Laurie is lazy and in a bad mood. He sees the March sisters going out carrying bundles and wants to know what they're up to. He decides they must be having a picnic and is bothered that he wasn't invited. But he decides to bring the key to the boat, as they must have forgotten it. He runs down to the boathouse to wait for them, but they don't appear. So he climbs a hill to see if he can spot where they went and finds them sitting in a grove of trees. Meg is sewing; Beth is sorting pine cones to make things out of; Amy is drawing; and Jo is knitting and reading aloud. Laurie watches for a while, then asks if he can join them. They tell him this is a meeting of the "Busy Bee Society," in which they each have to keep busy all of the time. Jo tells Laurie that he can read aloud. Laurie reads and shakes cones down from the trees for Beth.
The sisters tell Laurie that have been playing Pilgrim's Progress, and that they were imagining that the hill they are on is the Delectable Mountain. They tell him that they each have Castles in the Air, like the characters in the book. They tell each other what their Castles in the Air are. Meg says she wants to be rich and have a large house, and a husband, too. Jo says she wants to be a famous writer and get rich from it, but she wants to do something heroic and wonderful, too. Laurie says he wants to see the world and then settle in Germany and surround himself with music. Beth says she wants to take care of the family, but that she already has her piano and that is all that she wanted. Amy wanted to be a great artist and go to Rome. Jo tells Laurie that he should aspire to be as good as Mr. Brooke, and that he should not trouble his grandfather, but rather stick by him. Laurie decides to do this. "'If we are all alive ten years hence, let's meet, and see how many of us have got our wishes, or how much nearer we are then than now,' said Jo, always ready with a plan." Chapter 13, pg. 169
