Lulu's Library, Volume III
()
About this ebook
Louisa May Alcott
Louisa May Alcott was a 19th-century American novelist best known for her novel, Little Women, as well as its well-loved sequels, Little Men and Jo's Boys. Little Women is renowned as one of the very first classics of children’s literature, and remains a popular masterpiece today.
Read more from Louisa May Alcott
20 Classic Children Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Little Women Book Two Complete Text: Little Women Book 2 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Little Women & Good Wives Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Little Women: Level 4 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Lulu's Library, Volume III
Titles in the series (3)
Lulu's Library, Volume I Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLulu's Library, Volume II Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLulu's Library, Volume III Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related ebooks
Lulu's Library, Volume 3 (of 3) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLulu's Library Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLulu’s Library: Vol. III Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLulu's Library, Volume III (of 3) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLULUs LIBRARY VOL III - the Last 9 of the 32 Stories in this set Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLulu's Library, Volume 3 (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAunt Jo's Scrap-Bag, Volume I Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lulu's Library III Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAunt Jo's Scrap-Bag, Volume V: Jimmy's Cruise in the Pinafore, and Other Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsI Can't Stay Long Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Louisa May Alcott: A Personal Biography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hospital Sketches: An Army Nurses's True Account of Her Experience During the Civil War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Modern Cinderella: or, The Little Old Shoe, and Other Stories Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Pulling Princes Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Main-Travelled Roads Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJo's Boys Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag Volume VI: An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving, and Other Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Holly-Tree Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Woman's Power Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSpinning-Wheel Stories Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Collected Works of Louisa May Alcott (Illustrated Edition): Novels, Short Stories, Plays & Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLucy Larcom: Life, Letters, and Diary Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLittle Women: Letters from the House of Alcott Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Latest Accessory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Remember Whose Little Girl You Are Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUpstate: Records and Recollections of Northern New York Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Guardian Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Children's Classics For You
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Phantom Tollbooth Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sideways Stories from Wayside School Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Have Always Lived in the Castle Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bridge to Terabithia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Graveyard Book Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stuart Little Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Little House in the Big Woods Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Baron Trump's Marvelous Underground Journey Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Silver Chair: The Chronicles of Narnia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Grimm's Fairy Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Velveteen Rabbit Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pete the Kitty and the Unicorn's Missing Colors Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Last Battle: The Chronicles of Narnia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mr. Popper's Penguins Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Baby Bear, Baby Bear, What Do You See? Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Coraline Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Secret Garden: The 100th Anniversary Edition with Tasha Tudor Art and Bonus Materials Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Alice In Wonderland: The Original 1865 Unabridged and Complete Edition (Lewis Carroll Classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAlice in Wonderland: Down the Rabbit Hole Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Night Before Christmas Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Horse and His Boy: The Chronicles of Narnia Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Voyage of the Dawn Treader: The Chronicles of Narnia Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Scary Stories 3 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sarah, Plain and Tall: A Newbery Award Winner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wayside School Is Falling Down Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Trumpet of the Swan Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Lulu's Library, Volume III
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Lulu's Library, Volume III - Louisa May Alcott
LULU'S LIBRARY
VOLUME III
By
LOUISA MAY ALCOTT
First published in 1889
This edition published by Read Books Ltd.
Copyright © 2019 Read Books Ltd.
This book is copyright and may not be
reproduced or copied in any way without
the express permission of the publisher in writing
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
Contents
Louisa May Alcott
RECOLLECTIONS OF MY CHILDHOOD.
A CHRISTMAS TURKEY, AND HOW IT CAME.
THE SILVER PARTY.
THE BLIND LARK.
MUSIC AND MACARONI.
THE LITTLE RED PURSE.
SOPHIE'S SECRET.
DOLLY'S BEDSTEAD.
TRUDEL'S SIEGE.
Louisa May Alcott
Louisa May Alcott was an American Novelist, best known for the classic Little Women (1868) and its sequels Little Men and Jo’s Boys. Alcott was born on 29 November, 1832 in Germantown, Pennsylvania, USA, and was raised by her transcendentalist parents. The family, despite their connections with the American intellectual elite, suffered severe financial hardship and Alcott frequently helped to support the household. In 1840, after several financial setbacks, most notably following the experimental school set up by Louisa May’s father, the family moved to a cottage along the Sudbury River in Massachusetts. In 1843, the family moved again to the Utopian Fruitlands Community, an agrarian commune, dedicated to natural living. They finally settled in a house they named Hillside in 1845. As a result of this peripatetic childhood, Alcott’s schooling was mainly received from her father, who was an incredibly strict disciplinarian, high thinker and advocate of plain living. This instilled a determination and strong work ethic in Alcott, who worked as a teacher, governess, seamstress and writer in her early years. As an adult, Alcott was a strong abolitionist and a feminist advocate, becoming the first woman to register to vote in Concord, in a school board election. During the civil war, Alcott worked as a nurse in the Union Hospital at Georgetown, D.C. She collected all her letters, often dryly humorous, in book entitled Hospital Sketches (1863); a work which brought Alcott critical acclaim. Following on from this success, Alcott wrote several novels under the pen name A. L. Barnard, most notably A Long Fatal Love Chase (1866) and A Modern Mephistopheles (1875). However, Little Women and its sequels were Alcott’s major successes; the first book dealt with the childhood of Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy; characters strongly based on Alcott’s childhood accompanied by her own three sisters. The sequel, Good Wives (1869) dealt with their progression into adulthood, whilst Little Men (1871) detailed Jo’s life at the school she founded alongside her husband. Jo’s Boys (1886) completed the ‘Family Saga’. The Character Jo was loosely based on Alcott’s own life, however unlike the heroine, Alcott never married, commenting that ‘I am more than half-persuaded that I am a man's soul put by some freak of nature into a woman's body ... because I have fallen in love with so many pretty girls and never once the least bit with any man.’ Alcott was firmly part of the Gilded Age, along with authors such as Elizabeth Stoddard and Rebecca Harding Davis, she addressed women’s issues in a modern and candid manner. Alcott continued to write until her death on 6 March, 1888. The cause of death is uncertain; she suffered chronic health problems, including vertigo and typhoid, the latter of which was treated with mercury. However recent analysis of her illnesses has suggested an autoimmune disease such as Lupus. She is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, Massachusetts, on a hillside known as Author’s Ridge.
Louisa May Alcott
CHAPTER I.
RECOLLECTIONS OF MY CHILDHOOD.
One of my earliest memories is of playing with books in my father's study,--building towers and bridges of the big dictionaries, 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 exist; and I often wonder if these childish plays did not influence my after-life, since books have been my greatest comfort, castle-building a never-failing delight, and scribbling a very profitable amusement.
Another very vivid recollection is of the day when running after my hoop I fell into the Frog Pond and was rescued by a black boy, becoming a friend to the colored race then and there, though my mother always declared that I was an abolitionist at the age of three.
During the Garrison riot in Boston the portrait of George Thompson was hidden under a bed in our house for safekeeping; and I am told that I used to go and comfort the good man who helped poor slaves
in his captivity. However that may be, the conversion was genuine; and my greatest pride is in the fact that I have 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.
Being born on the birthday of Columbus, I seem to have something of my patron saint's spirit of adventure, and running away was one of the delights of my childhood. Many a social lunch have I shared with hospitable Irish beggar children, as we ate our crusts, cold potatoes, and salt fish on voyages of discovery among the ash heaps of the waste land that then lay where the Albany station now stands.
Many an impromptu picnic have I had on the dear old Common, with strange boys, pretty babies, and friendly dogs, who always seemed to feel that this reckless young person needed looking after.
On one occasion the town-crier found me fast asleep at nine o'clock at night, on a doorstep in Bedford Street, with my head pillowed on the curly breast of a big Newfoundland, who was with difficulty persuaded to release the weary little wanderer who had sobbed herself to sleep there.
I often smile as I pass that door, and never forget to give a grateful pat to every big dog I meet, for never have I slept more soundly than on that dusty step, nor found a better friend than the noble animal who watched over the lost baby so faithfully.
My father's school was the only one I ever went to; and when this was broken up because he introduced methods now all the fashion, our lessons went on at home, for he was always sure of four little pupils who firmly believed in their teacher, though they have not done him all the credit he deserved.
I never liked arithmetic or grammar, and dodged these branches on all occasions; but reading, composition, history, and geography I enjoyed, as well as the stories read to us with a skill which made the dullest charming and useful.
Pilgrim's Progress,
Krummacher's Parables,
Miss Edgeworth, and the best of the dear old fairy tales made that 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 dolls' 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 neighbor's hens, who were hotly hunted down that I might tweak out their downiest feathers to adorn the dolls' head-gear.
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.
Little pilgrims journeyed over the hills with scrip and staff, and cockle-shells in their hats; elves held their pretty revels among the pines, and Peter Wilkins'
flying ladies came swinging down on the birch tree-tops. Lords and ladies haunted the garden, and mermaids splashed in the bath-house of woven willows over the brook.
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 doorsteps 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!
My sentimental period began at fifteen, when I fell to writing romances, poems, a heart journal,
and dreaming dreams of a splendid future.
Browsing over Mr. Emerson's library, I found Goethe's Correspondence with a Child,
and was at once fired with the desire to be a second Bettine, making my father's friend my Goethe. So I wrote letters to him, but was wise enough never to send them, left wild flowers on the doorsteps of my Master,
sung Mignon's song in very bad German under his window, and was fond of wandering by moonlight, or sitting in a cherry-tree at midnight till the owls scared me to bed.
The girlish folly did not last long, and the letters were burned years ago; but Goethe is still my favorite author, and Emerson remained my beloved Master
while he lived, doing more for me, as for many another young soul, than he ever knew, by the simple beauty of his life, the truth and wisdom of his books, the example of a good great man untempted and unspoiled by the world which he made nobler while in it, and left the richer when he went.
The trials of life began about this time, and my happy childhood ended. Money is never plentiful in a philosopher's house; and even the maternal pelican could not supply all our wants on the small income which was freely shared with every needy soul who asked for help.
Fugitive slaves were sheltered under our roof; and my first pupil was a very black George Washington whom I taught to write on the hearth with charcoal, his big fingers finding pen and pencil unmanageable.
Motherless girls seeking protection were guarded among us; hungry travellers sent on to our door to be fed and warmed; and if the philosopher happened to own two coats, the best went to a needy brother, for these were practical Christians who had the most perfect faith in Providence, and never found it betrayed.
In those days the prophets were not honored in their own land, and Concord had not yet discovered her great men. It was a sort of refuge for reformers of all sorts, whom the good natives regarded as lunatics, harmless but amusing.
My father went away to hold his classes and conversations, and we women folk began to feel that we also might do something. So one gloomy November day we decided to move to Boston and try our fate again after some years in the wilderness.
My father's prospect was as promising as a philosopher's ever is in a money-making world; my mother's friends offered her a good salary as their missionary to the poor; and my sister and I hoped to teach. It was an anxious council; and always preferring action to discussion, I took a brisk run over the hill and then settled down for a good think
in my favorite retreat.
It was an old cart-wheel, half hidden in grass under