Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (e books free to read TXT) 📕

advise it?” and Laurie looked at her with an odd mixture of anxiety and merriment in his face.

“Yes, I do; but you’d better wait till you are through college, on the whole, and be fitting yourself for the place meantime. You’re not half good enough for⁠—well, whoever the modest girl may be,” and Jo looked a little queer likewise, for a name had almost escaped her.

“That I’m not!” acquiesced Laurie, with an expression of humility quite new to him, as he dropped his eyes, and absently wound Jo’s apron-tassel round his finger.

“Mercy on us, this will never do,” thought Jo; adding aloud, “Go and sing to me. I’m dying for some music, and always like yours.”

“I’d rather stay here, thank you.”

“Well, you can’t; there isn’t room. Go and make yourself useful, since you are too big to be ornamental. I thought you hated to be tied to a woman’s apron-string?” retorted Jo, quoting certain rebellious words of his own.

“Ah, that depends on who wears the apron!” and Laurie gave an audacious tweak at the tassel.

“Are you going?” demanded Jo, diving for the pillow.

He fled at once, and the minute it was well “Up with the bonnets of bonnie Dundee,” she slipped away, to return no more till the young gentleman had departed in high dudgeon.

Jo lay long awake that night, and was just dropping off when the sound of a stifled sob made her fly to Beth’s bedside, with the anxious inquiry, “What is it, dear?”

“I thought you were asleep,” sobbed Beth.

“Is it the old pain, my precious?”

“No; it’s a new one; but I can bear it,” and Beth tried to check her tears.

“Tell me all about it, and let me cure it as I often did the other.”

“You can’t; there is no cure.” There Beth’s voice gave way, and, clinging to her sister, she cried so despairingly that Jo was frightened.

“Where is it? Shall I call mother?”

Beth did not answer the first question; but in the dark one hand went involuntarily to her heart, as if the pain were there; with the other she held Jo fast, whispering eagerly, “No, no, don’t call her, don’t tell her. I shall be better soon. Lie down here and ‘poor’ my head. I’ll be quiet, and go to sleep; indeed I will.”

Jo obeyed; but as her hand went softly to and fro across Beth’s hot forehead and wet eyelids, her heart was very full, and she longed to speak. But young as she was, Jo had learned that hearts, like flowers, cannot be rudely handled, but must open naturally; so, though she believed she knew the cause of Beth’s new pain, she only said, in her tenderest tone, “Does anything trouble you, deary?”

“Yes, Jo,” after a long pause.

“Wouldn’t it comfort you to tell me what it is?”

“Not now, not yet.”

“Then I won’t ask; but remember, Bethy, that mother and Jo are always glad to hear and help you, if they can.”

“I know it. I’ll tell you by and by.”

“Is the pain better now?”

“Oh, yes, much better; you are so comfortable, Jo!”

“Go to sleep, dear; I’ll stay with you.”

So cheek to cheek they fell asleep, and on the morrow Beth seemed quite herself again; for at eighteen, neither heads nor hearts ache long, and a loving word can medicine most ills.

But Jo had made up her mind, and, after pondering over a project for some days, she confided it to her mother.

“You asked me the other day what my wishes were. I’ll tell you one of them, Marmee,” she began, as they sat alone together. “I want to go away somewhere this winter for a change.”

“Why, Jo?” and her mother looked up quickly, as if the words suggested a double meaning.

With her eyes on her work, Jo answered soberly, “I want something new; I feel restless, and anxious to be seeing, doing, and learning more than I am. I brood too much over my own small affairs, and need stirring up, so, as I can be spared this winter, I’d like to hop a little way, and try my wings.”

“Where will you hop?”

“To New York. I had a bright idea yesterday, and this is it. You know Mrs. Kirke wrote to you for some respectable young person to teach her children and sew. It’s rather hard to find just the thing, but I think I should suit if I tried.”

“My dear, go out to service in that great boardinghouse!” and Mrs. March looked surprised, but not displeased.

“It’s not exactly going out to service; for Mrs. Kirke is your friend⁠—the kindest soul that ever lived⁠—and would make things pleasant for me, I know. Her family is separate from the rest, and no one knows me there. Don’t care if they do; it’s honest work, and I’m not ashamed of it.”

“Nor I; but your writing?”

“All the better for the change. I shall see and hear new things, get new ideas, and, even if I haven’t much time there, I shall bring home quantities of material for my rubbish.”

“I have no doubt of it; but are these your only reasons for this sudden fancy?”

“No, mother.”

“May I know the others?”

Jo looked up and Jo looked down, then said slowly, with sudden color in her cheeks, “It may be vain and wrong to say it, but⁠—I’m afraid⁠—Laurie is getting too fond of me.”

“Then you don’t care for him in the way it is evident he begins to care for you?” and Mrs. March looked anxious as she put the question.

“Mercy, no! I love the dear boy, as I always have, and am immensely proud of him; but as for anything more, it’s out of the question.”

“I’m glad of that, Jo.”

“Why, please?”

“Because, dear, I don’t think you suited to one another. As friends you are very happy, and your frequent quarrels soon blow over; but I fear you would both rebel if you were mated for life. You are too much alike and too fond of freedom, not to mention hot tempers and strong wills, to get on happily together, in a relation