“Stop jabbering, girls, and I’ll tell
you everything,” said Jo, wondering if Miss
Burney felt any grander over her Evelina than she
did over her ‘Rival Painters’. Having
told how she disposed of her tales, Jo added, “And
when I went to get my answer, the man said he liked
them both, but didn’t pay beginners, only let
them print in his paper, and noticed the stories.
It was good practice, he said, and when the beginners
improved, anyone would pay. So I let him have
the two stories, and today this was sent to me, and
Laurie caught me with it and insisted on seeing it,
so I let him. And he said it was good, and I
shall write more, and he’s going to get the
next paid for, and I am so happy, for in time I may
be able to support myself and help the girls.”
Jo’s breath gave out here, and wrapping her
head in the paper, she bedewed her little story with
a few natural tears, for to be independent and earn
the praise of those she loved were the dearest wishes
of her heart, and this seemed to be the first step
toward that happy end.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
A TELEGRAM
“November is the most disagreeable month in
the whole year,” said Margaret, standing at
the window one dull afternoon, looking out at the
frostbitten garden.
“That’s the reason I was born in it,”
observed Jo pensively, quite unconscious of the blot
on her nose.
“If something very pleasant should happen now,
we should think it a delightful month,” said
Beth, who took a hopeful view of everything, even
November.
“I dare say, but nothing pleasant ever does
happen in this family,” said Meg, who was out
of sorts. “We go grubbing along day after
day, without a bit of change, and very little fun.
We might as well be in a treadmill.”
“My patience, how blue we are!” cried
Jo. “I don’t much wonder, poor dear,
for you see other girls having splendid times, while
you grind, grind, year in and year out. Oh, don’t
I wish I could manage things for you as I do for my
heroines! You’re pretty enough and good
enough already, so I’d have some rich relation
leave you a fortune unexpectedly. Then you’d
dash out as an heiress, scorn everyone who has slighted
you, go abroad, and come home my Lady Something in
a blaze of splendor and elegance.”
“People don’t have fortunes left them
in that style nowadays, men have to work and women
marry for money. It’s a dreadfully unjust
world,” said Meg bitterly.
“Jo and I are going to make fortunes for you
all. Just wait ten years, and see if we don’t,”
said Amy, who sat in a corner making mud pies, as
Hannah called her little clay models of birds, fruit,
and faces.
“Can’t wait, and I’m afraid I haven’t
much faith in ink and dirt, though I’m grateful
for your good intentions.”
Meg sighed, and turned to the frostbitten garden again.
Jo groaned and leaned both elbows on the table in
a despondent attitude, but Amy spatted away energetically,
and Beth, who sat at the other window, said, smiling,
“Two pleasant things are going to happen right
away. Marmee is coming down the street, and Laurie
is tramping through the garden as if he had something
nice to tell.”
