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

satisfaction out of it after all, so I won’t complain; I only wish I liked teaching as you do.”

“I think you would if you had Laurie for a pupil. I shall be very sorry to lose him next year,” said Mr. Brooke, busily punching holes in the turf.

“Going to college, I suppose?” Meg’s lips asked that question, but her eyes added, “And what becomes of you?”

“Yes; it’s high time he went, for he is ready; and as soon as he is off, I shall turn soldier. I am needed.”

“I am glad of that!” exclaimed Meg. “I should think every young man would want to go; though it is hard for the mothers and sisters who stay at home,” she added sorrowfully.

“I have neither, and very few friends, to care whether I live or die,” said Mr. Brooke, rather bitterly, as he absently put the dead rose in the hole he had made and covered it up, like a little grave.

“Laurie and his grandfather would care a great deal, and we should all be very sorry to have any harm happen to you,” said Meg heartily.

“Thank you; that sounds pleasant,” began Mr. Brooke, looking cheerful again; but before he could finish his speech, Ned, mounted on the old horse, came lumbering up to display his equestrian skill before the young ladies, and there was no more quiet that day.

“Don’t you love to ride?” asked Grace of Amy, as they stood resting, after a race round the field with the others, led by Ned.

“I dote upon it; my sister Meg used to ride when papa was rich, but we don’t keep any horses now, except Ellen Tree,” added Amy, laughing.

“Tell me about Ellen Tree; is it a donkey?” asked Grace curiously.

“Why, you see, Jo is crazy about horses, and so am I, but we’ve only got an old sidesaddle, and no horse. Out in our garden is an apple-tree, that has a nice low branch; so Jo put the saddle on it, fixed some reins on the part that turns up, and we bounce away on Ellen Tree whenever we like.”

“How funny!” laughed Grace. “I have a pony at home, and ride nearly every day in the park, with Fred and Kate; it’s very nice, for my friends go too, and the Row is full of ladies and gentlemen.”

“Dear, how charming! I hope I shall go abroad some day; but I’d rather go to Rome than the Row,” said Amy, who had not the remotest idea what the Row was, and wouldn’t have asked for the world.

Frank, sitting just behind the little girls, heard what they were saying, and pushed his crutch away from him with an impatient gesture as he watched the active lads going through all sorts of comical gymnastics. Beth, who was collecting the scattered Author-cards, looked up, and said, in her shy yet friendly way⁠—

“I’m afraid you are tired; can I do anything for you?”

“Talk to me, please; it’s dull, sitting by myself,” answered Frank, who had evidently been used to being made much of at home.

If he had asked her to deliver a Latin oration, it would not have seemed a more impossible task to bashful Beth; but there was no place to run to, no Jo to hide behind now, and the poor boy looked so wistfully at her, that she bravely resolved to try.

“What do you like to talk about?” she asked, fumbling over the cards, and dropping half as she tried to tie them up.

“Well, I like to hear about cricket and boating and hunting,” said Frank, who had not yet learned to suit his amusements to his strength.

“My heart! what shall I do? I don’t know anything about them,” thought Beth; and, forgetting the boy’s misfortune in her flurry, she said, hoping to make him talk, “I never saw any hunting, but I suppose you know all about it.”

“I did once; but I can never hunt again, for I got hurt leaping a confounded five-barred gate; so there are no more horses and hounds for me,” said Frank, with a sigh that made Beth hate herself for her innocent blunder.

“Your deer are much prettier than our ugly buffaloes,” she said, turning to the prairies for help, and feeling glad that she had read one of the boys’ books in which Jo delighted.

Buffaloes proved soothing and satisfactory; and, in her eagerness to amuse another, Beth forgot herself, and was quite unconscious of her sisters’ surprise and delight at the unusual spectacle of Beth talking away to one of the dreadful boys, against whom she had begged protection.

“Bless her heart! She pities him, so she is good to him,” said Jo, beaming at her from the croquet-ground.

“I always said she was a little saint,” added Meg, as if there could be no further doubt of it.

“I haven’t heard Frank laugh so much for ever so long,” said Grace to Amy, as they sat discussing dolls, and making tea-sets out of the acorn-cups.

“My sister Beth is a very fastidious girl, when she likes to be,” said Amy, well pleased at Beth’s success. She meant “fascinating,” but as Grace didn’t know the exact meaning of either word, “fastidious” sounded well, and made a good impression.

An impromptu circus, fox and geese, and an amicable game of croquet, finished the afternoon. At sunset the tent was struck, hampers packed, wickets pulled up, boats loaded, and the whole party floated down the river, singing at the tops of their voices. Ned, getting sentimental, warbled a serenade with the pensive refrain⁠—

“Alone, alone, ah! woe, alone,”

and at the lines⁠—

“We each are young, we each have a heart,
Oh, why should we stand thus coldly apart?”

he looked at Meg with such a lackadaisical expression that she laughed outright and spoilt his song.

“How can you be so cruel to me?” he whispered, under cover of a lively chorus. “You’ve kept close to that starched-up Englishwoman all day, and now you snub me.”

“I didn’t mean to; but you looked so funny I really couldn’t help it,”