as
+   day after day the lovely great nosegays were handed in by the
+   servant of the unknown.
+
+   _February and March._--At Mrs. Stowe's desire, wrote for the
+   "Christian Union" an account of our journey through France, and
+   called it "Shawl Straps."... Many calls and letters and
+   invitations, but I kept quiet, health being too precious to risk,
+   and sleep still hard to get for the brain that would work instead
+   of rest.
+
+   Heard lectures,--Higginson, Bartol, Frothingham, and Rabbi
+   Lilienthal. Much talk about religion. I'd like to see a little
+   more really _lived_.
+
+   _April and May._--Wrote another sketch for the "Independent,"--"A
+   French Wedding;" and the events of my travels paid my winter's
+   expenses. All is fish that comes to the literary net. Goethe puts
+   his joys and sorrows into poems; I turn my adventures into bread
+   and butter.
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   _June_, 1872.--Home, and begin a new task. Twenty years ago I
+   resolved to make the family independent if I could. At forty that
+   is done. Debts all paid, even the outlawed ones, and we have
+   enough to be comfortable. It has cost me my health, perhaps; but
+   as I still live, there is more for me to do, I suppose.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[8] Betsey Prig was a pet name for her sister, as she herself was
+Sairey Gamp.
+
+[9] This was a family joke as Mrs. Alcott always ended her
+instructions to her children "in case of fire."
+
+[10] This is the poem prefixed to the chapter.
+
+[11] See Shawl Straps, p. 179.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+FAMILY CHANGES.
+
+     TRANSFIGURATION.[12]
+
+     IN MEMORIAM.
+
+Lines written by Louisa M. Alcott on the death of her mother.
+
+     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.
+
+     How could we mourn like those who are bereft,
+           When every pang of grief
+           Found balm for its relief
+     In counting up the treasures she had left?--
+
+     Faith that withstood the shocks of toil and time;
+           Hope that defied despair;
+           Patience that conquered care;
+     And loyalty, whose courage was sublime;
+
+     The great deep heart that was a home for all,--
+           Just, eloquent, and strong
+           In protest against wrong;
+     Wide charity, that knew no sin, no fall;
+
+     The spartan spirit that made life so grand,
+           Mating poor daily needs
+           With high, heroic deeds,
+     That wrested happiness from Fate's hard hand.
+
+     We thought to weep, but sing for joy instead,
+           Full of the grateful peace
+           That follows her release;
+     For nothing but the weary dust lies dead.
+
+     Oh, noble woman! never more a queen
+           Than in the laying down
+           Of sceptre and of crown
+     To win a greater kingdom, yet unseen;
+
+     Teaching us how to seek the highest goal,
+           To earn the true success,--
+           To live, to love, to bless,--
+     And make death proud to take a royal soul.
+
+
+The history of the next six years offers little variety of incident in
+Miss Alcott's busy life. She could not work at home in Concord as well
+as in some quiet lodging in Boston, where she was more free from
+interruption from visitors; but she spent her summers with her mother,
+often taking charge of the housekeeping. In 1872 she wrote "Work," one
+of her most successful books. She had begun it some time before, and
+originally called it "Success." It represents her own personal
+experience more than any other book. She says to a friend: "Christie's
+adventures are many of them my own; Mr. Power is Mr. Parker; Mrs.
+Wilkins is imaginary, and all the rest. This was begun at eighteen,
+and never finished till H. W. Beecher wrote to me for a serial for the
+'Christian Union' in 1872, and paid $3,000 for it."
+
+Miss Alcott again sent May to Europe in 1873 to finish her studies,
+and herself continued writing stories to pay the expenses of the
+family. The mother's serious illness weighed heavily on Louisa's
+heart, and through the summer of 1873 she was devoted to the invalid,
+rejoicing in her partial recovery, though sadly feeling that she would
+never be her bright energetic self again. Mrs. Alcott was able,
+however, to keep her birthday (October 8) pleasantly, and out of this
+experience came a story called "A Happy Birthday." This little tale
+paid for carriages for the invalid. It is included in "Aunt Jo's
+Scrap-Bag."
+
+Louisa and her mother decided to spend the winter in Boston, while Mr.
+Alcott was at the West. Her thoughts dwell much upon her father's
+life, and she is not content that he has not all the recognition and
+enjoyment that she would gladly give him. She helps her mother to
+perform the sacred duty of placing a tablet on Colonel May's grave,
+and the dear old lady recognizes that her life has gone down into the
+past, and says, "This isn't my Boston, and I never want to see it any
+more."
+
+Louisa was at this time engaged in writing for "St. Nicholas" and "The
+Independent."
+
+The return of the young artist, happy in her success, brings
+brightness to the home-circle. In the winter of 1875 Miss Alcott takes
+her old place at the Bellevue, where May can have her drawing-classes.
+She was herself ill, and the words, "No sleep without morphine!" tell
+the story of nervous suffering.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _July_, 1872.--May makes a lovely hostess, and I fly round behind
+   the scenes, or skip out of the back window when ordered out for
+   inspection by the inquisitive public. Hard work to keep things
+   running smoothly, for this sight-seeing fiend is a new torment to
+   us.
+
+   _August._--May goes to Clark's Island for rest, having kept hotel
+   long enough. I say "No," and shut the door. People _must_ learn
+   that authors have some rights; I can't entertain a dozen a day,
+   and write the tales they demand also. I'm but a human worm, and
+   when walked on must turn in self-defence.
+
+   Reporters sit on the wall and take notes; artists sketch me as I
+   pick pears in the garden; and strange women interview Johnny as
+   he plays in the orchard.
+
+   It looks like impertinent curiosity to me; but it is called
+   "fame," and considered a blessing to be grateful for, I find. Let
+   'em try it.
+
+   _September._--To Wolcott, with Father and Fred. A quaint, lovely
+   old place is the little house on Spindle Hill, where the boy Amos
+   dreamed the dreams that have come true at last.
+
+   Got hints for my novel, "The Cost of an Idea," if I ever find
+   time to write it.
+
+   Don't wonder the boy longed to climb those hills, and see what
+   lay beyond.
+
+   _October._--Went to a room in Allston Street, in a quiet,
+   old-fashioned house. I can't work at home, and need to be alone
+   to spin, like a spider.
+
+   Rested; walked; to the theatre now and then. Home once a week
+   with books, etc., for Marmee and Nan. Prepared "Shawl Straps" for
+   Roberts.
+
+   _November._--Forty on the 29th. Got Father off for the West, all
+   neat and comfortable. I enjoyed every penny spent, and had a
+   happy time packing his new trunk with warm flannels, neat shirts,
+   gloves, etc., and seeing the dear man go off in a new suit,
+   overcoat, hat, and all, like a gentleman. We both laughed over
+   the pathetic old times with tears in our eyes, and I reminded him
+   of the "poor as poverty, but serene as heaven" saying.
+
+   Something to do came just as I was trying to see what to take up,
+   for work is my salvation. H. W. Beecher sent one of the editors
+   of the "Christian Union" to ask for a serial story. They have
+   asked before, and offered $2,000, which I refused; now they
+   offered $3,000, and I accepted.
+
+   Got out the old manuscript of "Success," and called it "Work."
+   Fired up the engine, and plunged into a vortex, with many doubts
+   about getting out. Can't work slowly; the thing possesses me, and
+   I must obey till it's done. One thousand dollars was sent as a
+   seal on the bargain, so I was bound, and sat at the oar like a
+   galley-slave.
+
+   F. wanted eight little tales, and offered $35 apiece; used to pay
+   $10. Such is fame! At odd minutes I wrote the short ones, and so
+   paid my own expenses. "Shawl Straps," Scrap-Bag, No. 2, came out,
+   and went well.
+
+   Great Boston fire; up all night. Very splendid and terrible
+   sight.
+
+   _December._--Busy with "Work." Write three pages at once on
+   impression paper, as Beecher, Roberts, and Low of London all want
+   copy at once.
+
+   [This was the cause of the paralysis of my thumb, which disabled
+   me for the rest of my life.--L. M. A.]
+
+   Nan and the boys came to visit me, and break up the winter.
+   Rested a little, and played with them.
+
+   Father very busy and happy. On his birthday had a gold-headed
+   cane given him. He is appreciated out there.
+
+During these western trips, Mr. Alcott found that his daughter's fame
+added much to the warmth of his reception. On his return he loved to
+tell how he was welcomed as the "grandfather of 'Little Women.'" When
+he visited schools, he delighted the young audiences by satisfying
+their curiosity as to the author of their favorite book, and the truth
+of the characters and circumstances described in it.
+
+     BOSTON, 1872.
+
+   DEAR MARMEE,--Had a very transcendental day yesterday, and at
+   night my head was "swelling wisibly" with the ideas cast into it.
+
+   The club was a funny mixture of rabbis and weedy old ladies, the
+   "oversoul" and oysters. Papa and B. flew clean out of sight like
+   a pair of Platonic balloons, and we tried to follow, but
+   couldn't.
+
+   In the P.M. went to R. W. E.'s reading. All the literary birds
+   were out in full feather. This "'umble" worm was treated with
+   distinguished condescension. Dr. B. gave me his noble hand to
+   press, and murmured compliments with the air of a bishop
+   bestowing a benediction. Dear B. beamed upon me from the depths
+   of his funny little cloak and said, "We are getting on well,
+   ain't we?" W. bowed his Jewish head, and rolled his fine eye at
+   me. Several dreadful women purred about me, and I fled.
+
+   M. said what I liked,--that he'd sent my works to his mother, and
+   the good old lady told him to tell me that she couldn't do a
+   stroke of work, but just sat and read 'em right through; she
+   wished she was young so as to have a long life in which to keep
+   on enjoying such books. The peacock liked that.
+
+   I have paid all my own expenses out of the money earned by my
+   little tales; so I have not touched the family income.
+
+   Didn't mean to write; but it has been an expensive winter, and my
+   five hundred has made me all right. The $500 I lent K. makes a
+   difference in the income; but I could not refuse her, she was so
+   kind in the old hard times.
+
+   At the reading a man in front of me sat listening and knitting
+   his brows for a time, but had to give it up and go to sleep.
+   After it was over some one said to him, "Well, what do you think
+   of it?" "It's all very fine I have no doubt; but I'm blessed if I
+   can understand a word of it," was the reply....
+
+   The believers glow when the oracle is stuck, rustle and beam when
+   he is audible, and nod and smile as if they understood perfectly
+   when he murmurs under the desk! We are a foolish set!
+
+
+_Journal_.
+
+   _January_, 1873.--Getting on well with "Work;" have to go slowly
+   now for fear of a break-down. All well at home.
+
+   A week at Newport with Miss Jane Stewart. Dinners, balls, calls,
+   etc. Saw Higginson and "H. H." Soon tired of gayety, and glad to
+   get home to my quiet den and pen.
+
+   Roberts Brothers paid me $2,022 for books. S. E. S. invested most
+   of it, with the $1,000 F. sent. Gave C. M. $100,--a
+   thank-offering for my success. I like to help the class of
+   "silent poor" to which we belonged for so many years,--needy, but
+   respectable, and forgotten because too proud to beg. Work
+   difficult to find for such people, and life made very hard for
+   want of a little money to ease the necessary needs.
+
+   _February and March._--Anna very ill with pneumonia; home to
+   nurse her. Father telegraphed to come home, as we thought her
+   dying. She gave me her boys; but the dear saint got well, and
+   kept the lads for herself. Thank God!
+
+   Back to my work with what wits nursing left me.
+
+   Had Johnny for a week, to keep all quiet at home. Enjoyed the
+   sweet little soul very much, and sent him back much better.
+
+   Finished "Work,"--twenty chapters. Not what it should be,--too
+   many interruptions. Should like to do one book in peace, and see
+   if it wouldn't be good.
+
+   _April_--The job being done I went home to take May's place. Gave
+   her $1,000, and sent her to London for a year of study. She
+   sailed on the 26th, brave and happy and hopeful. I felt that she
+   needed it, and was glad to be able to help her.
+
+   I spent seven months in Boston; wrote a book and ten tales;
+   earned $3,250 by my pen, and am satisfied with my winter's work.
+
+   _May._--D. F. wanted a dozen little tales, and agreed to pay $50
+   apiece, if I give up other things for this. Said I would, as I
+   can do two a day, and keep house between times. Cleaned and
+   grubbed, and didn't mind the change. Let head rest, and heels and
+   feet do the work.
+
+   Cold and dull; but the thought of May free and happy was my
+   comfort as I messed about.
+
+   _June and July._--Settled the servant question by getting a neat
+   American woman to cook and help me with the housework.
+
+   Peace fell upon our troubled souls, and all went well. Good
+   meals, tidy house, cheerful service, and in the P.M. an
+   intelligent young person to read and sew with us.
+
+   It was curious how she came to us. She had taught and sewed, and
+   was tired, and wanted something else; decided to try for a
+   housekeeper's place, but happened to read "Work," and thought
+   she'd do as Christie did,--take anything that came.
+
+   I was the first who answered her advertisement, and when she
+   found I wrote the book, she said, "I'll go and see if Miss A.
+   practises as she preaches."
+
+   She found I did, and we had a good time together. My new helper
+   did so well I took pale Johnny to the seaside for a week; but was
+   sent for in haste, as poor Marmee was very ill. Mental
+   bewilderment came after one of her heart troubles (the dropsy
+   affected the brain), and for three weeks we had a sad time.
+   Father and I took care of her, and my good A. S. kept house
+   nicely and faithfully for me.
+
+   Marmee slowly came back to herself, but sadly feeble,--never to
+   be our brave, energetic leader any more. She felt it, and it was
+   hard to convince her that there was no need of her doing anything
+   but rest.
+
+   _August, September, October._--Mother improved steadily. Father
+   went to the Alcott festival in Walcott, A. and boys to Conway
+   for a month; and it did them all much good.
+
+   I had quiet days with Marmee; drove with her, and had the great
+   pleasure of supplying all her needs and fancies.
+
+   May busy and happy in London. A merry time on Mother's birthday,
+   October 8. All so glad to have her still here; for it seemed as
+   if we were to lose her.
+
+   Made a little story of it for F.,--"A Happy Birthday."--and spent
+   the $50 in carriages for her.
+
+   _November and December._--Decided that it was best not to try a
+   cold, lonely winter in C., but go to B. with Mother, Nan, and
+   boys, and leave Father free for the West.
+
+   Took sunny rooms at the South End, near the Park, so the lads
+   could play out and Marmee walk. She enjoyed the change, and sat
+   at her window watching people, horse-cars, and sparrows with
+   great interest. Old friends came to see her, and she was happy.
+   Found a nice school for the boys; and Nan enjoyed her quiet days.
+
+   _January_, 1874.--Mother quite ill this month. Dr. Wesselhoeft
+   does his best for the poor old body, now such a burden to her.
+   The slow decline has begun, and she knows it, having nursed her
+   mother to the same end.
+
+   Father disappointed and rather sad, to be left out of so much
+   that he would enjoy and should be asked to help and adorn. A
+   little more money, a pleasant house and time to attend to it, and
+   I'd bring all the best people to see and entertain _him_. When I
+   see so much twaddle going on I wonder those who can don't get up
+   something better, and have really good things.
+
+   When I had the youth I had no money; now I have the money I have
+   no time; and when I get the time, if I ever do, I shall have no
+   health to enjoy life. I suppose it's the discipline I need; but
+   it's rather hard to love the things I do and see them go by
+   because duty chains me to my galley. If I come into port at last
+   with all sail set that will be reward perhaps.
+
+   Life always was a puzzle to me, and gets more mysterious as I go
+   on. I shall find it out by and by and see that it's all right, if
+   I can only keep brave and patient to the end.
+
+   May still in London painting Turners, and doing pretty panels as
+   "pot-boilers." They sell well, and she is a thrifty child. Good
+   luck to our mid-summer girl.
+
+   _February._--Father has several conversations at the Clubs and
+   Societies and Divinity School. No one pays anything; but they
+   seem glad to listen. There ought to be a place for him.
+
+   Nan busy with her boys, and they doing well at school,--good,
+   gay, and intelligent; a happy mother and most loving little sons.
+
+   I wrote two tales, and got $200. Saw Charles Kingsley,--a
+   pleasant man. His wife has Alcott relations, and likes my books.
+   Asked us to come and see him in England; is to bring his
+   daughters to Concord by and by.
+
+   _March._--May came home with a portfolio full of fine work. Must
+   have worked like a busy bee to have done so much.
+
+   Very happy in her success; for she has proved her talent, having
+   copied Turner so well that Ruskin (meeting her in the National
+   Gallery at work) told her that she had "caught Turner's spirit
+   wonderfully." She has begun to copy Nature, and done well. Lovely
+   sketches of the cloisters in Westminster Abbey, and other
+   charming things.
+
+   I write a story for all my men, and make up the $1,000 I planned
+   to earn by my "pot-boilers" before we go back to C.
+
+   A tablet to Grandfather May is put in Stone Chapel, and one
+   Sunday A.M. we take Mother to see it. A pathetic sight to see
+   Father walk up the broad aisle with the feeble old wife on his
+   arm as they went to be married nearly fifty years ago. Mother sat
+   alone in the old pew a little while and sung softly the old
+   hymns; for it was early, and only the sexton there. He asked who
+   she was and said his father was sexton in Grandfather's time.
+
+   Several old ladies came in and knew Mother. She broke down
+   thinking of the time when she and her mother and sisters and
+   father and brothers all went to church together, and we took her
+   home saying, "This isn't my Boston; all my friends are gone; I
+   never want to see it any more."
+
+   [She never did.--L. M. A.]
+
+   _April and May._--Back to Concord, after May and I had put all in
+   fine order and made the old house lovely with her pictures. When
+   all were settled, with May to keep house, I went to B. for rest,
+   and took a room in Joy Street.
+
+   The Elgin Watch Company offered me a gold watch or $100 for a
+   tale. Chose the money, and wrote the story "My Rococo Watch"[13]
+   for them.
+
+   _October._--Took two nice rooms at the Hotel Bellevue for the
+   winter; May to use one for her classes. Tried to work on my book,
+   but was in such pain could not do much. Got no sleep without
+   morphine. Tried old Dr. Hewett, who was sure he could cure the
+   woe....
+
+   _November._--Funny time with the publishers about the tale; for
+   all wanted it at once, and each tried to outbid the other for an
+   unwritten story. I rather enjoyed it, and felt important with
+   Roberts, Low, and Scribner all clamoring for my "'umble" works.
+   No peddling poor little manuscripts now, and feeling rich with
+   $10. The golden goose can sell her eggs for a good price, if she
+   isn't killed by too much driving.
+
+   _December._--Better and busier than last month.
+
+   All well at home, and Father happy among his kind Westerners.
+   Finish "Eight Cousins," and get ready to do the temperance tale,
+   for F. offers $700 for six chapters,--"Silver Pitchers."
+
+   _January_, 1875.-- ... Father flourishing about the Western
+   cities, "riding in Louisa's chariot, and adored as the
+   grandfather of 'Little Women,'" he says.
+
+   _February._--Finish my tale and go to Vassar College on a visit.
+   See M. M., talk with four hundred girls, write in stacks of
+   albums and school-books, and kiss every one who asks me. Go to
+   New York; am rather lionized, and run away; but things look
+   rather jolly, and I may try a winter there some time, as I need a
+   change and new ideas.
+
+   _March._--Home again, getting ready for the centennial fuss.
+
+   _April._--On the 19th a grand celebration. General _break-down_,
+   owing to an unwise desire to outdo all the other towns; too many
+   people....
+
+Miss Alcott was very much interested in the question of Woman
+Suffrage, and exerted herself to get up a meeting in Concord. The
+subject was then very unpopular, and there was an ill-bred effort to
+destroy the meeting by noise and riot. Although not fond of speaking
+in public, she always put herself bravely on the side of the
+unpopular cause, and lent to it all the argument of her heroic life.
+When Mrs. Livermore lectured at Concord, Miss Alcott sat up all night
+talking with her on the great question. She had an opportunity of
+trying which was most exhausting, abuse or admiration, when she went
+to a meeting of the Women's Congress at Syracuse, in October. She was
+introduced to the audience by Mrs. Livermore, and the young people
+crowded about her like bees about a honeycomb. She was waylaid in the
+streets, petitioned for autographs, kissed by gushing young maidens,
+and made emphatically the lion of the hour. It was all so genial and
+spontaneous, that she enjoyed the fun. No amount of adulation ever
+affected the natural simplicity of her manners. She neither despised
+nor overrated her fame; but was glad of it as a proof of success in
+what she was ever aiming to do. She spent a few weeks in New York
+enjoying the gay and literary society which was freely opened to her;
+but finding most satisfaction in visiting the Tombs, Newsboys' Home,
+and Randall's Island, for she liked these things better than parties
+and dinners.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _June, July, August_, 1875.--Kept house at home, with two Irish
+   incapables to trot after, and ninety-two guests in one month to
+   entertain. Fame is an expensive luxury. I can do without it. This
+   is my worst scrape, I think. I asked for bread, and got a
+   stone,--in the shape of a pedestal.
+
+   _September and October_, 1875.--I go to Woman's Congress in
+   Syracuse, and see Niagara. Funny time with the girls.
+
+   Write loads of autographs, dodge at the theatre, and am kissed to
+   death by gushing damsels. One energetic lady grasped my hand in
+   the crowd, exclaiming, "If you ever come to Oshkosh, your feet
+   will not be allowed to touch the ground: you will be borne in the
+   arms of the people! Will you come?" "Never," responded Miss A.,
+   trying to look affable, and dying to laugh as the good soul
+   worked my arm like a pump-handle, and from the gallery
+   generations of girls were looking on. "This, this, is fame!"
+
+   _November, December._--Take a room at Bath Hotel, New York, and
+   look about me. Miss Sally Holly is here, and we go about
+   together. She tells me much of her life among the freedmen, and
+   Mother is soon deep in barrels of clothes, food, books, etc., for
+   Miss A. to take back with her.
+
+   See many people, and am very gay for a country-mouse. Society
+   unlike either London or Boston.
+
+   Go to Sorosis, and to Mrs. Botta's, O. B. Frothingham's, Miss
+   Booth's, and Mrs. Croly's receptions.
+
+   Visit the Tombs, Newsboys' Home, and Randall's Island on
+   Christmas Day with Mrs. Gibbons. A memorable day. Make a story of
+   it. Enjoy these things more than the parties and dinners.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Dodge._
+
+     NEW YORK, Oct. 5, 1875.
+
+   DEAR MRS. DODGE,--So far, New York seems inviting, though I have
+   not seen or done much but "gawk round" as the country folks do. I
+   have seen Niagara, and enjoyed my vacation very much, especially
+   the Woman's Congress in Syracuse. I was made a member, so have
+   the honor to sign myself,
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. ALCOTT, M. C.
+
+
+_To her Father._
+
+     NEW YORK, Nov. 26, 1875.
+
+   DEAR SEVENTY-SIX,--As I have nothing else to send you on our
+   joint birthday, I'll despatch a letter about some of the people I
+   have lately seen in whom you take an interest.
+
+   Tuesday we heard Gough on "Blunders," and it was very good,--both
+   witty and wise, earnest and sensible. Wednesday eve to Mr.
+   Frothingham's for his Fraternity Club meeting. Pleasant people.
+   Ellen F.; Abby Sage Richardson, a very lovely woman; young Putnam
+   and wife; Mrs. Stedman; Mattie G. and her spouse, Dr. B., who
+   read a lively story of Mormon life; Mrs. Dodge; O. Johnson and
+   wife, and many more whose names I forget.
+
+   After the story the given subject for discussion was brought
+   up,--"Conformity and Noncomformity." Mr. B., a promising young
+   lawyer, led one side, Miss B. the other, and Mr. F. was in the
+   chair. It was very lively; and being called upon, I piped up, and
+   went in for nonconformity when principle was concerned. Got
+   patted on the head for my remarks, and didn't disgrace myself
+   except by getting very red and talking fast.
+
+   Ellen F. was very pleasant, and asked much about May. Proudly I
+   told of our girl's achievements, and E. hoped she would come to
+   New York. Mrs. Richardson was presented, and we had some
+   agreeable chat. She is a great friend of O. B. F., and is
+   lecturing here on "Literature." Shall go and hear her, as she is
+   coming to see me.
+
+   O. B. F. was as polished and clear and cool and witty as usual;
+   most gracious to the "'umble" Concord worm; and Mrs. F. asked me
+   to come and see them.
+
+   Yesterday took a drive with Sally H. in Central Park as it was
+   fine, and she had no fun on her Thanksgiving. I dined at Mrs.
+   Botta's, for she kindly came and asked me. Had a delightful time,
+   and felt as if I'd been to Washington; for Professor Byng, a
+   German ex-consul, was there, full of Capitol gossip about Sumner
+   and all the great beings that there do congregate. Mr. Botta you
+   know,--a handsome, long-haired Italian, very cultivated and
+   affable.
+
+   Also about Lord H., whom B. thought "an amiable old woman," glad
+   to say pretty things, and fond of being lionized. Byng knew Rose
+   and Una, and asked about them; also told funny tales of Victor
+   Emmanuel and his Court, and queer adventures in Greece, where he,
+   B., was a consul, or something official. It was a glimpse into a
+   new sort of world; and as the man was very accomplished, elegant,
+   and witty, I enjoyed it much.
+
+   We had music later, and saw some fine pictures. Durant knew Miss
+   Thackeray, J. Ingelow, and other English people whom I did, so we
+   had a good dish of gossip with Mrs. Botta, while the others
+   talked three or four languages at once.
+
+   It is a delightful house, and I shall go as often as I may, for
+   it is the sort of thing I like much better than B. H. and
+   champagne.
+
+   To-night we go to hear Bradlaugh; to-morrow, a new play; Sunday,
+   Frothingham and Bellows; and Monday, Mrs. Richardson and
+   Shakespeare.
+
+   But it isn't all play, I assure you. I'm a thrifty butterfly,
+   and have written three stories. The "G." has paid for the little
+   Christmas tale; the "I." has "Letty's Tramp;" and my "girl paper"
+   for "St. Nick" is about ready. Several other papers are waiting
+   for tales, so I have a ballast of work to keep me steady in spite
+   of much fun.
+
+   Mr. Powell has been twice to see me, and we go to visit the
+   charities of New York next week. I like to see both sides, and
+   generally find the busy people most interesting.
+
+   So far I like New York very much, and feel so well I shall stay
+   on till I'm tired of it. People begin to tell me how much better
+   I look than when I came, and I have not an ache to fret over.
+   This, after such a long lesson in bodily ails, is a blessing for
+   which I am duly grateful.
+
+   Hope all goes well with you, and that I shall get a line now and
+   then. I'll keep them for you to _bind_ up by and by instead of
+   mine....
+
+   We can buy a carriage some other time, and a barn likewise, and a
+   few other necessities of life. Rosa has proved such a good
+   speculation we shall dare to let May venture another when the
+   ship comes in. I am glad the dear "rack-a-bones" is a comfort to
+   her mistress, only don't let her break my boy's bones by any
+   antics when she feels her oats.
+
+   I suppose you are thinking of Wilson just now, and his quiet
+   slipping away to the heavenly council chambers where the good
+   senators go. Rather like Sumner's end, wasn't it? No wife or
+   children, only men and servants. Wilson was such a genial,
+   friendly soul I should have thought he would have felt the
+   loneliness very much. Hope if he left any last wishes his mates
+   will carry them out faithfully....
+
+   Now, dear Plato, the Lord bless you, and keep you serene and
+   happy for as many years as He sees fit, and me likewise, to be a
+   comfort as well as a pride to you.
+
+     Ever your loving
+     FORTY-THREE
+
+
+_To her Nephews._
+
+     NEW YORK, Dec. 4, 1875.
+
+   DEAR FRED AND DONNY,--We went to see the news-boys, and I wish
+   you'd been with us, it was so interesting. A nice big house has
+   been built for them, with dining-room and kitchen on the first
+   floor, bath-rooms and school-room next, two big
+   sleeping-places,--third and fourth stories,--and at the top a
+   laundry and gymnasium. We saw all the tables set for
+   breakfast,--a plate and bowl for each,--and in the kitchen great
+   kettles, four times as big as our copper boiler, for tea and
+   coffee, soup, and meat. They have bread and meat and coffee for
+   breakfast, and bread and cheese and tea for supper, and get their
+   own dinners out. School was just over when we got there, and one
+   hundred and eighty boys were in the immense room with desks down
+   the middle, and all around the walls were little cupboards
+   numbered. Each boy on coming in gives his name, pays six cents,
+   gets a key, and puts away his hat, books, and jacket (if he has
+   'em) in his own cubby for the night. They pay five cents for
+   supper, and schooling, baths, etc., are free. They were a
+   smart-looking set, larking round in shirts and trousers,
+   barefooted, but the faces were clean, and the heads smooth, and
+   clothes pretty decent; yet they support themselves, for not one
+   of them has any parents or home but this. One little chap, only
+   six, was trotting round as busy as a bee, locking up his small
+   shoes and ragged jacket as if they were great treasures. I asked
+   about little Pete, and the man told us his brother, only nine,
+   supported him and took care of him entirely; and wouldn't let
+   Pete be sent away to any home, because _he_ wished to have "his
+   family" with him.
+
+   Think of that, Fred! How would it seem to be all alone in a big
+   city, with no mamma to cuddle you; no two grandpa's houses to
+   take you in; not a penny but what you earned, and Donny to take
+   care of? Could you do it? Nine-year-old Patsey does it capitally;
+   buys Pete's clothes, pays for his bed and supper, and puts
+   pennies in the savings-bank. There's a brave little man for you!
+   I wanted to see him; but he is a newsboy, and sells late papers,
+   because, though harder work, it pays better, and the coast is
+   clear for those who do it.
+
+   The savings-bank was a great table all full of slits, each one
+   leading to a little place below and numbered outside, so each boy
+   knew his own. Once a month the bank is opened, and the lads take
+   out what they like, or have it invested in a big bank for them to
+   have when they find homes out West, as many do, and make good
+   farmers. One boy was putting in some pennies as we looked, and I
+   asked how much he had saved this month. "Fourteen dollars,
+   ma'am," says the thirteen-year-older, proudly slipping in the
+   last cent. A prize of $3 is offered to the lad who saves the most
+   in a month.
+
+   The beds upstairs were in two immense rooms, ever so much larger
+   than our town hall,--one hundred in one, and one hundred and
+   eighty in another,--all narrow beds with a blue quilt, neat
+   pillow, and clean sheet. They are built in long rows, one over
+   another, and the upper boy has to climb up as on board ship. I'd
+   have liked to see one hundred and eighty all in their "by-lows"
+   at once, and I asked the man if they didn't train when all were
+   in. "Lord, ma'am, they're up at five, poor little chaps, and are
+   so tired at night that they drop off right away. Now and then
+   some boy kicks up a little row, but we have a watchman, and he
+   soon settles 'em."
+
+   He also told me how that very day a neat, smart young man came
+   in, and said he was one of their boys who went West with a farmer
+   only a little while ago; and now he owned eighty acres of land,
+   had a good house, and was doing well, and had come to New York to
+   find his sister, and to take her away to live with him. Wasn't
+   that nice? Lots of boys do as well. Instead of loafing round the
+   streets and getting into mischief, they are taught to be tidy,
+   industrious, and honest, and then sent away into the wholesome
+   country to support themselves.
+
+   It was funny to see 'em scrub in the bath-room,--feet and
+   faces,--comb their hair, fold up their old clothes in the dear
+   cubbies, which make them so happy because they feel that they
+   _own_ something.
+
+   The man said every boy wanted one, even though he had neither
+   shoes nor jacket to put in it; but would lay away an old rag of a
+   cap or a dirty tippet with an air of satisfaction fine to see.
+   Some lads sat reading, and the man said they loved it so they'd
+   read all night, if allowed. At nine he gave the word, "Bed!" and
+   away went the lads, trooping up to sleep in shirts and trousers,
+   as nightgowns are not provided. How would a boy I know like
+   that,--a boy who likes to have "trommin" on his nighties? Of
+   course, I don't mean dandy Don! Oh, dear no!
+
+   After nine [if late in coming in] they are fined five cents;
+   after ten, ten cents; and after eleven they can't come in at all.
+   This makes them steady, keeps them out of harm, and gives them
+   time for study. Some go to the theatre, and sleep anywhere; some
+   sleep at the Home, but go out for a better breakfast than they
+   get there, as the swell ones are fond of goodies, and live well
+   in their funny way. Coffee and cakes at Fulton Market is "the
+   tip-top grub," and they often spend all their day's earnings in a
+   play and a supper, and sleep in boxes or cellars after it.
+
+   Lots of pussies were round the kitchen; and one black one I
+   called a bootblack, and a gray kit that yowled loud was a
+   newsboy. That made some chaps laugh, and they nodded at me as I
+   went out. Nice boys! but I know some nicer ones. Write and tell
+   me something about my poor Squabby.
+
+     By-by, your
+     WEEDY.
+
+
+_To her Family._
+
+     SATURDAY EVENING, Dec. 25, 1875.
+
+   DEAR FAMILY,-- ... I had only time for a word this A.M., as the
+   fourth letter was from Mrs. P. to say they could not go; so I
+   trotted off in the fog at ten to the boat, and there found Mr.
+   and Mrs. G. and piles of goodies for the poor children. She is a
+   dear little old lady in a close, Quakerish bonnet and plain suit,
+   but wide-awake and full of energy. It was grand to see her tackle
+   the big mayor and a still bigger commissioner, and tell them what
+   _ought_ to be done for the poor things on the Island, as they are
+   to be routed; for the city wants the land for some dodge or
+   other. Both men fled soon, for the brave little woman was down on
+   'em in a way that would have made Marmee cry "Ankore!" and clap
+   her dress-gloves to rags.
+
+   When the rotundities had retired, she fell upon a demure priest,
+   and read him a sermon; and then won the heart of a boyish
+   reporter so entirely that he stuck to us all day, and helped
+   serve out dolls and candy like a man and a brother. Long life to
+   him!
+
+   Mr. G. and I discussed pauperism and crime like two old
+   wiseacres; and it was sweet to hear the gray-headed couple say
+   "thee" and "thou," "Abby" and "James," to one another, he
+   following with the bundles wherever the little poke-bonnet led
+   the way. I've had a pretty good variety of Christmases in my day,
+   but never one like this before. First we drove in an old
+   ramshackle hack to the chapel, whither a boy had raced before us,
+   crying joyfully to all he met, "She's come! Miss G.--she's come!"
+   And all faces beamed, as well they might, since for thirty years
+   she has gone to make set after set of little forlornities happy
+   on this day.
+
+   The chapel was full. On one side, in front, girls in blue gowns
+   and white pinafores; on the other, small chaps in pinafores
+   likewise; and behind them, bigger boys in gray suits with cropped
+   heads, and larger girls with ribbons in their hair and pink
+   calico gowns. They sang alternately; the girls gave "Juanita"
+   very well, the little chaps a pretty song about poor children
+   asking a "little white angel" to leave the gates of heaven ajar,
+   so they could peep in, if no more. Quite pathetic, coming from
+   poor babies who had no home but this.
+
+   The big boys spoke pieces, and I was amused when one bright lad
+   in gray, with a red band on his arm, spoke the lines I gave
+   G.,--"Merry Christmas." No one knew me, so I had the joke to
+   myself; and I found afterward that I was taken for the mayoress,
+   who was expected. Then we drove to the hospital, and there the
+   heart-ache began, for me at least, so sad it was to see these
+   poor babies, born of want and sin, suffering every sort of
+   deformity, disease, and pain. Cripples half blind, scarred with
+   scrofula, burns, and abuse,--it was simply awful and
+   indescribable!
+
+   As we went in, I with a great box of dolls and the young
+   reporter with a bigger box of candy, a general cry of delight
+   greeted us. Some children tried to run, half-blind ones stretched
+   out their groping hands, little ones crawled, and big ones
+   grinned, while several poor babies sat up in their bed, beckoning
+   us to "come quick."
+
+   One poor mite, so eaten up with sores that its whole face was
+   painted with some white salve,--its head covered with an oilskin
+   cap; one eye gone, and the other half filmed over; hands
+   bandaged, and ears bleeding,--could only moan and move its feet
+   till I put a gay red dolly in one hand and a pink candy in the
+   other; then the dim eye brightened, the hoarse voice said feebly,
+   "Tanky, lady!" and I left it contentedly sucking the sweetie, and
+   _trying_ to _see_ its dear new toy. It can't see another
+   Christmas, and I like to think I helped make this one happy, even
+   for a minute.
+
+   It was pleasant to watch the young reporter trot round with the
+   candy-box, and come up to me all interest to say, "One girl
+   hasn't got a doll, ma'am, and looks _so_ disappointed."
+
+   After the hospital, we went to the idiot house; and there I had a
+   chance to see faces and figures that will haunt me a long time. A
+   hundred or so of half-grown boys and girls ranged down a long
+   hall, a table of toys in the middle, and an empty one for Mrs.
+   G.'s gifts. A cheer broke out as the little lady hurried in
+   waving her handkerchief and a handful of gay bead necklaces, and
+   "Oh! Ohs!" followed the appearance of the doll-lady and the candy
+   man.
+
+   A pile of gay pictures was a new idea, and Mrs. G. told me to
+   hold up some bright ones and see if the poor innocents would
+   understand and enjoy them. I held up one of two kittens lapping
+   spilt milk, and the girls began to mew and say "Cat! ah,
+   pretty." Then a fine horse, and the boys bounced on their benches
+   with pleasure; while a ship in full sail produced a cheer of
+   rapture from them all.
+
+   Some were given out to the good ones, and the rest are to be
+   pinned round the room; so the pictures were a great success. All
+   wanted dolls, even boys of nineteen; for all were children in
+   mind. But the girls had them, and young women of eighteen cuddled
+   their babies and were happy. The boys chose from the toy-table,
+   and it was pathetic to see great fellows pick out a squeaking dog
+   without even the wit to pinch it when it was theirs. One dwarf of
+   thirty-five chose a little Noah's ark, and brooded over it in
+   silent bliss.
+
+   Some with beards sucked their candy, and stared at a toy cow or
+   box of blocks as if their cup was full. One French girl sang the
+   Marseillaise in a feeble voice, and was so overcome by her new
+   doll that she had an epileptic fit on the spot, which made two
+   others go off likewise; and a slight pause took place while they
+   were kindly removed to sleep it off.
+
+   A little tot of four, who hadn't sense to put candy in its mouth,
+   was so fond of music that when the girls sang the poor vacant
+   face woke up, and a pair of lovely soft hazel eyes stopped
+   staring dully at nothing, and went wandering to and fro with
+   light in them, as if to find the only sound that can reach its
+   poor mind.
+
+   I guess I gave away two hundred dolls, and a soap-box of candy
+   was empty when we left. But rows of sticky faces beamed at us,
+   and an array of gay toys wildly waved after us, as if we were
+   angels who had showered goodies on the poor souls.
+
+   Pauper women are nurses; and Mrs. G. says the babies die like
+   sheep, many being deserted so young nothing can be hoped or done
+   for them. One of the teachers in the idiot home was a Miss C.,
+   who remembered Nan at Dr. Wilbur's. Very lady-like, and all
+   devotion to me. But such a life! Oh, me! Who _can_ lead it, and
+   not go mad?
+
+   At four, we left and came home, Mrs. G. giving a box of toys and
+   sweeties on board the boat for the children of the men who run
+   it. So leaving a stream of blessings and pleasures behind her,
+   the dear old lady drove away, simply saying, "There now, I shall
+   feel better for the next year!" Well she may; bless her!
+
+   She made a speech to the chapel children after the Commissioner
+   had prosed in the usual way, and she told 'em that _she_ should
+   come as long as she could, and when she was gone her children
+   would still keep it up in memory of her; so for thirty years more
+   she hoped this, their one holiday, would be made happy for them.
+   I could have hugged her on the spot, the motherly old dear!
+
+   Next Wednesday we go to the Tombs, and some day I am to visit the
+   hospital with her, for I like this better than parties, etc.
+
+   I got home at five, and then remembered that I'd had no lunch; so
+   I took an apple till six, when I discovered that all had dined at
+   one so the helpers could go early this evening. Thus my Christmas
+   day was without dinner or presents, for the first time since I
+   can remember. Yet it has been a very memorable day, and I feel as
+   if I'd had a splendid feast seeing the poor babies wallow in
+   turkey soup, and that every gift I put into their hands had come
+   back to me in the dumb delight of their unchild-like faces trying
+   to smile.
+
+After the pleasant visit in New York, Miss Alcott returned to Boston,
+where she went into society more than usual, often attending clubs,
+theatres, and receptions. She was more lionized than ever, and had a
+natural pleasure in the attention she received.
+
+The summer of 1876 she spent at Concord, nursing her mother, who was
+very ill. She here wrote "Rose in Bloom," the sequel to "Eight
+Cousins," in three weeks. It was published in November.
+
+Louisa was anxious that her sister should have a home for her young
+family. Mrs. Pratt invested what she could of her husband's money in
+the purchase, and Louisa contributed the rest. This was the so-called
+Thoreau House on the main street in Concord, which became Mrs. Pratt's
+home, and finally that of her father.
+
+Louisa spent the summer of 1877 in Concord. Her mother's illness
+increased, and she was herself very ill in August. Yet she wrote this
+summer one of her brightest and sweetest stories, "Under the Lilacs."
+Her love of animals is specially apparent in this book, and she
+records going to the circus to make studies for the performing dog
+Sanch.
+
+During the winter of 1877, Miss Alcott went to the Bellevue for some
+weeks, and having secured the necessary quiet, devoted herself to the
+writing of a novel for the famous No Name Series published by Roberts
+Brothers. This book had been in her mind for some time, as is seen by
+the journal. As it was to appear anonymously, and was not intended for
+children, she was able to depart from her usual manner, and indulge
+the weird and lurid fancies which took possession of her in her
+dramatic days, and when writing sensational stories. She was much
+interested, and must have written it very rapidly, as it was published
+in April. She enjoyed the excitement of her _incognito_, and was much
+amused at the guesses of critics and friends, who attributed the book
+to others, and were sure Louisa Alcott did not write it, because its
+style was so unlike hers.
+
+It certainly is very unlike the books Miss Alcott had lately written.
+It has nothing of the home-like simplicity and charm of "Little
+Women," "Old-Fashioned Girl," and the other stories with which she was
+delighting the children, and, with "Moods," must always be named as
+exceptional when speaking of her works. Still, a closer study of her
+life and nature will reveal much of her own tastes and habits of
+thought in the book; and it is evident that she wrote _con amore_, and
+was fascinated by the familiars she evoked, however little charm they
+may seem to possess to others. She was fond of Hawthorne's books. The
+influence of his subtle and weird romances is undoubtedly perceptible
+in the book, and it is not strange that it was attributed to his son.
+She says it had been simmering in her brain ever since she read
+"Faust" the year before; and she clearly wished to work according to
+Goethe's thought,--that the Prince of Darkness was a gentleman, and
+must be represented as belonging to the best society.
+
+The plot is powerful and original. A young poet, with more ambition
+than genius or self-knowledge, finds himself, at nineteen, friendless,
+penniless, and hopeless, and is on the point of committing suicide.
+He is saved by Helwyze, a middle-aged man, who has been severely
+crippled by a terrible fall, and his heart seared by the desertion of
+the woman he loved. A man of intellect, power, imagination, and
+wealth, but incapable of conscientious feeling or true love, he is a
+dangerous savior for the impulsive poet; but he takes him to his home,
+warms, feeds, and shelters him, and promises to bring out his book.
+The brilliant, passionate woman who gave up her lover when his health
+and beauty were gone, returned to him when youth had passed, and would
+gladly have devoted herself to soothing his pain and enriching his
+life. Her feeling is painted with delicacy and tenderness.
+
+But Helwyze's heart knew nothing of the divine quality of forgiveness;
+for his love there was no resurrection; and he only valued the power
+he could exercise over a brilliant woman, and the intellectual
+entertainment she could bring him. A sweet young girl, Olivia's
+protegee, completes the very limited _dramatis personæ_.
+
+The young poet, Felix Canaris, under the guidance of his new friend,
+wins fame, success, and the young girl's heart; but his wayward fancy
+turns rather to the magnificent Olivia. The demoniac Helwyze works
+upon this feeling, and claims of Olivia her fair young friend Gladys
+as a wife for Felix, who is forced to accept her at the hands of his
+master. She is entirely responsive to the love which she fancies she
+has won, and is grateful for her fortunate lot, and devotes herself to
+the comfort and happiness of the poor invalid who delights in her
+beauty and grace. For a time Felix enjoys a society success, to which
+his charming wife, as well as his book, contribute. But at last this
+excitement flags. He writes another book, which he threatens to burn
+because he is dissatisfied with it. Gladys entreats him to spare it,
+and Helwyze offers to read it to her. She is overcome and melted with
+emotion at the passion and pathos of the story; and when Helwyze asks,
+"Shall I burn it?" Felix answers, "No!" Again the book brings success
+and admiration, but the tender wife sees that it does not insure
+happiness, and that her husband is plunging into the excitement of
+gambling.
+
+The demon Helwyze has complete control over the poet, which he
+exercises with such subtle tyranny that the young man is driven to the
+dreadful thought of murder to escape from him; but he is saved from
+the deed by the gentle influence of his wife, who has won his heart at
+last, unconscious that it had not always been hers.
+
+Helwyze finds his own punishment. One being resists his power,--Gladys
+breathes his poisoned atmosphere unharmed. He sends for Olivia as his
+ally to separate the wife from her husband's love. A passion of
+curiosity possesses him to read her very heart; and at last he resorts
+to a strange means to accomplish his purpose. He gives her an exciting
+drug without her knowledge, and under its influence she speaks and
+acts with a rare genius which calls forth the admiration of all the
+group. Left alone with her, Helwyze exercises his magnetic power to
+draw forth the secrets of her heart; but he reads there only a pure
+and true love for her husband, and fear of the unhallowed passion
+which he is cherishing. The secret of his power over the husband is at
+last revealed. Canaris has published as his own the work of Helwyze,
+and all the fame and glory he has received has been won by deceit, and
+is a miserable mockery.
+
+The tragic result is inevitable. Gladys dies under the pressure of a
+burden too heavy for her,--the knowledge of deceit in him she had
+loved and trusted; while the stricken Helwyze is paralyzed, and lives
+henceforth only a death in life.
+
+With all the elements of power and beauty in this singular book, it
+fails to charm and win the heart of the reader. The circumstances are
+in a romantic setting, but still they are prosaic; and tragedy is only
+endurable when taken up into the region of the ideal, where the
+thought of the universal rounds out all traits of the individual. In
+Goethe's Faust, Margaret is the sweetest and simplest of maidens; but
+in her is the life of all wronged and suffering womanhood.
+
+The realism which is delightful in the pictures of little women and
+merry boys is painful when connected with passions so morbid and lives
+so far removed from joy and sanity. As in her early dramas and
+sensational stories, we do not find Louisa Alcott's own broad,
+generous, healthy life, or that which lay around her, in this book,
+but the reminiscences of her reading, which she had striven to make
+her own by invention and fancy.
+
+This note refers to "A Modern Mephistopheles":--
+
+     [1877.]
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--I had to keep the proof longer than I meant
+   because a funeral came in the way.
+
+   The book as last sent is lovely, and much bigger than I expected.
+
+   Poor "Marmee," ill in bed, hugged it, and said, "It is perfect!
+   only I do wish your name could be on it." She is very proud of
+   it; and tender-hearted Anna weeps and broods over it, calling
+   Gladys the best and sweetest character I ever did. So much for
+   home opinion; now let's see what the public will say.
+
+   May clamors for it; but I don't want to send this till she has
+   had one or two of the others. Have you sent her "Is That All?" If
+   not, please do; then it won't look suspicious to send only "M.
+   M."
+
+   I am so glad the job is done, and hope it won't disgrace the
+   series. Is not another to come before this? I hope so; for many
+   people suspect what is up, and I could tell my fibs about No. 6
+   better if it was not mine.
+
+   Thanks for the trouble you have taken to keep the secret. Now the
+   fun will begin.
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+   P. S.--Bean's expressman grins when he hands in the daily parcel.
+   He is a Concord man.
+
+By Louisa's help the younger sister again went abroad in 1876; and her
+bright affectionate letters cheered the little household, much
+saddened by the mother's illness.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _January_, 1876.--Helped Mrs. Croly receive two hundred
+   gentlemen.
+
+   A letter from Baron Tauchnitz asking leave to put my book in his
+   foreign library, and sending 600 marks to pay for it. Said, "Yes,
+   thank you, Baron."
+
+   Went to Philadelphia to see Cousin J. May installed in Dr.
+   Furness's pulpit. Dull place is Philadelphia. Heard Beecher
+   preach; did not like him....
+
+   Went home on the 21st, finding I could not work here. Soon tire
+   of being a fine lady.
+
+   _February and March._--Took a room in B., and fell to work on
+   short tales for F. T. N. wanted a centennial story; but my
+   frivolous New York life left me no ideas. Went to Centennial Ball
+   at Music Hall, and got an idea.
+
+   Wrote a tale of "'76," which with others will make a catchpenny
+   book. Mother poorly, so I go home to nurse her.
+
+   _April, May, and June._--Mother better. Nan and boys go to P.
+   farm. May and I clean the old house. It seems as if the dust of
+   two centuries haunted the ancient mansion, and came out spring
+   and fall in a ghostly way for us to clear up.
+
+   Great freshets and trouble.
+
+   Exposition in Philadelphia; don't care to go. America ought to
+   pay her debts before she gives parties. "Silver Pitchers," etc.,
+   comes out, and goes well. Poor stuff; but the mill must keep on
+   grinding even chaff.
+
+   _June._--Lovely month! Keep hotel and wait on Marmee.
+
+   Try to get up steam for a new serial, as Mrs. Dodge wants one,
+   and Scribner offers $3,000 for it. Roberts Brothers want a novel;
+   and the various newspapers and magazines clamor for tales. My
+   brain is squeezed dry, and I can only wait for help.
+
+   _July, August._--Get an idea and start "Rose in Bloom," though I
+   hate sequels.
+
+   _September._--On the 9th my dear girl sails in the "China" for a
+   year in London or Paris. God be with her! She has done her
+   distasteful duty faithfully, and deserved a reward. She cannot
+   find the help she needs here, and is happy and busy in her own
+   world over there.
+
+   [She never came home.--L. M. A.]
+
+   Finish "Rose."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+   _November._--"Rose" comes out; sells well.
+
+   ... Forty-four years old. My new task gets on slowly; but I keep
+   at it, and can be a prop, if not an angel, in the house, as Nan
+   is.
+
+   _December._--Miss P. sends us a pretty oil sketch of May,--so
+   like the dear soul in her violet wrapper, with yellow curls piled
+   up, and the long hand at work. Mother delights in it.
+
+   She (M.) is doing finely, and says, "I am getting on, and I feel
+   as if it was not all a mistake; for I have some talent, and will
+   prove it." Modesty is a sign of genius, and I think our girl has
+   both. The money I invest in her pays the sort of interest I like.
+   I am proud to have her show what she can do, and have her depend
+   upon no one but me. Success to little Raphael! My dull winter is
+   much cheered by her happiness and success.
+
+   _January, February, 1877._--The year begins well. Nan keeps
+   house; boys fine, tall lads, good and gay; Father busy with his
+   new book; Mother cosey with her sewing, letters, Johnson, and
+   success of her "girls."
+
+   Went for some weeks to the Bellevue, and wrote "A Modern
+   Mephistopheles" for the No Name Series. It has been simmering
+   ever since I read Faust last year. Enjoyed doing it, being tired
+   of providing moral pap for the young. Long to write a novel, but
+   cannot get time enough.
+
+   May's letters our delight. She is so in earnest she will not stop
+   for pleasure, rest, or society, but works away like a Trojan. Her
+   work admired by masters and mates for its vigor and character.
+
+   _March._--Begin to think of buying the Thoreau place for Nan. The
+   $4,000 received from the Vt. and Eastern R. Rs. must be invested,
+   and she wants a home of her own, now the lads are growing up.
+
+   Mother can be with her in the winter for a change, and leave me
+   free to write in B. Concord has no inspiration for me.
+
+   _April._--May, at the request of her teacher, M. Muller, sends a
+   study of still life to the Salon. The little picture is accepted,
+   well hung, and praised by the judges. No friend at court, and the
+   modest work stood on its own merits. She is very proud to see her
+   six months' hard work bear fruit. A happy girl, and all say she
+   deserves the honor.
+
+   "M. M." appears and causes much guessing. It is praised and
+   criticised, and I enjoy the fun, especially when friends say, "I
+   know _you_ didn't write it, for you can't hide your peculiar
+   style."
+
+   Help to buy the house for Nan,--$4,500. So she has _her_ wish,
+   and is happy. When shall I have mine? Ought to be contented with
+   knowing I help both sisters by my brains. But I'm selfish, and
+   want to go away and rest in Europe. Never shall.
+
+   _May, June._--Quiet days keeping house and attending to Marmee,
+   who grows more and more feeble. Helped Nan get ready for her new
+   home.
+
+   Felt very well, and began to hope I had outlived the neuralgic
+   worries and nervous woes born of the hospital fever and the hard
+   years following.
+
+   May living alone in Paris, while her mates go jaunting,--a
+   solitary life; but she is so busy she is happy and safe. A good
+   angel watches over her. Take pleasant drives early in the A.M.
+   with Marmee. She takes her comfort in a basket wagon, and we
+   drive to the woods, picking flowers and stopping where we like.
+   It keeps her young, and rests her weary nerves.
+
+   _July._--Got too tired, and was laid up for some weeks. A curious
+   time, lying quite happily at rest, wondering what was to come
+   next.
+
+   _August._--As soon as able began "Under the Lilacs," but could
+   not do much.
+
+Mrs. Alcott grew rapidly worse, and her devoted daughter recognized
+that the final parting was near. As Louisa watched by the bedside she
+wrote "My Girls," and finished "Under the Lilacs."
+
+The journal tells the story of the last days of watching, and of the
+peaceful close of the mother's self-sacrificing yet blessed life.
+Louisa was very brave in the presence of death. She had no dark
+thoughts connected with it; and in her mother's case, after her long,
+hard life, she recognized how "growing age longed for its peaceful
+sleep."
+
+The tie between this mother and daughter was exceptionally strong and
+tender. The mother saw all her own fine powers reproduced and
+developed in her daughter; and if she also recognized the passionate
+energy which had been the strength and the bane of her own life, it
+gave her only a more constant watchfulness to save her child from the
+struggles and regrets from which she had suffered herself.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _September_, 1877.--On the 7th Marmee had a very ill turn, and
+   the doctor told me it was the beginning of the end. [Water on the
+   chest.] She was so ill we sent for Father from Walcott; and I
+   forgot myself in taking care of poor Marmee, who suffered much
+   and longed to go.
+
+   As I watched with her I wrote "My Girls," to go with other tales
+   in a new "Scrap Bag," and finished "Under the Lilacs." I foresaw
+   a busy or a sick winter, and wanted to finish while I could, so
+   keeping my promise and earning my $3,000.
+
+   Brain very lively and pen flew. It always takes an exigency to
+   spur me up and wring out a book. Never have time to go slowly and
+   do my best.
+
+   _October._--Fearing I might give out, got a nurse and rested a
+   little, so that when the last hard days come I might not fail
+   Marmee, who says, "Stay by, Louy, and help me if I suffer too
+   much." I promised, and watched her sit panting life away day
+   after day. We thought she would not outlive her seventy-seventh
+   birthday, but, thanks to Dr. W. and homoeopathy, she got
+   relief, and we had a sad little celebration, well knowing it
+   would be the last. Aunt B. and L. W. came up, and with fruit,
+   flowers, smiling faces, and full hearts, we sat round the brave
+   soul who faced death so calmly and was ready to go.
+
+   I overdid and was very ill,--in danger of my life for a
+   week,--and feared to go before Marmee. But pulled through, and
+   got up slowly to help her die. A strange month.
+
+   _November._--Still feeble, and Mother failing fast. On the 14th
+   we were both moved to Anna's at Mother's earnest wish.
+
+   A week in the new home, and then she ceased to care for
+   anything. Kept her bed for three days, lying down after weeks in
+   a chair, and on the 25th, at dusk, that rainy Sunday, fell
+   quietly asleep in my arms.
+
+   She was very happy all day, thinking herself a girl again, with
+   parents and sisters round her. Said her Sunday hymn to me, whom
+   she called "Mother," and smiled at us, saying, "A smile is as
+   good as a prayer." Looked often at the little picture of May, and
+   waved her hand to it, "Good-by, little May, good-by!"
+
+   Her last words to Father were, "You are laying a very soft pillow
+   for me to go to sleep on."
+
+   We feared great suffering, but she was spared that, and slipped
+   peacefully away. I was so glad when the last weary breath was
+   drawn, and silence came, with its rest and peace.
+
+   On the 27th it was necessary to bury her, and we took her quietly
+   away to Sleepy Hollow. A hard day, but the last duty we could do
+   for her; and there we left her at sunset beside dear Lizzie's
+   dust,--alone so long.
+
+   On the 28th a memorial service, and all the friends at
+   Anna's,--Dr. Bartol and Mr. Foote of Stone Chapel. A simple,
+   cheerful service, as she would have liked it.
+
+   Quiet days afterward resting in her rest.
+
+   My duty is done, and now I shall be glad to follow her.
+
+   _December._--Many kind letters from all who best knew and loved
+   the noble woman.
+
+   I never wish her back, but a great warmth seems gone out of life,
+   and there is no motive to go on now.
+
+   My only comfort is that I _could_ make her last years
+   comfortable, and lift off the burden she had carried so bravely
+   all these years. She was so loyal, tender, and true; life was
+   hard for her, and no one understood all she had to bear but we,
+   her children. I think I shall soon follow her, and am quite
+   ready to go now she no longer needs me.
+
+   _January_, 1878.--An idle month at Nan's, for I can only suffer.
+
+   Father goes about, being restless with his anchor gone. Dear Nan
+   is house-mother now,--so patient, so thoughtful and tender; I
+   need nothing but that cherishing which only mothers can give.
+
+   May busy in London. Very sad about Marmee; but it was best not to
+   send for her, and Marmee forbade it, and she has some very
+   _tender friends_ near her.
+
+   _February._--... Wrote some lines on Marmee.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Dodge._
+
+     CONCORD, June 3 [1877].
+
+   DEAR MRS. DODGE,--The tale[14] goes slowly owing to
+   interruptions, for summer is a busy time, and I get few quiet
+   days. Twelve chapters are done, but are short ones, and so will
+   make about six or seven numbers in "St. Nicholas."
+
+   I will leave them divided in this way that you may put in as many
+   as you please each month; for trying to suit the magazine hurts
+   the story in its book form, though this way does no harm to the
+   monthly parts, I think.
+
+   I will send you the first few chapters during the week for Mrs.
+   Foote, and with them the schedule you suggest, so that my infants
+   may not be drawn with whiskers, and my big boys and girls in
+   pinafores, as in "Eight Cousins."
+
+   I hope the new baby won't be set aside too soon for my
+   illustrations; but I do feel a natural wish to have one story
+   prettily adorned with good pictures, as hitherto artists have
+   much afflicted me.
+
+   I am daily waiting with anxiety for an illumination of some sort,
+   as my plot is very vague so far; and though I don't approve of
+   "sensations" in children's books, one must have a certain thread
+   on which to string the small events which make up the true sort
+   of child-life.
+
+   I intend to go and simmer an afternoon at Van Amburg's great
+   show, that I may get hints for the further embellishment of Ben
+   and his dog. I have also put in a poem by F. B. S.'s small
+   son,[15] and that hit will give Mrs. Foote a good scene with the
+   six-year-old poet reciting his verses under the lilacs.
+
+   I shall expect the small tots to be unusually good, since the
+   artist has a live model to study from. Please present my
+   congratulations to the happy mamma and Mr. Foote, Jr.
+
+     Yours _warmly_,
+     L. M. A.
+
+     AUGUST 21, 1879.
+
+   DEAR MRS. DODGE,--I have not been able to do anything on the
+   serial.... But after a week at the seaside, to get braced up for
+   work, I intend to begin. The Revolutionary tale does not seem to
+   possess me. I have casually asked many of my young folks, when
+   they demand a new story, which they would like, one of that sort
+   or the old "Eight Cousin" style, and they all say the latter. It
+   would be much the easier to do, as I have a beginning and a plan
+   all ready,--a village, and the affairs of a party of children. We
+   have many little romances going on among the Concord boys and
+   girls, and all sorts of queer things, which will work into "Jack
+   and Jill" nicely. Mrs. Croly has been anxious for a story, and I
+   am trying to do a short one, as I told her you had the refusal
+   of my next serial. I hope you will not be very much disappointed
+   about the old-time tale. It would take study to do it well, and
+   leisure is just what I have not got, and I shall never have, I
+   fear, when writing is to be done. I will send you a few chapters
+   of "Jack and Jill" when in order, if you like, and you can decide
+   if they will suit. I shall try to have it unlike the others if
+   possible, but the dears _will_ cling to the "Little Women" style.
+
+   I have had a very busy summer, but have been pretty well, and
+   able to do my part in entertaining the four hundred philosophers.
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+     SEPTEMBER 17 [1879].
+
+   DEAR MRS. DODGE,--Don't let me _prose_. If I seem to be declining
+   and falling into it, pull me up, and I'll try to prance as of
+   old. Years tame down one's spirit and fancy, though they only
+   deepen one's love for the little people, and strengthen the
+   desire to serve them wisely as well as cheerfully. Fathers and
+   mothers tell me they use my books as helps for themselves; so now
+   and then I like to slip in a page for them, fresh from the
+   experience of some other parent, for education seems to me to be
+   _the_ problem in our times.
+
+   Jack and Jill are right out of our own little circle, and the
+   boys and girls are in a twitter to know what is going in; so it
+   will be a "truly story" in the main.
+
+   Such a long note for a busy woman to read! but your cheery word
+   was my best "starter;" and I'm, more than ever,
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+MAY ALCOTT NIERIKER.
+
+   Born at Concord, July, 1840. Died in Paris, December, 1879.
+
+This younger sister became so dear to Louisa, and through the legacy
+which she left to her of an infant child, exercised so great an
+influence over the last ten years of her life, that it will not be
+uninteresting to trace out the course of her life and the development
+of her character. May was born before the experiments at Fruitlands,
+and her childhood passed during the period when the fortunes of the
+family were at the lowest ebb; but she was too young to feel in all
+their fulness the cares which weighed upon the older sisters. Her
+oldest sister--the affectionate, practical Anna--almost adopted May as
+her own baby, and gave her a great deal of the attention and care
+which the mother had not time for amid her numerous avocations. The
+child clung to Anna with trust and affection; but with her quick fancy
+and lively spirit, she admired the brilliant qualities of Louisa.
+Hasty in temperament, quick and impulsive in action, she quarrelled
+with Louisa while she adored her, and was impatient with her rebukes,
+which yet had great influence over her. She had a more facile nature
+than the other sisters, and a natural, girlish love of attention, and
+a romantic fondness for beauty in person and style in living. Graceful
+in figure and manners, with a fine complexion, blue eyes, and a
+profusion of light wavy hair, she was attractive in appearance; and a
+childish frankness, and acceptance of sympathy or criticism, disarmed
+those who were disposed to find fault with her.
+
+May is very truly described in "Little Women," and her character is
+painted with a discerning but loving hand: "A regular snow maiden,
+with blue eyes, and yellow hair curling on her shoulders, pale and
+slender, and always carrying herself like a young lady mindful of her
+manners." Many little touches of description show the consciousness of
+appearance and love of admiration which she innocently betrayed, and
+illustrate the relation of the sisters: "'Don't stop to quirk your
+little finger and prink over your plate, Amy,' cried Jo." Her mother
+says of this daughter in her diary: "She does all things well; her
+capabilities are much in her eyes and fingers. When a child, I
+observed with what ease and grace she did little things."
+
+According to Louisa, "If anybody had asked Amy what the greatest trial
+of her life was, she would have answered at once, 'My nose.' No one
+minded it but herself, and it was doing its best to grow; but Amy felt
+deeply the want of a Grecian nose, and drew whole sheets of handsome
+ones to console herself." "Little Raphael," as the sisters called her,
+very early developed a love and talent for drawing which became the
+delight of her life. She covered her books with sketches, but managed
+to escape reprimand by being a model of deportment. Always having in
+her mind an ideal of elegant life, the many little trials of their
+times of poverty were of course severe mortifications to her; and the
+necessity of wearing dresses which came to her from others, and which
+were ugly in themselves or out of harmony with her own appearance,
+caused her much affliction. She was always generous and easily
+reconciled after a quarrel, and was a favorite with her companions,
+and the heroine of those innocent little love episodes which, as
+Tennyson says,--
+
+                 "Are but embassies of love
+     To tamper with the feelings, ere he found
+     Empire for life."[16]
+
+While May was too young to take the part in the support of the family
+which fell to Anna and Louisa, she was yet a blessing and comfort by
+her kind, bright nature. After the death of Elizabeth in 1858, her
+mother speaks of "turning to the little May for comfort," and her
+father's letters show how dear she was to him, although she never
+entered into his intellectual life.
+
+May shared in the blessing of Louisa's first success, for she went to
+the School of Design in 1859 for the lessons in her art, for which she
+longed so eagerly. In 1860 an old friend sent her thirty dollars for
+lessons in drawing, and she had the best instruction she could then
+receive in Boston.
+
+In 1863, Louisa procured for her the great advantage of study with Dr.
+Rimmer, who was then giving his precious lessons in art anatomy in
+Boston. Under his instructions, May gave some attention to modelling,
+and completed an ideal bust. Although she did not pursue this branch
+of art, it was undoubtedly of great service in giving her more
+thorough knowledge of the head, and a bolder and firmer style of
+drawing than she would have gained in any other way.
+
+As will be seen from Louisa's journal, May was frequently with her in
+Boston, engaged in studying or teaching. By the kindness of a friend,
+she went to Europe in 1870, when Louisa accompanied her. Louisa sent
+her to Europe for a year of study in 1873, and again in 1877. In
+London and Paris she had good opportunities for study, and improved
+rapidly in her art. She made some admirable copies from Turner which
+attracted the attention of Ruskin; and a picture from still life was
+accepted at the Paris Salon, which event gave great happiness to the
+family circle and friends at home.
+
+May was very generous in giving to others help in the art she loved.
+While at home, in the intervals of her studies in Europe, she tried to
+form an art centre in Concord, and freely gave her time, her
+instruction, and the use of her studio to young artists. She wrote a
+little book to aid them in prosecuting their studies abroad, called
+"Studying Art Abroad, and How to do it Cheaply."
+
+Like the rest of the family, May composed with great ease, and
+sometimes wrote little stories. Her letters are very sprightly and
+agreeable.
+
+While residing in London, May had become acquainted with a young Swiss
+gentleman, whose refined and artistic tastes were closely in unison
+with her own. During the sad days of bereavement caused by her
+mother's death he was a kind and sympathetic friend, soothing her
+grief and cheering her solitude by his music. Thus, frequently
+together, their friendship became love, and they were betrothed. The
+course of this true love, which for a time ran swiftly and smoothly,
+is most exquisitely depicted in May's letters to her family. The
+charming pictures of herself and her young lover are so like Amy and
+her Laurie in his happiest moods, that we almost feel as if Miss
+Alcott had been prophetic in her treatment of these characters in
+"Little Women."
+
+I wish I could give her own natural, frank account of this event. May
+had the secret of perpetual youth, at least in spirit; and in reading
+her letters, one has no consciousness that more than thirty years had
+passed over her head, for they had taken no drop of freshness from her
+heart.
+
+The union of this happy pair was not a surprise to the friends at
+home, who had read May's heart, revealed in her frank, innocent
+letters, more clearly than she had supposed. When the claims of
+business called Mr. Nieriker from London, the hearts of the young
+couple quailed before the idea of separation, and they decided to be
+married at once, and go together. The simple ceremony was performed in
+London, March 22, 1878; and May started on her journey, no longer
+alone, but with a loving friend by her side.
+
+May's letters are full of the most artless joy in her new life. The
+old days of struggle and penury are gone; the heart-loneliness is no
+more; the world is beautiful, and everybody loving and kind. Life in
+the modest French home is an idyllic dream, and she writes to her
+sisters of every detail of her household. The return of her husband at
+sunset is a feast, and the evening is delightful with poetry and
+music. Her blue dress, her crimson furniture, satisfy her artistic
+sense. She does not neglect her art, but paints with fresh
+inspiration, and waits for his criticism and praise. She says, "He is
+very ambitious for my artistic success, and is my most severe critic."
+In the morning she finds her easel set out for her, a fire burning
+ready for her comfort, and her husband in the big arm-chair waiting to
+read to her, or to take his violin and pose for his picture in gray
+velvet paletot and red slippers.[17]
+
+For the time conjugal love is all sufficient, and May wonders at
+herself that the happiness of the moment can so drown every
+remembrance of sorrow. Yet a pathetic note is occasionally heard, as
+she mourns for the mother who is gone, or yearns for the sister who
+has been such a strength to her through life. The picturesqueness and
+ease of French life make America look stupid and forlorn, and she has
+no wish to go home, but only to have her dear ones share in her
+happiness. Her work in art was successful; and the money she received
+for it was not unacceptable, although her husband's income sufficed
+for their modest wants. She was justified in her grateful feeling that
+she was singularly blessed. Her husband's family were German-Swiss of
+high standing, artistic temperament, and warm affections. His mother
+and sister came to visit them, and took May to their hearts with
+cordial love.
+
+Among the pictures painted by May at this time the most remarkable is
+the portrait of a negro girl, which is a very faithful study from
+life, and gives the color and characteristic traits of a beautiful
+negro without exaggeration. The expression of the eyes is tender and
+pathetic, well-suited to the fate of a slave girl. Such earnest study
+would have borne richer fruit if longer life had been hers.
+
+May's own nature seems to have blossomed out like a flower in this
+sunny climate. In her youth at home she was impulsive, affectionate,
+and generous, but quick in temper and sometimes exacting; but the
+whole impression she made upon her husband and his family was of grace
+and sweetness, and she herself declares that her sisters at home would
+not recognize her, she has "become so sweet in this atmosphere of
+happiness."
+
+We would gladly linger over these records of a paradisiacal home where
+Adam and Eve renewed their innocent loves and happy labors. When
+musing over the sorrows of humanity it refreshes us to know that such
+joy is possible, and needs only love and simple hearts to make it
+real.
+
+May's note of happiness is touchingly echoed from the heart of her
+bereaved father, who recalls the days of his own courtship. He
+cherished every tender word from her; and the respectful and loving
+words of his new son, to whom he responds affectionately, were like
+balm to his stricken heart.
+
+May's joy was heightened by the expectation of motherhood. Her health
+was excellent, and she had the loving care of her new mother and
+sister. The anxious family at home received the news of the birth of a
+daughter with heartfelt delight. It was a great disappointment to
+Louisa that she could not be with her sister at this time; but her
+health was not equal to the voyage, and she felt that May had most
+loving and sufficient care. An American friend in Paris kindly wrote
+to Louisa full details of the little niece and of the mother's
+condition. "It is difficult," she says, "to say which of that happy
+household is the proudest over that squirming bit of humanity."
+
+For about two weeks all seemed well; but alarming symptoms began to
+appear, and the mother's strength failed rapidly. The brain was the
+seat of disease; and she was generally unconscious, although she had
+intervals of apparent improvement, when she recognized her friends.
+She passed away peacefully December 29, 1879.
+
+An American clergyman in Paris took charge of the funeral service,
+which according to May's expressed desire was very simple, and she was
+laid in the tranquil cemetery of Montrouge outside of the
+fortifications.
+
+Foreseeing the possibility of a fatal termination to her illness, May
+had made every preparation for the event, and obtained a promise from
+her sister-in-law that she would carry the baby to Louisa to receive
+the devoted care that she knew would be given it. The child became a
+source of great comfort to Miss Alcott as will be seen from the
+journals. After her death Mr. Nieriker visited his little girl in
+America, and in June, 1889, her aunt took her to his home in Zurich,
+Switzerland.
+
+Before the sad letters describing May's illness could reach America,
+came the cable message of her death. It was sent to Mr. Emerson, the
+never-failing friend of the family, who bore it to Louisa, her father
+being temporarily absent. His thoughtfulness softened the blow as much
+as human tenderness could, but still it fell with crushing weight upon
+them all.
+
+The father and sister could not sleep, and in the watches of the night
+he wrote that touching ode, the cry of paternal love and grief
+entitled "Love's Morrow."
+
+
+_To Mrs. Bond._
+
+     CONCORD, Jan. 1, 1880.
+
+   DEAR AUNTIE,--It is hard to add one more sorrow to your already
+   full heart, particularly one of this sort, but I did not want you
+   to hear it from any one but us. Dear May is dead. Gone to begin
+   the new year with Mother, in a world where I hope there is no
+   grief like this. Gone just when she seemed safest and happiest,
+   after nearly two years of such sweet satisfaction and love that
+   she wrote us, "If I die when baby comes, remember I have been so
+   unspeakably happy for a year that I ought to be content...."
+
+   And it is all over. The good mother and sister have done
+   everything in the most devoted way. We can never repay them. My
+   May gave me her little Lulu, and in the spring I hope to get my
+   sweet legacy. Meantime the dear grandma takes her to a home full
+   of loving friends and she is safe. I will write more when we
+   know, but the cruel sea divides us and we must wait.
+
+   Bless you dear Auntie for all your love for May; she never forgot
+   it, nor do we.
+
+     Yours ever,
+     LOUISA.
+
+     JANUARY 4.
+
+   DEAR AUNTIE,--I have little further news to tell, but it seems to
+   comfort me to answer the shower of tender sympathetic letters
+   that each mail brings us....
+
+   So we must wait to learn how the end came at last, where the dear
+   dust is to lie, and how soon the desolate little home is to be
+   broken up. It only remains for May's baby to be taken away to
+   fill our cup to overflowing. But perhaps it would be best so, for
+   even in Heaven with Mother, I know May will yearn for the darling
+   so ardently desired, so tenderly welcomed, bought at such a
+   price.
+
+   In all the troubles of my life I never had one so hard to bear,
+   for the sudden fall from such high happiness to such a depth of
+   sorrow finds me unprepared to accept or bear it as I ought.
+
+   Sometime I shall know why such things are; till then must try to
+   trust and wait and hope as you do.... Sorrow has its lonely side,
+   and sympathy is so sweet it takes half its bitterness away.
+
+     Yours ever,
+     L.
+
+After May's marriage and death Louisa remained awhile in Concord,
+trying to forget her grief in care for others. She went to the prison
+in Concord, and told a story to the prisoners which touched their
+hearts, and was long remembered by some of them.
+
+She wrote some short stories for "St Nicholas," among them "Jimmy's
+Cruise in the Pinafore," called out by the acting of the popular opera
+of that name by a juvenile troupe.
+
+She spent some weeks at Willow Cottage, Magnolia, which she has
+described in her popular story of "Jack and Jill." The scene of the
+story is mostly laid in Concord, or "Harmony" as she calls it, and she
+has introduced many familiar scenes and persons into the book.
+
+This summer, too, the long-dreamed of School of Philosophy was
+established. The opening of the School was a great event to Mr.
+Alcott, as it was the realization of the dream of years. Louisa
+enjoyed his gratification, and took pains to help him to reap full
+satisfaction from it. She carried flowers to grace the opening
+meeting, and was friendly to his guests. She occasionally attended
+lectures given by her friends,--Dr. Bartol, Mrs. Howe, and
+others,--and she could not fail to enjoy meeting many of the bright
+people who congregated there; but she did not care for the speculative
+philosophy. Her keen sense of humor led her to see all that was
+incongruous or funny or simply novel in the bearing of the
+philosophers. She felt that her father had too much of the trying
+details, and perhaps did not appreciate how much joy of recognition it
+brought him. She had not much faith in the practical success of the
+experiment. Philosophy was much associated in her mind with early
+poverty and suffering, and she did not feel its charms. She was
+usually at the seashore at this season, as she suffered from the heat
+at Concord. Frequent allusions to the school appear in her journal.
+The following anecdote is given by a friend.
+
+"It was at Concord on Emerson day. After a morning with Bartol and
+Alcott and Mrs. Howe, I lunched with the Alcotts', who had for guest
+the venerable Dr. McCosh. Naturally the conversation turned on the
+events of the morning. 'I was thinking,' said the Doctor, 'as I looked
+among your audience, that there were no young men; and that with none
+but old men your school would soon die with them. By the way, madam,'
+he continued, addressing Miss Alcott, 'will you tell me what is your
+definition of a philosopher?'
+
+"The reply came instantly, 'My definition is of a man up in a balloon,
+with his family and friends holding the ropes which confine him to
+earth and trying to haul him down.'
+
+"The laugh which followed this reply was heartily joined in by the
+philosopher himself."
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _March_, 1878.--A happy event,--May's marriage to Ernest
+   Nieriker, the "tender friend" who has consoled her for Marmee's
+   loss, as John consoled Nan for Beth's. He is a Swiss, handsome,
+   cultivated, and good; an excellent family living in Baden, and E.
+   has a good business. May is old enough to choose for herself, and
+   seems so happy in the new relation that we have nothing to say
+   against it.
+
+   They were privately married on the 22d, and went to Havre for the
+   honeymoon, as E. had business in France; so they hurried the
+   wedding. Send her $1,000 as a gift, and all good wishes for the
+   new life.
+
+   _April._--Happy letters from May, who is enjoying life as one can
+   but once. E. writes finely to Father, and is a son to welcome I
+   am sure. May sketches and E. attends to his business by day, and
+   both revel in music in the evening, as E. is a fine violin
+   player.
+
+   How different our lives are just now!--I so lonely, sad, and
+   sick; she so happy, well, and blest. She always had the cream of
+   things, and deserved it. My time is yet to come somewhere else,
+   when I am ready for it.
+
+   Anna clears out the old house; for we shall never go back to it;
+   it ceased to be "home" when Marmee left it.
+
+   I dawdle about, and wait to see if I am to live or die. If I
+   live, it is for some new work. I wonder what?
+
+   _May._--Begin to drive a little, and enjoy the spring. Nature is
+   always good to me.
+
+   May settles in her own house at Meudon,--a pretty apartment, with
+   balcony, garden, etc.... I plan and hope to go to them, if I am
+   ever well enough, and find new inspiration in a new life. May and
+   E. urge it, and I long to go, but cannot risk the voyage yet. I
+   doubt if I ever find time to lead my own life, or health to try
+   it.
+
+   _June and July._--Improving fast, in spite of dark predictions
+   and forebodings. The Lord has more work for me, so I am spared.
+
+   Tried to write a memoir of Marmee; but it is too soon, and I am
+   not well enough.
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   May has had the new mother and brother-in-law with her, and finds
+   them most interesting and lovable. They seem very proud of her,
+   and happy in her happiness. Bright times for our youngest! May
+   they last!
+
+   [They did.--L. M. A.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+   Got nicely ready to go to May in September; but at the last
+   moment gave it up, fearing to undo all the good this weary year
+   of ease has done for me, and be a burden on her. A great
+   disappointment; but I've learned to wait. I long to see her happy
+   in her own home.
+
+   Nan breaks her leg; so it is well I stayed, as there was no one
+   to take her place but me. Always a little chore to be done.
+
+   _October, November._--Nan improved. Rode, nursed, kept house, and
+   tried to be contented, but was not. Make no plans for myself now;
+   do what I can, and should be glad not to have to sit idle any
+   longer.
+
+   On the 8th, Marmee's birthday, Father and I went to Sleepy Hollow
+   with red leaves and flowers for her. A cold, dull day, and I was
+   glad there was no winter for her any more.
+
+   _November 25th._--A year since our beloved Marmee died. A very
+   eventful year. May marries, I live instead of dying, Father comes
+   to honor in his old age, and Nan makes her home our refuge when
+   we need one.
+
+   _December._--A busy time. Nan gets about again. I am so well I
+   wonder at myself, and ask no more.
+
+   Write a tale for the "Independent," and begin on an art novel,
+   with May's romance for its thread. Went to B. for some weeks, and
+   looked about to see what I could venture to do....
+
+   So ends 1878,--a great contrast to last December. Then I thought
+   I was done with life; now I can enjoy a good deal, and wait to
+   see what I am spared to do. Thank God for both the sorrow and the
+   joy.
+
+   _January_, 1879.--At the Bellevue in my little room writing.
+
+   Got two books well started, but had too many interruptions to do
+   much, and dared not get into a vortex for fear of a break-down.
+
+   Went about and saw people, and tried to be jolly. Did Jarley for
+   a fair, also for Authors' Carnival at Music Hall. A queer time;
+   too old for such pranks. A sad heart and a used-up body make play
+   hard work, I find.
+
+   Read "Mary Wollstonecraft," "Dosia," "Danieli," "Helène," etc. I
+   like Gréville's books.
+
+   Invest $1,000 for Fred's schooling, etc. Johnny has his $1,000
+   also safely in the bank for his education and any emergency.
+
+   _February._--Home to Concord rather used up. Find a very quiet
+   life is best; for in B. people beset me to do things, and I try,
+   and get so tired I cannot work. Dr. C. says rest is my salvation;
+   so I rest. Hope for Paris in the spring, as May begs me to come.
+   She is leading what she calls "an ideal life,"--painting, music,
+   love, and the world shut out. People wonder and gossip; but M.
+   and E. laugh and are happy. Wise people to enjoy this lovely
+   time!
+
+   Went to a dinner, at the Revere House, of the Papyrus Club. Mrs.
+   Burnett and Miss A. were guests of honor. Dr. Holmes took me in,
+   and to my surprise I found myself at the president's right hand,
+   with Mrs. B., Holmes, Stedman, and the great ones of the land.
+   Had a gay time. Dr. H. very gallant. "Little Women" often toasted
+   with more praise than was good for me.
+
+   Saw Mrs. B. at a lunch, and took her and Mrs. M. M. Dodge to
+   Concord for a lunch. Most agreeable women.
+
+   A visit at H. W.'s. Mission time at Church of the Advent. Father
+   Knox-Little preached, and waked up the sinners. H. hoped to
+   convert me, and took me to see Father K.-L., a very interesting
+   man, and we had a pleasant talk; but I found that we meant the
+   same thing, though called by different names; and his religion
+   had too much ceremony about it to suit me. So he gave me his
+   blessing, and promised to send me some books.
+
+   [Never did.--L. M. A.]
+
+   Pleasant times with my "rainy-day friend," as I call Dr. W. She
+   is a great comfort to me, with her healthy common-sense and
+   tender patience, aside from skill as a doctor and beauty as a
+   woman. I love her much, and she does me good.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+   Happy letters from May. Her hopes of a little son or daughter in
+   the autumn give us new plans to talk over. I _must_ be well
+   enough to go to her then.
+
+   _April._--Very poorly and cross; so tired of being a prisoner to
+   pain. Long for the old strength when I could do what I liked, and
+   never knew I had a body. Life not worth living in this way; but
+   having over-worked the wonderful machine, I must pay for it, and
+   should not growl, I suppose, as it is just.
+
+   To B. to see Dr. S. Told me I was better than she ever dreamed I
+   could be, and need not worry. So took heart, and tried to be
+   cheerful, in spite of aches and nerves. Warm weather comforted
+   me, and green grass did me good.
+
+   Put a fence round A.'s garden. Bought a phaeton, so I might
+   drive, as I cannot walk much, and Father loves to take his guests
+   about.
+
+   _May and June._--Go to B. for a week, but don't enjoy seeing
+   people. Do errands, and go home again. Saw "Pinafore;" a pretty
+   play.
+
+   Much company.
+
+   E.'s looked at the Orchard House and liked it; will hire it,
+   probably. Hope so, as it is forlorn standing empty. I never go by
+   without looking up at Marmee's window, where the dear face used
+   to be, and May's, with the picturesque vines round it. No
+   golden-haired, blue-gowned Diana ever appears now; she sits
+   happily sewing baby-clothes in Paris. Enjoyed fitting out a box
+   of dainty things to send her. Even lonely old spinsters take an
+   interest in babies.
+
+   _June._--A poor month. Try to forget my own worries, and enjoy
+   the fine weather, my little carriage, and good friends. Souls are
+   such slaves to bodies it is hard to keep up out of the slough of
+   despond when nerves jangle and flesh aches.
+
+   Went with Father on Sunday to the prison, and told the men a
+   story. Thought I could not face four hundred at first; but after
+   looking at them during the sermon, I felt that I could at least
+   _amuse_ them, and they evidently needed something new. So I told
+   a hospital story with a little moral to it, and was so interested
+   in watching the faces of some young men near me, who drank in
+   every word, that I forgot myself, and talked away "like a
+   mother." One put his head down, and another winked hard, so I
+   felt that I had caught them; for even one tear in that dry, hard
+   place would do them good. Miss McC. and Father said it was well
+   done, and I felt quite proud of my first speech. [Sequel later.]
+
+   _July._--Wrote a little tale called "Jimmy's Cruise in the
+   Pinafore," for "St. Nicholas;" $100.
+
+   _14th._--The philosophers begin to swarm, and the buzz starts
+   to-morrow. How much honey will be made is still doubtful, but the
+   hive is ready and drones also.
+
+   On the 15th, the School of Philosophy began in the study at
+   Orchard House,--thirty students; Father, the dean. He has his
+   dream realized at last, and is in glory, with plenty of talk to
+   swim in. People laugh, but will enjoy something new in this dull
+   old town; and the fresh Westerners will show them that all the
+   culture of the world is not in Concord. I had a private laugh
+   when Mrs. ---- asked one of the new-comers, with her superior
+   air, if she had ever looked into Plato. And the modest lady from
+   Jacksonville answered, with a twinkle at me, "We have been
+   reading Plato in _Greek_ for the past six years." Mrs. ----
+   subsided after that.
+
+   [Oh, wicked L. M. A., who hates sham and loves a joke.--L. M. A.]
+
+   Was the first woman to register my name as a voter.
+
+   _August._--To B. with a new "Scrap Bag." "Jimmy" to the fore.
+   Wrote a little tale.
+
+   The town swarms with budding philosophers, and they roost on our
+   steps like hens waiting for corn. Father revels in it, so we keep
+   the hotel going, and try to look as if we liked it. If they were
+   philanthropists, I should enjoy it; but speculation seems a waste
+   of time when there is so much real work crying to be done. Why
+   discuss the "unknowable" till our poor are fed and the wicked
+   saved?
+
+   A young poet from New York came; nice boy.
+
+   Sixteen callers to-day. Trying to stir up the women about
+   suffrage; so timid and slow.
+
+   Happy letters from May. Sophie N. is with her now. All well in
+   the Paris nest.
+
+   Passed a week in Magnolia with Mrs. H. School ended for this
+   year. Hallelujah!
+
+   _September._--Home from the seaside refreshed, and go to work on
+   a new serial for "St. Nicholas,"--"Jack and Jill." Have no plan
+   yet but a boy, a girl, and a sled, with an upset to start with.
+   Vague idea of working in Concord young folks and their doings.
+   After two years of rest, I am going to try again; it is so easy
+   to make money now, and so pleasant to have it to give. A chapter
+   a day is my task, and not that if I feel tired. No more fourteen
+   hours a day; make haste slowly now.
+
+   Drove about and drummed up women to my suffrage meeting. So hard
+   to move people out of the old ruts. I haven't patience enough;
+   if they won't see and work, I let 'em alone, and steam along my
+   own way.
+
+   May sent some nice little letters of an "Artist's Holiday," and I
+   had them printed; also a book for artists abroad,--very useful,
+   and well done.
+
+   Eight chapters done. Too much company for work.
+
+   _October 8th._--Dear Marmee's birthday. Never forgotten. Lovely
+   day. Go to Sleepy Hollow with flowers. Her grave is green;
+   blackberry vines with red leaves trail over it. A little white
+   stone with her initials is at the head, and among the tall grass
+   over her breast a little bird had made a nest; empty now, but a
+   pretty symbol of the refuge that tender bosom always was for all
+   feeble and sweet things. Her favorite asters bloomed all about,
+   and the pines sang overhead. So she and dear Beth are quietly
+   asleep in God's acre, and we remember them more tenderly with
+   each year that brings us nearer them and home.
+
+   Went with Dr. W. to the Woman's Prison, at Sherburne. A lovely
+   drive, and very remarkable day and night. Read a story to the
+   four hundred women, and heard many interesting tales. A much
+   better place than Concord Prison, with its armed wardens, and
+   "knock down and drag out" methods. Only women here, and they work
+   wonders by patience, love, common-sense, and the belief in
+   salvation for all.
+
+   First proof from Scribner of "Jack and Jill." Mrs. D. likes the
+   story, so I peg away very slowly. Put in Elly D. as one of my
+   boys. The nearer I keep to nature, the better the work is. Young
+   people much interested in the story, and all want to "go in." I
+   shall have a hornet's nest about me if all are not _angels_.
+
+   Father goes West.
+
+   I mourn much because all say I must not go to May; not safe; and
+   I cannot add to Mamma Nieriker's cares at this time by another
+   invalid, as the voyage would upset me, I am so sea-sick.
+
+   Give up my hope and long-cherished plan with grief. May sadly
+   disappointed. I know I shall wish I had gone; it is my luck.
+
+   _November._--Went to Boston for a month, as some solace for my
+   great disappointment. Take my room at the Bellevue, and go about
+   a little. Write on "J. and J." Anxious about May.
+
+   _8th._--Little Louisa May Nieriker arrived in Paris at 9 p. m.,
+   after a short journey. All doing well. Much rejoicing. Nice
+   little lass, and May very happy. Ah, if I had only been there!
+   Too much happiness for me.
+
+   _25th._--Two years since Marmee went. How she would have enjoyed
+   the little granddaughter, and all May's romance! Perhaps she
+   does.
+
+   Went home on my birthday (forty-seven). Tried to have a little
+   party for Nan and the boys, but it was rather hard work.
+
+   Not well enough to write much, so give up my room. Can lie round
+   at home, and it's cheaper.
+
+   _December._--May not doing well. The weight on my heart is not
+   all imagination. She was too happy to have it last, and I fear
+   the end is coming. Hope it is my nerves; but this peculiar
+   feeling has never misled me before.
+
+   Invited to the breakfast to O. W. H. No heart to go.
+
+   _8th._--Little Lu one month old. Small, but lively. Oh, if I
+   could only be there to see,--to help! This is a penance for all
+   my sins. Such a tugging at my heart to be by poor May, alone, so
+   far away. The N.'s are devoted, and all is done that can be; but
+   not one of her "very own" is there.
+
+   Father came home.
+
+   _29th._--May died at 8 a. m., after three weeks of fever and
+   stupor. Happy and painless most of the time. At Mr. W.'s funeral
+   on the 30th, I _felt_ the truth before the news came.
+
+   _Wednesday, 31st._--A dark day for us. A telegram from Ernest to
+   Mr. Emerson tells us "May is dead." Anna was gone to B.; Father
+   to the post-office, anxious for letters, the last being overdue.
+   I was alone when Mr. E. came. E. sent to him, knowing I was
+   feeble, and hoping Mr. E. would soften the blow. I found him
+   looking at May's portrait, pale and tearful, with the paper in
+   his hand. "My child, I wish I could prepare you; but alas, alas!"
+   There his voice failed, and he gave me the telegram.
+
+   I was not surprised, and read the hard words as if I knew it all
+   before. "I _am_ prepared," I said, and thanked him. He was much
+   moved and very tender. I shall remember gratefully the look, the
+   grasp, the tears he gave me; and I am sure that hard moment was
+   made bearable by the presence of this our best and tenderest
+   friend. He went to find Father but missed him, and I had to tell
+   both him and Anna when they came. A very bitter sorrow for all.
+
+   The dear baby may comfort E., but what can comfort us? It is the
+   distance that is so hard, and the thought of so much happiness
+   ended so soon. "Two years of perfect happiness" May called these
+   married years, and said, "If I die when baby comes, don't mourn,
+   for I have had as much happiness in this short time as many in
+   twenty years." She wished me to have her baby and her pictures. A
+   very precious legacy! Rich payment for the little I could do for
+   her. I see now why I lived,--to care for May's child and not
+   leave Anna all alone.
+
+   _January 1st_, 1880.--A sad day mourning for May. Of all the
+   trials in my life I never felt any so keenly as this, perhaps
+   because I am so feeble in health that I cannot bear it well. It
+   seems so hard to break up that happy little home and take May
+   just when life was richest, and to leave me who had done my task
+   and could well be spared. Shall I ever know why such things
+   happen?
+
+   Letters came telling us all the sad story. May was unconscious
+   during the last weeks, and seemed not to suffer. Spoke now and
+   then of "getting ready for Louy," and asked if she had come. All
+   was done that love and skill could do, but in vain. E. is
+   broken-hearted, and good Madame N. and Sophie find their only
+   solace in the poor baby.
+
+   May felt a foreboding, and left all ready in case she died. Some
+   trunks packed for us, some for the N. sisters. Her diary written
+   up, all in order. Even chose the graveyard where she wished to
+   be, out of the city. E. obeys all her wishes sacredly.
+
+   Tried to write on "J. and J." to distract my mind; but the wave
+   of sorrow kept rolling over me, and I could only weep and wait
+   till the tide ebbed again.
+
+   _February._--More letters from E. and Madame N. Like us, they
+   find comfort in writing of the dear soul gone, now there is
+   nothing more to do for her. I cannot make it true that our May is
+   dead, lying far away in a strange grave, leaving a husband and
+   child whom we have never seen. It all reads like a pretty
+   romance, now death hath set its seal on these two happy years;
+   and we shall never know all that she alone could tell us.
+
+   Many letters from friends in France, England, and America, full
+   of sympathy for us, and love and pride and gratitude for May,
+   who was always glad to help, forgive, and love every one. It is
+   our only consolation now.
+
+   Father and I cannot sleep, but he and I make verses as we did
+   when Marmee died. Our grief seems to flow into words. He writes
+   "Love's Morrow" and "Our Madonna."
+
+   Lulu has gone to Baden with Grandmamma.
+
+   Finish "J. and J." The world goes on in spite of sorrow, and I
+   must do my work. Both these last serials were written with a
+   heavy heart,--"Under the Lilacs" when Marmee was failing, and
+   "Jack and Jill" while May was dying. Hope the grief did not get
+   into them.
+
+   Hear R. W. E. lecture for his one hundredth time. Mary Clemmer
+   writes for a sketch of my life for a book of "Famous Women."
+   Don't belong there.
+
+   Read "Memoirs of Madame de Rémusat." Not very interesting.
+   Beauties seldom amount to much. Plain Margaret Fuller was worth a
+   dozen of them. "Kings in Exile," a most interesting book, a very
+   vivid and terrible picture of Parisian life and royal weakness
+   and sorrow.
+
+   Put papers, etc., in order. I feel as if one should be ready to
+   go at any moment....
+
+   _March._--A box came from May, with pictures, clothes, vases, her
+   ornaments, a little work-basket, and, in one of her own sepia
+   boxes, her pretty hair tied with blue ribbon,--all that is now
+   left us of this bright soul but the baby, soon to come. Treasures
+   all.
+
+   A sad day, and many tears dropped on the dear dress, the blue
+   slippers she last wore, the bit of work she laid down when the
+   call came the evening Lulu was born. The fur-lined sack feels
+   like May's arms round me, and I shall wear it with pleasure. The
+   pictures show us her great progress these last years.
+
+   To Boston for a few days on business, and to try to forget. Got
+   gifts for Anna's birthday on the 16th,--forty-nine years old. My
+   only sister now, and the best God ever made. Repaired her house
+   for her.
+
+   Lulu is not to come till autumn. Great disappointment; but it is
+   wiser to wait, as summer is bad for a young baby to begin here.
+
+   _29th._--Town meeting. Twenty women there, and voted first,
+   thanks to Father. Polls closed,--in joke, we thought, as Judge
+   Hoar proposed it; proved to be in earnest, and _we_ elected a
+   good school committee. Quiet time; no fuss.
+
+     JANUARY 20, 1880.
+
+   DEAR MRS. DODGE,--I have been so bowed down with grief at the
+   loss of my dear sister just when our anxiety was over that I have
+   not had a thought or care for anything else.
+
+   The story is done; but the last chapters are not copied, and I
+   thought it best to let them lie till I could give my mind to the
+   work.
+
+   I never get a good chance to do a story without interruption of
+   some sort. "Under the Lilacs" was finished by my mother's bedside
+   in her last illness, and this one when my heart was full of care
+   and hope and then grief over poor May.
+
+   I trust the misery did not get into the story; but I'm afraid it
+   is not as gay as I meant most of it to be.
+
+   I forgot to number the pages of the last two chapters, and so
+   cannot number these. I usually keep the run, but this time sent
+   off the parcel in a hurry. Can you send me the right number to go
+   on with in chapter seventeen? I can send you four more as soon as
+   I hear.
+
+   I don't believe I shall come to New York this winter. May left
+   me her little daughter for my own; and if she comes over soon, I
+   shall be too busy singing lullabies to one child to write tales
+   for others, or go anywhere, even to see my kind friends.
+
+   A sweeter little romance has just ended in Paris than any I can
+   ever make; and the sad facts of life leave me no heart for
+   cheerful fiction.
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. ALCOTT.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[12] This poem was first published anonymously in "The Masque of
+Poets," in 1878.
+
+[13] In Spinning-Wheel Stories.
+
+[14] Under the Lilacs.
+
+[15] Under the Lilacs, page 78.
+
+[16] Gardener's Daughter.
+
+[17] This interesting picture is in the possession of her sister.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+LAST YEARS.
+
+     MY PRAYER.
+     (Written October, 1886.)
+
+     Courage and patience, these I ask,
+       Dear Lord, in this my latest strait;
+     For hard I find my ten years' task,
+       Learning to suffer and to wait.
+
+     Life seems so rich and grand a thing,
+       So full of work for heart and brain,
+     It is a cross that I can bring
+       No help, no offering, but pain.
+
+     The hard-earned harvest of these years
+       I long to generously share;
+     The lessons learned with bitter tears
+       To teach again with tender care;
+
+     To smooth the rough and thorny way
+       Where other feet begin to tread;
+     To feed some hungry soul each day
+       With sympathy's sustaining bread.
+
+     So beautiful such pleasures show,
+       I long to make them mine;
+     To love and labor and to know
+       The joy such living makes divine.
+
+     But if I may not, I will only ask
+       Courage and patience for my fate,
+     And learn, dear Lord, thy latest task,--
+       To suffer patiently and wait.
+
+
+The early part of the year 1880 was in the deep shadow of sadness,
+from the death of Louisa's sister. Boxes full of May's pictures,
+clothes, and books came home to call up anew all the memories of the
+bright spirit who had blossomed into such beautiful life so quickly to
+fade away.
+
+Miss Alcott tried to rise above her grief and busy herself with new
+interests. She took an active part in the voting of the women in
+Concord, and rejoiced in the election of a good school committee. In
+April she returned to her old rooms at the Bellevue, where she busied
+herself with dramatizing "Michael Strogoff," which she never
+completed. She kept up her interest in young girls, and received with
+pleasure a visit from thirty pupils of the Boston University, and she
+helped to give the children of the North End Mission a happy day at
+Walden Pond. She went to York for rest and refreshment during the
+summer. Her heart was filled with longing for the child, and
+everything was done with reference to its coming.
+
+As September brought cooler weather, over the sea came the little babe
+to the warm hearts that were longing to welcome her. No woman as true
+and loving as Louisa Alcott but has the mother-nature strong in her
+heart; and she could not help feeling a new spring of love and life
+when the child of one so dear was put into her arms to be her very
+own. Rosy and healthy, full of life and energy,--not a model of
+sainthood, but a real human nature, with a will to be regulated, not
+broken, with impulses to be trained, talents and tendencies to be
+studied, and a true, loving heart to be filled with joy,--Louisa
+found the child a constant source of interest and pleasure. She
+brought her up as she herself had been trained,--more by influences
+than by rules,--and sought to follow the leadings which she found in
+the young nature rather than to make it over after a plan of her own.
+This new care and joy helped to fill up the void in her life from the
+loss of the mother for whom she had worked so faithfully and the pet
+sister to whom she had ever been a good providence.
+
+The principal interest of the next few years was the care of this
+child. It was a pleasant occupation to Louisa, occupying her heart,
+and binding her with new ties to younger generations. The journal
+tells all the simple story of the "voyage across the seas."
+
+Miss Alcott was very attractive to children, especially to the little
+ones, who thronged about her and pleaded for stories; but this was the
+first one who ever really filled the mother-longing in her heart. She
+was now truly a "marmee;" and remembering the blessing which her own
+mother had been to her, her standard of motherhood must have been very
+high. Much care was now also given to her father, and she speaks with
+pride of her handsome old philosopher in his new suit of clothes.
+
+Miss Alcott was gratified by a visit from one of the men to whom she
+had spoken at Concord Prison. He told her his story, and she assisted
+him to find work, and had the satisfaction of hearing of his
+well-doing.
+
+There is little record of writing done at this period, Louisa's time
+and thoughts being absorbed by the child. In the autumn of 1881 she
+wrote a preface to a new edition of the "Prayers of Theodore Parker,"
+and also one to the new edition of "Moods."
+
+Louisa kept the birthdays of November, though with saddened heart. She
+wrote a tale for the Soldiers' Home,--"My Red Cap," in "Proverb
+Stories,"--and another for the New England Hospital fair,--"A Baby's
+Birthday;" and also one for her old publisher. Such was the feeling
+toward her as a universal benefactor, that a poor woman wrote her
+begging her to send some Christmas gifts to her children, as they had
+asked her to write to Santa Claus for some. With Lulu's help she got
+up a box for the poor family, and then made a story out of the
+incident, for which she received a hundred dollars.
+
+A new project was that of a temperance society, which was felt to be
+needed in Concord.
+
+Louisa occupied herself much in looking over her mother's papers, and
+unfortunately destroyed them, instead of preparing a memoir of her as
+she had intended to do. It is a matter of great regret that she did
+not feel able to do this work, for Mrs. Alcott's letters would have
+been a most valuable record of the life of her time, as well as a
+treasury of bright thought and earnest feeling. Louisa was not willing
+to commit the task to any other hand, and the opportunity is gone.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Dodge._
+
+     CONCORD, May 29.
+
+   DEAR MRS. DODGE,--I was away from home, so your letter did not
+   reach me till I got back yesterday.
+
+   Thanks for your kind thought of me, and recollections of the
+   pleasant week when the L. L.'s had a lark. I should like another;
+   but in this work-a-day world busy folk don't get many, as we
+   know.
+
+   If I write a serial, you shall have it; but I have my doubts as
+   to the leisure and quiet needed for such tasks being possible
+   with a year-old baby. Of course little Lu is a _very_ remarkable
+   child, but I fancy I shall feel as full of responsibility as a
+   hen with one chick, and cluck and scratch industriously for the
+   sole benefit of my daughter.
+
+   She may, however, have a literary turn, and be my assistant, by
+   offering hints and giving studies of character for my work. She
+   comes in September, if well.
+
+   If I do begin a new story, how would "An Old-Fashioned Boy" and
+   his life do? I meant that for the title of a book, but another
+   woman took it. You proposed a revolutionary tale once, but I was
+   not up to it; for this I have quaint material in my father's
+   journals, letters, and recollections. He was born with the
+   century, and had an uncle in the war of 1812; and his life was
+   very pretty and pastoral in the early days. I think a new sort of
+   story wouldn't be amiss, with fun in it, and the queer old names
+   and habits. I began it long ago, and if I have a chance will
+   finish off a few chapters and send them to you, if you like.
+
+     Yours cordially,
+     L. M. ALCOTT.
+
+
+_To Mr. Niles, about the new illustrated edition of "Little Women."_
+
+     YORK, July 20, 1880.
+
+   The drawings are all capital, and we had great fun over them down
+   here this rainy day.... Mr. Merrill certainly deserves a good
+   penny for his work. Such a fertile fancy and quick hand as his
+   should be well paid, and I shall not begrudge him his well-earned
+   compensation, nor the praise I am sure these illustrations will
+   earn. It is very pleasant to think that the lucky little story
+   has been of use to a fellow-worker, and I am much obliged to him
+   for so improving on my hasty pen-and-ink sketches. What a dear
+   rowdy boy Teddy is with the felt basin on!
+
+   The papers are great gossips, and never get anything quite
+   straight, and I do mean to set up my own establishment in Boston
+   (D.V.). Now I have an excuse for a home of my own, and as the
+   other artistic and literary spinsters have a house, I am going to
+   try the plan, for a winter at least.
+
+   Come and see how cosey we are next October at 81 Pinckney Street.
+   Miss N. will receive.
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Dodge._
+
+     81 PINCKNEY STREET, 1880.
+
+   DEAR MRS. DODGE,--The editor of "Harper's Young People" asked for
+   a serial, and I declined; then they wanted a short story for
+   Christmas, and I sent one. But it was not long enough, though
+   longer than most of my short $100 tales.
+
+   So I said, "If you don't want it, send it to 'Saint Nicholas.'"
+
+   Therefore if "How It Happened" comes straying along, you will
+   know what it means. If you don't want it, please send it to me in
+   Boston, 81 Pinckney Street; for Christmas tales are always in
+   demand, and I have no time to write more.
+
+   You will like to know that my baby is safely here,--a healthy,
+   happy little soul, who comes like sunshine to our sad hearts, and
+   takes us all captive by her winning ways and lovely traits.
+
+   I shall soon be settled for the winter, and I hope have good
+   times after the hard ones.
+
+     Affectionately yours,
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _April_, 1880.--So sad and poorly; went to B. for a change. Old
+   room at the Bellevue.
+
+   Amused myself dramatizing "Michael Strogoff;" read, walked, and
+   rested. Reporters called for story of my life; did not get much.
+   Made my will, dividing all I have between Nan and the boys, with
+   Father as a legacy to Nan, and to Lulu her mother's pictures and
+   small fortune of $500.
+
+   _May._--Thirty girls from Boston University called; told stories,
+   showed pictures, wrote autographs. Pleasant to see so much
+   innocent enthusiasm, even about so poor a thing as a used-up old
+   woman. Bright girls! simple in dress, sensible ideas of life, and
+   love of education. I wish them all good luck.
+
+   Ordered a stone for May's grave like Marmee's and Beth's, for
+   some day I hope to bring her dust home.
+
+   Twenty-third is the anniversary of Mother's wedding. If she had
+   lived, it would have been the golden wedding.
+
+   Went to see St. Botolph's Club rooms. Very prim and neat, with
+   easy chairs everywhere; stained glass, and a pious little _bar_,
+   with nothing visible but a moral ice-pitcher and a butler like a
+   bishop. The reverend gentlemen will be comfortable and merry, I
+   fancy, as there is a smoking-room and card-tables, as well as a
+   library and picture-gallery. Divines nowadays are not as godly as
+   in old times, it seems.
+
+   Mrs. Dodge wants a new serial, but I doubt if I can do it; boys,
+   babies, illness, and business of all sorts leave no time for
+   story-telling.
+
+   _June._--We all enjoy the new rooms very much, and Father finds
+   his study delightful. Prepare the Orchard House for W. T. Harris,
+   who is to rent it.
+
+   North End Mission children at Walden Pond. Help give them a happy
+   day,--eleven hundred of them. Get Anna and John off to Walpole.
+   Cleaned house.
+
+   Madame N. sends a picture of Lulu,--a funny, fat little thing in
+   her carriage. Don't realize that it is May's child, and that she
+   is far away in a French cemetery, never to come home to us again.
+
+   It is decided that Baby is to come to us in September.
+
+   _24th._--Lizzie's birthday and Johnny's. He is fifteen,--a
+   lovely, good boy, whom every one loves. Got the Dean a new suit
+   of clothes, as he must be nice for his duties at the School.
+   Plato's toga was not so costly, but even he did not look better
+   than my handsome old philosopher.
+
+   _July and August._--To York with boys. Rest and enjoy the fine
+   air. Home in August, and let Anna go down. Four hundred callers
+   since the School began. Philosophy is a bore to outsiders.
+
+   Got things ready for my baby,--warm wrapper, and all the dear can
+   need on her long journey. On the 21st saw Mrs. Giles (who went
+   for baby) off; the last time I went, it was to see May go. She
+   was sober and sad, not gay as before; seemed to feel it might be
+   a longer voyage than we knew. The last view I had of her, was
+   standing alone in the long blue cloak waving her hand to us,
+   smiling with wet eyes till out of sight. How little we dreamed
+   what an experience of love, joy, pain, and death she was going
+   to!
+
+   A lonely time with all away. My grief meets me when I come home,
+   and the house is full of ghosts.
+
+   _September._--Put papers in order, and arrange things generally,
+   to be in order when our Lulu comes. Make a cosey nursery for the
+   darling, and say my prayers over the little white crib that waits
+   for her, if she ever comes. God watch over her!
+
+   Paid my first _poll_-tax. As my _head_ is my most valuable piece
+   of property, I thought $2 a cheap tax on it. Saw my townswomen
+   about voting, etc. Hard work to stir them up; cake and servants
+   are more interesting.
+
+   _18th._--In Boston, waiting for the steamer that brings my
+   treasure. The ocean seems very wide and terrible when I think of
+   the motherless little creature coming so far to us.
+
+   _19th._--Lulu and Sophie N. arrived with poor G., worn out by
+   anxiety. A stormy passage, and much care, being turned out of the
+   stateroom I had engaged for them and paid for, by a rude New York
+   dressmaker. No help for it, so poor G. went to a rat-hole below,
+   and did her best.
+
+   As I waited on the wharf while the people came off the ship, I
+   saw several babies, and wondered each time if that was mine. At
+   last the captain appeared, and in his arms a little
+   yellow-haired thing in white, with its hat half off as it looked
+   about with lively blue eyes and babbled prettily. Mrs. G. came
+   along by it, and I knew it was Lulu. Behind, walked a lovely
+   brown-eyed girl with an anxious face, all being new and strange
+   to Sophie.
+
+   I held out my arms to Lulu, only being able to say her name. She
+   looked at me for a moment, then came to me, saying "Marmar" in a
+   wistful way, and resting close as if she had found her own people
+   and home at last,--as she had, thank Heaven! I could only listen
+   while I held her, and the others told their tale. Then we got
+   home as soon as we could, and dear baby behaved very well, though
+   hungry and tired.
+
+   The little princess was received with tears and smiles, and being
+   washed and fed went quietly to sleep in her new bed, while we
+   brooded over her and were never tired of looking at the little
+   face of "May's baby."
+
+   She is a very active, bright child, not pretty yet, being browned
+   by sea air, and having a yellow down on her head, and a pug nose.
+   Her little body is beautifully formed, broad shoulders, fine
+   chest, and lovely arms. A happy thing, laughing and waving her
+   hands, confiding and bold, with a keen look in the eyes so like
+   May, who hated shams and saw through them at once. She always
+   comes to me, and seems to have decided that I am really "Marmar."
+   My heart is full of pride and joy, and the touch of the dear
+   little hands seems to take away the bitterness of grief. I often
+   go at night to see if she is really _here_, and the sight of the
+   little head is like sunshine to me. Father adores her, and she
+   loves to sit in his strong arms. They make a pretty picture as he
+   walks in the garden with her to "see birdies." Anna tends her as
+   she did May, who was her baby once, being ten years younger, and
+   we all find life easier to live now the baby has come. Sophie is
+   a sweet girl, with much character and beauty. A charming sister
+   in love as in law.
+
+   _October._--Happy days with Lulu and Sophie; getting acquainted
+   with them. Lulu is rosy and fair now, and grows pretty in her
+   native air,--a merry little lass, who seems to feel at home and
+   blooms in an atmosphere of adoration. People come to see "Miss
+   Alcott's baby," and strangers waylay her little carriage in the
+   street to look at her; but she does not allow herself to be
+   kissed.
+
+   As Father wants to go West I decide to hire Cousin L. W.'s house
+   furnished for the winter, so that Sophie and the boys can have a
+   pleasant time. S. misses the gayety of her home-life in stupid
+   Concord, where the gossip and want of manners strike her very
+   disagreeably. Impertinent questions are asked her, and she is
+   amazed at the queer, rude things people say.
+
+   _November 8th._--Lulu's birthday. One year old. Her gifts were
+   set out on a table for her to see when she came down in the
+   afternoon,--a little cake with _one_ candle, a rose crown for the
+   queen, a silver mug, dolly, picture-books, gay ball, toys,
+   flowers, and many kisses. She sat smiling at her treasures just
+   under her mother's picture. Suddenly, attracted by the sunshine
+   on the face of the portrait which she knows is "Marmar," she held
+   up a white rose to it calling "Mum! Mum!" and smiling at it in a
+   way that made us all cry. A happy day for her, a sad one to us.
+
+   _Thanksgiving._--Family dinner.
+
+   Father at Syracuse, having conversations at Bishop Huntington's
+   and a fine time everywhere.
+
+   _December._--Too busy to keep much of a journal. My life is
+   absorbed in my baby. On the twenty-third she got up and walked
+   alone; had never crept at all, but when ready ran across the room
+   and plumped down, laughing triumphantly at her feat.
+
+   _Christmas._--Tried to make it gay for the young folks, but a
+   heavy day for Nan and me. Sixty gifts were set out on different
+   tables, and all were much pleased. Sophie had many pretty things,
+   and gave to all generously.
+
+   A hard year for all, but when I hold my Lulu I feel as if even
+   death had its compensations. A new world for me.
+
+   Called down one day to see a young man. Found it one of those to
+   whom I spoke at the prison in Concord last June. Came to thank me
+   for the good my little story did him, since it kept him straight
+   and reminded him that it is never too late to mend. Told me about
+   himself, and how he was going to begin anew and wipe out the
+   past. He had been a miner, and coming East met some fellows who
+   made him drink; while tipsy he stole something in a doctor's
+   office, and having no friends here was sentenced to three years
+   in prison. Did well, and was now out. Had a prospect of going on
+   an expedition to South America with a geological surveying party.
+   An interesting young man. Fond of books, anxious to do well,
+   intelligent, and seemed eager to atone for his one fault. Gave
+   him a letter to S. G. at Chicago. Wrote to the warden, who
+   confirmed D.'s story and spoke well of him. Miss Willard wrote me
+   later of him, and he seemed doing well. Asked if he might write
+   to me, and did so several times, then went to S. A. and I hear no
+   more. Glad to have said a word to help the poor boy.
+
+   _March_, 1881.--Voted for school committee.
+
+   _October._--Wrote a preface for Parker's Prayers, just got out by
+   F. B. Sanborn.
+
+   _November._--Forty-nine on 29th. Wrote a preface to the new
+   edition of "Moods."
+
+   _8th._--Gave my baby _two_ kisses when she woke, and escorted her
+   down to find a new chair decked with ribbons, and a doll's
+   carriage tied with pink; toys, pictures, flowers, and a cake,
+   with a red and a blue candle burning gayly.
+
+   Wrote a tale for the Soldiers' Home,--"My Red Cap,"--and one for
+   the Woman's Hospital fair,--"A Baby's Birthday." Also a tale for
+   F.
+
+   _December._--A poor woman in Illinois writes me to send her
+   children some Christmas gifts, being too poor and ill to get any.
+   They asked her to write to Santa Claus and she wrote to _me_.
+   Sent a box, and made a story about it,--$100. Lulu much
+   interested, and kept bringing all her best toys and clothes "for
+   poor little boys." A generous baby.
+
+
+_To Mr. Niles._
+
+     FEBRUARY 12, 1881.
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--Wendell Phillips wrote me a letter begging me to
+   write a preface for Mrs. Robinson's "History of the Suffrage
+   Movement;" but I refused him, as I did Mrs. R., because I don't
+   write prefaces well, and if I begin to do it there will be no
+   end....
+
+   Cannot you do a small edition for her? All the believers will buy
+   the book, and I think the sketches of L. M. Child, Abby May,
+   Alcott, and others will add much to the interest of the book.
+
+   Has she seen you about it? Will you look at the manuscripts by
+   and by, or do you scorn the whole thing? Better not; for we are
+   going to win in time, and the friend of literary ladies ought to
+   be also the friend of women generally.
+
+   We are going to meet the Governor, council, and legislature at
+   Mrs. Tudor's next Wednesday eve and have a grand set-to. I hope
+   he will come out of the struggle alive.
+
+   Do give Mrs. R. a lift if you can, and your petitioners will ever
+   pray.
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+     February 19, 1881.
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--Thank you very much for so kindly offering to
+   look at Mrs. R.'s book. It is always pleasant to find a person
+   who can conquer his prejudices to oblige a friend, if no more.
+
+   I think we shall be glad by and by of every little help we may
+   have been able to give to this reform in its hard times, for
+   those who take the tug now will deserve the praise when the work
+   is done.
+
+   I can remember when Antislavery was in just the same state that
+   Suffrage is now, and take more pride in the very small help we
+   Alcotts could give than in all the books I ever wrote or ever
+   shall write.
+
+   "Earth's fanatics often make heaven's saints," you know, and it
+   is as well to try for that sort of promotion in time.
+
+   If Mrs. R. does send her manuscripts I will help all I can in
+   reading or in any other way. If it only records the just and wise
+   changes Suffrage has made in the laws for women, it will be worth
+   printing; and it is time to keep account of these first steps,
+   since they count most.
+
+   I, for one, don't want to be ranked among idiots, felons, and
+   minors any longer, for I am none of the three, but very
+   gratefully yours,
+
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Stearns._
+
+     FEBRUARY 21, 1881.
+
+   _Dear Mrs. Stearns_,--Many thanks for the tender thoughtfulness
+   which sends us the precious little notes from the dear dead
+   hands.
+
+   They are so characteristic that they bring both Mother and May
+   clearly up before me, alive and full of patient courage and happy
+   hopes. I am resigned to my blessed mother's departure, since life
+   was a burden, and the heroic past made a helpless future very
+   hard to think of. But May's loss, just when life was fullest and
+   sweetest, seems very bitter to me still, in spite of the sweet
+   baby who is an unspeakable comfort. I wish you could see the
+   pretty creature who already shows many of her mother's traits and
+   tastes. Her love of pictures is a passion, but she will not look
+   at the common gay ones most babies enjoy. She chooses the
+   delicate, well-drawn, and painted figures of Caldecott and Miss
+   Greenaway; over these she broods with rapture, pointing her
+   little fingers at the cows or cats, and kissing the children with
+   funny prattlings to these dumb playmates. She is a fine, tall
+   girl, full of energy, intelligence, and health; blonde and
+   blue-eyed like her mother, but with her father's features, for
+   which I am glad, for he is a handsome man. Louisa May bids fair
+   to be a noble woman; and I hope I may live to see May's child as
+   brave and bright and talented as she was and, much happier in her
+   fate.
+
+   Father is at the West, busy and well. Anna joins me in thanks and
+   affectionate regards.
+
+     Ever yours,
+     L. M. Alcott.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _March_, 1882.--Helped start a temperance society; much needed in
+   C. A great deal of drinking, not among the Irish, but young
+   American gentlemen, as well as farmers and mill hands. Women
+   anxious to do something, but find no interest beyond a few. Have
+   meetings, and try to learn how to work. I was secretary, and
+   wrote records, letters, and sent pledges, etc.; also articles in
+   "Concord Freeman" and "Woman's Journal" about the union and town
+   meetings.
+
+   _April._--Read over and destroyed Mother's diaries, as she wished
+   me to do so. A wonderfully interesting record of her life, from
+   her delicate, cherished girlhood through her long, hard, romantic
+   married years, old age, and death. Some time I will write a story
+   or a memoir of it.
+
+   Lulu's teeth trouble her; but in my arms she seems to find
+   comfort, for I tell stories by the dozen; and lambs, piggies, and
+   "tats" soothe her little woes. Wish I were stronger, so that I
+   might take all the care of her. We seem to understand each other,
+   but my nerves make me impatient, and noise wears upon me.
+
+   Mr. Emerson ill. Father goes to see him. E. held his hand,
+   looking up at the tall, sorry old man, and saying, with that
+   smile of love that has been Father's sunshine for so many years,
+   "_You_ are very well,--keep so, keep so." After Father left, he
+   called him back and grasped his hand again, as if he knew it was
+   for the last time, and the kind eyes said, "Good-by, my friend!"
+
+April 27, 1882, Louisa speaks most tenderly of the death of Mr.
+Emerson. He had been to her and to her family the truest and best of
+friends; and her own profound reverence for him had been a strong
+influence, from the time when she played games with his children in
+the barn until she followed him to his honored grave. Let critics and
+philosophers judge him by his intellect; in the hearts of this family,
+and in many an humble home besides, he will always be remembered as
+the tenderest, most sympathetic, most loyal of all friends, whose
+bounty fell on them silently as the dew from heaven, and whose
+presence could brighten the highest joy and soothe the keenest sorrow
+they could ever know.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _Thursday, 27th._--Mr. Emerson died at 9 P.M. suddenly. Our best
+   and greatest American gone. The nearest and dearest friend Father
+   has ever had, and the man who has helped me most by his life, his
+   books, his society. I can never tell all he has been to me,--from
+   the time I sang Mignon's song under his window (a little girl)
+   and wrote letters _à la_ Bettine to him, my Goethe, at fifteen,
+   up through my hard years, when his essays on Self-Reliance,
+   Character, Compensation, Love, and Friendship helped me to
+   understand myself and life, and God and Nature. Illustrious and
+   beloved friend, good-by!
+
+   _Sunday, 30th._--Emerson's funeral. I made a yellow lyre of
+   jonquils for the church, and helped trim it up. Private services
+   at the house, and a great crowd at the church. Father read his
+   sonnet, and Judge Hoar and others spoke. Now he lies in Sleepy
+   Hollow among his brothers, under the pines he loved.
+
+   I sat up till midnight to write an article on R. W. E. for the
+   "Youth's Companion," that the children may know something of him.
+   A labor of love.
+
+   _May._--Twenty-seven boys signed pledge. Temperance work.
+   Meetings. I give books to schools. Wrote an article for Mrs.
+   Croly on R. W. E.
+
+   _June._--I visited A. B. in Mattapoisset for a week. A queer
+   time, driving about or talking over our year in Europe. School
+   children called upon me with flowers, etc.
+
+   _24th._--John's seventeenth birthday. A dear boy, good and gay,
+   full of love, manliness, and all honest and lovely traits, like
+   his father and mother. Long life to my boy!
+
+   _July._--School of Philosophy opens on the 17th in full force. I
+   arrange flowers, oak branches, etc., and then fly before the
+   reporters come. Father very happy. Westerners arrive, and the
+   town is full with ideal speculators. Penny has a new barge; we
+   call it the "Blue Plato" (not the "Black Maria"), and watch it
+   rumble by with Margaret Fullers in white muslin and Hegels in
+   straw hats, while stout Penny grins at the joke as he puts money
+   in his purse. The first year Concord people stood aloof, and the
+   strangers found it hard to get rooms. Now every one is eager to
+   take them, and the School is pronounced a success because it
+   brings money to the town. Even philosophers can't do without
+   food, beds, and washing; so all rejoice, and the new craze
+   flourishes. If all our guests paid we should be well off; several
+   hundred a month is rather wearing. Father asked why we never
+   went, and Anna showed him a long list of four hundred names of
+   callers, and he said no more.
+
+   _October._--To Hotel Bellevue with John.
+
+   Missed my dear baby, but need quiet. Brain began to work, and
+   plans for tales to simmer. Began "Jo's Boys," as Mrs. Dodge wants
+   a serial.
+
+In the autumn of 1882 Mr. Alcott was attacked by a severe stroke of
+paralysis, from which he never fully recovered; and for the rest of
+his life his daughters shared in the duty of tending and caring for
+him in his enfeebled state. It had been the great reward of Louisa's
+years of hard work that she could surround her mother with every
+comfort that could make her happy in her last declining years. Not
+less had she delighted to gratify every wish of her father. His
+library was fitted up with exquisite taste, his books and manuscripts
+bound, and he was "throned in philosophic ease" for the rest of his
+days. What a relief it was now that she could have the faithful nurse
+ready at his call; that she could give him the pleasant drives which
+he enjoyed so much; and lighten her sister's labors with every
+assistance that money could procure!
+
+The Orchard House, which had been the family home for twenty-five
+years, was sold to Mr. Harris, and Mrs. Pratt's house was the home of
+all. Louisa spent part of the summer at the seashore, and finally
+bought a small house at Nonquit, where the children could all spend
+the summer, while she and her sister alternated in the care of her
+father.
+
+In the autumn of 1885, Miss Alcott decided to take a furnished house
+in Louisburg Square. Her nephews were established in Boston, and their
+mother wished to be with them. Mr. Alcott bore the moving well, and
+they found many comforts in the arrangement. Louisa's health was very
+feeble. She had great trouble in the throat, and her old dyspeptic
+symptoms returned to annoy her. Still she cannot give up work, and
+busies herself in preparing "Lulu's Library" for publication, and
+hopes to be able to work on "Jo's Boys."
+
+"Lulu's Library" was a collection of stories which had been the
+delight of the child. The first series was published in 1885, the
+second in 1887, and the third in 1889. They are full of Louisa's
+charming qualities, and have a special interest from the tender
+feeling with which she gathered them up for her niece. The touching
+preface to "Jo's Boys" tells of the seven years of occasional work on
+this book, and reveals the depth of feeling which would not allow her
+to write as formerly of Marmee and Amy, who were no longer here to
+accept their own likenesses. During the latter part of her work on
+this book, she could only write from half an hour to one or two hours
+a day. This was published in September, 1886. It contains an engraving
+of her from a bas-relief by Mr. Ricketson.
+
+This book was written under hard circumstances, and cost its author
+more effort perhaps than any other. It is evidently not the overflow
+of her delight and fun in life like "Little Women," but it is full of
+biographical interest. Her account of her own career, and of the
+annoyances to which her celebrity exposed her, is full of her old
+spirit and humor. She has expressed many valuable thoughts on
+education, and her spirit is as hopeful for her boys as in her days of
+youth and health. She has too many characters to manage; but we feel a
+keen interest in the fortunes of Dan and Emil, and in the courtship by
+the warm-hearted Tom of his medical sweetheart.
+
+
+_Preface to "Jo's Boys."_
+
+   Having been written at long intervals during the past seven
+   years, this story is more faulty than any of its very imperfect
+   predecessors; but the desire to atone for an unavoidable
+   disappointment, and to please my patient little friends, has
+   urged me to let it go without further delay.
+
+   To account for the seeming neglect of Amy, let me add, that,
+   since the original of that character died, it has been impossible
+   for me to write of her as when she was here to suggest,
+   criticise, and laugh over her namesake. The same excuse applies
+   to Marmee. But the folded leaves are not blank to those who knew
+   and loved them and can find memorials of them in whatever is
+   cheerful, true, or helpful in these pages.
+
+     L. M. ALCOTT.
+     CONCORD, JULY 4, 1886.
+
+
+_To Mr. Horace Chandler._
+
+   DEAR MR. CHANDLER,--The corrections are certainly rather
+   peculiar, and I fear my struggles to set them right have only
+   produced greater confusion.
+
+   Fortunately punctuation is a free institution, and all can pepper
+   to suit the taste. I don't care much, and always leave
+   proof-readers to quibble if they like.
+
+   Thanks for the tickets. I fear I cannot come till Thursday, but
+   will try, and won't forget the office, since I am not that
+   much-tried soul the editor.
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Williams (Betsey Prig)._
+
+     NONQUIT, August 25.
+
+   DEAR BETSEY,--I am so sorry the darling Doll is ill! Brood over
+   him, and will him well; for mother-love works wonders.
+
+   My poppet is a picture of health, vigor, and delightful
+   naughtiness. She runs wild in this fine place with some twenty
+   other children to play with,--nice babies, well-bred, and with
+   pleasant mammas for me to gossip with.
+
+   It would be a good place for your little people, as the air is
+   delicious, bathing safe and warm, and cottages to be quiet in if
+   one cares to keep house. Do try it next year. Let me know early.
+   I can get a nice little cot for you (near mine) for $100, or
+   perhaps less, from June to October,--if you care to stay; I
+   do....
+
+   We have been here since July, and are all hearty, brown, and gay
+   as larks.
+
+   "John Inglesant" was too political for me. I am too lazy here to
+   read much; mean to find a den in Boston and work for a month or
+   two; then fly off to New York, and perhaps run over and see my
+   Betsey. I shall be at home in October, and perhaps we may see you
+   then, if the precious little shadow gets nice and well again, and
+   I pray he may.
+
+   Lulu has some trifling ail now and then,--just enough to show me
+   how dear she is to us all, and what a great void the loss of our
+   little girl would make in hearts and home. She is very
+   intelligent and droll. When I told her the other day that the
+   crickets were hopping and singing in the grass with their mammas,
+   she said at once, "No; their Aunt Weedys." Aunty is nearer than
+   mother to the poor baby; and it is very sweet to have it so,
+   since it must be.
+
+   Now, my blessed Betsey, keep a brave heart, and I am sure all
+   will be well in the nest. Love and kisses to the little birds,
+   and all good wishes to the turtle-dove and her mate.
+
+     Yours ever,
+     L. M. A.
+
+   The older birthdays are 29th of November, Lulu's the 8th; so we
+   celebrate for Grandpa, Auntie, and Lulu all at once, in great
+   style,--eighty-three, fifty, and three years old.
+
+   When I get on my pins I'm going (D. V.) to devote myself to
+   settling poor souls who need a gentle boost in hard times.
+
+
+_To Mr. Niles._
+
+     JUNE 23, 1883.
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--Thanks for the Goethe book. I want everything
+   that comes out about him. "Princess Amelia" is charming, and the
+   surprise at the end well done. Did the author of "My Wife's
+   Sister" write it?
+
+   I told L. C. M. she might put "A Modern Mephistopheles" in my
+   list of books. Several people had found it out, and there was no
+   use in trying to keep it secret after that.
+
+   Mrs. Dodge begged me to consider myself mortgaged to her for
+   tales, etc., and as I see no prospect of any time for writing
+   books, I may be able to send her some short stories from time to
+   time, and so be getting material for a new set of books like
+   "Scrap-bag," but with a new name. You excel in names, and can be
+   evolving one meantime....
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+     JULY 15, 1884.
+
+   I wish I might be inspired to do those dreadful boys ["Jo's
+   Boys"]; but rest is more needed than money. Perhaps during
+   August, my month at home, I may take a grind at the old mill.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _October_ 24, 1882.--Telegram that Father had had a paralytic
+   stroke. Home at once, and found him stricken down. Anxious days;
+   little hope.
+
+   _November._--Gave up our rooms, and I went home to help with the
+   new care. My Lulu ran to meet me, rosy and gay, and I felt as if
+   I could bear anything with this little sunbeam to light up the
+   world for me.
+
+   Poor Father dumb and helpless; feeble mind slowly coming back. He
+   knows us; but he's asleep most of the time. Get a nurse, and wait
+   to see if he will rally. It is sad to see the change one moment
+   makes, turning the hale, handsome old man into this pathetic
+   wreck. The forty sonnets last winter and the fifty lectures at
+   the School last summer were too much for a man of eighty-three.
+   He was warned by Dr. W., but thought it folly to stop; and now
+   poor Father pays the penalty of breaking the laws of health. I
+   have done the same: may I be spared this end!
+
+   _January_, 1883.--Too busy to keep a diary. Can only jot down a
+   fact now and then.
+
+   Father improving. Much trouble with nurses; have no idea of
+   health; won't walk; sit over the fire, and drink tea three times
+   a day; ought to be an intelligent, hearty set of women. Could do
+   better myself; have to fill up all the deficiencies and do double
+   duty.
+
+   People come to see Father; but it excites him, and we have to
+   deny him.
+
+   _February._--To B. for a week of rest, having got Mrs. H. settled
+   with Father, and all comfortable for November.
+
+   Began a book called "Genius." Shall never finish it, I dare say,
+   but must keep a vent for my fancies to escape at. This double
+   life is trying, and my head will work as well as my hands.
+
+   _March._--To give A. rest I took Lulu and maid to the Bellevue
+   for a month. Lulu very happy with her new world. Enjoys her
+   walks, the canary I got her, and the petting _she_ gets from all.
+   Showed her to friends; want them to know May's child. Had her
+   picture taken by Notman; very good.
+
+   _April 2d._--Town meeting. Seven women vote. I am one of them,
+   and A. another. A poor show for a town that prides itself on its
+   culture and independence.
+
+   _6th._--Go home to stay; Father needs me. New nurse; many
+   callers; Lulu fretful, Anna tired, Father feeble,--hard times for
+   all.
+
+   Wrote a story for "St. Nicholas" at odd moments. Nurses and
+   doctors take a deal of money.
+
+   _May._--Take care of Lulu, as we can find no good woman to walk
+   and dress and play with her. The ladies are incapable or proud;
+   the girls vulgar or rough; so my poor baby has a bad time with
+   her little temper and active mind and body. Could do it myself if
+   I had the nerves and strength, but am needed elsewhere, and must
+   leave the child to some one. Long to go away with her and do as I
+   like. Shall never lead my own life.
+
+   _July._--Go to Nonquit with Miss H. and Lulu for the summer. A
+   quiet, healthy place, with pleasant people and fine air. Turn
+   Lulu loose, with H. to run after her, and try to rest.
+
+   Lulu takes her first bath in the sea. Very bold; walks off toward
+   Europe up to her neck, and is much afflicted that I won't let her
+   go to the bottom and see the "little trabs;" makes a cupid of
+   herself, and is very pretty and gay.
+
+   The boys revel in the simple pleasures of Nonquit,--a fine place
+   for them to be in.
+
+   Wrote a tale for "St. Nicholas,"--"Sophie's Secret,"--$100.
+
+   _August._--Home to C., and let A. come for her holiday. Much
+   company.
+
+   P. C. Mozoomdar preached, and had a conversation at Mrs.
+   Emerson's; a most interesting man. Curious to hear a Hindu tell
+   how the life of Christ impressed him.
+
+   _November 27th._--Decide to lessen care and worry at home; so
+   take rooms in Boylston Street, and with Lulu set forth to make a
+   home of our own. The whole parlor floor gives my lady room to run
+   in doors, and the Public Garden opposite is the out-door
+   play-ground. Miss C. comes as governess, and we settle down. Fred
+   boards with us. Heard Mathew Arnold.
+
+   _29th._--Birthday,--fifty-one. Home with gifts to poor
+   Father,--eighty-four. Found a table full for myself.
+
+   _December 25th._--Home with gifts for all; sad day. See H.
+   Martineau's statue; very fine.
+
+   _January_, 1884.--New Year's Day is made memorable by my solemnly
+   spanking my child. Miss C. and others assure me it is the only
+   way to cure her wilfulness. I doubt it; but knowing that mothers
+   are usually too tender and blind, I correct my dear in the
+   old-fashioned way. She proudly says, "Do it, do it!" and when it
+   is done is heartbroken at the idea of Aunt Wee-wee's giving her
+   pain. Her bewilderment was pathetic, and the effect, as I
+   expected, a failure. Love is better; but also endless patience.
+
+   _February 2d._--Wendell Phillips died. I shall mourn for him next
+   to R. W. E. and Parker.
+
+   _6th._--Funeral at Hollis Street Church. Sat between Fred
+   Douglas and his wife. A goodly gathering of all left of the old
+   workers. Glad and proud to be among them.
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   _June._--Sell the Orchard House to W. T. Harris. Glad to be done
+   with it, though after living in it twenty-five years, it is full
+   of memories; but places have not much hold on me when the dear
+   persons who made them dear are gone....
+
+   Bought a cottage at Nonquit, with house and furniture. All like
+   it, and it is a good investment I am told.
+
+   _24th._--To Nonquit with Lulu and K. and John. Fixed my house,
+   and enjoyed the rest and quiet immensely. Lulu wild with joy at
+   the freedom....
+
+   _July and August._--Restful days in my little house, which is
+   cool and quiet, and without the curse of a kitchen to spoil it.
+
+   Lulu happy and well, and every one full of summer fun.
+
+   On the 7th of August I went home, and let A. go for her holiday.
+
+   Took care of Father and house, and idled away the hot days with
+   books and letters. Drove with Father, as he enjoyed it very
+   much....
+
+   _October._--To Boston with John, and take rooms at the Bellevue.
+   Very tired of home-worry, and fly for rest to my old refuge, with
+   J. and L. to look after and make a home for.
+
+   Saw Irving. Always enjoy him, though he is very queer. Ellen
+   Terry always the same, though charming in her way.
+
+   _November._--Find Bellevue uncomfortable and expensive, so take
+   rooms in Chestnut Street for self and boys.
+
+   _8th._--My Lulu's birthday. Go home with flowers, gifts, and a
+   grateful heart that the dear little girl is so well and happy and
+   good. A merry day with the little queen of the house.
+
+   _29th._--Our birthday,--Father eighty-five; L. M. A. fifty-two.
+   Quiet day; always sad for thinking of Mother and John and May,
+   who all left us at this season.
+
+   _December._--Began again on "Jo's Boys," as T. N. wants a new
+   book very much, and I am tired of being idle. Wrote two hours for
+   three days, then had a violent attack of vertigo, and was ill for
+   a week. Head won't bear work yet. Put away papers, and tried to
+   dawdle and go about as other people do.
+
+   Pleasant Christmas with Lulu and Nan and poor Father, who loves
+   to see us about him. A narrow world now, but a happy one for him.
+
+   Last day of the year. All well at home except myself; body
+   feeble, but soul improving.
+
+   _January_ 1, 1885.--Pleasant greeting from brother Ernest by
+   telegram,--never forgets us. Opera in the evening,--Emma Nevada.
+   Sent box home. Very cold.
+
+   John had his first dress-suit. Happy boy! Several pleasant Sunday
+   evenings at E. P. W.'s. See Mrs. Burnett, and like her.
+
+   Visit Blind Asylum and North End Mission. Lulu passed a week with
+   me for a change.
+
+   _19th._--An old-fashioned party in an old-time house. All in
+   antique costume; Lulu very pretty in hers. Country kitchen and
+   country fare; spinning and weaving; old songs and dances;
+   tally-ho coach with P. as an ancient Weller,--very funny.
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   _June._--Read Life of Saint Elizabeth by D'Alembert,--quaint and
+   sweet; also French novels. Write out the little tales I tell Lulu
+   for a new Christmas book, having nothing else. Send one, "The
+   Candy Country," to "St. Nicholas."
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   _August 8th._--Go home, and A. goes to N. Take care of Father,
+   arrange the little tales, and look at houses in B. Have a plan to
+   take a furnished house for the winter, and all be together. A. is
+   lonely in C.; boys must be near business. I want Lulu, and Father
+   will enjoy a change.
+
+   Sorted old letters, and burned many. Not wise to keep for curious
+   eyes to read and gossip-lovers to print by and by.
+
+   Lived in the past for days, and felt very old, recalling all I
+   have been through. Experiences go deep with me, and I begin to
+   think it might be well to keep some record of my life, if it will
+   help others to read it when I'm gone. People seem to think our
+   lives interesting and peculiar.
+
+   _September._--After a lively time with house-brokers, I take a
+   house in Louisburg Square for two years. It is a large house,
+   furnished, and well suited to our needs,--sunny, trees in front,
+   good air, and friends near by. All are pleased, and we prepare to
+   move October 1st....
+
+   Father drove down very nicely. Pleased with his new room; Lulu
+   charmed with her big, sunny nursery and the play-house left for
+   her; boys in clover; and Nan ready for the new sort of
+   housekeeping.
+
+   I shall miss my quiet, care-free life in B.; but it is best for
+   all, so I shall try to bear the friction and the worry many
+   persons always bring me.
+
+   It will be an expensive winter; but T. N. tells me the books
+   never sold better, so a good run in January will make all safe.
+
+   "Lulu's Library" as a "pot-boiler" will appease the children, and
+   I may be able to work on "Jo's Boys."
+
+   _March_, 1886.--To Mrs. H.'s to hear Mr. Snyder read the "Iliad;"
+   enjoyed it.
+
+   Sixteen little girls call, and the autograph fiend is abroad.
+
+   _27th._--Another attack of vertigo,--ill for a week; sleepless
+   nights. Head worked like a steam-engine; would not stop. Planned
+   "Jo's Boys" to the end, and longed to get up and write it. Told
+   Dr. W. that he had better let me get the ideas _out_, then I
+   could rest. He very wisely agreed, and said, "As soon as you can,
+   write half an hour a day, and see if it does you good. Rebellious
+   brains want to be attended to, or trouble comes." So I began as
+   soon as able, and was satisfied that we were right; for my head
+   felt better very soon, and with much care about not overdoing, I
+   had some pleasant hours when I forgot my body and lived in my
+   mind.
+
+   _April._--Went on writing one or two hours a day, and felt no ill
+   effects.
+
+   _May._--Began to think of Concord, and prepare to go back for the
+   summer. Father wants his books; Lulu, her garden; Anna, her small
+   house; and the boys, their friends. I want to go away and rest.
+
+   Anna goes up the last of the month and gets the house ready. We
+   send Lulu and Father later, and the boys and I shut up No. 10....
+
+   _June._--Home in C.,--sunny, clean, and pleasant. Put Lulu in
+   order, and get ready for a month in Princeton with Mrs. H. Very
+   tired.
+
+   A quiet three weeks on the hillside,--a valley pink with laurel
+   in front, Mount Wachusett behind us, and green hills all round. A
+   few pleasant people. I read, sleep, walk, and write,--get fifteen
+   chapters done. Instinct was right; after seven years of rest, the
+   old brain was ready for work and tired of feeding on itself,
+   since work it must at something. Enjoyed Hedge's "Hours with
+   German Classics," and "Baldwin," by Vernon Lee.
+
+   Home in time to get Anna and Lulu off to N. for the summer. A.
+   needs the rest very much, and Lulu the freedom. I shall revel in
+   the quiet, and finish my book.
+
+   _July._--The seashore party get off, and peace reigns. I rest a
+   day, and then to work. Finish "Jo's Boys," and take it to T. N.
+   Much rejoicing over a new book. Fifty thousand to be the first
+   edition; orders coming in fast. Not good,--too great intervals
+   between the parts, as it was begun long ago; but the children
+   will be happy, and my promise kept. Two new chapters were needed,
+   so I wrote them, and gladly corked my inkstand.
+
+   What next? Mrs. Dodge wants a serial, and T. N. a novel. I have a
+   dozen plots in my head, but think the serial better come first.
+   Want a great deal of money for many things; every poor soul I
+   ever knew comes for help, and expenses increase. I am the only
+   money-maker, and must turn the mill for others, though my own
+   grist is ground and in the barn.
+
+   The School begins. Father feeble, but goes,--for the last time, I
+   think.
+
+A series of letters to her father's friend, Mrs. Stearns, show how
+tenderly and carefully Louisa watched over the slow decline of the
+stricken man, but they are too full of details of the sickroom for
+publication. A few extracts will give her feeling.
+
+     MAY 23 [1885].
+
+   DEAR MRS. STEARNS,--Many thanks for the sweet nosegay you sent
+   me. It came in good time, for to-day is the anniversary of
+   Father's wedding-day and my sister's silver wedding. Rather sad
+   for both mateless ones; but we have done our best to cheer them
+   up, and the soft rain is very emblematic of the memories their
+   own quiet tears keep green.
+
+   Father remembered you, and smelled his flowers with pleasure. He
+   is very tired of living, and wants to "go up," as he expresses
+   it. A little more or little less light would make him happier;
+   but the still active mind beats against the prison bars, and
+   rebels against the weakness of body that prevents the old
+   independent life. I am afraid the end is not to be peaceful
+   unless it is sudden, as I hope it may be for all our sakes; it is
+   so wearing to see this slow decline, and be able to do little but
+   preach and practise patience.
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Affectionately yours,
+     L. M. A.
+
+     SUNDAY.
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   It is only a temporary change, perhaps; but I still hope that it
+   will last, and his mind grow still clearer. These painless,
+   peaceful days have a certain sweetness, sad as it is to see the
+   dear, hale old man so feeble. If he can know us, and enjoy
+   something of the old life, it is worth having, though the end may
+   come at any moment....
+
+   Now and then a word comes without effort. "Up!" was the first
+   one, and seems very characteristic of this beautiful, aspiring
+   soul, almost on the wing for heaven.
+
+
+_To Mr. Niles._
+
+     NONQUIT, July 13, 1885.
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--I want to know if it is too late to do it and if
+   it is worth doing; namely, to collect some of the little tales I
+   tell Lulu and put them with the two I shall have printed the
+   last year and the "Mermaid Tale" to match the pictures we bought,
+   and call it "Lulu's Library"? I have several tiny books written
+   down for L.; and as I can do no great work, it occurred to me
+   that I might venture to copy these if it would do for a Christmas
+   book for the younger set.
+
+   I ache to fall on some of the ideas that are simmering in my
+   head, but dare not, as my one attempt since the last "Jo's Boys"
+   break-down cost me a week or two of woe and $30 for the doctor. I
+   have lovely long days here, and can copy these and see 'em along
+   if you want them. One has gone to "Harper's Young People," and
+   one is for "St. Nicholas" when it is done,--about the
+   Kindergarten for the blind. These with Lulu's would make a little
+   book, and might begin a series for small folks. Old ladies come
+   to this twaddle when they can do nothing else. What say you?...
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+     SEPTEMBER 18, 1885.
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--I send you some funny sketches by Mrs. L. She
+   seems to be getting on. How would it do to ask her to illustrate
+   the fairy book? She has a pretty taste in elves, and her little
+   girl was good. I hope to touch up the other stories this winter,
+   and she can illustrate, and next Christmas (or whenever it is
+   ready) we can have a little book out. This sort of work being all
+   I dare do now, I may as well be clearing the decks for action
+   when the order comes to "Up, and at 'em!" again, if it ever does.
+
+  [Illustration: _Fac-simile of Miss Alcott's Writing._ ]
+
+   I'd like to help Mrs. L. if I could, as we know something of her,
+   and I fancy she needs a lift. Perhaps we could use these pictures
+   in some way if she liked to have us. Maybe I could work them
+   into a story of our "cullud bredren."
+
+   Thanks for the books. Dear Miss ---- is rather prim in her story,
+   but it is pretty and quite _correct_. So different from Miss
+   Alcott's slap-dash style.
+
+   The "H. H." book ["Ramona"] is a noble record of the great wrongs
+   of her chosen people, and ought to wake up the sinners to
+   repentance and justice before it is too late. It recalls the old
+   slavery days, only these victims are red instead of black. It
+   will be a disgrace if "H. H." gave her work and pity all in vain.
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+     [1885.]
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--Thanks for the book which I shall like to read.
+
+   Please tell Miss N. that she will find in Sanborn's article in
+   "St. Nicholas" or Mrs. Moulton's in the "Eminent Women" book all
+   that I wish to have said about myself. You can add such facts
+   about editions, etc., as you think best. I don't like these
+   everlasting notices; one is enough, else we poor people feel like
+   squeezed oranges, and nothing is left sacred.
+
+   George Eliot's new life and letters is well done, and we are not
+   sorry we have read them. Mr. Cross has been a wise man, and
+   leaves us all our love and respect instead of spoiling them as
+   Froude did for Carlyle,
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+     January 2, 1886.
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--Thanks for the good wishes and news. Now that I
+   cannot work, it is very agreeable to hear that the books go so
+   well, and that the lazy woman need not worry about things.
+
+   I appreciate my blessings, I assure you. I heartily wish I could
+   "swamp the book-room with 'Jo's Boys,'" as Fred says, and hope to
+   do it by and by when head and hand can safely obey the desire of
+   the heart, which will never be too tired or too old to remember
+   and be grateful.
+
+     Your friend,
+     L. M. Alcott.
+
+     Monday, A.M. [1886].
+
+   Dear Mr. Niles,--My doctor forbids me to begin a long book or
+   anything that will need much thought this summer. So I must give
+   up "Tragedy of To-day," as it will need a good deal of thinking
+   to be what it ought.
+
+   I can give you a girls' book however, and I think that will be
+   better than a novel. I have several stories done, and can easily
+   do more and make a companion volume for "Spinning-Wheel Stories"
+   at Christmas if you want it.
+
+   This, with the Lulu stories, will be better than the set of
+   novels I am sure.... Wait till I can do a novel, and then get out
+   the set in style, if Alcott is not forgotten by that time.
+
+   I was going to send Mrs. Dodge one of the tales for girls, and if
+   there is time she might have more. But nearly all new ones would
+   make a book go well in the holiday season. You can have those
+   already done now if you want them. "Sophie's Secret" is one, "An
+   Ivy Spray: or Cinderella's Slippers" another, and "Mountain
+   Laurel" is partly done. "A Garland for Girls" might do for a
+   title perhaps, as they are all for girls.
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+In the spring of 1886, Dr. Rhoda Lawrence took charge of Miss Alcott's
+health, and gave her treatment by massage and other appropriate
+means, from which she received benefit. The summer was spent at
+Concord with her father, and was varied by a pleasant trip to the
+mountains. Miss Alcott finished "Jo's Boys," which was published in
+September. She occupied herself also in looking over old journals and
+letters, and destroyed many things which she did not wish to have come
+under the public eye. She had enjoyed her life at Princeton, and said
+that she felt better than for fifteen years; but in August she was
+severely attacked with rheumatism and troubled with vertigo. She
+suffered very much, and was in a very nervous condition.
+
+Miss Alcott always looked bravely and calmly upon all the
+possibilities of life, and she now made full preparations for the
+event of her own death. Her youngest nephew had always been especially
+beloved, and she decided to take out papers of adoption, to make him
+legally her son and heir. She wished him to assume the name of Alcott,
+and to be her representative.
+
+Louisa's journal closes July, 1886, with the old feeling,--that she
+must grind away at the mill and make money to supply the many claims
+that press upon her from all sides. She feels the burden of every
+suffering human life upon her own soul. She knew that she could write
+what was eagerly desired by others and would bring her the means of
+helping those in need, and her heart and head united in urging her to
+work. Whether it would have been possible for her to have rested more
+fully, and whether she might then have worked longer and better, is
+one of those questions which no one is wise enough to answer. Yet the
+warning of her life should not be neglected, and the eager brain
+should learn to obey the laws of life and health while it is yet time.
+
+In September, 1886, Miss Alcott returned to Louisburg Square, and
+spent the winter in the care of her father, and in the society of her
+sister and nephews and the darling child. She suffered much from
+hoarseness, from nervousness and debility, and from indigestion and
+sleeplessness, but still exerted herself for the comfort of all around
+her. She had a happy Christmas, and sympathized with the joy of her
+oldest nephew in his betrothal. In December she was so weary and worn
+that she went out to Dr. Lawrence's home in Roxbury for rest and care.
+She found such relief to her overtasked brain and nerves from the
+seclusion and quiet of Dunreath Place, that she found her home and
+rest there for the remainder of her life.
+
+It was a great trial to Louisa to be apart from her family, to whom
+she had devoted her life. She clung to her dying father, and to the
+dear sister still left to her, with increasing fondness, and she
+longed for her boys and her child; but her tired nerves could not bear
+even the companionship of her family, and sometimes for days she
+wanted to be all alone. "I feel so safe out here!" she said once.
+
+Mr. Alcott spent the summer at Melrose, and Louisa went there to visit
+him in June. In June and July, 1887, she went to Concord and looked
+over papers and completed the plan for adopting her nephew. She
+afterward went to Princeton, accompanied by Dr. Lawrence. She spent
+eight weeks there, and enjoyed the mountain air and scenery with
+something of her old delight. She was able to walk a mile or more, and
+took a solitary walk in the morning, which she greatly enjoyed. Her
+evening walk was less agreeable, because she was then exposed to the
+eager curiosity of sight-seers, who constantly pursued her.
+
+Miss Alcott had a great intellectual pleasure here in the society of
+Mr. James Murdock and his family. The distinguished elocutionist took
+great pains to gratify her taste for dramatic reading by selecting her
+favorite scenes for representation, and she even attended one of his
+public readings given in the hall of the hotel. The old pain in her
+limbs from which she suffered during her European journey again
+troubled her, and she returned to Dr. Lawrence's home in the autumn,
+where she was tenderly cared for.
+
+Miss Alcott was still continually planning stories. Dr. Lawrence read
+to her a great deal, and the reading often suggested subjects to her.
+She thought of a series to be called "Stories of All Nations," and had
+already written "Trudel's Siege," which was published in "St.
+Nicholas," April, 1888, the scene of which was laid at the siege of
+Leyden. The English story was to be called "Madge Wildfire," and she
+had thought of plots for others. She could write very little, and kept
+herself occupied and amused with fancy work, making flowers and
+pen-wipers of various colors, in the form of pinks, to send to her
+friends.
+
+On her last birthday Louisa received a great many flowers and pleasant
+remembrances, which touched her deeply, and she said, "I did not mean
+to cry to-day, but I can't help it, everybody is so good." She went in
+to see her father every few days, and was conscious that he was
+drawing toward the end.
+
+While riding with her friend, Louisa would tell her of the stories she
+had planned, one of which was to be called "The Philosopher's Wooing,"
+referring to Thoreau. She also had a musical novel in her mind. She
+could not be idle, and having a respect for sewing, she busied herself
+with it, making garments for poor children, or helping the Doctor in
+her work. She insisted upon setting up a work-basket for the Doctor,
+amply supplied with necessary materials, and was pleased when she saw
+them used. A flannel garment for a poor child was the last work of her
+hands. Her health improved in February, especially in the comfort of
+her nights, as the baths she took brought her the long-desired sleep.
+"Nothing so good as sleep," she said. But a little too much excitement
+brought on violent headaches.
+
+During these months Miss Alcott wrote part of the "Garland for Girls,"
+one of the most fanciful and pleasing of her books. These stories were
+suggested by the flowers sent to her by different friends, which she
+fully enjoyed. She rode a great deal, but did not see any one.
+
+Her friends were much encouraged; and although they dared not expect
+full recovery, they hoped that she might be "a comfortable invalid,
+able to enjoy life, and give help and pleasure to others." She did
+not suffer great pain, but she was very weak; her nervous system
+seemed to be utterly prostrated by the years of work and struggle
+through which she had passed. She said, "I don't want to live if I
+can't be of use." She had always met the thought of death bravely; and
+even the separation from her dearest friends was serenely borne. She
+believed in their continued presence and influence, and felt that the
+parting was for a little time. She had no fear of God, and no doubt of
+the future. Her only sadness was in leaving the friends whom she loved
+and who might yet need her.
+
+A young man wrote asking Miss Alcott if she would advise him to devote
+himself to authorship; she answered, "Not if you can do anything else.
+Even dig ditches." He followed her advice, and took a situation where
+he could support himself, but he still continued to write stories. A
+little boy sent twenty-five cents to buy her books. She returned the
+money, telling him it was not enough to buy books, but sent him
+"Little Men." Scores of letters remained unanswered for want of
+strength to write or even to read.
+
+Early in March Mr. Alcott failed very rapidly. Louisa drove in to see
+him, and was conscious that it was for the last time. Tempted by the
+warm spring-like day, she had made some change in her dress, and
+absorbed in the thought of the parting, when she got into the carriage
+she forgot to put on the warm fur cloak she had worn.
+
+The next morning she complained of violent pain in her head, amounting
+to agony. The physician who had attended her for the last weeks was
+called. He felt that the situation was very serious. She herself
+asked, "Is it not meningitis?" The trouble on the brain increased
+rapidly. She recognized her dear young nephew for a moment and her
+friendly hostess, but was unconscious of everything else. So, at 3.30
+P.M., March 6, 1888, she passed quietly on to the rest which she so
+much needed. She did not know that her father had already preceded
+her.
+
+The friends of the family who gathered to pay their last tribute of
+respect and love to the aged father were met at the threshold by the
+startling intelligence, "Louisa Alcott is dead," and a deeper sadness
+fell upon every heart. The old patriarch had gone to his rest in the
+fulness of time, "corn ripe for the sickle," but few realized how
+entirely his daughter had worn out her earthly frame. Her friends had
+hoped for renewed health and strength, and for even greater and nobler
+work from her with her ripened powers and greater ease and leisure.
+
+Miss Alcott had made every arrangement for her death; and by her own
+wish the funeral service was very simple, in her father's rooms at
+Louisburg Square, and attended only by a few of her family and nearest
+friends. They read her exquisite poem to her mother, her father's
+noble tribute to her, and spoke of the earnestness and truth of her
+life. She was remembered as she would have wished to be. Her body was
+carried to Concord and placed in the beautiful cemetery of Sleepy
+Hollow where her dearest ones were already laid to rest. "Her boys"
+went beside her as "a guard of honor," and stood around as she was
+placed across the feet of father, mother, and sister, that she might
+"take care of them as she had done all her life."
+
+Of the silent grief of the bereaved family I will not speak, but the
+sound of mourning filled all the land, and was re-echoed from foreign
+shores. The children everywhere had lost their friend. Miss Alcott had
+entered into their hearts and revealed them to themselves. In her
+childish journal her oldest sister said, "I have not a secret from
+Louisa; I tell her everything, and am not afraid she will think me
+silly." It was this respect for the thought and life of children that
+gave Louisa Alcott her great power of winning their respect and
+affection. Nothing which was real and earnest to them seemed
+unimportant to her.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+LAST LETTERS.
+
+
+_To Mr. Niles._
+
+     SUNDAY, 1886.
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--The goodly supply of books was most welcome; for
+   when my two hours pen-work are over I need something to comfort
+   me, and I long to go on and finish "Jo's Boys" by July 1st.
+
+   My doctor frowns on that hope, and is so sure it will do mischief
+   to get up the steam that I am afraid to try, and keep Prudence
+   sitting on the valve lest the old engine run away and have
+   another smash-up.
+
+   I send you by Fred several chapters, I wish they were neater, as
+   some were written long ago and have knocked about for years; but
+   I can't spare time to copy, so hope the printers won't be in
+   despair.
+
+   I planned twenty chapters and am on the fifteenth. Some are long,
+   some short, and as we are pressed for time we had better not try
+   to do too much.
+
+   ... I have little doubt it will be done early in July, but things
+   are so contrary with me I can never be sure of carrying out a
+   plan, and I don't want to fail again; so far I feel as if I
+   could, without harm, finish off these dreadful boys.
+
+   Why have any illustrations? The book is not a child's book, as
+   the lads are nearly all over twenty, and pretty pictures are not
+   needed. Have the bas-relief if you like, or one good thing for
+   frontispiece.
+
+   I can have twenty-one chapters and make it the size of "Little
+   Men." Sixteen chapters make two hundred and sixteen pages, and I
+   may add a page here and there later,--or if need be, a chapter
+   somewhere to fill up.
+
+   I shall be at home in a week or two, much better for the rest and
+   fine air; and during my quiet days in C. I can touch up proofs
+   and confer about the book. Sha'n't we be glad when it is done?
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Dodge_.
+
+     JUNE 29.
+
+   DEAR MRS. DODGE,--I will evolve something for December (D. V.)
+   and let you have it as soon as it is done.
+
+   Lu and I go to Nonquit next week; and after a few days of rest, I
+   will fire up the old engine and see if it will run a short
+   distance without a break-down.
+
+   There are usually about forty young people at N., and I think I
+   can get a hint from some of them.
+
+   Had a call from Mr. Burroughs and Mr. Gilder last eve. Mr. G.
+   asked if you were in B., but I didn't know.
+
+   Father remains comfortable and happy among his books. Our lads
+   are making their first visit to New York, and may call on "St.
+   Nick," whom they have made their patron saint.
+
+   I should like to own the last two bound volumes of "St.
+   Nicholas," for Lulu. She adores the others, and they are nearly
+   worn out with her loving but careless luggings up and down for
+   "more towries, Aunt Wee-wee." Charge to
+
+     Yours affectionately,
+     L. M. A.
+
+   P. S.--Wasn't I glad to see you in my howling wilderness of
+   wearisome domestic worrits! Come again.
+
+     CONCORD, August 15.
+
+   DEAR MRS. DODGE,--I like the idea of "Spinning-Wheel Stories,"
+   and can do several for a series which can come out in a book
+   later. Old-time tales, with a thread running through all from the
+   wheel that enters in the first one.
+
+   A Christmas party of children might be at an old farm-house and
+   hunt up the wheel, and grandma spins and tells the first story;
+   and being snow-bound, others amuse the young folks each evening
+   with more tales. Would that do? The mother and child picture
+   would come in nicely for the first tale,--"Grandma and her
+   Mother."
+
+   Being at home and quiet for a week or so (as Father is nicely and
+   has a capable nurse), I have begun the serial, and done two
+   chapters; but the spinning-tales come tumbling into my mind so
+   fast I'd better pin a few while "genius burns." Perhaps you would
+   like to start the set Christmas. The picture being ready and the
+   first story can be done in a week, "Sophie's Secret" can come
+   later. Let me know if you would like that, and about how many
+   pages of the paper "S. S." was written on you think would make
+   the required length of tale (or tail?). If you don't want No. 1
+   yet, I will take my time and do several.
+
+   The serial was to be "Mrs. Gay's Summer School," and have some
+   city girls and boys go to an old farm-house, and for fun dress
+   and live as in old times, and learn the good, thrifty old ways,
+   with adventures and fun thrown in. That might come in the spring,
+   as it takes me longer to grind out yarns now than of old.
+
+   Glad you are better. Thanks for kind wishes for the little house;
+   come and see it, and gladden the eyes of forty young admirers by
+   a sight of M. M. D. next year.
+
+     Yours affectionately,
+     L. M. A.
+
+     31 CHESTNUT ST., DECEMBER 31.
+
+   DEAR MRS. DODGE,--A little cousin, thirteen years old, has
+   written a story and longs to see it in print. It is a well
+   written bit and pretty good for a beginner, so I send it to you
+   hoping it may find a place in the children's corner. She is a
+   grandchild of S. J. May, and a bright lass who paints nicely and
+   is a domestic little person in spite of her budding
+   accomplishments. Good luck to her!
+
+   I hoped to have had a Christmas story for some one, but am
+   forbidden to write for six months, after a bad turn of vertigo.
+   So I give it up and take warning. All good wishes for the New
+   Year.
+
+     From yours affectionately,
+     L. M. ALCOTT.
+
+
+_To Mr. Niles_.
+
+     1886.
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--Sorry you don't like the bas-relief [of
+   herself]; I do. A portrait, if bright and comely, wouldn't be me,
+   and if like me would disappoint the children; so we had better
+   let them imagine "Aunt Jo young and beautiful, with her hair in
+   two tails down her back," as the little girl said.
+
+     In haste,
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Bond._
+
+     CONCORD, Tuesday, 1886.
+
+   DEAR AUNTIE,--I want to find Auntie Gwinn, and don't know whom to
+   ask but you, as your big motherly heart yearns over all the poor
+   babies, and can tell them where to go when the nest is bare. A
+   poor little woman has just died, leaving four children to a
+   drunken father. Two hard-working aunts do all they can, and one
+   will take the oldest girl. We want to put the two small girls and
+   boy into a home till we can see what comes next. Lulu clothes
+   one, and we may be able to put one with a cousin. But since the
+   mother died last Wednesday they are very forlorn, and must be
+   helped. If we were not so full I'd take one; but Lu is all we can
+   manage now.
+
+   There is a home at Auburndale, but it is full; and I know of no
+   other but good Auntie Gwinn's. What is her address, please? I
+   shall be in town on Saturday, and can go and see her if I know
+   where.
+
+   Don't let it be a bother; but one turns at once in such cases to
+   the saints for direction, and the poor aunts don't know what to
+   do; so this aunt comes to the auntie of all.
+
+   I had a pleasant chat with the Papa in the cars, and was very
+   glad to hear that W. is better. My love to both and S.
+
+   Thanks for the news of portraits. I'll bear them in mind if G. H.
+   calls. Lulu and Anna send love, and I am as always,
+
+     Your
+     LOUISA ALCOTT.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Dodge._
+
+     APRIL 13, 1886.
+
+   DEAR MRS. DODGE,--I am glad you are going to have such a fine
+   outing. May it be a very happy one.
+
+   I cannot promise anything, but hope to be allowed to write a
+   little, as my doctor has decided that it is as well to let me put
+   on paper the tales "knocking at the saucepan lid and demanding to
+   be taken out" (like Mrs. Cratchit's potatoes), as to have them go
+   on worrying me inside. So I'm scribbling at "Jo's Boys," long
+   promised to Mr. Niles and clamored for by the children. I may
+   write but one hour a day, so cannot get on very fast; but if it
+   is ever done, I can think of a serial for "St. Nicholas." I began
+   one, and can easily start it for '88, if head and hand allow. I
+   will simmer on it this summer, and see if it can be done. Hope
+   so, for I don't want to give up work so soon.
+
+   I have read "Mrs. Null," but don't like it very well,--too slow
+   and colorless after Tolstoi's "Anna Karenina."
+
+   I met Mr. and Mrs. S. at Mrs. A.'s this winter. Mr. Stockton's
+   child-stories I like very much. The older ones are odd but
+   artificial.
+
+   Now, good-by, and God be with you, dear woman, and bring you
+   safely home to us all.
+
+     Affectionately yours,
+     L. M. ALCOTT.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Bond._
+
+     DUNREATH PLACE, ROXBURY, March 15, 1887
+
+   DEAR AUNTIE,--I have been hoping to get out and see you all
+   winter, but have been so ill I could only live on hope as a
+   relish to my gruel,--that being my only food, and not of a nature
+   to give me strength. Now I am beginning to live a little, and
+   feel less like a sick oyster at low tide. The spring days will
+   set me up I trust, and my first pilgrimage shall be to you; for I
+   want you to see how prettily my May-flower is blossoming into a
+   fine off-shoot of the old plant.
+
+   Lizzy Wells has probably told you our news of Fred and his little
+   bride, and Anna written you about it as only a proud mamma can.
+
+   Father is very comfortable, but says sadly as he looks up from
+   his paper, "Beecher has gone now; all go but me." Please thank
+   Mr. Bond for the poems, which are interesting, even to a poor,
+   ignorant worm who does not know Latin. Mother would have enjoyed
+   them very much. I should have acknowledged his kindness sooner;
+   but as I am here in Roxbury my letters are forwarded, and often
+   delayed.
+
+   I was sorry to hear that you were poorly again. Isn't it hard to
+   sit serenely in one's soul when one's body is in a dilapidated
+   state? I find it a great bore, but try to do it patiently, and
+   hope to see the why by and by, when this mysterious life is made
+   clear to me. I had a lovely dream about that, and want to tell it
+   you some day.
+
+     Love to all.
+     Ever yours,
+     L. M. A.
+
+Her publisher wished to issue a new edition of "A Modern
+Mephistopheles," and to add to it her story "A Whisper in the Dark,"
+to which she consented.
+
+     MAY 6, 1887.
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES.--This is about what I want to say. You may be
+   able to amend or suggest something. I only want it understood
+   that the highfalutin style was for a disguise, though the story
+   had another purpose; for I'm not ashamed of it, and like it
+   better than "Work" or "Moods."
+
+     Yours in haste,
+     L. M. A.
+
+   P. S.--Do you want more fairy tales?
+
+
+_Preface._
+
+   "A Modern Mephistopheles" was written among the earlier volumes
+   of the No Name Series, when the chief idea of the authors was to
+   puzzle their readers by disguising their style as much as
+   possible, that they might enjoy the guessing and criticism as
+   each novel appeared. This book was very successful in preserving
+   its incognito; and many persons still insist that it could not
+   have been written by the author of "Little Women." As I much
+   enjoyed trying to embody a shadow of my favorite poem in a story,
+   as well as the amusement it has afforded those in the secret for
+   some years, it is considered well to add this volume to the few
+   romances which are offered, not as finished work by any means,
+   but merely attempts at something graver than magazine stories or
+   juvenile literature.
+
+     L. M. ALCOTT.
+
+  [Illustration: _Fac-simile of Preface to "A Modern
+  Mephistopheles."_]
+
+     SATURDAY A.M., May 7, 1887.
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--Yours just come. "A Whisper" is rather a lurid
+   tale, but might do if I add a few lines to the preface of
+   "Modern Mephistopheles," saying that this is put in to fill the
+   volume, or to give a sample of Jo March's necessity stories,
+   which many girls have asked for. Would that do?
+
+   It seems to me that it would be better to wait till I can add a
+   new novel, and then get out the set. Meantime let "Modern
+   Mephistopheles" go alone, with my name, as a summer book before
+   Irving comes [Irving as Faust].
+
+   I hope to do "A Tragedy of To-day" this summer, and it can come
+   out in the fall or next spring, with "Modern Mephistopheles,"
+   "Work," and "Moods."
+
+   A spunky new one would make the old ones go. "Hospital Sketches"
+   is not cared for now, and is filled up with other tales you
+   know....
+
+   Can that plan be carried out? I have begun my tragedy, and think
+   it will be good; also a shorter thing called "Anna: An Episode,"
+   in which I do up Boston in a jolly way, with a nice little
+   surprise at the end. It would do to fill up "Modern
+   Mephistopheles," as it is not long, unless I want it to be.
+
+   I will come in next week and see what can be done.
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Bond._
+
+     SUNDAY, Oct. 16, [1887].
+
+   DEAR AUNTIE,--As you and I belong to the "Shut-in Society," we
+   may now and then cheer each other by a line. Your note and verse
+   are very good to me to-day, as I sit trying to feel all right in
+   spite of the stiffness that won't walk, the rebel stomach that
+   won't work, and the tired head that won't rest.
+
+   My verse lately has been from the little poem found under a good
+   soldier's pillow in the hospital.
+
+     I am no longer eager, bold, and strong,--
+         All that is past;
+     I am ready not to do
+         At last--at last.
+     My half-day's work is done,
+         And this is all my part.
+     I give a patient God
+         My patient heart.
+
+   The learning not to do is so hard after being the hub to the
+   family wheel so long. But it is good for the energetic ones to
+   find that the world can get on without them, and to learn to be
+   still, to give up, and wait cheerfully.
+
+   As we have "fell into poetry," as Silas Wegg says, I add a bit of
+   my own; for since you are Marmee now, I feel that you won't laugh
+   at my poor attempts any more than she did, even when I burst
+   forth at the ripe age of eight.
+
+   Love to all the dear people, and light to the kind eyes that have
+   made sunshine for others so many years.
+
+     Always your
+     LU.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Bond, with first copy of "Lulu's Library," second volume._
+
+     OCTOBER, 1887.
+
+   DEAR AUNTIE,--I always gave Mother the first author's copy of a
+   new book. As her representative on earth, may I send you, with my
+   love, the little book to come out in November?
+
+   The tales were told at sixteen to May and her playmates; then are
+   related to May's daughter at five; and for the sake of these two
+   you may care to have them for the little people.
+
+   I am still held by the leg, but seem to gain a little, and hope
+   to be up by and by. Slow work, but part of the discipline I
+   need, doubtless; so I take it as well as I can.
+
+   You and I won't be able to go to the golden wedding of S. J. May.
+   I have been alone so long I feel as if I'd like to see any one,
+   and be in the good times again. L. W. reports you as "nicely, and
+   sweet as an angel;" so I rejoice, and wish I could say the same
+   of
+
+     Your loving
+     LU.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Dodge._
+
+     DECEMBER 22, 1887.
+
+   DEAR MRS. DODGE,--I send you the story your assistant editor
+   asked for. As it is needed at once I do not delay to copy it, for
+   I can only write an hour a day and do very little. You are used
+   to my wild manuscript, and will be able to read it. I meant to
+   have sent the Chinese tale, but this was nearly done, and so it
+   goes, as it does not matter where we begin.... I hope you are
+   well, and full of the peace which work well done gives the happy
+   doer.
+
+   I mend slowly, but surely, and my good Doctor says my best work
+   is yet to come; so I will be content with health if I can get it.
+   With all good wishes,
+
+     Yours affectionately,
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Bond._
+
+     FEBRUARY 7 [1888].
+
+   DEAR AUNTIE,--My blessed Anna is so busy, and I can do so little
+   to help her, I feel as if I might take upon me the pleasant duty
+   of writing to you.
+
+   Father is better, and we are all so grateful, for just now we
+   want all to be bright for our boy.
+
+   The end is not far off, but Father rallies wonderfully from each
+   feeble spell, and keeps serene and happy through everything.
+
+   I don't ask to keep him now that life is a burden, and am glad to
+   have him go before it becomes a pain. We shall miss the dear old
+   white head and the feeble saint so long our care; but as Anna
+   says, "He will be with Mother." So we shall be happy in the hope
+   of that meeting.
+
+   Sunday he seemed very low, and I was allowed to drive in and say
+   "good-by." He knew me and smiled, and kissed "Weedy," as he calls
+   me, and I thought the drowsiness and difficulty of breathing
+   could not last long. But he revived, got up, and seemed so much
+   as usual, I may be able to see him again. It is a great grief
+   that I am not there as I was with Lizzie and Mother, but though
+   much better, the shattered nerves won't bear much yet, and quiet
+   is my only cure.
+
+   I sit alone and bless the little pair like a fond old
+   grandmother. You show me how to do it. With love to all,
+
+     Yours ever,
+     LU.
+
+
+_Her last note. To Mrs. Bond._
+
+     FEBRUARY 8, 1888.
+     _Air_,-"Haste to the Wedding."
+
+   DEAR AUNTIE,--I little knew what a sweet surprise was in store
+   for me when I wrote to you yesterday.
+
+   As I awoke this morning my good Doctor L. came in with the lovely
+   azalea, her round face beaming through the leaves like a full
+   moon.
+
+   It was very dear of you to remember me, and cheer up my lonely
+   day with such a beautiful guest.
+
+   It stands beside me on Marmee's work-table, and reminds me
+   tenderly of her favorite flowers; and among those used at her
+   funeral was a spray of this, which lasted for two weeks
+   afterward, opening bud after bud in the glass on her table, where
+   lay the dear old "Jos. May" hymn book, and her diary with the pen
+   shut in as she left it when she last wrote there, three days
+   before the end, "The twilight is closing about me, and I am going
+   to rest in the arms of my children."
+
+   So you see I love the delicate flower, and enjoy it very much.
+
+   I can write now, and soon hope to come out and see you for a few
+   minutes, as I drive out every fine day, and go to kiss my people
+   once a week for fifteen minutes.
+
+   Slow climbing, but I don't slip back; so think up my mercies, and
+   sing cheerfully, as dear Marmee used to do, "Thus far the Lord
+   has led me on!"
+
+     Your loving
+     LU.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+     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.
+
+     _November_ 29, 1885.
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+Miss Alcott's appearance was striking and impressive rather than
+beautiful. Her figure was tall and well-proportioned, indicating
+strength and activity, and she walked with freedom and majesty. Her
+head was large, and her rich brown hair was long and luxuriant, giving
+a sense of fulness and richness of life to her massive features. While
+thoroughly unconventional, and even free and easy in her manner, she
+had a dignity of deportment which prevented undue liberties, and made
+intruders stand in awe of her. Generous in the extreme in serving
+others, she knew her own rights, and did not allow them to be trampled
+on. She repelled "the spurns that patient merit of the unworthy
+takes," and had much of the Burns spirit that sings "A man's a man for
+a' that" in the presence of insolent grandeur.
+
+Miss Alcott always took her stand not for herself, but for her family,
+her class, her sex. The humblest writer should not be imposed upon in
+her person; every woman should be braver and stronger from her
+attitude. She was careless of outward distinctions; but she enjoyed
+the attentions which her fame brought her with simple pleasure, and
+was delighted to meet bright, intelligent, distinguished people, who
+added to her stores of observation and thought. She had the rare good
+fortune, which an heir of millions might envy, of living all her life
+in the society of the noblest men and women. The Emersons, the
+Thoreaus, the Hawthornes, and Miss Elizabeth Peabody were the constant
+companions of her childhood and youth. It was from them that her
+standard of character was formed, and she could never enter any circle
+higher than that in which she had breathed freely from a child. She
+was quite capable of hero-worship, but her heroes were few.
+
+With all her imagination and romance, Miss Alcott was a tremendous
+destroyer of illusions; she remorselessly tore them away from herself,
+persisting in holding a lens before every fault and folly of her own,
+and she did the same for those she loved best. Only what was
+intrinsically noble and true could stand the searching test of her
+intellectual scrutiny and keen perception of the incongruous and
+ridiculous.
+
+This disposition was apparent in Louisa's relation to her father, whom
+she did not always fully understand. Perhaps he had a perception of
+this when he wrote--
+
+     "I press thee to my heart, as Duty's faithful child."
+
+She had little sympathy with his speculative fancy, and saw plainly
+the impracticability of his schemes, and did not hesitate to touch
+with light and kindly satire his little peculiarities; yet in her
+deepest heart she gave him not only affection, but deep reverence. She
+felt the nobility and grandeur of his mind and heart. In "Little
+Women" the portrait of the father is less vivid and less literal than
+that of any other member of the family, and is scarcely recognizable;
+but it was impossible to make the student and idealist a part of the
+family life as she painted it,--full of fun, frolic, and adventure. In
+the second part she has taken pains to make up for this seeming
+neglect, and pays homage to the quiet man at the end of the house,
+whose influence was so potent and so sweet over all within it.
+
+Mrs. Alcott was a rich and noble nature, full of zeal and impulse,
+daily struggling with a temper threatening to burst out into fire,
+ready to fight like a lioness for her young, or to toil for them till
+Nature broke down under the burden. She had a rich appreciation of
+heroism and beauty in all noble living, a true love of literature, and
+an overflowing sympathy with all suffering humanity, but was also
+capable of righteous indignation and withering contempt. To this
+mother, royal in her motherhood, Louisa was bound by the closest ties
+of filial love and mutual understanding. She early believed herself to
+be her mother's favorite child, knew she was close to her heart, her
+every struggle watched, her every fault rebuked, every aspiration
+encouraged, every effort after good recognized. I think Louisa felt no
+pride in this preference. She knew that she was dear to her mother,
+because her stormy, wayward heart was best understood by her; and
+hence the mother, wiser for her child than for herself, watched her
+unfolding life with anxious care. Throughout the childish journal this
+relation is evident: the child's heart lies open to the mother, and
+the mother can help her because she understands her, and holds sacred
+every cry of her heart.
+
+Such a loving relation to a mother--so rich, so full, so enduring--was
+the greatest possible blessing to her life. And richly did Louisa
+repay the care. From her earliest years she was her mother's
+confidante, friend, and comforter. Her dream of success was not of
+fame and glory, but of the time when she could bring this weary
+pilgrim into "that chamber whose name is Peace," and there bid her sit
+with folded hands, listening to the loving voices of her children, and
+drinking in the fulness of life without care or anxiety.
+
+And it all came true, like the conclusion of a fairy story; for good
+fairies had been busy at work for many years preparing the way. Who
+that saw that mother resting from her labors, proud in her children's
+success, happy in her husband's contentment, and in the love that had
+never faltered in the darkest days, can ever forget the peace of her
+countenance, the loving joy of her heart?
+
+The relation of Miss Alcott to her older sister was of entire trust
+and confidence. Anna inherited the serene, unexacting temper of her
+father, with much of the loving warmth of her mother. She loved to
+hide behind her gifted sister, and to keep the ingle-side warm for her
+to retreat to when she was cold and weary. Anna's fine intellectual
+powers were shown more in the appreciation of others than in the
+expression of herself; her dramatic skill and her lively fancy,
+combined with her affection for Louisa, made her always ready to
+second all the plans for entertainment or benevolence. She appears in
+her true light in the sweet, lovable Meg of "Little Women;" and if she
+never had the fame and pecuniary success of her sister, she had the
+less rare, but equally satisfying, happiness of wifehood and
+motherhood. And thus she repaid to Louisa what she had so generously
+done for the family, by giving her new objects of affection, and
+connecting her with a younger generation.
+
+Louisa was always very fond of boys, and the difference of nature gave
+her an insight into their trials and difficulties without giving her a
+painful sense of her own hard struggles. In her nephews she found
+objects for all her wise and tender care, which they repaid with
+devoted affection. When boys became men, "they were less interesting
+to her; she could not understand them."
+
+Elizabeth was unlike the other sisters. Retiring in disposition, she
+would gladly have ever lived in the privacy of home, her only desire
+being for the music that she loved. The father's ideality was in her a
+tender religious feeling; the mother's passionate impulse, a
+self-abnegating affection. She was in the family circle what she is in
+the book,--a strain of sweet, sad music we long and love to hear, and
+yet which almost breaks the heart with its forecasting of separation.
+She was very dear to both the father and mother, and the picture of
+the father watching all night by the marble remains of his child is
+very touching. He might well say,--
+
+     "Ah, me! life is not life deprived of thee."
+
+Of the youngest of all,--bright, sparkling, capricious May,--quick in
+temper, quick in repentance, affectionate and generous, but full of
+her own plans, and quite inclined to have the world go on according
+to her fancies,--I have spoken elsewhere. Less profound in her
+intellectual and religious nature than either of her sisters, she was
+like a nymph of Nature, full of friendly sportiveness, and disposed to
+live out her own life, since it might be only a brief summer day. She
+was Anna's special child, and Louisa was not always so patient with
+her as the older sister; yet how well Louisa understood her generous
+nature is shown by the beautiful sketch she has made of her in "Little
+Women." She was called the lucky one of the family, and she reaped the
+benefit of her generous sister's labors in her opportunities of
+education.
+
+Miss Alcott's literary work is so closely interwoven with her personal
+life that it needs little separate mention. Literature was undoubtedly
+her true pursuit, and she loved and honored it. That she had her
+ambitious longings for higher forms of art than the pleasant stories
+for children is evident from her journals, and she twice attempted to
+paint the life of mature men and women struggling with great
+difficulties. In "Moods" and "A Modern Mephistopheles" we have proof
+of her interest in difficult subjects. I have spoken of them in
+connection with her life; but while they evince great power, and if
+standing alone would have stamped her as an author of original
+observation and keen thought, they can hardly be considered as
+thoroughly successful, and certainly have not won the sanction of the
+public like "Hospital Sketches" and "Little Women." Could she ever
+have commanded quiet leisure, with a tolerable degree of health, she
+might have wrought her fancies into a finer fabric, and achieved the
+success she aimed at.
+
+Much as Miss Alcott loved literature, it was not an end in itself to
+her, but a means. Her heart was so bound up in her family,--she felt
+it so fully to be her sacred mission to provide for their wants,--that
+she sacrificed to it all ambitious dreams, health, leisure,--everything
+but her integrity of soul. But as "he that loseth his life shall find
+it," she has undoubtedly achieved a really greater work than if she
+had not had this constant stimulus to exertion. In her own line of
+work she is unsurpassed. While she paints in broad, free strokes the
+life of her own day, represented mostly by children and young people,
+she has always a high moral purpose, which gives strength and
+sweetness to the delineation; yet one never hears children complain of
+her moralizing,--it is events that reveal the lesson she would
+enforce. Her own deep nature shines through all the experiences of her
+characters, and impresses upon the children's hearts a sense of
+reality and truth. She charms them, wisely, to love the common virtues
+of truth, unselfishness, kindness, industry, and honesty. Dr. Johnson
+said children did not want to hear about themselves, but about giants
+and fairies; but while Miss Alcott could weave fairy fancies for them,
+they are quite as pleased with her real boys and girls in the plainest
+of costumes.
+
+An especial merit of these books for young boys and girls is their
+purity of feeling. The family affection which was so predominant in
+the author's own life, always appears as the holiest and sweetest
+phase of human nature. She does not refuse to paint the innocent love
+and the happy marriage which it is natural for every young heart to be
+interested in, but it is in tender, modest colors. She does not make
+it the master and tyrant of the soul, nor does she ever connect it
+with sensual imagery; but it appears as one of "God's holy
+ordinances,"--natural and beautiful,--and is not separated from the
+thought of work and duty and self-sacrifice for others. No mother
+fears that her books will brush the bloom of modesty from the faces of
+her young men or maidens.
+
+Even in the stories of her early period of work for money, which she
+wisely renounced as trash, while there is much that is thoroughly
+worthless as art, and little that has any value, Miss Alcott never
+falls into grossness of thought or baseness of feeling. She is
+sentimental, melodramatic, exaggerated, and unreal in her
+descriptions, but the stories leave no taint of evil behind them. Two
+of these stories, "The Baron's Gloves" and "A Whisper in the Dark,"
+have been included in her published works, with her permission. Her
+friends are disposed to regret this, as they do not add to her
+reputation; but at least they serve to show the quality of work which
+she condemned so severely, and to satisfy the curiosity of readers in
+regard to it. It would be easy to point out defects in her style, and
+in some of her books there is evidence of the enforced drudgery of
+production, instead of the spontaneous flow of thought. The most
+serious defect is in her style of expression, which certainly passes
+the fine line between colloquial ease and slang; it is her own
+natural, peculiar style, which appears in her journals and letters.
+That it is attractive to children is certain, but it offends the taste
+of those who love purity and elegance of speech. It does not appear in
+Louisa's more ambitious novels; here she sometimes falls into the
+opposite extreme of labored and stilted expression. But much of these
+books is written in a pure and beautiful style, showing that she could
+have united ease with elegance if she had not so constantly worked at
+high speed and with little revision. She was a great admirer of
+Dickens's writings; and although she has never imitated him, she was
+perhaps strengthened in her habit of using dashing, expressive
+language by so fascinating a model.
+
+I have placed at the head of each chapter one of Miss Alcott's own
+poems, usually written at the period of which the chapter treats, and
+characteristic of her life at that time. Her first literary essay was
+the "Little Robin." But although her fond mother saw the future of a
+great poet in these simple verses, Louisa never claimed the title for
+herself. Her thoughts ran often into rhyme, and she sent many birthday
+and Christmas verses to her friends and especially to her father. They
+are usually playful. She always wrote to express some feeling of the
+hour, and I find no objective or descriptive poetry. But a few of her
+sacred poems, for we may certainly call them so, are very tender and
+beautiful, and deserve a permanent place among the poems of
+feeling,--those few poems which a true heart writes for itself.
+"Thoreau's Flute" was originally published in the "Atlantic Monthly."
+It is the least personal of her poems. The lines to her father on his
+eighty-sixth birthday, the verses dedicated to her mother, and "My
+Prayer," the last poem that she wrote, breathe her deepest religious
+feeling in sweet and fitting strains. They will speak to the hearts of
+many in the hours of trial which are common to humanity. The long
+playful poem called "The Lay of the Golden Goose" was sent home from
+Europe as an answer to many questions from her admirers and demands
+for new stories. It has never been published, and is an interesting
+specimen of her playful rhyming.
+
+While to Miss Alcott cannot be accorded a high rank as a poet,--which,
+indeed, she never claimed for herself,--it would be hard to deny a
+place in our most select anthology to "Thoreau's Flute" or
+"Transfiguration," the "Lines to my Father on his Eighty-sixth
+Birthday" and "My Prayer." I have therefore thought it well to
+preserve her best poems in connection with her life, where they
+properly belong; for they are all truly autobiographical, revealing
+the inner meaning of her life.
+
+The pecuniary success of Miss Alcott's books enabled her to carry out
+her great purpose of providing for the comfort and happiness of her
+family. After the publication of "Little Women," she not only received
+a handsome sum for every new story, but there was a steady income from
+the old ones. Her American publishers estimate that they "have sold of
+her various works a million volumes, and that she realized from them
+more than two hundred thousand dollars." While her own tastes were
+very simple, her expenses were large, for she longed to gratify every
+wish of those she loved, and she gave generously to every one in need.
+She had a true sense of the value of money. Her early poverty did not
+make her close in expending it, nor her later success lavish. She
+never was enslaved by debt or corrupted by wealth. She always held
+herself superior to her fortune, and made her means serve her highest
+purposes.
+
+Of Miss Alcott's own reading she says:--
+
+   "Never a student, but a great reader. R. W. E. gave me Goethe's
+   works at fifteen, and they have been my delight ever since. My
+   library consists of Goethe, Emerson, Shakespeare, Carlyle,
+   Margaret Fuller, and George Sand. George Eliot I don't care for,
+   nor any of the modern poets but Whittier; the old ones--Herbert,
+   Crashaw, Keats, Coleridge, Dante, and a few others--I like."
+
+She gives this account of the beginning of her literary career:--
+
+   "This gem ['The Robin'] my proud mother preserved with care,
+   assuring me that if I kept on in this way I might be a second
+   Shakespeare in time. Fired with this modest ambition, I continued
+   to write poems upon dead butterflies, lost kittens, the baby's
+   eyes, and other simple subjects till the story-telling mania set
+   in; and after frightening my sisters out of their wits by awful
+   tales whispered in bed, I began to write down these histories of
+   giants, ogres, dauntless girls, and magic transformations till we
+   had a library of small paper-covered volumes illustrated by the
+   author. Later the poems grew gloomy and sentimental, and the
+   tales more fanciful and less tragic, lovely elves and spirits
+   taking the places of the former monsters."
+
+Of her method of work she says:--
+
+   "I never had a study. Any pen and paper do, and an old atlas on
+   my knee is all I want. Carry a dozen plots in my head, and think
+   them over when in the mood. Sometimes keep one for years, and
+   suddenly find it all ready to write. Often lie awake and plan
+   whole chapters word for word, then merely scribble them down as
+   if copying.
+
+   "Used to sit fourteen hours a day at one time, eating little, and
+   unable to stir till a certain amount was done.
+
+   "Very few stories written in Concord; no inspiration in that dull
+   place. Go to Boston, hire a quiet room and shut myself up in it."
+
+The following letter gives her advice to young writers:--
+
+
+_To Mr. J. P. True._
+
+     CONCORD, October 24.
+
+   DEAR SIR,--I never copy or "polish," so I have no old manuscripts
+   to send you; and if I had it would be of little use, for one
+   person's method is no rule for another. Each must work in his own
+   way; and the only drill needed is to keep writing and profit by
+   criticism. Mind grammar, spelling, and punctuation, use short
+   words, and express as briefly as you can your meaning. Young
+   people use too many adjectives and try to "write fine." The
+   strongest, simplest words are best, and no _foreign_ ones if it
+   can be helped.
+
+   Write, and print if you can; if not, still write, and improve as
+   you go on. Read the best books, and they will improve your style.
+   See and hear good speakers and wise people, and learn of them.
+   Work for twenty years, and then you may some day find that you
+   have a style and place of your own, and can command good pay for
+   the same things no one would take when you were unknown.
+
+   I know little of poetry, as I never read modern attempts, but
+   advise any young person to keep to prose, as only once in a
+   century is there a true poet; and verses are so easy to do that
+   it is not much help to write them. I have so many letters like
+   your own that I can say no more, but wish you success, and give
+   you for a motto Michael Angelo's wise words: "Genius is infinite
+   patience."
+
+     Your friend,
+     L. M. ALCOTT.
+
+   P. S.--The lines you send are better than many I see; but boys of
+   nineteen cannot know much about hearts, and had better write of
+   things they understand. Sentiment is apt to become
+   sentimentality; and sense is always safer, as well as better
+   drill, for young fancies and feelings.
+
+   Read Ralph Waldo Emerson, and see what good prose is, and some of
+   the best poetry we have. I much prefer him to Longfellow.
+
+"Years afterward," says Mr. True, "when I had achieved some slight
+success, I once more wrote, thanking her for her advice; and the
+following letter shows the kindliness of heart with which she extended
+ready recognition and encouragement to lesser workers in her chosen
+field:"--
+
+     CONCORD, Sept. 7, 1883.
+
+   MY DEAR MR. TRUE,--Thanks for the pretty book, which I read at
+   once and with pleasure; for I still enjoy boys' pranks as much as
+   ever.
+
+   I don't remember the advice I gave you, and should judge from
+   this your first story that you did not need much. Your boys are
+   real boys; and the girls can run,--which is a rare accomplishment
+   nowadays I find. They are not sentimental either; and that is a
+   good example to set both your brother writers and the lasses who
+   read the book.
+
+   I heartily wish you success in your chosen work, and shall always
+   be glad to know how fast and how far you climb on the steep road
+   that leads to fame and fortune.
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. Alcott.
+
+Roberts Brothers, Miss Alcott's publishers for nearly twenty years,
+have collected all her stories in a uniform edition of twenty-five
+volumes. They are grouped into different series according to size and
+character, from her novels to "Lulu's Library" for very small
+children, and may be enumerated as follows:--
+
+   _Novels_ (four volumes).--Work, Moods, A Modern Mephistopheles,
+   Hospital Sketches.
+
+   _Little Women Series_ (eight volumes).--Little Women, An
+   Old-Fashioned Girl, Little Men, Eight Cousins, Rose in Bloom,
+   Under the Lilacs, Jack and Jill, Jo's Boys.
+
+   _Spinning-Wheel Stories Series_ (four volumes).--Silver Pitchers,
+   Proverb Stories, Spinning-Wheel Stories, A Garland for Girls.
+
+   _Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag_ (six volumes).--My Boys, Shawl-Straps,
+   Cupid and Chow-Chow, My Girls, Jimmy's Cruise in the Pinafore, An
+   Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving.
+
+   _Lulu's Library_ (three volumes).
+
+Many of these stories were originally published in various
+magazines,--the popular "St Nicholas," for which Miss Alcott wrote
+some of her best things in her later years, the "Youth's Companion,"
+and others. Her works have been republished in England; and through
+her English publishers, Messrs. Sampson Low and Company, of London,
+she has reaped the benefit of copyright there, and they have been
+translated into many languages. Her name is familiar and dear to the
+children of Europe, and they still read her books with the same
+eagerness as the children of her own land.
+
+This extract from a letter written by the translator of Miss Alcott's
+books into Dutch will show how she is esteemed in Holland:--
+
+   "Miss Alcott was and is so much beloved here by her books, that
+   you could scarce find a girl that had not read one or more of
+   them. Last autumn I gave a translation of 'Lulu's Library' that
+   appeared in November, 1887; the year before, a collection of
+   tales and Christmas stories that appeared under the name of
+   'Gandsbloempje' ('Dandelion'). Yesterday a young niece of mine
+   was here, and said, 'Oh, Aunt, how I enjoyed those stories! but
+   the former of "Meh Meh" I still preferred.' A friend wrote: 'My
+   children are confined to the sickroom, but find comfort in
+   Alcott's "Under the Lilacs."' Her fame here was chiefly caused by
+   her 'Little Women' and 'Little Women Wedded,' which in Dutch
+   were called 'Under Moedervleugels' ('Under Mother's Wings') and
+   'Op Eigen Wieken' ('With Their Own Wings'). Her 'Work' was
+   translated as 'De Hand van den Ploey' ('The Hand on the
+   Plough')."
+
+How enduring the fame of Louisa M. Alcott will be, time only can show;
+but if to endear oneself to two generations of children, and to mould
+their minds by wise counsel in attractive form entitle an author to
+the lasting gratitude of her country, that praise and reward belong to
+LOUISA MAY ALCOTT.
+
+
+TERMINUS.
+
+     It is time to be old,
+     To take in sail:
+     The god of bounds,
+     Who sets to seas a shore,
+     Came to me in his fatal rounds,
+     And said, "No more!
+     No farther shoot
+     Thy broad ambitious branches, and thy root;
+     Fancy departs: no more invent,
+     Contract thy firmament
+     To compass of a tent.
+     There's not enough for this and that,
+     Make thy option which of two;
+     Economize the failing river,
+     Not the less revere the Giver;
+     Leave the many, and hold the few.
+     Timely wise, accept the terms;
+     Soften the fall with wary foot;
+     A little while
+     Still plan and smile.
+     And, fault of novel germs,
+     Mature the unfallen fruit."
+
+            *       *       *       *       *
+
+     As the bird trims her to the gale,
+     I trim myself to the storm of time;
+     I man the rudder, reef the sail,
+     Obey the voice at eve obeyed at prime:
+     Lowly faithful, banish fear,
+     Right onward drive unharmed;
+     The port, well worth the cruise, is near,
+     And every wave is charmed.
+
+     EMERSON.
+
+
+
+
+LOUISA M. ALCOTT'S WRITINGS.
+
+
+_Miss Alcott is really a benefactor of households._--H. H.
+
+_Miss Alcott has a faculty of entering into the lives and feelings of
+children that is conspicuously wanting in most writers who address
+them; and to this cause, to the consciousness among her readers that
+they are hearing about people like themselves, instead of abstract
+qualities labelled with names, the popularity of her books is
+due._--MRS. SARAH J. HALE.
+
+_Dear Aunt Jo! You are embalmed in the thoughts and loves of thousands
+of little men and women._--EXCHANGE.
+
+     =Little Women; or Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy.=
+     With illustrations. 16mo     $1.50
+
+     =Hospital Sketches, and Camp and Fireside Stories.=
+     With illustrations. 16mo   1.50
+
+     =An Old-Fashioned Girl.=
+     With illustrations. 16mo    1.50
+
+     =Little Men:= Life at Plumfield with Jo's Boys.
+     With illustrations. 16mo      1.50
+
+     =Jo's Boys and How they Turned Out.= A sequel to "Little Men."
+     With portrait of "Aunt Jo." 16mo       1.50
+
+     =Eight Cousins=; or, The Aunt-Hill.
+     With illustrations. 16mo     1.50
+
+     =Rose in Bloom.= A sequel to "Eight Cousins."
+     16mo      1.50
+
+     =Under the Lilacs.=
+     With illustrations. 16mo        1.50
+
+     =Jack and Jill.= A Village Story.
+     With illustrations. 16mo      1.50
+
+     =Work:= A Story of Experience.
+     With character illustrations by Sol Eytinge. 16mo     1.50
+
+     =Moods.= A Novel.
+     New edition, revised and enlarged. 16mo       1.50
+
+     =A Modern Mephistopheles, and A Whisper in the Dark.=
+     16mo       1.50
+
+     =Silver Pitchers, and Independence.= A Centennial Love Story.
+     16mo       1.25
+
+     =Proverb Stories.=
+     New edition, revised and enlarged. 16mo      1.25
+
+     =Spinning-Wheel Stories.=
+     With illustrations. 16mo     1.25
+
+     =A Garland for Girls, and Other Stories.=
+     With illustrations. 16mo      1.25
+
+     =My Boys, &c.= First volume of Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag.
+     16mo       $1.00
+
+     =Shawl-Straps.= Second volume of Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag.
+     16mo       1.00
+
+     =Cupid and Chow-Chow, &c.= Third volume of Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag.
+     16mo      1.00
+
+     =My Girls, &c.= Fourth volume of Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag.
+     16mo      1.00
+
+     =Jimmy's Cruise in the Pinafore, &c.=
+     Fifth volume of Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag. 16mo     1.00
+
+     =An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving, &c.=
+     Sixth volume of Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag. 16mo    1.00
+
+     =Little Women.= Illustrated. Embellished
+     with nearly 200 characteristic
+     illustrations from original
+     designs drawn expressly for this
+     edition of this noted American
+     Classic. One small quarto, bound
+     in cloth, with emblematic designs     2.50
+
+     =Little Women Series.= Comprising
+     Little Women; Little Men;
+     Eight Cousins; Under the Lilacs;
+     An Old-Fashioned Girl; Jo's
+     Boys; Rose in Bloom; Jack and
+     Jill. 8 large 16mo volumes in a
+     handsome box          12.00
+
+     Miss Alcott's novels in uniform binding
+     in sets. Moods; Work; Hospital
+     Sketches; A Modern Mephistopheles,
+     and A Whisper in the
+     Dark. 4 volumes. 16mo         6.00
+
+     =Lulu's Library.= Vols. I., II., III.
+     A collection of New Stories.
+     16mo       3.00
+
+_These books are for sale at all bookstores, or will be mailed,
+post-paid, on receipt of price, to any address._
+
+LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY,
+
+BOSTON.
+
+
+
+
+LOUISA M. ALCOTT,
+
+HER LIFE, LETTERS, AND JOURNALS
+
+EDITED BY EDNAH D. CHENEY.
+
+With PORTRAITS and View of the ALCOTT HOME in Concord. One vol. 16mo.
+Uniform with "Little Women." Price, $1.50.
+
+
+Mrs. Cheney has allowed this popular author to tell the story of her
+early struggles, her successes, and prosperity and life work, in her
+own inimitable style, gracefully weaving the daily record of this
+sweet and useful life into a garland of _immortelles_, in a manner at
+once pleasing and within the comprehension of the thousands of readers
+and admirers of Miss Alcott's books. It might truly be called the
+biography of "Little Women."
+
+   A most fascinating as well as a deeply pathetic book. The
+   story,--the long, hard struggle for money to keep the household
+   in comfort, and the well-earned success coming, alas, too late to
+   save her health,--is delightfully told in her own words, from
+   letters and journals, so that we have the bright, the witty, and
+   the always charming personality of the children's author before
+   us from the first page to the last. We have to thank Mrs. Cheney
+   that she hid not from us the hard, grinding toil, nor spared us
+   the record of one discouragement in the life so interesting to
+   us; for in this narrative we have a valuable lesson for the young
+   writer of our day.--_The Epoch._
+
+   One who knew Miss Alcott well says: "Nobody can read of the
+   struggles of the Alcott family, and of the tender yet resolute
+   heroism with which Miss Alcott met and relieved them, without
+   being touched to tears by the pathos and reality of the picture.
+   Louisa Alcott was not a member of any church; but her belief in
+   God, her loyalty to conscience, her fidelity to duty, her rescue
+   of the Alcott family from its peculiar perils, place her among
+   the women saints of the century, and it will be hard to find any
+   one of her sex who has more faithfully responded to the duties of
+   the position in which God had placed her."--_Cincinnati
+   Commercial Gazette._
+
+   Louisa May Alcott is without a rival as a writer for the young.
+   The millions who have read her stories--and been made better by
+   the reading--will want this book that they may get near the inner
+   life, the fruitful source of their entertainment and profit. They
+   will see that purity, simplicity, love, earnestness, and patience
+   were so interwoven with her genius that her stories were the
+   natural outgrowth of her beautiful character. The book needs no
+   commendation from us. Every reader of her stories will be glad to
+   know that they may now become intimately acquainted with that
+   beautiful life which is here brought out of its long cherished
+   seclusion.--_Saturday Evening Herald._
+
+LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY,
+
+BOSTON.
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration: "Sing, Tessa, Sing!" cried Tommo, twanging away with
+  all his might.--PAGE 47.]
+
+AUNT JO'S SCRAP-BAG: Containing "My Boys," "Shawl-Straps," "Cupid and
+Chow-Chow," "My Girls," "Jimmy's Cruise in the Pinafore," "An
+Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving." 6 vols. Price of each, $1.00.
+
+LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY,
+
+BOSTON.
+
+
+
+
+LOUISA M. ALCOTT'S STORY-BOOKS.
+
+
+  [Illustration: A CHRISTMAS DREAM.]
+
+LULU'S LIBRARY.
+
+A COLLECTION OF STORIES BY "AUNT JO"
+
+With Illustrations by JESSIE MCDERMOTT.
+
+3 vols. 16mo. Cloth. Price, $1.00 per volume.
+
+LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY,
+
+BOSTON.
+
+
+
+
+NOVELS AND STORIES
+
+BY
+
+LOUISA M. ALCOTT.
+
+
+WORK. A Story of Experience. With Illustrations by SOL EYTINGE.
+
+   This story relates, in many of its most important features and
+   incidents, to actual experiences of its author; and in "Christie"
+   we find the views and ideas of Miss Alcott herself expressed in
+   such a way as to make them most interesting and valuable.
+
+MOODS. A Novel.
+
+   Although this story was originally written at a time when its
+   author's powers and years were far from fully matured, it was in
+   its first form indicative of great power. It was revised and
+   partly rewritten after she had attained a full maturity, and
+   after actual experience with life had broadened and rounded out
+   her mental vision, so that it now stands as the first-born and
+   dearest to her heart of her novels.
+
+A MODERN MEPHISTOPHELES. A Story.
+
+   This story was written for the "No Name Series," in which it
+   originally appeared, and consequently was intended to be
+   disguised
+
+   It is a surprise that Miss Alcott could have written this volume;
+   not that it is inferior, but that it varies from her usual tone
+   and theme so much. Yet her plot is ingenious, and there is
+   dramatic design well worked out. As we read, knowing now who the
+   author is (the story was first published anonymously), we
+   recognize the grace of her style and the art of her workmanship.
+   Its tone and, above all, its lofty moral purpose are hers. Plots
+   differ, appearances are changed; but some of the deep traits of
+   the true nature of Miss Alcott are in the book. Being dead she
+   yet liveth.--_Public Opinion_.
+
+HOSPITAL SKETCHES, and Camp and Fireside Stories. With Illustrations.
+
+   These stories and sketches were written at the time of the Civil
+   War, in which the author took part as a nurse in one of the
+   hospitals, and show some of the many minor side scenes that help
+   to make up that great conflict.
+
+Four volumes. 16mo. Cloth. $1.50 per volume.
+
+_Sold everywhere. Mailed, post-paid, on receipt of price by the
+publishers,_
+
+LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY,
+
+BOSTON.
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration: "'I'm not hurt, all right in a minute,' he said,
+  sitting up, a little pale and dizzy, as the boys gathered round him,
+  full of admiration and alarm."--PAGE 2]
+
+LITTLE MEN; OR, LIFE AT PLUMFIELD WITH JO'S BOYS. Price, $1.50.
+
+LITTLE BROWN, AND COMPANY,
+
+BOSTON.
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration: WALTON RICKETSON, SCULP.]
+
+JO'S BOYS, AND HOW THEY TURNED OUT. A sequel to "Little Men." With a
+new portrait of "Aunt Jo." Price, $1.50.
+
+Little, Brown, and Company,
+
+BOSTON.
+
+
+
+
+POPULAR STORY BOOKS.
+
+
+   SUSAN COOLIDGE has always possessed the affection of her young
+   readers, for it seems as if she had the happy instinct of
+   planning stories that each girl would like to act out in
+   reality.--_The Critic._
+
+   Not even Miss Alcott apprehends child nature with finer sympathy,
+   or pictures its nobler traits with more skill.--_Boston Daily
+   Advertiser._
+
+=THE NEW YEAR'S BARGAIN.= A Christmas Story for Children. With
+Illustrations by ADDIE LEDYARD. 16mo. $1.25.
+
+=WHAT KATY DID.= A Story. With Illustrations by ADDIE LEDYARD. 16mo.
+$1.25.
+
+=WHAT KATY DID AT SCHOOL.= Being more about "What Katy Did." With
+Illustrations. 16mo. $1.25.
+
+=MISCHIEF'S THANKSGIVING,= and other Stories. With Illustrations by
+ADDIE LEDYARD. 16mo. $1.25.
+
+=NINE LITTLE GOSLINGS.= With Illustrations by J. A. MITCHELL. 16mo.
+$1.25.
+
+=EYEBRIGHT.= A Story. With Illustrations. 16mo. $1.25.
+
+=CROSS PATCH.= With Illustrations. 16mo. $1.25.
+
+=A ROUND DOZEN.= With Illustrations. 16mo. $1.25.
+
+=A LITTLE COUNTRY GIRL.= With Illustrations. 16mo. $1.25.
+
+=WHAT KATY DID NEXT.= With Illustrations. 16mo. $1.25.
+
+=CLOVER.= A Sequel to the Katy Books. With Illustrations by JESSIE
+MCDERMOTT. 16mo. $1.25.
+
+=JUST SIXTEEN.= With Illustrations. 16mo. $1.25.
+
+=IN THE HIGH VALLEY.= With Illustrations, 16mo. $1.25.
+
+=A GUERNSEY LILY=; or, How the Feud was Healed. A Story of the Channel
+Islands. Profusely Illustrated. 16mo. $1.25.
+
+=THE BARBERRY BUSH,= and Seven Other Stories about Girls for Girls. With
+Illustrations by JESSIE MCDERMOTT. 16mo. $1.25.
+
+=NOT QUITE EIGHTEEN.= A volume of Stories. With Illustrations by JESSIE
+MCDERMOTT. 16mo. $1.25.
+
+_Sold by all booksellers. Mailed, post-paid, on receipt of price, by
+the publishers._
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOUISA MAY ALCOTT ***
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+<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Louisa May Alcott, Her Life, Letters, and Journals, by Louisa M. Alcott</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
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+</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Louisa May Alcott<br />
+Her Life, Letters, and Journals</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Louisa May Alcott</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Editor: Ednah D. Cheney</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: November 18, 2011 [eBook #38049]<br />
+[Most recently updated: September 3, 2021]</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Juliet Sutherland, Melissa McDaniel and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team</div>
+<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOUISA MAY ALCOTT ***</div>
+
+<div class="tnbox">
+<p class="center"><b>Transcriber's Note:</b></p>
+<p>Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
+Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation in the original
+document have been preserved.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="450" height="500" alt="Cover" />
+</div>
+
+<h1 class="p6"><span class="smcap">Louisa May Alcott</span><br />
+<span class="s2">HER</span><br />
+Life, Letters, and Journals.</h1>
+
+<p class="center p4">EDITED BY</p>
+
+<p class="center">EDNAH D. CHENEY</p>
+
+<p class="center p6">BOSTON<br />
+LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY<br />
+1898</p>
+
+<p class="p6 center s1"><i>Copyright, 1889</i>,<br />
+
+<span class="smcap">By J. S. P. Alcott</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="p4 center s1"><span class="smcap">University Press</span>:<br />
+<span class="smcap">John Wilson and Son, Cambridge</span>.</p>
+
+<div class="ad">
+<p class="center p6">TO<br />
+
+<span class="b1">MRS. ANNA B. PRATT,</span></p>
+
+<p class="center">THE SOLE SURVIVING SISTER OF LOUISA M. ALCOTT, AND HER<br />
+NEVER-FAILING HELP, COMFORTER, AND FRIEND<br />
+FROM BIRTH TO DEATH,</p>
+
+<p class="center p2">This Memoir</p>
+
+<p class="center">IS RESPECTFULLY AND TENDERLY DEDICATED,<br />
+BY<br />
+<span class="i50p">EDNAH D. CHENEY.</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Jamaica Plain</span>,<br />
+<span class="i1">June, 1889.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter p6"><a name="illus005" id="illus005"></a>
+<img src="images/illus005.jpg" width="444" height="650" alt="Portrait" />
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iii" id="Page_iii"></a></span></p>
+
+<h2 class="p6"> INTRODUCTION.</h2>
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">L</span>OUISA MAY ALCOTT is universally recognized
+as the greatest and most popular
+story-teller for children in her generation. She
+has known the way to the hearts of young people,
+not only in her own class, or even country, but in
+every condition of life, and in many foreign lands.
+Plato says, "Beware of those who teach fables to
+children;" and it is impossible to estimate the influence
+which the popular writer of fiction has
+over the audience he wins to listen to his tales.
+The preacher, the teacher, the didactic writer find
+their audience in hours of strength, with critical
+faculties all alive, to question their propositions and
+refute their arguments. The novelist comes to us
+in the intervals of recreation and relaxation, and by
+his seductive powers of imagination and sentiment
+takes possession of the fancy and the heart before
+judgment and reason are aroused to defend the
+citadel. It well becomes us, then, who would
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_iv" id="Page_iv">iv</a></span>
+guard young minds from subtle temptations, to
+study the character of those works which charm
+and delight the children.</p>
+
+<p>Of no author can it be more truly said than
+of Louisa Alcott that her works are a revelation
+of herself. She rarely sought for the material of
+her stories in old chronicles, or foreign adventures.
+Her capital was her own life and experiences
+and those of others directly about her; and
+her own well-remembered girlish frolics and fancies
+were sure to find responsive enjoyment in the
+minds of other girls.</p>
+
+<p>It is therefore impossible to understand Miss
+Alcott's works fully without a knowledge of her
+own life and experiences. By inheritance and
+education she had rich and peculiar gifts; and her
+life was one of rare advantages, as well as of trying
+difficulties. Herself of the most true and frank
+nature, she has given us the opportunity of knowing
+her without disguise; and it is thus that I shall
+try to portray her, showing what influences acted
+upon her through life, and how faithfully and fully
+she performed whatever duties circumstances laid
+upon her. Fortunately I can let her speak mainly
+for herself.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Alcott revised her journals at different times
+during her later life, striking out what was too personal
+for other eyes than her own, and destroying
+a great deal which would doubtless have proved
+very interesting.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">v</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The small number of letters given will undoubtedly
+be a disappointment. Miss Alcott wished to
+have most of her letters destroyed, and her sister
+respected her wishes. She was not a voluminous
+correspondent; she did not encourage many intimacies,
+and she seldom wrote letters except to
+her family, unless in reference to some purpose
+she had strongly at heart. Writing was her constant
+occupation, and she was not tempted to indulge
+in it as a recreation. Her letters are brief,
+and strictly to the point, but always characteristic
+in feeling and expression; and, even at the risk of
+the repetition of matter contained in her journals
+or her books, I shall give copious extracts from
+such as have come into my hands.</p>
+
+<p><span class="i20">E. D. C.</span><br />
+<span class="smcap">Jamaica Plain</span>, Mass., 1889.</p>
+
+<h2 class="p6">TABLE OF CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="2" summary="toc">
+<col width="20" />
+<col width="250" />
+<col width="100" />
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdr"><span class="smcap">Page</span></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap">Introduction</span></td>
+
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_iii">iii</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdc"><span class="smcap s1">Chapter.</span></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">I.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Genealogy and Parentage</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">II.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Childhood</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_16">16</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">III.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Fruitlands</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_32">32</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">IV.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Sentimental Period</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_56">56</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">V.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Authorship</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_75">75</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">VI.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Year of Good Luck</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_110">110</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">VII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">"Hospital Sketches</span>"</td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_136">136</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">VIII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Europe, and "Little Women"</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_170">170</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">IX.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Europe</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_204">204</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">X.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Family Changes</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_263">263</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XI.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Last Years</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_329">329</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdr">XII.</td>
+<td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Conclusion</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_387">387</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<h2 class="p6">ILLUSTRATIONS.</h2>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="2" summary="loi">
+<col width="20" />
+<col width="400" />
+<col width="100" />
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td class="tdr"><span class="smcap">Page</span></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap o1">Portrait of Miss Alcott</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><i><a href="#illus005">Frontispiece</a></i></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td><span class="o1">Photogravure</span> by A. W. Elson &amp; Co., from a photograph by
+Notman (negative destroyed), taken in 1883. The facsimile
+of her writing is an extract from a letter to her
+publisher, written from her hospital retreat a few weeks
+previous to her death.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap o1">Orchard House</span> ("<span class="smcap">Apple Slump</span>"), <span class="smcap">Concord,
+Mass., the Home of the Alcotts, 1858 to
+1878</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#illus098">93</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Engraved by John Andrew &amp; Son Co., from a photograph.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap o1">Portrait of Miss Alcott</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#illus147">140</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td><span class="o1">Photogravure</span> by A. W. Elson &amp; Co., from a photograph
+taken just previous to her going to Washington as a hospital
+nurse, in 1862.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap o1">Fac-simile of Miss Alcott's Writing</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#illus370">362</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Extract from a letter to her publisher, January, 1886.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl" colspan="2"><span class="smcap o1">Fac-simile</span> <span class="smcap">of Preface to the New Edition of
+"A Modern Mephistopheles," now first
+printed</span></td>
+<td class="tdr"><a href="#illus388">380</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p class="center b2 p6">LOUISA MAY ALCOTT.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11"></a></span></p>
+
+<p class="center p2 b1">CHAPTER I.</p>
+
+<p class="center">GENEALOGY AND PARENTAGE.</p>
+
+<p class="center p2">TO LOUISA MAY ALCOTT.</p>
+
+<p class="center s1">BY HER FATHER.</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+When I remember with what buoyant heart,<br />
+<span class="i1">Midst war's alarms and woes of civil strife,<br /></span>
+In youthful eagerness thou didst depart,<br />
+<span class="i1">At peril of thy safety, peace, and life,<br /></span>
+To nurse the wounded soldier, swathe the dead,&ndash;<br />
+<span class="i1">How piercèd soon by fever's poisoned dart,<br /></span>
+And brought unconscious home, with wildered head,<br />
+<span class="i1">Thou ever since 'mid langour and dull pain,<br /></span>
+To conquer fortune, cherish kindred dear,<br />
+<span class="i1">Hast with grave studies vexed a sprightly brain,<br /></span>
+In myriad households kindled love and cheer,<br />
+<span class="i1">Ne'er from thyself by Fame's loud trump beguiled,<br /></span>
+Sounding in this and the farther hemisphere,&ndash;<br />
+<span class="i1">I press thee to my heart as Duty's faithful child.<br /></span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2"><span class="dropcap">L</span>OUISA ALCOTT was the second child of
+Amos Bronson and Abba May Alcott. This
+name was spelled Alcocke in English history.
+About 1616 a coat-of-arms was granted to Thomas
+Alcocke of Silbertoft, in the county of Leicester.
+The device represents three cocks, emblematic of
+watchfulness; and the motto is <i>Semper Vigilans</i>.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">12</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The first of the name appearing in English history
+is John Alcocke of Beverley, Yorkshire, of
+whom Fuller gives an account in his Worthies
+of England.</p>
+
+<p>Thomas and George Alcocke were the first of
+the name among the settlers in New England.
+The name is frequently found in the records of
+Dorchester and Roxbury, and has passed through
+successive changes to its present form.</p>
+
+<p>The name of Bronson came from Mr. Alcott's
+maternal grandfather, the sturdy Capt. Amos Bronson
+of Plymouth, Conn. "His ancestors on both
+sides had been substantial people of respectable
+position in England, and were connected with the
+founders and governors of the chief New England
+colonies. At the time of Mr. Alcott's birth they
+had become simple farmers, reaping a scanty living
+from their small farms in Connecticut."</p>
+
+<p>Amos Bronson Alcott, the father of Louisa, was
+born Nov. 29, 1799, at the foot of Spindle Hill, in
+the region called New Connecticut. He has himself
+given in simple verse the story of his quaint
+rustic life in his boyhood, and Louisa has reproduced
+it in her story of "Eli's Education" (in the
+Spinning-Wheel Stories), which gives a very true
+account of his youthful life and adventures. He
+derived his refined, gentle nature from his mother,
+who had faith in her son, and who lived to see him
+the accomplished scholar he had vowed to become
+in his boyhood. Although brought up in these
+rustic surroundings, his manners were always those
+of a true gentleman. The name of the little mountain
+town afterward became Wolcott, and Louisa
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">13</a></span>
+records in her journal a pilgrimage made thither in
+after years.<a name="FNanchor_1" id="FNanchor_1" href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>Louisa Alcott's mother was a daughter of Col.
+Joseph May of Boston. This family is so well
+known that it is hardly necessary to repeat its
+genealogy here.<a name="FNanchor_2" id="FNanchor_2" href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> She was a sister of Samuel J.
+May, for many years pastor of the Unitarian church
+at Syracuse, who was so tenderly beloved by men
+of all religious persuasions in his home, and so
+widely known and respected for his courage and
+zeal in the Antislavery cause, as well as for his
+many philanthropic labors.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Alcott's mother was Dorothy Sewall, a descendant
+of that family already distinguished in the
+annals of the Massachusetts colony, and which has
+lost nothing of its reputation for ability and virtue
+in its latest representatives.<a name="FNanchor_3" id="FNanchor_3" href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Alcott inherited in large measure the traits
+which distinguished her family. She was a woman
+of large stature, fine physique, and overflowing life.
+Her temper was as quick and warm as her affections,
+but she was full of broad unselfish generosity.
+Her untiring energies were constantly employed,
+not only for the benefit of her family, but for all
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">14</a></span>
+around her. She had a fine mind, and if she did
+not have large opportunities for scholastic instruction,
+she always enjoyed the benefit of intellectual
+society and converse with noble minds. She loved
+expression in writing, and her letters are full of wit
+and humor, keen criticism, and noble moral sentiments.
+Marriage with an idealist, who had no
+means of support, brought her many trials and privations.
+She bore them heroically, never wavering
+in affection for her husband or in devotion to her
+children. If the quick, impatient temper sometimes
+relieved itself in hasty speech, the action was
+always large and unselfish.</p>
+
+<p>It will be apparent from Louisa's life that she
+inherited the traits of both her parents, and that
+the uncommon powers of mind and heart that distinguished
+her were not accidental, but the accumulated
+result of the lives of generations of strong
+and noble men and women.</p>
+
+<p>She was well born.</p>
+
+<p class="section"><i>Mr. Alcott to Colonel May.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Germantown</span>, Nov. 29, 1832.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,&ndash;It is with great pleasure that I announce
+to you the <i>birth of a second daughter</i>. She was born at
+half-past 12 this morning, on my birthday (33), and is
+a very fine healthful child, much more so than Anna was
+at birth,&ndash;has a fine foundation for health and energy of
+character. Abba is very comfortable, and will soon be
+restored to the discharge of those domestic and maternal
+duties in which she takes so much delight, and in the
+performance of which she furnishes so excellent a model
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">15</a></span>
+for imitation. Those only who have seen her in those
+relations, much as there is in her general character to
+admire and esteem, can form a true estimate of her personal
+worth and uncommon devotion of heart. She was
+formed for domestic sentiment rather than the gaze and
+heartlessness of what is falsely called "society." Abba
+inclines to call the babe <i>Louisa May</i>,&ndash;a name to her
+full of every association connected with amiable benevolence
+and exalted worth. I hope its <i>present possessor</i>
+may rise to equal attainment, and deserve a place in the
+estimation of society.</p>
+
+<p>With Abba's and Anna's and Louisa's regards, allow
+me to assure you of the sincerity with which I am</p>
+
+<p class="center">Yours,<br />
+<span class="smcap sig">A. Bronson Alcott</span>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="p2">The children who lived to maturity were&ndash;</p>
+
+<p class="i6"><span class="smcap">Anna Bronson Alcott</span>,<br />
+<span class="smcap">Louisa May Alcott</span>,<br />
+<span class="smcap">Elizabeth Sewall Alcott</span>,<br />
+<span class="smcap">Abba May Alcott</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="center p6"><span class="b1">CHAPTER II.</span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">16</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="center">CHILDHOOD.</p>
+
+<p class="center p2">TO THE FIRST ROBIN.<a name="FNanchor_4" id="FNanchor_4" href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+
+<p class="stanza">Welcome, welcome, little stranger,<br />
+Fear no harm, and fear no danger;<br />
+We are glad to see you here,<br />
+For you sing "Sweet Spring is near."</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">Now the white snow melts away;<br />
+Now the flowers blossom gay:<br />
+Come dear bird and build your nest,<br />
+For we love our robin best.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap i10">Louisa May Alcott.</span><br />
+<span class="smcap o1">Concord.</span><br />
+</p></div>
+
+<p class="p2"><span class="dropcap">M</span>R. ALCOTT had removed to Germantown,
+Penn, to take charge of a school, and here
+Louisa was born, Nov. 29, 1832. She was the
+second daughter, and was welcomed with the same
+pride and affection as her elder sister had been.
+We have this pleasant little glimpse of her when
+she was hardly a month old, from the pen of one
+of her mother's friends. Even at that extremely
+early age love saw the signs of more than usual
+intelligence, and friends as well as fond parents
+looked forward to a promising career.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">17</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="section"><i>Extract from a Letter by Miss Donaldson.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter"><span class="smcap">Germantown, Penn.</span>, Dec. 16, 1832.</p>
+
+<p>
+I have a dear little pet in Mrs. Alcott's little Louisa.
+It is the prettiest, best little thing in the world. You
+will wonder to hear me call anything so young pretty,
+but it is really so in an uncommon degree; it has a fair
+complexion, dark bright eyes, long dark hair, a high forehead,
+and altogether a countenance of more than usual
+intelligence.</p>
+
+<p>The mother is such a delightful woman that it is a
+cordial to my heart whenever I go to see her. I went
+in to see her for a few moments the evening we received
+your letter, and I think I never saw her in better spirits;
+and truly, if goodness and integrity can insure felicity,
+she deserves to be happy.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="p2">The earliest anecdote remembered of Louisa is
+this: When the family went from Philadelphia to
+Boston by steamer, the two little girls were nicely
+dressed in clean nankeen frocks for the voyage;
+but they had not been long on board before the
+lively Louisa was missing, and after a long search
+she was brought up from the engine-room, where
+her eager curiosity had carried her, and where she
+was having a beautiful time, with "plenty of dirt."</p>
+
+<p>The family removed to Boston in 1834, and
+Mr. Alcott opened his famous school in Masonic
+Temple. Louisa was too young to attend the
+school except as an occasional visitor; but she
+found plenty of interest and amusement for herself
+in playing on the Common, making friends
+with every child she met, and on one occasion
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">18</a></span>
+falling into the Frog Pond. She has given a very
+lively picture of this period of her life in "Poppy's
+Pranks," that vivacious young person being a picture
+of herself, not at all exaggerated.</p>
+
+<p>The family lived successively in Front Street,
+Cottage Place, and Beach Street during the six
+succeeding years in Boston. They occasionally
+passed some weeks at Scituate during the summer,
+which the children heartily enjoyed.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Hawthorne gives a little anecdote which
+shows how the child's heart was blossoming in this
+family sunshine: "One morning in Front Street,
+at the breakfast table, Louisa suddenly broke
+silence, with a sunny smile saying, 'I love everybody
+in <i>dis</i> whole world.'"</p>
+
+<p>Two children were born during this residence in
+Boston. Elizabeth was named for Mr. Alcott's assistant
+in his school,&ndash;Miss E. P. Peabody, since
+so widely known and beloved by all friends of education.
+A boy was born only to die. The little
+body was laid reverently away in the lot of Colonel
+May in the old burial-ground on the Common, and
+the children were taught to speak with tenderness
+of their "baby brother."</p>
+
+<p>When Louisa was about seven years old she
+made a visit to friends in Providence. Miss C.
+writes of her: "She is a beautiful little girl to look
+upon, and I love her affectionate manners. I think
+she is more like her mother than either of the
+others." As is usually the case, Louisa's journal,
+which she began at this early age, speaks more
+fully of her struggles and difficulties than of the
+bright, sunny moods which made her attractive. A
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">19</a></span>
+little letter carefully printed and sent home during
+this visit is preserved. In it she says she is not
+happy; and she did have one trying experience
+there, to which she refers in "My Boys." Seeing
+some poor children who she thought were hungry,
+she took food from the house without asking permission,
+and carried it to them, and was afterward
+very much astonished and grieved at being reprimanded
+instead of praised for the deed. Miss
+C. says: "She has had several spells of feeling
+sad; but a walk or a talk soon dispels all gloom.
+She was half moody when she wrote her letter;
+but now she is gay as a lark. She loves to
+play out of doors, and sometimes she is not inclined
+to stay in when it is unpleasant." In her
+sketches of "My Boys" she describes two of her
+companions here, not forgetting the kindness of
+the one and the mischievousness of the other.</p>
+
+<p>Although the family were quite comfortable during
+the time of Mr. Alcott's teaching in Boston, yet
+the children wearied of their extremely simple diet
+of plain boiled rice without sugar, and graham
+meal without butter or molasses. An old friend
+who could not eat the bountiful rations provided
+for her at the United States Hotel, used to save
+her piece of pie or cake for the Alcott children.
+Louisa often took it home to the others in a bandbox
+which she brought for the purpose.</p>
+
+<p>This friend was absent in Europe many years,
+and returned to find the name of Louisa Alcott
+famous. When she met the authoress on the street
+she was eagerly greeted. "Why, I did not think
+you would remember me!" said the old lady.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">20</a></span>
+"Do you think I shall ever forget that bandbox?"
+was the instant reply.</p>
+
+<p>In 1840, Mr. Alcott's school having proved unsuccessful,
+the family removed to Concord, Mass.,
+and took a cottage which is described in "Little
+Women" as "Meg's first home," although Anna
+never lived there after her marriage. It was a
+pleasant house, with a garden full of trees, and
+best of all a large barn, in which the children
+could have free range and act out all the plays
+with which their little heads were teeming. Of
+course it was a delightful change from the city for
+the children, and here they passed two very happy
+years, for they were too young to understand the
+cares which pressed upon the hearts of their parents.
+Life was full of interest. One cold morning
+they found in the garden a little half-starved
+bird; and having warmed and fed it, Louisa was
+inspired to write a pretty poem to "The Robin."
+The fond mother was so delighted that she said to
+her, "You will grow up a Shakspeare!" From the
+lessons of her father she had formed the habit of
+writing freely, but this is the first recorded instance
+of her attempting to express her feelings in verse.</p>
+
+<p>From the influences of such parentage as I have
+described, the family life in which Louisa was
+brought up became wholly unique.</p>
+
+<p>If the father had to give up his cherished projects
+of a school modelled after his ideas, he could at
+least conduct the education of his own children;
+and he did so with the most tender devotion. Even
+when they were infants he took a great deal of personal
+care of them, and loved to put the little ones
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">21</a></span>
+to bed and use the "children's hour" to instil into
+their hearts lessons of love and wisdom. He was
+full of fun too, and would lie on the floor and frolic
+with them, making compasses of his long legs with
+which to draw letters and diagrams. No shade of
+fear mingled with the children's reverent recognition
+of his superior spiritual life. So their hearts
+lay open to him, and he was able to help them in
+their troubles.</p>
+
+<p>He taught them much by writing; and we have
+many specimens of their lists of words to be spelled,
+written, and understood. The lessons at Scituate
+were often in the garden, and their father always
+drew their attention to Nature and her beautiful
+forms and meanings. Little symbolical pictures
+helped to illustrate his lessons, and he sometimes
+made drawings himself. Here is an example of
+lessons. A quaint little picture represents one
+child playing on a harp, another drawing an arrow.
+It is inscribed&ndash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem p2">
+<p class="i4">FOR LOUISA.</p>
+
+<p class="i6">1840.</p>
+
+<p >Two passions strong divide our life,&ndash;<br />
+Meek, gentle love, or boisterous strife.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="p2">Below the child playing the harp is&ndash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="i4">Love, Music,<br />
+<span class="i1">Concord.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="p2">Below the shooter is&ndash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="i4">Anger, Arrow,<br />
+<span class="i1">Discord.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="p2">Another leaflet is&ndash;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">22</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="poem p2">
+<p class="i4">FOR LOUISA</p>
+
+<p class="i6">1840.</p>
+
+<p><span class="i3">Louisa loves&ndash;</span><br />
+<span class="i5">What?</span><br />
+<span class="i1">(<i>Softly.</i>)</span><br />
+<span class="i5">Fun.</span><br />
+<span class="i3">Have some then,</span><br />
+<span class="i6">Father</span><br />
+<span class="i8">says.</span><br />
+Christmas Eve, December, 1840.<br />
+<span class="i5">Concordia.</span><br /></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="slimpoem">
+<hr class="l15" />
+<p class="center">
+FOR ANNA.<br />
+1840.<br />
+Beauty or Duty,&ndash;<br />
+which<br />
+loves Anna best?<br />
+A<br />
+Question<br />
+from her<br />
+Father.<br />
+Christmas Eve,<br />
+December, 1840.<br />
+Concordia.<br />
+</p></div>
+
+<p class="p2">A letter beautifully printed by her father for
+Louisa (1839) speaks to her of conscience, and she
+adds to it this note: "L. began early, it seems, to
+wrestle with her conscience." The children were
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">23</a></span>
+always required to keep their journals regularly,
+and although these were open to the inspection of
+father and mother, they were very frank, and really
+recorded their struggles and desires. The mother
+had the habit of writing little notes to the children
+when she wished to call their attention to any fault
+or peculiarity. Louisa preserved many of them,
+headed,&ndash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>
+[<i>Extracts</i> from letters from Mother, received during these
+early years. I preserve them to show the ever tender, watchful
+help she gave to the child who caused her the most anxiety,
+yet seemed to be the nearest to her heart till the end.&ndash;<span class="smcap">L.
+M. A.</span>]</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>No. 1.&ndash;<span class="smcap">My Dear Little Girl</span>,&ndash;Will you accept
+this doll from me on your seventh birthday? She will be
+a quiet playmate for my active Louisa for seven years
+more. Be a kind mamma, and love her for my sake.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="smcap sig">Your Mother.</span><br />
+<span class="smcap i2">Beach Street, Boston, 1839.</span>
+</p></div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>From her Mother.</i></p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Cottage in Concord.</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Daughter</span>,&ndash;Your tenth birthday has arrived.
+May it be a happy one, and on each returning birthday
+may you feel new strength and resolution to be gentle
+with sisters, obedient to parents, loving to every one, and
+happy in yourself.</p>
+
+<p>I give you the pencil-case I promised, for I have observed
+that you are fond of writing, and wish to encourage
+the habit.</p>
+
+<p>Go on trying, dear, and each day it will be easier to be
+and do good. You must help yourself, for the cause of
+your little troubles is in yourself; and patience and courage
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">24</a></span>
+age only will make you what mother prays to see you,&ndash;her
+good and happy girl.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><span class="smcap letter">Concord, 1843.</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Louy</span>,&ndash;I enclose a picture for you which I
+always liked very much, for I imagined that you might be
+just such an industrious daughter and I such a feeble but
+loving mother, looking to your labor for my daily bread.</p>
+
+<p>Keep it for my sake and your own, for you and I
+always liked to be grouped together.</p>
+
+<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">Mother.</span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>The lines I wrote under the picture in my journal:&ndash;</p>
+</div>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="i3">TO MOTHER.</p>
+<p class="stanza">
+I hope that soon, dear mother,<br />
+<span class="i1">You and I may be</span><br />
+In the quiet room my fancy<br />
+<span class="i1">Has so often made for thee,&ndash;</span></p>
+
+<p class="stanza">The pleasant, sunny chamber,<br />
+<span class="i1">The cushioned easy-chair,</span><br />
+The book laid for your reading,<br />
+<span class="i1">The vase of flowers fair;</span></p>
+
+<p class="stanza">The desk beside the window<br />
+<span class="i1">Where the sun shines warm and bright:</span><br />
+And there in ease and quiet<br />
+<span class="i1">The promised book you write;</span></p>
+
+<p class="stanza">While I sit close beside you,<br />
+<span class="i1">Content at last to see</span><br />
+That you can rest, dear mother,<br />
+<span class="i1">And I can cherish thee.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>[The dream came true, and for the last ten years of her
+life Marmee sat in peace, with every wish granted, even to
+the "grouping together;" for she died in my arms.&ndash;<span class="smcap">L.
+M. A.</span>]
+
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">25</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>A passage in Louisa's story of "Little Men"
+(p. 268) describes one of their childish plays.
+They "made believe" their minds were little
+round rooms in which the soul lived, and in which
+good or bad things were preserved. This play
+was never forgotten in after life, and the girls
+often looked into their little rooms for comfort or
+guidance in trial or temptation.</p>
+
+<p>Louisa was very fond of animals, as is abundantly
+shown in her stories. She never had the happiness
+of owning many pets, except cats, and these were
+the delight of the household. The children played
+all manner of plays with them, tended them in sickness,
+buried them with funeral honors, and Louisa
+has embalmed their memory in the story of "The
+Seven Black Cats" in "Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag."</p>
+
+<p>Dolls were an equal source of pleasure. The
+imaginative children hardly recognized them as
+manufactured articles, but endowed them with life
+and feeling. Louisa put her dolls through every
+experience of life; they were fed, educated, punished,
+rewarded, nursed, and even hung and buried,
+and then resurrected in her stories. The account
+of the "Sacrifice of the Dolls" to the exacting
+Kitty Mouse in "Little Men" delights all children
+by its mixture of pathetic earnestness and
+playfulness. It is taken from the experience of
+another family of children.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Alcott twice says that she never went to
+any school but her father's; but there were some
+slight exceptions to this rule. She went a few
+months to a little district school in Still River
+Village. This was a genuine old-fashioned school,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">26</a></span>
+from which she took the hint of the frolics in
+"Under the Lilacs." Miss Ford also kept a little
+school in Mr. Emerson's barn, to which the children
+went; and Mary Russell had a school, which
+Louisa attended when eight or nine years old.
+These circumstances, however, had small influence
+in her education.</p>
+
+<p>During this period of life in Concord, which was
+so happy to the children, the mother's heart was
+full of anxious care. She however entered into
+all their childish pleasures, and her watchful care
+over their moral growth is shown by her letters
+and by Louisa's journals.</p>
+
+<p>The youngest child, Abba May, who was born
+in the cottage, became the pet of the family and
+the special care of the oldest sister, Anna.</p>
+
+<p>Louisa's childish journal gives us many hints
+of this happy life. She revised these journals in
+later years, adding significant comments which
+are full of interest. She designed them to have
+place in her autobiography, which she hoped to
+write.</p>
+
+<p>From three different sources&ndash;her journals, an
+article written for publication, and a manuscript
+prepared for a friend,&ndash;we give her own account
+of these childish years. She has not followed the
+order of events strictly, and it has not been possible,
+therefore, to avoid all repetition; but they
+give the spirit of her early life, and clearly show
+the kind of education she received from her father
+and from the circumstances around her.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">27</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="section"><i>Sketch of Childhood, by herself.</i></p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>One of my earliest recollections is of playing with
+books in my father's study,&ndash;building houses and bridges
+of the big dictionaries and diaries, looking at pictures,
+pretending to read, and scribbling on blank pages whenever
+pen or pencil could be found. Many of these first
+attempts at authorship still remain in Bacon's Essays,
+Plutarch's Lives, and other works of a serious nature, my
+infant taste being for solid literature, apparently.</p>
+
+<p>On one occasion we built a high tower round baby
+Lizzie as she sat playing with her toys on the floor, and
+being attracted by something out-of-doors, forgot our
+little prisoner. A search was made, and patient baby at
+last discovered curled up and fast asleep in her dungeon
+cell, out of which she emerged so rosy and smiling after
+her nap that we were forgiven for our carelessness.</p>
+
+<p>Another memory is of my fourth birthday, which was
+celebrated at my father's school-room in Masonic Temple.
+All the children were there. I wore a crown of
+flowers, and stood upon a table to dispense cakes to each
+child as the procession marched past. By some oversight
+the cakes fell short, and I saw that if I gave away
+the last one I should have none. As I was queen of the
+revel, I felt that I ought to have it, and held on to it
+tightly till my mother said,&ndash;</p>
+
+<p>"It is always better to give away than to keep the
+nice things; so I know my Louy will not let the little
+friend go without."</p>
+
+<p>The little friend received the dear plummy cake, and
+I a kiss and my first lesson in the sweetness of self-denial,&ndash;a
+lesson which my dear mother beautifully illustrated
+all her long and noble life.</p>
+
+<p>Running away was one of the delights of my early
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">28</a></span>
+days; and I still enjoy sudden flights out of the nest to
+look about this very interesting world, and then go back
+to report.</p>
+
+<p>On one of these occasions I passed a varied day with
+some Irish children, who hospitably shared their cold
+potatoes, salt-fish, and crusts with me as we revelled in
+the ash-heaps which then adorned the waste lands where
+the Albany Depot now stands. A trip to the Common
+cheered the afternoon, but as dusk set in and my friends
+deserted me, I felt that home was a nice place after all,
+and tried to find it. I dimly remember watching a lamp-lighter
+as I sat to rest on some doorsteps in Bedford
+Street, where a big dog welcomed me so kindly that I
+fell asleep with my head pillowed on his curly back, and
+was found there by the town-crier, whom my distracted
+parents had sent in search of me. His bell and proclamation
+of the loss of "a little girl, six years old, in a
+pink frock, white hat, and new green shoes," woke me
+up, and a small voice answered out of the darkness,&ndash;</p>
+
+<p>"Why, dat's me!"</p>
+
+<p>Being with difficulty torn from my four-footed friend,
+I was carried to the crier's house, and there feasted
+sumptuously on bread-and-molasses in a tin plate with
+the alphabet round it. But my fun ended next day
+when I was tied to the arm of the sofa to repent at
+leisure.</p>
+
+<p>I became an Abolitionist at a very early age, but have
+never been able to decide whether I was made so by
+seeing the portrait of George Thompson hidden under a
+bed in our house during the Garrison riot, and going to
+comfort "the poor man who had been good to the
+slaves," or because I was saved from drowning in the
+Frog Pond some years later by a colored boy. However
+that may be, the conversion was genuine; and my
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">29</a></span>
+greatest pride is in the fact that I lived to know the
+brave men and women who did so much for the cause,
+and that I had a very small share in the war which put
+an end to a great wrong.</p>
+</div>
+<p>Another recollection of her childhood was of
+a "contraband" hidden in the oven, which must
+have made her sense of the horrors of slavery
+very keen.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>I never went to school except to my father or such
+governesses as from time to time came into the family.
+Schools then were not what they are now; so we had
+lessons each morning in the study. And very happy hours
+they were to us, for my father taught in the wise way
+which unfolds what lies in the child's nature, as a flower
+blooms, rather than crammed it, like a Strasburg goose,
+with more than it could digest. I never liked arithmetic
+nor grammar, and dodged those branches on all occasions;
+but reading, writing, composition, history, and
+geography I enjoyed, as well as the stories read to us
+with a skill peculiarly his own.</p>
+
+<p>"Pilgrim's Progress," Krummacher's "Parables," Miss
+Edgeworth, and the best of the dear old fairy tales made
+the reading hour the pleasantest of our day. On Sundays
+we had a simple service of Bible stories, hymns, and
+conversation about the state of our little consciences
+and the conduct of our childish lives which never will
+be forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>Walks each morning round the Common while in the
+city, and long tramps over hill and dale when our home
+was in the country, were a part of our education, as well
+as every sort of housework,&ndash;for which I have always been
+very grateful, since such knowledge makes one independent
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">30</a></span>
+in these days of domestic tribulation with the "help"
+who are too often only hindrances.</p>
+
+<p>Needle-work began early, and at ten my skilful sister
+made a linen shirt beautifully; while at twelve I set up
+as a doll's dressmaker, with my sign out and wonderful
+models in my window. All the children employed me,
+and my turbans were the rage at one time, to the great
+dismay of the neighbors' hens, who were hotly hunted
+down, that I might tweak out their downiest feathers to
+adorn the dolls' headgear.</p>
+
+<p>Active exercise was my delight, from the time when a
+child of six I drove my hoop round the Common without
+stopping, to the days when I did my twenty miles in
+five hours and went to a party in the evening.</p>
+
+<p>I always thought I must have been a deer or a horse
+in some former state, because it was such a joy to run.
+No boy could be my friend till I had beaten him in a
+race, and no girl if she refused to climb trees, leap fences,
+and be a tomboy.</p>
+
+<p>My wise mother, anxious to give me a strong body to
+support a lively brain, turned me loose in the country
+and let me run wild, learning of Nature what no books
+can teach, and being led,&ndash;as those who truly love her
+seldom fail to be,&ndash;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="poem">
+"Through Nature up to Nature's God."</p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>I remember running over the hills just at dawn one
+summer morning, and pausing to rest in the silent woods,
+saw, through an arch of trees, the sun rise over river, hill,
+and wide green meadows as I never saw it before.</p>
+
+<p>Something born of the lovely hour, a happy mood, and
+the unfolding aspirations of a child's soul seemed to bring
+me very near to God; and in the hush of that morning
+hour I always felt that I "got religion," as the phrase
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">31</a></span>
+goes. A new and vital sense of His presence, tender and
+sustaining as a father's arms, came to me then, never to
+change through forty years of life's vicissitudes, but to
+grow stronger for the sharp discipline of poverty and
+pain, sorrow and success.</p>
+
+<p>Those Concord days were the happiest of my life, for
+we had charming playmates in the little Emersons, Channings,
+Hawthornes, and Goodwins, with the illustrious
+parents and their friends to enjoy our pranks and share
+our excursions.</p>
+
+<p>Plays in the barn were a favorite amusement, and we
+dramatized the fairy tales in great style. Our giant came
+tumbling off a loft when Jack cut down the squash-vine
+running up a ladder to represent the immortal bean.
+Cinderella rolled away in a vast pumpkin, and a long
+black pudding was lowered by invisible hands to fasten
+itself on the nose of the woman who wasted her three
+wishes.</p>
+
+<p>Pilgrims journeyed over the hill with scrip and staff
+and cockle-shells in their hats; fairies held their pretty
+revels among the whispering birches, and strawberry parties
+in the rustic arbor were honored by poets and philosophers,
+who fed us on their wit and wisdom while the
+little maids served more mortal food.
+</p></div>
+
+<p class="center p6"><span class="b1">CHAPTER III.</span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">32</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="center">FRUITLANDS.</p>
+
+<p class="center p2">MY KINGDOM.</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="stanza">
+A little kingdom I possess,<br />
+<span class="i1">Where thoughts and feelings dwell,</span><br />
+And very hard I find the task<br />
+<span class="i1">Of governing it well;</span><br />
+For passion tempts and troubles me,<br />
+<span class="i1">A wayward will misleads,</span><br />
+And selfishness its shadow casts<br />
+<span class="i1">On all my words and deeds.</span></p>
+
+<p class="stanza">How can I learn to rule myself,<br />
+<span class="i1">To be the child I should,</span><br />
+Honest and brave, nor ever tire<br />
+<span class="i1">Of trying to be good?</span><br />
+How can I keep a sunny soul<br />
+<span class="i1">To shine along life's way?</span><br />
+How can I tune my little heart<br />
+<span class="i1">To sweetly sing all day?</span></p>
+
+<p class="stanza">Dear Father, help me with the love<br />
+<span class="i1">That casteth out my fear,</span><br />
+Teach me to lean on thee, and feel<br />
+<span class="i1">That thou art very near,</span><br />
+That no temptation is unseen,<br />
+<span class="i1">No childish grief too small,</span><br />
+Since thou, with patience infinite,<br />
+<span class="i1">Doth soothe and comfort all.</span></p>
+
+<p class="stanza">I do not ask for any crown<br />
+<span class="i1">But that which all may win,</span><br />
+Nor seek to conquer any world<br />
+<span class="i1">Except the one within.</span><br />
+Be thou my guide until I find,<br />
+<span class="i1">Led by a tender hand,</span><br />
+Thy happy kingdom in <i>myself</i>,<br />
+<span class="i1">And dare to take command.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">33</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="p2"><span class="dropcap">I</span>N 1842 Mr. Alcott went to England. His mind
+was very much exercised at this time with
+plans for organized social life on a higher plane,
+and he found like-minded friends in England who
+gave him sympathy and encouragement. He had
+for some years advocated a strictly vegetarian diet,
+to which his family consented from deference to
+him; consequently the children never tasted meat
+till they came to maturity. On his return from
+England he was accompanied by friends who were
+ready to unite with him in the practical realization
+of their social theories. Mr. Lane resided for some
+months in the Alcott family at Concord, and gave
+instruction to the children. Although he does not
+appear to have won their hearts, they yet reaped
+much intellectual advantage from his lessons, as he
+was an accomplished scholar.</p>
+
+<p>In 1843 this company of enthusiasts secured a
+farm in the town of Harvard, near Concord, which
+with trusting hope they named Fruitlands. Mrs.
+Alcott did not share in all the peculiar ideas of her
+husband and his friends, but she was so utterly devoted
+to him that she was ready to help him in
+carrying out his plans, however little they commended
+themselves to her better judgment.</p>
+
+<p>She alludes very briefly to the experiment in her
+diary, for the experience was too bitter to dwell
+upon. She could not relieve her feelings by
+bringing out the comic side, as her daughter did.
+Louisa's account of this colony, as given in her
+story called "Transcendental Wild Oats," is very
+close to the facts; and the mingling of pathos and
+humor, the reverence and ridicule with which she
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">34</a></span>
+alternately treats the personages and the notions of
+those engaged in the scheme, make a rich and delightful
+tale. It was written many years later, and
+gives the picture as she looked back upon it, the
+absurdities coming out in strong relief, while she
+sees also the grand, misty outlines of the high
+thoughts so poorly realized. This story was published
+in the "Independent," Dec. 8, 1873, and
+may now be found in her collected works ("Silver
+Pitchers," p. 79).</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately we have also her journal written at
+the time, which shows what education the experience
+of this strange life brought to the child of ten
+or eleven years old.</p>
+
+<p>The following extract from Mr. Emerson proves
+that this plan of life looked fair and pleasing to his
+eye, although he was never tempted to join in it.
+He was evidently not unconscious of the inadequacy
+of the means adopted to the end proposed,
+but he rejoiced in any endeavor after high ideal
+life.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">July, 8, 1843.</span></p>
+
+<p><i>Journal.</i>&ndash;The sun and the evening sky do not look
+calmer than Alcott and his family at Fruitlands. They
+seemed to have arrived at the fact,&ndash;to have got rid of
+the show, and so to be serene. Their manners and
+behavior in the house and in the field were those of
+superior men,&ndash;of men at rest. What had they to conceal?
+What had they to exhibit? And it seemed so
+high an attainment that I thought&ndash;as often before, so
+now more, because they had a fit home, or the picture
+was fitly framed&ndash;that these men ought to be maintained
+in their place by the country for its culture.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">35</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Young men and young maidens, old men and women,
+should visit them and be inspired. I think there is as
+much merit in beautiful manners as in hard work. I will
+not prejudge them successful. They look well in July;
+we will see them in December. I know they are better
+for themselves than as partners. One can easily see that
+they have yet to settle several things. Their saying that
+things are clear, and they sane, does not make them so.
+If they will in very deed be lovers, and not selfish; if
+they will serve the town of Harvard, and make their
+neighbors feel them as benefactors wherever they touch
+them,&ndash;they are as safe as the sun.<a name="FNanchor_5" id="FNanchor_5" href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>Early Diary kept at Fruitlands</i>, 1843.</p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="center"><i>Ten Years Old.</i></p>
+<p><i>September 1st.</i>&ndash;I rose at five and had my bath. I
+love cold water! Then we had our singing-lesson with
+Mr. Lane. After breakfast I washed dishes, and ran on
+the hill till nine, and had some thoughts,&ndash;it was so beautiful
+up there. Did my lessons,&ndash;wrote and spelt and
+did sums; and Mr. Lane read a story, "The Judicious
+Father": How a rich girl told a poor girl not to look
+over the fence at the flowers, and was cross to her
+because she was unhappy. The father heard her do
+it, and made the girls change clothes. The poor one
+was glad to do it, and he told her to keep them. But
+the rich one was very sad; for she had to wear the
+old ones a week, and after that she was good to shabby
+girls. I liked it very much, and I shall be kind to poor
+people.</p>
+
+<p>Father asked us what was God's noblest work. Anna
+said <i>men</i>, but I said <i>babies</i>. Men are often bad; babies
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">36</a></span>
+never are. We had a long talk, and I felt better after it,
+and <i>cleared up</i>.</p>
+
+<p>We had bread and fruit for dinner. I read and walked
+and played till supper-time. We sung in the evening.
+As I went to bed the moon came up very brightly and
+looked at me. I felt sad because I have been cross to-day,
+and did not mind Mother. I cried, and then I felt
+better, and said that piece from Mrs. Sigourney, "I must
+not tease my mother." I get to sleep saying poetry,&ndash;I
+know a great deal.</p>
+
+<p><i>Thursday, 14th.</i>&ndash;Mr. Parker Pillsbury came, and we
+talked about the poor slaves. I had a music lesson with
+Miss F. I hate her, she is so fussy. I ran in the wind
+and played be a horse, and had a lovely time in the woods
+with Anna and Lizzie. We were fairies, and made gowns
+and paper wings. I "flied" the highest of all. In the
+evening they talked about travelling. I thought about
+Father going to England, and said this piece of poetry I
+found in Byron's poems:&ndash;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="poem">
+"When I left thy shores, O Naxos,<br />
+<span class="i1">Not a tear in sorrow fell;</span><br />
+Not a sigh or faltered accent<br />
+<span class="i1">Told my bosom's struggling swell."</span></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>It rained when I went to bed, and made a pretty
+noise on the roof.</p>
+
+<p><i>Sunday, 24th.</i>&ndash;Father and Mr. Lane have gone to
+N. H. to preach. It was very lovely.... Anna and I
+got supper. In the eve I read "Vicar of Wakefield."
+I was cross to-day, and I cried when I went to bed. I
+made good resolutions, and felt better in my heart. If
+I only <i>kept</i> all I make, I should be the best girl in the
+world. But I don't, and so am very bad.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>[Poor little sinner! <i>She says the same at fifty.</i>&ndash;<span class="smcap">L.
+M. A.</span>]
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">37</a></span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><i>October 8th.</i>&ndash;When I woke up, the first thought I
+got was, "It's Mother's birthday: I must be very good."
+I ran and wished her a happy birthday, and gave her my
+kiss. After breakfast we gave her our presents. I had
+a moss cross and a piece of poetry for her.</p>
+
+<p>We did not have any school, and played in the woods
+and got red leaves. In the evening we danced and sung,
+and I read a story about "Contentment." I wish I was
+rich, I was good, and we were all a happy family this
+day.</p>
+
+<p><i>Thursday, 12th.</i>&ndash;After lessons I ironed. We all went
+to the barn and husked corn. It was good fun. We
+worked till eight o'clock and had lamps. Mr. Russell
+came. Mother and Lizzie are going to Boston. I shall
+be very lonely without dear little Betty, and no one will
+be as good to me as mother. I read in Plutarch. I
+made a verse about sunset:&ndash;</p>
+</div>
+<p class="poem">
+Softly doth the sun descend<br />
+<span class="i1">To his couch behind the hill,</span><br />
+Then, oh, then, I love to sit<br />
+<span class="i1">On mossy banks beside the rill.</span><br /></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Anna thought it was very fine; but I didn't like it very
+well.</p>
+
+<p><i>Friday, Nov. 2nd.</i>&ndash;Anna and I did the work. In
+the evening Mr. Lane asked us, "What is man?"
+These were our answers: A human being; an animal
+with a mind; a creature; a body; a soul and a
+mind. After a long talk we went to bed very tired.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>[No wonder, after doing the work and worrying their
+little wits with such lessons.&ndash;<span class="smcap">L. M. A.</span>]</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>A sample of the vegetarian wafers we used at Fruitlands:&ndash;
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">38</a></span></p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="2" summary="veg_diet">
+<col width="60" />
+<col width="60" />
+<col width="65" />
+<col width="60" />
+<col width="60" />
+<col width="60" />
+<tr>
+<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Vegetable diet
+and sweet repose.
+Animal food and
+nightmare.</td>
+
+<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Pluck your body
+from the orchard;
+do not snatch it
+from the shamble.</td>
+
+<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Without flesh diet
+there could be no
+blood-shedding war.</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+
+<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Apollo eats no
+flesh and has no
+beard; his voice is
+melody itself.</td>
+
+<td class="tdl" colspan="2">Snuff is no less snuff
+though accepted from
+a gold box.</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><i>Tuesday, 20th.</i>&ndash;I rose at five, and after breakfast
+washed the dishes, and then helped mother work. Miss
+F. is gone, and Anna in Boston with Cousin Louisa. I
+took care of Abby (May) in the afternoon. In the
+evening I made some pretty things for my dolly. Father
+and Mr. L. had a talk, and father asked us if <i>we</i> 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>
+
+<p>Eleven years old. <i>Thursday, 29th.</i>&ndash;It was Father's
+and my birthday. We had some nice presents. We
+played in the snow before school. Mother read "Rosamond"
+when we sewed. Father asked us in the eve
+what fault troubled us most. I said my bad temper.</p>
+
+<p>I told mother I liked to have her write in my book.
+She said she would put in more, and she wrote this to
+help me:&ndash;</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Louy</span>,&ndash;Your handwriting improves very fast.
+Take pains and do not be in a hurry. I like to have you
+make observations about our conversations and your own
+thoughts. It helps you to express them and to understand
+your little self. Remember, dear girl, that a diary
+should be an epitome of your life. May it be a record
+of pure thought and good actions, then you will indeed
+be the precious child of your loving mother.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><i>December 10th.</i>&ndash;I did my lessons, and walked in the
+afternoon. Father read to us in dear Pilgrim's Progress.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">39</a></span>
+Mr. L. was in Boston, and we were glad. In the eve
+father and mother and Anna and I had a long talk. I
+was very unhappy, and we all cried. Anna and I cried
+in bed, and I prayed God to keep us all together.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+[Little Lu began early to feel the family cares and peculiar
+trials.&ndash;<span class="smcap">L. M. A.</span>]</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>I liked the verses Christian sung and will put them
+in:&ndash;</p>
+</div>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="stanza">
+"This place has been our second stage,<br />
+<span class="i1">Here we have heard and seen</span><br />
+Those good things that from age to age<br />
+<span class="i1">To others hid have been.</span></p>
+
+<p>"They move me for to watch and pray,<br />
+<span class="i1">To strive to be sincere,</span><br />
+To take my cross up day by day,<br />
+<span class="i1">And serve the Lord with fear."</span>
+</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>[The appropriateness of the song at this time was much
+greater than the child saw. She never forgot this experience,
+and her little cross began to grow heavier from this
+hour.&ndash;<span class="smcap">L. M. A.</span>]
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><span class="smcap">Concord</span>, <i>Sunday</i>.&ndash;We all went into the woods to
+get moss for the <i>arbor</i> Father is making for <i>Mr. Emerson</i>.
+I miss Anna so much. I made two verses for her:&ndash;</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="i4">TO ANNA.</p>
+<p class="stanza">Sister, dear, when you are lonely,<br />
+<span class="i1">Longing for your distant home,</span><br />
+And the images of loved ones<br />
+<span class="i1">Warmly to your heart shall come,</span><br />
+Then, mid tender thoughts and fancies,<br />
+<span class="i1">Let one fond voice say to thee,</span><br />
+"Ever when your heart is heavy,<br />
+<span class="i1">Anna, dear, then think of me."</span></p>
+</div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">40</a></span></p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p>Think how we two have together<br />
+<span class="i1">Journeyed onward day by day,</span><br />
+Joys and sorrows ever sharing,<br />
+<span class="i1">While the swift years roll away.</span><br />
+Then may all the sunny hours<br />
+<span class="i1">Of our youth rise up to thee,</span><br />
+And when your heart is light and happy,<br />
+<span class="i1">Anna, dear, then think of me.</span>
+</p></div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+[Poetry began to flow about this time in a thin but copious
+stream.&ndash;<span class="smcap">L. M. A.</span>]
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><i>Wednesday.</i>&ndash;Read Martin Luther. A long letter
+from Anna. She sends me a picture of Jenny Lind, the
+great singer. She must be a happy girl. I should like
+to be famous as she is. Anna is very happy; and I
+don't miss her as much as I shall by and by in the
+winter.</p>
+
+<p>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. Read Miss Bremer's "Home" in the
+eve. 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>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+[Moods began early.&ndash;<span class="smcap">L. M. A.</span>]
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><i>January, 1845, Friday.</i>&ndash;Did my lessons, and in the
+<span class="smcap">p.m.</span> mother read "Kenilworth" to us while we sewed.
+It is splendid! I got angry and called Anna mean.
+Father told me to look out the word in the Dic., and it
+meant "base," "contemptible." I was so ashamed to
+have called my dear sister that, and I cried over my bad
+tongue and temper.</p>
+
+<p>We have had a lovely day. All the trees were covered
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">41</a></span>
+with ice, and it shone like diamonds or fairy palaces. I
+made a piece of poetry about winter:&ndash;</p>
+</div>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="stanza">
+The stormy winter's come at last,<br />
+<span class="i1">With snow and rain and bitter blast;</span><br />
+Ponds and brooks are frozen o'er,<br />
+<span class="i1">We cannot sail there any more.</span></p>
+
+<p class="stanza">The little birds are flown away<br />
+<span class="i1">To warmer climes than ours;</span><br />
+They'll come no more till gentle May<br />
+<span class="i1">Calls them back with flowers.</span></p>
+
+<p class="stanza">Oh, then the darling birds will sing<br />
+<span class="i1">From their neat nests in the trees.</span><br />
+All creatures wake to welcome Spring,<br />
+<span class="i1">And flowers dance in the breeze</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">With patience wait till winter is o'er,<br />
+<span class="i1">And all lovely things return;</span><br />
+Of every season try the more<br />
+<span class="i1">Some knowledge or virtue to learn.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+[A moral is tacked on even to the early poems.&ndash;<span class="smcap">L.
+M. A.</span>]</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>I read "Philothea,"<a name="FNanchor_6" id="FNanchor_6" href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> by Mrs. Child. I found this that
+I liked in it. Plato said:&ndash;</p>
+
+<p>"When I hear a note of music I can at once strike its
+chord. Even as surely is there everlasting harmony between
+the soul of man and the invisible forms of creation.
+If there were no innocent hearts there would be no white
+lilies.... I often think flowers are the angel's alphabet
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">42</a></span>
+whereby they write on hills and fields mysterious and
+beautiful lessons for us to feel and learn."</p>
+
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+[Well done, twelve-year-old! Plato, the father's delight,
+had a charm for the little girl also.&ndash;<span class="smcap">L. M. A</span>.]</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p><i>Wednesday.</i>&ndash;I am so cross I wish I had never been
+born.</p>
+
+<p><i>Thursday.</i>&ndash;Read the "Heart of Mid-Lothian," and
+had a very happy day. Miss Ford gave us a botany
+lesson in the woods. I am always good there. In the
+evening Miss Ford told us about the bones in our bodies,
+and how they get out of order. I must be careful of
+mine, I climb and jump and run so much.</p>
+
+<p>I found this note from dear mother in my journal:&ndash;</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+<span class="smcap">My dearest Louy</span>,&ndash;I often peep into your diary,
+hoping to see some record of more happy days. "Hope,
+and keep busy," dear daughter, and in all perplexity or
+trouble come freely to your</p>
+
+<p class="sig">
+<span class="smcap">Mother</span>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+<span class="smcap">Dear Mother</span>,&ndash;You <i>shall</i> see more happy days, and
+I <i>will</i> come to you with my worries, for you are the best
+woman in the world.</p>
+
+<p class="sig">
+<span class="smcap">L. M. A</span>.</p>
+</div>
+<p class="section"><i>A Sample of our Lessons.</i></p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>"What virtues do you wish more of?" asks Mr. L.</p>
+
+<p>I answer:&ndash;</p>
+
+<table border="0" summary="virtues">
+<col width="100" />
+<col width="100" />
+<col width="100" />
+<tr>
+<td>Patience,</td>
+<td>Love,</td>
+<td>Silence,</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Obedience,</td>
+<td>Generosity,</td>
+<td>Perseverance,</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Industry,</td>
+<td>Respect,</td>
+<td>Self-denial.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>"What vices less of?"</p>
+<table border="0" summary="vices">
+<col width="100" />
+<col width="100" />
+<col width="100" />
+<tr>
+<td>Idleness,</td>
+<td>Wilfulness,</td>
+<td>Vanity,</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Impatience,</td>
+<td>Impudence,</td>
+<td>Pride,</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td>Selfishness,</td>
+<td>Activity,</td>
+<td>Love of cats.</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p class="p2"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">43</a></span></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap i8">Mr. L.</span>
+<span class="smcap i6">L.</span><br />
+<span class="smcap i7">Socrates.</span>
+<span class="smcap i4">Alcibiades.</span></p>
+
+<p>How can you get what you need?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;By trying.</p>
+
+<p>How do you try?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;By resolution and perseverance.</p>
+
+<p>How gain love?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;By gentleness.</p>
+
+<p>What is gentleness?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Kindness, patience, and care for
+other people's feelings.</p>
+
+<p>Who has it?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Father and Anna.</p>
+
+<p>Who means to have it?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Louisa, if she can.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>[She never got it.&ndash;<span class="smcap">L. M. A.</span>]
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>Write a sentence about anything.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; "I hope it will rain;
+the garden needs it."</p>
+
+<p>What are the elements of <i>hope</i>?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Expectation, desire,
+faith.</p>
+
+<p>What are the elements in <i>wish</i>?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Desire.</p>
+
+<p>What is the difference between faith and hope? "Faith
+can believe without seeing; hope is not sure, but tries to
+have faith when it desires."</p>
+
+<p class="section">No. 3.</p>
+
+<p>What are the most valuable kinds of self-denial?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Appetite,
+temper.</p>
+
+<p>How is self-denial of temper known?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; If I control my
+temper, I am respectful and gentle, and every one sees it.</p>
+
+<p>What is the result of this self-denial?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Every one loves
+me, and I am happy.</p>
+
+<p>Why use self-denial?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; For the good of myself and others.</p>
+
+<p>How shall we learn this self-denial?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; By resolving, and
+then trying <i>hard.</i></p>
+
+<p>What then do you mean to do?&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; To resolve and try.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p>[Here the record of these lessons ends, and poor little
+Alcibiades went to work and tried till fifty, but without any
+very great success, in spite of all the help Socrates and Plato
+gave her.&ndash;<span class="smcap">L. M. A.</span>]
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p><i>Tuesday.</i>&ndash;More people coming to live with us; I
+wish we could be together, and no one else. I don't
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">44</a></span>
+see who is to clothe and feed us all, when we are so
+poor now. I was very dismal, and then went to walk
+and made a poem.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="i3">DESPONDENCY.</p>
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i3">Silent and sad,</span><br />
+<span class="i3">When all are glad,</span><br />
+And the earth is dressed in flowers;<br />
+<span class="i3">When the gay birds sing</span><br />
+<span class="i3">Till the forests ring,</span><br />
+As they rest in woodland bowers.</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i3">Oh, why these tears,</span><br />
+<span class="i3">And these idle fears</span><br />
+For what may come to-morrow?<br />
+<span class="i3">The birds find food</span><br />
+<span class="i3">From God so good,</span><br />
+And the flowers know no sorrow.</p>
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i3">If He clothes these</span><br />
+<span class="i3">And the leafy trees,</span><br />
+Will He not cherish thee?<br />
+<span class="i3">Why doubt His care;</span><br />
+<span class="i3">It is everywhere,</span><br />
+Though the way we may not see.</p>
+<p class="stanza">
+<span class="i3">Then why be sad</span><br />
+<span class="i3">When all are glad,</span><br />
+And the world is full of flowers?<br />
+<span class="i3">With the gay birds sing,</span><br />
+<span class="i3">Make life all Spring,</span><br />
+And smile through the darkest hours.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Louisa Alcott grew up so naturally in a healthy
+religious atmosphere that she breathed and worked
+in it without analysis or question. She had not
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">45</a></span>
+suffered from ecclesiastical tyranny or sectarian
+bigotry, and needed not to expend any time or
+strength in combating them. She does not appear
+to have suffered from doubt or questioning, but to
+have gone on her way fighting all the real evils
+that were presented to her, trusting in a sure power
+of right, and confident of victory.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><span class="smcap">Concord</span>, <i>Thursday.</i>&ndash;I had an early run in the
+woods before the dew was off the grass. The moss was
+like velvet, and as I ran under the arches of yellow and
+red leaves I sang for joy, my heart was so bright and the
+world so beautiful. I stopped at the end of the walk and
+saw the sunshine out over the wide "Virginia meadows."</p>
+
+<p>It seemed like going through a dark life or grave into
+heaven beyond. A very strange and solemn feeling came
+over me as I stood there, with no sound but the rustle of
+the pines, no one near me, and the sun so glorious, as
+for me alone. It seemed as if I <i>felt</i> God as I never did
+before, and I prayed in my heart that I might keep that
+happy sense of nearness all my life.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+[I have, for I most sincerely think that the little girl "got
+religion" that day in the wood when dear mother Nature led
+her to God.&ndash;<span class="smcap">L. M. A</span>., 1885.]
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>One of Louisa's strongest desires at this time
+was for a room of her own, where she might have
+the solitude she craved to dream her dreams and
+work out her fancies. These sweet little notes and
+an extract from her journal show how this desire
+was felt and gratified.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+<span class="smcap">Dearest Mother</span>,&ndash;I have tried to be more contented,
+and I think I have been more so. I have been
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">46</a></span>
+thinking about my little room, which I suppose I never
+shall have. I should want to be there about all the
+time, and I should go there and sing and think.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="poem">
+<p>
+But I'll be contented<br />
+<span class="i1">With what I have got;</span><br />
+Of folly repented,<br />
+<span class="i1">Then sweet is my lot.</span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><span class="i6">From your trying daughter,</span><br />
+<span class="smcap sig">Louy</span>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><span class="smcap">My dear Louisa</span>,&ndash;Your note gave me so much delight
+that I cannot close my eyes without first thanking
+you, dear, for making me so happy, and blessing God
+who gave you this tender love for your mother.</p>
+
+<p>I have observed all day your patience with baby, your
+obedience to me, and your kindness to all.</p>
+
+<p>Go on "trying," my child; God will give you strength
+and courage, and help you fill each day with words and
+deeds of love. I shall lay this on your pillow, put a
+warm kiss on your lips, and say a little prayer over you
+in your sleep.</p>
+
+<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">Mother</span>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My Louy</span>,&ndash;I was grieved at your selfish behavior this
+morning, but also greatly pleased to find you bore so
+meekly Father's reproof for it. That is the way, dear;
+if you find you are wrong, take the discipline sweetly,
+and do so no more. It is not to be expected that children
+should always do right; but oh, how lovely to see
+a child penitent and patient when the passion is over.</p>
+
+<p>I thought a little prayer as I looked at you, and said
+in my heart, "Dear God, sustain my child in this moment
+of trial, that no hasty word, no cruel look, no angry action
+may add to her fault." And you were helped. I
+know that you will have a happy day after the storm and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">47</a></span>
+the gentle shower; keep quiet, read, walk, but do not
+talk much till all is peace again.</p>
+
+<p class="sig">
+<span class="smcap">Mother.</span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Hillside, Concord.</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear</span>,&ndash;I am glad you put your heart in the right
+place; for I am sure all true strength comes from above.
+Continue to feel that God is <i>near</i> you, dear child, and
+He never will forsake you in a weak moment. Write me
+always when you feel that I can help you; for, though
+God is near, Mother never forgets you, and your refuge
+is her arms.</p>
+
+<p>Patience, dear, will give us content, if nothing else.
+Be assured the little room you long for will come, if it is
+necessary to your peace and well-being. Till then try
+to be happy with the good things you have. They are
+many,&ndash;more perhaps than we deserve, after our frequent
+complaints and discontent.</p>
+
+<p>Be cheerful, my Louy, and all will be gayer for your
+laugh, and all good and lovely things will be given to
+you when you deserve them.</p>
+
+<p>I am a busy woman, but never can forget the calls of
+my children.</p>
+
+<p class="sig">
+<span class="smcap">Mother</span>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><span class="smcap">Dearest</span>,&ndash;I am sure you have lived very near to God
+<i>to-day</i>, you have been so good and happy. Let each day
+be like this, and life will become a sweet song for you and
+all who love you,&ndash;none so much as your</p>
+
+<p class="sig">
+<span class="smcap">Mother</span>.</p>
+</div>
+<p class="section"><i>Thirteen Years Old.</i></p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Hillside</span>.</p>
+
+<p><i>March, 1846.</i>&ndash;I have at last got the little room I
+have wanted so long, and am very happy about it. It
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">48</a></span>
+does me good to be alone, and Mother has made it very
+pretty and neat for me. My work-basket and desk are
+by the window, and my closet is full of dried herbs that
+smell very nice. The door that opens into the garden
+will be very pretty in summer, and I can run off to the
+woods when I like.</p>
+
+<p>I have made a plan for my life, as I am in my teens
+and no more a child. I am old for my age, and don't
+care much for girl's things. People think I'm wild and
+queer; but Mother understands and helps me. I have
+not told any one about my plan; but I'm going to <i>be</i>
+good. I've made so many resolutions, and written sad
+notes, and cried over my sins, and it doesn't seem to do
+any good! Now I'm going to <i>work really</i>, for I feel a
+true desire to improve, and be a help and comfort, not a
+care and sorrow, to my dear mother.</p>
+</div>
+<p class="section"><i>Fifteen Years Old.</i></p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><i>Sunday, Oct. 9, 1847.</i>&ndash;I have been reading to-day
+Bettine's correspondence with Goethe.</p>
+
+<p>She calls herself a child, and writes about the lovely
+things she saw and heard, and felt and did. I liked it
+much.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+[First taste of Goethe. Three years later R. W. E. gave
+me "Wilhelm Meister," and from that day Goethe has been
+my chief idol.&ndash;<span class="smcap">L. M. A</span>., 1885.]
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The experiment at Fruitlands was (outwardly)
+an utter failure, and had exhausted Mr. Alcott's
+resources of mind, body, and estate. Louisa has
+not exaggerated the collapse which followed. But
+the brave, loving mother could not give way to
+despondency, for she had her young to care for.
+After a few days Mr. Alcott rose from his despair,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">49</a></span>
+and listened to her counsel. They lived a short
+time at Still River, and then returned to Concord;
+but not to the happy little cottage.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Alcott sought such work as he could find to
+do with his hands; but it was scanty and insufficient.
+Mrs. Alcott subdued her proud heart to the necessity
+of seeking help from friends. They had a few
+rooms in the house of a kind neighbor, who welcomed
+them to her house, in addition to her own
+large family; and there they struggled with the
+poverty which Louisa for the first time fully
+realized.</p>
+
+<p>Yet her journal says little of the hardships they
+endured, but is full of her mental and moral struggles.
+It was characteristic of this family that they
+never were conquered by their surroundings. Mr.
+Alcott might retire into sad and silent musing, Mrs.
+Alcott's warm, quick temper, might burst out into
+flame, the children might be quarrelsome or noisy;
+but their ideal of life always remained high, fresh,
+and ennobling. Their souls always "knew their
+destiny divine," and believed that they would find
+fitting expression in life some time. "Chill penury"
+could not repress "their noble rage," nor freeze
+"the genial current" of their souls.</p>
+
+<p>The children escaped from the privations of daily
+life into a world of romance, and in the plays in the
+old barn revelled in luxury and splendor. This
+dramatic tendency was very strong in Louisa, and
+she never outgrew it. It took various shapes and
+colors, and at one time threatened to dominate her
+life.</p>
+
+<p>The education of the children was certainly desultory
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">50</a></span>
+and insufficient; but it was inspiring, and
+brought out their powers. They learned to feel and
+to think justly, and to express their thoughts and feelings
+freely and forcibly, if they did not know well the
+rules of grammar and rhetoric. Mr. Alcott always
+loved the study of language, and became a master
+of it; while Mrs. Alcott had a rich and well-chosen
+vocabulary, gained from the intelligent companions
+of her youth and the best literature, which she
+read freely. Mr. Alcott made great use of the
+study of language in his teaching, and often employed
+the definition of a word to convey a lesson
+or a rebuke. The children were encouraged, and
+even required, to keep their journals regularly, and
+to write letters. Their efforts at poetry or the
+drama were not laughed at, but treasured by their
+parents as indications of progress. Mr. Alcott's
+records of his own theory and practice in the education
+of children are full of valuable suggestion,
+and much yet remains buried in his journals. The
+girls had full freedom to act out their natures, with
+little fear of ridicule or criticism. An innate sense
+of dignity and modesty kept them from abusing
+this liberty; and perhaps nowhere in the world
+could it have been more safely indulged than in the
+simple life of Concord, whose very atmosphere
+seemed then filled with a spiritual presence which
+made life free, pure, and serene.</p>
+
+<p>Louisa gives this interesting anecdote of their life
+at that time:&ndash;</p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+People wondered at our frolics, but enjoyed them, and
+droll stories are still told of the adventures of those days.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">51</a></span>
+Mr. Emerson and Margaret Fuller were visiting my parents
+one afternoon, and the conversation having turned
+to the ever interesting subject of education, Miss Fuller
+said:&ndash;</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Mr. Alcott, you have been able to carry out
+your methods in your own family, and I should like to
+see your model children."</p>
+
+<p>She did in a few moments, for as the guests stood on
+the door-steps a wild uproar approached, and round the
+corner of the house came a wheelbarrow holding baby
+May arrayed as a queen; I was the horse, bitted and
+bridled, and driven by my elder sister Anna; while Lizzie
+played dog, and barked as loud as her gentle voice
+permitted.</p>
+
+<p>All were shouting and wild with fun, which, however,
+came to a sudden end as we espied the stately group before
+us; for my foot tripped, and down we all went in a
+laughing heap; while my mother put a climax to the joke
+by saying, with a dramatic wave of the hand,&ndash;</p>
+
+<p>"Here are the model children, Miss Fuller."
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>They were undoubtedly very satisfactory to Miss
+Fuller, who partook largely of the educational
+views of that time, and who loved to tell anecdotes
+of this family. One of the sisters writes in her
+diary: "She <i>said</i> prayers; but I think my resolutions
+to be good are prayers."</p>
+
+<p>In 1841 Colonel May, Mrs. Alcott's father, died
+and left her a small amount of property. Mrs.
+Alcott decided to purchase with this a house in
+Concord, and the addition of five hundred dollars
+from Mr. Emerson, who was always the good Providence
+of the family, enabled her in 1845 to buy
+the place in Concord known as Hillside. This
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">52</a></span>
+house is on the road to Lexington, about one third
+of a mile from Mr. Emerson's home. It was afterward
+occupied by Mr. Hawthorne.</p>
+
+<p>In this house the girlish life of Louisa was
+passed, which she has represented so fully in
+"Little Women," and of which she speaks in her
+journal as the happiest time of her life. Yet she
+was not unmindful of the anxiety of her parents;
+and the determined purpose to retrieve the fortunes
+of the family and to give to her mother the
+comfort and ease which she had never known in
+her married life became the constant motive of her
+conduct. It is in the light of this purpose alone
+that her character and her subsequent career can
+be fully understood. She naturally thought of
+teaching as her work, and had for a short time a
+little school in the barn for Mr. Emerson's children
+and others.</p>
+
+<p>It was indeed a great comfort to be sure of the
+house over their heads, but there were still six
+mouths to be fed, six bodies to be clothed, and
+four young, eager minds to be educated. Concord
+offered very little opportunity for such work as
+either Mr. or Mrs. Alcott could do, and at last
+even the mother's brave heart broke down. She
+was painfully anxious about the support of her
+household. A friend passing through Concord
+called upon her, and Mrs. Alcott could not hide
+the traces of tears on her face. "Abby Alcott,
+what does this mean?" said the visitor, with determined
+kindness. The poor mother opened her
+heart to her friend, and told the story of their
+privations and sufferings.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">53</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Come to Boston, and I will find you employment,"
+said the friend.</p>
+
+<p>The family removed to Boston in 1848, and Mrs.
+Alcott became a visitor to the poor in the employ
+of one or more benevolent societies, and finally
+kept an intelligence office. Her whole heart went
+into her work; and the children, as well as the
+mother, learned many valuable lessons from it.
+Her reports of her work are said to have been very
+interesting, and full of valuable suggestion.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Alcott began to hold conversations in West
+Street. He attracted a small circle of thoughtful
+men and women about him, who delighted in the
+height of his aspirations and the originality of his
+thoughts. It was congenial occupation for him,
+and thus added to the happiness of the family,
+though very little to its pecuniary resources. His
+price of admission was small, and he freely invited
+any one who would enjoy the meetings although
+unable to pay for them. He was a great and helpful
+influence to young minds. Besides the morally
+pure and spiritually elevated atmosphere of thought
+to which they were introduced by him, they found
+a great intellectual advantage in the acquaintance
+with ancient poets and philosophers, into whose
+life he had entered sympathetically. His peculiar
+theories of temperament and diet never failed to
+call out discussion and opposition. One of my
+earliest recollections of Louisa is on one of these
+occasions, when he was emphasizing his doctrine
+that a vegetable diet would produce unruffled sweetness
+of temper and disposition. I heard a voice
+behind me saying to her neighbor: "I don't know
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">54</a></span>
+about that. I've never eaten any meat, and I'm
+awful cross and irritable very often."</p>
+
+<p>On her fourteenth birthday her mother wrote
+her the following poem, with a present of a pen. It
+was a prophetic gift, and well used by the receiver.</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+Oh, may this pen your muse inspire,<br />
+<span class="i1">When wrapt in pure poetic fire,</span><br />
+To write some sweet, some thrilling verse;<br />
+<span class="i1">A song of love or sorrow's lay,</span><br />
+Or duty's clear but tedious way<br />
+<span class="i1">In brighter hope rehearse.</span><br />
+Oh, let your strain be soft and high,<br />
+<span class="i1">Of crosses here, of crowns beyond the sky;</span><br />
+Truth guide your pen, inspire your theme,<br />
+<span class="i1">And from each note joy's music stream.</span>
+</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+[Original, I think. I have tried to obey.&ndash;<span class="smcap">L. M. A</span>.,
+1885.]
+</p>
+</div>
+<p>In a sketch written for a friend, Louisa gives this
+account of the parents' influence on the children:&ndash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+When cautious friends asked mother how she dared to
+have such outcasts among her girls, she always answered,
+with an expression of confidence which did much to keep
+us safe, "I can trust my daughters, and this is the best
+way to teach them how to shun these sins and comfort
+these sorrows. They cannot escape the knowledge of
+them; better gain this under their father's roof and their
+mother's care, and so be protected by these experiences
+when their turn comes to face the world and its temptations."
+Once we carried our breakfast to a starving
+family; once lent our whole dinner to a neighbor suddenly
+taken unprepared by distinguished guests. Another
+time, one snowy Saturday night, when our wood was very
+low, a poor child came to beg a little, as the baby was
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">55</a></span>
+sick and the father on a spree with all his wages. My
+mother hesitated at first, as we also had a baby. Very
+cold weather was upon us, and a Sunday to be got
+through before more wood could be had. My father
+said, "Give half our stock, and trust in Providence; the
+weather will moderate, or wood will come." Mother
+laughed, and answered in her cheery way, "Well, their
+need is greater than ours, and if our half gives out we
+can go to bed and tell stories." So a generous half went
+to the poor neighbor, and a little later in the eve, while
+the storm still raged and we were about to cover our fire
+to keep it, a knock came, and a farmer who usually supplied
+us appeared, saying anxiously, "I started for Boston
+with a load of wood, but it drifts so I want to go home.
+Wouldn't you like to have me drop the wood here; it
+would accommodate me, and you needn't hurry about
+paying for it." "Yes," said Father; and as the man went
+off he turned to Mother with a look that much impressed
+us children with his gifts as a seer, "Didn't I tell you
+wood would come if the weather did not moderate?"
+Mother's motto was "Hope, and keep busy," and one
+of her sayings, "Cast your bread upon the waters, and
+after many days it will come back buttered."
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center p6"><span class="b1">CHAPTER IV.</span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">56</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="center">THE SENTIMENTAL PERIOD.</p>
+
+<p class="center p2">A SONG FROM THE SUDS.</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="stanza">
+Queen of my tub, I merrily sing,<br />
+<span class="i1">While the white foam rises high,</span><br />
+And sturdily wash, and rinse, and wring,<br />
+<span class="i1">And fasten the clothes to dry;</span><br />
+Then out in the free fresh air they swing,<br />
+<span class="i1">Under the sunny sky.</span></p>
+
+<p class="stanza">I wish we could wash from our hearts and our souls<br />
+<span class="i1">The stains of the week away,</span><br />
+And let water and air by their magic make<br />
+<span class="i1">Ourselves as pure as they;</span><br />
+Then on the earth there would be indeed<br />
+<span class="i1">A glorious washing-day!</span></p>
+
+<p class="stanza">Along the path of a useful life<br />
+<span class="i1">Will heart's-ease ever bloom;</span><br />
+The busy mind has no time to think<br />
+<span class="i1">Of sorrow, or care, or gloom;</span><br />
+And anxious thoughts may be swept away<br />
+<span class="i1">As we busily wield a broom.</span></p>
+
+<p class="stanza">I am glad a task to me is given<br />
+<span class="i1">To labor at day by day;</span><br />
+For it brings me health, and strength, and hope,<br />
+<span class="i1">And I cheerfully learn to say,&ndash;</span><br />
+"Head, you may think; heart, you may feel;<br />
+<span class="i1">But hand, you shall work alway!"</span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="p2"><span class="dropcap">T</span>HE period of free, happy childhood was necessarily
+short, and at about the age of fifteen
+Louisa Alcott began to feel the pressure of thoughts
+and duties which made life a more solemn matter.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">57</a></span>
+In spite of the overflowing fun which appears in
+her books, her nature was very serious, and she
+could not cast aside care lightly. So many varying
+tendencies existed in her character that she
+must have struggled with many doubts and questions
+before finding the true path. But she always
+kept the pole-star of right strictly in view, and
+never failed in truth to that duty which seemed to
+her nearest and most imperative. If she erred in
+judgment, she did not err in conscientious fidelity.</p>
+
+<p>Her mother's rules for her guidance were&ndash;</p>
+
+<p class="i3">
+Rule yourself.<br />
+Love your neighbor.<br />
+Do the duty which lies nearest you.
+</p>
+
+<p>She never lost sight of these instructions.</p>
+
+<p>I will introduce this period in her own words, as
+written later for the use of a friend.</p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+My romantic period began at fifteen, when I fell to
+writing poetry, keeping a heart-journal, and wandering
+by moonlight instead of sleeping quietly. About that
+time, in browsing over Mr. Emerson's library, I found
+Goethe's "Correspondence with a Child," and at once
+was fired with a desire to be a Bettine, making my
+father's friend my Goethe. So I wrote letters to him,
+but never sent them; sat in a tall cherry-tree at midnight,
+singing to the moon till the owls scared me to
+bed; left wild flowers on the doorstep of my "Master,"
+and sung Mignon's song under his window in very bad
+German.</p>
+
+<p>Not till many years later did I tell <i>my</i> Goethe of this
+early romance and the part he played in it. He was
+much amused, and begged for his letters, kindly saying
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">58</a></span>
+he felt honored to be so worshipped. The letters were
+burnt long ago, but Emerson remained my "Master"
+while he lived, doing more for me,&ndash;as for many another,&ndash;than
+he knew, by the simple beauty of his life, the truth
+and wisdom of his books, the example of a great, good
+man, untempted and unspoiled by the world which he
+made better while in it, and left richer and nobler when
+he went.</p>
+
+<p>The trials of life began about this time, and happy
+childhood ended. One of the most memorable days of
+my life is a certain gloomy November afternoon, when we
+had been holding a family council as to ways and means.
+In summer we lived much as the birds did, on our fruit
+and bread and milk; the sun was our fire, the sky our
+roof, and Nature's plenty made us forget that such a
+thing as poverty existed.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In 1850 she heads her diary "The Sentimental
+Period." She was then seventeen years old, but
+her diary gives no hint of the sentimental notions
+that often fill the heads of young girls at that
+period. The experiences of Jo with her charming
+young neighbor in "Little Women" do not
+represent hers at all.</p>
+
+<p>One bit of romance was suggested by Goethe's
+"Correspondence with a Child." It may be difficult
+for readers of to-day to understand the fascination
+which this book exercised upon young
+minds of the last generation, yet it is certain that
+it led more than one young girl to form an ideal
+attachment to a man far older than herself, but full
+of nobility and intellectual greatness. Theodore
+Parker said of letters addressed to him by a young
+New Hampshire girl, "They are as good as Bettine's
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">59</a></span>
+without the lies." This mingling of idealism
+and hero-worship was strongly characteristic of
+that transcendental period when women, having
+little solid education and less industrial employment,
+were full of noble aspirations and longings
+for fuller and freer life, which must find expression
+in some way.</p>
+
+<p>The young woman of to-day, wearing waterproof
+and india-rubber boots, skating, driving, and bicycling,
+studying chemistry in the laboratory, exhibiting
+her pictures in open competition, adopting a
+profession without opposition, and living single
+without fear of reproach, has less time for fancies
+and more regard for facts.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Alcott was safe in choosing her idol. Worship
+of Emerson could only refine and elevate her
+thoughts, and her intimate acquaintance with his
+beautiful home chastened her idolatry into pure
+reverent friendship which never failed her. She
+kept her worship to herself, and never sent him
+the letters in which she poured out the longings
+and raptures which filled her girlish heart.</p>
+
+<p>Her diary, which was revised by herself in later
+years, tells the story of this period quite fully.
+The details may seem trifling, but they help to
+illustrate this important formative period of her
+life.</p>
+
+<p class="section"><i>Journal.</i></p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="center">THE SENTIMENTAL PERIOD.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="smcap">Boston</span>, <i>May, 1850.</i>&ndash;So long a time has passed since
+I kept a journal that I hardly know how to begin. Since
+coming to the city I don't seem to have thought much,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">60</a></span>
+for the bustle and dirt and change send all lovely images
+and restful feelings away. Among my hills and woods I
+had fine free times alone, and though my thoughts were
+silly, I daresay, they helped to keep me happy and good.
+I see now what Nature did for me, and my "romantic
+tastes," as people called that love of solitude and out-of-door
+life, taught me much.</p>
+
+<p>This summer, like the last, we shall spend in a large
+house (Uncle May's, Atkinson Street), with many comforts
+about us which we shall enjoy, and in the autumn I
+hope I shall have something to show that the time has
+not been wasted. Seventeen years have I lived, and yet
+so little do I know, and so much remains to be done
+before I begin to be what I desire,&ndash;a truly good and
+useful woman.</p>
+
+<p>In looking over our journals, Father says, "Anna's is
+about other people, Louisa's about herself." That is
+true, for I don't <i>talk</i> about myself; yet must always
+think of the wilful, moody girl I try to manage, and in
+my journal I write of her to see how she gets on. Anna
+is so good she need not take care of herself, and can
+enjoy other people. If I look in my glass, I try to keep
+down vanity about my long hair, my well-shaped head,
+and my good nose. In the street I try not to covet
+fine things. My quick tongue is always getting me into
+trouble, and my moodiness makes it hard to be cheerful
+when I think how poor we are, how much worry it is
+to live, and how many things I long to do I never can.</p>
+
+<p>So every day is a battle, and I'm so tired I don't
+want to live; only it's cowardly to die till you have done
+something.</p>
+
+<p>I can't talk to any one but Mother about my troubles,
+and she has so many now to bear I try not to add any
+more. I know God is always ready to hear, but heaven's
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">61</a></span>
+so far away in the city, and I so heavy I can't fly up to
+find Him.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="i5">FAITH.</p>
+
+<p class="i3">Written in the diary.</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">
+Oh, when the heart is full of fears<br />
+<span class="i1">And the way seems dim to heaven,</span><br />
+When the sorrow and the care of years<br />
+<span class="i1">Peace from the heart has driven,&ndash;</span><br />
+Then, through the mist of falling tears,<br />
+<span class="i1">Look up and be forgiven.</span></p>
+
+<p class="stanza">Forgiven for the lack of faith<br />
+<span class="i1">That made all dark to thee,</span><br />
+Let conscience o'er thy wayward soul<br />
+<span class="i1">Have fullest mastery:</span><br />
+Hope on, fight on, and thou shalt win<br />
+<span class="i1">A noble victory.</span></p>
+
+<p class="stanza">Though thou art weary and forlorn,<br />
+<span class="i1">Let not thy heart's peace go;</span><br />
+Though the riches of this world are gone,<br />
+<span class="i1">And thy lot is care and woe,</span><br />
+Faint not, but journey hourly on:<br />
+<span class="i1">True wealth is not below.</span></p>
+
+<p class="stanza">Through all the darkness still look up:<br />
+<span class="i1">Let virtue be thy guide;</span><br />
+Take thy draught from sorrow's cup,<br />
+<span class="i1">Yet trustfully abide;</span><br />
+Let not temptation vanquish thee,<br />
+<span class="i1">And the Father will provide.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>[We had small-pox in the family this summer, caught from
+some poor immigrants whom mother took into our garden and
+fed one day. We girls had it lightly, but Father and Mother
+were very ill, and we had a curious time of exile, danger, and
+trouble. No doctors, and all got well.&ndash;<span class="smcap">L. M. A.</span>]
+</p>
+</div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">62</a></span></p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><i>July</i>, 1850.&ndash;Anna is gone to L. after the varioloid.
+She is to help Mrs. &ndash;&ndash; with her baby. I had to take
+A.'s school of twenty in Canton Street. I like it better
+than I thought, though it's very hard to be patient with
+the children sometimes. They seem happy, and learn
+fast; so I am encouraged, though at first it was very hard,
+and I missed Anna so much I used to cry over my dinner
+and be very blue. I guess this is the teaching I need;
+for as a <i>school-marm</i> I must behave myself and guard my
+tongue and temper carefully, and set an example of
+sweet manners.</p>
+
+<p>I found one of mother's notes in my journal, so like
+those she used to write me when she had more time. It
+always encourages me; and I wish some one would write
+as helpfully to her, for she needs cheering up with all the
+care she has. I often think what a hard life she has had
+since she married,&ndash;so full of wandering and all sorts of
+worry! so different from her early easy days, the youngest
+and most petted of her family. I think she is a very
+brave, good woman; and my dream is to have a lovely,
+quiet home for her, with no debts or troubles to burden
+her. But I'm afraid she will be in heaven before I can
+do it. Anna, too, she is feeble and homesick, and I miss
+her dreadfully; for she is my conscience, always true and
+just and good. She must have a good time in a nice
+little home of her own some day, as we often plan. But
+waiting is so <i>hard</i>!</p>
+
+<p><i>August</i>, 1850.&ndash;School is hard work, and I feel as
+though I should like to run away from it. But my
+children get on; so I travel up every day, and do
+my best.</p>
+
+<p>I get very little time to write or think; for my working
+days have begun, and when school is over Anna wants
+me; so I have no quiet. I think a little solitude every
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">63</a></span>
+day is good for me. In the quiet I see my faults, and
+try to mend them; but, deary me, I don't get on at
+all.</p>
+
+<p>I used to imagine my mind a room in confusion, and
+I was to put it in order; so I swept out useless thoughts
+and dusted foolish fancies away, and furnished it with
+good resolutions and began again. But cobwebs get in.
+I'm not a good housekeeper, and never get my room in
+nice order. I once wrote a poem about it when I was
+fourteen, and called it "My Little Kingdom." It is still
+hard to rule it, and always will be I think.</p>
+
+<p>Reading Miss Bremer and Hawthorne. The "Scarlet
+Letter" is my favorite. Mother likes Miss B. better, as
+more wholesome. I fancy "lurid" things, if true and
+strong also.</p>
+
+<p>Anna wants to be an actress, and so do I. We could
+make plenty of money perhaps, and it is a very gay life.
+Mother says we are too young, and must wait. A. acts
+often splendidly. I like tragic plays, and shall be a Siddons
+if I can. We get up fine ones, and make harps,
+castles, armor, dresses, water-falls, and thunder, and have
+great fun.
+</p>
+</div>
+<p>It was at this period of her life that she was violently
+attacked by a mania for the stage, and the
+greater part of her leisure time was given to writing
+and enacting dramas. Her older sister, Anna, had
+the same taste, and assisted her in carrying out all
+her plans. A family of great talent with whom
+they were intimate joined with them, and their
+mother always allowed them to have all the private
+theatricals they wished to perform.</p>
+
+<p>Some of these early plays are preserved in manuscripts
+as she wrote them. They are written in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">64</a></span>
+stilted, melodramatic style, full of highstrung sentiments
+of loyalty, honor and devotion, with the
+most improbable incidents and violent devices, and
+without a touch of common life or the slightest
+flavor of humor. The idea of self-sacrifice always
+comes into them; but they are thoroughly girlish.
+It is so that girls dream and feel before they know
+life at all. Their hearts are full of vague, restless
+longings, and they seek some vent for the repressed
+energies of their natures away from the prosaic realities
+of the present. While Louisa sat sewing
+the tedious seams of her daily task what a relief it
+was to let her imagination run riot among the
+wildest and most exciting scenes. Of course she
+had a "Bandit's Bride" among her plays. "The
+Captive of Castile; or, The Moorish Maiden's
+Vow," is preserved entire, and is a good specimen
+of these girlish efforts. It is full of surprises
+and concealments, and the denouement is as unnatural
+as could well be imagined. The dialogue
+is often bright and forcible, and the sentiments
+always lofty, and we have no doubt it seemed very
+grand to the youthful audience. It is taken from
+her reading, with no touch of her own life in it. This
+is not the same play described with such a ludicrous
+finale in "Little Women," although the heroine
+bears the same favorite name of Zara. Her own
+early amusement was, however, fully in her mind
+when she wrote that scene, which is true to fact.</p>
+
+<p>A friend and relative of the family living in Roxbury,
+Dr. Windship, was much interested in the
+development of Louisa's dramatic talent. The
+girls always enjoyed delightful visits at his house.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">65</a></span>
+He tried to help the young dramatist to public success,
+and writes to her mother:&ndash;</p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+I have offered to Mr. Barry of the Boston Theatre
+Louisa's "Prima Donnas." He is very much pleased
+with it just as it is, and will bring it out this season in
+good style. He thinks it will have a fine run.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Mrs. Barry and Mrs. Wood consented to take
+the principal characters. But from some difficulty
+in the arrangements "The Rival Prima Donnas"
+was not produced. One great pleasure was gained,
+however, as Mr. Barry gave her a free pass to the
+theatre, which proved a source of constant refreshment
+and delight.</p>
+
+<p>Of course Louisa was eager to go on to the stage
+herself. She had indeed extraordinary dramatic
+power, and could at any time quickly transform
+herself into Hamlet, and recite a scene with tragic
+effect. But the careful mother knew better than
+the girl the trials and dangers of the profession,
+and dissuaded her from it. She also knew how
+little such youthful facility of expression indicates
+the power which will make a great actress.
+Louisa has reproduced her dramatic experience in
+"Work," which gives a picture faithful in spirit
+and in many of its details to this phase of her life.
+She here indicates a knowledge of her own limitation
+of talent. "Christie's gala" was a part quite
+after her own heart.</p>
+
+<p>A farce, called "Nat Batchelor's Pleasure Trip;
+or, The Trials of a Good-natured Man," was brought
+out at the Howard Athenaeum. The papers of the
+day said of it: "It is a creditable first attempt at
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">66</a></span>
+dramatic composition, and received frequent applause."
+Another critic says: "It proved a full
+success." This performance, however, took place
+in 1860,&ndash;a later period than that of which I am
+now speaking.</p>
+
+<p>An incident which occurred at this representation
+probably suggested scenes which recur in "Work"
+and other of Miss Alcott's stories.</p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+Quite a hit was made by a little girl, a Miss Jones,
+who, having to speak but a few lines, spoke them so well
+that upon her exit she received the rare compliment of an
+enthusiastic recall from the audience, despite the fact
+that "some necessary question of the play was then to be
+considered." For the time being she certainly was the
+sensation of the piece.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Miss Alcott had in Dr. Windship a kind and
+judicious helper in her dramatic undertakings, with
+whom she kept up a correspondence under the
+names of Beaumont and Fletcher.</p>
+
+<p>In 1851 Louisa had an experience which she has
+reproduced in her story called "How I Went Out
+to Service." Her mother's work among the poor
+of Boston led to her being applied to for employment,
+and at one time she kept a regular intelligence
+office. A gentleman came to her seeking a companion
+for his aged father and sister, who was to
+do only light work, and to be treated with the
+greatest respect and kindness. As Mrs. Alcott did
+not readily think of any who would fill the place,
+the impulsive Louisa suggested, "Why couldn't I
+go, Mother?" She went, and had two months of
+disappointment and painful experience which she
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">67</a></span>
+never forgot. She wrote out the story which was
+published later, called "How I Went Out to Service."</p>
+
+<p>The story has an important lesson for those who
+condemn severely young girls who prefer the more
+independent life of the factory or shop to what
+is considered the safety and comfort of service in
+families. If a girl like Louisa Alcott, belonging to
+a well-known, highly esteemed family, and herself
+commanding respect by her abilities and character,
+could be treated with such indignity by a family in
+which no one would have feared to place her, how
+much may not a poor unfriended girl be called
+upon to endure!</p>
+
+<p class="section"><i>Journal.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+1851.&ndash;We went to a meeting, and heard splendid
+speaking from Phillips, Channing, and others. People
+were much excited, and cheered "Shadrack and liberty,"
+groaned for "Webster and slavery," and made a great
+noise. I felt ready to do anything,&ndash;fight or work, hoot
+or cry,&ndash;and laid plans to free Simms. I shall be horribly
+ashamed of my country if this thing happens and
+the slave is taken back.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+[He was.&ndash;<span class="smcap">L. M. A.</span>]
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>1852.&ndash;<i>High Street, Boston.</i>&ndash;After the small-pox
+summer, we went to a house in High Street. Mother
+opened an intelligence office, which grew out of her city
+missionary work and a desire to find places for good
+girls. It was not fit work for her, but it paid; and she
+always did what came to her in the way of duty or charity,
+and let pride, taste, and comfort suffer for love's
+sake.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">68</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Anna and I taught; Lizzie was our little housekeeper,&ndash;our
+angel in a cellar kitchen; May went to school;
+father wrote and talked when he could get classes or
+conversations. Our poor little home had much love and
+happiness in it, and was a shelter for lost girls, abused
+wives, friendless children, and weak or wicked men.
+Father and Mother had no money to give, but gave
+them time, sympathy, help; and if blessings would make
+them rich, they would be millionnaires. This is practical
+Christianity.</p>
+
+<p>My first story was printed, and $5 paid for it. It was
+written in Concord when I was sixteen. Great rubbish!
+Read it aloud to sisters, and when they praised it, not
+knowing the author, I proudly announced her name.</p>
+
+<p>Made a resolution to read fewer novels, and those only
+of the best. List of books I like:&ndash;</p>
+
+<p class="i2">
+Carlyle's French Revolution and Miscellanies.<br />
+Hero and Hero-Worship.<br />
+Goethe's poems, plays, and novels.<br />
+Plutarch's Lives.<br />
+Madame Guion.<br />
+Paradise Lost and Comus.<br />
+Schiller's Plays.<br />
+Madame de Staël.<br />
+Bettine.<br />
+Louis XIV.<br />
+Jane Eyre.<br />
+Hypatia.<br />
+Philothea.<br />
+Uncle Tom's Cabin.<br />
+Emerson's Poems.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In "Little Women" (p. 174), she has told a story
+which has usually been supposed to represent her
+first success in literature; but she has transferred
+the incident from her sister to her own representative,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">69</a></span>
+Jo. It was the quiet Anna who had secretly
+written a story and fastened it inside of a newspaper.
+She read it to her mother and sisters, as
+described in the book, and was very much delighted
+with their approbation and astonishment.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+1853.&ndash;In January I started a little school,&ndash;E. W.,
+W. A., two L's, two H's,&ndash;about a dozen in our parlor.
+In May, when my school closed, I went to L. as second
+girl. I needed the change, could do the wash, and was
+glad to earn my $2 a week. Home in October with $34
+for my wages. After two days' rest, began school again
+with ten children. Anna went to Syracuse to teach;
+Father to the West to try his luck,&ndash;so poor, so hopeful,
+so serene. God be with him! Mother had several
+boarders, and May got on well at school. Betty was
+still the home bird, and had a little romance with C.</p>
+
+<p>Pleasant letters from Father and Anna. A hard year.
+Summer distasteful and lonely; winter tiresome with
+school and people I didn't like. I miss Anna, my one
+bosom friend and comforter.</p>
+
+<p>1854.&ndash;<i>Pinckney Street.</i>&ndash;I have neglected my journal
+for months, so must write it up. School for me
+month after month. Mother busy with boarders and
+sewing. Father doing as well as a philosopher can in
+a money-loving world. Anna at S.</p>
+
+<p>I earned a good deal by sewing in the evening when
+my day's work was done.</p>
+
+<p>In February Father came home. Paid his way, but no
+more. A dramatic scene when he arrived in the night.
+We were waked by hearing the bell. Mother flew down,
+crying "My husband!" We rushed after, and five white
+figures embraced the half-frozen wanderer who came in
+hungry, tired, cold, and disappointed, but smiling bravely
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">70</a></span>
+and as serene as ever. We fed and warmed and brooded
+over him, longing to ask if he had made any money; but
+no one did till little May said, after he had told all the
+pleasant things, "Well, did people pay you?" Then,
+with a queer look, he opened his pocket-book and
+showed one dollar, saying with a smile that made our
+eyes fill, "Only that! My overcoat was stolen, and I
+had to buy a shawl. Many promises were not kept, and
+travelling is costly; but I have opened the way, and
+another year shall do better."</p>
+
+<p>I shall never forget how beautifully Mother answered
+him, though the dear, hopeful soul had built much on his
+success; but with a beaming face she kissed him, saying,
+"I call that doing <i>very well</i>. Since you are safely home,
+dear, we don't ask anything more."</p>
+
+<p>Anna and I choked down our tears, and took a little
+lesson in real love which we never forgot, nor the look
+that the tired man and the tender woman gave one
+another. It was half tragic and comic, for Father was
+very dirty and sleepy, and Mother in a big nightcap and
+funny old jacket.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+[I began to see the strong contrasts and the fun and follies
+in every-day life about this time.&ndash;<span class="smcap">L. M. A</span>.]
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Anna came home in March. Kept our school all
+summer. I got "Flower Fables" ready to print.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Louisa also tried service with a relative in the
+country for a short time, but teaching, sewing, and
+writing were her principal occupations during this
+residence in Boston.</p>
+
+<p>These seven years, from Louisa's sixteenth to her
+twenty-third year, might be called an apprenticeship
+to life. She tried various paths, and learned
+to know herself and the world about her, although
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">71</a></span>
+she was not even yet certain of success in the
+way which finally opened before her and led her
+so successfully to the accomplishment of her life-purpose.
+She tried teaching, without satisfaction
+to herself or perhaps to others. The kind of education
+she had herself received fitted her admirably
+to understand and influence children, but not to
+carry on the routine of a school. Sewing was her
+resource when nothing else offered, but it is almost
+pitiful to think of her as confined to such work
+when great powers were lying dormant in her
+mind. Still, Margaret Fuller said that a year of
+enforced quiet in the country devoted mainly to
+sewing was very useful to her, since she reviewed
+and examined the treasures laid up in her memory;
+and doubtless Louisa Alcott thought out many a
+story which afterward delighted the world while
+her fingers busily plied the needle. Yet it was a
+great deliverance when she first found that the
+products of her brain would bring in the needed
+money for family support.</p>
+
+<p class="section"><i>L. in Boston to A. in Syracuse.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Thursday</span>, 27th.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Nan</span>,&ndash;I was so glad to hear from you, and
+hear that all were well.</p>
+
+<p>I am grubbing away as usual, trying to get money
+enough to buy Mother a nice warm shawl. I have eleven
+dollars, all my own earnings,&ndash;five for a story, and four
+for the pile of sewing I did for the ladies of Dr. Gray's
+society, to give him as a present.</p>
+
+<p>... I got a crimson ribbon for a bonnet for May, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">72</a></span>
+I took my straw and fixed it nicely with some little duds I
+had. Her old one has haunted me all winter, and I want
+her to look neat. She is so graceful and pretty and loves
+beauty so much, it is hard for her to be poor and wear
+other people's ugly things. You and I have learned not
+to mind <i>much</i>; but when I think of her I long to dash
+out and buy the finest hat the limited sum of ten dollars
+can procure. She says so sweetly in one of her letters:
+"It is hard sometimes to see other people have so many
+nice things and I so few; but I try not to be envious, but
+contented with my poor clothes, and cheerful about it."
+I hope the little dear will like the bonnet and the frills
+I made her and some bows I fixed over from bright ribbons
+L. W. threw away. I get half my rarities from her
+rag-bag, and she doesn't know her own rags when fixed
+over. I hope I shall live to see the dear child in silk
+and lace, with plenty of pictures and "bottles of cream,"
+Europe, and all she longs for.</p>
+
+<p>For our good little Betty, who is wearing all the old
+gowns we left, I shall soon be able to buy a new one, and
+send it with my blessing to the cheerful saint. She writes
+me the funniest notes, and tries to keep the old folks
+warm and make the lonely house in the snowbanks cosey
+and bright.</p>
+
+<p>To Father I shall send new neckties and some paper;
+then he will be happy, and can keep on with the beloved
+diaries though the heavens fall.</p>
+
+<p>Don't laugh at my plans; I'll carry them out, if I go
+to service to do it. Seeing so much money flying about,
+I long to honestly get a little and make my dear family
+more comfortable. I feel weak-minded when I think of
+all they need and the little I can do.</p>
+
+<p>Now about you: Keep the money you have earned by
+so many tears and sacrifices, and clothe yourself; for it
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">73</a></span>
+makes me mad to know that my good little lass is going
+round in shabby things, and being looked down upon by
+people who are not worthy to touch her patched shoes or
+the hem of her ragged old gowns. Make yourself tidy,
+and if any is left over send it to Mother; for there are
+always many things needed at home, though they won't
+tell us. I only wish I too by any amount of weeping
+and homesickness could earn as much. But my mite
+won't come amiss; and if tears can add to its value, I've
+shed my quart,&ndash;first, over the book not coming out; for
+that was a sad blow, and I waited so long it was dreadful
+when my castle in the air came tumbling about my ears.
+Pride made me laugh in public; but I wailed in private,
+and no one knew it. The folks at home think I rather
+enjoyed it, for I wrote a jolly letter. But my visit was
+spoiled; and now I'm digging away for dear life, that I
+may not have come entirely in vain. I didn't mean to
+groan about it; but my lass and I must tell some one our
+trials, and so it becomes easy to confide in one another.
+I never let Mother know how unhappy you were in S. till
+Uncle wrote.</p>
+
+<p>My doings are not much this week. I sent a little tale
+to the "Gazette," and Clapp asked H. W. if five dollars
+would be enough. Cousin H. said yes, and gave it to me,
+with kind words and a nice parcel of paper, saying in his
+funny way, "Now, Lu, the door is open, go in and win."
+So I shall try to do it. Then cousin L. W. said Mr.
+B. had got my play, and told her that if Mrs. B. liked it
+as well, it must be clever, and if it didn't cost too much,
+he would bring it out by and by. Say nothing about it
+yet. Dr. W. tells me Mr. F. is very sick; so the farce
+cannot be acted yet. But the Doctor is set on its coming
+out, and we have fun about it. H. W. takes me
+often to the theatre when L. is done with me. I read to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">74</a></span>
+her all the <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> often, as she is poorly, and in that way
+I pay my debt to them.</p>
+
+<p>I'm writing another story for Clapp. I want more
+fives, and mean to have them too.</p>
+
+<p>Uncle wrote that you were Dr. W.'s pet teacher, and
+every one loved you dearly. But if you are not well,
+don't stay. Come home, and be cuddled by your
+old</p>
+
+<p class="sig">
+<span class="smcap">Lu</span>.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center p6"><span class="b1">CHAPTER V.</span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">75</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="center">AUTHORSHIP.</p>
+<p class="center p2">OUR ANGEL IN THE HOUSE.</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="stanza">
+Sitting patient in the shadow<br />
+<span class="i1">Till the blessed light shall come,</span><br />
+A serene and saintly presence<br />
+<span class="i1">Sanctifies our troubled home.</span><br />
+Earthly joys and hopes and sorrows<br />
+<span class="i1">Break like ripples on the strand</span><br />
+Of the deep and solemn river,<br />
+<span class="i1">Where her willing feet now stand.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">O my sister, passing from me<br />
+<span class="i1">Out of human care and strife,</span><br />
+Leave me as a gift those virtues<br />
+<span class="i1">Which have beautified your life.</span><br />
+Dear, bequeath me that great patience<br />
+<span class="i1">Which has power to sustain</span><br />
+A cheerful, uncomplaining spirit<br />
+<span class="i1">In its prison-house of pain.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">Give me&ndash;for I need it sorely&ndash;<br />
+<span class="i1">Of that courage, wise and sweet,</span><br />
+Which has made the path of duty<br />
+<span class="i1">Green beneath your willing feet.</span><br />
+Give me that unselfish nature<br />
+<span class="i1">That with charity divine</span><br />
+Can pardon wrong for love's dear sake,&ndash;<br />
+<span class="i1">Meek heart, forgive me mine!</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">Thus our parting daily loseth<br />
+<span class="i1">Something of its bitter pain,</span><br />
+And while learning this hard lesson<br />
+<span class="i1">My great loss becomes my gain;</span><br />
+For the touch of grief will render<br />
+<span class="i1">My wild nature more serene,</span><br />
+Give to life new aspirations,<br />
+<span class="i1">A new trust in the unseen.</span><br />
+</p>
+</div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">76</a></span></p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="stanza">Henceforth safe across the river<br />
+<span class="i1">I shall see forevermore</span><br />
+A beloved household spirit<br />
+<span class="i1">Waiting for me on the shore;</span><br />
+Hope and faith, born of my sorrow,<br />
+<span class="i1">Guardian angels shall become;</span><br />
+And the sister gone before me<br />
+<span class="i1">By their hands shall lead me home.</span><br />
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="p2"><span class="dropcap">W</span>HEN only twenty-two years old Miss Alcott
+began her career of authorship by launching
+a little flower bark, which floated gaily on the
+stream. She had always written poems, plays, and
+stories for her own and her friends' pleasure, and
+now she gathered up some tales she had written
+for Mr. Emerson's daughter, and published them
+under the name of "Flower Fables." She received
+the small amount of thirty-two dollars for the book;
+but it gave her the great satisfaction of having
+earned it by work that she loved, and which she
+could do well. She began to have applications for
+stories from the papers; but as yet sewing and
+teaching paid better than writing. While she sewed
+her brain was busy with plans of poems, plays, and
+tales, which she made use of at a later period.</p>
+
+<p>The following letter to her mother shows how
+closely she associated her with this early success:&ndash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter"><span class="smcap">20 Pinckney Street, Boston,</span> Dec. 25, 1854.<br />
+<span class="i4">(With "Flower Fables,")</span>
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Mother,</span>&ndash;Into your Christmas stocking I
+have put my "first-born," knowing that you will accept
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">77</a></span>
+it with all its faults (for grandmothers are always kind),
+and look upon it merely as an earnest of what I may yet
+do; for, with so much to cheer me on, I hope to pass in
+time from fairies and fables to men and realities.</p>
+
+<p>Whatever beauty or poetry is to be found in my little
+book is owing to your interest in and encouragement of
+all my efforts from the first to the last; and if ever I do
+anything to be proud of, my greatest happiness will be
+that I can thank you for that, as I may do for all the good
+there is in me; and I shall be content to write if it gives
+you pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="i4">Jo is fussing about;</span><br />
+<span class="i4">My lamp is going out.</span></p>
+
+<p>To dear mother, with many kind wishes for a happy
+New Year and merry Christmas.</p>
+
+<p>I am ever your loving daughter</p>
+
+<p class="sig">
+<span class="smcap">Louy</span>.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>This letter shows that she had already begun to
+see that she must study not only fairies and fancies,
+but men and realities; and she now began to
+observe life, not in books, but as it went on around
+her. In the intense excitement of the anti-slavery
+struggles of that period she might well learn how
+full of dramatic situations and the elements of both
+tragedy and comedy real human life is. She says:
+"I began to see the strong contrasts and fun and
+frolic in every day life about this time." She also
+considered her reading, and tried to make it more
+thorough and profitable; and she did not "waste
+even <i>ink</i> on poems and fancies," but planned stories,
+that everything might help toward her great object
+of earning support for her family.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">78</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In June, 1855, Miss Alcott went to Walpole,
+N. H., where she had a free life among the hills
+for a few months. It must have been a great refreshment
+to her after the winter's work in the city.
+In July the family followed her thither, and occupied
+a small house. The country life and joy soon
+began to find expression, and she wrote a little
+story called "King Goldenrod," which she says
+"ought to be fresh and true," as written at that beautiful
+time and place. But this pleasant country life
+was for a short season only; and in chill November
+she set out for the city, with brave heart and scanty
+outfit, to seek her fortune once more. While still
+continuing to sew as a means of livelihood, she
+began to try a great variety of literary ventures.
+She wrote notices of books for the papers, and at
+one time got five dollars for a story, besides twelve
+dollars for sewing. The following year the publishers
+began to find out the value of her work, and
+to call for more stories. Even her poems were accepted.
+Little Nell was then the favorite heroine
+of Dickens, and Louisa's poem on that subject was
+published in the "Courier." Although she at first
+enjoyed the beautiful scenery of Walpole, she found
+the dull little town did not offer her the opportunities
+for work that she needed; and leaving her
+family there, she came down to Boston to seek her
+fortune, and went to the well-known boarding-house
+of Mrs. David Reed on Chauncey Street.
+The happy home which she had here during the
+winter is represented as Mrs. Kirke's house in
+"Little Women," and Jo's garret is the sky-parlor in
+which she lived and wrote. She had a rich winter,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">79</a></span>
+hearing many of the finest lectures, and enjoying
+her free pass to the theatre. One of her greatest
+helps, however, was the friendship of Theodore
+Parker, who took great interest in her struggles,
+and wisely strengthened and encouraged her. She
+loved to go to his Sunday evening receptions, and
+sit quietly watching the varied company who collected
+there; and a word or pressure of the hand
+from her host was enough to cheer her for the
+whole week. She has gratefully recorded this influence
+in her sketch of Mr. Power in "Work;"
+but she has not given to that delineation the striking
+personality of her subject which we should
+have expected of her. She then perhaps looked up
+to him too much to take note of the rich elements
+of wit and humor in his nature, and has painted him
+wholly seriously, and with a colorless brush.</p>
+
+<p class="section"><i>Journal.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="center"><i>Twenty-two Years Old.</i></p>
+<p>
+<span class="smcap">Pinckney Street, Boston</span>, <i>Jan.</i> 1, 1855.&ndash;The principal
+event of the winter is the appearance of my book
+"Flower Fables." An edition of sixteen hundred. It
+has sold very well, and people seem to like it. I feel
+quite proud that the little tales that I wrote for Ellen E.
+when I was sixteen should now bring money and fame.</p>
+
+<p>I will put in some of the notices as "varieties."
+Mothers are always foolish over their first-born.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Wealthy Stevens paid for the book, and I received
+$32.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+[A pleasing contrast to the receipts of six months only in
+1886, being $8000 for the sale of books, and no new one;
+but I was prouder over the $32 than the $8000.&ndash;<span class="smcap">L. M. A.</span>,
+1886.]</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">80</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>April</i>, 1855.&ndash;I am in the garret with my papers
+round me, and a pile of apples to eat while I write my
+journal, plan stories, and enjoy the patter of rain on the
+roof, in peace and quiet.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+[Jo in the garret.&ndash;<span class="smcap">L. M. A.</span>]
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Being behindhand, as usual, I'll make note of the
+main events up to date, for I don't waste ink in poetry
+and pages of rubbish now. I've begun to <i>live</i>, and have
+no time for sentimental musing.</p>
+
+<p>In October I began my school; Father talked, Mother
+looked after her boarders, and tried to help everybody.
+Anna was in Syracuse teaching Mrs. S&ndash;&ndash;'s children.</p>
+
+<p>My book came out; and people began to think that
+topsey-turvey Louisa would amount to something after
+all, since she could do so well as housemaid, teacher,
+seamstress, and story-teller. Perhaps she may.</p>
+
+<p>In February I wrote a story for which C. paid $5, and
+asked for more.</p>
+
+<p>In March I wrote a farce for W. Warren, and Dr. W.
+offered it to him; but W. W. was too busy.</p>
+
+<p>Also began another tale, but found little time to work
+on it, with school, sewing, and house-work. My winter's
+earnings are,&ndash;</p>
+
+<table border="none" summary="earnings">
+<col width="200" />
+<col width="50" />
+<tr><td class="tdl">School, one quarter</td>
+<td>$50</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="tdl">Sewing</td>
+<td>$50</td>
+</tr>
+<tr><td class="tdl">Stories</td>
+<td>$20</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p>if I am ever paid.</p>
+
+<p>A busy and a pleasant winter, because, though hard
+at times, I do seem to be getting on a little; and that
+encourages me.</p>
+
+<p>Have heard Lowell and Hedge lecture, acted in plays,
+and thanks to our rag-money and good cousin H., have
+been to the theatre several times,&ndash;always my great joy.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">81</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Summer plans are yet unsettled. Father wants to go
+to England: not a wise idea, I think. We shall probably
+stay here, and A. and I go into the country as governesses.
+It's a queer way to live, but dramatic, and I
+rather like it; for we never know what is to come next.
+We are real "Micawbers," and always "ready for a
+spring."</p>
+
+<p>I have planned another Christmas book, and hope to
+be able to write it.</p>
+
+<p>1855.&ndash;Cousin L. W. asks me to pass the summer at
+Walpole with her. If I can get no teaching, I shall
+go; for I long for the hills, and can write my fairy tales
+there.</p>
+
+<p>I delivered my burlesque lecture on "Woman, and Her
+Position; by Oronthy Bluggage," last evening at Deacon
+G.'s. Had a merry time, and was asked by Mr. W. to
+do it at H. for money. Read "Hamlet" at our club,&ndash;my
+favorite play. Saw Mrs. W. H. Smith about the
+farce; says she will do it at her benefit.</p>
+
+<p><i>May.</i>&ndash;Father went to C. to talk with Mr. Emerson
+about the England trip. I am to go to Walpole. I have
+made my own gowns, and had money enough to fit up
+the girls. So glad to be independent.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+[I wonder if $40 fitted up the whole family. Perhaps so,
+as my wardrobe was made up of old clothes from cousins and
+friends.&ndash;<span class="smcap">L. M. A.</span>]
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><span class="smcap">Walpole, N. H.</span>, <i>June, 1855</i>.&ndash;Pleasant journey and
+a kind welcome. Lovely place, high among the hills.
+So glad to run and skip in the woods and up the splendid
+ravine. Shall write here, I know.</p>
+
+<p>Helped cousin L. in her garden; and the smell of
+the fresh earth and the touch of green leaves did me
+good.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">82</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Mr. T. came and praised my first book, so I felt much
+inspired to go and do another. I remember him at
+Scituate years ago, when he was a young ship-builder and
+I a curly-haired hoyden of five or six.</p>
+
+<p>Up at five, and had a lovely run in the ravine, seeing
+the woods wake. Planned a little tale which ought to be
+fresh and true, as it came at that hour and place,&ndash;"King
+Goldenrod." Have lively days,&ndash;writing in
+<span class="smcap">a.m.</span>, driving in <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, and fun in eve. My visit is doing
+me much good.</p>
+
+<p><i>July, 1855.</i>&ndash;Read "Hyperion." On the 16th the
+family came to live in Mr. W.'s house rent free. No
+better plan offered, and we were all tired of the city.
+Here Father can have a garden; Mother can rest and be
+near her good niece; the children have freedom and fine
+air; and A. and I can go from here to our teaching,
+wherever it may be.</p>
+
+<p>Busy and happy times as we settle in the little house
+in the lane near by my dear ravine,&ndash;plays, picnics,
+pleasant people, and good neighbors. Fanny Kemble
+came up, Mrs. Kirkland and others, and Dr. Bellows
+is the gayest of the gay. We acted the "Jacobite,"
+"Rivals," and "Bonnycastles," to an audience of a hundred,
+and were noticed in the Boston papers. H. T.
+was our manager, and Dr. B., D. D., our dramatic director.
+Anna was the star, her acting being really very
+fine. I did "Mrs. Malaprop," "Widow Pottle," and the
+old ladies.</p>
+
+<p>Finished fairy book in September. Anna had an offer
+from Dr. Wilbur of Syracuse to teach at the great idiot
+asylum. She disliked it, but decided to go. Poor dear!
+so beauty-loving, timid, and tender. It is a hard trial;
+but she is so self-sacrificing she tries to like it because it
+is duty.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">83</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>October.</i>&ndash;A. to Syracuse. May illustrated my book,
+and tales called "Christmas Elves." Better than "Flower
+Fables." Now I must try to sell it.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+[Innocent Louisa, to think that a Christmas book could
+be sold in October.&ndash;<span class="smcap">L. M. A.</span>]
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><i>November.</i>&ndash;Decided to seek my fortune; so, with
+my little trunk of home-made clothes, $20 earned by
+stories sent to the "Gazette," and my MSS., I set forth
+with Mother's blessing one rainy day in the dullest month
+in the year.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+[My birth-month; always to be a memorable one.&ndash;<span class="smcap">L. M. A.</span>]
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Found it too late to do anything with the book, so put
+it away and tried for teaching, sewing, or any honest
+work. Won't go home to sit idle while I have a head
+and pair of hands.</p>
+
+<p><i>December.</i>&ndash;H. and L. W. very kind, and my dear
+cousins the Sewalls take me in. I sew for Mollie and
+others, and write stories. C. gave me books to notice.
+Heard Thackeray. Anxious times; Anna very home-sick.
+Walpole very cold and dull now the summer butterflies
+have gone. Got $5 for a tale and $12 for sewing; sent
+home a Christmas-box to cheer the dear souls in the
+snow-banks.</p>
+
+<p><i>January, 1856.</i>&ndash;C. paid $6 for "A Sister's Trial,"
+gave me more books to notice, and wants more tales.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+[Should think he would at that price.&ndash;<span class="smcap">L. M. A.</span>]
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Sewed for L. W. Sewall and others. Mr. J. M. Field
+took my farce to Mobile to bring out; Mr. Barry of the
+Boston Theatre has the play.</p>
+
+<p>Heard Curtis lecture. Began a book for summer,&ndash;"Beach
+Bubbles." Mr. F. of the "Courier" printed a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">84</a></span>
+poem of mine on "Little Nell." Got $10 for "Bertha,"
+and saw great yellow placards stuck up announcing it.
+Acted at the W.'s.</p>
+
+<p><i>March.</i>&ndash;Got $10 for "Genevieve." Prices go up,
+as people like the tales and ask who wrote them. Finished
+"Twelve Bubbles." Sewed a great deal, and got
+very tired; one job for Mr. G. of a dozen pillow-cases,
+one dozen sheets, six fine cambric neckties, and two
+dozen handkerchiefs, at which I had to work all one
+night to get them done, as they were a gift to him. I
+got only $4.</p>
+
+<p>Sewing won't make my fortune; but I can plan my
+stories while I work, and then scribble 'em down on
+Sundays.</p>
+
+<p>Poem on "Little Paul;" Curtis's lecture on "Dickens"
+made it go well. Hear Emerson on "England."</p>
+
+<p><i>May.</i>&ndash;Anna came on her way home, sick and worn
+out; the work was too much for her. We had some
+happy days visiting about. Could not dispose of B. B.
+in book form, but C. took them for his paper. Mr. Field
+died, so the farce fell through there. Altered the play
+for Mrs. Barrow to bring out next winter.</p>
+
+<p><i>June, 1856.</i>&ndash;Home, to find dear Betty very ill with
+scarlet-fever caught from some poor children Mother
+nursed when they fell sick, living over a cellar where
+pigs had been kept. The landlord (a deacon) would
+not clean the place till Mother threatened to sue him
+for allowing a nuisance. Too late to save two of the
+poor babies or Lizzie and May from the fever.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+[L. never recovered, but died of it two years later.&ndash;<span class="smcap">L. M. A.</span>]
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>An anxious time. I nursed, did house-work, and wrote
+a story a month through the summer.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Bellows and Father had Sunday eve conversations.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">85</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>October.</i>&ndash;Pleasant letters from Father, who went on
+a tour to N. Y., Philadelphia, and Boston.</p>
+
+<p>Made plans to go to Boston for the winter, as there is
+nothing to do here, and there I can support myself and
+help the family. C. offers 10 dollars a month, and perhaps
+more. L. W., M. S., and others, have plenty of sewing;
+the play <i>may</i> come out, and Mrs. R. will give me a sky-parlor
+for $3 a week, with fire and board. I sew for
+her also.</p>
+
+<p>If I can get A. L. to governess I shall be all right.</p>
+
+<p>I was born with a boy's spirit under my bib and tucker.
+I <i>can't wait</i> when I <i>can work</i>; so I took my little talent
+in my hand and forced the world again, braver than
+before and wiser for my failures.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+[Jo in N. Y.&ndash;<span class="smcap">L. M. A.</span>]
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>I don't often pray in words; but when I set out that
+day with all my worldly goods in the little old trunk, my
+own earnings ($25) in my pocket, and much hope and
+resolution in my soul, my heart was very full, and I said
+to the Lord, "Help us all, and keep us for one another,"
+as I never said it before, while I looked back at the dear
+faces watching me, so full of love and hope and faith.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>Journal.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+<span class="smcap">Boston</span>, <i>November, 1856</i>. <i>Mrs. David Reed's.</i>&ndash;I
+find my little room up in the attic very cosey, and a
+house full of boarders very amusing to study. Mrs.
+Reed very kind. Fly round and take C. his stories.
+Go to see Mrs. L. about A. Don't want me. A blow,
+but I cheer up and hunt for sewing. Go to hear Parker,
+and he does me good. Asks me to come Sunday evenings
+to his house. I did go there, and met Phillips,
+Garrison, Hedge, and other great men, and sit in my
+corner weekly, staring and enjoying myself.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">86</a></span></p>
+
+<p>When I went Mr. Parker said, "God bless you, Louisa;
+come again;" and the grasp of his hand gave me courage
+to face another anxious week.</p>
+
+<p><i>November 3d.</i>&ndash;Wrote all the morning. In the <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>
+went to see the Sumner reception as he comes home
+after the Brooks affair. I saw him pass up Beacon
+Street, pale and feeble, but smiling and bowing. I
+rushed to Hancock Street, and was in time to see him
+bring his proud old mother to the window when the
+crowd gave three cheers for her. I cheered too, and
+was very much excited. Mr. Parker met him somewhere
+before the ceremony began, and the above P. cheered
+like a boy; and Sumner laughed and nodded as his friend
+pranced and shouted, bareheaded and beaming.</p>
+
+<p>My kind cousin, L. W., got tickets for a course of lectures
+on "Italian Literature," and seeing my old cloak sent
+me a new one, with other needful and pretty things such
+as girls love to have. I shall never forget how kind she
+has always been to me.</p>
+
+<p><i>November 5th.</i>&ndash;Went with H. W. to see Manager
+Barry about the everlasting play which is always coming
+out but never comes. We went all over the great new
+theatre, and I danced a jig on the immense stage. Mr.
+B. was very kind, and gave me a pass to come whenever
+I liked. This was such richness I didn't care if the play
+was burnt on the spot, and went home full of joy. In
+the eve I saw La Grange as Norma, and felt as if I
+knew all about that place. Quite stage-struck, and imagined
+myself in her place, with white robes and oak-leaf
+crown.</p>
+
+<p><i>November 6th.</i>&ndash;Sewed happily on my job of twelve
+sheets for H. W., and put lots of good will into the work
+after his kindness to me.</p>
+
+<p>Walked to Roxbury to see cousin Dr. W. about the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">87</a></span>
+play and tell the fine news. Rode home in the new cars,
+and found them very nice.</p>
+
+<p>In the eve went to teach at Warren Street Chapel
+Charity School. I'll help as I am helped, if I can.
+Mother says no one so poor he can't do a little for some
+one poorer yet.</p>
+
+<p><i>Sunday.</i>&ndash;Heard Parker on "Individuality of Character,"
+and liked it much. In the eve I went to his
+house. Mrs. Howe was there, and Sumner and others.
+I sat in my usual corner, but Mr. P. came up and said,
+in that cordial way of his, "Well, child, how goes it?"
+"Pretty well, sir." "That's brave;" and with his warm
+hand-shake he went on, leaving me both proud and
+happy, though I have my trials. He is like a great fire
+where all can come and be warmed and comforted.
+Bless him!</p>
+
+<p>Had a talk at tea about him, and fought for him when
+W. R. said he was not a Christian. He is my <i>sort</i>; for
+though he may lack reverence for other people's God,
+he works bravely for his own, and turns his back on no
+one who needs help, as some of the pious do.</p>
+
+<p><i>Monday, 14th.</i>&ndash;May came full of expectation and
+joy to visit good aunt B. and study drawing. We walked
+about and had a good home talk, then my girl went off
+to Auntie's to begin what I hope will be a pleasant and
+profitable winter. She needs help to develop her talent,
+and I can't give it to her.</p>
+
+<p>Went to see Forrest as Othello. It is funny to see
+how attentive all the once cool gentlemen are to Miss
+Alcott now she has a pass to the new theatre.</p>
+
+<p><i>November 29th.</i>&ndash;My birthday. Felt forlorn so far
+from home. Wrote all day. Seem to be getting on
+slowly, so should be contented. To a little party at the
+B.'s in the eve. May looked very pretty, and seemed
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">88</a></span>
+to be a favorite. The boys teased me about being an
+authoress, and I said I'd be famous yet. Will if I can,
+but something else may be better for me.</p>
+
+<p>Found a pretty pin from Father and a nice letter when
+I got home. Mr. H. brought them with letters from
+Mother and Betty, so I went to bed happy.</p>
+
+<p><i>December.</i>&ndash;Busy with Christmas and New Year's
+tales. Heard a good lecture by E. P. Whipple on
+"Courage." Thought I needed it, being rather tired of
+living like a spider;&ndash;spinning my brains out for money.</p>
+
+<p>Wrote a story, "The Cross on the Church Tower,"
+suggested by the tower before my window.</p>
+
+<p>Called on Mrs. L., and she asked me to come and
+teach A. for three hours each day. Just what I wanted;
+and the children's welcome was very pretty and comforting
+to "Our Olly," as they call me.</p>
+
+<p>Now board is all safe, and something over for home, if
+stories and sewing fail. I don't do much, but can send
+little comforts to Mother and Betty, and keep May neat.</p>
+
+<p><i>December 18th.</i>&ndash;Begin with A. L., in Beacon Street.
+I taught C. when we lived in High Street, A. in Pinckney
+Street, and now Al.; so I seem to be an institution and a
+success, since I can start the boy, teach one girl, and
+take care of the little invalid. It is hard work, but I can
+do it; and am glad to sit in a large, fine room part of
+each day, after my sky-parlor, which has nothing pretty
+in it, and only the gray tower and blue sky outside as I
+sit at the window writing. I love luxury, but freedom
+and independence better.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>To her Father, written from Mrs. Reed's.</i></p>
+
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Boston</span>, Nov. 29, 1856.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+<span class="smcap">Dearest Father</span>,&ndash;Your little parcel was very welcome
+to me as I sat alone in my room, with snow falling
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">89</a></span>
+fast outside, and a few tears in (for birthdays are dismal
+times to me); and the fine letter, the pretty gift, and,
+most of all, the loving thought so kindly taken for your
+old absent daughter, made the cold, dark day as warm
+and bright as summer to me.</p>
+
+<p>And now, with the birthday pin upon my bosom, many
+thanks on my lips, and a whole heart full of love for its
+giver, I will tell you a little about my doings, stupid as
+they will seem after your own grand proceedings. How I
+wish I could be with you, enjoying what I have always
+longed for,&ndash;fine people, fine amusements, and fine
+books. But as I can't, I am glad you are; for I love to
+see your name first among the lecturers, to hear it kindly
+spoken of in papers and inquired about by good people
+here,&ndash;to say nothing of the delight and pride I take in
+seeing you at last filling the place you are so fitted for,
+and which you have waited for so long and patiently.
+If the New Yorkers raise a statue to the modern Plato,
+it will be a wise and highly creditable action.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="l15" />
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+I am very well and very happy. Things go smoothly,
+and I think I shall come out right, and prove that though
+an <i>Alcott</i> I <i>can</i> support myself. I like the independent
+feeling; and though not an easy life, it is a free one, and
+I enjoy it. I can't do much with my hands; so I will
+make a battering-ram of my head and make a way through
+this rough-and-tumble world. I have very pleasant lectures
+to amuse my evenings,&ndash;Professor Gajani on
+"Italian Reformers," the Mercantile Library course,
+Whipple, Beecher, and others, and, best of all, a free pass
+at the Boston Theatre. I saw Mr. Barry, and he gave it
+to me with many kind speeches, and promises to bring
+out the play very soon. I hope he will.</p>
+
+<p>My farce is in the hands of Mrs. W. H. Smith, who
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">90</a></span>
+acts at Laura Keene's theatre in New York. She took
+it, saying she would bring it out there. If you see or
+hear anything about it, let me know. I want something
+doing. My mornings are spent in writing. C. takes one
+a month, and I am to see Mr. B., who may take some of
+my wares.</p>
+
+<p>In the afternoons I walk and visit my hundred relations,
+who are all kind and friendly, and seem interested
+in our various successes.</p>
+
+<p>Sunday evenings I go to Parker's parlor, and there meet
+Phillips, Garrison, Scherb, Sanborn, and many other pleasant
+people. All talk, and I sit in a corner listening, and
+wishing a certain placid gray-haired gentleman was there
+talking too. Mrs. Parker calls on me, reads my stories,
+and is very good to me. Theodore asks Louisa "how
+her worthy parents do," and is otherwise very friendly to
+the large, bashful girl who adorns his parlor steadily.</p>
+
+<p>Abby is preparing for a busy and, I hope, a profitable
+winter. She has music lessons already, French and drawing
+in store, and, if her eyes hold out, will keep her word
+and become what none of us can be, "an accomplished
+Alcott." Now, dear Father, I shall hope to hear from
+you occasionally, and will gladly answer all epistles from
+the Plato whose parlor parish is becoming quite famous.
+I got the "Tribune," but not the letter, and shall look it
+up. I have been meaning to write, but did not know
+where you were.</p>
+
+<p>Good-by, and a happy birthday from your ever loving
+child,</p>
+
+<p class="sig">
+<span class="smcap">Louisa</span>.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>Journal.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="center"><i>Twenty-four Years Old.</i></p>
+<p>
+<i>January, 1857.</i>&ndash;Had my first new silk dress from
+good little L. W.,&ndash;very fine; and I felt as if all the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">91</a></span>
+Hancocks and Quincys beheld me as I went to two
+parties in it on New Year's eve.</p>
+
+<p>A busy, happy month,&ndash;taught, wrote, sewed, read
+aloud to the "little mother," and went often to the
+theatre; heard good lectures; and enjoyed my Parker
+evenings very much.</p>
+
+<p>Father came to see me on his way home; little
+money; had had a good time, and was asked to come
+again. Why don't rich people who enjoy his talk pay
+for it? Philosophers are always poor, and too modest to
+pass round their own hats.</p>
+
+<p>Sent by him a good bundle to the poor Forlornites
+among the ten-foot drifts in W.</p>
+
+<p><i>February.</i>&ndash;Ran home as a valentine on the 14th.</p>
+
+<p><i>March.</i>&ndash;Have several irons in the fire now, and try
+to keep 'em all hot.</p>
+
+<p><i>April.</i>&ndash;May did a crayon head of Mother with Mrs.
+Murdock; very good likeness. All of us as proud as
+peacocks of our "little Raphael."</p>
+
+<p>Heard Mrs. Butler read; very fine.</p>
+
+<p><i>May.</i>&ndash;Left the L.'s with my thirty-three dollars,
+glad to rest. May went home with her picture, happy
+in her winter's work and success.</p>
+
+<p>Father had three talks at W. F. Channing's. Good
+company,&ndash;Emerson, Mrs. Howe, and the rest.</p>
+
+<p>Saw young Booth in Brutus, and liked him better than
+his father; went about and rested after my labors; glad
+to be with Father, who enjoyed Boston and friends.</p>
+
+<p>Home on the 10th, passing Sunday at the Emerson's.
+I have done what I planned,&ndash;supported myself, written
+eight stories, taught four months, earned a hundred dollars,
+and sent money home.</p>
+
+<p><i>June.</i>&ndash;All happy together. My dear Nan was with
+me, and we had good times. Betty was feeble, but
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">92</a></span>
+seemed to cheer up for a time. The long, cold, lonely
+winter has been too hard for the frail creature, and we are
+all anxious about her. I fear she may slip away; for she
+never seemed to care much for this world beyond home.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>So gradually the day seemed to be coming to
+which Louisa had long looked forward. She found
+that she could be independent, could help her family,
+and even indulge some of her own tastes.</p>
+
+<p>About this time Miss Alcott mentions a young
+friend who died in her arms, and speaks of going
+to console the sister in her loneliness. This
+shows how warmly her heart beat for others while
+her head was so busy with her ambitious plans.
+She speaks also of the hint of a new story called
+"The Cost of an Idea." She never lost sight of
+this plan, but did not carry it out. Her father's
+life and character were in her mind, and she longed
+to portray the conflict between his high ideal and
+the practical difficulties of his life; but it was an
+impossible subject. The Fruitlands episode was
+told in "Transcendental Wild Oats," and his early
+life in "Elis's Education." But although her admiration
+and affection for him are abundantly shown
+in her journals, she never perhaps understood him
+so thoroughly that she could adequately portray
+his personality; neither could she do justice to all
+related to him without trenching upon the privacy
+due to sacred feelings.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter"><a name="illus098" id="illus098"></a>
+<img src="images/illus098.jpg" width="622" height="650" alt="ORCHARD HOUSE, CONCORD, MASS" />
+<p class="caption">ORCHARD HOUSE, CONCORD, MASS.<br />
+Home of the Alcott Family, 1858.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>A great shadow fell over Louisa's heart and life
+from the increasing illness of her dear younger sister
+Elizabeth. This young girl was tenderly beloved
+by all the family, and was indeed as pure, refined,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">93</a></span>
+and holy as she is represented as Beth in "Little
+Women." Her decay was very gradual, and she
+was so patient and sweet that the sad time of anxiety
+was a very precious one in remembrance.</p>
+
+<p>This sickness added to the pecuniary burdens of
+the family, and eight years afterward Louisa paid
+the bill of the physician who attended her sister.</p>
+
+<p>In October, 1857, the family removed again to
+Concord, and Louisa remained at home to assist in
+the care of the beloved invalid. They lived a few
+months in a part of a house which they hired until
+the Orchard House, which they had bought, was
+ready for them. Here the dear sister's life came
+to a close.</p>
+
+<p>This was the first break in the household, and
+the mother's heart never fully recovered from it.
+Louisa accepted death with strong, sweet wisdom.
+It never seemed to have any terror for her.</p>
+
+<p>In July they took possession of the Orchard
+House, which was hereafter the permanent residence
+of the family. This was a picturesque old
+house on the side of a hill, with an orchard of apple-trees.
+It was not far from Mr. Emerson's, and
+within walking distance of the village, yet very
+quiet and rural. Mr. Alcott had his library, and
+was always very happy there; but Louisa's heart
+never clung to it.</p>
+
+<p>The engagement of the elder sister was a very
+exciting event to Louisa, who did not like having
+the old sisterly relation broken in upon; but everything
+was so genuine and true in the love of the
+newly betrothed pair that she could not help accepting
+the change as a blessing to her sister and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">94</a></span>
+taking the new brother into her heart. The entries
+in her journal show that the picture she has drawn
+in "Little Women" of this noble man is from life,
+and not exaggerated.</p>
+
+<p>Louisa went to Boston for a visit, and again had
+hopes of going on to the stage; but an accident
+prevented it; and she returned to Concord and her
+writing, working off her disappointment in a story
+called "Only an Actress."</p>
+
+<p>Among her experiences at this time was an offer
+of marriage, about which she consulted her mother,
+telling her that she did not care for the lover very
+much. The wise mother saved her from the impulse
+to self-sacrifice, which might have led her to accept a
+position which would have given help to the family.</p>
+
+<p>Although this was not the only instance of offers
+of marriage, more or less advantageous, made to
+her, Louisa had no inclination toward matrimony.
+Her heart was bound up in her family, and she could
+hardly contemplate her own interests as separate
+from theirs. She loved activity, freedom, and independence.
+She could not cherish illusions tenderly;
+and she always said that she got tired of
+everybody, and felt sure that she should of her
+husband if she married. She never wished to
+make her heroines marry, and the love story is the
+part of her books for which she cared least. She
+yielded to the desire of the public, who will not
+accept life without a recognition of this great joy
+in it. Still it must be acknowledged that she has
+sometimes painted very sweet and natural love
+scenes, although more often in quaint and homely
+guise than in the fashion of ancient romance.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">95</a></span>
+"King of Clubs and Queen of Hearts" is very
+prettily told; and "Mrs. Todger's Teapot" is true
+to that quiet, earnest affection which does not pass
+away with youth.</p>
+
+<p>The writing went on, and she received five, six,
+or ten dollars apiece for her stories; but she did
+not yet venture to give up the sewing and teaching,
+which was still the sure reliance.</p>
+
+<p>Her younger sister now began to exercise her
+talent, and illustrated a little book of Louisa's called
+"Christmas Elves," which she says is better than
+"Flower Fables."</p>
+
+<p class="section"><i>Journal.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+Read Charlotte Bronté's life. A very interesting, but
+sad one. So full of talent; and after working long, just
+as success, love, and happiness come, she dies.</p>
+
+<p>Wonder if I shall ever be famous enough for people to
+care to read my story and struggles. I can't be a C. B.,
+but I may do a little something yet.</p>
+
+<p><i>July.</i>&ndash;Grandma Alcott came to visit us. A sweet
+old lady; and I am glad to know her, and see where
+Father got his nature. Eighty-four; yet very smart, industrious,
+and wise. A house needs a grandma in it.</p>
+
+<p>As we sat talking over Father's boyhood, I never realized
+so plainly before how much he has done for himself.
+His early life sounded like a pretty old romance, and
+Mother added the love passages.</p>
+
+<p>I got a hint for a story; and some day will do it, and
+call it "The Cost of an Idea." Spindle Hill, Temple
+School, Fruitlands, Boston, and Concord, would make
+fine chapters. The trials and triumphs of the Pathetic
+Family would make a capital book; may I live to do it.</p>
+
+<p><i>August.</i>&ndash;A sad, anxious month. Betty worse; Mother
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">96</a></span>
+takes her to the seashore. Father decides to go back to
+Concord; he is never happy far from Emerson, the one
+true friend who loves and understands and helps him.</p>
+
+<p><i>September.</i>&ndash;An old house near R. W. E.'s is bought
+with Mother's money, and we propose to move. Mother
+in Boston with poor Betty, who is failing fast. Anna and
+I have a hard time breaking up.</p>
+
+<p><i>October.</i>&ndash;Move to Concord. Take half a house in
+town till spring, when the old one is to be made ready.</p>
+
+<p>Find dear Betty a shadow, but sweet and patient
+always. Fit up a nice room for her, and hope home
+and love and care may keep her.</p>
+
+<p>People kind and friendly, and the old place looks
+pleasant, though I never want to live in it.</p>
+
+<p><i>November.</i>&ndash;Father goes West, taking Grandma home.
+We settle down to our winter, whatever it is to be. Lizzie
+seems better, and we have some plays. Sanborn's
+school makes things lively, and we act a good deal.</p>
+
+<p>Twenty-five this month. I feel my quarter of a century
+rather heavy on my shoulders just now. I lead two
+lives. One seems gay with plays, etc., the other very sad,&ndash;in
+Betty's room; for though she wishes us to act, and
+loves to see us get ready, the shadow is there, and Mother
+and I see it. Betty loves to have me with her; and I am
+with her at night, for Mother needs rest. Betty says she
+feels "strong" when I am near. So glad to be of use.</p>
+
+<p><i>December.</i>&ndash;Some fine plays for charity.</p>
+
+<p><i>January, 1858.</i>&ndash;Lizzie much worse; Dr. G. says there
+is no hope. A hard thing to hear; but if she is only to
+suffer, I pray she may go soon. She was glad to know
+she was to "get well," as she called it, and we tried to
+bear it bravely for her sake. We gave up plays; Father
+came home; and Anna took the housekeeping, so that
+Mother and I could devote ourselves to her. Sad, quiet
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">97</a></span>
+days in her room, and strange nights keeping up the fire
+and watching the dear little shadow try to wile away the
+long sleepless hours without troubling me. She sews,
+reads, sings softly, and lies looking at the fire,&ndash;so sweet
+and patient and so worn, my heart is broken to see the
+change. I wrote some lines one night on "Our Angel in
+the House."</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+[Jo and Beth.&ndash;<span class="smcap">L. M. A.</span>]
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><i>February.</i>&ndash;A mild month; Betty very comfortable,
+and we hope a little.</p>
+
+<p>Dear Betty is slipping away, and every hour is too
+precious to waste, so I'll keep my lamentations over
+Nan's [affairs] till this duty is over.</p>
+
+<p>Lizzie makes little things, and drops them out of windows
+to the school-children, smiling to see their surprise.
+In the night she tells me to be Mrs. Gamp, when I give
+her her lunch, and tries to be gay that I may keep up.
+Dear little saint! I shall be better all my life for these
+sad hours with you.</p>
+
+<p><i>March 14th.</i>&ndash;My dear Beth died at three this morning,
+after two years of patient pain. Last week she put
+her work away, saying the needle was "too heavy," and
+having given us her few possessions, made ready for the
+parting in her own simple, quiet way. For two days she
+suffered much, begging for ether, though its effect was
+gone. Tuesday she lay in Father's arms, and called
+us round her, smiling contentedly as she said, "All
+here!" I think she bid us good-by then, as she held
+our hands and kissed us tenderly. Saturday she slept,
+and at midnight became unconscious, quietly breathing
+her life away till three; then, with one last look of the
+beautiful eyes, she was gone.</p>
+
+<p>A curious thing happened, and I will tell it here, for
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">98</a></span>
+Dr. G. said it was a fact. A few moments after the last
+breath came, as Mother and I sat silently watching the
+shadow fall on the dear little face, I saw a light mist
+rise from the body, and float up and vanish in the air.
+Mother's eyes followed mine, and when I said, "What
+did you see?" she described the same light mist. Dr.
+G. said it was the life departing visibly.</p>
+
+<p>For the last time we dressed her in her usual cap and
+gown, and laid her on her bed,&ndash;at rest at last. What
+she had suffered was seen in the face; for at twenty-three
+she looked like a woman of forty, so worn was she, and
+all her pretty hair gone.</p>
+
+<p>On Monday Dr. Huntington read the Chapel service,
+and we sang her favorite hymn. Mr. Emerson, Henry
+Thoreau, Sanborn, and John Pratt, carried her out of the
+old home to the new one at Sleepy Hollow chosen by
+herself. So the first break comes, and I know what
+death means,&ndash;a liberator for her, a teacher for us.</p>
+
+<p><i>April.</i>&ndash;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, and, for the
+first time, Lizzie absent. I don't miss her as I expected
+to do, for she seems nearer and dearer than before; and I
+am glad to know she is safe from pain and age in some
+world where her innocent soul must be happy.</p>
+
+<p>Death never seemed terrible to me, and now is
+beautiful; so I cannot fear it, but find it friendly and
+wonderful.</p>
+
+<p><i>May.</i>&ndash;A lonely month with all the girls gone, and
+Father and Mother absorbed in the old house, which I
+don't care about, not liking Concord.</p>
+
+<p>On the 7th of April, Anna came walking in to tell us
+she was engaged to John Pratt; so another sister is gone.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">99</a></span>
+J. is a model son and brother,&ndash;a true man,&ndash;full of fine
+possibilities, but so modest one does not see it at once.
+He is handsome, healthy, and happy; just home from
+the West, and so full of love he is pleasant to look at.</p>
+
+<p>I moaned in private over my great loss, and said I'd
+never forgive J. for taking Anna from me; but I shall if
+he makes her happy, and turn to little May for my comfort.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+[Now that John is dead, I can truly say we all had cause
+to bless the day he came into the family; for we gained a
+son and brother, and Anna the best husband ever known.</p>
+
+<p>For ten years he made her home a little heaven of love
+and peace; and when he died he left her the legacy of a beautiful
+life, and an honest name to his little sons.&ndash;<span class="smcap">L. M. A.</span>,
+1873.]
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><i>June.</i>&ndash;The girls came home, and I went to visit L. W.
+in Boston. Saw Charlotte Cushman, and had a stage-struck
+fit. Dr. W. asked Barry to let me act at his
+theatre, and he agreed. I was to do Widow Pottle, as
+the dress was a good disguise and I knew the part well.
+It was all a secret, and I had hopes of trying a new life;
+the old one being so changed now, I felt as if I must
+find interest in something absorbing. But Mr. B. broke
+his leg, so I had to give it up; and when it was known,
+the dear, respectable relations were horrified at the idea.
+I'll try again by-and-by, and see if I have the gift. Perhaps
+it is acting, not writing, I'm meant for. Nature
+must have a vent somehow.</p>
+
+<p><i>July.</i>&ndash;Went into the new house and began to settle.
+Father is happy; Mother glad to be at rest; Anna is in
+bliss with her gentle John; and May busy over her pictures.
+I have plans simmering, but must sweep and dust
+and wash my dish-pans a while longer till I see my way.</p>
+
+<p>Worked off my stage fever in writing a story, and felt
+better; also a moral tale, and got twenty-five dollars,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">100</a></span>
+which pieced up our summer gowns and bonnets all
+round. The inside of my head can at least cover the
+outside.</p>
+
+<p><i>August.</i>&ndash;Much company to see the new house. All
+seem to be glad that the wandering family is anchored at
+last. We won't move again for twenty years if I can help
+it. The old people need an abiding place; and now
+that death and love have taken two of us away, I can, I
+hope, soon manage to care for the remaining four.</p>
+
+<p>The weeklies will all take stories; and I can simmer
+novels while I do my housework, so see my way to a little
+money, and perhaps more by-and-by if I ever make a hit.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Probably owing to the excitement of grief for
+her sister's death, and sympathy in Anna's happy
+betrothal, Louisa became in October more discouraged
+than she had ever been, and went to Boston
+in search of work. As she walked over the mill dam
+the running stream brought the thought of
+the River of Death, which would end all troubles.
+It was but a momentary impulse, and the brave
+young heart rallied to the thought, "There is work
+for me, and I'll have it!" Her journal narrates
+how Mr. Parker helped her through this period of
+anxiety. She was all ready to go to Lancaster,
+to hard drudgery at sewing, when her old place as
+governess was again offered to her, and her own
+support was assured.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+<i>October.</i>&ndash;Went to Boston on my usual hunt for employment,
+as I am not needed at home and seem to be
+the only bread-winner just now.</p>
+
+<hr class="l15" />
+
+<p>My fit of despair was soon over, for it seemed so
+cowardly to run away before the battle was over I
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">101</a></span>
+couldn't do it. So I said firmly, "There <i>is</i> work for
+me, and I'll have it," and went home resolved to take
+Fate by the throat and shake a living out of her.</p>
+
+<p>Sunday Mr. Parker preached a sermon on "Laborious
+Young Women." Just what I needed; for it said:
+"Trust your fellow-beings, and let them help you.
+Don't be too proud to ask, and accept the humblest
+work till you can find the task you want."</p>
+
+<p>"I will," said I, and went to Mr. P.'s. He was out;
+but I told Mrs. P. my wants, and she kindly said Theodore
+and Hannah would be sure to have something for
+me. As I went home I met Mrs. L., who had not
+wanted me, as Alice went to school. She asked if I was
+engaged, and said A. did not do well, and she thought
+perhaps they would like me back. I was rejoiced, and
+went home feeling that the tide had begun to turn.
+Next day came Miss H. S. to offer me a place at the
+Girls' Reform School at Lancaster, to sew ten hours
+a day, make and mend. I said I'd go, as I could do
+anything with a needle; but added, if Mrs. L. wants me
+I'd rather do that.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you had. Take it if it comes, and if not,
+try my work." I promised and waited. That eve, when
+my bag was packed and all was ready for Lancaster,
+came a note from Mrs. L. offering the old salary and the
+old place. I sang for joy, and next day early posted off
+to Miss S. She was glad and shook hands, saying, "It
+was a test, my dear, and you stood it. When I told
+Mr. P. that you would go, he said, 'That is a true girl;
+Louisa will succeed.'"</p>
+
+<p>I was very proud and happy; for these things are
+tests of character as well as courage, and I covet the
+respect of such true people as Mr. P. and Miss S.</p>
+
+<p>So away to my little girl with a bright heart! for with
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">102</a></span>
+tales, and sewing for Mary, which pays my board, there I
+am fixed for the winter and my cares over. Thank the
+Lord!
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>She now found publishers eager for her stories,
+and went on writing for them. She was encouraged
+by E. P. Whipple's praise of "Mark Field's
+Mistake," and by earning thirty dollars, most of
+which she sent home.</p>
+
+<p class="section"><i>Journal.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+Earned thirty dollars; sent twenty home. Heard
+Curtis, Parker, Higginson, and Mrs. Dall lecture. See
+Booth's Hamlet, and my ideal done at last.</p>
+
+<p>My twenty-sixth birthday on the 29th. Some sweet
+letters from home, and a ring of A.'s and J.'s hair as a
+peace-offering. A quiet day, with many thoughts and
+memories.</p>
+
+<p>The past year has brought us the first death and betrothal,&ndash;two
+events that change my life. I can see that
+these experiences have taken a deep hold, and changed
+or developed me. Lizzie helps me spiritually, and a
+little success makes me more self-reliant. Now that
+Mother is too tired to be wearied with my moods, I have
+to manage them alone, and am learning that work of
+head and hand is my salvation when disappointment or
+weariness burden and darken my soul.</p>
+
+<p>In my sorrow I think I instinctively came nearer to
+God, and found comfort in the knowledge that he was
+sure to help when nothing else could.</p>
+
+<p>A great grief has taught me more than any minister,
+and when feeling most alone I find refuge in the Almighty
+Friend. If this is experiencing religion I have done it;
+but I think it is only the lesson one must learn as it
+comes, and I am glad to know it.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">103</a></span></p>
+
+<p>After my fit of despair I seem to be braver and more
+cheerful, and grub away with a good heart. Hope it
+will last, for I need all the courage and comfort I can get.</p>
+
+<p>I feel as if I could write better now,&ndash;more truly of
+things I have felt and therefore <i>know</i>. I hope I shall
+yet do my great book, for that seems to be my work,
+and I am growing up to it. I even think of trying the
+"Atlantic." There 's ambition for you! I'm sure some
+of the stories are very flat. If Mr. L. takes the one Father
+carried to him, I shall think I can do something.</p>
+
+<p><i>December.</i>&ndash;Father started on his tour West full of
+hope. Dear man! How happy he will be if people will
+only listen to and <i>pay</i> for his wisdom.</p>
+
+<p>May came to B. and stayed with me while she took
+drawing lessons. Christmas at home. Write an Indian
+story.</p>
+
+<p><i>January</i>, 1859.&ndash;Send a parcel home to Marmee
+and Nan.</p>
+
+<p>Mother very ill. Home to nurse her for a week.
+Wonder if I ought not to be a nurse, as I seem to have
+a gift for it. Lizzie, L. W., and Mother all say so; and I
+like it. If I couldn't write or act I'd try it. May yet.
+$21 from L.; $15 home.</p>
+
+<hr class="l15" />
+
+<p>Some day I'll do my best, and get well paid for it.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+[$3,000 for a short serial in 1876. True prophet.&ndash;<span class="smcap">L. M. A.</span>]
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Wrote a sequel to "Mark Field." Had a queer time
+over it, getting up at night to write it, being too full to
+sleep.</p>
+
+<p><i>March.</i>&ndash;"Mark" was a success, and much praised.
+So I found the divine afflatus did descend. Busy life
+teaching, writing, sewing, getting all I can from lectures,
+books, and good people. Life is my college. May I
+graduate well, and earn some honors!
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">104</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>April.</i>&ndash;May went home after a happy winter at the
+School of Design, where she did finely, and was pronounced
+full of promise. Mr. T. said good things of
+her, and we were very proud. No doubt now what she
+is to be, if we can only keep her along.</p>
+
+<p>I went home also, being done with A., who went out
+of town early. Won't teach any more if I can help it;
+don't like it; and if I can get writing enough can do
+much better.</p>
+
+<p>I have done more than I hoped. Supported myself,
+helped May, and sent something home. Not borrowed
+a penny, and had only five dollars given me. So my
+third campaign ends well.</p>
+
+<p><i>May.</i>&ndash;Took care of L. W., who was ill. Walked from
+C. to B. one day, twenty miles, in five hours, and went
+to a party in the evening. Not very tired. Well done
+for a vegetable production!</p>
+
+<p><i>June.</i>&ndash;Took two children to board and teach. A
+busy month, as Anna was in B.</p>
+
+<p><i>September.</i>&ndash;Great State Encampment here. Town
+full of soldiers, with military fuss and feathers. I like a
+camp, and long for a war, to see how it all seems. I
+can't fight, but I can nurse.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+[Prophetic again.&ndash;<span class="smcap">L. M. A.</span>]
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><i>October</i>, 1859.&ndash;May did a fine copy of Emerson's
+Endymion<a name="FNanchor_7" id="FNanchor_7" href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> for me.</p>
+
+<p>Mother sixty. God bless the dear, brave woman!</p>
+
+<p>Good news of Parker in Florence,&ndash;my beloved
+minister and friend. To him and R. W. E. I owe
+much of my education. May I be a worthy pupil of
+such men!</p>
+
+<p><i>November.</i>&ndash;Hurrah! My story was accepted; and
+Lowell asked if it was not a translation from the German,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">105</a></span>
+it was so unlike most tales. I felt much set up, and my
+fifty dollars will be very happy money. People seem to
+think it a great thing to get into the "Atlantic;" but
+I've not been pegging away all these years in vain, and
+may yet have books and publishers and a fortune of my
+own. Success has gone to my head, and I wander a
+little. Twenty-seven years old, and very happy.</p>
+
+<p>The Harper's Ferry tragedy makes this a memorable
+month. Glad I have lived to see the Antislavery movement
+and this last heroic act in it. Wish I could do my
+part in it.</p>
+
+<p><i>December</i>, 1859.&ndash;The execution of Saint John the Just
+took place on the second. A meeting at the hall, and
+all Concord was there. Emerson, Thoreau, Father, and
+Sanborn spoke, and all were full of reverence and admiration
+for the martyr.</p>
+
+<p>I made some verses on it, and sent them to the
+"Liberator."
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>A sickness of Mrs. Alcott through which she
+nursed her makes Louisa question whether nursing
+is not her true vocation. She had an opportunity
+to try it later.</p>
+
+<p>Much interest attaches to this period of Louisa's
+work, when she dashed off sensational stories as
+fast as they were wanted, from the account which
+she has given of it in "Little Women." She has
+concentrated into one short period there the work
+and the feelings of a much longer time. She certainly
+did let her fancy run riot in these tales, and
+they were as sensational as the penny papers desired.
+She had a passion for wild, adventurous
+life, and even for lurid passion and melodramatic
+action, which she could indulge to the utmost in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">106</a></span>
+these stories. Louisa was always a creature of
+moods; and it was a great relief to work off certain
+feelings by the safe vent of imaginary persons
+and scenes in a story. She had no one to guide
+or criticise her; and the fact that these gambols of
+fancy brought the much-needed money, and were,
+as she truly called them, "pot boilers," certainly
+did not discourage her from indulging in them.
+She is probably right in calling most of them "trash
+and rubbish," for she was yet an unformed girl,
+and had not studied herself or life very deeply; but
+her own severe condemnation of them in "Little
+Women" might give a false idea. The stories are
+never coarse or immoral. They give a lurid, unnatural
+picture of life, but sin is not made captivating
+or immorality attractive. There is often a
+severe moral enforced. They did not give poison
+to her readers, only over-seasoned unnatural food,
+which might destroy the relish for wholesome mental
+nourishment.</p>
+
+<p>We are inclined to ask, What did Louisa herself
+get out of this wild, Walpurgis-Night ride among
+ghosts and goblins, letting her fancy run riot, and
+indulging every mood as it rose? Did it not give
+her the dash and freedom in writing which we find
+in all her books, a command of language, and a
+recognition of the glow and force of life? She
+finds life no mere commonplace drudgery, but
+full of great possibilities. Did it not also give
+her an interest in all the wild fancies and dreams
+of girls, all the longing for adventure of boys,
+and make her hopeful even of the veriest young
+scamps that they would work off the turbulent
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">107</a></span>
+energies of youth safely if activities were wisely
+provided for them?</p>
+
+<p>No writer for children ever was so fully recognized
+as understanding them. They never felt
+that she stood on a pinnacle of wisdom to censure
+them, but came right down into their midst
+to work and play with them, and at the same time
+to show them the path out of the tangled thickets,
+and to help them to see light in their gloomiest
+despair.</p>
+
+<p>Yet she unquestionably recognized that she was
+not doing the best work of which she was capable;
+and she looked forward still to the books she was
+to write, as well as the fortune she was to make.
+She did not like any reference to these sensational
+stories in after life, although she sometimes re-used
+plots or incidents in them; and she was very unwilling
+to have them republished.</p>
+
+<p class="section"><i>Boston Bulletin,&ndash;Ninth Issue.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Sunday Eve</span>, November, 1858.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My blessed Nan</span>,&ndash;Having finished my story, I can
+refresh my soul by a scribble to you, though I have nothing
+to tell of much interest.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. L. is to pay me my "celery" each month, as she
+likes to settle all bills in that way; so yesterday she put
+$20.85 into my willing hands, and gave me Saturday
+<span class="smcap">p.m.</span> for a holiday. This unexpected $20, with the
+$10 for my story (if I get it) and $5 for sewing, will
+give me the immense sum of $35. I shall get a second-hand
+carpet for the little parlor, a bonnet for you, and
+some shoes and stockings for myself, as three times round
+the Common in cold weather conduces to chilblains,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">108</a></span>
+owing to stockings with a profusion of toe, but no heel,
+and shoes with plenty of heel, but a paucity of toe. The
+prejudices of society demand that my feet be covered in
+the houses of the rich and great; so I shall hose and shoe
+myself, and if any of my fortune is left, will invest it in the
+Alcott Sinking Fund, the Micawber R. R., and the Skimpole
+three per cents.</p>
+
+<p>Tell me how much carpet you need, and T. S. will find
+me a good one. In December I shall have another $20;
+so let me know what is wanting, and don't live on "five
+pounds of rice and a couple of quarts of split peas" all
+winter, I beg.</p>
+
+<p>How did you like "Mark Field's Mistake"? I don't
+know whether it is good or bad; but it will keep the pot
+boiling, and I ask no more. I wanted to go and see if
+"Hope's Treasures" was accepted, but was afeared. M.
+and H. both appeared; but one fell asleep, and the other
+forgot to remember; so I still wait like Patience on a
+hard chair, smiling at an inkstand. Miss K. asked me to
+go to see Booth for the last time on Saturday. Upon
+that ravishing thought I brooded all the week very merrily,
+and I danced, sang, and clashed my cymbals daily.
+Saturday <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> Miss K. sent word she couldn't go, and
+from my pinnacle of joy I was precipitated into an abyss
+of woe. While in said abyss Mrs. L. put the $20 into
+my hands. That was a moment of awful trial. Every
+one of those dollars cried aloud, "What, ho! Come
+hither, and be happy!" But eight cold feet on a straw
+carpet marched to and fro so pathetically that I locked
+up the tempting fiend, and fell to sewing, as a Saturday
+treat!</p>
+
+<p>But, lo! virtue was rewarded. Mrs. H. came flying
+in, and took me to the Museum to see "Gold" and
+"Lend Me Five Shillings." Warren, in an orange tie, red
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">109</a></span>
+coat, white satin vest, and scarlet ribbons on his ankles,
+was the funniest creature you ever saw; and I laughed till
+I cried,&ndash;which was better for me than the melancholy
+Dane, I dare say.</p>
+
+<p>I'm disgusted with this letter; for I always begin trying
+to be proper and neat; but my pen will not keep in
+order, and ink has a tendency to splash when used copiously
+and with rapidity. I have to be so moral and so
+dignified nowadays that the jocosity of my nature will gush
+out when it gets a chance, and the consequences are, as
+you see, rubbish. But you like it; so let's be merry
+while we may, for to-morrow is Monday, and the weekly
+grind begins again.
+</p></div>
+
+<p class="center p6"><span class="b1">CHAPTER VI.</span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">110</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="center">THE YEAR OF GOOD LUCK.</p>
+
+<p class="center p2">THE CHILDREN'S SONG.</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="i6">
+<i>Tune.</i>&ndash;"Wait for the Wagon."</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">The world lies fair about us, and a friendly sky above;<br />
+Our lives are full of sunshine, our homes are full of love;<br />
+Few cares or sorrows sadden the beauty of our day;<br />
+We gather simple pleasures like daisies by the way.</p>
+
+<p class="stanza"><span class="i4"><i>Chorus.</i>&ndash;Oh! sing with cheery voices,</span><br />
+<span class="i9">Like robins on the tree;</span><br />
+<span class="i8">For little lads and lasses</span><br />
+<span class="i9">As blithe of heart should be.</span></p>
+
+<p>The village is our fairyland: its good men are our kings;<br />
+And wandering through its by-ways our busy minds find wings.<br />
+The school-room is our garden, and we the flowers there,<br />
+And kind hands tend and water us that we may blossom fair.</p>
+
+<p class="stanza"><span class="i4"><i>Chorus.</i>&ndash;Oh! dance in airy circles,</span><br />
+<span class="i9">Like fairies on the lee;</span><br />
+<span class="i8">For little lads and lasses</span><br />
+<span class="i8">As light of foot should be.</span></p>
+
+<p>There's the Shepherd of the sheepfold; the Father of the vines;<br />
+The Hermit of blue Walden; the Poet of the pines;<br />
+And a Friend who comes among us, with counsels wise and mild<br />
+With snow upon his forehead, yet at heart a very child.</p>
+
+<p class="stanza"><span class="i4"><i>Chorus.</i>&ndash;Oh! smile as smiles the river,</span><br />
+<span class="i9">Slow rippling to the sea;</span><br />
+<span class="i8"> For little lads and lasses</span><br />
+<span class="i9">As full of peace should be.</span></p>
+</div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">111</a></span></p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p>There's not a cloud in heaven but drops its silent dew;<br />
+No violet in the meadow but blesses with its blue;<br />
+No happy child in Concord who may not do its part<br />
+To make the great world better by innocence of heart.</p>
+
+<p class="stanza"><span class="i4"><i>Chorus.</i>&ndash;Oh! blossom in the sunshine</span><br />
+<span class="i9">Beneath the village tree;</span><br />
+<span class="i8">For little lads and lasses</span><br />
+<span class="i9">Are the fairest flowers we see.</span>
+</p></div>
+
+<p class="p2"><span class="dropcap">A</span>FTER such long and hard struggles, it is
+pleasant to find the diary for 1860 headed
+"A Year of Good Luck." The appointment of
+Mr. Alcott as Superintendent of Schools in Concord
+was a great happiness to the family. It was
+a recognition of his character and ability, and gave
+him congenial occupation and some small pecuniary
+compensation.</p>
+
+<p>Louisa was writing for the "Atlantic," and receiving
+better pay for her work; Anna was happy;
+and May absorbed in her art.</p>
+
+<p>In the summer Miss Alcott had an experience in
+caring for a young friend during a temporary fit of
+insanity, which she has partially reproduced in the
+touching picture of Helen in the story of "Work."
+It is a powerful lesson; but it is almost cruelly enforced,
+and is an artistic blemish in the book. While
+the great problem of heredity should be studied and
+its lessons enforced, it is yet a mystery, whose laws
+are not understood; and it is not wise to paint its
+possible effects in the lurid light of excited imagination,
+which may too often bring about the very
+evils which a wise and temperate caution might
+prevent. For the physician and teacher such investigations
+are important; but they are dangerous
+to the young and sensitive.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">112</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The following unusually long letter gives a pleasing
+picture of the family life at this time:&ndash;</p>
+
+<p class="section">
+<i>To Mrs. Bond.</i></p>
+
+<p class="letter"><span class="smcap">Apple Slump</span>, Sept. 17, 1860.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+<span class="smcap">Dear Auntie</span>,&ndash;I consider this a practical illustration
+of one of Mother's naughty amended sayings, "Cast your
+bread upon the waters, and after many days it will return
+buttered;" and this "rule of three" don't "puzzle me,"
+as the other did; for my venerable raiment went away
+with one if not two feet in the grave, and came back in
+the guise of three stout angels, having been resurrectionized
+by the spirit who lives on the other side of a Charles
+River Jordan. Thank you very much, and be sure the
+dreams I dream in them will be pleasant ones; for,
+whether you sewed them or not, I know they bring some
+of the Auntie influence in their strength, softness, and
+warmth; and, though a Vandal, I think any prayers I may
+say in them will be the better for the affectionate recollections
+that will clothe me with the putting on of these
+friendly gowns, while my belief in both heavenly and
+earthly providences will be amazingly strengthened by
+the knowledge of some lives here, whose beauty renders
+it impossible to doubt the existence of the life hereafter.</p>
+
+<p>We were very glad to hear that the Papa was better;
+for when paternal "Richards" ain't "themselves," everybody
+knows the anxious state of the domestic realms.</p>
+
+<p>I hope Georgie (last name disremembered) has recovered
+from the anguish of discontented teeth and berry-seeds,
+and that "the Mama" was as much benefited by
+the trip as the other parties were, barring the horse
+perhaps.</p>
+
+<p>This amiable town is convulsed just now with a gymnastic
+fever, which shows itself with great violence in all
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">113</a></span>
+the schools, and young societies generally. Dr. Lewis
+has "inoculated us for the disease," and it has "taken
+finely;" for every one has become a perambulating
+windmill, with all its four sails going as if a wind had set
+in; and the most virulent cases present the phenomena
+of black eyes and excoriation of the knobby parts of the
+frame, to say nothing of sprains and breakage of vessels
+looming in the future.</p>
+
+<p>The City Fathers approve of it; and the city sons
+and daughters intend to show that Concord has as much
+muscle as brain, and be ready for another Concord fight,
+if Louis Napoleon sees fit to covet this famous land of
+Emerson, Hawthorne, Thoreau, Alcott, &amp; Co. Abby and
+I are among the pioneers; and the delicate vegetable
+productions clash their cymbals in private, when the beef-eating
+young ladies faint away and become superfluous
+<i>dumb belles</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Saturday we had J. G. Whittier, Charlotte Cushman,
+Miss Stebbins the sculptress, and Mr. Stuart, conductor
+of the underground railroad of this charming free country.
+So you see our humble place of abode is perking
+up; and when the "great authoress and artist" are fairly
+out of the shell, we shall be an honor to our country and
+terror to the foe,&ndash;provided good fortune don't addle or
+bad fortune smash us.</p>
+
+<p>Father continues to stir up the schools like a mild
+pudding-stick, Mother to sing Hebron among her pots
+and pans, Anna and the Prince Consort to bill and coo
+in the little dove-cot, Oranthy Bluggage to launch chips
+on the Atlantic and make a gigantic blot of herself in
+working the vessel, Abby to teach the fine arts and play
+propriety for the family, and the old house to put its best
+foot foremost and hoot at the idea of ever returning to
+the chaos from which it came.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">114</a></span></p>
+
+<p>This is a condensed history of "the pathetic family,"
+which is also a "happy family," owing to the prevalence
+of friends and lots of kindness in the original packages,
+"which are always arriving" when the "Widow Cruise's
+oil-bottle" begins to give out.</p>
+
+<p>You know I never <i>could</i> do anything in a neat and
+proper manner; so you will receive this topsy-turvy note
+as you do its writer, and with love to all from all, believe
+her, dear auntie,</p>
+
+<p class="left45">
+Ever lovingly yours,<br />
+<span class="i10">L. M. A.</span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>This characteristic letter not only shows Louisa's
+affectionate feelings and gives a picture of her life,
+but indicates that "The Pathetic Family," which
+was the foundation of "Little Women," was already
+shaping itself in her mind.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Alcott's career as Superintendent of Schools
+was a gratifying success, and is still remembered
+by friends of education in the town. The year
+closed with a school festival, for which Louisa
+wrote a poem, and in which she took hearty
+delight.</p>
+
+<p>In 1861 war was declared with the South. The
+Alcotts were all alive with patriotic enthusiasm,
+and Louisa took an active part in fitting off the
+boys for the army. But she also found time for
+much reading. Mr. Alcott, in his sonnet, uses the
+expression about Louisa&ndash;</p>
+
+<p class="blockquot">
+<span class="i4">"Hast with grave studies vexed a lively brain."</span></p>
+
+<p>He may possibly have referred to this period,
+though she could never properly be called a student.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">115</a></span>
+She was a rapid, intelligent reader, and her taste
+was severe and keen. From her childhood she
+had browsed in her father's library, full of the
+works of ancient philosophers and quaint English
+poets, and had imbibed from them great thoughts
+and noble sentiments; but her reading, like all her
+education, was immethodical. Occasionally she
+would lay out courses of reading, which she pursued
+for a time; but in general she followed the
+cravings of a healthy appetite for knowledge, reading
+what came in her way. Later in life she often
+read light literature in abundance, to drown the
+sensations of pain, and to pass away the hours of
+invalidism.</p>
+
+<p>She read French easily, and learned to speak it
+when abroad; she also studied German, but did
+not acquire equal facility in that tongue. Of
+ancient languages she had no knowledge. History
+could not fail to interest such a student of
+life, and she loved Nature too well not to enjoy
+the revelations of science when brought to her notice;
+but she had never time to give to a thorough
+study of either.</p>
+
+<p>In her journal at this time she speaks of her
+religious feelings, which the experiences of grief
+and despair and reviving hope had deepened.
+Louisa Alcott's was a truly religious soul; she
+always lived in the consciousness of a Higher
+Power sustaining and blessing her, whose presence
+was revealed to her through Nature, through the
+inspired words of great thinkers and the deep experiences
+of her own heart. She never held her
+life as an isolated possession which she was free to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">116</a></span>
+use for her own enjoyment or glory. Her father
+truly called her "Duty's faithful child," and her
+life was consecrated to the duty she recognized as
+specially hers. But for outward forms and rites of
+religion she cared little; her home was sacred to her,
+and she found her best life there. She loved Theodore
+Parker, and found great strength and help
+from his preaching, and afterward liked to listen to
+Dr. Bartol; but she never joined any church. The
+Bible was not her favorite reading, though her
+father had read it much to her in her childhood,
+with his own peculiar charm of interpretation.
+Pilgrim's Progress was one of the few religious
+books which became dear to her in the same
+way.</p>
+
+<p>Her sister Anna was married in May; this was
+of course a great event in the family. While fully
+rejoicing in her sister's happiness, Louisa felt her
+loss as a constant companion and confidant. The
+journal gives a sufficient description of the event.
+Her strong affection for her brother-in-law appears
+in "Little Women" and in "Jo's Boys." About
+this time her farce was brought out at the Howard
+Athenæum.</p>
+
+<p>The story-writing continued, as it helped to pay
+the expenses of the family; but the continuous,
+hurried work had begun to affect her health, and
+she occasionally suffered from illness.</p>
+
+<p>In the summer of 1861 Miss Alcott began to
+write her first novel, entitled "Moods;" this proved
+to be the least successful of her books, and yet like
+many an unfortunate child, it was the dearest to
+the mother's heart. It was not written for money,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">117</a></span>
+but for its own sake, and she was possessed by the
+plot and the characters. Warwick represented her
+ideal of a hero, while her sister preferred the type
+of the amiable Moor; yet there is far less of her
+outward self revealed in this than in her other
+stories. It is full of her thoughts and fancies, but
+not of her life. The wilful, moody, charming Sylvia
+does not affect us like the stormy Jo, who is
+a real presence to us, and whom we take to our
+hearts in spite of her faults. The men are such as
+she found in books, but had never known herself,
+and, carefully as she has drawn them, have not
+the individuality of Laurie and Professor Bhaer.
+The action takes place in an unreal world; and
+though there are many pretty scenes, they have
+not the real flavor of New England life. The
+principal incident, of a young girl going up the
+river on a picnic-voyage for some days with her
+brother and two other young men, was so contrary
+to common ideas of decorum, that the motive
+hardly seems sufficient for the staid sister's consent;
+but in the simple, innocent life which the
+Alcotts lived in Concord such scruples were little
+felt.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Alcott did not lay stress upon the marriage
+question as the principal feature of the book; she
+cared more to describe the wilful moods of a
+young girl, full of good feelings, and longing for a
+rich and noble life, but not established in convictions
+and principles. She meant to represent
+much of her own nature in Sylvia, for she was
+always a creature of moods, which her family
+learned to recognize and respect. But how
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">118</a></span>
+unlike was the discipline of family work and
+love, which saved Louisa from fatal caprices and
+fitful gusts of fancy called passion, to the lot of
+the wealthy and admired Sylvia. Miss Alcott
+says that the incidents of the marriage, although
+not drawn from life, were so close to an actual
+case that the wife asked her how she had known
+her secret; but such realism is a poor justification
+in art. It is that which becomes true to
+the imagination and heart through its vivid personation
+of character which is accepted, not the
+bare facts. The great question of the transcendental
+period was truth to the inward life instead
+of the outward law. But in "Moods" the marriage
+question is not stated strongly; it does not
+reach down to this central principle. It is only in
+tragedy that such a double relation could be endured,
+when the situation is compelled by fate,&ndash;the
+fate of character and overpowering circumstances,&ndash;and
+when there is no happy solution
+possible. But Sylvia's position is made only by
+her own weakness, and the love which stands in
+opposition to outward duty has no right of existence.
+If her love for Warwick <i>could</i> be overcome,
+there was no question of her duty; and when she
+accepts Faith's criticism of him, it is clear that it is
+a much lighter spell than love which has fascinated
+her. We do not accept the catastrophe which
+sacrifices a splendid life to make a comfortable
+solution of the practical difficulty, and to allow
+Sylvia to accept a happy home without a thorough
+regeneration of heart and mind. But these were
+the natural mistakes of youth and inexperience;
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">119</a></span>
+Louisa had known but little of such struggles.
+Love and marriage were rather uninteresting
+themes to her, and she had not yet found her
+true power.</p>
+
+<p>Still the book has great literary merit. It is well
+written, in a more finished style than any of her
+other work, except "Modern Mephistopheles," and
+the dialogue is vigorous and sprightly. In spite of
+her careful revision and pruning, there is something
+left of youthful gush in it, and this perhaps touched
+the heart of young girls, who found in Sylvia's
+troubles with herself a reflection of their own.</p>
+
+<p>The "golden wedding" scenes have some of her
+usual freedom and vivacity. She is at home with
+a troop of mothers and babies and noisy boys.
+But the "golden wedding" was a new importation
+from Germany, and not at home in the New England
+farmhouse. Why might it not have been a
+true wedding or a harvest feast?</p>
+
+<p>Louisa never lost her interest in this early work,
+though it was the most unlucky of books, and subjected
+to severe handling. It was sent to and fro
+from publisher to author, each one suggesting some
+change. Redpath sent it back as being too long.
+Ticknor found it very interesting, but could not
+use it then. Loring liked it, but wanted it shorter.
+She condensed and altered until her author's spirit
+rebelled, and she declared she would change it no
+more.</p>
+
+<p>After her other books had made her famous,
+"Moods" was again brought forward and republished
+as it was originally written. It met with
+warmer welcome than before, and a cheap edition
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">120</a></span>
+was published in England to supply the popular
+demand.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Alcott learned the first painful lesson of
+over-work on this book. She was possessed by it,
+and for three weeks labored so constantly that she
+felt the physical effects keenly. Fortunately new
+household tasks (for the daughters of John Brown
+came to board with them), and the enthusiasm of
+the time, changed the current of her thoughts.</p>
+
+<p class="section"><i>Journal.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+<i>February</i>, 1860.&ndash;Mr. &ndash;&ndash; won't have "M. L.," as
+it is antislavery, and the dear South must not be offended.
+Got a carpet with my $50, and wild Louisa's head kept
+the feet of the family warm.</p>
+
+<p><i>March.</i>&ndash;Wrote "A Modern Cinderella," with Nan
+for the heroine and John for the hero.</p>
+
+<p>Made my first ball dress for May, and she was the
+finest girl at the party. My tall, blond, graceful girl! I
+was proud of her.</p>
+
+<p>Wrote a song for the school festival, and heard it sung
+by four hundred happy children. Father got up the
+affair, and such a pretty affair was never seen in Concord
+before. He said, "We spend much on our cattle and
+flower shows; let us each spring have a show of our
+children, and begrudge nothing for their culture." All
+liked it but the old fogies who want things as they were
+in the ark.</p>
+
+<p><i>April.</i>&ndash;Made two riding habits, and May and I had
+some fine rides. Both needed exercise, and this was
+good for us. So one of our dreams came true, and we
+really did "dash away on horseback."</p>
+
+<p>Sanborn was nearly kidnapped for being a friend of
+John Brown; but his sister and A. W. rescued him when
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">121</a></span>
+he was handcuffed, and the scamps drove off. Great
+ferment in town. A meeting and general flurry.</p>
+
+<p>Had a funny lover who met me in the cars, and said
+he lost his heart at once. Handsome man of forty. A
+Southerner, and very demonstrative and gushing, called
+and wished to pay his addresses; and being told I didn't
+wish to see him, retired, to write letters and haunt the
+road with his hat off, while the girls laughed and had
+great fun over Jo's lover. He went at last, and peace
+reigned. My adorers are all queer.</p>
+
+<p>Sent "Cinderella" to the "Atlantic," and it was accepted.
+Began "By the River," and thought that this
+was certainly to be a lucky year; for after ten years hard
+climbing I had reached a good perch on the ladder, and
+could look more hopefully into the future, while my paper
+boats sailed gaily over the Atlantic.</p>
+
+<p><i>May.</i>&ndash;Meg's wedding.</p>
+
+<p>My farce was acted, and I went to see it. Not very
+well done; but I sat in a box, and the good Doctor
+handed up a bouquet to the author, and made as much
+as he could of a small affair.</p>
+
+<p>Saw Anna's honeymoon home at Chelsea,&ndash;a little cottage
+in a blooming apple-orchard. Pretty place, simple
+and sweet. God bless it!</p>
+
+<p>The dear girl was married on the 23d, the same day
+as Mother's wedding. A lovely day; the house full of
+sunshine, flowers, friends, and happiness. Uncle S. J.
+May married them, with no fuss, but much love; and we
+all stood round her. She in her silver-gray silk, with
+lilies of the valley (John's flower) in her bosom and
+hair. We in gray thin stuff and roses,&ndash;sackcloth, I
+called it, and ashes of roses; for I mourn the loss of
+my Nan, and am not comforted. We have had a little
+feast, sent by good Mrs. Judge Shaw; then the old
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">122</a></span>
+folks danced round the bridal pair on the lawn in the
+German fashion, making a pretty picture to remember,
+under our Revolutionary elm.</p>
+
+<p>Then, with tears and kisses, our dear girl, in her little
+white bonnet, went happily away with her good John;
+and we ended our first wedding. Mr. Emerson kissed
+her; and I thought that honor would make even matrimony
+endurable, for he is the god of my idolatry, and
+has been for years.</p>
+
+<p><i>June.</i>&ndash;To Boston to the memorial meeting for Mr.
+Parker, which was very beautiful, and proved how much
+he was beloved. Music Hall was full of flowers and sunshine,
+and hundreds of faces, both sad and proud, as the
+various speakers told the life of love and labor which
+makes Theodore Parker's memory so rich a legacy to
+Boston. I was very glad to have known so good a man,
+and been called "friend" by him.</p>
+
+<p>Saw Nan in her nest, where she and her mate live
+like a pair of turtle doves. Very sweet and pretty, but
+I'd rather be a free spinster and paddle my own canoe.</p>
+
+<p><i>August.</i>&ndash;"Moods." Genius burned so fiercely that
+for four weeks I wrote all day and planned nearly all
+night, being quite possessed by my work. I was perfectly
+happy, and seemed to have no wants. Finished
+the book, or a rough draught of it, and put it away to
+settle. Mr. Emerson offered to read it when Mother
+told him it was "Moods" and had one of his sayings
+for motto.</p>
+
+<p>Daresay nothing will ever come of it; but it <i>had</i> to be
+done, and I'm the richer for a new experience.</p>
+
+<p><i>September.</i>&ndash;Received $75 of Ticknor for "Cinderella,"
+and feel very rich. Emerson praised it, and people
+wrote to me about it and patted me on the head. Paid
+bills, and began to simmer another.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">123</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>October.</i>&ndash;I went to B. and saw the Prince of Wales
+trot over the Common with his train at a review. A
+yellow-haired laddie very like his mother. Fanny W.
+and I nodded and waved as he passed, and he openly
+winked his boyish eye at us; for Fanny, with her yellow
+curls and wild waving, looked rather rowdy, and the poor
+little prince wanted some fun. We laughed, and thought
+that we had been more distinguished by the saucy wink
+than by a stately bow. Boys are always jolly,&ndash;even
+princes.</p>
+
+<p>Read Richter, and enjoyed him very much.</p>
+
+<p>Mother went to see Uncle S. J. May, and I was house-keeper.
+Gave my mind to it so energetically that I
+dreamed dip-toast, talked apple-sauce, thought pies, and
+wept drop-cakes. Read my book to Nan, who came up
+to cheer me in my struggles; and she laughed and cried
+over it and said it was "good." So I felt encouraged,
+and will touch it up when duty no longer orders me to
+make a burnt-offering of myself.</p>
+
+<p><i>November.</i>&ndash;Father sixty-one; L. aged twenty-eight.
+Our birthday. Gave Father a ream of paper, and he gave
+me Emerson's picture; so both were happy.</p>
+
+<p>Wrote little, being busy with visitors. The John Brown
+Association asked me for a poem, which I wrote.</p>
+
+<p>Kind Miss R. sent May $30 for lessons, so she went to
+B. to take some of Johnstone. She is one of the fortunate
+ones, and gets what she wants easily. I have to
+grub for my help, or go without it. Good for me, doubtless,
+or it wouldn't be so; so cheer up, Louisa, and grind
+away!</p>
+
+<p><i>December.</i>&ndash;More luck for May. She wanted to go
+to Syracuse and teach, and Dr. W. sends for her, thanks to
+Uncle S. J. May. I sew like a steam-engine for a week,
+and get her ready. On the 17th go to B. and see our
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">124</a></span>
+youngest start on her first little flight alone into the world,
+full of hope and courage. May all go well with her!</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Emerson invited me to his class when they meet
+to talk on Genius; a great honor, as all the learned
+ladies go.</p>
+
+<p>Sent "Debby's Debit" to the "Atlantic," and they
+took it. Asked to the John Brown meeting, but had no
+"good gown," so didn't go; but my "pome" did, and
+came out in the paper. Not good. I'm a better patriot
+than poet, and couldn't say what I felt.</p>
+
+<p>A quiet Christmas; no presents but apples and flowers.
+No merry-making; for Nan and May were gone, and
+Betty under the snow. But we are used to hard times,
+and, as Mother says, "while there is a famine in Kansas
+we mustn't ask for sugar-plums."</p>
+
+<p>All the philosophy in our house is not in the study;
+a good deal is in the kitchen, where a fine old lady
+thinks high thoughts and does kind deeds while she
+cooks and scrubs.</p>
+
+<p><i>January, 1861.</i>&ndash;Twenty-eight; received thirteen
+New Year's gifts. A most uncommon fit of generosity
+seemed to seize people on my behalf, and I was blessed
+with all manner of nice things, from a gold and ivory
+pen to a mince-pie and a bonnet.</p>
+
+<p>Wrote on a new book&ndash;"Success" ["Work"]&ndash;till
+Mother fell ill, when I corked up my inkstand and turned
+nurse. The dear woman was very ill, but rose up like
+a ph&oelig;nix from her ashes after what she gayly called
+"the irrepressible conflict between sickness and the May
+constitution."</p>
+
+<p>Father had four talks at Emerson's; good people
+came, and he enjoyed them much; made $30. R. W. E.
+probably put in $20. He has a sweet way of bestowing
+gifts on the table under a book or behind a candle-stick,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">125</a></span>
+when he thinks Father wants a little money, and no one
+will help him earn. A true friend is this tender and
+illustrious man.</p>
+
+<p>Wrote a tale and put it away,&ndash;to be sent when
+"Debby" comes out. "F. T." appeared, and I got a
+dress, having mended my six-year old silk till it is more
+patch and tear than gown. Made the claret merino myself,
+and enjoyed it, as I do anything bought with my
+"head-money."</p>
+
+<p><i>February.</i>&ndash;Another turn at "Moods," which I remodelled.
+From the 2d to the 25th I sat writing, with
+a run at dusk; could not sleep, and for three days was so
+full of it I could not stop to get up. Mother made me
+a green silk cap with a red bow, to match the old green
+and red party wrap, which I wore as a "glory cloak."
+Thus arrayed I sat in groves of manuscripts, "living for
+immortality," as May said. Mother wandered in and out
+with cordial cups of tea, worried because I couldn't eat.
+Father thought it fine, and brought his reddest apples
+and hardest cider for my Pegasus to feed upon. All sorts
+of fun was going on; but I didn't care if the world returned
+to chaos if I and my inkstand only "lit" in the
+same place.</p>
+
+<p>It was very pleasant and queer while it lasted; but
+after three weeks of it I found that my mind was too
+rampant for my body, as my head was dizzy, legs shaky,
+and no sleep would come. So I dropped the pen, and
+took long walks, cold baths, and had Nan up to frolic
+with me. Read all I had done to my family; and Father
+said: "Emerson must see this. Where did you get your
+metaphysics?" Mother pronounced it wonderful, and
+Anna laughed and cried, as she always does, over my
+works, saying, "My dear, I'm proud of you."</p>
+
+<p>So I had a good time, even if it never comes to anything;
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">126</a></span>
+for it was worth something to have my three
+dearest sit up till midnight listening with wide-open
+eyes to Lu's first novel.</p>
+
+<p>I planned it some time ago, and have had it in my
+mind ever so long; but now it begins to take shape.</p>
+
+<p>Father had his usual school festival, and Emerson asked
+me to write a song, which I did. On the 16th the schools
+all met in the hall (four hundred),&ndash;a pretty posy bed,
+with a border of proud parents and friends. Some of the
+fogies objected to the names Phillips and John Brown.
+But Emerson said: "Give it up? No, no; <i>I</i> will read
+it." Which he did, to my great contentment; for when
+the great man of the town says "Do it," the thing is
+done. So the choir warbled, and the Alcotts were uplifted
+in their vain minds.</p>
+
+<p>Father was in glory, like a happy shepherd with a large
+flock of sportive lambs; for all did something. Each
+school had its badge,&ndash;one pink ribbons, one green
+shoulder-knots, and one wreaths of pop-corn on the
+curly pates. One school to whom Father had read Pilgrim's
+Progress told the story, one child after the other
+popping up to say his or her part; and at the end a little
+tot walked forward, saying with a pretty air of wonder,&ndash;"And
+behold it was all a dream."</p>
+
+<p>When all was over, and Father about to dismiss them,
+F. H., a tall, handsome lad came to him, and looking up
+confidingly to the benign old face, asked "our dear friend
+Mr. Alcott to accept of Pilgrim's Progress and George
+Herbert's Poems from the children of Concord, as a token
+of their love and respect."</p>
+
+<p>Father was much touched and surprised, and blushed
+and stammered like a boy, hugging the fine books while
+the children cheered till the roof rung.</p>
+
+<p>His report was much admired, and a thousand copies
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">127</a></span>
+printed to supply the demand; for it was a new thing to
+have a report, neither dry nor dull; and teachers were
+glad of the hints given, making education a part of
+religion, not a mere bread-making grind for teacher and
+an irksome cram for children.</p>
+
+<p><i>April.</i>&ndash;War declared with the South, and our Concord
+company went to Washington. A busy time getting
+them ready, and a sad day seeing them off; for in a little
+town like this we all seem like one family in times like
+these. At the station the scene was very dramatic, as the
+brave boys went away perhaps never to come back again.</p>
+
+<p>I've often longed to see a war, and now I have my
+wish. I long to be a man; but as I can't fight, I will
+content myself with working for those who can.</p>
+
+<p>Sewed a good deal getting May's summer things in
+order, as she sent for me to make and mend and buy and
+send her outfit.</p>
+
+<p>Stories simmered in my brain, demanding to be writ;
+but I let them simmer, knowing that the longer the divine
+afflatus was bottled up the better it would be.</p>
+
+<p>John Brown's daughters came to board, and upset
+my plans of rest and writing when the report and the
+sewing were done. I had my fit of woe up garret on
+the fat rag-bag, and then put my papers away, and
+fell to work at housekeeping. I think disappointment
+must be good for me, I get so much of it; and the
+constant thumping Fate gives me may be a mellowing
+process; so I shall be a ripe and sweet old pippin before
+I die.</p>
+
+<p><i>May.</i>&ndash;Spent our May-day working for our men,&ndash;three
+hundred women all sewing together at the hall for
+two days.</p>
+
+<p>May will not return to S. after her vacation in July; and
+being a lucky puss, just as she wants something to do,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">128</a></span>
+F. B. S. needs a drawing teacher in his school and offers
+her the place.</p>
+
+<p>Nan found that I was wearing all the old clothes she
+and May left; so the two dear souls clubbed together
+and got me some new ones; and the great parcel, with a
+loving letter, came to me as a beautiful surprise.</p>
+
+<p>Nan and John walked up from Cambridge for a day,
+and we all walked back. Took a sail to the forts, and
+saw our men on guard there. Felt very martial and
+Joan-of-Arc-y as I stood on the walls with the flag flying
+over me and cannon all about.</p>
+
+<p><i>June.</i>&ndash;Read a good deal; grubbed in my garden,
+and made the old house pretty for May. Enjoyed
+Carlyle's French Revolution very much. His earthquaky
+style suits me.</p>
+
+<p>"Charles Auchester" is charming,&ndash;a sort of fairy
+tale for grown people. Dear old "Evelina," as a change,
+was pleasant. Emerson recommended Hodson's India,
+and I got it, and liked it; also read Sir Thomas More's
+Life. I read Fielding's "Amelia," and thought it coarse
+and queer. The heroine having "her lovely nose smashed
+all to bits falling from a post shay" was a new idea.
+What some one says of Richardson applies to Fielding,
+"The virtues of his heroes are the vices of decent
+men."</p>
+
+<p><i>July.</i>&ndash;Spent a month at the White Mountains with
+L. W.,&ndash;a lovely time, and it did me much good.
+Mountains are restful and uplifting to my mind. Lived
+in the woods, and revelled in brooks, birds, pines, and
+peace.</p>
+
+<p><i>August.</i>&ndash;May came home very tired, but satisfied
+with her first attempt, which has been very successful in
+every way. She is quite a belle now, and much improved,&ndash;a
+tall blond lass, full of grace and spirit.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">129</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>September.</i>&ndash;Ticknor sent $50. Wrote a story for C.,
+as Plato needs new shirts, and Minerva a pair of boots,
+and Hebe a fall hat.</p>
+
+<p><i>October.</i>&ndash;All together on Marmee's birthday. Sewing
+and knitting for "our boys" all the time. It seems
+as if a few energetic women could carry on the war better
+than the men do it so far.</p>
+
+<p>A week with Nan in the dove-cot. As happy as
+ever.</p>
+
+<p><i>November</i> and <i>December</i>.&ndash;Wrote, read, sewed, and
+wanted something to do.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In 1862, at the suggestion of Miss Peabody,
+Miss Alcott opened a Kindergarten school; but
+it was not successful, and she took a final leave
+of the teacher's profession, and returned to her
+writing, which she found to be her true calling.
+She wrote much; for "brain was lively, and
+work paid for readily." Besides the occasional
+stories in papers and magazines, her most important
+labor was the preparation of the story
+called "Work," or, as she originally named it,
+"Success." This story however was not published
+until ten years later. Here she took the
+road that was later to lead to fame and fortune, by
+writing from her own experience of life. Christie
+is Louisa herself under very thin disguise; and
+all her own experiences, as servant, governess,
+companion, seamstress, and actress are brought
+in to give vividness to the picture; while many
+other persons may be recognized as models for
+her skilful portraiture. The book has always been
+deservedly popular.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">130</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+<i>January, 1862.</i>&ndash;E. P. Peabody wanted me to open
+a Kindergarten, and Mr. Barnard gave a room at the
+Warren Street Chapel. Don't like to teach, but take
+what comes; so when Mr. F. offered $40 to fit up with,
+twelve pupils, and his patronage, I began.</p>
+
+<p>Saw many great people, and found them no bigger than
+the rest of the world,&ndash;often not half so good as some
+humble soul who made no noise. I learned a good deal
+in my way, and am not half so much impressed by society
+as before I got a peep at it. Having known Emerson,
+Parker, Phillips, and that set of really great and good
+men and women living for the world's work and service
+of God, the mere show people seem rather small and
+silly, though they shine well, and feel that they are
+stars.</p>
+
+<p><i>February.</i>&ndash;Visited about, as my school did not bring
+enough to pay board and the assistant I was made to
+have, though I didn't want her.</p>
+
+<p>Went to lectures; saw Booth at the Goulds',&ndash;a handsome,
+shy man, glooming in a corner.</p>
+
+<p>Very tired of this wandering life and distasteful work;
+but kept my word and tugged on.</p>
+
+<p>Hate to visit people who only ask me to help amuse
+others, and often longed for a crust in a garret with freedom
+and a pen. I never knew before what insolent
+things a hostess can do, nor what false positions poverty
+can push one into.</p>
+
+<p><i>April.</i>&ndash;Went to and from C. every day that I might
+be at home. Forty miles a day is dull work; but I have
+my dear people at night, and am not a beggar.</p>
+
+<p>Wrote "King of Clubs,"&ndash;$30. The school having
+no real foundation (as the people who sent didn't care
+for Kindergartens, and Miss P. wanted me to take pupils
+for nothing, to try the new system), I gave it up, as I
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">131</a></span>
+could do much better at something else. May took my
+place for a month, that I might keep my part of the bargain;
+and I cleaned house, and wrote a story which
+made more than all my months of teaching. They ended
+in a wasted winter and a debt of $40,&ndash;to be paid if I
+sell my hair to do it.</p>
+
+<p><i>May.</i>&ndash;School finished for me, and I paid Miss N.
+by giving her all the furniture, and leaving her to do as
+she liked; while I went back to my writing, which pays
+much better, though Mr. F. did say, "Stick to your teaching;
+you can't write." Being wilful, I said, "I won't
+teach; and I can write, and I'll prove it."</p>
+
+<p>Saw Miss Rebecca Harding, author of "Margret
+Howth," which has made a stir, and is very good. A
+handsome, fresh, quiet woman, who says she never had
+any troubles, though she writes about woes. I told her
+I had had lots of troubles; so I write jolly tales; and we
+wondered why we each did so.</p>
+
+<p><i>June</i>, <i>July</i>, <i>August.</i>&ndash;Wrote a tale for B., and he lost
+it, and wouldn't pay.</p>
+
+<p>Wrote two tales for L. I enjoy romancing to suit myself;
+and though my tales are silly, they are not bad;
+and my sinners always have a good spot somewhere. I
+hope it is good drill for fancy and language, for I can do
+it fast; and Mr. L. says my tales are so "dramatic, vivid,
+and full of plot," they are just what he wants.</p>
+
+<p><i>September</i>, <i>October.</i>&ndash;Sewing Bees and Lint Picks for
+"our boys" kept us busy, and the prospect of the first
+grandchild rejoiced the hearts of the family.</p>
+
+<p>Wrote much; for brain was lively, and work paid for
+readily. Rewrote the last story, and sent it to L., who
+wants more than I can send him. So, between blue
+flannel jackets for "our boys" and dainty slips for Louisa
+Caroline or John B., Jr., as the case may be, I reel off
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">132</a></span>
+my "thrilling" tales, and mess up my work in a queer
+but interesting way.</p>
+
+<p>War news bad. Anxious faces, beating hearts, and
+busy minds.</p>
+
+<p>I like the stir in the air, and long for battle like a war-horse
+when he smells powder. The blood of the Mays
+is up!
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>After Anna's Marriage.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Sunday Morn, 1860.</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Mrs. Pratt</span>:</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Madam</span>,&ndash;The news of the town is as
+follows, and I present it in the usual journalesque
+style of correspondence. After the bridal train had
+departed, the mourners withdrew to their respective
+homes; and the bereaved family solaced their woe by
+washing dishes for two hours and bolting the remains of
+the funeral baked meats. At four, having got settled
+down, we were all routed up by the appearance of a long
+procession of children filing down our lane, headed by
+the Misses H. and R. Father rushed into the cellar, and
+appeared with a large basket of apples, which went the
+rounds with much effect. The light infantry formed in a
+semi-circle, and was watered by the matron and maids.
+It was really a pretty sight, these seventy children loaded
+with wreaths and flowers, standing under the elm in the
+sunshine, singing in full chorus the song I wrote for them.
+It was a neat little compliment to the superintendent and
+his daughter, who was glad to find that her "pome" was
+a favorite among the "lads and lasses" who sang it
+"with cheery voices, like robins on the tree."</p>
+
+<p>Father put the finishing stroke to the spectacle by
+going off at full speed, hoppity-skip, and all the babes
+followed in a whirl of rapture at the idea. He led them
+up and down and round and round till they were tired;
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">133</a></span>
+then they fell into order, and with a farewell song marched
+away, seventy of the happiest little ones I ever wish to
+see. We subsided, and fell into our beds with the new
+thought "Annie is married and gone" for a lullaby, which
+was not very effective in its results with all parties.</p>
+
+<p>Thursday we set our house in order, and at two the
+rush began. It had gone abroad that Mr. M. and Mrs.
+Captain Brown were to adorn the scene, so many people
+coolly came who were not invited, and who had no business
+here. People sewed and jabbered till Mrs. Brown,
+with Watson Brown's widow and baby came; then a
+levee took place. The two pale women sat silent and
+serene through the clatter; and the bright-eyed, handsome
+baby received the homage of the multitude like a little
+king, bearing the kisses and praises with the utmost dignity.
+He is named Frederick Watson Brown, after his
+murdered uncle and father, and is a fair, heroic-looking
+baby, with a fine head, and serious eyes that look about
+him as if saying, "I am a Brown! Are these friends or
+enemies?" I wanted to cry once at the little scene the
+unconscious baby made. Some one caught and kissed
+him rudely; he didn't cry, but looked troubled, and
+rolled his great eyes anxiously about for some familiar
+face to reassure him with its smile. His mother was not
+there; but though many hands were stretched to him, he
+turned to Grandma Bridge, and putting out his little arms
+to her as if she was a refuge, laughed and crowed as
+he had not done before when she danced him on her
+knee. The old lady looked delighted; and Freddy patted
+the kind face, and cooed like a lawful descendant of
+that pair of ancient turtle doves.</p>
+
+<p>When he was safe back in the study, playing alone at
+his mother's feet, C. and I went and worshipped in our
+own way at the shrine of John Brown's grandson, kissing
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">134</a></span>
+him as if he were a little saint, and feeling highly honored
+when he sucked our fingers, or walked on us with
+his honest little red shoes, much the worse for wear.</p>
+
+<p>Well, the baby fascinated me so that I forgot a raging
+headache and forty gabbling women all in full clack. Mrs.
+Brown, Sen., is a tall, stout woman, plain, but with a
+strong, good face, and a natural dignity that showed she
+was something better than a "lady," though she <i>did</i>
+drink out of her saucer and used the plainest speech.</p>
+
+<p>The younger woman had such a patient, heart-broken
+face, it was a whole Harper's Ferry tragedy in a look.
+When we got your letter, Mother and I ran into the study
+to read it. Mother read aloud; for there were only C., A.,
+I, and Mrs. Brown, Jr., in the room. As she read the
+words that were a poem in their simplicity and happiness,
+the poor young widow sat with tears rolling down her
+face; for I suppose it brought back her own wedding-day,
+not two years ago, and all the while she cried the
+baby laughed and crowed at her feet as if there was no
+trouble in the world.</p>
+
+<p>The preparations had been made for twenty at the utmost;
+so when forty souls with the usual complement of
+bodies appeared, we grew desperate, and our neat little
+supper turned out a regular "tea fight." A., C., B., and
+I rushed like comets to and fro trying to fill the multitude
+that would eat fast and drink like sponges. I filled
+a big plate with all I could lay hands on, and with two
+cups of tea, strong enough for a dozen, charged upon Mr.
+E. and Uncle S., telling them to eat, drink, and be merry,
+for a famine was at hand. They cuddled into a corner;
+and then, feeling that my mission was accomplished, I let
+the hungry <i>wait</i> and the thirsty <i>moan</i> for tea, while I
+picked out and helped the regular Antislavery set.</p>
+
+<p>We got through it; but it was an awful hour; and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">135</a></span>
+Mother wandered in her mind, utterly lost in a grove of
+teapots; while B. pervaded the neighborhood demanding
+hot water, and we girls sowed cake broadcast through the
+land.</p>
+
+<p>When the plates were empty and the teapots dry, people
+wiped their mouths and confessed at last that they
+had done. A conversation followed, in which Grandpa B.
+and E. P. P. held forth, and Uncle and Father mildly
+upset the world, and made a new one in which every one
+desired to take a place. Dr. B., Mr. B., T., etc., appeared,
+and the rattle continued till nine, when some
+Solomon suggested that the Alcotts must be tired, and
+every one departed but C. and S. We had a polka by
+Mother and Uncle, the lancers by C. and B., and an
+<i>étude</i> by S., after which scrabblings of feast appeared,
+and we "drained the dregs of every cup," all cakes and
+pies we gobbled up, etc.; then peace fell upon us, and
+our remains were interred decently.
+</p></div>
+
+<p class="center p6"><span class="b1">CHAPTER VII.</span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">136</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="center">HOSPITAL SKETCHES.</p>
+
+<p class="p2 center">THOREAU'S FLUTE.</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="stanza">
+We sighing said, "Our Pan is dead;<br />
+<span class="i1">His pipe hangs mute beside the river</span><br />
+<span class="i1">Around it wistful sunbeams quiver,</span><br />
+But Music's airy voice is fled.<br />
+Spring mourns as for untimely frost;<br />
+<span class="i1">The bluebird chants a requiem;</span><br />
+<span class="i1">The willow-blossom waits for him;&ndash;</span><br />
+The Genius of the wood is lost."
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">Then from the flute, untouched by hands,<br />
+<span class="i1">There came a low, harmonious breath:</span><br />
+<span class="i1">"For such as he there is no death;&ndash;</span><br />
+His life the eternal life commands;<br />
+Above man's aims his nature rose.<br />
+<span class="i1">The wisdom of a just content</span><br />
+<span class="i1">Made one small spot a continent,</span><br />
+And tuned to poetry life's prose.</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">"Haunting the hills, the stream, the wild,<br />
+<span class="i1">Swallow and aster, lake and pine,</span><br />
+<span class="i1">To him grew human or divine,&ndash;</span><br />
+Fit mates for this large-hearted child.<br />
+Such homage Nature ne'er forgets,<br />
+<span class="i1">And yearly on the coverlid</span><br />
+<span class="i1">'Neath which her darling lieth hid</span><br />
+Will write his name in violets.</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">"To him no vain regrets belong<br />
+<span class="i1">Whose soul, that finer instrument,</span><br />
+<span class="i1">Gave to the world no poor lament,</span><br />
+But wood-notes ever sweet and strong.<br />
+O lonely friend! he still will be<br />
+<span class="i1">A potent presence, though unseen,&ndash;</span><br />
+<span class="i1">Steadfast, sagacious, and serene;</span><br />
+Seek not for him&ndash;he is with thee."</p>
+</div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">137</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="p2"><span class="dropcap">M</span>ISS ALCOTT could not help feeling deeply
+the excitement of the hour when the war
+broke out. Her father had been one of the earliest
+Abolitionists, having joined the Antislavery Society
+with Garrison, and she well remembered the
+fugitive slave whom her mother had hidden in the
+oven. Now this feeling could be united with her
+patriotic zeal and her strong love of active life, and
+it was inevitable that she should long to share personally
+in the dangers and excitement of the war.</p>
+
+<p>Louisa had always been the nurse in the family,
+and had by nature the magnetic power which
+encourages and helps the feeble and suffering;
+therefore, since no other way of serving the cause
+opened to her, it was most like her to take her
+own life in her hands and join the corps of devoted
+nurses. She was accepted, and went to Washington.
+Her journal gives an account of her situation
+in the Union Hospital at Georgetown. It was
+a small hospital, much inferior in its appointments
+to those which were afterward arranged. Although
+Louisa had never been very ill up to that
+time, and thought herself exceptionally strong, yet
+she had not the rugged constitution fit to bear the
+labors and exposures of such a position; and the
+healthful habits of outdoor life and simple food to
+which she had always been accustomed made the
+conditions of the crowded, ill-ventilated hospital
+peculiarly perilous to her. She says, "I was never
+ill before this time, and never well afterward."</p>
+
+<p>But with all its hardships, Miss Alcott found in
+the hospital the varied and intense human life she
+had longed to know. Her great heart went out to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">138</a></span>
+all the men, black or white, the Virginia blacksmith
+and the rough Michigander. She even tried to
+befriend the one solitary rebel who had got left
+behind, and who was taken into the hospital to the
+disgust of some of the men; but he was impervious
+to all kindness, and she could find nothing
+in him for sympathy or romance to fasten upon.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Alcott remained in the hospital only about
+six weeks. Yet this short period had a very strong
+influence, both for good and evil, on her future
+life. The severe attack of fever which drove her
+from her post left her with shattered nerves and
+weakened constitution, and she never again knew
+the fulness of life and health which she had before.
+The chamber in her quiet home at Concord
+was evermore haunted by the fearful visions of delirium,
+and she could not regain there the peace
+she needed for work. But the experience of life,
+the observation of men under the excitement of
+war, the way in which they met the great conqueror
+Death, the revelations of heroism and love,
+and sometimes of bitterness and hate, brought
+her a deeper insight into human life than she
+ever had before, and gave to her writings greater
+reality.</p>
+
+<p>Louisa constantly wrote to the family of her
+experiences, and these letters were so interesting
+that she was persuaded to publish them in the
+"Commonwealth" newspaper. They attracted
+great attention, and first made her widely and
+favorably known to a higher public than that
+which had read her stories.</p>
+
+<p>These letters were published by James Redpath
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">139</a></span>
+in book form, and Miss Alcott received $200 for
+the book,&ndash;a welcome sum to her at that time.
+The sketches are almost a literal reproduction of
+her letters to her family; but as they have been
+so extensively read, and are accessible to every
+one, I shall give in preference to them extracts
+from her journal kept at the hospital. Other
+stories growing out of her experience in the hospital,
+or more remotely connected with it, have
+been published in the same volume in later editions.
+"My Contraband" is one of the most dramatic
+and powerful stories she ever wrote. She
+portrays the intensity of hatred in a noble nature,&ndash;hatred
+justified by the provocation, and
+yet restrained from fatal execution by the highest
+suggestions of religion. This story called forth a
+letter of commendation and frank criticism from
+Col. T. W. Higginson, which was very encouraging
+to the young writer.</p>
+
+<p>The beautiful lines on Thoreau's flute, the most
+perfect of her poems, excepting the exquisite tribute
+to her mother, were first composed in the
+watches of the night in the hospital, and afterwards
+recalled during the tedious days of convalescence
+at Concord. This poem was printed in
+the "Atlantic," and brought her a welcome ten-dollar
+bill.</p>
+
+<p>"Hospital Sketches" were hastily written, and
+with little regard to literary execution, but they
+are fresh and original, and, still more, they are
+true, and they appeared at just the time the public
+wanted them. Every heart was longing to hear
+not only from field and camp, but from the hospitals,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">140</a></span>
+where sons and brothers were tenderly cared
+for. The generous, hopeful spirit with which Miss
+Alcott entered into the work was recognized as
+that which animated the brave corps of women
+who answered so promptly to their country's call,
+and every loyal and loving heart vibrated in unison
+with the strings she touched so skilfully.</p>
+
+<p class="section"><i>Journal kept at the Hospital, Georgetown, D. C.,
+1862.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+<i>November.</i>&ndash;Thirty years old. Decided to go to
+Washington as nurse if I could find a place. Help
+needed, and I love nursing, and <i>must</i> let out my pent-up
+energy in some new way. Winter is always a hard and a
+dull time, and if I am away there is one less to feed and
+warm and worry over.</p>
+
+<p>I want new experiences, and am sure to get 'em if I
+go. So I've sent in my name, and bide my time writing
+tales, to leave all snug behind me, and mending up my
+old clothes,&ndash;for nurses don't need nice things, thank
+Heaven!</p>
+
+<p><i>December.</i>&ndash;On the 11th I received a note from Miss
+H. M. Stevenson telling me to start for Georgetown next
+day to fill a place in the Union Hotel Hospital. Mrs.
+Ropes of Boston was matron, and Miss Kendall of Plymouth
+was a nurse there, and though a hard place, help
+was needed. I was ready, and when my commander
+said "March!" I marched. Packed my trunk, and
+reported in B. that same evening.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="figcenter"><a name="illus147" id="illus147"></a>
+<img src="images/illus147.jpg" width="650" height="612" alt="From a photograph of Miss Alcott" />
+<p class="caption">From a photograph of Miss Alcott taken about 1862.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>We had all been full of courage till the last moment
+came; then we all broke down. I realized that I had
+taken my life in my hand, and might never see them all
+again. I said, "Shall I stay, Mother?" as I hugged her
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">141</a></span>
+close. "No, go! and the Lord be with you!" answered
+the Spartan woman; and till I turned the corner she
+bravely smiled and waved her wet handkerchief on the
+door-step. Shall I ever see that dear old face again?</p>
+
+<p>So I set forth in the December twilight, with May and
+Julian Hawthorne as escort, feeling as if I was the son of
+the house going to war.</p>
+
+<p>Friday, the 12th, was a very memorable day, spent in
+running all over Boston to get my pass, etc., calling for
+parcels, getting a tooth filled, and buying a veil,&ndash;my
+only purchase. A. C. gave me some old clothes; the
+dear Sewalls money for myself and boys, lots of love
+and help; and at 5 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, saying "good-by" to a group
+of tearful faces at the station, I started on my long journey,
+full of hope and sorrow, courage and plans.</p>
+
+<p>A most interesting journey into a new world full of
+stirring sights and sounds, new adventures, and an ever-growing
+sense of the great task I had undertaken.</p>
+
+<p>I said my prayers as I went rushing through the country
+white with tents, all alive with patriotism, and already
+red with blood.</p>
+
+<p>A solemn time, but I'm glad to live in it; and am
+sure it will do me good whether I come out alive or
+dead.</p>
+
+<p>All went well, and I got to Georgetown one evening
+very tired. Was kindly welcomed, slept in my narrow
+bed with two other room-mates, and on the morrow began
+my new life by seeing a poor man die at dawn, and
+sitting all day between a boy with pneumonia and a man
+shot through the lungs. A strange day, but I did my
+best; and when I put mother's little black shawl round
+the boy while he sat up panting for breath, he smiled
+and said, "You are real motherly, ma'am." I felt as if
+I was getting on. The man only lay and stared with his
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">142</a></span>
+big black eyes, and made me very nervous. But all were
+well behaved; and I sat looking at the twenty strong
+faces as they looked back at me,&ndash;the only new thing
+they had to amuse them,&ndash;hoping that I looked "motherly"
+to them; for my thirty years made me feel old,
+and the suffering round me made me long to comfort
+every one.</p>
+
+<p><i>January, 1863. Union Hotel Hospital, Georgetown,
+D. C.</i>&ndash;I never began the year in a stranger place
+than this: five hundred miles from home, alone, among
+strangers, doing painful duties all day long, and leading
+a life of constant excitement in this great house, surrounded
+by three or four hundred men in all stages of
+suffering, disease, and death. Though often homesick,
+heartsick, and worn out, I like it, find real pleasure in
+comforting, tending, and cheering these poor souls who
+seem to love me, to feel my sympathy though unspoken,
+and acknowledge my hearty good-will, in spite of the
+ignorance, awkwardness, and bashfulness which I cannot
+help showing in so new and trying a situation. The men
+are docile, respectful, and affectionate, with but few exceptions;
+truly lovable and manly many of them. John
+Sulie, a Virginia blacksmith, is the prince of patients;
+and though what we call a common man in education
+and condition, to me is all I could expect or ask from
+the first gentleman in the land. Under his plain speech
+and unpolished manner I seem to see a noble character,
+a heart as warm and tender as a woman's, a nature fresh
+and frank as any child's. He is about thirty, I think,
+tall and handsome, mortally wounded, and dying royally
+without reproach, repining, or remorse. Mrs. Ropes
+and myself love him, and feel indignant that such a man
+should be so early lost; for though he might never distinguish
+himself before the world, his influence and example
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">143</a></span>
+cannot be without effect, for real goodness is never
+wasted.</p>
+
+<p><i>Monday, 4th.</i>&ndash;I shall record the events of a day as
+a sample of the days I spend:&ndash;</p>
+
+<p>Up at six, dress by gaslight, run through my ward and
+throw up the windows, though the men grumble and
+shiver; but the air is bad enough to breed a pestilence;
+and as no notice is taken of our frequent appeals for
+better ventilation, I must do what I can. Poke up the
+fire, add blankets, joke, coax, and command; but continue
+to open doors and windows as if life depended
+upon it. Mine does, and doubtless many another, for
+a more perfect pestilence-box than this house I never
+saw,&ndash;cold, damp, dirty, full of vile odors from wounds,
+kitchens, wash-rooms, and stables. No competent head,
+male or female, to right matters, and a jumble of good,
+bad, and indifferent nurses, surgeons, and attendants, to
+complicate the chaos still more.</p>
+
+<p>After this unwelcome progress through my stifling
+ward, I go to breakfast with what appetite I may; find
+the uninvitable fried beef, salt butter, husky bread, and
+washy coffee; listen to the clack of eight women and a
+dozen men,&ndash;the first silly, stupid, or possessed of one
+idea; the last absorbed with their breakfast and themselves
+to a degree that is both ludicrous and provoking,
+for all the dishes are ordered down the table <i>full</i> and
+returned <i>empty</i>; the conversation is entirely among
+themselves, and each announces his opinion with an air
+of importance that frequently causes me to choke in my
+cup, or bolt my meals with undignified speed lest a laugh
+betray to these famous beings that a "chiel's amang
+them takin' notes."</p>
+
+<p>Till noon I trot, trot, giving out rations, cutting up
+food for helpless "boys," washing faces, teaching my
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">144</a></span>
+attendants how beds are made or floors are swept, dressing
+wounds, taking Dr. F. P.'s orders (privately wishing
+all the time that he would be more gentle with my big
+babies), dusting tables, sewing bandages, keeping my
+tray tidy, rushing up and down after pillows, bed-linen,
+sponges, books, and directions, till it seems as if I would
+joyfully pay down all I possess for fifteen minutes' rest.
+At twelve the big bell rings, and up comes dinner for the
+boys, who are always ready for it and never entirely satisfied.
+Soup, meat, potatoes, and bread is the bill of fare.
+Charley Thayer, the attendant, travels up and down the
+room serving out the rations, saving little for himself, yet
+always thoughtful of his mates, and patient as a woman
+with their helplessness. When dinner is over, some sleep,
+many read, and others want letters written. This I like
+to do, for they put in such odd things, and express their
+ideas so comically, I have great fun interiorally, while as
+grave as possible exteriorally. A few of the men word
+their paragraphs well and make excellent letters. John's
+was the best of all I wrote. The answering of letters
+from friends after some one had died is the saddest and
+hardest duty a nurse has to do.</p>
+
+<p>Supper at five sets every one to running that can run;
+and when that flurry is over, all settle down for the evening
+amusements, which consist of newspapers, gossip,
+the doctor's last round, and, for such as need them, the
+final doses for the night. At nine the bell rings, gas is
+turned down, and day nurses go to bed. Night nurses
+go on duty, and sleep and death have the house to
+themselves.</p>
+
+<p>My work is changed to night watching, or half night
+and half day,&ndash;from twelve to twelve. I like it, as it
+leaves me time for a morning run, which is what I need
+to keep well; for bad air, food, and water, work and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">145</a></span>
+watching, are getting to be too much for me. I trot up
+and down the streets in all directions, sometimes to the
+Heights, then half way to Washington, again to the hill,
+over which the long trains of army wagons are constantly
+vanishing and ambulances appearing. That way the fighting
+lies, and I long to follow.</p>
+
+<p>Ordered to keep my room, being threatened with
+pneumonia. Sharp pain in the side, cough, fever, and
+dizziness. A pleasant prospect for a lonely soul five
+hundred miles from home! Sit and sew on the boys'
+clothes, write letters, sleep, and read; try to talk and
+keep merry, but fail decidedly, as day after day goes, and
+I feel no better. Dream awfully, and wake unrefreshed,
+think of home, and wonder if I am to die here, as Mrs.
+R., the matron, is likely to do. Feel too miserable to
+care much what becomes of me. Dr. S. creaks up twice
+a day to feel my pulse, give me doses, and ask if I am
+at all consumptive, or some other cheering question.
+Dr. O. examines my lungs and looks sober. Dr. J.
+haunts the room, coming by day and night with wood,
+cologne, books, and messes, like a motherly little man as
+he is. Nurses fussy and anxious, matron dying, and
+everything very gloomy. They want me to go home,
+but I <i>won't</i> yet.</p>
+
+<p><i>January 16th.</i>&ndash;Was amazed to see Father enter the
+room that morning, having been telegraphed to by order
+of Mrs. R. without asking leave. I was very angry at
+first, though glad to see him, because I knew I should
+have to go. Mrs. D. and Miss Dix came, and pretty
+Miss W., to take me to Willard's to be cared for by them.
+I wouldn't go, preferring to keep still, being pretty ill by
+that time.</p>
+
+<p>On the 21st I suddenly decided to go home, feeling
+very strangely, and dreading to be worse. Mrs. R. died,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">146</a></span>
+and that frightened the doctors about me; for my trouble
+was the same,&ndash;typhoid pneumonia. Father, Miss K.,
+and Lizzie T. went with me. Miss Dix brought a basket
+full of bottles of wine, tea, medicine, and cologne, besides
+a little blanket and pillow, a fan, and a testament. She
+is a kind old soul, but very queer and arbitrary.</p>
+
+<p>Was very sorry to go, and "my boys" seemed sorry
+to have me. Quite a flock came to see me off; but
+I was too sick to have but a dim idea of what was
+going on.</p>
+
+<p>Had a strange, excited journey of a day and night,&ndash;half
+asleep, half wandering, just conscious that I was
+going home; and, when I got to Boston, of being taken
+out of the car, with people looking on as if I was a sight.
+I daresay I was all blowzed, crazy, and weak. Was too
+sick to reach Concord that night, though we tried to do
+so. Spent it at Mr. Sewall's; had a sort of fit; they
+sent for Dr. H., and I had a dreadful time of it.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning felt better, and at four went home.
+Just remember seeing May's shocked face at the depot,
+Mother's bewildered one at home, and getting to bed in
+the firm belief that the house was roofless, and no one
+wanted to see me.</p>
+
+<p>As I never shall forget the strange fancies that haunted
+me, I shall amuse myself with recording some of them.</p>
+
+<p>The most vivid and enduring was the conviction that I
+had married a stout, handsome Spaniard, dressed in black
+velvet, with very soft hands, and a voice that was continually
+saying, "Lie still, my dear!" This was Mother,
+I suspect; but with all the comfort I often found in her
+presence, there was blended an awful fear of the Spanish
+spouse who was always coming after me, appearing out
+of closets, in at windows, or threatening me dreadfully
+all night long. I appealed to the Pope, and really got
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">147</a></span>
+up and made a touching plea in something meant for
+Latin, they tell me. Once I went to heaven, and found
+it a twilight place, with people darting through the air in
+a queer way,&ndash;all very busy, and dismal, and ordinary.
+Miss Dix, W. H. Channing, and other people were there;
+but I thought it dark and "slow," and wished I hadn't
+come.</p>
+
+<p>A mob at Baltimore breaking down the door to get
+me, being hung for a witch, burned, stoned, and otherwise
+maltreated, were some of my fancies. Also being
+tempted to join Dr. W. and two of the nurses in worshipping
+the Devil. Also tending millions of rich men
+who never died or got well.</p>
+
+<p><i>February.</i>&ndash;Recovered my senses after three weeks
+of delirium, and was told I had had a very bad typhoid
+fever, had nearly died, and was still very sick. All of
+which seemed rather curious, for I remembered nothing
+of it. Found a queer, thin, big-eyed face when I looked
+in the glass; didn't know myself at all; and when I
+tried to walk discovered that I couldn't, and cried because
+my legs wouldn't go.</p>
+
+<p>Never having been sick before, it was all new and very
+interesting when I got quiet enough to understand matters.
+Such long, long nights; such feeble, idle days;
+dozing, fretting about nothing; longing to eat, and no
+mouth to do it with,&ndash;mine being so sore, and full of all
+manner of queer sensations, it was nothing but a plague.
+The old fancies still lingered, seeming so real I believed
+in them, and deluded Mother and May with the most
+absurd stories, so soberly told that they thought them
+true.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. B. came every day, and was very kind. Father
+and Mother were with me night and day, and May sang
+"Birks of Aberfeldie," or read to me, to wile away the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">148</a></span>
+tiresome hours. People sent letters, money, kind inquiries,
+and goodies for the old "Nuss." I tried to sew,
+read, and write, and found I had to begin all over again.
+Received $10 for my labors in Washington. Had all my
+hair, a yard and a half long, cut off, and went into caps
+like a grandma. Felt badly about losing my one beauty.
+Never mind, it might have been my head, and a wig
+outside is better than a loss of wits inside.</p>
+
+<p><i>March.</i>&ndash;Began to get about a little, sitting up nearly
+all day, eating more regularly, and falling back into my
+old ways. My first job was characteristic: I cleared
+out my piece-bags and dusted my books, feeling as tired
+as if I had cleaned the whole house. Sat up till nine
+one night, and took no lunch at three <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>,&ndash;two facts
+which I find carefully recorded in my pocket diary in my
+own shaky handwriting.</p>
+
+<p>Father had two courses of conversations: one at Mr.
+Quincy's, very select and fine; the other at a hall not so
+good. He was tired out with taking care of me, poor
+old gentleman; and typhus was not inspiring.</p>
+
+<p>Read a great deal, being too feeble to do much else.
+No end of rubbish, with a few good things as ballast.
+"Titan" was the one I enjoyed the most, though it tired
+my weak wits to read much at a time. Recalled, and
+wrote some lines on "Thoreau's Flute," which I composed
+one night on my watch by little Shaw at the
+hospital.</p>
+
+<p>On the 28th Father came home from Boston, bringing
+word that Nan had a fine boy. We all screamed out
+when he burst in, snowy and beaming; then Mother
+began to cry, May to laugh, and I to say, like B. Trotwood,
+"There, I knew it wouldn't be a girl!" We were
+all so glad it was safely over, and a jolly little lad was
+added to the feminine family.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">149</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Mother went straight down to be sure that "mother
+and child were doing well," and I fell to cleaning house,
+as good work for an invalid and a vent for a happy
+aunt.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>First Birth in the Alcott and Pratt Branch, 1863.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Monday Eve.</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Little Mother</span>,&ndash;Allow me to ask who
+was a true prophet.</p>
+
+<p>Also to demand, "Where is my niece, Louisa Caroline?"</p>
+
+<p>No matter, I will forgive you, and propose three cheers
+for my <i>nephew</i>. Hurrah! hurrah! Hurray!</p>
+
+<p>I wish you could have seen the performance on Saturday
+evening.</p>
+
+<p>We were all sitting deep in a novel, not expecting
+Father home owing to the snowstorm, when the door
+burst open, and in he came, all wet and white, waving
+his bag, and calling out, "Good news! good news!
+Anna has a fine boy!"</p>
+
+<p>With one accord we opened our mouths and screamed
+for about two minutes. Then Mother began to cry; I
+began to laugh; and May to pour out questions; while
+Papa beamed upon us all,&ndash;red, damp, and shiny, the
+picture of a proud old Grandpa. Such a funny evening
+as we had! Mother kept breaking down, and each time
+emerged from her handkerchief saying solemnly, "I must
+go right down and see that baby!" Father had told
+every one he met, from Mr. Emerson to the coach driver,
+and went about the house saying, "Anna's boy! yes,
+yes, Anna's boy!" in a mild state of satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>May and I at once taxed our brains for a name, and
+decided upon "Amos Minot Bridge Bronson May Sewall
+Alcott Pratt," so that all the families would be suited.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">150</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I was so anxious to hear more that I went up to town
+this <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> and found John's note.</p>
+
+<p>Grandma and Grandpa Pratt came to hear the great
+news; but we could only inform them of the one tremendous
+fact, that Pratt, Jr., had condescended to arrive.
+Now tell us his weight, inches, color, etc.</p>
+
+<p>I know I shall fall down and adore when I see that
+mite; yet my soul is rent when I think of the <i>L. C.</i> on
+the pincushion, and all the plans I had made for "my
+niece."</p>
+
+<p>Now get up quickly, and be a happy mamma. Of
+course John does <i>not</i> consider his son as <i>the</i> most amazing
+product of the nineteenth century.</p>
+
+<p>Bless the baby!</p>
+
+<p class="sig">
+Ever your admiring <span class="smcap">Lu</span>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><i>April.</i>&ndash;Had some pleasant walks and drives, and felt
+as if born again, everything seemed so beautiful and new.
+I hope I was, and that the Washington experience may
+do me lasting good. To go very near to death teaches
+one to value life, and this winter will always be a very
+memorable one to me.</p>
+
+<p>Sewed on little shirts and gowns for my blessed
+nephew, who increased rapidly in stature and godliness.</p>
+
+<p>Sanborn asked me to do what Conway suggested before
+he left for Europe; viz., to arrange my letters in a printable
+shape, and put them in the "Commonwealth."
+They thought them witty and pathetic. I didn't; but I
+wanted money; so I made three hospital sketches. Much
+to my surprise, they made a great hit; and people bought
+the papers faster than they could be supplied. The second,
+"A Night" was much liked, and I was glad; for
+my beautiful "John Sulie" was the hero, and the praise
+belonged to him. More were wanted; and I added a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">151</a></span>
+postscript in the form of a letter, which finished it up, as
+I then thought.</p>
+
+<p>Received $100 from F. L. for a tale which won the
+prize last January; paid debts, and was glad that my
+winter bore visible fruit. Sent L. another tale. Went to
+Boston, and saw "our baby;" thought him ugly, but
+promising. Got a set of furniture for my room,&ndash;a long-talked-of
+dream of ours.</p>
+
+<p><i>May.</i>&ndash;Spent the first week or two in putting the
+house in order. May painted and papered the parlors.
+I got a new carpet and rug besides the paper, and put
+things to rights in a thorough manner. Mother was away
+with Nan, so we had full sweep; and she came home to
+a clean, fresh house.</p>
+
+<p>Nan and the Royal Infanta came as bright as a whole
+gross of buttons, and as good as a hairless brown angel.
+Went to Readville, and saw the 54th Colored Regiment,
+both there and next day in town as they left for
+the South. Enjoyed it very much; also the Antislavery
+meetings.</p>
+
+<p>Had a fresh feather in my cap; for Mrs. Hawthorne
+showed Fields "Thoreau's Flute," and he desired it for
+the "Atlantic." Of course I didn't say no. It was
+printed, copied, praised, and glorified; also <i>paid for</i>, and
+being a mercenary creature, I liked the $10 nearly as
+well as the honor of being "a new star" and "a literary
+celebrity."</p>
+
+<p><i>June.</i>&ndash;Began to write again on "Moods," feeling encouraged
+by the commendation bestowed on "Hospital
+Sketches," which were noticed, talked of, and inquired
+about, much to my surprise and delight. Had a fine
+letter from Henry James, also one from Wasson, and a
+request from Redpath to be allowed to print the sketches
+in a book. <i>Roberts Bros. also asked, but I preferred the</i>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">152</a></span>
+<i>Redpath</i>, and said yes; so he fell to work with all his
+might.</p>
+
+<p>Went to Class Day for the first time; had a pleasant
+day seeing new sights and old friends.</p>
+
+<p>G. H. came to the H.'s. Didn't like her as well as
+Miss H.; too sharp and full of herself; insisted on talking
+about religion with Emerson, who glided away from
+the subject so sweetly, yet resolutely, that the energetic
+lady gave it up at last.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+[1877.&ndash;Short-sighted Louisa! Little did you dream that
+this same Roberts Bros. were to help you to make your fortune
+a few years later. The "Sketches" never made much money,
+but showed me "my style," and taking the hint, I went where
+glory waited me.&ndash;<span class="smcap">L. M. A.</span>]
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><i>July.</i>&ndash;Sanborn asked for more contributions, and I
+gave him some of my old Mountain Letters vamped up.
+They were not good, and though they sold the paper, I
+was heartily ashamed of them, and stopped in the middle,
+resolving never again to try to be funny, lest I should be
+rowdy and nothing more. I'm glad of the lesson, and
+hope it will do me good.</p>
+
+<p>Had some pleasant letters from Sergeant Bain,&ndash;one
+of my boys who has not forgotten me, though safely at
+home far away in Michigan. It gratified me very much,
+and brought back the hospital days again. He was a
+merry, brave little fellow, and I liked him very much.
+His right arm was amputated after Fredericksburg, and
+he took it very cheerfully, trying at once to train his left
+hand to do duty for both, and never complained of his
+loss. "Baby B."</p>
+
+<p><i>August.</i>&ndash;Redpath carried on the publishing of the
+"Sketches" vigorously, sending letters, proof, and notices
+daily, and making all manner of offers, suggestions, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">153</a></span>
+prophecies concerning the success of the book and its
+author.</p>
+
+<p>Wrote a story, "My Contraband," and sent it to Fields,
+who accepted and paid $50 for it, with much approbation
+for it and the "Sketches." L. sent $40 for a story, and
+wanted another.</p>
+
+<p>Major M. invited me to Gloucester; but I refused, being
+too busy and too bashful to be made a lion of, even
+in a very small way. Letters from Dr. Hyde, Wilkie
+(home with a wound from Wagner), Charles Sumner,
+Mr. Hale, and others,&ndash;all about the little "Sketches,"
+which keep on making friends for me, though I don't
+get used to the thing at all, and think it must be all
+a mistake.</p>
+
+<p>On the 25th my first morning-glory bloomed in my
+room,&ndash;a hopeful blue,&ndash;and at night up came my
+book in its new dress. I had added several chapters to
+it, and it was quite a neat little affair. An edition of
+one thousand, and I to have five cents on each copy.</p>
+
+<p><i>September.</i>&ndash;Redpath anxious for another book. Send
+him a volume of stories and part of a book to look at.
+He likes both; but I decide on waiting a little, as I'm
+not satisfied with the stories, and the novel needs time.
+"Sketches" sell well, and a new edition is called for.</p>
+
+<p>Dear old Grandma died at Aunt Betsey's in her eighty-ninth
+year,&ndash;a good woman, and much beloved by her
+children. I sent money to help lay her away; for Aunt
+B. is poor, and it was all I could do for the kind little old
+lady.</p>
+
+<p>Nan and Freddy made us a visit, and we decided that
+of all splendid babies he was the king. Such a hearty,
+happy, funny boy, I could only play with and adore him
+all the while he stayed, and long for him when he went.
+Nan and John are very fond of "our son," and well they
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">154</a></span>
+may be. Grandma and Grandpa think him perfect, and
+even artistic Aunty May condescends to say he is "a
+very nice thing."</p>
+
+<p>"My Contraband; or, The Brothers," my story in the
+"Atlantic," came out, and was liked. Received $40
+from Redpath for "Sketches,"&ndash;first edition; wanted
+me to be editor of a paper; was afraid to try, and let
+it go.</p>
+
+<p>Poor old "Moods" came out for another touching
+up.</p>
+
+<p><i>October.</i>&ndash;Thought much about going to Port Royal
+to teach contrabands. Fields wanted the letters I should
+write, and asked if I had no book. Father spoke of
+"Moods," and he desired to see it. So I fell to work,
+and finished it off, thinking the world must be coming
+to an end, and all my dreams getting fulfilled in a most
+amazing way. If there was ever an astonished young
+woman, it is myself; for things have gone on so swimmingly
+of late I don't know who I am. A year ago I
+had no publisher, and went begging with my wares; now
+<i>three</i> have asked me for something, several papers are
+ready to print my contributions, and F. B. S. says "any
+publisher this side of Baltimore would be glad to get a
+book." There is a sudden hoist for a meek and lowly
+scribbler, who was told to "stick to her teaching," and
+never had a literary friend to lend a helping hand! Fifteen
+years of hard grubbing may be coming to something
+after all; and I may yet "pay all the debts, fix the
+house, send May to Italy, and keep the old folks cosey,"
+as I've said I would so long, yet so hopelessly.</p>
+
+<p>May began to take anatomical drawing lessons of Rimmer.
+I was very glad to be able to pay her expenses up
+and down and clothe her neatly. Twenty dollars more
+from Redpath on account.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">155</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>December.</i>&ndash;Earnings 1863, $380.</p>
+
+<p>The principal event of this otherwise quiet month was
+the Sanitary Fair in Boston, and our part in it. At G. G.
+B.'s request, I dramatized six scenes from Dickens, and
+went to town on the 14th to play. Things did not go
+well for want of a good manager and more time. Our
+night was not at all satisfactory to us, owing to the falling
+through of several scenes for want of actors. People
+seemed to like what there was of it, and after a wearisome
+week I very gladly came home again. Our six
+entertainments made twenty-five hundred dollars for
+the Fair.</p>
+
+<p>Rewrote the fairy tales, one of which was published;
+but owing to delays it was late for the holidays, and badly
+bound in the hurry; so the poor "Rose Family" fared
+badly.</p>
+
+<p>Had a letter from the publisher of a new magazine,
+called the "Civil Service Magazine," asking for a long
+tale. Had no time to write one; but will by and by, if
+the thing is good.</p>
+
+<p>While in town received $10 of F. B. S. and $20 of
+Redpath, with which I bought May hat, boots, gloves,
+ribbons, and other little matters, besides furnishing money
+for her fares up and down to Rimmer.</p>
+
+<p><i>January, 1864.</i>&ndash;New Year's Day was a very quiet
+one. Nan and Freddy were here, and in the evening we
+went to a dance at the hall. A merry time; for all the
+town was there, as it was for the Soldiers' Aid Society,
+and every one wanted to help. Nan and I sat in the
+gallery, and watched the young people dance the old
+year out, the new year in as the clock struck twelve.</p>
+
+<p>On looking over my accounts, I find I have earned by
+my <i>writing</i> alone nearly <i>six hundred dollars</i> since last
+January, and spent less than a hundred for myself, which
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">156</a></span>
+I am glad to know. May has had $70 for herself, and
+the rest has paid debts or bought necessary things for
+the family.</p>
+
+<p>Received from the "Commonwealth" $18 for "A
+Hospital Christmas." Wrote a fairy tale, "Fairy Pinafores."
+"Picket Duty" and other tales came out,&ndash;first
+of Redpath's series of books for the "Camp Fires."
+Richardson sent again for a long story for the "Civil
+Service Magazine." Tried a war story, but couldn't
+make it go.</p>
+
+<p><i>February.</i>&ndash;Nan quite sick again. Mother passed
+most of the month with her; so I had to be housekeeper,
+and let my writing go,&ndash;as well perhaps, as my wits are
+tired, and the "divine afflatus" don't descend as readily
+as it used to do. Must wait and fill up my idea-box before
+I begin again. There is nothing like work to set
+fancy a-going.</p>
+
+<p>Redpath came flying up on the 4th to get "Moods,"
+promising to have it out by May. Gave it to him with
+many fears, and he departed content. The next day received
+a telegram to come down at once and see the
+printers. Went, and was told the story was too long for
+a single volume, and a two-volume novel was bad to begin
+with. Would I cut the book down about half? No,
+I wouldn't, having already shortened it all it would bear.
+So I took my "opus" and posted home again, promising
+to try and finish my shorter book in a month.</p>
+
+<p>A dull, heavy month, grubbing in the kitchen, sewing,
+cleaning house, and trying to like my duty.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. S. takes a great fancy to May; sends her flowers,
+offers to pay for her to go to the new Art School, and arranges
+everything delightfully for her. She is a fortunate
+girl, and always finds some one to help her as she wants
+to be helped. Wish I could do the same, but suppose as
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">157</a></span>
+I never do that it is best for me to work and wait and do
+all for myself.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Storrs, D.D., wrote for a sketch for his little paper,
+"The Drum Beat," to be printed during the Brooklyn
+Sanitary Fair. A very cordial, pleasant letter, which I
+answered by a little sketch called "A Hospital Lamp."
+He sent me another friendly letter, and all the daily
+papers as they came out. A very gentlemanly D.D. is
+Dr. Storrs.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The "Hospital Sketches" were fully entitled to
+their wide and rapid popularity; and for the first
+time perhaps Miss Alcott felt sure of her vocation,
+and knew that it would bring at last the success
+which would enable her to carry out her plans for
+the family. And yet the battle was not over.
+She gained in reputation, was received with great
+attention in society, and lionized more than she
+cared for. But she still continued writing stories
+for the various papers at very low prices. Some
+of them were refused by the publishers, as she
+thinks, on account of the Antislavery sentiments
+expressed in them. Her "blood and thunder"
+stories continued in demand, and she wrote them
+rapidly, and was glad of the money they brought.
+But she had not yet found her true path, and
+she suffered at times from keen depression of
+spirits; for the way seemed long and dark, and
+she did not see the end. In more than one
+sense she struggled with Moods; for that unhappy
+book was still tossed from publisher to
+publisher, who gave her much praise, but no
+satisfaction.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">158</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="section"><i>Journal.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+A busy month getting settled. Freddy's birthday on
+the 28th, one year old. He had a dozen nice little presents
+laid out in a row when he came down to breakfast,
+and seemed quite overpowered with his riches. On being
+told to take what he liked best, he chose the picture of
+little Samuel which Father gave him, and the good pope
+was much delighted at that.</p>
+
+<p>Was asked for a poem for the great album at the St.
+Louis Fair, and sent "Thoreau's Flute" as my best.
+Also received a letter from the Philadelphia managers
+asking contributions for the paper to be printed at their
+Fair.</p>
+
+<p>Wrote nothing this month.</p>
+
+<p><i>April.</i>&ndash;At Father's request I sent "Moods" to T.,
+and got a very friendly note from him, saying they had
+so many books on hand that they could do nothing about
+it now. So I put it back on the shelf, and set about my
+other work. Don't despair, "Moods," we'll try again
+by and by!</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+[Alas! we did try again.&ndash;<span class="smcap">L. M. A.</span>]
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Wrote the first part of a story for Professor C. called
+"Love and Loyalty,"&ndash;flat, patriotic, and done to order.
+Wrote a new fairy tale, "Nelly's Hospital."</p>
+
+<p><i>May.</i>&ndash;Had a letter from Mrs. Gildersleeve, asking
+for my photograph and a sketch of my life, for a book
+called "Heroic Women" which she was getting up.
+Respectfully refused. Also a letter and flattering notice
+from "Ruth Hall," and a notice from a Chicago critic
+with a long extract from "Rose Family." My tale
+"Enigmas" came out, and was much liked by readers
+of sensation rubbish. Having got my $50, I was
+resigned.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">159</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>June.</i>&ndash;To town with Father on the 3d to a Fraternity
+Festival to which we were invited. Had a fine
+time, and was amazed to find my "'umble" self made a
+lion of, set up among the great ones, stared at, waited
+upon, complimented, and made to hold a "layvee"
+whether I would or no; for Mr. S. kept bringing up
+people to be introduced till I was tired of shaking hands
+and hearing the words "Hospital Sketches" uttered in
+every tone of interest, admiration, and respect. Mr.
+Wasson, Whipple, Alger, Clarke, Calthrop, and Chadwick
+came to speak to me, and many more whose names
+I forget. It was a very pleasant surprise and a new experience.
+I liked it, but think a small dose quite as
+much as is good for me; for after sitting in a corner
+and grubbing <i>à la</i> Cinderella, it rather turns one's head
+to be taken out and be treated like a princess all of
+a sudden.</p>
+
+<p><i>August.</i>&ndash;Went to Gloucester for a fortnight with May
+at the M.'s. Found a family of six pretty daughters, a
+pleasant mother, and a father who was an image of one
+of the Cheeryble brothers. Had a jolly time boating,
+driving, charading, dancing, and picnicking. One mild
+moonlight night a party of us camped out on Norman's
+Woe, and had a splendid time, lying on the rocks singing,
+talking, sleeping, and rioting up and down. Had a
+fine time, and took coffee at all hours. The moon rose
+and set beautifully, and the sunrise was a picture I never
+shall forget.</p>
+
+<p>Wrote another fairy tale, "Jamie's Wonder Book,"
+and sent the "Christmas Stories" to W. &amp; W., with
+some lovely illustrations by Miss Greene. They liked
+the book very much, and said they would consult about
+publishing it, though their hands were full.</p>
+
+<p><i>September.</i>&ndash;Mrs. D. made a visit, and getting hold
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">160</a></span>
+of my old book of stories liked them, and insisted on
+taking "Moods" home to read. As she had had experience
+with publishers, was a good business woman, and
+an excellent critic, I let her have it, hoping she might
+be able to give the poor old book the lift it has been
+waiting for all these years. She took it, read it, and
+admired it heartily, saying that "no American author
+had showed so much promise; that the plan was admirable;
+the execution unequal, but often magnificent;
+that I had a great field before me, and my book must be
+got out."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. D. sent it to L., who liked it exceedingly, and
+asked me to shorten it if I could, else it would be too
+large to sell well. Was much disappointed, said I'd
+never touch it again, and tossed it into the spidery little
+cupboard where it had so often returned after fruitless
+trips.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>At last, in the excited hours of a wakeful night,
+Miss Alcott thought of a way to curtail the objectionable
+length of the book, and she spent a fortnight
+in remodelling it,&ndash;as she then thought improving
+it greatly,&ndash;although she afterwards returned to
+her original version as decidedly the best. The
+book was brought out, and she had the pleasure
+of presenting the first copy to her mother on her
+sixty fourth birthday. She had various projects in
+her mind, one of which was a novel, with two characters
+in it like Jean Paul Richter and Goethe. It
+is needless to say this was never carried out. Miss
+Alcott had great powers of observation, and a keen
+insight into character as it fell within her own
+range of life, but she had not the creative imagination
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">161</a></span>
+which could paint to the life the subtlest
+workings of thought and feeling in natures foreign
+to her own experience. She could not have portrayed
+such men: but who could?</p>
+
+<p class="section"><i>Journal.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+<i>October.</i>&ndash;Wrote several chapters of "Work," and
+was getting on finely, when, as I lay awake one night,
+a way to shorten and arrange "Moods" came into my
+head. The whole plan laid itself smoothly out before
+me, and I slept no more that night, but worked on it as
+busily as if mind and body had nothing to do with
+one another. Up early, and began to write it all over
+again. The fit was on strong, and for a fortnight I hardly
+ate, slept, or stirred, but wrote, wrote, like a thinking
+machine in full operation. When it was all rewritten
+without copying, I found it much improved, though I'd
+taken out ten chapters, and sacrificed many of my favorite
+things; but being resolved to make it simple, strong,
+and short, I let everything else go, and hoped the book
+would be better for it.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+[It wasn't. 1867.]
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Sent it to L.; and a week after, as I sat hammering
+away at the parlor carpet,&ndash;dusty, dismal, and tired,&ndash;a
+letter came from L. praising the story more enthusiastically
+than ever, thanking me for the improvements, and
+proposing to bring out the book at once. Of course
+we all had a rapture, and I finished my work "double
+quick," regardless of weariness, toothache, or blue
+devils.</p>
+
+<p>Next day I went to Boston and saw L. A brisk, business-like
+man who seemed in earnest and said many
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">162</a></span>
+complimentary things about "Hospital Sketches" and
+its author. It was agreed to bring out the book immediately,
+and Mrs. D. offered to read the proof with me.</p>
+
+<p>Was glad to have the old thing under way again, but
+didn't quite believe it would ever come out after so
+many delays and disappointments.</p>
+
+<p>Sewed for Nan and Mary, heard Anna Dickinson and
+liked her. Read "Emily Chester" and thought it an
+unnatural story, yet just enough like "Moods" in a few
+things to make me sorry that it came out now.</p>
+
+<p>On Mother's sixty-fourth birthday I gave her "Moods"
+with this inscription,&ndash;"To Mother, my earliest patron,
+kindest critic, dearest reader, I gratefully and affectionately
+inscribe my first romance."</p>
+
+<p>A letter from T. asking me to write for the new magazine
+"Our Young Folks," and saying that "An Hour"
+was in the hands of the editors.</p>
+
+<p><i>November.</i>&ndash;Proof began to come, and the chapters
+seemed small, stupid, and no more my own in print. I
+felt very much afraid that I'd ventured too much and
+should be sorry for it. But Emerson says "that what
+is true for your own private heart is true for others." So
+I wrote from my own consciousness and observation and
+hope it may suit some one and at least do no harm.</p>
+
+<p>I sent "An Hour" to the "Commonwealth" and it
+was considered <i>excellent</i>. Also wrote a Christmas Story,
+"Mrs. Todger's Teapot." T. asked to see the other fairy
+tales and designs and poems, as he liked "Nelly's Hospital"
+so much.</p>
+
+<p>On my thirty-second birthday received Richter's Life
+from Nan and enjoyed it so much that I planned a story
+of two men something like Jean Paul and Goethe, only
+more every-day people. Don't know what will come of
+it, but if "Moods" goes well "Success" shall follow.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">163</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Sewed for Wheeler's colored company and sent them
+comfort-bags, towels, books, and bed-sacks. Mr. W.
+sent me some relics from Point Look Out and a pleasant
+letter.</p>
+
+<p><i>December.</i>&ndash;Earnings, 1864,&ndash;$476.</p>
+
+<p>On Christmas Eve received ten copies of "Moods"
+and a friendly note from L. The book was hastily got
+out, but on the whole suited me, and as the inside was
+considered good I let the outside go. For a week wherever
+I went I saw, heard, and talked "Moods;" found
+people laughing or crying over it, and was continually
+told how well it was going, how much it was liked, how
+fine a thing I'd done. I was glad but not proud, I
+think, for it has always seemed as if "Moods" grew in
+spite of me, and that I had little to do with it except to
+put into words the thoughts that would not let me rest
+until I had. Don't know why.</p>
+
+<p>By Saturday the first edition was gone and the second
+ready. Several booksellers ordered a second hundred,
+the first went so fast, and friends could not get it but had
+to wait till more were ready.</p>
+
+<p>Spent a fortnight in town at Mary's, shopping, helping
+Nan, and having plays. Heard Emerson once. Gave
+C. "Mrs. Todger's Teapot," which was much liked.
+Sent L. the rest of his story and got $50. S. paid $35
+for "An Hour." R. promised $100 for "Love and
+Loyalty," so my year closes with a novel well-launched
+and about $300 to pay debts and make the family happy
+and comfortable till spring. Thank God for the success
+of the old year, the promise of the new!
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The sale of "Moods" was at first very rapid;
+for "Hospital Sketches" had created an interest in
+the author, and welcome recognition came to her
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">164</a></span>
+from many sources. She received a handsome
+sum from the copyright, and "the year closed with
+enough to make her feel free of debt and the
+family comfortable." She ends the year's journal
+triumphantly.</p>
+
+<p>The following year was spent mostly in Boston.
+Miss Alcott went into society and enjoyed the
+friendly attentions of men and women of ability.
+She continued to write stories for money, but now
+received fifty, seventy-five, or a hundred dollars for
+them. She frequently took part in theatrical performances
+for charities. She was always brilliant
+and successful and enjoyed them with something
+of her early zest.</p>
+
+<p>Her long story of "Success," or "Work," as she
+afterwards named it, was still in her mind, but she
+did not finish it at this time.</p>
+
+<p class="section"><i>Journal.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+<i>January, 1865.</i>&ndash;The month began with some plays
+at the town hall to raise funds for the Lyceum. We did
+very well and some Scenes from Dickens were excellent.
+Father lectured and preached a good deal, being asked
+like a regular minister and paid like one. He enjoyed
+it very much and said good things on the new religion
+which we ought to and shall have. May had orders
+from Canada and England for her pretty pen-and-ink
+work and did well in that line.</p>
+
+<p>Notices of "Moods" came from all directions, and
+though people didn't understand my ideas owing to my
+shortening the book so much, the notices were mostly
+favorable and gave quite as much praise as was good for
+me. I had letters from Mrs. Parker, Chadwick, Sanborn,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">165</a></span>
+E. B. Greene, the artist, T. W. Higginson and some
+others. All friendly and flattering.</p>
+
+<p>Saw more notices of "Moods" and received more
+letters, several from strangers and some very funny.
+People seemed to think the book finely written, very
+promising, wise, and interesting; but some fear it isn't
+moral, because it speaks freely of marriage.</p>
+
+<p>Wrote a little on poor old "Work" but being tired of
+novels, I soon dropped it and fell back on rubbishy tales,
+for they pay best, and I can't afford to starve on praise,
+when sensation stories are written in half the time and
+keep the family cosey.</p>
+
+<p>Earned $75 this month.</p>
+
+<p>I went to Boston and heard Father lecture before the
+Fraternity. Met Henry James, Sr., there, and he asked me
+to come and dine, also called upon me with Mrs. James.
+I went, and was treated like the Queen of Sheba. Henry
+Jr. wrote a notice of "Moods" for the "North American,"
+and was very friendly. Being a literary youth he
+gave me advice, as if he had been eighty and I a girl.
+My curly crop made me look young, though thirty-one.</p>
+
+<p>Acted in some public plays for the N. E. Women's
+Hospital and had a pleasant time.</p>
+
+<p>L. asked me to be a regular contributor to his new
+paper, and I agreed if he'd pay beforehand; he said he
+would, and bespoke two tales at once, $50 each, longer
+ones as often as I could, and whatever else I liked to
+send. So here's another source of income and Alcott
+brains seem in demand, whereat I sing "Hallyluyer"
+and fill up my inkstand.</p>
+
+<p><i>April.</i>&ndash;Richmond taken on the 2d. Hurrah! Went
+to Boston and enjoyed the grand jollification. Saw
+Booth again in Hamlet and thought him finer than ever.
+Had a pleasant walk and talk with Phillips.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">166</a></span></p>
+
+<p>On the 15th in the midst of the rejoicing came the
+sad news of the President's assassination, and the city went
+into mourning. I am glad to have seen such a strange
+and sudden change in a nation's feelings. Saw the great
+procession, and though few colored men were in it, one
+was walking arm in arm with a white gentleman, and I
+exulted thereat.</p>
+
+<p>Nan went to housekeeping in a pleasant house at
+Jamaica Plain, and I went to help her move. It was
+beautiful to see how Freddy enjoyed the freedom, after
+being cooped up all winter, and how every morning,
+whether it rained or shone, he looked out and said, with
+a smile of perfect satisfaction, "Oh, pretty day!"&ndash;for
+all days <i>were</i> pretty to him, dear little soul!</p>
+
+<p>Had a fine letter from Conway, and a notice in the
+"Reader,"&ndash;an English paper. He advised sending
+copies to several of the best London papers. English
+people don't understand "transcendental literature," as
+they call "Moods." My next book shall have no <i>ideas</i>
+in it, only facts, and the people shall be as ordinary as
+possible; then critics will say it's all right. I seem to
+have been playing with edge tools without knowing it.
+The relations between Warwick, Moor, and Sylvia are
+pronounced impossible; yet a case of the sort exists, and
+the woman came and asked me how I knew it. I did
+<i>not</i> know or guess, but perhaps felt it, without any other
+guide, and unconsciously put the thing into my book, for
+I changed the ending about that time. It was meant to
+show a life affected by <i>moods</i>, not a discussion of marriage,
+which I knew little about, except observing that
+very few were happy ones.</p>
+
+<p><i>June.</i>&ndash;Busy writing, keeping house, and sewing. Company
+often; and strangers begin to come, demanding to
+see the authoress, who does not like it, and is porcupiny.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">167</a></span>
+Admire the books, but let the woman alone, if you
+please, dear public!</p>
+
+<p>On the 24th Anna's second boy was born, at half-past
+three in the morning,&ndash;Lizzie's birthday. A fine, stout,
+little lad, who took to life kindly, and seemed to find the
+world all right. Freddy could not understand it at first,
+and told his mother that "the babee" had got his place.
+But he soon loved the "tunning sing," and would stand
+watching it with a grave face, till some funny little idea
+found vent in still funnier words or caresses.</p>
+
+<p>Nan was very happy with her two boys, so was John,
+though both had wished for a daughter.</p>
+
+<p><i>July.</i>&ndash;While at Nan's Mrs. B. asked me if I would
+go abroad with her sister. I said "yes;" but as I
+spoke neither French nor German, she didn't think I'd
+do. I was sorry; but being used to disappointment,
+went to work for Nan, and bided my time, which came
+very soon.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>To Anna.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+[Date uncertain.]</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My Lass</span>,&ndash;This must be a frivolous and dressy letter,
+because you always want to know about our clothes, and
+we have been at it lately. May's bonnet is a sight for
+gods and men. Black and white outside, with a great
+cockade boiling over the front to meet a red ditto surging
+from the interior, where a red rainbow darts across
+the brow, and a surf of white lace foams up on each side.
+I expect to hear that you and John fell flat in the dust
+with horror on beholding it.</p>
+
+<p>My bonnet has nearly been the death of me; for,
+thinking some angel might make it possible for me to go
+to the mountains, I felt a wish for a tidy hat, after wearing
+an old one till it fell in tatters from my brow. Mrs.
+P. promised a bit of gray silk, and I built on that; but
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">168</a></span>
+when I went for it I found my hat was founded on sand;
+for she let me down with a crash, saying she wanted the
+silk herself, and kindly offering me a flannel petticoat
+instead. I was in woe for a spell, having one dollar in
+the world, and scorning debt even for that prop of life,
+a "bonnet." Then I roused myself, flew to Dodge,
+demanded her cheapest bonnet, found one for a dollar,
+took it, and went home wondering if the sky would open
+and drop me a trimming. I am simple in my tastes, but
+a naked straw bonnet is a little too severely chaste even
+for me. Sky did not open; so I went to the "Widow
+Cruise's oil bottle"&ndash;my ribbon box&ndash;which, by the
+way, is the eighth wonder of the world, for nothing is
+ever put in, yet I always find some old dud when all
+other hopes fail. From this salvation bin I extracted the
+remains of the old white ribbon (used up, as I thought,
+two years ago), and the bits of black lace that have
+adorned a long line of departed hats. Of the lace I
+made a dish, on which I thriftily served up bows of ribbon,
+like meat on toast. Inside put the lace bow, which
+adorns my form anywhere when needed. A white flower
+A. H. gave me sat airily on the brim,&ndash;fearfully unbecoming,
+but pretty in itself, and in keeping. Strings are
+yet to be evolved from chaos. I feel that they await me
+somewhere in the dim future. Green ones <i>pro tem.</i> hold
+this wonder of the age upon my gifted brow, and I survey
+my hat with respectful awe. I trust you will also, and
+see in it another great example of the power of mind
+over matter, and the convenience of a colossal brain in
+the primeval wrestle with the unruly atoms which have
+harassed the feminine soul ever since Eve clapped on a
+modest fig-leaf and did up her hair with a thorn for a
+hairpin.</p>
+
+<p>I feel very moral to-day, having done a big wash alone,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">169</a></span>
+baked, swept the house, picked the hops, got dinner, and
+written a chapter in "Moods." May gets exhausted
+with work, though she walks six miles without a murmur.</p>
+
+<p>It is dreadfully dull, and I work so that I may not
+"brood." Nothing stirring but the wind; nothing to see
+but dust; no one comes but rose-bugs; so I grub and
+scold at the "A." because it takes a poor fellow's tales
+and keeps 'em years without paying for 'em. If I think
+of my woes I fall into a vortex of debts, dishpans, and
+despondency awful to see. So I say, "every path has
+its puddle," and try to play gayly with the tadpoles in
+<i>my</i> puddle, while I wait for the Lord to give me a lift, or
+some gallant Raleigh to spread his velvet cloak and fetch
+me over dry shod.</p>
+
+<p>L. W. adds to my woe by writing of the splendors of
+Gorham, and says, "When tired, run right up here and
+find rest among these everlasting hills." All very aggravating
+to a young woman with one dollar, no bonnet,
+half a gown, and a discontented mind. It's a mercy
+the mountains are everlasting, for it will be a century
+before <i>I</i> get there. Oh, me, such is life!</p>
+
+<p>Now I've done my Jeremiad, and I will go on twanging
+my harp in the "willow tree."</p>
+
+<p>You ask what I am writing. Well, two books half
+done, nine stories simmering, and stacks of fairy stories
+moulding on the shelf. I can't do much, as I have no
+time to get into a real good vortex. It unfits me for
+work, worries Ma to see me look pale, eat nothing, and
+ply by night. These extinguishers keep genius from
+burning as I could wish, and I give up ever hoping to
+do anything unless luck turns for your</p>
+
+<p class="sig">
+<span class="smcap">Lu</span>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center p6"><span class="b1">CHAPTER VIII.</span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">170</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="center">EUROPE AND LITTLE WOMEN.</p>
+<p class="p2 center">LITTLE WOMEN.</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="stanza">
+Four little chests all in a row,<br />
+<span class="i1">Dim with dust and worn by time,</span><br />
+All fashioned and filled long ago<br />
+<span class="i1">By children now in their prime.</span><br />
+Four little keys hung side by side,<br />
+<span class="i1">With faded ribbons, brave and gay</span><br />
+When fastened there with childish pride<br />
+<span class="i1">Long ago on a rainy day.</span><br />
+Four little names, one on each lid,<br />
+<span class="i1">Carved out by a boyish hand;</span><br />
+And underneath there lieth hid<br />
+<span class="i1">Histories of the happy band</span><br />
+Once playing here, and pausing oft<br />
+<span class="i1">To hear the sweet refrain</span><br />
+That came and went on the roof aloft<br />
+<span class="i1">In the falling summer rain.</span></p>
+
+<hr class="l15" />
+
+<p>Four little chests all in a row,<br />
+<span class="i1">Dim with dust and worn by time:</span><br />
+Four women, taught by weal and woe<br />
+<span class="i1">To love and labor in their prime;</span><br />
+Four sisters parted for an hour,&ndash;<br />
+<span class="i1">None lost, one only gone before,</span><br />
+Made by love's immortal power<br />
+<span class="i1">Nearest and dearest evermore.</span><br />
+Oh! when these hidden stores of ours<br />
+<span class="i1">Lie open to the Father's sight,</span><br />
+May they be rich in golden hours,&ndash;<br />
+<span class="i1">Deeds that show fairer for the light,</span><br />
+Deeds whose brave music long shall ring<br />
+<span class="i1">Like a spirit-stirring strain,</span><br />
+Souls that shall gladly soar and sing<br />
+<span class="i1">In the long sunshine, after rain.</span><br /></p>
+</div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">171</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="p2"><span class="dropcap">T</span>HE years which followed the war and Miss
+Alcott's experience as a hospital nurse were
+rather sad and anxious from many causes. Louisa
+felt deeply the loss of one sister by death and the
+separation from another by marriage. The success
+of "Hospital Sketches" and a few other stories
+published about the same time had given her confidence
+in her powers and hopes of a successful future.
+But for nearly five years she accomplished nothing
+which met with equal favor. The reception of the
+novel "Moods," in which she thought she had expressed
+her best life, was not cheering to her; and
+she had become wholly dissatisfied with the sensational
+stories, which formed the most ready resource
+for earning money. Her health was seriously injured
+by the fever from which she suffered in the
+hospital, and she had no longer the physical energy
+to sustain the unceasing activity of her brain.</p>
+
+<p>Under these difficulties she naturally desired a
+change of circumstances; and the old longing for
+a journey to Europe&ndash;which she had felt strongly
+in her youth, and which, like all Americans of culture,
+she felt more and more as time passed on&ndash;became
+her ruling desire. She was very fond
+of new scenes and variety of people, and she
+often expressed a wish to live many years in
+Europe.</p>
+
+<p>The circumstances of the family were not yet
+such as to justify Louisa, in her own eyes, in
+taking her earnings for the desired trip. But in
+1865 an opportunity was offered her to go to
+Europe as companion to an invalid lady. From
+her experience in nursing&ndash;for which she had a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">172</a></span>
+natural gift&ndash;she and her friends thought her
+suited to the position, and advised her acceptance
+of the offer.</p>
+
+<p>Although devotedly kind, unselfish, and generous,
+Louisa had not the temperament suited to the
+needs of a nervous invalid. She was impetuous
+and impatient, and her own life was too strong
+within her and too earnest in its cravings, for her
+to restrain her moods and actions within the narrow
+limits of a companion's service. She found even
+what she recognized as fair services wearisome and
+distasteful, and sometimes chafed severely under
+what seemed unnecessary demands on her time,
+strength, and patience. Looking back on this experience
+in later years, she recognized these facts,
+and wrote in 1885: "Now, being a nervous invalid
+myself, I understand what seemed whims, selfishness,
+and folly in others."</p>
+
+<p>Louisa finally decided to leave her companions
+and go on alone to Paris and England, where she
+would find many of her own and her father's friends.
+At Vevay she had made the acquaintance of a
+young Polish lad, whom she found very interesting,
+and who was the original of the charming Laurie in
+"Little Women." He met her again in Paris, and
+contributed greatly to the pleasure of her stay there.
+He afterwards came to America, and visited her;
+but finally returned to his own country.</p>
+
+<p>The journal gives a sufficient account of her life
+while on this journey. I have no letters written
+at this time, as she wished all her family letters
+destroyed. Her few weeks in London passed very
+happily. Her wide reading in English history
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">173</a></span>
+and in contemporary fiction, especially the works
+of Dickens and Thackeray, filled London with interesting
+associations, and she enjoyed thoroughly
+her free rambles through the old city, as well as
+the interesting people, who received her with great
+kindness.</p>
+
+<p>That Louisa might have these few weeks of
+entire relaxation and enjoyment, her mother had
+been obliged to borrow means for the support
+of the family; and Louisa was very anxious to
+clear off this debt like all others. She was very
+exact in pecuniary matters. Money to her was
+not an end, but a most necessary means. She
+paid every debt that her father had incurred,
+even though outlawed by time. It is often asked
+whether she ever sold her beautiful hair, as represented
+in "Little Women." The deed was never
+really done; but she and her sisters always held this
+treasure as a possible resource in case of need; and
+Louisa once says in her journal, "I will pay my
+debts, if I have to sell my hair to do it." She even
+went so far as to inquire of a barber as to its money
+value.</p>
+
+<p class="section"><i>Journal.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+<i>1865.</i>&ndash;Mr. W., hearing that I was something of a
+nurse and wanted to travel, proposed my going with his
+invalid daughter. I agreed, though I had my doubts.
+But every one said "Go;" so after a week of worry I
+did go. On the 19th we sailed in the "China." I could
+not realize that my long-desired dream was coming true;
+and fears that I might not see all the dear home faces
+when I came back made my heart very full as we steamed
+down the harbor and Boston vanished.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">174</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Was not very sick, but uncomfortable all the way, and
+found the Ladies' Saloon my only refuge till we were
+nearly across; enjoyed intervals of quiet, and had many
+fine glimpses of the sea in its various moods, sunsets and
+sunrises, fogs, icebergs, rain-storms, and summer calms.
+No very pleasant people on board; so I read, took notes,
+and <i>wiled</i> away the long days as I best could.</p>
+
+<p>We had a very quiet and quick passage of nine days,
+and on Saturday, the 29th, steamed up the Mersey at
+dawn, and got to Liverpool at nine. I was heartily glad
+to set my feet on the solid earth, and thought I'd never
+go to sea again; rested, and looked about a little.</p>
+
+<p><i>August.</i>&ndash;Went up to London, and there spent four
+dull, drizzly days. I amused myself in my usual way,
+looking well about me, and writing down all I saw in my
+pocket-diary or letters. Went to the parks, Westminster
+Abbey, and some of the famous streets. I felt as if I'd
+got into a novel while going about in the places I'd read
+so much of; saw no one I knew, and thought English
+weather abominable.</p>
+
+<p>On the 5th to Dover through a lovely green country;
+took steamer there to Ostende; but was ill all the way,
+and saw nothing but a basin; spent two days at a queer
+hotel near the fine promenade, which was a very foreign
+and brilliant scene. To Brussels on the 7th. Here I
+enjoyed much, for the quaint old city was full of interesting
+things. The ancient square, where the statues of
+Egmont and Horn stand, was my delight; for the old
+Dutch houses were still standing, and everything was so
+new and strange I wanted to stay a month.</p>
+
+<p>To Cologne on the 9th, and the country we passed
+through was like a big picture-book. The city was very
+hot, dirty, and evil-smelling. We saw the Cathedral, got
+eau de Cologne, and very gladly left after three days.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">175</a></span></p>
+
+<p>On the 12th began a lovely voyage up the Rhine. It
+was too beautiful to describe, so I shall not try; but I feel
+richer and better for that memorable day. We reached
+Coblenz at sunset, and I was up half the night enjoying
+the splendid view of the fortress opposite the town, the
+moonlit river with its bridges of boats, and troops crossing
+at midnight.</p>
+
+<p>A second day, still more charming, took us through
+the famous parts of the Rhine, and filled my head with
+pictures that will last all my life.</p>
+
+<p>Before we reached Bieberich we stopped at a queer
+little Dutch town, and had a queer time; for no one
+spoke English, and we only a little bad French. Passed
+the night there, and next day reached Schwalbach after
+many trials and tribulations.</p>
+
+<p>The place is a narrow valley shut in by high hills, the
+town being divided into two parts: the lowest is the
+original town&ndash;queer ale-houses, churches, and narrow
+streets; the upper part, near the springs, is full of fine
+hotels, pleasure-grounds, and bath-houses.</p>
+
+<p>We took lodgings with Madame Genth, wife of the
+Forestmeister (forest master),&ndash;two rooms,&ndash;and began
+the water under Dr. Genth's care.</p>
+
+<p>We walked a little, talked a little, bathed and rode a
+little, worried a good deal, and I grubbed away at French,
+with no master and small success.</p>
+
+<p><i>September.</i>&ndash;Still at Schwalbach, A. doing her best to
+get well, and I doing mine to help her. Rather dull
+days,&ndash;bathing, walking, and quiddling about.</p>
+
+<p>A letter from home on the 20th. All well and happy,
+thank God. It touched and pleased me very much to
+see how they missed me, thought of me, and longed to
+have me back. Every little thing I ever did for them is
+now so tenderly and gratefully remembered; and my absence
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">176</a></span>
+seems to have left so large a gap that I begin to
+realize how much I am to them in spite of all my faults.
+The letters made me very happy, and everything brightened
+immensely. A. got stronger, and when G. came on
+the 28th was able to start off next day on the way to
+Vevay, where we are to pass some weeks before we are
+to go to Nice.</p>
+
+<p>Went to Wiesbaden first, a pleasant, gay place, full of
+people. Saw the gambling hall and people playing, the
+fine grounds and drives, and then went on to Frankfort.
+Here I saw and enjoyed a good deal. The statues of
+Goethe, Schiller, Faust, Gutenberg, and Schaeffer are in
+the squares. Goethe's house is a tall, plain building, with
+each story projecting over the lower, and a Dutch roof;
+a marble slab over the front door recording the date of
+Goethe's birth. I took a look at it and wanted to go in,
+as it was empty, but there was no time. Some Americans
+said, "Who was Goethe, to fuss about?"</p>
+
+<p>Frankfort is a pleasant old city on the river, and I'm
+glad to have been there.</p>
+
+<p><i>October.</i>&ndash;On to Heidelberg, a charming old place
+surrounded by mountains. We went to the Castle and
+had a fine time roving about the ruins, looking at the
+view from the great terrace, admiring the quaint stone
+images of knights, saints, monsters, and angels, and visiting
+the big tun in the cellar by torchlight.</p>
+
+<p>The moon rose while we were there and completed the
+enchantment of the scene.</p>
+
+<p>The drive home was like looking at a picture-book, for
+the street was narrow, the carriage high, and we looked
+in at the windows, seeing pretty scenes. Here, men drinking
+beer in a Dutch-looking room; there, little children
+going to bed; a pair of lovers with a pot of flowers between
+them; an old woman brooding over the fire like a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">177</a></span>
+witch; and in one room some one lay dead surrounded
+by candles.</p>
+
+<p>From H. we went to Baden-Baden, a very fashionable
+place. The old château was my delight, and we passed
+a morning going up and down to visit it. Next to Freiburg,
+where the Cathedral delighted me extremely, being
+full of old carved images and grotesque designs; the
+market-place with the fountains, statues, water running
+beside the streets, and queer costumes.</p>
+
+<p>Basle came next, and a firemen's fête made the city
+very gay. The hotel was on the river, and moonlight
+made a Venetian scene for me with the lighted bridge,
+covered with gondola-like boats and music from both
+shores. I walk while A. rests, and enjoy sights from my
+window when she is asleep, as I cannot leave her at
+night.</p>
+
+<p>On our way to Berne I caught my first glimpse of the
+Alps, October 8th, mother's birthday. Tall, white, spectral-looking
+shapes they were, towering above the green
+hills and valleys that lay between. Clouds half hid them,
+and the sun glittered on the everlasting snow that lay
+upon their tops. Sharp, strange outlines against the sky
+they became as night came on, and in the morning I had
+a fine view of the Jungfrau, the Blümlis, the Wetterhorn,
+and Mönch from the terrace at Berne.</p>
+
+<p>B. was a queer old city, but I saw little of it except the
+bears and shops. No time.</p>
+
+<p>Freiburg No. 2 was the most romantic place we have
+been in. The town is built in a wide crevice or valley
+between two steep hills, so that suspension bridges are
+hung from height to height over a winding river and the
+streets of the town. Watch-towers stand all about on the
+hills, and give a very romantic air to the place. The hotel
+overhung the valley, and from our rooms we went out
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">178</a></span>
+along a balcony to a wide, paved platform with a fountain
+in the middle, an aviary, and flowers all about. The view
+down the valley was charming,&ndash;the airy bridges, green
+or rocky slopes, busy squares below, cows and goats feeding
+on the hills, the towers, the old church, and a lovely
+blue sky overhead. I longed to sketch it.</p>
+
+<p>At Lausanne we stopped at the Hotel Gibbon and saw
+the garden where the great historian wrote his history.
+The view of the lake was lovely, with rocky mountains
+opposite, little towns at their feet, vineyards along the
+hillsides, and pretty boats on the lake, the water of which
+was the loveliest blue.</p>
+
+<p>To Vevay at last,&ndash;a pleasant hour's sail to a very
+pleasant place. We took rooms at the Pension Victoria.</p>
+
+<p>Our landlady was an English woman who had married a
+French courier. Very kind sort of people: rooms comfortable,
+meals good, and surroundings agreeable. Our
+fellow-boarders varied from time to time,&ndash;an English
+doctor and wife, a fine old lady with them who looked
+like Marie Antoinette; two Scotch ladies named Glennie,
+very pleasant, well-bred ladies who told me about Beattie
+who was their grandfather, and Walter Scott whom they
+knew; Colonel &ndash;&ndash; and family, rebels, and very bitter
+and rude to us. Had queer times with them.</p>
+
+<p>I did not enjoy the life nor the society after the first
+novelty wore off, for I missed my freedom and grew very
+tired of the daily worry which I had to go through with.</p>
+
+<p><i>November.</i>&ndash;(Laurie) Took some French lessons with
+Mademoiselle Germain and learned a little, but found it
+much harder than I thought, and often got discouraged,
+I was so stupid. A. got much better, and some new
+people came. The doctor and his set left, and in their
+place came a Russian family, an Irish lady and daughter,
+and a young Pole with whom we struck up a friendship.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">179</a></span>
+Ladislas Wisinewski (Laurie) was very gay and agreeable,
+and being ill and much younger we petted him. He
+played beautifully, and was very anxious to learn English,
+so we taught him that and he taught us French.</p>
+
+<p>On my birthday A. gave me a pretty painting of Chillon.
+Ladislas promised me the notes of the Polish National
+Hymn, and played me his sweetest airs as a present after
+wishing me "All good and happiness on earth, and a high
+place in Heaven as my reward." It was a mild, windy
+day, very like me in its fitful changes of sunshine and
+shade. Usually I am sad on my birthday, but not this
+time; for though nothing very pleasant happened, I was
+happy and hopeful and enjoyed everything with unusual
+relish. I feel rather old with my thirty-three years, but
+have much to keep me young, and hope I shall not grow
+older in heart as the time goes on. I thought much of
+dear father on this his sixty-sixth birthday, and missed
+the little ceremony that always takes place on these occasions.
+Hope I shall be safely at home before another
+November comes.</p>
+
+<p><i>December.</i>&ndash;Laurie very interesting and good. Pleasant
+walks and talks with him in the château garden and
+about Vevay. A lovely sail on the lake, and much fun
+giving English and receiving French lessons. Every one
+very kind, and the house quite home-like. Much indecision
+about going to Nice owing to the cholera. At last
+we decided to go, and started on the 6th to meet G. at
+Geneva. L. went with us to Lausanne, kissed our hands
+at parting, and went back to V. disconsolate. Sad times
+for all, but we journeyed away to Nice and tried to forget
+our troubles. A flat uninteresting country till we approached
+the sea.</p>
+
+<p>Nice very pleasant, climate lovely, and sea beautiful.
+We lived in our own rooms, and saw no one but the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">180</a></span>
+doctor and Consul and a few American callers. A
+pleasant drive every day on the Promenade,&ndash;a wide
+curving wall along the bay with hotels and Pensions on
+one side and a flowery walk on the other. Gay carriages
+and people always to be seen; shops full of fine
+and curious things; picturesque castles, towers, and walls
+on one hill; a lighthouse on each point of the moon-shaped
+bay; boats and our fleet on the water; gardens,
+olive and orange-trees, queer cacti, and palms
+all about on the land; monks, priests, soldiers, peasants,
+etc.</p>
+
+<p>A dull Christmas within doors, though a lovely day
+without. Windows open, roses blooming, air mild, and
+city gay. With friends, health, and a little money how
+jolly one might be in this perpetual summer.</p>
+
+<p><i>January, 1866.</i>&ndash;Nice. Rained all New Year's day,
+and I spent it sewing, writing, and reading an American
+newspaper which came in the morning, my only present.
+I hoped for letters but got none, and was much disappointed.
+A. was ill, so I had to receive in American style.
+Mr. Perkins, Cooper, and the Consul called. At dinner
+we drank the healths of all at home, and did not forget
+Laddie (Laurie).</p>
+
+<p>A quiet, dull time generally, driving sometimes, walking
+little, and writing letters. Now and then I got a pleasant
+walk by myself away among the vineyards and olive-trees
+or down into the queer old city. I soon tired of the
+fashionable Promenade, for every one was on exhibition.
+Sometimes before or after the fashionable hour I walked
+there and enjoyed the sea and sky.</p>
+
+<p>A ball was given at our Pension and we went. A
+queer set,&ndash;Russians, Spaniards, French, English,
+Americans, Italians, Jews, and Sandwich Islanders. They
+danced wildly, dressed gayly, and sounded as if the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">181</a></span>
+"confusion of tongues" was come again. A few pleasant
+Americans called on us, but we were very lonely and
+uncomfortable.</p>
+
+<p>Decided to take an apartment No. 10 Rue Geoffredo,
+paying six hundred francs for ten weeks, six rooms, all
+large and handsome. Dr. P. got us a good maid, and
+on the 17th we went to our new quarters. Madame
+Rolande was French governess for six years to Victoria's
+children, and was a funny old party.</p>
+
+<p>Couldn't sleep at all for some nights, and felt very
+poorly, for my life didn't suit me and the air was too
+exciting.</p>
+
+<p><i>February.</i>&ndash;Got on excellently with our housekeeping,
+for Julie proved a treasure and we were very comfortable.
+Had many lovely drives, and saw something of Nice and
+its beauties. To Cimies, an old Franciscan monastery
+near the ruins of a Roman amphitheatre. The convent
+stands where a temple of Diana once stood, and is surrounded
+by ancient ilex trees. A monk in his cowl,
+brown robe, sandals, and rope girdle did the honors of
+the church, which was dark and full of bad pictures. San
+Andre with its château and grotto, Villa Franca in a
+lovely little bay, the wood of Var where the daisies grew,
+Valrosa, a villa in a rose garden, and the Porte were all
+interesting. Also Castle Hill, which overlooks the town.</p>
+
+<p>I decided to go home in May, though A. wants me to
+stay. I'm tired of it, and as she is not going to travel,
+my time is too valuable to be wasted.</p>
+
+<p>The carnival occurred. Funny, but not so fine a sight
+as I expected. Also went to the theatre to see "Lady
+Tartuffe." Had a pleasant time, though I couldn't understand
+much. The acting was so natural and good
+that I caught the plot, and with a little telling from
+Hosmer knew what was going on.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">182</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Wrote a little on three stories which would come into
+my head and worry me till I gave them a "vent."</p>
+
+<p>Good letters from home. All well and busy, and longing
+for me in the spring.</p>
+
+<p><i>March.</i>&ndash;A tedious month, which might have been
+quite the reverse had I been free to enjoy it in my own
+way. Read French, walked to my favorite places, and
+wrote letters when I found time.</p>
+
+<p>Went often to Valrosa, a lovely villa buried in roses.
+Got a wheeled chair and a man to draw it, then with
+books, lunch, and work, I tempted A. out into the woods,
+and we had some pleasant hours.</p>
+
+<p><i>April.</i>&ndash;Went to the Cathedral to see the Easter ceremonies.
+Fine music, the Gloria was sung, a Franciscan
+monk preached, the Bishop blessed every one, and was
+fussed over like a great doll. A very splendid scene.</p>
+
+<p>Saw Ristori twice, once in "Medea" and once in "Elizabeth."
+Never saw such acting; especially in Queen Bess,
+it was splendid, as she changes from the young, violent,
+coquettish woman to the peevish old crone dying with her
+crown on, vain, ambitious, and remorseful.</p>
+
+<p><i>May.</i>&ndash;On the first day of the month left A. and Nice
+and started alone for Paris, feeling as happy as a freed
+bird.</p>
+
+<p>A pleasant journey, Laddie waiting for me in Paris to
+take me to my room at Madame Dyne's. A very charming
+fortnight here; the days spent in seeing sights with
+my Laddie, the evenings in reading, writing, hearing "my
+boy" play, or resting. Saw all that I wished to see in a
+very pleasant way, and on the 17th reluctantly went to
+London.</p>
+
+<p>Passed a fortnight at a lovely old place on Wimbledon
+Common with the Conways, going to town with them to
+see the lions, Royal Exhibition, Hampton Court, Kensington
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">183</a></span>
+and British Museums, Crystal Palace, and many other
+pleasant places. But none were lovelier to me than the
+old farm-house with the thatched roof, the common of
+yellow gorse, larks going up in the morning, nightingales
+flying at night, hawthorne everywhere, and Richmond
+Park full of deer close by. Also Robin Hood's barn.</p>
+
+<p><i>June.</i>&ndash;Passed the first ten days of the month at
+Aubrey House with the Peter Taylors. A lovely English
+home with kind, pure, and friendly people. Saw many
+interesting persons,&ndash;Miss Cobbe, Jean Ingelow, Dr.
+Garrett, Madame Bodichon, Matilde Blinde, Mill, Bright,
+Gladstone, Hughes, and the rest at the House of Commons
+where Mr. T. took me.</p>
+
+<p>Went to a dinner-party or two, theatres, to hear Dickens
+read, a concert, <i>conversazione</i> and receptions, seeing
+English society, or rather one class of it, and liking what
+I saw.</p>
+
+<p>On the 11th went to board with Mrs. Travers in Westbourne
+Grove Terrace. A pleasant little room, plain
+living, and for society Mrs. T. and daughter, two sisters
+from Dublin, and ten young men,&ndash;barristers, clerks,
+ministers, and students. A guinea a week.</p>
+
+<p>Very free and jolly, roaming about London all day,
+dining late and resting, chatting, music, or fun in the
+evening.</p>
+
+<p>Saw the Tower, Windsor, Parks, Gardens, and all manner
+of haunts of famous men and women,&ndash;Milton's house,
+Johnson's in Bolt Court, Lamb's, Sairy Gamp's, Saracen's
+Head, the Charter House where Thackeray was when a
+lad, Furnival's Inn where Dickens wrote Pickwick, Bacon's
+Walk, and endless memorable sights. St. Paul's I liked
+better than Notre Dame.</p>
+
+<p><i>July.</i>&ndash;At Mrs. Travers's till the 7th. Saw Routledge
+about "Moods." He took it, would like another book,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">184</a></span>
+and was very friendly. Said good-by all round, and at
+six <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> on the 7th left for Liverpool with Mr. W., who
+saw to my luggage and went part way. Reached the
+"Africa" safely.</p>
+
+<p>A trip of fourteen stormy, dull, long, sick days, but at
+last at eleven at night we sailed up the harbor in the
+moonlight, and I saw dear John waiting for me on the
+wharf. Slept on board, and next day reached home at
+noon to find Father at the station, Nan and babies at the
+gate, May flying wildly round the lawn, and Marmee crying
+at the door. Into her arms I went, and was at home
+at last.</p>
+
+<p>Happy days, talking and enjoying one another. Many
+people came to see me, and all said I was much improved;
+of which I was glad, as there was, is, and always will be
+room for it.</p>
+
+<p>Found Mother looking old, sick, and tired; Father as
+placid as ever; Nan poorly, but blest in her babies; May
+full of plans, as usual; Freddy very stout and loving; and
+my Jack the dearest, prettiest, merriest baby boy that ever
+kissed and loved everybody.</p>
+
+<p><i>August.</i>&ndash;Soon fell to work on some stories, for things
+were, as I expected, behindhand when the money-maker
+was away. Found plenty to do, as orders from E., L.,
+"Independent," "U. S. C. S. Magazine," and several
+other offers waited for me. Wrote two long tales for L.
+and got $200 for them. One for E. for which he paid
+$75, also a bit of poetry for $5. He wanted a long
+story in twenty-four chapters, and I wrote it in a fortnight,&ndash;one
+hundred and eighty-five pages,&ndash;besides
+work, sewing, nursing, and company.</p>
+
+<p>Sent S. E. S. the first $100 on my account; could have
+sent $300, but it was needed, so I gave it up unwillingly,
+and must work away for the rest. Mother borrowed the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">185</a></span>
+money that I might stay longer and see England, as I had
+missed much while condemned to "hard work and solitary
+confinement for nine months," as she expressed it.</p>
+
+<p><i>September.</i>&ndash;Mother sick, did little with my pen. Got
+a girl, and devoted myself to Mother, writing after she was
+abed. In this way finished a long tale. But E. would
+not have it, saying it was too long and too sensational!</p>
+
+<p><i>November.</i>&ndash;Mother slowly mending. A sensible Western
+woman "rubbed" her, and did her a great deal of
+good. She left her room and seemed more like herself.
+I never expect to see the strong, energetic Marmee of old
+times, but, thank the Lord! she is still here, though pale
+and weak, quiet and sad; all her fine hair gone, and
+face full of wrinkles, bowed back, and every sign of age.
+Life has been so hard for her, and she so brave, so glad
+to spend herself for others. Now we must live for her.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>On Miss Alcott's return from Europe in July,
+1866, she devoted herself as earnestly as ever to the
+personal care of her mother and to story-writing
+for the support of the family. She agreed to
+write a fifty-dollar tale once a month, and besides
+this wrote many short stories for other publishers.
+Her father's return from the West with two hundred
+dollars, earned on his western trip, gave her
+some relief; and she was cheered by hearing that
+"Moods" was selling well in Europe. But she
+was not well, and she felt anxious and troubled
+about many things. Her journal of these months
+is very meagre; and January, 1867, opens with the
+statement that she is "sick from too hard work."
+Yet the account of stories furnished to publishers
+continues till August, when she went to Clark's
+Island for a few weeks of recreation. Here her
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">186</a></span>
+spirits returned, and she spent, as she says, "a
+harem-scarem fortnight," which must have given her
+great refreshment. She says: "Got to work again
+after my long vacation, for bills accumulate and
+worry me. I dread debt more than anything."</p>
+
+<p>In the journal occurs this slight notice of the
+first step in one of the most important achievements
+of her life, of which I shall speak more fully
+hereafter:&ndash;</p>
+
+<p class="section"><i>Journal.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+<i>September, 1867.</i>&ndash;Niles, partner of Roberts, asked
+me to write a girls' book. Said I'd try.</p>
+
+<p>F. asked me to be the editor of "Merry's Museum."
+Said I'd try.</p>
+
+<p>Began at once on both new jobs; but didn't like
+either.</p>
+
+<p>The Radical Club met at Sargent's. Fine time.
+Bartol inspired; Emerson chairman; Alcott on his legs;
+strong-minded ladies out in full force; æsthetic tea for
+refreshment.</p>
+
+<p><i>October.</i>&ndash;Agreed with F. to be editor for $500 a
+year. Read manuscripts, write one story each month and
+an editorial. On the strength of this engagement went
+to Boston, took a room&ndash;No. 6 Hayward Place&ndash;furnished
+it, and set up housekeeping for myself. Cannot
+keep well in C., so must try Boston, and not work too
+hard.</p>
+
+<p>On the 28th rode to B. on my load of furniture with
+Fred, feeling as if I was going to camp out in a new country;
+hoped it would prove a hospitable and healthy
+land.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>This incident appears in "The Old-fashioned
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">187</a></span>
+Girl" (p. 153), where the country girl goes into
+the city in a farmer's cart, with a squash pie in
+her hand given her at parting by an old friend.
+Her sister May had a drawing class at her room
+every day, which gave Louisa the pleasure of
+companionship.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Alcott was an enthusiastic admirer of
+Dickens, and she entered into the humor of his
+homely characters most heartily. She acted "Mrs.
+Jarley displaying her waxwork" nine times this
+winter, and was always successful in giving life and
+variety to the representation. She was constantly
+called upon to act for charity. She enjoyed the
+fun, and as she could not give money, it satisfied
+her generous nature to be able to help in any way.</p>
+
+<p>She wrote an article for Mr. B., called "Happy
+Women," in which she gratified her love of single
+life by describing the delightful spinsters of her acquaintance.
+Her sketches are all taken from life,
+and are not too highly colored. The Physician,
+the Artist, the Philanthropist, the Actress, the
+Lawyer, are easily recognizable. They were a
+"glorious phalanx of old maids," as Theodore
+Parker called the single women of his Society,
+who aided him so much in his work.</p>
+
+<p class="section"><i>To her Mother.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">January, 1868.</span></p>
+
+<p>Things look promising for the new year. F. $20 for
+the little tales, and wrote two every month; G. $25 for
+the "Bells;" L. $100 for the two "Proverb" stories.
+L. takes all I'll send; and F. seems satisfied.</p>
+
+<p>So my plan will work well, and I shall make my $1,000
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">188</a></span>
+this year in spite of sickness and worry. Praise the Lord
+and keep busy, say I.</p>
+
+<p>I am pretty well, and keep so busy I haven't time to
+be sick. Every one is very clever to me; and I often
+think as I go larking round, independent, with more work
+than I can do, and half-a-dozen publishers asking for
+tales, of the old times when I went meekly from door to
+door peddling my first poor little stories, and feeling so
+rich with $10.</p>
+
+<p>It's clear that Minerva Moody is getting on, in spite of
+many downfalls, and by the time she is a used up old lady
+of seventy or so she may finish her job, and see her family
+well off. A little late to enjoy much maybe; but I guess
+I shall turn in for my last long sleep with more content, in
+spite of the mortal weariness, than if I had folded my hands
+and been supported in elegant idleness, or gone to the
+devil in fits of despair because things moved so slowly.</p>
+
+<p>Keep all the money I send; pay up every bill; get
+comforts and enjoy yourselves. Let's be merry while we
+may, and lay up a bit for a rainy day.</p>
+
+<p>With which gem from Aristotle, I am, honored Madam,
+your dutiful and affectionate</p>
+
+<p class="sig">
+<span class="smcap">L. M. Alcott.</span></p>
+<p>Regards to Plato. Don't he want new socks? Are
+his clothes getting shiny?
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Although, as I have said, little direct European
+influence is observable in Miss Alcott's writings
+from her journeys in Europe, yet this first visit had
+a marked effect upon her life and writings. She
+was unfavorably situated to gain the refreshment
+she sorely needed; and yet she did get a great deal
+from the entire change of surroundings, from the
+larger horizon into which she entered, from her
+rich enjoyment of scenery, and from the variety
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">189</a></span>
+of companions she met. Probably she looked
+through new spectacles at her own work, as she describes
+herself as looking through those of Professor
+Bhaer, and she saw all the defects of the pot-boiling
+stories which she had been pouring out one after
+another, without strong purpose, or regard for artistic
+excellence. She had also the chance to look
+upon her own early life and home from a distance;
+and as she thought of the incidents of those years
+they grouped into more harmonious lines, and she
+saw how much they contained of real life, of true
+poetry and humor, as well as moral significance.
+So the old idea of "The Pathetic Family" took
+shape anew in her mind.</p>
+
+<p>In July, 1863, the enterprising firm of Roberts
+Brothers asked her for the publication in book
+form of "Hospital Sketches," which were then appearing
+in the "Commonwealth" newspaper, being
+struck by their intense reality and originality. At
+the time, as she states in her journal, she preferred
+to allow Mr. Redpath to publish them. Later, in
+September, 1867, Roberts Brothers asked her to
+write a girls' book for them, and in May, 1868,
+they repeated the request through her father, who
+had brought to them a collection of short stories
+for publication.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Alcott's fancy had always been for depicting
+the life of boys rather than girls; but she fortunately
+took the suggestion of the publisher, and
+said, like Col. Miller, "I'll try, sir." The old idea
+of "The Pathetic Family" recurred to her mind;
+and she set herself to describe the early life of her
+home. The book was finished in July, named
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">190</a></span>
+"Little Women," and sent to the publishers, who
+promptly accepted it, making Miss Alcott an outright
+offer for the copyright, but at the same time
+advising her not to part with it. It was published
+in October, and the result is well known. She was
+quite unconscious of the unusual merit of the book,
+thinking, as she says, the first chapters dull, and so
+was quite surprised at her success. "It reads better
+than I expected," she says; and she truly adds,
+"We really lived most of it, and if it succeeds, that
+will be the reason of it."</p>
+
+<p>But that is not the whole secret of its success.
+Through many trials and many failures Louisa
+had learned her literary art. By her experience in
+melodrama she had proved the emptiness of sensational
+writing, and knew how to present the simple
+and true,&ndash;seemingly without art, but really with
+the nicest art of discrimination and emphasis. All
+her previous training and experience were needed
+to fit her for the production of her masterpiece;
+for in spite of all the good work she did later, this
+remains her masterpiece, by which she will be remembered
+and loved. Already twenty-one years
+have passed, and another generation has come up
+since she published this book, yet it still commands
+a steady sale; and the mothers who read it in their
+childhood renew their enjoyment as they watch the
+faces of their little girls brighten with smiles over
+the theatricals in the barn, or moisten with tears at
+the death of the beloved sister. One of the greatest
+charms of the book is its perfect truth to New
+England life. But it is not merely local; it touches
+the universal heart deeply.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">191</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The excitement of the children was intense;
+they claimed the author as their own property, and
+felt as if she were interpreting their very lives and
+thoughts. The second series was anticipated with
+the eagerness of a bulletin from the war and the
+stock market. But unlike Miss Alcott herself, the
+children took especial interest in the love-story,
+and when poor Laurie was so obstinately refused
+by Jo, "they wept aloud, and refused to be comforted,"
+and in some instances were actually made
+ill by grief and excitement.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Alcott had now secured publishers in
+whom she placed perfect confidence, and who
+henceforth relieved her of the worry of business
+matters, dealing directly and fairly by her, and
+consulting her interests as well as their own. This
+is abundantly shown by her private journals and
+letters.</p>
+
+<p>The success of "Little Women" was so well
+assured that Miss Alcott at once set about preparing
+the second part, which was eagerly demanded
+by the little women outside, who wanted all the
+girls to marry, and rather troubled her by wishing
+to settle matters their own way. She finished
+writing the sequel, which had been rapid work,
+Jan. 1, 1869.</p>
+
+<p>The success of "Little Women" was not confined
+to this country. The book was translated
+into French, German, and Dutch, and has become
+familiarly known in England and on the Continent.
+In Holland the first series was published under the
+title "Under the Mother's Wings," and the second
+part as "On Their Own Wings;" and these two
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">192</a></span>
+books with "Work" established her fame among
+the children, who still continue to read her stories
+with fresh delight.</p>
+
+<p>It is hardly necessary to analyze or criticise this
+happy production. It is a realistic transcript of
+life, but idealized by the tenderness of real feeling.
+It teaches the lessons of every-day conduct and
+inculcates the simplest virtues of truth, earnest
+effort, and loving affection. There is abundant
+humor, but no caricature, and tender, deep feeling
+without sentimentality.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Alcott herself did not wish her representative,
+Jo, to marry; but the demand of the publisher
+and the public was so imperative that she created
+her German professor, of whom no prototype existed.
+While some of her romantic young readers
+were not satisfied at Jo's preferring him to the
+charming Laurie, he is certainly a genuine, warm-hearted
+man, who would probably have held her
+affections by his strong moral and intellectual traits.
+That he became a very living personality to the
+author is evident from his reappearance in "Jo's
+Boys," where he has the same strong, cheery influence
+in the school and home that she found from
+him in her girlhood. The style of the book is
+thoroughly easy and colloquial; and the girls talk
+and act like girls, and not like prim little women.
+The influence of the book has been wide and
+deep, and has helped to make a whole generation
+of girls feel a deeper sense of family love and
+the blessings to be gained from lives of earnest
+effort, mutual sacrifice, and high aims.</p>
+
+<p>Much interest has been expressed in regard to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">193</a></span>
+the originals of the characters in "Little Women."
+This is the author's own statement:&ndash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+Facts in the stories that are true, though often changed
+as to time and place:&ndash;</p>
+
+<p>"Little Women"&ndash;The early plays and experiences;
+Beth's death; Jo's literary and Amy's artistic experiences;
+Meg's happy home; John Brooke and his death; Demi's
+character. Mr. March did not go to the war, but Jo did.
+Mrs. March is all true, only not half good enough.
+Laurie is not an American boy, though every lad I ever
+knew claims the character. He was a Polish boy, met
+abroad in 1865. Mr. Lawrence is my grandfather,
+Colonel Joseph May. Aunt March is no one.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>Journal.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+<i>January, 1868. Gamp's Garret, Hayward Place,
+Boston.</i>&ndash;The year begins well and cheerfully for us
+all. Father and Mother comfortable at home; Anna
+and family settled in Chelsea; May busy with her drawing
+classes, of which she has five or six, and the prospect
+of earning $150 a quarter; also she is well and in good
+spirits.</p>
+
+<p>I am in my little room, spending busy, happy days,
+because I have quiet, freedom, work enough, and
+strength to do it. F. pays me $500 a year for my name
+and some editorial work on Merry's Museum; "The
+Youth's Companion" pays $20 for two short tales each
+month; L. $50 and $100 for all I will send him; and
+others take anything I have. My way seems clear for
+the year if I can only keep well. I want to realize
+my dream of supporting the family and being perfectly
+independent. Heavenly hope!
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">194</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I have written twenty-five stories the past year, besides
+the fairy book containing twelve. Have earned $1,000,
+paid my own way, sent home some, paid up debts, and
+helped May.</p>
+
+<p>For many years we have not been so comfortable:
+May and I both earning, Annie with her good John to
+lean on, and the old people in a cosey home of our own.</p>
+
+<p>After last winter's hard experience, we cannot be too
+grateful.</p>
+
+<p>To-day my first hyacinth bloomed, white and sweet,&ndash;a
+good omen,&ndash;a little flag of truce, perhaps, from the
+enemies whom we have been fighting all these years.
+Perhaps we are to win after all, and conquer poverty,
+neglect, pain, and debt, and march on with flags flying
+into the new world with the new year.</p>
+
+<p><i>Thursday, 7th.</i>&ndash;A queer day. Up early, and had
+my bread and milk and baked apples. Fed my doves.
+Made May a bonnet, and cut out a flannel wrapper for
+Marmee, who feels the cold in the Concord snowbanks.
+Did my editorial work in the <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, and fixed my dresses
+for the plays. L. sent $50, and F. $40, for tales. A.
+and boys came.</p>
+
+<p>To Dorchester in evening, and acted Mrs. Pontifex, in
+"Naval Engagements," to a good house. A gay time,
+had flowers, etc. Talked half the night with H. A. about
+the fast ways of young people nowadays, and gave the
+child much older-sisterly advice, as no one seems to see
+how much she needs help at this time of her young life.</p>
+
+<p>Dreamed that I was an opera dancer, and waked up
+prancing.</p>
+
+<p><i>Wednesday, 15th.</i>&ndash;Wrote all day. Did two short
+tales for F. In the evening with A. M. to hear Fanny
+Kemble read "The Merchant of Venice." She was a
+whole stock company in herself. Looked younger and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">195</a></span>
+handsomer than ever before, and happy, as she is to be
+with her daughters now. We went to supper afterwards
+at Mrs. Parkman's, and saw the lioness feed. It was a
+study to watch her face, so full of varying expression
+was it,&ndash;always strong, always sweet, then proud and
+fierce as she sniffed at nobodies who passed about her.
+Being one, I kept away, and enjoyed the great creature
+afar off, wondering how a short, stout, red woman <i>could</i>
+look so like a queen in her purple velvet and point lace.</p>
+
+<p>Slipped behind a door, but Dr. Holmes found me
+out, and affably asked, "How many of you children are
+there?" As I was looking down on the top of his illustrious
+head, the question was funny. But I answered
+the little man with deep respect, "Four, sir." He
+seemed to catch my naughty thought, and asked, with
+a twinkle in his eye, looking up as if I were a steeple,
+"And all as tall as you?" Ha! ha!</p>
+
+<p><i>18th.</i>&ndash;Played again at D., and had a jolly time.
+Home early, and putting off my fine feathers, fell to
+work on my stories. F. seems to expect me to write the
+whole magazine, which I did not bargain for.</p>
+
+<p>To Nan's in p. m., to take care of her while the Papa
+and Freddie went to C. The dear little man, so happy
+and important with his bit of a bag, six pennies, and a
+cake for refreshment during the long journey of an hour.</p>
+
+<p>We brooded over Johnny as if he were a heavenly
+sort of fire to warm and comfort us with his sunny little
+face and loving ways. She is a happy woman! I sell
+<i>my</i> children; and though they feed me, they don't love
+me as hers do.</p>
+
+<p>Little Tranquillity played alone all day, and made a
+pretty picture sitting in "marmar's" lap in his night-gown,
+talking through the trumpet to her. She never heard his
+sweet little voice in any other way. Poor Nan!
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">196</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Wednesday, 22d.</i>&ndash;To the Club with Father. A good
+paper on the "Historical View of Jesus." Father spoke
+finely. It amuses me to see how people listen and applaud
+<i>now</i> what was hooted at twenty years ago.</p>
+
+<p>The talk lasted until two, and then the hungry philosophers
+remembered they had bodies and rushed away,
+still talking.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+[Hard to feed.&ndash;L. M. A.]
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Got a snow-slide on my bonnet, so made another in the
+<span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, and in the evening to the Antislavery Festival. All
+the old faces and many new ones. Glad I have lived in
+the time of this great movement, and known its heroes
+so well. War times suit me, as I am a fighting <i>May</i>.</p>
+
+<p><i>24th.</i>&ndash;My second hyacinth bloomed pale blue, like a
+timid hope, and I took the omen for a good one, as I
+<i>am</i> getting on, and have more than I can do of the work
+that I once went begging for. Enjoyed the little spring
+my little flower made for me, and Buzzy, my pet fly,
+moved into the sweet mansion from his hanging garden
+in the ivy pot.</p>
+
+<p>Acted in Cambridge, Lucretia Buzzard and Mrs.
+Jarley.</p>
+
+<p><i>Sunday, 31st.</i>&ndash;Last day of the month, but I'm not
+satisfied with my four weeks' work. Acting for charity
+upsets my work. The change is good for me, and so I
+do it, and because I have no money to give.</p>
+
+<p>Four tales this month. Received $70; sent $30
+home. No debts.</p>
+
+<p><i>February 1st.</i>&ndash;Arranged "Hospital Sketches and
+War Stories" for a book. By taking out all Biblical
+allusions, and softening all allusions to rebs., the book
+may be made "quite perfect," I am told. Anything to
+suit customers.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">197</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>Friday, 14th.</i>&ndash;My third hyacinth bloomed this <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>,
+a lovely pink. So I found things snug, and had a busy
+day chasing&ndash;&ndash;who dodged. Then I wrote my tales.
+Made some shirts for my boys, and went out to buy
+a squash pie for my lonely supper. It snowed; was
+very cold. No one paid, and I wanted to send some
+money home. Felt cross and tired as I trudged back
+at dusk. My pie turned a somersault, a boy laughed,
+so did I, and felt better. On my doorstep I found a
+gentleman who asked if Miss A. lived here. I took
+him up my winding stair and found him a very delightful
+fly, for he handed me a letter out of which fell a
+$100 bill. With this bait Mr. B. lured me to write "one
+column of Advice to Young Women," as Mrs. Shaw
+and others were doing. If he had asked me for a
+Greek oration I would have said "yes." So I gave a
+receipt, and the very elegant agent bowed himself away,
+leaving my "'umble" bower full of perfume, and my soul
+of peace.</p>
+
+<p>Thriftily taking advantage of the enthusiastic moment,
+I planned my article while I ate my dilapidated pie, and
+then proceeded to write it with the bill before me. It
+was about old maids. "Happy Women" was the title,
+and I put in my list all the busy, useful, independent
+spinsters I know, for liberty is a better husband than love
+to many of us. This was a nice little episode in my
+trials of an authoress, so I record it.</p>
+
+<p>So the pink hyacinth was a true prophet, and I went
+to bed a happy millionaire, to dream of flannel petticoats
+for my blessed Mother, paper for Father, a new dress for
+May, and sleds for my boys.</p>
+
+<p><i>Monday, 17th.</i>&ndash;Father came full of plans about his
+book. Went with him to the Club. P. read a paper,
+and the Rabbi Nathan talked. A curious jumble of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">198</a></span>
+fools and philosophers. The Club should be kept more
+select, and not be run by one person.</p>
+
+<p><i>Tuesday, 25th.</i>&ndash;Note from Lady Amberly as I sat
+sewing on my ninepenny dress. She wanted to come
+and see me, and I told her to do so, and I'd show her
+how I lived in my sky-parlor,&ndash;spinning yarns like a
+spider. Met her at the Club, and liked her, so simple
+and natural.</p>
+
+<p>Acted for Mr. Clarke's Church Fair in the evening.
+Did Mrs. Jarley three times. Very hoarse with a cold,
+but kept my promise.</p>
+
+<p>"Proverb Stories" suggested, and "Kitty's Class-Day"
+written.</p>
+
+<p><i>Friday, 28th.</i>&ndash;Packed for home, as I am needed
+there, and acted Jarley for the third evening. Have
+done it nine times this week, and my voice is gone.</p>
+
+<p>I am sorry to leave my quiet room, for I've enjoyed
+it very much.</p>
+
+<p>Written eight long tales, ten short ones, read stacks of
+manuscripts, and done editorial work. Acted for charity
+twelve times.</p>
+
+<p>Not a bad two months' work. I can imagine an easier
+life, but with love, health, and work I can be happy; for
+these three help one to do, to be, and to endure all
+things.</p>
+
+<p><i>March, April, and May.</i>&ndash;Had the pleasure of providing
+Marmee with many comforts, and keeping the
+hounds of care and debt from worrying her. She sits
+at rest in her sunny room, and that is better than any
+amount of fame to me.</p>
+
+<p><i>May, 1868.</i>&ndash;Father saw Mr. Niles about a fairy
+book. Mr. N. wants a <i>girls' story</i>, and I begin "Little
+Women." Marmee, Anna, and May all approve my
+plan. So I plod away, though I don't enjoy this sort
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">199</a></span>
+of thing. Never liked girls or knew many, except my
+sisters; but our queer plays and experiences may prove
+interesting, though I doubt it.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+[Good joke.&ndash;<span class="smcap">L. M. A.</span>]
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><i>June.</i>&ndash;Sent twelve chapters of "L. W." to Mr. N.
+He thought it <i>dull</i>; so do I. But work away and mean
+to try the experiment; for lively, simple books are very
+much needed for girls, and perhaps I can supply the
+need.</p>
+
+<p>Wrote two tales for Ford, and one for F.  L. clamors
+for more, but must wait.</p>
+
+<p><i>July 15th.</i>&ndash;Have finished "Little Women," and sent
+it off,&ndash;402 pages. May is designing some pictures for
+it. Hope it will go, for I shall probably get nothing for
+"Morning Glories."</p>
+
+<p>Very tired, head full of pain from overwork, and heart
+heavy about Marmee, who is growing feeble.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+[Too much work for one young woman. No wonder she
+broke down. 1876.&ndash;<span class="smcap">L. M. A.</span>]
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><i>August.</i>&ndash;Roberts Bros. made an offer for the story,
+but at the same time advised me to keep the copyright;
+so I shall.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+[An honest publisher and a lucky author, for the copyright
+made her fortune, and the "dull book" was the first
+golden egg of the ugly duckling. 1885.&ndash;<span class="smcap">L. M. A.</span>]
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><i>August 26th.</i>&ndash;Proof of whole book came. It reads
+better than I expected. Not a bit sensational, but simple
+and true, for we really lived most of it; and if it succeeds
+that will be the reason of it. Mr. N. likes it better
+now, and says some girls who have read the manuscripts
+say it is "splendid!" As it is for them, they are the
+best critics, so I should be satisfied.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">200</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>September.</i>&ndash;Father's book ["Tablets"] came out.
+Very simple outside, wise and beautiful within. Hope it
+will bring him praise and profit, for he has waited long.</p>
+
+<p>No girl, Mother poorly, May busy with pupils, Nan
+with her boys, and much work to be done. We don't
+like the kitchen department, and our tastes and gifts lie
+in other directions, so it is hard to make the various
+Pegasuses pull the plan steadily.</p>
+
+<p><i>October 8th.</i>&ndash;Marmee's birthday; sixty-eight. After
+breakfast she found her gifts on a table in the study.
+Father escorted her to the big red chair, the boys
+prancing before blowing their trumpets, while we "girls"
+marched behind, glad to see the dear old Mother better
+and able to enjoy our little fête. The boys proudly
+handed her the little parcels, and she laughed and cried
+over our gifts and verses.</p>
+
+<p>I feel as if the decline had begun for her; and each
+year will add to the change which is going on, as time
+alters the energetic, enthusiastic home-mother into a
+gentle, feeble old woman, to be cherished and helped
+tenderly down the long hill she has climbed so bravely
+with her many burdens.</p>
+
+<p><i>October 26th.</i>&ndash;Came to Boston, and took a quiet
+room in Brookline Street. Heard Emerson in the evening.
+Sent a report of it to A. P. for the "Standard" at
+his desire.</p>
+
+<p>Anna is nicely settled in her new house, and Marmee
+is with her. Helped put down carpets and settle things.</p>
+
+<p><i>30th.</i>&ndash;Saw Mr. N. of Roberts Brothers, and he gave
+me good news of the book. An order from London for
+an edition came in. First edition gone and more called
+for. Expects to sell three or four thousand before the
+New Year.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. N. wants a second volume for spring. Pleasant
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">201</a></span>
+notices and letters arrive, and much interest in my
+little women, who seem to find friends by their truth
+to life, as I hoped.</p>
+
+<p><i>November 1st.</i>&ndash;Began the second part of "Little
+Women." I can do a chapter a day, and in a month
+I mean to be done. A little success is so inspiring that
+I now find my "Marches" sober, nice people, and as I
+can launch into the future, my fancy has more play.
+Girls write to ask who the little women marry, as if that
+was the only end and aim of a woman's life. I <i>won't</i>
+marry Jo to Laurie to please any one.</p>
+
+<p><i>Monday, 16th.</i>&ndash;To the Club for a change, as I have
+written like a steam engine since the 1st. Weiss read a
+fine paper on "Woman Suffrage." Good talk afterward.
+Lunched with Kate Field, Celia Thaxter, and Mr. Linton.
+Woman's Club in <span class="smcap">p.m.</span></p>
+
+<p><i>17th.</i>&ndash;Finished my thirteenth chapter. I am so full
+of my work, I can't stop to eat or sleep, or for anything
+but a daily run.</p>
+
+<p><i>29th.</i>&ndash;My birthday; thirty-six. Spent alone, writing
+hard. No presents but Father's "Tablets."</p>
+
+<p>I never seem to have many presents, as some do,
+though I give a good many. That is best perhaps, and
+makes a gift very precious when it does come.</p>
+
+<p><i>December.</i>&ndash;Home to shut up the house, as Father
+goes West and Mother to Anna's. A cold, hard, dirty
+time; but was so glad to be off out of C. that I worked
+like a beaver, and turned the key on Apple Slump with
+joy.</p>
+
+<p>May and I went to the new Bellevue Hotel in Beacon
+Street. She doesn't enjoy quiet corners as I do, so we
+took a sky-parlor, and had a queer time whisking up and
+down in the elevator, eating in a marble café, and sleeping
+on a sofa bed, that we might be genteel. It did not suit
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">202</a></span>
+me at all. A great gale nearly blew the roof off. Steam
+pipes exploded, and we were hungry. I was very tired
+with my hard summer, with no rest for the brains that
+earn the money.</p>
+
+<p><i>January, 1869.</i>&ndash;Left our lofty room at Bellevue and
+went to Chauncey Street. Sent the sequel of "L. W."
+to Roberts on New Year's Day. Hope it will do as well
+as the first, which is selling finely, and receives good
+notices. F. and F. both want me to continue working
+for them, and I shall do so if I am able; but my head-aches,
+cough, and weariness keep me from working as I
+once could, fourteen hours a day.</p>
+
+<p>In March we went home, as Mother was restless at
+Nan's, and Father wanted his library. Cold and dull;
+not able to write; so took care of Marmee and tried to
+rest.</p>
+
+<p>Paid up all the debts, thank the Lord!&ndash;every penny
+that money can pay,&ndash;and now I feel as if I could die
+in peace. My dream is beginning to come true; and if
+my head holds out I'll do all I once hoped to do.</p>
+
+<p><i>April.</i>&ndash;Very poorly. Feel quite used up. Don't
+care much for myself, as rest is heavenly even with pain;
+but the family seem so panic-stricken and helpless when
+I break down, that I try to keep the mill going. Two
+short tales for L., $50; two for Ford, $20; and did
+my editorial work, though two months are unpaid for.
+Roberts wants a new book, but am afraid to get into a
+vortex lest I fall ill.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>To her Publishers.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Boston</span>, Dec. 28, 1869.</p>
+
+<p>Many thanks for the check which made my Christmas
+an unusually merry one.</p>
+
+<p>After toiling so many years along the uphill road,&ndash;always
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">203</a></span>
+a hard one to women writers,&ndash;it is peculiarly
+grateful to me to find the way growing easier at last, with
+pleasant little surprises blossoming on either side, and
+the rough places made smooth by the courtesy and kindness
+of those who have proved themselves friends as well
+as publishers.</p>
+
+<p>
+With best wishes for the coming year,</p>
+
+<p class="left45">I am yours truly,</p>
+<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">L. M. Alcott.</span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p class="letter"><span class="smcap">August</span>, 1871.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Mr. Niles</span>,&ndash;Many thanks for the fortune and
+the kind note accompanying it. Please hand the money
+to S. E. S., and he will put it somewhere for me....</p>
+
+<p>You are very kind to find a minute out of your hurried
+day to attend to this affair.... I'm not sure but I shall
+try Dr. B. if my present and ninth doctor fails to cure my
+aching bones. I haven't a bit of faith in any of them;
+but my friends won't let me gently slip away where bones
+cease from troubling, so I must keep trying.</p>
+
+<p class="left45">
+Very gratefully your friend,</p>
+
+<p class="sig">L. M. A.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Written in 1871, just after the publication of
+"Little Men":&ndash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">August 5th</span>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Mr. Niles</span>,&ndash;Thanks for the parcel and notes.</p>
+
+<p>... The letters were very gushing from Nellie and
+Dollie and Sallie Somebody asking for pictures, autographs,
+family history, and several new books right away.</p>
+
+<p>I must give Dr. R. a fair trial, and if he fails I'll try
+Dr. B., just to make up the number of doctors to a
+round ten.</p>
+
+<p>"Happy Thoughts" is very funny, especially the trip
+to Antwerp.</p>
+
+<p class="left65">
+Yours truly,</p>
+
+<p class="sig">L. M. A.</p></div>
+
+<p class="center p6"><span class="b1">CHAPTER IX.</span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">204</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="center">EUROPE.</p>
+
+<p class="center p2">THE LAY OF A GOLDEN GOOSE.</p>
+<div class="poem">
+
+<p class="stanza">
+Long ago in a poultry yard<br />
+<span class="i1">One dull November morn,</span><br />
+Beneath a motherly soft wing<br />
+<span class="i1">A little goose was born.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">Who straightway peeped out of the shell<br />
+<span class="i1">To view the world beyond,</span><br />
+Longing at once to sally forth<br />
+<span class="i1">And paddle in the pond.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">"Oh! be not rash," her father said,<br />
+<span class="i1">A mild Socratic bird;</span><br />
+Her mother begged her not to stray<br />
+<span class="i1">With many a warning word.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">But little goosey was perverse,<br />
+<span class="i1">And eagerly did cry,</span><br />
+"I've got a lovely pair of wings,<br />
+<span class="i1">Of course I ought to fly."</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">In vain parental cacklings,<br />
+<span class="i1">In vain the cold sky's frown,</span><br />
+Ambitious goosey tried to soar,<br />
+<span class="i1">But always tumbled down.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">The farm-yard jeered at her attempts,<br />
+<span class="i1">The peacocks screamed, "Oh fie!</span><br />
+You're only a domestic goose,<br />
+<span class="i1">So don't pretend to fly."</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">Great cock-a-doodle from his perch<br />
+<span class="i1">Crowed daily loud and clear,</span><br />
+"Stay in the puddle, foolish bird,<br />
+<span class="i1">That is your proper sphere."</span></p>
+</div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">205</a></span></p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="stanza">The ducks and hens said, one and all,<br />
+<span class="i1">In gossip by the pool,</span><br />
+"Our children never play such pranks;<br />
+<span class="i1">My dear, that fowl's a fool."</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">The owls came out and flew about,<br />
+<span class="i1">Hooting above the rest,</span><br />
+"No useful egg was ever hatched<br />
+<span class="i1">From transcendental nest."</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">Good little goslings at their play<br />
+<span class="i1">And well-conducted chicks</span><br />
+Were taught to think poor goosey's flights<br />
+<span class="i1">Were naughty, ill-bred tricks.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza"><i>They</i> were content to swim and scratch,<br />
+<span class="i1">And not at all inclined</span><br />
+For any wild-goose chase in search<br />
+<span class="i1">Of something undefined.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">Hard times she had as one may guess,<br />
+<span class="i1">That young aspiring bird,</span><br />
+Who still from every fall arose<br />
+<span class="i1">Saddened but undeterred.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">She knew she was no nightingale,<br />
+<span class="i1">Yet spite of much abuse,</span><br />
+She longed to help and cheer the world,<br />
+<span class="i1">Although a plain gray goose.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">She could not sing, she could not fly,<br />
+<span class="i1">Nor even walk with grace,</span><br />
+And all the farm-yard had declared<br />
+<span class="i1">A puddle was her place.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">But something stronger than herself<br />
+<span class="i1">Would cry, "Go on, go on!</span><br />
+Remember, though an humble fowl,<br />
+<span class="i1">You're cousin to a swan."</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">So up and down poor goosey went,<br />
+<span class="i1">A busy, hopeful bird.</span><br />
+Searched many wide unfruitful fields,<br />
+<span class="i1">And many waters stirred.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">At length she came unto a stream<br />
+<span class="i1">Most fertile of all <i>Niles</i>,</span><br />
+Where tuneful birds might soar and sing<br />
+<span class="i1">Among the leafy isles.</span></p>
+</div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">206</a></span></p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="stanza">Here did she build a little nest<br />
+<span class="i1">Beside the waters still,</span><br />
+Where the parental goose could rest<br />
+<span class="i1">Unvexed by any <i>bill</i>.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">And here she paused to smooth her plumes,<br />
+<span class="i1">Ruffled by many plagues;</span><br />
+When suddenly arose the cry,<br />
+<span class="i1">"This goose lays golden eggs."</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">At once the farm-yard was agog;<br />
+<span class="i1">The ducks began to quack;</span><br />
+Prim Guinea fowls relenting called,<br />
+<span class="i1">"Come back, come back, come back."</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">Great chanticleer was pleased to give<br />
+<span class="i1">A patronizing crow,</span><br />
+And the contemptuous biddies clucked,<br />
+<span class="i1">"I wish my chicks did so."</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">The peacocks spread their shining tails,<br />
+<span class="i1">And cried in accents soft,</span><br />
+"We want to know you, gifted one,<br />
+<span class="i1">Come up and sit aloft."</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">Wise owls awoke and gravely said,<br />
+<span class="i1">With proudly swelling breasts,</span><br />
+"Rare birds have always been evoked<br />
+<span class="i1">From transcendental nests!"</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">News-hunting turkeys from afar<br />
+<span class="i1">Now ran with all thin legs</span><br />
+To gobble facts and fictions of<br />
+<span class="i1">The goose with golden eggs.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">But best of all the little fowls<br />
+<span class="i1">Still playing on the shore,</span><br />
+Soft downy chicks and goslings gay,<br />
+<span class="i1">Chirped out, "Dear Goose, lay more."</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">But goosey all these weary years<br />
+<span class="i1">Had toiled like any ant,</span><br />
+And wearied out she now replied,<br />
+<span class="i1">"My little dears, I can't.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">"When I was starving, half this corn<br />
+<span class="i1">Had been of vital use,</span><br />
+Now I am surfeited with food<br />
+<span class="i1">Like any Strasbourg goose."</span></p>
+</div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">207</a></span></p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="stanza">So to escape too many friends,<br />
+<span class="i1">Without uncivil strife,</span><br />
+She ran to the Atlantic pond<br />
+<span class="i1">And paddled for her life.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">Soon up among the grand old Alps<br />
+<span class="i1">She found two blessed things,</span><br />
+The health she had so nearly lost,<br />
+<span class="i1">And rest for weary limbs.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">But still across the briny deep<br />
+<span class="i1">Couched in most friendly words,</span><br />
+Came prayers for letters, tales, or verse,<br />
+<span class="i1">From literary birds.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">Whereat the renovated fowl<br />
+<span class="i1">With grateful thanks profuse,</span><br />
+Took from her wing a quill and wrote<br />
+<span class="i1">This lay of a Golden Goose.</span>
+</p>
+<p class="o2">
+<span class="smcap">Bex, Switzerland</span>, August, 1870.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="p2"><span class="dropcap">T</span>HE year 1869 was less fruitful in work than
+the preceding one. Miss Alcott spent the
+winter in Boston and the summer in Concord.
+She was ill and very tired, and felt little inclined
+for mental effort. "Hospital Sketches," which
+had been first published by Redpath, was now republished
+by Roberts Brothers, with the addition
+of six shorter "Camp and Fireside Stories." The
+interest of the public in either the author or the
+work had not lessened; for two thousand copies
+of the book in its new form were sold the first
+week. In her weary condition she finds her celebrity
+rather a burden than a pleasure, and says in
+her journal:&ndash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+People begin to come and stare at the Alcotts. Reporters
+haunt the place to look at the authoress, who
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">208</a></span>
+dodges into the woods <i>à la</i> Hawthorne, and won't be
+even a very small lion.</p>
+
+<p>Refreshed my soul with Goethe, ever strong and fine
+and alive. Gave S. E. S. $200 to invest. What richness
+to have a little not needed!
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Miss Alcott had some pleasant refreshment in
+travelling during the summer.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+<i>July.</i>&ndash; ... Spent in Canada with my cousins, the
+Frothinghams, at their house at Rivière du Loup,&ndash;a
+little village on the St. Lawrence, full of queer people.
+Drove, read, and walked with the little ones. A pleasant,
+quiet time.</p>
+
+<p><i>August.</i>&ndash; ... A month with May at Mt. Desert.
+A gay time, and a little rest and pleasure before the old
+pain and worry began again.</p>
+
+<p>Made up $1,000 for S. E. S. to invest. Now I have
+$1,200 for a rainy day, and no debts. With that thought
+I can bear neuralgia gayly.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In the autumn the whole family went to Boston,
+the father and mother staying with Mrs. Pratt;
+while Louisa and her sister May, "the workers,"
+occupied rooms in Pinckney Street. Not being
+well enough to do much new work, Louisa began
+using up her old stories, and found that the little
+women "helped their rejected sisters to good
+places where once they went a-begging." In
+January, 1870, she suffered from loss of voice,
+for which she tried "heroic treatment" under a
+distinguished physician. She got well enough to
+write a little, and in February wrote the conclusion
+to "The Old-fashioned Girl," which was published
+in March. She says:&ndash;
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">209</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+I wrote it with left hand in a sling, one foot up, head
+aching, and no voice. Yet, as the book is funny, people
+will say, "Didn't you enjoy doing it?" I often think of
+poor Tom Hood as I scribble, rather than lie and groan.
+I certainly earn my living by the sweat of my brow.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The book does not reveal this condition; for
+nothing could be fresher, brighter, and more
+wholesome than the heroine Polly, many of whose
+adventures are drawn from the author's own experience.
+She steps out of her usual surroundings
+into the fashionable life of the city, but betrays
+her own want of sympathy with it. The book has
+always been very popular.</p>
+
+<p>In 1870, the success of "Hospital Sketches" and
+the continued receipts from "Little Women" put
+their author in a pecuniary position which enabled
+her to go abroad for the rest and refreshment which
+she sorely needed. The younger sister was invited
+to go by her friend A. B. on condition that Louisa
+would accompany them. This journey was very
+free and independent. She has given an account&ndash;somewhat
+travestied certainly, but very true to
+the general facts&ndash;in "Shawl Straps," although
+the reader would hardly suppose the old lady described
+in that book had not yet reached her
+fortieth year. These sketches were arranged after
+her return, at the request of Mrs. Stowe, for the
+"Christian Union," and were published in a book
+forming one volume of "Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag" in
+1872.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately we have many of Louisa's original
+letters preserved in her father's copies, which have
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">210</a></span>
+escaped the destruction of her correspondence.
+With some extracts from her journals, they give
+a sufficient account of this journey. In many respects
+the contrast to her former visit to Europe is
+most pleasant. She has now become pecuniarily independent
+by her own exertions, and has a popular
+reputation which brings her welcome and recognition
+wherever she goes. But she has paid a heavy
+price for these gains. Her health has become seriously
+shattered. The long application to writing,
+sometimes even for fourteen hours a day,&ndash;a pressure
+of excitement which kept her from eating and
+sleeping,&ndash;added to sorrow and anxiety, have told
+upon her nerves and strength, and she is often unfitted
+to enjoy the pleasures which are open to her.
+Yet her journal and letters are as full of wit and
+humor as ever; and she laid up stores of pleasant
+memories which lasted her through life. Readers
+of "Shawl Straps" will recognize the originals of
+those bright sketches in the series of letters from
+Dinan.</p>
+
+<p class="section"><i>Second Trip to Europe.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+<i>April.</i>&ndash;... On the first day of the month (fit day
+for <i>my</i> undertaking I thought) May and I went to N. Y.
+to meet A. B., with John for escort. Every one very kind.
+Thirty gifts, a parting ball among our house-mates, and
+a great cake. Half-a-dozen devoted beings at the station
+to see us off. But I remember only Father and Mother
+as they went away the day before, leaving the two ambitious
+daughters to sail away, perhaps forever.</p>
+
+<p>Marmee kept up bravely, and nodded and smiled; but
+at the corner I saw the white handkerchief go up to the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">211</a></span>
+eyes, after being gayly waved to us. May and I broke
+down, and said, "We won't go;" but next day we set
+forth, as young birds will, and left the nest empty for a
+year.</p>
+
+<p>Sailed on the 2d in a gale of wind in the French
+steamer "Lafayette" for Brest. Our adventures are told
+in "Shawl Straps."</p>
+
+<p>"O. F. G." came out in March, and sold well. Train-boy
+going to N. Y. put it into my lap; and when I said
+I didn't care for it, exclaimed with surprise,&ndash;</p>
+
+<p>"Bully book, ma'am! Sell a lot; better have it."</p>
+
+<p>John told him I wrote it; and his chuckle, stare, and
+astonished "No!" was great fun. On the steamer little
+girls had it, and came in a party to call on me, very sea-sick
+in my berth, done up like a mummy.</p>
+
+<p>Spent some charming weeks in Brittany.</p>
+
+<p><i>June and July.</i>&ndash;"O. F. G." was published in London
+by Sampson Low &amp; Co. We left Dinan on the
+15th, and had a lovely trip through France to Vevay and
+Bex.</p>
+
+<p>Talk of war between France and Prussia.</p>
+
+<p>Much excitement at Vevay. Refugees from Lyons
+come in. Isabella and Don Carlos were there, with
+queer followers.</p>
+
+<p><i>September.</i>&ndash;... On the 3d came news of the Emperor's
+surrender. Great wailing among the French here.
+All well at home. Books going finely; no debts.</p>
+
+<p>We decide to go to Rome for the winter, as May pines
+for the artist's Paradise; and war will not trouble us I
+hope.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Ship</span> "<span class="smcap">Lafayette</span>," April 9, 1870.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Marmee</span>,&ndash;To-morrow we come to our long
+journey's end [Brest, France], thank the Lord. It has
+been a good one on the whole, and I have got along
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">212</a></span>
+as well as I expected. But it is tiresome to be day after
+day doing nothing; for my head will not let me read.
+May has done well, and has been very kind to me and
+good, and is the life of the table, I guess. I never go up
+to meals, for Marie takes such good care of me; I lie
+and peck all sorts of funny messes, and receive calls in my
+den. People seem to think we are "guns," and want to
+know us; but as they are not interesting, we are on the
+reserve, and it has a fine effect. About three thousand
+miles away does not seem possible in so little while.
+How do you all get along,&ndash;Marmee, Father, the laddies,
+my lass, and dear old John? He was so good and kind
+all the way I had no care or worry, but just lopped round
+and let him do all the work. Bless the dear!</p>
+
+<p>I shall despatch a good long letter as soon as we arrive
+and have something to tell. We send this to ease
+your mind. Letters here are not prepaid, so pay for
+mine out of my money. Don't forget to tell the post-master
+in Boston about my letters.</p>
+
+<p>Bless you all, says your</p>
+
+<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">Lu</span>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Morlaix</span>, April 14, 1870.
+</p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Marmee</span>,&ndash;Having got our "poise" a bit by
+a day and night on land, I begin at once to scribble to
+you, as I mean to keep a letter on hand all the time, and
+send them off as fast as they are done. We had a twelve
+days' passage, owing to a double screw which they were
+trying and which delayed us, though it is safer than one.
+The weather was cold and rainy, and the sea rough, so I
+only went up once or twice, and kept warm in my den
+most of the time. After the first two days I didn't feel
+sick, except my head as usual. I slept, ate, ruminated,
+and counted the hours. May poked about more, and was
+liked by all.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">213</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We got to Brest about noon Wednesday. A. and I got
+our trunks through the custom-house, and after some
+squabbling with the men, got all aboard for Morlaix,
+which is a curious old place worth seeing. It was a
+lovely day, warm as our June, and we had a charming
+trip of three hours through a country already green and
+flowery. We reached our hotel all right, and after a
+nice dinner had baths and went to bed. May's room
+being some way from mine, she came and bunked in
+with me in my little bed, and we slept.</p>
+
+<p>To-day is lovely, warm, and I am sitting at an open
+window looking at the square, enjoying the queer sights
+and sounds; for the air resounds with the rattle of
+wooden shoes on the stones.</p>
+
+<p>Market-women sit all about selling queer things, among
+which are snails; they buy them by the pint, pick them
+out with a pin like nuts, and seem to relish them mightily.
+We went out this <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> after breakfast, and took a stroll
+about the queer old town. May was in heaven, and
+kept having raptures over the gables, the turrets with
+storks on them, the fountains, people, and churches.
+She is now sketching the tower of St. Melanie, with a
+crowd of small boys round her enjoying the sight and
+criticising the work. It don't seem very new to me, but
+I enjoy it, and feel pretty well. We are to study French
+every day when we settle, and I am to do the mending,
+etc., for A., who is to talk for us, and make our bargains.
+So far we go well together.</p>
+
+<p>To-morrow we go on to Lamballe, where we take the
+diligence to Dinan, fourteen miles farther, and there settle
+for some weeks. I wish the boys could see the funny
+children here in little wooden shoes like boats, the girls
+in blue cloth caps, aprons, and shawls, just like the women,
+and the boys in funny hats and sheepskin jackets. Now
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">214</a></span>
+I must go and get May, who can't speak a word of French,
+and has a panic if any one speaks to her. The beggars
+afflict her, and she wants to give them money on all occasions.
+This <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> we go for a drive to see all there is, as
+neither A. nor I are good walkers; "adoo" till by and
+by. I wish I could send you this balmy day.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Dinan</span>, Sunday, April 17, 1870.</p>
+
+<p>Here we are, all settled at our first neat stopping-place,
+and are in clover, as you will see when I tell you how
+plummy and lovely it is. We left Morlaix Friday at 8 <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>,
+and were so amazed at the small bill presented us that
+we couldn't praise the town enough. You can judge of
+the cheapness of things, when I say that my share of the
+expenses from Brest here, including two days at a hotel,
+car, 'bus, and diligence fare, fees, and everything, was $8.
+The day was divine, and we had a fine little journey to
+Lamballe, where the fun began; for instead of a big diligence,
+we found only a queer ramshackle thing like an
+insane carryall, with a wooden boot and queer porch for
+the driver.</p>
+
+<p>Our four trunks were piled up behind and tied on with
+old ropes, our bags stowed in a wooden box on top, and
+ourselves inside with a fat Frenchman. The humpbacked
+driver "ya hooped" to the horses, and away we clattered
+at a wild pace, all feeling dead sure that something would
+happen, for the old thing bounded and swayed awfully,
+the trunks were in danger of tumbling off, and to our dismay
+we soon discovered that the big Frenchman was
+tipsy. He gabbled to A. as only a tipsy person could,
+quoted poetry; said he was Victor Hugo's best friend, and
+a child of Nature; that English ladies were all divine, but
+too cold,&ndash;for when he pressed A.'s hand she told him
+it was not allowed in England, and he was overwhelmed
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">215</a></span>
+with remorse; bowed, sighed, rolled his eyes, and told
+her that he drank much ale, because it flew to his head
+and gave him "commercial ideas."</p>
+
+<p>I never saw anything so perfectly absurd as it was, and
+after we got used to it we laughed ourselves sick over the
+lark. You ought to have seen us and our turnout, tearing
+over the road at a breakneck pace, pitching, creaking,
+and rattling, the funny driver hooting at the horses, who
+had their tails done up in chignons, blue harness, and
+strings of bells, the drunken man warbling, exhorting, and
+languishing at us all by turns, while A. headed him off
+with great skill. I sat, a mass of English dignity and
+coolness, suffering alternate agonies of anxiety and amusement,
+and May, who tied her head up in a bundle, looked
+like a wooden image.</p>
+
+<p>It was rich; and when we took up first a peasant woman
+in wooden shoes and fly-away cap, and then a red-nosed
+priest smoking a long pipe, we were a superb spectacle.
+In this style we banged into Dinan, stopped at the gate,
+and were dumped bag and baggage in the square. Finding
+Madame Coste's man was not here for us, we hired a
+man to bring our trunks up. To our great amazement,
+an oldish woman, who was greasing the wheels of a diligence,
+came, and catching up our big trunks, whipped
+them into two broad carts, and taking one trotted down
+the street at a fine pace, followed by the man with the
+other. That was the finishing touch; and we went laughing
+after them through the great arched gate into the
+quaintest, prettiest, most romantic town I ever saw. Narrow
+streets with overhanging gables, distracting roofs,
+windows, and porches, carved beams, and every sort of
+richness. The strong old lady beat the man, and finally
+landed us close by another old gate at a charming house
+fronting the south, overlooking a lovely green valley, full
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">216</a></span>
+of gardens, blooming plum and peach trees, windmills,
+and a ruined castle, at sight of which we all skipped.
+Madame Coste received us with rapture, for A. brought
+a letter from Mrs. L., who stayed here and was the joy
+of the old lady's soul. We were in great luck, for being
+early in the season she had three rooms left, and we nabbed
+them at once,&ndash;a salon with old oak walls and wardrobes,
+blue damask furniture, a fireplace, funny windows, and
+quaint furniture. A little room out of it for A., and upstairs
+a larger room for May and me, with two beds draped in
+green chintz, and carved big wardrobe, etc., and best of
+all, a sunny window toward the valley. For these rooms
+and our board we each pay $1 a day, and I call that
+cheap. It would be worth that to get the fun and air
+alone, for it is like June, and we sit about with open
+windows, flowers in the fields, birds singing, and everything
+spring-like.</p>
+
+<p>We took possession at once, and dressed for a dinner
+at six. We were then presented to our fellow-boarders,&ndash;Madame
+Forney, a buxom widow, her son Gaston, a handsome
+Frenchy youth of twenty-three, and her daughter, a
+homely girl of twenty, who is to be married here on the
+3d of May. After a great bowing and scraping we had
+a funny fish dinner, it being Good Friday. When they
+found we didn't speak French they were "desolated,"
+and begged us to learn at once, which we solemnly vowed
+to do. Gaston "knew English," so May at once began to
+teach him more, and the ice being broken we got gay and
+friendly at once. I could understand them pretty well,
+but can't talk, and A. told them that I was forbidden to
+say much on account of my throat. This will give me a
+chance to get a fair start. May pegs away at her grammar,
+and with that and the elegant Gaston, she will soon
+begin to "parlez-vous."
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">217</a></span></p>
+
+<p>After dinner we were borne to the great salon, where a
+fire, lights, and a piano appeared. Every one sat round
+and gabbled except the Alcotts, who looked and laughed.
+Mademoiselle Forney played, and then May convulsed
+them by singing some <i>Chants Amériques</i>, which they
+thought very lively and droll. They were all attention
+and devotion to Madame Coste,&ndash;a tall old lady with
+whiskers, who kept embracing A. and beaming at us in
+her great content at being friends of <i>chère</i> Madame L.
+A. told them that I was a celebrated authoress, and May
+a very fine artist, and we were beamed at more than ever.
+Being tired, we turned in early, after a jolly time in our
+own little salon, eating chocolate and laying plans.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Dinan</span>, April 20, 1870.</p>
+
+<p>... A. and I went shopping. A. got a little bird to
+enliven our parlor, a sort of sparrow, gray with a red head
+and a lively song. We named him Bernard du Guesclin
+(the hero of the town), and call him Bernie. I got some
+nice gloves for three francs (sixty cents), and a white sun-umbrella
+for May (forty cents). She needs it when she
+sketches, and there is always a crowd of children round
+her to watch and admire; she gives one of them a sou to
+hold the umbrella, and so gets on nicely.</p>
+
+<p>In the <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> A. and I went to the little village of Lahou,
+in the valley where the ruined castle is, to a fair. It was
+a very picturesque sight, for the white-capped women,
+sitting about on the green hillside, looked like flowers,
+and the blue blouses of the men and wide-brimmed hats
+added to the effect. The little street was lined with
+booths, where they sold nuts, queer cakes, hot sausages,
+and pancakes, toys, etc. I got a funny cake, just the
+size and shape of a deep pie-dish, and a jack-knife, for a
+sou. We also indulged in nuts, and sat on our campstools
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">218</a></span>
+in a shady place and ate them boldly in the public
+mart, while enjoying the lively scene. French and English
+people went by in droll parties, and we coolly sat and
+stared at them. May is going to sketch the castle, so I
+won't waste paper describing the pretty place with the
+ruined church full of rooks, the old mill with the waterwheel
+housed in vines, or the winding river, and meadows
+full of blue hyacinths and rosy daisies.</p>
+
+<p>Yesterday, A. and I had to return the call of Mademoiselle
+M., and as she speaks English I got on very
+well. The stairs to her apartment were so steep that we
+held on by a velvet-covered rope as we climbed up. In
+the <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> we had fun, for we took two donkey carriages
+and rode to the mineral spring. Gaston was sick and
+couldn't go, as we had planned, so May drove herself in
+one, and A. and I in the other. I wish the boys could
+have seen us, it was so funny. The carriages were bath-chairs
+with a wee donkey harnessed to each, so small, so
+neat, and looking so venerable with thin long ears and
+bits of feet that I felt as if I was driving my grandmother.
+May was a very imposing sight, alone in her chair under
+her new umbrella, in her gray suit, with bright gloves and
+a big whip, driving a gray rat who wouldn't trot unless
+pounded and banged and howled at in the maddest
+way. Our steed was bigger, but the most pig-headed old
+scamp you ever saw, for it took two big women to make
+him go. I drove, and A. thrashed away with all her
+might,&ndash;our joint efforts only producing occasional short
+trots which enraged us dreadfully.</p>
+
+<p>We laughed till we were sick, it was so very absurd;
+while May trundled serenely along, enjoying the fine views
+regardless of her rat, who paced along at his ease, wagging
+his ears and meditating.</p>
+
+<p>We had a nice trip, but didn't drink the water, as iron
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">219</a></span>
+don't suit us. Coming home, we passed the home of the
+donkeys, and they at once turned in, and were with much
+difficulty persuaded to go on by two short girls in caps
+and short gowns, who ran and shouted "E! E! va oui!"
+and punched sticks into the poor asses, rattling us over
+the stones till our eyes danced in our heads. We found
+it rather hard work, and A. means to buy a horse and
+straw pony-chaise, so we can drive ourselves in peace
+where we like....</p>
+
+<p>A. is bargaining for a horse which an Englishman wishes
+to sell for $50, including harness and cart. We can't hire
+horses for less than $2 a drive, and donkeys are vile, so
+it is cheaper to buy, and sell when we go away, and so
+drive as much as we like. A. knows about such things,
+and takes all the responsibility.... To-morrow we go on a
+little excursion in the steamboat down the river, and return
+<i>à la</i> donkey with the English ladies, who have returned
+our call and are very friendly.</p>
+
+<p>Please forward this little note in an envelope to its address.
+The child wrote me a pretty letter, which N. sent,
+and the pa said I wouldn't answer. The child said, "I
+know she will, she is so nice." So I do. Best love to
+every one. Don't go home too soon. I shall write to
+Fred and Jack next time. Good-by.</p>
+
+<p class="sig">
+<span class="smcap">Lu</span>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>To M. S.</i></p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>... They call each other pet names that convulse us,&ndash;"my
+little pig," "my sweet hen," "my cabbage," and
+"my tom-cat." A French lady with her son and daughter
+board here, and their ways amuse us mightily. The
+girl is to be married next week to a man whom she has
+seen twice, and never talked to but an hour in her life.
+She writes to him what her mother dictates, and says she
+should be ashamed to love him before they were married.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">220</a></span>
+Her wedding clothes absorb her entire mind, and her
+Jules will get a pretty doll when he takes Mademoiselle
+A. F. to wife. Gaston, the son, puts on <i>blasé</i> airs,
+though only twenty-two, and languishes at May, for
+they can't talk, as he does not know English nor she
+French.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+April 27.</p>
+
+<p>I left my letter to drive to a ruined château, which we
+went all over, as a part is inhabited by a farmer who keeps
+his hog in the great banqueting hall, his grain in the chapel,
+and his hens in the lady's chamber. It was very picturesque;
+the old rooms, with ivy coming in at the windows,
+choking up the well, and climbing up the broken towers.
+The lady of the château was starved to death by her cruel
+brothers, and buried in the moat, where her bones were
+found long afterward, and her ghost still haunts the place
+they say. Here we had cider, tell Pa.</p>
+
+<p>Coming home we saw a Dolmen, one of the Druidical
+remains. It stood in a grove of old pines,&ndash;a great post of
+gray stone, some twenty-five feet high, and very big round.
+It leaned as if falling, and had queer holes in it. Brittany
+is full of these relics, which no one can explain, and
+I was glad to see the mysterious things.</p>
+
+<p>Yesterday we took a little trip down the river in a tiny
+steamer, going through a lock and skimming along between
+the green banks of the narrow river to Miss M.'s
+country-house, where we had new milk, and lay on the
+grass for an hour or so. Then May and Miss M. walked
+home, and A. and I went in a donkey cart.</p>
+
+<p>To-day the girls have gone to La Garaye with Gaston
+on donkeys. The weather has been cold for a day or
+two with easterly winds. So I feel it at once and keep
+warm. It is very unusual at this time, but comes, I suppose,
+because I've travelled hundreds of miles to get rid
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">221</a></span>
+of them. It won't last long, and then we shall be hot
+enough.</p>
+
+<p>We lead such quiet, lazy lives I really have nothing
+to tell.</p>
+
+<p>Oh, yes, the <i>fiancé</i> of Mademoiselle has arrived, and
+amuses us very much. He is a tiny man in uniform, with
+a red face, big moustache, and blue eyes. He thinks he
+talks English, and makes such very funny mistakes. He
+asked us if we had been to "promenade on monkeys"
+meaning donkeys, and called the Casino "the establishment
+of dance." He addresses all his attentions to the
+ma, and only bows to his future wife, who admires her
+diamonds and is contented. We are going away on the
+day of the wedding, as it is private.</p>
+
+<p>The girls have just returned in great spirits, for A.'s
+donkey kept lying down, and it took all three to get him
+up again. They sat in a sort of chair, and looked very
+funny with the four little legs under them and long ears
+flopping before. I shall go to Garaye some fine day, and
+will tell you about it.</p>
+
+<p>
+Adieu, love to all. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
+Yours,</p>
+<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">Lu</span>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<i>Dinan</i>, May 6, 1870.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear People</span>,&ndash;I have just got a fat letter full of
+notices from N.,&ndash;all good, and news generally pleasant.</p>
+
+<p>The great event of the season is over, and Miss F. is
+Mrs. C. It was a funny scene, for they had a breakfast
+the day before, then on Tuesday the wedding. We did
+not go, as the church is like a tomb, but we saw the
+bride, in white satin, pearls, orange flowers, and lace,
+very pretty, and like other brides. Her ma, in purple
+moire and black lace, was fine to see; and the little
+groom, in full regimentals, with a sabre as large as himself,
+was very funny. A lot of people came in carriages
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">222</a></span>
+to escort them to church; and our little square was full
+of queer turnouts, smartly dressed people, and a great
+bustle. There was some mistake about the bride's carriage,
+and it did not drive up in time, so she stood on
+the steps till it came as near as it could, and then she
+trotted out to it on Gaston's arm, with her maid holding
+up her satin train. Uncle, ma, bride, and brother drove
+off, but the groom's carriage was delayed by the breaking
+of a trace, and there he sat, with his fat pa and ma, after
+every one had gone, fuming, and poking his little cocked
+hat out of the window, while the man mended the harness,
+and every one looked on with breathless interest.</p>
+
+<p>We went to D&ndash;&ndash; with Coste in the <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, and had a
+fine view of the sea and San Malo. We didn't like
+D&ndash;&ndash;, and won't go there. When we got home about
+eight o'clock the wedding dinner was in full blast, and I
+caught a glimpse of a happy pair at the head of the
+table, surrounded by a lot of rigged-up ladies and fine
+men, all gabbing and gabbling as only French folk can.
+The couple are still here, resting and getting acquainted
+before they go to Lamballe for a week of festivity. A
+church wedding is a very funny thing, and I wish you
+could have seen it.</p>
+
+<p>The dry season continues, and the people have processions
+and masses to pray for rain. One short flurry
+of hail is all we have had, and the cold winds still blow.
+When our month is out we shall go somewhere near the
+sea if it is at all warm. Nothing could be kinder than
+dear old Coste, and I couldn't be in a better place to be
+poorly in than this; she coddles me like a mother, and
+is so grieved that I don't get better.</p>
+
+<p>Send Ma a bit of the gorse flower with which the fields
+are now yellow.</p>
+
+<p class="left45">
+Yours,</p>
+<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">Lu</span>.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">223</a></span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Dinan</span>, May 13, 1870.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Folks</span>,&ndash;We drove to Guildo yesterday to
+see if we should like it for July. It is a queer little town
+on the seashore, with ruins near by, bright houses, and
+lots of boats. Rooms a franc a day, and food very
+cheap. The man of the house&ndash;a big, brown, Peggotty
+sailor&ndash;has a sloop, and promised the girls as much
+sailing as they liked. We may go, but our plans are
+very vague, and one day we say we will go to one place
+and the next to another, and shall probably end by staying
+where we are.</p>
+
+<p class="left45">
+Yours,</p>
+<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">Lu</span>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Dinan</span>, May 17, 1870.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dearest People</span>,&ndash;We run out and do errands in the
+cool before breakfast at ten, then we write, sew, and
+read, and look round, till four, when we go to drive.
+May and I in the cherry bounce with M. Harmon to
+drive us, and A. on horseback; for, after endless fuss, she
+has at last evoked a horse out of chaos, and comes galloping
+gayly after us as we drive about the lovely roads
+with the gallant hotel-keeper, Adolph Harmon. We are
+getting satiated with ruins and châteaux, and plan a trip
+by water to Nantes; for the way they do it is to hire a
+big boat and be towed by a horse in the most luxurious
+manner.</p>
+</div>
+<p class="section"><i>To Anna.</i></p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Dinan</span>, May 25, 1870.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Betsey</span>,<a name="FNanchor_8" id="FNanchor_8" href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a>&ndash;All well. We have also had fun
+about the queer food, as we don't like brains, liver, etc.
+A. does; and when we eat some mess, not knowing what
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">224</a></span>
+it is, and find it is sheep's tails or eels, she exults over
+us, and writes poems.</p>
+
+<p>I wander dreadfully, but the girls are racketing, birdie
+singing like mad, and nine horses neighing to one another
+in the place, so my ideas do not flow as clearly
+as they should. Besides, I expect Gaston to come in
+every minute to show us his rig; for he is going to a
+picnic in Breton costume,&ndash;a very French affair, for
+the party are to march two and two, with fiddlers in
+front, and donkeys bearing the feast in the rear. Such
+larks!</p>
+
+<p>Yesterday we had a funny time. We went to drive in
+a basket chair, very fine, with a perch behind and a
+smart harness; but most of the horses here are stallions,
+and act like time. Ours went very well at first, but in
+the town took to cutting up, and suddenly pounced on
+to a pile of brush, and stuck his head into a bake-shop.
+We tried to get him out, but he only danced and neighed,
+and all the horses in town seemed to reply. A man
+came and led him on a bit, but he didn't mean to go,
+and whisked over to the other side, where he tangled us
+and himself up with a long string of team horses. I flew
+out and May soon followed. A. was driving, and kept in
+while the man led the "critter" back to the stable. I
+declined my drive with the insane beast, and so we left
+him and bundled home in the most ignominious manner.
+All the animals are very queer here, and, unlike ours,
+excessively big.</p>
+
+<p>We went to a ruin one day, and were about to explore
+the castle, when a sow, with her family of twelve, charged
+through the gateway at us so fiercely that we fled in dismay;
+for pigs are not nice when they attack, as we don't
+know where to bone 'em, and I saw a woman one day
+whose nose had been bitten off by an angry pig. I
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">225</a></span>
+flew over a hedge; May tried to follow. I pulled her
+over head first, and we tumbled into the tower like a
+routed garrison. It wasn't a nice ruin, but we were
+bound to see it, having suffered so much. And we did
+see it, in spite of the pigs, who waylaid us on all sides,
+and squealed in triumph when we left,&ndash;dirty, torn, and
+tired. The ugly things wander at their own sweet will,
+and are tall, round-backed, thin wretches, who run like
+race horses, and are no respecters of persons.</p>
+
+<p>Sunday was a great day here, for the children were
+confirmed. It was a pretty sight to see the long procession
+of little girls, in white gowns and veils, winding
+through the flowery garden and the antique square, into
+the old church, with their happy mothers following, and
+the boys in their church robes singing as they went. The
+old priest was too ill to perform the service, but the
+young one who did announced afterward that if the children
+would pass the house the old man would bless
+them from his bed. So all marched away down the
+street, with crosses and candles, and it was very touching
+to see the feeble old man stretch out his hands above
+them as the little white birds passed by with bended
+heads, while the fresh, boyish voices chanted the responses.
+This old priest is a very interesting man, for
+he is a regular saint, helping every one, keeping his
+house as a refuge for poor and old priests, settling quarrels
+among the people, and watching over the young people
+as if they were his own. I shall put him in a story.</p>
+
+<p><i>Voilà!</i> Gaston has just come in, rigged in a white
+embroidered jacket, with the Dinan coat-of-arms worked
+in scarlet and yellow silk on it fore and aft; a funny hat,
+with streamers, and a belt, with a knife, horn, etc. He
+is handsome, and as fond of finery as a girl. I'll send
+you his picture next time, and one of Dinan.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">226</a></span></p>
+
+<p>You will see that Marmee has all she needs, and a
+girl, and as much money as she wants for being cosey and
+comfortable. S. E. S. will let her have all she wants, and
+make her take it. I'm sorry the chapel $100 didn't come,
+for she likes to feel that she has some of her very own.</p>
+
+<p>I have written to Conway and Mrs. Taylor, so that if
+we decide to take a run to England before we go to
+Italy, the way will be open....</p>
+
+<p>But Dinan is so healthy and cosey, that we shall linger
+till the heat makes us long for the sea. Roses, cherries,
+strawberries, and early vegetables are come, and we are
+in clover. Dear old Coste broods over us like a motherly
+hen, and just now desired me to give her affectionate
+and respectful compliments to my <i>bonne mère</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Now I'm spun out; so adieu, my darling Nan.
+Write often, and I will keep sending,&ndash;trusting that
+you will get them in time.</p>
+
+<p>Kisses all round.</p>
+
+<p class="left65">
+Yours,</p>
+<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">Lu</span>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Dinan</span>, May 30, 1870.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Folks</span>,&ndash;May has made up such a big letter
+that I will only add a line to give you the last news of
+the health of her Highness Princess Louisa. She is such
+a public character nowadays that even her bones are not
+her own, and her wails of woe cannot be kept from the
+long ears of the world,&ndash;old donkey as it is!</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Kane, who was army surgeon in India, and doctor
+in England for forty years, says my leg trouble and many
+of my other woes come from the calomel they gave me
+in Washington. He has been through the same thing
+with an Indian jungle fever, and has never got the
+calomel out of him.... I don't know anything about
+it, only my leg is the curse of my life. But I think
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">227</a></span>
+Dr. K.'s iodine of potash will cure it in the end, as it did
+his arms, after taking it for three months. It is simple,
+pleasant, and seems to do something to the bones that gives
+them ease; so I shall sip away and give it a good trial.</p>
+
+<p>We are now revelling in big strawberries, green peas,
+early potatoes, and other nice things, on which we shall
+grow fat as pigs.</p>
+
+<p>We are beginning to think of a trip into Normandy,
+where the H.'s are.</p>
+
+<p>
+Love to all. By-by!</p>
+<p class="left65">Your loving</p>
+<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">Lu</span>.</p>
+
+<p>No news except through N., who yesterday sent me a
+nice letter with July account of $6,212,&ndash;a neat little
+sum for "the Alcotts, who can't make money!" With
+$10,000 well invested, and more coming in all the time,
+I think we may venture to enjoy ourselves, after the hard
+times we have all had.</p>
+
+<p>The cream of the joke is, that we made our own
+money ourselves, and no one gave us a blessed penny.
+That does soothe my rumpled soul so much that the
+glory is not worth thinking of.</p>
+</div>
+<p class="section"><i>To Anna.</i></p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Dinan</span>, June 4, 1870.</p>
+
+<hr class="l15" />
+
+<p>The present excitement is the wood which Coste is
+having put in. Loads keep coming in queer, heavy carts
+drawn by four horses each, and two men to work the
+machine. Two men chop the great oak stumps, and
+a woman puts it in down cellar by the armful. The
+men get two francs a day,&ndash;forty cents! (Wouldn't
+our $3 a day workmen howl at that sort of wages!)
+When several carts arrive at once the place is a lively
+scene. Just now there were three carts and twelve
+horses, and eight were all up in a snarl, while half-a-dozen
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">228</a></span>
+ladies stood at their doors and gave advice. One
+had a half-dressed baby in her arms; one a lettuce she
+was washing; another her distaff; and a fourth her little
+bowl of soup, which she ate at on the sidewalk, in the
+intervals gesticulating so frantically that her sabots rattled
+on the stones. The horses had a free fight, and the
+man couldn't seem to manage one big one, who romped
+about like a wild elephant, till the lady with the baby
+suddenly set the half-naked cherub on the doorsteps,
+charged in among the rampant beasts, and, by some
+magic howl or jerk, brought the bad horse to order,
+when she quietly returned to her baby, who had sat placidly
+eating dirt, and with a calm <i>Voilà, messieurs</i>,
+she skipped little Jean into his shirt, and the men sat
+down to smoke.</p>
+
+<p>We are now in great excitement over Gaston, who has
+lately become so very amiable that we don't know him.
+We began by letting the spoiled child severely alone.
+This treatment worked well, and now he offers us things
+at table, bows when we enter, and to-day presented us
+with green tulips, violet shrubs, and queer medals all
+round. We have let little bits of news leak out about us,
+and they think we are dukes and duchesses in <i>Amérique</i>,
+and pronounce us <i>très spirituelles; très charmantes;
+très seductives femmes</i>. We laugh in private,
+and are used to having the entire company rise
+when we enter, and embrace us with ardor, listen with
+uplifted hands and shrieks of <i>mon Dieu! grand ciel!</i>
+etc., to all remarks, and point us out in public as <i>les
+dames Américaines</i>. Such is fame!</p>
+
+<p>An English lady arrived to-day&ndash;a Miss B.&ndash;dressed,
+with English taste, in a little green skirt, pink calico waist,
+a large crumpled frill, her hair in a tight knot, one front
+tooth sticking straight out, and a golden oriole in a large
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">229</a></span>
+cage. She is about forty, very meek and pursy, and the
+old ladies have been sitting in a heap since breakfast,
+talking like mad.</p>
+
+<p>May has "sack" on the brain just now, and A. has
+"hose" on the brain; and at this moment they are both
+gabbling wildly, one saying, "I shall trim it with blue
+and have it pinked!" the other shrieking, "My hose
+must be red, with little dragons in black all over it, like
+small-pox!" and the bird flies to her upper perch in dismay
+at the riot, while I sit and laugh, with an occasional
+duennaish, "Young ladies, less noise if you please!"</p>
+
+<p>It rained last eve, and we are waiting for it to dry
+before going out in the donkey chaise to buy a warm
+bun and some strawberries for lunch, to be eaten as we
+parade the town and drink ale at intervals.</p>
+
+<hr class="l15" />
+
+<p>Do tell me how things are about my pictures. I see
+they are advertised, and if they sell I want my share
+of the profits. Send me one of those that are in the
+market, after taking off the heavy card.</p>
+
+<p>Love to all, and the best of luck.</p>
+
+<p class="left65">
+Ever your</p>
+<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">Lu</span>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Hotel d'Universe, Tours</span>, June 17, 1870.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dearest People</span>,&ndash;Our wanderings have begun again,
+and here we are in this fine old city in a cosey hotel, as
+independent and happy as three old girls can be. We
+left Dinan Wednesday at 7 <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> Gaston got up to see us
+off,&ndash;a most unusual and unexpected honor; also Mrs. B.
+and all the old ladies, whom we left dissolved in tears.</p>
+
+<p>We had a lovely sail down the river to St. Malo,
+where we breakfasted at Hotel Franklin, a quaint old
+house in a flowery corner. At twelve we went by rail to
+Le Mans,&ndash;a long trip,&ndash;and arrived at 6 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> so tired
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">230</a></span>
+that we went to bed in the moonlight while a band
+played in the square before the hotel, and the sidewalks
+before the café were full of people taking ices and coffee
+round little tables.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning we went to see the famous cathedral
+and had raptures, for it is like a dream in stone. Pure
+Gothic of the twelfth century, with the tomb of Berengaria,
+wife of C&oelig;ur de Leon, stained glass of the richest
+kind, dim old chapels with lamps burning, a gorgeous
+high altar all crimson and gold and carmine, and several
+organs. Anything more lovely and divine I never saw,
+for the arches, so light and graceful, seemed to soar up
+one above the other like the natural curves of trees or the
+spray of a great fountain. We spent a long time here
+and I sat above in the quaint old chapel with my eyes
+and heart full, and prayed a little prayer for my family.
+Old women and men knelt about in corners telling their
+beads, and the priest was quietly saying his prayers at
+the altar. Outside it was a pile of gray stone, with towers
+and airy pinnacles full of carved saints and busy rooks.
+I don't think we shall see anything finer anywhere. It
+was very hot for there had been no rain for four months,
+so we desired to start for town at 5 and get in about 8
+as it is light then.</p>
+
+<p>We had a pleasant trip in the cool of the day, and
+found Tours a great city, like Paris on a small scale.
+Our hotel is on the boulevard, and the trees, fountains,
+and fine carriages make our windows very tempting. We
+popped into bed early; and my bones are so much better
+that I slept without any opium or anything,&ndash;a feat I
+have not performed for some time.</p>
+
+<p>This morning we had coffee and rolls in bed, then as
+it was a fine cool day we dressed up clean and nice and
+went out for a walk. At the post-office we found your
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">231</a></span>
+letters of May 31, one from Nan and Ma, and one from
+L. We were exalted, and went into the garden and
+read them in bliss, with the grand cathedral right before
+us. Cathedral St. Martin, twelfth century, with tomb of
+Charles XIII.'s children, the armor of Saint Louis, fine
+pictures of Saint Martin, his cloak, etc. May will tell you
+about it and I shall put in a photograph, if I can find
+one. We are now&ndash;12 o'clock&ndash;in our pleasant room
+all round the table writing letters and resting for another
+trip by and by.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Fête Dieu</i> is on Monday,&ndash;very splendid,&ndash;and
+we shall then see the cathedral in its glory. To-day a few
+hundred children were having their first communion
+there, girls all in white, with scarlet boys, crosses, candles,
+music, priests, etc. Get a Murray, and on the map of
+France follow us to Geneva, <i>via</i> St. Malo, Le Mans,
+Tours, Amboise and Blois, Orleans, Nevers, Autun.
+We may go to the Vosges instead of the Jura if Mrs. H.
+can go, as A. wants to see her again. But we head for
+the Alps of some sort and will report progress as we go.</p>
+
+<p>My money holds out well so far, as we go second class.</p>
+</div>
+<p class="section"><i>To her Father.</i></p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Tours</span>, June 20, 1870.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Papa</span>,&ndash;Before we go on to fresh "châteaux
+and churches new," I must tell you about the sights here
+in this pleasant, clean, handsome old city. May has
+done the church for you, and I send a photograph to
+give some idea of it. The inside is very beautiful; and
+we go at sunset to see the red light make the gray walls
+lovely outside and the shadows steal from chapel to
+chapel inside, filling the great church with what is really
+"a dim religious gloom." We wandered about it the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">232</a></span>
+other evening till moonrise, and it was very interesting
+to see the people scattered here and there at their
+prayers; some kneeling before Saint Martin's shrine, some
+in a flowery little nook dedicated to the infant Christ,
+and one, a dark corner with a single candle lighting up
+a fine picture of the Mater Dolorosa, where a widow all
+in her weeds sat alone, crying and praying. In another
+a sick old man sat, while his old wife knelt by him praying
+with all her might to Saint Gratien (the patron saint of
+the church) for her dear old invalid. Nuns and priests
+glided about, and it was all very poetical and fine, till I
+came to an imposing priest in a first class chapel who was
+taking snuff and gaping, instead of piously praying.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Fête Dieu</i> was yesterday, and I went out to see
+the procession. The streets were hung with old tapestry,
+and sheets covered with flowers. Crosses, crowns, and
+bouquets were suspended from house to house, and as
+the procession approached, women ran out and scattered
+green boughs and rose-leaves before the train. A fine
+band and a lot of red soldiers came first, then the different
+saints on banners, carried by girls, and followed by
+long trains of girls bearing the different emblems. Saint
+Agnes and her lamb was followed by a flock of pretty
+young children all in white, carrying tall white lilies that
+filled the air with their fragrance.</p>
+
+<p>"Mary our Mother" was followed by orphans with
+black ribbons crossed on their breasts. Saint Martin led
+the charity boys in their gray suits, etc. The Host under
+a golden canopy was borne by priests in gorgeous rig,
+and every one knelt as it passed with censors swinging,
+candles burning, boys chanting, and flowers dropping
+from the windows. A pretty young lady ran out and set
+her baby in a pile of green leaves in the middle of the
+street before the Host, and it passed over the little thing
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">233</a></span>
+who sat placidly staring at the show and admiring its
+blue shoes. I suppose it is a saved and sacred baby
+henceforth.</p>
+
+<p>It was a fine pageant and quite touching, some of it;
+but as usual, I saw something funny to spoil the solemnity.
+A very fat and fine priest, who walked with
+his eyes upon his book and sung like a pious bumblebee,
+suddenly destroyed the effect by rapping a boy over
+the head with his gold prayer-book, as the black sheep
+strayed a little from the flock. I thought the old saint
+swore also.</p>
+
+<p>The procession went from the cathedral to Charlemagne's
+Tower, an old, old relic, all that is left of the
+famous church which once covered a great square. We
+went to see it, and the stones looked as if they were
+able to tell wonderful tales of the scenes they had
+witnessed all these hundreds of years. I think the "Reminiscences
+of a Rook" would be a good story, for
+these old towers are full of them, and they are long-lived
+birds.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Amboise, The Golden Lion</span>,
+Tuesday, June 21, 1870.</p>
+
+<p>Here we go again! now in an utterly different scene
+from Tours. We left at 5 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, and in half an hour
+were here on the banks of the Loire in a queer little
+inn where we are considered duchesses at least, owing to
+our big trunks and A.'s good French. I am the Madame,
+May Mam'selle, and A. the companion.</p>
+
+<p>Last evening being lovely, we went after dinner up to
+the castle where Charles VIII. was born in 1470. The
+Arab chief, Abd-el-Kader, and family were kept prisoners
+here, and in the old garden is a tomb with the crescent
+over it where some of them were buried. May was told
+about the terrace where the Huguenots hung thick and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">234</a></span>
+the court enjoyed the sight till the Loire, choked up with
+dead bodies, forced them to leave. We saw the little
+low door where Anne of Brittany's first husband Charles
+VIII. "bumped his head" and killed himself, as he was
+running through to play bowls with his wife.</p>
+
+<p>It has been modernized and is now being restored as
+in old times, so the interior was all in a toss. But we
+went down the winding road inside the tower, up which
+the knights and ladies used to ride. Father would
+have enjoyed the <i>pleached</i> walks, for they are cut so
+that looking down on them, it is like a green floor, and
+looking up it is a thick green wall. There also Margaret
+of Anjou and her son were reconciled to Warwick. Read
+Murray, I beg, and see all about it. We sat in the twilight
+on the terrace and saw what Fred would have liked,
+a little naked boy ride into the river on one horse after
+another, and swim them round in the deep water till
+they were all clean and cool.</p>
+
+<p>This morning at 7 o'clock we drove to Chenonceaux,
+the chateau given by Henry II. to Diane de Poictiers.
+It was a lovely day, and we went rolling along through the
+most fruitful country I ever saw. Acre on acre of yellow
+grain, vineyards miles long, gardens and orchards full of
+roses and cherries. The Cher is a fine river winding
+through the meadows, where haymakers were at work
+and fat cattle feeding. It was a very happy hour, and
+the best thing I saw was May's rapturous face opposite, as
+she sat silently enjoying everything, too happy to talk.</p>
+
+<p>The château built over the water is very interesting;
+Catherine de Medicis took it away from Diane when the
+king died, and her room is still seen as she left it; also
+a picture of Diane, a tall simpering woman in a tunic,
+with hounds, stag, cupids, and other rubbish round her.
+The gallery of pictures was fine; for here were old, old
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">235</a></span>
+portraits and bas-reliefs, Agnes Sorel, Montaigne, Rabelais,
+many kings and queens, and among them Lafayette
+and dear old Ben Franklin.</p>
+
+<p>There is a little theatre where Rousseau's plays were
+acted. This place at the time of the Revolution belonged
+to the grandmother of George Sand, and she was
+so much respected that no harm was done to it. So
+three cheers for Madame Dupin! Among the pictures were
+Ninon D'Enclos, and Madame Sevigné holding a picture
+of her beloved daughter. The Guidos, etc. I don't care
+for so much as they were all grimy and convulsive, and
+I prefer pictures of people who really lived, to these
+impossible Venuses and repulsive saints,&ndash;bad taste, but
+I can't help it. The walls were hung with stamped
+leather and tapestry, carved chairs in which queens had
+sat, tables at which kings had eaten, books they had
+read, and glasses that had reflected their faces were all
+about, and I just revelled. The old kitchen had a fireplace
+quaint enough to suit Pa, with immense turn-spits,
+cranes, andirons, etc. The chapel, balcony, avenue,
+draw-bridge, and all the other pleasing bits were enjoyed,
+and I stole a sprig of jasmine from the terrace which I
+shall press for Mamma. Pray take extra care of the
+photographs, for if lost, we cannot replace them, and I
+want to make a fine album of pictures with flowers and
+descriptions after I get home.... But all goes well and
+we enjoy much every day. Love to all,</p>
+
+<p class="sig">
+<span class="smcap">Lu</span>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>To her Mother.</i></p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Blois</span>, June 24, 1870.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Marmee</span>,&ndash;On this, Lizzie's and Johnny's birthday,
+I'll begin a letter to you. We found at the Poste
+Restante here two "Moods" and a paper for me, one
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">236</a></span>
+book from L., and one from N. I think the pictures
+horrid, and sent them floating down the Loire as soon as
+possible, and put one book at the bottom of my trunk
+and left the other where no one will find it. I couldn't
+read the story, and try to forget that I ever wrote it.</p>
+
+<p>Blois is a noisy, dusty, soldierly city with nothing to
+admire but the river, nearly dry now with this four
+months' drought, and the old castle where Francis I.,
+Louis XII., Catherine de Medicis, and other great folks
+lived. It has been very splendidly restored by the Government,
+and the ceilings are made with beams blazoned
+with coats-of-arms, the walls hung with cameos, painted
+with the same design as the stamped leather in old
+times, and the floors inlaid with colored tiles. Brown
+and gold, scarlet, blue, and silver, quaint dragons and
+flowers, porcupines and salamanders, crowns and letters,
+glittered everywhere. We saw the guard-room and the
+very chimney where the Duc de Guise was leaning when
+the king Henry III. sent for him; the little door where
+the king's gentlemen fell upon and stabbed him with
+forty wounds; the cabinet where the king and his
+mother plotted the deed; the chapel where the monks
+prayed for success; and the great hall where the body
+lay covered with a cloak till the king came and looked
+at it and kicked his dead enemy, saying, "I did not
+think he was so tall." We also saw the cell where the
+brother of the duke was murdered the next day, and the
+attic entire where their bodies were burnt, after which
+the ashes were thrown into the Loire by order of the
+king; the window out of which Marie de Medicis lowered
+herself when her son Louis XIII. imprisoned her
+there; the recess where Catherine de Medicis died; and
+many other interesting places. What a set of rascals
+these old kings and queens were!
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">237</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The <i>Salle des États</i> was very gorgeous, and here in a
+week or so are to be tried the men who lately fired at
+the Emperor. It will be a grand, a fine sight when the
+great arched hall is full. I got a picture of the castle, and
+one of a fireplace for Pa. It is a mass of gold and color,
+with the porcupine of Louis XIII. and the ermine of his
+wife Anne of Brittany, their arms, in medallion over it.</p>
+
+<p>At 5 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> we go on to Orleans for a day, where I shall
+get some relics of Joan of Arc for Nan. We shall pass
+Sunday at Bourges where the great church is, and then
+either to Geneva or the Jura, for a few weeks of rest.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Geneva</span>, June 29, 1870.</p>
+
+<p>It seems almost like getting home again to be here
+where I never thought to come again when I went away
+five years ago. We are at the Metropole Hotel right on
+the lake with a glimpse of Mount Blanc from our windows.
+It is rather fine after the grimy little inns of
+Brittany, and we enjoy a sip of luxury and put on our
+best gowns with feminine satisfaction after living in old
+travelling suits for a fortnight.</p>
+
+<p>I began my letter at Blois, where we spent a day or
+two. At Orleans we only passed a night, but we had
+time to see the famous statue of the Maid, put up in gratitude
+by the people of the city she saved. It is a fine
+statue of Joan in her armor on horseback, with her sword
+drawn. Round the base of the statue are bronzed bas-reliefs
+of her life from the girl with her sheep, to the
+martyr at the stake. They were very fine, but don't show
+much in the photograph which I got for Nan, remembering
+the time when she translated Schiller's play for me.</p>
+
+<p>At Bourges we saw the great cathedral, but didn't
+like it as well as that in Tours. We only spent a night
+there, and A. bought an antique ring of the time of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">238</a></span>
+Francis I.,&ndash;an emerald set in diamonds. It cost $9,
+and is very quaint and handsome.</p>
+
+<p>Moulins we reached Sunday noon, and at 3 o'clock
+went to vespers in the old church, where we saw a good
+deal of mumbo-jumbo by red, purple, and yellow priests,
+and heard a boy with a lovely voice sing in the hidden
+choir like a little angel among the clouds. A. had a
+fancy to stay a week, if we could find rooms out of town
+in some farm-house; for the handsome white cattle have
+captivated her, and we were rather tired. So the old
+lady at the hotel said she had a little farm-house out
+in the fields, and we should go see it with her in basket
+<i>chay</i>. After dinner we all piled in and went along
+a dusty road to a little dirty garden-house with two rooms
+and a few cabbages and rose-bushes round it. She said
+we could sleep and eat at the hotel and come down
+here for the day. That didn't suit at all, so we declined;
+and on Monday morning we set out for Lyons. It was a
+very interesting trip under, over, and through the mountains
+with two engines and much tunnelling and up-and-down
+grading. May was greatly excited at the queer
+things we did, and never knew that cars could turn such
+sharp corners. We wound about so that we could see the
+engine whisking out of sight round one corner while we
+were turning another, and the long train looked like a
+snake winding through the hills. The tunnels were so
+long that lamps were lighted, and so cold we put on our
+sacks while passing in the darkness. The scenery was
+very fine; and after we left Lyons, where we merely slept,
+the Alps began to appear, and May and I stared in blissful
+silence; for we had two tall old men opposite, and a
+little priest, so young that we called him the Rev. boy.
+He slept and said his prayers most of the time, stealing
+sly looks at May's hair, A.'s pretty hands, and my buckled
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">239</a></span>
+shoes, which were like his own and seemed to strike him
+as a liberty on my part. The old boys were very jolly,
+especially the one with three chins, who smiled paternally
+upon us and tried to talk. But we were very English
+and mum, and he thought we didn't understand
+French, and confided to his friend that he didn't see
+"how the English could travel and know not the French
+tongue." They sang, gabbled, slept, and slapped one
+another at intervals, and were very amusing till they left,
+and another very handsome Booth-like priest took their
+places.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>To her Father.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Bex</span>, July 14, 1870.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Pa</span>,&ndash;As I have not written to you yet, I will
+send you a picture-letter and tell you about the very interesting
+old Count Sz&ndash; who is here. This morning he
+asked us to go to the hills and see some curious trees
+which he says were planted from acorns and nuts brought
+from Mexico by Atala. We found some very ancient
+oaks and chestnuts, and the enthusiastic old man told us
+the story about the Druids who once had a church, amphitheatre,
+and sacrificial altar up there. No one knows
+much about it, and he imagines a good deal to suit his own
+pet theory. You would have liked to hear him hold forth
+about the races and Zoroaster, Plato, etc. He is a Hungarian
+of a very old family, descended from Semiramide
+and Zenobia. He believes that the body can be cured
+often by influencing the soul, and that doctors should be
+priests, and priests doctors, as the two affect the body
+and soul which depend on one another. He is doing
+a great deal for Miss W., who has tried many doctors
+and got no help. I never saw such a kindly, simple, enthusiastic,
+old soul, for at sixty-seven he is as full of hope
+and faith and good-will as a young man. I told him I
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">240</a></span>
+should like my father to see a little book he has written,
+and he is going to give me one.</p>
+
+<p>We like this quiet little place among the mountains,
+and pass lazy days; for it is very warm, and we sit about on
+our balconies enjoying the soft air, the moonlight, and the
+changing aspect of the hills.</p>
+
+<p>May had a fine exciting time going up St. Bernard,
+and is now ready for another....</p>
+
+<p>The Polish Countess and her daughter have been reading
+my books and are charmed with them. Madame
+says she is not obliged to turn down any pages so that
+the girls may not read them, as she does in many books,
+"All is so true, so sweet, so pious, she may read every
+word."</p>
+
+<p>I send by this mail the count's little pamphlet. I
+don't know as it amounts to much, but I thought you
+might like to see it.</p>
+
+<p>
+Love to every one, and write often to your</p>
+<p class="left65">Affectionate daughter</p>
+<p class="sig">L. M. A.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+
+<p class="letter"><span class="smcap">Bex</span>, July 18, 1870.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear People</span>,&ndash;The breaking out of this silly little
+war between France and Prussia will play the deuce with
+our letters. I have had none from you for a long time;
+and Alexandre, the English waiter here, says that the mails
+will be left to come as they can, for the railroads are all
+devoted to carrying troops to the seat of war. The
+French have already crossed the Rhine, and rumors of a
+battle came last eve; but the papers have not arrived, and
+no letters for any one, so all are fuming for news, public
+and private, and I am howling for my home letter, which
+is more important than all the papers on the continent....</p>
+
+<p>Don't be worried if you don't hear regularly, or think
+us in danger. Switzerland is out of the mess, and if she
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">241</a></span>
+gets in, we can skip over into Italy, and be as cosey as
+possible. It will make some difference in money, perhaps,
+as Munroe in Paris is our banker, and we shall be
+plagued about our letters, otherwise the war won't effect
+us a bit; I dare say you know as much about it as we do,
+and Marmee is predicting "a civil war" all over the
+world. We hear accounts of the frightful heat with you.
+Don't wilt away before we come....</p>
+
+<p>Lady Amberley is a trump, and I am glad she says a
+word for her poor sex though she <i>is</i> a peeress....</p>
+
+<p>I should like to have said of me what Hedge says of
+Dickens; and when I die, I should prefer such a memory
+rather than a tomb in Westminster Abbey.</p>
+
+<hr class="l15" />
+
+<p>I hope to have a good letter from Nan soon. May
+does the descriptions so well that I don't try it, being
+lazy.</p>
+
+<p class="sig">
+<span class="smcap">Lu.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>To Anna.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Sunday</span>, July 24, 1870.</p>
+
+<p>... The war along the Rhine is sending troops of
+travellers to Switzerland for refuge; and all the large
+towns are brimful of people flying from Germany. It
+won't trouble us, for we have done France and don't
+mean to do Germany. So when August is over, we shall
+trot forward to Italy, and find a warm place for our winter-quarters.
+At any time twenty-four hours carries us
+over the Simplon, so we sit at ease and don't care a
+straw for old France and Prussia. Russia, it is reported,
+has joined in the fight, but Italy and England are not
+going to meddle, so we can fly to either "in case of
+fire."<a name="FNanchor_9" id="FNanchor_9" href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p>
+
+<p>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">242</a></span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Bex</span>, July 27, 1870.</p>
+
+<p>We heard of Dickens's death some weeks ago and have
+been reading notices, etc., in all the papers since. One
+by G. Greenwood in the Tribune was very nice. I shall
+miss my old Charlie, but he is not the old idol he once
+was....</p>
+
+<p>Did you know that Higginson and a little girl friend
+had written out the Operatic Tragedy in "Little Women"
+and set the songs to music and it was all to be put in
+"Our Young Folks." What are we coming to in our old
+age? Also I hope to see the next designs N. has got for
+"Little Women." I know nothing about them.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>To her Mother.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+3 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, <span class="smcap">Bex</span>, July 31, 1870.</p>
+
+<p>Papers are suppressed by the Government so we know
+nothing about the war, except the rumors that float about.
+But people seem to think that Europe is in for a general
+fight, and there is no guessing when it will end.</p>
+
+<p>The trouble about getting into Italy is, that civil war
+always breaks out there and things are so mixed up that
+strangers get into scrapes among the different squabblers.
+When the P.'s were abroad during the last Italian fuss, they
+got shut up in some little city and would have been killed
+by Austrians, who were rampaging round the place drunk
+and mad, if a woman had not hid them in a closet for a
+day and night, and smuggled them out at last, when they
+ran for their lives. I don't mean to get into any mess,
+and between Switzerland and England we can manage
+for a winter. London is so near home and so home-like
+that we shall be quite handy and can run up to Boston
+at any time. Perhaps Pa will step across to see us.</p>
+
+<p>All these plans may be knocked in the head to-morrow
+and my next letter may be dated from the Pope's
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">243</a></span>
+best parlor or Windsor Castle; but I like to spin about on
+ups and downs so you can have something to talk about
+at Apple Slump. Uncertainty gives a relish to things, so
+we chase about and have a dozen plans a day. It is an
+Alcott failing you know....</p>
+
+<p>
+Love to all and bless you,</p>
+<p class="left65">Ever yours,</p>
+<p class="sig"> <span class="smcap">Lu</span>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Bex</span>, Aug. 7, 1870.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Mr. Niles</span>,&ndash;I keep receiving requests from
+editors to write for their papers and magazines. I am
+truly grateful, but having come abroad for rest I am not
+inclined to try the treadmill till my year's vacation is
+over. So to appease these worthy gentlemen and excuse
+my seeming idleness I send you a trifle in rhyme,<a name="FNanchor_10" id="FNanchor_10" href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> which
+you can (if you think it worth the trouble) set going as
+a general answer to everybody; for I can't pay postage
+in replies to each separately,&ndash;"it's very costly." Mr.
+F. said he would pay me $10, $15, $20 for any little
+things I would send him; so perhaps you will let him
+have it first.</p>
+
+<p>The war makes the bankers take double toll on our
+money, so we feel very poor and as if we ought to be
+earning, not spending; only we are <i>so</i> lazy we can't bear
+to think of it in earnest....</p>
+
+<p>We shall probably go to London next month if the
+war forbids Italy for the winter; and if we can't get one
+dollar without paying five for it, we shall come home
+disgusted.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps if I can do nothing else this year I could have
+a book of short stories, old and new, for Christmas. F.
+and F. have some good ones, and I have the right to
+use them. We could call them "Jo March's Necessity
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">244</a></span>
+Stories." Would it go with new ones added and good
+illustrations?</p>
+
+<p>I am rising from my ashes in a most ph&oelig;nix-like
+manner.</p>
+<p class="sig">L. M. A.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>To her Mother.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Vevay, Pension Paradis</span>, Aug. 11, 1870.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Marmee</span>,&ndash;.... This house is very cosey, and
+the food excellent. I thought it would be when I heard
+gentlemen liked it,&ndash;they always want good fodder.
+There are only three now,&ndash;an old Spaniard and his son,
+and a young Frenchman. We see them at meals, and
+the girls play croquet with them....</p>
+
+<p>This is the gay season here, and in spite of the war
+Vevay is full. The ex-Queen of Spain and her family
+are here at the Grand Hotel; also Don Carlos, the rightful
+heir to the Spanish throne. Our landlady says that
+her house used to be full of Spaniards, who every day
+went in crowds to call on the two kings, Alphonse and
+Carlos. We see brown men and women with black eyes
+driving round in fine coaches, with servants in livery, who
+I suppose are the Court people.</p>
+
+<p>The papers tell us that the French have lost two big
+battles; the Prussians are in Strasbourg, and Paris in a
+state of siege. The papers are also full of theatrical
+messages from the French to the people, asking them to
+come up and be slaughtered for <i>la patrie</i>, and sober,
+cool reports from the Prussians. I side with the Prussians,
+for they sympathized with us in our war. Hooray
+for old Pruss!...</p>
+
+<p>France is having a bad time. Princess Clotilde passed
+through Geneva the other day with loads of baggage, flying
+to Italy; and last week a closed car with the imperial arms
+on it went by here in the night,&ndash;supposed to be Matilde
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">245</a></span>
+and other royal folks flying away from Paris. The Prince
+Imperial has been sent home from the seat of war; and
+poor Eugénie is doing her best to keep things quiet in
+Paris. The French here say that a republic is already
+talked of; and the Emperor is on his last legs in every
+way. He is sick, and his doctor won't let him ride, and
+so nervous he can't command the army as he wanted to.
+Poor old man! one can't help pitying him when all his
+plans fail.</p>
+
+<p>We still dawdle along, getting fat and hearty. The
+food is excellent. A breakfast of coffee and tip-top
+bread, fresh butter, with eggs or fried potatoes, at 8; a real
+French dinner at 1.30, of soup, fish, meat, game, salad,
+sweet messes, and fruit, with wine; and at 7 cold meat,
+salad, sauce, tea, and bread and butter. It is grape time
+now, and for a few cents we get pounds, on which we feast
+all day at intervals. We walk and play as well as any
+one, and feel so well I ought to do something....</p>
+
+<p>Fred and Jack would like to look out of my window
+now and see the little boys playing in the lake. They
+are there all day long like little pigs, and lie around on
+the warm stones to dry, splashing one another for exercise.
+One boy, having washed himself, is now washing
+his clothes, and all lying out to dry together....</p>
+
+<p class="left65">
+Ever yours,</p>
+<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">Lu</span>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>To Anna.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Vevay</span>, Aug. 21, 1870.</p>
+
+<p>I had such a droll dream last night I must tell you. I
+thought I was returning to Concord after my trip, and
+was alone. As I walked from the station I missed Mr.
+Moore's house, and turning the corner, found the scene
+so changed that I did not know where I was. Our house
+was gone, and in its place stood a great gray stone castle,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">246</a></span>
+with towers and arches and lawns and bridges, very fine
+and antique. Somehow I got into it without meeting
+any one of you, and wandered about trying to find my
+family. At last I came across Mr. Moore, papering a
+room, and asked him where his house was. He didn't
+know me, and said,&ndash;</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! I sold it to Mr. Alcott for his school, and we
+live in Acton now."</p>
+
+<p>"Where did Mr. Alcott get the means to build this
+great concern?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, he <i>gave</i> his own land, and took the great pasture
+his daughter left him,&ndash;the one that died some ten
+years ago."</p>
+
+<p>"So I am dead, am I?" says I to myself, feeling so
+queerly.</p>
+
+<p>"Government helped build this place, and Mr. A. has a
+fine college here," said Mr. Moore, papering away again.</p>
+
+<p>I went on, wondering at the news, and looked into a
+glass to see how I looked dead. I found myself a fat old
+lady, with gray hair and specs,&ndash;very like E. P. P. I
+laughed, and coming to a Gothic window, looked out and
+saw hundreds of young men and boys in a queer flowing
+dress, roaming about the parks and lawns; and among
+them was Pa, looking as he looked thirty years ago, with
+brown hair and a big white neckcloth, as in the old times.
+He looked so plump and placid and young and happy I
+was charmed to see him, and nodded; but he didn't
+know me; and I was so grieved and troubled at being
+a Rip Van Winkle, I cried, and said I had better go
+away and not disturb any one,&ndash;and in the midst of my
+woe, I woke up. It was all so clear and funny, I can't
+help thinking that it may be a foreshadowing of something
+real. I used to dream of being famous, and it has partly
+become true; so why not Pa's college blossom, and he
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">247</a></span>
+get young and happy with his disciples? I only hope he
+won't quite forget me when I come back, fat and gray
+and old. Perhaps his dream is to come in another world,
+where everything is fresh and calm, and the reason why
+he didn't recognize me was because I was still in this
+work-a-day world, and so felt old and strange in this
+lovely castle in the air. Well, he is welcome to my fortune;
+but the daughter who did die ten years ago is more
+likely to be the one who helped him build his School of
+Concord up aloft.</p>
+
+<p>I can see how the dream came; for I had been looking
+at Silling's boys in their fine garden, and wishing I could
+go in and know the dear little lads walking about there,
+in the forenoon. I had got a topknot at the barber's,
+and talked about my gray hairs, and looking in the glass
+thought how fat and old I was getting, and had shown
+the B.'s Pa's picture, which they thought saintly, etc. I
+believe in dreams, though I am free to confess that
+"cowcumbers" for tea may have been the basis of this
+"ally-gorry-cal wision."...</p>
+
+<p>As we know the Consul at Spezzia,&ndash;that is, we have
+letters to him, as well as to many folks in Rome, etc.,&ndash;I
+guess we shall go; for the danger of Europe getting
+into the fight is over now, and we can sail to England or
+home any time from Italy.... Love to every one.</p>
+
+<p>
+Kiss my <i>cousin</i> for me.</p>
+<p class="left65">Ever your</p>
+<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">Lu</span>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>To Mr. Niles.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">August</span> 23, 1870.</p>
+
+<p>Your note of August 2 has just come, with a fine
+budget of magazines and a paper, for all of which many
+thanks.</p>
+
+<hr class="l15" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">248</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Don't give my address to any one. I don't want the
+young ladies' notes. They can send them to Concord,
+and I shall get them next year.</p>
+
+<hr class="l15" />
+
+<p>The boys at Silling's school are a perpetual source of
+delight to me; and I stand at the gate, like the Peri, longing
+to go in and play with the lads. The young ladies
+who want to find live Lauries can be supplied here, for
+Silling has a large assortment always on hand.</p>
+
+<p>My B. says she is constantly trying to incite me to
+literary effort, but I hang fire. So I do,&ndash;but only that
+I may go off with a bang by and by, <i>à la mitrailleuse</i>.</p>
+
+<p class="sig">
+<span class="smcap">L. M. A.</span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>To her Family.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Vevay</span>, Aug. 29, 1870.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear People</span>,&ndash;... M. Nicaud, the owner of this
+house,&ndash;a funny old man, with a face so like a parrot
+that we call him M. Perrot,&ndash;asked us to come and
+visit him at his <i>châlet</i> up among the hills. He is
+building a barn there, and stays to see that all goes
+well; so we only see him on Sundays, when he convulses
+us by his funny ways. Last week seven of us
+went up in a big landau, and the old dear entertained
+us like a prince. We left the carriage at the foot of
+a little steep path, and climbed up to the dearest old
+<i>châlet</i> we ever saw. Here Pa Nicaud met us, took
+us up the outside steps into his queer little salon, and
+regaled us with his sixty-year old wine and nice little
+cakes. We then set forth, in spite of clouds and wind,
+to view the farm and wood. It showered at intervals,
+but no one seemed to care; so we trotted about under
+umbrellas, getting mushrooms, flowers, and colds, viewing
+the Tarpeian Rock, and sitting on rustic seats to enjoy
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">249</a></span>
+the <i>belle vue</i>, which consisted of fog. It was such a droll
+lark that we laughed and ran, and enjoyed the damp picnic
+very much. Then we had a tip-top Swiss dinner, followed
+by coffee, three sorts of wine, and cigars. Every
+one smoked, and as it poured guns, the old Perrot had
+a blazing fire made, round which we sat, talking many
+languages, singing, and revelling. We had hardly got
+through dinner and seen another foggy view when tea was
+announced, and we stuffed again, having pitchers of cream,
+fruit, and a queer but very nice dish of slices of light
+bread dipped in egg and fried, and eaten with sugar.
+The buxom Swiss maid flew and grinned, and kept serving
+up some new mess from her tiny dark kitchen. It
+cleared off, and we walked home in spite of our immense
+exploits in the eating line. Old Perrot escorted us part
+way down, and we gave three cheers for him as we
+parted. Then we showed Madame and the French governess
+and Don Juan (the Spanish boy) some tall walking,
+though the roads were very steep and rough and muddy.
+We tramped some five miles; and our party (May, A.,
+the governess, and I) got home long before Madame and
+Don Juan, who took a short cut, and wouldn't believe
+that we didn't get a lift somehow. I felt quite proud
+of my old pins; for they were not tired, and none the
+worse for the long walk. I think they are really all right
+now, for the late cold weather has not troubled them in
+the least; and I sleep&ndash;O ye gods, how I do sleep!&ndash;ten
+or twelve hours sound, and get up so drunk with dizziness
+it is lovely to see. Aint I grateful? Oh, yes! oh, yes!</p>
+
+<p>We began French lessons to-day, May and I, of the
+French governess,&ndash;a kind old girl who only asks two
+francs a lesson. We <i>must</i> speak the language, for it is
+disgraceful to be so stupid; so we have got to work, and
+mean to be able to <i>parlez-vous</i> or die. The war is still
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">250</a></span>
+a nuisance, and we may be here some time, and really
+need some work; for we are so lazy we shall be spoilt, if
+we don't fall to....</p>
+
+<p>I gave Count C. Pa's message, and he was pleased.
+He reads no English, and is going to Hungary soon; so
+Pa had better not send the book....</p>
+<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">Lu</span>.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Vevay</span>, Sept. 10, 1870.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear People</span>,&ndash;As all Europe seems to be going to
+destruction, I hasten to drop a line before the grand
+smash arrives. We mean to skip over the Alps next week,
+if weather and war permit; for we are bound to see
+Milan and the lakes, even if we have to turn and come
+back without a glimpse of Rome. The Pope is beginning
+to perk up; and Italy and England and Russia seem
+ready to join in the war, now that France is down. Think
+of Paris being bombarded and smashed up like Strasbourg.
+We never shall see the grand old cathedral at
+Strasbourg now, it is so spoilt.</p>
+
+<p>Vevay is crammed with refugees from Paris and Strasbourg.
+Ten families applied here yesterday....</p>
+
+<p>Our house is brimful, and we have funny times. The
+sick Russian lady and her old Ma make a great fuss if a
+breath of air comes in at meal times, and expect twenty
+people to sit shut tight in a smallish room for an hour on
+a hot day. We protested, and Madame put them in the
+parlor, where they glower as we pass, and lock the door
+when they can. The German Professor is learning English,
+and is a quiet, pleasant man. The Polish General,
+a little cracked, is very droll, and bursts out in the middle
+of the general chat with stories about transparent apples
+and golden horses.... Benda, the crack book-and-picture
+man, has asked May if she was the Miss Alcott
+who wrote the popular books; for he said he had many calls
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">251</a></span>
+for them, and wished to know where they could be found.
+We told him "at London," and felt puffed up....</p>
+
+<p>May and I delve away at French; but it makes my
+head ache, and I don't learn enough to pay for the
+trouble. I never could <i>study</i>, you know, and suffer such
+agony when I try that it is piteous to behold. The
+little brains I have left I want to keep for future works,
+and not exhaust them on grammar,&ndash;vile invention
+of Satan! May gets on slowly, and don't have fits after
+it; so she had better go on (the lessons only cost two
+francs)....</p>
+<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">L. M. A.</span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>To her Mother.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Lago di Como</span>, Oct. 8, 1870.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dearest Marmee</span>,&ndash;A happy birthday, and many of
+'em! Here we actually are in the long-desired Italy, and
+find it as lovely as we hoped. Our journey was a perfect
+success,&ndash;sunlight, moonlight, magnificent scenery, pleasant
+company, no mishaps, and one long series of beautiful
+pictures all the way.</p>
+
+<p>Crossing the Simplon is an experience worth having;
+for without any real danger, fatigue, or hardship, one
+sees some of the finest as well as most awful parts of these
+wonderful Alps.</p>
+
+<p>The road,&ndash;a miracle in itself! for all Nature seems
+to protest against it, and the elements never tire of trying
+to destroy it. Only a Napoleon would have dreamed of
+making a path through such a place; and he only cared
+for it as a way to get his men and cannon into an enemy's
+country by this truly royal road.</p>
+
+<p>May has told you about our trip; so I will only add a
+few bits that she forgot.</p>
+
+<p>Our start in the dawn from Brieg, with two diligences,
+a carriage, and a cart, was something between a funeral
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">252</a></span>
+and a caravan: first an immense diligence with seven
+horses, then a smaller one with four, then our <i>calèche</i>
+with two, and finally the carrier's cart with one. It was
+very exciting,&ndash;the general gathering of sleepy travellers
+in the dark square, the tramping of horses, the packing
+in, the grand stir of getting off; then the slow winding
+up, up, up out of the valley toward the sun, which came
+slowly over the great hills, rising as we never saw it rise
+before. The still, damp pine-forests kept us in shadow
+a long time after the white mountain-tops began to shine.
+Little by little we wound through a great gorge, and then
+the sun came dazzling between these grand hills, showing
+us a new world. Peak after peak of the Bernese Oberland
+rose behind us, and great white glaciers lay before
+us; while the road crept like a narrow line, in and out
+over chasms that made us dizzy to look at, under tunnels,
+and through stone galleries with windows over which
+dashed waterfalls from the glaciers above. Here and
+there were refuges, a hospice, and a few <i>châlets</i>, where
+shepherds live their wild, lonely lives. In the <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>
+we drove rapidly down toward Italy through the great
+Valley of Gondo,&ndash;a deep rift in rock thousands of feet
+deep, and just wide enough for the road and a wild stream
+that was our guide; a never-to-be-forgotten place, and a
+fit gateway to Italy, which soon lay smiling below us.
+The change is very striking; and when we came to Lago
+Maggiore lying in the moonlight we could only sigh for
+happiness, and love and look and look. After a good
+night's rest at Stresa, we went in a charming gondola-sort
+of boat to see Isola Bella,&ndash;the island you see in the
+chromo over the fireplace at home,&ndash;a lovely island,
+with famous castle, garden, and town on it. The day was
+as balmy as summer, and we felt like butterflies after a
+frost, and fluttered about, enjoying the sunshine all day.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">253</a></span></p>
+
+<p>A sail by steamer brought us to Luino, where we went
+on the diligence to Lugano. Moonlight all the way, and
+a gay driver, who wound his horn as we clattered into
+market-places and over bridges in the most gallant style.
+The girls were on top, and in a state of rapture all the
+way. After supper in a vaulted, frescoed hall, with marble
+floors, pillars, and galleries, we went to a room which had
+green doors, red carpet, blue walls, and yellow bed-covers,&ndash;all
+so gay! It was like sleeping in a rainbow.</p>
+
+<p>As if a heavenly lake under our windows with moonlight
+<i>ad libitum</i> wasn't enough, we had music next door;
+and on leaning out of a little back window, we made the
+splendid discovery that we could look on to the stage
+of the opera-house across a little alley. My Nan can
+imagine with what rapture I stared at the scenes going
+on below me, and how I longed for her as I stood there
+wrapped in my yellow bed-quilt, and saw gallant knights
+in armor warble sweetly to plump ladies in masks, or
+pretty peasants fly wildly from ardent lovers in red tights;
+also a dishevelled maid who tore her hair in a forest,
+while a man aloft made thunder and lightning,&ndash;and <i>I
+saw him do it</i>!</p>
+
+<p>It was the climax to a splendid day; for few travellers
+can go to the opera luxuriously in their night-gowns, and
+take naps between the acts as I did.</p>
+
+<p>A lovely sail next morning down the lake; then a
+carriage to Menaggio; and then a droll boat, like a big
+covered market-wagon with a table and red-cushioned
+seats, took us and our trunks to Cadenabbia, for there is
+only a donkey road to the little town. At the hotel on
+the edge of the lake we found Nelly L., a sweet girl as
+lovely as Minnie, and so glad to see us; for since her
+mother died in Venice last year she has lived alone with
+her maid. She had waited for us, and next day went to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">254</a></span>
+Milan, where we join her on Monday. She paints; and
+May and she made plans at once to study together, and
+enjoy some of the free art-schools at Milan and Naples
+or Florence, if we can all be together. It is a great
+chance for May, and I mean she shall have a good time,
+and not wait for tools and teachers; for all is in the way
+of her profession, and of use to her.</p>
+
+<p>Cadenabbia is only two hotels and a few villas opposite
+Bellagio, which is a town, and fashionable. We
+were rowed over to see it by our boatman, who spends
+his time at the front of the stone steps before the hotel,
+and whenever we go out he tells us, "The lake is tranquil;
+the hour is come for a walk on the water," and is
+as coaxing as only an Italian can be. He is amiably
+tipsy most of the time.</p>
+
+<p>To-day it rains so we cannot go out, and I rest and
+write to my Marmee in a funny room with a stone floor
+inlaid till it looks like castile soap, a ceiling in fat cupids
+and trumpeting fairies, a window on the lake, with balcony,
+etc. Hand-organs with jolly singing boys jingle
+all day, and two big bears go by led by a man with a
+drum. The boys would laugh to see them dance on
+their hind legs, and shoulder sticks like soldiers.</p>
+
+<p>... All looks well, and if the winter goes on rapidly
+and pleasantly as the summer we shall soon be thinking
+of home, unless one of us decides to stay. I shall post
+this at Milan to-morrow, and hope to find letters there
+from you. By-by till then.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>Journal.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+<i>October</i>, 1870.&ndash;A memorable month.... Off for
+Italy on the 2d. A splendid journey over the Alps and
+Maggiore by moonlight.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">255</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Heavenly days at the lakes, and so to Milan, Parma,
+Pisa, Bologna, and Florence. Disappointed in some
+things, but found Nature always lovely and wonderful;
+so didn't mind faded pictures, damp rooms, and the
+cold winds of "sunny Italy." Bought furs at Florence,
+and arrived in Rome one rainy night.</p>
+
+<p><i>November 10th.</i>&ndash;In Rome, and felt as if I had been
+there before and knew all about it. Always oppressed
+with a sense of sin, dirt, and general decay of all things.
+Not well; so saw things through blue glasses. May in
+bliss with lessons, sketching, and her dreams. A. had
+society, her house, and old friends. The artists were
+the best company; counts and princes very dull, what
+we saw of them. May and I went off on the Campagna,
+and criticised all the world like two audacious
+Yankees.</p>
+
+<p>Our apartment in Piazza Barbarini was warm and
+cosey; and I thanked Heaven for it, as it rained for
+two months, and my first view most of the time was the
+poor Triton with an icicle on his nose.</p>
+
+<p>We pay $60 a month for six good rooms, and $6 a
+month for a girl, who cooks and takes care of us.</p>
+
+<p><i>29th.</i>&ndash;My thirty-eighth birthday. May gave me a
+pretty sketch, and A. a fine nosegay.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In Rome Miss Alcott was shocked and grieved by
+the news of the death of her well-beloved brother-in-law,
+Mr. Pratt. She has drawn so beautiful a
+picture of him in "Little Women" and in "Little
+Men," that it is hardly needful to dwell upon his
+character or the grief which his death caused her.
+With her usual care for others, her thoughts at
+once turned to the support of the surviving family,
+and she found comfort in writing "Little Men"
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">256</a></span>
+with the thought of the dear sister and nephews
+constantly in her heart.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of this great sorrow and anxiety for
+the dear ones at home, the year of travel was very
+refreshing to her. Her companions were congenial,
+she took great delight in her sister's work,
+and she was independent in her plans, and could
+go whither and when she would.</p>
+
+<p>The voyage home was a hard one; there was small-pox
+on board, but Miss Alcott fortunately escaped
+the infection. "Little Men" was out the day she
+arrived, as a bright red placard in the carriage announced,
+and besides all the loving welcomes from
+family and friends, she received the pleasing news
+that fifty thousand of the books were already sold.</p>
+
+<p>But the old pains and weariness came home with
+her also. She could not stay in Concord, and
+went again to Boston, hoping to rest and work.
+Her young sister came home to brighten up the
+family with her hopeful, helpful spirit.</p>
+
+<p>At forty years of age Louisa had accomplished
+the task she set for herself in youth. By unceasing
+toil she had made herself and her family independent;
+debts were all paid, and enough was invested
+to preserve them from want. And yet
+wants seemed to increase with their satisfaction,
+and she felt impelled to work enough to give to
+all the enjoyments and luxuries which were fitted
+to them after the necessaries were provided for.
+It may be that her own exhausted nervous condition
+made it impossible for her to rest, and the
+demand which she fancied came from without was
+the projection of her own thought.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">257</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="section"><i>Journal.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+1871.&ndash;<i>Rome.</i>&ndash;Great inundation. Streets flooded,
+churches with four feet of water in them, and queer
+times for those who were in the overflowed quarters.
+Meals hoisted up at the window; people carried across
+the river-like streets to make calls; and all manner of
+funny doings. We were high and dry at Piazza Barbarini,
+and enjoyed the flurry.</p>
+
+<p>To the Capitol often, to spend the <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> with the Roman
+emperors and other great men. M. Aurelius as a boy
+was fine; Cicero looked very like W. Phillips; Agrippina
+in her chair was charming; but the other ladies,
+with hair <i>à la sponge</i>, were ugly; Nero &amp; Co. a set
+of brutes and bad men. But a better sight to me was
+the crowd of poor people going to get the bread and
+money sent by the king; and the splendid snow-covered
+hills were finer than the marble beauty inside. Art tires;
+Nature never.</p>
+
+<p>Professor Pierce and his party just from Sicily, where
+they had been to see the eclipse,&ndash;all beaming with
+delight, and well repaid for the long journey by a <i>two
+minutes'</i> squint at the sun when darkest.</p>
+
+<p>Began to write a new book, "Little Men," that John's
+death may not leave A. and the dear little boys in want.
+John took care that they should have enough while the
+boys are young, and worked very hard to have a little
+sum to leave, without a debt anywhere.</p>
+
+<p>In writing and thinking of the little lads, to whom I
+must be a father now, I found comfort for my sorrow.
+May went on with her lessons, "learning," as she wisely
+said, how little she knew and how to go on.</p>
+
+<p><i>February.</i>&ndash;A gay month in Rome, with the carnival,
+artists' fancy ball, many parties, and much calling.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">258</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Decided to leave May for another year, as L. sends
+$700 on "Moods," and the new book will provide
+$1,000 for the dear girl; so she may be happy and free
+to follow her talent.</p>
+
+<p><i>March.</i>&ndash;Spent at Albano. A lovely place. Walk,
+write, and rest. A troop of handsome officers from
+Turin, who clatter by, casting soft glances at my two
+blonde signorinas, who enjoy it very much.<a name="FNanchor_11" id="FNanchor_11" href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> Baron and
+Baroness Rothschild were there, and the W.'s from Philadelphia,
+Dr. O. W. and wife, and S. B. Mrs. W. and
+A. B. talk <i>all day</i>, May sketches, I write, and so we go
+on. Went to look at rooms at the Bonapartes.</p>
+
+<p><i>April.</i>&ndash;Venice. Floated about for two weeks seeing
+sights. A lovely city for a short visit. Not enough going
+on to suit brisk Americans. May painted, A. hunted up
+old jewelry and friends, and I dawdled after them.</p>
+
+<p>A very interesting trip to London,&ndash;over the Brenner
+Pass to Munich, Cologne, Antwerp, and by boat to
+London.</p>
+
+<p><i>May.</i>&ndash;A busy month. Settled in lodgings, Brompton
+Road, and went sight-seeing. Mrs. P. Taylor, Conway,
+and others very kind. Enjoyed showing May my favorite
+places and people.</p>
+
+<p>A. B. went home on the 11th, after a pleasant year
+with us. I am glad to know her, for she is true and very
+interesting. May took lessons of Rowbotham and was
+happy. "Little Men" came out in London.</p>
+
+<p>I decided to go home on the 25th, as I am needed.
+A very pleasant year in spite of constant pain, John's
+death, and home anxieties. Very glad I came, for May's
+sake. It has been a very useful year for her.</p>
+
+<p><i>June.</i>&ndash;After an anxious passage of twelve days, got
+safely home. Small-pox on board, and my room-mate,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">259</a></span>
+Miss D., very ill. I escaped, but had a sober time lying
+next door to her, waiting to see if my turn was to
+come. She was left at the island, and I went up the
+harbor with Judge Russell, who took some of us off in
+his tug.</p>
+
+<p>Father and T. N. came to meet me with a great red
+placard of "Little Men" pinned up in the carriage.
+After due precautions, hurried home and found all well.
+My room refurnished and much adorned by Father's
+earnings.</p>
+
+<p>Nan well and calm, but under her sweet serenity is a
+very sad soul, and she mourns for her mate like a tender
+turtle-dove.</p>
+
+<p>The boys were tall, bright lads, devoted to Marmee,
+and the life of the house.</p>
+
+<p>Mother feeble and much aged by this year of trouble.
+I shall never go far away from her again. Much company,
+and loads of letters, all full of good wishes and
+welcome.</p>
+
+<p>"Little Men" was out the day I arrived. Fifty thousand
+sold before it was out.</p>
+
+<p>A happy month, for I felt well for the first time in two
+years. I knew it wouldn't last, but enjoyed it heartily
+while it did, and was grateful for rest from pain and a
+touch of the old cheerfulness. It was much needed at
+home.</p>
+
+<p><i>July, August, September.</i>&ndash;Sick. Holiday soon over.
+Too much company and care and change of climate
+upset the poor nerves again. Dear Uncle S. J. May
+died; our best friend for years. Peace to his ashes.
+He leaves a sweeter memory behind him than any man
+I know. Poor Marmee is the last of her family now.</p>
+
+<p><i>October.</i>&ndash;Decided to go to B.; Concord is so hard
+for me, with its dampness and worry. Get two girls to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">260</a></span>
+do the work, and leave plenty of money and go to
+Beacon Street to rest and try to get well that I may
+work. A lazy life, but it seemed to suit; and anything
+is better than the invalidism I hate worse than death.</p>
+
+<p>Bones ached less, and I gave up morphine, as sunshine,
+air, and quiet made sleep possible without it. Saw
+people, pictures, plays, and read all I could, but did not
+enjoy much, for the dreadful weariness of nerves makes
+even pleasure hard.</p>
+
+<p><i>November.</i>&ndash;May sent pleasant letters and some fine
+copies of Turner. She decides to come home, as she
+feels she is needed as I give out. Marmee is feeble,
+Nan has her boys and her sorrow, and one strong head
+and hand is wanted at home. A year and a half of holiday
+is a good deal, and duty comes first always. Sorry
+to call her back, but her eyes are troublesome, and
+housework will rest them and set her up. Then she can
+go again when I am better, for I don't want her to be
+thwarted in her work more than just enough to make
+her want it very much.</p>
+
+<p>On the 19th she came. Well, happy, and full of sensible
+plans. A lively time enjoying the cheerful element
+she always brings into the house. Piles of pictures,
+merry adventures, and interesting tales of the fine London
+lovers.</p>
+
+<p>Kept my thirty-ninth and Father's seventy-second
+birthday in the old way.</p>
+
+<p>Thanksgiving dinner at Pratt Farm. All well and all
+together. Much to give thanks for.</p>
+
+<p><i>December.</i>&ndash;Enjoyed my quiet, sunny room very
+much; and this lazy life seems to suit me, for I am
+better, mind and body. All goes well at home, with
+May to run the machine in her cheery, energetic style,
+and amuse Marmee and Nan with gay histories. Had a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">261</a></span>
+furnace put in, and all enjoyed the new climate. No
+more rheumatic fevers and colds, with picturesque open
+fires. Mother is to be cosey if money can do it. She
+seems to be now, and my long-cherished dream has come
+true; for she sits in a pleasant room, with no work, no
+care, no poverty to worry, but peace and comfort all
+about her, and children glad and able to stand between
+trouble and her. Thank the Lord! I like to stop and
+"remember my mercies." Working and waiting for them
+makes them very welcome.</p>
+
+<p>Went to the ball for the Grand Duke Alexis. A fine
+sight, and the big blonde boy the best of all. Would
+dance with the pretty girls, and leave the Boston dowagers
+and their diamonds in the lurch.</p>
+
+<p>To the Radical Club, where the philosophers mount
+their hobbies and prance away into time and space, while
+we gaze after them and try to look wise.</p>
+
+<p>A merry Christmas at home. Tree for the boys,
+family dinner, and frolic in the evening.</p>
+
+<p>A varied, but on the whole a good year, in spite of
+pain. Last Christmas we were in Rome, mourning for
+John. What will next Christmas bring forth? I have no
+ambition now but to keep the family comfortable and not
+ache any more. Pain has taught me patience, I hope, if
+nothing more.</p>
+
+<p><i>January</i>, 1872.&ndash;Roberts Brothers paid $4,400 as six
+months' receipts for the books. A fine New Year's gift.
+S. E. S. invested $3,000, and the rest I put in the bank
+for family needs. Paid for the furnace and all the bills.
+What bliss it is to be able to do that and ask no help!</p>
+
+<hr class="l15" />
+
+<p>Mysterious bouquets came from some unknown admirer
+or friend. Enjoyed them very much, and felt
+quite grateful and romantic as day after day the lovely
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">262</a></span>
+great nosegays were handed in by the servant of the
+unknown.</p>
+
+<p><i>February and March.</i>&ndash;At Mrs. Stowe's desire, wrote
+for the "Christian Union" an account of our journey
+through France, and called it "Shawl Straps."...
+Many calls and letters and invitations, but I kept quiet,
+health being too precious to risk, and sleep still hard to
+get for the brain that would work instead of rest.</p>
+
+<p>Heard lectures,&ndash;Higginson, Bartol, Frothingham, and
+Rabbi Lilienthal. Much talk about religion. I'd like
+to see a little more really <i>lived</i>.</p>
+
+<p><i>April and May.</i>&ndash;Wrote another sketch for the "Independent,"&ndash;"A
+French Wedding;" and the events
+of my travels paid my winter's expenses. All is fish that
+comes to the literary net. Goethe puts his joys and sorrows
+into poems; I turn my adventures into bread and
+butter.</p>
+
+<hr class="l15" />
+
+<p><i>June</i>, 1872.&ndash;Home, and begin a new task. Twenty
+years ago I resolved to make the family independent if I
+could. At forty that is done. Debts all paid, even the
+outlawed ones, and we have enough to be comfortable.
+It has cost me my health, perhaps; but as I still live,
+there is more for me to do, I suppose.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center p6"><span class="b1">CHAPTER X.</span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">263</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="center">FAMILY CHANGES.</p>
+
+<p class="center p2">TRANSFIGURATION.<a name="FNanchor_12" id="FNanchor_12" href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p>
+
+<p class="center s1">IN MEMORIAM.</p>
+
+<p class="center s1">Lines written by Louisa M. Alcott on the death of her mother.</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="stanza">
+Mysterious death! who in a single hour<br />
+<span class="i2">Life's gold can so refine,</span><br />
+<span class="i2">And by thy art divine</span><br />
+Change mortal weakness to immortal power!</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">Bending beneath the weight of eighty years,<br />
+<span class="i2">Spent with the noble strife</span><br />
+<span class="i2">Of a victorious life,</span><br />
+We watched her fading heavenward, through our tears.</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">But ere the sense of loss our hearts had wrung,<br />
+<span class="i2">A miracle was wrought;</span><br />
+<span class="i2">And swift as happy thought</span><br />
+She lived again,&ndash;brave, beautiful, and young.</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">Age, pain, and sorrow dropped the veils they wore<br />
+<span class="i2">And showed the tender eyes</span><br />
+<span class="i2">Of angels in disguise,</span><br />
+Whose discipline so patiently she bore.</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">The past years brought their harvest rich and fair;<br />
+<span class="i2">While memory and love,</span><br />
+<span class="i2">Together, fondly wove</span><br />
+A golden garland for the silver hair.</p>
+</div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">264</a></span></p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="stanza">How could we mourn like those who are bereft,<br />
+<span class="i2">When every pang of grief</span><br />
+<span class="i2">Found balm for its relief</span><br />
+In counting up the treasures she had left?&ndash;</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">Faith that withstood the shocks of toil and time;<br />
+<span class="i2">Hope that defied despair;</span><br />
+<span class="i2">Patience that conquered care;</span><br />
+And loyalty, whose courage was sublime;</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">The great deep heart that was a home for all,&ndash;<br />
+<span class="i2">Just, eloquent, and strong</span><br />
+<span class="i2">In protest against wrong;</span><br />
+Wide charity, that knew no sin, no fall;</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">The spartan spirit that made life so grand,<br />
+<span class="i2">Mating poor daily needs</span><br />
+<span class="i2">With high, heroic deeds,</span><br />
+That wrested happiness from Fate's hard hand.</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">We thought to weep, but sing for joy instead,<br />
+<span class="i2">Full of the grateful peace</span><br />
+<span class="i2">That follows her release;</span><br />
+For nothing but the weary dust lies dead.</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">Oh, noble woman! never more a queen<br />
+<span class="i2">Than in the laying down</span><br />
+<span class="i2">Of sceptre and of crown</span><br />
+To win a greater kingdom, yet unseen;</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">Teaching us how to seek the highest goal,<br />
+<span class="i2">To earn the true success,&ndash;</span><br />
+<span class="i2">To live, to love, to bless,&ndash;</span><br />
+And make death proud to take a royal soul.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="p2"><span class="dropcap">T</span>HE history of the next six years offers little
+variety of incident in Miss Alcott's busy life.
+She could not work at home in Concord as well as
+in some quiet lodging in Boston, where she was
+more free from interruption from visitors; but she
+spent her summers with her mother, often taking
+charge of the housekeeping. In 1872 she wrote
+"Work," one of her most successful books. She
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">265</a></span>
+had begun it some time before, and originally
+called it "Success." It represents her own personal
+experience more than any other book. She
+says to a friend: "Christie's adventures are many
+of them my own; Mr. Power is Mr. Parker; Mrs.
+Wilkins is imaginary, and all the rest. This was
+begun at eighteen, and never finished till H. W.
+Beecher wrote to me for a serial for the 'Christian
+Union' in 1872, and paid $3,000 for it."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Alcott again sent May to Europe in 1873
+to finish her studies, and herself continued writing
+stories to pay the expenses of the family. The
+mother's serious illness weighed heavily on Louisa's
+heart, and through the summer of 1873 she was
+devoted to the invalid, rejoicing in her partial recovery,
+though sadly feeling that she would never
+be her bright energetic self again. Mrs. Alcott
+was able, however, to keep her birthday (October
+8) pleasantly, and out of this experience came
+a story called "A Happy Birthday." This little
+tale paid for carriages for the invalid. It is included
+in "Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag."</p>
+
+<p>Louisa and her mother decided to spend the
+winter in Boston, while Mr. Alcott was at the
+West. Her thoughts dwell much upon her father's
+life, and she is not content that he has not
+all the recognition and enjoyment that she would
+gladly give him. She helps her mother to perform
+the sacred duty of placing a tablet on Colonel
+May's grave, and the dear old lady recognizes
+that her life has gone down into the past, and
+says, "This isn't my Boston, and I never want to
+see it any more."
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">266</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Louisa was at this time engaged in writing for
+"St. Nicholas" and "The Independent."</p>
+
+<p>The return of the young artist, happy in her
+success, brings brightness to the home-circle. In
+the winter of 1875 Miss Alcott takes her old place
+at the Bellevue, where May can have her drawing-classes.
+She was herself ill, and the words, "No
+sleep without morphine!" tell the story of nervous
+suffering.</p>
+
+<p class="section"><i>Journal.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+<i>July</i>, 1872.&ndash;May makes a lovely hostess, and I fly
+round behind the scenes, or skip out of the back window
+when ordered out for inspection by the inquisitive
+public. Hard work to keep things running smoothly,
+for this sight-seeing fiend is a new torment to us.</p>
+
+<p><i>August.</i>&ndash;May goes to Clark's Island for rest, having
+kept hotel long enough. I say "No," and shut the
+door. People <i>must</i> learn that authors have some rights;
+I can't entertain a dozen a day, and write the tales they
+demand also. I'm but a human worm, and when walked
+on must turn in self-defence.</p>
+
+<p>Reporters sit on the wall and take notes; artists
+sketch me as I pick pears in the garden; and strange
+women interview Johnny as he plays in the orchard.</p>
+
+<p>It looks like impertinent curiosity to me; but it is
+called "fame," and considered a blessing to be grateful
+for, I find. Let 'em try it.</p>
+
+<p><i>September.</i>&ndash;To Wolcott, with Father and Fred. A
+quaint, lovely old place is the little house on Spindle
+Hill, where the boy Amos dreamed the dreams that have
+come true at last.</p>
+
+<p>Got hints for my novel, "The Cost of an Idea," if I
+ever find time to write it.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">267</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Don't wonder the boy longed to climb those hills, and
+see what lay beyond.</p>
+
+<p><i>October.</i>&ndash;Went to a room in Allston Street, in a
+quiet, old-fashioned house. I can't work at home, and
+need to be alone to spin, like a spider.</p>
+
+<p>Rested; walked; to the theatre now and then. Home
+once a week with books, etc., for Marmee and Nan.
+Prepared "Shawl Straps" for Roberts.</p>
+
+<p><i>November.</i>&ndash;Forty on the 29th. Got Father off for
+the West, all neat and comfortable. I enjoyed every
+penny spent, and had a happy time packing his new
+trunk with warm flannels, neat shirts, gloves, etc., and
+seeing the dear man go off in a new suit, overcoat, hat,
+and all, like a gentleman. We both laughed over the
+pathetic old times with tears in our eyes, and I reminded
+him of the "poor as poverty, but serene as heaven"
+saying.</p>
+
+<p>Something to do came just as I was trying to see what
+to take up, for work is my salvation. H. W. Beecher
+sent one of the editors of the "Christian Union" to ask
+for a serial story. They have asked before, and offered
+$2,000, which I refused; now they offered $3,000, and
+I accepted.</p>
+
+<p>Got out the old manuscript of "Success," and called it
+"Work." Fired up the engine, and plunged into a vortex,
+with many doubts about getting out. Can't work slowly;
+the thing possesses me, and I must obey till it's done.
+One thousand dollars was sent as a seal on the bargain,
+so I was bound, and sat at the oar like a galley-slave.</p>
+
+<p>F. wanted eight little tales, and offered $35 apiece;
+used to pay $10. Such is fame! At odd minutes I
+wrote the short ones, and so paid my own expenses.
+"Shawl Straps," Scrap-Bag, No. 2, came out, and
+went well.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">268</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Great Boston fire; up all night. Very splendid and
+terrible sight.</p>
+
+<p><i>December.</i>&ndash;Busy with "Work." Write three pages
+at once on impression paper, as Beecher, Roberts, and
+Low of London all want copy at once.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+[This was the cause of the paralysis of my thumb, which
+disabled me for the rest of my life.&ndash;<span class="smcap">L. M. A.</span>]
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Nan and the boys came to visit me, and break up the
+winter. Rested a little, and played with them.</p>
+
+<p>Father very busy and happy. On his birthday had
+a gold-headed cane given him. He is appreciated out
+there.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>During these western trips, Mr. Alcott found
+that his daughter's fame added much to the
+warmth of his reception. On his return he loved
+to tell how he was welcomed as the "grandfather
+of 'Little Women.'" When he visited schools, he
+delighted the young audiences by satisfying their
+curiosity as to the author of their favorite book,
+and the truth of the characters and circumstances
+described in it.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Boston</span>, 1872.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Marmee</span>,&ndash;Had a very transcendental day yesterday,
+and at night my head was "swelling wisibly" with
+the ideas cast into it.</p>
+
+<p>The club was a funny mixture of rabbis and weedy
+old ladies, the "oversoul" and oysters. Papa and B.
+flew clean out of sight like a pair of Platonic balloons,
+and we tried to follow, but couldn't.</p>
+
+<p>In the <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> went to R. W. E.'s reading. All the literary
+birds were out in full feather. This "'umble" worm
+was treated with distinguished condescension. Dr. B. gave
+me his noble hand to press, and murmured compliments
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">269</a></span>
+with the air of a bishop bestowing a benediction. Dear
+B. beamed upon me from the depths of his funny little
+cloak and said, "We are getting on well, ain't we?"
+W. bowed his Jewish head, and rolled his fine eye at me.
+Several dreadful women purred about me, and I fled.</p>
+
+<p>M. said what I liked,&ndash;that he'd sent my works to
+his mother, and the good old lady told him to tell me
+that she couldn't do a stroke of work, but just sat and
+read 'em right through; she wished she was young so as
+to have a long life in which to keep on enjoying such
+books. The peacock liked that.</p>
+
+<p>I have paid all my own expenses out of the money
+earned by my little tales; so I have not touched the
+family income.</p>
+
+<p>Didn't mean to write; but it has been an expensive
+winter, and my five hundred has made me all right. The
+$500 I lent K. makes a difference in the income; but I
+could not refuse her, she was so kind in the old hard
+times.</p>
+
+<p>At the reading a man in front of me sat listening and
+knitting his brows for a time, but had to give it up and
+go to sleep. After it was over some one said to him,
+"Well, what do you think of it?" "It's all very fine I
+have no doubt; but I'm blessed if I can understand a
+word of it," was the reply....</p>
+
+<p>The believers glow when the oracle is stuck, rustle and
+beam when he is audible, and nod and smile as if they
+understood perfectly when he murmurs under the desk!
+We are a foolish set!
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>Journal</i>.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+<i>January</i>, 1873.&ndash;Getting on well with "Work;" have
+to go slowly now for fear of a break-down. All well at
+home.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">270</a></span></p>
+
+<p>A week at Newport with Miss Jane Stewart. Dinners,
+balls, calls, etc. Saw Higginson and "H. H." Soon
+tired of gayety, and glad to get home to my quiet den
+and pen.</p>
+
+<p>Roberts Brothers paid me $2,022 for books. S. E. S.
+invested most of it, with the $1,000 F. sent. Gave C. M.
+$100,&ndash;a thank-offering for my success. I like to help
+the class of "silent poor" to which we belonged for so
+many years,&ndash;needy, but respectable, and forgotten because
+too proud to beg. Work difficult to find for such
+people, and life made very hard for want of a little money
+to ease the necessary needs.</p>
+
+<p><i>February and March.</i>&ndash;Anna very ill with pneumonia;
+home to nurse her. Father telegraphed to come home,
+as we thought her dying. She gave me her boys; but
+the dear saint got well, and kept the lads for herself.
+Thank God!</p>
+
+<p>Back to my work with what wits nursing left me.</p>
+
+<p>Had Johnny for a week, to keep all quiet at home.
+Enjoyed the sweet little soul very much, and sent him
+back much better.</p>
+
+<p>Finished "Work,"&ndash;twenty chapters. Not what it
+should be,&ndash;too many interruptions. Should like to do
+one book in peace, and see if it wouldn't be good.</p>
+
+<p><i>April</i>&ndash;The job being done I went home to take
+May's place. Gave her $1,000, and sent her to London
+for a year of study. She sailed on the 26th, brave and
+happy and hopeful. I felt that she needed it, and was
+glad to be able to help her.</p>
+
+<p>I spent seven months in Boston; wrote a book and
+ten tales; earned $3,250 by my pen, and am satisfied
+with my winter's work.</p>
+
+<p><i>May.</i>&ndash;D. F. wanted a dozen little tales, and agreed
+to pay $50 apiece, if I give up other things for this.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">271</a></span>
+Said I would, as I can do two a day, and keep house between
+times. Cleaned and grubbed, and didn't mind
+the change. Let head rest, and heels and feet do the
+work.</p>
+
+<p>Cold and dull; but the thought of May free and happy
+was my comfort as I messed about.</p>
+
+<p><i>June and July.</i>&ndash;Settled the servant question by getting
+a neat American woman to cook and help me with
+the housework.</p>
+
+<p>Peace fell upon our troubled souls, and all went well.
+Good meals, tidy house, cheerful service, and in the <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>
+an intelligent young person to read and sew with us.</p>
+
+<p>It was curious how she came to us. She had taught
+and sewed, and was tired, and wanted something else;
+decided to try for a housekeeper's place, but happened
+to read "Work," and thought she'd do as Christie did,&ndash;take
+anything that came.</p>
+
+<p>I was the first who answered her advertisement, and
+when she found I wrote the book, she said, "I'll go and
+see if Miss A. practises as she preaches."</p>
+
+<p>She found I did, and we had a good time together.
+My new helper did so well I took pale Johnny to the
+seaside for a week; but was sent for in haste, as poor
+Marmee was very ill. Mental bewilderment came after
+one of her heart troubles (the dropsy affected the brain),
+and for three weeks we had a sad time. Father and I
+took care of her, and my good A. S. kept house nicely
+and faithfully for me.</p>
+
+<p>Marmee slowly came back to herself, but sadly feeble,&ndash;never
+to be our brave, energetic leader any more.
+She felt it, and it was hard to convince her that there was
+no need of her doing anything but rest.</p>
+
+<p><i>August, September, October.</i>&ndash;Mother improved steadily.
+Father went to the Alcott festival in Walcott, A.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">272</a></span>
+and boys to Conway for a month; and it did them all
+much good.</p>
+
+<p>I had quiet days with Marmee; drove with her, and
+had the great pleasure of supplying all her needs and
+fancies.</p>
+
+<p>May busy and happy in London. A merry time on
+Mother's birthday, October 8. All so glad to have her
+still here; for it seemed as if we were to lose her.</p>
+
+<p>Made a little story of it for F.,&ndash;"A Happy Birthday."&ndash;and
+spent the $50 in carriages for her.</p>
+
+<p><i>November and December.</i>&ndash;Decided that it was best
+not to try a cold, lonely winter in C., but go to B. with
+Mother, Nan, and boys, and leave Father free for the
+West.</p>
+
+<p>Took sunny rooms at the South End, near the Park,
+so the lads could play out and Marmee walk. She enjoyed
+the change, and sat at her window watching people,
+horse-cars, and sparrows with great interest. Old friends
+came to see her, and she was happy. Found a nice
+school for the boys; and Nan enjoyed her quiet days.</p>
+
+<p><i>January</i>, 1874.&ndash;Mother quite ill this month. Dr.
+Wesselhoeft does his best for the poor old body, now
+such a burden to her. The slow decline has begun,
+and she knows it, having nursed her mother to the
+same end.</p>
+
+<p>Father disappointed and rather sad, to be left out of
+so much that he would enjoy and should be asked to
+help and adorn. A little more money, a pleasant house
+and time to attend to it, and I'd bring all the best people
+to see and entertain <i>him</i>. When I see so much twaddle
+going on I wonder those who can don't get up something
+better, and have really good things.</p>
+
+<p>When I had the youth I had no money; now I have
+the money I have no time; and when I get the time, if
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">273</a></span>
+I ever do, I shall have no health to enjoy life. I suppose
+it's the discipline I need; but it's rather hard to love the
+things I do and see them go by because duty chains me
+to my galley. If I come into port at last with all sail set
+that will be reward perhaps.</p>
+
+<p>Life always was a puzzle to me, and gets more mysterious
+as I go on. I shall find it out by and by and see
+that it's all right, if I can only keep brave and patient to
+the end.</p>
+
+<p>May still in London painting Turners, and doing pretty
+panels as "pot-boilers." They sell well, and she is a
+thrifty child. Good luck to our mid-summer girl.</p>
+
+<p><i>February.</i>&ndash;Father has several conversations at the
+Clubs and Societies and Divinity School. No one pays
+anything; but they seem glad to listen. There ought to
+be a place for him.</p>
+
+<p>Nan busy with her boys, and they doing well at school,&ndash;good,
+gay, and intelligent; a happy mother and most
+loving little sons.</p>
+
+<p>I wrote two tales, and got $200. Saw Charles Kingsley,&ndash;a
+pleasant man. His wife has Alcott relations,
+and likes my books. Asked us to come and see him
+in England; is to bring his daughters to Concord by
+and by.</p>
+
+<p><i>March.</i>&ndash;May came home with a portfolio full of fine
+work. Must have worked like a busy bee to have done
+so much.</p>
+
+<p>Very happy in her success; for she has proved her
+talent, having copied Turner so well that Ruskin (meeting
+her in the National Gallery at work) told her that
+she had "caught Turner's spirit wonderfully." She has
+begun to copy Nature, and done well. Lovely sketches
+of the cloisters in Westminster Abbey, and other charming
+things.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">274</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I write a story for all my men, and make up the $1,000
+I planned to earn by my "pot-boilers" before we go
+back to C.</p>
+
+<p>A tablet to Grandfather May is put in Stone Chapel,
+and one Sunday <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> we take Mother to see it. A
+pathetic sight to see Father walk up the broad aisle with
+the feeble old wife on his arm as they went to be married
+nearly fifty years ago. Mother sat alone in the old pew
+a little while and sung softly the old hymns; for it was
+early, and only the sexton there. He asked who she was
+and said his father was sexton in Grandfather's time.</p>
+
+<p>Several old ladies came in and knew Mother. She
+broke down thinking of the time when she and her mother
+and sisters and father and brothers all went to church together,
+and we took her home saying, "This isn't my
+Boston; all my friends are gone; I never want to see it
+any more."</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+[She never did.&ndash;<span class="smcap">L. M. A.</span>]
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p><i>April and May.</i>&ndash;Back to Concord, after May and I
+had put all in fine order and made the old house lovely
+with her pictures. When all were settled, with May to
+keep house, I went to B. for rest, and took a room in
+Joy Street.</p>
+
+<p>The Elgin Watch Company offered me a gold watch or
+$100 for a tale. Chose the money, and wrote the story
+"My Rococo Watch"<a name="FNanchor_13" id="FNanchor_13" href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> for them.</p>
+
+<p><i>October.</i>&ndash;Took two nice rooms at the Hotel Bellevue
+for the winter; May to use one for her classes. Tried to
+work on my book, but was in such pain could not do
+much. Got no sleep without morphine. Tried old Dr.
+Hewett, who was sure he could cure the woe....</p>
+
+<p><i>November.</i>&ndash;Funny time with the publishers about the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">275</a></span>
+tale; for all wanted it at once, and each tried to outbid
+the other for an unwritten story. I rather enjoyed it, and
+felt important with Roberts, Low, and Scribner all clamoring
+for my "'umble" works. No peddling poor little
+manuscripts now, and feeling rich with $10. The golden
+goose can sell her eggs for a good price, if she isn't killed
+by too much driving.</p>
+
+<p><i>December.</i>&ndash;Better and busier than last month.</p>
+
+<p>All well at home, and Father happy among his kind
+Westerners. Finish "Eight Cousins," and get ready to
+do the temperance tale, for F. offers $700 for six
+chapters,&ndash;"Silver Pitchers."</p>
+
+<p><i>January</i>, 1875.&ndash; ... Father flourishing about the
+Western cities, "riding in Louisa's chariot, and adored
+as the grandfather of 'Little Women,'" he says.</p>
+
+<p><i>February.</i>&ndash;Finish my tale and go to Vassar College
+on a visit. See M. M., talk with four hundred girls, write
+in stacks of albums and school-books, and kiss every one
+who asks me. Go to New York; am rather lionized,
+and run away; but things look rather jolly, and I may
+try a winter there some time, as I need a change and
+new ideas.</p>
+
+<p><i>March.</i>&ndash;Home again, getting ready for the centennial
+fuss.</p>
+
+<p><i>April.</i>&ndash;On the 19th a grand celebration. General
+<i>break-down</i>, owing to an unwise desire to outdo all the
+other towns; too many people....
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Miss Alcott was very much interested in the
+question of Woman Suffrage, and exerted herself
+to get up a meeting in Concord. The subject was
+then very unpopular, and there was an ill-bred
+effort to destroy the meeting by noise and riot.
+Although not fond of speaking in public, she
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">276</a></span>
+always put herself bravely on the side of the unpopular
+cause, and lent to it all the argument of
+her heroic life. When Mrs. Livermore lectured
+at Concord, Miss Alcott sat up all night talking
+with her on the great question. She had an opportunity
+of trying which was most exhausting, abuse
+or admiration, when she went to a meeting of the
+Women's Congress at Syracuse, in October. She
+was introduced to the audience by Mrs. Livermore,
+and the young people crowded about her
+like bees about a honeycomb. She was waylaid
+in the streets, petitioned for autographs, kissed by
+gushing young maidens, and made emphatically
+the lion of the hour. It was all so genial and
+spontaneous, that she enjoyed the fun. No amount
+of adulation ever affected the natural simplicity of
+her manners. She neither despised nor overrated
+her fame; but was glad of it as a proof of success
+in what she was ever aiming to do. She spent
+a few weeks in New York enjoying the gay and
+literary society which was freely opened to her;
+but finding most satisfaction in visiting the
+Tombs, Newsboys' Home, and Randall's Island,
+for she liked these things better than parties and
+dinners.</p>
+
+<p class="section"><i>Journal.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+<i>June, July, August</i>, 1875.&ndash;Kept house at home, with
+two Irish incapables to trot after, and ninety-two guests
+in one month to entertain. Fame is an expensive luxury.
+I can do without it. This is my worst scrape, I
+think. I asked for bread, and got a stone,&ndash;in the
+shape of a pedestal.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">277</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>September and October</i>, 1875.&ndash;I go to Woman's
+Congress in Syracuse, and see Niagara. Funny time
+with the girls.</p>
+
+<p>Write loads of autographs, dodge at the theatre, and
+am kissed to death by gushing damsels. One energetic
+lady grasped my hand in the crowd, exclaiming, "If you
+ever come to Oshkosh, your feet will not be allowed to
+touch the ground: you will be borne in the arms of the
+people! Will you come?" "Never," responded Miss
+A., trying to look affable, and dying to laugh as the good
+soul worked my arm like a pump-handle, and from the
+gallery generations of girls were looking on. "This,
+this, is fame!"</p>
+
+<p><i>November, December.</i>&ndash;Take a room at Bath Hotel,
+New York, and look about me. Miss Sally Holly is here,
+and we go about together. She tells me much of her
+life among the freedmen, and Mother is soon deep in
+barrels of clothes, food, books, etc., for Miss A. to take
+back with her.</p>
+
+<p>See many people, and am very gay for a country-mouse.
+Society unlike either London or Boston.</p>
+
+<p>Go to Sorosis, and to Mrs. Botta's, O. B. Frothingham's,
+Miss Booth's, and Mrs. Croly's receptions.</p>
+
+<p>Visit the Tombs, Newsboys' Home, and Randall's
+Island on Christmas Day with Mrs. Gibbons. A memorable
+day. Make a story of it. Enjoy these things
+more than the parties and dinners.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>To Mrs. Dodge.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">New York</span>, Oct. 5, 1875.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Mrs. Dodge</span>,&ndash;So far, New York seems inviting,
+though I have not seen or done much but "gawk
+round" as the country folks do. I have seen Niagara, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">278</a></span>
+enjoyed my vacation very much, especially the Woman's
+Congress in Syracuse. I was made a member, so have
+the honor to sign myself,</p>
+
+<p class="left65">
+Yours truly,</p>
+<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">L. M. Alcott, M. C</span>.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>To her Father.</i></p>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">New York</span>, Nov. 26, 1875.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Seventy-six</span>,&ndash;As I have nothing else to send
+you on our joint birthday, I'll despatch a letter about
+some of the people I have lately seen in whom you take
+an interest.</p>
+
+<p>Tuesday we heard Gough on "Blunders," and it was
+very good,&ndash;both witty and wise, earnest and sensible.
+Wednesday eve to Mr. Frothingham's for his Fraternity
+Club meeting. Pleasant people. Ellen F.; Abby Sage
+Richardson, a very lovely woman; young Putnam and
+wife; Mrs. Stedman; Mattie G. and her spouse, Dr. B.,
+who read a lively story of Mormon life; Mrs. Dodge;
+O. Johnson and wife, and many more whose names I
+forget.</p>
+
+<p>After the story the given subject for discussion was
+brought up,&ndash;"Conformity and Noncomformity." Mr.
+B., a promising young lawyer, led one side, Miss B. the
+other, and Mr. F. was in the chair. It was very lively;
+and being called upon, I piped up, and went in for nonconformity
+when principle was concerned. Got patted
+on the head for my remarks, and didn't disgrace myself
+except by getting very red and talking fast.</p>
+
+<p>Ellen F. was very pleasant, and asked much about
+May. Proudly I told of our girl's achievements, and E.
+hoped she would come to New York. Mrs. Richardson
+was presented, and we had some agreeable chat. She
+is a great friend of O. B. F., and is lecturing here on
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">279</a></span>
+"Literature." Shall go and hear her, as she is coming
+to see me.</p>
+
+<p>O. B. F. was as polished and clear and cool and witty
+as usual; most gracious to the "'umble" Concord worm;
+and Mrs. F. asked me to come and see them.</p>
+
+<p>Yesterday took a drive with Sally H. in Central Park
+as it was fine, and she had no fun on her Thanksgiving.
+I dined at Mrs. Botta's, for she kindly came and asked
+me. Had a delightful time, and felt as if I'd been to
+Washington; for Professor Byng, a German ex-consul,
+was there, full of Capitol gossip about Sumner and all
+the great beings that there do congregate. Mr. Botta
+you know,&ndash;a handsome, long-haired Italian, very cultivated
+and affable.</p>
+
+<p>Also about Lord H., whom B. thought "an amiable
+old woman," glad to say pretty things, and fond of being
+lionized. Byng knew Rose and Una, and asked about
+them; also told funny tales of Victor Emmanuel and his
+Court, and queer adventures in Greece, where he, B.,
+was a consul, or something official. It was a glimpse
+into a new sort of world; and as the man was very
+accomplished, elegant, and witty, I enjoyed it much.</p>
+
+<p>We had music later, and saw some fine pictures.
+Durant knew Miss Thackeray, J. Ingelow, and other
+English people whom I did, so we had a good dish of
+gossip with Mrs. Botta, while the others talked three or
+four languages at once.</p>
+
+<p>It is a delightful house, and I shall go as often as I
+may, for it is the sort of thing I like much better than
+B. H. and champagne.</p>
+
+<p>To-night we go to hear Bradlaugh; to-morrow, a new
+play; Sunday, Frothingham and Bellows; and Monday,
+Mrs. Richardson and Shakespeare.</p>
+
+<p>But it isn't all play, I assure you. I'm a thrifty butterfly,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">280</a></span>
+and have written three stories. The "G." has
+paid for the little Christmas tale; the "I." has "Letty's
+Tramp;" and my "girl paper" for "St. Nick" is
+about ready. Several other papers are waiting for tales,
+so I have a ballast of work to keep me steady in spite of
+much fun.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Powell has been twice to see me, and we go to
+visit the charities of New York next week. I like to see
+both sides, and generally find the busy people most
+interesting.</p>
+
+<p>So far I like New York very much, and feel so well I
+shall stay on till I'm tired of it. People begin to tell
+me how much better I look than when I came, and
+I have not an ache to fret over. This, after such a long
+lesson in bodily ails, is a blessing for which I am duly
+grateful.</p>
+
+<p>Hope all goes well with you, and that I shall get a line
+now and then. I'll keep them for you to <i>bind</i> up by
+and by instead of mine....</p>
+
+<p>We can buy a carriage some other time, and a barn
+likewise, and a few other necessities of life. Rosa has
+proved such a good speculation we shall dare to let May
+venture another when the ship comes in. I am glad the
+dear "rack-a-bones" is a comfort to her mistress, only
+don't let her break my boy's bones by any antics when
+she feels her oats.</p>
+
+<p>I suppose you are thinking of Wilson just now, and
+his quiet slipping away to the heavenly council chambers
+where the good senators go. Rather like Sumner's end,
+wasn't it? No wife or children, only men and servants.
+Wilson was such a genial, friendly soul I should have
+thought he would have felt the loneliness very much.
+Hope if he left any last wishes his mates will carry them
+out faithfully....
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">281</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Now, dear Plato, the Lord bless you, and keep you
+serene and happy for as many years as He sees fit, and
+me likewise, to be a comfort as well as a pride to you.</p>
+
+<p class="left65">
+Ever your loving</p>
+<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">Forty-three</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>To her Nephews.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">New York</span>, Dec. 4, 1875.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Fred and Donny</span>,&ndash;We went to see the news-boys,
+and I wish you'd been with us, it was so interesting.
+A nice big house has been built for them, with
+dining-room and kitchen on the first floor, bath-rooms
+and school-room next, two big sleeping-places,&ndash;third and
+fourth stories,&ndash;and at the top a laundry and gymnasium.
+We saw all the tables set for breakfast,&ndash;a plate and
+bowl for each,&ndash;and in the kitchen great kettles, four
+times as big as our copper boiler, for tea and coffee,
+soup, and meat. They have bread and meat and coffee
+for breakfast, and bread and cheese and tea for supper,
+and get their own dinners out. School was just over
+when we got there, and one hundred and eighty boys
+were in the immense room with desks down the middle,
+and all around the walls were little cupboards numbered.
+Each boy on coming in gives his name, pays six cents,
+gets a key, and puts away his hat, books, and jacket (if
+he has 'em) in his own cubby for the night. They pay
+five cents for supper, and schooling, baths, etc., are free.
+They were a smart-looking set, larking round in shirts
+and trousers, barefooted, but the faces were clean, and
+the heads smooth, and clothes pretty decent; yet they
+support themselves, for not one of them has any parents
+or home but this. One little chap, only six, was trotting
+round as busy as a bee, locking up his small shoes and
+ragged jacket as if they were great treasures. I asked
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">282</a></span>
+about little Pete, and the man told us his brother, only
+nine, supported him and took care of him entirely; and
+wouldn't let Pete be sent away to any home, because <i>he</i>
+wished to have "his family" with him.</p>
+
+<p>Think of that, Fred! How would it seem to be all
+alone in a big city, with no mamma to cuddle you; no
+two grandpa's houses to take you in; not a penny but
+what you earned, and Donny to take care of? Could
+you do it? Nine-year-old Patsey does it capitally; buys
+Pete's clothes, pays for his bed and supper, and puts
+pennies in the savings-bank. There's a brave little man
+for you! I wanted to see him; but he is a newsboy,
+and sells late papers, because, though harder work, it
+pays better, and the coast is clear for those who do it.</p>
+
+<p>The savings-bank was a great table all full of slits, each
+one leading to a little place below and numbered outside,
+so each boy knew his own. Once a month the bank is
+opened, and the lads take out what they like, or have it
+invested in a big bank for them to have when they find
+homes out West, as many do, and make good farmers.
+One boy was putting in some pennies as we looked, and
+I asked how much he had saved this month. "Fourteen
+dollars, ma'am," says the thirteen-year-older, proudly
+slipping in the last cent. A prize of $3 is offered to the
+lad who saves the most in a month.</p>
+
+<p>The beds upstairs were in two immense rooms, ever so
+much larger than our town hall,&ndash;one hundred in one,
+and one hundred and eighty in another,&ndash;all narrow
+beds with a blue quilt, neat pillow, and clean sheet.
+They are built in long rows, one over another, and the
+upper boy has to climb up as on board ship. I'd have
+liked to see one hundred and eighty all in their "by-lows"
+at once, and I asked the man if they didn't train when
+all were in. "Lord, ma'am, they're up at five, poor
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">283</a></span>
+little chaps, and are so tired at night that they drop off
+right away. Now and then some boy kicks up a little
+row, but we have a watchman, and he soon settles 'em."</p>
+
+<p>He also told me how that very day a neat, smart
+young man came in, and said he was one of their boys
+who went West with a farmer only a little while ago; and
+now he owned eighty acres of land, had a good house,
+and was doing well, and had come to New York to find
+his sister, and to take her away to live with him. Wasn't
+that nice? Lots of boys do as well. Instead of loafing
+round the streets and getting into mischief, they are
+taught to be tidy, industrious, and honest, and then sent
+away into the wholesome country to support themselves.</p>
+
+<p>It was funny to see 'em scrub in the bath-room,&ndash;feet
+and faces,&ndash;comb their hair, fold up their old clothes in
+the dear cubbies, which make them so happy because
+they feel that they <i>own</i> something.</p>
+
+<p>The man said every boy wanted one, even though he
+had neither shoes nor jacket to put in it; but would lay
+away an old rag of a cap or a dirty tippet with an air
+of satisfaction fine to see. Some lads sat reading, and
+the man said they loved it so they'd read all night, if
+allowed. At nine he gave the word, "Bed!" and away
+went the lads, trooping up to sleep in shirts and trousers,
+as nightgowns are not provided. How would a boy I
+know like that,&ndash;a boy who likes to have "trommin"
+on his nighties? Of course, I don't mean dandy Don!
+Oh, dear no!</p>
+
+<p>After nine [if late in coming in] they are fined five
+cents; after ten, ten cents; and after eleven they can't
+come in at all. This makes them steady, keeps them
+out of harm, and gives them time for study. Some go
+to the theatre, and sleep anywhere; some sleep at the
+Home, but go out for a better breakfast than they get
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">284</a></span>
+there, as the swell ones are fond of goodies, and live
+well in their funny way. Coffee and cakes at Fulton
+Market is "the tip-top grub," and they often spend all
+their day's earnings in a play and a supper, and sleep in
+boxes or cellars after it.</p>
+
+<p>Lots of pussies were round the kitchen; and one black
+one I called a bootblack, and a gray kit that yowled
+loud was a newsboy. That made some chaps laugh, and
+they nodded at me as I went out. Nice boys! but I
+know some nicer ones. Write and tell me something
+about my poor Squabby.</p>
+
+<p class="left65">
+By-by, your</p>
+<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">Weedy</span>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>To her Family.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Saturday Evening</span>, Dec. 25, 1875.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Family</span>,&ndash; ... I had only time for a word this
+<span class="smcap">a.m.</span>, as the fourth letter was from Mrs. P. to say they could
+not go; so I trotted off in the fog at ten to the boat,
+and there found Mr. and Mrs. G. and piles of goodies for
+the poor children. She is a dear little old lady in a
+close, Quakerish bonnet and plain suit, but wide-awake
+and full of energy. It was grand to see her tackle the
+big mayor and a still bigger commissioner, and tell them
+what <i>ought</i> to be done for the poor things on the Island,
+as they are to be routed; for the city wants the land for
+some dodge or other. Both men fled soon, for the brave
+little woman was down on 'em in a way that would have
+made Marmee cry "Ankore!" and clap her dress-gloves
+to rags.</p>
+
+<p>When the rotundities had retired, she fell upon a
+demure priest, and read him a sermon; and then won
+the heart of a boyish reporter so entirely that he stuck to
+us all day, and helped serve out dolls and candy like a
+man and a brother. Long life to him!
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">285</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Mr. G. and I discussed pauperism and crime like two
+old wiseacres; and it was sweet to hear the gray-headed
+couple say "thee" and "thou," "Abby" and "James," to
+one another, he following with the bundles wherever the
+little poke-bonnet led the way. I've had a pretty good
+variety of Christmases in my day, but never one like this
+before. First we drove in an old ramshackle hack to
+the chapel, whither a boy had raced before us, crying
+joyfully to all he met, "She's come! Miss G.&ndash;she's
+come!" And all faces beamed, as well they might,
+since for thirty years she has gone to make set after set
+of little forlornities happy on this day.</p>
+
+<p>The chapel was full. On one side, in front, girls in
+blue gowns and white pinafores; on the other, small
+chaps in pinafores likewise; and behind them, bigger
+boys in gray suits with cropped heads, and larger girls
+with ribbons in their hair and pink calico gowns. They
+sang alternately; the girls gave "Juanita" very well, the
+little chaps a pretty song about poor children asking a
+"little white angel" to leave the gates of heaven ajar, so
+they could peep in, if no more. Quite pathetic, coming
+from poor babies who had no home but this.</p>
+
+<p>The big boys spoke pieces, and I was amused when
+one bright lad in gray, with a red band on his arm, spoke
+the lines I gave G.,&ndash;"Merry Christmas." No one
+knew me, so I had the joke to myself; and I found
+afterward that I was taken for the mayoress, who was
+expected. Then we drove to the hospital, and there the
+heart-ache began, for me at least, so sad it was to see
+these poor babies, born of want and sin, suffering every
+sort of deformity, disease, and pain. Cripples half blind,
+scarred with scrofula, burns, and abuse,&ndash;it was simply
+awful and indescribable!</p>
+
+<p>As we went in, I with a great box of dolls and the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">286</a></span>
+young reporter with a bigger box of candy, a general
+cry of delight greeted us. Some children tried to run,
+half-blind ones stretched out their groping hands, little
+ones crawled, and big ones grinned, while several poor
+babies sat up in their bed, beckoning us to "come
+quick."</p>
+
+<p>One poor mite, so eaten up with sores that its whole
+face was painted with some white salve,&ndash;its head covered
+with an oilskin cap; one eye gone, and the other half
+filmed over; hands bandaged, and ears bleeding,&ndash;could
+only moan and move its feet till I put a gay red dolly in
+one hand and a pink candy in the other; then the dim
+eye brightened, the hoarse voice said feebly, "Tanky,
+lady!" and I left it contentedly sucking the sweetie, and
+<i>trying</i> to <i>see</i> its dear new toy. It can't see another
+Christmas, and I like to think I helped make this one
+happy, even for a minute.</p>
+
+<p>It was pleasant to watch the young reporter trot round
+with the candy-box, and come up to me all interest to
+say, "One girl hasn't got a doll, ma'am, and looks <i>so</i>
+disappointed."</p>
+
+<p>After the hospital, we went to the idiot house; and
+there I had a chance to see faces and figures that will
+haunt me a long time. A hundred or so of half-grown
+boys and girls ranged down a long hall, a table of toys
+in the middle, and an empty one for Mrs. G.'s gifts. A
+cheer broke out as the little lady hurried in waving her
+handkerchief and a handful of gay bead necklaces, and
+"Oh! Ohs!" followed the appearance of the doll-lady
+and the candy man.</p>
+
+<p>A pile of gay pictures was a new idea, and Mrs. G.
+told me to hold up some bright ones and see if the poor
+innocents would understand and enjoy them. I held up
+one of two kittens lapping spilt milk, and the girls began
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">287</a></span>
+to mew and say "Cat! ah, pretty." Then a fine horse,
+and the boys bounced on their benches with pleasure;
+while a ship in full sail produced a cheer of rapture from
+them all.</p>
+
+<p>Some were given out to the good ones, and the rest
+are to be pinned round the room; so the pictures were a
+great success. All wanted dolls, even boys of nineteen;
+for all were children in mind. But the girls had them,
+and young women of eighteen cuddled their babies and
+were happy. The boys chose from the toy-table, and it
+was pathetic to see great fellows pick out a squeaking dog
+without even the wit to pinch it when it was theirs. One
+dwarf of thirty-five chose a little Noah's ark, and brooded
+over it in silent bliss.</p>
+
+<p>Some with beards sucked their candy, and stared at a
+toy cow or box of blocks as if their cup was full. One
+French girl sang the Marseillaise in a feeble voice, and
+was so overcome by her new doll that she had an epileptic
+fit on the spot, which made two others go off likewise;
+and a slight pause took place while they were
+kindly removed to sleep it off.</p>
+
+<p>A little tot of four, who hadn't sense to put candy in
+its mouth, was so fond of music that when the girls sang
+the poor vacant face woke up, and a pair of lovely soft
+hazel eyes stopped staring dully at nothing, and went
+wandering to and fro with light in them, as if to find the
+only sound that can reach its poor mind.</p>
+
+<p>I guess I gave away two hundred dolls, and a soap-box
+of candy was empty when we left. But rows of sticky
+faces beamed at us, and an array of gay toys wildly
+waved after us, as if we were angels who had showered
+goodies on the poor souls.</p>
+
+<p>Pauper women are nurses; and Mrs. G. says the babies
+die like sheep, many being deserted so young nothing
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">288</a></span>
+can be hoped or done for them. One of the teachers in
+the idiot home was a Miss C., who remembered Nan at
+Dr. Wilbur's. Very lady-like, and all devotion to me.
+But such a life! Oh, me! Who <i>can</i> lead it, and not
+go mad?</p>
+
+<p>At four, we left and came home, Mrs. G. giving a box
+of toys and sweeties on board the boat for the children
+of the men who run it. So leaving a stream of blessings
+and pleasures behind her, the dear old lady drove away,
+simply saying, "There now, I shall feel better for the
+next year!" Well she may; bless her!</p>
+
+<p>She made a speech to the chapel children after the
+Commissioner had prosed in the usual way, and she told
+'em that <i>she</i> should come as long as she could, and when
+she was gone her children would still keep it up in memory
+of her; so for thirty years more she hoped this, their
+one holiday, would be made happy for them. I could
+have hugged her on the spot, the motherly old dear!</p>
+
+<p>Next Wednesday we go to the Tombs, and some day
+I am to visit the hospital with her, for I like this better
+than parties, etc.</p>
+
+<p>I got home at five, and then remembered that I'd had
+no lunch; so I took an apple till six, when I discovered
+that all had dined at one so the helpers could go early
+this evening. Thus my Christmas day was without dinner
+or presents, for the first time since I can remember.
+Yet it has been a very memorable day, and I feel as if
+I'd had a splendid feast seeing the poor babies wallow
+in turkey soup, and that every gift I put into their hands
+had come back to me in the dumb delight of their
+unchild-like faces trying to smile.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>After the pleasant visit in New York, Miss Alcott
+returned to Boston, where she went into society
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">289</a></span>
+more than usual, often attending clubs, theatres,
+and receptions. She was more lionized than ever,
+and had a natural pleasure in the attention she
+received.</p>
+
+<p>The summer of 1876 she spent at Concord, nursing
+her mother, who was very ill. She here wrote
+"Rose in Bloom," the sequel to "Eight Cousins,"
+in three weeks. It was published in November.</p>
+
+<p>Louisa was anxious that her sister should have
+a home for her young family. Mrs. Pratt invested
+what she could of her husband's money in the
+purchase, and Louisa contributed the rest. This
+was the so-called Thoreau House on the main
+street in Concord, which became Mrs. Pratt's
+home, and finally that of her father.</p>
+
+<p>Louisa spent the summer of 1877 in Concord.
+Her mother's illness increased, and she was herself
+very ill in August. Yet she wrote this summer
+one of her brightest and sweetest stories,
+"Under the Lilacs." Her love of animals is specially
+apparent in this book, and she records going
+to the circus to make studies for the performing
+dog Sanch.</p>
+
+<p>During the winter of 1877, Miss Alcott went to
+the Bellevue for some weeks, and having secured
+the necessary quiet, devoted herself to the writing
+of a novel for the famous No Name Series published
+by Roberts Brothers. This book had been
+in her mind for some time, as is seen by the journal.
+As it was to appear anonymously, and was
+not intended for children, she was able to depart
+from her usual manner, and indulge the weird
+and lurid fancies which took possession of her in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">290</a></span>
+her dramatic days, and when writing sensational
+stories. She was much interested, and must have
+written it very rapidly, as it was published in April.
+She enjoyed the excitement of her <i>incognito</i>, and
+was much amused at the guesses of critics and
+friends, who attributed the book to others, and
+were sure Louisa Alcott did not write it, because
+its style was so unlike hers.</p>
+
+<p>It certainly is very unlike the books Miss Alcott
+had lately written. It has nothing of the home-like
+simplicity and charm of "Little Women,"
+"Old-Fashioned Girl," and the other stories with
+which she was delighting the children, and, with
+"Moods," must always be named as exceptional
+when speaking of her works. Still, a closer study
+of her life and nature will reveal much of her own
+tastes and habits of thought in the book; and it is
+evident that she wrote <i>con amore</i>, and was fascinated
+by the familiars she evoked, however little
+charm they may seem to possess to others. She
+was fond of Hawthorne's books. The influence of
+his subtle and weird romances is undoubtedly perceptible
+in the book, and it is not strange that it
+was attributed to his son. She says it had been
+simmering in her brain ever since she read "Faust"
+the year before; and she clearly wished to work
+according to Goethe's thought,&ndash;that the Prince
+of Darkness was a gentleman, and must be represented
+as belonging to the best society.</p>
+
+<p>The plot is powerful and original. A young poet,
+with more ambition than genius or self-knowledge,
+finds himself, at nineteen, friendless, penniless, and
+hopeless, and is on the point of committing suicide.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">291</a></span>
+He is saved by Helwyze, a middle-aged man,
+who has been severely crippled by a terrible fall,
+and his heart seared by the desertion of the woman
+he loved. A man of intellect, power, imagination,
+and wealth, but incapable of conscientious feeling
+or true love, he is a dangerous savior for the impulsive
+poet; but he takes him to his home, warms,
+feeds, and shelters him, and promises to bring out
+his book. The brilliant, passionate woman who
+gave up her lover when his health and beauty were
+gone, returned to him when youth had passed,
+and would gladly have devoted herself to soothing
+his pain and enriching his life. Her feeling
+is painted with delicacy and tenderness.</p>
+
+<p>But Helwyze's heart knew nothing of the divine
+quality of forgiveness; for his love there was no resurrection;
+and he only valued the power he could
+exercise over a brilliant woman, and the intellectual
+entertainment she could bring him. A sweet young
+girl, Olivia's protegee, completes the very limited
+<i>dramatis personæ</i>.</p>
+
+<p>The young poet, Felix Canaris, under the guidance
+of his new friend, wins fame, success, and the
+young girl's heart; but his wayward fancy turns
+rather to the magnificent Olivia. The demoniac
+Helwyze works upon this feeling, and claims of
+Olivia her fair young friend Gladys as a wife for
+Felix, who is forced to accept her at the hands of
+his master. She is entirely responsive to the love
+which she fancies she has won, and is grateful for
+her fortunate lot, and devotes herself to the comfort
+and happiness of the poor invalid who delights
+in her beauty and grace. For a time Felix
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">292</a></span>
+enjoys a society success, to which his charming
+wife, as well as his book, contribute. But at last
+this excitement flags. He writes another book,
+which he threatens to burn because he is dissatisfied
+with it. Gladys entreats him to spare it, and
+Helwyze offers to read it to her. She is overcome
+and melted with emotion at the passion and pathos
+of the story; and when Helwyze asks, "Shall I
+burn it?" Felix answers, "No!" Again the book
+brings success and admiration, but the tender wife
+sees that it does not insure happiness, and that
+her husband is plunging into the excitement of
+gambling.</p>
+
+<p>The demon Helwyze has complete control over
+the poet, which he exercises with such subtle tyranny
+that the young man is driven to the dreadful
+thought of murder to escape from him; but he is
+saved from the deed by the gentle influence of his
+wife, who has won his heart at last, unconscious
+that it had not always been hers.</p>
+
+<p>Helwyze finds his own punishment. One being
+resists his power,&ndash;Gladys breathes his poisoned
+atmosphere unharmed. He sends for Olivia as his
+ally to separate the wife from her husband's love.
+A passion of curiosity possesses him to read her
+very heart; and at last he resorts to a strange
+means to accomplish his purpose. He gives her
+an exciting drug without her knowledge, and under
+its influence she speaks and acts with a rare
+genius which calls forth the admiration of all the
+group. Left alone with her, Helwyze exercises his
+magnetic power to draw forth the secrets of her
+heart; but he reads there only a pure and true
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">293</a></span>
+love for her husband, and fear of the unhallowed
+passion which he is cherishing. The secret of
+his power over the husband is at last revealed.
+Canaris has published as his own the work of
+Helwyze, and all the fame and glory he has received
+has been won by deceit, and is a miserable
+mockery.</p>
+
+<p>The tragic result is inevitable. Gladys dies under
+the pressure of a burden too heavy for her,&ndash;the
+knowledge of deceit in him she had loved and
+trusted; while the stricken Helwyze is paralyzed,
+and lives henceforth only a death in life.</p>
+
+<p>With all the elements of power and beauty in
+this singular book, it fails to charm and win the
+heart of the reader. The circumstances are in a
+romantic setting, but still they are prosaic; and
+tragedy is only endurable when taken up into the
+region of the ideal, where the thought of the universal
+rounds out all traits of the individual. In
+Goethe's Faust, Margaret is the sweetest and simplest
+of maidens; but in her is the life of all
+wronged and suffering womanhood.</p>
+
+<p>The realism which is delightful in the pictures
+of little women and merry boys is painful when
+connected with passions so morbid and lives so far
+removed from joy and sanity. As in her early
+dramas and sensational stories, we do not find
+Louisa Alcott's own broad, generous, healthy life,
+or that which lay around her, in this book, but the
+reminiscences of her reading, which she had striven
+to make her own by invention and fancy.</p>
+
+<p>This note refers to "A Modern Mephistopheles":&ndash;
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">294</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+[1877.]</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Mr. Niles</span>,&ndash;I had to keep the proof longer
+than I meant because a funeral came in the way.</p>
+
+<p>The book as last sent is lovely, and much bigger than
+I expected.</p>
+
+<p>Poor "Marmee," ill in bed, hugged it, and said, "It
+is perfect! only I do wish your name could be on it."
+She is very proud of it; and tender-hearted Anna weeps
+and broods over it, calling Gladys the best and sweetest
+character I ever did. So much for home opinion; now
+let's see what the public will say.</p>
+
+<p>May clamors for it; but I don't want to send this till
+she has had one or two of the others. Have you sent
+her "Is That All?" If not, please do; then it won't
+look suspicious to send only "M. M."</p>
+
+<p>I am so glad the job is done, and hope it won't disgrace
+the series. Is not another to come before this?
+I hope so; for many people suspect what is up, and I
+could tell my fibs about No. 6 better if it was not mine.</p>
+
+<p>Thanks for the trouble you have taken to keep the
+secret. Now the fun will begin.</p>
+
+<p class="left45">
+Yours truly,</p>
+<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">L. M. A.</span></p>
+
+<p>P. S.&ndash;Bean's expressman grins when he hands in the
+daily parcel. He is a Concord man.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>By Louisa's help the younger sister again went
+abroad in 1876; and her bright affectionate letters
+cheered the little household, much saddened by
+the mother's illness.</p>
+
+<p class="section"><i>Journal.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+<i>January</i>, 1876.&ndash;Helped Mrs. Croly receive two
+hundred gentlemen.</p>
+
+<p>A letter from Baron Tauchnitz asking leave to put my
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">295</a></span>
+book in his foreign library, and sending 600 marks to
+pay for it. Said, "Yes, thank you, Baron."</p>
+
+<p>Went to Philadelphia to see Cousin J. May installed
+in Dr. Furness's pulpit. Dull place is Philadelphia.
+Heard Beecher preach; did not like him....</p>
+
+<p>Went home on the 21st, finding I could not work
+here. Soon tire of being a fine lady.</p>
+
+<p><i>February and March.</i>&ndash;Took a room in B., and fell
+to work on short tales for F.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;T. N. wanted a centennial
+story; but my frivolous New York life left me no ideas.
+Went to Centennial Ball at Music Hall, and got an idea.</p>
+
+<p>Wrote a tale of "'76," which with others will make a
+catchpenny book. Mother poorly, so I go home to nurse
+her.</p>
+
+<p><i>April, May, and June.</i>&ndash;Mother better. Nan and
+boys go to P. farm. May and I clean the old house.
+It seems as if the dust of two centuries haunted the
+ancient mansion, and came out spring and fall in a ghostly
+way for us to clear up.</p>
+
+<p>Great freshets and trouble.</p>
+
+<p>Exposition in Philadelphia; don't care to go. America
+ought to pay her debts before she gives parties. "Silver
+Pitchers," etc., comes out, and goes well. Poor stuff;
+but the mill must keep on grinding even chaff.</p>
+
+<p><i>June.</i>&ndash;Lovely month! Keep hotel and wait on
+Marmee.</p>
+
+<p>Try to get up steam for a new serial, as Mrs. Dodge
+wants one, and Scribner offers $3,000 for it. Roberts
+Brothers want a novel; and the various newspapers and
+magazines clamor for tales. My brain is squeezed dry,
+and I can only wait for help.</p>
+
+<p><i>July, August.</i>&ndash;Get an idea and start "Rose in Bloom,"
+though I hate sequels.</p>
+
+<p><i>September.</i>&ndash;On the 9th my dear girl sails in the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">296</a></span>
+"China" for a year in London or Paris. God be with
+her! She has done her distasteful duty faithfully, and
+deserved a reward. She cannot find the help she needs
+here, and is happy and busy in her own world over there.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+[She never came home.&ndash;<span class="smcap">L. M. A.</span>]
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Finish "Rose."</p>
+
+<hr class="l15" />
+
+<p><i>November.</i>&ndash;"Rose" comes out; sells well.</p>
+
+<p>... Forty-four years old. My new task gets on
+slowly; but I keep at it, and can be a prop, if not an
+angel, in the house, as Nan is.</p>
+
+<p><i>December.</i>&ndash;Miss P. sends us a pretty oil sketch of
+May,&ndash;so like the dear soul in her violet wrapper, with
+yellow curls piled up, and the long hand at work. Mother
+delights in it.</p>
+
+<p>She (M.) is doing finely, and says, "I am getting on,
+and I feel as if it was not all a mistake; for I have some
+talent, and will prove it." Modesty is a sign of genius,
+and I think our girl has both. The money I invest in her
+pays the sort of interest I like. I am proud to have her
+show what she can do, and have her depend upon no
+one but me. Success to little Raphael! My dull winter
+is much cheered by her happiness and success.</p>
+
+<p><i>January, February, 1877.</i>&ndash;The year begins well.
+Nan keeps house; boys fine, tall lads, good and gay;
+Father busy with his new book; Mother cosey with her
+sewing, letters, Johnson, and success of her "girls."</p>
+
+<p>Went for some weeks to the Bellevue, and wrote "A
+Modern Mephistopheles" for the No Name Series. It
+has been simmering ever since I read Faust last year.
+Enjoyed doing it, being tired of providing moral pap for
+the young. Long to write a novel, but cannot get time
+enough.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">297</a></span></p>
+
+<p>May's letters our delight. She is so in earnest she
+will not stop for pleasure, rest, or society, but works away
+like a Trojan. Her work admired by masters and mates
+for its vigor and character.</p>
+
+<p><i>March.</i>&ndash;Begin to think of buying the Thoreau place
+for Nan. The $4,000 received from the Vt. and Eastern
+R. Rs. must be invested, and she wants a home of her
+own, now the lads are growing up.</p>
+
+<p>Mother can be with her in the winter for a change, and
+leave me free to write in B.  Concord has no inspiration
+for me.</p>
+
+<p><i>April.</i>&ndash;May, at the request of her teacher, M. Muller,
+sends a study of still life to the Salon. The little picture
+is accepted, well hung, and praised by the judges. No
+friend at court, and the modest work stood on its own
+merits. She is very proud to see her six months' hard
+work bear fruit. A happy girl, and all say she deserves
+the honor.</p>
+
+<p>"M. M." appears and causes much guessing. It is
+praised and criticised, and I enjoy the fun, especially
+when friends say, "I know <i>you</i> didn't write it, for you
+can't hide your peculiar style."</p>
+
+<p>Help to buy the house for Nan,&ndash;$4,500. So she has
+<i>her</i> wish, and is happy. When shall I have mine?
+Ought to be contented with knowing I help both sisters
+by my brains. But I'm selfish, and want to go away and
+rest in Europe. Never shall.</p>
+
+<p><i>May, June.</i>&ndash;Quiet days keeping house and attending
+to Marmee, who grows more and more feeble. Helped
+Nan get ready for her new home.</p>
+
+<p>Felt very well, and began to hope I had outlived the
+neuralgic worries and nervous woes born of the hospital
+fever and the hard years following.</p>
+
+<p>May living alone in Paris, while her mates go jaunting,&ndash;a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">298</a></span>
+solitary life; but she is so busy she is happy and
+safe. A good angel watches over her. Take pleasant
+drives early in the <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> with Marmee. She takes her
+comfort in a basket wagon, and we drive to the woods,
+picking flowers and stopping where we like. It keeps
+her young, and rests her weary nerves.</p>
+
+<p><i>July.</i>&ndash;Got too tired, and was laid up for some weeks.
+A curious time, lying quite happily at rest, wondering
+what was to come next.</p>
+
+<p><i>August.</i>&ndash;As soon as able began "Under the Lilacs,"
+but could not do much.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Mrs. Alcott grew rapidly worse, and her devoted
+daughter recognized that the final parting was near.
+As Louisa watched by the bedside she wrote "My
+Girls," and finished "Under the Lilacs."</p>
+
+<p>The journal tells the story of the last days of
+watching, and of the peaceful close of the mother's
+self-sacrificing yet blessed life. Louisa was very
+brave in the presence of death. She had no dark
+thoughts connected with it; and in her mother's
+case, after her long, hard life, she recognized how
+"growing age longed for its peaceful sleep."</p>
+
+<p>The tie between this mother and daughter was
+exceptionally strong and tender. The mother saw
+all her own fine powers reproduced and developed
+in her daughter; and if she also recognized the
+passionate energy which had been the strength and
+the bane of her own life, it gave her only a more
+constant watchfulness to save her child from the
+struggles and regrets from which she had suffered
+herself.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">299</a></span></p>
+<p class="section"><i>Journal.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+<i>September</i>, 1877.&ndash;On the 7th Marmee had a very ill
+turn, and the doctor told me it was the beginning of the
+end. [Water on the chest.] She was so ill we sent for
+Father from Walcott; and I forgot myself in taking care
+of poor Marmee, who suffered much and longed to go.</p>
+
+<p>As I watched with her I wrote "My Girls," to go with
+other tales in a new "Scrap Bag," and finished "Under
+the Lilacs." I foresaw a busy or a sick winter, and wanted
+to finish while I could, so keeping my promise and earning
+my $3,000.</p>
+
+<p>Brain very lively and pen flew. It always takes an
+exigency to spur me up and wring out a book. Never
+have time to go slowly and do my best.</p>
+
+<p><i>October.</i>&ndash;Fearing I might give out, got a nurse and
+rested a little, so that when the last hard days come I
+might not fail Marmee, who says, "Stay by, Louy, and
+help me if I suffer too much." I promised, and watched
+her sit panting life away day after day. We thought she
+would not outlive her seventy-seventh birthday, but,
+thanks to Dr. W. and hom&oelig;opathy, she got relief, and we
+had a sad little celebration, well knowing it would be the
+last. Aunt B. and L. W. came up, and with fruit, flowers,
+smiling faces, and full hearts, we sat round the brave
+soul who faced death so calmly and was ready to go.</p>
+
+<p>I overdid and was very ill,&ndash;in danger of my life for a
+week,&ndash;and feared to go before Marmee. But pulled
+through, and got up slowly to help her die. A strange
+month.</p>
+
+<p><i>November.</i>&ndash;Still feeble, and Mother failing fast. On
+the 14th we were both moved to Anna's at Mother's
+earnest wish.</p>
+
+<p>A week in the new home, and then she ceased to care
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">300</a></span>
+for anything. Kept her bed for three days, lying down
+after weeks in a chair, and on the 25th, at dusk, that
+rainy Sunday, fell quietly asleep in my arms.</p>
+
+<p>She was very happy all day, thinking herself a girl
+again, with parents and sisters round her. Said her Sunday
+hymn to me, whom she called "Mother," and smiled
+at us, saying, "A smile is as good as a prayer." Looked
+often at the little picture of May, and waved her hand to
+it, "Good-by, little May, good-by!"</p>
+
+<p>Her last words to Father were, "You are laying a very
+soft pillow for me to go to sleep on."</p>
+
+<p>We feared great suffering, but she was spared that, and
+slipped peacefully away. I was so glad when the last
+weary breath was drawn, and silence came, with its rest
+and peace.</p>
+
+<p>On the 27th it was necessary to bury her, and we took
+her quietly away to Sleepy Hollow. A hard day, but the
+last duty we could do for her; and there we left her at
+sunset beside dear Lizzie's dust,&ndash;alone so long.</p>
+
+<p>On the 28th a memorial service, and all the friends at
+Anna's,&ndash;Dr. Bartol and Mr. Foote of Stone Chapel. A
+simple, cheerful service, as she would have liked it.</p>
+
+<p>Quiet days afterward resting in her rest.</p>
+
+<p>My duty is done, and now I shall be glad to follow
+her.</p>
+
+<p><i>December.</i>&ndash;Many kind letters from all who best knew
+and loved the noble woman.</p>
+
+<p>I never wish her back, but a great warmth seems gone
+out of life, and there is no motive to go on now.</p>
+
+<p>My only comfort is that I <i>could</i> make her last years
+comfortable, and lift off the burden she had carried so
+bravely all these years. She was so loyal, tender, and
+true; life was hard for her, and no one understood all she
+had to bear but we, her children. I think I shall soon
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">301</a></span>
+follow her, and am quite ready to go now she no longer
+needs me.</p>
+
+<p><i>January</i>, 1878.&ndash;An idle month at Nan's, for I can
+only suffer.</p>
+
+<p>Father goes about, being restless with his anchor gone.
+Dear Nan is house-mother now,&ndash;so patient, so thoughtful
+and tender; I need nothing but that cherishing which
+only mothers can give.</p>
+
+<p>May busy in London. Very sad about Marmee; but
+it was best not to send for her, and Marmee forbade it,
+and she has some very <i>tender friends</i> near her.</p>
+
+<p><i>February.</i>&ndash;... Wrote some lines on Marmee.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>To Mrs. Dodge.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Concord</span>, June 3 [1877].</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Mrs. Dodge</span>,&ndash;The tale<a name="FNanchor_14" id="FNanchor_14" href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> goes slowly owing to
+interruptions, for summer is a busy time, and I get few
+quiet days. Twelve chapters are done, but are short
+ones, and so will make about six or seven numbers in
+"St. Nicholas."</p>
+
+<p>I will leave them divided in this way that you may put
+in as many as you please each month; for trying to suit
+the magazine hurts the story in its book form, though
+this way does no harm to the monthly parts, I think.</p>
+
+<p>I will send you the first few chapters during the week
+for Mrs. Foote, and with them the schedule you suggest,
+so that my infants may not be drawn with whiskers,
+and my big boys and girls in pinafores, as in "Eight
+Cousins."</p>
+
+<p>I hope the new baby won't be set aside too soon for
+my illustrations; but I do feel a natural wish to have one
+story prettily adorned with good pictures, as hitherto artists
+have much afflicted me.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">302</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I am daily waiting with anxiety for an illumination of
+some sort, as my plot is very vague so far; and though I
+don't approve of "sensations" in children's books, one
+must have a certain thread on which to string the small
+events which make up the true sort of child-life.</p>
+
+<p>I intend to go and simmer an afternoon at Van Amburg's
+great show, that I may get hints for the further
+embellishment of Ben and his dog. I have also put in
+a poem by F. B. S.'s small son,<a name="FNanchor_15" id="FNanchor_15" href="#Footnote_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> and that hit will give
+Mrs. Foote a good scene with the six-year-old poet reciting
+his verses under the lilacs.</p>
+
+<p>I shall expect the small tots to be unusually good,
+since the artist has a live model to study from. Please
+present my congratulations to the happy mamma and
+Mr. Foote, Jr.</p>
+
+<p class="left45">
+Yours <i>warmly</i>,</p>
+<p class="sig">L. M. A.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter"><span class="smcap">August</span> 21, 1879.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Mrs. Dodge</span>,&ndash;I have not been able to do
+anything on the serial.... But after a week at the
+seaside, to get braced up for work, I intend to begin.
+The Revolutionary tale does not seem to possess me. I
+have casually asked many of my young folks, when they
+demand a new story, which they would like, one of that
+sort or the old "Eight Cousin" style, and they all say
+the latter. It would be much the easier to do, as I have
+a beginning and a plan all ready,&ndash;a village, and the
+affairs of a party of children. We have many little romances
+going on among the Concord boys and girls,
+and all sorts of queer things, which will work into "Jack
+and Jill" nicely. Mrs. Croly has been anxious for a
+story, and I am trying to do a short one, as I told her
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">303</a></span>
+you had the refusal of my next serial. I hope you will
+not be very much disappointed about the old-time tale.
+It would take study to do it well, and leisure is just what
+I have not got, and I shall never have, I fear, when writing
+is to be done. I will send you a few chapters of
+"Jack and Jill" when in order, if you like, and you can
+decide if they will suit. I shall try to have it unlike the
+others if possible, but the dears <i>will</i> cling to the "Little
+Women" style.</p>
+
+<p>I have had a very busy summer, but have been pretty
+well, and able to do my part in entertaining the four
+hundred philosophers.</p>
+
+<p class="left45">
+Yours truly,</p>
+<p class="sig">L. M. A.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">September</span> 17 [1879].</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Mrs. Dodge</span>,&ndash;Don't let me <i>prose</i>. If I
+seem to be declining and falling into it, pull me up, and
+I'll try to prance as of old. Years tame down one's spirit
+and fancy, though they only deepen one's love for the
+little people, and strengthen the desire to serve them
+wisely as well as cheerfully. Fathers and mothers tell
+me they use my books as helps for themselves; so now
+and then I like to slip in a page for them, fresh from the
+experience of some other parent, for education seems to
+me to be <i>the</i> problem in our times.</p>
+
+<p>Jack and Jill are right out of our own little circle,
+and the boys and girls are in a twitter to know what is
+going in; so it will be a "truly story" in the main.</p>
+
+<p>Such a long note for a busy woman to read! but your
+cheery word was my best "starter;" and I'm, more than
+ever,</p>
+
+<p class="left45">
+Yours truly,</p>
+<p class="sig">L. M. A.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">304</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section">MAY ALCOTT NIERIKER.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+Born at Concord, July, 1840. Died in Paris, December, 1879.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>This younger sister became so dear to Louisa,
+and through the legacy which she left to her of
+an infant child, exercised so great an influence
+over the last ten years of her life, that it will not
+be uninteresting to trace out the course of her life
+and the development of her character. May was
+born before the experiments at Fruitlands, and her
+childhood passed during the period when the fortunes
+of the family were at the lowest ebb; but
+she was too young to feel in all their fulness the
+cares which weighed upon the older sisters. Her
+oldest sister&ndash;the affectionate, practical Anna&ndash;almost
+adopted May as her own baby, and gave her
+a great deal of the attention and care which the
+mother had not time for amid her numerous avocations.
+The child clung to Anna with trust and
+affection; but with her quick fancy and lively
+spirit, she admired the brilliant qualities of Louisa.
+Hasty in temperament, quick and impulsive in action,
+she quarrelled with Louisa while she adored
+her, and was impatient with her rebukes, which yet
+had great influence over her. She had a more
+facile nature than the other sisters, and a natural,
+girlish love of attention, and a romantic fondness
+for beauty in person and style in living. Graceful
+in figure and manners, with a fine complexion,
+blue eyes, and a profusion of light wavy hair, she
+was attractive in appearance; and a childish frankness,
+and acceptance of sympathy or criticism,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">305</a></span>
+disarmed those who were disposed to find fault
+with her.</p>
+
+<p>May is very truly described in "Little Women,"
+and her character is painted with a discerning but
+loving hand: "A regular snow maiden, with blue
+eyes, and yellow hair curling on her shoulders, pale
+and slender, and always carrying herself like a
+young lady mindful of her manners." Many little
+touches of description show the consciousness of
+appearance and love of admiration which she innocently
+betrayed, and illustrate the relation of the
+sisters: "'Don't stop to quirk your little finger
+and prink over your plate, Amy,' cried Jo." Her
+mother says of this daughter in her diary: "She
+does all things well; her capabilities are much in
+her eyes and fingers. When a child, I observed
+with what ease and grace she did little things."</p>
+
+<p>According to Louisa, "If anybody had asked
+Amy what the greatest trial of her life was, she
+would have answered at once, 'My nose.' No one
+minded it but herself, and it was doing its best to
+grow; but Amy felt deeply the want of a Grecian
+nose, and drew whole sheets of handsome ones to
+console herself." "Little Raphael," as the sisters
+called her, very early developed a love and talent
+for drawing which became the delight of her life.
+She covered her books with sketches, but managed
+to escape reprimand by being a model of deportment.
+Always having in her mind an ideal of
+elegant life, the many little trials of their times of
+poverty were of course severe mortifications to her;
+and the necessity of wearing dresses which came
+to her from others, and which were ugly in themselves
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">306</a></span>
+or out of harmony with her own appearance,
+caused her much affliction. She was always
+generous and easily reconciled after a quarrel, and
+was a favorite with her companions, and the heroine
+of those innocent little love episodes which,
+as Tennyson says,&ndash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+<span class="i4">"Are but embassies of love</span><br />
+To tamper with the feelings, ere he found<br />
+Empire for life."<a name="FNanchor_16" id="FNanchor_16" href="#Footnote_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p>
+
+<p>While May was too young to take the part in
+the support of the family which fell to Anna and
+Louisa, she was yet a blessing and comfort by her
+kind, bright nature. After the death of Elizabeth
+in 1858, her mother speaks of "turning to the little
+May for comfort," and her father's letters show how
+dear she was to him, although she never entered
+into his intellectual life.</p>
+
+<p>May shared in the blessing of Louisa's first success,
+for she went to the School of Design in 1859
+for the lessons in her art, for which she longed so
+eagerly. In 1860 an old friend sent her thirty
+dollars for lessons in drawing, and she had the
+best instruction she could then receive in Boston.</p>
+
+<p>In 1863, Louisa procured for her the great advantage
+of study with Dr. Rimmer, who was then
+giving his precious lessons in art anatomy in Boston.
+Under his instructions, May gave some attention
+to modelling, and completed an ideal bust.
+Although she did not pursue this branch of art, it
+was undoubtedly of great service in giving her
+more thorough knowledge of the head, and a
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">307</a></span>
+bolder and firmer style of drawing than she would
+have gained in any other way.</p>
+
+<p>As will be seen from Louisa's journal, May was
+frequently with her in Boston, engaged in studying
+or teaching. By the kindness of a friend, she went
+to Europe in 1870, when Louisa accompanied her.
+Louisa sent her to Europe for a year of study in
+1873, and again in 1877. In London and Paris she
+had good opportunities for study, and improved
+rapidly in her art. She made some admirable
+copies from Turner which attracted the attention
+of Ruskin; and a picture from still life was accepted
+at the Paris Salon, which event gave great happiness
+to the family circle and friends at home.</p>
+
+<p>May was very generous in giving to others help
+in the art she loved. While at home, in the intervals
+of her studies in Europe, she tried to form an
+art centre in Concord, and freely gave her time,
+her instruction, and the use of her studio to young
+artists. She wrote a little book to aid them in
+prosecuting their studies abroad, called "Studying
+Art Abroad, and How to do it Cheaply."</p>
+
+<p>Like the rest of the family, May composed with
+great ease, and sometimes wrote little stories. Her
+letters are very sprightly and agreeable.</p>
+
+<p>While residing in London, May had become
+acquainted with a young Swiss gentleman, whose
+refined and artistic tastes were closely in unison
+with her own. During the sad days of bereavement
+caused by her mother's death he was a kind
+and sympathetic friend, soothing her grief and
+cheering her solitude by his music. Thus, frequently
+together, their friendship became love, and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">308</a></span>
+they were betrothed. The course of this true love,
+which for a time ran swiftly and smoothly, is most
+exquisitely depicted in May's letters to her family.
+The charming pictures of herself and her young
+lover are so like Amy and her Laurie in his happiest
+moods, that we almost feel as if Miss Alcott
+had been prophetic in her treatment of these characters
+in "Little Women."</p>
+
+<p>I wish I could give her own natural, frank account
+of this event. May had the secret of perpetual
+youth, at least in spirit; and in reading her
+letters, one has no consciousness that more than
+thirty years had passed over her head, for they had
+taken no drop of freshness from her heart.</p>
+
+<p>The union of this happy pair was not a surprise
+to the friends at home, who had read May's heart,
+revealed in her frank, innocent letters, more clearly
+than she had supposed. When the claims of business
+called Mr. Nieriker from London, the hearts
+of the young couple quailed before the idea of
+separation, and they decided to be married at
+once, and go together. The simple ceremony was
+performed in London, March 22, 1878; and May
+started on her journey, no longer alone, but with a
+loving friend by her side.</p>
+
+<p>May's letters are full of the most artless joy in
+her new life. The old days of struggle and penury
+are gone; the heart-loneliness is no more; the
+world is beautiful, and everybody loving and kind.
+Life in the modest French home is an idyllic
+dream, and she writes to her sisters of every detail
+of her household. The return of her husband at
+sunset is a feast, and the evening is delightful with
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">309</a></span>
+poetry and music. Her blue dress, her crimson
+furniture, satisfy her artistic sense. She does not
+neglect her art, but paints with fresh inspiration,
+and waits for his criticism and praise. She says,
+"He is very ambitious for my artistic success, and
+is my most severe critic." In the morning she
+finds her easel set out for her, a fire burning ready
+for her comfort, and her husband in the big arm-chair
+waiting to read to her, or to take his violin
+and pose for his picture in gray velvet paletot and
+red slippers.<a name="FNanchor_17" id="FNanchor_17" href="#Footnote_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p>
+
+<p>For the time conjugal love is all sufficient, and
+May wonders at herself that the happiness of the
+moment can so drown every remembrance of sorrow.
+Yet a pathetic note is occasionally heard, as
+she mourns for the mother who is gone, or yearns
+for the sister who has been such a strength to her
+through life. The picturesqueness and ease of
+French life make America look stupid and forlorn,
+and she has no wish to go home, but only to have
+her dear ones share in her happiness. Her work
+in art was successful; and the money she received
+for it was not unacceptable, although her husband's
+income sufficed for their modest wants. She was
+justified in her grateful feeling that she was singularly
+blessed. Her husband's family were German-Swiss
+of high standing, artistic temperament, and
+warm affections. His mother and sister came to
+visit them, and took May to their hearts with
+cordial love.</p>
+
+<p>Among the pictures painted by May at this time
+the most remarkable is the portrait of a negro girl,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">310</a></span>
+which is a very faithful study from life, and gives
+the color and characteristic traits of a beautiful
+negro without exaggeration. The expression of
+the eyes is tender and pathetic, well-suited to the
+fate of a slave girl. Such earnest study would have
+borne richer fruit if longer life had been hers.</p>
+
+<p>May's own nature seems to have blossomed out
+like a flower in this sunny climate. In her youth
+at home she was impulsive, affectionate, and generous,
+but quick in temper and sometimes exacting;
+but the whole impression she made upon her husband
+and his family was of grace and sweetness,
+and she herself declares that her sisters at home
+would not recognize her, she has "become so sweet
+in this atmosphere of happiness."</p>
+
+<p>We would gladly linger over these records of a
+paradisiacal home where Adam and Eve renewed
+their innocent loves and happy labors. When
+musing over the sorrows of humanity it refreshes
+us to know that such joy is possible, and needs
+only love and simple hearts to make it real.</p>
+
+<p>May's note of happiness is touchingly echoed
+from the heart of her bereaved father, who recalls
+the days of his own courtship. He cherished every
+tender word from her; and the respectful and loving
+words of his new son, to whom he responds
+affectionately, were like balm to his stricken heart.</p>
+
+<p>May's joy was heightened by the expectation of
+motherhood. Her health was excellent, and she
+had the loving care of her new mother and sister.
+The anxious family at home received the news of
+the birth of a daughter with heartfelt delight. It
+was a great disappointment to Louisa that she
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">311</a></span>
+could not be with her sister at this time; but her
+health was not equal to the voyage, and she felt
+that May had most loving and sufficient care. An
+American friend in Paris kindly wrote to Louisa
+full details of the little niece and of the mother's
+condition. "It is difficult," she says, "to say which
+of that happy household is the proudest over that
+squirming bit of humanity."</p>
+
+<p>For about two weeks all seemed well; but alarming
+symptoms began to appear, and the mother's
+strength failed rapidly. The brain was the seat
+of disease; and she was generally unconscious, although
+she had intervals of apparent improvement,
+when she recognized her friends. She passed away
+peacefully December 29, 1879.</p>
+
+<p>An American clergyman in Paris took charge of
+the funeral service, which according to May's expressed
+desire was very simple, and she was laid
+in the tranquil cemetery of Montrouge outside of
+the fortifications.</p>
+
+<p>Foreseeing the possibility of a fatal termination
+to her illness, May had made every preparation for
+the event, and obtained a promise from her sister-in-law
+that she would carry the baby to Louisa to
+receive the devoted care that she knew would be
+given it. The child became a source of great
+comfort to Miss Alcott as will be seen from the
+journals. After her death Mr. Nieriker visited his
+little girl in America, and in June, 1889, her aunt
+took her to his home in Zurich, Switzerland.</p>
+
+<p>Before the sad letters describing May's illness
+could reach America, came the cable message of
+her death. It was sent to Mr. Emerson, the never-failing
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">312</a></span>
+friend of the family, who bore it to Louisa,
+her father being temporarily absent. His thoughtfulness
+softened the blow as much as human tenderness
+could, but still it fell with crushing weight
+upon them all.</p>
+
+<p>The father and sister could not sleep, and in the
+watches of the night he wrote that touching ode,
+the cry of paternal love and grief entitled "Love's
+Morrow."</p>
+
+<p class="section"><i>To Mrs. Bond.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Concord</span>, Jan. 1, 1880.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Auntie</span>,&ndash;It is hard to add one more sorrow
+to your already full heart, particularly one of this sort,
+but I did not want you to hear it from any one but us.
+Dear May is dead. Gone to begin the new year with
+Mother, in a world where I hope there is no grief like this.
+Gone just when she seemed safest and happiest, after
+nearly two years of such sweet satisfaction and love that
+she wrote us, "If I die when baby comes, remember I
+have been so unspeakably happy for a year that I ought
+to be content...."</p>
+
+<p>And it is all over. The good mother and sister have
+done everything in the most devoted way. We can
+never repay them. My May gave me her little Lulu, and
+in the spring I hope to get my sweet legacy. Meantime
+the dear grandma takes her to a home full of loving
+friends and she is safe. I will write more when we know,
+but the cruel sea divides us and we must wait.</p>
+
+<p>Bless you dear Auntie for all your love for May; she
+never forgot it, nor do we.</p>
+
+<p class="left45">
+Yours ever,</p>
+<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">Louisa.</span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">313</a></span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">January</span> 4.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Auntie</span>,&ndash;I have little further news to tell, but
+it seems to comfort me to answer the shower of tender
+sympathetic letters that each mail brings us....</p>
+
+<p>So we must wait to learn how the end came at last,
+where the dear dust is to lie, and how soon the desolate
+little home is to be broken up. It only remains for
+May's baby to be taken away to fill our cup to overflowing.
+But perhaps it would be best so, for even in Heaven
+with Mother, I know May will yearn for the darling so
+ardently desired, so tenderly welcomed, bought at such
+a price.</p>
+
+<p>In all the troubles of my life I never had one so hard
+to bear, for the sudden fall from such high happiness to
+such a depth of sorrow finds me unprepared to accept or
+bear it as I ought.</p>
+
+<p>Sometime I shall know why such things are; till then
+must try to trust and wait and hope as you do.... Sorrow
+has its lonely side, and sympathy is so sweet it takes
+half its bitterness away.</p>
+
+<p class="left45">
+Yours ever,</p>
+<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">L.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>After May's marriage and death Louisa remained
+awhile in Concord, trying to forget her grief in care
+for others. She went to the prison in Concord,
+and told a story to the prisoners which touched
+their hearts, and was long remembered by some of
+them.</p>
+
+<p>She wrote some short stories for "St Nicholas,"
+among them "Jimmy's Cruise in the Pinafore,"
+called out by the acting of the popular opera of
+that name by a juvenile troupe.</p>
+
+<p>She spent some weeks at Willow Cottage, Magnolia,
+which she has described in her popular story
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">314</a></span>
+of "Jack and Jill." The scene of the story is
+mostly laid in Concord, or "Harmony" as she
+calls it, and she has introduced many familiar
+scenes and persons into the book.</p>
+
+<p>This summer, too, the long-dreamed of School
+of Philosophy was established. The opening of the
+School was a great event to Mr. Alcott, as it was
+the realization of the dream of years. Louisa enjoyed
+his gratification, and took pains to help him
+to reap full satisfaction from it. She carried flowers
+to grace the opening meeting, and was friendly to
+his guests. She occasionally attended lectures
+given by her friends,&ndash;Dr. Bartol, Mrs. Howe, and
+others,&ndash;and she could not fail to enjoy meeting
+many of the bright people who congregated there;
+but she did not care for the speculative philosophy.
+Her keen sense of humor led her to see all that
+was incongruous or funny or simply novel in the
+bearing of the philosophers. She felt that her
+father had too much of the trying details, and perhaps
+did not appreciate how much joy of recognition
+it brought him. She had not much faith in
+the practical success of the experiment. Philosophy
+was much associated in her mind with early
+poverty and suffering, and she did not feel its
+charms. She was usually at the seashore at this
+season, as she suffered from the heat at Concord.
+Frequent allusions to the school appear in her
+journal. The following anecdote is given by a
+friend.</p>
+
+<p>"It was at Concord on Emerson day. After a
+morning with Bartol and Alcott and Mrs. Howe, I
+lunched with the Alcotts', who had for guest the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">315</a></span>
+venerable Dr. McCosh. Naturally the conversation
+turned on the events of the morning. 'I was
+thinking,' said the Doctor, 'as I looked among
+your audience, that there were no young men;
+and that with none but old men your school would
+soon die with them. By the way, madam,' he continued,
+addressing Miss Alcott, 'will you tell me
+what is your definition of a philosopher?'</p>
+
+<p>"The reply came instantly, 'My definition is of
+a man up in a balloon, with his family and friends
+holding the ropes which confine him to earth and
+trying to haul him down.'</p>
+
+<p>"The laugh which followed this reply was
+heartily joined in by the philosopher himself."</p>
+
+<p class="section"><i>Journal.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+<i>March</i>, 1878.&ndash;A happy event,&ndash;May's marriage to
+Ernest Nieriker, the "tender friend" who has consoled
+her for Marmee's loss, as John consoled Nan for Beth's.
+He is a Swiss, handsome, cultivated, and good; an excellent
+family living in Baden, and E. has a good business.
+May is old enough to choose for herself, and seems so
+happy in the new relation that we have nothing to say
+against it.</p>
+
+<p>They were privately married on the 22d, and went to
+Havre for the honeymoon, as E. had business in France;
+so they hurried the wedding. Send her $1,000 as a gift,
+and all good wishes for the new life.</p>
+
+<p><i>April.</i>&ndash;Happy letters from May, who is enjoying life
+as one can but once. E. writes finely to Father, and is
+a son to welcome I am sure. May sketches and E. attends
+to his business by day, and both revel in music in
+the evening, as E. is a fine violin player.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">316</a></span></p>
+
+<p>How different our lives are just now!&ndash;I so lonely,
+sad, and sick; she so happy, well, and blest. She always
+had the cream of things, and deserved it. My
+time is yet to come somewhere else, when I am ready
+for it.</p>
+
+<p>Anna clears out the old house; for we shall never go
+back to it; it ceased to be "home" when Marmee left it.</p>
+
+<p>I dawdle about, and wait to see if I am to live or die.
+If I live, it is for some new work. I wonder what?</p>
+
+<p><i>May.</i>&ndash;Begin to drive a little, and enjoy the spring.
+Nature is always good to me.</p>
+
+<p>May settles in her own house at Meudon,&ndash;a pretty
+apartment, with balcony, garden, etc.... I plan and
+hope to go to them, if I am ever well enough, and find
+new inspiration in a new life. May and E. urge it, and I
+long to go, but cannot risk the voyage yet. I doubt if I
+ever find time to lead my own life, or health to try it.</p>
+
+<p><i>June and July.</i>&ndash;Improving fast, in spite of dark
+predictions and forebodings. The Lord has more work
+for me, so I am spared.</p>
+
+<p>Tried to write a memoir of Marmee; but it is too
+soon, and I am not well enough.</p>
+
+<hr class="l15" />
+
+<p>May has had the new mother and brother-in-law with
+her, and finds them most interesting and lovable. They
+seem very proud of her, and happy in her happiness.
+Bright times for our youngest! May they last!</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+[They did.&ndash;L. M. A.]
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<hr class="l15" />
+
+<p>Got nicely ready to go to May in September; but at
+the last moment gave it up, fearing to undo all the good
+this weary year of ease has done for me, and be a burden
+on her. A great disappointment; but I've learned
+to wait. I long to see her happy in her own home.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">317</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Nan breaks her leg; so it is well I stayed, as there
+was no one to take her place but me. Always a little
+chore to be done.</p>
+
+<p><i>October, November.</i>&ndash;Nan improved. Rode, nursed,
+kept house, and tried to be contented, but was not.
+Make no plans for myself now; do what I can, and
+should be glad not to have to sit idle any longer.</p>
+
+<p>On the 8th, Marmee's birthday, Father and I went to
+Sleepy Hollow with red leaves and flowers for her. A
+cold, dull day, and I was glad there was no winter for
+her any more.</p>
+
+<p><i>November 25th.</i>&ndash;A year since our beloved Marmee
+died. A very eventful year. May marries, I live instead
+of dying, Father comes to honor in his old age, and Nan
+makes her home our refuge when we need one.</p>
+
+<p><i>December.</i>&ndash;A busy time. Nan gets about again. I
+am so well I wonder at myself, and ask no more.</p>
+
+<p>Write a tale for the "Independent," and begin on an
+art novel, with May's romance for its thread. Went to
+B. for some weeks, and looked about to see what I
+could venture to do....</p>
+
+<p>So ends 1878,&ndash;a great contrast to last December.
+Then I thought I was done with life; now I can enjoy
+a good deal, and wait to see what I am spared to do.
+Thank God for both the sorrow and the joy.</p>
+
+<p><i>January</i>, 1879.&ndash;At the Bellevue in my little room
+writing.</p>
+
+<p>Got two books well started, but had too many interruptions
+to do much, and dared not get into a vortex for
+fear of a break-down.</p>
+
+<p>Went about and saw people, and tried to be jolly.
+Did Jarley for a fair, also for Authors' Carnival at Music
+Hall. A queer time; too old for such pranks. A sad
+heart and a used-up body make play hard work, I find.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">318</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Read "Mary Wollstonecraft," "Dosia," "Danieli,"
+"Helène," etc. I like Gréville's books.</p>
+
+<p>Invest $1,000 for Fred's schooling, etc. Johnny has
+his $1,000 also safely in the bank for his education and
+any emergency.</p>
+
+<p><i>February.</i>&ndash;Home to Concord rather used up. Find
+a very quiet life is best; for in B. people beset me to do
+things, and I try, and get so tired I cannot work. Dr. C.
+says rest is my salvation; so I rest. Hope for Paris in
+the spring, as May begs me to come. She is leading
+what she calls "an ideal life,"&ndash;painting, music, love,
+and the world shut out. People wonder and gossip; but
+M. and E. laugh and are happy. Wise people to enjoy
+this lovely time!</p>
+
+<p>Went to a dinner, at the Revere House, of the Papyrus
+Club. Mrs. Burnett and Miss A. were guests of honor.
+Dr. Holmes took me in, and to my surprise I found myself
+at the president's right hand, with Mrs. B., Holmes,
+Stedman, and the great ones of the land. Had a gay
+time. Dr. H. very gallant. "Little Women" often
+toasted with more praise than was good for me.</p>
+
+<p>Saw Mrs. B. at a lunch, and took her and Mrs. M. M.
+Dodge to Concord for a lunch. Most agreeable women.</p>
+
+<p>A visit at H. W.'s. Mission time at Church of the
+Advent. Father Knox-Little preached, and waked up
+the sinners. H. hoped to convert me, and took me to
+see Father K.-L., a very interesting man, and we had a
+pleasant talk; but I found that we meant the same thing,
+though called by different names; and his religion had
+too much ceremony about it to suit me. So he gave me
+his blessing, and promised to send me some books.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+[Never did.&ndash;<span class="smcap">L. M. A.</span>]
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Pleasant times with my "rainy-day friend," as I call
+Dr. W. She is a great comfort to me, with her healthy
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">319</a></span>
+common-sense and tender patience, aside from skill as a
+doctor and beauty as a woman. I love her much, and
+she does me good.</p>
+
+<hr class="l15" />
+
+<p>Happy letters from May. Her hopes of a little son or
+daughter in the autumn give us new plans to talk over.
+I <i>must</i> be well enough to go to her then.</p>
+
+<p><i>April.</i>&ndash;Very poorly and cross; so tired of being a
+prisoner to pain. Long for the old strength when I
+could do what I liked, and never knew I had a body.
+Life not worth living in this way; but having over-worked
+the wonderful machine, I must pay for it, and
+should not growl, I suppose, as it is just.</p>
+
+<p>To B. to see Dr. S. Told me I was better than she
+ever dreamed I could be, and need not worry. So took
+heart, and tried to be cheerful, in spite of aches and
+nerves. Warm weather comforted me, and green grass
+did me good.</p>
+
+<p>Put a fence round A.'s garden. Bought a phaeton, so
+I might drive, as I cannot walk much, and Father loves
+to take his guests about.</p>
+
+<p><i>May and June.</i>&ndash;Go to B. for a week, but don't
+enjoy seeing people. Do errands, and go home again.
+Saw "Pinafore;" a pretty play.</p>
+
+<p>Much company.</p>
+
+<p>E.'s looked at the Orchard House and liked it; will
+hire it, probably. Hope so, as it is forlorn standing
+empty. I never go by without looking up at Marmee's
+window, where the dear face used to be, and May's, with
+the picturesque vines round it. No golden-haired, blue-gowned
+Diana ever appears now; she sits happily sewing
+baby-clothes in Paris. Enjoyed fitting out a box of
+dainty things to send her. Even lonely old spinsters take
+an interest in babies.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">320</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>June.</i>&ndash;A poor month. Try to forget my own worries,
+and enjoy the fine weather, my little carriage, and
+good friends. Souls are such slaves to bodies it is hard
+to keep up out of the slough of despond when nerves
+jangle and flesh aches.</p>
+
+<p>Went with Father on Sunday to the prison, and told
+the men a story. Thought I could not face four hundred
+at first; but after looking at them during the sermon,
+I felt that I could at least <i>amuse</i> them, and they
+evidently needed something new. So I told a hospital
+story with a little moral to it, and was so interested in
+watching the faces of some young men near me, who
+drank in every word, that I forgot myself, and talked
+away "like a mother." One put his head down, and
+another winked hard, so I felt that I had caught them;
+for even one tear in that dry, hard place would do
+them good. Miss McC. and Father said it was well
+done, and I felt quite proud of my first speech. [Sequel
+later.]</p>
+
+<p><i>July.</i>&ndash;Wrote a little tale called "Jimmy's Cruise in
+the Pinafore," for "St. Nicholas;" $100.</p>
+
+<p>14<i>th.</i>&ndash;The philosophers begin to swarm, and the buzz
+starts to-morrow. How much honey will be made is still
+doubtful, but the hive is ready and drones also.</p>
+
+<p>On the 15th, the School of Philosophy began in the
+study at Orchard House,&ndash;thirty students; Father, the
+dean. He has his dream realized at last, and is in glory,
+with plenty of talk to swim in. People laugh, but will
+enjoy something new in this dull old town; and the fresh
+Westerners will show them that all the culture of the
+world is not in Concord. I had a private laugh when
+Mrs. &ndash;&ndash; asked one of the new-comers, with her superior
+air, if she had ever looked into Plato. And the
+modest lady from Jacksonville answered, with a twinkle
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">321</a></span>
+at me, "We have been reading Plato in <i>Greek</i> for the
+past six years." Mrs. &ndash;&ndash; subsided after that.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+[Oh, wicked L. M. A., who hates sham and loves a joke.&ndash;<span class="smcap">L.
+M. A.</span>]
+</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>Was the first woman to register my name as a voter.</p>
+
+<p><i>August.</i>&ndash;To B. with a new "Scrap Bag." "Jimmy"
+to the fore. Wrote a little tale.</p>
+
+<p>The town swarms with budding philosophers, and they
+roost on our steps like hens waiting for corn. Father
+revels in it, so we keep the hotel going, and try to look
+as if we liked it. If they were philanthropists, I should
+enjoy it; but speculation seems a waste of time when
+there is so much real work crying to be done. Why
+discuss the "unknowable" till our poor are fed and the
+wicked saved?</p>
+
+<p>A young poet from New York came; nice boy.</p>
+
+<p>Sixteen callers to-day. Trying to stir up the women
+about suffrage; so timid and slow.</p>
+
+<p>Happy letters from May. Sophie N. is with her now.
+All well in the Paris nest.</p>
+
+<p>Passed a week in Magnolia with Mrs. H. School
+ended for this year. Hallelujah!</p>
+
+<p><i>September.</i>&ndash;Home from the seaside refreshed, and go
+to work on a new serial for "St. Nicholas,"&ndash;"Jack and
+Jill." Have no plan yet but a boy, a girl, and a sled, with
+an upset to start with. Vague idea of working in Concord
+young folks and their doings. After two years of rest, I
+am going to try again; it is so easy to make money now,
+and so pleasant to have it to give. A chapter a day is
+my task, and not that if I feel tired. No more fourteen
+hours a day; make haste slowly now.</p>
+
+<p>Drove about and drummed up women to my suffrage
+meeting. So hard to move people out of the old ruts.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">322</a></span>
+I haven't patience enough; if they won't see and work,
+I let 'em alone, and steam along my own way.</p>
+
+<p>May sent some nice little letters of an "Artist's Holiday,"
+and I had them printed; also a book for artists
+abroad,&ndash;very useful, and well done.</p>
+
+<p>Eight chapters done. Too much company for work.</p>
+
+<p><i>October 8th.</i>&ndash;Dear Marmee's birthday. Never forgotten.
+Lovely day. Go to Sleepy Hollow with flowers.
+Her grave is green; blackberry vines with red leaves
+trail over it. A little white stone with her initials is at
+the head, and among the tall grass over her breast a little
+bird had made a nest; empty now, but a pretty symbol
+of the refuge that tender bosom always was for all feeble
+and sweet things. Her favorite asters bloomed all about,
+and the pines sang overhead. So she and dear Beth are
+quietly asleep in God's acre, and we remember them
+more tenderly with each year that brings us nearer them
+and home.</p>
+
+<p>Went with Dr. W. to the Woman's Prison, at Sherburne.
+A lovely drive, and very remarkable day and
+night. Read a story to the four hundred women, and
+heard many interesting tales. A much better place than
+Concord Prison, with its armed wardens, and "knock
+down and drag out" methods. Only women here, and
+they work wonders by patience, love, common-sense, and
+the belief in salvation for all.</p>
+
+<p>First proof from Scribner of "Jack and Jill." Mrs. D.
+likes the story, so I peg away very slowly. Put in Elly
+D. as one of my boys. The nearer I keep to nature,
+the better the work is. Young people much interested
+in the story, and all want to "go in." I shall have a
+hornet's nest about me if all are not <i>angels</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Father goes West.</p>
+
+<p>I mourn much because all say I must not go to May;
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">323</a></span>
+not safe; and I cannot add to Mamma Nieriker's cares
+at this time by another invalid, as the voyage would upset
+me, I am so sea-sick.</p>
+
+<p>Give up my hope and long-cherished plan with grief.
+May sadly disappointed. I know I shall wish I had
+gone; it is my luck.</p>
+
+<p><i>November.</i>&ndash;Went to Boston for a month, as some
+solace for my great disappointment. Take my room at
+the Bellevue, and go about a little. Write on "J. and J."
+Anxious about May.</p>
+
+<p><i>8th.</i>&ndash;Little Louisa May Nieriker arrived in Paris at
+9 p. m., after a short journey. All doing well. Much
+rejoicing. Nice little lass, and May very happy. Ah, if
+I had only been there! Too much happiness for me.</p>
+
+<p><i>25th.</i>&ndash;Two years since Marmee went. How she
+would have enjoyed the little granddaughter, and all
+May's romance! Perhaps she does.</p>
+
+<p>Went home on my birthday (forty-seven). Tried to
+have a little party for Nan and the boys, but it was
+rather hard work.</p>
+
+<p>Not well enough to write much, so give up my room.
+Can lie round at home, and it's cheaper.</p>
+
+<p><i>December.</i>&ndash;May not doing well. The weight on my
+heart is not all imagination. She was too happy to have
+it last, and I fear the end is coming. Hope it is my
+nerves; but this peculiar feeling has never misled me
+before.</p>
+
+<p>Invited to the breakfast to O. W. H. No heart to go.</p>
+
+<p><i>8th.</i>&ndash;Little Lu one month old. Small, but lively.
+Oh, if I could only be there to see,&ndash;to help! This is
+a penance for all my sins. Such a tugging at my heart
+to be by poor May, alone, so far away. The N.'s are
+devoted, and all is done that can be; but not one of her
+"very own" is there.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">324</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Father came home.</p>
+
+<p><i>29th.</i>&ndash;May died at 8 a. m., after three weeks of fever
+and stupor. Happy and painless most of the time. At
+Mr. W.'s funeral on the 30th, I <i>felt</i> the truth before the
+news came.</p>
+
+<p><i>Wednesday, 31st.</i>&ndash;A dark day for us. A telegram
+from Ernest to Mr. Emerson tells us "May is dead."
+Anna was gone to B.; Father to the post-office, anxious
+for letters, the last being overdue. I was alone when
+Mr. E. came. E. sent to him, knowing I was feeble, and
+hoping Mr. E. would soften the blow. I found him looking
+at May's portrait, pale and tearful, with the paper in
+his hand. "My child, I wish I could prepare you; but
+alas, alas!" There his voice failed, and he gave me the
+telegram.</p>
+
+<p>I was not surprised, and read the hard words as if
+I knew it all before. "I <i>am</i> prepared," I said, and
+thanked him. He was much moved and very tender.
+I shall remember gratefully the look, the grasp, the tears
+he gave me; and I am sure that hard moment was made
+bearable by the presence of this our best and tenderest
+friend. He went to find Father but missed him, and
+I had to tell both him and Anna when they came. A
+very bitter sorrow for all.</p>
+
+<p>The dear baby may comfort E., but what can comfort
+us? It is the distance that is so hard, and the thought
+of so much happiness ended so soon. "Two years of
+perfect happiness" May called these married years, and
+said, "If I die when baby comes, don't mourn, for I
+have had as much happiness in this short time as many
+in twenty years." She wished me to have her baby and
+her pictures. A very precious legacy! Rich payment
+for the little I could do for her. I see now why I lived,&ndash;to
+care for May's child and not leave Anna all alone.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">325</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>January 1st</i>, 1880.&ndash;A sad day mourning for May.
+Of all the trials in my life I never felt any so keenly as
+this, perhaps because I am so feeble in health that I
+cannot bear it well. It seems so hard to break up that
+happy little home and take May just when life was richest,
+and to leave me who had done my task and could
+well be spared. Shall I ever know why such things
+happen?</p>
+
+<p>Letters came telling us all the sad story. May was
+unconscious during the last weeks, and seemed not to
+suffer. Spoke now and then of "getting ready for
+Louy," and asked if she had come. All was done that
+love and skill could do, but in vain. E. is broken-hearted,
+and good Madame N. and Sophie find their
+only solace in the poor baby.</p>
+
+<p>May felt a foreboding, and left all ready in case she
+died. Some trunks packed for us, some for the N.
+sisters. Her diary written up, all in order. Even chose
+the graveyard where she wished to be, out of the city.
+E. obeys all her wishes sacredly.</p>
+
+<p>Tried to write on "J. and J." to distract my mind;
+but the wave of sorrow kept rolling over me, and I could
+only weep and wait till the tide ebbed again.</p>
+
+<p><i>February.</i>&ndash;More letters from E. and Madame N.
+Like us, they find comfort in writing of the dear soul
+gone, now there is nothing more to do for her. I cannot
+make it true that our May is dead, lying far away in a
+strange grave, leaving a husband and child whom we
+have never seen. It all reads like a pretty romance,
+now death hath set its seal on these two happy years;
+and we shall never know all that she alone could
+tell us.</p>
+
+<p>Many letters from friends in France, England, and
+America, full of sympathy for us, and love and pride and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">326</a></span>
+gratitude for May, who was always glad to help, forgive,
+and love every one. It is our only consolation now.</p>
+
+<p>Father and I cannot sleep, but he and I make verses
+as we did when Marmee died. Our grief seems to flow
+into words. He writes "Love's Morrow" and "Our
+Madonna."</p>
+
+<p>Lulu has gone to Baden with Grandmamma.</p>
+
+<p>Finish "J. and J." The world goes on in spite of
+sorrow, and I must do my work. Both these last serials
+were written with a heavy heart,&ndash;"Under the Lilacs"
+when Marmee was failing, and "Jack and Jill" while
+May was dying. Hope the grief did not get into
+them.</p>
+
+<p>Hear R. W. E. lecture for his one hundredth time.
+Mary Clemmer writes for a sketch of my life for a book
+of "Famous Women." Don't belong there.</p>
+
+<p>Read "Memoirs of Madame de Rémusat." Not very
+interesting. Beauties seldom amount to much. Plain
+Margaret Fuller was worth a dozen of them. "Kings in
+Exile," a most interesting book, a very vivid and terrible
+picture of Parisian life and royal weakness and sorrow.</p>
+
+<p>Put papers, etc., in order. I feel as if one should
+be ready to go at any moment....</p>
+
+<p><i>March.</i>&ndash;A box came from May, with pictures,
+clothes, vases, her ornaments, a little work-basket, and,
+in one of her own sepia boxes, her pretty hair tied with
+blue ribbon,&ndash;all that is now left us of this bright soul
+but the baby, soon to come. Treasures all.</p>
+
+<p>A sad day, and many tears dropped on the dear dress,
+the blue slippers she last wore, the bit of work she laid
+down when the call came the evening Lulu was born.
+The fur-lined sack feels like May's arms round me, and
+I shall wear it with pleasure. The pictures show us her
+great progress these last years.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">327</a></span></p>
+
+<p>To Boston for a few days on business, and to try to forget.
+Got gifts for Anna's birthday on the 16th,&ndash;forty-nine
+years old. My only sister now, and the best God
+ever made. Repaired her house for her.</p>
+
+<p>Lulu is not to come till autumn. Great disappointment;
+but it is wiser to wait, as summer is bad for a
+young baby to begin here.</p>
+
+<p><i>29th.</i>&ndash;Town meeting. Twenty women there, and
+voted first, thanks to Father. Polls closed,&ndash;in joke,
+we thought, as Judge Hoar proposed it; proved to be
+in earnest, and <i>we</i> elected a good school committee.
+Quiet time; no fuss.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">January 20, 1880.</span></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Mrs. Dodge</span>,&ndash;I have been so bowed down
+with grief at the loss of my dear sister just when our
+anxiety was over that I have not had a thought or care
+for anything else.</p>
+
+<p>The story is done; but the last chapters are not copied,
+and I thought it best to let them lie till I could give my
+mind to the work.</p>
+
+<p>I never get a good chance to do a story without
+interruption of some sort. "Under the Lilacs" was finished
+by my mother's bedside in her last illness, and this
+one when my heart was full of care and hope and then
+grief over poor May.</p>
+
+<p>I trust the misery did not get into the story; but I'm
+afraid it is not as gay as I meant most of it to be.</p>
+
+<p>I forgot to number the pages of the last two chapters,
+and so cannot number these. I usually keep the run, but
+this time sent off the parcel in a hurry. Can you send
+me the right number to go on with in chapter seventeen?
+I can send you four more as soon as I hear.</p>
+
+<p>I don't believe I shall come to New York this winter.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">328</a></span>
+May left me her little daughter for my own; and if she
+comes over soon, I shall be too busy singing lullabies to
+one child to write tales for others, or go anywhere, even
+to see my kind friends.</p>
+
+<p>A sweeter little romance has just ended in Paris than
+any I can ever make; and the sad facts of life leave me
+no heart for cheerful fiction.</p>
+
+<p class="left45">
+Yours truly,</p>
+<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">L. M. Alcott</span>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center p6"><span class="b1">CHAPTER XI.</span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">329</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="center">LAST YEARS.</p>
+
+<p class="center p2">MY PRAYER.</p>
+
+<p class="center s1">(Written October, 1886.)</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="stanza">
+Courage and patience, these I ask,<br />
+<span class="i1">Dear Lord, in this my latest strait;</span><br />
+For hard I find my ten years' task,<br />
+<span class="i1">Learning to suffer and to wait.</span></p>
+
+<p class="stanza">Life seems so rich and grand a thing,<br />
+<span class="i1">So full of work for heart and brain,</span><br />
+It is a cross that I can bring<br />
+<span class="i1">No help, no offering, but pain.</span></p>
+
+<p class="stanza">The hard-earned harvest of these years<br />
+<span class="i1">I long to generously share;</span><br />
+The lessons learned with bitter tears<br />
+<span class="i1">To teach again with tender care;</span></p>
+
+<p class="stanza">To smooth the rough and thorny way<br />
+<span class="i1">Where other feet begin to tread;</span><br />
+To feed some hungry soul each day<br />
+<span class="i1">With sympathy's sustaining bread.</span></p>
+
+<p class="stanza">So beautiful such pleasures show,<br />
+<span class="i1">I long to make them mine;</span><br />
+To love and labor and to know<br />
+<span class="i1">The joy such living makes divine.</span></p>
+
+<p class="stanza">But if I may not, I will only ask<br />
+<span class="i1">Courage and patience for my fate,</span><br />
+And learn, dear Lord, thy latest task,&ndash;<br />
+<span class="i1">To suffer patiently and wait.</span></p>
+</div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">330</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="p2"><span class="dropcap">T</span>HE early part of the year 1880 was in the
+deep shadow of sadness, from the death of
+Louisa's sister. Boxes full of May's pictures,
+clothes, and books came home to call up anew
+all the memories of the bright spirit who had
+blossomed into such beautiful life so quickly to
+fade away.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Alcott tried to rise above her grief and
+busy herself with new interests. She took an active
+part in the voting of the women in Concord,
+and rejoiced in the election of a good school committee.
+In April she returned to her old rooms at
+the Bellevue, where she busied herself with dramatizing
+"Michael Strogoff," which she never completed.
+She kept up her interest in young girls,
+and received with pleasure a visit from thirty pupils
+of the Boston University, and she helped to give
+the children of the North End Mission a happy
+day at Walden Pond. She went to York for rest
+and refreshment during the summer. Her heart
+was filled with longing for the child, and everything
+was done with reference to its coming.</p>
+
+<p>As September brought cooler weather, over the
+sea came the little babe to the warm hearts that were
+longing to welcome her. No woman as true and
+loving as Louisa Alcott but has the mother-nature
+strong in her heart; and she could not help feeling
+a new spring of love and life when the child of one
+so dear was put into her arms to be her very own.
+Rosy and healthy, full of life and energy,&ndash;not a
+model of sainthood, but a real human nature, with
+a will to be regulated, not broken, with impulses to
+be trained, talents and tendencies to be studied,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">331</a></span>
+and a true, loving heart to be filled with joy,&ndash;Louisa
+found the child a constant source of interest
+and pleasure. She brought her up as she herself
+had been trained,&ndash;more by influences than
+by rules,&ndash;and sought to follow the leadings which
+she found in the young nature rather than to make
+it over after a plan of her own. This new care and
+joy helped to fill up the void in her life from the
+loss of the mother for whom she had worked so
+faithfully and the pet sister to whom she had ever
+been a good providence.</p>
+
+<p>The principal interest of the next few years was
+the care of this child. It was a pleasant occupation
+to Louisa, occupying her heart, and binding her
+with new ties to younger generations. The journal
+tells all the simple story of the "voyage across
+the seas."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Alcott was very attractive to children, especially
+to the little ones, who thronged about her
+and pleaded for stories; but this was the first one
+who ever really filled the mother-longing in her
+heart. She was now truly a "marmee;" and remembering
+the blessing which her own mother
+had been to her, her standard of motherhood must
+have been very high. Much care was now also
+given to her father, and she speaks with pride of
+her handsome old philosopher in his new suit of
+clothes.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Alcott was gratified by a visit from one of
+the men to whom she had spoken at Concord
+Prison. He told her his story, and she assisted
+him to find work, and had the satisfaction of hearing
+of his well-doing.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">332</a></span></p>
+
+<p>There is little record of writing done at this
+period, Louisa's time and thoughts being absorbed
+by the child. In the autumn of 1881 she wrote a
+preface to a new edition of the "Prayers of Theodore
+Parker," and also one to the new edition of
+"Moods."</p>
+
+<p>Louisa kept the birthdays of November, though
+with saddened heart. She wrote a tale for the
+Soldiers' Home,&ndash;"My Red Cap," in "Proverb
+Stories,"&ndash;and another for the New England Hospital
+fair,&ndash;"A Baby's Birthday;" and also one for
+her old publisher. Such was the feeling toward
+her as a universal benefactor, that a poor woman
+wrote her begging her to send some Christmas
+gifts to her children, as they had asked her to
+write to Santa Claus for some. With Lulu's help
+she got up a box for the poor family, and then
+made a story out of the incident, for which she
+received a hundred dollars.</p>
+
+<p>A new project was that of a temperance society,
+which was felt to be needed in Concord.</p>
+
+<p>Louisa occupied herself much in looking over
+her mother's papers, and unfortunately destroyed
+them, instead of preparing a memoir of her as she
+had intended to do. It is a matter of great regret
+that she did not feel able to do this work, for Mrs.
+Alcott's letters would have been a most valuable
+record of the life of her time, as well as a treasury
+of bright thought and earnest feeling. Louisa was
+not willing to commit the task to any other hand,
+and the opportunity is gone.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">333</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="section"><i>To Mrs. Dodge.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Concord</span>, May 29.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Mrs. Dodge,</span>&ndash;I was away from home, so your
+letter did not reach me till I got back yesterday.</p>
+
+<p>Thanks for your kind thought of me, and recollections
+of the pleasant week when the L. L.'s had a lark. I
+should like another; but in this work-a-day world busy
+folk don't get many, as we know.</p>
+
+<p>If I write a serial, you shall have it; but I have my
+doubts as to the leisure and quiet needed for such tasks
+being possible with a year-old baby. Of course little
+Lu is a <i>very</i> remarkable child, but I fancy I shall feel as
+full of responsibility as a hen with one chick, and cluck
+and scratch industriously for the sole benefit of my
+daughter.</p>
+
+<p>She may, however, have a literary turn, and be my
+assistant, by offering hints and giving studies of character
+for my work. She comes in September, if well.</p>
+
+<p>If I do begin a new story, how would "An Old-Fashioned
+Boy" and his life do? I meant that for the title of a
+book, but another woman took it. You proposed a revolutionary
+tale once, but I was not up to it; for this I
+have quaint material in my father's journals, letters, and
+recollections. He was born with the century, and had
+an uncle in the war of 1812; and his life was very pretty
+and pastoral in the early days. I think a new sort of
+story wouldn't be amiss, with fun in it, and the queer old
+names and habits. I began it long ago, and if I have a
+chance will finish off a few chapters and send them to
+you, if you like.</p>
+
+<p class="left45">
+Yours cordially,</p>
+<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">L. M. Alcott.</span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">334</a></span></p>
+</div>
+<p class="section"><i>To Mr. Niles, about the new illustrated edition of
+"Little Women."</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">York</span>, July 20, 1880.</p>
+
+<p>The drawings are all capital, and we had great fun
+over them down here this rainy day.... Mr. Merrill
+certainly deserves a good penny for his work. Such a
+fertile fancy and quick hand as his should be well paid,
+and I shall not begrudge him his well-earned compensation,
+nor the praise I am sure these illustrations will earn.
+It is very pleasant to think that the lucky little story has
+been of use to a fellow-worker, and I am much obliged
+to him for so improving on my hasty pen-and-ink
+sketches. What a dear rowdy boy Teddy is with the
+felt basin on!</p>
+
+<p>The papers are great gossips, and never get anything
+quite straight, and I do mean to set up my own establishment
+in Boston (D.V.). Now I have an excuse for
+a home of my own, and as the other artistic and literary
+spinsters have a house, I am going to try the plan, for a
+winter at least.</p>
+
+<p>Come and see how cosey we are next October at 81
+Pinckney Street. Miss N. will receive.</p>
+
+<p class="left45">
+Yours truly,</p>
+<p class="sig">L. M. A.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>To Mrs. Dodge.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">81 <span class="smcap">Pinckney Street</span>, 1880.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Mrs. Dodge</span>,&ndash;The editor of "Harper's Young
+People" asked for a serial, and I declined; then they
+wanted a short story for Christmas, and I sent one. But
+it was not long enough, though longer than most of my
+short $100 tales.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">335</a></span></p>
+
+<p>So I said, "If you don't want it, send it to 'Saint
+Nicholas.'"</p>
+
+<p>Therefore if "How It Happened" comes straying
+along, you will know what it means. If you don't want
+it, please send it to me in Boston, 81 Pinckney Street;
+for Christmas tales are always in demand, and I have no
+time to write more.</p>
+
+<p>You will like to know that my baby is safely here,&ndash;a
+healthy, happy little soul, who comes like sunshine to our
+sad hearts, and takes us all captive by her winning ways
+and lovely traits.</p>
+
+<p>I shall soon be settled for the winter, and I hope have
+good times after the hard ones.</p>
+
+<p class="left45">
+Affectionately yours,</p>
+<p class="sig">L. M. A.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>Journal.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+<i>April</i>, 1880.&ndash;So sad and poorly; went to B. for a
+change. Old room at the Bellevue.</p>
+
+<p>Amused myself dramatizing "Michael Strogoff;" read,
+walked, and rested. Reporters called for story of my
+life; did not get much. Made my will, dividing all I
+have between Nan and the boys, with Father as a legacy
+to Nan, and to Lulu her mother's pictures and small
+fortune of $500.</p>
+
+<p><i>May.</i>&ndash;Thirty girls from Boston University called;
+told stories, showed pictures, wrote autographs. Pleasant
+to see so much innocent enthusiasm, even about so
+poor a thing as a used-up old woman. Bright girls!
+simple in dress, sensible ideas of life, and love of education.
+I wish them all good luck.</p>
+
+<p>Ordered a stone for May's grave like Marmee's and
+Beth's, for some day I hope to bring her dust home.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">336</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Twenty-third is the anniversary of Mother's wedding. If
+she had lived, it would have been the golden wedding.</p>
+
+<p>Went to see St. Botolph's Club rooms. Very prim and
+neat, with easy chairs everywhere; stained glass, and a
+pious little <i>bar</i>, with nothing visible but a moral ice-pitcher
+and a butler like a bishop. The reverend gentlemen
+will be comfortable and merry, I fancy, as there is
+a smoking-room and card-tables, as well as a library and
+picture-gallery. Divines nowadays are not as godly as in
+old times, it seems.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Dodge wants a new serial, but I doubt if I can
+do it; boys, babies, illness, and business of all sorts leave
+no time for story-telling.</p>
+
+<p><i>June.</i>&ndash;We all enjoy the new rooms very much, and
+Father finds his study delightful. Prepare the Orchard
+House for W. T. Harris, who is to rent it.</p>
+
+<p>North End Mission children at Walden Pond. Help
+give them a happy day,&ndash;eleven hundred of them. Get
+Anna and John off to Walpole. Cleaned house.</p>
+
+<p>Madame N. sends a picture of Lulu,&ndash;a funny, fat
+little thing in her carriage. Don't realize that it is May's
+child, and that she is far away in a French cemetery,
+never to come home to us again.</p>
+
+<p>It is decided that Baby is to come to us in September.</p>
+
+<p><i>24th.</i>&ndash;Lizzie's birthday and Johnny's. He is fifteen,&ndash;a
+lovely, good boy, whom every one loves. Got the
+Dean a new suit of clothes, as he must be nice for his
+duties at the School. Plato's toga was not so costly,
+but even he did not look better than my handsome old
+philosopher.</p>
+
+<p><i>July and August.</i>&ndash;To York with boys. Rest and
+enjoy the fine air. Home in August, and let Anna go
+down. Four hundred callers since the School began.
+Philosophy is a bore to outsiders.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">337</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Got things ready for my baby,&ndash;warm wrapper, and
+all the dear can need on her long journey. On the 21st
+saw Mrs. Giles (who went for baby) off; the last time I
+went, it was to see May go. She was sober and sad,
+not gay as before; seemed to feel it might be a longer
+voyage than we knew. The last view I had of her,
+was standing alone in the long blue cloak waving her
+hand to us, smiling with wet eyes till out of sight. How
+little we dreamed what an experience of love, joy, pain,
+and death she was going to!</p>
+
+<p>A lonely time with all away. My grief meets me when
+I come home, and the house is full of ghosts.</p>
+
+<p><i>September.</i>&ndash;Put papers in order, and arrange things
+generally, to be in order when our Lulu comes. Make a
+cosey nursery for the darling, and say my prayers over
+the little white crib that waits for her, if she ever comes.
+God watch over her!</p>
+
+<p>Paid my first <i>poll</i>-tax. As my <i>head</i> is my most valuable
+piece of property, I thought $2 a cheap tax on it.
+Saw my townswomen about voting, etc. Hard work to
+stir them up; cake and servants are more interesting.</p>
+
+<p><i>18th.</i>&ndash;In Boston, waiting for the steamer that brings
+my treasure. The ocean seems very wide and terrible
+when I think of the motherless little creature coming so
+far to us.</p>
+
+<p><i>19th.</i>&ndash;Lulu and Sophie N. arrived with poor G.,
+worn out by anxiety. A stormy passage, and much
+care, being turned out of the stateroom I had engaged
+for them and paid for, by a rude New York dressmaker.
+No help for it, so poor G. went to a rat-hole below, and
+did her best.</p>
+
+<p>As I waited on the wharf while the people came off
+the ship, I saw several babies, and wondered each time
+if that was mine. At last the captain appeared, and in
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">338</a></span>
+his arms a little yellow-haired thing in white, with its hat
+half off as it looked about with lively blue eyes and babbled
+prettily. Mrs. G. came along by it, and I knew it
+was Lulu. Behind, walked a lovely brown-eyed girl with
+an anxious face, all being new and strange to Sophie.</p>
+
+<p>I held out my arms to Lulu, only being able to say her
+name. She looked at me for a moment, then came to
+me, saying "Marmar" in a wistful way, and resting close
+as if she had found her own people and home at last,&ndash;as
+she had, thank Heaven! I could only listen while I
+held her, and the others told their tale. Then we got
+home as soon as we could, and dear baby behaved very
+well, though hungry and tired.</p>
+
+<p>The little princess was received with tears and smiles,
+and being washed and fed went quietly to sleep in her
+new bed, while we brooded over her and were never tired
+of looking at the little face of "May's baby."</p>
+
+<p>She is a very active, bright child, not pretty yet, being
+browned by sea air, and having a yellow down on her
+head, and a pug nose. Her little body is beautifully
+formed, broad shoulders, fine chest, and lovely arms. A
+happy thing, laughing and waving her hands, confiding
+and bold, with a keen look in the eyes so like May,
+who hated shams and saw through them at once. She
+always comes to me, and seems to have decided that I
+am really "Marmar." My heart is full of pride and joy,
+and the touch of the dear little hands seems to take
+away the bitterness of grief. I often go at night to see
+if she is really <i>here</i>, and the sight of the little head is
+like sunshine to me. Father adores her, and she loves
+to sit in his strong arms. They make a pretty picture
+as he walks in the garden with her to "see birdies."
+Anna tends her as she did May, who was her baby
+once, being ten years younger, and we all find life
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">339</a></span>
+easier to live now the baby has come. Sophie is a sweet
+girl, with much character and beauty. A charming sister
+in love as in law.</p>
+
+<p><i>October.</i>&ndash;Happy days with Lulu and Sophie; getting
+acquainted with them. Lulu is rosy and fair now,
+and grows pretty in her native air,&ndash;a merry little lass,
+who seems to feel at home and blooms in an atmosphere
+of adoration. People come to see "Miss Alcott's baby,"
+and strangers waylay her little carriage in the street
+to look at her; but she does not allow herself to be
+kissed.</p>
+
+<p>As Father wants to go West I decide to hire Cousin
+L. W.'s house furnished for the winter, so that Sophie
+and the boys can have a pleasant time. S. misses the
+gayety of her home-life in stupid Concord, where the
+gossip and want of manners strike her very disagreeably.
+Impertinent questions are asked her, and she is amazed
+at the queer, rude things people say.</p>
+
+<p><i>November 8th.</i>&ndash;Lulu's birthday. One year old.
+Her gifts were set out on a table for her to see when
+she came down in the afternoon,&ndash;a little cake with <i>one</i>
+candle, a rose crown for the queen, a silver mug, dolly,
+picture-books, gay ball, toys, flowers, and many kisses.
+She sat smiling at her treasures just under her mother's
+picture. Suddenly, attracted by the sunshine on the face
+of the portrait which she knows is "Marmar," she held
+up a white rose to it calling "Mum! Mum!" and smiling
+at it in a way that made us all cry. A happy day for her,
+a sad one to us.</p>
+
+<p><i>Thanksgiving.</i>&ndash;Family dinner.</p>
+
+<p>Father at Syracuse, having conversations at Bishop
+Huntington's and a fine time everywhere.</p>
+
+<p><i>December.</i>&ndash;Too busy to keep much of a journal.
+My life is absorbed in my baby. On the twenty-third
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">340</a></span>
+she got up and walked alone; had never crept at all,
+but when ready ran across the room and plumped down,
+laughing triumphantly at her feat.</p>
+
+<p><i>Christmas.</i>&ndash;Tried to make it gay for the young
+folks, but a heavy day for Nan and me. Sixty gifts
+were set out on different tables, and all were much
+pleased. Sophie had many pretty things, and gave to
+all generously.</p>
+
+<p>A hard year for all, but when I hold my Lulu I feel
+as if even death had its compensations. A new world
+for me.</p>
+
+<p>Called down one day to see a young man. Found it
+one of those to whom I spoke at the prison in Concord
+last June. Came to thank me for the good my little
+story did him, since it kept him straight and reminded
+him that it is never too late to mend. Told me about
+himself, and how he was going to begin anew and wipe
+out the past. He had been a miner, and coming East
+met some fellows who made him drink; while tipsy he
+stole something in a doctor's office, and having no friends
+here was sentenced to three years in prison. Did well, and
+was now out. Had a prospect of going on an expedition
+to South America with a geological surveying party. An
+interesting young man. Fond of books, anxious to do
+well, intelligent, and seemed eager to atone for his one
+fault. Gave him a letter to S. G. at Chicago. Wrote to
+the warden, who confirmed D.'s story and spoke well of
+him. Miss Willard wrote me later of him, and he seemed
+doing well. Asked if he might write to me, and did so
+several times, then went to S. A. and I hear no more.
+Glad to have said a word to help the poor boy.</p>
+
+<p><i>March</i>, 1881.&ndash;Voted for school committee.</p>
+
+<p><i>October.</i>&ndash;Wrote a preface for Parker's Prayers, just
+got out by F. B. Sanborn.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">341</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>November.</i>&ndash;Forty-nine on 29th. Wrote a preface to
+the new edition of "Moods."</p>
+
+<p><i>8th.</i>&ndash;Gave my baby <i>two</i> kisses when she woke, and
+escorted her down to find a new chair decked with
+ribbons, and a doll's carriage tied with pink; toys, pictures,
+flowers, and a cake, with a red and a blue candle
+burning gayly.</p>
+
+<p>Wrote a tale for the Soldiers' Home,&ndash;"My Red
+Cap,"&ndash;and one for the Woman's Hospital fair,&ndash;"A
+Baby's Birthday." Also a tale for F.</p>
+
+<p><i>December.</i>&ndash;A poor woman in Illinois writes me to
+send her children some Christmas gifts, being too poor
+and ill to get any. They asked her to write to Santa
+Claus and she wrote to <i>me</i>. Sent a box, and made a
+story about it,&ndash;$100. Lulu much interested, and kept
+bringing all her best toys and clothes "for poor little
+boys." A generous baby.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>To Mr. Niles.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">February</span> 12, 1881.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Mr. Niles</span>,&ndash;Wendell Phillips wrote me a letter
+begging me to write a preface for Mrs. Robinson's "History
+of the Suffrage Movement;" but I refused him, as I
+did Mrs. R., because I don't write prefaces well, and if I
+begin to do it there will be no end....</p>
+
+<p>Cannot you do a small edition for her? All the believers
+will buy the book, and I think the sketches of
+L. M. Child, Abby May, Alcott, and others will add much
+to the interest of the book.</p>
+
+<p>Has she seen you about it? Will you look at the
+manuscripts by and by, or do you scorn the whole
+thing? Better not; for we are going to win in time,
+and the friend of literary ladies ought to be also the
+friend of women generally.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">342</a></span></p>
+
+<p>We are going to meet the Governor, council, and
+legislature at Mrs. Tudor's next Wednesday eve and
+have a grand set-to. I hope he will come out of the
+struggle alive.</p>
+
+<p>Do give Mrs. R. a lift if you can, and your petitioners
+will ever pray.</p>
+
+<p class="left45">
+Yours truly,</p>
+<p class="sig">L. M. A.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+February 19, 1881.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Mr. Niles</span>,&ndash;Thank you very much for so
+kindly offering to look at Mrs. R.'s book. It is always
+pleasant to find a person who can conquer his prejudices
+to oblige a friend, if no more.</p>
+
+<p>I think we shall be glad by and by of every little help
+we may have been able to give to this reform in its hard
+times, for those who take the tug now will deserve the
+praise when the work is done.</p>
+
+<p>I can remember when Antislavery was in just the
+same state that Suffrage is now, and take more pride in
+the very small help we Alcotts could give than in all the
+books I ever wrote or ever shall write.</p>
+
+<p>"Earth's fanatics often make heaven's saints," you
+know, and it is as well to try for that sort of promotion
+in time.</p>
+
+<p>If Mrs. R. does send her manuscripts I will help all I
+can in reading or in any other way. If it only records
+the just and wise changes Suffrage has made in the laws
+for women, it will be worth printing; and it is time
+to keep account of these first steps, since they count
+most.</p>
+
+<p>I, for one, don't want to be ranked among idiots,
+felons, and minors any longer, for I am none of the
+three, but very gratefully yours,</p>
+
+<p class="sig">L. M. A.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">343</a></span></p>
+</div>
+<p class="section"><i>To Mrs. Stearns.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">February</span> 21, 1881.</p>
+
+<p><i>Dear Mrs. Stearns</i>,&ndash;Many thanks for the tender
+thoughtfulness which sends us the precious little notes
+from the dear dead hands.</p>
+
+<p>They are so characteristic that they bring both Mother
+and May clearly up before me, alive and full of patient
+courage and happy hopes. I am resigned to my blessed
+mother's departure, since life was a burden, and the
+heroic past made a helpless future very hard to think of.
+But May's loss, just when life was fullest and sweetest,
+seems very bitter to me still, in spite of the sweet baby
+who is an unspeakable comfort. I wish you could see
+the pretty creature who already shows many of her mother's
+traits and tastes. Her love of pictures is a passion,
+but she will not look at the common gay ones most
+babies enjoy. She chooses the delicate, well-drawn, and
+painted figures of Caldecott and Miss Greenaway; over
+these she broods with rapture, pointing her little fingers
+at the cows or cats, and kissing the children with funny
+prattlings to these dumb playmates. She is a fine, tall
+girl, full of energy, intelligence, and health; blonde
+and blue-eyed like her mother, but with her father's features,
+for which I am glad, for he is a handsome man.
+Louisa May bids fair to be a noble woman; and I hope I
+may live to see May's child as brave and bright and
+talented as she was and, much happier in her fate.</p>
+
+<p>Father is at the West, busy and well. Anna joins me
+in thanks and affectionate regards.</p>
+
+<p class="left45">
+Ever yours,</p>
+<p class="sig">L. M. Alcott.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>Journal.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+<i>March</i>, 1882.&ndash;Helped start a temperance society;
+much needed in C. A great deal of drinking, not
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">344</a></span>
+among the Irish, but young American gentlemen, as
+well as farmers and mill hands. Women anxious to do
+something, but find no interest beyond a few. Have
+meetings, and try to learn how to work. I was secretary,
+and wrote records, letters, and sent pledges, etc.; also
+articles in "Concord Freeman" and "Woman's Journal"
+about the union and town meetings.</p>
+
+<p><i>April.</i>&ndash;Read over and destroyed Mother's diaries,
+as she wished me to do so. A wonderfully interesting
+record of her life, from her delicate, cherished girlhood
+through her long, hard, romantic married years, old age,
+and death. Some time I will write a story or a memoir
+of it.</p>
+
+<p>Lulu's teeth trouble her; but in my arms she seems to
+find comfort, for I tell stories by the dozen; and lambs,
+piggies, and "tats" soothe her little woes. Wish I were
+stronger, so that I might take all the care of her. We
+seem to understand each other, but my nerves make
+me impatient, and noise wears upon me.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Emerson ill. Father goes to see him. E. held
+his hand, looking up at the tall, sorry old man, and saying,
+with that smile of love that has been Father's sunshine
+for so many years, "<i>You</i> are very well,&ndash;keep so,
+keep so." After Father left, he called him back and
+grasped his hand again, as if he knew it was for the last
+time, and the kind eyes said, "Good-by, my friend!"</p>
+</div>
+<p>April 27, 1882, Louisa speaks most tenderly of
+the death of Mr. Emerson. He had been to her
+and to her family the truest and best of friends;
+and her own profound reverence for him had been
+a strong influence, from the time when she played
+games with his children in the barn until she followed
+him to his honored grave. Let critics and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">345</a></span>
+philosophers judge him by his intellect; in the
+hearts of this family, and in many an humble home
+besides, he will always be remembered as the tenderest,
+most sympathetic, most loyal of all friends,
+whose bounty fell on them silently as the dew from
+heaven, and whose presence could brighten the
+highest joy and soothe the keenest sorrow they
+could ever know.
+</p>
+
+<p class="section"><i>Journal.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+<i>Thursday, 27th.</i>&ndash;Mr. Emerson died at 9 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> suddenly.
+Our best and greatest American gone. The
+nearest and dearest friend Father has ever had, and the
+man who has helped me most by his life, his books, his
+society. I can never tell all he has been to me,&ndash;from
+the time I sang Mignon's song under his window (a
+little girl) and wrote letters <i>à la</i> Bettine to him, my
+Goethe, at fifteen, up through my hard years, when his
+essays on Self-Reliance, Character, Compensation, Love,
+and Friendship helped me to understand myself and life,
+and God and Nature. Illustrious and beloved friend,
+good-by!</p>
+
+<p><i>Sunday, 30th.</i>&ndash;Emerson's funeral. I made a yellow
+lyre of jonquils for the church, and helped trim it up.
+Private services at the house, and a great crowd at the
+church. Father read his sonnet, and Judge Hoar and
+others spoke. Now he lies in Sleepy Hollow among
+his brothers, under the pines he loved.</p>
+
+<p>I sat up till midnight to write an article on R. W. E.
+for the "Youth's Companion," that the children may
+know something of him. A labor of love.</p>
+
+<p><i>May.</i>&ndash;Twenty-seven boys signed pledge. Temperance
+work. Meetings. I give books to schools. Wrote
+an article for Mrs. Croly on R. W. E.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">346</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>June.</i>&ndash;I visited A. B. in Mattapoisset for a week. A
+queer time, driving about or talking over our year in
+Europe. School children called upon me with flowers,
+etc.</p>
+
+<p><i>24th.</i>&ndash;John's seventeenth birthday. A dear boy,
+good and gay, full of love, manliness, and all honest and
+lovely traits, like his father and mother. Long life to
+my boy!</p>
+
+<p><i>July.</i>&ndash;School of Philosophy opens on the 17th in
+full force. I arrange flowers, oak branches, etc., and
+then fly before the reporters come. Father very happy.
+Westerners arrive, and the town is full with ideal speculators.
+Penny has a new barge; we call it the "Blue
+Plato" (not the "Black Maria"), and watch it rumble
+by with Margaret Fullers in white muslin and Hegels in
+straw hats, while stout Penny grins at the joke as he puts
+money in his purse. The first year Concord people stood
+aloof, and the strangers found it hard to get rooms. Now
+every one is eager to take them, and the School is pronounced
+a success because it brings money to the town.
+Even philosophers can't do without food, beds, and washing;
+so all rejoice, and the new craze flourishes. If all
+our guests paid we should be well off; several hundred
+a month is rather wearing. Father asked why we never
+went, and Anna showed him a long list of four hundred
+names of callers, and he said no more.</p>
+
+<p><i>October.</i>&ndash;To Hotel Bellevue with John.</p>
+
+<p>Missed my dear baby, but need quiet. Brain began
+to work, and plans for tales to simmer. Began "Jo's
+Boys," as Mrs. Dodge wants a serial.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In the autumn of 1882 Mr. Alcott was attacked
+by a severe stroke of paralysis, from which he
+never fully recovered; and for the rest of his life
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">347</a></span>
+his daughters shared in the duty of tending and
+caring for him in his enfeebled state. It had been
+the great reward of Louisa's years of hard work
+that she could surround her mother with every
+comfort that could make her happy in her last
+declining years. Not less had she delighted to
+gratify every wish of her father. His library was
+fitted up with exquisite taste, his books and manuscripts
+bound, and he was "throned in philosophic
+ease" for the rest of his days. What a relief it
+was now that she could have the faithful nurse
+ready at his call; that she could give him the
+pleasant drives which he enjoyed so much; and
+lighten her sister's labors with every assistance
+that money could procure!</p>
+
+<p>The Orchard House, which had been the family
+home for twenty-five years, was sold to Mr. Harris,
+and Mrs. Pratt's house was the home of all. Louisa
+spent part of the summer at the seashore, and
+finally bought a small house at Nonquit, where
+the children could all spend the summer, while
+she and her sister alternated in the care of her
+father.</p>
+
+<p>In the autumn of 1885, Miss Alcott decided to
+take a furnished house in Louisburg Square. Her
+nephews were established in Boston, and their
+mother wished to be with them. Mr. Alcott bore
+the moving well, and they found many comforts
+in the arrangement. Louisa's health was very
+feeble. She had great trouble in the throat, and
+her old dyspeptic symptoms returned to annoy
+her. Still she cannot give up work, and busies
+herself in preparing "Lulu's Library" for publication,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">348</a></span>
+and hopes to be able to work on "Jo's
+Boys."</p>
+
+<p>"Lulu's Library" was a collection of stories
+which had been the delight of the child. The first
+series was published in 1885, the second in 1887,
+and the third in 1889. They are full of Louisa's
+charming qualities, and have a special interest from
+the tender feeling with which she gathered them
+up for her niece. The touching preface to "Jo's
+Boys" tells of the seven years of occasional work
+on this book, and reveals the depth of feeling
+which would not allow her to write as formerly of
+Marmee and Amy, who were no longer here to
+accept their own likenesses. During the latter
+part of her work on this book, she could only
+write from half an hour to one or two hours a
+day. This was published in September, 1886. It
+contains an engraving of her from a bas-relief by
+Mr. Ricketson.</p>
+
+<p>This book was written under hard circumstances,
+and cost its author more effort perhaps than any
+other. It is evidently not the overflow of her delight
+and fun in life like "Little Women," but it is
+full of biographical interest. Her account of her
+own career, and of the annoyances to which her
+celebrity exposed her, is full of her old spirit and
+humor. She has expressed many valuable thoughts
+on education, and her spirit is as hopeful for her
+boys as in her days of youth and health. She has
+too many characters to manage; but we feel a keen
+interest in the fortunes of Dan and Emil, and in the
+courtship by the warm-hearted Tom of his medical
+sweetheart.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">349</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="section"><i>Preface to "Jo's Boys."</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+Having been written at long intervals during the past
+seven years, this story is more faulty than any of its very
+imperfect predecessors; but the desire to atone for an
+unavoidable disappointment, and to please my patient
+little friends, has urged me to let it go without further
+delay.</p>
+
+<p>To account for the seeming neglect of Amy, let me
+add, that, since the original of that character died, it has
+been impossible for me to write of her as when she was
+here to suggest, criticise, and laugh over her namesake.
+The same excuse applies to Marmee. But the folded
+leaves are not blank to those who knew and loved them
+and can find memorials of them in whatever is cheerful,
+true, or helpful in these pages.</p>
+
+<p class="sig">
+<span class="smcap">L. M. Alcott.</span></p>
+<p><span class="smcap">Concord, July 4, 1886.</span>
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>To Mr. Horace Chandler.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+<span class="smcap">Dear Mr. Chandler</span>,&ndash;The corrections are certainly
+rather peculiar, and I fear my struggles to set them right
+have only produced greater confusion.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately punctuation is a free institution, and all
+can pepper to suit the taste. I don't care much, and
+always leave proof-readers to quibble if they like.</p>
+
+<p>Thanks for the tickets. I fear I cannot come till
+Thursday, but will try, and won't forget the office, since
+I am not that much-tried soul the editor.</p>
+
+<p class="left45">
+Yours truly,</p>
+<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">L. M. A.</span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">350</a></span></p>
+</div>
+<p class="section"><i>To Mrs. Williams (Betsey Prig).</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Nonquit</span>, August 25.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Betsey</span>,&ndash;I am so sorry the darling Doll is ill!
+Brood over him, and will him well; for mother-love
+works wonders.</p>
+
+<p>My poppet is a picture of health, vigor, and delightful
+naughtiness. She runs wild in this fine place with some
+twenty other children to play with,&ndash;nice babies, well-bred,
+and with pleasant mammas for me to gossip with.</p>
+
+<p>It would be a good place for your little people, as the
+air is delicious, bathing safe and warm, and cottages to be
+quiet in if one cares to keep house. Do try it next year.
+Let me know early. I can get a nice little cot for you
+(near mine) for $100, or perhaps less, from June to October,&ndash;if
+you care to stay; I do....</p>
+
+<p>We have been here since July, and are all hearty,
+brown, and gay as larks.</p>
+
+<p>"John Inglesant" was too political for me. I am too
+lazy here to read much; mean to find a den in Boston
+and work for a month or two; then fly off to New York,
+and perhaps run over and see my Betsey. I shall be at
+home in October, and perhaps we may see you then, if
+the precious little shadow gets nice and well again, and I
+pray he may.</p>
+
+<p>Lulu has some trifling ail now and then,&ndash;just enough
+to show me how dear she is to us all, and what a great
+void the loss of our little girl would make in hearts and
+home. She is very intelligent and droll. When I told
+her the other day that the crickets were hopping and
+singing in the grass with their mammas, she said at once,
+"No; their Aunt Weedys." Aunty is nearer than mother
+to the poor baby; and it is very sweet to have it so, since
+it must be.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">351</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Now, my blessed Betsey, keep a brave heart, and I am
+sure all will be well in the nest. Love and kisses to the
+little birds, and all good wishes to the turtle-dove and her
+mate.</p>
+
+<p class="left45">
+Yours ever,</p>
+<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">L. M. A.</span></p>
+
+<p>The older birthdays are 29th of November, Lulu's
+the 8th; so we celebrate for Grandpa, Auntie, and Lulu
+all at once, in great style,&ndash;eighty-three, fifty, and three
+years old.</p>
+
+<p>When I get on my pins I'm going (D. V.) to devote
+myself to settling poor souls who need a gentle boost in
+hard times.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>To Mr. Niles.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter"><span class="smcap">June</span> 23, 1883.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Mr. Niles</span>,&ndash;Thanks for the Goethe book. I
+want everything that comes out about him. "Princess
+Amelia" is charming, and the surprise at the end well
+done. Did the author of "My Wife's Sister" write it?</p>
+
+<p>I told L. C. M. she might put "A Modern Mephistopheles"
+in my list of books. Several people had found
+it out, and there was no use in trying to keep it secret
+after that.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Dodge begged me to consider myself mortgaged
+to her for tales, etc., and as I see no prospect of any
+time for writing books, I may be able to send her some
+short stories from time to time, and so be getting material
+for a new set of books like "Scrap-bag," but with
+a new name. You excel in names, and can be evolving
+one meantime....</p>
+
+<p class="left45">Yours truly,</p>
+<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">L. M. A.</span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">July</span> 15, 1884.</p>
+
+<p>I wish I might be inspired to do those dreadful boys
+["Jo's Boys"]; but rest is more needed than money.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">352</a></span>
+Perhaps during August, my month at home, I may take
+a grind at the old mill.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>Journal.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+<i>October</i> 24, 1882.&ndash;Telegram that Father had had a
+paralytic stroke. Home at once, and found him stricken
+down. Anxious days; little hope.</p>
+
+<p><i>November.</i>&ndash;Gave up our rooms, and I went home to
+help with the new care. My Lulu ran to meet me, rosy
+and gay, and I felt as if I could bear anything with this
+little sunbeam to light up the world for me.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Father dumb and helpless; feeble mind slowly
+coming back. He knows us; but he's asleep most of
+the time. Get a nurse, and wait to see if he will rally.
+It is sad to see the change one moment makes, turning
+the hale, handsome old man into this pathetic wreck.
+The forty sonnets last winter and the fifty lectures at the
+School last summer were too much for a man of eighty-three.
+He was warned by Dr. W., but thought it folly
+to stop; and now poor Father pays the penalty of breaking
+the laws of health. I have done the same: may I
+be spared this end!</p>
+
+<p><i>January</i>, 1883.&ndash;Too busy to keep a diary. Can
+only jot down a fact now and then.</p>
+
+<p>Father improving. Much trouble with nurses; have
+no idea of health; won't walk; sit over the fire, and drink
+tea three times a day; ought to be an intelligent, hearty
+set of women. Could do better myself; have to fill up
+all the deficiencies and do double duty.</p>
+
+<p>People come to see Father; but it excites him, and we
+have to deny him.</p>
+
+<p><i>February.</i>&ndash;To B. for a week of rest, having got Mrs.
+H. settled with Father, and all comfortable for November.</p>
+
+<p>Began a book called "Genius." Shall never finish it,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">353</a></span>
+I dare say, but must keep a vent for my fancies to escape
+at. This double life is trying, and my head will work as
+well as my hands.</p>
+
+<p><i>March.</i>&ndash;To give A. rest I took Lulu and maid to
+the Bellevue for a month. Lulu very happy with her new
+world. Enjoys her walks, the canary I got her, and the
+petting <i>she</i> gets from all. Showed her to friends; want
+them to know May's child. Had her picture taken by
+Notman; very good.</p>
+
+<p><i>April 2d.</i>&ndash;Town meeting. Seven women vote. I am
+one of them, and A. another. A poor show for a town
+that prides itself on its culture and independence.</p>
+
+<p><i>6th.</i>&ndash;Go home to stay; Father needs me. New
+nurse; many callers; Lulu fretful, Anna tired, Father
+feeble,&ndash;hard times for all.</p>
+
+<p>Wrote a story for "St. Nicholas" at odd moments.
+Nurses and doctors take a deal of money.</p>
+
+<p><i>May.</i>&ndash;Take care of Lulu, as we can find no good
+woman to walk and dress and play with her. The ladies
+are incapable or proud; the girls vulgar or rough; so my
+poor baby has a bad time with her little temper and
+active mind and body. Could do it myself if I had the
+nerves and strength, but am needed elsewhere, and must
+leave the child to some one. Long to go away with her
+and do as I like. Shall never lead my own life.</p>
+
+<p><i>July.</i>&ndash;Go to Nonquit with Miss H. and Lulu for the
+summer. A quiet, healthy place, with pleasant people
+and fine air. Turn Lulu loose, with H. to run after her,
+and try to rest.</p>
+
+<p>Lulu takes her first bath in the sea. Very bold;
+walks off toward Europe up to her neck, and is much
+afflicted that I won't let her go to the bottom and see
+the "little trabs;" makes a cupid of herself, and is very
+pretty and gay.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">354</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The boys revel in the simple pleasures of Nonquit,&ndash;a
+fine place for them to be in.</p>
+
+<p>Wrote a tale for "St. Nicholas,"&ndash;"Sophie's Secret,"&ndash;$100.</p>
+
+<p><i>August.</i>&ndash;Home to C., and let A. come for her holiday.
+Much company.</p>
+
+<p>P. C. Mozoomdar preached, and had a conversation at
+Mrs. Emerson's; a most interesting man. Curious to
+hear a Hindu tell how the life of Christ impressed him.</p>
+
+<p><i>November 27th.</i>&ndash;Decide to lessen care and worry at
+home; so take rooms in Boylston Street, and with Lulu
+set forth to make a home of our own. The whole parlor
+floor gives my lady room to run in doors, and the Public
+Garden opposite is the out-door play-ground. Miss C.
+comes as governess, and we settle down. Fred boards
+with us. Heard Mathew Arnold.</p>
+
+<p><i>29th.</i>&ndash;Birthday,&ndash;fifty-one. Home with gifts to
+poor Father,&ndash;eighty-four. Found a table full for
+myself.</p>
+
+<p><i>December 25th.</i>&ndash;Home with gifts for all; sad day.
+See H. Martineau's statue; very fine.</p>
+
+<p><i>January</i>, 1884.&ndash;New Year's Day is made memorable
+by my solemnly spanking my child. Miss C. and
+others assure me it is the only way to cure her wilfulness.
+I doubt it; but knowing that mothers are usually
+too tender and blind, I correct my dear in the old-fashioned
+way. She proudly says, "Do it, do it!" and
+when it is done is heartbroken at the idea of Aunt Wee-wee's
+giving her pain. Her bewilderment was pathetic,
+and the effect, as I expected, a failure. Love is better;
+but also endless patience.</p>
+
+<p><i>February 2d.</i>&ndash;Wendell Phillips died. I shall mourn
+for him next to R. W. E. and Parker.</p>
+
+<p><i>6th.</i>&ndash;Funeral at Hollis Street Church. Sat between
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">355</a></span>
+Fred Douglas and his wife. A goodly gathering of all left
+of the old workers. Glad and proud to be among them.</p>
+
+<hr class="l15" />
+
+<p><i>June.</i>&ndash;Sell the Orchard House to W. T. Harris.
+Glad to be done with it, though after living in it twenty-five
+years, it is full of memories; but places have not
+much hold on me when the dear persons who made them
+dear are gone....</p>
+
+<p>Bought a cottage at Nonquit, with house and furniture.
+All like it, and it is a good investment I am told.</p>
+
+<p><i>24th.</i>&ndash;To Nonquit with Lulu and K. and John.
+Fixed my house, and enjoyed the rest and quiet immensely.
+Lulu wild with joy at the freedom....</p>
+
+<p><i>July and August.</i>&ndash;Restful days in my little house,
+which is cool and quiet, and without the curse of a
+kitchen to spoil it.</p>
+
+<p>Lulu happy and well, and every one full of summer fun.</p>
+
+<p>On the 7th of August I went home, and let A. go for
+her holiday.</p>
+
+<p>Took care of Father and house, and idled away the hot
+days with books and letters. Drove with Father, as he
+enjoyed it very much....</p>
+
+<p><i>October.</i>&ndash;To Boston with John, and take rooms at
+the Bellevue. Very tired of home-worry, and fly for rest
+to my old refuge, with J. and L. to look after and make
+a home for.</p>
+
+<p>Saw Irving. Always enjoy him, though he is very queer.
+Ellen Terry always the same, though charming in her way.</p>
+
+<p><i>November.</i>&ndash;Find Bellevue uncomfortable and expensive,
+so take rooms in Chestnut Street for self and boys.</p>
+
+<p><i>8th.</i>&ndash;My Lulu's birthday. Go home with flowers,
+gifts, and a grateful heart that the dear little girl is so
+well and happy and good. A merry day with the little
+queen of the house.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">356</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>29th.</i>&ndash;Our birthday,&ndash;Father eighty-five; L. M. A.
+fifty-two. Quiet day; always sad for thinking of Mother
+and John and May, who all left us at this season.</p>
+
+<p><i>December.</i>&ndash;Began again on "Jo's Boys," as T. N.
+wants a new book very much, and I am tired of being
+idle. Wrote two hours for three days, then had a violent
+attack of vertigo, and was ill for a week. Head won't
+bear work yet. Put away papers, and tried to dawdle
+and go about as other people do.</p>
+
+<p>Pleasant Christmas with Lulu and Nan and poor
+Father, who loves to see us about him. A narrow
+world now, but a happy one for him.</p>
+
+<p>Last day of the year. All well at home except myself;
+body feeble, but soul improving.</p>
+
+<p><i>January</i> 1, 1885.&ndash;Pleasant greeting from brother
+Ernest by telegram,&ndash;never forgets us. Opera in the
+evening,&ndash;Emma Nevada. Sent box home. Very cold.</p>
+
+<p>John had his first dress-suit. Happy boy! Several
+pleasant Sunday evenings at E. P. W.'s. See Mrs. Burnett,
+and like her.</p>
+
+<p>Visit Blind Asylum and North End Mission. Lulu
+passed a week with me for a change.</p>
+
+<p><i>19th.</i>&ndash;An old-fashioned party in an old-time house.
+All in antique costume; Lulu very pretty in hers. Country
+kitchen and country fare; spinning and weaving;
+old songs and dances; tally-ho coach with P. as an
+ancient Weller,&ndash;very funny.</p>
+
+<hr class="l15" />
+
+<p><i>June.</i>&ndash;Read Life of Saint Elizabeth by D'Alembert,&ndash;quaint
+and sweet; also French novels. Write out the
+little tales I tell Lulu for a new Christmas book, having
+nothing else. Send one, "The Candy Country," to
+"St. Nicholas."</p>
+
+<hr class="l15" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">357</a></span></p>
+
+<p><i>August 8th.</i>&ndash;Go home, and A. goes to N. Take
+care of Father, arrange the little tales, and look at
+houses in B. Have a plan to take a furnished house
+for the winter, and all be together. A. is lonely in C.;
+boys must be near business. I want Lulu, and Father
+will enjoy a change.</p>
+
+<p>Sorted old letters, and burned many. Not wise to
+keep for curious eyes to read and gossip-lovers to print
+by and by.</p>
+
+<p>Lived in the past for days, and felt very old, recalling
+all I have been through. Experiences go deep with me,
+and I begin to think it might be well to keep some
+record of my life, if it will help others to read it when
+I'm gone. People seem to think our lives interesting
+and peculiar.</p>
+
+<p><i>September.</i>&ndash;After a lively time with house-brokers, I
+take a house in Louisburg Square for two years. It is a
+large house, furnished, and well suited to our needs,&ndash;sunny,
+trees in front, good air, and friends near by. All
+are pleased, and we prepare to move October 1st....</p>
+
+<p>Father drove down very nicely. Pleased with his new
+room; Lulu charmed with her big, sunny nursery and
+the play-house left for her; boys in clover; and Nan
+ready for the new sort of housekeeping.</p>
+
+<p>I shall miss my quiet, care-free life in B.; but it is
+best for all, so I shall try to bear the friction and the
+worry many persons always bring me.</p>
+
+<p>It will be an expensive winter; but T. N. tells me the
+books never sold better, so a good run in January will
+make all safe.</p>
+
+<p>"Lulu's Library" as a "pot-boiler" will appease the
+children, and I may be able to work on "Jo's Boys."</p>
+
+<p><i>March</i>, 1886.&ndash;To Mrs. H.'s to hear Mr. Snyder
+read the "Iliad;" enjoyed it.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">358</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Sixteen little girls call, and the autograph fiend is
+abroad.</p>
+
+<p><i>27th.</i>&ndash;Another attack of vertigo,&ndash;ill for a week;
+sleepless nights. Head worked like a steam-engine;
+would not stop. Planned "Jo's Boys" to the end, and
+longed to get up and write it. Told Dr. W. that he had
+better let me get the ideas <i>out</i>, then I could rest. He
+very wisely agreed, and said, "As soon as you can, write
+half an hour a day, and see if it does you good. Rebellious
+brains want to be attended to, or trouble comes."
+So I began as soon as able, and was satisfied that we
+were right; for my head felt better very soon, and with
+much care about not overdoing, I had some pleasant
+hours when I forgot my body and lived in my mind.</p>
+
+<p><i>April.</i>&ndash;Went on writing one or two hours a day, and
+felt no ill effects.</p>
+
+<p><i>May.</i>&ndash;Began to think of Concord, and prepare to go
+back for the summer. Father wants his books; Lulu,
+her garden; Anna, her small house; and the boys, their
+friends. I want to go away and rest.</p>
+
+<p>Anna goes up the last of the month and gets the
+house ready. We send Lulu and Father later, and the
+boys and I shut up No. 10....</p>
+
+<p><i>June.</i>&ndash;Home in C.,&ndash;sunny, clean, and pleasant.
+Put Lulu in order, and get ready for a month in Princeton
+with Mrs. H. Very tired.</p>
+
+<p>A quiet three weeks on the hillside,&ndash;a valley pink
+with laurel in front, Mount Wachusett behind us, and
+green hills all round. A few pleasant people. I read,
+sleep, walk, and write,&ndash;get fifteen chapters done. Instinct
+was right; after seven years of rest, the old brain
+was ready for work and tired of feeding on itself, since
+work it must at something. Enjoyed Hedge's "Hours
+with German Classics," and "Baldwin," by Vernon Lee.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">359</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Home in time to get Anna and Lulu off to N. for
+the summer. A. needs the rest very much, and Lulu
+the freedom. I shall revel in the quiet, and finish my
+book.</p>
+
+<p><i>July.</i>&ndash;The seashore party get off, and peace reigns.
+I rest a day, and then to work. Finish "Jo's Boys,"
+and take it to T. N. Much rejoicing over a new book.
+Fifty thousand to be the first edition; orders coming in
+fast. Not good,&ndash;too great intervals between the parts,
+as it was begun long ago; but the children will be happy,
+and my promise kept. Two new chapters were needed,
+so I wrote them, and gladly corked my inkstand.</p>
+
+<p>What next? Mrs. Dodge wants a serial, and T. N. a
+novel. I have a dozen plots in my head, but think the
+serial better come first. Want a great deal of money for
+many things; every poor soul I ever knew comes for
+help, and expenses increase. I am the only money-maker,
+and must turn the mill for others, though my
+own grist is ground and in the barn.</p>
+
+<p>The School begins. Father feeble, but goes,&ndash;for
+the last time, I think.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>A series of letters to her father's friend, Mrs.
+Stearns, show how tenderly and carefully Louisa
+watched over the slow decline of the stricken
+man, but they are too full of details of the sickroom
+for publication. A few extracts will give
+her feeling.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">May</span> 23 [1885].</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Mrs. Stearns</span>,&ndash;Many thanks for the sweet
+nosegay you sent me. It came in good time, for to-day
+is the anniversary of Father's wedding-day and my
+sister's silver wedding. Rather sad for both mateless
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">360</a></span>
+ones; but we have done our best to cheer them up, and
+the soft rain is very emblematic of the memories their
+own quiet tears keep green.</p>
+
+<p>Father remembered you, and smelled his flowers with
+pleasure. He is very tired of living, and wants to "go
+up," as he expresses it. A little more or little less light
+would make him happier; but the still active mind beats
+against the prison bars, and rebels against the weakness
+of body that prevents the old independent life. I am
+afraid the end is not to be peaceful unless it is sudden,
+as I hope it may be for all our sakes; it is so wearing to
+see this slow decline, and be able to do little but preach
+and practise patience.</p>
+
+<hr class="l15" />
+
+<p class="left45">
+Affectionately yours,</p>
+<p class="sig">L. M. A.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Sunday</span>.</p>
+
+<hr class="l15" />
+
+<p>It is only a temporary change, perhaps; but I still
+hope that it will last, and his mind grow still clearer.
+These painless, peaceful days have a certain sweetness,
+sad as it is to see the dear, hale old man so feeble. If
+he can know us, and enjoy something of the old life,
+it is worth having, though the end may come at any
+moment....</p>
+
+<p>Now and then a word comes without effort. "Up!"
+was the first one, and seems very characteristic of this
+beautiful, aspiring soul, almost on the wing for heaven.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>To Mr. Niles.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter"><span class="smcap">Nonquit</span>, July 13, 1885.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Mr. Niles</span>,&ndash;I want to know if it is too late to
+do it and if it is worth doing; namely, to collect some
+of the little tales I tell Lulu and put them with the two I
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">361</a></span>
+shall have printed the last year and the "Mermaid Tale"
+to match the pictures we bought, and call it "Lulu's
+Library"? I have several tiny books written down for
+L.; and as I can do no great work, it occurred to me that
+I might venture to copy these if it would do for a Christmas
+book for the younger set.</p>
+
+<p>I ache to fall on some of the ideas that are simmering
+in my head, but dare not, as my one attempt since the
+last "Jo's Boys" break-down cost me a week or two of
+woe and $30 for the doctor. I have lovely long days here,
+and can copy these and see 'em along if you want them.
+One has gone to "Harper's Young People," and one is for
+"St. Nicholas" when it is done,&ndash;about the Kindergarten
+for the blind. These with Lulu's would make a little
+book, and might begin a series for small folks. Old
+ladies come to this twaddle when they can do nothing
+else. What say you?...</p>
+
+<p class="left45">
+Yours truly,</p>
+<p class="sig">L. M. A.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter"><span class="smcap">September</span> 18, 1885.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Mr. Niles</span>,&ndash;I send you some funny sketches by
+Mrs. L. She seems to be getting on. How would it do
+to ask her to illustrate the fairy book? She has a pretty
+taste in elves, and her little girl was good. I hope to
+touch up the other stories this winter, and she can illustrate,
+and next Christmas (or whenever it is ready) we
+can have a little book out. This sort of work being all I
+dare do now, I may as well be clearing the decks for
+action when the order comes to "Up, and at 'em!"
+again, if it ever does.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">362</a></span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="figcenter p6"><a name="illus370" id="illus370"></a>
+<img src="images/illus370.jpg" width="574" height="530" alt="Fac-simile of Miss Alcott&#39;s Writing." />
+<img src="images/illus371.jpg" width="574" height="650" alt="Writing continuted" />
+<p class="caption">Fac-simile of Miss Alcott&#39;s Writing.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot p6">
+<p>I'd like to help Mrs. L. if I could, as we know something
+of her, and I fancy she needs a lift. Perhaps we
+could use these pictures in some way if she liked to have
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">364</a></span>
+us. Maybe I could work them into a story of our
+"cullud bredren."</p>
+
+<p>Thanks for the books. Dear Miss &ndash;&ndash; is rather prim
+in her story, but it is pretty and quite <i>correct</i>. So different
+from Miss Alcott's slap-dash style.</p>
+
+<p>The "H. H." book ["Ramona"] is a noble record of
+the great wrongs of her chosen people, and ought to wake
+up the sinners to repentance and justice before it is too
+late. It recalls the old slavery days, only these victims
+are red instead of black. It will be a disgrace if "H. H."
+gave her work and pity all in vain.</p>
+
+<p class="left45">
+Yours truly,</p>
+<p class="sig">L. M. A.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+[1885.]</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Mr. Niles</span>,&ndash;Thanks for the book which I shall
+like to read.</p>
+
+<p>Please tell Miss N. that she will find in Sanborn's
+article in "St. Nicholas" or Mrs. Moulton's in the "Eminent
+Women" book all that I wish to have said about
+myself. You can add such facts about editions, etc., as
+you think best. I don't like these everlasting notices;
+one is enough, else we poor people feel like squeezed
+oranges, and nothing is left sacred.</p>
+
+<p>George Eliot's new life and letters is well done, and we
+are not sorry we have read them. Mr. Cross has been a
+wise man, and leaves us all our love and respect instead
+of spoiling them as Froude did for Carlyle,</p>
+
+<p class="left45">
+Yours truly,</p>
+<p class="sig">L. M. A.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+January 2, 1886.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Mr. Niles</span>,&ndash;Thanks for the good wishes and
+news. Now that I cannot work, it is very agreeable to
+hear that the books go so well, and that the lazy woman
+need not worry about things.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">365</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I appreciate my blessings, I assure you. I heartily
+wish I could "swamp the book-room with 'Jo's Boys,'"
+as Fred says, and hope to do it by and by when head and
+hand can safely obey the desire of the heart, which will
+never be too tired or too old to remember and be
+grateful.</p>
+
+<p class="left45">
+Your friend,</p>
+<p class="sig">L. M. Alcott.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+Monday, <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> [1886].</p>
+
+<p>Dear Mr. Niles,&ndash;My doctor forbids me to begin a
+long book or anything that will need much thought this
+summer. So I must give up "Tragedy of To-day," as it
+will need a good deal of thinking to be what it ought.</p>
+
+<p>I can give you a girls' book however, and I think that
+will be better than a novel. I have several stories done,
+and can easily do more and make a companion volume
+for "Spinning-Wheel Stories" at Christmas if you
+want it.</p>
+
+<p>This, with the Lulu stories, will be better than the set
+of novels I am sure.... Wait till I can do a novel, and
+then get out the set in style, if Alcott is not forgotten by
+that time.</p>
+
+<p>I was going to send Mrs. Dodge one of the tales for
+girls, and if there is time she might have more. But
+nearly all new ones would make a book go well in the
+holiday season. You can have those already done now if
+you want them. "Sophie's Secret" is one, "An Ivy
+Spray: or Cinderella's Slippers" another, and "Mountain
+Laurel" is partly done. "A Garland for Girls"
+might do for a title perhaps, as they are all for girls.</p>
+
+<p class="left45">
+Yours truly,</p>
+<p class="sig">L. M. A.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In the spring of 1886, Dr. Rhoda Lawrence took
+charge of Miss Alcott's health, and gave her treatment
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">366</a></span>
+by massage and other appropriate means, from
+which she received benefit. The summer was spent
+at Concord with her father, and was varied by a
+pleasant trip to the mountains. Miss Alcott finished
+"Jo's Boys," which was published in September.
+She occupied herself also in looking
+over old journals and letters, and destroyed many
+things which she did not wish to have come under
+the public eye. She had enjoyed her life at Princeton,
+and said that she felt better than for fifteen
+years; but in August she was severely attacked
+with rheumatism and troubled with vertigo. She
+suffered very much, and was in a very nervous
+condition.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Alcott always looked bravely and calmly
+upon all the possibilities of life, and she now made
+full preparations for the event of her own death.
+Her youngest nephew had always been especially
+beloved, and she decided to take out papers of
+adoption, to make him legally her son and heir.
+She wished him to assume the name of Alcott, and
+to be her representative.</p>
+
+<p>Louisa's journal closes July, 1886, with the old
+feeling,&ndash;that she must grind away at the mill and
+make money to supply the many claims that press
+upon her from all sides. She feels the burden
+of every suffering human life upon her own soul.
+She knew that she could write what was eagerly
+desired by others and would bring her the means
+of helping those in need, and her heart and head
+united in urging her to work. Whether it would
+have been possible for her to have rested more
+fully, and whether she might then have worked
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">367</a></span>
+longer and better, is one of those questions which
+no one is wise enough to answer. Yet the warning
+of her life should not be neglected, and the eager
+brain should learn to obey the laws of life and
+health while it is yet time.</p>
+
+<p>In September, 1886, Miss Alcott returned to
+Louisburg Square, and spent the winter in the care
+of her father, and in the society of her sister and
+nephews and the darling child. She suffered much
+from hoarseness, from nervousness and debility, and
+from indigestion and sleeplessness, but still exerted
+herself for the comfort of all around her. She had
+a happy Christmas, and sympathized with the joy
+of her oldest nephew in his betrothal. In December
+she was so weary and worn that she went out
+to Dr. Lawrence's home in Roxbury for rest and
+care. She found such relief to her overtasked
+brain and nerves from the seclusion and quiet of
+Dunreath Place, that she found her home and rest
+there for the remainder of her life.</p>
+
+<p>It was a great trial to Louisa to be apart from
+her family, to whom she had devoted her life. She
+clung to her dying father, and to the dear sister still
+left to her, with increasing fondness, and she longed
+for her boys and her child; but her tired nerves
+could not bear even the companionship of her
+family, and sometimes for days she wanted to be
+all alone. "I feel so safe out here!" she said
+once.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Alcott spent the summer at Melrose, and
+Louisa went there to visit him in June. In June
+and July, 1887, she went to Concord and looked
+over papers and completed the plan for adopting
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">368</a></span>
+her nephew. She afterward went to Princeton, accompanied
+by Dr. Lawrence. She spent eight
+weeks there, and enjoyed the mountain air and
+scenery with something of her old delight. She
+was able to walk a mile or more, and took a solitary
+walk in the morning, which she greatly enjoyed.
+Her evening walk was less agreeable, because she
+was then exposed to the eager curiosity of sight-seers,
+who constantly pursued her.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Alcott had a great intellectual pleasure here
+in the society of Mr. James Murdock and his family.
+The distinguished elocutionist took great pains to
+gratify her taste for dramatic reading by selecting
+her favorite scenes for representation, and she even
+attended one of his public readings given in the
+hall of the hotel. The old pain in her limbs from
+which she suffered during her European journey
+again troubled her, and she returned to Dr. Lawrence's
+home in the autumn, where she was tenderly
+cared for.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Alcott was still continually planning stories.
+Dr. Lawrence read to her a great deal, and the reading
+often suggested subjects to her. She thought of
+a series to be called "Stories of All Nations," and
+had already written "Trudel's Siege," which was
+published in "St. Nicholas," April, 1888, the scene
+of which was laid at the siege of Leyden. The
+English story was to be called "Madge Wildfire,"
+and she had thought of plots for others. She could
+write very little, and kept herself occupied and
+amused with fancy work, making flowers and pen-wipers
+of various colors, in the form of pinks, to
+send to her friends.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">369</a></span></p>
+
+<p>On her last birthday Louisa received a great many
+flowers and pleasant remembrances, which touched
+her deeply, and she said, "I did not mean to cry
+to-day, but I can't help it, everybody is so good."
+She went in to see her father every few days, and
+was conscious that he was drawing toward the end.</p>
+
+<p>While riding with her friend, Louisa would tell
+her of the stories she had planned, one of which
+was to be called "The Philosopher's Wooing,"
+referring to Thoreau. She also had a musical
+novel in her mind. She could not be idle, and
+having a respect for sewing, she busied herself
+with it, making garments for poor children, or helping
+the Doctor in her work. She insisted upon
+setting up a work-basket for the Doctor, amply
+supplied with necessary materials, and was pleased
+when she saw them used. A flannel garment for a
+poor child was the last work of her hands. Her
+health improved in February, especially in the
+comfort of her nights, as the baths she took
+brought her the long-desired sleep. "Nothing
+so good as sleep," she said. But a little too much
+excitement brought on violent headaches.</p>
+
+<p>During these months Miss Alcott wrote part of
+the "Garland for Girls," one of the most fanciful
+and pleasing of her books. These stories were suggested
+by the flowers sent to her by different
+friends, which she fully enjoyed. She rode a
+great deal, but did not see any one.</p>
+
+<p>Her friends were much encouraged; and although
+they dared not expect full recovery, they
+hoped that she might be "a comfortable invalid,
+able to enjoy life, and give help and pleasure to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">370</a></span>
+others." She did not suffer great pain, but she
+was very weak; her nervous system seemed to
+be utterly prostrated by the years of work and
+struggle through which she had passed. She said,
+"I don't want to live if I can't be of use." She
+had always met the thought of death bravely; and
+even the separation from her dearest friends was
+serenely borne. She believed in their continued
+presence and influence, and felt that the parting
+was for a little time. She had no fear of God, and
+no doubt of the future. Her only sadness was in
+leaving the friends whom she loved and who might
+yet need her.</p>
+
+<p>A young man wrote asking Miss Alcott if she
+would advise him to devote himself to authorship;
+she answered, "Not if you can do anything else.
+Even dig ditches." He followed her advice, and
+took a situation where he could support himself,
+but he still continued to write stories. A little
+boy sent twenty-five cents to buy her books. She
+returned the money, telling him it was not enough
+to buy books, but sent him "Little Men." Scores
+of letters remained unanswered for want of strength
+to write or even to read.</p>
+
+<p>Early in March Mr. Alcott failed very rapidly.
+Louisa drove in to see him, and was conscious that
+it was for the last time. Tempted by the warm
+spring-like day, she had made some change in
+her dress, and absorbed in the thought of the parting,
+when she got into the carriage she forgot to
+put on the warm fur cloak she had worn.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning she complained of violent
+pain in her head, amounting to agony. The physician
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">371</a></span>
+who had attended her for the last weeks was
+called. He felt that the situation was very serious.
+She herself asked, "Is it not meningitis?" The
+trouble on the brain increased rapidly. She recognized
+her dear young nephew for a moment and
+her friendly hostess, but was unconscious of everything
+else. So, at 3.30 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span>, March 6, 1888, she
+passed quietly on to the rest which she so much
+needed. She did not know that her father had already
+preceded her.</p>
+
+<p>The friends of the family who gathered to pay
+their last tribute of respect and love to the aged
+father were met at the threshold by the startling
+intelligence, "Louisa Alcott is dead," and a deeper
+sadness fell upon every heart. The old patriarch
+had gone to his rest in the fulness of time, "corn
+ripe for the sickle," but few realized how entirely
+his daughter had worn out her earthly frame. Her
+friends had hoped for renewed health and strength,
+and for even greater and nobler work from her with
+her ripened powers and greater ease and leisure.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Alcott had made every arrangement for her
+death; and by her own wish the funeral service was
+very simple, in her father's rooms at Louisburg
+Square, and attended only by a few of her family
+and nearest friends. They read her exquisite poem
+to her mother, her father's noble tribute to her, and
+spoke of the earnestness and truth of her life. She
+was remembered as she would have wished to be.
+Her body was carried to Concord and placed in
+the beautiful cemetery of Sleepy Hollow where
+her dearest ones were already laid to rest. "Her
+boys" went beside her as "a guard of honor," and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">372</a></span>
+stood around as she was placed across the feet of
+father, mother, and sister, that she might "take
+care of them as she had done all her life."</p>
+
+<p>Of the silent grief of the bereaved family I will
+not speak, but the sound of mourning filled all the
+land, and was re-echoed from foreign shores. The
+children everywhere had lost their friend. Miss
+Alcott had entered into their hearts and revealed
+them to themselves. In her childish journal her
+oldest sister said, "I have not a secret from Louisa;
+I tell her everything, and am not afraid she will
+think me silly." It was this respect for the thought
+and life of children that gave Louisa Alcott her
+great power of winning their respect and affection.
+Nothing which was real and earnest to them seemed
+unimportant to her.</p>
+
+<hr class="l15" />
+
+<p class="section">LAST LETTERS.</p>
+
+<p class="section"><i>To Mr. Niles.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter"><span class="smcap">Sunday</span>, 1886.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Mr. Niles</span>,&ndash;The goodly supply of books was
+most welcome; for when my two hours pen-work are over
+I need something to comfort me, and I long to go on
+and finish "Jo's Boys" by July 1st.</p>
+
+<p>My doctor frowns on that hope, and is so sure it will
+do mischief to get up the steam that I am afraid to try,
+and keep Prudence sitting on the valve lest the old engine
+run away and have another smash-up.</p>
+
+<p>I send you by Fred several chapters, I wish they were
+neater, as some were written long ago and have knocked
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">373</a></span>
+about for years; but I can't spare time to copy, so hope
+the printers won't be in despair.</p>
+
+<p>I planned twenty chapters and am on the fifteenth.
+Some are long, some short, and as we are pressed for
+time we had better not try to do too much.</p>
+
+<p>... I have little doubt it will be done early in July,
+but things are so contrary with me I can never be sure of
+carrying out a plan, and I don't want to fail again; so far
+I feel as if I could, without harm, finish off these dreadful
+boys.</p>
+
+<p>Why have any illustrations? The book is not a child's
+book, as the lads are nearly all over twenty, and pretty
+pictures are not needed. Have the bas-relief if you like,
+or one good thing for frontispiece.</p>
+
+<p>I can have twenty-one chapters and make it the size
+of "Little Men." Sixteen chapters make two hundred
+and sixteen pages, and I may add a page here and there
+later,&ndash;or if need be, a chapter somewhere to fill up.</p>
+
+<p>I shall be at home in a week or two, much better for
+the rest and fine air; and during my quiet days in C.
+I can touch up proofs and confer about the book. Sha'n't
+we be glad when it is done?</p>
+
+<p class="left45">
+Yours truly,</p>
+<p class="sig">L. M. A.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>To Mrs. Dodge</i>.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter"><span class="smcap">June</span> 29.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Mrs. Dodge</span>,&ndash;I will evolve something for December
+(D. V.) and let you have it as soon as it is done.</p>
+
+<p>Lu and I go to Nonquit next week; and after a few
+days of rest, I will fire up the old engine and see if it will
+run a short distance without a break-down.</p>
+
+<p>There are usually about forty young people at N., and
+I think I can get a hint from some of them.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">374</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Had a call from Mr. Burroughs and Mr. Gilder last
+eve. Mr. G. asked if you were in B., but I didn't
+know.</p>
+
+<p>Father remains comfortable and happy among his
+books. Our lads are making their first visit to New York,
+and may call on "St. Nick," whom they have made their
+patron saint.</p>
+
+<p>I should like to own the last two bound volumes of
+"St. Nicholas," for Lulu. She adores the others, and
+they are nearly worn out with her loving but careless
+luggings up and down for "more towries, Aunt Wee-wee."
+Charge to</p>
+
+<p class="left45">
+Yours affectionately,</p>
+<p class="sig">L. M. A.</p>
+
+<p>P. S.&ndash;Wasn't I glad to see you in my howling wilderness
+of wearisome domestic worrits! Come again.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Concord</span>, August 15.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Mrs. Dodge</span>,&ndash;I like the idea of "Spinning-Wheel
+Stories," and can do several for a series which
+can come out in a book later. Old-time tales, with a
+thread running through all from the wheel that enters in
+the first one.</p>
+
+<p>A Christmas party of children might be at an old
+farm-house and hunt up the wheel, and grandma spins and
+tells the first story; and being snow-bound, others amuse
+the young folks each evening with more tales. Would
+that do? The mother and child picture would come in
+nicely for the first tale,&ndash;"Grandma and her Mother."</p>
+
+<p>Being at home and quiet for a week or so (as Father
+is nicely and has a capable nurse), I have begun the
+serial, and done two chapters; but the spinning-tales
+come tumbling into my mind so fast I'd better pin a
+few while "genius burns." Perhaps you would like to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">375</a></span>
+start the set Christmas. The picture being ready and
+the first story can be done in a week, "Sophie's Secret"
+can come later. Let me know if you would like that,
+and about how many pages of the paper "S. S." was
+written on you think would make the required length of
+tale (or tail?). If you don't want No. 1 yet, I will take
+my time and do several.</p>
+
+<p>The serial was to be "Mrs. Gay's Summer School,"
+and have some city girls and boys go to an old farm-house,
+and for fun dress and live as in old times, and
+learn the good, thrifty old ways, with adventures and fun
+thrown in. That might come in the spring, as it takes
+me longer to grind out yarns now than of old.</p>
+
+<p>Glad you are better. Thanks for kind wishes for the
+little house; come and see it, and gladden the eyes of
+forty young admirers by a sight of M. M. D. next year.</p>
+
+<p class="left45">
+Yours affectionately,</p>
+<p class="sig">L. M. A.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+31 <span class="smcap">Chestnut St., December</span> 31.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Mrs. Dodge</span>,&ndash;A little cousin, thirteen years
+old, has written a story and longs to see it in print. It is
+a well written bit and pretty good for a beginner, so I
+send it to you hoping it may find a place in the children's
+corner. She is a grandchild of S. J. May, and a bright
+lass who paints nicely and is a domestic little person in
+spite of her budding accomplishments. Good luck to
+her!</p>
+
+<p>I hoped to have had a Christmas story for some one,
+but am forbidden to write for six months, after a bad turn
+of vertigo. So I give it up and take warning. All good
+wishes for the New Year.</p>
+
+<p class="left45">
+From yours affectionately,</p>
+<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">L. M. Alcott</span>.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">376</a></span></p>
+</div>
+<p class="section"><i>To Mr. Niles</i>.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">1886.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Mr. Niles</span>,&ndash;Sorry you don't like the bas-relief
+[of herself]; I do. A portrait, if bright and comely,
+wouldn't be me, and if like me would disappoint the
+children; so we had better let them imagine "Aunt Jo
+young and beautiful, with her hair in two tails down her
+back," as the little girl said.</p>
+
+<p class="left45">
+In haste,</p>
+<p class="sig">L. M. A.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>To Mrs. Bond.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Concord</span>, Tuesday, 1886.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Auntie</span>,&ndash;I want to find Auntie Gwinn, and
+don't know whom to ask but you, as your big motherly
+heart yearns over all the poor babies, and can tell them
+where to go when the nest is bare. A poor little woman
+has just died, leaving four children to a drunken father.
+Two hard-working aunts do all they can, and one will
+take the oldest girl. We want to put the two small girls
+and boy into a home till we can see what comes next.
+Lulu clothes one, and we may be able to put one with a
+cousin. But since the mother died last Wednesday they
+are very forlorn, and must be helped. If we were not
+so full I'd take one; but Lu is all we can manage
+now.</p>
+
+<p>There is a home at Auburndale, but it is full; and I
+know of no other but good Auntie Gwinn's. What is her
+address, please? I shall be in town on Saturday, and
+can go and see her if I know where.</p>
+
+<p>Don't let it be a bother; but one turns at once in such
+cases to the saints for direction, and the poor aunts don't
+know what to do; so this aunt comes to the auntie
+of all.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">377</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I had a pleasant chat with the Papa in the cars, and
+was very glad to hear that W. is better. My love to
+both and S.</p>
+
+<p>Thanks for the news of portraits. I'll bear them in
+mind if G. H. calls. Lulu and Anna send love, and I
+am as always,</p>
+
+<p class="left65">
+Your</p>
+<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">Louisa Alcott</span>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>To Mrs. Dodge.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">April</span> 13, 1886.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Mrs. Dodge</span>,&ndash;I am glad you are going to have
+such a fine outing. May it be a very happy one.</p>
+
+<p>I cannot promise anything, but hope to be allowed to
+write a little, as my doctor has decided that it is as well
+to let me put on paper the tales "knocking at the saucepan
+lid and demanding to be taken out" (like Mrs.
+Cratchit's potatoes), as to have them go on worrying me
+inside. So I'm scribbling at "Jo's Boys," long promised
+to Mr. Niles and clamored for by the children. I
+may write but one hour a day, so cannot get on very fast;
+but if it is ever done, I can think of a serial for "St.
+Nicholas." I began one, and can easily start it for '88,
+if head and hand allow. I will simmer on it this summer,
+and see if it can be done. Hope so, for I don't want to
+give up work so soon.</p>
+
+<p>I have read "Mrs. Null," but don't like it very
+well,&ndash;too slow and colorless after Tolstoi's "Anna
+Karenina."</p>
+
+<p>I met Mr. and Mrs. S. at Mrs. A.'s this winter. Mr.
+Stockton's child-stories I like very much. The older
+ones are odd but artificial.</p>
+
+<p>Now, good-by, and God be with you, dear woman, and
+bring you safely home to us all.</p>
+
+<p class="left45">
+Affectionately yours,</p>
+<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">L. M. Alcott</span>.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">378</a></span></p>
+</div>
+<p class="section"><i>To Mrs. Bond.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter"><span class="smcap">Dunreath Place, Roxbury</span>, March 15, 1887</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Auntie</span>,&ndash;I have been hoping to get out and
+see you all winter, but have been so ill I could only live
+on hope as a relish to my gruel,&ndash;that being my only
+food, and not of a nature to give me strength. Now I
+am beginning to live a little, and feel less like a sick
+oyster at low tide. The spring days will set me up I
+trust, and my first pilgrimage shall be to you; for I want
+you to see how prettily my May-flower is blossoming into
+a fine off-shoot of the old plant.</p>
+
+<p>Lizzy Wells has probably told you our news of Fred
+and his little bride, and Anna written you about it as
+only a proud mamma can.</p>
+
+<p>Father is very comfortable, but says sadly as he looks
+up from his paper, "Beecher has gone now; all go but
+me." Please thank Mr. Bond for the poems, which are
+interesting, even to a poor, ignorant worm who does
+not know Latin. Mother would have enjoyed them
+very much. I should have acknowledged his kindness
+sooner; but as I am here in Roxbury my letters are
+forwarded, and often delayed.</p>
+
+<p>I was sorry to hear that you were poorly again. Isn't
+it hard to sit serenely in one's soul when one's body is in
+a dilapidated state? I find it a great bore, but try to do
+it patiently, and hope to see the why by and by, when
+this mysterious life is made clear to me. I had a lovely
+dream about that, and want to tell it you some day.</p>
+
+<p>Love to all.</p>
+<p class="left45">Ever yours,</p>
+<p class="sig">L. M. A.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Her publisher wished to issue a new edition
+of "A Modern Mephistopheles," and to add to it
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">379</a></span>
+her story "A Whisper in the Dark," to which she
+consented.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter"><span class="smcap">May</span> 6, 1887.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Mr. Niles</span>.&ndash;This is about what I want to say.
+You may be able to amend or suggest something. I only
+want it understood that the highfalutin style was for a
+disguise, though the story had another purpose; for I'm
+not ashamed of it, and like it better than "Work" or
+"Moods."</p>
+
+<p class="left45">
+Yours in haste,</p>
+<p class="sig">L. M. A.</p>
+<p>P. S.&ndash;Do you want more fairy tales?</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>Preface.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+"A Modern Mephistopheles" was written among the
+earlier volumes of the No Name Series, when the chief
+idea of the authors was to puzzle their readers by disguising
+their style as much as possible, that they might
+enjoy the guessing and criticism as each novel appeared.
+This book was very successful in preserving its incognito;
+and many persons still insist that it could not have been
+written by the author of "Little Women." As I much enjoyed
+trying to embody a shadow of my favorite poem in
+a story, as well as the amusement it has afforded those in
+the secret for some years, it is considered well to add
+this volume to the few romances which are offered, not
+as finished work by any means, but merely attempts
+at something graver than magazine stories or juvenile
+literature.</p>
+
+<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">L. M. Alcott.</span>
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">380</a></span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="figcenter p6"><a name="illus388" id="illus388"></a>
+<img src="images/illus388.jpg" width="478" height="650" alt="Fac-simile of Preface to &quot;A Modern
+Mephistopheles.&quot;" />
+<img src="images/illus389.jpg" width="478" height="292" alt="Fac-simile continued" />
+<p class="caption">Fac-simile of Preface to &quot;A Modern
+Mephistopheles.&quot;</p>
+</div>
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Saturday a.m.</span>, May 7, 1887.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Mr. Niles</span>,&ndash;Yours just come. "A Whisper"
+is rather a lurid tale, but might do if I add a few lines to
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">382</a></span>
+the preface of "Modern Mephistopheles," saying that
+this is put in to fill the volume, or to give a sample of
+Jo March's necessity stories, which many girls have asked
+for. Would that do?</p>
+
+<p>It seems to me that it would be better to wait till I
+can add a new novel, and then get out the set. Meantime
+let "Modern Mephistopheles" go alone, with my
+name, as a summer book before Irving comes [Irving as
+Faust].</p>
+
+<p>I hope to do "A Tragedy of To-day" this summer,
+and it can come out in the fall or next spring, with
+"Modern Mephistopheles," "Work," and "Moods."</p>
+
+<p>A spunky new one would make the old ones go.
+"Hospital Sketches" is not cared for now, and is filled
+up with other tales you know....</p>
+
+<p>Can that plan be carried out? I have begun my
+tragedy, and think it will be good; also a shorter thing
+called "Anna: An Episode," in which I do up Boston
+in a jolly way, with a nice little surprise at the end. It
+would do to fill up "Modern Mephistopheles," as it is
+not long, unless I want it to be.</p>
+
+<p>I will come in next week and see what can be
+done.</p>
+
+<p class="left45">
+Yours truly,</p>
+<p class="sig">L. M. A.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>To Mrs. Bond.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter"><span class="smcap">Sunday</span>, Oct. 16, [1887].</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Auntie</span>,&ndash;As you and I belong to the "Shut-in
+Society," we may now and then cheer each other by a
+line. Your note and verse are very good to me to-day,
+as I sit trying to feel all right in spite of the stiffness that
+won't walk, the rebel stomach that won't work, and the
+tired head that won't rest.</p>
+
+<p>My verse lately has been from the little poem found
+under a good soldier's pillow in the hospital.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">383</a></span></p>
+</div>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="stanza">
+I am no longer eager, bold, and strong,&ndash;<br />
+<span class="i2">All that is past;</span><br />
+I am ready not to do<br />
+<span class="i2">At last&ndash;at last.</span><br />
+My half-day's work is done,<br />
+<span class="i2">And this is all my part.</span><br />
+I give a patient God<br />
+<span class="i2">My patient heart.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>The learning not to do is so hard after being the hub
+to the family wheel so long. But it is good for the energetic
+ones to find that the world can get on without them,
+and to learn to be still, to give up, and wait cheerfully.</p>
+
+<p>As we have "fell into poetry," as Silas Wegg says, I add
+a bit of my own; for since you are Marmee now, I feel
+that you won't laugh at my poor attempts any more than
+she did, even when I burst forth at the ripe age of eight.</p>
+
+<p>Love to all the dear people, and light to the kind eyes
+that have made sunshine for others so many years.</p>
+
+<p class="left45">
+Always your</p>
+<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">Lu</span>.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>To Mrs. Bond, with first copy of "Lulu's Library,"
+second volume.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter"><span class="smcap">October</span>, 1887.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Auntie</span>,&ndash;I always gave Mother the first author's
+copy of a new book. As her representative on earth,
+may I send you, with my love, the little book to come
+out in November?</p>
+
+<p>The tales were told at sixteen to May and her playmates;
+then are related to May's daughter at five; and
+for the sake of these two you may care to have them for
+the little people.</p>
+
+<p>I am still held by the leg, but seem to gain a little,
+and hope to be up by and by. Slow work, but part of
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">384</a></span>
+the discipline I need, doubtless; so I take it as well as
+I can.</p>
+
+<p>You and I won't be able to go to the golden wedding
+of S. J. May. I have been alone so long I feel as if I'd
+like to see any one, and be in the good times again.
+L. W. reports you as "nicely, and sweet as an angel;"
+so I rejoice, and wish I could say the same of</p>
+
+<p class="left45">
+Your loving</p>
+<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">Lu.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>To Mrs. Dodge.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">December</span> 22, 1887.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Mrs. Dodge</span>,&ndash;I send you the story your assistant
+editor asked for. As it is needed at once I do not
+delay to copy it, for I can only write an hour a day and
+do very little. You are used to my wild manuscript, and
+will be able to read it. I meant to have sent the Chinese
+tale, but this was nearly done, and so it goes, as it does
+not matter where we begin.... I hope you are well,
+and full of the peace which work well done gives the
+happy doer.</p>
+
+<p>I mend slowly, but surely, and my good Doctor says
+my best work is yet to come; so I will be content with
+health if I can get it. With all good wishes,</p>
+
+<p class="left45">Yours affectionately,</p>
+<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">L. M. A.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>To Mrs. Bond.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter"><span class="smcap">February</span> 7 [1888].</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Auntie</span>,&ndash;My blessed Anna is so busy, and I
+can do so little to help her, I feel as if I might take upon
+me the pleasant duty of writing to you.</p>
+
+<p>Father is better, and we are all so grateful, for just
+now we want all to be bright for our boy.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">385</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The end is not far off, but Father rallies wonderfully
+from each feeble spell, and keeps serene and happy
+through everything.</p>
+
+<p>I don't ask to keep him now that life is a burden, and
+am glad to have him go before it becomes a pain. We
+shall miss the dear old white head and the feeble saint so
+long our care; but as Anna says, "He will be with
+Mother." So we shall be happy in the hope of that
+meeting.</p>
+
+<p>Sunday he seemed very low, and I was allowed to
+drive in and say "good-by." He knew me and smiled,
+and kissed "Weedy," as he calls me, and I thought the
+drowsiness and difficulty of breathing could not last long.
+But he revived, got up, and seemed so much as usual, I
+may be able to see him again. It is a great grief that
+I am not there as I was with Lizzie and Mother, but
+though much better, the shattered nerves won't bear
+much yet, and quiet is my only cure.</p>
+
+<p>I sit alone and bless the little pair like a fond old
+grandmother. You show me how to do it. With love
+to all,</p>
+
+<p class="left45">
+Yours ever,</p>
+<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">Lu.</span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="section"><i>Her last note. To Mrs. Bond.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter"><span class="smcap">February</span> 8, 1888.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>Air</i>,&ndash;"Haste to the Wedding."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Auntie</span>,&ndash;I little knew what a sweet surprise
+was in store for me when I wrote to you yesterday.</p>
+
+<p>As I awoke this morning my good Doctor L. came
+in with the lovely azalea, her round face beaming through
+the leaves like a full moon.</p>
+
+<p>It was very dear of you to remember me, and cheer
+up my lonely day with such a beautiful guest.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">386</a></span></p>
+
+<p>It stands beside me on Marmee's work-table, and reminds
+me tenderly of her favorite flowers; and among
+those used at her funeral was a spray of this, which lasted
+for two weeks afterward, opening bud after bud in the
+glass on her table, where lay the dear old "Jos. May"
+hymn book, and her diary with the pen shut in as she left
+it when she last wrote there, three days before the end,
+"The twilight is closing about me, and I am going to
+rest in the arms of my children."</p>
+
+<p>So you see I love the delicate flower, and enjoy it very
+much.</p>
+
+<p>I can write now, and soon hope to come out and see
+you for a few minutes, as I drive out every fine day, and
+go to kiss my people once a week for fifteen minutes.</p>
+
+<p>Slow climbing, but I don't slip back; so think up my
+mercies, and sing cheerfully, as dear Marmee used to do,
+"Thus far the Lord has led me on!"</p>
+
+<p class="left45">
+Your loving</p>
+<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">Lu.</span></p>
+</div>
+<p class="center p6"><span class="b1">CHAPTER XII.</span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">387</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="center">CONCLUSION.</p>
+
+<p class="center p2"><span class="smcap">TO MY FATHER,</span></p>
+
+<p class="center s1">ON HIS EIGHTY-SIXTH BIRTHDAY.</p>
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="stanza">
+Dear Pilgrim, waiting patiently,<br />
+<span class="i1">The long, long journey nearly done,</span><br />
+Beside the sacred stream that flows<br />
+<span class="i1">Clear shining in the western sun;</span><br />
+Look backward on the varied road<br />
+<span class="i1">Your steadfast feet have trod,</span><br />
+From youth to age, through weal and woe,<br />
+<span class="i1">Climbing forever nearer God.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">Mountain and valley lie behind;<br />
+<span class="i1">The slough is crossed, the wicket passed;</span><br />
+Doubt and despair, sorrow and sin,<br />
+<span class="i1">Giant and fiend, conquered at last.</span><br />
+Neglect is changed to honor now;<br />
+<span class="i1">The heavy cross may be laid down;</span><br />
+The white head wins and wears at length<br />
+<span class="i1">The prophet's, not the martyr's, crown.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">Greatheart and Faithful gone before,<br />
+<span class="i1">Brave Christiana, Mercy sweet,</span><br />
+Are Shining Ones who stand and wait<br />
+<span class="i1">The weary wanderer to greet.</span><br />
+Patience and Love his handmaids are,<br />
+<span class="i1">And till time brings release,</span><br />
+Christian may rest in that bright room<br />
+<span class="i1">Whose windows open to the east.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p class="stanza">The staff set by, the sandals off,<br />
+<span class="i1">Still pondering the precious scroll,</span><br />
+Serene and strong, he waits the call<br />
+<span class="i1">That frees and wings a happy soul.</span><br />
+Then, beautiful as when it lured<br />
+<span class="i1">The boy's aspiring eyes,</span><br />
+Before the pilgrim's longing sight<br />
+<span class="i1">Shall the Celestial City rise.</span>
+</p>
+
+<p><i>November 29, 1885.</i><span class="i6">L. M. A.</span></p>
+</div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">388</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="p2"><span class="dropcap">M</span>ISS ALCOTT'S appearance was striking
+and impressive rather than beautiful. Her
+figure was tall and well-proportioned, indicating
+strength and activity, and she walked with freedom
+and majesty. Her head was large, and her
+rich brown hair was long and luxuriant, giving a
+sense of fulness and richness of life to her massive
+features. While thoroughly unconventional, and
+even free and easy in her manner, she had a dignity
+of deportment which prevented undue liberties,
+and made intruders stand in awe of her.
+Generous in the extreme in serving others, she
+knew her own rights, and did not allow them to
+be trampled on. She repelled "the spurns that
+patient merit of the unworthy takes," and had
+much of the Burns spirit that sings "A man's
+a man for a' that" in the presence of insolent
+grandeur.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Alcott always took her stand not for herself,
+but for her family, her class, her sex. The humblest
+writer should not be imposed upon in her person;
+every woman should be braver and stronger from
+her attitude. She was careless of outward distinctions;
+but she enjoyed the attentions which her
+fame brought her with simple pleasure, and was
+delighted to meet bright, intelligent, distinguished
+people, who added to her stores of observation and
+thought. She had the rare good fortune, which an
+heir of millions might envy, of living all her life in
+the society of the noblest men and women. The
+Emersons, the Thoreaus, the Hawthornes, and Miss
+Elizabeth Peabody were the constant companions
+of her childhood and youth. It was from them
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">389</a></span>
+that her standard of character was formed, and she
+could never enter any circle higher than that in
+which she had breathed freely from a child. She
+was quite capable of hero-worship, but her heroes
+were few.</p>
+
+<p>With all her imagination and romance, Miss
+Alcott was a tremendous destroyer of illusions;
+she remorselessly tore them away from herself,
+persisting in holding a lens before every fault and
+folly of her own, and she did the same for those
+she loved best. Only what was intrinsically noble
+and true could stand the searching test of her
+intellectual scrutiny and keen perception of the
+incongruous and ridiculous.</p>
+
+<p>This disposition was apparent in Louisa's relation
+to her father, whom she did not always fully
+understand. Perhaps he had a perception of this
+when he wrote&ndash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"I press thee to my heart, as Duty's faithful child."</p>
+
+<p>She had little sympathy with his speculative fancy,
+and saw plainly the impracticability of his schemes,
+and did not hesitate to touch with light and kindly
+satire his little peculiarities; yet in her deepest
+heart she gave him not only affection, but deep
+reverence. She felt the nobility and grandeur of
+his mind and heart. In "Little Women" the portrait
+of the father is less vivid and less literal than
+that of any other member of the family, and is
+scarcely recognizable; but it was impossible to
+make the student and idealist a part of the family
+life as she painted it,&ndash;full of fun, frolic, and adventure.
+In the second part she has taken pains
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">390</a></span>
+to make up for this seeming neglect, and pays homage
+to the quiet man at the end of the house,
+whose influence was so potent and so sweet over
+all within it.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Alcott was a rich and noble nature, full of
+zeal and impulse, daily struggling with a temper
+threatening to burst out into fire, ready to fight
+like a lioness for her young, or to toil for them till
+Nature broke down under the burden. She had
+a rich appreciation of heroism and beauty in all
+noble living, a true love of literature, and an overflowing
+sympathy with all suffering humanity, but
+was also capable of righteous indignation and withering
+contempt. To this mother, royal in her
+motherhood, Louisa was bound by the closest ties
+of filial love and mutual understanding. She early
+believed herself to be her mother's favorite child,
+knew she was close to her heart, her every struggle
+watched, her every fault rebuked, every aspiration
+encouraged, every effort after good recognized. I
+think Louisa felt no pride in this preference. She
+knew that she was dear to her mother, because
+her stormy, wayward heart was best understood by
+her; and hence the mother, wiser for her child than
+for herself, watched her unfolding life with anxious
+care. Throughout the childish journal this relation
+is evident: the child's heart lies open to the mother,
+and the mother can help her because she understands
+her, and holds sacred every cry of her
+heart.</p>
+
+<p>Such a loving relation to a mother&ndash;so rich, so
+full, so enduring&ndash;was the greatest possible blessing
+to her life. And richly did Louisa repay the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">391</a></span>
+care. From her earliest years she was her mother's
+confidante, friend, and comforter. Her dream of
+success was not of fame and glory, but of the time
+when she could bring this weary pilgrim into "that
+chamber whose name is Peace," and there bid her
+sit with folded hands, listening to the loving voices
+of her children, and drinking in the fulness of life
+without care or anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>And it all came true, like the conclusion of a
+fairy story; for good fairies had been busy at
+work for many years preparing the way. Who
+that saw that mother resting from her labors,
+proud in her children's success, happy in her
+husband's contentment, and in the love that had
+never faltered in the darkest days, can ever forget
+the peace of her countenance, the loving joy of
+her heart?</p>
+
+<p>The relation of Miss Alcott to her older sister
+was of entire trust and confidence. Anna inherited
+the serene, unexacting temper of her father,
+with much of the loving warmth of her mother.
+She loved to hide behind her gifted sister, and
+to keep the ingle-side warm for her to retreat to
+when she was cold and weary. Anna's fine intellectual
+powers were shown more in the appreciation
+of others than in the expression of herself;
+her dramatic skill and her lively fancy, combined
+with her affection for Louisa, made her always
+ready to second all the plans for entertainment or
+benevolence. She appears in her true light in the
+sweet, lovable Meg of "Little Women;" and if
+she never had the fame and pecuniary success of
+her sister, she had the less rare, but equally satisfying,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">392</a></span>
+happiness of wifehood and motherhood.
+And thus she repaid to Louisa what she had so
+generously done for the family, by giving her new
+objects of affection, and connecting her with a
+younger generation.</p>
+
+<p>Louisa was always very fond of boys, and the
+difference of nature gave her an insight into their
+trials and difficulties without giving her a painful
+sense of her own hard struggles. In her nephews
+she found objects for all her wise and tender care,
+which they repaid with devoted affection. When
+boys became men, "they were less interesting to
+her; she could not understand them."</p>
+
+<p>Elizabeth was unlike the other sisters. Retiring
+in disposition, she would gladly have ever lived in
+the privacy of home, her only desire being for
+the music that she loved. The father's ideality
+was in her a tender religious feeling; the mother's
+passionate impulse, a self-abnegating affection.
+She was in the family circle what she is in the
+book,&ndash;a strain of sweet, sad music we long and
+love to hear, and yet which almost breaks the
+heart with its forecasting of separation. She was
+very dear to both the father and mother, and the
+picture of the father watching all night by the
+marble remains of his child is very touching. He
+might well say,&ndash;</p>
+
+<p class="poem">
+"Ah, me! life is not life deprived of thee."</p>
+
+<p>Of the youngest of all,&ndash;bright, sparkling, capricious
+May,&ndash;quick in temper, quick in repentance,
+affectionate and generous, but full of her own plans,
+and quite inclined to have the world go on according
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">393</a></span>
+to her fancies,&ndash;I have spoken elsewhere.
+Less profound in her intellectual and religious
+nature than either of her sisters, she was like a
+nymph of Nature, full of friendly sportiveness, and
+disposed to live out her own life, since it might
+be only a brief summer day. She was Anna's
+special child, and Louisa was not always so patient
+with her as the older sister; yet how well Louisa
+understood her generous nature is shown by the
+beautiful sketch she has made of her in "Little
+Women." She was called the lucky one of the
+family, and she reaped the benefit of her generous
+sister's labors in her opportunities of education.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Alcott's literary work is so closely interwoven
+with her personal life that it needs little
+separate mention. Literature was undoubtedly her
+true pursuit, and she loved and honored it. That
+she had her ambitious longings for higher forms
+of art than the pleasant stories for children is evident
+from her journals, and she twice attempted
+to paint the life of mature men and women struggling
+with great difficulties. In "Moods" and
+"A Modern Mephistopheles" we have proof of
+her interest in difficult subjects. I have spoken
+of them in connection with her life; but while
+they evince great power, and if standing alone
+would have stamped her as an author of original
+observation and keen thought, they can hardly be
+considered as thoroughly successful, and certainly
+have not won the sanction of the public like "Hospital
+Sketches" and "Little Women." Could she
+ever have commanded quiet leisure, with a tolerable
+degree of health, she might have wrought her
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">394</a></span>
+fancies into a finer fabric, and achieved the success
+she aimed at.</p>
+
+<p>Much as Miss Alcott loved literature, it was not
+an end in itself to her, but a means. Her heart was
+so bound up in her family,&ndash;she felt it so fully to
+be her sacred mission to provide for their wants,&ndash;that
+she sacrificed to it all ambitious dreams,
+health, leisure,&ndash;everything but her integrity of
+soul. But as "he that loseth his life shall find it,"
+she has undoubtedly achieved a really greater work
+than if she had not had this constant stimulus to
+exertion. In her own line of work she is unsurpassed.
+While she paints in broad, free strokes
+the life of her own day, represented mostly by
+children and young people, she has always a
+high moral purpose, which gives strength and
+sweetness to the delineation; yet one never hears
+children complain of her moralizing,&ndash;it is events
+that reveal the lesson she would enforce. Her
+own deep nature shines through all the experiences
+of her characters, and impresses upon
+the children's hearts a sense of reality and truth.
+She charms them, wisely, to love the common
+virtues of truth, unselfishness, kindness, industry,
+and honesty. Dr. Johnson said children did not
+want to hear about themselves, but about giants
+and fairies; but while Miss Alcott could weave
+fairy fancies for them, they are quite as pleased
+with her real boys and girls in the plainest of
+costumes.</p>
+
+<p>An especial merit of these books for young boys
+and girls is their purity of feeling. The family
+affection which was so predominant in the author's
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">395</a></span>
+own life, always appears as the holiest and sweetest
+phase of human nature. She does not refuse to
+paint the innocent love and the happy marriage
+which it is natural for every young heart to be interested
+in, but it is in tender, modest colors. She
+does not make it the master and tyrant of the soul,
+nor does she ever connect it with sensual imagery;
+but it appears as one of "God's holy ordinances,"&ndash;natural
+and beautiful,&ndash;and is not separated
+from the thought of work and duty and self-sacrifice
+for others. No mother fears that her
+books will brush the bloom of modesty from the
+faces of her young men or maidens.</p>
+
+<p>Even in the stories of her early period of work
+for money, which she wisely renounced as trash,
+while there is much that is thoroughly worthless as
+art, and little that has any value, Miss Alcott never
+falls into grossness of thought or baseness of feeling.
+She is sentimental, melodramatic, exaggerated, and
+unreal in her descriptions, but the stories leave no
+taint of evil behind them. Two of these stories,
+"The Baron's Gloves" and "A Whisper in the
+Dark," have been included in her published works,
+with her permission. Her friends are disposed to
+regret this, as they do not add to her reputation;
+but at least they serve to show the quality of work
+which she condemned so severely, and to satisfy
+the curiosity of readers in regard to it. It would
+be easy to point out defects in her style, and in
+some of her books there is evidence of the enforced
+drudgery of production, instead of the spontaneous
+flow of thought. The most serious defect is in
+her style of expression, which certainly passes the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">396</a></span>
+fine line between colloquial ease and slang; it
+is her own natural, peculiar style, which appears
+in her journals and letters. That it is attractive to
+children is certain, but it offends the taste of those
+who love purity and elegance of speech. It does
+not appear in Louisa's more ambitious novels; here
+she sometimes falls into the opposite extreme of
+labored and stilted expression. But much of these
+books is written in a pure and beautiful style, showing
+that she could have united ease with elegance
+if she had not so constantly worked at high speed
+and with little revision. She was a great admirer
+of Dickens's writings; and although she has never
+imitated him, she was perhaps strengthened in
+her habit of using dashing, expressive language by
+so fascinating a model.</p>
+
+<p>I have placed at the head of each chapter one
+of Miss Alcott's own poems, usually written at the
+period of which the chapter treats, and characteristic
+of her life at that time. Her first literary essay was
+the "Little Robin." But although her fond mother
+saw the future of a great poet in these simple verses,
+Louisa never claimed the title for herself. Her
+thoughts ran often into rhyme, and she sent many
+birthday and Christmas verses to her friends and
+especially to her father. They are usually playful.
+She always wrote to express some feeling of the
+hour, and I find no objective or descriptive poetry.
+But a few of her sacred poems, for we may certainly
+call them so, are very tender and beautiful,
+and deserve a permanent place among the poems
+of feeling,&ndash;those few poems which a true heart
+writes for itself. "Thoreau's Flute" was originally
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">397</a></span>
+published in the "Atlantic Monthly." It is the
+least personal of her poems. The lines to her
+father on his eighty-sixth birthday, the verses
+dedicated to her mother, and "My Prayer," the
+last poem that she wrote, breathe her deepest
+religious feeling in sweet and fitting strains. They
+will speak to the hearts of many in the hours
+of trial which are common to humanity. The
+long playful poem called "The Lay of the Golden
+Goose" was sent home from Europe as an answer
+to many questions from her admirers and
+demands for new stories. It has never been published,
+and is an interesting specimen of her playful
+rhyming.</p>
+
+<p>While to Miss Alcott cannot be accorded a high
+rank as a poet,&ndash;which, indeed, she never claimed
+for herself,&ndash;it would be hard to deny a place in
+our most select anthology to "Thoreau's Flute" or
+"Transfiguration," the "Lines to my Father on his
+Eighty-sixth Birthday" and "My Prayer." I have
+therefore thought it well to preserve her best poems
+in connection with her life, where they properly
+belong; for they are all truly autobiographical, revealing
+the inner meaning of her life.</p>
+
+<p>The pecuniary success of Miss Alcott's books
+enabled her to carry out her great purpose of providing
+for the comfort and happiness of her family.
+After the publication of "Little Women," she not
+only received a handsome sum for every new story,
+but there was a steady income from the old ones.
+Her American publishers estimate that they "have
+sold of her various works a million volumes, and
+that she realized from them more than two hundred
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">398</a></span>
+thousand dollars." While her own tastes
+were very simple, her expenses were large, for she
+longed to gratify every wish of those she loved, and
+she gave generously to every one in need. She
+had a true sense of the value of money. Her early
+poverty did not make her close in expending it,
+nor her later success lavish. She never was enslaved
+by debt or corrupted by wealth. She always
+held herself superior to her fortune, and
+made her means serve her highest purposes.</p>
+
+<p>Of Miss Alcott's own reading she says:&ndash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+"Never a student, but a great reader. R. W. E.
+gave me Goethe's works at fifteen, and they have been
+my delight ever since. My library consists of Goethe,
+Emerson, Shakespeare, Carlyle, Margaret Fuller, and
+George Sand. George Eliot I don't care for, nor any of
+the modern poets but Whittier; the old ones&ndash;Herbert,
+Crashaw, Keats, Coleridge, Dante, and a few others&ndash;I
+like."
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>She gives this account of the beginning of her
+literary career:&ndash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+"This gem ['The Robin'] my proud mother preserved
+with care, assuring me that if I kept on in this way I
+might be a second Shakespeare in time. Fired with this
+modest ambition, I continued to write poems upon dead
+butterflies, lost kittens, the baby's eyes, and other simple
+subjects till the story-telling mania set in; and after
+frightening my sisters out of their wits by awful tales
+whispered in bed, I began to write down these histories
+of giants, ogres, dauntless girls, and magic transformations
+till we had a library of small paper-covered volumes illustrated
+by the author. Later the poems grew gloomy and
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">399</a></span>
+sentimental, and the tales more fanciful and less tragic,
+lovely elves and spirits taking the places of the former
+monsters."
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Of her method of work she says:&ndash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+"I never had a study. Any pen and paper do, and an
+old atlas on my knee is all I want. Carry a dozen plots
+in my head, and think them over when in the mood.
+Sometimes keep one for years, and suddenly find it all
+ready to write. Often lie awake and plan whole chapters
+word for word, then merely scribble them down as if
+copying.</p>
+
+<p>"Used to sit fourteen hours a day at one time, eating
+little, and unable to stir till a certain amount was
+done.</p>
+
+<p>"Very few stories written in Concord; no inspiration
+in that dull place. Go to Boston, hire a quiet room and
+shut myself up in it."
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The following letter gives her advice to young
+writers:&ndash;</p>
+
+<p class="section"><i>To Mr. J. P. True.</i></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Concord</span>, October 24.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir,</span>&ndash;I never copy or "polish," so I have no
+old manuscripts to send you; and if I had it would be of
+little use, for one person's method is no rule for another.
+Each must work in his own way; and the only drill needed
+is to keep writing and profit by criticism. Mind grammar,
+spelling, and punctuation, use short words, and express
+as briefly as you can your meaning. Young people
+use too many adjectives and try to "write fine." The
+strongest, simplest words are best, and no <i>foreign</i> ones
+if it can be helped.
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">400</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Write, and print if you can; if not, still write, and improve
+as you go on. Read the best books, and they
+will improve your style. See and hear good speakers
+and wise people, and learn of them. Work for twenty
+years, and then you may some day find that you have a
+style and place of your own, and can command good pay
+for the same things no one would take when you were
+unknown.</p>
+
+<p>I know little of poetry, as I never read modern attempts,
+but advise any young person to keep to prose, as only
+once in a century is there a true poet; and verses are so
+easy to do that it is not much help to write them. I
+have so many letters like your own that I can say no
+more, but wish you success, and give you for a motto
+Michael Angelo's wise words: "Genius is infinite
+patience."</p>
+
+<p class="left65">
+Your friend,</p>
+<p class="sig"><span class="smcap">L. M. Alcott</span>.</p>
+
+<p>P. S.&ndash;The lines you send are better than many I
+see; but boys of nineteen cannot know much about
+hearts, and had better write of things they understand.
+Sentiment is apt to become sentimentality; and sense is
+always safer, as well as better drill, for young fancies and
+feelings.</p>
+
+<p>Read Ralph Waldo Emerson, and see what good prose
+is, and some of the best poetry we have. I much prefer
+him to Longfellow.
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Years afterward," says Mr. True, "when I had
+achieved some slight success, I once more wrote,
+thanking her for her advice; and the following
+letter shows the kindliness of heart with which she
+extended ready recognition and encouragement
+to lesser workers in her chosen field:"&ndash;
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">401</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p class="letter">
+<span class="smcap">Concord</span>, Sept. 7, 1883.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">My Dear Mr. True</span>,&ndash;Thanks for the pretty book,
+which I read at once and with pleasure; for I still enjoy
+boys' pranks as much as ever.</p>
+
+<p>I don't remember the advice I gave you, and should
+judge from this your first story that you did not need
+much. Your boys are real boys; and the girls can run,&ndash;which
+is a rare accomplishment nowadays I find.
+They are not sentimental either; and that is a good example
+to set both your brother writers and the lasses who
+read the book.</p>
+
+<p>I heartily wish you success in your chosen work, and
+shall always be glad to know how fast and how far you
+climb on the steep road that leads to fame and fortune.</p>
+
+<p class="left65">
+Yours truly,</p>
+<p class="sig">L. M. Alcott.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Roberts Brothers, Miss Alcott's publishers for
+nearly twenty years, have collected all her stories
+in a uniform edition of twenty-five volumes. They
+are grouped into different series according to size
+and character, from her novels to "Lulu's Library"
+for very small children, and may be enumerated as
+follows:&ndash;</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+<i>Novels</i> (four volumes).&ndash;Work, Moods, A Modern
+Mephistopheles, Hospital Sketches.</p>
+
+<p><i>Little Women Series</i> (eight volumes).&ndash;Little Women,
+An Old-Fashioned Girl, Little Men, Eight Cousins, Rose
+in Bloom, Under the Lilacs, Jack and Jill, Jo's Boys.</p>
+
+<p><i>Spinning-Wheel Stories Series</i> (four volumes).&ndash;Silver
+Pitchers, Proverb Stories, Spinning-Wheel Stories, A Garland
+for Girls.</p>
+
+<p><i>Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag</i> (six volumes).&ndash;My Boys, Shawl-Straps,
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">402</a></span>
+Cupid and Chow-Chow, My Girls, Jimmy's Cruise
+in the Pinafore, An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving.</p>
+
+<p><i>Lulu's Library</i> (three volumes).
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">Many of these stories were originally published
+in various magazines,&ndash;the popular "St Nicholas,"
+for which Miss Alcott wrote some of her best
+things in her later years, the "Youth's Companion,"
+and others. Her works have been republished
+in England; and through her English
+publishers, Messrs. Sampson Low and Company,
+of London, she has reaped the benefit of copyright
+there, and they have been translated into many
+languages. Her name is familiar and dear to the
+children of Europe, and they still read her books
+with the same eagerness as the children of her
+own land.</p>
+
+<p>This extract from a letter written by the translator
+of Miss Alcott's books into Dutch will show
+how she is esteemed in Holland:&ndash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+"Miss Alcott was and is so much beloved here by her
+books, that you could scarce find a girl that had not read
+one or more of them. Last autumn I gave a translation of
+'Lulu's Library' that appeared in November, 1887;
+the year before, a collection of tales and Christmas stories
+that appeared under the name of 'Gandsbloempje'
+('Dandelion'). Yesterday a young niece of mine was
+here, and said, 'Oh, Aunt, how I enjoyed those stories!
+but the former of "Meh Meh" I still preferred.' A
+friend wrote: 'My children are confined to the sickroom,
+but find comfort in Alcott's "Under the Lilacs."'
+Her fame here was chiefly caused by her 'Little Women'
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">403</a></span>
+and 'Little Women Wedded,' which in Dutch were called
+'Under Moedervleugels' ('Under Mother's Wings')
+and 'Op Eigen Wieken' ('With Their Own Wings').
+Her 'Work' was translated as 'De Hand van den
+Ploey' ('The Hand on the Plough')."
+</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>How enduring the fame of Louisa M. Alcott will
+be, time only can show; but if to endear oneself
+to two generations of children, and to mould their
+minds by wise counsel in attractive form entitle
+an author to the lasting gratitude of her country,
+that praise and reward belong to <span class="smcap">Louisa May
+Alcott</span>.</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<p class="i3">TERMINUS.</p>
+
+<p>
+It is time to be old,<br />
+To take in sail:<br />
+The god of bounds,<br />
+Who sets to seas a shore,<br />
+Came to me in his fatal rounds,<br />
+And said, "No more!<br />
+No farther shoot<br />
+Thy broad ambitious branches, and thy root;<br />
+Fancy departs: no more invent,<br />
+Contract thy firmament<br />
+To compass of a tent.<br />
+There's not enough for this and that,<br />
+Make thy option which of two;<br />
+Economize the failing river,<br />
+Not the less revere the Giver;<br />
+Leave the many, and hold the few.<br />
+Timely wise, accept the terms;<br />
+Soften the fall with wary foot;<br />
+A little while<br />
+Still plan and smile.
+And, fault of novel germs,<br />
+Mature the unfallen fruit."</p>
+</div>
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">404</a></span><br /></p>
+
+<hr class="l15" />
+<div class="poem">
+<p>As the bird trims her to the gale,<br />
+I trim myself to the storm of time;<br />
+I man the rudder, reef the sail,<br />
+Obey the voice at eve obeyed at prime:<br />
+Lowly faithful, banish fear,<br />
+Right onward drive unharmed;<br />
+The port, well worth the cruise, is near,<br />
+And every wave is charmed.</p>
+
+<p class="i10">
+<span class="smcap">Emerson</span>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="p6 center b2">LOUISA M. ALCOTT'S WRITINGS.</p>
+<hr class="l15" />
+<p><i>Miss Alcott is really a benefactor of households.</i>&ndash;H. H.</p>
+
+<p><i>Miss Alcott has a faculty of entering into the lives and feelings of children
+that is conspicuously wanting in most writers who address them; and to this
+cause, to the consciousness among her readers that they are hearing about
+people like themselves, instead of abstract qualities labelled with names, the
+popularity of her books is due.</i>&ndash;<span class="smcap">Mrs. Sarah J. Hale.</span></p>
+
+<p><i>Dear Aunt Jo! You are embalmed in the thoughts and loves of thousands
+of little men and women.</i>&ndash;<span class="smcap">Exchange.</span></p>
+
+<hr class="l15" />
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="2" summary="writings">
+<col width="300" />
+<col width="20" />
+<tr>
+<td><span class="o1"><b>Little Women; or Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy.</b></span>
+With illustrations. 16mo</td>
+<td class="tdr">$1.50</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span class="o1"><b>Hospital Sketches, and Camp and Fireside Stories.</b></span>
+With illustrations. 16mo</td>
+<td class="tdr">1.50</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span class="o1"><b>An Old-Fashioned Girl.</b></span>
+With illustrations. 16mo</td>
+<td class="tdr">1.50</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span class="o1"><b>Little Men:</b></span> Life at Plumfield with Jo's Boys.
+With illustrations. 16mo</td>
+<td class="tdr">1.50</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span class="o1"><b>Jo's Boys and How they Turned Out.</b></span> A sequel to "Little Men."
+With portrait of "Aunt Jo." 16mo</td>
+<td class="tdr">       1.50</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span class="o1"><b>Eight Cousins</b></span>; or, The Aunt-Hill.
+With illustrations. 16mo</td>
+<td class="tdr">     1.50</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span class="o1"><b>Rose in Bloom.</b></span> A sequel to "Eight Cousins."
+16mo</td>
+<td class="tdr">      1.50</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span class="o1"><b>Under the Lilacs.</b></span>
+With illustrations. 16mo</td>
+<td class="tdr">        1.50</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span class="o1"><b>Jack and Jill.</b></span> A Village Story.
+With illustrations. 16mo</td>
+<td class="tdr">      1.50</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span class="o1"><b>Work:</b></span> A Story of Experience.
+With character illustrations by Sol Eytinge. 16mo</td>
+<td class="tdr">     1.50</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span class="o1"><b>Moods.</b></span> A Novel.
+New edition, revised and enlarged. 16mo</td>
+<td class="tdr">       1.50</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span class="o1"><b>A Modern Mephistopheles, and A Whisper in the Dark.</b></span>
+16mo</td>
+<td class="tdr">       1.50</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span class="o1"><b>Silver Pitchers, and Independence.</b></span> A Centennial Love Story.
+16mo</td>
+<td class="tdr">       1.25</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span class="o1"><b>Proverb Stories.</b></span>
+New edition, revised and enlarged. 16mo</td>
+<td class="tdr">      1.25</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span class="o1"><b>Spinning-Wheel Stories.</b></span>
+With illustrations. 16mo</td>
+<td class="tdr">     1.25</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span class="o1"><b>A Garland for Girls, and Other Stories.</b></span>
+With illustrations. 16mo</td>
+<td class="tdr">      1.25</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span class="o1"><b>My Boys, &amp;c.</b></span> First volume of Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag.
+16mo</td>
+<td class="tdr">       1.00</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span class="o1"><b>Shawl-Straps.</b></span> Second volume of Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag.
+16mo</td>
+<td class="tdr">       1.00</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span class="o1"><b>Cupid and Chow-Chow, &amp;c.</b></span> Third volume of Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag.
+16mo</td>
+<td class="tdr">      1.00</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span class="o1"><b>My Girls, &amp;c.</b></span> Fourth volume of Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag.
+16mo</td>
+<td class="tdr">      1.00</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span class="o1"><b>Jimmy's Cruise in the Pinafore, &amp;c.</b></span>
+Fifth volume of Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag. 16mo</td>
+<td class="tdr">     1.00</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span class="o1"><b>An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving, &amp;c.</b></span>
+Sixth volume of Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag. 16mo</td>
+<td class="tdr">    1.00</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span class="o1"><b>Little Women.</b></span> Illustrated. Embellished
+with nearly 200 characteristic
+illustrations from original
+designs drawn expressly for this
+edition of this noted American
+Classic. One small quarto, bound
+in cloth, with emblematic designs</td>
+<td class="tdr">2.50</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span class="o1"><b>Little Women Series.</b></span> Comprising
+Little Women; Little Men;
+Eight Cousins; Under the Lilacs;
+An Old-Fashioned Girl; Jo's
+Boys; Rose in Bloom; Jack and
+Jill. 8 large 16mo
+volumes in a
+handsome box</td>
+<td class="tdr">12.00</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span class="o1">Miss</span> Alcott's novels in uniform binding
+in sets. Moods; Work; Hospital
+Sketches; A Modern Mephistopheles,
+and A Whisper in the
+Dark. 4 volumes. 16mo</td>
+<td class="tdr">6.00</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td><span class="o1"><b>Lulu's Library.</b></span> Vols. I., II., III.
+A collection of New Stories.
+16mo</td>
+<td class="tdr">3.00</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+
+<p><i>These books are for sale at all bookstores, or will be mailed, post-paid, on
+receipt of price, to any address.</i></p>
+
+<p class="p2 center">LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY,<br />
+<span class="smcap left25">Boston.</span></p>
+
+<p class="center b2 p6">LOUISA M. ALCOTT,</p>
+
+<p class="center b1">HER LIFE, LETTERS, AND JOURNALS</p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Edited by EDNAH D. CHENEY.</span></p>
+
+<p class="center">With <span class="smcap">Portraits</span> and View of the <span class="smcap">Alcott Home</span> in Concord.<br />
+One vol. 16mo. Uniform with "Little Women."<br />
+Price, $1.50.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Cheney has allowed this popular author to tell the story of her early
+struggles, her successes, and prosperity and life work, in her own inimitable style,
+gracefully weaving the daily record of this sweet and useful life into a garland of
+<i>immortelles</i>, in a manner at once pleasing and within the comprehension of the
+thousands of readers and admirers of Miss Alcott's books. It might truly be
+called the biography of "Little Women."</p>
+
+<hr class="l15" />
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+A most fascinating as well as a deeply pathetic book. The story,&ndash;the long, hard
+struggle for money to keep the household in comfort, and the well-earned success coming,
+alas, too late to save her health,&ndash;is delightfully told in her own words, from letters and
+journals, so that we have the bright, the witty, and the always charming personality of the
+children's author before us from the first page to the last. We have to thank Mrs. Cheney
+that she hid not from us the hard, grinding toil, nor spared us the record of one discouragement
+in the life so interesting to us; for in this narrative we have a valuable lesson
+for the young writer of our day.&ndash;<i>The Epoch.</i></p>
+
+<p>One who knew Miss Alcott well says: "Nobody can read of the struggles of the
+Alcott family, and of the tender yet resolute heroism with which Miss Alcott met and
+relieved them, without being touched to tears by the pathos and reality of the picture.
+Louisa Alcott was not a member of any church; but her belief in God, her loyalty to conscience,
+her fidelity to duty, her rescue of the Alcott family from its peculiar perils, place
+her among the women saints of the century, and it will be hard to find any one of her sex
+who has more faithfully responded to the duties of the position in which God had placed
+her."&ndash;<i>Cincinnati Commercial Gazette.</i></p>
+
+<p>Louisa May Alcott is without a rival as a writer for the young. The millions who have
+read her stories&ndash;and been made better by the reading&ndash;will want this book that they may
+get near the inner life, the fruitful source of their entertainment and profit. They will see
+that purity, simplicity, love, earnestness, and patience were so interwoven with her genius
+that her stories were the natural outgrowth of her beautiful character. The book needs
+no commendation from us. Every reader of her stories will be glad to know that they
+may now become intimately acquainted with that beautiful life which is here brought out
+of its long cherished seclusion.&ndash;<i>Saturday Evening Herald.</i>
+</p>
+</div>
+<hr class="l15" />
+<p class="center">LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY,<br />
+<span class="left25 smcap">BOSTON.</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter p6">
+<img src="images/illus415.jpg" width="488" height="650" alt="&quot;Sing, Tessa, Sing!&quot; cried Tommo." />
+<p class="caption">&quot;Sing, Tessa, Sing!&quot; cried Tommo, twanging away with all his might.&ndash;Page 47.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class="o1">AUNT</span> JO'S SCRAP-BAG: Containing "My Boys,"
+"Shawl-Straps," "Cupid and Chow-Chow," "My Girls," "Jimmy's
+Cruise in the Pinafore," "An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving." 6 vols.
+Price of each, $1.00.</p>
+
+<p class="center">LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY,<br />
+<span class="smcap left25">BOSTON.</span></p>
+
+<p class="center b1 p6">LOUISA M. ALCOTT'S STORY-BOOKS.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/illus416.jpg" width="591" height="650" alt="A CHRISTMAS DREAM." />
+<p class="caption">A CHRISTMAS DREAM.</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="l15" />
+
+<p class="center b1">LULU'S LIBRARY.</p>
+
+<p class="center">A COLLECTION OF STORIES BY "AUNT JO"</p>
+
+<p class="center">With Illustrations by <span class="smcap">JESSIE MCDERMOTT</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="center s1">3 vols. 16mo. Cloth. Price, $1.00 per volume.</p>
+<hr class="l15" />
+<p class="center">LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY,<br />
+<span class="smcap left25">BOSTON.</span></p>
+
+<p class="center b1 p6">NOVELS AND STORIES</p>
+
+<p class="center">BY</p>
+
+<p class="center b1">LOUISA M. ALCOTT.</p>
+
+<p><span class="o1">WORK.</span> A Story of Experience. With Illustrations by
+<span class="smcap">Sol Eytinge</span>.</p>
+
+<p class="i2">
+This story relates, in many of its most important features and
+incidents, to actual experiences of its author; and in "Christie"
+we find the views and ideas of Miss Alcott herself expressed in
+such a way as to make them most interesting and valuable.
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="o1">MOODS.</span> A Novel.</p>
+
+<p class="i2">
+Although this story was originally written at a time when its
+author's powers and years were far from fully matured, it was in
+its first form indicative of great power. It was revised and partly
+rewritten after she had attained a full maturity, and after actual
+experience with life had broadened and rounded out her mental
+vision, so that it now stands as the first-born and dearest to her
+heart of her novels.
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="o1">A</span> MODERN MEPHISTOPHELES. A Story.</p>
+
+<p class="i2">
+This story was written for the "No Name Series," in which it
+originally appeared, and consequently was intended to be disguised</p>
+
+<p class="i2">
+It is a surprise that Miss Alcott could have written this volume; not that it is
+inferior, but that it varies from her usual tone and theme so much. Yet her plot
+is ingenious, and there is dramatic design well worked out. As we read, knowing
+now who the author is (the story was first published anonymously), we recognize
+the grace of her style and the art of her workmanship. Its tone and, above all,
+its lofty moral purpose are hers. Plots differ, appearances are changed; but some
+of the deep traits of the true nature of Miss Alcott are in the book. Being dead
+she yet liveth.&ndash;<i>Public Opinion</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="o1">HOSPITAL</span> SKETCHES, and Camp and Fireside Stories.
+With Illustrations.</p>
+
+<p class="i2">
+These stories and sketches were written at the time of the Civil
+War, in which the author took part as a nurse in one of the hospitals,
+and show some of the many minor side scenes that help to
+make up that great conflict.
+</p>
+
+<hr class="l15" />
+<p class="center">Four volumes. 16mo. Cloth. $1.50 per volume.</p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>Sold everywhere. Mailed, post-paid, on receipt of price by the publishers,</i></p>
+
+<p class="center">LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY,<br />
+<span class="smcap left25">Boston.</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter p6">
+<img src="images/illus418.jpg" width="650" height="438" alt="&quot;&#39;I&#39;m not hurt, all right in a minute" />
+<p class="caption">&quot;&#39;I&#39;m not hurt, all right in a minute,&#39; he said, sitting up, a little pale and dizzy, as the boys gathered round him,
+full of admiration and alarm.&quot;&ndash;Page 2</p>
+</div>
+
+<p class="center">LITTLE MEN; <span class="smcap">Or, Life at Plumfield with Jo's
+Boys</span>.</p>
+<p class="center">Price, $1.50.</p>
+
+<p class="center">LITTLE BROWN, AND COMPANY,<br />
+<span class="smcap left25">Boston.</span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter p6">
+<img src="images/illus419.jpg" width="489" height="650" alt="WALTON RICKETSON, SCULP." />
+<p class="caption">WALTON RICKETSON, SCULP.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>JO'S BOYS, AND HOW THEY TURNED OUT. A
+sequel to "Little Men." With a new portrait of "Aunt
+Jo." Price, $1.50.</p>
+
+<p class="center">Little, Brown, and Company,<br />
+<span class="smcap left25">Boston.</span></p>
+
+<p class="center p6 b1">POPULAR STORY BOOKS.</p>
+<hr class="l15" />
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>
+<span class="smcap">Susan Coolidge</span> has always possessed the affection of her young readers,
+for it seems as if she had the happy instinct of planning stories that each girl
+would like to act out in reality.&ndash;<i>The Critic.</i></p>
+
+<p>Not even Miss Alcott apprehends child nature with finer sympathy, or pictures
+its nobler traits with more skill.&ndash;<i>Boston Daily Advertiser.</i>
+</p>
+</div>
+<hr class="l15" />
+<p><b><span class="o1">THE</span> NEW YEAR'S BARGAIN.</b> A Christmas Story for
+Children. With Illustrations by <span class="smcap">Addie Ledyard</span>. 16mo. $1.25.</p>
+
+<p><b><span class="o1">WHAT</span> KATY DID.</b> A Story. With Illustrations by <span class="smcap">Addie
+Ledyard</span>. 16mo. $1.25.</p>
+
+<p><b><span class="o1">WHAT</span> KATY DID AT SCHOOL.</b> Being more about
+"What Katy Did." With Illustrations. 16mo. $1.25.</p>
+
+<p><b><span class="o1">MISCHIEF'S</span> THANKSGIVING,</b> and other Stories. With
+Illustrations by <span class="smcap">Addie Ledyard</span>. 16mo. $1.25.</p>
+
+<p><b><span class="o1">NINE</span> LITTLE GOSLINGS.</b> With Illustrations by <span class="smcap">J. A.
+Mitchell</span>. 16mo. $1.25.</p>
+
+<p><b><span class="o1">EYEBRIGHT</span>.</b> A Story. With Illustrations. 16mo. $1.25.</p>
+
+<p><b><span class="o1">CROSS</span> PATCH.</b> With Illustrations. 16mo. $1.25.</p>
+
+<p><b><span class="o1">A</span> ROUND DOZEN.</b> With Illustrations. 16mo. $1.25.</p>
+
+<p><b><span class="o1">A</span> LITTLE COUNTRY GIRL.</b> With Illustrations. 16mo.
+$1.25.</p>
+
+<p><b><span class="o1">WHAT</span> KATY DID NEXT.</b> With Illustrations. 16mo. $1.25.</p>
+
+<p><b><span class="o1">CLOVER</span>.</b> A Sequel to the Katy Books. With Illustrations by
+<span class="smcap">Jessie Mcdermott</span>. 16mo. $1.25.</p>
+
+<p><b><span class="o1">JUST</span> SIXTEEN.</b> With Illustrations. 16mo. $1.25.</p>
+
+<p><b><span class="o1">IN</span> THE HIGH VALLEY.</b> With Illustrations, 16mo. $1.25.</p>
+
+<p><b><span class="o1">A</span> GUERNSEY LILY</b>; or, How the Feud was Healed. A
+Story of the Channel Islands. Profusely Illustrated. 16mo.
+$1.25.</p>
+
+<p><b><span class="o1">THE</span> BARBERRY BUSH,</b> and Seven Other Stories about
+Girls for Girls. With Illustrations by <span class="smcap">Jessie Mcdermott</span>.
+16mo. $1.25.</p>
+
+<p><b><span class="o1">NOT</span> QUITE EIGHTEEN.</b> A volume of Stories. With
+Illustrations by <span class="smcap">Jessie Mcdermott</span>. 16mo. $1.25.</p>
+<hr class="l15" />
+<p><i>Sold by all booksellers. Mailed, post-paid, on receipt of price, by
+the publishers.</i></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes p6">
+<p class="center b1">FOOTNOTES:</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1" id="Footnote_1" href="#FNanchor_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> For further particulars of the Alcott genealogy, see "New
+Connecticut," a poem by A. B. Alcott, published in 1887. I am
+also indebted to Mr. F. B. Sanborn's valuable paper read at the
+memorial service at Concord in 1888.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2" id="Footnote_2" href="#FNanchor_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> For particulars of the genealogy of the May families, see
+"A Genealogy of the Descendants of John May," who came from
+England to Roxbury in America, 1640.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3" id="Footnote_3" href="#FNanchor_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> For the Sewall family, see "Drake's History of Boston," or
+fuller accounts in the Sewall Papers published by the Massachusetts
+Historical Society.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4" id="Footnote_4" href="#FNanchor_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Written at eight years of age.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5" id="Footnote_5" href="#FNanchor_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Emerson in Concord. By Edward Waldo Emerson.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6" id="Footnote_6" href="#FNanchor_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> "Philothea" was the delight of girls. The young Alcotts
+made a dramatic version of it, which they acted under the trees.
+Louisa made a magnificent Aspasia, which was a part much to her
+fancy. Mrs. Child was a very dear friend of Mrs. Alcott, and her
+daughters knew her well.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7" id="Footnote_7" href="#FNanchor_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> A fine bas-relief owned by Mr. Emerson.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8" id="Footnote_8" href="#FNanchor_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Betsey Prig was a pet name for her sister, as she herself was
+Sairey Gamp.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9" id="Footnote_9" href="#FNanchor_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> This was a family joke as Mrs. Alcott always ended her instructions
+to her children "in case of fire."]</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10" id="Footnote_10" href="#FNanchor_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> This is the poem prefixed to the chapter.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11" id="Footnote_11" href="#FNanchor_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> See Shawl Straps, p. 179.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12" id="Footnote_12" href="#FNanchor_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> This poem was first published anonymously in "The Masque
+of Poets," in 1878.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13" id="Footnote_13" href="#FNanchor_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> In Spinning-Wheel Stories.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14" id="Footnote_14" href="#FNanchor_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Under the Lilacs.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15" id="Footnote_15" href="#FNanchor_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> Under the Lilacs, page 78.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16" id="Footnote_16" href="#FNanchor_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Gardener's Daughter.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17" id="Footnote_17" href="#FNanchor_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> This interesting picture is in the possession of her sister.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOUISA MAY ALCOTT ***</div>
+<div style='text-align:left'>
+
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #38049 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38049)
diff --git a/old/38049-8.txt b/old/38049-8.txt
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Louisa May Alcott, by Louisa May Alcott
+
+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: Louisa May Alcott
+       Her Life, Letters, and Journals
+
+Author: Louisa May Alcott
+
+Editor: Ednah D. Cheney
+
+Release Date: November 18, 2011 [EBook #38049]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOUISA MAY ALCOTT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Melissa McDaniel and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+  Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have
+  been preserved.  Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
+
+  Italic text is denoted by _underscores_ and bold text by =equal
+  signs=
+
+
+
+
+     LOUISA MAY ALCOTT
+     HER
+     Life, Letters, and Journals.
+
+     EDITED BY
+     EDNAH D. CHENEY
+
+     BOSTON
+     LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
+     1898
+
+
+
+
+     _Copyright, 1889_,
+     BY J. S. P. ALCOTT.
+
+     UNIVERSITY PRESS:
+     JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE.
+
+
+
+
+     TO
+     MRS. ANNA B. PRATT,
+     THE SOLE SURVIVING SISTER OF LOUISA M. ALCOTT, AND HER
+     NEVER-FAILING HELP, COMFORTER, AND FRIEND
+     FROM BIRTH TO DEATH,
+
+     This Memoir
+     IS RESPECTFULLY AND TENDERLY DEDICATED,
+     BY
+     EDNAH D. CHENEY.
+
+     JAMAICA PLAIN,
+     June, 1889.
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration: Portrait of Miss Alcott]
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+Louisa May Alcott is universally recognized as the greatest and most
+popular story-teller for children in her generation. She has known the
+way to the hearts of young people, not only in her own class, or even
+country, but in every condition of life, and in many foreign lands.
+Plato says, "Beware of those who teach fables to children;" and it is
+impossible to estimate the influence which the popular writer of
+fiction has over the audience he wins to listen to his tales. The
+preacher, the teacher, the didactic writer find their audience in
+hours of strength, with critical faculties all alive, to question
+their propositions and refute their arguments. The novelist comes to
+us in the intervals of recreation and relaxation, and by his seductive
+powers of imagination and sentiment takes possession of the fancy and
+the heart before judgment and reason are aroused to defend the
+citadel. It well becomes us, then, who would guard young minds from
+subtle temptations, to study the character of those works which charm
+and delight the children.
+
+Of no author can it be more truly said than of Louisa Alcott that her
+works are a revelation of herself. She rarely sought for the material
+of her stories in old chronicles, or foreign adventures. Her capital
+was her own life and experiences and those of others directly about
+her; and her own well-remembered girlish frolics and fancies were sure
+to find responsive enjoyment in the minds of other girls.
+
+It is therefore impossible to understand Miss Alcott's works fully
+without a knowledge of her own life and experiences. By inheritance
+and education she had rich and peculiar gifts; and her life was one of
+rare advantages, as well as of trying difficulties. Herself of the
+most true and frank nature, she has given us the opportunity of
+knowing her without disguise; and it is thus that I shall try to
+portray her, showing what influences acted upon her through life, and
+how faithfully and fully she performed whatever duties circumstances
+laid upon her. Fortunately I can let her speak mainly for herself.
+
+Miss Alcott revised her journals at different times during her later
+life, striking out what was too personal for other eyes than her own,
+and destroying a great deal which would doubtless have proved very
+interesting.
+
+The small number of letters given will undoubtedly be a
+disappointment. Miss Alcott wished to have most of her letters
+destroyed, and her sister respected her wishes. She was not a
+voluminous correspondent; she did not encourage many intimacies, and
+she seldom wrote letters except to her family, unless in reference to
+some purpose she had strongly at heart. Writing was her constant
+occupation, and she was not tempted to indulge in it as a recreation.
+Her letters are brief, and strictly to the point, but always
+characteristic in feeling and expression; and, even at the risk of the
+repetition of matter contained in her journals or her books, I shall
+give copious extracts from such as have come into my hands.
+
+     E. D. C.
+     JAMAICA PLAIN, Mass., 1889.
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS.
+
+
+                                             PAGE
+
+     INTRODUCTION                             iii
+
+     CHAPTER.
+
+        I. GENEALOGY AND PARENTAGE             11
+       II. CHILDHOOD                           16
+      III. FRUITLANDS                          32
+       IV. THE SENTIMENTAL PERIOD              56
+        V. AUTHORSHIP                          75
+       VI. THE YEAR OF GOOD LUCK              110
+      VII. "HOSPITAL SKETCHES"                136
+     VIII. EUROPE, AND "LITTLE WOMEN"         170
+       IX. EUROPE                             204
+        X. FAMILY CHANGES                     263
+       XI. LAST YEARS                         329
+      XII. CONCLUSION                         387
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+                                                                PAGE
+
+     PORTRAIT OF MISS ALCOTT                          _Frontispiece_
+
+     Photogravure by A. W. Elson & Co., from a photograph by
+     Notman (negative destroyed), taken in 1883. The facsimile
+     of her writing is an extract from a letter to her
+     publisher, written from her hospital retreat a few weeks
+     previous to her death.
+
+     ORCHARD HOUSE ("APPLE SLUMP"), CONCORD,
+     MASS., THE HOME OF THE ALCOTTS, 1858 TO
+     1878                                                         93
+
+     Engraved by John Andrew & Son Co., from a photograph.
+
+     PORTRAIT OF MISS ALCOTT                                     140
+
+     Photogravure by A. W. Elson & Co., from a photograph
+     taken just previous to her going to Washington as a hospital
+     nurse, in 1862.
+
+     FAC-SIMILE OF MISS ALCOTT'S WRITING                         362
+
+     Extract from a letter to her publisher, January, 1886.
+
+     FAC-SIMILE OF PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION OF
+     "A MODERN MEPHISTOPHELES," NOW FIRST
+     PRINTED                                                     380
+
+
+
+
+LOUISA MAY ALCOTT.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+GENEALOGY AND PARENTAGE.
+
+     TO LOUISA MAY ALCOTT.
+
+     BY HER FATHER.
+
+     When I remember with what buoyant heart,
+       Midst war's alarms and woes of civil strife,
+     In youthful eagerness thou didst depart,
+       At peril of thy safety, peace, and life,
+     To nurse the wounded soldier, swathe the dead,--
+       How piercèd soon by fever's poisoned dart,
+     And brought unconscious home, with wildered head,
+       Thou ever since 'mid langour and dull pain,
+     To conquer fortune, cherish kindred dear,
+       Hast with grave studies vexed a sprightly brain,
+     In myriad households kindled love and cheer,
+       Ne'er from thyself by Fame's loud trump beguiled,
+     Sounding in this and the farther hemisphere,--
+       I press thee to my heart as Duty's faithful child.
+
+
+Louisa Alcott was the second child of Amos Bronson and Abba May
+Alcott. This name was spelled Alcocke in English history. About 1616 a
+coat-of-arms was granted to Thomas Alcocke of Silbertoft, in the
+county of Leicester. The device represents three cocks, emblematic of
+watchfulness; and the motto is _Semper Vigilans_.
+
+The first of the name appearing in English history is John Alcocke of
+Beverley, Yorkshire, of whom Fuller gives an account in his Worthies
+of England.
+
+Thomas and George Alcocke were the first of the name among the
+settlers in New England. The name is frequently found in the records
+of Dorchester and Roxbury, and has passed through successive changes
+to its present form.
+
+The name of Bronson came from Mr. Alcott's maternal grandfather, the
+sturdy Capt. Amos Bronson of Plymouth, Conn. "His ancestors on both
+sides had been substantial people of respectable position in England,
+and were connected with the founders and governors of the chief New
+England colonies. At the time of Mr. Alcott's birth they had become
+simple farmers, reaping a scanty living from their small farms in
+Connecticut."
+
+Amos Bronson Alcott, the father of Louisa, was born Nov. 29, 1799, at
+the foot of Spindle Hill, in the region called New Connecticut. He has
+himself given in simple verse the story of his quaint rustic life in
+his boyhood, and Louisa has reproduced it in her story of "Eli's
+Education" (in the Spinning-Wheel Stories), which gives a very true
+account of his youthful life and adventures. He derived his refined,
+gentle nature from his mother, who had faith in her son, and who lived
+to see him the accomplished scholar he had vowed to become in his
+boyhood. Although brought up in these rustic surroundings, his manners
+were always those of a true gentleman. The name of the little mountain
+town afterward became Wolcott, and Louisa records in her journal a
+pilgrimage made thither in after years.[1]
+
+Louisa Alcott's mother was a daughter of Col. Joseph May of Boston.
+This family is so well known that it is hardly necessary to repeat its
+genealogy here.[2] She was a sister of Samuel J. May, for many years
+pastor of the Unitarian church at Syracuse, who was so tenderly
+beloved by men of all religious persuasions in his home, and so widely
+known and respected for his courage and zeal in the Antislavery cause,
+as well as for his many philanthropic labors.
+
+Mrs. Alcott's mother was Dorothy Sewall, a descendant of that family
+already distinguished in the annals of the Massachusetts colony, and
+which has lost nothing of its reputation for ability and virtue in its
+latest representatives.[3]
+
+Mrs. Alcott inherited in large measure the traits which distinguished
+her family. She was a woman of large stature, fine physique, and
+overflowing life. Her temper was as quick and warm as her affections,
+but she was full of broad unselfish generosity. Her untiring energies
+were constantly employed, not only for the benefit of her family, but
+for all around her. She had a fine mind, and if she did not have
+large opportunities for scholastic instruction, she always enjoyed the
+benefit of intellectual society and converse with noble minds. She
+loved expression in writing, and her letters are full of wit and
+humor, keen criticism, and noble moral sentiments. Marriage with an
+idealist, who had no means of support, brought her many trials and
+privations. She bore them heroically, never wavering in affection for
+her husband or in devotion to her children. If the quick, impatient
+temper sometimes relieved itself in hasty speech, the action was
+always large and unselfish.
+
+It will be apparent from Louisa's life that she inherited the traits
+of both her parents, and that the uncommon powers of mind and heart
+that distinguished her were not accidental, but the accumulated result
+of the lives of generations of strong and noble men and women.
+
+She was well born.
+
+
+_Mr. Alcott to Colonel May._
+
+     GERMANTOWN, Nov. 29, 1832.
+
+   DEAR SIR,--It is with great pleasure that I announce to you the
+   _birth of a second daughter_. She was born at half-past 12 this
+   morning, on my birthday (33), and is a very fine healthful child,
+   much more so than Anna was at birth,--has a fine foundation for
+   health and energy of character. Abba is very comfortable, and
+   will soon be restored to the discharge of those domestic and
+   maternal duties in which she takes so much delight, and in the
+   performance of which she furnishes so excellent a model for
+   imitation. Those only who have seen her in those relations, much
+   as there is in her general character to admire and esteem, can
+   form a true estimate of her personal worth and uncommon devotion
+   of heart. She was formed for domestic sentiment rather than the
+   gaze and heartlessness of what is falsely called "society." Abba
+   inclines to call the babe _Louisa May_,--a name to her full of
+   every association connected with amiable benevolence and exalted
+   worth. I hope its _present possessor_ may rise to equal
+   attainment, and deserve a place in the estimation of society.
+
+   With Abba's and Anna's and Louisa's regards, allow me to assure
+   you of the sincerity with which I am
+
+     Yours,
+     A. BRONSON ALCOTT.
+
+The children who lived to maturity were--
+
+     ANNA BRONSON ALCOTT,
+     LOUISA MAY ALCOTT,
+     ELIZABETH SEWALL ALCOTT,
+     ABBA MAY ALCOTT.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] For further particulars of the Alcott genealogy, see "New
+Connecticut," a poem by A. B. Alcott, published in 1887. I am also
+indebted to Mr. F. B. Sanborn's valuable paper read at the memorial
+service at Concord in 1888.
+
+[2] For particulars of the genealogy of the May families, see "A
+Genealogy of the Descendants of John May," who came from England to
+Roxbury in America, 1640.
+
+[3] For the Sewall family, see "Drake's History of Boston," or fuller
+accounts in the Sewall Papers published by the Massachusetts
+Historical Society.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+CHILDHOOD.
+
+     TO THE FIRST ROBIN.[4]
+
+     Welcome, welcome, little stranger,
+     Fear no harm, and fear no danger;
+     We are glad to see you here,
+     For you sing "Sweet Spring is near."
+
+     Now the white snow melts away;
+     Now the flowers blossom gay:
+     Come dear bird and build your nest,
+     For we love our robin best.
+
+       LOUISA MAY ALCOTT.
+       CONCORD.
+
+
+Mr. Alcott had removed to Germantown, Penn, to take charge of a
+school, and here Louisa was born, Nov. 29, 1832. She was the second
+daughter, and was welcomed with the same pride and affection as her
+elder sister had been. We have this pleasant little glimpse of her
+when she was hardly a month old, from the pen of one of her mother's
+friends. Even at that extremely early age love saw the signs of more
+than usual intelligence, and friends as well as fond parents looked
+forward to a promising career.
+
+
+_Extract from a Letter by Miss Donaldson._
+
+     GERMANTOWN, PENN., Dec. 16, 1832.
+
+   I have a dear little pet in Mrs. Alcott's little Louisa. It is
+   the prettiest, best little thing in the world. You will wonder to
+   hear me call anything so young pretty, but it is really so in an
+   uncommon degree; it has a fair complexion, dark bright eyes, long
+   dark hair, a high forehead, and altogether a countenance of more
+   than usual intelligence.
+
+   The mother is such a delightful woman that it is a cordial to my
+   heart whenever I go to see her. I went in to see her for a few
+   moments the evening we received your letter, and I think I never
+   saw her in better spirits; and truly, if goodness and integrity
+   can insure felicity, she deserves to be happy.
+
+The earliest anecdote remembered of Louisa is this: When the family
+went from Philadelphia to Boston by steamer, the two little girls were
+nicely dressed in clean nankeen frocks for the voyage; but they had
+not been long on board before the lively Louisa was missing, and after
+a long search she was brought up from the engine-room, where her eager
+curiosity had carried her, and where she was having a beautiful time,
+with "plenty of dirt."
+
+The family removed to Boston in 1834, and Mr. Alcott opened his famous
+school in Masonic Temple. Louisa was too young to attend the school
+except as an occasional visitor; but she found plenty of interest and
+amusement for herself in playing on the Common, making friends with
+every child she met, and on one occasion falling into the Frog Pond.
+She has given a very lively picture of this period of her life in
+"Poppy's Pranks," that vivacious young person being a picture of
+herself, not at all exaggerated.
+
+The family lived successively in Front Street, Cottage Place, and
+Beach Street during the six succeeding years in Boston. They
+occasionally passed some weeks at Scituate during the summer, which
+the children heartily enjoyed.
+
+Mrs. Hawthorne gives a little anecdote which shows how the child's
+heart was blossoming in this family sunshine: "One morning in Front
+Street, at the breakfast table, Louisa suddenly broke silence, with a
+sunny smile saying, 'I love everybody in _dis_ whole world.'"
+
+Two children were born during this residence in Boston. Elizabeth was
+named for Mr. Alcott's assistant in his school,--Miss E. P. Peabody,
+since so widely known and beloved by all friends of education. A boy
+was born only to die. The little body was laid reverently away in the
+lot of Colonel May in the old burial-ground on the Common, and the
+children were taught to speak with tenderness of their "baby brother."
+
+When Louisa was about seven years old she made a visit to friends in
+Providence. Miss C. writes of her: "She is a beautiful little girl to
+look upon, and I love her affectionate manners. I think she is more
+like her mother than either of the others." As is usually the case,
+Louisa's journal, which she began at this early age, speaks more fully
+of her struggles and difficulties than of the bright, sunny moods
+which made her attractive. A little letter carefully printed and sent
+home during this visit is preserved. In it she says she is not happy;
+and she did have one trying experience there, to which she refers in
+"My Boys." Seeing some poor children who she thought were hungry, she
+took food from the house without asking permission, and carried it to
+them, and was afterward very much astonished and grieved at being
+reprimanded instead of praised for the deed. Miss C. says: "She has
+had several spells of feeling sad; but a walk or a talk soon dispels
+all gloom. She was half moody when she wrote her letter; but now she
+is gay as a lark. She loves to play out of doors, and sometimes she is
+not inclined to stay in when it is unpleasant." In her sketches of "My
+Boys" she describes two of her companions here, not forgetting the
+kindness of the one and the mischievousness of the other.
+
+Although the family were quite comfortable during the time of Mr.
+Alcott's teaching in Boston, yet the children wearied of their
+extremely simple diet of plain boiled rice without sugar, and graham
+meal without butter or molasses. An old friend who could not eat the
+bountiful rations provided for her at the United States Hotel, used to
+save her piece of pie or cake for the Alcott children. Louisa often
+took it home to the others in a bandbox which she brought for the
+purpose.
+
+This friend was absent in Europe many years, and returned to find the
+name of Louisa Alcott famous. When she met the authoress on the street
+she was eagerly greeted. "Why, I did not think you would remember me!"
+said the old lady. "Do you think I shall ever forget that bandbox?"
+was the instant reply.
+
+In 1840, Mr. Alcott's school having proved unsuccessful, the family
+removed to Concord, Mass., and took a cottage which is described in
+"Little Women" as "Meg's first home," although Anna never lived there
+after her marriage. It was a pleasant house, with a garden full of
+trees, and best of all a large barn, in which the children could have
+free range and act out all the plays with which their little heads
+were teeming. Of course it was a delightful change from the city for
+the children, and here they passed two very happy years, for they were
+too young to understand the cares which pressed upon the hearts of
+their parents. Life was full of interest. One cold morning they found
+in the garden a little half-starved bird; and having warmed and fed
+it, Louisa was inspired to write a pretty poem to "The Robin." The
+fond mother was so delighted that she said to her, "You will grow up a
+Shakspeare!" From the lessons of her father she had formed the habit
+of writing freely, but this is the first recorded instance of her
+attempting to express her feelings in verse.
+
+From the influences of such parentage as I have described, the family
+life in which Louisa was brought up became wholly unique.
+
+If the father had to give up his cherished projects of a school
+modelled after his ideas, he could at least conduct the education of
+his own children; and he did so with the most tender devotion. Even
+when they were infants he took a great deal of personal care of them,
+and loved to put the little ones to bed and use the "children's hour"
+to instil into their hearts lessons of love and wisdom. He was full of
+fun too, and would lie on the floor and frolic with them, making
+compasses of his long legs with which to draw letters and diagrams. No
+shade of fear mingled with the children's reverent recognition of his
+superior spiritual life. So their hearts lay open to him, and he was
+able to help them in their troubles.
+
+He taught them much by writing; and we have many specimens of their
+lists of words to be spelled, written, and understood. The lessons at
+Scituate were often in the garden, and their father always drew their
+attention to Nature and her beautiful forms and meanings. Little
+symbolical pictures helped to illustrate his lessons, and he sometimes
+made drawings himself. Here is an example of lessons. A quaint little
+picture represents one child playing on a harp, another drawing an
+arrow. It is inscribed--
+
+     FOR LOUISA.
+
+     1840.
+
+     Two passions strong divide our life,--
+     Meek, gentle love, or boisterous strife.
+
+Below the child playing the harp is--
+
+     Love, Music,
+       Concord.
+
+Below the shooter is--
+
+     Anger, Arrow,
+       Discord.
+
+Another leaflet is--
+
+     FOR LOUISA
+
+     1840.
+
+       Louisa loves--
+         What?
+     (_Softly._)
+         Fun.
+       Have some then,
+            Father
+                says.
+
+     Christmas Eve, December, 1840.
+     Concordia.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     FOR ANNA.
+
+     1840.
+
+     Beauty or Duty,--
+           which
+       loves Anna best?
+             A
+         Question
+         from her
+         Father.
+
+     Christmas Eve,
+     December, 1840.
+     Concordia.
+
+A letter beautifully printed by her father for Louisa (1839) speaks to
+her of conscience, and she adds to it this note: "L. began early, it
+seems, to wrestle with her conscience." The children were always
+required to keep their journals regularly, and although these were
+open to the inspection of father and mother, they were very frank, and
+really recorded their struggles and desires. The mother had the habit
+of writing little notes to the children when she wished to call their
+attention to any fault or peculiarity. Louisa preserved many of them,
+headed,--
+
+   [_Extracts_ from letters from Mother, received during these early
+   years. I preserve them to show the ever tender, watchful help she
+   gave to the child who caused her the most anxiety, yet seemed to
+   be the nearest to her heart till the end.--L. M. A.]
+
+   No. 1.--MY DEAR LITTLE GIRL,--Will you accept this doll from me
+   on your seventh birthday? She will be a quiet playmate for my
+   active Louisa for seven years more. Be a kind mamma, and love her
+   for my sake.
+
+     YOUR MOTHER.
+     BEACH STREET, BOSTON, 1839.
+
+
+_From her Mother._
+
+     COTTAGE IN CONCORD.
+
+   DEAR DAUGHTER,--Your tenth birthday has arrived. May it be a
+   happy one, and on each returning birthday may you feel new
+   strength and resolution to be gentle with sisters, obedient to
+   parents, loving to every one, and happy in yourself.
+
+   I give you the pencil-case I promised, for I have observed that
+   you are fond of writing, and wish to encourage the habit.
+
+   Go on trying, dear, and each day it will be easier to be and do
+   good. You must help yourself, for the cause of your little
+   troubles is in yourself; and patience and courage age only will
+   make you what mother prays to see you,--her good and happy girl.
+
+     CONCORD, 1843.
+
+   DEAR LOUY,--I enclose a picture for you which I always liked very
+   much, for I imagined that you might be just such an industrious
+   daughter and I such a feeble but loving mother, looking to your
+   labor for my daily bread.
+
+   Keep it for my sake and your own, for you and I always liked to
+   be grouped together.
+
+     MOTHER.
+
+   The lines I wrote under the picture in my journal:--
+
+     TO MOTHER.
+
+     I hope that soon, dear mother,
+       You and I may be
+     In the quiet room my fancy
+       Has so often made for thee,--
+
+     The pleasant, sunny chamber,
+       The cushioned easy-chair,
+     The book 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,
+       And I can cherish thee.
+
+   [The dream came true, and for the last ten years of her life
+   Marmee sat in peace, with every wish granted, even to the
+   "grouping together;" for she died in my arms.--L. M. A.]
+
+A passage in Louisa's story of "Little Men" (p. 268) describes one of
+their childish plays. They "made believe" their minds were little
+round rooms in which the soul lived, and in which good or bad things
+were preserved. This play was never forgotten in after life, and the
+girls often looked into their little rooms for comfort or guidance in
+trial or temptation.
+
+Louisa was very fond of animals, as is abundantly shown in her
+stories. She never had the happiness of owning many pets, except cats,
+and these were the delight of the household. The children played all
+manner of plays with them, tended them in sickness, buried them with
+funeral honors, and Louisa has embalmed their memory in the story of
+"The Seven Black Cats" in "Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag."
+
+Dolls were an equal source of pleasure. The imaginative children
+hardly recognized them as manufactured articles, but endowed them with
+life and feeling. Louisa put her dolls through every experience of
+life; they were fed, educated, punished, rewarded, nursed, and even
+hung and buried, and then resurrected in her stories. The account of
+the "Sacrifice of the Dolls" to the exacting Kitty Mouse in "Little
+Men" delights all children by its mixture of pathetic earnestness and
+playfulness. It is taken from the experience of another family of
+children.
+
+Miss Alcott twice says that she never went to any school but her
+father's; but there were some slight exceptions to this rule. She went
+a few months to a little district school in Still River Village. This
+was a genuine old-fashioned school, from which she took the hint of
+the frolics in "Under the Lilacs." Miss Ford also kept a little school
+in Mr. Emerson's barn, to which the children went; and Mary Russell
+had a school, which Louisa attended when eight or nine years old.
+These circumstances, however, had small influence in her education.
+
+During this period of life in Concord, which was so happy to the
+children, the mother's heart was full of anxious care. She however
+entered into all their childish pleasures, and her watchful care over
+their moral growth is shown by her letters and by Louisa's journals.
+
+The youngest child, Abba May, who was born in the cottage, became the
+pet of the family and the special care of the oldest sister, Anna.
+
+Louisa's childish journal gives us many hints of this happy life. She
+revised these journals in later years, adding significant comments
+which are full of interest. She designed them to have place in her
+autobiography, which she hoped to write.
+
+From three different sources--her journals, an article written for
+publication, and a manuscript prepared for a friend,--we give her own
+account of these childish years. She has not followed the order of
+events strictly, and it has not been possible, therefore, to avoid all
+repetition; but they give the spirit of her early life, and clearly
+show the kind of education she received from her father and from the
+circumstances around her.
+
+
+_Sketch of Childhood, by herself._
+
+   One of my earliest recollections is of playing with books in my
+   father's study,--building houses and bridges of the big
+   dictionaries and diaries, looking at pictures, pretending to
+   read, and scribbling on blank pages whenever pen or pencil could
+   be found. Many of these first attempts at authorship still remain
+   in Bacon's Essays, Plutarch's Lives, and other works of a serious
+   nature, my infant taste being for solid literature, apparently.
+
+   On one occasion we built a high tower round baby Lizzie as she
+   sat playing with her toys on the floor, and being attracted by
+   something out-of-doors, forgot our little prisoner. A search was
+   made, and patient baby at last discovered curled up and fast
+   asleep in her dungeon cell, out of which she emerged so rosy and
+   smiling after her nap that we were forgiven for our carelessness.
+
+   Another memory is of my fourth birthday, which was celebrated at
+   my father's school-room in Masonic Temple. All the children were
+   there. I wore a crown of flowers, and stood upon a table to
+   dispense cakes to each child as the procession marched past. By
+   some oversight the cakes fell short, and I saw that if I gave
+   away the last one I should have none. As I was queen of the
+   revel, I felt that I ought to have it, and held on to it tightly
+   till my mother said,--
+
+   "It is always better to give away than to keep the nice things;
+   so I know my Louy will not let the little friend go without."
+
+   The little friend received the dear plummy cake, and I a kiss and
+   my first lesson in the sweetness of self-denial,--a lesson which
+   my dear mother beautifully illustrated all her long and noble
+   life.
+
+   Running away was one of the delights of my early days; and I
+   still enjoy sudden flights out of the nest to look about this
+   very interesting world, and then go back to report.
+
+   On one of these occasions I passed a varied day with some Irish
+   children, who hospitably shared their cold potatoes, salt-fish,
+   and crusts with me as we revelled in the ash-heaps which then
+   adorned the waste lands where the Albany Depot now stands. A trip
+   to the Common cheered the afternoon, but as dusk set in and my
+   friends deserted me, I felt that home was a nice place after all,
+   and tried to find it. I dimly remember watching a lamp-lighter as
+   I sat to rest on some doorsteps in Bedford Street, where a big
+   dog welcomed me so kindly that I fell asleep with my head
+   pillowed on his curly back, and was found there by the
+   town-crier, whom my distracted parents had sent in search of me.
+   His bell and proclamation of the loss of "a little girl, six
+   years old, in a pink frock, white hat, and new green shoes," woke
+   me up, and a small voice answered out of the darkness,--
+
+   "Why, dat's me!"
+
+   Being with difficulty torn from my four-footed friend, I was
+   carried to the crier's house, and there feasted sumptuously on
+   bread-and-molasses in a tin plate with the alphabet round it. But
+   my fun ended next day when I was tied to the arm of the sofa to
+   repent at leisure.
+
+   I became an Abolitionist at a very early age, but have never been
+   able to decide whether I was made so by seeing the portrait of
+   George Thompson hidden under a bed in our house during the
+   Garrison riot, and going to comfort "the poor man who had been
+   good to the slaves," or because I was saved from drowning in the
+   Frog Pond some years later by a colored boy. However that may be,
+   the conversion was genuine; and my greatest pride is in the fact
+   that I lived to know the brave men and women who did so much for
+   the cause, and that I had a very small share in the war which put
+   an end to a great wrong.
+
+Another recollection of her childhood was of a "contraband" hidden in
+the oven, which must have made her sense of the horrors of slavery
+very keen.
+
+   I never went to school except to my father or such governesses as
+   from time to time came into the family. Schools then were not
+   what they are now; so we had lessons each morning in the study.
+   And very happy hours they were to us, for my father taught in the
+   wise way which unfolds what lies in the child's nature, as a
+   flower blooms, rather than crammed it, like a Strasburg goose,
+   with more than it could digest. I never liked arithmetic nor
+   grammar, and dodged those branches on all occasions; but reading,
+   writing, composition, history, and geography I enjoyed, as well
+   as the stories read to us with a skill peculiarly his own.
+
+   "Pilgrim's Progress," Krummacher's "Parables," Miss Edgeworth,
+   and the best of the dear old fairy tales made the reading hour
+   the pleasantest of our day. On Sundays we had a simple service of
+   Bible stories, hymns, and conversation about the state of our
+   little consciences and the conduct of our childish lives which
+   never will be forgotten.
+
+   Walks each morning round the Common while in the city, and long
+   tramps over hill and dale when our home was in the country, were
+   a part of our education, as well as every sort of housework,--for
+   which I have always been very grateful, since such knowledge
+   makes one independent in these days of domestic tribulation with
+   the "help" who are too often only hindrances.
+
+   Needle-work began early, and at ten my skilful sister made a
+   linen shirt beautifully; while at twelve I set up as a doll's
+   dressmaker, with my sign out and wonderful models in my window.
+   All the children employed me, and my turbans were the rage at one
+   time, to the great dismay of the neighbors' hens, who were hotly
+   hunted down, that I might tweak out their downiest feathers to
+   adorn the dolls' headgear.
+
+   Active exercise was my delight, from the time when a child of six
+   I drove my hoop round the Common without stopping, to the days
+   when I did my twenty miles in five hours and went to a party in
+   the evening.
+
+   I always thought I must have been a deer or a horse in some
+   former state, because it was such a joy to run. No boy could be
+   my friend till I had beaten him in a race, and no girl if she
+   refused to climb trees, leap fences, and be a tomboy.
+
+   My wise mother, anxious to give me a strong body to support a
+   lively brain, turned me loose in the country and let me run wild,
+   learning of Nature what no books can teach, and being led,--as
+   those who truly love her seldom fail to be,--
+
+     "Through Nature up to Nature's God."
+
+   I remember running over the hills just at dawn one summer
+   morning, and pausing to rest in the silent woods, saw, through an
+   arch of trees, the sun rise over river, hill, and wide green
+   meadows as I never saw it before.
+
+   Something born of the lovely hour, a happy mood, and the
+   unfolding aspirations of a child's soul seemed to bring me very
+   near to God; and in the hush of that morning hour I always felt
+   that I "got religion," as the phrase goes. A new and vital sense
+   of His presence, tender and sustaining as a father's arms, came
+   to me then, never to change through forty years of life's
+   vicissitudes, but to grow stronger for the sharp discipline of
+   poverty and pain, sorrow and success.
+
+   Those Concord days were the happiest of my life, for we had
+   charming playmates in the little Emersons, Channings, Hawthornes,
+   and Goodwins, with the illustrious parents and their friends to
+   enjoy our pranks and share our excursions.
+
+   Plays in the barn were a favorite amusement, and we dramatized
+   the fairy tales in great style. Our giant came tumbling off a
+   loft when Jack cut down the squash-vine running up a ladder to
+   represent the immortal bean. Cinderella rolled away in a vast
+   pumpkin, and a long black pudding was lowered by invisible hands
+   to fasten itself on the nose of the woman who wasted her three
+   wishes.
+
+   Pilgrims journeyed over the hill with scrip and staff and
+   cockle-shells in their hats; fairies held their pretty revels
+   among the whispering birches, and strawberry parties in the
+   rustic arbor were honored by poets and philosophers, who fed us
+   on their wit and wisdom while the little maids served more mortal
+   food.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[4] Written at eight years of age.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+FRUITLANDS.
+
+     MY KINGDOM.
+
+     A little kingdom I possess,
+       Where thoughts and feelings dwell,
+     And very hard I find the task
+       Of governing it well;
+     For passion tempts and troubles me,
+       A wayward will misleads,
+     And selfishness its shadow casts
+       On all my words and deeds.
+
+     How can I learn to rule myself,
+       To be the child I should,
+     Honest and brave, nor ever tire
+       Of trying to be good?
+     How can I keep a sunny soul
+       To shine along life's way?
+     How can I tune my little heart
+       To sweetly sing all day?
+
+     Dear Father, help me with the love
+       That casteth out my fear,
+     Teach me to lean on thee, and feel
+       That thou art very near,
+     That no temptation is unseen,
+       No childish grief too small,
+     Since thou, with patience infinite,
+       Doth soothe and comfort all.
+
+     I do not ask for any crown
+       But that which all may win,
+     Nor seek to conquer any world
+       Except the one within.
+     Be thou my guide until I find,
+       Led by a tender hand,
+     Thy happy kingdom in _myself_,
+     And dare to take command.
+
+
+In 1842 Mr. Alcott went to England. His mind was very much exercised
+at this time with plans for organized social life on a higher plane,
+and he found like-minded friends in England who gave him sympathy and
+encouragement. He had for some years advocated a strictly vegetarian
+diet, to which his family consented from deference to him;
+consequently the children never tasted meat till they came to
+maturity. On his return from England he was accompanied by friends who
+were ready to unite with him in the practical realization of their
+social theories. Mr. Lane resided for some months in the Alcott family
+at Concord, and gave instruction to the children. Although he does not
+appear to have won their hearts, they yet reaped much intellectual
+advantage from his lessons, as he was an accomplished scholar.
+
+In 1843 this company of enthusiasts secured a farm in the town of
+Harvard, near Concord, which with trusting hope they named Fruitlands.
+Mrs. Alcott did not share in all the peculiar ideas of her husband and
+his friends, but she was so utterly devoted to him that she was ready
+to help him in carrying out his plans, however little they commended
+themselves to her better judgment.
+
+She alludes very briefly to the experiment in her diary, for the
+experience was too bitter to dwell upon. She could not relieve her
+feelings by bringing out the comic side, as her daughter did. Louisa's
+account of this colony, as given in her story called "Transcendental
+Wild Oats," is very close to the facts; and the mingling of pathos and
+humor, the reverence and ridicule with which she alternately treats
+the personages and the notions of those engaged in the scheme, make a
+rich and delightful tale. It was written many years later, and gives
+the picture as she looked back upon it, the absurdities coming out in
+strong relief, while she sees also the grand, misty outlines of the
+high thoughts so poorly realized. This story was published in the
+"Independent," Dec. 8, 1873, and may now be found in her collected
+works ("Silver Pitchers," p. 79).
+
+Fortunately we have also her journal written at the time, which shows
+what education the experience of this strange life brought to the
+child of ten or eleven years old.
+
+The following extract from Mr. Emerson proves that this plan of life
+looked fair and pleasing to his eye, although he was never tempted to
+join in it. He was evidently not unconscious of the inadequacy of the
+means adopted to the end proposed, but he rejoiced in any endeavor
+after high ideal life.
+
+     JULY, 8, 1843.
+
+   _Journal._--The sun and the evening sky do not look calmer than
+   Alcott and his family at Fruitlands. They seemed to have arrived
+   at the fact,--to have got rid of the show, and so to be serene.
+   Their manners and behavior in the house and in the field were
+   those of superior men,--of men at rest. What had they to conceal?
+   What had they to exhibit? And it seemed so high an attainment
+   that I thought--as often before, so now more, because they had a
+   fit home, or the picture was fitly framed--that these men ought
+   to be maintained in their place by the country for its culture.
+
+   Young men and young maidens, old men and women, should visit them
+   and be inspired. I think there is as much merit in beautiful
+   manners as in hard work. I will not prejudge them successful.
+   They look well in July; we will see them in December. I know they
+   are better for themselves than as partners. One can easily see
+   that they have yet to settle several things. Their saying that
+   things are clear, and they sane, does not make them so. If they
+   will in very deed be lovers, and not selfish; if they will serve
+   the town of Harvard, and make their neighbors feel them as
+   benefactors wherever they touch them,--they are as safe as the
+   sun.[5]
+
+
+_Early Diary kept at Fruitlands_, 1843.
+
+_Ten Years Old._
+
+   _September 1st._--I rose at five and had my bath. I love cold
+   water! Then we had our singing-lesson with Mr. Lane. After
+   breakfast I washed dishes, and ran on the hill till nine, and had
+   some thoughts,--it was so beautiful up there. Did my
+   lessons,--wrote and spelt and did sums; and Mr. Lane read a
+   story, "The Judicious Father": How a rich girl told a poor girl
+   not to look over the fence at the flowers, and was cross to her
+   because she was unhappy. The father heard her do it, and made the
+   girls change clothes. The poor one was glad to do it, and he told
+   her to keep them. But the rich one was very sad; for she had to
+   wear the old ones a week, and after that she was good to shabby
+   girls. I liked it very much, and I shall be kind to poor people.
+
+   Father asked us what was God's noblest work. Anna said _men_, but
+   I said _babies_. Men are often bad; babies never are. We had a
+   long talk, and I felt better after it, and _cleared up_.
+
+   We had bread and fruit for dinner. I read and walked and played
+   till supper-time. We sung in the evening. As I went to bed the
+   moon came up very brightly and looked at me. I felt sad because I
+   have been cross to-day, and did not mind Mother. I cried, and
+   then I felt better, and said that piece from Mrs. Sigourney, "I
+   must not tease my mother." I get to sleep saying poetry,--I know
+   a great deal.
+
+   _Thursday, 14th._--Mr. Parker Pillsbury came, and we talked about
+   the poor slaves. I had a music lesson with Miss F. I hate her,
+   she is so fussy. I ran in the wind and played be a horse, and had
+   a lovely time in the woods with Anna and Lizzie. We were fairies,
+   and made gowns and paper wings. I "flied" the highest of all. In
+   the evening they talked about travelling. I thought about Father
+   going to England, and said this piece of poetry I found in
+   Byron's poems:--
+
+     "When I left thy shores, O Naxos,
+       Not a tear in sorrow fell;
+     Not a sigh or faltered accent
+       Told my bosom's struggling swell."
+
+   It rained when I went to bed, and made a pretty noise on the
+   roof.
+
+   _Sunday, 24th._--Father and Mr. Lane have gone to N. H. to
+   preach. It was very lovely.... Anna and I got supper. In the eve
+   I read "Vicar of Wakefield." I was cross to-day, and I cried when
+   I went to bed. I made good resolutions, and felt better in my
+   heart. If I only _kept_ all I make, I should be the best girl in
+   the world. But I don't, and so am very bad.
+
+   [Poor little sinner! _She says the same at fifty._--L. M. A.]
+
+   _October 8th._--When I woke up, the first thought I got was,
+   "It's Mother's birthday: I must be very good." I ran and wished
+   her a happy birthday, and gave her my kiss. After breakfast we
+   gave her our presents. I had a moss cross and a piece of poetry
+   for her.
+
+   We did not have any school, and played in the woods and got red
+   leaves. In the evening we danced and sung, and I read a story
+   about "Contentment." I wish I was rich, I was good, and we were
+   all a happy family this day.
+
+   _Thursday, 12th._--After lessons I ironed. We all went to the
+   barn and husked corn. It was good fun. We worked till eight
+   o'clock and had lamps. Mr. Russell came. Mother and Lizzie are
+   going to Boston. I shall be very lonely without dear little
+   Betty, and no one will be as good to me as mother. I read in
+   Plutarch. I made a verse about sunset:--
+
+     Softly doth the sun descend
+       To his couch behind the hill,
+     Then, oh, then, I love to sit
+       On mossy banks beside the rill.
+
+   Anna thought it was very fine; but I didn't like it very well.
+
+   _Friday, Nov. 2nd._--Anna and I did the work. In the evening Mr.
+   Lane asked us, "What is man?" These were our answers: A human
+   being; an animal with a mind; a creature; a body; a soul and a
+   mind. After a long talk we went to bed very tired.
+
+   [No wonder, after doing the work and worrying their little wits
+   with such lessons.--L. M. A.]
+
+   A sample of the vegetarian wafers we used at Fruitlands:--
+
+     Vegetable diet
+     and sweet repose.
+     Animal food and
+     nightmare.
+
+     Pluck your body
+     from the orchard;
+     do not snatch it
+     from the shamble.
+
+     Without flesh diet
+     there could be no
+     blood-shedding war.
+
+     Apollo eats no
+     flesh and has no
+     beard; his voice is
+     melody itself.
+
+     Snuff is no less snuff
+     though accepted from
+     a gold box.
+
+   _Tuesday, 20th._--I rose at five, and after breakfast washed the
+   dishes, and then helped mother work. Miss F. is gone, and Anna in
+   Boston with Cousin Louisa. I took care of Abby (May) in the
+   afternoon. In the evening I made some pretty things for my dolly.
+   Father and Mr. L. 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.
+
+   Eleven years old. _Thursday, 29th._--It was Father's and my
+   birthday. We had some nice presents. We played in the snow before
+   school. Mother read "Rosamond" when we sewed. Father asked us in
+   the eve what fault troubled us most. I said my bad temper.
+
+   I told mother I liked to have her write in my book. She said she
+   would put in more, and she wrote this to help me:--
+
+   DEAR LOUY,--Your handwriting improves very fast. Take pains and
+   do not be in a hurry. I like to have you make observations about
+   our conversations and your own thoughts. It helps you to express
+   them and to understand your little self. Remember, dear girl,
+   that a diary should be an epitome of your life. May it be a
+   record of pure thought and good actions, then you will indeed be
+   the precious child of your loving mother.
+
+   _December 10th._--I did my lessons, and walked in the afternoon.
+   Father read to us in dear Pilgrim's Progress. Mr. L. was in
+   Boston, and we were glad. In the eve father and mother and Anna
+   and I had a long talk. I was very unhappy, and we all cried. Anna
+   and I cried in bed, and I prayed God to keep us all together.
+
+   [Little Lu began early to feel the family cares and peculiar
+   trials.--L. M. A.]
+
+   I liked the verses Christian sung and will put them in:--
+
+     "This place has been our second stage,
+       Here we have heard and seen
+     Those good things that from age to age
+       To others hid have been.
+
+     "They move me for to watch and pray,
+       To strive to be sincere,
+     To take my cross up day by day,
+       And serve the Lord with fear."
+
+   [The appropriateness of the song at this time was much greater
+   than the child saw. She never forgot this experience, and her
+   little cross began to grow heavier from this hour.--L. M. A.]
+
+   CONCORD, _Sunday_.--We all went into the woods to get moss for
+   the _arbor_ Father is making for _Mr. Emerson_. I miss Anna so
+   much. I made two verses for her:--
+
+     TO ANNA.
+
+     Sister, dear, when you are lonely,
+       Longing for your distant home,
+     And the images of loved ones
+       Warmly to your heart shall come,
+     Then, mid tender thoughts and fancies,
+       Let one fond voice say to thee,
+     "Ever when your heart is heavy,
+       Anna, dear, then think of me."
+
+     Think how we two have together
+       Journeyed onward day by day,
+     Joys and sorrows ever sharing,
+       While the swift years roll away.
+     Then may all the sunny hours
+       Of our youth rise up to thee,
+     And when your heart is light and happy,
+       Anna, dear, then think of me.
+
+   [Poetry began to flow about this time in a thin but copious
+   stream.--L. M. A.]
+
+   _Wednesday._--Read Martin Luther. A long letter from Anna. She
+   sends me a picture of Jenny Lind, the great singer. She must be a
+   happy girl. I should like to be famous as she is. Anna is very
+   happy; and I don't miss her as much as I shall by and by in the
+   winter.
+
+   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. Read Miss Bremer's "Home" in
+   the eve. 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.
+
+   [Moods began early.--L. M. A.]
+
+   _January, 1845, Friday._--Did my lessons, and in the P.M. mother
+   read "Kenilworth" to us while we sewed. It is splendid! I got
+   angry and called Anna mean. Father told me to look out the word
+   in the Dic., and it meant "base," "contemptible." I was so
+   ashamed to have called my dear sister that, and I cried over my
+   bad tongue and temper.
+
+   We have had a lovely day. All the trees were covered with ice,
+   and it shone like diamonds or fairy palaces. I made a piece of
+   poetry about winter:--
+
+     The stormy winter's come at last,
+       With snow and rain and bitter blast;
+     Ponds and brooks are frozen o'er,
+       We cannot sail there any more.
+
+     The little birds are flown away
+       To warmer climes than ours;
+     They'll come no more till gentle May
+       Calls them back with flowers.
+
+     Oh, then the darling birds will sing
+       From their neat nests in the trees.
+     All creatures wake to welcome Spring,
+       And flowers dance in the breeze.
+
+     With patience wait till winter is o'er,
+       And all lovely things return;
+     Of every season try the more
+       Some knowledge or virtue to learn.
+
+   [A moral is tacked on even to the early poems.--L. M. A.]
+
+   I read "Philothea,"[6] by Mrs. Child. I found this that I liked
+   in it. Plato said:--
+
+   "When I hear a note of music I can at once strike its chord. Even
+   as surely is there everlasting harmony between the soul of man
+   and the invisible forms of creation. If there were no innocent
+   hearts there would be no white lilies.... I often think flowers
+   are the angel's alphabet whereby they write on hills and fields
+   mysterious and beautiful lessons for us to feel and learn."
+
+   [Well done, twelve-year-old! Plato, the father's delight, had a
+   charm for the little girl also.--L. M. A.]
+
+   _Wednesday._--I am so cross I wish I had never been born.
+
+   _Thursday._--Read the "Heart of Mid-Lothian," and had a very
+   happy day. Miss Ford gave us a botany lesson in the woods. I am
+   always good there. In the evening Miss Ford told us about the
+   bones in our bodies, and how they get out of order. I must be
+   careful of mine, I climb and jump and run so much.
+
+   I found this note from dear mother in my journal:--
+
+   MY DEAREST LOUY,--I often peep into your diary, hoping to see
+   some record of more happy days. "Hope, and keep busy," dear
+   daughter, and in all perplexity or trouble come freely to your
+
+     MOTHER.
+
+   DEAR MOTHER,--You _shall_ see more happy days, and I _will_ come
+   to you with my worries, for you are the best woman in the world.
+
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+_A Sample of our Lessons._
+
+   "What virtues do you wish more of?" asks Mr. L.
+
+   I answer:--
+
+     Patience,
+     Obedience,
+     Industry,
+
+     Love,
+     Generosity,
+     Respect,
+
+     Silence,
+     Perseverance,
+     Self-denial.
+
+"What vices less of?"
+
+     Idleness,
+     Impatience,
+     Selfishness,
+
+     Wilfulness,
+     Impudence,
+     Activity,
+
+     Vanity,
+     Pride,
+     Love of cats.
+
+       MR. L.          L.
+     SOCRATES.     ALCIBIADES.
+
+   How can you get what you need? By trying.
+
+   How do you try? By resolution and perseverance.
+
+   How gain love? By gentleness.
+
+   What is gentleness? Kindness, patience, and care for other
+   people's feelings.
+
+   Who has it? Father and Anna.
+
+   Who means to have it? Louisa, if she can.
+
+   [She never got it.--L. M. A.]
+
+   Write a sentence about anything. "I hope it will rain; the garden
+   needs it."
+
+   What are the elements of _hope_? Expectation, desire, faith.
+
+   What are the elements in _wish_? Desire.
+
+   What is the difference between faith and hope? "Faith can believe
+   without seeing; hope is not sure, but tries to have faith when it
+   desires."
+
+     No. 3.
+
+   What are the most valuable kinds of self-denial? Appetite,
+   temper.
+
+   How is self-denial of temper known? If I control my temper, I am
+   respectful and gentle, and every one sees it.
+
+   What is the result of this self-denial? Every one loves me, and I
+   am happy.
+
+   Why use self-denial? For the good of myself and others.
+
+   How shall we learn this self-denial? By resolving, and then
+   trying _hard._
+
+   What then do you mean to do? To resolve and try.
+
+   [Here the record of these lessons ends, and poor little
+   Alcibiades went to work and tried till fifty, but without any
+   very great success, in spite of all the help Socrates and Plato
+   gave her.--L. M. A.]
+
+   _Tuesday._--More people coming to live with us; I wish we could
+   be together, and no one else. I don't see who is to clothe and
+   feed us all, when we are so poor now. I was very dismal, and then
+   went to walk and made a poem.
+
+     DESPONDENCY.
+
+           Silent and sad,
+           When all are glad,
+     And the earth is dressed in flowers;
+           When the gay birds sing
+           Till the forests ring,
+     As they rest in woodland bowers.
+
+           Oh, why these tears,
+           And these idle fears
+     For what may come to-morrow?
+           The birds find food
+           From God so good,
+     And the flowers know no sorrow.
+
+           If He clothes these
+           And the leafy trees,
+     Will He not cherish thee?
+           Why doubt His care;
+           It is everywhere,
+     Though the way we may not see.
+
+           Then why be sad
+           When all are glad,
+     And the world is full of flowers?
+           With the gay birds sing,
+           Make life all Spring,
+     And smile through the darkest hours.
+
+Louisa Alcott grew up so naturally in a healthy religious atmosphere
+that she breathed and worked in it without analysis or question. She
+had not suffered from ecclesiastical tyranny or sectarian bigotry,
+and needed not to expend any time or strength in combating them. She
+does not appear to have suffered from doubt or questioning, but to
+have gone on her way fighting all the real evils that were presented
+to her, trusting in a sure power of right, and confident of victory.
+
+   CONCORD, _Thursday._--I had an early run in the woods before the
+   dew was off the grass. The moss was like velvet, and as I ran
+   under the arches of yellow and red leaves I sang for joy, my
+   heart was so bright and the world so beautiful. I stopped at the
+   end of the walk and saw the sunshine out over the wide "Virginia
+   meadows."
+
+   It seemed like going through a dark life or grave into heaven
+   beyond. A very strange and solemn feeling came over me as I stood
+   there, with no sound but the rustle of the pines, no one near me,
+   and the sun so glorious, as for me alone. It seemed as if I
+   _felt_ God as I never did before, and I prayed in my heart that I
+   might keep that happy sense of nearness all my life.
+
+   [I have, for I most sincerely think that the little girl "got
+   religion" that day in the wood when dear mother Nature led her to
+   God.--L. M. A., 1885.]
+
+One of Louisa's strongest desires at this time was for a room of her
+own, where she might have the solitude she craved to dream her dreams
+and work out her fancies. These sweet little notes and an extract from
+her journal show how this desire was felt and gratified.
+
+   DEAREST MOTHER,--I have tried to be more contented, and I think I
+   have been more so. I have been thinking about my little room,
+   which I suppose I never shall have. I should want to be there
+   about all the time, and I should go there and sing and think.
+
+     But I'll be contented
+       With what I have got;
+     Of folly repented,
+       Then sweet is my lot.
+
+     From your trying daughter,
+     LOUY.
+
+   MY DEAR LOUISA,--Your note gave me so much delight that I cannot
+   close my eyes without first thanking you, dear, for making me so
+   happy, and blessing God who gave you this tender love for your
+   mother.
+
+   I have observed all day your patience with baby, your obedience
+   to me, and your kindness to all.
+
+   Go on "trying," my child; God will give you strength and courage,
+   and help you fill each day with words and deeds of love. I shall
+   lay this on your pillow, put a warm kiss on your lips, and say a
+   little prayer over you in your sleep.
+
+     MOTHER.
+
+   MY LOUY,--I was grieved at your selfish behavior this morning,
+   but also greatly pleased to find you bore so meekly Father's
+   reproof for it. That is the way, dear; if you find you are wrong,
+   take the discipline sweetly, and do so no more. It is not to be
+   expected that children should always do right; but oh, how lovely
+   to see a child penitent and patient when the passion is over.
+
+   I thought a little prayer as I looked at you, and said in my
+   heart, "Dear God, sustain my child in this moment of trial, that
+   no hasty word, no cruel look, no angry action may add to her
+   fault." And you were helped. I know that you will have a happy
+   day after the storm and the gentle shower; keep quiet, read,
+   walk, but do not talk much till all is peace again.
+
+     MOTHER.
+
+     HILLSIDE, CONCORD.
+
+   DEAR,--I am glad you put your heart in the right place; for I am
+   sure all true strength comes from above. Continue to feel that
+   God is _near_ you, dear child, and He never will forsake you in a
+   weak moment. Write me always when you feel that I can help you;
+   for, though God is near, Mother never forgets you, and your
+   refuge is her arms.
+
+   Patience, dear, will give us content, if nothing else. Be assured
+   the little room you long for will come, if it is necessary to
+   your peace and well-being. Till then try to be happy with the
+   good things you have. They are many,--more perhaps than we
+   deserve, after our frequent complaints and discontent.
+
+   Be cheerful, my Louy, and all will be gayer for your laugh, and
+   all good and lovely things will be given to you when you deserve
+   them.
+
+   I am a busy woman, but never can forget the calls of my children.
+
+     MOTHER.
+
+   DEAREST,--I am sure you have lived very near to God _to-day_, you
+   have been so good and happy. Let each day be like this, and life
+   will become a sweet song for you and all who love you,--none so
+   much as your
+
+     MOTHER.
+
+
+_Thirteen Years Old._
+
+     HILLSIDE.
+
+   _March, 1846._--I have at last got the little room I have wanted
+   so long, and am very happy about it. It does me good to be
+   alone, and Mother has made it very pretty and neat for me. My
+   work-basket and desk are by the window, and my closet is full of
+   dried herbs that smell very nice. The door that opens into the
+   garden will be very pretty in summer, and I can run off to the
+   woods when I like.
+
+   I have made a plan for my life, as I am in my teens and no more a
+   child. I am old for my age, and don't care much for girl's
+   things. People think I'm wild and queer; but Mother understands
+   and helps me. I have not told any one about my plan; but I'm
+   going to _be_ good. I've made so many resolutions, and written
+   sad notes, and cried over my sins, and it doesn't seem to do any
+   good! Now I'm going to _work really_, for I feel a true desire to
+   improve, and be a help and comfort, not a care and sorrow, to my
+   dear mother.
+
+
+ _Fifteen Years Old._
+
+   _Sunday, Oct. 9, 1847._--I have been reading to-day Bettine's
+   correspondence with Goethe.
+
+   She calls herself a child, and writes about the lovely things she
+   saw and heard, and felt and did. I liked it much.
+
+   [First taste of Goethe. Three years later R. W. E. gave me
+   "Wilhelm Meister," and from that day Goethe has been my chief
+   idol.--L. M. A., 1885.]
+
+The experiment at Fruitlands was (outwardly) an utter failure, and had
+exhausted Mr. Alcott's resources of mind, body, and estate. Louisa has
+not exaggerated the collapse which followed. But the brave, loving
+mother could not give way to despondency, for she had her young to
+care for. After a few days Mr. Alcott rose from his despair, and
+listened to her counsel. They lived a short time at Still River, and
+then returned to Concord; but not to the happy little cottage.
+
+Mr. Alcott sought such work as he could find to do with his hands; but
+it was scanty and insufficient. Mrs. Alcott subdued her proud heart to
+the necessity of seeking help from friends. They had a few rooms in
+the house of a kind neighbor, who welcomed them to her house, in
+addition to her own large family; and there they struggled with the
+poverty which Louisa for the first time fully realized.
+
+Yet her journal says little of the hardships they endured, but is full
+of her mental and moral struggles. It was characteristic of this
+family that they never were conquered by their surroundings. Mr.
+Alcott might retire into sad and silent musing, Mrs. Alcott's warm,
+quick temper, might burst out into flame, the children might be
+quarrelsome or noisy; but their ideal of life always remained high,
+fresh, and ennobling. Their souls always "knew their destiny divine,"
+and believed that they would find fitting expression in life some
+time. "Chill penury" could not repress "their noble rage," nor freeze
+"the genial current" of their souls.
+
+The children escaped from the privations of daily life into a world of
+romance, and in the plays in the old barn revelled in luxury and
+splendor. This dramatic tendency was very strong in Louisa, and she
+never outgrew it. It took various shapes and colors, and at one time
+threatened to dominate her life.
+
+The education of the children was certainly desultory and
+insufficient; but it was inspiring, and brought out their powers. They
+learned to feel and to think justly, and to express their thoughts and
+feelings freely and forcibly, if they did not know well the rules of
+grammar and rhetoric. Mr. Alcott always loved the study of language,
+and became a master of it; while Mrs. Alcott had a rich and
+well-chosen vocabulary, gained from the intelligent companions of her
+youth and the best literature, which she read freely. Mr. Alcott made
+great use of the study of language in his teaching, and often employed
+the definition of a word to convey a lesson or a rebuke. The children
+were encouraged, and even required, to keep their journals regularly,
+and to write letters. Their efforts at poetry or the drama were not
+laughed at, but treasured by their parents as indications of progress.
+Mr. Alcott's records of his own theory and practice in the education
+of children are full of valuable suggestion, and much yet remains
+buried in his journals. The girls had full freedom to act out their
+natures, with little fear of ridicule or criticism. An innate sense of
+dignity and modesty kept them from abusing this liberty; and perhaps
+nowhere in the world could it have been more safely indulged than in
+the simple life of Concord, whose very atmosphere seemed then filled
+with a spiritual presence which made life free, pure, and serene.
+
+Louisa gives this interesting anecdote of their life at that time:--
+
+   People wondered at our frolics, but enjoyed them, and droll
+   stories are still told of the adventures of those days. Mr.
+   Emerson and Margaret Fuller were visiting my parents one
+   afternoon, and the conversation having turned to the ever
+   interesting subject of education, Miss Fuller said:--
+
+   "Well, Mr. Alcott, you have been able to carry out your methods
+   in your own family, and I should like to see your model
+   children."
+
+   She did in a few moments, for as the guests stood on the
+   door-steps a wild uproar approached, and round the corner of the
+   house came a wheelbarrow holding baby May arrayed as a queen; I
+   was the horse, bitted and bridled, and driven by my elder sister
+   Anna; while Lizzie played dog, and barked as loud as her gentle
+   voice permitted.
+
+   All were shouting and wild with fun, which, however, came to a
+   sudden end as we espied the stately group before us; for my foot
+   tripped, and down we all went in a laughing heap; while my mother
+   put a climax to the joke by saying, with a dramatic wave of the
+   hand,--
+
+   "Here are the model children, Miss Fuller."
+
+They were undoubtedly very satisfactory to Miss Fuller, who partook
+largely of the educational views of that time, and who loved to tell
+anecdotes of this family. One of the sisters writes in her diary: "She
+_said_ prayers; but I think my resolutions to be good are prayers."
+
+In 1841 Colonel May, Mrs. Alcott's father, died and left her a small
+amount of property. Mrs. Alcott decided to purchase with this a house
+in Concord, and the addition of five hundred dollars from Mr. Emerson,
+who was always the good Providence of the family, enabled her in 1845
+to buy the place in Concord known as Hillside. This house is on the
+road to Lexington, about one third of a mile from Mr. Emerson's home.
+It was afterward occupied by Mr. Hawthorne.
+
+In this house the girlish life of Louisa was passed, which she has
+represented so fully in "Little Women," and of which she speaks in her
+journal as the happiest time of her life. Yet she was not unmindful of
+the anxiety of her parents; and the determined purpose to retrieve the
+fortunes of the family and to give to her mother the comfort and ease
+which she had never known in her married life became the constant
+motive of her conduct. It is in the light of this purpose alone that
+her character and her subsequent career can be fully understood. She
+naturally thought of teaching as her work, and had for a short time a
+little school in the barn for Mr. Emerson's children and others.
+
+It was indeed a great comfort to be sure of the house over their
+heads, but there were still six mouths to be fed, six bodies to be
+clothed, and four young, eager minds to be educated. Concord offered
+very little opportunity for such work as either Mr. or Mrs. Alcott
+could do, and at last even the mother's brave heart broke down. She
+was painfully anxious about the support of her household. A friend
+passing through Concord called upon her, and Mrs. Alcott could not
+hide the traces of tears on her face. "Abby Alcott, what does this
+mean?" said the visitor, with determined kindness. The poor mother
+opened her heart to her friend, and told the story of their privations
+and sufferings.
+
+"Come to Boston, and I will find you employment," said the friend.
+
+The family removed to Boston in 1848, and Mrs. Alcott became a visitor
+to the poor in the employ of one or more benevolent societies, and
+finally kept an intelligence office. Her whole heart went into her
+work; and the children, as well as the mother, learned many valuable
+lessons from it. Her reports of her work are said to have been very
+interesting, and full of valuable suggestion.
+
+Mr. Alcott began to hold conversations in West Street. He attracted a
+small circle of thoughtful men and women about him, who delighted in
+the height of his aspirations and the originality of his thoughts. It
+was congenial occupation for him, and thus added to the happiness of
+the family, though very little to its pecuniary resources. His price
+of admission was small, and he freely invited any one who would enjoy
+the meetings although unable to pay for them. He was a great and
+helpful influence to young minds. Besides the morally pure and
+spiritually elevated atmosphere of thought to which they were
+introduced by him, they found a great intellectual advantage in the
+acquaintance with ancient poets and philosophers, into whose life he
+had entered sympathetically. His peculiar theories of temperament and
+diet never failed to call out discussion and opposition. One of my
+earliest recollections of Louisa is on one of these occasions, when he
+was emphasizing his doctrine that a vegetable diet would produce
+unruffled sweetness of temper and disposition. I heard a voice behind
+me saying to her neighbor: "I don't know about that. I've never eaten
+any meat, and I'm awful cross and irritable very often."
+
+On her fourteenth birthday her mother wrote her the following poem,
+with a present of a pen. It was a prophetic gift, and well used by the
+receiver.
+
+     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.
+
+   [Original, I think. I have tried to obey.--L. M. A., 1885.]
+
+In a sketch written for a friend, Louisa gives this account of the
+parents' influence on the children:--
+
+   When cautious friends asked mother how she dared to have such
+   outcasts among her girls, she always answered, with an expression
+   of confidence which did much to keep us safe, "I can trust my
+   daughters, and this is the best way to teach them how to shun
+   these sins and comfort these sorrows. They cannot escape the
+   knowledge of them; better gain this under their father's roof and
+   their mother's care, and so be protected by these experiences
+   when their turn comes to face the world and its temptations."
+   Once we carried our breakfast to a starving family; once lent our
+   whole dinner to a neighbor suddenly taken unprepared by
+   distinguished guests. Another time, one snowy Saturday night,
+   when our wood was very low, a poor child came to beg a little, as
+   the baby was sick and the father on a spree with all his wages.
+   My mother hesitated at first, as we also had a baby. Very cold
+   weather was upon us, and a Sunday to be got through before more
+   wood could be had. My father said, "Give half our stock, and
+   trust in Providence; the weather will moderate, or wood will
+   come." Mother laughed, and answered in her cheery way, "Well,
+   their need is greater than ours, and if our half gives out we can
+   go to bed and tell stories." So a generous half went to the poor
+   neighbor, and a little later in the eve, while the storm still
+   raged and we were about to cover our fire to keep it, a knock
+   came, and a farmer who usually supplied us appeared, saying
+   anxiously, "I started for Boston with a load of wood, but it
+   drifts so I want to go home. Wouldn't you like to have me drop
+   the wood here; it would accommodate me, and you needn't hurry
+   about paying for it." "Yes," said Father; and as the man went off
+   he turned to Mother with a look that much impressed us children
+   with his gifts as a seer, "Didn't I tell you wood would come if
+   the weather did not moderate?" Mother's motto was "Hope, and keep
+   busy," and one of her sayings, "Cast your bread upon the waters,
+   and after many days it will come back buttered."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[5] Emerson in Concord. By Edward Waldo Emerson.
+
+[6] "Philothea" was the delight of girls. The young Alcotts made a
+dramatic version of it, which they acted under the trees. Louisa made
+a magnificent Aspasia, which was a part much to her fancy. Mrs. Child
+was a very dear friend of Mrs. Alcott, and her daughters knew her
+well.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE SENTIMENTAL PERIOD.
+
+     A SONG FROM THE SUDS.
+
+     Queen of my tub, I merrily sing,
+       While the white foam rises high,
+     And sturdily wash, and rinse, and wring,
+       And fasten the clothes to dry;
+     Then out in the free fresh air they swing,
+       Under the sunny sky.
+
+     I wish we could wash from our hearts and our souls
+       The stains of the week away,
+     And let water and air by their magic make
+       Ourselves as pure as they;
+     Then on the earth there would be indeed
+       A glorious washing-day!
+
+     Along the path of a useful life
+       Will heart's-ease ever bloom;
+     The busy mind has no time to think
+       Of sorrow, or care, or gloom;
+     And anxious thoughts may be swept away
+       As we busily wield a broom.
+
+     I am glad a task to me is given
+       To labor at day by day;
+     For it brings me health, and strength, and hope,
+       And I cheerfully learn to say,--
+     "Head, you may think; heart, you may feel;
+       But hand, you shall work alway!"
+
+
+The period of free, happy childhood was necessarily short, and at
+about the age of fifteen Louisa Alcott began to feel the pressure of
+thoughts and duties which made life a more solemn matter. In spite of
+the overflowing fun which appears in her books, her nature was very
+serious, and she could not cast aside care lightly. So many varying
+tendencies existed in her character that she must have struggled with
+many doubts and questions before finding the true path. But she always
+kept the pole-star of right strictly in view, and never failed in
+truth to that duty which seemed to her nearest and most imperative. If
+she erred in judgment, she did not err in conscientious fidelity.
+
+Her mother's rules for her guidance were--
+
+     Rule yourself.
+     Love your neighbor.
+     Do the duty which lies nearest you.
+
+She never lost sight of these instructions.
+
+I will introduce this period in her own words, as written later for
+the use of a friend.
+
+   My romantic period began at fifteen, when I fell to writing
+   poetry, keeping a heart-journal, and wandering by moonlight
+   instead of sleeping quietly. About that time, in browsing over
+   Mr. Emerson's library, I found Goethe's "Correspondence with a
+   Child," and at once was fired with a desire to be a Bettine,
+   making my father's friend my Goethe. So I wrote letters to him,
+   but never sent them; sat in a tall cherry-tree at midnight,
+   singing to the moon till the owls scared me to bed; left wild
+   flowers on the doorstep of my "Master," and sung Mignon's song
+   under his window in very bad German.
+
+   Not till many years later did I tell _my_ Goethe of this early
+   romance and the part he played in it. He was much amused, and
+   begged for his letters, kindly saying he felt honored to be so
+   worshipped. The letters were burnt long ago, but Emerson remained
+   my "Master" while he lived, doing more for me,--as for many
+   another,--than he knew, by the simple beauty of his life, the
+   truth and wisdom of his books, the example of a great, good man,
+   untempted and unspoiled by the world which he made better while
+   in it, and left richer and nobler when he went.
+
+   The trials of life began about this time, and happy childhood
+   ended. One of the most memorable days of my life is a certain
+   gloomy November afternoon, when we had been holding a family
+   council as to ways and means. In summer we lived much as the
+   birds did, on our fruit and bread and milk; the sun was our fire,
+   the sky our roof, and Nature's plenty made us forget that such a
+   thing as poverty existed.
+
+In 1850 she heads her diary "The Sentimental Period." She was then
+seventeen years old, but her diary gives no hint of the sentimental
+notions that often fill the heads of young girls at that period. The
+experiences of Jo with her charming young neighbor in "Little Women"
+do not represent hers at all.
+
+One bit of romance was suggested by Goethe's "Correspondence with a
+Child." It may be difficult for readers of to-day to understand the
+fascination which this book exercised upon young minds of the last
+generation, yet it is certain that it led more than one young girl to
+form an ideal attachment to a man far older than herself, but full of
+nobility and intellectual greatness. Theodore Parker said of letters
+addressed to him by a young New Hampshire girl, "They are as good as
+Bettine's without the lies." This mingling of idealism and
+hero-worship was strongly characteristic of that transcendental period
+when women, having little solid education and less industrial
+employment, were full of noble aspirations and longings for fuller and
+freer life, which must find expression in some way.
+
+The young woman of to-day, wearing waterproof and india-rubber boots,
+skating, driving, and bicycling, studying chemistry in the laboratory,
+exhibiting her pictures in open competition, adopting a profession
+without opposition, and living single without fear of reproach, has
+less time for fancies and more regard for facts.
+
+Miss Alcott was safe in choosing her idol. Worship of Emerson could
+only refine and elevate her thoughts, and her intimate acquaintance
+with his beautiful home chastened her idolatry into pure reverent
+friendship which never failed her. She kept her worship to herself,
+and never sent him the letters in which she poured out the longings
+and raptures which filled her girlish heart.
+
+Her diary, which was revised by herself in later years, tells the
+story of this period quite fully. The details may seem trifling, but
+they help to illustrate this important formative period of her life.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+THE SENTIMENTAL PERIOD.
+
+   BOSTON, _May, 1850._--So long a time has passed since I kept a
+   journal that I hardly know how to begin. Since coming to the city
+   I don't seem to have thought much, for the bustle and dirt and
+   change send all lovely images and restful feelings away. Among my
+   hills and woods I had fine free times alone, and though my
+   thoughts were silly, I daresay, they helped to keep me happy and
+   good. I see now what Nature did for me, and my "romantic tastes,"
+   as people called that love of solitude and out-of-door life,
+   taught me much.
+
+   This summer, like the last, we shall spend in a large house
+   (Uncle May's, Atkinson Street), with many comforts about us which
+   we shall enjoy, and in the autumn I hope I shall have something
+   to show that the time has not been wasted. Seventeen years have I
+   lived, and yet so little do I know, and so much remains to be
+   done before I begin to be what I desire,--a truly good and useful
+   woman.
+
+   In looking over our journals, Father says, "Anna's is about other
+   people, Louisa's about herself." That is true, for I don't _talk_
+   about myself; yet must always think of the wilful, moody girl I
+   try to manage, and in my journal I write of her to see how she
+   gets on. Anna is so good she need not take care of herself, and
+   can enjoy other people. If I look in my glass, I try to keep down
+   vanity about my long hair, my well-shaped head, and my good nose.
+   In the street I try not to covet fine things. My quick tongue is
+   always getting me into trouble, and my moodiness makes it hard to
+   be cheerful when I think how poor we are, how much worry it is to
+   live, and how many things I long to do I never can.
+
+   So every day is a battle, and I'm so tired I don't want to live;
+   only it's cowardly to die till you have done something.
+
+   I can't talk to any one but Mother about my troubles, and she has
+   so many now to bear I try not to add any more. I know God is
+   always ready to hear, but heaven's so far away in the city, and
+   I so heavy I can't fly up to find Him.
+
+     FAITH.
+     Written in the diary.
+
+     Oh, when the heart is full of fears
+       And the way seems dim to heaven,
+     When the sorrow and the care of years
+       Peace from the heart has driven,--
+     Then, through the mist of falling tears,
+       Look up and be forgiven.
+
+     Forgiven for the lack of faith
+       That made all dark to thee,
+     Let conscience o'er thy wayward soul
+       Have fullest mastery:
+     Hope on, fight on, and thou shalt win
+       A noble victory.
+
+     Though thou art weary and forlorn,
+       Let not thy heart's peace go;
+     Though the riches of this world are gone,
+       And thy lot is care and woe,
+     Faint not, but journey hourly on:
+       True wealth is not below.
+
+     Through all the darkness still look up:
+       Let virtue be thy guide;
+     Take thy draught from sorrow's cup,
+       Yet trustfully abide;
+     Let not temptation vanquish thee,
+       And the Father will provide.
+
+   [We had small-pox in the family this summer, caught from some
+   poor immigrants whom mother took into our garden and fed one day.
+   We girls had it lightly, but Father and Mother were very ill, and
+   we had a curious time of exile, danger, and trouble. No doctors,
+   and all got well.--L. M. A.]
+
+   _July_, 1850.--Anna is gone to L. after the varioloid. She is to
+   help Mrs. ---- with her baby. I had to take A.'s school of twenty
+   in Canton Street. I like it better than I thought, though it's
+   very hard to be patient with the children sometimes. They seem
+   happy, and learn fast; so I am encouraged, though at first it was
+   very hard, and I missed Anna so much I used to cry over my dinner
+   and be very blue. I guess this is the teaching I need; for as a
+   _school-marm_ I must behave myself and guard my tongue and temper
+   carefully, and set an example of sweet manners.
+
+   I found one of mother's notes in my journal, so like those she
+   used to write me when she had more time. It always encourages me;
+   and I wish some one would write as helpfully to her, for she
+   needs cheering up with all the care she has. I often think what a
+   hard life she has had since she married,--so full of wandering
+   and all sorts of worry! so different from her early easy days,
+   the youngest and most petted of her family. I think she is a very
+   brave, good woman; and my dream is to have a lovely, quiet home
+   for her, with no debts or troubles to burden her. But I'm afraid
+   she will be in heaven before I can do it. Anna, too, she is
+   feeble and homesick, and I miss her dreadfully; for she is my
+   conscience, always true and just and good. She must have a good
+   time in a nice little home of her own some day, as we often plan.
+   But waiting is so _hard_!
+
+   _August_, 1850.--School is hard work, and I feel as though I
+   should like to run away from it. But my children get on; so I
+   travel up every day, and do my best.
+
+   I get very little time to write or think; for my working days
+   have begun, and when school is over Anna wants me; so I have no
+   quiet. I think a little solitude every day is good for me. In
+   the quiet I see my faults, and try to mend them; but, deary me, I
+   don't get on at all.
+
+   I used to imagine my mind a room in confusion, and I was to put
+   it in order; so I swept out useless thoughts and dusted foolish
+   fancies away, and furnished it with good resolutions and began
+   again. But cobwebs get in. I'm not a good housekeeper, and never
+   get my room in nice order. I once wrote a poem about it when I
+   was fourteen, and called it "My Little Kingdom." It is still hard
+   to rule it, and always will be I think.
+
+   Reading Miss Bremer and Hawthorne. The "Scarlet Letter" is my
+   favorite. Mother likes Miss B. better, as more wholesome. I fancy
+   "lurid" things, if true and strong also.
+
+   Anna wants to be an actress, and so do I. We could make plenty of
+   money perhaps, and it is a very gay life. Mother says we are too
+   young, and must wait. A. acts often splendidly. I like tragic
+   plays, and shall be a Siddons if I can. We get up fine ones, and
+   make harps, castles, armor, dresses, water-falls, and thunder,
+   and have great fun.
+
+It was at this period of her life that she was violently attacked by a
+mania for the stage, and the greater part of her leisure time was
+given to writing and enacting dramas. Her older sister, Anna, had the
+same taste, and assisted her in carrying out all her plans. A family
+of great talent with whom they were intimate joined with them, and
+their mother always allowed them to have all the private theatricals
+they wished to perform.
+
+Some of these early plays are preserved in manuscripts as she wrote
+them. They are written in stilted, melodramatic style, full of
+highstrung sentiments of loyalty, honor and devotion, with the most
+improbable incidents and violent devices, and without a touch of
+common life or the slightest flavor of humor. The idea of
+self-sacrifice always comes into them; but they are thoroughly
+girlish. It is so that girls dream and feel before they know life at
+all. Their hearts are full of vague, restless longings, and they seek
+some vent for the repressed energies of their natures away from the
+prosaic realities of the present. While Louisa sat sewing the tedious
+seams of her daily task what a relief it was to let her imagination
+run riot among the wildest and most exciting scenes. Of course she had
+a "Bandit's Bride" among her plays. "The Captive of Castile; or, The
+Moorish Maiden's Vow," is preserved entire, and is a good specimen of
+these girlish efforts. It is full of surprises and concealments, and
+the denouement is as unnatural as could well be imagined. The dialogue
+is often bright and forcible, and the sentiments always lofty, and we
+have no doubt it seemed very grand to the youthful audience. It is
+taken from her reading, with no touch of her own life in it. This is
+not the same play described with such a ludicrous finale in "Little
+Women," although the heroine bears the same favorite name of Zara. Her
+own early amusement was, however, fully in her mind when she wrote
+that scene, which is true to fact.
+
+A friend and relative of the family living in Roxbury, Dr. Windship,
+was much interested in the development of Louisa's dramatic talent.
+The girls always enjoyed delightful visits at his house. He tried to
+help the young dramatist to public success, and writes to her
+mother:--
+
+   I have offered to Mr. Barry of the Boston Theatre Louisa's "Prima
+   Donnas." He is very much pleased with it just as it is, and will
+   bring it out this season in good style. He thinks it will have a
+   fine run.
+
+Mrs. Barry and Mrs. Wood consented to take the principal characters.
+But from some difficulty in the arrangements "The Rival Prima Donnas"
+was not produced. One great pleasure was gained, however, as Mr. Barry
+gave her a free pass to the theatre, which proved a source of constant
+refreshment and delight.
+
+Of course Louisa was eager to go on to the stage herself. She had
+indeed extraordinary dramatic power, and could at any time quickly
+transform herself into Hamlet, and recite a scene with tragic effect.
+But the careful mother knew better than the girl the trials and
+dangers of the profession, and dissuaded her from it. She also knew
+how little such youthful facility of expression indicates the power
+which will make a great actress. Louisa has reproduced her dramatic
+experience in "Work," which gives a picture faithful in spirit and in
+many of its details to this phase of her life. She here indicates a
+knowledge of her own limitation of talent. "Christie's gala" was a
+part quite after her own heart.
+
+A farce, called "Nat Batchelor's Pleasure Trip; or, The Trials of a
+Good-natured Man," was brought out at the Howard Athenaeum. The papers
+of the day said of it: "It is a creditable first attempt at dramatic
+composition, and received frequent applause." Another critic says: "It
+proved a full success." This performance, however, took place in
+1860,--a later period than that of which I am now speaking.
+
+An incident which occurred at this representation probably suggested
+scenes which recur in "Work" and other of Miss Alcott's stories.
+
+   Quite a hit was made by a little girl, a Miss Jones, who, having
+   to speak but a few lines, spoke them so well that upon her exit
+   she received the rare compliment of an enthusiastic recall from
+   the audience, despite the fact that "some necessary question of
+   the play was then to be considered." For the time being she
+   certainly was the sensation of the piece.
+
+Miss Alcott had in Dr. Windship a kind and judicious helper in her
+dramatic undertakings, with whom she kept up a correspondence under
+the names of Beaumont and Fletcher.
+
+In 1851 Louisa had an experience which she has reproduced in her story
+called "How I Went Out to Service." Her mother's work among the poor
+of Boston led to her being applied to for employment, and at one time
+she kept a regular intelligence office. A gentleman came to her
+seeking a companion for his aged father and sister, who was to do only
+light work, and to be treated with the greatest respect and kindness.
+As Mrs. Alcott did not readily think of any who would fill the place,
+the impulsive Louisa suggested, "Why couldn't I go, Mother?" She went,
+and had two months of disappointment and painful experience which she
+never forgot. She wrote out the story which was published later,
+called "How I Went Out to Service."
+
+The story has an important lesson for those who condemn severely young
+girls who prefer the more independent life of the factory or shop to
+what is considered the safety and comfort of service in families. If a
+girl like Louisa Alcott, belonging to a well-known, highly esteemed
+family, and herself commanding respect by her abilities and character,
+could be treated with such indignity by a family in which no one would
+have feared to place her, how much may not a poor unfriended girl be
+called upon to endure!
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   1851.--We went to a meeting, and heard splendid speaking from
+   Phillips, Channing, and others. People were much excited, and
+   cheered "Shadrack and liberty," groaned for "Webster and
+   slavery," and made a great noise. I felt ready to do
+   anything,--fight or work, hoot or cry,--and laid plans to free
+   Simms. I shall be horribly ashamed of my country if this thing
+   happens and the slave is taken back.
+
+   [He was.--L. M. A.]
+
+   1852.--_High Street, Boston._--After the small-pox summer, we
+   went to a house in High Street. Mother opened an intelligence
+   office, which grew out of her city missionary work and a desire
+   to find places for good girls. It was not fit work for her, but
+   it paid; and she always did what came to her in the way of duty
+   or charity, and let pride, taste, and comfort suffer for love's
+   sake.
+
+   Anna and I taught; Lizzie was our little housekeeper,--our angel
+   in a cellar kitchen; May went to school; father wrote and talked
+   when he could get classes or conversations. Our poor little home
+   had much love and happiness in it, and was a shelter for lost
+   girls, abused wives, friendless children, and weak or wicked men.
+   Father and Mother had no money to give, but gave them time,
+   sympathy, help; and if blessings would make them rich, they would
+   be millionnaires. This is practical Christianity.
+
+   My first story was printed, and $5 paid for it. It was written in
+   Concord when I was sixteen. Great rubbish! Read it aloud to
+   sisters, and when they praised it, not knowing the author, I
+   proudly announced her name.
+
+   Made a resolution to read fewer novels, and those only of the
+   best. List of books I like:--
+
+     Carlyle's French Revolution and Miscellanies.
+     Hero and Hero-Worship.
+     Goethe's poems, plays, and novels.
+     Plutarch's Lives.
+     Madame Guion.
+     Paradise Lost and Comus.
+     Schiller's Plays.
+     Madame de Staël.
+     Bettine.
+     Louis XIV.
+     Jane Eyre.
+     Hypatia.
+     Philothea.
+     Uncle Tom's Cabin.
+     Emerson's Poems.
+
+In "Little Women" (p. 174), she has told a story which has usually
+been supposed to represent her first success in literature; but she
+has transferred the incident from her sister to her own
+representative, Jo. It was the quiet Anna who had secretly written a
+story and fastened it inside of a newspaper. She read it to her mother
+and sisters, as described in the book, and was very much delighted
+with their approbation and astonishment.
+
+   1853.--In January I started a little school,--E. W., W. A., two
+   L's, two H's,--about a dozen in our parlor. In May, when my
+   school closed, I went to L. as second girl. I needed the change,
+   could do the wash, and was glad to earn my $2 a week. Home in
+   October with $34 for my wages. After two days' rest, began school
+   again with ten children. Anna went to Syracuse to teach; Father
+   to the West to try his luck,--so poor, so hopeful, so serene. God
+   be with him! Mother had several boarders, and May got on well at
+   school. Betty was still the home bird, and had a little romance
+   with C.
+
+   Pleasant letters from Father and Anna. A hard year. Summer
+   distasteful and lonely; winter tiresome with school and people I
+   didn't like. I miss Anna, my one bosom friend and comforter.
+
+   1854.--_Pinckney Street._--I have neglected my journal for
+   months, so must write it up. School for me month after month.
+   Mother busy with boarders and sewing. Father doing as well as a
+   philosopher can in a money-loving world. Anna at S.
+
+   I earned a good deal by sewing in the evening when my day's work
+   was done.
+
+   In February Father came home. Paid his way, but no more. A
+   dramatic scene when he arrived in the night. We were waked by
+   hearing the bell. Mother flew down, crying "My husband!" We
+   rushed after, and five white figures embraced the half-frozen
+   wanderer who came in hungry, tired, cold, and disappointed, but
+   smiling bravely and as serene as ever. We fed and warmed and
+   brooded over him, longing to ask if he had made any money; but no
+   one did till little May said, after he had told all the pleasant
+   things, "Well, did people pay you?" Then, with a queer look, he
+   opened his pocket-book and showed one dollar, saying with a smile
+   that made our eyes fill, "Only that! My overcoat was stolen, and
+   I had to buy a shawl. Many promises were not kept, and travelling
+   is costly; but I have opened the way, and another year shall do
+   better."
+
+   I shall never forget how beautifully Mother answered him, though
+   the dear, hopeful soul had built much on his success; but with a
+   beaming face she kissed him, saying, "I call that doing _very
+   well_. Since you are safely home, dear, we don't ask anything
+   more."
+
+   Anna and I choked down our tears, and took a little lesson in
+   real love which we never forgot, nor the look that the tired man
+   and the tender woman gave one another. It was half tragic and
+   comic, for Father was very dirty and sleepy, and Mother in a big
+   nightcap and funny old jacket.
+
+   [I began to see the strong contrasts and the fun and follies in
+   every-day life about this time.--L. M. A.]
+
+   Anna came home in March. Kept our school all summer. I got
+   "Flower Fables" ready to print.
+
+Louisa also tried service with a relative in the country for a short
+time, but teaching, sewing, and writing were her principal occupations
+during this residence in Boston.
+
+These seven years, from Louisa's sixteenth to her twenty-third year,
+might be called an apprenticeship to life. She tried various paths,
+and learned to know herself and the world about her, although she was
+not even yet certain of success in the way which finally opened before
+her and led her so successfully to the accomplishment of her
+life-purpose. She tried teaching, without satisfaction to herself or
+perhaps to others. The kind of education she had herself received
+fitted her admirably to understand and influence children, but not to
+carry on the routine of a school. Sewing was her resource when nothing
+else offered, but it is almost pitiful to think of her as confined to
+such work when great powers were lying dormant in her mind. Still,
+Margaret Fuller said that a year of enforced quiet in the country
+devoted mainly to sewing was very useful to her, since she reviewed
+and examined the treasures laid up in her memory; and doubtless Louisa
+Alcott thought out many a story which afterward delighted the world
+while her fingers busily plied the needle. Yet it was a great
+deliverance when she first found that the products of her brain would
+bring in the needed money for family support.
+
+
+_L. in Boston to A. in Syracuse._
+
+     THURSDAY, 27th.
+
+   DEAREST NAN,--I was so glad to hear from you, and hear that all
+   were well.
+
+   I am grubbing away as usual, trying to get money enough to buy
+   Mother a nice warm shawl. I have eleven dollars, all my own
+   earnings,--five for a story, and four for the pile of sewing I
+   did for the ladies of Dr. Gray's society, to give him as a
+   present.
+
+   ... I got a crimson ribbon for a bonnet for May, and I took my
+   straw and fixed it nicely with some little duds I had. Her old
+   one has haunted me all winter, and I want her to look neat. She
+   is so graceful and pretty and loves beauty so much, it is hard
+   for her to be poor and wear other people's ugly things. You and I
+   have learned not to mind _much_; but when I think of her I long
+   to dash out and buy the finest hat the limited sum of ten dollars
+   can procure. She says so sweetly in one of her letters: "It is
+   hard sometimes to see other people have so many nice things and I
+   so few; but I try not to be envious, but contented with my poor
+   clothes, and cheerful about it." I hope the little dear will like
+   the bonnet and the frills I made her and some bows I fixed over
+   from bright ribbons L. W. threw away. I get half my rarities from
+   her rag-bag, and she doesn't know her own rags when fixed over. I
+   hope I shall live to see the dear child in silk and lace, with
+   plenty of pictures and "bottles of cream," Europe, and all she
+   longs for.
+
+   For our good little Betty, who is wearing all the old gowns we
+   left, I shall soon be able to buy a new one, and send it with my
+   blessing to the cheerful saint. She writes me the funniest notes,
+   and tries to keep the old folks warm and make the lonely house in
+   the snowbanks cosey and bright.
+
+   To Father I shall send new neckties and some paper; then he will
+   be happy, and can keep on with the beloved diaries though the
+   heavens fall.
+
+   Don't laugh at my plans; I'll carry them out, if I go to service
+   to do it. Seeing so much money flying about, I long to honestly
+   get a little and make my dear family more comfortable. I feel
+   weak-minded when I think of all they need and the little I can
+   do.
+
+   Now about you: Keep the money you have earned by so many tears
+   and sacrifices, and clothe yourself; for it makes me mad to know
+   that my good little lass is going round in shabby things, and
+   being looked down upon by people who are not worthy to touch her
+   patched shoes or the hem of her ragged old gowns. Make yourself
+   tidy, and if any is left over send it to Mother; for there are
+   always many things needed at home, though they won't tell us. I
+   only wish I too by any amount of weeping and homesickness could
+   earn as much. But my mite won't come amiss; and if tears can add
+   to its value, I've shed my quart,--first, over the book not
+   coming out; for that was a sad blow, and I waited so long it was
+   dreadful when my castle in the air came tumbling about my ears.
+   Pride made me laugh in public; but I wailed in private, and no
+   one knew it. The folks at home think I rather enjoyed it, for I
+   wrote a jolly letter. But my visit was spoiled; and now I'm
+   digging away for dear life, that I may not have come entirely in
+   vain. I didn't mean to groan about it; but my lass and I must
+   tell some one our trials, and so it becomes easy to confide in
+   one another. I never let Mother know how unhappy you were in S.
+   till Uncle wrote.
+
+   My doings are not much this week. I sent a little tale to the
+   "Gazette," and Clapp asked H. W. if five dollars would be enough.
+   Cousin H. said yes, and gave it to me, with kind words and a nice
+   parcel of paper, saying in his funny way, "Now, Lu, the door is
+   open, go in and win." So I shall try to do it. Then cousin L. W.
+   said Mr. B. had got my play, and told her that if Mrs. B. liked
+   it as well, it must be clever, and if it didn't cost too much, he
+   would bring it out by and by. Say nothing about it yet. Dr. W.
+   tells me Mr. F. is very sick; so the farce cannot be acted yet.
+   But the Doctor is set on its coming out, and we have fun about
+   it. H. W. takes me often to the theatre when L. is done with me.
+   I read to her all the P.M. often, as she is poorly, and in that
+   way I pay my debt to them.
+
+   I'm writing another story for Clapp. I want more fives, and mean
+   to have them too.
+
+   Uncle wrote that you were Dr. W.'s pet teacher, and every one
+   loved you dearly. But if you are not well, don't stay. Come home,
+   and be cuddled by your old
+
+     LU.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+AUTHORSHIP.
+
+     OUR ANGEL IN THE HOUSE.
+
+     Sitting patient in the shadow
+       Till the blessed light shall come,
+     A serene and saintly presence
+       Sanctifies our troubled home.
+     Earthly joys and hopes and sorrows
+       Break like ripples on the strand
+     Of the deep and solemn river,
+       Where her willing feet now stand.
+
+     O my sister, passing from me
+       Out of human care and strife,
+     Leave me as a gift those virtues
+       Which have beautified your life.
+     Dear, bequeath me that great patience
+       Which has power to sustain
+     A cheerful, uncomplaining spirit
+       In its prison-house of pain.
+
+     Give me--for I need it sorely--
+       Of that courage, wise and sweet,
+     Which has made the path of duty
+       Green beneath your willing feet.
+     Give me that unselfish nature
+       That with charity divine
+     Can pardon wrong for love's dear sake,--
+       Meek heart, forgive me mine!
+
+     Thus our parting daily loseth
+       Something of its bitter pain,
+     And while learning this hard lesson
+       My great loss becomes my gain;
+     For the touch of grief will render
+       My wild nature more serene,
+     Give to life new aspirations,
+       A new trust in the unseen.
+
+     Henceforth safe across the river
+       I shall see forevermore
+     A beloved household spirit
+       Waiting for me on the shore;
+     Hope and faith, born of my sorrow,
+       Guardian angels shall become;
+     And the sister gone before me
+       By their hands shall lead me home.
+
+
+When only twenty-two years old Miss Alcott began her career of
+authorship by launching a little flower bark, which floated gaily on
+the stream. She had always written poems, plays, and stories for her
+own and her friends' pleasure, and now she gathered up some tales she
+had written for Mr. Emerson's daughter, and published them under the
+name of "Flower Fables." She received the small amount of thirty-two
+dollars for the book; but it gave her the great satisfaction of having
+earned it by work that she loved, and which she could do well. She
+began to have applications for stories from the papers; but as yet
+sewing and teaching paid better than writing. While she sewed her
+brain was busy with plans of poems, plays, and tales, which she made
+use of at a later period.
+
+The following letter to her mother shows how closely she associated
+her with this early success:--
+
+     20 PINCKNEY STREET, BOSTON, Dec. 25, 1854. (With "Flower
+     Fables,")
+
+   DEAR MOTHER,--Into your Christmas stocking I have put my
+   "first-born," knowing that you will accept it with all its
+   faults (for grandmothers are always kind), and look upon it
+   merely as an earnest of what I may yet do; for, with so much to
+   cheer me on, I hope to pass in time from fairies and fables to
+   men and realities.
+
+   Whatever beauty or poetry is to be found in my little book is
+   owing to your interest in and encouragement of all my efforts
+   from the first to the last; and if ever I do anything to be proud
+   of, my greatest happiness will be that I can thank you for that,
+   as I may do for all the good there is in me; and I shall be
+   content to write if it gives you pleasure.
+
+     Jo is fussing about;
+     My lamp is going out.
+
+   To dear mother, with many kind wishes for a happy New Year and
+   merry Christmas.
+
+   I am ever your loving daughter
+
+     LOUY.
+
+This letter shows that she had already begun to see that she must
+study not only fairies and fancies, but men and realities; and she now
+began to observe life, not in books, but as it went on around her. In
+the intense excitement of the anti-slavery struggles of that period
+she might well learn how full of dramatic situations and the elements
+of both tragedy and comedy real human life is. She says: "I began to
+see the strong contrasts and fun and frolic in every day life about
+this time." She also considered her reading, and tried to make it more
+thorough and profitable; and she did not "waste even _ink_ on poems
+and fancies," but planned stories, that everything might help toward
+her great object of earning support for her family.
+
+In June, 1855, Miss Alcott went to Walpole, N. H., where she had a
+free life among the hills for a few months. It must have been a great
+refreshment to her after the winter's work in the city. In July the
+family followed her thither, and occupied a small house. The country
+life and joy soon began to find expression, and she wrote a little
+story called "King Goldenrod," which she says "ought to be fresh and
+true," as written at that beautiful time and place. But this pleasant
+country life was for a short season only; and in chill November she
+set out for the city, with brave heart and scanty outfit, to seek her
+fortune once more. While still continuing to sew as a means of
+livelihood, she began to try a great variety of literary ventures. She
+wrote notices of books for the papers, and at one time got five
+dollars for a story, besides twelve dollars for sewing. The following
+year the publishers began to find out the value of her work, and to
+call for more stories. Even her poems were accepted. Little Nell was
+then the favorite heroine of Dickens, and Louisa's poem on that
+subject was published in the "Courier." Although she at first enjoyed
+the beautiful scenery of Walpole, she found the dull little town did
+not offer her the opportunities for work that she needed; and leaving
+her family there, she came down to Boston to seek her fortune, and
+went to the well-known boarding-house of Mrs. David Reed on Chauncey
+Street. The happy home which she had here during the winter is
+represented as Mrs. Kirke's house in "Little Women," and Jo's garret
+is the sky-parlor in which she lived and wrote. She had a rich
+winter, hearing many of the finest lectures, and enjoying her free
+pass to the theatre. One of her greatest helps, however, was the
+friendship of Theodore Parker, who took great interest in her
+struggles, and wisely strengthened and encouraged her. She loved to go
+to his Sunday evening receptions, and sit quietly watching the varied
+company who collected there; and a word or pressure of the hand from
+her host was enough to cheer her for the whole week. She has
+gratefully recorded this influence in her sketch of Mr. Power in
+"Work;" but she has not given to that delineation the striking
+personality of her subject which we should have expected of her. She
+then perhaps looked up to him too much to take note of the rich
+elements of wit and humor in his nature, and has painted him wholly
+seriously, and with a colorless brush.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+_Twenty-two Years Old._
+
+   PINCKNEY STREET, BOSTON, _Jan._ 1, 1855.--The principal event of
+   the winter is the appearance of my book "Flower Fables." An
+   edition of sixteen hundred. It has sold very well, and people
+   seem to like it. I feel quite proud that the little tales that I
+   wrote for Ellen E. when I was sixteen should now bring money and
+   fame.
+
+   I will put in some of the notices as "varieties." Mothers are
+   always foolish over their first-born.
+
+   Miss Wealthy Stevens paid for the book, and I received $32.
+
+   [A pleasing contrast to the receipts of six months only in 1886,
+   being $8000 for the sale of books, and no new one; but I was
+   prouder over the $32 than the $8000.--L. M. A., 1886.]
+
+   _April_, 1855.--I am in the garret with my papers round me, and a
+   pile of apples to eat while I write my journal, plan stories, and
+   enjoy the patter of rain on the roof, in peace and quiet.
+
+   [Jo in the garret.--L. M. A.]
+
+   Being behindhand, as usual, I'll make note of the main events up
+   to date, for I don't waste ink in poetry and pages of rubbish
+   now. I've begun to _live_, and have no time for sentimental
+   musing.
+
+   In October I began my school; Father talked, Mother looked after
+   her boarders, and tried to help everybody. Anna was in Syracuse
+   teaching Mrs. S----'s children.
+
+   My book came out; and people began to think that topsey-turvey
+   Louisa would amount to something after all, since she could do so
+   well as housemaid, teacher, seamstress, and story-teller. Perhaps
+   she may.
+
+   In February I wrote a story for which C. paid $5, and asked for
+   more.
+
+   In March I wrote a farce for W. Warren, and Dr. W. offered it to
+   him; but W. W. was too busy.
+
+   Also began another tale, but found little time to work on it,
+   with school, sewing, and house-work. My winter's earnings are,--
+
+     School, one quarter    $50
+     Sewing                 $50
+     Stories                $20
+
+   if I am ever paid.
+
+   A busy and a pleasant winter, because, though hard at times, I do
+   seem to be getting on a little; and that encourages me.
+
+   Have heard Lowell and Hedge lecture, acted in plays, and thanks
+   to our rag-money and good cousin H., have been to the theatre
+   several times,--always my great joy.
+
+   Summer plans are yet unsettled. Father wants to go to England:
+   not a wise idea, I think. We shall probably stay here, and A. and
+   I go into the country as governesses. It's a queer way to live,
+   but dramatic, and I rather like it; for we never know what is to
+   come next. We are real "Micawbers," and always "ready for a
+   spring."
+
+   I have planned another Christmas book, and hope to be able to
+   write it.
+
+   1855.--Cousin L. W. asks me to pass the summer at Walpole with
+   her. If I can get no teaching, I shall go; for I long for the
+   hills, and can write my fairy tales there.
+
+   I delivered my burlesque lecture on "Woman, and Her Position; by
+   Oronthy Bluggage," last evening at Deacon G.'s. Had a merry time,
+   and was asked by Mr. W. to do it at H. for money. Read "Hamlet"
+   at our club,--my favorite play. Saw Mrs. W. H. Smith about the
+   farce; says she will do it at her benefit.
+
+   _May._--Father went to C. to talk with Mr. Emerson about the
+   England trip. I am to go to Walpole. I have made my own gowns,
+   and had money enough to fit up the girls. So glad to be
+   independent.
+
+   [I wonder if $40 fitted up the whole family. Perhaps so, as my
+   wardrobe was made up of old clothes from cousins and friends.--L.
+   M. A.]
+
+   WALPOLE, N. H., _June, 1855_.--Pleasant journey and a kind
+   welcome. Lovely place, high among the hills. So glad to run and
+   skip in the woods and up the splendid ravine. Shall write here, I
+   know.
+
+   Helped cousin L. in her garden; and the smell of the fresh earth
+   and the touch of green leaves did me good.
+
+   Mr. T. came and praised my first book, so I felt much inspired to
+   go and do another. I remember him at Scituate years ago, when he
+   was a young ship-builder and I a curly-haired hoyden of five or
+   six.
+
+   Up at five, and had a lovely run in the ravine, seeing the woods
+   wake. Planned a little tale which ought to be fresh and true, as
+   it came at that hour and place,--"King Goldenrod." Have lively
+   days,--writing in A.M., driving in P.M., and fun in eve. My visit
+   is doing me much good.
+
+   _July, 1855._--Read "Hyperion." On the 16th the family came to
+   live in Mr. W.'s house rent free. No better plan offered, and we
+   were all tired of the city. Here Father can have a garden; Mother
+   can rest and be near her good niece; the children have freedom
+   and fine air; and A. and I can go from here to our teaching,
+   wherever it may be.
+
+   Busy and happy times as we settle in the little house in the lane
+   near by my dear ravine,--plays, picnics, pleasant people, and
+   good neighbors. Fanny Kemble came up, Mrs. Kirkland and others,
+   and Dr. Bellows is the gayest of the gay. We acted the
+   "Jacobite," "Rivals," and "Bonnycastles," to an audience of a
+   hundred, and were noticed in the Boston papers. H. T. was our
+   manager, and Dr. B., D. D., our dramatic director. Anna was the
+   star, her acting being really very fine. I did "Mrs. Malaprop,"
+   "Widow Pottle," and the old ladies.
+
+   Finished fairy book in September. Anna had an offer from Dr.
+   Wilbur of Syracuse to teach at the great idiot asylum. She
+   disliked it, but decided to go. Poor dear! so beauty-loving,
+   timid, and tender. It is a hard trial; but she is so
+   self-sacrificing she tries to like it because it is duty.
+
+   _October._--A. to Syracuse. May illustrated my book, and tales
+   called "Christmas Elves." Better than "Flower Fables." Now I must
+   try to sell it.
+
+   [Innocent Louisa, to think that a Christmas book could be sold in
+   October.--L. M. A.]
+
+   _November._--Decided to seek my fortune; so, with my little trunk
+   of home-made clothes, $20 earned by stories sent to the
+   "Gazette," and my MSS., I set forth with Mother's blessing one
+   rainy day in the dullest month in the year.
+
+   [My birth-month; always to be a memorable one.--L. M. A.]
+
+   Found it too late to do anything with the book, so put it away
+   and tried for teaching, sewing, or any honest work. Won't go home
+   to sit idle while I have a head and pair of hands.
+
+   _December._--H. and L. W. very kind, and my dear cousins the
+   Sewalls take me in. I sew for Mollie and others, and write
+   stories. C. gave me books to notice. Heard Thackeray. Anxious
+   times; Anna very home-sick. Walpole very cold and dull now the
+   summer butterflies have gone. Got $5 for a tale and $12 for
+   sewing; sent home a Christmas-box to cheer the dear souls in the
+   snow-banks.
+
+   _January, 1856._--C. paid $6 for "A Sister's Trial," gave me more
+   books to notice, and wants more tales.
+
+   [Should think he would at that price.--L. M. A.]
+
+   Sewed for L. W. Sewall and others. Mr. J. M. Field took my farce
+   to Mobile to bring out; Mr. Barry of the Boston Theatre has the
+   play.
+
+   Heard Curtis lecture. Began a book for summer,--"Beach Bubbles."
+   Mr. F. of the "Courier" printed a poem of mine on "Little Nell."
+   Got $10 for "Bertha," and saw great yellow placards stuck up
+   announcing it. Acted at the W.'s.
+
+   _March._--Got $10 for "Genevieve." Prices go up, as people like
+   the tales and ask who wrote them. Finished "Twelve Bubbles."
+   Sewed a great deal, and got very tired; one job for Mr. G. of a
+   dozen pillow-cases, one dozen sheets, six fine cambric neckties,
+   and two dozen handkerchiefs, at which I had to work all one night
+   to get them done, as they were a gift to him. I got only $4.
+
+   Sewing won't make my fortune; but I can plan my stories while I
+   work, and then scribble 'em down on Sundays.
+
+   Poem on "Little Paul;" Curtis's lecture on "Dickens" made it go
+   well. Hear Emerson on "England."
+
+   _May._--Anna came on her way home, sick and worn out; the work
+   was too much for her. We had some happy days visiting about.
+   Could not dispose of B. B. in book form, but C. took them for his
+   paper. Mr. Field died, so the farce fell through there. Altered
+   the play for Mrs. Barrow to bring out next winter.
+
+   _June, 1856._--Home, to find dear Betty very ill with
+   scarlet-fever caught from some poor children Mother nursed when
+   they fell sick, living over a cellar where pigs had been kept.
+   The landlord (a deacon) would not clean the place till Mother
+   threatened to sue him for allowing a nuisance. Too late to save
+   two of the poor babies or Lizzie and May from the fever.
+
+   [L. never recovered, but died of it two years later.--L. M. A.]
+
+   An anxious time. I nursed, did house-work, and wrote a story a
+   month through the summer.
+
+   Dr. Bellows and Father had Sunday eve conversations.
+
+   _October._--Pleasant letters from Father, who went on a tour to
+   N. Y., Philadelphia, and Boston.
+
+   Made plans to go to Boston for the winter, as there is nothing to
+   do here, and there I can support myself and help the family. C.
+   offers 10 dollars a month, and perhaps more. L. W., M. S., and
+   others, have plenty of sewing; the play _may_ come out, and Mrs.
+   R. will give me a sky-parlor for $3 a week, with fire and board.
+   I sew for her also.
+
+   If I can get A. L. to governess I shall be all right.
+
+   I was born with a boy's spirit under my bib and tucker. I _can't
+   wait_ when I _can work_; so I took my little talent in my hand
+   and forced the world again, braver than before and wiser for my
+   failures.
+
+   [Jo in N. Y.--L. M. A.]
+
+   I don't often pray in words; but when I set out that day with all
+   my worldly goods in the little old trunk, my own earnings ($25)
+   in my pocket, and much hope and resolution in my soul, my heart
+   was very full, and I said to the Lord, "Help us all, and keep us
+   for one another," as I never said it before, while I looked back
+   at the dear faces watching me, so full of love and hope and
+   faith.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   BOSTON, _November, 1856_. _Mrs. David Reed's._--I find my little
+   room up in the attic very cosey, and a house full of boarders
+   very amusing to study. Mrs. Reed very kind. Fly round and take C.
+   his stories. Go to see Mrs. L. about A. Don't want me. A blow,
+   but I cheer up and hunt for sewing. Go to hear Parker, and he
+   does me good. Asks me to come Sunday evenings to his house. I did
+   go there, and met Phillips, Garrison, Hedge, and other great men,
+   and sit in my corner weekly, staring and enjoying myself.
+
+   When I went Mr. Parker said, "God bless you, Louisa; come again;"
+   and the grasp of his hand gave me courage to face another anxious
+   week.
+
+   _November 3d._--Wrote all the morning. In the P.M. went to see
+   the Sumner reception as he comes home after the Brooks affair. I
+   saw him pass up Beacon Street, pale and feeble, but smiling and
+   bowing. I rushed to Hancock Street, and was in time to see him
+   bring his proud old mother to the window when the crowd gave
+   three cheers for her. I cheered too, and was very much excited.
+   Mr. Parker met him somewhere before the ceremony began, and the
+   above P. cheered like a boy; and Sumner laughed and nodded as his
+   friend pranced and shouted, bareheaded and beaming.
+
+   My kind cousin, L. W., got tickets for a course of lectures on
+   "Italian Literature," and seeing my old cloak sent me a new one,
+   with other needful and pretty things such as girls love to have.
+   I shall never forget how kind she has always been to me.
+
+   _November 5th._--Went with H. W. to see Manager Barry about the
+   everlasting play which is always coming out but never comes. We
+   went all over the great new theatre, and I danced a jig on the
+   immense stage. Mr. B. was very kind, and gave me a pass to come
+   whenever I liked. This was such richness I didn't care if the
+   play was burnt on the spot, and went home full of joy. In the eve
+   I saw La Grange as Norma, and felt as if I knew all about that
+   place. Quite stage-struck, and imagined myself in her place, with
+   white robes and oak-leaf crown.
+
+   _November 6th._--Sewed happily on my job of twelve sheets for H.
+   W., and put lots of good will into the work after his kindness to
+   me.
+
+   Walked to Roxbury to see cousin Dr. W. about the play and tell
+   the fine news. Rode home in the new cars, and found them very
+   nice.
+
+   In the eve went to teach at Warren Street Chapel Charity School.
+   I'll help as I am helped, if I can. Mother says no one so poor he
+   can't do a little for some one poorer yet.
+
+   _Sunday._--Heard Parker on "Individuality of Character," and
+   liked it much. In the eve I went to his house. Mrs. Howe was
+   there, and Sumner and others. I sat in my usual corner, but Mr.
+   P. came up and said, in that cordial way of his, "Well, child,
+   how goes it?" "Pretty well, sir." "That's brave;" and with his
+   warm hand-shake he went on, leaving me both proud and happy,
+   though I have my trials. He is like a great fire where all can
+   come and be warmed and comforted. Bless him!
+
+   Had a talk at tea about him, and fought for him when W. R. said
+   he was not a Christian. He is my _sort_; for though he may lack
+   reverence for other people's God, he works bravely for his own,
+   and turns his back on no one who needs help, as some of the pious
+   do.
+
+   _Monday, 14th._--May came full of expectation and joy to visit
+   good aunt B. and study drawing. We walked about and had a good
+   home talk, then my girl went off to Auntie's to begin what I hope
+   will be a pleasant and profitable winter. She needs help to
+   develop her talent, and I can't give it to her.
+
+   Went to see Forrest as Othello. It is funny to see how attentive
+   all the once cool gentlemen are to Miss Alcott now she has a pass
+   to the new theatre.
+
+   _November 29th._--My birthday. Felt forlorn so far from home.
+   Wrote all day. Seem to be getting on slowly, so should be
+   contented. To a little party at the B.'s in the eve. May looked
+   very pretty, and seemed to be a favorite. The boys teased me
+   about being an authoress, and I said I'd be famous yet. Will if I
+   can, but something else may be better for me.
+
+   Found a pretty pin from Father and a nice letter when I got home.
+   Mr. H. brought them with letters from Mother and Betty, so I went
+   to bed happy.
+
+   _December._--Busy with Christmas and New Year's tales. Heard a
+   good lecture by E. P. Whipple on "Courage." Thought I needed it,
+   being rather tired of living like a spider;--spinning my brains
+   out for money.
+
+   Wrote a story, "The Cross on the Church Tower," suggested by the
+   tower before my window.
+
+   Called on Mrs. L., and she asked me to come and teach A. for
+   three hours each day. Just what I wanted; and the children's
+   welcome was very pretty and comforting to "Our Olly," as they
+   call me.
+
+   Now board is all safe, and something over for home, if stories
+   and sewing fail. I don't do much, but can send little comforts to
+   Mother and Betty, and keep May neat.
+
+   _December 18th._--Begin with A. L., in Beacon Street. I taught C.
+   when we lived in High Street, A. in Pinckney Street, and now Al.;
+   so I seem to be an institution and a success, since I can start
+   the boy, teach one girl, and take care of the little invalid. It
+   is hard work, but I can do it; and am glad to sit in a large,
+   fine room part of each day, after my sky-parlor, which has
+   nothing pretty in it, and only the gray tower and blue sky
+   outside as I sit at the window writing. I love luxury, but
+   freedom and independence better.
+
+
+_To her Father, written from Mrs. Reed's._
+
+     BOSTON, Nov. 29, 1856.
+
+   DEAREST FATHER,--Your little parcel was very welcome to me as I
+   sat alone in my room, with snow falling fast outside, and a few
+   tears in (for birthdays are dismal times to me); and the fine
+   letter, the pretty gift, and, most of all, the loving thought so
+   kindly taken for your old absent daughter, made the cold, dark
+   day as warm and bright as summer to me.
+
+   And now, with the birthday pin upon my bosom, many thanks on my
+   lips, and a whole heart full of love for its giver, I will tell
+   you a little about my doings, stupid as they will seem after your
+   own grand proceedings. How I wish I could be with you, enjoying
+   what I have always longed for,--fine people, fine amusements, and
+   fine books. But as I can't, I am glad you are; for I love to see
+   your name first among the lecturers, to hear it kindly spoken of
+   in papers and inquired about by good people here,--to say nothing
+   of the delight and pride I take in seeing you at last filling the
+   place you are so fitted for, and which you have waited for so
+   long and patiently. If the New Yorkers raise a statue to the
+   modern Plato, it will be a wise and highly creditable action.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+   I am very well and very happy. Things go smoothly, and I think I
+   shall come out right, and prove that though an _Alcott_ I _can_
+   support myself. I like the independent feeling; and though not an
+   easy life, it is a free one, and I enjoy it. I can't do much with
+   my hands; so I will make a battering-ram of my head and make a
+   way through this rough-and-tumble world. I have very pleasant
+   lectures to amuse my evenings,--Professor Gajani on "Italian
+   Reformers," the Mercantile Library course, Whipple, Beecher, and
+   others, and, best of all, a free pass at the Boston Theatre. I
+   saw Mr. Barry, and he gave it to me with many kind speeches, and
+   promises to bring out the play very soon. I hope he will.
+
+   My farce is in the hands of Mrs. W. H. Smith, who acts at Laura
+   Keene's theatre in New York. She took it, saying she would bring
+   it out there. If you see or hear anything about it, let me know.
+   I want something doing. My mornings are spent in writing. C.
+   takes one a month, and I am to see Mr. B., who may take some of
+   my wares.
+
+   In the afternoons I walk and visit my hundred relations, who are
+   all kind and friendly, and seem interested in our various
+   successes.
+
+   Sunday evenings I go to Parker's parlor, and there meet Phillips,
+   Garrison, Scherb, Sanborn, and many other pleasant people. All
+   talk, and I sit in a corner listening, and wishing a certain
+   placid gray-haired gentleman was there talking too. Mrs. Parker
+   calls on me, reads my stories, and is very good to me. Theodore
+   asks Louisa "how her worthy parents do," and is otherwise very
+   friendly to the large, bashful girl who adorns his parlor
+   steadily.
+
+   Abby is preparing for a busy and, I hope, a profitable winter.
+   She has music lessons already, French and drawing in store, and,
+   if her eyes hold out, will keep her word and become what none of
+   us can be, "an accomplished Alcott." Now, dear Father, I shall
+   hope to hear from you occasionally, and will gladly answer all
+   epistles from the Plato whose parlor parish is becoming quite
+   famous. I got the "Tribune," but not the letter, and shall look
+   it up. I have been meaning to write, but did not know where you
+   were.
+
+   Good-by, and a happy birthday from your ever loving child,
+
+     LOUISA.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+_Twenty-four Years Old._
+
+   _January, 1857._--Had my first new silk dress from good little L.
+   W.,--very fine; and I felt as if all the Hancocks and Quincys
+   beheld me as I went to two parties in it on New Year's eve.
+
+   A busy, happy month,--taught, wrote, sewed, read aloud to the
+   "little mother," and went often to the theatre; heard good
+   lectures; and enjoyed my Parker evenings very much.
+
+   Father came to see me on his way home; little money; had had a
+   good time, and was asked to come again. Why don't rich people who
+   enjoy his talk pay for it? Philosophers are always poor, and too
+   modest to pass round their own hats.
+
+   Sent by him a good bundle to the poor Forlornites among the
+   ten-foot drifts in W.
+
+   _February._--Ran home as a valentine on the 14th.
+
+   _March._--Have several irons in the fire now, and try to keep 'em
+   all hot.
+
+   _April._--May did a crayon head of Mother with Mrs. Murdock; very
+   good likeness. All of us as proud as peacocks of our "little
+   Raphael."
+
+   Heard Mrs. Butler read; very fine.
+
+   _May._--Left the L.'s with my thirty-three dollars, glad to rest.
+   May went home with her picture, happy in her winter's work and
+   success.
+
+   Father had three talks at W. F. Channing's. Good
+   company,--Emerson, Mrs. Howe, and the rest.
+
+   Saw young Booth in Brutus, and liked him better than his father;
+   went about and rested after my labors; glad to be with Father,
+   who enjoyed Boston and friends.
+
+   Home on the 10th, passing Sunday at the Emerson's. I have done
+   what I planned,--supported myself, written eight stories, taught
+   four months, earned a hundred dollars, and sent money home.
+
+   _June._--All happy together. My dear Nan was with me, and we had
+   good times. Betty was feeble, but seemed to cheer up for a time.
+   The long, cold, lonely winter has been too hard for the frail
+   creature, and we are all anxious about her. I fear she may slip
+   away; for she never seemed to care much for this world beyond
+   home.
+
+So gradually the day seemed to be coming to which Louisa had long
+looked forward. She found that she could be independent, could help
+her family, and even indulge some of her own tastes.
+
+About this time Miss Alcott mentions a young friend who died in her
+arms, and speaks of going to console the sister in her loneliness.
+This shows how warmly her heart beat for others while her head was so
+busy with her ambitious plans. She speaks also of the hint of a new
+story called "The Cost of an Idea." She never lost sight of this plan,
+but did not carry it out. Her father's life and character were in her
+mind, and she longed to portray the conflict between his high ideal
+and the practical difficulties of his life; but it was an impossible
+subject. The Fruitlands episode was told in "Transcendental Wild
+Oats," and his early life in "Elis's Education." But although her
+admiration and affection for him are abundantly shown in her journals,
+she never perhaps understood him so thoroughly that she could
+adequately portray his personality; neither could she do justice to
+all related to him without trenching upon the privacy due to sacred
+feelings.
+
+  [Illustration: ORCHARD HOUSE, CONCORD, MASS. Home of the Alcott
+  Family, 1858.]
+
+A great shadow fell over Louisa's heart and life from the increasing
+illness of her dear younger sister Elizabeth. This young girl was
+tenderly beloved by all the family, and was indeed as pure,
+refined, and holy as she is represented as Beth in "Little Women."
+Her decay was very gradual, and she was so patient and sweet that the
+sad time of anxiety was a very precious one in remembrance.
+
+This sickness added to the pecuniary burdens of the family, and eight
+years afterward Louisa paid the bill of the physician who attended her
+sister.
+
+In October, 1857, the family removed again to Concord, and Louisa
+remained at home to assist in the care of the beloved invalid. They
+lived a few months in a part of a house which they hired until the
+Orchard House, which they had bought, was ready for them. Here the
+dear sister's life came to a close.
+
+This was the first break in the household, and the mother's heart
+never fully recovered from it. Louisa accepted death with strong,
+sweet wisdom. It never seemed to have any terror for her.
+
+In July they took possession of the Orchard House, which was hereafter
+the permanent residence of the family. This was a picturesque old
+house on the side of a hill, with an orchard of apple-trees. It was
+not far from Mr. Emerson's, and within walking distance of the
+village, yet very quiet and rural. Mr. Alcott had his library, and was
+always very happy there; but Louisa's heart never clung to it.
+
+The engagement of the elder sister was a very exciting event to
+Louisa, who did not like having the old sisterly relation broken in
+upon; but everything was so genuine and true in the love of the newly
+betrothed pair that she could not help accepting the change as a
+blessing to her sister and taking the new brother into her heart. The
+entries in her journal show that the picture she has drawn in "Little
+Women" of this noble man is from life, and not exaggerated.
+
+Louisa went to Boston for a visit, and again had hopes of going on to
+the stage; but an accident prevented it; and she returned to Concord
+and her writing, working off her disappointment in a story called
+"Only an Actress."
+
+Among her experiences at this time was an offer of marriage, about
+which she consulted her mother, telling her that she did not care for
+the lover very much. The wise mother saved her from the impulse to
+self-sacrifice, which might have led her to accept a position which
+would have given help to the family.
+
+Although this was not the only instance of offers of marriage, more or
+less advantageous, made to her, Louisa had no inclination toward
+matrimony. Her heart was bound up in her family, and she could hardly
+contemplate her own interests as separate from theirs. She loved
+activity, freedom, and independence. She could not cherish illusions
+tenderly; and she always said that she got tired of everybody, and
+felt sure that she should of her husband if she married. She never
+wished to make her heroines marry, and the love story is the part of
+her books for which she cared least. She yielded to the desire of the
+public, who will not accept life without a recognition of this great
+joy in it. Still it must be acknowledged that she has sometimes
+painted very sweet and natural love scenes, although more often in
+quaint and homely guise than in the fashion of ancient romance. "King
+of Clubs and Queen of Hearts" is very prettily told; and "Mrs.
+Todger's Teapot" is true to that quiet, earnest affection which does
+not pass away with youth.
+
+The writing went on, and she received five, six, or ten dollars apiece
+for her stories; but she did not yet venture to give up the sewing and
+teaching, which was still the sure reliance.
+
+Her younger sister now began to exercise her talent, and illustrated a
+little book of Louisa's called "Christmas Elves," which she says is
+better than "Flower Fables."
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   Read Charlotte Bronté's life. A very interesting, but sad one. So
+   full of talent; and after working long, just as success, love,
+   and happiness come, she dies.
+
+   Wonder if I shall ever be famous enough for people to care to
+   read my story and struggles. I can't be a C. B., but I may do a
+   little something yet.
+
+   _July._--Grandma Alcott came to visit us. A sweet old lady; and I
+   am glad to know her, and see where Father got his nature.
+   Eighty-four; yet very smart, industrious, and wise. A house needs
+   a grandma in it.
+
+   As we sat talking over Father's boyhood, I never realized so
+   plainly before how much he has done for himself. His early life
+   sounded like a pretty old romance, and Mother added the love
+   passages.
+
+   I got a hint for a story; and some day will do it, and call it
+   "The Cost of an Idea." Spindle Hill, Temple School, Fruitlands,
+   Boston, and Concord, would make fine chapters. The trials and
+   triumphs of the Pathetic Family would make a capital book; may I
+   live to do it.
+
+   _August._--A sad, anxious month. Betty worse; Mother takes her
+   to the seashore. Father decides to go back to Concord; he is
+   never happy far from Emerson, the one true friend who loves and
+   understands and helps him.
+
+   _September._--An old house near R. W. E.'s is bought with
+   Mother's money, and we propose to move. Mother in Boston with
+   poor Betty, who is failing fast. Anna and I have a hard time
+   breaking up.
+
+   _October._--Move to Concord. Take half a house in town till
+   spring, when the old one is to be made ready.
+
+   Find dear Betty a shadow, but sweet and patient always. Fit up a
+   nice room for her, and hope home and love and care may keep her.
+
+   People kind and friendly, and the old place looks pleasant,
+   though I never want to live in it.
+
+   _November._--Father goes West, taking Grandma home. We settle
+   down to our winter, whatever it is to be. Lizzie seems better,
+   and we have some plays. Sanborn's school makes things lively, and
+   we act a good deal.
+
+   Twenty-five this month. I feel my quarter of a century rather
+   heavy on my shoulders just now. I lead two lives. One seems gay
+   with plays, etc., the other very sad,--in Betty's room; for
+   though she wishes us to act, and loves to see us get ready, the
+   shadow is there, and Mother and I see it. Betty loves to have me
+   with her; and I am with her at night, for Mother needs rest.
+   Betty says she feels "strong" when I am near. So glad to be of
+   use.
+
+   _December._--Some fine plays for charity.
+
+   _January, 1858._--Lizzie much worse; Dr. G. says there is no
+   hope. A hard thing to hear; but if she is only to suffer, I pray
+   she may go soon. She was glad to know she was to "get well," as
+   she called it, and we tried to bear it bravely for her sake. We
+   gave up plays; Father came home; and Anna took the housekeeping,
+   so that Mother and I could devote ourselves to her. Sad, quiet
+   days in her room, and strange nights keeping up the fire and
+   watching the dear little shadow try to wile away the long
+   sleepless hours without troubling me. She sews, reads, sings
+   softly, and lies looking at the fire,--so sweet and patient and
+   so worn, my heart is broken to see the change. I wrote some lines
+   one night on "Our Angel in the House."
+
+   [Jo and Beth.--L. M. A.]
+
+   _February._--A mild month; Betty very comfortable, and we hope a
+   little.
+
+   Dear Betty is slipping away, and every hour is too precious to
+   waste, so I'll keep my lamentations over Nan's [affairs] till
+   this duty is over.
+
+   Lizzie makes little things, and drops them out of windows to the
+   school-children, smiling to see their surprise. In the night she
+   tells me to be Mrs. Gamp, when I give her her lunch, and tries to
+   be gay that I may keep up. Dear little saint! I shall be better
+   all my life for these sad hours with you.
+
+   _March 14th._--My dear Beth died at three this morning, after two
+   years of patient pain. Last week she put her work away, saying
+   the needle was "too heavy," and having given us her few
+   possessions, made ready for the parting in her own simple, quiet
+   way. For two days she suffered much, begging for ether, though
+   its effect was gone. Tuesday she lay in Father's arms, and called
+   us round her, smiling contentedly as she said, "All here!" I
+   think she bid us good-by then, as she held our hands and kissed
+   us tenderly. Saturday she slept, and at midnight became
+   unconscious, quietly breathing her life away till three; then,
+   with one last look of the beautiful eyes, she was gone.
+
+   A curious thing happened, and I will tell it here, for Dr. G.
+   said it was a fact. A few moments after the last breath came, as
+   Mother and I sat silently watching the shadow fall on the dear
+   little face, I saw a light mist rise from the body, and float up
+   and vanish in the air. Mother's eyes followed mine, and when I
+   said, "What did you see?" she described the same light mist. Dr.
+   G. said it was the life departing visibly.
+
+   For the last time we dressed her in her usual cap and gown, and
+   laid her on her bed,--at rest at last. What she had suffered was
+   seen in the face; for at twenty-three she looked like a woman of
+   forty, so worn was she, and all her pretty hair gone.
+
+   On Monday Dr. Huntington read the Chapel service, and we sang her
+   favorite hymn. Mr. Emerson, Henry Thoreau, Sanborn, and John
+   Pratt, carried her out of the old home to the new one at Sleepy
+   Hollow chosen by herself. So the first break comes, and I know
+   what death means,--a liberator for her, a teacher for us.
+
+   _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,
+   and, for the first time, Lizzie absent. I don't miss her as I
+   expected to do, for she seems nearer and dearer than before; and
+   I am glad to know she is safe from pain and age in some world
+   where her innocent soul must be happy.
+
+   Death never seemed terrible to me, and now is beautiful; so I
+   cannot fear it, but find it friendly and wonderful.
+
+   _May._--A lonely month with all the girls gone, and Father and
+   Mother absorbed in the old house, which I don't care about, not
+   liking Concord.
+
+   On the 7th of April, Anna came walking in to tell us she was
+   engaged to John Pratt; so another sister is gone. J. is a model
+   son and brother,--a true man,--full of fine possibilities, but so
+   modest one does not see it at once. He is handsome, healthy, and
+   happy; just home from the West, and so full of love he is
+   pleasant to look at.
+
+   I moaned in private over my great loss, and said I'd never
+   forgive J. for taking Anna from me; but I shall if he makes her
+   happy, and turn to little May for my comfort.
+
+   [Now that John is dead, I can truly say we all had cause to bless
+   the day he came into the family; for we gained a son and brother,
+   and Anna the best husband ever known.
+
+   For ten years he made her home a little heaven of love and peace;
+   and when he died he left her the legacy of a beautiful life, and
+   an honest name to his little sons.--L. M. A., 1873.]
+
+   _June._--The girls came home, and I went to visit L. W. in
+   Boston. Saw Charlotte Cushman, and had a stage-struck fit. Dr. W.
+   asked Barry to let me act at his theatre, and he agreed. I was to
+   do Widow Pottle, as the dress was a good disguise and I knew the
+   part well. It was all a secret, and I had hopes of trying a new
+   life; the old one being so changed now, I felt as if I must find
+   interest in something absorbing. But Mr. B. broke his leg, so I
+   had to give it up; and when it was known, the dear, respectable
+   relations were horrified at the idea. I'll try again by-and-by,
+   and see if I have the gift. Perhaps it is acting, not writing,
+   I'm meant for. Nature must have a vent somehow.
+
+   _July._--Went into the new house and began to settle. Father is
+   happy; Mother glad to be at rest; Anna is in bliss with her
+   gentle John; and May busy over her pictures. I have plans
+   simmering, but must sweep and dust and wash my dish-pans a while
+   longer till I see my way.
+
+   Worked off my stage fever in writing a story, and felt better;
+   also a moral tale, and got twenty-five dollars, which pieced up
+   our summer gowns and bonnets all round. The inside of my head can
+   at least cover the outside.
+
+   _August._--Much company to see the new house. All seem to be glad
+   that the wandering family is anchored at last. We won't move
+   again for twenty years if I can help it. The old people need an
+   abiding place; and now that death and love have taken two of us
+   away, I can, I hope, soon manage to care for the remaining four.
+
+   The weeklies will all take stories; and I can simmer novels while
+   I do my housework, so see my way to a little money, and perhaps
+   more by-and-by if I ever make a hit.
+
+Probably owing to the excitement of grief for her sister's death, and
+sympathy in Anna's happy betrothal, Louisa became in October more
+discouraged than she had ever been, and went to Boston in search of
+work. As she walked over the mill dam the running stream brought the
+thought of the River of Death, which would end all troubles. It was
+but a momentary impulse, and the brave young heart rallied to the
+thought, "There is work for me, and I'll have it!" Her journal
+narrates how Mr. Parker helped her through this period of anxiety. She
+was all ready to go to Lancaster, to hard drudgery at sewing, when her
+old place as governess was again offered to her, and her own support
+was assured.
+
+   _October._--Went to Boston on my usual hunt for employment, as I
+   am not needed at home and seem to be the only bread-winner just
+   now.
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   My fit of despair was soon over, for it seemed so cowardly to run
+   away before the battle was over I couldn't do it. So I said
+   firmly, "There _is_ work for me, and I'll have it," and went home
+   resolved to take Fate by the throat and shake a living out of
+   her.
+
+   Sunday Mr. Parker preached a sermon on "Laborious Young Women."
+   Just what I needed; for it said: "Trust your fellow-beings, and
+   let them help you. Don't be too proud to ask, and accept the
+   humblest work till you can find the task you want."
+
+   "I will," said I, and went to Mr. P.'s. He was out; but I told
+   Mrs. P. my wants, and she kindly said Theodore and Hannah would
+   be sure to have something for me. As I went home I met Mrs. L.,
+   who had not wanted me, as Alice went to school. She asked if I
+   was engaged, and said A. did not do well, and she thought perhaps
+   they would like me back. I was rejoiced, and went home feeling
+   that the tide had begun to turn. Next day came Miss H. S. to
+   offer me a place at the Girls' Reform School at Lancaster, to sew
+   ten hours a day, make and mend. I said I'd go, as I could do
+   anything with a needle; but added, if Mrs. L. wants me I'd rather
+   do that.
+
+   "Of course you had. Take it if it comes, and if not, try my
+   work." I promised and waited. That eve, when my bag was packed
+   and all was ready for Lancaster, came a note from Mrs. L.
+   offering the old salary and the old place. I sang for joy, and
+   next day early posted off to Miss S. She was glad and shook
+   hands, saying, "It was a test, my dear, and you stood it. When I
+   told Mr. P. that you would go, he said, 'That is a true girl;
+   Louisa will succeed.'"
+
+   I was very proud and happy; for these things are tests of
+   character as well as courage, and I covet the respect of such
+   true people as Mr. P. and Miss S.
+
+   So away to my little girl with a bright heart! for with tales,
+   and sewing for Mary, which pays my board, there I am fixed for
+   the winter and my cares over. Thank the Lord!
+
+She now found publishers eager for her stories, and went on writing
+for them. She was encouraged by E. P. Whipple's praise of "Mark
+Field's Mistake," and by earning thirty dollars, most of which she
+sent home.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   Earned thirty dollars; sent twenty home. Heard Curtis, Parker,
+   Higginson, and Mrs. Dall lecture. See Booth's Hamlet, and my
+   ideal done at last.
+
+   My twenty-sixth birthday on the 29th. Some sweet letters from
+   home, and a ring of A.'s and J.'s hair as a peace-offering. A
+   quiet day, with many thoughts and memories.
+
+   The past year has brought us the first death and betrothal,--two
+   events that change my life. I can see that these experiences have
+   taken a deep hold, and changed or developed me. Lizzie helps me
+   spiritually, and a little success makes me more self-reliant. Now
+   that Mother is too tired to be wearied with my moods, I have to
+   manage them alone, and am learning that work of head and hand is
+   my salvation when disappointment or weariness burden and darken
+   my soul.
+
+   In my sorrow I think I instinctively came nearer to God, and
+   found comfort in the knowledge that he was sure to help when
+   nothing else could.
+
+   A great grief has taught me more than any minister, and when
+   feeling most alone I find refuge in the Almighty Friend. If this
+   is experiencing religion I have done it; but I think it is only
+   the lesson one must learn as it comes, and I am glad to know it.
+
+   After my fit of despair I seem to be braver and more cheerful,
+   and grub away with a good heart. Hope it will last, for I need
+   all the courage and comfort I can get.
+
+   I feel as if I could write better now,--more truly of things I
+   have felt and therefore _know_. I hope I shall yet do my great
+   book, for that seems to be my work, and I am growing up to it. I
+   even think of trying the "Atlantic." There 's ambition for you!
+   I'm sure some of the stories are very flat. If Mr. L. takes the
+   one Father carried to him, I shall think I can do something.
+
+   _December._--Father started on his tour West full of hope. Dear
+   man! How happy he will be if people will only listen to and _pay_
+   for his wisdom.
+
+   May came to B. and stayed with me while she took drawing lessons.
+   Christmas at home. Write an Indian story.
+
+   _January_, 1859.--Send a parcel home to Marmee and Nan.
+
+   Mother very ill. Home to nurse her for a week. Wonder if I ought
+   not to be a nurse, as I seem to have a gift for it. Lizzie, L.
+   W., and Mother all say so; and I like it. If I couldn't write or
+   act I'd try it. May yet. $21 from L.; $15 home.
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   Some day I'll do my best, and get well paid for it.
+
+   [$3,000 for a short serial in 1876. True prophet.--L. M. A.]
+
+   Wrote a sequel to "Mark Field." Had a queer time over it, getting
+   up at night to write it, being too full to sleep.
+
+   _March._--"Mark" was a success, and much praised. So I found the
+   divine afflatus did descend. Busy life teaching, writing, sewing,
+   getting all I can from lectures, books, and good people. Life is
+   my college. May I graduate well, and earn some honors!
+
+   _April._--May went home after a happy winter at the School of
+   Design, where she did finely, and was pronounced full of promise.
+   Mr. T. said good things of her, and we were very proud. No doubt
+   now what she is to be, if we can only keep her along.
+
+   I went home also, being done with A., who went out of town early.
+   Won't teach any more if I can help it; don't like it; and if I
+   can get writing enough can do much better.
+
+   I have done more than I hoped. Supported myself, helped May, and
+   sent something home. Not borrowed a penny, and had only five
+   dollars given me. So my third campaign ends well.
+
+   _May._--Took care of L. W., who was ill. Walked from C. to B. one
+   day, twenty miles, in five hours, and went to a party in the
+   evening. Not very tired. Well done for a vegetable production!
+
+   _June._--Took two children to board and teach. A busy month, as
+   Anna was in B.
+
+   _September._--Great State Encampment here. Town full of soldiers,
+   with military fuss and feathers. I like a camp, and long for a
+   war, to see how it all seems. I can't fight, but I can nurse.
+
+   [Prophetic again.--L. M. A.]
+
+   _October_, 1859.--May did a fine copy of Emerson's Endymion[7]
+   for me.
+
+   Mother sixty. God bless the dear, brave woman!
+
+   Good news of Parker in Florence,--my beloved minister and friend.
+   To him and R. W. E. I owe much of my education. May I be a worthy
+   pupil of such men!
+
+   _November._--Hurrah! My story was accepted; and Lowell asked if
+   it was not a translation from the German, it was so unlike most
+   tales. I felt much set up, and my fifty dollars will be very
+   happy money. People seem to think it a great thing to get into
+   the "Atlantic;" but I've not been pegging away all these years in
+   vain, and may yet have books and publishers and a fortune of my
+   own. Success has gone to my head, and I wander a little.
+   Twenty-seven years old, and very happy.
+
+   The Harper's Ferry tragedy makes this a memorable month. Glad I
+   have lived to see the Antislavery movement and this last heroic
+   act in it. Wish I could do my part in it.
+
+   _December_, 1859.--The execution of Saint John the Just took
+   place on the second. A meeting at the hall, and all Concord was
+   there. Emerson, Thoreau, Father, and Sanborn spoke, and all were
+   full of reverence and admiration for the martyr.
+
+   I made some verses on it, and sent them to the "Liberator."
+
+A sickness of Mrs. Alcott through which she nursed her makes Louisa
+question whether nursing is not her true vocation. She had an
+opportunity to try it later.
+
+Much interest attaches to this period of Louisa's work, when she
+dashed off sensational stories as fast as they were wanted, from the
+account which she has given of it in "Little Women." She has
+concentrated into one short period there the work and the feelings of
+a much longer time. She certainly did let her fancy run riot in these
+tales, and they were as sensational as the penny papers desired. She
+had a passion for wild, adventurous life, and even for lurid passion
+and melodramatic action, which she could indulge to the utmost in
+these stories. Louisa was always a creature of moods; and it was a
+great relief to work off certain feelings by the safe vent of
+imaginary persons and scenes in a story. She had no one to guide or
+criticise her; and the fact that these gambols of fancy brought the
+much-needed money, and were, as she truly called them, "pot boilers,"
+certainly did not discourage her from indulging in them. She is
+probably right in calling most of them "trash and rubbish," for she
+was yet an unformed girl, and had not studied herself or life very
+deeply; but her own severe condemnation of them in "Little Women"
+might give a false idea. The stories are never coarse or immoral. They
+give a lurid, unnatural picture of life, but sin is not made
+captivating or immorality attractive. There is often a severe moral
+enforced. They did not give poison to her readers, only over-seasoned
+unnatural food, which might destroy the relish for wholesome mental
+nourishment.
+
+We are inclined to ask, What did Louisa herself get out of this wild,
+Walpurgis-Night ride among ghosts and goblins, letting her fancy run
+riot, and indulging every mood as it rose? Did it not give her the
+dash and freedom in writing which we find in all her books, a command
+of language, and a recognition of the glow and force of life? She
+finds life no mere commonplace drudgery, but full of great
+possibilities. Did it not also give her an interest in all the wild
+fancies and dreams of girls, all the longing for adventure of boys,
+and make her hopeful even of the veriest young scamps that they would
+work off the turbulent energies of youth safely if activities were
+wisely provided for them?
+
+No writer for children ever was so fully recognized as understanding
+them. They never felt that she stood on a pinnacle of wisdom to
+censure them, but came right down into their midst to work and play
+with them, and at the same time to show them the path out of the
+tangled thickets, and to help them to see light in their gloomiest
+despair.
+
+Yet she unquestionably recognized that she was not doing the best work
+of which she was capable; and she looked forward still to the books
+she was to write, as well as the fortune she was to make. She did not
+like any reference to these sensational stories in after life,
+although she sometimes re-used plots or incidents in them; and she was
+very unwilling to have them republished.
+
+
+_Boston Bulletin,--Ninth Issue._
+
+     SUNDAY EVE, November, 1858.
+
+   MY BLESSED NAN,--Having finished my story, I can refresh my soul
+   by a scribble to you, though I have nothing to tell of much
+   interest.
+
+   Mrs. L. is to pay me my "celery" each month, as she likes to
+   settle all bills in that way; so yesterday she put $20.85 into my
+   willing hands, and gave me Saturday P.M. for a holiday. This
+   unexpected $20, with the $10 for my story (if I get it) and $5
+   for sewing, will give me the immense sum of $35. I shall get a
+   second-hand carpet for the little parlor, a bonnet for you, and
+   some shoes and stockings for myself, as three times round the
+   Common in cold weather conduces to chilblains, owing to
+   stockings with a profusion of toe, but no heel, and shoes with
+   plenty of heel, but a paucity of toe. The prejudices of society
+   demand that my feet be covered in the houses of the rich and
+   great; so I shall hose and shoe myself, and if any of my fortune
+   is left, will invest it in the Alcott Sinking Fund, the Micawber
+   R. R., and the Skimpole three per cents.
+
+   Tell me how much carpet you need, and T. S. will find me a good
+   one. In December I shall have another $20; so let me know what is
+   wanting, and don't live on "five pounds of rice and a couple of
+   quarts of split peas" all winter, I beg.
+
+   How did you like "Mark Field's Mistake"? I don't know whether it
+   is good or bad; but it will keep the pot boiling, and I ask no
+   more. I wanted to go and see if "Hope's Treasures" was accepted,
+   but was afeared. M. and H. both appeared; but one fell asleep,
+   and the other forgot to remember; so I still wait like Patience
+   on a hard chair, smiling at an inkstand. Miss K. asked me to go
+   to see Booth for the last time on Saturday. Upon that ravishing
+   thought I brooded all the week very merrily, and I danced, sang,
+   and clashed my cymbals daily. Saturday A.M. Miss K. sent word she
+   couldn't go, and from my pinnacle of joy I was precipitated into
+   an abyss of woe. While in said abyss Mrs. L. put the $20 into my
+   hands. That was a moment of awful trial. Every one of those
+   dollars cried aloud, "What, ho! Come hither, and be happy!" But
+   eight cold feet on a straw carpet marched to and fro so
+   pathetically that I locked up the tempting fiend, and fell to
+   sewing, as a Saturday treat!
+
+   But, lo! virtue was rewarded. Mrs. H. came flying in, and took me
+   to the Museum to see "Gold" and "Lend Me Five Shillings." Warren,
+   in an orange tie, red coat, white satin vest, and scarlet
+   ribbons on his ankles, was the funniest creature you ever saw;
+   and I laughed till I cried,--which was better for me than the
+   melancholy Dane, I dare say.
+
+   I'm disgusted with this letter; for I always begin trying to be
+   proper and neat; but my pen will not keep in order, and ink has a
+   tendency to splash when used copiously and with rapidity. I have
+   to be so moral and so dignified nowadays that the jocosity of my
+   nature will gush out when it gets a chance, and the consequences
+   are, as you see, rubbish. But you like it; so let's be merry
+   while we may, for to-morrow is Monday, and the weekly grind
+   begins again.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[7] A fine bas-relief owned by Mr. Emerson.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE YEAR OF GOOD LUCK.
+
+     THE CHILDREN'S SONG.
+
+     _Tune._--"Wait for the Wagon."
+
+     The world lies fair about us, and a friendly sky above;
+     Our lives are full of sunshine, our homes are full of love;
+     Few cares or sorrows sadden the beauty of our day;
+     We gather simple pleasures like daisies by the way.
+
+             _Chorus._--Oh! sing with cheery voices,
+                        Like robins on the tree;
+                      For little lads and lasses
+                        As blithe of heart should be.
+
+     The village is our fairyland: its good men are our kings;
+     And wandering through its by-ways our busy minds find wings.
+     The school-room is our garden, and we the flowers there,
+     And kind hands tend and water us that we may blossom fair.
+
+             _Chorus._--Oh! dance in airy circles,
+                        Like fairies on the lee;
+                      For little lads and lasses
+                        As light of foot should be.
+
+     There's the Shepherd of the sheepfold; the Father of the vines;
+     The Hermit of blue Walden; the Poet of the pines;
+     And a Friend who comes among us, with counsels wise and mild
+     With snow upon his forehead, yet at heart a very child.
+
+             _Chorus._--Oh! smile as smiles the river,
+                        Slow rippling to the sea;
+                      For little lads and lasses
+                        As full of peace should be.
+
+     There's not a cloud in heaven but drops its silent dew;
+     No violet in the meadow but blesses with its blue;
+     No happy child in Concord who may not do its part
+     To make the great world better by innocence of heart.
+
+             _Chorus._--Oh! blossom in the sunshine
+                           Beneath the village tree;
+                         For little lads and lasses
+                           Are the fairest flowers we see.
+
+
+After such long and hard struggles, it is pleasant to find the diary
+for 1860 headed "A Year of Good Luck." The appointment of Mr. Alcott
+as Superintendent of Schools in Concord was a great happiness to the
+family. It was a recognition of his character and ability, and gave
+him congenial occupation and some small pecuniary compensation.
+
+Louisa was writing for the "Atlantic," and receiving better pay for
+her work; Anna was happy; and May absorbed in her art.
+
+In the summer Miss Alcott had an experience in caring for a young
+friend during a temporary fit of insanity, which she has partially
+reproduced in the touching picture of Helen in the story of "Work." It
+is a powerful lesson; but it is almost cruelly enforced, and is an
+artistic blemish in the book. While the great problem of heredity
+should be studied and its lessons enforced, it is yet a mystery, whose
+laws are not understood; and it is not wise to paint its possible
+effects in the lurid light of excited imagination, which may too often
+bring about the very evils which a wise and temperate caution might
+prevent. For the physician and teacher such investigations are
+important; but they are dangerous to the young and sensitive.
+
+The following unusually long letter gives a pleasing picture of the
+family life at this time:--
+
+
+_To Mrs. Bond._
+
+     APPLE SLUMP, Sept. 17, 1860.
+
+   DEAR AUNTIE,--I consider this a practical illustration of one of
+   Mother's naughty amended sayings, "Cast your bread upon the
+   waters, and after many days it will return buttered;" and this
+   "rule of three" don't "puzzle me," as the other did; for my
+   venerable raiment went away with one if not two feet in the
+   grave, and came back in the guise of three stout angels, having
+   been resurrectionized by the spirit who lives on the other side
+   of a Charles River Jordan. Thank you very much, and be sure the
+   dreams I dream in them will be pleasant ones; for, whether you
+   sewed them or not, I know they bring some of the Auntie influence
+   in their strength, softness, and warmth; and, though a Vandal, I
+   think any prayers I may say in them will be the better for the
+   affectionate recollections that will clothe me with the putting
+   on of these friendly gowns, while my belief in both heavenly and
+   earthly providences will be amazingly strengthened by the
+   knowledge of some lives here, whose beauty renders it impossible
+   to doubt the existence of the life hereafter.
+
+   We were very glad to hear that the Papa was better; for when
+   paternal "Richards" ain't "themselves," everybody knows the
+   anxious state of the domestic realms.
+
+   I hope Georgie (last name disremembered) has recovered from the
+   anguish of discontented teeth and berry-seeds, and that "the
+   Mama" was as much benefited by the trip as the other parties
+   were, barring the horse perhaps.
+
+   This amiable town is convulsed just now with a gymnastic fever,
+   which shows itself with great violence in all the schools, and
+   young societies generally. Dr. Lewis has "inoculated us for the
+   disease," and it has "taken finely;" for every one has become a
+   perambulating windmill, with all its four sails going as if a
+   wind had set in; and the most virulent cases present the
+   phenomena of black eyes and excoriation of the knobby parts of
+   the frame, to say nothing of sprains and breakage of vessels
+   looming in the future.
+
+   The City Fathers approve of it; and the city sons and daughters
+   intend to show that Concord has as much muscle as brain, and be
+   ready for another Concord fight, if Louis Napoleon sees fit to
+   covet this famous land of Emerson, Hawthorne, Thoreau, Alcott, &
+   Co. Abby and I are among the pioneers; and the delicate vegetable
+   productions clash their cymbals in private, when the beef-eating
+   young ladies faint away and become superfluous _dumb belles_.
+
+   Saturday we had J. G. Whittier, Charlotte Cushman, Miss Stebbins
+   the sculptress, and Mr. Stuart, conductor of the underground
+   railroad of this charming free country. So you see our humble
+   place of abode is perking up; and when the "great authoress and
+   artist" are fairly out of the shell, we shall be an honor to our
+   country and terror to the foe,--provided good fortune don't addle
+   or bad fortune smash us.
+
+   Father continues to stir up the schools like a mild
+   pudding-stick, Mother to sing Hebron among her pots and pans,
+   Anna and the Prince Consort to bill and coo in the little
+   dove-cot, Oranthy Bluggage to launch chips on the Atlantic and
+   make a gigantic blot of herself in working the vessel, Abby to
+   teach the fine arts and play propriety for the family, and the
+   old house to put its best foot foremost and hoot at the idea of
+   ever returning to the chaos from which it came.
+
+   This is a condensed history of "the pathetic family," which is
+   also a "happy family," owing to the prevalence of friends and
+   lots of kindness in the original packages, "which are always
+   arriving" when the "Widow Cruise's oil-bottle" begins to give
+   out.
+
+   You know I never _could_ do anything in a neat and proper manner;
+   so you will receive this topsy-turvy note as you do its writer,
+   and with love to all from all, believe her, dear auntie,
+
+     Ever lovingly yours,
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+This characteristic letter not only shows Louisa's affectionate
+feelings and gives a picture of her life, but indicates that "The
+Pathetic Family," which was the foundation of "Little Women," was
+already shaping itself in her mind.
+
+Mr. Alcott's career as Superintendent of Schools was a gratifying
+success, and is still remembered by friends of education in the town.
+The year closed with a school festival, for which Louisa wrote a poem,
+and in which she took hearty delight.
+
+In 1861 war was declared with the South. The Alcotts were all alive
+with patriotic enthusiasm, and Louisa took an active part in fitting
+off the boys for the army. But she also found time for much reading.
+Mr. Alcott, in his sonnet, uses the expression about Louisa--
+
+     "Hast with grave studies vexed a lively brain."
+
+He may possibly have referred to this period, though she could never
+properly be called a student. She was a rapid, intelligent reader,
+and her taste was severe and keen. From her childhood she had browsed
+in her father's library, full of the works of ancient philosophers and
+quaint English poets, and had imbibed from them great thoughts and
+noble sentiments; but her reading, like all her education, was
+immethodical. Occasionally she would lay out courses of reading, which
+she pursued for a time; but in general she followed the cravings of a
+healthy appetite for knowledge, reading what came in her way. Later in
+life she often read light literature in abundance, to drown the
+sensations of pain, and to pass away the hours of invalidism.
+
+She read French easily, and learned to speak it when abroad; she also
+studied German, but did not acquire equal facility in that tongue. Of
+ancient languages she had no knowledge. History could not fail to
+interest such a student of life, and she loved Nature too well not to
+enjoy the revelations of science when brought to her notice; but she
+had never time to give to a thorough study of either.
+
+In her journal at this time she speaks of her religious feelings,
+which the experiences of grief and despair and reviving hope had
+deepened. Louisa Alcott's was a truly religious soul; she always lived
+in the consciousness of a Higher Power sustaining and blessing her,
+whose presence was revealed to her through Nature, through the
+inspired words of great thinkers and the deep experiences of her own
+heart. She never held her life as an isolated possession which she was
+free to use for her own enjoyment or glory. Her father truly called
+her "Duty's faithful child," and her life was consecrated to the duty
+she recognized as specially hers. But for outward forms and rites of
+religion she cared little; her home was sacred to her, and she found
+her best life there. She loved Theodore Parker, and found great
+strength and help from his preaching, and afterward liked to listen to
+Dr. Bartol; but she never joined any church. The Bible was not her
+favorite reading, though her father had read it much to her in her
+childhood, with his own peculiar charm of interpretation. Pilgrim's
+Progress was one of the few religious books which became dear to her
+in the same way.
+
+Her sister Anna was married in May; this was of course a great event
+in the family. While fully rejoicing in her sister's happiness, Louisa
+felt her loss as a constant companion and confidant. The journal gives
+a sufficient description of the event. Her strong affection for her
+brother-in-law appears in "Little Women" and in "Jo's Boys." About
+this time her farce was brought out at the Howard Athenæum.
+
+The story-writing continued, as it helped to pay the expenses of the
+family; but the continuous, hurried work had begun to affect her
+health, and she occasionally suffered from illness.
+
+In the summer of 1861 Miss Alcott began to write her first novel,
+entitled "Moods;" this proved to be the least successful of her books,
+and yet like many an unfortunate child, it was the dearest to the
+mother's heart. It was not written for money, but for its own sake,
+and she was possessed by the plot and the characters. Warwick
+represented her ideal of a hero, while her sister preferred the type
+of the amiable Moor; yet there is far less of her outward self
+revealed in this than in her other stories. It is full of her thoughts
+and fancies, but not of her life. The wilful, moody, charming Sylvia
+does not affect us like the stormy Jo, who is a real presence to us,
+and whom we take to our hearts in spite of her faults. The men are
+such as she found in books, but had never known herself, and,
+carefully as she has drawn them, have not the individuality of Laurie
+and Professor Bhaer. The action takes place in an unreal world; and
+though there are many pretty scenes, they have not the real flavor of
+New England life. The principal incident, of a young girl going up the
+river on a picnic-voyage for some days with her brother and two other
+young men, was so contrary to common ideas of decorum, that the motive
+hardly seems sufficient for the staid sister's consent; but in the
+simple, innocent life which the Alcotts lived in Concord such scruples
+were little felt.
+
+Miss Alcott did not lay stress upon the marriage question as the
+principal feature of the book; she cared more to describe the wilful
+moods of a young girl, full of good feelings, and longing for a rich
+and noble life, but not established in convictions and principles. She
+meant to represent much of her own nature in Sylvia, for she was
+always a creature of moods, which her family learned to recognize and
+respect. But how unlike was the discipline of family work and love,
+which saved Louisa from fatal caprices and fitful gusts of fancy
+called passion, to the lot of the wealthy and admired Sylvia. Miss
+Alcott says that the incidents of the marriage, although not drawn
+from life, were so close to an actual case that the wife asked her how
+she had known her secret; but such realism is a poor justification in
+art. It is that which becomes true to the imagination and heart
+through its vivid personation of character which is accepted, not the
+bare facts. The great question of the transcendental period was truth
+to the inward life instead of the outward law. But in "Moods" the
+marriage question is not stated strongly; it does not reach down to
+this central principle. It is only in tragedy that such a double
+relation could be endured, when the situation is compelled by
+fate,--the fate of character and overpowering circumstances,--and when
+there is no happy solution possible. But Sylvia's position is made
+only by her own weakness, and the love which stands in opposition to
+outward duty has no right of existence. If her love for Warwick
+_could_ be overcome, there was no question of her duty; and when she
+accepts Faith's criticism of him, it is clear that it is a much
+lighter spell than love which has fascinated her. We do not accept the
+catastrophe which sacrifices a splendid life to make a comfortable
+solution of the practical difficulty, and to allow Sylvia to accept a
+happy home without a thorough regeneration of heart and mind. But
+these were the natural mistakes of youth and inexperience; Louisa had
+known but little of such struggles. Love and marriage were rather
+uninteresting themes to her, and she had not yet found her true power.
+
+Still the book has great literary merit. It is well written, in a more
+finished style than any of her other work, except "Modern
+Mephistopheles," and the dialogue is vigorous and sprightly. In spite
+of her careful revision and pruning, there is something left of
+youthful gush in it, and this perhaps touched the heart of young
+girls, who found in Sylvia's troubles with herself a reflection of
+their own.
+
+The "golden wedding" scenes have some of her usual freedom and
+vivacity. She is at home with a troop of mothers and babies and noisy
+boys. But the "golden wedding" was a new importation from Germany, and
+not at home in the New England farmhouse. Why might it not have been a
+true wedding or a harvest feast?
+
+Louisa never lost her interest in this early work, though it was the
+most unlucky of books, and subjected to severe handling. It was sent
+to and fro from publisher to author, each one suggesting some change.
+Redpath sent it back as being too long. Ticknor found it very
+interesting, but could not use it then. Loring liked it, but wanted it
+shorter. She condensed and altered until her author's spirit rebelled,
+and she declared she would change it no more.
+
+After her other books had made her famous, "Moods" was again brought
+forward and republished as it was originally written. It met with
+warmer welcome than before, and a cheap edition was published in
+England to supply the popular demand.
+
+Miss Alcott learned the first painful lesson of over-work on this
+book. She was possessed by it, and for three weeks labored so
+constantly that she felt the physical effects keenly. Fortunately new
+household tasks (for the daughters of John Brown came to board with
+them), and the enthusiasm of the time, changed the current of her
+thoughts.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _February_, 1860.--Mr. ---- won't have "M. L.," as it is
+   antislavery, and the dear South must not be offended. Got a
+   carpet with my $50, and wild Louisa's head kept the feet of the
+   family warm.
+
+   _March._--Wrote "A Modern Cinderella," with Nan for the heroine
+   and John for the hero.
+
+   Made my first ball dress for May, and she was the finest girl at
+   the party. My tall, blond, graceful girl! I was proud of her.
+
+   Wrote a song for the school festival, and heard it sung by four
+   hundred happy children. Father got up the affair, and such a
+   pretty affair was never seen in Concord before. He said, "We
+   spend much on our cattle and flower shows; let us each spring
+   have a show of our children, and begrudge nothing for their
+   culture." All liked it but the old fogies who want things as they
+   were in the ark.
+
+   _April._--Made two riding habits, and May and I had some fine
+   rides. Both needed exercise, and this was good for us. So one of
+   our dreams came true, and we really did "dash away on horseback."
+
+   Sanborn was nearly kidnapped for being a friend of John Brown;
+   but his sister and A. W. rescued him when he was handcuffed, and
+   the scamps drove off. Great ferment in town. A meeting and
+   general flurry.
+
+   Had a funny lover who met me in the cars, and said he lost his
+   heart at once. Handsome man of forty. A Southerner, and very
+   demonstrative and gushing, called and wished to pay his
+   addresses; and being told I didn't wish to see him, retired, to
+   write letters and haunt the road with his hat off, while the
+   girls laughed and had great fun over Jo's lover. He went at last,
+   and peace reigned. My adorers are all queer.
+
+   Sent "Cinderella" to the "Atlantic," and it was accepted. Began
+   "By the River," and thought that this was certainly to be a lucky
+   year; for after ten years hard climbing I had reached a good
+   perch on the ladder, and could look more hopefully into the
+   future, while my paper boats sailed gaily over the Atlantic.
+
+   _May._--Meg's wedding.
+
+   My farce was acted, and I went to see it. Not very well done; but
+   I sat in a box, and the good Doctor handed up a bouquet to the
+   author, and made as much as he could of a small affair.
+
+   Saw Anna's honeymoon home at Chelsea,--a little cottage in a
+   blooming apple-orchard. Pretty place, simple and sweet. God bless
+   it!
+
+   The dear girl was married on the 23d, the same day as Mother's
+   wedding. A lovely day; the house full of sunshine, flowers,
+   friends, and happiness. Uncle S. J. May married them, with no
+   fuss, but much love; and we all stood round her. She in her
+   silver-gray silk, with lilies of the valley (John's flower) in
+   her bosom and hair. We in gray thin stuff and roses,--sackcloth,
+   I called it, and ashes of roses; for I mourn the loss of my Nan,
+   and am not comforted. We have had a little feast, sent by good
+   Mrs. Judge Shaw; then the old folks danced round the bridal pair
+   on the lawn in the German fashion, making a pretty picture to
+   remember, under our Revolutionary elm.
+
+   Then, with tears and kisses, our dear girl, in her little white
+   bonnet, went happily away with her good John; and we ended our
+   first wedding. Mr. Emerson kissed her; and I thought that honor
+   would make even matrimony endurable, for he is the god of my
+   idolatry, and has been for years.
+
+   _June._--To Boston to the memorial meeting for Mr. Parker, which
+   was very beautiful, and proved how much he was beloved. Music
+   Hall was full of flowers and sunshine, and hundreds of faces,
+   both sad and proud, as the various speakers told the life of love
+   and labor which makes Theodore Parker's memory so rich a legacy
+   to Boston. I was very glad to have known so good a man, and been
+   called "friend" by him.
+
+   Saw Nan in her nest, where she and her mate live like a pair of
+   turtle doves. Very sweet and pretty, but I'd rather be a free
+   spinster and paddle my own canoe.
+
+   _August._--"Moods." Genius burned so fiercely that for four weeks
+   I wrote all day and planned nearly all night, being quite
+   possessed by my work. I was perfectly happy, and seemed to have
+   no wants. Finished the book, or a rough draught of it, and put it
+   away to settle. Mr. Emerson offered to read it when Mother told
+   him it was "Moods" and had one of his sayings for motto.
+
+   Daresay nothing will ever come of it; but it _had_ to be done,
+   and I'm the richer for a new experience.
+
+   _September._--Received $75 of Ticknor for "Cinderella," and feel
+   very rich. Emerson praised it, and people wrote to me about it
+   and patted me on the head. Paid bills, and began to simmer
+   another.
+
+   _October._--I went to B. and saw the Prince of Wales trot over
+   the Common with his train at a review. A yellow-haired laddie
+   very like his mother. Fanny W. and I nodded and waved as he
+   passed, and he openly winked his boyish eye at us; for Fanny,
+   with her yellow curls and wild waving, looked rather rowdy, and
+   the poor little prince wanted some fun. We laughed, and thought
+   that we had been more distinguished by the saucy wink than by a
+   stately bow. Boys are always jolly,--even princes.
+
+   Read Richter, and enjoyed him very much.
+
+   Mother went to see Uncle S. J. May, and I was house-keeper. Gave
+   my mind to it so energetically that I dreamed dip-toast, talked
+   apple-sauce, thought pies, and wept drop-cakes. Read my book to
+   Nan, who came up to cheer me in my struggles; and she laughed and
+   cried over it and said it was "good." So I felt encouraged, and
+   will touch it up when duty no longer orders me to make a
+   burnt-offering of myself.
+
+   _November._--Father sixty-one; L. aged twenty-eight. Our
+   birthday. Gave Father a ream of paper, and he gave me Emerson's
+   picture; so both were happy.
+
+   Wrote little, being busy with visitors. The John Brown
+   Association asked me for a poem, which I wrote.
+
+   Kind Miss R. sent May $30 for lessons, so she went to B. to take
+   some of Johnstone. She is one of the fortunate ones, and gets
+   what she wants easily. I have to grub for my help, or go without
+   it. Good for me, doubtless, or it wouldn't be so; so cheer up,
+   Louisa, and grind away!
+
+   _December._--More luck for May. She wanted to go to Syracuse and
+   teach, and Dr. W. sends for her, thanks to Uncle S. J. May. I sew
+   like a steam-engine for a week, and get her ready. On the 17th go
+   to B. and see our youngest start on her first little flight
+   alone into the world, full of hope and courage. May all go well
+   with her!
+
+   Mr. Emerson invited me to his class when they meet to talk on
+   Genius; a great honor, as all the learned ladies go.
+
+   Sent "Debby's Debit" to the "Atlantic," and they took it. Asked
+   to the John Brown meeting, but had no "good gown," so didn't go;
+   but my "pome" did, and came out in the paper. Not good. I'm a
+   better patriot than poet, and couldn't say what I felt.
+
+   A quiet Christmas; no presents but apples and flowers. No
+   merry-making; for Nan and May were gone, and Betty under the
+   snow. But we are used to hard times, and, as Mother says, "while
+   there is a famine in Kansas we mustn't ask for sugar-plums."
+
+   All the philosophy in our house is not in the study; a good deal
+   is in the kitchen, where a fine old lady thinks high thoughts and
+   does kind deeds while she cooks and scrubs.
+
+   _January, 1861._--Twenty-eight; received thirteen New Year's
+   gifts. A most uncommon fit of generosity seemed to seize people
+   on my behalf, and I was blessed with all manner of nice things,
+   from a gold and ivory pen to a mince-pie and a bonnet.
+
+   Wrote on a new book--"Success" ["Work"]--till Mother fell ill,
+   when I corked up my inkstand and turned nurse. The dear woman was
+   very ill, but rose up like a phoenix from her ashes after what
+   she gayly called "the irrepressible conflict between sickness and
+   the May constitution."
+
+   Father had four talks at Emerson's; good people came, and he
+   enjoyed them much; made $30. R. W. E. probably put in $20. He has
+   a sweet way of bestowing gifts on the table under a book or
+   behind a candle-stick, when he thinks Father wants a little
+   money, and no one will help him earn. A true friend is this
+   tender and illustrious man.
+
+   Wrote a tale and put it away,--to be sent when "Debby" comes out.
+   "F. T." appeared, and I got a dress, having mended my six-year
+   old silk till it is more patch and tear than gown. Made the
+   claret merino myself, and enjoyed it, as I do anything bought
+   with my "head-money."
+
+   _February._--Another turn at "Moods," which I remodelled. From
+   the 2d to the 25th I sat writing, with a run at dusk; could not
+   sleep, and for three days was so full of it I could not stop to
+   get up. Mother made me a green silk cap with a red bow, to match
+   the old green and red party wrap, which I wore as a "glory
+   cloak." Thus arrayed I sat in groves of manuscripts, "living for
+   immortality," as May said. Mother wandered in and out with
+   cordial cups of tea, worried because I couldn't eat. Father
+   thought it fine, and brought his reddest apples and hardest cider
+   for my Pegasus to feed upon. All sorts of fun was going on; but I
+   didn't care if the world returned to chaos if I and my inkstand
+   only "lit" in the same place.
+
+   It was very pleasant and queer while it lasted; but after three
+   weeks of it I found that my mind was too rampant for my body, as
+   my head was dizzy, legs shaky, and no sleep would come. So I
+   dropped the pen, and took long walks, cold baths, and had Nan up
+   to frolic with me. Read all I had done to my family; and Father
+   said: "Emerson must see this. Where did you get your
+   metaphysics?" Mother pronounced it wonderful, and Anna laughed
+   and cried, as she always does, over my works, saying, "My dear,
+   I'm proud of you."
+
+   So I had a good time, even if it never comes to anything; thing;
+   for it was worth something to have my three dearest sit up till
+   midnight listening with wide-open eyes to Lu's first novel.
+
+   I planned it some time ago, and have had it in my mind ever so
+   long; but now it begins to take shape.
+
+   Father had his usual school festival, and Emerson asked me to
+   write a song, which I did. On the 16th the schools all met in the
+   hall (four hundred),--a pretty posy bed, with a border of proud
+   parents and friends. Some of the fogies objected to the names
+   Phillips and John Brown. But Emerson said: "Give it up? No, no;
+   _I_ will read it." Which he did, to my great contentment; for
+   when the great man of the town says "Do it," the thing is done.
+   So the choir warbled, and the Alcotts were uplifted in their vain
+   minds.
+
+   Father was in glory, like a happy shepherd with a large flock of
+   sportive lambs; for all did something. Each school had its
+   badge,--one pink ribbons, one green shoulder-knots, and one
+   wreaths of pop-corn on the curly pates. One school to whom Father
+   had read Pilgrim's Progress told the story, one child after the
+   other popping up to say his or her part; and at the end a little
+   tot walked forward, saying with a pretty air of wonder,--"And
+   behold it was all a dream."
+
+   When all was over, and Father about to dismiss them, F. H., a
+   tall, handsome lad came to him, and looking up confidingly to the
+   benign old face, asked "our dear friend Mr. Alcott to accept of
+   Pilgrim's Progress and George Herbert's Poems from the children
+   of Concord, as a token of their love and respect."
+
+   Father was much touched and surprised, and blushed and stammered
+   like a boy, hugging the fine books while the children cheered
+   till the roof rung.
+
+   His report was much admired, and a thousand copies printed to
+   supply the demand; for it was a new thing to have a report,
+   neither dry nor dull; and teachers were glad of the hints given,
+   making education a part of religion, not a mere bread-making
+   grind for teacher and an irksome cram for children.
+
+   _April._--War declared with the South, and our Concord company
+   went to Washington. A busy time getting them ready, and a sad day
+   seeing them off; for in a little town like this we all seem like
+   one family in times like these. At the station the scene was very
+   dramatic, as the brave boys went away perhaps never to come back
+   again.
+
+   I've often longed to see a war, and now I have my wish. I long to
+   be a man; but as I can't fight, I will content myself with
+   working for those who can.
+
+   Sewed a good deal getting May's summer things in order, as she
+   sent for me to make and mend and buy and send her outfit.
+
+   Stories simmered in my brain, demanding to be writ; but I let
+   them simmer, knowing that the longer the divine afflatus was
+   bottled up the better it would be.
+
+   John Brown's daughters came to board, and upset my plans of rest
+   and writing when the report and the sewing were done. I had my
+   fit of woe up garret on the fat rag-bag, and then put my papers
+   away, and fell to work at housekeeping. I think disappointment
+   must be good for me, I get so much of it; and the constant
+   thumping Fate gives me may be a mellowing process; so I shall be
+   a ripe and sweet old pippin before I die.
+
+   _May._--Spent our May-day working for our men,--three hundred
+   women all sewing together at the hall for two days.
+
+   May will not return to S. after her vacation in July; and being a
+   lucky puss, just as she wants something to do, F. B. S. needs a
+   drawing teacher in his school and offers her the place.
+
+   Nan found that I was wearing all the old clothes she and May
+   left; so the two dear souls clubbed together and got me some new
+   ones; and the great parcel, with a loving letter, came to me as a
+   beautiful surprise.
+
+   Nan and John walked up from Cambridge for a day, and we all
+   walked back. Took a sail to the forts, and saw our men on guard
+   there. Felt very martial and Joan-of-Arc-y as I stood on the
+   walls with the flag flying over me and cannon all about.
+
+   _June._--Read a good deal; grubbed in my garden, and made the old
+   house pretty for May. Enjoyed Carlyle's French Revolution very
+   much. His earthquaky style suits me.
+
+   "Charles Auchester" is charming,--a sort of fairy tale for grown
+   people. Dear old "Evelina," as a change, was pleasant. Emerson
+   recommended Hodson's India, and I got it, and liked it; also read
+   Sir Thomas More's Life. I read Fielding's "Amelia," and thought
+   it coarse and queer. The heroine having "her lovely nose smashed
+   all to bits falling from a post shay" was a new idea. What some
+   one says of Richardson applies to Fielding, "The virtues of his
+   heroes are the vices of decent men."
+
+   _July._--Spent a month at the White Mountains with L. W.,--a
+   lovely time, and it did me much good. Mountains are restful and
+   uplifting to my mind. Lived in the woods, and revelled in brooks,
+   birds, pines, and peace.
+
+   _August._--May came home very tired, but satisfied with her first
+   attempt, which has been very successful in every way. She is
+   quite a belle now, and much improved,--a tall blond lass, full of
+   grace and spirit.
+
+   _September._--Ticknor sent $50. Wrote a story for C., as Plato
+   needs new shirts, and Minerva a pair of boots, and Hebe a fall
+   hat.
+
+   _October._--All together on Marmee's birthday. Sewing and
+   knitting for "our boys" all the time. It seems as if a few
+   energetic women could carry on the war better than the men do it
+   so far.
+
+   A week with Nan in the dove-cot. As happy as ever.
+
+   _November_ and _December_.--Wrote, read, sewed, and wanted
+   something to do.
+
+In 1862, at the suggestion of Miss Peabody, Miss Alcott opened a
+Kindergarten school; but it was not successful, and she took a final
+leave of the teacher's profession, and returned to her writing, which
+she found to be her true calling. She wrote much; for "brain was
+lively, and work paid for readily." Besides the occasional stories in
+papers and magazines, her most important labor was the preparation of
+the story called "Work," or, as she originally named it, "Success."
+This story however was not published until ten years later. Here she
+took the road that was later to lead to fame and fortune, by writing
+from her own experience of life. Christie is Louisa herself under very
+thin disguise; and all her own experiences, as servant, governess,
+companion, seamstress, and actress are brought in to give vividness to
+the picture; while many other persons may be recognized as models for
+her skilful portraiture. The book has always been deservedly popular.
+
+   _January, 1862._--E. P. Peabody wanted me to open a Kindergarten,
+   and Mr. Barnard gave a room at the Warren Street Chapel. Don't
+   like to teach, but take what comes; so when Mr. F. offered $40 to
+   fit up with, twelve pupils, and his patronage, I began.
+
+   Saw many great people, and found them no bigger than the rest of
+   the world,--often not half so good as some humble soul who made
+   no noise. I learned a good deal in my way, and am not half so
+   much impressed by society as before I got a peep at it. Having
+   known Emerson, Parker, Phillips, and that set of really great and
+   good men and women living for the world's work and service of
+   God, the mere show people seem rather small and silly, though
+   they shine well, and feel that they are stars.
+
+   _February._--Visited about, as my school did not bring enough to
+   pay board and the assistant I was made to have, though I didn't
+   want her.
+
+   Went to lectures; saw Booth at the Goulds',--a handsome, shy man,
+   glooming in a corner.
+
+   Very tired of this wandering life and distasteful work; but kept
+   my word and tugged on.
+
+   Hate to visit people who only ask me to help amuse others, and
+   often longed for a crust in a garret with freedom and a pen. I
+   never knew before what insolent things a hostess can do, nor what
+   false positions poverty can push one into.
+
+   _April._--Went to and from C. every day that I might be at home.
+   Forty miles a day is dull work; but I have my dear people at
+   night, and am not a beggar.
+
+   Wrote "King of Clubs,"--$30. The school having no real foundation
+   (as the people who sent didn't care for Kindergartens, and Miss
+   P. wanted me to take pupils for nothing, to try the new system),
+   I gave it up, as I could do much better at something else. May
+   took my place for a month, that I might keep my part of the
+   bargain; and I cleaned house, and wrote a story which made more
+   than all my months of teaching. They ended in a wasted winter and
+   a debt of $40,--to be paid if I sell my hair to do it.
+
+   _May._--School finished for me, and I paid Miss N. by giving her
+   all the furniture, and leaving her to do as she liked; while I
+   went back to my writing, which pays much better, though Mr. F.
+   did say, "Stick to your teaching; you can't write." Being wilful,
+   I said, "I won't teach; and I can write, and I'll prove it."
+
+   Saw Miss Rebecca Harding, author of "Margret Howth," which has
+   made a stir, and is very good. A handsome, fresh, quiet woman,
+   who says she never had any troubles, though she writes about
+   woes. I told her I had had lots of troubles; so I write jolly
+   tales; and we wondered why we each did so.
+
+   _June_, _July_, _August._--Wrote a tale for B., and he lost it,
+   and wouldn't pay.
+
+   Wrote two tales for L. I enjoy romancing to suit myself; and
+   though my tales are silly, they are not bad; and my sinners
+   always have a good spot somewhere. I hope it is good drill for
+   fancy and language, for I can do it fast; and Mr. L. says my
+   tales are so "dramatic, vivid, and full of plot," they are just
+   what he wants.
+
+   _September_, _October._--Sewing Bees and Lint Picks for "our
+   boys" kept us busy, and the prospect of the first grandchild
+   rejoiced the hearts of the family.
+
+   Wrote much; for brain was lively, and work paid for readily.
+   Rewrote the last story, and sent it to L., who wants more than I
+   can send him. So, between blue flannel jackets for "our boys" and
+   dainty slips for Louisa Caroline or John B., Jr., as the case may
+   be, I reel off my "thrilling" tales, and mess up my work in a
+   queer but interesting way.
+
+   War news bad. Anxious faces, beating hearts, and busy minds.
+
+   I like the stir in the air, and long for battle like a war-horse
+   when he smells powder. The blood of the Mays is up!
+
+
+_After Anna's Marriage._
+
+     SUNDAY MORN, 1860.
+     MRS. PRATT:
+
+   MY DEAR MADAM,--The news of the town is as follows, and I present
+   it in the usual journalesque style of correspondence. After the
+   bridal train had departed, the mourners withdrew to their
+   respective homes; and the bereaved family solaced their woe by
+   washing dishes for two hours and bolting the remains of the
+   funeral baked meats. At four, having got settled down, we were
+   all routed up by the appearance of a long procession of children
+   filing down our lane, headed by the Misses H. and R. Father
+   rushed into the cellar, and appeared with a large basket of
+   apples, which went the rounds with much effect. The light
+   infantry formed in a semi-circle, and was watered by the matron
+   and maids. It was really a pretty sight, these seventy children
+   loaded with wreaths and flowers, standing under the elm in the
+   sunshine, singing in full chorus the song I wrote for them. It
+   was a neat little compliment to the superintendent and his
+   daughter, who was glad to find that her "pome" was a favorite
+   among the "lads and lasses" who sang it "with cheery voices, like
+   robins on the tree."
+
+   Father put the finishing stroke to the spectacle by going off at
+   full speed, hoppity-skip, and all the babes followed in a whirl
+   of rapture at the idea. He led them up and down and round and
+   round till they were tired; then they fell into order, and with
+   a farewell song marched away, seventy of the happiest little ones
+   I ever wish to see. We subsided, and fell into our beds with the
+   new thought "Annie is married and gone" for a lullaby, which was
+   not very effective in its results with all parties.
+
+   Thursday we set our house in order, and at two the rush began. It
+   had gone abroad that Mr. M. and Mrs. Captain Brown were to adorn
+   the scene, so many people coolly came who were not invited, and
+   who had no business here. People sewed and jabbered till Mrs.
+   Brown, with Watson Brown's widow and baby came; then a levee took
+   place. The two pale women sat silent and serene through the
+   clatter; and the bright-eyed, handsome baby received the homage
+   of the multitude like a little king, bearing the kisses and
+   praises with the utmost dignity. He is named Frederick Watson
+   Brown, after his murdered uncle and father, and is a fair,
+   heroic-looking baby, with a fine head, and serious eyes that look
+   about him as if saying, "I am a Brown! Are these friends or
+   enemies?" I wanted to cry once at the little scene the
+   unconscious baby made. Some one caught and kissed him rudely; he
+   didn't cry, but looked troubled, and rolled his great eyes
+   anxiously about for some familiar face to reassure him with its
+   smile. His mother was not there; but though many hands were
+   stretched to him, he turned to Grandma Bridge, and putting out
+   his little arms to her as if she was a refuge, laughed and crowed
+   as he had not done before when she danced him on her knee. The
+   old lady looked delighted; and Freddy patted the kind face, and
+   cooed like a lawful descendant of that pair of ancient turtle
+   doves.
+
+   When he was safe back in the study, playing alone at his mother's
+   feet, C. and I went and worshipped in our own way at the shrine
+   of John Brown's grandson, kissing him as if he were a little
+   saint, and feeling highly honored when he sucked our fingers, or
+   walked on us with his honest little red shoes, much the worse for
+   wear.
+
+   Well, the baby fascinated me so that I forgot a raging headache
+   and forty gabbling women all in full clack. Mrs. Brown, Sen., is
+   a tall, stout woman, plain, but with a strong, good face, and a
+   natural dignity that showed she was something better than a
+   "lady," though she _did_ drink out of her saucer and used the
+   plainest speech.
+
+   The younger woman had such a patient, heart-broken face, it was a
+   whole Harper's Ferry tragedy in a look. When we got your letter,
+   Mother and I ran into the study to read it. Mother read aloud;
+   for there were only C., A., I, and Mrs. Brown, Jr., in the room.
+   As she read the words that were a poem in their simplicity and
+   happiness, the poor young widow sat with tears rolling down her
+   face; for I suppose it brought back her own wedding-day, not two
+   years ago, and all the while she cried the baby laughed and
+   crowed at her feet as if there was no trouble in the world.
+
+   The preparations had been made for twenty at the utmost; so when
+   forty souls with the usual complement of bodies appeared, we grew
+   desperate, and our neat little supper turned out a regular "tea
+   fight." A., C., B., and I rushed like comets to and fro trying to
+   fill the multitude that would eat fast and drink like sponges. I
+   filled a big plate with all I could lay hands on, and with two
+   cups of tea, strong enough for a dozen, charged upon Mr. E. and
+   Uncle S., telling them to eat, drink, and be merry, for a famine
+   was at hand. They cuddled into a corner; and then, feeling that
+   my mission was accomplished, I let the hungry _wait_ and the
+   thirsty _moan_ for tea, while I picked out and helped the regular
+   Antislavery set.
+
+   We got through it; but it was an awful hour; and Mother wandered
+   in her mind, utterly lost in a grove of teapots; while B.
+   pervaded the neighborhood demanding hot water, and we girls sowed
+   cake broadcast through the land.
+
+   When the plates were empty and the teapots dry, people wiped
+   their mouths and confessed at last that they had done. A
+   conversation followed, in which Grandpa B. and E. P. P. held
+   forth, and Uncle and Father mildly upset the world, and made a
+   new one in which every one desired to take a place. Dr. B., Mr.
+   B., T., etc., appeared, and the rattle continued till nine, when
+   some Solomon suggested that the Alcotts must be tired, and every
+   one departed but C. and S. We had a polka by Mother and Uncle,
+   the lancers by C. and B., and an _étude_ by S., after which
+   scrabblings of feast appeared, and we "drained the dregs of every
+   cup," all cakes and pies we gobbled up, etc.; then peace fell
+   upon us, and our remains were interred decently.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+HOSPITAL SKETCHES.
+
+     THOREAU'S FLUTE.
+
+     We sighing said, "Our Pan is dead;
+       His pipe hangs mute beside the river
+       Around it wistful sunbeams quiver,
+     But 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."
+
+
+Miss Alcott could not help feeling deeply the excitement of the hour
+when the war broke out. Her father had been one of the earliest
+Abolitionists, having joined the Antislavery Society with Garrison,
+and she well remembered the fugitive slave whom her mother had hidden
+in the oven. Now this feeling could be united with her patriotic zeal
+and her strong love of active life, and it was inevitable that she
+should long to share personally in the dangers and excitement of the
+war.
+
+Louisa had always been the nurse in the family, and had by nature the
+magnetic power which encourages and helps the feeble and suffering;
+therefore, since no other way of serving the cause opened to her, it
+was most like her to take her own life in her hands and join the corps
+of devoted nurses. She was accepted, and went to Washington. Her
+journal gives an account of her situation in the Union Hospital at
+Georgetown. It was a small hospital, much inferior in its appointments
+to those which were afterward arranged. Although Louisa had never been
+very ill up to that time, and thought herself exceptionally strong,
+yet she had not the rugged constitution fit to bear the labors and
+exposures of such a position; and the healthful habits of outdoor life
+and simple food to which she had always been accustomed made the
+conditions of the crowded, ill-ventilated hospital peculiarly perilous
+to her. She says, "I was never ill before this time, and never well
+afterward."
+
+But with all its hardships, Miss Alcott found in the hospital the
+varied and intense human life she had longed to know. Her great heart
+went out to all the men, black or white, the Virginia blacksmith and
+the rough Michigander. She even tried to befriend the one solitary
+rebel who had got left behind, and who was taken into the hospital to
+the disgust of some of the men; but he was impervious to all kindness,
+and she could find nothing in him for sympathy or romance to fasten
+upon.
+
+Miss Alcott remained in the hospital only about six weeks. Yet this
+short period had a very strong influence, both for good and evil, on
+her future life. The severe attack of fever which drove her from her
+post left her with shattered nerves and weakened constitution, and she
+never again knew the fulness of life and health which she had before.
+The chamber in her quiet home at Concord was evermore haunted by the
+fearful visions of delirium, and she could not regain there the peace
+she needed for work. But the experience of life, the observation of
+men under the excitement of war, the way in which they met the great
+conqueror Death, the revelations of heroism and love, and sometimes of
+bitterness and hate, brought her a deeper insight into human life than
+she ever had before, and gave to her writings greater reality.
+
+Louisa constantly wrote to the family of her experiences, and these
+letters were so interesting that she was persuaded to publish them in
+the "Commonwealth" newspaper. They attracted great attention, and
+first made her widely and favorably known to a higher public than that
+which had read her stories.
+
+These letters were published by James Redpath in book form, and Miss
+Alcott received $200 for the book,--a welcome sum to her at that time.
+The sketches are almost a literal reproduction of her letters to her
+family; but as they have been so extensively read, and are accessible
+to every one, I shall give in preference to them extracts from her
+journal kept at the hospital. Other stories growing out of her
+experience in the hospital, or more remotely connected with it, have
+been published in the same volume in later editions. "My Contraband"
+is one of the most dramatic and powerful stories she ever wrote. She
+portrays the intensity of hatred in a noble nature,--hatred justified
+by the provocation, and yet restrained from fatal execution by the
+highest suggestions of religion. This story called forth a letter of
+commendation and frank criticism from Col. T. W. Higginson, which was
+very encouraging to the young writer.
+
+The beautiful lines on Thoreau's flute, the most perfect of her poems,
+excepting the exquisite tribute to her mother, were first composed in
+the watches of the night in the hospital, and afterwards recalled
+during the tedious days of convalescence at Concord. This poem was
+printed in the "Atlantic," and brought her a welcome ten-dollar bill.
+
+"Hospital Sketches" were hastily written, and with little regard to
+literary execution, but they are fresh and original, and, still more,
+they are true, and they appeared at just the time the public wanted
+them. Every heart was longing to hear not only from field and camp,
+but from the hospitals, where sons and brothers were tenderly cared
+for. The generous, hopeful spirit with which Miss Alcott entered into
+the work was recognized as that which animated the brave corps of
+women who answered so promptly to their country's call, and every
+loyal and loving heart vibrated in unison with the strings she touched
+so skilfully.
+
+
+_Journal kept at the Hospital, Georgetown, D. C., 1862._
+
+   _November._--Thirty years old. Decided to go to Washington as
+   nurse if I could find a place. Help needed, and I love nursing,
+   and _must_ let out my pent-up energy in some new way. Winter is
+   always a hard and a dull time, and if I am away there is one less
+   to feed and warm and worry over.
+
+   I want new experiences, and am sure to get 'em if I go. So I've
+   sent in my name, and bide my time writing tales, to leave all
+   snug behind me, and mending up my old clothes,--for nurses don't
+   need nice things, thank Heaven!
+
+   _December._--On the 11th I received a note from Miss H. M.
+   Stevenson telling me to start for Georgetown next day to fill a
+   place in the Union Hotel Hospital. Mrs. Ropes of Boston was
+   matron, and Miss Kendall of Plymouth was a nurse there, and
+   though a hard place, help was needed. I was ready, and when my
+   commander said "March!" I marched. Packed my trunk, and reported
+   in B. that same evening.
+
+  [Illustration: _From a photograph of Miss Alcott taken about
+  1862._]
+
+   We had all been full of courage till the last moment came; then
+   we all broke down. I realized that I had taken my life in my
+   hand, and might never see them all again. I said, "Shall I stay,
+   Mother?" as I hugged her close. "No, go! and the Lord be with
+   you!" answered the Spartan woman; and till I turned the corner
+   she bravely smiled and waved her wet handkerchief on the
+   door-step. Shall I ever see that dear old face again?
+
+   So I set forth in the December twilight, with May and Julian
+   Hawthorne as escort, feeling as if I was the son of the house
+   going to war.
+
+   Friday, the 12th, was a very memorable day, spent in running all
+   over Boston to get my pass, etc., calling for parcels, getting a
+   tooth filled, and buying a veil,--my only purchase. A. C. gave me
+   some old clothes; the dear Sewalls money for myself and boys,
+   lots of love and help; and at 5 P.M., saying "good-by" to a group
+   of tearful faces at the station, I started on my long journey,
+   full of hope and sorrow, courage and plans.
+
+   A most interesting journey into a new world full of stirring
+   sights and sounds, new adventures, and an ever-growing sense of
+   the great task I had undertaken.
+
+   I said my prayers as I went rushing through the country white
+   with tents, all alive with patriotism, and already red with
+   blood.
+
+   A solemn time, but I'm glad to live in it; and am sure it will do
+   me good whether I come out alive or dead.
+
+   All went well, and I got to Georgetown one evening very tired.
+   Was kindly welcomed, slept in my narrow bed with two other
+   room-mates, and on the morrow began my new life by seeing a poor
+   man die at dawn, and sitting all day between a boy with pneumonia
+   and a man shot through the lungs. A strange day, but I did my
+   best; and when I put mother's little black shawl round the boy
+   while he sat up panting for breath, he smiled and said, "You are
+   real motherly, ma'am." I felt as if I was getting on. The man
+   only lay and stared with his big black eyes, and made me very
+   nervous. But all were well behaved; and I sat looking at the
+   twenty strong faces as they looked back at me,--the only new
+   thing they had to amuse them,--hoping that I looked "motherly" to
+   them; for my thirty years made me feel old, and the suffering
+   round me made me long to comfort every one.
+
+   _January, 1863. Union Hotel Hospital, Georgetown, D. C._--I never
+   began the year in a stranger place than this: five hundred miles
+   from home, alone, among strangers, doing painful duties all day
+   long, and leading a life of constant excitement in this great
+   house, surrounded by three or four hundred men in all stages of
+   suffering, disease, and death. Though often homesick, heartsick,
+   and worn out, I like it, find real pleasure in comforting,
+   tending, and cheering these poor souls who seem to love me, to
+   feel my sympathy though unspoken, and acknowledge my hearty
+   good-will, in spite of the ignorance, awkwardness, and
+   bashfulness which I cannot help showing in so new and trying a
+   situation. The men are docile, respectful, and affectionate, with
+   but few exceptions; truly lovable and manly many of them. John
+   Sulie, a Virginia blacksmith, is the prince of patients; and
+   though what we call a common man in education and condition, to
+   me is all I could expect or ask from the first gentleman in the
+   land. Under his plain speech and unpolished manner I seem to see
+   a noble character, a heart as warm and tender as a woman's, a
+   nature fresh and frank as any child's. He is about thirty, I
+   think, tall and handsome, mortally wounded, and dying royally
+   without reproach, repining, or remorse. Mrs. Ropes and myself
+   love him, and feel indignant that such a man should be so early
+   lost; for though he might never distinguish himself before the
+   world, his influence and example cannot be without effect, for
+   real goodness is never wasted.
+
+   _Monday, 4th._--I shall record the events of a day as a sample of
+   the days I spend:--
+
+   Up at six, dress by gaslight, run through my ward and throw up
+   the windows, though the men grumble and shiver; but the air is
+   bad enough to breed a pestilence; and as no notice is taken of
+   our frequent appeals for better ventilation, I must do what I
+   can. Poke up the fire, add blankets, joke, coax, and command; but
+   continue to open doors and windows as if life depended upon it.
+   Mine does, and doubtless many another, for a more perfect
+   pestilence-box than this house I never saw,--cold, damp, dirty,
+   full of vile odors from wounds, kitchens, wash-rooms, and
+   stables. No competent head, male or female, to right matters, and
+   a jumble of good, bad, and indifferent nurses, surgeons, and
+   attendants, to complicate the chaos still more.
+
+   After this unwelcome progress through my stifling ward, I go to
+   breakfast with what appetite I may; find the uninvitable fried
+   beef, salt butter, husky bread, and washy coffee; listen to the
+   clack of eight women and a dozen men,--the first silly, stupid,
+   or possessed of one idea; the last absorbed with their breakfast
+   and themselves to a degree that is both ludicrous and provoking,
+   for all the dishes are ordered down the table _full_ and returned
+   _empty_; the conversation is entirely among themselves, and each
+   announces his opinion with an air of importance that frequently
+   causes me to choke in my cup, or bolt my meals with undignified
+   speed lest a laugh betray to these famous beings that a "chiel's
+   amang them takin' notes."
+
+   Till noon I trot, trot, giving out rations, cutting up food for
+   helpless "boys," washing faces, teaching my attendants how beds
+   are made or floors are swept, dressing wounds, taking Dr. F. P.'s
+   orders (privately wishing all the time that he would be more
+   gentle with my big babies), dusting tables, sewing bandages,
+   keeping my tray tidy, rushing up and down after pillows,
+   bed-linen, sponges, books, and directions, till it seems as if I
+   would joyfully pay down all I possess for fifteen minutes' rest.
+   At twelve the big bell rings, and up comes dinner for the boys,
+   who are always ready for it and never entirely satisfied. Soup,
+   meat, potatoes, and bread is the bill of fare. Charley Thayer,
+   the attendant, travels up and down the room serving out the
+   rations, saving little for himself, yet always thoughtful of his
+   mates, and patient as a woman with their helplessness. When
+   dinner is over, some sleep, many read, and others want letters
+   written. This I like to do, for they put in such odd things, and
+   express their ideas so comically, I have great fun interiorally,
+   while as grave as possible exteriorally. A few of the men word
+   their paragraphs well and make excellent letters. John's was the
+   best of all I wrote. The answering of letters from friends after
+   some one had died is the saddest and hardest duty a nurse has to
+   do.
+
+   Supper at five sets every one to running that can run; and when
+   that flurry is over, all settle down for the evening amusements,
+   which consist of newspapers, gossip, the doctor's last round,
+   and, for such as need them, the final doses for the night. At
+   nine the bell rings, gas is turned down, and day nurses go to
+   bed. Night nurses go on duty, and sleep and death have the house
+   to themselves.
+
+   My work is changed to night watching, or half night and half
+   day,--from twelve to twelve. I like it, as it leaves me time for
+   a morning run, which is what I need to keep well; for bad air,
+   food, and water, work and watching, are getting to be too much
+   for me. I trot up and down the streets in all directions,
+   sometimes to the Heights, then half way to Washington, again to
+   the hill, over which the long trains of army wagons are
+   constantly vanishing and ambulances appearing. That way the
+   fighting lies, and I long to follow.
+
+   Ordered to keep my room, being threatened with pneumonia. Sharp
+   pain in the side, cough, fever, and dizziness. A pleasant
+   prospect for a lonely soul five hundred miles from home! Sit and
+   sew on the boys' clothes, write letters, sleep, and read; try to
+   talk and keep merry, but fail decidedly, as day after day goes,
+   and I feel no better. Dream awfully, and wake unrefreshed, think
+   of home, and wonder if I am to die here, as Mrs. R., the matron,
+   is likely to do. Feel too miserable to care much what becomes of
+   me. Dr. S. creaks up twice a day to feel my pulse, give me doses,
+   and ask if I am at all consumptive, or some other cheering
+   question. Dr. O. examines my lungs and looks sober. Dr. J. haunts
+   the room, coming by day and night with wood, cologne, books, and
+   messes, like a motherly little man as he is. Nurses fussy and
+   anxious, matron dying, and everything very gloomy. They want me
+   to go home, but I _won't_ yet.
+
+   _January 16th._--Was amazed to see Father enter the room that
+   morning, having been telegraphed to by order of Mrs. R. without
+   asking leave. I was very angry at first, though glad to see him,
+   because I knew I should have to go. Mrs. D. and Miss Dix came,
+   and pretty Miss W., to take me to Willard's to be cared for by
+   them. I wouldn't go, preferring to keep still, being pretty ill
+   by that time.
+
+   On the 21st I suddenly decided to go home, feeling very
+   strangely, and dreading to be worse. Mrs. R. died, and that
+   frightened the doctors about me; for my trouble was the
+   same,--typhoid pneumonia. Father, Miss K., and Lizzie T. went
+   with me. Miss Dix brought a basket full of bottles of wine, tea,
+   medicine, and cologne, besides a little blanket and pillow, a
+   fan, and a testament. She is a kind old soul, but very queer and
+   arbitrary.
+
+   Was very sorry to go, and "my boys" seemed sorry to have me.
+   Quite a flock came to see me off; but I was too sick to have but
+   a dim idea of what was going on.
+
+   Had a strange, excited journey of a day and night,--half asleep,
+   half wandering, just conscious that I was going home; and, when I
+   got to Boston, of being taken out of the car, with people looking
+   on as if I was a sight. I daresay I was all blowzed, crazy, and
+   weak. Was too sick to reach Concord that night, though we tried
+   to do so. Spent it at Mr. Sewall's; had a sort of fit; they sent
+   for Dr. H., and I had a dreadful time of it.
+
+   Next morning felt better, and at four went home. Just remember
+   seeing May's shocked face at the depot, Mother's bewildered one
+   at home, and getting to bed in the firm belief that the house was
+   roofless, and no one wanted to see me.
+
+   As I never shall forget the strange fancies that haunted me, I
+   shall amuse myself with recording some of them.
+
+   The most vivid and enduring was the conviction that I had married
+   a stout, handsome Spaniard, dressed in black velvet, with very
+   soft hands, and a voice that was continually saying, "Lie still,
+   my dear!" This was Mother, I suspect; but with all the comfort I
+   often found in her presence, there was blended an awful fear of
+   the Spanish spouse who was always coming after me, appearing out
+   of closets, in at windows, or threatening me dreadfully all night
+   long. I appealed to the Pope, and really got up and made a
+   touching plea in something meant for Latin, they tell me. Once I
+   went to heaven, and found it a twilight place, with people
+   darting through the air in a queer way,--all very busy, and
+   dismal, and ordinary. Miss Dix, W. H. Channing, and other people
+   were there; but I thought it dark and "slow," and wished I hadn't
+   come.
+
+   A mob at Baltimore breaking down the door to get me, being hung
+   for a witch, burned, stoned, and otherwise maltreated, were some
+   of my fancies. Also being tempted to join Dr. W. and two of the
+   nurses in worshipping the Devil. Also tending millions of rich
+   men who never died or got well.
+
+   _February._--Recovered my senses after three weeks of delirium,
+   and was told I had had a very bad typhoid fever, had nearly died,
+   and was still very sick. All of which seemed rather curious, for
+   I remembered nothing of it. Found a queer, thin, big-eyed face
+   when I looked in the glass; didn't know myself at all; and when I
+   tried to walk discovered that I couldn't, and cried because my
+   legs wouldn't go.
+
+   Never having been sick before, it was all new and very
+   interesting when I got quiet enough to understand matters. Such
+   long, long nights; such feeble, idle days; dozing, fretting about
+   nothing; longing to eat, and no mouth to do it with,--mine being
+   so sore, and full of all manner of queer sensations, it was
+   nothing but a plague. The old fancies still lingered, seeming so
+   real I believed in them, and deluded Mother and May with the most
+   absurd stories, so soberly told that they thought them true.
+
+   Dr. B. came every day, and was very kind. Father and Mother were
+   with me night and day, and May sang "Birks of Aberfeldie," or
+   read to me, to wile away the tiresome hours. People sent
+   letters, money, kind inquiries, and goodies for the old "Nuss." I
+   tried to sew, read, and write, and found I had to begin all over
+   again. Received $10 for my labors in Washington. Had all my hair,
+   a yard and a half long, cut off, and went into caps like a
+   grandma. Felt badly about losing my one beauty. Never mind, it
+   might have been my head, and a wig outside is better than a loss
+   of wits inside.
+
+   _March._--Began to get about a little, sitting up nearly all day,
+   eating more regularly, and falling back into my old ways. My
+   first job was characteristic: I cleared out my piece-bags and
+   dusted my books, feeling as tired as if I had cleaned the whole
+   house. Sat up till nine one night, and took no lunch at three
+   A.M.,--two facts which I find carefully recorded in my pocket
+   diary in my own shaky handwriting.
+
+   Father had two courses of conversations: one at Mr. Quincy's,
+   very select and fine; the other at a hall not so good. He was
+   tired out with taking care of me, poor old gentleman; and typhus
+   was not inspiring.
+
+   Read a great deal, being too feeble to do much else. No end of
+   rubbish, with a few good things as ballast. "Titan" was the one I
+   enjoyed the most, though it tired my weak wits to read much at a
+   time. Recalled, and wrote some lines on "Thoreau's Flute," which
+   I composed one night on my watch by little Shaw at the hospital.
+
+   On the 28th Father came home from Boston, bringing word that Nan
+   had a fine boy. We all screamed out when he burst in, snowy and
+   beaming; then Mother began to cry, May to laugh, and I to say,
+   like B. Trotwood, "There, I knew it wouldn't be a girl!" We were
+   all so glad it was safely over, and a jolly little lad was added
+   to the feminine family.
+
+   Mother went straight down to be sure that "mother and child were
+   doing well," and I fell to cleaning house, as good work for an
+   invalid and a vent for a happy aunt.
+
+
+_First Birth in the Alcott and Pratt Branch, 1863._
+
+     MONDAY EVE.
+
+   DEAREST LITTLE MOTHER,--Allow me to ask who was a true prophet.
+
+   Also to demand, "Where is my niece, Louisa Caroline?"
+
+   No matter, I will forgive you, and propose three cheers for my
+   _nephew_. Hurrah! hurrah! Hurray!
+
+   I wish you could have seen the performance on Saturday evening.
+
+   We were all sitting deep in a novel, not expecting Father home
+   owing to the snowstorm, when the door burst open, and in he came,
+   all wet and white, waving his bag, and calling out, "Good news!
+   good news! Anna has a fine boy!"
+
+   With one accord we opened our mouths and screamed for about two
+   minutes. Then Mother began to cry; I began to laugh; and May to
+   pour out questions; while Papa beamed upon us all,--red, damp,
+   and shiny, the picture of a proud old Grandpa. Such a funny
+   evening as we had! Mother kept breaking down, and each time
+   emerged from her handkerchief saying solemnly, "I must go right
+   down and see that baby!" Father had told every one he met, from
+   Mr. Emerson to the coach driver, and went about the house saying,
+   "Anna's boy! yes, yes, Anna's boy!" in a mild state of
+   satisfaction.
+
+   May and I at once taxed our brains for a name, and decided upon
+   "Amos Minot Bridge Bronson May Sewall Alcott Pratt," so that all
+   the families would be suited.
+
+   I was so anxious to hear more that I went up to town this A.M.
+   and found John's note.
+
+   Grandma and Grandpa Pratt came to hear the great news; but we
+   could only inform them of the one tremendous fact, that Pratt,
+   Jr., had condescended to arrive. Now tell us his weight, inches,
+   color, etc.
+
+   I know I shall fall down and adore when I see that mite; yet my
+   soul is rent when I think of the _L. C._ on the pincushion, and
+   all the plans I had made for "my niece."
+
+   Now get up quickly, and be a happy mamma. Of course John does
+   _not_ consider his son as _the_ most amazing product of the
+   nineteenth century.
+
+   Bless the baby!
+
+     Ever your admiring LU.
+
+   _April._--Had some pleasant walks and drives, and felt as if born
+   again, everything seemed so beautiful and new. I hope I was, and
+   that the Washington experience may do me lasting good. To go very
+   near to death teaches one to value life, and this winter will
+   always be a very memorable one to me.
+
+   Sewed on little shirts and gowns for my blessed nephew, who
+   increased rapidly in stature and godliness.
+
+   Sanborn asked me to do what Conway suggested before he left for
+   Europe; viz., to arrange my letters in a printable shape, and put
+   them in the "Commonwealth." They thought them witty and pathetic.
+   I didn't; but I wanted money; so I made three hospital sketches.
+   Much to my surprise, they made a great hit; and people bought the
+   papers faster than they could be supplied. The second, "A Night"
+   was much liked, and I was glad; for my beautiful "John Sulie" was
+   the hero, and the praise belonged to him. More were wanted; and I
+   added a postscript in the form of a letter, which finished it
+   up, as I then thought.
+
+   Received $100 from F. L. for a tale which won the prize last
+   January; paid debts, and was glad that my winter bore visible
+   fruit. Sent L. another tale. Went to Boston, and saw "our baby;"
+   thought him ugly, but promising. Got a set of furniture for my
+   room,--a long-talked-of dream of ours.
+
+   _May._--Spent the first week or two in putting the house in
+   order. May painted and papered the parlors. I got a new carpet
+   and rug besides the paper, and put things to rights in a thorough
+   manner. Mother was away with Nan, so we had full sweep; and she
+   came home to a clean, fresh house.
+
+   Nan and the Royal Infanta came as bright as a whole gross of
+   buttons, and as good as a hairless brown angel. Went to
+   Readville, and saw the 54th Colored Regiment, both there and next
+   day in town as they left for the South. Enjoyed it very much;
+   also the Antislavery meetings.
+
+   Had a fresh feather in my cap; for Mrs. Hawthorne showed Fields
+   "Thoreau's Flute," and he desired it for the "Atlantic." Of
+   course I didn't say no. It was printed, copied, praised, and
+   glorified; also _paid for_, and being a mercenary creature, I
+   liked the $10 nearly as well as the honor of being "a new star"
+   and "a literary celebrity."
+
+   _June._--Began to write again on "Moods," feeling encouraged by
+   the commendation bestowed on "Hospital Sketches," which were
+   noticed, talked of, and inquired about, much to my surprise and
+   delight. Had a fine letter from Henry James, also one from
+   Wasson, and a request from Redpath to be allowed to print the
+   sketches in a book. _Roberts Bros. also asked, but I preferred
+   the _Redpath_, and said yes; so he fell to work with all his
+   might.
+
+   Went to Class Day for the first time; had a pleasant day seeing
+   new sights and old friends.
+
+   G. H. came to the H.'s. Didn't like her as well as Miss H.; too
+   sharp and full of herself; insisted on talking about religion
+   with Emerson, who glided away from the subject so sweetly, yet
+   resolutely, that the energetic lady gave it up at last.
+
+   [1877.--Short-sighted Louisa! Little did you dream that this same
+   Roberts Bros. were to help you to make your fortune a few years
+   later. The "Sketches" never made much money, but showed me "my
+   style," and taking the hint, I went where glory waited me.--L. M.
+   A.]
+
+   _July._--Sanborn asked for more contributions, and I gave him
+   some of my old Mountain Letters vamped up. They were not good,
+   and though they sold the paper, I was heartily ashamed of them,
+   and stopped in the middle, resolving never again to try to be
+   funny, lest I should be rowdy and nothing more. I'm glad of the
+   lesson, and hope it will do me good.
+
+   Had some pleasant letters from Sergeant Bain,--one of my boys who
+   has not forgotten me, though safely at home far away in Michigan.
+   It gratified me very much, and brought back the hospital days
+   again. He was a merry, brave little fellow, and I liked him very
+   much. His right arm was amputated after Fredericksburg, and he
+   took it very cheerfully, trying at once to train his left hand to
+   do duty for both, and never complained of his loss. "Baby B."
+
+   _August._--Redpath carried on the publishing of the "Sketches"
+   vigorously, sending letters, proof, and notices daily, and making
+   all manner of offers, suggestions, and prophecies concerning the
+   success of the book and its author.
+
+   Wrote a story, "My Contraband," and sent it to Fields, who
+   accepted and paid $50 for it, with much approbation for it and
+   the "Sketches." L. sent $40 for a story, and wanted another.
+
+   Major M. invited me to Gloucester; but I refused, being too busy
+   and too bashful to be made a lion of, even in a very small way.
+   Letters from Dr. Hyde, Wilkie (home with a wound from Wagner),
+   Charles Sumner, Mr. Hale, and others,--all about the little
+   "Sketches," which keep on making friends for me, though I don't
+   get used to the thing at all, and think it must be all a mistake.
+
+   On the 25th my first morning-glory bloomed in my room,--a hopeful
+   blue,--and at night up came my book in its new dress. I had added
+   several chapters to it, and it was quite a neat little affair. An
+   edition of one thousand, and I to have five cents on each copy.
+
+   _September._--Redpath anxious for another book. Send him a volume
+   of stories and part of a book to look at. He likes both; but I
+   decide on waiting a little, as I'm not satisfied with the
+   stories, and the novel needs time. "Sketches" sell well, and a
+   new edition is called for.
+
+   Dear old Grandma died at Aunt Betsey's in her eighty-ninth
+   year,--a good woman, and much beloved by her children. I sent
+   money to help lay her away; for Aunt B. is poor, and it was all I
+   could do for the kind little old lady.
+
+   Nan and Freddy made us a visit, and we decided that of all
+   splendid babies he was the king. Such a hearty, happy, funny boy,
+   I could only play with and adore him all the while he stayed, and
+   long for him when he went. Nan and John are very fond of "our
+   son," and well they may be. Grandma and Grandpa think him
+   perfect, and even artistic Aunty May condescends to say he is "a
+   very nice thing."
+
+   "My Contraband; or, The Brothers," my story in the "Atlantic,"
+   came out, and was liked. Received $40 from Redpath for
+   "Sketches,"--first edition; wanted me to be editor of a paper;
+   was afraid to try, and let it go.
+
+   Poor old "Moods" came out for another touching up.
+
+   _October._--Thought much about going to Port Royal to teach
+   contrabands. Fields wanted the letters I should write, and asked
+   if I had no book. Father spoke of "Moods," and he desired to see
+   it. So I fell to work, and finished it off, thinking the world
+   must be coming to an end, and all my dreams getting fulfilled in
+   a most amazing way. If there was ever an astonished young woman,
+   it is myself; for things have gone on so swimmingly of late I
+   don't know who I am. A year ago I had no publisher, and went
+   begging with my wares; now _three_ have asked me for something,
+   several papers are ready to print my contributions, and F. B. S.
+   says "any publisher this side of Baltimore would be glad to get a
+   book." There is a sudden hoist for a meek and lowly scribbler,
+   who was told to "stick to her teaching," and never had a literary
+   friend to lend a helping hand! Fifteen years of hard grubbing may
+   be coming to something after all; and I may yet "pay all the
+   debts, fix the house, send May to Italy, and keep the old folks
+   cosey," as I've said I would so long, yet so hopelessly.
+
+   May began to take anatomical drawing lessons of Rimmer. I was
+   very glad to be able to pay her expenses up and down and clothe
+   her neatly. Twenty dollars more from Redpath on account.
+
+   _December._--Earnings 1863, $380.
+
+   The principal event of this otherwise quiet month was the
+   Sanitary Fair in Boston, and our part in it. At G. G. B.'s
+   request, I dramatized six scenes from Dickens, and went to town
+   on the 14th to play. Things did not go well for want of a good
+   manager and more time. Our night was not at all satisfactory to
+   us, owing to the falling through of several scenes for want of
+   actors. People seemed to like what there was of it, and after a
+   wearisome week I very gladly came home again. Our six
+   entertainments made twenty-five hundred dollars for the Fair.
+
+   Rewrote the fairy tales, one of which was published; but owing to
+   delays it was late for the holidays, and badly bound in the
+   hurry; so the poor "Rose Family" fared badly.
+
+   Had a letter from the publisher of a new magazine, called the
+   "Civil Service Magazine," asking for a long tale. Had no time to
+   write one; but will by and by, if the thing is good.
+
+   While in town received $10 of F. B. S. and $20 of Redpath, with
+   which I bought May hat, boots, gloves, ribbons, and other little
+   matters, besides furnishing money for her fares up and down to
+   Rimmer.
+
+   _January, 1864._--New Year's Day was a very quiet one. Nan and
+   Freddy were here, and in the evening we went to a dance at the
+   hall. A merry time; for all the town was there, as it was for the
+   Soldiers' Aid Society, and every one wanted to help. Nan and I
+   sat in the gallery, and watched the young people dance the old
+   year out, the new year in as the clock struck twelve.
+
+   On looking over my accounts, I find I have earned by my _writing_
+   alone nearly _six hundred dollars_ since last January, and spent
+   less than a hundred for myself, which I am glad to know. May has
+   had $70 for herself, and the rest has paid debts or bought
+   necessary things for the family.
+
+   Received from the "Commonwealth" $18 for "A Hospital Christmas."
+   Wrote a fairy tale, "Fairy Pinafores." "Picket Duty" and other
+   tales came out,--first of Redpath's series of books for the "Camp
+   Fires." Richardson sent again for a long story for the "Civil
+   Service Magazine." Tried a war story, but couldn't make it go.
+
+   _February._--Nan quite sick again. Mother passed most of the
+   month with her; so I had to be housekeeper, and let my writing
+   go,--as well perhaps, as my wits are tired, and the "divine
+   afflatus" don't descend as readily as it used to do. Must wait
+   and fill up my idea-box before I begin again. There is nothing
+   like work to set fancy a-going.
+
+   Redpath came flying up on the 4th to get "Moods," promising to
+   have it out by May. Gave it to him with many fears, and he
+   departed content. The next day received a telegram to come down
+   at once and see the printers. Went, and was told the story was
+   too long for a single volume, and a two-volume novel was bad to
+   begin with. Would I cut the book down about half? No, I wouldn't,
+   having already shortened it all it would bear. So I took my
+   "opus" and posted home again, promising to try and finish my
+   shorter book in a month.
+
+   A dull, heavy month, grubbing in the kitchen, sewing, cleaning
+   house, and trying to like my duty.
+
+   Mrs. S. takes a great fancy to May; sends her flowers, offers to
+   pay for her to go to the new Art School, and arranges everything
+   delightfully for her. She is a fortunate girl, and always finds
+   some one to help her as she wants to be helped. Wish I could do
+   the same, but suppose as I never do that it is best for me to
+   work and wait and do all for myself.
+
+   Mr. Storrs, D.D., wrote for a sketch for his little paper, "The
+   Drum Beat," to be printed during the Brooklyn Sanitary Fair. A
+   very cordial, pleasant letter, which I answered by a little
+   sketch called "A Hospital Lamp." He sent me another friendly
+   letter, and all the daily papers as they came out. A very
+   gentlemanly D.D. is Dr. Storrs.
+
+The "Hospital Sketches" were fully entitled to their wide and rapid
+popularity; and for the first time perhaps Miss Alcott felt sure of
+her vocation, and knew that it would bring at last the success which
+would enable her to carry out her plans for the family. And yet the
+battle was not over. She gained in reputation, was received with great
+attention in society, and lionized more than she cared for. But she
+still continued writing stories for the various papers at very low
+prices. Some of them were refused by the publishers, as she thinks, on
+account of the Antislavery sentiments expressed in them. Her "blood
+and thunder" stories continued in demand, and she wrote them rapidly,
+and was glad of the money they brought. But she had not yet found her
+true path, and she suffered at times from keen depression of spirits;
+for the way seemed long and dark, and she did not see the end. In more
+than one sense she struggled with Moods; for that unhappy book was
+still tossed from publisher to publisher, who gave her much praise,
+but no satisfaction.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   A busy month getting settled. Freddy's birthday on the 28th, one
+   year old. He had a dozen nice little presents laid out in a row
+   when he came down to breakfast, and seemed quite overpowered with
+   his riches. On being told to take what he liked best, he chose
+   the picture of little Samuel which Father gave him, and the good
+   pope was much delighted at that.
+
+   Was asked for a poem for the great album at the St. Louis Fair,
+   and sent "Thoreau's Flute" as my best. Also received a letter
+   from the Philadelphia managers asking contributions for the paper
+   to be printed at their Fair.
+
+   Wrote nothing this month.
+
+   _April._--At Father's request I sent "Moods" to T., and got a
+   very friendly note from him, saying they had so many books on
+   hand that they could do nothing about it now. So I put it back on
+   the shelf, and set about my other work. Don't despair, "Moods,"
+   we'll try again by and by!
+
+   [Alas! we did try again.--L. M. A.]
+
+   Wrote the first part of a story for Professor C. called "Love and
+   Loyalty,"--flat, patriotic, and done to order. Wrote a new fairy
+   tale, "Nelly's Hospital."
+
+   _May._--Had a letter from Mrs. Gildersleeve, asking for my
+   photograph and a sketch of my life, for a book called "Heroic
+   Women" which she was getting up. Respectfully refused. Also a
+   letter and flattering notice from "Ruth Hall," and a notice from
+   a Chicago critic with a long extract from "Rose Family." My tale
+   "Enigmas" came out, and was much liked by readers of sensation
+   rubbish. Having got my $50, I was resigned.
+
+   _June._--To town with Father on the 3d to a Fraternity Festival
+   to which we were invited. Had a fine time, and was amazed to find
+   my "'umble" self made a lion of, set up among the great ones,
+   stared at, waited upon, complimented, and made to hold a "layvee"
+   whether I would or no; for Mr. S. kept bringing up people to be
+   introduced till I was tired of shaking hands and hearing the
+   words "Hospital Sketches" uttered in every tone of interest,
+   admiration, and respect. Mr. Wasson, Whipple, Alger, Clarke,
+   Calthrop, and Chadwick came to speak to me, and many more whose
+   names I forget. It was a very pleasant surprise and a new
+   experience. I liked it, but think a small dose quite as much as
+   is good for me; for after sitting in a corner and grubbing _à la_
+   Cinderella, it rather turns one's head to be taken out and be
+   treated like a princess all of a sudden.
+
+   _August._--Went to Gloucester for a fortnight with May at the
+   M.'s. Found a family of six pretty daughters, a pleasant mother,
+   and a father who was an image of one of the Cheeryble brothers.
+   Had a jolly time boating, driving, charading, dancing, and
+   picnicking. One mild moonlight night a party of us camped out on
+   Norman's Woe, and had a splendid time, lying on the rocks
+   singing, talking, sleeping, and rioting up and down. Had a fine
+   time, and took coffee at all hours. The moon rose and set
+   beautifully, and the sunrise was a picture I never shall forget.
+
+   Wrote another fairy tale, "Jamie's Wonder Book," and sent the
+   "Christmas Stories" to W. & W., with some lovely illustrations by
+   Miss Greene. They liked the book very much, and said they would
+   consult about publishing it, though their hands were full.
+
+   _September._--Mrs. D. made a visit, and getting hold of my old
+   book of stories liked them, and insisted on taking "Moods" home
+   to read. As she had had experience with publishers, was a good
+   business woman, and an excellent critic, I let her have it,
+   hoping she might be able to give the poor old book the lift it
+   has been waiting for all these years. She took it, read it, and
+   admired it heartily, saying that "no American author had showed
+   so much promise; that the plan was admirable; the execution
+   unequal, but often magnificent; that I had a great field before
+   me, and my book must be got out."
+
+   Mrs. D. sent it to L., who liked it exceedingly, and asked me to
+   shorten it if I could, else it would be too large to sell well.
+   Was much disappointed, said I'd never touch it again, and tossed
+   it into the spidery little cupboard where it had so often
+   returned after fruitless trips.
+
+At last, in the excited hours of a wakeful night, Miss Alcott thought
+of a way to curtail the objectionable length of the book, and she
+spent a fortnight in remodelling it,--as she then thought improving it
+greatly,--although she afterwards returned to her original version as
+decidedly the best. The book was brought out, and she had the pleasure
+of presenting the first copy to her mother on her sixty fourth
+birthday. She had various projects in her mind, one of which was a
+novel, with two characters in it like Jean Paul Richter and Goethe. It
+is needless to say this was never carried out. Miss Alcott had great
+powers of observation, and a keen insight into character as it fell
+within her own range of life, but she had not the creative
+imagination which could paint to the life the subtlest workings of
+thought and feeling in natures foreign to her own experience. She
+could not have portrayed such men: but who could?
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _October._--Wrote several chapters of "Work," and was getting on
+   finely, when, as I lay awake one night, a way to shorten and
+   arrange "Moods" came into my head. The whole plan laid itself
+   smoothly out before me, and I slept no more that night, but
+   worked on it as busily as if mind and body had nothing to do with
+   one another. Up early, and began to write it all over again. The
+   fit was on strong, and for a fortnight I hardly ate, slept, or
+   stirred, but wrote, wrote, like a thinking machine in full
+   operation. When it was all rewritten without copying, I found it
+   much improved, though I'd taken out ten chapters, and sacrificed
+   many of my favorite things; but being resolved to make it simple,
+   strong, and short, I let everything else go, and hoped the book
+   would be better for it.
+
+   [It wasn't. 1867.]
+
+   Sent it to L.; and a week after, as I sat hammering away at the
+   parlor carpet,--dusty, dismal, and tired,--a letter came from L.
+   praising the story more enthusiastically than ever, thanking me
+   for the improvements, and proposing to bring out the book at
+   once. Of course we all had a rapture, and I finished my work
+   "double quick," regardless of weariness, toothache, or blue
+   devils.
+
+   Next day I went to Boston and saw L. A brisk, business-like man
+   who seemed in earnest and said many complimentary things about
+   "Hospital Sketches" and its author. It was agreed to bring out
+   the book immediately, and Mrs. D. offered to read the proof with
+   me.
+
+   Was glad to have the old thing under way again, but didn't quite
+   believe it would ever come out after so many delays and
+   disappointments.
+
+   Sewed for Nan and Mary, heard Anna Dickinson and liked her. Read
+   "Emily Chester" and thought it an unnatural story, yet just
+   enough like "Moods" in a few things to make me sorry that it came
+   out now.
+
+   On Mother's sixty-fourth birthday I gave her "Moods" with this
+   inscription,--"To Mother, my earliest patron, kindest critic,
+   dearest reader, I gratefully and affectionately inscribe my first
+   romance."
+
+   A letter from T. asking me to write for the new magazine "Our
+   Young Folks," and saying that "An Hour" was in the hands of the
+   editors.
+
+   _November._--Proof began to come, and the chapters seemed small,
+   stupid, and no more my own in print. I felt very much afraid that
+   I'd ventured too much and should be sorry for it. But Emerson
+   says "that what is true for your own private heart is true for
+   others." So I wrote from my own consciousness and observation and
+   hope it may suit some one and at least do no harm.
+
+   I sent "An Hour" to the "Commonwealth" and it was considered
+   _excellent_. Also wrote a Christmas Story, "Mrs. Todger's
+   Teapot." T. asked to see the other fairy tales and designs and
+   poems, as he liked "Nelly's Hospital" so much.
+
+   On my thirty-second birthday received Richter's Life from Nan and
+   enjoyed it so much that I planned a story of two men something
+   like Jean Paul and Goethe, only more every-day people. Don't know
+   what will come of it, but if "Moods" goes well "Success" shall
+   follow.
+
+   Sewed for Wheeler's colored company and sent them comfort-bags,
+   towels, books, and bed-sacks. Mr. W. sent me some relics from
+   Point Look Out and a pleasant letter.
+
+   _December._--Earnings, 1864,--$476.
+
+   On Christmas Eve received ten copies of "Moods" and a friendly
+   note from L. The book was hastily got out, but on the whole
+   suited me, and as the inside was considered good I let the
+   outside go. For a week wherever I went I saw, heard, and talked
+   "Moods;" found people laughing or crying over it, and was
+   continually told how well it was going, how much it was liked,
+   how fine a thing I'd done. I was glad but not proud, I think, for
+   it has always seemed as if "Moods" grew in spite of me, and that
+   I had little to do with it except to put into words the thoughts
+   that would not let me rest until I had. Don't know why.
+
+   By Saturday the first edition was gone and the second ready.
+   Several booksellers ordered a second hundred, the first went so
+   fast, and friends could not get it but had to wait till more were
+   ready.
+
+   Spent a fortnight in town at Mary's, shopping, helping Nan, and
+   having plays. Heard Emerson once. Gave C. "Mrs. Todger's Teapot,"
+   which was much liked. Sent L. the rest of his story and got $50.
+   S. paid $35 for "An Hour." R. promised $100 for "Love and
+   Loyalty," so my year closes with a novel well-launched and about
+   $300 to pay debts and make the family happy and comfortable till
+   spring. Thank God for the success of the old year, the promise of
+   the new!
+
+The sale of "Moods" was at first very rapid; for "Hospital Sketches"
+had created an interest in the author, and welcome recognition came to
+her from many sources. She received a handsome sum from the
+copyright, and "the year closed with enough to make her feel free of
+debt and the family comfortable." She ends the year's journal
+triumphantly.
+
+The following year was spent mostly in Boston. Miss Alcott went into
+society and enjoyed the friendly attentions of men and women of
+ability. She continued to write stories for money, but now received
+fifty, seventy-five, or a hundred dollars for them. She frequently
+took part in theatrical performances for charities. She was always
+brilliant and successful and enjoyed them with something of her early
+zest.
+
+Her long story of "Success," or "Work," as she afterwards named it,
+was still in her mind, but she did not finish it at this time.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _January, 1865._--The month began with some plays at the town
+   hall to raise funds for the Lyceum. We did very well and some
+   Scenes from Dickens were excellent. Father lectured and preached
+   a good deal, being asked like a regular minister and paid like
+   one. He enjoyed it very much and said good things on the new
+   religion which we ought to and shall have. May had orders from
+   Canada and England for her pretty pen-and-ink work and did well
+   in that line.
+
+   Notices of "Moods" came from all directions, and though people
+   didn't understand my ideas owing to my shortening the book so
+   much, the notices were mostly favorable and gave quite as much
+   praise as was good for me. I had letters from Mrs. Parker,
+   Chadwick, Sanborn, E. B. Greene, the artist, T. W. Higginson and
+   some others. All friendly and flattering.
+
+   Saw more notices of "Moods" and received more letters, several
+   from strangers and some very funny. People seemed to think the
+   book finely written, very promising, wise, and interesting; but
+   some fear it isn't moral, because it speaks freely of marriage.
+
+   Wrote a little on poor old "Work" but being tired of novels, I
+   soon dropped it and fell back on rubbishy tales, for they pay
+   best, and I can't afford to starve on praise, when sensation
+   stories are written in half the time and keep the family cosey.
+
+   Earned $75 this month.
+
+   I went to Boston and heard Father lecture before the Fraternity.
+   Met Henry James, Sr., there, and he asked me to come and dine,
+   also called upon me with Mrs. James. I went, and was treated like
+   the Queen of Sheba. Henry Jr. wrote a notice of "Moods" for the
+   "North American," and was very friendly. Being a literary youth
+   he gave me advice, as if he had been eighty and I a girl. My
+   curly crop made me look young, though thirty-one.
+
+   Acted in some public plays for the N. E. Women's Hospital and had
+   a pleasant time.
+
+   L. asked me to be a regular contributor to his new paper, and I
+   agreed if he'd pay beforehand; he said he would, and bespoke two
+   tales at once, $50 each, longer ones as often as I could, and
+   whatever else I liked to send. So here's another source of income
+   and Alcott brains seem in demand, whereat I sing "Hallyluyer" and
+   fill up my inkstand.
+
+   _April._--Richmond taken on the 2d. Hurrah! Went to Boston and
+   enjoyed the grand jollification. Saw Booth again in Hamlet and
+   thought him finer than ever. Had a pleasant walk and talk with
+   Phillips.
+
+   On the 15th in the midst of the rejoicing came the sad news of
+   the President's assassination, and the city went into mourning. I
+   am glad to have seen such a strange and sudden change in a
+   nation's feelings. Saw the great procession, and though few
+   colored men were in it, one was walking arm in arm with a white
+   gentleman, and I exulted thereat.
+
+   Nan went to housekeeping in a pleasant house at Jamaica Plain,
+   and I went to help her move. It was beautiful to see how Freddy
+   enjoyed the freedom, after being cooped up all winter, and how
+   every morning, whether it rained or shone, he looked out and
+   said, with a smile of perfect satisfaction, "Oh, pretty
+   day!"--for all days _were_ pretty to him, dear little soul!
+
+   Had a fine letter from Conway, and a notice in the "Reader,"--an
+   English paper. He advised sending copies to several of the best
+   London papers. English people don't understand "transcendental
+   literature," as they call "Moods." My next book shall have no
+   _ideas_ in it, only facts, and the people shall be as ordinary as
+   possible; then critics will say it's all right. I seem to have
+   been playing with edge tools without knowing it. The relations
+   between Warwick, Moor, and Sylvia are pronounced impossible; yet
+   a case of the sort exists, and the woman came and asked me how I
+   knew it. I did _not_ know or guess, but perhaps felt it, without
+   any other guide, and unconsciously put the thing into my book,
+   for I changed the ending about that time. It was meant to show a
+   life affected by _moods_, not a discussion of marriage, which I
+   knew little about, except observing that very few were happy
+   ones.
+
+   _June._--Busy writing, keeping house, and sewing. Company often;
+   and strangers begin to come, demanding to see the authoress, who
+   does not like it, and is porcupiny. Admire the books, but let
+   the woman alone, if you please, dear public!
+
+   On the 24th Anna's second boy was born, at half-past three in the
+   morning,--Lizzie's birthday. A fine, stout, little lad, who took
+   to life kindly, and seemed to find the world all right. Freddy
+   could not understand it at first, and told his mother that "the
+   babee" had got his place. But he soon loved the "tunning sing,"
+   and would stand watching it with a grave face, till some funny
+   little idea found vent in still funnier words or caresses.
+
+   Nan was very happy with her two boys, so was John, though both
+   had wished for a daughter.
+
+   _July._--While at Nan's Mrs. B. asked me if I would go abroad
+   with her sister. I said "yes;" but as I spoke neither French nor
+   German, she didn't think I'd do. I was sorry; but being used to
+   disappointment, went to work for Nan, and bided my time, which
+   came very soon.
+
+
+_To Anna._
+
+     [Date uncertain.]
+
+   MY LASS,--This must be a frivolous and dressy letter, because you
+   always want to know about our clothes, and we have been at it
+   lately. May's bonnet is a sight for gods and men. Black and white
+   outside, with a great cockade boiling over the front to meet a
+   red ditto surging from the interior, where a red rainbow darts
+   across the brow, and a surf of white lace foams up on each side.
+   I expect to hear that you and John fell flat in the dust with
+   horror on beholding it.
+
+   My bonnet has nearly been the death of me; for, thinking some
+   angel might make it possible for me to go to the mountains, I
+   felt a wish for a tidy hat, after wearing an old one till it fell
+   in tatters from my brow. Mrs. P. promised a bit of gray silk, and
+   I built on that; but when I went for it I found my hat was
+   founded on sand; for she let me down with a crash, saying she
+   wanted the silk herself, and kindly offering me a flannel
+   petticoat instead. I was in woe for a spell, having one dollar in
+   the world, and scorning debt even for that prop of life, a
+   "bonnet." Then I roused myself, flew to Dodge, demanded her
+   cheapest bonnet, found one for a dollar, took it, and went home
+   wondering if the sky would open and drop me a trimming. I am
+   simple in my tastes, but a naked straw bonnet is a little too
+   severely chaste even for me. Sky did not open; so I went to the
+   "Widow Cruise's oil bottle"--my ribbon box--which, by the way, is
+   the eighth wonder of the world, for nothing is ever put in, yet I
+   always find some old dud when all other hopes fail. From this
+   salvation bin I extracted the remains of the old white ribbon
+   (used up, as I thought, two years ago), and the bits of black
+   lace that have adorned a long line of departed hats. Of the lace
+   I made a dish, on which I thriftily served up bows of ribbon,
+   like meat on toast. Inside put the lace bow, which adorns my form
+   anywhere when needed. A white flower A. H. gave me sat airily on
+   the brim,--fearfully unbecoming, but pretty in itself, and in
+   keeping. Strings are yet to be evolved from chaos. I feel that
+   they await me somewhere in the dim future. Green ones _pro tem._
+   hold this wonder of the age upon my gifted brow, and I survey my
+   hat with respectful awe. I trust you will also, and see in it
+   another great example of the power of mind over matter, and the
+   convenience of a colossal brain in the primeval wrestle with the
+   unruly atoms which have harassed the feminine soul ever since Eve
+   clapped on a modest fig-leaf and did up her hair with a thorn for
+   a hairpin.
+
+   I feel very moral to-day, having done a big wash alone, baked,
+   swept the house, picked the hops, got dinner, and written a
+   chapter in "Moods." May gets exhausted with work, though she
+   walks six miles without a murmur.
+
+   It is dreadfully dull, and I work so that I may not "brood."
+   Nothing stirring but the wind; nothing to see but dust; no one
+   comes but rose-bugs; so I grub and scold at the "A." because it
+   takes a poor fellow's tales and keeps 'em years without paying
+   for 'em. If I think of my woes I fall into a vortex of debts,
+   dishpans, and despondency awful to see. So I say, "every path has
+   its puddle," and try to play gayly with the tadpoles in _my_
+   puddle, while I wait for the Lord to give me a lift, or some
+   gallant Raleigh to spread his velvet cloak and fetch me over dry
+   shod.
+
+   L. W. adds to my woe by writing of the splendors of Gorham, and
+   says, "When tired, run right up here and find rest among these
+   everlasting hills." All very aggravating to a young woman with
+   one dollar, no bonnet, half a gown, and a discontented mind. It's
+   a mercy the mountains are everlasting, for it will be a century
+   before _I_ get there. Oh, me, such is life!
+
+   Now I've done my Jeremiad, and I will go on twanging my harp in
+   the "willow tree."
+
+   You ask what I am writing. Well, two books half done, nine
+   stories simmering, and stacks of fairy stories moulding on the
+   shelf. I can't do much, as I have no time to get into a real good
+   vortex. It unfits me for work, worries Ma to see me look pale,
+   eat nothing, and ply by night. These extinguishers keep genius
+   from burning as I could wish, and I give up ever hoping to do
+   anything unless luck turns for your
+
+     LU.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+EUROPE AND LITTLE WOMEN.
+
+     LITTLE WOMEN.
+
+     Four little chests all in a row,
+       Dim with dust and worn by time,
+     All fashioned and filled long ago
+       By children now in their prime.
+     Four little keys hung side by side,
+       With faded ribbons, brave and gay
+     When fastened there with childish pride
+       Long ago on a rainy day.
+     Four little names, one on each lid,
+       Carved out by a boyish hand;
+     And underneath there lieth hid
+       Histories of the happy band
+     Once playing here, and pausing oft
+       To hear the sweet refrain
+     That came and went on the roof aloft
+       In the falling summer rain.
+
+            *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Four little chests all in a row,
+       Dim with dust and worn by time:
+     Four women, taught by weal and woe
+       To love and labor in their prime;
+     Four sisters parted for an hour,--
+       None lost, one only gone before,
+     Made by love's immortal power
+       Nearest and dearest evermore.
+     Oh! when these hidden stores of ours
+       Lie open to the Father's sight,
+     May they be rich in golden hours,--
+       Deeds that show fairer for the light,
+     Deeds whose brave music long shall ring
+       Like a spirit-stirring strain,
+     Souls that shall gladly soar and sing
+       In the long sunshine, after rain.
+
+
+The years which followed the war and Miss Alcott's experience as a
+hospital nurse were rather sad and anxious from many causes. Louisa
+felt deeply the loss of one sister by death and the separation from
+another by marriage. The success of "Hospital Sketches" and a few
+other stories published about the same time had given her confidence
+in her powers and hopes of a successful future. But for nearly five
+years she accomplished nothing which met with equal favor. The
+reception of the novel "Moods," in which she thought she had expressed
+her best life, was not cheering to her; and she had become wholly
+dissatisfied with the sensational stories, which formed the most ready
+resource for earning money. Her health was seriously injured by the
+fever from which she suffered in the hospital, and she had no longer
+the physical energy to sustain the unceasing activity of her brain.
+
+Under these difficulties she naturally desired a change of
+circumstances; and the old longing for a journey to Europe--which she
+had felt strongly in her youth, and which, like all Americans of
+culture, she felt more and more as time passed on--became her ruling
+desire. She was very fond of new scenes and variety of people, and she
+often expressed a wish to live many years in Europe.
+
+The circumstances of the family were not yet such as to justify
+Louisa, in her own eyes, in taking her earnings for the desired trip.
+But in 1865 an opportunity was offered her to go to Europe as
+companion to an invalid lady. From her experience in nursing--for
+which she had a natural gift--she and her friends thought her suited
+to the position, and advised her acceptance of the offer.
+
+Although devotedly kind, unselfish, and generous, Louisa had not the
+temperament suited to the needs of a nervous invalid. She was
+impetuous and impatient, and her own life was too strong within her
+and too earnest in its cravings, for her to restrain her moods and
+actions within the narrow limits of a companion's service. She found
+even what she recognized as fair services wearisome and distasteful,
+and sometimes chafed severely under what seemed unnecessary demands on
+her time, strength, and patience. Looking back on this experience in
+later years, she recognized these facts, and wrote in 1885: "Now,
+being a nervous invalid myself, I understand what seemed whims,
+selfishness, and folly in others."
+
+Louisa finally decided to leave her companions and go on alone to
+Paris and England, where she would find many of her own and her
+father's friends. At Vevay she had made the acquaintance of a young
+Polish lad, whom she found very interesting, and who was the original
+of the charming Laurie in "Little Women." He met her again in Paris,
+and contributed greatly to the pleasure of her stay there. He
+afterwards came to America, and visited her; but finally returned to
+his own country.
+
+The journal gives a sufficient account of her life while on this
+journey. I have no letters written at this time, as she wished all her
+family letters destroyed. Her few weeks in London passed very happily.
+Her wide reading in English history and in contemporary fiction,
+especially the works of Dickens and Thackeray, filled London with
+interesting associations, and she enjoyed thoroughly her free rambles
+through the old city, as well as the interesting people, who received
+her with great kindness.
+
+That Louisa might have these few weeks of entire relaxation and
+enjoyment, her mother had been obliged to borrow means for the support
+of the family; and Louisa was very anxious to clear off this debt like
+all others. She was very exact in pecuniary matters. Money to her was
+not an end, but a most necessary means. She paid every debt that her
+father had incurred, even though outlawed by time. It is often asked
+whether she ever sold her beautiful hair, as represented in "Little
+Women." The deed was never really done; but she and her sisters always
+held this treasure as a possible resource in case of need; and Louisa
+once says in her journal, "I will pay my debts, if I have to sell my
+hair to do it." She even went so far as to inquire of a barber as to
+its money value.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _1865._--Mr. W., hearing that I was something of a nurse and
+   wanted to travel, proposed my going with his invalid daughter. I
+   agreed, though I had my doubts. But every one said "Go;" so after
+   a week of worry I did go. On the 19th we sailed in the "China." I
+   could not realize that my long-desired dream was coming true; and
+   fears that I might not see all the dear home faces when I came
+   back made my heart very full as we steamed down the harbor and
+   Boston vanished.
+
+   Was not very sick, but uncomfortable all the way, and found the
+   Ladies' Saloon my only refuge till we were nearly across; enjoyed
+   intervals of quiet, and had many fine glimpses of the sea in its
+   various moods, sunsets and sunrises, fogs, icebergs, rain-storms,
+   and summer calms. No very pleasant people on board; so I read,
+   took notes, and _wiled_ away the long days as I best could.
+
+   We had a very quiet and quick passage of nine days, and on
+   Saturday, the 29th, steamed up the Mersey at dawn, and got to
+   Liverpool at nine. I was heartily glad to set my feet on the
+   solid earth, and thought I'd never go to sea again; rested, and
+   looked about a little.
+
+   _August._--Went up to London, and there spent four dull, drizzly
+   days. I amused myself in my usual way, looking well about me, and
+   writing down all I saw in my pocket-diary or letters. Went to the
+   parks, Westminster Abbey, and some of the famous streets. I felt
+   as if I'd got into a novel while going about in the places I'd
+   read so much of; saw no one I knew, and thought English weather
+   abominable.
+
+   On the 5th to Dover through a lovely green country; took steamer
+   there to Ostende; but was ill all the way, and saw nothing but a
+   basin; spent two days at a queer hotel near the fine promenade,
+   which was a very foreign and brilliant scene. To Brussels on the
+   7th. Here I enjoyed much, for the quaint old city was full of
+   interesting things. The ancient square, where the statues of
+   Egmont and Horn stand, was my delight; for the old Dutch houses
+   were still standing, and everything was so new and strange I
+   wanted to stay a month.
+
+   To Cologne on the 9th, and the country we passed through was like
+   a big picture-book. The city was very hot, dirty, and
+   evil-smelling. We saw the Cathedral, got eau de Cologne, and very
+   gladly left after three days.
+
+   On the 12th began a lovely voyage up the Rhine. It was too
+   beautiful to describe, so I shall not try; but I feel richer and
+   better for that memorable day. We reached Coblenz at sunset, and
+   I was up half the night enjoying the splendid view of the
+   fortress opposite the town, the moonlit river with its bridges of
+   boats, and troops crossing at midnight.
+
+   A second day, still more charming, took us through the famous
+   parts of the Rhine, and filled my head with pictures that will
+   last all my life.
+
+   Before we reached Bieberich we stopped at a queer little Dutch
+   town, and had a queer time; for no one spoke English, and we only
+   a little bad French. Passed the night there, and next day reached
+   Schwalbach after many trials and tribulations.
+
+   The place is a narrow valley shut in by high hills, the town
+   being divided into two parts: the lowest is the original
+   town--queer ale-houses, churches, and narrow streets; the upper
+   part, near the springs, is full of fine hotels, pleasure-grounds,
+   and bath-houses.
+
+   We took lodgings with Madame Genth, wife of the Forestmeister
+   (forest master),--two rooms,--and began the water under Dr.
+   Genth's care.
+
+   We walked a little, talked a little, bathed and rode a little,
+   worried a good deal, and I grubbed away at French, with no master
+   and small success.
+
+   _September._--Still at Schwalbach, A. doing her best to get well,
+   and I doing mine to help her. Rather dull days,--bathing,
+   walking, and quiddling about.
+
+   A letter from home on the 20th. All well and happy, thank God. It
+   touched and pleased me very much to see how they missed me,
+   thought of me, and longed to have me back. Every little thing I
+   ever did for them is now so tenderly and gratefully remembered;
+   and my absence seems to have left so large a gap that I begin to
+   realize how much I am to them in spite of all my faults. The
+   letters made me very happy, and everything brightened immensely.
+   A. got stronger, and when G. came on the 28th was able to start
+   off next day on the way to Vevay, where we are to pass some weeks
+   before we are to go to Nice.
+
+   Went to Wiesbaden first, a pleasant, gay place, full of people.
+   Saw the gambling hall and people playing, the fine grounds and
+   drives, and then went on to Frankfort. Here I saw and enjoyed a
+   good deal. The statues of Goethe, Schiller, Faust, Gutenberg, and
+   Schaeffer are in the squares. Goethe's house is a tall, plain
+   building, with each story projecting over the lower, and a Dutch
+   roof; a marble slab over the front door recording the date of
+   Goethe's birth. I took a look at it and wanted to go in, as it
+   was empty, but there was no time. Some Americans said, "Who was
+   Goethe, to fuss about?"
+
+   Frankfort is a pleasant old city on the river, and I'm glad to
+   have been there.
+
+   _October._--On to Heidelberg, a charming old place surrounded by
+   mountains. We went to the Castle and had a fine time roving about
+   the ruins, looking at the view from the great terrace, admiring
+   the quaint stone images of knights, saints, monsters, and angels,
+   and visiting the big tun in the cellar by torchlight.
+
+   The moon rose while we were there and completed the enchantment
+   of the scene.
+
+   The drive home was like looking at a picture-book, for the street
+   was narrow, the carriage high, and we looked in at the windows,
+   seeing pretty scenes. Here, men drinking beer in a Dutch-looking
+   room; there, little children going to bed; a pair of lovers with
+   a pot of flowers between them; an old woman brooding over the
+   fire like a witch; and in one room some one lay dead surrounded
+   by candles.
+
+   From H. we went to Baden-Baden, a very fashionable place. The old
+   château was my delight, and we passed a morning going up and down
+   to visit it. Next to Freiburg, where the Cathedral delighted me
+   extremely, being full of old carved images and grotesque designs;
+   the market-place with the fountains, statues, water running
+   beside the streets, and queer costumes.
+
+   Basle came next, and a firemen's fête made the city very gay. The
+   hotel was on the river, and moonlight made a Venetian scene for
+   me with the lighted bridge, covered with gondola-like boats and
+   music from both shores. I walk while A. rests, and enjoy sights
+   from my window when she is asleep, as I cannot leave her at
+   night.
+
+   On our way to Berne I caught my first glimpse of the Alps,
+   October 8th, mother's birthday. Tall, white, spectral-looking
+   shapes they were, towering above the green hills and valleys that
+   lay between. Clouds half hid them, and the sun glittered on the
+   everlasting snow that lay upon their tops. Sharp, strange
+   outlines against the sky they became as night came on, and in the
+   morning I had a fine view of the Jungfrau, the Blümlis, the
+   Wetterhorn, and Mönch from the terrace at Berne.
+
+   B. was a queer old city, but I saw little of it except the bears
+   and shops. No time.
+
+   Freiburg No. 2 was the most romantic place we have been in. The
+   town is built in a wide crevice or valley between two steep
+   hills, so that suspension bridges are hung from height to height
+   over a winding river and the streets of the town. Watch-towers
+   stand all about on the hills, and give a very romantic air to the
+   place. The hotel overhung the valley, and from our rooms we went
+   out along a balcony to a wide, paved platform with a fountain in
+   the middle, an aviary, and flowers all about. The view down the
+   valley was charming,--the airy bridges, green or rocky slopes,
+   busy squares below, cows and goats feeding on the hills, the
+   towers, the old church, and a lovely blue sky overhead. I longed
+   to sketch it.
+
+   At Lausanne we stopped at the Hotel Gibbon and saw the garden
+   where the great historian wrote his history. The view of the lake
+   was lovely, with rocky mountains opposite, little towns at their
+   feet, vineyards along the hillsides, and pretty boats on the
+   lake, the water of which was the loveliest blue.
+
+   To Vevay at last,--a pleasant hour's sail to a very pleasant
+   place. We took rooms at the Pension Victoria.
+
+   Our landlady was an English woman who had married a French
+   courier. Very kind sort of people: rooms comfortable, meals good,
+   and surroundings agreeable. Our fellow-boarders varied from time
+   to time,--an English doctor and wife, a fine old lady with them
+   who looked like Marie Antoinette; two Scotch ladies named
+   Glennie, very pleasant, well-bred ladies who told me about
+   Beattie who was their grandfather, and Walter Scott whom they
+   knew; Colonel ---- and family, rebels, and very bitter and rude
+   to us. Had queer times with them.
+
+   I did not enjoy the life nor the society after the first novelty
+   wore off, for I missed my freedom and grew very tired of the
+   daily worry which I had to go through with.
+
+   _November._--(Laurie) Took some French lessons with Mademoiselle
+   Germain and learned a little, but found it much harder than I
+   thought, and often got discouraged, I was so stupid. A. got much
+   better, and some new people came. The doctor and his set left,
+   and in their place came a Russian family, an Irish lady and
+   daughter, and a young Pole with whom we struck up a friendship.
+   Ladislas Wisinewski (Laurie) was very gay and agreeable, and
+   being ill and much younger we petted him. He played beautifully,
+   and was very anxious to learn English, so we taught him that and
+   he taught us French.
+
+   On my birthday A. gave me a pretty painting of Chillon. Ladislas
+   promised me the notes of the Polish National Hymn, and played me
+   his sweetest airs as a present after wishing me "All good and
+   happiness on earth, and a high place in Heaven as my reward." It
+   was a mild, windy day, very like me in its fitful changes of
+   sunshine and shade. Usually I am sad on my birthday, but not this
+   time; for though nothing very pleasant happened, I was happy and
+   hopeful and enjoyed everything with unusual relish. I feel rather
+   old with my thirty-three years, but have much to keep me young,
+   and hope I shall not grow older in heart as the time goes on. I
+   thought much of dear father on this his sixty-sixth birthday, and
+   missed the little ceremony that always takes place on these
+   occasions. Hope I shall be safely at home before another November
+   comes.
+
+   _December._--Laurie very interesting and good. Pleasant walks and
+   talks with him in the château garden and about Vevay. A lovely
+   sail on the lake, and much fun giving English and receiving
+   French lessons. Every one very kind, and the house quite
+   home-like. Much indecision about going to Nice owing to the
+   cholera. At last we decided to go, and started on the 6th to meet
+   G. at Geneva. L. went with us to Lausanne, kissed our hands at
+   parting, and went back to V. disconsolate. Sad times for all, but
+   we journeyed away to Nice and tried to forget our troubles. A
+   flat uninteresting country till we approached the sea.
+
+   Nice very pleasant, climate lovely, and sea beautiful. We lived
+   in our own rooms, and saw no one but the doctor and Consul and a
+   few American callers. A pleasant drive every day on the
+   Promenade,--a wide curving wall along the bay with hotels and
+   Pensions on one side and a flowery walk on the other. Gay
+   carriages and people always to be seen; shops full of fine and
+   curious things; picturesque castles, towers, and walls on one
+   hill; a lighthouse on each point of the moon-shaped bay; boats
+   and our fleet on the water; gardens, olive and orange-trees,
+   queer cacti, and palms all about on the land; monks, priests,
+   soldiers, peasants, etc.
+
+   A dull Christmas within doors, though a lovely day without.
+   Windows open, roses blooming, air mild, and city gay. With
+   friends, health, and a little money how jolly one might be in
+   this perpetual summer.
+
+   _January, 1866._--Nice. Rained all New Year's day, and I spent it
+   sewing, writing, and reading an American newspaper which came in
+   the morning, my only present. I hoped for letters but got none,
+   and was much disappointed. A. was ill, so I had to receive in
+   American style. Mr. Perkins, Cooper, and the Consul called. At
+   dinner we drank the healths of all at home, and did not forget
+   Laddie (Laurie).
+
+   A quiet, dull time generally, driving sometimes, walking little,
+   and writing letters. Now and then I got a pleasant walk by myself
+   away among the vineyards and olive-trees or down into the queer
+   old city. I soon tired of the fashionable Promenade, for every
+   one was on exhibition. Sometimes before or after the fashionable
+   hour I walked there and enjoyed the sea and sky.
+
+   A ball was given at our Pension and we went. A queer
+   set,--Russians, Spaniards, French, English, Americans, Italians,
+   Jews, and Sandwich Islanders. They danced wildly, dressed gayly,
+   and sounded as if the "confusion of tongues" was come again. A
+   few pleasant Americans called on us, but we were very lonely and
+   uncomfortable.
+
+   Decided to take an apartment No. 10 Rue Geoffredo, paying six
+   hundred francs for ten weeks, six rooms, all large and handsome.
+   Dr. P. got us a good maid, and on the 17th we went to our new
+   quarters. Madame Rolande was French governess for six years to
+   Victoria's children, and was a funny old party.
+
+   Couldn't sleep at all for some nights, and felt very poorly, for
+   my life didn't suit me and the air was too exciting.
+
+   _February._--Got on excellently with our housekeeping, for Julie
+   proved a treasure and we were very comfortable. Had many lovely
+   drives, and saw something of Nice and its beauties. To Cimies, an
+   old Franciscan monastery near the ruins of a Roman amphitheatre.
+   The convent stands where a temple of Diana once stood, and is
+   surrounded by ancient ilex trees. A monk in his cowl, brown robe,
+   sandals, and rope girdle did the honors of the church, which was
+   dark and full of bad pictures. San Andre with its château and
+   grotto, Villa Franca in a lovely little bay, the wood of Var
+   where the daisies grew, Valrosa, a villa in a rose garden, and
+   the Porte were all interesting. Also Castle Hill, which overlooks
+   the town.
+
+   I decided to go home in May, though A. wants me to stay. I'm
+   tired of it, and as she is not going to travel, my time is too
+   valuable to be wasted.
+
+   The carnival occurred. Funny, but not so fine a sight as I
+   expected. Also went to the theatre to see "Lady Tartuffe." Had a
+   pleasant time, though I couldn't understand much. The acting was
+   so natural and good that I caught the plot, and with a little
+   telling from Hosmer knew what was going on.
+
+   Wrote a little on three stories which would come into my head and
+   worry me till I gave them a "vent."
+
+   Good letters from home. All well and busy, and longing for me in
+   the spring.
+
+   _March._--A tedious month, which might have been quite the
+   reverse had I been free to enjoy it in my own way. Read French,
+   walked to my favorite places, and wrote letters when I found
+   time.
+
+   Went often to Valrosa, a lovely villa buried in roses. Got a
+   wheeled chair and a man to draw it, then with books, lunch, and
+   work, I tempted A. out into the woods, and we had some pleasant
+   hours.
+
+   _April._--Went to the Cathedral to see the Easter ceremonies.
+   Fine music, the Gloria was sung, a Franciscan monk preached, the
+   Bishop blessed every one, and was fussed over like a great doll.
+   A very splendid scene.
+
+   Saw Ristori twice, once in "Medea" and once in "Elizabeth." Never
+   saw such acting; especially in Queen Bess, it was splendid, as
+   she changes from the young, violent, coquettish woman to the
+   peevish old crone dying with her crown on, vain, ambitious, and
+   remorseful.
+
+   _May._--On the first day of the month left A. and Nice and
+   started alone for Paris, feeling as happy as a freed bird.
+
+   A pleasant journey, Laddie waiting for me in Paris to take me to
+   my room at Madame Dyne's. A very charming fortnight here; the
+   days spent in seeing sights with my Laddie, the evenings in
+   reading, writing, hearing "my boy" play, or resting. Saw all that
+   I wished to see in a very pleasant way, and on the 17th
+   reluctantly went to London.
+
+   Passed a fortnight at a lovely old place on Wimbledon Common with
+   the Conways, going to town with them to see the lions, Royal
+   Exhibition, Hampton Court, Kensington and British Museums,
+   Crystal Palace, and many other pleasant places. But none were
+   lovelier to me than the old farm-house with the thatched roof,
+   the common of yellow gorse, larks going up in the morning,
+   nightingales flying at night, hawthorne everywhere, and Richmond
+   Park full of deer close by. Also Robin Hood's barn.
+
+   _June._--Passed the first ten days of the month at Aubrey House
+   with the Peter Taylors. A lovely English home with kind, pure,
+   and friendly people. Saw many interesting persons,--Miss Cobbe,
+   Jean Ingelow, Dr. Garrett, Madame Bodichon, Matilde Blinde, Mill,
+   Bright, Gladstone, Hughes, and the rest at the House of Commons
+   where Mr. T. took me.
+
+   Went to a dinner-party or two, theatres, to hear Dickens read, a
+   concert, _conversazione_ and receptions, seeing English society,
+   or rather one class of it, and liking what I saw.
+
+   On the 11th went to board with Mrs. Travers in Westbourne Grove
+   Terrace. A pleasant little room, plain living, and for society
+   Mrs. T. and daughter, two sisters from Dublin, and ten young
+   men,--barristers, clerks, ministers, and students. A guinea a
+   week.
+
+   Very free and jolly, roaming about London all day, dining late
+   and resting, chatting, music, or fun in the evening.
+
+   Saw the Tower, Windsor, Parks, Gardens, and all manner of haunts
+   of famous men and women,--Milton's house, Johnson's in Bolt
+   Court, Lamb's, Sairy Gamp's, Saracen's Head, the Charter House
+   where Thackeray was when a lad, Furnival's Inn where Dickens
+   wrote Pickwick, Bacon's Walk, and endless memorable sights. St.
+   Paul's I liked better than Notre Dame.
+
+   _July._--At Mrs. Travers's till the 7th. Saw Routledge about
+   "Moods." He took it, would like another book, and was very
+   friendly. Said good-by all round, and at six A.M. on the 7th left
+   for Liverpool with Mr. W., who saw to my luggage and went part
+   way. Reached the "Africa" safely.
+
+   A trip of fourteen stormy, dull, long, sick days, but at last at
+   eleven at night we sailed up the harbor in the moonlight, and I
+   saw dear John waiting for me on the wharf. Slept on board, and
+   next day reached home at noon to find Father at the station, Nan
+   and babies at the gate, May flying wildly round the lawn, and
+   Marmee crying at the door. Into her arms I went, and was at home
+   at last.
+
+   Happy days, talking and enjoying one another. Many people came to
+   see me, and all said I was much improved; of which I was glad, as
+   there was, is, and always will be room for it.
+
+   Found Mother looking old, sick, and tired; Father as placid as
+   ever; Nan poorly, but blest in her babies; May full of plans, as
+   usual; Freddy very stout and loving; and my Jack the dearest,
+   prettiest, merriest baby boy that ever kissed and loved
+   everybody.
+
+   _August._--Soon fell to work on some stories, for things were, as
+   I expected, behindhand when the money-maker was away. Found
+   plenty to do, as orders from E., L., "Independent," "U. S. C. S.
+   Magazine," and several other offers waited for me. Wrote two long
+   tales for L. and got $200 for them. One for E. for which he paid
+   $75, also a bit of poetry for $5. He wanted a long story in
+   twenty-four chapters, and I wrote it in a fortnight,--one hundred
+   and eighty-five pages,--besides work, sewing, nursing, and
+   company.
+
+   Sent S. E. S. the first $100 on my account; could have sent $300,
+   but it was needed, so I gave it up unwillingly, and must work
+   away for the rest. Mother borrowed the money that I might stay
+   longer and see England, as I had missed much while condemned to
+   "hard work and solitary confinement for nine months," as she
+   expressed it.
+
+   _September._--Mother sick, did little with my pen. Got a girl,
+   and devoted myself to Mother, writing after she was abed. In this
+   way finished a long tale. But E. would not have it, saying it was
+   too long and too sensational!
+
+   _November._--Mother slowly mending. A sensible Western woman
+   "rubbed" her, and did her a great deal of good. She left her room
+   and seemed more like herself. I never expect to see the strong,
+   energetic Marmee of old times, but, thank the Lord! she is still
+   here, though pale and weak, quiet and sad; all her fine hair
+   gone, and face full of wrinkles, bowed back, and every sign of
+   age. Life has been so hard for her, and she so brave, so glad to
+   spend herself for others. Now we must live for her.
+
+On Miss Alcott's return from Europe in July, 1866, she devoted herself
+as earnestly as ever to the personal care of her mother and to
+story-writing for the support of the family. She agreed to write a
+fifty-dollar tale once a month, and besides this wrote many short
+stories for other publishers. Her father's return from the West with
+two hundred dollars, earned on his western trip, gave her some relief;
+and she was cheered by hearing that "Moods" was selling well in
+Europe. But she was not well, and she felt anxious and troubled about
+many things. Her journal of these months is very meagre; and January,
+1867, opens with the statement that she is "sick from too hard work."
+Yet the account of stories furnished to publishers continues till
+August, when she went to Clark's Island for a few weeks of recreation.
+Here her spirits returned, and she spent, as she says, "a
+harem-scarem fortnight," which must have given her great refreshment.
+She says: "Got to work again after my long vacation, for bills
+accumulate and worry me. I dread debt more than anything."
+
+In the journal occurs this slight notice of the first step in one of
+the most important achievements of her life, of which I shall speak
+more fully hereafter:--
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _September, 1867._--Niles, partner of Roberts, asked me to write
+   a girls' book. Said I'd try.
+
+   F. asked me to be the editor of "Merry's Museum." Said I'd try.
+
+   Began at once on both new jobs; but didn't like either.
+
+   The Radical Club met at Sargent's. Fine time. Bartol inspired;
+   Emerson chairman; Alcott on his legs; strong-minded ladies out in
+   full force; æsthetic tea for refreshment.
+
+   _October._--Agreed with F. to be editor for $500 a year. Read
+   manuscripts, write one story each month and an editorial. On the
+   strength of this engagement went to Boston, took a room--No. 6
+   Hayward Place--furnished it, and set up housekeeping for myself.
+   Cannot keep well in C., so must try Boston, and not work too
+   hard.
+
+   On the 28th rode to B. on my load of furniture with Fred, feeling
+   as if I was going to camp out in a new country; hoped it would
+   prove a hospitable and healthy land.
+
+This incident appears in "The Old-fashioned Girl" (p. 153), where the
+country girl goes into the city in a farmer's cart, with a squash pie
+in her hand given her at parting by an old friend. Her sister May had
+a drawing class at her room every day, which gave Louisa the pleasure
+of companionship.
+
+Miss Alcott was an enthusiastic admirer of Dickens, and she entered
+into the humor of his homely characters most heartily. She acted "Mrs.
+Jarley displaying her waxwork" nine times this winter, and was always
+successful in giving life and variety to the representation. She was
+constantly called upon to act for charity. She enjoyed the fun, and as
+she could not give money, it satisfied her generous nature to be able
+to help in any way.
+
+She wrote an article for Mr. B., called "Happy Women," in which she
+gratified her love of single life by describing the delightful
+spinsters of her acquaintance. Her sketches are all taken from life,
+and are not too highly colored. The Physician, the Artist, the
+Philanthropist, the Actress, the Lawyer, are easily recognizable. They
+were a "glorious phalanx of old maids," as Theodore Parker called the
+single women of his Society, who aided him so much in his work.
+
+
+_To her Mother._
+
+     JANUARY, 1868.
+
+   Things look promising for the new year. F. $20 for the little
+   tales, and wrote two every month; G. $25 for the "Bells;" L. $100
+   for the two "Proverb" stories. L. takes all I'll send; and F.
+   seems satisfied.
+
+   So my plan will work well, and I shall make my $1,000 this year
+   in spite of sickness and worry. Praise the Lord and keep busy,
+   say I.
+
+   I am pretty well, and keep so busy I haven't time to be sick.
+   Every one is very clever to me; and I often think as I go larking
+   round, independent, with more work than I can do, and
+   half-a-dozen publishers asking for tales, of the old times when I
+   went meekly from door to door peddling my first poor little
+   stories, and feeling so rich with $10.
+
+   It's clear that Minerva Moody is getting on, in spite of many
+   downfalls, and by the time she is a used up old lady of seventy
+   or so she may finish her job, and see her family well off. A
+   little late to enjoy much maybe; but I guess I shall turn in for
+   my last long sleep with more content, in spite of the mortal
+   weariness, than if I had folded my hands and been supported in
+   elegant idleness, or gone to the devil in fits of despair because
+   things moved so slowly.
+
+   Keep all the money I send; pay up every bill; get comforts and
+   enjoy yourselves. Let's be merry while we may, and lay up a bit
+   for a rainy day.
+
+   With which gem from Aristotle, I am, honored Madam, your dutiful
+   and affectionate
+
+     L. M. ALCOTT.
+
+   Regards to Plato. Don't he want new socks? Are his clothes
+   getting shiny?
+
+Although, as I have said, little direct European influence is
+observable in Miss Alcott's writings from her journeys in Europe, yet
+this first visit had a marked effect upon her life and writings. She
+was unfavorably situated to gain the refreshment she sorely needed;
+and yet she did get a great deal from the entire change of
+surroundings, from the larger horizon into which she entered, from her
+rich enjoyment of scenery, and from the variety of companions she
+met. Probably she looked through new spectacles at her own work, as
+she describes herself as looking through those of Professor Bhaer, and
+she saw all the defects of the pot-boiling stories which she had been
+pouring out one after another, without strong purpose, or regard for
+artistic excellence. She had also the chance to look upon her own
+early life and home from a distance; and as she thought of the
+incidents of those years they grouped into more harmonious lines, and
+she saw how much they contained of real life, of true poetry and
+humor, as well as moral significance. So the old idea of "The Pathetic
+Family" took shape anew in her mind.
+
+In July, 1863, the enterprising firm of Roberts Brothers asked her for
+the publication in book form of "Hospital Sketches," which were then
+appearing in the "Commonwealth" newspaper, being struck by their
+intense reality and originality. At the time, as she states in her
+journal, she preferred to allow Mr. Redpath to publish them. Later, in
+September, 1867, Roberts Brothers asked her to write a girls' book for
+them, and in May, 1868, they repeated the request through her father,
+who had brought to them a collection of short stories for publication.
+
+Miss Alcott's fancy had always been for depicting the life of boys
+rather than girls; but she fortunately took the suggestion of the
+publisher, and said, like Col. Miller, "I'll try, sir." The old idea
+of "The Pathetic Family" recurred to her mind; and she set herself to
+describe the early life of her home. The book was finished in July,
+named "Little Women," and sent to the publishers, who promptly
+accepted it, making Miss Alcott an outright offer for the copyright,
+but at the same time advising her not to part with it. It was
+published in October, and the result is well known. She was quite
+unconscious of the unusual merit of the book, thinking, as she says,
+the first chapters dull, and so was quite surprised at her success.
+"It reads better than I expected," she says; and she truly adds, "We
+really lived most of it, and if it succeeds, that will be the reason
+of it."
+
+But that is not the whole secret of its success. Through many trials
+and many failures Louisa had learned her literary art. By her
+experience in melodrama she had proved the emptiness of sensational
+writing, and knew how to present the simple and true,--seemingly
+without art, but really with the nicest art of discrimination and
+emphasis. All her previous training and experience were needed to fit
+her for the production of her masterpiece; for in spite of all the
+good work she did later, this remains her masterpiece, by which she
+will be remembered and loved. Already twenty-one years have passed,
+and another generation has come up since she published this book, yet
+it still commands a steady sale; and the mothers who read it in their
+childhood renew their enjoyment as they watch the faces of their
+little girls brighten with smiles over the theatricals in the barn, or
+moisten with tears at the death of the beloved sister. One of the
+greatest charms of the book is its perfect truth to New England life.
+But it is not merely local; it touches the universal heart deeply.
+
+The excitement of the children was intense; they claimed the author as
+their own property, and felt as if she were interpreting their very
+lives and thoughts. The second series was anticipated with the
+eagerness of a bulletin from the war and the stock market. But unlike
+Miss Alcott herself, the children took especial interest in the
+love-story, and when poor Laurie was so obstinately refused by Jo,
+"they wept aloud, and refused to be comforted," and in some instances
+were actually made ill by grief and excitement.
+
+Miss Alcott had now secured publishers in whom she placed perfect
+confidence, and who henceforth relieved her of the worry of business
+matters, dealing directly and fairly by her, and consulting her
+interests as well as their own. This is abundantly shown by her
+private journals and letters.
+
+The success of "Little Women" was so well assured that Miss Alcott at
+once set about preparing the second part, which was eagerly demanded
+by the little women outside, who wanted all the girls to marry, and
+rather troubled her by wishing to settle matters their own way. She
+finished writing the sequel, which had been rapid work, Jan. 1, 1869.
+
+The success of "Little Women" was not confined to this country. The
+book was translated into French, German, and Dutch, and has become
+familiarly known in England and on the Continent. In Holland the first
+series was published under the title "Under the Mother's Wings," and
+the second part as "On Their Own Wings;" and these two books with
+"Work" established her fame among the children, who still continue to
+read her stories with fresh delight.
+
+It is hardly necessary to analyze or criticise this happy production.
+It is a realistic transcript of life, but idealized by the tenderness
+of real feeling. It teaches the lessons of every-day conduct and
+inculcates the simplest virtues of truth, earnest effort, and loving
+affection. There is abundant humor, but no caricature, and tender,
+deep feeling without sentimentality.
+
+Miss Alcott herself did not wish her representative, Jo, to marry; but
+the demand of the publisher and the public was so imperative that she
+created her German professor, of whom no prototype existed. While some
+of her romantic young readers were not satisfied at Jo's preferring
+him to the charming Laurie, he is certainly a genuine, warm-hearted
+man, who would probably have held her affections by his strong moral
+and intellectual traits. That he became a very living personality to
+the author is evident from his reappearance in "Jo's Boys," where he
+has the same strong, cheery influence in the school and home that she
+found from him in her girlhood. The style of the book is thoroughly
+easy and colloquial; and the girls talk and act like girls, and not
+like prim little women. The influence of the book has been wide and
+deep, and has helped to make a whole generation of girls feel a deeper
+sense of family love and the blessings to be gained from lives of
+earnest effort, mutual sacrifice, and high aims.
+
+Much interest has been expressed in regard to the originals of the
+characters in "Little Women." This is the author's own statement:--
+
+   Facts in the stories that are true, though often changed as to
+   time and place:--
+
+   "Little Women"--The early plays and experiences; Beth's death;
+   Jo's literary and Amy's artistic experiences; Meg's happy home;
+   John Brooke and his death; Demi's character. Mr. March did not go
+   to the war, but Jo did. Mrs. March is all true, only not half
+   good enough. Laurie is not an American boy, though every lad I
+   ever knew claims the character. He was a Polish boy, met abroad
+   in 1865. Mr. Lawrence is my grandfather, Colonel Joseph May. Aunt
+   March is no one.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _January, 1868. Gamp's Garret, Hayward Place, Boston._--The year
+   begins well and cheerfully for us all. Father and Mother
+   comfortable at home; Anna and family settled in Chelsea; May busy
+   with her drawing classes, of which she has five or six, and the
+   prospect of earning $150 a quarter; also she is well and in good
+   spirits.
+
+   I am in my little room, spending busy, happy days, because I have
+   quiet, freedom, work enough, and strength to do it. F. pays me
+   $500 a year for my name and some editorial work on Merry's
+   Museum; "The Youth's Companion" pays $20 for two short tales each
+   month; L. $50 and $100 for all I will send him; and others take
+   anything I have. My way seems clear for the year if I can only
+   keep well. I want to realize my dream of supporting the family
+   and being perfectly independent. Heavenly hope!
+
+   I have written twenty-five stories the past year, besides the
+   fairy book containing twelve. Have earned $1,000, paid my own
+   way, sent home some, paid up debts, and helped May.
+
+   For many years we have not been so comfortable: May and I both
+   earning, Annie with her good John to lean on, and the old people
+   in a cosey home of our own.
+
+   After last winter's hard experience, we cannot be too grateful.
+
+   To-day my first hyacinth bloomed, white and sweet,--a good
+   omen,--a little flag of truce, perhaps, from the enemies whom we
+   have been fighting all these years. Perhaps we are to win after
+   all, and conquer poverty, neglect, pain, and debt, and march on
+   with flags flying into the new world with the new year.
+
+   _Thursday, 7th._--A queer day. Up early, and had my bread and
+   milk and baked apples. Fed my doves. Made May a bonnet, and cut
+   out a flannel wrapper for Marmee, who feels the cold in the
+   Concord snowbanks. Did my editorial work in the P.M., and fixed
+   my dresses for the plays. L. sent $50, and F. $40, for tales. A.
+   and boys came.
+
+   To Dorchester in evening, and acted Mrs. Pontifex, in "Naval
+   Engagements," to a good house. A gay time, had flowers, etc.
+   Talked half the night with H. A. about the fast ways of young
+   people nowadays, and gave the child much older-sisterly advice,
+   as no one seems to see how much she needs help at this time of
+   her young life.
+
+   Dreamed that I was an opera dancer, and waked up prancing.
+
+   _Wednesday, 15th._--Wrote all day. Did two short tales for F. In
+   the evening with A. M. to hear Fanny Kemble read "The Merchant of
+   Venice." She was a whole stock company in herself. Looked younger
+   and handsomer than ever before, and happy, as she is to be with
+   her daughters now. We went to supper afterwards at Mrs.
+   Parkman's, and saw the lioness feed. It was a study to watch her
+   face, so full of varying expression was it,--always strong,
+   always sweet, then proud and fierce as she sniffed at nobodies
+   who passed about her. Being one, I kept away, and enjoyed the
+   great creature afar off, wondering how a short, stout, red woman
+   _could_ look so like a queen in her purple velvet and point lace.
+
+   Slipped behind a door, but Dr. Holmes found me out, and affably
+   asked, "How many of you children are there?" As I was looking
+   down on the top of his illustrious head, the question was funny.
+   But I answered the little man with deep respect, "Four, sir." He
+   seemed to catch my naughty thought, and asked, with a twinkle in
+   his eye, looking up as if I were a steeple, "And all as tall as
+   you?" Ha! ha!
+
+   _18th._--Played again at D., and had a jolly time. Home early,
+   and putting off my fine feathers, fell to work on my stories. F.
+   seems to expect me to write the whole magazine, which I did not
+   bargain for.
+
+   To Nan's in p. m., to take care of her while the Papa and Freddie
+   went to C. The dear little man, so happy and important with his
+   bit of a bag, six pennies, and a cake for refreshment during the
+   long journey of an hour.
+
+   We brooded over Johnny as if he were a heavenly sort of fire to
+   warm and comfort us with his sunny little face and loving ways.
+   She is a happy woman! I sell _my_ children; and though they feed
+   me, they don't love me as hers do.
+
+   Little Tranquillity played alone all day, and made a pretty
+   picture sitting in "marmar's" lap in his night-gown, talking
+   through the trumpet to her. She never heard his sweet little
+   voice in any other way. Poor Nan!
+
+   _Wednesday, 22d._--To the Club with Father. A good paper on the
+   "Historical View of Jesus." Father spoke finely. It amuses me to
+   see how people listen and applaud _now_ what was hooted at twenty
+   years ago.
+
+   The talk lasted until two, and then the hungry philosophers
+   remembered they had bodies and rushed away, still talking.
+
+   [Hard to feed.--L. M. A.]
+
+   Got a snow-slide on my bonnet, so made another in the P.M., and
+   in the evening to the Antislavery Festival. All the old faces and
+   many new ones. Glad I have lived in the time of this great
+   movement, and known its heroes so well. War times suit me, as I
+   am a fighting _May_.
+
+   _24th._--My second hyacinth bloomed pale blue, like a timid hope,
+   and I took the omen for a good one, as I _am_ getting on, and
+   have more than I can do of the work that I once went begging for.
+   Enjoyed the little spring my little flower made for me, and
+   Buzzy, my pet fly, moved into the sweet mansion from his hanging
+   garden in the ivy pot.
+
+   Acted in Cambridge, Lucretia Buzzard and Mrs. Jarley.
+
+   _Sunday, 31st._--Last day of the month, but I'm not satisfied
+   with my four weeks' work. Acting for charity upsets my work. The
+   change is good for me, and so I do it, and because I have no
+   money to give.
+
+   Four tales this month. Received $70; sent $30 home. No debts.
+
+   _February 1st._--Arranged "Hospital Sketches and War Stories" for
+   a book. By taking out all Biblical allusions, and softening all
+   allusions to rebs., the book may be made "quite perfect," I am
+   told. Anything to suit customers.
+
+   _Friday, 14th._--My third hyacinth bloomed this A.M., a lovely
+   pink. So I found things snug, and had a busy day chasing----who
+   dodged. Then I wrote my tales. Made some shirts for my boys, and
+   went out to buy a squash pie for my lonely supper. It snowed; was
+   very cold. No one paid, and I wanted to send some money home.
+   Felt cross and tired as I trudged back at dusk. My pie turned a
+   somersault, a boy laughed, so did I, and felt better. On my
+   doorstep I found a gentleman who asked if Miss A. lived here. I
+   took him up my winding stair and found him a very delightful fly,
+   for he handed me a letter out of which fell a $100 bill. With
+   this bait Mr. B. lured me to write "one column of Advice to Young
+   Women," as Mrs. Shaw and others were doing. If he had asked me
+   for a Greek oration I would have said "yes." So I gave a receipt,
+   and the very elegant agent bowed himself away, leaving my
+   "'umble" bower full of perfume, and my soul of peace.
+
+   Thriftily taking advantage of the enthusiastic moment, I planned
+   my article while I ate my dilapidated pie, and then proceeded to
+   write it with the bill before me. It was about old maids. "Happy
+   Women" was the title, and I put in my list all the busy, useful,
+   independent spinsters I know, for liberty is a better husband
+   than love to many of us. This was a nice little episode in my
+   trials of an authoress, so I record it.
+
+   So the pink hyacinth was a true prophet, and I went to bed a
+   happy millionaire, to dream of flannel petticoats for my blessed
+   Mother, paper for Father, a new dress for May, and sleds for my
+   boys.
+
+   _Monday, 17th._--Father came full of plans about his book. Went
+   with him to the Club. P. read a paper, and the Rabbi Nathan
+   talked. A curious jumble of fools and philosophers. The Club
+   should be kept more select, and not be run by one person.
+
+   _Tuesday, 25th._--Note from Lady Amberly as I sat sewing on my
+   ninepenny dress. She wanted to come and see me, and I told her to
+   do so, and I'd show her how I lived in my sky-parlor,--spinning
+   yarns like a spider. Met her at the Club, and liked her, so
+   simple and natural.
+
+   Acted for Mr. Clarke's Church Fair in the evening. Did Mrs.
+   Jarley three times. Very hoarse with a cold, but kept my promise.
+
+   "Proverb Stories" suggested, and "Kitty's Class-Day" written.
+
+   _Friday, 28th._--Packed for home, as I am needed there, and acted
+   Jarley for the third evening. Have done it nine times this week,
+   and my voice is gone.
+
+   I am sorry to leave my quiet room, for I've enjoyed it very much.
+
+   Written eight long tales, ten short ones, read stacks of
+   manuscripts, and done editorial work. Acted for charity twelve
+   times.
+
+   Not a bad two months' work. I can imagine an easier life, but
+   with love, health, and work I can be happy; for these three help
+   one to do, to be, and to endure all things.
+
+   _March, April, and May._--Had the pleasure of providing Marmee
+   with many comforts, and keeping the hounds of care and debt from
+   worrying her. She sits at rest in her sunny room, and that is
+   better than any amount of fame to me.
+
+   _May, 1868._--Father saw Mr. Niles about a fairy book. Mr. N.
+   wants a _girls' story_, and I begin "Little Women." Marmee, Anna,
+   and May all approve my plan. So I plod away, though I don't enjoy
+   this sort of thing. Never liked girls or knew many, except my
+   sisters; but our queer plays and experiences may prove
+   interesting, though I doubt it.
+
+   [Good joke.--L. M. A.]
+
+   _June._--Sent twelve chapters of "L. W." to Mr. N. He thought it
+   _dull_; so do I. But work away and mean to try the experiment;
+   for lively, simple books are very much needed for girls, and
+   perhaps I can supply the need.
+
+   Wrote two tales for Ford, and one for F. L. clamors for more, but
+   must wait.
+
+   _July 15th._--Have finished "Little Women," and sent it off,--402
+   pages. May is designing some pictures for it. Hope it will go,
+   for I shall probably get nothing for "Morning Glories."
+
+   Very tired, head full of pain from overwork, and heart heavy
+   about Marmee, who is growing feeble.
+
+   [Too much work for one young woman. No wonder she broke down.
+   1876.--L. M. A.]
+
+   _August._--Roberts Bros. made an offer for the story, but at the
+   same time advised me to keep the copyright; so I shall.
+
+   [An honest publisher and a lucky author, for the copyright made
+   her fortune, and the "dull book" was the first golden egg of the
+   ugly duckling. 1885.--L. M. A.]
+
+   _August 26th._--Proof of whole book came. It reads better than I
+   expected. Not a bit sensational, but simple and true, for we
+   really lived most of it; and if it succeeds that will be the
+   reason of it. Mr. N. likes it better now, and says some girls who
+   have read the manuscripts say it is "splendid!" As it is for
+   them, they are the best critics, so I should be satisfied.
+
+   _September._--Father's book ["Tablets"] came out. Very simple
+   outside, wise and beautiful within. Hope it will bring him praise
+   and profit, for he has waited long.
+
+   No girl, Mother poorly, May busy with pupils, Nan with her boys,
+   and much work to be done. We don't like the kitchen department,
+   and our tastes and gifts lie in other directions, so it is hard
+   to make the various Pegasuses pull the plan steadily.
+
+   _October 8th._--Marmee's birthday; sixty-eight. After breakfast
+   she found her gifts on a table in the study. Father escorted her
+   to the big red chair, the boys prancing before blowing their
+   trumpets, while we "girls" marched behind, glad to see the dear
+   old Mother better and able to enjoy our little fête. The boys
+   proudly handed her the little parcels, and she laughed and cried
+   over our gifts and verses.
+
+   I feel as if the decline had begun for her; and each year will
+   add to the change which is going on, as time alters the
+   energetic, enthusiastic home-mother into a gentle, feeble old
+   woman, to be cherished and helped tenderly down the long hill she
+   has climbed so bravely with her many burdens.
+
+   _October 26th._--Came to Boston, and took a quiet room in
+   Brookline Street. Heard Emerson in the evening. Sent a report of
+   it to A. P. for the "Standard" at his desire.
+
+   Anna is nicely settled in her new house, and Marmee is with her.
+   Helped put down carpets and settle things.
+
+   _30th._--Saw Mr. N. of Roberts Brothers, and he gave me good news
+   of the book. An order from London for an edition came in. First
+   edition gone and more called for. Expects to sell three or four
+   thousand before the New Year.
+
+   Mr. N. wants a second volume for spring. Pleasant notices and
+   letters arrive, and much interest in my little women, who seem to
+   find friends by their truth to life, as I hoped.
+
+   _November 1st._--Began the second part of "Little Women." I can
+   do a chapter a day, and in a month I mean to be done. A little
+   success is so inspiring that I now find my "Marches" sober, nice
+   people, and as I can launch into the future, my fancy has more
+   play. Girls write to ask who the little women marry, as if that
+   was the only end and aim of a woman's life. I _won't_ marry Jo to
+   Laurie to please any one.
+
+   _Monday, 16th._--To the Club for a change, as I have written like
+   a steam engine since the 1st. Weiss read a fine paper on "Woman
+   Suffrage." Good talk afterward. Lunched with Kate Field, Celia
+   Thaxter, and Mr. Linton. Woman's Club in P.M.
+
+   _17th._--Finished my thirteenth chapter. I am so full of my work,
+   I can't stop to eat or sleep, or for anything but a daily run.
+
+   _29th._--My birthday; thirty-six. Spent alone, writing hard. No
+   presents but Father's "Tablets."
+
+   I never seem to have many presents, as some do, though I give a
+   good many. That is best perhaps, and makes a gift very precious
+   when it does come.
+
+   _December._--Home to shut up the house, as Father goes West and
+   Mother to Anna's. A cold, hard, dirty time; but was so glad to be
+   off out of C. that I worked like a beaver, and turned the key on
+   Apple Slump with joy.
+
+   May and I went to the new Bellevue Hotel in Beacon Street. She
+   doesn't enjoy quiet corners as I do, so we took a sky-parlor, and
+   had a queer time whisking up and down in the elevator, eating in
+   a marble café, and sleeping on a sofa bed, that we might be
+   genteel. It did not suit me at all. A great gale nearly blew the
+   roof off. Steam pipes exploded, and we were hungry. I was very
+   tired with my hard summer, with no rest for the brains that earn
+   the money.
+
+   _January, 1869._--Left our lofty room at Bellevue and went to
+   Chauncey Street. Sent the sequel of "L. W." to Roberts on New
+   Year's Day. Hope it will do as well as the first, which is
+   selling finely, and receives good notices. F. and F. both want me
+   to continue working for them, and I shall do so if I am able; but
+   my head-aches, cough, and weariness keep me from working as I
+   once could, fourteen hours a day.
+
+   In March we went home, as Mother was restless at Nan's, and
+   Father wanted his library. Cold and dull; not able to write; so
+   took care of Marmee and tried to rest.
+
+   Paid up all the debts, thank the Lord!--every penny that money
+   can pay,--and now I feel as if I could die in peace. My dream is
+   beginning to come true; and if my head holds out I'll do all I
+   once hoped to do.
+
+   _April._--Very poorly. Feel quite used up. Don't care much for
+   myself, as rest is heavenly even with pain; but the family seem
+   so panic-stricken and helpless when I break down, that I try to
+   keep the mill going. Two short tales for L., $50; two for Ford,
+   $20; and did my editorial work, though two months are unpaid for.
+   Roberts wants a new book, but am afraid to get into a vortex lest
+   I fall ill.
+
+
+_To her Publishers._
+
+      BOSTON, Dec. 28, 1869.
+
+   Many thanks for the check which made my Christmas an unusually
+   merry one.
+
+   After toiling so many years along the uphill road,--always a
+   hard one to women writers,--it is peculiarly grateful to me to
+   find the way growing easier at last, with pleasant little
+   surprises blossoming on either side, and the rough places made
+   smooth by the courtesy and kindness of those who have proved
+   themselves friends as well as publishers.
+
+   With best wishes for the coming year,
+
+     I am yours truly,
+     L. M. ALCOTT.
+
+     AUGUST, 1871.
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--Many thanks for the fortune and the kind note
+   accompanying it. Please hand the money to S. E. S., and he will
+   put it somewhere for me....
+
+   You are very kind to find a minute out of your hurried day to
+   attend to this affair.... I'm not sure but I shall try Dr. B. if
+   my present and ninth doctor fails to cure my aching bones. I
+   haven't a bit of faith in any of them; but my friends won't let
+   me gently slip away where bones cease from troubling, so I must
+   keep trying.
+
+     Very gratefully your friend,
+     L. M. A.
+
+Written in 1871, just after the publication of "Little Men":--
+
+      AUGUST 5TH.
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--Thanks for the parcel and notes.
+
+   ... The letters were very gushing from Nellie and Dollie and
+   Sallie Somebody asking for pictures, autographs, family history,
+   and several new books right away.
+
+   I must give Dr. R. a fair trial, and if he fails I'll try Dr. B.,
+   just to make up the number of doctors to a round ten.
+
+   "Happy Thoughts" is very funny, especially the trip to Antwerp.
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+EUROPE.
+
+     THE LAY OF A GOLDEN GOOSE.
+
+     Long ago in a poultry yard
+       One dull November morn,
+     Beneath a motherly soft wing
+       A little goose was born.
+
+     Who straightway peeped out of the shell
+       To view the world beyond,
+     Longing at once to sally forth
+       And paddle in the pond.
+
+     "Oh! be not rash," her father said,
+       A mild Socratic bird;
+     Her mother begged her not to stray
+       With many a warning word.
+
+     But little goosey was perverse,
+       And eagerly did cry,
+     "I've got a lovely pair of wings,
+       Of course I ought to fly."
+
+     In vain parental cacklings,
+       In vain the cold sky's frown,
+     Ambitious goosey tried to soar,
+       But always tumbled down.
+
+     The farm-yard jeered at her attempts,
+       The peacocks screamed, "Oh fie!
+     You're only a domestic goose,
+       So don't pretend to fly."
+
+     Great cock-a-doodle from his perch
+       Crowed daily loud and clear,
+     "Stay in the puddle, foolish bird,
+       That is your proper sphere."
+
+     The ducks and hens said, one and all,
+       In gossip by the pool,
+     "Our children never play such pranks;
+       My dear, that fowl's a fool."
+
+     The owls came out and flew about,
+       Hooting above the rest,
+     "No useful egg was ever hatched
+       From transcendental nest."
+
+     Good little goslings at their play
+       And well-conducted chicks
+     Were taught to think poor goosey's flights
+       Were naughty, ill-bred tricks.
+
+     _They_ were content to swim and scratch,
+       And not at all inclined
+     For any wild-goose chase in search
+       Of something undefined.
+
+     Hard times she had as one may guess,
+       That young aspiring bird,
+     Who still from every fall arose
+       Saddened but undeterred.
+
+     She knew she was no nightingale,
+       Yet spite of much abuse,
+     She longed to help and cheer the world,
+       Although a plain gray goose.
+
+     She could not sing, she could not fly,
+       Nor even walk with grace,
+     And all the farm-yard had declared
+       A puddle was her place.
+
+     But something stronger than herself
+       Would cry, "Go on, go on!
+     Remember, though an humble fowl,
+       You're cousin to a swan."
+
+     So up and down poor goosey went,
+       A busy, hopeful bird.
+     Searched many wide unfruitful fields,
+       And many waters stirred.
+
+     At length she came unto a stream
+       Most fertile of all _Niles_,
+     Where tuneful birds might soar and sing
+       Among the leafy isles.
+
+     Here did she build a little nest
+       Beside the waters still,
+     Where the parental goose could rest
+       Unvexed by any _bill_.
+
+     And here she paused to smooth her plumes,
+       Ruffled by many plagues;
+     When suddenly arose the cry,
+       "This goose lays golden eggs."
+
+     At once the farm-yard was agog;
+       The ducks began to quack;
+     Prim Guinea fowls relenting called,
+       "Come back, come back, come back."
+
+     Great chanticleer was pleased to give
+       A patronizing crow,
+     And the contemptuous biddies clucked,
+       "I wish my chicks did so."
+
+     The peacocks spread their shining tails,
+       And cried in accents soft,
+     "We want to know you, gifted one,
+       Come up and sit aloft."
+
+     Wise owls awoke and gravely said,
+       With proudly swelling breasts,
+     "Rare birds have always been evoked
+       From transcendental nests!"
+
+     News-hunting turkeys from afar
+       Now ran with all thin legs
+     To gobble facts and fictions of
+       The goose with golden eggs.
+
+     But best of all the little fowls
+       Still playing on the shore,
+     Soft downy chicks and goslings gay,
+       Chirped out, "Dear Goose, lay more."
+
+     But goosey all these weary years
+       Had toiled like any ant,
+     And wearied out she now replied,
+       "My little dears, I can't.
+
+     "When I was starving, half this corn
+       Had been of vital use,
+     Now I am surfeited with food
+       Like any Strasbourg goose."
+
+     So to escape too many friends,
+       Without uncivil strife,
+     She ran to the Atlantic pond
+       And paddled for her life.
+
+     Soon up among the grand old Alps
+       She found two blessed things,
+     The health she had so nearly lost,
+       And rest for weary limbs.
+
+     But still across the briny deep
+       Couched in most friendly words,
+     Came prayers for letters, tales, or verse,
+       From literary birds.
+
+     Whereat the renovated fowl
+       With grateful thanks profuse,
+     Took from her wing a quill and wrote
+       This lay of a Golden Goose.
+
+     BEX, SWITZERLAND, August, 1870.
+
+
+The year 1869 was less fruitful in work than the preceding one. Miss
+Alcott spent the winter in Boston and the summer in Concord. She was
+ill and very tired, and felt little inclined for mental effort.
+"Hospital Sketches," which had been first published by Redpath, was
+now republished by Roberts Brothers, with the addition of six shorter
+"Camp and Fireside Stories." The interest of the public in either the
+author or the work had not lessened; for two thousand copies of the
+book in its new form were sold the first week. In her weary condition
+she finds her celebrity rather a burden than a pleasure, and says in
+her journal:--
+
+   People begin to come and stare at the Alcotts. Reporters haunt
+   the place to look at the authoress, who dodges into the woods _à
+   la_ Hawthorne, and won't be even a very small lion.
+
+   Refreshed my soul with Goethe, ever strong and fine and alive.
+   Gave S. E. S. $200 to invest. What richness to have a little not
+   needed!
+
+Miss Alcott had some pleasant refreshment in travelling during the
+summer.
+
+   _July._-- ... Spent in Canada with my cousins, the Frothinghams,
+   at their house at Rivière du Loup,--a little village on the St.
+   Lawrence, full of queer people. Drove, read, and walked with the
+   little ones. A pleasant, quiet time.
+
+   _August._-- ... A month with May at Mt. Desert. A gay time, and a
+   little rest and pleasure before the old pain and worry began
+   again.
+
+   Made up $1,000 for S. E. S. to invest. Now I have $1,200 for a
+   rainy day, and no debts. With that thought I can bear neuralgia
+   gayly.
+
+In the autumn the whole family went to Boston, the father and mother
+staying with Mrs. Pratt; while Louisa and her sister May, "the
+workers," occupied rooms in Pinckney Street. Not being well enough to
+do much new work, Louisa began using up her old stories, and found
+that the little women "helped their rejected sisters to good places
+where once they went a-begging." In January, 1870, she suffered from
+loss of voice, for which she tried "heroic treatment" under a
+distinguished physician. She got well enough to write a little, and in
+February wrote the conclusion to "The Old-fashioned Girl," which was
+published in March. She says:--
+
+   I wrote it with left hand in a sling, one foot up, head aching,
+   and no voice. Yet, as the book is funny, people will say, "Didn't
+   you enjoy doing it?" I often think of poor Tom Hood as I
+   scribble, rather than lie and groan. I certainly earn my living
+   by the sweat of my brow.
+
+The book does not reveal this condition; for nothing could be fresher,
+brighter, and more wholesome than the heroine Polly, many of whose
+adventures are drawn from the author's own experience. She steps out
+of her usual surroundings into the fashionable life of the city, but
+betrays her own want of sympathy with it. The book has always been
+very popular.
+
+In 1870, the success of "Hospital Sketches" and the continued receipts
+from "Little Women" put their author in a pecuniary position which
+enabled her to go abroad for the rest and refreshment which she sorely
+needed. The younger sister was invited to go by her friend A. B. on
+condition that Louisa would accompany them. This journey was very free
+and independent. She has given an account--somewhat travestied
+certainly, but very true to the general facts--in "Shawl Straps,"
+although the reader would hardly suppose the old lady described in
+that book had not yet reached her fortieth year. These sketches were
+arranged after her return, at the request of Mrs. Stowe, for the
+"Christian Union," and were published in a book forming one volume of
+"Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag" in 1872.
+
+Fortunately we have many of Louisa's original letters preserved in her
+father's copies, which have escaped the destruction of her
+correspondence. With some extracts from her journals, they give a
+sufficient account of this journey. In many respects the contrast to
+her former visit to Europe is most pleasant. She has now become
+pecuniarily independent by her own exertions, and has a popular
+reputation which brings her welcome and recognition wherever she goes.
+But she has paid a heavy price for these gains. Her health has become
+seriously shattered. The long application to writing, sometimes even
+for fourteen hours a day,--a pressure of excitement which kept her
+from eating and sleeping,--added to sorrow and anxiety, have told upon
+her nerves and strength, and she is often unfitted to enjoy the
+pleasures which are open to her. Yet her journal and letters are as
+full of wit and humor as ever; and she laid up stores of pleasant
+memories which lasted her through life. Readers of "Shawl Straps" will
+recognize the originals of those bright sketches in the series of
+letters from Dinan.
+
+
+_Second Trip to Europe._
+
+   _April._--... On the first day of the month (fit day for _my_
+   undertaking I thought) May and I went to N. Y. to meet A. B.,
+   with John for escort. Every one very kind. Thirty gifts, a
+   parting ball among our house-mates, and a great cake.
+   Half-a-dozen devoted beings at the station to see us off. But I
+   remember only Father and Mother as they went away the day before,
+   leaving the two ambitious daughters to sail away, perhaps
+   forever.
+
+   Marmee kept up bravely, and nodded and smiled; but at the corner
+   I saw the white handkerchief go up to the eyes, after being
+   gayly waved to us. May and I broke down, and said, "We won't go;"
+   but next day we set forth, as young birds will, and left the nest
+   empty for a year.
+
+   Sailed on the 2d in a gale of wind in the French steamer
+   "Lafayette" for Brest. Our adventures are told in "Shawl Straps."
+
+   "O. F. G." came out in March, and sold well. Train-boy going to
+   N. Y. put it into my lap; and when I said I didn't care for it,
+   exclaimed with surprise,--
+
+   "Bully book, ma'am! Sell a lot; better have it."
+
+   John told him I wrote it; and his chuckle, stare, and astonished
+   "No!" was great fun. On the steamer little girls had it, and came
+   in a party to call on me, very sea-sick in my berth, done up like
+   a mummy.
+
+   Spent some charming weeks in Brittany.
+
+   _June and July._--"O. F. G." was published in London by Sampson
+   Low & Co. We left Dinan on the 15th, and had a lovely trip
+   through France to Vevay and Bex.
+
+   Talk of war between France and Prussia.
+
+   Much excitement at Vevay. Refugees from Lyons come in. Isabella
+   and Don Carlos were there, with queer followers.
+
+   _September._--... On the 3d came news of the Emperor's surrender.
+   Great wailing among the French here. All well at home. Books
+   going finely; no debts.
+
+   We decide to go to Rome for the winter, as May pines for the
+   artist's Paradise; and war will not trouble us I hope.
+
+     SHIP "LAFAYETTE," April 9, 1870.
+
+   DEAREST MARMEE,--To-morrow we come to our long journey's end
+   [Brest, France], thank the Lord. It has been a good one on the
+   whole, and I have got along as well as I expected. But it is
+   tiresome to be day after day doing nothing; for my head will not
+   let me read. May has done well, and has been very kind to me and
+   good, and is the life of the table, I guess. I never go up to
+   meals, for Marie takes such good care of me; I lie and peck all
+   sorts of funny messes, and receive calls in my den. People seem
+   to think we are "guns," and want to know us; but as they are not
+   interesting, we are on the reserve, and it has a fine effect.
+   About three thousand miles away does not seem possible in so
+   little while. How do you all get along,--Marmee, Father, the
+   laddies, my lass, and dear old John? He was so good and kind all
+   the way I had no care or worry, but just lopped round and let him
+   do all the work. Bless the dear!
+
+   I shall despatch a good long letter as soon as we arrive and have
+   something to tell. We send this to ease your mind. Letters here
+   are not prepaid, so pay for mine out of my money. Don't forget to
+   tell the post-master in Boston about my letters.
+
+   Bless you all, says your
+
+     LU.
+
+     MORLAIX, April 14, 1870.
+
+   DEAREST MARMEE,--Having got our "poise" a bit by a day and night
+   on land, I begin at once to scribble to you, as I mean to keep a
+   letter on hand all the time, and send them off as fast as they
+   are done. We had a twelve days' passage, owing to a double screw
+   which they were trying and which delayed us, though it is safer
+   than one. The weather was cold and rainy, and the sea rough, so I
+   only went up once or twice, and kept warm in my den most of the
+   time. After the first two days I didn't feel sick, except my head
+   as usual. I slept, ate, ruminated, and counted the hours. May
+   poked about more, and was liked by all.
+
+   We got to Brest about noon Wednesday. A. and I got our trunks
+   through the custom-house, and after some squabbling with the men,
+   got all aboard for Morlaix, which is a curious old place worth
+   seeing. It was a lovely day, warm as our June, and we had a
+   charming trip of three hours through a country already green and
+   flowery. We reached our hotel all right, and after a nice dinner
+   had baths and went to bed. May's room being some way from mine,
+   she came and bunked in with me in my little bed, and we slept.
+
+   To-day is lovely, warm, and I am sitting at an open window
+   looking at the square, enjoying the queer sights and sounds; for
+   the air resounds with the rattle of wooden shoes on the stones.
+
+   Market-women sit all about selling queer things, among which are
+   snails; they buy them by the pint, pick them out with a pin like
+   nuts, and seem to relish them mightily. We went out this A.M.
+   after breakfast, and took a stroll about the queer old town. May
+   was in heaven, and kept having raptures over the gables, the
+   turrets with storks on them, the fountains, people, and churches.
+   She is now sketching the tower of St. Melanie, with a crowd of
+   small boys round her enjoying the sight and criticising the work.
+   It don't seem very new to me, but I enjoy it, and feel pretty
+   well. We are to study French every day when we settle, and I am
+   to do the mending, etc., for A., who is to talk for us, and make
+   our bargains. So far we go well together.
+
+   To-morrow we go on to Lamballe, where we take the diligence to
+   Dinan, fourteen miles farther, and there settle for some weeks. I
+   wish the boys could see the funny children here in little wooden
+   shoes like boats, the girls in blue cloth caps, aprons, and
+   shawls, just like the women, and the boys in funny hats and
+   sheepskin jackets. Now I must go and get May, who can't speak a
+   word of French, and has a panic if any one speaks to her. The
+   beggars afflict her, and she wants to give them money on all
+   occasions. This P.M. we go for a drive to see all there is, as
+   neither A. nor I are good walkers; "adoo" till by and by. I wish
+   I could send you this balmy day.
+
+     DINAN, Sunday, April 17, 1870.
+
+   Here we are, all settled at our first neat stopping-place, and
+   are in clover, as you will see when I tell you how plummy and
+   lovely it is. We left Morlaix Friday at 8 A.M., and were so
+   amazed at the small bill presented us that we couldn't praise the
+   town enough. You can judge of the cheapness of things, when I say
+   that my share of the expenses from Brest here, including two days
+   at a hotel, car, 'bus, and diligence fare, fees, and everything,
+   was $8. The day was divine, and we had a fine little journey to
+   Lamballe, where the fun began; for instead of a big diligence, we
+   found only a queer ramshackle thing like an insane carryall, with
+   a wooden boot and queer porch for the driver.
+
+   Our four trunks were piled up behind and tied on with old ropes,
+   our bags stowed in a wooden box on top, and ourselves inside with
+   a fat Frenchman. The humpbacked driver "ya hooped" to the horses,
+   and away we clattered at a wild pace, all feeling dead sure that
+   something would happen, for the old thing bounded and swayed
+   awfully, the trunks were in danger of tumbling off, and to our
+   dismay we soon discovered that the big Frenchman was tipsy. He
+   gabbled to A. as only a tipsy person could, quoted poetry; said
+   he was Victor Hugo's best friend, and a child of Nature; that
+   English ladies were all divine, but too cold,--for when he
+   pressed A.'s hand she told him it was not allowed in England, and
+   he was overwhelmed with remorse; bowed, sighed, rolled his eyes,
+   and told her that he drank much ale, because it flew to his head
+   and gave him "commercial ideas."
+
+   I never saw anything so perfectly absurd as it was, and after we
+   got used to it we laughed ourselves sick over the lark. You ought
+   to have seen us and our turnout, tearing over the road at a
+   breakneck pace, pitching, creaking, and rattling, the funny
+   driver hooting at the horses, who had their tails done up in
+   chignons, blue harness, and strings of bells, the drunken man
+   warbling, exhorting, and languishing at us all by turns, while A.
+   headed him off with great skill. I sat, a mass of English dignity
+   and coolness, suffering alternate agonies of anxiety and
+   amusement, and May, who tied her head up in a bundle, looked like
+   a wooden image.
+
+   It was rich; and when we took up first a peasant woman in wooden
+   shoes and fly-away cap, and then a red-nosed priest smoking a
+   long pipe, we were a superb spectacle. In this style we banged
+   into Dinan, stopped at the gate, and were dumped bag and baggage
+   in the square. Finding Madame Coste's man was not here for us, we
+   hired a man to bring our trunks up. To our great amazement, an
+   oldish woman, who was greasing the wheels of a diligence, came,
+   and catching up our big trunks, whipped them into two broad
+   carts, and taking one trotted down the street at a fine pace,
+   followed by the man with the other. That was the finishing touch;
+   and we went laughing after them through the great arched gate
+   into the quaintest, prettiest, most romantic town I ever saw.
+   Narrow streets with overhanging gables, distracting roofs,
+   windows, and porches, carved beams, and every sort of richness.
+   The strong old lady beat the man, and finally landed us close by
+   another old gate at a charming house fronting the south,
+   overlooking a lovely green valley, full of gardens, blooming
+   plum and peach trees, windmills, and a ruined castle, at sight of
+   which we all skipped. Madame Coste received us with rapture, for
+   A. brought a letter from Mrs. L., who stayed here and was the joy
+   of the old lady's soul. We were in great luck, for being early in
+   the season she had three rooms left, and we nabbed them at
+   once,--a salon with old oak walls and wardrobes, blue damask
+   furniture, a fireplace, funny windows, and quaint furniture. A
+   little room out of it for A., and upstairs a larger room for May
+   and me, with two beds draped in green chintz, and carved big
+   wardrobe, etc., and best of all, a sunny window toward the
+   valley. For these rooms and our board we each pay $1 a day, and I
+   call that cheap. It would be worth that to get the fun and air
+   alone, for it is like June, and we sit about with open windows,
+   flowers in the fields, birds singing, and everything spring-like.
+
+   We took possession at once, and dressed for a dinner at six. We
+   were then presented to our fellow-boarders,--Madame Forney, a
+   buxom widow, her son Gaston, a handsome Frenchy youth of
+   twenty-three, and her daughter, a homely girl of twenty, who is
+   to be married here on the 3d of May. After a great bowing and
+   scraping we had a funny fish dinner, it being Good Friday. When
+   they found we didn't speak French they were "desolated," and
+   begged us to learn at once, which we solemnly vowed to do. Gaston
+   "knew English," so May at once began to teach him more, and the
+   ice being broken we got gay and friendly at once. I could
+   understand them pretty well, but can't talk, and A. told them
+   that I was forbidden to say much on account of my throat. This
+   will give me a chance to get a fair start. May pegs away at her
+   grammar, and with that and the elegant Gaston, she will soon
+   begin to "parlez-vous."
+
+   After dinner we were borne to the great salon, where a fire,
+   lights, and a piano appeared. Every one sat round and gabbled
+   except the Alcotts, who looked and laughed. Mademoiselle Forney
+   played, and then May convulsed them by singing some _Chants
+   Amériques_, which they thought very lively and droll. They were
+   all attention and devotion to Madame Coste,--a tall old lady with
+   whiskers, who kept embracing A. and beaming at us in her great
+   content at being friends of _chère_ Madame L. A. told them that I
+   was a celebrated authoress, and May a very fine artist, and we
+   were beamed at more than ever. Being tired, we turned in early,
+   after a jolly time in our own little salon, eating chocolate and
+   laying plans.
+
+     DINAN, April 20, 1870.
+
+   ... A. and I went shopping. A. got a little bird to enliven our
+   parlor, a sort of sparrow, gray with a red head and a lively
+   song. We named him Bernard du Guesclin (the hero of the town),
+   and call him Bernie. I got some nice gloves for three francs
+   (sixty cents), and a white sun-umbrella for May (forty cents).
+   She needs it when she sketches, and there is always a crowd of
+   children round her to watch and admire; she gives one of them a
+   sou to hold the umbrella, and so gets on nicely.
+
+   In the P.M. A. and I went to the little village of Lahou, in the
+   valley where the ruined castle is, to a fair. It was a very
+   picturesque sight, for the white-capped women, sitting about on
+   the green hillside, looked like flowers, and the blue blouses of
+   the men and wide-brimmed hats added to the effect. The little
+   street was lined with booths, where they sold nuts, queer cakes,
+   hot sausages, and pancakes, toys, etc. I got a funny cake, just
+   the size and shape of a deep pie-dish, and a jack-knife, for a
+   sou. We also indulged in nuts, and sat on our campstools in a
+   shady place and ate them boldly in the public mart, while
+   enjoying the lively scene. French and English people went by in
+   droll parties, and we coolly sat and stared at them. May is going
+   to sketch the castle, so I won't waste paper describing the
+   pretty place with the ruined church full of rooks, the old mill
+   with the waterwheel housed in vines, or the winding river, and
+   meadows full of blue hyacinths and rosy daisies.
+
+   Yesterday, A. and I had to return the call of Mademoiselle M.,
+   and as she speaks English I got on very well. The stairs to her
+   apartment were so steep that we held on by a velvet-covered rope
+   as we climbed up. In the P.M. we had fun, for we took two donkey
+   carriages and rode to the mineral spring. Gaston was sick and
+   couldn't go, as we had planned, so May drove herself in one, and
+   A. and I in the other. I wish the boys could have seen us, it was
+   so funny. The carriages were bath-chairs with a wee donkey
+   harnessed to each, so small, so neat, and looking so venerable
+   with thin long ears and bits of feet that I felt as if I was
+   driving my grandmother. May was a very imposing sight, alone in
+   her chair under her new umbrella, in her gray suit, with bright
+   gloves and a big whip, driving a gray rat who wouldn't trot
+   unless pounded and banged and howled at in the maddest way. Our
+   steed was bigger, but the most pig-headed old scamp you ever saw,
+   for it took two big women to make him go. I drove, and A.
+   thrashed away with all her might,--our joint efforts only
+   producing occasional short trots which enraged us dreadfully.
+
+   We laughed till we were sick, it was so very absurd; while May
+   trundled serenely along, enjoying the fine views regardless of
+   her rat, who paced along at his ease, wagging his ears and
+   meditating.
+
+   We had a nice trip, but didn't drink the water, as iron don't
+   suit us. Coming home, we passed the home of the donkeys, and they
+   at once turned in, and were with much difficulty persuaded to go
+   on by two short girls in caps and short gowns, who ran and
+   shouted "E! E! va oui!" and punched sticks into the poor asses,
+   rattling us over the stones till our eyes danced in our heads. We
+   found it rather hard work, and A. means to buy a horse and straw
+   pony-chaise, so we can drive ourselves in peace where we like....
+
+   A. is bargaining for a horse which an Englishman wishes to sell
+   for $50, including harness and cart. We can't hire horses for
+   less than $2 a drive, and donkeys are vile, so it is cheaper to
+   buy, and sell when we go away, and so drive as much as we like.
+   A. knows about such things, and takes all the responsibility....
+   To-morrow we go on a little excursion in the steamboat down the
+   river, and return _à la_ donkey with the English ladies, who have
+   returned our call and are very friendly.
+
+   Please forward this little note in an envelope to its address.
+   The child wrote me a pretty letter, which N. sent, and the pa
+   said I wouldn't answer. The child said, "I know she will, she is
+   so nice." So I do. Best love to every one. Don't go home too
+   soon. I shall write to Fred and Jack next time. Good-by.
+
+     LU.
+
+
+_To M. S._
+
+   ... They call each other pet names that convulse us,--"my little
+   pig," "my sweet hen," "my cabbage," and "my tom-cat." A French
+   lady with her son and daughter board here, and their ways amuse
+   us mightily. The girl is to be married next week to a man whom
+   she has seen twice, and never talked to but an hour in her life.
+   She writes to him what her mother dictates, and says she should
+   be ashamed to love him before they were married. Her wedding
+   clothes absorb her entire mind, and her Jules will get a pretty
+   doll when he takes Mademoiselle A. F. to wife. Gaston, the son,
+   puts on _blasé_ airs, though only twenty-two, and languishes at
+   May, for they can't talk, as he does not know English nor she
+   French.
+
+     April 27.
+
+   I left my letter to drive to a ruined château, which we went all
+   over, as a part is inhabited by a farmer who keeps his hog in the
+   great banqueting hall, his grain in the chapel, and his hens in
+   the lady's chamber. It was very picturesque; the old rooms, with
+   ivy coming in at the windows, choking up the well, and climbing
+   up the broken towers. The lady of the château was starved to
+   death by her cruel brothers, and buried in the moat, where her
+   bones were found long afterward, and her ghost still haunts the
+   place they say. Here we had cider, tell Pa.
+
+   Coming home we saw a Dolmen, one of the Druidical remains. It
+   stood in a grove of old pines,--a great post of gray stone, some
+   twenty-five feet high, and very big round. It leaned as if
+   falling, and had queer holes in it. Brittany is full of these
+   relics, which no one can explain, and I was glad to see the
+   mysterious things.
+
+   Yesterday we took a little trip down the river in a tiny steamer,
+   going through a lock and skimming along between the green banks
+   of the narrow river to Miss M.'s country-house, where we had new
+   milk, and lay on the grass for an hour or so. Then May and Miss
+   M. walked home, and A. and I went in a donkey cart.
+
+   To-day the girls have gone to La Garaye with Gaston on donkeys.
+   The weather has been cold for a day or two with easterly winds.
+   So I feel it at once and keep warm. It is very unusual at this
+   time, but comes, I suppose, because I've travelled hundreds of
+   miles to get rid of them. It won't last long, and then we shall
+   be hot enough.
+
+   We lead such quiet, lazy lives I really have nothing to tell.
+
+   Oh, yes, the _fiancé_ of Mademoiselle has arrived, and amuses us
+   very much. He is a tiny man in uniform, with a red face, big
+   moustache, and blue eyes. He thinks he talks English, and makes
+   such very funny mistakes. He asked us if we had been to
+   "promenade on monkeys" meaning donkeys, and called the Casino
+   "the establishment of dance." He addresses all his attentions to
+   the ma, and only bows to his future wife, who admires her
+   diamonds and is contented. We are going away on the day of the
+   wedding, as it is private.
+
+   The girls have just returned in great spirits, for A.'s donkey
+   kept lying down, and it took all three to get him up again. They
+   sat in a sort of chair, and looked very funny with the four
+   little legs under them and long ears flopping before. I shall go
+   to Garaye some fine day, and will tell you about it.
+
+   Adieu, love to all.
+
+     Yours,
+     LU.
+
+     _Dinan_, May 6, 1870.
+
+   DEAR PEOPLE,--I have just got a fat letter full of notices from
+   N.,--all good, and news generally pleasant.
+
+   The great event of the season is over, and Miss F. is Mrs. C. It
+   was a funny scene, for they had a breakfast the day before, then
+   on Tuesday the wedding. We did not go, as the church is like a
+   tomb, but we saw the bride, in white satin, pearls, orange
+   flowers, and lace, very pretty, and like other brides. Her ma, in
+   purple moire and black lace, was fine to see; and the little
+   groom, in full regimentals, with a sabre as large as himself, was
+   very funny. A lot of people came in carriages to escort them to
+   church; and our little square was full of queer turnouts, smartly
+   dressed people, and a great bustle. There was some mistake about
+   the bride's carriage, and it did not drive up in time, so she
+   stood on the steps till it came as near as it could, and then she
+   trotted out to it on Gaston's arm, with her maid holding up her
+   satin train. Uncle, ma, bride, and brother drove off, but the
+   groom's carriage was delayed by the breaking of a trace, and
+   there he sat, with his fat pa and ma, after every one had gone,
+   fuming, and poking his little cocked hat out of the window, while
+   the man mended the harness, and every one looked on with
+   breathless interest.
+
+   We went to D---- with Coste in the P.M., and had a fine view of
+   the sea and San Malo. We didn't like D----, and won't go there.
+   When we got home about eight o'clock the wedding dinner was in
+   full blast, and I caught a glimpse of a happy pair at the head of
+   the table, surrounded by a lot of rigged-up ladies and fine men,
+   all gabbing and gabbling as only French folk can. The couple are
+   still here, resting and getting acquainted before they go to
+   Lamballe for a week of festivity. A church wedding is a very
+   funny thing, and I wish you could have seen it.
+
+   The dry season continues, and the people have processions and
+   masses to pray for rain. One short flurry of hail is all we have
+   had, and the cold winds still blow. When our month is out we
+   shall go somewhere near the sea if it is at all warm. Nothing
+   could be kinder than dear old Coste, and I couldn't be in a
+   better place to be poorly in than this; she coddles me like a
+   mother, and is so grieved that I don't get better.
+
+   Send Ma a bit of the gorse flower with which the fields are now
+   yellow.
+
+     Yours,
+     LU.
+
+     DINAN, May 13, 1870.
+
+   DEAREST FOLKS,--We drove to Guildo yesterday to see if we should
+   like it for July. It is a queer little town on the seashore, with
+   ruins near by, bright houses, and lots of boats. Rooms a franc a
+   day, and food very cheap. The man of the house--a big, brown,
+   Peggotty sailor--has a sloop, and promised the girls as much
+   sailing as they liked. We may go, but our plans are very vague,
+   and one day we say we will go to one place and the next to
+   another, and shall probably end by staying where we are.
+
+     Yours,
+     LU.
+
+     DINAN, May 17, 1870.
+
+   DEAREST PEOPLE,--We run out and do errands in the cool before
+   breakfast at ten, then we write, sew, and read, and look round,
+   till four, when we go to drive. May and I in the cherry bounce
+   with M. Harmon to drive us, and A. on horseback; for, after
+   endless fuss, she has at last evoked a horse out of chaos, and
+   comes galloping gayly after us as we drive about the lovely roads
+   with the gallant hotel-keeper, Adolph Harmon. We are getting
+   satiated with ruins and châteaux, and plan a trip by water to
+   Nantes; for the way they do it is to hire a big boat and be towed
+   by a horse in the most luxurious manner.
+
+
+_To Anna._
+
+     DINAN, May 25, 1870.
+
+   DEAR BETSEY,[8]--All well. We have also had fun about the queer
+   food, as we don't like brains, liver, etc. A. does; and when we
+   eat some mess, not knowing what it is, and find it is sheep's
+   tails or eels, she exults over us, and writes poems.
+
+   I wander dreadfully, but the girls are racketing, birdie singing
+   like mad, and nine horses neighing to one another in the place,
+   so my ideas do not flow as clearly as they should. Besides, I
+   expect Gaston to come in every minute to show us his rig; for he
+   is going to a picnic in Breton costume,--a very French affair,
+   for the party are to march two and two, with fiddlers in front,
+   and donkeys bearing the feast in the rear. Such larks!
+
+   Yesterday we had a funny time. We went to drive in a basket
+   chair, very fine, with a perch behind and a smart harness; but
+   most of the horses here are stallions, and act like time. Ours
+   went very well at first, but in the town took to cutting up, and
+   suddenly pounced on to a pile of brush, and stuck his head into a
+   bake-shop. We tried to get him out, but he only danced and
+   neighed, and all the horses in town seemed to reply. A man came
+   and led him on a bit, but he didn't mean to go, and whisked over
+   to the other side, where he tangled us and himself up with a long
+   string of team horses. I flew out and May soon followed. A. was
+   driving, and kept in while the man led the "critter" back to the
+   stable. I declined my drive with the insane beast, and so we left
+   him and bundled home in the most ignominious manner. All the
+   animals are very queer here, and, unlike ours, excessively big.
+
+   We went to a ruin one day, and were about to explore the castle,
+   when a sow, with her family of twelve, charged through the
+   gateway at us so fiercely that we fled in dismay; for pigs are
+   not nice when they attack, as we don't know where to bone 'em,
+   and I saw a woman one day whose nose had been bitten off by an
+   angry pig. I flew over a hedge; May tried to follow. I pulled
+   her over head first, and we tumbled into the tower like a routed
+   garrison. It wasn't a nice ruin, but we were bound to see it,
+   having suffered so much. And we did see it, in spite of the pigs,
+   who waylaid us on all sides, and squealed in triumph when we
+   left,--dirty, torn, and tired. The ugly things wander at their
+   own sweet will, and are tall, round-backed, thin wretches, who
+   run like race horses, and are no respecters of persons.
+
+   Sunday was a great day here, for the children were confirmed. It
+   was a pretty sight to see the long procession of little girls, in
+   white gowns and veils, winding through the flowery garden and the
+   antique square, into the old church, with their happy mothers
+   following, and the boys in their church robes singing as they
+   went. The old priest was too ill to perform the service, but the
+   young one who did announced afterward that if the children would
+   pass the house the old man would bless them from his bed. So all
+   marched away down the street, with crosses and candles, and it
+   was very touching to see the feeble old man stretch out his hands
+   above them as the little white birds passed by with bended heads,
+   while the fresh, boyish voices chanted the responses. This old
+   priest is a very interesting man, for he is a regular saint,
+   helping every one, keeping his house as a refuge for poor and old
+   priests, settling quarrels among the people, and watching over
+   the young people as if they were his own. I shall put him in a
+   story.
+
+   _Voilà!_ Gaston has just come in, rigged in a white embroidered
+   jacket, with the Dinan coat-of-arms worked in scarlet and yellow
+   silk on it fore and aft; a funny hat, with streamers, and a belt,
+   with a knife, horn, etc. He is handsome, and as fond of finery as
+   a girl. I'll send you his picture next time, and one of Dinan.
+
+   You will see that Marmee has all she needs, and a girl, and as
+   much money as she wants for being cosey and comfortable. S. E. S.
+   will let her have all she wants, and make her take it. I'm sorry
+   the chapel $100 didn't come, for she likes to feel that she has
+   some of her very own.
+
+   I have written to Conway and Mrs. Taylor, so that if we decide to
+   take a run to England before we go to Italy, the way will be
+   open....
+
+   But Dinan is so healthy and cosey, that we shall linger till the
+   heat makes us long for the sea. Roses, cherries, strawberries,
+   and early vegetables are come, and we are in clover. Dear old
+   Coste broods over us like a motherly hen, and just now desired me
+   to give her affectionate and respectful compliments to my _bonne
+   mère_.
+
+   Now I'm spun out; so adieu, my darling Nan. Write often, and I
+   will keep sending,--trusting that you will get them in time.
+
+   Kisses all round.
+
+     Yours,
+     LU.
+
+     DINAN, May 30, 1870.
+
+   DEAR FOLKS,--May has made up such a big letter that I will only
+   add a line to give you the last news of the health of her
+   Highness Princess Louisa. She is such a public character nowadays
+   that even her bones are not her own, and her wails of woe cannot
+   be kept from the long ears of the world,--old donkey as it is!
+
+   Dr. Kane, who was army surgeon in India, and doctor in England
+   for forty years, says my leg trouble and many of my other woes
+   come from the calomel they gave me in Washington. He has been
+   through the same thing with an Indian jungle fever, and has never
+   got the calomel out of him.... I don't know anything about it,
+   only my leg is the curse of my life. But I think Dr. K.'s iodine
+   of potash will cure it in the end, as it did his arms, after
+   taking it for three months. It is simple, pleasant, and seems to
+   do something to the bones that gives them ease; so I shall sip
+   away and give it a good trial.
+
+   We are now revelling in big strawberries, green peas, early
+   potatoes, and other nice things, on which we shall grow fat as
+   pigs.
+
+   We are beginning to think of a trip into Normandy, where the H.'s
+   are.
+
+   Love to all. By-by!
+
+     Your loving
+     LU.
+
+   No news except through N., who yesterday sent me a nice letter
+   with July account of $6,212,--a neat little sum for "the Alcotts,
+   who can't make money!" With $10,000 well invested, and more
+   coming in all the time, I think we may venture to enjoy
+   ourselves, after the hard times we have all had.
+
+   The cream of the joke is, that we made our own money ourselves,
+   and no one gave us a blessed penny. That does soothe my rumpled
+   soul so much that the glory is not worth thinking of.
+
+
+_To Anna._
+
+     DINAN, June 4, 1870.
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   The present excitement is the wood which Coste is having put in.
+   Loads keep coming in queer, heavy carts drawn by four horses
+   each, and two men to work the machine. Two men chop the great oak
+   stumps, and a woman puts it in down cellar by the armful. The men
+   get two francs a day,--forty cents! (Wouldn't our $3 a day
+   workmen howl at that sort of wages!) When several carts arrive at
+   once the place is a lively scene. Just now there were three carts
+   and twelve horses, and eight were all up in a snarl, while
+   half-a-dozen ladies stood at their doors and gave advice. One
+   had a half-dressed baby in her arms; one a lettuce she was
+   washing; another her distaff; and a fourth her little bowl of
+   soup, which she ate at on the sidewalk, in the intervals
+   gesticulating so frantically that her sabots rattled on the
+   stones. The horses had a free fight, and the man couldn't seem to
+   manage one big one, who romped about like a wild elephant, till
+   the lady with the baby suddenly set the half-naked cherub on the
+   doorsteps, charged in among the rampant beasts, and, by some
+   magic howl or jerk, brought the bad horse to order, when she
+   quietly returned to her baby, who had sat placidly eating dirt,
+   and with a calm _Voilà, messieurs_, she skipped little Jean into
+   his shirt, and the men sat down to smoke.
+
+   We are now in great excitement over Gaston, who has lately become
+   so very amiable that we don't know him. We began by letting the
+   spoiled child severely alone. This treatment worked well, and now
+   he offers us things at table, bows when we enter, and to-day
+   presented us with green tulips, violet shrubs, and queer medals
+   all round. We have let little bits of news leak out about us, and
+   they think we are dukes and duchesses in _Amérique_, and
+   pronounce us _très spirituelles; très charmantes; très seductives
+   femmes_. We laugh in private, and are used to having the entire
+   company rise when we enter, and embrace us with ardor, listen
+   with uplifted hands and shrieks of _mon Dieu! grand ciel!_ etc.,
+   to all remarks, and point us out in public as _les dames
+   Américaines_. Such is fame!
+
+   An English lady arrived to-day--a Miss B.--dressed, with English
+   taste, in a little green skirt, pink calico waist, a large
+   crumpled frill, her hair in a tight knot, one front tooth
+   sticking straight out, and a golden oriole in a large cage. She
+   is about forty, very meek and pursy, and the old ladies have been
+   sitting in a heap since breakfast, talking like mad.
+
+   May has "sack" on the brain just now, and A. has "hose" on the
+   brain; and at this moment they are both gabbling wildly, one
+   saying, "I shall trim it with blue and have it pinked!" the other
+   shrieking, "My hose must be red, with little dragons in black all
+   over it, like small-pox!" and the bird flies to her upper perch
+   in dismay at the riot, while I sit and laugh, with an occasional
+   duennaish, "Young ladies, less noise if you please!"
+
+   It rained last eve, and we are waiting for it to dry before going
+   out in the donkey chaise to buy a warm bun and some strawberries
+   for lunch, to be eaten as we parade the town and drink ale at
+   intervals.
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   Do tell me how things are about my pictures. I see they are
+   advertised, and if they sell I want my share of the profits. Send
+   me one of those that are in the market, after taking off the
+   heavy card.
+
+   Love to all, and the best of luck.
+
+     Ever your
+     LU.
+
+     HOTEL D'UNIVERSE, TOURS, June 17, 1870.
+
+   DEAREST PEOPLE,--Our wanderings have begun again, and here we are
+   in this fine old city in a cosey hotel, as independent and happy
+   as three old girls can be. We left Dinan Wednesday at 7 A.M.
+   Gaston got up to see us off,--a most unusual and unexpected
+   honor; also Mrs. B. and all the old ladies, whom we left
+   dissolved in tears.
+
+   We had a lovely sail down the river to St. Malo, where we
+   breakfasted at Hotel Franklin, a quaint old house in a flowery
+   corner. At twelve we went by rail to Le Mans,--a long trip,--and
+   arrived at 6 P.M. so tired that we went to bed in the moonlight
+   while a band played in the square before the hotel, and the
+   sidewalks before the café were full of people taking ices and
+   coffee round little tables.
+
+   Next morning we went to see the famous cathedral and had
+   raptures, for it is like a dream in stone. Pure Gothic of the
+   twelfth century, with the tomb of Berengaria, wife of Coeur de
+   Leon, stained glass of the richest kind, dim old chapels with
+   lamps burning, a gorgeous high altar all crimson and gold and
+   carmine, and several organs. Anything more lovely and divine I
+   never saw, for the arches, so light and graceful, seemed to soar
+   up one above the other like the natural curves of trees or the
+   spray of a great fountain. We spent a long time here and I sat
+   above in the quaint old chapel with my eyes and heart full, and
+   prayed a little prayer for my family. Old women and men knelt
+   about in corners telling their beads, and the priest was quietly
+   saying his prayers at the altar. Outside it was a pile of gray
+   stone, with towers and airy pinnacles full of carved saints and
+   busy rooks. I don't think we shall see anything finer anywhere.
+   It was very hot for there had been no rain for four months, so we
+   desired to start for town at 5 and get in about 8 as it is light
+   then.
+
+   We had a pleasant trip in the cool of the day, and found Tours a
+   great city, like Paris on a small scale. Our hotel is on the
+   boulevard, and the trees, fountains, and fine carriages make our
+   windows very tempting. We popped into bed early; and my bones are
+   so much better that I slept without any opium or anything,--a
+   feat I have not performed for some time.
+
+   This morning we had coffee and rolls in bed, then as it was a
+   fine cool day we dressed up clean and nice and went out for a
+   walk. At the post-office we found your letters of May 31, one
+   from Nan and Ma, and one from L. We were exalted, and went into
+   the garden and read them in bliss, with the grand cathedral right
+   before us. Cathedral St. Martin, twelfth century, with tomb of
+   Charles XIII.'s children, the armor of Saint Louis, fine pictures
+   of Saint Martin, his cloak, etc. May will tell you about it and I
+   shall put in a photograph, if I can find one. We are now--12
+   o'clock--in our pleasant room all round the table writing letters
+   and resting for another trip by and by.
+
+   The _Fête Dieu_ is on Monday,--very splendid,--and we shall then
+   see the cathedral in its glory. To-day a few hundred children
+   were having their first communion there, girls all in white, with
+   scarlet boys, crosses, candles, music, priests, etc. Get a
+   Murray, and on the map of France follow us to Geneva, _via_ St.
+   Malo, Le Mans, Tours, Amboise and Blois, Orleans, Nevers, Autun.
+   We may go to the Vosges instead of the Jura if Mrs. H. can go, as
+   A. wants to see her again. But we head for the Alps of some sort
+   and will report progress as we go.
+
+   My money holds out well so far, as we go second class.
+
+
+_To her Father._
+
+     TOURS, June 20, 1870.
+
+   DEAR PAPA,--Before we go on to fresh "châteaux and churches new,"
+   I must tell you about the sights here in this pleasant, clean,
+   handsome old city. May has done the church for you, and I send a
+   photograph to give some idea of it. The inside is very beautiful;
+   and we go at sunset to see the red light make the gray walls
+   lovely outside and the shadows steal from chapel to chapel
+   inside, filling the great church with what is really "a dim
+   religious gloom." We wandered about it the other evening till
+   moonrise, and it was very interesting to see the people scattered
+   here and there at their prayers; some kneeling before Saint
+   Martin's shrine, some in a flowery little nook dedicated to the
+   infant Christ, and one, a dark corner with a single candle
+   lighting up a fine picture of the Mater Dolorosa, where a widow
+   all in her weeds sat alone, crying and praying. In another a sick
+   old man sat, while his old wife knelt by him praying with all her
+   might to Saint Gratien (the patron saint of the church) for her
+   dear old invalid. Nuns and priests glided about, and it was all
+   very poetical and fine, till I came to an imposing priest in a
+   first class chapel who was taking snuff and gaping, instead of
+   piously praying.
+
+   The _Fête Dieu_ was yesterday, and I went out to see the
+   procession. The streets were hung with old tapestry, and sheets
+   covered with flowers. Crosses, crowns, and bouquets were
+   suspended from house to house, and as the procession approached,
+   women ran out and scattered green boughs and rose-leaves before
+   the train. A fine band and a lot of red soldiers came first, then
+   the different saints on banners, carried by girls, and followed
+   by long trains of girls bearing the different emblems. Saint
+   Agnes and her lamb was followed by a flock of pretty young
+   children all in white, carrying tall white lilies that filled the
+   air with their fragrance.
+
+   "Mary our Mother" was followed by orphans with black ribbons
+   crossed on their breasts. Saint Martin led the charity boys in
+   their gray suits, etc. The Host under a golden canopy was borne
+   by priests in gorgeous rig, and every one knelt as it passed with
+   censors swinging, candles burning, boys chanting, and flowers
+   dropping from the windows. A pretty young lady ran out and set
+   her baby in a pile of green leaves in the middle of the street
+   before the Host, and it passed over the little thing who sat
+   placidly staring at the show and admiring its blue shoes. I
+   suppose it is a saved and sacred baby henceforth.
+
+   It was a fine pageant and quite touching, some of it; but as
+   usual, I saw something funny to spoil the solemnity. A very fat
+   and fine priest, who walked with his eyes upon his book and sung
+   like a pious bumblebee, suddenly destroyed the effect by rapping
+   a boy over the head with his gold prayer-book, as the black sheep
+   strayed a little from the flock. I thought the old saint swore
+   also.
+
+   The procession went from the cathedral to Charlemagne's Tower, an
+   old, old relic, all that is left of the famous church which once
+   covered a great square. We went to see it, and the stones looked
+   as if they were able to tell wonderful tales of the scenes they
+   had witnessed all these hundreds of years. I think the
+   "Reminiscences of a Rook" would be a good story, for these old
+   towers are full of them, and they are long-lived birds.
+
+     AMBOISE, THE GOLDEN LION,
+     Tuesday, June 21, 1870.
+
+   Here we go again! now in an utterly different scene from Tours.
+   We left at 5 P.M., and in half an hour were here on the banks of
+   the Loire in a queer little inn where we are considered duchesses
+   at least, owing to our big trunks and A.'s good French. I am the
+   Madame, May Mam'selle, and A. the companion.
+
+   Last evening being lovely, we went after dinner up to the castle
+   where Charles VIII. was born in 1470. The Arab chief,
+   Abd-el-Kader, and family were kept prisoners here, and in the old
+   garden is a tomb with the crescent over it where some of them
+   were buried. May was told about the terrace where the Huguenots
+   hung thick and the court enjoyed the sight till the Loire,
+   choked up with dead bodies, forced them to leave. We saw the
+   little low door where Anne of Brittany's first husband Charles
+   VIII. "bumped his head" and killed himself, as he was running
+   through to play bowls with his wife.
+
+   It has been modernized and is now being restored as in old times,
+   so the interior was all in a toss. But we went down the winding
+   road inside the tower, up which the knights and ladies used to
+   ride. Father would have enjoyed the _pleached_ walks, for they
+   are cut so that looking down on them, it is like a green floor,
+   and looking up it is a thick green wall. There also Margaret of
+   Anjou and her son were reconciled to Warwick. Read Murray, I beg,
+   and see all about it. We sat in the twilight on the terrace and
+   saw what Fred would have liked, a little naked boy ride into the
+   river on one horse after another, and swim them round in the deep
+   water till they were all clean and cool.
+
+   This morning at 7 o'clock we drove to Chenonceaux, the chateau
+   given by Henry II. to Diane de Poictiers. It was a lovely day,
+   and we went rolling along through the most fruitful country I
+   ever saw. Acre on acre of yellow grain, vineyards miles long,
+   gardens and orchards full of roses and cherries. The Cher is a
+   fine river winding through the meadows, where haymakers were at
+   work and fat cattle feeding. It was a very happy hour, and the
+   best thing I saw was May's rapturous face opposite, as she sat
+   silently enjoying everything, too happy to talk.
+
+   The château built over the water is very interesting; Catherine
+   de Medicis took it away from Diane when the king died, and her
+   room is still seen as she left it; also a picture of Diane, a
+   tall simpering woman in a tunic, with hounds, stag, cupids, and
+   other rubbish round her. The gallery of pictures was fine; for
+   here were old, old portraits and bas-reliefs, Agnes Sorel,
+   Montaigne, Rabelais, many kings and queens, and among them
+   Lafayette and dear old Ben Franklin.
+
+   There is a little theatre where Rousseau's plays were acted. This
+   place at the time of the Revolution belonged to the grandmother
+   of George Sand, and she was so much respected that no harm was
+   done to it. So three cheers for Madame Dupin! Among the pictures
+   were Ninon D'Enclos, and Madame Sevigné holding a picture of her
+   beloved daughter. The Guidos, etc. I don't care for so much as
+   they were all grimy and convulsive, and I prefer pictures of
+   people who really lived, to these impossible Venuses and
+   repulsive saints,--bad taste, but I can't help it. The walls were
+   hung with stamped leather and tapestry, carved chairs in which
+   queens had sat, tables at which kings had eaten, books they had
+   read, and glasses that had reflected their faces were all about,
+   and I just revelled. The old kitchen had a fireplace quaint
+   enough to suit Pa, with immense turn-spits, cranes, andirons,
+   etc. The chapel, balcony, avenue, draw-bridge, and all the other
+   pleasing bits were enjoyed, and I stole a sprig of jasmine from
+   the terrace which I shall press for Mamma. Pray take extra care
+   of the photographs, for if lost, we cannot replace them, and I
+   want to make a fine album of pictures with flowers and
+   descriptions after I get home.... But all goes well and we enjoy
+   much every day. Love to all,
+
+     LU.
+
+
+_To her Mother._
+
+     BLOIS, June 24, 1870.
+
+   DEAR MARMEE,--On this, Lizzie's and Johnny's birthday, I'll begin
+   a letter to you. We found at the Poste Restante here two "Moods"
+   and a paper for me, one book from L., and one from N. I think
+   the pictures horrid, and sent them floating down the Loire as
+   soon as possible, and put one book at the bottom of my trunk and
+   left the other where no one will find it. I couldn't read the
+   story, and try to forget that I ever wrote it.
+
+   Blois is a noisy, dusty, soldierly city with nothing to admire
+   but the river, nearly dry now with this four months' drought, and
+   the old castle where Francis I., Louis XII., Catherine de
+   Medicis, and other great folks lived. It has been very splendidly
+   restored by the Government, and the ceilings are made with beams
+   blazoned with coats-of-arms, the walls hung with cameos, painted
+   with the same design as the stamped leather in old times, and the
+   floors inlaid with colored tiles. Brown and gold, scarlet, blue,
+   and silver, quaint dragons and flowers, porcupines and
+   salamanders, crowns and letters, glittered everywhere. We saw the
+   guard-room and the very chimney where the Duc de Guise was
+   leaning when the king Henry III. sent for him; the little door
+   where the king's gentlemen fell upon and stabbed him with forty
+   wounds; the cabinet where the king and his mother plotted the
+   deed; the chapel where the monks prayed for success; and the
+   great hall where the body lay covered with a cloak till the king
+   came and looked at it and kicked his dead enemy, saying, "I did
+   not think he was so tall." We also saw the cell where the brother
+   of the duke was murdered the next day, and the attic entire where
+   their bodies were burnt, after which the ashes were thrown into
+   the Loire by order of the king; the window out of which Marie de
+   Medicis lowered herself when her son Louis XIII. imprisoned her
+   there; the recess where Catherine de Medicis died; and many other
+   interesting places. What a set of rascals these old kings and
+   queens were!
+
+   The _Salle des États_ was very gorgeous, and here in a week or so
+   are to be tried the men who lately fired at the Emperor. It will
+   be a grand, a fine sight when the great arched hall is full. I
+   got a picture of the castle, and one of a fireplace for Pa. It is
+   a mass of gold and color, with the porcupine of Louis XIII. and
+   the ermine of his wife Anne of Brittany, their arms, in medallion
+   over it.
+
+   At 5 P.M. we go on to Orleans for a day, where I shall get some
+   relics of Joan of Arc for Nan. We shall pass Sunday at Bourges
+   where the great church is, and then either to Geneva or the Jura,
+   for a few weeks of rest.
+
+     GENEVA, June 29, 1870.
+
+   It seems almost like getting home again to be here where I never
+   thought to come again when I went away five years ago. We are at
+   the Metropole Hotel right on the lake with a glimpse of Mount
+   Blanc from our windows. It is rather fine after the grimy little
+   inns of Brittany, and we enjoy a sip of luxury and put on our
+   best gowns with feminine satisfaction after living in old
+   travelling suits for a fortnight.
+
+   I began my letter at Blois, where we spent a day or two. At
+   Orleans we only passed a night, but we had time to see the famous
+   statue of the Maid, put up in gratitude by the people of the city
+   she saved. It is a fine statue of Joan in her armor on horseback,
+   with her sword drawn. Round the base of the statue are bronzed
+   bas-reliefs of her life from the girl with her sheep, to the
+   martyr at the stake. They were very fine, but don't show much in
+   the photograph which I got for Nan, remembering the time when she
+   translated Schiller's play for me.
+
+   At Bourges we saw the great cathedral, but didn't like it as well
+   as that in Tours. We only spent a night there, and A. bought an
+   antique ring of the time of Francis I.,--an emerald set in
+   diamonds. It cost $9, and is very quaint and handsome.
+
+   Moulins we reached Sunday noon, and at 3 o'clock went to vespers
+   in the old church, where we saw a good deal of mumbo-jumbo by
+   red, purple, and yellow priests, and heard a boy with a lovely
+   voice sing in the hidden choir like a little angel among the
+   clouds. A. had a fancy to stay a week, if we could find rooms out
+   of town in some farm-house; for the handsome white cattle have
+   captivated her, and we were rather tired. So the old lady at the
+   hotel said she had a little farm-house out in the fields, and we
+   should go see it with her in basket _chay_. After dinner we all
+   piled in and went along a dusty road to a little dirty
+   garden-house with two rooms and a few cabbages and rose-bushes
+   round it. She said we could sleep and eat at the hotel and come
+   down here for the day. That didn't suit at all, so we declined;
+   and on Monday morning we set out for Lyons. It was a very
+   interesting trip under, over, and through the mountains with two
+   engines and much tunnelling and up-and-down grading. May was
+   greatly excited at the queer things we did, and never knew that
+   cars could turn such sharp corners. We wound about so that we
+   could see the engine whisking out of sight round one corner while
+   we were turning another, and the long train looked like a snake
+   winding through the hills. The tunnels were so long that lamps
+   were lighted, and so cold we put on our sacks while passing in
+   the darkness. The scenery was very fine; and after we left Lyons,
+   where we merely slept, the Alps began to appear, and May and I
+   stared in blissful silence; for we had two tall old men opposite,
+   and a little priest, so young that we called him the Rev. boy. He
+   slept and said his prayers most of the time, stealing sly looks
+   at May's hair, A.'s pretty hands, and my buckled shoes, which
+   were like his own and seemed to strike him as a liberty on my
+   part. The old boys were very jolly, especially the one with three
+   chins, who smiled paternally upon us and tried to talk. But we
+   were very English and mum, and he thought we didn't understand
+   French, and confided to his friend that he didn't see "how the
+   English could travel and know not the French tongue." They sang,
+   gabbled, slept, and slapped one another at intervals, and were
+   very amusing till they left, and another very handsome Booth-like
+   priest took their places.
+
+
+_To her Father._
+
+     BEX, July 14, 1870.
+
+   DEAR PA,--As I have not written to you yet, I will send you a
+   picture-letter and tell you about the very interesting old Count
+   Sz-- who is here. This morning he asked us to go to the hills and
+   see some curious trees which he says were planted from acorns and
+   nuts brought from Mexico by Atala. We found some very ancient
+   oaks and chestnuts, and the enthusiastic old man told us the
+   story about the Druids who once had a church, amphitheatre, and
+   sacrificial altar up there. No one knows much about it, and he
+   imagines a good deal to suit his own pet theory. You would have
+   liked to hear him hold forth about the races and Zoroaster,
+   Plato, etc. He is a Hungarian of a very old family, descended
+   from Semiramide and Zenobia. He believes that the body can be
+   cured often by influencing the soul, and that doctors should be
+   priests, and priests doctors, as the two affect the body and soul
+   which depend on one another. He is doing a great deal for Miss
+   W., who has tried many doctors and got no help. I never saw such
+   a kindly, simple, enthusiastic, old soul, for at sixty-seven he
+   is as full of hope and faith and good-will as a young man. I told
+   him I should like my father to see a little book he has written,
+   and he is going to give me one.
+
+   We like this quiet little place among the mountains, and pass
+   lazy days; for it is very warm, and we sit about on our balconies
+   enjoying the soft air, the moonlight, and the changing aspect of
+   the hills.
+
+   May had a fine exciting time going up St. Bernard, and is now
+   ready for another....
+
+   The Polish Countess and her daughter have been reading my books
+   and are charmed with them. Madame says she is not obliged to turn
+   down any pages so that the girls may not read them, as she does
+   in many books, "All is so true, so sweet, so pious, she may read
+   every word."
+
+   I send by this mail the count's little pamphlet. I don't know as
+   it amounts to much, but I thought you might like to see it.
+
+   Love to every one, and write often to your
+
+     Affectionate daughter
+     L. M. A.
+
+     BEX, July 18, 1870.
+
+   DEAR PEOPLE,--The breaking out of this silly little war between
+   France and Prussia will play the deuce with our letters. I have
+   had none from you for a long time; and Alexandre, the English
+   waiter here, says that the mails will be left to come as they
+   can, for the railroads are all devoted to carrying troops to the
+   seat of war. The French have already crossed the Rhine, and
+   rumors of a battle came last eve; but the papers have not
+   arrived, and no letters for any one, so all are fuming for news,
+   public and private, and I am howling for my home letter, which is
+   more important than all the papers on the continent....
+
+   Don't be worried if you don't hear regularly, or think us in
+   danger. Switzerland is out of the mess, and if she gets in, we
+   can skip over into Italy, and be as cosey as possible. It will
+   make some difference in money, perhaps, as Munroe in Paris is our
+   banker, and we shall be plagued about our letters, otherwise the
+   war won't effect us a bit; I dare say you know as much about it
+   as we do, and Marmee is predicting "a civil war" all over the
+   world. We hear accounts of the frightful heat with you. Don't
+   wilt away before we come....
+
+   Lady Amberley is a trump, and I am glad she says a word for her
+   poor sex though she _is_ a peeress....
+
+   I should like to have said of me what Hedge says of Dickens; and
+   when I die, I should prefer such a memory rather than a tomb in
+   Westminster Abbey.
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   I hope to have a good letter from Nan soon. May does the
+   descriptions so well that I don't try it, being lazy.
+
+     LU.
+
+
+_To Anna._
+
+     SUNDAY, July 24, 1870.
+
+   ... The war along the Rhine is sending troops of travellers to
+   Switzerland for refuge; and all the large towns are brimful of
+   people flying from Germany. It won't trouble us, for we have done
+   France and don't mean to do Germany. So when August is over, we
+   shall trot forward to Italy, and find a warm place for our
+   winter-quarters. At any time twenty-four hours carries us over
+   the Simplon, so we sit at ease and don't care a straw for old
+   France and Prussia. Russia, it is reported, has joined in the
+   fight, but Italy and England are not going to meddle, so we can
+   fly to either "in case of fire."[9]
+
+     BEX, July 27, 1870.
+
+   We heard of Dickens's death some weeks ago and have been reading
+   notices, etc., in all the papers since. One by G. Greenwood in
+   the Tribune was very nice. I shall miss my old Charlie, but he is
+   not the old idol he once was....
+
+   Did you know that Higginson and a little girl friend had written
+   out the Operatic Tragedy in "Little Women" and set the songs to
+   music and it was all to be put in "Our Young Folks." What are we
+   coming to in our old age? Also I hope to see the next designs N.
+   has got for "Little Women." I know nothing about them.
+
+
+_To her Mother._
+
+     3 P.M., BEX, July 31, 1870.
+
+   Papers are suppressed by the Government so we know nothing about
+   the war, except the rumors that float about. But people seem to
+   think that Europe is in for a general fight, and there is no
+   guessing when it will end.
+
+   The trouble about getting into Italy is, that civil war always
+   breaks out there and things are so mixed up that strangers get
+   into scrapes among the different squabblers. When the P.'s were
+   abroad during the last Italian fuss, they got shut up in some
+   little city and would have been killed by Austrians, who were
+   rampaging round the place drunk and mad, if a woman had not hid
+   them in a closet for a day and night, and smuggled them out at
+   last, when they ran for their lives. I don't mean to get into any
+   mess, and between Switzerland and England we can manage for a
+   winter. London is so near home and so home-like that we shall be
+   quite handy and can run up to Boston at any time. Perhaps Pa will
+   step across to see us.
+
+   All these plans may be knocked in the head to-morrow and my next
+   letter may be dated from the Pope's best parlor or Windsor
+   Castle; but I like to spin about on ups and downs so you can have
+   something to talk about at Apple Slump. Uncertainty gives a
+   relish to things, so we chase about and have a dozen plans a day.
+   It is an Alcott failing you know....
+
+   Love to all and bless you,
+
+     Ever yours
+     LU.
+
+     BEX, Aug. 7, 1870.
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--I keep receiving requests from editors to write
+   for their papers and magazines. I am truly grateful, but having
+   come abroad for rest I am not inclined to try the treadmill till
+   my year's vacation is over. So to appease these worthy gentlemen
+   and excuse my seeming idleness I send you a trifle in rhyme,[10]
+   which you can (if you think it worth the trouble) set going as a
+   general answer to everybody; for I can't pay postage in replies
+   to each separately,--"it's very costly." Mr. F. said he would pay
+   me $10, $15, $20 for any little things I would send him; so
+   perhaps you will let him have it first.
+
+   The war makes the bankers take double toll on our money, so we
+   feel very poor and as if we ought to be earning, not spending;
+   only we are _so_ lazy we can't bear to think of it in earnest....
+
+   We shall probably go to London next month if the war forbids
+   Italy for the winter; and if we can't get one dollar without
+   paying five for it, we shall come home disgusted.
+
+   Perhaps if I can do nothing else this year I could have a book of
+   short stories, old and new, for Christmas. F. and F. have some
+   good ones, and I have the right to use them. We could call them
+   "Jo March's Necessity Stories." Would it go with new ones added
+   and good illustrations?
+
+   I am rising from my ashes in a most phoenix-like manner.
+
+     L. M.A.
+
+
+_To her Mother._
+
+     VEVAY, PENSION PARADIS, Aug. 11, 1870.
+
+   DEAR MARMEE,--.... This house is very cosey, and the food
+   excellent. I thought it would be when I heard gentlemen liked
+   it,--they always want good fodder. There are only three now,--an
+   old Spaniard and his son, and a young Frenchman. We see them at
+   meals, and the girls play croquet with them....
+
+   This is the gay season here, and in spite of the war Vevay is
+   full. The ex-Queen of Spain and her family are here at the Grand
+   Hotel; also Don Carlos, the rightful heir to the Spanish throne.
+   Our landlady says that her house used to be full of Spaniards,
+   who every day went in crowds to call on the two kings, Alphonse
+   and Carlos. We see brown men and women with black eyes driving
+   round in fine coaches, with servants in livery, who I suppose are
+   the Court people.
+
+   The papers tell us that the French have lost two big battles; the
+   Prussians are in Strasbourg, and Paris in a state of siege. The
+   papers are also full of theatrical messages from the French to
+   the people, asking them to come up and be slaughtered for _la
+   patrie_, and sober, cool reports from the Prussians. I side with
+   the Prussians, for they sympathized with us in our war. Hooray
+   for old Pruss!...
+
+   France is having a bad time. Princess Clotilde passed through
+   Geneva the other day with loads of baggage, flying to Italy; and
+   last week a closed car with the imperial arms on it went by here
+   in the night,--supposed to be Matilde and other royal folks
+   flying away from Paris. The Prince Imperial has been sent home
+   from the seat of war; and poor Eugénie is doing her best to keep
+   things quiet in Paris. The French here say that a republic is
+   already talked of; and the Emperor is on his last legs in every
+   way. He is sick, and his doctor won't let him ride, and so
+   nervous he can't command the army as he wanted to. Poor old man!
+   one can't help pitying him when all his plans fail.
+
+   We still dawdle along, getting fat and hearty. The food is
+   excellent. A breakfast of coffee and tip-top bread, fresh butter,
+   with eggs or fried potatoes, at 8; a real French dinner at 1.30,
+   of soup, fish, meat, game, salad, sweet messes, and fruit, with
+   wine; and at 7 cold meat, salad, sauce, tea, and bread and
+   butter. It is grape time now, and for a few cents we get pounds,
+   on which we feast all day at intervals. We walk and play as well
+   as any one, and feel so well I ought to do something....
+
+   Fred and Jack would like to look out of my window now and see the
+   little boys playing in the lake. They are there all day long like
+   little pigs, and lie around on the warm stones to dry, splashing
+   one another for exercise. One boy, having washed himself, is now
+   washing his clothes, and all lying out to dry together....
+
+     Ever yours,
+     LU.
+
+
+_To Anna._
+
+     VEVAY, Aug. 21, 1870.
+
+   I had such a droll dream last night I must tell you. I thought I
+   was returning to Concord after my trip, and was alone. As I
+   walked from the station I missed Mr. Moore's house, and turning
+   the corner, found the scene so changed that I did not know where
+   I was. Our house was gone, and in its place stood a great gray
+   stone castle, with towers and arches and lawns and bridges, very
+   fine and antique. Somehow I got into it without meeting any one
+   of you, and wandered about trying to find my family. At last I
+   came across Mr. Moore, papering a room, and asked him where his
+   house was. He didn't know me, and said,--
+
+   "Oh! I sold it to Mr. Alcott for his school, and we live in Acton
+   now."
+
+   "Where did Mr. Alcott get the means to build this great concern?"
+   I asked.
+
+   "Well, he _gave_ his own land, and took the great pasture his
+   daughter left him,--the one that died some ten years ago."
+
+   "So I am dead, am I?" says I to myself, feeling so queerly.
+
+   "Government helped build this place, and Mr. A. has a fine
+   college here," said Mr. Moore, papering away again.
+
+   I went on, wondering at the news, and looked into a glass to see
+   how I looked dead. I found myself a fat old lady, with gray hair
+   and specs,--very like E. P. P. I laughed, and coming to a Gothic
+   window, looked out and saw hundreds of young men and boys in a
+   queer flowing dress, roaming about the parks and lawns; and among
+   them was Pa, looking as he looked thirty years ago, with brown
+   hair and a big white neckcloth, as in the old times. He looked so
+   plump and placid and young and happy I was charmed to see him,
+   and nodded; but he didn't know me; and I was so grieved and
+   troubled at being a Rip Van Winkle, I cried, and said I had
+   better go away and not disturb any one,--and in the midst of my
+   woe, I woke up. It was all so clear and funny, I can't help
+   thinking that it may be a foreshadowing of something real. I used
+   to dream of being famous, and it has partly become true; so why
+   not Pa's college blossom, and he get young and happy with his
+   disciples? I only hope he won't quite forget me when I come back,
+   fat and gray and old. Perhaps his dream is to come in another
+   world, where everything is fresh and calm, and the reason why he
+   didn't recognize me was because I was still in this work-a-day
+   world, and so felt old and strange in this lovely castle in the
+   air. Well, he is welcome to my fortune; but the daughter who did
+   die ten years ago is more likely to be the one who helped him
+   build his School of Concord up aloft.
+
+   I can see how the dream came; for I had been looking at Silling's
+   boys in their fine garden, and wishing I could go in and know the
+   dear little lads walking about there, in the forenoon. I had got
+   a topknot at the barber's, and talked about my gray hairs, and
+   looking in the glass thought how fat and old I was getting, and
+   had shown the B.'s Pa's picture, which they thought saintly, etc.
+   I believe in dreams, though I am free to confess that
+   "cowcumbers" for tea may have been the basis of this
+   "ally-gorry-cal wision."...
+
+   As we know the Consul at Spezzia,--that is, we have letters to
+   him, as well as to many folks in Rome, etc.,--I guess we shall
+   go; for the danger of Europe getting into the fight is over now,
+   and we can sail to England or home any time from Italy.... Love
+   to every one.
+
+   Kiss my _cousin_ for me.
+
+     Ever your
+     LU.
+
+
+_To Mr. Niles._
+
+     AUGUST 23, 1870.
+
+   Your note of August 2 has just come, with a fine budget of
+   magazines and a paper, for all of which many thanks.
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   Don't give my address to any one. I don't want the young ladies'
+   notes. They can send them to Concord, and I shall get them next
+   year.
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   The boys at Silling's school are a perpetual source of delight to
+   me; and I stand at the gate, like the Peri, longing to go in and
+   play with the lads. The young ladies who want to find live
+   Lauries can be supplied here, for Silling has a large assortment
+   always on hand.
+
+   My B. says she is constantly trying to incite me to literary
+   effort, but I hang fire. So I do,--but only that I may go off
+   with a bang by and by, _à la mitrailleuse_.
+
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+_To her Family._
+
+     VEVAY, Aug. 29, 1870.
+
+   DEAR PEOPLE,--... M. Nicaud, the owner of this house,--a funny
+   old man, with a face so like a parrot that we call him M.
+   Perrot,--asked us to come and visit him at his _châlet_ up among
+   the hills. He is building a barn there, and stays to see that all
+   goes well; so we only see him on Sundays, when he convulses us by
+   his funny ways. Last week seven of us went up in a big landau,
+   and the old dear entertained us like a prince. We left the
+   carriage at the foot of a little steep path, and climbed up to
+   the dearest old _châlet_ we ever saw. Here Pa Nicaud met us, took
+   us up the outside steps into his queer little salon, and regaled
+   us with his sixty-year old wine and nice little cakes. We then
+   set forth, in spite of clouds and wind, to view the farm and
+   wood. It showered at intervals, but no one seemed to care; so we
+   trotted about under umbrellas, getting mushrooms, flowers, and
+   colds, viewing the Tarpeian Rock, and sitting on rustic seats to
+   enjoy the _belle vue_, which consisted of fog. It was such a
+   droll lark that we laughed and ran, and enjoyed the damp picnic
+   very much. Then we had a tip-top Swiss dinner, followed by
+   coffee, three sorts of wine, and cigars. Every one smoked, and as
+   it poured guns, the old Perrot had a blazing fire made, round
+   which we sat, talking many languages, singing, and revelling. We
+   had hardly got through dinner and seen another foggy view when
+   tea was announced, and we stuffed again, having pitchers of
+   cream, fruit, and a queer but very nice dish of slices of light
+   bread dipped in egg and fried, and eaten with sugar. The buxom
+   Swiss maid flew and grinned, and kept serving up some new mess
+   from her tiny dark kitchen. It cleared off, and we walked home in
+   spite of our immense exploits in the eating line. Old Perrot
+   escorted us part way down, and we gave three cheers for him as we
+   parted. Then we showed Madame and the French governess and Don
+   Juan (the Spanish boy) some tall walking, though the roads were
+   very steep and rough and muddy. We tramped some five miles; and
+   our party (May, A., the governess, and I) got home long before
+   Madame and Don Juan, who took a short cut, and wouldn't believe
+   that we didn't get a lift somehow. I felt quite proud of my old
+   pins; for they were not tired, and none the worse for the long
+   walk. I think they are really all right now, for the late cold
+   weather has not troubled them in the least; and I sleep--O ye
+   gods, how I do sleep!--ten or twelve hours sound, and get up so
+   drunk with dizziness it is lovely to see. Aint I grateful? Oh,
+   yes! oh, yes!
+
+   We began French lessons to-day, May and I, of the French
+   governess,--a kind old girl who only asks two francs a lesson. We
+   _must_ speak the language, for it is disgraceful to be so stupid;
+   so we have got to work, and mean to be able to _parlez-vous_ or
+   die. The war is still a nuisance, and we may be here some time,
+   and really need some work; for we are so lazy we shall be spoilt,
+   if we don't fall to....
+
+   I gave Count C. Pa's message, and he was pleased. He reads no
+   English, and is going to Hungary soon; so Pa had better not send
+   the book....
+
+     LU.
+
+     VEVAY, Sept. 10, 1870.
+
+   DEAR PEOPLE,--As all Europe seems to be going to destruction, I
+   hasten to drop a line before the grand smash arrives. We mean to
+   skip over the Alps next week, if weather and war permit; for we
+   are bound to see Milan and the lakes, even if we have to turn and
+   come back without a glimpse of Rome. The Pope is beginning to
+   perk up; and Italy and England and Russia seem ready to join in
+   the war, now that France is down. Think of Paris being bombarded
+   and smashed up like Strasbourg. We never shall see the grand old
+   cathedral at Strasbourg now, it is so spoilt.
+
+   Vevay is crammed with refugees from Paris and Strasbourg. Ten
+   families applied here yesterday....
+
+   Our house is brimful, and we have funny times. The sick Russian
+   lady and her old Ma make a great fuss if a breath of air comes in
+   at meal times, and expect twenty people to sit shut tight in a
+   smallish room for an hour on a hot day. We protested, and Madame
+   put them in the parlor, where they glower as we pass, and lock
+   the door when they can. The German Professor is learning English,
+   and is a quiet, pleasant man. The Polish General, a little
+   cracked, is very droll, and bursts out in the middle of the
+   general chat with stories about transparent apples and golden
+   horses.... Benda, the crack book-and-picture man, has asked May
+   if she was the Miss Alcott who wrote the popular books; for he
+   said he had many calls for them, and wished to know where they
+   could be found. We told him "at London," and felt puffed up....
+
+   May and I delve away at French; but it makes my head ache, and I
+   don't learn enough to pay for the trouble. I never could _study_,
+   you know, and suffer such agony when I try that it is piteous to
+   behold. The little brains I have left I want to keep for future
+   works, and not exhaust them on grammar,--vile invention of Satan!
+   May gets on slowly, and don't have fits after it; so she had
+   better go on (the lessons only cost two francs)....
+
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+_To her Mother._
+
+     LAGO DI COMO, Oct. 8, 1870.
+
+   DEAREST MARMEE,--A happy birthday, and many of 'em! Here we
+   actually are in the long-desired Italy, and find it as lovely as
+   we hoped. Our journey was a perfect success,--sunlight,
+   moonlight, magnificent scenery, pleasant company, no mishaps, and
+   one long series of beautiful pictures all the way.
+
+   Crossing the Simplon is an experience worth having; for without
+   any real danger, fatigue, or hardship, one sees some of the
+   finest as well as most awful parts of these wonderful Alps.
+
+   The road,--a miracle in itself! for all Nature seems to protest
+   against it, and the elements never tire of trying to destroy it.
+   Only a Napoleon would have dreamed of making a path through such
+   a place; and he only cared for it as a way to get his men and
+   cannon into an enemy's country by this truly royal road.
+
+   May has told you about our trip; so I will only add a few bits
+   that she forgot.
+
+   Our start in the dawn from Brieg, with two diligences, a
+   carriage, and a cart, was something between a funeral and a
+   caravan: first an immense diligence with seven horses, then a
+   smaller one with four, then our _calèche_ with two, and finally
+   the carrier's cart with one. It was very exciting,--the general
+   gathering of sleepy travellers in the dark square, the tramping
+   of horses, the packing in, the grand stir of getting off; then
+   the slow winding up, up, up out of the valley toward the sun,
+   which came slowly over the great hills, rising as we never saw it
+   rise before. The still, damp pine-forests kept us in shadow a
+   long time after the white mountain-tops began to shine. Little by
+   little we wound through a great gorge, and then the sun came
+   dazzling between these grand hills, showing us a new world. Peak
+   after peak of the Bernese Oberland rose behind us, and great
+   white glaciers lay before us; while the road crept like a narrow
+   line, in and out over chasms that made us dizzy to look at, under
+   tunnels, and through stone galleries with windows over which
+   dashed waterfalls from the glaciers above. Here and there were
+   refuges, a hospice, and a few _châlets_, where shepherds live
+   their wild, lonely lives. In the P.M. we drove rapidly down
+   toward Italy through the great Valley of Gondo,--a deep rift in
+   rock thousands of feet deep, and just wide enough for the road
+   and a wild stream that was our guide; a never-to-be-forgotten
+   place, and a fit gateway to Italy, which soon lay smiling below
+   us. The change is very striking; and when we came to Lago
+   Maggiore lying in the moonlight we could only sigh for happiness,
+   and love and look and look. After a good night's rest at Stresa,
+   we went in a charming gondola-sort of boat to see Isola
+   Bella,--the island you see in the chromo over the fireplace at
+   home,--a lovely island, with famous castle, garden, and town on
+   it. The day was as balmy as summer, and we felt like butterflies
+   after a frost, and fluttered about, enjoying the sunshine all
+   day.
+
+   A sail by steamer brought us to Luino, where we went on the
+   diligence to Lugano. Moonlight all the way, and a gay driver, who
+   wound his horn as we clattered into market-places and over
+   bridges in the most gallant style. The girls were on top, and in
+   a state of rapture all the way. After supper in a vaulted,
+   frescoed hall, with marble floors, pillars, and galleries, we
+   went to a room which had green doors, red carpet, blue walls, and
+   yellow bed-covers,--all so gay! It was like sleeping in a
+   rainbow.
+
+   As if a heavenly lake under our windows with moonlight _ad
+   libitum_ wasn't enough, we had music next door; and on leaning
+   out of a little back window, we made the splendid discovery that
+   we could look on to the stage of the opera-house across a little
+   alley. My Nan can imagine with what rapture I stared at the
+   scenes going on below me, and how I longed for her as I stood
+   there wrapped in my yellow bed-quilt, and saw gallant knights in
+   armor warble sweetly to plump ladies in masks, or pretty peasants
+   fly wildly from ardent lovers in red tights; also a dishevelled
+   maid who tore her hair in a forest, while a man aloft made
+   thunder and lightning,--and _I saw him do it_!
+
+   It was the climax to a splendid day; for few travellers can go to
+   the opera luxuriously in their night-gowns, and take naps between
+   the acts as I did.
+
+   A lovely sail next morning down the lake; then a carriage to
+   Menaggio; and then a droll boat, like a big covered market-wagon
+   with a table and red-cushioned seats, took us and our trunks to
+   Cadenabbia, for there is only a donkey road to the little town.
+   At the hotel on the edge of the lake we found Nelly L., a sweet
+   girl as lovely as Minnie, and so glad to see us; for since her
+   mother died in Venice last year she has lived alone with her
+   maid. She had waited for us, and next day went to Milan, where
+   we join her on Monday. She paints; and May and she made plans at
+   once to study together, and enjoy some of the free art-schools at
+   Milan and Naples or Florence, if we can all be together. It is a
+   great chance for May, and I mean she shall have a good time, and
+   not wait for tools and teachers; for all is in the way of her
+   profession, and of use to her.
+
+   Cadenabbia is only two hotels and a few villas opposite Bellagio,
+   which is a town, and fashionable. We were rowed over to see it by
+   our boatman, who spends his time at the front of the stone steps
+   before the hotel, and whenever we go out he tells us, "The lake
+   is tranquil; the hour is come for a walk on the water," and is as
+   coaxing as only an Italian can be. He is amiably tipsy most of
+   the time.
+
+   To-day it rains so we cannot go out, and I rest and write to my
+   Marmee in a funny room with a stone floor inlaid till it looks
+   like castile soap, a ceiling in fat cupids and trumpeting
+   fairies, a window on the lake, with balcony, etc. Hand-organs
+   with jolly singing boys jingle all day, and two big bears go by
+   led by a man with a drum. The boys would laugh to see them dance
+   on their hind legs, and shoulder sticks like soldiers.
+
+   ... All looks well, and if the winter goes on rapidly and
+   pleasantly as the summer we shall soon be thinking of home,
+   unless one of us decides to stay. I shall post this at Milan
+   to-morrow, and hope to find letters there from you. By-by till
+   then.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _October_, 1870.--A memorable month.... Off for Italy on the 2d.
+   A splendid journey over the Alps and Maggiore by moonlight.
+
+   Heavenly days at the lakes, and so to Milan, Parma, Pisa,
+   Bologna, and Florence. Disappointed in some things, but found
+   Nature always lovely and wonderful; so didn't mind faded
+   pictures, damp rooms, and the cold winds of "sunny Italy." Bought
+   furs at Florence, and arrived in Rome one rainy night.
+
+   _November 10th._--In Rome, and felt as if I had been there before
+   and knew all about it. Always oppressed with a sense of sin,
+   dirt, and general decay of all things. Not well; so saw things
+   through blue glasses. May in bliss with lessons, sketching, and
+   her dreams. A. had society, her house, and old friends. The
+   artists were the best company; counts and princes very dull, what
+   we saw of them. May and I went off on the Campagna, and
+   criticised all the world like two audacious Yankees.
+
+   Our apartment in Piazza Barbarini was warm and cosey; and I
+   thanked Heaven for it, as it rained for two months, and my first
+   view most of the time was the poor Triton with an icicle on his
+   nose.
+
+   We pay $60 a month for six good rooms, and $6 a month for a girl,
+   who cooks and takes care of us.
+
+   _29th._--My thirty-eighth birthday. May gave me a pretty sketch,
+   and A. a fine nosegay.
+
+In Rome Miss Alcott was shocked and grieved by the news of the death
+of her well-beloved brother-in-law, Mr. Pratt. She has drawn so
+beautiful a picture of him in "Little Women" and in "Little Men," that
+it is hardly needful to dwell upon his character or the grief which
+his death caused her. With her usual care for others, her thoughts at
+once turned to the support of the surviving family, and she found
+comfort in writing "Little Men" with the thought of the dear sister
+and nephews constantly in her heart.
+
+In spite of this great sorrow and anxiety for the dear ones at home,
+the year of travel was very refreshing to her. Her companions were
+congenial, she took great delight in her sister's work, and she was
+independent in her plans, and could go whither and when she would.
+
+The voyage home was a hard one; there was small-pox on board, but Miss
+Alcott fortunately escaped the infection. "Little Men" was out the day
+she arrived, as a bright red placard in the carriage announced, and
+besides all the loving welcomes from family and friends, she received
+the pleasing news that fifty thousand of the books were already sold.
+
+But the old pains and weariness came home with her also. She could not
+stay in Concord, and went again to Boston, hoping to rest and work.
+Her young sister came home to brighten up the family with her hopeful,
+helpful spirit.
+
+At forty years of age Louisa had accomplished the task she set for
+herself in youth. By unceasing toil she had made herself and her
+family independent; debts were all paid, and enough was invested to
+preserve them from want. And yet wants seemed to increase with their
+satisfaction, and she felt impelled to work enough to give to all the
+enjoyments and luxuries which were fitted to them after the
+necessaries were provided for. It may be that her own exhausted
+nervous condition made it impossible for her to rest, and the demand
+which she fancied came from without was the projection of her own
+thought.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   1871.--_Rome._--Great inundation. Streets flooded, churches with
+   four feet of water in them, and queer times for those who were in
+   the overflowed quarters. Meals hoisted up at the window; people
+   carried across the river-like streets to make calls; and all
+   manner of funny doings. We were high and dry at Piazza Barbarini,
+   and enjoyed the flurry.
+
+   To the Capitol often, to spend the A.M. with the Roman emperors
+   and other great men. M. Aurelius as a boy was fine; Cicero looked
+   very like W. Phillips; Agrippina in her chair was charming; but
+   the other ladies, with hair _à la sponge_, were ugly; Nero & Co.
+   a set of brutes and bad men. But a better sight to me was the
+   crowd of poor people going to get the bread and money sent by the
+   king; and the splendid snow-covered hills were finer than the
+   marble beauty inside. Art tires; Nature never.
+
+   Professor Pierce and his party just from Sicily, where they had
+   been to see the eclipse,--all beaming with delight, and well
+   repaid for the long journey by a _two minutes'_ squint at the sun
+   when darkest.
+
+   Began to write a new book, "Little Men," that John's death may
+   not leave A. and the dear little boys in want. John took care
+   that they should have enough while the boys are young, and worked
+   very hard to have a little sum to leave, without a debt anywhere.
+
+   In writing and thinking of the little lads, to whom I must be a
+   father now, I found comfort for my sorrow. May went on with her
+   lessons, "learning," as she wisely said, how little she knew and
+   how to go on.
+
+   _February._--A gay month in Rome, with the carnival, artists'
+   fancy ball, many parties, and much calling.
+
+   Decided to leave May for another year, as L. sends $700 on
+   "Moods," and the new book will provide $1,000 for the dear girl;
+   so she may be happy and free to follow her talent.
+
+   _March._--Spent at Albano. A lovely place. Walk, write, and rest.
+   A troop of handsome officers from Turin, who clatter by, casting
+   soft glances at my two blonde signorinas, who enjoy it very
+   much.[11] Baron and Baroness Rothschild were there, and the W.'s
+   from Philadelphia, Dr. O. W. and wife, and S. B. Mrs. W. and A.
+   B. talk _all day_, May sketches, I write, and so we go on. Went
+   to look at rooms at the Bonapartes.
+
+   _April._--Venice. Floated about for two weeks seeing sights. A
+   lovely city for a short visit. Not enough going on to suit brisk
+   Americans. May painted, A. hunted up old jewelry and friends, and
+   I dawdled after them.
+
+   A very interesting trip to London,--over the Brenner Pass to
+   Munich, Cologne, Antwerp, and by boat to London.
+
+   _May._--A busy month. Settled in lodgings, Brompton Road, and
+   went sight-seeing. Mrs. P. Taylor, Conway, and others very kind.
+   Enjoyed showing May my favorite places and people.
+
+   A. B. went home on the 11th, after a pleasant year with us. I am
+   glad to know her, for she is true and very interesting. May took
+   lessons of Rowbotham and was happy. "Little Men" came out in
+   London.
+
+   I decided to go home on the 25th, as I am needed. A very pleasant
+   year in spite of constant pain, John's death, and home anxieties.
+   Very glad I came, for May's sake. It has been a very useful year
+   for her.
+
+   _June._--After an anxious passage of twelve days, got safely
+   home. Small-pox on board, and my room-mate, Miss D., very ill. I
+   escaped, but had a sober time lying next door to her, waiting to
+   see if my turn was to come. She was left at the island, and I
+   went up the harbor with Judge Russell, who took some of us off in
+   his tug.
+
+   Father and T. N. came to meet me with a great red placard of
+   "Little Men" pinned up in the carriage. After due precautions,
+   hurried home and found all well. My room refurnished and much
+   adorned by Father's earnings.
+
+   Nan well and calm, but under her sweet serenity is a very sad
+   soul, and she mourns for her mate like a tender turtle-dove.
+
+   The boys were tall, bright lads, devoted to Marmee, and the life
+   of the house.
+
+   Mother feeble and much aged by this year of trouble. I shall
+   never go far away from her again. Much company, and loads of
+   letters, all full of good wishes and welcome.
+
+   "Little Men" was out the day I arrived. Fifty thousand sold
+   before it was out.
+
+   A happy month, for I felt well for the first time in two years. I
+   knew it wouldn't last, but enjoyed it heartily while it did, and
+   was grateful for rest from pain and a touch of the old
+   cheerfulness. It was much needed at home.
+
+   _July, August, September._--Sick. Holiday soon over. Too much
+   company and care and change of climate upset the poor nerves
+   again. Dear Uncle S. J. May died; our best friend for years.
+   Peace to his ashes. He leaves a sweeter memory behind him than
+   any man I know. Poor Marmee is the last of her family now.
+
+   _October._--Decided to go to B.; Concord is so hard for me, with
+   its dampness and worry. Get two girls to do the work, and leave
+   plenty of money and go to Beacon Street to rest and try to get
+   well that I may work. A lazy life, but it seemed to suit; and
+   anything is better than the invalidism I hate worse than death.
+
+   Bones ached less, and I gave up morphine, as sunshine, air, and
+   quiet made sleep possible without it. Saw people, pictures,
+   plays, and read all I could, but did not enjoy much, for the
+   dreadful weariness of nerves makes even pleasure hard.
+
+   _November._--May sent pleasant letters and some fine copies of
+   Turner. She decides to come home, as she feels she is needed as I
+   give out. Marmee is feeble, Nan has her boys and her sorrow, and
+   one strong head and hand is wanted at home. A year and a half of
+   holiday is a good deal, and duty comes first always. Sorry to
+   call her back, but her eyes are troublesome, and housework will
+   rest them and set her up. Then she can go again when I am better,
+   for I don't want her to be thwarted in her work more than just
+   enough to make her want it very much.
+
+   On the 19th she came. Well, happy, and full of sensible plans. A
+   lively time enjoying the cheerful element she always brings into
+   the house. Piles of pictures, merry adventures, and interesting
+   tales of the fine London lovers.
+
+   Kept my thirty-ninth and Father's seventy-second birthday in the
+   old way.
+
+   Thanksgiving dinner at Pratt Farm. All well and all together.
+   Much to give thanks for.
+
+   _December._--Enjoyed my quiet, sunny room very much; and this
+   lazy life seems to suit me, for I am better, mind and body. All
+   goes well at home, with May to run the machine in her cheery,
+   energetic style, and amuse Marmee and Nan with gay histories. Had
+   a furnace put in, and all enjoyed the new climate. No more
+   rheumatic fevers and colds, with picturesque open fires. Mother
+   is to be cosey if money can do it. She seems to be now, and my
+   long-cherished dream has come true; for she sits in a pleasant
+   room, with no work, no care, no poverty to worry, but peace and
+   comfort all about her, and children glad and able to stand
+   between trouble and her. Thank the Lord! I like to stop and
+   "remember my mercies." Working and waiting for them makes them
+   very welcome.
+
+   Went to the ball for the Grand Duke Alexis. A fine sight, and the
+   big blonde boy the best of all. Would dance with the pretty
+   girls, and leave the Boston dowagers and their diamonds in the
+   lurch.
+
+   To the Radical Club, where the philosophers mount their hobbies
+   and prance away into time and space, while we gaze after them and
+   try to look wise.
+
+   A merry Christmas at home. Tree for the boys, family dinner, and
+   frolic in the evening.
+
+   A varied, but on the whole a good year, in spite of pain. Last
+   Christmas we were in Rome, mourning for John. What will next
+   Christmas bring forth? I have no ambition now but to keep the
+   family comfortable and not ache any more. Pain has taught me
+   patience, I hope, if nothing more.
+
+   _January_, 1872.--Roberts Brothers paid $4,400 as six months'
+   receipts for the books. A fine New Year's gift. S. E. S. invested
+   $3,000, and the rest I put in the bank for family needs. Paid for
+   the furnace and all the bills. What bliss it is to be able to do
+   that and ask no help!
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   Mysterious bouquets came from some unknown admirer or friend.
+   Enjoyed them very much, and felt quite grateful and romantic as
+   day after day the lovely great nosegays were handed in by the
+   servant of the unknown.
+
+   _February and March._--At Mrs. Stowe's desire, wrote for the
+   "Christian Union" an account of our journey through France, and
+   called it "Shawl Straps."... Many calls and letters and
+   invitations, but I kept quiet, health being too precious to risk,
+   and sleep still hard to get for the brain that would work instead
+   of rest.
+
+   Heard lectures,--Higginson, Bartol, Frothingham, and Rabbi
+   Lilienthal. Much talk about religion. I'd like to see a little
+   more really _lived_.
+
+   _April and May._--Wrote another sketch for the "Independent,"--"A
+   French Wedding;" and the events of my travels paid my winter's
+   expenses. All is fish that comes to the literary net. Goethe puts
+   his joys and sorrows into poems; I turn my adventures into bread
+   and butter.
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   _June_, 1872.--Home, and begin a new task. Twenty years ago I
+   resolved to make the family independent if I could. At forty that
+   is done. Debts all paid, even the outlawed ones, and we have
+   enough to be comfortable. It has cost me my health, perhaps; but
+   as I still live, there is more for me to do, I suppose.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[8] Betsey Prig was a pet name for her sister, as she herself was
+Sairey Gamp.
+
+[9] This was a family joke as Mrs. Alcott always ended her
+instructions to her children "in case of fire."
+
+[10] This is the poem prefixed to the chapter.
+
+[11] See Shawl Straps, p. 179.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+FAMILY CHANGES.
+
+     TRANSFIGURATION.[12]
+
+     IN MEMORIAM.
+
+Lines written by Louisa M. Alcott on the death of her mother.
+
+     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.
+
+     How could we mourn like those who are bereft,
+           When every pang of grief
+           Found balm for its relief
+     In counting up the treasures she had left?--
+
+     Faith that withstood the shocks of toil and time;
+           Hope that defied despair;
+           Patience that conquered care;
+     And loyalty, whose courage was sublime;
+
+     The great deep heart that was a home for all,--
+           Just, eloquent, and strong
+           In protest against wrong;
+     Wide charity, that knew no sin, no fall;
+
+     The spartan spirit that made life so grand,
+           Mating poor daily needs
+           With high, heroic deeds,
+     That wrested happiness from Fate's hard hand.
+
+     We thought to weep, but sing for joy instead,
+           Full of the grateful peace
+           That follows her release;
+     For nothing but the weary dust lies dead.
+
+     Oh, noble woman! never more a queen
+           Than in the laying down
+           Of sceptre and of crown
+     To win a greater kingdom, yet unseen;
+
+     Teaching us how to seek the highest goal,
+           To earn the true success,--
+           To live, to love, to bless,--
+     And make death proud to take a royal soul.
+
+
+The history of the next six years offers little variety of incident in
+Miss Alcott's busy life. She could not work at home in Concord as well
+as in some quiet lodging in Boston, where she was more free from
+interruption from visitors; but she spent her summers with her mother,
+often taking charge of the housekeeping. In 1872 she wrote "Work," one
+of her most successful books. She had begun it some time before, and
+originally called it "Success." It represents her own personal
+experience more than any other book. She says to a friend: "Christie's
+adventures are many of them my own; Mr. Power is Mr. Parker; Mrs.
+Wilkins is imaginary, and all the rest. This was begun at eighteen,
+and never finished till H. W. Beecher wrote to me for a serial for the
+'Christian Union' in 1872, and paid $3,000 for it."
+
+Miss Alcott again sent May to Europe in 1873 to finish her studies,
+and herself continued writing stories to pay the expenses of the
+family. The mother's serious illness weighed heavily on Louisa's
+heart, and through the summer of 1873 she was devoted to the invalid,
+rejoicing in her partial recovery, though sadly feeling that she would
+never be her bright energetic self again. Mrs. Alcott was able,
+however, to keep her birthday (October 8) pleasantly, and out of this
+experience came a story called "A Happy Birthday." This little tale
+paid for carriages for the invalid. It is included in "Aunt Jo's
+Scrap-Bag."
+
+Louisa and her mother decided to spend the winter in Boston, while Mr.
+Alcott was at the West. Her thoughts dwell much upon her father's
+life, and she is not content that he has not all the recognition and
+enjoyment that she would gladly give him. She helps her mother to
+perform the sacred duty of placing a tablet on Colonel May's grave,
+and the dear old lady recognizes that her life has gone down into the
+past, and says, "This isn't my Boston, and I never want to see it any
+more."
+
+Louisa was at this time engaged in writing for "St. Nicholas" and "The
+Independent."
+
+The return of the young artist, happy in her success, brings
+brightness to the home-circle. In the winter of 1875 Miss Alcott takes
+her old place at the Bellevue, where May can have her drawing-classes.
+She was herself ill, and the words, "No sleep without morphine!" tell
+the story of nervous suffering.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _July_, 1872.--May makes a lovely hostess, and I fly round behind
+   the scenes, or skip out of the back window when ordered out for
+   inspection by the inquisitive public. Hard work to keep things
+   running smoothly, for this sight-seeing fiend is a new torment to
+   us.
+
+   _August._--May goes to Clark's Island for rest, having kept hotel
+   long enough. I say "No," and shut the door. People _must_ learn
+   that authors have some rights; I can't entertain a dozen a day,
+   and write the tales they demand also. I'm but a human worm, and
+   when walked on must turn in self-defence.
+
+   Reporters sit on the wall and take notes; artists sketch me as I
+   pick pears in the garden; and strange women interview Johnny as
+   he plays in the orchard.
+
+   It looks like impertinent curiosity to me; but it is called
+   "fame," and considered a blessing to be grateful for, I find. Let
+   'em try it.
+
+   _September._--To Wolcott, with Father and Fred. A quaint, lovely
+   old place is the little house on Spindle Hill, where the boy Amos
+   dreamed the dreams that have come true at last.
+
+   Got hints for my novel, "The Cost of an Idea," if I ever find
+   time to write it.
+
+   Don't wonder the boy longed to climb those hills, and see what
+   lay beyond.
+
+   _October._--Went to a room in Allston Street, in a quiet,
+   old-fashioned house. I can't work at home, and need to be alone
+   to spin, like a spider.
+
+   Rested; walked; to the theatre now and then. Home once a week
+   with books, etc., for Marmee and Nan. Prepared "Shawl Straps" for
+   Roberts.
+
+   _November._--Forty on the 29th. Got Father off for the West, all
+   neat and comfortable. I enjoyed every penny spent, and had a
+   happy time packing his new trunk with warm flannels, neat shirts,
+   gloves, etc., and seeing the dear man go off in a new suit,
+   overcoat, hat, and all, like a gentleman. We both laughed over
+   the pathetic old times with tears in our eyes, and I reminded him
+   of the "poor as poverty, but serene as heaven" saying.
+
+   Something to do came just as I was trying to see what to take up,
+   for work is my salvation. H. W. Beecher sent one of the editors
+   of the "Christian Union" to ask for a serial story. They have
+   asked before, and offered $2,000, which I refused; now they
+   offered $3,000, and I accepted.
+
+   Got out the old manuscript of "Success," and called it "Work."
+   Fired up the engine, and plunged into a vortex, with many doubts
+   about getting out. Can't work slowly; the thing possesses me, and
+   I must obey till it's done. One thousand dollars was sent as a
+   seal on the bargain, so I was bound, and sat at the oar like a
+   galley-slave.
+
+   F. wanted eight little tales, and offered $35 apiece; used to pay
+   $10. Such is fame! At odd minutes I wrote the short ones, and so
+   paid my own expenses. "Shawl Straps," Scrap-Bag, No. 2, came out,
+   and went well.
+
+   Great Boston fire; up all night. Very splendid and terrible
+   sight.
+
+   _December._--Busy with "Work." Write three pages at once on
+   impression paper, as Beecher, Roberts, and Low of London all want
+   copy at once.
+
+   [This was the cause of the paralysis of my thumb, which disabled
+   me for the rest of my life.--L. M. A.]
+
+   Nan and the boys came to visit me, and break up the winter.
+   Rested a little, and played with them.
+
+   Father very busy and happy. On his birthday had a gold-headed
+   cane given him. He is appreciated out there.
+
+During these western trips, Mr. Alcott found that his daughter's fame
+added much to the warmth of his reception. On his return he loved to
+tell how he was welcomed as the "grandfather of 'Little Women.'" When
+he visited schools, he delighted the young audiences by satisfying
+their curiosity as to the author of their favorite book, and the truth
+of the characters and circumstances described in it.
+
+     BOSTON, 1872.
+
+   DEAR MARMEE,--Had a very transcendental day yesterday, and at
+   night my head was "swelling wisibly" with the ideas cast into it.
+
+   The club was a funny mixture of rabbis and weedy old ladies, the
+   "oversoul" and oysters. Papa and B. flew clean out of sight like
+   a pair of Platonic balloons, and we tried to follow, but
+   couldn't.
+
+   In the P.M. went to R. W. E.'s reading. All the literary birds
+   were out in full feather. This "'umble" worm was treated with
+   distinguished condescension. Dr. B. gave me his noble hand to
+   press, and murmured compliments with the air of a bishop
+   bestowing a benediction. Dear B. beamed upon me from the depths
+   of his funny little cloak and said, "We are getting on well,
+   ain't we?" W. bowed his Jewish head, and rolled his fine eye at
+   me. Several dreadful women purred about me, and I fled.
+
+   M. said what I liked,--that he'd sent my works to his mother, and
+   the good old lady told him to tell me that she couldn't do a
+   stroke of work, but just sat and read 'em right through; she
+   wished she was young so as to have a long life in which to keep
+   on enjoying such books. The peacock liked that.
+
+   I have paid all my own expenses out of the money earned by my
+   little tales; so I have not touched the family income.
+
+   Didn't mean to write; but it has been an expensive winter, and my
+   five hundred has made me all right. The $500 I lent K. makes a
+   difference in the income; but I could not refuse her, she was so
+   kind in the old hard times.
+
+   At the reading a man in front of me sat listening and knitting
+   his brows for a time, but had to give it up and go to sleep.
+   After it was over some one said to him, "Well, what do you think
+   of it?" "It's all very fine I have no doubt; but I'm blessed if I
+   can understand a word of it," was the reply....
+
+   The believers glow when the oracle is stuck, rustle and beam when
+   he is audible, and nod and smile as if they understood perfectly
+   when he murmurs under the desk! We are a foolish set!
+
+
+_Journal_.
+
+   _January_, 1873.--Getting on well with "Work;" have to go slowly
+   now for fear of a break-down. All well at home.
+
+   A week at Newport with Miss Jane Stewart. Dinners, balls, calls,
+   etc. Saw Higginson and "H. H." Soon tired of gayety, and glad to
+   get home to my quiet den and pen.
+
+   Roberts Brothers paid me $2,022 for books. S. E. S. invested most
+   of it, with the $1,000 F. sent. Gave C. M. $100,--a
+   thank-offering for my success. I like to help the class of
+   "silent poor" to which we belonged for so many years,--needy, but
+   respectable, and forgotten because too proud to beg. Work
+   difficult to find for such people, and life made very hard for
+   want of a little money to ease the necessary needs.
+
+   _February and March._--Anna very ill with pneumonia; home to
+   nurse her. Father telegraphed to come home, as we thought her
+   dying. She gave me her boys; but the dear saint got well, and
+   kept the lads for herself. Thank God!
+
+   Back to my work with what wits nursing left me.
+
+   Had Johnny for a week, to keep all quiet at home. Enjoyed the
+   sweet little soul very much, and sent him back much better.
+
+   Finished "Work,"--twenty chapters. Not what it should be,--too
+   many interruptions. Should like to do one book in peace, and see
+   if it wouldn't be good.
+
+   _April_--The job being done I went home to take May's place. Gave
+   her $1,000, and sent her to London for a year of study. She
+   sailed on the 26th, brave and happy and hopeful. I felt that she
+   needed it, and was glad to be able to help her.
+
+   I spent seven months in Boston; wrote a book and ten tales;
+   earned $3,250 by my pen, and am satisfied with my winter's work.
+
+   _May._--D. F. wanted a dozen little tales, and agreed to pay $50
+   apiece, if I give up other things for this. Said I would, as I
+   can do two a day, and keep house between times. Cleaned and
+   grubbed, and didn't mind the change. Let head rest, and heels and
+   feet do the work.
+
+   Cold and dull; but the thought of May free and happy was my
+   comfort as I messed about.
+
+   _June and July._--Settled the servant question by getting a neat
+   American woman to cook and help me with the housework.
+
+   Peace fell upon our troubled souls, and all went well. Good
+   meals, tidy house, cheerful service, and in the P.M. an
+   intelligent young person to read and sew with us.
+
+   It was curious how she came to us. She had taught and sewed, and
+   was tired, and wanted something else; decided to try for a
+   housekeeper's place, but happened to read "Work," and thought
+   she'd do as Christie did,--take anything that came.
+
+   I was the first who answered her advertisement, and when she
+   found I wrote the book, she said, "I'll go and see if Miss A.
+   practises as she preaches."
+
+   She found I did, and we had a good time together. My new helper
+   did so well I took pale Johnny to the seaside for a week; but was
+   sent for in haste, as poor Marmee was very ill. Mental
+   bewilderment came after one of her heart troubles (the dropsy
+   affected the brain), and for three weeks we had a sad time.
+   Father and I took care of her, and my good A. S. kept house
+   nicely and faithfully for me.
+
+   Marmee slowly came back to herself, but sadly feeble,--never to
+   be our brave, energetic leader any more. She felt it, and it was
+   hard to convince her that there was no need of her doing anything
+   but rest.
+
+   _August, September, October._--Mother improved steadily. Father
+   went to the Alcott festival in Walcott, A. and boys to Conway
+   for a month; and it did them all much good.
+
+   I had quiet days with Marmee; drove with her, and had the great
+   pleasure of supplying all her needs and fancies.
+
+   May busy and happy in London. A merry time on Mother's birthday,
+   October 8. All so glad to have her still here; for it seemed as
+   if we were to lose her.
+
+   Made a little story of it for F.,--"A Happy Birthday."--and spent
+   the $50 in carriages for her.
+
+   _November and December._--Decided that it was best not to try a
+   cold, lonely winter in C., but go to B. with Mother, Nan, and
+   boys, and leave Father free for the West.
+
+   Took sunny rooms at the South End, near the Park, so the lads
+   could play out and Marmee walk. She enjoyed the change, and sat
+   at her window watching people, horse-cars, and sparrows with
+   great interest. Old friends came to see her, and she was happy.
+   Found a nice school for the boys; and Nan enjoyed her quiet days.
+
+   _January_, 1874.--Mother quite ill this month. Dr. Wesselhoeft
+   does his best for the poor old body, now such a burden to her.
+   The slow decline has begun, and she knows it, having nursed her
+   mother to the same end.
+
+   Father disappointed and rather sad, to be left out of so much
+   that he would enjoy and should be asked to help and adorn. A
+   little more money, a pleasant house and time to attend to it, and
+   I'd bring all the best people to see and entertain _him_. When I
+   see so much twaddle going on I wonder those who can don't get up
+   something better, and have really good things.
+
+   When I had the youth I had no money; now I have the money I have
+   no time; and when I get the time, if I ever do, I shall have no
+   health to enjoy life. I suppose it's the discipline I need; but
+   it's rather hard to love the things I do and see them go by
+   because duty chains me to my galley. If I come into port at last
+   with all sail set that will be reward perhaps.
+
+   Life always was a puzzle to me, and gets more mysterious as I go
+   on. I shall find it out by and by and see that it's all right, if
+   I can only keep brave and patient to the end.
+
+   May still in London painting Turners, and doing pretty panels as
+   "pot-boilers." They sell well, and she is a thrifty child. Good
+   luck to our mid-summer girl.
+
+   _February._--Father has several conversations at the Clubs and
+   Societies and Divinity School. No one pays anything; but they
+   seem glad to listen. There ought to be a place for him.
+
+   Nan busy with her boys, and they doing well at school,--good,
+   gay, and intelligent; a happy mother and most loving little sons.
+
+   I wrote two tales, and got $200. Saw Charles Kingsley,--a
+   pleasant man. His wife has Alcott relations, and likes my books.
+   Asked us to come and see him in England; is to bring his
+   daughters to Concord by and by.
+
+   _March._--May came home with a portfolio full of fine work. Must
+   have worked like a busy bee to have done so much.
+
+   Very happy in her success; for she has proved her talent, having
+   copied Turner so well that Ruskin (meeting her in the National
+   Gallery at work) told her that she had "caught Turner's spirit
+   wonderfully." She has begun to copy Nature, and done well. Lovely
+   sketches of the cloisters in Westminster Abbey, and other
+   charming things.
+
+   I write a story for all my men, and make up the $1,000 I planned
+   to earn by my "pot-boilers" before we go back to C.
+
+   A tablet to Grandfather May is put in Stone Chapel, and one
+   Sunday A.M. we take Mother to see it. A pathetic sight to see
+   Father walk up the broad aisle with the feeble old wife on his
+   arm as they went to be married nearly fifty years ago. Mother sat
+   alone in the old pew a little while and sung softly the old
+   hymns; for it was early, and only the sexton there. He asked who
+   she was and said his father was sexton in Grandfather's time.
+
+   Several old ladies came in and knew Mother. She broke down
+   thinking of the time when she and her mother and sisters and
+   father and brothers all went to church together, and we took her
+   home saying, "This isn't my Boston; all my friends are gone; I
+   never want to see it any more."
+
+   [She never did.--L. M. A.]
+
+   _April and May._--Back to Concord, after May and I had put all in
+   fine order and made the old house lovely with her pictures. When
+   all were settled, with May to keep house, I went to B. for rest,
+   and took a room in Joy Street.
+
+   The Elgin Watch Company offered me a gold watch or $100 for a
+   tale. Chose the money, and wrote the story "My Rococo Watch"[13]
+   for them.
+
+   _October._--Took two nice rooms at the Hotel Bellevue for the
+   winter; May to use one for her classes. Tried to work on my book,
+   but was in such pain could not do much. Got no sleep without
+   morphine. Tried old Dr. Hewett, who was sure he could cure the
+   woe....
+
+   _November._--Funny time with the publishers about the tale; for
+   all wanted it at once, and each tried to outbid the other for an
+   unwritten story. I rather enjoyed it, and felt important with
+   Roberts, Low, and Scribner all clamoring for my "'umble" works.
+   No peddling poor little manuscripts now, and feeling rich with
+   $10. The golden goose can sell her eggs for a good price, if she
+   isn't killed by too much driving.
+
+   _December._--Better and busier than last month.
+
+   All well at home, and Father happy among his kind Westerners.
+   Finish "Eight Cousins," and get ready to do the temperance tale,
+   for F. offers $700 for six chapters,--"Silver Pitchers."
+
+   _January_, 1875.-- ... Father flourishing about the Western
+   cities, "riding in Louisa's chariot, and adored as the
+   grandfather of 'Little Women,'" he says.
+
+   _February._--Finish my tale and go to Vassar College on a visit.
+   See M. M., talk with four hundred girls, write in stacks of
+   albums and school-books, and kiss every one who asks me. Go to
+   New York; am rather lionized, and run away; but things look
+   rather jolly, and I may try a winter there some time, as I need a
+   change and new ideas.
+
+   _March._--Home again, getting ready for the centennial fuss.
+
+   _April._--On the 19th a grand celebration. General _break-down_,
+   owing to an unwise desire to outdo all the other towns; too many
+   people....
+
+Miss Alcott was very much interested in the question of Woman
+Suffrage, and exerted herself to get up a meeting in Concord. The
+subject was then very unpopular, and there was an ill-bred effort to
+destroy the meeting by noise and riot. Although not fond of speaking
+in public, she always put herself bravely on the side of the
+unpopular cause, and lent to it all the argument of her heroic life.
+When Mrs. Livermore lectured at Concord, Miss Alcott sat up all night
+talking with her on the great question. She had an opportunity of
+trying which was most exhausting, abuse or admiration, when she went
+to a meeting of the Women's Congress at Syracuse, in October. She was
+introduced to the audience by Mrs. Livermore, and the young people
+crowded about her like bees about a honeycomb. She was waylaid in the
+streets, petitioned for autographs, kissed by gushing young maidens,
+and made emphatically the lion of the hour. It was all so genial and
+spontaneous, that she enjoyed the fun. No amount of adulation ever
+affected the natural simplicity of her manners. She neither despised
+nor overrated her fame; but was glad of it as a proof of success in
+what she was ever aiming to do. She spent a few weeks in New York
+enjoying the gay and literary society which was freely opened to her;
+but finding most satisfaction in visiting the Tombs, Newsboys' Home,
+and Randall's Island, for she liked these things better than parties
+and dinners.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _June, July, August_, 1875.--Kept house at home, with two Irish
+   incapables to trot after, and ninety-two guests in one month to
+   entertain. Fame is an expensive luxury. I can do without it. This
+   is my worst scrape, I think. I asked for bread, and got a
+   stone,--in the shape of a pedestal.
+
+   _September and October_, 1875.--I go to Woman's Congress in
+   Syracuse, and see Niagara. Funny time with the girls.
+
+   Write loads of autographs, dodge at the theatre, and am kissed to
+   death by gushing damsels. One energetic lady grasped my hand in
+   the crowd, exclaiming, "If you ever come to Oshkosh, your feet
+   will not be allowed to touch the ground: you will be borne in the
+   arms of the people! Will you come?" "Never," responded Miss A.,
+   trying to look affable, and dying to laugh as the good soul
+   worked my arm like a pump-handle, and from the gallery
+   generations of girls were looking on. "This, this, is fame!"
+
+   _November, December._--Take a room at Bath Hotel, New York, and
+   look about me. Miss Sally Holly is here, and we go about
+   together. She tells me much of her life among the freedmen, and
+   Mother is soon deep in barrels of clothes, food, books, etc., for
+   Miss A. to take back with her.
+
+   See many people, and am very gay for a country-mouse. Society
+   unlike either London or Boston.
+
+   Go to Sorosis, and to Mrs. Botta's, O. B. Frothingham's, Miss
+   Booth's, and Mrs. Croly's receptions.
+
+   Visit the Tombs, Newsboys' Home, and Randall's Island on
+   Christmas Day with Mrs. Gibbons. A memorable day. Make a story of
+   it. Enjoy these things more than the parties and dinners.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Dodge._
+
+     NEW YORK, Oct. 5, 1875.
+
+   DEAR MRS. DODGE,--So far, New York seems inviting, though I have
+   not seen or done much but "gawk round" as the country folks do. I
+   have seen Niagara, and enjoyed my vacation very much, especially
+   the Woman's Congress in Syracuse. I was made a member, so have
+   the honor to sign myself,
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. ALCOTT, M. C.
+
+
+_To her Father._
+
+     NEW YORK, Nov. 26, 1875.
+
+   DEAR SEVENTY-SIX,--As I have nothing else to send you on our
+   joint birthday, I'll despatch a letter about some of the people I
+   have lately seen in whom you take an interest.
+
+   Tuesday we heard Gough on "Blunders," and it was very good,--both
+   witty and wise, earnest and sensible. Wednesday eve to Mr.
+   Frothingham's for his Fraternity Club meeting. Pleasant people.
+   Ellen F.; Abby Sage Richardson, a very lovely woman; young Putnam
+   and wife; Mrs. Stedman; Mattie G. and her spouse, Dr. B., who
+   read a lively story of Mormon life; Mrs. Dodge; O. Johnson and
+   wife, and many more whose names I forget.
+
+   After the story the given subject for discussion was brought
+   up,--"Conformity and Noncomformity." Mr. B., a promising young
+   lawyer, led one side, Miss B. the other, and Mr. F. was in the
+   chair. It was very lively; and being called upon, I piped up, and
+   went in for nonconformity when principle was concerned. Got
+   patted on the head for my remarks, and didn't disgrace myself
+   except by getting very red and talking fast.
+
+   Ellen F. was very pleasant, and asked much about May. Proudly I
+   told of our girl's achievements, and E. hoped she would come to
+   New York. Mrs. Richardson was presented, and we had some
+   agreeable chat. She is a great friend of O. B. F., and is
+   lecturing here on "Literature." Shall go and hear her, as she is
+   coming to see me.
+
+   O. B. F. was as polished and clear and cool and witty as usual;
+   most gracious to the "'umble" Concord worm; and Mrs. F. asked me
+   to come and see them.
+
+   Yesterday took a drive with Sally H. in Central Park as it was
+   fine, and she had no fun on her Thanksgiving. I dined at Mrs.
+   Botta's, for she kindly came and asked me. Had a delightful time,
+   and felt as if I'd been to Washington; for Professor Byng, a
+   German ex-consul, was there, full of Capitol gossip about Sumner
+   and all the great beings that there do congregate. Mr. Botta you
+   know,--a handsome, long-haired Italian, very cultivated and
+   affable.
+
+   Also about Lord H., whom B. thought "an amiable old woman," glad
+   to say pretty things, and fond of being lionized. Byng knew Rose
+   and Una, and asked about them; also told funny tales of Victor
+   Emmanuel and his Court, and queer adventures in Greece, where he,
+   B., was a consul, or something official. It was a glimpse into a
+   new sort of world; and as the man was very accomplished, elegant,
+   and witty, I enjoyed it much.
+
+   We had music later, and saw some fine pictures. Durant knew Miss
+   Thackeray, J. Ingelow, and other English people whom I did, so we
+   had a good dish of gossip with Mrs. Botta, while the others
+   talked three or four languages at once.
+
+   It is a delightful house, and I shall go as often as I may, for
+   it is the sort of thing I like much better than B. H. and
+   champagne.
+
+   To-night we go to hear Bradlaugh; to-morrow, a new play; Sunday,
+   Frothingham and Bellows; and Monday, Mrs. Richardson and
+   Shakespeare.
+
+   But it isn't all play, I assure you. I'm a thrifty butterfly,
+   and have written three stories. The "G." has paid for the little
+   Christmas tale; the "I." has "Letty's Tramp;" and my "girl paper"
+   for "St. Nick" is about ready. Several other papers are waiting
+   for tales, so I have a ballast of work to keep me steady in spite
+   of much fun.
+
+   Mr. Powell has been twice to see me, and we go to visit the
+   charities of New York next week. I like to see both sides, and
+   generally find the busy people most interesting.
+
+   So far I like New York very much, and feel so well I shall stay
+   on till I'm tired of it. People begin to tell me how much better
+   I look than when I came, and I have not an ache to fret over.
+   This, after such a long lesson in bodily ails, is a blessing for
+   which I am duly grateful.
+
+   Hope all goes well with you, and that I shall get a line now and
+   then. I'll keep them for you to _bind_ up by and by instead of
+   mine....
+
+   We can buy a carriage some other time, and a barn likewise, and a
+   few other necessities of life. Rosa has proved such a good
+   speculation we shall dare to let May venture another when the
+   ship comes in. I am glad the dear "rack-a-bones" is a comfort to
+   her mistress, only don't let her break my boy's bones by any
+   antics when she feels her oats.
+
+   I suppose you are thinking of Wilson just now, and his quiet
+   slipping away to the heavenly council chambers where the good
+   senators go. Rather like Sumner's end, wasn't it? No wife or
+   children, only men and servants. Wilson was such a genial,
+   friendly soul I should have thought he would have felt the
+   loneliness very much. Hope if he left any last wishes his mates
+   will carry them out faithfully....
+
+   Now, dear Plato, the Lord bless you, and keep you serene and
+   happy for as many years as He sees fit, and me likewise, to be a
+   comfort as well as a pride to you.
+
+     Ever your loving
+     FORTY-THREE
+
+
+_To her Nephews._
+
+     NEW YORK, Dec. 4, 1875.
+
+   DEAR FRED AND DONNY,--We went to see the news-boys, and I wish
+   you'd been with us, it was so interesting. A nice big house has
+   been built for them, with dining-room and kitchen on the first
+   floor, bath-rooms and school-room next, two big
+   sleeping-places,--third and fourth stories,--and at the top a
+   laundry and gymnasium. We saw all the tables set for
+   breakfast,--a plate and bowl for each,--and in the kitchen great
+   kettles, four times as big as our copper boiler, for tea and
+   coffee, soup, and meat. They have bread and meat and coffee for
+   breakfast, and bread and cheese and tea for supper, and get their
+   own dinners out. School was just over when we got there, and one
+   hundred and eighty boys were in the immense room with desks down
+   the middle, and all around the walls were little cupboards
+   numbered. Each boy on coming in gives his name, pays six cents,
+   gets a key, and puts away his hat, books, and jacket (if he has
+   'em) in his own cubby for the night. They pay five cents for
+   supper, and schooling, baths, etc., are free. They were a
+   smart-looking set, larking round in shirts and trousers,
+   barefooted, but the faces were clean, and the heads smooth, and
+   clothes pretty decent; yet they support themselves, for not one
+   of them has any parents or home but this. One little chap, only
+   six, was trotting round as busy as a bee, locking up his small
+   shoes and ragged jacket as if they were great treasures. I asked
+   about little Pete, and the man told us his brother, only nine,
+   supported him and took care of him entirely; and wouldn't let
+   Pete be sent away to any home, because _he_ wished to have "his
+   family" with him.
+
+   Think of that, Fred! How would it seem to be all alone in a big
+   city, with no mamma to cuddle you; no two grandpa's houses to
+   take you in; not a penny but what you earned, and Donny to take
+   care of? Could you do it? Nine-year-old Patsey does it capitally;
+   buys Pete's clothes, pays for his bed and supper, and puts
+   pennies in the savings-bank. There's a brave little man for you!
+   I wanted to see him; but he is a newsboy, and sells late papers,
+   because, though harder work, it pays better, and the coast is
+   clear for those who do it.
+
+   The savings-bank was a great table all full of slits, each one
+   leading to a little place below and numbered outside, so each boy
+   knew his own. Once a month the bank is opened, and the lads take
+   out what they like, or have it invested in a big bank for them to
+   have when they find homes out West, as many do, and make good
+   farmers. One boy was putting in some pennies as we looked, and I
+   asked how much he had saved this month. "Fourteen dollars,
+   ma'am," says the thirteen-year-older, proudly slipping in the
+   last cent. A prize of $3 is offered to the lad who saves the most
+   in a month.
+
+   The beds upstairs were in two immense rooms, ever so much larger
+   than our town hall,--one hundred in one, and one hundred and
+   eighty in another,--all narrow beds with a blue quilt, neat
+   pillow, and clean sheet. They are built in long rows, one over
+   another, and the upper boy has to climb up as on board ship. I'd
+   have liked to see one hundred and eighty all in their "by-lows"
+   at once, and I asked the man if they didn't train when all were
+   in. "Lord, ma'am, they're up at five, poor little chaps, and are
+   so tired at night that they drop off right away. Now and then
+   some boy kicks up a little row, but we have a watchman, and he
+   soon settles 'em."
+
+   He also told me how that very day a neat, smart young man came
+   in, and said he was one of their boys who went West with a farmer
+   only a little while ago; and now he owned eighty acres of land,
+   had a good house, and was doing well, and had come to New York to
+   find his sister, and to take her away to live with him. Wasn't
+   that nice? Lots of boys do as well. Instead of loafing round the
+   streets and getting into mischief, they are taught to be tidy,
+   industrious, and honest, and then sent away into the wholesome
+   country to support themselves.
+
+   It was funny to see 'em scrub in the bath-room,--feet and
+   faces,--comb their hair, fold up their old clothes in the dear
+   cubbies, which make them so happy because they feel that they
+   _own_ something.
+
+   The man said every boy wanted one, even though he had neither
+   shoes nor jacket to put in it; but would lay away an old rag of a
+   cap or a dirty tippet with an air of satisfaction fine to see.
+   Some lads sat reading, and the man said they loved it so they'd
+   read all night, if allowed. At nine he gave the word, "Bed!" and
+   away went the lads, trooping up to sleep in shirts and trousers,
+   as nightgowns are not provided. How would a boy I know like
+   that,--a boy who likes to have "trommin" on his nighties? Of
+   course, I don't mean dandy Don! Oh, dear no!
+
+   After nine [if late in coming in] they are fined five cents;
+   after ten, ten cents; and after eleven they can't come in at all.
+   This makes them steady, keeps them out of harm, and gives them
+   time for study. Some go to the theatre, and sleep anywhere; some
+   sleep at the Home, but go out for a better breakfast than they
+   get there, as the swell ones are fond of goodies, and live well
+   in their funny way. Coffee and cakes at Fulton Market is "the
+   tip-top grub," and they often spend all their day's earnings in a
+   play and a supper, and sleep in boxes or cellars after it.
+
+   Lots of pussies were round the kitchen; and one black one I
+   called a bootblack, and a gray kit that yowled loud was a
+   newsboy. That made some chaps laugh, and they nodded at me as I
+   went out. Nice boys! but I know some nicer ones. Write and tell
+   me something about my poor Squabby.
+
+     By-by, your
+     WEEDY.
+
+
+_To her Family._
+
+     SATURDAY EVENING, Dec. 25, 1875.
+
+   DEAR FAMILY,-- ... I had only time for a word this A.M., as the
+   fourth letter was from Mrs. P. to say they could not go; so I
+   trotted off in the fog at ten to the boat, and there found Mr.
+   and Mrs. G. and piles of goodies for the poor children. She is a
+   dear little old lady in a close, Quakerish bonnet and plain suit,
+   but wide-awake and full of energy. It was grand to see her tackle
+   the big mayor and a still bigger commissioner, and tell them what
+   _ought_ to be done for the poor things on the Island, as they are
+   to be routed; for the city wants the land for some dodge or
+   other. Both men fled soon, for the brave little woman was down on
+   'em in a way that would have made Marmee cry "Ankore!" and clap
+   her dress-gloves to rags.
+
+   When the rotundities had retired, she fell upon a demure priest,
+   and read him a sermon; and then won the heart of a boyish
+   reporter so entirely that he stuck to us all day, and helped
+   serve out dolls and candy like a man and a brother. Long life to
+   him!
+
+   Mr. G. and I discussed pauperism and crime like two old
+   wiseacres; and it was sweet to hear the gray-headed couple say
+   "thee" and "thou," "Abby" and "James," to one another, he
+   following with the bundles wherever the little poke-bonnet led
+   the way. I've had a pretty good variety of Christmases in my day,
+   but never one like this before. First we drove in an old
+   ramshackle hack to the chapel, whither a boy had raced before us,
+   crying joyfully to all he met, "She's come! Miss G.--she's come!"
+   And all faces beamed, as well they might, since for thirty years
+   she has gone to make set after set of little forlornities happy
+   on this day.
+
+   The chapel was full. On one side, in front, girls in blue gowns
+   and white pinafores; on the other, small chaps in pinafores
+   likewise; and behind them, bigger boys in gray suits with cropped
+   heads, and larger girls with ribbons in their hair and pink
+   calico gowns. They sang alternately; the girls gave "Juanita"
+   very well, the little chaps a pretty song about poor children
+   asking a "little white angel" to leave the gates of heaven ajar,
+   so they could peep in, if no more. Quite pathetic, coming from
+   poor babies who had no home but this.
+
+   The big boys spoke pieces, and I was amused when one bright lad
+   in gray, with a red band on his arm, spoke the lines I gave
+   G.,--"Merry Christmas." No one knew me, so I had the joke to
+   myself; and I found afterward that I was taken for the mayoress,
+   who was expected. Then we drove to the hospital, and there the
+   heart-ache began, for me at least, so sad it was to see these
+   poor babies, born of want and sin, suffering every sort of
+   deformity, disease, and pain. Cripples half blind, scarred with
+   scrofula, burns, and abuse,--it was simply awful and
+   indescribable!
+
+   As we went in, I with a great box of dolls and the young
+   reporter with a bigger box of candy, a general cry of delight
+   greeted us. Some children tried to run, half-blind ones stretched
+   out their groping hands, little ones crawled, and big ones
+   grinned, while several poor babies sat up in their bed, beckoning
+   us to "come quick."
+
+   One poor mite, so eaten up with sores that its whole face was
+   painted with some white salve,--its head covered with an oilskin
+   cap; one eye gone, and the other half filmed over; hands
+   bandaged, and ears bleeding,--could only moan and move its feet
+   till I put a gay red dolly in one hand and a pink candy in the
+   other; then the dim eye brightened, the hoarse voice said feebly,
+   "Tanky, lady!" and I left it contentedly sucking the sweetie, and
+   _trying_ to _see_ its dear new toy. It can't see another
+   Christmas, and I like to think I helped make this one happy, even
+   for a minute.
+
+   It was pleasant to watch the young reporter trot round with the
+   candy-box, and come up to me all interest to say, "One girl
+   hasn't got a doll, ma'am, and looks _so_ disappointed."
+
+   After the hospital, we went to the idiot house; and there I had a
+   chance to see faces and figures that will haunt me a long time. A
+   hundred or so of half-grown boys and girls ranged down a long
+   hall, a table of toys in the middle, and an empty one for Mrs.
+   G.'s gifts. A cheer broke out as the little lady hurried in
+   waving her handkerchief and a handful of gay bead necklaces, and
+   "Oh! Ohs!" followed the appearance of the doll-lady and the candy
+   man.
+
+   A pile of gay pictures was a new idea, and Mrs. G. told me to
+   hold up some bright ones and see if the poor innocents would
+   understand and enjoy them. I held up one of two kittens lapping
+   spilt milk, and the girls began to mew and say "Cat! ah,
+   pretty." Then a fine horse, and the boys bounced on their benches
+   with pleasure; while a ship in full sail produced a cheer of
+   rapture from them all.
+
+   Some were given out to the good ones, and the rest are to be
+   pinned round the room; so the pictures were a great success. All
+   wanted dolls, even boys of nineteen; for all were children in
+   mind. But the girls had them, and young women of eighteen cuddled
+   their babies and were happy. The boys chose from the toy-table,
+   and it was pathetic to see great fellows pick out a squeaking dog
+   without even the wit to pinch it when it was theirs. One dwarf of
+   thirty-five chose a little Noah's ark, and brooded over it in
+   silent bliss.
+
+   Some with beards sucked their candy, and stared at a toy cow or
+   box of blocks as if their cup was full. One French girl sang the
+   Marseillaise in a feeble voice, and was so overcome by her new
+   doll that she had an epileptic fit on the spot, which made two
+   others go off likewise; and a slight pause took place while they
+   were kindly removed to sleep it off.
+
+   A little tot of four, who hadn't sense to put candy in its mouth,
+   was so fond of music that when the girls sang the poor vacant
+   face woke up, and a pair of lovely soft hazel eyes stopped
+   staring dully at nothing, and went wandering to and fro with
+   light in them, as if to find the only sound that can reach its
+   poor mind.
+
+   I guess I gave away two hundred dolls, and a soap-box of candy
+   was empty when we left. But rows of sticky faces beamed at us,
+   and an array of gay toys wildly waved after us, as if we were
+   angels who had showered goodies on the poor souls.
+
+   Pauper women are nurses; and Mrs. G. says the babies die like
+   sheep, many being deserted so young nothing can be hoped or done
+   for them. One of the teachers in the idiot home was a Miss C.,
+   who remembered Nan at Dr. Wilbur's. Very lady-like, and all
+   devotion to me. But such a life! Oh, me! Who _can_ lead it, and
+   not go mad?
+
+   At four, we left and came home, Mrs. G. giving a box of toys and
+   sweeties on board the boat for the children of the men who run
+   it. So leaving a stream of blessings and pleasures behind her,
+   the dear old lady drove away, simply saying, "There now, I shall
+   feel better for the next year!" Well she may; bless her!
+
+   She made a speech to the chapel children after the Commissioner
+   had prosed in the usual way, and she told 'em that _she_ should
+   come as long as she could, and when she was gone her children
+   would still keep it up in memory of her; so for thirty years more
+   she hoped this, their one holiday, would be made happy for them.
+   I could have hugged her on the spot, the motherly old dear!
+
+   Next Wednesday we go to the Tombs, and some day I am to visit the
+   hospital with her, for I like this better than parties, etc.
+
+   I got home at five, and then remembered that I'd had no lunch; so
+   I took an apple till six, when I discovered that all had dined at
+   one so the helpers could go early this evening. Thus my Christmas
+   day was without dinner or presents, for the first time since I
+   can remember. Yet it has been a very memorable day, and I feel as
+   if I'd had a splendid feast seeing the poor babies wallow in
+   turkey soup, and that every gift I put into their hands had come
+   back to me in the dumb delight of their unchild-like faces trying
+   to smile.
+
+After the pleasant visit in New York, Miss Alcott returned to Boston,
+where she went into society more than usual, often attending clubs,
+theatres, and receptions. She was more lionized than ever, and had a
+natural pleasure in the attention she received.
+
+The summer of 1876 she spent at Concord, nursing her mother, who was
+very ill. She here wrote "Rose in Bloom," the sequel to "Eight
+Cousins," in three weeks. It was published in November.
+
+Louisa was anxious that her sister should have a home for her young
+family. Mrs. Pratt invested what she could of her husband's money in
+the purchase, and Louisa contributed the rest. This was the so-called
+Thoreau House on the main street in Concord, which became Mrs. Pratt's
+home, and finally that of her father.
+
+Louisa spent the summer of 1877 in Concord. Her mother's illness
+increased, and she was herself very ill in August. Yet she wrote this
+summer one of her brightest and sweetest stories, "Under the Lilacs."
+Her love of animals is specially apparent in this book, and she
+records going to the circus to make studies for the performing dog
+Sanch.
+
+During the winter of 1877, Miss Alcott went to the Bellevue for some
+weeks, and having secured the necessary quiet, devoted herself to the
+writing of a novel for the famous No Name Series published by Roberts
+Brothers. This book had been in her mind for some time, as is seen by
+the journal. As it was to appear anonymously, and was not intended for
+children, she was able to depart from her usual manner, and indulge
+the weird and lurid fancies which took possession of her in her
+dramatic days, and when writing sensational stories. She was much
+interested, and must have written it very rapidly, as it was published
+in April. She enjoyed the excitement of her _incognito_, and was much
+amused at the guesses of critics and friends, who attributed the book
+to others, and were sure Louisa Alcott did not write it, because its
+style was so unlike hers.
+
+It certainly is very unlike the books Miss Alcott had lately written.
+It has nothing of the home-like simplicity and charm of "Little
+Women," "Old-Fashioned Girl," and the other stories with which she was
+delighting the children, and, with "Moods," must always be named as
+exceptional when speaking of her works. Still, a closer study of her
+life and nature will reveal much of her own tastes and habits of
+thought in the book; and it is evident that she wrote _con amore_, and
+was fascinated by the familiars she evoked, however little charm they
+may seem to possess to others. She was fond of Hawthorne's books. The
+influence of his subtle and weird romances is undoubtedly perceptible
+in the book, and it is not strange that it was attributed to his son.
+She says it had been simmering in her brain ever since she read
+"Faust" the year before; and she clearly wished to work according to
+Goethe's thought,--that the Prince of Darkness was a gentleman, and
+must be represented as belonging to the best society.
+
+The plot is powerful and original. A young poet, with more ambition
+than genius or self-knowledge, finds himself, at nineteen, friendless,
+penniless, and hopeless, and is on the point of committing suicide.
+He is saved by Helwyze, a middle-aged man, who has been severely
+crippled by a terrible fall, and his heart seared by the desertion of
+the woman he loved. A man of intellect, power, imagination, and
+wealth, but incapable of conscientious feeling or true love, he is a
+dangerous savior for the impulsive poet; but he takes him to his home,
+warms, feeds, and shelters him, and promises to bring out his book.
+The brilliant, passionate woman who gave up her lover when his health
+and beauty were gone, returned to him when youth had passed, and would
+gladly have devoted herself to soothing his pain and enriching his
+life. Her feeling is painted with delicacy and tenderness.
+
+But Helwyze's heart knew nothing of the divine quality of forgiveness;
+for his love there was no resurrection; and he only valued the power
+he could exercise over a brilliant woman, and the intellectual
+entertainment she could bring him. A sweet young girl, Olivia's
+protegee, completes the very limited _dramatis personæ_.
+
+The young poet, Felix Canaris, under the guidance of his new friend,
+wins fame, success, and the young girl's heart; but his wayward fancy
+turns rather to the magnificent Olivia. The demoniac Helwyze works
+upon this feeling, and claims of Olivia her fair young friend Gladys
+as a wife for Felix, who is forced to accept her at the hands of his
+master. She is entirely responsive to the love which she fancies she
+has won, and is grateful for her fortunate lot, and devotes herself to
+the comfort and happiness of the poor invalid who delights in her
+beauty and grace. For a time Felix enjoys a society success, to which
+his charming wife, as well as his book, contribute. But at last this
+excitement flags. He writes another book, which he threatens to burn
+because he is dissatisfied with it. Gladys entreats him to spare it,
+and Helwyze offers to read it to her. She is overcome and melted with
+emotion at the passion and pathos of the story; and when Helwyze asks,
+"Shall I burn it?" Felix answers, "No!" Again the book brings success
+and admiration, but the tender wife sees that it does not insure
+happiness, and that her husband is plunging into the excitement of
+gambling.
+
+The demon Helwyze has complete control over the poet, which he
+exercises with such subtle tyranny that the young man is driven to the
+dreadful thought of murder to escape from him; but he is saved from
+the deed by the gentle influence of his wife, who has won his heart at
+last, unconscious that it had not always been hers.
+
+Helwyze finds his own punishment. One being resists his power,--Gladys
+breathes his poisoned atmosphere unharmed. He sends for Olivia as his
+ally to separate the wife from her husband's love. A passion of
+curiosity possesses him to read her very heart; and at last he resorts
+to a strange means to accomplish his purpose. He gives her an exciting
+drug without her knowledge, and under its influence she speaks and
+acts with a rare genius which calls forth the admiration of all the
+group. Left alone with her, Helwyze exercises his magnetic power to
+draw forth the secrets of her heart; but he reads there only a pure
+and true love for her husband, and fear of the unhallowed passion
+which he is cherishing. The secret of his power over the husband is at
+last revealed. Canaris has published as his own the work of Helwyze,
+and all the fame and glory he has received has been won by deceit, and
+is a miserable mockery.
+
+The tragic result is inevitable. Gladys dies under the pressure of a
+burden too heavy for her,--the knowledge of deceit in him she had
+loved and trusted; while the stricken Helwyze is paralyzed, and lives
+henceforth only a death in life.
+
+With all the elements of power and beauty in this singular book, it
+fails to charm and win the heart of the reader. The circumstances are
+in a romantic setting, but still they are prosaic; and tragedy is only
+endurable when taken up into the region of the ideal, where the
+thought of the universal rounds out all traits of the individual. In
+Goethe's Faust, Margaret is the sweetest and simplest of maidens; but
+in her is the life of all wronged and suffering womanhood.
+
+The realism which is delightful in the pictures of little women and
+merry boys is painful when connected with passions so morbid and lives
+so far removed from joy and sanity. As in her early dramas and
+sensational stories, we do not find Louisa Alcott's own broad,
+generous, healthy life, or that which lay around her, in this book,
+but the reminiscences of her reading, which she had striven to make
+her own by invention and fancy.
+
+This note refers to "A Modern Mephistopheles":--
+
+     [1877.]
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--I had to keep the proof longer than I meant
+   because a funeral came in the way.
+
+   The book as last sent is lovely, and much bigger than I expected.
+
+   Poor "Marmee," ill in bed, hugged it, and said, "It is perfect!
+   only I do wish your name could be on it." She is very proud of
+   it; and tender-hearted Anna weeps and broods over it, calling
+   Gladys the best and sweetest character I ever did. So much for
+   home opinion; now let's see what the public will say.
+
+   May clamors for it; but I don't want to send this till she has
+   had one or two of the others. Have you sent her "Is That All?" If
+   not, please do; then it won't look suspicious to send only "M.
+   M."
+
+   I am so glad the job is done, and hope it won't disgrace the
+   series. Is not another to come before this? I hope so; for many
+   people suspect what is up, and I could tell my fibs about No. 6
+   better if it was not mine.
+
+   Thanks for the trouble you have taken to keep the secret. Now the
+   fun will begin.
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+   P. S.--Bean's expressman grins when he hands in the daily parcel.
+   He is a Concord man.
+
+By Louisa's help the younger sister again went abroad in 1876; and her
+bright affectionate letters cheered the little household, much
+saddened by the mother's illness.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _January_, 1876.--Helped Mrs. Croly receive two hundred
+   gentlemen.
+
+   A letter from Baron Tauchnitz asking leave to put my book in his
+   foreign library, and sending 600 marks to pay for it. Said, "Yes,
+   thank you, Baron."
+
+   Went to Philadelphia to see Cousin J. May installed in Dr.
+   Furness's pulpit. Dull place is Philadelphia. Heard Beecher
+   preach; did not like him....
+
+   Went home on the 21st, finding I could not work here. Soon tire
+   of being a fine lady.
+
+   _February and March._--Took a room in B., and fell to work on
+   short tales for F. T. N. wanted a centennial story; but my
+   frivolous New York life left me no ideas. Went to Centennial Ball
+   at Music Hall, and got an idea.
+
+   Wrote a tale of "'76," which with others will make a catchpenny
+   book. Mother poorly, so I go home to nurse her.
+
+   _April, May, and June._--Mother better. Nan and boys go to P.
+   farm. May and I clean the old house. It seems as if the dust of
+   two centuries haunted the ancient mansion, and came out spring
+   and fall in a ghostly way for us to clear up.
+
+   Great freshets and trouble.
+
+   Exposition in Philadelphia; don't care to go. America ought to
+   pay her debts before she gives parties. "Silver Pitchers," etc.,
+   comes out, and goes well. Poor stuff; but the mill must keep on
+   grinding even chaff.
+
+   _June._--Lovely month! Keep hotel and wait on Marmee.
+
+   Try to get up steam for a new serial, as Mrs. Dodge wants one,
+   and Scribner offers $3,000 for it. Roberts Brothers want a novel;
+   and the various newspapers and magazines clamor for tales. My
+   brain is squeezed dry, and I can only wait for help.
+
+   _July, August._--Get an idea and start "Rose in Bloom," though I
+   hate sequels.
+
+   _September._--On the 9th my dear girl sails in the "China" for a
+   year in London or Paris. God be with her! She has done her
+   distasteful duty faithfully, and deserved a reward. She cannot
+   find the help she needs here, and is happy and busy in her own
+   world over there.
+
+   [She never came home.--L. M. A.]
+
+   Finish "Rose."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+   _November._--"Rose" comes out; sells well.
+
+   ... Forty-four years old. My new task gets on slowly; but I keep
+   at it, and can be a prop, if not an angel, in the house, as Nan
+   is.
+
+   _December._--Miss P. sends us a pretty oil sketch of May,--so
+   like the dear soul in her violet wrapper, with yellow curls piled
+   up, and the long hand at work. Mother delights in it.
+
+   She (M.) is doing finely, and says, "I am getting on, and I feel
+   as if it was not all a mistake; for I have some talent, and will
+   prove it." Modesty is a sign of genius, and I think our girl has
+   both. The money I invest in her pays the sort of interest I like.
+   I am proud to have her show what she can do, and have her depend
+   upon no one but me. Success to little Raphael! My dull winter is
+   much cheered by her happiness and success.
+
+   _January, February, 1877._--The year begins well. Nan keeps
+   house; boys fine, tall lads, good and gay; Father busy with his
+   new book; Mother cosey with her sewing, letters, Johnson, and
+   success of her "girls."
+
+   Went for some weeks to the Bellevue, and wrote "A Modern
+   Mephistopheles" for the No Name Series. It has been simmering
+   ever since I read Faust last year. Enjoyed doing it, being tired
+   of providing moral pap for the young. Long to write a novel, but
+   cannot get time enough.
+
+   May's letters our delight. She is so in earnest she will not stop
+   for pleasure, rest, or society, but works away like a Trojan. Her
+   work admired by masters and mates for its vigor and character.
+
+   _March._--Begin to think of buying the Thoreau place for Nan. The
+   $4,000 received from the Vt. and Eastern R. Rs. must be invested,
+   and she wants a home of her own, now the lads are growing up.
+
+   Mother can be with her in the winter for a change, and leave me
+   free to write in B. Concord has no inspiration for me.
+
+   _April._--May, at the request of her teacher, M. Muller, sends a
+   study of still life to the Salon. The little picture is accepted,
+   well hung, and praised by the judges. No friend at court, and the
+   modest work stood on its own merits. She is very proud to see her
+   six months' hard work bear fruit. A happy girl, and all say she
+   deserves the honor.
+
+   "M. M." appears and causes much guessing. It is praised and
+   criticised, and I enjoy the fun, especially when friends say, "I
+   know _you_ didn't write it, for you can't hide your peculiar
+   style."
+
+   Help to buy the house for Nan,--$4,500. So she has _her_ wish,
+   and is happy. When shall I have mine? Ought to be contented with
+   knowing I help both sisters by my brains. But I'm selfish, and
+   want to go away and rest in Europe. Never shall.
+
+   _May, June._--Quiet days keeping house and attending to Marmee,
+   who grows more and more feeble. Helped Nan get ready for her new
+   home.
+
+   Felt very well, and began to hope I had outlived the neuralgic
+   worries and nervous woes born of the hospital fever and the hard
+   years following.
+
+   May living alone in Paris, while her mates go jaunting,--a
+   solitary life; but she is so busy she is happy and safe. A good
+   angel watches over her. Take pleasant drives early in the A.M.
+   with Marmee. She takes her comfort in a basket wagon, and we
+   drive to the woods, picking flowers and stopping where we like.
+   It keeps her young, and rests her weary nerves.
+
+   _July._--Got too tired, and was laid up for some weeks. A curious
+   time, lying quite happily at rest, wondering what was to come
+   next.
+
+   _August._--As soon as able began "Under the Lilacs," but could
+   not do much.
+
+Mrs. Alcott grew rapidly worse, and her devoted daughter recognized
+that the final parting was near. As Louisa watched by the bedside she
+wrote "My Girls," and finished "Under the Lilacs."
+
+The journal tells the story of the last days of watching, and of the
+peaceful close of the mother's self-sacrificing yet blessed life.
+Louisa was very brave in the presence of death. She had no dark
+thoughts connected with it; and in her mother's case, after her long,
+hard life, she recognized how "growing age longed for its peaceful
+sleep."
+
+The tie between this mother and daughter was exceptionally strong and
+tender. The mother saw all her own fine powers reproduced and
+developed in her daughter; and if she also recognized the passionate
+energy which had been the strength and the bane of her own life, it
+gave her only a more constant watchfulness to save her child from the
+struggles and regrets from which she had suffered herself.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _September_, 1877.--On the 7th Marmee had a very ill turn, and
+   the doctor told me it was the beginning of the end. [Water on the
+   chest.] She was so ill we sent for Father from Walcott; and I
+   forgot myself in taking care of poor Marmee, who suffered much
+   and longed to go.
+
+   As I watched with her I wrote "My Girls," to go with other tales
+   in a new "Scrap Bag," and finished "Under the Lilacs." I foresaw
+   a busy or a sick winter, and wanted to finish while I could, so
+   keeping my promise and earning my $3,000.
+
+   Brain very lively and pen flew. It always takes an exigency to
+   spur me up and wring out a book. Never have time to go slowly and
+   do my best.
+
+   _October._--Fearing I might give out, got a nurse and rested a
+   little, so that when the last hard days come I might not fail
+   Marmee, who says, "Stay by, Louy, and help me if I suffer too
+   much." I promised, and watched her sit panting life away day
+   after day. We thought she would not outlive her seventy-seventh
+   birthday, but, thanks to Dr. W. and homoeopathy, she got
+   relief, and we had a sad little celebration, well knowing it
+   would be the last. Aunt B. and L. W. came up, and with fruit,
+   flowers, smiling faces, and full hearts, we sat round the brave
+   soul who faced death so calmly and was ready to go.
+
+   I overdid and was very ill,--in danger of my life for a
+   week,--and feared to go before Marmee. But pulled through, and
+   got up slowly to help her die. A strange month.
+
+   _November._--Still feeble, and Mother failing fast. On the 14th
+   we were both moved to Anna's at Mother's earnest wish.
+
+   A week in the new home, and then she ceased to care for
+   anything. Kept her bed for three days, lying down after weeks in
+   a chair, and on the 25th, at dusk, that rainy Sunday, fell
+   quietly asleep in my arms.
+
+   She was very happy all day, thinking herself a girl again, with
+   parents and sisters round her. Said her Sunday hymn to me, whom
+   she called "Mother," and smiled at us, saying, "A smile is as
+   good as a prayer." Looked often at the little picture of May, and
+   waved her hand to it, "Good-by, little May, good-by!"
+
+   Her last words to Father were, "You are laying a very soft pillow
+   for me to go to sleep on."
+
+   We feared great suffering, but she was spared that, and slipped
+   peacefully away. I was so glad when the last weary breath was
+   drawn, and silence came, with its rest and peace.
+
+   On the 27th it was necessary to bury her, and we took her quietly
+   away to Sleepy Hollow. A hard day, but the last duty we could do
+   for her; and there we left her at sunset beside dear Lizzie's
+   dust,--alone so long.
+
+   On the 28th a memorial service, and all the friends at
+   Anna's,--Dr. Bartol and Mr. Foote of Stone Chapel. A simple,
+   cheerful service, as she would have liked it.
+
+   Quiet days afterward resting in her rest.
+
+   My duty is done, and now I shall be glad to follow her.
+
+   _December._--Many kind letters from all who best knew and loved
+   the noble woman.
+
+   I never wish her back, but a great warmth seems gone out of life,
+   and there is no motive to go on now.
+
+   My only comfort is that I _could_ make her last years
+   comfortable, and lift off the burden she had carried so bravely
+   all these years. She was so loyal, tender, and true; life was
+   hard for her, and no one understood all she had to bear but we,
+   her children. I think I shall soon follow her, and am quite
+   ready to go now she no longer needs me.
+
+   _January_, 1878.--An idle month at Nan's, for I can only suffer.
+
+   Father goes about, being restless with his anchor gone. Dear Nan
+   is house-mother now,--so patient, so thoughtful and tender; I
+   need nothing but that cherishing which only mothers can give.
+
+   May busy in London. Very sad about Marmee; but it was best not to
+   send for her, and Marmee forbade it, and she has some very
+   _tender friends_ near her.
+
+   _February._--... Wrote some lines on Marmee.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Dodge._
+
+     CONCORD, June 3 [1877].
+
+   DEAR MRS. DODGE,--The tale[14] goes slowly owing to
+   interruptions, for summer is a busy time, and I get few quiet
+   days. Twelve chapters are done, but are short ones, and so will
+   make about six or seven numbers in "St. Nicholas."
+
+   I will leave them divided in this way that you may put in as many
+   as you please each month; for trying to suit the magazine hurts
+   the story in its book form, though this way does no harm to the
+   monthly parts, I think.
+
+   I will send you the first few chapters during the week for Mrs.
+   Foote, and with them the schedule you suggest, so that my infants
+   may not be drawn with whiskers, and my big boys and girls in
+   pinafores, as in "Eight Cousins."
+
+   I hope the new baby won't be set aside too soon for my
+   illustrations; but I do feel a natural wish to have one story
+   prettily adorned with good pictures, as hitherto artists have
+   much afflicted me.
+
+   I am daily waiting with anxiety for an illumination of some sort,
+   as my plot is very vague so far; and though I don't approve of
+   "sensations" in children's books, one must have a certain thread
+   on which to string the small events which make up the true sort
+   of child-life.
+
+   I intend to go and simmer an afternoon at Van Amburg's great
+   show, that I may get hints for the further embellishment of Ben
+   and his dog. I have also put in a poem by F. B. S.'s small
+   son,[15] and that hit will give Mrs. Foote a good scene with the
+   six-year-old poet reciting his verses under the lilacs.
+
+   I shall expect the small tots to be unusually good, since the
+   artist has a live model to study from. Please present my
+   congratulations to the happy mamma and Mr. Foote, Jr.
+
+     Yours _warmly_,
+     L. M. A.
+
+     AUGUST 21, 1879.
+
+   DEAR MRS. DODGE,--I have not been able to do anything on the
+   serial.... But after a week at the seaside, to get braced up for
+   work, I intend to begin. The Revolutionary tale does not seem to
+   possess me. I have casually asked many of my young folks, when
+   they demand a new story, which they would like, one of that sort
+   or the old "Eight Cousin" style, and they all say the latter. It
+   would be much the easier to do, as I have a beginning and a plan
+   all ready,--a village, and the affairs of a party of children. We
+   have many little romances going on among the Concord boys and
+   girls, and all sorts of queer things, which will work into "Jack
+   and Jill" nicely. Mrs. Croly has been anxious for a story, and I
+   am trying to do a short one, as I told her you had the refusal
+   of my next serial. I hope you will not be very much disappointed
+   about the old-time tale. It would take study to do it well, and
+   leisure is just what I have not got, and I shall never have, I
+   fear, when writing is to be done. I will send you a few chapters
+   of "Jack and Jill" when in order, if you like, and you can decide
+   if they will suit. I shall try to have it unlike the others if
+   possible, but the dears _will_ cling to the "Little Women" style.
+
+   I have had a very busy summer, but have been pretty well, and
+   able to do my part in entertaining the four hundred philosophers.
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+     SEPTEMBER 17 [1879].
+
+   DEAR MRS. DODGE,--Don't let me _prose_. If I seem to be declining
+   and falling into it, pull me up, and I'll try to prance as of
+   old. Years tame down one's spirit and fancy, though they only
+   deepen one's love for the little people, and strengthen the
+   desire to serve them wisely as well as cheerfully. Fathers and
+   mothers tell me they use my books as helps for themselves; so now
+   and then I like to slip in a page for them, fresh from the
+   experience of some other parent, for education seems to me to be
+   _the_ problem in our times.
+
+   Jack and Jill are right out of our own little circle, and the
+   boys and girls are in a twitter to know what is going in; so it
+   will be a "truly story" in the main.
+
+   Such a long note for a busy woman to read! but your cheery word
+   was my best "starter;" and I'm, more than ever,
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+MAY ALCOTT NIERIKER.
+
+   Born at Concord, July, 1840. Died in Paris, December, 1879.
+
+This younger sister became so dear to Louisa, and through the legacy
+which she left to her of an infant child, exercised so great an
+influence over the last ten years of her life, that it will not be
+uninteresting to trace out the course of her life and the development
+of her character. May was born before the experiments at Fruitlands,
+and her childhood passed during the period when the fortunes of the
+family were at the lowest ebb; but she was too young to feel in all
+their fulness the cares which weighed upon the older sisters. Her
+oldest sister--the affectionate, practical Anna--almost adopted May as
+her own baby, and gave her a great deal of the attention and care
+which the mother had not time for amid her numerous avocations. The
+child clung to Anna with trust and affection; but with her quick fancy
+and lively spirit, she admired the brilliant qualities of Louisa.
+Hasty in temperament, quick and impulsive in action, she quarrelled
+with Louisa while she adored her, and was impatient with her rebukes,
+which yet had great influence over her. She had a more facile nature
+than the other sisters, and a natural, girlish love of attention, and
+a romantic fondness for beauty in person and style in living. Graceful
+in figure and manners, with a fine complexion, blue eyes, and a
+profusion of light wavy hair, she was attractive in appearance; and a
+childish frankness, and acceptance of sympathy or criticism, disarmed
+those who were disposed to find fault with her.
+
+May is very truly described in "Little Women," and her character is
+painted with a discerning but loving hand: "A regular snow maiden,
+with blue eyes, and yellow hair curling on her shoulders, pale and
+slender, and always carrying herself like a young lady mindful of her
+manners." Many little touches of description show the consciousness of
+appearance and love of admiration which she innocently betrayed, and
+illustrate the relation of the sisters: "'Don't stop to quirk your
+little finger and prink over your plate, Amy,' cried Jo." Her mother
+says of this daughter in her diary: "She does all things well; her
+capabilities are much in her eyes and fingers. When a child, I
+observed with what ease and grace she did little things."
+
+According to Louisa, "If anybody had asked Amy what the greatest trial
+of her life was, she would have answered at once, 'My nose.' No one
+minded it but herself, and it was doing its best to grow; but Amy felt
+deeply the want of a Grecian nose, and drew whole sheets of handsome
+ones to console herself." "Little Raphael," as the sisters called her,
+very early developed a love and talent for drawing which became the
+delight of her life. She covered her books with sketches, but managed
+to escape reprimand by being a model of deportment. Always having in
+her mind an ideal of elegant life, the many little trials of their
+times of poverty were of course severe mortifications to her; and the
+necessity of wearing dresses which came to her from others, and which
+were ugly in themselves or out of harmony with her own appearance,
+caused her much affliction. She was always generous and easily
+reconciled after a quarrel, and was a favorite with her companions,
+and the heroine of those innocent little love episodes which, as
+Tennyson says,--
+
+                 "Are but embassies of love
+     To tamper with the feelings, ere he found
+     Empire for life."[16]
+
+While May was too young to take the part in the support of the family
+which fell to Anna and Louisa, she was yet a blessing and comfort by
+her kind, bright nature. After the death of Elizabeth in 1858, her
+mother speaks of "turning to the little May for comfort," and her
+father's letters show how dear she was to him, although she never
+entered into his intellectual life.
+
+May shared in the blessing of Louisa's first success, for she went to
+the School of Design in 1859 for the lessons in her art, for which she
+longed so eagerly. In 1860 an old friend sent her thirty dollars for
+lessons in drawing, and she had the best instruction she could then
+receive in Boston.
+
+In 1863, Louisa procured for her the great advantage of study with Dr.
+Rimmer, who was then giving his precious lessons in art anatomy in
+Boston. Under his instructions, May gave some attention to modelling,
+and completed an ideal bust. Although she did not pursue this branch
+of art, it was undoubtedly of great service in giving her more
+thorough knowledge of the head, and a bolder and firmer style of
+drawing than she would have gained in any other way.
+
+As will be seen from Louisa's journal, May was frequently with her in
+Boston, engaged in studying or teaching. By the kindness of a friend,
+she went to Europe in 1870, when Louisa accompanied her. Louisa sent
+her to Europe for a year of study in 1873, and again in 1877. In
+London and Paris she had good opportunities for study, and improved
+rapidly in her art. She made some admirable copies from Turner which
+attracted the attention of Ruskin; and a picture from still life was
+accepted at the Paris Salon, which event gave great happiness to the
+family circle and friends at home.
+
+May was very generous in giving to others help in the art she loved.
+While at home, in the intervals of her studies in Europe, she tried to
+form an art centre in Concord, and freely gave her time, her
+instruction, and the use of her studio to young artists. She wrote a
+little book to aid them in prosecuting their studies abroad, called
+"Studying Art Abroad, and How to do it Cheaply."
+
+Like the rest of the family, May composed with great ease, and
+sometimes wrote little stories. Her letters are very sprightly and
+agreeable.
+
+While residing in London, May had become acquainted with a young Swiss
+gentleman, whose refined and artistic tastes were closely in unison
+with her own. During the sad days of bereavement caused by her
+mother's death he was a kind and sympathetic friend, soothing her
+grief and cheering her solitude by his music. Thus, frequently
+together, their friendship became love, and they were betrothed. The
+course of this true love, which for a time ran swiftly and smoothly,
+is most exquisitely depicted in May's letters to her family. The
+charming pictures of herself and her young lover are so like Amy and
+her Laurie in his happiest moods, that we almost feel as if Miss
+Alcott had been prophetic in her treatment of these characters in
+"Little Women."
+
+I wish I could give her own natural, frank account of this event. May
+had the secret of perpetual youth, at least in spirit; and in reading
+her letters, one has no consciousness that more than thirty years had
+passed over her head, for they had taken no drop of freshness from her
+heart.
+
+The union of this happy pair was not a surprise to the friends at
+home, who had read May's heart, revealed in her frank, innocent
+letters, more clearly than she had supposed. When the claims of
+business called Mr. Nieriker from London, the hearts of the young
+couple quailed before the idea of separation, and they decided to be
+married at once, and go together. The simple ceremony was performed in
+London, March 22, 1878; and May started on her journey, no longer
+alone, but with a loving friend by her side.
+
+May's letters are full of the most artless joy in her new life. The
+old days of struggle and penury are gone; the heart-loneliness is no
+more; the world is beautiful, and everybody loving and kind. Life in
+the modest French home is an idyllic dream, and she writes to her
+sisters of every detail of her household. The return of her husband at
+sunset is a feast, and the evening is delightful with poetry and
+music. Her blue dress, her crimson furniture, satisfy her artistic
+sense. She does not neglect her art, but paints with fresh
+inspiration, and waits for his criticism and praise. She says, "He is
+very ambitious for my artistic success, and is my most severe critic."
+In the morning she finds her easel set out for her, a fire burning
+ready for her comfort, and her husband in the big arm-chair waiting to
+read to her, or to take his violin and pose for his picture in gray
+velvet paletot and red slippers.[17]
+
+For the time conjugal love is all sufficient, and May wonders at
+herself that the happiness of the moment can so drown every
+remembrance of sorrow. Yet a pathetic note is occasionally heard, as
+she mourns for the mother who is gone, or yearns for the sister who
+has been such a strength to her through life. The picturesqueness and
+ease of French life make America look stupid and forlorn, and she has
+no wish to go home, but only to have her dear ones share in her
+happiness. Her work in art was successful; and the money she received
+for it was not unacceptable, although her husband's income sufficed
+for their modest wants. She was justified in her grateful feeling that
+she was singularly blessed. Her husband's family were German-Swiss of
+high standing, artistic temperament, and warm affections. His mother
+and sister came to visit them, and took May to their hearts with
+cordial love.
+
+Among the pictures painted by May at this time the most remarkable is
+the portrait of a negro girl, which is a very faithful study from
+life, and gives the color and characteristic traits of a beautiful
+negro without exaggeration. The expression of the eyes is tender and
+pathetic, well-suited to the fate of a slave girl. Such earnest study
+would have borne richer fruit if longer life had been hers.
+
+May's own nature seems to have blossomed out like a flower in this
+sunny climate. In her youth at home she was impulsive, affectionate,
+and generous, but quick in temper and sometimes exacting; but the
+whole impression she made upon her husband and his family was of grace
+and sweetness, and she herself declares that her sisters at home would
+not recognize her, she has "become so sweet in this atmosphere of
+happiness."
+
+We would gladly linger over these records of a paradisiacal home where
+Adam and Eve renewed their innocent loves and happy labors. When
+musing over the sorrows of humanity it refreshes us to know that such
+joy is possible, and needs only love and simple hearts to make it
+real.
+
+May's note of happiness is touchingly echoed from the heart of her
+bereaved father, who recalls the days of his own courtship. He
+cherished every tender word from her; and the respectful and loving
+words of his new son, to whom he responds affectionately, were like
+balm to his stricken heart.
+
+May's joy was heightened by the expectation of motherhood. Her health
+was excellent, and she had the loving care of her new mother and
+sister. The anxious family at home received the news of the birth of a
+daughter with heartfelt delight. It was a great disappointment to
+Louisa that she could not be with her sister at this time; but her
+health was not equal to the voyage, and she felt that May had most
+loving and sufficient care. An American friend in Paris kindly wrote
+to Louisa full details of the little niece and of the mother's
+condition. "It is difficult," she says, "to say which of that happy
+household is the proudest over that squirming bit of humanity."
+
+For about two weeks all seemed well; but alarming symptoms began to
+appear, and the mother's strength failed rapidly. The brain was the
+seat of disease; and she was generally unconscious, although she had
+intervals of apparent improvement, when she recognized her friends.
+She passed away peacefully December 29, 1879.
+
+An American clergyman in Paris took charge of the funeral service,
+which according to May's expressed desire was very simple, and she was
+laid in the tranquil cemetery of Montrouge outside of the
+fortifications.
+
+Foreseeing the possibility of a fatal termination to her illness, May
+had made every preparation for the event, and obtained a promise from
+her sister-in-law that she would carry the baby to Louisa to receive
+the devoted care that she knew would be given it. The child became a
+source of great comfort to Miss Alcott as will be seen from the
+journals. After her death Mr. Nieriker visited his little girl in
+America, and in June, 1889, her aunt took her to his home in Zurich,
+Switzerland.
+
+Before the sad letters describing May's illness could reach America,
+came the cable message of her death. It was sent to Mr. Emerson, the
+never-failing friend of the family, who bore it to Louisa, her father
+being temporarily absent. His thoughtfulness softened the blow as much
+as human tenderness could, but still it fell with crushing weight upon
+them all.
+
+The father and sister could not sleep, and in the watches of the night
+he wrote that touching ode, the cry of paternal love and grief
+entitled "Love's Morrow."
+
+
+_To Mrs. Bond._
+
+     CONCORD, Jan. 1, 1880.
+
+   DEAR AUNTIE,--It is hard to add one more sorrow to your already
+   full heart, particularly one of this sort, but I did not want you
+   to hear it from any one but us. Dear May is dead. Gone to begin
+   the new year with Mother, in a world where I hope there is no
+   grief like this. Gone just when she seemed safest and happiest,
+   after nearly two years of such sweet satisfaction and love that
+   she wrote us, "If I die when baby comes, remember I have been so
+   unspeakably happy for a year that I ought to be content...."
+
+   And it is all over. The good mother and sister have done
+   everything in the most devoted way. We can never repay them. My
+   May gave me her little Lulu, and in the spring I hope to get my
+   sweet legacy. Meantime the dear grandma takes her to a home full
+   of loving friends and she is safe. I will write more when we
+   know, but the cruel sea divides us and we must wait.
+
+   Bless you dear Auntie for all your love for May; she never forgot
+   it, nor do we.
+
+     Yours ever,
+     LOUISA.
+
+     JANUARY 4.
+
+   DEAR AUNTIE,--I have little further news to tell, but it seems to
+   comfort me to answer the shower of tender sympathetic letters
+   that each mail brings us....
+
+   So we must wait to learn how the end came at last, where the dear
+   dust is to lie, and how soon the desolate little home is to be
+   broken up. It only remains for May's baby to be taken away to
+   fill our cup to overflowing. But perhaps it would be best so, for
+   even in Heaven with Mother, I know May will yearn for the darling
+   so ardently desired, so tenderly welcomed, bought at such a
+   price.
+
+   In all the troubles of my life I never had one so hard to bear,
+   for the sudden fall from such high happiness to such a depth of
+   sorrow finds me unprepared to accept or bear it as I ought.
+
+   Sometime I shall know why such things are; till then must try to
+   trust and wait and hope as you do.... Sorrow has its lonely side,
+   and sympathy is so sweet it takes half its bitterness away.
+
+     Yours ever,
+     L.
+
+After May's marriage and death Louisa remained awhile in Concord,
+trying to forget her grief in care for others. She went to the prison
+in Concord, and told a story to the prisoners which touched their
+hearts, and was long remembered by some of them.
+
+She wrote some short stories for "St Nicholas," among them "Jimmy's
+Cruise in the Pinafore," called out by the acting of the popular opera
+of that name by a juvenile troupe.
+
+She spent some weeks at Willow Cottage, Magnolia, which she has
+described in her popular story of "Jack and Jill." The scene of the
+story is mostly laid in Concord, or "Harmony" as she calls it, and she
+has introduced many familiar scenes and persons into the book.
+
+This summer, too, the long-dreamed of School of Philosophy was
+established. The opening of the School was a great event to Mr.
+Alcott, as it was the realization of the dream of years. Louisa
+enjoyed his gratification, and took pains to help him to reap full
+satisfaction from it. She carried flowers to grace the opening
+meeting, and was friendly to his guests. She occasionally attended
+lectures given by her friends,--Dr. Bartol, Mrs. Howe, and
+others,--and she could not fail to enjoy meeting many of the bright
+people who congregated there; but she did not care for the speculative
+philosophy. Her keen sense of humor led her to see all that was
+incongruous or funny or simply novel in the bearing of the
+philosophers. She felt that her father had too much of the trying
+details, and perhaps did not appreciate how much joy of recognition it
+brought him. She had not much faith in the practical success of the
+experiment. Philosophy was much associated in her mind with early
+poverty and suffering, and she did not feel its charms. She was
+usually at the seashore at this season, as she suffered from the heat
+at Concord. Frequent allusions to the school appear in her journal.
+The following anecdote is given by a friend.
+
+"It was at Concord on Emerson day. After a morning with Bartol and
+Alcott and Mrs. Howe, I lunched with the Alcotts', who had for guest
+the venerable Dr. McCosh. Naturally the conversation turned on the
+events of the morning. 'I was thinking,' said the Doctor, 'as I looked
+among your audience, that there were no young men; and that with none
+but old men your school would soon die with them. By the way, madam,'
+he continued, addressing Miss Alcott, 'will you tell me what is your
+definition of a philosopher?'
+
+"The reply came instantly, 'My definition is of a man up in a balloon,
+with his family and friends holding the ropes which confine him to
+earth and trying to haul him down.'
+
+"The laugh which followed this reply was heartily joined in by the
+philosopher himself."
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _March_, 1878.--A happy event,--May's marriage to Ernest
+   Nieriker, the "tender friend" who has consoled her for Marmee's
+   loss, as John consoled Nan for Beth's. He is a Swiss, handsome,
+   cultivated, and good; an excellent family living in Baden, and E.
+   has a good business. May is old enough to choose for herself, and
+   seems so happy in the new relation that we have nothing to say
+   against it.
+
+   They were privately married on the 22d, and went to Havre for the
+   honeymoon, as E. had business in France; so they hurried the
+   wedding. Send her $1,000 as a gift, and all good wishes for the
+   new life.
+
+   _April._--Happy letters from May, who is enjoying life as one can
+   but once. E. writes finely to Father, and is a son to welcome I
+   am sure. May sketches and E. attends to his business by day, and
+   both revel in music in the evening, as E. is a fine violin
+   player.
+
+   How different our lives are just now!--I so lonely, sad, and
+   sick; she so happy, well, and blest. She always had the cream of
+   things, and deserved it. My time is yet to come somewhere else,
+   when I am ready for it.
+
+   Anna clears out the old house; for we shall never go back to it;
+   it ceased to be "home" when Marmee left it.
+
+   I dawdle about, and wait to see if I am to live or die. If I
+   live, it is for some new work. I wonder what?
+
+   _May._--Begin to drive a little, and enjoy the spring. Nature is
+   always good to me.
+
+   May settles in her own house at Meudon,--a pretty apartment, with
+   balcony, garden, etc.... I plan and hope to go to them, if I am
+   ever well enough, and find new inspiration in a new life. May and
+   E. urge it, and I long to go, but cannot risk the voyage yet. I
+   doubt if I ever find time to lead my own life, or health to try
+   it.
+
+   _June and July._--Improving fast, in spite of dark predictions
+   and forebodings. The Lord has more work for me, so I am spared.
+
+   Tried to write a memoir of Marmee; but it is too soon, and I am
+   not well enough.
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   May has had the new mother and brother-in-law with her, and finds
+   them most interesting and lovable. They seem very proud of her,
+   and happy in her happiness. Bright times for our youngest! May
+   they last!
+
+   [They did.--L. M. A.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+   Got nicely ready to go to May in September; but at the last
+   moment gave it up, fearing to undo all the good this weary year
+   of ease has done for me, and be a burden on her. A great
+   disappointment; but I've learned to wait. I long to see her happy
+   in her own home.
+
+   Nan breaks her leg; so it is well I stayed, as there was no one
+   to take her place but me. Always a little chore to be done.
+
+   _October, November._--Nan improved. Rode, nursed, kept house, and
+   tried to be contented, but was not. Make no plans for myself now;
+   do what I can, and should be glad not to have to sit idle any
+   longer.
+
+   On the 8th, Marmee's birthday, Father and I went to Sleepy Hollow
+   with red leaves and flowers for her. A cold, dull day, and I was
+   glad there was no winter for her any more.
+
+   _November 25th._--A year since our beloved Marmee died. A very
+   eventful year. May marries, I live instead of dying, Father comes
+   to honor in his old age, and Nan makes her home our refuge when
+   we need one.
+
+   _December._--A busy time. Nan gets about again. I am so well I
+   wonder at myself, and ask no more.
+
+   Write a tale for the "Independent," and begin on an art novel,
+   with May's romance for its thread. Went to B. for some weeks, and
+   looked about to see what I could venture to do....
+
+   So ends 1878,--a great contrast to last December. Then I thought
+   I was done with life; now I can enjoy a good deal, and wait to
+   see what I am spared to do. Thank God for both the sorrow and the
+   joy.
+
+   _January_, 1879.--At the Bellevue in my little room writing.
+
+   Got two books well started, but had too many interruptions to do
+   much, and dared not get into a vortex for fear of a break-down.
+
+   Went about and saw people, and tried to be jolly. Did Jarley for
+   a fair, also for Authors' Carnival at Music Hall. A queer time;
+   too old for such pranks. A sad heart and a used-up body make play
+   hard work, I find.
+
+   Read "Mary Wollstonecraft," "Dosia," "Danieli," "Helène," etc. I
+   like Gréville's books.
+
+   Invest $1,000 for Fred's schooling, etc. Johnny has his $1,000
+   also safely in the bank for his education and any emergency.
+
+   _February._--Home to Concord rather used up. Find a very quiet
+   life is best; for in B. people beset me to do things, and I try,
+   and get so tired I cannot work. Dr. C. says rest is my salvation;
+   so I rest. Hope for Paris in the spring, as May begs me to come.
+   She is leading what she calls "an ideal life,"--painting, music,
+   love, and the world shut out. People wonder and gossip; but M.
+   and E. laugh and are happy. Wise people to enjoy this lovely
+   time!
+
+   Went to a dinner, at the Revere House, of the Papyrus Club. Mrs.
+   Burnett and Miss A. were guests of honor. Dr. Holmes took me in,
+   and to my surprise I found myself at the president's right hand,
+   with Mrs. B., Holmes, Stedman, and the great ones of the land.
+   Had a gay time. Dr. H. very gallant. "Little Women" often toasted
+   with more praise than was good for me.
+
+   Saw Mrs. B. at a lunch, and took her and Mrs. M. M. Dodge to
+   Concord for a lunch. Most agreeable women.
+
+   A visit at H. W.'s. Mission time at Church of the Advent. Father
+   Knox-Little preached, and waked up the sinners. H. hoped to
+   convert me, and took me to see Father K.-L., a very interesting
+   man, and we had a pleasant talk; but I found that we meant the
+   same thing, though called by different names; and his religion
+   had too much ceremony about it to suit me. So he gave me his
+   blessing, and promised to send me some books.
+
+   [Never did.--L. M. A.]
+
+   Pleasant times with my "rainy-day friend," as I call Dr. W. She
+   is a great comfort to me, with her healthy common-sense and
+   tender patience, aside from skill as a doctor and beauty as a
+   woman. I love her much, and she does me good.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+   Happy letters from May. Her hopes of a little son or daughter in
+   the autumn give us new plans to talk over. I _must_ be well
+   enough to go to her then.
+
+   _April._--Very poorly and cross; so tired of being a prisoner to
+   pain. Long for the old strength when I could do what I liked, and
+   never knew I had a body. Life not worth living in this way; but
+   having over-worked the wonderful machine, I must pay for it, and
+   should not growl, I suppose, as it is just.
+
+   To B. to see Dr. S. Told me I was better than she ever dreamed I
+   could be, and need not worry. So took heart, and tried to be
+   cheerful, in spite of aches and nerves. Warm weather comforted
+   me, and green grass did me good.
+
+   Put a fence round A.'s garden. Bought a phaeton, so I might
+   drive, as I cannot walk much, and Father loves to take his guests
+   about.
+
+   _May and June._--Go to B. for a week, but don't enjoy seeing
+   people. Do errands, and go home again. Saw "Pinafore;" a pretty
+   play.
+
+   Much company.
+
+   E.'s looked at the Orchard House and liked it; will hire it,
+   probably. Hope so, as it is forlorn standing empty. I never go by
+   without looking up at Marmee's window, where the dear face used
+   to be, and May's, with the picturesque vines round it. No
+   golden-haired, blue-gowned Diana ever appears now; she sits
+   happily sewing baby-clothes in Paris. Enjoyed fitting out a box
+   of dainty things to send her. Even lonely old spinsters take an
+   interest in babies.
+
+   _June._--A poor month. Try to forget my own worries, and enjoy
+   the fine weather, my little carriage, and good friends. Souls are
+   such slaves to bodies it is hard to keep up out of the slough of
+   despond when nerves jangle and flesh aches.
+
+   Went with Father on Sunday to the prison, and told the men a
+   story. Thought I could not face four hundred at first; but after
+   looking at them during the sermon, I felt that I could at least
+   _amuse_ them, and they evidently needed something new. So I told
+   a hospital story with a little moral to it, and was so interested
+   in watching the faces of some young men near me, who drank in
+   every word, that I forgot myself, and talked away "like a
+   mother." One put his head down, and another winked hard, so I
+   felt that I had caught them; for even one tear in that dry, hard
+   place would do them good. Miss McC. and Father said it was well
+   done, and I felt quite proud of my first speech. [Sequel later.]
+
+   _July._--Wrote a little tale called "Jimmy's Cruise in the
+   Pinafore," for "St. Nicholas;" $100.
+
+   _14th._--The philosophers begin to swarm, and the buzz starts
+   to-morrow. How much honey will be made is still doubtful, but the
+   hive is ready and drones also.
+
+   On the 15th, the School of Philosophy began in the study at
+   Orchard House,--thirty students; Father, the dean. He has his
+   dream realized at last, and is in glory, with plenty of talk to
+   swim in. People laugh, but will enjoy something new in this dull
+   old town; and the fresh Westerners will show them that all the
+   culture of the world is not in Concord. I had a private laugh
+   when Mrs. ---- asked one of the new-comers, with her superior
+   air, if she had ever looked into Plato. And the modest lady from
+   Jacksonville answered, with a twinkle at me, "We have been
+   reading Plato in _Greek_ for the past six years." Mrs. ----
+   subsided after that.
+
+   [Oh, wicked L. M. A., who hates sham and loves a joke.--L. M. A.]
+
+   Was the first woman to register my name as a voter.
+
+   _August._--To B. with a new "Scrap Bag." "Jimmy" to the fore.
+   Wrote a little tale.
+
+   The town swarms with budding philosophers, and they roost on our
+   steps like hens waiting for corn. Father revels in it, so we keep
+   the hotel going, and try to look as if we liked it. If they were
+   philanthropists, I should enjoy it; but speculation seems a waste
+   of time when there is so much real work crying to be done. Why
+   discuss the "unknowable" till our poor are fed and the wicked
+   saved?
+
+   A young poet from New York came; nice boy.
+
+   Sixteen callers to-day. Trying to stir up the women about
+   suffrage; so timid and slow.
+
+   Happy letters from May. Sophie N. is with her now. All well in
+   the Paris nest.
+
+   Passed a week in Magnolia with Mrs. H. School ended for this
+   year. Hallelujah!
+
+   _September._--Home from the seaside refreshed, and go to work on
+   a new serial for "St. Nicholas,"--"Jack and Jill." Have no plan
+   yet but a boy, a girl, and a sled, with an upset to start with.
+   Vague idea of working in Concord young folks and their doings.
+   After two years of rest, I am going to try again; it is so easy
+   to make money now, and so pleasant to have it to give. A chapter
+   a day is my task, and not that if I feel tired. No more fourteen
+   hours a day; make haste slowly now.
+
+   Drove about and drummed up women to my suffrage meeting. So hard
+   to move people out of the old ruts. I haven't patience enough;
+   if they won't see and work, I let 'em alone, and steam along my
+   own way.
+
+   May sent some nice little letters of an "Artist's Holiday," and I
+   had them printed; also a book for artists abroad,--very useful,
+   and well done.
+
+   Eight chapters done. Too much company for work.
+
+   _October 8th._--Dear Marmee's birthday. Never forgotten. Lovely
+   day. Go to Sleepy Hollow with flowers. Her grave is green;
+   blackberry vines with red leaves trail over it. A little white
+   stone with her initials is at the head, and among the tall grass
+   over her breast a little bird had made a nest; empty now, but a
+   pretty symbol of the refuge that tender bosom always was for all
+   feeble and sweet things. Her favorite asters bloomed all about,
+   and the pines sang overhead. So she and dear Beth are quietly
+   asleep in God's acre, and we remember them more tenderly with
+   each year that brings us nearer them and home.
+
+   Went with Dr. W. to the Woman's Prison, at Sherburne. A lovely
+   drive, and very remarkable day and night. Read a story to the
+   four hundred women, and heard many interesting tales. A much
+   better place than Concord Prison, with its armed wardens, and
+   "knock down and drag out" methods. Only women here, and they work
+   wonders by patience, love, common-sense, and the belief in
+   salvation for all.
+
+   First proof from Scribner of "Jack and Jill." Mrs. D. likes the
+   story, so I peg away very slowly. Put in Elly D. as one of my
+   boys. The nearer I keep to nature, the better the work is. Young
+   people much interested in the story, and all want to "go in." I
+   shall have a hornet's nest about me if all are not _angels_.
+
+   Father goes West.
+
+   I mourn much because all say I must not go to May; not safe; and
+   I cannot add to Mamma Nieriker's cares at this time by another
+   invalid, as the voyage would upset me, I am so sea-sick.
+
+   Give up my hope and long-cherished plan with grief. May sadly
+   disappointed. I know I shall wish I had gone; it is my luck.
+
+   _November._--Went to Boston for a month, as some solace for my
+   great disappointment. Take my room at the Bellevue, and go about
+   a little. Write on "J. and J." Anxious about May.
+
+   _8th._--Little Louisa May Nieriker arrived in Paris at 9 p. m.,
+   after a short journey. All doing well. Much rejoicing. Nice
+   little lass, and May very happy. Ah, if I had only been there!
+   Too much happiness for me.
+
+   _25th._--Two years since Marmee went. How she would have enjoyed
+   the little granddaughter, and all May's romance! Perhaps she
+   does.
+
+   Went home on my birthday (forty-seven). Tried to have a little
+   party for Nan and the boys, but it was rather hard work.
+
+   Not well enough to write much, so give up my room. Can lie round
+   at home, and it's cheaper.
+
+   _December._--May not doing well. The weight on my heart is not
+   all imagination. She was too happy to have it last, and I fear
+   the end is coming. Hope it is my nerves; but this peculiar
+   feeling has never misled me before.
+
+   Invited to the breakfast to O. W. H. No heart to go.
+
+   _8th._--Little Lu one month old. Small, but lively. Oh, if I
+   could only be there to see,--to help! This is a penance for all
+   my sins. Such a tugging at my heart to be by poor May, alone, so
+   far away. The N.'s are devoted, and all is done that can be; but
+   not one of her "very own" is there.
+
+   Father came home.
+
+   _29th._--May died at 8 a. m., after three weeks of fever and
+   stupor. Happy and painless most of the time. At Mr. W.'s funeral
+   on the 30th, I _felt_ the truth before the news came.
+
+   _Wednesday, 31st._--A dark day for us. A telegram from Ernest to
+   Mr. Emerson tells us "May is dead." Anna was gone to B.; Father
+   to the post-office, anxious for letters, the last being overdue.
+   I was alone when Mr. E. came. E. sent to him, knowing I was
+   feeble, and hoping Mr. E. would soften the blow. I found him
+   looking at May's portrait, pale and tearful, with the paper in
+   his hand. "My child, I wish I could prepare you; but alas, alas!"
+   There his voice failed, and he gave me the telegram.
+
+   I was not surprised, and read the hard words as if I knew it all
+   before. "I _am_ prepared," I said, and thanked him. He was much
+   moved and very tender. I shall remember gratefully the look, the
+   grasp, the tears he gave me; and I am sure that hard moment was
+   made bearable by the presence of this our best and tenderest
+   friend. He went to find Father but missed him, and I had to tell
+   both him and Anna when they came. A very bitter sorrow for all.
+
+   The dear baby may comfort E., but what can comfort us? It is the
+   distance that is so hard, and the thought of so much happiness
+   ended so soon. "Two years of perfect happiness" May called these
+   married years, and said, "If I die when baby comes, don't mourn,
+   for I have had as much happiness in this short time as many in
+   twenty years." She wished me to have her baby and her pictures. A
+   very precious legacy! Rich payment for the little I could do for
+   her. I see now why I lived,--to care for May's child and not
+   leave Anna all alone.
+
+   _January 1st_, 1880.--A sad day mourning for May. Of all the
+   trials in my life I never felt any so keenly as this, perhaps
+   because I am so feeble in health that I cannot bear it well. It
+   seems so hard to break up that happy little home and take May
+   just when life was richest, and to leave me who had done my task
+   and could well be spared. Shall I ever know why such things
+   happen?
+
+   Letters came telling us all the sad story. May was unconscious
+   during the last weeks, and seemed not to suffer. Spoke now and
+   then of "getting ready for Louy," and asked if she had come. All
+   was done that love and skill could do, but in vain. E. is
+   broken-hearted, and good Madame N. and Sophie find their only
+   solace in the poor baby.
+
+   May felt a foreboding, and left all ready in case she died. Some
+   trunks packed for us, some for the N. sisters. Her diary written
+   up, all in order. Even chose the graveyard where she wished to
+   be, out of the city. E. obeys all her wishes sacredly.
+
+   Tried to write on "J. and J." to distract my mind; but the wave
+   of sorrow kept rolling over me, and I could only weep and wait
+   till the tide ebbed again.
+
+   _February._--More letters from E. and Madame N. Like us, they
+   find comfort in writing of the dear soul gone, now there is
+   nothing more to do for her. I cannot make it true that our May is
+   dead, lying far away in a strange grave, leaving a husband and
+   child whom we have never seen. It all reads like a pretty
+   romance, now death hath set its seal on these two happy years;
+   and we shall never know all that she alone could tell us.
+
+   Many letters from friends in France, England, and America, full
+   of sympathy for us, and love and pride and gratitude for May,
+   who was always glad to help, forgive, and love every one. It is
+   our only consolation now.
+
+   Father and I cannot sleep, but he and I make verses as we did
+   when Marmee died. Our grief seems to flow into words. He writes
+   "Love's Morrow" and "Our Madonna."
+
+   Lulu has gone to Baden with Grandmamma.
+
+   Finish "J. and J." The world goes on in spite of sorrow, and I
+   must do my work. Both these last serials were written with a
+   heavy heart,--"Under the Lilacs" when Marmee was failing, and
+   "Jack and Jill" while May was dying. Hope the grief did not get
+   into them.
+
+   Hear R. W. E. lecture for his one hundredth time. Mary Clemmer
+   writes for a sketch of my life for a book of "Famous Women."
+   Don't belong there.
+
+   Read "Memoirs of Madame de Rémusat." Not very interesting.
+   Beauties seldom amount to much. Plain Margaret Fuller was worth a
+   dozen of them. "Kings in Exile," a most interesting book, a very
+   vivid and terrible picture of Parisian life and royal weakness
+   and sorrow.
+
+   Put papers, etc., in order. I feel as if one should be ready to
+   go at any moment....
+
+   _March._--A box came from May, with pictures, clothes, vases, her
+   ornaments, a little work-basket, and, in one of her own sepia
+   boxes, her pretty hair tied with blue ribbon,--all that is now
+   left us of this bright soul but the baby, soon to come. Treasures
+   all.
+
+   A sad day, and many tears dropped on the dear dress, the blue
+   slippers she last wore, the bit of work she laid down when the
+   call came the evening Lulu was born. The fur-lined sack feels
+   like May's arms round me, and I shall wear it with pleasure. The
+   pictures show us her great progress these last years.
+
+   To Boston for a few days on business, and to try to forget. Got
+   gifts for Anna's birthday on the 16th,--forty-nine years old. My
+   only sister now, and the best God ever made. Repaired her house
+   for her.
+
+   Lulu is not to come till autumn. Great disappointment; but it is
+   wiser to wait, as summer is bad for a young baby to begin here.
+
+   _29th._--Town meeting. Twenty women there, and voted first,
+   thanks to Father. Polls closed,--in joke, we thought, as Judge
+   Hoar proposed it; proved to be in earnest, and _we_ elected a
+   good school committee. Quiet time; no fuss.
+
+     JANUARY 20, 1880.
+
+   DEAR MRS. DODGE,--I have been so bowed down with grief at the
+   loss of my dear sister just when our anxiety was over that I have
+   not had a thought or care for anything else.
+
+   The story is done; but the last chapters are not copied, and I
+   thought it best to let them lie till I could give my mind to the
+   work.
+
+   I never get a good chance to do a story without interruption of
+   some sort. "Under the Lilacs" was finished by my mother's bedside
+   in her last illness, and this one when my heart was full of care
+   and hope and then grief over poor May.
+
+   I trust the misery did not get into the story; but I'm afraid it
+   is not as gay as I meant most of it to be.
+
+   I forgot to number the pages of the last two chapters, and so
+   cannot number these. I usually keep the run, but this time sent
+   off the parcel in a hurry. Can you send me the right number to go
+   on with in chapter seventeen? I can send you four more as soon as
+   I hear.
+
+   I don't believe I shall come to New York this winter. May left
+   me her little daughter for my own; and if she comes over soon, I
+   shall be too busy singing lullabies to one child to write tales
+   for others, or go anywhere, even to see my kind friends.
+
+   A sweeter little romance has just ended in Paris than any I can
+   ever make; and the sad facts of life leave me no heart for
+   cheerful fiction.
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. ALCOTT.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[12] This poem was first published anonymously in "The Masque of
+Poets," in 1878.
+
+[13] In Spinning-Wheel Stories.
+
+[14] Under the Lilacs.
+
+[15] Under the Lilacs, page 78.
+
+[16] Gardener's Daughter.
+
+[17] This interesting picture is in the possession of her sister.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+LAST YEARS.
+
+     MY PRAYER.
+     (Written October, 1886.)
+
+     Courage and patience, these I ask,
+       Dear Lord, in this my latest strait;
+     For hard I find my ten years' task,
+       Learning to suffer and to wait.
+
+     Life seems so rich and grand a thing,
+       So full of work for heart and brain,
+     It is a cross that I can bring
+       No help, no offering, but pain.
+
+     The hard-earned harvest of these years
+       I long to generously share;
+     The lessons learned with bitter tears
+       To teach again with tender care;
+
+     To smooth the rough and thorny way
+       Where other feet begin to tread;
+     To feed some hungry soul each day
+       With sympathy's sustaining bread.
+
+     So beautiful such pleasures show,
+       I long to make them mine;
+     To love and labor and to know
+       The joy such living makes divine.
+
+     But if I may not, I will only ask
+       Courage and patience for my fate,
+     And learn, dear Lord, thy latest task,--
+       To suffer patiently and wait.
+
+
+The early part of the year 1880 was in the deep shadow of sadness,
+from the death of Louisa's sister. Boxes full of May's pictures,
+clothes, and books came home to call up anew all the memories of the
+bright spirit who had blossomed into such beautiful life so quickly to
+fade away.
+
+Miss Alcott tried to rise above her grief and busy herself with new
+interests. She took an active part in the voting of the women in
+Concord, and rejoiced in the election of a good school committee. In
+April she returned to her old rooms at the Bellevue, where she busied
+herself with dramatizing "Michael Strogoff," which she never
+completed. She kept up her interest in young girls, and received with
+pleasure a visit from thirty pupils of the Boston University, and she
+helped to give the children of the North End Mission a happy day at
+Walden Pond. She went to York for rest and refreshment during the
+summer. Her heart was filled with longing for the child, and
+everything was done with reference to its coming.
+
+As September brought cooler weather, over the sea came the little babe
+to the warm hearts that were longing to welcome her. No woman as true
+and loving as Louisa Alcott but has the mother-nature strong in her
+heart; and she could not help feeling a new spring of love and life
+when the child of one so dear was put into her arms to be her very
+own. Rosy and healthy, full of life and energy,--not a model of
+sainthood, but a real human nature, with a will to be regulated, not
+broken, with impulses to be trained, talents and tendencies to be
+studied, and a true, loving heart to be filled with joy,--Louisa
+found the child a constant source of interest and pleasure. She
+brought her up as she herself had been trained,--more by influences
+than by rules,--and sought to follow the leadings which she found in
+the young nature rather than to make it over after a plan of her own.
+This new care and joy helped to fill up the void in her life from the
+loss of the mother for whom she had worked so faithfully and the pet
+sister to whom she had ever been a good providence.
+
+The principal interest of the next few years was the care of this
+child. It was a pleasant occupation to Louisa, occupying her heart,
+and binding her with new ties to younger generations. The journal
+tells all the simple story of the "voyage across the seas."
+
+Miss Alcott was very attractive to children, especially to the little
+ones, who thronged about her and pleaded for stories; but this was the
+first one who ever really filled the mother-longing in her heart. She
+was now truly a "marmee;" and remembering the blessing which her own
+mother had been to her, her standard of motherhood must have been very
+high. Much care was now also given to her father, and she speaks with
+pride of her handsome old philosopher in his new suit of clothes.
+
+Miss Alcott was gratified by a visit from one of the men to whom she
+had spoken at Concord Prison. He told her his story, and she assisted
+him to find work, and had the satisfaction of hearing of his
+well-doing.
+
+There is little record of writing done at this period, Louisa's time
+and thoughts being absorbed by the child. In the autumn of 1881 she
+wrote a preface to a new edition of the "Prayers of Theodore Parker,"
+and also one to the new edition of "Moods."
+
+Louisa kept the birthdays of November, though with saddened heart. She
+wrote a tale for the Soldiers' Home,--"My Red Cap," in "Proverb
+Stories,"--and another for the New England Hospital fair,--"A Baby's
+Birthday;" and also one for her old publisher. Such was the feeling
+toward her as a universal benefactor, that a poor woman wrote her
+begging her to send some Christmas gifts to her children, as they had
+asked her to write to Santa Claus for some. With Lulu's help she got
+up a box for the poor family, and then made a story out of the
+incident, for which she received a hundred dollars.
+
+A new project was that of a temperance society, which was felt to be
+needed in Concord.
+
+Louisa occupied herself much in looking over her mother's papers, and
+unfortunately destroyed them, instead of preparing a memoir of her as
+she had intended to do. It is a matter of great regret that she did
+not feel able to do this work, for Mrs. Alcott's letters would have
+been a most valuable record of the life of her time, as well as a
+treasury of bright thought and earnest feeling. Louisa was not willing
+to commit the task to any other hand, and the opportunity is gone.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Dodge._
+
+     CONCORD, May 29.
+
+   DEAR MRS. DODGE,--I was away from home, so your letter did not
+   reach me till I got back yesterday.
+
+   Thanks for your kind thought of me, and recollections of the
+   pleasant week when the L. L.'s had a lark. I should like another;
+   but in this work-a-day world busy folk don't get many, as we
+   know.
+
+   If I write a serial, you shall have it; but I have my doubts as
+   to the leisure and quiet needed for such tasks being possible
+   with a year-old baby. Of course little Lu is a _very_ remarkable
+   child, but I fancy I shall feel as full of responsibility as a
+   hen with one chick, and cluck and scratch industriously for the
+   sole benefit of my daughter.
+
+   She may, however, have a literary turn, and be my assistant, by
+   offering hints and giving studies of character for my work. She
+   comes in September, if well.
+
+   If I do begin a new story, how would "An Old-Fashioned Boy" and
+   his life do? I meant that for the title of a book, but another
+   woman took it. You proposed a revolutionary tale once, but I was
+   not up to it; for this I have quaint material in my father's
+   journals, letters, and recollections. He was born with the
+   century, and had an uncle in the war of 1812; and his life was
+   very pretty and pastoral in the early days. I think a new sort of
+   story wouldn't be amiss, with fun in it, and the queer old names
+   and habits. I began it long ago, and if I have a chance will
+   finish off a few chapters and send them to you, if you like.
+
+     Yours cordially,
+     L. M. ALCOTT.
+
+
+_To Mr. Niles, about the new illustrated edition of "Little Women."_
+
+     YORK, July 20, 1880.
+
+   The drawings are all capital, and we had great fun over them down
+   here this rainy day.... Mr. Merrill certainly deserves a good
+   penny for his work. Such a fertile fancy and quick hand as his
+   should be well paid, and I shall not begrudge him his well-earned
+   compensation, nor the praise I am sure these illustrations will
+   earn. It is very pleasant to think that the lucky little story
+   has been of use to a fellow-worker, and I am much obliged to him
+   for so improving on my hasty pen-and-ink sketches. What a dear
+   rowdy boy Teddy is with the felt basin on!
+
+   The papers are great gossips, and never get anything quite
+   straight, and I do mean to set up my own establishment in Boston
+   (D.V.). Now I have an excuse for a home of my own, and as the
+   other artistic and literary spinsters have a house, I am going to
+   try the plan, for a winter at least.
+
+   Come and see how cosey we are next October at 81 Pinckney Street.
+   Miss N. will receive.
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Dodge._
+
+     81 PINCKNEY STREET, 1880.
+
+   DEAR MRS. DODGE,--The editor of "Harper's Young People" asked for
+   a serial, and I declined; then they wanted a short story for
+   Christmas, and I sent one. But it was not long enough, though
+   longer than most of my short $100 tales.
+
+   So I said, "If you don't want it, send it to 'Saint Nicholas.'"
+
+   Therefore if "How It Happened" comes straying along, you will
+   know what it means. If you don't want it, please send it to me in
+   Boston, 81 Pinckney Street; for Christmas tales are always in
+   demand, and I have no time to write more.
+
+   You will like to know that my baby is safely here,--a healthy,
+   happy little soul, who comes like sunshine to our sad hearts, and
+   takes us all captive by her winning ways and lovely traits.
+
+   I shall soon be settled for the winter, and I hope have good
+   times after the hard ones.
+
+     Affectionately yours,
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _April_, 1880.--So sad and poorly; went to B. for a change. Old
+   room at the Bellevue.
+
+   Amused myself dramatizing "Michael Strogoff;" read, walked, and
+   rested. Reporters called for story of my life; did not get much.
+   Made my will, dividing all I have between Nan and the boys, with
+   Father as a legacy to Nan, and to Lulu her mother's pictures and
+   small fortune of $500.
+
+   _May._--Thirty girls from Boston University called; told stories,
+   showed pictures, wrote autographs. Pleasant to see so much
+   innocent enthusiasm, even about so poor a thing as a used-up old
+   woman. Bright girls! simple in dress, sensible ideas of life, and
+   love of education. I wish them all good luck.
+
+   Ordered a stone for May's grave like Marmee's and Beth's, for
+   some day I hope to bring her dust home.
+
+   Twenty-third is the anniversary of Mother's wedding. If she had
+   lived, it would have been the golden wedding.
+
+   Went to see St. Botolph's Club rooms. Very prim and neat, with
+   easy chairs everywhere; stained glass, and a pious little _bar_,
+   with nothing visible but a moral ice-pitcher and a butler like a
+   bishop. The reverend gentlemen will be comfortable and merry, I
+   fancy, as there is a smoking-room and card-tables, as well as a
+   library and picture-gallery. Divines nowadays are not as godly as
+   in old times, it seems.
+
+   Mrs. Dodge wants a new serial, but I doubt if I can do it; boys,
+   babies, illness, and business of all sorts leave no time for
+   story-telling.
+
+   _June._--We all enjoy the new rooms very much, and Father finds
+   his study delightful. Prepare the Orchard House for W. T. Harris,
+   who is to rent it.
+
+   North End Mission children at Walden Pond. Help give them a happy
+   day,--eleven hundred of them. Get Anna and John off to Walpole.
+   Cleaned house.
+
+   Madame N. sends a picture of Lulu,--a funny, fat little thing in
+   her carriage. Don't realize that it is May's child, and that she
+   is far away in a French cemetery, never to come home to us again.
+
+   It is decided that Baby is to come to us in September.
+
+   _24th._--Lizzie's birthday and Johnny's. He is fifteen,--a
+   lovely, good boy, whom every one loves. Got the Dean a new suit
+   of clothes, as he must be nice for his duties at the School.
+   Plato's toga was not so costly, but even he did not look better
+   than my handsome old philosopher.
+
+   _July and August._--To York with boys. Rest and enjoy the fine
+   air. Home in August, and let Anna go down. Four hundred callers
+   since the School began. Philosophy is a bore to outsiders.
+
+   Got things ready for my baby,--warm wrapper, and all the dear can
+   need on her long journey. On the 21st saw Mrs. Giles (who went
+   for baby) off; the last time I went, it was to see May go. She
+   was sober and sad, not gay as before; seemed to feel it might be
+   a longer voyage than we knew. The last view I had of her, was
+   standing alone in the long blue cloak waving her hand to us,
+   smiling with wet eyes till out of sight. How little we dreamed
+   what an experience of love, joy, pain, and death she was going
+   to!
+
+   A lonely time with all away. My grief meets me when I come home,
+   and the house is full of ghosts.
+
+   _September._--Put papers in order, and arrange things generally,
+   to be in order when our Lulu comes. Make a cosey nursery for the
+   darling, and say my prayers over the little white crib that waits
+   for her, if she ever comes. God watch over her!
+
+   Paid my first _poll_-tax. As my _head_ is my most valuable piece
+   of property, I thought $2 a cheap tax on it. Saw my townswomen
+   about voting, etc. Hard work to stir them up; cake and servants
+   are more interesting.
+
+   _18th._--In Boston, waiting for the steamer that brings my
+   treasure. The ocean seems very wide and terrible when I think of
+   the motherless little creature coming so far to us.
+
+   _19th._--Lulu and Sophie N. arrived with poor G., worn out by
+   anxiety. A stormy passage, and much care, being turned out of the
+   stateroom I had engaged for them and paid for, by a rude New York
+   dressmaker. No help for it, so poor G. went to a rat-hole below,
+   and did her best.
+
+   As I waited on the wharf while the people came off the ship, I
+   saw several babies, and wondered each time if that was mine. At
+   last the captain appeared, and in his arms a little
+   yellow-haired thing in white, with its hat half off as it looked
+   about with lively blue eyes and babbled prettily. Mrs. G. came
+   along by it, and I knew it was Lulu. Behind, walked a lovely
+   brown-eyed girl with an anxious face, all being new and strange
+   to Sophie.
+
+   I held out my arms to Lulu, only being able to say her name. She
+   looked at me for a moment, then came to me, saying "Marmar" in a
+   wistful way, and resting close as if she had found her own people
+   and home at last,--as she had, thank Heaven! I could only listen
+   while I held her, and the others told their tale. Then we got
+   home as soon as we could, and dear baby behaved very well, though
+   hungry and tired.
+
+   The little princess was received with tears and smiles, and being
+   washed and fed went quietly to sleep in her new bed, while we
+   brooded over her and were never tired of looking at the little
+   face of "May's baby."
+
+   She is a very active, bright child, not pretty yet, being browned
+   by sea air, and having a yellow down on her head, and a pug nose.
+   Her little body is beautifully formed, broad shoulders, fine
+   chest, and lovely arms. A happy thing, laughing and waving her
+   hands, confiding and bold, with a keen look in the eyes so like
+   May, who hated shams and saw through them at once. She always
+   comes to me, and seems to have decided that I am really "Marmar."
+   My heart is full of pride and joy, and the touch of the dear
+   little hands seems to take away the bitterness of grief. I often
+   go at night to see if she is really _here_, and the sight of the
+   little head is like sunshine to me. Father adores her, and she
+   loves to sit in his strong arms. They make a pretty picture as he
+   walks in the garden with her to "see birdies." Anna tends her as
+   she did May, who was her baby once, being ten years younger, and
+   we all find life easier to live now the baby has come. Sophie is
+   a sweet girl, with much character and beauty. A charming sister
+   in love as in law.
+
+   _October._--Happy days with Lulu and Sophie; getting acquainted
+   with them. Lulu is rosy and fair now, and grows pretty in her
+   native air,--a merry little lass, who seems to feel at home and
+   blooms in an atmosphere of adoration. People come to see "Miss
+   Alcott's baby," and strangers waylay her little carriage in the
+   street to look at her; but she does not allow herself to be
+   kissed.
+
+   As Father wants to go West I decide to hire Cousin L. W.'s house
+   furnished for the winter, so that Sophie and the boys can have a
+   pleasant time. S. misses the gayety of her home-life in stupid
+   Concord, where the gossip and want of manners strike her very
+   disagreeably. Impertinent questions are asked her, and she is
+   amazed at the queer, rude things people say.
+
+   _November 8th._--Lulu's birthday. One year old. Her gifts were
+   set out on a table for her to see when she came down in the
+   afternoon,--a little cake with _one_ candle, a rose crown for the
+   queen, a silver mug, dolly, picture-books, gay ball, toys,
+   flowers, and many kisses. She sat smiling at her treasures just
+   under her mother's picture. Suddenly, attracted by the sunshine
+   on the face of the portrait which she knows is "Marmar," she held
+   up a white rose to it calling "Mum! Mum!" and smiling at it in a
+   way that made us all cry. A happy day for her, a sad one to us.
+
+   _Thanksgiving._--Family dinner.
+
+   Father at Syracuse, having conversations at Bishop Huntington's
+   and a fine time everywhere.
+
+   _December._--Too busy to keep much of a journal. My life is
+   absorbed in my baby. On the twenty-third she got up and walked
+   alone; had never crept at all, but when ready ran across the room
+   and plumped down, laughing triumphantly at her feat.
+
+   _Christmas._--Tried to make it gay for the young folks, but a
+   heavy day for Nan and me. Sixty gifts were set out on different
+   tables, and all were much pleased. Sophie had many pretty things,
+   and gave to all generously.
+
+   A hard year for all, but when I hold my Lulu I feel as if even
+   death had its compensations. A new world for me.
+
+   Called down one day to see a young man. Found it one of those to
+   whom I spoke at the prison in Concord last June. Came to thank me
+   for the good my little story did him, since it kept him straight
+   and reminded him that it is never too late to mend. Told me about
+   himself, and how he was going to begin anew and wipe out the
+   past. He had been a miner, and coming East met some fellows who
+   made him drink; while tipsy he stole something in a doctor's
+   office, and having no friends here was sentenced to three years
+   in prison. Did well, and was now out. Had a prospect of going on
+   an expedition to South America with a geological surveying party.
+   An interesting young man. Fond of books, anxious to do well,
+   intelligent, and seemed eager to atone for his one fault. Gave
+   him a letter to S. G. at Chicago. Wrote to the warden, who
+   confirmed D.'s story and spoke well of him. Miss Willard wrote me
+   later of him, and he seemed doing well. Asked if he might write
+   to me, and did so several times, then went to S. A. and I hear no
+   more. Glad to have said a word to help the poor boy.
+
+   _March_, 1881.--Voted for school committee.
+
+   _October._--Wrote a preface for Parker's Prayers, just got out by
+   F. B. Sanborn.
+
+   _November._--Forty-nine on 29th. Wrote a preface to the new
+   edition of "Moods."
+
+   _8th._--Gave my baby _two_ kisses when she woke, and escorted her
+   down to find a new chair decked with ribbons, and a doll's
+   carriage tied with pink; toys, pictures, flowers, and a cake,
+   with a red and a blue candle burning gayly.
+
+   Wrote a tale for the Soldiers' Home,--"My Red Cap,"--and one for
+   the Woman's Hospital fair,--"A Baby's Birthday." Also a tale for
+   F.
+
+   _December._--A poor woman in Illinois writes me to send her
+   children some Christmas gifts, being too poor and ill to get any.
+   They asked her to write to Santa Claus and she wrote to _me_.
+   Sent a box, and made a story about it,--$100. Lulu much
+   interested, and kept bringing all her best toys and clothes "for
+   poor little boys." A generous baby.
+
+
+_To Mr. Niles._
+
+     FEBRUARY 12, 1881.
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--Wendell Phillips wrote me a letter begging me to
+   write a preface for Mrs. Robinson's "History of the Suffrage
+   Movement;" but I refused him, as I did Mrs. R., because I don't
+   write prefaces well, and if I begin to do it there will be no
+   end....
+
+   Cannot you do a small edition for her? All the believers will buy
+   the book, and I think the sketches of L. M. Child, Abby May,
+   Alcott, and others will add much to the interest of the book.
+
+   Has she seen you about it? Will you look at the manuscripts by
+   and by, or do you scorn the whole thing? Better not; for we are
+   going to win in time, and the friend of literary ladies ought to
+   be also the friend of women generally.
+
+   We are going to meet the Governor, council, and legislature at
+   Mrs. Tudor's next Wednesday eve and have a grand set-to. I hope
+   he will come out of the struggle alive.
+
+   Do give Mrs. R. a lift if you can, and your petitioners will ever
+   pray.
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+     February 19, 1881.
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--Thank you very much for so kindly offering to
+   look at Mrs. R.'s book. It is always pleasant to find a person
+   who can conquer his prejudices to oblige a friend, if no more.
+
+   I think we shall be glad by and by of every little help we may
+   have been able to give to this reform in its hard times, for
+   those who take the tug now will deserve the praise when the work
+   is done.
+
+   I can remember when Antislavery was in just the same state that
+   Suffrage is now, and take more pride in the very small help we
+   Alcotts could give than in all the books I ever wrote or ever
+   shall write.
+
+   "Earth's fanatics often make heaven's saints," you know, and it
+   is as well to try for that sort of promotion in time.
+
+   If Mrs. R. does send her manuscripts I will help all I can in
+   reading or in any other way. If it only records the just and wise
+   changes Suffrage has made in the laws for women, it will be worth
+   printing; and it is time to keep account of these first steps,
+   since they count most.
+
+   I, for one, don't want to be ranked among idiots, felons, and
+   minors any longer, for I am none of the three, but very
+   gratefully yours,
+
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Stearns._
+
+     FEBRUARY 21, 1881.
+
+   _Dear Mrs. Stearns_,--Many thanks for the tender thoughtfulness
+   which sends us the precious little notes from the dear dead
+   hands.
+
+   They are so characteristic that they bring both Mother and May
+   clearly up before me, alive and full of patient courage and happy
+   hopes. I am resigned to my blessed mother's departure, since life
+   was a burden, and the heroic past made a helpless future very
+   hard to think of. But May's loss, just when life was fullest and
+   sweetest, seems very bitter to me still, in spite of the sweet
+   baby who is an unspeakable comfort. I wish you could see the
+   pretty creature who already shows many of her mother's traits and
+   tastes. Her love of pictures is a passion, but she will not look
+   at the common gay ones most babies enjoy. She chooses the
+   delicate, well-drawn, and painted figures of Caldecott and Miss
+   Greenaway; over these she broods with rapture, pointing her
+   little fingers at the cows or cats, and kissing the children with
+   funny prattlings to these dumb playmates. She is a fine, tall
+   girl, full of energy, intelligence, and health; blonde and
+   blue-eyed like her mother, but with her father's features, for
+   which I am glad, for he is a handsome man. Louisa May bids fair
+   to be a noble woman; and I hope I may live to see May's child as
+   brave and bright and talented as she was and, much happier in her
+   fate.
+
+   Father is at the West, busy and well. Anna joins me in thanks and
+   affectionate regards.
+
+     Ever yours,
+     L. M. Alcott.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _March_, 1882.--Helped start a temperance society; much needed in
+   C. A great deal of drinking, not among the Irish, but young
+   American gentlemen, as well as farmers and mill hands. Women
+   anxious to do something, but find no interest beyond a few. Have
+   meetings, and try to learn how to work. I was secretary, and
+   wrote records, letters, and sent pledges, etc.; also articles in
+   "Concord Freeman" and "Woman's Journal" about the union and town
+   meetings.
+
+   _April._--Read over and destroyed Mother's diaries, as she wished
+   me to do so. A wonderfully interesting record of her life, from
+   her delicate, cherished girlhood through her long, hard, romantic
+   married years, old age, and death. Some time I will write a story
+   or a memoir of it.
+
+   Lulu's teeth trouble her; but in my arms she seems to find
+   comfort, for I tell stories by the dozen; and lambs, piggies, and
+   "tats" soothe her little woes. Wish I were stronger, so that I
+   might take all the care of her. We seem to understand each other,
+   but my nerves make me impatient, and noise wears upon me.
+
+   Mr. Emerson ill. Father goes to see him. E. held his hand,
+   looking up at the tall, sorry old man, and saying, with that
+   smile of love that has been Father's sunshine for so many years,
+   "_You_ are very well,--keep so, keep so." After Father left, he
+   called him back and grasped his hand again, as if he knew it was
+   for the last time, and the kind eyes said, "Good-by, my friend!"
+
+April 27, 1882, Louisa speaks most tenderly of the death of Mr.
+Emerson. He had been to her and to her family the truest and best of
+friends; and her own profound reverence for him had been a strong
+influence, from the time when she played games with his children in
+the barn until she followed him to his honored grave. Let critics and
+philosophers judge him by his intellect; in the hearts of this family,
+and in many an humble home besides, he will always be remembered as
+the tenderest, most sympathetic, most loyal of all friends, whose
+bounty fell on them silently as the dew from heaven, and whose
+presence could brighten the highest joy and soothe the keenest sorrow
+they could ever know.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _Thursday, 27th._--Mr. Emerson died at 9 P.M. suddenly. Our best
+   and greatest American gone. The nearest and dearest friend Father
+   has ever had, and the man who has helped me most by his life, his
+   books, his society. I can never tell all he has been to me,--from
+   the time I sang Mignon's song under his window (a little girl)
+   and wrote letters _à la_ Bettine to him, my Goethe, at fifteen,
+   up through my hard years, when his essays on Self-Reliance,
+   Character, Compensation, Love, and Friendship helped me to
+   understand myself and life, and God and Nature. Illustrious and
+   beloved friend, good-by!
+
+   _Sunday, 30th._--Emerson's funeral. I made a yellow lyre of
+   jonquils for the church, and helped trim it up. Private services
+   at the house, and a great crowd at the church. Father read his
+   sonnet, and Judge Hoar and others spoke. Now he lies in Sleepy
+   Hollow among his brothers, under the pines he loved.
+
+   I sat up till midnight to write an article on R. W. E. for the
+   "Youth's Companion," that the children may know something of him.
+   A labor of love.
+
+   _May._--Twenty-seven boys signed pledge. Temperance work.
+   Meetings. I give books to schools. Wrote an article for Mrs.
+   Croly on R. W. E.
+
+   _June._--I visited A. B. in Mattapoisset for a week. A queer
+   time, driving about or talking over our year in Europe. School
+   children called upon me with flowers, etc.
+
+   _24th._--John's seventeenth birthday. A dear boy, good and gay,
+   full of love, manliness, and all honest and lovely traits, like
+   his father and mother. Long life to my boy!
+
+   _July._--School of Philosophy opens on the 17th in full force. I
+   arrange flowers, oak branches, etc., and then fly before the
+   reporters come. Father very happy. Westerners arrive, and the
+   town is full with ideal speculators. Penny has a new barge; we
+   call it the "Blue Plato" (not the "Black Maria"), and watch it
+   rumble by with Margaret Fullers in white muslin and Hegels in
+   straw hats, while stout Penny grins at the joke as he puts money
+   in his purse. The first year Concord people stood aloof, and the
+   strangers found it hard to get rooms. Now every one is eager to
+   take them, and the School is pronounced a success because it
+   brings money to the town. Even philosophers can't do without
+   food, beds, and washing; so all rejoice, and the new craze
+   flourishes. If all our guests paid we should be well off; several
+   hundred a month is rather wearing. Father asked why we never
+   went, and Anna showed him a long list of four hundred names of
+   callers, and he said no more.
+
+   _October._--To Hotel Bellevue with John.
+
+   Missed my dear baby, but need quiet. Brain began to work, and
+   plans for tales to simmer. Began "Jo's Boys," as Mrs. Dodge wants
+   a serial.
+
+In the autumn of 1882 Mr. Alcott was attacked by a severe stroke of
+paralysis, from which he never fully recovered; and for the rest of
+his life his daughters shared in the duty of tending and caring for
+him in his enfeebled state. It had been the great reward of Louisa's
+years of hard work that she could surround her mother with every
+comfort that could make her happy in her last declining years. Not
+less had she delighted to gratify every wish of her father. His
+library was fitted up with exquisite taste, his books and manuscripts
+bound, and he was "throned in philosophic ease" for the rest of his
+days. What a relief it was now that she could have the faithful nurse
+ready at his call; that she could give him the pleasant drives which
+he enjoyed so much; and lighten her sister's labors with every
+assistance that money could procure!
+
+The Orchard House, which had been the family home for twenty-five
+years, was sold to Mr. Harris, and Mrs. Pratt's house was the home of
+all. Louisa spent part of the summer at the seashore, and finally
+bought a small house at Nonquit, where the children could all spend
+the summer, while she and her sister alternated in the care of her
+father.
+
+In the autumn of 1885, Miss Alcott decided to take a furnished house
+in Louisburg Square. Her nephews were established in Boston, and their
+mother wished to be with them. Mr. Alcott bore the moving well, and
+they found many comforts in the arrangement. Louisa's health was very
+feeble. She had great trouble in the throat, and her old dyspeptic
+symptoms returned to annoy her. Still she cannot give up work, and
+busies herself in preparing "Lulu's Library" for publication, and
+hopes to be able to work on "Jo's Boys."
+
+"Lulu's Library" was a collection of stories which had been the
+delight of the child. The first series was published in 1885, the
+second in 1887, and the third in 1889. They are full of Louisa's
+charming qualities, and have a special interest from the tender
+feeling with which she gathered them up for her niece. The touching
+preface to "Jo's Boys" tells of the seven years of occasional work on
+this book, and reveals the depth of feeling which would not allow her
+to write as formerly of Marmee and Amy, who were no longer here to
+accept their own likenesses. During the latter part of her work on
+this book, she could only write from half an hour to one or two hours
+a day. This was published in September, 1886. It contains an engraving
+of her from a bas-relief by Mr. Ricketson.
+
+This book was written under hard circumstances, and cost its author
+more effort perhaps than any other. It is evidently not the overflow
+of her delight and fun in life like "Little Women," but it is full of
+biographical interest. Her account of her own career, and of the
+annoyances to which her celebrity exposed her, is full of her old
+spirit and humor. She has expressed many valuable thoughts on
+education, and her spirit is as hopeful for her boys as in her days of
+youth and health. She has too many characters to manage; but we feel a
+keen interest in the fortunes of Dan and Emil, and in the courtship by
+the warm-hearted Tom of his medical sweetheart.
+
+
+_Preface to "Jo's Boys."_
+
+   Having been written at long intervals during the past seven
+   years, this story is more faulty than any of its very imperfect
+   predecessors; but the desire to atone for an unavoidable
+   disappointment, and to please my patient little friends, has
+   urged me to let it go without further delay.
+
+   To account for the seeming neglect of Amy, let me add, that,
+   since the original of that character died, it has been impossible
+   for me to write of her as when she was here to suggest,
+   criticise, and laugh over her namesake. The same excuse applies
+   to Marmee. But the folded leaves are not blank to those who knew
+   and loved them and can find memorials of them in whatever is
+   cheerful, true, or helpful in these pages.
+
+     L. M. ALCOTT.
+     CONCORD, JULY 4, 1886.
+
+
+_To Mr. Horace Chandler._
+
+   DEAR MR. CHANDLER,--The corrections are certainly rather
+   peculiar, and I fear my struggles to set them right have only
+   produced greater confusion.
+
+   Fortunately punctuation is a free institution, and all can pepper
+   to suit the taste. I don't care much, and always leave
+   proof-readers to quibble if they like.
+
+   Thanks for the tickets. I fear I cannot come till Thursday, but
+   will try, and won't forget the office, since I am not that
+   much-tried soul the editor.
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Williams (Betsey Prig)._
+
+     NONQUIT, August 25.
+
+   DEAR BETSEY,--I am so sorry the darling Doll is ill! Brood over
+   him, and will him well; for mother-love works wonders.
+
+   My poppet is a picture of health, vigor, and delightful
+   naughtiness. She runs wild in this fine place with some twenty
+   other children to play with,--nice babies, well-bred, and with
+   pleasant mammas for me to gossip with.
+
+   It would be a good place for your little people, as the air is
+   delicious, bathing safe and warm, and cottages to be quiet in if
+   one cares to keep house. Do try it next year. Let me know early.
+   I can get a nice little cot for you (near mine) for $100, or
+   perhaps less, from June to October,--if you care to stay; I
+   do....
+
+   We have been here since July, and are all hearty, brown, and gay
+   as larks.
+
+   "John Inglesant" was too political for me. I am too lazy here to
+   read much; mean to find a den in Boston and work for a month or
+   two; then fly off to New York, and perhaps run over and see my
+   Betsey. I shall be at home in October, and perhaps we may see you
+   then, if the precious little shadow gets nice and well again, and
+   I pray he may.
+
+   Lulu has some trifling ail now and then,--just enough to show me
+   how dear she is to us all, and what a great void the loss of our
+   little girl would make in hearts and home. She is very
+   intelligent and droll. When I told her the other day that the
+   crickets were hopping and singing in the grass with their mammas,
+   she said at once, "No; their Aunt Weedys." Aunty is nearer than
+   mother to the poor baby; and it is very sweet to have it so,
+   since it must be.
+
+   Now, my blessed Betsey, keep a brave heart, and I am sure all
+   will be well in the nest. Love and kisses to the little birds,
+   and all good wishes to the turtle-dove and her mate.
+
+     Yours ever,
+     L. M. A.
+
+   The older birthdays are 29th of November, Lulu's the 8th; so we
+   celebrate for Grandpa, Auntie, and Lulu all at once, in great
+   style,--eighty-three, fifty, and three years old.
+
+   When I get on my pins I'm going (D. V.) to devote myself to
+   settling poor souls who need a gentle boost in hard times.
+
+
+_To Mr. Niles._
+
+     JUNE 23, 1883.
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--Thanks for the Goethe book. I want everything
+   that comes out about him. "Princess Amelia" is charming, and the
+   surprise at the end well done. Did the author of "My Wife's
+   Sister" write it?
+
+   I told L. C. M. she might put "A Modern Mephistopheles" in my
+   list of books. Several people had found it out, and there was no
+   use in trying to keep it secret after that.
+
+   Mrs. Dodge begged me to consider myself mortgaged to her for
+   tales, etc., and as I see no prospect of any time for writing
+   books, I may be able to send her some short stories from time to
+   time, and so be getting material for a new set of books like
+   "Scrap-bag," but with a new name. You excel in names, and can be
+   evolving one meantime....
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+     JULY 15, 1884.
+
+   I wish I might be inspired to do those dreadful boys ["Jo's
+   Boys"]; but rest is more needed than money. Perhaps during
+   August, my month at home, I may take a grind at the old mill.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _October_ 24, 1882.--Telegram that Father had had a paralytic
+   stroke. Home at once, and found him stricken down. Anxious days;
+   little hope.
+
+   _November._--Gave up our rooms, and I went home to help with the
+   new care. My Lulu ran to meet me, rosy and gay, and I felt as if
+   I could bear anything with this little sunbeam to light up the
+   world for me.
+
+   Poor Father dumb and helpless; feeble mind slowly coming back. He
+   knows us; but he's asleep most of the time. Get a nurse, and wait
+   to see if he will rally. It is sad to see the change one moment
+   makes, turning the hale, handsome old man into this pathetic
+   wreck. The forty sonnets last winter and the fifty lectures at
+   the School last summer were too much for a man of eighty-three.
+   He was warned by Dr. W., but thought it folly to stop; and now
+   poor Father pays the penalty of breaking the laws of health. I
+   have done the same: may I be spared this end!
+
+   _January_, 1883.--Too busy to keep a diary. Can only jot down a
+   fact now and then.
+
+   Father improving. Much trouble with nurses; have no idea of
+   health; won't walk; sit over the fire, and drink tea three times
+   a day; ought to be an intelligent, hearty set of women. Could do
+   better myself; have to fill up all the deficiencies and do double
+   duty.
+
+   People come to see Father; but it excites him, and we have to
+   deny him.
+
+   _February._--To B. for a week of rest, having got Mrs. H. settled
+   with Father, and all comfortable for November.
+
+   Began a book called "Genius." Shall never finish it, I dare say,
+   but must keep a vent for my fancies to escape at. This double
+   life is trying, and my head will work as well as my hands.
+
+   _March._--To give A. rest I took Lulu and maid to the Bellevue
+   for a month. Lulu very happy with her new world. Enjoys her
+   walks, the canary I got her, and the petting _she_ gets from all.
+   Showed her to friends; want them to know May's child. Had her
+   picture taken by Notman; very good.
+
+   _April 2d._--Town meeting. Seven women vote. I am one of them,
+   and A. another. A poor show for a town that prides itself on its
+   culture and independence.
+
+   _6th._--Go home to stay; Father needs me. New nurse; many
+   callers; Lulu fretful, Anna tired, Father feeble,--hard times for
+   all.
+
+   Wrote a story for "St. Nicholas" at odd moments. Nurses and
+   doctors take a deal of money.
+
+   _May._--Take care of Lulu, as we can find no good woman to walk
+   and dress and play with her. The ladies are incapable or proud;
+   the girls vulgar or rough; so my poor baby has a bad time with
+   her little temper and active mind and body. Could do it myself if
+   I had the nerves and strength, but am needed elsewhere, and must
+   leave the child to some one. Long to go away with her and do as I
+   like. Shall never lead my own life.
+
+   _July._--Go to Nonquit with Miss H. and Lulu for the summer. A
+   quiet, healthy place, with pleasant people and fine air. Turn
+   Lulu loose, with H. to run after her, and try to rest.
+
+   Lulu takes her first bath in the sea. Very bold; walks off toward
+   Europe up to her neck, and is much afflicted that I won't let her
+   go to the bottom and see the "little trabs;" makes a cupid of
+   herself, and is very pretty and gay.
+
+   The boys revel in the simple pleasures of Nonquit,--a fine place
+   for them to be in.
+
+   Wrote a tale for "St. Nicholas,"--"Sophie's Secret,"--$100.
+
+   _August._--Home to C., and let A. come for her holiday. Much
+   company.
+
+   P. C. Mozoomdar preached, and had a conversation at Mrs.
+   Emerson's; a most interesting man. Curious to hear a Hindu tell
+   how the life of Christ impressed him.
+
+   _November 27th._--Decide to lessen care and worry at home; so
+   take rooms in Boylston Street, and with Lulu set forth to make a
+   home of our own. The whole parlor floor gives my lady room to run
+   in doors, and the Public Garden opposite is the out-door
+   play-ground. Miss C. comes as governess, and we settle down. Fred
+   boards with us. Heard Mathew Arnold.
+
+   _29th._--Birthday,--fifty-one. Home with gifts to poor
+   Father,--eighty-four. Found a table full for myself.
+
+   _December 25th._--Home with gifts for all; sad day. See H.
+   Martineau's statue; very fine.
+
+   _January_, 1884.--New Year's Day is made memorable by my solemnly
+   spanking my child. Miss C. and others assure me it is the only
+   way to cure her wilfulness. I doubt it; but knowing that mothers
+   are usually too tender and blind, I correct my dear in the
+   old-fashioned way. She proudly says, "Do it, do it!" and when it
+   is done is heartbroken at the idea of Aunt Wee-wee's giving her
+   pain. Her bewilderment was pathetic, and the effect, as I
+   expected, a failure. Love is better; but also endless patience.
+
+   _February 2d._--Wendell Phillips died. I shall mourn for him next
+   to R. W. E. and Parker.
+
+   _6th._--Funeral at Hollis Street Church. Sat between Fred
+   Douglas and his wife. A goodly gathering of all left of the old
+   workers. Glad and proud to be among them.
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   _June._--Sell the Orchard House to W. T. Harris. Glad to be done
+   with it, though after living in it twenty-five years, it is full
+   of memories; but places have not much hold on me when the dear
+   persons who made them dear are gone....
+
+   Bought a cottage at Nonquit, with house and furniture. All like
+   it, and it is a good investment I am told.
+
+   _24th._--To Nonquit with Lulu and K. and John. Fixed my house,
+   and enjoyed the rest and quiet immensely. Lulu wild with joy at
+   the freedom....
+
+   _July and August._--Restful days in my little house, which is
+   cool and quiet, and without the curse of a kitchen to spoil it.
+
+   Lulu happy and well, and every one full of summer fun.
+
+   On the 7th of August I went home, and let A. go for her holiday.
+
+   Took care of Father and house, and idled away the hot days with
+   books and letters. Drove with Father, as he enjoyed it very
+   much....
+
+   _October._--To Boston with John, and take rooms at the Bellevue.
+   Very tired of home-worry, and fly for rest to my old refuge, with
+   J. and L. to look after and make a home for.
+
+   Saw Irving. Always enjoy him, though he is very queer. Ellen
+   Terry always the same, though charming in her way.
+
+   _November._--Find Bellevue uncomfortable and expensive, so take
+   rooms in Chestnut Street for self and boys.
+
+   _8th._--My Lulu's birthday. Go home with flowers, gifts, and a
+   grateful heart that the dear little girl is so well and happy and
+   good. A merry day with the little queen of the house.
+
+   _29th._--Our birthday,--Father eighty-five; L. M. A. fifty-two.
+   Quiet day; always sad for thinking of Mother and John and May,
+   who all left us at this season.
+
+   _December._--Began again on "Jo's Boys," as T. N. wants a new
+   book very much, and I am tired of being idle. Wrote two hours for
+   three days, then had a violent attack of vertigo, and was ill for
+   a week. Head won't bear work yet. Put away papers, and tried to
+   dawdle and go about as other people do.
+
+   Pleasant Christmas with Lulu and Nan and poor Father, who loves
+   to see us about him. A narrow world now, but a happy one for him.
+
+   Last day of the year. All well at home except myself; body
+   feeble, but soul improving.
+
+   _January_ 1, 1885.--Pleasant greeting from brother Ernest by
+   telegram,--never forgets us. Opera in the evening,--Emma Nevada.
+   Sent box home. Very cold.
+
+   John had his first dress-suit. Happy boy! Several pleasant Sunday
+   evenings at E. P. W.'s. See Mrs. Burnett, and like her.
+
+   Visit Blind Asylum and North End Mission. Lulu passed a week with
+   me for a change.
+
+   _19th._--An old-fashioned party in an old-time house. All in
+   antique costume; Lulu very pretty in hers. Country kitchen and
+   country fare; spinning and weaving; old songs and dances;
+   tally-ho coach with P. as an ancient Weller,--very funny.
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   _June._--Read Life of Saint Elizabeth by D'Alembert,--quaint and
+   sweet; also French novels. Write out the little tales I tell Lulu
+   for a new Christmas book, having nothing else. Send one, "The
+   Candy Country," to "St. Nicholas."
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   _August 8th._--Go home, and A. goes to N. Take care of Father,
+   arrange the little tales, and look at houses in B. Have a plan to
+   take a furnished house for the winter, and all be together. A. is
+   lonely in C.; boys must be near business. I want Lulu, and Father
+   will enjoy a change.
+
+   Sorted old letters, and burned many. Not wise to keep for curious
+   eyes to read and gossip-lovers to print by and by.
+
+   Lived in the past for days, and felt very old, recalling all I
+   have been through. Experiences go deep with me, and I begin to
+   think it might be well to keep some record of my life, if it will
+   help others to read it when I'm gone. People seem to think our
+   lives interesting and peculiar.
+
+   _September._--After a lively time with house-brokers, I take a
+   house in Louisburg Square for two years. It is a large house,
+   furnished, and well suited to our needs,--sunny, trees in front,
+   good air, and friends near by. All are pleased, and we prepare to
+   move October 1st....
+
+   Father drove down very nicely. Pleased with his new room; Lulu
+   charmed with her big, sunny nursery and the play-house left for
+   her; boys in clover; and Nan ready for the new sort of
+   housekeeping.
+
+   I shall miss my quiet, care-free life in B.; but it is best for
+   all, so I shall try to bear the friction and the worry many
+   persons always bring me.
+
+   It will be an expensive winter; but T. N. tells me the books
+   never sold better, so a good run in January will make all safe.
+
+   "Lulu's Library" as a "pot-boiler" will appease the children, and
+   I may be able to work on "Jo's Boys."
+
+   _March_, 1886.--To Mrs. H.'s to hear Mr. Snyder read the "Iliad;"
+   enjoyed it.
+
+   Sixteen little girls call, and the autograph fiend is abroad.
+
+   _27th._--Another attack of vertigo,--ill for a week; sleepless
+   nights. Head worked like a steam-engine; would not stop. Planned
+   "Jo's Boys" to the end, and longed to get up and write it. Told
+   Dr. W. that he had better let me get the ideas _out_, then I
+   could rest. He very wisely agreed, and said, "As soon as you can,
+   write half an hour a day, and see if it does you good. Rebellious
+   brains want to be attended to, or trouble comes." So I began as
+   soon as able, and was satisfied that we were right; for my head
+   felt better very soon, and with much care about not overdoing, I
+   had some pleasant hours when I forgot my body and lived in my
+   mind.
+
+   _April._--Went on writing one or two hours a day, and felt no ill
+   effects.
+
+   _May._--Began to think of Concord, and prepare to go back for the
+   summer. Father wants his books; Lulu, her garden; Anna, her small
+   house; and the boys, their friends. I want to go away and rest.
+
+   Anna goes up the last of the month and gets the house ready. We
+   send Lulu and Father later, and the boys and I shut up No. 10....
+
+   _June._--Home in C.,--sunny, clean, and pleasant. Put Lulu in
+   order, and get ready for a month in Princeton with Mrs. H. Very
+   tired.
+
+   A quiet three weeks on the hillside,--a valley pink with laurel
+   in front, Mount Wachusett behind us, and green hills all round. A
+   few pleasant people. I read, sleep, walk, and write,--get fifteen
+   chapters done. Instinct was right; after seven years of rest, the
+   old brain was ready for work and tired of feeding on itself,
+   since work it must at something. Enjoyed Hedge's "Hours with
+   German Classics," and "Baldwin," by Vernon Lee.
+
+   Home in time to get Anna and Lulu off to N. for the summer. A.
+   needs the rest very much, and Lulu the freedom. I shall revel in
+   the quiet, and finish my book.
+
+   _July._--The seashore party get off, and peace reigns. I rest a
+   day, and then to work. Finish "Jo's Boys," and take it to T. N.
+   Much rejoicing over a new book. Fifty thousand to be the first
+   edition; orders coming in fast. Not good,--too great intervals
+   between the parts, as it was begun long ago; but the children
+   will be happy, and my promise kept. Two new chapters were needed,
+   so I wrote them, and gladly corked my inkstand.
+
+   What next? Mrs. Dodge wants a serial, and T. N. a novel. I have a
+   dozen plots in my head, but think the serial better come first.
+   Want a great deal of money for many things; every poor soul I
+   ever knew comes for help, and expenses increase. I am the only
+   money-maker, and must turn the mill for others, though my own
+   grist is ground and in the barn.
+
+   The School begins. Father feeble, but goes,--for the last time, I
+   think.
+
+A series of letters to her father's friend, Mrs. Stearns, show how
+tenderly and carefully Louisa watched over the slow decline of the
+stricken man, but they are too full of details of the sickroom for
+publication. A few extracts will give her feeling.
+
+     MAY 23 [1885].
+
+   DEAR MRS. STEARNS,--Many thanks for the sweet nosegay you sent
+   me. It came in good time, for to-day is the anniversary of
+   Father's wedding-day and my sister's silver wedding. Rather sad
+   for both mateless ones; but we have done our best to cheer them
+   up, and the soft rain is very emblematic of the memories their
+   own quiet tears keep green.
+
+   Father remembered you, and smelled his flowers with pleasure. He
+   is very tired of living, and wants to "go up," as he expresses
+   it. A little more or little less light would make him happier;
+   but the still active mind beats against the prison bars, and
+   rebels against the weakness of body that prevents the old
+   independent life. I am afraid the end is not to be peaceful
+   unless it is sudden, as I hope it may be for all our sakes; it is
+   so wearing to see this slow decline, and be able to do little but
+   preach and practise patience.
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Affectionately yours,
+     L. M. A.
+
+     SUNDAY.
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   It is only a temporary change, perhaps; but I still hope that it
+   will last, and his mind grow still clearer. These painless,
+   peaceful days have a certain sweetness, sad as it is to see the
+   dear, hale old man so feeble. If he can know us, and enjoy
+   something of the old life, it is worth having, though the end may
+   come at any moment....
+
+   Now and then a word comes without effort. "Up!" was the first
+   one, and seems very characteristic of this beautiful, aspiring
+   soul, almost on the wing for heaven.
+
+
+_To Mr. Niles._
+
+     NONQUIT, July 13, 1885.
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--I want to know if it is too late to do it and if
+   it is worth doing; namely, to collect some of the little tales I
+   tell Lulu and put them with the two I shall have printed the
+   last year and the "Mermaid Tale" to match the pictures we bought,
+   and call it "Lulu's Library"? I have several tiny books written
+   down for L.; and as I can do no great work, it occurred to me
+   that I might venture to copy these if it would do for a Christmas
+   book for the younger set.
+
+   I ache to fall on some of the ideas that are simmering in my
+   head, but dare not, as my one attempt since the last "Jo's Boys"
+   break-down cost me a week or two of woe and $30 for the doctor. I
+   have lovely long days here, and can copy these and see 'em along
+   if you want them. One has gone to "Harper's Young People," and
+   one is for "St. Nicholas" when it is done,--about the
+   Kindergarten for the blind. These with Lulu's would make a little
+   book, and might begin a series for small folks. Old ladies come
+   to this twaddle when they can do nothing else. What say you?...
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+     SEPTEMBER 18, 1885.
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--I send you some funny sketches by Mrs. L. She
+   seems to be getting on. How would it do to ask her to illustrate
+   the fairy book? She has a pretty taste in elves, and her little
+   girl was good. I hope to touch up the other stories this winter,
+   and she can illustrate, and next Christmas (or whenever it is
+   ready) we can have a little book out. This sort of work being all
+   I dare do now, I may as well be clearing the decks for action
+   when the order comes to "Up, and at 'em!" again, if it ever does.
+
+  [Illustration: _Fac-simile of Miss Alcott's Writing._ ]
+
+   I'd like to help Mrs. L. if I could, as we know something of her,
+   and I fancy she needs a lift. Perhaps we could use these pictures
+   in some way if she liked to have us. Maybe I could work them
+   into a story of out "cullud bredren."
+
+   Thanks for the books. Dear Miss ---- is rather prim in her story,
+   but it is pretty and quite _correct_. So different from Miss
+   Alcott's slap-dash style.
+
+   The "H. H." book ["Ramona"] is a noble record of the great wrongs
+   of her chosen people, and ought to wake up the sinners to
+   repentance and justice before it is too late. It recalls the old
+   slavery days, only these victims are red instead of black. It
+   will be a disgrace if "H. H." gave her work and pity all in vain.
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+     [1885.]
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--Thanks for the book which I shall like to read.
+
+   Please tell Miss N. that she will find in Sanborn's article in
+   "St. Nicholas" or Mrs. Moulton's in the "Eminent Women" book all
+   that I wish to have said about myself. You can add such facts
+   about editions, etc., as you think best. I don't like these
+   everlasting notices; one is enough, else we poor people feel like
+   squeezed oranges, and nothing is left sacred.
+
+   George Eliot's new life and letters is well done, and we are not
+   sorry we have read them. Mr. Cross has been a wise man, and
+   leaves us all our love and respect instead of spoiling them as
+   Froude did for Carlyle,
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+     January 2, 1886.
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--Thanks for the good wishes and news. Now that I
+   cannot work, it is very agreeable to hear that the books go so
+   well, and that the lazy woman need not worry about things.
+
+   I appreciate my blessings, I assure you. I heartily wish I could
+   "swamp the book-room with 'Jo's Boys,'" as Fred says, and hope to
+   do it by and by when head and hand can safely obey the desire of
+   the heart, which will never be too tired or too old to remember
+   and be grateful.
+
+     Your friend,
+     L. M. Alcott.
+
+     Monday, A.M. [1886].
+
+   Dear Mr. Niles,--My doctor forbids me to begin a long book or
+   anything that will need much thought this summer. So I must give
+   up "Tragedy of To-day," as it will need a good deal of thinking
+   to be what it ought.
+
+   I can give you a girls' book however, and I think that will be
+   better than a novel. I have several stories done, and can easily
+   do more and make a companion volume for "Spinning-Wheel Stories"
+   at Christmas if you want it.
+
+   This, with the Lulu stories, will be better than the set of
+   novels I am sure.... Wait till I can do a novel, and then get out
+   the set in style, if Alcott is not forgotten by that time.
+
+   I was going to send Mrs. Dodge one of the tales for girls, and if
+   there is time she might have more. But nearly all new ones would
+   make a book go well in the holiday season. You can have those
+   already done now if you want them. "Sophie's Secret" is one, "An
+   Ivy Spray: or Cinderella's Slippers" another, and "Mountain
+   Laurel" is partly done. "A Garland for Girls" might do for a
+   title perhaps, as they are all for girls.
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+In the spring of 1886, Dr. Rhoda Lawrence took charge of Miss Alcott's
+health, and gave her treatment by massage and other appropriate
+means, from which she received benefit. The summer was spent at
+Concord with her father, and was varied by a pleasant trip to the
+mountains. Miss Alcott finished "Jo's Boys," which was published in
+September. She occupied herself also in looking over old journals and
+letters, and destroyed many things which she did not wish to have come
+under the public eye. She had enjoyed her life at Princeton, and said
+that she felt better than for fifteen years; but in August she was
+severely attacked with rheumatism and troubled with vertigo. She
+suffered very much, and was in a very nervous condition.
+
+Miss Alcott always looked bravely and calmly upon all the
+possibilities of life, and she now made full preparations for the
+event of her own death. Her youngest nephew had always been especially
+beloved, and she decided to take out papers of adoption, to make him
+legally her son and heir. She wished him to assume the name of Alcott,
+and to be her representative.
+
+Louisa's journal closes July, 1886, with the old feeling,--that she
+must grind away at the mill and make money to supply the many claims
+that press upon her from all sides. She feels the burden of every
+suffering human life upon her own soul. She knew that she could write
+what was eagerly desired by others and would bring her the means of
+helping those in need, and her heart and head united in urging her to
+work. Whether it would have been possible for her to have rested more
+fully, and whether she might then have worked longer and better, is
+one of those questions which no one is wise enough to answer. Yet the
+warning of her life should not be neglected, and the eager brain
+should learn to obey the laws of life and health while it is yet time.
+
+In September, 1886, Miss Alcott returned to Louisburg Square, and
+spent the winter in the care of her father, and in the society of her
+sister and nephews and the darling child. She suffered much from
+hoarseness, from nervousness and debility, and from indigestion and
+sleeplessness, but still exerted herself for the comfort of all around
+her. She had a happy Christmas, and sympathized with the joy of her
+oldest nephew in his betrothal. In December she was so weary and worn
+that she went out to Dr. Lawrence's home in Roxbury for rest and care.
+She found such relief to her overtasked brain and nerves from the
+seclusion and quiet of Dunreath Place, that she found her home and
+rest there for the remainder of her life.
+
+It was a great trial to Louisa to be apart from her family, to whom
+she had devoted her life. She clung to her dying father, and to the
+dear sister still left to her, with increasing fondness, and she
+longed for her boys and her child; but her tired nerves could not bear
+even the companionship of her family, and sometimes for days she
+wanted to be all alone. "I feel so safe out here!" she said once.
+
+Mr. Alcott spent the summer at Melrose, and Louisa went there to visit
+him in June. In June and July, 1887, she went to Concord and looked
+over papers and completed the plan for adopting her nephew. She
+afterward went to Princeton, accompanied by Dr. Lawrence. She spent
+eight weeks there, and enjoyed the mountain air and scenery with
+something of her old delight. She was able to walk a mile or more, and
+took a solitary walk in the morning, which she greatly enjoyed. Her
+evening walk was less agreeable, because she was then exposed to the
+eager curiosity of sight-seers, who constantly pursued her.
+
+Miss Alcott had a great intellectual pleasure here in the society of
+Mr. James Murdock and his family. The distinguished elocutionist took
+great pains to gratify her taste for dramatic reading by selecting her
+favorite scenes for representation, and she even attended one of his
+public readings given in the hall of the hotel. The old pain in her
+limbs from which she suffered during her European journey again
+troubled her, and she returned to Dr. Lawrence's home in the autumn,
+where she was tenderly cared for.
+
+Miss Alcott was still continually planning stories. Dr. Lawrence read
+to her a great deal, and the reading often suggested subjects to her.
+She thought of a series to be called "Stories of All Nations," and had
+already written "Trudel's Siege," which was published in "St.
+Nicholas," April, 1888, the scene of which was laid at the siege of
+Leyden. The English story was to be called "Madge Wildfire," and she
+had thought of plots for others. She could write very little, and kept
+herself occupied and amused with fancy work, making flowers and
+pen-wipers of various colors, in the form of pinks, to send to her
+friends.
+
+On her last birthday Louisa received a great many flowers and pleasant
+remembrances, which touched her deeply, and she said, "I did not mean
+to cry to-day, but I can't help it, everybody is so good." She went in
+to see her father every few days, and was conscious that he was
+drawing toward the end.
+
+While riding with her friend, Louisa would tell her of the stories she
+had planned, one of which was to be called "The Philosopher's Wooing,"
+referring to Thoreau. She also had a musical novel in her mind. She
+could not be idle, and having a respect for sewing, she busied herself
+with it, making garments for poor children, or helping the Doctor in
+her work. She insisted upon setting up a work-basket for the Doctor,
+amply supplied with necessary materials, and was pleased when she saw
+them used. A flannel garment for a poor child was the last work of her
+hands. Her health improved in February, especially in the comfort of
+her nights, as the baths she took brought her the long-desired sleep.
+"Nothing so good as sleep," she said. But a little too much excitement
+brought on violent headaches.
+
+During these months Miss Alcott wrote part of the "Garland for Girls,"
+one of the most fanciful and pleasing of her books. These stories were
+suggested by the flowers sent to her by different friends, which she
+fully enjoyed. She rode a great deal, but did not see any one.
+
+Her friends were much encouraged; and although they dared not expect
+full recovery, they hoped that she might be "a comfortable invalid,
+able to enjoy life, and give help and pleasure to others." She did
+not suffer great pain, but she was very weak; her nervous system
+seemed to be utterly prostrated by the years of work and struggle
+through which she had passed. She said, "I don't want to live if I
+can't be of use." She had always met the thought of death bravely; and
+even the separation from her dearest friends was serenely borne. She
+believed in their continued presence and influence, and felt that the
+parting was for a little time. She had no fear of God, and no doubt of
+the future. Her only sadness was in leaving the friends whom she loved
+and who might yet need her.
+
+A young man wrote asking Miss Alcott if she would advise him to devote
+himself to authorship; she answered, "Not if you can do anything else.
+Even dig ditches." He followed her advice, and took a situation where
+he could support himself, but he still continued to write stories. A
+little boy sent twenty-five cents to buy her books. She returned the
+money, telling him it was not enough to buy books, but sent him
+"Little Men." Scores of letters remained unanswered for want of
+strength to write or even to read.
+
+Early in March Mr. Alcott failed very rapidly. Louisa drove in to see
+him, and was conscious that it was for the last time. Tempted by the
+warm spring-like day, she had made some change in her dress, and
+absorbed in the thought of the parting, when she got into the carriage
+she forgot to put on the warm fur cloak she had worn.
+
+The next morning she complained of violent pain in her head, amounting
+to agony. The physician who had attended her for the last weeks was
+called. He felt that the situation was very serious. She herself
+asked, "Is it not meningitis?" The trouble on the brain increased
+rapidly. She recognized her dear young nephew for a moment and her
+friendly hostess, but was unconscious of everything else. So, at 3.30
+P.M., March 6, 1888, she passed quietly on to the rest which she so
+much needed. She did not know that her father had already preceded
+her.
+
+The friends of the family who gathered to pay their last tribute of
+respect and love to the aged father were met at the threshold by the
+startling intelligence, "Louisa Alcott is dead," and a deeper sadness
+fell upon every heart. The old patriarch had gone to his rest in the
+fulness of time, "corn ripe for the sickle," but few realized how
+entirely his daughter had worn out her earthly frame. Her friends had
+hoped for renewed health and strength, and for even greater and nobler
+work from her with her ripened powers and greater ease and leisure.
+
+Miss Alcott had made every arrangement for her death; and by her own
+wish the funeral service was very simple, in her father's rooms at
+Louisburg Square, and attended only by a few of her family and nearest
+friends. They read her exquisite poem to her mother, her father's
+noble tribute to her, and spoke of the earnestness and truth of her
+life. She was remembered as she would have wished to be. Her body was
+carried to Concord and placed in the beautiful cemetery of Sleepy
+Hollow where her dearest ones were already laid to rest. "Her boys"
+went beside her as "a guard of honor," and stood around as she was
+placed across the feet of father, mother, and sister, that she might
+"take care of them as she had done all her life."
+
+Of the silent grief of the bereaved family I will not speak, but the
+sound of mourning filled all the land, and was re-echoed from foreign
+shores. The children everywhere had lost their friend. Miss Alcott had
+entered into their hearts and revealed them to themselves. In her
+childish journal her oldest sister said, "I have not a secret from
+Louisa; I tell her everything, and am not afraid she will think me
+silly." It was this respect for the thought and life of children that
+gave Louisa Alcott her great power of winning their respect and
+affection. Nothing which was real and earnest to them seemed
+unimportant to her.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+LAST LETTERS.
+
+
+_To Mr. Niles._
+
+     SUNDAY, 1886.
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--The goodly supply of books was most welcome; for
+   when my two hours pen-work are over I need something to comfort
+   me, and I long to go on and finish "Jo's Boys" by July 1st.
+
+   My doctor frowns on that hope, and is so sure it will do mischief
+   to get up the steam that I am afraid to try, and keep Prudence
+   sitting on the valve lest the old engine run away and have
+   another smash-up.
+
+   I send you by Fred several chapters, I wish they were neater, as
+   some were written long ago and have knocked about for years; but
+   I can't spare time to copy, so hope the printers won't be in
+   despair.
+
+   I planned twenty chapters and am on the fifteenth. Some are long,
+   some short, and as we are pressed for time we had better not try
+   to do too much.
+
+   ... I have little doubt it will be done early in July, but things
+   are so contrary with me I can never be sure of carrying out a
+   plan, and I don't want to fail again; so far I feel as if I
+   could, without harm, finish off these dreadful boys.
+
+   Why have any illustrations? The book is not a child's book, as
+   the lads are nearly all over twenty, and pretty pictures are not
+   needed. Have the bas-relief if you like, or one good thing for
+   frontispiece.
+
+   I can have twenty-one chapters and make it the size of "Little
+   Men." Sixteen chapters make two hundred and sixteen pages, and I
+   may add a page here and there later,--or if need be, a chapter
+   somewhere to fill up.
+
+   I shall be at home in a week or two, much better for the rest and
+   fine air; and during my quiet days in C. I can touch up proofs
+   and confer about the book. Sha'n't we be glad when it is done?
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Dodge_.
+
+     JUNE 29.
+
+   DEAR MRS. DODGE,--I will evolve something for December (D. V.)
+   and let you have it as soon as it is done.
+
+   Lu and I go to Nonquit next week; and after a few days of rest, I
+   will fire up the old engine and see if it will run a short
+   distance without a break-down.
+
+   There are usually about forty young people at N., and I think I
+   can get a hint from some of them.
+
+   Had a call from Mr. Burroughs and Mr. Gilder last eve. Mr. G.
+   asked if you were in B., but I didn't know.
+
+   Father remains comfortable and happy among his books. Our lads
+   are making their first visit to New York, and may call on "St.
+   Nick," whom they have made their patron saint.
+
+   I should like to own the last two bound volumes of "St.
+   Nicholas," for Lulu. She adores the others, and they are nearly
+   worn out with her loving but careless luggings up and down for
+   "more towries, Aunt Wee-wee." Charge to
+
+     Yours affectionately,
+     L. M. A.
+
+   P. S.--Wasn't I glad to see you in my howling wilderness of
+   wearisome domestic worrits! Come again.
+
+     CONCORD, August 15.
+
+   DEAR MRS. DODGE,--I like the idea of "Spinning-Wheel Stories,"
+   and can do several for a series which can come out in a book
+   later. Old-time tales, with a thread running through all from the
+   wheel that enters in the first one.
+
+   A Christmas party of children might be at an old farm-house and
+   hunt up the wheel, and grandma spins and tells the first story;
+   and being snow-bound, others amuse the young folks each evening
+   with more tales. Would that do? The mother and child picture
+   would come in nicely for the first tale,--"Grandma and her
+   Mother."
+
+   Being at home and quiet for a week or so (as Father is nicely and
+   has a capable nurse), I have begun the serial, and done two
+   chapters; but the spinning-tales come tumbling into my mind so
+   fast I'd better pin a few while "genius burns." Perhaps you would
+   like to start the set Christmas. The picture being ready and the
+   first story can be done in a week, "Sophie's Secret" can come
+   later. Let me know if you would like that, and about how many
+   pages of the paper "S. S." was written on you think would make
+   the required length of tale (or tail?). If you don't want No. 1
+   yet, I will take my time and do several.
+
+   The serial was to be "Mrs. Gay's Summer School," and have some
+   city girls and boys go to an old farm-house, and for fun dress
+   and live as in old times, and learn the good, thrifty old ways,
+   with adventures and fun thrown in. That might come in the spring,
+   as it takes me longer to grind out yarns now than of old.
+
+   Glad you are better. Thanks for kind wishes for the little house;
+   come and see it, and gladden the eyes of forty young admirers by
+   a sight of M. M. D. next year.
+
+     Yours affectionately,
+     L. M. A.
+
+     31 CHESTNUT ST., DECEMBER 31.
+
+   DEAR MRS. DODGE,--A little cousin, thirteen years old, has
+   written a story and longs to see it in print. It is a well
+   written bit and pretty good for a beginner, so I send it to you
+   hoping it may find a place in the children's corner. She is a
+   grandchild of S. J. May, and a bright lass who paints nicely and
+   is a domestic little person in spite of her budding
+   accomplishments. Good luck to her!
+
+   I hoped to have had a Christmas story for some one, but am
+   forbidden to write for six months, after a bad turn of vertigo.
+   So I give it up and take warning. All good wishes for the New
+   Year.
+
+     From yours affectionately,
+     L. M. ALCOTT.
+
+
+_To Mr. Niles_.
+
+     1886.
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--Sorry you don't like the bas-relief [of
+   herself]; I do. A portrait, if bright and comely, wouldn't be me,
+   and if like me would disappoint the children; so we had better
+   let them imagine "Aunt Jo young and beautiful, with her hair in
+   two tails down her back," as the little girl said.
+
+     In haste,
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Bond._
+
+     CONCORD, Tuesday, 1886.
+
+   DEAR AUNTIE,--I want to find Auntie Gwinn, and don't know whom to
+   ask but you, as your big motherly heart yearns over all the poor
+   babies, and can tell them where to go when the nest is bare. A
+   poor little woman has just died, leaving four children to a
+   drunken father. Two hard-working aunts do all they can, and one
+   will take the oldest girl. We want to put the two small girls and
+   boy into a home till we can see what comes next. Lulu clothes
+   one, and we may be able to put one with a cousin. But since the
+   mother died last Wednesday they are very forlorn, and must be
+   helped. If we were not so full I'd take one; but Lu is all we can
+   manage now.
+
+   There is a home at Auburndale, but it is full; and I know of no
+   other but good Auntie Gwinn's. What is her address, please? I
+   shall be in town on Saturday, and can go and see her if I know
+   where.
+
+   Don't let it be a bother; but one turns at once in such cases to
+   the saints for direction, and the poor aunts don't known what to
+   do; so this aunt comes to the auntie of all.
+
+   I had a pleasant chat with the Papa in the cars, and was very
+   glad to hear that W. is better. My love to both and S.
+
+   Thanks for the news of portraits. I'll bear them in mind if G. H.
+   calls. Lulu and Anna send love, and I am as always,
+
+     Your
+     LOUISA ALCOTT.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Dodge._
+
+     APRIL 13, 1880.
+
+   DEAR MRS. DODGE,--I am glad you are going to have such a fine
+   outing. May it be a very happy one.
+
+   I cannot promise anything, but hope to be allowed to write a
+   little, as my doctor has decided that it is as well to let me put
+   on paper the tales "knocking at the saucepan lid and demanding to
+   be taken out" (like Mrs. Cratchit's potatoes), as to have them go
+   on worrying me inside. So I'm scribbling at "Jo's Boys," long
+   promised to Mr. Niles and clamored for by the children. I may
+   write but one hour a day, so cannot get on very fast; but if it
+   is ever done, I can think of a serial for "St. Nicholas." I began
+   one, and can easily start it for '88, if head and hand allow. I
+   will simmer on it this summer, and see if it can be done. Hope
+   so, for I don't want to give up work so soon.
+
+   I have read "Mrs. Null," but don't like it very well,--too slow
+   and colorless after Tolstoi's "Anna Karanina."
+
+   I met Mr. and Mrs. S. at Mrs. A.'s this winter. Mr. Stockton's
+   child-stories I like very much. The older ones are odd but
+   artificial.
+
+   Now, good-by, and God be with you, dear woman, and bring you
+   safely home to us all.
+
+     Affectionately yours,
+     L. M. ALCOTT.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Bond._
+
+     DUNREATH PLACE, ROXBURY, March 15, 1887
+
+   DEAR AUNTIE,--I have been hoping to get out and see you all
+   winter, but have been so ill I could only live on hope as a
+   relish to my gruel,--that being my only food, and not of a nature
+   to give me strength. Now I am beginning to live a little, and
+   feel less like a sick oyster at low tide. The spring days will
+   set me up I trust, and my first pilgrimage shall be to you; for I
+   want you to see how prettily my May-flower is blossoming into a
+   fine off-shoot of the old plant.
+
+   Lizzy Wells has probably told you our news of Fred and his little
+   bride, and Anna written you about it as only a proud mamma can.
+
+   Father is very comfortable, but says sadly as he looks up from
+   his paper, "Beecher has gone now; all go but me." Please thank
+   Mr. Bond for the poems, which are interesting, even to a poor,
+   ignorant worm who does not know Latin. Mother would have enjoyed
+   them very much. I should have acknowledged his kindness sooner;
+   but as I am here in Roxbury my letters are forwarded, and often
+   delayed.
+
+   I was sorry to hear that you were poorly again. Isn't it hard to
+   sit serenely in one's soul when one's body is in a dilapidated
+   state? I find it a great bore, but try to do it patiently, and
+   hope to see the why by and by, when this mysterious life is made
+   clear to me. I had a lovely dream about that, and want to tell it
+   you some day.
+
+     Love to all.
+     Ever yours,
+     L. M. A.
+
+Her publisher wished to issue a new edition of "A Modern
+Mephistopheles," and to add to it her story "A Whisper in the Dark,"
+to which she consented.
+
+     MAY 6, 1887.
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES.--This is about what I want to say. You may be
+   able to amend or suggest something. I only want it understood
+   that the highfalutin style was for a disguise, though the story
+   had another purpose; for I'm not ashamed of it, and like it
+   better than "Work" or "Moods."
+
+     Yours in haste,
+     L. M. A.
+
+   P. S.--Do you want more fairy tales?
+
+
+_Preface._
+
+   "A Modern Mephistopheles" was written among the earlier volumes
+   of the No Name Series, when the chief idea of the authors was to
+   puzzle their readers by disguising their style as much as
+   possible, that they might enjoy the guessing and criticism as
+   each novel appeared. This book was very successful in preserving
+   its incognito; and many persons still insist that it could not
+   have been written by the author of "Little Women." As I much
+   enjoyed trying to embody a shadow of my favorite poem in a story,
+   as well as the amusement it has afforded those in the secret for
+   some years, it is considered well to add this volume to the few
+   romances which are offered, not as finished work by any means,
+   but merely attempts at something graver than magazine stories or
+   juvenile literature.
+
+     L. M. ALCOTT.
+
+  [Illustration: _Fac-simile of Preface to "A Modern
+  Mephistopheles."_]
+
+     SATURDAY A.M., May 7, 1887.
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--Yours just come. "A Whisper" is rather a lurid
+   tale, but might do if I add a few lines to the preface of
+   "Modern Mephistopheles," saying that this is put in to fill the
+   volume, or to give a sample of Jo March's necessity stories,
+   which many girls have asked for. Would that do?
+
+   It seems to me that it would be better to wait till I can add a
+   new novel, and then get out the set. Meantime let "Modern
+   Mephistopheles" go alone, with my name, as a summer book before
+   Irving comes [Irving as Faust].
+
+   I hope to do "A Tragedy of To-day" this summer, and it can come
+   out in the fall or next spring, with "Modern Mephistopheles,"
+   "Work," and "Moods."
+
+   A spunky new one would make the old ones go. "Hospital Sketches"
+   is not cared for now, and is filled up with other tales you
+   know....
+
+   Can that plan be carried out? I have begun my tragedy, and think
+   it will be good; also a shorter thing called "Anna: An Episode,"
+   in which I do up Boston in a jolly way, with a nice little
+   surprise at the end. It would do to fill up "Modern
+   Mephistopheles," as it is not long, unless I want it to be.
+
+   I will come in next week and see what can be done.
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Bond._
+
+     SUNDAY, Oct. 16, [1887].
+
+   DEAR AUNTIE,--As you and I belong to the "Shut-in Society," we
+   may now and then cheer each other by a line. Your note and verse
+   are very good to me to-day, as I sit trying to feel all right in
+   spite of the stiffness that won't walk, the rebel stomach that
+   won't work, and the tired head that won't rest.
+
+   My verse lately has been from the little poem found under a good
+   soldier's pillow in the hospital.
+
+     I am no longer eager, bold, and strong,--
+         All that is past;
+     I am ready not to do
+         At last--at last.
+     My half-day's work is done,
+         And this is all my part.
+     I give a patient God
+         My patient heart.
+
+   The learning not to do is so hard after being the hub to the
+   family wheel so long. But it is good for the energetic ones to
+   find that the world can get on without them, and to learn to be
+   still, to give up, and wait cheerfully.
+
+   As we have "fell into poetry," as Silas Wegg says, I add a bit of
+   my own; for since you are Marmee now, I feel that you won't laugh
+   at my poor attempts any more than she did, even when I burst
+   forth at the ripe age of eight.
+
+   Love to all the dear people, and light to the kind eyes that have
+   made sunshine for others so many years.
+
+     Always your
+     LU.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Bond, with first copy of "Lulu's Library," second volume._
+
+     OCTOBER, 1887.
+
+   DEAR AUNTIE,--I always gave Mother the first author's copy of a
+   new book. As her representative on earth, may I send you, with my
+   love, the little book to come out in November?
+
+   The tales were told at sixteen to May and her playmates; then are
+   related to May's daughter at five; and for the sake of these two
+   you may care to have them for the little people.
+
+   I am still held by the leg, but seem to gain a little, and hope
+   to be up by and by. Slow work, but part of the discipline I
+   need, doubtless; so I take it as well as I can.
+
+   You and I won't be able to go to the golden wedding of S. J. May.
+   I have been alone so long I feel as if I'd like to see any one,
+   and be in the good times again. L. W. reports you as "nicely, and
+   sweet as an angel;" so I rejoice, and wish I could say the same
+   of
+
+     Your loving
+     LU.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Dodge._
+
+     DECEMBER 22, 1887.
+
+   DEAR MRS. DODGE,--I send you the story your assistant editor
+   asked for. As it is needed at once I do not delay to copy it, for
+   I can only write an hour a day and do very little. You are used
+   to my wild manuscript, and will be able to read it. I meant to
+   have sent the Chinese tale, but this was nearly done, and so it
+   goes, as it does not matter where we begin.... I hope you are
+   well, and full of the peace which work well done gives the happy
+   doer.
+
+   I mend slowly, but surely, and my good Doctor says my best work
+   is yet to come; so I will be content with health if I can get it.
+   With all good wishes,
+
+     Yours affectionately,
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Bond._
+
+     FEBRUARY 7 [1888].
+
+   DEAR AUNTIE,--My blessed Anna is so busy, and I can do so little
+   to help her, I feel as if I might take upon me the pleasant duty
+   of writing to you.
+
+   Father is better, and we are all so grateful, for just now we
+   want all to be bright for our boy.
+
+   The end is not far off, but Father rallies wonderfully from each
+   feeble spell, and keeps serene and happy through everything.
+
+   I don't ask to keep him now that life is a burden, and am glad to
+   have him go before it becomes a pain. We shall miss the dear old
+   white head and the feeble saint so long our care; but as Anna
+   says, "He will be with Mother." So we shall be happy in the hope
+   of that meeting.
+
+   Sunday he seemed very low, and I was allowed to drive in and say
+   "good-by." He knew me and smiled, and kissed "Weedy," as he calls
+   me, and I thought the drowsiness and difficulty of breathing
+   could not last long. But he revived, got up, and seemed so much
+   as usual, I may be able to see him again. It is a great grief
+   that I am not there as I was with Lizzie and Mother, but though
+   much better, the shattered nerves won't bear much yet, and quiet
+   is my only cure.
+
+   I sit alone and bless the little pair like a fond old
+   grandmother. You show me how to do it. With love to all,
+
+     Yours ever,
+     LU.
+
+
+_Her last note. To Mrs. Bond._
+
+     FEBRUARY 8, 1888.
+     _Air_,-"Haste to the Wedding."
+
+   DEAR AUNTIE,--I little knew what a sweet surprise was in store
+   for me when I wrote to you yesterday.
+
+   As I awoke this morning my good Doctor L. came in with the lovely
+   azalea, her round face beaming through the leaves like a full
+   moon.
+
+   It was very dear of you to remember me, and cheer up my lonely
+   day with such a beautiful guest.
+
+   It stands beside me on Marmee's work-table, and reminds me
+   tenderly of her favorite flowers; and among those used at her
+   funeral was a spray of this, which lasted for two weeks
+   afterward, opening bud after bud in the glass on her table, where
+   lay the dear old "Jos. May" hymn book, and her diary with the pen
+   shut in as she left it when she last wrote there, three days
+   before the end, "The twilight is closing about me, and I am going
+   to rest in the arms of my children."
+
+   So you see I love the delicate flower, and enjoy it very much.
+
+   I can write now, and soon hope to come out and see you for a few
+   minutes, as I drive out every fine day, and go to kiss my people
+   once a week for fifteen minutes.
+
+   Slow climbing, but I don't slip back; so think up my mercies, and
+   sing cheerfully, as dear Marmee used to do, "Thus far the Lord
+   has led me on!"
+
+     Your loving
+     LU.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+     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.
+
+     _November_ 29, 1885.
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+Miss Alcott's appearance was striking and impressive rather than
+beautiful. Her figure was tall and well-proportioned, indicating
+strength and activity, and she walked with freedom and majesty. Her
+head was large, and her rich brown hair was long and luxuriant, giving
+a sense of fulness and richness of life to her massive features. While
+thoroughly unconventional, and even free and easy in her manner, she
+had a dignity of deportment which prevented undue liberties, and made
+intruders stand in awe of her. Generous in the extreme in serving
+others, she knew her own rights, and did not allow them to be trampled
+on. She repelled "the spurns that patient merit of the unworthy
+takes," and had much of the Burns spirit that sings "A man's a man for
+a' that" in the presence of insolent grandeur.
+
+Miss Alcott always took her stand not for herself, but for her family,
+her class, her sex. The humblest writer should not be imposed upon in
+her person; every woman should be braver and stronger from her
+attitude. She was careless of outward distinctions; but she enjoyed
+the attentions which her fame brought her with simple pleasure, and
+was delighted to meet bright, intelligent, distinguished people, who
+added to her stores of observation and thought. She had the rare good
+fortune, which an heir of millions might envy, of living all her life
+in the society of the noblest men and women. The Emersons, the
+Thoreaus, the Hawthornes, and Miss Elizabeth Peabody were the constant
+companions of her childhood and youth. It was from them that her
+standard of character was formed, and she could never enter any circle
+higher than that in which she had breathed freely from a child. She
+was quite capable of hero-worship, but her heroes were few.
+
+With all her imagination and romance, Miss Alcott was a tremendous
+destroyer of illusions; she remorselessly tore them away from herself,
+persisting in holding a lens before every fault and folly of her own,
+and she did the same for those she loved best. Only what was
+intrinsically noble and true could stand the searching test of her
+intellectual scrutiny and keen perception of the incongruous and
+ridiculous.
+
+This disposition was apparent in Louisa's relation to her father, whom
+she did not always fully understand. Perhaps he had a perception of
+this when he wrote--
+
+     "I press thee to my heart, as Duty's faithful child."
+
+She had little sympathy with his speculative fancy, and saw plainly
+the impracticability of his schemes, and did not hesitate to touch
+with light and kindly satire his little peculiarities; yet in her
+deepest heart she gave him not only affection, but deep reverence. She
+felt the nobility and grandeur of his mind and heart. In "Little
+Women" the portrait of the father is less vivid and less literal than
+that of any other member of the family, and is scarcely recognizable;
+but it was impossible to make the student and idealist a part of the
+family life as she painted it,--full of fun, frolic, and adventure. In
+the second part she has taken pains to make up for this seeming
+neglect, and pays homage to the quiet man at the end of the house,
+whose influence was so potent and so sweet over all within it.
+
+Mrs. Alcott was a rich and noble nature, full of zeal and impulse,
+daily struggling with a temper threatening to burst out into fire,
+ready to fight like a lioness for her young, or to toil for them till
+Nature broke down under the burden. She had a rich appreciation of
+heroism and beauty in all noble living, a true love of literature, and
+an overflowing sympathy with all suffering humanity, but was also
+capable of righteous indignation and withering contempt. To this
+mother, royal in her motherhood, Louisa was bound by the closest ties
+of filial love and mutual understanding. She early believed herself to
+be her mother's favorite child, knew she was close to her heart, her
+every struggle watched, her every fault rebuked, every aspiration
+encouraged, every effort after good recognized. I think Louisa felt no
+pride in this preference. She knew that she was dear to her mother,
+because her stormy, wayward heart was best understood by her; and
+hence the mother, wiser for her child than for herself, watched her
+unfolding life with anxious care. Throughout the childish journal this
+relation is evident: the child's heart lies open to the mother, and
+the mother can help her because she understands her, and holds sacred
+every cry of her heart.
+
+Such a loving relation to a mother--so rich, so full, so enduring--was
+the greatest possible blessing to her life. And richly did Louisa
+repay the care. From her earliest years she was her mother's
+confidante, friend, and comforter. Her dream of success was not of
+fame and glory, but of the time when she could bring this weary
+pilgrim into "that chamber whose name is Peace," and there bid her sit
+with folded hands, listening to the loving voices of her children, and
+drinking in the fulness of life without care or anxiety.
+
+And it all came true, like the conclusion of a fairy story; for good
+fairies had been busy at work for many years preparing the way. Who
+that saw that mother resting from her labors, proud in her children's
+success, happy in her husband's contentment, and in the love that had
+never faltered in the darkest days, can ever forget the peace of her
+countenance, the loving joy of her heart?
+
+The relation of Miss Alcott to her older sister was of entire trust
+and confidence. Anna inherited the serene, unexacting temper of her
+father, with much of the loving warmth of her mother. She loved to
+hide behind her gifted sister, and to keep the ingle-side warm for her
+to retreat to when she was cold and weary. Anna's fine intellectual
+powers were shown more in the appreciation of others than in the
+expression of herself; her dramatic skill and her lively fancy,
+combined with her affection for Louisa, made her always ready to
+second all the plans for entertainment or benevolence. She appears in
+her true light in the sweet, lovable Meg of "Little Women;" and if she
+never had the fame and pecuniary success of her sister, she had the
+less rare, but equally satisfying, happiness of wifehood and
+motherhood. And thus she repaid to Louisa what she had so generously
+done for the family, by giving her new objects of affection, and
+connecting her with a younger generation.
+
+Louisa was always very fond of boys, and the difference of nature gave
+her an insight into their trials and difficulties without giving her a
+painful sense of her own hard struggles. In her nephews she found
+objects for all her wise and tender care, which they repaid with
+devoted affection. When boys became men, "they were less interesting
+to her; she could not understand them."
+
+Elizabeth was unlike the other sisters. Retiring in disposition, she
+would gladly have ever lived in the privacy of home, her only desire
+being for the music that she loved. The father's ideality was in her a
+tender religious feeling; the mother's passionate impulse, a
+self-abnegating affection. She was in the family circle what she is in
+the book,--a strain of sweet, sad music we long and love to hear, and
+yet which almost breaks the heart with its forecasting of separation.
+She was very dear to both the father and mother, and the picture of
+the father watching all night by the marble remains of his child is
+very touching. He might well say,--
+
+     "Ah, me! life is not life deprived of thee."
+
+Of the youngest of all,--bright, sparkling, capricious May,--quick in
+temper, quick in repentance, affectionate and generous, but full of
+her own plans, and quite inclined to have the world go on according
+to her fancies,--I have spoken elsewhere. Less profound in her
+intellectual and religious nature than either of her sisters, she was
+like a nymph of Nature, full of friendly sportiveness, and disposed to
+live out her own life, since it might be only a brief summer day. She
+was Anna's special child, and Louisa was not always so patient with
+her as the older sister; yet how well Louisa understood her generous
+nature is shown by the beautiful sketch she has made of her in "Little
+Women." She was called the lucky one of the family, and she reaped the
+benefit of her generous sister's labors in her opportunities of
+education.
+
+Miss Alcott's literary work is so closely interwoven with her personal
+life that it needs little separate mention. Literature was undoubtedly
+her true pursuit, and she loved and honored it. That she had her
+ambitious longings for higher forms of art than the pleasant stories
+for children is evident from her journals, and she twice attempted to
+paint the life of mature men and women struggling with great
+difficulties. In "Moods" and "A Modern Mephistopheles" we have proof
+of her interest in difficult subjects. I have spoken of them in
+connection with her life; but while they evince great power, and if
+standing alone would have stamped her as an author of original
+observation and keen thought, they can hardly be considered as
+thoroughly successful, and certainly have not won the sanction of the
+public like "Hospital Sketches" and "Little Women." Could she ever
+have commanded quiet leisure, with a tolerable degree of health, she
+might have wrought her fancies into a finer fabric, and achieved the
+success she aimed at.
+
+Much as Miss Alcott loved literature, it was not an end in itself to
+her, but a means. Her heart was so bound up in her family,--she felt
+it so fully to be her sacred mission to provide for their wants,--that
+she sacrificed to it all ambitious dreams, health, leisure,--everything
+but her integrity of soul. But as "he that loseth his life shall find
+it," she has undoubtedly achieved a really greater work than if she
+had not had this constant stimulus to exertion. In her own line of
+work she is unsurpassed. While she paints in broad, free strokes the
+life of her own day, represented mostly by children and young people,
+she has always a high moral purpose, which gives strength and
+sweetness to the delineation; yet one never hears children complain of
+her moralizing,--it is events that reveal the lesson she would
+enforce. Her own deep nature shines through all the experiences of her
+characters, and impresses upon the children's hearts a sense of
+reality and truth. She charms them, wisely, to love the common virtues
+of truth, unselfishness, kindness, industry, and honesty. Dr. Johnson
+said children did not want to hear about themselves, but about giants
+and fairies; but while Miss Alcott could weave fairy fancies for them,
+they are quite as pleased with her real boys and girls in the plainest
+of costumes.
+
+An especial merit of these books for young boys and girls is their
+purity of feeling. The family affection which was so predominant in
+the author's own life, always appears as the holiest and sweetest
+phase of human nature. She does not refuse to paint the innocent love
+and the happy marriage which it is natural for every young heart to be
+interested in, but it is in tender, modest colors. She does not make
+it the master and tyrant of the soul, nor does she ever connect it
+with sensual imagery; but it appears as one of "God's holy
+ordinances,"--natural and beautiful,--and is not separated from the
+thought of work and duty and self-sacrifice for others. No mother
+fears that her books will brush the bloom of modesty from the faces of
+her young men or maidens.
+
+Even in the stories of her early period of work for money, which she
+wisely renounced as trash, while there is much that is thoroughly
+worthless as art, and little that has any value, Miss Alcott never
+falls into grossness of thought or baseness of feeling. She is
+sentimental, melodramatic, exaggerated, and unreal in her
+descriptions, but the stories leave no taint of evil behind them. Two
+of these stories, "The Baron's Gloves" and "A Whisper in the Dark,"
+have been included in her published works, with her permission. Her
+friends are disposed to regret this, as they do not add to her
+reputation; but at least they serve to show the quality of work which
+she condemned so severely, and to satisfy the curiosity of readers in
+regard to it. It would be easy to point out defects in her style, and
+in some of her books there is evidence of the enforced drudgery of
+production, instead of the spontaneous flow of thought. The most
+serious defect is in her style of expression, which certainly passes
+the fine line between colloquial ease and slang; it is her own
+natural, peculiar style, which appears in her journals and letters.
+That it is attractive to children is certain, but it offends the taste
+of those who love purity and elegance of speech. It does not appear in
+Louisa's more ambitious novels; here she sometimes falls into the
+opposite extreme of labored and stilted expression. But much of these
+books is written in a pure and beautiful style, showing that she could
+have united ease with elegance if she had not so constantly worked at
+high speed and with little revision. She was a great admirer of
+Dickens's writings; and although she has never imitated him, she was
+perhaps strengthened in her habit of using dashing, expressive
+language by so fascinating a model.
+
+I have placed at the head of each chapter one of Miss Alcott's own
+poems, usually written at the period of which the chapter treats, and
+characteristic of her life at that time. Her first literary essay was
+the "Little Robin." But although her fond mother saw the future of a
+great poet in these simple verses, Louisa never claimed the title for
+herself. Her thoughts ran often into rhyme, and she sent many birthday
+and Christmas verses to her friends and especially to her father. They
+are usually playful. She always wrote to express some feeling of the
+hour, and I find no objective or descriptive poetry. But a few of her
+sacred poems, for we may certainly call them so, are very tender and
+beautiful, and deserve a permanent place among the poems of
+feeling,--those few poems which a true heart writes for itself.
+"Thoreau's Flute" was originally published in the "Atlantic Monthly."
+It is the least personal of her poems. The lines to her father on his
+eighty-sixth birthday, the verses dedicated to her mother, and "My
+Prayer," the last poem that she wrote, breathe her deepest religious
+feeling in sweet and fitting strains. They will speak to the hearts of
+many in the hours of trial which are common to humanity. The long
+playful poem called "The Lay of the Golden Goose" was sent home from
+Europe as an answer to many questions from her admirers and demands
+for new stories. It has never been published, and is an interesting
+specimen of her playful rhyming.
+
+While to Miss Alcott cannot be accorded a high rank as a poet,--which,
+indeed, she never claimed for herself,--it would be hard to deny a
+place in our most select anthology to "Thoreau's Flute" or
+"Transfiguration," the "Lines to my Father on his Eighty-sixth
+Birthday" and "My Prayer." I have therefore thought it well to
+preserve her best poems in connection with her life, where they
+properly belong; for they are all truly autobiographical, revealing
+the inner meaning of her life.
+
+The pecuniary success of Miss Alcott's books enabled her to carry out
+her great purpose of providing for the comfort and happiness of her
+family. After the publication of "Little Women," she not only received
+a handsome sum for every new story, but there was a steady income from
+the old ones. Her American publishers estimate that they "have sold of
+her various works a million volumes, and that she realized from them
+more than two hundred thousand dollars." While her own tastes were
+very simple, her expenses were large, for she longed to gratify every
+wish of those she loved, and she gave generously to every one in need.
+She had a true sense of the value of money. Her early poverty did not
+make her close in expending it, nor her later success lavish. She
+never was enslaved by debt or corrupted by wealth. She always held
+herself superior to her fortune, and made her means serve her highest
+purposes.
+
+Of Miss Alcott's own reading she says:--
+
+   "Never a student, but a great reader. R. W. E. gave me Goethe's
+   works at fifteen, and they have been my delight ever since. My
+   library consists of Goethe, Emerson, Shakespeare, Carlyle,
+   Margaret Fuller, and George Sand. George Eliot I don't care for,
+   nor any of the modern poets but Whittier; the old ones--Herbert,
+   Crashaw, Keats, Coleridge, Dante, and a few others--I like."
+
+She gives this account of the beginning of her literary career:--
+
+   "This gem ['The Robin'] my proud mother preserved with care,
+   assuring me that if I kept on in this way I might be a second
+   Shakespeare in time. Fired with this modest ambition, I continued
+   to write poems upon dead butterflies, lost kittens, the baby's
+   eyes, and other simple subjects till the story-telling mania set
+   in; and after frightening my sisters out of their wits by awful
+   tales whispered in bed, I began to write down these histories of
+   giants, ogres, dauntless girls, and magic transformations till we
+   had a library of small paper-covered volumes illustrated by the
+   author. Later the poems grew gloomy and sentimental, and the
+   tales more fanciful and less tragic, lovely elves and spirits
+   taking the places of the former monsters."
+
+Of her method of work she says:--
+
+   "I never had a study. Any pen and paper do, and an old atlas on
+   my knee is all I want. Carry a dozen plots in my head, and think
+   them over when in the mood. Sometimes keep one for years, and
+   suddenly find it all ready to write. Often lie awake and plan
+   whole chapters word for word, then merely scribble them down as
+   if copying.
+
+   "Used to sit fourteen hours a day at one time, eating little, and
+   unable to stir till a certain amount was done.
+
+   "Very few stories written in Concord; no inspiration in that dull
+   place. Go to Boston, hire a quiet room and shut myself up in it."
+
+The following letter gives her advice to young writers:--
+
+
+_To Mr. J. P. True._
+
+     CONCORD, October 24.
+
+   DEAR SIR,--I never copy or "polish," so I have no old manuscripts
+   to send you; and if I had it would be of little use, for one
+   person's method is no rule for another. Each must work in his own
+   way; and the only drill needed is to keep writing and profit by
+   criticism. Mind grammar, spelling, and punctuation, use short
+   words, and express as briefly as you can your meaning. Young
+   people use too many adjectives and try to "write fine." The
+   strongest, simplest words are best, and no _foreign_ ones if it
+   can be helped.
+
+   Write, and print if you can; if not, still write, and improve as
+   you go on. Read the best books, and they will improve your style.
+   See and hear good speakers and wise people, and learn of them.
+   Work for twenty years, and then you may some day find that you
+   have a style and place of your own, and can command good pay for
+   the same things no one would take when you were unknown.
+
+   I know little of poetry, as I never read modern attempts, but
+   advise any young person to keep to prose, as only once in a
+   century is there a true poet; and verses are so easy to do that
+   it is not much help to write them. I have so many letters like
+   your own that I can say no more, but wish you success, and give
+   you for a motto Michael Angelo's wise words: "Genius is infinite
+   patience."
+
+     Your friend,
+     L. M. ALCOTT.
+
+   P. S.--The lines you send are better than many I see; but boys of
+   nineteen cannot know much about hearts, and had better write of
+   things they understand. Sentiment is apt to become
+   sentimentality; and sense is always safer, as well as better
+   drill, for young fancies and feelings.
+
+   Read Ralph Waldo Emerson, and see what good prose is, and some of
+   the best poetry we have. I much prefer him to Longfellow.
+
+"Years afterward," says Mr. True, "when I had achieved some slight
+success, I once more wrote, thanking her for her advice; and the
+following letter shows the kindliness of heart with which she extended
+ready recognition and encouragement to lesser workers in her chosen
+field:"--
+
+     CONCORD, Sept. 7, 1883.
+
+   MY DEAR MR. TRUE,--Thanks for the pretty book, which I read at
+   once and with pleasure; for I still enjoy boys' pranks as much as
+   ever.
+
+   I don't remember the advice I gave you, and should judge from
+   this your first story that you did not need much. Your boys are
+   real boys; and the girls can run,--which is a rare accomplishment
+   nowadays I find. They are not sentimental either; and that is a
+   good example to set both your brother writers and the lasses who
+   read the book.
+
+   I heartily wish you success in your chosen work, and shall always
+   be glad to know how fast and how far you climb on the steep road
+   that leads to fame and fortune.
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. Alcott.
+
+Roberts Brothers, Miss Alcott's publishers for nearly twenty years,
+have collected all her stories in a uniform edition of twenty-five
+volumes. They are grouped into different series according to size and
+character, from her novels to "Lulu's Library" for very small
+children, and may be enumerated as follows:--
+
+   _Novels_ (four volumes).--Work, Moods, A Modern Mephistopheles,
+   Hospital Sketches.
+
+   _Little Women Series_ (eight volumes).--Little Women, An
+   Old-Fashioned Girl, Little Men, Eight Cousins, Rose in Bloom,
+   Under the Lilacs, Jack and Jill, Jo's Boys.
+
+   _Spinning-Wheel Stories Series_ (four volumes).--Silver Pitchers,
+   Proverb Stories, Spinning-Wheel Stories, A Garland for Girls.
+
+   _Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag_ (six volumes).--My Boys, Shawl-Straps,
+   Cupid and Chow-Chow, My Girls, Jimmy's Cruise in the Pinafore, An
+   Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving.
+
+   _Lulu's Library_ (three volumes).
+
+Many of these stories were originally published in various
+magazines,--the popular "St Nicholas," for which Miss Alcott wrote
+some of her best things in her later years, the "Youth's Companion,"
+and others. Her works have been republished in England; and through
+her English publishers, Messrs. Sampson Low and Company, of London,
+she has reaped the benefit of copyright there, and they have been
+translated into many languages. Her name is familiar and dear to the
+children of Europe, and they still read her books with the same
+eagerness as the children of her own land.
+
+This extract from a letter written by the translator of Miss Alcott's
+books into Dutch will show how she is esteemed in Holland:--
+
+   "Miss Alcott was and is so much beloved here by her books, that
+   you could scarce find a girl that had not read one or more of
+   them. Last autumn I gave a translation of 'Lulu's Library' that
+   appeared in November, 1887; the year before, a collection of
+   tales and Christmas stories that appeared under the name of
+   'Gandsbloempje' ('Dandelion'). Yesterday a young niece of mine
+   was here, and said, 'Oh, Aunt, how I enjoyed those stories! but
+   the former of "Meh Meh" I still preferred.' A friend wrote: 'My
+   children are confined to the sickroom, but find comfort in
+   Alcott's "Under the Lilacs."' Her fame here was chiefly caused by
+   her 'Little Women' and 'Little Women Wedded,' which in Dutch
+   were called 'Under Moedervleugels' ('Under Mother's Wings') and
+   'Op Eigen Wieken' ('With Their Own Wings'). Her 'Work' was
+   translated as 'De Hand van den Ploey' ('The Hand on the
+   Plough')."
+
+How enduring the fame of Louisa M. Alcott will be, time only can show;
+but if to endear oneself to two generations of children, and to mould
+their minds by wise counsel in attractive form entitle an author to
+the lasting gratitude of her country, that praise and reward belong to
+LOUISA MAY ALCOTT.
+
+
+TERMINUS.
+
+     It is time to be old,
+     To take in sail:
+     The god of bounds,
+     Who sets to seas a shore,
+     Came to me in his fatal rounds,
+     And said, "No more!
+     No farther shoot
+     Thy broad ambitious branches, and thy root;
+     Fancy departs: no more invent,
+     Contract thy firmament
+     To compass of a tent.
+     There's not enough for this and that,
+     Make thy option which of two;
+     Economize the failing river,
+     Not the less revere the Giver;
+     Leave the many, and hold the few.
+     Timely wise, accept the terms;
+     Soften the fall with wary foot;
+     A little while
+     Still plan and smile.
+     And, fault of novel germs,
+     Mature the unfallen fruit."
+
+            *       *       *       *       *
+
+     As the bird trims her to the gale,
+     I trim myself to the storm of time;
+     I man the rudder, reef the sail,
+     Obey the voice at eve obeyed at prime:
+     Lowly faithful, banish fear,
+     Right onward drive unharmed;
+     The port, well worth the cruise, is near,
+     And every wave is charmed.
+
+     EMERSON.
+
+
+
+
+LOUISA M. ALCOTT'S WRITINGS.
+
+
+_Miss Alcott is really a benefactor of households._--H. H.
+
+_Miss Alcott has a faculty of entering into the lives and feelings of
+children that is conspicuously wanting in most writers who address
+them; and to this cause, to the consciousness among her readers that
+they are hearing about people like themselves, instead of abstract
+qualities labelled with names, the popularity of her books is
+due._--MRS. SARAH J. HALE.
+
+_Dear Aunt Jo! You are embalmed in the thoughts and loves of thousands
+of little men and women._--EXCHANGE.
+
+     =Little Women; or Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy.=
+     With illustrations. 16mo     $1.50
+
+     =Hospital Sketches, and Camp and Fireside Stories.=
+     With illustrations. 16mo   1.50
+
+     =An Old-Fashioned Girl.=
+     With illustrations. 16mo    1.50
+
+     =Little Men:= Life at Plumfield with Jo's Boys.
+     With illustrations. 16mo      1.50
+
+     =Jo's Boys and How they Turned Out.= A sequel to "Little Men."
+     With portrait of "Aunt Jo." 16mo       1.50
+
+     =Eight Cousins=; or, The Aunt-Hill.
+     With illustrations. 16mo     1.50
+
+     =Rose in Bloom.= A sequel to "Eight Cousins."
+     16mo      1.50
+
+     =Under the Lilacs.=
+     With illustrations. 16mo        1.50
+
+     =Jack and Jill.= A Village Story.
+     With illustrations. 16mo      1.50
+
+     =Work:= A Story of Experience.
+     With character illustrations by Sol Eytinge. 16mo     1.50
+
+     =Moods.= A Novel.
+     New edition, revised and enlarged. 16mo       1.50
+
+     =A Modern Mephistopheles, and A Whisper in the Dark.=
+     16mo       1.50
+
+     =Silver Pitchers, and Independence.= A Centennial Love Story.
+     16mo       1.25
+
+     =Proverb Stories.=
+     New edition, revised and enlarged. 16mo      1.25
+
+     =Spinning-Wheel Stories.=
+     With illustrations. 16mo     1.25
+
+     =A Garland for Girls, and Other Stories.=
+     With illustrations. 16mo      1.25
+
+     =My Boys, &c.= First volume of Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag.
+     16mo       $1.00
+
+     =Shawl-Straps.= Second volume of Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag.
+     16mo       1.00
+
+     =Cupid and Chow-Chow, &c.= Third volume of Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag.
+     16mo      1.00
+
+     =My Girls, &c.= Fourth volume of Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag.
+     16mo      1.00
+
+     =Jimmy's Cruise in the Pinafore, &c.=
+     Fifth volume of Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag. 16mo     1.00
+
+     =An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving, &c.=
+     Sixth volume of Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag. 16mo    1.00
+
+     =Little Women.= Illustrated. Embellished
+     with nearly 200 characteristic
+     illustrations from original
+     designs drawn expressly for this
+     edition of this noted American
+     Classic. One small quarto, bound
+     in cloth, with emblematic designs     2.50
+
+     =Little Women Series.= Comprising
+     Little Women; Little Men;
+     Eight Cousins; Under the Lilacs;
+     An Old-Fashioned Girl; Jo's
+     Boys; Rose in Bloom; Jack and
+     Jill. 8 large 16mo volumes in a
+     handsome box          12.00
+
+     Miss Alcott's novels in uniform binding
+     in sets. Moods; Work; Hospital
+     Sketches; A Modern Mephistopheles,
+     and A Whisper in the
+     Dark. 4 volumes. 16mo         6.00
+
+     =Lulu's Library.= Vols. I., II., III.
+     A collection of New Stories.
+     16mo       3.00
+
+_These books are for sale at all bookstores, or will be mailed,
+post-paid, on receipt of price, to any address._
+
+LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY,
+
+BOSTON.
+
+
+
+
+LOUISA M. ALCOTT,
+
+HER LIFE, LETTERS, AND JOURNALS
+
+EDITED BY EDNAH D. CHENEY.
+
+With PORTRAITS and View of the ALCOTT HOME in Concord. One vol. 16mo.
+Uniform with "Little Women." Price, $1.50.
+
+
+Mrs. Cheney has allowed this popular author to tell the story of her
+early struggles, her successes, and prosperity and life work, in her
+own inimitable style, gracefully weaving the daily record of this
+sweet and useful life into a garland of _immortelles_, in a manner at
+once pleasing and within the comprehension of the thousands of readers
+and admirers of Miss Alcott's books. It might truly be called the
+biography of "Little Women."
+
+   A most fascinating as well as a deeply pathetic book. The
+   story,--the long, hard struggle for money to keep the household
+   in comfort, and the well-earned success coming, alas, too late to
+   save her health,--is delightfully told in her own words, from
+   letters and journals, so that we have the bright, the witty, and
+   the always charming personality of the children's author before
+   us from the first page to the last. We have to thank Mrs. Cheney
+   that she hid not from us the hard, grinding toil, nor spared us
+   the record of one discouragement in the life so interesting to
+   us; for in this narrative we have a valuable lesson for the young
+   writer of our day.--_The Epoch._
+
+   One who knew Miss Alcott well says: "Nobody can read of the
+   struggles of the Alcott family, and of the tender yet resolute
+   heroism with which Miss Alcott met and relieved them, without
+   being touched to tears by the pathos and reality of the picture.
+   Louisa Alcott was not a member of any church; but her belief in
+   God, her loyalty to conscience, her fidelity to duty, her rescue
+   of the Alcott family from its peculiar perils, place her among
+   the women saints of the century, and it will be hard to find any
+   one of her sex who has more faithfully responded to the duties of
+   the position in which God had placed her."--_Cincinnati
+   Commercial Gazette._
+
+   Louisa May Alcott is without a rival as a writer for the young.
+   The millions who have read her stories--and been made better by
+   the reading--will want this book that they may get near the inner
+   life, the fruitful source of their entertainment and profit. They
+   will see that purity, simplicity, love, earnestness, and patience
+   were so interwoven with her genius that her stories were the
+   natural outgrowth of her beautiful character. The book needs no
+   commendation from us. Every reader of her stories will be glad to
+   know that they may now become intimately acquainted with that
+   beautiful life which is here brought out of its long cherished
+   seclusion.--_Saturday Evening Herald._
+
+LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY,
+
+BOSTON.
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration: "Sing, Tessa, Sing!" cried Tommo, twanging away with
+  all his might.--PAGE 47.]
+
+AUNT JO'S SCRAP-BAG: Containing "My Boys," "Shawl-Straps," "Cupid and
+Chow-Chow," "My Girls," "Jimmy's Cruise in the Pinafore," "An
+Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving." 6 vols. Price of each, $1.00.
+
+LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY,
+
+BOSTON.
+
+
+
+
+LOUISA M. ALCOTT'S STORY-BOOKS.
+
+
+  [Illustration: A CHRISTMAS DREAM.]
+
+LULU'S LIBRARY.
+
+A COLLECTION OF STORIES BY "AUNT JO"
+
+With Illustrations by JESSIE MCDERMOTT.
+
+3 vols. 16mo. Cloth. Price, $1.00 per volume.
+
+LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY,
+
+BOSTON.
+
+
+
+
+NOVELS AND STORIES
+
+BY
+
+LOUISA M. ALCOTT.
+
+
+WORK. A Story of Experience. With Illustrations by SOL EYTINGE.
+
+   This story relates, in many of its most important features and
+   incidents, to actual experiences of its author; and in "Christie"
+   we find the views and ideas of Miss Alcott herself expressed in
+   such a way as to make them most interesting and valuable.
+
+MOODS. A Novel.
+
+   Although this story was originally written at a time when its
+   author's powers and years were far from fully matured, it was in
+   its first form indicative of great power. It was revised and
+   partly rewritten after she had attained a full maturity, and
+   after actual experience with life had broadened and rounded out
+   her mental vision, so that it now stands as the first-born and
+   dearest to her heart of her novels.
+
+A MODERN MEPHISTOPHELES. A Story.
+
+   This story was written for the "No Name Series," in which it
+   originally appeared, and consequently was intended to be
+   disguised
+
+   It is a surprise that Miss Alcott could have written this volume;
+   not that it is inferior, but that it varies from her usual tone
+   and theme so much. Yet her plot is ingenious, and there is
+   dramatic design well worked out. As we read, knowing now who the
+   author is (the story was first published anonymously), we
+   recognize the grace of her style and the art of her workmanship.
+   Its tone and, above all, its lofty moral purpose are hers. Plots
+   differ, appearances are changed; but some of the deep traits of
+   the true nature of Miss Alcott are in the book. Being dead she
+   yet liveth.--_Public Opinion_.
+
+HOSPITAL SKETCHES, and Camp and Fireside Stories. With Illustrations.
+
+   These stories and sketches were written at the time of the Civil
+   War, in which the author took part as a nurse in one of the
+   hospitals, and show some of the many minor side scenes that help
+   to make up that great conflict.
+
+Four volumes. 16mo. Cloth. $1.50 per volume.
+
+_Sold everywhere. Mailed, post-paid, on receipt of price by the
+publishers,_
+
+LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY,
+
+BOSTON.
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration: "'I'm not hurt, all right in a minute,' he said,
+  sitting up, a little pale and dizzy, as the boys gathered round him,
+  full of admiration and alarm."--PAGE 2]
+
+LITTLE MEN; OR, LIFE AT PLUMFIELD WITH JO'S BOYS. Price, $1.50.
+
+LITTLE BROWN, AND COMPANY,
+
+BOSTON.
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration: WALTON RICKETSON, SCULP.]
+
+JO'S BOYS, AND HOW THEY TURNED OUT. A sequel to "Little Men." With a
+new portrait of "Aunt Jo." Price, $1.50.
+
+Little, Brown, and Company,
+
+BOSTON.
+
+
+
+
+POPULAR STORY BOOKS.
+
+
+   SUSAN COOLIDGE has always possessed the affection of her young
+   readers, for it seems as if she had the happy instinct of
+   planning stories that each girl would like to act out in
+   reality.--_The Critic._
+
+   Not even Miss Alcott apprehends child nature with finer sympathy,
+   or pictures its nobler traits with more skill.--_Boston Daily
+   Advertiser._
+
+=THE NEW YEAR'S BARGAIN.= A Christmas Story for Children. With
+Illustrations by ADDIE LEDYARD. 16mo. $1.25.
+
+=WHAT KATY DID.= A Story. With Illustrations by ADDIE LEDYARD. 16mo.
+$1.25.
+
+=WHAT KATY DID AT SCHOOL.= Being more about "What Katy Did." With
+Illustrations. 16mo. $1.25.
+
+=MISCHIEF'S THANKSGIVING,= and other Stories. With Illustrations by
+ADDIE LEDYARD. 16mo. $1.25.
+
+=NINE LITTLE GOSLINGS.= With Illustrations by J. A. MITCHELL. 16mo.
+$1.25.
+
+=EYEBRIGHT.= A Story. With Illustrations. 16mo. $1.25.
+
+=CROSS PATCH.= With Illustrations. 16mo. $1.25.
+
+=A ROUND DOZEN.= With Illustrations. 16mo. $1.25.
+
+=A LITTLE COUNTRY GIRL.= With Illustrations. 16mo. $1.25.
+
+=WHAT KATY DID NEXT.= With Illustrations. 16mo. $1.25.
+
+=CLOVER.= A Sequel to the Katy Books. With Illustrations by JESSIE
+MCDERMOTT. 16mo. $1.25.
+
+=JUST SIXTEEN.= With Illustrations. 16mo. $1.25.
+
+=IN THE HIGH VALLEY.= With Illustrations, 16mo. $1.25.
+
+=A GUERNSEY LILY=; or, How the Feud was Healed. A Story of the Channel
+Islands. Profusely Illustrated. 16mo. $1.25.
+
+=THE BARBERRY BUSH,= and Seven Other Stories about Girls for Girls. With
+Illustrations by JESSIE MCDERMOTT. 16mo. $1.25.
+
+=NOT QUITE EIGHTEEN.= A volume of Stories. With Illustrations by JESSIE
+MCDERMOTT. 16mo. $1.25.
+
+_Sold by all booksellers. Mailed, post-paid, on receipt of price, by
+the publishers._
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Louisa May Alcott, by Louisa May Alcott
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Louisa May Alcott, by Louisa May Alcott
+
+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: Louisa May Alcott
+       Her Life, Letters, and Journals
+
+Author: Louisa May Alcott
+
+Editor: Ednah D. Cheney
+
+Release Date: November 18, 2011 [EBook #38049]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOUISA MAY ALCOTT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Melissa McDaniel and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+  Inconsistent hyphenation and spelling in the original document have
+  been preserved.  Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
+
+  Italic text is denoted by _underscores_ and bold text by =equal
+  signs=
+
+
+
+
+     LOUISA MAY ALCOTT
+     HER
+     Life, Letters, and Journals.
+
+     EDITED BY
+     EDNAH D. CHENEY
+
+     BOSTON
+     LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
+     1898
+
+
+
+
+     _Copyright, 1889_,
+     BY J. S. P. ALCOTT.
+
+     UNIVERSITY PRESS:
+     JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE.
+
+
+
+
+     TO
+     MRS. ANNA B. PRATT,
+     THE SOLE SURVIVING SISTER OF LOUISA M. ALCOTT, AND HER
+     NEVER-FAILING HELP, COMFORTER, AND FRIEND
+     FROM BIRTH TO DEATH,
+
+     This Memoir
+     IS RESPECTFULLY AND TENDERLY DEDICATED,
+     BY
+     EDNAH D. CHENEY.
+
+     JAMAICA PLAIN,
+     June, 1889.
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration: Portrait of Miss Alcott]
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+
+Louisa May Alcott is universally recognized as the greatest and most
+popular story-teller for children in her generation. She has known the
+way to the hearts of young people, not only in her own class, or even
+country, but in every condition of life, and in many foreign lands.
+Plato says, "Beware of those who teach fables to children;" and it is
+impossible to estimate the influence which the popular writer of
+fiction has over the audience he wins to listen to his tales. The
+preacher, the teacher, the didactic writer find their audience in
+hours of strength, with critical faculties all alive, to question
+their propositions and refute their arguments. The novelist comes to
+us in the intervals of recreation and relaxation, and by his seductive
+powers of imagination and sentiment takes possession of the fancy and
+the heart before judgment and reason are aroused to defend the
+citadel. It well becomes us, then, who would guard young minds from
+subtle temptations, to study the character of those works which charm
+and delight the children.
+
+Of no author can it be more truly said than of Louisa Alcott that her
+works are a revelation of herself. She rarely sought for the material
+of her stories in old chronicles, or foreign adventures. Her capital
+was her own life and experiences and those of others directly about
+her; and her own well-remembered girlish frolics and fancies were sure
+to find responsive enjoyment in the minds of other girls.
+
+It is therefore impossible to understand Miss Alcott's works fully
+without a knowledge of her own life and experiences. By inheritance
+and education she had rich and peculiar gifts; and her life was one of
+rare advantages, as well as of trying difficulties. Herself of the
+most true and frank nature, she has given us the opportunity of
+knowing her without disguise; and it is thus that I shall try to
+portray her, showing what influences acted upon her through life, and
+how faithfully and fully she performed whatever duties circumstances
+laid upon her. Fortunately I can let her speak mainly for herself.
+
+Miss Alcott revised her journals at different times during her later
+life, striking out what was too personal for other eyes than her own,
+and destroying a great deal which would doubtless have proved very
+interesting.
+
+The small number of letters given will undoubtedly be a
+disappointment. Miss Alcott wished to have most of her letters
+destroyed, and her sister respected her wishes. She was not a
+voluminous correspondent; she did not encourage many intimacies, and
+she seldom wrote letters except to her family, unless in reference to
+some purpose she had strongly at heart. Writing was her constant
+occupation, and she was not tempted to indulge in it as a recreation.
+Her letters are brief, and strictly to the point, but always
+characteristic in feeling and expression; and, even at the risk of the
+repetition of matter contained in her journals or her books, I shall
+give copious extracts from such as have come into my hands.
+
+     E. D. C.
+     JAMAICA PLAIN, Mass., 1889.
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS.
+
+
+                                             PAGE
+
+     INTRODUCTION                             iii
+
+     CHAPTER.
+
+        I. GENEALOGY AND PARENTAGE             11
+       II. CHILDHOOD                           16
+      III. FRUITLANDS                          32
+       IV. THE SENTIMENTAL PERIOD              56
+        V. AUTHORSHIP                          75
+       VI. THE YEAR OF GOOD LUCK              110
+      VII. "HOSPITAL SKETCHES"                136
+     VIII. EUROPE, AND "LITTLE WOMEN"         170
+       IX. EUROPE                             204
+        X. FAMILY CHANGES                     263
+       XI. LAST YEARS                         329
+      XII. CONCLUSION                         387
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS.
+
+
+                                                                PAGE
+
+     PORTRAIT OF MISS ALCOTT                          _Frontispiece_
+
+     Photogravure by A. W. Elson & Co., from a photograph by
+     Notman (negative destroyed), taken in 1883. The facsimile
+     of her writing is an extract from a letter to her
+     publisher, written from her hospital retreat a few weeks
+     previous to her death.
+
+     ORCHARD HOUSE ("APPLE SLUMP"), CONCORD,
+     MASS., THE HOME OF THE ALCOTTS, 1858 TO
+     1878                                                         93
+
+     Engraved by John Andrew & Son Co., from a photograph.
+
+     PORTRAIT OF MISS ALCOTT                                     140
+
+     Photogravure by A. W. Elson & Co., from a photograph
+     taken just previous to her going to Washington as a hospital
+     nurse, in 1862.
+
+     FAC-SIMILE OF MISS ALCOTT'S WRITING                         362
+
+     Extract from a letter to her publisher, January, 1886.
+
+     FAC-SIMILE OF PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION OF
+     "A MODERN MEPHISTOPHELES," NOW FIRST
+     PRINTED                                                     380
+
+
+
+
+LOUISA MAY ALCOTT.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+GENEALOGY AND PARENTAGE.
+
+     TO LOUISA MAY ALCOTT.
+
+     BY HER FATHER.
+
+     When I remember with what buoyant heart,
+       Midst war's alarms and woes of civil strife,
+     In youthful eagerness thou didst depart,
+       At peril of thy safety, peace, and life,
+     To nurse the wounded soldier, swathe the dead,--
+       How pierced soon by fever's poisoned dart,
+     And brought unconscious home, with wildered head,
+       Thou ever since 'mid langour and dull pain,
+     To conquer fortune, cherish kindred dear,
+       Hast with grave studies vexed a sprightly brain,
+     In myriad households kindled love and cheer,
+       Ne'er from thyself by Fame's loud trump beguiled,
+     Sounding in this and the farther hemisphere,--
+       I press thee to my heart as Duty's faithful child.
+
+
+Louisa Alcott was the second child of Amos Bronson and Abba May
+Alcott. This name was spelled Alcocke in English history. About 1616 a
+coat-of-arms was granted to Thomas Alcocke of Silbertoft, in the
+county of Leicester. The device represents three cocks, emblematic of
+watchfulness; and the motto is _Semper Vigilans_.
+
+The first of the name appearing in English history is John Alcocke of
+Beverley, Yorkshire, of whom Fuller gives an account in his Worthies
+of England.
+
+Thomas and George Alcocke were the first of the name among the
+settlers in New England. The name is frequently found in the records
+of Dorchester and Roxbury, and has passed through successive changes
+to its present form.
+
+The name of Bronson came from Mr. Alcott's maternal grandfather, the
+sturdy Capt. Amos Bronson of Plymouth, Conn. "His ancestors on both
+sides had been substantial people of respectable position in England,
+and were connected with the founders and governors of the chief New
+England colonies. At the time of Mr. Alcott's birth they had become
+simple farmers, reaping a scanty living from their small farms in
+Connecticut."
+
+Amos Bronson Alcott, the father of Louisa, was born Nov. 29, 1799, at
+the foot of Spindle Hill, in the region called New Connecticut. He has
+himself given in simple verse the story of his quaint rustic life in
+his boyhood, and Louisa has reproduced it in her story of "Eli's
+Education" (in the Spinning-Wheel Stories), which gives a very true
+account of his youthful life and adventures. He derived his refined,
+gentle nature from his mother, who had faith in her son, and who lived
+to see him the accomplished scholar he had vowed to become in his
+boyhood. Although brought up in these rustic surroundings, his manners
+were always those of a true gentleman. The name of the little mountain
+town afterward became Wolcott, and Louisa records in her journal a
+pilgrimage made thither in after years.[1]
+
+Louisa Alcott's mother was a daughter of Col. Joseph May of Boston.
+This family is so well known that it is hardly necessary to repeat its
+genealogy here.[2] She was a sister of Samuel J. May, for many years
+pastor of the Unitarian church at Syracuse, who was so tenderly
+beloved by men of all religious persuasions in his home, and so widely
+known and respected for his courage and zeal in the Antislavery cause,
+as well as for his many philanthropic labors.
+
+Mrs. Alcott's mother was Dorothy Sewall, a descendant of that family
+already distinguished in the annals of the Massachusetts colony, and
+which has lost nothing of its reputation for ability and virtue in its
+latest representatives.[3]
+
+Mrs. Alcott inherited in large measure the traits which distinguished
+her family. She was a woman of large stature, fine physique, and
+overflowing life. Her temper was as quick and warm as her affections,
+but she was full of broad unselfish generosity. Her untiring energies
+were constantly employed, not only for the benefit of her family, but
+for all around her. She had a fine mind, and if she did not have
+large opportunities for scholastic instruction, she always enjoyed the
+benefit of intellectual society and converse with noble minds. She
+loved expression in writing, and her letters are full of wit and
+humor, keen criticism, and noble moral sentiments. Marriage with an
+idealist, who had no means of support, brought her many trials and
+privations. She bore them heroically, never wavering in affection for
+her husband or in devotion to her children. If the quick, impatient
+temper sometimes relieved itself in hasty speech, the action was
+always large and unselfish.
+
+It will be apparent from Louisa's life that she inherited the traits
+of both her parents, and that the uncommon powers of mind and heart
+that distinguished her were not accidental, but the accumulated result
+of the lives of generations of strong and noble men and women.
+
+She was well born.
+
+
+_Mr. Alcott to Colonel May._
+
+     GERMANTOWN, Nov. 29, 1832.
+
+   DEAR SIR,--It is with great pleasure that I announce to you the
+   _birth of a second daughter_. She was born at half-past 12 this
+   morning, on my birthday (33), and is a very fine healthful child,
+   much more so than Anna was at birth,--has a fine foundation for
+   health and energy of character. Abba is very comfortable, and
+   will soon be restored to the discharge of those domestic and
+   maternal duties in which she takes so much delight, and in the
+   performance of which she furnishes so excellent a model for
+   imitation. Those only who have seen her in those relations, much
+   as there is in her general character to admire and esteem, can
+   form a true estimate of her personal worth and uncommon devotion
+   of heart. She was formed for domestic sentiment rather than the
+   gaze and heartlessness of what is falsely called "society." Abba
+   inclines to call the babe _Louisa May_,--a name to her full of
+   every association connected with amiable benevolence and exalted
+   worth. I hope its _present possessor_ may rise to equal
+   attainment, and deserve a place in the estimation of society.
+
+   With Abba's and Anna's and Louisa's regards, allow me to assure
+   you of the sincerity with which I am
+
+     Yours,
+     A. BRONSON ALCOTT.
+
+The children who lived to maturity were--
+
+     ANNA BRONSON ALCOTT,
+     LOUISA MAY ALCOTT,
+     ELIZABETH SEWALL ALCOTT,
+     ABBA MAY ALCOTT.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] For further particulars of the Alcott genealogy, see "New
+Connecticut," a poem by A. B. Alcott, published in 1887. I am also
+indebted to Mr. F. B. Sanborn's valuable paper read at the memorial
+service at Concord in 1888.
+
+[2] For particulars of the genealogy of the May families, see "A
+Genealogy of the Descendants of John May," who came from England to
+Roxbury in America, 1640.
+
+[3] For the Sewall family, see "Drake's History of Boston," or fuller
+accounts in the Sewall Papers published by the Massachusetts
+Historical Society.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+CHILDHOOD.
+
+     TO THE FIRST ROBIN.[4]
+
+     Welcome, welcome, little stranger,
+     Fear no harm, and fear no danger;
+     We are glad to see you here,
+     For you sing "Sweet Spring is near."
+
+     Now the white snow melts away;
+     Now the flowers blossom gay:
+     Come dear bird and build your nest,
+     For we love our robin best.
+
+       LOUISA MAY ALCOTT.
+       CONCORD.
+
+
+Mr. Alcott had removed to Germantown, Penn, to take charge of a
+school, and here Louisa was born, Nov. 29, 1832. She was the second
+daughter, and was welcomed with the same pride and affection as her
+elder sister had been. We have this pleasant little glimpse of her
+when she was hardly a month old, from the pen of one of her mother's
+friends. Even at that extremely early age love saw the signs of more
+than usual intelligence, and friends as well as fond parents looked
+forward to a promising career.
+
+
+_Extract from a Letter by Miss Donaldson._
+
+     GERMANTOWN, PENN., Dec. 16, 1832.
+
+   I have a dear little pet in Mrs. Alcott's little Louisa. It is
+   the prettiest, best little thing in the world. You will wonder to
+   hear me call anything so young pretty, but it is really so in an
+   uncommon degree; it has a fair complexion, dark bright eyes, long
+   dark hair, a high forehead, and altogether a countenance of more
+   than usual intelligence.
+
+   The mother is such a delightful woman that it is a cordial to my
+   heart whenever I go to see her. I went in to see her for a few
+   moments the evening we received your letter, and I think I never
+   saw her in better spirits; and truly, if goodness and integrity
+   can insure felicity, she deserves to be happy.
+
+The earliest anecdote remembered of Louisa is this: When the family
+went from Philadelphia to Boston by steamer, the two little girls were
+nicely dressed in clean nankeen frocks for the voyage; but they had
+not been long on board before the lively Louisa was missing, and after
+a long search she was brought up from the engine-room, where her eager
+curiosity had carried her, and where she was having a beautiful time,
+with "plenty of dirt."
+
+The family removed to Boston in 1834, and Mr. Alcott opened his famous
+school in Masonic Temple. Louisa was too young to attend the school
+except as an occasional visitor; but she found plenty of interest and
+amusement for herself in playing on the Common, making friends with
+every child she met, and on one occasion falling into the Frog Pond.
+She has given a very lively picture of this period of her life in
+"Poppy's Pranks," that vivacious young person being a picture of
+herself, not at all exaggerated.
+
+The family lived successively in Front Street, Cottage Place, and
+Beach Street during the six succeeding years in Boston. They
+occasionally passed some weeks at Scituate during the summer, which
+the children heartily enjoyed.
+
+Mrs. Hawthorne gives a little anecdote which shows how the child's
+heart was blossoming in this family sunshine: "One morning in Front
+Street, at the breakfast table, Louisa suddenly broke silence, with a
+sunny smile saying, 'I love everybody in _dis_ whole world.'"
+
+Two children were born during this residence in Boston. Elizabeth was
+named for Mr. Alcott's assistant in his school,--Miss E. P. Peabody,
+since so widely known and beloved by all friends of education. A boy
+was born only to die. The little body was laid reverently away in the
+lot of Colonel May in the old burial-ground on the Common, and the
+children were taught to speak with tenderness of their "baby brother."
+
+When Louisa was about seven years old she made a visit to friends in
+Providence. Miss C. writes of her: "She is a beautiful little girl to
+look upon, and I love her affectionate manners. I think she is more
+like her mother than either of the others." As is usually the case,
+Louisa's journal, which she began at this early age, speaks more fully
+of her struggles and difficulties than of the bright, sunny moods
+which made her attractive. A little letter carefully printed and sent
+home during this visit is preserved. In it she says she is not happy;
+and she did have one trying experience there, to which she refers in
+"My Boys." Seeing some poor children who she thought were hungry, she
+took food from the house without asking permission, and carried it to
+them, and was afterward very much astonished and grieved at being
+reprimanded instead of praised for the deed. Miss C. says: "She has
+had several spells of feeling sad; but a walk or a talk soon dispels
+all gloom. She was half moody when she wrote her letter; but now she
+is gay as a lark. She loves to play out of doors, and sometimes she is
+not inclined to stay in when it is unpleasant." In her sketches of "My
+Boys" she describes two of her companions here, not forgetting the
+kindness of the one and the mischievousness of the other.
+
+Although the family were quite comfortable during the time of Mr.
+Alcott's teaching in Boston, yet the children wearied of their
+extremely simple diet of plain boiled rice without sugar, and graham
+meal without butter or molasses. An old friend who could not eat the
+bountiful rations provided for her at the United States Hotel, used to
+save her piece of pie or cake for the Alcott children. Louisa often
+took it home to the others in a bandbox which she brought for the
+purpose.
+
+This friend was absent in Europe many years, and returned to find the
+name of Louisa Alcott famous. When she met the authoress on the street
+she was eagerly greeted. "Why, I did not think you would remember me!"
+said the old lady. "Do you think I shall ever forget that bandbox?"
+was the instant reply.
+
+In 1840, Mr. Alcott's school having proved unsuccessful, the family
+removed to Concord, Mass., and took a cottage which is described in
+"Little Women" as "Meg's first home," although Anna never lived there
+after her marriage. It was a pleasant house, with a garden full of
+trees, and best of all a large barn, in which the children could have
+free range and act out all the plays with which their little heads
+were teeming. Of course it was a delightful change from the city for
+the children, and here they passed two very happy years, for they were
+too young to understand the cares which pressed upon the hearts of
+their parents. Life was full of interest. One cold morning they found
+in the garden a little half-starved bird; and having warmed and fed
+it, Louisa was inspired to write a pretty poem to "The Robin." The
+fond mother was so delighted that she said to her, "You will grow up a
+Shakspeare!" From the lessons of her father she had formed the habit
+of writing freely, but this is the first recorded instance of her
+attempting to express her feelings in verse.
+
+From the influences of such parentage as I have described, the family
+life in which Louisa was brought up became wholly unique.
+
+If the father had to give up his cherished projects of a school
+modelled after his ideas, he could at least conduct the education of
+his own children; and he did so with the most tender devotion. Even
+when they were infants he took a great deal of personal care of them,
+and loved to put the little ones to bed and use the "children's hour"
+to instil into their hearts lessons of love and wisdom. He was full of
+fun too, and would lie on the floor and frolic with them, making
+compasses of his long legs with which to draw letters and diagrams. No
+shade of fear mingled with the children's reverent recognition of his
+superior spiritual life. So their hearts lay open to him, and he was
+able to help them in their troubles.
+
+He taught them much by writing; and we have many specimens of their
+lists of words to be spelled, written, and understood. The lessons at
+Scituate were often in the garden, and their father always drew their
+attention to Nature and her beautiful forms and meanings. Little
+symbolical pictures helped to illustrate his lessons, and he sometimes
+made drawings himself. Here is an example of lessons. A quaint little
+picture represents one child playing on a harp, another drawing an
+arrow. It is inscribed--
+
+     FOR LOUISA.
+
+     1840.
+
+     Two passions strong divide our life,--
+     Meek, gentle love, or boisterous strife.
+
+Below the child playing the harp is--
+
+     Love, Music,
+       Concord.
+
+Below the shooter is--
+
+     Anger, Arrow,
+       Discord.
+
+Another leaflet is--
+
+     FOR LOUISA
+
+     1840.
+
+       Louisa loves--
+         What?
+     (_Softly._)
+         Fun.
+       Have some then,
+            Father
+                says.
+
+     Christmas Eve, December, 1840.
+     Concordia.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+     FOR ANNA.
+
+     1840.
+
+     Beauty or Duty,--
+           which
+       loves Anna best?
+             A
+         Question
+         from her
+         Father.
+
+     Christmas Eve,
+     December, 1840.
+     Concordia.
+
+A letter beautifully printed by her father for Louisa (1839) speaks to
+her of conscience, and she adds to it this note: "L. began early, it
+seems, to wrestle with her conscience." The children were always
+required to keep their journals regularly, and although these were
+open to the inspection of father and mother, they were very frank, and
+really recorded their struggles and desires. The mother had the habit
+of writing little notes to the children when she wished to call their
+attention to any fault or peculiarity. Louisa preserved many of them,
+headed,--
+
+   [_Extracts_ from letters from Mother, received during these early
+   years. I preserve them to show the ever tender, watchful help she
+   gave to the child who caused her the most anxiety, yet seemed to
+   be the nearest to her heart till the end.--L. M. A.]
+
+   No. 1.--MY DEAR LITTLE GIRL,--Will you accept this doll from me
+   on your seventh birthday? She will be a quiet playmate for my
+   active Louisa for seven years more. Be a kind mamma, and love her
+   for my sake.
+
+     YOUR MOTHER.
+     BEACH STREET, BOSTON, 1839.
+
+
+_From her Mother._
+
+     COTTAGE IN CONCORD.
+
+   DEAR DAUGHTER,--Your tenth birthday has arrived. May it be a
+   happy one, and on each returning birthday may you feel new
+   strength and resolution to be gentle with sisters, obedient to
+   parents, loving to every one, and happy in yourself.
+
+   I give you the pencil-case I promised, for I have observed that
+   you are fond of writing, and wish to encourage the habit.
+
+   Go on trying, dear, and each day it will be easier to be and do
+   good. You must help yourself, for the cause of your little
+   troubles is in yourself; and patience and courage age only will
+   make you what mother prays to see you,--her good and happy girl.
+
+     CONCORD, 1843.
+
+   DEAR LOUY,--I enclose a picture for you which I always liked very
+   much, for I imagined that you might be just such an industrious
+   daughter and I such a feeble but loving mother, looking to your
+   labor for my daily bread.
+
+   Keep it for my sake and your own, for you and I always liked to
+   be grouped together.
+
+     MOTHER.
+
+   The lines I wrote under the picture in my journal:--
+
+     TO MOTHER.
+
+     I hope that soon, dear mother,
+       You and I may be
+     In the quiet room my fancy
+       Has so often made for thee,--
+
+     The pleasant, sunny chamber,
+       The cushioned easy-chair,
+     The book 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,
+       And I can cherish thee.
+
+   [The dream came true, and for the last ten years of her life
+   Marmee sat in peace, with every wish granted, even to the
+   "grouping together;" for she died in my arms.--L. M. A.]
+
+A passage in Louisa's story of "Little Men" (p. 268) describes one of
+their childish plays. They "made believe" their minds were little
+round rooms in which the soul lived, and in which good or bad things
+were preserved. This play was never forgotten in after life, and the
+girls often looked into their little rooms for comfort or guidance in
+trial or temptation.
+
+Louisa was very fond of animals, as is abundantly shown in her
+stories. She never had the happiness of owning many pets, except cats,
+and these were the delight of the household. The children played all
+manner of plays with them, tended them in sickness, buried them with
+funeral honors, and Louisa has embalmed their memory in the story of
+"The Seven Black Cats" in "Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag."
+
+Dolls were an equal source of pleasure. The imaginative children
+hardly recognized them as manufactured articles, but endowed them with
+life and feeling. Louisa put her dolls through every experience of
+life; they were fed, educated, punished, rewarded, nursed, and even
+hung and buried, and then resurrected in her stories. The account of
+the "Sacrifice of the Dolls" to the exacting Kitty Mouse in "Little
+Men" delights all children by its mixture of pathetic earnestness and
+playfulness. It is taken from the experience of another family of
+children.
+
+Miss Alcott twice says that she never went to any school but her
+father's; but there were some slight exceptions to this rule. She went
+a few months to a little district school in Still River Village. This
+was a genuine old-fashioned school, from which she took the hint of
+the frolics in "Under the Lilacs." Miss Ford also kept a little school
+in Mr. Emerson's barn, to which the children went; and Mary Russell
+had a school, which Louisa attended when eight or nine years old.
+These circumstances, however, had small influence in her education.
+
+During this period of life in Concord, which was so happy to the
+children, the mother's heart was full of anxious care. She however
+entered into all their childish pleasures, and her watchful care over
+their moral growth is shown by her letters and by Louisa's journals.
+
+The youngest child, Abba May, who was born in the cottage, became the
+pet of the family and the special care of the oldest sister, Anna.
+
+Louisa's childish journal gives us many hints of this happy life. She
+revised these journals in later years, adding significant comments
+which are full of interest. She designed them to have place in her
+autobiography, which she hoped to write.
+
+From three different sources--her journals, an article written for
+publication, and a manuscript prepared for a friend,--we give her own
+account of these childish years. She has not followed the order of
+events strictly, and it has not been possible, therefore, to avoid all
+repetition; but they give the spirit of her early life, and clearly
+show the kind of education she received from her father and from the
+circumstances around her.
+
+
+_Sketch of Childhood, by herself._
+
+   One of my earliest recollections is of playing with books in my
+   father's study,--building houses and bridges of the big
+   dictionaries and diaries, looking at pictures, pretending to
+   read, and scribbling on blank pages whenever pen or pencil could
+   be found. Many of these first attempts at authorship still remain
+   in Bacon's Essays, Plutarch's Lives, and other works of a serious
+   nature, my infant taste being for solid literature, apparently.
+
+   On one occasion we built a high tower round baby Lizzie as she
+   sat playing with her toys on the floor, and being attracted by
+   something out-of-doors, forgot our little prisoner. A search was
+   made, and patient baby at last discovered curled up and fast
+   asleep in her dungeon cell, out of which she emerged so rosy and
+   smiling after her nap that we were forgiven for our carelessness.
+
+   Another memory is of my fourth birthday, which was celebrated at
+   my father's school-room in Masonic Temple. All the children were
+   there. I wore a crown of flowers, and stood upon a table to
+   dispense cakes to each child as the procession marched past. By
+   some oversight the cakes fell short, and I saw that if I gave
+   away the last one I should have none. As I was queen of the
+   revel, I felt that I ought to have it, and held on to it tightly
+   till my mother said,--
+
+   "It is always better to give away than to keep the nice things;
+   so I know my Louy will not let the little friend go without."
+
+   The little friend received the dear plummy cake, and I a kiss and
+   my first lesson in the sweetness of self-denial,--a lesson which
+   my dear mother beautifully illustrated all her long and noble
+   life.
+
+   Running away was one of the delights of my early days; and I
+   still enjoy sudden flights out of the nest to look about this
+   very interesting world, and then go back to report.
+
+   On one of these occasions I passed a varied day with some Irish
+   children, who hospitably shared their cold potatoes, salt-fish,
+   and crusts with me as we revelled in the ash-heaps which then
+   adorned the waste lands where the Albany Depot now stands. A trip
+   to the Common cheered the afternoon, but as dusk set in and my
+   friends deserted me, I felt that home was a nice place after all,
+   and tried to find it. I dimly remember watching a lamp-lighter as
+   I sat to rest on some doorsteps in Bedford Street, where a big
+   dog welcomed me so kindly that I fell asleep with my head
+   pillowed on his curly back, and was found there by the
+   town-crier, whom my distracted parents had sent in search of me.
+   His bell and proclamation of the loss of "a little girl, six
+   years old, in a pink frock, white hat, and new green shoes," woke
+   me up, and a small voice answered out of the darkness,--
+
+   "Why, dat's me!"
+
+   Being with difficulty torn from my four-footed friend, I was
+   carried to the crier's house, and there feasted sumptuously on
+   bread-and-molasses in a tin plate with the alphabet round it. But
+   my fun ended next day when I was tied to the arm of the sofa to
+   repent at leisure.
+
+   I became an Abolitionist at a very early age, but have never been
+   able to decide whether I was made so by seeing the portrait of
+   George Thompson hidden under a bed in our house during the
+   Garrison riot, and going to comfort "the poor man who had been
+   good to the slaves," or because I was saved from drowning in the
+   Frog Pond some years later by a colored boy. However that may be,
+   the conversion was genuine; and my greatest pride is in the fact
+   that I lived to know the brave men and women who did so much for
+   the cause, and that I had a very small share in the war which put
+   an end to a great wrong.
+
+Another recollection of her childhood was of a "contraband" hidden in
+the oven, which must have made her sense of the horrors of slavery
+very keen.
+
+   I never went to school except to my father or such governesses as
+   from time to time came into the family. Schools then were not
+   what they are now; so we had lessons each morning in the study.
+   And very happy hours they were to us, for my father taught in the
+   wise way which unfolds what lies in the child's nature, as a
+   flower blooms, rather than crammed it, like a Strasburg goose,
+   with more than it could digest. I never liked arithmetic nor
+   grammar, and dodged those branches on all occasions; but reading,
+   writing, composition, history, and geography I enjoyed, as well
+   as the stories read to us with a skill peculiarly his own.
+
+   "Pilgrim's Progress," Krummacher's "Parables," Miss Edgeworth,
+   and the best of the dear old fairy tales made the reading hour
+   the pleasantest of our day. On Sundays we had a simple service of
+   Bible stories, hymns, and conversation about the state of our
+   little consciences and the conduct of our childish lives which
+   never will be forgotten.
+
+   Walks each morning round the Common while in the city, and long
+   tramps over hill and dale when our home was in the country, were
+   a part of our education, as well as every sort of housework,--for
+   which I have always been very grateful, since such knowledge
+   makes one independent in these days of domestic tribulation with
+   the "help" who are too often only hindrances.
+
+   Needle-work began early, and at ten my skilful sister made a
+   linen shirt beautifully; while at twelve I set up as a doll's
+   dressmaker, with my sign out and wonderful models in my window.
+   All the children employed me, and my turbans were the rage at one
+   time, to the great dismay of the neighbors' hens, who were hotly
+   hunted down, that I might tweak out their downiest feathers to
+   adorn the dolls' headgear.
+
+   Active exercise was my delight, from the time when a child of six
+   I drove my hoop round the Common without stopping, to the days
+   when I did my twenty miles in five hours and went to a party in
+   the evening.
+
+   I always thought I must have been a deer or a horse in some
+   former state, because it was such a joy to run. No boy could be
+   my friend till I had beaten him in a race, and no girl if she
+   refused to climb trees, leap fences, and be a tomboy.
+
+   My wise mother, anxious to give me a strong body to support a
+   lively brain, turned me loose in the country and let me run wild,
+   learning of Nature what no books can teach, and being led,--as
+   those who truly love her seldom fail to be,--
+
+     "Through Nature up to Nature's God."
+
+   I remember running over the hills just at dawn one summer
+   morning, and pausing to rest in the silent woods, saw, through an
+   arch of trees, the sun rise over river, hill, and wide green
+   meadows as I never saw it before.
+
+   Something born of the lovely hour, a happy mood, and the
+   unfolding aspirations of a child's soul seemed to bring me very
+   near to God; and in the hush of that morning hour I always felt
+   that I "got religion," as the phrase goes. A new and vital sense
+   of His presence, tender and sustaining as a father's arms, came
+   to me then, never to change through forty years of life's
+   vicissitudes, but to grow stronger for the sharp discipline of
+   poverty and pain, sorrow and success.
+
+   Those Concord days were the happiest of my life, for we had
+   charming playmates in the little Emersons, Channings, Hawthornes,
+   and Goodwins, with the illustrious parents and their friends to
+   enjoy our pranks and share our excursions.
+
+   Plays in the barn were a favorite amusement, and we dramatized
+   the fairy tales in great style. Our giant came tumbling off a
+   loft when Jack cut down the squash-vine running up a ladder to
+   represent the immortal bean. Cinderella rolled away in a vast
+   pumpkin, and a long black pudding was lowered by invisible hands
+   to fasten itself on the nose of the woman who wasted her three
+   wishes.
+
+   Pilgrims journeyed over the hill with scrip and staff and
+   cockle-shells in their hats; fairies held their pretty revels
+   among the whispering birches, and strawberry parties in the
+   rustic arbor were honored by poets and philosophers, who fed us
+   on their wit and wisdom while the little maids served more mortal
+   food.
+
+FOOTNOTE:
+
+[4] Written at eight years of age.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+FRUITLANDS.
+
+     MY KINGDOM.
+
+     A little kingdom I possess,
+       Where thoughts and feelings dwell,
+     And very hard I find the task
+       Of governing it well;
+     For passion tempts and troubles me,
+       A wayward will misleads,
+     And selfishness its shadow casts
+       On all my words and deeds.
+
+     How can I learn to rule myself,
+       To be the child I should,
+     Honest and brave, nor ever tire
+       Of trying to be good?
+     How can I keep a sunny soul
+       To shine along life's way?
+     How can I tune my little heart
+       To sweetly sing all day?
+
+     Dear Father, help me with the love
+       That casteth out my fear,
+     Teach me to lean on thee, and feel
+       That thou art very near,
+     That no temptation is unseen,
+       No childish grief too small,
+     Since thou, with patience infinite,
+       Doth soothe and comfort all.
+
+     I do not ask for any crown
+       But that which all may win,
+     Nor seek to conquer any world
+       Except the one within.
+     Be thou my guide until I find,
+       Led by a tender hand,
+     Thy happy kingdom in _myself_,
+     And dare to take command.
+
+
+In 1842 Mr. Alcott went to England. His mind was very much exercised
+at this time with plans for organized social life on a higher plane,
+and he found like-minded friends in England who gave him sympathy and
+encouragement. He had for some years advocated a strictly vegetarian
+diet, to which his family consented from deference to him;
+consequently the children never tasted meat till they came to
+maturity. On his return from England he was accompanied by friends who
+were ready to unite with him in the practical realization of their
+social theories. Mr. Lane resided for some months in the Alcott family
+at Concord, and gave instruction to the children. Although he does not
+appear to have won their hearts, they yet reaped much intellectual
+advantage from his lessons, as he was an accomplished scholar.
+
+In 1843 this company of enthusiasts secured a farm in the town of
+Harvard, near Concord, which with trusting hope they named Fruitlands.
+Mrs. Alcott did not share in all the peculiar ideas of her husband and
+his friends, but she was so utterly devoted to him that she was ready
+to help him in carrying out his plans, however little they commended
+themselves to her better judgment.
+
+She alludes very briefly to the experiment in her diary, for the
+experience was too bitter to dwell upon. She could not relieve her
+feelings by bringing out the comic side, as her daughter did. Louisa's
+account of this colony, as given in her story called "Transcendental
+Wild Oats," is very close to the facts; and the mingling of pathos and
+humor, the reverence and ridicule with which she alternately treats
+the personages and the notions of those engaged in the scheme, make a
+rich and delightful tale. It was written many years later, and gives
+the picture as she looked back upon it, the absurdities coming out in
+strong relief, while she sees also the grand, misty outlines of the
+high thoughts so poorly realized. This story was published in the
+"Independent," Dec. 8, 1873, and may now be found in her collected
+works ("Silver Pitchers," p. 79).
+
+Fortunately we have also her journal written at the time, which shows
+what education the experience of this strange life brought to the
+child of ten or eleven years old.
+
+The following extract from Mr. Emerson proves that this plan of life
+looked fair and pleasing to his eye, although he was never tempted to
+join in it. He was evidently not unconscious of the inadequacy of the
+means adopted to the end proposed, but he rejoiced in any endeavor
+after high ideal life.
+
+     JULY, 8, 1843.
+
+   _Journal._--The sun and the evening sky do not look calmer than
+   Alcott and his family at Fruitlands. They seemed to have arrived
+   at the fact,--to have got rid of the show, and so to be serene.
+   Their manners and behavior in the house and in the field were
+   those of superior men,--of men at rest. What had they to conceal?
+   What had they to exhibit? And it seemed so high an attainment
+   that I thought--as often before, so now more, because they had a
+   fit home, or the picture was fitly framed--that these men ought
+   to be maintained in their place by the country for its culture.
+
+   Young men and young maidens, old men and women, should visit them
+   and be inspired. I think there is as much merit in beautiful
+   manners as in hard work. I will not prejudge them successful.
+   They look well in July; we will see them in December. I know they
+   are better for themselves than as partners. One can easily see
+   that they have yet to settle several things. Their saying that
+   things are clear, and they sane, does not make them so. If they
+   will in very deed be lovers, and not selfish; if they will serve
+   the town of Harvard, and make their neighbors feel them as
+   benefactors wherever they touch them,--they are as safe as the
+   sun.[5]
+
+
+_Early Diary kept at Fruitlands_, 1843.
+
+_Ten Years Old._
+
+   _September 1st._--I rose at five and had my bath. I love cold
+   water! Then we had our singing-lesson with Mr. Lane. After
+   breakfast I washed dishes, and ran on the hill till nine, and had
+   some thoughts,--it was so beautiful up there. Did my
+   lessons,--wrote and spelt and did sums; and Mr. Lane read a
+   story, "The Judicious Father": How a rich girl told a poor girl
+   not to look over the fence at the flowers, and was cross to her
+   because she was unhappy. The father heard her do it, and made the
+   girls change clothes. The poor one was glad to do it, and he told
+   her to keep them. But the rich one was very sad; for she had to
+   wear the old ones a week, and after that she was good to shabby
+   girls. I liked it very much, and I shall be kind to poor people.
+
+   Father asked us what was God's noblest work. Anna said _men_, but
+   I said _babies_. Men are often bad; babies never are. We had a
+   long talk, and I felt better after it, and _cleared up_.
+
+   We had bread and fruit for dinner. I read and walked and played
+   till supper-time. We sung in the evening. As I went to bed the
+   moon came up very brightly and looked at me. I felt sad because I
+   have been cross to-day, and did not mind Mother. I cried, and
+   then I felt better, and said that piece from Mrs. Sigourney, "I
+   must not tease my mother." I get to sleep saying poetry,--I know
+   a great deal.
+
+   _Thursday, 14th._--Mr. Parker Pillsbury came, and we talked about
+   the poor slaves. I had a music lesson with Miss F. I hate her,
+   she is so fussy. I ran in the wind and played be a horse, and had
+   a lovely time in the woods with Anna and Lizzie. We were fairies,
+   and made gowns and paper wings. I "flied" the highest of all. In
+   the evening they talked about travelling. I thought about Father
+   going to England, and said this piece of poetry I found in
+   Byron's poems:--
+
+     "When I left thy shores, O Naxos,
+       Not a tear in sorrow fell;
+     Not a sigh or faltered accent
+       Told my bosom's struggling swell."
+
+   It rained when I went to bed, and made a pretty noise on the
+   roof.
+
+   _Sunday, 24th._--Father and Mr. Lane have gone to N. H. to
+   preach. It was very lovely.... Anna and I got supper. In the eve
+   I read "Vicar of Wakefield." I was cross to-day, and I cried when
+   I went to bed. I made good resolutions, and felt better in my
+   heart. If I only _kept_ all I make, I should be the best girl in
+   the world. But I don't, and so am very bad.
+
+   [Poor little sinner! _She says the same at fifty._--L. M. A.]
+
+   _October 8th._--When I woke up, the first thought I got was,
+   "It's Mother's birthday: I must be very good." I ran and wished
+   her a happy birthday, and gave her my kiss. After breakfast we
+   gave her our presents. I had a moss cross and a piece of poetry
+   for her.
+
+   We did not have any school, and played in the woods and got red
+   leaves. In the evening we danced and sung, and I read a story
+   about "Contentment." I wish I was rich, I was good, and we were
+   all a happy family this day.
+
+   _Thursday, 12th._--After lessons I ironed. We all went to the
+   barn and husked corn. It was good fun. We worked till eight
+   o'clock and had lamps. Mr. Russell came. Mother and Lizzie are
+   going to Boston. I shall be very lonely without dear little
+   Betty, and no one will be as good to me as mother. I read in
+   Plutarch. I made a verse about sunset:--
+
+     Softly doth the sun descend
+       To his couch behind the hill,
+     Then, oh, then, I love to sit
+       On mossy banks beside the rill.
+
+   Anna thought it was very fine; but I didn't like it very well.
+
+   _Friday, Nov. 2nd._--Anna and I did the work. In the evening Mr.
+   Lane asked us, "What is man?" These were our answers: A human
+   being; an animal with a mind; a creature; a body; a soul and a
+   mind. After a long talk we went to bed very tired.
+
+   [No wonder, after doing the work and worrying their little wits
+   with such lessons.--L. M. A.]
+
+   A sample of the vegetarian wafers we used at Fruitlands:--
+
+     Vegetable diet
+     and sweet repose.
+     Animal food and
+     nightmare.
+
+     Pluck your body
+     from the orchard;
+     do not snatch it
+     from the shamble.
+
+     Without flesh diet
+     there could be no
+     blood-shedding war.
+
+     Apollo eats no
+     flesh and has no
+     beard; his voice is
+     melody itself.
+
+     Snuff is no less snuff
+     though accepted from
+     a gold box.
+
+   _Tuesday, 20th._--I rose at five, and after breakfast washed the
+   dishes, and then helped mother work. Miss F. is gone, and Anna in
+   Boston with Cousin Louisa. I took care of Abby (May) in the
+   afternoon. In the evening I made some pretty things for my dolly.
+   Father and Mr. L. 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.
+
+   Eleven years old. _Thursday, 29th._--It was Father's and my
+   birthday. We had some nice presents. We played in the snow before
+   school. Mother read "Rosamond" when we sewed. Father asked us in
+   the eve what fault troubled us most. I said my bad temper.
+
+   I told mother I liked to have her write in my book. She said she
+   would put in more, and she wrote this to help me:--
+
+   DEAR LOUY,--Your handwriting improves very fast. Take pains and
+   do not be in a hurry. I like to have you make observations about
+   our conversations and your own thoughts. It helps you to express
+   them and to understand your little self. Remember, dear girl,
+   that a diary should be an epitome of your life. May it be a
+   record of pure thought and good actions, then you will indeed be
+   the precious child of your loving mother.
+
+   _December 10th._--I did my lessons, and walked in the afternoon.
+   Father read to us in dear Pilgrim's Progress. Mr. L. was in
+   Boston, and we were glad. In the eve father and mother and Anna
+   and I had a long talk. I was very unhappy, and we all cried. Anna
+   and I cried in bed, and I prayed God to keep us all together.
+
+   [Little Lu began early to feel the family cares and peculiar
+   trials.--L. M. A.]
+
+   I liked the verses Christian sung and will put them in:--
+
+     "This place has been our second stage,
+       Here we have heard and seen
+     Those good things that from age to age
+       To others hid have been.
+
+     "They move me for to watch and pray,
+       To strive to be sincere,
+     To take my cross up day by day,
+       And serve the Lord with fear."
+
+   [The appropriateness of the song at this time was much greater
+   than the child saw. She never forgot this experience, and her
+   little cross began to grow heavier from this hour.--L. M. A.]
+
+   CONCORD, _Sunday_.--We all went into the woods to get moss for
+   the _arbor_ Father is making for _Mr. Emerson_. I miss Anna so
+   much. I made two verses for her:--
+
+     TO ANNA.
+
+     Sister, dear, when you are lonely,
+       Longing for your distant home,
+     And the images of loved ones
+       Warmly to your heart shall come,
+     Then, mid tender thoughts and fancies,
+       Let one fond voice say to thee,
+     "Ever when your heart is heavy,
+       Anna, dear, then think of me."
+
+     Think how we two have together
+       Journeyed onward day by day,
+     Joys and sorrows ever sharing,
+       While the swift years roll away.
+     Then may all the sunny hours
+       Of our youth rise up to thee,
+     And when your heart is light and happy,
+       Anna, dear, then think of me.
+
+   [Poetry began to flow about this time in a thin but copious
+   stream.--L. M. A.]
+
+   _Wednesday._--Read Martin Luther. A long letter from Anna. She
+   sends me a picture of Jenny Lind, the great singer. She must be a
+   happy girl. I should like to be famous as she is. Anna is very
+   happy; and I don't miss her as much as I shall by and by in the
+   winter.
+
+   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. Read Miss Bremer's "Home" in
+   the eve. 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.
+
+   [Moods began early.--L. M. A.]
+
+   _January, 1845, Friday._--Did my lessons, and in the P.M. mother
+   read "Kenilworth" to us while we sewed. It is splendid! I got
+   angry and called Anna mean. Father told me to look out the word
+   in the Dic., and it meant "base," "contemptible." I was so
+   ashamed to have called my dear sister that, and I cried over my
+   bad tongue and temper.
+
+   We have had a lovely day. All the trees were covered with ice,
+   and it shone like diamonds or fairy palaces. I made a piece of
+   poetry about winter:--
+
+     The stormy winter's come at last,
+       With snow and rain and bitter blast;
+     Ponds and brooks are frozen o'er,
+       We cannot sail there any more.
+
+     The little birds are flown away
+       To warmer climes than ours;
+     They'll come no more till gentle May
+       Calls them back with flowers.
+
+     Oh, then the darling birds will sing
+       From their neat nests in the trees.
+     All creatures wake to welcome Spring,
+       And flowers dance in the breeze.
+
+     With patience wait till winter is o'er,
+       And all lovely things return;
+     Of every season try the more
+       Some knowledge or virtue to learn.
+
+   [A moral is tacked on even to the early poems.--L. M. A.]
+
+   I read "Philothea,"[6] by Mrs. Child. I found this that I liked
+   in it. Plato said:--
+
+   "When I hear a note of music I can at once strike its chord. Even
+   as surely is there everlasting harmony between the soul of man
+   and the invisible forms of creation. If there were no innocent
+   hearts there would be no white lilies.... I often think flowers
+   are the angel's alphabet whereby they write on hills and fields
+   mysterious and beautiful lessons for us to feel and learn."
+
+   [Well done, twelve-year-old! Plato, the father's delight, had a
+   charm for the little girl also.--L. M. A.]
+
+   _Wednesday._--I am so cross I wish I had never been born.
+
+   _Thursday._--Read the "Heart of Mid-Lothian," and had a very
+   happy day. Miss Ford gave us a botany lesson in the woods. I am
+   always good there. In the evening Miss Ford told us about the
+   bones in our bodies, and how they get out of order. I must be
+   careful of mine, I climb and jump and run so much.
+
+   I found this note from dear mother in my journal:--
+
+   MY DEAREST LOUY,--I often peep into your diary, hoping to see
+   some record of more happy days. "Hope, and keep busy," dear
+   daughter, and in all perplexity or trouble come freely to your
+
+     MOTHER.
+
+   DEAR MOTHER,--You _shall_ see more happy days, and I _will_ come
+   to you with my worries, for you are the best woman in the world.
+
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+_A Sample of our Lessons._
+
+   "What virtues do you wish more of?" asks Mr. L.
+
+   I answer:--
+
+     Patience,
+     Obedience,
+     Industry,
+
+     Love,
+     Generosity,
+     Respect,
+
+     Silence,
+     Perseverance,
+     Self-denial.
+
+"What vices less of?"
+
+     Idleness,
+     Impatience,
+     Selfishness,
+
+     Wilfulness,
+     Impudence,
+     Activity,
+
+     Vanity,
+     Pride,
+     Love of cats.
+
+       MR. L.          L.
+     SOCRATES.     ALCIBIADES.
+
+   How can you get what you need? By trying.
+
+   How do you try? By resolution and perseverance.
+
+   How gain love? By gentleness.
+
+   What is gentleness? Kindness, patience, and care for other
+   people's feelings.
+
+   Who has it? Father and Anna.
+
+   Who means to have it? Louisa, if she can.
+
+   [She never got it.--L. M. A.]
+
+   Write a sentence about anything. "I hope it will rain; the garden
+   needs it."
+
+   What are the elements of _hope_? Expectation, desire, faith.
+
+   What are the elements in _wish_? Desire.
+
+   What is the difference between faith and hope? "Faith can believe
+   without seeing; hope is not sure, but tries to have faith when it
+   desires."
+
+     No. 3.
+
+   What are the most valuable kinds of self-denial? Appetite,
+   temper.
+
+   How is self-denial of temper known? If I control my temper, I am
+   respectful and gentle, and every one sees it.
+
+   What is the result of this self-denial? Every one loves me, and I
+   am happy.
+
+   Why use self-denial? For the good of myself and others.
+
+   How shall we learn this self-denial? By resolving, and then
+   trying _hard._
+
+   What then do you mean to do? To resolve and try.
+
+   [Here the record of these lessons ends, and poor little
+   Alcibiades went to work and tried till fifty, but without any
+   very great success, in spite of all the help Socrates and Plato
+   gave her.--L. M. A.]
+
+   _Tuesday._--More people coming to live with us; I wish we could
+   be together, and no one else. I don't see who is to clothe and
+   feed us all, when we are so poor now. I was very dismal, and then
+   went to walk and made a poem.
+
+     DESPONDENCY.
+
+           Silent and sad,
+           When all are glad,
+     And the earth is dressed in flowers;
+           When the gay birds sing
+           Till the forests ring,
+     As they rest in woodland bowers.
+
+           Oh, why these tears,
+           And these idle fears
+     For what may come to-morrow?
+           The birds find food
+           From God so good,
+     And the flowers know no sorrow.
+
+           If He clothes these
+           And the leafy trees,
+     Will He not cherish thee?
+           Why doubt His care;
+           It is everywhere,
+     Though the way we may not see.
+
+           Then why be sad
+           When all are glad,
+     And the world is full of flowers?
+           With the gay birds sing,
+           Make life all Spring,
+     And smile through the darkest hours.
+
+Louisa Alcott grew up so naturally in a healthy religious atmosphere
+that she breathed and worked in it without analysis or question. She
+had not suffered from ecclesiastical tyranny or sectarian bigotry,
+and needed not to expend any time or strength in combating them. She
+does not appear to have suffered from doubt or questioning, but to
+have gone on her way fighting all the real evils that were presented
+to her, trusting in a sure power of right, and confident of victory.
+
+   CONCORD, _Thursday._--I had an early run in the woods before the
+   dew was off the grass. The moss was like velvet, and as I ran
+   under the arches of yellow and red leaves I sang for joy, my
+   heart was so bright and the world so beautiful. I stopped at the
+   end of the walk and saw the sunshine out over the wide "Virginia
+   meadows."
+
+   It seemed like going through a dark life or grave into heaven
+   beyond. A very strange and solemn feeling came over me as I stood
+   there, with no sound but the rustle of the pines, no one near me,
+   and the sun so glorious, as for me alone. It seemed as if I
+   _felt_ God as I never did before, and I prayed in my heart that I
+   might keep that happy sense of nearness all my life.
+
+   [I have, for I most sincerely think that the little girl "got
+   religion" that day in the wood when dear mother Nature led her to
+   God.--L. M. A., 1885.]
+
+One of Louisa's strongest desires at this time was for a room of her
+own, where she might have the solitude she craved to dream her dreams
+and work out her fancies. These sweet little notes and an extract from
+her journal show how this desire was felt and gratified.
+
+   DEAREST MOTHER,--I have tried to be more contented, and I think I
+   have been more so. I have been thinking about my little room,
+   which I suppose I never shall have. I should want to be there
+   about all the time, and I should go there and sing and think.
+
+     But I'll be contented
+       With what I have got;
+     Of folly repented,
+       Then sweet is my lot.
+
+     From your trying daughter,
+     LOUY.
+
+   MY DEAR LOUISA,--Your note gave me so much delight that I cannot
+   close my eyes without first thanking you, dear, for making me so
+   happy, and blessing God who gave you this tender love for your
+   mother.
+
+   I have observed all day your patience with baby, your obedience
+   to me, and your kindness to all.
+
+   Go on "trying," my child; God will give you strength and courage,
+   and help you fill each day with words and deeds of love. I shall
+   lay this on your pillow, put a warm kiss on your lips, and say a
+   little prayer over you in your sleep.
+
+     MOTHER.
+
+   MY LOUY,--I was grieved at your selfish behavior this morning,
+   but also greatly pleased to find you bore so meekly Father's
+   reproof for it. That is the way, dear; if you find you are wrong,
+   take the discipline sweetly, and do so no more. It is not to be
+   expected that children should always do right; but oh, how lovely
+   to see a child penitent and patient when the passion is over.
+
+   I thought a little prayer as I looked at you, and said in my
+   heart, "Dear God, sustain my child in this moment of trial, that
+   no hasty word, no cruel look, no angry action may add to her
+   fault." And you were helped. I know that you will have a happy
+   day after the storm and the gentle shower; keep quiet, read,
+   walk, but do not talk much till all is peace again.
+
+     MOTHER.
+
+     HILLSIDE, CONCORD.
+
+   DEAR,--I am glad you put your heart in the right place; for I am
+   sure all true strength comes from above. Continue to feel that
+   God is _near_ you, dear child, and He never will forsake you in a
+   weak moment. Write me always when you feel that I can help you;
+   for, though God is near, Mother never forgets you, and your
+   refuge is her arms.
+
+   Patience, dear, will give us content, if nothing else. Be assured
+   the little room you long for will come, if it is necessary to
+   your peace and well-being. Till then try to be happy with the
+   good things you have. They are many,--more perhaps than we
+   deserve, after our frequent complaints and discontent.
+
+   Be cheerful, my Louy, and all will be gayer for your laugh, and
+   all good and lovely things will be given to you when you deserve
+   them.
+
+   I am a busy woman, but never can forget the calls of my children.
+
+     MOTHER.
+
+   DEAREST,--I am sure you have lived very near to God _to-day_, you
+   have been so good and happy. Let each day be like this, and life
+   will become a sweet song for you and all who love you,--none so
+   much as your
+
+     MOTHER.
+
+
+_Thirteen Years Old._
+
+     HILLSIDE.
+
+   _March, 1846._--I have at last got the little room I have wanted
+   so long, and am very happy about it. It does me good to be
+   alone, and Mother has made it very pretty and neat for me. My
+   work-basket and desk are by the window, and my closet is full of
+   dried herbs that smell very nice. The door that opens into the
+   garden will be very pretty in summer, and I can run off to the
+   woods when I like.
+
+   I have made a plan for my life, as I am in my teens and no more a
+   child. I am old for my age, and don't care much for girl's
+   things. People think I'm wild and queer; but Mother understands
+   and helps me. I have not told any one about my plan; but I'm
+   going to _be_ good. I've made so many resolutions, and written
+   sad notes, and cried over my sins, and it doesn't seem to do any
+   good! Now I'm going to _work really_, for I feel a true desire to
+   improve, and be a help and comfort, not a care and sorrow, to my
+   dear mother.
+
+
+ _Fifteen Years Old._
+
+   _Sunday, Oct. 9, 1847._--I have been reading to-day Bettine's
+   correspondence with Goethe.
+
+   She calls herself a child, and writes about the lovely things she
+   saw and heard, and felt and did. I liked it much.
+
+   [First taste of Goethe. Three years later R. W. E. gave me
+   "Wilhelm Meister," and from that day Goethe has been my chief
+   idol.--L. M. A., 1885.]
+
+The experiment at Fruitlands was (outwardly) an utter failure, and had
+exhausted Mr. Alcott's resources of mind, body, and estate. Louisa has
+not exaggerated the collapse which followed. But the brave, loving
+mother could not give way to despondency, for she had her young to
+care for. After a few days Mr. Alcott rose from his despair, and
+listened to her counsel. They lived a short time at Still River, and
+then returned to Concord; but not to the happy little cottage.
+
+Mr. Alcott sought such work as he could find to do with his hands; but
+it was scanty and insufficient. Mrs. Alcott subdued her proud heart to
+the necessity of seeking help from friends. They had a few rooms in
+the house of a kind neighbor, who welcomed them to her house, in
+addition to her own large family; and there they struggled with the
+poverty which Louisa for the first time fully realized.
+
+Yet her journal says little of the hardships they endured, but is full
+of her mental and moral struggles. It was characteristic of this
+family that they never were conquered by their surroundings. Mr.
+Alcott might retire into sad and silent musing, Mrs. Alcott's warm,
+quick temper, might burst out into flame, the children might be
+quarrelsome or noisy; but their ideal of life always remained high,
+fresh, and ennobling. Their souls always "knew their destiny divine,"
+and believed that they would find fitting expression in life some
+time. "Chill penury" could not repress "their noble rage," nor freeze
+"the genial current" of their souls.
+
+The children escaped from the privations of daily life into a world of
+romance, and in the plays in the old barn revelled in luxury and
+splendor. This dramatic tendency was very strong in Louisa, and she
+never outgrew it. It took various shapes and colors, and at one time
+threatened to dominate her life.
+
+The education of the children was certainly desultory and
+insufficient; but it was inspiring, and brought out their powers. They
+learned to feel and to think justly, and to express their thoughts and
+feelings freely and forcibly, if they did not know well the rules of
+grammar and rhetoric. Mr. Alcott always loved the study of language,
+and became a master of it; while Mrs. Alcott had a rich and
+well-chosen vocabulary, gained from the intelligent companions of her
+youth and the best literature, which she read freely. Mr. Alcott made
+great use of the study of language in his teaching, and often employed
+the definition of a word to convey a lesson or a rebuke. The children
+were encouraged, and even required, to keep their journals regularly,
+and to write letters. Their efforts at poetry or the drama were not
+laughed at, but treasured by their parents as indications of progress.
+Mr. Alcott's records of his own theory and practice in the education
+of children are full of valuable suggestion, and much yet remains
+buried in his journals. The girls had full freedom to act out their
+natures, with little fear of ridicule or criticism. An innate sense of
+dignity and modesty kept them from abusing this liberty; and perhaps
+nowhere in the world could it have been more safely indulged than in
+the simple life of Concord, whose very atmosphere seemed then filled
+with a spiritual presence which made life free, pure, and serene.
+
+Louisa gives this interesting anecdote of their life at that time:--
+
+   People wondered at our frolics, but enjoyed them, and droll
+   stories are still told of the adventures of those days. Mr.
+   Emerson and Margaret Fuller were visiting my parents one
+   afternoon, and the conversation having turned to the ever
+   interesting subject of education, Miss Fuller said:--
+
+   "Well, Mr. Alcott, you have been able to carry out your methods
+   in your own family, and I should like to see your model
+   children."
+
+   She did in a few moments, for as the guests stood on the
+   door-steps a wild uproar approached, and round the corner of the
+   house came a wheelbarrow holding baby May arrayed as a queen; I
+   was the horse, bitted and bridled, and driven by my elder sister
+   Anna; while Lizzie played dog, and barked as loud as her gentle
+   voice permitted.
+
+   All were shouting and wild with fun, which, however, came to a
+   sudden end as we espied the stately group before us; for my foot
+   tripped, and down we all went in a laughing heap; while my mother
+   put a climax to the joke by saying, with a dramatic wave of the
+   hand,--
+
+   "Here are the model children, Miss Fuller."
+
+They were undoubtedly very satisfactory to Miss Fuller, who partook
+largely of the educational views of that time, and who loved to tell
+anecdotes of this family. One of the sisters writes in her diary: "She
+_said_ prayers; but I think my resolutions to be good are prayers."
+
+In 1841 Colonel May, Mrs. Alcott's father, died and left her a small
+amount of property. Mrs. Alcott decided to purchase with this a house
+in Concord, and the addition of five hundred dollars from Mr. Emerson,
+who was always the good Providence of the family, enabled her in 1845
+to buy the place in Concord known as Hillside. This house is on the
+road to Lexington, about one third of a mile from Mr. Emerson's home.
+It was afterward occupied by Mr. Hawthorne.
+
+In this house the girlish life of Louisa was passed, which she has
+represented so fully in "Little Women," and of which she speaks in her
+journal as the happiest time of her life. Yet she was not unmindful of
+the anxiety of her parents; and the determined purpose to retrieve the
+fortunes of the family and to give to her mother the comfort and ease
+which she had never known in her married life became the constant
+motive of her conduct. It is in the light of this purpose alone that
+her character and her subsequent career can be fully understood. She
+naturally thought of teaching as her work, and had for a short time a
+little school in the barn for Mr. Emerson's children and others.
+
+It was indeed a great comfort to be sure of the house over their
+heads, but there were still six mouths to be fed, six bodies to be
+clothed, and four young, eager minds to be educated. Concord offered
+very little opportunity for such work as either Mr. or Mrs. Alcott
+could do, and at last even the mother's brave heart broke down. She
+was painfully anxious about the support of her household. A friend
+passing through Concord called upon her, and Mrs. Alcott could not
+hide the traces of tears on her face. "Abby Alcott, what does this
+mean?" said the visitor, with determined kindness. The poor mother
+opened her heart to her friend, and told the story of their privations
+and sufferings.
+
+"Come to Boston, and I will find you employment," said the friend.
+
+The family removed to Boston in 1848, and Mrs. Alcott became a visitor
+to the poor in the employ of one or more benevolent societies, and
+finally kept an intelligence office. Her whole heart went into her
+work; and the children, as well as the mother, learned many valuable
+lessons from it. Her reports of her work are said to have been very
+interesting, and full of valuable suggestion.
+
+Mr. Alcott began to hold conversations in West Street. He attracted a
+small circle of thoughtful men and women about him, who delighted in
+the height of his aspirations and the originality of his thoughts. It
+was congenial occupation for him, and thus added to the happiness of
+the family, though very little to its pecuniary resources. His price
+of admission was small, and he freely invited any one who would enjoy
+the meetings although unable to pay for them. He was a great and
+helpful influence to young minds. Besides the morally pure and
+spiritually elevated atmosphere of thought to which they were
+introduced by him, they found a great intellectual advantage in the
+acquaintance with ancient poets and philosophers, into whose life he
+had entered sympathetically. His peculiar theories of temperament and
+diet never failed to call out discussion and opposition. One of my
+earliest recollections of Louisa is on one of these occasions, when he
+was emphasizing his doctrine that a vegetable diet would produce
+unruffled sweetness of temper and disposition. I heard a voice behind
+me saying to her neighbor: "I don't know about that. I've never eaten
+any meat, and I'm awful cross and irritable very often."
+
+On her fourteenth birthday her mother wrote her the following poem,
+with a present of a pen. It was a prophetic gift, and well used by the
+receiver.
+
+     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.
+
+   [Original, I think. I have tried to obey.--L. M. A., 1885.]
+
+In a sketch written for a friend, Louisa gives this account of the
+parents' influence on the children:--
+
+   When cautious friends asked mother how she dared to have such
+   outcasts among her girls, she always answered, with an expression
+   of confidence which did much to keep us safe, "I can trust my
+   daughters, and this is the best way to teach them how to shun
+   these sins and comfort these sorrows. They cannot escape the
+   knowledge of them; better gain this under their father's roof and
+   their mother's care, and so be protected by these experiences
+   when their turn comes to face the world and its temptations."
+   Once we carried our breakfast to a starving family; once lent our
+   whole dinner to a neighbor suddenly taken unprepared by
+   distinguished guests. Another time, one snowy Saturday night,
+   when our wood was very low, a poor child came to beg a little, as
+   the baby was sick and the father on a spree with all his wages.
+   My mother hesitated at first, as we also had a baby. Very cold
+   weather was upon us, and a Sunday to be got through before more
+   wood could be had. My father said, "Give half our stock, and
+   trust in Providence; the weather will moderate, or wood will
+   come." Mother laughed, and answered in her cheery way, "Well,
+   their need is greater than ours, and if our half gives out we can
+   go to bed and tell stories." So a generous half went to the poor
+   neighbor, and a little later in the eve, while the storm still
+   raged and we were about to cover our fire to keep it, a knock
+   came, and a farmer who usually supplied us appeared, saying
+   anxiously, "I started for Boston with a load of wood, but it
+   drifts so I want to go home. Wouldn't you like to have me drop
+   the wood here; it would accommodate me, and you needn't hurry
+   about paying for it." "Yes," said Father; and as the man went off
+   he turned to Mother with a look that much impressed us children
+   with his gifts as a seer, "Didn't I tell you wood would come if
+   the weather did not moderate?" Mother's motto was "Hope, and keep
+   busy," and one of her sayings, "Cast your bread upon the waters,
+   and after many days it will come back buttered."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[5] Emerson in Concord. By Edward Waldo Emerson.
+
+[6] "Philothea" was the delight of girls. The young Alcotts made a
+dramatic version of it, which they acted under the trees. Louisa made
+a magnificent Aspasia, which was a part much to her fancy. Mrs. Child
+was a very dear friend of Mrs. Alcott, and her daughters knew her
+well.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+THE SENTIMENTAL PERIOD.
+
+     A SONG FROM THE SUDS.
+
+     Queen of my tub, I merrily sing,
+       While the white foam rises high,
+     And sturdily wash, and rinse, and wring,
+       And fasten the clothes to dry;
+     Then out in the free fresh air they swing,
+       Under the sunny sky.
+
+     I wish we could wash from our hearts and our souls
+       The stains of the week away,
+     And let water and air by their magic make
+       Ourselves as pure as they;
+     Then on the earth there would be indeed
+       A glorious washing-day!
+
+     Along the path of a useful life
+       Will heart's-ease ever bloom;
+     The busy mind has no time to think
+       Of sorrow, or care, or gloom;
+     And anxious thoughts may be swept away
+       As we busily wield a broom.
+
+     I am glad a task to me is given
+       To labor at day by day;
+     For it brings me health, and strength, and hope,
+       And I cheerfully learn to say,--
+     "Head, you may think; heart, you may feel;
+       But hand, you shall work alway!"
+
+
+The period of free, happy childhood was necessarily short, and at
+about the age of fifteen Louisa Alcott began to feel the pressure of
+thoughts and duties which made life a more solemn matter. In spite of
+the overflowing fun which appears in her books, her nature was very
+serious, and she could not cast aside care lightly. So many varying
+tendencies existed in her character that she must have struggled with
+many doubts and questions before finding the true path. But she always
+kept the pole-star of right strictly in view, and never failed in
+truth to that duty which seemed to her nearest and most imperative. If
+she erred in judgment, she did not err in conscientious fidelity.
+
+Her mother's rules for her guidance were--
+
+     Rule yourself.
+     Love your neighbor.
+     Do the duty which lies nearest you.
+
+She never lost sight of these instructions.
+
+I will introduce this period in her own words, as written later for
+the use of a friend.
+
+   My romantic period began at fifteen, when I fell to writing
+   poetry, keeping a heart-journal, and wandering by moonlight
+   instead of sleeping quietly. About that time, in browsing over
+   Mr. Emerson's library, I found Goethe's "Correspondence with a
+   Child," and at once was fired with a desire to be a Bettine,
+   making my father's friend my Goethe. So I wrote letters to him,
+   but never sent them; sat in a tall cherry-tree at midnight,
+   singing to the moon till the owls scared me to bed; left wild
+   flowers on the doorstep of my "Master," and sung Mignon's song
+   under his window in very bad German.
+
+   Not till many years later did I tell _my_ Goethe of this early
+   romance and the part he played in it. He was much amused, and
+   begged for his letters, kindly saying he felt honored to be so
+   worshipped. The letters were burnt long ago, but Emerson remained
+   my "Master" while he lived, doing more for me,--as for many
+   another,--than he knew, by the simple beauty of his life, the
+   truth and wisdom of his books, the example of a great, good man,
+   untempted and unspoiled by the world which he made better while
+   in it, and left richer and nobler when he went.
+
+   The trials of life began about this time, and happy childhood
+   ended. One of the most memorable days of my life is a certain
+   gloomy November afternoon, when we had been holding a family
+   council as to ways and means. In summer we lived much as the
+   birds did, on our fruit and bread and milk; the sun was our fire,
+   the sky our roof, and Nature's plenty made us forget that such a
+   thing as poverty existed.
+
+In 1850 she heads her diary "The Sentimental Period." She was then
+seventeen years old, but her diary gives no hint of the sentimental
+notions that often fill the heads of young girls at that period. The
+experiences of Jo with her charming young neighbor in "Little Women"
+do not represent hers at all.
+
+One bit of romance was suggested by Goethe's "Correspondence with a
+Child." It may be difficult for readers of to-day to understand the
+fascination which this book exercised upon young minds of the last
+generation, yet it is certain that it led more than one young girl to
+form an ideal attachment to a man far older than herself, but full of
+nobility and intellectual greatness. Theodore Parker said of letters
+addressed to him by a young New Hampshire girl, "They are as good as
+Bettine's without the lies." This mingling of idealism and
+hero-worship was strongly characteristic of that transcendental period
+when women, having little solid education and less industrial
+employment, were full of noble aspirations and longings for fuller and
+freer life, which must find expression in some way.
+
+The young woman of to-day, wearing waterproof and india-rubber boots,
+skating, driving, and bicycling, studying chemistry in the laboratory,
+exhibiting her pictures in open competition, adopting a profession
+without opposition, and living single without fear of reproach, has
+less time for fancies and more regard for facts.
+
+Miss Alcott was safe in choosing her idol. Worship of Emerson could
+only refine and elevate her thoughts, and her intimate acquaintance
+with his beautiful home chastened her idolatry into pure reverent
+friendship which never failed her. She kept her worship to herself,
+and never sent him the letters in which she poured out the longings
+and raptures which filled her girlish heart.
+
+Her diary, which was revised by herself in later years, tells the
+story of this period quite fully. The details may seem trifling, but
+they help to illustrate this important formative period of her life.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+THE SENTIMENTAL PERIOD.
+
+   BOSTON, _May, 1850._--So long a time has passed since I kept a
+   journal that I hardly know how to begin. Since coming to the city
+   I don't seem to have thought much, for the bustle and dirt and
+   change send all lovely images and restful feelings away. Among my
+   hills and woods I had fine free times alone, and though my
+   thoughts were silly, I daresay, they helped to keep me happy and
+   good. I see now what Nature did for me, and my "romantic tastes,"
+   as people called that love of solitude and out-of-door life,
+   taught me much.
+
+   This summer, like the last, we shall spend in a large house
+   (Uncle May's, Atkinson Street), with many comforts about us which
+   we shall enjoy, and in the autumn I hope I shall have something
+   to show that the time has not been wasted. Seventeen years have I
+   lived, and yet so little do I know, and so much remains to be
+   done before I begin to be what I desire,--a truly good and useful
+   woman.
+
+   In looking over our journals, Father says, "Anna's is about other
+   people, Louisa's about herself." That is true, for I don't _talk_
+   about myself; yet must always think of the wilful, moody girl I
+   try to manage, and in my journal I write of her to see how she
+   gets on. Anna is so good she need not take care of herself, and
+   can enjoy other people. If I look in my glass, I try to keep down
+   vanity about my long hair, my well-shaped head, and my good nose.
+   In the street I try not to covet fine things. My quick tongue is
+   always getting me into trouble, and my moodiness makes it hard to
+   be cheerful when I think how poor we are, how much worry it is to
+   live, and how many things I long to do I never can.
+
+   So every day is a battle, and I'm so tired I don't want to live;
+   only it's cowardly to die till you have done something.
+
+   I can't talk to any one but Mother about my troubles, and she has
+   so many now to bear I try not to add any more. I know God is
+   always ready to hear, but heaven's so far away in the city, and
+   I so heavy I can't fly up to find Him.
+
+     FAITH.
+     Written in the diary.
+
+     Oh, when the heart is full of fears
+       And the way seems dim to heaven,
+     When the sorrow and the care of years
+       Peace from the heart has driven,--
+     Then, through the mist of falling tears,
+       Look up and be forgiven.
+
+     Forgiven for the lack of faith
+       That made all dark to thee,
+     Let conscience o'er thy wayward soul
+       Have fullest mastery:
+     Hope on, fight on, and thou shalt win
+       A noble victory.
+
+     Though thou art weary and forlorn,
+       Let not thy heart's peace go;
+     Though the riches of this world are gone,
+       And thy lot is care and woe,
+     Faint not, but journey hourly on:
+       True wealth is not below.
+
+     Through all the darkness still look up:
+       Let virtue be thy guide;
+     Take thy draught from sorrow's cup,
+       Yet trustfully abide;
+     Let not temptation vanquish thee,
+       And the Father will provide.
+
+   [We had small-pox in the family this summer, caught from some
+   poor immigrants whom mother took into our garden and fed one day.
+   We girls had it lightly, but Father and Mother were very ill, and
+   we had a curious time of exile, danger, and trouble. No doctors,
+   and all got well.--L. M. A.]
+
+   _July_, 1850.--Anna is gone to L. after the varioloid. She is to
+   help Mrs. ---- with her baby. I had to take A.'s school of twenty
+   in Canton Street. I like it better than I thought, though it's
+   very hard to be patient with the children sometimes. They seem
+   happy, and learn fast; so I am encouraged, though at first it was
+   very hard, and I missed Anna so much I used to cry over my dinner
+   and be very blue. I guess this is the teaching I need; for as a
+   _school-marm_ I must behave myself and guard my tongue and temper
+   carefully, and set an example of sweet manners.
+
+   I found one of mother's notes in my journal, so like those she
+   used to write me when she had more time. It always encourages me;
+   and I wish some one would write as helpfully to her, for she
+   needs cheering up with all the care she has. I often think what a
+   hard life she has had since she married,--so full of wandering
+   and all sorts of worry! so different from her early easy days,
+   the youngest and most petted of her family. I think she is a very
+   brave, good woman; and my dream is to have a lovely, quiet home
+   for her, with no debts or troubles to burden her. But I'm afraid
+   she will be in heaven before I can do it. Anna, too, she is
+   feeble and homesick, and I miss her dreadfully; for she is my
+   conscience, always true and just and good. She must have a good
+   time in a nice little home of her own some day, as we often plan.
+   But waiting is so _hard_!
+
+   _August_, 1850.--School is hard work, and I feel as though I
+   should like to run away from it. But my children get on; so I
+   travel up every day, and do my best.
+
+   I get very little time to write or think; for my working days
+   have begun, and when school is over Anna wants me; so I have no
+   quiet. I think a little solitude every day is good for me. In
+   the quiet I see my faults, and try to mend them; but, deary me, I
+   don't get on at all.
+
+   I used to imagine my mind a room in confusion, and I was to put
+   it in order; so I swept out useless thoughts and dusted foolish
+   fancies away, and furnished it with good resolutions and began
+   again. But cobwebs get in. I'm not a good housekeeper, and never
+   get my room in nice order. I once wrote a poem about it when I
+   was fourteen, and called it "My Little Kingdom." It is still hard
+   to rule it, and always will be I think.
+
+   Reading Miss Bremer and Hawthorne. The "Scarlet Letter" is my
+   favorite. Mother likes Miss B. better, as more wholesome. I fancy
+   "lurid" things, if true and strong also.
+
+   Anna wants to be an actress, and so do I. We could make plenty of
+   money perhaps, and it is a very gay life. Mother says we are too
+   young, and must wait. A. acts often splendidly. I like tragic
+   plays, and shall be a Siddons if I can. We get up fine ones, and
+   make harps, castles, armor, dresses, water-falls, and thunder,
+   and have great fun.
+
+It was at this period of her life that she was violently attacked by a
+mania for the stage, and the greater part of her leisure time was
+given to writing and enacting dramas. Her older sister, Anna, had the
+same taste, and assisted her in carrying out all her plans. A family
+of great talent with whom they were intimate joined with them, and
+their mother always allowed them to have all the private theatricals
+they wished to perform.
+
+Some of these early plays are preserved in manuscripts as she wrote
+them. They are written in stilted, melodramatic style, full of
+highstrung sentiments of loyalty, honor and devotion, with the most
+improbable incidents and violent devices, and without a touch of
+common life or the slightest flavor of humor. The idea of
+self-sacrifice always comes into them; but they are thoroughly
+girlish. It is so that girls dream and feel before they know life at
+all. Their hearts are full of vague, restless longings, and they seek
+some vent for the repressed energies of their natures away from the
+prosaic realities of the present. While Louisa sat sewing the tedious
+seams of her daily task what a relief it was to let her imagination
+run riot among the wildest and most exciting scenes. Of course she had
+a "Bandit's Bride" among her plays. "The Captive of Castile; or, The
+Moorish Maiden's Vow," is preserved entire, and is a good specimen of
+these girlish efforts. It is full of surprises and concealments, and
+the denouement is as unnatural as could well be imagined. The dialogue
+is often bright and forcible, and the sentiments always lofty, and we
+have no doubt it seemed very grand to the youthful audience. It is
+taken from her reading, with no touch of her own life in it. This is
+not the same play described with such a ludicrous finale in "Little
+Women," although the heroine bears the same favorite name of Zara. Her
+own early amusement was, however, fully in her mind when she wrote
+that scene, which is true to fact.
+
+A friend and relative of the family living in Roxbury, Dr. Windship,
+was much interested in the development of Louisa's dramatic talent.
+The girls always enjoyed delightful visits at his house. He tried to
+help the young dramatist to public success, and writes to her
+mother:--
+
+   I have offered to Mr. Barry of the Boston Theatre Louisa's "Prima
+   Donnas." He is very much pleased with it just as it is, and will
+   bring it out this season in good style. He thinks it will have a
+   fine run.
+
+Mrs. Barry and Mrs. Wood consented to take the principal characters.
+But from some difficulty in the arrangements "The Rival Prima Donnas"
+was not produced. One great pleasure was gained, however, as Mr. Barry
+gave her a free pass to the theatre, which proved a source of constant
+refreshment and delight.
+
+Of course Louisa was eager to go on to the stage herself. She had
+indeed extraordinary dramatic power, and could at any time quickly
+transform herself into Hamlet, and recite a scene with tragic effect.
+But the careful mother knew better than the girl the trials and
+dangers of the profession, and dissuaded her from it. She also knew
+how little such youthful facility of expression indicates the power
+which will make a great actress. Louisa has reproduced her dramatic
+experience in "Work," which gives a picture faithful in spirit and in
+many of its details to this phase of her life. She here indicates a
+knowledge of her own limitation of talent. "Christie's gala" was a
+part quite after her own heart.
+
+A farce, called "Nat Batchelor's Pleasure Trip; or, The Trials of a
+Good-natured Man," was brought out at the Howard Athenaeum. The papers
+of the day said of it: "It is a creditable first attempt at dramatic
+composition, and received frequent applause." Another critic says: "It
+proved a full success." This performance, however, took place in
+1860,--a later period than that of which I am now speaking.
+
+An incident which occurred at this representation probably suggested
+scenes which recur in "Work" and other of Miss Alcott's stories.
+
+   Quite a hit was made by a little girl, a Miss Jones, who, having
+   to speak but a few lines, spoke them so well that upon her exit
+   she received the rare compliment of an enthusiastic recall from
+   the audience, despite the fact that "some necessary question of
+   the play was then to be considered." For the time being she
+   certainly was the sensation of the piece.
+
+Miss Alcott had in Dr. Windship a kind and judicious helper in her
+dramatic undertakings, with whom she kept up a correspondence under
+the names of Beaumont and Fletcher.
+
+In 1851 Louisa had an experience which she has reproduced in her story
+called "How I Went Out to Service." Her mother's work among the poor
+of Boston led to her being applied to for employment, and at one time
+she kept a regular intelligence office. A gentleman came to her
+seeking a companion for his aged father and sister, who was to do only
+light work, and to be treated with the greatest respect and kindness.
+As Mrs. Alcott did not readily think of any who would fill the place,
+the impulsive Louisa suggested, "Why couldn't I go, Mother?" She went,
+and had two months of disappointment and painful experience which she
+never forgot. She wrote out the story which was published later,
+called "How I Went Out to Service."
+
+The story has an important lesson for those who condemn severely young
+girls who prefer the more independent life of the factory or shop to
+what is considered the safety and comfort of service in families. If a
+girl like Louisa Alcott, belonging to a well-known, highly esteemed
+family, and herself commanding respect by her abilities and character,
+could be treated with such indignity by a family in which no one would
+have feared to place her, how much may not a poor unfriended girl be
+called upon to endure!
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   1851.--We went to a meeting, and heard splendid speaking from
+   Phillips, Channing, and others. People were much excited, and
+   cheered "Shadrack and liberty," groaned for "Webster and
+   slavery," and made a great noise. I felt ready to do
+   anything,--fight or work, hoot or cry,--and laid plans to free
+   Simms. I shall be horribly ashamed of my country if this thing
+   happens and the slave is taken back.
+
+   [He was.--L. M. A.]
+
+   1852.--_High Street, Boston._--After the small-pox summer, we
+   went to a house in High Street. Mother opened an intelligence
+   office, which grew out of her city missionary work and a desire
+   to find places for good girls. It was not fit work for her, but
+   it paid; and she always did what came to her in the way of duty
+   or charity, and let pride, taste, and comfort suffer for love's
+   sake.
+
+   Anna and I taught; Lizzie was our little housekeeper,--our angel
+   in a cellar kitchen; May went to school; father wrote and talked
+   when he could get classes or conversations. Our poor little home
+   had much love and happiness in it, and was a shelter for lost
+   girls, abused wives, friendless children, and weak or wicked men.
+   Father and Mother had no money to give, but gave them time,
+   sympathy, help; and if blessings would make them rich, they would
+   be millionnaires. This is practical Christianity.
+
+   My first story was printed, and $5 paid for it. It was written in
+   Concord when I was sixteen. Great rubbish! Read it aloud to
+   sisters, and when they praised it, not knowing the author, I
+   proudly announced her name.
+
+   Made a resolution to read fewer novels, and those only of the
+   best. List of books I like:--
+
+     Carlyle's French Revolution and Miscellanies.
+     Hero and Hero-Worship.
+     Goethe's poems, plays, and novels.
+     Plutarch's Lives.
+     Madame Guion.
+     Paradise Lost and Comus.
+     Schiller's Plays.
+     Madame de Stael.
+     Bettine.
+     Louis XIV.
+     Jane Eyre.
+     Hypatia.
+     Philothea.
+     Uncle Tom's Cabin.
+     Emerson's Poems.
+
+In "Little Women" (p. 174), she has told a story which has usually
+been supposed to represent her first success in literature; but she
+has transferred the incident from her sister to her own
+representative, Jo. It was the quiet Anna who had secretly written a
+story and fastened it inside of a newspaper. She read it to her mother
+and sisters, as described in the book, and was very much delighted
+with their approbation and astonishment.
+
+   1853.--In January I started a little school,--E. W., W. A., two
+   L's, two H's,--about a dozen in our parlor. In May, when my
+   school closed, I went to L. as second girl. I needed the change,
+   could do the wash, and was glad to earn my $2 a week. Home in
+   October with $34 for my wages. After two days' rest, began school
+   again with ten children. Anna went to Syracuse to teach; Father
+   to the West to try his luck,--so poor, so hopeful, so serene. God
+   be with him! Mother had several boarders, and May got on well at
+   school. Betty was still the home bird, and had a little romance
+   with C.
+
+   Pleasant letters from Father and Anna. A hard year. Summer
+   distasteful and lonely; winter tiresome with school and people I
+   didn't like. I miss Anna, my one bosom friend and comforter.
+
+   1854.--_Pinckney Street._--I have neglected my journal for
+   months, so must write it up. School for me month after month.
+   Mother busy with boarders and sewing. Father doing as well as a
+   philosopher can in a money-loving world. Anna at S.
+
+   I earned a good deal by sewing in the evening when my day's work
+   was done.
+
+   In February Father came home. Paid his way, but no more. A
+   dramatic scene when he arrived in the night. We were waked by
+   hearing the bell. Mother flew down, crying "My husband!" We
+   rushed after, and five white figures embraced the half-frozen
+   wanderer who came in hungry, tired, cold, and disappointed, but
+   smiling bravely and as serene as ever. We fed and warmed and
+   brooded over him, longing to ask if he had made any money; but no
+   one did till little May said, after he had told all the pleasant
+   things, "Well, did people pay you?" Then, with a queer look, he
+   opened his pocket-book and showed one dollar, saying with a smile
+   that made our eyes fill, "Only that! My overcoat was stolen, and
+   I had to buy a shawl. Many promises were not kept, and travelling
+   is costly; but I have opened the way, and another year shall do
+   better."
+
+   I shall never forget how beautifully Mother answered him, though
+   the dear, hopeful soul had built much on his success; but with a
+   beaming face she kissed him, saying, "I call that doing _very
+   well_. Since you are safely home, dear, we don't ask anything
+   more."
+
+   Anna and I choked down our tears, and took a little lesson in
+   real love which we never forgot, nor the look that the tired man
+   and the tender woman gave one another. It was half tragic and
+   comic, for Father was very dirty and sleepy, and Mother in a big
+   nightcap and funny old jacket.
+
+   [I began to see the strong contrasts and the fun and follies in
+   every-day life about this time.--L. M. A.]
+
+   Anna came home in March. Kept our school all summer. I got
+   "Flower Fables" ready to print.
+
+Louisa also tried service with a relative in the country for a short
+time, but teaching, sewing, and writing were her principal occupations
+during this residence in Boston.
+
+These seven years, from Louisa's sixteenth to her twenty-third year,
+might be called an apprenticeship to life. She tried various paths,
+and learned to know herself and the world about her, although she was
+not even yet certain of success in the way which finally opened before
+her and led her so successfully to the accomplishment of her
+life-purpose. She tried teaching, without satisfaction to herself or
+perhaps to others. The kind of education she had herself received
+fitted her admirably to understand and influence children, but not to
+carry on the routine of a school. Sewing was her resource when nothing
+else offered, but it is almost pitiful to think of her as confined to
+such work when great powers were lying dormant in her mind. Still,
+Margaret Fuller said that a year of enforced quiet in the country
+devoted mainly to sewing was very useful to her, since she reviewed
+and examined the treasures laid up in her memory; and doubtless Louisa
+Alcott thought out many a story which afterward delighted the world
+while her fingers busily plied the needle. Yet it was a great
+deliverance when she first found that the products of her brain would
+bring in the needed money for family support.
+
+
+_L. in Boston to A. in Syracuse._
+
+     THURSDAY, 27th.
+
+   DEAREST NAN,--I was so glad to hear from you, and hear that all
+   were well.
+
+   I am grubbing away as usual, trying to get money enough to buy
+   Mother a nice warm shawl. I have eleven dollars, all my own
+   earnings,--five for a story, and four for the pile of sewing I
+   did for the ladies of Dr. Gray's society, to give him as a
+   present.
+
+   ... I got a crimson ribbon for a bonnet for May, and I took my
+   straw and fixed it nicely with some little duds I had. Her old
+   one has haunted me all winter, and I want her to look neat. She
+   is so graceful and pretty and loves beauty so much, it is hard
+   for her to be poor and wear other people's ugly things. You and I
+   have learned not to mind _much_; but when I think of her I long
+   to dash out and buy the finest hat the limited sum of ten dollars
+   can procure. She says so sweetly in one of her letters: "It is
+   hard sometimes to see other people have so many nice things and I
+   so few; but I try not to be envious, but contented with my poor
+   clothes, and cheerful about it." I hope the little dear will like
+   the bonnet and the frills I made her and some bows I fixed over
+   from bright ribbons L. W. threw away. I get half my rarities from
+   her rag-bag, and she doesn't know her own rags when fixed over. I
+   hope I shall live to see the dear child in silk and lace, with
+   plenty of pictures and "bottles of cream," Europe, and all she
+   longs for.
+
+   For our good little Betty, who is wearing all the old gowns we
+   left, I shall soon be able to buy a new one, and send it with my
+   blessing to the cheerful saint. She writes me the funniest notes,
+   and tries to keep the old folks warm and make the lonely house in
+   the snowbanks cosey and bright.
+
+   To Father I shall send new neckties and some paper; then he will
+   be happy, and can keep on with the beloved diaries though the
+   heavens fall.
+
+   Don't laugh at my plans; I'll carry them out, if I go to service
+   to do it. Seeing so much money flying about, I long to honestly
+   get a little and make my dear family more comfortable. I feel
+   weak-minded when I think of all they need and the little I can
+   do.
+
+   Now about you: Keep the money you have earned by so many tears
+   and sacrifices, and clothe yourself; for it makes me mad to know
+   that my good little lass is going round in shabby things, and
+   being looked down upon by people who are not worthy to touch her
+   patched shoes or the hem of her ragged old gowns. Make yourself
+   tidy, and if any is left over send it to Mother; for there are
+   always many things needed at home, though they won't tell us. I
+   only wish I too by any amount of weeping and homesickness could
+   earn as much. But my mite won't come amiss; and if tears can add
+   to its value, I've shed my quart,--first, over the book not
+   coming out; for that was a sad blow, and I waited so long it was
+   dreadful when my castle in the air came tumbling about my ears.
+   Pride made me laugh in public; but I wailed in private, and no
+   one knew it. The folks at home think I rather enjoyed it, for I
+   wrote a jolly letter. But my visit was spoiled; and now I'm
+   digging away for dear life, that I may not have come entirely in
+   vain. I didn't mean to groan about it; but my lass and I must
+   tell some one our trials, and so it becomes easy to confide in
+   one another. I never let Mother know how unhappy you were in S.
+   till Uncle wrote.
+
+   My doings are not much this week. I sent a little tale to the
+   "Gazette," and Clapp asked H. W. if five dollars would be enough.
+   Cousin H. said yes, and gave it to me, with kind words and a nice
+   parcel of paper, saying in his funny way, "Now, Lu, the door is
+   open, go in and win." So I shall try to do it. Then cousin L. W.
+   said Mr. B. had got my play, and told her that if Mrs. B. liked
+   it as well, it must be clever, and if it didn't cost too much, he
+   would bring it out by and by. Say nothing about it yet. Dr. W.
+   tells me Mr. F. is very sick; so the farce cannot be acted yet.
+   But the Doctor is set on its coming out, and we have fun about
+   it. H. W. takes me often to the theatre when L. is done with me.
+   I read to her all the P.M. often, as she is poorly, and in that
+   way I pay my debt to them.
+
+   I'm writing another story for Clapp. I want more fives, and mean
+   to have them too.
+
+   Uncle wrote that you were Dr. W.'s pet teacher, and every one
+   loved you dearly. But if you are not well, don't stay. Come home,
+   and be cuddled by your old
+
+     LU.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+AUTHORSHIP.
+
+     OUR ANGEL IN THE HOUSE.
+
+     Sitting patient in the shadow
+       Till the blessed light shall come,
+     A serene and saintly presence
+       Sanctifies our troubled home.
+     Earthly joys and hopes and sorrows
+       Break like ripples on the strand
+     Of the deep and solemn river,
+       Where her willing feet now stand.
+
+     O my sister, passing from me
+       Out of human care and strife,
+     Leave me as a gift those virtues
+       Which have beautified your life.
+     Dear, bequeath me that great patience
+       Which has power to sustain
+     A cheerful, uncomplaining spirit
+       In its prison-house of pain.
+
+     Give me--for I need it sorely--
+       Of that courage, wise and sweet,
+     Which has made the path of duty
+       Green beneath your willing feet.
+     Give me that unselfish nature
+       That with charity divine
+     Can pardon wrong for love's dear sake,--
+       Meek heart, forgive me mine!
+
+     Thus our parting daily loseth
+       Something of its bitter pain,
+     And while learning this hard lesson
+       My great loss becomes my gain;
+     For the touch of grief will render
+       My wild nature more serene,
+     Give to life new aspirations,
+       A new trust in the unseen.
+
+     Henceforth safe across the river
+       I shall see forevermore
+     A beloved household spirit
+       Waiting for me on the shore;
+     Hope and faith, born of my sorrow,
+       Guardian angels shall become;
+     And the sister gone before me
+       By their hands shall lead me home.
+
+
+When only twenty-two years old Miss Alcott began her career of
+authorship by launching a little flower bark, which floated gaily on
+the stream. She had always written poems, plays, and stories for her
+own and her friends' pleasure, and now she gathered up some tales she
+had written for Mr. Emerson's daughter, and published them under the
+name of "Flower Fables." She received the small amount of thirty-two
+dollars for the book; but it gave her the great satisfaction of having
+earned it by work that she loved, and which she could do well. She
+began to have applications for stories from the papers; but as yet
+sewing and teaching paid better than writing. While she sewed her
+brain was busy with plans of poems, plays, and tales, which she made
+use of at a later period.
+
+The following letter to her mother shows how closely she associated
+her with this early success:--
+
+     20 PINCKNEY STREET, BOSTON, Dec. 25, 1854. (With "Flower
+     Fables,")
+
+   DEAR MOTHER,--Into your Christmas stocking I have put my
+   "first-born," knowing that you will accept it with all its
+   faults (for grandmothers are always kind), and look upon it
+   merely as an earnest of what I may yet do; for, with so much to
+   cheer me on, I hope to pass in time from fairies and fables to
+   men and realities.
+
+   Whatever beauty or poetry is to be found in my little book is
+   owing to your interest in and encouragement of all my efforts
+   from the first to the last; and if ever I do anything to be proud
+   of, my greatest happiness will be that I can thank you for that,
+   as I may do for all the good there is in me; and I shall be
+   content to write if it gives you pleasure.
+
+     Jo is fussing about;
+     My lamp is going out.
+
+   To dear mother, with many kind wishes for a happy New Year and
+   merry Christmas.
+
+   I am ever your loving daughter
+
+     LOUY.
+
+This letter shows that she had already begun to see that she must
+study not only fairies and fancies, but men and realities; and she now
+began to observe life, not in books, but as it went on around her. In
+the intense excitement of the anti-slavery struggles of that period
+she might well learn how full of dramatic situations and the elements
+of both tragedy and comedy real human life is. She says: "I began to
+see the strong contrasts and fun and frolic in every day life about
+this time." She also considered her reading, and tried to make it more
+thorough and profitable; and she did not "waste even _ink_ on poems
+and fancies," but planned stories, that everything might help toward
+her great object of earning support for her family.
+
+In June, 1855, Miss Alcott went to Walpole, N. H., where she had a
+free life among the hills for a few months. It must have been a great
+refreshment to her after the winter's work in the city. In July the
+family followed her thither, and occupied a small house. The country
+life and joy soon began to find expression, and she wrote a little
+story called "King Goldenrod," which she says "ought to be fresh and
+true," as written at that beautiful time and place. But this pleasant
+country life was for a short season only; and in chill November she
+set out for the city, with brave heart and scanty outfit, to seek her
+fortune once more. While still continuing to sew as a means of
+livelihood, she began to try a great variety of literary ventures. She
+wrote notices of books for the papers, and at one time got five
+dollars for a story, besides twelve dollars for sewing. The following
+year the publishers began to find out the value of her work, and to
+call for more stories. Even her poems were accepted. Little Nell was
+then the favorite heroine of Dickens, and Louisa's poem on that
+subject was published in the "Courier." Although she at first enjoyed
+the beautiful scenery of Walpole, she found the dull little town did
+not offer her the opportunities for work that she needed; and leaving
+her family there, she came down to Boston to seek her fortune, and
+went to the well-known boarding-house of Mrs. David Reed on Chauncey
+Street. The happy home which she had here during the winter is
+represented as Mrs. Kirke's house in "Little Women," and Jo's garret
+is the sky-parlor in which she lived and wrote. She had a rich
+winter, hearing many of the finest lectures, and enjoying her free
+pass to the theatre. One of her greatest helps, however, was the
+friendship of Theodore Parker, who took great interest in her
+struggles, and wisely strengthened and encouraged her. She loved to go
+to his Sunday evening receptions, and sit quietly watching the varied
+company who collected there; and a word or pressure of the hand from
+her host was enough to cheer her for the whole week. She has
+gratefully recorded this influence in her sketch of Mr. Power in
+"Work;" but she has not given to that delineation the striking
+personality of her subject which we should have expected of her. She
+then perhaps looked up to him too much to take note of the rich
+elements of wit and humor in his nature, and has painted him wholly
+seriously, and with a colorless brush.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+_Twenty-two Years Old._
+
+   PINCKNEY STREET, BOSTON, _Jan._ 1, 1855.--The principal event of
+   the winter is the appearance of my book "Flower Fables." An
+   edition of sixteen hundred. It has sold very well, and people
+   seem to like it. I feel quite proud that the little tales that I
+   wrote for Ellen E. when I was sixteen should now bring money and
+   fame.
+
+   I will put in some of the notices as "varieties." Mothers are
+   always foolish over their first-born.
+
+   Miss Wealthy Stevens paid for the book, and I received $32.
+
+   [A pleasing contrast to the receipts of six months only in 1886,
+   being $8000 for the sale of books, and no new one; but I was
+   prouder over the $32 than the $8000.--L. M. A., 1886.]
+
+   _April_, 1855.--I am in the garret with my papers round me, and a
+   pile of apples to eat while I write my journal, plan stories, and
+   enjoy the patter of rain on the roof, in peace and quiet.
+
+   [Jo in the garret.--L. M. A.]
+
+   Being behindhand, as usual, I'll make note of the main events up
+   to date, for I don't waste ink in poetry and pages of rubbish
+   now. I've begun to _live_, and have no time for sentimental
+   musing.
+
+   In October I began my school; Father talked, Mother looked after
+   her boarders, and tried to help everybody. Anna was in Syracuse
+   teaching Mrs. S----'s children.
+
+   My book came out; and people began to think that topsey-turvey
+   Louisa would amount to something after all, since she could do so
+   well as housemaid, teacher, seamstress, and story-teller. Perhaps
+   she may.
+
+   In February I wrote a story for which C. paid $5, and asked for
+   more.
+
+   In March I wrote a farce for W. Warren, and Dr. W. offered it to
+   him; but W. W. was too busy.
+
+   Also began another tale, but found little time to work on it,
+   with school, sewing, and house-work. My winter's earnings are,--
+
+     School, one quarter    $50
+     Sewing                 $50
+     Stories                $20
+
+   if I am ever paid.
+
+   A busy and a pleasant winter, because, though hard at times, I do
+   seem to be getting on a little; and that encourages me.
+
+   Have heard Lowell and Hedge lecture, acted in plays, and thanks
+   to our rag-money and good cousin H., have been to the theatre
+   several times,--always my great joy.
+
+   Summer plans are yet unsettled. Father wants to go to England:
+   not a wise idea, I think. We shall probably stay here, and A. and
+   I go into the country as governesses. It's a queer way to live,
+   but dramatic, and I rather like it; for we never know what is to
+   come next. We are real "Micawbers," and always "ready for a
+   spring."
+
+   I have planned another Christmas book, and hope to be able to
+   write it.
+
+   1855.--Cousin L. W. asks me to pass the summer at Walpole with
+   her. If I can get no teaching, I shall go; for I long for the
+   hills, and can write my fairy tales there.
+
+   I delivered my burlesque lecture on "Woman, and Her Position; by
+   Oronthy Bluggage," last evening at Deacon G.'s. Had a merry time,
+   and was asked by Mr. W. to do it at H. for money. Read "Hamlet"
+   at our club,--my favorite play. Saw Mrs. W. H. Smith about the
+   farce; says she will do it at her benefit.
+
+   _May._--Father went to C. to talk with Mr. Emerson about the
+   England trip. I am to go to Walpole. I have made my own gowns,
+   and had money enough to fit up the girls. So glad to be
+   independent.
+
+   [I wonder if $40 fitted up the whole family. Perhaps so, as my
+   wardrobe was made up of old clothes from cousins and friends.--L.
+   M. A.]
+
+   WALPOLE, N. H., _June, 1855_.--Pleasant journey and a kind
+   welcome. Lovely place, high among the hills. So glad to run and
+   skip in the woods and up the splendid ravine. Shall write here, I
+   know.
+
+   Helped cousin L. in her garden; and the smell of the fresh earth
+   and the touch of green leaves did me good.
+
+   Mr. T. came and praised my first book, so I felt much inspired to
+   go and do another. I remember him at Scituate years ago, when he
+   was a young ship-builder and I a curly-haired hoyden of five or
+   six.
+
+   Up at five, and had a lovely run in the ravine, seeing the woods
+   wake. Planned a little tale which ought to be fresh and true, as
+   it came at that hour and place,--"King Goldenrod." Have lively
+   days,--writing in A.M., driving in P.M., and fun in eve. My visit
+   is doing me much good.
+
+   _July, 1855._--Read "Hyperion." On the 16th the family came to
+   live in Mr. W.'s house rent free. No better plan offered, and we
+   were all tired of the city. Here Father can have a garden; Mother
+   can rest and be near her good niece; the children have freedom
+   and fine air; and A. and I can go from here to our teaching,
+   wherever it may be.
+
+   Busy and happy times as we settle in the little house in the lane
+   near by my dear ravine,--plays, picnics, pleasant people, and
+   good neighbors. Fanny Kemble came up, Mrs. Kirkland and others,
+   and Dr. Bellows is the gayest of the gay. We acted the
+   "Jacobite," "Rivals," and "Bonnycastles," to an audience of a
+   hundred, and were noticed in the Boston papers. H. T. was our
+   manager, and Dr. B., D. D., our dramatic director. Anna was the
+   star, her acting being really very fine. I did "Mrs. Malaprop,"
+   "Widow Pottle," and the old ladies.
+
+   Finished fairy book in September. Anna had an offer from Dr.
+   Wilbur of Syracuse to teach at the great idiot asylum. She
+   disliked it, but decided to go. Poor dear! so beauty-loving,
+   timid, and tender. It is a hard trial; but she is so
+   self-sacrificing she tries to like it because it is duty.
+
+   _October._--A. to Syracuse. May illustrated my book, and tales
+   called "Christmas Elves." Better than "Flower Fables." Now I must
+   try to sell it.
+
+   [Innocent Louisa, to think that a Christmas book could be sold in
+   October.--L. M. A.]
+
+   _November._--Decided to seek my fortune; so, with my little trunk
+   of home-made clothes, $20 earned by stories sent to the
+   "Gazette," and my MSS., I set forth with Mother's blessing one
+   rainy day in the dullest month in the year.
+
+   [My birth-month; always to be a memorable one.--L. M. A.]
+
+   Found it too late to do anything with the book, so put it away
+   and tried for teaching, sewing, or any honest work. Won't go home
+   to sit idle while I have a head and pair of hands.
+
+   _December._--H. and L. W. very kind, and my dear cousins the
+   Sewalls take me in. I sew for Mollie and others, and write
+   stories. C. gave me books to notice. Heard Thackeray. Anxious
+   times; Anna very home-sick. Walpole very cold and dull now the
+   summer butterflies have gone. Got $5 for a tale and $12 for
+   sewing; sent home a Christmas-box to cheer the dear souls in the
+   snow-banks.
+
+   _January, 1856._--C. paid $6 for "A Sister's Trial," gave me more
+   books to notice, and wants more tales.
+
+   [Should think he would at that price.--L. M. A.]
+
+   Sewed for L. W. Sewall and others. Mr. J. M. Field took my farce
+   to Mobile to bring out; Mr. Barry of the Boston Theatre has the
+   play.
+
+   Heard Curtis lecture. Began a book for summer,--"Beach Bubbles."
+   Mr. F. of the "Courier" printed a poem of mine on "Little Nell."
+   Got $10 for "Bertha," and saw great yellow placards stuck up
+   announcing it. Acted at the W.'s.
+
+   _March._--Got $10 for "Genevieve." Prices go up, as people like
+   the tales and ask who wrote them. Finished "Twelve Bubbles."
+   Sewed a great deal, and got very tired; one job for Mr. G. of a
+   dozen pillow-cases, one dozen sheets, six fine cambric neckties,
+   and two dozen handkerchiefs, at which I had to work all one night
+   to get them done, as they were a gift to him. I got only $4.
+
+   Sewing won't make my fortune; but I can plan my stories while I
+   work, and then scribble 'em down on Sundays.
+
+   Poem on "Little Paul;" Curtis's lecture on "Dickens" made it go
+   well. Hear Emerson on "England."
+
+   _May._--Anna came on her way home, sick and worn out; the work
+   was too much for her. We had some happy days visiting about.
+   Could not dispose of B. B. in book form, but C. took them for his
+   paper. Mr. Field died, so the farce fell through there. Altered
+   the play for Mrs. Barrow to bring out next winter.
+
+   _June, 1856._--Home, to find dear Betty very ill with
+   scarlet-fever caught from some poor children Mother nursed when
+   they fell sick, living over a cellar where pigs had been kept.
+   The landlord (a deacon) would not clean the place till Mother
+   threatened to sue him for allowing a nuisance. Too late to save
+   two of the poor babies or Lizzie and May from the fever.
+
+   [L. never recovered, but died of it two years later.--L. M. A.]
+
+   An anxious time. I nursed, did house-work, and wrote a story a
+   month through the summer.
+
+   Dr. Bellows and Father had Sunday eve conversations.
+
+   _October._--Pleasant letters from Father, who went on a tour to
+   N. Y., Philadelphia, and Boston.
+
+   Made plans to go to Boston for the winter, as there is nothing to
+   do here, and there I can support myself and help the family. C.
+   offers 10 dollars a month, and perhaps more. L. W., M. S., and
+   others, have plenty of sewing; the play _may_ come out, and Mrs.
+   R. will give me a sky-parlor for $3 a week, with fire and board.
+   I sew for her also.
+
+   If I can get A. L. to governess I shall be all right.
+
+   I was born with a boy's spirit under my bib and tucker. I _can't
+   wait_ when I _can work_; so I took my little talent in my hand
+   and forced the world again, braver than before and wiser for my
+   failures.
+
+   [Jo in N. Y.--L. M. A.]
+
+   I don't often pray in words; but when I set out that day with all
+   my worldly goods in the little old trunk, my own earnings ($25)
+   in my pocket, and much hope and resolution in my soul, my heart
+   was very full, and I said to the Lord, "Help us all, and keep us
+   for one another," as I never said it before, while I looked back
+   at the dear faces watching me, so full of love and hope and
+   faith.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   BOSTON, _November, 1856_. _Mrs. David Reed's._--I find my little
+   room up in the attic very cosey, and a house full of boarders
+   very amusing to study. Mrs. Reed very kind. Fly round and take C.
+   his stories. Go to see Mrs. L. about A. Don't want me. A blow,
+   but I cheer up and hunt for sewing. Go to hear Parker, and he
+   does me good. Asks me to come Sunday evenings to his house. I did
+   go there, and met Phillips, Garrison, Hedge, and other great men,
+   and sit in my corner weekly, staring and enjoying myself.
+
+   When I went Mr. Parker said, "God bless you, Louisa; come again;"
+   and the grasp of his hand gave me courage to face another anxious
+   week.
+
+   _November 3d._--Wrote all the morning. In the P.M. went to see
+   the Sumner reception as he comes home after the Brooks affair. I
+   saw him pass up Beacon Street, pale and feeble, but smiling and
+   bowing. I rushed to Hancock Street, and was in time to see him
+   bring his proud old mother to the window when the crowd gave
+   three cheers for her. I cheered too, and was very much excited.
+   Mr. Parker met him somewhere before the ceremony began, and the
+   above P. cheered like a boy; and Sumner laughed and nodded as his
+   friend pranced and shouted, bareheaded and beaming.
+
+   My kind cousin, L. W., got tickets for a course of lectures on
+   "Italian Literature," and seeing my old cloak sent me a new one,
+   with other needful and pretty things such as girls love to have.
+   I shall never forget how kind she has always been to me.
+
+   _November 5th._--Went with H. W. to see Manager Barry about the
+   everlasting play which is always coming out but never comes. We
+   went all over the great new theatre, and I danced a jig on the
+   immense stage. Mr. B. was very kind, and gave me a pass to come
+   whenever I liked. This was such richness I didn't care if the
+   play was burnt on the spot, and went home full of joy. In the eve
+   I saw La Grange as Norma, and felt as if I knew all about that
+   place. Quite stage-struck, and imagined myself in her place, with
+   white robes and oak-leaf crown.
+
+   _November 6th._--Sewed happily on my job of twelve sheets for H.
+   W., and put lots of good will into the work after his kindness to
+   me.
+
+   Walked to Roxbury to see cousin Dr. W. about the play and tell
+   the fine news. Rode home in the new cars, and found them very
+   nice.
+
+   In the eve went to teach at Warren Street Chapel Charity School.
+   I'll help as I am helped, if I can. Mother says no one so poor he
+   can't do a little for some one poorer yet.
+
+   _Sunday._--Heard Parker on "Individuality of Character," and
+   liked it much. In the eve I went to his house. Mrs. Howe was
+   there, and Sumner and others. I sat in my usual corner, but Mr.
+   P. came up and said, in that cordial way of his, "Well, child,
+   how goes it?" "Pretty well, sir." "That's brave;" and with his
+   warm hand-shake he went on, leaving me both proud and happy,
+   though I have my trials. He is like a great fire where all can
+   come and be warmed and comforted. Bless him!
+
+   Had a talk at tea about him, and fought for him when W. R. said
+   he was not a Christian. He is my _sort_; for though he may lack
+   reverence for other people's God, he works bravely for his own,
+   and turns his back on no one who needs help, as some of the pious
+   do.
+
+   _Monday, 14th._--May came full of expectation and joy to visit
+   good aunt B. and study drawing. We walked about and had a good
+   home talk, then my girl went off to Auntie's to begin what I hope
+   will be a pleasant and profitable winter. She needs help to
+   develop her talent, and I can't give it to her.
+
+   Went to see Forrest as Othello. It is funny to see how attentive
+   all the once cool gentlemen are to Miss Alcott now she has a pass
+   to the new theatre.
+
+   _November 29th._--My birthday. Felt forlorn so far from home.
+   Wrote all day. Seem to be getting on slowly, so should be
+   contented. To a little party at the B.'s in the eve. May looked
+   very pretty, and seemed to be a favorite. The boys teased me
+   about being an authoress, and I said I'd be famous yet. Will if I
+   can, but something else may be better for me.
+
+   Found a pretty pin from Father and a nice letter when I got home.
+   Mr. H. brought them with letters from Mother and Betty, so I went
+   to bed happy.
+
+   _December._--Busy with Christmas and New Year's tales. Heard a
+   good lecture by E. P. Whipple on "Courage." Thought I needed it,
+   being rather tired of living like a spider;--spinning my brains
+   out for money.
+
+   Wrote a story, "The Cross on the Church Tower," suggested by the
+   tower before my window.
+
+   Called on Mrs. L., and she asked me to come and teach A. for
+   three hours each day. Just what I wanted; and the children's
+   welcome was very pretty and comforting to "Our Olly," as they
+   call me.
+
+   Now board is all safe, and something over for home, if stories
+   and sewing fail. I don't do much, but can send little comforts to
+   Mother and Betty, and keep May neat.
+
+   _December 18th._--Begin with A. L., in Beacon Street. I taught C.
+   when we lived in High Street, A. in Pinckney Street, and now Al.;
+   so I seem to be an institution and a success, since I can start
+   the boy, teach one girl, and take care of the little invalid. It
+   is hard work, but I can do it; and am glad to sit in a large,
+   fine room part of each day, after my sky-parlor, which has
+   nothing pretty in it, and only the gray tower and blue sky
+   outside as I sit at the window writing. I love luxury, but
+   freedom and independence better.
+
+
+_To her Father, written from Mrs. Reed's._
+
+     BOSTON, Nov. 29, 1856.
+
+   DEAREST FATHER,--Your little parcel was very welcome to me as I
+   sat alone in my room, with snow falling fast outside, and a few
+   tears in (for birthdays are dismal times to me); and the fine
+   letter, the pretty gift, and, most of all, the loving thought so
+   kindly taken for your old absent daughter, made the cold, dark
+   day as warm and bright as summer to me.
+
+   And now, with the birthday pin upon my bosom, many thanks on my
+   lips, and a whole heart full of love for its giver, I will tell
+   you a little about my doings, stupid as they will seem after your
+   own grand proceedings. How I wish I could be with you, enjoying
+   what I have always longed for,--fine people, fine amusements, and
+   fine books. But as I can't, I am glad you are; for I love to see
+   your name first among the lecturers, to hear it kindly spoken of
+   in papers and inquired about by good people here,--to say nothing
+   of the delight and pride I take in seeing you at last filling the
+   place you are so fitted for, and which you have waited for so
+   long and patiently. If the New Yorkers raise a statue to the
+   modern Plato, it will be a wise and highly creditable action.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+   I am very well and very happy. Things go smoothly, and I think I
+   shall come out right, and prove that though an _Alcott_ I _can_
+   support myself. I like the independent feeling; and though not an
+   easy life, it is a free one, and I enjoy it. I can't do much with
+   my hands; so I will make a battering-ram of my head and make a
+   way through this rough-and-tumble world. I have very pleasant
+   lectures to amuse my evenings,--Professor Gajani on "Italian
+   Reformers," the Mercantile Library course, Whipple, Beecher, and
+   others, and, best of all, a free pass at the Boston Theatre. I
+   saw Mr. Barry, and he gave it to me with many kind speeches, and
+   promises to bring out the play very soon. I hope he will.
+
+   My farce is in the hands of Mrs. W. H. Smith, who acts at Laura
+   Keene's theatre in New York. She took it, saying she would bring
+   it out there. If you see or hear anything about it, let me know.
+   I want something doing. My mornings are spent in writing. C.
+   takes one a month, and I am to see Mr. B., who may take some of
+   my wares.
+
+   In the afternoons I walk and visit my hundred relations, who are
+   all kind and friendly, and seem interested in our various
+   successes.
+
+   Sunday evenings I go to Parker's parlor, and there meet Phillips,
+   Garrison, Scherb, Sanborn, and many other pleasant people. All
+   talk, and I sit in a corner listening, and wishing a certain
+   placid gray-haired gentleman was there talking too. Mrs. Parker
+   calls on me, reads my stories, and is very good to me. Theodore
+   asks Louisa "how her worthy parents do," and is otherwise very
+   friendly to the large, bashful girl who adorns his parlor
+   steadily.
+
+   Abby is preparing for a busy and, I hope, a profitable winter.
+   She has music lessons already, French and drawing in store, and,
+   if her eyes hold out, will keep her word and become what none of
+   us can be, "an accomplished Alcott." Now, dear Father, I shall
+   hope to hear from you occasionally, and will gladly answer all
+   epistles from the Plato whose parlor parish is becoming quite
+   famous. I got the "Tribune," but not the letter, and shall look
+   it up. I have been meaning to write, but did not know where you
+   were.
+
+   Good-by, and a happy birthday from your ever loving child,
+
+     LOUISA.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+_Twenty-four Years Old._
+
+   _January, 1857._--Had my first new silk dress from good little L.
+   W.,--very fine; and I felt as if all the Hancocks and Quincys
+   beheld me as I went to two parties in it on New Year's eve.
+
+   A busy, happy month,--taught, wrote, sewed, read aloud to the
+   "little mother," and went often to the theatre; heard good
+   lectures; and enjoyed my Parker evenings very much.
+
+   Father came to see me on his way home; little money; had had a
+   good time, and was asked to come again. Why don't rich people who
+   enjoy his talk pay for it? Philosophers are always poor, and too
+   modest to pass round their own hats.
+
+   Sent by him a good bundle to the poor Forlornites among the
+   ten-foot drifts in W.
+
+   _February._--Ran home as a valentine on the 14th.
+
+   _March._--Have several irons in the fire now, and try to keep 'em
+   all hot.
+
+   _April._--May did a crayon head of Mother with Mrs. Murdock; very
+   good likeness. All of us as proud as peacocks of our "little
+   Raphael."
+
+   Heard Mrs. Butler read; very fine.
+
+   _May._--Left the L.'s with my thirty-three dollars, glad to rest.
+   May went home with her picture, happy in her winter's work and
+   success.
+
+   Father had three talks at W. F. Channing's. Good
+   company,--Emerson, Mrs. Howe, and the rest.
+
+   Saw young Booth in Brutus, and liked him better than his father;
+   went about and rested after my labors; glad to be with Father,
+   who enjoyed Boston and friends.
+
+   Home on the 10th, passing Sunday at the Emerson's. I have done
+   what I planned,--supported myself, written eight stories, taught
+   four months, earned a hundred dollars, and sent money home.
+
+   _June._--All happy together. My dear Nan was with me, and we had
+   good times. Betty was feeble, but seemed to cheer up for a time.
+   The long, cold, lonely winter has been too hard for the frail
+   creature, and we are all anxious about her. I fear she may slip
+   away; for she never seemed to care much for this world beyond
+   home.
+
+So gradually the day seemed to be coming to which Louisa had long
+looked forward. She found that she could be independent, could help
+her family, and even indulge some of her own tastes.
+
+About this time Miss Alcott mentions a young friend who died in her
+arms, and speaks of going to console the sister in her loneliness.
+This shows how warmly her heart beat for others while her head was so
+busy with her ambitious plans. She speaks also of the hint of a new
+story called "The Cost of an Idea." She never lost sight of this plan,
+but did not carry it out. Her father's life and character were in her
+mind, and she longed to portray the conflict between his high ideal
+and the practical difficulties of his life; but it was an impossible
+subject. The Fruitlands episode was told in "Transcendental Wild
+Oats," and his early life in "Elis's Education." But although her
+admiration and affection for him are abundantly shown in her journals,
+she never perhaps understood him so thoroughly that she could
+adequately portray his personality; neither could she do justice to
+all related to him without trenching upon the privacy due to sacred
+feelings.
+
+  [Illustration: ORCHARD HOUSE, CONCORD, MASS. Home of the Alcott
+  Family, 1858.]
+
+A great shadow fell over Louisa's heart and life from the increasing
+illness of her dear younger sister Elizabeth. This young girl was
+tenderly beloved by all the family, and was indeed as pure,
+refined, and holy as she is represented as Beth in "Little Women."
+Her decay was very gradual, and she was so patient and sweet that the
+sad time of anxiety was a very precious one in remembrance.
+
+This sickness added to the pecuniary burdens of the family, and eight
+years afterward Louisa paid the bill of the physician who attended her
+sister.
+
+In October, 1857, the family removed again to Concord, and Louisa
+remained at home to assist in the care of the beloved invalid. They
+lived a few months in a part of a house which they hired until the
+Orchard House, which they had bought, was ready for them. Here the
+dear sister's life came to a close.
+
+This was the first break in the household, and the mother's heart
+never fully recovered from it. Louisa accepted death with strong,
+sweet wisdom. It never seemed to have any terror for her.
+
+In July they took possession of the Orchard House, which was hereafter
+the permanent residence of the family. This was a picturesque old
+house on the side of a hill, with an orchard of apple-trees. It was
+not far from Mr. Emerson's, and within walking distance of the
+village, yet very quiet and rural. Mr. Alcott had his library, and was
+always very happy there; but Louisa's heart never clung to it.
+
+The engagement of the elder sister was a very exciting event to
+Louisa, who did not like having the old sisterly relation broken in
+upon; but everything was so genuine and true in the love of the newly
+betrothed pair that she could not help accepting the change as a
+blessing to her sister and taking the new brother into her heart. The
+entries in her journal show that the picture she has drawn in "Little
+Women" of this noble man is from life, and not exaggerated.
+
+Louisa went to Boston for a visit, and again had hopes of going on to
+the stage; but an accident prevented it; and she returned to Concord
+and her writing, working off her disappointment in a story called
+"Only an Actress."
+
+Among her experiences at this time was an offer of marriage, about
+which she consulted her mother, telling her that she did not care for
+the lover very much. The wise mother saved her from the impulse to
+self-sacrifice, which might have led her to accept a position which
+would have given help to the family.
+
+Although this was not the only instance of offers of marriage, more or
+less advantageous, made to her, Louisa had no inclination toward
+matrimony. Her heart was bound up in her family, and she could hardly
+contemplate her own interests as separate from theirs. She loved
+activity, freedom, and independence. She could not cherish illusions
+tenderly; and she always said that she got tired of everybody, and
+felt sure that she should of her husband if she married. She never
+wished to make her heroines marry, and the love story is the part of
+her books for which she cared least. She yielded to the desire of the
+public, who will not accept life without a recognition of this great
+joy in it. Still it must be acknowledged that she has sometimes
+painted very sweet and natural love scenes, although more often in
+quaint and homely guise than in the fashion of ancient romance. "King
+of Clubs and Queen of Hearts" is very prettily told; and "Mrs.
+Todger's Teapot" is true to that quiet, earnest affection which does
+not pass away with youth.
+
+The writing went on, and she received five, six, or ten dollars apiece
+for her stories; but she did not yet venture to give up the sewing and
+teaching, which was still the sure reliance.
+
+Her younger sister now began to exercise her talent, and illustrated a
+little book of Louisa's called "Christmas Elves," which she says is
+better than "Flower Fables."
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   Read Charlotte Bronte's life. A very interesting, but sad one. So
+   full of talent; and after working long, just as success, love,
+   and happiness come, she dies.
+
+   Wonder if I shall ever be famous enough for people to care to
+   read my story and struggles. I can't be a C. B., but I may do a
+   little something yet.
+
+   _July._--Grandma Alcott came to visit us. A sweet old lady; and I
+   am glad to know her, and see where Father got his nature.
+   Eighty-four; yet very smart, industrious, and wise. A house needs
+   a grandma in it.
+
+   As we sat talking over Father's boyhood, I never realized so
+   plainly before how much he has done for himself. His early life
+   sounded like a pretty old romance, and Mother added the love
+   passages.
+
+   I got a hint for a story; and some day will do it, and call it
+   "The Cost of an Idea." Spindle Hill, Temple School, Fruitlands,
+   Boston, and Concord, would make fine chapters. The trials and
+   triumphs of the Pathetic Family would make a capital book; may I
+   live to do it.
+
+   _August._--A sad, anxious month. Betty worse; Mother takes her
+   to the seashore. Father decides to go back to Concord; he is
+   never happy far from Emerson, the one true friend who loves and
+   understands and helps him.
+
+   _September._--An old house near R. W. E.'s is bought with
+   Mother's money, and we propose to move. Mother in Boston with
+   poor Betty, who is failing fast. Anna and I have a hard time
+   breaking up.
+
+   _October._--Move to Concord. Take half a house in town till
+   spring, when the old one is to be made ready.
+
+   Find dear Betty a shadow, but sweet and patient always. Fit up a
+   nice room for her, and hope home and love and care may keep her.
+
+   People kind and friendly, and the old place looks pleasant,
+   though I never want to live in it.
+
+   _November._--Father goes West, taking Grandma home. We settle
+   down to our winter, whatever it is to be. Lizzie seems better,
+   and we have some plays. Sanborn's school makes things lively, and
+   we act a good deal.
+
+   Twenty-five this month. I feel my quarter of a century rather
+   heavy on my shoulders just now. I lead two lives. One seems gay
+   with plays, etc., the other very sad,--in Betty's room; for
+   though she wishes us to act, and loves to see us get ready, the
+   shadow is there, and Mother and I see it. Betty loves to have me
+   with her; and I am with her at night, for Mother needs rest.
+   Betty says she feels "strong" when I am near. So glad to be of
+   use.
+
+   _December._--Some fine plays for charity.
+
+   _January, 1858._--Lizzie much worse; Dr. G. says there is no
+   hope. A hard thing to hear; but if she is only to suffer, I pray
+   she may go soon. She was glad to know she was to "get well," as
+   she called it, and we tried to bear it bravely for her sake. We
+   gave up plays; Father came home; and Anna took the housekeeping,
+   so that Mother and I could devote ourselves to her. Sad, quiet
+   days in her room, and strange nights keeping up the fire and
+   watching the dear little shadow try to wile away the long
+   sleepless hours without troubling me. She sews, reads, sings
+   softly, and lies looking at the fire,--so sweet and patient and
+   so worn, my heart is broken to see the change. I wrote some lines
+   one night on "Our Angel in the House."
+
+   [Jo and Beth.--L. M. A.]
+
+   _February._--A mild month; Betty very comfortable, and we hope a
+   little.
+
+   Dear Betty is slipping away, and every hour is too precious to
+   waste, so I'll keep my lamentations over Nan's [affairs] till
+   this duty is over.
+
+   Lizzie makes little things, and drops them out of windows to the
+   school-children, smiling to see their surprise. In the night she
+   tells me to be Mrs. Gamp, when I give her her lunch, and tries to
+   be gay that I may keep up. Dear little saint! I shall be better
+   all my life for these sad hours with you.
+
+   _March 14th._--My dear Beth died at three this morning, after two
+   years of patient pain. Last week she put her work away, saying
+   the needle was "too heavy," and having given us her few
+   possessions, made ready for the parting in her own simple, quiet
+   way. For two days she suffered much, begging for ether, though
+   its effect was gone. Tuesday she lay in Father's arms, and called
+   us round her, smiling contentedly as she said, "All here!" I
+   think she bid us good-by then, as she held our hands and kissed
+   us tenderly. Saturday she slept, and at midnight became
+   unconscious, quietly breathing her life away till three; then,
+   with one last look of the beautiful eyes, she was gone.
+
+   A curious thing happened, and I will tell it here, for Dr. G.
+   said it was a fact. A few moments after the last breath came, as
+   Mother and I sat silently watching the shadow fall on the dear
+   little face, I saw a light mist rise from the body, and float up
+   and vanish in the air. Mother's eyes followed mine, and when I
+   said, "What did you see?" she described the same light mist. Dr.
+   G. said it was the life departing visibly.
+
+   For the last time we dressed her in her usual cap and gown, and
+   laid her on her bed,--at rest at last. What she had suffered was
+   seen in the face; for at twenty-three she looked like a woman of
+   forty, so worn was she, and all her pretty hair gone.
+
+   On Monday Dr. Huntington read the Chapel service, and we sang her
+   favorite hymn. Mr. Emerson, Henry Thoreau, Sanborn, and John
+   Pratt, carried her out of the old home to the new one at Sleepy
+   Hollow chosen by herself. So the first break comes, and I know
+   what death means,--a liberator for her, a teacher for us.
+
+   _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,
+   and, for the first time, Lizzie absent. I don't miss her as I
+   expected to do, for she seems nearer and dearer than before; and
+   I am glad to know she is safe from pain and age in some world
+   where her innocent soul must be happy.
+
+   Death never seemed terrible to me, and now is beautiful; so I
+   cannot fear it, but find it friendly and wonderful.
+
+   _May._--A lonely month with all the girls gone, and Father and
+   Mother absorbed in the old house, which I don't care about, not
+   liking Concord.
+
+   On the 7th of April, Anna came walking in to tell us she was
+   engaged to John Pratt; so another sister is gone. J. is a model
+   son and brother,--a true man,--full of fine possibilities, but so
+   modest one does not see it at once. He is handsome, healthy, and
+   happy; just home from the West, and so full of love he is
+   pleasant to look at.
+
+   I moaned in private over my great loss, and said I'd never
+   forgive J. for taking Anna from me; but I shall if he makes her
+   happy, and turn to little May for my comfort.
+
+   [Now that John is dead, I can truly say we all had cause to bless
+   the day he came into the family; for we gained a son and brother,
+   and Anna the best husband ever known.
+
+   For ten years he made her home a little heaven of love and peace;
+   and when he died he left her the legacy of a beautiful life, and
+   an honest name to his little sons.--L. M. A., 1873.]
+
+   _June._--The girls came home, and I went to visit L. W. in
+   Boston. Saw Charlotte Cushman, and had a stage-struck fit. Dr. W.
+   asked Barry to let me act at his theatre, and he agreed. I was to
+   do Widow Pottle, as the dress was a good disguise and I knew the
+   part well. It was all a secret, and I had hopes of trying a new
+   life; the old one being so changed now, I felt as if I must find
+   interest in something absorbing. But Mr. B. broke his leg, so I
+   had to give it up; and when it was known, the dear, respectable
+   relations were horrified at the idea. I'll try again by-and-by,
+   and see if I have the gift. Perhaps it is acting, not writing,
+   I'm meant for. Nature must have a vent somehow.
+
+   _July._--Went into the new house and began to settle. Father is
+   happy; Mother glad to be at rest; Anna is in bliss with her
+   gentle John; and May busy over her pictures. I have plans
+   simmering, but must sweep and dust and wash my dish-pans a while
+   longer till I see my way.
+
+   Worked off my stage fever in writing a story, and felt better;
+   also a moral tale, and got twenty-five dollars, which pieced up
+   our summer gowns and bonnets all round. The inside of my head can
+   at least cover the outside.
+
+   _August._--Much company to see the new house. All seem to be glad
+   that the wandering family is anchored at last. We won't move
+   again for twenty years if I can help it. The old people need an
+   abiding place; and now that death and love have taken two of us
+   away, I can, I hope, soon manage to care for the remaining four.
+
+   The weeklies will all take stories; and I can simmer novels while
+   I do my housework, so see my way to a little money, and perhaps
+   more by-and-by if I ever make a hit.
+
+Probably owing to the excitement of grief for her sister's death, and
+sympathy in Anna's happy betrothal, Louisa became in October more
+discouraged than she had ever been, and went to Boston in search of
+work. As she walked over the mill dam the running stream brought the
+thought of the River of Death, which would end all troubles. It was
+but a momentary impulse, and the brave young heart rallied to the
+thought, "There is work for me, and I'll have it!" Her journal
+narrates how Mr. Parker helped her through this period of anxiety. She
+was all ready to go to Lancaster, to hard drudgery at sewing, when her
+old place as governess was again offered to her, and her own support
+was assured.
+
+   _October._--Went to Boston on my usual hunt for employment, as I
+   am not needed at home and seem to be the only bread-winner just
+   now.
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   My fit of despair was soon over, for it seemed so cowardly to run
+   away before the battle was over I couldn't do it. So I said
+   firmly, "There _is_ work for me, and I'll have it," and went home
+   resolved to take Fate by the throat and shake a living out of
+   her.
+
+   Sunday Mr. Parker preached a sermon on "Laborious Young Women."
+   Just what I needed; for it said: "Trust your fellow-beings, and
+   let them help you. Don't be too proud to ask, and accept the
+   humblest work till you can find the task you want."
+
+   "I will," said I, and went to Mr. P.'s. He was out; but I told
+   Mrs. P. my wants, and she kindly said Theodore and Hannah would
+   be sure to have something for me. As I went home I met Mrs. L.,
+   who had not wanted me, as Alice went to school. She asked if I
+   was engaged, and said A. did not do well, and she thought perhaps
+   they would like me back. I was rejoiced, and went home feeling
+   that the tide had begun to turn. Next day came Miss H. S. to
+   offer me a place at the Girls' Reform School at Lancaster, to sew
+   ten hours a day, make and mend. I said I'd go, as I could do
+   anything with a needle; but added, if Mrs. L. wants me I'd rather
+   do that.
+
+   "Of course you had. Take it if it comes, and if not, try my
+   work." I promised and waited. That eve, when my bag was packed
+   and all was ready for Lancaster, came a note from Mrs. L.
+   offering the old salary and the old place. I sang for joy, and
+   next day early posted off to Miss S. She was glad and shook
+   hands, saying, "It was a test, my dear, and you stood it. When I
+   told Mr. P. that you would go, he said, 'That is a true girl;
+   Louisa will succeed.'"
+
+   I was very proud and happy; for these things are tests of
+   character as well as courage, and I covet the respect of such
+   true people as Mr. P. and Miss S.
+
+   So away to my little girl with a bright heart! for with tales,
+   and sewing for Mary, which pays my board, there I am fixed for
+   the winter and my cares over. Thank the Lord!
+
+She now found publishers eager for her stories, and went on writing
+for them. She was encouraged by E. P. Whipple's praise of "Mark
+Field's Mistake," and by earning thirty dollars, most of which she
+sent home.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   Earned thirty dollars; sent twenty home. Heard Curtis, Parker,
+   Higginson, and Mrs. Dall lecture. See Booth's Hamlet, and my
+   ideal done at last.
+
+   My twenty-sixth birthday on the 29th. Some sweet letters from
+   home, and a ring of A.'s and J.'s hair as a peace-offering. A
+   quiet day, with many thoughts and memories.
+
+   The past year has brought us the first death and betrothal,--two
+   events that change my life. I can see that these experiences have
+   taken a deep hold, and changed or developed me. Lizzie helps me
+   spiritually, and a little success makes me more self-reliant. Now
+   that Mother is too tired to be wearied with my moods, I have to
+   manage them alone, and am learning that work of head and hand is
+   my salvation when disappointment or weariness burden and darken
+   my soul.
+
+   In my sorrow I think I instinctively came nearer to God, and
+   found comfort in the knowledge that he was sure to help when
+   nothing else could.
+
+   A great grief has taught me more than any minister, and when
+   feeling most alone I find refuge in the Almighty Friend. If this
+   is experiencing religion I have done it; but I think it is only
+   the lesson one must learn as it comes, and I am glad to know it.
+
+   After my fit of despair I seem to be braver and more cheerful,
+   and grub away with a good heart. Hope it will last, for I need
+   all the courage and comfort I can get.
+
+   I feel as if I could write better now,--more truly of things I
+   have felt and therefore _know_. I hope I shall yet do my great
+   book, for that seems to be my work, and I am growing up to it. I
+   even think of trying the "Atlantic." There 's ambition for you!
+   I'm sure some of the stories are very flat. If Mr. L. takes the
+   one Father carried to him, I shall think I can do something.
+
+   _December._--Father started on his tour West full of hope. Dear
+   man! How happy he will be if people will only listen to and _pay_
+   for his wisdom.
+
+   May came to B. and stayed with me while she took drawing lessons.
+   Christmas at home. Write an Indian story.
+
+   _January_, 1859.--Send a parcel home to Marmee and Nan.
+
+   Mother very ill. Home to nurse her for a week. Wonder if I ought
+   not to be a nurse, as I seem to have a gift for it. Lizzie, L.
+   W., and Mother all say so; and I like it. If I couldn't write or
+   act I'd try it. May yet. $21 from L.; $15 home.
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   Some day I'll do my best, and get well paid for it.
+
+   [$3,000 for a short serial in 1876. True prophet.--L. M. A.]
+
+   Wrote a sequel to "Mark Field." Had a queer time over it, getting
+   up at night to write it, being too full to sleep.
+
+   _March._--"Mark" was a success, and much praised. So I found the
+   divine afflatus did descend. Busy life teaching, writing, sewing,
+   getting all I can from lectures, books, and good people. Life is
+   my college. May I graduate well, and earn some honors!
+
+   _April._--May went home after a happy winter at the School of
+   Design, where she did finely, and was pronounced full of promise.
+   Mr. T. said good things of her, and we were very proud. No doubt
+   now what she is to be, if we can only keep her along.
+
+   I went home also, being done with A., who went out of town early.
+   Won't teach any more if I can help it; don't like it; and if I
+   can get writing enough can do much better.
+
+   I have done more than I hoped. Supported myself, helped May, and
+   sent something home. Not borrowed a penny, and had only five
+   dollars given me. So my third campaign ends well.
+
+   _May._--Took care of L. W., who was ill. Walked from C. to B. one
+   day, twenty miles, in five hours, and went to a party in the
+   evening. Not very tired. Well done for a vegetable production!
+
+   _June._--Took two children to board and teach. A busy month, as
+   Anna was in B.
+
+   _September._--Great State Encampment here. Town full of soldiers,
+   with military fuss and feathers. I like a camp, and long for a
+   war, to see how it all seems. I can't fight, but I can nurse.
+
+   [Prophetic again.--L. M. A.]
+
+   _October_, 1859.--May did a fine copy of Emerson's Endymion[7]
+   for me.
+
+   Mother sixty. God bless the dear, brave woman!
+
+   Good news of Parker in Florence,--my beloved minister and friend.
+   To him and R. W. E. I owe much of my education. May I be a worthy
+   pupil of such men!
+
+   _November._--Hurrah! My story was accepted; and Lowell asked if
+   it was not a translation from the German, it was so unlike most
+   tales. I felt much set up, and my fifty dollars will be very
+   happy money. People seem to think it a great thing to get into
+   the "Atlantic;" but I've not been pegging away all these years in
+   vain, and may yet have books and publishers and a fortune of my
+   own. Success has gone to my head, and I wander a little.
+   Twenty-seven years old, and very happy.
+
+   The Harper's Ferry tragedy makes this a memorable month. Glad I
+   have lived to see the Antislavery movement and this last heroic
+   act in it. Wish I could do my part in it.
+
+   _December_, 1859.--The execution of Saint John the Just took
+   place on the second. A meeting at the hall, and all Concord was
+   there. Emerson, Thoreau, Father, and Sanborn spoke, and all were
+   full of reverence and admiration for the martyr.
+
+   I made some verses on it, and sent them to the "Liberator."
+
+A sickness of Mrs. Alcott through which she nursed her makes Louisa
+question whether nursing is not her true vocation. She had an
+opportunity to try it later.
+
+Much interest attaches to this period of Louisa's work, when she
+dashed off sensational stories as fast as they were wanted, from the
+account which she has given of it in "Little Women." She has
+concentrated into one short period there the work and the feelings of
+a much longer time. She certainly did let her fancy run riot in these
+tales, and they were as sensational as the penny papers desired. She
+had a passion for wild, adventurous life, and even for lurid passion
+and melodramatic action, which she could indulge to the utmost in
+these stories. Louisa was always a creature of moods; and it was a
+great relief to work off certain feelings by the safe vent of
+imaginary persons and scenes in a story. She had no one to guide or
+criticise her; and the fact that these gambols of fancy brought the
+much-needed money, and were, as she truly called them, "pot boilers,"
+certainly did not discourage her from indulging in them. She is
+probably right in calling most of them "trash and rubbish," for she
+was yet an unformed girl, and had not studied herself or life very
+deeply; but her own severe condemnation of them in "Little Women"
+might give a false idea. The stories are never coarse or immoral. They
+give a lurid, unnatural picture of life, but sin is not made
+captivating or immorality attractive. There is often a severe moral
+enforced. They did not give poison to her readers, only over-seasoned
+unnatural food, which might destroy the relish for wholesome mental
+nourishment.
+
+We are inclined to ask, What did Louisa herself get out of this wild,
+Walpurgis-Night ride among ghosts and goblins, letting her fancy run
+riot, and indulging every mood as it rose? Did it not give her the
+dash and freedom in writing which we find in all her books, a command
+of language, and a recognition of the glow and force of life? She
+finds life no mere commonplace drudgery, but full of great
+possibilities. Did it not also give her an interest in all the wild
+fancies and dreams of girls, all the longing for adventure of boys,
+and make her hopeful even of the veriest young scamps that they would
+work off the turbulent energies of youth safely if activities were
+wisely provided for them?
+
+No writer for children ever was so fully recognized as understanding
+them. They never felt that she stood on a pinnacle of wisdom to
+censure them, but came right down into their midst to work and play
+with them, and at the same time to show them the path out of the
+tangled thickets, and to help them to see light in their gloomiest
+despair.
+
+Yet she unquestionably recognized that she was not doing the best work
+of which she was capable; and she looked forward still to the books
+she was to write, as well as the fortune she was to make. She did not
+like any reference to these sensational stories in after life,
+although she sometimes re-used plots or incidents in them; and she was
+very unwilling to have them republished.
+
+
+_Boston Bulletin,--Ninth Issue._
+
+     SUNDAY EVE, November, 1858.
+
+   MY BLESSED NAN,--Having finished my story, I can refresh my soul
+   by a scribble to you, though I have nothing to tell of much
+   interest.
+
+   Mrs. L. is to pay me my "celery" each month, as she likes to
+   settle all bills in that way; so yesterday she put $20.85 into my
+   willing hands, and gave me Saturday P.M. for a holiday. This
+   unexpected $20, with the $10 for my story (if I get it) and $5
+   for sewing, will give me the immense sum of $35. I shall get a
+   second-hand carpet for the little parlor, a bonnet for you, and
+   some shoes and stockings for myself, as three times round the
+   Common in cold weather conduces to chilblains, owing to
+   stockings with a profusion of toe, but no heel, and shoes with
+   plenty of heel, but a paucity of toe. The prejudices of society
+   demand that my feet be covered in the houses of the rich and
+   great; so I shall hose and shoe myself, and if any of my fortune
+   is left, will invest it in the Alcott Sinking Fund, the Micawber
+   R. R., and the Skimpole three per cents.
+
+   Tell me how much carpet you need, and T. S. will find me a good
+   one. In December I shall have another $20; so let me know what is
+   wanting, and don't live on "five pounds of rice and a couple of
+   quarts of split peas" all winter, I beg.
+
+   How did you like "Mark Field's Mistake"? I don't know whether it
+   is good or bad; but it will keep the pot boiling, and I ask no
+   more. I wanted to go and see if "Hope's Treasures" was accepted,
+   but was afeared. M. and H. both appeared; but one fell asleep,
+   and the other forgot to remember; so I still wait like Patience
+   on a hard chair, smiling at an inkstand. Miss K. asked me to go
+   to see Booth for the last time on Saturday. Upon that ravishing
+   thought I brooded all the week very merrily, and I danced, sang,
+   and clashed my cymbals daily. Saturday A.M. Miss K. sent word she
+   couldn't go, and from my pinnacle of joy I was precipitated into
+   an abyss of woe. While in said abyss Mrs. L. put the $20 into my
+   hands. That was a moment of awful trial. Every one of those
+   dollars cried aloud, "What, ho! Come hither, and be happy!" But
+   eight cold feet on a straw carpet marched to and fro so
+   pathetically that I locked up the tempting fiend, and fell to
+   sewing, as a Saturday treat!
+
+   But, lo! virtue was rewarded. Mrs. H. came flying in, and took me
+   to the Museum to see "Gold" and "Lend Me Five Shillings." Warren,
+   in an orange tie, red coat, white satin vest, and scarlet
+   ribbons on his ankles, was the funniest creature you ever saw;
+   and I laughed till I cried,--which was better for me than the
+   melancholy Dane, I dare say.
+
+   I'm disgusted with this letter; for I always begin trying to be
+   proper and neat; but my pen will not keep in order, and ink has a
+   tendency to splash when used copiously and with rapidity. I have
+   to be so moral and so dignified nowadays that the jocosity of my
+   nature will gush out when it gets a chance, and the consequences
+   are, as you see, rubbish. But you like it; so let's be merry
+   while we may, for to-morrow is Monday, and the weekly grind
+   begins again.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[7] A fine bas-relief owned by Mr. Emerson.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+THE YEAR OF GOOD LUCK.
+
+     THE CHILDREN'S SONG.
+
+     _Tune._--"Wait for the Wagon."
+
+     The world lies fair about us, and a friendly sky above;
+     Our lives are full of sunshine, our homes are full of love;
+     Few cares or sorrows sadden the beauty of our day;
+     We gather simple pleasures like daisies by the way.
+
+             _Chorus._--Oh! sing with cheery voices,
+                        Like robins on the tree;
+                      For little lads and lasses
+                        As blithe of heart should be.
+
+     The village is our fairyland: its good men are our kings;
+     And wandering through its by-ways our busy minds find wings.
+     The school-room is our garden, and we the flowers there,
+     And kind hands tend and water us that we may blossom fair.
+
+             _Chorus._--Oh! dance in airy circles,
+                        Like fairies on the lee;
+                      For little lads and lasses
+                        As light of foot should be.
+
+     There's the Shepherd of the sheepfold; the Father of the vines;
+     The Hermit of blue Walden; the Poet of the pines;
+     And a Friend who comes among us, with counsels wise and mild
+     With snow upon his forehead, yet at heart a very child.
+
+             _Chorus._--Oh! smile as smiles the river,
+                        Slow rippling to the sea;
+                      For little lads and lasses
+                        As full of peace should be.
+
+     There's not a cloud in heaven but drops its silent dew;
+     No violet in the meadow but blesses with its blue;
+     No happy child in Concord who may not do its part
+     To make the great world better by innocence of heart.
+
+             _Chorus._--Oh! blossom in the sunshine
+                           Beneath the village tree;
+                         For little lads and lasses
+                           Are the fairest flowers we see.
+
+
+After such long and hard struggles, it is pleasant to find the diary
+for 1860 headed "A Year of Good Luck." The appointment of Mr. Alcott
+as Superintendent of Schools in Concord was a great happiness to the
+family. It was a recognition of his character and ability, and gave
+him congenial occupation and some small pecuniary compensation.
+
+Louisa was writing for the "Atlantic," and receiving better pay for
+her work; Anna was happy; and May absorbed in her art.
+
+In the summer Miss Alcott had an experience in caring for a young
+friend during a temporary fit of insanity, which she has partially
+reproduced in the touching picture of Helen in the story of "Work." It
+is a powerful lesson; but it is almost cruelly enforced, and is an
+artistic blemish in the book. While the great problem of heredity
+should be studied and its lessons enforced, it is yet a mystery, whose
+laws are not understood; and it is not wise to paint its possible
+effects in the lurid light of excited imagination, which may too often
+bring about the very evils which a wise and temperate caution might
+prevent. For the physician and teacher such investigations are
+important; but they are dangerous to the young and sensitive.
+
+The following unusually long letter gives a pleasing picture of the
+family life at this time:--
+
+
+_To Mrs. Bond._
+
+     APPLE SLUMP, Sept. 17, 1860.
+
+   DEAR AUNTIE,--I consider this a practical illustration of one of
+   Mother's naughty amended sayings, "Cast your bread upon the
+   waters, and after many days it will return buttered;" and this
+   "rule of three" don't "puzzle me," as the other did; for my
+   venerable raiment went away with one if not two feet in the
+   grave, and came back in the guise of three stout angels, having
+   been resurrectionized by the spirit who lives on the other side
+   of a Charles River Jordan. Thank you very much, and be sure the
+   dreams I dream in them will be pleasant ones; for, whether you
+   sewed them or not, I know they bring some of the Auntie influence
+   in their strength, softness, and warmth; and, though a Vandal, I
+   think any prayers I may say in them will be the better for the
+   affectionate recollections that will clothe me with the putting
+   on of these friendly gowns, while my belief in both heavenly and
+   earthly providences will be amazingly strengthened by the
+   knowledge of some lives here, whose beauty renders it impossible
+   to doubt the existence of the life hereafter.
+
+   We were very glad to hear that the Papa was better; for when
+   paternal "Richards" ain't "themselves," everybody knows the
+   anxious state of the domestic realms.
+
+   I hope Georgie (last name disremembered) has recovered from the
+   anguish of discontented teeth and berry-seeds, and that "the
+   Mama" was as much benefited by the trip as the other parties
+   were, barring the horse perhaps.
+
+   This amiable town is convulsed just now with a gymnastic fever,
+   which shows itself with great violence in all the schools, and
+   young societies generally. Dr. Lewis has "inoculated us for the
+   disease," and it has "taken finely;" for every one has become a
+   perambulating windmill, with all its four sails going as if a
+   wind had set in; and the most virulent cases present the
+   phenomena of black eyes and excoriation of the knobby parts of
+   the frame, to say nothing of sprains and breakage of vessels
+   looming in the future.
+
+   The City Fathers approve of it; and the city sons and daughters
+   intend to show that Concord has as much muscle as brain, and be
+   ready for another Concord fight, if Louis Napoleon sees fit to
+   covet this famous land of Emerson, Hawthorne, Thoreau, Alcott, &
+   Co. Abby and I are among the pioneers; and the delicate vegetable
+   productions clash their cymbals in private, when the beef-eating
+   young ladies faint away and become superfluous _dumb belles_.
+
+   Saturday we had J. G. Whittier, Charlotte Cushman, Miss Stebbins
+   the sculptress, and Mr. Stuart, conductor of the underground
+   railroad of this charming free country. So you see our humble
+   place of abode is perking up; and when the "great authoress and
+   artist" are fairly out of the shell, we shall be an honor to our
+   country and terror to the foe,--provided good fortune don't addle
+   or bad fortune smash us.
+
+   Father continues to stir up the schools like a mild
+   pudding-stick, Mother to sing Hebron among her pots and pans,
+   Anna and the Prince Consort to bill and coo in the little
+   dove-cot, Oranthy Bluggage to launch chips on the Atlantic and
+   make a gigantic blot of herself in working the vessel, Abby to
+   teach the fine arts and play propriety for the family, and the
+   old house to put its best foot foremost and hoot at the idea of
+   ever returning to the chaos from which it came.
+
+   This is a condensed history of "the pathetic family," which is
+   also a "happy family," owing to the prevalence of friends and
+   lots of kindness in the original packages, "which are always
+   arriving" when the "Widow Cruise's oil-bottle" begins to give
+   out.
+
+   You know I never _could_ do anything in a neat and proper manner;
+   so you will receive this topsy-turvy note as you do its writer,
+   and with love to all from all, believe her, dear auntie,
+
+     Ever lovingly yours,
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+This characteristic letter not only shows Louisa's affectionate
+feelings and gives a picture of her life, but indicates that "The
+Pathetic Family," which was the foundation of "Little Women," was
+already shaping itself in her mind.
+
+Mr. Alcott's career as Superintendent of Schools was a gratifying
+success, and is still remembered by friends of education in the town.
+The year closed with a school festival, for which Louisa wrote a poem,
+and in which she took hearty delight.
+
+In 1861 war was declared with the South. The Alcotts were all alive
+with patriotic enthusiasm, and Louisa took an active part in fitting
+off the boys for the army. But she also found time for much reading.
+Mr. Alcott, in his sonnet, uses the expression about Louisa--
+
+     "Hast with grave studies vexed a lively brain."
+
+He may possibly have referred to this period, though she could never
+properly be called a student. She was a rapid, intelligent reader,
+and her taste was severe and keen. From her childhood she had browsed
+in her father's library, full of the works of ancient philosophers and
+quaint English poets, and had imbibed from them great thoughts and
+noble sentiments; but her reading, like all her education, was
+immethodical. Occasionally she would lay out courses of reading, which
+she pursued for a time; but in general she followed the cravings of a
+healthy appetite for knowledge, reading what came in her way. Later in
+life she often read light literature in abundance, to drown the
+sensations of pain, and to pass away the hours of invalidism.
+
+She read French easily, and learned to speak it when abroad; she also
+studied German, but did not acquire equal facility in that tongue. Of
+ancient languages she had no knowledge. History could not fail to
+interest such a student of life, and she loved Nature too well not to
+enjoy the revelations of science when brought to her notice; but she
+had never time to give to a thorough study of either.
+
+In her journal at this time she speaks of her religious feelings,
+which the experiences of grief and despair and reviving hope had
+deepened. Louisa Alcott's was a truly religious soul; she always lived
+in the consciousness of a Higher Power sustaining and blessing her,
+whose presence was revealed to her through Nature, through the
+inspired words of great thinkers and the deep experiences of her own
+heart. She never held her life as an isolated possession which she was
+free to use for her own enjoyment or glory. Her father truly called
+her "Duty's faithful child," and her life was consecrated to the duty
+she recognized as specially hers. But for outward forms and rites of
+religion she cared little; her home was sacred to her, and she found
+her best life there. She loved Theodore Parker, and found great
+strength and help from his preaching, and afterward liked to listen to
+Dr. Bartol; but she never joined any church. The Bible was not her
+favorite reading, though her father had read it much to her in her
+childhood, with his own peculiar charm of interpretation. Pilgrim's
+Progress was one of the few religious books which became dear to her
+in the same way.
+
+Her sister Anna was married in May; this was of course a great event
+in the family. While fully rejoicing in her sister's happiness, Louisa
+felt her loss as a constant companion and confidant. The journal gives
+a sufficient description of the event. Her strong affection for her
+brother-in-law appears in "Little Women" and in "Jo's Boys." About
+this time her farce was brought out at the Howard Athenaeum.
+
+The story-writing continued, as it helped to pay the expenses of the
+family; but the continuous, hurried work had begun to affect her
+health, and she occasionally suffered from illness.
+
+In the summer of 1861 Miss Alcott began to write her first novel,
+entitled "Moods;" this proved to be the least successful of her books,
+and yet like many an unfortunate child, it was the dearest to the
+mother's heart. It was not written for money, but for its own sake,
+and she was possessed by the plot and the characters. Warwick
+represented her ideal of a hero, while her sister preferred the type
+of the amiable Moor; yet there is far less of her outward self
+revealed in this than in her other stories. It is full of her thoughts
+and fancies, but not of her life. The wilful, moody, charming Sylvia
+does not affect us like the stormy Jo, who is a real presence to us,
+and whom we take to our hearts in spite of her faults. The men are
+such as she found in books, but had never known herself, and,
+carefully as she has drawn them, have not the individuality of Laurie
+and Professor Bhaer. The action takes place in an unreal world; and
+though there are many pretty scenes, they have not the real flavor of
+New England life. The principal incident, of a young girl going up the
+river on a picnic-voyage for some days with her brother and two other
+young men, was so contrary to common ideas of decorum, that the motive
+hardly seems sufficient for the staid sister's consent; but in the
+simple, innocent life which the Alcotts lived in Concord such scruples
+were little felt.
+
+Miss Alcott did not lay stress upon the marriage question as the
+principal feature of the book; she cared more to describe the wilful
+moods of a young girl, full of good feelings, and longing for a rich
+and noble life, but not established in convictions and principles. She
+meant to represent much of her own nature in Sylvia, for she was
+always a creature of moods, which her family learned to recognize and
+respect. But how unlike was the discipline of family work and love,
+which saved Louisa from fatal caprices and fitful gusts of fancy
+called passion, to the lot of the wealthy and admired Sylvia. Miss
+Alcott says that the incidents of the marriage, although not drawn
+from life, were so close to an actual case that the wife asked her how
+she had known her secret; but such realism is a poor justification in
+art. It is that which becomes true to the imagination and heart
+through its vivid personation of character which is accepted, not the
+bare facts. The great question of the transcendental period was truth
+to the inward life instead of the outward law. But in "Moods" the
+marriage question is not stated strongly; it does not reach down to
+this central principle. It is only in tragedy that such a double
+relation could be endured, when the situation is compelled by
+fate,--the fate of character and overpowering circumstances,--and when
+there is no happy solution possible. But Sylvia's position is made
+only by her own weakness, and the love which stands in opposition to
+outward duty has no right of existence. If her love for Warwick
+_could_ be overcome, there was no question of her duty; and when she
+accepts Faith's criticism of him, it is clear that it is a much
+lighter spell than love which has fascinated her. We do not accept the
+catastrophe which sacrifices a splendid life to make a comfortable
+solution of the practical difficulty, and to allow Sylvia to accept a
+happy home without a thorough regeneration of heart and mind. But
+these were the natural mistakes of youth and inexperience; Louisa had
+known but little of such struggles. Love and marriage were rather
+uninteresting themes to her, and she had not yet found her true power.
+
+Still the book has great literary merit. It is well written, in a more
+finished style than any of her other work, except "Modern
+Mephistopheles," and the dialogue is vigorous and sprightly. In spite
+of her careful revision and pruning, there is something left of
+youthful gush in it, and this perhaps touched the heart of young
+girls, who found in Sylvia's troubles with herself a reflection of
+their own.
+
+The "golden wedding" scenes have some of her usual freedom and
+vivacity. She is at home with a troop of mothers and babies and noisy
+boys. But the "golden wedding" was a new importation from Germany, and
+not at home in the New England farmhouse. Why might it not have been a
+true wedding or a harvest feast?
+
+Louisa never lost her interest in this early work, though it was the
+most unlucky of books, and subjected to severe handling. It was sent
+to and fro from publisher to author, each one suggesting some change.
+Redpath sent it back as being too long. Ticknor found it very
+interesting, but could not use it then. Loring liked it, but wanted it
+shorter. She condensed and altered until her author's spirit rebelled,
+and she declared she would change it no more.
+
+After her other books had made her famous, "Moods" was again brought
+forward and republished as it was originally written. It met with
+warmer welcome than before, and a cheap edition was published in
+England to supply the popular demand.
+
+Miss Alcott learned the first painful lesson of over-work on this
+book. She was possessed by it, and for three weeks labored so
+constantly that she felt the physical effects keenly. Fortunately new
+household tasks (for the daughters of John Brown came to board with
+them), and the enthusiasm of the time, changed the current of her
+thoughts.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _February_, 1860.--Mr. ---- won't have "M. L.," as it is
+   antislavery, and the dear South must not be offended. Got a
+   carpet with my $50, and wild Louisa's head kept the feet of the
+   family warm.
+
+   _March._--Wrote "A Modern Cinderella," with Nan for the heroine
+   and John for the hero.
+
+   Made my first ball dress for May, and she was the finest girl at
+   the party. My tall, blond, graceful girl! I was proud of her.
+
+   Wrote a song for the school festival, and heard it sung by four
+   hundred happy children. Father got up the affair, and such a
+   pretty affair was never seen in Concord before. He said, "We
+   spend much on our cattle and flower shows; let us each spring
+   have a show of our children, and begrudge nothing for their
+   culture." All liked it but the old fogies who want things as they
+   were in the ark.
+
+   _April._--Made two riding habits, and May and I had some fine
+   rides. Both needed exercise, and this was good for us. So one of
+   our dreams came true, and we really did "dash away on horseback."
+
+   Sanborn was nearly kidnapped for being a friend of John Brown;
+   but his sister and A. W. rescued him when he was handcuffed, and
+   the scamps drove off. Great ferment in town. A meeting and
+   general flurry.
+
+   Had a funny lover who met me in the cars, and said he lost his
+   heart at once. Handsome man of forty. A Southerner, and very
+   demonstrative and gushing, called and wished to pay his
+   addresses; and being told I didn't wish to see him, retired, to
+   write letters and haunt the road with his hat off, while the
+   girls laughed and had great fun over Jo's lover. He went at last,
+   and peace reigned. My adorers are all queer.
+
+   Sent "Cinderella" to the "Atlantic," and it was accepted. Began
+   "By the River," and thought that this was certainly to be a lucky
+   year; for after ten years hard climbing I had reached a good
+   perch on the ladder, and could look more hopefully into the
+   future, while my paper boats sailed gaily over the Atlantic.
+
+   _May._--Meg's wedding.
+
+   My farce was acted, and I went to see it. Not very well done; but
+   I sat in a box, and the good Doctor handed up a bouquet to the
+   author, and made as much as he could of a small affair.
+
+   Saw Anna's honeymoon home at Chelsea,--a little cottage in a
+   blooming apple-orchard. Pretty place, simple and sweet. God bless
+   it!
+
+   The dear girl was married on the 23d, the same day as Mother's
+   wedding. A lovely day; the house full of sunshine, flowers,
+   friends, and happiness. Uncle S. J. May married them, with no
+   fuss, but much love; and we all stood round her. She in her
+   silver-gray silk, with lilies of the valley (John's flower) in
+   her bosom and hair. We in gray thin stuff and roses,--sackcloth,
+   I called it, and ashes of roses; for I mourn the loss of my Nan,
+   and am not comforted. We have had a little feast, sent by good
+   Mrs. Judge Shaw; then the old folks danced round the bridal pair
+   on the lawn in the German fashion, making a pretty picture to
+   remember, under our Revolutionary elm.
+
+   Then, with tears and kisses, our dear girl, in her little white
+   bonnet, went happily away with her good John; and we ended our
+   first wedding. Mr. Emerson kissed her; and I thought that honor
+   would make even matrimony endurable, for he is the god of my
+   idolatry, and has been for years.
+
+   _June._--To Boston to the memorial meeting for Mr. Parker, which
+   was very beautiful, and proved how much he was beloved. Music
+   Hall was full of flowers and sunshine, and hundreds of faces,
+   both sad and proud, as the various speakers told the life of love
+   and labor which makes Theodore Parker's memory so rich a legacy
+   to Boston. I was very glad to have known so good a man, and been
+   called "friend" by him.
+
+   Saw Nan in her nest, where she and her mate live like a pair of
+   turtle doves. Very sweet and pretty, but I'd rather be a free
+   spinster and paddle my own canoe.
+
+   _August._--"Moods." Genius burned so fiercely that for four weeks
+   I wrote all day and planned nearly all night, being quite
+   possessed by my work. I was perfectly happy, and seemed to have
+   no wants. Finished the book, or a rough draught of it, and put it
+   away to settle. Mr. Emerson offered to read it when Mother told
+   him it was "Moods" and had one of his sayings for motto.
+
+   Daresay nothing will ever come of it; but it _had_ to be done,
+   and I'm the richer for a new experience.
+
+   _September._--Received $75 of Ticknor for "Cinderella," and feel
+   very rich. Emerson praised it, and people wrote to me about it
+   and patted me on the head. Paid bills, and began to simmer
+   another.
+
+   _October._--I went to B. and saw the Prince of Wales trot over
+   the Common with his train at a review. A yellow-haired laddie
+   very like his mother. Fanny W. and I nodded and waved as he
+   passed, and he openly winked his boyish eye at us; for Fanny,
+   with her yellow curls and wild waving, looked rather rowdy, and
+   the poor little prince wanted some fun. We laughed, and thought
+   that we had been more distinguished by the saucy wink than by a
+   stately bow. Boys are always jolly,--even princes.
+
+   Read Richter, and enjoyed him very much.
+
+   Mother went to see Uncle S. J. May, and I was house-keeper. Gave
+   my mind to it so energetically that I dreamed dip-toast, talked
+   apple-sauce, thought pies, and wept drop-cakes. Read my book to
+   Nan, who came up to cheer me in my struggles; and she laughed and
+   cried over it and said it was "good." So I felt encouraged, and
+   will touch it up when duty no longer orders me to make a
+   burnt-offering of myself.
+
+   _November._--Father sixty-one; L. aged twenty-eight. Our
+   birthday. Gave Father a ream of paper, and he gave me Emerson's
+   picture; so both were happy.
+
+   Wrote little, being busy with visitors. The John Brown
+   Association asked me for a poem, which I wrote.
+
+   Kind Miss R. sent May $30 for lessons, so she went to B. to take
+   some of Johnstone. She is one of the fortunate ones, and gets
+   what she wants easily. I have to grub for my help, or go without
+   it. Good for me, doubtless, or it wouldn't be so; so cheer up,
+   Louisa, and grind away!
+
+   _December._--More luck for May. She wanted to go to Syracuse and
+   teach, and Dr. W. sends for her, thanks to Uncle S. J. May. I sew
+   like a steam-engine for a week, and get her ready. On the 17th go
+   to B. and see our youngest start on her first little flight
+   alone into the world, full of hope and courage. May all go well
+   with her!
+
+   Mr. Emerson invited me to his class when they meet to talk on
+   Genius; a great honor, as all the learned ladies go.
+
+   Sent "Debby's Debit" to the "Atlantic," and they took it. Asked
+   to the John Brown meeting, but had no "good gown," so didn't go;
+   but my "pome" did, and came out in the paper. Not good. I'm a
+   better patriot than poet, and couldn't say what I felt.
+
+   A quiet Christmas; no presents but apples and flowers. No
+   merry-making; for Nan and May were gone, and Betty under the
+   snow. But we are used to hard times, and, as Mother says, "while
+   there is a famine in Kansas we mustn't ask for sugar-plums."
+
+   All the philosophy in our house is not in the study; a good deal
+   is in the kitchen, where a fine old lady thinks high thoughts and
+   does kind deeds while she cooks and scrubs.
+
+   _January, 1861._--Twenty-eight; received thirteen New Year's
+   gifts. A most uncommon fit of generosity seemed to seize people
+   on my behalf, and I was blessed with all manner of nice things,
+   from a gold and ivory pen to a mince-pie and a bonnet.
+
+   Wrote on a new book--"Success" ["Work"]--till Mother fell ill,
+   when I corked up my inkstand and turned nurse. The dear woman was
+   very ill, but rose up like a phoenix from her ashes after what
+   she gayly called "the irrepressible conflict between sickness and
+   the May constitution."
+
+   Father had four talks at Emerson's; good people came, and he
+   enjoyed them much; made $30. R. W. E. probably put in $20. He has
+   a sweet way of bestowing gifts on the table under a book or
+   behind a candle-stick, when he thinks Father wants a little
+   money, and no one will help him earn. A true friend is this
+   tender and illustrious man.
+
+   Wrote a tale and put it away,--to be sent when "Debby" comes out.
+   "F. T." appeared, and I got a dress, having mended my six-year
+   old silk till it is more patch and tear than gown. Made the
+   claret merino myself, and enjoyed it, as I do anything bought
+   with my "head-money."
+
+   _February._--Another turn at "Moods," which I remodelled. From
+   the 2d to the 25th I sat writing, with a run at dusk; could not
+   sleep, and for three days was so full of it I could not stop to
+   get up. Mother made me a green silk cap with a red bow, to match
+   the old green and red party wrap, which I wore as a "glory
+   cloak." Thus arrayed I sat in groves of manuscripts, "living for
+   immortality," as May said. Mother wandered in and out with
+   cordial cups of tea, worried because I couldn't eat. Father
+   thought it fine, and brought his reddest apples and hardest cider
+   for my Pegasus to feed upon. All sorts of fun was going on; but I
+   didn't care if the world returned to chaos if I and my inkstand
+   only "lit" in the same place.
+
+   It was very pleasant and queer while it lasted; but after three
+   weeks of it I found that my mind was too rampant for my body, as
+   my head was dizzy, legs shaky, and no sleep would come. So I
+   dropped the pen, and took long walks, cold baths, and had Nan up
+   to frolic with me. Read all I had done to my family; and Father
+   said: "Emerson must see this. Where did you get your
+   metaphysics?" Mother pronounced it wonderful, and Anna laughed
+   and cried, as she always does, over my works, saying, "My dear,
+   I'm proud of you."
+
+   So I had a good time, even if it never comes to anything; thing;
+   for it was worth something to have my three dearest sit up till
+   midnight listening with wide-open eyes to Lu's first novel.
+
+   I planned it some time ago, and have had it in my mind ever so
+   long; but now it begins to take shape.
+
+   Father had his usual school festival, and Emerson asked me to
+   write a song, which I did. On the 16th the schools all met in the
+   hall (four hundred),--a pretty posy bed, with a border of proud
+   parents and friends. Some of the fogies objected to the names
+   Phillips and John Brown. But Emerson said: "Give it up? No, no;
+   _I_ will read it." Which he did, to my great contentment; for
+   when the great man of the town says "Do it," the thing is done.
+   So the choir warbled, and the Alcotts were uplifted in their vain
+   minds.
+
+   Father was in glory, like a happy shepherd with a large flock of
+   sportive lambs; for all did something. Each school had its
+   badge,--one pink ribbons, one green shoulder-knots, and one
+   wreaths of pop-corn on the curly pates. One school to whom Father
+   had read Pilgrim's Progress told the story, one child after the
+   other popping up to say his or her part; and at the end a little
+   tot walked forward, saying with a pretty air of wonder,--"And
+   behold it was all a dream."
+
+   When all was over, and Father about to dismiss them, F. H., a
+   tall, handsome lad came to him, and looking up confidingly to the
+   benign old face, asked "our dear friend Mr. Alcott to accept of
+   Pilgrim's Progress and George Herbert's Poems from the children
+   of Concord, as a token of their love and respect."
+
+   Father was much touched and surprised, and blushed and stammered
+   like a boy, hugging the fine books while the children cheered
+   till the roof rung.
+
+   His report was much admired, and a thousand copies printed to
+   supply the demand; for it was a new thing to have a report,
+   neither dry nor dull; and teachers were glad of the hints given,
+   making education a part of religion, not a mere bread-making
+   grind for teacher and an irksome cram for children.
+
+   _April._--War declared with the South, and our Concord company
+   went to Washington. A busy time getting them ready, and a sad day
+   seeing them off; for in a little town like this we all seem like
+   one family in times like these. At the station the scene was very
+   dramatic, as the brave boys went away perhaps never to come back
+   again.
+
+   I've often longed to see a war, and now I have my wish. I long to
+   be a man; but as I can't fight, I will content myself with
+   working for those who can.
+
+   Sewed a good deal getting May's summer things in order, as she
+   sent for me to make and mend and buy and send her outfit.
+
+   Stories simmered in my brain, demanding to be writ; but I let
+   them simmer, knowing that the longer the divine afflatus was
+   bottled up the better it would be.
+
+   John Brown's daughters came to board, and upset my plans of rest
+   and writing when the report and the sewing were done. I had my
+   fit of woe up garret on the fat rag-bag, and then put my papers
+   away, and fell to work at housekeeping. I think disappointment
+   must be good for me, I get so much of it; and the constant
+   thumping Fate gives me may be a mellowing process; so I shall be
+   a ripe and sweet old pippin before I die.
+
+   _May._--Spent our May-day working for our men,--three hundred
+   women all sewing together at the hall for two days.
+
+   May will not return to S. after her vacation in July; and being a
+   lucky puss, just as she wants something to do, F. B. S. needs a
+   drawing teacher in his school and offers her the place.
+
+   Nan found that I was wearing all the old clothes she and May
+   left; so the two dear souls clubbed together and got me some new
+   ones; and the great parcel, with a loving letter, came to me as a
+   beautiful surprise.
+
+   Nan and John walked up from Cambridge for a day, and we all
+   walked back. Took a sail to the forts, and saw our men on guard
+   there. Felt very martial and Joan-of-Arc-y as I stood on the
+   walls with the flag flying over me and cannon all about.
+
+   _June._--Read a good deal; grubbed in my garden, and made the old
+   house pretty for May. Enjoyed Carlyle's French Revolution very
+   much. His earthquaky style suits me.
+
+   "Charles Auchester" is charming,--a sort of fairy tale for grown
+   people. Dear old "Evelina," as a change, was pleasant. Emerson
+   recommended Hodson's India, and I got it, and liked it; also read
+   Sir Thomas More's Life. I read Fielding's "Amelia," and thought
+   it coarse and queer. The heroine having "her lovely nose smashed
+   all to bits falling from a post shay" was a new idea. What some
+   one says of Richardson applies to Fielding, "The virtues of his
+   heroes are the vices of decent men."
+
+   _July._--Spent a month at the White Mountains with L. W.,--a
+   lovely time, and it did me much good. Mountains are restful and
+   uplifting to my mind. Lived in the woods, and revelled in brooks,
+   birds, pines, and peace.
+
+   _August._--May came home very tired, but satisfied with her first
+   attempt, which has been very successful in every way. She is
+   quite a belle now, and much improved,--a tall blond lass, full of
+   grace and spirit.
+
+   _September._--Ticknor sent $50. Wrote a story for C., as Plato
+   needs new shirts, and Minerva a pair of boots, and Hebe a fall
+   hat.
+
+   _October._--All together on Marmee's birthday. Sewing and
+   knitting for "our boys" all the time. It seems as if a few
+   energetic women could carry on the war better than the men do it
+   so far.
+
+   A week with Nan in the dove-cot. As happy as ever.
+
+   _November_ and _December_.--Wrote, read, sewed, and wanted
+   something to do.
+
+In 1862, at the suggestion of Miss Peabody, Miss Alcott opened a
+Kindergarten school; but it was not successful, and she took a final
+leave of the teacher's profession, and returned to her writing, which
+she found to be her true calling. She wrote much; for "brain was
+lively, and work paid for readily." Besides the occasional stories in
+papers and magazines, her most important labor was the preparation of
+the story called "Work," or, as she originally named it, "Success."
+This story however was not published until ten years later. Here she
+took the road that was later to lead to fame and fortune, by writing
+from her own experience of life. Christie is Louisa herself under very
+thin disguise; and all her own experiences, as servant, governess,
+companion, seamstress, and actress are brought in to give vividness to
+the picture; while many other persons may be recognized as models for
+her skilful portraiture. The book has always been deservedly popular.
+
+   _January, 1862._--E. P. Peabody wanted me to open a Kindergarten,
+   and Mr. Barnard gave a room at the Warren Street Chapel. Don't
+   like to teach, but take what comes; so when Mr. F. offered $40 to
+   fit up with, twelve pupils, and his patronage, I began.
+
+   Saw many great people, and found them no bigger than the rest of
+   the world,--often not half so good as some humble soul who made
+   no noise. I learned a good deal in my way, and am not half so
+   much impressed by society as before I got a peep at it. Having
+   known Emerson, Parker, Phillips, and that set of really great and
+   good men and women living for the world's work and service of
+   God, the mere show people seem rather small and silly, though
+   they shine well, and feel that they are stars.
+
+   _February._--Visited about, as my school did not bring enough to
+   pay board and the assistant I was made to have, though I didn't
+   want her.
+
+   Went to lectures; saw Booth at the Goulds',--a handsome, shy man,
+   glooming in a corner.
+
+   Very tired of this wandering life and distasteful work; but kept
+   my word and tugged on.
+
+   Hate to visit people who only ask me to help amuse others, and
+   often longed for a crust in a garret with freedom and a pen. I
+   never knew before what insolent things a hostess can do, nor what
+   false positions poverty can push one into.
+
+   _April._--Went to and from C. every day that I might be at home.
+   Forty miles a day is dull work; but I have my dear people at
+   night, and am not a beggar.
+
+   Wrote "King of Clubs,"--$30. The school having no real foundation
+   (as the people who sent didn't care for Kindergartens, and Miss
+   P. wanted me to take pupils for nothing, to try the new system),
+   I gave it up, as I could do much better at something else. May
+   took my place for a month, that I might keep my part of the
+   bargain; and I cleaned house, and wrote a story which made more
+   than all my months of teaching. They ended in a wasted winter and
+   a debt of $40,--to be paid if I sell my hair to do it.
+
+   _May._--School finished for me, and I paid Miss N. by giving her
+   all the furniture, and leaving her to do as she liked; while I
+   went back to my writing, which pays much better, though Mr. F.
+   did say, "Stick to your teaching; you can't write." Being wilful,
+   I said, "I won't teach; and I can write, and I'll prove it."
+
+   Saw Miss Rebecca Harding, author of "Margret Howth," which has
+   made a stir, and is very good. A handsome, fresh, quiet woman,
+   who says she never had any troubles, though she writes about
+   woes. I told her I had had lots of troubles; so I write jolly
+   tales; and we wondered why we each did so.
+
+   _June_, _July_, _August._--Wrote a tale for B., and he lost it,
+   and wouldn't pay.
+
+   Wrote two tales for L. I enjoy romancing to suit myself; and
+   though my tales are silly, they are not bad; and my sinners
+   always have a good spot somewhere. I hope it is good drill for
+   fancy and language, for I can do it fast; and Mr. L. says my
+   tales are so "dramatic, vivid, and full of plot," they are just
+   what he wants.
+
+   _September_, _October._--Sewing Bees and Lint Picks for "our
+   boys" kept us busy, and the prospect of the first grandchild
+   rejoiced the hearts of the family.
+
+   Wrote much; for brain was lively, and work paid for readily.
+   Rewrote the last story, and sent it to L., who wants more than I
+   can send him. So, between blue flannel jackets for "our boys" and
+   dainty slips for Louisa Caroline or John B., Jr., as the case may
+   be, I reel off my "thrilling" tales, and mess up my work in a
+   queer but interesting way.
+
+   War news bad. Anxious faces, beating hearts, and busy minds.
+
+   I like the stir in the air, and long for battle like a war-horse
+   when he smells powder. The blood of the Mays is up!
+
+
+_After Anna's Marriage._
+
+     SUNDAY MORN, 1860.
+     MRS. PRATT:
+
+   MY DEAR MADAM,--The news of the town is as follows, and I present
+   it in the usual journalesque style of correspondence. After the
+   bridal train had departed, the mourners withdrew to their
+   respective homes; and the bereaved family solaced their woe by
+   washing dishes for two hours and bolting the remains of the
+   funeral baked meats. At four, having got settled down, we were
+   all routed up by the appearance of a long procession of children
+   filing down our lane, headed by the Misses H. and R. Father
+   rushed into the cellar, and appeared with a large basket of
+   apples, which went the rounds with much effect. The light
+   infantry formed in a semi-circle, and was watered by the matron
+   and maids. It was really a pretty sight, these seventy children
+   loaded with wreaths and flowers, standing under the elm in the
+   sunshine, singing in full chorus the song I wrote for them. It
+   was a neat little compliment to the superintendent and his
+   daughter, who was glad to find that her "pome" was a favorite
+   among the "lads and lasses" who sang it "with cheery voices, like
+   robins on the tree."
+
+   Father put the finishing stroke to the spectacle by going off at
+   full speed, hoppity-skip, and all the babes followed in a whirl
+   of rapture at the idea. He led them up and down and round and
+   round till they were tired; then they fell into order, and with
+   a farewell song marched away, seventy of the happiest little ones
+   I ever wish to see. We subsided, and fell into our beds with the
+   new thought "Annie is married and gone" for a lullaby, which was
+   not very effective in its results with all parties.
+
+   Thursday we set our house in order, and at two the rush began. It
+   had gone abroad that Mr. M. and Mrs. Captain Brown were to adorn
+   the scene, so many people coolly came who were not invited, and
+   who had no business here. People sewed and jabbered till Mrs.
+   Brown, with Watson Brown's widow and baby came; then a levee took
+   place. The two pale women sat silent and serene through the
+   clatter; and the bright-eyed, handsome baby received the homage
+   of the multitude like a little king, bearing the kisses and
+   praises with the utmost dignity. He is named Frederick Watson
+   Brown, after his murdered uncle and father, and is a fair,
+   heroic-looking baby, with a fine head, and serious eyes that look
+   about him as if saying, "I am a Brown! Are these friends or
+   enemies?" I wanted to cry once at the little scene the
+   unconscious baby made. Some one caught and kissed him rudely; he
+   didn't cry, but looked troubled, and rolled his great eyes
+   anxiously about for some familiar face to reassure him with its
+   smile. His mother was not there; but though many hands were
+   stretched to him, he turned to Grandma Bridge, and putting out
+   his little arms to her as if she was a refuge, laughed and crowed
+   as he had not done before when she danced him on her knee. The
+   old lady looked delighted; and Freddy patted the kind face, and
+   cooed like a lawful descendant of that pair of ancient turtle
+   doves.
+
+   When he was safe back in the study, playing alone at his mother's
+   feet, C. and I went and worshipped in our own way at the shrine
+   of John Brown's grandson, kissing him as if he were a little
+   saint, and feeling highly honored when he sucked our fingers, or
+   walked on us with his honest little red shoes, much the worse for
+   wear.
+
+   Well, the baby fascinated me so that I forgot a raging headache
+   and forty gabbling women all in full clack. Mrs. Brown, Sen., is
+   a tall, stout woman, plain, but with a strong, good face, and a
+   natural dignity that showed she was something better than a
+   "lady," though she _did_ drink out of her saucer and used the
+   plainest speech.
+
+   The younger woman had such a patient, heart-broken face, it was a
+   whole Harper's Ferry tragedy in a look. When we got your letter,
+   Mother and I ran into the study to read it. Mother read aloud;
+   for there were only C., A., I, and Mrs. Brown, Jr., in the room.
+   As she read the words that were a poem in their simplicity and
+   happiness, the poor young widow sat with tears rolling down her
+   face; for I suppose it brought back her own wedding-day, not two
+   years ago, and all the while she cried the baby laughed and
+   crowed at her feet as if there was no trouble in the world.
+
+   The preparations had been made for twenty at the utmost; so when
+   forty souls with the usual complement of bodies appeared, we grew
+   desperate, and our neat little supper turned out a regular "tea
+   fight." A., C., B., and I rushed like comets to and fro trying to
+   fill the multitude that would eat fast and drink like sponges. I
+   filled a big plate with all I could lay hands on, and with two
+   cups of tea, strong enough for a dozen, charged upon Mr. E. and
+   Uncle S., telling them to eat, drink, and be merry, for a famine
+   was at hand. They cuddled into a corner; and then, feeling that
+   my mission was accomplished, I let the hungry _wait_ and the
+   thirsty _moan_ for tea, while I picked out and helped the regular
+   Antislavery set.
+
+   We got through it; but it was an awful hour; and Mother wandered
+   in her mind, utterly lost in a grove of teapots; while B.
+   pervaded the neighborhood demanding hot water, and we girls sowed
+   cake broadcast through the land.
+
+   When the plates were empty and the teapots dry, people wiped
+   their mouths and confessed at last that they had done. A
+   conversation followed, in which Grandpa B. and E. P. P. held
+   forth, and Uncle and Father mildly upset the world, and made a
+   new one in which every one desired to take a place. Dr. B., Mr.
+   B., T., etc., appeared, and the rattle continued till nine, when
+   some Solomon suggested that the Alcotts must be tired, and every
+   one departed but C. and S. We had a polka by Mother and Uncle,
+   the lancers by C. and B., and an _etude_ by S., after which
+   scrabblings of feast appeared, and we "drained the dregs of every
+   cup," all cakes and pies we gobbled up, etc.; then peace fell
+   upon us, and our remains were interred decently.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+HOSPITAL SKETCHES.
+
+     THOREAU'S FLUTE.
+
+     We sighing said, "Our Pan is dead;
+       His pipe hangs mute beside the river
+       Around it wistful sunbeams quiver,
+     But 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."
+
+
+Miss Alcott could not help feeling deeply the excitement of the hour
+when the war broke out. Her father had been one of the earliest
+Abolitionists, having joined the Antislavery Society with Garrison,
+and she well remembered the fugitive slave whom her mother had hidden
+in the oven. Now this feeling could be united with her patriotic zeal
+and her strong love of active life, and it was inevitable that she
+should long to share personally in the dangers and excitement of the
+war.
+
+Louisa had always been the nurse in the family, and had by nature the
+magnetic power which encourages and helps the feeble and suffering;
+therefore, since no other way of serving the cause opened to her, it
+was most like her to take her own life in her hands and join the corps
+of devoted nurses. She was accepted, and went to Washington. Her
+journal gives an account of her situation in the Union Hospital at
+Georgetown. It was a small hospital, much inferior in its appointments
+to those which were afterward arranged. Although Louisa had never been
+very ill up to that time, and thought herself exceptionally strong,
+yet she had not the rugged constitution fit to bear the labors and
+exposures of such a position; and the healthful habits of outdoor life
+and simple food to which she had always been accustomed made the
+conditions of the crowded, ill-ventilated hospital peculiarly perilous
+to her. She says, "I was never ill before this time, and never well
+afterward."
+
+But with all its hardships, Miss Alcott found in the hospital the
+varied and intense human life she had longed to know. Her great heart
+went out to all the men, black or white, the Virginia blacksmith and
+the rough Michigander. She even tried to befriend the one solitary
+rebel who had got left behind, and who was taken into the hospital to
+the disgust of some of the men; but he was impervious to all kindness,
+and she could find nothing in him for sympathy or romance to fasten
+upon.
+
+Miss Alcott remained in the hospital only about six weeks. Yet this
+short period had a very strong influence, both for good and evil, on
+her future life. The severe attack of fever which drove her from her
+post left her with shattered nerves and weakened constitution, and she
+never again knew the fulness of life and health which she had before.
+The chamber in her quiet home at Concord was evermore haunted by the
+fearful visions of delirium, and she could not regain there the peace
+she needed for work. But the experience of life, the observation of
+men under the excitement of war, the way in which they met the great
+conqueror Death, the revelations of heroism and love, and sometimes of
+bitterness and hate, brought her a deeper insight into human life than
+she ever had before, and gave to her writings greater reality.
+
+Louisa constantly wrote to the family of her experiences, and these
+letters were so interesting that she was persuaded to publish them in
+the "Commonwealth" newspaper. They attracted great attention, and
+first made her widely and favorably known to a higher public than that
+which had read her stories.
+
+These letters were published by James Redpath in book form, and Miss
+Alcott received $200 for the book,--a welcome sum to her at that time.
+The sketches are almost a literal reproduction of her letters to her
+family; but as they have been so extensively read, and are accessible
+to every one, I shall give in preference to them extracts from her
+journal kept at the hospital. Other stories growing out of her
+experience in the hospital, or more remotely connected with it, have
+been published in the same volume in later editions. "My Contraband"
+is one of the most dramatic and powerful stories she ever wrote. She
+portrays the intensity of hatred in a noble nature,--hatred justified
+by the provocation, and yet restrained from fatal execution by the
+highest suggestions of religion. This story called forth a letter of
+commendation and frank criticism from Col. T. W. Higginson, which was
+very encouraging to the young writer.
+
+The beautiful lines on Thoreau's flute, the most perfect of her poems,
+excepting the exquisite tribute to her mother, were first composed in
+the watches of the night in the hospital, and afterwards recalled
+during the tedious days of convalescence at Concord. This poem was
+printed in the "Atlantic," and brought her a welcome ten-dollar bill.
+
+"Hospital Sketches" were hastily written, and with little regard to
+literary execution, but they are fresh and original, and, still more,
+they are true, and they appeared at just the time the public wanted
+them. Every heart was longing to hear not only from field and camp,
+but from the hospitals, where sons and brothers were tenderly cared
+for. The generous, hopeful spirit with which Miss Alcott entered into
+the work was recognized as that which animated the brave corps of
+women who answered so promptly to their country's call, and every
+loyal and loving heart vibrated in unison with the strings she touched
+so skilfully.
+
+
+_Journal kept at the Hospital, Georgetown, D. C., 1862._
+
+   _November._--Thirty years old. Decided to go to Washington as
+   nurse if I could find a place. Help needed, and I love nursing,
+   and _must_ let out my pent-up energy in some new way. Winter is
+   always a hard and a dull time, and if I am away there is one less
+   to feed and warm and worry over.
+
+   I want new experiences, and am sure to get 'em if I go. So I've
+   sent in my name, and bide my time writing tales, to leave all
+   snug behind me, and mending up my old clothes,--for nurses don't
+   need nice things, thank Heaven!
+
+   _December._--On the 11th I received a note from Miss H. M.
+   Stevenson telling me to start for Georgetown next day to fill a
+   place in the Union Hotel Hospital. Mrs. Ropes of Boston was
+   matron, and Miss Kendall of Plymouth was a nurse there, and
+   though a hard place, help was needed. I was ready, and when my
+   commander said "March!" I marched. Packed my trunk, and reported
+   in B. that same evening.
+
+  [Illustration: _From a photograph of Miss Alcott taken about
+  1862._]
+
+   We had all been full of courage till the last moment came; then
+   we all broke down. I realized that I had taken my life in my
+   hand, and might never see them all again. I said, "Shall I stay,
+   Mother?" as I hugged her close. "No, go! and the Lord be with
+   you!" answered the Spartan woman; and till I turned the corner
+   she bravely smiled and waved her wet handkerchief on the
+   door-step. Shall I ever see that dear old face again?
+
+   So I set forth in the December twilight, with May and Julian
+   Hawthorne as escort, feeling as if I was the son of the house
+   going to war.
+
+   Friday, the 12th, was a very memorable day, spent in running all
+   over Boston to get my pass, etc., calling for parcels, getting a
+   tooth filled, and buying a veil,--my only purchase. A. C. gave me
+   some old clothes; the dear Sewalls money for myself and boys,
+   lots of love and help; and at 5 P.M., saying "good-by" to a group
+   of tearful faces at the station, I started on my long journey,
+   full of hope and sorrow, courage and plans.
+
+   A most interesting journey into a new world full of stirring
+   sights and sounds, new adventures, and an ever-growing sense of
+   the great task I had undertaken.
+
+   I said my prayers as I went rushing through the country white
+   with tents, all alive with patriotism, and already red with
+   blood.
+
+   A solemn time, but I'm glad to live in it; and am sure it will do
+   me good whether I come out alive or dead.
+
+   All went well, and I got to Georgetown one evening very tired.
+   Was kindly welcomed, slept in my narrow bed with two other
+   room-mates, and on the morrow began my new life by seeing a poor
+   man die at dawn, and sitting all day between a boy with pneumonia
+   and a man shot through the lungs. A strange day, but I did my
+   best; and when I put mother's little black shawl round the boy
+   while he sat up panting for breath, he smiled and said, "You are
+   real motherly, ma'am." I felt as if I was getting on. The man
+   only lay and stared with his big black eyes, and made me very
+   nervous. But all were well behaved; and I sat looking at the
+   twenty strong faces as they looked back at me,--the only new
+   thing they had to amuse them,--hoping that I looked "motherly" to
+   them; for my thirty years made me feel old, and the suffering
+   round me made me long to comfort every one.
+
+   _January, 1863. Union Hotel Hospital, Georgetown, D. C._--I never
+   began the year in a stranger place than this: five hundred miles
+   from home, alone, among strangers, doing painful duties all day
+   long, and leading a life of constant excitement in this great
+   house, surrounded by three or four hundred men in all stages of
+   suffering, disease, and death. Though often homesick, heartsick,
+   and worn out, I like it, find real pleasure in comforting,
+   tending, and cheering these poor souls who seem to love me, to
+   feel my sympathy though unspoken, and acknowledge my hearty
+   good-will, in spite of the ignorance, awkwardness, and
+   bashfulness which I cannot help showing in so new and trying a
+   situation. The men are docile, respectful, and affectionate, with
+   but few exceptions; truly lovable and manly many of them. John
+   Sulie, a Virginia blacksmith, is the prince of patients; and
+   though what we call a common man in education and condition, to
+   me is all I could expect or ask from the first gentleman in the
+   land. Under his plain speech and unpolished manner I seem to see
+   a noble character, a heart as warm and tender as a woman's, a
+   nature fresh and frank as any child's. He is about thirty, I
+   think, tall and handsome, mortally wounded, and dying royally
+   without reproach, repining, or remorse. Mrs. Ropes and myself
+   love him, and feel indignant that such a man should be so early
+   lost; for though he might never distinguish himself before the
+   world, his influence and example cannot be without effect, for
+   real goodness is never wasted.
+
+   _Monday, 4th._--I shall record the events of a day as a sample of
+   the days I spend:--
+
+   Up at six, dress by gaslight, run through my ward and throw up
+   the windows, though the men grumble and shiver; but the air is
+   bad enough to breed a pestilence; and as no notice is taken of
+   our frequent appeals for better ventilation, I must do what I
+   can. Poke up the fire, add blankets, joke, coax, and command; but
+   continue to open doors and windows as if life depended upon it.
+   Mine does, and doubtless many another, for a more perfect
+   pestilence-box than this house I never saw,--cold, damp, dirty,
+   full of vile odors from wounds, kitchens, wash-rooms, and
+   stables. No competent head, male or female, to right matters, and
+   a jumble of good, bad, and indifferent nurses, surgeons, and
+   attendants, to complicate the chaos still more.
+
+   After this unwelcome progress through my stifling ward, I go to
+   breakfast with what appetite I may; find the uninvitable fried
+   beef, salt butter, husky bread, and washy coffee; listen to the
+   clack of eight women and a dozen men,--the first silly, stupid,
+   or possessed of one idea; the last absorbed with their breakfast
+   and themselves to a degree that is both ludicrous and provoking,
+   for all the dishes are ordered down the table _full_ and returned
+   _empty_; the conversation is entirely among themselves, and each
+   announces his opinion with an air of importance that frequently
+   causes me to choke in my cup, or bolt my meals with undignified
+   speed lest a laugh betray to these famous beings that a "chiel's
+   amang them takin' notes."
+
+   Till noon I trot, trot, giving out rations, cutting up food for
+   helpless "boys," washing faces, teaching my attendants how beds
+   are made or floors are swept, dressing wounds, taking Dr. F. P.'s
+   orders (privately wishing all the time that he would be more
+   gentle with my big babies), dusting tables, sewing bandages,
+   keeping my tray tidy, rushing up and down after pillows,
+   bed-linen, sponges, books, and directions, till it seems as if I
+   would joyfully pay down all I possess for fifteen minutes' rest.
+   At twelve the big bell rings, and up comes dinner for the boys,
+   who are always ready for it and never entirely satisfied. Soup,
+   meat, potatoes, and bread is the bill of fare. Charley Thayer,
+   the attendant, travels up and down the room serving out the
+   rations, saving little for himself, yet always thoughtful of his
+   mates, and patient as a woman with their helplessness. When
+   dinner is over, some sleep, many read, and others want letters
+   written. This I like to do, for they put in such odd things, and
+   express their ideas so comically, I have great fun interiorally,
+   while as grave as possible exteriorally. A few of the men word
+   their paragraphs well and make excellent letters. John's was the
+   best of all I wrote. The answering of letters from friends after
+   some one had died is the saddest and hardest duty a nurse has to
+   do.
+
+   Supper at five sets every one to running that can run; and when
+   that flurry is over, all settle down for the evening amusements,
+   which consist of newspapers, gossip, the doctor's last round,
+   and, for such as need them, the final doses for the night. At
+   nine the bell rings, gas is turned down, and day nurses go to
+   bed. Night nurses go on duty, and sleep and death have the house
+   to themselves.
+
+   My work is changed to night watching, or half night and half
+   day,--from twelve to twelve. I like it, as it leaves me time for
+   a morning run, which is what I need to keep well; for bad air,
+   food, and water, work and watching, are getting to be too much
+   for me. I trot up and down the streets in all directions,
+   sometimes to the Heights, then half way to Washington, again to
+   the hill, over which the long trains of army wagons are
+   constantly vanishing and ambulances appearing. That way the
+   fighting lies, and I long to follow.
+
+   Ordered to keep my room, being threatened with pneumonia. Sharp
+   pain in the side, cough, fever, and dizziness. A pleasant
+   prospect for a lonely soul five hundred miles from home! Sit and
+   sew on the boys' clothes, write letters, sleep, and read; try to
+   talk and keep merry, but fail decidedly, as day after day goes,
+   and I feel no better. Dream awfully, and wake unrefreshed, think
+   of home, and wonder if I am to die here, as Mrs. R., the matron,
+   is likely to do. Feel too miserable to care much what becomes of
+   me. Dr. S. creaks up twice a day to feel my pulse, give me doses,
+   and ask if I am at all consumptive, or some other cheering
+   question. Dr. O. examines my lungs and looks sober. Dr. J. haunts
+   the room, coming by day and night with wood, cologne, books, and
+   messes, like a motherly little man as he is. Nurses fussy and
+   anxious, matron dying, and everything very gloomy. They want me
+   to go home, but I _won't_ yet.
+
+   _January 16th._--Was amazed to see Father enter the room that
+   morning, having been telegraphed to by order of Mrs. R. without
+   asking leave. I was very angry at first, though glad to see him,
+   because I knew I should have to go. Mrs. D. and Miss Dix came,
+   and pretty Miss W., to take me to Willard's to be cared for by
+   them. I wouldn't go, preferring to keep still, being pretty ill
+   by that time.
+
+   On the 21st I suddenly decided to go home, feeling very
+   strangely, and dreading to be worse. Mrs. R. died, and that
+   frightened the doctors about me; for my trouble was the
+   same,--typhoid pneumonia. Father, Miss K., and Lizzie T. went
+   with me. Miss Dix brought a basket full of bottles of wine, tea,
+   medicine, and cologne, besides a little blanket and pillow, a
+   fan, and a testament. She is a kind old soul, but very queer and
+   arbitrary.
+
+   Was very sorry to go, and "my boys" seemed sorry to have me.
+   Quite a flock came to see me off; but I was too sick to have but
+   a dim idea of what was going on.
+
+   Had a strange, excited journey of a day and night,--half asleep,
+   half wandering, just conscious that I was going home; and, when I
+   got to Boston, of being taken out of the car, with people looking
+   on as if I was a sight. I daresay I was all blowzed, crazy, and
+   weak. Was too sick to reach Concord that night, though we tried
+   to do so. Spent it at Mr. Sewall's; had a sort of fit; they sent
+   for Dr. H., and I had a dreadful time of it.
+
+   Next morning felt better, and at four went home. Just remember
+   seeing May's shocked face at the depot, Mother's bewildered one
+   at home, and getting to bed in the firm belief that the house was
+   roofless, and no one wanted to see me.
+
+   As I never shall forget the strange fancies that haunted me, I
+   shall amuse myself with recording some of them.
+
+   The most vivid and enduring was the conviction that I had married
+   a stout, handsome Spaniard, dressed in black velvet, with very
+   soft hands, and a voice that was continually saying, "Lie still,
+   my dear!" This was Mother, I suspect; but with all the comfort I
+   often found in her presence, there was blended an awful fear of
+   the Spanish spouse who was always coming after me, appearing out
+   of closets, in at windows, or threatening me dreadfully all night
+   long. I appealed to the Pope, and really got up and made a
+   touching plea in something meant for Latin, they tell me. Once I
+   went to heaven, and found it a twilight place, with people
+   darting through the air in a queer way,--all very busy, and
+   dismal, and ordinary. Miss Dix, W. H. Channing, and other people
+   were there; but I thought it dark and "slow," and wished I hadn't
+   come.
+
+   A mob at Baltimore breaking down the door to get me, being hung
+   for a witch, burned, stoned, and otherwise maltreated, were some
+   of my fancies. Also being tempted to join Dr. W. and two of the
+   nurses in worshipping the Devil. Also tending millions of rich
+   men who never died or got well.
+
+   _February._--Recovered my senses after three weeks of delirium,
+   and was told I had had a very bad typhoid fever, had nearly died,
+   and was still very sick. All of which seemed rather curious, for
+   I remembered nothing of it. Found a queer, thin, big-eyed face
+   when I looked in the glass; didn't know myself at all; and when I
+   tried to walk discovered that I couldn't, and cried because my
+   legs wouldn't go.
+
+   Never having been sick before, it was all new and very
+   interesting when I got quiet enough to understand matters. Such
+   long, long nights; such feeble, idle days; dozing, fretting about
+   nothing; longing to eat, and no mouth to do it with,--mine being
+   so sore, and full of all manner of queer sensations, it was
+   nothing but a plague. The old fancies still lingered, seeming so
+   real I believed in them, and deluded Mother and May with the most
+   absurd stories, so soberly told that they thought them true.
+
+   Dr. B. came every day, and was very kind. Father and Mother were
+   with me night and day, and May sang "Birks of Aberfeldie," or
+   read to me, to wile away the tiresome hours. People sent
+   letters, money, kind inquiries, and goodies for the old "Nuss." I
+   tried to sew, read, and write, and found I had to begin all over
+   again. Received $10 for my labors in Washington. Had all my hair,
+   a yard and a half long, cut off, and went into caps like a
+   grandma. Felt badly about losing my one beauty. Never mind, it
+   might have been my head, and a wig outside is better than a loss
+   of wits inside.
+
+   _March._--Began to get about a little, sitting up nearly all day,
+   eating more regularly, and falling back into my old ways. My
+   first job was characteristic: I cleared out my piece-bags and
+   dusted my books, feeling as tired as if I had cleaned the whole
+   house. Sat up till nine one night, and took no lunch at three
+   A.M.,--two facts which I find carefully recorded in my pocket
+   diary in my own shaky handwriting.
+
+   Father had two courses of conversations: one at Mr. Quincy's,
+   very select and fine; the other at a hall not so good. He was
+   tired out with taking care of me, poor old gentleman; and typhus
+   was not inspiring.
+
+   Read a great deal, being too feeble to do much else. No end of
+   rubbish, with a few good things as ballast. "Titan" was the one I
+   enjoyed the most, though it tired my weak wits to read much at a
+   time. Recalled, and wrote some lines on "Thoreau's Flute," which
+   I composed one night on my watch by little Shaw at the hospital.
+
+   On the 28th Father came home from Boston, bringing word that Nan
+   had a fine boy. We all screamed out when he burst in, snowy and
+   beaming; then Mother began to cry, May to laugh, and I to say,
+   like B. Trotwood, "There, I knew it wouldn't be a girl!" We were
+   all so glad it was safely over, and a jolly little lad was added
+   to the feminine family.
+
+   Mother went straight down to be sure that "mother and child were
+   doing well," and I fell to cleaning house, as good work for an
+   invalid and a vent for a happy aunt.
+
+
+_First Birth in the Alcott and Pratt Branch, 1863._
+
+     MONDAY EVE.
+
+   DEAREST LITTLE MOTHER,--Allow me to ask who was a true prophet.
+
+   Also to demand, "Where is my niece, Louisa Caroline?"
+
+   No matter, I will forgive you, and propose three cheers for my
+   _nephew_. Hurrah! hurrah! Hurray!
+
+   I wish you could have seen the performance on Saturday evening.
+
+   We were all sitting deep in a novel, not expecting Father home
+   owing to the snowstorm, when the door burst open, and in he came,
+   all wet and white, waving his bag, and calling out, "Good news!
+   good news! Anna has a fine boy!"
+
+   With one accord we opened our mouths and screamed for about two
+   minutes. Then Mother began to cry; I began to laugh; and May to
+   pour out questions; while Papa beamed upon us all,--red, damp,
+   and shiny, the picture of a proud old Grandpa. Such a funny
+   evening as we had! Mother kept breaking down, and each time
+   emerged from her handkerchief saying solemnly, "I must go right
+   down and see that baby!" Father had told every one he met, from
+   Mr. Emerson to the coach driver, and went about the house saying,
+   "Anna's boy! yes, yes, Anna's boy!" in a mild state of
+   satisfaction.
+
+   May and I at once taxed our brains for a name, and decided upon
+   "Amos Minot Bridge Bronson May Sewall Alcott Pratt," so that all
+   the families would be suited.
+
+   I was so anxious to hear more that I went up to town this A.M.
+   and found John's note.
+
+   Grandma and Grandpa Pratt came to hear the great news; but we
+   could only inform them of the one tremendous fact, that Pratt,
+   Jr., had condescended to arrive. Now tell us his weight, inches,
+   color, etc.
+
+   I know I shall fall down and adore when I see that mite; yet my
+   soul is rent when I think of the _L. C._ on the pincushion, and
+   all the plans I had made for "my niece."
+
+   Now get up quickly, and be a happy mamma. Of course John does
+   _not_ consider his son as _the_ most amazing product of the
+   nineteenth century.
+
+   Bless the baby!
+
+     Ever your admiring LU.
+
+   _April._--Had some pleasant walks and drives, and felt as if born
+   again, everything seemed so beautiful and new. I hope I was, and
+   that the Washington experience may do me lasting good. To go very
+   near to death teaches one to value life, and this winter will
+   always be a very memorable one to me.
+
+   Sewed on little shirts and gowns for my blessed nephew, who
+   increased rapidly in stature and godliness.
+
+   Sanborn asked me to do what Conway suggested before he left for
+   Europe; viz., to arrange my letters in a printable shape, and put
+   them in the "Commonwealth." They thought them witty and pathetic.
+   I didn't; but I wanted money; so I made three hospital sketches.
+   Much to my surprise, they made a great hit; and people bought the
+   papers faster than they could be supplied. The second, "A Night"
+   was much liked, and I was glad; for my beautiful "John Sulie" was
+   the hero, and the praise belonged to him. More were wanted; and I
+   added a postscript in the form of a letter, which finished it
+   up, as I then thought.
+
+   Received $100 from F. L. for a tale which won the prize last
+   January; paid debts, and was glad that my winter bore visible
+   fruit. Sent L. another tale. Went to Boston, and saw "our baby;"
+   thought him ugly, but promising. Got a set of furniture for my
+   room,--a long-talked-of dream of ours.
+
+   _May._--Spent the first week or two in putting the house in
+   order. May painted and papered the parlors. I got a new carpet
+   and rug besides the paper, and put things to rights in a thorough
+   manner. Mother was away with Nan, so we had full sweep; and she
+   came home to a clean, fresh house.
+
+   Nan and the Royal Infanta came as bright as a whole gross of
+   buttons, and as good as a hairless brown angel. Went to
+   Readville, and saw the 54th Colored Regiment, both there and next
+   day in town as they left for the South. Enjoyed it very much;
+   also the Antislavery meetings.
+
+   Had a fresh feather in my cap; for Mrs. Hawthorne showed Fields
+   "Thoreau's Flute," and he desired it for the "Atlantic." Of
+   course I didn't say no. It was printed, copied, praised, and
+   glorified; also _paid for_, and being a mercenary creature, I
+   liked the $10 nearly as well as the honor of being "a new star"
+   and "a literary celebrity."
+
+   _June._--Began to write again on "Moods," feeling encouraged by
+   the commendation bestowed on "Hospital Sketches," which were
+   noticed, talked of, and inquired about, much to my surprise and
+   delight. Had a fine letter from Henry James, also one from
+   Wasson, and a request from Redpath to be allowed to print the
+   sketches in a book. _Roberts Bros. also asked, but I preferred
+   the _Redpath_, and said yes; so he fell to work with all his
+   might.
+
+   Went to Class Day for the first time; had a pleasant day seeing
+   new sights and old friends.
+
+   G. H. came to the H.'s. Didn't like her as well as Miss H.; too
+   sharp and full of herself; insisted on talking about religion
+   with Emerson, who glided away from the subject so sweetly, yet
+   resolutely, that the energetic lady gave it up at last.
+
+   [1877.--Short-sighted Louisa! Little did you dream that this same
+   Roberts Bros. were to help you to make your fortune a few years
+   later. The "Sketches" never made much money, but showed me "my
+   style," and taking the hint, I went where glory waited me.--L. M.
+   A.]
+
+   _July._--Sanborn asked for more contributions, and I gave him
+   some of my old Mountain Letters vamped up. They were not good,
+   and though they sold the paper, I was heartily ashamed of them,
+   and stopped in the middle, resolving never again to try to be
+   funny, lest I should be rowdy and nothing more. I'm glad of the
+   lesson, and hope it will do me good.
+
+   Had some pleasant letters from Sergeant Bain,--one of my boys who
+   has not forgotten me, though safely at home far away in Michigan.
+   It gratified me very much, and brought back the hospital days
+   again. He was a merry, brave little fellow, and I liked him very
+   much. His right arm was amputated after Fredericksburg, and he
+   took it very cheerfully, trying at once to train his left hand to
+   do duty for both, and never complained of his loss. "Baby B."
+
+   _August._--Redpath carried on the publishing of the "Sketches"
+   vigorously, sending letters, proof, and notices daily, and making
+   all manner of offers, suggestions, and prophecies concerning the
+   success of the book and its author.
+
+   Wrote a story, "My Contraband," and sent it to Fields, who
+   accepted and paid $50 for it, with much approbation for it and
+   the "Sketches." L. sent $40 for a story, and wanted another.
+
+   Major M. invited me to Gloucester; but I refused, being too busy
+   and too bashful to be made a lion of, even in a very small way.
+   Letters from Dr. Hyde, Wilkie (home with a wound from Wagner),
+   Charles Sumner, Mr. Hale, and others,--all about the little
+   "Sketches," which keep on making friends for me, though I don't
+   get used to the thing at all, and think it must be all a mistake.
+
+   On the 25th my first morning-glory bloomed in my room,--a hopeful
+   blue,--and at night up came my book in its new dress. I had added
+   several chapters to it, and it was quite a neat little affair. An
+   edition of one thousand, and I to have five cents on each copy.
+
+   _September._--Redpath anxious for another book. Send him a volume
+   of stories and part of a book to look at. He likes both; but I
+   decide on waiting a little, as I'm not satisfied with the
+   stories, and the novel needs time. "Sketches" sell well, and a
+   new edition is called for.
+
+   Dear old Grandma died at Aunt Betsey's in her eighty-ninth
+   year,--a good woman, and much beloved by her children. I sent
+   money to help lay her away; for Aunt B. is poor, and it was all I
+   could do for the kind little old lady.
+
+   Nan and Freddy made us a visit, and we decided that of all
+   splendid babies he was the king. Such a hearty, happy, funny boy,
+   I could only play with and adore him all the while he stayed, and
+   long for him when he went. Nan and John are very fond of "our
+   son," and well they may be. Grandma and Grandpa think him
+   perfect, and even artistic Aunty May condescends to say he is "a
+   very nice thing."
+
+   "My Contraband; or, The Brothers," my story in the "Atlantic,"
+   came out, and was liked. Received $40 from Redpath for
+   "Sketches,"--first edition; wanted me to be editor of a paper;
+   was afraid to try, and let it go.
+
+   Poor old "Moods" came out for another touching up.
+
+   _October._--Thought much about going to Port Royal to teach
+   contrabands. Fields wanted the letters I should write, and asked
+   if I had no book. Father spoke of "Moods," and he desired to see
+   it. So I fell to work, and finished it off, thinking the world
+   must be coming to an end, and all my dreams getting fulfilled in
+   a most amazing way. If there was ever an astonished young woman,
+   it is myself; for things have gone on so swimmingly of late I
+   don't know who I am. A year ago I had no publisher, and went
+   begging with my wares; now _three_ have asked me for something,
+   several papers are ready to print my contributions, and F. B. S.
+   says "any publisher this side of Baltimore would be glad to get a
+   book." There is a sudden hoist for a meek and lowly scribbler,
+   who was told to "stick to her teaching," and never had a literary
+   friend to lend a helping hand! Fifteen years of hard grubbing may
+   be coming to something after all; and I may yet "pay all the
+   debts, fix the house, send May to Italy, and keep the old folks
+   cosey," as I've said I would so long, yet so hopelessly.
+
+   May began to take anatomical drawing lessons of Rimmer. I was
+   very glad to be able to pay her expenses up and down and clothe
+   her neatly. Twenty dollars more from Redpath on account.
+
+   _December._--Earnings 1863, $380.
+
+   The principal event of this otherwise quiet month was the
+   Sanitary Fair in Boston, and our part in it. At G. G. B.'s
+   request, I dramatized six scenes from Dickens, and went to town
+   on the 14th to play. Things did not go well for want of a good
+   manager and more time. Our night was not at all satisfactory to
+   us, owing to the falling through of several scenes for want of
+   actors. People seemed to like what there was of it, and after a
+   wearisome week I very gladly came home again. Our six
+   entertainments made twenty-five hundred dollars for the Fair.
+
+   Rewrote the fairy tales, one of which was published; but owing to
+   delays it was late for the holidays, and badly bound in the
+   hurry; so the poor "Rose Family" fared badly.
+
+   Had a letter from the publisher of a new magazine, called the
+   "Civil Service Magazine," asking for a long tale. Had no time to
+   write one; but will by and by, if the thing is good.
+
+   While in town received $10 of F. B. S. and $20 of Redpath, with
+   which I bought May hat, boots, gloves, ribbons, and other little
+   matters, besides furnishing money for her fares up and down to
+   Rimmer.
+
+   _January, 1864._--New Year's Day was a very quiet one. Nan and
+   Freddy were here, and in the evening we went to a dance at the
+   hall. A merry time; for all the town was there, as it was for the
+   Soldiers' Aid Society, and every one wanted to help. Nan and I
+   sat in the gallery, and watched the young people dance the old
+   year out, the new year in as the clock struck twelve.
+
+   On looking over my accounts, I find I have earned by my _writing_
+   alone nearly _six hundred dollars_ since last January, and spent
+   less than a hundred for myself, which I am glad to know. May has
+   had $70 for herself, and the rest has paid debts or bought
+   necessary things for the family.
+
+   Received from the "Commonwealth" $18 for "A Hospital Christmas."
+   Wrote a fairy tale, "Fairy Pinafores." "Picket Duty" and other
+   tales came out,--first of Redpath's series of books for the "Camp
+   Fires." Richardson sent again for a long story for the "Civil
+   Service Magazine." Tried a war story, but couldn't make it go.
+
+   _February._--Nan quite sick again. Mother passed most of the
+   month with her; so I had to be housekeeper, and let my writing
+   go,--as well perhaps, as my wits are tired, and the "divine
+   afflatus" don't descend as readily as it used to do. Must wait
+   and fill up my idea-box before I begin again. There is nothing
+   like work to set fancy a-going.
+
+   Redpath came flying up on the 4th to get "Moods," promising to
+   have it out by May. Gave it to him with many fears, and he
+   departed content. The next day received a telegram to come down
+   at once and see the printers. Went, and was told the story was
+   too long for a single volume, and a two-volume novel was bad to
+   begin with. Would I cut the book down about half? No, I wouldn't,
+   having already shortened it all it would bear. So I took my
+   "opus" and posted home again, promising to try and finish my
+   shorter book in a month.
+
+   A dull, heavy month, grubbing in the kitchen, sewing, cleaning
+   house, and trying to like my duty.
+
+   Mrs. S. takes a great fancy to May; sends her flowers, offers to
+   pay for her to go to the new Art School, and arranges everything
+   delightfully for her. She is a fortunate girl, and always finds
+   some one to help her as she wants to be helped. Wish I could do
+   the same, but suppose as I never do that it is best for me to
+   work and wait and do all for myself.
+
+   Mr. Storrs, D.D., wrote for a sketch for his little paper, "The
+   Drum Beat," to be printed during the Brooklyn Sanitary Fair. A
+   very cordial, pleasant letter, which I answered by a little
+   sketch called "A Hospital Lamp." He sent me another friendly
+   letter, and all the daily papers as they came out. A very
+   gentlemanly D.D. is Dr. Storrs.
+
+The "Hospital Sketches" were fully entitled to their wide and rapid
+popularity; and for the first time perhaps Miss Alcott felt sure of
+her vocation, and knew that it would bring at last the success which
+would enable her to carry out her plans for the family. And yet the
+battle was not over. She gained in reputation, was received with great
+attention in society, and lionized more than she cared for. But she
+still continued writing stories for the various papers at very low
+prices. Some of them were refused by the publishers, as she thinks, on
+account of the Antislavery sentiments expressed in them. Her "blood
+and thunder" stories continued in demand, and she wrote them rapidly,
+and was glad of the money they brought. But she had not yet found her
+true path, and she suffered at times from keen depression of spirits;
+for the way seemed long and dark, and she did not see the end. In more
+than one sense she struggled with Moods; for that unhappy book was
+still tossed from publisher to publisher, who gave her much praise,
+but no satisfaction.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   A busy month getting settled. Freddy's birthday on the 28th, one
+   year old. He had a dozen nice little presents laid out in a row
+   when he came down to breakfast, and seemed quite overpowered with
+   his riches. On being told to take what he liked best, he chose
+   the picture of little Samuel which Father gave him, and the good
+   pope was much delighted at that.
+
+   Was asked for a poem for the great album at the St. Louis Fair,
+   and sent "Thoreau's Flute" as my best. Also received a letter
+   from the Philadelphia managers asking contributions for the paper
+   to be printed at their Fair.
+
+   Wrote nothing this month.
+
+   _April._--At Father's request I sent "Moods" to T., and got a
+   very friendly note from him, saying they had so many books on
+   hand that they could do nothing about it now. So I put it back on
+   the shelf, and set about my other work. Don't despair, "Moods,"
+   we'll try again by and by!
+
+   [Alas! we did try again.--L. M. A.]
+
+   Wrote the first part of a story for Professor C. called "Love and
+   Loyalty,"--flat, patriotic, and done to order. Wrote a new fairy
+   tale, "Nelly's Hospital."
+
+   _May._--Had a letter from Mrs. Gildersleeve, asking for my
+   photograph and a sketch of my life, for a book called "Heroic
+   Women" which she was getting up. Respectfully refused. Also a
+   letter and flattering notice from "Ruth Hall," and a notice from
+   a Chicago critic with a long extract from "Rose Family." My tale
+   "Enigmas" came out, and was much liked by readers of sensation
+   rubbish. Having got my $50, I was resigned.
+
+   _June._--To town with Father on the 3d to a Fraternity Festival
+   to which we were invited. Had a fine time, and was amazed to find
+   my "'umble" self made a lion of, set up among the great ones,
+   stared at, waited upon, complimented, and made to hold a "layvee"
+   whether I would or no; for Mr. S. kept bringing up people to be
+   introduced till I was tired of shaking hands and hearing the
+   words "Hospital Sketches" uttered in every tone of interest,
+   admiration, and respect. Mr. Wasson, Whipple, Alger, Clarke,
+   Calthrop, and Chadwick came to speak to me, and many more whose
+   names I forget. It was a very pleasant surprise and a new
+   experience. I liked it, but think a small dose quite as much as
+   is good for me; for after sitting in a corner and grubbing _a la_
+   Cinderella, it rather turns one's head to be taken out and be
+   treated like a princess all of a sudden.
+
+   _August._--Went to Gloucester for a fortnight with May at the
+   M.'s. Found a family of six pretty daughters, a pleasant mother,
+   and a father who was an image of one of the Cheeryble brothers.
+   Had a jolly time boating, driving, charading, dancing, and
+   picnicking. One mild moonlight night a party of us camped out on
+   Norman's Woe, and had a splendid time, lying on the rocks
+   singing, talking, sleeping, and rioting up and down. Had a fine
+   time, and took coffee at all hours. The moon rose and set
+   beautifully, and the sunrise was a picture I never shall forget.
+
+   Wrote another fairy tale, "Jamie's Wonder Book," and sent the
+   "Christmas Stories" to W. & W., with some lovely illustrations by
+   Miss Greene. They liked the book very much, and said they would
+   consult about publishing it, though their hands were full.
+
+   _September._--Mrs. D. made a visit, and getting hold of my old
+   book of stories liked them, and insisted on taking "Moods" home
+   to read. As she had had experience with publishers, was a good
+   business woman, and an excellent critic, I let her have it,
+   hoping she might be able to give the poor old book the lift it
+   has been waiting for all these years. She took it, read it, and
+   admired it heartily, saying that "no American author had showed
+   so much promise; that the plan was admirable; the execution
+   unequal, but often magnificent; that I had a great field before
+   me, and my book must be got out."
+
+   Mrs. D. sent it to L., who liked it exceedingly, and asked me to
+   shorten it if I could, else it would be too large to sell well.
+   Was much disappointed, said I'd never touch it again, and tossed
+   it into the spidery little cupboard where it had so often
+   returned after fruitless trips.
+
+At last, in the excited hours of a wakeful night, Miss Alcott thought
+of a way to curtail the objectionable length of the book, and she
+spent a fortnight in remodelling it,--as she then thought improving it
+greatly,--although she afterwards returned to her original version as
+decidedly the best. The book was brought out, and she had the pleasure
+of presenting the first copy to her mother on her sixty fourth
+birthday. She had various projects in her mind, one of which was a
+novel, with two characters in it like Jean Paul Richter and Goethe. It
+is needless to say this was never carried out. Miss Alcott had great
+powers of observation, and a keen insight into character as it fell
+within her own range of life, but she had not the creative
+imagination which could paint to the life the subtlest workings of
+thought and feeling in natures foreign to her own experience. She
+could not have portrayed such men: but who could?
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _October._--Wrote several chapters of "Work," and was getting on
+   finely, when, as I lay awake one night, a way to shorten and
+   arrange "Moods" came into my head. The whole plan laid itself
+   smoothly out before me, and I slept no more that night, but
+   worked on it as busily as if mind and body had nothing to do with
+   one another. Up early, and began to write it all over again. The
+   fit was on strong, and for a fortnight I hardly ate, slept, or
+   stirred, but wrote, wrote, like a thinking machine in full
+   operation. When it was all rewritten without copying, I found it
+   much improved, though I'd taken out ten chapters, and sacrificed
+   many of my favorite things; but being resolved to make it simple,
+   strong, and short, I let everything else go, and hoped the book
+   would be better for it.
+
+   [It wasn't. 1867.]
+
+   Sent it to L.; and a week after, as I sat hammering away at the
+   parlor carpet,--dusty, dismal, and tired,--a letter came from L.
+   praising the story more enthusiastically than ever, thanking me
+   for the improvements, and proposing to bring out the book at
+   once. Of course we all had a rapture, and I finished my work
+   "double quick," regardless of weariness, toothache, or blue
+   devils.
+
+   Next day I went to Boston and saw L. A brisk, business-like man
+   who seemed in earnest and said many complimentary things about
+   "Hospital Sketches" and its author. It was agreed to bring out
+   the book immediately, and Mrs. D. offered to read the proof with
+   me.
+
+   Was glad to have the old thing under way again, but didn't quite
+   believe it would ever come out after so many delays and
+   disappointments.
+
+   Sewed for Nan and Mary, heard Anna Dickinson and liked her. Read
+   "Emily Chester" and thought it an unnatural story, yet just
+   enough like "Moods" in a few things to make me sorry that it came
+   out now.
+
+   On Mother's sixty-fourth birthday I gave her "Moods" with this
+   inscription,--"To Mother, my earliest patron, kindest critic,
+   dearest reader, I gratefully and affectionately inscribe my first
+   romance."
+
+   A letter from T. asking me to write for the new magazine "Our
+   Young Folks," and saying that "An Hour" was in the hands of the
+   editors.
+
+   _November._--Proof began to come, and the chapters seemed small,
+   stupid, and no more my own in print. I felt very much afraid that
+   I'd ventured too much and should be sorry for it. But Emerson
+   says "that what is true for your own private heart is true for
+   others." So I wrote from my own consciousness and observation and
+   hope it may suit some one and at least do no harm.
+
+   I sent "An Hour" to the "Commonwealth" and it was considered
+   _excellent_. Also wrote a Christmas Story, "Mrs. Todger's
+   Teapot." T. asked to see the other fairy tales and designs and
+   poems, as he liked "Nelly's Hospital" so much.
+
+   On my thirty-second birthday received Richter's Life from Nan and
+   enjoyed it so much that I planned a story of two men something
+   like Jean Paul and Goethe, only more every-day people. Don't know
+   what will come of it, but if "Moods" goes well "Success" shall
+   follow.
+
+   Sewed for Wheeler's colored company and sent them comfort-bags,
+   towels, books, and bed-sacks. Mr. W. sent me some relics from
+   Point Look Out and a pleasant letter.
+
+   _December._--Earnings, 1864,--$476.
+
+   On Christmas Eve received ten copies of "Moods" and a friendly
+   note from L. The book was hastily got out, but on the whole
+   suited me, and as the inside was considered good I let the
+   outside go. For a week wherever I went I saw, heard, and talked
+   "Moods;" found people laughing or crying over it, and was
+   continually told how well it was going, how much it was liked,
+   how fine a thing I'd done. I was glad but not proud, I think, for
+   it has always seemed as if "Moods" grew in spite of me, and that
+   I had little to do with it except to put into words the thoughts
+   that would not let me rest until I had. Don't know why.
+
+   By Saturday the first edition was gone and the second ready.
+   Several booksellers ordered a second hundred, the first went so
+   fast, and friends could not get it but had to wait till more were
+   ready.
+
+   Spent a fortnight in town at Mary's, shopping, helping Nan, and
+   having plays. Heard Emerson once. Gave C. "Mrs. Todger's Teapot,"
+   which was much liked. Sent L. the rest of his story and got $50.
+   S. paid $35 for "An Hour." R. promised $100 for "Love and
+   Loyalty," so my year closes with a novel well-launched and about
+   $300 to pay debts and make the family happy and comfortable till
+   spring. Thank God for the success of the old year, the promise of
+   the new!
+
+The sale of "Moods" was at first very rapid; for "Hospital Sketches"
+had created an interest in the author, and welcome recognition came to
+her from many sources. She received a handsome sum from the
+copyright, and "the year closed with enough to make her feel free of
+debt and the family comfortable." She ends the year's journal
+triumphantly.
+
+The following year was spent mostly in Boston. Miss Alcott went into
+society and enjoyed the friendly attentions of men and women of
+ability. She continued to write stories for money, but now received
+fifty, seventy-five, or a hundred dollars for them. She frequently
+took part in theatrical performances for charities. She was always
+brilliant and successful and enjoyed them with something of her early
+zest.
+
+Her long story of "Success," or "Work," as she afterwards named it,
+was still in her mind, but she did not finish it at this time.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _January, 1865._--The month began with some plays at the town
+   hall to raise funds for the Lyceum. We did very well and some
+   Scenes from Dickens were excellent. Father lectured and preached
+   a good deal, being asked like a regular minister and paid like
+   one. He enjoyed it very much and said good things on the new
+   religion which we ought to and shall have. May had orders from
+   Canada and England for her pretty pen-and-ink work and did well
+   in that line.
+
+   Notices of "Moods" came from all directions, and though people
+   didn't understand my ideas owing to my shortening the book so
+   much, the notices were mostly favorable and gave quite as much
+   praise as was good for me. I had letters from Mrs. Parker,
+   Chadwick, Sanborn, E. B. Greene, the artist, T. W. Higginson and
+   some others. All friendly and flattering.
+
+   Saw more notices of "Moods" and received more letters, several
+   from strangers and some very funny. People seemed to think the
+   book finely written, very promising, wise, and interesting; but
+   some fear it isn't moral, because it speaks freely of marriage.
+
+   Wrote a little on poor old "Work" but being tired of novels, I
+   soon dropped it and fell back on rubbishy tales, for they pay
+   best, and I can't afford to starve on praise, when sensation
+   stories are written in half the time and keep the family cosey.
+
+   Earned $75 this month.
+
+   I went to Boston and heard Father lecture before the Fraternity.
+   Met Henry James, Sr., there, and he asked me to come and dine,
+   also called upon me with Mrs. James. I went, and was treated like
+   the Queen of Sheba. Henry Jr. wrote a notice of "Moods" for the
+   "North American," and was very friendly. Being a literary youth
+   he gave me advice, as if he had been eighty and I a girl. My
+   curly crop made me look young, though thirty-one.
+
+   Acted in some public plays for the N. E. Women's Hospital and had
+   a pleasant time.
+
+   L. asked me to be a regular contributor to his new paper, and I
+   agreed if he'd pay beforehand; he said he would, and bespoke two
+   tales at once, $50 each, longer ones as often as I could, and
+   whatever else I liked to send. So here's another source of income
+   and Alcott brains seem in demand, whereat I sing "Hallyluyer" and
+   fill up my inkstand.
+
+   _April._--Richmond taken on the 2d. Hurrah! Went to Boston and
+   enjoyed the grand jollification. Saw Booth again in Hamlet and
+   thought him finer than ever. Had a pleasant walk and talk with
+   Phillips.
+
+   On the 15th in the midst of the rejoicing came the sad news of
+   the President's assassination, and the city went into mourning. I
+   am glad to have seen such a strange and sudden change in a
+   nation's feelings. Saw the great procession, and though few
+   colored men were in it, one was walking arm in arm with a white
+   gentleman, and I exulted thereat.
+
+   Nan went to housekeeping in a pleasant house at Jamaica Plain,
+   and I went to help her move. It was beautiful to see how Freddy
+   enjoyed the freedom, after being cooped up all winter, and how
+   every morning, whether it rained or shone, he looked out and
+   said, with a smile of perfect satisfaction, "Oh, pretty
+   day!"--for all days _were_ pretty to him, dear little soul!
+
+   Had a fine letter from Conway, and a notice in the "Reader,"--an
+   English paper. He advised sending copies to several of the best
+   London papers. English people don't understand "transcendental
+   literature," as they call "Moods." My next book shall have no
+   _ideas_ in it, only facts, and the people shall be as ordinary as
+   possible; then critics will say it's all right. I seem to have
+   been playing with edge tools without knowing it. The relations
+   between Warwick, Moor, and Sylvia are pronounced impossible; yet
+   a case of the sort exists, and the woman came and asked me how I
+   knew it. I did _not_ know or guess, but perhaps felt it, without
+   any other guide, and unconsciously put the thing into my book,
+   for I changed the ending about that time. It was meant to show a
+   life affected by _moods_, not a discussion of marriage, which I
+   knew little about, except observing that very few were happy
+   ones.
+
+   _June._--Busy writing, keeping house, and sewing. Company often;
+   and strangers begin to come, demanding to see the authoress, who
+   does not like it, and is porcupiny. Admire the books, but let
+   the woman alone, if you please, dear public!
+
+   On the 24th Anna's second boy was born, at half-past three in the
+   morning,--Lizzie's birthday. A fine, stout, little lad, who took
+   to life kindly, and seemed to find the world all right. Freddy
+   could not understand it at first, and told his mother that "the
+   babee" had got his place. But he soon loved the "tunning sing,"
+   and would stand watching it with a grave face, till some funny
+   little idea found vent in still funnier words or caresses.
+
+   Nan was very happy with her two boys, so was John, though both
+   had wished for a daughter.
+
+   _July._--While at Nan's Mrs. B. asked me if I would go abroad
+   with her sister. I said "yes;" but as I spoke neither French nor
+   German, she didn't think I'd do. I was sorry; but being used to
+   disappointment, went to work for Nan, and bided my time, which
+   came very soon.
+
+
+_To Anna._
+
+     [Date uncertain.]
+
+   MY LASS,--This must be a frivolous and dressy letter, because you
+   always want to know about our clothes, and we have been at it
+   lately. May's bonnet is a sight for gods and men. Black and white
+   outside, with a great cockade boiling over the front to meet a
+   red ditto surging from the interior, where a red rainbow darts
+   across the brow, and a surf of white lace foams up on each side.
+   I expect to hear that you and John fell flat in the dust with
+   horror on beholding it.
+
+   My bonnet has nearly been the death of me; for, thinking some
+   angel might make it possible for me to go to the mountains, I
+   felt a wish for a tidy hat, after wearing an old one till it fell
+   in tatters from my brow. Mrs. P. promised a bit of gray silk, and
+   I built on that; but when I went for it I found my hat was
+   founded on sand; for she let me down with a crash, saying she
+   wanted the silk herself, and kindly offering me a flannel
+   petticoat instead. I was in woe for a spell, having one dollar in
+   the world, and scorning debt even for that prop of life, a
+   "bonnet." Then I roused myself, flew to Dodge, demanded her
+   cheapest bonnet, found one for a dollar, took it, and went home
+   wondering if the sky would open and drop me a trimming. I am
+   simple in my tastes, but a naked straw bonnet is a little too
+   severely chaste even for me. Sky did not open; so I went to the
+   "Widow Cruise's oil bottle"--my ribbon box--which, by the way, is
+   the eighth wonder of the world, for nothing is ever put in, yet I
+   always find some old dud when all other hopes fail. From this
+   salvation bin I extracted the remains of the old white ribbon
+   (used up, as I thought, two years ago), and the bits of black
+   lace that have adorned a long line of departed hats. Of the lace
+   I made a dish, on which I thriftily served up bows of ribbon,
+   like meat on toast. Inside put the lace bow, which adorns my form
+   anywhere when needed. A white flower A. H. gave me sat airily on
+   the brim,--fearfully unbecoming, but pretty in itself, and in
+   keeping. Strings are yet to be evolved from chaos. I feel that
+   they await me somewhere in the dim future. Green ones _pro tem._
+   hold this wonder of the age upon my gifted brow, and I survey my
+   hat with respectful awe. I trust you will also, and see in it
+   another great example of the power of mind over matter, and the
+   convenience of a colossal brain in the primeval wrestle with the
+   unruly atoms which have harassed the feminine soul ever since Eve
+   clapped on a modest fig-leaf and did up her hair with a thorn for
+   a hairpin.
+
+   I feel very moral to-day, having done a big wash alone, baked,
+   swept the house, picked the hops, got dinner, and written a
+   chapter in "Moods." May gets exhausted with work, though she
+   walks six miles without a murmur.
+
+   It is dreadfully dull, and I work so that I may not "brood."
+   Nothing stirring but the wind; nothing to see but dust; no one
+   comes but rose-bugs; so I grub and scold at the "A." because it
+   takes a poor fellow's tales and keeps 'em years without paying
+   for 'em. If I think of my woes I fall into a vortex of debts,
+   dishpans, and despondency awful to see. So I say, "every path has
+   its puddle," and try to play gayly with the tadpoles in _my_
+   puddle, while I wait for the Lord to give me a lift, or some
+   gallant Raleigh to spread his velvet cloak and fetch me over dry
+   shod.
+
+   L. W. adds to my woe by writing of the splendors of Gorham, and
+   says, "When tired, run right up here and find rest among these
+   everlasting hills." All very aggravating to a young woman with
+   one dollar, no bonnet, half a gown, and a discontented mind. It's
+   a mercy the mountains are everlasting, for it will be a century
+   before _I_ get there. Oh, me, such is life!
+
+   Now I've done my Jeremiad, and I will go on twanging my harp in
+   the "willow tree."
+
+   You ask what I am writing. Well, two books half done, nine
+   stories simmering, and stacks of fairy stories moulding on the
+   shelf. I can't do much, as I have no time to get into a real good
+   vortex. It unfits me for work, worries Ma to see me look pale,
+   eat nothing, and ply by night. These extinguishers keep genius
+   from burning as I could wish, and I give up ever hoping to do
+   anything unless luck turns for your
+
+     LU.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+EUROPE AND LITTLE WOMEN.
+
+     LITTLE WOMEN.
+
+     Four little chests all in a row,
+       Dim with dust and worn by time,
+     All fashioned and filled long ago
+       By children now in their prime.
+     Four little keys hung side by side,
+       With faded ribbons, brave and gay
+     When fastened there with childish pride
+       Long ago on a rainy day.
+     Four little names, one on each lid,
+       Carved out by a boyish hand;
+     And underneath there lieth hid
+       Histories of the happy band
+     Once playing here, and pausing oft
+       To hear the sweet refrain
+     That came and went on the roof aloft
+       In the falling summer rain.
+
+            *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Four little chests all in a row,
+       Dim with dust and worn by time:
+     Four women, taught by weal and woe
+       To love and labor in their prime;
+     Four sisters parted for an hour,--
+       None lost, one only gone before,
+     Made by love's immortal power
+       Nearest and dearest evermore.
+     Oh! when these hidden stores of ours
+       Lie open to the Father's sight,
+     May they be rich in golden hours,--
+       Deeds that show fairer for the light,
+     Deeds whose brave music long shall ring
+       Like a spirit-stirring strain,
+     Souls that shall gladly soar and sing
+       In the long sunshine, after rain.
+
+
+The years which followed the war and Miss Alcott's experience as a
+hospital nurse were rather sad and anxious from many causes. Louisa
+felt deeply the loss of one sister by death and the separation from
+another by marriage. The success of "Hospital Sketches" and a few
+other stories published about the same time had given her confidence
+in her powers and hopes of a successful future. But for nearly five
+years she accomplished nothing which met with equal favor. The
+reception of the novel "Moods," in which she thought she had expressed
+her best life, was not cheering to her; and she had become wholly
+dissatisfied with the sensational stories, which formed the most ready
+resource for earning money. Her health was seriously injured by the
+fever from which she suffered in the hospital, and she had no longer
+the physical energy to sustain the unceasing activity of her brain.
+
+Under these difficulties she naturally desired a change of
+circumstances; and the old longing for a journey to Europe--which she
+had felt strongly in her youth, and which, like all Americans of
+culture, she felt more and more as time passed on--became her ruling
+desire. She was very fond of new scenes and variety of people, and she
+often expressed a wish to live many years in Europe.
+
+The circumstances of the family were not yet such as to justify
+Louisa, in her own eyes, in taking her earnings for the desired trip.
+But in 1865 an opportunity was offered her to go to Europe as
+companion to an invalid lady. From her experience in nursing--for
+which she had a natural gift--she and her friends thought her suited
+to the position, and advised her acceptance of the offer.
+
+Although devotedly kind, unselfish, and generous, Louisa had not the
+temperament suited to the needs of a nervous invalid. She was
+impetuous and impatient, and her own life was too strong within her
+and too earnest in its cravings, for her to restrain her moods and
+actions within the narrow limits of a companion's service. She found
+even what she recognized as fair services wearisome and distasteful,
+and sometimes chafed severely under what seemed unnecessary demands on
+her time, strength, and patience. Looking back on this experience in
+later years, she recognized these facts, and wrote in 1885: "Now,
+being a nervous invalid myself, I understand what seemed whims,
+selfishness, and folly in others."
+
+Louisa finally decided to leave her companions and go on alone to
+Paris and England, where she would find many of her own and her
+father's friends. At Vevay she had made the acquaintance of a young
+Polish lad, whom she found very interesting, and who was the original
+of the charming Laurie in "Little Women." He met her again in Paris,
+and contributed greatly to the pleasure of her stay there. He
+afterwards came to America, and visited her; but finally returned to
+his own country.
+
+The journal gives a sufficient account of her life while on this
+journey. I have no letters written at this time, as she wished all her
+family letters destroyed. Her few weeks in London passed very happily.
+Her wide reading in English history and in contemporary fiction,
+especially the works of Dickens and Thackeray, filled London with
+interesting associations, and she enjoyed thoroughly her free rambles
+through the old city, as well as the interesting people, who received
+her with great kindness.
+
+That Louisa might have these few weeks of entire relaxation and
+enjoyment, her mother had been obliged to borrow means for the support
+of the family; and Louisa was very anxious to clear off this debt like
+all others. She was very exact in pecuniary matters. Money to her was
+not an end, but a most necessary means. She paid every debt that her
+father had incurred, even though outlawed by time. It is often asked
+whether she ever sold her beautiful hair, as represented in "Little
+Women." The deed was never really done; but she and her sisters always
+held this treasure as a possible resource in case of need; and Louisa
+once says in her journal, "I will pay my debts, if I have to sell my
+hair to do it." She even went so far as to inquire of a barber as to
+its money value.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _1865._--Mr. W., hearing that I was something of a nurse and
+   wanted to travel, proposed my going with his invalid daughter. I
+   agreed, though I had my doubts. But every one said "Go;" so after
+   a week of worry I did go. On the 19th we sailed in the "China." I
+   could not realize that my long-desired dream was coming true; and
+   fears that I might not see all the dear home faces when I came
+   back made my heart very full as we steamed down the harbor and
+   Boston vanished.
+
+   Was not very sick, but uncomfortable all the way, and found the
+   Ladies' Saloon my only refuge till we were nearly across; enjoyed
+   intervals of quiet, and had many fine glimpses of the sea in its
+   various moods, sunsets and sunrises, fogs, icebergs, rain-storms,
+   and summer calms. No very pleasant people on board; so I read,
+   took notes, and _wiled_ away the long days as I best could.
+
+   We had a very quiet and quick passage of nine days, and on
+   Saturday, the 29th, steamed up the Mersey at dawn, and got to
+   Liverpool at nine. I was heartily glad to set my feet on the
+   solid earth, and thought I'd never go to sea again; rested, and
+   looked about a little.
+
+   _August._--Went up to London, and there spent four dull, drizzly
+   days. I amused myself in my usual way, looking well about me, and
+   writing down all I saw in my pocket-diary or letters. Went to the
+   parks, Westminster Abbey, and some of the famous streets. I felt
+   as if I'd got into a novel while going about in the places I'd
+   read so much of; saw no one I knew, and thought English weather
+   abominable.
+
+   On the 5th to Dover through a lovely green country; took steamer
+   there to Ostende; but was ill all the way, and saw nothing but a
+   basin; spent two days at a queer hotel near the fine promenade,
+   which was a very foreign and brilliant scene. To Brussels on the
+   7th. Here I enjoyed much, for the quaint old city was full of
+   interesting things. The ancient square, where the statues of
+   Egmont and Horn stand, was my delight; for the old Dutch houses
+   were still standing, and everything was so new and strange I
+   wanted to stay a month.
+
+   To Cologne on the 9th, and the country we passed through was like
+   a big picture-book. The city was very hot, dirty, and
+   evil-smelling. We saw the Cathedral, got eau de Cologne, and very
+   gladly left after three days.
+
+   On the 12th began a lovely voyage up the Rhine. It was too
+   beautiful to describe, so I shall not try; but I feel richer and
+   better for that memorable day. We reached Coblenz at sunset, and
+   I was up half the night enjoying the splendid view of the
+   fortress opposite the town, the moonlit river with its bridges of
+   boats, and troops crossing at midnight.
+
+   A second day, still more charming, took us through the famous
+   parts of the Rhine, and filled my head with pictures that will
+   last all my life.
+
+   Before we reached Bieberich we stopped at a queer little Dutch
+   town, and had a queer time; for no one spoke English, and we only
+   a little bad French. Passed the night there, and next day reached
+   Schwalbach after many trials and tribulations.
+
+   The place is a narrow valley shut in by high hills, the town
+   being divided into two parts: the lowest is the original
+   town--queer ale-houses, churches, and narrow streets; the upper
+   part, near the springs, is full of fine hotels, pleasure-grounds,
+   and bath-houses.
+
+   We took lodgings with Madame Genth, wife of the Forestmeister
+   (forest master),--two rooms,--and began the water under Dr.
+   Genth's care.
+
+   We walked a little, talked a little, bathed and rode a little,
+   worried a good deal, and I grubbed away at French, with no master
+   and small success.
+
+   _September._--Still at Schwalbach, A. doing her best to get well,
+   and I doing mine to help her. Rather dull days,--bathing,
+   walking, and quiddling about.
+
+   A letter from home on the 20th. All well and happy, thank God. It
+   touched and pleased me very much to see how they missed me,
+   thought of me, and longed to have me back. Every little thing I
+   ever did for them is now so tenderly and gratefully remembered;
+   and my absence seems to have left so large a gap that I begin to
+   realize how much I am to them in spite of all my faults. The
+   letters made me very happy, and everything brightened immensely.
+   A. got stronger, and when G. came on the 28th was able to start
+   off next day on the way to Vevay, where we are to pass some weeks
+   before we are to go to Nice.
+
+   Went to Wiesbaden first, a pleasant, gay place, full of people.
+   Saw the gambling hall and people playing, the fine grounds and
+   drives, and then went on to Frankfort. Here I saw and enjoyed a
+   good deal. The statues of Goethe, Schiller, Faust, Gutenberg, and
+   Schaeffer are in the squares. Goethe's house is a tall, plain
+   building, with each story projecting over the lower, and a Dutch
+   roof; a marble slab over the front door recording the date of
+   Goethe's birth. I took a look at it and wanted to go in, as it
+   was empty, but there was no time. Some Americans said, "Who was
+   Goethe, to fuss about?"
+
+   Frankfort is a pleasant old city on the river, and I'm glad to
+   have been there.
+
+   _October._--On to Heidelberg, a charming old place surrounded by
+   mountains. We went to the Castle and had a fine time roving about
+   the ruins, looking at the view from the great terrace, admiring
+   the quaint stone images of knights, saints, monsters, and angels,
+   and visiting the big tun in the cellar by torchlight.
+
+   The moon rose while we were there and completed the enchantment
+   of the scene.
+
+   The drive home was like looking at a picture-book, for the street
+   was narrow, the carriage high, and we looked in at the windows,
+   seeing pretty scenes. Here, men drinking beer in a Dutch-looking
+   room; there, little children going to bed; a pair of lovers with
+   a pot of flowers between them; an old woman brooding over the
+   fire like a witch; and in one room some one lay dead surrounded
+   by candles.
+
+   From H. we went to Baden-Baden, a very fashionable place. The old
+   chateau was my delight, and we passed a morning going up and down
+   to visit it. Next to Freiburg, where the Cathedral delighted me
+   extremely, being full of old carved images and grotesque designs;
+   the market-place with the fountains, statues, water running
+   beside the streets, and queer costumes.
+
+   Basle came next, and a firemen's fete made the city very gay. The
+   hotel was on the river, and moonlight made a Venetian scene for
+   me with the lighted bridge, covered with gondola-like boats and
+   music from both shores. I walk while A. rests, and enjoy sights
+   from my window when she is asleep, as I cannot leave her at
+   night.
+
+   On our way to Berne I caught my first glimpse of the Alps,
+   October 8th, mother's birthday. Tall, white, spectral-looking
+   shapes they were, towering above the green hills and valleys that
+   lay between. Clouds half hid them, and the sun glittered on the
+   everlasting snow that lay upon their tops. Sharp, strange
+   outlines against the sky they became as night came on, and in the
+   morning I had a fine view of the Jungfrau, the Bluemlis, the
+   Wetterhorn, and Moench from the terrace at Berne.
+
+   B. was a queer old city, but I saw little of it except the bears
+   and shops. No time.
+
+   Freiburg No. 2 was the most romantic place we have been in. The
+   town is built in a wide crevice or valley between two steep
+   hills, so that suspension bridges are hung from height to height
+   over a winding river and the streets of the town. Watch-towers
+   stand all about on the hills, and give a very romantic air to the
+   place. The hotel overhung the valley, and from our rooms we went
+   out along a balcony to a wide, paved platform with a fountain in
+   the middle, an aviary, and flowers all about. The view down the
+   valley was charming,--the airy bridges, green or rocky slopes,
+   busy squares below, cows and goats feeding on the hills, the
+   towers, the old church, and a lovely blue sky overhead. I longed
+   to sketch it.
+
+   At Lausanne we stopped at the Hotel Gibbon and saw the garden
+   where the great historian wrote his history. The view of the lake
+   was lovely, with rocky mountains opposite, little towns at their
+   feet, vineyards along the hillsides, and pretty boats on the
+   lake, the water of which was the loveliest blue.
+
+   To Vevay at last,--a pleasant hour's sail to a very pleasant
+   place. We took rooms at the Pension Victoria.
+
+   Our landlady was an English woman who had married a French
+   courier. Very kind sort of people: rooms comfortable, meals good,
+   and surroundings agreeable. Our fellow-boarders varied from time
+   to time,--an English doctor and wife, a fine old lady with them
+   who looked like Marie Antoinette; two Scotch ladies named
+   Glennie, very pleasant, well-bred ladies who told me about
+   Beattie who was their grandfather, and Walter Scott whom they
+   knew; Colonel ---- and family, rebels, and very bitter and rude
+   to us. Had queer times with them.
+
+   I did not enjoy the life nor the society after the first novelty
+   wore off, for I missed my freedom and grew very tired of the
+   daily worry which I had to go through with.
+
+   _November._--(Laurie) Took some French lessons with Mademoiselle
+   Germain and learned a little, but found it much harder than I
+   thought, and often got discouraged, I was so stupid. A. got much
+   better, and some new people came. The doctor and his set left,
+   and in their place came a Russian family, an Irish lady and
+   daughter, and a young Pole with whom we struck up a friendship.
+   Ladislas Wisinewski (Laurie) was very gay and agreeable, and
+   being ill and much younger we petted him. He played beautifully,
+   and was very anxious to learn English, so we taught him that and
+   he taught us French.
+
+   On my birthday A. gave me a pretty painting of Chillon. Ladislas
+   promised me the notes of the Polish National Hymn, and played me
+   his sweetest airs as a present after wishing me "All good and
+   happiness on earth, and a high place in Heaven as my reward." It
+   was a mild, windy day, very like me in its fitful changes of
+   sunshine and shade. Usually I am sad on my birthday, but not this
+   time; for though nothing very pleasant happened, I was happy and
+   hopeful and enjoyed everything with unusual relish. I feel rather
+   old with my thirty-three years, but have much to keep me young,
+   and hope I shall not grow older in heart as the time goes on. I
+   thought much of dear father on this his sixty-sixth birthday, and
+   missed the little ceremony that always takes place on these
+   occasions. Hope I shall be safely at home before another November
+   comes.
+
+   _December._--Laurie very interesting and good. Pleasant walks and
+   talks with him in the chateau garden and about Vevay. A lovely
+   sail on the lake, and much fun giving English and receiving
+   French lessons. Every one very kind, and the house quite
+   home-like. Much indecision about going to Nice owing to the
+   cholera. At last we decided to go, and started on the 6th to meet
+   G. at Geneva. L. went with us to Lausanne, kissed our hands at
+   parting, and went back to V. disconsolate. Sad times for all, but
+   we journeyed away to Nice and tried to forget our troubles. A
+   flat uninteresting country till we approached the sea.
+
+   Nice very pleasant, climate lovely, and sea beautiful. We lived
+   in our own rooms, and saw no one but the doctor and Consul and a
+   few American callers. A pleasant drive every day on the
+   Promenade,--a wide curving wall along the bay with hotels and
+   Pensions on one side and a flowery walk on the other. Gay
+   carriages and people always to be seen; shops full of fine and
+   curious things; picturesque castles, towers, and walls on one
+   hill; a lighthouse on each point of the moon-shaped bay; boats
+   and our fleet on the water; gardens, olive and orange-trees,
+   queer cacti, and palms all about on the land; monks, priests,
+   soldiers, peasants, etc.
+
+   A dull Christmas within doors, though a lovely day without.
+   Windows open, roses blooming, air mild, and city gay. With
+   friends, health, and a little money how jolly one might be in
+   this perpetual summer.
+
+   _January, 1866._--Nice. Rained all New Year's day, and I spent it
+   sewing, writing, and reading an American newspaper which came in
+   the morning, my only present. I hoped for letters but got none,
+   and was much disappointed. A. was ill, so I had to receive in
+   American style. Mr. Perkins, Cooper, and the Consul called. At
+   dinner we drank the healths of all at home, and did not forget
+   Laddie (Laurie).
+
+   A quiet, dull time generally, driving sometimes, walking little,
+   and writing letters. Now and then I got a pleasant walk by myself
+   away among the vineyards and olive-trees or down into the queer
+   old city. I soon tired of the fashionable Promenade, for every
+   one was on exhibition. Sometimes before or after the fashionable
+   hour I walked there and enjoyed the sea and sky.
+
+   A ball was given at our Pension and we went. A queer
+   set,--Russians, Spaniards, French, English, Americans, Italians,
+   Jews, and Sandwich Islanders. They danced wildly, dressed gayly,
+   and sounded as if the "confusion of tongues" was come again. A
+   few pleasant Americans called on us, but we were very lonely and
+   uncomfortable.
+
+   Decided to take an apartment No. 10 Rue Geoffredo, paying six
+   hundred francs for ten weeks, six rooms, all large and handsome.
+   Dr. P. got us a good maid, and on the 17th we went to our new
+   quarters. Madame Rolande was French governess for six years to
+   Victoria's children, and was a funny old party.
+
+   Couldn't sleep at all for some nights, and felt very poorly, for
+   my life didn't suit me and the air was too exciting.
+
+   _February._--Got on excellently with our housekeeping, for Julie
+   proved a treasure and we were very comfortable. Had many lovely
+   drives, and saw something of Nice and its beauties. To Cimies, an
+   old Franciscan monastery near the ruins of a Roman amphitheatre.
+   The convent stands where a temple of Diana once stood, and is
+   surrounded by ancient ilex trees. A monk in his cowl, brown robe,
+   sandals, and rope girdle did the honors of the church, which was
+   dark and full of bad pictures. San Andre with its chateau and
+   grotto, Villa Franca in a lovely little bay, the wood of Var
+   where the daisies grew, Valrosa, a villa in a rose garden, and
+   the Porte were all interesting. Also Castle Hill, which overlooks
+   the town.
+
+   I decided to go home in May, though A. wants me to stay. I'm
+   tired of it, and as she is not going to travel, my time is too
+   valuable to be wasted.
+
+   The carnival occurred. Funny, but not so fine a sight as I
+   expected. Also went to the theatre to see "Lady Tartuffe." Had a
+   pleasant time, though I couldn't understand much. The acting was
+   so natural and good that I caught the plot, and with a little
+   telling from Hosmer knew what was going on.
+
+   Wrote a little on three stories which would come into my head and
+   worry me till I gave them a "vent."
+
+   Good letters from home. All well and busy, and longing for me in
+   the spring.
+
+   _March._--A tedious month, which might have been quite the
+   reverse had I been free to enjoy it in my own way. Read French,
+   walked to my favorite places, and wrote letters when I found
+   time.
+
+   Went often to Valrosa, a lovely villa buried in roses. Got a
+   wheeled chair and a man to draw it, then with books, lunch, and
+   work, I tempted A. out into the woods, and we had some pleasant
+   hours.
+
+   _April._--Went to the Cathedral to see the Easter ceremonies.
+   Fine music, the Gloria was sung, a Franciscan monk preached, the
+   Bishop blessed every one, and was fussed over like a great doll.
+   A very splendid scene.
+
+   Saw Ristori twice, once in "Medea" and once in "Elizabeth." Never
+   saw such acting; especially in Queen Bess, it was splendid, as
+   she changes from the young, violent, coquettish woman to the
+   peevish old crone dying with her crown on, vain, ambitious, and
+   remorseful.
+
+   _May._--On the first day of the month left A. and Nice and
+   started alone for Paris, feeling as happy as a freed bird.
+
+   A pleasant journey, Laddie waiting for me in Paris to take me to
+   my room at Madame Dyne's. A very charming fortnight here; the
+   days spent in seeing sights with my Laddie, the evenings in
+   reading, writing, hearing "my boy" play, or resting. Saw all that
+   I wished to see in a very pleasant way, and on the 17th
+   reluctantly went to London.
+
+   Passed a fortnight at a lovely old place on Wimbledon Common with
+   the Conways, going to town with them to see the lions, Royal
+   Exhibition, Hampton Court, Kensington and British Museums,
+   Crystal Palace, and many other pleasant places. But none were
+   lovelier to me than the old farm-house with the thatched roof,
+   the common of yellow gorse, larks going up in the morning,
+   nightingales flying at night, hawthorne everywhere, and Richmond
+   Park full of deer close by. Also Robin Hood's barn.
+
+   _June._--Passed the first ten days of the month at Aubrey House
+   with the Peter Taylors. A lovely English home with kind, pure,
+   and friendly people. Saw many interesting persons,--Miss Cobbe,
+   Jean Ingelow, Dr. Garrett, Madame Bodichon, Matilde Blinde, Mill,
+   Bright, Gladstone, Hughes, and the rest at the House of Commons
+   where Mr. T. took me.
+
+   Went to a dinner-party or two, theatres, to hear Dickens read, a
+   concert, _conversazione_ and receptions, seeing English society,
+   or rather one class of it, and liking what I saw.
+
+   On the 11th went to board with Mrs. Travers in Westbourne Grove
+   Terrace. A pleasant little room, plain living, and for society
+   Mrs. T. and daughter, two sisters from Dublin, and ten young
+   men,--barristers, clerks, ministers, and students. A guinea a
+   week.
+
+   Very free and jolly, roaming about London all day, dining late
+   and resting, chatting, music, or fun in the evening.
+
+   Saw the Tower, Windsor, Parks, Gardens, and all manner of haunts
+   of famous men and women,--Milton's house, Johnson's in Bolt
+   Court, Lamb's, Sairy Gamp's, Saracen's Head, the Charter House
+   where Thackeray was when a lad, Furnival's Inn where Dickens
+   wrote Pickwick, Bacon's Walk, and endless memorable sights. St.
+   Paul's I liked better than Notre Dame.
+
+   _July._--At Mrs. Travers's till the 7th. Saw Routledge about
+   "Moods." He took it, would like another book, and was very
+   friendly. Said good-by all round, and at six A.M. on the 7th left
+   for Liverpool with Mr. W., who saw to my luggage and went part
+   way. Reached the "Africa" safely.
+
+   A trip of fourteen stormy, dull, long, sick days, but at last at
+   eleven at night we sailed up the harbor in the moonlight, and I
+   saw dear John waiting for me on the wharf. Slept on board, and
+   next day reached home at noon to find Father at the station, Nan
+   and babies at the gate, May flying wildly round the lawn, and
+   Marmee crying at the door. Into her arms I went, and was at home
+   at last.
+
+   Happy days, talking and enjoying one another. Many people came to
+   see me, and all said I was much improved; of which I was glad, as
+   there was, is, and always will be room for it.
+
+   Found Mother looking old, sick, and tired; Father as placid as
+   ever; Nan poorly, but blest in her babies; May full of plans, as
+   usual; Freddy very stout and loving; and my Jack the dearest,
+   prettiest, merriest baby boy that ever kissed and loved
+   everybody.
+
+   _August._--Soon fell to work on some stories, for things were, as
+   I expected, behindhand when the money-maker was away. Found
+   plenty to do, as orders from E., L., "Independent," "U. S. C. S.
+   Magazine," and several other offers waited for me. Wrote two long
+   tales for L. and got $200 for them. One for E. for which he paid
+   $75, also a bit of poetry for $5. He wanted a long story in
+   twenty-four chapters, and I wrote it in a fortnight,--one hundred
+   and eighty-five pages,--besides work, sewing, nursing, and
+   company.
+
+   Sent S. E. S. the first $100 on my account; could have sent $300,
+   but it was needed, so I gave it up unwillingly, and must work
+   away for the rest. Mother borrowed the money that I might stay
+   longer and see England, as I had missed much while condemned to
+   "hard work and solitary confinement for nine months," as she
+   expressed it.
+
+   _September._--Mother sick, did little with my pen. Got a girl,
+   and devoted myself to Mother, writing after she was abed. In this
+   way finished a long tale. But E. would not have it, saying it was
+   too long and too sensational!
+
+   _November._--Mother slowly mending. A sensible Western woman
+   "rubbed" her, and did her a great deal of good. She left her room
+   and seemed more like herself. I never expect to see the strong,
+   energetic Marmee of old times, but, thank the Lord! she is still
+   here, though pale and weak, quiet and sad; all her fine hair
+   gone, and face full of wrinkles, bowed back, and every sign of
+   age. Life has been so hard for her, and she so brave, so glad to
+   spend herself for others. Now we must live for her.
+
+On Miss Alcott's return from Europe in July, 1866, she devoted herself
+as earnestly as ever to the personal care of her mother and to
+story-writing for the support of the family. She agreed to write a
+fifty-dollar tale once a month, and besides this wrote many short
+stories for other publishers. Her father's return from the West with
+two hundred dollars, earned on his western trip, gave her some relief;
+and she was cheered by hearing that "Moods" was selling well in
+Europe. But she was not well, and she felt anxious and troubled about
+many things. Her journal of these months is very meagre; and January,
+1867, opens with the statement that she is "sick from too hard work."
+Yet the account of stories furnished to publishers continues till
+August, when she went to Clark's Island for a few weeks of recreation.
+Here her spirits returned, and she spent, as she says, "a
+harem-scarem fortnight," which must have given her great refreshment.
+She says: "Got to work again after my long vacation, for bills
+accumulate and worry me. I dread debt more than anything."
+
+In the journal occurs this slight notice of the first step in one of
+the most important achievements of her life, of which I shall speak
+more fully hereafter:--
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _September, 1867._--Niles, partner of Roberts, asked me to write
+   a girls' book. Said I'd try.
+
+   F. asked me to be the editor of "Merry's Museum." Said I'd try.
+
+   Began at once on both new jobs; but didn't like either.
+
+   The Radical Club met at Sargent's. Fine time. Bartol inspired;
+   Emerson chairman; Alcott on his legs; strong-minded ladies out in
+   full force; aesthetic tea for refreshment.
+
+   _October._--Agreed with F. to be editor for $500 a year. Read
+   manuscripts, write one story each month and an editorial. On the
+   strength of this engagement went to Boston, took a room--No. 6
+   Hayward Place--furnished it, and set up housekeeping for myself.
+   Cannot keep well in C., so must try Boston, and not work too
+   hard.
+
+   On the 28th rode to B. on my load of furniture with Fred, feeling
+   as if I was going to camp out in a new country; hoped it would
+   prove a hospitable and healthy land.
+
+This incident appears in "The Old-fashioned Girl" (p. 153), where the
+country girl goes into the city in a farmer's cart, with a squash pie
+in her hand given her at parting by an old friend. Her sister May had
+a drawing class at her room every day, which gave Louisa the pleasure
+of companionship.
+
+Miss Alcott was an enthusiastic admirer of Dickens, and she entered
+into the humor of his homely characters most heartily. She acted "Mrs.
+Jarley displaying her waxwork" nine times this winter, and was always
+successful in giving life and variety to the representation. She was
+constantly called upon to act for charity. She enjoyed the fun, and as
+she could not give money, it satisfied her generous nature to be able
+to help in any way.
+
+She wrote an article for Mr. B., called "Happy Women," in which she
+gratified her love of single life by describing the delightful
+spinsters of her acquaintance. Her sketches are all taken from life,
+and are not too highly colored. The Physician, the Artist, the
+Philanthropist, the Actress, the Lawyer, are easily recognizable. They
+were a "glorious phalanx of old maids," as Theodore Parker called the
+single women of his Society, who aided him so much in his work.
+
+
+_To her Mother._
+
+     JANUARY, 1868.
+
+   Things look promising for the new year. F. $20 for the little
+   tales, and wrote two every month; G. $25 for the "Bells;" L. $100
+   for the two "Proverb" stories. L. takes all I'll send; and F.
+   seems satisfied.
+
+   So my plan will work well, and I shall make my $1,000 this year
+   in spite of sickness and worry. Praise the Lord and keep busy,
+   say I.
+
+   I am pretty well, and keep so busy I haven't time to be sick.
+   Every one is very clever to me; and I often think as I go larking
+   round, independent, with more work than I can do, and
+   half-a-dozen publishers asking for tales, of the old times when I
+   went meekly from door to door peddling my first poor little
+   stories, and feeling so rich with $10.
+
+   It's clear that Minerva Moody is getting on, in spite of many
+   downfalls, and by the time she is a used up old lady of seventy
+   or so she may finish her job, and see her family well off. A
+   little late to enjoy much maybe; but I guess I shall turn in for
+   my last long sleep with more content, in spite of the mortal
+   weariness, than if I had folded my hands and been supported in
+   elegant idleness, or gone to the devil in fits of despair because
+   things moved so slowly.
+
+   Keep all the money I send; pay up every bill; get comforts and
+   enjoy yourselves. Let's be merry while we may, and lay up a bit
+   for a rainy day.
+
+   With which gem from Aristotle, I am, honored Madam, your dutiful
+   and affectionate
+
+     L. M. ALCOTT.
+
+   Regards to Plato. Don't he want new socks? Are his clothes
+   getting shiny?
+
+Although, as I have said, little direct European influence is
+observable in Miss Alcott's writings from her journeys in Europe, yet
+this first visit had a marked effect upon her life and writings. She
+was unfavorably situated to gain the refreshment she sorely needed;
+and yet she did get a great deal from the entire change of
+surroundings, from the larger horizon into which she entered, from her
+rich enjoyment of scenery, and from the variety of companions she
+met. Probably she looked through new spectacles at her own work, as
+she describes herself as looking through those of Professor Bhaer, and
+she saw all the defects of the pot-boiling stories which she had been
+pouring out one after another, without strong purpose, or regard for
+artistic excellence. She had also the chance to look upon her own
+early life and home from a distance; and as she thought of the
+incidents of those years they grouped into more harmonious lines, and
+she saw how much they contained of real life, of true poetry and
+humor, as well as moral significance. So the old idea of "The Pathetic
+Family" took shape anew in her mind.
+
+In July, 1863, the enterprising firm of Roberts Brothers asked her for
+the publication in book form of "Hospital Sketches," which were then
+appearing in the "Commonwealth" newspaper, being struck by their
+intense reality and originality. At the time, as she states in her
+journal, she preferred to allow Mr. Redpath to publish them. Later, in
+September, 1867, Roberts Brothers asked her to write a girls' book for
+them, and in May, 1868, they repeated the request through her father,
+who had brought to them a collection of short stories for publication.
+
+Miss Alcott's fancy had always been for depicting the life of boys
+rather than girls; but she fortunately took the suggestion of the
+publisher, and said, like Col. Miller, "I'll try, sir." The old idea
+of "The Pathetic Family" recurred to her mind; and she set herself to
+describe the early life of her home. The book was finished in July,
+named "Little Women," and sent to the publishers, who promptly
+accepted it, making Miss Alcott an outright offer for the copyright,
+but at the same time advising her not to part with it. It was
+published in October, and the result is well known. She was quite
+unconscious of the unusual merit of the book, thinking, as she says,
+the first chapters dull, and so was quite surprised at her success.
+"It reads better than I expected," she says; and she truly adds, "We
+really lived most of it, and if it succeeds, that will be the reason
+of it."
+
+But that is not the whole secret of its success. Through many trials
+and many failures Louisa had learned her literary art. By her
+experience in melodrama she had proved the emptiness of sensational
+writing, and knew how to present the simple and true,--seemingly
+without art, but really with the nicest art of discrimination and
+emphasis. All her previous training and experience were needed to fit
+her for the production of her masterpiece; for in spite of all the
+good work she did later, this remains her masterpiece, by which she
+will be remembered and loved. Already twenty-one years have passed,
+and another generation has come up since she published this book, yet
+it still commands a steady sale; and the mothers who read it in their
+childhood renew their enjoyment as they watch the faces of their
+little girls brighten with smiles over the theatricals in the barn, or
+moisten with tears at the death of the beloved sister. One of the
+greatest charms of the book is its perfect truth to New England life.
+But it is not merely local; it touches the universal heart deeply.
+
+The excitement of the children was intense; they claimed the author as
+their own property, and felt as if she were interpreting their very
+lives and thoughts. The second series was anticipated with the
+eagerness of a bulletin from the war and the stock market. But unlike
+Miss Alcott herself, the children took especial interest in the
+love-story, and when poor Laurie was so obstinately refused by Jo,
+"they wept aloud, and refused to be comforted," and in some instances
+were actually made ill by grief and excitement.
+
+Miss Alcott had now secured publishers in whom she placed perfect
+confidence, and who henceforth relieved her of the worry of business
+matters, dealing directly and fairly by her, and consulting her
+interests as well as their own. This is abundantly shown by her
+private journals and letters.
+
+The success of "Little Women" was so well assured that Miss Alcott at
+once set about preparing the second part, which was eagerly demanded
+by the little women outside, who wanted all the girls to marry, and
+rather troubled her by wishing to settle matters their own way. She
+finished writing the sequel, which had been rapid work, Jan. 1, 1869.
+
+The success of "Little Women" was not confined to this country. The
+book was translated into French, German, and Dutch, and has become
+familiarly known in England and on the Continent. In Holland the first
+series was published under the title "Under the Mother's Wings," and
+the second part as "On Their Own Wings;" and these two books with
+"Work" established her fame among the children, who still continue to
+read her stories with fresh delight.
+
+It is hardly necessary to analyze or criticise this happy production.
+It is a realistic transcript of life, but idealized by the tenderness
+of real feeling. It teaches the lessons of every-day conduct and
+inculcates the simplest virtues of truth, earnest effort, and loving
+affection. There is abundant humor, but no caricature, and tender,
+deep feeling without sentimentality.
+
+Miss Alcott herself did not wish her representative, Jo, to marry; but
+the demand of the publisher and the public was so imperative that she
+created her German professor, of whom no prototype existed. While some
+of her romantic young readers were not satisfied at Jo's preferring
+him to the charming Laurie, he is certainly a genuine, warm-hearted
+man, who would probably have held her affections by his strong moral
+and intellectual traits. That he became a very living personality to
+the author is evident from his reappearance in "Jo's Boys," where he
+has the same strong, cheery influence in the school and home that she
+found from him in her girlhood. The style of the book is thoroughly
+easy and colloquial; and the girls talk and act like girls, and not
+like prim little women. The influence of the book has been wide and
+deep, and has helped to make a whole generation of girls feel a deeper
+sense of family love and the blessings to be gained from lives of
+earnest effort, mutual sacrifice, and high aims.
+
+Much interest has been expressed in regard to the originals of the
+characters in "Little Women." This is the author's own statement:--
+
+   Facts in the stories that are true, though often changed as to
+   time and place:--
+
+   "Little Women"--The early plays and experiences; Beth's death;
+   Jo's literary and Amy's artistic experiences; Meg's happy home;
+   John Brooke and his death; Demi's character. Mr. March did not go
+   to the war, but Jo did. Mrs. March is all true, only not half
+   good enough. Laurie is not an American boy, though every lad I
+   ever knew claims the character. He was a Polish boy, met abroad
+   in 1865. Mr. Lawrence is my grandfather, Colonel Joseph May. Aunt
+   March is no one.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _January, 1868. Gamp's Garret, Hayward Place, Boston._--The year
+   begins well and cheerfully for us all. Father and Mother
+   comfortable at home; Anna and family settled in Chelsea; May busy
+   with her drawing classes, of which she has five or six, and the
+   prospect of earning $150 a quarter; also she is well and in good
+   spirits.
+
+   I am in my little room, spending busy, happy days, because I have
+   quiet, freedom, work enough, and strength to do it. F. pays me
+   $500 a year for my name and some editorial work on Merry's
+   Museum; "The Youth's Companion" pays $20 for two short tales each
+   month; L. $50 and $100 for all I will send him; and others take
+   anything I have. My way seems clear for the year if I can only
+   keep well. I want to realize my dream of supporting the family
+   and being perfectly independent. Heavenly hope!
+
+   I have written twenty-five stories the past year, besides the
+   fairy book containing twelve. Have earned $1,000, paid my own
+   way, sent home some, paid up debts, and helped May.
+
+   For many years we have not been so comfortable: May and I both
+   earning, Annie with her good John to lean on, and the old people
+   in a cosey home of our own.
+
+   After last winter's hard experience, we cannot be too grateful.
+
+   To-day my first hyacinth bloomed, white and sweet,--a good
+   omen,--a little flag of truce, perhaps, from the enemies whom we
+   have been fighting all these years. Perhaps we are to win after
+   all, and conquer poverty, neglect, pain, and debt, and march on
+   with flags flying into the new world with the new year.
+
+   _Thursday, 7th._--A queer day. Up early, and had my bread and
+   milk and baked apples. Fed my doves. Made May a bonnet, and cut
+   out a flannel wrapper for Marmee, who feels the cold in the
+   Concord snowbanks. Did my editorial work in the P.M., and fixed
+   my dresses for the plays. L. sent $50, and F. $40, for tales. A.
+   and boys came.
+
+   To Dorchester in evening, and acted Mrs. Pontifex, in "Naval
+   Engagements," to a good house. A gay time, had flowers, etc.
+   Talked half the night with H. A. about the fast ways of young
+   people nowadays, and gave the child much older-sisterly advice,
+   as no one seems to see how much she needs help at this time of
+   her young life.
+
+   Dreamed that I was an opera dancer, and waked up prancing.
+
+   _Wednesday, 15th._--Wrote all day. Did two short tales for F. In
+   the evening with A. M. to hear Fanny Kemble read "The Merchant of
+   Venice." She was a whole stock company in herself. Looked younger
+   and handsomer than ever before, and happy, as she is to be with
+   her daughters now. We went to supper afterwards at Mrs.
+   Parkman's, and saw the lioness feed. It was a study to watch her
+   face, so full of varying expression was it,--always strong,
+   always sweet, then proud and fierce as she sniffed at nobodies
+   who passed about her. Being one, I kept away, and enjoyed the
+   great creature afar off, wondering how a short, stout, red woman
+   _could_ look so like a queen in her purple velvet and point lace.
+
+   Slipped behind a door, but Dr. Holmes found me out, and affably
+   asked, "How many of you children are there?" As I was looking
+   down on the top of his illustrious head, the question was funny.
+   But I answered the little man with deep respect, "Four, sir." He
+   seemed to catch my naughty thought, and asked, with a twinkle in
+   his eye, looking up as if I were a steeple, "And all as tall as
+   you?" Ha! ha!
+
+   _18th._--Played again at D., and had a jolly time. Home early,
+   and putting off my fine feathers, fell to work on my stories. F.
+   seems to expect me to write the whole magazine, which I did not
+   bargain for.
+
+   To Nan's in p. m., to take care of her while the Papa and Freddie
+   went to C. The dear little man, so happy and important with his
+   bit of a bag, six pennies, and a cake for refreshment during the
+   long journey of an hour.
+
+   We brooded over Johnny as if he were a heavenly sort of fire to
+   warm and comfort us with his sunny little face and loving ways.
+   She is a happy woman! I sell _my_ children; and though they feed
+   me, they don't love me as hers do.
+
+   Little Tranquillity played alone all day, and made a pretty
+   picture sitting in "marmar's" lap in his night-gown, talking
+   through the trumpet to her. She never heard his sweet little
+   voice in any other way. Poor Nan!
+
+   _Wednesday, 22d._--To the Club with Father. A good paper on the
+   "Historical View of Jesus." Father spoke finely. It amuses me to
+   see how people listen and applaud _now_ what was hooted at twenty
+   years ago.
+
+   The talk lasted until two, and then the hungry philosophers
+   remembered they had bodies and rushed away, still talking.
+
+   [Hard to feed.--L. M. A.]
+
+   Got a snow-slide on my bonnet, so made another in the P.M., and
+   in the evening to the Antislavery Festival. All the old faces and
+   many new ones. Glad I have lived in the time of this great
+   movement, and known its heroes so well. War times suit me, as I
+   am a fighting _May_.
+
+   _24th._--My second hyacinth bloomed pale blue, like a timid hope,
+   and I took the omen for a good one, as I _am_ getting on, and
+   have more than I can do of the work that I once went begging for.
+   Enjoyed the little spring my little flower made for me, and
+   Buzzy, my pet fly, moved into the sweet mansion from his hanging
+   garden in the ivy pot.
+
+   Acted in Cambridge, Lucretia Buzzard and Mrs. Jarley.
+
+   _Sunday, 31st._--Last day of the month, but I'm not satisfied
+   with my four weeks' work. Acting for charity upsets my work. The
+   change is good for me, and so I do it, and because I have no
+   money to give.
+
+   Four tales this month. Received $70; sent $30 home. No debts.
+
+   _February 1st._--Arranged "Hospital Sketches and War Stories" for
+   a book. By taking out all Biblical allusions, and softening all
+   allusions to rebs., the book may be made "quite perfect," I am
+   told. Anything to suit customers.
+
+   _Friday, 14th._--My third hyacinth bloomed this A.M., a lovely
+   pink. So I found things snug, and had a busy day chasing----who
+   dodged. Then I wrote my tales. Made some shirts for my boys, and
+   went out to buy a squash pie for my lonely supper. It snowed; was
+   very cold. No one paid, and I wanted to send some money home.
+   Felt cross and tired as I trudged back at dusk. My pie turned a
+   somersault, a boy laughed, so did I, and felt better. On my
+   doorstep I found a gentleman who asked if Miss A. lived here. I
+   took him up my winding stair and found him a very delightful fly,
+   for he handed me a letter out of which fell a $100 bill. With
+   this bait Mr. B. lured me to write "one column of Advice to Young
+   Women," as Mrs. Shaw and others were doing. If he had asked me
+   for a Greek oration I would have said "yes." So I gave a receipt,
+   and the very elegant agent bowed himself away, leaving my
+   "'umble" bower full of perfume, and my soul of peace.
+
+   Thriftily taking advantage of the enthusiastic moment, I planned
+   my article while I ate my dilapidated pie, and then proceeded to
+   write it with the bill before me. It was about old maids. "Happy
+   Women" was the title, and I put in my list all the busy, useful,
+   independent spinsters I know, for liberty is a better husband
+   than love to many of us. This was a nice little episode in my
+   trials of an authoress, so I record it.
+
+   So the pink hyacinth was a true prophet, and I went to bed a
+   happy millionaire, to dream of flannel petticoats for my blessed
+   Mother, paper for Father, a new dress for May, and sleds for my
+   boys.
+
+   _Monday, 17th._--Father came full of plans about his book. Went
+   with him to the Club. P. read a paper, and the Rabbi Nathan
+   talked. A curious jumble of fools and philosophers. The Club
+   should be kept more select, and not be run by one person.
+
+   _Tuesday, 25th._--Note from Lady Amberly as I sat sewing on my
+   ninepenny dress. She wanted to come and see me, and I told her to
+   do so, and I'd show her how I lived in my sky-parlor,--spinning
+   yarns like a spider. Met her at the Club, and liked her, so
+   simple and natural.
+
+   Acted for Mr. Clarke's Church Fair in the evening. Did Mrs.
+   Jarley three times. Very hoarse with a cold, but kept my promise.
+
+   "Proverb Stories" suggested, and "Kitty's Class-Day" written.
+
+   _Friday, 28th._--Packed for home, as I am needed there, and acted
+   Jarley for the third evening. Have done it nine times this week,
+   and my voice is gone.
+
+   I am sorry to leave my quiet room, for I've enjoyed it very much.
+
+   Written eight long tales, ten short ones, read stacks of
+   manuscripts, and done editorial work. Acted for charity twelve
+   times.
+
+   Not a bad two months' work. I can imagine an easier life, but
+   with love, health, and work I can be happy; for these three help
+   one to do, to be, and to endure all things.
+
+   _March, April, and May._--Had the pleasure of providing Marmee
+   with many comforts, and keeping the hounds of care and debt from
+   worrying her. She sits at rest in her sunny room, and that is
+   better than any amount of fame to me.
+
+   _May, 1868._--Father saw Mr. Niles about a fairy book. Mr. N.
+   wants a _girls' story_, and I begin "Little Women." Marmee, Anna,
+   and May all approve my plan. So I plod away, though I don't enjoy
+   this sort of thing. Never liked girls or knew many, except my
+   sisters; but our queer plays and experiences may prove
+   interesting, though I doubt it.
+
+   [Good joke.--L. M. A.]
+
+   _June._--Sent twelve chapters of "L. W." to Mr. N. He thought it
+   _dull_; so do I. But work away and mean to try the experiment;
+   for lively, simple books are very much needed for girls, and
+   perhaps I can supply the need.
+
+   Wrote two tales for Ford, and one for F. L. clamors for more, but
+   must wait.
+
+   _July 15th._--Have finished "Little Women," and sent it off,--402
+   pages. May is designing some pictures for it. Hope it will go,
+   for I shall probably get nothing for "Morning Glories."
+
+   Very tired, head full of pain from overwork, and heart heavy
+   about Marmee, who is growing feeble.
+
+   [Too much work for one young woman. No wonder she broke down.
+   1876.--L. M. A.]
+
+   _August._--Roberts Bros. made an offer for the story, but at the
+   same time advised me to keep the copyright; so I shall.
+
+   [An honest publisher and a lucky author, for the copyright made
+   her fortune, and the "dull book" was the first golden egg of the
+   ugly duckling. 1885.--L. M. A.]
+
+   _August 26th._--Proof of whole book came. It reads better than I
+   expected. Not a bit sensational, but simple and true, for we
+   really lived most of it; and if it succeeds that will be the
+   reason of it. Mr. N. likes it better now, and says some girls who
+   have read the manuscripts say it is "splendid!" As it is for
+   them, they are the best critics, so I should be satisfied.
+
+   _September._--Father's book ["Tablets"] came out. Very simple
+   outside, wise and beautiful within. Hope it will bring him praise
+   and profit, for he has waited long.
+
+   No girl, Mother poorly, May busy with pupils, Nan with her boys,
+   and much work to be done. We don't like the kitchen department,
+   and our tastes and gifts lie in other directions, so it is hard
+   to make the various Pegasuses pull the plan steadily.
+
+   _October 8th._--Marmee's birthday; sixty-eight. After breakfast
+   she found her gifts on a table in the study. Father escorted her
+   to the big red chair, the boys prancing before blowing their
+   trumpets, while we "girls" marched behind, glad to see the dear
+   old Mother better and able to enjoy our little fete. The boys
+   proudly handed her the little parcels, and she laughed and cried
+   over our gifts and verses.
+
+   I feel as if the decline had begun for her; and each year will
+   add to the change which is going on, as time alters the
+   energetic, enthusiastic home-mother into a gentle, feeble old
+   woman, to be cherished and helped tenderly down the long hill she
+   has climbed so bravely with her many burdens.
+
+   _October 26th._--Came to Boston, and took a quiet room in
+   Brookline Street. Heard Emerson in the evening. Sent a report of
+   it to A. P. for the "Standard" at his desire.
+
+   Anna is nicely settled in her new house, and Marmee is with her.
+   Helped put down carpets and settle things.
+
+   _30th._--Saw Mr. N. of Roberts Brothers, and he gave me good news
+   of the book. An order from London for an edition came in. First
+   edition gone and more called for. Expects to sell three or four
+   thousand before the New Year.
+
+   Mr. N. wants a second volume for spring. Pleasant notices and
+   letters arrive, and much interest in my little women, who seem to
+   find friends by their truth to life, as I hoped.
+
+   _November 1st._--Began the second part of "Little Women." I can
+   do a chapter a day, and in a month I mean to be done. A little
+   success is so inspiring that I now find my "Marches" sober, nice
+   people, and as I can launch into the future, my fancy has more
+   play. Girls write to ask who the little women marry, as if that
+   was the only end and aim of a woman's life. I _won't_ marry Jo to
+   Laurie to please any one.
+
+   _Monday, 16th._--To the Club for a change, as I have written like
+   a steam engine since the 1st. Weiss read a fine paper on "Woman
+   Suffrage." Good talk afterward. Lunched with Kate Field, Celia
+   Thaxter, and Mr. Linton. Woman's Club in P.M.
+
+   _17th._--Finished my thirteenth chapter. I am so full of my work,
+   I can't stop to eat or sleep, or for anything but a daily run.
+
+   _29th._--My birthday; thirty-six. Spent alone, writing hard. No
+   presents but Father's "Tablets."
+
+   I never seem to have many presents, as some do, though I give a
+   good many. That is best perhaps, and makes a gift very precious
+   when it does come.
+
+   _December._--Home to shut up the house, as Father goes West and
+   Mother to Anna's. A cold, hard, dirty time; but was so glad to be
+   off out of C. that I worked like a beaver, and turned the key on
+   Apple Slump with joy.
+
+   May and I went to the new Bellevue Hotel in Beacon Street. She
+   doesn't enjoy quiet corners as I do, so we took a sky-parlor, and
+   had a queer time whisking up and down in the elevator, eating in
+   a marble cafe, and sleeping on a sofa bed, that we might be
+   genteel. It did not suit me at all. A great gale nearly blew the
+   roof off. Steam pipes exploded, and we were hungry. I was very
+   tired with my hard summer, with no rest for the brains that earn
+   the money.
+
+   _January, 1869._--Left our lofty room at Bellevue and went to
+   Chauncey Street. Sent the sequel of "L. W." to Roberts on New
+   Year's Day. Hope it will do as well as the first, which is
+   selling finely, and receives good notices. F. and F. both want me
+   to continue working for them, and I shall do so if I am able; but
+   my head-aches, cough, and weariness keep me from working as I
+   once could, fourteen hours a day.
+
+   In March we went home, as Mother was restless at Nan's, and
+   Father wanted his library. Cold and dull; not able to write; so
+   took care of Marmee and tried to rest.
+
+   Paid up all the debts, thank the Lord!--every penny that money
+   can pay,--and now I feel as if I could die in peace. My dream is
+   beginning to come true; and if my head holds out I'll do all I
+   once hoped to do.
+
+   _April._--Very poorly. Feel quite used up. Don't care much for
+   myself, as rest is heavenly even with pain; but the family seem
+   so panic-stricken and helpless when I break down, that I try to
+   keep the mill going. Two short tales for L., $50; two for Ford,
+   $20; and did my editorial work, though two months are unpaid for.
+   Roberts wants a new book, but am afraid to get into a vortex lest
+   I fall ill.
+
+
+_To her Publishers._
+
+      BOSTON, Dec. 28, 1869.
+
+   Many thanks for the check which made my Christmas an unusually
+   merry one.
+
+   After toiling so many years along the uphill road,--always a
+   hard one to women writers,--it is peculiarly grateful to me to
+   find the way growing easier at last, with pleasant little
+   surprises blossoming on either side, and the rough places made
+   smooth by the courtesy and kindness of those who have proved
+   themselves friends as well as publishers.
+
+   With best wishes for the coming year,
+
+     I am yours truly,
+     L. M. ALCOTT.
+
+     AUGUST, 1871.
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--Many thanks for the fortune and the kind note
+   accompanying it. Please hand the money to S. E. S., and he will
+   put it somewhere for me....
+
+   You are very kind to find a minute out of your hurried day to
+   attend to this affair.... I'm not sure but I shall try Dr. B. if
+   my present and ninth doctor fails to cure my aching bones. I
+   haven't a bit of faith in any of them; but my friends won't let
+   me gently slip away where bones cease from troubling, so I must
+   keep trying.
+
+     Very gratefully your friend,
+     L. M. A.
+
+Written in 1871, just after the publication of "Little Men":--
+
+      AUGUST 5TH.
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--Thanks for the parcel and notes.
+
+   ... The letters were very gushing from Nellie and Dollie and
+   Sallie Somebody asking for pictures, autographs, family history,
+   and several new books right away.
+
+   I must give Dr. R. a fair trial, and if he fails I'll try Dr. B.,
+   just to make up the number of doctors to a round ten.
+
+   "Happy Thoughts" is very funny, especially the trip to Antwerp.
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+EUROPE.
+
+     THE LAY OF A GOLDEN GOOSE.
+
+     Long ago in a poultry yard
+       One dull November morn,
+     Beneath a motherly soft wing
+       A little goose was born.
+
+     Who straightway peeped out of the shell
+       To view the world beyond,
+     Longing at once to sally forth
+       And paddle in the pond.
+
+     "Oh! be not rash," her father said,
+       A mild Socratic bird;
+     Her mother begged her not to stray
+       With many a warning word.
+
+     But little goosey was perverse,
+       And eagerly did cry,
+     "I've got a lovely pair of wings,
+       Of course I ought to fly."
+
+     In vain parental cacklings,
+       In vain the cold sky's frown,
+     Ambitious goosey tried to soar,
+       But always tumbled down.
+
+     The farm-yard jeered at her attempts,
+       The peacocks screamed, "Oh fie!
+     You're only a domestic goose,
+       So don't pretend to fly."
+
+     Great cock-a-doodle from his perch
+       Crowed daily loud and clear,
+     "Stay in the puddle, foolish bird,
+       That is your proper sphere."
+
+     The ducks and hens said, one and all,
+       In gossip by the pool,
+     "Our children never play such pranks;
+       My dear, that fowl's a fool."
+
+     The owls came out and flew about,
+       Hooting above the rest,
+     "No useful egg was ever hatched
+       From transcendental nest."
+
+     Good little goslings at their play
+       And well-conducted chicks
+     Were taught to think poor goosey's flights
+       Were naughty, ill-bred tricks.
+
+     _They_ were content to swim and scratch,
+       And not at all inclined
+     For any wild-goose chase in search
+       Of something undefined.
+
+     Hard times she had as one may guess,
+       That young aspiring bird,
+     Who still from every fall arose
+       Saddened but undeterred.
+
+     She knew she was no nightingale,
+       Yet spite of much abuse,
+     She longed to help and cheer the world,
+       Although a plain gray goose.
+
+     She could not sing, she could not fly,
+       Nor even walk with grace,
+     And all the farm-yard had declared
+       A puddle was her place.
+
+     But something stronger than herself
+       Would cry, "Go on, go on!
+     Remember, though an humble fowl,
+       You're cousin to a swan."
+
+     So up and down poor goosey went,
+       A busy, hopeful bird.
+     Searched many wide unfruitful fields,
+       And many waters stirred.
+
+     At length she came unto a stream
+       Most fertile of all _Niles_,
+     Where tuneful birds might soar and sing
+       Among the leafy isles.
+
+     Here did she build a little nest
+       Beside the waters still,
+     Where the parental goose could rest
+       Unvexed by any _bill_.
+
+     And here she paused to smooth her plumes,
+       Ruffled by many plagues;
+     When suddenly arose the cry,
+       "This goose lays golden eggs."
+
+     At once the farm-yard was agog;
+       The ducks began to quack;
+     Prim Guinea fowls relenting called,
+       "Come back, come back, come back."
+
+     Great chanticleer was pleased to give
+       A patronizing crow,
+     And the contemptuous biddies clucked,
+       "I wish my chicks did so."
+
+     The peacocks spread their shining tails,
+       And cried in accents soft,
+     "We want to know you, gifted one,
+       Come up and sit aloft."
+
+     Wise owls awoke and gravely said,
+       With proudly swelling breasts,
+     "Rare birds have always been evoked
+       From transcendental nests!"
+
+     News-hunting turkeys from afar
+       Now ran with all thin legs
+     To gobble facts and fictions of
+       The goose with golden eggs.
+
+     But best of all the little fowls
+       Still playing on the shore,
+     Soft downy chicks and goslings gay,
+       Chirped out, "Dear Goose, lay more."
+
+     But goosey all these weary years
+       Had toiled like any ant,
+     And wearied out she now replied,
+       "My little dears, I can't.
+
+     "When I was starving, half this corn
+       Had been of vital use,
+     Now I am surfeited with food
+       Like any Strasbourg goose."
+
+     So to escape too many friends,
+       Without uncivil strife,
+     She ran to the Atlantic pond
+       And paddled for her life.
+
+     Soon up among the grand old Alps
+       She found two blessed things,
+     The health she had so nearly lost,
+       And rest for weary limbs.
+
+     But still across the briny deep
+       Couched in most friendly words,
+     Came prayers for letters, tales, or verse,
+       From literary birds.
+
+     Whereat the renovated fowl
+       With grateful thanks profuse,
+     Took from her wing a quill and wrote
+       This lay of a Golden Goose.
+
+     BEX, SWITZERLAND, August, 1870.
+
+
+The year 1869 was less fruitful in work than the preceding one. Miss
+Alcott spent the winter in Boston and the summer in Concord. She was
+ill and very tired, and felt little inclined for mental effort.
+"Hospital Sketches," which had been first published by Redpath, was
+now republished by Roberts Brothers, with the addition of six shorter
+"Camp and Fireside Stories." The interest of the public in either the
+author or the work had not lessened; for two thousand copies of the
+book in its new form were sold the first week. In her weary condition
+she finds her celebrity rather a burden than a pleasure, and says in
+her journal:--
+
+   People begin to come and stare at the Alcotts. Reporters haunt
+   the place to look at the authoress, who dodges into the woods _a
+   la_ Hawthorne, and won't be even a very small lion.
+
+   Refreshed my soul with Goethe, ever strong and fine and alive.
+   Gave S. E. S. $200 to invest. What richness to have a little not
+   needed!
+
+Miss Alcott had some pleasant refreshment in travelling during the
+summer.
+
+   _July._-- ... Spent in Canada with my cousins, the Frothinghams,
+   at their house at Riviere du Loup,--a little village on the St.
+   Lawrence, full of queer people. Drove, read, and walked with the
+   little ones. A pleasant, quiet time.
+
+   _August._-- ... A month with May at Mt. Desert. A gay time, and a
+   little rest and pleasure before the old pain and worry began
+   again.
+
+   Made up $1,000 for S. E. S. to invest. Now I have $1,200 for a
+   rainy day, and no debts. With that thought I can bear neuralgia
+   gayly.
+
+In the autumn the whole family went to Boston, the father and mother
+staying with Mrs. Pratt; while Louisa and her sister May, "the
+workers," occupied rooms in Pinckney Street. Not being well enough to
+do much new work, Louisa began using up her old stories, and found
+that the little women "helped their rejected sisters to good places
+where once they went a-begging." In January, 1870, she suffered from
+loss of voice, for which she tried "heroic treatment" under a
+distinguished physician. She got well enough to write a little, and in
+February wrote the conclusion to "The Old-fashioned Girl," which was
+published in March. She says:--
+
+   I wrote it with left hand in a sling, one foot up, head aching,
+   and no voice. Yet, as the book is funny, people will say, "Didn't
+   you enjoy doing it?" I often think of poor Tom Hood as I
+   scribble, rather than lie and groan. I certainly earn my living
+   by the sweat of my brow.
+
+The book does not reveal this condition; for nothing could be fresher,
+brighter, and more wholesome than the heroine Polly, many of whose
+adventures are drawn from the author's own experience. She steps out
+of her usual surroundings into the fashionable life of the city, but
+betrays her own want of sympathy with it. The book has always been
+very popular.
+
+In 1870, the success of "Hospital Sketches" and the continued receipts
+from "Little Women" put their author in a pecuniary position which
+enabled her to go abroad for the rest and refreshment which she sorely
+needed. The younger sister was invited to go by her friend A. B. on
+condition that Louisa would accompany them. This journey was very free
+and independent. She has given an account--somewhat travestied
+certainly, but very true to the general facts--in "Shawl Straps,"
+although the reader would hardly suppose the old lady described in
+that book had not yet reached her fortieth year. These sketches were
+arranged after her return, at the request of Mrs. Stowe, for the
+"Christian Union," and were published in a book forming one volume of
+"Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag" in 1872.
+
+Fortunately we have many of Louisa's original letters preserved in her
+father's copies, which have escaped the destruction of her
+correspondence. With some extracts from her journals, they give a
+sufficient account of this journey. In many respects the contrast to
+her former visit to Europe is most pleasant. She has now become
+pecuniarily independent by her own exertions, and has a popular
+reputation which brings her welcome and recognition wherever she goes.
+But she has paid a heavy price for these gains. Her health has become
+seriously shattered. The long application to writing, sometimes even
+for fourteen hours a day,--a pressure of excitement which kept her
+from eating and sleeping,--added to sorrow and anxiety, have told upon
+her nerves and strength, and she is often unfitted to enjoy the
+pleasures which are open to her. Yet her journal and letters are as
+full of wit and humor as ever; and she laid up stores of pleasant
+memories which lasted her through life. Readers of "Shawl Straps" will
+recognize the originals of those bright sketches in the series of
+letters from Dinan.
+
+
+_Second Trip to Europe._
+
+   _April._--... On the first day of the month (fit day for _my_
+   undertaking I thought) May and I went to N. Y. to meet A. B.,
+   with John for escort. Every one very kind. Thirty gifts, a
+   parting ball among our house-mates, and a great cake.
+   Half-a-dozen devoted beings at the station to see us off. But I
+   remember only Father and Mother as they went away the day before,
+   leaving the two ambitious daughters to sail away, perhaps
+   forever.
+
+   Marmee kept up bravely, and nodded and smiled; but at the corner
+   I saw the white handkerchief go up to the eyes, after being
+   gayly waved to us. May and I broke down, and said, "We won't go;"
+   but next day we set forth, as young birds will, and left the nest
+   empty for a year.
+
+   Sailed on the 2d in a gale of wind in the French steamer
+   "Lafayette" for Brest. Our adventures are told in "Shawl Straps."
+
+   "O. F. G." came out in March, and sold well. Train-boy going to
+   N. Y. put it into my lap; and when I said I didn't care for it,
+   exclaimed with surprise,--
+
+   "Bully book, ma'am! Sell a lot; better have it."
+
+   John told him I wrote it; and his chuckle, stare, and astonished
+   "No!" was great fun. On the steamer little girls had it, and came
+   in a party to call on me, very sea-sick in my berth, done up like
+   a mummy.
+
+   Spent some charming weeks in Brittany.
+
+   _June and July._--"O. F. G." was published in London by Sampson
+   Low & Co. We left Dinan on the 15th, and had a lovely trip
+   through France to Vevay and Bex.
+
+   Talk of war between France and Prussia.
+
+   Much excitement at Vevay. Refugees from Lyons come in. Isabella
+   and Don Carlos were there, with queer followers.
+
+   _September._--... On the 3d came news of the Emperor's surrender.
+   Great wailing among the French here. All well at home. Books
+   going finely; no debts.
+
+   We decide to go to Rome for the winter, as May pines for the
+   artist's Paradise; and war will not trouble us I hope.
+
+     SHIP "LAFAYETTE," April 9, 1870.
+
+   DEAREST MARMEE,--To-morrow we come to our long journey's end
+   [Brest, France], thank the Lord. It has been a good one on the
+   whole, and I have got along as well as I expected. But it is
+   tiresome to be day after day doing nothing; for my head will not
+   let me read. May has done well, and has been very kind to me and
+   good, and is the life of the table, I guess. I never go up to
+   meals, for Marie takes such good care of me; I lie and peck all
+   sorts of funny messes, and receive calls in my den. People seem
+   to think we are "guns," and want to know us; but as they are not
+   interesting, we are on the reserve, and it has a fine effect.
+   About three thousand miles away does not seem possible in so
+   little while. How do you all get along,--Marmee, Father, the
+   laddies, my lass, and dear old John? He was so good and kind all
+   the way I had no care or worry, but just lopped round and let him
+   do all the work. Bless the dear!
+
+   I shall despatch a good long letter as soon as we arrive and have
+   something to tell. We send this to ease your mind. Letters here
+   are not prepaid, so pay for mine out of my money. Don't forget to
+   tell the post-master in Boston about my letters.
+
+   Bless you all, says your
+
+     LU.
+
+     MORLAIX, April 14, 1870.
+
+   DEAREST MARMEE,--Having got our "poise" a bit by a day and night
+   on land, I begin at once to scribble to you, as I mean to keep a
+   letter on hand all the time, and send them off as fast as they
+   are done. We had a twelve days' passage, owing to a double screw
+   which they were trying and which delayed us, though it is safer
+   than one. The weather was cold and rainy, and the sea rough, so I
+   only went up once or twice, and kept warm in my den most of the
+   time. After the first two days I didn't feel sick, except my head
+   as usual. I slept, ate, ruminated, and counted the hours. May
+   poked about more, and was liked by all.
+
+   We got to Brest about noon Wednesday. A. and I got our trunks
+   through the custom-house, and after some squabbling with the men,
+   got all aboard for Morlaix, which is a curious old place worth
+   seeing. It was a lovely day, warm as our June, and we had a
+   charming trip of three hours through a country already green and
+   flowery. We reached our hotel all right, and after a nice dinner
+   had baths and went to bed. May's room being some way from mine,
+   she came and bunked in with me in my little bed, and we slept.
+
+   To-day is lovely, warm, and I am sitting at an open window
+   looking at the square, enjoying the queer sights and sounds; for
+   the air resounds with the rattle of wooden shoes on the stones.
+
+   Market-women sit all about selling queer things, among which are
+   snails; they buy them by the pint, pick them out with a pin like
+   nuts, and seem to relish them mightily. We went out this A.M.
+   after breakfast, and took a stroll about the queer old town. May
+   was in heaven, and kept having raptures over the gables, the
+   turrets with storks on them, the fountains, people, and churches.
+   She is now sketching the tower of St. Melanie, with a crowd of
+   small boys round her enjoying the sight and criticising the work.
+   It don't seem very new to me, but I enjoy it, and feel pretty
+   well. We are to study French every day when we settle, and I am
+   to do the mending, etc., for A., who is to talk for us, and make
+   our bargains. So far we go well together.
+
+   To-morrow we go on to Lamballe, where we take the diligence to
+   Dinan, fourteen miles farther, and there settle for some weeks. I
+   wish the boys could see the funny children here in little wooden
+   shoes like boats, the girls in blue cloth caps, aprons, and
+   shawls, just like the women, and the boys in funny hats and
+   sheepskin jackets. Now I must go and get May, who can't speak a
+   word of French, and has a panic if any one speaks to her. The
+   beggars afflict her, and she wants to give them money on all
+   occasions. This P.M. we go for a drive to see all there is, as
+   neither A. nor I are good walkers; "adoo" till by and by. I wish
+   I could send you this balmy day.
+
+     DINAN, Sunday, April 17, 1870.
+
+   Here we are, all settled at our first neat stopping-place, and
+   are in clover, as you will see when I tell you how plummy and
+   lovely it is. We left Morlaix Friday at 8 A.M., and were so
+   amazed at the small bill presented us that we couldn't praise the
+   town enough. You can judge of the cheapness of things, when I say
+   that my share of the expenses from Brest here, including two days
+   at a hotel, car, 'bus, and diligence fare, fees, and everything,
+   was $8. The day was divine, and we had a fine little journey to
+   Lamballe, where the fun began; for instead of a big diligence, we
+   found only a queer ramshackle thing like an insane carryall, with
+   a wooden boot and queer porch for the driver.
+
+   Our four trunks were piled up behind and tied on with old ropes,
+   our bags stowed in a wooden box on top, and ourselves inside with
+   a fat Frenchman. The humpbacked driver "ya hooped" to the horses,
+   and away we clattered at a wild pace, all feeling dead sure that
+   something would happen, for the old thing bounded and swayed
+   awfully, the trunks were in danger of tumbling off, and to our
+   dismay we soon discovered that the big Frenchman was tipsy. He
+   gabbled to A. as only a tipsy person could, quoted poetry; said
+   he was Victor Hugo's best friend, and a child of Nature; that
+   English ladies were all divine, but too cold,--for when he
+   pressed A.'s hand she told him it was not allowed in England, and
+   he was overwhelmed with remorse; bowed, sighed, rolled his eyes,
+   and told her that he drank much ale, because it flew to his head
+   and gave him "commercial ideas."
+
+   I never saw anything so perfectly absurd as it was, and after we
+   got used to it we laughed ourselves sick over the lark. You ought
+   to have seen us and our turnout, tearing over the road at a
+   breakneck pace, pitching, creaking, and rattling, the funny
+   driver hooting at the horses, who had their tails done up in
+   chignons, blue harness, and strings of bells, the drunken man
+   warbling, exhorting, and languishing at us all by turns, while A.
+   headed him off with great skill. I sat, a mass of English dignity
+   and coolness, suffering alternate agonies of anxiety and
+   amusement, and May, who tied her head up in a bundle, looked like
+   a wooden image.
+
+   It was rich; and when we took up first a peasant woman in wooden
+   shoes and fly-away cap, and then a red-nosed priest smoking a
+   long pipe, we were a superb spectacle. In this style we banged
+   into Dinan, stopped at the gate, and were dumped bag and baggage
+   in the square. Finding Madame Coste's man was not here for us, we
+   hired a man to bring our trunks up. To our great amazement, an
+   oldish woman, who was greasing the wheels of a diligence, came,
+   and catching up our big trunks, whipped them into two broad
+   carts, and taking one trotted down the street at a fine pace,
+   followed by the man with the other. That was the finishing touch;
+   and we went laughing after them through the great arched gate
+   into the quaintest, prettiest, most romantic town I ever saw.
+   Narrow streets with overhanging gables, distracting roofs,
+   windows, and porches, carved beams, and every sort of richness.
+   The strong old lady beat the man, and finally landed us close by
+   another old gate at a charming house fronting the south,
+   overlooking a lovely green valley, full of gardens, blooming
+   plum and peach trees, windmills, and a ruined castle, at sight of
+   which we all skipped. Madame Coste received us with rapture, for
+   A. brought a letter from Mrs. L., who stayed here and was the joy
+   of the old lady's soul. We were in great luck, for being early in
+   the season she had three rooms left, and we nabbed them at
+   once,--a salon with old oak walls and wardrobes, blue damask
+   furniture, a fireplace, funny windows, and quaint furniture. A
+   little room out of it for A., and upstairs a larger room for May
+   and me, with two beds draped in green chintz, and carved big
+   wardrobe, etc., and best of all, a sunny window toward the
+   valley. For these rooms and our board we each pay $1 a day, and I
+   call that cheap. It would be worth that to get the fun and air
+   alone, for it is like June, and we sit about with open windows,
+   flowers in the fields, birds singing, and everything spring-like.
+
+   We took possession at once, and dressed for a dinner at six. We
+   were then presented to our fellow-boarders,--Madame Forney, a
+   buxom widow, her son Gaston, a handsome Frenchy youth of
+   twenty-three, and her daughter, a homely girl of twenty, who is
+   to be married here on the 3d of May. After a great bowing and
+   scraping we had a funny fish dinner, it being Good Friday. When
+   they found we didn't speak French they were "desolated," and
+   begged us to learn at once, which we solemnly vowed to do. Gaston
+   "knew English," so May at once began to teach him more, and the
+   ice being broken we got gay and friendly at once. I could
+   understand them pretty well, but can't talk, and A. told them
+   that I was forbidden to say much on account of my throat. This
+   will give me a chance to get a fair start. May pegs away at her
+   grammar, and with that and the elegant Gaston, she will soon
+   begin to "parlez-vous."
+
+   After dinner we were borne to the great salon, where a fire,
+   lights, and a piano appeared. Every one sat round and gabbled
+   except the Alcotts, who looked and laughed. Mademoiselle Forney
+   played, and then May convulsed them by singing some _Chants
+   Ameriques_, which they thought very lively and droll. They were
+   all attention and devotion to Madame Coste,--a tall old lady with
+   whiskers, who kept embracing A. and beaming at us in her great
+   content at being friends of _chere_ Madame L. A. told them that I
+   was a celebrated authoress, and May a very fine artist, and we
+   were beamed at more than ever. Being tired, we turned in early,
+   after a jolly time in our own little salon, eating chocolate and
+   laying plans.
+
+     DINAN, April 20, 1870.
+
+   ... A. and I went shopping. A. got a little bird to enliven our
+   parlor, a sort of sparrow, gray with a red head and a lively
+   song. We named him Bernard du Guesclin (the hero of the town),
+   and call him Bernie. I got some nice gloves for three francs
+   (sixty cents), and a white sun-umbrella for May (forty cents).
+   She needs it when she sketches, and there is always a crowd of
+   children round her to watch and admire; she gives one of them a
+   sou to hold the umbrella, and so gets on nicely.
+
+   In the P.M. A. and I went to the little village of Lahou, in the
+   valley where the ruined castle is, to a fair. It was a very
+   picturesque sight, for the white-capped women, sitting about on
+   the green hillside, looked like flowers, and the blue blouses of
+   the men and wide-brimmed hats added to the effect. The little
+   street was lined with booths, where they sold nuts, queer cakes,
+   hot sausages, and pancakes, toys, etc. I got a funny cake, just
+   the size and shape of a deep pie-dish, and a jack-knife, for a
+   sou. We also indulged in nuts, and sat on our campstools in a
+   shady place and ate them boldly in the public mart, while
+   enjoying the lively scene. French and English people went by in
+   droll parties, and we coolly sat and stared at them. May is going
+   to sketch the castle, so I won't waste paper describing the
+   pretty place with the ruined church full of rooks, the old mill
+   with the waterwheel housed in vines, or the winding river, and
+   meadows full of blue hyacinths and rosy daisies.
+
+   Yesterday, A. and I had to return the call of Mademoiselle M.,
+   and as she speaks English I got on very well. The stairs to her
+   apartment were so steep that we held on by a velvet-covered rope
+   as we climbed up. In the P.M. we had fun, for we took two donkey
+   carriages and rode to the mineral spring. Gaston was sick and
+   couldn't go, as we had planned, so May drove herself in one, and
+   A. and I in the other. I wish the boys could have seen us, it was
+   so funny. The carriages were bath-chairs with a wee donkey
+   harnessed to each, so small, so neat, and looking so venerable
+   with thin long ears and bits of feet that I felt as if I was
+   driving my grandmother. May was a very imposing sight, alone in
+   her chair under her new umbrella, in her gray suit, with bright
+   gloves and a big whip, driving a gray rat who wouldn't trot
+   unless pounded and banged and howled at in the maddest way. Our
+   steed was bigger, but the most pig-headed old scamp you ever saw,
+   for it took two big women to make him go. I drove, and A.
+   thrashed away with all her might,--our joint efforts only
+   producing occasional short trots which enraged us dreadfully.
+
+   We laughed till we were sick, it was so very absurd; while May
+   trundled serenely along, enjoying the fine views regardless of
+   her rat, who paced along at his ease, wagging his ears and
+   meditating.
+
+   We had a nice trip, but didn't drink the water, as iron don't
+   suit us. Coming home, we passed the home of the donkeys, and they
+   at once turned in, and were with much difficulty persuaded to go
+   on by two short girls in caps and short gowns, who ran and
+   shouted "E! E! va oui!" and punched sticks into the poor asses,
+   rattling us over the stones till our eyes danced in our heads. We
+   found it rather hard work, and A. means to buy a horse and straw
+   pony-chaise, so we can drive ourselves in peace where we like....
+
+   A. is bargaining for a horse which an Englishman wishes to sell
+   for $50, including harness and cart. We can't hire horses for
+   less than $2 a drive, and donkeys are vile, so it is cheaper to
+   buy, and sell when we go away, and so drive as much as we like.
+   A. knows about such things, and takes all the responsibility....
+   To-morrow we go on a little excursion in the steamboat down the
+   river, and return _a la_ donkey with the English ladies, who have
+   returned our call and are very friendly.
+
+   Please forward this little note in an envelope to its address.
+   The child wrote me a pretty letter, which N. sent, and the pa
+   said I wouldn't answer. The child said, "I know she will, she is
+   so nice." So I do. Best love to every one. Don't go home too
+   soon. I shall write to Fred and Jack next time. Good-by.
+
+     LU.
+
+
+_To M. S._
+
+   ... They call each other pet names that convulse us,--"my little
+   pig," "my sweet hen," "my cabbage," and "my tom-cat." A French
+   lady with her son and daughter board here, and their ways amuse
+   us mightily. The girl is to be married next week to a man whom
+   she has seen twice, and never talked to but an hour in her life.
+   She writes to him what her mother dictates, and says she should
+   be ashamed to love him before they were married. Her wedding
+   clothes absorb her entire mind, and her Jules will get a pretty
+   doll when he takes Mademoiselle A. F. to wife. Gaston, the son,
+   puts on _blase_ airs, though only twenty-two, and languishes at
+   May, for they can't talk, as he does not know English nor she
+   French.
+
+     April 27.
+
+   I left my letter to drive to a ruined chateau, which we went all
+   over, as a part is inhabited by a farmer who keeps his hog in the
+   great banqueting hall, his grain in the chapel, and his hens in
+   the lady's chamber. It was very picturesque; the old rooms, with
+   ivy coming in at the windows, choking up the well, and climbing
+   up the broken towers. The lady of the chateau was starved to
+   death by her cruel brothers, and buried in the moat, where her
+   bones were found long afterward, and her ghost still haunts the
+   place they say. Here we had cider, tell Pa.
+
+   Coming home we saw a Dolmen, one of the Druidical remains. It
+   stood in a grove of old pines,--a great post of gray stone, some
+   twenty-five feet high, and very big round. It leaned as if
+   falling, and had queer holes in it. Brittany is full of these
+   relics, which no one can explain, and I was glad to see the
+   mysterious things.
+
+   Yesterday we took a little trip down the river in a tiny steamer,
+   going through a lock and skimming along between the green banks
+   of the narrow river to Miss M.'s country-house, where we had new
+   milk, and lay on the grass for an hour or so. Then May and Miss
+   M. walked home, and A. and I went in a donkey cart.
+
+   To-day the girls have gone to La Garaye with Gaston on donkeys.
+   The weather has been cold for a day or two with easterly winds.
+   So I feel it at once and keep warm. It is very unusual at this
+   time, but comes, I suppose, because I've travelled hundreds of
+   miles to get rid of them. It won't last long, and then we shall
+   be hot enough.
+
+   We lead such quiet, lazy lives I really have nothing to tell.
+
+   Oh, yes, the _fiance_ of Mademoiselle has arrived, and amuses us
+   very much. He is a tiny man in uniform, with a red face, big
+   moustache, and blue eyes. He thinks he talks English, and makes
+   such very funny mistakes. He asked us if we had been to
+   "promenade on monkeys" meaning donkeys, and called the Casino
+   "the establishment of dance." He addresses all his attentions to
+   the ma, and only bows to his future wife, who admires her
+   diamonds and is contented. We are going away on the day of the
+   wedding, as it is private.
+
+   The girls have just returned in great spirits, for A.'s donkey
+   kept lying down, and it took all three to get him up again. They
+   sat in a sort of chair, and looked very funny with the four
+   little legs under them and long ears flopping before. I shall go
+   to Garaye some fine day, and will tell you about it.
+
+   Adieu, love to all.
+
+     Yours,
+     LU.
+
+     _Dinan_, May 6, 1870.
+
+   DEAR PEOPLE,--I have just got a fat letter full of notices from
+   N.,--all good, and news generally pleasant.
+
+   The great event of the season is over, and Miss F. is Mrs. C. It
+   was a funny scene, for they had a breakfast the day before, then
+   on Tuesday the wedding. We did not go, as the church is like a
+   tomb, but we saw the bride, in white satin, pearls, orange
+   flowers, and lace, very pretty, and like other brides. Her ma, in
+   purple moire and black lace, was fine to see; and the little
+   groom, in full regimentals, with a sabre as large as himself, was
+   very funny. A lot of people came in carriages to escort them to
+   church; and our little square was full of queer turnouts, smartly
+   dressed people, and a great bustle. There was some mistake about
+   the bride's carriage, and it did not drive up in time, so she
+   stood on the steps till it came as near as it could, and then she
+   trotted out to it on Gaston's arm, with her maid holding up her
+   satin train. Uncle, ma, bride, and brother drove off, but the
+   groom's carriage was delayed by the breaking of a trace, and
+   there he sat, with his fat pa and ma, after every one had gone,
+   fuming, and poking his little cocked hat out of the window, while
+   the man mended the harness, and every one looked on with
+   breathless interest.
+
+   We went to D---- with Coste in the P.M., and had a fine view of
+   the sea and San Malo. We didn't like D----, and won't go there.
+   When we got home about eight o'clock the wedding dinner was in
+   full blast, and I caught a glimpse of a happy pair at the head of
+   the table, surrounded by a lot of rigged-up ladies and fine men,
+   all gabbing and gabbling as only French folk can. The couple are
+   still here, resting and getting acquainted before they go to
+   Lamballe for a week of festivity. A church wedding is a very
+   funny thing, and I wish you could have seen it.
+
+   The dry season continues, and the people have processions and
+   masses to pray for rain. One short flurry of hail is all we have
+   had, and the cold winds still blow. When our month is out we
+   shall go somewhere near the sea if it is at all warm. Nothing
+   could be kinder than dear old Coste, and I couldn't be in a
+   better place to be poorly in than this; she coddles me like a
+   mother, and is so grieved that I don't get better.
+
+   Send Ma a bit of the gorse flower with which the fields are now
+   yellow.
+
+     Yours,
+     LU.
+
+     DINAN, May 13, 1870.
+
+   DEAREST FOLKS,--We drove to Guildo yesterday to see if we should
+   like it for July. It is a queer little town on the seashore, with
+   ruins near by, bright houses, and lots of boats. Rooms a franc a
+   day, and food very cheap. The man of the house--a big, brown,
+   Peggotty sailor--has a sloop, and promised the girls as much
+   sailing as they liked. We may go, but our plans are very vague,
+   and one day we say we will go to one place and the next to
+   another, and shall probably end by staying where we are.
+
+     Yours,
+     LU.
+
+     DINAN, May 17, 1870.
+
+   DEAREST PEOPLE,--We run out and do errands in the cool before
+   breakfast at ten, then we write, sew, and read, and look round,
+   till four, when we go to drive. May and I in the cherry bounce
+   with M. Harmon to drive us, and A. on horseback; for, after
+   endless fuss, she has at last evoked a horse out of chaos, and
+   comes galloping gayly after us as we drive about the lovely roads
+   with the gallant hotel-keeper, Adolph Harmon. We are getting
+   satiated with ruins and chateaux, and plan a trip by water to
+   Nantes; for the way they do it is to hire a big boat and be towed
+   by a horse in the most luxurious manner.
+
+
+_To Anna._
+
+     DINAN, May 25, 1870.
+
+   DEAR BETSEY,[8]--All well. We have also had fun about the queer
+   food, as we don't like brains, liver, etc. A. does; and when we
+   eat some mess, not knowing what it is, and find it is sheep's
+   tails or eels, she exults over us, and writes poems.
+
+   I wander dreadfully, but the girls are racketing, birdie singing
+   like mad, and nine horses neighing to one another in the place,
+   so my ideas do not flow as clearly as they should. Besides, I
+   expect Gaston to come in every minute to show us his rig; for he
+   is going to a picnic in Breton costume,--a very French affair,
+   for the party are to march two and two, with fiddlers in front,
+   and donkeys bearing the feast in the rear. Such larks!
+
+   Yesterday we had a funny time. We went to drive in a basket
+   chair, very fine, with a perch behind and a smart harness; but
+   most of the horses here are stallions, and act like time. Ours
+   went very well at first, but in the town took to cutting up, and
+   suddenly pounced on to a pile of brush, and stuck his head into a
+   bake-shop. We tried to get him out, but he only danced and
+   neighed, and all the horses in town seemed to reply. A man came
+   and led him on a bit, but he didn't mean to go, and whisked over
+   to the other side, where he tangled us and himself up with a long
+   string of team horses. I flew out and May soon followed. A. was
+   driving, and kept in while the man led the "critter" back to the
+   stable. I declined my drive with the insane beast, and so we left
+   him and bundled home in the most ignominious manner. All the
+   animals are very queer here, and, unlike ours, excessively big.
+
+   We went to a ruin one day, and were about to explore the castle,
+   when a sow, with her family of twelve, charged through the
+   gateway at us so fiercely that we fled in dismay; for pigs are
+   not nice when they attack, as we don't know where to bone 'em,
+   and I saw a woman one day whose nose had been bitten off by an
+   angry pig. I flew over a hedge; May tried to follow. I pulled
+   her over head first, and we tumbled into the tower like a routed
+   garrison. It wasn't a nice ruin, but we were bound to see it,
+   having suffered so much. And we did see it, in spite of the pigs,
+   who waylaid us on all sides, and squealed in triumph when we
+   left,--dirty, torn, and tired. The ugly things wander at their
+   own sweet will, and are tall, round-backed, thin wretches, who
+   run like race horses, and are no respecters of persons.
+
+   Sunday was a great day here, for the children were confirmed. It
+   was a pretty sight to see the long procession of little girls, in
+   white gowns and veils, winding through the flowery garden and the
+   antique square, into the old church, with their happy mothers
+   following, and the boys in their church robes singing as they
+   went. The old priest was too ill to perform the service, but the
+   young one who did announced afterward that if the children would
+   pass the house the old man would bless them from his bed. So all
+   marched away down the street, with crosses and candles, and it
+   was very touching to see the feeble old man stretch out his hands
+   above them as the little white birds passed by with bended heads,
+   while the fresh, boyish voices chanted the responses. This old
+   priest is a very interesting man, for he is a regular saint,
+   helping every one, keeping his house as a refuge for poor and old
+   priests, settling quarrels among the people, and watching over
+   the young people as if they were his own. I shall put him in a
+   story.
+
+   _Voila!_ Gaston has just come in, rigged in a white embroidered
+   jacket, with the Dinan coat-of-arms worked in scarlet and yellow
+   silk on it fore and aft; a funny hat, with streamers, and a belt,
+   with a knife, horn, etc. He is handsome, and as fond of finery as
+   a girl. I'll send you his picture next time, and one of Dinan.
+
+   You will see that Marmee has all she needs, and a girl, and as
+   much money as she wants for being cosey and comfortable. S. E. S.
+   will let her have all she wants, and make her take it. I'm sorry
+   the chapel $100 didn't come, for she likes to feel that she has
+   some of her very own.
+
+   I have written to Conway and Mrs. Taylor, so that if we decide to
+   take a run to England before we go to Italy, the way will be
+   open....
+
+   But Dinan is so healthy and cosey, that we shall linger till the
+   heat makes us long for the sea. Roses, cherries, strawberries,
+   and early vegetables are come, and we are in clover. Dear old
+   Coste broods over us like a motherly hen, and just now desired me
+   to give her affectionate and respectful compliments to my _bonne
+   mere_.
+
+   Now I'm spun out; so adieu, my darling Nan. Write often, and I
+   will keep sending,--trusting that you will get them in time.
+
+   Kisses all round.
+
+     Yours,
+     LU.
+
+     DINAN, May 30, 1870.
+
+   DEAR FOLKS,--May has made up such a big letter that I will only
+   add a line to give you the last news of the health of her
+   Highness Princess Louisa. She is such a public character nowadays
+   that even her bones are not her own, and her wails of woe cannot
+   be kept from the long ears of the world,--old donkey as it is!
+
+   Dr. Kane, who was army surgeon in India, and doctor in England
+   for forty years, says my leg trouble and many of my other woes
+   come from the calomel they gave me in Washington. He has been
+   through the same thing with an Indian jungle fever, and has never
+   got the calomel out of him.... I don't know anything about it,
+   only my leg is the curse of my life. But I think Dr. K.'s iodine
+   of potash will cure it in the end, as it did his arms, after
+   taking it for three months. It is simple, pleasant, and seems to
+   do something to the bones that gives them ease; so I shall sip
+   away and give it a good trial.
+
+   We are now revelling in big strawberries, green peas, early
+   potatoes, and other nice things, on which we shall grow fat as
+   pigs.
+
+   We are beginning to think of a trip into Normandy, where the H.'s
+   are.
+
+   Love to all. By-by!
+
+     Your loving
+     LU.
+
+   No news except through N., who yesterday sent me a nice letter
+   with July account of $6,212,--a neat little sum for "the Alcotts,
+   who can't make money!" With $10,000 well invested, and more
+   coming in all the time, I think we may venture to enjoy
+   ourselves, after the hard times we have all had.
+
+   The cream of the joke is, that we made our own money ourselves,
+   and no one gave us a blessed penny. That does soothe my rumpled
+   soul so much that the glory is not worth thinking of.
+
+
+_To Anna._
+
+     DINAN, June 4, 1870.
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   The present excitement is the wood which Coste is having put in.
+   Loads keep coming in queer, heavy carts drawn by four horses
+   each, and two men to work the machine. Two men chop the great oak
+   stumps, and a woman puts it in down cellar by the armful. The men
+   get two francs a day,--forty cents! (Wouldn't our $3 a day
+   workmen howl at that sort of wages!) When several carts arrive at
+   once the place is a lively scene. Just now there were three carts
+   and twelve horses, and eight were all up in a snarl, while
+   half-a-dozen ladies stood at their doors and gave advice. One
+   had a half-dressed baby in her arms; one a lettuce she was
+   washing; another her distaff; and a fourth her little bowl of
+   soup, which she ate at on the sidewalk, in the intervals
+   gesticulating so frantically that her sabots rattled on the
+   stones. The horses had a free fight, and the man couldn't seem to
+   manage one big one, who romped about like a wild elephant, till
+   the lady with the baby suddenly set the half-naked cherub on the
+   doorsteps, charged in among the rampant beasts, and, by some
+   magic howl or jerk, brought the bad horse to order, when she
+   quietly returned to her baby, who had sat placidly eating dirt,
+   and with a calm _Voila, messieurs_, she skipped little Jean into
+   his shirt, and the men sat down to smoke.
+
+   We are now in great excitement over Gaston, who has lately become
+   so very amiable that we don't know him. We began by letting the
+   spoiled child severely alone. This treatment worked well, and now
+   he offers us things at table, bows when we enter, and to-day
+   presented us with green tulips, violet shrubs, and queer medals
+   all round. We have let little bits of news leak out about us, and
+   they think we are dukes and duchesses in _Amerique_, and
+   pronounce us _tres spirituelles; tres charmantes; tres seductives
+   femmes_. We laugh in private, and are used to having the entire
+   company rise when we enter, and embrace us with ardor, listen
+   with uplifted hands and shrieks of _mon Dieu! grand ciel!_ etc.,
+   to all remarks, and point us out in public as _les dames
+   Americaines_. Such is fame!
+
+   An English lady arrived to-day--a Miss B.--dressed, with English
+   taste, in a little green skirt, pink calico waist, a large
+   crumpled frill, her hair in a tight knot, one front tooth
+   sticking straight out, and a golden oriole in a large cage. She
+   is about forty, very meek and pursy, and the old ladies have been
+   sitting in a heap since breakfast, talking like mad.
+
+   May has "sack" on the brain just now, and A. has "hose" on the
+   brain; and at this moment they are both gabbling wildly, one
+   saying, "I shall trim it with blue and have it pinked!" the other
+   shrieking, "My hose must be red, with little dragons in black all
+   over it, like small-pox!" and the bird flies to her upper perch
+   in dismay at the riot, while I sit and laugh, with an occasional
+   duennaish, "Young ladies, less noise if you please!"
+
+   It rained last eve, and we are waiting for it to dry before going
+   out in the donkey chaise to buy a warm bun and some strawberries
+   for lunch, to be eaten as we parade the town and drink ale at
+   intervals.
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   Do tell me how things are about my pictures. I see they are
+   advertised, and if they sell I want my share of the profits. Send
+   me one of those that are in the market, after taking off the
+   heavy card.
+
+   Love to all, and the best of luck.
+
+     Ever your
+     LU.
+
+     HOTEL D'UNIVERSE, TOURS, June 17, 1870.
+
+   DEAREST PEOPLE,--Our wanderings have begun again, and here we are
+   in this fine old city in a cosey hotel, as independent and happy
+   as three old girls can be. We left Dinan Wednesday at 7 A.M.
+   Gaston got up to see us off,--a most unusual and unexpected
+   honor; also Mrs. B. and all the old ladies, whom we left
+   dissolved in tears.
+
+   We had a lovely sail down the river to St. Malo, where we
+   breakfasted at Hotel Franklin, a quaint old house in a flowery
+   corner. At twelve we went by rail to Le Mans,--a long trip,--and
+   arrived at 6 P.M. so tired that we went to bed in the moonlight
+   while a band played in the square before the hotel, and the
+   sidewalks before the cafe were full of people taking ices and
+   coffee round little tables.
+
+   Next morning we went to see the famous cathedral and had
+   raptures, for it is like a dream in stone. Pure Gothic of the
+   twelfth century, with the tomb of Berengaria, wife of Coeur de
+   Leon, stained glass of the richest kind, dim old chapels with
+   lamps burning, a gorgeous high altar all crimson and gold and
+   carmine, and several organs. Anything more lovely and divine I
+   never saw, for the arches, so light and graceful, seemed to soar
+   up one above the other like the natural curves of trees or the
+   spray of a great fountain. We spent a long time here and I sat
+   above in the quaint old chapel with my eyes and heart full, and
+   prayed a little prayer for my family. Old women and men knelt
+   about in corners telling their beads, and the priest was quietly
+   saying his prayers at the altar. Outside it was a pile of gray
+   stone, with towers and airy pinnacles full of carved saints and
+   busy rooks. I don't think we shall see anything finer anywhere.
+   It was very hot for there had been no rain for four months, so we
+   desired to start for town at 5 and get in about 8 as it is light
+   then.
+
+   We had a pleasant trip in the cool of the day, and found Tours a
+   great city, like Paris on a small scale. Our hotel is on the
+   boulevard, and the trees, fountains, and fine carriages make our
+   windows very tempting. We popped into bed early; and my bones are
+   so much better that I slept without any opium or anything,--a
+   feat I have not performed for some time.
+
+   This morning we had coffee and rolls in bed, then as it was a
+   fine cool day we dressed up clean and nice and went out for a
+   walk. At the post-office we found your letters of May 31, one
+   from Nan and Ma, and one from L. We were exalted, and went into
+   the garden and read them in bliss, with the grand cathedral right
+   before us. Cathedral St. Martin, twelfth century, with tomb of
+   Charles XIII.'s children, the armor of Saint Louis, fine pictures
+   of Saint Martin, his cloak, etc. May will tell you about it and I
+   shall put in a photograph, if I can find one. We are now--12
+   o'clock--in our pleasant room all round the table writing letters
+   and resting for another trip by and by.
+
+   The _Fete Dieu_ is on Monday,--very splendid,--and we shall then
+   see the cathedral in its glory. To-day a few hundred children
+   were having their first communion there, girls all in white, with
+   scarlet boys, crosses, candles, music, priests, etc. Get a
+   Murray, and on the map of France follow us to Geneva, _via_ St.
+   Malo, Le Mans, Tours, Amboise and Blois, Orleans, Nevers, Autun.
+   We may go to the Vosges instead of the Jura if Mrs. H. can go, as
+   A. wants to see her again. But we head for the Alps of some sort
+   and will report progress as we go.
+
+   My money holds out well so far, as we go second class.
+
+
+_To her Father._
+
+     TOURS, June 20, 1870.
+
+   DEAR PAPA,--Before we go on to fresh "chateaux and churches new,"
+   I must tell you about the sights here in this pleasant, clean,
+   handsome old city. May has done the church for you, and I send a
+   photograph to give some idea of it. The inside is very beautiful;
+   and we go at sunset to see the red light make the gray walls
+   lovely outside and the shadows steal from chapel to chapel
+   inside, filling the great church with what is really "a dim
+   religious gloom." We wandered about it the other evening till
+   moonrise, and it was very interesting to see the people scattered
+   here and there at their prayers; some kneeling before Saint
+   Martin's shrine, some in a flowery little nook dedicated to the
+   infant Christ, and one, a dark corner with a single candle
+   lighting up a fine picture of the Mater Dolorosa, where a widow
+   all in her weeds sat alone, crying and praying. In another a sick
+   old man sat, while his old wife knelt by him praying with all her
+   might to Saint Gratien (the patron saint of the church) for her
+   dear old invalid. Nuns and priests glided about, and it was all
+   very poetical and fine, till I came to an imposing priest in a
+   first class chapel who was taking snuff and gaping, instead of
+   piously praying.
+
+   The _Fete Dieu_ was yesterday, and I went out to see the
+   procession. The streets were hung with old tapestry, and sheets
+   covered with flowers. Crosses, crowns, and bouquets were
+   suspended from house to house, and as the procession approached,
+   women ran out and scattered green boughs and rose-leaves before
+   the train. A fine band and a lot of red soldiers came first, then
+   the different saints on banners, carried by girls, and followed
+   by long trains of girls bearing the different emblems. Saint
+   Agnes and her lamb was followed by a flock of pretty young
+   children all in white, carrying tall white lilies that filled the
+   air with their fragrance.
+
+   "Mary our Mother" was followed by orphans with black ribbons
+   crossed on their breasts. Saint Martin led the charity boys in
+   their gray suits, etc. The Host under a golden canopy was borne
+   by priests in gorgeous rig, and every one knelt as it passed with
+   censors swinging, candles burning, boys chanting, and flowers
+   dropping from the windows. A pretty young lady ran out and set
+   her baby in a pile of green leaves in the middle of the street
+   before the Host, and it passed over the little thing who sat
+   placidly staring at the show and admiring its blue shoes. I
+   suppose it is a saved and sacred baby henceforth.
+
+   It was a fine pageant and quite touching, some of it; but as
+   usual, I saw something funny to spoil the solemnity. A very fat
+   and fine priest, who walked with his eyes upon his book and sung
+   like a pious bumblebee, suddenly destroyed the effect by rapping
+   a boy over the head with his gold prayer-book, as the black sheep
+   strayed a little from the flock. I thought the old saint swore
+   also.
+
+   The procession went from the cathedral to Charlemagne's Tower, an
+   old, old relic, all that is left of the famous church which once
+   covered a great square. We went to see it, and the stones looked
+   as if they were able to tell wonderful tales of the scenes they
+   had witnessed all these hundreds of years. I think the
+   "Reminiscences of a Rook" would be a good story, for these old
+   towers are full of them, and they are long-lived birds.
+
+     AMBOISE, THE GOLDEN LION,
+     Tuesday, June 21, 1870.
+
+   Here we go again! now in an utterly different scene from Tours.
+   We left at 5 P.M., and in half an hour were here on the banks of
+   the Loire in a queer little inn where we are considered duchesses
+   at least, owing to our big trunks and A.'s good French. I am the
+   Madame, May Mam'selle, and A. the companion.
+
+   Last evening being lovely, we went after dinner up to the castle
+   where Charles VIII. was born in 1470. The Arab chief,
+   Abd-el-Kader, and family were kept prisoners here, and in the old
+   garden is a tomb with the crescent over it where some of them
+   were buried. May was told about the terrace where the Huguenots
+   hung thick and the court enjoyed the sight till the Loire,
+   choked up with dead bodies, forced them to leave. We saw the
+   little low door where Anne of Brittany's first husband Charles
+   VIII. "bumped his head" and killed himself, as he was running
+   through to play bowls with his wife.
+
+   It has been modernized and is now being restored as in old times,
+   so the interior was all in a toss. But we went down the winding
+   road inside the tower, up which the knights and ladies used to
+   ride. Father would have enjoyed the _pleached_ walks, for they
+   are cut so that looking down on them, it is like a green floor,
+   and looking up it is a thick green wall. There also Margaret of
+   Anjou and her son were reconciled to Warwick. Read Murray, I beg,
+   and see all about it. We sat in the twilight on the terrace and
+   saw what Fred would have liked, a little naked boy ride into the
+   river on one horse after another, and swim them round in the deep
+   water till they were all clean and cool.
+
+   This morning at 7 o'clock we drove to Chenonceaux, the chateau
+   given by Henry II. to Diane de Poictiers. It was a lovely day,
+   and we went rolling along through the most fruitful country I
+   ever saw. Acre on acre of yellow grain, vineyards miles long,
+   gardens and orchards full of roses and cherries. The Cher is a
+   fine river winding through the meadows, where haymakers were at
+   work and fat cattle feeding. It was a very happy hour, and the
+   best thing I saw was May's rapturous face opposite, as she sat
+   silently enjoying everything, too happy to talk.
+
+   The chateau built over the water is very interesting; Catherine
+   de Medicis took it away from Diane when the king died, and her
+   room is still seen as she left it; also a picture of Diane, a
+   tall simpering woman in a tunic, with hounds, stag, cupids, and
+   other rubbish round her. The gallery of pictures was fine; for
+   here were old, old portraits and bas-reliefs, Agnes Sorel,
+   Montaigne, Rabelais, many kings and queens, and among them
+   Lafayette and dear old Ben Franklin.
+
+   There is a little theatre where Rousseau's plays were acted. This
+   place at the time of the Revolution belonged to the grandmother
+   of George Sand, and she was so much respected that no harm was
+   done to it. So three cheers for Madame Dupin! Among the pictures
+   were Ninon D'Enclos, and Madame Sevigne holding a picture of her
+   beloved daughter. The Guidos, etc. I don't care for so much as
+   they were all grimy and convulsive, and I prefer pictures of
+   people who really lived, to these impossible Venuses and
+   repulsive saints,--bad taste, but I can't help it. The walls were
+   hung with stamped leather and tapestry, carved chairs in which
+   queens had sat, tables at which kings had eaten, books they had
+   read, and glasses that had reflected their faces were all about,
+   and I just revelled. The old kitchen had a fireplace quaint
+   enough to suit Pa, with immense turn-spits, cranes, andirons,
+   etc. The chapel, balcony, avenue, draw-bridge, and all the other
+   pleasing bits were enjoyed, and I stole a sprig of jasmine from
+   the terrace which I shall press for Mamma. Pray take extra care
+   of the photographs, for if lost, we cannot replace them, and I
+   want to make a fine album of pictures with flowers and
+   descriptions after I get home.... But all goes well and we enjoy
+   much every day. Love to all,
+
+     LU.
+
+
+_To her Mother._
+
+     BLOIS, June 24, 1870.
+
+   DEAR MARMEE,--On this, Lizzie's and Johnny's birthday, I'll begin
+   a letter to you. We found at the Poste Restante here two "Moods"
+   and a paper for me, one book from L., and one from N. I think
+   the pictures horrid, and sent them floating down the Loire as
+   soon as possible, and put one book at the bottom of my trunk and
+   left the other where no one will find it. I couldn't read the
+   story, and try to forget that I ever wrote it.
+
+   Blois is a noisy, dusty, soldierly city with nothing to admire
+   but the river, nearly dry now with this four months' drought, and
+   the old castle where Francis I., Louis XII., Catherine de
+   Medicis, and other great folks lived. It has been very splendidly
+   restored by the Government, and the ceilings are made with beams
+   blazoned with coats-of-arms, the walls hung with cameos, painted
+   with the same design as the stamped leather in old times, and the
+   floors inlaid with colored tiles. Brown and gold, scarlet, blue,
+   and silver, quaint dragons and flowers, porcupines and
+   salamanders, crowns and letters, glittered everywhere. We saw the
+   guard-room and the very chimney where the Duc de Guise was
+   leaning when the king Henry III. sent for him; the little door
+   where the king's gentlemen fell upon and stabbed him with forty
+   wounds; the cabinet where the king and his mother plotted the
+   deed; the chapel where the monks prayed for success; and the
+   great hall where the body lay covered with a cloak till the king
+   came and looked at it and kicked his dead enemy, saying, "I did
+   not think he was so tall." We also saw the cell where the brother
+   of the duke was murdered the next day, and the attic entire where
+   their bodies were burnt, after which the ashes were thrown into
+   the Loire by order of the king; the window out of which Marie de
+   Medicis lowered herself when her son Louis XIII. imprisoned her
+   there; the recess where Catherine de Medicis died; and many other
+   interesting places. What a set of rascals these old kings and
+   queens were!
+
+   The _Salle des Etats_ was very gorgeous, and here in a week or so
+   are to be tried the men who lately fired at the Emperor. It will
+   be a grand, a fine sight when the great arched hall is full. I
+   got a picture of the castle, and one of a fireplace for Pa. It is
+   a mass of gold and color, with the porcupine of Louis XIII. and
+   the ermine of his wife Anne of Brittany, their arms, in medallion
+   over it.
+
+   At 5 P.M. we go on to Orleans for a day, where I shall get some
+   relics of Joan of Arc for Nan. We shall pass Sunday at Bourges
+   where the great church is, and then either to Geneva or the Jura,
+   for a few weeks of rest.
+
+     GENEVA, June 29, 1870.
+
+   It seems almost like getting home again to be here where I never
+   thought to come again when I went away five years ago. We are at
+   the Metropole Hotel right on the lake with a glimpse of Mount
+   Blanc from our windows. It is rather fine after the grimy little
+   inns of Brittany, and we enjoy a sip of luxury and put on our
+   best gowns with feminine satisfaction after living in old
+   travelling suits for a fortnight.
+
+   I began my letter at Blois, where we spent a day or two. At
+   Orleans we only passed a night, but we had time to see the famous
+   statue of the Maid, put up in gratitude by the people of the city
+   she saved. It is a fine statue of Joan in her armor on horseback,
+   with her sword drawn. Round the base of the statue are bronzed
+   bas-reliefs of her life from the girl with her sheep, to the
+   martyr at the stake. They were very fine, but don't show much in
+   the photograph which I got for Nan, remembering the time when she
+   translated Schiller's play for me.
+
+   At Bourges we saw the great cathedral, but didn't like it as well
+   as that in Tours. We only spent a night there, and A. bought an
+   antique ring of the time of Francis I.,--an emerald set in
+   diamonds. It cost $9, and is very quaint and handsome.
+
+   Moulins we reached Sunday noon, and at 3 o'clock went to vespers
+   in the old church, where we saw a good deal of mumbo-jumbo by
+   red, purple, and yellow priests, and heard a boy with a lovely
+   voice sing in the hidden choir like a little angel among the
+   clouds. A. had a fancy to stay a week, if we could find rooms out
+   of town in some farm-house; for the handsome white cattle have
+   captivated her, and we were rather tired. So the old lady at the
+   hotel said she had a little farm-house out in the fields, and we
+   should go see it with her in basket _chay_. After dinner we all
+   piled in and went along a dusty road to a little dirty
+   garden-house with two rooms and a few cabbages and rose-bushes
+   round it. She said we could sleep and eat at the hotel and come
+   down here for the day. That didn't suit at all, so we declined;
+   and on Monday morning we set out for Lyons. It was a very
+   interesting trip under, over, and through the mountains with two
+   engines and much tunnelling and up-and-down grading. May was
+   greatly excited at the queer things we did, and never knew that
+   cars could turn such sharp corners. We wound about so that we
+   could see the engine whisking out of sight round one corner while
+   we were turning another, and the long train looked like a snake
+   winding through the hills. The tunnels were so long that lamps
+   were lighted, and so cold we put on our sacks while passing in
+   the darkness. The scenery was very fine; and after we left Lyons,
+   where we merely slept, the Alps began to appear, and May and I
+   stared in blissful silence; for we had two tall old men opposite,
+   and a little priest, so young that we called him the Rev. boy. He
+   slept and said his prayers most of the time, stealing sly looks
+   at May's hair, A.'s pretty hands, and my buckled shoes, which
+   were like his own and seemed to strike him as a liberty on my
+   part. The old boys were very jolly, especially the one with three
+   chins, who smiled paternally upon us and tried to talk. But we
+   were very English and mum, and he thought we didn't understand
+   French, and confided to his friend that he didn't see "how the
+   English could travel and know not the French tongue." They sang,
+   gabbled, slept, and slapped one another at intervals, and were
+   very amusing till they left, and another very handsome Booth-like
+   priest took their places.
+
+
+_To her Father._
+
+     BEX, July 14, 1870.
+
+   DEAR PA,--As I have not written to you yet, I will send you a
+   picture-letter and tell you about the very interesting old Count
+   Sz-- who is here. This morning he asked us to go to the hills and
+   see some curious trees which he says were planted from acorns and
+   nuts brought from Mexico by Atala. We found some very ancient
+   oaks and chestnuts, and the enthusiastic old man told us the
+   story about the Druids who once had a church, amphitheatre, and
+   sacrificial altar up there. No one knows much about it, and he
+   imagines a good deal to suit his own pet theory. You would have
+   liked to hear him hold forth about the races and Zoroaster,
+   Plato, etc. He is a Hungarian of a very old family, descended
+   from Semiramide and Zenobia. He believes that the body can be
+   cured often by influencing the soul, and that doctors should be
+   priests, and priests doctors, as the two affect the body and soul
+   which depend on one another. He is doing a great deal for Miss
+   W., who has tried many doctors and got no help. I never saw such
+   a kindly, simple, enthusiastic, old soul, for at sixty-seven he
+   is as full of hope and faith and good-will as a young man. I told
+   him I should like my father to see a little book he has written,
+   and he is going to give me one.
+
+   We like this quiet little place among the mountains, and pass
+   lazy days; for it is very warm, and we sit about on our balconies
+   enjoying the soft air, the moonlight, and the changing aspect of
+   the hills.
+
+   May had a fine exciting time going up St. Bernard, and is now
+   ready for another....
+
+   The Polish Countess and her daughter have been reading my books
+   and are charmed with them. Madame says she is not obliged to turn
+   down any pages so that the girls may not read them, as she does
+   in many books, "All is so true, so sweet, so pious, she may read
+   every word."
+
+   I send by this mail the count's little pamphlet. I don't know as
+   it amounts to much, but I thought you might like to see it.
+
+   Love to every one, and write often to your
+
+     Affectionate daughter
+     L. M. A.
+
+     BEX, July 18, 1870.
+
+   DEAR PEOPLE,--The breaking out of this silly little war between
+   France and Prussia will play the deuce with our letters. I have
+   had none from you for a long time; and Alexandre, the English
+   waiter here, says that the mails will be left to come as they
+   can, for the railroads are all devoted to carrying troops to the
+   seat of war. The French have already crossed the Rhine, and
+   rumors of a battle came last eve; but the papers have not
+   arrived, and no letters for any one, so all are fuming for news,
+   public and private, and I am howling for my home letter, which is
+   more important than all the papers on the continent....
+
+   Don't be worried if you don't hear regularly, or think us in
+   danger. Switzerland is out of the mess, and if she gets in, we
+   can skip over into Italy, and be as cosey as possible. It will
+   make some difference in money, perhaps, as Munroe in Paris is our
+   banker, and we shall be plagued about our letters, otherwise the
+   war won't effect us a bit; I dare say you know as much about it
+   as we do, and Marmee is predicting "a civil war" all over the
+   world. We hear accounts of the frightful heat with you. Don't
+   wilt away before we come....
+
+   Lady Amberley is a trump, and I am glad she says a word for her
+   poor sex though she _is_ a peeress....
+
+   I should like to have said of me what Hedge says of Dickens; and
+   when I die, I should prefer such a memory rather than a tomb in
+   Westminster Abbey.
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   I hope to have a good letter from Nan soon. May does the
+   descriptions so well that I don't try it, being lazy.
+
+     LU.
+
+
+_To Anna._
+
+     SUNDAY, July 24, 1870.
+
+   ... The war along the Rhine is sending troops of travellers to
+   Switzerland for refuge; and all the large towns are brimful of
+   people flying from Germany. It won't trouble us, for we have done
+   France and don't mean to do Germany. So when August is over, we
+   shall trot forward to Italy, and find a warm place for our
+   winter-quarters. At any time twenty-four hours carries us over
+   the Simplon, so we sit at ease and don't care a straw for old
+   France and Prussia. Russia, it is reported, has joined in the
+   fight, but Italy and England are not going to meddle, so we can
+   fly to either "in case of fire."[9]
+
+     BEX, July 27, 1870.
+
+   We heard of Dickens's death some weeks ago and have been reading
+   notices, etc., in all the papers since. One by G. Greenwood in
+   the Tribune was very nice. I shall miss my old Charlie, but he is
+   not the old idol he once was....
+
+   Did you know that Higginson and a little girl friend had written
+   out the Operatic Tragedy in "Little Women" and set the songs to
+   music and it was all to be put in "Our Young Folks." What are we
+   coming to in our old age? Also I hope to see the next designs N.
+   has got for "Little Women." I know nothing about them.
+
+
+_To her Mother._
+
+     3 P.M., BEX, July 31, 1870.
+
+   Papers are suppressed by the Government so we know nothing about
+   the war, except the rumors that float about. But people seem to
+   think that Europe is in for a general fight, and there is no
+   guessing when it will end.
+
+   The trouble about getting into Italy is, that civil war always
+   breaks out there and things are so mixed up that strangers get
+   into scrapes among the different squabblers. When the P.'s were
+   abroad during the last Italian fuss, they got shut up in some
+   little city and would have been killed by Austrians, who were
+   rampaging round the place drunk and mad, if a woman had not hid
+   them in a closet for a day and night, and smuggled them out at
+   last, when they ran for their lives. I don't mean to get into any
+   mess, and between Switzerland and England we can manage for a
+   winter. London is so near home and so home-like that we shall be
+   quite handy and can run up to Boston at any time. Perhaps Pa will
+   step across to see us.
+
+   All these plans may be knocked in the head to-morrow and my next
+   letter may be dated from the Pope's best parlor or Windsor
+   Castle; but I like to spin about on ups and downs so you can have
+   something to talk about at Apple Slump. Uncertainty gives a
+   relish to things, so we chase about and have a dozen plans a day.
+   It is an Alcott failing you know....
+
+   Love to all and bless you,
+
+     Ever yours
+     LU.
+
+     BEX, Aug. 7, 1870.
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--I keep receiving requests from editors to write
+   for their papers and magazines. I am truly grateful, but having
+   come abroad for rest I am not inclined to try the treadmill till
+   my year's vacation is over. So to appease these worthy gentlemen
+   and excuse my seeming idleness I send you a trifle in rhyme,[10]
+   which you can (if you think it worth the trouble) set going as a
+   general answer to everybody; for I can't pay postage in replies
+   to each separately,--"it's very costly." Mr. F. said he would pay
+   me $10, $15, $20 for any little things I would send him; so
+   perhaps you will let him have it first.
+
+   The war makes the bankers take double toll on our money, so we
+   feel very poor and as if we ought to be earning, not spending;
+   only we are _so_ lazy we can't bear to think of it in earnest....
+
+   We shall probably go to London next month if the war forbids
+   Italy for the winter; and if we can't get one dollar without
+   paying five for it, we shall come home disgusted.
+
+   Perhaps if I can do nothing else this year I could have a book of
+   short stories, old and new, for Christmas. F. and F. have some
+   good ones, and I have the right to use them. We could call them
+   "Jo March's Necessity Stories." Would it go with new ones added
+   and good illustrations?
+
+   I am rising from my ashes in a most phoenix-like manner.
+
+     L. M.A.
+
+
+_To her Mother._
+
+     VEVAY, PENSION PARADIS, Aug. 11, 1870.
+
+   DEAR MARMEE,--.... This house is very cosey, and the food
+   excellent. I thought it would be when I heard gentlemen liked
+   it,--they always want good fodder. There are only three now,--an
+   old Spaniard and his son, and a young Frenchman. We see them at
+   meals, and the girls play croquet with them....
+
+   This is the gay season here, and in spite of the war Vevay is
+   full. The ex-Queen of Spain and her family are here at the Grand
+   Hotel; also Don Carlos, the rightful heir to the Spanish throne.
+   Our landlady says that her house used to be full of Spaniards,
+   who every day went in crowds to call on the two kings, Alphonse
+   and Carlos. We see brown men and women with black eyes driving
+   round in fine coaches, with servants in livery, who I suppose are
+   the Court people.
+
+   The papers tell us that the French have lost two big battles; the
+   Prussians are in Strasbourg, and Paris in a state of siege. The
+   papers are also full of theatrical messages from the French to
+   the people, asking them to come up and be slaughtered for _la
+   patrie_, and sober, cool reports from the Prussians. I side with
+   the Prussians, for they sympathized with us in our war. Hooray
+   for old Pruss!...
+
+   France is having a bad time. Princess Clotilde passed through
+   Geneva the other day with loads of baggage, flying to Italy; and
+   last week a closed car with the imperial arms on it went by here
+   in the night,--supposed to be Matilde and other royal folks
+   flying away from Paris. The Prince Imperial has been sent home
+   from the seat of war; and poor Eugenie is doing her best to keep
+   things quiet in Paris. The French here say that a republic is
+   already talked of; and the Emperor is on his last legs in every
+   way. He is sick, and his doctor won't let him ride, and so
+   nervous he can't command the army as he wanted to. Poor old man!
+   one can't help pitying him when all his plans fail.
+
+   We still dawdle along, getting fat and hearty. The food is
+   excellent. A breakfast of coffee and tip-top bread, fresh butter,
+   with eggs or fried potatoes, at 8; a real French dinner at 1.30,
+   of soup, fish, meat, game, salad, sweet messes, and fruit, with
+   wine; and at 7 cold meat, salad, sauce, tea, and bread and
+   butter. It is grape time now, and for a few cents we get pounds,
+   on which we feast all day at intervals. We walk and play as well
+   as any one, and feel so well I ought to do something....
+
+   Fred and Jack would like to look out of my window now and see the
+   little boys playing in the lake. They are there all day long like
+   little pigs, and lie around on the warm stones to dry, splashing
+   one another for exercise. One boy, having washed himself, is now
+   washing his clothes, and all lying out to dry together....
+
+     Ever yours,
+     LU.
+
+
+_To Anna._
+
+     VEVAY, Aug. 21, 1870.
+
+   I had such a droll dream last night I must tell you. I thought I
+   was returning to Concord after my trip, and was alone. As I
+   walked from the station I missed Mr. Moore's house, and turning
+   the corner, found the scene so changed that I did not know where
+   I was. Our house was gone, and in its place stood a great gray
+   stone castle, with towers and arches and lawns and bridges, very
+   fine and antique. Somehow I got into it without meeting any one
+   of you, and wandered about trying to find my family. At last I
+   came across Mr. Moore, papering a room, and asked him where his
+   house was. He didn't know me, and said,--
+
+   "Oh! I sold it to Mr. Alcott for his school, and we live in Acton
+   now."
+
+   "Where did Mr. Alcott get the means to build this great concern?"
+   I asked.
+
+   "Well, he _gave_ his own land, and took the great pasture his
+   daughter left him,--the one that died some ten years ago."
+
+   "So I am dead, am I?" says I to myself, feeling so queerly.
+
+   "Government helped build this place, and Mr. A. has a fine
+   college here," said Mr. Moore, papering away again.
+
+   I went on, wondering at the news, and looked into a glass to see
+   how I looked dead. I found myself a fat old lady, with gray hair
+   and specs,--very like E. P. P. I laughed, and coming to a Gothic
+   window, looked out and saw hundreds of young men and boys in a
+   queer flowing dress, roaming about the parks and lawns; and among
+   them was Pa, looking as he looked thirty years ago, with brown
+   hair and a big white neckcloth, as in the old times. He looked so
+   plump and placid and young and happy I was charmed to see him,
+   and nodded; but he didn't know me; and I was so grieved and
+   troubled at being a Rip Van Winkle, I cried, and said I had
+   better go away and not disturb any one,--and in the midst of my
+   woe, I woke up. It was all so clear and funny, I can't help
+   thinking that it may be a foreshadowing of something real. I used
+   to dream of being famous, and it has partly become true; so why
+   not Pa's college blossom, and he get young and happy with his
+   disciples? I only hope he won't quite forget me when I come back,
+   fat and gray and old. Perhaps his dream is to come in another
+   world, where everything is fresh and calm, and the reason why he
+   didn't recognize me was because I was still in this work-a-day
+   world, and so felt old and strange in this lovely castle in the
+   air. Well, he is welcome to my fortune; but the daughter who did
+   die ten years ago is more likely to be the one who helped him
+   build his School of Concord up aloft.
+
+   I can see how the dream came; for I had been looking at Silling's
+   boys in their fine garden, and wishing I could go in and know the
+   dear little lads walking about there, in the forenoon. I had got
+   a topknot at the barber's, and talked about my gray hairs, and
+   looking in the glass thought how fat and old I was getting, and
+   had shown the B.'s Pa's picture, which they thought saintly, etc.
+   I believe in dreams, though I am free to confess that
+   "cowcumbers" for tea may have been the basis of this
+   "ally-gorry-cal wision."...
+
+   As we know the Consul at Spezzia,--that is, we have letters to
+   him, as well as to many folks in Rome, etc.,--I guess we shall
+   go; for the danger of Europe getting into the fight is over now,
+   and we can sail to England or home any time from Italy.... Love
+   to every one.
+
+   Kiss my _cousin_ for me.
+
+     Ever your
+     LU.
+
+
+_To Mr. Niles._
+
+     AUGUST 23, 1870.
+
+   Your note of August 2 has just come, with a fine budget of
+   magazines and a paper, for all of which many thanks.
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   Don't give my address to any one. I don't want the young ladies'
+   notes. They can send them to Concord, and I shall get them next
+   year.
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   The boys at Silling's school are a perpetual source of delight to
+   me; and I stand at the gate, like the Peri, longing to go in and
+   play with the lads. The young ladies who want to find live
+   Lauries can be supplied here, for Silling has a large assortment
+   always on hand.
+
+   My B. says she is constantly trying to incite me to literary
+   effort, but I hang fire. So I do,--but only that I may go off
+   with a bang by and by, _a la mitrailleuse_.
+
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+_To her Family._
+
+     VEVAY, Aug. 29, 1870.
+
+   DEAR PEOPLE,--... M. Nicaud, the owner of this house,--a funny
+   old man, with a face so like a parrot that we call him M.
+   Perrot,--asked us to come and visit him at his _chalet_ up among
+   the hills. He is building a barn there, and stays to see that all
+   goes well; so we only see him on Sundays, when he convulses us by
+   his funny ways. Last week seven of us went up in a big landau,
+   and the old dear entertained us like a prince. We left the
+   carriage at the foot of a little steep path, and climbed up to
+   the dearest old _chalet_ we ever saw. Here Pa Nicaud met us, took
+   us up the outside steps into his queer little salon, and regaled
+   us with his sixty-year old wine and nice little cakes. We then
+   set forth, in spite of clouds and wind, to view the farm and
+   wood. It showered at intervals, but no one seemed to care; so we
+   trotted about under umbrellas, getting mushrooms, flowers, and
+   colds, viewing the Tarpeian Rock, and sitting on rustic seats to
+   enjoy the _belle vue_, which consisted of fog. It was such a
+   droll lark that we laughed and ran, and enjoyed the damp picnic
+   very much. Then we had a tip-top Swiss dinner, followed by
+   coffee, three sorts of wine, and cigars. Every one smoked, and as
+   it poured guns, the old Perrot had a blazing fire made, round
+   which we sat, talking many languages, singing, and revelling. We
+   had hardly got through dinner and seen another foggy view when
+   tea was announced, and we stuffed again, having pitchers of
+   cream, fruit, and a queer but very nice dish of slices of light
+   bread dipped in egg and fried, and eaten with sugar. The buxom
+   Swiss maid flew and grinned, and kept serving up some new mess
+   from her tiny dark kitchen. It cleared off, and we walked home in
+   spite of our immense exploits in the eating line. Old Perrot
+   escorted us part way down, and we gave three cheers for him as we
+   parted. Then we showed Madame and the French governess and Don
+   Juan (the Spanish boy) some tall walking, though the roads were
+   very steep and rough and muddy. We tramped some five miles; and
+   our party (May, A., the governess, and I) got home long before
+   Madame and Don Juan, who took a short cut, and wouldn't believe
+   that we didn't get a lift somehow. I felt quite proud of my old
+   pins; for they were not tired, and none the worse for the long
+   walk. I think they are really all right now, for the late cold
+   weather has not troubled them in the least; and I sleep--O ye
+   gods, how I do sleep!--ten or twelve hours sound, and get up so
+   drunk with dizziness it is lovely to see. Aint I grateful? Oh,
+   yes! oh, yes!
+
+   We began French lessons to-day, May and I, of the French
+   governess,--a kind old girl who only asks two francs a lesson. We
+   _must_ speak the language, for it is disgraceful to be so stupid;
+   so we have got to work, and mean to be able to _parlez-vous_ or
+   die. The war is still a nuisance, and we may be here some time,
+   and really need some work; for we are so lazy we shall be spoilt,
+   if we don't fall to....
+
+   I gave Count C. Pa's message, and he was pleased. He reads no
+   English, and is going to Hungary soon; so Pa had better not send
+   the book....
+
+     LU.
+
+     VEVAY, Sept. 10, 1870.
+
+   DEAR PEOPLE,--As all Europe seems to be going to destruction, I
+   hasten to drop a line before the grand smash arrives. We mean to
+   skip over the Alps next week, if weather and war permit; for we
+   are bound to see Milan and the lakes, even if we have to turn and
+   come back without a glimpse of Rome. The Pope is beginning to
+   perk up; and Italy and England and Russia seem ready to join in
+   the war, now that France is down. Think of Paris being bombarded
+   and smashed up like Strasbourg. We never shall see the grand old
+   cathedral at Strasbourg now, it is so spoilt.
+
+   Vevay is crammed with refugees from Paris and Strasbourg. Ten
+   families applied here yesterday....
+
+   Our house is brimful, and we have funny times. The sick Russian
+   lady and her old Ma make a great fuss if a breath of air comes in
+   at meal times, and expect twenty people to sit shut tight in a
+   smallish room for an hour on a hot day. We protested, and Madame
+   put them in the parlor, where they glower as we pass, and lock
+   the door when they can. The German Professor is learning English,
+   and is a quiet, pleasant man. The Polish General, a little
+   cracked, is very droll, and bursts out in the middle of the
+   general chat with stories about transparent apples and golden
+   horses.... Benda, the crack book-and-picture man, has asked May
+   if she was the Miss Alcott who wrote the popular books; for he
+   said he had many calls for them, and wished to know where they
+   could be found. We told him "at London," and felt puffed up....
+
+   May and I delve away at French; but it makes my head ache, and I
+   don't learn enough to pay for the trouble. I never could _study_,
+   you know, and suffer such agony when I try that it is piteous to
+   behold. The little brains I have left I want to keep for future
+   works, and not exhaust them on grammar,--vile invention of Satan!
+   May gets on slowly, and don't have fits after it; so she had
+   better go on (the lessons only cost two francs)....
+
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+_To her Mother._
+
+     LAGO DI COMO, Oct. 8, 1870.
+
+   DEAREST MARMEE,--A happy birthday, and many of 'em! Here we
+   actually are in the long-desired Italy, and find it as lovely as
+   we hoped. Our journey was a perfect success,--sunlight,
+   moonlight, magnificent scenery, pleasant company, no mishaps, and
+   one long series of beautiful pictures all the way.
+
+   Crossing the Simplon is an experience worth having; for without
+   any real danger, fatigue, or hardship, one sees some of the
+   finest as well as most awful parts of these wonderful Alps.
+
+   The road,--a miracle in itself! for all Nature seems to protest
+   against it, and the elements never tire of trying to destroy it.
+   Only a Napoleon would have dreamed of making a path through such
+   a place; and he only cared for it as a way to get his men and
+   cannon into an enemy's country by this truly royal road.
+
+   May has told you about our trip; so I will only add a few bits
+   that she forgot.
+
+   Our start in the dawn from Brieg, with two diligences, a
+   carriage, and a cart, was something between a funeral and a
+   caravan: first an immense diligence with seven horses, then a
+   smaller one with four, then our _caleche_ with two, and finally
+   the carrier's cart with one. It was very exciting,--the general
+   gathering of sleepy travellers in the dark square, the tramping
+   of horses, the packing in, the grand stir of getting off; then
+   the slow winding up, up, up out of the valley toward the sun,
+   which came slowly over the great hills, rising as we never saw it
+   rise before. The still, damp pine-forests kept us in shadow a
+   long time after the white mountain-tops began to shine. Little by
+   little we wound through a great gorge, and then the sun came
+   dazzling between these grand hills, showing us a new world. Peak
+   after peak of the Bernese Oberland rose behind us, and great
+   white glaciers lay before us; while the road crept like a narrow
+   line, in and out over chasms that made us dizzy to look at, under
+   tunnels, and through stone galleries with windows over which
+   dashed waterfalls from the glaciers above. Here and there were
+   refuges, a hospice, and a few _chalets_, where shepherds live
+   their wild, lonely lives. In the P.M. we drove rapidly down
+   toward Italy through the great Valley of Gondo,--a deep rift in
+   rock thousands of feet deep, and just wide enough for the road
+   and a wild stream that was our guide; a never-to-be-forgotten
+   place, and a fit gateway to Italy, which soon lay smiling below
+   us. The change is very striking; and when we came to Lago
+   Maggiore lying in the moonlight we could only sigh for happiness,
+   and love and look and look. After a good night's rest at Stresa,
+   we went in a charming gondola-sort of boat to see Isola
+   Bella,--the island you see in the chromo over the fireplace at
+   home,--a lovely island, with famous castle, garden, and town on
+   it. The day was as balmy as summer, and we felt like butterflies
+   after a frost, and fluttered about, enjoying the sunshine all
+   day.
+
+   A sail by steamer brought us to Luino, where we went on the
+   diligence to Lugano. Moonlight all the way, and a gay driver, who
+   wound his horn as we clattered into market-places and over
+   bridges in the most gallant style. The girls were on top, and in
+   a state of rapture all the way. After supper in a vaulted,
+   frescoed hall, with marble floors, pillars, and galleries, we
+   went to a room which had green doors, red carpet, blue walls, and
+   yellow bed-covers,--all so gay! It was like sleeping in a
+   rainbow.
+
+   As if a heavenly lake under our windows with moonlight _ad
+   libitum_ wasn't enough, we had music next door; and on leaning
+   out of a little back window, we made the splendid discovery that
+   we could look on to the stage of the opera-house across a little
+   alley. My Nan can imagine with what rapture I stared at the
+   scenes going on below me, and how I longed for her as I stood
+   there wrapped in my yellow bed-quilt, and saw gallant knights in
+   armor warble sweetly to plump ladies in masks, or pretty peasants
+   fly wildly from ardent lovers in red tights; also a dishevelled
+   maid who tore her hair in a forest, while a man aloft made
+   thunder and lightning,--and _I saw him do it_!
+
+   It was the climax to a splendid day; for few travellers can go to
+   the opera luxuriously in their night-gowns, and take naps between
+   the acts as I did.
+
+   A lovely sail next morning down the lake; then a carriage to
+   Menaggio; and then a droll boat, like a big covered market-wagon
+   with a table and red-cushioned seats, took us and our trunks to
+   Cadenabbia, for there is only a donkey road to the little town.
+   At the hotel on the edge of the lake we found Nelly L., a sweet
+   girl as lovely as Minnie, and so glad to see us; for since her
+   mother died in Venice last year she has lived alone with her
+   maid. She had waited for us, and next day went to Milan, where
+   we join her on Monday. She paints; and May and she made plans at
+   once to study together, and enjoy some of the free art-schools at
+   Milan and Naples or Florence, if we can all be together. It is a
+   great chance for May, and I mean she shall have a good time, and
+   not wait for tools and teachers; for all is in the way of her
+   profession, and of use to her.
+
+   Cadenabbia is only two hotels and a few villas opposite Bellagio,
+   which is a town, and fashionable. We were rowed over to see it by
+   our boatman, who spends his time at the front of the stone steps
+   before the hotel, and whenever we go out he tells us, "The lake
+   is tranquil; the hour is come for a walk on the water," and is as
+   coaxing as only an Italian can be. He is amiably tipsy most of
+   the time.
+
+   To-day it rains so we cannot go out, and I rest and write to my
+   Marmee in a funny room with a stone floor inlaid till it looks
+   like castile soap, a ceiling in fat cupids and trumpeting
+   fairies, a window on the lake, with balcony, etc. Hand-organs
+   with jolly singing boys jingle all day, and two big bears go by
+   led by a man with a drum. The boys would laugh to see them dance
+   on their hind legs, and shoulder sticks like soldiers.
+
+   ... All looks well, and if the winter goes on rapidly and
+   pleasantly as the summer we shall soon be thinking of home,
+   unless one of us decides to stay. I shall post this at Milan
+   to-morrow, and hope to find letters there from you. By-by till
+   then.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _October_, 1870.--A memorable month.... Off for Italy on the 2d.
+   A splendid journey over the Alps and Maggiore by moonlight.
+
+   Heavenly days at the lakes, and so to Milan, Parma, Pisa,
+   Bologna, and Florence. Disappointed in some things, but found
+   Nature always lovely and wonderful; so didn't mind faded
+   pictures, damp rooms, and the cold winds of "sunny Italy." Bought
+   furs at Florence, and arrived in Rome one rainy night.
+
+   _November 10th._--In Rome, and felt as if I had been there before
+   and knew all about it. Always oppressed with a sense of sin,
+   dirt, and general decay of all things. Not well; so saw things
+   through blue glasses. May in bliss with lessons, sketching, and
+   her dreams. A. had society, her house, and old friends. The
+   artists were the best company; counts and princes very dull, what
+   we saw of them. May and I went off on the Campagna, and
+   criticised all the world like two audacious Yankees.
+
+   Our apartment in Piazza Barbarini was warm and cosey; and I
+   thanked Heaven for it, as it rained for two months, and my first
+   view most of the time was the poor Triton with an icicle on his
+   nose.
+
+   We pay $60 a month for six good rooms, and $6 a month for a girl,
+   who cooks and takes care of us.
+
+   _29th._--My thirty-eighth birthday. May gave me a pretty sketch,
+   and A. a fine nosegay.
+
+In Rome Miss Alcott was shocked and grieved by the news of the death
+of her well-beloved brother-in-law, Mr. Pratt. She has drawn so
+beautiful a picture of him in "Little Women" and in "Little Men," that
+it is hardly needful to dwell upon his character or the grief which
+his death caused her. With her usual care for others, her thoughts at
+once turned to the support of the surviving family, and she found
+comfort in writing "Little Men" with the thought of the dear sister
+and nephews constantly in her heart.
+
+In spite of this great sorrow and anxiety for the dear ones at home,
+the year of travel was very refreshing to her. Her companions were
+congenial, she took great delight in her sister's work, and she was
+independent in her plans, and could go whither and when she would.
+
+The voyage home was a hard one; there was small-pox on board, but Miss
+Alcott fortunately escaped the infection. "Little Men" was out the day
+she arrived, as a bright red placard in the carriage announced, and
+besides all the loving welcomes from family and friends, she received
+the pleasing news that fifty thousand of the books were already sold.
+
+But the old pains and weariness came home with her also. She could not
+stay in Concord, and went again to Boston, hoping to rest and work.
+Her young sister came home to brighten up the family with her hopeful,
+helpful spirit.
+
+At forty years of age Louisa had accomplished the task she set for
+herself in youth. By unceasing toil she had made herself and her
+family independent; debts were all paid, and enough was invested to
+preserve them from want. And yet wants seemed to increase with their
+satisfaction, and she felt impelled to work enough to give to all the
+enjoyments and luxuries which were fitted to them after the
+necessaries were provided for. It may be that her own exhausted
+nervous condition made it impossible for her to rest, and the demand
+which she fancied came from without was the projection of her own
+thought.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   1871.--_Rome._--Great inundation. Streets flooded, churches with
+   four feet of water in them, and queer times for those who were in
+   the overflowed quarters. Meals hoisted up at the window; people
+   carried across the river-like streets to make calls; and all
+   manner of funny doings. We were high and dry at Piazza Barbarini,
+   and enjoyed the flurry.
+
+   To the Capitol often, to spend the A.M. with the Roman emperors
+   and other great men. M. Aurelius as a boy was fine; Cicero looked
+   very like W. Phillips; Agrippina in her chair was charming; but
+   the other ladies, with hair _a la sponge_, were ugly; Nero & Co.
+   a set of brutes and bad men. But a better sight to me was the
+   crowd of poor people going to get the bread and money sent by the
+   king; and the splendid snow-covered hills were finer than the
+   marble beauty inside. Art tires; Nature never.
+
+   Professor Pierce and his party just from Sicily, where they had
+   been to see the eclipse,--all beaming with delight, and well
+   repaid for the long journey by a _two minutes'_ squint at the sun
+   when darkest.
+
+   Began to write a new book, "Little Men," that John's death may
+   not leave A. and the dear little boys in want. John took care
+   that they should have enough while the boys are young, and worked
+   very hard to have a little sum to leave, without a debt anywhere.
+
+   In writing and thinking of the little lads, to whom I must be a
+   father now, I found comfort for my sorrow. May went on with her
+   lessons, "learning," as she wisely said, how little she knew and
+   how to go on.
+
+   _February._--A gay month in Rome, with the carnival, artists'
+   fancy ball, many parties, and much calling.
+
+   Decided to leave May for another year, as L. sends $700 on
+   "Moods," and the new book will provide $1,000 for the dear girl;
+   so she may be happy and free to follow her talent.
+
+   _March._--Spent at Albano. A lovely place. Walk, write, and rest.
+   A troop of handsome officers from Turin, who clatter by, casting
+   soft glances at my two blonde signorinas, who enjoy it very
+   much.[11] Baron and Baroness Rothschild were there, and the W.'s
+   from Philadelphia, Dr. O. W. and wife, and S. B. Mrs. W. and A.
+   B. talk _all day_, May sketches, I write, and so we go on. Went
+   to look at rooms at the Bonapartes.
+
+   _April._--Venice. Floated about for two weeks seeing sights. A
+   lovely city for a short visit. Not enough going on to suit brisk
+   Americans. May painted, A. hunted up old jewelry and friends, and
+   I dawdled after them.
+
+   A very interesting trip to London,--over the Brenner Pass to
+   Munich, Cologne, Antwerp, and by boat to London.
+
+   _May._--A busy month. Settled in lodgings, Brompton Road, and
+   went sight-seeing. Mrs. P. Taylor, Conway, and others very kind.
+   Enjoyed showing May my favorite places and people.
+
+   A. B. went home on the 11th, after a pleasant year with us. I am
+   glad to know her, for she is true and very interesting. May took
+   lessons of Rowbotham and was happy. "Little Men" came out in
+   London.
+
+   I decided to go home on the 25th, as I am needed. A very pleasant
+   year in spite of constant pain, John's death, and home anxieties.
+   Very glad I came, for May's sake. It has been a very useful year
+   for her.
+
+   _June._--After an anxious passage of twelve days, got safely
+   home. Small-pox on board, and my room-mate, Miss D., very ill. I
+   escaped, but had a sober time lying next door to her, waiting to
+   see if my turn was to come. She was left at the island, and I
+   went up the harbor with Judge Russell, who took some of us off in
+   his tug.
+
+   Father and T. N. came to meet me with a great red placard of
+   "Little Men" pinned up in the carriage. After due precautions,
+   hurried home and found all well. My room refurnished and much
+   adorned by Father's earnings.
+
+   Nan well and calm, but under her sweet serenity is a very sad
+   soul, and she mourns for her mate like a tender turtle-dove.
+
+   The boys were tall, bright lads, devoted to Marmee, and the life
+   of the house.
+
+   Mother feeble and much aged by this year of trouble. I shall
+   never go far away from her again. Much company, and loads of
+   letters, all full of good wishes and welcome.
+
+   "Little Men" was out the day I arrived. Fifty thousand sold
+   before it was out.
+
+   A happy month, for I felt well for the first time in two years. I
+   knew it wouldn't last, but enjoyed it heartily while it did, and
+   was grateful for rest from pain and a touch of the old
+   cheerfulness. It was much needed at home.
+
+   _July, August, September._--Sick. Holiday soon over. Too much
+   company and care and change of climate upset the poor nerves
+   again. Dear Uncle S. J. May died; our best friend for years.
+   Peace to his ashes. He leaves a sweeter memory behind him than
+   any man I know. Poor Marmee is the last of her family now.
+
+   _October._--Decided to go to B.; Concord is so hard for me, with
+   its dampness and worry. Get two girls to do the work, and leave
+   plenty of money and go to Beacon Street to rest and try to get
+   well that I may work. A lazy life, but it seemed to suit; and
+   anything is better than the invalidism I hate worse than death.
+
+   Bones ached less, and I gave up morphine, as sunshine, air, and
+   quiet made sleep possible without it. Saw people, pictures,
+   plays, and read all I could, but did not enjoy much, for the
+   dreadful weariness of nerves makes even pleasure hard.
+
+   _November._--May sent pleasant letters and some fine copies of
+   Turner. She decides to come home, as she feels she is needed as I
+   give out. Marmee is feeble, Nan has her boys and her sorrow, and
+   one strong head and hand is wanted at home. A year and a half of
+   holiday is a good deal, and duty comes first always. Sorry to
+   call her back, but her eyes are troublesome, and housework will
+   rest them and set her up. Then she can go again when I am better,
+   for I don't want her to be thwarted in her work more than just
+   enough to make her want it very much.
+
+   On the 19th she came. Well, happy, and full of sensible plans. A
+   lively time enjoying the cheerful element she always brings into
+   the house. Piles of pictures, merry adventures, and interesting
+   tales of the fine London lovers.
+
+   Kept my thirty-ninth and Father's seventy-second birthday in the
+   old way.
+
+   Thanksgiving dinner at Pratt Farm. All well and all together.
+   Much to give thanks for.
+
+   _December._--Enjoyed my quiet, sunny room very much; and this
+   lazy life seems to suit me, for I am better, mind and body. All
+   goes well at home, with May to run the machine in her cheery,
+   energetic style, and amuse Marmee and Nan with gay histories. Had
+   a furnace put in, and all enjoyed the new climate. No more
+   rheumatic fevers and colds, with picturesque open fires. Mother
+   is to be cosey if money can do it. She seems to be now, and my
+   long-cherished dream has come true; for she sits in a pleasant
+   room, with no work, no care, no poverty to worry, but peace and
+   comfort all about her, and children glad and able to stand
+   between trouble and her. Thank the Lord! I like to stop and
+   "remember my mercies." Working and waiting for them makes them
+   very welcome.
+
+   Went to the ball for the Grand Duke Alexis. A fine sight, and the
+   big blonde boy the best of all. Would dance with the pretty
+   girls, and leave the Boston dowagers and their diamonds in the
+   lurch.
+
+   To the Radical Club, where the philosophers mount their hobbies
+   and prance away into time and space, while we gaze after them and
+   try to look wise.
+
+   A merry Christmas at home. Tree for the boys, family dinner, and
+   frolic in the evening.
+
+   A varied, but on the whole a good year, in spite of pain. Last
+   Christmas we were in Rome, mourning for John. What will next
+   Christmas bring forth? I have no ambition now but to keep the
+   family comfortable and not ache any more. Pain has taught me
+   patience, I hope, if nothing more.
+
+   _January_, 1872.--Roberts Brothers paid $4,400 as six months'
+   receipts for the books. A fine New Year's gift. S. E. S. invested
+   $3,000, and the rest I put in the bank for family needs. Paid for
+   the furnace and all the bills. What bliss it is to be able to do
+   that and ask no help!
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   Mysterious bouquets came from some unknown admirer or friend.
+   Enjoyed them very much, and felt quite grateful and romantic as
+   day after day the lovely great nosegays were handed in by the
+   servant of the unknown.
+
+   _February and March._--At Mrs. Stowe's desire, wrote for the
+   "Christian Union" an account of our journey through France, and
+   called it "Shawl Straps."... Many calls and letters and
+   invitations, but I kept quiet, health being too precious to risk,
+   and sleep still hard to get for the brain that would work instead
+   of rest.
+
+   Heard lectures,--Higginson, Bartol, Frothingham, and Rabbi
+   Lilienthal. Much talk about religion. I'd like to see a little
+   more really _lived_.
+
+   _April and May._--Wrote another sketch for the "Independent,"--"A
+   French Wedding;" and the events of my travels paid my winter's
+   expenses. All is fish that comes to the literary net. Goethe puts
+   his joys and sorrows into poems; I turn my adventures into bread
+   and butter.
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   _June_, 1872.--Home, and begin a new task. Twenty years ago I
+   resolved to make the family independent if I could. At forty that
+   is done. Debts all paid, even the outlawed ones, and we have
+   enough to be comfortable. It has cost me my health, perhaps; but
+   as I still live, there is more for me to do, I suppose.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[8] Betsey Prig was a pet name for her sister, as she herself was
+Sairey Gamp.
+
+[9] This was a family joke as Mrs. Alcott always ended her
+instructions to her children "in case of fire."
+
+[10] This is the poem prefixed to the chapter.
+
+[11] See Shawl Straps, p. 179.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+FAMILY CHANGES.
+
+     TRANSFIGURATION.[12]
+
+     IN MEMORIAM.
+
+Lines written by Louisa M. Alcott on the death of her mother.
+
+     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.
+
+     How could we mourn like those who are bereft,
+           When every pang of grief
+           Found balm for its relief
+     In counting up the treasures she had left?--
+
+     Faith that withstood the shocks of toil and time;
+           Hope that defied despair;
+           Patience that conquered care;
+     And loyalty, whose courage was sublime;
+
+     The great deep heart that was a home for all,--
+           Just, eloquent, and strong
+           In protest against wrong;
+     Wide charity, that knew no sin, no fall;
+
+     The spartan spirit that made life so grand,
+           Mating poor daily needs
+           With high, heroic deeds,
+     That wrested happiness from Fate's hard hand.
+
+     We thought to weep, but sing for joy instead,
+           Full of the grateful peace
+           That follows her release;
+     For nothing but the weary dust lies dead.
+
+     Oh, noble woman! never more a queen
+           Than in the laying down
+           Of sceptre and of crown
+     To win a greater kingdom, yet unseen;
+
+     Teaching us how to seek the highest goal,
+           To earn the true success,--
+           To live, to love, to bless,--
+     And make death proud to take a royal soul.
+
+
+The history of the next six years offers little variety of incident in
+Miss Alcott's busy life. She could not work at home in Concord as well
+as in some quiet lodging in Boston, where she was more free from
+interruption from visitors; but she spent her summers with her mother,
+often taking charge of the housekeeping. In 1872 she wrote "Work," one
+of her most successful books. She had begun it some time before, and
+originally called it "Success." It represents her own personal
+experience more than any other book. She says to a friend: "Christie's
+adventures are many of them my own; Mr. Power is Mr. Parker; Mrs.
+Wilkins is imaginary, and all the rest. This was begun at eighteen,
+and never finished till H. W. Beecher wrote to me for a serial for the
+'Christian Union' in 1872, and paid $3,000 for it."
+
+Miss Alcott again sent May to Europe in 1873 to finish her studies,
+and herself continued writing stories to pay the expenses of the
+family. The mother's serious illness weighed heavily on Louisa's
+heart, and through the summer of 1873 she was devoted to the invalid,
+rejoicing in her partial recovery, though sadly feeling that she would
+never be her bright energetic self again. Mrs. Alcott was able,
+however, to keep her birthday (October 8) pleasantly, and out of this
+experience came a story called "A Happy Birthday." This little tale
+paid for carriages for the invalid. It is included in "Aunt Jo's
+Scrap-Bag."
+
+Louisa and her mother decided to spend the winter in Boston, while Mr.
+Alcott was at the West. Her thoughts dwell much upon her father's
+life, and she is not content that he has not all the recognition and
+enjoyment that she would gladly give him. She helps her mother to
+perform the sacred duty of placing a tablet on Colonel May's grave,
+and the dear old lady recognizes that her life has gone down into the
+past, and says, "This isn't my Boston, and I never want to see it any
+more."
+
+Louisa was at this time engaged in writing for "St. Nicholas" and "The
+Independent."
+
+The return of the young artist, happy in her success, brings
+brightness to the home-circle. In the winter of 1875 Miss Alcott takes
+her old place at the Bellevue, where May can have her drawing-classes.
+She was herself ill, and the words, "No sleep without morphine!" tell
+the story of nervous suffering.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _July_, 1872.--May makes a lovely hostess, and I fly round behind
+   the scenes, or skip out of the back window when ordered out for
+   inspection by the inquisitive public. Hard work to keep things
+   running smoothly, for this sight-seeing fiend is a new torment to
+   us.
+
+   _August._--May goes to Clark's Island for rest, having kept hotel
+   long enough. I say "No," and shut the door. People _must_ learn
+   that authors have some rights; I can't entertain a dozen a day,
+   and write the tales they demand also. I'm but a human worm, and
+   when walked on must turn in self-defence.
+
+   Reporters sit on the wall and take notes; artists sketch me as I
+   pick pears in the garden; and strange women interview Johnny as
+   he plays in the orchard.
+
+   It looks like impertinent curiosity to me; but it is called
+   "fame," and considered a blessing to be grateful for, I find. Let
+   'em try it.
+
+   _September._--To Wolcott, with Father and Fred. A quaint, lovely
+   old place is the little house on Spindle Hill, where the boy Amos
+   dreamed the dreams that have come true at last.
+
+   Got hints for my novel, "The Cost of an Idea," if I ever find
+   time to write it.
+
+   Don't wonder the boy longed to climb those hills, and see what
+   lay beyond.
+
+   _October._--Went to a room in Allston Street, in a quiet,
+   old-fashioned house. I can't work at home, and need to be alone
+   to spin, like a spider.
+
+   Rested; walked; to the theatre now and then. Home once a week
+   with books, etc., for Marmee and Nan. Prepared "Shawl Straps" for
+   Roberts.
+
+   _November._--Forty on the 29th. Got Father off for the West, all
+   neat and comfortable. I enjoyed every penny spent, and had a
+   happy time packing his new trunk with warm flannels, neat shirts,
+   gloves, etc., and seeing the dear man go off in a new suit,
+   overcoat, hat, and all, like a gentleman. We both laughed over
+   the pathetic old times with tears in our eyes, and I reminded him
+   of the "poor as poverty, but serene as heaven" saying.
+
+   Something to do came just as I was trying to see what to take up,
+   for work is my salvation. H. W. Beecher sent one of the editors
+   of the "Christian Union" to ask for a serial story. They have
+   asked before, and offered $2,000, which I refused; now they
+   offered $3,000, and I accepted.
+
+   Got out the old manuscript of "Success," and called it "Work."
+   Fired up the engine, and plunged into a vortex, with many doubts
+   about getting out. Can't work slowly; the thing possesses me, and
+   I must obey till it's done. One thousand dollars was sent as a
+   seal on the bargain, so I was bound, and sat at the oar like a
+   galley-slave.
+
+   F. wanted eight little tales, and offered $35 apiece; used to pay
+   $10. Such is fame! At odd minutes I wrote the short ones, and so
+   paid my own expenses. "Shawl Straps," Scrap-Bag, No. 2, came out,
+   and went well.
+
+   Great Boston fire; up all night. Very splendid and terrible
+   sight.
+
+   _December._--Busy with "Work." Write three pages at once on
+   impression paper, as Beecher, Roberts, and Low of London all want
+   copy at once.
+
+   [This was the cause of the paralysis of my thumb, which disabled
+   me for the rest of my life.--L. M. A.]
+
+   Nan and the boys came to visit me, and break up the winter.
+   Rested a little, and played with them.
+
+   Father very busy and happy. On his birthday had a gold-headed
+   cane given him. He is appreciated out there.
+
+During these western trips, Mr. Alcott found that his daughter's fame
+added much to the warmth of his reception. On his return he loved to
+tell how he was welcomed as the "grandfather of 'Little Women.'" When
+he visited schools, he delighted the young audiences by satisfying
+their curiosity as to the author of their favorite book, and the truth
+of the characters and circumstances described in it.
+
+     BOSTON, 1872.
+
+   DEAR MARMEE,--Had a very transcendental day yesterday, and at
+   night my head was "swelling wisibly" with the ideas cast into it.
+
+   The club was a funny mixture of rabbis and weedy old ladies, the
+   "oversoul" and oysters. Papa and B. flew clean out of sight like
+   a pair of Platonic balloons, and we tried to follow, but
+   couldn't.
+
+   In the P.M. went to R. W. E.'s reading. All the literary birds
+   were out in full feather. This "'umble" worm was treated with
+   distinguished condescension. Dr. B. gave me his noble hand to
+   press, and murmured compliments with the air of a bishop
+   bestowing a benediction. Dear B. beamed upon me from the depths
+   of his funny little cloak and said, "We are getting on well,
+   ain't we?" W. bowed his Jewish head, and rolled his fine eye at
+   me. Several dreadful women purred about me, and I fled.
+
+   M. said what I liked,--that he'd sent my works to his mother, and
+   the good old lady told him to tell me that she couldn't do a
+   stroke of work, but just sat and read 'em right through; she
+   wished she was young so as to have a long life in which to keep
+   on enjoying such books. The peacock liked that.
+
+   I have paid all my own expenses out of the money earned by my
+   little tales; so I have not touched the family income.
+
+   Didn't mean to write; but it has been an expensive winter, and my
+   five hundred has made me all right. The $500 I lent K. makes a
+   difference in the income; but I could not refuse her, she was so
+   kind in the old hard times.
+
+   At the reading a man in front of me sat listening and knitting
+   his brows for a time, but had to give it up and go to sleep.
+   After it was over some one said to him, "Well, what do you think
+   of it?" "It's all very fine I have no doubt; but I'm blessed if I
+   can understand a word of it," was the reply....
+
+   The believers glow when the oracle is stuck, rustle and beam when
+   he is audible, and nod and smile as if they understood perfectly
+   when he murmurs under the desk! We are a foolish set!
+
+
+_Journal_.
+
+   _January_, 1873.--Getting on well with "Work;" have to go slowly
+   now for fear of a break-down. All well at home.
+
+   A week at Newport with Miss Jane Stewart. Dinners, balls, calls,
+   etc. Saw Higginson and "H. H." Soon tired of gayety, and glad to
+   get home to my quiet den and pen.
+
+   Roberts Brothers paid me $2,022 for books. S. E. S. invested most
+   of it, with the $1,000 F. sent. Gave C. M. $100,--a
+   thank-offering for my success. I like to help the class of
+   "silent poor" to which we belonged for so many years,--needy, but
+   respectable, and forgotten because too proud to beg. Work
+   difficult to find for such people, and life made very hard for
+   want of a little money to ease the necessary needs.
+
+   _February and March._--Anna very ill with pneumonia; home to
+   nurse her. Father telegraphed to come home, as we thought her
+   dying. She gave me her boys; but the dear saint got well, and
+   kept the lads for herself. Thank God!
+
+   Back to my work with what wits nursing left me.
+
+   Had Johnny for a week, to keep all quiet at home. Enjoyed the
+   sweet little soul very much, and sent him back much better.
+
+   Finished "Work,"--twenty chapters. Not what it should be,--too
+   many interruptions. Should like to do one book in peace, and see
+   if it wouldn't be good.
+
+   _April_--The job being done I went home to take May's place. Gave
+   her $1,000, and sent her to London for a year of study. She
+   sailed on the 26th, brave and happy and hopeful. I felt that she
+   needed it, and was glad to be able to help her.
+
+   I spent seven months in Boston; wrote a book and ten tales;
+   earned $3,250 by my pen, and am satisfied with my winter's work.
+
+   _May._--D. F. wanted a dozen little tales, and agreed to pay $50
+   apiece, if I give up other things for this. Said I would, as I
+   can do two a day, and keep house between times. Cleaned and
+   grubbed, and didn't mind the change. Let head rest, and heels and
+   feet do the work.
+
+   Cold and dull; but the thought of May free and happy was my
+   comfort as I messed about.
+
+   _June and July._--Settled the servant question by getting a neat
+   American woman to cook and help me with the housework.
+
+   Peace fell upon our troubled souls, and all went well. Good
+   meals, tidy house, cheerful service, and in the P.M. an
+   intelligent young person to read and sew with us.
+
+   It was curious how she came to us. She had taught and sewed, and
+   was tired, and wanted something else; decided to try for a
+   housekeeper's place, but happened to read "Work," and thought
+   she'd do as Christie did,--take anything that came.
+
+   I was the first who answered her advertisement, and when she
+   found I wrote the book, she said, "I'll go and see if Miss A.
+   practises as she preaches."
+
+   She found I did, and we had a good time together. My new helper
+   did so well I took pale Johnny to the seaside for a week; but was
+   sent for in haste, as poor Marmee was very ill. Mental
+   bewilderment came after one of her heart troubles (the dropsy
+   affected the brain), and for three weeks we had a sad time.
+   Father and I took care of her, and my good A. S. kept house
+   nicely and faithfully for me.
+
+   Marmee slowly came back to herself, but sadly feeble,--never to
+   be our brave, energetic leader any more. She felt it, and it was
+   hard to convince her that there was no need of her doing anything
+   but rest.
+
+   _August, September, October._--Mother improved steadily. Father
+   went to the Alcott festival in Walcott, A. and boys to Conway
+   for a month; and it did them all much good.
+
+   I had quiet days with Marmee; drove with her, and had the great
+   pleasure of supplying all her needs and fancies.
+
+   May busy and happy in London. A merry time on Mother's birthday,
+   October 8. All so glad to have her still here; for it seemed as
+   if we were to lose her.
+
+   Made a little story of it for F.,--"A Happy Birthday."--and spent
+   the $50 in carriages for her.
+
+   _November and December._--Decided that it was best not to try a
+   cold, lonely winter in C., but go to B. with Mother, Nan, and
+   boys, and leave Father free for the West.
+
+   Took sunny rooms at the South End, near the Park, so the lads
+   could play out and Marmee walk. She enjoyed the change, and sat
+   at her window watching people, horse-cars, and sparrows with
+   great interest. Old friends came to see her, and she was happy.
+   Found a nice school for the boys; and Nan enjoyed her quiet days.
+
+   _January_, 1874.--Mother quite ill this month. Dr. Wesselhoeft
+   does his best for the poor old body, now such a burden to her.
+   The slow decline has begun, and she knows it, having nursed her
+   mother to the same end.
+
+   Father disappointed and rather sad, to be left out of so much
+   that he would enjoy and should be asked to help and adorn. A
+   little more money, a pleasant house and time to attend to it, and
+   I'd bring all the best people to see and entertain _him_. When I
+   see so much twaddle going on I wonder those who can don't get up
+   something better, and have really good things.
+
+   When I had the youth I had no money; now I have the money I have
+   no time; and when I get the time, if I ever do, I shall have no
+   health to enjoy life. I suppose it's the discipline I need; but
+   it's rather hard to love the things I do and see them go by
+   because duty chains me to my galley. If I come into port at last
+   with all sail set that will be reward perhaps.
+
+   Life always was a puzzle to me, and gets more mysterious as I go
+   on. I shall find it out by and by and see that it's all right, if
+   I can only keep brave and patient to the end.
+
+   May still in London painting Turners, and doing pretty panels as
+   "pot-boilers." They sell well, and she is a thrifty child. Good
+   luck to our mid-summer girl.
+
+   _February._--Father has several conversations at the Clubs and
+   Societies and Divinity School. No one pays anything; but they
+   seem glad to listen. There ought to be a place for him.
+
+   Nan busy with her boys, and they doing well at school,--good,
+   gay, and intelligent; a happy mother and most loving little sons.
+
+   I wrote two tales, and got $200. Saw Charles Kingsley,--a
+   pleasant man. His wife has Alcott relations, and likes my books.
+   Asked us to come and see him in England; is to bring his
+   daughters to Concord by and by.
+
+   _March._--May came home with a portfolio full of fine work. Must
+   have worked like a busy bee to have done so much.
+
+   Very happy in her success; for she has proved her talent, having
+   copied Turner so well that Ruskin (meeting her in the National
+   Gallery at work) told her that she had "caught Turner's spirit
+   wonderfully." She has begun to copy Nature, and done well. Lovely
+   sketches of the cloisters in Westminster Abbey, and other
+   charming things.
+
+   I write a story for all my men, and make up the $1,000 I planned
+   to earn by my "pot-boilers" before we go back to C.
+
+   A tablet to Grandfather May is put in Stone Chapel, and one
+   Sunday A.M. we take Mother to see it. A pathetic sight to see
+   Father walk up the broad aisle with the feeble old wife on his
+   arm as they went to be married nearly fifty years ago. Mother sat
+   alone in the old pew a little while and sung softly the old
+   hymns; for it was early, and only the sexton there. He asked who
+   she was and said his father was sexton in Grandfather's time.
+
+   Several old ladies came in and knew Mother. She broke down
+   thinking of the time when she and her mother and sisters and
+   father and brothers all went to church together, and we took her
+   home saying, "This isn't my Boston; all my friends are gone; I
+   never want to see it any more."
+
+   [She never did.--L. M. A.]
+
+   _April and May._--Back to Concord, after May and I had put all in
+   fine order and made the old house lovely with her pictures. When
+   all were settled, with May to keep house, I went to B. for rest,
+   and took a room in Joy Street.
+
+   The Elgin Watch Company offered me a gold watch or $100 for a
+   tale. Chose the money, and wrote the story "My Rococo Watch"[13]
+   for them.
+
+   _October._--Took two nice rooms at the Hotel Bellevue for the
+   winter; May to use one for her classes. Tried to work on my book,
+   but was in such pain could not do much. Got no sleep without
+   morphine. Tried old Dr. Hewett, who was sure he could cure the
+   woe....
+
+   _November._--Funny time with the publishers about the tale; for
+   all wanted it at once, and each tried to outbid the other for an
+   unwritten story. I rather enjoyed it, and felt important with
+   Roberts, Low, and Scribner all clamoring for my "'umble" works.
+   No peddling poor little manuscripts now, and feeling rich with
+   $10. The golden goose can sell her eggs for a good price, if she
+   isn't killed by too much driving.
+
+   _December._--Better and busier than last month.
+
+   All well at home, and Father happy among his kind Westerners.
+   Finish "Eight Cousins," and get ready to do the temperance tale,
+   for F. offers $700 for six chapters,--"Silver Pitchers."
+
+   _January_, 1875.-- ... Father flourishing about the Western
+   cities, "riding in Louisa's chariot, and adored as the
+   grandfather of 'Little Women,'" he says.
+
+   _February._--Finish my tale and go to Vassar College on a visit.
+   See M. M., talk with four hundred girls, write in stacks of
+   albums and school-books, and kiss every one who asks me. Go to
+   New York; am rather lionized, and run away; but things look
+   rather jolly, and I may try a winter there some time, as I need a
+   change and new ideas.
+
+   _March._--Home again, getting ready for the centennial fuss.
+
+   _April._--On the 19th a grand celebration. General _break-down_,
+   owing to an unwise desire to outdo all the other towns; too many
+   people....
+
+Miss Alcott was very much interested in the question of Woman
+Suffrage, and exerted herself to get up a meeting in Concord. The
+subject was then very unpopular, and there was an ill-bred effort to
+destroy the meeting by noise and riot. Although not fond of speaking
+in public, she always put herself bravely on the side of the
+unpopular cause, and lent to it all the argument of her heroic life.
+When Mrs. Livermore lectured at Concord, Miss Alcott sat up all night
+talking with her on the great question. She had an opportunity of
+trying which was most exhausting, abuse or admiration, when she went
+to a meeting of the Women's Congress at Syracuse, in October. She was
+introduced to the audience by Mrs. Livermore, and the young people
+crowded about her like bees about a honeycomb. She was waylaid in the
+streets, petitioned for autographs, kissed by gushing young maidens,
+and made emphatically the lion of the hour. It was all so genial and
+spontaneous, that she enjoyed the fun. No amount of adulation ever
+affected the natural simplicity of her manners. She neither despised
+nor overrated her fame; but was glad of it as a proof of success in
+what she was ever aiming to do. She spent a few weeks in New York
+enjoying the gay and literary society which was freely opened to her;
+but finding most satisfaction in visiting the Tombs, Newsboys' Home,
+and Randall's Island, for she liked these things better than parties
+and dinners.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _June, July, August_, 1875.--Kept house at home, with two Irish
+   incapables to trot after, and ninety-two guests in one month to
+   entertain. Fame is an expensive luxury. I can do without it. This
+   is my worst scrape, I think. I asked for bread, and got a
+   stone,--in the shape of a pedestal.
+
+   _September and October_, 1875.--I go to Woman's Congress in
+   Syracuse, and see Niagara. Funny time with the girls.
+
+   Write loads of autographs, dodge at the theatre, and am kissed to
+   death by gushing damsels. One energetic lady grasped my hand in
+   the crowd, exclaiming, "If you ever come to Oshkosh, your feet
+   will not be allowed to touch the ground: you will be borne in the
+   arms of the people! Will you come?" "Never," responded Miss A.,
+   trying to look affable, and dying to laugh as the good soul
+   worked my arm like a pump-handle, and from the gallery
+   generations of girls were looking on. "This, this, is fame!"
+
+   _November, December._--Take a room at Bath Hotel, New York, and
+   look about me. Miss Sally Holly is here, and we go about
+   together. She tells me much of her life among the freedmen, and
+   Mother is soon deep in barrels of clothes, food, books, etc., for
+   Miss A. to take back with her.
+
+   See many people, and am very gay for a country-mouse. Society
+   unlike either London or Boston.
+
+   Go to Sorosis, and to Mrs. Botta's, O. B. Frothingham's, Miss
+   Booth's, and Mrs. Croly's receptions.
+
+   Visit the Tombs, Newsboys' Home, and Randall's Island on
+   Christmas Day with Mrs. Gibbons. A memorable day. Make a story of
+   it. Enjoy these things more than the parties and dinners.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Dodge._
+
+     NEW YORK, Oct. 5, 1875.
+
+   DEAR MRS. DODGE,--So far, New York seems inviting, though I have
+   not seen or done much but "gawk round" as the country folks do. I
+   have seen Niagara, and enjoyed my vacation very much, especially
+   the Woman's Congress in Syracuse. I was made a member, so have
+   the honor to sign myself,
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. ALCOTT, M. C.
+
+
+_To her Father._
+
+     NEW YORK, Nov. 26, 1875.
+
+   DEAR SEVENTY-SIX,--As I have nothing else to send you on our
+   joint birthday, I'll despatch a letter about some of the people I
+   have lately seen in whom you take an interest.
+
+   Tuesday we heard Gough on "Blunders," and it was very good,--both
+   witty and wise, earnest and sensible. Wednesday eve to Mr.
+   Frothingham's for his Fraternity Club meeting. Pleasant people.
+   Ellen F.; Abby Sage Richardson, a very lovely woman; young Putnam
+   and wife; Mrs. Stedman; Mattie G. and her spouse, Dr. B., who
+   read a lively story of Mormon life; Mrs. Dodge; O. Johnson and
+   wife, and many more whose names I forget.
+
+   After the story the given subject for discussion was brought
+   up,--"Conformity and Noncomformity." Mr. B., a promising young
+   lawyer, led one side, Miss B. the other, and Mr. F. was in the
+   chair. It was very lively; and being called upon, I piped up, and
+   went in for nonconformity when principle was concerned. Got
+   patted on the head for my remarks, and didn't disgrace myself
+   except by getting very red and talking fast.
+
+   Ellen F. was very pleasant, and asked much about May. Proudly I
+   told of our girl's achievements, and E. hoped she would come to
+   New York. Mrs. Richardson was presented, and we had some
+   agreeable chat. She is a great friend of O. B. F., and is
+   lecturing here on "Literature." Shall go and hear her, as she is
+   coming to see me.
+
+   O. B. F. was as polished and clear and cool and witty as usual;
+   most gracious to the "'umble" Concord worm; and Mrs. F. asked me
+   to come and see them.
+
+   Yesterday took a drive with Sally H. in Central Park as it was
+   fine, and she had no fun on her Thanksgiving. I dined at Mrs.
+   Botta's, for she kindly came and asked me. Had a delightful time,
+   and felt as if I'd been to Washington; for Professor Byng, a
+   German ex-consul, was there, full of Capitol gossip about Sumner
+   and all the great beings that there do congregate. Mr. Botta you
+   know,--a handsome, long-haired Italian, very cultivated and
+   affable.
+
+   Also about Lord H., whom B. thought "an amiable old woman," glad
+   to say pretty things, and fond of being lionized. Byng knew Rose
+   and Una, and asked about them; also told funny tales of Victor
+   Emmanuel and his Court, and queer adventures in Greece, where he,
+   B., was a consul, or something official. It was a glimpse into a
+   new sort of world; and as the man was very accomplished, elegant,
+   and witty, I enjoyed it much.
+
+   We had music later, and saw some fine pictures. Durant knew Miss
+   Thackeray, J. Ingelow, and other English people whom I did, so we
+   had a good dish of gossip with Mrs. Botta, while the others
+   talked three or four languages at once.
+
+   It is a delightful house, and I shall go as often as I may, for
+   it is the sort of thing I like much better than B. H. and
+   champagne.
+
+   To-night we go to hear Bradlaugh; to-morrow, a new play; Sunday,
+   Frothingham and Bellows; and Monday, Mrs. Richardson and
+   Shakespeare.
+
+   But it isn't all play, I assure you. I'm a thrifty butterfly,
+   and have written three stories. The "G." has paid for the little
+   Christmas tale; the "I." has "Letty's Tramp;" and my "girl paper"
+   for "St. Nick" is about ready. Several other papers are waiting
+   for tales, so I have a ballast of work to keep me steady in spite
+   of much fun.
+
+   Mr. Powell has been twice to see me, and we go to visit the
+   charities of New York next week. I like to see both sides, and
+   generally find the busy people most interesting.
+
+   So far I like New York very much, and feel so well I shall stay
+   on till I'm tired of it. People begin to tell me how much better
+   I look than when I came, and I have not an ache to fret over.
+   This, after such a long lesson in bodily ails, is a blessing for
+   which I am duly grateful.
+
+   Hope all goes well with you, and that I shall get a line now and
+   then. I'll keep them for you to _bind_ up by and by instead of
+   mine....
+
+   We can buy a carriage some other time, and a barn likewise, and a
+   few other necessities of life. Rosa has proved such a good
+   speculation we shall dare to let May venture another when the
+   ship comes in. I am glad the dear "rack-a-bones" is a comfort to
+   her mistress, only don't let her break my boy's bones by any
+   antics when she feels her oats.
+
+   I suppose you are thinking of Wilson just now, and his quiet
+   slipping away to the heavenly council chambers where the good
+   senators go. Rather like Sumner's end, wasn't it? No wife or
+   children, only men and servants. Wilson was such a genial,
+   friendly soul I should have thought he would have felt the
+   loneliness very much. Hope if he left any last wishes his mates
+   will carry them out faithfully....
+
+   Now, dear Plato, the Lord bless you, and keep you serene and
+   happy for as many years as He sees fit, and me likewise, to be a
+   comfort as well as a pride to you.
+
+     Ever your loving
+     FORTY-THREE
+
+
+_To her Nephews._
+
+     NEW YORK, Dec. 4, 1875.
+
+   DEAR FRED AND DONNY,--We went to see the news-boys, and I wish
+   you'd been with us, it was so interesting. A nice big house has
+   been built for them, with dining-room and kitchen on the first
+   floor, bath-rooms and school-room next, two big
+   sleeping-places,--third and fourth stories,--and at the top a
+   laundry and gymnasium. We saw all the tables set for
+   breakfast,--a plate and bowl for each,--and in the kitchen great
+   kettles, four times as big as our copper boiler, for tea and
+   coffee, soup, and meat. They have bread and meat and coffee for
+   breakfast, and bread and cheese and tea for supper, and get their
+   own dinners out. School was just over when we got there, and one
+   hundred and eighty boys were in the immense room with desks down
+   the middle, and all around the walls were little cupboards
+   numbered. Each boy on coming in gives his name, pays six cents,
+   gets a key, and puts away his hat, books, and jacket (if he has
+   'em) in his own cubby for the night. They pay five cents for
+   supper, and schooling, baths, etc., are free. They were a
+   smart-looking set, larking round in shirts and trousers,
+   barefooted, but the faces were clean, and the heads smooth, and
+   clothes pretty decent; yet they support themselves, for not one
+   of them has any parents or home but this. One little chap, only
+   six, was trotting round as busy as a bee, locking up his small
+   shoes and ragged jacket as if they were great treasures. I asked
+   about little Pete, and the man told us his brother, only nine,
+   supported him and took care of him entirely; and wouldn't let
+   Pete be sent away to any home, because _he_ wished to have "his
+   family" with him.
+
+   Think of that, Fred! How would it seem to be all alone in a big
+   city, with no mamma to cuddle you; no two grandpa's houses to
+   take you in; not a penny but what you earned, and Donny to take
+   care of? Could you do it? Nine-year-old Patsey does it capitally;
+   buys Pete's clothes, pays for his bed and supper, and puts
+   pennies in the savings-bank. There's a brave little man for you!
+   I wanted to see him; but he is a newsboy, and sells late papers,
+   because, though harder work, it pays better, and the coast is
+   clear for those who do it.
+
+   The savings-bank was a great table all full of slits, each one
+   leading to a little place below and numbered outside, so each boy
+   knew his own. Once a month the bank is opened, and the lads take
+   out what they like, or have it invested in a big bank for them to
+   have when they find homes out West, as many do, and make good
+   farmers. One boy was putting in some pennies as we looked, and I
+   asked how much he had saved this month. "Fourteen dollars,
+   ma'am," says the thirteen-year-older, proudly slipping in the
+   last cent. A prize of $3 is offered to the lad who saves the most
+   in a month.
+
+   The beds upstairs were in two immense rooms, ever so much larger
+   than our town hall,--one hundred in one, and one hundred and
+   eighty in another,--all narrow beds with a blue quilt, neat
+   pillow, and clean sheet. They are built in long rows, one over
+   another, and the upper boy has to climb up as on board ship. I'd
+   have liked to see one hundred and eighty all in their "by-lows"
+   at once, and I asked the man if they didn't train when all were
+   in. "Lord, ma'am, they're up at five, poor little chaps, and are
+   so tired at night that they drop off right away. Now and then
+   some boy kicks up a little row, but we have a watchman, and he
+   soon settles 'em."
+
+   He also told me how that very day a neat, smart young man came
+   in, and said he was one of their boys who went West with a farmer
+   only a little while ago; and now he owned eighty acres of land,
+   had a good house, and was doing well, and had come to New York to
+   find his sister, and to take her away to live with him. Wasn't
+   that nice? Lots of boys do as well. Instead of loafing round the
+   streets and getting into mischief, they are taught to be tidy,
+   industrious, and honest, and then sent away into the wholesome
+   country to support themselves.
+
+   It was funny to see 'em scrub in the bath-room,--feet and
+   faces,--comb their hair, fold up their old clothes in the dear
+   cubbies, which make them so happy because they feel that they
+   _own_ something.
+
+   The man said every boy wanted one, even though he had neither
+   shoes nor jacket to put in it; but would lay away an old rag of a
+   cap or a dirty tippet with an air of satisfaction fine to see.
+   Some lads sat reading, and the man said they loved it so they'd
+   read all night, if allowed. At nine he gave the word, "Bed!" and
+   away went the lads, trooping up to sleep in shirts and trousers,
+   as nightgowns are not provided. How would a boy I know like
+   that,--a boy who likes to have "trommin" on his nighties? Of
+   course, I don't mean dandy Don! Oh, dear no!
+
+   After nine [if late in coming in] they are fined five cents;
+   after ten, ten cents; and after eleven they can't come in at all.
+   This makes them steady, keeps them out of harm, and gives them
+   time for study. Some go to the theatre, and sleep anywhere; some
+   sleep at the Home, but go out for a better breakfast than they
+   get there, as the swell ones are fond of goodies, and live well
+   in their funny way. Coffee and cakes at Fulton Market is "the
+   tip-top grub," and they often spend all their day's earnings in a
+   play and a supper, and sleep in boxes or cellars after it.
+
+   Lots of pussies were round the kitchen; and one black one I
+   called a bootblack, and a gray kit that yowled loud was a
+   newsboy. That made some chaps laugh, and they nodded at me as I
+   went out. Nice boys! but I know some nicer ones. Write and tell
+   me something about my poor Squabby.
+
+     By-by, your
+     WEEDY.
+
+
+_To her Family._
+
+     SATURDAY EVENING, Dec. 25, 1875.
+
+   DEAR FAMILY,-- ... I had only time for a word this A.M., as the
+   fourth letter was from Mrs. P. to say they could not go; so I
+   trotted off in the fog at ten to the boat, and there found Mr.
+   and Mrs. G. and piles of goodies for the poor children. She is a
+   dear little old lady in a close, Quakerish bonnet and plain suit,
+   but wide-awake and full of energy. It was grand to see her tackle
+   the big mayor and a still bigger commissioner, and tell them what
+   _ought_ to be done for the poor things on the Island, as they are
+   to be routed; for the city wants the land for some dodge or
+   other. Both men fled soon, for the brave little woman was down on
+   'em in a way that would have made Marmee cry "Ankore!" and clap
+   her dress-gloves to rags.
+
+   When the rotundities had retired, she fell upon a demure priest,
+   and read him a sermon; and then won the heart of a boyish
+   reporter so entirely that he stuck to us all day, and helped
+   serve out dolls and candy like a man and a brother. Long life to
+   him!
+
+   Mr. G. and I discussed pauperism and crime like two old
+   wiseacres; and it was sweet to hear the gray-headed couple say
+   "thee" and "thou," "Abby" and "James," to one another, he
+   following with the bundles wherever the little poke-bonnet led
+   the way. I've had a pretty good variety of Christmases in my day,
+   but never one like this before. First we drove in an old
+   ramshackle hack to the chapel, whither a boy had raced before us,
+   crying joyfully to all he met, "She's come! Miss G.--she's come!"
+   And all faces beamed, as well they might, since for thirty years
+   she has gone to make set after set of little forlornities happy
+   on this day.
+
+   The chapel was full. On one side, in front, girls in blue gowns
+   and white pinafores; on the other, small chaps in pinafores
+   likewise; and behind them, bigger boys in gray suits with cropped
+   heads, and larger girls with ribbons in their hair and pink
+   calico gowns. They sang alternately; the girls gave "Juanita"
+   very well, the little chaps a pretty song about poor children
+   asking a "little white angel" to leave the gates of heaven ajar,
+   so they could peep in, if no more. Quite pathetic, coming from
+   poor babies who had no home but this.
+
+   The big boys spoke pieces, and I was amused when one bright lad
+   in gray, with a red band on his arm, spoke the lines I gave
+   G.,--"Merry Christmas." No one knew me, so I had the joke to
+   myself; and I found afterward that I was taken for the mayoress,
+   who was expected. Then we drove to the hospital, and there the
+   heart-ache began, for me at least, so sad it was to see these
+   poor babies, born of want and sin, suffering every sort of
+   deformity, disease, and pain. Cripples half blind, scarred with
+   scrofula, burns, and abuse,--it was simply awful and
+   indescribable!
+
+   As we went in, I with a great box of dolls and the young
+   reporter with a bigger box of candy, a general cry of delight
+   greeted us. Some children tried to run, half-blind ones stretched
+   out their groping hands, little ones crawled, and big ones
+   grinned, while several poor babies sat up in their bed, beckoning
+   us to "come quick."
+
+   One poor mite, so eaten up with sores that its whole face was
+   painted with some white salve,--its head covered with an oilskin
+   cap; one eye gone, and the other half filmed over; hands
+   bandaged, and ears bleeding,--could only moan and move its feet
+   till I put a gay red dolly in one hand and a pink candy in the
+   other; then the dim eye brightened, the hoarse voice said feebly,
+   "Tanky, lady!" and I left it contentedly sucking the sweetie, and
+   _trying_ to _see_ its dear new toy. It can't see another
+   Christmas, and I like to think I helped make this one happy, even
+   for a minute.
+
+   It was pleasant to watch the young reporter trot round with the
+   candy-box, and come up to me all interest to say, "One girl
+   hasn't got a doll, ma'am, and looks _so_ disappointed."
+
+   After the hospital, we went to the idiot house; and there I had a
+   chance to see faces and figures that will haunt me a long time. A
+   hundred or so of half-grown boys and girls ranged down a long
+   hall, a table of toys in the middle, and an empty one for Mrs.
+   G.'s gifts. A cheer broke out as the little lady hurried in
+   waving her handkerchief and a handful of gay bead necklaces, and
+   "Oh! Ohs!" followed the appearance of the doll-lady and the candy
+   man.
+
+   A pile of gay pictures was a new idea, and Mrs. G. told me to
+   hold up some bright ones and see if the poor innocents would
+   understand and enjoy them. I held up one of two kittens lapping
+   spilt milk, and the girls began to mew and say "Cat! ah,
+   pretty." Then a fine horse, and the boys bounced on their benches
+   with pleasure; while a ship in full sail produced a cheer of
+   rapture from them all.
+
+   Some were given out to the good ones, and the rest are to be
+   pinned round the room; so the pictures were a great success. All
+   wanted dolls, even boys of nineteen; for all were children in
+   mind. But the girls had them, and young women of eighteen cuddled
+   their babies and were happy. The boys chose from the toy-table,
+   and it was pathetic to see great fellows pick out a squeaking dog
+   without even the wit to pinch it when it was theirs. One dwarf of
+   thirty-five chose a little Noah's ark, and brooded over it in
+   silent bliss.
+
+   Some with beards sucked their candy, and stared at a toy cow or
+   box of blocks as if their cup was full. One French girl sang the
+   Marseillaise in a feeble voice, and was so overcome by her new
+   doll that she had an epileptic fit on the spot, which made two
+   others go off likewise; and a slight pause took place while they
+   were kindly removed to sleep it off.
+
+   A little tot of four, who hadn't sense to put candy in its mouth,
+   was so fond of music that when the girls sang the poor vacant
+   face woke up, and a pair of lovely soft hazel eyes stopped
+   staring dully at nothing, and went wandering to and fro with
+   light in them, as if to find the only sound that can reach its
+   poor mind.
+
+   I guess I gave away two hundred dolls, and a soap-box of candy
+   was empty when we left. But rows of sticky faces beamed at us,
+   and an array of gay toys wildly waved after us, as if we were
+   angels who had showered goodies on the poor souls.
+
+   Pauper women are nurses; and Mrs. G. says the babies die like
+   sheep, many being deserted so young nothing can be hoped or done
+   for them. One of the teachers in the idiot home was a Miss C.,
+   who remembered Nan at Dr. Wilbur's. Very lady-like, and all
+   devotion to me. But such a life! Oh, me! Who _can_ lead it, and
+   not go mad?
+
+   At four, we left and came home, Mrs. G. giving a box of toys and
+   sweeties on board the boat for the children of the men who run
+   it. So leaving a stream of blessings and pleasures behind her,
+   the dear old lady drove away, simply saying, "There now, I shall
+   feel better for the next year!" Well she may; bless her!
+
+   She made a speech to the chapel children after the Commissioner
+   had prosed in the usual way, and she told 'em that _she_ should
+   come as long as she could, and when she was gone her children
+   would still keep it up in memory of her; so for thirty years more
+   she hoped this, their one holiday, would be made happy for them.
+   I could have hugged her on the spot, the motherly old dear!
+
+   Next Wednesday we go to the Tombs, and some day I am to visit the
+   hospital with her, for I like this better than parties, etc.
+
+   I got home at five, and then remembered that I'd had no lunch; so
+   I took an apple till six, when I discovered that all had dined at
+   one so the helpers could go early this evening. Thus my Christmas
+   day was without dinner or presents, for the first time since I
+   can remember. Yet it has been a very memorable day, and I feel as
+   if I'd had a splendid feast seeing the poor babies wallow in
+   turkey soup, and that every gift I put into their hands had come
+   back to me in the dumb delight of their unchild-like faces trying
+   to smile.
+
+After the pleasant visit in New York, Miss Alcott returned to Boston,
+where she went into society more than usual, often attending clubs,
+theatres, and receptions. She was more lionized than ever, and had a
+natural pleasure in the attention she received.
+
+The summer of 1876 she spent at Concord, nursing her mother, who was
+very ill. She here wrote "Rose in Bloom," the sequel to "Eight
+Cousins," in three weeks. It was published in November.
+
+Louisa was anxious that her sister should have a home for her young
+family. Mrs. Pratt invested what she could of her husband's money in
+the purchase, and Louisa contributed the rest. This was the so-called
+Thoreau House on the main street in Concord, which became Mrs. Pratt's
+home, and finally that of her father.
+
+Louisa spent the summer of 1877 in Concord. Her mother's illness
+increased, and she was herself very ill in August. Yet she wrote this
+summer one of her brightest and sweetest stories, "Under the Lilacs."
+Her love of animals is specially apparent in this book, and she
+records going to the circus to make studies for the performing dog
+Sanch.
+
+During the winter of 1877, Miss Alcott went to the Bellevue for some
+weeks, and having secured the necessary quiet, devoted herself to the
+writing of a novel for the famous No Name Series published by Roberts
+Brothers. This book had been in her mind for some time, as is seen by
+the journal. As it was to appear anonymously, and was not intended for
+children, she was able to depart from her usual manner, and indulge
+the weird and lurid fancies which took possession of her in her
+dramatic days, and when writing sensational stories. She was much
+interested, and must have written it very rapidly, as it was published
+in April. She enjoyed the excitement of her _incognito_, and was much
+amused at the guesses of critics and friends, who attributed the book
+to others, and were sure Louisa Alcott did not write it, because its
+style was so unlike hers.
+
+It certainly is very unlike the books Miss Alcott had lately written.
+It has nothing of the home-like simplicity and charm of "Little
+Women," "Old-Fashioned Girl," and the other stories with which she was
+delighting the children, and, with "Moods," must always be named as
+exceptional when speaking of her works. Still, a closer study of her
+life and nature will reveal much of her own tastes and habits of
+thought in the book; and it is evident that she wrote _con amore_, and
+was fascinated by the familiars she evoked, however little charm they
+may seem to possess to others. She was fond of Hawthorne's books. The
+influence of his subtle and weird romances is undoubtedly perceptible
+in the book, and it is not strange that it was attributed to his son.
+She says it had been simmering in her brain ever since she read
+"Faust" the year before; and she clearly wished to work according to
+Goethe's thought,--that the Prince of Darkness was a gentleman, and
+must be represented as belonging to the best society.
+
+The plot is powerful and original. A young poet, with more ambition
+than genius or self-knowledge, finds himself, at nineteen, friendless,
+penniless, and hopeless, and is on the point of committing suicide.
+He is saved by Helwyze, a middle-aged man, who has been severely
+crippled by a terrible fall, and his heart seared by the desertion of
+the woman he loved. A man of intellect, power, imagination, and
+wealth, but incapable of conscientious feeling or true love, he is a
+dangerous savior for the impulsive poet; but he takes him to his home,
+warms, feeds, and shelters him, and promises to bring out his book.
+The brilliant, passionate woman who gave up her lover when his health
+and beauty were gone, returned to him when youth had passed, and would
+gladly have devoted herself to soothing his pain and enriching his
+life. Her feeling is painted with delicacy and tenderness.
+
+But Helwyze's heart knew nothing of the divine quality of forgiveness;
+for his love there was no resurrection; and he only valued the power
+he could exercise over a brilliant woman, and the intellectual
+entertainment she could bring him. A sweet young girl, Olivia's
+protegee, completes the very limited _dramatis personae_.
+
+The young poet, Felix Canaris, under the guidance of his new friend,
+wins fame, success, and the young girl's heart; but his wayward fancy
+turns rather to the magnificent Olivia. The demoniac Helwyze works
+upon this feeling, and claims of Olivia her fair young friend Gladys
+as a wife for Felix, who is forced to accept her at the hands of his
+master. She is entirely responsive to the love which she fancies she
+has won, and is grateful for her fortunate lot, and devotes herself to
+the comfort and happiness of the poor invalid who delights in her
+beauty and grace. For a time Felix enjoys a society success, to which
+his charming wife, as well as his book, contribute. But at last this
+excitement flags. He writes another book, which he threatens to burn
+because he is dissatisfied with it. Gladys entreats him to spare it,
+and Helwyze offers to read it to her. She is overcome and melted with
+emotion at the passion and pathos of the story; and when Helwyze asks,
+"Shall I burn it?" Felix answers, "No!" Again the book brings success
+and admiration, but the tender wife sees that it does not insure
+happiness, and that her husband is plunging into the excitement of
+gambling.
+
+The demon Helwyze has complete control over the poet, which he
+exercises with such subtle tyranny that the young man is driven to the
+dreadful thought of murder to escape from him; but he is saved from
+the deed by the gentle influence of his wife, who has won his heart at
+last, unconscious that it had not always been hers.
+
+Helwyze finds his own punishment. One being resists his power,--Gladys
+breathes his poisoned atmosphere unharmed. He sends for Olivia as his
+ally to separate the wife from her husband's love. A passion of
+curiosity possesses him to read her very heart; and at last he resorts
+to a strange means to accomplish his purpose. He gives her an exciting
+drug without her knowledge, and under its influence she speaks and
+acts with a rare genius which calls forth the admiration of all the
+group. Left alone with her, Helwyze exercises his magnetic power to
+draw forth the secrets of her heart; but he reads there only a pure
+and true love for her husband, and fear of the unhallowed passion
+which he is cherishing. The secret of his power over the husband is at
+last revealed. Canaris has published as his own the work of Helwyze,
+and all the fame and glory he has received has been won by deceit, and
+is a miserable mockery.
+
+The tragic result is inevitable. Gladys dies under the pressure of a
+burden too heavy for her,--the knowledge of deceit in him she had
+loved and trusted; while the stricken Helwyze is paralyzed, and lives
+henceforth only a death in life.
+
+With all the elements of power and beauty in this singular book, it
+fails to charm and win the heart of the reader. The circumstances are
+in a romantic setting, but still they are prosaic; and tragedy is only
+endurable when taken up into the region of the ideal, where the
+thought of the universal rounds out all traits of the individual. In
+Goethe's Faust, Margaret is the sweetest and simplest of maidens; but
+in her is the life of all wronged and suffering womanhood.
+
+The realism which is delightful in the pictures of little women and
+merry boys is painful when connected with passions so morbid and lives
+so far removed from joy and sanity. As in her early dramas and
+sensational stories, we do not find Louisa Alcott's own broad,
+generous, healthy life, or that which lay around her, in this book,
+but the reminiscences of her reading, which she had striven to make
+her own by invention and fancy.
+
+This note refers to "A Modern Mephistopheles":--
+
+     [1877.]
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--I had to keep the proof longer than I meant
+   because a funeral came in the way.
+
+   The book as last sent is lovely, and much bigger than I expected.
+
+   Poor "Marmee," ill in bed, hugged it, and said, "It is perfect!
+   only I do wish your name could be on it." She is very proud of
+   it; and tender-hearted Anna weeps and broods over it, calling
+   Gladys the best and sweetest character I ever did. So much for
+   home opinion; now let's see what the public will say.
+
+   May clamors for it; but I don't want to send this till she has
+   had one or two of the others. Have you sent her "Is That All?" If
+   not, please do; then it won't look suspicious to send only "M.
+   M."
+
+   I am so glad the job is done, and hope it won't disgrace the
+   series. Is not another to come before this? I hope so; for many
+   people suspect what is up, and I could tell my fibs about No. 6
+   better if it was not mine.
+
+   Thanks for the trouble you have taken to keep the secret. Now the
+   fun will begin.
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+   P. S.--Bean's expressman grins when he hands in the daily parcel.
+   He is a Concord man.
+
+By Louisa's help the younger sister again went abroad in 1876; and her
+bright affectionate letters cheered the little household, much
+saddened by the mother's illness.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _January_, 1876.--Helped Mrs. Croly receive two hundred
+   gentlemen.
+
+   A letter from Baron Tauchnitz asking leave to put my book in his
+   foreign library, and sending 600 marks to pay for it. Said, "Yes,
+   thank you, Baron."
+
+   Went to Philadelphia to see Cousin J. May installed in Dr.
+   Furness's pulpit. Dull place is Philadelphia. Heard Beecher
+   preach; did not like him....
+
+   Went home on the 21st, finding I could not work here. Soon tire
+   of being a fine lady.
+
+   _February and March._--Took a room in B., and fell to work on
+   short tales for F. T. N. wanted a centennial story; but my
+   frivolous New York life left me no ideas. Went to Centennial Ball
+   at Music Hall, and got an idea.
+
+   Wrote a tale of "'76," which with others will make a catchpenny
+   book. Mother poorly, so I go home to nurse her.
+
+   _April, May, and June._--Mother better. Nan and boys go to P.
+   farm. May and I clean the old house. It seems as if the dust of
+   two centuries haunted the ancient mansion, and came out spring
+   and fall in a ghostly way for us to clear up.
+
+   Great freshets and trouble.
+
+   Exposition in Philadelphia; don't care to go. America ought to
+   pay her debts before she gives parties. "Silver Pitchers," etc.,
+   comes out, and goes well. Poor stuff; but the mill must keep on
+   grinding even chaff.
+
+   _June._--Lovely month! Keep hotel and wait on Marmee.
+
+   Try to get up steam for a new serial, as Mrs. Dodge wants one,
+   and Scribner offers $3,000 for it. Roberts Brothers want a novel;
+   and the various newspapers and magazines clamor for tales. My
+   brain is squeezed dry, and I can only wait for help.
+
+   _July, August._--Get an idea and start "Rose in Bloom," though I
+   hate sequels.
+
+   _September._--On the 9th my dear girl sails in the "China" for a
+   year in London or Paris. God be with her! She has done her
+   distasteful duty faithfully, and deserved a reward. She cannot
+   find the help she needs here, and is happy and busy in her own
+   world over there.
+
+   [She never came home.--L. M. A.]
+
+   Finish "Rose."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+   _November._--"Rose" comes out; sells well.
+
+   ... Forty-four years old. My new task gets on slowly; but I keep
+   at it, and can be a prop, if not an angel, in the house, as Nan
+   is.
+
+   _December._--Miss P. sends us a pretty oil sketch of May,--so
+   like the dear soul in her violet wrapper, with yellow curls piled
+   up, and the long hand at work. Mother delights in it.
+
+   She (M.) is doing finely, and says, "I am getting on, and I feel
+   as if it was not all a mistake; for I have some talent, and will
+   prove it." Modesty is a sign of genius, and I think our girl has
+   both. The money I invest in her pays the sort of interest I like.
+   I am proud to have her show what she can do, and have her depend
+   upon no one but me. Success to little Raphael! My dull winter is
+   much cheered by her happiness and success.
+
+   _January, February, 1877._--The year begins well. Nan keeps
+   house; boys fine, tall lads, good and gay; Father busy with his
+   new book; Mother cosey with her sewing, letters, Johnson, and
+   success of her "girls."
+
+   Went for some weeks to the Bellevue, and wrote "A Modern
+   Mephistopheles" for the No Name Series. It has been simmering
+   ever since I read Faust last year. Enjoyed doing it, being tired
+   of providing moral pap for the young. Long to write a novel, but
+   cannot get time enough.
+
+   May's letters our delight. She is so in earnest she will not stop
+   for pleasure, rest, or society, but works away like a Trojan. Her
+   work admired by masters and mates for its vigor and character.
+
+   _March._--Begin to think of buying the Thoreau place for Nan. The
+   $4,000 received from the Vt. and Eastern R. Rs. must be invested,
+   and she wants a home of her own, now the lads are growing up.
+
+   Mother can be with her in the winter for a change, and leave me
+   free to write in B. Concord has no inspiration for me.
+
+   _April._--May, at the request of her teacher, M. Muller, sends a
+   study of still life to the Salon. The little picture is accepted,
+   well hung, and praised by the judges. No friend at court, and the
+   modest work stood on its own merits. She is very proud to see her
+   six months' hard work bear fruit. A happy girl, and all say she
+   deserves the honor.
+
+   "M. M." appears and causes much guessing. It is praised and
+   criticised, and I enjoy the fun, especially when friends say, "I
+   know _you_ didn't write it, for you can't hide your peculiar
+   style."
+
+   Help to buy the house for Nan,--$4,500. So she has _her_ wish,
+   and is happy. When shall I have mine? Ought to be contented with
+   knowing I help both sisters by my brains. But I'm selfish, and
+   want to go away and rest in Europe. Never shall.
+
+   _May, June._--Quiet days keeping house and attending to Marmee,
+   who grows more and more feeble. Helped Nan get ready for her new
+   home.
+
+   Felt very well, and began to hope I had outlived the neuralgic
+   worries and nervous woes born of the hospital fever and the hard
+   years following.
+
+   May living alone in Paris, while her mates go jaunting,--a
+   solitary life; but she is so busy she is happy and safe. A good
+   angel watches over her. Take pleasant drives early in the A.M.
+   with Marmee. She takes her comfort in a basket wagon, and we
+   drive to the woods, picking flowers and stopping where we like.
+   It keeps her young, and rests her weary nerves.
+
+   _July._--Got too tired, and was laid up for some weeks. A curious
+   time, lying quite happily at rest, wondering what was to come
+   next.
+
+   _August._--As soon as able began "Under the Lilacs," but could
+   not do much.
+
+Mrs. Alcott grew rapidly worse, and her devoted daughter recognized
+that the final parting was near. As Louisa watched by the bedside she
+wrote "My Girls," and finished "Under the Lilacs."
+
+The journal tells the story of the last days of watching, and of the
+peaceful close of the mother's self-sacrificing yet blessed life.
+Louisa was very brave in the presence of death. She had no dark
+thoughts connected with it; and in her mother's case, after her long,
+hard life, she recognized how "growing age longed for its peaceful
+sleep."
+
+The tie between this mother and daughter was exceptionally strong and
+tender. The mother saw all her own fine powers reproduced and
+developed in her daughter; and if she also recognized the passionate
+energy which had been the strength and the bane of her own life, it
+gave her only a more constant watchfulness to save her child from the
+struggles and regrets from which she had suffered herself.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _September_, 1877.--On the 7th Marmee had a very ill turn, and
+   the doctor told me it was the beginning of the end. [Water on the
+   chest.] She was so ill we sent for Father from Walcott; and I
+   forgot myself in taking care of poor Marmee, who suffered much
+   and longed to go.
+
+   As I watched with her I wrote "My Girls," to go with other tales
+   in a new "Scrap Bag," and finished "Under the Lilacs." I foresaw
+   a busy or a sick winter, and wanted to finish while I could, so
+   keeping my promise and earning my $3,000.
+
+   Brain very lively and pen flew. It always takes an exigency to
+   spur me up and wring out a book. Never have time to go slowly and
+   do my best.
+
+   _October._--Fearing I might give out, got a nurse and rested a
+   little, so that when the last hard days come I might not fail
+   Marmee, who says, "Stay by, Louy, and help me if I suffer too
+   much." I promised, and watched her sit panting life away day
+   after day. We thought she would not outlive her seventy-seventh
+   birthday, but, thanks to Dr. W. and homoeopathy, she got
+   relief, and we had a sad little celebration, well knowing it
+   would be the last. Aunt B. and L. W. came up, and with fruit,
+   flowers, smiling faces, and full hearts, we sat round the brave
+   soul who faced death so calmly and was ready to go.
+
+   I overdid and was very ill,--in danger of my life for a
+   week,--and feared to go before Marmee. But pulled through, and
+   got up slowly to help her die. A strange month.
+
+   _November._--Still feeble, and Mother failing fast. On the 14th
+   we were both moved to Anna's at Mother's earnest wish.
+
+   A week in the new home, and then she ceased to care for
+   anything. Kept her bed for three days, lying down after weeks in
+   a chair, and on the 25th, at dusk, that rainy Sunday, fell
+   quietly asleep in my arms.
+
+   She was very happy all day, thinking herself a girl again, with
+   parents and sisters round her. Said her Sunday hymn to me, whom
+   she called "Mother," and smiled at us, saying, "A smile is as
+   good as a prayer." Looked often at the little picture of May, and
+   waved her hand to it, "Good-by, little May, good-by!"
+
+   Her last words to Father were, "You are laying a very soft pillow
+   for me to go to sleep on."
+
+   We feared great suffering, but she was spared that, and slipped
+   peacefully away. I was so glad when the last weary breath was
+   drawn, and silence came, with its rest and peace.
+
+   On the 27th it was necessary to bury her, and we took her quietly
+   away to Sleepy Hollow. A hard day, but the last duty we could do
+   for her; and there we left her at sunset beside dear Lizzie's
+   dust,--alone so long.
+
+   On the 28th a memorial service, and all the friends at
+   Anna's,--Dr. Bartol and Mr. Foote of Stone Chapel. A simple,
+   cheerful service, as she would have liked it.
+
+   Quiet days afterward resting in her rest.
+
+   My duty is done, and now I shall be glad to follow her.
+
+   _December._--Many kind letters from all who best knew and loved
+   the noble woman.
+
+   I never wish her back, but a great warmth seems gone out of life,
+   and there is no motive to go on now.
+
+   My only comfort is that I _could_ make her last years
+   comfortable, and lift off the burden she had carried so bravely
+   all these years. She was so loyal, tender, and true; life was
+   hard for her, and no one understood all she had to bear but we,
+   her children. I think I shall soon follow her, and am quite
+   ready to go now she no longer needs me.
+
+   _January_, 1878.--An idle month at Nan's, for I can only suffer.
+
+   Father goes about, being restless with his anchor gone. Dear Nan
+   is house-mother now,--so patient, so thoughtful and tender; I
+   need nothing but that cherishing which only mothers can give.
+
+   May busy in London. Very sad about Marmee; but it was best not to
+   send for her, and Marmee forbade it, and she has some very
+   _tender friends_ near her.
+
+   _February._--... Wrote some lines on Marmee.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Dodge._
+
+     CONCORD, June 3 [1877].
+
+   DEAR MRS. DODGE,--The tale[14] goes slowly owing to
+   interruptions, for summer is a busy time, and I get few quiet
+   days. Twelve chapters are done, but are short ones, and so will
+   make about six or seven numbers in "St. Nicholas."
+
+   I will leave them divided in this way that you may put in as many
+   as you please each month; for trying to suit the magazine hurts
+   the story in its book form, though this way does no harm to the
+   monthly parts, I think.
+
+   I will send you the first few chapters during the week for Mrs.
+   Foote, and with them the schedule you suggest, so that my infants
+   may not be drawn with whiskers, and my big boys and girls in
+   pinafores, as in "Eight Cousins."
+
+   I hope the new baby won't be set aside too soon for my
+   illustrations; but I do feel a natural wish to have one story
+   prettily adorned with good pictures, as hitherto artists have
+   much afflicted me.
+
+   I am daily waiting with anxiety for an illumination of some sort,
+   as my plot is very vague so far; and though I don't approve of
+   "sensations" in children's books, one must have a certain thread
+   on which to string the small events which make up the true sort
+   of child-life.
+
+   I intend to go and simmer an afternoon at Van Amburg's great
+   show, that I may get hints for the further embellishment of Ben
+   and his dog. I have also put in a poem by F. B. S.'s small
+   son,[15] and that hit will give Mrs. Foote a good scene with the
+   six-year-old poet reciting his verses under the lilacs.
+
+   I shall expect the small tots to be unusually good, since the
+   artist has a live model to study from. Please present my
+   congratulations to the happy mamma and Mr. Foote, Jr.
+
+     Yours _warmly_,
+     L. M. A.
+
+     AUGUST 21, 1879.
+
+   DEAR MRS. DODGE,--I have not been able to do anything on the
+   serial.... But after a week at the seaside, to get braced up for
+   work, I intend to begin. The Revolutionary tale does not seem to
+   possess me. I have casually asked many of my young folks, when
+   they demand a new story, which they would like, one of that sort
+   or the old "Eight Cousin" style, and they all say the latter. It
+   would be much the easier to do, as I have a beginning and a plan
+   all ready,--a village, and the affairs of a party of children. We
+   have many little romances going on among the Concord boys and
+   girls, and all sorts of queer things, which will work into "Jack
+   and Jill" nicely. Mrs. Croly has been anxious for a story, and I
+   am trying to do a short one, as I told her you had the refusal
+   of my next serial. I hope you will not be very much disappointed
+   about the old-time tale. It would take study to do it well, and
+   leisure is just what I have not got, and I shall never have, I
+   fear, when writing is to be done. I will send you a few chapters
+   of "Jack and Jill" when in order, if you like, and you can decide
+   if they will suit. I shall try to have it unlike the others if
+   possible, but the dears _will_ cling to the "Little Women" style.
+
+   I have had a very busy summer, but have been pretty well, and
+   able to do my part in entertaining the four hundred philosophers.
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+     SEPTEMBER 17 [1879].
+
+   DEAR MRS. DODGE,--Don't let me _prose_. If I seem to be declining
+   and falling into it, pull me up, and I'll try to prance as of
+   old. Years tame down one's spirit and fancy, though they only
+   deepen one's love for the little people, and strengthen the
+   desire to serve them wisely as well as cheerfully. Fathers and
+   mothers tell me they use my books as helps for themselves; so now
+   and then I like to slip in a page for them, fresh from the
+   experience of some other parent, for education seems to me to be
+   _the_ problem in our times.
+
+   Jack and Jill are right out of our own little circle, and the
+   boys and girls are in a twitter to know what is going in; so it
+   will be a "truly story" in the main.
+
+   Such a long note for a busy woman to read! but your cheery word
+   was my best "starter;" and I'm, more than ever,
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+MAY ALCOTT NIERIKER.
+
+   Born at Concord, July, 1840. Died in Paris, December, 1879.
+
+This younger sister became so dear to Louisa, and through the legacy
+which she left to her of an infant child, exercised so great an
+influence over the last ten years of her life, that it will not be
+uninteresting to trace out the course of her life and the development
+of her character. May was born before the experiments at Fruitlands,
+and her childhood passed during the period when the fortunes of the
+family were at the lowest ebb; but she was too young to feel in all
+their fulness the cares which weighed upon the older sisters. Her
+oldest sister--the affectionate, practical Anna--almost adopted May as
+her own baby, and gave her a great deal of the attention and care
+which the mother had not time for amid her numerous avocations. The
+child clung to Anna with trust and affection; but with her quick fancy
+and lively spirit, she admired the brilliant qualities of Louisa.
+Hasty in temperament, quick and impulsive in action, she quarrelled
+with Louisa while she adored her, and was impatient with her rebukes,
+which yet had great influence over her. She had a more facile nature
+than the other sisters, and a natural, girlish love of attention, and
+a romantic fondness for beauty in person and style in living. Graceful
+in figure and manners, with a fine complexion, blue eyes, and a
+profusion of light wavy hair, she was attractive in appearance; and a
+childish frankness, and acceptance of sympathy or criticism, disarmed
+those who were disposed to find fault with her.
+
+May is very truly described in "Little Women," and her character is
+painted with a discerning but loving hand: "A regular snow maiden,
+with blue eyes, and yellow hair curling on her shoulders, pale and
+slender, and always carrying herself like a young lady mindful of her
+manners." Many little touches of description show the consciousness of
+appearance and love of admiration which she innocently betrayed, and
+illustrate the relation of the sisters: "'Don't stop to quirk your
+little finger and prink over your plate, Amy,' cried Jo." Her mother
+says of this daughter in her diary: "She does all things well; her
+capabilities are much in her eyes and fingers. When a child, I
+observed with what ease and grace she did little things."
+
+According to Louisa, "If anybody had asked Amy what the greatest trial
+of her life was, she would have answered at once, 'My nose.' No one
+minded it but herself, and it was doing its best to grow; but Amy felt
+deeply the want of a Grecian nose, and drew whole sheets of handsome
+ones to console herself." "Little Raphael," as the sisters called her,
+very early developed a love and talent for drawing which became the
+delight of her life. She covered her books with sketches, but managed
+to escape reprimand by being a model of deportment. Always having in
+her mind an ideal of elegant life, the many little trials of their
+times of poverty were of course severe mortifications to her; and the
+necessity of wearing dresses which came to her from others, and which
+were ugly in themselves or out of harmony with her own appearance,
+caused her much affliction. She was always generous and easily
+reconciled after a quarrel, and was a favorite with her companions,
+and the heroine of those innocent little love episodes which, as
+Tennyson says,--
+
+                 "Are but embassies of love
+     To tamper with the feelings, ere he found
+     Empire for life."[16]
+
+While May was too young to take the part in the support of the family
+which fell to Anna and Louisa, she was yet a blessing and comfort by
+her kind, bright nature. After the death of Elizabeth in 1858, her
+mother speaks of "turning to the little May for comfort," and her
+father's letters show how dear she was to him, although she never
+entered into his intellectual life.
+
+May shared in the blessing of Louisa's first success, for she went to
+the School of Design in 1859 for the lessons in her art, for which she
+longed so eagerly. In 1860 an old friend sent her thirty dollars for
+lessons in drawing, and she had the best instruction she could then
+receive in Boston.
+
+In 1863, Louisa procured for her the great advantage of study with Dr.
+Rimmer, who was then giving his precious lessons in art anatomy in
+Boston. Under his instructions, May gave some attention to modelling,
+and completed an ideal bust. Although she did not pursue this branch
+of art, it was undoubtedly of great service in giving her more
+thorough knowledge of the head, and a bolder and firmer style of
+drawing than she would have gained in any other way.
+
+As will be seen from Louisa's journal, May was frequently with her in
+Boston, engaged in studying or teaching. By the kindness of a friend,
+she went to Europe in 1870, when Louisa accompanied her. Louisa sent
+her to Europe for a year of study in 1873, and again in 1877. In
+London and Paris she had good opportunities for study, and improved
+rapidly in her art. She made some admirable copies from Turner which
+attracted the attention of Ruskin; and a picture from still life was
+accepted at the Paris Salon, which event gave great happiness to the
+family circle and friends at home.
+
+May was very generous in giving to others help in the art she loved.
+While at home, in the intervals of her studies in Europe, she tried to
+form an art centre in Concord, and freely gave her time, her
+instruction, and the use of her studio to young artists. She wrote a
+little book to aid them in prosecuting their studies abroad, called
+"Studying Art Abroad, and How to do it Cheaply."
+
+Like the rest of the family, May composed with great ease, and
+sometimes wrote little stories. Her letters are very sprightly and
+agreeable.
+
+While residing in London, May had become acquainted with a young Swiss
+gentleman, whose refined and artistic tastes were closely in unison
+with her own. During the sad days of bereavement caused by her
+mother's death he was a kind and sympathetic friend, soothing her
+grief and cheering her solitude by his music. Thus, frequently
+together, their friendship became love, and they were betrothed. The
+course of this true love, which for a time ran swiftly and smoothly,
+is most exquisitely depicted in May's letters to her family. The
+charming pictures of herself and her young lover are so like Amy and
+her Laurie in his happiest moods, that we almost feel as if Miss
+Alcott had been prophetic in her treatment of these characters in
+"Little Women."
+
+I wish I could give her own natural, frank account of this event. May
+had the secret of perpetual youth, at least in spirit; and in reading
+her letters, one has no consciousness that more than thirty years had
+passed over her head, for they had taken no drop of freshness from her
+heart.
+
+The union of this happy pair was not a surprise to the friends at
+home, who had read May's heart, revealed in her frank, innocent
+letters, more clearly than she had supposed. When the claims of
+business called Mr. Nieriker from London, the hearts of the young
+couple quailed before the idea of separation, and they decided to be
+married at once, and go together. The simple ceremony was performed in
+London, March 22, 1878; and May started on her journey, no longer
+alone, but with a loving friend by her side.
+
+May's letters are full of the most artless joy in her new life. The
+old days of struggle and penury are gone; the heart-loneliness is no
+more; the world is beautiful, and everybody loving and kind. Life in
+the modest French home is an idyllic dream, and she writes to her
+sisters of every detail of her household. The return of her husband at
+sunset is a feast, and the evening is delightful with poetry and
+music. Her blue dress, her crimson furniture, satisfy her artistic
+sense. She does not neglect her art, but paints with fresh
+inspiration, and waits for his criticism and praise. She says, "He is
+very ambitious for my artistic success, and is my most severe critic."
+In the morning she finds her easel set out for her, a fire burning
+ready for her comfort, and her husband in the big arm-chair waiting to
+read to her, or to take his violin and pose for his picture in gray
+velvet paletot and red slippers.[17]
+
+For the time conjugal love is all sufficient, and May wonders at
+herself that the happiness of the moment can so drown every
+remembrance of sorrow. Yet a pathetic note is occasionally heard, as
+she mourns for the mother who is gone, or yearns for the sister who
+has been such a strength to her through life. The picturesqueness and
+ease of French life make America look stupid and forlorn, and she has
+no wish to go home, but only to have her dear ones share in her
+happiness. Her work in art was successful; and the money she received
+for it was not unacceptable, although her husband's income sufficed
+for their modest wants. She was justified in her grateful feeling that
+she was singularly blessed. Her husband's family were German-Swiss of
+high standing, artistic temperament, and warm affections. His mother
+and sister came to visit them, and took May to their hearts with
+cordial love.
+
+Among the pictures painted by May at this time the most remarkable is
+the portrait of a negro girl, which is a very faithful study from
+life, and gives the color and characteristic traits of a beautiful
+negro without exaggeration. The expression of the eyes is tender and
+pathetic, well-suited to the fate of a slave girl. Such earnest study
+would have borne richer fruit if longer life had been hers.
+
+May's own nature seems to have blossomed out like a flower in this
+sunny climate. In her youth at home she was impulsive, affectionate,
+and generous, but quick in temper and sometimes exacting; but the
+whole impression she made upon her husband and his family was of grace
+and sweetness, and she herself declares that her sisters at home would
+not recognize her, she has "become so sweet in this atmosphere of
+happiness."
+
+We would gladly linger over these records of a paradisiacal home where
+Adam and Eve renewed their innocent loves and happy labors. When
+musing over the sorrows of humanity it refreshes us to know that such
+joy is possible, and needs only love and simple hearts to make it
+real.
+
+May's note of happiness is touchingly echoed from the heart of her
+bereaved father, who recalls the days of his own courtship. He
+cherished every tender word from her; and the respectful and loving
+words of his new son, to whom he responds affectionately, were like
+balm to his stricken heart.
+
+May's joy was heightened by the expectation of motherhood. Her health
+was excellent, and she had the loving care of her new mother and
+sister. The anxious family at home received the news of the birth of a
+daughter with heartfelt delight. It was a great disappointment to
+Louisa that she could not be with her sister at this time; but her
+health was not equal to the voyage, and she felt that May had most
+loving and sufficient care. An American friend in Paris kindly wrote
+to Louisa full details of the little niece and of the mother's
+condition. "It is difficult," she says, "to say which of that happy
+household is the proudest over that squirming bit of humanity."
+
+For about two weeks all seemed well; but alarming symptoms began to
+appear, and the mother's strength failed rapidly. The brain was the
+seat of disease; and she was generally unconscious, although she had
+intervals of apparent improvement, when she recognized her friends.
+She passed away peacefully December 29, 1879.
+
+An American clergyman in Paris took charge of the funeral service,
+which according to May's expressed desire was very simple, and she was
+laid in the tranquil cemetery of Montrouge outside of the
+fortifications.
+
+Foreseeing the possibility of a fatal termination to her illness, May
+had made every preparation for the event, and obtained a promise from
+her sister-in-law that she would carry the baby to Louisa to receive
+the devoted care that she knew would be given it. The child became a
+source of great comfort to Miss Alcott as will be seen from the
+journals. After her death Mr. Nieriker visited his little girl in
+America, and in June, 1889, her aunt took her to his home in Zurich,
+Switzerland.
+
+Before the sad letters describing May's illness could reach America,
+came the cable message of her death. It was sent to Mr. Emerson, the
+never-failing friend of the family, who bore it to Louisa, her father
+being temporarily absent. His thoughtfulness softened the blow as much
+as human tenderness could, but still it fell with crushing weight upon
+them all.
+
+The father and sister could not sleep, and in the watches of the night
+he wrote that touching ode, the cry of paternal love and grief
+entitled "Love's Morrow."
+
+
+_To Mrs. Bond._
+
+     CONCORD, Jan. 1, 1880.
+
+   DEAR AUNTIE,--It is hard to add one more sorrow to your already
+   full heart, particularly one of this sort, but I did not want you
+   to hear it from any one but us. Dear May is dead. Gone to begin
+   the new year with Mother, in a world where I hope there is no
+   grief like this. Gone just when she seemed safest and happiest,
+   after nearly two years of such sweet satisfaction and love that
+   she wrote us, "If I die when baby comes, remember I have been so
+   unspeakably happy for a year that I ought to be content...."
+
+   And it is all over. The good mother and sister have done
+   everything in the most devoted way. We can never repay them. My
+   May gave me her little Lulu, and in the spring I hope to get my
+   sweet legacy. Meantime the dear grandma takes her to a home full
+   of loving friends and she is safe. I will write more when we
+   know, but the cruel sea divides us and we must wait.
+
+   Bless you dear Auntie for all your love for May; she never forgot
+   it, nor do we.
+
+     Yours ever,
+     LOUISA.
+
+     JANUARY 4.
+
+   DEAR AUNTIE,--I have little further news to tell, but it seems to
+   comfort me to answer the shower of tender sympathetic letters
+   that each mail brings us....
+
+   So we must wait to learn how the end came at last, where the dear
+   dust is to lie, and how soon the desolate little home is to be
+   broken up. It only remains for May's baby to be taken away to
+   fill our cup to overflowing. But perhaps it would be best so, for
+   even in Heaven with Mother, I know May will yearn for the darling
+   so ardently desired, so tenderly welcomed, bought at such a
+   price.
+
+   In all the troubles of my life I never had one so hard to bear,
+   for the sudden fall from such high happiness to such a depth of
+   sorrow finds me unprepared to accept or bear it as I ought.
+
+   Sometime I shall know why such things are; till then must try to
+   trust and wait and hope as you do.... Sorrow has its lonely side,
+   and sympathy is so sweet it takes half its bitterness away.
+
+     Yours ever,
+     L.
+
+After May's marriage and death Louisa remained awhile in Concord,
+trying to forget her grief in care for others. She went to the prison
+in Concord, and told a story to the prisoners which touched their
+hearts, and was long remembered by some of them.
+
+She wrote some short stories for "St Nicholas," among them "Jimmy's
+Cruise in the Pinafore," called out by the acting of the popular opera
+of that name by a juvenile troupe.
+
+She spent some weeks at Willow Cottage, Magnolia, which she has
+described in her popular story of "Jack and Jill." The scene of the
+story is mostly laid in Concord, or "Harmony" as she calls it, and she
+has introduced many familiar scenes and persons into the book.
+
+This summer, too, the long-dreamed of School of Philosophy was
+established. The opening of the School was a great event to Mr.
+Alcott, as it was the realization of the dream of years. Louisa
+enjoyed his gratification, and took pains to help him to reap full
+satisfaction from it. She carried flowers to grace the opening
+meeting, and was friendly to his guests. She occasionally attended
+lectures given by her friends,--Dr. Bartol, Mrs. Howe, and
+others,--and she could not fail to enjoy meeting many of the bright
+people who congregated there; but she did not care for the speculative
+philosophy. Her keen sense of humor led her to see all that was
+incongruous or funny or simply novel in the bearing of the
+philosophers. She felt that her father had too much of the trying
+details, and perhaps did not appreciate how much joy of recognition it
+brought him. She had not much faith in the practical success of the
+experiment. Philosophy was much associated in her mind with early
+poverty and suffering, and she did not feel its charms. She was
+usually at the seashore at this season, as she suffered from the heat
+at Concord. Frequent allusions to the school appear in her journal.
+The following anecdote is given by a friend.
+
+"It was at Concord on Emerson day. After a morning with Bartol and
+Alcott and Mrs. Howe, I lunched with the Alcotts', who had for guest
+the venerable Dr. McCosh. Naturally the conversation turned on the
+events of the morning. 'I was thinking,' said the Doctor, 'as I looked
+among your audience, that there were no young men; and that with none
+but old men your school would soon die with them. By the way, madam,'
+he continued, addressing Miss Alcott, 'will you tell me what is your
+definition of a philosopher?'
+
+"The reply came instantly, 'My definition is of a man up in a balloon,
+with his family and friends holding the ropes which confine him to
+earth and trying to haul him down.'
+
+"The laugh which followed this reply was heartily joined in by the
+philosopher himself."
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _March_, 1878.--A happy event,--May's marriage to Ernest
+   Nieriker, the "tender friend" who has consoled her for Marmee's
+   loss, as John consoled Nan for Beth's. He is a Swiss, handsome,
+   cultivated, and good; an excellent family living in Baden, and E.
+   has a good business. May is old enough to choose for herself, and
+   seems so happy in the new relation that we have nothing to say
+   against it.
+
+   They were privately married on the 22d, and went to Havre for the
+   honeymoon, as E. had business in France; so they hurried the
+   wedding. Send her $1,000 as a gift, and all good wishes for the
+   new life.
+
+   _April._--Happy letters from May, who is enjoying life as one can
+   but once. E. writes finely to Father, and is a son to welcome I
+   am sure. May sketches and E. attends to his business by day, and
+   both revel in music in the evening, as E. is a fine violin
+   player.
+
+   How different our lives are just now!--I so lonely, sad, and
+   sick; she so happy, well, and blest. She always had the cream of
+   things, and deserved it. My time is yet to come somewhere else,
+   when I am ready for it.
+
+   Anna clears out the old house; for we shall never go back to it;
+   it ceased to be "home" when Marmee left it.
+
+   I dawdle about, and wait to see if I am to live or die. If I
+   live, it is for some new work. I wonder what?
+
+   _May._--Begin to drive a little, and enjoy the spring. Nature is
+   always good to me.
+
+   May settles in her own house at Meudon,--a pretty apartment, with
+   balcony, garden, etc.... I plan and hope to go to them, if I am
+   ever well enough, and find new inspiration in a new life. May and
+   E. urge it, and I long to go, but cannot risk the voyage yet. I
+   doubt if I ever find time to lead my own life, or health to try
+   it.
+
+   _June and July._--Improving fast, in spite of dark predictions
+   and forebodings. The Lord has more work for me, so I am spared.
+
+   Tried to write a memoir of Marmee; but it is too soon, and I am
+   not well enough.
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   May has had the new mother and brother-in-law with her, and finds
+   them most interesting and lovable. They seem very proud of her,
+   and happy in her happiness. Bright times for our youngest! May
+   they last!
+
+   [They did.--L. M. A.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+   Got nicely ready to go to May in September; but at the last
+   moment gave it up, fearing to undo all the good this weary year
+   of ease has done for me, and be a burden on her. A great
+   disappointment; but I've learned to wait. I long to see her happy
+   in her own home.
+
+   Nan breaks her leg; so it is well I stayed, as there was no one
+   to take her place but me. Always a little chore to be done.
+
+   _October, November._--Nan improved. Rode, nursed, kept house, and
+   tried to be contented, but was not. Make no plans for myself now;
+   do what I can, and should be glad not to have to sit idle any
+   longer.
+
+   On the 8th, Marmee's birthday, Father and I went to Sleepy Hollow
+   with red leaves and flowers for her. A cold, dull day, and I was
+   glad there was no winter for her any more.
+
+   _November 25th._--A year since our beloved Marmee died. A very
+   eventful year. May marries, I live instead of dying, Father comes
+   to honor in his old age, and Nan makes her home our refuge when
+   we need one.
+
+   _December._--A busy time. Nan gets about again. I am so well I
+   wonder at myself, and ask no more.
+
+   Write a tale for the "Independent," and begin on an art novel,
+   with May's romance for its thread. Went to B. for some weeks, and
+   looked about to see what I could venture to do....
+
+   So ends 1878,--a great contrast to last December. Then I thought
+   I was done with life; now I can enjoy a good deal, and wait to
+   see what I am spared to do. Thank God for both the sorrow and the
+   joy.
+
+   _January_, 1879.--At the Bellevue in my little room writing.
+
+   Got two books well started, but had too many interruptions to do
+   much, and dared not get into a vortex for fear of a break-down.
+
+   Went about and saw people, and tried to be jolly. Did Jarley for
+   a fair, also for Authors' Carnival at Music Hall. A queer time;
+   too old for such pranks. A sad heart and a used-up body make play
+   hard work, I find.
+
+   Read "Mary Wollstonecraft," "Dosia," "Danieli," "Helene," etc. I
+   like Greville's books.
+
+   Invest $1,000 for Fred's schooling, etc. Johnny has his $1,000
+   also safely in the bank for his education and any emergency.
+
+   _February._--Home to Concord rather used up. Find a very quiet
+   life is best; for in B. people beset me to do things, and I try,
+   and get so tired I cannot work. Dr. C. says rest is my salvation;
+   so I rest. Hope for Paris in the spring, as May begs me to come.
+   She is leading what she calls "an ideal life,"--painting, music,
+   love, and the world shut out. People wonder and gossip; but M.
+   and E. laugh and are happy. Wise people to enjoy this lovely
+   time!
+
+   Went to a dinner, at the Revere House, of the Papyrus Club. Mrs.
+   Burnett and Miss A. were guests of honor. Dr. Holmes took me in,
+   and to my surprise I found myself at the president's right hand,
+   with Mrs. B., Holmes, Stedman, and the great ones of the land.
+   Had a gay time. Dr. H. very gallant. "Little Women" often toasted
+   with more praise than was good for me.
+
+   Saw Mrs. B. at a lunch, and took her and Mrs. M. M. Dodge to
+   Concord for a lunch. Most agreeable women.
+
+   A visit at H. W.'s. Mission time at Church of the Advent. Father
+   Knox-Little preached, and waked up the sinners. H. hoped to
+   convert me, and took me to see Father K.-L., a very interesting
+   man, and we had a pleasant talk; but I found that we meant the
+   same thing, though called by different names; and his religion
+   had too much ceremony about it to suit me. So he gave me his
+   blessing, and promised to send me some books.
+
+   [Never did.--L. M. A.]
+
+   Pleasant times with my "rainy-day friend," as I call Dr. W. She
+   is a great comfort to me, with her healthy common-sense and
+   tender patience, aside from skill as a doctor and beauty as a
+   woman. I love her much, and she does me good.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+   Happy letters from May. Her hopes of a little son or daughter in
+   the autumn give us new plans to talk over. I _must_ be well
+   enough to go to her then.
+
+   _April._--Very poorly and cross; so tired of being a prisoner to
+   pain. Long for the old strength when I could do what I liked, and
+   never knew I had a body. Life not worth living in this way; but
+   having over-worked the wonderful machine, I must pay for it, and
+   should not growl, I suppose, as it is just.
+
+   To B. to see Dr. S. Told me I was better than she ever dreamed I
+   could be, and need not worry. So took heart, and tried to be
+   cheerful, in spite of aches and nerves. Warm weather comforted
+   me, and green grass did me good.
+
+   Put a fence round A.'s garden. Bought a phaeton, so I might
+   drive, as I cannot walk much, and Father loves to take his guests
+   about.
+
+   _May and June._--Go to B. for a week, but don't enjoy seeing
+   people. Do errands, and go home again. Saw "Pinafore;" a pretty
+   play.
+
+   Much company.
+
+   E.'s looked at the Orchard House and liked it; will hire it,
+   probably. Hope so, as it is forlorn standing empty. I never go by
+   without looking up at Marmee's window, where the dear face used
+   to be, and May's, with the picturesque vines round it. No
+   golden-haired, blue-gowned Diana ever appears now; she sits
+   happily sewing baby-clothes in Paris. Enjoyed fitting out a box
+   of dainty things to send her. Even lonely old spinsters take an
+   interest in babies.
+
+   _June._--A poor month. Try to forget my own worries, and enjoy
+   the fine weather, my little carriage, and good friends. Souls are
+   such slaves to bodies it is hard to keep up out of the slough of
+   despond when nerves jangle and flesh aches.
+
+   Went with Father on Sunday to the prison, and told the men a
+   story. Thought I could not face four hundred at first; but after
+   looking at them during the sermon, I felt that I could at least
+   _amuse_ them, and they evidently needed something new. So I told
+   a hospital story with a little moral to it, and was so interested
+   in watching the faces of some young men near me, who drank in
+   every word, that I forgot myself, and talked away "like a
+   mother." One put his head down, and another winked hard, so I
+   felt that I had caught them; for even one tear in that dry, hard
+   place would do them good. Miss McC. and Father said it was well
+   done, and I felt quite proud of my first speech. [Sequel later.]
+
+   _July._--Wrote a little tale called "Jimmy's Cruise in the
+   Pinafore," for "St. Nicholas;" $100.
+
+   _14th._--The philosophers begin to swarm, and the buzz starts
+   to-morrow. How much honey will be made is still doubtful, but the
+   hive is ready and drones also.
+
+   On the 15th, the School of Philosophy began in the study at
+   Orchard House,--thirty students; Father, the dean. He has his
+   dream realized at last, and is in glory, with plenty of talk to
+   swim in. People laugh, but will enjoy something new in this dull
+   old town; and the fresh Westerners will show them that all the
+   culture of the world is not in Concord. I had a private laugh
+   when Mrs. ---- asked one of the new-comers, with her superior
+   air, if she had ever looked into Plato. And the modest lady from
+   Jacksonville answered, with a twinkle at me, "We have been
+   reading Plato in _Greek_ for the past six years." Mrs. ----
+   subsided after that.
+
+   [Oh, wicked L. M. A., who hates sham and loves a joke.--L. M. A.]
+
+   Was the first woman to register my name as a voter.
+
+   _August._--To B. with a new "Scrap Bag." "Jimmy" to the fore.
+   Wrote a little tale.
+
+   The town swarms with budding philosophers, and they roost on our
+   steps like hens waiting for corn. Father revels in it, so we keep
+   the hotel going, and try to look as if we liked it. If they were
+   philanthropists, I should enjoy it; but speculation seems a waste
+   of time when there is so much real work crying to be done. Why
+   discuss the "unknowable" till our poor are fed and the wicked
+   saved?
+
+   A young poet from New York came; nice boy.
+
+   Sixteen callers to-day. Trying to stir up the women about
+   suffrage; so timid and slow.
+
+   Happy letters from May. Sophie N. is with her now. All well in
+   the Paris nest.
+
+   Passed a week in Magnolia with Mrs. H. School ended for this
+   year. Hallelujah!
+
+   _September._--Home from the seaside refreshed, and go to work on
+   a new serial for "St. Nicholas,"--"Jack and Jill." Have no plan
+   yet but a boy, a girl, and a sled, with an upset to start with.
+   Vague idea of working in Concord young folks and their doings.
+   After two years of rest, I am going to try again; it is so easy
+   to make money now, and so pleasant to have it to give. A chapter
+   a day is my task, and not that if I feel tired. No more fourteen
+   hours a day; make haste slowly now.
+
+   Drove about and drummed up women to my suffrage meeting. So hard
+   to move people out of the old ruts. I haven't patience enough;
+   if they won't see and work, I let 'em alone, and steam along my
+   own way.
+
+   May sent some nice little letters of an "Artist's Holiday," and I
+   had them printed; also a book for artists abroad,--very useful,
+   and well done.
+
+   Eight chapters done. Too much company for work.
+
+   _October 8th._--Dear Marmee's birthday. Never forgotten. Lovely
+   day. Go to Sleepy Hollow with flowers. Her grave is green;
+   blackberry vines with red leaves trail over it. A little white
+   stone with her initials is at the head, and among the tall grass
+   over her breast a little bird had made a nest; empty now, but a
+   pretty symbol of the refuge that tender bosom always was for all
+   feeble and sweet things. Her favorite asters bloomed all about,
+   and the pines sang overhead. So she and dear Beth are quietly
+   asleep in God's acre, and we remember them more tenderly with
+   each year that brings us nearer them and home.
+
+   Went with Dr. W. to the Woman's Prison, at Sherburne. A lovely
+   drive, and very remarkable day and night. Read a story to the
+   four hundred women, and heard many interesting tales. A much
+   better place than Concord Prison, with its armed wardens, and
+   "knock down and drag out" methods. Only women here, and they work
+   wonders by patience, love, common-sense, and the belief in
+   salvation for all.
+
+   First proof from Scribner of "Jack and Jill." Mrs. D. likes the
+   story, so I peg away very slowly. Put in Elly D. as one of my
+   boys. The nearer I keep to nature, the better the work is. Young
+   people much interested in the story, and all want to "go in." I
+   shall have a hornet's nest about me if all are not _angels_.
+
+   Father goes West.
+
+   I mourn much because all say I must not go to May; not safe; and
+   I cannot add to Mamma Nieriker's cares at this time by another
+   invalid, as the voyage would upset me, I am so sea-sick.
+
+   Give up my hope and long-cherished plan with grief. May sadly
+   disappointed. I know I shall wish I had gone; it is my luck.
+
+   _November._--Went to Boston for a month, as some solace for my
+   great disappointment. Take my room at the Bellevue, and go about
+   a little. Write on "J. and J." Anxious about May.
+
+   _8th._--Little Louisa May Nieriker arrived in Paris at 9 p. m.,
+   after a short journey. All doing well. Much rejoicing. Nice
+   little lass, and May very happy. Ah, if I had only been there!
+   Too much happiness for me.
+
+   _25th._--Two years since Marmee went. How she would have enjoyed
+   the little granddaughter, and all May's romance! Perhaps she
+   does.
+
+   Went home on my birthday (forty-seven). Tried to have a little
+   party for Nan and the boys, but it was rather hard work.
+
+   Not well enough to write much, so give up my room. Can lie round
+   at home, and it's cheaper.
+
+   _December._--May not doing well. The weight on my heart is not
+   all imagination. She was too happy to have it last, and I fear
+   the end is coming. Hope it is my nerves; but this peculiar
+   feeling has never misled me before.
+
+   Invited to the breakfast to O. W. H. No heart to go.
+
+   _8th._--Little Lu one month old. Small, but lively. Oh, if I
+   could only be there to see,--to help! This is a penance for all
+   my sins. Such a tugging at my heart to be by poor May, alone, so
+   far away. The N.'s are devoted, and all is done that can be; but
+   not one of her "very own" is there.
+
+   Father came home.
+
+   _29th._--May died at 8 a. m., after three weeks of fever and
+   stupor. Happy and painless most of the time. At Mr. W.'s funeral
+   on the 30th, I _felt_ the truth before the news came.
+
+   _Wednesday, 31st._--A dark day for us. A telegram from Ernest to
+   Mr. Emerson tells us "May is dead." Anna was gone to B.; Father
+   to the post-office, anxious for letters, the last being overdue.
+   I was alone when Mr. E. came. E. sent to him, knowing I was
+   feeble, and hoping Mr. E. would soften the blow. I found him
+   looking at May's portrait, pale and tearful, with the paper in
+   his hand. "My child, I wish I could prepare you; but alas, alas!"
+   There his voice failed, and he gave me the telegram.
+
+   I was not surprised, and read the hard words as if I knew it all
+   before. "I _am_ prepared," I said, and thanked him. He was much
+   moved and very tender. I shall remember gratefully the look, the
+   grasp, the tears he gave me; and I am sure that hard moment was
+   made bearable by the presence of this our best and tenderest
+   friend. He went to find Father but missed him, and I had to tell
+   both him and Anna when they came. A very bitter sorrow for all.
+
+   The dear baby may comfort E., but what can comfort us? It is the
+   distance that is so hard, and the thought of so much happiness
+   ended so soon. "Two years of perfect happiness" May called these
+   married years, and said, "If I die when baby comes, don't mourn,
+   for I have had as much happiness in this short time as many in
+   twenty years." She wished me to have her baby and her pictures. A
+   very precious legacy! Rich payment for the little I could do for
+   her. I see now why I lived,--to care for May's child and not
+   leave Anna all alone.
+
+   _January 1st_, 1880.--A sad day mourning for May. Of all the
+   trials in my life I never felt any so keenly as this, perhaps
+   because I am so feeble in health that I cannot bear it well. It
+   seems so hard to break up that happy little home and take May
+   just when life was richest, and to leave me who had done my task
+   and could well be spared. Shall I ever know why such things
+   happen?
+
+   Letters came telling us all the sad story. May was unconscious
+   during the last weeks, and seemed not to suffer. Spoke now and
+   then of "getting ready for Louy," and asked if she had come. All
+   was done that love and skill could do, but in vain. E. is
+   broken-hearted, and good Madame N. and Sophie find their only
+   solace in the poor baby.
+
+   May felt a foreboding, and left all ready in case she died. Some
+   trunks packed for us, some for the N. sisters. Her diary written
+   up, all in order. Even chose the graveyard where she wished to
+   be, out of the city. E. obeys all her wishes sacredly.
+
+   Tried to write on "J. and J." to distract my mind; but the wave
+   of sorrow kept rolling over me, and I could only weep and wait
+   till the tide ebbed again.
+
+   _February._--More letters from E. and Madame N. Like us, they
+   find comfort in writing of the dear soul gone, now there is
+   nothing more to do for her. I cannot make it true that our May is
+   dead, lying far away in a strange grave, leaving a husband and
+   child whom we have never seen. It all reads like a pretty
+   romance, now death hath set its seal on these two happy years;
+   and we shall never know all that she alone could tell us.
+
+   Many letters from friends in France, England, and America, full
+   of sympathy for us, and love and pride and gratitude for May,
+   who was always glad to help, forgive, and love every one. It is
+   our only consolation now.
+
+   Father and I cannot sleep, but he and I make verses as we did
+   when Marmee died. Our grief seems to flow into words. He writes
+   "Love's Morrow" and "Our Madonna."
+
+   Lulu has gone to Baden with Grandmamma.
+
+   Finish "J. and J." The world goes on in spite of sorrow, and I
+   must do my work. Both these last serials were written with a
+   heavy heart,--"Under the Lilacs" when Marmee was failing, and
+   "Jack and Jill" while May was dying. Hope the grief did not get
+   into them.
+
+   Hear R. W. E. lecture for his one hundredth time. Mary Clemmer
+   writes for a sketch of my life for a book of "Famous Women."
+   Don't belong there.
+
+   Read "Memoirs of Madame de Remusat." Not very interesting.
+   Beauties seldom amount to much. Plain Margaret Fuller was worth a
+   dozen of them. "Kings in Exile," a most interesting book, a very
+   vivid and terrible picture of Parisian life and royal weakness
+   and sorrow.
+
+   Put papers, etc., in order. I feel as if one should be ready to
+   go at any moment....
+
+   _March._--A box came from May, with pictures, clothes, vases, her
+   ornaments, a little work-basket, and, in one of her own sepia
+   boxes, her pretty hair tied with blue ribbon,--all that is now
+   left us of this bright soul but the baby, soon to come. Treasures
+   all.
+
+   A sad day, and many tears dropped on the dear dress, the blue
+   slippers she last wore, the bit of work she laid down when the
+   call came the evening Lulu was born. The fur-lined sack feels
+   like May's arms round me, and I shall wear it with pleasure. The
+   pictures show us her great progress these last years.
+
+   To Boston for a few days on business, and to try to forget. Got
+   gifts for Anna's birthday on the 16th,--forty-nine years old. My
+   only sister now, and the best God ever made. Repaired her house
+   for her.
+
+   Lulu is not to come till autumn. Great disappointment; but it is
+   wiser to wait, as summer is bad for a young baby to begin here.
+
+   _29th._--Town meeting. Twenty women there, and voted first,
+   thanks to Father. Polls closed,--in joke, we thought, as Judge
+   Hoar proposed it; proved to be in earnest, and _we_ elected a
+   good school committee. Quiet time; no fuss.
+
+     JANUARY 20, 1880.
+
+   DEAR MRS. DODGE,--I have been so bowed down with grief at the
+   loss of my dear sister just when our anxiety was over that I have
+   not had a thought or care for anything else.
+
+   The story is done; but the last chapters are not copied, and I
+   thought it best to let them lie till I could give my mind to the
+   work.
+
+   I never get a good chance to do a story without interruption of
+   some sort. "Under the Lilacs" was finished by my mother's bedside
+   in her last illness, and this one when my heart was full of care
+   and hope and then grief over poor May.
+
+   I trust the misery did not get into the story; but I'm afraid it
+   is not as gay as I meant most of it to be.
+
+   I forgot to number the pages of the last two chapters, and so
+   cannot number these. I usually keep the run, but this time sent
+   off the parcel in a hurry. Can you send me the right number to go
+   on with in chapter seventeen? I can send you four more as soon as
+   I hear.
+
+   I don't believe I shall come to New York this winter. May left
+   me her little daughter for my own; and if she comes over soon, I
+   shall be too busy singing lullabies to one child to write tales
+   for others, or go anywhere, even to see my kind friends.
+
+   A sweeter little romance has just ended in Paris than any I can
+   ever make; and the sad facts of life leave me no heart for
+   cheerful fiction.
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. ALCOTT.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[12] This poem was first published anonymously in "The Masque of
+Poets," in 1878.
+
+[13] In Spinning-Wheel Stories.
+
+[14] Under the Lilacs.
+
+[15] Under the Lilacs, page 78.
+
+[16] Gardener's Daughter.
+
+[17] This interesting picture is in the possession of her sister.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+LAST YEARS.
+
+     MY PRAYER.
+     (Written October, 1886.)
+
+     Courage and patience, these I ask,
+       Dear Lord, in this my latest strait;
+     For hard I find my ten years' task,
+       Learning to suffer and to wait.
+
+     Life seems so rich and grand a thing,
+       So full of work for heart and brain,
+     It is a cross that I can bring
+       No help, no offering, but pain.
+
+     The hard-earned harvest of these years
+       I long to generously share;
+     The lessons learned with bitter tears
+       To teach again with tender care;
+
+     To smooth the rough and thorny way
+       Where other feet begin to tread;
+     To feed some hungry soul each day
+       With sympathy's sustaining bread.
+
+     So beautiful such pleasures show,
+       I long to make them mine;
+     To love and labor and to know
+       The joy such living makes divine.
+
+     But if I may not, I will only ask
+       Courage and patience for my fate,
+     And learn, dear Lord, thy latest task,--
+       To suffer patiently and wait.
+
+
+The early part of the year 1880 was in the deep shadow of sadness,
+from the death of Louisa's sister. Boxes full of May's pictures,
+clothes, and books came home to call up anew all the memories of the
+bright spirit who had blossomed into such beautiful life so quickly to
+fade away.
+
+Miss Alcott tried to rise above her grief and busy herself with new
+interests. She took an active part in the voting of the women in
+Concord, and rejoiced in the election of a good school committee. In
+April she returned to her old rooms at the Bellevue, where she busied
+herself with dramatizing "Michael Strogoff," which she never
+completed. She kept up her interest in young girls, and received with
+pleasure a visit from thirty pupils of the Boston University, and she
+helped to give the children of the North End Mission a happy day at
+Walden Pond. She went to York for rest and refreshment during the
+summer. Her heart was filled with longing for the child, and
+everything was done with reference to its coming.
+
+As September brought cooler weather, over the sea came the little babe
+to the warm hearts that were longing to welcome her. No woman as true
+and loving as Louisa Alcott but has the mother-nature strong in her
+heart; and she could not help feeling a new spring of love and life
+when the child of one so dear was put into her arms to be her very
+own. Rosy and healthy, full of life and energy,--not a model of
+sainthood, but a real human nature, with a will to be regulated, not
+broken, with impulses to be trained, talents and tendencies to be
+studied, and a true, loving heart to be filled with joy,--Louisa
+found the child a constant source of interest and pleasure. She
+brought her up as she herself had been trained,--more by influences
+than by rules,--and sought to follow the leadings which she found in
+the young nature rather than to make it over after a plan of her own.
+This new care and joy helped to fill up the void in her life from the
+loss of the mother for whom she had worked so faithfully and the pet
+sister to whom she had ever been a good providence.
+
+The principal interest of the next few years was the care of this
+child. It was a pleasant occupation to Louisa, occupying her heart,
+and binding her with new ties to younger generations. The journal
+tells all the simple story of the "voyage across the seas."
+
+Miss Alcott was very attractive to children, especially to the little
+ones, who thronged about her and pleaded for stories; but this was the
+first one who ever really filled the mother-longing in her heart. She
+was now truly a "marmee;" and remembering the blessing which her own
+mother had been to her, her standard of motherhood must have been very
+high. Much care was now also given to her father, and she speaks with
+pride of her handsome old philosopher in his new suit of clothes.
+
+Miss Alcott was gratified by a visit from one of the men to whom she
+had spoken at Concord Prison. He told her his story, and she assisted
+him to find work, and had the satisfaction of hearing of his
+well-doing.
+
+There is little record of writing done at this period, Louisa's time
+and thoughts being absorbed by the child. In the autumn of 1881 she
+wrote a preface to a new edition of the "Prayers of Theodore Parker,"
+and also one to the new edition of "Moods."
+
+Louisa kept the birthdays of November, though with saddened heart. She
+wrote a tale for the Soldiers' Home,--"My Red Cap," in "Proverb
+Stories,"--and another for the New England Hospital fair,--"A Baby's
+Birthday;" and also one for her old publisher. Such was the feeling
+toward her as a universal benefactor, that a poor woman wrote her
+begging her to send some Christmas gifts to her children, as they had
+asked her to write to Santa Claus for some. With Lulu's help she got
+up a box for the poor family, and then made a story out of the
+incident, for which she received a hundred dollars.
+
+A new project was that of a temperance society, which was felt to be
+needed in Concord.
+
+Louisa occupied herself much in looking over her mother's papers, and
+unfortunately destroyed them, instead of preparing a memoir of her as
+she had intended to do. It is a matter of great regret that she did
+not feel able to do this work, for Mrs. Alcott's letters would have
+been a most valuable record of the life of her time, as well as a
+treasury of bright thought and earnest feeling. Louisa was not willing
+to commit the task to any other hand, and the opportunity is gone.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Dodge._
+
+     CONCORD, May 29.
+
+   DEAR MRS. DODGE,--I was away from home, so your letter did not
+   reach me till I got back yesterday.
+
+   Thanks for your kind thought of me, and recollections of the
+   pleasant week when the L. L.'s had a lark. I should like another;
+   but in this work-a-day world busy folk don't get many, as we
+   know.
+
+   If I write a serial, you shall have it; but I have my doubts as
+   to the leisure and quiet needed for such tasks being possible
+   with a year-old baby. Of course little Lu is a _very_ remarkable
+   child, but I fancy I shall feel as full of responsibility as a
+   hen with one chick, and cluck and scratch industriously for the
+   sole benefit of my daughter.
+
+   She may, however, have a literary turn, and be my assistant, by
+   offering hints and giving studies of character for my work. She
+   comes in September, if well.
+
+   If I do begin a new story, how would "An Old-Fashioned Boy" and
+   his life do? I meant that for the title of a book, but another
+   woman took it. You proposed a revolutionary tale once, but I was
+   not up to it; for this I have quaint material in my father's
+   journals, letters, and recollections. He was born with the
+   century, and had an uncle in the war of 1812; and his life was
+   very pretty and pastoral in the early days. I think a new sort of
+   story wouldn't be amiss, with fun in it, and the queer old names
+   and habits. I began it long ago, and if I have a chance will
+   finish off a few chapters and send them to you, if you like.
+
+     Yours cordially,
+     L. M. ALCOTT.
+
+
+_To Mr. Niles, about the new illustrated edition of "Little Women."_
+
+     YORK, July 20, 1880.
+
+   The drawings are all capital, and we had great fun over them down
+   here this rainy day.... Mr. Merrill certainly deserves a good
+   penny for his work. Such a fertile fancy and quick hand as his
+   should be well paid, and I shall not begrudge him his well-earned
+   compensation, nor the praise I am sure these illustrations will
+   earn. It is very pleasant to think that the lucky little story
+   has been of use to a fellow-worker, and I am much obliged to him
+   for so improving on my hasty pen-and-ink sketches. What a dear
+   rowdy boy Teddy is with the felt basin on!
+
+   The papers are great gossips, and never get anything quite
+   straight, and I do mean to set up my own establishment in Boston
+   (D.V.). Now I have an excuse for a home of my own, and as the
+   other artistic and literary spinsters have a house, I am going to
+   try the plan, for a winter at least.
+
+   Come and see how cosey we are next October at 81 Pinckney Street.
+   Miss N. will receive.
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Dodge._
+
+     81 PINCKNEY STREET, 1880.
+
+   DEAR MRS. DODGE,--The editor of "Harper's Young People" asked for
+   a serial, and I declined; then they wanted a short story for
+   Christmas, and I sent one. But it was not long enough, though
+   longer than most of my short $100 tales.
+
+   So I said, "If you don't want it, send it to 'Saint Nicholas.'"
+
+   Therefore if "How It Happened" comes straying along, you will
+   know what it means. If you don't want it, please send it to me in
+   Boston, 81 Pinckney Street; for Christmas tales are always in
+   demand, and I have no time to write more.
+
+   You will like to know that my baby is safely here,--a healthy,
+   happy little soul, who comes like sunshine to our sad hearts, and
+   takes us all captive by her winning ways and lovely traits.
+
+   I shall soon be settled for the winter, and I hope have good
+   times after the hard ones.
+
+     Affectionately yours,
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _April_, 1880.--So sad and poorly; went to B. for a change. Old
+   room at the Bellevue.
+
+   Amused myself dramatizing "Michael Strogoff;" read, walked, and
+   rested. Reporters called for story of my life; did not get much.
+   Made my will, dividing all I have between Nan and the boys, with
+   Father as a legacy to Nan, and to Lulu her mother's pictures and
+   small fortune of $500.
+
+   _May._--Thirty girls from Boston University called; told stories,
+   showed pictures, wrote autographs. Pleasant to see so much
+   innocent enthusiasm, even about so poor a thing as a used-up old
+   woman. Bright girls! simple in dress, sensible ideas of life, and
+   love of education. I wish them all good luck.
+
+   Ordered a stone for May's grave like Marmee's and Beth's, for
+   some day I hope to bring her dust home.
+
+   Twenty-third is the anniversary of Mother's wedding. If she had
+   lived, it would have been the golden wedding.
+
+   Went to see St. Botolph's Club rooms. Very prim and neat, with
+   easy chairs everywhere; stained glass, and a pious little _bar_,
+   with nothing visible but a moral ice-pitcher and a butler like a
+   bishop. The reverend gentlemen will be comfortable and merry, I
+   fancy, as there is a smoking-room and card-tables, as well as a
+   library and picture-gallery. Divines nowadays are not as godly as
+   in old times, it seems.
+
+   Mrs. Dodge wants a new serial, but I doubt if I can do it; boys,
+   babies, illness, and business of all sorts leave no time for
+   story-telling.
+
+   _June._--We all enjoy the new rooms very much, and Father finds
+   his study delightful. Prepare the Orchard House for W. T. Harris,
+   who is to rent it.
+
+   North End Mission children at Walden Pond. Help give them a happy
+   day,--eleven hundred of them. Get Anna and John off to Walpole.
+   Cleaned house.
+
+   Madame N. sends a picture of Lulu,--a funny, fat little thing in
+   her carriage. Don't realize that it is May's child, and that she
+   is far away in a French cemetery, never to come home to us again.
+
+   It is decided that Baby is to come to us in September.
+
+   _24th._--Lizzie's birthday and Johnny's. He is fifteen,--a
+   lovely, good boy, whom every one loves. Got the Dean a new suit
+   of clothes, as he must be nice for his duties at the School.
+   Plato's toga was not so costly, but even he did not look better
+   than my handsome old philosopher.
+
+   _July and August._--To York with boys. Rest and enjoy the fine
+   air. Home in August, and let Anna go down. Four hundred callers
+   since the School began. Philosophy is a bore to outsiders.
+
+   Got things ready for my baby,--warm wrapper, and all the dear can
+   need on her long journey. On the 21st saw Mrs. Giles (who went
+   for baby) off; the last time I went, it was to see May go. She
+   was sober and sad, not gay as before; seemed to feel it might be
+   a longer voyage than we knew. The last view I had of her, was
+   standing alone in the long blue cloak waving her hand to us,
+   smiling with wet eyes till out of sight. How little we dreamed
+   what an experience of love, joy, pain, and death she was going
+   to!
+
+   A lonely time with all away. My grief meets me when I come home,
+   and the house is full of ghosts.
+
+   _September._--Put papers in order, and arrange things generally,
+   to be in order when our Lulu comes. Make a cosey nursery for the
+   darling, and say my prayers over the little white crib that waits
+   for her, if she ever comes. God watch over her!
+
+   Paid my first _poll_-tax. As my _head_ is my most valuable piece
+   of property, I thought $2 a cheap tax on it. Saw my townswomen
+   about voting, etc. Hard work to stir them up; cake and servants
+   are more interesting.
+
+   _18th._--In Boston, waiting for the steamer that brings my
+   treasure. The ocean seems very wide and terrible when I think of
+   the motherless little creature coming so far to us.
+
+   _19th._--Lulu and Sophie N. arrived with poor G., worn out by
+   anxiety. A stormy passage, and much care, being turned out of the
+   stateroom I had engaged for them and paid for, by a rude New York
+   dressmaker. No help for it, so poor G. went to a rat-hole below,
+   and did her best.
+
+   As I waited on the wharf while the people came off the ship, I
+   saw several babies, and wondered each time if that was mine. At
+   last the captain appeared, and in his arms a little
+   yellow-haired thing in white, with its hat half off as it looked
+   about with lively blue eyes and babbled prettily. Mrs. G. came
+   along by it, and I knew it was Lulu. Behind, walked a lovely
+   brown-eyed girl with an anxious face, all being new and strange
+   to Sophie.
+
+   I held out my arms to Lulu, only being able to say her name. She
+   looked at me for a moment, then came to me, saying "Marmar" in a
+   wistful way, and resting close as if she had found her own people
+   and home at last,--as she had, thank Heaven! I could only listen
+   while I held her, and the others told their tale. Then we got
+   home as soon as we could, and dear baby behaved very well, though
+   hungry and tired.
+
+   The little princess was received with tears and smiles, and being
+   washed and fed went quietly to sleep in her new bed, while we
+   brooded over her and were never tired of looking at the little
+   face of "May's baby."
+
+   She is a very active, bright child, not pretty yet, being browned
+   by sea air, and having a yellow down on her head, and a pug nose.
+   Her little body is beautifully formed, broad shoulders, fine
+   chest, and lovely arms. A happy thing, laughing and waving her
+   hands, confiding and bold, with a keen look in the eyes so like
+   May, who hated shams and saw through them at once. She always
+   comes to me, and seems to have decided that I am really "Marmar."
+   My heart is full of pride and joy, and the touch of the dear
+   little hands seems to take away the bitterness of grief. I often
+   go at night to see if she is really _here_, and the sight of the
+   little head is like sunshine to me. Father adores her, and she
+   loves to sit in his strong arms. They make a pretty picture as he
+   walks in the garden with her to "see birdies." Anna tends her as
+   she did May, who was her baby once, being ten years younger, and
+   we all find life easier to live now the baby has come. Sophie is
+   a sweet girl, with much character and beauty. A charming sister
+   in love as in law.
+
+   _October._--Happy days with Lulu and Sophie; getting acquainted
+   with them. Lulu is rosy and fair now, and grows pretty in her
+   native air,--a merry little lass, who seems to feel at home and
+   blooms in an atmosphere of adoration. People come to see "Miss
+   Alcott's baby," and strangers waylay her little carriage in the
+   street to look at her; but she does not allow herself to be
+   kissed.
+
+   As Father wants to go West I decide to hire Cousin L. W.'s house
+   furnished for the winter, so that Sophie and the boys can have a
+   pleasant time. S. misses the gayety of her home-life in stupid
+   Concord, where the gossip and want of manners strike her very
+   disagreeably. Impertinent questions are asked her, and she is
+   amazed at the queer, rude things people say.
+
+   _November 8th._--Lulu's birthday. One year old. Her gifts were
+   set out on a table for her to see when she came down in the
+   afternoon,--a little cake with _one_ candle, a rose crown for the
+   queen, a silver mug, dolly, picture-books, gay ball, toys,
+   flowers, and many kisses. She sat smiling at her treasures just
+   under her mother's picture. Suddenly, attracted by the sunshine
+   on the face of the portrait which she knows is "Marmar," she held
+   up a white rose to it calling "Mum! Mum!" and smiling at it in a
+   way that made us all cry. A happy day for her, a sad one to us.
+
+   _Thanksgiving._--Family dinner.
+
+   Father at Syracuse, having conversations at Bishop Huntington's
+   and a fine time everywhere.
+
+   _December._--Too busy to keep much of a journal. My life is
+   absorbed in my baby. On the twenty-third she got up and walked
+   alone; had never crept at all, but when ready ran across the room
+   and plumped down, laughing triumphantly at her feat.
+
+   _Christmas._--Tried to make it gay for the young folks, but a
+   heavy day for Nan and me. Sixty gifts were set out on different
+   tables, and all were much pleased. Sophie had many pretty things,
+   and gave to all generously.
+
+   A hard year for all, but when I hold my Lulu I feel as if even
+   death had its compensations. A new world for me.
+
+   Called down one day to see a young man. Found it one of those to
+   whom I spoke at the prison in Concord last June. Came to thank me
+   for the good my little story did him, since it kept him straight
+   and reminded him that it is never too late to mend. Told me about
+   himself, and how he was going to begin anew and wipe out the
+   past. He had been a miner, and coming East met some fellows who
+   made him drink; while tipsy he stole something in a doctor's
+   office, and having no friends here was sentenced to three years
+   in prison. Did well, and was now out. Had a prospect of going on
+   an expedition to South America with a geological surveying party.
+   An interesting young man. Fond of books, anxious to do well,
+   intelligent, and seemed eager to atone for his one fault. Gave
+   him a letter to S. G. at Chicago. Wrote to the warden, who
+   confirmed D.'s story and spoke well of him. Miss Willard wrote me
+   later of him, and he seemed doing well. Asked if he might write
+   to me, and did so several times, then went to S. A. and I hear no
+   more. Glad to have said a word to help the poor boy.
+
+   _March_, 1881.--Voted for school committee.
+
+   _October._--Wrote a preface for Parker's Prayers, just got out by
+   F. B. Sanborn.
+
+   _November._--Forty-nine on 29th. Wrote a preface to the new
+   edition of "Moods."
+
+   _8th._--Gave my baby _two_ kisses when she woke, and escorted her
+   down to find a new chair decked with ribbons, and a doll's
+   carriage tied with pink; toys, pictures, flowers, and a cake,
+   with a red and a blue candle burning gayly.
+
+   Wrote a tale for the Soldiers' Home,--"My Red Cap,"--and one for
+   the Woman's Hospital fair,--"A Baby's Birthday." Also a tale for
+   F.
+
+   _December._--A poor woman in Illinois writes me to send her
+   children some Christmas gifts, being too poor and ill to get any.
+   They asked her to write to Santa Claus and she wrote to _me_.
+   Sent a box, and made a story about it,--$100. Lulu much
+   interested, and kept bringing all her best toys and clothes "for
+   poor little boys." A generous baby.
+
+
+_To Mr. Niles._
+
+     FEBRUARY 12, 1881.
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--Wendell Phillips wrote me a letter begging me to
+   write a preface for Mrs. Robinson's "History of the Suffrage
+   Movement;" but I refused him, as I did Mrs. R., because I don't
+   write prefaces well, and if I begin to do it there will be no
+   end....
+
+   Cannot you do a small edition for her? All the believers will buy
+   the book, and I think the sketches of L. M. Child, Abby May,
+   Alcott, and others will add much to the interest of the book.
+
+   Has she seen you about it? Will you look at the manuscripts by
+   and by, or do you scorn the whole thing? Better not; for we are
+   going to win in time, and the friend of literary ladies ought to
+   be also the friend of women generally.
+
+   We are going to meet the Governor, council, and legislature at
+   Mrs. Tudor's next Wednesday eve and have a grand set-to. I hope
+   he will come out of the struggle alive.
+
+   Do give Mrs. R. a lift if you can, and your petitioners will ever
+   pray.
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+     February 19, 1881.
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--Thank you very much for so kindly offering to
+   look at Mrs. R.'s book. It is always pleasant to find a person
+   who can conquer his prejudices to oblige a friend, if no more.
+
+   I think we shall be glad by and by of every little help we may
+   have been able to give to this reform in its hard times, for
+   those who take the tug now will deserve the praise when the work
+   is done.
+
+   I can remember when Antislavery was in just the same state that
+   Suffrage is now, and take more pride in the very small help we
+   Alcotts could give than in all the books I ever wrote or ever
+   shall write.
+
+   "Earth's fanatics often make heaven's saints," you know, and it
+   is as well to try for that sort of promotion in time.
+
+   If Mrs. R. does send her manuscripts I will help all I can in
+   reading or in any other way. If it only records the just and wise
+   changes Suffrage has made in the laws for women, it will be worth
+   printing; and it is time to keep account of these first steps,
+   since they count most.
+
+   I, for one, don't want to be ranked among idiots, felons, and
+   minors any longer, for I am none of the three, but very
+   gratefully yours,
+
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Stearns._
+
+     FEBRUARY 21, 1881.
+
+   _Dear Mrs. Stearns_,--Many thanks for the tender thoughtfulness
+   which sends us the precious little notes from the dear dead
+   hands.
+
+   They are so characteristic that they bring both Mother and May
+   clearly up before me, alive and full of patient courage and happy
+   hopes. I am resigned to my blessed mother's departure, since life
+   was a burden, and the heroic past made a helpless future very
+   hard to think of. But May's loss, just when life was fullest and
+   sweetest, seems very bitter to me still, in spite of the sweet
+   baby who is an unspeakable comfort. I wish you could see the
+   pretty creature who already shows many of her mother's traits and
+   tastes. Her love of pictures is a passion, but she will not look
+   at the common gay ones most babies enjoy. She chooses the
+   delicate, well-drawn, and painted figures of Caldecott and Miss
+   Greenaway; over these she broods with rapture, pointing her
+   little fingers at the cows or cats, and kissing the children with
+   funny prattlings to these dumb playmates. She is a fine, tall
+   girl, full of energy, intelligence, and health; blonde and
+   blue-eyed like her mother, but with her father's features, for
+   which I am glad, for he is a handsome man. Louisa May bids fair
+   to be a noble woman; and I hope I may live to see May's child as
+   brave and bright and talented as she was and, much happier in her
+   fate.
+
+   Father is at the West, busy and well. Anna joins me in thanks and
+   affectionate regards.
+
+     Ever yours,
+     L. M. Alcott.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _March_, 1882.--Helped start a temperance society; much needed in
+   C. A great deal of drinking, not among the Irish, but young
+   American gentlemen, as well as farmers and mill hands. Women
+   anxious to do something, but find no interest beyond a few. Have
+   meetings, and try to learn how to work. I was secretary, and
+   wrote records, letters, and sent pledges, etc.; also articles in
+   "Concord Freeman" and "Woman's Journal" about the union and town
+   meetings.
+
+   _April._--Read over and destroyed Mother's diaries, as she wished
+   me to do so. A wonderfully interesting record of her life, from
+   her delicate, cherished girlhood through her long, hard, romantic
+   married years, old age, and death. Some time I will write a story
+   or a memoir of it.
+
+   Lulu's teeth trouble her; but in my arms she seems to find
+   comfort, for I tell stories by the dozen; and lambs, piggies, and
+   "tats" soothe her little woes. Wish I were stronger, so that I
+   might take all the care of her. We seem to understand each other,
+   but my nerves make me impatient, and noise wears upon me.
+
+   Mr. Emerson ill. Father goes to see him. E. held his hand,
+   looking up at the tall, sorry old man, and saying, with that
+   smile of love that has been Father's sunshine for so many years,
+   "_You_ are very well,--keep so, keep so." After Father left, he
+   called him back and grasped his hand again, as if he knew it was
+   for the last time, and the kind eyes said, "Good-by, my friend!"
+
+April 27, 1882, Louisa speaks most tenderly of the death of Mr.
+Emerson. He had been to her and to her family the truest and best of
+friends; and her own profound reverence for him had been a strong
+influence, from the time when she played games with his children in
+the barn until she followed him to his honored grave. Let critics and
+philosophers judge him by his intellect; in the hearts of this family,
+and in many an humble home besides, he will always be remembered as
+the tenderest, most sympathetic, most loyal of all friends, whose
+bounty fell on them silently as the dew from heaven, and whose
+presence could brighten the highest joy and soothe the keenest sorrow
+they could ever know.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _Thursday, 27th._--Mr. Emerson died at 9 P.M. suddenly. Our best
+   and greatest American gone. The nearest and dearest friend Father
+   has ever had, and the man who has helped me most by his life, his
+   books, his society. I can never tell all he has been to me,--from
+   the time I sang Mignon's song under his window (a little girl)
+   and wrote letters _a la_ Bettine to him, my Goethe, at fifteen,
+   up through my hard years, when his essays on Self-Reliance,
+   Character, Compensation, Love, and Friendship helped me to
+   understand myself and life, and God and Nature. Illustrious and
+   beloved friend, good-by!
+
+   _Sunday, 30th._--Emerson's funeral. I made a yellow lyre of
+   jonquils for the church, and helped trim it up. Private services
+   at the house, and a great crowd at the church. Father read his
+   sonnet, and Judge Hoar and others spoke. Now he lies in Sleepy
+   Hollow among his brothers, under the pines he loved.
+
+   I sat up till midnight to write an article on R. W. E. for the
+   "Youth's Companion," that the children may know something of him.
+   A labor of love.
+
+   _May._--Twenty-seven boys signed pledge. Temperance work.
+   Meetings. I give books to schools. Wrote an article for Mrs.
+   Croly on R. W. E.
+
+   _June._--I visited A. B. in Mattapoisset for a week. A queer
+   time, driving about or talking over our year in Europe. School
+   children called upon me with flowers, etc.
+
+   _24th._--John's seventeenth birthday. A dear boy, good and gay,
+   full of love, manliness, and all honest and lovely traits, like
+   his father and mother. Long life to my boy!
+
+   _July._--School of Philosophy opens on the 17th in full force. I
+   arrange flowers, oak branches, etc., and then fly before the
+   reporters come. Father very happy. Westerners arrive, and the
+   town is full with ideal speculators. Penny has a new barge; we
+   call it the "Blue Plato" (not the "Black Maria"), and watch it
+   rumble by with Margaret Fullers in white muslin and Hegels in
+   straw hats, while stout Penny grins at the joke as he puts money
+   in his purse. The first year Concord people stood aloof, and the
+   strangers found it hard to get rooms. Now every one is eager to
+   take them, and the School is pronounced a success because it
+   brings money to the town. Even philosophers can't do without
+   food, beds, and washing; so all rejoice, and the new craze
+   flourishes. If all our guests paid we should be well off; several
+   hundred a month is rather wearing. Father asked why we never
+   went, and Anna showed him a long list of four hundred names of
+   callers, and he said no more.
+
+   _October._--To Hotel Bellevue with John.
+
+   Missed my dear baby, but need quiet. Brain began to work, and
+   plans for tales to simmer. Began "Jo's Boys," as Mrs. Dodge wants
+   a serial.
+
+In the autumn of 1882 Mr. Alcott was attacked by a severe stroke of
+paralysis, from which he never fully recovered; and for the rest of
+his life his daughters shared in the duty of tending and caring for
+him in his enfeebled state. It had been the great reward of Louisa's
+years of hard work that she could surround her mother with every
+comfort that could make her happy in her last declining years. Not
+less had she delighted to gratify every wish of her father. His
+library was fitted up with exquisite taste, his books and manuscripts
+bound, and he was "throned in philosophic ease" for the rest of his
+days. What a relief it was now that she could have the faithful nurse
+ready at his call; that she could give him the pleasant drives which
+he enjoyed so much; and lighten her sister's labors with every
+assistance that money could procure!
+
+The Orchard House, which had been the family home for twenty-five
+years, was sold to Mr. Harris, and Mrs. Pratt's house was the home of
+all. Louisa spent part of the summer at the seashore, and finally
+bought a small house at Nonquit, where the children could all spend
+the summer, while she and her sister alternated in the care of her
+father.
+
+In the autumn of 1885, Miss Alcott decided to take a furnished house
+in Louisburg Square. Her nephews were established in Boston, and their
+mother wished to be with them. Mr. Alcott bore the moving well, and
+they found many comforts in the arrangement. Louisa's health was very
+feeble. She had great trouble in the throat, and her old dyspeptic
+symptoms returned to annoy her. Still she cannot give up work, and
+busies herself in preparing "Lulu's Library" for publication, and
+hopes to be able to work on "Jo's Boys."
+
+"Lulu's Library" was a collection of stories which had been the
+delight of the child. The first series was published in 1885, the
+second in 1887, and the third in 1889. They are full of Louisa's
+charming qualities, and have a special interest from the tender
+feeling with which she gathered them up for her niece. The touching
+preface to "Jo's Boys" tells of the seven years of occasional work on
+this book, and reveals the depth of feeling which would not allow her
+to write as formerly of Marmee and Amy, who were no longer here to
+accept their own likenesses. During the latter part of her work on
+this book, she could only write from half an hour to one or two hours
+a day. This was published in September, 1886. It contains an engraving
+of her from a bas-relief by Mr. Ricketson.
+
+This book was written under hard circumstances, and cost its author
+more effort perhaps than any other. It is evidently not the overflow
+of her delight and fun in life like "Little Women," but it is full of
+biographical interest. Her account of her own career, and of the
+annoyances to which her celebrity exposed her, is full of her old
+spirit and humor. She has expressed many valuable thoughts on
+education, and her spirit is as hopeful for her boys as in her days of
+youth and health. She has too many characters to manage; but we feel a
+keen interest in the fortunes of Dan and Emil, and in the courtship by
+the warm-hearted Tom of his medical sweetheart.
+
+
+_Preface to "Jo's Boys."_
+
+   Having been written at long intervals during the past seven
+   years, this story is more faulty than any of its very imperfect
+   predecessors; but the desire to atone for an unavoidable
+   disappointment, and to please my patient little friends, has
+   urged me to let it go without further delay.
+
+   To account for the seeming neglect of Amy, let me add, that,
+   since the original of that character died, it has been impossible
+   for me to write of her as when she was here to suggest,
+   criticise, and laugh over her namesake. The same excuse applies
+   to Marmee. But the folded leaves are not blank to those who knew
+   and loved them and can find memorials of them in whatever is
+   cheerful, true, or helpful in these pages.
+
+     L. M. ALCOTT.
+     CONCORD, JULY 4, 1886.
+
+
+_To Mr. Horace Chandler._
+
+   DEAR MR. CHANDLER,--The corrections are certainly rather
+   peculiar, and I fear my struggles to set them right have only
+   produced greater confusion.
+
+   Fortunately punctuation is a free institution, and all can pepper
+   to suit the taste. I don't care much, and always leave
+   proof-readers to quibble if they like.
+
+   Thanks for the tickets. I fear I cannot come till Thursday, but
+   will try, and won't forget the office, since I am not that
+   much-tried soul the editor.
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Williams (Betsey Prig)._
+
+     NONQUIT, August 25.
+
+   DEAR BETSEY,--I am so sorry the darling Doll is ill! Brood over
+   him, and will him well; for mother-love works wonders.
+
+   My poppet is a picture of health, vigor, and delightful
+   naughtiness. She runs wild in this fine place with some twenty
+   other children to play with,--nice babies, well-bred, and with
+   pleasant mammas for me to gossip with.
+
+   It would be a good place for your little people, as the air is
+   delicious, bathing safe and warm, and cottages to be quiet in if
+   one cares to keep house. Do try it next year. Let me know early.
+   I can get a nice little cot for you (near mine) for $100, or
+   perhaps less, from June to October,--if you care to stay; I
+   do....
+
+   We have been here since July, and are all hearty, brown, and gay
+   as larks.
+
+   "John Inglesant" was too political for me. I am too lazy here to
+   read much; mean to find a den in Boston and work for a month or
+   two; then fly off to New York, and perhaps run over and see my
+   Betsey. I shall be at home in October, and perhaps we may see you
+   then, if the precious little shadow gets nice and well again, and
+   I pray he may.
+
+   Lulu has some trifling ail now and then,--just enough to show me
+   how dear she is to us all, and what a great void the loss of our
+   little girl would make in hearts and home. She is very
+   intelligent and droll. When I told her the other day that the
+   crickets were hopping and singing in the grass with their mammas,
+   she said at once, "No; their Aunt Weedys." Aunty is nearer than
+   mother to the poor baby; and it is very sweet to have it so,
+   since it must be.
+
+   Now, my blessed Betsey, keep a brave heart, and I am sure all
+   will be well in the nest. Love and kisses to the little birds,
+   and all good wishes to the turtle-dove and her mate.
+
+     Yours ever,
+     L. M. A.
+
+   The older birthdays are 29th of November, Lulu's the 8th; so we
+   celebrate for Grandpa, Auntie, and Lulu all at once, in great
+   style,--eighty-three, fifty, and three years old.
+
+   When I get on my pins I'm going (D. V.) to devote myself to
+   settling poor souls who need a gentle boost in hard times.
+
+
+_To Mr. Niles._
+
+     JUNE 23, 1883.
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--Thanks for the Goethe book. I want everything
+   that comes out about him. "Princess Amelia" is charming, and the
+   surprise at the end well done. Did the author of "My Wife's
+   Sister" write it?
+
+   I told L. C. M. she might put "A Modern Mephistopheles" in my
+   list of books. Several people had found it out, and there was no
+   use in trying to keep it secret after that.
+
+   Mrs. Dodge begged me to consider myself mortgaged to her for
+   tales, etc., and as I see no prospect of any time for writing
+   books, I may be able to send her some short stories from time to
+   time, and so be getting material for a new set of books like
+   "Scrap-bag," but with a new name. You excel in names, and can be
+   evolving one meantime....
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+     JULY 15, 1884.
+
+   I wish I might be inspired to do those dreadful boys ["Jo's
+   Boys"]; but rest is more needed than money. Perhaps during
+   August, my month at home, I may take a grind at the old mill.
+
+
+_Journal._
+
+   _October_ 24, 1882.--Telegram that Father had had a paralytic
+   stroke. Home at once, and found him stricken down. Anxious days;
+   little hope.
+
+   _November._--Gave up our rooms, and I went home to help with the
+   new care. My Lulu ran to meet me, rosy and gay, and I felt as if
+   I could bear anything with this little sunbeam to light up the
+   world for me.
+
+   Poor Father dumb and helpless; feeble mind slowly coming back. He
+   knows us; but he's asleep most of the time. Get a nurse, and wait
+   to see if he will rally. It is sad to see the change one moment
+   makes, turning the hale, handsome old man into this pathetic
+   wreck. The forty sonnets last winter and the fifty lectures at
+   the School last summer were too much for a man of eighty-three.
+   He was warned by Dr. W., but thought it folly to stop; and now
+   poor Father pays the penalty of breaking the laws of health. I
+   have done the same: may I be spared this end!
+
+   _January_, 1883.--Too busy to keep a diary. Can only jot down a
+   fact now and then.
+
+   Father improving. Much trouble with nurses; have no idea of
+   health; won't walk; sit over the fire, and drink tea three times
+   a day; ought to be an intelligent, hearty set of women. Could do
+   better myself; have to fill up all the deficiencies and do double
+   duty.
+
+   People come to see Father; but it excites him, and we have to
+   deny him.
+
+   _February._--To B. for a week of rest, having got Mrs. H. settled
+   with Father, and all comfortable for November.
+
+   Began a book called "Genius." Shall never finish it, I dare say,
+   but must keep a vent for my fancies to escape at. This double
+   life is trying, and my head will work as well as my hands.
+
+   _March._--To give A. rest I took Lulu and maid to the Bellevue
+   for a month. Lulu very happy with her new world. Enjoys her
+   walks, the canary I got her, and the petting _she_ gets from all.
+   Showed her to friends; want them to know May's child. Had her
+   picture taken by Notman; very good.
+
+   _April 2d._--Town meeting. Seven women vote. I am one of them,
+   and A. another. A poor show for a town that prides itself on its
+   culture and independence.
+
+   _6th._--Go home to stay; Father needs me. New nurse; many
+   callers; Lulu fretful, Anna tired, Father feeble,--hard times for
+   all.
+
+   Wrote a story for "St. Nicholas" at odd moments. Nurses and
+   doctors take a deal of money.
+
+   _May._--Take care of Lulu, as we can find no good woman to walk
+   and dress and play with her. The ladies are incapable or proud;
+   the girls vulgar or rough; so my poor baby has a bad time with
+   her little temper and active mind and body. Could do it myself if
+   I had the nerves and strength, but am needed elsewhere, and must
+   leave the child to some one. Long to go away with her and do as I
+   like. Shall never lead my own life.
+
+   _July._--Go to Nonquit with Miss H. and Lulu for the summer. A
+   quiet, healthy place, with pleasant people and fine air. Turn
+   Lulu loose, with H. to run after her, and try to rest.
+
+   Lulu takes her first bath in the sea. Very bold; walks off toward
+   Europe up to her neck, and is much afflicted that I won't let her
+   go to the bottom and see the "little trabs;" makes a cupid of
+   herself, and is very pretty and gay.
+
+   The boys revel in the simple pleasures of Nonquit,--a fine place
+   for them to be in.
+
+   Wrote a tale for "St. Nicholas,"--"Sophie's Secret,"--$100.
+
+   _August._--Home to C., and let A. come for her holiday. Much
+   company.
+
+   P. C. Mozoomdar preached, and had a conversation at Mrs.
+   Emerson's; a most interesting man. Curious to hear a Hindu tell
+   how the life of Christ impressed him.
+
+   _November 27th._--Decide to lessen care and worry at home; so
+   take rooms in Boylston Street, and with Lulu set forth to make a
+   home of our own. The whole parlor floor gives my lady room to run
+   in doors, and the Public Garden opposite is the out-door
+   play-ground. Miss C. comes as governess, and we settle down. Fred
+   boards with us. Heard Mathew Arnold.
+
+   _29th._--Birthday,--fifty-one. Home with gifts to poor
+   Father,--eighty-four. Found a table full for myself.
+
+   _December 25th._--Home with gifts for all; sad day. See H.
+   Martineau's statue; very fine.
+
+   _January_, 1884.--New Year's Day is made memorable by my solemnly
+   spanking my child. Miss C. and others assure me it is the only
+   way to cure her wilfulness. I doubt it; but knowing that mothers
+   are usually too tender and blind, I correct my dear in the
+   old-fashioned way. She proudly says, "Do it, do it!" and when it
+   is done is heartbroken at the idea of Aunt Wee-wee's giving her
+   pain. Her bewilderment was pathetic, and the effect, as I
+   expected, a failure. Love is better; but also endless patience.
+
+   _February 2d._--Wendell Phillips died. I shall mourn for him next
+   to R. W. E. and Parker.
+
+   _6th._--Funeral at Hollis Street Church. Sat between Fred
+   Douglas and his wife. A goodly gathering of all left of the old
+   workers. Glad and proud to be among them.
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   _June._--Sell the Orchard House to W. T. Harris. Glad to be done
+   with it, though after living in it twenty-five years, it is full
+   of memories; but places have not much hold on me when the dear
+   persons who made them dear are gone....
+
+   Bought a cottage at Nonquit, with house and furniture. All like
+   it, and it is a good investment I am told.
+
+   _24th._--To Nonquit with Lulu and K. and John. Fixed my house,
+   and enjoyed the rest and quiet immensely. Lulu wild with joy at
+   the freedom....
+
+   _July and August._--Restful days in my little house, which is
+   cool and quiet, and without the curse of a kitchen to spoil it.
+
+   Lulu happy and well, and every one full of summer fun.
+
+   On the 7th of August I went home, and let A. go for her holiday.
+
+   Took care of Father and house, and idled away the hot days with
+   books and letters. Drove with Father, as he enjoyed it very
+   much....
+
+   _October._--To Boston with John, and take rooms at the Bellevue.
+   Very tired of home-worry, and fly for rest to my old refuge, with
+   J. and L. to look after and make a home for.
+
+   Saw Irving. Always enjoy him, though he is very queer. Ellen
+   Terry always the same, though charming in her way.
+
+   _November._--Find Bellevue uncomfortable and expensive, so take
+   rooms in Chestnut Street for self and boys.
+
+   _8th._--My Lulu's birthday. Go home with flowers, gifts, and a
+   grateful heart that the dear little girl is so well and happy and
+   good. A merry day with the little queen of the house.
+
+   _29th._--Our birthday,--Father eighty-five; L. M. A. fifty-two.
+   Quiet day; always sad for thinking of Mother and John and May,
+   who all left us at this season.
+
+   _December._--Began again on "Jo's Boys," as T. N. wants a new
+   book very much, and I am tired of being idle. Wrote two hours for
+   three days, then had a violent attack of vertigo, and was ill for
+   a week. Head won't bear work yet. Put away papers, and tried to
+   dawdle and go about as other people do.
+
+   Pleasant Christmas with Lulu and Nan and poor Father, who loves
+   to see us about him. A narrow world now, but a happy one for him.
+
+   Last day of the year. All well at home except myself; body
+   feeble, but soul improving.
+
+   _January_ 1, 1885.--Pleasant greeting from brother Ernest by
+   telegram,--never forgets us. Opera in the evening,--Emma Nevada.
+   Sent box home. Very cold.
+
+   John had his first dress-suit. Happy boy! Several pleasant Sunday
+   evenings at E. P. W.'s. See Mrs. Burnett, and like her.
+
+   Visit Blind Asylum and North End Mission. Lulu passed a week with
+   me for a change.
+
+   _19th._--An old-fashioned party in an old-time house. All in
+   antique costume; Lulu very pretty in hers. Country kitchen and
+   country fare; spinning and weaving; old songs and dances;
+   tally-ho coach with P. as an ancient Weller,--very funny.
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   _June._--Read Life of Saint Elizabeth by D'Alembert,--quaint and
+   sweet; also French novels. Write out the little tales I tell Lulu
+   for a new Christmas book, having nothing else. Send one, "The
+   Candy Country," to "St. Nicholas."
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   _August 8th._--Go home, and A. goes to N. Take care of Father,
+   arrange the little tales, and look at houses in B. Have a plan to
+   take a furnished house for the winter, and all be together. A. is
+   lonely in C.; boys must be near business. I want Lulu, and Father
+   will enjoy a change.
+
+   Sorted old letters, and burned many. Not wise to keep for curious
+   eyes to read and gossip-lovers to print by and by.
+
+   Lived in the past for days, and felt very old, recalling all I
+   have been through. Experiences go deep with me, and I begin to
+   think it might be well to keep some record of my life, if it will
+   help others to read it when I'm gone. People seem to think our
+   lives interesting and peculiar.
+
+   _September._--After a lively time with house-brokers, I take a
+   house in Louisburg Square for two years. It is a large house,
+   furnished, and well suited to our needs,--sunny, trees in front,
+   good air, and friends near by. All are pleased, and we prepare to
+   move October 1st....
+
+   Father drove down very nicely. Pleased with his new room; Lulu
+   charmed with her big, sunny nursery and the play-house left for
+   her; boys in clover; and Nan ready for the new sort of
+   housekeeping.
+
+   I shall miss my quiet, care-free life in B.; but it is best for
+   all, so I shall try to bear the friction and the worry many
+   persons always bring me.
+
+   It will be an expensive winter; but T. N. tells me the books
+   never sold better, so a good run in January will make all safe.
+
+   "Lulu's Library" as a "pot-boiler" will appease the children, and
+   I may be able to work on "Jo's Boys."
+
+   _March_, 1886.--To Mrs. H.'s to hear Mr. Snyder read the "Iliad;"
+   enjoyed it.
+
+   Sixteen little girls call, and the autograph fiend is abroad.
+
+   _27th._--Another attack of vertigo,--ill for a week; sleepless
+   nights. Head worked like a steam-engine; would not stop. Planned
+   "Jo's Boys" to the end, and longed to get up and write it. Told
+   Dr. W. that he had better let me get the ideas _out_, then I
+   could rest. He very wisely agreed, and said, "As soon as you can,
+   write half an hour a day, and see if it does you good. Rebellious
+   brains want to be attended to, or trouble comes." So I began as
+   soon as able, and was satisfied that we were right; for my head
+   felt better very soon, and with much care about not overdoing, I
+   had some pleasant hours when I forgot my body and lived in my
+   mind.
+
+   _April._--Went on writing one or two hours a day, and felt no ill
+   effects.
+
+   _May._--Began to think of Concord, and prepare to go back for the
+   summer. Father wants his books; Lulu, her garden; Anna, her small
+   house; and the boys, their friends. I want to go away and rest.
+
+   Anna goes up the last of the month and gets the house ready. We
+   send Lulu and Father later, and the boys and I shut up No. 10....
+
+   _June._--Home in C.,--sunny, clean, and pleasant. Put Lulu in
+   order, and get ready for a month in Princeton with Mrs. H. Very
+   tired.
+
+   A quiet three weeks on the hillside,--a valley pink with laurel
+   in front, Mount Wachusett behind us, and green hills all round. A
+   few pleasant people. I read, sleep, walk, and write,--get fifteen
+   chapters done. Instinct was right; after seven years of rest, the
+   old brain was ready for work and tired of feeding on itself,
+   since work it must at something. Enjoyed Hedge's "Hours with
+   German Classics," and "Baldwin," by Vernon Lee.
+
+   Home in time to get Anna and Lulu off to N. for the summer. A.
+   needs the rest very much, and Lulu the freedom. I shall revel in
+   the quiet, and finish my book.
+
+   _July._--The seashore party get off, and peace reigns. I rest a
+   day, and then to work. Finish "Jo's Boys," and take it to T. N.
+   Much rejoicing over a new book. Fifty thousand to be the first
+   edition; orders coming in fast. Not good,--too great intervals
+   between the parts, as it was begun long ago; but the children
+   will be happy, and my promise kept. Two new chapters were needed,
+   so I wrote them, and gladly corked my inkstand.
+
+   What next? Mrs. Dodge wants a serial, and T. N. a novel. I have a
+   dozen plots in my head, but think the serial better come first.
+   Want a great deal of money for many things; every poor soul I
+   ever knew comes for help, and expenses increase. I am the only
+   money-maker, and must turn the mill for others, though my own
+   grist is ground and in the barn.
+
+   The School begins. Father feeble, but goes,--for the last time, I
+   think.
+
+A series of letters to her father's friend, Mrs. Stearns, show how
+tenderly and carefully Louisa watched over the slow decline of the
+stricken man, but they are too full of details of the sickroom for
+publication. A few extracts will give her feeling.
+
+     MAY 23 [1885].
+
+   DEAR MRS. STEARNS,--Many thanks for the sweet nosegay you sent
+   me. It came in good time, for to-day is the anniversary of
+   Father's wedding-day and my sister's silver wedding. Rather sad
+   for both mateless ones; but we have done our best to cheer them
+   up, and the soft rain is very emblematic of the memories their
+   own quiet tears keep green.
+
+   Father remembered you, and smelled his flowers with pleasure. He
+   is very tired of living, and wants to "go up," as he expresses
+   it. A little more or little less light would make him happier;
+   but the still active mind beats against the prison bars, and
+   rebels against the weakness of body that prevents the old
+   independent life. I am afraid the end is not to be peaceful
+   unless it is sudden, as I hope it may be for all our sakes; it is
+   so wearing to see this slow decline, and be able to do little but
+   preach and practise patience.
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+     Affectionately yours,
+     L. M. A.
+
+     SUNDAY.
+
+          *       *       *       *       *
+
+   It is only a temporary change, perhaps; but I still hope that it
+   will last, and his mind grow still clearer. These painless,
+   peaceful days have a certain sweetness, sad as it is to see the
+   dear, hale old man so feeble. If he can know us, and enjoy
+   something of the old life, it is worth having, though the end may
+   come at any moment....
+
+   Now and then a word comes without effort. "Up!" was the first
+   one, and seems very characteristic of this beautiful, aspiring
+   soul, almost on the wing for heaven.
+
+
+_To Mr. Niles._
+
+     NONQUIT, July 13, 1885.
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--I want to know if it is too late to do it and if
+   it is worth doing; namely, to collect some of the little tales I
+   tell Lulu and put them with the two I shall have printed the
+   last year and the "Mermaid Tale" to match the pictures we bought,
+   and call it "Lulu's Library"? I have several tiny books written
+   down for L.; and as I can do no great work, it occurred to me
+   that I might venture to copy these if it would do for a Christmas
+   book for the younger set.
+
+   I ache to fall on some of the ideas that are simmering in my
+   head, but dare not, as my one attempt since the last "Jo's Boys"
+   break-down cost me a week or two of woe and $30 for the doctor. I
+   have lovely long days here, and can copy these and see 'em along
+   if you want them. One has gone to "Harper's Young People," and
+   one is for "St. Nicholas" when it is done,--about the
+   Kindergarten for the blind. These with Lulu's would make a little
+   book, and might begin a series for small folks. Old ladies come
+   to this twaddle when they can do nothing else. What say you?...
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+     SEPTEMBER 18, 1885.
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--I send you some funny sketches by Mrs. L. She
+   seems to be getting on. How would it do to ask her to illustrate
+   the fairy book? She has a pretty taste in elves, and her little
+   girl was good. I hope to touch up the other stories this winter,
+   and she can illustrate, and next Christmas (or whenever it is
+   ready) we can have a little book out. This sort of work being all
+   I dare do now, I may as well be clearing the decks for action
+   when the order comes to "Up, and at 'em!" again, if it ever does.
+
+  [Illustration: _Fac-simile of Miss Alcott's Writing._ ]
+
+   I'd like to help Mrs. L. if I could, as we know something of her,
+   and I fancy she needs a lift. Perhaps we could use these pictures
+   in some way if she liked to have us. Maybe I could work them
+   into a story of out "cullud bredren."
+
+   Thanks for the books. Dear Miss ---- is rather prim in her story,
+   but it is pretty and quite _correct_. So different from Miss
+   Alcott's slap-dash style.
+
+   The "H. H." book ["Ramona"] is a noble record of the great wrongs
+   of her chosen people, and ought to wake up the sinners to
+   repentance and justice before it is too late. It recalls the old
+   slavery days, only these victims are red instead of black. It
+   will be a disgrace if "H. H." gave her work and pity all in vain.
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+     [1885.]
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--Thanks for the book which I shall like to read.
+
+   Please tell Miss N. that she will find in Sanborn's article in
+   "St. Nicholas" or Mrs. Moulton's in the "Eminent Women" book all
+   that I wish to have said about myself. You can add such facts
+   about editions, etc., as you think best. I don't like these
+   everlasting notices; one is enough, else we poor people feel like
+   squeezed oranges, and nothing is left sacred.
+
+   George Eliot's new life and letters is well done, and we are not
+   sorry we have read them. Mr. Cross has been a wise man, and
+   leaves us all our love and respect instead of spoiling them as
+   Froude did for Carlyle,
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+     January 2, 1886.
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--Thanks for the good wishes and news. Now that I
+   cannot work, it is very agreeable to hear that the books go so
+   well, and that the lazy woman need not worry about things.
+
+   I appreciate my blessings, I assure you. I heartily wish I could
+   "swamp the book-room with 'Jo's Boys,'" as Fred says, and hope to
+   do it by and by when head and hand can safely obey the desire of
+   the heart, which will never be too tired or too old to remember
+   and be grateful.
+
+     Your friend,
+     L. M. Alcott.
+
+     Monday, A.M. [1886].
+
+   Dear Mr. Niles,--My doctor forbids me to begin a long book or
+   anything that will need much thought this summer. So I must give
+   up "Tragedy of To-day," as it will need a good deal of thinking
+   to be what it ought.
+
+   I can give you a girls' book however, and I think that will be
+   better than a novel. I have several stories done, and can easily
+   do more and make a companion volume for "Spinning-Wheel Stories"
+   at Christmas if you want it.
+
+   This, with the Lulu stories, will be better than the set of
+   novels I am sure.... Wait till I can do a novel, and then get out
+   the set in style, if Alcott is not forgotten by that time.
+
+   I was going to send Mrs. Dodge one of the tales for girls, and if
+   there is time she might have more. But nearly all new ones would
+   make a book go well in the holiday season. You can have those
+   already done now if you want them. "Sophie's Secret" is one, "An
+   Ivy Spray: or Cinderella's Slippers" another, and "Mountain
+   Laurel" is partly done. "A Garland for Girls" might do for a
+   title perhaps, as they are all for girls.
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+In the spring of 1886, Dr. Rhoda Lawrence took charge of Miss Alcott's
+health, and gave her treatment by massage and other appropriate
+means, from which she received benefit. The summer was spent at
+Concord with her father, and was varied by a pleasant trip to the
+mountains. Miss Alcott finished "Jo's Boys," which was published in
+September. She occupied herself also in looking over old journals and
+letters, and destroyed many things which she did not wish to have come
+under the public eye. She had enjoyed her life at Princeton, and said
+that she felt better than for fifteen years; but in August she was
+severely attacked with rheumatism and troubled with vertigo. She
+suffered very much, and was in a very nervous condition.
+
+Miss Alcott always looked bravely and calmly upon all the
+possibilities of life, and she now made full preparations for the
+event of her own death. Her youngest nephew had always been especially
+beloved, and she decided to take out papers of adoption, to make him
+legally her son and heir. She wished him to assume the name of Alcott,
+and to be her representative.
+
+Louisa's journal closes July, 1886, with the old feeling,--that she
+must grind away at the mill and make money to supply the many claims
+that press upon her from all sides. She feels the burden of every
+suffering human life upon her own soul. She knew that she could write
+what was eagerly desired by others and would bring her the means of
+helping those in need, and her heart and head united in urging her to
+work. Whether it would have been possible for her to have rested more
+fully, and whether she might then have worked longer and better, is
+one of those questions which no one is wise enough to answer. Yet the
+warning of her life should not be neglected, and the eager brain
+should learn to obey the laws of life and health while it is yet time.
+
+In September, 1886, Miss Alcott returned to Louisburg Square, and
+spent the winter in the care of her father, and in the society of her
+sister and nephews and the darling child. She suffered much from
+hoarseness, from nervousness and debility, and from indigestion and
+sleeplessness, but still exerted herself for the comfort of all around
+her. She had a happy Christmas, and sympathized with the joy of her
+oldest nephew in his betrothal. In December she was so weary and worn
+that she went out to Dr. Lawrence's home in Roxbury for rest and care.
+She found such relief to her overtasked brain and nerves from the
+seclusion and quiet of Dunreath Place, that she found her home and
+rest there for the remainder of her life.
+
+It was a great trial to Louisa to be apart from her family, to whom
+she had devoted her life. She clung to her dying father, and to the
+dear sister still left to her, with increasing fondness, and she
+longed for her boys and her child; but her tired nerves could not bear
+even the companionship of her family, and sometimes for days she
+wanted to be all alone. "I feel so safe out here!" she said once.
+
+Mr. Alcott spent the summer at Melrose, and Louisa went there to visit
+him in June. In June and July, 1887, she went to Concord and looked
+over papers and completed the plan for adopting her nephew. She
+afterward went to Princeton, accompanied by Dr. Lawrence. She spent
+eight weeks there, and enjoyed the mountain air and scenery with
+something of her old delight. She was able to walk a mile or more, and
+took a solitary walk in the morning, which she greatly enjoyed. Her
+evening walk was less agreeable, because she was then exposed to the
+eager curiosity of sight-seers, who constantly pursued her.
+
+Miss Alcott had a great intellectual pleasure here in the society of
+Mr. James Murdock and his family. The distinguished elocutionist took
+great pains to gratify her taste for dramatic reading by selecting her
+favorite scenes for representation, and she even attended one of his
+public readings given in the hall of the hotel. The old pain in her
+limbs from which she suffered during her European journey again
+troubled her, and she returned to Dr. Lawrence's home in the autumn,
+where she was tenderly cared for.
+
+Miss Alcott was still continually planning stories. Dr. Lawrence read
+to her a great deal, and the reading often suggested subjects to her.
+She thought of a series to be called "Stories of All Nations," and had
+already written "Trudel's Siege," which was published in "St.
+Nicholas," April, 1888, the scene of which was laid at the siege of
+Leyden. The English story was to be called "Madge Wildfire," and she
+had thought of plots for others. She could write very little, and kept
+herself occupied and amused with fancy work, making flowers and
+pen-wipers of various colors, in the form of pinks, to send to her
+friends.
+
+On her last birthday Louisa received a great many flowers and pleasant
+remembrances, which touched her deeply, and she said, "I did not mean
+to cry to-day, but I can't help it, everybody is so good." She went in
+to see her father every few days, and was conscious that he was
+drawing toward the end.
+
+While riding with her friend, Louisa would tell her of the stories she
+had planned, one of which was to be called "The Philosopher's Wooing,"
+referring to Thoreau. She also had a musical novel in her mind. She
+could not be idle, and having a respect for sewing, she busied herself
+with it, making garments for poor children, or helping the Doctor in
+her work. She insisted upon setting up a work-basket for the Doctor,
+amply supplied with necessary materials, and was pleased when she saw
+them used. A flannel garment for a poor child was the last work of her
+hands. Her health improved in February, especially in the comfort of
+her nights, as the baths she took brought her the long-desired sleep.
+"Nothing so good as sleep," she said. But a little too much excitement
+brought on violent headaches.
+
+During these months Miss Alcott wrote part of the "Garland for Girls,"
+one of the most fanciful and pleasing of her books. These stories were
+suggested by the flowers sent to her by different friends, which she
+fully enjoyed. She rode a great deal, but did not see any one.
+
+Her friends were much encouraged; and although they dared not expect
+full recovery, they hoped that she might be "a comfortable invalid,
+able to enjoy life, and give help and pleasure to others." She did
+not suffer great pain, but she was very weak; her nervous system
+seemed to be utterly prostrated by the years of work and struggle
+through which she had passed. She said, "I don't want to live if I
+can't be of use." She had always met the thought of death bravely; and
+even the separation from her dearest friends was serenely borne. She
+believed in their continued presence and influence, and felt that the
+parting was for a little time. She had no fear of God, and no doubt of
+the future. Her only sadness was in leaving the friends whom she loved
+and who might yet need her.
+
+A young man wrote asking Miss Alcott if she would advise him to devote
+himself to authorship; she answered, "Not if you can do anything else.
+Even dig ditches." He followed her advice, and took a situation where
+he could support himself, but he still continued to write stories. A
+little boy sent twenty-five cents to buy her books. She returned the
+money, telling him it was not enough to buy books, but sent him
+"Little Men." Scores of letters remained unanswered for want of
+strength to write or even to read.
+
+Early in March Mr. Alcott failed very rapidly. Louisa drove in to see
+him, and was conscious that it was for the last time. Tempted by the
+warm spring-like day, she had made some change in her dress, and
+absorbed in the thought of the parting, when she got into the carriage
+she forgot to put on the warm fur cloak she had worn.
+
+The next morning she complained of violent pain in her head, amounting
+to agony. The physician who had attended her for the last weeks was
+called. He felt that the situation was very serious. She herself
+asked, "Is it not meningitis?" The trouble on the brain increased
+rapidly. She recognized her dear young nephew for a moment and her
+friendly hostess, but was unconscious of everything else. So, at 3.30
+P.M., March 6, 1888, she passed quietly on to the rest which she so
+much needed. She did not know that her father had already preceded
+her.
+
+The friends of the family who gathered to pay their last tribute of
+respect and love to the aged father were met at the threshold by the
+startling intelligence, "Louisa Alcott is dead," and a deeper sadness
+fell upon every heart. The old patriarch had gone to his rest in the
+fulness of time, "corn ripe for the sickle," but few realized how
+entirely his daughter had worn out her earthly frame. Her friends had
+hoped for renewed health and strength, and for even greater and nobler
+work from her with her ripened powers and greater ease and leisure.
+
+Miss Alcott had made every arrangement for her death; and by her own
+wish the funeral service was very simple, in her father's rooms at
+Louisburg Square, and attended only by a few of her family and nearest
+friends. They read her exquisite poem to her mother, her father's
+noble tribute to her, and spoke of the earnestness and truth of her
+life. She was remembered as she would have wished to be. Her body was
+carried to Concord and placed in the beautiful cemetery of Sleepy
+Hollow where her dearest ones were already laid to rest. "Her boys"
+went beside her as "a guard of honor," and stood around as she was
+placed across the feet of father, mother, and sister, that she might
+"take care of them as she had done all her life."
+
+Of the silent grief of the bereaved family I will not speak, but the
+sound of mourning filled all the land, and was re-echoed from foreign
+shores. The children everywhere had lost their friend. Miss Alcott had
+entered into their hearts and revealed them to themselves. In her
+childish journal her oldest sister said, "I have not a secret from
+Louisa; I tell her everything, and am not afraid she will think me
+silly." It was this respect for the thought and life of children that
+gave Louisa Alcott her great power of winning their respect and
+affection. Nothing which was real and earnest to them seemed
+unimportant to her.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+LAST LETTERS.
+
+
+_To Mr. Niles._
+
+     SUNDAY, 1886.
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--The goodly supply of books was most welcome; for
+   when my two hours pen-work are over I need something to comfort
+   me, and I long to go on and finish "Jo's Boys" by July 1st.
+
+   My doctor frowns on that hope, and is so sure it will do mischief
+   to get up the steam that I am afraid to try, and keep Prudence
+   sitting on the valve lest the old engine run away and have
+   another smash-up.
+
+   I send you by Fred several chapters, I wish they were neater, as
+   some were written long ago and have knocked about for years; but
+   I can't spare time to copy, so hope the printers won't be in
+   despair.
+
+   I planned twenty chapters and am on the fifteenth. Some are long,
+   some short, and as we are pressed for time we had better not try
+   to do too much.
+
+   ... I have little doubt it will be done early in July, but things
+   are so contrary with me I can never be sure of carrying out a
+   plan, and I don't want to fail again; so far I feel as if I
+   could, without harm, finish off these dreadful boys.
+
+   Why have any illustrations? The book is not a child's book, as
+   the lads are nearly all over twenty, and pretty pictures are not
+   needed. Have the bas-relief if you like, or one good thing for
+   frontispiece.
+
+   I can have twenty-one chapters and make it the size of "Little
+   Men." Sixteen chapters make two hundred and sixteen pages, and I
+   may add a page here and there later,--or if need be, a chapter
+   somewhere to fill up.
+
+   I shall be at home in a week or two, much better for the rest and
+   fine air; and during my quiet days in C. I can touch up proofs
+   and confer about the book. Sha'n't we be glad when it is done?
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Dodge_.
+
+     JUNE 29.
+
+   DEAR MRS. DODGE,--I will evolve something for December (D. V.)
+   and let you have it as soon as it is done.
+
+   Lu and I go to Nonquit next week; and after a few days of rest, I
+   will fire up the old engine and see if it will run a short
+   distance without a break-down.
+
+   There are usually about forty young people at N., and I think I
+   can get a hint from some of them.
+
+   Had a call from Mr. Burroughs and Mr. Gilder last eve. Mr. G.
+   asked if you were in B., but I didn't know.
+
+   Father remains comfortable and happy among his books. Our lads
+   are making their first visit to New York, and may call on "St.
+   Nick," whom they have made their patron saint.
+
+   I should like to own the last two bound volumes of "St.
+   Nicholas," for Lulu. She adores the others, and they are nearly
+   worn out with her loving but careless luggings up and down for
+   "more towries, Aunt Wee-wee." Charge to
+
+     Yours affectionately,
+     L. M. A.
+
+   P. S.--Wasn't I glad to see you in my howling wilderness of
+   wearisome domestic worrits! Come again.
+
+     CONCORD, August 15.
+
+   DEAR MRS. DODGE,--I like the idea of "Spinning-Wheel Stories,"
+   and can do several for a series which can come out in a book
+   later. Old-time tales, with a thread running through all from the
+   wheel that enters in the first one.
+
+   A Christmas party of children might be at an old farm-house and
+   hunt up the wheel, and grandma spins and tells the first story;
+   and being snow-bound, others amuse the young folks each evening
+   with more tales. Would that do? The mother and child picture
+   would come in nicely for the first tale,--"Grandma and her
+   Mother."
+
+   Being at home and quiet for a week or so (as Father is nicely and
+   has a capable nurse), I have begun the serial, and done two
+   chapters; but the spinning-tales come tumbling into my mind so
+   fast I'd better pin a few while "genius burns." Perhaps you would
+   like to start the set Christmas. The picture being ready and the
+   first story can be done in a week, "Sophie's Secret" can come
+   later. Let me know if you would like that, and about how many
+   pages of the paper "S. S." was written on you think would make
+   the required length of tale (or tail?). If you don't want No. 1
+   yet, I will take my time and do several.
+
+   The serial was to be "Mrs. Gay's Summer School," and have some
+   city girls and boys go to an old farm-house, and for fun dress
+   and live as in old times, and learn the good, thrifty old ways,
+   with adventures and fun thrown in. That might come in the spring,
+   as it takes me longer to grind out yarns now than of old.
+
+   Glad you are better. Thanks for kind wishes for the little house;
+   come and see it, and gladden the eyes of forty young admirers by
+   a sight of M. M. D. next year.
+
+     Yours affectionately,
+     L. M. A.
+
+     31 CHESTNUT ST., DECEMBER 31.
+
+   DEAR MRS. DODGE,--A little cousin, thirteen years old, has
+   written a story and longs to see it in print. It is a well
+   written bit and pretty good for a beginner, so I send it to you
+   hoping it may find a place in the children's corner. She is a
+   grandchild of S. J. May, and a bright lass who paints nicely and
+   is a domestic little person in spite of her budding
+   accomplishments. Good luck to her!
+
+   I hoped to have had a Christmas story for some one, but am
+   forbidden to write for six months, after a bad turn of vertigo.
+   So I give it up and take warning. All good wishes for the New
+   Year.
+
+     From yours affectionately,
+     L. M. ALCOTT.
+
+
+_To Mr. Niles_.
+
+     1886.
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--Sorry you don't like the bas-relief [of
+   herself]; I do. A portrait, if bright and comely, wouldn't be me,
+   and if like me would disappoint the children; so we had better
+   let them imagine "Aunt Jo young and beautiful, with her hair in
+   two tails down her back," as the little girl said.
+
+     In haste,
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Bond._
+
+     CONCORD, Tuesday, 1886.
+
+   DEAR AUNTIE,--I want to find Auntie Gwinn, and don't know whom to
+   ask but you, as your big motherly heart yearns over all the poor
+   babies, and can tell them where to go when the nest is bare. A
+   poor little woman has just died, leaving four children to a
+   drunken father. Two hard-working aunts do all they can, and one
+   will take the oldest girl. We want to put the two small girls and
+   boy into a home till we can see what comes next. Lulu clothes
+   one, and we may be able to put one with a cousin. But since the
+   mother died last Wednesday they are very forlorn, and must be
+   helped. If we were not so full I'd take one; but Lu is all we can
+   manage now.
+
+   There is a home at Auburndale, but it is full; and I know of no
+   other but good Auntie Gwinn's. What is her address, please? I
+   shall be in town on Saturday, and can go and see her if I know
+   where.
+
+   Don't let it be a bother; but one turns at once in such cases to
+   the saints for direction, and the poor aunts don't known what to
+   do; so this aunt comes to the auntie of all.
+
+   I had a pleasant chat with the Papa in the cars, and was very
+   glad to hear that W. is better. My love to both and S.
+
+   Thanks for the news of portraits. I'll bear them in mind if G. H.
+   calls. Lulu and Anna send love, and I am as always,
+
+     Your
+     LOUISA ALCOTT.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Dodge._
+
+     APRIL 13, 1880.
+
+   DEAR MRS. DODGE,--I am glad you are going to have such a fine
+   outing. May it be a very happy one.
+
+   I cannot promise anything, but hope to be allowed to write a
+   little, as my doctor has decided that it is as well to let me put
+   on paper the tales "knocking at the saucepan lid and demanding to
+   be taken out" (like Mrs. Cratchit's potatoes), as to have them go
+   on worrying me inside. So I'm scribbling at "Jo's Boys," long
+   promised to Mr. Niles and clamored for by the children. I may
+   write but one hour a day, so cannot get on very fast; but if it
+   is ever done, I can think of a serial for "St. Nicholas." I began
+   one, and can easily start it for '88, if head and hand allow. I
+   will simmer on it this summer, and see if it can be done. Hope
+   so, for I don't want to give up work so soon.
+
+   I have read "Mrs. Null," but don't like it very well,--too slow
+   and colorless after Tolstoi's "Anna Karanina."
+
+   I met Mr. and Mrs. S. at Mrs. A.'s this winter. Mr. Stockton's
+   child-stories I like very much. The older ones are odd but
+   artificial.
+
+   Now, good-by, and God be with you, dear woman, and bring you
+   safely home to us all.
+
+     Affectionately yours,
+     L. M. ALCOTT.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Bond._
+
+     DUNREATH PLACE, ROXBURY, March 15, 1887
+
+   DEAR AUNTIE,--I have been hoping to get out and see you all
+   winter, but have been so ill I could only live on hope as a
+   relish to my gruel,--that being my only food, and not of a nature
+   to give me strength. Now I am beginning to live a little, and
+   feel less like a sick oyster at low tide. The spring days will
+   set me up I trust, and my first pilgrimage shall be to you; for I
+   want you to see how prettily my May-flower is blossoming into a
+   fine off-shoot of the old plant.
+
+   Lizzy Wells has probably told you our news of Fred and his little
+   bride, and Anna written you about it as only a proud mamma can.
+
+   Father is very comfortable, but says sadly as he looks up from
+   his paper, "Beecher has gone now; all go but me." Please thank
+   Mr. Bond for the poems, which are interesting, even to a poor,
+   ignorant worm who does not know Latin. Mother would have enjoyed
+   them very much. I should have acknowledged his kindness sooner;
+   but as I am here in Roxbury my letters are forwarded, and often
+   delayed.
+
+   I was sorry to hear that you were poorly again. Isn't it hard to
+   sit serenely in one's soul when one's body is in a dilapidated
+   state? I find it a great bore, but try to do it patiently, and
+   hope to see the why by and by, when this mysterious life is made
+   clear to me. I had a lovely dream about that, and want to tell it
+   you some day.
+
+     Love to all.
+     Ever yours,
+     L. M. A.
+
+Her publisher wished to issue a new edition of "A Modern
+Mephistopheles," and to add to it her story "A Whisper in the Dark,"
+to which she consented.
+
+     MAY 6, 1887.
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES.--This is about what I want to say. You may be
+   able to amend or suggest something. I only want it understood
+   that the highfalutin style was for a disguise, though the story
+   had another purpose; for I'm not ashamed of it, and like it
+   better than "Work" or "Moods."
+
+     Yours in haste,
+     L. M. A.
+
+   P. S.--Do you want more fairy tales?
+
+
+_Preface._
+
+   "A Modern Mephistopheles" was written among the earlier volumes
+   of the No Name Series, when the chief idea of the authors was to
+   puzzle their readers by disguising their style as much as
+   possible, that they might enjoy the guessing and criticism as
+   each novel appeared. This book was very successful in preserving
+   its incognito; and many persons still insist that it could not
+   have been written by the author of "Little Women." As I much
+   enjoyed trying to embody a shadow of my favorite poem in a story,
+   as well as the amusement it has afforded those in the secret for
+   some years, it is considered well to add this volume to the few
+   romances which are offered, not as finished work by any means,
+   but merely attempts at something graver than magazine stories or
+   juvenile literature.
+
+     L. M. ALCOTT.
+
+  [Illustration: _Fac-simile of Preface to "A Modern
+  Mephistopheles."_]
+
+     SATURDAY A.M., May 7, 1887.
+
+   DEAR MR. NILES,--Yours just come. "A Whisper" is rather a lurid
+   tale, but might do if I add a few lines to the preface of
+   "Modern Mephistopheles," saying that this is put in to fill the
+   volume, or to give a sample of Jo March's necessity stories,
+   which many girls have asked for. Would that do?
+
+   It seems to me that it would be better to wait till I can add a
+   new novel, and then get out the set. Meantime let "Modern
+   Mephistopheles" go alone, with my name, as a summer book before
+   Irving comes [Irving as Faust].
+
+   I hope to do "A Tragedy of To-day" this summer, and it can come
+   out in the fall or next spring, with "Modern Mephistopheles,"
+   "Work," and "Moods."
+
+   A spunky new one would make the old ones go. "Hospital Sketches"
+   is not cared for now, and is filled up with other tales you
+   know....
+
+   Can that plan be carried out? I have begun my tragedy, and think
+   it will be good; also a shorter thing called "Anna: An Episode,"
+   in which I do up Boston in a jolly way, with a nice little
+   surprise at the end. It would do to fill up "Modern
+   Mephistopheles," as it is not long, unless I want it to be.
+
+   I will come in next week and see what can be done.
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Bond._
+
+     SUNDAY, Oct. 16, [1887].
+
+   DEAR AUNTIE,--As you and I belong to the "Shut-in Society," we
+   may now and then cheer each other by a line. Your note and verse
+   are very good to me to-day, as I sit trying to feel all right in
+   spite of the stiffness that won't walk, the rebel stomach that
+   won't work, and the tired head that won't rest.
+
+   My verse lately has been from the little poem found under a good
+   soldier's pillow in the hospital.
+
+     I am no longer eager, bold, and strong,--
+         All that is past;
+     I am ready not to do
+         At last--at last.
+     My half-day's work is done,
+         And this is all my part.
+     I give a patient God
+         My patient heart.
+
+   The learning not to do is so hard after being the hub to the
+   family wheel so long. But it is good for the energetic ones to
+   find that the world can get on without them, and to learn to be
+   still, to give up, and wait cheerfully.
+
+   As we have "fell into poetry," as Silas Wegg says, I add a bit of
+   my own; for since you are Marmee now, I feel that you won't laugh
+   at my poor attempts any more than she did, even when I burst
+   forth at the ripe age of eight.
+
+   Love to all the dear people, and light to the kind eyes that have
+   made sunshine for others so many years.
+
+     Always your
+     LU.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Bond, with first copy of "Lulu's Library," second volume._
+
+     OCTOBER, 1887.
+
+   DEAR AUNTIE,--I always gave Mother the first author's copy of a
+   new book. As her representative on earth, may I send you, with my
+   love, the little book to come out in November?
+
+   The tales were told at sixteen to May and her playmates; then are
+   related to May's daughter at five; and for the sake of these two
+   you may care to have them for the little people.
+
+   I am still held by the leg, but seem to gain a little, and hope
+   to be up by and by. Slow work, but part of the discipline I
+   need, doubtless; so I take it as well as I can.
+
+   You and I won't be able to go to the golden wedding of S. J. May.
+   I have been alone so long I feel as if I'd like to see any one,
+   and be in the good times again. L. W. reports you as "nicely, and
+   sweet as an angel;" so I rejoice, and wish I could say the same
+   of
+
+     Your loving
+     LU.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Dodge._
+
+     DECEMBER 22, 1887.
+
+   DEAR MRS. DODGE,--I send you the story your assistant editor
+   asked for. As it is needed at once I do not delay to copy it, for
+   I can only write an hour a day and do very little. You are used
+   to my wild manuscript, and will be able to read it. I meant to
+   have sent the Chinese tale, but this was nearly done, and so it
+   goes, as it does not matter where we begin.... I hope you are
+   well, and full of the peace which work well done gives the happy
+   doer.
+
+   I mend slowly, but surely, and my good Doctor says my best work
+   is yet to come; so I will be content with health if I can get it.
+   With all good wishes,
+
+     Yours affectionately,
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+_To Mrs. Bond._
+
+     FEBRUARY 7 [1888].
+
+   DEAR AUNTIE,--My blessed Anna is so busy, and I can do so little
+   to help her, I feel as if I might take upon me the pleasant duty
+   of writing to you.
+
+   Father is better, and we are all so grateful, for just now we
+   want all to be bright for our boy.
+
+   The end is not far off, but Father rallies wonderfully from each
+   feeble spell, and keeps serene and happy through everything.
+
+   I don't ask to keep him now that life is a burden, and am glad to
+   have him go before it becomes a pain. We shall miss the dear old
+   white head and the feeble saint so long our care; but as Anna
+   says, "He will be with Mother." So we shall be happy in the hope
+   of that meeting.
+
+   Sunday he seemed very low, and I was allowed to drive in and say
+   "good-by." He knew me and smiled, and kissed "Weedy," as he calls
+   me, and I thought the drowsiness and difficulty of breathing
+   could not last long. But he revived, got up, and seemed so much
+   as usual, I may be able to see him again. It is a great grief
+   that I am not there as I was with Lizzie and Mother, but though
+   much better, the shattered nerves won't bear much yet, and quiet
+   is my only cure.
+
+   I sit alone and bless the little pair like a fond old
+   grandmother. You show me how to do it. With love to all,
+
+     Yours ever,
+     LU.
+
+
+_Her last note. To Mrs. Bond._
+
+     FEBRUARY 8, 1888.
+     _Air_,-"Haste to the Wedding."
+
+   DEAR AUNTIE,--I little knew what a sweet surprise was in store
+   for me when I wrote to you yesterday.
+
+   As I awoke this morning my good Doctor L. came in with the lovely
+   azalea, her round face beaming through the leaves like a full
+   moon.
+
+   It was very dear of you to remember me, and cheer up my lonely
+   day with such a beautiful guest.
+
+   It stands beside me on Marmee's work-table, and reminds me
+   tenderly of her favorite flowers; and among those used at her
+   funeral was a spray of this, which lasted for two weeks
+   afterward, opening bud after bud in the glass on her table, where
+   lay the dear old "Jos. May" hymn book, and her diary with the pen
+   shut in as she left it when she last wrote there, three days
+   before the end, "The twilight is closing about me, and I am going
+   to rest in the arms of my children."
+
+   So you see I love the delicate flower, and enjoy it very much.
+
+   I can write now, and soon hope to come out and see you for a few
+   minutes, as I drive out every fine day, and go to kiss my people
+   once a week for fifteen minutes.
+
+   Slow climbing, but I don't slip back; so think up my mercies, and
+   sing cheerfully, as dear Marmee used to do, "Thus far the Lord
+   has led me on!"
+
+     Your loving
+     LU.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+     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.
+
+     _November_ 29, 1885.
+     L. M. A.
+
+
+Miss Alcott's appearance was striking and impressive rather than
+beautiful. Her figure was tall and well-proportioned, indicating
+strength and activity, and she walked with freedom and majesty. Her
+head was large, and her rich brown hair was long and luxuriant, giving
+a sense of fulness and richness of life to her massive features. While
+thoroughly unconventional, and even free and easy in her manner, she
+had a dignity of deportment which prevented undue liberties, and made
+intruders stand in awe of her. Generous in the extreme in serving
+others, she knew her own rights, and did not allow them to be trampled
+on. She repelled "the spurns that patient merit of the unworthy
+takes," and had much of the Burns spirit that sings "A man's a man for
+a' that" in the presence of insolent grandeur.
+
+Miss Alcott always took her stand not for herself, but for her family,
+her class, her sex. The humblest writer should not be imposed upon in
+her person; every woman should be braver and stronger from her
+attitude. She was careless of outward distinctions; but she enjoyed
+the attentions which her fame brought her with simple pleasure, and
+was delighted to meet bright, intelligent, distinguished people, who
+added to her stores of observation and thought. She had the rare good
+fortune, which an heir of millions might envy, of living all her life
+in the society of the noblest men and women. The Emersons, the
+Thoreaus, the Hawthornes, and Miss Elizabeth Peabody were the constant
+companions of her childhood and youth. It was from them that her
+standard of character was formed, and she could never enter any circle
+higher than that in which she had breathed freely from a child. She
+was quite capable of hero-worship, but her heroes were few.
+
+With all her imagination and romance, Miss Alcott was a tremendous
+destroyer of illusions; she remorselessly tore them away from herself,
+persisting in holding a lens before every fault and folly of her own,
+and she did the same for those she loved best. Only what was
+intrinsically noble and true could stand the searching test of her
+intellectual scrutiny and keen perception of the incongruous and
+ridiculous.
+
+This disposition was apparent in Louisa's relation to her father, whom
+she did not always fully understand. Perhaps he had a perception of
+this when he wrote--
+
+     "I press thee to my heart, as Duty's faithful child."
+
+She had little sympathy with his speculative fancy, and saw plainly
+the impracticability of his schemes, and did not hesitate to touch
+with light and kindly satire his little peculiarities; yet in her
+deepest heart she gave him not only affection, but deep reverence. She
+felt the nobility and grandeur of his mind and heart. In "Little
+Women" the portrait of the father is less vivid and less literal than
+that of any other member of the family, and is scarcely recognizable;
+but it was impossible to make the student and idealist a part of the
+family life as she painted it,--full of fun, frolic, and adventure. In
+the second part she has taken pains to make up for this seeming
+neglect, and pays homage to the quiet man at the end of the house,
+whose influence was so potent and so sweet over all within it.
+
+Mrs. Alcott was a rich and noble nature, full of zeal and impulse,
+daily struggling with a temper threatening to burst out into fire,
+ready to fight like a lioness for her young, or to toil for them till
+Nature broke down under the burden. She had a rich appreciation of
+heroism and beauty in all noble living, a true love of literature, and
+an overflowing sympathy with all suffering humanity, but was also
+capable of righteous indignation and withering contempt. To this
+mother, royal in her motherhood, Louisa was bound by the closest ties
+of filial love and mutual understanding. She early believed herself to
+be her mother's favorite child, knew she was close to her heart, her
+every struggle watched, her every fault rebuked, every aspiration
+encouraged, every effort after good recognized. I think Louisa felt no
+pride in this preference. She knew that she was dear to her mother,
+because her stormy, wayward heart was best understood by her; and
+hence the mother, wiser for her child than for herself, watched her
+unfolding life with anxious care. Throughout the childish journal this
+relation is evident: the child's heart lies open to the mother, and
+the mother can help her because she understands her, and holds sacred
+every cry of her heart.
+
+Such a loving relation to a mother--so rich, so full, so enduring--was
+the greatest possible blessing to her life. And richly did Louisa
+repay the care. From her earliest years she was her mother's
+confidante, friend, and comforter. Her dream of success was not of
+fame and glory, but of the time when she could bring this weary
+pilgrim into "that chamber whose name is Peace," and there bid her sit
+with folded hands, listening to the loving voices of her children, and
+drinking in the fulness of life without care or anxiety.
+
+And it all came true, like the conclusion of a fairy story; for good
+fairies had been busy at work for many years preparing the way. Who
+that saw that mother resting from her labors, proud in her children's
+success, happy in her husband's contentment, and in the love that had
+never faltered in the darkest days, can ever forget the peace of her
+countenance, the loving joy of her heart?
+
+The relation of Miss Alcott to her older sister was of entire trust
+and confidence. Anna inherited the serene, unexacting temper of her
+father, with much of the loving warmth of her mother. She loved to
+hide behind her gifted sister, and to keep the ingle-side warm for her
+to retreat to when she was cold and weary. Anna's fine intellectual
+powers were shown more in the appreciation of others than in the
+expression of herself; her dramatic skill and her lively fancy,
+combined with her affection for Louisa, made her always ready to
+second all the plans for entertainment or benevolence. She appears in
+her true light in the sweet, lovable Meg of "Little Women;" and if she
+never had the fame and pecuniary success of her sister, she had the
+less rare, but equally satisfying, happiness of wifehood and
+motherhood. And thus she repaid to Louisa what she had so generously
+done for the family, by giving her new objects of affection, and
+connecting her with a younger generation.
+
+Louisa was always very fond of boys, and the difference of nature gave
+her an insight into their trials and difficulties without giving her a
+painful sense of her own hard struggles. In her nephews she found
+objects for all her wise and tender care, which they repaid with
+devoted affection. When boys became men, "they were less interesting
+to her; she could not understand them."
+
+Elizabeth was unlike the other sisters. Retiring in disposition, she
+would gladly have ever lived in the privacy of home, her only desire
+being for the music that she loved. The father's ideality was in her a
+tender religious feeling; the mother's passionate impulse, a
+self-abnegating affection. She was in the family circle what she is in
+the book,--a strain of sweet, sad music we long and love to hear, and
+yet which almost breaks the heart with its forecasting of separation.
+She was very dear to both the father and mother, and the picture of
+the father watching all night by the marble remains of his child is
+very touching. He might well say,--
+
+     "Ah, me! life is not life deprived of thee."
+
+Of the youngest of all,--bright, sparkling, capricious May,--quick in
+temper, quick in repentance, affectionate and generous, but full of
+her own plans, and quite inclined to have the world go on according
+to her fancies,--I have spoken elsewhere. Less profound in her
+intellectual and religious nature than either of her sisters, she was
+like a nymph of Nature, full of friendly sportiveness, and disposed to
+live out her own life, since it might be only a brief summer day. She
+was Anna's special child, and Louisa was not always so patient with
+her as the older sister; yet how well Louisa understood her generous
+nature is shown by the beautiful sketch she has made of her in "Little
+Women." She was called the lucky one of the family, and she reaped the
+benefit of her generous sister's labors in her opportunities of
+education.
+
+Miss Alcott's literary work is so closely interwoven with her personal
+life that it needs little separate mention. Literature was undoubtedly
+her true pursuit, and she loved and honored it. That she had her
+ambitious longings for higher forms of art than the pleasant stories
+for children is evident from her journals, and she twice attempted to
+paint the life of mature men and women struggling with great
+difficulties. In "Moods" and "A Modern Mephistopheles" we have proof
+of her interest in difficult subjects. I have spoken of them in
+connection with her life; but while they evince great power, and if
+standing alone would have stamped her as an author of original
+observation and keen thought, they can hardly be considered as
+thoroughly successful, and certainly have not won the sanction of the
+public like "Hospital Sketches" and "Little Women." Could she ever
+have commanded quiet leisure, with a tolerable degree of health, she
+might have wrought her fancies into a finer fabric, and achieved the
+success she aimed at.
+
+Much as Miss Alcott loved literature, it was not an end in itself to
+her, but a means. Her heart was so bound up in her family,--she felt
+it so fully to be her sacred mission to provide for their wants,--that
+she sacrificed to it all ambitious dreams, health, leisure,--everything
+but her integrity of soul. But as "he that loseth his life shall find
+it," she has undoubtedly achieved a really greater work than if she
+had not had this constant stimulus to exertion. In her own line of
+work she is unsurpassed. While she paints in broad, free strokes the
+life of her own day, represented mostly by children and young people,
+she has always a high moral purpose, which gives strength and
+sweetness to the delineation; yet one never hears children complain of
+her moralizing,--it is events that reveal the lesson she would
+enforce. Her own deep nature shines through all the experiences of her
+characters, and impresses upon the children's hearts a sense of
+reality and truth. She charms them, wisely, to love the common virtues
+of truth, unselfishness, kindness, industry, and honesty. Dr. Johnson
+said children did not want to hear about themselves, but about giants
+and fairies; but while Miss Alcott could weave fairy fancies for them,
+they are quite as pleased with her real boys and girls in the plainest
+of costumes.
+
+An especial merit of these books for young boys and girls is their
+purity of feeling. The family affection which was so predominant in
+the author's own life, always appears as the holiest and sweetest
+phase of human nature. She does not refuse to paint the innocent love
+and the happy marriage which it is natural for every young heart to be
+interested in, but it is in tender, modest colors. She does not make
+it the master and tyrant of the soul, nor does she ever connect it
+with sensual imagery; but it appears as one of "God's holy
+ordinances,"--natural and beautiful,--and is not separated from the
+thought of work and duty and self-sacrifice for others. No mother
+fears that her books will brush the bloom of modesty from the faces of
+her young men or maidens.
+
+Even in the stories of her early period of work for money, which she
+wisely renounced as trash, while there is much that is thoroughly
+worthless as art, and little that has any value, Miss Alcott never
+falls into grossness of thought or baseness of feeling. She is
+sentimental, melodramatic, exaggerated, and unreal in her
+descriptions, but the stories leave no taint of evil behind them. Two
+of these stories, "The Baron's Gloves" and "A Whisper in the Dark,"
+have been included in her published works, with her permission. Her
+friends are disposed to regret this, as they do not add to her
+reputation; but at least they serve to show the quality of work which
+she condemned so severely, and to satisfy the curiosity of readers in
+regard to it. It would be easy to point out defects in her style, and
+in some of her books there is evidence of the enforced drudgery of
+production, instead of the spontaneous flow of thought. The most
+serious defect is in her style of expression, which certainly passes
+the fine line between colloquial ease and slang; it is her own
+natural, peculiar style, which appears in her journals and letters.
+That it is attractive to children is certain, but it offends the taste
+of those who love purity and elegance of speech. It does not appear in
+Louisa's more ambitious novels; here she sometimes falls into the
+opposite extreme of labored and stilted expression. But much of these
+books is written in a pure and beautiful style, showing that she could
+have united ease with elegance if she had not so constantly worked at
+high speed and with little revision. She was a great admirer of
+Dickens's writings; and although she has never imitated him, she was
+perhaps strengthened in her habit of using dashing, expressive
+language by so fascinating a model.
+
+I have placed at the head of each chapter one of Miss Alcott's own
+poems, usually written at the period of which the chapter treats, and
+characteristic of her life at that time. Her first literary essay was
+the "Little Robin." But although her fond mother saw the future of a
+great poet in these simple verses, Louisa never claimed the title for
+herself. Her thoughts ran often into rhyme, and she sent many birthday
+and Christmas verses to her friends and especially to her father. They
+are usually playful. She always wrote to express some feeling of the
+hour, and I find no objective or descriptive poetry. But a few of her
+sacred poems, for we may certainly call them so, are very tender and
+beautiful, and deserve a permanent place among the poems of
+feeling,--those few poems which a true heart writes for itself.
+"Thoreau's Flute" was originally published in the "Atlantic Monthly."
+It is the least personal of her poems. The lines to her father on his
+eighty-sixth birthday, the verses dedicated to her mother, and "My
+Prayer," the last poem that she wrote, breathe her deepest religious
+feeling in sweet and fitting strains. They will speak to the hearts of
+many in the hours of trial which are common to humanity. The long
+playful poem called "The Lay of the Golden Goose" was sent home from
+Europe as an answer to many questions from her admirers and demands
+for new stories. It has never been published, and is an interesting
+specimen of her playful rhyming.
+
+While to Miss Alcott cannot be accorded a high rank as a poet,--which,
+indeed, she never claimed for herself,--it would be hard to deny a
+place in our most select anthology to "Thoreau's Flute" or
+"Transfiguration," the "Lines to my Father on his Eighty-sixth
+Birthday" and "My Prayer." I have therefore thought it well to
+preserve her best poems in connection with her life, where they
+properly belong; for they are all truly autobiographical, revealing
+the inner meaning of her life.
+
+The pecuniary success of Miss Alcott's books enabled her to carry out
+her great purpose of providing for the comfort and happiness of her
+family. After the publication of "Little Women," she not only received
+a handsome sum for every new story, but there was a steady income from
+the old ones. Her American publishers estimate that they "have sold of
+her various works a million volumes, and that she realized from them
+more than two hundred thousand dollars." While her own tastes were
+very simple, her expenses were large, for she longed to gratify every
+wish of those she loved, and she gave generously to every one in need.
+She had a true sense of the value of money. Her early poverty did not
+make her close in expending it, nor her later success lavish. She
+never was enslaved by debt or corrupted by wealth. She always held
+herself superior to her fortune, and made her means serve her highest
+purposes.
+
+Of Miss Alcott's own reading she says:--
+
+   "Never a student, but a great reader. R. W. E. gave me Goethe's
+   works at fifteen, and they have been my delight ever since. My
+   library consists of Goethe, Emerson, Shakespeare, Carlyle,
+   Margaret Fuller, and George Sand. George Eliot I don't care for,
+   nor any of the modern poets but Whittier; the old ones--Herbert,
+   Crashaw, Keats, Coleridge, Dante, and a few others--I like."
+
+She gives this account of the beginning of her literary career:--
+
+   "This gem ['The Robin'] my proud mother preserved with care,
+   assuring me that if I kept on in this way I might be a second
+   Shakespeare in time. Fired with this modest ambition, I continued
+   to write poems upon dead butterflies, lost kittens, the baby's
+   eyes, and other simple subjects till the story-telling mania set
+   in; and after frightening my sisters out of their wits by awful
+   tales whispered in bed, I began to write down these histories of
+   giants, ogres, dauntless girls, and magic transformations till we
+   had a library of small paper-covered volumes illustrated by the
+   author. Later the poems grew gloomy and sentimental, and the
+   tales more fanciful and less tragic, lovely elves and spirits
+   taking the places of the former monsters."
+
+Of her method of work she says:--
+
+   "I never had a study. Any pen and paper do, and an old atlas on
+   my knee is all I want. Carry a dozen plots in my head, and think
+   them over when in the mood. Sometimes keep one for years, and
+   suddenly find it all ready to write. Often lie awake and plan
+   whole chapters word for word, then merely scribble them down as
+   if copying.
+
+   "Used to sit fourteen hours a day at one time, eating little, and
+   unable to stir till a certain amount was done.
+
+   "Very few stories written in Concord; no inspiration in that dull
+   place. Go to Boston, hire a quiet room and shut myself up in it."
+
+The following letter gives her advice to young writers:--
+
+
+_To Mr. J. P. True._
+
+     CONCORD, October 24.
+
+   DEAR SIR,--I never copy or "polish," so I have no old manuscripts
+   to send you; and if I had it would be of little use, for one
+   person's method is no rule for another. Each must work in his own
+   way; and the only drill needed is to keep writing and profit by
+   criticism. Mind grammar, spelling, and punctuation, use short
+   words, and express as briefly as you can your meaning. Young
+   people use too many adjectives and try to "write fine." The
+   strongest, simplest words are best, and no _foreign_ ones if it
+   can be helped.
+
+   Write, and print if you can; if not, still write, and improve as
+   you go on. Read the best books, and they will improve your style.
+   See and hear good speakers and wise people, and learn of them.
+   Work for twenty years, and then you may some day find that you
+   have a style and place of your own, and can command good pay for
+   the same things no one would take when you were unknown.
+
+   I know little of poetry, as I never read modern attempts, but
+   advise any young person to keep to prose, as only once in a
+   century is there a true poet; and verses are so easy to do that
+   it is not much help to write them. I have so many letters like
+   your own that I can say no more, but wish you success, and give
+   you for a motto Michael Angelo's wise words: "Genius is infinite
+   patience."
+
+     Your friend,
+     L. M. ALCOTT.
+
+   P. S.--The lines you send are better than many I see; but boys of
+   nineteen cannot know much about hearts, and had better write of
+   things they understand. Sentiment is apt to become
+   sentimentality; and sense is always safer, as well as better
+   drill, for young fancies and feelings.
+
+   Read Ralph Waldo Emerson, and see what good prose is, and some of
+   the best poetry we have. I much prefer him to Longfellow.
+
+"Years afterward," says Mr. True, "when I had achieved some slight
+success, I once more wrote, thanking her for her advice; and the
+following letter shows the kindliness of heart with which she extended
+ready recognition and encouragement to lesser workers in her chosen
+field:"--
+
+     CONCORD, Sept. 7, 1883.
+
+   MY DEAR MR. TRUE,--Thanks for the pretty book, which I read at
+   once and with pleasure; for I still enjoy boys' pranks as much as
+   ever.
+
+   I don't remember the advice I gave you, and should judge from
+   this your first story that you did not need much. Your boys are
+   real boys; and the girls can run,--which is a rare accomplishment
+   nowadays I find. They are not sentimental either; and that is a
+   good example to set both your brother writers and the lasses who
+   read the book.
+
+   I heartily wish you success in your chosen work, and shall always
+   be glad to know how fast and how far you climb on the steep road
+   that leads to fame and fortune.
+
+     Yours truly,
+     L. M. Alcott.
+
+Roberts Brothers, Miss Alcott's publishers for nearly twenty years,
+have collected all her stories in a uniform edition of twenty-five
+volumes. They are grouped into different series according to size and
+character, from her novels to "Lulu's Library" for very small
+children, and may be enumerated as follows:--
+
+   _Novels_ (four volumes).--Work, Moods, A Modern Mephistopheles,
+   Hospital Sketches.
+
+   _Little Women Series_ (eight volumes).--Little Women, An
+   Old-Fashioned Girl, Little Men, Eight Cousins, Rose in Bloom,
+   Under the Lilacs, Jack and Jill, Jo's Boys.
+
+   _Spinning-Wheel Stories Series_ (four volumes).--Silver Pitchers,
+   Proverb Stories, Spinning-Wheel Stories, A Garland for Girls.
+
+   _Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag_ (six volumes).--My Boys, Shawl-Straps,
+   Cupid and Chow-Chow, My Girls, Jimmy's Cruise in the Pinafore, An
+   Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving.
+
+   _Lulu's Library_ (three volumes).
+
+Many of these stories were originally published in various
+magazines,--the popular "St Nicholas," for which Miss Alcott wrote
+some of her best things in her later years, the "Youth's Companion,"
+and others. Her works have been republished in England; and through
+her English publishers, Messrs. Sampson Low and Company, of London,
+she has reaped the benefit of copyright there, and they have been
+translated into many languages. Her name is familiar and dear to the
+children of Europe, and they still read her books with the same
+eagerness as the children of her own land.
+
+This extract from a letter written by the translator of Miss Alcott's
+books into Dutch will show how she is esteemed in Holland:--
+
+   "Miss Alcott was and is so much beloved here by her books, that
+   you could scarce find a girl that had not read one or more of
+   them. Last autumn I gave a translation of 'Lulu's Library' that
+   appeared in November, 1887; the year before, a collection of
+   tales and Christmas stories that appeared under the name of
+   'Gandsbloempje' ('Dandelion'). Yesterday a young niece of mine
+   was here, and said, 'Oh, Aunt, how I enjoyed those stories! but
+   the former of "Meh Meh" I still preferred.' A friend wrote: 'My
+   children are confined to the sickroom, but find comfort in
+   Alcott's "Under the Lilacs."' Her fame here was chiefly caused by
+   her 'Little Women' and 'Little Women Wedded,' which in Dutch
+   were called 'Under Moedervleugels' ('Under Mother's Wings') and
+   'Op Eigen Wieken' ('With Their Own Wings'). Her 'Work' was
+   translated as 'De Hand van den Ploey' ('The Hand on the
+   Plough')."
+
+How enduring the fame of Louisa M. Alcott will be, time only can show;
+but if to endear oneself to two generations of children, and to mould
+their minds by wise counsel in attractive form entitle an author to
+the lasting gratitude of her country, that praise and reward belong to
+LOUISA MAY ALCOTT.
+
+
+TERMINUS.
+
+     It is time to be old,
+     To take in sail:
+     The god of bounds,
+     Who sets to seas a shore,
+     Came to me in his fatal rounds,
+     And said, "No more!
+     No farther shoot
+     Thy broad ambitious branches, and thy root;
+     Fancy departs: no more invent,
+     Contract thy firmament
+     To compass of a tent.
+     There's not enough for this and that,
+     Make thy option which of two;
+     Economize the failing river,
+     Not the less revere the Giver;
+     Leave the many, and hold the few.
+     Timely wise, accept the terms;
+     Soften the fall with wary foot;
+     A little while
+     Still plan and smile.
+     And, fault of novel germs,
+     Mature the unfallen fruit."
+
+            *       *       *       *       *
+
+     As the bird trims her to the gale,
+     I trim myself to the storm of time;
+     I man the rudder, reef the sail,
+     Obey the voice at eve obeyed at prime:
+     Lowly faithful, banish fear,
+     Right onward drive unharmed;
+     The port, well worth the cruise, is near,
+     And every wave is charmed.
+
+     EMERSON.
+
+
+
+
+LOUISA M. ALCOTT'S WRITINGS.
+
+
+_Miss Alcott is really a benefactor of households._--H. H.
+
+_Miss Alcott has a faculty of entering into the lives and feelings of
+children that is conspicuously wanting in most writers who address
+them; and to this cause, to the consciousness among her readers that
+they are hearing about people like themselves, instead of abstract
+qualities labelled with names, the popularity of her books is
+due._--MRS. SARAH J. HALE.
+
+_Dear Aunt Jo! You are embalmed in the thoughts and loves of thousands
+of little men and women._--EXCHANGE.
+
+     =Little Women; or Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy.=
+     With illustrations. 16mo     $1.50
+
+     =Hospital Sketches, and Camp and Fireside Stories.=
+     With illustrations. 16mo   1.50
+
+     =An Old-Fashioned Girl.=
+     With illustrations. 16mo    1.50
+
+     =Little Men:= Life at Plumfield with Jo's Boys.
+     With illustrations. 16mo      1.50
+
+     =Jo's Boys and How they Turned Out.= A sequel to "Little Men."
+     With portrait of "Aunt Jo." 16mo       1.50
+
+     =Eight Cousins=; or, The Aunt-Hill.
+     With illustrations. 16mo     1.50
+
+     =Rose in Bloom.= A sequel to "Eight Cousins."
+     16mo      1.50
+
+     =Under the Lilacs.=
+     With illustrations. 16mo        1.50
+
+     =Jack and Jill.= A Village Story.
+     With illustrations. 16mo      1.50
+
+     =Work:= A Story of Experience.
+     With character illustrations by Sol Eytinge. 16mo     1.50
+
+     =Moods.= A Novel.
+     New edition, revised and enlarged. 16mo       1.50
+
+     =A Modern Mephistopheles, and A Whisper in the Dark.=
+     16mo       1.50
+
+     =Silver Pitchers, and Independence.= A Centennial Love Story.
+     16mo       1.25
+
+     =Proverb Stories.=
+     New edition, revised and enlarged. 16mo      1.25
+
+     =Spinning-Wheel Stories.=
+     With illustrations. 16mo     1.25
+
+     =A Garland for Girls, and Other Stories.=
+     With illustrations. 16mo      1.25
+
+     =My Boys, &c.= First volume of Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag.
+     16mo       $1.00
+
+     =Shawl-Straps.= Second volume of Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag.
+     16mo       1.00
+
+     =Cupid and Chow-Chow, &c.= Third volume of Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag.
+     16mo      1.00
+
+     =My Girls, &c.= Fourth volume of Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag.
+     16mo      1.00
+
+     =Jimmy's Cruise in the Pinafore, &c.=
+     Fifth volume of Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag. 16mo     1.00
+
+     =An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving, &c.=
+     Sixth volume of Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag. 16mo    1.00
+
+     =Little Women.= Illustrated. Embellished
+     with nearly 200 characteristic
+     illustrations from original
+     designs drawn expressly for this
+     edition of this noted American
+     Classic. One small quarto, bound
+     in cloth, with emblematic designs     2.50
+
+     =Little Women Series.= Comprising
+     Little Women; Little Men;
+     Eight Cousins; Under the Lilacs;
+     An Old-Fashioned Girl; Jo's
+     Boys; Rose in Bloom; Jack and
+     Jill. 8 large 16mo volumes in a
+     handsome box          12.00
+
+     Miss Alcott's novels in uniform binding
+     in sets. Moods; Work; Hospital
+     Sketches; A Modern Mephistopheles,
+     and A Whisper in the
+     Dark. 4 volumes. 16mo         6.00
+
+     =Lulu's Library.= Vols. I., II., III.
+     A collection of New Stories.
+     16mo       3.00
+
+_These books are for sale at all bookstores, or will be mailed,
+post-paid, on receipt of price, to any address._
+
+LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY,
+
+BOSTON.
+
+
+
+
+LOUISA M. ALCOTT,
+
+HER LIFE, LETTERS, AND JOURNALS
+
+EDITED BY EDNAH D. CHENEY.
+
+With PORTRAITS and View of the ALCOTT HOME in Concord. One vol. 16mo.
+Uniform with "Little Women." Price, $1.50.
+
+
+Mrs. Cheney has allowed this popular author to tell the story of her
+early struggles, her successes, and prosperity and life work, in her
+own inimitable style, gracefully weaving the daily record of this
+sweet and useful life into a garland of _immortelles_, in a manner at
+once pleasing and within the comprehension of the thousands of readers
+and admirers of Miss Alcott's books. It might truly be called the
+biography of "Little Women."
+
+   A most fascinating as well as a deeply pathetic book. The
+   story,--the long, hard struggle for money to keep the household
+   in comfort, and the well-earned success coming, alas, too late to
+   save her health,--is delightfully told in her own words, from
+   letters and journals, so that we have the bright, the witty, and
+   the always charming personality of the children's author before
+   us from the first page to the last. We have to thank Mrs. Cheney
+   that she hid not from us the hard, grinding toil, nor spared us
+   the record of one discouragement in the life so interesting to
+   us; for in this narrative we have a valuable lesson for the young
+   writer of our day.--_The Epoch._
+
+   One who knew Miss Alcott well says: "Nobody can read of the
+   struggles of the Alcott family, and of the tender yet resolute
+   heroism with which Miss Alcott met and relieved them, without
+   being touched to tears by the pathos and reality of the picture.
+   Louisa Alcott was not a member of any church; but her belief in
+   God, her loyalty to conscience, her fidelity to duty, her rescue
+   of the Alcott family from its peculiar perils, place her among
+   the women saints of the century, and it will be hard to find any
+   one of her sex who has more faithfully responded to the duties of
+   the position in which God had placed her."--_Cincinnati
+   Commercial Gazette._
+
+   Louisa May Alcott is without a rival as a writer for the young.
+   The millions who have read her stories--and been made better by
+   the reading--will want this book that they may get near the inner
+   life, the fruitful source of their entertainment and profit. They
+   will see that purity, simplicity, love, earnestness, and patience
+   were so interwoven with her genius that her stories were the
+   natural outgrowth of her beautiful character. The book needs no
+   commendation from us. Every reader of her stories will be glad to
+   know that they may now become intimately acquainted with that
+   beautiful life which is here brought out of its long cherished
+   seclusion.--_Saturday Evening Herald._
+
+LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY,
+
+BOSTON.
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration: "Sing, Tessa, Sing!" cried Tommo, twanging away with
+  all his might.--PAGE 47.]
+
+AUNT JO'S SCRAP-BAG: Containing "My Boys," "Shawl-Straps," "Cupid and
+Chow-Chow," "My Girls," "Jimmy's Cruise in the Pinafore," "An
+Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving." 6 vols. Price of each, $1.00.
+
+LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY,
+
+BOSTON.
+
+
+
+
+LOUISA M. ALCOTT'S STORY-BOOKS.
+
+
+  [Illustration: A CHRISTMAS DREAM.]
+
+LULU'S LIBRARY.
+
+A COLLECTION OF STORIES BY "AUNT JO"
+
+With Illustrations by JESSIE MCDERMOTT.
+
+3 vols. 16mo. Cloth. Price, $1.00 per volume.
+
+LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY,
+
+BOSTON.
+
+
+
+
+NOVELS AND STORIES
+
+BY
+
+LOUISA M. ALCOTT.
+
+
+WORK. A Story of Experience. With Illustrations by SOL EYTINGE.
+
+   This story relates, in many of its most important features and
+   incidents, to actual experiences of its author; and in "Christie"
+   we find the views and ideas of Miss Alcott herself expressed in
+   such a way as to make them most interesting and valuable.
+
+MOODS. A Novel.
+
+   Although this story was originally written at a time when its
+   author's powers and years were far from fully matured, it was in
+   its first form indicative of great power. It was revised and
+   partly rewritten after she had attained a full maturity, and
+   after actual experience with life had broadened and rounded out
+   her mental vision, so that it now stands as the first-born and
+   dearest to her heart of her novels.
+
+A MODERN MEPHISTOPHELES. A Story.
+
+   This story was written for the "No Name Series," in which it
+   originally appeared, and consequently was intended to be
+   disguised
+
+   It is a surprise that Miss Alcott could have written this volume;
+   not that it is inferior, but that it varies from her usual tone
+   and theme so much. Yet her plot is ingenious, and there is
+   dramatic design well worked out. As we read, knowing now who the
+   author is (the story was first published anonymously), we
+   recognize the grace of her style and the art of her workmanship.
+   Its tone and, above all, its lofty moral purpose are hers. Plots
+   differ, appearances are changed; but some of the deep traits of
+   the true nature of Miss Alcott are in the book. Being dead she
+   yet liveth.--_Public Opinion_.
+
+HOSPITAL SKETCHES, and Camp and Fireside Stories. With Illustrations.
+
+   These stories and sketches were written at the time of the Civil
+   War, in which the author took part as a nurse in one of the
+   hospitals, and show some of the many minor side scenes that help
+   to make up that great conflict.
+
+Four volumes. 16mo. Cloth. $1.50 per volume.
+
+_Sold everywhere. Mailed, post-paid, on receipt of price by the
+publishers,_
+
+LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY,
+
+BOSTON.
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration: "'I'm not hurt, all right in a minute,' he said,
+  sitting up, a little pale and dizzy, as the boys gathered round him,
+  full of admiration and alarm."--PAGE 2]
+
+LITTLE MEN; OR, LIFE AT PLUMFIELD WITH JO'S BOYS. Price, $1.50.
+
+LITTLE BROWN, AND COMPANY,
+
+BOSTON.
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration: WALTON RICKETSON, SCULP.]
+
+JO'S BOYS, AND HOW THEY TURNED OUT. A sequel to "Little Men." With a
+new portrait of "Aunt Jo." Price, $1.50.
+
+Little, Brown, and Company,
+
+BOSTON.
+
+
+
+
+POPULAR STORY BOOKS.
+
+
+   SUSAN COOLIDGE has always possessed the affection of her young
+   readers, for it seems as if she had the happy instinct of
+   planning stories that each girl would like to act out in
+   reality.--_The Critic._
+
+   Not even Miss Alcott apprehends child nature with finer sympathy,
+   or pictures its nobler traits with more skill.--_Boston Daily
+   Advertiser._
+
+=THE NEW YEAR'S BARGAIN.= A Christmas Story for Children. With
+Illustrations by ADDIE LEDYARD. 16mo. $1.25.
+
+=WHAT KATY DID.= A Story. With Illustrations by ADDIE LEDYARD. 16mo.
+$1.25.
+
+=WHAT KATY DID AT SCHOOL.= Being more about "What Katy Did." With
+Illustrations. 16mo. $1.25.
+
+=MISCHIEF'S THANKSGIVING,= and other Stories. With Illustrations by
+ADDIE LEDYARD. 16mo. $1.25.
+
+=NINE LITTLE GOSLINGS.= With Illustrations by J. A. MITCHELL. 16mo.
+$1.25.
+
+=EYEBRIGHT.= A Story. With Illustrations. 16mo. $1.25.
+
+=CROSS PATCH.= With Illustrations. 16mo. $1.25.
+
+=A ROUND DOZEN.= With Illustrations. 16mo. $1.25.
+
+=A LITTLE COUNTRY GIRL.= With Illustrations. 16mo. $1.25.
+
+=WHAT KATY DID NEXT.= With Illustrations. 16mo. $1.25.
+
+=CLOVER.= A Sequel to the Katy Books. With Illustrations by JESSIE
+MCDERMOTT. 16mo. $1.25.
+
+=JUST SIXTEEN.= With Illustrations. 16mo. $1.25.
+
+=IN THE HIGH VALLEY.= With Illustrations, 16mo. $1.25.
+
+=A GUERNSEY LILY=; or, How the Feud was Healed. A Story of the Channel
+Islands. Profusely Illustrated. 16mo. $1.25.
+
+=THE BARBERRY BUSH,= and Seven Other Stories about Girls for Girls. With
+Illustrations by JESSIE MCDERMOTT. 16mo. $1.25.
+
+=NOT QUITE EIGHTEEN.= A volume of Stories. With Illustrations by JESSIE
+MCDERMOTT. 16mo. $1.25.
+
+_Sold by all booksellers. Mailed, post-paid, on receipt of price, by
+the publishers._
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Louisa May Alcott, by Louisa May Alcott
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOUISA MAY ALCOTT ***
+
+***** This file should be named 38049.txt or 38049.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        http://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/0/4/38049/
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Melissa McDaniel and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
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