Little Women

‘Jo! Jo! where are you?’ cried Meg, at the foot of the garret stairs.

‘Here!’ answered a husky voice from above; and, running up, Meg found her sister eating apples and crying over the Heir of Redclyffe, wrapped up in a comforter on an old three-legged sofa by the sunny window. This was Jo’s favourite refuge; and here she loved to retire with half a dozen russets and a nice book, to enjoy the quiet and the society of a pet rat who lived near by, and didn’t mind her a particle. As Meg appeared, Scrabble whisked into his hole. Jo shook the tears off her cheeks, and waited to hear the news.

‘Such fun! only see! a regular note of invitation from Mrs Gardiner for tomorrow night!’ cried Meg, waving the precious paper, and then proceeding to read it, with girlish delight.

‘“Mrs Gardiner would be happy to see Miss March and Miss Josephine at a little dance on New Year’s Eve.” Marmee is willing we should go; now what shall we wear?’

‘What’s the use of asking that, when you know we shall wear our poplins because we haven’t got anything else?’ answered Jo, with her mouth full.

‘If I only had a silk!’ sighed Meg. ‘Mother says I may when I’m eighteen, perhaps; but two years is an everlasting time to wait.’

‘I’m sure our pops look like silk, and they are nice enough for us. Yours is as good as new, but I forgot the burn and the tear in mine. Whatever shall I do? the burn shows badly and I can’t take any out.’

‘You must sit still all you can, and keep your back out of sight; the front is all right. I shall have a new ribbon for my hair, and Marmee will lend me her little pearl pin, and my new slippers are lovely, and my gloves will do, though they aren’t as nice as I’d like.’

‘Mine are spoilt with lemonade, and I can’t get any new ones, so I shall have to go without,’ said Jo, who never troubled herself much about dress.

‘You must have gloves, or I won’t go,’ cried Meg decidedly, ‘gloves are more important than anything else. I should be so mortified if you didn’t have them.’

‘Then I’ll stay still. I don’t care much for company dancing. It’s no fun to go sailing round. I like to fly about and cut capers.’

‘You can’t ask Mother for new ones, they are so expensive, and you are so careless. She said, when you spoilt the others, that she shouldn’t get you any more this winter. Can’t you make them do?’ asked Meg anxiously.

‘I can hold them crumpled up in my hand, so no one will know how stained they are; that’s all I can do. No, I’ll tell you how we can manage – each wear one good one and carry a bad one; don’t you see?’

‘Your hands are bigger than mine, and you will stretch my glove dreadfully,’ began Meg, whose gloves were a tender point with her.

‘Then I’ll go without. I don’t care what people say!’ cried Jo, taking up her book.

‘You may have it, you may! only don’t stain it, and do behave nicely. Don’t put your hands behind you, or stare, or say “Christopher Columbus!” will you?’

‘Don’t worry about me; I’ll be as prim as I can, and not get into any scrapes, if I can help it. Now go and answer your note, and let me finish this splendid story.’

So Meg went away to ‘accept with thanks’, look over her dress, and sing blithely as she did up her one real lace frill; while Jo finished her story, her four apples, and had a game of romps with Scrabble.

On New Year’s Eve the parlour was deserted, for the two younger girls played dressing-maids, and the two older were absorbed in the all-important business of ‘getting ready for the party’. Simple as the toilets were, there was a great deal of running up and down, laughing and talking, and at one time a strong smell of burnt hair pervaded the house. Meg wanted a few curls about her face, and Jo undertook to pinch the papered locks with a pair of hot tongs.

‘Ought they to smoke like that?’ asked Beth, from her perch on the bed.

‘It’s the dampness drying,’ replied Jo.

‘What a queer smell! it’s like burnt feathers,’ observed Amy, smoothing her own pretty curls with a superior air.

‘There, now I’ll take off the papers and you’ll see a cloud of little ringlets,’ said Jo, putting down the tongs.

She did take off the papers, but no cloud of ringlets appeared, for the hair came with the papers, and the horrified hairdresser laid a row of little scorched bundles on the bureau before her victim.

‘Oh, oh, oh! what have you done? I’m spoilt! I can’t go! My hair, oh, my hair!’ wailed Meg, looking with despair at the uneven frizzle on her forehead.

‘Just my luck; you shouldn’t have asked me to do it; I always spoil everything. I’m so sorry, but the tongs were too hot, and so I’ve made a mess,’ groaned poor Jo, regarding the black pancakes with tears of regret.

‘It isn’t spoilt: just frizzle it, and tie your ribbon so the ends come on your forehead a bit, and it will look like the last fashion. I’ve seen many girls do it so,’ said Amy, consolingly.

‘Serves me right for trying to be fine. I wish I’d let my hair alone,’ cried Meg, petulantly.

‘So do I, it was so smooth and pretty. But it will soon grow out again,’ said Beth, coming to kiss and comfort the shorn sheep.

After various lesser mishaps, Meg was finished at last, and by the united exertions of the family, Jo’s hair was got up and her dress on. They looked very well in their simple suits. Meg in silvery drab, with a blue velvet snood, lace frills, and the pearl pin; Jo in maroon, with a stiff, gentlemanly linen collar and a white chrysanthemum or two for her only ornament. Each put on the one nice light glove, and carried one soiled one, and all pronounced the effect ‘quite easy and fine’. Meg’s high-heeled slippers were very tight, and hurt her, though she would not own it, and Jo’s nineteen hairpins all seemed stuck straight into her head, which was not exactly comfortable; but, dear me, let us be elegant or die!

‘Have a good time, dearies!’ said Mrs March, as the sisters went daintily down the walk. ‘Don’t eat much supper, and come away at eleven, when I send Hannah for you.’ As the gate clashed behind them, a voice cried from a window:

‘Girls, girls! have you both got nice pocket-handkerchiefs?’

‘Yes, yes, spandy nice, and Meg has cologne on hers,’ cried Jo, adding with a laugh, as they went on, ‘I do believe Marmee would ask that if we were all running away from an earthquake.’

‘It is one of her aristocratic tastes, and quite proper, for a real lady is always known by neat boots, gloves, and handkerchief,’ replied Meg, who had a good many little ‘aristocratic tastes’ of her own.

‘Now don’t forget to keep the bad breadth out of sight, Jo. Is my sash right? and does my hair look very bad?’ said Meg, as she turned from the glass in Mrs Gardiner’s dressing room, after a prolonged prink.

‘I know I shall forget. If you see me doing anything wrong just remind me by a wink, will you?’ returned Jo, giving her collar a twitch and her hair a hasty brush.

‘No, winking isn’t lady-like; I’ll lift my eyebrows if anything is wrong, and nod if you are all right. Now hold your shoulders straight and take short steps, and don’t shake hands if you are introduced to anyone: it isn’t the thing.’

‘How do you learn all the proper ways? I never can. Isn’t that music gay?’

Down they went, feeling a trifle timid, for they seldom went to parties, and, informal as this little gathering was, it was an event to them. Mrs Gardiner, a stately old lady, greeted them kindly, and handed them over to the eldest of her six daughters. Meg knew Sallie, and was at her ease very soon; but Jo, who didn’t care much for girls or girlish gossip, stood about, with her back carefully against the wall and felt as much out of place as a colt in a flower-garden. Half a dozen jovial lads were talking about skates in another part of the room, and she longed to go and join them, for skating was one of the joys of her life. She telegraphed her wish to Meg, but the eyebrows went up so alarmingly that she dared not stir. No one came to talk to her, and one by one the group near her dwindled away, till she was left alone. She could not roam about and amuse herself, for the burnt breadth would show, so she stared at people rather forlornly till the dancing began. Meg was asked at once, and the tight slippers tripped about so briskly that none would have guessed the pain their wearer suffered smilingly. Jo saw a big redheaded youth approaching her corner, and fearing he meant to engage her, she slipped into a curtained recess, intending to peep and enjoy herself in peace. Unfortunately, another bashful person had chosen the same refuge; for, as the curtain fell behind her, she found herself face to face with the ‘Laurence boy’.

‘Dear me, I didn’t know anyone was here!’ stammered Jo, preparing to back out as speedily as she had bounced in.

But the boy laughed, and said pleasantly, though he looked a little startled:

‘Don’t mind me; stay if you like.’

‘Shan’t I disturb you?’

‘Not a bit; I only came here because I don’t know many people, and I felt rather strange at first, you know.’

‘So did I. Don’t go away, please, unless you’d rather.’

The boy sat down again and looked at his pumps, till Jo said, trying to be polite and easy:

‘I think I’ve had the pleasure of seeing you before; you live near us, don’t you?’

‘Next door’; and he looked up and laughed outright, for Jo’s prim manner was rather funny, when he remembered how they had chatted about cricket when he brought the cat home.

That put Jo at her ease; and she laughed too, as she said, in her heartiest way:

‘We did have such a good time over your nice Christmas present.’